Matth. xii. 5. "The priests in the temple profane the sabbath."

Mark vii. 21, 22. "Out of the heart proceedeth-an evil eye" -envy, of which it is the sign.

1019. Hyperbole, whether consisting in bold tropes,' exaggerated comparisons, impossible suppositions, &c. gives an appearance of falsehood; to avoid which, the sense, not the expression, must be regarded. 1 "Heaven," for great height or exaltation. "Hell," great depth or depression. "Rivers of oil," abundance of good things. Gal. iv. 15. "Ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.”

2 Gen. xiii. 16. "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth"-very numerous. Job. vi. 3. "Grief heavier than

the sand of the sea."

Bray a fool in

3 Prov. xxvii. 22. 66
foolishness depart from him."

mortar, yet will not his Matth. xvi. 26. "If he

shall gain the whole world," &c. John xxi. 25, «The world itself could not contain the books that should be written."

1020. Allegory is a continued trope, especially a continued metaphor, containing a hidden sense, different from what the words imply, in their plain and literal signification.

1021. It is sometimes doubtful whether a passage be allegorical or not.

History of the Fall. Sentence on the serpent.

1022. When a passage is known to be allegorical, it is sometimes difficult to discover the meaning of it, as it generally introduces some degree of obscurity.

1023. Allegory sometimes arises from the continuation of the same image, through the whole description of a subject.

Prov. ix. 1-6. "Wisdom hath builded her house," &c. Farables.

1024. Sometimes it arises from describing the different circumstances of the subject, by different images in succession.

Eccl. xii. 2, &c.

1025. When an allegory becomes very obscure, it is what the Scripture calls a dark saying, an enigma, or an enigmatical discourse.

Sampson's riddle. Ezekiel's descriptions.

rep

1026. 2. Figures. Epizeuxis, or the continued etition of the same word, or combination of words, is merely a figure expressive of earnestness, and is not a foundation of argument for points of doctrine.

Isa. vi. 3. "Holy, holy, holy"—no argument for the Trinity.

1027. Antanaclasis, by which the same word is used in different senses in the same passage, generally produces some degree of difficulty.

Matth. xxvi. 29. "I will not drink of the product of the vine, (lit.) till I drink it new," &c.-joys of heaven.

Rom. ix. 6. "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel.

2 Cor. v. 21. "He hath made him to be sin for us (sin-offering) who knew no sin."

1028. Prolepsis, or occupation, anticipating and answering an objection, occasions considerable difficulty

when it is covert, removing the objection, without stating it.

This figure frequent in Paul's writings.

1029. Permission, or yielding to a person what he claims, may occasion difficulty, as that either may, or may not, truly belong to him.

1030. Metastasis is transferring to one person what belongs to another; as, speaking of one's self, or of an imaginary person, what is intended of another real person. This often occasions difficulty, particularly in Paul's writings, who, speaking in the first person, means sometimes himself, sometimes any Christian, sometimes a Jew, and sometimes any man.

Locke, Pref.

γνωμαι

1031. Proverbs and proverbial phrases, answering to the rhetorical figures called yvwpas and "sententiæ," are frequent in Scripture, and generally attended with some difficulty.

1032. We must not explain them strictly, or seek for an application of them, in all their circumstances, to the subject on which they are employed; but, being intended to set that subject in one striking point of view, we must discover what this point is, by the use of them in other places, or other writers, or by the sense and connexion.

1033. Some of them are sentiments expressed in proper terms, which, on account of their force, beauty, or conciseness, have become general maxims; and the

only difficulty is to determine, with what limitations they must be understood in a particular passage.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

"The disciple is not above his master"-cannot expect better treatment, Matth. x. 24. Luke vi. 40. John xv. 20,Should not grudge the same offices, John xiii. 16.

1034. Some proverbial expressions consist in an explicit comparison, and become difficult only when they imply remote or obscure allusions.

Gen. x. 9. "Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter, before the Lord."

1035. But most proverbs are expressed tropically, in metaphor, metonymy, or synecdoche; and this manner of expression both gives them their force and beauty, and occasions such difficulty as naturally arises from these tropes.

1 Sam. x. 12. "Is Saul also among the prophets?" synec. Jer. xxxi. 29. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."

Deut. xxv. 4. "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn"-take care of those who serve us.

Luke iv. 23. "Physician, heal thyself"-more solicitous for strangers, than for connexions.

Matth. vii. 3, &c. "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" &c.-blind to one's own faults, quicksighted to other men's, v. 6.

Matth. xix. 24. "Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," &c.-rare, difficult, impossible.

Matth. xxiii. 24. xxiv. 28.

CHAP. IV.

Difficulties in the Circumstances relating to the
Books of Scripture.

1036. It is not sufficient, that we understand the several words employed, and the manner of their combination into sentences and propositions; it is necessary, also, that we know how sentences and propositions are connected in periods and discourses, and be able to judge of a composition as a whole; and in this, there is often considerable difficulty, and that of several kinds,

SECT. I

Difficulties in the Connexion of particular parts.

1037. FROM difficulties in the combination of words, already considered, we pass naturally to such difficulties as regard the connexion of the particular parts; and these arise from many different causes.