BL 96 .M32 1850 v. 2 Mackay, Robert William, 180; -1882. The progress of the THE PROGRESS OF THE INTELLECT. LONDON: GEORGE WOODFALL AND SON, ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET. TIIE APR 28 PROGRESS OF THE INTELLECT, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEKS AND HEBREWS. ROBERT WILLIAM MACKAY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND. MDCCCL. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. V. ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. PAGE § 1, Mediation generally .......... 3 2. Earliest types of mediation ......... 7 3. Emanation theory . . . . . . . • • .12 4. Fopular forms of pantheism . . . . . . . .16 5. Indian philosophy (Brahma) ........ 20 6. Comparison with Zoroastrianism .24 7. Symbol of Mithras 28 8. Physical symbols of Egypt 3(5 9. Notion of a dying god . . . . . . . . .41 10. Notion of the early death of nature ....... 46 11. Greek apotheosis and oriental emanation ...... 49 12. Greek theory of heroes ......... 52 13. End of the heroic or anthropomorphistic theory ..... 66 14. Symbol of Hercules . . . . . . . . . .71 15. Liberation of Prometheus by Hercules . . . . . .79 16. Greek d;emonology .......... 97 17. Origin of the mysteries ......... 107 18. Form of the mysteries ......... 115 19. Worship of Dionysu3 ......... 120 20. Suggestive imagery of the mysteries ....... 124 21. Mediation of philosophy ......... 146 VI. THEORY OF MEDIATION AMONG THE HEBREWS. § 1. The Theocracy . . . . ' 177 2. Theocratic offices and laws ........ 181 3. The Priest 185 4. The Prophet 190 5. The King 197 6. Extent of the regal office 200 7. Divinity of the King 203 X CONTENTS. PAGE § 8. Origin of the Messiah doctrine 207 9. Earliest types of Messianic prediction 212 10. Notion of a specific Messiah 217 11. Theory of a probationary suffering ....... 222 12. The "Remnant" and the "Return" 227 13. General features of the Messianic kingdom 231 VII. HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION AND IMMOR- TALITY. TEMPORARY REVERSES AND EVENTUAL RE- STORATION OF THE "GOOD MAN." § 1. Hebrew theory of retribution 241 2. Sceptical and rationalistic inferences 245 3. Doctrine of faith 250 4. Subsidiary grounds of hope and faith 256 5. Typical suffering of the "Good Man" 260 6. The "Servant of the Lord" in Isaiah 265 7. The hxaios or just man of the Book of Wisdom 272 8. Ideas as to a future state . . . . . . . . .274 9. The phrase "delivery from death" . 278 10. Mythical expressions of the doctrine of immortality .... 282 11. Development of the doctrine of a future state among the Hebrews . 286 VIII. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MESSIANIC THEORY; DIFFERENT MODIFICATIONS OF IT PREVAILING IN THE DAYS OF JESUS. § 1. Origin of the idea of a supernatural Messiah ..... 301 2. Time of Messiah's coming ......... 307 3. The temporal Messiah 315 4. Daniel's Messiah . 320 5. The Mosaic type 324 6. The fiery tongues of Pentecost ........ 329 7. The mystic or Pre-Adamite Messiah 336 8. Jesus the "Son of Man" 340 9. Jesus the "Son of God" 345 10. The miraculous conception ........ 348 11. The double resurrection ......... 354 12. Union of the two natures in Jesus 360 IX. CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS; THE LATTER A CON- TINUATION OF THE PROPHETICAL SPIRIT, THE FORMER OF ANCIENT JEWISH SYMBOLISM. § 1. Mission of the true prophet ........ 367 2. The old and new covenant ....... 371 CONTENTS. ; 3. Primary elements of Christian reform 4. The Fauline development . 5. Christian forms 6. Theory of atonement 7. The ancient Hebrew sacrifices 8. The ancient Hebrew Deity 9. The altar 10. The cherem 11. Antiquity of the Levitical law 12. Reformation of Jehovism . 13. The Passover . 14. Continuation of sacrificial theory 15. Its present effects XI PACK 375 380 393 397 406 414 426 429 434 438 445 453 460 X. SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. 1. The Alexandrine theosophy 4"9 2. Theory of the Logos 4 ' " 3. Sophia and frnvfta ®tov 4. Hellenistic development 4°4 5. Ascendancy of spiritualism. The fourth gospel 492 6. Gnostic systems °°* ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. " Between me and my beloved there is a veil ; it is time I should remove it, that I may see him face to face." The Poet Hemam of Tabreez — D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orientals. VOL. IT. ON THE THEORY OE MEDIATION. § i. GENERAL THEORY OF MEDIATION. The eternal aspiration of the religious sentiment in man is to become united with God. In his earliest development the ■wish and its fulfilment were simultaneous through unquestion- ing belief1. Eeflection, however, could not fail for a while to check his levity and to humble his pride. Even a faint per- ception of Ins relative place in the scale of being was enough to make him exaggerate his feebleness, and imagine himself not only imperfect, but corrupt and fallen. When this sup- position became conviction, the age of gold, or what is the same thing, the age of fable, was virtually at an end. In pro- portion as the conception of Deity was exalted, the notion of his terrestrial presence or proximity was abandoned; and the difficulty of comprehending the divine government together with the glaring superstitious evils arising out of its misinter- pretation, endangered the belief in it altogether, and seemed to make philosophy the inevitable source of an Epicurean in- fidelity. All thinking men would agree with Plato that it is impossible for the impure to approach the holy and perfect2 ; and a sigh mingled with a smile as they looked back to those simple times when the gods were supposed to have associated 1 Luther said it was the desire to be as gods which drove man from Taradise ; it were more true to say that Paradise was lost when the desire was conceived. 2 Hence the means of reconciliation with the gods were called " xa^vus." B 2 -1 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. familiarly with mankind; to have met and conferred with them in their repasts and walks, and in various personal disguises to have frequented their cities and societies, rewarding virtue and punishing injustice3. Taking the intimations of tradition in their literal sense as true, we cannot escape the melancholy inference that the estrangement between the human and divine has been constantly increasing. The happy times have long ceased when God or Angel guest — " With man as with his friend familiar used To sit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repast, permitting him the while Venial discourse unblamed." Even the lights of Heaven, which, as " bright potentates of the sky,"4 wrere formerly the vigilant directors of the economy of earth, now shine dim and distant; Uriel no more descends upon a sunbeam, and the giant of the sky himself is degraded into an incandescent stone. The real change has been in the progressive ascent of our own faculties, not in the Divine nature ; and the stars were in reality no nearer when supposed to rest on the shoulders of Atlas than when removed by the mathematician beyond the bounds of calculable space. And yet a bitter sense of disappointment and humiliation attends the first awakening of the soul, when reason, looking upward towards the Deity, is impressed with a dizzy sense of having fallen, similar to that often experienced by a nervous imagina- tion when gazing up towards a soaring eagle or Alpine cliff. But hope revives in despondency, and every nation that has advanced beyond the most elementary conceptions has felt the necessity of an attempt to fill the chasm, real or imaginary, separating man from God. To do this was the great task of poetry, philosophy, and religion. Their efforts, however, were neutralised by their disunion, contradictions, and mistakes ; and the mind experienced a second disappointment, or Fall, when fancy or authority had usurped the place of reason, and 3 Odyss. vii. 201; xvii. 485. Paus. viii. 2. Gen. iii. 8; xviii. 16. 4 JEschyl. Agam. 5. Gesen. ad v. J"lV?TD. GENERAL THEORY OP MEDIATION. 0 when reason arrogantly Laid claim to certainty when she pos sessed the elements only of belief. The pretensions of reason laboured from the outset under a peculiar prejudice or dis- qualification. In the theory of the Fall the progress of know- Ledge, apparently accompanying the sense of degradation, had been assumed to be the cause of that which preceded or accom- panied it, and thus by a natural association of ideas the very development of mental power seemed to be rebellion or enmity against God, synonymous with the fructification of iniquity. Hesitating and discredited, reason resigned the larger portion of her office to imagination ; tradition usurped the place which should have been taken by philosophy; the fancies of poets became the doginas or inveterate prejudices of mankind, and the majesty of God was again, though in a different fashion, lowered to meet the presumptuous claims of his creatures. The notion of a second golden age now arose to supply the deficiency of the first. The Deity who had once been recog- nised as personally present among men, had now indeed either altogether withdrawn, or greatly reduced the frequency of his personal appearances ; but he retained the power of occasional interference, or had deputed his terrestrial superintendence and correspondence to a class of inferior emissaries, imagined to people the atmosphere, to exercise a censorship over crime, to answer the spell of the magician, or to prompt the voice of prophets. After passing through many varieties of super- stition, man at length discovered an oracular faculty within himself5. The gifted genius was the herald of divinity, and the sacred class deemed necessary to maintain a becoming communication with Heaven often usurped the temporal authority of the sovereigns of Asia and of Egypt*. The Scythians periodically commissioned an ambassador to Za molxis7, and ever since the death of that traditionary anchorite, who as possessing the secrets of heaven was not unreasonably 1 Diog. L. vii. 119. M. Antonin. v. 19. • riato, roliticus, 290 (819). ('it. de Div. i. 11. Numb, x.v 10, ; Herod, iv. 91. t> ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. esteemed to have been himself a god, there was always at the Gothic coast an officer under the title of " ®sog" (God), who acted as privy counsellor and adviser of the monarch8. The practice of oriental kings who sat secluded while business was transacted through an interpreter such as the Abyssinian " Kal Hatze," or " Word of the King," mentioned by Bruce, naturally suggested a similar form of communication between the human race and the universal monarch. The various ranks of mythical beings imagined by Persians, Egyptians, or Etru- rians to preside over the various departments of nature, had each his share in a scheme to bring man into closer approxi- mation to the Deity ; they eventually gave way only before an analogous though less picturesque symbolism, and the deities and daemons of Greece and Rome were perpetuated under dif- ferent names when their offices were transferred to saints and martyrs. The attempts by winch reason had sometimes en- deavoured to span the unknown by a bridge of metaphysics, such as the idealistic systems of Zoroaster, Pythagoras, or Plato, were more refined but almost as unsubstantial as the poetical illusions which satisfied the vulgar ; and amidst all the freaks of fancy and subtleties of speculation, man still looked back with longing to the lost golden age, and hojied that by propitiating heaven he might accelerate the renewal of it in the islands of the far west under the sceptre of Cronus, or in a centralization of political power at Jerusalem. His eager hope overcame even the terrors of the grave, for the divine power was as infinite as human expectation, and the Egyptian duly ensepulchrcd in the Libyan catacombs was supposed to be already on his way to the fortunate abodes under the guidance of Hermes, where he would obtain a perfect association and reunion with his God. R Strabo, vii. 298. I AKLIEST TYTES OF MEDIATION. 7 I* EARLIEST TYrES OF MEDIATION. All religion may be viewed as a scheme for reconciling man with i, iafta.ru, r^o^rai p-nviftarav faiuv." Plato, Rep. ii. 364. Herod, iv. 35. 2 Arnob. i. 5. Epiphan. Hares. 1. 1 Apuleius de Magia, ch. xxv. p. 501, Hildeb. Comp. Porphyr. de Abstin. iv. 16. The Mobeds, or Guebre Priests, are said to be still called Magoi in Pehlvee (Anhang to Zendavesta, 2, 3, p. 17. Lengerke on Daniel, p. 44) ; the Telchines and Idfei Dactyli also were called yotins. Schol. Apollon. i. 1129. ♦ Herod, i. 101. Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 305. BAKLIEBT TYPES OF MEDIATION. 9 gods and perform religious offices5. Ho was arbiter of weal and woe, of blessings nnd curses0. Aided by credulity in the wit- nesses, it was easy for the inspired seer to move mountains, to stir up Leviathan, to heal or inflict disease, or, like the prophel Balaam, to destroy an enemy by imprecations. Moses, who with the wisdom of Egypt, was "mighty in word and deed,"7 discomfited by a spell the demon nation of the Amalekites8, and the hero employed in this eternal warfare8 was the same before whom the beleaguered walls of Jericho fell down flat at the trumpet sound10, which was symbolically the voice of God". Implicit faith was of course essential to success. The magician was unable at the request of the Sultan of Mysore to check the advance of a British army composed of incredulous Europeans, but the Israelites fled in dismay before the enchant- ments of the king of Moab12, and the formidable curse13 of the tribune Ateius overshadowed in a distant land the legions of Crassus. The Eig-Veda contains magic formulas adapted to such purposes. Brahma is surrounded by the five Devatas, Lightning, Rain, Moon, Sun, and Fire; and as lightning 5 " Auto; is faous triflti." iEschyl. Scptem. 578. (563, Bothe.) Comp. 2 Kings ii. 24. Isai. lxv. 15. Job iii. 8. 6 Gen. xxvii. 27. Numb. xxii. 6. 7 Acts vii. 22. 8 Called by the Rabbis "the seed of the old serpent," the "power of andean spirits," or the " lust of the flesh." Comp. also Philo de Vit. Mosis, p. 35 ; or Mang. ii. p. 115. Exod. xvii. 11. 9 Exod. xvii. 16. ,0 Josh. vi. 20. Clem. Alex. Pred. ii. 4. " Exod. xix. 9. 16. 19. Numb. x. 9. Matt. xxiv. 81. Hub. xii. 19. Rev. i. 10. Baur, in the Tiibinger Zeitschrift, f. Theol. 1832, p. 3, compares the taking of the "moon-city" Jericho to the fate of Troy — the scarlet thread, the three days' concealment (occultation ?) of the spies, &c, are probably all significant J and it was held by the Rabbis that Rahab, the "harlot," (Luna Crescens?) was eventually married to Joshua, as Helena, the " many spoused," to Achilles. Kiimhi to Josh, vi. 25. Gen. xxxii. 28. Ezek. xxiii. 14. The symbolical or solar character oi Joshua, who remained within the tabernacle (Exod. xxxiii. 11), but disappeared in the darkness (Josh. ii. 5), and was buried at Tiinnath-Heres (Eclipsis solis), a name afterwards altered to Tiinnath-Serach, lias been often dwelt upon. ,a 2 Kings iii. 27. " The '• Dira Detestatio oi Horace. Comp. the ca»c ol Jotham and iiie She- chemites. Jadg. ix. 20. 23. 10 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. vanishes in rain, as rain dries up and disappears, as the moon is obscured at its changing, the sun at its setting, and the fire by extinction, so by the pronouncing of appropriate words the enemy would disappear. Magic was founded on the knowledge which unveils nature, and was defined to be the art through which we participate in the power of the Deity14. The dis- tinction of sorcery or black magic, denounced under all its forms as emphatically in the Zendavesta as in the later books attributed to Moses, seems to have arisen out of religious rivalries, and to have been coincident with the time when the divine power became dualistic, and when evil was recognised as emanating from a peculiar cause distinct from the source of good. But though often disgraced by malevolence or craft, magic in its original meaning was neither guess-work nor trickery ; it was an attempt to exert power over nature, founded on a real though superficial acquaintance with her processes and constitution. Everything which exercised a natural or artificial influence over body or mind, the real or imaginary properties of animals, plants, or stones, were ranked among its resources. A philtre or lure, for instance, might be made from a bone snatched from a hungry dog, from the mandragora observed to act as a provocative to the elephant, or the excres- cence which the dam snatching from the new-born foal seemed to make the pledge of enduring affection for her young15. Unnatural acts and combinations, such as seething a kid in its mother's milk, or marriage with near relatives, were prohibited as tending to sorcery; since the one was to convert the means of life to its destruction, the other to confound the natural course of development by bending down, as it were, the branches towards the root. All nature appeared as a connected system of sympathies and antipathies, and the various faculties and powers with which the Creator had endowed inferior beings were all reasonably presumed to be available to human skill it properly informed and directed. But magic had still more H Thilo de Leg. Special. ' ' Yirg. Mn. iv. 515. EARLIEST TYPES OF MEDIATION. I 1 lofty pretensions. God alone is (ill-powerful, but the human soul has in all ages asserted its claim to be considered as part of the divine. " The purity of the spirit," says Van Helmont, "is shown through energy and efficaciousness of will ; God by the agency of an infinite will created the universe, and the same sort of power in an inferior degree, limited more or less by external hindrances, exists in all spiritual beings. The higher we ascend in antiquity, the more does prayer take the form, which it still in a great degree retains10, that of incantation. 1 'layer was able to change the purposes of heaven and to make the Deves tremble under the abyss17. It exercised a compul- sory influence over the gods, and the potency of the means em- ployed by Numa to compel the Deity to descend in fire was proved by the less skilful management of his successor, who brought down the thunderbolt upon his own head18. What- ever by stimulating the nerves seemed while weakening the bodily to sharpen the inward sense, so as to make it dead to the distractions of the outward world, was thought a means of promoting its reunion with its source. Pliny identifies magic with the art of medicine19; Plato more justly with the religions wisdom of antiquity and the worship expressive of its meaning. The wisdom of antiquity was a sort of inspiration or clairvoyance; its worship the unpremeditated expression of that union with nature which was the aim and essence of its reli- gion. The ancient Greek priest (afnT»f) was named from liis office as a person skilled in the art of offering those prayers or invocations*0 which from existing memorials'^' appear to have " The rites of public worship being considered not merely as an expression of trust or reverence, real spiritual acts the effect of which is looked for only within the mind of the worshipper, but as acts from which some direct outward result is anticipated, the attainment of some desired object of health or wealth, of super- natural gifts for body or soul, of exemption from danger or vengeance upon enemies. 17 Life of Zoroaster, Zendavesta by Kleuker, 3, p. 26. 18 Livy i. 81. Plin. N. H. 2. 54, p. 101, and 27. 19 Plin. N. H. 30. 1 . ■ Herod, i. 133 ; ii. 52. *' Such as the Macedonian invocation to the air. (Clem. Alex. Strom, v. 678. Pott.) The Athenian prayers to Zeus or the Seasons for genial weather. (Athens. xiv. 656.) 12 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. resembled the hymns of the Veda or Yaslma, being addresses to the elements for wealth and increase, rain or warmth, in due season; and when Iamblichus'22 describes the execution of the spell by a race of unintelligent and inferior, yet within specific limits, all-powerful genii, we have only to substitute the modern terms "forces" and "processes" for magic rites and super- natural agents, in order to convert the proceeding of an ancient priest into that of a modern natural philosopher. There were diversities of powers, but only one spirit. Prayer promoted the magnetic sympathy of spirit with spirit ; and the Hindoo and Persian liturgies, addressed not only to the Deity himself, but to his diversified manifestations, were considered wholesome and necessary iterations of the living or creative word which at first effectuated the divine will, and which from instant to instant supports the universal frame by its eternal repetition". §3. EMANATION THEORY. The idea or theory on which magism was founded was no other than the ancient pantheism of the East. It amounted to a dogmatic re-assertion of that oneness and intercommunion with God believed in the early ages, and whose reality was never questioned until the memorable sera of the Fall. The hypothesis of a fall, required under some of its modifications in all systems to account for the apparent imperfection in the work of a perfect being, was in Eastern philosophy the un- avoidable accompaniment and condition of limited or individual existence ; since the soul, considered as a fragment (a7roa7raa/ncx, or aira^ayixa) of the universal mind, might be said to have lapsed from its pre-eminence when parted from its source, and ceasing to form part of integral perfection. The theory of its reunion was correspondent to the assumed cause of its degrada- M Ch. 31. 5' Cieuz. S. i. p. 208. EMANATION THEORY. 19 tion. To reach its prior condition its individuality must cease ; it must be emancipated by re-absorption into the infinite, (Mukti, "liberation," or Nirwana, " extinction,") the consum- mation of all things in God, to be promoted by human effort in spiritual meditation or self-mortification, and completed in the magical transformation of death1. By this fundamental axiom are explained the paradoxes of ritual, the Phoenician burnings, the Egyptian embalment, the Avataras and Me- tempsychosis. Every portion of nature being a partial ex- hibition of the creative or informing spirit, not only man, but animals and plants, were imagined to contain some particles of the " aura divina," which is " As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart" and to be really a portion of the Deity in whom we live, move, and have our being. Everything had been endowed with use- ful properties by the Author of all good, and as these properties were emanations of his universal spirit, they were invoked in the name of that spirit to fulfil the beneficial ends of their ap- pointment. The invocation included the souls of all good men throughout the world, considered as united in a mystic com- munion of saints on earth, offering vows for the victory of Ormuzd, and the universal prevalence of his law2. In order to do the will of Ormuzd it was necessary to know him, to become familiar with his light, i. e., the manifestations of his will in heaven and on earth. The prayers of the Parsee were a recog- nition or catalogue expressed in invocation of all those mani- festations conceived by cotemporaneous wisdom as extending from the Creator and his attributes to the lowest of his pure and good creatures. But the creation was not the mere alpha- bet or symbolism of nature, it was an aggregate of living beings, of spirits or of gods. The Parsee considered in water or fire not the mere element but the Ized incorporated in it, 1 Lassen, Antiq. i. 831. Strab. xv. 713. 3 Kleuker's Zendavesta, Pheil. i. p. 28, 29. Carlyle's Sartor, p. 275. 14 OX THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. and addressed it not only as useful but divine. The intel- ligence of animals was not as the capricious exercise of human reason, but the divine purpose revealed in unerring intuitions3. Birds, especially, whose movements seem so mysterious and aloof from man, were as an aerial Delphi or Dodona4 ; the vul- ture could scent carnage three days before a battle, and the swallow and owl intimated the coming fate of Pyrrhus. The many explanations of the practice of animal worship are pro- bably only in appearance inconsistent. To say that the gods took refuge under animal forms when they fled from the cruelty of Typhon, is but a pantheistic allusion to their symbolical deification or their useful properties5 ; and the sacred legend of Egypt, in which each provincial fetish was superseded by a fragment of Osiris, was expressive of the same meaning. The ant and flea, as well as the more highly-endowed animals, were as significant to the diviner as the stars6, and even the cedars of Lebanon are still supposed by the Arabs to exhibit sagacity and foresight akin to the manifestations of instinct or in- tellect7. All divination and magic was founded on the same notion inherited from ancient wisdom by the Cabbala ("tra- dition"), and cherished by all metaphysicians, the spiritual or divine unity of all things. The earliest religionists endeavoured to express the combination of multiplicity with unity by sym- bols, such as the tree8, the hermaphrodite, the spider's web, or the self-multiplying yet undiminished flame. To these suc- ceeded the inventions of polytheism, the separate personifica- tion of elements and seasons, of attributes and planets. The latter obscured but could not entirely obliterate the original feeling; and although through distinctions or personifications the many aspects or attributes of God might give to Him a 3 Virg. Georg. iv. 220. Porphyr. Abst. 4. 9, p. 322. 4 So called by Aristophanes in the Birds. 5 Diod. S. i. 83. 87. Euseb. Pr. Ev. 2. 1, p. 57, Hein. 6 Diod. S. ii. 30, 31. Herod, i. 133; ii. 82. 7 Kelly's Syria, p. 113. 8 Comp. Aristot. de Gener. Anim. i. 23. E M \N \ HON THEORY. 18 semblance of plurality, his nature was only extended, not divided"; each attribute being an essential part of llitn became entitled to represent the entire Godhead; each emanation was itself the Great Being from whioh it sprung. Sarapis, the sub- terranean Osiris, when questioned as to the nature of his divine eharacter, is said to have replied10, "Heaven is my head, my belly the sea, the earth my feet ; my ears the aether ; my eye is the sun's far-beaming ray." Crishna, in many parts of the Bagavad-Geeta, uses similar imagery descriptive of his own being, on which the universe hangs us pearls on the string, and the revelation of his nature arrayed in the eharaeteristic symbols of an Indian idol causes Ardjouna to exclaim n, " I behold, O God, within thy breast, the Deves assembled, and every specific) tribe of beings. I see Brahma, the creator, sitting on his lotus throne; all the Rishis12 and heavenly Ooragas13. I see thy- self on all sides of infinite shape, formed with abundant arms and bellies, and mouths and eyes, but I can neither discover thy beginning, thy middle, nor thy end, O Universal Lord, Form of the Universe ! I see thee with a crown, and armed with a club and chakra14, a mass of glory, darting refulgent beams around. I see thee shining on all sides with light immeasurable, like a glowing fire or glorious sun. Thou art the supreme, the incorruptible, the end of knowledge! Thou art prime supporter of the universal orb ; the never-failing and eternal guardian of law and of religion ! Of power infinite, of amis innumerable, the sun and moon thy eyes, thy mouth a flaming fire; thou encirclest the world with thy glory, filling all space with thyself alone. Of the celestial bands, some fly to thee for refuge; while some, afraid, with joined hands sing forth thy praise. Thus as I see thee, touching with thy head the heavens and radiant in majesty, with widely-opened mouths and bright expanded eyes, my soul is disturbed within me; 9 " Tipiirtti yx(> ovSiv rou tuov kcct aTa^rtiiriv, aXKx ftotoi ixrimrxi. ' Fllllo, Pfeif. ii. 202. 10 Macrob. Sat. i. 20. " Lect. 11, v. If.. " Seers. " Berpentt. " The discus. JG ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. my resolution faileth me, O Vishnou, and I find no rest; beholding thy dreadful teeth and gazing on thy countenance, emblem of Time's last fire, I know not which way to turn. Have mercy then, thou God of Gods! thou mansion of the Universe." §4. POPULAR FORMS OF PANTHEISM. Though the personifying tendency is essentially opposed to pantheism, both elements are usually found united, since pan- theism rigorously carried out would make religion impossible. For religion is but the feeling and practice suited to a certain theoretical relation between man and God ; and the confound- ing man and God in the universality of nature would overthrow all acts and relations arising from the presumption of their severance. In that earliest imaginary state of innocence or ignorance supposed to have preceded intellectual development, there could not, strictly speaking, be any religion, since re- ligion, as generally understood, implies that conscious severance of the finite from the infinite which, morally viewed, contains the implication of a Fall. The negative influences of pan- theism were counteracted in popular feeling by the personifica- tion blending more or less with every actual variety of worship. The early shepherds of the Punjaub1, to whose intuitional or inspired wisdom (Veda) we owe what are perhaps the most ancient religious effusions extant in any language, had already formed a mythology enabling them to apostrophise as living beings the physical objects of their worship. First in this order of Deities stands Indra, the god of the "blue" or "glit- tering" firmament, called Devaspiti, father of the Devas2 or elemental powers, who measured out the circle of the sky, and made fast the foundations of the earth ; the ideal domain of 1 Then called the country of the seven rivers. Roth, in Zeller's Theolog. Jahr- bucher, 1846, p. 350. Lassen, Ind. Ant. i. 756. 2 The "Bright" rulers. POPULAR FORMS OF PANTHEISM 17 Varouna'j tbe " all-encompasser," is almost equally extensive] Looluding air, water, night, the expanse between heaven and earth; Agni who lives in the fire of the sacrifice4, on the domestic hearth5, and in the lightnings of the sky", is the great mediator hetween God and man; Uschas, or the dawn, leads forth the gods in the morning to make their daily repast on the intoxicating Soma of Nature's offertory, of which the priest could only compound from simples a symbolical imita- tion ; then come the various Sun Gods, Adityas or solar attri- butes, Surya the heavenly, Savitri the progenitor, Pashan the nourisher, Bagha the felicitous, and Mitra the friend. When theosophy had been further developed among the wealthier inhabitants of the plains of India, several other religious per- sonifications were adopted by the priesthood, and, though still Nature-gods, yet in consideration of their wider significance or rather perhaps their locally conventional rank, were exalted above the older Vedie or elemental Deities. In the olden time the god had often been identified with the worshipper, and the liishis and Pitris7 of antiquity were supposed by piety to have raised themselves to the skies, and even to have presided over the fixing of the constellations8. When the powers of external nature were first separated from the conscious percipient, the symbols representing them were those most impressive to the untutored senses. As early as Alexander and Megasthenes9 the worship of Siva, supposed to be the Indian Dionysus, had been extended from the Himalaya to the Coast of Coromandel mi Kalinga10, and its symbols, the coarsest forms of Nature worship, expressed the relation of sensuous man to a being ' Lassen compares this god to the Greek Oupavo;. 4 Hence called Narashansa, " the hearer of human prayers ;'* the first Rishi who addressed the gods and taught men the way to heaven. 5 As Vaishvanara, the "dweller with all men." 6 Called "Falcon of the sky." Rosen. Specimen, p. 17. 7 Patriarchs. 8 Lassen, Ant. i. 765. 760. 773. He*. Works, v. 122. 0 Meg. Frag. Schwanheck, p. 135, from Strah. xv. 711. 10 Lassen, Anti<|. i. 7*i>. VOL. II. I 18 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. correspondingly personified. The coming forth of the eternal Being to the work of creation was represented as a marriage, his first emanation heing a universal mother supposed to have potentially existed with him from eternity, or, in metaphorical language, to have been his "sister and his spouse."11 She became eventually promoted to be the mother of the Indian Trinity, the final result of the systematizing labours of the Brahmins, including in its actual shape the three principal aspects12 of religious theory: physics, history, and metaphy- sics; or in relation to its subject, matter, moral Providence, and mind ; or the Deity under his three attributes of Creation, Preservation, and Change or Kegeneration13. Sivaism, though its symbols may by an effort of ingenuity be made to bear a higher meaning14, is essentially the type of physical Nature worship. Its Deity is the power presiding over generation, life, and death, and over the heat and moisture which are the chief physical instruments in these operations. He is the all- quickening Sun, the all-devouring Time; the spirit evoked by the poet as "Birth and grave, an eternal sea, a changeful weaving, a glowing life;"15 he is a magician whose spells, ever mingled with terror, seem as it were to rob the savage of his patrimonial right16, who creates only to destroy, and who devours his own children. His rites correspond with his cha- racter; they consist of magic incantations, frantic orgies, or sanguinary sacrifices17. Time and reflection alone teach the mind to correct its first impressions, and to convert the tur- bulent superstition of the passions into a religion of the under- standing. The Deity is then no longer a ruthless necessity or 11 Euseb. Pr. Ev. 2. 1, p. 57, Hein. Herod, iii. 31. Baehr's Ctesias, p. 91 sq. Sext. Empir. Pyrr. Hyp. iii. 24, p. 153. 12 V. Bohlen. Ind. i. 213. 13 Siva is supposed to mean the "growing," or, as some think, the "prosper, ous." The Vedic god Rudra, the exterminator (the Zend-Deve Sarval), became in- corporated with him. Lassen, Ant. i. 781. 14 Guigniaut, i. 172. 15 Goethe's Faust. '* Comp. Shakspeare's Tempest, act iii. sc. 2. " Wilson's Oxford Lecture, 28. 34. POPULAR FORMS OF PANTHEISM. 19 inscrutable puzzle, but assumes the new aspect of beneficence. Siva was god of the hills; Vishnou,s, whose worship seems to have been encouraged by the Brahmins in opposition to Buddh- ism, was reverenced by the more cultivated population of the plains19, who created the treasures of Hindoo philosophy and literature. The most popular forms or manifestations of Vishnou were his successive Avataras, or historic impersonations, which represented the Deity coming forth out of the incomprehensible mystery of his nature, and revealing himself at those critical epochs which either in the physical or moral world seemed to mark a new commencement of prosperity and order. Combating the power of evil in the various departments of nature and in succes- sive periods of time, the Divinity, though varying in form, is ever in reality the same, whether seen in useful agricultural or social inventions, in traditional victories over rival creeds, or in the physical changes faintly discerned through tradition or sug- gested by cosmogonical theory. As Bama, the epic hero armed with sword, club, and arrows, the prototype of Hercules and Mithras, he wrestles like the Hebrew patriarch'20 with the powers of darkness ; as Crishna-Govinda, the divine shep- herd, he is messenger of peace, overmastering the world by music and love. Under the human form he never ceases to be the Supreme Being. " The foolish," he says 21, " unacquainted with my supreme nature, despise me in this human form, while men of great minds enlightened by the divine principle within them acknowledge me as incorruptible and before all things, and serve me with undivided hearts." "I am not recognised by all", because concealed by the supernatural power which is in me; yet to me are known, O Arjoona, all things past, present, and to come ; I existed before Vaivaswata and Menou ; I am the Most High God, the creator of the world, the eternal 18 Meaning "Preserver." Lassen, Ant. i. 764. 780. Index to Bagavad-Ge.'ta, by Lassen, p. 282. 19 Megasthenes, Schwanbeck, v. snpr. "T«w,- Ttliarnvt t»v 'H«**Xi« ti^*». -'" Comp. L. Lydus de Mens, 4. iii. p. 151. n B. G. p. 7'.'. Lumen, Le.-t. ix. 11, Led it 25 OQ ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Poorooscha". And, although in my own nature I am exempt from liability to birth or death, and am Lord of all created things, yet as often as in the world virtue is enfeebled, and vice and injustice prevail, so often do I become manifest and am revealed from age to age, to save the just, to destroy the guilty, and to reassure the faltering steps of virtue24. He who acknowledged me as even so, doth not on quitting tins mortal frame enter into another, for he entereth into me ; and many who have trusted in me, have already entered into me, being purified by the power of wisdom ; I help those who walk in my path, even as they serve me." §5. BRAHMA AND HIS INCARNATIONS. Custom had restricted the general Hindoo name " Deva," like the " ®so;" of Greek poetry, to its originally limited mean- ing of a physical or elemental deity ; and in order to express the higher thought of an overruling spirit it became necessary to fix on some new term, as the Greek philosophers employed " «f%»i" and " vouc." Circumstances determined the preference of the word " Brahma" for this purpose1. The primary mean- ing of Brahma in the neuter is that of earnest prayer, the intense devotional feeling supposed to be the proper attitude of man towards the Supreme Being. The idea of this relation was embodied in a divine personification called Brihaspiti, or Brahmanaspiti, "Lord of prayer," whose office was that of mediation with heaven, wresting favours from the gods by pious importunity, and delivering the imprisoned kine (i. e. the clouds) of the firmament out of the caverns of the evil genii. He is allegorically called " father of the gods," since the gods, or at least the conceptions of them, are really products of the 23 The man-world, or "Genius" of the world. 24 Lect. iv. 6. 1 Lassen, Ind. Ant. i. 776. Roth on Brahma in the Zeitschrift der D. M. Gesellschaft, i. 67. Zeller's Jahrbuch, 1846, p. 361. BRAHMA AND HIS INCARNATIONS. Ul devotional sentiment. This personage, afterwards made Leader of the Brahminical order, is the transitional link Between the simplicity of Nature worship, and that more advanced moral consciousness which requires new terms to express the results of reflection. The minister of the offertory, or utterer of prayer, was called Brahma in the masculine, at first as a general appel- lative *, afterwards as the specific title of a class set apart for the performance of religious functions. It was subsequent to the constitution of the Brahniinical caste11 that the notion of the order and its functions was generalized under the name of Brahma, the word originally expressing the devotional attitude towards God hecoming a personification of holiness in the abstract, or of God, the "holy one;" and that the divinity so created by the priests or Brahmins came to he accounted creator of the world as well as mythical author of their own race. The idea of creation in Hindoo philosophy is connected with that of sacrifice. Brahma, the creating agent, sacrificed himself when by descending into material forms he became incorporated with his work, and his mythological history was interwoven with that of the universe. Thus, although spiri- tually allied to the Supreme, and Lord of all creatures (" Pra- japati"), he shared the imperfection and corruption of an inferior nature, and steeped in manifold and perishable forms might he said, like the Greek Uranus, to be mutilated and fallen', lie thus combined two characters, formless form, immortal and mortal, being and non-being, motion and rest. On completion of his task the pantheistic Creator in a manner ceased to lie Almighty, and thenceforth was said to have relinquished his supremacy to the already established popular gods, to Siva as the power of changing and generating Nature, or to Yishnou, preserving Providence. In the incarnations of Vishnou the Deity never abandons the superiority of his nature ; hut - Lassen, i. 803. i. c of the purohita or priest. 3 As supposed by Roth, in the place cited, p. 85 1 Quigniaut, R. i. 229. 22 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Brahma in his emanated shape becomes a subordinate inter- mediary power, and while Vislmou and Siva reign over heaven and the elements, the portion assigned to him is the earth, where he passes the long exile of the four ages. He is thus a type of human nature viewed as a wanderer from its home, yet still under the humiliation of its fall an offshoot from Deity. His history is the allegory of the soul's education. As incarnate intelligence, or "Word,"5 he communicated to man what had been revealed to himself by the Eternal, since he is Creation's soul as well as body, within which the divine word is written in those living letters which it is the prerogative of the self-conscious spirit to interpret. The institutions of Brahma were promulgated by his son, the first Menu or man, called Adima, or Parama Pooroosh, and Swayambhouva, " son of the Self-subsistent." The heads of consecutive Brahmas were significantly suspended to the collar of Cali ("Time"), and the series of incarnations became a representation of the history theoretical and traditional of Hindoo literature, con- sidered as emanating from the primal source of intelligence. Brahma appears first as the prophetic raven6, an emblem of the priest common to the religions of Zoroaster and of Brahma, 5 Guigniaut, i. 140. 181. 226. * The prophetic gift of the crow is alluded to by Virgil, and it was under this form that the divine intelligence (Schol. Pind. Pyth. iii. 46. 48), informed the far- seeing Apollo of the infidelity of his mistress Coronis. Aristaeas followed in Apollo's train under the form of a crow (x^a|), (Herod, iv. 15), that bird being sacred to the Sun-God (Ml H. A. vii. IS. Porphyr. de Abstin. 3. v. p. 226. Eratosthenes, Catast. 41), in Persian Kor or Khor, whence possibly may have been derived the name "Corinth," called also Heliopolis, " city of the Sun." (Steph. Byz. ad voc.) Bitter (Vorhalle, p. 278) asserts on the authority of Porphyry (De Abstin. iv. 350, Rhaer.) that the crow was "significant" of the Magi, or sacerdotal ministers of the Sun-God. The crow, as emblem of intelligence, accompanies Odin ; and its opposition to the dove, still preserved in Christian symbolism on baptismal fonts, may perhaps have originated among the forms of old Asiatic symbolism. (Gen. viii. 7. 1 Kings xvii. 6. Plutarch, Alexander ad fin. Eratosthenes, 41. To the Persians the dove, the sacred bird of Assyria, was impure. Herod, i. 138, Baehr.) BRAHMA AND HIS INCARNATIONS. 88 the swan or goose on which the latter rides being probably an equivalent symhol7. He appears next as Valmiki, the de- graded savage of the forest, who, guided hy a divinely-commis- sioned monitor like the " Interpreting messenger" in Job8, becomes reclaimed, and eventually stands forth as an austere penitent and prophet. In the third age of the world he becomes Vyasa, the inspired editor or "compiler" of the Vedas. In the fourth he is Calidasa, the Homer of Hindoo song, since music is civilizer of man as well as propitiator of the gods , and to hymn the praises of Yishnouwas the great probationary task imposed on Brahma throughout his transformations. To Brahman (Priest), his titular son, or the eponymous emanation of his mouth, lie finally committed the sacred trust of the Vedas ; he still lives in that fraternity of sages whose appointed function is to study and teach his law. From the nature of his psychological origin, among the meditative or priestly order he had no visible altar or local worship 10 ; but he is honoured in the Brahmins; incorporated among whom as their chief he represents the important dogma that the great connecting link between man and God is the devotional wisdom of the spirit. Brahma in the beginning created the worlds by the means instrumental in human progress, by wisdom and harmony. He is wedded to wisdom in the person of his spouse, Saras- wati", and is father of Nareda, author of laws, and inventor of the lyre made out of the shell of the tortoise I Vishnou) which supports the world". He is the supreme God of devotional philosophy, appearing subordinate only when, to illustrate metaphysical theory, he is made to represent the infinite grada- ' "Hansa." Lassen, Ant. i. 785, 6. lies. Scut. 31G. Plat. Phsed. 84c. Apol- lod. iii. 10, 7, 2. 8 xxxiii. 23. 9 Scaring the powers of darkness. Find. Fytli. i. 5-16. "Carmine Li Buperi placantur." — Virg. 10 Lassen, ib. p. 770. " Lassen, p. 785. 12 Guigniaut, R. i. 245. 24 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. tions of the spirit, now stooping from Omnipotence to earth. and now through religious discipline rising from humanity to God. § 6. COMPARISON OF INDIAN THEORY WITH THAT OF PERSIA. Increasing familiarity with early oriental records seems more and more to confirm the probability that they all originally emanated from one source. The eastern and southern slopes of the Paropamisus or Hindukusch appear to have been inha- bited by kindred Iranian races similar in habits, language, and religion1. The earliest Indian and Persian deities are for the most part symbols of celestial light, their agency being re- garded as an eternal warfare with the powers of winter, storm, and darkness. But the original Nature worship, in which were combined the conceptions both of a universal presence and perpetuity of action, took different directions of development. In the more settled condition of the Hindoo, a mild climate 1 The religion of both was originally a worship of outward nature, especially the manifestations of fire and light, the coincidences being too marked to be merely accidental. Deva, " God," is derived from the root div, to shine ; (Lassen, Ind. A. i. 756.) Indra, like Ormnzd or Ahura-Mazda, is the bright firmament; Sura or Surya, " the heavenly," an attribute of the Sun, recurs in the Zend word Huare, the sun (Lassen, ib. 761) ; whence Khur, and Khorshid or Coresch. (Dan. v. 29.) Uschas (Uchanina) and Mitra are Vedic as well as Zend deities ; the Soma is the " Homa ;" the Amschaspands, or "immortal holy ones" of the Zendavesta, may be compared with the seven Rishis, or Vedic star-gods of the constellation of the Bear. Zoroastrianism, like Buddhism, was an innovation in regard to an older religion ; and between the Parsee and Brahmin may be found traces of disruption as well as of coincidence ; Deva, the Indian " god," is the Magian Deve or Daemon, whom it was the duty of every pious Zoroastrian to war on and exterminate ; among them, as an Ahiimanian creation, being included Indra (Bundehesch. 1), and Sarva or Savel (Siva? Zendavesta Th. ii. p. 355). The Persinn Nabanazdista, "men of the new faith," were personified as a son of Menu, called Nabhanedischta, who was disin- herited by his father ; the Persian Jima or Jenisheed became Yama, or the infernal |n>d of the Indian, who also retaliated by transforming the Ahura of Zoroaster into a class of evil spirits called Asura or Asoors. COMPARISON .nrra ruiv auririTuv." Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ch. xlvii. MTTHR/ 29 heaven, fire and water, the son and moon, the rivers, trees and mountains, even the artificial divisions of the day and year; were addressed in prayer as t< i j ;n j r « *d by divine beings, each a pa- rately ruling within his several sphere. Fire in particular, thai " most energetic of immortal powers/'* the visible representa- tive of the primal light, was invoked as "son of Onnuzd,"3 ii!iai to» ilKi**." Suidas. " MiS^a; i 'HXiOf Tti(>a, Iltcra-i;, M*. 671. Pott 18 " Mtyas fruaiXivi lui^yiTrtt." Pint. Isis and Osiris, 12. " Kyatuv *omv ikos uv Offi^s xtxXyirai." Ianiblich. Myst. 8. 3, p. 169. " Ayatoxoios" and "iwjyirw." Plut. ib. 42. 40 ON THE THEORY Of MEDIATION. of the gods properly so culled who sat on the throne of Egypt19. But when succeeding Pharaohs had assumed the titles of divinity among the ordinary insignia of their rank*0, a confusion arose, which, Wending mortal with immortal, history with theology, made it difficult, perhaps impossible, clearly to distinguish the actual from the ideal, the man from the tutelary God'21. In the attempt to adopt the dogma of the all-pervading presence of Deity to the forms of narrative, it became necessary to imagine the epochs of the past filled up by a genealogical series ter- minated by God at one extremity, and by the reigning Pharaoh as his earthly representative at the other. Thus, in his last manifestation, the Supreme Being became father and precursor of mankind, connecting by kindly approximation22 with a heavenly source the present forms of human authority. The insuperable barrier appeared to have been surmounted 2J. It was not that any of the historical Pharaohs really pretended to be considered as gods24; but that in ages past those great insti- tutions and benefits, which in their origin transcend all human experience, and which appear to surpass man's inventive power, were supposed to have been personally communicated by the great spirit of Nature from whence they really sprung. With the phenomena of agriculture, supposed to be the invention of Osiris, the Egyptians connected the highest truths of their religion. The soul of man was as the seed hidden in the ground, and the mortal framework similarly consigned to its dark resting-place awaited its restoration from life's unfailing 19 Herod, ii. 144. " Qiot vriyuoi" Diod. S. i. 13. 20 They were called " Immortal sons of the Sun, Lords of the three regions, Suns, Lords of Truth," &c. Creuz. S. ii. 260. Hermapion in Amm. Marc. xvii. 4. Champollion. Precis, vii. 131. 165. 170. Athenaeus, xiii. 566. The Khan of Tar- tary was a " son of God," and Chosroes, the Persian monarch, is styled " Saviour among men, among gods a perfect and eternal man, among men a most conspicuous god, rising with the sun, and giving eyes and illumination to the night." 21 Paus. i. 42. Herod, i. 106. 12 Isis and Osiris, ch. 57. 33 Pope's Essay on Man, i. 7. Pind. Nem. vi. 4. Creuz. Symb. ii. 257, 258. 34 Herod, ii. 142, 143. NOTION OF A DYING OOD. I I source. Osiris was not only benefactor of the living, he was also Hades, Sarapis, and Rhadamenthes, the monarch of the dead'''. I Until, therefore, in Egyptian opinion, was only another name for renovation, since it^ ( rod is the same power" who incessantly renews vitality in Nature. Every corpse duly embalmed was called an "Osiris," and in the grave was sup- posed to be muted, or at least brought into approximation, to the Divinity". For when God became incarnate for man's benefit, it was implied that in analogy with his assumed character he should submit to all the conditions of visible existence. In death, as in life, Isis and Osiris were patterns and precursors of mankind; their sepulchres stood within the temples of the superior gods28 ', yet though their remains might be entombed at Memphis or Abydus their divinity was unimpeached, and they either shone as luminaries in the heavens™, or in the unseen world presided over the futurity of the disembodied spirits whom death had brought newer to them30. §0. NOTION OF A DYING GOD. The notion of a dying god, so frequenl in oriental legend, was the natural inference from a literal interpretation of Nature worship ; since Nature, which in the vicissitudes of the Beasons seems to undergo a dissolution, was to the earliest religionists the express image of the Deity, or rather one and the same s* Plut. Isis, ch. 28. 61. 78. The epithet of " the good" has been supposed to he given him more especially in this character, as it was to the Greek Hades. Bunsen's Egypt, i. p. 494, ">. •8 'O Xuftfiavaiv xxi i S/S«i/f. Isis and Osiris, ch. 29. Eccles. xii. 7. » Herod, ii. 86. 123. Plut. Isis, 20. 18 Herod, ii. 170. Diod. i. 22. 19 Isis and Osiris, ch. 21. 30 Miss Martincau, in her "Eastern Life" (vol. i. p. 6;>), eloquently* desch I feeling in which the Egyptians learned to look beyond the limits of the living world, and how their religion thus became a worship of the dead. 42 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. with the " varied God," whose attributes were seen not only in its vitality but in its changes. The unseen mover of the uni- verse was rashly identified with its obvious fluctuations1 ; and since the lessons of external appearance, that first great teacher, influence the fancy long before they reach the understanding, an ordinary Pantheist who contemplated "one" all-pervading spirit, adorable even in the animal, would find nothing incon- sistent in the idea that God is liable to death, or that as dwelling in all forms he might in ages past have been more emphatically manifested in oue, though it were a human and perishable one. The speculative Deity suggested by the drama of nature was worshipped with imitative and sympathetic rites. A period of mourning about the autumnal equinox, and of joy at the return of spring, was almost universal. Phrygians and Paphlagonians, Bseotians, and even Athenians, were all more or less attached to such observances2; the Syrian damsels sat weeping for Thammuz or Adonis, mortally wounded by the tooth of winter'1; and the priests of Attys, an analogous incar- nation of solar power, emasculated themselves and danced in female clothing in devotional mimicry of the temporary enfeeble- ment of their God. These rites were evidently suggested by the arrest of vegetation, when the sun, descending from its altitude, appears deprived of his generating power ; and those ceremonies of passionate lamentation which, in the East, were commonly offered to the dead, were adopted in the periodical observances of religion. Mourning, mutilation, self immola- 1 " 'Ogw/tiv on <7rt>o Ezek. viii. 14. Macrob. Sat. i. 21. Herod, i. 36. 39. The boar being a very general emblem of winter. (Creuz. S. ii. 424.) The Vedic Rudra, the De- stroyer, is called the Boar of the skies. (Lassen, i. 763.) A boar yoked with a lion represent winter and summer yoked by Destiny. (Apollod. i. 9. 15.) Comp. the Libethrian legend of the river " Sus,"' whose destructive violence was said to have laid bare the bones of " Orpheus." (Paus. ix. 30.) Wild boars are still very numerous on the Nahr Ibrahim (the Adonis) in the Lebanon, and in severe winters often commit great ravages. (Kelly's Syria, p. 101.) NOTION OF A DYING GOD. I •"> tion, and even the widely-spread custom of sacrifice, were mainly symbolical, either expressive of devotion to the genius of all-generating and devouring Nature, or of sympathy with the Being pantheistioally incorporated in its changes. The recurrence of these annual solemnities was more marked among agricultural races, whose ordinary life and customs were Lmme diately dependent on corresponding phenomena4. To Greek observers the most striking example of the peculiarities of Nature worship was exhibited by the Egyptians', whose whole religious ritual, divided alternately between tears and joy, festivity and austerity, to them seemed monstrous and incom- prehensible0. " The Greeks, it was said, pay divine honours to the virtues of deceased men, and pass over their misfortunes in silence : but in Egypt a deity is supposed to die, and is lamented ; and they show not only the temples of the gods, but their sepulchres." The Egyptian practice of religious heatings and lamentations made Xenophanes indignantly exclaim, " If these be gods, bewail them not; if men, worship them not."7 Osiris is a being analogous to the Syrian Adonis s; and the lahle, or itpog *oy os, of his history, is a narrative form of the popular religion of Egypt, of which the hero is the sun, and the agricultural calendar the moral. The moist valley of the Nile, which, contrasted with the surrounding desert, appeared like life in the midst of death, owed its fertility to the annual inundation, itself in evident dependence on the sun. The Nile was called the "Antimime of Heaven," and Egypt environed with arid deserts, like a heart within a burning censer9, was the female power dependent on the influences personified in its god. Osiris, " the good," was the reputed inventor not only of agri- * Brahma, Bra instance, as well as Osiris, was supposed to die yearly. Greuzer, i. 416. 5 " Tiai^yos kiywxTios." Max. Tyrius, Dissert, xxv. 3. 6 ./Elian, Nat. Animal, x. 23. Max. Tyrius, viii. 5. " lrorifu* ri/tttf *«< $ux/>uuv." 7 Plutarch de Buperat. ch. xiii. p. 171. Isis and Osiris. 70. a Creuz. ii. 421. n Creos. S. ii. 16". Horapollo. i. 22. 44 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. culture but of all the institutions of society10. Like other ideal types of rational benefactors, or personifications of Nature's beneficence, such as Dionysus or Hercules, he visited distant countries, and became civilizer not only of Egypt but of the whole world. But Typhon, his brother, the type of dark- ness, drought, and sterility, leagued with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired against him on his return. In the midst of a ban- quet, a highly-ornamented coffer or sarcophagus was intro- duced, which Typhon, having privately obtained the measure of the person of Osiris, promised to bestow on one among the guests whose stature it might fit. At the moment when Osiris placed himself in the coffin, the conspirators, rushing forward, closed the lid, and, forcibly riveting its fastenings, threw the body into the Nile. Thus conceptionally identified with the fertilising influence of the river, perished Osiris, the " good," "the saviour," in the flower of his age, in the twenty-eighth year of his life or reign, and on the J 7th of the month Athor, or 13th of November. As the Greek Orpheus, torn by the Bacchanals or Titans, is borne down the Hebrus to the sea, so Osiris, dismembered by Typhon and his accomplices, is carried clown the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile to the opposite coast of Byblus. There Isis, in the course of her wandering, attended by the dogstar Anubis, discovers her husband's corpse, and utters those piercing cries which killed one of the king's sons with terror, the precedent of the " Abel-Mizraim," or grievous mourning, for which the Egyptians were notorious n. Carefully rearranging the mangled limbs, she carries them to be buried at Philse or at Abydus, the most sacred of Egyptian mausolea12, where the rich 10 Pint. Isis, 13. 49. Diod. S. i. 14. 1 7. Hcliodor. JEth. ix. 22. Creuz. Com- ment. Herod. 184. 11 Conf.Genes.ch.50.il. Herod, ii. 85. Plutarch, Consol. ad Apollon. ch. xxii. Lucian, Hemst. vol. i. p. 538. V2 The death and transmigration of Osiris may be seen recorded in the sculptures of a temple at Phil«>, twenty-eight lotus plants pointing out the years of his supposed life. Wilkinson, 2nd Ser., vol. i. p. 18t». NOTION OF A DYING GOD. 4T> anxiously desired to be entombed, in order to be in death associated (b/j.oTa$ot) with Osiris. This legend, though in genera] analogous to many others of similar meaning, is modified in reference to the peculiar circum- stances of the climate and soil of Egypt. Osiris is made to die twice; once, as already mentioned, on the 13th of November, and again, during the heats of the early summer. When Egypt is deserted by the inundation, and the waters retire within their natural channel, the body of Osiris appears immured within the narrow bed by which it is carried out to sea into the power of Typhon. This first revival is with the early flowers of spring, and from the joyful festival of " Osiris found" then cele- brated, the Christians of the Eastern Church adopted the 6th of January for the celebration of the Nativity, the appearance of the Sun of righteousness, the day-spring from on high13. From March to July the earth is parched with intolerable heats, the atmosphere assuming the deep red glare of Typhon, who, in league with the burning winds of Ethiopia, scorches vegetation and exhausts the languid Nile. Isis, or Egypt, pants in vain for the refreshing waters, and while the divine power of the river is concealed and buried in the imaginary fountains14 of Elephantine15, the priests pour libations of milk equal in number to the days of the year at the sacred tomb at Philoe 16 as obsequies to the deity, who, asleep beneath the earth, the sea, or beyond the rocky barriers of Ethiopia, remains irrespon- sive to the lowings of his deserted spouse17. But Horus, the solstitial sun in his salutary vigour1", appears to avenge bis father, as Hyllns avenged Hercules and Feridoon Jemsheed. He restrains, if he does not utterly destroy, the mischief-making 13 Jablonski, Opusc. iii. 361. Malachi iv. 2. The Western Church adopted the " Natalis Solis invicti," the day consecrated to Mithras. Creuz. S. i. 260. 14 " Tlnytti afiutrtroi." Herod, ii. 28. 15 ] Meaning Philx, or Kelabsheh, where the Nile enters Egypt. 16 Diod. S. i. 22. 17 Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. xxxix. Creuz. S. ii. 33. 18 In Alexandrian philosophy called "the begotten before all worlds" (Isis and Osiris, 54), " the image and incarnation of the Xoyo;." lb. 46 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. power of Typhon19. At the commemorative festival, a coil of rope, emblematic of the serpent, is cut in pieces, to typify the subjugation of the evil principle ao; the Nile rises, and Egypt under the inundation is again filled with mirth and acclamation anticipatory of the second harvest. In winter the sun declines ; this is the dismemberment or second death of Osiris, when the waters of the inundation are drained off into canals, and his productive power is devoured by the fishes of the Nile. §10. NOTION OF THE PREMATURE DEATH OF NATURE. In this and similar stories, a physico-astronomical meaning becomes an awful mystery or a pathetic tale, according to the minds for which it circulated. The pride of Jemsheed, one of the Persian sun-heroes, or the solar year personified, was abruptly cut off by Zohak, the tyrant of the west ; he was sawn asunder with a fish bone, and immediately the brightness of Iran changed to gloom. These Eastern heroes, who were sup- posed to die or to be carried alive to heaven, generally suffered the removal in the vigour of their years. Ganymede, Osiris, and Adonis were hurried off in all their strength and beauty ; the premature death of Linus, the burthen of the ancient lament of Greece1, was like that of the Persian Siamek, the Bithynian Hylas, and the Egyptian Maneros. The elegy called Maneros2 was sung at Egyptian banquets, and an effigy inclosed within a diminutive sarcophagus was handed round to remind the guests of the brief tenure of existence *. The beau- tiful Memnon, too, perished in his prime; and though his reign, like that of his reputed father Tithonus, was protracted through five generations of that proverbially long-lived people lft Isis and Osiris, 55. 20 Isis and Osiris, ch. xix. 1 Paus. ix. 29. 2 Son of "Menes," or "the Eternal," according to Iablonski, Oper. i. 128. Herod, ii. 79. J Herod, ii. 73. Plut. Isis and Osiris, 17. Gruigniaut, Rel. I. 47G. 489. NOTION 01 IMI PREMATURE DEATH OF NATURE. 17 the Ethiopians (the ^ax^Bioi), his death was deplored as un- seasonable. With like significance Enoch, whose early death was lamented at Icouium4, lived G(i") years, the number of the days of the solar year; a brief span when compared with the longevity of his patriarchal kindred; and the .Jewish commentators. led by their Own hereditary theory of temporal retribution to understand an actual death, not a bodily trans- lation, explain the anomaly of the union of piety with mis- fortune, by saying that Enoch, though a just and holy man, was of an unsteady disposition, wherefore God hastened his death to rescue him from degeneracy. Amphiaraus, son of Apollo and favourite of heaven, was not allowed to "reach the threshold of old age;"8 like Achilles he was drawn forth to take part in a struggle in which he was to perish out of tern porary concealment like the hidden gods of the East1', and being swallowed by the earth while pursued by Periclymenus, was made immortal by Zeus. Achilles embraced the fatal alternative of glory, and became " uxu/AOfos" and " ixiwvQadioq" proverbially the short-lived. The heroic child of Ocean's daughter had been plunged in the infernal Styx to make him invulnerable, since the only visible examples of immortal exist- ence are those celestial beings which endure those fierce ele- mental extremes in which they seem to pass beneath the waves and beneath the world. Others related how Thetis in order to destroy in her son the mortality inherited from his human father immersed him alternately in fire and the immortalising ambrosia7, just as Isis attempted to treat the son of the king 4 Steph. Byz. ad vocom. Ewald, Geschichte d. Volk. Israel, i. 314. s Horn. Odyss. xv. 246. 8 The etymology of Thammuz, a Semitic probably, not an Egyptian word, is obscure, but he is the equivalent of the Syrian god Adonis, whose disappearance (aa$ oubt xardavziv wots*. Although the popular belief assigned to them a birth and a beginning, an idea which philosophers afterwards denounced as being as irreligious as the idea of their death 5, they were far above all mortal infirmities, and lived for ever on nectar and ambrosia in the changeless heavens 6. If on one occasion Pluto felt the smart of the arrow of Alcides, or Mars was wounded by Diomed, the heavenly ichor was soon stanched; — The ethereal substance closed Not long divisible — and the improvement of aesthetic art made it more and more diffi- cult to understand the representations of tradition. Herodotus, who when writing on Egypt, is often obliged to refer to the so- 2 Danae, from Aavos, dry(?). Comp. in Paus. i. 24. 3, Earth entreating Zeus to rain upon her; or from dhan, Sanscrit, to kill, whence 6u.va.ro;. Lassen, Ant. i. 812. But the attempts to ascertain the etymology of this word have singularly miscarried. See August. Jacob, " Griechische Mythologie," p. 65. 3 " Avfyami ©£«/ 0v>iroi, Q'.oi av^aiToi a.6a.iaroi^ said Heraclitus. Socrates when asked, "What is God?" replied, " The deathless and eternal." Stobas. Eel. Phys. i. 54. " Zaov ailiov apio-rov." Aristot. Metaph. xi. 7. 9. Bek. 1 Soph. (Ed. Colon. 634. 5 Xenoph. ap. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23. 6 Pind. Nem. vi. 3. APOTHEOSIS CONTRASTED Willi KMANATloX. 51 called sopulclnvs of the gods, is unwilling even to name < >siris in reference to his death7, a reluctance in which the Egyptians participated, sine- the slightest misapprehension of the figure leads immediately to the most revolting ahsurdities \ Hence the vanity of the Cretans, whose real fault was the unadvised disclosure of mysterious doctrine9, excited the ridicule and indignation of the other Greeks when pretending to show the sepulchre of Zeus10. "The Cretans," they said, " were ever liars; all this," exclaims Callimachus11, " is fiction ; for thou, O father, livest for ever." And yet notwithstanding this conviction of the absolute immortality of the gods, Greece itself was full of traditional and monumental traces of Nature-worship. The stoiy of Osiris is reflected in that of Orpheus and Dio- nysus Zagreus, and perhaps in the legends of Absyrtus and Pelias, of iEson, Thyestes, Melicertes, Itys, and Pelops. Io is as the disconsolate Isis, or Niobe ; and lihea mourns her dis- membered lord, Hyperion, and the death of her son Helios, drowned in the Eridanus v\ The Titan gods had been consigned to Tartarus, and if Apollo and Dionysus are immortal, they had died under other names, as Orpheus, Linus, or Hyacinthus1 . Stories of like meaning were particularly frequent among the Greek colonies of the Euxine14. Hippolytus was in many places associated in divine honours with Apollo 1S ; and, after he had been torn in pieces like Osiris, he was restored to fife by the Pteonian herbs of Diana, and kept darkling in the secret grove of Egeria10. Even Zeus deserted Olympus to visit the Ethio- pians, Apollo underwent servitude to Admetus17 ; Theseus, 7 Herod, ii. 61. 86. 132. 170. 8 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 78. 9 Diod. S. v. 77. 10 Lucian, de Sacrif. p. 355. Clem. Al. Protrep. p. 24. Philostr. Soph. xi. p. 565. Lucan 8, last verse. " Whom St. Paul calls the "prophet" Callimachus. Ep. Titus, i. 12. 12 Diod. S. iii. 57. 13 Plut. Isis and Osiris, 35. Creuzer, Symb. iv. p. 07. Cic. de N. D. Creuz. p. 616, note. " Muller, Orchom. 288. '5 Comp. Buttman, Myth. ii. 145. 10 Virg. fin. vii. 775. ,7 Pluto " Adaraastus." Iliad, ix. 158. E 2 52 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Peirithous, Hercules, and other heroes, descended for a time to Hades ; a dying Nature-god was exhibited in the mysteries, the Attic women fasted sitting on the ground during the Thes- mophoria, and the Bseotians lamented the descent of Cora- Proserpina to the shades 18. §12. THEORY OF HEROES. Under these circumstances it is curious to observe how the early Greek poets endeavoured to dispose of the death of the Nature-god without prejudice to his immortality. It did not suit their object to use the resource employed afterwards, as when Plutarch, relating the Osiris legend, attempts to mediate between incredulity and faith, by ascribing the stories of divine calamity to those intermediate beings of a spiritual kind who had been adopted by philosophy from an older theology. In the popular mythology there were but two kinds of beings among whom dying divinities could be placed. Prometheus, whose hard fate was lamented by the Asiatic tribes from Arabia to Scythia, had been classed among Titans. But the Titans were a race unfamiliar to the Epic, and not admitting indefinite extension, so that the most usual expedient was to suppose the sufferer whose story or tomb seemed irreconcilable with the attributes of divinity to have been a hero. The Greek heroes and demi-gods were a class of intermediate beings in direct contrast with the emanations and incarnations of the East. They had long obtained an independent place in mythology, and were popularly supposed to be deified public benefactors, or the exalted spirits of good and brave men1. This was in virtue of the doctrine of Apotheosis. In oriental theory, the 18 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 69. 1 Ps. Plut. de Plac. i. 6. '"H^aia;, ras vVoXikapftlvas tuv trvroulaivv ^"X^" Diog. L. vii. 69. Comp. Plat. Meno. 81. Proclus in Plat. Cratyl. Boisson. ch. cxvii. p. 73. THEORY OF HEROES. 53 universal Being descended into mortality without prejudice to his inherent godhead; with the Greek the proceeding appeared to be reversed, and it was imagined that in extraordinary cases a mortal had heen elevated to superhuman rank, approaching or even rivalling that of a god. And though it would he wrong to say that emanation is wholly oriental, and personification wholly Greek, since in Indian as in Greek epos, gods act the part of men, and men reach Indra's heaven'2, yet it seems as if the obscurer doctrine had become less clearly understood at a distance from its reputed source, and that in Greece, where the epic system was so much more familiar than the religion of its local rites, they might almost be said to be extinct. The Egyptians are said to have paid no adoration to heroes in the Greek sense of the term'; and the Theban priests ridiculed the simplicity of the Greek traveller, who, adopting in a literal sense the ancestral character of deity, would have made the gods assume a real place in a mortal genealogy4. Both systems affected to bring humanity into an approximation with deity ; but the one in a way displaying rather human vanity and ambition ; the other the divine omnipresence and conde- scension. When the sensuous tendency of the Greek mind, rather than the premeditated device of poets and sculptors, had humanized the conception of the gods, there would be but little difficulty in assigning a modified divinity to eminent personages supposed to have once been men. The doctrine of Apotheosis was part and parcel of Greek Anthropomorphism ; but the process in the former case was unconsciously read backward, and the humanized personages were popularly supposed to have been distinguished actors in the heroic or golden age. The poet, whose office consisted in describing the greal deeds of the olden time (tt^ote^uv Khza. avtycov), filled up his narrative with acts and names whose real significance had been forgotten, but which were, in reality, the gods as well as ancestors of the elans reputed to be descended from them. The national pride of the 1 Lassen, Ind. Ant. i. 769. 773. :t Herod, ii. 50. ' II. rod. ii. 143. 54 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Greeks was gratified by recollections of a time when their ancestral chiefs had been but little inferior to the deities with whom they were connected, and it was truly said that they pilfered oriental theology in order to fill up and ennoble the successions of their own patriarchal history5. The earliest sort of Apotheosis was substantially a limited euhemerism ° ; it was an application of the usual humanizing procedure to beings, who, originally divine, had obtained only a subordinate place in general estimation, either through the subjugation or absorption of the tribes by whom they were worshipped, the anomalous and scarcely intelligible character of their physical symbols, or because their theological place was already occupied under a different name by analogous personifications. Or it may be said that Apotheosis was a double process ; first, the human- izing a god, and then the partial restoration of his honours. The story of the Dioscuri, whose original symbol was the two Spartan poles7, might be told in two ways8; it was necessary, in order to account for the buried deities of Aphidna or Therapne, to introduce into their legend something of human adventure, and the equilibrium of the conception was restored by imagining them to have revived on alternate days, and to have been immortalized by Zeus9. Dionysus and Hercules were born into the world of mortal mothers because they could not, as gods, have undergone the infirmities and sufferings imputed to them. iEsculapius, too, the emanation of Apollo Pagan, or " arch-chemic sun," was mortal by the mother's side, in order to supply a satisfactory basis for the story of his having been struck by the bolt of Zeus 10. For the same reason the majority of heroes, as Erechtheus, Cadmus, Iasion, and Medea11, are 5 Diod. S. i. 23, at the end. G Welcker, Tril. 171. 7 "Aoxava." riutarch de Amor. Frat. 1. Winckelmann, Geschiehte, i. 1.8. Welcker, Trilogie, p. 226. 8 Eurip. Helen. 138. 9 Iliad, iii. 243. Odyss. xi. 304. 10 Paus. vii. 23. Diod. S. iv. 71. JEsculapius est vis salubris de substantia solis subveniens. Macrob. Sat. i. 20. 11 Miiller, Orchora. 212. 267. Schol. Find. 01. xiii. 74. THEORY OF HEROES. 96 nioro nearly connected with the hieratic or mystic religion than with the epic, in which they perform a part inconsistent with their rea] oharaeter. Every case of apotheosis was presumed to be exceptional, indicating some great pre-eminence in the person so treated ; yet it would have puzzled an impartial Greek to draw a distinction between the merits of Hercules and Amphiaraiis, considered as mere men, and those of Aristides and Epaminondasn, or to define the circumstances which exempted the immortalized beings from the lot of their fellows. The truth is, that the heroes wdiose real character was half betrayed in the attributes of hot, ayx^tot, and 'yi/j-iQeoi, were themselves divine beings, or Nature-gods. The same notions, repeated and varied in endless profusion, became the inexhaustible dramatis persona of poetry ; and the multitude of identical or analogous symbols so produced were a necessary result of tho number of names and predicates of the Deity, or of the ele- ments, among the many tribes whose traditions contributed to swell the general mass13. The process which made gods become men long preceded that which transformed human beings into gods. The latter would perhaps have been impossible but for the precedent supplied by the former. It would be difficult to imagine how the Greeks, who so deeply felt the eminence and superiority of their gods, could have been otherwise induced to place men on the same level. Such a proceeding in the earlier times is incredible ; and at a later period the admiration, which might have prompted the apotheosis of a cotemporary benefactor, was in great measure extinct. No local event would have so far confounded men's notions as to create such stories, or to give them currency as sacred legend; but if, among the wrecks of 12 Paus. viii. 2. 2. 13 Odin is said to haw bome 12 names among the old Germans, and to bave had 114 names besides. Allah is addressed in an Arab hymn under no less than l't' titles. The " myrionymy" of oriental Deities is notorious. Artemis was also called Iphigenia, Helena, Blectra, Hecate, &c Toseidon, Glaucus, and iEgcon ; Sades, Olymenas, Laomedon, Neleus, Admetus, EurypyloB, Polydegmon; &c. 56 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. local religious systems, many names and attributes were remem- bered for which no room could be found in the general pantheon, the apotheosis theory, reducing them to intermediate beings, would be the only way of treating them. When, therefore, we find among the histories of heroes things properly belonging to gods, the natural inference is that these heroes were once themselves gods, subordinated or mediatized only in the arti- ficial machinery of poets. The superhuman attributes of the heroes of the Iliad are justified not merely by their celestial parentage, but by circumstantial evidence as to their character. If, for instance, the beautiful son of " Joyface" (Charops), and "Brilliant" (Aglaia), shared with Hercules the victory over the solstitial lion14, and was killed by Eurypylus15, it may not be unreasonable to suspect that his three ships may represent the three seasons16. The beautiful son of Aurora, alternately bright as his brother Pbseton17, and dark as the Ethiopian, who, like Adonis, tinged the autumnal streams with Iris blood18, was said to have been killed by Achilles before Troy; but, according to the Assyrian author Damis19, Memnon never went to Troy, but died prematurely in Ethiopia; he built the astro- nomical palace of Egbatana20, and was probably a Cushite deity, whose tomb accompanied the migration of his worship- pers21 from its original site in the city of lilies, the Shushan of Scripture22. The geography of his travels is as visionary as that Aleian plain which was the scene of the wanderings of Bellerophon ; and to assign to him a chronology would be as vain as to attempt to unravel the tissue of a dream, or to require a chemist to assay the golden age. Achilles, born of 14 Photius, Hosch. p. 474. ls Hyg. F. 113. 16 Comp. Diod. S. i. 11. 17 Eustathius to Dion. P. v. 248, p. 133. Virg, Mn. i. 489. Philostrat. Icon, i. 7. Movers, die Phcenizier, p. 227. 18 Quint. Calab. ii. 555. ,9 Philostr. Vit. Ap. vi. 4, p. 232. 20 Creuz. S. ii. 191. 21 Agatharcides in Photius, Bibl. p. 1341. Hosch. 448, Bek. Comp. above vol. i. p. 92, note. 22 Herod, v. 53; vii. 151. Strabo, xv. 728. Diod. ii. 22. Paus. iv. 31. THEORY OF HEROES. 5T fire and water88, of a goddess educated by Here24, was wor- shipped as a god at Leuce, in Taurus, and in many parts of Greece, as at Elis and in Laconia"' ; mvthologists reckoned no less than fifty-four seemingly distinct persons of the name; one of them, a son of Earth, received Juno when fugitive, and restored her to the arms of Zeus20. The divine iEgis hangs on the shoulder of the Homeric hero27, his head is encircled by a meteoric glory, beaming afar like the beacon of a beleaguered city28, the starry tresses of his helmet's plume29 shining brightest immediately before extinction'10. In this panoply, furnished from the armoury of heaven, he blazes like Orion's dog, or like the rising sun" ; his shield, manufactured by the Demiurgus of Nature ",2, is as the moon, that pharos of the Seaman88; it is, moreover, a picture of earth and heaven, and all therein ; the luminaries and constellations of the one, the stirring scenes and busy inhabitants of the other34. With Ulysses we seem to follow the sun's Bubtelluric migration, although much of the details of the Sisyphid hero's course may bespeak a real navigation of the Ephyreans or Sisyphids of Corinth35. Ulysses is to the Greeks what Hermes is to tin' gods. His astuteness and eloquence qualify him to be spy, '-'' W inckt'lmann, Dcnkmale, ex. p. 104. " Iliad, xxiv. 60. 25 Paus. iii. 19, 20. 24 ; vi. 23. Philostrat. Heroic. 19. 14, p. 741. "6 Photius, Hosch. p. 487. Corap. Creuz. S. iii. 231". -7 Analogous personages being invested with a common symbol, for instance, the tripod of Apollo is given also to Hercules and Dionysus; the cestus to Here as well as Aphrodite. The true owners of the iEgis are the superior Triad Zeus, Athene, and Apollo. » Iliad, xviii. 205. 214. -9 Iliad, xix. 3S3. 30 Iliad, xvi. 800 ; xvii. 201. 31 Iliad, xix. 398; xxii. 29. 135. Compare the expression in the Homeric Hymn, No. 82, to Helios— "fearfully his eyes glare from beneath his brazen helmet'' —with Iliad, xix. 16. 366. ■'"-' Hephaestus (Iliad, xv. 306 ; xvii. 593). 33 II. xix. 374. 3t Uschold, Vorhalle, i. p. 297. M "Oi ccto liirvtpev." Philostr. Heroic. 19. 14, p. 739. Eurip. Cyclops, 104- Paus. ii. 3. 3. Miiller, Mythol. Transl. 300 sq. Volcker, Japetus, 119. 58 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. adviser, and diplomatist. His contest with Iras " Arnaios " 3G is a dramatic subdivision of himself, for he is himself Aries, or Hermes Criophoras 3T, married to " Polymele," 38 and father of Pan 39. His companions slaughter the herds of Helios, which Hermes stole; he marries the virgin of the Zodiac in " Callidice" queen of Thespotia40 ; he is the invincible wrestler, runner, archer, and quoit player, who outwatches the cold night41, and brings death to Argus42; he wears the cap which Hermes wore as conductor of the dead 43 ; his sword being the golden wand with which he performs the office of the god among the darkling Cimmerians and Phoenicians, in evoking the shades and dismissing them44. His return to Ithica in the disguise of an aged beggar, clothed in stag's hide45, may allude to the decrepi- tude and barrenness of winter46, as does the equivocal prediction of his death " from the sea," 47 his metamorphosis into a horse by the sea nymph " Halis,"48 or his murder with a fish bone by his own son49. Agamemnon, king of men, is also king of 36 Odyss. xviii. 5. 37 Odyss. ix. 117. 432. Comp. xxiv. 231. Iliad, iii. 197. 28 Parthen. Erot. ii. p. 154, Westermann. 39 Schol. Theocrit. i. 123. 13 See the "Telegonias" of Eugammon, Cycli frag. Didot, p. 585. 41 Odyss. xiv. 475. 4S His dog; Hermes-Cynocephalus being himself a dog. Odyss. xx. 14; the son of a dog, " Hylacides." 43 Eustathius to Iliad, x. 265. Miiller, Archaologie, S. 416, p. 660. Lycophr. Cass. 703. 711. lb. Tzetzes. 44 Odyss. xi. 48. Lycophr. 685. 45 Odyss. xiii. 436. Comp. iv. 245. 4G The stag seems to have been a solar emblem (comp. Virg. Mn. vii. 4 SI. Hygin. Fab. 205) ; but the sun as connected with the water which altered the form of Actaeon, i. c. Dionysus-Hyes clad in a roe skin. Aristoph. Ran. 1211. 47 Odyss. xi. 134. The element which may be said either to destroy the Sun- God, or to rescue him and bring him to repose. 49 He was said by some to have contrived the Trojan horse, which others ascribed to the art of Epeios, the water carrier of the Atridae. 4!l Lycophr. 796. Eustathius to Odyss. xi. 134. After death, if he ever died, his remains became oracular in iEtolia, and he was also buried in Epirus and in Tuscany. THEORY OP HEROES. .V.) !<•' Theog. 111. 6J Eurip. Blectra, 727. Plato, Politicns, 2(30. Photii, BtbL 721. Bl JJschyl. Again Bothe, 1387. 60 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. palace62, which the inspired Cassandra pronounced to be a reeking charnel-house, hated by the gods, undistinguishable from the dungeons of hell. The Cthonian nature of its vindictive and licentious master03 who lavished Ins caresses on every Chryseis64, made him appear under another aspect as himself a victim whose doom was justly ratified by heaven65, though he might at the same time justly plead that the fault was not in him, but in the inevitable decree of Zeus66. Having sacked Troy about the setting of the Pleiades67 he was himself murdered in the bloody bath prepared by Clytsenmestra68, on the 13th of Gameleon69, or the winter solstice, his infant son being in the meantime preserved at Delphi, under the care of the Phocian " Strophius," or the solstice personified ; and though it be difficult to conceive a grander description of the rising sun than that of Achilles appearing at early dawn on the ocean verge70, looking terribly beneath the eyelids (of the morn) 7I, and robing himself in armour of light supplied by the sea goddess, while Agamemnon, the " victim of destiny," remains recumbent in his presence72; the setting luminary is with equal beauty depicted in the imagery of iEschylus, its sinking through the 62 Miiller, Orchom. 313. " YloXutpfogov tupa. TltXe-riiuf." Soph. Electr. 10. The mansion "conscious of many a parricide." iEschyl. Agam. Bothe, 976 sq. 1177. 1195. 6J Whether called Hermes, or Hades, or Zeus Areios. Comp. Eustath. to Iliad, ii. 25. JSschyl. Choeph. 1. Aristoph. Ran. 1126. 04 Agam. Bothe, 1327. 65 Ibid. 1321. 1373. 1410. 66 Iliad, xix. 90. 67 lb. 732. i. e. the autumnal equinox, at the time of full moon ; according to others, at the vernal equinox or 12th Thargelion. (Comp. Hellanic. frag. Sturz. p. 167. Stanley to Again. 834.) The line, "Nox erat et ccelo fulgebat luna sereno," seems translated verbatim from the Little Iliad. 68 ?The wave made ruddy by the setting sun. Comp. Frag. iEschyl. Prom. Solut. Didot, p. 67; and Wekker's Trilogie, p. 36. The story of the murdered sun and the murderous moon would seem to be reversed in the flight of Dictynna from Minos. (Hoeck, Kreta, ii. 170.) Minos, while in the bath of Cocalus, suffers the fate of Agamemnon. 09 Soph. Electra, Schol. 275. '" Iliad, xix. 1. 40. 71 Iliad, xix. 17. 72 Ibid. v. 19. 52. 77. 80. 86. THEORY OF HEROES. 8 1 embroidered clouds into the empurpled ocean being represented by the victorious monarch walking over the gorgeous tapestry supplied by Ocean's inexhaustible profusion7'1 on his way to the treacherous bath about to be dyed with his blood. The gods had sworn that the death of Agamemnon should be the signal for the return of his son71, that far renowned " man of the hills," 75 the Hyperion descended from Agamem- non70, as Apollo from Zeus77. His return is part of the necessary revolution of the year, of the healing operation of time78; his murder of his mother is day destroying night, or summer winter7"; life overcoming death80; his marriage to Hermione81 denotes his reconciliation with the Fury who perse- cuted him, and upon the bite of the autumnal serpent82 ensues the stony death of Nature which he meets at Delphi. He was said to be buried in many other places, as at Troezenc, in Arcadia83, in Thrace8*, even at Aricia, in Italy85, and it might be a reasonable subject of astonishment how a mere Achaean prince could be simultaneously present at so many distant localities, at Rhegium80, in Macedonia87, Eubaea88, Tauriss', Lesbos so, Athens91, and Breotia, unless an explanation be found in the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and the migrations of 7J Agam. 864, Bothe. 74 ^schyl. Agam. 1166. 1176, Bothe. 73 " Orestes." Comp. Odyss. i. 30. 299 ; xi. 459 ; i. e. the sun rising from be- hind the hills to end the reign of darkness. Comp. Soph. Elcctra, 17. 66. 75. 83. 685. 699. ^schyl. Choeph. 895. 904, Bothe. ~G Tans. i. 43. 4. ,7 Apollod. i. 7. 3. 5. 78 Soph. Electra, 173. 176. He was not " a-ri^ it^otdi," "without tropics." Comp. Iliad, ii. 295. 79 Clytaemnestra, i. q. Leda, Latona, Leto ; called by Cassandra, a " raging dam of hell." .TEschyl. Agam. Bothe, 1121. 80 Schol. Soph. Electr. 62. 81 Demeter Erinnys, worshipped at Hermione. 82 Tzetzes to Lycophr. 1374. 83 Paus. ii. 31. 11. Schol. Eurip. Orest. 1647. 81 Strabo, xiii. 1. 8S Serv. Mn. ii. 116. 86 Miiller, Dor. 1. s7 Strabo, ix. 434. 88 Strabo, x. 1. 89 Lycophr. 1332. 90 Schol. Lycophr. 1373. 91 Odyss. iii. 306. 62 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. the iEolian and Achaean tribes who worshipped them92. His sister Iphigenia was well known to he identical with the goddess she served, or to whom she was sacrificed 9J ; and when made a child of Helena by Theseus94, she might he considered as identical with the Helena married to the immortalized Achilles at Leuce95, fitly mated as two kindred powers in league to destroy mankind90. Helen, the cause of universal love and universal strife97, who weaves the tissue of war98 as well as the spell of beauty, who, as daughter of Leda or Nemesis99, may either be that child of night who first threw the apple of discord among the gods10", or the daughter of Leto, to whom she is compared by Homer101, passed through a succession of events and alliances102, which, had she been mortal, would have ill qualified her to be the reward of Achilles in the islands of the blest. But she was in reality the immortal offspring of Zeus or of Aphrodite103, worshipped as Artemis in Ehodes and Sparta104, nominally perishing in the aims of Thetis105, and buried at Therapne, but really continuing to circle in the heaven as the moon100, conceived by early theology to have 92 Uschold, Geschichte des Troj. Krieges, p. 192 ; and Miiller, Orchom. p. 306, last edit. 9J Paus. i. 41 and 43; ii. 35. Hesych. ii. 85. 94 Tzetzes to Lycophr. 103. 95 Paus. iii. 19. 11. Tzetzes to Lycophr. 183. 90 MUller's Greek Litterat. p. 69. 97 Comp. ^schyl. Agam. 1440, Wellauer. 98 Iliad, iii. 127. "9 The latter according to the Cypria of Stasinus, Athena?, viii. 334. Sometimes she was called a daughter of Helios (Ptol. Hephaest. in Photius, 247 or 480) ; some- times of Oceanus. (Schol. Pind. Nem. x. 150.) 100 Hes. Theog. 225. 101 Odyss. iv. 122. Comp. Iliad, iii. 158. 164. 102 Hence called «>"raX£*Tj«;, " the bride of five." Lycophr. 103 Ptol. Hephsest. lib. 4, in Phot. Bibl. p. 479. 104 Herod, vi. 61. Paus. iii. 19. 10. 105 Photius, ub. sup. lm Artemis-Hecate, or "Selene;" changing into the correlated forms Clytsem- nestra, Iphigenia, and Medea, &c. (Schol. Lycophr. 143. 174.) Photius, ub. s. Hence the propriety of comparing her to a dog (Iliad, iii. 180; vi. 344. 356) ; and the story of her being stolen when dancing in the temple of Diana. Plutarch, Thes. 31. Hence, too, Meneliius dragged his unfaithful wife out of Troy by the hair. Eurip. Helen. 116. I BBORY (>F HEEO] B. 68 sprang wiili the sun out of a oosmioal egg"1 engendered by the fanereaJ s\vanlus, so that she was naturally a common object of pursuit to the solar heroes of the Iliad, and, without effort, was able to mimic the voices of all their several wives109. Eer capture, commonly attributed to Paris, whom she followed "as a god,"110 was in reality performed long before by his father, the itbypliallic Hermes1", who "enwrapped hei in the folds of BBther,""3 and the discrepancies in the legend wen' reconciled by the story of the phantom made by Here by help of Uranus in the skiey chambers113 supposed to have been carried by the adulterer to Troy, while the real Helen was concealed in the remote fastnesses of the Nature -god11*, or, as Euripides intimates, in Hades115. Electra, "the brilliant," in reality shares the sternness of her immortal sister110, though usually wraiing a milder aspect when the lunar offspring of Oceanus and Tethys1", the Pleiad daughter of Atlas, consort of Zeus, and mother of the Cabiri, or of Harmonia and Dardanus "\ acts the part of human mourner in a Greek drama. She keeps vigil while all others sleep119, and her favourite is the mournful bird, " Jove's harbinger," who nightly bewails the fate of Itys ''"'. Seated before the door of Persephone U1, she waits her brother who loves yet comes not, who, though always washing to arrive lu' Plutarch, Qu. Symp. ii. 3. 12. 118 Eurip. Helena, 20. The swan, pursued by an eagle, was rescued in the embraces of Leda ; swans drew Apollo's car to his winter retreat among the Hyper- boreans, the Gods are " xvxviuoofo," (iEschyl. Troiii. 773, Bothe) ; in short, the swan is a Cthonian emblem. Comp. Flat. Thaedo, p. 85. 1,9 Odyss. Lt. 279. "° Ftol. Hepluest. v. supr. 111 Priam, Apollo Priapcius. >!2 Paus. iv. 30. 2. Eurip. Helen 44. 113 Comp. Iliad, xiv. 166. '" Troteus. Herod, ii. 112. Pans. iii. 19. Mailer, Gr. Litt. 201. 115 The palace of " Theoclymenus." Helena, v. 69 ; >■ 9. of Busiris or Osiris (ib. 155), the Egyptian god of the dead; the palace of Menelaus having probably the same meaning. (Iliad, iii. 233. Odyss. iv. 2.) 1:6 Comp. Soph. Electr. 1020. 1023. 117 Apollod. i. 2. 2. "8 Schol. Apollon. i. 916. 1,9 Soph. Electr. 92. 105. 164. '-" [bid. r. 117. '» ibid. v. tio. 61 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. at his journey's end, never seems to fulfil the wish122, while the unnatural mother, celebrating the anniversary of her hus- band's death as a festival to the preserving gods123, threatens to banish the baffled mourner to the " sunless cavern," VM to weep among the dead. Thus were the horrors of tragedy developed out of the vicissi- tudes of the elements, when superstition, viewing all things through a gloomy medium, made Nature herself seem unnatural and cruel. The legends of Thebes commence with an array of evidently physical names in Cthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Oudseus, the Sparti of Cadmus. Labdacus, son of Polydorus by Nycteis, daughter of Cthonius, was confided to the guardian- ship of Nycteus (night), who in spring surrendered to him the sovereignty of Thebes, or, what amounts to the same thing, gave up Ins ward to his brother Lycus (day), yet received him back again by survivorship lS5. The guardianship of Lycus and Nycteus was followed by that of Zethus and Amphion126, sons of the Corinthian Epopeus127, or that of Zeus128, whom Miiller chooses to treat as emblems of a new heroic dynasty, distinct from the Cadmean, like Ion among the Attic Erech- theidee. Cadmus129, Labdacus, aud Laius, are named as suc- cessively under guardianship of these " Polemarchs," probably in a sense not unlike that in winch Erechtheus was ward of Athene, or else Labdacus and Laius, as Cthonian emblems, are expelled by the symbols of day130, Labdacus suffering the fate of Pentheus as adversary of Dionysus, from whom (as from Polydorus) he might be considered as descended ; while his twin successors, born at Eleutherse (Dionysus, too, was called the Liberator), less involved in the humanizing imagery found necessary to interpret the symbols of a Cthonian or dying power, 122 Soph. Electr. v. 166. l23 Ibid. v. 280. 124 Ibid. v. 381. I25 Apollod. iii. 5. 5. Paus. ix. 5. 2. ,2G Miiller, Orchom. 222 sq. 127 Iliad, iii. 277; xiv. 345. Odyss. xii. 323. Hymn to Ceres, 62. Comp. Europs, Lynceus, Oxylus, &c. Pind. 01. iii. 44. Nera. x. 117. 128 Paus. ii. 6. 2. '» Pherecydes, in Schol. Apollon. i. 735. 130 Comp. Apollod. iii. 5. 5. THEORY OF HEROES. 65 received from Henries die seven-stringed lyre (of Apollo), and built with it the walls of Thebes181. Araphion killed Apollo in the person of Lyons, and again Apollo killed Zethua and Amphion l8a3 yet revived in a new Amphion. The reign of Laius was succeeded by that of CEdipus, who, educated on the wintry Cithoeron, the birthplace, as it were, of the sun ia::, was adopted and brought up by Polybus184, and became the Feridoon of Corinth. But, as in the case of other solar powers1'15, a question arose as to his legitimacy. Alarmed by the oracle which threatened him with incest and parricide, he fled from his birthplace, measuring his course by the stars ; and through an unforeseen coincidence, meeting Laius in the height of summer at the earth's centre Delphi, the murder of his father was the inevitable result of the destruction of the Greek solstitial year by its successor, as the Sphynx, too, wras fated to die when her riddle had been solved by the arch interpreter Time. Nature is both mother and wife of the sun or year god, as she was also wife of his predecessor ; and CEdipus, the sport of destiny, whose faults were " rather suffered than com- mitted,"l36 more than atoned for his misdeeds by his misfor- tunes181 ; he was banished from Thebes, like his predecessor Cadmus138, without compunction, for the new year brings with it new ideas and hopes, and no one has a word to say for the detention of the old189. The exiled parent prognosticated his revenge in the fratricide of the new candidates for the empire of the sky,4U, but was obliged to follow the fortune of the past, 131 The Cosmus. 132 Hygin. Fab. 9. For time destroys itself. Comp. Ovid. Met. vi. 271. 133 Uschold, Vorhall. i. 192. I3< Pluto or Hemies Cthonius. 135 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 54. ,3e 03d. Colon. 267. 525. 137 CEd. Colon. 439. I38 In Syncellus. 159 03d. Colon. 443. 140 Comp. v. 3S1. There seems a curious analogy between the lame CEdipus and tlie lame Jacob ; it had been customary for the sons of CEdipus to present a part of each sacrifice (" ecxapxas Qvttwi") to their father: on one occasion they sent the hip instead of the shoulder ; CEdipus enraged at this supposed attempt to deceive his blindness, invoked the curse which caused the destruction of his sons. (Schol. CEd. Colon. 1440.) VOL. II. F 66 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. for he carried in his "swollen feet" the same distemperature which infected Eurydice, Hercules, and Philoctetes141, the wound of Nycteus and Epopeus142, of Thersites, and of Ulysses14'. Time may he imagined either as advancing with unconquerable footsteps, like Hercules, Perseus, or Jason with his one sandal; or, as maimed and halting, overthrown either by a rival, or by some failing, exhaustion, or violence of his own, bringing his career to a conclusion. In the darkening days of autumn, (Edipus becomes blind through the contrivance of the gods'44, and a mere shadow of himself145 is a personification similar to Ins adopted father146, when consigned to his grave in the sanctuary of Demeter at Eteonus147, or when, according to the Attic poets, he found a divinely- appointed grave at Colonos in Attica, near the sanctuary of Poseidon, the brazen threshold of the shades148. § 13. END OF THE APOTHEOSIS THEORY. The apotheosis of heroes was effected by means as exceptional and extraordinary as the circumstances of their lives. They were often said not to die, but to be translated. The expression used in such cases by Greek writers is the same as that employed in the histories of Enoch and Elijah ; " he was not," 141 As also Talus, Acrisius, and Hyacinthus. Apollod. i. 9. 26; ii. 4. 4. Any- thing weakened, but not utterly destroyed, might be said to be lame. Comp. Micah, ch. iv. 6. Hence lameness was an attribute of the year god, as in the instances of Harpocrates, Hephaestus, Pakemon the lame Argonaut (Ap. Rh. i. 204), Podalirius, "weak footed," and may we not add "Ancus" Martius, the feeble son of the god of the first month, and Jacob who halted at " Peniel," i. e. sight of God 1 '" Paus ii. 6. 2. 143 Odyss. xix. 391. 450. 1,4 Eur. Phcen. 871. 145 (Ed. Colon. 110. H0 Polybus, i. <£. Polymelus, Hermes-Cthonius. Compare the sheep of (Edipus. Hes. Works, 162. 1.7 Muller, Orchom. 223. 1.8 Soph. (Ed. Colon. 58. 1590. END OF THE APOTHEOSIS THEOBY. P>7 " he ceased to be among men," or " was removed to the gods,'' ' mi lining, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains, that such beings were transferred to heaven without dying3 ; Ganymede and Clitus are Homeric instances of this kind'; Amphiaraus becomes divine when swallowed by the earth, Ino by leaping into the sea. Yet the Greeks knew that everything human must die4, nor had they in general any very exalted conception of an existence beyond the grave. " Oxen and sheep," says Achilles5, "may be taken as spoil, and by the strong arm we may get tripods and horses, but man's spirit cannot be arrested or recalled when once it lias passed the boundary of his lips." The Greeks thought, like the author of Eeclesiastes6, "that a living dog is preferable to a dead lion." Death was the end of human action if not of human hope; Jove himself could do no more than bury his Lycian offspring Sarpedon7, nor could the muse reanimate " her enchanting son." To exist beyond the grave otherwise than as a shade in Hades was in general as impossible for a mortal, as to die was irreconcilable with the notion of a god. To reconcile this belief with the theory of Apotheosis, it therefore became necessary to imagine a distinct class of beings whose fate was different from that of common men. Some heroes, as Perseus, were not admitted to have even died at all8; this was also the case with Menelaus, who was more than a mere hero at Therapne"; and with Diorued, the originally Thracian god worshipped at Argyripa, Metapontum, and Thurii10. Others, as Achilles, were variously stated as having suffered death or escaped it ; and Hesiod seems to have felt a difficulty similar to that of Herodotus when he adopts the same obvious plan of explana- tion11 by distinguishing the heroes into two classes, one of 1 " Eg avfyuTuv nv," or " »^antid. in Berc, Cant. i. p. 59. Liry, rxi, 21. 74 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. claimed connection with an Egyptian emigrant 15. Ingenious at- tempts have heen made to show how Perseus, the luminous child of darkness, conceived within a subterranean vault of hrass, may he a representation of the Persian Mithras10, rearing his emblematic lions ahove the gates of Mycenae, and bringing the sword of Jemshid to battle against the Gorgons of the West. Mithras is similarly described in the Zendavesta as the " mighty hero, the rapid runner, whose piercing eye embraces all, whose arm bears the club for the destruction of the Daroodg."17 According to Persian accounts, Perseus was a Persian or Assyrian who settled among the Hellenes18 ; but Greek vanity inverted the order of transmission, making the son of Perseus by Andromeda the Jemshid or Achsemenes of the East. The Lydian Heraclidse were, according to Herodotus 19, descended from the kings or divinities of Assyria, and the destruction of the usurping dynasty succeeding them was regarded as a divine retribution to avenge their fate. The attributes and adventures of a being resembling Hercules were recognised in regions still further eastward by the companions of Alexander20, as they had long before been found in countries adjacent to Greece, for instance, in the axe of the Carian Zeus Stratius, which Hercules was represented to have stolen from Hippolyta for Omphale. To the earliest Greek antiquaries the legends of Egypt were more familiar than those of Persia, and it was more honourable to find an Egyptian parentage for men or gods than to have recourse to the barbarian genealogies of Asia. Hercules, there- fore, was found to be a son of Ammon ; and notwithstanding the fanciful character of his Egyptian symbols21, to have '« Herod, ii. 43. 91 ; vi. 53, 54. 16 Creuz. S. i. 253. 286. 17 Jesht Mithra, in Kleuker, Pt. 2, pp. 221. 232. 18 Herod, vi. 54 ; vii. 61. 150. 1B Herod, i. 7. 13. 20 Megasthenis Frag. Schwanbeck, i. 34, p. 90. 21 Hercules-Chronus, an astronomical god represented by lion, bull, and ser- pent. Damasc. de Princip. Kopp. p. 381. Creuz. S. i. 93. Laur-Lydus, p. 220. Macrob. Sat. i. 20. Movers, die Phenizier, 261, 262. HERCULES. 75 vanquished An tie us and Busiris, and during the absence of Osiris, his near relative, to have been vicegerent of the realm **. He had there, as in other lands, undergone the reverses of the Nature-god, and when fainting in the desert had been resusci- tated by eating a quail, or by the timely succour of the symbolic rani". Every year at Thebes the entry of the sun into Aries was dramatically represented on the festival of Amnion''4. Hercules, it is said, was eager to behold the face of his immortal father, and the figure of Ammon being clothed in the hide of a ram sacrificed for the occasion, the image of Hercules was brought before it. A legend so dramatized may be regarded as the simplest type of the epic Heracleas. But the elements of those compositions were complex, the legends of Thessaly, Thebes, and Argos, being probably more indebted to the adventures of the Scythian god Thor, whose descendants "returned" in right of hereditary succession to Tyrins2j, than to any original connection with Egypt or Phenicia, or even with the effeminate robes and occupations of the Lydian or Assyrian Sandon. The Heraclean story is a great picture to wliich foreign countries contributed, but whose fundamental outlines belonged to Hellas itself. Commerce and civilization hud in unrecorded times followed the path of the sun and moon, symbolically represented by Paris and Helena'6, by Zeus and Europa,with whom maybe classed Hercules and Hermes 'o^iog, the Odin, Ogmius, or Gwodan, of Goths and Teutons27. There was a Hercules, whose beneficent footstep first marked on the shores of the Borysthenes28, was found further on in Thessaly (Ichnse), in Iapygia, and the island of Sardinia (Iehnusa)23, 22 Diod. S. i. 17. " Oreo* S. ii. 91. 24 Herod, ii. 42. 25 Dion. Hal. i. 28. Herod, iv. 59. 82. Serv. Mn. vii. 662. •-" Camp. Iliad, vi. 292. 27 Uckert. Germ. 238. Ritter, Vorhalle, 375. 378. -8 Herod, iv. 82, "ix,m," like that of Terseus at Chemmis in Egypt (Ilorod. ii. 91), and many other instances of the foot-print of the returning god in India, Ceylon, &c. 19 See the migration of Arista-us compared to that of Daedalus, l'aus. x. 17. 3. 76 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. and eventually immortalized his name by opening a passage over the Alps to Iberia and Celtica30, along whose course nations reputed barbarous combined to protect the traveller long before the day of Hannibal or the conquests of Eome. He was not so much an Ares, a god of war31, as a patron of roads, of markets, of landmarks, of travellers 32 ; he abolished the savage custom of sacrificing strangers33, he founded cities34, and, like Hermes, was author of wealth and increase35. This Being was asserted to have been known from the earliest times in Greece36. We hear of a Hercules, the oldest of the Idrei Dactyli, who, long before the birth of the Theban hero, brought the infant Zeus and the elements of civilization with the olive tree to Olympia37, and it is probably to him, as a Cabirus or servant of Demeter38, or, what amounts to the same thing, to the age which witnessed his worship, that we must ascribe those colossal works in Beeotia and elsewhere which excited the wonder of succeeding times. It was a gross error which would have converted such a being into a deified star-gazer, learning astronomy from Atlas39. Yet he who, borne on the chariot of the sun40, was the object and source of astronomy, was justly addressed41 as " Father of Time, ever changing and eternal, the all producing and all devouring, who bears evening and morn upon Iris head, and walks from East to West through twelve 30 "'Olo; 'H^aKXios." Aristot. de Mirab. Ausc. 85. 97. Ritter, Vorhalle, 391 sq. 345. 351. Justin, xxiv. 4 ; and Supr. vol. i. p. 212. 31 On the union of Ares with Hercules and Hermes, comp. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. Weishaupt to Tacit. Germ. 3 and 9, pp. 129. 144. 200. Grimm's Mythol. i. p. 122. 32 "Mercurius." Caesar, B. G. vi. 17. 33 Dion. Hal. i. 38. Diod. S. iv. 19. 34 Steph. Byz., voc. Nif/avtrog, &c. &c. 35 Hor. Sat. ii. 6. 13. Creuz. S. ii. 614. Macrob. Sat. p. 428, and the legend of the Ara Maxima. 36 Comp. Uckert's Germania, p. 238 ; and supr. vol. i. p. 2(35, n. 50. 37 Paus. v. 7. 4. 38 Paus. ix. 11. 3 ; ix. 14. 4 ; 27. 5, 7. iH Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 15. 73, p. 360, Putt. J0 Plutarch, Isis, ch. xli. 41 Orphic Hymn, 12, or 11. HERCULES. 77 labours." Nonnus calls him " the star-clad hero4*, lord of fire, director of the world, the sun, fax-glancing shepherd of human life, who rides circling through the sky on his glowing ball," Stc. He was " nursling of a saffron cradle,"43 the genius of Nature44, worshipped at evening and at dawn45, the eye of Jove, as he is called by Milton, " Thou sun of this great world both eye and soul," wlio struggles for a time against the difficulties opposed to him by the jealousy of the queen of heaven, but is at length victorious, and after closing his phoenix-like career in the names of Mount JEta, received into the arms of Hebe, the eternal youth of Nature and of the year46. The details of the popular adven- tures of Hercules may readily be formed into a mythical calendar. Night was the elder bom of Nature, and it was therefore necessary that, despite the golden or scarlet circlet which seems to give universal supremacy to the god of day47, that the bright should be subservient to the dark, that Hercules should serve Eurystheus48. Conceived in a triple night, accord- ing to a story resembling that of his confinement within the belly of the fish49, he begins his career with the encounter with the lion, the battle commencing with the solstitial year, though the victory was not said to be complete until the thirtieth day50. 4- Atrro«xiru,i. *3 Pind. Nem. i. 58. 44 Iambi, vit. Pyth. Kiess. 326. Tov 'HaaxXsa, t«v Swva^v rni s- Laur. Lydus, p. 220, Roth. Diod. S. i. 16. 32 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 34. Porphyr. de Antr. Notae. p. 99. Macrob. i. 23. 53 Stesichori, Frag. 3. Comp. Pherecyd. Sturz. 103. Athenaeus, xi. 469. 51 Horn. Ody. k. 86, p. 3, 4. Schol. Arat. v. 62. Hes. Theog. 746. u According to Hesiod (Th. 215. 274. 518) they were in the ocean or beyond it, or among the Hyperboreans. Apollod. ii. 5. 11. 50 Hes. Works, 169. 57 Apollod. ii. 5. 10. 7. Strabo, vii. 452 ; or of Moloch-Saturn, the Phoenician .ancient of days, whose throne or citadel, famous in the mystical physiology of the East (see particularly the 14th chapter of the book of Enoch), still continued among the Phoenician settlements of the Western Mediterranean. Comp. Daumer, " Molochdienst der Hebraer, p. 9. Movers, " Phoenizier," p. 436 sq. 59 Theog. 294. 59 On the connection of Cronus with Chronos, see Movers, ib. p. 262. Bot- tiger, Ideen, i. 225, note 11, and supr. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. 7!) herdsman Eurytion60, and brings Lack the lost kinc to Argos81. Under the guidance of .Minerva, or divine wisdom presiding over Nature, he is enabled to wield his arms of light against the prince of darkness in his proper person02, and to achieve the task justly esteemed the most arduous, though really the most familiar, of all88, the dragging Cerberus, the guardian of the lower world, into the light of day. Yet these labours are but exhibitions of solar power which have ever to be repeated, for both the apples and the dog are carefully restored by Minerva to their original and rightful places. § 15. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS BY HERCULES. Hercules ingcniculus, who bending on one knee uplifts his club, and tramples on the serpent's head1, was sometimes not unreasonably confounded with Prometheus or Tantalus2, for all these are only varying aspects of the struggling and declining sun3. The true scene of the punishment of Prometheus is the dark or underworld, the abode of night and winter, of the Homeric Titans4, the Tartarean depth to which Prometheus himself is at last condemned5. Tartarus, however, is itself only an imaginative reflection of the real0. Acheron and Avernus 60 i. q. Eurystheus('). lies. Thcog. 294. 61 In the mythology of the Vedas it is a personification of devotion and prayer. Brihaspiti, who rescues the kine "dropping fertility" from the caverns of Bala. (Roth in the Zeitschrift der D. M. Gesellschaft, i. 73. Lassen, Antiq. i. 757. 7GG.) 62 Pind. 01. ix. 43. Horn. Iliad, v. 395. Paus. vi. 33. 03 Odyss. A. 623. Paus. ix. 34. 1 Eratosthenis, Catast. 4. Aratus, v. 70, and Schol. to v. 62. Ideler, Sternna- men, p. 63. 2 Theon to Arat. 12. Hygin. ii. 6, fin. 3 " Ougxtoti* xxrafiaitvv." 4 "ram «» surffum." Hes. Th. 157; comp. 717. 818. 851. Strabo, xi. 495. Iliad, viii. 478; xiv. 274. 4 Prom. 1004, Bothe. ,! Lucrct. iii. 992. 80 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. were rivers of Campania or Thcsprotia7 before they were trans- ferred to the lower world, as the Tigris, Euphrates, or Nile had long fertilized the plains of Mesopotamia and Egypt before they became part of the Eden of the Hebrews. With the extension of geographical knowledge it became easy to find many localities appropriate for the exile of Cronus, the hiding-place of Hercules or Ulysses8, the punishment of Typhon or Atlas9. The scene was at length removed from Sipylus or Hsemus to the inhospi- table mountains or Scythia, where the pinnacle of Caucasus, called the " couch of Boreas," 10 seemed as it were to overlook the confines of the world, its summit being rarely deserted by the sun11, anticipating as it were his rising, and illuminated through a portion of the night12. The arrival of Hercules to the liberation of Prometheus belongs to the same period in his astronomical career, the season of winter and cold13, which witnessed his descent to the shades ; it was as he drove the oxen of the West towards the gates of morning, and bore the golden apples stolen by the Atlan tides or Hesperides14 once more to make the circuit of the seasons. For the voyage of Hercules, like that of the Argo, brought the West into proximity with the East, so that he sailed from Libya to Perge15, and left his name on both extremes of the boundary of Oceanus. The Greek colonists of the Euxine interwove into the story of their favourite hero analogous local legends, and increased his accumulated glory113 by referring every heroic achieve- ment to his name. They conceived, therefore, that as while navigating the circumfluent ocean, and coasting the extremi- ties of the earth, the sun prepares the renewal of time and light for its inhabitants, so the earth-encircling champion at 7 Comp. Miiller, Mythol. 298. 8 "Aurros." Odyss. i. 235. 9 Apollod. i. 6. 3. 10 Ps. Plutarch de Fluv. p. 11, in Hudson. Geogr. Minor. 11 Aristot. Meteor, i. 13. 18. 12 Comp. Plin. N. H. vi. 22. Uckert, Skythien, 105. 13 Herod, iv. 8. M The daughters of evening. Hyg. A. ii. 6. Eratosthenis Catast. 3. 15 Uckert, Skythien, 331. 1G Hes. Theog. 530. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. s| length arrived among the Hyperboreans'7 and Scythians among whom they lived, and many of whose traditions had a resem- blance to their own. They went on to tell how his foot, the measure of the Olympic stadium, imprinted that memorial on the banks of the Borysthenes which to many nations of the Eae\ was the same token of divine favour as the pledge of the how given to the Hebrew patriarch1*; that there, divested of his lion's skin, he lay down to sleep, and for a time lost the horses of his chariot; and again, that wandering in search of them through those gloomy regions he met the dragon Echidna in her cavern, and passing in her arms the winter night became lather of the patriarch of the Scythians*9. Henceforth thai northern region of gloom, called the "place of the death and revival of Adonis,"1" that Caucasus whose summit was so lofty, that, like the Indian Meru, it seemed to be the goal and com- mencement of the sun's career21, became to Greek imaginations the final bourne of all things", the abode of winter and desola- tion, the pinnacle of the arch connecting the upper and lower 17 The gardens of Atlas and the Hesperides were sometimes placed among the Hyperboreans (Apollod. ii. 5. 11. 2. Pherecyd. Frag. Didot. 33, 33*), who were "servants of Apollo," and " Titans." Pherenicus in Schol. Pind. 01. iii. 28. 18 Piitter, Vorhalle, p. 232 sq. The sign of fertility denoted by the foot of Buddha, or the gigantic sandal of Perseus at Chemmis. Herod, ii. 91 ; iv. 82 ; or the san- dals of iEgeus hid with the sword beneath a stone. Apollod. iii. 15. 7. Comp. the " %a\x/>ravs »W at Colonos, called " t^uuft Afavuv." Wunder, Pref. to (Edip. Colon, p. 24. 19 Another story told how during his stay in the cavern he slew the giants. (Strabo, xi. 495.) In Diodorus, Zeus takes the part of Hercules as father by Echidna of the Pcythian kings, (ii. 43.) 20 Guigniaut, Rel. ii. 42. The daughters of Israel looked for the return of Adonis from the North (Ezek. viii. 14), and while Cybele in company with the Sun-God was absent among the Hyperboreans, Phrygia abandoned by its protec- tress suffered the horrors of famine. (Diod. S. iii. 58.) Delos and Delphi awaited the return of Apollo from the Hyperboreans, and from thence Hercules brought the olive to Olympia. (Pind. 01. Paus. x. 19. 2. Herod, viii. 55.) The north is thus the mythical equivalent of Hades. In the climate of Egypt, the dominion of Typhon was over the dry places of Libya, his agents the heats and simoom of Ethiopia. •' Photius, Hreschl. 998. '■" " n*VT&/v -rnyai xeti Titoar." TheOg. 738 VOL. II. ., 82 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. world, and consequently the appropriate place for the banish- ment of Prometheus88. The sun's proper home is the place from which he comes and to which he returns. Wherever that may he, whether in the East or West (for between these two the distinction is merely relative and conventional), whether in the Ambracian gulf, in Sicily, or the Eastern Erithya in the district of the Tauric Hypanis2\ there are found the land or city of Helios, his herds guarded by Titanic or giant keepers25, stalls for the repose of his wearied horses, and pastures where they feed. Scythia became what Thrace had been before, the ideal of the extreme north, the place of the sun's concealment, that dwelling of Boreas to which Cronus, after the Titan war, withdrew, in order to escape the observation of Zeus26. There were preserved in the ancient names of Corocandame and Phanagoria ^ traces of an ancient sun worship, and it was there that the memorable passage of the " bull-stealing Titan " over the waters gave its well-known name to the Cimmerian Bosphorus28. Heraclitus compared the stars to boats floating in sether with the keels outwards, so that we are enabled to behold the luminous meteors within them; and through the imaginary voyage of the Argo, a fable probably constructed out of a similar idea of stellar navi- gation, the most distant regions were connected, and it was easy to bring the waters of Cuban (the Antikites or Hypanis- Phasis) to the Colchian home of the children of the sun, iEetes, Perses, Medea, Hecate, Asterie29, on the banks of that river (the Phasis), which, like the Cyrus30, was supposed to bear the name of their celestial parent31. But the idea which placed a 23 " Ttgftovio; -rayos." Prom. Bothe, 117; comp. v. 282. 645. 24 Strabo, 494. Orph. Argon. 1050. 25 Alcyoneus, Geryiones, &c. Apollod. i. 6. 1. 4. 84 Ps. Plutarch, de Fluv. et. Mont. p. 11. 21 From Coros and Phanes. Hitter, Vorhalle, p. 194 sq. 206. Kanda, city, and ayo/ia, market; one name being a translation of the other. 26 Orph. Argon. 1060. Porphyr. de Antro. Mithras, Hercules, or Alcyoneus ; i. e. Helios. 29 Orph. Argon. 1040. Hes. Th. 377. 409. 956. Diod. S. iv. 45. ao Kur, Koros. Jl Bitter, ib. 203. Pint, de Fluv. 10. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. 88 Titan al the portals of the East8* was probably supported throughout by analogous local legends, such as thai ofFeridoon and Jemsheed, the ceremonies of mourning which awoke the Bithyniun echoes with the name of Hylas, which made Bhodope and tlio Hebrus bewail Eurydice™, or betokened the sympathy of the Asiatic tribes for Prometheus"4. By the flatterers of Alexander the mountains of Khorasan were found to possess a Prometheus of their own bound in a cavern on account of his goodwill to man88, and in the true home of Iapetus86 and of the rock- descended Mithras", an autochthonous Hercules, or some great hero from the East, was discovered to have been the deliverer of Prometheus and destroyer of the bird which tortured him38. As Mithras heralds the sun's return in spring, Pro- metheus chained in his cavern betokens the continuance of winter. In him, as in OEdipus, Antigone, or Danae, the omnific power is sentenced for a time to a prison or tomb'19; or he may be the wintry giant himself, like Lycurgus, bound in chains of adamant by the sunny Dionysus. Chains and captivity were the usual punishment of those immortal beings who, under the name of Titans, seemed to have disappeared from the sphere of gods. For this chaining there might be several reasons ; the first "Dsedalean" statues with parted legs were chained, it is said "\ after the rude idea attributed to the Carian barbarians in Atheneeus, to prevent their escape ; the god of Nature was also " bound," in order to force him to answer the spell of the 32 Tityos, Tantalus, Orion following Kcdnlion towards the Sun's rising. Miiller on Orion. Klcinc Sehrift, p. 126. The land of JEetes, JEea, is also called Tirrws. Apollon. Rhod. iv. 131. " Virg. Georg. iv. 460. M Comp. Lucian, Prom. iv. 35 Philostrat. Vit. Ap. ii. 3. Diod. S. xvii. 83. Strabo, xv. 505. (688.) 36 Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne, p. 289. 37 "TIireoyt,»s." Creuz. S. 251. 272. Zoega, Abhaudl. 182. Laur. Lyd. iii. 26, p. 124. Strabo, vi. 224. 38 Arrian, Ind. v. 519, and viii. 523. 9 " Tt//*/3»£>jf 0a}a.fio;." Soph. Antig. 816; or the " xivha yamt," the "atra ostia Ditis," &c. 10 Pl.ito, Meno. 97. Paus. iii. 15. 7. " 6.aiia.\<>( S/i/Xi ^«/j«f, woW Tieta. Chil. i. 9. Bchol. Eurip. Hec. 838. Diod. S. iv. 76. g a H-i ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. enchanter, or as an exegetical expedient, to reconcile his immor- tality with his disappearance41. Generally, however, the idea of a suffering or punished deity is merely an attempt to ration- alize the essential attributes of his nature ; the banishment or imprisonment, the weakening or death of the divinity have an analogous meaning. The alternate position of Hennes in the upper or lower world was repeated in the privilege of his son (iEthalides) ; and the all-nourishing son of Panthus descends not only twice to Orcus, but at the close of each day and year ; winter is a temporary abdication or chaining of Nature, and in ceremonies founded on this notion in Phoenicia, Paphlagonia42, and Italy, the chains attached to the images of the sun-god were loosened at the return of spring, the anniversary of his emancipation in the heavens, which at the same time unchained the earth, and gave the signal of universal freedom to its inhabitants43. Every Nature-god was dualistic or alternate; and it was a necessary consequence that when superseded in his supernal functions by the Olympians, the older deity should be confined to his dark or subtelluric office, as the Baal or Moloch who in the Old Testament usurped the worship, and, as will hereafter appear, invaded even the temple of Jehovah, was limited to Gehenna in the New. It is probable that the Homeric Titans, called " Hypotartarean" and " Cthonian," 44 were at first thought to inhabit by right the region afterwards made the place of their imprisonment, when heaven or Olympus became exclu- sively the seat of Zeus45, and when the lower world came to be regarded with so much aversion that Achilles preferred the "most loathed earthly life" to the throne of Hades40, a senti- 41 Compare the chaining of Zohak at the vernal equinox on Demavend, of the evil spirits "fur a season," according to the angelogy of the Hebrews, and the cor- responding imprisonment of the stars. Gesenius to Isaiah xxiv. 21, 22. Book of Enoch, ch. x. and xviii. Rev. xx. 3. 7. Job iv. 18. 4- Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ch. lxix. 43 The Saturnalia. Macrob. Sat. i. 8. Creuz. S. ii. 615. Comp. Hoeck, Kreta, iii. 39. Ephoras in Athi'nrc, vi. 263. 44 Comp. Theog. 697. « Hes. Tli. 689. 4li Odyss. xi. 489. LIBKRATION OF PROMETHEUS. 85 ment shared even by the infernal queen herself47. The singular legend in Homer of the binding of Arcs by the sons of Aloeus (Poseidon?) in a brazen jar 4S is probably only another form of the same general idea in which Peleus or (Edipus were exposed to the desolation of a mountain, or Lycurgus enclasped within a rock*'. The brazen jar is the "brazen house" of Hades60, the same probably as that in which Eurystheus concealed himself in terror at the sight of the Nemean lion or Erymanthean boar51 ; the fair step-dame Heeribcea, another Ino with a milder aspect, the Io of the spring, who warns Hermes to come to release the suffering deity, may be a subdivision of Nature representing its successive aspects in time ; while Ares himself is the king of Terrors52, supposed, according to a commonly recurring idea, to be an unwilling prisoner in the gloomy realm over which he reigns, " At>ya\i , iv(>uivra, ra rt eruytoviri ©so/ T£«."58 The symbols of servitude and captivity are applied with less reserve to heroes than to gods, yet Ulysses is not less a god because concealed (" aiaTog") M or "bound"55 in respect of his return; and even Zeus himself, who occasionally deserted Olympus to visit the ^Ethiopians, is saved from imprisonment only by the same oceanic personification, the consort of Cymo- poleia ("the wave tossing"), with the wide encompassing arms", who had already assisted him against the Titans, that ,T H. Ceres, 303. «9 Iliad, v. 3S5sq. ''" " XIitqu&ii KKTCifioaxros iv iiffftAi." Soph. Antig. 955. 40 The " x*Xx!oy i^ko," of Tartarus. Hes. Th. 725. 811. Horn. Iliad, viii. 15. Conip. Scut. Here. 254 ; also Schol. (Ed. Colon, v. 56. Soph. Electra. 54 ; the " brazen vessel'' supposed to contain the remains of Orestes. 41 Apollod. ii. 5. 1. Diod. S. iv. 11. M "Hades;" conip. the epithet " aiinXos" applied to Ares. Iliad, v. 897. Odyss. viii. 309. M Comp. Iliad, viii. 368; ix. 159. 312. Odyss. xiv. 156. The word trruy must implying superstitious fear as well as hatred. Comp. II. v. 112 ; xv. 167. 44 Odyss. i. 235. " Odyss. iv. 469. 46 Briareus or iEgeon. Iliad, i. 399. Pherecyd. in Behd. Apollon. i. 881- Fragm. 62. Comp. Sen. fin. \i. 287. s" Thetis rescues Dionysus and Eephaw- tus, and Poseidon intercedes on another occasion for Ares. Odyss. viii. 344. 86 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. is, against undergoing the change which would have made a Titan of himself 5T. When the ground is said to have remained unfruitful until Lycurgus was torn to pieces by wild horses ss, or Peleus, deprived of his sword, to have lain at the mercy of the Hippocentaurs on Pelion59, it is easy to predict how the restoration of the golden falchion will enable the deity to change his defeat into victory, when the seeming anger of Nature evaporates in a series of transformations, and Ares, changed into the horse form (Arion), produces Hippocrene and Aganippe, the sources of plenteousness and song. The natural analogies which suggested the first hints of immortality00 took the form of apologue; the Thracian Xamolxis and Spartan Lycurgus disappeared for a time from among their followers, and the " golden luminary" Zoroaster having received from heaven the sacred fire of the word and of life, afterwards descended into hell, and at the end of his prophetic mission retired to meditate on Mount Alborj61. Mountains are frequently the scene of the punishment of the Nature- god, either as being the abodes of winter, the hiding places of the sun, or because they were the fancied residences of the divinity, or the actual sites of his worship. The sinews of Jove were cut out on Mount Casius by Typhoeus, afterwards himself buried under Hsemus, iEtna, or oaucasus':i ; Tantalus was confined to Sipylus, Lycurgus on Pangseus. Many actual mountains were deemed sacred or Olympian °3, but the real Olympus is the celestial Empyrean64 whence the sun appears to issue forth as a " giant out of his chamber," and to which in the evening he retires as behind a screen or tabernacle to his repose"5. The Persian beacon on the mountain top represented the rock-born divinity enshrined in his worthiest temple, and the funeral conflagration of Hercules 57 Comp. Supr. vol. i. p. 278. 280, 281. •'■* Apollod. iii. 5. 1. 7. 59 Pind. Nem. iv. 6f) Schol. Soph. Electra, v. 62. 6I Creuz. S. i. 186. 62 Apollod. i. 6. 3. Apollon. Rh. ii. 1214. 61 Schol. Apollon. i. 599. 64 Humboldt, Cosmos, note 27 to p. 56, p. xiii. •s Gruigniaut, Rel. i. 146. Psalm xix. 5, 6. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. was the sun dying in glory behind the western lulls, as by a maritime people he would be made to sink to his repose, not behind Ins "Delphian rock," hut beneath the waves in which he was observed to plunge. The scene of the decline and suffering of the deity was often the same which bad been tin- witness of his living glory ; and the pillar to which Prometheus was bound, like the stone of Sisyphus or tree of Peleus or Pentheus, was probably hut a familiar emblem6'1 of the god converted into the instrument of his humiliation''7. It was the Hermetic pillar comprising so many symbolical meanings, at once the rude block of infant sculpture and the heavenly axis supported by Atlas, the column of the palace of the Styx,,s or of the house of Dagon, or one of those sun obelisks called pillars of Seth, of Atlas, of Hercules, or of Dionysus, which were placed both in the East and West at the supposed limits of his course69. In the contest of the sons of Aphareus with the Amycloean Tynda- ridee, Idas with a stone pillar belonging to his father's tomb stuns for a time the immortal Pollux, until Zeus interposes to release him ; Phocus is killed by the stone hurled by Peleus70, Ares, and even Hercules, by that of Athene71; Theseus descending to the infernal world is there chained to a stone until rescued by Hercules, and is finally hurled from a rock by Lycomedes. It is the stony oppression of winter's abeyance, the stone roofing of the Styx78, the rock of Niobe which lives and weeps in summer7'', and the sword of .Kgeus underneath it is the penetrating warmth soften- ing the torpid ground, the same golden weapon borne hy Per- seus and by .lemsbeed, of which Peleus during his desolation was 66 The tree. 67 Pillar gods, as Yishnou, Hermes, Dionysus Tigixiovios, Jupiter Meilichius. Taiis. ii. 9, &c. 6S Hes. Theog. 74G. 780. 69 Tacit. Germ. 34. Herod, iv. 8. Dion. Perieg. 64. 643. 1164. Scylax, Caryan. 51. 70 Pans. ii. 29. 7' Iliad, xx. 69; xxi. 403. Paus. ix. 11. 1. 72 Hes. Th. 778. 7J Paus. viii. 2. Argus is killed by Hermes with a stone, and the tV di • animated by Orpheus and Amphion denote the advent of life as well u of i iviliza tion. Comp. Taus. i.\. 17. Bchol. Find. 01. ix 68. 88 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. deprived, and which the legislator of Athens, the conqueror of the equinoctial Minotaur, is in his turn to recover and to wield. Hercules himself suffers the vicissitudes of nature ; his servitude to Omphale in the effeminate Lydian rohe, or Iris sleeping in the arms of Echidna, are mysteries akin to that of Helena- Erianys74 or of the change in the sex of Tiresias ; he was led chained to the altar hy Busiris7", and when stooping to bear the burden of Atlas, narrowly escaped becoming himself the suffering Titan, the Prometheus of the West. But the sola]1 hero of Greece is the liberator rather than the victim or slave, and even during his temporary eclipse is engaged in destroying the dragon powers of darkness70 and adversaries of prosperity. The distinguishing attributes of beneficent deity, those of " libe- rator" and " saviour,"77 belong pre-eminently to Hercules. The symbols of physical change and renovation were of course infinitely varied. Sometimes the gods abdicate their thrones, and relinquish them to an hereditary successor. The bright Charops succeeds Lycurgus on the throne of Thrace, and as Cronus " the ancient of days"78 had been banished by Zeus, it was darkly intimated that the authority even of Zeus was transitory, and that he might one day have to bow before a son mightier than himself. Sometimes, as each year is the destruction of its predecessor, the heroes of light destroy or emasculate each other. Anti- lochus, the "swift runner," the "never resting,"79 is killed by Memnon; Memnon, the son of morning, by Achilles; Achilles, by Apollo; Neoptolemus, by Apollo's priest80; and Emathion Memnon's brother, by Hercules. In the same sense 74 Pans. i. 33. 7. 73 i. e., Hades, or "grave of Osiris." Diod. S. i. 88. Pint. Isis, 21. Muller's Anct. Art. 636. Laur. Lydus. R. 220. 76 Orthos, Eurytion, &c. Theog. 294. 77 Guigniaut, R. ii. 175. Wieske. Prom. 297. Philostrat. V. A. 8, 9, at the end, p. 342. 78 " Maxga«yv." Guigniaut, R. ii. 229. Cic. N. D. ii. 20. 25. Virg. 2En. vii. 49. L. Lydus. Roth. p. 72. Dan. vii. 9. 79 Odyss. iii. 112; xxiv. 16. Paus. iii. 19. Philostr. Heroic. 4. 80 Paus. x. 24. So in the Zendavesta, the angel of light, Ardibehescht, is in- voked to destroy the Daioodg of winter. Zend. Pt. 2, p. 146. LIBERATION 01 PROMETHEUS. 89 many of the Greek hemes are parricides, or destroyers of their children, for lii'e and death, summer and winter, are reciprooallj parent and child, the destroyer and the destroyed. Zeus, whose sinews are sometimes the prey of the hear"1, is under another aspect nursed hy it82. The course of time is as the burning of a brand, a protracted war, the voyage of an ark or ship, the transfer of a necklace, the stealing of hulls, of dogs, or of apples. Nature is an oscillation hetween two contending powers H3, divided hetween Aloidee or Dioscuri ; heautiful women arise from water or out offish, and men are turned into stones ; life and death follow and supplant each other; Bellerophon becomes an object of hatred like Hades, and a continuing curse attends the house of Laius and the Atridee. But though the transitory manifestation suffers or dies, the abiding and eternal power liberates and saves. It was an essential attribute of a Titan, the omission of which in mythological accounts produces an evident incongruity"4, that he should arise again after his fall, for the revival of nature is as certain as its decline, and its alternations are subject to the appointment of a power which controls them both. It was through this inevitable revolution that the fortunes of Prometheus were destined to a redeeming ehange85 ; he was to come back from Tartarus to the light of day86; nature cannot be permanently confined by a net or chest, a subterranean prison or vault of brass; she conquers imprisonment and death, and the symbol of her victory is Hercules, the offspring of divine beneficence, the undying energy which lives within herself. The release of Prometheus was to be dependent on the disclosure of a secret, on the expira- tion of a term of years, and on the voluntary self-sacrifice of a god. The secret was the mystery of Nature's change, on which depends the government of the universe, the same which elevated 81 Apollod. i. 6. 3. 8- Senilis, ad Virg. Geoig. i. 2i6. s " Aftu/ioftivoi fiiyat auhoi'' lies. Th. 749. 1-1 Comp. Apollod. i. 1, 2; 5, eh. ii. s. 1. M lies. Th. 157. G26. 652. 658. .Eschyl. Prom. Blomf. 1057. " '• A^ifftt iilu; mi ipao;." Comp. the cue "t" Agamemnon. Soph. Blectra, 1 19. 90 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. the vanquisher of the Sphynx to succession of the Theban throne ; and it was a beautiful invention of the artist which brought forward Io, the wandering moon-goddess, an ancestor of the great deliverer, to cheer the suffering deity by a prospect of a termination of his woes at the expiration of a lunar cycle87. Orpheus conquered death by melody ; Hercules, after the fashion of the heroic age, by force88; but there were many ancient traditions in which the idea of physical succession was blended with the theological dogma of sacrificial satisfaction. For death is the universal condition of life, and the two Dioscuri could enjoy only an alternate immortality. " Hercules," says Apollodorus89, " killed the eagle and released Prometheus on condition of his assuming the willow wreath or olive crown90, and gave to Zeus Chiron, an immortal, but willing to resign his immortahty in favour of Prometheus." Chiron therefore sinks as Prometheus rises ; he becomes a voluntary sacrifice when wounded in the foot by the same power who liberates his antithesis91. To this substitu- tion iEschylus is supposed to allude in the remarkable lines: — " Of these your sufferings expect no end Until some god succeeding to the burthen Shall come to your relief, and for you be willing To descend to gloomy Hades and the murky deep of Tartarus.''92 Chiron was a Nature-god, a son of Cronus98, and brother of Zeus94; he was in fact another beneficent Prometheus, healer 87 Thirteen years of twelve lunar months each make twelve solar years. iEschyl. Prom. Bothe, 752. Comp. Schol. to Pind. 01. i. 127. Threni, Fr. 6. 88 As in Cacus compared to Hades by Virgil (2En. viii. 243), or in the house of Admetus (Eurip. Alcestis, 65. 224. 307. 1140), as well as in his attack on Cer- berus, and many other repetitions of the same story. 89 ii. 5. 11, 12. 90 This alludes to a mystic ceremony in which the initiated were invested with certain emblems denoting purification or reconciliation. Comp. Welcker, Trilogie, p. 49 sq. Eurip. Ion, 1432. iEschyl. Persae, 585, Bothe. Athenacus, xv. 672. 074. The ring was a badge of similar meaning. Creuz. S. ii. 131. 141. 213. Lobeck, Aglaoph. 972. Catull. lxiv. 295. 91 Comp. the wounds of Diomed, Philoctetes, Acrisius, &c. Iliad, xi. 377. Apollod. ii. 4. 4. 9- Prom. 1001. »s Pind. Pyth. iii. 5. 91 Xenophon, Cyneg. ch. i. s. 5. Tzetzes to Lycophr. 1200. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. H I and founder of religion and art", teacher of poetry and music ; be was foster lather and teacher of many a divine being, of Jason, of Achilles, of .Escuhipius. Hut the healer of others could nut heal himself. Unlike the intrepid Prometheus, he wished to die, or sought death as the only means of recovery from his wound ; he was in fact the presumed inventor of expiatory sacrifices"0. Under the figure of the horse, the child or creation of Poseidon, the well-known emblem of the waters, he is the autumnal centaur Sagittarius, the rainy season born of the fiery embrace of Ixion (son of Phlegyas) with a cloud, and wounded in the heel upon the Zodiacal path97. He is identical with his parent, the horse form assumed in Arcadia by Poseidon, when pursuing at the close of the year the reluctant Demeter (Medusa) he became father of renewed vegetation (Persephone), or id' the mysterious courser rode by Hercules and Adrastus, the repetition of himself98. The horse was a common sacrifice to the sun. Tyndareus sacrificed a horse to ratify the compact entered into by confederate Greece prepara- tory to the war of Troy99. The Indians, the Massagetae, the Persians, the Scythians, practised the same rite100, from the horse of the Acwa-medha immolated on the sacred grass by the Hindoo, whose members were the body and whose breath the sonl of the universe, extending to the " October horse" who in the Campus Martins was the antithesis of the vernal bull101, and 9i Clem. Alex. Str. i. 5. Suidas, ad. v. 96 " Ovtriai iXa^ai." Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 15, p. 73. 97 Comp. Genes, rlix. 17. A rat. Phoen. 306. 98 It should lie recollected (see .above, vol. i. p. 213. 281) that the old Pelasgian Poseidon (Erechthcus-Theseus), the patron of the Nelidae of Jolcos, of Troezenc \c, was not a mere sea-god, but the general power of prolific nature (QtirxXpuf, yt- ■n(Xios), often united with Demeter, co-equal with Hades and Zeus (Iliad, xv. 187), yel again dnalistically opposed to Athene, Hera, or Helios. 99 Paus. iii. 20. 9. 10 ' Ovid, Fast i. 385. Herod, i. 216, end. Xenophon. Cyrop. viii. 3. 12. 24 : comp. viii. 7. 3. Anab. iv. 5. 35. Herod, iv. 61. 72. Philostrat. Vit. Apol. i. 31, Compare the story of Hippolvtus. " ■' Pint. (in. Rom. eh. scvii. Festus. p. 302. Smith's Antiq. p. 69t». 92 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. whose blood was used in the ceremony of the Palilia, or nativity of Rome, that is, the commemoration of the renewal of the universe of which the city was an emblem102. The Greeks, as well as the Teutonic and Slavonian tribes, sacrificed horses to the genii of their streams and mountains103. Twice through the instrumentality of the horse was the cosmical city of the Elements 104 given up to destruction and pillage lo5 ; as in Persian legend, a new empire, a spiritual and a temporal, was established by the same symbolical sanction in the instances of Gushtasp and Darius106. Chiron, as Nature-god, is the universe verging to its decline, and hence first institutor and type of expiatory sacrifice, the autumnal sacrifice, that is, which prepares the year's renewal, when the sun plunges to the point of his deepest depression, or commences an upward progress in Capricorn. He is then supposed to have been wounded by the solar arrow lo7, and relinquishes a painful existence in favour of a kindred spirit, Prometheus, the water in lieu of the fire, which Zeus then consents to set free108. Chiron admitted to the society of the gods endeavours to relieve Achilles from his grief, while Pro- metheus, and after him the children of men, adopt the willow or olive crown in memory of their chains and their emancipa- tion109; the crown, which symbolically used in the mysteries and worn either by priest or victim, the living or the dead110, loi Plutarch, Romulus, ch. xi. Lassen, Ind. Antiq. i. 793. 103 Iliad, xxi. 132. Pans. iii. 20. 4 ; viii. 7. 2. 104 Troy, built by Neptune and Apollo, or fire and water. Iliad, xxi. 444. To whom Pindar adds a third architect, iEacus, or Earth. 105 Once when the immortal horses, the ransom of Ganymede, were refused by Laomedon to the Sun-God ; and again, when from the entrails of the fatal horse issued the destroying heroes of Greece. Hellanici, Frag. 137, p. 161. Tzetzes, Lycophr. 33. 106 Herod, iii. 85. See the inscription lately deciphered by Lassen in the Zeit- schrift fur K'unde des Morgenlandes, vi. p. 22. 107 Eratosthen. Catast. 40. Apollod. ii. 5. 4. 5. 108 Diod. iv. 15, p. 155. lu9 Apollod. ii. 5. 11. 13. Athene, xv. 13, p. 672 ; xvi. p. 674. 110 Creuz. S. iv. 115. Aristoph. Eccles. 538. LIBERATION OF PROMETHEUS. 98 was an emblem of victory and immortality, of devotion ami devotional consecration m. Ho far the drama is a physical one ; hut Nature schools not only the eyes hut the sentiments, and Hercules and Prometheus are not mere physical powers hut intellectual and moral symbols of humanity. The punishment of the Titan was sup- posed to have occurred at the close of the golden age, "when waul and disease in dread array invaded earth, and destiny hastened the lingering steps of death."112 Man, actual or " fallen," is hound by many letters, of which he must not only feel the smart but understand the mechanism before he can be emancipated. The chains of Prometheus attach not only to the criminal, the vassal, or the slave, they are in the cabinet as in the workshop, in the study of Faust as in Auerbach's cellar. Ouk iffri Svnruv haTii l Sai/Aoj tirnv n ru%nil 3. The infant is bound " Ere it has life ; yea, all its chains are forged Long ere its being."1" Gold, love, ambition, ignorance as well as knowledge, rivet fetters as securely as LmprisonmenJ or servitude; society lias its thousand tics whether of affection, profession, or opinion; by want we are bound to labour, by knowledge to duty ; in short. every element of experience may be called a new chain, binding man either to endurance or action. !Many characters are blendi d in Prometheus ; he is not only the suffering god and the strug- gling enterprise of man, but the mediatorial being who raises man out of his first helpless condition, ministering to those material wants the feeling and acknowledgment of which con- stituted his earliest impression of "a Fall." The mediation 111 Tertull. de Cor. 10. Pliny, xvi. i ; xviii. 2. Clem. Alex. Pad. ii. 8. 7a, p. 213, Pott. 1.2 Hor. Ode, i. 3. 30. Virg. Eel. vi. 41. Hes. Theog. 585. 1.3 Eur. Hec. 853. '" Bhelley. 94 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. specifically attributable to Hercules is of a higher kind. Prometheus, as first inventor of social institutions, is an imperfect type of Hercules ; and though by the poet he is said to have rendered men self conscious and intelligent, the dawn of knowledge was accompanied with doubt, appre- hension, and estrangement. In other words, the sera of Prometheus was properly that of the " Fall," when the divine government seemed harsh and arbitrary115, and the claims of labour and duty the tyrannical imposition of a taskmaster. His liberation, philosophically interpreted, marks a higher sera of development, when the first superficial impressions are removed, and the divine character is better understood. The Deity is then no longer at variance with a being instrumental in raising the condition of mankind ; and though the acropolis of Zeus is still intellectually inaccessible116, the advent of Hercules an- nounces a hope of final success in a higher moral and mental maturity. He pursued the active course of beneficence which Prometheus began ; he was the perfect representative of his divine father, performing on earth what Zeus wills in heaven117. He cleansed the Augean stable of the accumulated contamina- tion of time, or of the herds of Helios ; he was the scourge of wrong doers, purger of injustice and crime118, averter of evil119. Even his deeds of violence were to purify and save120; he battled like Perseus with the effeminate superstitions of Asia121, and against the gigantic power of physical and moral evil represented 115 .Eschyl. Prom. 150. 186. 116 " Ej tmv raw Aid; oixritriv ovxiri tvt%agti ciiriXhiv." Plato, Protag. 331 e. 117 Hes. Theog. 529. " Iwii^yot tu tou Lid; odoktiv. Plato, Protag. 321 e. 137 Pind. Nem. i. 62. 110. Hor. Od. iv. 8. 30. Diod. S. iv. 38, 39. 138 xi. 602, and Nitsch's Note. 139 A union first recognised in Attica (Diod. S. iv. 39. Paus. i. 32; ii. 10. Herod, ii. 44), but which probably existed in the Caucasian Hercules of the Scythians, among whom the Prometheus who was bound, the Hercules who released him, and the Zeus who authorized the release, appear as one being. Comp. Schol. Apollon. 1th. ii. 1253. Diod. S. ii. 43. Supr. vol. i. p. 212. I4U Pind. Nem. vii. 140. Philostr. Vit. A. 8, 9, p. 341. '*' Pind. Nem. ix. 44. GREEK I>/EM0N0LO<;Y. 97 § 1(3. GREEK D.EMONOLOUY. Greek anthropomorphism, itself a qualified or incipient euhemerism, was insufficient to satisfy or repress those natural feelings of awe in regard to the unseen, which, according to the mode of their exhibition, are either religion or superstition. In order to express these deeper apprehensions, whether of divinity in general, or of its diversified agencies and manifestations, it became necessary to imagine, or, more properly speaking, to revert to a class of beings behind that array of personifications which the common mythology had rendered too sensuous and familiar. The word " hero," in poetical terminology, was properly " a distinguished personage among men," ' etymologically akin to Hems, Hera, and the German Herr2, and connected with the supernatural or divine 3 only indirectly through the personi- fying system which contemplated the gods, and inclusively all derivative beings under a humanised form. But the word was afterwards differently used, and popularly or even systematically confounded with the more mysterious conception conveyed by the word "daemon." The Aaipoviov and Oeiov, the former term perhaps still more than the latter*, implied the general notion of the supernatural or divine without distinction of rauk or person5. It conveyed that vague feeling of the spiritual within, above, and beyond humanity which exists everywhere0; and though we 1 "Oj nyiftovis ruv tt^xaiu*," in contrast with the "numerus," or common people. Aristot. Problem, xix. 48. 2. Ethics, vii. 1. Xenoph. de Rep. Laced. 15, end. 1 Zeus was called " Errus." Hesych. Albert, i. 1445 ; and Juno, Hera. 3 'Hftifaui* ytvos avl^uv. Iliad, xii. 23. Comp. Plato, Apol. 28c. Here the term " h/utm," if not an interpolation, must be understood .'is a mere laudatory appellative. * Nitzsch to Odyss. i. p. 89. * Horn. Odyss. xi. 134. Karsten's Xenophanes, p. 114. 8 For instance, in the spirit-powers of the air or tiiuXa, which from the Magi down to Lady Hester Stanhope have always been favourite subjects of Eastern fancy. Creti/.. S. iii. 757. Ephes. ii. 2. VOL. II. II 98 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. have only the loose testimony of later writers as to the exact form which it may have conventionally assumed among the early Greeks, Hesiod probably speaks in accordance both with theology and with popular belief when he alludes to a geneti- cally distinct class of daemons, identical with the spirits of the men of the golden age, and appointed by Zeus to perform those offices of moral censorship and superintendence over human affairs which in Homer are assigned to the Olympian gods themselves7. The genius of Homer shuns the indefinite and mystical, and Ins daemons are generally synonymous with his gods8; he implies rather than expresses the wide world of spirituality by a class of anomalous personifications such as Ath, )vaiv ?£ 'OfiV'^S fit* tpaivirai kodioj; aftiporipoi; %£wfti»B{ reis avsfiatri, kxi rev; (lev; ifTiv 'sTttiaiftova; t^otrxyefivaiy. — 'HirieSesil xxPxga; xxi iivoiffftitw; -rgurt; t^ilriKi ruv Xeyixuv rwrx^x yt*1> f'-ov{, lira, ixi/i»vx( -XoWev; x'ayaQevs, lira rieuxs, tira atiou-xev;, rut iif&ifauv lit H^ux; aroxgtfotrut. Phlt. de Defect. Or. ch. X. p. 415. 15 V. 158. 16 Athenag. Lcgat. p. 28. Plut. de Placit. i. 8. 17 The sombre spirit of the " Works and Days," and its appeal to invisible pro- tectors against the oppressions of lordly rule, may indicate the feeling of the ancient labourers of the soil under the usurped authority of feudal chiefs, a feeling which reverted with regret to the golden age of wealth and security they formerly enjoyed under favour of the divine "givers of good" {" vr\»vrtiorxi," v. 126) and of the II ■! 100 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. philosophy of Greece was partly a commentary on its poetry {i.e., its Orphic materials), partly a reaction against its sesthetical effects ; hut the philosophic deemonology was said to have heen more immediately inherited hy Pythagoras, Xenocrates, and Chrysippus, from that earlier theology whose symbolism had always adhered to the forms and language of pantheism' s; and its general psychological origin may he inferred from the use of the word " $ai/j.ov£$," in explanation of the animated universe of the earliest philosophy. When, for instance, Thales is reported to have said that the world is "full of daemons," his probable meaning, as interpreted by Aristotle and Cicero 19, is to express a belief in an all-pervading life or "Yy%Ji;" the same pantheistic feeling was at the root of the deemonology of the early theologers, whether Thracian, Egyptian, or Pythagorean, and was propagated downwards through the philosophy of Greece from Empedocles and Hera- clitus to Plato. The ®siov or Aaipoviov is, properly speaking, the essence or soul of the universe ; the source of movement in wind or stream, in plant or animal ; the life of the one, the instinct or will of the other ; under one aspect the aggregate deity of pantheism, or, under another, the infinite diversity of being which constitutes the population of the unseen world, and which the fancy may individualize either as gods or goblins. Dsemonology and polytheism were dissimilar yet concurrent developments of pantheism ; the same feeling of the universal dispersed through the particular, and as susceptible of indefinite multiplication as the diversities of forms, the subdivisions of time, or the aspects of thought, gave rise to the three hundred millions of Brahminical gods, the antetypical world of the sacerdotal kings now dead and beatified (hence " jha.ei'Kwov") who then governed them, and who, like the gods they served, exercised the kingly privilege of doing good. 18 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ch. xxv. De Defect. Orac. p. 699. Wytt. ch. 10. 12, 13. 15. Eustathius ad Iliad, A. pp. 17. 13. 36, attributes the fourfold division, the Quov , consisting of Qui and i«i/t(»!(, and mortals, of heroes and men, to the " '7ta.Xu.ia. trefia,." Aristot. Probl. xix. 49. 19 Arist. de Anim. i. 8. Cic. de Leg. ii. 11. N. D. i. 10. GREEK DifiMONOLOGY. 101 magi, the humanized pantheon of Homer, and the thirtj thousand " watchers" or " guardians" of Hesiod*0. The theory of intermediate beings becomes a necessary part of an advance in speculative religion ; the idea of spiritual natures, whether supreme or subordinate, is effected by a decomposition and mental re-construction of the visible; and the same process, which by a coarse and decided personification produced the gods and heroes of Greece, by a partial or equivocal re- organization of the abstract generated its daemons. The daemon might he a manifestation of the world within or the world without; there were local and family daemons, the spirits of deceased men, particularly the " ¥ uxai," as opposed to the more substantial "ai/roi" of historical heroes ; there were personified divisions of time and space, as the horce, or the equivocal " to-morrow," the " city" or " senate" of Home, the elements, and the nymphs and satyrs of fountain and forest The same sort of modified deification was applied to the abstract speculations of the human mind ; men were not content to treat conceptions as mere entities, but raised them to the rank of deities ; and if they were content to idolize in their standard gods the creations of the fancy of another, Empedocles or Plato might fairly venture to realize a transcendental or ideal world of supernatural abstractions on their own account, who were either to be parts of the Supreme Being, or as dsemons subordinate ministers of his will". Every arrangement of human economy or science would reflect its array of ghostly personifications ; astronomy, for instance, is said to have supplied 3G5 celestial ministers to Orpheus", as it suggested the Apsaras andGhandarvs of Indra, the twelve zodiacal Adityas of the Brahmins, and the 3G5 myriads of angels to the Jewish rabbis. Socrates, who preferred to search the " God within the mind" rather than those problems 80 Works, 250. Comp. Daniel, ch. iv. 23. 71 " Aaiftwt tm ai/{<«v." Callim. Epigr. 15. ■ Thus Empedocles deifies Nature, Death, Sleep, Love, Strife, \c. Karoten, p. 506. 33 Lac-taut, de Pals, Kelig. 7. Ghiigniaut, i. 836. 102 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. of the external world which had hitherto proved fruitless, spoke of an internal monitor or " dsemon" winch he supposed to have attended him from childhood, and whose suggestions he had always found it advantageous to ohey. The rapidity and subtlety of thought are often so unaccountable, that it can be no surprise to find a man of enthusiastic temperament intent on self-study ascribe the internal evolutions of the faculties to divine promptings in conformity with cotemporaneous belief in dreams, oracles, and other direct influences supposed to be exerted by the Deity over the human mind24. The intimations of the " dsemon" of Socrates were always, it is said, of a negative character25, acting invariably by way of restraint, never, or very rarely, by way of impulse or instigation ; perhaps because the negative theory of a " preventing grace" appears a kind of con- cession to the reason, a more moderate and probable form of the doctrine of inspiration than the general hypothesis ; or perhaps because the restraints and cautions of conscience and foresight are really more likely to be correct and safe than the active impulses, particularly the incitements of the passions. The Socratic " dsemon," it is said, was not prudence or conscience, for its possessor never referred to it on subjects clearly pene- trable by human means, or questions of moral right and wrong ; like Apollonius 26 he ridiculed those who expected to obtain by divine interference victory in the games and success in amorous or lucrative pursuits27. Nor, though philosophy was admitted to be a divine gift, did he ascribe its inferences to the prompt- ings of that particular form of inspiration winch he called his daemon. He believed himself to be divinely commissioned to instruct mankind28; and while admitting the absurdity of attributing common things to divine interference, he claimed it for more important things and higher gifts, especially the 84 Xenoph. Mem. i. 1. 9 and 19. Wiggers' Life, p. 26. 25 Plato, Theages. 128d. Apology, ch. xix. Xen. Mem. i. 1. 4. jS Philostrat. Vita. vii. 16. '*' Comp. Memor. i. 1. 9. -8 Plato, Apol. ch. xvii. pp. 30, 31. 33. QBEEK D.EM0N0L0GY. 108 crowning one of intelligence and virtue. The homeliness afi well as the exaggeration of language attributed to Socrates had ti common source in the perception of divinity in the commonest things. In him, as in other reflecting minds, a clear intellect contended with what we should now call a tinge of superstition ; and though internally conscious ofindependence and freedom, he yet, from temperament and hahit, clung to the dogma of inspired wisdom, the lofty notion of original genius inherited from antiquity29. Of this tendency the notion of the dcemon was part. Socrates believed in external oracles and in internal inspiration ; from the latter source he obtained intellectual and moral truths, from the former an insight into future events. The dromon was a kind of intermediate revelation, belonging psychologically to the latter class, in form and subject to the former, constituting in short a domestic or personal oracle. It was a warning voice, not in regard to general truths, but to specific events ; it was a term derived from common phraseology suited to his own characteristic tendencies, in order to designate the mysterious intimations, which though really resulting from superior sagacity appear to an enthusiastic imagination to transcend any possible discovery of unaided reflection ; it was that ready presentiment as to the expediency or inexpediency of certain acts, that pene- trating tact, which however naturally gained by a correct and persevering observer, seems at last to act involuntarily or instinctively. In order to express its lofty but vague concep- tions, philosophy was often compelled to make free use of super- natural imagery ; in so doing it exemplified the danger of " pouring new wine into old bottles," and the ideas of poetry revived in philosophical language seemed to renew the transcen- dentalism of the East. Socrates called the internal monitor a " divine voice" or " sign," without attempting any more distinct description of its nature. It was otherwise with his successors. The mysterious influence exerted over the mind by the external which Socrates did not venture to define, was more familiarly treated by men who could not sec that by personifying a part of -* Pind. 01. ii. 155; ix. 42. Cic. de Div. i. 3. 104 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. themselves they hut repeated what had been already done by the rudest superstition. The notion of the " to dai/xoviov," like that of the deity of which it is but another form, lost its dignity in proportion to the effort made to explain it, and the nobleness of the mystery evaporated in the process winch transformed it into an array of intermediate beings, only in a slight degree less gross than the polytheism of the epic pantheon. These inventions, like all others of a similar kind, act as a palliative for the mental disappointment occasioned by the endeavour, inevitable but unsatisfying, to elevate the Deity beyond the world, when on a sudden the proceeding is reversed, and pan- theism is inconsistently invoked to furnish a new machinery for filling the vacant place30. Plato calls everything Aaipoviov which occupies an intermediate position between the human and divine31; he defines daemons to be "beings who bring down into the world the oracular responses and good gifts of heaven, and who interpret and convey to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men. The divine, he adds, never mingles directly with the human ; all the association vouchsafed by the gods to mankind, either sleeping or waking, is transmitted through these intermediate beings, one of whom is Eros, or Love. " Behold," says Apuleius 32, " two races of intelligent beings, on one hand the gods, pre-eminent in place, eternal in duration perfect in their nature; on the other, man, feeble, perishable, and unhappy. What, then, is the chain of nature interrupted and broken ? Is being divided into two opposite and irreconcilable diversities of class, since Plato tells us that no god mingles with mankind, nor suffers the contamination of mortality ? Are men utterly banished from the communion of the immortals to this 30 The only other alternative is to make the Deity himself interfere fitfully, or by way of miracle, in certain emergencies. 31 "To/*ira%v Qicav x.a.i avfguirav." Sympos. p. 202. Comp. Epinomis, ch. viii. p. 984 ; and Politicus, 271. Proclus in Cratylum. p. 73, Boisson. One of the sug- gested etymologies of " Damion," Deva-mouni, " God-man," would aptly express this. Proclus. ib. p. 82. See the fourfold division of beings made by the Plato- nists. Creuz. S. i. 91 n. 33 De Deo Socratis, ch. iv. GREEK D.EMONOI.ocv. J 05 terrestrial Tartarus, without hope of the visit of a celestial shepherd to his mortal flock to control the unruly, to heal the afflicted, and to assist the needy? Plato would prohably reply that there are certain middle powers stationed between heaven and earth, through whom our desires and deserts are forwarded to the gods. The Greeks call them dromons ; by others they are called ' vectores ' or carriers. By these, as Plato tells us in the banquet, all denunciations, oracles, and presages are directed." "These things are ordered by the power and authority of the celestial gods, but effectuated through the offices and ministration of the daemons."3 It is not indeed fitting that the supernal gods should descend to offices of this kind. This is the province of intermediate gods, who dwell in the regions of the air, on the confines of earth and heaven; just as in every part of nature there are animals inhabitant in the regions to which they are appropriate, the volant in air, the gradient on the earth :i4. The gods pass a perfect and equable existence superior to passion and change ;<5; but intermediate beings are nearer to mortals not only in position but in mental affections, sharing immortality with the gods, and passion and suffering with men ; they possess, in short, rationality of intellect, passivity of moral feeling, aerial bodies and eternal duration. A peculiar tutelary daemon, according to Plato"', is allotted to every man, who is an unseen yet ever-present witness of his conduct, and who is the arbitrator not only of his deeds but even of his thought :" ; and when at the close of life the soul has to return, then the daemon who presided over it immediately seizes and leads it as his charge to judgment, and is there present while it pleads its cause. There, this daemon reprehends it, if it has acted on any false pretence ; solemnly confirms what it says if it asserts anything that is true ; and sentence is passed in strict conformity to this testimony. " All 33 De Deo Socratis, ch. vi. 31 Ch. vii. 34 Ch. xii. 36 Plato, Rep. v. 469s. Timae. 90a. Phacd. p. 1070. Conf. Censorinus de Die N. ch. iii. Servius to Georg. i. 302. ■" Ch. xvi. 106 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. you, therefore, who hear this divine opinion of Plato, so form your minds to whatever you do or purpose, that you may know there is nothing concealed from those guardians either within the soul or external to it, hut that the daemon who presides over you inquisitively participates in all that concerns you, sees all things, understands all things, and in the place of conscience dwells in the most profound recesses of the mind." The daemons, approximative^ distinguished hy the mystery of their nature from the heroes of the epic, were in later times more accurately separated from the gods, partly hy their sub- ordinate rank and partly by their questionable moral character. The original idea of the daipoviov as well of the Oeiov was as undefined in respect of character as of dignity ; it was a vague feeling of superhuman power, of power either for evil or good. At first the good aspect appears to have preponderated; the daemons of Hesiod are a sort of moral police (eaQboi, ettj^^ovioi), checking insolence and injustice, and presiding over the gifts of wealth. The vague superstition attached to the idea of daemon was employed by ancient Greek moralists and legislators38 in the same manner apparently as afterwards by the Apostle Paul 39, and which, had it been the primary conception instead of an after thought, might have justified the anti-religious theory of Critias, as a bugbear to enforce moral and civil obligations; thus at length evil daemons were recognised40 as instigators of physical and moral mischief or punishers of crime, and generally in all cases where it was inconsistent to admit the agency of a good genius, or of God. In the vague use of the term hero, it was as often confounded with the daemon in a bad sense as in a good ; bad heroes were the departed spirits of bad men41, often owing their sinister canonization to some accidental characteristic in the story of their lives42. In the later times of Judaism good 36 As Zalcucus, Charondas. Creuz. S. iii. 736. Stobaeus. Serm. xliv. 221, p. 291. Gaisford. 39 1 Cor. xi. 10, with Wettstein's note. *° Aaif&ovis i%fintiffToi, aXaaro^t;, 7ra\afit.vuiDi. 41 Pseud. Plut. de Placit. i. 8, p. 882. Diog. Laert. viii. 32. M Conf. Creuz. S. iii. 738. 742, in the instances of Euthymus and Cleomedes. THE MYSTERIES. 107 spirits were called angels, the word dromon being exclusively appropriated to the bad ; and the Christians, like other religionists, both Jew and Gentile, retorted upon the gods of their adversaries the title of " dai/xoves" originally belonging to them, but which, instead of being a title of their dignity, was now made the mark of their disgrace *". § 17. THE MYSTERIES. Dromonology seems less prominent in the early age of Greece owing to the peculiar form it took in the developments of poetry, and was afterwards almost exclusively confined to philosophy and to the mysteries, both of which were practical acknowledg- ments of the insufficiency of the popular religion to satisfy the deeper thoughts and aspirations of the mind. In Egypt and the East all religion, even its most poetical forms, was more or less a " mystery ;" ' and the chief reason why in Greece a distinct name and office was assigned to mysteries, was because the superficial theology of the epic, from which Euhemerus drew the only legitimate inference, left a want unsatisfied which re- ligion in a wider sense alone could supply. The vagueness of symbolism might perhaps reach what a more palpable and conventional creed could not. By its indefiniteness it acknow- ledged the abstruseness of its subject; it treated a mysterious subject mystically ; it endeavoured to illustrate what it could not explain, to excite an appropriate feeling, if it could not develop an adequate idea, and made the image a mere subordinate conveyance for the conception which itself never became too 43 Orig. against Cels. vii. p. 377 ; v. 234. Justin M. Apol. i. 9, p. 57. Prod, in Cratyl. Boiss. 80. "All the gods of the Heathen are Devils," said the Hebrew psalmist, Psalm xcv. 5, LXX. De Wette to 1 Cor. x. 20. The Indian gods were the Persian Deves. Lassen, Ind. Ant. i. 524. 1 Comp. Von Bohlen, " Indien," p. 155. 108 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. obvious or familiar. The instruction now conveyed by books and letters was of old conveyed by symbols, and the priest had to invent or to perpetuate a display of rites and exhibitions which were not only more attractive to the eye than words, but often to the mind more suggestive and pregnant with meaning2. With the Greeks as with Asiatics or Egyptians, almost any mythical narrative, whether heroic or directly theological, might be called in some sort a " mystery;" that is, it might be shown to possess a physical meaning involving analogies mysteriously interwoven with man's hopes and destination. The difference lay chiefly in the mode of treatment, and in varieties of feeling, which, from accident rather than reason, attached a higher sanctity and deeper meaning to one class of legends than to another. Popularly speaking, Dionysus as well as Hercules was a Theban hero, bom of a mortal mother ; both were sons of Zeus, both persecuted by Here. But in Hercules the god is subordinate to the hero ; while Dionysus, even in poetry, retains his divine character3, he is son of Semele, but, at the same time, son, or "assessor"4 of Demeter5, and in general estimation identical with the " Daemon Iacchus," the presiding genius of the mysteries6. The powers revered in the mysteries were all in reality Nature-gods, none of whom, as Herodotus perceived, could be consistently addressed as mere heroes, with the " Evayia/xa" in lieu of " duaia,"1 because their nature was confessedly superheroic, i.e., dasnioniacal or divine. And when Plutarch, in opposing euhemerism, attempts to reconcile the symbolical beings, Ceres, Isis, and Dionysus, with common opinion, without giving up their claim to divinity, and styles them, not indeed gods, such as the immortal Olympians, 2 " 'Ai tuv f/.vffrn^ieov nXirai sv trupfioXoi; ho^ouvrai xai rvtfats" Schol. Dionys. Areop. i. 58. Creuz. S. iv. 514. "'Tv-Juri; li^a(rxaXia;." Clem. Alex. Strom. v. 689. Lobeck, pp. 133. 140. 144. Demetrius Phal. de Eloc. s. ci. p. 45. Schn. and Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 317. 3 Comp. II. vi. 130. 4 n*sfyeS. * Diod. S. iii. 62. Cic. N. D. ii. 24. Schol. Pind. Isthm. vii. 3. ' Ktrabo, x. 468. 7 Herod, i. 167 ; ii. 44. THE MYSTERIES. 109 but daemons or divine mediators, in whom the human and superhuman were blended", he means what a modern would express by saying that Dionysus, &o. was a god whose physical characteristics were less concealed than those of other gods by the humanizing or epic spirit. The birth of the oxen-hoofed hero Dionysus is as ubiquitous as the power he represents ; he is summoned to his temple by the Maenades from the depths of ocean9, on which, like Osiris in winter, he is represented floating on a raft or chest ; ushered into the world amidst lightning and thunder10 as son of Semele, Thyone, or Demeter", he becomes the "liberator" celebrated in the festivities of Thebes, delivering Earth from winter's chain, conducting the " nightly chorus of the stars,"12 and the celestial revolution of the year13. His symbolism is the inexhaustible imagery employed to fill up the stellar devices of the zodiac; he is the vernal bull14, the lion, the ram, the autumnal goat, or serpent ; he is in short the varied deity, " essentially inferior to none," I5 yet changing with the seasons, and undergoing their periodical decay. The ten- dency to convert a dying god into a hero never entirely absorbed the real character of Dionysus, though it created a doubt as to the meaning of his worship, and gave occasion to the unfounded surmise that the mysteries were a direct refutation of the popular religion, explaining the stories of the gods alter the fashion of 8 " o'uk auiyi; oiSi angaro* ro ttiov." Comp. Eurip. Bacchae. 42. 215. 252. 268. 411, &.c. Isis and Osiris, ch. xxv. Dc Defect. Orac. ch. xv. 9 Plut. Qu. Gr. 36. Isis and Osiris, 35. Eurip. Bacchae. 1015. 10 "Uu^iytvns." Moser to Nonnus. p. 216. " Moser. ib. 188. Diod. S. iii. 62. Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 64. 233. Lydus de Mens. Roth. 198. Apollod. Frag. 29. 12 Soph. Antig. 1118. Aristoph. Frogs, 343. 15 i. e. the Sun, as invoked by the Eleans (Etym. M. ad. v. Pau3. vi. 26. 1. Virg. Georg. i. 6), the mighty hunter of the Zodiac (Eurip. Baccha:. 1180. 1226), or Zagreus (Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 235), the golden, or ruddy-faced (Bacchae. 545. 1071), "ffriK.ro* tx** ttagnxa, rvxci xi^aaa^Exov arr^t**." Nonn. D. xiv. 240. The D'Orsay Vase in Guigniaut, Plates, 727, fig. 463. M Eurip. Bacchae. 908. 1005. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 35. 15 Eurip. ib. 766. " AioXw, Tlamivat 3' t-rixXve-i:" Pans. iv. 2, 3. 110 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Euhemerus as annals of deceased men16. Yet though there is no reason for supposing that the Eleusinian Hierophant once every year proclaimed the religion of poetry to be false, it is probable that the mysteries, which were in fact only a more solemn expression of the same religion, suggested though they did not preach that doctrine of the Theocracia, or " Divine one- ness," winch even poetry does not entirely conceal17. The ancient deity nursed by the iEgean18, and rising out of the waters (Zevj am@a'Wj>uig) as Butes, Jason, or Deucalion, who in so many parts of Greece was said to have founded his own worship in the persons of Eumolpus19, Orpheus, or Eleuther20, who, among Ionians and Pelasgians, was made according to circumstances a god of the sea21 or of the shades", might more truly have been said to be created, or to have received the outlines of his specific character from the local peculiarities of his rites, from the funeral dirges of Asia23 or the orgiastic rites of Thrace24. The power whose oneness is a seeming mystery but really a truism, whose connection with Demeter or Perse- phone under various forms, as Hermes, Prometheus, or Poseidon, has been often before alluded to as the essence of the oldest religion of Greece, and one of the most abundant sources of its heroic legend25, reappears under the name of Dionysus, the god of Nature, or of the moisture which is the life of Nature, who prepares in darkness (Hades, Iasion, &c.) the return of life and vegetation, or who is himself the light and 16 Lobeck, 138. " Thus Zeus became a criminal adulterer through the many changes in his out- ward identity, and Hera, the mother of Nature, seemed as it were doomed to sterility (Lactant. i. 17) from the many nominal usurpations of her rights. 18 Aristid. i. 406, Dindorf. 19 Master of the harmonies of the universe— son of Poseidon, and grandson of Boreas (Paus. i. 38), who was father of Butes. 20 Hyg. Fab. 225. Diod. iv. 49. Eustat. Od. p. 1528. 4. 81 Poseidon, patron of Eleusis. Paus. i. 38. 22 Hermes. 23 .ffischyl. Prom. 400. 24 Herod, iv. 79. Paus. ii. 2. 5; ii. 7. 6. Comp. Muller, Kleine Schrift, p. 29. 26 Comp. supr. vol. i. 265, 266, 267. THE MYSTERIES. 1 1 1 change evolving their varieties. In the iEgean Islands he is Butes, Dardanus, Himeros, or Imbros20; in Crete he appears as Iasins or even Zens87, whose orgiastic worship remaining un- veiled by the usual forms of mystery betrayed to profane curiosity the symbols which if irreverently contemplated were sure to be misunderstood-28. In Asia he is the long-stoled Bassaivus coalescing with the Sabazius of the Phrygian Corybantes28, and he seemed to be bom anew30 when he laid aside a part of the quaintness and mystery of Ms character, and when Greek art transferring his grotesque deformities to attendant Satyrs and Sileni, embodied the fundamental conception of him under the fairest form of human beauty and eternal youth31. Yet not- withstanding this partial transformation he still remained theo- logically one with the mystic Iacchus or Prometheus, the "nursling" or son of Ceres32, and with the dismembered Zagreus, the son of Persephone. Zagreus was an ancient subterranean Dionysus33, or rather a mystic version of the god whose character was most nearly represented by Dionysus among the poetical " immortals." He was the " horned " progeny of Zeus in the constellation of the serpent34 entrusted by his father with the thunderbolt, and encircled with the pro- tecting dance of Curetes. Through the envious artifices of Hera the Titans eluded the vigilance of his guardians and tore him to pieces ; but Pallas restored the still palpitating heart to 28 Diod. S. v. 48. 27 Comp. vol. i. pp. 263 sq. 320 sq. Hence the Eleusinian Demeter might seem to have come from Crete. H. Dem. 123. 28 Diod. v. 77. 28 Strabo, p. 470. 30 Herod, ii. 49. 145. Horn. Hymn. Dion. 26. Eurip. Bacchae. 22. 86. 450. 474. Cic. N. D. iii. 23. 31 Comp. Guigniaut, iii. 330. 32 Suidas in v. Iacchus. Guigniaut, iii. 232. Paus. ix. 25. 6. 33 Tzetzes to Lycophr. 355. Hesych. ad v. Nonnus in Guigniaut, iii. 23S ; and in Mitchell's Introd. to the Frogs, xcviii. 34 Hence the saying, " Taurus Draconem genuit et Taurum Draco." Clem. Alex. Protr. ii. s. 16, p. 14, Pott. 112 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. his immortal father, who commanded Apollo to bury the dis- membered remains upon Parnassus35. The religion of Ceres and Dionysus is admitted to have been long anterior to the heroic or Homeric age36, the conformity of the sacra of Ephesus and Attica proving that the parent worship must have existed before the Ionian migration37. Homer possibly knew of no mysteries ; at least the spirit of his poetry is alien to them, exploring the wilds of fancy rather than fathoming the depths of thought, turning religion into the pageant of a carnival, and as it were spreading flowers upon graves. Yet he cannot on this account be presumed to have been personally devoid of deeper feeling. He was acquainted with the deities to whose worship the principal mysteries eventually became attached ; he speaks of Dionysus as a god, describing by the word " ^aivo^ivog " the general character of his rites ; and the subordinate position held by these Deities in the epic proves not any real inferiority, but merely that they were considered inappropriate to be directly brought forward among its descriptions38. The general characteristic of the oldest Pelasgian religion was a worship of Cthonian powers or Cabiri, of those "givers of good things" who promised wine to the Argonauts at Lemnos, and whom the Attic youth of the olden time appeased with anniversary offerings of lambs and bulls39. The success of Pelasgian agriculture was mythically commemorated in such stories as that of the birth of Plutus from Iasion and Demeter, of the hospitable reception of the latter goddess by Pelasgus at Argos, by Dysaules at Phlius, by Prometheus at Thebes, by Keleos at Eleusis40; and more 35 Clem. Alex. Protr. 15, Potter. Firmicus Matemus, de Errore P. R. p. 13. The passage in Pausanias (viii. 37) mentioning the alterations in Bacchic legend effected by Onomacritus, is understood to refer to the employing "Titans" eo nomine as actors in the tragedy, not to an invention of the far more ancient legend of the death of the Nature-God. Supr. vol. i. p. 194. 36 Miiller, Kleine Sehrift, p. 91. 37 Strabo, xiv. 633. Herod, ix. 97. 38 Miiller, ib. 66. 91. a Iliad, ii. 547. Volcker, Japetus, 372. <0 Miiller, Orchom. 120. Paus. i. 14. 2 ; ii. 14. 3 ; ix. 25. 6. Lobeck, Agl. 43. THE MYSTERIES. 1 1 8 historically in the anniversary festivals of Thessaly and Attica, in traditions of the wealth of Mycenae or Orchomenos, or of the rich harvests won hy Pelasgian Tyrrheni from the stony slopes of Hymettus41. When the mountain tribes, Ionian, Boeotian, or Dorian, under the name of " sons of Hercules," invaded the plains, converting the old sacerdotal kingships into a feudalism of warrior chiefs4*, a mental accompanied the political revolution, when the old religious legends winch the conquerors neither attempted nor wished to obliterate received a new aspect by becoming interwoven with their own poetical traditions43. The old symbolical religion now began to assume its eventual character as a mystery, the mystery consisting not so much in the enigmatical complexion of its symbols, as in the attitude which the old forms of thought assumed in respect of the new. The latter were exhibited in a superficial poetry calculated to delight rather than to instruct, to give Awrftorvvnv it xuxuv, aft-rccv/Ax Se f&tpfingccav** to the energetic agent or hero self-conscious of elevation above nature, while the mystic or meditative feeling inherited from an age when man was yet a part of nature was obliged to seek a distinct organ for its expression. The accounts of the initiation of Hercules and the Dioscuri by Eumolpus or Triptolemus45 may suggest how the conquerors took part in the religious solemnities of the conquered, and how the spirit of the age which appeared most opposed to mysteries became directly instrumental in creating them. For, as Thucydides observes that there could be no notion of " barbarians " until the opposite scale of the antithesis was filled by that of Hellenic nationality, so the establishment of a sensuous and poetical theology « Herod, vi. 137. a Still called, however, " /WiXu; " (comp. Pind. 01. ix. 84), as well as " i\ox" a»3«tf," '' trr^ara^oi," &.c, opposed to Teleontes. Comp. Miiller, Orchom. 180. Apollod. i. 9. 16. 8. Paus. ix. 25. 6. « Miiller, Orchom. 181. 446. « Hes. Th. 55. Volcker, ib. p. 371. 45 Aristid. vol. i. p. 58, and 417, Dind. Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 3. 6. VOL. II. I 114 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. which discarded mystery, was the necessary antecedent of the formal recognition of a system confronted and contrasted with it. That the transition was not the introduction of any novelty, but rather the parting of the current of thought into separate channels, is implied in the remarkable account given by Herodotus40 of the "preservation" of the mysteries of Eleu- sinian Demeter in Arcadia, the goddess so often worshipped there as a Cthonian power or Erinnys by the aborigines, and in the analogous description in Pausanias47 of the " discon- tinuance " through the Boeotian invasion of the Theb an worship of Cabiri, and its subsequent revival with greater sanctity by " Pelarge," a name probably personifying the more ancient performers of it. Thus the cause of the mysteries was partly the inherent obscurity of natural religion, but chiefly the accidental change which confronted poetical with more ancient forms. The Greek mystery was neither a thing inscrutable, nor a thing intentionally secreted; it was a symbol implying more than it seemed to convey, a rite distinguished by unusual solemnity. Nothing could be more apparently opposed to the immortal gods of poetry than the notion of a dying god, accom- panied by the rites of Cthonian powers, and the ceremonies of lustration and purification substituted by Orphic prescription for the heroic virtue exemplified in Hercules. Yet the mysteries were not in any open hostility with the popular religion, they were only a more solemn exhibition of its symbols, or rather a part of itself in a more impressive form. The essence of all mysteries48, as of all polytheism, consists in this, that the con- ception of an unapproachable Being, single, eternal, and unchanging, and that of a god of Nature whose manifold power is immediately revealed to the senses in the incessant round of movement, life, and death, fell asunder in the treat- ment, and were separately symbolized; and that though the 46 Herod, ii. 171, and v. 61. Comp. Paus. viii. 37. 6; 42. 2. Clem. Alex. Cohort, i. 2. 13. 47 Paus. ix. 25. 6; comp. iv. 1. 4. Miiller, Orchom. 118. 48 Comp. Miiller, Orchom. 450. FORM OF THE MYSTERIES. 115 connection between the two was in some measure restored by other symbols, such as those of marriage and generation, the popularity of an epic literature, together with the simultaneous and universal passion for the vague and mysterious, prevented them from absolutely converging and reuniting. Or if it be objected that externally the symbols were both in substance and in treatment the same49, the aim of poetry might be said to be gained when the imagination was amused, while the mysteries offered a perpetual problem to excite curiosity, and even if failing to suggest wisdom to the understanding, at least contributed to satisfy the all-pervading religious sentiment, which if it obtain no nourishment among the simple and intel- ligible finds compensating excitement in a reverential contem- plation of the obscure. § 18. FORM OF THE MYSTERIES. Nature is as free from dogmatism as from tyranny ; and the earliest instructors of mankind not only adopted her lessons, but as far as possible adhered to her method of imparting them. They attempted to reach the understanding through the eve, and the greater part of all religious teaching was conveyed through this ancient and most impressive mode of " exhibition" or demonstration1. The mysteries were a sacred drama*, ex- 49 Compare the story of Dionysus in the Iliad, also Schol. Ambros. to Odyss. viii. 266; and Bacon, De Augm. Scient, bk. ii. ch. 13. 1 Hence the expressions, " AuxnXa," " apprira <$xns," " ayiifam*," " j£sf »vsv." Herod, ii. 49. 171. Horn. Iliad, i. 87. Odyss. x. 302. Hym. Cerer. 479. Eurip. Phoeniss. 533. The proper business of the diviner was to "infer" by sagacious conjecture (iixcc^oviti, Herod. i. 84, and iv. 132, Valcn.) the meaning of natural appearances. 2 "Ta ipufitva." Paus. ii. 37. 3; ix. 25. 5. Euseb. Pr. Ev. iii. 1. 1. Clem. Alex. p. 680. Weiske, Frometheus, 437. The mysteries consisted seemingly of two parts, the scenic exhibition, and a commentary on it; "Iou/jlhui jktX>;|<;" and ,: ftv0vv ifv/uai." Aristid. Eleus. 256, vol. i. p. 415, Dind. The latter, the "Xiyc/ma. it/ ran loufiiiti;," or " hem >.oyoi," were most probably only stated collaterally and occasionally. I 2 116 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. hibiting some legend significant of Nature's change \ of the visible universe in which the divinity is revealed, and whose import was in many respects as open to the Pagan as to the Christian. Beyond the current traditions or iepot hoyoi of the temple, few explanations were given to the spectators, who were left, as in the school of Nature, to make inferences for themselves. It has been said that the method of indirect suggestion (allegory or v7iovoia) is a more efficacious instrument of instruction than plain didactic language4, since we are habitually indifferent to that which is acquired without effort ; "the initiated are but few, though many bear the thyrsus,"5 and it would have been impossible to provide a lesson suited to every degree of cultivation and capacity unless it were one framed after Nature's example, or rather a representation of Nature herself, employing her universal symbolism instead of technicalities of language, inviting endless research yet reward- ing the humblest enquirer, and disclosing its secrets to every one in proportion to his preparatory training and power to com- prehend them 6. Yet though destitute of any formal or official enunciation of those important truths which even in a cultivated age it was often found inexpedient to assert except under a veil of allegory, and winch, moreover, lose their dignity and value in proportion as they are learned mechanically as dogmas7, the shows of the mysteries contained suggestions which, in the opinion not of one competent witness only but of many, were adapted to elevate the character of the spectators, enabling them to 3 Cicero, N. D. i. 42. 4 " To /utv 2/' t/Tovoia; (T-/ifi.aiv/ifiniov ttyaarov, to oi (pocvigv; \iyof/.i*o\> tvriki;. Plut. in Lobeck, p. 161. 5 Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 19, p. 372. Plato, Phaedo, 69 H. 6 Comp. Herod, ii. 3 ; where the names or symbols open to all men, appear to be contrasted with the interpretations, more or less conjectural and unauthorized, which could not be published with safety or advantage. 7 The very permanence of the mysteries is a proof that their form was not dogmatical but suggestive or illustrative, susceptible of modifications of interpre- tation like the notion of Zeus or of Elysium, and connected with those hopes and fears which attend mankind from their lowest state to their maturity. FORM OF THE MYSTERIES. 117 augur something of the purposes of existence as well as of tho menus of improving it, to live better and to die happier*. Unlike the religion of hooks or creeds, these mystic shows and performances8 were not the reading of a lecture hut the opening of a problem, implying neither exemption from research nor hostility to philosophy ; on the contrary, philosophy might he justly called the great " mystagogue," ,0 the arch-expounder of symbolism, the soul's best guide through the labyrinth of mythology as through that of Nature, and it has been already noticed how from its outset the philosophy of Greece eagerly undertook the task of interpreting its mythi, endeavouring, often rashly and injudiciously, to find support in ancient symbolism for its own physical or moral dogmas. It is as indisputable that in many instances its interpretations were ill founded as that in others they were correct. It was impossible to deny that within the mass of Hellenic mythi might be found a purpose and a use, that some were illustrative of physical phenomena, some calculated to inspire consolation or to dissipate groundless fears ; but it was alleged that these possible advan- tages were practically of small amount, owing to the limited number of those who from habits of reflection were likely to use and appreciate them". Yet neither the rarity of philo- sophical thought nor the uncertainty of its interpretations can be said to demonstrate the absolute superiority, at least in these matters, of the didactic method over the symbolical. If one be more definite and perspicuous, the other is more forcible and comprehensive ; and no better means could be devised to rouse a dormant intellect than those impressive exhibitions which addressed it through the imagination, which instead of con- demning it to a prescribed routine of creed invited it to seek, 8 Cicero de Leg. ii. 14 ; 269, Creuz. Aristoph. Frogs, 346. 455. Aristides, Eleusin. 256. 415, and 421, Dind. Pind. Frag. 128. Lobeck, 39. 69. 73. • " Ta hixtufittx xai l^ai/titx." Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. iii. 10 " \oyov tx (piXoirofftas putrrxyuyov." Plut. ib. ch. lxviii. The true Bacchanal, says Plato, is the true philosopher. Phaedo, 69 d. " Dionys. Hal. Antiq. ii. 20. 118 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. compare, and judge. The alteration from symbol to dogma is as fatal to beauty of expression as that from faith to dogma to truth and wholesomeness of thought. The first philosophy often reverted to the natural mode of teaching as well as to mythological imagery, and Socrates in particular is said to have eschewed dogmas, endeavouring, like the mysteries, rather to awaken and develop in the minds of his hearers the ideas with which they were already endowed or pregnant, than to fill them with ready-made adventitious opinions12. This negative or reserved method was not devised for the purpose of concealing the truth, but as a mode of expression when other modes were defective or wanting. The earliest speculation endeavoured to express far more than it could distinctly comprehend, and the vague impressions of the mind found in the mysterious analogies of phenomena their most apt and energetic representatives. Nature may be studied either in its wide bearings and analogies, or to ascertain its immediate links of causation and succession. In regard to the former, or things transcendental, mankind can scarcely be said to have advanced beyond the religious symbol- ism of India, Egypt, or Eleusis, for even Christianity admits the invisible world to be inconceivable, and that men can know God only so far as they become acquainted with his laws, and act in conformity with his will. "Behold," exclaims Lobeck10, " the vaunted results of the august mysteries of the Pelasgian philosophers ; they knew the great truths that wine inebriates, that fruit and corn are the food of man, that the fields begin to yield their increase in spring, and that in autumn their produce dies away ! " These are indeed but trifles, yet the lessons of Nature, however trite, and often unheeded from their very simplicity, contain a wisdom still unfathomed, and every dis- covery either in theology or science may exemplify the remark of the Koman, that it was only by attending to trifles that his country acquired a power which overcame the world. All nature is as nothing to those unable to comprehend it, the 12 Diog. Laert. i. 10. Cic. de Or. iii. 16. Brandis, Hist. Philos. ii. 19. 24. 13 Aglaoph. p. 180. FORM OF THE MYSTERIES. 119 firmament but a collection of vapours, the earth a lump of common dirt. "If," says Lobeck14, "there was no distinction in the mysteries of exoteric and esoteric, all hope of maintaining their dignity is at an end." As well may it be said that because Nature is open to all, without being comprehended by all, her operations are but an insipid and undignified routine, the mechanism to which the unreflecting are harnessed in order to turn them to material account. The steps of initiation were inseparably bound up with the constitution of phenomena, and had their necessary existence in the minds of the novitiates. The poet or philosopher might be said by virtue of their office either to have been initiated or to be above the want of initia- tion, since they had already felt in nature those eloquent analogies of which the mysteries were but a false or feeble image, revealing no new secret to those unprepared or incapable of interpreting their significancy. The eventual separation of the office of philosopher from that of priest15, that is, from a technical acquaintance with traditions about days and seasons and peculiarities of temples and deities, affords no proof that the latter were destitute of foundation in what may be called the philosophy of the times in which they originated. Pytha- goras might have sought the initiation which Socrates from an obscure statement was thought to have neglected, since philo- sophy itself was in many respects the offspring of theology and of the lore commonly ascribed to Orpheus1", a name not to be understood pragmatically of an historical being distinct from Eumolpus or Museeus17, but as a general personification of the old Thracian theology and theological poetry in the sense understood by Pindar18, including, as presumed author of the " Aglaoph. p. 43. ,s Plato, Polit. 290 ". ,0 Apollod. i. 3. 2. Eurip. Rhesus. 940. Lactant. i. 22. 17 Tlato, Protag. 310, compared with Aristoph. Ranee, 1032. Comp. Lobeck Agl. 187. 239. 18 Pyth. IT. 177. Aoiia, **rr,f tvaivwros Otftu;. Rock. Kr.-ta, iii. 195. Orpheus is chiefly described as a tiXkttv; in relation to Dionysus, Musa-us as Cres- mologos in relation to Demeter ; but the gods and offices were united. The oldest mention of Orpheus by Ibycus proves that the name was already celebrated. That 120 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. heroic metre, the names of Homer and Hesiod among his descendants and disciples19. From this common source of religion and poetry flowed in one direction the inspiration of the epic, in another the symbolism and ceremonial of the Hierophant20. Both were connected with the same mythical personage, who, like Hermes or Zoroaster, unites human attributes with divine, and is himself the god whose worship he introduced2', teaching rude men the commencements of civili- zation through the influence of song, and connecting with the symbol of his death, emblematic of that of nature, the most essential consolations of religion22. § 19. THE WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS. To say that Orpheus founded the mysteries1 is tantamount to the assertion that the first religionists were poets. Poetry arose long before Homer, whose silence in regard to the name of Orpheus no more disproves his existence, i. F DIONYSUS. 128 the antiquated or inferior. At all events the antagonism, what- ever Its Bource, was not continued. Analogous personifications were incorporated or taken up by newer ones, either vanquished as rivals or adopted as sons; for example, when Trophonius or Asclepius (son of Ischys) was adopted by Apollo'2, or when the priestly descendant of the Arnythaonidte (Amphiaraus or Melampns) became his friend2'1. It seems a strange inversion when Apollo is made son of Silenus and to bo killed by Python84, or when his attributes become intermixed with those of representations of Dionysus or Hermes, the dying and reviving power, in Pythagoras, Abaris, Euphorbias, or Xa- molxis23. Yet Dionysus as well as Apollo was leader of the Muses26, the tomb of one accompanied the worship of the other27, they were the same, yet different, contrasted, yet only as filling separate parts in the same drama28, and the mystic and heroic personifications, the God of Nature and of Art, seem at some remote period to have proceeded from a common source29. Their separation was one of form rather than sub- stance, and from the time when Hercules obtained initiation from Triptolemus30, or Pythagoras received Orphic tenets'", 22 Paus. ix. 37. 3. Miiller, Orchom. 1-43. 195. 23 Diod. S. vol. ii. Excerpt, p. 546. Horn. Odyss. xv. 225. -' Porphyr. in Vit. Pythag. 18 or 30, Kicssl. He was also called " Dionyso- dotus." Paus. i. 31. 25 Iambi. Vit. Fyth. 140. 294, Kiessl. Comp. Paus. iii. 13. Or again, when the temple of Apollo Ptous is built by a 3on of Athamas (Tans. iii. 23. 8), as was that of Delphi by Trophonius. Erginus, father of Trophonius, is himself a sort of Apollo. Lutat. to Theb. Stat. vii. 345. Comp. Pliorbas, Zethus, Xuthus, Tenerus, &c 24 Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 146. 185. 291. Straho, 10. Creuz. S. iv. 71. 27 i. e., on Pierian Olympus as well as on Parnassus. Taus. ix. 30. " Apollini et Libera Tatri in eodem monte res divina celebratur." Macrob. Sat. i. 18. 28 Plutarch de ei Delph. 9. Lobeck. 1113. 1133. 1179. ■ " Aristoteles— Apollinem et Liberum patrem unum eundemque Deum esse — asserat." Macrob. i. 18. ■■■'• Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 3. 6. ■>' To the Pythagorean Orphici we owe the greater part of the BO-called Orphic poetry, and it was they who practised the Orphic life alluded to in Euripides and Plato. 124 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. the two conceptions were tending to re-combine. It was said that Dionysus or Poseidon had preceded Apollo in the oracular office 32 ; and as the victory of Perseus over the Bacchanals33 was unexpectedly followed by the domestication of the Cretan Zagreus at Argos34, so Dionysus continued to be esteemed in Greek theology as " healer" and " Saviour," author of life and immortality35. Apollo forgot his old antipathy to the pipe of Marsyas36, and the remains of Dionysus were buried on Parnassus37 by the side of a kindred god who was Ins superior only because immortal 88. §20. SUGGESTIONAL IMAGERY OF THE MYSTERIES. The mysteries embraced the three great doctrines of ancient theosophy. They treated of God, man, and nature. In sym- 32 Paus. x. 5, 6 ; x. 32. 7. 33 Paus. ii. 20. 4 ; xxii. 1. 34 Paus. ii. 23. 8. 36 Paus. ii. 37. 2 ; 31. 2; 37. 5; x. 33. 11 ; i. 20. 3. 36 Paus. ii. 32. 9. 37 Paus. x. 32. Aristoph. Nub. 595. Soph. Antig. 1126. Clem. Alex. Protr. p. 15. Bacchae. Eurip. 551. Plutarch, Isis, ch. xxxv. Philochori Frag. 22. Minuc. Fel. Octavius, p. 189 or 160. 38 The fact that the dispersed Pythagoreans, the " sons of Apollo," should have immediately betaken themselves to the Orphic service of Dionysus, is of itself evidence that the gods and their worship were not dissimilar. The stories of inspired Apollinic priests riding through the air on arrows (" tpoilioXa^Troi "), of secret charms and a golden thigh, seem to indicate that there was always something Dionysiac in the religion of Apollo, though it did not come to conspicuous maturity till afterwards. (Ol piv wgorsgav, »l V inrn^ov." Herod, ii. 81. 123.) Looking only to the reminiscences which have been preserved of genuine tenets or observances bearing the name " Orphic," it would seem as if its whole importance dated from the Pythagorean coalition ; if on the other hand we consider the religion of Greece as consisting in its innumerable songs and mythi of which Orphic priests and bards must have been the guardians and expositors, the name would seem to expand even beyond the wide signification it bore in later times, and to embrace not only the orgies of Dionysus, but the foundations of the whole theological system of which the orgies were but a branch oi part. IMAGERY OF THE MYSTERIES. 1'25 bolical (not dogmatical) forms1 they exhibited the One of which the manifold is an infinite illustration2, containing a moral lesson calculated to guard the soul through life and to cheer it in death3. Physical phenomena were throughout ancient theology made prolific of moral and mental lessons. The story of Dionysus was profoundly significant ; he was not only creator of the world, hut guardian, liberator, and saviour of the soul. The toys which occupied hiin when surprised by the Titans, the top, the wheel, the distaff, the golden Hesperian apples, were primarily cosmogonic ; an emblem of similar class was the magic ruirror or face of Nature, in which, according to a Platonic notion, but which existed probably long before Plato, the Creator beholds himself imperfectly reflected4; and the bowl, or "womb" of being, in which matter became pregnant with life, or wherein the pantheistic deity became mingled with the world5. Dionysus, god of the many-coloured mantle0, is the resulting manifestation personified ; he is the polyonymous7, the all in the many, the varied year, life passing into innumerable forms. But according to the dogma of antiquity, the thronging forms of life are aseries of purifying migrations8 through which the divine principle reascends to the unity of its source. Inebriated in the bowl of Dionysus and dazzled in the mirror of existence, the souls, those fragments or sparks of the universal intelligence, forgot their native dignity, and passed into the terrestrial forms they coveted9. Consciousness is the true mirror in which Aristotle conceived the divine mind alone to enjoy a plenary beatitude ; but individual consciousness is necessarily imperfect, reflecting only the limited truth attainable by its possessor. It 1 "Traditio sacrorum." Lobeck, Agl. 39". 2 Cic. N. D. i. 42. 3 Diod. S. iii. 62, p. 138. Schol. Apollon. i. 917. Isoc. Paneg. 46 \ Plato, Phaedo, 69 (28, Bek). H. Ceres, 480. * Proclus. in Timae. iii. p. 163. 5 Proclus. ib. 314. Plato, Timae. 41 d. Athenaeus, xi. 478. 6 " AiaXofio^o;." " Soph. Alltig. 1115. 8 The Indian dogma that all change and generation is a punishment recurs in Anaximenes. Brandis, Gr. Philos. i. 87. 129. 9 Macrob. Somn. Scip. i. 12, p. 66. Zeun. Phaedrus, 248. 12G ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. was in this mirror, faithful to the universal but treacherous in its partial use, and which was hence thought inherently deceit- ful, that the soul became enamoured of its own individuality, and its eventual fall was beautifully described in the stories of Hylas and Narcissus. The most usual type of the spirit's descent was suggested by the sinking of the sun and stars from the upper to the lower hemisphere. The descent was supposed to commence at the sign Cancer, technically, " the gate of men," the point of the sun's culmination and subsequent decline, and at each tropic was placed an emblematic dog or Hermanubis, one guarding the approach to the living, the other to the dead10. When the soul arrived within the portals of the proper empire of Dionysus, the " god of this world," the scene of delusion and change, its individuality became as it were clothed in a material form. Its tissue, manufactured in the loom of nature, was said to be the work of Clotho, Ilithya, Artemis, or Minerva Ergane, the many-named divinity of the distaff, in Egypt the veiled Neith, in India the seductive Maia, the weaver of destiny known also under the same name in Greece11, or under that of Penelope-Proserpina12, the wife and sister of Iacchus. And as individual bodies were compared to a garment, the world was the investiture of the universal spirit constituting the magic peplus of Zeus or Dionysus13, the flowery tissue on which Proserpine with her attendant nymphs whose names are but repetitions of herself, was employed when surprised upon the plain of Nysa or Enna by Hades14. Again the body was compared to a vase or urn, mystically termed the soul's " reci- pient,"15 the world being the mighty bowl which received the descending Deity, and each material bodily frame a vessel framed of earth by heat and moisture to retain its portion16. 0 Clem. Alex. Strom, v. 7. Porphyr. Antr. vi. 22. 1 Porphyr. Abstin. Rhcer. iv. 16, p. 352. Procl. in Tim. 63. 96. 1 Porphyr. de Antro. 14. 3 Apollon. Rhod. iv. 425. Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 307. 366. 551. 4 Diod. S. v. 3. 5 Hermes in Stobae. Heer. p. 1085. Creuzer's Dionysus, 158. 178. 8 Porphyr. de Antro. ch. 13. IMAGERY OF THE MYSTERIES. 127 In another image, ancient as the grottos of the Magi and the denunciations of Ezekiel, the world was as a dimly-illumined cavern, where shadows seem realities, and where the soul hecomes forgetful of its celestial origin in proportion to its pronenesfl to material fascinations17. In the cup or howl of Dionysus, the "joyous " hestower of the vintage ls, where creation is not the Mosaic separation but the Orphic " intermixture," mantles the intoxicating beverage of which some partake guardedly, while others, like the besotted victims of Circe or Icarius, drench themselves profusely with the overflowing draught; for Nature is the moisture personified in Dionysus'", it is a perpetuallv- flowing stream20, and the period of the spirit's embodiment is as when exhalations are condensed, and the aerial element assumes the grosser form of water21. It is the stream in which Nar- cissus was dazzled by the reflection of his own image, and beneath whose surface he was submerged, or pining with sad- ness melted into its transparent depths. But if vapour falls in water, water is again the birth of vapours which ascend and adorn the heavens. If our mortal existence be the death of the spirit, our death may be the renewal of its life; as physical bodies are exalted from earth to water, from water to air, from air to fire, so the man may rise into the hero, the hero into the god2'. In the course of nature the soul to recover its lost estate must pass through a series of trials and migrations. The scene of those trials is that grand sanctuary of initiation, the world88; 17 Plato, Pha'do, p. 110. 84, Wytt. Politeia, vii. 1, p. 514. Porphyr. de Antro. ch. 9 sq. Plut. de S. Vindicta, p. 97, Wytt. The cavern in which were deposited the treasures given to Ulysses-Hermes by the Phceacians (Odyss. xiii. 367. 398), afterwards covered by Minerva with a stone. Comp. Clem. Alex. Strom, iii. 518 Potter. 18 " noXvynfaf." Hes. Op. 614. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ch. 35. Virg. iEn. i. 734. 19 Plut. Isis, 34, 35. Eurip. Bacchae. 275. Porphyr. de Antr. 9; or Zeus "lunos." Ciena. S. i. 466 ; iii. 79 sq. 96. 141. M The " pioutrri $u convert tin: cup of Dionysus into a draught of wisdom. For the emblems of water, the cup and the oaveni have a twofold meaning*4. Dionysus holds two cups, the ctip of generation, and also that of wisdom or initiation39, whose influence is contrary to that of the other, causing the soul to abhor its material bonds and to long for its return. The first cup was the Lethe of the spirit, the second the urn of Aquarius quaffed by the returning spirit as by the returning sun, and emblematic of the exchange of worldly impressions for the recovered recollection of the glorious sights and enjoyments of its pre-existencc ". Water nourishes and purifies, and the urn from which it flows was thought worthy to be a symbol of the Deity, as of the Osiris-Canobus who with living water irrigated the soil of Egypt, and also an emblem of the hope which should cheer the dwellings of the dead'7. It was from Egypt, the valley created and ever regenerated by water, where Hermes held the mystic urn before the tribunal of Osiris-Amenthes, thatAmymone with her sister Danaides seemed to have brought the Thesmophoria and with them the refreshing fountain called after her name to the dry plain of Argos'8; in other words, she brought with her the consolatory doctrines of which water is the emblem, insuring to the initiated her title of the " Pure" and the " Irreproach- able," while the broken urns of her sisters™, if this portion of the story be equally authentic, may represent the aimless ebbing and flowing of unregenerate nature, the disconsolate condition of the uninitiated and ignorant. The second birth of Dionysus 34 Porphyr. de Antr. ch. 10. •>s "Ke«T«f roipixs." Guigniaut, R. iii. 281. 302. 304. 309. Plato says, the object of the mysteries is to restore the spirit to that "bourne" (riXm) from which it took its departure. Phaedo. ,: Virg. Mn. vi. 715. Hyg P. A. ii. 29; iii. 28. Guigniaut, iii. 323.335. 37 Guigniaut, iii 321.324. CreiuerSymb.iT. 140. Nork's Dictionary, Art King. Hence probably the \ast number of urns found in the sepulchres of Magna (iracia. ■'• " XloXuli^iov Agye;." Iliad, IT, 171. Herod, ii. 171. Paus. ii. 15. 5. 9 " 't\,ai a.TtXt„r aSecbin. Axioch. Pans. x. 31. Plato, Gorg. 493 ». VoL. II. K 130 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. as offspring of the Highest is a type of the spiritual regeneration of man. The agents, and consequently the symbols of this regeneration, are the elements effecting Nature's periodical purification, the air indicated by the mystic fan or winnow, the fire signified by the torch40, or again, the baptismal water41; for water is not only cleanser of all things, but the genesis or source of all42; it renews the disposition of the mind as it alters the constitution of the body43, or as the virginity of Juno was restored when she bathed in the fountain Parthenion 44. These notions clothed in ritual suggested the soul's reformation and training, the moral purity said to have been formally proclaimed by the Hieroceryx at Eleusis ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose the exhortations attributed to the initiated by the comic dramatist to have been in this respect suggested by language really held in the mysteries45. " Happy the man," it might be said, " who purines his life, and who reverently consecrates his soul in the thiasus of the god46. Let him take heed to his lips that he utter no profane word47; let him be just and kind to the stranger and to his neighbour; let him give way to no vicious excess, lest he make dull and heavy the organs of the spirit48. Far fi'om the mystic dance of the thiasus be the impure, the evil speaker, the seditious citizen, the selfish hunter 40 Serv. to Virg. Georg. ii. 388. Mn. vi. 740. Guig. R. iii. 225. Winckel- mann, Allegorie, p. 142, 12rao. ed. 41 " To 5rSv ol Qioi K«.6a.i£outru> h iav." Herod, ii. 49. 0J Lobeck, Aglaoph. i. p. 200sq. Clem. Alex. Protrep. p. 17, Pott. 64 K^eros, a son of Pan by a Muse, was said to have been placed by Zeus among the stars. Erntosth. Catast. 28. IMAGERY OF THE M YSTEIU Ks. 133 discipline of peculiar ami even ascetic strictness'1'', and being in fact only exhibitions of an unreasoning religion. The votary elevated beyond the sphere of his ordinary faculties, and unable to account for the agitation which overpowered liim, seemed to become divine in proportion as he ceased to be human, to be a daemon or god. Already in imagination the initiated were num- bered among the beatified00 ; they alone enjoyed the true life, the Sun's true lustre", while they hymned their god beneath the myrtle groves of a mimic Elysium, and were really renovated or regenerated under the genial influence of their dances08. Human ceremonies are indeed but imperfect symbols; and the alternate baptisms in fire and water intended to purify us into immor- tality are ever in this world interrupted at the moment of their anticipated completion09. Life is a mirror which reflects only to deceive, a tissue perpetually interrupted and broken, an urn for ever fed yet never full70. All initiation is but introductory to the great change of death. Baptism, anointing, embalming, obsequies by burial or fire, are preparatory symbols, like the initiation of Hercules before descending to the shades, pointing out the mental change which ought to precede the renewal of existence71. Death is the true initiation, to which sleep is the introductory or minor mystery™, the final rite which united the Egyptian with his God, and which opens the same promise to all who are duly prepared for it'3. The soul was not con- 63 Compare the expressions " x»gi//3avT/av," " i(io).a.f&*res," &c, and the ob- servations of Miil Ut (Gottingen, gel. Anz. for 182;")) on the compatibility of "xefa. givw" and " ftati\<;6a.i ru &'-*>;'' the " hfiifTas" of Apollon. Khodius, i. 917, and the admission of Augustin, De Civ. Dei, ii. 6. Diod. S. v. 49. Plato, de Leg. vi. 782. 66 Frogs, 323. Porphyr. in Stoba\ Phys. ch. Hi. p. 1052. 67 Soph. Frag. Triptol. Dind. 419. Comp. Frogs, 455. 69 lb. 336. 346. 427. Compare on the Mystic or Cimssian dance, Soph. Ajav, 699. Hoeck, Kreta, i. 214. 69 As in the cases of the son of Metanira, of the son of the king of Bybhu, Achilles, &c. 7 Nmin. Dion. 24. 236. " Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 29. Matt. xxvi. 12. Guigniaut, It. i. 458. 7; Tint. Con»ol. Apollou. 2. '•' Fluedo, 69 \ 80". 134 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. demned to eternal banishment and imprisonment7'1. The father of the worlds permits its chains to he broken, and has provided in the course of Nature the means of its escape. It was a doc- trine of immemorial antiquity, shared alike by Egyptians, Pythagoreans75, the Orphici, and by that characteristic Bacchic sage, the "preceptor of the soul," Silenus, that death is far better than life76, that the real death belongs to those who on earth are immersed in the Lethe of its passions and fascina- tions77, and that the true life commences only when the soul is emancipated for its return. The immediate bestower of this inestimable privilege is Hades, the "Benefactor,"78 and his consort Proserpina-Penelope who undoes by night the tissue she wove by day. But Hades and Proserpine are but the reverse or dark side of Liber and Libera, of Hermes and Aphrodite79, as Amenthes was only a form or aspect of Osiris. It is in this sense, as presiding over change and death, that Dionysus is in the highest sense the " Liberator ;" so since like Osiris he frees the soul and guides it in its migrations beyond the grave, preserving it from the risk of again falling under the slavery of matter or of some inferior animal form81, the pur- gatory of Metempsychosis, and exalting and "perfecting" its nature through the purifying discipline of his mysteries8'2, or 74 As to the notion of the body as a prison of the spirit. Plato, Phaedo, 62. Boekh's Philoliius, 181. 75 Guigniaut, i. 459. 76 Stobaeus, Serm. 274, p. 883. Plutarch, Consol. ad Apollon. 27. Dio. Chrys. in Creuz. S. iv. 117". Phasd. Plat. 114. Herod, i. 31. Plato, Gorgias, 493. 77 OJ avu nx£oi." Arist. Frogs, 405. 78 Called "ho; totpytrns," Plato, Cratyl. p. 105. Stallbaum. Phaedo, p. 62 sq. Guigniaut, iii. 309. " EvfiuXius," or " Paean," iEschylus, Philoctet. Frag. 105. Didot. 79 Or Dionysus-Cthonius, UXovrav or TWivroborm, Prosymnos and Prosymna, &c. Creuz. S. iii. 154. Guigniaut, R. ii. 607. 80 " Kuirios." Corap. Bacchae. Eur. 490. Horace, Ep. i. 16. 79. "Ipse Deus simul atque velim nie solvet." 81 Guigniaut, iii. 310.312. Wyttenbach to Tint. D. S. N. V. pp. 113. 582. Plato, Gorg. 524. 82 Froclus in Timae. 330. 802, Schneider. Hermann's Orphica, 449. 509, 510. IMAGERY 01 THE MYSTERIES. L8fl what is virtually the same tiling, the salutary lessons of philo- sophy83. For Plato ascribes to philosophy the effects which the theologian would have attributed to mysteries; the former employed mystic imagery for the purpose of illustration, and is often little else than a reflection, faithful even in minute par- ticulars84, of the scenic exhibitions of the other. . "The great. consummation of all philosophy," said Socrates, professedly quoting from traditional and mystic BOUrces88, "is death; he who pursues philosophy aright is studying how to die." Greek philosophy was an offshoot which far outgrew the ancient sacerdotal wisdom, yet the eventual separation of philosophical and religious teachers was never so complete as to prevent the one from borrowing much from the other. A striking instance of their parallelism may he found in the supernatural machinery of the Platonists, who borrowing the symbols and phrases of ancient theological lore, attribute the presidency over the mys- teries as well as every other office of divine mediation to daemons80. To every one, says Menander, is appointed at his birth a guardian daemon, who becomes not only the insepa- rable companion, but the " Mystagogue " or spiritual director of his life87. According to this " Orphic" notion88, the daemon accompanies the soul after death to judgment, officiating as vindicator of the good or accuser of the wicked89. In reality the dfemon is the individualized soul or conscience, the diviner part of man theoretically distinguished and treated as the sepa- rate beings imagined as rising, struggling, or sinking in the Pheedrus. But all soul is part of the universal bouI whose totality is Dionysus; and it is therefore, religiously speaking, he who, as Damion of daemons, leads hack the vagrant spirit to w Plato, Phaedo, 103. 114. Phaedrus, 248. 84 Comp. e.g. Fhacdo, Wytt. 85. 89, the " >»X« a^^ava; xui /}»{/»»£«," with Aristoph. Frogs, 272. " Phasdo, 62, 64. " Plato, Bymp. 203, s. 28. 87 Creuz. S. iii. 757. 783. Proclu9 in Tinia;. 17. 88 Comp. Creuz. ib. Stalbanm to Pi BympOB. 202, p. 176". " Ph;ido, 107. (Bek. 82.) 90. Wytt. Axiochus quoted in Miu hell's I p. 95. 13G ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. its home, and who accompanies it90 through the purifying pro- cesses hoth real and symbolical of its earthly transit91. He is therefore emphatically the "Mystes" or Hierophant92, the great spiritual mediator of Greek religion; but his mediatorial office is often popularly distributed among a multitude of in- ferior genii, the intellectual world like the physical being- divided into innumerable manifestations. These spirits, as also Dionysus their chief, were often represented with wings, doubtless from the cause assigned by Plato, that wings are the apt symbol of spirituality and divinity. Their meaning was not the exhilarating property of wine as supposed by Pau- sanias93, but the elevated aspirations promoted by religious meditation. Hence the wings of the consecrated ass, the secret of whose emblematic form was whispered out of the abysses of the earth94, of the inspired horse Pegasus, and the mythical Eros specially named as one of the greatest among daemons in the elaborate mystery of the Symposium. The soul in its winged condition raised itself above the low and earthly, the mire of the Acherusian lake 95, and aspired to the celestial region supposed to be its proper dwelling9"; in short, ap- proached nearer to the gods. In this sense the Greeks ad- mitted the traditional deification of their heroes after death, as well as their translation or removal without dying to the happy islands, while in the two modes of expressing the same idea was implied all the difference between the sensuous and the mysteri- ous, between the popular religion and the inner world of devo- tional thought. Hercules was an example of this double beatification ; the soul of the hero, consigned to Hades, was honoured with the ritual of the dead97; yet he still bved as a 90 "Huve^xojo;." Frogs, 396. " 2i/wr«S»f." Iambi, vit. Pyth. ch. 2. 8, p. 5. Plato, Phsedo. 108. 91 Guigniaut, iii. 291. 9J Paus. viii. 54. 91 Paus. iii. 19. 94 Guigniaut, iii. 289. 295. 339. Compare the story of Midas. »' Aristoph. Frogs, 272. Phaedo, pp. 69. 110. 113. (Wytt. 85. 89.) :'« Pheed. 114. 97 Evayiffpo;. Herod, ii. 44. Paus. ii. 11. 7. Comp. Creuz. S. iii. 763. 768. IMAGERY OF THE MYSTERIES. 137 demon or divine being in the society of gods on Olympus". The deification of Hercules, as also the similar instances of Diomed and Menelaus", was a recognition of their essentially divine character as Nature-gods; but the precedent was applied in a different sense by theologians and philosophers, who felt that the human soul is itself, " $atfA.ovtos," a "god within the mind,"100 capable through its own power of rivalling the canon- ization of the hero, of making itself immortal by the practice of the good and the contemplation of the beautiful and true. The removal to the happy islands could only be understood mythically; everything earthly must die; man, like (Edipus, is wounded from his birth ; his real elysium can exist only beyond the grave, the abyss of Cora-Proserpina, an entrance to which is to be found in all countries, in Caria, Argolis, Attica, and Sicily"", for the doom of death was irrevocably sworn by Ceres when she failed in effectually glorifying the nature of Demophon, and was sanctioned by Zeus himself when he gave up his daughter to the periodical claim of Hades. Dionysus also died and descended to the shades. His passion was the great secrel of the mysteries as death is the grand mystery of existence. His death, typical of the Nature's death, or of her periodical decay and restoration, was one of the many symbols of the doctrine of the " 7raXtyyEVBo-ia," or second life of man1"2. Man descended from the elemental forces or Titans "M who fed on the body of the pantheistic deity creating the universe by self- sacrifice, commemorates in sacramental observance this mys- 99 Diod. S. iv. 39. Spanheim to Callim. Hymn Dian. 159. 99 Ibyci. Frag. 20. Schol. Pind. Nem. 10. 12. Isocrat. Helen. Enc. ch. 27, end. Creuz. S. iii. 753. 100 "Deus hunianse naturae." Hor. Ep. ii. 2. 188. Diog. Larrt. vii. 151. M. Antonin. 2. 3. 17. Epictet. Arrian, i. 14. Empedocles (Karsten, p. 142) calls himself a god, and Speusippus ranks among gods the soul of Plato. Anthol. Jacobs, iv. 31, p. 634. '' Horn. H. Ceres. 17. lb. Khunk. Schol. lies. Thcog. 914. Tzetzes ad Op. v. 32. Guimiiaut. iii. 559. m Plutarch, do Esu Cam. ch. vii. I0J Orph. II. 36. Herm. p. 509. 138 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. terious passion, and while partaking of the raw flesh of the victim104 seems to he invigorated hy a fresh draught from the fountain of universal life, to receive a new pledge of regenerated existence. Death is the inseparable antecedent of life, the seed dies in order to produce the plant, and earth itself is rent asunder and dies i05 at the birth of Dionysus. Hence the superstitious value attached to the possession of the bones of the deceased Nature-god as pledges of fertility and victory100, and hence too the significancy of the phallus, or of its inoffensive substitute the obelise, rising as an emblem of resurrection by the tomb of buried deity at Lerna or at Sais107. Dionysus-Orpheus de- scended to the shades to recover the lost virgin of the zodiac, to bring back his mother to the sky as Thyone108, or what has the same meaning, to consummate his eventful marriage with Per- sephone, thereby seeming like the nuptials of his father with Semele or Danae the perpetuity of Nature. His subtelluric office is the depression of the year, the wintry aspect in the alternations of bull and serpent whose united series makes up the continuity of Time, and in which, physically speaking, the stern and dark are ever the parents of the beautiful and bright. Thus in analogy with the doctrine which made men's departed spirits the genii or daemons of abundance109, Dionysus Cthonius, the universal daemon, is not only Pluto but Plutus, " bestower of wealth,"110 not only the devouring Polydectes changed into a stone, but Polydorus, Triptolemus, and his brother Eubuleus ; 101 The " a/iotpayia." Guigniaut, iii. 230. 276. Eurip. Bacchae. 139. 726. Clem. Alex. Protrep. ch. ii. 12, p. 11. Pott. 105 Semele, or "the Earth." Diod. S. iii. 02. 100 As of Osiris at Sais (Herod, ii. 170), of CEdipus at Athens (Soph. Old. Colon.), of Orestes, Pelops, Orpheus, Tisamenus and Theseus. See Herod, Pausanias, Plutarch; and the "deposit" made by Ceres with Prometheus. Paus. ix. 25. 6. 107 Creuz. S. iii. 328. 108 Taus. ii. 23. 37. Apollod. iii. 5. 1. m Hes. Works, 122. Plato, Cratyl. Bek. p. 33. The Penates or Dii Ctesii of the Romans. Guigniaut, R. ii. 413. 570 ; iii. 569. nn YlXovTohora. Schol. Aristoph. Ranaa, 479. Hymn Orph. 50. 52. Vacknaer, Diatr. Eur. 18. 154. Euseb. Pr. Ev. iii. 1. 4. IMAGERY OF THE MYSTERIES. l-*!0 oi again, Iasion, interpreted to mean " the Saviour," the father of riutus, and yKsculapius whom the deadly holt made immortal, and who hy aid of his emhlematic serpent restored the dead to life"1. Persephone shares the functions of her husband; she is married alternately to Hades and to Zeus; she weaves the tissue of our hodily frame ; she also " slits the thin-spun life " as Venus Libitina, She is the unity comprising the dualism of llithya and Artemis or Hecate, the creating power and the destroying "a. For the magical divinity can renew the life which has heen destroyed ; Ceres in the Homeric hymn knows bow to neutralize poison hy healing halsams, and the withered limbs of JEson or of Jason"' recovered the bloom of youth in the bowl of Medea114. The real sorceress is Nature, her art the loving gift of Here115, or that with which Apollo remu- nerated the architects of his temple116. The renovating power is the Cthonian117, that is, the Cthonian aspect of the general divinity. The greatest of the Herculean labours were performed among the dead ; there Proserpina, too, eat the pomegranate, the emblem of fecundity, and there, or in an equivalent locality, as Scythia, or Cithseron, or beneath the brazen roof of Danae, the marriage chamber of Amphitryon, or the Zcrynthian cavern of Hecate118, were consummated the nuptials of the deity. It was this aspect, sombre for the moment but bright by anticipa- tion, which was contemplated in the mysteries; the human sufferer was consoled by witnessing the severer trials of the gods"9, and the vicissitudes of life and death expressed by apposite symbols, such as the sacrifice or submersion of the bull, the extinction and re-illumination of the torch120, excited corre- 111 As Glaucus and Hippolytus. 113 Tint, dc Facie in Orb. Lunx, 27, 28. Orph. H. 29. Guigniaut, iii. 554 sq. 113 Therecyd. Frag. 45, p. 171. 114 Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1321. "s Herod, i. ch. 31. Pan?, ii. 3. 8. "8 Find. Paean, Frag. 2. 117 Lobeck, p. 72. "" " Ev ffxurei yXx$vor,tri." Odyss. i. 15. 73. 1 ' - AX"-" H Cares, 478. '•" Plato, Bympos. 218. (458.) Bt Croix, i. 349. 140 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. sponding emotions of alternate grief and joy121, that play of passion122 which was present at the origin of Nature and which accompanies all her changes. The greater Elusinia were cele- brated in the month Boedromion, when the seed was buried in the ground123, and when the year verging to its decline disposes the mind to serious reflection. The first days of the ceremonial were passed in sorrow arid anxious silence, in fasting and expiatory or lustra! offices124; on a sudden the scene was changed ; sorrow and lamentation were discarded, the glad name of Iacchus passed from mouth to mouth, the image of the god crowned with myrtle and bearing a lighted torch was borne in joyful procession from the Ceramicus to Eleusis, where during the ensuing night125 the initiation was completed by an imposing revelation. The first scene was in the tt§ ovaog, or outer court of the sacred enclosure126, where amidst utter darkness127, or while the mediating God, the " star illuminating the nocturnal mystery," ' '8 alone carried an unextinguished torch, the can- didates were overawed with terrific sounds and visions129 while they painfully groped their way180 as in the gloomy cavern of the soul's sublunar migration, a scene justly compared to the passage of the valley of the shadow of death131. For by the immutable law exemplified in the trials of Psyche, man must 121 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ch. lxix. 122 Mirth and woe, " Momus and Oizus." Hes. Theog. 214. 123 Hymn, Demeter, 400. Hesiod, Works and Days, 805. Proclus to Works, 389. Miiller, Greek Litterat. pp. 77. 85. Kleine Schriften, ii. pp. 67. 94. 124 St. Croix, i. 319. l2s Bacchse. 486. ue t, Yestibulum ante ipsum." 127 " Ibant obscuri," &c. &n. vi 268. 128 Aristoph. Ran. 342. 350. Soph. Antig. 1147. Lobeck, p. 60. 129 " a,£in. Phaedo, 82, Wytt. 131 Lucian, Cataplus. ch. xxii. Comp. Virg. iEn. v. 264. Claudian, Rapt. Pros, vii. 20. Stobae. Serm. ub. Supr. l\l \cri;\ OF l HE MYSTERIES. I I I pass through the terrors of the under world before he can reach the height of heaven. At length the gates1" of the adytum were thrown open, a supernatural light1™ streamed from the illuminated statue of the goddess134, and enchanting sights and sounds136 mingled with songs and dances186 exalted the communicant to a rapture of supreme felicity, realizing as far as sensuous imagery could depict the anticipated reunion with the gods1". In the dearth of direct evidence as to the detail of oeremonies enacted or of meanings connected with them, their tendency must he inferred from the characteristics of the con- templated deities with their accessory symbols and mythi, or from direct testimony as to the value of the mysteries generally. Throughout antiquity the symbols of agriculture were also those of law and civilization1*8; Ceres legifera139 or Thcsmophoros, giver of the bread of life, provided for the culture of the mind as well as for the nourishment of the body140. She brought the first tables of the law to Eleusis ; she presides over marriage and all other social institutions. In a higher sense too as expressed in the Homeric legend141, her office is to rear and exalt the spirit, to feed it with immortal food, to eradicate as 132 At&xroga. 133 "la ilea , would perish from the earth. Comp. Pans. ii. 5. 5. lies. Iheog. 901. Eratosthenis Catast. 9. 1,1 Horn. Hvmn. 103. 235. 142 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. far as possible the fleshy influences surrounding it. Finally, she is guardian of the dead142, the beneficent Argive Prosymna, though retiring for a time to the caverns of Phigalia or the penetralia of Eleusis. The ordinary phenomena of vegetation, the death of the seed in giving birth to the plant, connecting the sublimest hopes with the plainest occurrences, was the simple yet beautiful formula assumed by the great mystery in almost all religions from the Zendavesta to the Gospel. As Proserpina, the divine power is as the seed decaying and destroyed143; as Artemis, she is the principle of its destruction; but Artemis Proserpina is also Core Soteira, the " Saviour,"144 who leads the spirits of Hercules and Hyacinthus to heaven145. In Heroic legend she was consort of Dionysus as Ariadne, participating his mediatorial office both in heaven and in hell, and either herself exalted in his arms to celestial rank, or as a protecting and superior genius guiding her mortal lover through the dark passages of the labyrinth, the path of the soul's migra- tion, by the clue of destiny and the light of the beaming diadem of immortality146. In the labyrinth, or sought by Theseus in Thesprotia, she is the divine spirit among the dead ; she resumes her celestial character when returning to heaven conducted by Hermes, or drawn to Olympus by white horses147. Persephone was said to mean the hidden seed, or the earth's sweet increase 148, as the lacerated Dionysus was compared to the rifled clusters of the vine149. But these interpretations are but a part of their significancy. From her mediatorial character in heaven and 142 Called at Athens A*p»Tgui>i. 143 Cic. N. D. ii. 26. 144 Guigniaut, Hi. 477. 576, &e. 145 Paus. iii. 19 ; viii. 31. Plato, Meno, p. 81. 146 See the story of " Corona borealis," in Eratosthenes, v. p. 4. Ed. Schau- bach. Hyg. Poet. A. 2. 5. Hoeck, Kreta, ii. 155. Ariadne was probably a goddess belonging to the moon-worship of Crete, whose name was afterwards absorbed by the religion of Demeter. Hoeck, ib. ii. 54. 147 Guigniaut, iii. 474. 607. The «v«So; and naSo^o;. Preller, Demeter and Pers. pp. 120. 228 sq. 148 Horn. H. Dem. 66; "yXuxi^av $a\os." 149 Diod. S. iii. 62. IMAGERY OF TIIK MYSTERIES. 143 earth, Proserpina, as Artemis-Luna150, or Ilitliya, rises to the rank of Supreme Deity as mother of Dionysus and of Eros"1 ; mi again she is herself the soul whose migrations she is sup- posed to guide, Ariadne overpowered hy a hapless slumber, or Psyche ravished from among her immortal sisters152, and lost to the upper world while gathering the deceitful Narcissus the emblem of Anteros153, or the Lethean affection which clings to earth. Psyche, like Ariadne, had two lovers, an earthly and an immortal one. The immortal suitor is Dionysus, the Eros- Phanes of the Orphiei, gradually exalted by the progress of thought out of the symbol of sensuality154 into the torch-bearer of the nuptials of the gods155, the divine influence which physically called the world into being, and which awakening the soul from its Stygian trance156, restores it from earth to heaven. It would be endless to advert to the many related mythi, or to the various emblems supposed to have been employed in the mysteries, as the dove157, the myrtle wreath158, is3 rp)le notion of the moon's intermediate character between the earth and sun is full of poetry and beauty. See Guigniaut, R. iii. 554. 582. Creuz. S. ii. 334. Plutarch, De Facie in orbe Lunae. 151 Guigniaut, iii. 554. 594. n- Eurip. Helen. 1333. 153 Opposed to Ameinias. Paus. ix. 31. Hymn to Demet. v. 8. 15< Guigniaut, iii. 378. Creuzer supposes the phallic Dionysus or Priapus of Melampus to have assumed a higher character, as Eros under the hands of those sages of Argolis and of Helicon who combined the worship of the Muses with the Erotic festivals of Thespioe, when poetry and religion were reconciled under the names of Apolln and Dionysus. See Plutarch's Amatorius. 155 Comp. Iliad, xviii. 492, with Claudian. Rapt. Pros. 26. Paus. ix. 27. The sacred boy of the Eleusinia. Creuz. S. iv. 385. Comp. Anacreon, Frag. 2. Plut. Qu. Grcec. 36. Guigniaut, iii. 764. 156 Apuleius, Metam. vi. 384. 405. 411. 420.422; "jacebat immobilis Psyche, et nihil aliud quam dormiens cadaver." 157 Porphyr. Abst. iv. 16. Virg. iEn. vi. 190. 158 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 330. The evergreen used by the Eleusinian My8l i grew on the grave of Polydorus (Virg. .En. iii. 23 ; comp. v. 72 ; vi. 441. Flin. N. H. 16. 44. 85), and covered the priapic or regenerative emblems of the Athenian Hermes. Paus. i. 27. 1. Eurip. Alcest. 172. 759. Comp. Mitchell's Frogs, pp. 37. 69. Guigniaut, iii. 228. 144 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. the curative yet soporific honey159 and asphodel, the " medicatse fruges " which appeased the rage of the dread guardian of the gates of Pluto160, all significant of life rising out of death, and of the equivocal condition of dying yet immortal man 16' . There is however one incident among the rites of Eleusis which ought not to he overlooked. When Ceres withdrew the still mortal Demophon from the purifying fires, and placed him on the ground from which he rose and to which he must now return, she decreed that from year to year, from season to season, the children of Eleusis should engage in a mimic combat to his honour, commemorative of his imperfect, yet still exalted or " heroic " nature acquired through the discipline of his heavenly nurse162. In the worship of Nature athletic games and contests were well-known symbols of the conflict of the elements163; this was doubtless the primary meaning of the feats of Perseus and of Hercules, as of the war of the children of the sun and moon in Hindoo epic, and in Greece of the strife of Apollo with Poseidon, of the Erechtheidse and Eumolpidse ,64. The universe has oscillated between sorrow and joy, between war and love, ever since Cadmus sowed the teeth of the dragon of Ares, or Pallas leaped armed from her father's head. The amour has ever been followed by the retaliatory fray165, or has itself been simultaneous with death166. The drama of nature is moral, and the moral was reflected in the mysteries. The eternal war 159 The bee supplied the pure food of Paradise; priestesses were hence called UiXiirffcti (Lobeck, 50. Creuz. ii. 586), and Melissa was sister of Amalthea, nurse of the infant Zeus. It was also a symbol of the soul, being a ov (Por- phyr. de Antr. p. 19), and its produce was an antidote to the serpent's bite. [6J Apulei. Met. vi. ch. 20, p. 420. The herb which destroyed Glaucus, yet made him immortal (Athena?, 296) ; the iEtolian plant on which Helios fed his horses in the morning to prevent their tiring on their path. 161 Guigniaut, iii. 678. 732. Porphyr. Antr. 16. 18. Sehol. Pind. Pyth- ix. 113. 162 Horn. H. C. 253. 265. ,63 Uschold. Vorhalle, ii. p. 69. 164 " Quos ToXtfios." Origen in Cels. vi. p. 303, Fr. 35. 165 As in Antiope, Helen, &c. 168 As with Ganymede, Persephone, Antigone the "bride of Acheron," &c. IMAOKKY OF TIIF M YSTl-.k I Ks. | | g of Eleusiswas not ;i mere elemental conflict but the struggle of the spirit1*7, the conception which the Greeks, differing in this from the usual Asiatic tendency168, formed bo themselves as the ideal of virtue and of a worthy life. This inference is confirm c id by the peculiar mode in which the institution of the Eleusinian games is introduced into the Homeric hymn as commemorative of Demophon, athletic exercises being the most appropriate observ- ance to commemorate those deceased heroes whose whole life reflecting Nature's life was one prolonged contest, and who even- tually fought their way to deathless praise1"". Here, as in the story of Hercules, the mystic spirit blends with the heroic, reli- gious legend assuming the epic form. All the heroes were divine emanations, yet mortal, as in the eventual state of Demo- phon, through the infirmity of their mothers. In order to over- come this weakness, the spirit must be taught to do battle with difficulty and passion, and can aspire to rank with the heroes of old only by subjugating the vicious elements with which it is associated. The Hierophants of its divine guide were therefore lovers of war as well as of wisdom170, resembling in this respect their equally divine patroness Athene, herself only Proserpina exalted and celestial — divine power and intelligence united — who when she founded Athens willed that her chosen people should be, as far as possible, formed after the image of herself171. But war is the earnest of peace, and even the Erinnys became at last a genius of fertility ,TS. As the empire of Ares over Thebes was superseded by that of Cadmus and Harmonia, so Eumolpus puts an end to elemental and moral discord by establishing the mysteries of which his imaginary death was 167 "'!$£*; and xptWa. ur^am," ill Plato; fiios from /3/a, see Stobaeus Serm. 274 or 120, p. 884, ed. Gaisf. p. 466. Comp. Eurip. Supplices, 560. 108 Bagavad-Geeta, ch. 3, 4 and 5. Isa. xxx. 15. Heraclitus spoke of war as a divine thing, and blamed Homer for wishing to banish Ej/j from among the gods. 189 Comp. Pind. 01. vi. 14, &c. Hesiod, Opp. 287; and on the spiritual interpre- tation of the legend, Creuzer's Symbolik, iv. p. 319 sq. 170 Procl. in Timae. 51 b. " GaovoXip. <." 171 Plato, Tim*. 24 d. ™ .aSschyl. Eumen. Bothe, 719. 744. H. D. Miiller, Ares, pp. 22. 27. VOL. II. L 146 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. part. Proserpina, too, died as Cthonia, but her death was the token of reconciliation; and they whom she guides in her mysteries, who imbibe her instruction and spiritual nourish- ment173, rest from their labours and know strife no more174. "Happy they," it might be said, " who witness and comprehend these sacred ceremonies 175 ! they are made to know the meaning of the riddle of existence by discovering its aim and termination as appointed by Zeus176; they partake a benefit more valuable and enduring than the grain bestowed by Ceres, for they are exalted in the scale of intellectual existence, and obtain sweet hopes to console them at their death."17 § 21. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. Men have always felt the existence of a moral significancy in the external world, even when unable to divine the correct inter- pretation of it. The feeling was variously expressed. In early times poetry and imitative art undertook to interpret nature1, and the universal language of itself but feebly perceptible to the many was thus vividly and gracefully conveyed through the medium of lofty imaginations. " It was the poet," says Goethe2, "who first formed gods for us, who called us to them, and brought them down to us." Poets were the first legislators, prophets, and hierophants ; they clothed in beautiful forms that partial apprehension of the agencies of external nature which was accessible to their age, and which, however imperfect, was adopted and sanctioned by religion. Poetry is defined by Plato3 173 na/5-/a xai t^yi. Phsedo, pp. 81. 92, Wytt. 174 Prod. Timae. 275 e. Tenneman's Philosoph. i. p. 139. 175 Soph, in Plut. de Aud. Poet. 21 f. "OKfiios h raV orrwirtv ivixHtmaiv avfyv- vruv." H. Hymn. Cerer. 480. 178 Pind. Frag. 96. 177 Isocrat. Panegyr. ch. 28. 1 Plato, Ion, p. 534 e. 2 Wilhelm Meister, bk. ii. ch. 2. 3 Sympoa. 433. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. I 17 to be ii general name for every inventive ari by which the abstract passes into the concrete, which makes pure reason perceptible to the faculties; in short, it is the instrument of expression. The earliest poetry was not the elaborate expression of conscious art, it was the undesigned language of the religious feelings; it beheld men and gods united, and regarded Nature not only as sublime and beautiful but as divine. Poets, there- lore, and all who shared their gifts, were accounted "inspired ministers and interpreters of tbe divinity;"4 and it was com- monly believed that Phidias must either himself have been favoured by direct revelation, or have borrowed his inspiration from the great poet who was popularly said to have either beheld the Olympian gods, or alone among men to have worthily described them5. But poets were inadequate or perhaps in some degree unfaithful to their sacred trust ; the milk and honey of their words, though not intended to deceive, was ultimately found better suited to sweeten the cup of truth than to fill it8. And though Beauty was sent from heaven, " The lovely ministress of truth and good To this dark world," the beautiful utterances of poetry were neither coextensive with the true, nor clearly indicative of the good. As usual, the expository instrument was mistaken for the end, and by a literal inference from the idea of poetical inspiration the inventions of one age became the superstition of another, until men reading in Nature only what themselves had written, worshipped all the picturesque fancies of their own imaginations7. A want was felt, and philosophy succeeded to the lofty mission of poetry. 4 Plato's Ion, p. 535. 5 "Solum hunc formas Deorum aut vidissc aut ostendisse." Strabo, viii. p. 354. 132, Teh. 8 " to$ix kXitth Tapayoirx ftvfait." rind. Nem. vii. 33. 7 Ancient religious reformers pronounced the worship of "idols" to be the root of all evil. (Wisdom xiv. 27.) The maxim still holds good, for the worship of idols, i. i .. of fanciful conceits if not the source of all evil, is still the cause of a great deal. L 2 148 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Poetry once recognised as art could never more claim the infallibility of inspiration, since it acknowledged an authority intermediate between itself and the divine original which philo- sophy had equal or perhaps more powerful means of interpreting. The transition from one to the other was gradual ; yet the change was not unfelt, and philosophy at its outset appeared under many disadvantages. It had an austere and repulsive aspect. It was hard to discuss as problems what had hitherto been assumed by the imagination and feelings. The style of philo- sophy was comparatively homely and unattractive, and it seemed as if by some spell the magic landscape of romance had suddenly broken up, leaving the disconsolate pilgrim on a barren heath or solitary desert. For though the " hoyog " at first imitated the latitude of the "f^udog," and even borrowed its imagery, yet the self-conviction of ignorance which was the indispensable prelim- inary to philosophy, and the kind of spiritual midwifery employed by Socrates to rouse each individual mind to the development of its own embryo ideas, were processes more effectual perhaps but far more painful than the other, often disgusting the patient and bringing ill-will upon the operator8. Nay, the activity of mind and conscience which Socrates endeavoured to create in his auditors, by seeking in the forum, the workshop, and every scene of life, occasions of developing images and portraitures of the good and true {aya^ar afETnj), is described as almost intoler- able even to those able and willing to receive its influences 9, an irritation like that produced by the fangs of the viper, a subtle poison overmastering the mind by a charm which tortured while it fascinated. The spirit of Nature had often shown its reluc- tance to disclose its oracles, by changing to a lion or dragon, a fire or flood. So, too, the regeneration of pliilosophy, as well as the drania of initiation, had its doubts and difficulties, its spectres and gorgons. It was jocularly said that Socrates resembled the wooden figures of Satyrs and Sileni in the sculp- 8 Plato, Apol. ix. p. 23. 9 "Nf»u ^v^n; ur> ufuou; ora\> Xajiuvrai." Sympos. 218. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 119 tors' shops, which when cleaved asunder were found to contain within them the images of the gods10. Such is the nature of the impression which the aspect of philosophy makes, when for the first time presented to the dormant faculty of reason ; it is not every one who is ahle to penetrate its real meaning, or to discover heneath an unprepossessing exterior the divinity within. Socrates appeared to he always talking of brass founders, leather cutters, or skin dressers, and a dull or unohservunt person might have ridiculed his discourse. " But if any one should see it opened, as it were, and should get within the sense of his words, he then found that of all that ever entered into the mind of man to utter, these were the most impressive and profound; so supremely beautiful, so golden, so divine", that there was no resisting what Socrates enjoined." Yet human wisdom must always be limited and incorrect, and even right opinion, in the judgment of this wisest of mankind, is only a something inter- mediate between ignorance and knowledge12. The normal condition of man is that of progress ; philosophy is a kind of journey, it is undoubtedly "ever learning, yet never arriving" at the ideal perfection of truth13. Rightly therefore did the sage assume the modest title of a " lover of wisdom ;" for he ever longs after something more excellent than he posse-- 3, something still beyond his reach, which he desires to make eternally his own1*. It was thus that the philosophic sentiment came to be associated with the poetical and the religious, under the comprehensive name of Love. The same intense enthusiasm which the poet felt for the beautiful inspired the philosopher in the search after the true. Antecedent to the birth of philo- sophy Love had received but scanty and inadequate homage. This mightiest and most ancient of gods, coeval with the exist- ence of religion and of the world, had been indeed unconsciously felt, but had neither been worthily honoured, nor directh ,0 Plato, Symp. 8. 39. (p. 452.) 11 Plato, ib. 456. Comp. John vii. 46. '* Symp. 427. 13 See 2 Tim. iii. 7. " Comp. Rep, r. 17t5d. 150 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. celebrated iu hymn or paean15. And in some respects justly, for in the old clays of ignorance Love could scarcely he said to have existed, or at least could not have been recognised. It was a sentiment denounced as a consuming fire10, a disease, or frenzy, ■whose only cure was the Leucadian rock17, an overpowering deemon who instigated the tragedies of Tereus and Procne, of Hippolytus and Helen, the many dark events of Greek story in which the combinations of Nature were confounded with the most criminal aberrations of man IS. It was a cosmogonical principle endowed with the ambiguous aspect of the Nature- god, symbolized by the Palladium or Caduceus19, the cestus of Aphrodite, or bond of universal harmony, yet at the same time the fatal necklace of Eriphyle or belt of the Amazon, the Eris, whose amour, theoretically represented as a crime, was por- tentous of havoc and war, or, like the pernicious but beautiful Helena, united the antitheses in one as betokening a marriage with the grave 2\ This coarseness was at length theoretically ,s Plato, Sympos. 378. 380. (177, 178.) 16 Xenoph. Cyr. v. 1. 12; vi. 1. 36, 37. Sympos. 195. 17 A murderous expiatory ceremony performed at the festival of the Leucadian Apollo, resembling the Attic Thargelia. The disastrous Tarpeia who betrayed the Roman citadel, but who nevertheless received a yearly worship (Dionys. Hal. ii. 40, p. 321), was probably a local Hecate or Erinnys, and hence victims and eventually criminals were hurled from her rock. (Gomp. 2 Chron. xxv. 12. Luke iv. 29.) 18 The sentiment of love was first made a prominent subject of tragic interest by Euripides. Sophocles uses it but little, and iEschylus only in mythic allusions. 10 Comp. Hygin. Poet. Ast. 7, p. 372. The caduceus was the magic staff by which Hermes stopped the feud of two serpents. The Leucadian leap was the plunge into the grave taken every evening by the sun beyond the western promontory, " A rock The utmost verge of earth The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow Frowned o'er the silver sea." — Shelley's Queen Mab. 20 For love itself, the "bitter sweet" (Sappho, Frag. 31), may be called a kind of warfare ; " Juveni ardenti castam donare puellam Quid faciunt hostes capta crudelius urbe1?" Catullus, Cant. 62. 24. The Cabbalistic idea of marriages being preordained in heaven (Gfrorer, Urchristen- MEDIATION OF THILOSOrUY. 151 if not practically corrected. The sentiment was purified simul- taneouely with the exultation of its object, for in order thai Love might exercise his proper influence over religion and philosophy it was necessary that the god of Nature should cease to he a god of terrors, a personification of mere power, an inflictor of evil, and an unrelenting judge. Plato's philosophy, in which this change became for ever established, was empha- tically a mediation of Love. It was Love, he tells us, whose inspiration first kindled the light of arts and imparted them to mankind 'il ; and not only the arts of mere existence, but the heavenly art of wisdom which supports the universe. Love, too, is the inspirer of high and generous deeds, of noble self- devotion ; for many who have loved have not hesitated willingly to expose themselves to die for others : without this incitement neither state nor individual could do anything beautiful or great. " Love is peace and good-will among men, calm upon the waters, repose and stillness in the storm, the balm of sleep in sadness. Before him all harsh passions flee away, he is author of soft affections, destroyer of ungentle thoughts, merciful and mild, the admiration of the wise, the delight of the gods. Love divests us of all alienation from each other, and fills our vacanl hearts with overflowing sympathy; he is the valued treasure of the fortunate, and desired by the unhappy (therefore unhappy because they possess him not), the parent of grace, of gentleness, of delicacy ; a cherisher of all that is good, but guileless as to evil ; in labour and in fear, in longings of the affections or in soarings of the reason, our best pilot, con- federate, supporter, and saviour ; ornament and governor of all things human and divine ; the best, the loveliest, whom every one should follow with songs of exultation, uniting in the divine harmony with which Love for ever soothes the mind of men and gods."" thum, ii. p. 54) seems to have been reversed by the inventors of Greek fable, the At« of Paris, who gave the palm to the author of " fixx*-'"""1 **«>'",>i ' (Iliad, x\iv. SO. Conip. vi. 856), properly belonging to the infernal world. 81 Sympoa. 17'.' .-i l:<6sq. " Plato,Symp. 197 (or418>. 152 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. Yet, properly speaking, it is not Love itself which is beautiful, but the object it pursues. Love has many sorts or degrees ; there is the Eros of cosmogony, the physical attraction in the inanimate, binding atom to atom or element to element; then there is the sexual passion shared by man and brute, the dread power which of old united Erebus to night23, and overpowering man as well as nature, led Antigone to the bridal bed of Hades24. But man is capable of a higher love, which, marrying mind with mind and with the universe, brings forth all that is noblest in his faculties, and lifts him beyond himself. This higher Love is described by Plato as being himself neither mortal nor immortal, but a power intermediate between the human and the divine, filling up the mighty interval and binding the universe together. He is chief of those celestial emissaries'25 who carry to gods the prayers of men, and bring down to men the gifts of the gods. He is allegorically the son of heavenly Plenty26 and mortal Poverty27; and in the same " garden of God,"28 where it may be supposed that man's estrangement began29, divine plenteousness is said to have mingled with human feebleness and want, and their natural offspring was Love. The Fall was the experience of a want ; Love, its antidote, is a child of Want. And as the child of poverty and plenty, his nature and fortune participate in those of his parents. " He is for ever poor, and far from being beautiful as mankind imagine, for he is squalid and withered ; he flies low along the ground, is homeless and unsand ailed'0 ; sleeping without covering before the doors and in the unsheltered streets, and possessing so far his mother's nature 23 Theog. 125. 24 Soph. Antig. 777. 781. 804. 816. 25 i. e., the daemons. 26 riojos is son of Metis, meaning probably the divine fulness arising from philo- sophy. Zeller, Gr. Phil. ii. 168. 27 Compare the legend of Koros and Chresmosyne, in Philo-Judaeus de Animalibus Sacrificio Idoneis, My. ii. 224. Wyttenbach's note to Plutarch de ei Delph. 9. 28 " En rot tou An>; xnvrov." Sympos. 203 h. 29 The bouse of Cadmus (the Cosmos) was also the temple of Demeter, and the marriage-chamber of Semele and Harmonia. Pans. ix. 12. 3—16. 3. 30 Comp. Matt. viii. 20. Luke ix. 58. John xvi. 33. " Paupertas olim philo- sophise vernacula." Apuleius d* Magia, p. 432. mediation of riiiLosoniY. 153 as being ever the companion of want. Yet sharing also thai of his father, he is for ever scheming to obtain things good and beautiful ; he is fearless, vehement, and strong; always devising some new contrivance ; strictly cautious and full of inventive resource, a philosopher through his whole existence, a powerful enchanter, and a subtle sophist. And as his nature is neither mortal nor immortal, he will at one time flourish in blooming life when fortunate ; then die away, and then according to his father's nature again revive. The fulness of his wealth per- petuallv flows away from him, so that he is neither rich nor poor, neither ignorant nor wise." " The case stands thus : no god philosophizes, or desires to become wise, for he is wise; nor again — do the ignorant philosophize, for they desire not to Income wise ; for this is the evil of ignorance, that they who have neither intelligence, nor virtue, nor delicacy of sentiment, imagine that they possess all these things sufficiently. Those onlv, who though not altogether wise are neither altogether ignorant, feel that enthusiastic love for wisdom, the most beautiful of all things, which is the spirit of philosophy. The beauty con- templated by philosophy is that of the true and good. The posses- sion of good is happiness. The desire to be happy is common to all men, — all desire good, and all are in this sense lovers ; for we are often misled by selecting a particular species of love, and applying to it exclusively the name of that which is universal. The desire for happiness and for good is the greatest and subtlest love which dwells in the heart of every living being ; but those who seek this object through the acquirement of wealth, or art, or philosophy, arc not said to love, nor are called lovers; one species alone is called love, and those alone said to l,e lovers who seek the attainment of the universal desire through one sort distinguished by the name belonging of right to the whole. It is said by some, that they love who are seeking tin' lost half of their divided being. But love is neither the love of the half nor of the whole, unless it be good; for men willingly cut off their own hands and feel if they think they are 154 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. the cause of evil to them31. It may therefore be generally affirmed that men love that which is good, and wish not only that it should be present, but continue so for ever."32 But though all men desire what is good when able to perceive its worth and beauty, they are often misled by ignorance or forgetfulness, and the sentiment of love pursues the really good only when guided by knowledge of the true. The progressive acquisition of this knowledge is the task of philosophy, which, rising from the contemplation of one form of beauty to that of another, discerns the superiority of mental and moral beauty to that which is merely physical, and at last is enabled to discover that archetypal beauty which alone can be called supremely good and blessed 33. For though far differing from a morbid mysticism or sentimentahsm, philosophy would justly appear contemptible if, according to the reflection of a modern writer, it could discern no end or aim of progress :u ; or if, according to another35, it made the universe a "huge manger," and man a mere " motive grinder," a " dead iron balance for weighing pains and pleasures on ;" if, in fine, it professed to stop short at any moment of its infinite career, and did not ennoble the littleness of its actual gains by the magnitude of its aspirations. In order to illustrate the nature and efficacy of intellectual Love, Plato employs the obvious analogy of that residing in the body, and shows that as the energy of life consists in a perpetual renewal, and as the parent by generation of offspring attains a sort of cor- poreal perpetuity, so the soul by the energy of its own operations obtains an immortality characteristic of itself'6. For when, in the development of its powers of discrimination and self-im- provement, it is enabled to appreciate the superior beauty of the moral and intellectual, in communication with science and with 31 Compare Matt. v. 29. 32 Sympos. 205 sq. Comp. Shelley'8 translation. 33 Sympos. p. 204. Comp. Wisd. xiii. 3. Matt. xix. 7. John xiv. 7 ; lx. 21. ?4 D'Israeli in Tancred. 35 Carlyle's Sartor. " Ouru yap eu tiSvyiku; evbi Other iniiuls it. becomes abundantly prolific of beautiful thoughts and actions, so that Love completes the mysterious circle of its analogies by being not only the desire of the beautiful, but of production and generation in the beautiful. The ideal consum- mation of Platonic science is the arrival at contemplation of that of which earth exhibits no express image or adequate similitude, the supreme prototype of all beauty, pure and un- contaminated with human intermixture of flesh or colour, the divine original itself. To one so qualified is given the prero- gative of bringing forth not mere; images and shadows of virtue, but virtue itself, as having been conversant not with shadows but with the truth ; and having so brought forth and nurtured a progeny of virtue, he becomes the " friend of God," and, so far as such a privilege can belong to any human being, immortal". Such is Plato's description of the philosophical or religious sentiment, that lofty distinction of humanity, which superstition can never utterly debase, nor worldliness extinguish. But a feeling alone cannot constitute either a religion or a philo- sophy. The feeling must have a mode of addressing itself to nature, of adjusting its resources so as effectually to meet her problems. Enthusiastic feeling had already produced poetry, and the very reason why a new instrument of interpre- tation was required was the necessity experienced in the attempt tn make nearer approaches to the object, of finding an intellec- tual counterpoise to its irregular and exaggerating influences. Poetry was an attempt to interpret nature by the eye and by the sentiments; its first language was the spontaneous utter- ance of Nature's children, who acknowledged it uudistinguish- ingly as madness or as inspiration. If in that golden age of song there was no cold artificial description3", it was because 37 Page 212, Stall). *" Comp. Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. ch. 1, "The old poets, being privileged with senses, had also enjoyed external nature, but chiefly as we enjoy the crystal cup which holds good or bad liquor for us ; that i9 to say in silence, or with slight incidental comment; never, as I compute, until after the ' Sorrow* of Werter,' wu there a man found who could say, 'Come, let us make a description 1 ' " Carlylea Sartor Beaartue. 156 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. its place was preoccupied by those exuberant mythical forms in which nature was not a dead unmeaning picture but a living and divine reality. All philosophic speculation has been said to be as "a gazing on clothing until it seemed transparent," and the ancient sage to whom Nature stood revealed in her dazzling simplicity appeared to the vulgar as if blinded, blinded that is to common perceptions, or else, having Actseon-like gazed on nature39, to be as if transformed by the beauty of the vision, so as to become absorbed or identified with its changes40. The theology and mysteries of the Greeks were but parts of their poetical mythology, preserving more or less faithfully in local transmission the spirit of the original symbolism. Again, the earliest philosophy was little more than a formal restoration of the wisdom once spoken in poetry41 ; it was essentially religious, a revelation of outward nature correctly representing in its dogmatical form the implicit credence in which it had been conceived. Though gradually adopting the phraseology of the " *oyoz," it still retained much of the " pu&os ; " music continued to be, as in the mysteries, its accompaniment or its prelude42, and the Socratic intermixture of jocularity with seriousness may remind us of the alternate vein of ancient Nature-religion, the jests of Iambe which cheered the mysterious grief of Ceres, and which gave a sacredness to the origin of comedy. But though its earliest professors, as Pythagoras and Heraclitus, were 39 Shelley. Corap. Paus. vii. 19. 7 j and Spanheim to Callim. Lavacr. Palladis, v. 53 and 80— '' Eilig Al)avaia.s trrnfax xut Xayovaf, AAA.' ovx ' a.i\iot TttXiv a^tai — Ko/tMiot audi Xiyovri vof&oi." i0 " Nature lives but while she moves.'' 41 Plato banished art (i.e., deliberate or ornamental art) from his republic (Rep. 10); real art with him was no other than philosophy, the pursuit of the true ; he condemned the degeneracy of art, not its original mission. The latter is called by Aristotle more noble and philosophical than that of history (Poet. 9. 1), a means of dis- ciplining the feelings and morals. Aristotle attaches a philosophic value to Mythi, in which, however, he seeks only for general inferences or divinatory truths ("hiws ugvfftiai," JVIetaph. xi. 8. 21), never for historical occurrences. *' Quintil. de Mus. iii. 163. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOrilV. 157 railed " ( )rphie," and were even classed with Eeaiod and Bomer4*, they did qoI obsequiously adopt the prevailing tra- ditions of their age4*, and it was chiefly as innovators and reformers that they earned the title of philosophers. Yet even in them ilif mind confounded itself with the objects it contem- plated, and began to act independently long before it knew the character of its own operation. It reflected nature rather than deliberately attempted to explain it, even though the idea or " fomi " employed for the purpose was sometimes, as for example with the Eleatae, of the most abstract kind. When in Anaxagoras the mind seeking for a satisfactory principle of motion began to look within, and to refer to its own processes, it discovered for the first time that the external world was a mass of dead atoms, the sun a heated stone, the heavens an eddying sphere. The foundations of ancient faith were thus loosened, and the empire of the universe seemed to be abandoned to opinion and chance. " Man became the sole measure of all things ;" and there was for the moment no substitute to replace the old belief in objective truth. It was the trifling with this belief which constituted in the eyes of philosophers the great crime of the Sophists; "If Protagoras be right," said Aristotle45, " the first principle of logic is useless ; the accidental is confounded with the true, and it becomes possible for a thing at one time to be and not to be." From scepticism the mind naturally reverted to superstition. Socrates, abandoning physics, revived the pursuit of truth by exploring the consciousness of the subject ; his great aim was to " know himself;" he felt that vague guesses about the vortices of the planets or the structures of organization were not wisdom, and he saw no means by which they could be made so. But he believed, like Hera- clitus, in a universal reason pervading all things and all minds, and consequently revealing itself in ideas. He therefore sought 43 Clem. Alex. Protr. p. 29, Pott. £trom. vi. 752. Plutarch, Isis ami Osiris 483, Wytt. ISrandis, Hist. Phil. i. p. 38. 44 Comp. Lobeck Aglaoph. 167. Arist. Ehet ii. 23. 2S7. 4i Mt-taph. iii. 5. 1. 158 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. truth iu general opinion4'5, not however in the superficial and sceptical spirit of the Sophists, but with implicit faith in the criterium. He correctly perceived in the communication of mind with mind one of the greatest prerogatives of wisdom, the most powerful instrument of advancement. In order to consult the internal oracle with certainty and effect, it became necessary for him more accurately to observe its processes and phenomena, and for the purpose of knowing things he proceeded to define and generalize ideas. In some respects he may be said to have struck the happy medium between despondency and presump- tion. He rested his claim to be thought wise on self-conviction of ignorance ; but with him the confession was accompanied with untiring efforts to learn, and with a hopeful view of humanity. On the other hand, he professed not to be wise, but " a lover of wisdom ;" his life was one of enquiry47, his philosophy was not the actual possession but a "hunt " after truth48. There was a wholesome scepticism, or rather a modesty which was not scepticism ; and the first preliminary to acquiring wisdom was to become aware of the difficulty of the task ; to abjure finality, and to be as free from the conceit of knowledge as from the despair of doubt. In this way must be explained the chief difficulty in the conception of the Socratic theory, the simul- taneous belief in human certainty and human ignorance, the seeming contradiction between passages asserting the possibility of science as distinct from mere opinion49, and others in which the perfection of wisdom is said to consist in a recognition of its contracted limits50. Socrates would no more have pretended to perfect wisdom than to perfect virtue, nor yet would he have allowed true wisdom to be a mere unattainable idea, or that the moral convictions of the mind, those eternal instincts of tem- perance, conscientiousness, and justice, implanted in it by the 46 Xen. Mem. iv. 6. 15. 47 " fbiXofoQouvra fti Sn £«v xai sI-et x^ovt a ifn.ct.vroi xa.i rous aWou;." Apol. 28. 48 " &v£u r>is a\nhia.;." Stobse. ii. 1. 1, p. 14. Phaedrus, 178d. Phaedo, p. 17, Wytt. 49 Meno, p. 98. Phileb. 59. 50 Apol. 21. 23. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 159 gods ■"'■, could possibly deceive if rightly interpreted. Philosophy had hitherto beeu an irregular contemplation of a vague object ; Socrates gave it a surer aim with more certainty of method, but resting too exclusively on independent promptings of the mind, and treating notions when tested only by the precarious verifi- cation of counter notions as equal to certainties, he gave that metaphysical direction to it which ended in visionary extrava- gance. Philosophy shared the errors of poetry and consequently its failure". Having assumed truth to be discoverable in thought, it proceeded to treat thoughts as truths. It thus became an idolatry of notions, which it considered either as phantoms exhaled from objects, or as portions of the divine pre-existent thought53, thus creating a mythology of its own, and escaping from one thraldom only to enslave itself afresh. "The apotheosis of error," says Bacon51, "is the greatest of evils, and when folly is worshipped, it is as it were a plague-spot on the understanding." Yet it was a noble instinct of the mind which prompted it to insulate its acquisi- tions, to transplant them as it were out of the perplexing varieties of the outward world in which they grew, and to make them wholly intellectual. It were indeed the ideal perfection of philosophy if it could dispense with appeals to the world of appearances, and from a few comprehensive axioms proceed independently from inference to inference, so as to reason out a priori all natural results. This which, humanly speaking, can never be possible except to a limited extent, was little to be expected from antiquity, when the only inductive generalizations known with sufficient precision to deserve the name of exact science were those of mathematics. The ancient philosophers unfortunately treated the objects of science generally in the same 11 Protag. 322 d. 52 The first effort of the philosophic, as of the poetic Eros, may thus be said to have terminated in a multiplication of darkness, a marriage of Erebus and Night. 53 Comp. Martin sur le Timce de Platon, p. 15; and Phaedo, pp. 65, 66. M Nov. Org. 1. Aph. 60. 65. ]60 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. way as those familiar cases of co-existence, space, and number55, in which the mind by speculation alone can deduce from a few very simple experiences so many wonderful results 56. It was far more difficult to deal with the successions of the physical and moral world, to reduce them correctly to general forms or propositions which should be safe bases of reasoning ; and the case was still more hopeless when the reason of the difficulty was unfelt, and when mere words and notions either gratuitously assumed or collected from the rudest experience were posited as truths. Both the power and weakness of language had been strikingly exemplified by mythology, winch, blending varieties and severing things connected, showed how many differences of idea may be brought under the same word, and how many different words may stand for the same idea. The Socratic philosophy of abstract ideas and definitions may be said to have stood half way between mythology which openly shifts its ground with capricious fancy, and the strict science bound to realities and facts. All language involves more or less of the mythical37. Words, notions, even carefully-made theories, are not in them- selves truth58, though as helps to class or explain phenomena they may be indispensable in the pursuit of it, and in the dis- covery of ulterior laws. The use of a name or notion is to identify a thing we wish to remember or examine, and a theory, however reliable in itself, is but a provisional generalization of 55 Herschel's Discourse, sec. 100. " It being in the nature of the human mind, to the extreme prejudice of knowledge, to delight in the spacious liberty of generalities, the mathematics of all other knowledge were the goodliest field to satisfy that appe- tite." " Advancement of Learning." 56 The where and when so mysteriously blended with all our thoughts are but "superficial terrestrial adhesions to them ;" and it may be for this reason that we are able to comprehend the whole truth about them, since they are part of ourselves. Plato, Phaedo, 73 b. 57 e. (j., the terms fermentation, phlogiston, &c. It may be added that wide blanks remain to be filled up in regard to "atom," "gravitation," "substance." So true is the aphorism already quoted from Goethe, "Sobald man spricht, beginnt man schon zu irren." 58 i. e., complete or ultimate truth. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 16] the relations between one class of tilings and another. The utility of both in a great degree ceases with the accomplishment of a temporary purpose ; for no theory is exhaustive of phe- nomena59, nor can any notion or form of expression be relied on as infallible. All our ideas are results of comparison, the ultimate standard of reference being ourselves. By this criterion! we get our first impression of colours, magnitudes, and objects generally, philosophy serving only to correct these rude impres- sions, and to furnish a truer appreciation of the relations of objects to ourselves and to each other. The great obstacle to philosophic progress has ever been the mistake of confounding the instrument with the end, and an obstinate adherence to favoured nationalities. Philosophy had its superstitions as well as poetry, which inevitably arrested its career and altered its nature. Theories and notions indiscriminately formed and defended are the false gods or " idols " of philosophy. Fear- lessly launching into the problem of universal being, the first philosophy attempted to supply a compendious and decisive solution of every doubt. To do this it was obliged to make the most sweeping assumptions, and as poetry had already filled the void between the human and divine by personifying its deity as man, so philosophy bowed down before the supposed reflection of the Divine image in the mind of the enquirer, who in wor- shipping his own notions had unconsciously deified himself. The order of intellectual propriety was reversed ; Nature was enslaved to common notions, and notions very often to words. There was however this distinguishing advantage of philosophical over religious theory, that it enjoyed comparative freedom, and appealing to evidence was therefore open to confutation00. It was natural that anticipated dogmas should clash with each 59 " Erfahrung kann sich ins Unendliche erweitem, Theoric nicht in eben dem sinne sich reinigen und vollkommener werden." Goethe, Ethical Maxims, p. 396, large 8vo. 60 The God of philosophy differs from the God of "revelation" in being known to be a mere human conception, while the other is superstitiously confounded with the object. VOL. II. M 162 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. other ; and accordingly each sect had its rival61 which effectually checked its presumption by maintaining contradictory doctrines with equal pertinacity and effect. The world was partially redeemed from an implicit or superstitious deference to any particular school by the jealous disputes of incompatible opin- ions, winch, however, while they undermined the obstinacy of error, seemed to render more remote and hopeless than ever any satisfactory attainment of truth. Prom the proud pretence of infallible wisdom philosophy was thus gradually reduced to the ignominious confession of utter incapacity. As the advent of philosophy had been the crisis, or Fall, which terminated the golden age of poetry, so philosophy found its check, or intel- lectual Fall, in Scepticism. Xenophanes and Fferaclitus ex- perienced a " Fall," when they mournfully acknowledged the unsatisfactory result of all the struggles of philosophy in the admission of a universality of doubt62; and the memorable effort of Socrates to rally the discomfited champions of truth ended in a similar confession. His abandonment of natural science was itself a partial adoption of the despair of scepticism, and his exclusive appeal to the infallibility of internal consciousness eventually made philosophy more notional and metaphysically superstitious than before. For if reason was able to discover within itself the universal axioms (t« koAoXgv), comprising all particulars and all truth, it had already attained the union or assimilation to the Supreme thought formally claimed after oriental precedent by the Alexandrian Platonists63, and would of course make good any obvious deficiency by visionary excite- ment. The worship of abstractions continued the error which personified evil or deified Fortune, and when mystical philosophy resigned its place to mystical religion, it changed not its nature but only its name, formally acknowledging its affinity with that in which it sank. However the intellect had done much to educate itself by experience of the fallacy of its own assump- 01 Nov. Org. 1. Aph. 62. az " Aokos tirt nctiri crai." 6J " Qtou^yixn inuffis'" Iamblichus. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 163 lions. Ancient philosophy prepared the way for modern science, by teaching the mind to discipline and comprehend its powns, which in greater maturity reverted to the contemplation of nature, and were employed in bending it to the uses of man. But the great task undertaken, though as yet unperformed, that of reducing the outward world and its principles"1 to the dominion of the intellect, and of reconciling the conception of the supreme unalterable power asserted by reason with the requisitions of human sympathies, could be even approximatively fulfilled only when the province of faith was more carefully distinguished from that of knowledge, and when the course of Nature's government was found to belong to the latter as intelligible as well as uniform. A general idea of purpose and regularity in nature had been suggested by common appear- ances to the earliest reflection. The ancients perceived a natural order, a divine legislation from which human institutions were supposed to be derived, "laws emblazoned in heaven"65 and thence revealed to earth, or, in mythical language, commu- nicated by the spirit of nature personated by Ceres, Osiris, or Zeus. But they were very imperfectly acquainted with tfeeil character or extent. Divine law was little more than an analogical inference from human law taken in the vulgar sense of arbitrary will or partial covenant ; it was surmised rather than discovered, and remained immoral because unintelligible G6. It mattered little under the circumstances whether the universe were said to be governed by chance or reason, since the latter if misunderstood was virtually one with the former01. Law uii- 61 " Uncle omnes natura erect res, auctat, alatque." 6i "Ou^avia* 11 ouhoa. riKvuhvrts." Soph. (Ed. Tyr. 865. Antig. 455. Fs. Plat Epinomis, 977. " Law," says Pindar, " is king of all, both mortals and im- mortals." Herod, iii. 38. Plat. Gorg. 484. "The order of the universe," said Aristotle, "is like that of a family, of which each member has its part not arbi- trarily or capriciously enforced, but prefixed and appointed ; all in their diversified functions conspiring to the harmony of the whole." Metaph. 11. (12.) 10. 3. 08 "Better far," said Epicurus, "acquiesce in the fables of tradition than ac- knowledge the oppressive Necessity of the physists." Diog. Laert. 67 Hence Menander speaks of God, Chance, and Intelligence as undistinguishable. Stoba?. Eel. i. 192. The casual, however, and that which seems mysterious in M 2 164 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. acknowledged goes under the name of chance ; perceived, but not understood, it becomes necessity. The wisdom of the Stoic was a dogged submission to the arbitrary behests of one ; that of the Epicurean an advantage snatched by more or less dexter- ous management from the equal tyranny of the other. Igno- rance sees nothing necessary, and is self-abandoned to a power tyrannical because defined by no rule, and paradoxical because permitting evil, while assumed to be unlimited, all powerful, and good. A little knowledge, presuming an identification of the supreme Cause with the inevitable certainty of perfect reason, but omitting the analysis or interpretation of it, leaves the mind chain-bound in the ascetic fatalism of the Stoic. Something of both these states of feeling attaches to the supernaturalist, who contemplating a Being acting through impulse though with superhuman wisdom, and considering the best courtier to be the most favoured subject, combines contradictory expedients, incon- sistently mixing the assertion of free action with the enervating service of petition68. The last stage is that in which the religion of action is made legitimate through comprehension of its proper objects and conditions. Human government tends in the advance of civilization to pass from the arbitrary to the limited or constitutional; Nature's government is changeless, but it appears to undergo a change when it is better understood, and when the excellence which in our case is developed, is in the other discovered. Man becomes morally free only when the notions of chance and of incomprehensible necessity are both displaced by that of law. Law, as applied to the universe, means that universal providential pre- arrangement whose con- ditions can be discerned and discretional] y acted on by human intelligence. The sense of freedom arises when the indepen- ordinary causal successions, is rather what we do not, than what we cannot under- stand. 68 It is indisputable that "if the production of the things we ask for depend on antecedent, natural, and necessary causes, our desires will be answered no less by the omission than the offering of prayers, which, therefore, are a vain thing." Dr. Wm. King, Archbishop of Dublin, on the Origin of Evil, ch. v. 5. 4. Supposing this in- ference and assumption to be true, the form of praying would be advantageously exchanged for that of thanksgiving. MEDIATION or PHILOSOPHY. I 65 dence of the individual develops itself according to its own laws without external collision or hindrance; of constraint, where it is thwarted or confined by other natures, or where by a com- bination of external forces the individual force is compelled into a new direction. Moral choice would not exist safely, or even at all, unless it were bounded by conditions determining its preferences. Duty supposes a rule both intelligible and certain, since an uncertain rule would be unintelligible, and if unintelli- gible, there could be no responsibility. Even the Jews felt that the Mosaic law could not be obligatory if unknown, and they therefore taxed their ingenuity to account for its miraculous promulgation to the universe. " Law is on the side of the weak, result is with the strong." 09 Man commands results only by selecting among the contingent the preordained results most suited to his purposes. In regard to absolute or divine morality, meaning the final cause or purpose of those compre- hensive laws which often seem harsh to the individual because inflexibly impartial and just to the universal, speculation must take refuge in faith, the immediate and obvious purpose often bearing so small a proportion to a wider and unknown one as to be relatively absorbed or lost. Yet of the good and ill which at first seemed irreconcilable and capriciously distributed, the one holds its ground, the other diminishes by being explained. Thus the educated mind begins to appreciate the moral supe- riority of a system of law over one of interference, ami as the jumble of means and ends is brought into more intelligible perspective, partial or seeming good is gladly resigned for the disinterested and universal. Self-restraint is found not to imply self-sacrifice. The true meaning of what appeared to be Neces- sity is not arbitrary power, but Kratos and Bia subservient to Zeus, resistless force enlisted in the service of intelligence. The mystery of the world remains, yet is sufficiently cleared up to inspire confidence; and man surrounded by necessity is lice, not in a dogged determination of isolated will, but because though inevitably complying with Nature's laws he is able 69 Schiller, Das Naturgesetz. 166 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. proportionably to his knowledge to modify in regard to himself the conditions of their action, and so to preserve an average conformity between their forces and his own. Human knowledge consists chiefly in the experimental ascer- tainment of these laws or natural limits circumscribing the range of vague possibility. But before it could be known to what extent experience could be relied on for the expla- nation of phenomena or raising of axioms deserving in any sense to be considered true70, it was necessary that abundant experiences should be accumulated, and that they should be distinguished as more or less real or superficial, of wide or limited application, as affording a foundation for certainty or only for feeble probability. Above all, it was necessary that the groundwork of all reasoning from experience, the unde- viating uniformity of the laws of Nature, should itself be approved as the most certain of all inferences by the widest and most undeniable experience of the separate uniformities existing in single phenomena. For the only test of experience is itself; and hence the construction of science could only be a result of time, arising out of prolonged intercourse with the objective and deliberate study of it, when the success of some inferences and failure of others led to a review of the processes through which they were made, eventually showing the necessity of an active search after instances instead of merely waiting for them, and of verifying one by many. Science consists of those matured inferences from experience which all other experience confirms; it is no fixed system superior to revision, but that progressive mediation between ignorance and wisdom in part conceived by Plato, whose immediate object is happiness, and whose impulse the highest kind of love. Science is mind judiciously applied to nature ; it begins when mind lays hold 70 The monkey burlesques the man ; so the scientific process of induction was travestied by the divinatory theory of the Egyptian priests. They are said (Herod, ii. 82) to have carefully noted down every occurrence and the circumstances casually attending or following it; then, on recurrence of the phenomenon, they ventured from these data to predict the consequences. MF.DIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 167 nil innt tor, ami subjects the accumulations of experience fcc rational combinations. Bacon compares its processes bo tbc ascending and descending of the symbolical ladder of the Hebrew patriarch, in tbe one comprising tbe task of con- struction, or of mounting upwards to axioms or generalizations, and again tbe deductive or descending process, inwbicb science so constituted is verified and applied, and in wbich the mind having obtained mastery over a certain portion of the chain of causation, becomes enabled to infer appearances before un- known or unexplained, and to subdue new departments of nature. Once educated negatively by failure, we now gain positive assurance from success. The results of science ap- proximatively assured by the agreement of scientific men so different from the barren rivalries of antiquity, receive their ultimate attestation from Nature herself, who when a coned inference has been made, declares her assent by revealing new facts and new resources71. Ancient philosophy stood apart from the arts, because it affected too soon that intellectual independence and isolation possible only in a limited degree for its maturity. " Tbe first inventions," says Bacon, " were ascribed to beasts or to gods, because human reason appeared to have been little concerned in originating them" 'I 'li<-> seemed as a theft or stratagem, as rebellion and impiety. However difficulty and want" called forth a rude empirical knowledge, which aided occasionally by a lucky chance became the source of the first arts or expedients by which they were partially supplied or overcome. But when this knowledge was enlarged, generalized, and methodically reduced to principles, when, by multiplying instances and experiments, many natural laws were discovered whose certainty was authenticated as well by the new truths they revealed as by the uses and applications resulting from them, science and art became united, and tbe 71 Axioms rightly investigated and established prepare us not for limited but abundant practice, and bring in their train whole troops of effects. Nov. Org. i. 7". " " Duns urgens in rebus egestas." " Paupertas artiuin Repertrix." A-puleiua, de Mag. 434. 168 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. intellectualization of the external world vainly attempted by the ancients was already in a degree realized. Thus the tor- toise steps of reason overtook the rapid but rash flight of imagination. We are now enabled confidently to deny the existence of an impassable barrier73, of an ebb and flow of civilization ; and since discovery of the reasons of failure is itself an earnest of success, we may apply to man's intellectual career the well-known quotation from Demosthenes74, since the very circumstances most forbidding in the retrospect are the most flattering to hope. Science realizes and unites all that was truly valuable in both the old schemes of mediation ; the heroic, or system of action and effort ; and the mystical theory of spiritual contemplative communion. It was no unreason- able requisition of antiquity, that every pretender to the pro- phetic office should exhibit by evident control exerted over nature a " sign," or satisfactory proof of his mission75. Science bears the same vouchers of fruits or effects76 which were re- quired in religion. It performs not in obscurity and among the ignorant, but in the light of day and before all77, those feats of prediction and of marvellous if not miraculous power which used to be held unanswerable attestations of authen- ticity. Through the material78, which it looks upon not as 7i " Odf/ x.vx\ov Mat tu. avfyufivcc vrgwy/xarct." Al'istot. Phys. IV. 14. 71 Nov. Org. bk. i. 9L 73 " These things done by her being looked upon as above the common course of nature, the king highly honoured her, and believed all she said to be true." Diod. S. iv. 51. 76 Compare Nov. Org. i. 73 with Matt. vii. 16. 77 "Listen to me," says Galen, when propounding the wonders of anatomy, "as to the voice of the Eleusinian Hierophant, and believe that the study of Nature is a mystery no less important than theirs, nor less adapted to display the wisdom and power of the great Creator. Their lessons and demonstrations were obscure, but ours clear and unmistakeable." 78 Supposing matter to be really the inert thing it is commonly taken for, it may appear strange that while able to destroy life we should be incapable of annihilating a single particle of what would seem comparatively so insignificant. The case, how- ever, alters if modern science can approach the point long ago imagined but not dis- covered by Aristotle, where the chain of being bends back again into itself, and where matter merges in its seeming antithesis, mind. Individual life then loses its MEDIATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 109 its corrupter but its teacher, it opens nn intellectual commu- nion with the universal intelligence7". Among its "forms" or axioms framed upon an actual and sufficient basis, each outstanding member of the real world finds successively its appropriate place ; the power of framing correct notions or hypotheses grows with its growth, and the seeming mystery of complicated phenomena melts away before its generalisations. It heals disease, gives sight to the blind, and language to the dumb ; it grows stronger by time, and by the attestation of real unanimity80. Its foundation in nature is proved by a command over her powers coextensive with the powers them- selves, and by the success of appeals vainly attempted by ancient professors of magic, in making the elements subservient to the use of man, and even bringing down the fire of the divinity who indignantly repelled those who presumed without authority to tamper with his secrets81. Knowledge is con- vertible into power, axioms into rules of utility and duty. Ancient philosophy was unsocial because it was mystical. Modern science is social and communicative ; it is moral as well as intellectual ; powerful, yet pacific and disinterested ; binding man to man as well as to the universe ; filling up the details of obligation and cherishing impulses of virtue M; infinitely multiplying the average comfort of the masses M ; and exaggerated importance, appearing only as one, though the highest, among the manifestations of a Power in whom death ceases to bear its usual meaning. Every exertion of force may be proved to be eternal in its consequences, alterable indeed in character and direction, but never annihilated ; but this exertion, in the only instance in which we are really familiar with it, i. e., our own consciousness, we uniformly ascribe to mind. 79 " Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit." 80 "Unanimity," says Bacon (Nov. Org. i. 77), "is of two kinds; one ignorant assent or blind obsequiousness to dogma or prejudice, the other proceeding from free judgment, arriving at the same conclusion after independent examination of the facts." 81 Comp. Nov. Org. i. 3. Levit. x. 1. Soph. CEd. T. 36. 8i "La doctrine la plus feconde envertus divines sera celle qui contiendra le plus de verites divines." Lamartine. 83 The assertion is true, although in a highly-taxed country pressing a large population into a small area the beneficial influence may be greatly counteracted. 170 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. by affording clear proof of the consistency and identity of all interests, substituting co-operation for rivalry, liberality for jealousy, and tending far more powerfully than any other means to realize the spirit of religion, by healing those invete- rate disorders which, traced to their real origin, will be found rooted in an ignorant assumption as to the penurious severity of Providence, and the consequent greed of selfish men to con- fine what seemed as if extorted from it to themselves, or to steal from each other rather than quietly to enjoy their own. Science is no longer, as sometimes of old, an inference from empirical expedients, but the fruitful mother of expedients flowing abundantly from each discovered law by which we co- operate, and, as it were, communicate with nature. Recon- ciling thus the uses and sympathies of man with Nature's seeming inflexibility through acquaintance with the idea pre- siding over its arrangement, it may be said to be the true in- strument of spiritual mediation. If the Fall was an awakening of the soul accompanied by despondency, science is a second revival marked by energy and hope ; conventionally separated from religion, yet preserving its spirit, and by that very sepa- ration, when lightly understood, protected in great measure against the errors which obstructed its ancient development. For scientific "forms," as humanly attainable, are only im- perfect efforts of comparison and exclusion, expressive of the best information yet obtained from experience. We shall pro- bably never reach those higher forms containing the " true differences of things," involving the full discovery and correct expression of their very self or essence. We ever fall short of the most general or most simple nature, the ultimate or most comprehensive law84. Our widest axioms explain many phe- nomena, but so too in a degree did the principles or elements of the old philosophers, and the cycles and epicycles of ancient astronomy. Yet though unable in any case of causation to assign the whole of the conditions, or, even though reproducing 81 "That knowledge being worthiest which is the least charged with multi- plicity." Bacon's Advancement of Learning. MEDIATION OF PHILOSOrilY. 171 them in practice Si, mentally to distinguish them all without knowing the essences of the tilings including them, we often unconsciously ascribe that absolute certainty to axioms which the ancient religionists did to creeds ; and the mind, ever striving to insulate itself and its acquisitions, forgets the nature of the process by which it substituted scientific for common notions, with one as with the other laying the basis of self- deception by a pedantic and superstitious employment of them86. But as the "Fall" was symbolical of that birth of intellect which seemed to give man the attribute of God, so doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and dis- cover}', must accompany all the stages of his onward progress. Man's intellectual life is a perpetual beginning, a preparation for a birth. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason. Faith is peculiarly the virtue of children, doubt that of men. "With children faith seems instinctively to accompany love ; to discipline the affec- tions is to make the reason more hesitating in pronouncing its decisions. Experience which teaches scepticism reveals also higher sources of faith. But the childish faith which seemed blindly to follow the object of love is strikingly inapplicable to the universe. Here it becomes distinctly evident that we can love and believe aright only by knowing" ; but knowledge is always imperfect, or complete only in a prospectively bound- less career, in which discovery multiplies doubt, and doubt ** By means of their material or efficient causes. 86 Here again, as in the mediation of poetry, bringing down the Deity to the level of human conceptions, instead of trying to raise the conception nearer to the Deity. 87 Clearly a true education of the understanding is at the same time an education of the heart ; for God is good ; the more we know of him, or of his works, the stronger the appeal to the worthier sentiments. There seems to be a great mis- apprehension in regard to intellectual education and its objects. Sir Bulwer Lvtton says (Caxtons, vol. iii. p. 133), " Not for want of mind, understanding, genius, have Borgias and Neros left their names as monuments of horror to mankind." 172 ON THE THEORY OF MEDIATION. leads on to new discovery88. Science makes us feel that we are men, but also that we are children. Man, the " insect infinite-," who seemed to fall when, comparing the actual with the possible, he first reflected on the antithesis of his nature, is truly great not in act but in aspiration ; and the boast of science is not so much its manifested results, as its admitted imperfection and capacity of unlimited progress89. The true religious philosophy of an imperfect being is not a system of creed, but as Socrates thought, an infinite search or approxi- mation. Finality is but another name for bewilderment or defeat, the common affectation of indolence and superstition, a temporary suspension of the mind's health arising from preju- dice, and especially from the old error of clinging too closely to notions found instrumental in assisting it after they have ceased to be serviceable, and striving rather to defend and retain them than to make them more correct. A remnant of the mythical lurks in the very sanctuary of science. Forms or theories ever fall short of nature, though they are ever tending to reach a position above nature, and may often be found really to include more than the maker of them at the time knew. To a certain extent they are reliable and complete ; as a system of knowledge they are but intermediate and prepara- tory. As matter is the soul's necessary instrument, so ignorance more or less mixed up with all its expressions and forms may be said to be as it were the eyelid through which it gradually opens itself to the truth, admitting no more than it can for the time support, and as through a veil learning to support its lustre. The old religionists discovered a universal Cause, per- sonified it and prayed to it. The mere notion seemed not only to satisfy the religious feeling, but to solve all problems. 88 The distrust in our own conceptions which marks the maturity of intellect is far from incompatible with the reliance on laws and results constituting scientific faith, or with the more especially religious faith claimed for the outstanding objects of trust which knowledge is yet unable to resolve. 89 Nov. Org. 1. Aph. 74. MEDIATION OF PIIILOSOHIY. 1 73 Nations unanimously subscribed to the pious formula which satisfied their imaginations, and pleased their vanity by cheat- ing them into a belief that they were wise ; but which at the same time supplanted nature by tradition, the sources of truth by artificial disguises, and at last paralysed the sentimen which gave birth to it. Science, unlike the rude expedient which stupefied without nourishing the mind, gratifies the re- ligious feeling without arresting it, and opening out the barren mystery of the One into more explicit and manageable "Forms," expressing, not indeed his essence, but his will, feeds an endless enthusiasm by accumulating for ever new objects of pursuit. We have long experienced that knowledge is profitable, we are beginning to find out that it is moral, and shall at last discover it to be religious. Aristotle declared the highest and truest science to be that which is most disin- terested ; Bacon, treating science as separate from religion, asserted knowledge to be power, and held that truth must be tested by its fruits, that is, its instrumentality in promoting the right and the useful. Both assertions may be justified and reconciled by the fact that, while no real knowledge is powerless or fruitless, the fruits differ in refinement and value, the highest being unquestionably those disinterested gratifications which minister to the highest wants of the highest faculties, and which earned for philosophy the title of a divine love, realizing the mysterious longing of the soul, and promoting the accom- plishment of its destiny, " To rise in science as in bliss, Initiate in the secrets of the skies." HEBREW THEORY OE MEDIATION. "0 genus infelix humanum ! talia Divis Cum tribuit facta, atque iras adjunxit acerbas ; Quantos turn gemitus ipsi sibi, quantaque nobis Vulnera, quas lacrymas peperere minoribus nostris ! " Lucret. v. 1193. " To di /iaXiffTtt. iTagav aurovs tqos riv ToXiftov riv XZr"rfi°i «/i«^('/3»X«j «v Toii is^oii tvfitif&itos yt>dfiftx. VOL. II. N 178 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. attained settled institutions and the consciousness of national independence, they naturally ascribed these advantages to their god, whom they now no longer regarded so much as a power presiding over heaven, or fire, or increase, as author of law and justice. It is not among savages that we can expect to find ideas of universal brotherhood or of universal religion ; yet the very absence of the artificial feelings of civilization may some- times mimic its results, and it would seem from Scripture language respecting the God of Melchizedec, Abimelech, Pharaoh, Jethro, &c, as if in the earliest times there was not that exclusive feeling among the Hebrews in religious matters which prevailed afterwards. But however extensive his juris- diction, or however limited by a feeling of nationality, the ancient Deity was always in close approximation to his worshippers ; and if after the first chapters of Genesis we miss any further allusion to the story of the paradisiacal state and its termination, the whole subsequent history may be regarded as a continued illustration of it. We find a nation supposed to live under God's immediate protection, by the fundamental principle of their polity being his peculiar people, and forming a kingdom of heaven upon earth6. Jehovah is their king, lawgiver, and judge7, a "Theocratic" hypothesis through which religious obligations and political allegiance are inseparably connected. They are the Lord's elect, or "chosen," his "inheritance," and a " holy nation," who by the partial favour of him to whom the whole earth belongs, and who therefore possessed the unques- tionable right of making a selection, are privileged above all other nations, just as the order of Priests are exalted over com- mon men8. Of this theory the Levitical ritual is part. The ceremonies of sacrifice, with the emblematic salt9, are a perpetual commemoration and renewal of the original compact established between the people and their divine king. The first and great 0 Deut. xxxii. 9. 7 Psa. cxlv. 1, &c. Isa. xxxiii. 22 ; xli. 21, &c. &c. 1 Sam. viii. 7; xii. 12. J wig. viii. 23. Deut. xxxiii. 5. 9 Exod. xix. 6. Deut. xiv. 2. " Lev. ii. 13. Ezek. xliii. 24. THE THEOCBACY. 17«J command is that forbidding treason or its equivalent idolatry ; the [araelitiah landowner is strictly a feudal tenant"; and the three great periodical festivals, the anoienl memorials of seed- time or harvest, are the solemn occasions on which the united tribes present themselves before their sovereign to renew their lenity to him, and according to oriental custom, to present him with thank-offerings and gilts ". Temugin or Genghis Khan, the great Mongol emperor, pretended to have received from heaven a letter authorizing him to subdue and appropriate the world. The Dorian conquerors of Peloponessus founded their title on the gift of Hercules and Zeus12. The territorial establishment of the Hebrews in Canaan was hased on the supposition that their king, to whom the whole earth helouged, had assigned this portion of it as their rightful habitation1*. Abraham believed the reality of the divine investiture when as yet he did not possess a single span of the promised land14; and the helief, hy whatever name we might now call it, was at the time accounted to him for right- eousness. It was the land which God gave to his people15, properly therefore called "Jehovah's land,"10 their possession being not absolute, but conditional or feudal, depending on allegiance. God first found Israel a wanderer in the desert, " in the howling wilderness ;"'7 he there made him suck honey from the rock, hut eventually brought him into aland fruitful not merely after the nomad standard of milk and honey, but suited to agriculture as well as pasture18. He was indeed the same Being who spoke to the Patriarchs, and who was ac- knowledged hy the Canaanitish chiefs; hut he had changed his name and character; the obscuration of his physical emblems 10 Von Bohlen Genes. 139. " "None," says Jehovah, "shnll appear before me empty." Exod. xxiii. 15 ; xxxiv. 20, &C. '-' Miiller, Dor. i. 52. '» Deut xxxii. S, 9. Neb. ix. 8. 11 Acts vii. 5. 15 Lev. xiv. 34 ; xxv. 2. 23. Numb. xiii. 3. ,0 Psal. x. 16. 17 Deut. xxvi. 5; xxxii. 10. Hos. ix. 10. 18 Deut. viii. 8. Judg. \i. 11, &c. N 2 180 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. had given more prominence to his political and moral aspect ; yet he was still the close superintendent of his chosen people, ■whose temporal prosperity was the reward and attestation of their fidelity to the stipulated terms of their connection with him. The presence or proximity of the sovereign was considered an earnest of deliverance, and synonymous with safety and success. A prosperous career is described by the phrase " the Lord was with him," for God is said to he with us when he protects and helps us. Hence the pious Hebrew under calamity entreats the Lord not to be far from him or forsake him ; or, in joyful confidence assuming the presence of his divine cham- pion19, gives his child the name " Immanuel," indicating his defiance of danger and certainty of protection. It was therefore part of the political theory of the Hebrews, a trait afterwards transferred to their visions of futurity, that "Jehovah would dwell in the midst of them," would "pitch his tent among them ;"20 and even though his proper dwelling was acknowledged to be celestial'", he was still supposed to be enthroned upon the cherubim within the tabernacle or temple. The assumed con- nection between God's favour and the notion of his presence naturally produced a desire to obtain sensible evidence of it ; hence the petition of Moses2'2, and that continuance of divine manifestations which were the peculiar pride of the Hebrews 2i, who alone possessed God's oracles, and especially his " glory,"24 which they hoped would ever dwell with them25, as the highest theocratic blessing26. "My presence," says Jehovah to Moses, " shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." 2T 18 Psal, xlvi. 7. 20 Ezek. xxxvii. 27. Wisd. ix. 8. 2 Mac. xiv. 35. Mic. i. 2. The same phrase continued to be used long after the disuse of nomad life, as in the expression " iffxnvwiriv" (John i. 14), to express the sojourn of the incarnate Word on earth. 21 Deut. xxvi. 15. 1 Kings viii. 39. Isa. lxiii. 15. 22 Exod. xxxiii. 18. 23 Rom. iii. 2. -* 1 Kings viii. 11. M Psal. lxxxv. 9. -6 Psal, cxl. 17. " Exod. xxxiii. 14. THEOCRATIC OFFICES AND LAWS. 181 §2. THEOCRATIC OFFICES AND LAWS. It is obvious that the hypothesis of God's government and presence could be practically made good only through the inter- vention of an agent or "mediator" appointed to be the instru- ment of divine communications. Oriental sovereigns used to seclude themselves from observation in order to increase the awe in which they were held by their subjects1. This custom is said to have been established by the Median monarch Deioces2, whose successors sat invisibly enthroned at Susa or Ecbatana3, retired within the seven mural enclosures of their palace, where they seemed like the Deity encircled by the seven " keshwars " of the universe \ He who desired an audience placed himself before the entrance of the palace, and announced himself by an internuncio5 selected from among the subordinates in attendance, some of whom bore the title of the king's " Eyes" and "Ears."6 Through these, responses were delivered to the petitioners from the unseen oracle within. The proceedings of the seven con- spirators against the usurping Magi illustrate the interior arrangement of a Persian palace. First they pass the guards at the gate ; further on they meet the messengers or internuncios7 who possessed the power of granting or refusing the entree*, and among whom were generally included every gradation of rank between the throne and subject up to the vizir, or "second to 1 Justin, i. 2. 12; i. 9, 10; iii. 2. 2 Herod, i. 99. Diod. S. ii. 21. 3 Xenoph. Agesil. 9. 1. Aristot. de Mundo, 6. 4 Apuleius de Mundo, ch. 26, 27. So too the roof of the hall of Justice of the monarch of Babylon was painted blue in imitation of the heavens. Fhilostrat. V. Ap. 25, p. 34. 5 Herod, i. 99; iii. 140. 6 Herod, i. 100. Apuleius, ib. iEschyl. Persre. Bloomf. 973. Xenoph. Cyrop. 8. 2. 10. Jones' Works, vii. 88. Plutarch's Themistocles. 7 Herod, iii. 72. 77. " KyytXiat turQitoirif." 8 Xen. Cyrop. i. 3, 8, and 14. J 82 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. the king," such as Sacas, Prexaspes, Artabanus, Hainan9, and Holofernes10. We read of a similar great officer, called the " word of the king," at the court of Abyssinia; and the enter- prising Sir James Brooke is said to have borne an equivalent title as " mediator " or " interceder " in the state formalities of Borneo ' ' . From the moment of the election of the grand Khan of the Tartars, no stranger however illustrious was permitted to speak to him; all communications were addressed through officials ; his seal bore the title of " God in heaven, and Cyane Khan upon earth, the power of God, the seal of the Emperor of all men." The Deity being a monarch whose throne, however near, is acknowledged to be at least equally inaccessible, men endeavoured to approach him after the fashion of their own customs. The communications of the Divine Monarch of the Hebrews were first made through their patriarchal chiefs. To these succeeded priests, prophets, and kings ; still later, when either the sanctuary was less respected, or its symbolism had become more generally understood, it became necessary to analyse and develop more clearly the theory of supernatural mediation, and consequently either the angels in general12, or an ideal Being in whom the human and spiritual offices became majestically united, were imagined both in time past and to come as interceding for man to God, and as imparting divine revela- tions to him. Herod, describing the character of an ambas- sador13, tells the Jews that the most sacred part of their law was delivered to them through angels or ambassadors from heaven; through them men were reconciled with each other and brought to the knowledge of God. Whatever form the conception might assume, its foundation was always the unapproachable majesty of the Divine Ruler. The Hebrews feared to approach their king, and therefore requested Moses to represent them before his presence14. The feeling increased in intensity as the idea 9 Esth. xiii. 3. 6. "' Judith ii. 4. " Keppel's Borneo, p. 82. 12 Gal. iii. 19. Job v. 1 ; xxxiii. 23, and Hitzig's note. lJ Antiq. Joseph. 15. 5. 3. '4 Exod. xx. 19. THEOCRATIC OFFICES AND LAWS. 183 of God became exulted by philosophy; "We require/' says 1'hilo, "a mediator and atoning xoyoi, because men fear to approach the 1 iord of the world."1'' The original Theocratic charter was the " covenant" made ..I old with the patriarchs, the basis of the constitution more roll} developed bv Moses. 13y the revelation on Sinai the promises given to a race of chiefs were supposed to be confirmed to their descendants then increased bo a nation, while at the same time the terms of the compact, before expressed only in general or symbolic language10, took the form of a detailed code of ritual and morals. Thenceforth the "words of the covenant" were especially the decalogue17, its record the two tables18, the ark the place for its safe keeping; the general name of the "covenant" attaching however not only to the laws first delivered, but to all accessions afterwards incorporated with them. No com- petent judge now pretends that Moses himself wrote all that passes under his name. The successive effusions of sacred poetry were ascribed to the great psalmist ; gnomic wisdom was assigned of course to the name of Solomon; that of Isaiah included a large miscellaneous collection of prophetic literature, and by the same arbitrary classification, the general aggregate of legislative enactments were attributed to Moses. It was common for ancient kings and legislators, as Hermes, Zoroaster, or Lycurgus, to assume the authority of a divine commission in order to give greater weight to their laws and institutions. Moses was a person specially sent by Jehovah '" J he was the "man of God,""' the "servant of the Lord,'"'1 titles afterwards assigned generally to the prophets of whose order he was esteemed to have been the greatest'", as with whom God spoke face to face, and not merely in dreams or visions2*. " rfeiffer. v. 66 and 63. 16 Comp. Gen. xv. 6 ; xvii. 7 ; xxii. 16. 17 Exod. xxxiv. 28. '8 Dcut. ix. 9. 19 Exod. iv. 1. Numb. xvi. 28. " Dent, xxxiii. 1. -' Dcut. xxxiv. 5. " Dcut. xxxv. 10. -' Numb. xii. B. 184 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. He was so rich in inspiration, that from him as from a fountain the gift flowed over upon others24. The Lord, the maker of man's mouth, promised to he with his mouth, to teach him what to say25; just as Aaron, under the direction of his brother who stood to him in place of God, was to act " as prophet," or, as it is explained, as his "mouth" or spokesman26. Moses particularly describes the nature of his mediatorial character as prophet in the following terms : " I stood between the Lord and you at that time27 to show you ' the word of the Lord,' for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the Mount." On another occasion he describes his double relation to Jehovah and the people 2S : " The people come to me to enquire of God ; when they have a matter they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and do make them know the statues of God and his laws." On the other hand, the people who from prudential reasons thought fit to withdraw from the terrible presence of their king29, were bound under the severest penalties to hear and obey the Lord's word so delivered to them by his representative30. From this view of Ms character Moses is termed the " Msa-irvg tv\s hadwvg," the great Mediator of the Covenant, and the ^aWcwTYig, or Intercessor31; in the Talmud he receives the same title82. " Before the Israel- ites had sinned," it is said, " they were able to endure the sight of the fire (on Sinai), but after their sin they were not able to look even on the Mediator," 33 whose glorified aspect bespoke his divine commission. In addition to his transfiguration, the mission of Moses was attested by wonders and signs. Though indeed on this subject the argument reverted into a petitio principii. It was eventually admitted that the wonder or vision was not of itself conclusive evidence of a prophetic mission ; if the sign should be contradicted by the event, the prophecy 24 Numb. xi. 25. 25 Exod. iv. 12. 26 Exod. iv. 16, and vii. 1. *» ■!. c., the giving of the law. 28 Exod. xviii. 15. ' Deut.. xviii. 16. 30 Deut. xviii. 19. Acts iii. 23. 3I By Philo and Eueebius. '- Wetstein to Gal. iii. 19. »3 Bamidbar Rabba, xi. 3. TIIK PRIEST. Is.") would of course be unauthorized*4; or else a seeming miracle might be permitted by God in order to test the integrity of liis people '''■'. It followed that the only infallible evidence of a divine revelation was its own intrinsic character, judged of course after the Fundamental principles of the Theocracy; so that under the Jewish law, as it became better understood under the Christian, the true prophet was to be distinguished from the false rather by his "fruits" than by any essential difference in the nature or extent of his supernatural performances36. §3. TIIK PRIEST. The ancient patriarchal chiefs, as Abraham, Melchizedcc, and Jethro1, were supposed to have been also priests of their respective clans, and to have united in the same individuals every branch of the mediatorial office. The same combination of authority was ascribed to the great prophet and legislator Moses"; but Moses, finding the undivided weight of government too heavy for himself alone, is said to have delegated the sub- ordinate civil offices to elders or judges3, and appointed the tribe of Levi, to which he himself belonged, to officiate as spiritual mediators or priests. Priests doubtless existed among the Israelites long before their office became the established hereditary function of the tribe or community of Levi4. The office was unconfined by caste, and each household appears to have been competent to elect at pleasure a priest of its own, who M Deut. xviii. 22. 3S Jcr. xxviii. 9. 36 Matt. vii. 16; xxiv. 11. 24. 1 Bzod. iii. 1. Gen. xx. 7. Psal. cv. 15. Comp. Job i. 5; xlii. 8. 2 Dent, xxxiv. 10. Luke xxiv. 27. Gfro'rer, Urchristcnthuni, 2, pp. 345. 353. Apostolical Constitutions, 6, 1!>. B cod. xviii. 21. 4 Bwaldj AnbaDg to Geechichte ;i. 272. 1SG HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. was often one of its younger members5. David's sons were priests6 , and David and Solomon themselves exercised the old patriarchal right. The word " kohen," (priest) seems to have meant " worshipper," or " servitor" of the altar7. Though the office was not originally peculiar to Levites, they came after- wards (though it may be difficult to say how), to be considered the most proper persons to perform it8. It has long been felt how much confusion has arisen from the attempt of later Jewish writers to ascribe every cotemporary institution to Moses ; but the original nature of the priestly office may be surmised from the statutory ceremonies attending investiture, the chief part of which was sacrifice9. It was not every one who on a solemn occasion of this kind would feel authorized to approach the Almighty ; and among a patriarchal people, where skill neces- sarily ranges within narrow limits, there is always a tendency in the arts to become hereditary. Inequality of spiritual gifts shown in expressing the conceptions of religion or in perform- ing its rites, would naturally in time create an order of hereditary priests. God himself would thus seem to have pointed out who was sufficiently "holy" or otherwise qualified to approach him10. The obscurity attending the origin of the Levites11 is lessened by supposing the institution to have arisen gradually. The term, according to Genesis xxix. 34, means joining or joined; persons, that is, joined in a fraternity12; or if, as has been con- 5 Exod. xxiv. 5. Judg. xvii. 5; xviiii 19.; comp. 1 Sam. vii, 1. Each head of a household could kill the passover, and possibly the qualification of the whole Hebrew nation as " holy" (Exod. xix. 6) may allude to the ancient universality of priestly privileges, to be renewed of course in the future golden age. 6 "Kohenim." Thenius to 2 Sam. viii. 18. ' Numb, xviiii 17. Ewald, Anhang, p. 273 note. 8 Judg. xvii. 10. u Ewald, u. s. 289 sq. 10 Numb. xvi. 5. " Samuel can hardly be supposed to be a Levite unless the name be understood of an artificial association, whose consanguinity as afterwards received was only mythical ; and Zadoc, had he really been son of Ahitub, would probably have shared the fate of his brothers from the orders of Saul. 1 Sam. ii. 31; xxii. 11. Comp. Ezek. xliii. 19. '-' Numb. xviii. 2. 4. TI1K PROMT. 1r water, the whisper of the breeze, the bowels of the earth, or shades oJ the dead7, were eoneeived by them ;is by the heathen to give indications of futurity. All such modes of divine communica- tion were eventually superseded by the inspired "Word," implicit belief in which was of itself said to be counted for righteousness to Abraham8, whose covenanted privileges had perhaps been originally founded on other very different consi- derations9. The priest or minister of the altar, that is, of sacrifice, is the title which best describes the divine Mediator of the rudest social state ; while among a people whose minds were more alive to influences of eloquence and genius than to formalities of worship, the same office would assume the aspect of prophecy. The prophet was one speaking from suggestion10. The term implies a fervid outpouring of words under external influence, being derived from a verb inflected passively or reileetivelv, as fari, loqui, vaticinari, &c.u The basis of all divination was the axiom that knowledge of futurity belongs to God alone or those inspired by him1*. "The prophet," says Philo, "speaks nothing of his own; it is God who speaks through his organs, he utters the communicated words of another." i:l The inspiration of his lips is as fire from Jehovah's 6 Exod. xxii. 17. Lev. xix. 26. 31. Deut. xviii. 9. 15, 4c Job iii. 8. Psal. lviii. 5. Comp. Ewald, u. s. p. 15. Zendavesta by Klouker, Theil. ii. pp. 121. 1-27.190. 7 Comp. 2 Sam. v. 24. 1 Kings xix. 11. 1 Sam. 28. Isa. viii. 19. 8 Gen. xv. 6. 8 Gen. xvii. 7; xxii. 16. 10 iEschyl. Prom. Blom. 399. Odyss. i. 348; xvii. 518. Luke xii. 12. 1 Cor. xii. 11. The same mediate power is ascribed to the Spirit itself. John xvi. 13. " Knobel's Prophetismus, i. 137- 143. The Egyptian prophet appears to have been the grand depository of the Hermetic or transcendental wisdom; " aivrui xai i>£u* aoy^nyoi." Diog. Laert. Pr. 1. Epiphan. Haer. 3. Porphyr. Abst. iv. 8. Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. 663. 11 Herod, ii. 83. Xen. Mem. i. 1. 9. " Mang. ii. 125. 343. PiVif. iv. 116. 2 Pet i. 21. 192 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. altar11, an irradiation of truth which not even Balak's house full of silver and gold could influence or change. The entrails of the dying victim were prophetic, because by the act of sacrifice the animal was supposed to be blended with the Deity; sure signs were for the same reason derivable from the elements or stars, because all things are one in God, through whom every part of nature exists and lives. In man, too, is pre- eminently manifested that divine spirit breathed into his nos- trils from the beginning15; but man in the infancy of his faculties was disposed to recognise divine agency in the excep- tional rather than in the regular, and the tendency was strikingly shown in the estimate which he formed respecting himself, when he assigned the name of prophecy not to the deliberate exercise of reason but to the intoxication of unnatural excitement. The earliest prophecy was mental rapture or exaltation16, excited or accompanied by music and dancing 17, as among the priests of Cybele or the Bacchantes, and often to superficial observation undistinguishable from actual insanity18. Philo's notion of inspiration is of the same kind. He says the mark of true prophecy is the rapture of its utterance 19 ; that the soul in order to attain " divine wisdom " must " quit body, sense, and speech, nay, even its own nature ; it must go out of itself, like the Corybantes, drunk with godlike frenzy." 20 Speaking of the sunset vision of Abraham21, " this sunset," he explains, "is the 14 Isa. vi. 7. ls Job xxxii. 8. 18 1 Sam. xviii. 10. 1 Kings xviii. 29. 17 1 Sam. x. 5. 2 Kings iii. 15. 16. 18 2 Kings ix. 11. Jer. xxix. 26. 19 " To ivSovaiuti; rou Xiyovros xal)' o //.aXurra. xai xvgiw; vivofj,nrra.t T^olptlTtls. Mang. ii. 163. 20 Pfeif. i. 268; iv. 30. Compare Job xxxii. 8. 18, 19. Psal. xxxix. 3. Jer. xx. 9. Still more dangerous would be the idea, if adopted, as by an American writer, for the ordinary guide of life; "As the traveller who has lost his way throws the reins on his horse's neck and trusts to the instinct of the animal to find his road, so must we do with the divine animal who carries us through the world !" Emerson's Essays, p. 17. 21 Gen. xv. 12. THE PROPHET. 193 waning or setting of the human spirit or reason; for when celestial light dawns upon the soul the human recedes and ginks, an incident happening very often with the prophets."* A prophet therefore was often little more than an exaggeration of the inspired poet23; both professed a divine art*4, the art of that divine wisdom in respect of which human wisdom is fool- ishness, as Socrates half ironically pronounced the ablest poets to have been those who, humanly speaking, were most irrational25. Both were communicable by a sort of contagion from mind to mind20, a mysterious transmission of the afflatus, which Plato compares to the power given by the magnet to iron rings of attracting other rings27. All the world over, the " mens divinior " of the poet has been assumed to be from above ; and the Hebrew claimed only the same majestic source of inspiration which was asserted by the early singers or sages of Greece . It was an influence so derived which laid the foundations of society, which disclosed the past and the future to the bards of Helicon29, and which Osiris, the beneficent aspect of the spirit of Nature, employed to civilize the world30. In those early times the mission of the prophet was combined with that of the sacerdotal and civil ruler, and in the eminent instances of Abra- ham and Moses, the latter of whom is said to have been mighty in word as well as deed31, seemed by its splendour to eclipse or absorb all humbler official denominations. The gift of prophecy, considered as a distinct profession in a separate class, was cliiefly carried on by the Hebrew seers or soothsayers32. " Before- time in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he » Mang. i. 511. Pfcif. iv. 118. 53 Ep. Titus, i. 12. 1 Chron. xxv. 1—3. "* Hes. Theog. 93. Odyss. xxii. 347. Iliad, ii. 484. " Ion, 534. 2B 1 Sam. x. 10 ; xix. 20, 21. " Ion, 179, 180, Bek. Compare Phaedrus, 244, and Origen against Celsus bk. vii. 7, who makes a similar distinction of the original and the derivative gift. 18 Lowth de Sacr. Poesi, pp. 16. 37 sq. 19 Hes. Theog. 32. 30 Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. 13. 31 Acts vii. 22. Justin. M. Cohort, ad Grsec. 10, 11. " 1 Sam. ix. 9. VOL. II. ° 194 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. spake, ' Come, let us go to the seer,' for the prophet was then called a seer," and the response was paid for by a present oJ. Saul went, according to this ancient custom, to consult Samuel the seer, for the purpose of finding his father's asses. But Samuel, by a new organization of the ancient seers, seems to have been the real founder of the prophetic order, to whom he transferred the greater part of the authority which had been forfeited by the irregularities of the priests. He stands first in the list of canonical prophets, not only because from a mere private soothsayer he became a public officer or " mediator " of the Theocracy, but because in him as the sacred ambassador or mouth3'* from which proceeded the revelation of the divine " Word," 35 the prophetic office in the climax of its effulgence became permanently separated30 from other functions, and con- tinued to be filled by a separate class of men. In his character of president over the prophets in Ramah he is presumed to have founded the prophetic schools to which, as to the philosophical societies of a later age, was committed the education of kings and princes37. In these schools were taught the musical skill which distinguished David, the natural lore and other wisdom of Solomon, and the healing art characteristic of the prophet38 which often attracted foreign patients to profit by Hebrew skill 89. But the great object of the prophetic training was to instil a fervent zeal for the theocratic laws and constitution. It was not for the prediction of future events, in which indeed they were often mistaken40, that the Hebrew prophets were pre- eminent. They were the great orators, politicians, and reformers of their countrymen. Often the safety of the state depended 33 Comp. 1 Kings xiii. 7. 34 Exod. iv. 16. 35 Deut. xviii. 18. 1 Sam. iii. 21 ; iv. 1. Jer. xv. 19. 36 Yet many even of the later prophets were connections of the priesthood, as Samuel himself, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and probably many others down to John the Baptist. 37 Creuzer, Briefe, p. 49. Symb. ii. 5. 1 Kings i. 26. 38 Luke vii. 16. 39 2 Kings v. 40 Knobel, Propheten, i. 303 sq. Ghillany, Menschenopfer der Hebraer, p. 489. THB PBOPHET. 1!»5 on their promptitude41; often, under the influence of a great proplu-t, the people transported with sudden impetuosity threw themselves irresistibly on their enemies42. Like the Greek seers they attended the march of armies4'1, and it was the same union of poetical temperament with high and nohle purpose which distinguished Solon, or Tyrteeus, or Joan of Arc, that eternalized the memory of Miriam and Deborah. The rank of prophet was not confined to the pupils of the schools ; know- ledge, zeal, and eloquence were the all-sufficient qualifications44, the investiture of Jehovah himself, ratified either by voice or vision45. The prophet herald of God's word bore the name of "God's messenger;"40 as guardian of the civil and religious establishment he was called the " Watchman ;" 47 and the titles "Man of God," and "Servant of the Lord," were emphati- cally appropriated to him 48. He was the original source from which flowed the rich streams of inspired wisdom which the priest had to preserve ; he was in fact the author of those treasures of human and divine law49 to correct whose abuses, and to supply whose deficiencies, became the object of liis illustrious successors. Though the gift of prophecy was sometimes continued in families'0, the prophets never formed an hereditary caste; they were maintained either by free gifts51, or gained an independent living by other employ- ments52. Their oracles were unpremeditated effusions apt to the occasion, delivered in the measured cadences of Hebrew 41 2 Kings ix. 1. 4i 1 Sam. vii. 8. Psal. xx. 5. M Comp. Herod, i. 62 ; vii. 219. 221 ; viii. 27 ; ix. 33. 35, 3C. 2 Kings iii. 11. 2 Chron. xxv. 7. 44 Amos vii. 14. 45 Isa. vi. Jer. i. 1. 1 Sam. iii. 4. In some cases a form of investiture is mentioned, as laying on of hands, anointing, or clothing in the mantle of a pre- decessor. 48 Exod. iv. 13. Isa. vi. 8 ; xlii. 19 ; xliv. 26. Hag. i. 13. 47 Isa. Iii. 8; lvi. 10. Jer. vi. 11. Ezek. iii. 17; xxxiii. 7. 49 2 Kings ix. 7; xvii. 3. Jer. vii. 25; xxvi. 5; xxix. 19. 49 Hos. xii. 13. Acts iii. 22. 60 1 Kings xvi. 1. 51 1 Kings xiii. 7; xiv. 3. 2 Kings viii. 8. Jer. xl. 5. Zech. xi. 12. 5-' Thus Elisha was an agriculturist (1 Kings xix. 19), Amos a herdsman (i. 1 ; vii. 14, 15), &c. O 2 196 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. versification. They employed music to excite ecstatic trans- port53, and used those distortions and gesticulations whose vehemence sometimes led to a douht of their sanity. They threw themselves on the ground either in the convulsions of excitement, or hecause a procumhent posture was thought favourahle to supernatural revelations54. In their frenzy they stripped off their garments, and delivered their oracles in the state of nudity afterwards prohibited by the priesthood, but regarded as a holy service by David55, as by the gymnosophists of India, the ancient Israelitish calf- worshippers56, the Syrian Galli56, or the " avi7no7rohg xalxa^ljvai " of Homer58. Their mode of life was usually austere, and their gown of hair or wool betokened the gravity of their mission. They often resorted to desert places as best suited to devotion and contemplation ; yet they were not monkish ascetics ; they married, pursued trades, and had property ; their ministry was exercised in public, in the courts of the temple, or palace of the king. It was seldom that their agency was confined to their native place ; they were often occupied in official journeys, and to attract attention they cried aloud at the corners of the streets59, and employed sym- bolical imagery and acts sometimes of the most extraordinary and revolting kind for this purpose60. After a time their prophecies were committed to writing ; for they were the prin- cipal authors and depositaries of the literature, poetical and documentary, of their day. At first the prophetic and historical arts, the acts of the king and the " words " addressed to him by the seer61, were united in one record; subsequently, pro- 53 "Divinatio furoris." Cic. Div. i. 2. 18. Winer, R. W. ii. 781. 2 Kinga iii. 15. 54 Numb. xxiv. 4 ; xvi. 4. Ezek. i. 28 ; iii. 23. Dan. viii. 17. 55 2 Sam. vi. 16. 20. 56 Exod. xxxii. 25. 57 Lucian, Dea Syr. 51. 59 Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 24. Mic. i. 8. Isa. xx. 2. 59 Those who neglected this were called "dumb dogs." Isa. hi. 10. 60 In order to induce the people to ask the meaning. As where Ezekiel was ordered to eat bread made of excrement, human excrement having at his own request been commuted into cow-dung. Ezek. iv. 12, 15; ii. 7; xii. 9. Jer. xxvii. 2. 81 2 Chron. xx. 34; xxxii. 32; xxxiii. 18. NIK KINO. 197 phetical composition became a separate branch of literature, and historiography was chiefly, though not exclusively, the department of the priesthood. §5. THE KING. The ancient Theocracy did not acknowledge any absolute continuous authority such as was usually understood by the term kiug. Military leaders were chosen for special occasions, but the authority ceased when the object had been attained. The mediation of Joshua, if regarded as historical, was a com- mission subordinate to the priesthood, though the restriction may not have been always enforced'. Samuel, recombining with his prophetic character the scattered elements of civil and ecclesiastical power, seemed for a time to have restored the Theocracy to its true unity and vigour. But his talents were unsuited for the military life required by the unsettled state of the country ; and the misconduct of his sons as judges was the immediate cause of a formal request from the heads of the nation that he would appoint a permanent ruler or king over them, one who should "judge the people and fight their battles." Samuel, though reluctantly, yielded to the general wish, trusting probabl] that the habitual respect and attachment of the people to himself would, as heretofore in the instance of Joshua", effectually prevent any serious violation of the consti- tution, and make the civil authority amenable to the law and to his own. The regal dignity was indeed so limited in practice that no real innovation was made. Conferred by the inaugura- tion of a prophet, it was understood to be strictly subordinate to that of the Supreme King3, so that Jehovah himself seemed to select the individual appointed, who was therefore called the 1 Numb, xxvii. 21. Josh. ix. 14. 2 Josh. xiv. 1 ; xvii. 4 ; xix. [>\ ; xxi. 1. 3 1 Sam. xii. 12. 198 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. Lord's Elect or Chosen4. His authority was regulated by a compact or covenant with the people on one hand and Jehovah on the other5. His functions were defined, as among the Egyptians6, and generally among other theocratic nations, by a code prescribed and preserved by the priest7. "No one," says Cicero8, "is permitted to be king of Persia until initiated in the lore and discipline of the Magi ; " so, too, in the earlier days of Egypt, the Pharaoh was chosen exclusively from the caste of priests, and at all times his introduction to office was a sort of sacred initiation9. He was henceforth bound to associate exclusively with the priests, and to conform in every minute particular to the sacred books10. Allowing for the marvellous and poetical character of the narrative, it may be conjectured that Saul the Benjamite was already not unknown to the head of the Hebrew prophets, and perhaps even that he had been disciplined in their schools11. David probably learned to make the harp echo the inspirations of the heart in the same semi- naries12; Solomon may have been pupil of Nathan13; and it was the close connection ever maintained by pious kings with the legitimate interpreters of the will of the divine Sovereign which gave force and meaning to such expressions as " I have set my king upon my holy hill;"14 " the king shall rejoice in thy strength, 0 God;"15 "the Lord is the saving strength of 4 Deut. xvii. 15. 1 Sam. x. 24 ; xii. 13. 1 Kings viii. 16; xi. 34. 1 Chron. xxix. 1 ; xxviii. 4. Psal. Ixxxix. 19. The choice, however, was really determined by the prepossessing and commanding appearance of Saul, the divine favour being thought to show itself, as with the priest, in external advantages. 5 1 Sam. x. 25; xi. 14. 2 Sam. v. 3. 1 Kings xii. 4. 2 Kings xi. 17. Jo- sephus, War. ii. 1, 2. 6 Diod. S. i. 70. Clem. Alex. Str. 6. 4, p. 757. 7 1 Sam. x. 25. Comp. Menu, vii. 37. 58. LaSsen, Antiq. i. 804. 8 De Divin. i. 41. 9 Gruigniaut's Creuzer, i. 775. Herod, ii. 142. Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. ix. Diod. S. i. 70. Plato, Polit. 290. 319, Bek. The ceremony may still be seen on the walls of Carnac ; it consisted in besprinkling with water, imposition of hands, and induction into the sanctuary. Creuz. Comment. Herod, i. 215. Symb. ii. 57. 10 Isis and Osiris, ch. vi. " See Thenius to 1 Sam. x. 5. 10. 12 1 Sam. xvi. 16. la 2 Sam. xii. 25. 14 Psal. ii. 6; xviii. 51. I5 Psal. xxi. 1. THE KING. 10!) his anointed;""5 " ho shall give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed;"17 "for power is of God,""* "the kingdom is the Lord's."19 In the inauguration by ecclesiastical or divine authority which, among the Hebrews, as among the Egyptians*0, was necessary in order to constitute a legitimate monarch21, tho principal part of the ceremony consisted of the " anointing," in itself a symbolical " coronation," or virtual investiture of office22. All the theocratic offices were conferred by unction; but the rite became afterwards peculiarly appropriated to kingly dignity, and the reigning monarch thence derived lus proper title of the "Messiah," or " Christus Kuriou," the Lord's Messiah or Anointed23. The investiture by unction implied the sacredness as well as dignity of the office21. Men applied to religious purposes the practice of their daily life, and thus a custom essential in a hot country to health and comfort25 was trans- ferred to solemn consecrations. As they set apart to the gods a portion of their food, or spread a table for them and regaled them with perfumes20, so oil, which ranked in point of utility with bread and wine27, was made part of the meat and drink offering28. The olive was significant of divine wisdom, of health, and of immortality **. It was a very ancient custom to pour oil upon stones, the most readily found and least costly emblems of divinity. The superstitious Greek w< irshipped every 18 Psal. xxviii. 8. " 1 Sam. ii. 10. Psal. lxiii. 11 ; lxx. 16. 18 Psal. Ixii. 11. ,9 Psal. xxii. 28. 1 Chron. xxix. 11. Matt. vi. 13. 20 Plato, Politicus, 290 d. 319, J3ek. 21 2 Kings xi. 12; xxiii. 30. 22 Lev. xxi. 12. Judg. ix. 8, 9. 23 Isa. xlv. 1. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. " Unctio," says the Talmud, "pra?cipue de- notat potestatem regiam." Rab. Salomo, on Psal. cv. 15. " Omnis unctio significat principatum et magnitudinem." — Id. Psal. xlv. 7, 8. 24 The word anointing is equivalent to consecration. Psal. cv. 15. *' Ruth iii. 3. Judith x. 3. Grimm's Note to Vv isd. ii. 7. 28 Gen. viii. 21. Porphyr. Abst. 2, c. 6. Herod, iii. 18. 23. 27 Psal. civ. 15. -8 Lev. ii. 1. Porphyr. ub sup. •'■' Porphyr. de Antro. 32. Payne Knight, Ancient Art, sec. 27 200 HEBREW THEORY OE MEDIATION. anointed stone which he passed30; each day the sacred stone of Delphi received a tributary libation31, as Jacob poured oil upon the stony pillow which he consecrated at "Bethel." In a simi- lar feeling the utensils as well as functionaries of the Hebrew tabernacle were consecrated by unction. Through this they became impregnated with divinity, and every man appointed to a holy office was made a "dwelling-place" or living incarnation of that divine spirit inherent in his nature32, which was thus supposed to be quickened and fed with the emblem of material health and nourishment. §6. EXTENT OF THE REGAL OFFICE. The legislative, executive, and judicial functions were all more or less reflected in the earthly representative of su- preme authority, the king1. Judgment, however, and military conduct had been the chief immediate objects of his election. Judgment was peculiarly a royal prerogative2. The Homeric kings were officially '•' AixcmtttoXoi, oin hf^iirra,; Il^o; Aio: agvccrui ;"3 and the story of Minos judging the dead was, like the infernal hunting of Orion, only a continuation of his supposed office when living. It was common for the administration of justice to be committed to the son of the reigning king in order to smooth the path to succession4, as it was often usurped by pre- 30 Theophr. Ch. 16. Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 713. Arnob. in Gent. i. 11. Lucian, Pseudomant. 30. Isa. lvii. 6. 31 Paus. x. 24. 5. 32 Numb. xi. 25. Comp. Gen. ii. 7. Job xxxii. 8. 1 Isa. xxxiii. 22. 1 Sam. xxx. 25. 3 Psal. xcix. 4. Comp. Hes. Op. 38. 3 Iliad, i. 237. Hes. Th. 85. 89. * 2 Kings xv. 5. 1 Sam. viii. 1. EXTENT OF THE REGAL OFFICE. 201 tenders who aimed at stealing by anticipation the hearts of the people*. The king's authority was also ecclesiastical as well as civil, for it was an established maxim of antiquity that a perfect king ought to unite the excellencies of judge, general, and priest". Yet the king was properly only a theocratic regent, or representative of Jehovah7, lie held what was at first only an administrative office subordinate to the Supreme Eulcr, whose decrees w7ere to be announced to him by priest or prophet. This was done either through the Urim or some other source of inspiration ; in the mean time his authority was strictly con- ditional on obedience to the Lord, or to the hierarchy8, the withdrawal of whose support made him instantly powerless. It was traditionally handed down that Saul, on occasion of a sacrifice, had treated the prophetic mediator with disrespect by dispensing with his presence; that in the affair of Agag he had rejected the Lord's word ; at all events he had irreconcilably quarrelled with the priests, the greater number of whom he massacred. In short, he used his power in an anti-theocratic and anti-sacerdotal spirit9. Hence his desertion and downfall, and the rejection of Ins family in favour of David, the beloved of Heaven, the model of a theocratic monarch, who probably owed his appointment to Iris being already a favoured and enthusiastic pupil of the ecclesiastical establishment10. David stood at the head of the priestly party in a retaliatory insurrection against the tyranny of his father-in-law. Through a more intimate connection and an unbroken alliance with the hierarchy, he seemed to exercise unwonted authority as head of the state religion as of the state. We hear no more jealous complaints of invasion of the priestly office. David committed unrcproved * As Deioccs and Absalom. Herod, i. 96. 2 Sam. xv. 4. 8 Diog. Pyth. in Stobse. Serm. 46. "Zr^ar^yo; r,v xai ItxaLfrnf i fratriXiv; xxi tui Totf reus Quus xugios. Aristot. Folit. iii. 14, p. 111). I'reuz. Symb. IT. 852. Virg. iEn. iii. 80. Herod, vi. 54. (Jump. Smith's Antiq. pp. 74 and 130. ' Psal. ii. 2. 8 1 Sam. xii. 14 ; xxviii. 6. 9 He had been remiss in "enquiring of the Lord." 1 Chron. x. 14 ; xiii. 2, 3. 10 It is particularly mentioned that David was indefatigable in consulting the divine will ; so too was Cyrus the Great. Xenoph. Cyr. viii. 1. 23. Creuz. i. 189. 202 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. the very offence reprehended in Saul11, and he performed the orgiastic dance in the scanty cincture of the priestly ephod. 12. Henceforth the king superintended public worship, provided for the building of the temple and its accessories, and13 even read the words of the law to the people; so that the priests, who were at first superior or at least equal to the kings, were for a time overshadowed by them. Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest14, and David summoned and directed both priest and prophet15. David's eating the shewbread was considered as of itself proof of his having been a priest16, and the words of the 110th Psalm, originally addressed to the king, though afterwards applied in another sense, " Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec," seem like an official diploma for his assumption of the title17. Still more closely marked is the king's prophetic character. The Divine spirit from which flowed all distinctions, particularly those of an intellectual character, was especially poured forth on rulers and magistrates, who thence derived their only title to power18. The spirit of the Lord therefore only descended upon the king when he became the Anointed, or " Messiah," of the God of Jacob19; he became, as it were, a new man; all his latent energies and powers were, as if by miracle, summoned forth and enlarged; he became a " 9siog avn^," a man of God20, and his person was made inviolable. He was in every sense a prophet21 ; 11 1 Sam. xiii. 9. 12. 2 Sam. vi. 17, 18. Comp. 1 Kings iii. 4 ; viii. 5. 63; ix. 25. 12 2 Sam. vi. 14. »3 2 Kings xxiii. 1. 14 1 Kings ii. 27. 35. 15 1 Kings i. 32. 16 1 Sam. xxi. 6. Mark ii. 26. 17 This psalm has been supposed to have been addressed to David when esta- blished as king on Mount Zion (Psal. ii. 6), the ancient city of Melchizedec, who after patriarchal fashion was both priest and king. It. may have been written when David, having escaped great personal danger in a skirmish with the Philistines (2 Sam. xxi. 15), was no longer allowed to go out to battle lest he should "quench the light of Israel." (v. 1 — 3.) 18 Numb. xi. 17. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 18 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 1 Sam. x. 6. 11 ; xi. 6. 1 Kings vi. 11. 20 2 Chron. viii. 14. Neh. xii. 24. 36. 21 2 Pet. i. 21. Dan. iv. 8. Matt. xxii. 43. DIVINITY OF THE KI\«i. 203 " Tho spirit of the Lord," ho says, "spake by me, and his word was in my tongue."22 §7. DIVINITY OF THE KING. The king thus uniting all the known theocratic functions in his own person, received among the Hebrews the profound homage usually paid to Oriental sovereigns. Emphatically the Lord's "Messiah," ' he was the most glorious manifestation of Jehovah's power on earth ; and to treat him with the utmost respect became a precept of religious wisdom2. He was to tho Almighty what the vizir or prime minister of state was to the king1' ; he is represented as sitting at the "Lord's right hand," that is, as his imperial associate and vicegerent, called " the man of his right hand, the Son of Man whom he made so strong for himself."4 Oriental usage treated him with the most deferential ceremonies of prostration, or rather worship5, and addressed him as a son of God0, as an angel of God7, or even as God himself8. This exalted title was not so much the language of flattery as the correct Oriental expression of exalted dignity. " The Egyptians," says Diodorus0, "reverence their kings as if they were really gods ; for they think it was not without the providential superintendence of God that they became possessed of supreme power ; and they imagine that kings partake of the divine nature in the will and ability which they possess to confer the most important benefits." The 22 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. Psal. lxxxix. 10. 1 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. Psal. lxxxix. 20; cv. 15; cxxxii. 17. 2 Prov. xxiv. 21. Comp. 1 Pet. ii. 17. 3 1 Kings ii. 19. Psal. ex. 1 Kings i. 35. 46. 4 Psal. lxxx. 17. 4 1 Sam. xxv. 23. 2 Sam. ix. 6; xix. 18. 1 Kings i. 16. 1 Chron. xxix. 20. 6 Psal. ii. 2. 7. 7 1 Sam. xxix. 9. 2 Sam. xiv. 17 ; xix. 27. Comp. Exod. xxiii. 20. s Psal. lxxxii. 1. 6. » Diod. i. 90. 204 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. Persian and Assyrian rnonarchs were considered superhuman10 and were called "gods."11 Their hereditary names were bor- rowed from those of the divinities who had been their predeces- sors12, so that afterwards, in endeavouring to retrace the course of history through the mazes of tradition, it became impossible to fix a certain limit between the human and the divine, or to reduce the royal genealogies to reliable proportions. Even the Greeks, though using simpler language than Oriental nations, spoke of their kings as " heaven-born " and " sons of God;"13 the royal sceptre was a gift transmitted from Zeus, the source of all authority 14, and the pre-eminent attribute of justice itself entitled its administrator to be ranked with divinities15. Among the Hebrews, the attributing divine honours to the king was a necessary result of theocratic institutions. To assign to the king the style and title of God did not, as at first intended, imply irreverence or absurdity. It only conveyed the theo- cratic conception of the royal office as ultimately resting on Divine authority and support10. It was not like the official deifications of later times in Macedon or Eome, a conscious expression of hypocritical flattery. The meaning conveyed was but part of the ordinary applications of language. The older Hebrew names of God express general qualities or predicates, appropriately but not exclusively applied to the true God. " Elim," or the " mighty ones," includes the gods of the heathen17; and Elohim, from a root signifying to "venerate," is a denomination equally general, though properly belonging- only to the one legitimate object of human " veneration," just as 10 Herod, viii. 140. Judith iii. 8. " Thus Darius, in the Persae of iEschylus, is not only " itrohos," but " hos." (v. 162, Blomf. Conf. 649.) 12 Herod, ii. 143, 144. Guigniaut, Pel. i. 776. Lucian de Imagin. ch. 27- Champollion, Precis, p. 109. 13 Aioyivus, diorgitpiti, Aid; vioi, &c. " Iliad, iv. 101. 15 Iliad, i. 238. Gen. iii. 5. Hes. Works, 36. 256. "Ex ts Aio; (Za/riXms iiru A/os oj/Ssv avaKTuv Ouonoov." Callim. in Jov. 79. Hes. Theog. 96. 10 Psal. xlv. 7. Gesen. Thesaur. p. 86. Comment. Isaiah ix. 5, vol. ii. p. 365". 17 Exod. xv. 11, DIVINITY OF THE KING. 205 he is elsewhere styled the object of " fear."18 Still any object which a man particularly esteems and prizes might be called his Elohim ; thus the wild Chaldees " made their Btrength their God;"1" and a violent or reckless character is said'0 to make his own right hand his " god," like Virgil's Mezentius21, " Dextra mihi, Deus, ct telum quod missile libro Nunc adsint." Sometimes it is denied that the title "Elohim" can he properly applied to idols'"; hut the denial itself proves that the term was commonly employed to designate any reputed divinity, whether true or false. The gods of Egypt", of Damascus*"1, of the Aruorites25, even the Teraphim2", are all so called. Jehovah, indeed, is distinguished among the many pretenders to the character of Elohim by his pre-eminent dignity and power27. He is a God of gods28, exalted above all gods29, no other god can be compared with him30, all other gods must worship him31. Whatever therefore bears an apparent resemblance to the Divine, or partakes its attributes, may be thought to ap- proximate to its nature. The nature of man by its original constitution is only a little inferior to that of the Elohim32, and by means of intelligence and knowledge may make an approach towards a superior order of being33. According to an early record, God determines to make man after his own image and likeness; and from the words immediately following it would appear that this likeness, though by no means excluding 18 Gen. xxxi. 42. 53. Isa. viii. 13. I9 Hab. i. 11. 20 Job xii. 6. " -En- x. 773. 22 2 Chron. xiii. 9. 2 Kings xviii. 19. Isa. xliv. 6 ; xlv. 5; xlvi. 9. 23 Exod. xii. 12. 24 2 Chron. xxxviii. 23. 2S Josh. xxiv. 15. Judg. vi. 10. :8 Gen. xxxi. 30. 27 Exod. xviii. 11 ; xxii. 20. 2 Chron. xxxii. 19. 58 Psal. exxxvi. 2, 3. 2B PsaL xcrii 9 ; xcvi. 4. ao Psal. lxxxvi. 8. 31 Psal. xcvii. 7. " Psal. viii. 6, translated by the LXX. "angels," in orderto avoid a comparison thought irreverent. 33 Gen. iii. 22. 206 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. a literal similitude of external form34, was intended by the writer to comprehend the noble attribute of dominion, the sovereignty exercised by man over the rest of creation35. Hence in another passage from the same writer is deduced the treason- able character of the crime of murder36; and it is worthy of remark, that in the 8th Psalm the same ideas are combined ; " God made man only slightly inferior to the Elohirn ;" and, it is added, " clothed him with glory and honour, and made him to have dominion over all the works of his hands." We must infer from these passages that, under theocratic kings, " likeness to God," though still including the idea of per- fection of external form, was imagined to be especially marked by possession of sovereignty; and that consequently in Hebrew opinion rulers and magistrates were pre-eminently images and representatives of Deity. Moses is said to have been as a god to Aaron37, to Pharaoh38, and to the people39; and the rulers and judges who presided in the Elohim tribunal, the " x%nv\(>iov iov 9eou,"m are identified with the unseen power whose authority they exercised41, in whose presence they acted42, and whose decision their sentence expressed43. Thus the 82nd Psalm, addressed to the official interpreters of God's word4'1, acknow- ledges their right to the title of Elohim, but at the same time admonishes them conscientiously to discharge their important duty ; to recollect that God himself, the Supreme Judge, is present ; and that eventually they themselves, like all other men, must die, though for a time allowed by virtue of their office to be styled gods and Beni Elohim, " children of the Most High." Eor the moralist would suggest that in death an equal lot awaits both prince and people45. 31 Gen. v. 3. 3:' Gen. i. 26. 36 Gen. ix. 6. 37 Exod. iv. 16. '°9 Exod. vii. 1. 39 Exod. xviii. 15. i0 LXX. Exod. xxi. 6. Prov. xx. 8. 41 Exod. xxi. 6. 22; xxii. 28. Ewald, Anhang. pp. 268. 326. 42 Deut. xix. 17. Selden de Jure Nat. et G. 2. 13, p. 268. « Deut. i. 17. 44 John x. 34. " 2 Chron. xxvi. 23 ; xxviii. 27. Diod. S. i. 221. ORIGIN OF THE MESSIAH DOCTRINE. 207 It was therefore strictly in accordance with Hebrew theory to consider the king who administered justice and judgment as one of theElohim. Justice is called by Joseph us '" die "power of God,'" as elsewhere47 the "wisdom of God." The king's judgments were, Btrictly Bpeaking, God's judgments. Hence the expressions, " Give the king thy judgments, 0 God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son4"; he shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment."4 In courtly language the king was often compared to those higher messengers of power called sons of the Elohim, or angels, where more than mortal aid had been exerted in former ages on behalf of the Hebrews, as the earthly mediators of their Divine King50, whom David, the paragon of monarchs, might justly be sup- posed to resemble in super- eminent justice, goodness, and wisdom", and to whom the anticipated Messiah of later times was to bear a still more vivid similitude". §8. ORIGIN OF THE MESSIAH DOCTRINE. The prosperous reigns of David and his son Solomon, when for the first and last time the Hebrew tribes formed a united nation, gave to the theocratic constitution the highest develop- ment and splendour of which it was susceptible. The long- interrupted sovereignty of the lion of Judah, which according to an ancient oracle1 was to continue for ever, or as long as the ark and sanctuary should continue in Shiloh*, had been magni- 46 Antiq. it. 8. 14. *7 1 Kings iii. 28. 48 Psal. lxxii. 1. *9 Comp. Prov. xvi. 10; xx. 8. <» Exod. xiv. 19; xxiii. 30. Gal. iii. 19. sl 1 Sam. xxix. 9. 2 Sam. xiv. 17. 20 ; xix. 27. 5- Zech. xii. 8. ' Gen. xlix. 10. 2 Tuch (Genesis, p. 576), after a critical examination of the different renderings of the passage, such as " until He comes to whom it (sovereignty) belongs," or, " until peace conies," concludes that Shiloh is a proper name, the place in the tribe of Ephraim where the sanctuary was set up by Joshua, and whence it was of course not expected that it would ever be removed. Comp. Psal. lxxviii. 60. 208 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. ficently revived in the person of the son of Jesse3, lineally descended from the patriarch of his tribe4. His personal fitness corresponded with his hereditary qualification. Ever the firm friend of the theocracy and its ministers, and therefore appro- priately called " a man after God's own heart," he infused hy successful patriotism an unwonted unity and energy into the national character, and as the Lord's " Messiah " combined the various offices of mediation more fully and unconditionally than any of the functionaries who had succeeded Moses5. Under his auspices the vine brought out of Egypt " stretched out her houghs to the sea, and her hranches to the river ;" in plain language, the kingdom extended from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean0, and Solomon hecame as celebrated for riches as for wisdom7. His reign was literally an age of gold; he is said to have made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as sycamores. Then, if ever, were realized the blessings of the Levitical promise8, and the model of the "divine king- dom " upon earth. Amidst great material prosperity the num- bers of the people, according to the words of the covenant, were " increased aud multiplied exceedingly;"9 the land was rid of " evil beasts,"10 the extermination of which was as desirable for the Hebrew as for the Persian; and the nation, everywhere victorious and enjoying the peaceful fruits of victory, might with pardonable exaggeration be said to be " exalted above all the earth."11 God had fixed his dwelling-place among them in a permanent tabernacle or temple, and seemed more than ever resolved on establishing them as his own favoured people12. But this splendour and prosperity were of short duration. The political connection of the Hebrew tribes was always pre- 3 1 Sam. xvii. 12. 1 Chron. xxviii. 4. 1 1 Chron. iii. 12. 2 Sam. xx. 2. 5 Psal. ex. 4. 6 2 Chron. ix. 26. 7 1 Kings x. 23. 8 Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii. ° 1 Kings iv. 20. 10 Judg. xiv. 5. 1 Sam. xvii. 34. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 24. Psal. Ixxix. 2. 11 Deut. xxviii. 1. 10. 13. 1 Kings iv. 21 ; x. 23. 12 Deut. xxviii. 9. ORIGIN OF THE MESSIAH DOCTRINE. Z09 (imk .us, depending on what was in fact only a confederation of independent republics. [nternal dissensions produced weak- Q6S8, attended with a proportionate decay of public spirit. Edom and Syria reassuniing a formidable aspect intercepts •<] the sources of the wealth of Solomon, and still worse, the permanent separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah seemed to make any satisfactory realization of the theocracy for the present impossible. Disappointed in the present men naturally turn their thoughts to the past and the future. The patriotic pride and zeal for the national institutions which had been cherished by success, now checked but not destroyed by adversity, sought consolation in reminiscences of the reign of I >avid and his son, and began to form the idea of a prospective renewal of the theocracy which should rival or even eclipse the past. Jehovah was still the supreme King of Israel; the evils endured by the nation were a punishment for their sins and those of their rulers1' against which they had been forewarned. But as God was good and merciful as well as all powerful, these afflictions must one day cease. The blessings of the covenant would once more replace its terrors and denunciations. The disappearance of civil feuds would enable the nation again to be united under a vigorous and successful monarchy1*. The darker the cloud the brighter gleams the sunshine. The Messianic or national expectation which arose when the state first began to decline after the reign of David, increased in fervour in proportion to the misfortunes of the people, and as the successive insults of Assyrian, Macedonian, or Roman seemed to laugh to scorn all human probability of its accom- plishment. The fund of Hebrew hope was as immeasurable as the power of the invisible Sovereign ; and it was even anticipated thai the prospective kingdom would embrace universal dominion, a dominion coextensive with the theoretical empire of the Deity over the whole earth ' '. The Messiah doctrine of the Hebrews was thus a joint pro- 13 1 Kingg xi. 11, &c. I4 Ezek. xxxvii. 22. Hon. i. 11. 15 Exod. xix. 5. Psal. xxii. 27. VOL. II. P 210 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. duct of the misfortunes of the times and of the theocratic con- stitution. As usual, the experience of a want excited the imagination to fill up the hlank out of its own resources. The peculiar forms assumed were the peculiarities of Judaism. They were suggested partly hy the institutions and imagery of the old covenant and its promises, partly by the recollected realiza- tion of them in the reign of David. The general outline of ideal felicity would of course to the mind of a Hebrew take the form of a divine kingdom or theocracy. It was equally inevi- table that the hopes which had to a great extent originated in the successful career of David, should continue to be connected with the fortunes of his family. An emphatic announcement had been made to him by the great prophet Nathan that God would assume in a peculiar manner a paternal relation towards him and his descendants, and would perpetuate his throne and dynasty in security and peace. " And when thy days shall be fulfilled," continued the oracle16, " and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom ; he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men," &c. " But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee, thy throne shall be established for ever." The great importance attached to this oracle may be inferred from the frequent reference made to it17. It seems to have been considered as a renewal and confirmation in more precise and comprehensive language of the original covenant, and as a pledge that the sovereign rights of David's family and the splendours which distinguished his reign should be for ever incorporated among the blessings of the theocracy, and placed 16 2 Sam. vii. 12. 1 Chron. xvii. 13 ; xxii. 9, 10. " 1 Kings v. 5; vi. 12 ; viii. 25. Psal. lxxxix. ; cxxxii. 11. 1 Chron. xvii. 17; xxiv. 25. ORIGIN OF THE MESSIAH DOCTRINE. 211 by the Divine promise beyond all hazard of alteration or decay. It thus became one of the great scriptural bases of Messianic hope. God is constantly reminded of his oath sworn to David to maintain his seed for ever, to build up his throne to all generations18. In the complicated disasters which afterwards befel the nation and royal family, the particulars of the oracle of Nathan, called by the general name of " Holy One," l9 were recapitulated in mournful remonstrances. Once, says the Psalmist, thou saidst through a holy prophet, " I have found David my servant; with holy oil have I anointed him : I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry to me, ' Thou art my father, my God, the rock of my salvation ;' also I will make him my first-bom, higher than the kings of the earth ; his seed will I make to endure for ever, his throne as the days of heaven." "But thou hast been wroth with thy Messiah, and hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned Ins crown by casting it to the ground. How long, Lord ? Wilt thou hide thyself for ever ? Where, Lord, are thy former lovingkindnesses which thou swearest to David in thy truth?"20 Hopes based on a divine guarantee are imperishable; no danger can be other than trivial to those who have the God of Jacob for their refuge21. To doubt would be to question the power or faithfulness of the Most High. To the menacing attitude assumed by the rulers of hostile nations the 2nd Psalm replies with bitter defiance, showing how little reason the king had to fear any combinations of the heathen. They had insulted the Lord, as well as the " Christ,"'22 whom he had appointed upon his holy hill of Zion, and respecting whom he had pronounced the irrevocable decree, " Thou art my sou, this day have I begotten (or adopted thee) ;" " I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance," and " thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel." Be wise then, 0 ye kings and judges of the earth ; fear Jehovah, and " kiss 18 Psal. lxxxix. 3, 4 ; cxxxii. 11. '• Psal. lxxxix. 19. ™ Psal. lxxxix. " Psal. xlvi. " Acts iv. 26. P 2 212 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. the son ;" pay the tribute of regal fealty to this elected son of divinity, lest Jehovah his patron should be angry and ye perish. §9. EARLIEST TYPES OF MESSIANIC PREDICTION. Under exemplary and successful sovereigns the prophetical effusions are usually complimentary addresses to the monarch expressive of proud self-congratulation or joyous hope. In adversity they take the form of expostulation with Jehovah on his seeming forgetfulness, combined either with threats to his rebellious subjects, or with consolatory suggestions. Allowing for exaggerations of expression they can rarely be shown to imply anything beyond the immediate occasion which called them forth. Yet many of these earlier effusions of loyalty though not intended to be Messianic, came afterwards to be so construed, and at all events served as patterns for the more distinct predictions of succeeding prophets. The second and twenty-second Psalms were accounted Messianic by the Jews, who regardless of literary criticism strove to make every triumphant description tributary to their hopes. Their opinion cannot under the circumstances be regarded as of much value unless to the unscrupulous supporters of a theory ; nor is any peculiar significancy to be attached to hints of " universal or eternal" dominion1, since these are only hyperbolical ex- pressions implying the wide power and firm establishment of David's dynasty. The empire of David had realized or per- haps suggested the promise to exalt the Hebrews above all the earth, to spread the fear of them through all its inhabitants2. It was probably at this time, the sera of their greatest material 1 Psal. ii. 8; lxi. 6; lxxii. 17; lxxxix. 29. 36. 8 Exod. xix. 5. Deut. ii. 25; xi. 25; xxviii. 1. Peal, lxxxix. 27. 1 Chron. xiv. 17. EARLIEST TYPES OP MESSIANIC PREDICTION. Xl'-i and political prosperity, that the idea of universal dominion first suggested itself to their imaginations. The anticipation was enunciated by the national genius in the forms of pro- phecy, of recorded covenant, or of triumphant song ; and was incorporated with the legendary traditions now first registered and collected. In this way may have been introduced into the patriarchal covenant a clause making its original purpose as well as final accomplishment a general boon to the whole human race through a promise supposed to have been given to Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed3. The later Jews, embittered against other nations by suffering, rejected the Messianic application of this passage as obviously too liberal to suit their exclusive feelings. The Jerusalem Targum explains it to mean only the great atoning value of the patriarch's merits, and Philo treats it as a mere amplification of the common saying that a wise and good man is a blessing to his age and country4. But the covenant of Genesis is probably only another form of the historical record in Kings, and of the prophetic announcement in the Psalms. " I will multiply thee exceedingly," said the promise5, " I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee ; unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." In the corresponding words of the annalist0, " Jiulah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry ; and Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt : they brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life." The same covenant is reiterated in the Psalms as if renewed to David7, and receives the prophetic form in the cotemporary 3 Gen. xii. 3 ; xviii. IS ; xxii. 18 ; xxvi. 4 ; xxviii. 14. Comp. also Gen. ix. 27, and Tuch's Commentary, p. 193 ; Japhet living in friendly association or depend- ence upon Shem. * Pfeiffer, v. 80. Onkeloa, "propter te;" in the Jer. Targum, " merito tuo." 4 Gen. xv. 18 ; xvii. 6. 6 1 Kings iv. 20. ' Tsal. lxxxix. 23. 27. 214 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. effusion supposed to be addressed to Solomon8, in which it is promised that he " should have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth ; that they that dwell in the wilderness should bow before him ; that his name should endure for ever ; that all men should be blessed in him, and all nations call him blessed." It required only a small extension of liberality to presume that the nations of the earth subjugated according to the tenour of the Hebrew covenant would be per- mitted to share some fraction of its advantages; and it became at least in the earlier stages of Messianic theory, an established dogma that the Theocracy would eventually be consummated in a universal diffusion of the worship of Jehovah. " All the nations of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kingdoms of nations shall worship before thee ; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations."9 The asseveration that Solomon10 should have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession11 ; that his children should be princes in all lands 12 ; that the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents ; that all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations serve him 13, is but a slight comphmentary exagge- ration, certainly not more startling or irreconcilable with fact than the imagery of the hymn composed by David to celebrate his deliverance from his enemies14. There the warrior's dis- tress is called " the pains of hell and the snares of death ;" and on the approach of his Almighty deliverer Earth and Heaven 8 Psal. lxxii. 8. 17. Comp. Zech. ix. 10. 9 Psal. xxii. 27. 10 This seeming liberality was greatly limited afterwards, and it was held that though many should come from the east and west (according to Isa. ii. 3 ; xi. 10, &c), they would soon turn renegades. " My son," said an aged Jew in answer to the question, "shall the heathen partake in Messiah's kingdom]'' — "my son, every nation which has contributed to afflict our people will see our glory, and afterwards immediately be destroyed. Those nations who have not oppressed us will come and be our vinedressers and husbandmen." Gfrorer, Urchrist. vol. ii. p. 241. " Psal. ii. 8. la Psal. xlv. 16. 13 Psal. lxxii. 10, 11. M 2 Sam. xxii. 1. EARLIEST TYPES OF MESSIANIC PREDICTION. 215 are shaken, fire and smoke issue from the nostrils of the avenging Deity, and the channels of the sea and foundations of earth are laid bare l5. The second psalm may possibly have been written in conse- quence of insurrectionary cabals upon the accession of the immediate successor of David. It exults in the conviction that the theocratic king, who by virtue of consecration, and of the celebrated oracle which was the fundamental charter of his authority, became the " Son," or immediate representative of Omnipotence, was immeasm-ably superior to any possible com- bination of his enemies. The triumphant tone of this psalm was at first claimed by the Jews for their Messiah ; but they shrunk from this interpretation in proportion to the success of the Christians in applying the same expressions to the Jewish cabals against Jesus16. The 45th Psalm celebrates in glowing terms the exalted majesty of the king ; his beauty, among the Hebrews as generally among ancient nations a recognised attribute of royalty17; his godlike character and acts, his enduring and universal sway. The Jewish interpre- ters, including the Septuagintis, understood this psalm as Messianic ; it was probably introduced as such into the canon, and it is not impossible that it may have been composed in the same feeling as many similar passages in the undoubted Mes- sianic prophecies19. Yet there is little which may not fairly apply to Solomon, or be easily explained by allowing for the natural exaggeration in the complimentary effusion of a poet to a prosperous sovereign. The ode is expressly stated by the writer*0 to be an encomium which he had composed and dedi- 15 Comp. Isa. xxiv. 18. 23. It became a usual practice to suppose moral revolu- tions to be accompanied with a convulsion of nature. 14 Lengerkc, Psalmen. i. p. 5. " Comp. 1 Sam. ix. 2; x. 24 ; xvi. 12. 2 Sam. i. 19. Ps. Plato, Alcibiad. ii. 148. Creuz. Symb. i. 90". Plutuch de Placitis, i. 6, p. 880. Miiller, Dorians, ii. p. 124. "To KxXXcf fia. Greeen. to Iaa. rol. ii. p. 88; andiii. 778. Strauss, GHaubenalehre, 2, p. 78. • Mic v. 4. 218 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. They imagined one in whom the royal house would be restored to its ancient splendour3, and who would terminate that division of the tribes which since the days of Solomon had been the source of so much disgrace, irreligion, and misfortune4. Micah therefore naturally surmises that the head of this "first dominion " 5 or restoration of the united monarchy, would arise out of Bethlehem-Judah, or Bethlehem-Ephratah, so called to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in Zabulon6. Bethlehem, though too small to form a chiliad of the tribe of Judah7, was the well-known birth-place of the family who had acquired in public estimation a sacred right to perpetual sovereignty8; and since the future ruler was to be another David9, or a " branch of Jesse's root,"10 Bethlehem would of course be the place of his " going forth," as being the cradle of a race which, though not to be called everlasting as our translation would make it11, was at least of very ancient date12. It is uot necessary to assume that the future deliverer would actually be born at Bethlehem ; but only that Bethlehem, already famous as the birth-place or scene of " the goings forth " of David, would be yet further ennobled in the glorious distinctions which awaited the posterity of a family, whose origin might be traced back not only to the patriarch Judah, but even to Adam and the Creation13. The sufferings of the people14 were to endure " until she that travaileth hath brought forth," and no longer15. These national sufferings had already by Hosea been compared to the pangs of a woman in labour; and by him it was suggested16 that the sorrows of the old Ephraim would more quickly have brought to light the renewed and blessed Ephraim, but for an unhappy delay of amendment and continuance in guilt which might 3 Amos ix. 11 ; comp. Isa. iii. 6. 4 Hos. i. 11. 5 Mic. iv. 8. fi Josh. xix. 15. 7 Exod. xviii. 21. Numb. i. 16. Judg. vi. 15. 8 2 Sam. vii. 16. Ruth i. 1 ; iv. 18. 9 Hos. iii. 5. 10 Isa. xi. 1. »> Mic. v. 2. 12 Comp. Isa. xxiii. 7; xxxvii. 26, and Mic. vii. 20. 13 1 Chron. i. 2. '* 1 Chron. iv. 10. 11 Mic. v. 3. '« Hos. xiii. 13. NOTION OF A SPECIFIC MESSIAH. 219 figuratively be said to lengthen out and mischievously prolong the pains of child-birth17, endangering both parent and off- spring. It would be difficult to decide whether the mysterious intimation of Micah that the period of national delivery, or advent of the Deliverer, was to be identical with that of the travailing of a mother, is a mere continuation of the figure of Hosea, or whether it has a more definite relation to some actual cotemporaneous pregnancy, such as that alluded to as a pro- phetical "sign" by Isaiah18. In the foregoing strophes, Micah had applied the general idea of child-birth to the suffering " daughter of Jerusalem," exclaiming, " Travail on and labour to bring forth ! for these woes are the necessary precursors of thy redemption and delivery."19 Something more precise must lie intended by the third verse of the fifth chapter, which, if understood merely in the wider sense, affirms only the truism that the suffering would cease with the event which was to end it. The prophet passes from immediate anticipations of vice, oppression, and calamity to the remoter and better time which should be signalized by the birth of a second David 20, that ideal Ruler whose attributes growing probably in clearness and ful- ness through a succession of oracles now lost21, burst forth in unexpected sublimity in Isaiah. Whether the birth of the child Immanuel as connected with these anticipations is to be limited to the immediate and special events for which it is adduced by the prophet22, or, with Ewald, to be considered as the commence- ment of the career of the Messiah23, it must not be forgotten that at the probable date of the 9th chapter of Isaiah, the son of Ahaz, Hezekiah, a young prince who through his whole life 17 Hos. xiii. 13. 2 Kings xix. 3. I9 Isa. vii. 14; viii. 3. '• Hie. iv. 10. » Hos. iii. 5 ; comp. Zech. be. 9. 21 Comp. Ewald, Propheten, i. p. 179. 22 Ewald remarks that Isaiah's future is here seemingly divided into three stages; first, deliverance from the inconsiderate attack of the allied kings; second, severe suffering under an Assyrian captivity ; third, a restoration by the Messiah. Propheten, i. 215. 23 It is obvious that if the passage be Messianic, the Messiah alluded to must b« one already born or immediately to be so. 220 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. maintained an intimate and deferential connection with the functionaries of religion, was about twelve years old. It is not therefore unlikely that the words " Unto us a child is born, To us a son is given, And the government shall rest upon his shoulder;" or " who will hereafter bear the burden of sovereignty," may refer to the young Hezekiah from whose accession so much might be expected. The cheering announcement is a continua- tion of the passage in winch deliverance is promised even to the benighted and desolated24 extremities of the kingdom of Israel25. " Yet shall there not always be darkness," says the prophet, " where now oppression is ;" for to us, that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, is born an heir26 to dominion under happier auspices ; his name shall be called " wonderful," *. e. an extra- ordinary and distinguished personage, a title given to an angel or divine messenger in Judges27, but which must not here be sup- posed to intimate a supernatural deliverer, an idea which arose only at a much later period. "Counsellor" denotes the attribute of kingly wisdom derived from Jehovah the source of all wisdom28, and essential to the exercise of deliberative and judicial functions; "El Gibor," not the "mighty God," though such an epithet would not, according to oriental usage, be at all inapplicable to a royal personage, but " mighty hero," or " God's hero, intimating the king's military function of " fighting the Lord's battles,"29 committed to him as representing the supreme hero Jehovah30. The title, "Father of Eternity," or " the Eternal," implies that the hero is of a very ancient house 31, 24 2 Kings xv. 29. «■ Isa. ix. 2. ie A "light." 2 Chron. xxi. 7; comp. Isa. ix. 2. -' Judg. xiii. 18, 19. 28 Psal. xvi. 7 ; xxxii. 8, a jicuXnifo^i «v»g. The word "y^ft implying this meaning. i9 Psal. xlv. 3. 5. Ezek. xxxii. 21 ; comp. xxxi. 11. 30 Comp. Isa. x. 21. Psal. xxiv. 8. Deut. x. 17. 31 See the parallel passage, Mic. v. 2. NOTION OF A SPECIFIC MESSIAH. 221 one which it had been predicted should endure for ever**. He was also to be a " Prince of Peace," or Man of Rest," like his glorious predecessor Solomon'", and would establish an endless empire of tranquil prosperity and righteousness. By these epithets the early prophets had no intention of making their ideal king a divine being. They might indeed compare him, as they did the actual king, to God or one of the Elohim, never- theless the former, like the latter, was the Lord's servant, i. e. his executive minister or mediator8*. Even the title given him by Jeremiah, " Jehovah our salvation,"35 does not affirm his identity with Jehovah, but only that his presence will be con- sidered by Dispeople as an earnest of God's blessing30, and that this idea will become recorded in his name37. He was to be not a God, but Israel's king or ruler38, a prince of peace at home, and a mighty warrior among bis enemies. He was to be prepared for his office in the same way as priest, prophet, or king, by communication of the divine spirit39; in regard to extraction he would be a "sprout" or branch from Jesse's root40, inheriting the poetical name of" Shepherd of Israel,"4 as being lineally descended from the shepherd David42. 32 2 Sam. vii. 16. Knobcl renders it, "Father of the spoil." Comment, p. 66. Prophetismus, i. p. 330. Hitzig. ad. 1. 3J 1 Kings iv. 24. 1 Chron. xxii. 9. Mic. v. 5. Zech. ix. 10. 34 Comp. Zech. iii. 8. 35 Jer. xxiii. 6. Whence "God's salvation" became a technical name for the Messiah. Luke ii. 30 ; iii. 6. Acts xxviii. 28. The name Isaiah has the same meaning. Isa. viii. 18. 36 Gen. xxii. 18. 37 The same name is afterwards given to the city of Jerusalem, ch. xxxiii. 16. Comp. Matt. v. 35. -H Mic. ii. 13; v. 1. Jer. xxiii. 5; xxx. 21. Bade xxxiv. 24 ; xxxvii. 25. 39 Isa. xi. 2. Mic. v. 3. 40 Gesen. Isa. ii. 417, 418. 41 Ezek. xxxiv. 23 ; xxxvii. 24. 42 1 Sam. xvii. 15. Gen. xlix. 24. 1 Chron. xvii. 7. Psal. lxxviii. 70; lxxx. 1. 222 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. §11. THEORY OF PROBATIONARY SUFFERING. The Hebrews had already undergone a captivity before their establishment in Palestine. The ideal future takes its colour from the circumstances of the past or present ; and although Jerusalem might to a superficial eye appear full of silver and gold, and all the extravagances of luxury1, it was evident to the far reflecting prophet that its fall was near, and that a perfect theocratic restoration must be preceded by a period of calamity. It thus became an established theological dogma that certain woes, called " Messiah's woes," were immediately to precede the Messiah's appearance, that the valley of " affliction " would be the door of hope2. The object of this suffering was to briug men to repentance, to root out obstinate offenders'5, in short, to destroy moral evil by a course of expiation and purification which should make the people fit for the felicity in store for them4. These pangs, through which the nation was to arrive at a new birth of felicity, were naturally compared with those of a woman in labour ; and the prophet mournfully complains on a particular occasion that the people's sufferings had as yet been abortive or fruitful, as he quaintly expresses it, " only of wind;" "for the land," he adds, "is not yet rescued, its inhabitants are still unregenerated." 5 As the fist of anticipated blessings is a transcript or type of the Levitical and patriarchal promises, so by reversing the picture are obtained the penal visitations through which the nation was to be purified and prepared for its restoration. These are but the usual disasters incidental to the climate and manners of the age and country, such as drought, pestilence, famine, leprosy, invasions of wild beasts or locusts. The swarm of locusts which gave occasion to the prophecy of Joel were a divine visitation to be received 1 Isa. ii. 7. 2 Hos. ii. 15. Psal. lxxxiv. 6. 3 Isa. i. 25; iv. 4. Mic. vii. 13. 4 Isa. iv. 4. * Comp. Isa. xxvi. 17, 18; xxxvii. 3. THEORY OF PROBATIONARY SUFFERING. 223 with humiliation and contrition6; upon this condition the Lord would restore fruitfulness to the land1, and ultimately realize for Ins people their ideal golden age8. Subjugation and cap- tivity were obviously very possible contingencies". The despotic monarchs of Asia often swept whole nations into captivity to colonize distant regions, as even now the Russian Emperor transfers his Polish subjects to Siberia10. From the time of Solomon11 and rlehoboam, the kings of Egypt and Damascus had begun to threaten the Jiuhean and Israelitish frontiers; Moab and Edom revolted1"; the Philistines and Arabians pillaged the royal palace at Jerusalem ; the sources of the commercial wealth of Solomon were cut off. Members even of the royal family were earned captive into Ethiopia, and multi- tudes had already become what Joel calls " a reproach among the heathen," by being sold into slavery. The Tynans and Sidonians sold Hebrew children to Greek slave dealers1''; Amos imprecates a curse on this abominable traffic14 in which the Edomites participated; and it is probable that many Israelites who had voluntarily settled in Edom while tributary, were murdered or enslaved upon its revolt15. Egypt, held in abhorrence by the orthodox Hebrew, especially since the inva- sion of Shishak, had probably been a common place of refuge for persecuted Israelites10, as was also Hamath, a border country on the northern frontier. Thus it was that the value attached to the promise of " dwelling and continuing in the land" " was 8 Joel ii. 12. 7 Joel ii. 21, &c. 8 Joel iii. 18. 8 Lev. xxvi. 33. Deut. xxviii. 64, and xxx. 1. Ezek. xx. 23. 10 Comp. Wessel. to Ilerod. iii. 93; iv. 204; vi. 9. 12. 32; vii. 80. Ctesiae Persica Exc. s. 9. 40. Ritter's Vorhalle, pp. 38, 39. 11 1 Kings xi. 14. 23. 12 2 Kings x. 32; xii. 18; xiii. 3. 2 Chron. xxi. 10. 16 ; viii. 20. 13 Joel iii. 6. Ezek. xxvii. 13. " Amos i. 6. 9. 11 Joel iii. 19. Obadiah, 10. Amos i. 11. 18 Such as those driven out of Elath. 2 Kings xvi. 6 ; comp. Jer. xli. 17- l»a. xi. 11. Matt. ii. 13. 17 Psal. xxxvii. 29. 224 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. more deeply felt from the well-known fact that great numbers were in exile ; that the prediction of " Judah being inhabited for ever" was the more popular from the acknowledged pre- cariousness of Judah's existence as an independent state ; and that the captivity or absenteeism of a large proportion of the nation constituted a pressing grievance and subject of public reproach18, the removal of which was a necessary element of its regeneration. Up to the time of the Judsean king Uzziah the nations immediately bordering on Palestine had been its most for- midable enemies. Amos surveys a wider political horizon ; the prospect of an Assyrian invasion enables him to denounce the punishments merited both by Israel and its oppressors, and to prophesy that the ten tribes would be scattered among " all nations," and carried away to a country more distant than even its hitherto most formidable enemy Damascus19. What Amos distantly foresaw becomes more distinctly prominent during the long career of the Israelitish prophet Hosea. The anarchy which accompanied the decline and extirpation of the dynasty of Jehu seemed about to be succeeded by an sera of better promise20; but the prospect again darkens, the hope is dis- appointed. Civil war, robbery, and demoralization convulse the unhappy country, obviously leaving it an easy prey for the invader. Assyria, with its Melech Jareeb, or " Adversary " king, is as dangerous to its feeble ally as to its equally feeble enemy21. "Yet one short month," says the prophet, " and the Assyrian host, like the Egyptian of old, will become the con- queror and oppressor of Israel or Ephraim."22 . 21 I, d. 10. The general con- version alluded to by Tobit (xiv. 8) is spoken of hv Philo under the same imagery employed by St. Paul in Uom. xi. 17. 284 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. It was not by any extension of liberality or compassion for them, but only to increase the glory and to complete the supremacy of the Jews and of their God. The greater part of the heathen were to be destroyed in the frightful slaughter in which retaliation would be inflicted for Hebrew suffering, and in which the nations of the earth would be made a great hecatomb of atonement for God's "sons and daughters."28 After the utter annihilation of all nations who should refuse to submit to Jewish authority29, an age of peace would ensue, in which Jerusalem would be the metropolis and religious centre of the world"0. When the remnant of the nations should have thus become partly enslaved and partly tributary, the Jews would be to the world at large what the Levites had been to their own nation, the source of ordinance and law, an universal officiating priesthood. Nation would say to nation, the inha- bitants of one city to those of another, " Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; he shall teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths : for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."31 There all people would assemble to pray, to keep the Sabbaths, to offer sacrifices32, and in particular to keep the feast of tabernacles33. All treasures would flow to Jerusalem34; gold, silver, and costly apparel would there be amassed35; and as the elite of all nations36 would assemble there as worshippers, all of them with a present in their hands -,T) 28 Isa. xxxiv. 6 ; xliii. 3, 4. Mic. v. 15. 29 Isa. lx; 12. 30 Isa. xxv. 7 ; lx. 4. 9. Zech. viii. 3. 31 Mic. iv. 2. Isa. ii. 3 ; li. 5. Zech. viii. 21, 22. 32 Isa. lvi. 7. Zeph. iii. 9, 10. 33 Zech. xiv. 16. Any recusant nation would be punished by having "no rain," that celestial blessing which seems to emanate immediately from God. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 21. 1 Kings xvii. 1. 14 ; xviii. 1. Isa. v. 6. 34 Isa. lx. 5, 6. 35 Hag. ii. 7. Zech. xiv. 14. Psal. lxviii. 29. 36 Not "the desire," as in our version of Hag. ii. 7. Comp. Gen. xlix. 10. Isa. xviii. 7. Hitzig Minor Proph. p. 287. 37 Exod. xxiii. 15. Deut. xvi. 16. GENERAL FEATURES OF TIIK MESSIANIC KINGDOM. it necessarily followed thai the ^1< >rv of "tin' Latter," or restored house, would eclipse even Solomon's. The covenant, according to whioh all Jehovah's people were to be called "holy" and " sons of God and prophets,"38 would be literally and fully realized, insomuch that the bells of horses would now hear the sacred inscription of the high priest's breastplate :;:', " Holiness to the Lord." Every pot in the Lord's house would be as the howls before the altar; nay, every pot throughout Jerusalem and Judah would in like manner be "holiness" to the Lord4". The medium through which, in Hebrew phrase, mental supe- riority was conferred, and ordinary men converted into priests and prophets, was the spirit41; this, called in the New Testa- ment " power from on high," would in these latter days be " poured out abundantly on all flesh," or rather on all of Hebrew descent^; all the sons and daughters of Israel, even tin' servants and handmaids, would partake the inspiration, thus becoming that "holy remnant "43 no longer requiring to he taught by prophets, since all would be themselves prophets or immediate disciples of God44; and " the earth would be filled with tin- knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. ' ' War would cease because Jewish prowess would no longer have an adversary'"; a reign of universal peace and righteous- ness would be established because Jewish law and dominion would be universal; suffering would cease with sin and sin with suffering47. In the universal reign of righteousness was implied the triumph of the principles advocated by the prophets, 38 Exod. xix. 6. Isa. It. 3; lx. 21. Comp. Lev. xi. 43 sq. ; xix. 2; Wisd. \ii. •_'" ; " Kedashim," or saints. Job. xv. 1 ~>. 39 Exod. xxviii. 36. « Zech. xiv. 20, 21. 11 Numb. xi. 25. 29. 1 Sam. x. G. 9, &c. Gesen. Isa. xi. 2. n Joel ii. 28. Isa. xxix. 24; xxxii. 15. The gift of the Spirit thus became an essential part of the Messianic expectation; but the expression, "all flesh," mi not supposed to mean more than "all Israelites" (see ch. iii. 2,3); hence the astonishment when " the Gentiles also" seemed to have shared the gift. « Isa. it. 3; Ixi. 6; lxii. 12. » Isa. liv. 1::. 45 Isa. xi. '.'. Hab. ii. It. Comp. Hos. It. 0. Dan. xii. 4. •■ Ewald to Micah I roph. vol. i. 340 " Isa. lx. Is 236 HEBEEW THEORY OF MEDIATION. and it is in this sense declared that the nation would be as the Lord's bride newly betrothed in righteousness 4S, and all its population his sons49; that God would solemnly renew the covenant50, which would never more be broken or forgotten51; that Israel would be ashamed of its idolatries and earnestly repent52; that Jehovah would take away their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh5", inscribing his law in it54. As in prophetical denouncements the aspect of the moral world was supposed to be reflected in the physical, the Messianic expectation was filled up from historical and poetic tradition, from the blessings of the law, and the imagery of the golden age. Palestine would be too narrow for its people55, and the earth's plenteousness would be proportioned to its multitudinous population. Want and famine would be impossible, cattle would swarm upon the pastures, valley and hill flow with abundant water, the mountains teem with milk and wine56, the desert would gush with fountains, even as Eden, the garden of the Lord57. Every one would arrive at the original longevity abridged by the primaeval curse58, and only partially enjoyed by succeeding patriarchs59. Everything would be on a grander scale ; the humblest inhabitant would " be as David, the house of David as God, as the angel of the Lord before them."60 The stars would shine brighter than before, the sun's light would be sevenfold, the moon's light ecpial to that of the sun61. The moral revolution would be attended with a renovation of nature. Jehovah would make a new heaven and a new earth62, and the office of sun and moon would be superseded by the everlasting light emanating from the presence of the Lord himself63. 48 Hos. ii. 19. « Hos. i. 10. SJ Ezek. xvi. and xxxiv. 5I Jer. xxxi. 31 ; xxxii. 40 ; 1. 5. 58 Ezek. xvi. 61; xx. 43. S1 Ezek. xi. 19; xxxvi. 25. 54 Jer. xxxi. 33; xxxii. 39. 5' Isa. xlix. 19. 58 Isa. xxx. 23 ; xli. 17. Amos ix. 13. Comp. Job v. 23. 57 Isa. Ii. 3. Ezek. xxvi. 35. Joel ii. 3. «■ Gen. vi. 3. Wisd. ii. 23. -3 Isa. lxv. 20. Zech. viii. 4. fi0 Zech. xii. 8. «' Isa. xxx. 26. c- Isa. lxv. 17 : lxvi. 22. 0J Isa. Ix. 19. CENEKAL FEATURES OF THE MESSIANIC KINCIiOM. U'M Again, as in tho olden time, tho beasts of the field would become innoxious"', and man would resume his original supe- riority and dominion as "lord of creation;""' universal har- mony would reign through nature ; the wolf would dwell with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; lions and the carnivorous tribes would again, as in the golden age, eat grass like oxen, and the serpent either lose his noxious qualities, or be rigorously restricted to his primitive meal of dust60. And, as in the days of Solomon, the "pacific," or man of rest, Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig-tree67, so in the new Jerusalem, the city of " peace," the sanctuary of the Lord's rest, weapons of war would be useless, swords would be beaten into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks08; horses and chariots, cities and walls, would be no more wanted00; the great king would make his entry into Jerusalem mounted on the pacific ass70, and weapons and war cloaks serve for burning71, so as for a long time to supersede all other kinds of fuel. Such in its main features was the Messianic or ideal kingdom conceived by the prophets, and authoritatively announced by them in the official form of a royal proclamation from the Supreme Head of the nation, "The word of the Lord hath spoken it." It was founded partly on special reminiscences, partly on the ideal of a renewal of a social paradise or golden 61 Ezek. xxxiv. 25. 28. Hos. ii. 18. Comp. Jonah iii. 8. Photius Hoschl. p. 6. « Gen. i. 26. 2 Esd. vi. 54. 86 Gen. iii. 14. Isa. xi. 7, 8; lxv. 25. Comp. Theocrit. Id. 24. 84. Virg. Eclog. iv. 24. Hor. Epod. xvi. 24. The Hebrews took many of their notions of the golden age from the reign of David, as the Persians adapted theirs from the imaginary times of the great Djemshid, when there was neither frost nor simoom, no tyrant or beggar, no " tearing tooth," no decay, no death. Gesen. Isa. ii. 428. 87 1 Kings iv. 24 ; v. 4 ; viii. 56. 1 Chron. xxii. 9. 89 Isa. ii. 4. Mic. iv. 4. Hos. ii. 18. 65 Mic. v. 10. Psal. xlvi. 9. 70 Zech. ix. 10. The horse was a warlike animal, " vtXtfuot." Herod, i. 7!'. Comp. Exod. xv. 21. Job xxxix. 19. 21. Mic. v. 10. Isa. ii. 7 ; xxx. 16; xxxi. 1. Virg. iEn. iii. 540. 71 Isa. ix. 5. Ezek. xxxix. 9. 238 HEBREW THEORY OF MEDIATION. age. Many of the elements so obtained came in time to be considered as technically essential ; but no absolute consistency can be expected in visions proceeding from many different in- dividuals and composed under every variety of circumstances72. Sometimes all nations are represented as subdued or exter- minated ; sometimes as partakers in the blessings of conversion to Jehovah ; sometimes Israel wages a desolating warfare 7J, and again all warfare is ended, the sword turned into the ploughshare, the evil beast tamed or destroyed ; sometimes the change is heralded by a personal Messiah ; sometimes proceeds without any visible mediator immediately from the Lord him- self; or else the prophets generally, or even Cyrus under the denomination of " Messiah," are made the agents of his will. Many traits, which eventually became dogmas, arose out of peculiarities of exaggerated and poetical expression; for instance, the reclaiming of the wild beast, the sevenfold light of sun and stars, and the comparison of the great revolution to a convul- sion of nature74. These ideas were certainly poetical, but since the details of the future can only be supplied by imagination, poetry was in this case the equivalent or standard of truth, the only truth which the case admitted of, and which it was folly or treason to disbelieve. The advent of the new theocracy was dated according to circumstances as immediately succeeding the impending pressure of the day, whether it were locusts, famine, invasion, or captivity ; in all cases the change was to occur soon ; and the disappointment of the many faithful Jews who died without seeing their hopes accomplished furnished a perplexing problem for after speculation. 72 These inconsistencies of Messianic expectation are used by St. John (ch. vii.) to expose the blindness of the Jews in regard to the spiritualism of the real Christ. 73 Thus Jacob is said to act as a lion. Mic. v. 8. ,4 Ezek. xl. 48. HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION AND IMMORTALITY. REVERSES AND EVENTUAL RESTORATION OP "THE GOOD MAN." k)'.M St/varov Ix. fjaXa'tia; Nux to; a/Aiuvrov ograi tyaot, KsXaoEifiT ti ffx'ora xaXv^ai KaOagiv apigus ff'iXas. Pind. Frag. Incert. 98. " 'AXXa rouTO Vrt 1i" of the Pharisees. Jos. War, ii. 8. 14. Ant. xviii. 1. 3. 24 Gesen. to Isa. xxviii. 23-29. 25 Isa. v. 12. Mic. iv. 12. 28 Isa. v, 19 ; viii. 16, 17. Hab. ii. 3. Hesiod, Works and Days, 218. 267. 27 Soph. Antig. 616. .ffischyl. Prom. 258. 59 Bias in Diog. L. i. 5. 5. (87.) Theognis, v. 1131. 29 Diog. L. v. 1. 11. (18.) Simonid. Frag. 100. 5; 231. 6. Thucyd. ii. 62. Gottling's Hesiod, p. 171 a. 30 Bagavad-Geeta, Lect. iv. 39. Comp. the LXX version of Isa. vii. 9. " Av p* vriffriutrtin cuhi fiti ffuvtirt." DOCTRINE OF FAITH. -'.'i.'» same language. Faith in the eventual justice of the divine decrees is wisdom31; scepticism, or the superficiality which looks only to appearances, both vice aud folly8*, " Though be slay me," exclaims the sage, " yet will I trust in himj I will hope continually, and praise him more and more."3 To uphold this hope, to maintain its reasonableness by an appeal to experience was the great aim of psalmist and annalist ; while the prophet exacted unhesitating belief as the condition of realizing his consolatory predictions34. Eastern genius every- where delighted to illustrate this transcendental solution of the peat problem of life by striking narratives, such as the exal- tation df Joseph, the downfall of Haman, the death of Goliath by a stripling, the moral lessons of Herodotus ending with the great cotemporary catastrophe of the overthrow of the Persian hosts by a handful of Greeks; and the sublime odes of Greek tragedy re-echoed the religious sentiment awakened by this latter event in language worthy to supply a parallel with Hebrew inspiration. " May propitious fate," sings the chorus ,J, " help me to maintain a guarded piety in every word and action ; for all are subject to those supernal laws of which Heaven alone is parent, and in which God's mighty arm works with undecaying vigour. The favourites of fortune unnaturally surfeited with good are led by presumptuous insolence to the brink of an ah\ss, and arc suddenly hurled headlong into the depths of irretrievable despair. May God prosper the holy cause of my country ! Never will I pease to make God my strength and my defence. As for him who walks irrespective of divine justice, may evil fate o'ertake him for his pride ; how can he who acts unjustly escape the reproach of conscience ? and if deeds like these are rewarded, why do I lead the chorus, or repair to the sacred shrines of Delphi, Abse, or Olympia ? O sovereign 31 Psal. xlix. 3. 13. Job xxviii. 28. 35 Job ii, 10 ; xxi. 27. Gen. xv. 6. Psal. lxii. 8 ; lxiv. 10 ; exii. 7. Isa. xxvi. 3. 33 Jobxiii. 15. Pad. lxxi. 14. 34 Isa. vii, 9. 2 Chron. xx. 20. Conip. Isa. xxviii. 16; xxx. 15. Hab. ii. i, ;s CEdip. Tyr. 864. 256 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. Zeus, universal king, let not these tilings be hid from thee or elude thy eternal sway." Again, in the Agamemnon36, the chorus sings, " He missed not the season of his vengeance, nor aimed the shaft in vain. They are fallen, they feel the hand of the Almighty ; this is a sure saying, it is indelibly graven in events for ever. God willed, and it was done ; his hand wrought what his purpose had decreed. They said in their hearts, God knoweth it not ; the despisers of what is holy have said, he stoops not to regard the concerns of men. Lo ! the sword has awakened among their posterity ; in the madness of their pride and the multitude of their riches has the judgment burst upon them. Far from me be the sumptuous extravagance of the proud ; may wisdom teach me to cling to humble fortune and to be content". For wealth is no security against death''8; he who in wanton pride has spurned the altar of justice shall surely perish. The fatal flattery of destruction sweeps him onwards ; all remedy is then too late," §4. SPECULATIVE GROUNDS OF FAITH. To support their faith the Hebrews employed all the re- sources of speculative wisdom, anticipating much of the argu- ment employed by Plutarch in his book " De Sera Vindicta." In order to reconcile the lex talionis, as applied to the divine government, with the suffering of good men, it might be assumed first, that as no one, even the most seeming virtuous, is altogether faultless before God, so no one can impugn God's justice as if suffering were unmerited1 ; and secondly, that suf- fering may in reality be wholesome chastisement inflicted for 30 A gam. v. 355. 37 Comp. Fsal. xxxvii. 16. 38 Psal. xlix. 7. 1 Matt. ix. 2. Job. iv. 17. 19; xxv. 4. 6. Comp. i. 5. SPECULATIVE GROUNDS OF FATTH. SJ57 beneficial ends of moral improvement2; as a lather chastens tlM- son whom he loves, and as the husbandman in the parable breaks the clods and threshes out the grain for the harvest*. But these attempts at explanation adopted in the arguments of some of Job's friends, and implying of course, according to the vulgar notion, an imputation of guilt, are pronounced by the definitive sentence of Eloah to be rash and inconclusive. The last and only solution of the mystery is faith ; faith absolute and unquestioning ; explanations are often impossible, and it is better to refer the problem at once to the unsearchable decrees of God, submitting with resignation to what we cannot avoid or understand. Mystery is the principal characteristic of the early God. His moral aspect is a perpotual self-contradiction *. He causes both darkness and light, evil and good5. There are many cases of undeserved individual hardship which it is impossible to ex- plain satisfactorily either on the ground of trial or that of chas- tisement ; these difficult cases, if not to be reconciled with God's mercy by implicit unquestioning faith6, could be effectually met only by assumptions adequate to comprehend them, viz., an in- visible or transcendental oause of evil (Satan), and a transcen- dental or posthumous retribution. The severity of Eastern despotism in punishing not only the delinquent himself, but his children and kindred, had been adopted by Hebrew law and practice7, and was naturally trans- ferred from human usages to the divine government8. Thence arose tho proverb, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and 3 Deut. viii. 5. Job v. 17 ; xxxiii. 14. 30 ; xxxvi. 7. 16. 2 Sam. vii. 14. Prov. iii. 11, 12. Isa. xlviii. 10 ; liii. 10. Hab. i. 12. Eceliis. ii. 5 J xxxvi. 1. Wisd. xi. 10. 3 Isa. xxviii. 24. 29. * Isa. lv. 8. Ecclus. xi. 4. 0 Isa. xlv. 7. 15. Lament, iii. 38. Job ii. 10. Amos iii. 6. Ecclfts. xi. 14. 6 Comp. 2 Mac. viii. 18. Wisd. xi. 25, 26. 7 Exod. xx. 5; xxxiv. 7. 2 Sam. xii. 14; xxi. 1. 1 Kings xiii. 34 ; xiv. 10. 17; xxi. 28. 8 Psal. cix. 10. Jer. xvi. 4 ; xviii. 21 ; xxxii. 18. Tobit iii. 3. VOL. II. 6 258 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. the children's teeth are set on edge."9 This doctrine, though as plainly at variance with justice as with the fundamental prin- ciple of the theocracy, was often appealed to either prospectively or retrospectively to account for the anomalies of the present10. The suffering good might he descended from had ancestors, or recover their immediate loss in the fortunes of their posterity ; the prosperous wicked might die childless or unhappy in their children, or might owe their success to the merit of their fathers. The later prophets who already felt many of the im- perfections of the old covenant, and were desirous of super- seding it hy a new one, protest against so unfair a doctrine11 ; but though it was afterwards admitted that a merciful God would not allow the execution of so harsh a law unless the sons imitated their fathers' crimes12, the substitutive idea seems to have been too strong to yield to a sense of abstract right, and the Hebrews, naturally desirous to accuse any one but them- selves, continued to charge their sufferings to the account of their fathers' iniquity13, and were often less scrupulous in their own conduct through the idea that their sins would be visited not on themselves but on their children14. The notion of substitution was not confined to lineal inheri- tance. The rude sentiment of justice expressed in the maxim, "An eye for an eye" was still more widely deserted by the sacrificial theory. One mode of explainiug the suffering of the good was discovered in the device of vicarious expiation. So firmly rooted was this idea that even the prophets in a degree countenance it, and in Alexandria we find a Jew pro- nouncing the suffering of the just to be an " acceptable offer- ing" to the Almighty15. The sacrificial theorist is necessarily 9 Comp. Horace, Od. iii. 6, 1, 10 Job xxi. 19. 21; xxvii. 13. 15. Comp. Gen. ix. 25. 11 Jer. xxxi. 29 sq. Ezek. xviii. Deut. xxiv. 16. Comp. Exod. xxxii. 33. 12 Gen. xviii. 25. Rosenmiiller to Ezck. xviii. 19. 2 Kings xiv. 6. 13 Lam. v. 7. Sirach xliv. 12. John ix. 2. 14 Jarch. to Jer. xxxi. 29. Isa. xxxix. 8. 2 Kings xx. 19. 16 Wisd. iii. 6. SPECULATIVE GROUNDS OF FAITH. 259 an ascetic. Privation portends indemnification. Faith re- verses practice as "well as theory. Penance is meritorious; calamity desirable and consolatory as a divinely-inflicted penance'". Mankind have never yet escaped this very super- ficial and monstrous fiction. The New Testament doctrine, "Blessed arc the poor and the afflicted," is hut a continuation of the old idea in which all misfortune was counted as dehit to he charged on heaven ; either as expiating former offence, or earning future mercies by plagues17. " Rejoice," says the text, " when you are persecuted, for great is your reward in heaven;" and the old Hebrew dogma of the sure "rewards" of the law18 suggesting the strict retaliation of the last judgment11' is re- flected in St. Peter's appeal, "Lo! we have forsaken all to follow thee ; what shall we have then ? " *° Any system of inter- pretation by mere guess-work was plainly better suited to con- found than to elucidate the nice arrangements which really exist in Providential retribution. But the ohief ground of " faith" was the religious sentiment itself1 co-operating with national pride. The feeling was ex- pressed in the Levitical covenant, according to which, as the promise was conditional, so the curse was not to be irreversible, but in case of repentance to be withdrawn by God's clemency21. Thus the old theory would after all turn out to be the strictly correct one. The sufferings of the good would be transitory ; heaviness may endure for the night, but joy would return in the morning**, A happy requital would follow the interval of woe *', the captive he indemnified with redoubled prosperity after his return **, The prose account of Job is wound up in 10 " Men should rejoice more over afflictions than blossings, for afflictions imply forgiveness of sins." Bk. Mechilta in Gfriirer, ii. 171. " The atonement of afflic- tion is like that of sacrifice, or even still more efficacious, as affecting the person, while tli.' latter touches only the possession." lb. 172. 17 Psal. xc. 15. '■ Psal. xix. 13. '» Comp. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 285, 286. 20 Luke xviii. 30. Matt. xix. 27. " L.-v. xxvi. 12. 22 Psal. xxx. 5; xxxiv. 19; lxxxix. 32, 33. 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15. sa 2 Sam. xvi. 2. u !»»• xl- -'• liv- "■ ^ach. ix. 12. s a 260 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. this spirit ; the hero is more than indemnified for all his losses. And as to an afflicted people the prospect of change was com- fort "5, the same prospective theory was employed as a warning to the fortunate, and as an assurance of eventual vengeance on the heathen foes of Israel, who abusing the power of chastise- ment permitted to them by God, made the sufferings of his people wantonly and needlessly severe20. Spiritually oonstrued the same axioms sufficed to reach those high religious consola- tions which were the foundation of Christianity. The author of the Book of Wisdom, though condescending to some of the ruder explanations, as that of the child suffering for the parent27, combats the old sensuous view of temporal reward on the high moral ground that the only thing really valuable and immortal is virtue : " Blessed," he says, " is the sterility of the righteous28; wisdom alone is grey hair to men, and an unspotted life is old age ;" the righteous Enoch was speedily " taken away" from the world, for in the mysterious counsels of God29 even death may be felicity30. §5. TYPICAL SUFFERING OF THE "GOOD MAN." Hebrew tradition was rich in names and stories illustrative of its favourite theory, resembling those pleasant adventures in which a fly executes Allah's judgment against the wicked enchanter, or where a noisome cavern makes the pathway of ascent to the talisman of bliss. Noah, Daniel, and Job were celebrated for their misfortunes as for their virtues1; they were bright ex- 25 Isa. xl. 26 Isa. xlvii. 6. Joel iii. 2. Amos i. Zech. i. 15. 57 "Wisd. ili. 11, 12. 16 ; iv. 3. 6. 28 Wisd. iii. 13, 14. 29 Wisd. ii. 22. 30 Wisd. iv. 10-16. 1 Ezek. xiv. 14. 20. Daniel is alluded to by Ezekiel as a well-known pattern of ancient uprightness. Comp. Lengerke's Daniel, Pref. p. xciii. " It is clear," says Ewald (Propheten, ii. p. 560), "that Ezekiel treats Daniel as a long since departed TYPICAL BUFFERING! OF THE GOOD MAN. 361 amplea of tin- errentual triumph of the upright displayed Pox the improvement and consolation of posterity. The romantic history of Joseph was appropriated to similar ends of moral illustration. He' to whom the moon and stars howed down, to whom the eleven sheaves made obeisance, was cast by his envious brethren into a pit at Dothan*. His many-coloured coat was dipped in goat's blood, and he was lamented as dead. Meantime, like the famous Arabian bird which periodically buried its pai'ent upon a funeral pyre of spices at Heliopolis4, the persecuted youth was carried away among bales of myrrh to Egvpt5, where he again lost his garment, again was thrown into a dungeon, but eventually through God's favour and the mi- raculous power he possessed of foreseeing" the physical changes of the elements, married tho daughter of the high-priest of On7, hero of antiquity like Noah niul Job. Job, the 'persecuted' or 'hated of God' (comp. Hitzig's Job, p. 8, note. Horn. Iliad, vi. 200) living to an incredible age after his adventure with his three friends, whose names and description indicate obscurity and death, was pronounced by the Jews themselves to be an allegorical personage." Baba Bathra, ch. i. fol. 15a. 2 His name probably means "Increase," alluded to Gen. xlix. 22. Deut xxxiii. 13, 14. He is son of the Sun, according to Jacob's own construction of the dream. Gen. xxxviii. 10. The word Seph has however been said to be an Egyptian attri- bute of the Deity in the sense of " Generator," as Har-Seph (" Ar3aphes," Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. xxxvii.), interpreted, Deus "manifestus" "Generator;" comp. "Peteseph," Joseph. Apion. i. 32. 3 The "two tanks." Comp. Thenius to 2 Kings vi. 13; the "ark'' of Moses (EzotL ii. 3), and "trough" of Romulus (Plutarch, Vit. R.). Jacob's removal to Bethel or Kirjath-Arba (Hebron), while his sons were still feeding the flocks at Shechem (Gen. xxxiii. 18; xxxv. 1. 16; xxxvii. 2. 12), may have been Contrived to support his character as general patriarch of the country. 4 Herod, ii. f3. In other accounts, he consumed his own body, but rose again out of its ashes. It would be curious if the son of Joseph, Ephniim, should be found to mean "man of ashes," from >?N. 5 Gen. xxxvii. 25. Ewald gives an historic meaning to the story, as intimating an earlier Hebrew migration to Egypt cotemporaneous with the Hyksos. Ges- chichte, i. 459. 4 " Prodigiorum sagacissimus." Justin, xxxvi. 2. 7 Heliopolis, or Ain Shemesh, "fountain of the Sun." Jt is well known how often in mythology the priest is substituted for the God. 262 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. and " went out over all the land." 8 He proved to be its main- stay against famine, and in consideration of his wisdom, ac- knowledged though in a mere Syrian nomad to transcend all the renowned wisdom of Egypt9, he became its legislator as well as ruler, and was accounted author of its well-known distribution into tributary nomes10. A recollection of the high importance attached to possessing the bones of the Nature-god11 may suggest a probability that the careful preservation of Joseph's mummy had a specific religious meaning12, especially when it is added that the remains were deposited in the very place ia where the flocks of the patriarch were fed, and which afterwards became the chief sanctuary of his Samaritan successors. The striking vicissitudes in the life of David were well adapted to illustrate the fortunes of the nation or the mutability of human affairs in general. The infant conqueroi* of the giant becomes the guerilla chief or exile of Adullam and Engedi, from whence he issues victorious to raise the monarchy to unrivalled splen- dour. An elegiac poet of the captivity may possibly have had in view the extremes experienced by the great Psalmist when in a strain always considered by Hebrew interpreters as describing national sufferings in the person of an individual u, he repre- sents the faithful " servant of God " enduring the bitter scorn 8 His name was Psom-thom-phanek, " Salvator mundi ;" or " Zaphnath-Pha- nach," of which the first member means " secrecy," the second " discovery." Gen. xli. 43. 45. The herald cried before his chariot, Abrek ! i. e., " Bow the knee," or " Bow the head." 9 Gen. xli. 39. I0 Gen. xlvii. 20. 11 See above, p. 138 ; and infr. sect. 10. 13 His very bones were "regarded of the Lord." Ecclus xlix. 15. Gen. 1. 25. Exod. xiii. 19. Josh. xxiv. 32. 13 Shechem or Sichem, the sacred city of the "shoulder" (Lev. vii. 32 ; ix. 21 ; x. 14. Gen. xxiv. 9. 1 Sam. ix. 24. Isa. ix. 6), son of Hamor, the " Ass." Compare the obscure Messianic prediction, Gen. xlix. 10, 11 (where the 11th verse may seem to apply not to Judah, but to the problematical "Shiloh") with Zech. ix. 9. Tacit. Hist. v. 4. Plutarch, Qua;st. Conviv. iv. 5. 2. 10. Joseph. Ant. xi. 8. 6 ; Apion. ii. 7. On the consecration of Sichem, see Gen. xii. 7 ; xxxiii. 20. Josh. xxiv. 26. Judg. ix. 46. M Psal. xxii. TVPICAL SUFFERING OF TItK GOOD M \ \ . M'ul of the heathen and exposed to imminent death. The Lord's protection is derided by the wicked" while the just sufferer is the mark of insulting gesture and comment, his hands and feet are bound'", his garments parted by lot among his enemies, like those of a plundered traveller or condemned malefactor. Far different from this disastrous issue was the anticipated Messianic triumph of Hebrew theory ; but the disciples of Jesus Very naturally made theory bend to indisputable facts, and accommodated to the tragic end of their master many appro- priate Scripture images which had not been usually considered as having a Messianic relation. The subject of the 22nd Psalm is merely the hypothetic ideal of a just man under affliction, the problem formerly discussed in the Book of Job, and still further illustrated in the description of the " righteous servant of the Lord " in the last and most beautiful of tho prophecies classed under the name of "Isaiah." By degrees the fortunes of the " Good Man," as learned from tradition or experience, received the form of an established symbol or type, a matter of theory or theoretic faith. The just is always a mark for the persecution and malignity of the wicked ' 7 ; the insulting demeanour of his enemies is described by " gaping with their mouth" and " sharpening their eyes on him;"18 as, t>o the other hand, the eventual triumph of the good would be signalized by "seeing his desire on his enemies," whose fall would be more bitterly felt through their being witnesses of the contrasted fortune of the just19. Closing the mouth and keep- ing silence is the gesture of submission and respect"0 most 15 Psal. v. 8. Comp. Job xvi. 10. Psal. xxxv. 16. 21. Isa. xxxvii. 22. 16 Lengerke, Fsalmen. vol. i. p. 118. Gesen. Lex. p. 460. 17 Psal. x. 8 ; xxxvii. 12. 32. Compare the strange version of Isa. iii. 10 in the LXX with Herod, i. 97. " Tf the composition has been sometimes conjectured to have been the summer when Cyrus before descending into Mesopo- tamia diverted the course of the Gyndes"1, or, as the Hebrew writer says", "dried up the rivers," an operation which would seem to have had the same relation to the subsequent attack on Babylon as the draining of the Alban Lake to the Roman siege of Veii. The Hebrew majority appear apathetic or despondent, reconciled to their chain or weary of hoping for release. From this state of prostration a band of patriots attempts to rouBe I Jer. xxx. 10; xlvi. 27. ' Ezek. xxviii. 25; xxxvii. 25. 3 Isa. Ix. 66. 4 Isa. xliv. 21 ; xlv. 4 ; lxi. C. 5 Isa. lxii. 4. * Isa. xliv. 26 ; li. 3. 7 Isa. lxiv. 11. ' Comp. Ism. x.\i. 6; xl. 9. Herod, i. 80 9 Isa. xxi. 9 : xlv. 1 ,0 Herod, i. 1SD. II Isa. xliv. 27. Comp. xi. 16 j xxxvu. 25. 266 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. their countrymen to a renewed prospect of recovering their independence and homes. They are probably to be considered as consisting chiefly of the self- constituted order of prophets, those specially gifted " servants of the Lord," l2 for a long time exposed to disgrace and insult, but who persevering in spite of contumely were now animated with enthusiastic hopes of re- newed influence and dignity through favour of their God, and the probable re-establishment of his ancient worship. The poem commences with a divine proclamation to comfort the people with the assurance that the day of evil or expiation has passed, and that Jehovah, renewing his covenant, will make ample amends for their suffering by a glorious restoration of his faithful servants13. "The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come with singing into Zion, everlasting joy shall be upon their head, sorrow and mourning shall flee away."14 Jehovah himself, their " Saviour" and " Kedeemer/'15 leads them10; it is he who raises up to them a deliverer in Cyrus17, the path before him is prepared as before an Eastern monarch18; all difficulties vanish19; the desert becomes a garden, the crooked is made straight, the rough places plain. The poet summons heaven and earth to unite in jubilee20 at the exhilarating promise of unbounded prosperity. All the Mes- sianic expectations, riches, length of days, numerous offspring, extensive dominion, peace throughout nature21, await the just inheritors of the new Jerusalem^ the true worshippers and priests of the Lord22. Now would be realized a new heaven and a new earth23. The Lord's empire would be extended over the Gentiles, all nations would behold his glory. The "servant 13 2 Kings ix. 7. 13 Isa. xl. 1 ; xlix. 13; lvii. 13; lix. 20. " Isa. li. 11 ; lv. 12. '* Isa. xlix. 26, &c. 16 Isa. lii. 12; xl. 11. 17 Isa. xlv. 1 ; xlvi. 11 ; xlviii. 15. 18. 18 Diod. S. ii. 18. Arrian, Alex. iv. 30. IS Isa. xl. 3, 4 ; xlii. 16 ; xliii. 19 ; xlviii. 21 ; xlix. 11. 40 Isa. xliv. 23; xlix. 13; lv. 12. 2I Isa. Ixv. 25. •■" Isa. liv. 13; hi. 6; lxv. 16. 23 Isa. lxv. 17; lxvi. 12. THE SERVANT OF THE LORD IN ISAIAH. 207 of Jehovah" moans primarily the Hebrew people **J but the i special " servant of the Lord " is that distinguished body, the prophets, including perhaps occasionally all right-minded Israel- ites as distinguished from " the transgressors," those who as God's "witnesses" and "messengers" were to be the instruments of the coming salvation". Though personified in their col- leetive capacity as an individual, the plurality transpires in parallel expressions20, as where the Lord is said to have " formed them from the womb to be his servant, to raise up the tribes of .ludah, and to restore the preserved of Israel."''7 "Ye are my witnesses/' saith the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen," M "mine elect in whom my soul delighteth ;"29 on whom God pours out his spirit30, whom he appoints to be interpreters of his word1" and heralds of his will. Their mis- sion is to open a new covenant with his people'2, to be a Iighl to lighten the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, the prison doors of the captive38, to revive the spirits of the meek, to com- fort the afflicted34, to spread religion and salvation among all nations of the earth"'. But this ideal impersonation of the time Israelitish or pro- phetic character, this "servant" of the Most High, had by no means hitherto enjoyed even among his own people the con- sideration to which he was entitled. The sufferings of the prophets were proverbial ; by their bold unscrupulous de- nouncements of vice and idolatry, of everything wicked and untheocratic, the ministers of heaven had become more and more obnoxious to priests, kings, and people. Under Ahab, u Isa. xli. 8, 9; xliv. 1. 21 ; xlv. 4; xlviii. 20; "it *•<{! ivo; rev oXou Xaov.'' Origcn in Cels. i. 42. » Isa. xlii. 1; xliii. 10; xliv. 26; xlix. 3. 5; lii. 13; liii. 11. Comp. Jcr. xxv. 4 ; xxvi. 5. Amos iii. 7. M Isa. xliii. 10. 12. 27 Isa. xliv. 26; xlix. 5, 6. " Isa. xliii. 10. 12. '-'9 Isa. xlii. 1. 20 Isa. xlii. 1 : xlviii. 16; lix. 21 • M 1 " Isa. li. 16 ; 1. 4, 5. 39 Isa. xlix. 8. » Isa. xlii. 6, 7 ; xlix. 1» ; li 31 Isa. lvii. 15 : lxi. 2. M Isa. xlii. 1. 12 j xlix. Bad li. 268 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION, the Jehovists were nearly exterminated36, the survivors were forbidden to speak openly37. Under Asa, Joash, and Joachim38, they suffered imprisonment and martyrdom ; and Josephus relates that a massacre of the prophets was directed hy Manasseh 3!>, in which, according to tradition, the great Isaiah perished. The whole life of Jeremiah was a series of perse- cutions resulting from the hatred of the party of priests and false prophets united with the court40; from that time forwards the ill-treatment of prophets continued to he a source of national reproach and remorse41, which the later Jews, like the perse- cutors of Dante or Galileo, endeavoured in vain to atone for hy tardy honours42, by "building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous." At a time of general oppression the prophets would naturally suffer most. As restless leaders whose very office was to make their people dissatisfied with captivity, they would be most obnoxious to the foreigner, and at the same time would have to bear the disap- poiDtment and reproaches of their countrymen. No one had "believed their report;"4" they had laboured and spent their strength for nought44; they had endured insult and reproach45, but suffered silently and resignedly, even to the extremity of death46. The legend of the fiery furnace and lions' den may have had its basis of fact in violences actually committed against some among their number47. The people who witnessed their affliction thought according to the common notion that they were punished for their misdeeds ; but it was not so : they had suffered in analogy with the sacrificial doctrine which had always formed part of Jewish ritual, not for themselves, but to 36 1 Kings xviii. 4; xix. 10. 2 Kings ix. 7. 37 Amos vii. 10* 39 2 Ghron. xvi. 10 ; xxiv. 21. Jer. xxvi. 21. 89 Jos. Ant. 10. 3. 10. 40 Jer. xv. 15. 41 Neh. ix. 26. Matt. v. 12. Acts vii. 52. 1 Thess. ii. 15. 42 Matt, xxiii. 29. 31. 43 Comp. Isa. xlii. 18; liii. 1. u Isa. xlix. 4. ' "' Isa. xlix. 7 ; lii. 14 ; liii. 2, 3. 4G Isa. 1. 6, 7 ; liii. 7, 8, 9. 47 Gesen. Isa. liii. 8. 10; lvii. 1. Nab. iii. 19. Psal. cxxxvii. THE SERVANT OF THE LORD IN isaiaii. 269 atone for the sins of their people4*. Fel though the prophetic body mighl be said in the persons of many of their number to have suffered death and to be buried, theyyet in their collective character survived4'1, and would witness a glorious change. At sight of him who was abhorred by the Gentiles kings shall submissively arise from their seats, and princes shall worship50. No true Israelite could regard his humiliation as other than temporary. The feebleness of the individual is lost and for- gotten in the magnitude of the office ; for the " Lord's servant is not merely a prophet or even body of prophets; lie is the personification of an indestructible idea, Jehovah's imperishable truth which he feels authorized to publish before admiring nations to the ends of the earth51. "Behold my servant, even he whose visage was marred more than any other man, shall be exalted and be very high ; many a nation shall rise before him, many a king shall bow."" " For a small moment have I for- saken thee, but with great meroies will I gather thee ; in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlast- ing kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."53 The idea of vicarious atonement had from the earliest ages been interwoven with Hebrew thought and practice. The sins of David and of Achan involved the whole nation in their con- sequences, and the offence with Bathsheba was followed by the death of the child according to the severe law decreeing it^ responsibility for the parent's offence5*. It was presumed in the hypothesis that God's inexorable justice might claim some other victim for crime than the guilty party. The writer in Isaiah adopts this theory, at least he adopts its language ; the righteous are said to perish through the guilt of the wicked "; and again, God shows his favour to the Hebrews by giving 48 Isa. liii. 4. 56. Comp. xlii. 24. "> In. liii. 9, 10. 50 Isa. xlix. 7 ; Hi. 15. Comp. Job xxix. 9. 5I Isa. xlix. 6. " Isa. lii. 13 sq. " Isa. liv. 7. M Exod. xx. 5. 2 Sam. xxi. 1. 14. Lam. v. 7. Isa. lxv. 7. I -a. h ii. 1. Gesen. ib. 270 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. "Egypt and Ethiopia for their ransom and people for their life."56 The great object of the prophet is to proclaim the trial and "expiation" of Jerusalem to be "finished;"57 that the people are henceforth to receive double of Jehovah's hand in requital for their " penance." Proportioned to the depression of the Lord's servant was, according to the admitted law of retribution58, to be Ins exaltation; from the abyss of disgrace and despair he would be raised above princes59. As Israel among the nations of the earth such was the prophet to his people. The suffering had been a consequence of sin60 ; but all had not sinned alike, and the stripes of the Lord's servant were an expiation for the undeserving among those who were now to share the triumph. It has been argued61 that the salutary effect ascribed in the 53rd chapter to the patient suffer- ing of the true prophet is to be understood as the mere natural result of noble example and persevering admonition. But if, even to our minds, such an explanation seems to do violence to the obvious meaning, far greater would be its inapplicability in the feeling of a Hebrew. Unwilling to put what they think a derogatory construction on a sublime composition, critics desire to explain away the seeming anomaly of a writer who disclaiming the vulgar estimate of external forms62, would yet appear to 66 Isa. xliii. 4. It has been said that the word "ransom" as here employed, as also in Prov. xxi. 18 (comp. also Job xxxiii. 24), is " figurative," since to suppose the just really to require expiation would be to make him unjust. (De Wette, De Morte Christi, p. 32.) But how then should the punishment of the unjust at all concern or be connected with the just? The object of atonement is to place the offender in a condition to obtain the divine pardon for secret or unintentional faults. "Who can tell how oft he offendeth]" Even the just man (before the law) has much to expiate ; hence, according to the principle that " from him that hath not shall be taken even what he seemeth to have," the occasional good deeds of the impious are reserved to eke out any deficiency in the qualifications of the just. (Comp. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 184. 285, 286.) 57 Isa. xl. 2. 59 Psal. xc. 15. Isa. ix. 2. 59 Isa. xlix. 7; lii. 14. eo Isa. xlviii. 18 sq. ; Ixiii. 10. 61 De Wette, De Morte Christi, p. 45. 6- Isa. xliii. 23 ; lviii. 3 sq. ; lxvi. 1. 3. The latter passage however seems to be from a different hand. Ewald, Propheten, ii. p. 409. THE SERVANT OF THE LOUD IX ISAIAH. 87 J countenance the theory lie ought to have repudiated. The Bacrifioial language is therefore called a mere metaphor; hut the limits of metaphor are hard to distinguish, and the feelings of the distant past are not to he judged by the standard of the present. This nohle poem, whieh with several other beautiful hut unauthentic compositions'"1 was thought worthy to bear the name of the greatest of the prophets, however sometimes rising above the level of ordinary sentiment, is after all intensely Judaical. The prospect of spiritual illumination held out to the heathen is not gratuitous. Israel is still God's tmforgotten " chosen " or elect04, who would "suck the milk" and "cat the riehes" of the Gentiles05. And if just iee was violated in one direction, why not in another CG? Without wasting words on what might be assumed as generally understood, the prophet, taking the sacrificial theory as a basis for estimating providential arrangements, proceeds to enforce his great moral inference of repentance in a kind of penitential hymn to be rehearsed by the returning patriots07. " Who," he exclaims, " has believed our report?"68 who seen the arm of Jehovah revealed in our behalf, according to the foregoing predictions09 ? The labour of the Lord's servant was long in vain ; he did not appear recom- mended by the garb and comeliness usually distinguishing a divinely-appointed messenger70. He was foremost in suffering and humiliation7', a condition indicated by the gesture of closing the lips or hanging the head7'2. The people ought injustice to acknowledge that these sorrows should properly have fallen on themselves, and that the holy servant of the Most High had been made to suffer the penalty of their iniquities. They should say, " Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows :" and we imagined that he was stricken and afflicted, not viea- 93 Comp. ch. xxv. 6-8. •* Isa. xlix. 14 ; xliv. 1. 05 Isa. xlix. 22 ; lx. passim ; Ixi. 5, 6. 68 Comp. the original of ch. lvii. 1. " Isa. lii. 11. 68 Isa. liii. 1. Comp. xlii. 18 ; xlviii. G. 8; xlix. 4. 68 Comp. li. 9; lii. 10. T0 1 Sam. x. 23; xvi. 12. 18. Psal. xlv. 2. 7I Comp. 1. 0. '■' Isa. v. 7. Comp. 1. 7 ; lii. 15. Job xxix. 9. 272 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. ously, but by the just anger of God against himself. But it was not so ; " he was wounded for our transgressions, and stricken for our misdeeds ; his chastisement was the ransom of our peace ; with Iris stripes we are healed." " He was 1 removed away ' through persecution and judgment, and who among his cotemporaries considered this ", or understood that for the people's sins he was withdrawn from among the living ? He was insulted even when life was extinct74, and buried among his impious oppressors, although he did no evil, and no guile was in his mouth." He thus performed an expiation for sin not only in his death but after death75. But although Iris soul was given up as an offering for sin by the flat of Jehovah, he, that is, the still continuing community of pious Israelites, shall see his posterity and shall live many days ; the work of the Lord, the extension of religious knowledge, shall prosper in his hands ; he shall be triumphantly rewarded for his heroic self-devotion. §7. THE "dixaiog" (JUST MAN) OF THE BOOK OF WISDOM. The Hebrew people, the " son " whom Jehovah had called forth out of Egypt, languished under oppression, and the " dutaiog" of Wisdom1, a Jewish book written in the century immediately preceding the Christian sera, is generally understood to have nearly the same meaning as the " servant of the Lord " in Isaiah. He is the nation opposed to its heathen oppres- sors, the just man contrasted with the wicked, and consequently claiming, as did the Jews in general, to have God for his father2. The wise and good are proverbially a mark for the antipathy and obloquy of the wicked 3 ; they are tortured and con- 73 Comp. Knobel to Isa. lvii. 1. 74 Comp. Jer. xxvi. 23. 75 Hos. ix. 6. Amos vii. 17. 2 Mac. v. 10. 1 Wiad. ii. 10. 2 Isa. ii. 13. 16; xii. 20. Comp. Exod. iv. 22. Hos. xi. 1. 3 Comp. Horace, Ep. ii. 1. 13. THE hxxtos OF THE BOOK OF WISDOM. 273 denined to a shameful death in order to prove to the sarcastic curiosity of their enemies how far they are entitled to claim the protection of their pretended " father.*'4 Those enemies might be either Gentiles to whom the vengeance taken on the ancient Egyptian tyrants might serve as warning5; or those recreant and irreligious Jews, who from philosophical free-thinking had passed to decided immorality and impiety". To the ridicule and insult with which these sensualists persecuted their countrymen the writer returns the same answer which had long before been made7, that their vicious proceedings arose out of ignorance of God's ultimate purposes in favour of the good, whose sufferings were only probationary, and whose departure from life, though to appearance resembling misery, was in reality the introduction to peace and glory8. The paradox of the sensualist is the spiritualist's faith. There is here no prophecy peculiarly regard- ing Jesus of Nazareth, but rather a prediction suggested by sure experience, which will be found to hold good with every one who for any enviable superiority or peculiarity makes him- self conspicuous among his fellows. Envy will merit as its shade pursue. It is a general law of human nature well expressed by a powerful modem writer9, " reformers, in all ages, whatever their object, have been unpitied martyrs, and the multitude have evinced a savage exultation in their sacrifice. Let in the light upon a nest of young owls, and they cry out against the injury you have done them. Men of mediocrity are young owls ; when you present them with strong brilliant ideas, they exclaim against them as false, dangerous, and deserving punishment. Every abuse attempted to be reformed is the patrimony of those who have more influence than the re- formers." 4 Wisd. ii. 18. Comp. John xix. 7. Psal. lxxxix. 27. s Wisd. xvii. and xviii. " "o! tkv (!{3 Eurip. Alcest. 367. 988. M For instance, those of Osiris (Plutarch, Isis and Osiris), Oedipus (Soph. Colon. 1534. 1765), Orestes (Herod, i. 67. Paus. iii. 3), Pelops (Paus. v. 13), Orpheus (Paus. ix. 30), Hyacinthus (Paus. iii. 19), Tisamenus (Paus. vii. 1), Theseus (Paus. i. 17, tin. Plut. Vit. ad fin.) The expression, "ifUfft' Aoirt irxiav Tdiowra.;." Plut. Isis and Osiris, ch. 47. Annaeus Gazaeus Dial, de Anira. Immortalitate, identifies atafiivrtf and avxtrrairis.) " Promissa a Democrito vanitas, qui non revixit ipse." (Plin. N. H. vii. 56, p. 411.) The Boundehesch (p. Ill, Kleuker) describes the children of the resurrection as re- versing the usual dietetic order, successively living on meat, milk, and bread, until at last they would require water only. " Sosiosch," it is said, " will revive the dead, as it is written, Zoroaster asked Ormuzd, and said, 'The wind bears forth the dust of the body, water washes it away ; how then shall the body come again1 how shall the dead arise?' Ormuzd answered, 'I am he who holds the star-spangled heaven in ethereal space ; who makes this sphere which once was buried in darkness a flood of light. Through me the earth became a world firm and lasting — the earth on which walks the lord of the world. I am he who makes the light of sun, moon, and stars pierce the clouds. I make the corn-seed, which perishing in the ground sprouts anew, multiplying endlessly, &c. &c. 1 created man whose eye is light, whose life is the breath of his nostrils; I placed within him life's inextinguishable power. Let the wicked One arise, and try to effect a resurrection ; vain would be his effort ; no corpse can he revive ; but surely shall thy eyes some day see all things live anew. Skeletons shall be clothed with veins and sinews. And when the resurrection is finished it shall never a second time take place; for then dull the glorified earth bring forth bones, and water, and blood, hair, fire, and life, as at the beginning.'" Even in the Yashna (52 Ha. p. 142, Kleuker) the same doctrine appears to be taught ; but Burnouf has shown that words often translated " resur- rection" by Anquetil do not amount to such meaning. Journal Asiatique, 3rd ser. vol. 10, July and September, 1840. 14 1 Kings xvii. 17 sq. 2 Kings iv. 8 ; xiii. 21. VOL. II. U 290 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. scarcely have been tolerated had there not been an impression as to the possibility of bodily revival. Such an idea may have been assisted by the familiar phenomena of dreaming and suspended animation15. The Egyptian might on such grounds have been led to think the work of death incomplete as long as putrefaction could be prevented16, so that if by embalmment the body could be made to retain the general form of its organiza- tion, the soul too would maintain its individual or " deter- minate" relation to it17, and preserving in Amenthe something of its earthly shape and character18, might at the appointed period of 3000 years return to its former habitation19. The priests whose influence over the living greatly depended on their supposed power over the spirits of the dead, might have tolerated the customary rites of burial though their own notions may have soared above them20. For while the speculative pantheist assumes an ocean of spirituality out of which life and consciousness are unceasingly evolved and to which they re- turn, the sensuous are unable to appreciate any state of exist- ence beyond the limits of a contracted individuality, as their God also is a "person" who must be personally commu- nicated with. The God of the Hebrews was that divine pastor 15 Comp. Plin. N. H. vii. 53. (52.) Herod, iv. 15. Pind. ub. sup. 16 The same idea may be found in the Talmud (Jerusalem Gemara in Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 74), according to which the soul of the departed flits for three days round the corpse in hope of re-entering it ; at length, when the signs of decay be come evident, it hurries away. The common notion of haunted graves and church- yards evidently arises from the same source. (Comp. Enoch ix. 12.) 17 Servius to JEn. iii. 68. Tertullian de Anim. 23, p. 288. Baehr's Herod. ii. 123. 18 The shades of the dead were supposed to have the appearance of the living. Nitzsch to Odyss. xi. 189. Virg. Mn. ii. 272; vi. 651. '• Creuz. S. ii. 16. Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 310. Wyttenbach to Plutarch de S. V. Comp. Gothe's Wilhelm Meister, Trans, ii. 1. It is not clear why the embalmment of animals should be thought adverse to this view (Wilkinson's Egypt, 2nd ser., vol. ii. p. 444), since the Egyptian, like the untutored Indian, might have hoped to be accompanied in the resurrection by his favourite cat or dog. 20 Porphyr. Abstin. iv. 10. Plut. Isis and Osiris, 29. Cic. de Leg. i. 9, Creuzer. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESURRECTION DOCTRINE. ^01 who "walked" with Adam and with Enoch, and who though seated above the firmament''", was also the ever-present Ruler and Vindicator in the midst of Israel22. The remnant who should renew his dominion and share his eventual triumph must therefore he a living and embodied one, with employments and gratifications to correspond. The prophets in this sense announce the hope of reanimation to their disappointed and buried countrymen, or to the exiled Israelites in general, to whom Babylon was as a grave, and whose restoration might aptly be called a resurrection. Ezckicl was commissioned to prophesy a resurrection of the dead as part of a general plan of restoration after the captivity; and this, not merely by way of frigid allusion to a received dogma, but to give consolation in despair23 by the announcement of a hitherto unprecedented exertion of the beneficent power of Jehovah24. To the mourn- ful inquiry "wilt thou again revive us?" the divine voice responds in the affirmative, " I will swallow up death in vic- tory."88 The visionary plain20 appeared to the prophet's eye full of dry bones27; and upon the word which he was directed to announce there was a noise as it were of thunder, bone wTas reunited to bone, and having been covered again with flesh and sinews was lastly animated with breath. " These bones," Bays Jehovah, "are the whole house of Israel"; they have said, Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost ; therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to them, Behold, O my people, I will even open your graves and cause you to come forth, and bring you again to your own country." The vision is but an energetic fonn of expressing in reference to the particular circumstances of the Israelites the general hope uttered in .lob and Psalms. At a somewhat later time when Babylon had been destroyed"", yet the restored Jews were still far from enjoying the populous- ness and splendour they anticipated, another prophet employs *' Isa. xl. 22. '2» Joel ii. 27 ; iii. 16. " Ezck. xxxiii. 10. w See Dent, xxxii. 29. 1 Sam. ii. G. " Hos. xiii. 14. Isa. xxv. 8. " Ezek. iii. 12. 22. 27 Ezek. xxxvii. " Ezek. xxxvii. 11. :* Isa. xxiv. 10. u 2 292 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. nearly the same imagery. "The dead," he says30, "live no more, shadows rise not again, therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them (the wicked), and made all their memory to perish. Yet thou, 0 Jehovah, art he who multipliest the nation, and thou art glorified ; thou widenest all its borders. Lord, in trouble they31 sought thee; in their affliction was thy ' severity ' whispered ; as a travailing woman crieth in her pangs, so sat we agonized in thy sight, Jehovah ! We were in labour and in pain ; we have brought forth but wind ; the land is still undelivered, nor are its people brought forth to inhabit it." Then with a beautiful transition from despondency to hope he exclaims, " 0 that thy dead might live again, that my buried countrymen could rise ! Awake and sing, ye dwellers in the dust ; for the dew of Jehovah is as the quickening dew which reinvigorates the grass, and the earth again sends forth its shadows to new existence." 32 How tame, compared with these passages, appears the sentiment when matured and fixed in the form of dogma as announced in the 12th chapter of Daniel, where the faithful Jews, especially their zealous chiefs and martyrs33, are distinguished by the great boon of eternal life above those who apostatized in time of per- secution ! The inference to which Socrates was led through confidence in the immutability and eternity of truth34 was with the Hebrew only the completed expression of an exaggerated political hope. The selfish form of the doctrine harmonized with its source. As the Messianic restoration belonged exclu- sively to the pious, or to " Jehovah's remnant," so the Messianic resurrection was confined to " Jehovah's dead," 35 the limitation exercising throughout a marked influence on Christian as well as Jewish theory36. The completion of the Messianic was at 30 jga xxvi. 14. 3I The captive Israelites. " On the "Dew of Jehovah," see Psal. lxxii. 6. Job xiv. 9. Gesen. to Isa. xxvi. 19. Comp. Psal. i. 3. 31 Lengerke to Dan. xi. 33 n e. 34 Phaedo, p. 77. 3S 2 Mac. vii. 9. 14. 38 1 Thess. iv. 16. Luke xiv. 14. Rev. xx. 4, 5. Schottgen, Hor. Heb. ii. 366. Havernick to Ezek. xxxvii. p. 586. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESURRECTION DOCTRINE. 293 the same time the completion of the Providential theory. In the resurrection all moral inequalities would he fully compensated ; and it was added that present chastening was a token of God's favour, an earnest of the future remuneration of his favourites, while it was observed that God hastens to reward the occasional good deeds of the enemies of the Jews, in order for their more effectual destruction hereafter87. The resurrection doctrine seems to have made hut slow pro- gress; for with the exception of two doubtful passages'18, which may be no more than instances of vague expression, the Pales- tinian Apocrypha, including Baruch Ecclesiasticus and Tobit, contemplate only the state of Scheol. At the Christian sera, however, it appears a general doctrine of Judaism assuming several forms. To the Pharisees who maintained the bodily or Messianic resurrection, the Sadducees appeared to deny immor- tality altogether ::9 ; for they who presuming the life to be in the blood, could conceive no continuing existence except by bodily revival, would of course so construe a mere retention of the ancient Scheol doctrine, or the equally unsubstantial theory maintained by emanationists and pantheists of the school of Ecclesiastes. Equally opposed to the Pharisaic doctrine was that which mainly under the influence of Greek philosophy prevailed among the Jews of Alexandria, according to which tlic body, so far from being essential to existence, was the spirit's prison, escape from it being life's true commencement40. This is the idea of Philo, of the Alexandrian authors of 4th Maccabees and of the Book of Wisdom, and also of the :l7 " Quemadmodum in seculo futuro piis rependitur prsemium boni opens etiam levissimi quod perpetrarunt, ita in seculo hoc rependitur impiis prsemium cujiis- cunque levissimi boni opens." Gfriirer, Urchrist. ii. 170, 171. Traces of the same feeling occur in the New Testament. Conip. Luke vi. 21. 24 ; xvi. 25. 38 Tobit iii. 6. Ecclus. xlviii. 11. ■* " Aix/xe*T!v <4>uxris xai ra; xa.f aiov riftapitif, avaugovfi.'' Joseph. Ant. xviii. 1. 4. War, ii. 8. 14. Comp. Matt. xxii. 23. Mark xii. 18. Luke xx. 27. Aits xxiii. 8. Justin. M. Tryph. ch. 80. 14 " Aiofierat ct£%ai." Pind. Frag. Inc. 96. Plato, Phaedo, 67 sq. 294 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. Essenes, who believed a spiritual immortality and retribution, but not a resurrection. For though in Alexandrian theosophy Platonic idealism makes an incongruous medley with Jewish exclusiveness and sensuousness41, spiritualism on the whole predominates. According to Philo, the souls of the good pass to their heavenly home immediately on death *a ; others travel through various transmigrations, while, as in Plato, the eternal punishment of the wicked is left half fact half allegory4'*. "Man," says the author of Wisdom, "was created for immor- tality; death came into the world through the devil. But righteousness is immortal44; the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, who at a future day of retribution 45 will crown them with beauty and everlasting life, while their adver- saries (i. e. the wicked) will lie in Egyptian darkness46, or be utterly annihilated."47 According to the prevailing Pharisaic doctrine the soul at death descends to Scheol or Hades, where it awaits resurrection. During this interval there is no real life ; yet even Scheol distinguishes between good and bad48; there is an infernal Paradise as well as a Gehenna40; the resurrection is of the just only, the wicked remain bound in Gehenna. The Essenes blended Alexandrian philosophy with the common Jewish imagery ; but in their joyous elevation and translation of the good to the happy islands50 the Greek Elysium seems sub- stituted for the Hebrew Paradise. The New Testament writers follow for the most part the Pharisaic type. The only hope of " Wisd. iii. 8, for instance, seems to mix the notion of a Messianic restoration on earth with a heavenly immortality. 42 Gfrorer's Philo, i. 403. 43 " 'O t^o; akvfaiuv u&ns I rov ^o^jjgau P"t>s urn." Gfrbrer, ib. p. 405. Comp. Zeller, Phil. Gr. ii. 264 sq. 44 Wisd. ii. 23, 24 ; i. 15. "5 Comp. iii. 18. 49 Wisd. xvii. 21. 47 Wisd. iv. 19. 19 Joseph. Ant. xviii. 1. 3. 'Tiro 6010; x}ix.aiatrus xai t;/*«$ als ugirris n xaxias xivthiutris ii too /3/w ytyovf xai Tai; pit uoy/tot aiSiov f^otrrtfaefai, rats M patrruvnv ou ava/Zieu*. Comp. B. I. ii. 8. 14. 49 Eisenmenger, ii. 297. 314. Justin. M. Tryph. ch. 5. 40 As represented by Josephus, B. I. ii. 8. 11. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESURRECTION DOCTRINE. 290 the dead is resurrection (" avaaTaaig ex. vexguv"); the state of the departed being described in analogy with the appearance of the corpse, as a " sleep.'' When Christ from the position that " God is not the god of the dead, but of the living,"51 infers not merely man's immortality but his resurrection, it is implied that without a resurrection God would not be God of the living ; and St. Paul, when complaining of the burden of the flesh52, does not wish to be unclothed, i. e. in Scheol, but to be reclothed, i.e. with a new body53. It cannot be expected that a multi- form doctrine should be uniformly represented by many writers; and we find in the New Testament traces of heterogeneous elements under a corresponding ambiguity of expression. The words used by Jesus, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," certainly do not of themselves contradict an intermediate Scheol theory ; even the immediate Paradise promised to the crucified malefactor may be understood of the subtelluric Para- dise above alluded to54 ; while the colloquy of tortured Dives With Abraham is expressly said to be "in Hades."55 Still the Messianic reign and that of Scheol naturally tended to encroach on each other. It was a position of the Alexandrians, fortified by ancient authority, that those who die for God live to God ; that those who die for the law are immediately received to the bosom of the patriarchs50; and though the dogma of an inter- mediate state is held by Tertullian and others57 so essential that those denying it are not to be considered Christians or even Jews, the Alexandrian doctrine supported by the legendary cases of translation seems to have exercised considerable influ- ence 58 at a time when the interval preceding resurrection was accounted very short5", and when almost all Christians might 51 Matt. xxii. 32. 4i 2 Cor. v. 4. 53 Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 51. 54 Wetstein and De Wetto to Luke xxiii. 43. « Luke xvi. 23. s* 4 Mac. ch. 17, end. See Gfrbrer, vol. ii. p. 192. Comp. Deut. xxxiii. 3. 57 Tertull. de An. 55. Justin. Tryph. chs. 5 and 80. Irenae. v. 31. 2. 01 Especially over the fourth Gospel. " Rev. xx. 4 ; xxii. 20. 290 HEBREW THEORY OF RETRIBUTION. claim the privileges of martyrs60. The two views, that of hodily revival and of divine spiritual communion, coalesced also in the intermediate notion of a " spiritual body." Philo speaks of the soul as a " divine effluence of bright essence " {amavyaa^a Oetov), and as it may be said that God is light (fug vonrov), so the soul may be called a " particle of divine fire," made Like the celestial bodies of that sether or elemental quintessence spoken of by Indian and other sages61. When pseudo-Solo- mon62 talks of the "just running to and fro like sparks among the stubble," the ancient idea of a punishmemt of the heathen by the Jews63 mingles with that of the luminous or fiery nature of liberated spirits64; Josephus too alludes to the pure bodies of the resurrection (ayvotg TraXiv avrevoiHt^ovTai According to Isa. xl. 3. TIME OF MESSIAH'S COMING. 307 general superintending care over the good already expressed under the poetical image of " encamping round them,'"- or " upholding them in their arms,*'40 became, as in the Persian system, expanded into an angelic hierarchy exercising actual official superintendence over each several aspect of individual or social existence. Each soul had its tutelary spirit", every nation its angelic guardian47; and of the seven archangels dis- tinguished above the rest as "great princes" 4:t who, like the Persian Amsehaspunds, were privileged to stand in God's pre- sence44, one called Michael was appointed guardian of pseudo- Daniel's countrymen45, and in that capacity fought against their oppressors, the "Princes" of Persia and of Grecia40. It was natural that as the futurity of individuals had been ex- tended beyond former limits, so the person of Messiah should undergo a corresponding change; and accordingly in Daniel's vision the representative of Jehovah's power appears as a super- human Being in the clouds, though retaining, like the angels, and in accordance with typological nomenclature47, the outward form of a " son of man." §2. time of Messiah's coming. During the severe persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, when the eausc of Hebrew faith in its struggle with colossal heathenism seemed desperate, and when notwithstanding some bright examples of heroism the majority of the higher class 39 Psal. xxxiv. 7. Comp. Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. 2 Kings vi. 17. 40 Tsal. lvi. 13; xci. 11, 12; cxvi. 8. 41 Matt, xviii. 10. *J Deut. xxxii. 8. Comp. the LXX and Eisennienger's "Judaism Unveiled," vol. i. p. 806. 4J Dan. x. 13 ; xii. 1. ** Tobit xii. 15. Luke i. ID. 41 Dan. xii. 1. Taking in this respect, as in others (Rev. xii. 7. Isa. li. 9), the office of Jehovah. ia Dan. x. 13. 20. ■ Tsal. lxxr. 17. x 2 308 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. was inclined to submit and to apostatise1, an unknown writer adopted the ancient name of "Daniel" in order to revive the almost extinct hopes of his countrymen, and to exemplify the proper bearing of a faithful Hebrew in presence of a Gentile tyrant. At this time the ancient activity of the prophets as public '2 functionaries had ceased ; the herald of divinity who used openly to frequent the street and the palace had retired to the solitude of his chamber3; the statesman and orator had become the contemplative visionary or poet whose productions were rather imaginative reveries than the practical and saga- cious prognostications of the olden time. Written oracles of this more fanciful kind were often called forth by an excited state of public feeling, their authors gladly availing themselves of the name and influence of celebrated predecessors in order to give greater authority to their lessons and predictions. The object of pseudo-Daniel is to foreshow under a form adapted to make the deepest impression on his countrymen by a prophecy half allusive4, half apocalyptic, the approaching destruction of heathenism through the advent of Messiah. Immediately after the overthrow of the four beasts, emblematic of four successive heathen empires, the last being the Macedonian with its offset Syria, the "kingdom" would devolve to the "saints of the Most High," that is, to the Messianic establishment of Jewish expectation, presided over by a Being appearing in "the clouds," and distinguished like the angels by his "human form" from the uncouth symbols of the Gentile monarchies. Every attribute and accessory of the ideal kingdom, such as the newly developed doctrines of a resurrection and last judg- ment which had before been exclusively connected with Jeho- vah himself, were now transferred to his supernatural represen- ' The temple services were superseded, and the high-priest Joshua adopted the Greek name of Jason. 2 The son of Sirach seems not to have known Daniel as a prophet. (Ecclus. 48 and 49.) The age of pseudo Daniel is generally placed B.C. 160. 3 Ezek. iii. 24. 4 i.e. historical allusion converted into prediction, conformably to the age and character of its assumed author. TIME OP MKssiaii's DOMINO. 309 tative, the "Messiah," a title which, hitherto confined to human "anointed" authorities*, such as kings, priests, or prophets, became henceforth specifically appropriated to the ideal per- sonage who was to be the "Hope," the "Expectation," and the " Salvation" of Israel". It was of course a most important and anxious problem at what time the great Deliverer would make his appearance. The period naturally chosen hy the older prophets was the end of the "affliction" or captivity7; Serubbabel, therefore, under whom a restoration first took place, being of Davidical lineage8, and zealous in the theo- cratic cause, was hailed hy the cotemporary prophets Haggai and Zechariab as himself the expected chief9. However the capacities and deeds of Serubbabel fell far short of Jewish ambition. An interval of comparatively tranquil government might soothe the sting of disappointment, but fresh disasters soon called forth a fresh effervescence of religious patriotism. The writer assuming the name of Daniel takes his ground upon the seventy years announced as the term of the Babylon- ish captivity by Jeremiah10. This term having in a Messianic. sense failed according to its literal meaning, the author adopts a special mode of reckoning it. He treats the seventy years as seventy sabbatical periods or weeks of years (490 years), a term which, as subdivided by the writer and reckoned from the date of the original oracle of Jeremiah, or from the "going forth" of the angelic word to the imaginary Daniel", may be thrown forward beyond the eventful cera of Antiochus Epiphanes under whom the real author appeal's to have lived, and whose 4 Even in Daniel the title doe9 not occur in the special sense as since used, but only in the general meaning of a legitimate prince. Comp. ix. 25. Psal. ii. 2. Dan. vii. 13. The Book of Enoch, ch. xlviii. 11 ; li. 4, speaks of the " Messiah" for the first time, but gives him also the titles of the "Son of Man" (xlvi. 1.3; xlviii. 2; lxi. 10, &c. ; lxii. 15; lxviii. 38, &c. ; lxix. 1) and "the chosen." (xlv. 3.) 8 Luke ii. 25. 30. Acts xxviii. 20. ' Ezek. xxxvii. 22. 8 1 Chron. iii. 17. Joseph. Ant. xi. 3. 10. 9 Hag. ii. 20-23. Zecb. iii. 8 ; iv. G, 7 ; vi. 12, 13. Ezra iii. 8 j n. 15. 10 Jer. xxv. 1.12: xxix. 10. Dan. ix. 2. " Dan. ix. 23, 'J I- 310 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. acts he evidently has in view12. He says13, " Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and holy city, until the finish- ing of the transgression at its climax14, until the atonement for guilt and accomplishment of eternal justice ; until (lastly) the vision and prophecy (Jeremiah's) shall he ratified hy the event, and the most holy (*. e. the temple) anointed or reconsecrated. Know, therefore, and understand — From the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the anointing of a prince15 there are seven weeks; and for 62 weeks the city shall he rebuilt with streets and conduits, but in troublous times; after 62 weeks an "anointed" prince shall be cut off, and there shall be no one — i. e. no legitimate prince — for Seleucus Philopator, the immediate predecessor of Antiochus Epiphanes, was murdered by Heliodorus, leaving no one imme- diately at hand to assume the succession 16. Lastly, after ten preceding "horns" or kings, that is, seven actual kings and three pretenders whom he "overcame,"17 would come An- tiochus himself, called the "reprobate,"18 the "sinner," and "the wicked root,"19 who during one week (completing the 70) would make an impious alliance with many20 and wear out " the saints of the Most High,"21 destroying " the mighty and holy people."22 In the midst of the week he would sus- pend the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of a hea- then idol in the holy place. But his career now approached its close. The end of tribulation coincident with the tyrant's 12 Josephus, Ant. x. 11. 7. 13 Ch. ix. 24. 14 Comp. viii. 12. 23. ,s i. e. until Cyrus. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23. Isa. xlv. 1 ; or Serubbabel. Ezra iii. 2. 18 Comp. xi. 20. " Comp. vii. 8. 24 ; i. e. Heliodorus, Ptolemy Philometer, and the son of Seleu- cus, Demetrius Soter, then a hostage at Rome. These three were superseded by the craft of Antiochus, viii. 25 ; xi. 21. 18 Ant. xi. 21. " 1 Mac. i. 10; ii. 48. 20 Dan. ix. 27 ; i. e. the apostate Jews. Comp. xi. 30. 32 ; xii. 10 ; 1 Mac. i. 11. 52; iii. 5; ix. 23; x. 14. 21 Dan. vii. 25. M Dan. viii. 24. TIME OF MESSIAH'S COMING. 311 dead] is adjudged before the divine tribunal", and at the expiration of the specified period calculated at "a time and times and half a time," or three years and a hall' in round numbers", the "son of man" -would appear in the clouds to commence an everlasting dominion of " the saints," among whom would he enrolled those and those only whose names should he found written in the hook of life". It need scarcely he said that these adventurous predictions, which at the time of utterance could not have had that aspect of obscurity under which they afterwards appeared to Jo- sephus''0, turned out to he as fallacious as all that had preceded them. After a few intervals of precarious independence the victories of the Maccabees ended very much as they began, in vassalage. Hemmed in within the circle of Homan power, the Jews seemed as far as ever from the fulfilment of their hope ; yet they bore up against despair, and began to calculate afresh the prophetic prognostications imagined to have express refer- ence to the Messiah27, although the exact time of their accom- plishment remained a mystery acknowledged to be impene- trable, "known only to God."28 Such calculations continued to be founded on the data supplied by Daniel, assisted by mys- tical combinations of the sacred numbers 7 and 10, one the cypher of creation, the other of the law. It seems to have been common for Jews and Christians to assign for the duration of the world a period analogous to that employed in its creation ; and calculated on the principle of the 90th Psalm that one day is as a thousand years with God™, the week of creation he- roines a period of 7000 years for the fulfilment of all things. This reckoning, by means of which the Rabbis accounted for " Dan. vii. 9 sq. "■* Or 1290 days. Comp. vii. 25 ; xii. 11. ■b Dan. ii. 44 ; vii. 14. 27 ; xii. 1. Comp. Isa. iv. 3. Ezek. xiii. 9. ••'« War, vi. 5. 4. 27 " Omnes prophetae sine exceptione non nisi de dielms Hems prophctavonint." Gfrorer, Urclirist. ii. 198. Comp. Aits iii. 84, " Targum to Eccles. vii. 25. Comp. Matt. x\iv. 86. Mark xiii. 83. H.Ttholdt, Christologia, s. 10, pp. 35 and 41. -" Comp. 2 Pet. iii. 8. 312 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. the long continuance of the life of Adam after doom of death had been pronounced upon him30, became the foundation of various mystical views of mundane eschatology. It is said in the 15th chapter of the Epistle of Barnabas, " God made in six days the works of his hands; he finished them on the seventh day, and rested the seventh day and sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies : he finished them in six days. The meaning is this, that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end, for with him one day is a thousand years, &c. ; therefore in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is that he saith, ' and he rested the seventh day?' He meaneth this, that when his son shall come and abolish the season of the wicked one and judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun, moon, and stars, then he shall gloriously rest on that seventh day." Further on it is added, " When he saith to them, ' Your new moons and sabbaths I cannot bear them,' he means, the sabbaths ye now keep are not acceptable to me, but those which I have made — when resting from all things I shall begin the eighth day, that is, the beginning of the other world. For which cause we observe the eighth day with gladness in which Jesus rose from the dead, and having manifested himself to his disciples ascended into heaven." Similar language may be found in other Fathers31. There were however great discrepancies in applying the theory. There were no accurate chronological data to fix with certainty the time elapsed since the beginning of the world ; and even supposing this point to have been ascertained, different writers had very different ideas as to whether the kingdom of Messiah was to commence in this world or in the next, the " aluv outos" 30 Gen. ii. 17. " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die." But, said the Rabbi, " Vos nescitis utrum diem ex meis, an diem e vestris. Ecce do ei diem unum ex meis, qui est mille annorum, ut ille vivat annos 930." Bereschith R. xix. 14. 31 Irenaeua in Hser. v. 28. Lactant. Instit. vii. 14, p. 693. August. Civ. D. xx. 7. time of Messiah's coming. 313 or the " aiuv o fAEMuv." The Talmud speaks of an ancient tra- dition according to which 0000 years of the world's duration were to be divided into 2000 before the law, 2000 under t In- law, and 2000 under Messias ; so that the sabbatical mil- lennium would belong to the future world. On the other hand Lactantius and other Christian Fathers make the reign of jus- tice and of Messiah commence with the last earthly millennium, after which would follow the resurrection, judgment, and eter- nity. Variation in these respects was inevitable in consequence • if the variety of views respecting the nature of the Messianic kingdom; for all admitted that the "last days"88 far eclipse the present, that there would then be "no eating or drinking, no marrying, trafficking, or quarrelling," 33 although wars and weapons, e. [/., the hereditary " war with Amalek " or Gog, were usually not only not excluded from the Messianic period, but to rage, at its commencement at least, with tenfold vio- lence34. " The harp of the sanctuary had seven strings35; in the days of Messias it would have eight, in the future world ten."3 Here the " days of Messiah" are distinguished both from "the present" and "the future;" others adjudged to the future wrorld both Messiah's advent and that of his messenger Elijah, nay, even the great supper on the flesh of Leviathan'7 ; ami Rabbi Elias admits both the existing difference of opinion, and his own inability to decide a question of so much import- ance. Moreover, chronological facts were, from the absence of definite data, as difficult to settle as other differences of mere opinion. The author of the Book of Enoch, interesting from its proximity to the Christian oera, divides the cosmical period of 7000 years into ten weeks of 700 years each, considering 3J The "altut ixmot" (Luke xx. 35), or Olam Habba, as distinguished from the 33 Pirke Afoth. iv. 16. 34 Grfriirer, ib. ii. 213. " Errxi kohut, smw/,- a.-rtWvft.ivui atfyaruj.'' Lao tant. vii. 16. Jl PaaL xvi. M Psal. xcii. 3. 37 Gfrorer, ib. ii. 214. 314 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. himself, in his fictitious character, to be living at the close of the first of those weeks38. "Enoch," he says39, "began to speak from a book, saying, I am born in ' the seventh' of the first week, while judgment and righteousness wait with pa- tience;" that is, the first week is a golden age of the just. Seven weeks or periods succeed, including the age of the flood, of Abraham, of Moses, of Solomon, of the political division and captivity of the people, up to that of a perverse generation (the real age of the writer), when the just would begin to receive their reward ; this is followed by an imaginary eighth week, which was to be a second golden age to the just and a day of retribution to oppressors. The real Enoch therefore conceived himself to be living at some time before the year of the world 4900, and this agrees with the chronology of Josephus, who reckons 5000 years from the creation to the commencement of the Eoman war40, reserving 2000 years for the Messianic period. These ideas agree with those of the later (4th) Book of Esdras41 except in so far as the latter reserves only 400 years for the Messiah42, thus carrying for- ward the author's age to a date inconsistent with any of the known chronological systems. Generally the Messianic ad- vent, or "fulfilment of the times,"43 appears to have been placed about a.m. 5000 or 5500 44, and this seems also to have been the notion of Josephus, who notwithstanding his pretence 38 The real Enoch lived A.m. 622. Gen. v. =B Enoch xcii. 4. Comp. Laurence's Note, p. 208. 40 Against Apion. i. 1. 11 He says (xiv. 10 sq. ; comp. Gfrbrer, ii. 288), "The world is now in its old age. Its duration altogether is arranged in ten periods ; we have now arrived at the tenth, and there remains half of a tenth to come." 42 Esd. vii. 28, p. 234, vol. ii. Fabric. Cod. Ps. V. T., " After which period," it is said, "my son, the Messiah, shall die, and also all men having breath." This seems to allude to the 62 weeks of Daniel, after which an "anointed prince" was to be "cut off." 43 Tobit xiv. St Ecclus. I. 24. Gal. iv. 4. Eph. i. 10. 4 Esd. iv. 37. Matt, xxviii. 20. Mark i. 15. 44 As in the Gospel of Nicodemus, xiv. 5; xxii. 11-20. Hypomnesticon Josephi, Fabr. Cod. Pseud. V. T. ch. cl. p. 339. THE TEMPORAL MESSIAH. 816 of making Vespasian the Messiah45, evidently connects the Romans with Daniel's fourth monarchy1", in spite of his studied silence betraying an anticipation of their defeat hy the mystic "stone."47 Thus either hy a forced construct inn of Daniel, as hy postponing the terminus a quo or commence- ment of reckoning'*, or by mixing his data with fanciful esti- mates of the duration of the world19, a variety of speculations were made respecting the "completion of the appointed time," and the consequence was that during the century preceding the destruction of Jerusalem the advent of a Messiah was momentarily expected J°, causing a fanatical excitement in the puhlic mind which repeatedly exploded in tumults and insur- rections. As a last resource to reconcile prophecy with fact, it was said that the Messiah was already come, hut was hid on account of the people's sins'1. He was unconscious of his own mission, and would remain so until Elias should anoint and manifest him5''. J a. the temporal messiah. The differences of opinion as to the time of Messiah's ad- vent extended to his nature and the circumstances of his arrival. It was impossihle that all the various types should « War, vi. 5. 4. « Ant. x. 11. 7 ; comp. x. 10. 4. " Probably adopted by Daniel from Gen. xlix. 24. Deut. xxxii. 4. Psal. cxviii. 22, &c. A* Or as in our Bibles by blending the 7 and 62 weeks together (Rosenmliller's Daniel, pp. 315, 316) into a total of 443 years which were to precede the first "anointing" of a chief. 49 On the time of the application of Gen. xlix. 10, to the Messiah. Comp. Bohlen. Gen. ad loc., pp. 464. 466 ; and Hitzig to Ezckiel xxi. p. 153. 50 Sueton. Vespas. ch. iv. Tacit. Hist. v. 13. Joseph. B. I. vi. 5. 41 Schottgen, T. ii. p. 4S0. Psal. xcv. 7. John vii. 27. 9 Then. ii. 6. " Justin. Martyr. Dial. Try pirn. b. 9. 226 \ 268". Gfrorer, Urchristhcnthum, ii. 224. John i. 26. 88; rii 27. 316 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. fall into one consistent theory. Gfrorer distinguishes four Messianic types confounded in general tradition and usually more or less combined, yet each occasionally rising into dis- tinct prominence according to the tendencies of the school or writer. It was the general belief of the Jews that Christ was to be " a man, the son of a man." ' He was to be a powerful king or hero who would avenge them of their enemies, and cause them to exchange places with their Roman masters2. It was especially this notion which so often excited them to insurrection and cost them so many millions of lives ; it was this too, a hope ever disappointed yet ever renewed, which without any miracle preserved their existence as a nation after the final destruction of their city and sanctuary, for ideas rule the world, and a notion may be the lever of an age and can alone give union and vitality to a community or race. It will appear strange that the Pharisees who believed a resurrection should have been foremost in cherishing the notion of a tem- poral Messiah, unless it be recollected that they were not a mere religious sect but a political party representing the here- ditary defenders of Jewish nationalism ; and that the con- ception of Messiahship most likely to recommend itself to zealous partizans did not necessarily exclude any prophetic types except those which were for the first time applied to suit the humble fortune and death of Jesus. The Pharisaic view contemplated no immediate change except a political revo- lution in favour of the Jews. The Messiah was to be a son of David; his birthplace to be Bethlehem, David's city3; his office would be to enfranchise his people4, "setting the battle in array against his enemies and reddening the mountains with their blood."5 He would then restore the dispersed Jews to 1 Justin. M* Dial. Tryph. ch. xlix. 2 Origen, Cels. ii. 29. Luke i. 71. 74. 3 The remarkable oracle (Gen. xlix. 10) intimating the lasting supremacy of the tribe of Judab, was now applied to the Messiah, as in the Jerusalem Targum. Comp. Targ. Jonathan to Zech. x. 3, 4 ; and to Isa. xi. 1. Matt. ii. 4. John vii. 42. * Luke i. 71. 74. 5 Targum Jerus. Gen. xlix. 11. THE TEMPORAL MESSIAH. 317 their country*, the "Prince of Peace" would succeed to the "mighty hero," mul would realize all the golden anticipations of the prophets. The kings of the heathen would conic with gifts from the uttermost earth7, and all that Jacoh once gave to Esau would now he made good to his descendants8. These Bplendours would he preceded by a period of calamity, by "Messiah's woes or pangs,"9 those "signs" which so fre- quently occurring in the calamitous annals of the Jews seemed ever to bespeak his approach10, among which are enumerated famine, shameless immorality, a failure of truth and wisdom, sons revolting against their fathers, daughters rising up against their mothers; a man's enemies would he those of his own household ; the eyes of the remnant would become dim with weeping, and before the cessation of one woe another would take its place u. The appearance of Elias or Elijah to prepare and "restore all things" before the great day of Jehovah12 would heal these intestine discords, so that the Lord on his arrival might not be obliged to pronounce against the Jews the ban or curse often uttered against the heathen13. Elijah would precede the Saviour's advent by three days. He would stand on the mountains of Israel according to Isaiah14, and from the mention of "watchmen" in the plural it was supposed he would be accompaniod by other celebrated characters, as Moses, Jeremiah, and Isaiah16. Those who were of opinion that the times were already accomplished and the Messiah born, but for the present concealed10, believed that Elias would instal him in 0 Baruch ii. 34. 2 Mac. ii. 18. 7 According to Psal. lxviii. 32; lxxii. 10. Isa. lx. 6. Tobit xiii. 11. 8 Bereschith Rabba to Gen. xxxiii. 10. 9 " nSmj ." 10 Matt. xxiv. 7. 33. " Gfrtirer, ii. 225. '* According to the Jews his office would include a decision on all the school dis- putes of the Rabbi* 13 Mai. iv. 6. Comp. 1 Kings xx. 42. 1 Sam. xv. 2. " Isa. lii. 7,8. 14 Matt. xvi. 14. 4 Esd. ii. 18 ; vii. 28. 18 There is a story in the Talmud of a Jew who, informed by an Arabian of the birth of a Messiah (Hezekiah's son Menachem) in Bethlehem Judah, went to Bethle- 318 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. his office, before which ceremony he would have no peculiar power and be unrecognised either by himself or others17. His first appearance would be on the Galilsean mountains, doubt- less for the reason given in the Sohar — "Messias revelabitur in portione Josephi primum et in terra Galilsea, quia Galilaei primum abierunt in exilium," tins only paraphrasing an ancient oracle18, predicting restoration of light and hope especially to the depopulated northern tribes. The Messianic succession of events is foreshown with unusual distinctness in the 37th, 38th, and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. First comes the Jewish resur- rection ; 2ndly, the reunion of the tribes ; 3rdly, the war of the combined nation with the heathen host of Gog. In this terrific conflict, supposed to be alluded to in the 2nd Psalm, would be repeated the catastrophe of Sennacherib, the birds would feed for seven years on the bodies of the slain19, and the result would be a universal Jewish empire, conferring even upon the lame and blind among the Israelites their share of booty. The kings of the earth would then be allowed20 to make their peace with the Jewish sovereign by bringing pre- sents, all of which would be graciously accepted except those of Eome alluded to under the name of "Edom," a notion not without influence in filling up the well-known legend of the Magi. The ultimate doom of the heathen is not clearly set- tled; the intolerant seem to have held that only the more friendly among them would be permitted to live as Jewish serfs; yet it was generally allowed that the Jewish religion would become universal ; and the liberalism of Philo in regard to the privileges of conversion is expressed nearly as by St. hem and found the child with his mother; but returning after a few days was informed that a whirlwind had carried the child away. Gfrorer, ib. ii. 223. Eisen- menger i. p. 259. Traces of this opinion occur in the New Testament. John vii. 27. 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. Rev. xii. 5. 17 Justin. M. Dial. Tryph. ch. viii. and xlix. pp. 226 and 268. 18 Isa. ix. 2. 19 Comp. Ezek. xxxix. 11. 17. Rev. xix. 17. u According to Psal. lxviii. and lxxii. Isa. Ix. 6. THE TEMPORAL ME8SIAH. 810 Paul*1. Alter the victory sorrow and infirmity would cease. The blind, deaf, and lame, would be so no longer. God would cleanse [srae] from iniquity as a man cleanses a garment. His spirit would be plentifully poured out on nil, especially on Messiah, and the Temple service would reach the acme of its glory. The Rabbinical descriptions of this consummation grotesquely exaggerate the sublimity of the prophets. Their sensuous notions passed into certain Christian theories, so that Origen complains of those slaves of the letter whose fancy revelled in a carnal resurrection and millennium, including eat- ing, drinking, and marrying, so different from St. Paul's spiri- tualism**. Earth would spontaneously bring forth loaves and woollen garments'"; the ears of corn would be of gigantic size; each cluster of grapes would equal thirty measures of wine, and be a load for a waggon or ship. On the "tops of the mountains,"*4 that is, on Sinai, Tabor, and Carmel piled on each other, would stand the new Jerusalem built as high as its length25, three miles at least in cubical extent, or even reaching longitudinally (according to Zech. ix. 1) to the gates of Damascus. Its materials would be as superlative as its dimensions, consisting of crystal pearls and precious stones. Nor would there be any difficulty in finding population to fill so large a city. No one would be without posterity. A woman would bring forth daily ; and if in opposition to those hopes an incredulous neophyte quoted the words of Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun," the Rabbi undertook forthwith to prove his assertion by present earnest of the fact, saying, " Behold the bough bearing flowers, berries, and fruit toge- tlur;" or, "Behold the hen who lays eggs daily!"20 The ■ Rom. xi. 17. Philo. de Exocrat. Hang. ii. 433. Comp. Tobit xiv. 6, 7. 25 De Principiis, ii. 11, p. 234, Ed. Iiedepenning. Similar hyperbolical descrip- tions of sensual enjoyment are ascribed by Papias in Irenxus to Christ himself. Comp. Matt. xxvi. 29. " After Psal. lxxii. 1(3. 5« Iga. ii. -J. 21 From Zech. xiv. 10. Comp. Rev. xxi. 16. :" That there would be no lame, blind, or deaf, was proved from Exodus. " All the 320 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. figure of a banquet so beautifully applied to the kingdom of God in the New Testament reappears in its coarsest form in the Eabbinical descriptions ; and the monstrous sea and land animals, Leviathan and Behemoth, which had been salted down from the beginning in preparation for the faithful, would be consumed by happy revellers in the banquet hall of Messiah27. §4. DANIELS MESSIAH. The Davidical Messiah and his kingdom were usually under- stood to be only temporary; the period was variously cal- culated, either at 40 or 400 years, according to the retributory rule stated in Psalm xc. 151, or, according to the mystical reckoning of "a day of Jehovah," 1000 years2. But the dominion of the saints under the supernatural leader called "son of man" in Daniel was to be "everlasting,"3 and this notion concurrently prevalent and associated with the other complicated the Messianic theory of the Jews, as it afterwards became a basis of mystical Christology. The doctrine of the Messiah as a divine being does not appear to have been part of the general Jewish belief4; and the idea of a human deliverer who was to transmit, as Maimonides says, his sceptre to his posterity, contrasts strangely with the Being said to have been " bom of the Most High before the morning star," 5 he who people answered ;" " All the people saw the noise ;" " Moses led the people to meet God." Isa. xxxv. 5. Matt. xi. 5. 27 4 Esd. vi. 52. Enoch lviii. 7. Gfrorer, ii. 34. 248. Bava Bathra. p. 75*. Job xli. 6. 1 i. e. the periods of the wandering in the desert, or of Egyptian bondage. Psal. xcv. 10. Gen. xv. 13. 8 Psal. xc. 4. Isa. lxiii. 4. 3 John xii. 34. * Origen against Cels. 1, ch. xlix. 5 LXX version of Psal. lxxii. 5. 7 ; ex. 3. (lxxi. and cix.) Comp. LXX Isa. ix. 6. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 297, 298. These words probably allude to the Logos. DANIEL'S MESSIAH. 321 though living with God before the creation had hitherto been concealed, but would at length be manifested " to hunt the mighty ones from their lairs, to shatter the yoke of the strong, and to break in pieces the teeth of sinners."0 Daniel had spoken of an " anointed " prince or Messiah 7, apparently dis- tinct from the " son of man," who after 62 weeks would be "cut off;" and this prediction seems to have contributed to originate a notion now extant in the Talmud s of a double Mes- siah, the son of David, and another, the son of Joseph or Ephraim, who was to be killed in the war with Antichrist or Gog, and to whom applied the prediction of Zechariah about the " great mourning" and wounded prophet9, interpreted in the fourth gospel of Jesus. The Fourth Book of Esdras10 seems closely to follow Daniel when saying, " After a reign of 400 years shall my son, the Messiah, be cut off," 400 years being a round approximation to the 02 weeks, as also to the term of Egyptian servitude"; and possibly Jesus himself recognised in the same passage a prediction of his own fate'"*. Lactantius describes13 a similar subordinate personage who would be killed by a wicked king and false prophet "out of Syria," and though the idea of a suffering Messiah was cer- tainly not generally prevalent among the Jews of the first cen- tury, or for some time accepted even among Christians, it is still not impossible that the deeply -rooted notion of atonement may have been secretly attached to some forms of the theory by abstruse thinkers. The tendency of these notions would be to transfer the Davidical Messiah to times beyond the general resurrection and end of the world, or to subdivide the ideal future into a period of defeat and a closing scene of Messianic triumph. " When the time of the end draws nigh," says Lac- 8 Enoch, ch. xlvi. and xlviii. ; comp. lxi. 10. 7 Dan. ix. 26. 8 Gfrorer, ib. ii. 258 sq. ■ Zech. xii. 10sq. Ib. Hitzig. ,u 4 Esd. vii. 29. "Gen. xv. 13. Exod. xii. 40, 41. Gal. iii. 17. 12 Matt. xvi. 21 ; xvii. 12. Luke xxiv. 46. 13 Instit. vii. 17. VOL. II. Y 322 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. tantius, " a great prophet able to work miracles will be sent to convert men to the knowledge of God. Wherever they refuse to listen to him, he will shut up the heavens and withhold rain, convert water into blood, cause thirst and famine, and if any try to hurt him, fire will go forth from his mouth and consume them14. At length another king born of an evil spirit shall arise out of Syria, a destroyer of the human race, who shall fight against God's prophet, overcome and slay him, and leave him to lie unburied ; but on the third day the victim shall re- vive, and to the astonishment of all beholders be carried up to heaven."15 Through this translation an expedient was sug- gested by which the persecuted Messiah might become mysti- cally identified either with Elias, or the supernatural Messianic Being supposed to be concealed or kept in charge with God 16 until the world's end, aud then to be revealed in the manner of Daniel's vision. Precedent of course to this final scene would be the earthly war of Gog, the antitype of the reign of Anti- christ, the latter being limited by Lactantius17 to the "time, times and half a time" mentioned by Daniel18. The calamities of this period are described in 4th Esdras19 nearly in the same terms as by the coternporary writer of Matthew 20. On earth there would be commotion among nations, princes would rush to mutual slaughter, and leaders be in consternation. The father would not withhold his hand from his own child ; the horse would wade in blood to the breast ; people would rise against people and nation against nation, and in these frightful disturbances Jerusalem would be almost destroyed21. " When 14 Rev. xi. 5, 6. Lactantius possibly had Elias in view, but appears to have fol- lowed Jewish authority in his description of a single prophet. 15 Comp. Rev. xi. 12; xii. 5. 16 Bereschit. Rabba to Gen. ii. 9, in Gfrbrer, ii. 298. 4 Esd. xiv. 7. Enoch xlviii. and lxi. Gospel of Nicodemus in Thilo. p. 756, ch. xxv. 17 Lact. 1. c. 18 Comp. Rev. xi. 2, 3; xii. 12. 14; xx. 8. Forty-two months, 1260 days, or three years and a half. 19 4 Esd. ix. 1. 20 Matt. xxiv. 21 Enoch xcviii. 1. Comp. Rev. xi. 1, 2 ; xiv. 20. Dan. ix. 26, combined with Zech. xiv. 2. Daniel's messiaii. H23 these signs como to pass, then know," Bftyi Esdras", " that tin: time has arrived when the Highest will visit the world he made." " The present world is made for many, the future only for few23; just as potter's clay is plentiful, but auriferous soil scarce." " Great is God's mercy ! but for this not one-ten- thousandth part of mankind would rise again ; no revival of the wrorld or of its inhabitants would take place."24 Worn out by intense suffering inflicted by the "wicked king," the just would cry to God for help ; God would hear them and send a great king from heaven who would destroy the wicked with sword and flame". The "Son of God" appears standing on Mount Sion ; he is made to rise out of the sea yet to be borne upon the clouds, a confusion probably arising from mingling two dis- tinct images in general opinion 2G. "There arose a wind from the sea," says Esdras27, "which agitated all its waters. And I saw the wind rising in the form of a man who afterwards flew among the clouds. Wherever he turned his countenance all things trembled beneath his gaze ; when he spoke all things fainted as wax melts before the fire. And after this I beheld, and lo ! there was gathered together an innumerable multitude of men from the four winds to fight against the man who rose from the sea. And afterwards the man had cut out for himself a great mountain28 and flew up upon it; and I wished to know the place where the mount was raised, but could not. All those who were gathered together to fight with the man were sore afraid, yet ventured the attack ; and when they rose against him he lifted up no sword nor spear, nor even his hand ; but a blast of fire issued from his mouth and consumed them, 25 4 Esd. ix. 1. * 4 Esd.viii. 1. 24 4 Esd. viii. 1. » Lactant. 1. c. " Dan. vii. 2, 3. 13. "4 Esd. xiii. 2 sq. n Comp. Dan. ii. 34. 45. The imagery of the stone has been before alluded to. To this were applied the words of Zechariah (iv. 7) in combination with those of Isaiah (lii. 13) and Ezekiel (i. 18). Comp. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. pp. 261. 297. Y 2 324 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. so that there was left of all this multitude only cinders and smoke." 29 §5. THE MOSAIC TYPE. The prediction of Malachi making Elijah the Forerunner was probably founded partly on the accredited moral efficacy of the prophetic office, partly on prior oracles1, particularly the memorable announcement in Deuteronomy2 of a series of suc- cessors to Moses. Elijah was a conspicuous example of a pro- phet of the older and grander type, including not only a politi- cal and moral censorship, but the hero or theocratic mediator who "anointed or withstood kings,"3 and who having, like Moses, passed dry shod through the sea and conversed with God in Horeb4, might, if not equalling the pre-eminence of the great legislator5, be reasonably thought to have approached near to him. Jesus himself seems to have conceived that the career of John the Baptist had fulfilled the words of Malachi6; not indeed in the gross sense of personal identity repudiated by the Baptist himself7, but spiritually, as intended by the predic- tion. Sometimes the office of forerunner is shared by other prophets with Elias8; for instance, the two witnesses of Reve- lations9 having power to "close the heavens," answering per- 29 Comp. Dan. viii. 25. Isa. xi. 4. Rev. xix. 13. 15. 21. That is, they were not destroyed by common physical means, but by the Word or Law. Comp. v. 28. 38. Rom. iv. 15 ; vii. 5. 7, 8 ; and below, p. 333. 1 As Isa. xl. 3, 4; xlii. 16. Matt. iii. 3; xvii. 10. Luke i. 17; Hi. 4. John 23. 2 Deut. xviii. 15. 18. 3 Ecclus. xlviii. 6. 8. Wisd. x. 16. 1 Mac. ii. 58. 4 Ecclus. ib. 5 Deut. xxxiv. 10. 8 Matt. xi. 14. 7 John i. 21. 8 4 Esd. vii. 28. 9 Rev. xi. 3. THE MOSAIC TYrE. 325 haps to the "Enoch and Elias" of the Gospel of Nicodemus10, who, like Elias himself in other authorities", were to fight in the latter days against Antichrist ; or again, Isaiah and Jere- miah'2, or still more frequently, Elias and Moses13. The names and persons multiplied out of one idea were easily con- founded; the two heralds fell back into their original unity14, and the collective idea of the prophet merged in the Messiah 1 1 was natural that the prediction of Moses respecting the per- sonage who was to resemble himself should have a lasting influence over theory and be even construed as Messianic10. If so, it followed that the acts of Moses would be reproduced, or at least find a parallel, in those of Christ. It had long before been surmised that the Messianic deliverance would resemble the Mosaic even to the most minute details. In this parallel the prophets contemplated a repetition under Messiah of all the wonders of antiquity, of the plagues of Egypt, of the passage of the sea, and of the journey through the wilderness17. The Rabbins carried the resemblance farther. The latter deli- verance, like the former, would occur in the month Nisan ; Messiah like Moses18 would return into Egypt, bearing the same miraculous rod, and riding the same ass, whose existence had been preternaturally prolonged from the days of Abraham. Under the force of these impressions there was little or no difficulty in applying to the Messiah passages not strictly applying to him, and plainly relating to the whole Israelitish people19. Moses was the great legendary type of a hero; it 10 Nic. xxv. p. 756. " Gfrorcr, vol. ii. 228. 12 4 Esd. ii. 18. 2 Mac. xv. 14. 13 Matt. xvii. 3. Luke ix. 30. Debarim Rabba in Gfrorcr, ii. 230. Midrasch Tunchuma, ib. God said to Moses, " In this world have I made thee prince over Israel, and in the other world, where the just receive their reward, thou shalt appear the first of them." 14 1 Mac. xiv. 41. John vii. 40. ]i Acts iii. 21, 22. 18 John i. 45 ; vi. 14. Acts vii. 37. Recognitions Clementis in Coteler, i. 86. 48 ; and v. 10. Clem. Alex. Pacd. i. 7, p. 134, Pott 17 Comp. iMic. vii. 15. Isa. xxxii. 1G. '" In Bxod. iv. 20. '" Matt. ii. 15. Hos. xi. 1. Numb. xxiv. 8. "Nemo negat," says Schotigen, "hsc verba proprie de populo Israelitico intelligi debere." 326 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. was therefore "necessary,"20 according to Jewish ideas of the necessary reproduction of the past in the future21, and of the typical character of the events in their early history22, that the acts of Moses should he reiterated in the Messiah. Hence the accounts of the infancy of Moses as filled up by Rabbinical tradition2'1 become curiously illustrative of the mythical circum- stances of the early years of Jesus. Jesus could not indeed be born in Egypt, but he was made like his prototype to go thither against all historical probability, in order to fulfil the indispen- sable condition of being recalled24. The otherwise unaccount- able and unnecessary severity imputed to Herod of putting to death all the children of Bethlehem under two years old is partly explained by discovering that according to Jewish autho- rities the ancient persecution of Pharaoh lasted two years. The narrative of the recall out of Egypt, mutatis mutandis, is like a verbal transcript from the Pentateuch25. Christ, like Moses, exercised dominion over the elements26, and passed miraculously through the sea27, a precedent which, repeated in the stories of Joshua and Elijah, became with many others a standing acces- sory or " sign"28 which subsequent pretenders to the Messianic character considered themselves bound to repeat29. The tri- umphant hymn of Moses was reproduced in the " New Song" of the heirs of salvation 30. Moses gave bread from heaven and water from the rock ; Christ was himself the living water, the 20 Comp. Luke xxii. 37; xxiv. 44. 46. 21 Eccles. i. 9. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 321. 22 1 Cor. x. 6. "tavra, TV7toi ripav tyttivyHntrxv." Zwingli to Matt. ii. 18, says, " Evangelista detorquet haec verba ad Christum, omnia enim quae in Vet. Test, etiam vere sunt gesta, in figura tamen contigerunt et figurae fuerunt, in Christo omnia consummantur et vere implentur." 23 Gfrorer, ib. ii. 356. 24 According to Hos. xi. 1. 25 Exod. iv. 19, compared with Matt. ii. 20. 26 Euseb. Praep. Ev. 3. 27 John vi. 19. 21. 28 Comp. Isa. xliii. 2. 16; li. 10. 29 Joseph. Ant. xx. 5. 1 ; comp. xx. 8. 6, with Zech. xiv. 4. :n Comp. Rev. v. 9 ; xiv. 3 ; xv. 3. I SB MOBAIC TYPK. 827 true bread from heaven3'. It is related32 that a great mul- titude, attracted by the miracles of Jesus, followed him into the wilderness and were there fed by him on five barley loaves and two small fishes ; yet on the very next day in utter apparent unconsciousness of the miracle they required of him a conclu- sive sign as evidence of his mission, and the sign which they demanded was the miracle supposed to have been already enacted, a repetition of the Mosaic gift of the heavenly Manna. Under an impression that the true Christ would enact precisely the part of Moses, it was natural that the Apostles should derive confirmations of their faith not only from the words of their master, but from the curious similarity of his acts to those of the legislator33. Christ, like other great prophets, promulgated his revelations from a mountain '* ; he retired to the desert, and was concealed there as Moses on Sinai during forty days, with no nourishment but the word of God3°. He went with three confidential friends36 to a solitary mountain, and there under the influence of a bright cloud concealing or revealing the divine presence was " transfigured," according to the Rabbinical conception of the glorified appearance of the just37, and the idea that a faithful study of the law literally "makes the face to shine."38 Those needing no supernatural stimulant for their faith will easily conceive that in this, as in other instances, the resemblance was a consequence rather than a cause of the disciples' reliance on the infallibility of 31 John iv. 14 ; vi. 4S. Joel iii. 23. 1 Cor. x. 4. Rev. xxii. 1. 32 John vi. 31. " Firmitatem fidci nostnc non solum ex verbis ejus sed ex operibus adsumimus, quia et dicta legis quae ante multas generationes de praesentia ejus exposuerant in ipso consignabantur, et imagines gestorura Mosis et ante ipsum patriarchae Jacob ipsius per omnia typum ferebant. (Recognitiones, v. 10. 1. 549, Cot.) " Matt. v. 1. 2 Kings i. 9. 3i Exod. iii. 1.12; xxxiv. 28. Deut. viii. 3 ; ix. 9. 18. Gfriirer, ii. 385. 38 Exod. xxiv. 1. 9, 10, 4c 37 Targum Jonathan in Gfrorer, ii. 290. 38 Eccles. viii. 1. Dan. xii. 3. Matt. xiii. 43. Acts vi. 15. For as "in the future time the face of the just was to be as the sun and moon," (Jalkut Simeoni, in Wettstein to Matt. xvii. 2. Acts vi. 15) a fortiori that of their chief, the Mwsiah. 328 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. Scripture, a retrospective reflection of their own prepossessions ; and since our assurance of truth is in every case hut an infer- ence of the mind drawn with more or less certainty from its own impressions, it must be admitted that the inference is often made where the data are wholly imaginary, the mere impression being mistaken for fact. Many obscure legends hence obtain their most probable explanation, and perhaps some light may be thrown from the same source on the obscure genealogy of 42 ancestors from Abraham to Joseph in Mat- thew. It is plain that besides the fact of the existence of the number 14 iu the first of the three periods into which the genealogy is divided, the maker of it must have had in view some mystical " necessity," for such alone could have induced him to count the last 14 incorrectly, to suppress several his- torical members in the second division, or have reconciled him to the great improbability that three periods of very unequal duration should each have furnished exactly fourteen genera- tions. Origen alone39 gives a possible solution of the mystery. He says that by diligent incruiry a reason may be found in the fact that the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Palestine, one of which places was considered by the Essenes and Thera- peutae to represent the flesh or the evil principle, the other the heavenly country of the soul, consisted of 42 stages or en- campments; and as the conclusion of this sabbatical period40 coincided with the entry into the " Lord's rest," so the coming of the Saviour is determined by a sabbatical week at the close of 6 x 7 generations. Again, since Jewish tradition claimed for great men generally, for Moses, as well as for Enoch and Elijah, the privilege of bodily translation41, two of the Evan- gelists ascribe to Jesus a visibly supernatural ascent. But the character in which Jesus really and most evidently resembled 89 Horn, in Numb. iii. Opp. ii. p. 375 b. 40 Comp. the 42 Books of Hermes. Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. 633. Creuz. ii. 7. Isis and Osiris, ch. 42. 41 Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 23 ; vi. 15. Joseph. Ant. iv. 8. Philo de Vit. Mosis, 3 Mang. ii. 179. THE FIERY TONGUES OF TENTECOST. 329 Moses was that of an original legislator and founder of a religion. The Rabbins had long before inferred from Jere- miah42 that Messiah would introduce a new covenant which would supersede the old. They admitted, notwithstanding their superstitious measurements of words and syllables, that their actual law was idle and vain in comparison with that to be introduced by Messiah, when ceremonial would be abo- lished, the unclean become clean, and regenerated if not fresh institutions accompany a new spirit in observing them. There was a saying that before the people sinned in the affair of the calf, all of them were holy and equal in dignity to priests. Six hundred thousand angels of the presence instantaneously crowned the Israelitish congregation with heavenly garlands when they unanimously cried — " All that the Lord hath said will we observe and do."43 But when they sinfully worshipped the calf, twelve hundred thousand devils tore off the crowns, according to the text — " The Israelites put off their ornaments by the mount Horeb."44 The Messiah would restore the former state of priestly dignity and innocence ; the crowns wTould be replaced according to the prediction of Isaiah45 as Eabbinically construed, and all would be taught of God. §6. THE FIERY TONGUES OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST. The second chapter of Acts contains a curious illustration of the manner in which a strong and shaqily-defincd preconcep- tion may be converted into an imaginary fact. It was and still 42 Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. Comp. the paraphrase of Isa. xii. 3, in Jonathan Ben Uzziel, " Ye shall receive with joy a new doctrine from the Elected of the Just." Gfrorer, ii. 342 sq. and 291. 43 Exod. xxiv. 7. *' Exod. xxxiii. 6. *•' Isa. xxxv. 10. 330 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. continues to be believed by the Jews that the promulgation of the law on Sinai took place on the day of Pentecost, the same day assigned by the Christian church to the miraculous fulfil- ment of the promise1 of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was also believed that at the final judgment of all nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat prophesied by Joel2, the law of adju- dication to be adopted would be that of the Pentateuch3, and it therefore became necessary to show that foreign nations had had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with this law, since, as Paul justly says4, without knowledge of the law there could be no sin or responsibility. Hence it was presumed that when God gave the law, the manifestation was general ; " the law was offered to all nations, but Israel alone accepted it."5 In order to explain this, it was said by Eabbi Eliezer that the voice on Sinai was so loud as to be heard to the world's end, and that terror seized all its inhabitants. Now there were in all 70 nations0, each with a separate language. "How," it might be asked, "could all of them understand the law de- livered in one language only?" The answer was as follows. The voice became divided into 70 sounds or languages corre- sponding with the 70 nations, so that each nation heard the announcement in its own tongue. The whole of the ten com- mandments, according to Jewish belief, were simultaneously pronounced. Why then, it was asked, is it said7, "All the people heard the voices," in the plural ? It is because the first uttered voice became seven voices, and each of the seven was subdivided into ten tongues corresponding with the number of nations. The Scripture declares8, "The Lord gave the word 1 By Joel, Isaiah, &c. 2 Joel iii. 12. 3 Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 288. 391. * Rom. ii. 12 ; vii. 8. 1 Cor. xv. 56. Comp. John ix. 41. 5 The book Siphri to Dout. xxxiii. 2. Gfrorer, ib. p. 392. Comp. Rom. x. 18. 6 Deut. xxxii. 8. Wettstein to Acts ii. 3. The angel Gabriel taught the patri- arch Joseph the 70 tongues. 7 Exod. xx. 18. Midrasch Tanchumah. 26 e. 8 Psal. lxviii. 11, according to Midrasch Tillin. THE FIERY TONGUES OF PENTECOST. 831 — great was the company of those that published it."" " When the word went out from Sinai, it was parted into seven voices, and from seven voices into seventy tongues. Just as from a glowing piece of metal when struck on the anvil with a hammer many sparks issue from one blow, so from the one voice of God proceeded a great multitude of voices." Again10, E. Jochanan says, What mean the words of the 68th Psalm (as above) ? Answer — Each word proceeding from the mouth of the Highest is divided into 70 tongues. R. Ismael quotes the words of Jeremiah, " Is not my word as a hammer that breaketh in pieces the rocks?"11 Therefore, as the hammer beats the metallic mass into many parts, so the word proceed- ing from the Lord's mouth was divided into 70 tongues. Great weight was attached by the Jews to the expression "Saw the voices;"12 it was inferred that the voices were not only audible, but literally visible ; the tongues into which they were divided must have presented an appearance to the eye as well as a sound to the ear, an appearance whose character was of course to be determined by the train of associated ideas. Great too was the mysterious import of the privilege accorded to the ancient Israelites of standing around Mount Sinai enveloped in the supernatural cloud in which God was. It amounted to a baptism of the Holy Ghost, a baptism of that fiery cloud ,:< which not only led them in the way through the desert, but instructed them in the path of right and cleansed them from aboriginal sin1*. By the one revelation on Sinai the gift of the Spirit was extended through all time as well as space, and the power of prophecy was conferred through the whole extent of the old covenant. A forced explanation of 9 Dixit R. Jochanan exibat vox et dividebatur in voces LXX, in linguas LXX, et omnes gentes audierunt vocem lingua gentis, &c. Schemoth Rabba in Wettstein to Acts, p. 463. 10 Schabbath Bab. p. 88 b. " Jer. xxiii. 29. a See Philo, Maugey. ii. 188. 13 Comp. Exod. xl. 34. Numb. ix. 15. 2 Chron. vii. 1. Tsal. lxvi. 12 ; cv. 39. Isa. xliii. 2. Neh. ix. 19, 20. 1 Cor. x. 2. 14 See Gfrorer, ib. i. 230. 332 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. certain Scripture texts was employed to prove that the gift of prophecy had heen then granted to the pre-existent spirits of those who at a later day were to effectuate the mission, hut who were not present or living as men at the date of its com- munication15. That communication, hoth in earlier and later times 1G, as well as the most usual manifestations of God in the Old Testament, had heen under the symbolic form of wind or fire. The " Spirit of the Lord " was the air or moving wind which brooded over the formless void, which agitated the tops of the mulberry trees, and which with a "mighty rushing noise" gave life to the dry bones of Ezekiel17. The Lord was also a " consuming fire ;" he appeared so in the burning bush, in the Schekinah, in Elijah's sacrifice, and in the visionary fur- nace of Abraham. " The light of Israel," it was said, " shall be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame;"18 "The Lord, whose fire is in Zion," &c.19 The appearance accompanying the giving of the law was as "devouring fire"20 in the eyes of the Israelites21 ; and being coupled with the audible sound of the divine voice, the two ideas, the ear symbol and the eye symbol, easily became united. Philo of Alexandria explains how " a sound forming and fashioning itself in the air, changed into blazing fire, and like a trumpet's voice reached to the ex- tremities of the earth."22 He goes on to say that "From the midst of the stream of heaven-sent fire sounded forth a most penetrating voice, the fire becoming articulated in the dialect usual with the hearers." M This elaborate description seems to show that Philo was already busy with the legend of the fiery tongues, or at least with the mysticism on which it was grounded. The elements of a verbal mythus are clearly evi- 15 Comp. Isa. xlviii. 16. Deut. xxix. 14, 15. Gfrorer, Urchrist. i. 231. Wett- stein to Acts ii. 4. 10 Comp. Isa. vi. 6, 7. " Ezek. iii. 12, and xxxvii. 7. 9. 18 Isa. xxxi. 9. 19 Comp. Psal. xcvii. 3. Ezek. i. 27 ; viii. 2. Amos v. 6. 80 Exod. xix. 18; xxiv. 17. S1 Deut. xxxiii. 2. 22 De Decalogo, Mangey, ii. 185. 23 Ibid. 188. THE FIERY TONGUES OF TENTECOST. 333 d.nt in Deuteronomy '", where the law is symbolically styled " u fiery law." In proportion as oral instruction came more into vogue, the Lord's "voice" or "word" would tend to re- place the physical symbol", yet both continued to be united in common language. Hence the expressions, " The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire;"20 "A flame goeth out of his mouth ;"27 " The word of the Lord is a burning fire;"28 " The word of Elias the prophet burned like a lamp."2 It naturally followed that when according to Joel's pro- phecy110 the Spirit was to be poured out on all flesh, the form of its appearance "in the latter days" as in the days of old should be that of fire. Fire and water were the established symbols of purification and initiation31, as well in Pagan mys- teries as in the probationary trial of the Messianic future of the Hebrews"2, and it followed that initiation into the Christian mysteries, or the baptismal ordeal of the Spirit, should like the corresponding forms of the Mosaic dispensation be accom- panied by both33. For as the ancient Hebrews received bap- tismal influence from the fiery cloud which spoke to them on Sinai, accompanied them through the wilderness, and finally settled in their country34 as the " Schekinah," so out of a bright cloud35 proceeded the divine voice inaugurating and " Dent, xxxiii. 2. 24 1 Sam. iii. 21. 1 Kings xix. 12. " Psal. xxix. 7. v Job xli. 21. •B Jer. v. 14 ; xx. 9 ; xxiii. 29. -9 Ecclus. xlviii. 1. Psal. cxix. 105. According to the Rabbins a superior knowledge of the law was signified by the manifestation of a supernatural fire around the students like that which appeared at the promulgation at Sinai. De Wette to Acts ii. p. 18. The face of the great Rabbi Eliezer shone so brightly that day and night were undistinguishable in his presence. Wettstein to Matt. xvii. 2. 30 Joel ii. 28. Comp. Isa. xliv. 3. 31 See Wettstein to Matt. iii. 11. Luke iii. 16. 2 Kings xvi. 3. Isa. iv. 4; vi. 6. Dan. iii. 27. " Zech. xiii. 9. Mai. iii. 2, 3. Dan. xii. 10. 2 Mac. i. 33. GeseniuB* Isaiah, 262. 775. Porphyr. Abst. iv. 10. 33 Comp. Psal. lxvi. 10. 12; and 1 Cor. x. 1. 31 Psal. Ixxxv. 9. " Matt. xvii. 5. 334 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. confirming the mission of Christ. It was equally necessary, from the ahove-mentionecl data, that the spiritual or baptismal fire should assume the similitude of " tongues." " There ap- peared to them," says the account in the Acts, " tongues as it were of fire distributed among them ;" parting and distribution being the terms habitually used to express the pantheistic diffusion, the diversified gifts of the one Spirit36. God so "parted" and "distributed" the divine spirit of Moses among the seventy elders37, and hence the phrase "apportionments of the Holy Spirit" in the Epistle to the Hebrews38, where the benefits of the new covenant are antithetically compared with the "angel" gifts of the old39. Henceforth the power of speaking an unknown tongue was accounted one of the signs indicating possession of the divine Spirit40; but St. Paul justly holds the " gift of tongues," as exemplified in the pretensions of cotemporary enthusiasts, to be of very questionable value41 ; he describes the exhibition as childish, mystical, and rather resembling the ravings of insanity than an exercise calculated to impress the scoffer or edify the devout. The legend in Acts naturally adopts the opposite view of the matter; admitting, how- ever, incidentally the justice of the observation of St. Paul42 as to the practical tendency of such demonstrations to excite the de- rision of the profane. Those who partook the gift of inspiration were naturally more credulous43; and the apostles are represented as actually speaking under the influence of the fiery tongues so as to be understood by a miscellaneous concourse of "devout" Jews, assembled, as the writer says, from " every nation under heaven."44 The number of languages presumed to be different is with apparent difficulty made up to 16, many of those enumerated being in reality either identical repetitions or only 36 1 Cor. xii. 4. 37 Numb. xi. 25. 38 Heb. ii. 4. 39 Comp. Acts vii. 53. 40 Mark xvi. 17. Luke xxiv. 47. Acts i. 8 ; x. 46. 41 1 Cor. xiv. 9-23. » Acts ii. 13. 43 Acts x. 44. 46; xix. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28. 30. 41 Acts v. 5. THE FIERY TONGUES OF PENTECOST. B8fl slightly differing from each other48. On the whole it is im- possible not to see that the account of the miracle of Pentecost is a legend founded like other legends on a deep notional impression derived from technical data. The first law was a fiery meteor, consequently the second covenant must be so likewise ; the first was divided into tongues in order to become intelligible; tongues were therefore the symbol and the evi- dence of the new gifts of the Spirit. The divine manifestations had taken the symbolism of fire and wind, and hence the effusion of the Spirit was accompanied by the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and the appearance of tongues of fire. With these traditional notions as to the forms of spiritual manifesta- tions were mingled cotemporary impressions as to the in- spiration of enthusiasts who were seen to give vent to the vivacity of their feelings in inarticulate tones and wild gesticu- lations. The implied opinion of St. Paul as to the real cha- racter of these demonstrations is unanswerable. He evidently considered the gift of tongues as contrasted not with speaking vernacularly but with speaking intelligibly40. Though in ac- cordance with usage allowing it to be called a " gift," he clearly perceives it to be inferior in practical value to prophecy, and to be akin to some of the most exceptionable aberrations of the seers of old. In spite of habitual prepossession he was disposed to consider "the tongues" as an unmeaning jargon which however in an imperfect knowledge of the languages of the world and of the possible combinations of significant sounds, it would be difficult to deny to have in some unknown land a real meaning47. Paul himself professed to speak with tongues; but with him it was a private spiritual exercise48, not the indecorous public exhibition which was the scandal of the *• Thus " dwellers in Judea" are mentioned as well as "Jews," also "Prose- lytes," and " Galilaeans." The Aramaic was common to the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea, the Greek was the usual language of the cities of Lesser Asia, of Egypt, Cyrene, and Crete. 48 1 Cor. xiv. 14. 47 1 Cor. xiv. 7. 10. " 1 Cur. xiv. IS. 336 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. Corinthian church. Yet even Paul, notwithstanding his more abundant possession of the gift, was unable to speak Lycao- nian49, and the greatest of the apostles appears to have em- ployed an interpreter50, as not wishing to astound so much as to edify and to be understood. In the case of " the tongues," no interpretation except by the voluntary liberality of the utterer was possible51, and this for the plain reason52 that in themselves they were wholly unintelligible, or, what amounts to the same thing, a language of the feelings intelligible only to God. §7. THE MYSTIC OR PREADAMITE MESSIAH. One element of the Messianic idea as conceived by the pro- phets was the restoration of Paradisiacal innocence and hap- piness, or of the golden age. This phase of theory, which became one of the most fertile sources of Jewish mysticism, exercised an important influence over Christian theology, espe- cially that of St. Paul. The great revolution, supposed to have been predicted from the beginning1, was called the regeneration or restoration of all things2. It was said in reference to the six letters of the word Toldot (so spelled only in Ruth iv. 18), that in the days of Messiah, "son of Pherez," the six lost Paradisiacal privileges would be restored ; the glory or halo of the countenance, the primaeval length of life, the original stature, the abundant fruits of the earth, the fruits of trees every day renewed, and the brilliancy of the lights of heaven. At the fall the heavenly bodies were obscured in sympathy with the moral disaster ; when Adam fell, earth fell also, becoming 49 Acts xiv. 11. 14. 50 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. iii. 39. 81 1 Cor. xiv. 5. 15. 27. M lb. verses 2. 9. 1 Acts iii. 21. Comp. Gen. iii. 15, and the concluding chapters of Isaiah. 2 " VlaXiyytvifia," or " uvcxxrcttrrctris vuvruv." Matt. xix. 28. THE MYSTIC OR PREADAMITE MESSIAH. 88*3 accursed mi his account, and its produce stinted or withdrawn*. But the eclipse would cease, the obstruction would he removed, and in a renewal of heaven and earth consequent on a rege- neration of its inhabitants, would be gratified the protracted and intense longing of irrational nature for the "manifestation of the sons of God."'' There would be a complete moral and physical revolution. God would " do a new thing," r> be would purify the world by fire, flood, pestilence, and war". Hence the importance which the Essenes, wbo sent no offerings to the temple7, attached to their baptismal purifications; hence too the baptismal ceremonies of the Christians, which in the aim of effecting the spiritual regeneration of man were imagined to bave been instituted by the Holy Spirit at the creation8. Sin being abolished, the reign of death and of Satan would be at an end. Tbe latter would either be cast into bell or killed'1, the wicked serpent "from tbe sea" would be destroyed, and tbe holy serpent reign in his place10. Messiah would tben reopen the nrrtte of Paradise, stop tbe brandishing of the threatening sword of flame, and give to the holy to eat of the tree of life". God had promised the Israelites that be would " walk in the midst of them."12 This would occur in tbe new Eden. " For to what," said tbe Jews13, "can we compare this represen- 3 Gfrbrer, Urchrist. vol. ii. 130. 413 sq. 4 Rom. viii. 19. 22. Irenae. Haer. v. 33. In the book called Jalkut Simeoni it is related how Satan, or Sammael, was seized with consternation on descrying the glory of Messias gleaming from underneath the throne of God. 5 Isa. xliii. 19. Rev. xxi. 5. 6 Hermes in Lactant. Instit. vii. 18. 7 Joseph. Ant. xviii. 1. 5. War, ii. 8. 5 and 9. 8 Clem. Alex. Eclog. xvii. p. 991, Pott. " A/' uixrot xai Tutuftartif ii avayinintn;, xa.(a.xi£ xai h Ta.ua. yintiri;," quoting Gen. i. 2. Theodoret, 8th Quest, on Gen. Opp. ed. Sirmond. i. p. 13. Recognitiones, vi. 7. Comp. 1 Pet. iii. 21. Clemen- tina, xi. 24. " Water makes all things — water arises from the moving of the Spirit, the Spirit from God." 9 Gfrbrer, ib. p. 436. Rev. xx. 10. 10 Gfrbrer, ii. 430. " Testament of the twelve Patriarchs in Fabricius' Cod. V. T. i. p. 586. 12 Lev. xxvi. 12. IJ Gfrbrer, ib. ii. 413. VOL. II. / 338 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. tation ? To what but to a king who goes to walk in his garden with the gardener. The gardener would fain hide himself from the face of the king. But the king says, why hidest thou thy- self? Behold I am one like unto thee! Even so will the blessed God walk with the just in the garden of Eden. They indeed on seeing Him will be afraid ; but he will say to them, Why fear ye? Behold I am as one of yourselves." Adam was at first innocent; he was first and greatest of the prophets14, God disclosed to him the whole series of future persons and events15; all things were put in subjection to him16; all creation bowed down before the majestic form made in God's image, wishing him to be its king; but Adam, as afterwards his exalted counterpart, declined the proffered dignity, and gave the glory to God. The restoration of Paradise would accompany the returning innocence and majesty of its pos- sessor ; the second Adam would be a dignified repetition of the first, or rather in the opinion of the mystics, he was one and the same supernatural Being, the "Son of God,"17 "the Lord from heaven," 18 who under various forms had from time to time descended to earth, visited the Patriarchs, and at last put on the shape of Jesus19. Adam was created Hermaphrodite, an enormous giant ; he was made of dust collected from the whole world, and his stature, according to an interpretation of Deut. iv. 32, reached from one end of heaven to the other20. He had 14 The universal gift of prophecy and of tongues which the Spirit was to confer in the "latter days" was in fact only a return to the primitive state of divine "union" and intuition through which of old men and beasts understood each other's lan- guage (Gen. xi. 1. Philo de Confus. Linguar. p. 316, Pfeif. Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. p. 50 sq. Creuz. Symb. i. p. 319 n.), a privilege which, except in the singular instance of Solomon (Eisenmenger, Ent. Jud. ii. 441), had been lost. "In hoc seculo singuli tantiim prophetaa vaticinantur ; at tempore futuro Israelite omnes fient prophetae." Bamidbar Rabba, 15. It was, however, said that certain great men, such as the Patriarch Joseph, Mardochoeus, and R. Chanina, knew all the 70 languages of the earth. 15 Gfrorer, ii. 128. 134. " Heb. ii. 8. Psal. viii. 6. 17 Luke iii. 38. ,8 1 Cor. xv. 47. 19 Epiphan. Haer. 30. Clementine, Horn. iii. 20. 20 Gfrorer, ib. p. 126. THE MYSTIC OB PRE ADA MITE MESSIAH. 389 tun faces, ninl was afterwards saws asunder, bo that each half had its own vertebrated spine. This curious idea was taken from Gen. i. s?7, where it is said, "God made them male and female;" and I lie two laces were justified from I'salm exxxix. 5, hv the words, "Before and behind hast thou formed me." The apparent inconsistency of supposing Eve to have been created afterwards, and to have been made out of Adam's side, was easily to he explained on the hermaphroditic hypothesis, but on no other. Adam was the macrocosmic giant whose form reaehed to heaven ; hut when he sinned God laid his hand upon him and made him diminutive; as it is written81, " Thou hast formed me before and behind, and hast laid thy Iki/kI upon me." Previous to the Fall, Adam's nspect had been as the sun; hut this irradiation of the countenance had ac- cording to Job xiv. 20 22 been changed, and would not reappear until the revelation of the second or spiritual Adam23, or (to use the more correct phrase) until the return of the antetypal luminous son of God clothed in his pristine garb of light24, and restored to the long or rather eternal life forfeited at the " Psal. exxxix. 5. 22 " Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away from thee." 23 1 Cor. xv. 45 sq. The Jews distinguished three sorts of soul ; the " Nephcsch " or animal (from Gen. ix. 4. Lev. xvii. 11), the "Ruiih" 01 Spirit, and the " Nes- chamah," rational or divine spirit, the alllation mentioned Gen. ii. 7. (Gfriirer, ib. p. 55.) The three were dependent according to rank, superadded, it was said, to one another as a candle to its stand. The latter alone made men immortal and "sons of God;" the Nephcsch, sometimes even the Ruiih, belonged to the grave, continuing according to- the ancient idea immured in Scheol. Philo, beside the threefold Platonistic subdivision into »ovs or Xoyos, 6upo;, and ivitvftix, makes another evidently derived from the similar opposition of a material soul to an emanated spirit taught in Jewish Scripture ; the divine soul (Tvit/ftx or vovs, Xoyixri •4>v%v, leysf, to iiytfttHixtv or Xoyixev) ; and, 2ndly, the animal soul or life residing in the blood, ^v^v generally, or ■^u^n aa.ox.iKn or aia-Htirixri. St. Paul uses nearly the same phraseology, opposing the " r Johamiis ChristSB, John himself was thought to l„. tlo- Mewiah, Norherg de Relig. Babaorum, (Jotting. Trans. roL Hi. 4 Luke IV. 18. " Luk.- ii. 21 342 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. complicated or even contradictory materials, each of which has to be traced to its source and considered in its literal or merely illustrative application before we can judge of its value in evi- dence of the peculiar Messianic plan of Jesus. The Jews were sorry reasoners, and their notions based upon fanciful typology had no logical sequence. The worlds present and to come, the judgment of the heathen and the judgment of the departed spirit, the political restoration of the kingdom of the living and the resurrection of the dead, were confusedly mingled in various hypotheses. Traces even in Jewish record may be found of an apparent consciousness of these inconsistencies and of an at- tempt to escape from or account for them. Two Kabbis are supposed to moot the question how in Daniel Messiah could appear in the clouds, yet in Zechariah be represented as " poor, riding on an ass;"6 the incongruity is explained by an alterna- tive contingency in the moral state of the people ; righteous- ness earning the triumphant advent, laxity the lowly appear- ance. Most authorities give an arbitrary preference to one branch of theory, either excluding the others, or employing them only incidentally or as illustrations. The synoptical Evangelists take the widest range, endeavouring in one way or other to include all the Messianic traits. Jesus appears as a teacher of righteousness, enduring privation after the type of the " good man," but rich in spiritual gifts, and beneath his human disguise giving clear proofs of divinity. He spreads tables in the wilderness and passes over the waters as Moses, vanquishes the Devil as a second or greater Adam ; the dead rise with him as in Daniel, he is still to come in the " clouds of heaven," and even the hope of political restoration is rather deferred than excluded. Yet subtracting the accounts of the infancy, and making some other allowances, it is to these writers that we must look for the most probable view of the real claim of Jesus7. Among many pretenders to Messiahship Jesus alone seems to have understood the character in which 6 Gfrorer, Urcbri3t. ii. 438. 7 Strauss, Leben. Jesu, ii. 3. 62. JESUS THE SON OF MAN. 848 the office find any chance of being advantageously administered. He knew himself as he was known hy his cotemporaries8, as " a man the son of a man." But he also fervently believed the reality of his mission, and the inevitable accomplishment of all those predictions not one tittle of which could fail. He dis- posed of inapplicable Messianic imagery partly by figurative construction, partly by referring it to the mysterious future. Yet he shrank from a public avowal, not from any lingering hesitation in his own convictions, but from motives of policy, knowing thai the real nature of his claim was sure to be mis- taken, and that he would incur the hatred both of Romans and Jews, to one of whom he would appear as a fomentcr of insur- rection, to the other a betrayer of their dearest hopes. His most frequent title " Son of man," was well suited to this con- dition of his prospects. It was a name which had been applied to some of the later prophets by the divine beings who ad- dressed them, as also by way of similitude to the supernatural Messiah in Daniel. It seems to have been preferred not merely as a more modest term by one who always admitted his subor- dination to his Father1', but because with other scriptural allu- sions it might include the visionary prospect disclosed in Daniel10. The phrase in Daniel however is not " Son of man," but one having the *' appearance of a son of man," that is, a supernatural being in human form; and there are some pas- sages making it probable" that the term as used by Jesus was not in his own day, as it afterwards became, an established name for the Messiah, but only indirectly or partially so, and therefore in a degree equivocal, implying more to himself than ■ .Matt. ix. 8 ; xiii. 55. Luke ii. 41. 48 ; iii. 23 J iv. 22. 9 Matt. xix. 17 ; xxiv. 36. 10 The phrase sometimes seems purposely used to contrast high real dignity with lowly circumstances, as in Matt. viii. 20 ; xvii. 22. On the influence exercised by Daniel over the pretensions of Jesus comp. Matt. xiii. 43 with Dan. xii. 3. Matt. xvi. 28; xxvi. 64 with Dan. vii. 13. Matt, xxvii. 52 with Dan. xii. 2. Matt xxiv. 15, &c. ; also Enoch, ch. xlvi. and xlviii. 11 Matt. ix. 6; xvi. 13. 344 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. to others, and to his auditors rather the human or prophetic character than the Messianic12. It is impossible to speak with certainty respecting the notion of Jesus as to the mode in which the supernatural part of his office was to be accom- plished. Supposing the prediction of his second coming18 to contain, though not actually uttered by himself, an approxima- tion to his own views, he must either have imagined a living removal to heaven like Enoch or Elijah14 speedily to be fol- lowed by the supernatural incidents as yet unfulfilled, or must have anticipated such fulfilment after the death whose approach he must then have foreseen. Yet whether so foreseen and planned by himself or not, to his disciples after his decease the Messianic drama appeared distinctly divided into two separate acts ; one containing his human or preparatory career down to its tragic termination ; the other momentarily expected in his triumphant return. As time passed on without answering their expectation, they were tempted in their impatience to invest their master's earthly career with more and more of the ideal glories of the future ; and when the generation of his cotemporaries was extinct, and it had become desirable to con- sign to writing the traditions of his life, every incident received, if possible, a supernatural colouring, the amplitude of his men- tal endowment became a miraculous parentage, and the majes- tic scene of his future coming was in part anticipated by glimpses of a higher character already disclosed in the trans- figuration and ascension. 12 Comp. De "Wette to Matt. viii. 20, and John v. 27. " Haec appellatio indicat et humilitatem qualis fuerit inter homines, et majestatem quae ipsi a, Deo erat destinata et praedicta." Wettstein to Matt. ib. 13 Matt. xxiv. and xxv. 14 Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 17. 2 Thess. i. 7. JESUS THE SON OF GOD. •'> 1 ■"» §0. JESUS THE " SON OF GOD." The religion of all times has ever looked to the Deity as a parent, the author and bestower of all things'. The Egyptian employed this symbol as did the Greek2, to whom the greatest of the Apostles appealed in his celebrated address to the Athe- nians. Parents after God are the natural objects of reverence; hence the position of the fifth command in the Decalogue, and the ready transt'eivnee of the parental symbol to its highest antetype. Sonship to God is a phrase used in many mean- ings ; it may mean external resemblance of function or form, or inner analogy of nature ; kings were styled " Aioytvets" as resembling God in respect of authority, or as the inventor or great teacher of an art is father of all succeeding artists :| ; and while the demigods of Egypt and "Beni Elohim" of the Bible were beings akin to him metaphysically, the meek and peace- makers had a moral likeness which made them " children of God,"4 and if children then of course heirs, inheritors in right of filial allegiance of "the earth" or promised land under the old covenant5, as afterwards, on similar grounds, of Balyation under the new8. Out of a general metaphor arose its special applications; the theocratic sonship of the Hebrew nation, and the mythical affiliations suggested by the emanation theory, including the low physical nativities arising from dulness 1 "Ta/v »vt«» TaT»£." Max. Tyr. viii. 10; xvii. 5. Flat. Timae. 28 c. "Omni- bus ille ica" but " xara ntivfjt.a ayiotruni; ■" Rom. i. 3, 4. * Wisd. ii. 18. mi: MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. 849 interfere to protect him, and that proofs of his divine origin will he found in the circumstances of his birth. The Eg\ ptmns ascribed their God Apis to the genial influence of the moon5; Roostem was cut from the side of his mother0, Buddha born of a virgin. " Nor is it extraordinary," says Jerome7, " that such stories should pass current among barbarians, since we owe the accounts of the birth of Minerva front the head of Jove and of Bacchus from his thigh to the intelligence of Greece." In the centre of Greek philosophic culture arose the legend of Peric- tione becoming mother of Plato by Apollo; for " sapiential principem non aliter arbitrantttr nisi de partti virginis editum." "Let not Roman arrogance," he says, "taunt us with the miraculous birth of our Lord and Saviour, while Rome itself boasts a similar legend, that of Mars and Iha, respecting the origin of its founder8. Stories of this kind are everywhere met with ; and so much do they resemble each other, that one might easily be led to fancy them derived or connected. The prophet Fo, called by his Chinese followers " Saviour of the world," was like Horus, Bacchus, &c, delivered through his virgin mother's side, and his birth was announced in a miraculous dream to the Emperor Ming-ti9. The history of the Mautchoo Tartars, like that of the Scythians10, begins with the story of a young virgin bear- ing their progenitor. "Nothing," says Barrow ", " so much shocked the first Chinese missionaries, as to find everywhere a female deity called the " Holy Mother," or " Shing-Moo," ,2 s " Raro naseitur, nee coitu pecoris, ut aiunt, sed divinitus et ccelesti igne con- ceptus." P. Mela. i. 9. 7. Herod, iii. 28. .Elian H. A. xi. 10. 1 Malcolm's Persia, i. 27. 7 Adv. Jov. i. 26. 8 Jerome, ib. Origen against Cels. i. eh. 37. Plutarch, Symp. viii. 1. Origen (1. c.) goes so far as to adduce an instance from natural history ; and pleads the half-natural character of the birth of Jesus as at least more plausible than the wholly supernatural case of the Greek " earth-born." 9 Du Halde, Transl. i. 650. 10 Diod. S. ii. 43. Comp. Herod, iv. " Travels in China, 472. " Really, a " Goddess mother," like Ceres, Isis, or Gunga. '350 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. in whom they thought they discovered a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. They found her generally shut up with great care in a recess behind the altar, veiled with a silken screen, sometimes with a child in her arms or on her knees, and her head encircled with a glory. The story of the Shing- Moo confirmed them in their opinion13. They were told that she conceived and bore a son while yet a virgin by eating the flower of the Lienwha, or Nelumbium. The infant, exposed in its infancy, was found and educated by a poor fisherman ; and in process of time became a great man performing miracles. The miraculous virgin of Fokien, like the virgin Mary of the Neapolitan, afterwards became the tutelary God of the Ma- riner, a repetition of the Phoenician Astarte or " Diva potens Cypri :" Henceforth she is the Genius of the shore and shall be good To all that wander on that perilous flood. It followed from these prepossessions, that the great prophets Confucius and Mencius must both have been miraculously born of virgins14; it was even laid down that all saints and sages, called Tien-tse, or " sons of heaven," are without mor- tal fathers, and are so called because their mothers conceived them by the operation of Tien (Heaven). There is a whole volume in the Chinese annals, called " Births of the Saints," filled with accounts of great men and kings born miraculously. The virgin mothers of antiquity bear appropriately significant names, as "Expected Beauty," "Pure Virgin," "Universal Felicity," "Great Fidelity." Asiatic legend teems with this sort of extravagance; the same pretensions were said to have been 13 Gutslaff adopts this idea, considering the story to have been engrafted on Buddhism by the Nestorian Christians. But there is no evidence that the Nes- tori.ms themselves ever worshipped the Virgin, and the simplicity of their rites is adverse to the supposition ; 2ndly, all the religions of the East have recognised a male and female principle, e.g., the "yang and yin" of China corresponding to similar agencies, Brahma and Saraswati, Parasacti, &c. in other countries. 14 See the Memoirs entitled, "Recherches sur lea Chinois," vols. 9 and 12. THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. 861 made by Simon Mfogus" and by Zenghia Chan "\ Zoroaster was brought into tin- world without sin or pain, and a youthful angel addressed bis mother during pregnancy with the words " Fear not ; thr king ofheaven proteots the child ; the world is J'nll of ex- pectation of his birth, he will he God's prophet to his people; through him shall the lion and the lamb drink together,"" &c. The mother of Hercules was addressed in a similar strain h\ the Beer Tiresias: "Be of good cheer, thou mother of a glo- rious offspring ; blessed ait thou among Argive women." IS The queen-mother of Confucius received during her pregnancy the following miraculous communication: "A child pure as crystal shall he born when the princes of Tcheou shall decline; he shall be king, but without a territory; his kingdom shall be different from ordinary kingdoms, but shall not be the less a real one."19 Accordingly, at the moment of the infant's birth, celestial music was heard in the air, and melodious voices mingled with instrumental sounds made the place resound with " All the earth leaps for joy at the deliverance of the holy babe." From the sphere of thought exemplified in these extracts, the minds of Jewish writers were not qualified to escape; and when the idea of a supernatural character and divine affiliation had once been suggested, they as usual discovered traditions of the fact, accompanied by confirmations of it in ancient pro- phecy. " All this was done," says the narrator, " that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord of the pro- ls Recognitiones Clem. ii. 7 and 14. " Antequam mater mea conveniret cum eo (his father Antonius) adhuc virgo concepit me." 18 (iibbon, ch. xxxiv. vol. 6, p. 42. " The miraculous birth of Zoroaster, like that of Christ, was partly founded on the dogmatical necessity of a sinless origin for a sinless person. Malcolm's Hist. Persia, i. 192. Kleuker's Zendavesta, iii. 5. 9. 18 Theocrit. Idyll, xxiv. 70. 19 This inscription is said to have been found on the stone called Yu, and Yu is the name given to the religious doctrine of Confucius. Rccherches sur les Chinois, vol. 12. 852 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. phet;"20 thus making a seeming and fallacious coincidence take the form of a premeditated providential design, although from the language used it would appear as if the event had rather heen contrived for the sake of fulfilling the prophecy, than the prophecy preconcerted in reference to the event21. In this instance, as in many others, the coincidence is only imaginary, and the words of aneient scripture are applied in a sense altogether different from that which they originally bore22. The prophet Isaiah23 was sent to allay the apprehension of Ahaz on account of the threatening confederacy of the kings of Israel and Syria. In proof of his assurance of the impend- ing discomfiture of the enemy, he desires Ahaz to require a " sign,"24 and on refusal, the prophet himself proceeds to give one in the following terms: " Behold, a young woman is with child, and shall bring forth a son," whom (after the common custom of giving significant names25) " she shall call Em- manuel26, or " God with us;" that is, already by the time of the child's birth the aspect of affairs shall be so much im- proved, that his name will be aptly significant of God's inter- position for the deliverance of Jerusalem ; for some time, how- ever, in consequence of invasion, the land will continue un- cultivated, and the food of " Emmanuel," until he arrives at 20 Matt. i. 22. 21 The unfounded charge of adultery against Mary invented by certain Jews according to the saying " Multi nomine Divorum thalamos iniere pudicos," may be regarded a just retribution for the story of the supernatural conception. 22 Origen, Cels. i. 34. 49 sq. ; ii. 28. 23 Isa. vii. 11. 24 A "sign" might be either something supernatural in itself, or a natural event astonishing only because foreseen, as the death of the two sons of Eli in one day. A curious instance is given in the gospel of Mary (ch. ii. 13) when Joachim, the father of Mary, is told by an angel that his wife should bring forth a daughter; "and this," adds the angel, "shall be a sign unto thee; namely, when thou comest to the golden gate of Jerusalem thou shalt then meet with thy wife Anna, who being very much troubled that thou returnedst no sooner, shall there rejoice to see thee." 25 Comp. Iliad vi. 401. Guigniaut's Creuzer, i. 58 n. 26 Comp. Psal. xlvi. 7. 11. THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. 858 the dawn of reason will be the pastoral products of milk and honey**; but bv the time lie arrives at moral consciousness, i.e. in about three years, all danger will be over, and the power of the two kings will be completely destroyed. Tin- prediction embraces two successive periods: first, the liberation of the land of Judah in a few months; secondly, the final de- struction of the invading monaxchs in about three years; these public events are connected by way of sign with the birth of a certain child, perhaps the child of the prophet him- self, who elsewhere says, "I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel."' Here there is no reference to a distant event; the word Almah does not mean " Virgin," nor does the name Emmanuel imply divinity or even superiority in the child, but only the circum- stances accidentally accompanying his birth. The essential con- ditions of the sign require that it should be limited to the im- mediate future ; in any other sense it could have no meaning. Ahaz could have derived little consolation or hope of deliver- ance from an invading army, from the expectation of an event which was to occur eight centuries afterwards. The object of the sign is to remove the distrust of Ahaz in regard to his pre- sent danger ; and if it be said that the prophecy had a double meaning and was a " double entendre," bearing one meaning to Ahaz and another which could not be appreciated before the Christian terav9, we may surely reply that it would be alto- gether unworthy of the writer, not to say of God, to suppose Mm to veer in this quibbling way from Christ to his servant, or 27 Comp. verse 22. '•8 Psal. viii. 18. If the "young woman" be understood as already pregnant the sign will then resemble that in Gen. xvi. 11. Judg. xiii. 5. Knobel, Is. p. 50. •9 As, for instance, Bengel lays it down, " Sa;pe in N. T. allegantur vaticinia quorum contextum prophetarum tempore non dubium estquin auditores ex intentione divina interpretari debuerint de rebus jam praesentibus. Eadem vero intentio divina longius prospiciens sic formavit orationem, ut magis proprie diinccps ea con- veniret in tempora Messise, et hanc intcntionem divinam apostoli nos docent." VOL. II. A A 354 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. from Shimei to Iscariot™. The perversion of this passage into a Messianic prophecy by the Christians ai was probably suggested by the Septuagint translation of the word " Almah" by Tra^Qsvog, thus giving inspired authority for the immaculate conception. A miraculous event is devised in order to embody a given nation- ality; and next an Old Testament " sign" is forcibly wrested from its meaning, in order to become a prediction of the afore- said imaginary miracle. §11. THE DOUBLE RESURRECTION. Christ's second coming1 was to the Christian what Messiah's advent had been to the Jew. It was an event eagerly and constantly expected, which was to close with the present age of the world the reign of Mosaism2; a time of war and woe heralding the resurrection, judgment, and universal restoration. But these accompaniments, borrowed from the Old Testament typology, could not by mere postponement or transference be made to fit exactly into the new system. Hence the theory (implied indeed rather than propounded in parts of the New Testament), of a first resurrection of the just3, to be followed by a second or general one. The first resurrection of the elect only, adopted in the Milennium doctrine4, answers to the earthly or Messianic resurrection of pious Hebrews, which was all that was originally contemplated in prediction ; the same precedent probably suggesting the Pharisaic pao-TcovY) tou ava@iouv — a dispensation of easy revival to the good, while to the bad 30 e. g., in Psal. cix. 31 Wettstein to Matt. iii. 11. Justin's M. Dial. Tryph. p. 262, or 130 e. 1 " Yla^ovffict," " imyi',. 32 4 Esd. vii. 29. Comp. Eisenmenger ii. p. S9G. 33 To Isa. xxvi. 19. 3l Gf'rorer, ii. 281. 35 As Mishna-Sotah. Comp. Ecclus. xlviii. 10, 11. "6 Eisenmenger, ii. 898. THE DOUBLE RESURRECTION. 869 final judgment of the New Testamenl is bul an adaptation of the "terrible day of the Lord" in the Old. The punishment of the enemies of the Jews becomes the punishment of the enemies of Christianity. The elect, the "Lord's brethren," are mere spectators"; over them the second death is powerless". A.8 in the dreadful day announced by .loci, nature sympathizes with man, the sun and moon turn to blood, the powers of heaven arc shaken*9. It was usual to blow with trumpets on solemn occasions, and the last day is signalled by the same alarum which betokened the voice of God on Sinai4'. Then the Most High appears on the judgment-seat, bringing every Becret to light41. Hell flames up from the abyss before the gate of Paradise42, the wicked die the second death, the fire and the worm, the imagery of grave and pyre eternalized1'. The scene is described in Enoch44 much as in Revelations; it is conducted either by Jehovah or by Messiah, called " Son of Man," or " Lord of Spirits" as his deputy. The dominion of Daniel's Messiah was to be endless ; but Jehovah and his Mes- sianic representative are interchanged like Jehovah and Jeho- vah's angel, and it was scarcely a contradiction to make Mes- siah's kingdom merge in that of God. A Jewish work of the seventh century enumerates ten universal empires. The first king, the founder of all other kingdoms, was God. Afterwards fol- lowed the reigns of Nimrodj Joseph, Solomon, Ahab, Nebu- chadnezzar, Cyrus, and Alexander the Great; the reign of each being ascertained not from history so much as from scripture » Matt. xxv. 40. 45. * ReT. xx. 6. :9 Joel iii. 15. Isa. xxiv. '21. Eag, ii. 6. 40 4 Esd. vi. 23. 25. Joel ii. 1. Peal, xlvii. 5. Isa. xxvii. 13. Targ. Jerus. to Exod. xx. 18. 1 Thess. iv. 16. Rev. i. 10; iv. 1. Heb. xii. 9. God mi to sound a trumpet 1000 cubits long seven times. At the first earth would shake ; at the second the dust would he separated ; at the third the bones collected ; at the fourth the limbs would warm ; at the fifth the skin cover them ; at the sixth the spirit reenter them ; at the seventh they would stand up alive in their garments. 11 4 Bad. vii. 33. Fabricius, p. 235. *' lb. and YVettstein to Luke xvi. 23. " Judith xvi. 17. Isa. lxvi. 24. 41 Enoch, chs. I., liv. 5, lx., Izi., and Ixviii. 3G0 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSTANIC THEORY. texts. The ninth reign is that of Messiah, or the " stone cut out without hands;" the tenth reverts to God, the source of all authority, the Alpha and Omega45. Christ's kingdom would merge in that of Jehovah; " the Lord alone would be exalted in that day;" a notion not inconsistent with Daniel, because, mystically speaking40, " the name of Messiah is Jehovah," his kingdom is God's kingdom. St. Paul only repeats the gospel view already prevalent in the days of Jesus, when seemingly infringing the separate personality of Christ, he anticipates a time when God would be all in all, and when the mediation of lawgiver and prophet having fulfilled its object, would cease for ever . § 12. UNION OF THE HUMAN AND DIVINE IN JESUS. The religious mind is ever striving to unite itself with God. The assumption of this union in Christianity taxed imagination to devise a plausible theory for explaining the mode of its actual accomplishment in the person of Jesus. One such theory is expressed in the genealogies ; a coarser expedient, literally adapting the divine sonship to the Emmanuel pro- phecy, was the supernatural conception. The early converts conformed to the contemporaries of Jesus who knew him in his historic character as son of Joseph. But while believing him to be human they also believed him endowed with extra- ordinary spiritual gifts ' ; these in time assumed the legendary form, the descending Spirit took the "bodily shape" of the dove, and the man Jesus became distinguished from the "power" or Christ united with him at baptism. The majority of Jewish converts adhered to the original theory of a human Christ, after the orthodox church, including the later " Naza- 45 Zech. xiv. 9. Isa. xliv. 6. ,6 Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 316. « 1 Cor. xv. 24. 27. Gal. iii. 20. ' Acts x. 38. THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST. 301 renes," in shifting its ground to a supernatural conception misrepresented its own attempt to advance the glory of Jesus into an heretical deviation on the part of its opponents. How- ever the Jew Christians or Ebionites* were not all of one kind. There wrere modifications of theory varying from that making Jesus a mere man though a pre-eminently gifted oneJ, to the opposite extreme suggested by the emanation theory which lay at the root of Hellenism and Paulinism. Change in the law would involve the assumption of higher dignity in the me- diator; yet though retention of the law by Christians must generally be supposed to imply the merely human or prophetic character of him who came to fulfil what he had no authority to alter, a more elevated notion of law as the true divine rule distinguished and apart from human corruptions would reclaim loftier attributes and character for the whole series of its real organs, especially the last and most efficient of them. In the scene of the transfiguration it was natural that conversation should turn upon the decease of Jesus4, through which the glorification then transiently displayed became permanently established in men's minds. The disciples probably could not help obeying the injunction presumed to have been given to "tell the vision to no one until the 'Son of man' should be risen from the dead."5 For it was only when tins event had taken place, and men had become familiar with the idea of his ascent to God's right hand according to the Scripture, that he seemed to become more and more not only a divinely git ted 5 A name vaguely used in reference to early converts, but properly belonging to the regressive Judaism^ party when in the second century it became more fixedly and decidedly opposed to the Paulinism of the orthodox church. As there were different sects of Jews, so there were different forms of Ehionitism. Schlieinann, Die Clementinen, 408. 435. 464. 493. 524, . Mark. ix. 'J. Luke ix. 86 302 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. but divine being0 coeternal if not coincident with the Supreme, and that it became important to find traces of this lofty charac- ter among the traditions of his earthly life. On the other hand, it was necessary to account for his descent from a higher sphere, not merely by that vulgar literal rendering of the attributive " ulog ©sou,"7 which differed little from the gross nativities of the Greek heroes, but by a theory better suited to gratify the speculative. The book called " Ascent of Isaiah," describes Christ's progressive descent through the seven hea- venly spheres, gradually changing his form during the journey, until at last he assumed that of man8. The Gnosticising Ebionites, whether deriving the notion from the Essenes, or from oriental elements9 long before incorporated with Judaism10, attributed to the patriarchs as well as to Jesus a supernatural nature. The Being who from his invisible dwelling in heaven poured down spiritual gifts upon his followers, was recognised as having of old interfered to protect the chosen people, as having guided them through the wilderness11, conferred with their first parents in Eden, and co-operated in the creation12, before which he already existed in glorious association with God. His sonship was explained by another sort of super- natural conception. The virgin was a mere channel or con- veyance for the celestial iEon. The Jewish mystics reasonably inferred from Genesis, that if man is the image of God, God must be in the image of man11'. "Hence," says Irenreus14, "some call the Universal Father avfyunos ; hence, too, the 0 Matt, xxviii. 18. Philip, ii. 6. 7 Luke i. 35. 8 Ch. x. 8 sq. 9 Relating to metensomatosis, and the divine co-operation in the production of pneumatic or distinguished men. Bertholdt, Christologia, sec. 20. 10 Schliemann, p. 530. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. p. 83. Schwegler, i. 186. 11 1 Cor. x. 4. 9. Jerome to Hab. iii. 3. 12 1 Cor. viii. 6. Col. i. 16. Heb. i. 2. 10; ii. 10. Rev. iii. 14. 13 According to the mystics God made the world by becoming Androgynous. This is the "great mystery" of Ephes. v. 31, 32. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 5 sq. 11 IrenrEus, i. 12. 4. THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST. 3G3 Saviour styled himself the Son of man."15 The god of the Ophite was the Adam-Cadmon of the Cabbalists: " God is Dot," snid Marcion, " without form, for he is the prototype of all beauty; to say that he is formless is to nullify instead of honouring him ; for how can men love that which they cannot conceive? how pray, when they have no idea of him whom they should address'.' " The Holy Spirit which breathed into the nostrils of the first man, made him the express image of his Creator, enabling him to know and foresee all things, passed through a series of emanations corresponding to the evolution of the world. For according to the Clementine Ho- milies, as the world was evolved by God in six dimensions of height and depth, right and left, before and behind, God himself bang the seventh or central point of rest, as " begin- ning and end," so the spirit of Adam appeared successively in Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and lastly in Christ. Christ is Lord of all, existing before the worlds, and superior to the angels; his proper dwelling is above, but he comes down when he pleases. Manifested first in Adam, after- wards to the patriarchs, he appeared in the latter days under his original form of Adam to be crucified, and rose again, and ascended to heaven. Thus from the beginning of time changing his "names together with the forms of his appear- ance, he passed through the course of ages, until reaching his own times he was by God's grace ' anointed' in recompense for his toils, and blessed with eternal repose." lc Speculation was always tending to rise from the historical Christ to the transcendental idea which his history embodied. As death to the flesh and victory over the world were implied in the Christian profession of individuals, it was necessary that the idea should be reflected in hini by whom the death had been ellVeted and the victory secured. It was difficult to maintain the most elevated notion of Christ or to assume a 15 Marcion distinguished a double Christ ; the vUs rou avfyu-rev" was with him the son of Demiurgus. " Clementine Homilies, iii. 20. Epiphan. Haeres. xxx. p. 127. 364 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MESSIANIC THEORY. negation of the fleshly in his person without falling into the heresy of Docetism. Docetism was an effort to reach the ideal without giving up the pragmatical, hy which the Christian drama, though not abandoned, was transformed into an illus- tration or mythus of the spirit's emanation and return. It either separated the spirit Christ from the man Jesus, or made the human nature a mere phantom17 or vision resembling those angelic apparitions who seemed to eat and drink by deluding the senses of the spectator 18. Basilides, as also apparently St. John, admitted a real body and an ordinary birth; Valentinus a psychic body provided for by a peculiar " economy;" Marcion dropped the nativity altogether, although inverting in this respect the Greek estimate of superior natures19, he allowed his visionary Christ to suffer death20. The first kind of Docetism risks the unity of Christ by reserving his humanity ; the last, in striving to elevate him above the material, reduces him almost to the non-existent. Both theories are in different ways fantastic; yet the Docetism of St. John21 does not reject, but subjects the material as the transparent vehicle or investiture of that which alone is the living and true; theory could not yet wholly throw aside its favourite symbol, but Marcion still further reduces the human form to the mere point of space and time occupied by the redeeming agency, advancing Christianity towards the point where, separated from the external personality of its founder, it is transferred to the region of the purely ideal. 17 " Corpulentia putativa." Comp. Heb. ii. 16. Tertull. against Marcion, iii. 8. 1 John iv. 23. 2 John vii. 18 Tobit xii. 19. So Philo explains the apparent eating of the three men who visited Abraham. Gen. xviii. 2. ,9 Above, p. 50. 20 Of course in order to retain the most expressive symbol of renunciation of the flesh and of the empire of Demiurgus. 21 It is not clear in St. John whether the Messianic or redeeming agency com- mences with the connate Logos or the superinduced •x^ivft.a ; and indeed the obscurity, according to the principle stated ch. iii. 8, is an essential part of the system. CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS; THF. LATTER OONSIDBBJBD AS A REVIVAL OF THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT; THE OTHER OF ANCIENT JEWISH SYMBOLISM. " Saepius olim Religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta ; Aulidc quo pacto Trivial virginis aram Iphianassai turparunt sanguine foede Ductores Danauni ; Exitus ut classi felix faustusque daretur ; Tantuin religio potuit suadere malortim ! " Lucretius, i. 85. "Man muss fragen, ob diese abscheuliche Baalsreligion bei den Semitiscben Vokkern von jeher geherrscht habe." — E. 0. Mulleb, in Gottingen gel. Anzeig. for 1821. CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. §1. MISSION OF THE TRUE PROPHET. The character of Jewish religion had greatly declined in the centuries immediately preceding the birth of Jesus. The adop- tion of a written standard of doctrine lowered its feeling to an apathetic routine, and the cessation of prophecy consequent on political vassalage was replaced by no equivalent. Enthu- siasm there was but not of the old kind. A pedantic study of Scripture was substituted for the energy which dictated its '(imposition; and inferences obtained by subtle investigation into the letter were handed down as of almost equal authority with the text, under the name of "Traditions of the Elders." Priestly conventionalism overruled original genius, exacting an overstrained observance of outward ceremonies, especially of the Sabbath. If in some respects the prophetic spirit might be said to have attained its accomplishment in a more general diffusion1, if, in other words, the mass of the people were less rude, and less prone to the grosser forms of idolatry, it would seem as if enlightenment had become vitiated by communi- eation, and changed the noble roughness of nature into puerile scholasticism. The Hebrew God was no longer deserted for other gods, but he was more than ever the partial patron of his peculiar people. His person was no more confounded with 1 Jcr. xxxi. 84. 368 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. foreign superstitious symbols, but the demands of fanaticism were amply responded to by a multifarious angelology, while the moral conception of him was still nearly as childish as ever2. It was not till late in Hebrew history that an ecclesiastical establish- ment was created in correspondence with Mosaic forms. After the erection of a temple at Jerusalem, the religious offices rightfully exercised at first by chiefs or kings3, became subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of an order of priests4, who de- voting their whole attention to ceremonial, psalmody, law, and ultimately a sacred literature, produced a local centralization of religious feeling eventually leading to an aphorism unknown to antiquity, that " in Jerusalem alone meu ought to worship." As long as prophetic genius continued to pour forth its inspi- rations in harmony with a priesthood seconding and appre- ciating them, both institutions might exercise a healthful influence. The prophet was the legitimate perennial source5 from which flowed the rich spiritual treasures winch the priest had to preserve. But the character of prophecy changed with circumstances. The view of the seer was no longer directed to an immediate practical hope, but to a remote supernatural future. The office of the true prophet was more and more estranged from active life, until from occasional interposition6 it became wholly speculative. The practice of committing oracles to writing, and the formation of a literature, cramped the free flow of thought, until at length the prophet's place was usurped by the writer of Apocalyptics, just as the poetry of nature was displaced by artificial affectations of description. But the spirit of prophecy can never be irretrievably lost as long as a divine truth remains to be revealed. The celestial 2 The Rabbinical writers describe God as the Supreme High Priest or Rabbi. Of the twelve hours of the day three are spent by him in reading the law, three in awarding judgment in mercy, three in giving a banquet to the world, and three in sporting with Leviathan. From Psal. civ. 26. 3 Thenius to 1 Sam. viii. 18. 1 Kings ix. 25, et al. * Comp. 2 Chron. xxvi. 18. Ewald, Geschichte, iii. 296. 5 Deut. xviii. 15. 6 Ezek. iii. 24. EBB MISSION the old covenant as a basis, they freely canvassed the assumptions or practices connected with it which seemed incompatible with truth and justice. They denied, for instance, that the attainder pronounced against crime could include the innocent", and even softened the harsh hypothesis 12 Jer. xii. 1. Isa. xxviii. IT j hi. 1 ; lxi. 8. Zcch. viii. 17. 13 Mic. vi. 6. '« Isa. i. 10 sq. Joel ii. 13. 1 Sam. xv, 22. Hos. vi. 6. Amos y. 21. 15 Isa. v. 8. Jer. xvii. 11. Amos iii. 10. 16 Mic. iji. ii. 17 Ezek. xviii. 7. '• Isa. xxxii. 8; Iviii. 7. " Zech.rii.9j riii. 16, 17. /,,!,. rfi.9; riii. 16, 17. ei Jer.rxri.29. Bzek. xriii. 374 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. in which God's parental care was made the exclusive inherit ance of the Hebrews22. They also mitigated the severity of divine retribution. They taught that God would relent if man would repent ; that he delights not in death, but is patient and forgiving*3, desiring rather that the sinner should reform and live24, and inflicting chastisement only to produce amend- ment25. "Woe to those," said the prophets, " who disregard the sacred lessons of adversity, and who in careless sensuality live regardless of God's impressive admonitions."26 They appealed to fear as well as hope ; and the monitory voice silent in prosperity, eagerly seized each untoward event for the pur- pose of example or warning. But beyond all the sins and evils of the present they held out the prospect of a perfected cove- nant, when the better few or "remnant" would on repentance reap fulfilment of the old, or even receive a new one, the old having become void by infringement27 ; and it thus became part of general expectation, that the Messiah, who was to be a second Moses, would, if not abrogate the Mosaic law, at all events change and improve it28. Thus would arise an ever- lasting covenant of peace29 never to be violated30, and sig- nalized externally by the old imagery of the fiery pillar and " glory" indicating on Mount Zion the presence of its king31. But its character would be changed ; it would be a law written in the heart32; the stony heart would be replaced by a heart of 22 e. g. Isa. lvi. 6. Jonah iii. 10; iv. 11. Jer. xviii. 7. 10. 23 Isa. Iv. 7. Mic. vii. 18. Jer. iii. 12. 21 Ezek. xviii. 23. 32; xxxiii. 11. 25 Hos. ii. 15-23. Isa. ix. 13. Amos iv. 6. 26 Isa. v. 11, 12; xxii. 13. Hos. iv. 10. Amos vi. 11. 27 Jer. xxxi. 31. 33. " Dixit R. Chijah, referendum est hoc ad dies Messlae — res magna ventura est mundo ; lex convertetur ad novitatem et renovabitur Israeli." Bertholdt, Christo- logia, xxxi. p. 164. 29 Ezek. xvi. 20. 22 ; xxxxiv. 25 ; xxvii. 26. w Jer. 1. 5. si Knobel, Prophets, i. 319. 32 Jer. xxxi. 33; xxxii. 10. Isa. lxi. 8. ELEMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN REFORM. 375 flesh"; mid the universal gift of the Spirit would supersede the necessity of prophecy itself84. §3. THE TRIMARY ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN REFORM. The Jewish majority in the days of Jesus were Pharaisaio formalists, full of that devotion to the conventional exhibited for the first time in the last Old Testament prophets, whose writings make a link of transition from the spiritualism of Micah and Isaiah to the narrow-mindedness of the Rabbis. Allowing it to he true, as the prophets assert1, that the Hebrew law was not a system of rite and sacrifice, hut a living rule of practical efficiency, time had matured in it the vices of an establishment, and a prophet was more than ever required to renew its spirit. The real prophetical idea had been that the rule of life is not the law alone, but a continuing revelation from the law's author *; but for a long time the divine voice had been overpowered by bibliolatry and by the exegetical sub- tlety of lawyers and priests. Christ did not come to destroy the law, but, like the prophets, to enforce and fulfil it. He repeated the Rabbinical dictum3, that until heaven and earth should pass away (that is, during the existing age of the world), no one iota of the law should fail. Like Socrates, he an 'Tided in every particular not only to the essentials, but as tar as possible to the forms of the religion of his country. But he discountenanced the perversity which made the form sup- plant the spirit; which made giving of tithes, or sabbath ob- servanoe, of more importance than benevolence and justice. 33 Ezek. xi. 19; xxxvi. 26, 27. 34 Jer. xxxi. 34. Hos. xviii. 19, 20. Isa. xxxii. 15. 1 Jer. vii. 22; xi. 4. 2 Isa. viii. 20; xxviii. 10. Jer. xxvi. 5. Fsal. xiw 7. Dent, xviii. 18. 3 Qfrorer, Qrcbrisl i 235. WetUtein to Matt v. 18. 376 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. He did not dispense with sacrifice4, but he quoted authority to show how much more important were the practice of virtue, the proper training of the feelings5, and the two great rules of moral perfection, love to God and to one's neighbour, under which he summed up the whole meaning of law and prophets6. He did not check observance of the sabbath, but he dis- couraged superstitious abuse of it, making it, as it was doubt- less originally intended to be, subservient to human conve- nience. By enlarging the application of the law beyond the narrow Pharisaic reading7, and regulating" the relative import- ance of its precepts, he seemed not merely to have reconstituted but almost to have created it afresh. Yet his task was rather to select and combine than to invent ; to place the formal in due subordination to the essential. Reserving the more fun- damental changes for his second coming, his immediate object was "perfect" law-fulfilment9, not the adoption of a new rule, but observance of the old on a new scale. The " olden pre- cepts" which he seemed to oppose10 were not the Mosaic law, but the expository dogmas deduced from it by " the elders." It has often been observed11 that the gospel morality is no absolute novelty, but that the same precepts had been already announced, if not among the Jews, at all events in other times and countries. The requital of good for evil, the virtue of loving an enemy instead of ill-treating him12, had been appre- ciated by the philanthropy of Greeks and Hindoos13. Horace's 4 Matt. v. 23. 5 Matt. ix. 13; xv. 5. Mark vii. 11. 6 Mark xii. 33. Matt. xxii. 36. 40. Comp. Hos. vi. 6. ' Matt. v. 20. 8 lb. xxiii. 23, and xii. 7. 9 " Aixaioirvvn." Matt. v. 17 sq. 48; xix. 17. ,0 Matt. v. 21. 11 Milman's Christianity, vol. i. ch. iv. s. 3. Lactant. Instit. 77, admits that all the moral truths and mysteries of religion had been taught by Pagan philosophy. " Totam igitur veritatem et omne divinas religionis arcanum philosophi attigerunt." Min. Felix says that either the old philosophers were Christians or that all Chris- tians are philosophers. '-' Flato, Crito, p. 49. De Rep. i. 335. 534. 13 Wilson's Oxford Lecture, p. 60, and Wettstein's Note to Matt. v. 45. 1, p. 313. Comp. Prov. xx. 22; xxv. 21. ELEMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN KKlo|;\l. 377 " nil conscire sibi," is the apostolic eulogium of n clear con- science"; the maxims "guard the thoughts of the heart," and " do to others as you wish them to do to you," are among tin' sayings of Confucius15. The same doctrines had long ago been announced in the Levitical law, and were equally prized in Jewish ootempor&ry theology. It is said in many parts of the written record of that theology, the Talmud, that the Le- vitical command1" " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is the first of moral rules. A pagan having asked Rabbi Hillel, whose career immediately preceded that of Jesus, to ex- plain the Jewish law in few words, was answered, "That which you would not that another should do to you, that do not you to him ; this is the sum of the law ; the rest is a mere com- mentary on it." The other great commandment, " to love God with all the heart and soul," 17 was notoriously the pro- perty of the Jew before it passed into Christianity : " Thrice blessed is he," it was said, " who does good through love to God, over and above him who serves through fear."18 God had been styled by prophets the husband and father of his prople. Israel, the faithless wife, never ceased to be cherished by her divine protector, whose love, even though clouded by momentary displeasure, was her sure safeguard, a well-spring of eternal hope. Jesus did not announce his great moral rules as inventions of his own, but as the essence of what was already to be found within the Scriptures19; and hence parallelisms of gospel example or doctrine often take the form of prophetical fulfilment*0. The great rule of imitating the divine example'1 was inherited from Judaism as laid down by Rabbinical autho- rity under the expressions " walking in the ways of the " 1 John iii. 21. 15 Davis's China, ii. pp. 41. 50. 16 Lev. xix. 18. 34. Comp. Exod. xxii. 21 ; xxiii. 9. 17 Dcut. vi. 5, and xi. 13. 18 Book Siphri to Dcut. vi. Berachot Jems. p. 37 ". Conip. Mark xii. 33. 19 Matt. vii. 12 ; xxii. 40. Mark xii. 33. Comp. John iii. 10. •° Matt. xiii. 14. Luke iv. 18. 21. 21 Comp. Matt. v. 45. 378 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. Lord,"22 "working God's works,"23 or " imitating God's at- tributes." The ways of God are pointed out, it was said24, in Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, where the divine attributes are enumerated, as mercy, grace, goodness, truth. The phrase " being named with the name of the Lord,"25 means a successful imitation of these attributes, in being just and good even as he is26. " Be ye holy," says the Jerusalem Targurn27, " as the angels who serve before the Lord your God." " The Lord himself hath shown us the right way; he has taught us to clothe the naked, when he clothed Adam and Eve ; to visit the sick, when he visited Abraham after circumcision ; to console the afflicted, when he appeared to Jacob on his return from Padanaram ; to feed the hungry, when he gave our fathers bread from heaven." Charity includes all other commandments28: "It is better," says the Book of Tobit, " to give charity than to heap up riches, for charity preserves from death, and cleanses from all sin." 2!> The better informed Jews well knew that mere forms had no intrinsic value 30 ; the ancient prophets had asserted this re- peatedly 3I, and even the Talmud intimates that the ceremonial law was intended only to prove the people's fidelity, and to unite them for the sake of something higher, the nature of which is implied in the summing up of the 613 Mosaic ordi- nances in a few simple moral rules, all finally converging in the simple precept32, " the just shall live by faith."3 The Mosaic law was admitted to be but a faint shadow of the anticipated " new covenant,"34 under which all meats would be clean, all feasts, except one, abolished, and all offerings, ex- 22 Deut. xi. 22. 23 John vi. 28. 24 Book Siphri to Deut. xi. 22. 2S Joel ii. 32. 20 Wettstein's note to Luke vi. 36. 27 Targ. to Numb. xv. 40. 28 Tosaphta Peah. ch. iv. 3. 13 and 14. 28 Ch. xii. 8. Max. Tyr. v. 86. Strabo, x. p. 467. 30 Mark xii. 33. 31 Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 22, and passages in Lengerke's Kenaan. 536 ". 32 Hab. ii. 4. 33 Comp. Gfrorer, Urchrist. i. 235 ; ii. 343, 344. 34 T. Jonathan to Isa. xii. 3. ELEMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN REFORM. 379 oepi praise and thanksgiving, become obsolete. The resur- rection connected with the Messiah by Daniel was a necessary pari of the Messiahship of Jesus. The victory he could uot expect here, he undertook to guarantee prospectively, and without absolutely excluding present recompense115, since even the meek, the afflicted, the peacemakers, &c, all even here have a real though not a showy requital, he laid more stress on the everlasting rewards of the " world to come," the seeing God, and being " children of the resurrection." " There are three things necessary," says the Jerus. Gemara"'"', "prayer, almsgiving, penitence." Prayer was accounted better than sacrifice, as being an inner sacrifice of the heart, the only ser- yice which Daniel37 could possibly render when in Babylon. It healed sickness, and drove away evil spirits*8. Belief in its efficacy had from of old prevailed among tho Jews; and the story of the hearing the son of R. Gamaliel by the prayer of R. Chanina, son of Dusasu, curiously paralleled in St. John (iv. 53), conforms with the general opinion of the age. Jesus did not condemn the practice, or oppose the opinion on which it was founded ; but, like the prophets, he rejected lip service, and made the form concise. Even in this he was not singular, for Rabbinical writers, too, advocate a pious frame of mind in the worshipper'", as also compendious liturgical forms after the precedent of Moses' prayer for Miriam ; and it is a curious fact that the Lord's Prayer may be reconstructed almost ver- batim out of the Talmud", which also contains a prophetic 35 Matt. v. 5 ; xix. 27. 29. Luke xviii. 20. 36 Gfr&er, ii 142. :" Dan. vi. 16. 38 Nay more. Dixit R. Bechai : Magna est vis precum ad liherandum ex peri- culis, ad immutandam naturam, et ad irritum reddendum consilium die! num. On tlic recital of the Shema, see Allen's Judaism, p. 331. 38 Gamaliel sent two of his disciples to Chanina, who ordered them to wait while he retired to the house-top. When he returned he assured thein of the recovery of the sick person, which the messengers found to have actually occurred at the time when the word was spoken. Berachot Jerus, 24 b. 40 Gfriirer, v. sup. p. 144. 41 Wettstein says, " Tota haec oratio ex formulia Hehraeorum conciimata est." 380 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. intimation that all prayer will one day cease, except the prayer of thanksgiving42. For example, it is laid down that in every prayer the "kingdom of God" must he named. "Amen" must be repeated at its close with due deliberation and know- ledge of its contents. A prayer may be formed either by enu- merating the attributes of God, or his names, as El, Elohim, Tsabaoth, Adonai, &c.j or the ten Sephiroth, as Malchuth (Kingdom), Jesud (Foundation), Hod (Glory), Geburah (Power), Chochmah (Wisdom), &c, a direction corresponding with the Christian doxology and the passage in Revelations 43. " Nothing," says a Jewish book, " proves ardour in the wor- shipper more than the use of the words '■ our Father.' "44 It is further laid down, that we must name the object of petition in the middle of the prayer, according to the old rule of rhetorical expediency, reserving the commencement and conclusion for the praise of God; just as a servant approaches his master with salutation, and having made his request, retires with an expres- sion of thanks for the gratification of his wish. But though fragments of the Lord's prayer occur separately in the Talmud, they are there generally involved in the verbiage which Jesus disapproved45. §4. THE PAULINE DEVELOPMENT. The Christian reform may therefore be called a revival, under somewhat altered circumstances, of the prophetic spiritualism. Its language had been uttered by the great teachers of anti- 42 Gfrbrer, Urchrist. ii. 145 sq. 343. 43 Rev. v. 12. 44 Sohar to Numb. Gfrdrer, ii. 379. 45 De Wette thinks that to suppose Jesus borrowed the prayer formulas of Judaism is to detract from their value, he therefore rejects the idea in his " De Morte Christi," p. 67 ; but in the "Commentary to Matthew" (vi. p. 74), he says, "The use of Jewish forms was not unworthy of Jesus, if made in a free spirit : nay, the avoiding them would have been affectation." THE PAULINE DEVELOPMENT. -">vl quity, particularly by the Psalmists, by [saiah and Jeremiah1. The eulogium of meekness'2 expressed by Jesus in the very words of Scripture :t, was the prophetic advocacy of a virtue4 which being in connection with religious faith the ohvious wisdom and policy of the weak5, had sometimes been used as a characteristic appellative of the chosen people". Jesus was the true divine mediator or ambassador of his age7, the "prophet" successor of Moses" ; he taught like a true prophet with autho- rity, yet he " spoke nothing of himself," but only what he had read or " heard of the will of his Father." He preached the repentance which had long before been announced as an indis- pensable preliminary of " the kingdom," and which the Bap- tist's carrei' liad shown to be a recognised want of the age. Yet it is not true, as maintained by some0, that the sole differ- ence between Christian and Jew was a recognition of the per- sonal pretensions of Jesus. The acknowledgment involved a prolific principle or idea, whose elements, though no absolute noveltv, required the force of original character and genius for their revival into efficient action. The principle contemplated by Jesus was not abrogation but fulfilment10, not destruction but completion; it was still Judaism, but Judaism in its highest prophetical sense, involving a perfect realization of the law divested of anilities and abuses. The principle in a word was "righteousness,"11 but righteousness of the old genuine kind12, 1 Comp. Paal. lxxxv. 10, 11. Isa. xi. 4 ; lx. 21, &c. Jer. vii. 5. 22. 2 Matt. v. 3 Psal. xxxvii. 11 j comp. xxii. 26. 4 Comp. Isa. xi. 4 ; lxi. 1 ; lxvi. 2. 5 2 Chron. xx. 20. Isa. vii. 4 ; xxx. 7. Psal. xxxvii. 9. Lam. iii. 26. 6 Psal. lxxvi. 9 ; cxlvii. 6 ; cxlix. 4. 7 Exod. iii. 10. Numb. xvi. 28. Isa. vi. 8. * Matt. xxi. 46. Luke vii. 16 ; xxiv. 19. Acts iii. 22 ; vii. 37. Deut. xviii. 9 " Erraverunt ergo Judai de primo Domini adventu, et inter nos atque ipsos de hoc est solum dissidium." Rccognitiones in Coteler, i. 43. 50. Origen agt. Cels. iv. 2. io «Qy KuraXuircti xXka. •xXnoarxi ;" " TXn^uira.i -xaaoLi $ixaioi." Matt. v. 20 ; vi.33 ; xix. 17. "'Otriorrit " and " S/*a/o ai/Ssv rev Quov xkt a^a^rtia-iv aAXa ttotov txrtivtTXi." THE PAULINE DEVELOPMENT. 3f)l and man's higher spirit78 that very influence received aliunde hv faith7'', our relation to God is both objective and subjective, the Spirit in its divine universality giving inward attestation to our spirit that we are " sons of God."8u The doctrine might be objected to as mystieal; and true it is that the things of God are known only through the Spirit of God81; but conver- sion to Christ unveils the mystery"', removing the covering which had ever prevented t lie Israelites from observing the gra- dual evanescence of the " glory" of their own ephemeral legis- lation. The spiritual revelation of Christ's death and resur- rection to St. Paul83 had a twofold significance; it was the substitution of spirit for form, and of a system of grace for one of merit*'. Paul found that "righteousness" is not of human growth; that man can only accept as favour what is beyond effort. Christianity thus fulfils its mission by shifting its ground. Grace replaces justice, virtue is made good by faith. The Christianity of St. Paul differs from that of Jesus as an imparted influence from without differs from moral effort from within; the one proceeds (primarily at least) from man, the other comes down from God. But the gift of righteous- ness and reconciliation must be accepted B5. Faith is sub- je< -lively what grace is objectively. It had already been made hv the Jews to comprehend all virtue80. The object of a Chris- tian's faith is the justifying grace of God displayed in Christ's death and resurrection. It is the reconciling the human mind to an inference in common parlance untrue, i.e. to the ob- 78 " n»iupx." Corresponding to the Jewish " Nishamah," a supernal gift, the notion of which was derived from Gen. ii. 7. It was generally supposed not to be conferred until man's twentieth year. Gfriirer, Urchrist. ii. 57. Supr. p. 339. 70 Gal. iii. 2. 81 Rom. viii. 4 17. The Cahbalists have the same doctrine. '• Homo sanctified se ipsum et sanctificabunt cum desuper;" — " et turn hares fit omnium, ct tales vocantur filii Dei ; prout scriptum est Deut. xiv. 1." Gfriirer, ii. 58. 81 1 Cor. ii. 11 sq. 82 2 Cor. iii. 14. 17. 81 Gal. i. 12. 1 Cor. ii. 2. 84 " Mitrtes Xayi^o/uiya xara e 2 Cor. v. 20. w .Supr. p. 254. 392 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. jective fact of the justification before God of man who is of himself in his natural condition not just. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory and righteousness87. All, therefore, Gentile as well as Jew, are under the law's curse ; for there was a Mosaic conscience where there was no Mosaic law, and thus the same law was revealed virtually, if not formally, to Gentiles also. All have therefore sinned, hut are conditionally re- deemed88, Christ taking upon himself the curse incurred by us. Sin being extirpated with the flesh, the law, sin's universal con- comitant, is dead also ; we are henceforth emancipated by grace, or bound only by the law " of Christ" or " of the Spirit." For the law does not wholly die, it is revived in a new law, that of love, which retaining and fulfilling all that was immortal in its predecessor, limits our Christian emancipation by a more noble servitude to Christ and to each other89. Love includes the whole household of faith, beiug indeed only the practical exhibition in regard to other members of Christ's spiritual body of the faith which binds us to himself. They who live in Christ live not merely for themselves90, but for all, whether Jew or Gentile, who have died in Christ, for all who have quaffed from the same living fountain of the Spirit91. We are all children of Abraham, "heirs according to the promise," not, indeed, of the " fleshly" Abraham, but of the " be- lieving" Abraham92, of him who staggered not at a seeming impossibility, and to whom, while yet uncircumcised, " faith was counted as righteousness." There are henceforth no more arbitrary distinctions ; there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, male nor female93; all died in Adam, all are alive in Christ. Christ has done what Moses could not do; the old exclusiveness had ceased ; the offer first made to the Jew is freely extended to the Greek94, the boast of meritorious 87 Rom. iii. 9. 88 Gal. iii. 13. 89 2 Cor. v. 14. Gal. v. 13 sq. ; vi. 2. 90 2 Cor. v. 15. 91 Rom. xii. 13. 9S Rom. iv. 91 Gal. iii. 28. 91 And that, not because it was first rejected by the Jews (Acts xiii. 46); but because of the comprehensiveness and abundance of Grace. CHRISTIAN FORMS. 393 effort is excluded"', and by a mysterious act of the theological"" mind, a double transformation is effected, through which Christ is made sin, and the unrighteousness of man freely exchanged for the "righteousness" of God97. §5. CHRISTIAN FORMS. Christianity was no abrupt transition. Its idea and shape had their root in Judaism. It has two aspects; the moral con- ception, which, as eternally good and true, is not so much its own peculiarity as an essential part of all civilization; and secondly, the special dogmas and forms which making up its accidental expression or clothing, have never ceased to accom- pany its development, though often threatening to obscure or supersede the vital meaning connected with them. It was as natural that Jesus should use the current ideas and symbols of his time as that he should speak its language. A different style of expression and thought would have been as unsuited to his audience as to himself. He adopted the received theo- cratic image of a " kingdom;"1 and as Messianic theory was from the first a virtual confession that God's real kingdom was not at the time identical with their own theocracy, so in the Messianic scheme of Jesus every element of a political nature was for obvious reasons expunged or postponed, and his king- dom was emphatically declared to be " not of this world." Of the particular gospel symbols connected with cotemporary tra- ditions, such as the sacred " Stone," the " Shepherd," the " Light," the " Branch," the " Water of Life," and the " Bread from Heaven," some have been already noticed, some 05 Rom. iii. 27. » Rom. x. 10. 97 2 Cor. v. 21. 1 Comp. Wettstein to Matt. iii. 2. Targum to Mic. iv. 7. " Revelnbitur reg- num cri'loniin in Htmte /.ion." The consummation of Mngian religion was a similar "kingdom of OnrnucL" 394 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. will recur again. But such illustrations could not solve the great problem, why did God reveal himself in a corrupt and perishable world? Why was man, the noblest of creation, allowed to fall, to become at enmity with his Maker and him- self; and how, so fallen, is he to regain his lost estate? He cannot feel satisfied unless harmony be restored ; and to effect the restoration he is not content with an inward operation of or on the mind, he wants an outward act, sign, or guarantee, appreciable by eye or ear, such as was demanded by the be- lieving Abraham2 as well as the unbelieving Zacharias3. Ap- proximation, progress, are disheartening, insipid ; we wish to clench our triumph, to cut short our labour, to find a by-path to the goal. It is certain that the very fact which to the Apostles as well as to other Jews had at first been an almost insurmountable " stumbling-block," namely, the death of Jesus4, became afterwards, in part through a revival of the ancient theory of sacrifice, the most cherished assurance of their hope. But with equal certainty may it be affirmed that the answer ultimately given by Christianity to these grand problems of religious inquiry was not fully completed or " revealed" until after the death of its founder. It was then that in their official character as " witnesses of the resurrec- tion,"5 the apostles seem to have first propounded, in accord- ance with ancient and almost extinct ideas, the doctrine of his atoning and triumphant death, an event which they found scripture authority for presuming to have been part of God's mysterious and eternal scheme for the redemption and salva- tion of a guilty world 6. We do not find in the three first gospels any distinct announcements by Jesus of his pro- pitiatory death which can be relied on as authentic. The allu- sions to it ascribed to him are few, and the scripture passages 2 Gen. xv. 8. 3 Luke i. 20. Comp. 1 Cor. i. 18. 23. 4 Comp. Matt. xvi. 23. Mark viii. 33. s Luke xxiv. 48. Acts i. 22 ; ii. 32 ; x. 41. (i Actsii. 23; iii. 18. 21. Rom. xvi. 25. 1 Cor. ii. 7. Eph. iii. 5. 9. Col. 26. CHRISTIAN FORMS. 305 now commonly understood as indicating it, are rarely, If ever, quoted by bi» Even the emphatic 58rd of [saiah, by which afterwards his followers strove ineffectually to remove the greal Jewish " stmnhling-block," receives in the gospels quite a dif- ferent turn7. There existed the notion of atonement, but not of an atoning Messiah. Jesus may have eventually been influenced by the prevailing idea of meritorious suffering, but certainly did not deliberately plan his own death. He oame to save sinners by turning them to repentance, not to supersede their exertions by his own vicarious act, or by under- going at their hands a wanton martyrdom to aggravate their guilt". The prophets, though allowing expiatory value to the suffering of the righteous, on the whole discourage the idea of vicarious atonement, Disregarding forms, they plead for sin- em tv and moral purity, especially advocating the natural law of personal retribution for personal offence. The teaching of Jesus was the same. His object was not form, but amend- ment. He preached the expiation by repentance preceding or accompanying the Messiah9, whose final triumph was to be signalized by a judgment on the guilty, described by Malachi as an avenging fire1", but whose career might also be computed to a purifying fountain cleansing Jerusalem from sin11. Jesus probably foresaw that his death would effectually secure the spiritualism of his doctrine by severing it unnnstakeaUy and for ever from the idea of a worldly Messiah. It was this event which more than anything opened the tardy understandings of his followers to "know the scriptures." IV. During his life they were blind to its import, and were far from anticipating advantage from their Master's death. If Jesus really and clearly foreshowed to them not his death only, but God's eter- 7 Matt. viii. 17. In the second century Justin M. (Tryph. ch. 68 sq.) makes a •Tow admit the Messianic application of this passage, yet not the death of Jesus by crucifixion. Gfriircr, Urchrist. ii. 266 sq. Kpist. Barnab. ch. v. ' Matt, xxiii. 85. s Luke i. 7;".. 10 Mai. iii. 2, 3; it. 1 " Zech. xiii. 1. 12 Luke xxiv. 82. 4.' 396 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. nal purpose of reconciling the world to himself hy it, how can it be credited that they forsook and denied him at the very moment when he was voluntarily offering himself to fulfil this transcendant act of love ; or how reconcile with such supposed declaration their apparent ignorance, after as well as before it was made, of his purpose and of the nature of his kingdom13? The same or greater difficulty involves the traditions which would make Simeon14 or John the Baptist15 to have foreseen the plan of atonement; since neither John himself16, nor his disciples who went over to Jesus, appear afterwards to have themselves known what they were before supposed to have taught. And if the aim of Jesus was to show by precept and example the possibility of exact fulfilment of God's law, why should he have deliberately planned an inconsistent resource the necessity of which was in fact not felt until St. Paul proved the inefficacy of the law for justification, especially when the disciples' conduct and even Ms own language show that the plan, if conceived, must have been reserved a myste- rious secret within his own mind17. He said, " I go to prepare a place for you;" " I go because it is written of me, and that I may rise again to enter my Father's glory;"18 once only, " I go to be a ransom for the sins of the world;"19 so that it seems more reasonable to take the allusions which, if made, were overlooked or misunderstood20, as instances of " prolepsis," the narrative being only the form given to a subjective fact in the writer's mind, the fact, that is, of a well-known cotemporary doctrine which, when there were no longer any means of test- ing the correctness of the assertion, it seemed almost impos- sible to ascribe to any other than to Jesus. 13 Comp. Matt. xvi. 23; xix. 27, 28; xxvi. 31. 70. Mark ix. 32. Luke xviii. 34 ; xxiv. 21. 14 Luke ii. 35. 15 John i. 29. 16 Matt. xi. 3. 17 Comp. Luke ix.45; xviii. 34. 18 Luke xviii. 31 ; xxiv. 26. '» Comp. Matt. xx. 28. 20 So of the last supper, and the doctrines of the fourth Gospel. THEORY OF SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT. 397 § 0. THEORY OF SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT. Sacrifice was a symbol of many meanings. The association or communion with God aimed at in religion might be sought in as many ways as there are varieties of feeling or mental development. Religion takes its expression from common usage, and the first sacrifices would seem to have been gratu- latory oblations to a personified God, composed of the usual food of man, vegetable or animal1, accompanied with water or wine*; they were either burned in fire, the element supposed most nearly to resemble the divine nature 3, or were set out as Bhew-breadj as a " lectisternium " or table of the sun, enabling the gods to satisfy their appetites or to regale their nostrils4. Every phase of human life was refined through connection with religion, the altar, though often blood-stained, was a powerful instrument of civilization5, and every meal or ban- quet was ennobled by becoming a holy rite submitted to re- gulation6. The relation to the Supreme Being implied in the earliest oblations or sacrificial banquets, in the heca- tomb feasts of Homer, and the meat and drink-offerings of the lirliivws, was of the simplest kind. The sacrifice was " Jehovah's bread,"7 and the most savoury parts of the victim were appropriated to the Being who, even in Ezekiel8, com- 1 Porphyr. Abstin. ii. 5. 28. 33. Ewald, Anhang to Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 27. The juice of a wild plant, the milk and honey of shepherds, and the flesh of animals, seem to have been used successively. Lassen, Ind. Ant. i. 791. -' Paus. i. 26. 5. 1 Sam. vii. 6. Judg. vi. 20. s Lev. iii. 11 ; ix. 2, 3. Deut. xxxii. 38. Max. Tyr. viii. 4. Judg. vi. 21. 4 Gen. viii. 21. Lev. i. 9. 13. Numb. xv. 7. Amos v. 21. Iliad, i. 4S3; iv. 48; viii. 549. Aristoph. Birds, 1515. 4 Comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 34. • Comp. Ewald, Geschichte, Anhang. to vol. ii. pp. 57. 134. Lev. xvii. 3. In after times when the only legitimate altar was at Jerusalem the regulation was necessarily altered. Deut. xii. 15; xv. 19. 7 Ewald, ub. sup. p. 31. " Iv/.ek. xliv. 7. 15. 398 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. plains that the fat and blood of right belonging to him for food had been given to other gods. Of course the most efficient sacrifice was the object most valued by the sacrificer9. But the religious feeling changed according as men were thought- less or reflective, or as a smile or frown seemed to predominate in the aspect of Providence. The God of Nature is am- biguous; he is Siva-Roudra, the "joyous" and the "terrible," alternately kind and cruel. The undisciplined mind appre- hends the stern more readily than the friendly character, and its ideas and acts reflect its impressions. The world then ap- pears a scene in which labour and death are the price inexor- ably exacted for fertility and life. Nature sympathizes with man10, and man feels that the only means of communicating with the divine is by acting sympathetically with Nature. But it was difficult to understand Nature, and from misinterpre- tation arose the " heavy burthens of antiquity," its grotesque and often cruel rites. All children are imitators, and imitation was the religious expression of the world's children. Super- stition voluntarily offered itself to the ordeal winch seemed pre- pared for it, mimicking the course of Nature which at the close of each year recovers a renewed being at the price of self- immolation. It was this cruel tribute ever owed by life to its source which Athens renewed periodically to the Cretan Mo- loch, the power who devoured his own offspring11, and exacted the sacrifice of the first-born from the kings of Moab and Phoe- nicia12. Many of the voluntary deaths of ancient story, as those of Codrus and Curtius, the sanguinary propitiation of the elements under direction of the unerring oracle, and the fateful murders of Hippotes, Peleus, Perseus, and many other heroes, can be depended on only as mythical expressions of 9 Comp. Iliad, vi. 272. Wild animals, as not being property, were generally- considered unfit for sacrifice. Comp. Ewald, Anhang to Gesch. vol. ii. p. 32. "Whoever (says the Bagvat-Geeta, Lect. iii. 11) enjoys what the gods bestow without first restoring to them a part is a thief and robber." 10 Jer. xii. 4. Hos. iv. 3. " Diod. xx. 14. 13 Euseb. Pr. Ev. i. 10. 29. 2 Kings iii. 26. THEORY OF SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT. 'M)0 this sentiment. When the savage saw the earth parched with drought, its fruits failing, and the young of man and beasl perishing, he thought his oblations had been too scantily per- formed, and determined to decimate his children in order to preserve the remainder1'. Athamas, said the legend14, hy direc- tion of the Queen of Nature married Nephele, and had hy her two children; he afterwards hecame enamoured of the mortal Ino, so that Nephele resenting his infidelity fled to heaven, and oppressed the land he ruled over with drought. The oracle was consulted, and the envious stepdame intercepting the re- turning messengers, persuaded them to announce that the death of the children of Nephele was the required atonement. A similar calamity arising from elemental causes, originated the tribute of Athens to Minos15. Sterility. continues until sacri- iieial reparation is made. Nay, the fatal necessity outlasts the immediate occasion, and becomes a periodical demand. The death of one victim causes other deaths to atone for it; Pelias suffered the penalty he had exacted from Sidero, so that life is a continued succession of ransoms and expiations 1G. In lieu of the typical sacrifice of Athamas himself, or of his children, was ultimately substituted a golden ram, the zodiacal sign pre- siding over the year's extinction and renovation. At the close of the Roman year, when out of elemental strife a new crea- tion was aboul to spring forth from the ruins of the old (in mythical language, when Zeus was expected to return from his Ethiopian retreat, or had been victorious over his Titan lues), a day of solemn atonement was followed by the carnival of the saturnalia17, the statues of the gods were unchained, men abandoned the toga for the loose robe and cap of liberty, 13 Dionys. Hal. i. 23 sq. " It was customary," says Porphyry (Euseb. Pr. Ev. i. 10, p. 90, Gaisf.), "under great public calamity for rulers to offer up their own children to the avenging gods in order to avert general ruin." They thus made, as it were, "a covenant with death." Isa. xxviii. 15. 18. 11 Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 258. " Diod. iv. Gl. 16 Job xxxiii. 24. Paul. xlix. 7. Bxod. xxx. 12. 17 Macrob. S. i. 7. 400 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. and even slaves enjoyed temporary freedom. The expiatory month (December) was consecrated to Saturn, as January to the " renewer" Janus18, both probably only varying aspects of the one stern power who is both Patulcius and Clusius, the "beginning and the end." Janus is the " door" of a new life, and it was therefore customary to smear the door-posts at the renewal of the year with blood 1U, as the Egyptians marked their sheep with red in order to propitiate Time, and to defer the end of the world20. The anniversaries of the solstices and equinoxes, especially the vernal21, were the times generally chosen for these celebrations. It was then that the emblem of life, the Bull22, the progeny or symbol of Nature, was obliged to die, or what is the same thing, to be carried into the pre- sence of Eurystheus23. Then the Israelite, too, made a bloody atonement to the Destroyer, the ruthless exactor of the first born, connecting what had once been probably a type of the liberation of the elements with the traditional escape of his fathers from the house of bondage into the "Lord's Rest." The Theban Zeus was then appeased by the offering of a ram, and at the same season Athens was purified by the victims of the Thargelia, and alternate joy and sorrow commemorated the death and revival of Adonis and Attis24. For spring is as a new creation2'5, and the sun's escape from winter is a resurrection from the tomb. In token of the lengthening of the day and of the succession of light to darkness, the Roman client at the close of the year presented wax tapers to his patron, as the 18 Macrob. Sat. i. 7, p. 237, Zeun. Virg. Mn. viii. 357. Creuz. i. 59. Plato, Laws, viii. p. 828. 19 Exod. xii. 22. Judg. xi. 31. Bohlen. Indien. i. 140. 2U Epiphan. Haer. xix. 3. Comp. Virg. Eclog. iv. 43, Serv. 21 e. g. the ver sacrum, the Noorooz, the Huli, the Phrygian Hilaria. Macrob. Zeun. p. 326. Bohlen. Gen. 140. 22 Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 508. 511, &c. 23 i. e. Pluto. Apollod. ii. 5. 7. Guigniaut, Rel. iii. 463 sq. 482. 485. 24 Creuz. Symb. ii. 366. 419. 25 Virg. Georg. ii. 338. THEORY OF SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT. 401 Christians solemnly renewed their fires at Easter86; the first Attic month had its name from its " Hecatombs'* or the power liny propitiated", and at the beginning of the older year occurred the Diasia, in which cakes in form of victims were offered to Zeus Meilichius. Consciousness of physical evil is closely followed by that of moral ; and if the notion of a God of fear does not of itself imply acknowledgment of sin, the ideas are at all events nearly associated. As there is no precise date at which it can be said that man " fell" or lost his golden age, so it is scarcely possible to imagine a time when sacrifice was purely gratulatory, or when altering its character with human impressions the volun- tary tribute became a penal forfeit, the festive communion an atonement. Theoretically there is a wide difference between a convivial meeting of friends, and a solemn attempt to renew a friendship that has been interrupted. But all religion (and of man other than religious we can scarcely be said to have any experience) implies more or less of an estrangement or " fall," which it proposes to reconcile by mediation. Conscience from within co-operated with the visible terrors of nature to enforce the obligation of voluntary suffering upon the worshipper, when self- convicted of sin he conceived himself to need a per- petual ransom, and his moral as well as physical being to be " bought with a price." Offences were always multiplying, the debt was never cancelled™. The self-inflicted losses of Polycrates and the longing of Macedonian Philip for a little evil to qualify extraordinary success, were closely related to the sin offering, as were the beatings and wailings of Osiris, and the infanticide, which when performed by an enemy was more dreaded by the Israelites than their arms29. The expiatory value of sacrifice was most fully secured by the death of the sacrificer. The aboriginal law seeming to re-echo the voice M Brande's Antiquities, " Easter Eve." 27 Hecatombaeon or Cronion. w Psal. xix. 13. Job i. 5. *• 2 Kings iii. 27; xxii. 13. 2 Chron. xxviii. 11. 13. Comp. Euseb. Pr. Ev. i. 10, pp. 85 and 90, Gaisf. VOL. II. D D 402 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. of nature was the severe maxim, " the reward of sin is death ;" " the soul that sirmeth must die." Whatever may have been dreamed as to the innocence of the golden age, nothing can be more certain than that as ferocity diminishes with civilization, the earliest legislation was the sternest, and that the canni- balism and human sacrifice which continued to the age of Adrian to defy Greek and Roman civilization were the general rule of savage life30. The horrors of barbarism were per- petuated by obstinate superstition; the sardonic smile of the victim was thought to make it more palatable to the Deity31, and its groans were drowned by acclamations or noisy instru- ments. But all atonement implied substitution. All felt con- scious of sin, and it was to avert its general consequences that atonement was made. In time the principle was carried far- ther, and sacrifice, in itself symbolical, became the symbol of a symbol. The " tpa^aKoi " of the Thargelia were followed by blows and execrations from the people healed by their deaths, and the goat driven to Azazel in the wilderness was loaded with the guilt of the entire Israelitish congregation. And as part was substituted for the whole, the individual for the family or country, the first-fruits for the harvest, the gods were still farther imposed on by receiving the bare bones instead of the flesh32, the diseased or mutilated for the sound carcase33, or when a hair, a few drops of blood or partial wounding of the person34, a lower animal, or even a plant, for plants too have life Jj, were deemed to be sufficient. "In sacrifices," says Ser- 3U " Monstra," says Pliny, "in quibus hominem occidere religiosissimum erat, mandi vero saluberrimum." N. H. 30. 1. Sueton. August. 15. Livy, xxii. 57. 31 Hence the reading " utrpivos,'' in Euseb. Pr. Ev. i. 10, p. 90, Gaisf. "Infans necessarius adhuc tener qui sub cultro tuo rideat." Tertull. Apol. 8. Plut. de Superst. 13, says the mother of the slaughtered child was prohibited from uttering a groan, for if she did she lost both bribe and child. 32 Hesiod. 33 Mai. i. 8. 13. 34 Paus. viii. 23. 1. This was probably the primary meaning of circumcision, which was also a symbolical consecration. Comp. Lev. xix. 23. Exod. iv. 24, 25. 35 " Tx It ifi-^vfcu, < i /W Lucian, Henut i. 434 n. 19. iEschyl. Dial. iii. •".. Cic. de Leg. i. 9. Or, as Schiller says, " Zum traur'gen Sarcophage die mister bliche herunter stieg." 43 Comp. Gfriirer's Philo, i. 377. M Comp. Heb. ii. 14. 1 Cor. xv. 21. iS Joseph. Apion. ii. 25. 16 Hence the "eternal example of repentance" given by Enoch's "trontlation to God. Bcclds. xliv. Ill : comp. lA'X, (ten. v. 24. »' Sext. Bmpir. l'yn. Hyp. iii. 230. Clem. Alex. faed. iii. 215*. 406 CHKISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. an end to limitation and imperfection58, the process must be inverted, the great chasm of being again be crossed59, until all things are made one in God. Every sacrifice is therefore expiation ; for as bodily existence is a sacrifice of the spirit, so the relinquishment of it is that complete mortification of a corrupt nature which minor penances imperfectly imitate60. §7. THE ANCIENT HEBREW SACRIFICES. The Hebrews were no strangers to human sacrifices1. The very foundation of their hereditary privileges was the " faith " of their great patriarch in the authenticity of a divine command 58 Eph. ii. 14. 16. John xvii. 21. 23. 59 Luke xiii. 32. John xvi. 28. 1 Cor. xiii. 10. Virg. iEn. ii. 116. 60 The following is a Mantra or formula in which the sacrificer, having duly pre- pared his human victim with consecrated food, &c, and smeared him with sandal wood, is directed to worship the deities presiding over different parts of his body and afterwards the victim himself by name : — " 0 best of men, 0 most auspicious ! 0 thou who art an assemblage of all the Deities, and most exquisite ! Bestow thy protection on me! Save me thy devoted, save my sons, my cattle, my kindred, the state, its ministers, and all friends, and as death is unavoidable, part with life doing an act of benevolence. Bestow on me, 0 most auspicious ! the blessing which is attained by the most austere devotion, by acts of charity and performance of reli- gious ceremonies, and at the same time, 0 most excellent ! attain supreme bliss thy- self. May thy auspices, 0 most auspicious ! keep me secure from Racshasas, Pisachas, terrors, serpents, bad princes, enemies, and other evils ; and death being unavoidable, charm Bhagavati in thy last moments by copious streams of blood, spouting from the arteries of thy fleshy neck.'' " When this has been done, 0 my children," says Siva, " the victim is even as myself, and the guardian deities of the ten quarters take place in him. Then Brahma and all the other deities assemble in the victim, and be he ever so great a sinner he is made pure from sin ; when pure his blood changes to ambrosia, and he gains the love of Mahadevi, the goddess of Yog-Niddra (i. e. tranquil repose of mind from abstraction of ideas), the goddess of the whole universe, or rather the universe itself." Extract from the Calica Purana, Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 379 sq. 1 Ewald, Anhang. v. supr. p. 75. INK ANCIENT HEBREW SACRIFICES. 107 to kill his own son\ And when the king of Moab offered his first bora, the heir-apparent to his throne, " upon the wall" in sight of the besieging Israelites, the latter were seized with panic and fled, not, as Josephus pretends, from motives of humanity and pity for the Moabitish king, but because they superstitiously believed in the efficacy of the sacrifice they had witnessed, or, as the text expresses it, because in consequence of the sacrifice " there was great indignation against Israel."'' Although the expedition had been approved and inaugurated by Jehovah's prophet, its success was interrupted by the per- formance of a religious act interdicted indeed in the present Levitical code, but evidently believed at the time by Hebrews as well as Moabites to be a charm of certain efficacy to pro- cure divine favour. Accordingly it is expressly related of Kings Aliaz and Manasseh that they " burned their sons in the fire," and that the great majority of the monarchs of Jerusalem fol- lowed " the evil example of their fathers." What could have been the practices of those fathers anterior to the admonitions of the prophets, or when the prophets themselves scarcely cen- sured', or like Samuel and Elijah themselves adopted the murder of a man as a sacrificial rite5? The character of the religion of a people may be generally inferred from that of their ordinary customs. David, whose biography is given more 2 The case of Abraham, it is said, differs from all others, because he acted by- God's command. But does not every savage who immolates a human being think and believe that he is thereby obeying the will of God ! The order, it is said, was countermanded ; but God docs not send lying prophets and lying messages ; he does not order a thing to-day in order to prohibit it to-morrow ; he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Numb, xxiii. 19. 1 Sain. XV. 29. Mai. iii. 6. 3 i. e. wrath of Jehovah. 2 Kings xxii. 13; iii. 27. 1 Chron. xxvii. 24. 2 Chron. xxix. 8. Comp. Justin, xviii. 7. The explanations, if they are to be so called, that (In Moabxtet felt indignation against Israel (Newman's Hebrew Monarchy), or that the Israelites were so disgusted with the conduct of the Moabites that they would not even fight with such an enemy (Thcnius, ad 1.), refute themselves. The sacrifice was intended as a spell, the " Dira Detestatio," or curse, such as was per- formed in the Indian worship of Cali, " infusing by holy texts the soul of the enemy into the body of the victim." Comp. Asiat. Researches, v. S86. 4 Mic. vi. 7. 5 1 Sam. xv. 33. 1 Kings xviii. 40. 408 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. in detail than that of other kings, was a perfect servant of Je- hovah who "went fully after the Lord;" yet his acts were those of a Moloch- worshipper6. He was induced by a famine to acquiesce in the murderous atonement proposed by revenge- ful priests and executed by the Gibeonites7, he burned the Am- monites in the ovens of their own idol8, and destroyed the Moabites, like the Amalekites devoted by Saul, measuring them out upon the ground with a line, a third to live, two- thirds to die9. It is utterly incredible that the practice of human sacrifice could have been suddenly introduced; it must have been the originally congenial invention of super- stitious savages and cannibals propagated and confirmed by inveterate habit. The same ferocity with which enemies were treated by Joshua, David, or Amaziah10, had of old been the prevailing characteristic of the internal feuds of the Israelitish tribes11; and even the executions prescribed by law, whether inflicted on natives or foreigners, are described as fulfilments of a vow, or as performances of sacrifice12. It has been commonly believed that the Moloch-worship forbid- 6 The name of religion has notoriously been perverted to sanction the most atrocious acts. In a sermon given on the Thanksgiving-day, Nov. 15, 1849, the Bishop of London is reported to have said that David was a religious man, his good deeds having been done in the sight of God and in hope of pleasing him, while his sins were bitterly lamented as involuntary offences against him to whom he devoted his life. " If the Psalms be true," continued the Bishop, " not the wicked and notorious sinner only will be turned into hell, but all the people who forget God." But surely, unless adultery and murder are involuntary acts which a religious person may commit yet still be religious, David not only occasionally forgot God, but was an open and notorious sinner. 7 2 Sara. xxi. 9. 8 Ghillany, Menschenopfer, p. 773. Thenius to Sam. ii. 12. 31. It is observ- able, that in a psalm supposed to have been composed in reference to this event (Psal. xxi. 9), the miserable Ammonites are said to have been "swallowed up" by Jehovah himself. 8 2 Sam. viii. 2. 1 Chron. xiv. 12. 10 2 Chron. xxv. 12. " Judg. xx. 48; xxi. 12. 12 Exod. xxxii. 27. 29. Deut. xiii. 16; xx. 16. Isa. xxxiv. 6. Jer. xlvi. 10. Comp. Exod. xxii. 20. Coinp. the expression "opening the mouth to the Lord." Judg. xi. 36. Exod. xx. 7. Job xxii. 27. Fsal. lxi. 8; cxvi. 14. 18. Matt. v. 33. TAB ANCIENT HEBREW SACRIFICES. 409 den by law under pain of death was for the first time intro- duced by Solomon1'1; that this highly religious and wise mon- arch had so little profited by the law's plain precepts and by the special revelations with which he was himself favoured, that in his old age he apostatized through the influence of a few fanatical inmates of his harem, and dared the penalty of death through an unnatural predilection for Moloch-worship. The great improbability of this suggests the idea of a mistake or inversion of view in the Old Testament compilers, who in their patriotic anxiety to represent their ancestors in the most favourable light, may have attributed to them the ideas of a more enlightened age. The same anachronism which antici- pates the use of the name Jehovah14, that of the city of Je- rusalem, the observance of the Sabbath, and the rite of cir- cumcision15, may have been adopted in the other case16 in order to rescue antiquity from reproach, and especially to for- tify the sanctions of the law by glorifying the name of Moses. Yet an indiscriminate admission of this perhaps inevitable mis- representation would be to thwart its probable object. It would be to suppose the nation to have derived so little benefit from the divine oracles with which they were favoured, that they became constantly worse instead of better, and after all the discipline of law and prophets were left in a greater depth of degradation than when they received them17. Surely it is more natural to suppose that the worship of Moloch apper- tained to the earlier more emphatically than to the later period of Hebrew history ; that it became less frequent as its hideous- ueea became more noticed and discountenanced; that it was identical with the first rude worship of that "jealous" and " consuming" power symbolized in the fire and whirlwind, " 1 Kings xi. 7. " Comp. Bxod. \i. 3. u Comp. Gen. xvii. 11. 14. Tuch, p. 343, and V. Bohlen, p. 19Ssq. ad loc. Also Josh. v. 4. 7, as to "rolling away the reproach of Egypt" bj the general cir- cumcision of, as Rosenmuller calculates, a million of persons, who, according to Genesis, had "broken the covenant." 16 Comp. Sen, ix. 4. 17 ha. lvii. 5. P. E*ek. xx. 31. 410 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. who demanded the first-horn of man and beast for sacrifice18; that in process of time these horrid rites were exchanged for milder ones, but that the Bible writers in their representations of Jehovah eagerly vindicate his character by transferring to older times improvements of newer date, making inveterate practices appear as detestable innovations, for which with un- controllable perverseness the Jews were ever deserting their own pure theism. The Israelites of early times were in all probability as bar- barous as other nations. Like savages they devoured the still bleeding carcase 19, and the emphatic prohibitions of this prac- tice in a later day as well as of the kindred one of sacrificing to Moloch, must have undoubtedly been required by its con- tinued recurrence. These odious rites are a subject of the indignant remonstrances of the later prophets. " The land," they cry, "is full of blood;" "thou city that sheddest blood in the midst of thee, thou hast done so to thy own ruin, thou hast polluted thyself with idols that thy time might come." 20 " They have committed adultery and blood is on their hands ; with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to be given them for food."21 To partake of the flesh of the offering is well known to have been a religious act usually making part of the ceremony"; and it follows that the horrid " food"23 which was offered to the gods was shared also by men. " Ye eat with the blood," says Ezekiel24; " ye lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood." This was the most probable meaning of the sin of " eating on the mountains,"23 and of the " abo- minable morsels" which floated in the witch broths of the sacrificial cauldrons26. It is notorious that the Canaanitish 18 Exod. xiii. 13. 19 1 Sam. xiv. 32. Ezek. xxxiii. 25. 20 Ezek. ix. 9 ; xxii. 3. 2I Ezek. xxiii. 37 and xvi. 20. 22 Lev. vii. 15. 2J Deut. xxxii. 38. Jer. iii. 24. Ezek. xvi. 20; xliv. 7. 15. 21 Ezek. xxxiii. 25. 2S Ezek. xviii. 6. s* Isa. lxv. 4. Illl, \N-»t. rail. 88. 84 Bell. Ind. vi. 2. 1. Camp. Mai. ch. 1. 1 1 a 14. »• Sob. xiii. 2. Ghillany, p. 231'. 424 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. temple, and converting it into a "den of murder."87 This may have been Ezekiel's "Image of Jealousy;"88 i.e. an effigy which, though in the prophet's view by no means to be con- founded with Jehovah, had yet sufficient similarity to him and to his external attributes, as for instance in the accompanying " fiery glory," 89 to be occasionally mistaken for him, and thus to cause him to be jealous. It was in fact the old or rival deity, the "Moloch"90 of the tabernacle, whom better con- ceptions were tending to displace; and there seems a curious analogy between the double ceremony in the valley and temple alluded to as consecutive parts of the same rite91, and the Le- vitical regulation making it necessary to burn the remains of the sin-offering considered as unclean at a distance from the camp9*, after which it became lawful to petition God to with- draw the imputation of guilt 9'\ Jehovah- worship appears under two forms ; the idolatrous taught by Aaron, of which the Israelitish calf-worship was but a continuation94, and the orthodox reformed religion without image or similitude appear- ing in Deuteronomy95, but which it is impossible to agree with the later Jews in considering as Mosaic. Ghillany90 argues plausibly that the seat above the ark between and " upon"97 the cherubim was not, as represented by later authority, empty, but that the cherubim, like the lions of Solomon's throne, 87 Jer. vii. 11. 31. 89 Ezek. viii. 3. 86 Ezek. i. 28 ; viii. 4. 90 Amos v. 26. 91 Ezek. xxiii. 38, 39. Comp. Jer. vii. 10. 30; xix. 14. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14. Ghillany, p. 220. 92 Lev. xvi. 27. 93 Ewald, Anhang to Geschichte, p. 68. Sin-offerings and burnt-offerings appear to have been originally made in different places. Comp. Lev. x. 18. Even after the alteration (Lev. vi. 25; vii. 1; xiv. 13) the remains, after sprinkling the blood, were carried to a distance from the camp and burned as " Cherem." Comp. Lev. ub. supr., and De Wette, " De Morte Christi," p. 24. 94 Judg. xviii. 30 compared with 1 Kings xii. 28. Bertheau to Judges, p. 134. Deut. xxxiii. 17. Jer. xxxi. 18. 95 Deut. iv. 12; ix. 12. * Menschenopfer, p. 337-8. 9' Gesen. Thes. ii. 634. THE ANCIENT HEBREW GOD. 125 were emblems of the wisdom and power of him who was ac- tually ami visibly enthroned on them. All the accessories of the great Baal temple at Babylon described by Herodotus, are repeated on a smaller scale with singular fidelity in the Hebrew tabernacle and temple; the golden statue alone is wanted to complete the resemblance, and notwithstanding the caution of the Hebrew writers even this is indirectly supplied. The very effort to conceal the ancient idol-worship98, the proscription of imagery in a ritual which yet abounds with it, betrays the object before which the veil is thrown. The Being who had hitherto always assumed a visible shape in his communications with men formed " after his likeness,"99 who, unlike the pro- phetical God whose " ways were not as man's ways," eat blood and fat, and enjoyed the sweet savour of his sacrifices, was not likely to have presented a mere mysterious blank to his sensuous adorers amidst the complicated symbolism of the appointed place of meeting with them ,0°. God's aspect being conceived to be intolerable to mortal eyes, Aaron was warned against incautiously approaching the divine presence in the "holy of holies."101 After washing he was directed to take a censer of burning coals from the altar of burnt-offering, and to sprinkle incense thereon so as to form " a cloud before the Lord,"102 whose image therefore very naturally appeared through the smoky semi-obscurity103 above the lid or cover of the ark serving him for a footstool104. The cherubim, the burning coals, and fuming incense reappear in the visions of the prophets'"', who, no longer apprehensive of misleading by sensuous imagery, venture to fill the otherwise useless throne with an " appearance as of a man." 106 It was truly said after- 98 As where in 1 Chron. xiv. 12, David is said to have burned the images which in Sam. ii. 5. 21, he only " takes away.'' 99 Comp. Gen. xviii. 2. Numb. xiv. 14. "*> Exod. xxx. 6. 36. ">' Lev. xvi. J. 11,3 Lev. ib. v. 12, 13. mm 11, - 2 IM 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. 104 Isa. vi. Ezek. x. 2. 6. Hab. iii. 6. 1 '■ Isa. si. 5. Kr.ek. i. 26. 426 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. wards, that a spiritual worship is inconsistent with a strictly local one107. If Jehovah was worshipped under the bull form in Samaria and as an idol1"8 in Jerusalem, if he had a golden statue under the Judges ln8, it is not impossible that he may have had one under Moses. Moses doubtless had real oppor- tunities of beholding that similitude110 which in later times being confined to heaven, could of course be seen only in dreams111; but which if really once resident among the chosen people, could scarcely have been so long associated with the sphynx-like cherubim without contracting some external like- ness to the shapes by which it was surrounded. §9. THE ALTAR. The ancient altar was an image of God, or the immediate earnest of his presence1. The first altars were called by God's name, " El-Elohi-Israel," and "Jehovah;"2 they were com- posed of the same materials as idols, for the first objects of worship were stocks and stones. These were treated as gods, or as Bethels, i.e. "God's houses."3 The God of Arabia, 107 John. iv. 21. K8 Amos v. 5) couples the superstitions of his otvn neighbourhood with those of Israel. 109 Judg. viii. 27; comp. xvii. 4. 1 Sam. xxi. 9 J xxiii. 6. The Ephod was pro- bably more than a mere article of dress, for why should oracular power attach to a mere accessory of what David addressed as "Jehovah God of Israel?" 1 Sam. xxiii. 9 ; xxx. 7. 110 Exod. xxiv. 10; xxv. 22. Numb. xii. 8. Deut. xxxiv. 10. 111 Dan. vii. 1. 9. 1 Amos ix. 1. " Der Altar sehr hoch stand, — als ware der Altar selbst der sichtbare Gott." Ewald. Geschicht. Anhang, u. s. p. 80. Hence using the altar made by Ahaz after a Damascene pattern is called " sacrificing to the gods of Da- mascus." 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. 2 Gen. xxxiii. 20. Exod. xvii. 15; xx. 24. Judg. vi. 24. Psal. xliii. 4. 1 Kings xviii. 31. 3 Gen. xxviii. 22; xxxi. 13; xlix. 24. Deut. xxxii. 4. 1 Sam. ii. 2. 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. The most succinct precedent of the foundation and endowment of a reli- THE ALTAR. I\i7 whose " holy ground" was the earliest scene of the manifes- tation of Jehovah, was a square stone4. It was essential that the altar, like the world of which also it was a symbol'', should he foursquare"; it was not portable, but a mass of earth or stones thrown up as occasion required7, round which the priests danced chaunting the incantation, and sprinkling the blood". The altar of burnt-offering prescribed for the use of tabernacle and temple seems to have differed from the author- ized type. Instead of being of earth or stone, it was a hollow framework overlaid with brass, furnished at the corners with the horns of the calf-idol; reminding us of those hollow Mo- loch images of Phoenicia forming kilns or furnaces into which the victim was thrown. This altar continued to receive the sprinklings of atonement and nourishing fat9, both forbidden as articles of human food not because impure but because they were " holy to the Lord," and had from time immemorial been delivered to the consecrated flame, or poured over the "Bethel" stone. It was required that the altar should be hollow1", a condition inconsistent with that of a tumulus of earth. It was to be made after " the pattern seen upon the mount," like the tabernaole and golden candlestick; those images and repre- sentations of " heavenly things,"" of which if the candlestick lighted each evening counterfeited the planets and the tabernacle gious house on record is probably that in Gen. xxviii. 22, the writer taking care to show that the vow of tithes was eventually the most profitable policy to the pos- sessor. Ch. xxx. 43; xxxi. 12, 13. 4 Max. Tyr. viii. 8. Judg. vi. 21 ; xiii. 20. 1 Hence Hermes was " rirgxyavos ." Artem. Oneiro. ii. 37. 6 Exod. xxvii. 1. The four essentials of an altar in later ritual were — cornua, clivus, fundamentum, and forma quadrate. Joseph. War, v. 5, 6. 7 Exod. xx. 24, 25. 8 Exod. xxxii. 19. PnL xxvi. 0. EwaUl, Anhang to vol. ii. p. 46 of the (Jeschichte D. V. I. 9 Exod. xxix. 13. Lev. i. 8. 12; it. 18. 30. 34. The blood which was originally dashed in the face of the idol — "sitienti idolo in faciem jactatus" — (Ghillanv, p. G05) was sprinkled on the " horns" of the altar, or poured out .it its foot. 10 Bxod. xxvii. 8. " Heb. viii. 5. Exod. xxv. 40 j xxvi. 30; xxvii. 8. 428 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. the universe12, the altar would be the all- devouring power or " Saturn" residing in it. Atonement was made to it by unction and blood13 as to Jehovah himself; the expressions " before the ark/' " before the altar," and "before the Lord," are used synony- mously, the altar being the general manifestation of Jehovah to which atonement was offered daily, while the Jehovah of the holy of holies required it only once a year. Isaiah addresses David's city as "Ariel,"14 i.e. "God's hearth" or sacrificial metropolis, menacingly pointing it out as the appointed " To- phet"15 for the immolation of the heathen. As all flesh is consumed within Jehovah's true furnace-symbol — the universe, so the flesh of victims was burnt within its representative, the altar16. It was probably a brazen machine of this kind, uniting the conception of altar and god, before which Solomon spread forth his hands at the consecration of the temple, ad- dressing it as Jehovah17. The chronicler blends two seem- ingly conflicting conceptions; that of a heavenly God18 and that of the hideous idolatry ascribed to Solomon, and which here with tolerable distinctness assumes its proper position in his history, not as the imbecility of his old age3 but as part of Jehovah's usual service. The eternal fire of the altar was the true image of the living God, the devourer of countless offerings, the God who showed himself as a " smoking fur- nace" and " flame of fire." The altar was therefore " most holy;" no unclean or unholy person could touch it under pain of death 19. Every sacrificial fire was to be taken from its undying flame, "strange fire" being usurpation. The priest could not touch the altar without washing, and the Levite was prohibited altogether; yet in Exod. xxix. 37, the common man who should touch the altar is made by the very act of violation 12 Isa. xl. 22. Acts vii. 48; Comp. xliv. Heb. ix. 11, &c. 18 Exod. xxix. 36. u Isa. xxix. 1. 15 Isa. xxx. 33 ; comp. xxix. 7 ; xxxi. 9. Ie Exod. xix. 18. Isa. xl. 6, 7 ; li. 6. Zullig to Rev. vi. 9. 17 2 Chron. vi. 12, 13. I8 Verse 18. 19 Exod. xxix. 27; xxx. 21. THE CIIEKKM. 429 to " become holy," and as it would seem, to be not only blame- less but benefited by the act. But the inconsistency i^ only apparent. The being "holy" is equivalent to being "devoted" as sacrifice, or consecrated to the sacred fire''0. If the Levi to wlio touched the altar was to die, much more the common num. The words are a commination of death under the unpitying hands of the priesthood, the fate awaiting all other devoted or consecrated things'21. The neighbourhood of the altar was as formidable to life as that of the flaming mountain made by the divine presence to " smoke as a furnace," and so converted into a gigantic Moloch image, which to approach or touch was death". If superstition maybe said to have reached its climax when overcoming the most powerful of human feelings it brought the infatuated parent to kiss the bull-headed instru- ment of infanticide", it is not astonishing that one despairing Hebrew mother should have ventured to strike the guilty altar with her slipper, saying, " Wolf! how long wilt thou continue to devour the treasure of Israel's children,"*'1 § 10. THE CJIKKKM. Jehovah's aspect was death ; his pass-word "destruction;"' his breath the consuming fire of Tophet*; he had the attribute by some thought to have been the original meaning of that " fearful name"3 which armed the avenging angel, sometimes 20 The Latin "Sacer." Comp. Ewald, Geschicht. Anhang, u. s. p. 85. Exod. xxii. 20. »' Exod. xiii. 13 J xxix. 34. " Comp. Josh. iii. 4. Exod. xix. 18. 21. 24. Numb. viii. 19. Deut. it. 11. 23 Hos. xiii. 2. 1 Kings xix. 8. 24 Ghillany, p. 312. 1 Deut. xxxiii. 27. 2 Isa. xxx. 33 ; xl. 7. ' i~nn. Comp. Deut. iv. 24; vi. 15; ix. 3; x. 17; xxviii. 58. Ewald, Ges- chicht. ii. 147, "• *• 430 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. the champion of Israel, sometimes their adversary4. He was emphatically the terrific god, nay Terror personified \ No one but the priest dared to approach within 2000 cubits of the place of his fancied presence. His fire was always threatening to " break out" and to devour; and so blind was its fury that the very coffer supposed to contain the written command to " do no murder,"6 sacrificed friends and foes indiscriminately. The men of Bethshemesh, of whom an extravagant number are said to have fallen for looking into the ark, wisely declined the responsibility of again handling it; but the unfortunate Uzzah was instantly destroyed for preventing its being upset7. Dis- trusting his own power of self-control, Jehovah substituted an Angel lest he should yield to his desire to consume the peo- ple8. He had the double aspect of all nature-gods, exhibiting a bright and a dark side, holding the balance of life and death9, and often as profuse and partial in favours as at other times reckless and indiscriminate in destruction. Yet even kindness is fearful when irregular and incomprehensible ; " he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy," but is as often inexpli- cably severe and unjust. He puts a lying spirit into the mouth of his prophets, and so lays a trap for his people which they could not escape. He gives quails to destroy them, and appoints " statutes which were not good"10 in order to cause them to pass their first-born through the fire, and for the ex- press purpose of making them desolate. The notion of 4 Exod. xxiii. 21, 22. Numb. xxii. 22. Josh. v. 13. Judg. v. 23 ; vi. 14. 5 Gen. xxxi. 53; xxxv. 5. Isa. viii. 13. Job xviii. 14. 6 The ark or chest in which it was a very general practice to carry the arcana of religion was probably meant for the sarcophagus of the Nature-God (Ghillany, 353. 355. 529 n. Welcker, Trilogie, pp. 254. 272), whose relics were supposed, like those of Elisha (2 Kings xiii. 21), to have magical powers. Hence Jacob and Joseph attached special importance to the removal of their bones, and the Tyrians carried the remains of sacrificed children in a Moloch ark before their armies. These reliquary chests when examined often drove the gazer mad. Pans. vii. 19 ; viii. 5. 3 ; x. 2. Eurip. Ion. 276. 7 2 Sam. vi. 6. 8 Exod. xxxiii. 3. 9 Exod. xv. 26; xxxiv. 6. Amos v. 17, 18. Psal. civ. 29, 30. 10 Ezek. xx. 25. THE CHEREM. 431 blinding or hardening the hearts of men in order to furnish a conspicuous example of God's glory by punishing them is com- mon throughout the 0. T., and continues even in the New. Pharaoh's heart is hardened for the purpose of displaying the signs and wonders of an unknown God, and at the end of each plague the same process is repeated in order to justify the in- fliction of a new one. A capricious power is always terrific, and terror produces the superstitious desperation which dis- cards humanity and pity. The sanguinary principle sanctioned by the example of Abraham extends through the whole of He- brew ritual and practice. The often-recurring phrase, the li i'ing hung or " dying before the Lord," evidently means a sacrifice or religious act of atonement. The wholesale mur- ders of Shittim and Gibeah11 like the similar individual acts performed not in reference to a foreign idol, but under the im- mediate influence of the spirit of Jehovah ia, were strictly sacri- fices to a Moloch whose plague ceased only on consummation of the rite. The calf wrorship at Horeb is said to have been signalized by a sacrificial massacre of three thousand people. On this occasion the Levites were authorized to be execu- tioners of a " Chercm," the form in which men were allowed to sacrifice themselves or any member of their families by a voluntary vow '3. " For Moses had said to the Levites, " Come to-day with full hand14 for Jehovah, and initiate yourselves (as Levites) in your priestly office by slaying every man his son, his brother, his companion, and his neighbour; and so earn a blessing for yourselves this day."15 The slaughter represented as punishment for worshipping the calf is more probably part of the calf-worship, that is, a Moloch-offering ; the act which in Abraham's case was only purposed is here completed, and the issue in both cases is explained to be a blessing propor- " Numb. xxv. 1. 8. 13; comp. xxi. 2. Josh. vii. 26. 2 Sam. xxi. 9. a Judg. xi. 29, 30. I3 Lev. xxvii. 28. 14 Comp. as to this phrase 1 Chron. xxix. 5. 2 Chron. xiii. 9; xxix. 81. 1 • Exod. xxxii. 27, 29. 432 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. tioned to its importance16. The practice here instanced was regularly authorized as law. " If," said the legislator, " thou hear say that certain men, children of Belial, are gone out and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go serve other gods which thou hast not known ; then thou shalt after inquiry smite that city with the edge of the sword, de- stroying it utterly; and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire both the city and the spoil for a burnt-offering to Jehovah, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and have compassion on thee, and multiply thee, as he sware unto thy fathers." u Ritual answers to theory, action to thought. To the double aspect of the deity corresponded his festivals of joy and fasts of grief, the address of alternate imprecation and praise, the thank and the sin-offering 18. The religious vow, too, had its dark and its bright side; there was the simple dedication, and the " cherem" or vow of extermination19, through which Jephthah purchased victory by devoting to Je- hovah (or to death), not whatsoever, but whosoever should first issue from the door of his house on his return20. "No cherem," says the law21, "which a man devotes as cherem to Jehovah of all which is his, either of man and beast, or of the field of his possession, shall be redeemed ; every devoted thing is most holy to Jehovah. None devoted which shall be de- voted by men shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to 16 Comp. Gen. xxii. 17. The very essence of the office of priest appears to have been that of " making atonement" (Exod. xxxii. 26. 28. Numb. xvi. 5. 8. 10. 47) ; i. e. of "bearing iniquity." Exod. xviii. 28; xxx. 10. Numb, xviii. 23. 32. 17 Deut. xiii. 13. I8 Ewald, as above, 58. 81. 19 Derived like the word avafapa from avu0*fta. Ewald, ib. p. 81, note. 20 His words are a commentary on the law of the first-born in Exodus; the object he declares shall be Jehovah's, that is, he explains, I will offer it up for a burnt- offering. It must at all events have been a domestic animal, otherwise it could not issue out of the house. 21 Lev. xxvii. 28. Comp. De Wette. THE CHEREM. I'1"' death."9* Through this procedure cruelty became n sacred duty ; and zealots were allowed in an outburst of enthusiasm to defy every civil or moral tie. Free scope was given to private enmity and to public aggression ; and as under a perpetual reign of terror, any one might denounce his enemy or rival. War was carried on in Jehovah's name with relentless ferocity; it was an acceptable sacrifice, and hence the exultation with which the Hebrew annalist describes the utter annihilation of the conquered and " accursed" cities23, including everything that breathed24, man and beast, old and young, male and female. After the age of David this fearful practice is said to have become less frequent25; but the feeling on which it was founded left an indelible impression on language, a thing de- voted, or as it was technically called " holy," being synony- mous with the " accursed" and doomed to utter destruction'"'. And when there was no longer any immediate prospect of gra- tifying fanatical animosity, imagination revelled in a future renewal of the old scenes of carnage to inaugurate the Mes- sianic kingdom, which like the first territorial establishment of '-- Michaclis, Mosaiches Recht, iii. s. 145, p. 8 ; and v. s. 246, p. 84, admits that a devoted city destroyed by fire and sword according to Deut. xiii. 15; see Exod. xxii. '20, was a sacrifice to Jehovah. The words of the law confirm, if confirmation be needed, the account of Jephthah's daughter being really put to death. (Judg. xi. 39. Winer, R. W. s. voc. i. 541. It was so universally understood by tra- dition. "Ounces t«v -xaila. uXoKavruiriv" (Joseph. Ant. v. 7. 10), that is, he per- formed what he had vowed. » Josh. vi. 17. 21. M Josh. x. 32. 37. 40. The crime of releasing the devoted could only be atoned for by the life of the too merciful offender. Comp. 1 Sam xv. and xxviii. 18. 1 Kings xx. 42. ■ Ewald, Geschicht. iii. p. 209. " The Latin " sacer." Ewald, Anhang, v. supr. 84, 85. Josh. vii. 12. 15. The sight of God was death, because Jehovah and the angel of death were one. (Exod. xii. 12, 13 ; xxiii. 21. 23. Judg. vi. 14 ; xiii. 22.) There is a curious re- mark in the Sohar (to Genes. 98 a), that no one dies without seeing the Schekinah, since the " day of the Lord" to every one is the day of death. Three angels of the presence bring the Schekinah and carry away the dying spirit, according to Gen. xviii. 1 ; — "The Lord appeared to him in the heat of the day," that is, the heated furnace of the judgment-day. VOL. II. •' I 434 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. . the Hebrews was to be preceded by a " great day of the Lord27, in other words, a great sacrificial massacre28, a repeti- tion of the eventful day of Midian29. " This, this is the day of the Lord God," exclaims Jeremiah30, " a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries; and the sword shall devour and shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord God of Hosts hath a sacrifice in the north coun- try by the river Euphrates." " Jehovah's sword is filled with blood, and fed with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams ; for the Lord hath a sacri- fice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Idumea31. " And thou son of man," saith the Lord, " speak to every bird, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come ! Gather yourselves on every side to the sacrifice I pre- pare for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood."3 It was such anticipa- tions repeated from age to age33, and even fixing the very spot where the corpses of the heathen were to taint the air34, that excited the Jews to the frantic violence which afterwards recoiled so heavily on themselves. §11. ANTIQUITY OF THE LEVITICAL LAW. The same law, it is said, which prescribes the Cherem pro- hibits Moloch worship. This objection, if it were not self- contradictory, might be met by proof that the Hebrew law is not the well-reflected work of a single mind, but a digest of v Joel ii. 11 ; iii. 13. 28 Mic. iv. 13. Ezek. xxxix. 9. 17. S9 Numb. xxxi. 3. 17. 23. Isa. ix. 4. Zech. xiv. 11. 30 Jer. xlvi. 10. 31 Isa. xxxiv. 6. 32 Ezek. xxxix. 17. Comp. Rev. xix. 17. 33 Comp. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 232. 234. 256 sq. 34 Comp. Ezek. xxxix. 11. 2 Chron. xx. 24. Targum Jeru9. to Dent, xxxiv. 2, 3. The great war (Rev. xx. 8) was to take place in the valley of Jericho. ANTIQUITY OP THE LEVITICAL LAW. 435 various and often conflicting materials. Moms could hardly have prohibited a rite which, despite the compiler's caution, appears to have been resorted to by himself, as well as \>\ Samuel and David. If David followed implicitly the statutes of Jehovah, he could not have read the law as we now find it ; nor is it possible to believe that while the second command was yet echoing from Sinai, the High Priest of Jehovah should have ventured to become ringleader in the degrading worship of a calf. "The Lord," it is Baid, "plagued the people, be- cause they made the calf which Aaron made ;" but Aaron him- self, the apostate priest and arch offender, escaped unpunished, or was himself executioner2 of the people he misled. It is truly said that the Bible was not meant for criticism but belief. If we look at it from any point but one, the desired effect is lost. To keep up the delusion the whole Scriptures must be treated as the Books of Enoch and Daniel, the one con- sidered as written by the " seventh from Adam," the other by a courtier of King Nebuchadnezzar. Seeking exactness, we no longer ascribe all the Psalms to David, all the Proverbs to Solomon, or all the law to Moses. The Jews habitually ascribed their writings to celebrated men or heroes ; but their Pirke Eliezer was not written by the Rabbi of that name, nor the Book "Jezirah" by Abraham. We know that much of the present Pentateuch was long extant only in tradition*, a fact relied on by many of the later Jews to account for its obvious deviations from the rules of eternal justice4. Many of its enactments can only be explained as a prospective provision for exigencies not existing at the date of its supposed origin. Neither Moses nor his Decalogue are quoted by the earlier prophets; the Books of Judges and Samuel betray no such acquaintance with his code as would seem to have been long before possessed by Abraham, but whieh suddenly and un- 1 Exod. xxxii. 27. Numb. xvi. 41. * Comp. the expression, "all the Levites." Exod. xxxii. 26, with ch. iv. 14. 1 Jndg. vi. 13. Tsal. xliw 1 ; lxxviii. 3. 6. 4 Schliemann, Die Clcmentinen, pp. 73. 196 sq. 499, fte. F F 2 436 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. accountably becomes extinct, and continues unknown in the Israelitish kingdom through all the centuries of its existence. The possessors of the tabernacle and its rites5, that tabernacle which Amos declares to have been Moloch's, continued to wor- ship Jehovah under his ancient symbol on the high places of Carmel, Gilgal, or Bethel6, where Jacob built the altar of the fearful god El, and where the angel with the drawn sword7 exacted bloodshed and death. No priest, no prophet censured these proceedings until they were denounced by missionaries from Jerusalem. Jerusalem doubtless became actually that source of law which, according to a celebrated prophecy8, it was to be prospectively. But the rise of jurisprudence was gradual, and the law extant under the early kings was far from being the present Pentateuch. Juvenal might well call the Mosaic system a well-kept secret9, and we may ask with King Ptolemy10 how it happened that if really it had been so long in operation neither poet nor historian knew of its existence ? Why if it existed was it so neglected ? Why do we hear nothing more of the periodical observance of feasts, of the sab- batical year11, or of the year of Jubilee? Why is there not only no avoidance of foreign marriages, but no apparent know- ledge of the regulations as to marriage with near kindred ? '2 How is it that Moses repeatedly violates his own laws18, nay, that Jehovah himself infringes his humane provision not to inflict needless depredations on the country of an enemy14? The Levitical texts15 forbidding Moloch worship assume the 5 1 Chron. xxi. 29. Jer. vii. 12. 6 1 Sam. xv. 33. Mic. vii. 14. Amos v. 5. ' Comp. Josh. v. 2. 13. 1 Sam. xv. 33. 9 Mic. iv. 2. Isa. ii. 3. 9 Sat. xiv. 102. 10 Philadelphia. Joseph. Ant. xii. 2. 14. Strabo, xvi. 761. 11 Comp. Lev. xxvi. 35. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 12 2 Sam. xiii. 13 ; xvi. 20. Lev. xviii. 11. 13 As in his marriages, his neglect of circumcision, his construction of an altar (Exod. xx. 24 ; xxvii. 1 sq.), his making a graven image, &c. M Comp. Deut. xx. 19 with 2 Kings iii. 25. 15 Lev. xviii. 21. 27,28; xx. 2. 23. ANTIQUITY OF THE LEVITICAL I, AW. 437 Oanaanitea to have been long destroyed or expelled; whereas we know that despite the many injunctions to this effeot they continued quietly settled among the Israelites1", who, we are told, learned their vices by associating with them, differing from them chiefly in excess of wickedness. Yet we are to believe the prohibition of these malpractices to have been long anterior to their supposed commencement, and to have been written at a time when arts much more necessary and homely than that of writing were unknown17. The people who under Moses have an elaborately-detailed code are lawless savages under the Judges; under Moses they had richly-appointed sacrifices and dresses, abundance of precious gums, skillul workmen in gold and silver ; under Saul they have not even a common smith to make spear or sword18. The token of cir- cumcision ostensibly given to Abraham was neglected through- out the sojourn in the wilderness, and we hear no more of the feast of tabernacles until the time of Nehemiah. The better part, or at least, better application of the law19 is admitted to have been a late discovery, originating doubtless in the civilizing influences operating under the Jewish kings. In order to convince himself of the authenticity of a certain newly- found code or book, Josiah had recourse to an ancient pro- phetess, whose evidence however reveals no more than he already knew, except where it ventures on a prediction in regard to himself afterwards falsified by the event. The idola- trous rites which up to tins time had passed current in tho name of Jehovah are revealed to us in their full enormity for tho first time when formally expelled his service20; " Go ye," 16 Bxod. xxiii. 29. Judg. ii. 21 ; iii. 1. Psal. cvi. 34. " Ewald, Geschicht. i. 68. Ghillany, pp. 12. 14. De Wette, Kinleitung A. T. i. s. 12, p. 15. 18 ISam. xiii. 10. 10 As distinguished from the "vain precepts" ridiculed by the prophets. Isa. xxi\. 13. Jer. viii. 8. " 2 Kings xxiii. 6 sq. 438 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. he says, " serve ye every one his idols, but pollute no more my holy name with your gifts and with your idols." 2I §1& REFORMATION OF JEHOVISM. About seven centuries before the Christian era, the date ascribed by Evvald to his "fourth Mosaical narrator,"1 there seems to have been a general movement of religious reform through Asia, connected in India with the name of Buddha, in Persia (or Media) with that of Zoroaster, and, a century later, extending itself by Xenophanes and Heraclitus into Greece. The prevailing character of this reform appears to have been a conviction of the evils connected with nature worship, pro- ducing efforts more or less violent to bend its forms into com- pliance with an improved moral consciousness. The mono- theism elsewhere the chief object of reform had by the He- brews been already to a certain extent attained. Jehovah had accosted Israel in the desert, and had there wooed the reluctant bride, binding her to himself by a solemn covenant or con- tract2. But hitherto he had proved a sanguinary bridegroom3. Instead of the righteous betrothal antedated by the prophets4, he had been a stern exactor of atonement, and his contract was written in blood. He proved his people as he "tempted" or "proved" their most venerated ancestor5, and it was at the price of Ins owu "sons and daughters" that he turned Iris 21 Ezek. xx. 39. Compared with this the words of the prohibition (Lev. xviii. 21) thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch, neither shalt thou profane the name of Jehovah thy God, deserve notice. Comp. Isa. xlviii. 1. 1 Geschicht. i. p. 123. 2 Baal Berith " Lord of the Covenant." Judg. viii. 33. 3 Exod. iv. 24, 25. * Hos. ii. 19, 20. 5 Gen. xxii. Comp. Judg. ii. 22 ; iii. 4. REFORMATION OF JEHOVISM. 139 merciless BWord against their enemies". Ii was lung before his character improved, or rather before his people came to know him better. Even his right was not wholly undisputed ; for since the covenant of prosperity and succour implied in it was based not on a true appreciation of divine impartiality, but on intense nationalism, the Hebrews were constantly tempted under calamity to change their god for some other whom events had proved to be a more efficacious protector. The first efforts of the prophets were therefore directed to assert the superiority and truth of the jealous Hebrew God. They met the tendency to revolt by declaring that misfortune instead of being any proof of his weakness or desertion, was a punish- ment purposely inflicted by lum for prior sin. But while as- serting the indefeasible right and supremacy of Jehovah, they introduced a new spirit into his worship. Although still in regard to the immediate present contemplating a God of fear, they were always looking beyond to a time when fear would be absorbed in love; when the same all-powerful Being who had permitted the temporary punishment of the Israelites would restore them to favour, and renewing the ancient marital rela- tion would no longer be called Baal, " my Lord," but [shi, " my husband."7 Their admonitions were summed up in the ambiguous but comprehensive precept of implicit obedience to God and to his duly-appointed messengers'1. Hut on the proper construction of the term "God" and the authentication uf' his message depended the whole controversy. The God of the reforming prophel was no longer the God of the common people. The Assyrian chief Etabshakeh directly asserts this in his derisive reply to Hezekiah's profession of reliance on divine aid; "Is not this the very God whose altars Hezekiah hath 8 Exod. xii. 1 3. 23. Deut. xxxii. 41, 42. Efek. xvi. 20 ; xxi. 3 sq. The severe conditions attached by Joshua's prediction to the rebuilding of Jericho (Josh. vi. 26), seem notwithstanding the literal fulfilment reported by Josephtta, to have had the same meaning as the fire and blood of the Roman Palilia (Dion. H. i. 88. Ovid, Fast. iv. 727 sq.), and the satiating the dragon of Ares before building Thebes. 7 Hos. ii. 16. * 1 Bam. tti ii Jer. Hi. 23. 440 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. taken away, and has said to Judah ' Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem.'"9 All reforms are innovations, and all innovations are unpopular. Every one was eager to deny the authenticity of a distasteful message, while the reformer who wished to withdraw the rude worshipper from local supersti- tions to a central shrine under his own exclusive influence10, eagerly endeavoured to make the transition as easy as possible by introducing the new principle under the ancient name. The prophets represent their lessons as the old law, the true statutes and judgments of Jehovah11, while impliedly exhibiting the falsehood of their own assertion. " It was not I," says the God of Jeremiah12, "who commanded you to build the high place of Tophet which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom in order to burn your sons and your daughters in the fire." No such horrors emanated from me. " They built high places to Baal in the valley of Hinnom to offer their sons and their daughters to Moloch, which I have not commanded them, neither came it into my mind to conceive that men would com- mit such enormities."13 "The prophets who directed them were prophets of lies, not emissaries of mine14. True, I was the God of your fathers who brought you out of Egypt; but you forsook and forgot me15, or rather you never knew me16. You were worshipping Moloch, or a calf, at the very time when you pretend to have been under the guidance of your legis- lator, Moses17. Therefore, I allowed you to follow the bent of your own corrupt imaginations, and punished you both in the wilderness and up to this day, by scattering you among the nations." The ancient idolatry might be described either as a rebellion against the true Jehovah, as tilings which " he could not away with," or as a judicial blindness authorized and per- 9 2 Kings xviii. 22. 2 Chron. xxxi. 1 ; xxxii. 12. 10 Comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 9. " Jer. vi. 16; vii. 25; viii. 8. 12 Jer. vii. 31 ; comp. xix. 4 ; xxxii. 35. 13 Jer. xxxii. 35. l4 Jer. xxiii. 13. 32. 15 Jer. ii. 32. ,6 Ezek. xx. 17 Acts. vii. 40. Amos v. 26. REFORMATION OF JEHOVISM. 441 mitted by him. Be might Bay to his misguided people either thai they who attached so muoh importance to empty Bymbols bad not even the small merit of having offered, them to himself, since they had been really offered to Moloch and Chiun1K; or he might say, " your contumacy induced me to give you ' sta- tutes that were not good;'19 so that it was by a deliberate penal arrangement on my part that you polluted yourselves with your own gifts in that you caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make you deso- late, to the end that you might know that I am the Lord."80 The whole of the Israelitish monarchs had been idolators ; of those of Judah two only, excepting only David, were ap- proved to aftertimes as orthodox5". No better standard of orthodoxy would probably ever have arisen but for the civi- lizing influences which grew up in connection with the temple establishment and mercantile industry of Judeea. The pro- phets employed these influences in a free spirit, boldly de- nouncing formalism, immorality, and idolatry. Their god "was the supreme unity opposed to that dualistic separation of nature-worship which leads in practice to extremes of sensu- ality or cruelty, to the licentious Baal or dire Moloch". How- ever, the sincere but mistaken Jehovistic rites so emphatically repudiated afterwards were not at first severely noticed. Ahaz appears in Isaiah rather weak than wicked; the weakness of Tear leads to the same issue as fanaticism, and Isaiah's silence in regard to contemporary proceedings" may be thought in- stead of acquitting the monarch to implicate himself. Yet in view of an ultimate ascendancy of benevolence, of a time when harsh anomalies would cease and peace and justice reign tri- umphant, the prophets were eventually enabled to develope the IH Amos v. 26. I9 Ezek. xx. 25. Rom. i. 21. 20 Comp. Isa. lxiii. 17. " Ecclus. xlix. 4. M 2 Kings xviii. 22 ; xix. 4. •J The latter worshipped by those adversaries of Isaiah who " made a covenant with Death" ixxviii. la. 18) ; as the people of Gades worshipped the same concep- tion. Philostr. V. A. v. 4. Comp. Isa. vii. 11 ; viii. 19; also xlv. 7. Amos v. 8. 24 2 Kings xvi. 3. 442 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. eternal principle that " mercy is better than sacrifice,"25 that "sin is not to be washed out by bloodshed."26 It was under their influence that the great external change was effected of abolishing the " high places," and bringing all the people to take part in a better worship in the capital. The change was difficult. Many refused to attend or to purify themselves ac- cording to the new regulations ; they even ridiculed the pro- posal, for the real object was the abrogation of the most im- portant and imposing part of the old ceremony, the sacrificial immolation or " bloody token " of the old covenant27. The quick return of court and nation after the death of Hezekiah to idolatry proves the feeble hold which the new opinions had yet gained over the nation at large ; and Manasseh expressly sanctioned the former sanguinary rite by delivering his own son to the flames 2S. The long continuance of the reign of this wicked king repressed the efforts of reformers; but in the eighteenth year of his second successor, when many adherents of reform had obtained high offices in the state, and most of the priests had adopted its principles, a favourable occasion seemed to have arrived for a new effort. The " book of the law " supposed to have been found in the temple by the high- priest was probably only a brief exposition of prophetical mo- rality in a sententious form, accompanied with corresponding changes of ceremonial, especially of the passover. Up to this epoch of Josiah's reign idolatry had been the established reli- gion. It was only by some impressive measure that the people could be influenced to resign their usual habits. Such an expedient seems to have been the discovery of " the book," a book strangely enough never before heard of as missed or lost, and which though it naturally caused no astonishment to the high priest, was both surprising and alarming to the king. It was now found that the contemplated changes were a revival of the old law which king and people had immemorially been 25 Hos. vi. 6. "e Mic. vi. 7. 27 Gen. xvii. 10; xxii. 16; ix, 12. Exod. xii. 13- 28 2 Kings xxi. REFORMATION OF JEHOVISM. 443 provoking God's wrath by infringing". The attempt suc- ceeded; the majority seemed convinced without further evi- dence than that of one of the reforming party that the dis- covered volume was really the old covenant. The ceremonies enjoined were probably founded on ancient usage, and by giving form for form were doubtless intended to facilitate the transition to that spiritual change which they eventually ob- scured and obstructed. Yet the reform did not outlast the reign in which it was introduced. Even during Josiah's life- time a conspiracy was formed against his innovations30. But their decided though short acceptance contributed to their ulti- mate success. Their advocates continued their efforts in spite of discouragement, and the captivity itself gave them a new argument. They employed the old resource of declaring mis- fortune a punishment for perverted worship; and while the majority of captive Jews, described by the great cotemporary prophet as going to meet " the king" {i.e. Moloch), with per- fumes, and sending messengers to hell31, amalgamated with the kindred superstitions of Babylon32, a small but resolute party emboldened by the allied religion and power of Persia, realized the old idea of " the remnant" by re-establishing the pure worship of Jehovah in his own land3-'. Only a small fraction actually returned, but the very fact of their return attested their zeal. There was no more desertion of Jehovah for other gods, for Jehovah had no longer a rival, the new colonists being all reformers, their imaginations kindled with an clastic Messianic hope immediately connected with the national God. They now began to make collections of the ancient Scriptures, remodelling them on their own views ; the great object of the compilers being to give reform the sanction •n However strange it may seem, the exemplary king Josiah had reigned 18 years and lived 26 without having learned the first two commandments. M Jer. xi. 9. 31 Isa. lvii. 9. 32 Gesen. to Isa. lvii. 5, p. 216. Ghillany, 137. 147. 169. A psalm (xvi. 3, 4) of the exile alludes to the revolting practices continued by his countrymen, those " holy ones" whom Jehovah had set apart as a nation of saints. Exod. xix. 6. w Ezek. xx. 30. 40. 444 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. of antiquity, to throw back the better religion of the present to David and Moses. Truth of fact was remorselessly sacrificed to truth of principle. Every renowned historical character became henceforth a perfect example of the approved religion ; every national calamity a punishment for incessant recurrences of idolatry. In spite of the Levitical prohibition, the sacrifice of Abraham continued to be a legitimate trial of his " faith " immediately connected with the prosperity of the nation de- scended from him ; and the compilers felt no awe of captious criticism when they made the rites and ceremonies of a fixed agricultural hierarchy accompany the encampment of the wan- dering Israelites, or when they mingled the dogmas of a later period34 as well as the incidents of its history with the early annals under the form of prophecy. It was now probably that the Jews discarded the Ganaanite from the genealogy of Shem, and enrolled among their kindred the victorious and sympa- thizing Persian. They recoiled from acts once common to themselves, and found in their improved practice a new warrant for their old invasion of Canaan. Their Jehovah, before only one among the many Gods, was now the universal Power " whose throne is heaven and whose footstool earth;" a better conception of him altered his personality, in deference to which the ancient Baals and Molochs were either degraded into "nothings," i.e. imaginary beings, or took their place after Magian phrase among devils35. The antithetical conceptions36 before veering between union and separation became per- 34 Of this there are many examples : one of the most striking is that where the rule, "to obey is better than sacrifice" is put into the mouth of Samuel at the very time when he is rigorously exacting the most hideous of all sacrifices. (1 Sam. xv. 22.) The Levitical compiler has been carried too far in his application of the accommodation doctrine to Moloch offerings, since the law itself marks out cases in which no mercy or redemption were to be permitted. The strong contrast between the tone of the narrative of Jephthah in Judges and that in Josephus may caution us against confounding the later idea with the original. 35 Deut. xxxii. 17, the swine, sacred to the infernal god, sharing their disgrace. Matt. viii. 31. 36 Comp. Sam. ii. 4, 5. THE PASSOVER. 445 maiit'iitlv parted into two rivals, of whom the somltre aspect, (Satan, or tin1 Adversary ), was banished to Tophet or < ielienna, that fire-furnace of the wicked :'7 still forming a memento of his old abominations, so that it began to be perceived that Abraham's sacrifice was a suggestion of the devil'18, and that the ancient Hebrew God could not have been the father of Jesus of Nazareth39. Although it was still necessary to pro- hibit Molooh-worship, it was convenient to refer the prohibi- tion to a time when its occurrence as an illegal practice might be quoted as a warning on which all history was a com- ment. Far different had been the Jewish records if edited by the idolatrous majority. The people would have been en- couraged to follow rather than avoid the example of their fathers ; yet finding in that example no principle which could, like the Messianic idea, abide the test of time and reason, they would soon have been absorbed among other nations. § 13. THE PASSOVER. The Hebrew reform is emphatically connected with the passover1. This festival was notoriously in relation with the sacrificial infanticide of the Hebrews2, as also with the prac- tice of presenting every first-bom male child before Jehovah, afterwards substituted for the earlier revolting rite. The later Hebrews endeavoured to account for an otherwise unexplained 37 Matt. xiii. 42. 50; xxv. 41. Rev. xx. 10. 15. 38 Masiphat, prince of Daemons, went to God, and said to him, " If Abraham indeed loves thee, let him offer his son as a sacrifice." Fabricii Cod. Ps. V. T. vol. i. SGI ; ii. 120. Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 380. Comp. Isa. xliii. 47. 39 Irenae. in Ha;r. i. 27 ; ii. 26. Especially by those teachers who, like Cerdon, Marcion, &c. dwelt more on the ethical antithesis of tht godt, than on the meta- physical unity of God. Marcion unhesitatingly consigned all the pious adherents of the ancient " Cosmocrator," including Abel, Enoch, Noah, &c. to Tartarus. 1 2 Kings xxiii. 22. 2 Chron. xxx. 5. 2 Exod. xiii. 12. 15. 446 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. practice by connecting it with the escape from Egypt, when the entry of the destroying angel into Israelitish houses was averted by an exhibition of blood upon the door-posts. Yet Moses would scarcely have instituted a festival in celebration of an event which not unreasonably seems to have been a con- tinual source of complaint on the part of the people and of reproach to himself; nor is there any apparent reason why the Israelites on whose express behalf the destroyer was sent should have marked the occasion by a ceremonial of atone- ment, or why instead of expressing gratitude by a simple fes- tivity they should have symbolically inflicted on themselves the injury which for their sakes had fallen on their enemies. The explanation in Exodus involves the inconsequence of supposing that God required the blood of his own first-born3, because he had slain on their behalf the first-born of Egypt; that having once exercised an act of vengeance against the enemies of the Israelites, " therefore" he would for ever continue to inflict the same penalty on his own people unless propitiated by a ransom. Similar inconsistency is implied in the explanation that the mark of blood upon the doors was intended to prevent mistake on the part of the Destroyer, who without this pre- caution might have inadvertently seized a Hebrew child instead of an Egyptian4. Equally improbable is the attempted his- torical reference of the unleavened bread, the use of which was not confined to the hurried evening of the passover, but ex- tended through the whole ensuing week; moreover the de- parture out of Egypt was on the whole not a hasty but a pre- meditated escape, and if Moses had sufficient time to give minute directions for observing the paschal ceremony, the people must have had leisure to leaven their bread as well as to bake and eat it. If the assigned cause be insufficient to account for the rite, its true origin must be sought in the gene- ral opinions and usages of the Hebrews. The fundamental article of the Israelitish creed was the absolute dependence of 3 Exod. iv. 22. 4 Exod. xii. 13. THE PASSOVER. 447 the nation for weal or woe on the will of Jehovah ; whose favour could he purchased only by that devoted allegianoe ex- pressed in the case of Abraham, when offering to heaven his most valued possession, his only son. This sacrifice, real or only intended, was the great charter of national prosperity. " By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only son ; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand on the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Agreeably to this precedent, the claim to the first- born forms the great prerogative of Jehovah's supremacy, " Thou shalt offer to me," he says, " all that openeth the matrix; it is mine."5 Again, "The first-born of thy sons thou shalt give unto me; in like manner shalt thou do with tliv oxen and sheep; seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it unto me." G Nothing is more strongly insisted on than this right ; it was probably founded on the general feeling that the Deity is entitled to the first and choicest of the goods bestowed by him, a feeling which Aris- totle says was the origin of all sacrifices7. According to George8, the feast of unleavened bread as well as the other annual feasts were agricultural commemorations; three times a year all the males were to appear before the Lord in token of grateful homage, first, for the commencement of corn harvest, the feast of weeks for its completion, the feast of tabernacles for the gathering in of other produce. Each feast originally fell on the fifteenth day or middle of the month, that is, on the full moon, and lasted seven days. At the commencement of harvest, on the 15th of the month Ahib or Nisan, a sheaf of first fruits was brought to the priest and " waved" before the Lord; from this time, as after an annual grace before meals, the use of unleavened barley cakes, the usual food of the time and » Exod. xiii. 2. 12; xxxiv. 20. s Exod. xxii. 29, 30. 7 Eth. N. viii. 11. Hon Ep. ii. 1. 139. Paus. i. 26; viii. 2. 8 Judischen Feste, 223 sq. 448 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. country, was permitted9, continuing as a sacred usage after wheat had superseded the use of barley10, when the purpose of the employment of the unleavened and more homely article was explained out of historical tradition, partly from the haste in which the Israelites were supposed to have quitted Egypt, and partly as a commemoration of the " bread of affliction " which they had eaten during their stay there11. But Jehovah was entitled to the first fruits of cattle and men as well as of corn and wine12. These having no precise limita- tion of season were placed at the vernal commemoration of the year's renewal, becoming eventually the most important part of the ceremony under the name of Jehovah's " transit" or "Passover,"13 the "offering of the Lord in his appointed season."14 It began during the last hours of the fourteenth day of the first month ; the victim was killed in the evening, and eaten or otherwise consumed the same night15. The pass- over ("fo?Tn diafinTvfiog"16) was the transit between life and life, or between two great periods of existence presided over by Janus17. It was the solar festival common among all na- tions, particularly the Phoenicians and their colonies, at the commencement of the year18, when the Egyptians and even 9 1 Sam. xvii. 17. 2 Sam. xvii. 28 ; xxi. 9. Ruth ii. 14. 10 1 Kings iv. 28. Joseph. A. v. 6. 4. 11 Deut. xvi. 3. See Ewald on the use of the word Mincha, corn offering, for offerings generally, indicating its greater prevalence among the ancient Israelites. Anhang to Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 38. 42. 12 Deut. xvi. 2. 17. 13 Comp. Lev. xxiii. 5. Hence HDB^ to spare. Gesen. to Isa. xxxi. 5. Ghil- lany, 511. George, u. s. 238. 14 Exod. xiii. 10. Numb. ix. 7. 15 Exod. xii. 6. 8. Lev. xxiii. 5. Deut. xvi. 5, 6. 16 Winer, R. W. ad. v. 17 Comp. Ewald, Geschichte, i. p. 318. Creuz. Symb. i. 59 sq. Judg. xi. 31. Gen. viii. 20. 18 " Kccf ixufrov iros." Euseb. de Laud. Constant, ch. xiii. Paus. vi. 20. 1. Sil. Ital. iv. 770. Porphyr. Abstin. ii. 27. Tacit. Germ. 9. Plutarch, Isis, ch. lxxiii. Macrob. Sat. i. 8; iii. 7. Ghillany, p. 33. 516. Movers' Phoenizier, 301. Ewald, Anhang, 357. THE PASSOVKIt. I I fl I ' I When tlie human victim had both in ritual and legend been replaced by an animal substitute, it was natural thai every ves- tige of the ancient obnoxious form should as far as possible be suppressed. Aceordingly, after the first and second celebra- tions under Moses and the equivocal testimony of Joshua, there occurs no authentic account of a passovcr until Hczekiah and Josiah, when for some unexplained reason it became im- portant to make an alteration in it. The king is said to have ordered that the passover should be observed according to directions given in the newly- discovered book of the law, and it is added, that " no such passover as that had ever been held from the days of the Judges, nor in all the days of the Kings of Israel or of Judah."38 The writer would intimate that the passover had been duly observed in the Mosaic period, but that subsequently in the time of the Judges and thence down to the then present day the Mosaic institution had been neglected. But if no such passover had been held since the age of the Judges, or according to a more suspicious writer, since Samuel or Solomon39, it may safely be inferred, as in the similar case of the feast of Tabernacles40, that the reformed passover was a novelty under the disguise of a restoration, and that in reality no such passover had ever been held at all. Yet the new ob- servance had certainly been preceded by some other requiring reform, the precise nature of which it was inexpedient even to name in connection with the ritual of Jehovah. It transpires, however, that objectionable passovers had been hitherto kept at the suppressed high places41; and since we know that the new passover was a sacrifice of blood closely connected with Jehovah's claim to the first-born, aud that the immolation of human victims which down to a late period unquestionably formed part and no unimportant one, of Jehovah's ritual1' :'8 2 Kings xxiii. 21. :9 2 Chron. xxx. 5 ; xxxv. 18. «° Neh. viii. 17. Ghillany, 520; but comp. Ewakl, v. s. p. 857. 41 2 Kings xxiii. 9; comp. v. 22. Comp. Deut. xvi. 2. 5, 6. M Mic. vi. 7. Comp. Isa. i. 15. 2 Sam. xxi. 9. G Ci 2 452 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. had been a recent object of prophetical remonstrance, it is not unreasonable to infer that such rites usually reserved for the passover festival may have been the very enormity it was now wished to extirpate. The conjecture is confirmed by Ezekiel, who in a remarkable passage43, asserting Moloch worship to have been an institution authorized by Jehovah in order to punish his people, alludes to the old passover rite as having formed part of that worship44, but omitting the clause enjoin- ing substitution and redemption. The prophet admits the fearful practice which depopulated the nation ; he admits too that it emanated from the ancient Hebrew God, but declares that it was a visitation of wrath inflicted for the purpose of exhibiting his power by desolating the country, and that as originally propounded it was unmitigated by the qualifying provisions found in the present text. We are then authorized by Scripture testimony as well as collateral evidence, such as the custom of executing malefactors on the Passover, to pre- sume that the institution in its new shape was only an instance of the merciful substitution so often occurring about the dawn of history45; that many of its existing accessories explicable, as Ghillany shows, in no other way, such as the prohibitions of eating the raw flesh, of tearing or breaking the limbs, were in- tended to exclude former abominations46; that in short the new Passover replaced the old Moloch rite, in which, if analogy may be a basis for conjecture, a man or child was hung, or rather crucified as an offering " before the Lord" during the last hours of the departing year, and after being suspended till sunset47, was then taken down, the blood poured out upon un- leavened cakes48, which with portions of the flesh were eaten by the communicants, and the remainder burnt in the furnace *a Ezek. xx. 25. 44 In the words of Exod. xiii. 12. 45 Euseb. Pr. Ev. iv. 16. « The 6,pBQ*yi*. 47 i. e. during " the preparation." Conip. Numb. xxv. 4. Deut. xxi. 23. Josh, viii. 29. 48 Exod. xxiii. 18; xxxiv. 25. Deut. xv. and xvi. Ghillany, p. 540. CONTINUANCE OF SACRIFICIAL THEORY. 168 fire of "Moloch," the still continuing title of Jehovah in pas- rliiil invocations'". § 11. CONTINUANCE OF SACRIFICIAL THEORY. Inveterate hahit could not he suddenly effaced. The eating hlood in "private dwellings"1 was strictly forbidden, and the suspicious passover rite brought under metropolitan surveil- lance'. Yet blood was still the only means by which sin could be expiated and life ransomed. "It is the blood," says the authority, "which makes atonement for the soul;" "without blood there is no remission."3 And though a lamb superseded the victim of ancient ritual, there remained a tendency to revert to the more efficacious expedient under strong excitement. A senatus-consultum or Levitical edict proves the commence- ment of a change, not its completion. Though human sacri- fices had been nominally abolished by the heroes of civilization historical or fabulous, by Amasis, Hercules, or Theseus, Juve- nal accuses the proverbially humane Egyptians of feeding on men while they spared the kid'; and long after the Car- thaginians had generally discontinued the sacrifice of natives to Saturn, a defeat in battle overwhelmed them with such super- stitious remorse that they offered up two hundred boys of the 49 Ghillany, 542. The difficulty of understanding the redemption clause other- wise than as an interpolation may be seen by its effect in making many passages of the Pentateuch unmeaning; as Exod. xiii. 15. "Because the Lord slew all the firstborn of Egypt, loth t/te first-born of man and (fie first-born of beast, therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix; but the first-born of my children I redeem I " 1 Lev. iii. 17; vii. 23. 26. 2 Deut. xv. 19, 20. 23 ; xvi. 2. 5. 3 Lev. xvii. 11. Comp. Heb. ix. 22. lb. Wettstein, " Nun est wnia nisi per sanguinem." Gfrtirer, Urchrist. ii. 183. 190. * Herod, ii. 45. Ghillany, p. 623. Juven. Sat. 15. 454 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. first families at once5. Impending destruction roused the Tynans to similar frenzy6. Even Athens tolerated the sacri- ficial death of criminals and foreigners7 ; and the bloody tri- bute to the Arcadian Zeus Lycseus condemned in the legend of Lycaon continued down to Diocletian8. "How much," says Pliny, " do we owe to Eoman civilization for abolishing the horrible superstition which made the killing a man a most pious act, the eating him a most salubrious one ! " 9 And yet notwithstanding the self-complacency of the philosopher, these practices recurred. Human sacrifices were prohibited by the Senate in the year 98 B.C.; the Decree was renewed by Augus- tus, Tiberius, and Adrian. Yet Augustus himself sacrificed 300 Romans of rank to the manes of his uncle10; the same rites were performed by Commodus and Elagabalus, and iu the fourth century Lactantius speaks of the dire sacrifices of Jupiter Latialis as still subsisting11. Similar occasional outbursts of inveterate habit occurred among the Jews. In terror and dis- aster the dregs of prejudice are stirred up, and excitement revives all the atrocities of superstition. The cannibalism denounced by the prophets was no vague menace, no un- precedented evil 12 ; the prohibition of eating blood or raw flesh did not prevent a mother from devouring her child whom she called " her sacrifice," ia nor restrain the Jews of Cyrene from tasting the entrails of their fellow-citizens14. The bloody im- mersion recommended by Jews to the Emperor Constantine as a specific for leprosy was a nostrum of the old law15; and the crucifixion of children under Theodosius16 was but the revival of a practice far less generally revolting and unusual than 5 Diod. S. xx. 14. Lactant. Inst. i. 21. 0 Curtius, iv. 3. 23. ' Ghillan)-, p. 114. 8 Paus. viii. 2. Euseb. Pr. Ev. iv. 16. Porphyr. Abst. ii. 27. Ghillany, 632. 3 N. H. 30. 1. 10 Suet. Octav. 15. " Lactant. Inst. 1. 21. Ia Lam. ii. 20; iv. 9, 10. 13. ,:l Joseph. War, vi. 3, 4. " Ghillany, 653. 655. 18 Ghillany, p. 625. Lev. xiv. I6 Ghillany, 527. CONTINUANCE OF SACRIFrCIAL THEORY. 1 ■>■> Josephus would have us suppose17. As in the gladiatorial shows of demoralized Borne the old tribute to Saturn, or the War-God, still continued a spectacle of horrid entertainment; so in regard to Juda?a, that theatre of the most extraordinary excesses of fanaticism which tin' world lias perhaps ever wit- nessed, it may be asked why, if detestation of human sacrifices was generally and sincerely felt, the precedent of Abraham was still allowed to stand prominently forward as the great founda- tion of privilege and hope1*; or how we are to avoid the dilemma that the Jews were either still semibarbarous in their hearts, or that an incredible fidelity to tradition induced them in this instance to allow the severest reflection to pass on what they most revered ? The blood of sacrifice, of circumcision, of the Passover, still continued the great pledge of the eternal covenant1"; and that the idea of human sacrifice though rare in practice still maintained its place in the background as a mysterious secret w. The story of the man found reserved for sacrifice in the temple meets in Josephus*1 but feeble con- tradiction ; and the suspicion which has always attached to the secret mysteries of the Jews has been kept alive from age to age by the excesses of enthusiasts1''2. Sacrificial atonement, especially atonement by blood, had ever been their great re- ligious idea. Established in Abraham, who through "faith" was supposed to have earned the inheritance both of this world and the next8*, the rite originating in abject fear was the most popular source of hope. The notion of imputation or substitu- tion, of the innocent being made to pay for the guilty, was war- 17 War, vi. 3. 5. IS ha. xxix. 22 ; li. 2. 19 Zecfa. ix. 11. 2 Chron. xxx. 16. Nch. x. 33. Gfrorer, ii. 191. "Israel is redeemed by a twofold bloodshed ; that of the passover and of the circumcision." Schemoth. R. ib. -° Ghillany, pp. 106. 623. 625. 653. u Joseph, against Apion. ii. 8. Ghillany, p. 546. - Comp. Socrates, Hist. i. 7. 16. Eisenmenger, Ent. Jndenthum, ii 220. 23 Gfrbivr, Urchrist. ii. 1 5!», 160. Comp. Heb. xi. 17. 456 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. ranted by ancient practice24 and confirmed by law. Embodied in the Decalogue and acted on judicially", it was transferred to the divine attributes26, and a notion so treated is not easily displaced. Even the prophets, however averse to injustice, found in this hypothesis a collateral guarantee for Messianic hope. They delighted in their denunciations to represent God as a fearful warrior trampling the earth in his fury, with blood- drenched sword and gory garments27. Criminals and enemies had been always regarded as economical sacrificial expedients for purchasing divine favour ; the extent of the sacrificial vow being proportioned to the difficulty anticipated in fulfilling it, sometimes confined to slaughter of the males, sometimes, as in the case of the Amalekites, including women, children, and cattle28. The Hebrews in their contempt for foreigners re- garded them as animals for sacrifice; and the notion was adopted by the prophets. By Jerusalem or "Ariel,"29 Jeho- vah's sacrificial metropolis, it is pointedly said that " Tophet" stood ready prepared30, the place had been "of old" marked out by divine vengeance for celebrating a holocaust of the enemy. " The Lord's fire was in Zion, his furnace in Jerusa- lem ;31 it was deep and large, high piled with fuel, and want- ing but his own breath to kindle it.":i2 The nature of the required victim was often shrouded in mysterious silence33, but was invariably made clear by the event. In the olden time Egypt had been the expiation as well as spoil of Israel, the 24 The "holiness" of the sin-offering is unaccountable in the usual acceptation of the term consistently with the breaking or purification of the vessels employed in it. It was " holy," i. e. irredeemable, or doomed. 25 2 Sam. xii. 14. 1 Kings xiii. 34 ; xiv. 10. 17; xxi. 28, 29. Isa. xxxix. 8. 26 Psal. cix. 10. Jer. xvi. 4 ; xviii. 21. 27 Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6 ; lxiii. 1. 3. Jer. xlvi. 10. 28 Numb. xxi. 1 ; xxv. 13. 28 " God's Hearth." Isa. xxix. 1 ; xxxi. 9. Ezek. xliii. 15. M The writer adds with menacing ambiguity, Yes ! for the " King" it is pre- pared. 31 Isa. xxxi. 9. »* Isa. xxx. 33. lJ Gen. xxii. 8. Exod. x. 26. CONTINUANCE OF SACRIFICIAL THEOEY. 157 substitutive offering of first-born for first-born required by Jehovah*4. The clays of Gibeon and Midian were fearful pre- cedents of the same kind30. The defeat of Sennacherib, of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish88, were each of them a greal " oherem" or sacrifice; such too was the impending destruction of those ancient rivals of Israel the Idumeans, who from the time of the exile were especially the " devoted,"'-'7 the type of all that was most obnoxious in heathenism88. In this feeling the expiatory value of blood was exemplified on the largest scale in the Messianic theory. Israelitish depression would "in the year of the redeemed of Zion"39 be requited a hundred- fold on the ancient foes whose anguish would not only satisfy Hebrew vengeance but atone for Hebrew sin. "Precious in the sight of the Lord was the death of his saints."40 "Fear not, 0 Israel," says Jehovah41, " for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by name, thou art mine ; when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, when thou walkest through fire thou shalt not be burned. For I am thy God Jehovah, the holy one of Israel is thy Saviour ; I give as thy ransom Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba instead of thee*8 ; since thou wast precious in my sight I loved thee ; therefore give I men for thy ransom and people for thy fife." " I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine ; and all the earth shall know that I Jehovah am thy Redeemer."43 "I will 3* Exod. iii. 18; viii. 8. 27. M Isa. ix. 4; xxviii. 21. Comp. Obad. 15. Zeph. i. 7, 8. Whoso sheds the blood of the ungodly, said the Rabbis, is a9 meritorious as he who oilers sacrifice. Jalknt Simeoni, fol. 245. Bamidbar Rabba, f. 229. Under the name of the ungodly seem at the time to have been included Christians. Eisenmenger, i. 689. 735. 756. 761 ; ii. 203. 38 Jer. xlvi. 10. 3' Isa. xxxiv. 2. 38 Isa. xxxiv. 6. Obad. 10 sq. Fsal. exxxvii. 7. Jer. xlix. 13-17. Ezek. xxv. 12 sq.; xxxv. 5; xxxix. 17. 30 Isa. xxxiv. 8; lxiii. 4. *° Psal. cxvi. 15. " Isa. xliii. 1. ' Comp. Psal. rlv. II. 41 Isa. xlix. 26. 458 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. make ray arrows drunk with their hlood, and my sword shall devour flesh ; with hlood of the slain and of the captives, from the head of the Princes of the enemy. Kejoice, 0 ye tribes, his people ! for he avenges the hlood of his servants, rendering vengeance on their adversaries, and purifying (or "washing") his people in their hlood." 44 The great " day of the Lord," that fearful retribution preceding, not according to Christian theory, following, the Messianic establishment, would he as in other instances45 an atonement, by which the heathen would be instrumental in consummating Hebrew redemption. And if atoning virtue accrued from dying criminals and enemies, how much more might be expected from the unmerited suffering of the righteous Israelite ! If the ancestor's guilt brought evil on the child46, the pang of the child must redound to the advan- tage of children's children. The reformers who discarded Moloch worship inconsistently retained the theory on which it was founded. They used sacrificial language in reference to the uncomprehended inequalities of Providential dealing; for pain and death could not have existed without a cause, and it was less repulsive to suppose the misdeeds of the wicked to be expiated by the good, than to imagine evil as wantonly in- flicted. Among murderous priests47 and cruel altars, where men devoid of mercy as of knowledge offered sacrifices which God desired not48, the prophet was scouted when protesting against popular abominations he appealed to the plain dictates of humanity. Yet unmerited suffering was a problem difficult even to himself. The mysteries of Providence resembled the usurious dealing of the householder in the parable, rigorously exacting payment for an unjust debt. All that the greatest of 44 Deut. xxxii. 43. Rev. i. 5. Hence the Proverb, xi. 8 ; xxi. 18. Comp. above, p. 270 ndS. "Si Justus aliquis est qui in viis regis superni quidem ambulavit, aliqua tamen vestium parte deficiat, illi Deus ex impii illius operibus defectum suum supplet, ut scriptum est Job xxvii. 17 ; "Parabit impius vestes sed Justus induet." Sohar in Gfrbrer, ii. 185. 45 Exod. xxxii. 29. M Lam. v. 7. 47 Hos. vi. 8, 9; viii. 11. 13; ix. 13. 15, 1G. Lam. iv. 13. 48 Hos. vi. 6. CONTINUANCE OF SACRIFICIAL THEORY. 159 prophets could do was to contrast the sublime resignation of the upright to God's inscrutable judgments*8 with the vile rites wantonly perpetrated hy men. lie leaves moral anomalies to find their explanation in the very theory which had been the root of superstitious pollution, pointing out the suffering pro- phet as a "sin-offering" who had borne the iniquity of his fellows and so healed their sorrows50. "Thou knowest, 0 God," says the martyr Eleazar51, " that I could even now escape, yet for the sake of the law I am willing to die a fiery death ; therefore be thou gracious to thy people, let my suffering on their hehalf suffice thee; and instead of their lives accept thou of mine."" The results of martyrdom were twofold, purifica- tion and glory to the sufferer, and benefits of example and atonement for the people. The penances of the just were a " treasure in heaven" constituting a fund of communicable desert, and the reckoning between Jehovah and his people was treated as a commercial balance of accounts. Rabbi Judah the holy suffered the toothache for thirteen years; during those years it was affirmed that no living thing died in Israel, and no woman miscarried M. The death of the righteous being super- fluous in regard to himself, operated on the general balance of account in favour of the people; the death of the High-Priest was considered a general satisfaction for sin, so that the in- voluntary shedder of blood became by that event at liberty to return in safety to his home54. "Why," says the Talmud55, " did the sons of Aaron die on the day of Atonement? That ye may learn that as the day of atonement makes expiation for 49 Isa. lvii. 1 sq. M Isa. liii. 51 4 Mac vi. p. 50G. Comp. p. 518 and 2 Mac. vi. 30. M This idea is said still to prevail in sonic Jewish communities. Rabbi Joseph, the son of Joshua, relates that when the son of a Jewish renegade was burnt by order of Charles the Fifth, " the Lord smelled a sweet savour;" and a letter bom Jerusalem describes the death of those who perished in the earthquake of 1S37 as an atoning sacrifice for Israel. Dnunier, Feuer und Moloch dienst der alten Hebraer. y. '■'■'■'<. 51 Gfn.rer, Uivhrist. ii. 187. *' Numb. xxxv. '_'.".. 28. " (ifrorer, ii. 188. 460 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. Israel so also doth the death of the righteous." Again, "Why does Scripture relate the death of Miriam immediately after the directions about the red heifer ? 56 To teach that as the ashes of the heifer atone for Israel, so doth the death of the righte- ous." In treatise Meschilta R. Jonathan appeals to the exam- ples of Jonah57, Moses58 and David59, to show how patri- archs and prophets offered their lives for their people ; and it was an impression handed down from early times that the same self-immolations of chiefs and princes often met with in profane history, in which the devoted hero undergoes a voluntary death at the command of an oracle or soothsayer, had repeatedly oc- curred among the Hebrews, and that the extraordinary deaths of Moses and Aaron by God's appointment were not mere natural events, for the "eye of Moses was not dim nor his natural force abated," but self-inflicted forfeitures, sublime acts of sacrificial self-devotion for the public good60. §15. ITS PRESENT EFFECTS. Atonement, spiritual reunion with God, a restoration of the ,c golden age," these are the great aims of all religion. When man fell, when, in other words, he ceased to be in unconscious sympathy with Nature, his ingenuity of course sought for means of reunion. With the consciousness of estrangement arose varied forms of mediation, one of the earliest of which was a metaphysical pantheism producing a more or less deli- 56 Numb. xix. 20, 21. » Jonah i. 12. 59 Exod. xxxii. 32. Numb. xi. 15. S9 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. 60 "Mors justorum est expiatio saeculi," says the Sohar. (Gfrorer, ii. 188.) Again, " There is no expiation more powerful to avert the plague than the sacrifice of the binding of Isaac (Gen. xxii. 9) ; God's severity was thereby bound, and there- fore all Jews ought in the captivity to reflect on Isaac's bonds which protect them against all evil." ITS PRESENT EFFECTS. 4GI berate return of the self-conscious mind to the serenity of its childhood. But it was not in the power of all men to overleap the barrier by a sudden effort. There was a long interval, daring which the mind parted from Nature yet imperfectly aware of its own claims, roved fitfully through the twilight of the mythical, investing the outward world with attributes and powers which it strove hy fanciful means to propitiate or in- fluence. At length man stood face to face with a supreme independent Being raised, like himself, above Nature, and bear- ing his own likeness. But the very supposition involved a continuing separation. Among the Hebrews, the relation of God to man was that of Governor and subject ascertained by a law, the terms of which would therefore contain the means of reconciliation. But legal conformity was always felt to be im- perfect. The state, the individual suffered, and the suffering of itself was proof, if proof were needed, that reconciliation was incomplete. Sacrifices therefore were used to make up for lack of performance, while to those who had a truer notion of perfection, who "thirsted after righteousness,"1 the absolute theocratic fulfilment was transferred from the present to future hope under the form of the Messianic theory. Even while man and God were thus opposed as persons, the efforts to appease him partook in some degree of the feeling of the first and last stages of thought; but the very existence of a law implied continuing estrangement, its constantly recurring cere- monial containing an acknowledgment of guilt which separated rather than united. Judaism was eminently calculated to be in the Pauline sense a " schoolmaster;" that is, to awaken in men's minds a distinct idea of the necessity of atonement; hut it at the same time seemed to proclaim the impossibility of rally attaining the object except at some remote time and through some new organization which would be its own down- fall. The incompleteness and transitory condition of law was daily exhibited to those who espied the unveiled barrenness8 1 I«i. li. 1. 5; lv. ] ; Iviii. 2, fee. * 2 Cor. iii. 7. 462 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. of superannuated sacrificial forms, while the prophetic spirit, that necessary part of Judaism, was constantly looking out for a " better promise," and chaunting a song of exultation over the approaching fall of its parent. In Christ the fulfilment of all expectation and prediction is brought before us in two ways : first, in the example of a faultless life encouraging us to realize objectively the divine ideal; secondly, by denying as far as could consist with the notion of a personal God the imaginary barrier, and assuming him to be already reconciled as a friend and father. It may be questioned whether in making a further effort to restore the golden age, in endeavouring through the atonement scheme to arrogate by a symbol the claim to spiritual union made on abstract ground by the metaphysical idealist, Christianity did not betray its own dignity, and abandon for a fanciful notion a prolific truth. The sacrifice of Jesus was a sacrifice for a principle. He died to establish his religion, to bequeath an eternal truth to mankind. To say that he courted death would contradict both authority and probability. He pathetically deplored the obdurate aversion of his countrymen to the " things belonging to their peace." He easily foresaw that in the then prevailing temper of their minds there would arise " false Christs and false prophets," that misdirected zeal would undo them. He experienced the bitter disappointment of an enthusiastic philanthropist whose aims and motives have been misconstrued and depreciated. His agony was not an unmanly fear of death, but distress at the utter failure of his most cherished hopes, and the impossibility of his living except as an apostate without universal offence and constant perse- cution3. It may be that at an earlier period he imagined that his kingdom in its loftiest meaning was to be quickly realized to the eye either in a natural or supernatural manner4. But the expectation if ever formed was soon dispelled ; and the proffer of the only kind of deliverance which it was competent for himself to offer or for his countrymen to receive was scorn - 3 Comp. Matt. xi. 6. 4 Matt. x. 23 ; xi. 3 sq. ; xvi. 27, 28. ITS PRESENT EFFECTS. 168 folly rejected by the world, and coarsely misinterpreted even by bis Dearest friends. At this conjuncture it remained only that since his Messianic plan had foi the present failed both temporally and spiritually, he should himself become a sacrifice foi his cause, not merely in order to prove his sincerity, hut as an appeal to the future world against the grossness and hard- heartedness of this. Impressed with the inevitable necessity, he had no longer any scruple as to acknowledging publicly before the Sanhedrim and the Roman governor Iris pretensions to be the spiritual prince and saviour of men's souls ; he boldly confronted death to uphold his sinking cause, conscious that tin expectations he had sown in the reluctant hearts of Ins dis- ciples could fructify only in his blood. Words had been spent in vain, deeds alone could bring down the " holy spirit'' into their hearts. His death too might seem to be demanded by the same oracle which was the guarantee of Iris second coming5 and of the proverbial "woes" which were to precede it. He was influenced doubtless by the example of preceding prophets, nearly all of whom had been martyrs", especially by the pas- sage, Isaiah liii.7, not indeed in opposition to his great object8 in the idea of substituting his own bodily suffering by way of sacrificial expiation for obdurate sin, but chiefly in the hope that indifference and cruelty would at last be awakened to remorse9, so that his death might as it were ransom sin by eradicating sinfulness from the heart. Even admitting the words ascribed to Jesus about " giving his life a ransom for many" to have been really spoken by him, it seems needless to ascribe to them more than the figurative sense10 intimating 5 Dan. ix. 26. 6 Matt. xxi. 35 sq. ; xxiii. 30. 37. Comp. Mark ix. 12 ; xiv. 49. 7 Comp. Luke xxii. 37. fl Matt. ix. 13. Mark xii. 33. 9 Comp. Zech. xii. 10. 10 Isa. liii. Comp. Wisd. iii. 6. Thilo generalizes the word "ransom" in his adage of " n«; tr»s too Qaukou Xur^n" (De Sacrif. Aliel. ft Caini) into "salutary influence" or "remedy." The language transmitted from a rude and ignorant age would of course receive afterwards a different turn. 464 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. the beneficial influences of heroic martyrdom, or to think that he whose great object was to enforce practical righteousness seriously entertained the inconsistent idea of a summary gra- tuitous reckoning or settlement of account. In short, we cannot admit the atonement doctrine to have been authorized by Jesus as part of his religion. He used the terms and sym- bols of his age, which the disciples, " foolish and unapprehen- sive" as they were, applied literally, thereby creating a super- stitious mystery never deliberately contemplated by their master. They could but dimly appreciate the new world of spiritualism through the mist of old conventionalisms11 ; and in the sensuous construction of Messianic types, the con- " How far, if at all, the notion of martyrdom had in the time of Jesus become mingled with Messianic theory, is one of the obscurest problems of antiquity. Allusion has before been made to the Rabbinical notion of a secondary Messiah, a son of Joseph or Ephraim, who was to perish in the war of Gog (Above, p. 321, and Targum to Cantic. iv. 5 ; vii. 3. Bereschith Rabba to Gen. xlix. 14), and whose blood would atone for the schism and iniquities of Jeroboam, finally healing the division of the tribes. (Bertholdt, Christologia, s. 7 and 17, p. 78.) In the Talmud (Succa, p. 52 a) the words of Zechanah (xii. 10. 12) are applied to this son of Ephraim, whose death, it is there stated, would enable the son of David to obtain eternal life from Jehovah. (Gfrorer, Urchrist. ii. 259.) It is well known that the great Israelitish prophet Elijah was to precede and to inaugurate the Messiah, appearing three days before him on the mountains of Israel to announce salvation and peace. Many believed Jesus to be this personage (Matt. xvi. 14) ; his conduct was rather that of precursor than of the true Messiah ; even the disciples when sup- posed to be convinced of his true character by the transfiguration, immediately ask, "Where then was the Elias who was to come first?" It may be questioned whe- ther the Samaritans may not out of local traditions have set up a rival Messiah theory as well as a rival temple ; whether already extant notions of a dying mediator may not have helped them over the great stumbling-block of early Christianity (Matt. xxvi. 31. Luke xxiv. 19 sq. Acts xxvi. 23), predisposing them to accept the preaching of Philip (Acts viii. 6) ; whether the abrupt departure of Jesus for Galilee after his resurrection (in Matt. xxvi. 32 ; xxviii. 18) may not have been in- tended to meet conceptions more specific than the general prophecy of Isa. ix., and whether the Jewish persecutors of the Galilaean "son of Joseph" may not have been partly influenced in conspiring his death by considering him, according to the suggestion ascribed to Caiaphas in St. John, as the preparatory victim whose un- merited and therefore meritorious suffering (Luke xxiii. 14. 47. Wisd. iii. 6) wai to produce or expedite the appearance of their own Davidical hero. ITS PRESENT EFFECTS. 466 tinuance of an obscure term involved retention of its associated thought. The Hebrew Palladium was ilms inherited by Chris- tians19. Yet if in moral inequalities there 1"' anything which can really disturb the serenity of the divine mind, tasking it not merely to forbear but to forgive, the forgiveness (of course not to be expected from a lower source'3) is surely a free gift to the repentant14, unpurchaseable by bloodshed, uninfluenced by magical exorcism ; and if human waywardness had delibe- rately proposed to cast a slur on the sublime act of self-de- votion which closed the career of Jesus, the object could scarcely have been more effectually attained than by construing it as an enchantment or spell through which the real mental change he died to promote might be superseded by a mere pro- fession of paradoxical belief. The expressive sign or symbol of "atonement" recommended itself to the imagination, supplant- ing one trick of fancy15 by another, and giving a seemingly substantial basis for hope. This hope, of which in St. Paul, 12 Jesus is not the Lcvitical sin-offering, but rather, in respect of Isa. liii. 7, the expiatory "lamb" of the old paschal rite. Justin M. describes the mode of roasting the paschal lamb as containing a pointed allusion to the death by crucifixion (Tryph. ch. xl. p. 259. Comp. Epist. Barnab. ch. ix. Tertull. in Marcion, iii. 9. Jerome on Ezek. ix. 4. De Wette, Archaologie, 287) ; a practice by no means peculiarly Roman, but common to Persians, Scythians, Carthaginians, &c. Its probable origin was a superstitious rite, such as can alone explain the odd custom of crucifying hawks inherited by modern times from the old Egyptians uKlian, H. A. x. 24), or the healing serpent of Moses. (Justin M. Apol. i. p. 93. Tryph. p. 322.) Exe- cuted criminals appear to have been considered as sun-offerings, consecrated, or in Bible phrase, ".accursed," and their bodies were removed at sunset. The cross itself was emblem of the Sun or of Baal (Ghillany, p. 530, and above, vol. i. p. 158. 160. 214) ; and if we call to mind that the essential idea of sacrifice was the union of the victim with the God, that the Carthaginian idol hugged the devoted child in its arms (comp. Deut. xxxiii. 27, and above, p. 307) like the fiery embrace of the Cretan Talus, it may be conceived how the instrument of torture and death became the "sign" of salvation and immortality. (Wisd. xvi. 6. Socrat. E. H. v. 17. Lucian, Prom. 1, and De Sacrif. 6. Exod. xvii. 11. Rufin. H. E. ii. 29.) IJ Luke v. 21. 14 Hos. xiv. 4. Isa. lv. 1. 7. Ezek. xviii. Matt, xviii. 27. Luke vii. 42; xviii. 14. 14 The Fall. VOL. II. 1' if 406 CHRISTIAN FORMS AND REFORMS. grace is the object and faith the inward assurance or means, is the mental realization of a new golden age or spiritual union with God. But apart from a firm trust in the general benefi- cence of the Creator, which needs not to be restored since it never was withdrawn, can this transcendental presumption which arrogantly anticipates the distant goal of existence be a safe creed for an imperfect progressive being ? A large mass of error is easily embalmed and perpetuated by a little truth. If the symbol of Christ's death were only an eminent example of self-devotion through which his Spirit could for ever dwell with us16, or if it were taken only as a final cancelling of those subjective fancies which made God appear as a tyrant, and raised an imaginary barrier between Him and his creatures, its effect would be healthful ; unfortunately it has been used for the very opposite purpose of perpetuating those ancient super- stitions in their most frightful form, and practically giving to Christianity a character, which though it have an ill sound it would be vain as well as dishonest to dissemble, that of a religion of Moloch. 16 Matt, xxviii. 20. SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. " Redit error in orbem Et sua perpctuo relegunt vestigia gyro." Oxford Prize Poem. "Ot/ri ti ytu/rif any menus ov6' ri tuttii dtiv yvutrius. Cleu. Alex. Stbom. v. 1. p. tii'6. II II SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. §1. THE ALEXANDRIAN TIIEOSOniY. Among the numerous Jews who settled in Egypt under Alex- ander and his successors, there arose a peculiar theosophy out of the mingling of heathen doctrines with their own. Re- serving as indisputable truth the divine authority of their Scriptures, they transferred to Jehovah the philosophic notions gained in Alexandria. An acquaintance with the Greek writers, especially Plato, engendered inquiry and criticism ; and the natural result was an endeavour to explain away the sensuous representations of God in the Old Testament. It was admitted that God, the universal mind1, is invisible, incomprehensible, to be contemplated only by intellect2; and hence the Sep- tuagint uniformly alters every passage suggesting a visible manifestation of God by substituting his "angel" or "glory" instead of himself. Where for instance the original3 states that not only Moses and Aaron, but also Nadab, Abihu and the elders "saw" the God of Israel, and were able to eat and drink after it, the LXX alters the phrase to "the place where the God of Israel stood," though it is expressly stated in the Babylonian Talmud that there existed no reading to authorize the change. 1 " Nov* s," who "is in heaven" even when dwelling on earth. John iii. 13; xiv. 10, 11; xvii. 21. Pfeif. iv. 268. Mang. i. 561. Theory of the logos. 177 nately personified artificer, like the Pemiurgus of Pluto'". PlatO called the world fAOvoyzv*!;, as the one divine production. In Philo the sensible universe is called " younger sun of ( tod," the elder being the ideal Logos whom he retains with himself. God the great Shepherd and King appointed his first-born, " ofQog xoyog," as viceroy over the elements, and charged him with superintendence of the heavenly herd or host, as it is written, "Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way." The external manifestation of Logos, which investing itself with the world as with a garment forms the mainstay of all law and order (6et/*oj and vofx.og tojv oacjv), the " Chance" of the foolish, and the " Providence" of the wise, stands in a peculiar relation to God's noblest work, man. It is this, which like the "first-born,"" opens the womb of the soul; which stirs the body to move, the tongue to speak, the spirit to comprehend. Uniting as the universal idea all spiritual natures, it is the soul's essence ; it is either itself its dwelling-place, or makes the pious soul its abode, so that the " xoyucn \J^x»" is the temple of God". Its gifts are the true and good, wisdom and virtue ; true wisdom being to the Jew as to the Brahmin or Persian that written "Word" from which he is forbidden to swerve*4. The word is the healing "dew" of the soul", the true "manna" rained from heaven2", the divine river of Psalms'" from which wisdom flows, and which is prepared to refresh all who hunger and thirst after righteousness", since 21 " VltfiOVfiwos TOLi rov Tlarges Slovf ergo; Ta^aitiyfi.tx.'ra a^irvx* exiiisf /3XlTcovtcrfjt.a," were all sig- nificant of the Logos, whose garment is the universe, whose head ever wears a royal diadem41, who rends not his clothes, but maintains continuity throughout nature. As the High Priest's death was the signal for the return of the slayer, so the departure of the Word out of the soul opens the door for the 31 Gen. i. 1- Prov. viii. 22. God having made all things "in" or "through" the Beginning. 34 Exod. xxiii. 21. Isa. xxx. 27. M Viz., Israel, or " o^uv ©£«v." 16 " Eixuv tov ovtos." De Vit. Mos. Mang. ii. 91. Comp. Wisd. xiii. 3. 37 Mang. ii. 107. Comp. Wisd. x. 17. 89 " Tov rou ovro; Xoyo* ov &ia.&nx.w tKaXi/ri." Pfeif. v. 202. S9 "Zcmach," translated by the LXX AvaroXn, the "rising" or "the glory of God." (Isa. xi. 1. 42. Jer. xxiii. and xxxiii. Zech. iii. 8 ; vi. 12. Luke i. 78.) As Eustathius (to II. v. p. 102. 11) says that ambrosia cannot be said to grow, fur this would be unworthy of its celestial nature, but «vo:t»XX«/v, to " spring up." w De Trofug. i. 561. 41 According to Exod. xxviii. 36. Zech. vi. 11. 480 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. admission of sin. The great High Priest is also the cup- bearer, not like the cupbearer of Pharaoh, but he who as minister of grace pours forth libations of the purest wine ; he is Melchizedec the "king of peace," the priest of the Most High, who brought forth bread and that wine which imparts to the soul an intoxication more temperate and godlike than sobriety itself; no eunuch like Pharaoh's minister, but father of the holy Logoi, among whom are Ithamar and Eleazar42, as also others attendant on the sacred fire ; therefore far from being excluded from the congregation he is one of its most im- portant members, nay, is himself the congregation, himself alone equivalent to the whole race of men, or rather a being above man. " For when the High Priest enters the holy place he is said to be no longer a man43, he assumes (if not a God) an intermediate nature which continues until he comes out, typifying the soul, which when seized with heavenly love it attempts to enter the sanctuary, in its rapture forgets the world, forgets itself. As Aaron stood between the dead and living, as the cloudy pillar separated the Israelitish and Egyp- tian hosts, so the Archangel Logos stands between God and man, to the one a minister of peace and order, to the other an advocate [pta^a.KM'xo^) and intercessor; when he enters the sacred place he bears (in his symbolical garments44) the whole universe along with him, since it is fit that he who ministers to the Father should bring the pure and perfect son with him as advocate for the remission of sins and dispensing of mercy and blessing."45 42 The sons of Aaron, or the Word, according to Exod. iv. 14-16. Lev. x. 6. *3 Lev. xvi. 17, with comment. u Comp. Wisd. xviii. 24. 43 Mang. i. 501 ; ii. 155. SOPHIA AND 7rvzu/J.a Qscu. I- I §3. SOPHIA AND 7TVEU/jia &E0U. A similar metaphysical personification, or rather another name for the same meaning, is Sophia or Wisdom. Philosophy and tradition being both received as true, they naturally coalesced in mythus, in which the offices originally performed by God were transferred to an ideal personage apart from him ; yet with this distinction, that while to a mind like Philo's mythus would be scarcely more than a transparent allegory or vehicle for philosophy, to the vulgar the speculative element would sink in importance, diminishing into a mere adjunct or dim envelopment1 of a received tradition. A passage in Pro- verbs2 where God is said to have "created'1 Wisdom, the be ginning of his ways, for the purpose of his works," probably furnished the first hint of what was afterwards more elaborately embellished. Philo4 and even Aristobulus5 quote the passage; and both Ecclesiasticus0 and the Book of Wisdom, in which Sophia plays a prominent part, make Proverbs their model. As in the older authority Sophia or the Word7 is made to take part in creation" and to exercise benign influence over man- kind0, so in the later she is the pre-existent Word1" pervading nature as its life and light, inspiring the human soul, and esta- blishing her peculiar habitation among the Jewish people", to whom she was shown of old in the cloudy pillar12 and cove- 1 Like the "cloudy pillar" which according to Philo dispensed wisdom to vir- tuous souls, but "troubled the Egyptians." 2 Prov. viii. 22, LXX ; comp. iii. 19, 20. 3 Comp. Ecclus. i. 4. 9; xxiv. 9. 4 Pfeif. iii. 182. M. i. 75. 361. 4 Fragment in Euseb. Pr. Ev. vii. 14. 6 Ecclesiasticus is supposed to have been composed (about B.C. 200) in Egypt, at .all events to have been there translated. Gfrorcr's Philo, ftc., vol. ii. 7 Prov. ii. 6. 8 Prov. viii. -27. ' Prov. viii. 31. I0 Ecclus. i. 5sq. ; xxiv. 3. " Ecclus. xxiv. 8. 10. u Ecclus. xxiv. 3, 4. VOL. II. I I 482 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. nanted law 1S. Still more remarkably in the Book of Wisdom she acts the part of a Metis or Athene as " the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of God's power and image of his goodness,"14 the all-penetrating spirit of the soul and of the world, the moral life15 which only vice, or as the vulgar would say "the devil"16 can destroy, historically manifested as saviour of mankind and guide of the chosen people. Morally, she is one with righteousness17; and the metaphysical attributes collected in ch. vii. 22 sq. resemble the Anaxagorean theory of vou$. She is the heavenly Manna, the well from which Rebecca watered her flock, the sharp and irre- sistible " Divider" like the Logos ls, the universal " criterium." 19 The continuous struggle which both in the universe and the human soul20 she maintains from age to age against the opposed principle of unrighteousness and folly, may be con- sidered a transition form of religious thought from the tra- ditional or historical to the more purely speculative, the allegorizing antecedent of Christian Gnosis. Philo distin- guishes a twofold "Wisdom," the divine and the human; the former loves solitude and dwells alone with God, its symbol being the dove; the other is domesticated with man, and its emblem is the pigeon. Like the Logos Wisdom is the spiritual dwelling of the great king21, the depositary of his thought and organ of his act. She is as the universal mother22, in associa- tion with whom God brought forth his only begotten, the visible world. She is neither born like man, nor unbegotten, as God, but an emanation23 before all worlds, identical with the divine all-penetrating spirit which presided over creation, and which even now makes all things new24. This identity with 13 Ecclus. xxiv. 23 et al. 14 Ecclus. vii. 26. ls Ecclus. i. 12. 15, 16; iv. 1. 9; vi. 18; viii. 13; xv. 3. 16 Ecclus. ii. 24. « Wisd. i. 4, 5 ; viii. 7. 18 Pfeif. iv. 310. Mang. i. 575. 19 K^ins rui oXuv. 20 Wisd. vii. 27. 21 "0/*«s unrt" 22 "M»r»? and nSrm rm &«»." Pfeif. i. 210; ii. 182; iii. 182. Mang. i. 361. Wisd. viii. 3 ; ix. 9. 23 A.rfAis or ctxo'pjioHx.. 'H Wisd. vii. 27. SOPHIA ASH 7rvfv/za Qiou. 483 the "Spirit" of Genesis already hinted in Proverbs" becomes clearer in the later books86. Philo Bays the divine Spirit may be considered either physically or metaphysically ; either as the element which brooded over creation and binds it together, or the spirit of Wisdom ponred "from above"27 into man's soul, or breathed into his nostrils at the beginning. The human mind thus became the temple or tabernacle of God"*8; it is this nobler essence GJ^%» ^%>u) which makes the distinc- tion between the noble and ignoble, between those fashioned alter the carnal Adam, and those bearing the impress of the Logos. It is this which suggests impulses of virtue, and which by the clear evidence and reproof of conscience makes all after- committed sin wilfbl and inexcusable*9. The celestial germ is indeed but too readily obscured within the fleshly tabernacle*0; the Spirit "rests" not31 in man continuously; the inborn faculty in order to be permanent must be constantly renewed by a divine external influence from "on high."-* Man's nature is essentially corrupt, not through hereditary taint transmitted from Adam (for Adam was already redeemed by wisdom"), but by his existence in the body, the very com- mencement of which was his Fall'14. The stores of evil are within us, good is the gift of God only ; the virtues are a divine progeny, reflections of heavenly perfection; neither wisdom, which is knowledge of God, nor virtue, which is likeness to him, can be attained without his grace and gift. All spiritual natures are in intimate relation and connection; and the M Prov. viii. 28. 20 Eccltis. i. 3. 5sq. Wisd. i. 5. 7 ; ix. 9. 17. Comp. 1 Cor. ii. 7. The phrase "rod of his mouth" rendered by Xoyos in the LXX, Isa. xi. 4, is in 2 Thess. ii. 8, given as *nvfia.. 27 Wisd. ix. 17 ; xii. 1. Comp. Isa. xxxii. 15. 28 Pfeif. v. 98. Mang. ii. 437. Comp. 1 Cor. iii. 16. 2 Cor. v. 1 sq. 29 Pfeif. i. 140. Mang. i. 50. 30 Wisd. ix. 15. Pfeif. ii. 304. M. i. 265. 31 LXX to Gen. vi. 3. 32 Wisd. viii. 21 ; ix. 10. Tfeif. iii. 98. 33 Wisd. x. 1 ; xiii. 1. 34 Pfeif. i. 268; iii. 414; iv. 118. 122; v. 62. I I 2 484 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. human soul35, though confined within the narrow precincts of heart or hrain, is enabled with lightning speed to compass heaven and earth, and becomes subject to the influence through which God or the Logos works at each instant upon the mental universe. §4. HELLENISTIC DEVELOPMENT. Jesus at his death left much unexplained or unsaid1. Except in the one article of Messiahship, his disciples were still Jews, subject as such to Jewish prejudices finally to be removed only by the influence of the Holy Spirit. But whatever marvels this influence through its sudden miraculous descent may have had upon their tongues, it was long before its fruits were fully ma- tured in their understandings and hearts. It required long deliberation, repeated struggles and miracles, to convince them of the real meaning of the " law of liberty," and many never became aware of their own emancipation, or friendly to an ad- mission of unproselyted Gentiles. But the spiritual influence would, of course, act more rapidly and abundantly on a soil fitted by education to receive it. In the age of Philo and St. Paul the fundamental notions of Alexandrian philosophy were either independently present in Palestine, or had been brought thither by the Essenes and Hellenists2; and it is remarkable that the germ of universalism really inherent in Christianity was first developed and announced by the Hellenist Stephen. In his memorable harangue ridiculing the superstition of the "holy place" apart from the pious faith and feeling which be- lieved and obeyed long before temple or Mosaic law existed, Stephen adduces Essene and Alexandrian notions as to temple 35 "T»( tsu vravTOS ^v^ris a.Tto 1 * 1 oovenanl the effect was imperfect, <>n ac- count of the imperii ction of the means. The blood of hulls ,uid goats could not effectually take away sin. Ii was otherwise with the spotless sacrifice of Christ. The eternal priest ofMel- ohizedeck's order, the son of God and "express image of Ins person," was far higher even than angels, not to say than any descendant of Levi 47 ; a superiority acknowledged by Abraham himself when he gave tithes to its mysterious founder48. His office was not Like the Levitical continued through a succession of many persons, admitting its own incompleteness by a perpe- tual repetition of its functions, ('hrist is the eternal minister of the sanctuary built by God4!). By the sacrifice of himself once offered he obliterated sin for ever. His resurrection is not so much as St. Paul thought the positive integration of the negative effect of his death, through which by some mystic means the spiritual is substituted for the old Adam within us, as an external act of his atoning ministry, in which he entered the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood50, becoming himself glorified by the act61, and living for ever to make effectual be- cause unceasing intercession" for those whom he redeemed and made pure by it. The divine approximation 5,t externally con- ferred through atonemenl as opposed to the practical " righteous- ness" of early Christianity and to the subjective " grace" of St. Paul is the key to all later development. The faith already exempli lied in ( ). T. types is henceforth to be the consolation of our patience '' while we contemplate the practical antithesis of suffering and triumph in Jesus68. Its object is the sanctifying and saving import of Christ's personal functions. The writer 16 Heb. vii. 16. 47 Against the Ebionitish doctrine of Christ being an angel or new Moses. Epiphan. llrer. xxx. 18. IH Heb. vii. t. Cuin|>. Kpist. Hamuli, eh. xiv. 49 Heb. viii. 2. M Heb. ix. 25. •' Heb. ii. 10 ; v. 9. « Heb. vii. '25. ■ Heb. Mi 19. M Heb. x. 86. " Heb. xii. 2. •492 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. would teach St. Paul's inferences, as he understands them, from premises strictly Jewish. The abolition of the law which the latter inferred from man's unsatisfactory relation to it, the for- mer derives from the divine superiority of the new revelation and the character of its author. The claim which to one had been an inwardly assumed change is to the other an outwardly bestowed privilege. In both an individual benefit accompanies an individual act of faith ; but the nature of the accruing "grace" differs with that of the conditioning faith ; the one directing attention to the spiritual state of the subject, the other to the transcendant perfections of the mediator. §5. ASCENDANCY OF SPIRITUALISM] THE FOURTH GOSPEL. The idea of Christ's person became elevated in proportion to the elevation of his religion. When from mere profession or performance the latter came to be considered as a new revela- tion perfecting or even superseding the old, corresponding im- portance was attached to the character of its author, exalting liim from a pre-eminently gifted man into a second Moses, an Archangel, or even a God. The Christianity of the new covenant, called "power from on high," "power of God for salvation," or " power to become a son of God," was to the mind of St. Paul an inner change implying a revelation exclu- sively of the glorified Christ. Against Ebionitish lingerers over the "old leaven" whose Christological views remained below the orthodox level, the Epistle to the Hebrews asserts Christ's superiority not only to Moses but to angels, and the " Colossians" in the same spirit declares him to be the " image of the invisible God, the pre- existent creator of heaven and earth, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily."1 But the claim which thus raised Christianity and its author above 1 Col. i. 10; ii. 9. THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 403 ordinary Judaism brought it nearer to Alexandrianism j and the glorified Christ effecting a glorifying change in man's nature was ^distinguishable or scarcely so from the Logos. This term, originally a compound of Platonic and Jewish mysticism, the divine thought or "idea" of the philosopher and the divine "Word" of Genesis and of the prophets, was well suited to express all that was most exalted in them who came "forth from the Most High,"2 so that the half-personifi- cation of Philo readily coalesced with the transcendental notion connected with the Christian Redeemer. The union com- menced in "Hebrews'"' and " Colossians"4 is completed in the fourth Gospel, where the predicted annulment of the old cove- nant5 is fulfilled in a sense somewhat different from St. Paul's by t lie "eternal life" and "new commandment" given through the personal Logos. We have already seen that Scripture nar- rative is rather doctrinal than historical. History, in the sense of critical history, is a creation pre-eminently modern. The Gospels in their very name imply not " lives of Christ," but digests of the "glad tidings" he came to impart". This doc- trinal or speculative character belongs especially to the fourth Gospel*, which is but the adaptation of the narrative form to a theological idea. The idea as formally stated towards the end" is the doctrine of eternal life through faith in Jesus as son of God, a faith enabling men also to become sons 2 Corap. Prov. ii. 6. Eccliis. xxiv. 3. PaaL xxxiii. 6. 9. John iii. 31 ; viii. 23 ; xvi. 28. 3 Heb. i. 3 ; iv. 12. Comp. Rev. i. 5 ; iii. 14 ; xix. 13. 1 Col. i. 15 sq. ; ii. 9. 8 Mosaic law is henceforth a thing superseded (John viii. 17; x. 34 ; xv. 25) j yet Jewry was genetically connected with Christendom (John iv. 22 ; comp. i. 47 ; v. 56; vii. 19, &c), in which its better spirit survives in love, love to God (xirrii) and love to man (ijy«). (John xiv. 21. 23; xv. 10. 12 j xvi. 27 ; xvii. 26.) 6 According to Irenanis there must be neither more nor less than four gospels because there are four winds, four regions, four formed cherubim, &c. 7 Baur, Untersuchungen iiber die Canonischen BvangelieOD, Tubingen, 1817. The speculative character of the gospel is indeed impliedly admitted by the author himself. John xiv. 26; xv. 26; xvi. 13. 8 John xx. 31 ; comp. vi. 40, &c. 494 SPECULATIVE CHEISTIANITY. of God and spiritually one with him9; in illustrating it the writer has in view the now extant evangelical literature, and is evidently well versed in Hellenistic Platonism. The mani- fested Divinity or Logos, he who in the beginning was one with God and was God, was also present from all time in the world as its life and light10, especially in the nobler part of his creation, man11. But the light shined in darkness, and by darkness, as long ago prophesied by Isaiah 12, it was not and could not be recognised or understood. Darkness is essentially opposed to light13, and men shun light because their deeds are evil. It was the eternal purpose of the divine Logos to main- tain through a series of self-manifestations ever increasing in clearness and brilliancy a conflict with the darkness which he would at last overcome14 and reconcile to himself in love. The process by which this purpose is effected might in a certain sense be called a "judgment" (xfto-is), since the manifestation of light is ipso facto a test or criterium 15 distinguishing the apt from the dull, the spiritual from the carnal ; but the mis- sion of the Word is to save rather than to judge, and the line of moral demarcation varies, the sphere of darkness contracting with the advance of light. In order to realize in men the spiritual light as life, it is necessary that like the heavenly bread it should be spiritually " eaten," 1G becoming united with the soul as food by assimilation nourishes the body; in short, it must be received or believed, and in order to be believed it must first be "manifested" or made known17. The Word, who 9 John i. 12 ; xvii. 21. Comp. Rev. i. 17, 18. 10 John i. 10. Comp. Wisd. xii. 1 and Deut. xxx. 14, where the word is said to be close to and within us. 11 John i. 4. 12 Isa. xii. 37 sq. 13 John xiv. 30. M John xvi. 33. 15 John iii. 18; vi. 66; viii. 47; ix. 39; xii. 48. Comp. Luke ii. 34. 1 Cor. ii. 15. Eph. v. 13. Heb. iv. 12. Wisd. vii. 23. "The judgment is, that they who see not may see, and they who see are blinded." 16 John vi. 57. " He that eateth me shall live by me." 17 If he had not- come in the flesh, how could we men have been able to look upon him that we might be saved] Epist. Barnab. ch. v. Marcion said the same, using the word " appeared" instead of " come." Baur's Gnosis, pp.. 259. 262 sq. III!'. FOURTH GOSPEL. 195 even when wholly unrecognised was always present in the world, ami \ri, in \iiw of a more complete disclosure, was always "coming,"18 was therefore at last manifested in the flesh19, anil was seen™, at least by those qualified by heaven21 to discern him, in all the fulness of glory in the life and accents of Jesus22. Witnessed to the world by John as Fore- runner, his immediate agency was attested by works or signs, illustrated by argument, and finally exhibited as a symbol of salvation "lifted up," like the serpent of the wilderness23, in the person of the erueilied. His earthly career was a pro- gressive series of manifestations adapted to establish in men's minds and hearts thai preordained immanence of the Logos24 whose effectuation was at the same time to glorify the Father through the Son2', and also to fulfil ancient prophecy respect- ing a universal outpouring of the Spirit20 and establishment of the empire of Jehovah. The most striking form of exlubition and the most approved means of producing faith was a miracle or sign. Accordingly, the entire human career of Jesus was a gnat "sign" or aggregate of signs27 attesting or illustrating the purport of his mission28. But the utility of signs is not in themselves ; they are means, not ends. The use of the sign is 18 " Hv s^o^svov." John i. 9; comp. vi. 14. Matt. xi. 3. Yet it had already- been seen by Abraham (viii. 56), by Mose3 (v. 46), by Isaiah (xii. 41). 19 Johni. 14. 2u John i. 34. 46; ix. 39; xii. 21; xx. 8. 25 sq. 21 John vi. 65. 22 John i. 14. 16; comp. iii. 19; xii. 46; xviii. 37. Comp. Col. i. 19; ii. 3. 9. The word "Fleroma" including completeness and independence of revelational de- velopment. Comp. Eph. i. 23 ; iii. 19. 23 John iii. 14. 24 John i. 10. Comp. Job xxxii. 8. Wisd. xii. 1. Col. i. 17; ii. 10. 25 John xiii. 31 ; xiv. 13; jet. 8; xvii. 1. 4. " John vi. 45 ; viii. 25 ; xiv. 16. 18 ; xvii. 2. Joel ii. 28. Isa. xi. 9 ; xxxii. 15 ; liv. 13. 27 Comp. Luke ii. 34. 28 John x. 25. The Baptist emphatically declares, in accordance with expecta- tion (vii. 27), "I knew him not," V. e. until the anticipated sign was given, (i. 31. 33.) 41)6 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. to awaken attention not to itself but to the thing signified. Works with the Evangelist have a moral import which the mere sign has not. The latter is only an intensity of ex- pression implying the forcible outward evidence of a work in relation to the observer ; beyond it lies the intrinsic evidence or moral purpose of the work, and beyond all this medial ma- chinery of signs and works the true object of faith (then most blessed when most independent of sensuous evidence29), the divine character of the worker30. In the conversation with Nicodemus, a man denoting that class of half believers31 who bow before the miracle without digesting its import, who pro- fess but continue not32, Jesus shows that true faith, implying admission into God's kingdom, depends on an inward mental regeneration constituting divine sonship, and evidenced by a steady disposition to advance towards the light s3 and to appreciate the truth34. In the instances of the Samaritans and Galilean nobleman, faith is not a mere transitory emotion of curiosity or surprise, but real and complete, a reliance on the " word" and appreciation of the true character of the speaker. The man born blind, too, was already in a sense restored to sight when he recognised the divine character of the "work," although he as yet knew not the name and importance of the worker35. On the other hand the inefficacy of the mere sign is emphatically displayed in the positive unbelief of the Jews. Judsea, the prescriptive home of the prophet30, was also notori- 29 John xx. 29. 30 John x. 38. 31 John ii. 23 ; v. 20 ; vii. 15. 21 ; xii. 42 ; xix. 38. Comp. Matt. ix. 33. 32 Persistency is one of the chief characteristics of the gift of the Spirit ; it was emphatically so in Jesus himself (John i. 32. Comp. Numb. xi. 25, 26. Isa. xi. 2. Acts ii. 3, and supr. p. 483), and is the sure test of all real regeneration (John v. 38 ; viii. 81. Col. i. 23 ; ii. 5. 7. Ephes. iii. 16. Heb. iv. 6. 14 ; vi. 4). The coming of Nicodemus hy night indicates not only fear of men's censure (xii. 43) but the darkling state of his own mind, according to ch. i. 5. On the other hand the keen-sightedness of Jesus is characteristic of the light of the world. Ch. i. 48 ; ii. 25 ; iv. 17 ; v. 6, &c. 33 John iii. 21. 34 John vii. 17 ; viii. 31, 32. 35 John ix. 36. M John iv. 44 ; vii. 42. THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 4 97 ously the land of unbelief and persecution*7. The Jews " mar- velled" but " comprehended" not ; to them even seeing was not believing ; their eyes saw but their hearts were blind3". Jesus performed on God's day deeds eminently Godlike. But the Jews, fastening on the technical illegality of working on the Sabbath, perverted into a crime the divine act of giving health, light, and life, and forgetting that Supreme Beneficence works continuously, on the Sabbath as well as other davs',:', committed what is elsewhere called " Sin against the Holy Spirit," as being utterly obtuse and blind to spiritual truth and goodness. Of those carnally-disposed Jews who followed Jesus at first for the sake of the mere display, afterwards for the still lower gratification of the appetite*", some deserted him41, others hated and persecuted him4'2. They wished to kill the agent because they could not appreciate the act. The object of dark- ness and of its Prince was to obscure or extinguish the light, and the demoniacal "temptation" formally recorded elsewhere is here a prolonged contest with blind eyes and hardened hearts. But the struggle was prolonged only to make the victory more decisive. Matthew had quoted43 in reference to Jesus Isaiah's description44 of the Lord's " Servant" whose peaceable demean- our was to end in triumph. In the conflict with darkness and unbelief the agency of the " word " is almost wholly self-declara- tory, as a light before which darkness is necessarily disconcerted and self-confuted45. Bewildered among contradictory opinions48 the Jews instead of being free sons of Abraham, heirs of light and of God, are convicted of belonging to the dark or Satanic principle as "servants of sin," as children of the father of lies and murder, their own hearts pronouncing the sentence which W Matt, xxiii. 37. M John ix. 39. 19 John v. 17. <° John vi. 26. 41 John vi. 66. A fickleness contrasted with the "continuance" of the true son (viii. 31), reflecting Christ's abiding relation to his father (viii. 29 ; xiv. 21 ; xv. 9, 10). 42 John xv. 24. « Matt. xii. 17. 44 Isa. xlii. 1 ; conip. xli. 11 ; xxx. 15; 1. 7. " Comp. John vii. 15. 27. 42. 4B John vii. 48. .r»3 ; ix. 16 ; \. 19. 701 .II. K K 498 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. Jesus forbears to speak47. While the principle of life and light in utter disregard of mere conventionalism is characteristically " working," giving health to the sick and eye-sight to the blind on the Sabbath 4S, the Jews feel with rage and dismay that all the world is preparing to recognise the luminary which their Satanic nature causes them to hate4Q, and the contest becomes fiercer as it nears its end. " The night approaches in which no man can work,"50 and the catastrophe premeditated by the hos- tile principle51 would long ago have occurred, had it not been suspended by the paramount necessity — "His hour had not yet come." " He must increase," said the Baptist (whose anniver- sary is placed by the church at the summer solstice52), his increase corresponds with my decrease; and the manifested glory of the life-giving luminary never shone more brilliantly than when, immediately before its setting, exhibited in the crowning miracle of the raising of Lazarus53. Even the hatred excited by the miracle (its irritating effect on one side corre- sponding to its saving influence on the other), the intense dis- like, of which Pilate was but the instrument54, now boding extinction to the Messianic " day,"55 was only to be the precur- sor of a brighter rising. The act of hate is converted into an act of love, eclipsing and superseding the more sensuous trans- figuration recorded in the other gospels ; and the agony of Gethsemane is here reduced to a mere transient exclamation56, a passing shadow lost in the splendour of the coming glory. " The hour is arrived," he exclaims, " when the Son of Man 47 John viii. 9. 11. 15. 48 John ix. 4. 6. 14. 48 John vii. 17; xii. 11. 19. 35. 50 John ix. 4; xii. 35. 51 John v. 16. 52 According to the Clementine Homilies (ii. 17) Jesus had twelve disciples, John thirty, corresponding respectively to the courses of sun and moon. 53 This unquestionably fictitious miracle is only the supposed actual occurrence of that extreme incredulity on the part of the Jews which in Luke had been asserted hypothetically. Luke xvi. 31. 54 John xix. 12. 55 John viii. 56 ; ix. 4 ; xi. 9 ; xii. 35. 50 John xii. 27. Till'. FOURTH GOSPEL. 19!) shall be ' glorified, ' mid the Prince of this world judged."81 Jesus is tlic resurreotioD and the life; he Laya down liis lite, like the Beedj that he may take it again**. He was to give liis life for the sin of the world51*. Already his hody is embalmed in spices as for burial00, aud from the first01 he had been the expiatory "lamb"83 whose "lifting up" would eventually ruin tin' cause of darkness by drawing all men to the light01. The allusion of " the Lamb," combined with other passages, is strikingly illustrative of the sentiment based on Isaiah04, per- vading the whole gospel. The prophet is supposed05 to have seen from afar the " glory" of Jesus when he described the ideal "servant" led " as a lamb to the slaughter," earning redemption for his people and triumph for himself through suffering and death. The great doctrine of St. John is the divine transcen- dental unity and " glory" effected through sacrificial atonement. The iirst Messianic act of Jesus in which he "manifested forth his glory" at Cana00, distinctly alludes to the impending "hour" of mingled defeat and victory, when the water of the Old Testament was to be exchanged for the symbolical " wine" of the New0T, the baptismal blood through which all things were to be regenerated and cleansed08. From the outset of his career he prognosticated his death01', and already the Jews entertained the project of killing him70. It is pointedly said that in the hour when Judas went out for the purpose of betray- ing him "it was night."71 This, said Jesus72 to the Jewish » John xii. 23. 5S John x. 17, IS ; xii. 24. 59 John vi. 51. 80 John xii. 7 ; comp. xix. 40. 61 Rom. xvi. 25. 1 Cor. ii. 7. Col. i. 2G. 61 John i. 29. M John xii. 32, and above, p. 465, n. 12. 61 Isa. liii. 7. cs John xii. 37 ; 1 Cor. xv. 3. 88 John ii. 4. 11. 87 Comp. Irena?. Haer. v. 33. 89 John vi. 53, 54; xiii. 8. 10. Comp. Rev. i. 5; vii. 14. The fulfilment is emphatically attested, ch. xix. 34, 35; and its spiritual import is to be found at tie vii. 33, 39. Comp. 1 John v. 6. 60 John ii. 19. 70 John v. 16. 71 John xiii. 30. 7- According to Luke xxii. 53. Comp. ib. xxiii. 41. 15, K K 2 500 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. authorities who came to arrest him, " This is your hour, and the power of darkness." It was the season of the Passover, those " first days of barley harvest" which witnessed the bloody atonement of the Gibeonites73, when the sword of the avenging angel visited Egypt and Jericho74, the perilous interval or " door- way" between old things and new during which pestilence was averted by sacrifice, and no one dared to face the Destroyer by going forth at the bloodstained lintel from sundown until morning75. " Christ," says St. John, is the " door, the way, and the life;"76 the "true shepherd laying down his life for the sheep"77 whom sin prowls to devour78; and the Evangelist labours throughout to exhibit Jesus himself as the true paschal lamb crucified on the very evening when the passover was to be slain and eaten79, substituting for the synoptical account of the last supper a lustral ceremony of analogous meaning80, since Jesus could not be supposed to have presided at the banquet whose viands were his own flesh81. The corn bears no fruit unless it die; and it was this sacrificial symbol, lifted up to Gentiles as well as Jews82, the hopeful setting rather than, as elsewhere represented, the " rising " of the luminary 83, towards which the scattered " sheep of other folds," the " dispersed chil- dren of God,"84 already crowded in anxious anticipation85, promising a rich harvest for the beam of the morrow. Imme- diately before his death Jesus delivered an impressive discourse to his disciples to whom he was to bequeath the spiritual light which was to be the inheritance of the world. He said, " I will 73 2 Sam. xxi. 9. Deut. xvi. 9. 74 Exod. xii. 23. Josh. iv. 19; v. 9, 10. 13. 75 Exod. xii. 22. Deut. xvi. 6. 70 John x. 7. 9 ; xiv. 6. 77 John x. 11. 15. 78 Gen. iv. 7. 79 John xviii. 28 ; xix. 14 ; vi. 53. 80 John xiii. 1. 81 It appears that though criminal trials were avoided on feast days, there was no such scruple as to executions. Comp. Winer, It. W. ii. p. 538, art. Strafe, end. 82 Comp. xix. 5. 14. 83 Matt. ii. 2. Luke i. 78. Isa. Ix. 3. 84 John vii. 35; x. 16; xi. 52. 95 John xii. 20. Comp. Isa. xi. 10; xlii. 1. Luke i. 32; xiii. 29. Tin; fourth GOSPEL. 601 not leave you comfortless, I will come to you."8" "A little time ye shall uot see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father."8 Jesus, here identified with the Comforter, is sometimes made distinct. He says, "The Father shall give you another Comforter, even the Holy Ghost or Spirit of truth ; it is needful for you that I go away, for if I go not the Comforter will not come to you88 ; hut if I go, I will send him to you." He sends the Comforter, because in his human condition of partial disunion the latter is distinct from him ; yet as Logos he is himself the Spirit whom he sends81', as soon as he has fulfilled the condition of return to the abori- ginal glory of the undivided Godhead1". The death of Christ was but the consummation of a process begun during Ms life. The symbol of atonement was then completed, for at the very instant when he expired under the lance, defeat was changed into victory, and "immediately,"1" according to the emphatic attestation of the Evangelist, there issued forth out of his body those streams of spiritual "fulness" which were to replenish men's souls92. It remained only to round the narrative in which every idea is invested in concrete form, by a literal historical fulfilment of what was promised and expected. Jesus accord- ingly after his resurrection (here separated from his ascension only by the rapid interview with Mary Magdalen) returns the same evening93 in a supernatural manner to communicate per- sonally by afflation to the disciples that gift of the Spirit which was to change all that was still dark in their minds04, and all that was imperfect in their nature93. The resurrection of Jesus 86 John xiv. 18. 9' John xvi. 16. 88 John xiv. 16; xvi. 7. 89 Jesus had been a spiritually-gifted man ; the Pauline Christ was the trttvpx personified. (Rom. i. 4. 2 Cor. iii. 17. Gal. iv. 6.) The union recurring in He- brews now approaches its end in the fourth Gospel and the Ephesians. 9) John vi. 62 ; xiv. 12. 28} xvi. 10. 16. 18; xvii. 5. 91 "Et^i/f." John xix. 34, 35. B- Comp. John i. 16 ; ii. 8 ; iii. 5 ; iv. 14 ; and especially vii. 38, 39. 93 The time probably referred to Luke xxiv. 29-36. 91 John xiv. 26; xvi. 17. 23. 25. 9i John i. 33; xvii. 19. 23. 502 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. was but the outward expression of his nature as Logos. To the Evangelist it was a " necessary truth ;" 9C an essential condition of his being. Grant this, and the historical event follows of course. His fleshly appearance had from the first but scantily veiled his inherent " glory;" it was a mere appendage " profiting nothing," UT or only to the frail faculty which must "see"98 with the eye before it can " comprehend" the divine "necessities" and con- victions of the Spirit. His transcendent nature had already been indicated not only by his " words," " but by his unaccount- able hidings and apparitions. By death all corporeal impedi- ments were removed ; the resurrection and ascension to " where he was before"100 amounted to a resumption of the ubiquitous immanence of the unincarnate pre-existence ; so that he returned, as predicted101, the same, yet different; not partly Spirit, but one with God who is all Spirit102, and the effect of his spiritual return in which the notion of an eschatological " second coming" is nearly lost, was to make the disciples know and feel them- selves one with God and with himself loa; in other words, it was the imparted " power " contemplated in the commencement of becoming spiritually regenerated as " sons of God," transferred or "translated out of the world," like himself104, to the bosom of the Father. This is the Johannean idea of Grace (grace earned by grace, or by the self-devoting love of Christ), as opposed to Mosaic law105. It is, as with St. Paul, a divinely- imparted change consequent on faith; a change combining with an inward regeneration of the old Adam the realization of eternal life in eternal love. The comforting conviction brought home to the minds of the Apostles was as the glorified apparition of his person, a spiritual or metaphysical certainty really inde- pendent of the eye, and containing its own object ; it was 96 John xx. 9. »' John vi. 63. 98 John i. 14. 34. 46. 99 John vi. 63. uo John vi. 62. '»' John xiv. 26. 28. 102 John iv. 24. '°3 John xiv. 20; xvii. 21. 23. 101 John xiii. 1 ; xiv. 19; xvii. 10. "» John i. 16, 17. THE FOURTH GOSI i | . 503 imperfecl so Long as ii required an external sight or sign""', or as in the beautiful incident of Mary Magdalen, when Beeldngin the Bepulohre of the dead the assurance it should have within itself. Tlie old confined revelation here, as in St. Paul, is enlarged or merged in a grander one. The completion of Christianity consists in the attainment of what at its beginning was only hoped or purposed. The first Christians aimed at perfection by legal fulfilment; in St. John the goal is already reached through the manifestation of life and light by the Logos. In the earlier view Christ was subordinate and separate I'mm God107 ; here he is united with him, and both together dwell in all good Christians. Faith, knowledge, performance, all are implied in that gift of the Spirit which Thomas was made for a time to miss, as if to exemplify the effects of the want of it. For the painful desire of fulfilling what in Judaism was ever unfulfilled, we have here the full conviction of satisfied attain- ment. Instead of devotional aspiration in the consciousness of alienation and poverty, we here find the manifested fulness ""s and divine peace10" of an established spiritual unity or sonship ; men live no longer in distant expectation of the future Messiah who was to return in glory to judgment ; they enjoy, and through the abiding presence of the Comforter, fully enjoy110, the already manifested "glory*' of him who oame not to judge but save. We no longer live in fear of judgment, for the judge is within us, the external relation being excluded by the indwelling God who surrenders judgment to love1". We here reverl to some- thing like that condition of unity and intellectual simplicity be- fore described as the world's religious childhood, as also to the ferocious symbol with which the primaeval "innocence'' was con- taminated. At the extreme limit of its development theology has only the alternative of denying itself or of denying human reason. Its aim is that intuitional childhood or "sonship " whose natural Language is mythus, and which is distinguished '' As in the case of Thomas. '"' Luke xviii. 19. 108 John i. 16. Join xi\. B7j xvi. 33. 1,0 John xv. 11 ; xvi. 32. 24 : xx. 80. '" Comp. 1 John iii. 20. 504 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. from aboriginal instinct only by a vague semi-consciousness which it regards as an impediment and imperfection. Its ten- dency is towards that mystical state implying negation of all active religion where man's individuality is lost, and where the end being reached the means may be dispensed with. The religion of types and notions can travel only in a circle from whence there is no escape. It is but an elaborate process of self-confutation. After much verbiage it demolishes what it created, and having begun by assuming God to be angry, ends not by admitting its own gross mistake, but by asserting Him to be changed and reconciled. We set out from that intellec- tual immaturity in which man and nature were felt as one ; after a long excursion through the maze of fanciful forms assumed by human hopes and fears, we come back to the point whence we started. §6. GNOSTIC SYSTEMS. Gnosis denotes the claim of the understanding to an inde- pendent hearing amidst the quarrels of religious parties. It may be described as a transcendentalizing attempt to explain material and moral phenomena, including all that was known of nature and of history. It was in fact a Judaeo-Christian revival of the old pretence to absolute " Wisdom," in which all the religious elements, historical as well as ideal, were to be comprehended and reconciled. Eastern mysticism and Greek philosophy contributed to form a variety of systems all ani- mated by that intense aspiration of the roused and self-con- scious mind for divine reunion of which the Christian redemp- tion theory for the time supplied the readiest expression. The inquiry sometimes said to have been the root of Gnosticism — whence is evil? — involves directly or indirectly all the problems of nature and experience. The metaphysical and moral ques- tions absorb each other. How could a perfect Being permit an GNOSTIC SYSTEMS. 505 imperfect world; or how came the [nflnite to manifesl itself in the finite, and liow arc imperfection and limitation to be removed? Gnosis did not give its reply in abstract terms; ii adopted the concrete or mythical form, seeking a clothing for its conceptions in physical appearances or the ready-made creations of the religions mind. The general history of opi- nion may either he considered as a drama in which the mind displays its successive feats of vigour or folly, or in which the divine ohject of its aspiring thought passes through a series of evolutions corresponding to its own cotemporaneous impres- sions. The antithesis of good and evil, of absolute and finite, of spiritual and material, was found to be reflected in that of light and darkness, of Christian and ante- Christian. Gnos- ticism was originally Jewish. Its foundations, both in aim and method, had been laid in Alexandria, where Judaism became blended with Greek philosophy. There the Jews for the first time discovered a God far elevated above all those sensuous Scripture representations which it therefore became necessary either to reject or to allegorize, to consider as impositions more or less indispensable caused by the inscru- table nature of the object revealed and the incapacity of human organs and language to conceive or express it. Alexan- drianism was a speculative exegesis of the O. T. ; Gnosis was only a more systematic application of the same kind of treat- ment to a wider extent of materials. When the grand problem seemed at length to have been solved and its object realized in Christianity, the older religions appeared in the retrospect under two prominent classes. In Heathenism worship had been unseparated from external nature, the personifications of poetry being obviously but transparent films or phantoms ever ready to dissolve into the elements from which they grew. The God of Judaism was more positive and substantial, the world's Creator and Ruler; but the cosmical or political agent elevated above nature was also more decidedly separated from his "fallen" creatures, [inapproachable or even hostile to them. Hence to the three powers, Matter, the Demiurgus, and Christ, 50G SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. corresponded in order of rank the three denominations of Heathen, Jew, and Christian, and the three kinds of men, the hylic, psychic, and pneumatic. Christianity to the Gnostics was not a religion of external works or inward moral change, hut a revelation of knowledge or truth, an earnest of return to that self-conscious metaphysical oneness which they looked for as the end or rest of the spirit. Yet heathenism, though by its hylic affinities lowest in the scale, contrihuted perhaps as largely as Christianity itself to the formula which held the materials of Gnosticism together. The Oriental who contem- plated the descent of the spirit into the material, and the Greek who looked from helow upwards, the system which hrooded over Degeneracy and Fall, and that which energetically fought its way to reinstatement and conquest, supplied hetween them the imagery of emanation and evolution, in which Gnosticism made the universal spirit play its varied yet continuous part. Of Gnostic systems some are almost entirely ideal or specula- tive, others, more mastered hy conventional tendencies, endea- vour to infer the logical consequences of assuming the Christian principle in regard to other systems. Of the former class, the proper Gnosis whose chief aim is to illustrate in dramatic mythus its own transcendental difficulty, the following taken from Valentinus in Irenseus may serve as a specimeu. " When the inexplicable first Cause who dwelt from eternity in the depth of Silent self-contemplation1 conceived the thought of emanating or going out of his proper unity, there proceeded from him, or from his personified female attributes, a race of spiritual beings or iEons, of whom the first was Mind or Nous, called also MovoyEvyg, the ' only begotten,' he who alone, as being the express image of the Father, fully comprehended his greatness2, and was therefore able to make him known to the other iEons. But when Nous wished to communicate the in- tense pleasure felt by himself in contemplating divine great- ness, he was restrained by his mother ' Silence,' according to 1 Each attribute being personified, as Bythos, Sigo, Ennoia. 2 Departure from the abstract being necessary to effect the spirit's self-possession. GNOSTIC SYSTEMS. 507 the will of the Supreme, who desired to Lead all Being to seek its unseen Progenitor through its own inherenl instincts, The restrainl was indeed a part of the necessity of the case itself. The Quite oannot comprehend the infinite; no Being which is not, like the ' only Begotten,' either itself the Absolute, or virtually identical with it, can fathom its depth. Thus in the attempt t<> reach the universal source there arises in the inferior a consciousness of inadequacy and weakness, of a hlank never filled, a magnitude which cannot he estimated. This negative consciousness is stronger in proportion to the relative distance of the conscious Being. Hence in the youngest of the iEons constituting the celestial Pleroma, named Sophia, there arose an affection akin indeed to that felt hy Nous, yet practically differing from it through the different position of the con- cipient, in the desire to hehold supreme greatness. In the in- satiate wish her being would have been exhaled and lost in the infinite hut for the intervention of Horos, guardian of uni- versal order, who separated her from her intellectual and moral excitement3, thus restoring the interrupted harmony of her being. The restoration is described as the creation of a new Power or Sizygy of powers, i. e. Christ and the Holy Ghost, and afterwards of a secondary Christ called Jesus, and also Soter or Logos. Two natures coexist in all spiritual beings, the divergent and the convergent, the self- separating and self- uniting. The iEon Christ represents the original complete- ness of the divine, and is added to the other /Eons without in- creasing their number, as being only the remedial or reuniting attribute really inherent in all of them, assuming a name aptly dnived from that religion which had divine reunion for its object. " Thus through a counteracting influence represented as a new person, the equilibrium of the higher intelligences was restored. But the morbid craving of Sophia had further results. The idea she conceived, which was indeed part of J Enthymesis and Fatlios. 508 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. herself, though banished from Pleroina4, still existed. In other words, she gave birth to an amorphous being, bom amid grief, fear, and perplexity, these affections necessarily accom- panying the intellectual condition (Ev9u^a/n; a/nxonx;,'' the subjective conviction of sinfulness, not of course of the act assumed to be sinful. " Gal. iii. 17,18,19,20. 18 Rom. v. 8. 2 Cor. v. 19. 17 As in Col. i. 9; ii. 2, 3, a composition which rep] sis. ,s Rom. vii. 14. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 512 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. such it is unquestionably a new religion, for the God of Judaism had been emphatically the representative of jealousy, severity, and hate. A God influenced by passion is no longer a God. "If God," said Marcion, "was jealous, proud, furious, &c, like men, how are we to distinguish him from inferior natures? How account for his allowing mankind to be cir- cumvented by the Devil, except by supposing that either he could not or would not prevent it ? " Marcion was shocked at the idea of Adam playing hide and seek with God in the garden, as also at God's "coming down" to ascertain if the reports about Sodom were true. The attribute peculiarly cha- racteristic of the O. T. God, justice, could hardly belong to one who broke his own laws, for instance, in sanctioning ser- pent worship, Sabbath breaking19, and stealing the goods of the Egyptians. But even justice is greatly inferior to good- ness ; it is as ferocity opposed to mercy, and the God of grace and mercy was first revealed in Christ. He appeared for the first time when in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar he entered under the form of Jesus into the synagogue of Capernaum. The idea of a new covenant, originating among the 0. T. pro- phets, and brought prominently forward by St. Paul, is directly opposed to Judseo- Christianity in Marcion and St. John. Marcion, like the writer of " St. John," employs a gospel nar- rative to illustrate his own speculative views; on the other hand " St. John" propounds a theory evidently of Gnostic class20, in which the source of light is engaged in a protracted struggle with darkness, or the " Prince of this world," the " father" or God of the Jews21, who is openly identified with the Satanic principle. The "pneumatic" character ascribed to St. John's gospel'22 is in reality only another name for Gnostic. It is the transcendental philosophy of the Logos 19 Josh. vi. 20 St. John, like Colossians, describes Christianity as Gnosis (xvii. 3). But he usually prefers the expressions ct> nhia,, •priffri;, a.yajv», %uri. 21 John viii. 44; xii. 31; xiv. 30; xvi. 11. 22 Euseb. H. E. vi. 14. GNOSTIC SYSTEMS. 513 explained in narrative form by the life of Jesus. Far from being aniidoeetie, the "Whole is an ascending scries of wonder- ful events in which the divine character or "glory" of Jesus comes out more and more distinctly from beneath his fleshly envelopment28. The Being who in St. Paul was still subor- dinate to God as a spiritual Adam, becomes henceforth co- ordinate with him. It was as necessary that the Gnostic Christ should be above matter as the moral Christ above sin ; and the Logos of St. John, though like the divinity of Marcion neces- sarily clothed in human form in order to be seen by human eyes, descended from the highest heaven*4 to earth as suddenly and unaccountably as he quitted it. He came to combat the great Adversary whom both authors (with exception of the Demiurgic office ascribed to the "Word" by John) represent in the same way. Marcion, like St. John, made the death of Jesus the immediate act of the evil or Jewish principle opposed by him through life ; he willingly dwelt on the Saviour's anti- Mosaic acts, his laxity in Sabbath observance, his touching the unclean, Ins patronage of publicans, Samaritans, and Greeks. In St. Paul the death of Jesus had not wholly thrown off the coarser sacrificial meaning ; Marcion's visionary Christ dies only to express by an additional symbol that subjugation of the carnal and perfect emancipation of the pneumatic already idealized in his life*''. Docetismwas the same principle applied to Christ's person on which the Alexandrians had explained the O. T. Theophanies; and as primitive Christianity was nearly akin to Judaism, so Paulinism had points of analogy with Jewish Gnosis. But Jewish speculation could not entirely amalgamate with that which had become specifically Christian; and though the former, involving a critical reform and expan- sion of Jewish law, was a concession to the principle from which St. Paul inferred its abrogation, the Ebionitish Christ could -J Baur, Krit. Untersuchungen, p. 233. 2< John i. 32; iii. 31. M Comp. St. Paul's " i/ttiuft.* . Is. 518 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. necessary either wholly to abandon them, or to apply to them a disproportionate amount of ingenuity better bestowed on the original sources in order to separate the true from the false. Meantime there prevailed a melancholy feeling of a " Fall" or estrangement from the only real source of intelligence and good- ness; and men anxiously longed for a time when knowledge and consequently happiness should be fully and freely dispensed, or as the Bible says, when all should be prophets, " taught of God," and illuminated by his Spirit. Judaism was but " hope of life ;" 33 a preparatory system whose chief virtue lay in looking beyond itself. Christianity was the " promised land of the soul"34 or life realized ; asserting the futility of the misgiving which raised an imaginary barrier between man and God, it effected a reconciliation in the sphere where alone existed the estrangement by neutralizing the phantom of sin within the circle of the human feelings35. Yet the removal of the barrier to the feelings did not of itself fill up the blank to the understanding. Philosophy had to begin where theology left off. Preferring the rule of life to the spirit, and again the spirit to its own impulses or insight, religion stood in the dilemma of ancient philosophy, possessed of a treasure it could not unlock. The abrogation of Jewish law left the mind virtually without law either to divine its way by its own resources, or to fall back on what it had relinquished. Speculators valued themselves above other Chris- tians on the ground of possessing a philosophical religion or 33 Ep. Barnab. ch. i. 34 Ep. Barnab. ch. vi. 35 It is impossible not to see that the true import of the justifying faith of St. Paul is not so much the appropriation of a magical influence of atoning blood as emancipation from mental bondage, escape from the burthen imposed by the "law of works" (the "Iwapis afixgTias") upon the human conscience; assurance to all spiritually-minded persons that they are not "under the law but under grace;" that divine grace whose circumference outreaches eyen the accumulating consciousness of defective fulfilment ; exhibiting clearly to the mind the ground- lessness of its own fearful prepossessions, but in itself no more producing an ob- jective effect than the law, as " cause of sin," produced objective transgressions. GNOSTIC SYSTEMS. 619 yvutriq as distinguished from mere Tr^a^g. They seemed as spiritual or "pneumatic" beings nearer to the Supreme Intelli- gence than other men. In their attempt to give definite expression to the Christian feeling of union with God they appeared to have overleaped the gulf between subject and object in philosophy as well as between creature and Creator in the 0. T. ; not only cancelling the moral disorder of the Fall, but completing the victory metaphysically by an appeal apportioned between the religious instincts and the philosophic transcen- dentalism inherited from Socrates and Plato. Gnosis however really amounted only to a confident assumption of matters more fitly and effectually addressed by tho-ti^30. Its claims were ill supported, and the failure of this as of all similar attempts has caused a prepossession that a religious philosophy is hopeless. For philosophy challenges the intellect ; religion is commonly assumed to aim at wdiat intellect shrinks from. Yet the failure of fanciful religion to become philosophy does not preclude philosophy from coinciding with true religion. Philosophy, or rather its object, the divine order of the universe, is the intellectual guide which the religious sentiment needs ; while exploring the real relations of the finite it obtains a constantly improving and self-correcting measure of the perfect law of Jesus and a means of carrying into effect the spiritualism of St. Paul It establishes law by ascertaining its terms ; it guides the spirit to see its way to the amelioration of life and increase of happiness. While religion was stationary science could only walk alone; when both are admitted to be progressive their interests and aims become identified. Aristotle began to slmu how religion may be founded on an intellectual basis ; but the basis he laid was too narrow. Bacon by giving to philosophy a definite aim and method gave it at the same time a safer and self-enlarging basis. Our position is that of intellectual beings suiTounded by limitations ; and the latter being constant have •6 John vii. 17. 1 John v. 10. 520 SPECULATIVE CHRISTIANITY. to intelligence the practical value of laws, in whose investigation and application consists that seemingly endless career of intellec- tual and moral progress which the sentiment of religion inspires and ennohles. The title of saint has hitherto been claimed ex- clusively for those whose boast is to despise philosophy ; yet faith will stumble and sentiment mislead unless knowledge be present in amount and quality sufficient to purify the one and to give beneficial direction to the other. THE END. G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London. Date Due llllilliBP" 4 "*EBfr $