efore we can have a true understanding of his words. The same
might be said of innumerable other passages of Scripture.

But this power of vivid conception, when not held in check by a _sound
judgment_, will lead the expositor of Scripture into the wildest
vagaries of fancy. Disregarding the plainest rules of interpretation, he
will cover up the obvious sense of Scripture with a mass of allegorical
expositions, under color of educing from the words of inspiration a
higher and more edifying meaning. That high natural endowments, united
with varied and solid learning and indefatigable zeal for the gospel, do
not of themselves constitute a safeguard against this error, we learn
from the example of Origen and many others. Not content to let the
simple narratives of Scripture speak for themselves and convey their
proper lessons of instruction, these allegorical expositors force upon
them a higher spiritual sense. In so doing, they unsettle the very
principles by which the spiritual doctrines of Scripture are
established.

Origen, for example, in commenting on the meeting between Abraham's
servant and Rebecca at the well in Haran, says: "Rebecca came every day
to the wells. Therefore she could be found by Abraham's servant, and
joined in marriage with Isaac." Thus he gives the literal meaning of
this transaction. But he then goes on to show, among other things, that
Rebecca represents the human soul, which Christ wishes to betroth to
himself, while Abraham's servant is "the prophetic word, which unless
you first receive, you cannot be married to Christ." See in Davidson's
Sacred Hermeneutics, pp. 103, 104.

5. Another indispensable qualification of scriptural interpretation is
_sympathy with divine truth_; in other words, that harmony of spirit
with the truths of revelation which comes from a hearty reception of
them, and a subjection of the whole life, inward and outward, to their
control. "If any man," said our Saviour, "will do his will, he shall
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of
myself." John 7:17. In these words our Lord proposed to the unbelieving
Jews the true remedy for their ignorance and error respecting his person
and office, which had their ground not in the want of evidence, but in
their perverse and guilty rejection of evidence. Their moral state was
one of habitual rebellion against the truth of God; and they could not,
therefore, have sympathy with the Saviour's doctrine. They