Allusions to the Cross, how viewed by Antiquity. 21 Prophets in the order of spiritual gifts; in which order the interpretation of tongues occupies nearly the last place." We have seen that in one place at least this view is justified by the Scripture and one place is sufficient for our present purpose, which is, not to prove the Seventy infallible, but to bespeak a certain reverence for their yet unexamined decisions, and for the constant appeals of the early writers to them. For who can assure himself, that in any variation from the Hebrew, which seems to him most unaccountable, they were not guided by the same influence, which caused them to write Testament instead of Covenant, in the places referred to by St. Paul? (8.) To return to the passage in Genesis: in whatever measure the fact is made out, that the received Greek version of the Scriptures was under a peculiar providence, in the same degree it is rendered not improbable, that even in such an apparently casual thing as the number of Abraham's servants, there was an eye to the benefit and consolation which the Church should long after receive, on recognizing, as it were, her SAVIOUR'S cypher, in the account of the one holy family triumphantly warring against the powers of the world. It were a most inadequate judgment, to estimate that consolation by any of the feelings and opinions current in our time. We must go back to the days when Christians were used to carry about with them every where the Sign of the Cross; when, to use the forcible words of Tertullian', "At every step and every movement, going out and coming in, dressing and putting on their sandals, at the bath, at the board, when lamps were lighted, when they lay down to rest, when they seated themselves for their daily task, whatever call of ordinary life engaged them, the Holy Sign, by incessant use, was as it were worn into their foreheads." With such associations, it must have been a real joy to them, as often as they discovered the Cross in the Old Testament, where they had not marked it before it was to them an outward and visible sign of their communion with Saints and Patriarchs of old, and of GOD'S everlasting providence over both. It was moreover a perma 1 De Cor. Mil. c. 3. § ii. 15. 22 St. Barnabas wrote with Seriousness and Reserve. § ii. 9, 10. nent warning, intelligible to all, against the impiety, not unusual in those days, of ascribing the two Testaments to different deities. People little know what they do, when they deal contemptuously with any thing, be it in Scripture or in common life, under the notion that it is too slight, too insignificant, for the ordering of the Most High. (9.) All which considered there appears no fanaticism, but a great deal of sober piety and charity, in the expressions of St. Barnabas on dismissing this topic. "He knows" the reality of this mystery "from whom we," Christians or Christian teachers, " derive the ingrafted gift of that teaching, which is properly His. Never have I delivered to any one a more genuine exposition, but I am well assured that you are meet to receive it." If the writer had been merely indulging his own fancy, this profession of reserve would be mere affectation. But surely, to esteem it such is too hard a supposition, considering the perfect simplicity and moral purity of the precepts at the close of the Epistle. His very tone and manner, then, creates an additional presumption, that the exposition which he had been giving was not private but ecclesiastical, and the sort of scruple, with which he imparts it, an instance of that discipline of reserve, which the Church recommended in the conveyance of all her mysteries. (10.) Neither need any one be staggered at the idea, which his manner of speaking at first sight appears to imply, that Abraham himself was not ignorant of this mystery; a notion upon which Dr. Whitby has built what he conceives to be a triumphant refutation of the allegory. "The Hebrew letter Tau1," he observes, "neither bears the form of the Cross 2, nor is the symbol of the number three hundred; and as to the Greek letters, they were not invented till long after Abraham's time." Well; but does St. Barnabas affirm that Abraham himself knew the meaning of this Greek cypher? If he did, he might suppose it made known by prophetic inspiration; according to the received exposition of the text in St. John, "Your father Abraham 1 De S. S. Interp. p. 9. 2 See S. Jerome on Ezek. ix. 4. t. v. pars p. 95, 6. Extent of the Patriarchs' Knowledge left doubtful. 23 rejoiced to see My day." But what are St. Barnabas' own words? « He circumcised his family, λαβὼν τριῶν γραμμάτων dóypara, after he had received the doctrines of the three letters," i. e. certain mysterious truths, of which the three letters were to be a symbol. It is not said, he received them by the three letters. Again, after stating the number of the household, he asks, τίς οὖν ἡ δοθεῖσα τούτῳ γνῶσις; which may be perhaps best construed, "What is the evangelical meaning of the signs given to him?" taking yvwσis objectively, for the truth sealed up, not subjectively, for the impression on Abraham's mind. It is not therefore necessary to understand St. Barnabas as asserting, that the holy Patriarch himself had this secret revealed to him. For any thing he affirms, it might be a yvwois, the outward cypher of which only was given to Abraham, the key reserved for the times of our LORD and His Gospel. And after all, a mistake in that particular could not fairly invalidate the whole interpretation. There is a school of theologians, which maintains that Abel must have known the full doctrine of the Atonement. Those who hesitate in allowing this, do not therefore necessarily doubt the typical and mystical import of Abel's history. So in this case, we might believe St. Barnabas, stating what was known in his time to be the signification of the three letters, while we demurred to his supposition, that it was known also to Abraham. (11.) There is yet one more instance, in this ancient epistle, of allegorical interpretation with reference to the Cross of our LORD: an instance which like the former may stand at the head of a class, and being well considered, may throw much light on another wide province of the so-called mysticism of the Church. "Let us see," says the writer', "whether the LORD has seen good to give men prophetical indications of the Water and of the Cross." Then, after other texts, he alleges the first Psalm, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly 1 S. Barnab. Ep. c. xi. § ii. 11. § ii. 12. 24 Mystical Meaning of the Tree in Psalm i.: are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away; Every one must admire the thought, but the question now is, how it is derived from the Psalm. The account of which, and of many like texts, seems to be as follows: The old Christian writers, either by tradition, or by a feeling so general that it seemed almost like a natural instinct, believed that the phrase rò úλov, wherever introduced in the Old Testament, was intended to lead their thoughts to the cross; of which in their ordinary speech, Tò Eúλov was perhaps the most frequent appellative. Accordingly, not only such obvious analogies as Isaac bearing the wood of his sacrifice, the Brasen Serpent, or such a place as that in Isaiah, "The government," i. e. the sign of power, the victorious Cross, "shall be upon his shoulder," but every rod also, or staff, or sceptre, mentioned by either of the sacred writers, as it was a token of guidance, support, or dominion, was, in the Fathers' judgment, a designed emblem of the Cross. (12.) The best way, perhaps, of exemplifying this, will be to tran Scripture Warrant for it as stated by Justin Martyr. 25 scribe from Justin Martyr's dialogue with Tryphon, which may § ii. 12. be considered as a popular view of the prima facie evidence for Christianity in the Old Testament, the remarkable passage1 in which he undertakes to prove, that "since the time of our LORD'S crucifixion, there hath been inseparably associated with Him that which is an emblem, on the one hand, of the tree of life, the plantation of which in Paradise had been matter of early revelation; on the other hand, it is also an emblem of the course appointed by the Almighty for the righteous." This passage, then, professedly gives the view which the Christians of Justin's time took of large portions of the ancient Scriptures and it is noticeable also on another account, that it has attracted the especial scorn of rationalist writers: the language, for example, of Middleton concerning it, is marked (I had almost said) by brutal irreverence 2. However, thus Justin proceeds: "Moses with a rod was sent to redeem the people; and bearing this in his hand, in the place of sovereignty over them, he divided the Red Sea. It was by this that the rock gave forth water, gushing out in his sight. It was a tree which he cast into the waters of Marah, which being bitter were so made sweet. It was by means of rods cast into the water that Jacob caused the sheep of his mother's brother so to conceive that the young might fall to his share. With his rod, or staff, he, the same Jacob, passed over the water [of Jordan] as he himself boasts. He declared that a ladder had been seen by him; and that it was God Himself who was stationed on the top thereof, the Scripture hath expressly affirmed." This example is not irrelevant, since a ladder is part (so to speak) of the furniture of the Cross. Then having digressed on some other emblems occurring in the vision at Bethel, Justin goes on: "It was the rod of Aaron, which by its budding declared him High Priest. That as a rod from the root of Jesse CHRIST should be born, Isaiah foretold; and David saith that the righteous man is as the tree planted by the river of waters, which shall bring forth his fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not wither:" where we have Justin's sanction for the interpreta 1 Opp. p. 312-314. ed. Morell, 1636. 2 Free Inquiry, &c. p. 29. |