216 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



Origen lays down in the fourth book of the TTC/H Apxwv 

 the laws of interpretation which, in their essential points, 

 became normative for the whole ancient Church, he sets 

 forth as the starting-point of his whole theory the three 

 positions : that Scripture is Divinely inspired ; that 

 interpretation must follow the ecclesiastical canon ; and 

 that in Holy Scripture certain mystic dispensations are 

 made manifest (p. 166 Rue). On these bases Origen 

 erects his famous distinction of a triple sense in Scripture, 

 the flesh or literal sense, the soul or moral sense, the 

 spirit or intelligible and heavenly sense. Everywhere 

 the principal aim of the Spirit had reference to the 

 &quot; ineffable mysteries of matters concerning mankind &quot; 



[aTTopprjTa p.v(rri ]pio. TWV Kara rov&amp;lt;$ dvOptoTrovs irpa.yu&amp;lt;iruv\. 



This sense alone was continuous through Scripture, and 

 so carried out that a teachable mind throwing itself into 

 the depths of the intelligible sense could fathom all the 

 higher truths [Soy/xara] of the Divine counsel (172). 

 True, it is a special mark of God s power and wisdom, 

 that in many parts of Scripture these spiritual truths are 

 wrapped up in &quot;a not unprofitable &quot; shell of history, 

 capable of benefiting many of weaker capacity (173) ; 

 but, allegorizing after Hermas (169), Origen speaks of 

 those who understand this sense only as orphans who 

 cannot call God their Father, widows not yet worthy of 

 the Bridegroom. Nay, often the literal sense is im 

 possible, absurd, immoral, and this designedly even in 

 the New Testament, lest cleaving to the letter alone 

 men should remain at a distance from the Soy/mra, and 

 learn nothing worthy of God (173). 



On the whole, as I have said, these principles of Origen 

 became normal for the Church, and their influence was 

 scarcely diminished by the condemnation afterwards 

 pronounced on the peculiarly bold system of Christian 

 philosophy which Origen himself evolved by their aid. 

 How far they were accepted in the Western Church, even 

 in the school which in its conception of Christianity 



