NOTE ON SERMON II. As the words, that he might go to his own place, may seem to countenance the notion of a personal and absolute reprobation; it may not be improper to offer respecting them, a few remarks, of which the introduction into the body of the foregoing discourse would have been unsuitable to its practical design. The Greek, πορευθηναι εις τον τοπον τον ίδιον, presents an elliptical form of speech, capable of being supplied in two ways, both of which are equally agreeable to the idiom of the language. First, we may suppose the particle wore to be prefixed to the above-cited words. In this case, the meaning will be, that Judas had so fallen As To go to his own place. It cannot justly be said, that this would present an allusion remote from the purpose, on which the apostles and disciples were now convened for it conveys an affecting warning of the dreadful penalty of unfaithfulness in the pas H toral office, and would therefore seem more pertinent to the occasion of filling a vacancy in that office, than a reference to any supposed decrees of the Deity respecting the final condition of individuals. Secondly, the ellipsis may be supplied by prefixing to the words under examination the particles εις το, προς το, or some equivalent form. But we are to observe, that it is common in the language of Scripture, and in the Greek language generally, to put an effect for a cause, and to speak of an event as resulting from the motive of an agent, when in reality it is simply a consequence of his act. Thus, the received version may on this supposition be regarded as a true construction of the words; while at the same time their import would be, that the punishment of Judas was the consequence of his transgression, not that his transgression was ordained in order to his punishment. To make the matter clearer, I will illustrate it by similar examples: two of which shall be taken from the Scriptures, and one from a profane writer. In the first book of Kings* we read as follows: "Unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee Ch. ii. ver. 26. to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord, that he might fulfil the word of the Lord, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh." Here Abiathar is put out of the priest's office: the consequence is the fulfilment of a prophecy; and this consequence is so stated, that it sounds to our ears as if it were the motive of Solomon; nevertheless, Solomon declares his own motive to be, the punishment of Abiathar. A second example presents itself in the following words: "They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots*." No one would suppose, that the fulfilment of a prophecy was in this case the purpose of the soldiers; yet such, if we make no allowance for the different John xix. 24. idioms of different languages, would seem to be the import of the words. A third example may be adduced from the Odyssey of Homer*, in which Ulysses thus addresses Alcinous : Σοι δ' εμα κηδέα θυμος επετράπετο στονόεντα Ειρεσθ', ΟΦΡ' ετι μαλλον οδυρομενος στοναχίζω. Here the literal rendering of the words would be to this effect: "You ask me to relate my sorrows in order that I may augment my grief;" but the real sense obviously arising from the circumstances of the case, is, "Your desire that I should relate my sorrows will have the effect of augmenting my grief." Dr. Whitby has, I find, adduced from the Old Testament the two following exemplifications of the same point: " Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off." "The statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels, that I should make thee a desolation ‡.” Should these remarks occur to the eye of a * Lib. ix. ver. 12. + Hosea viii. 4. Micah vi. 16. learned reader, they may possibly be thought to involve an unprofitable waste of time, in proving a point familiar to him. But learned persons are not the only individuals whose case is to be consulted in the elucidation of Scripture; and it is certainly important to obviate, with regard to every class of Christians, that ignorance of scriptural phraseology, which has been, on many occasions, the only basis of a pestilent error, or of a blasphemous cavil. I feel myself therefore justified in proceeding to another citation from the sacred text, and to a few additional remarks. "Think not," says our Lord, "that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword *." This passage is, with respect to grammatical construction, exactly similar to that which has been the subject of the foregoing observations. The phrase is elliptical; the ellipsis is capable of being supplied in both of the two ways which have been already suggested; and, whichever of these two ways be preferred, the meaning may justly be regarded as coming to the same point. Whatever ideas of peace the apostles may have connected in their minds with the advent of their * Matt. x. 34. |