The Democratic press. (Eaton, Preble County, Ohio) 1860-1865, 1861-10-31


Christ. Isaac's old age denotes
kthefllIpsssQf Silaancss,
spiritual darkness. The two kids
selected by Jacob out of the flock,
are sins selected from among those
of the Jews and heathens; and the
food prepared from them repre-
scnts sacrifice well-pleasiug to
God" Again, we are told that
"the four rivers of Paradise, are
the four cardinal virtues, the head
of which is Christ" "The ark of
Noah, is a mystic representation of
the human body" "Abraham,
who rolls back the destruction Of
Sodom, is Christ who subdues the
sinful desires" "And Bethany"
we are informed, "is the world; the
house of Simon, the earth, q part
Of the world. The woman is the
Church. She anoints the head OF
Christ" In the narrative of our
Lords entry into Jerusalem, "thc
ass bound, represents the human
family i'll its captive state, which
was loosed by Christi Jerome
understands ''by the fish which was
first caught by Peter, the liberation
of the first Adam by the second.
The piece Of money in its mouth
denotes the confession of Christ" "
BY "the man that went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho is understood
Adam himself, in the human race
Jerusalem is that heavenly city oI
peace, from whose happiness he has
fallen. Jericho is, being interpret.
ed, the moon; and signifies our NOR.
tality, on which account it rises
increases, wakes old, and sets. The
robbers signify the devil and his
angels, who robbed him of immor,
taIity, and after inAicting stripes by
by persuading to sin, left him h"II
dead." Cyril, in his exposition Of
Johns Gospel, sixth chapter, where
the miraculous feeding of five thou
sand people with five barley loaves
and two fishes is related, says,
"that by theGve loaves are signi-
fed the five books of Moscs-i. e.,
the entire law which yields, as it
were, q coarser nourishment; for
the circumstance of their being
made Of barley refers to this. BY
the fishes, again, is denoted, the
finer and more luxurious nutriment
contained in the Savior's teachings.
The twelve baskets filled with the
fragments remaining over and
above, represent the honor that
should be given to the apostles and
bishops of the Church after their
work is finished"
If Goo deemed it requisite to re-
veal His will to mankind by means
of ineligible books, He must, in
choosing this medium, have in
tended that the contents Of these
books should be discovered accord
ing to those general laws which
are conducive to the right under
standing of documents in general.
The Interpretation which, in spite
of all ecclesiastical opposition,
ought to be adopted as the only
true one, strictly adheres to the
demands of general hermeneutics;
to which it adds those particular
hermeneutical rules which meet the
requisites of particular cases. This
has, in modern times, been styled
the HIsToRIco- co-GRAMMATICAL mode of
Interpretation. This appellation
has been chosen because the epithet
grammatical seems to be too narrow
and too much restricted to the nero
verbal sense. 1t might be more
correct to style it simply the HIS
ToRICAI Interpretation, since the
word HISTORICAL comprebends ev-
erything that is requisite to be
known about the language, the
turn of mind, and the individual
ity of an author, in order rightly
to understand his book.
- ~ig
&'..