1874] WHAT TO SEEK IN THE BIBLE 215 



that incites to a good and blessed life. 1 It is only to the 

 ignorant that the supernaturalness of the thoughts [ T & 

 v-rep avfipuTTov TW i/ vo?//xaTwv] does not manifest itself in 

 every letter. 2 These and similar utterances ascribe to 

 Scripture not less, but more than its due ; for they give 

 to an intellectual assent to the doctrines of Scripture 

 the power to mould man s life without any direct personal 

 relation to Christ. More or less unambiguously they 

 make Scripture not an avenue to approach to Christ, 

 but in and by itself a Divine phenomenon magically 

 endued in every letter with saving treasures of wisdom 

 and knowledge. But this high perfection belongs to 

 Holy Writ, not in its obvious sense, 3 but in virtue of the 

 higher unhistorical sense. Now the heretics also pro 

 fessed to find in Scripture spiritual mysteries favouring 

 their system. Nor could it be said that their way of 

 exegesis was radically worse than much of the inter 

 pretation practised in the Church. Both parties alike 

 were seeking in Scripture a kind of truth that it is not 

 meant to teach, and so neither could be convinced of 

 error by arguments strictly hermeneutical. But if it 

 was vain to suppose that a criticism of methods could 

 distinguish the true sense of Scripture from the false, 

 there must at least be a standard to try results. And 

 therefore (again to quote Origen), &quot; cum multi sint qui 

 se putant sentire quae Christi sunt, et nonnulli eorum 

 diversa a prioribus sentiant, servetur vero ecclesiastica 

 praedicatio per successionis ordinem ab apostolis 

 tradita et usque ad praesens in ecclesia permanens : ilia 

 sola credenda est veritas quae in nullo ab ecclesiastica 

 et apostolica discordat traditione.&quot; Accordingly, when 



1 Or. Prin. i. 47 Rue. 



2 Or. ut supra, 162. 



3 &quot; Forrnae enim,&quot; says Origen (Prin. i. 4, 8), &quot;sunt haec quae 

 descripta sunt sacramentorum quorundam, et divinarum rerum 

 imagines. De quo totius ecclesiae una sententia est, esse quidem 

 omnem legem ( = Scripture from context) spiritualem : non tamen 

 ea quae spirat lex esse omnibus nota, nisi his solis quibus gratia Spiritus 

 S. in verbis sapientiae ac scientiae condonatur.&quot; 



