VI.--THE DOCTRINE OF ARBITRARY SCRIPTURAL ACCOMMODATION CONSIDERED p. 183 VII.--THE MARVELS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, MORAL AND PHYSICAL.--JAEL'S DEED DEFENDED.--MIRACLES VINDICATED p. 221 * * * * * PRÆVENERUNT OCULI MEI AD TE DILUCULO, UT MEDITARER ELOQUIA TUA. QUAM DULCIA FAUCIBUS MEIS ELOQUIA TUA: SUPER MEL ORI MEO. LUCERNA PEDIBUS MEIS VERBUM TUUM, ET LUMEN SEMITIS MEIS. ῼ ΚΑΛΩΣ ΠΟΙΕΙΤΕ ΠΡΟΣΕΧΟΝΤΕΣ, ΩΣ ΛΥΧΝῼ ΦΑΙΝΟΝΤΙ ΕΝ ΑΥΧΜΗΡῼ ΤΟΠῼ, ΕΩΣ ΟΥ ΗΜΕΡΑ ΔΙΑΥΓΑΣῌ, ΚΑΙ ΦΩΣΦΟΡΟΣ ΑΝΑΤΕΙΛῌ ΕΝ ΤΑΙΣ ΚΑΡΔΙΑΙΣ ΥΜΩΝ. DOMINE DEUS meus, ... sint castæ deliciæ meæ Scripturæ Tuæ. Nec fallar in eis, nec fallam ex eis.--AUGUSTINUS, _Confessiones_, lib. xi. c. ii. § 3. The Book of this Law we are neither able nor worthy to look into. That little thereof which we darkly apprehend we admire: the rest with religious ignorance we humbly and meekly adore.--HOOKER, _Eccl. Pol._, B. I. ch. ii. § 5. * * * * * SERMON I.[243] * * * * * THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE RECOMMENDED; AND A METHOD OF STUDYING IT DESCRIBED. * * * * * ST. JOHN vi. 68. _LORD, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life._ It was probably in that synagogue which the faithful Centurion built at Capernaum[244] that our SAVIOUR had been discoursing. At the end of His discourse, it is related that "many of His Disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Thereupon, He asked the Twelve, "Will ye also go away?" the very form of His inquiry (Μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς) implying the answer which the Divine Speaker expected and desired. And to this challenge of Love to Faith, St. Peter replied, not only on behalf of his fellow-Apostles, but on behalf of all faithful men to the end of time:--"LORD, to _whom_ shall we go? _Thou_ hast the words of Eternal Life!" You perceive that St. Peter's confession takes a peculiar form,--resting the impossibility of unfaithfulness in the Apostles on the gracious discourse of Him to whom they had been listening. "A hard saying," and unpalatable, it had proved to many; but to his own taste it had seemed "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." So that while, to those others, it had been an occasion of going back, and walking with CHRIST no more,--to himself it had been a reason why he could never, as he felt, be persuaded to forsake CHRIST. Nay, it was to himself, (and, as he boldly assumed, to his fellow-Apostles,) a sufficient evidence that the Speaker was none other than the SON of GOD. "And we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the CHRIST, the SON of the living GOD!"