as if ignorant that Ananias, their President, was the High Priest; though, at the very moment, Ananias was sitting before him in his judicial capacity, and perhaps also in his Pontifical robes. "I wist not, Brethren, that he was the High Priest," said the Apostle, when rebuked for censuring him; and the saying undoubtedly seemed strange, until the researches and ingenuity of Michaelis drew forth facts from the history of the times, which removed the wonder at once. He has shewn that Ananias had indeed been for a very short time in possession of the power, but was still without any just claim to the authority of the Pontifical office; and that, consequently, the ignorance which St. Paul expressed, and which, at first sight, appears merely assumed as an excuse for his own conduct, was either, as it easily might be under such circumstances, real; or else was intended as a reproof to the usurpation of his Judge. Again, It had often been alleged as an objection to the historical accuracy of the New Testament, that it gave the title of Proconsul to the Governor of Cyprus, when, in strict propriety, he could only be styled Prætor of the a Acts xii. 9. Marsh's Michaelis, Vol. I. Part I. Ch. ii. Sect. 11. Province. So strongly did this apparent inaccuracy weigh with Beza, that he absolutely attempted to remove it by his mode of translating the text; and our own Authorized Version seems, in like manner, to have evaded the difficulty by adopting the neutral term "Deputy" instead of the correct title of Proconsul. A medal however has since been discovered on which the very same title is assigned about the same period to the Governor of the same province, and thus the difficulty has vanished for ever. But it has not vanished without leaving a strong evidence of truth behinda. For discoveries like these are of incalculable importance to the believer in the evil hour of temptation. When, as in the former instance, a passage which had long puzzled our understanding receives at last an unexpected and satisfactory interpretation, assurance revives with double energy. Or when, as in the latter of the two cases, the learning or ingenuity of some laborious Antiquary or Divine, has met with an inscription on a marble or a coin which had hitherto been overlooked or unknown, and, by applying it to some difficulty under which we were labouring, gives a clear and happy solution of the whole, a new and unwonted vigour is immediately communicated to a Lardner's Credib. Part I. B. I, Ch. i. Sect. 11. our faith. For an apparent objection to the credibility of the Bible has thus been turned into a real evidence of its truth, and the consequence which naturally follows is that of giving an additional degree of confidence to our reliance upon a religion whose very weakness has been proved to be strength. The beneficial influence of the elucidation, and consequently of the existence of Scripture difficulties, is, therefore, manifest not only in the production of belief at first, but also in nourishing and maintaining it when produced. 3. From the previous remarks it is plain that had no obscurity whatever been permitted to remain upon the pages of Holy Writ, we should have sustained a considerable loss of the internal evidence of its genuineness and authenticity. This will, I think, be generally allowed; but still it may be imagined that this advantage would have been sufficiently secured had the Scriptures, instead of being overwhelmed with such frequent and serious darkness, been shaded only by a few slight and temporary things hard to be understood." It may be admitted that some difficulties would have been useful or even necessary; but it may be argued that, as the case stands with regard to the Bible, they are both greater and more numerous than is at all requisite either for the creation or preservation of our faith. This reduces the question to a question, not of fact, but degree, a kind of question which is of all others the most arduous to determine. Without entering, however, into any idle estimate of the precise number of difficulties with which the Bible abounds, and then as idly attempting to settle whether it be the exact number it ought to have contained, we may generally and positively assert in opposition to the objection alleged, that the magnitude and continuance are as essential to the permanent credibility of the Bible, as the temporary existence of some few " things hard to be under stood." First, suppose the difficulties of Scripture had been slight and capable of being easily removed; and then mark the consequence. The intellectual world is composed of the learned and illiterate in various degrees, and the learned, from the pride of reason, are perhaps more exposed to the temptation of renouncing revelation than their humbler brethren. The learned are more peculiarly, therefore, in want of those new and continually increasing arguments for the soundness of their belief, which the gradual elucidation of difficulties supplies Hence it is necessary that the difficulties of Scripture, in order to answer the beneficial purpose of protecting and preserving the faith of the cultivated and scientific, should be such as the cultivated and scientific will feel. But if all the difficulties of Scripture were slight in their nature, it is plain that the well-informed and thinking portion of mankind would either feel them slightly or not at all, and consequently have their faith but slightly, if at all, confirmed by their elucidation. "Things hard to be understood," should, therefore, in some instances at least, be very hard to be understood, or they will cease to be advantageous in renewing or strengthening the convictions of those, whose convictions are in most danger of wearing away,-the scholar and the philosopher. Again, were Scepticism the growth only of some particular ages, it would have been sufficient that those ages only should have enjoyed the benefits derived from the elucidation of difficulties. But the Spirit of Infidelity, like the air we breathe, pervades every period; and every successive generation of mankind will be subject to its insinuating operations so long as there lurks a passion within the human breast to make it wish the restraints of religion untrue. It is, therefore, requisite that every successive generation of man |