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TRANSLATED FOR THE BIBLICAL REPERTORY. 
 
 HINTS 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 BY AUGUSTUS THOZ.UCH, 
 
 PROFESSOR IJV THE UJ^IVERSITY OF HALLE. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 BY R. B. PATTON, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LAM6UAOES, ^TASSAU HALL. 
 
 PRINCETON PRESS, 
 PRINTED BY D. A. BORRENSTEIN. 
 
 1827. 
 
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Upon Germany, the eye of the serious theologian rests 
 with a deep and painful interest. Grateful for the talents, 
 learning and piety which she threw into the field to combat 
 with the powers of darkness, and to liberate the moral and 
 intellectual faculties of man from superstition, ignorance and 
 degradation ; grateful for the long list of worthies whose ex- 
 amples and instructions have illustrated the doctrines of the 
 cross ; grateful also for the indefatigable research which has 
 ransacked every nook and corner of the ancient and mo- 
 dern world, to elucidate the language, idioms and allusions 
 of the " Book of Books ;" which has rescued from worms and 
 dust, examined, appreciated and collated the sacred manu- 
 scripts which, for centuries, had been doomed to the silence 
 and oblivion of the cloister; — grateful for these and other 
 important services in the cause of theological learning and 
 of piety, he cannot but deplore, at the same time, the pre- 
 sumptuous ardour of thought, the misapplied learning, the 
 injudicious zeal, the looseness of sentiment, and the conse- 
 quent low state of piety and morals which, since the middle 
 of the last century, have marred the fairest portions of in- 
 tellectual Germany. 
 
 We look backward, with a good degree of curiosity, 
 through the last two centuries, in order to find an adequate 
 cause for this great moral change ;* and we look forward, 
 with intense solicitude, to the probable effects of this de- 
 
 * This subject has been lately so ably handled by the Rev. Hugh 
 James Rose, in a Series of Discourses preached before the University 
 of Cambridge (reprinted in the Repertory Vol. II. p. 387. and fol- 
 lowing), and in the Review of these discourses in The Quarterly 
 Theological Review for March, 1826, that we must content ourselves 
 with referring our readers to those publications for a full exposition 
 of the probable causes which have operated to produce this change. 
 
 3 B 
 
fection, upon the piety and christian morahty of those na- 
 tions who are brought into Uterary contact with the Ger- 
 mans. IVe cast also a benevolent look around us, anxious 
 to discover some symptoms of returning health — a whole- 
 some reaction, a consciousness of corroding disease gnawing 
 at the vitals, a strengthening of the things that remain, an 
 inflexible purpose of amendment, a returning to the doctrines 
 of " the great God and our Saviour," which the pious Re- 
 formers — their professed exemplars — so sedulously taught. 
 We have reason to believe that there exist, at present, 
 circumstances which throw some rays of light across this 
 dark picture, and relieve, in some measure, the gloomy fore- 
 bodings we are disposed to indulge. 
 
 1. The supremacy of philosophy in matters of Religion, 
 so long, and with such pernicious consequences, insisted upon 
 in the lecture-room, in the pulpit, in the elaborate commen- 
 tary, and even in the books of private devotion, is beginning 
 to be disputed ; or rather, to speak more properly, a sounder 
 philosophy is taking the place of that rash spirit of specula- 
 tion which had assumed its name. 
 
 The imaginative, discursive and metaphysical genius of 
 the German, freed from those restraining and controlling 
 influences which a humble piety exerts, and forgetting the 
 impassable hmits of the human powers, has presumed to 
 sit in judgment upon the revelation from heaven, invented 
 a standard by which to decide upon the merits of its doc- 
 trines, subjected its plainest declarations to the test of rea- 
 son, rejected or explained away what it could not fathom^ 
 called in question the inspiration of the Scriptures, and 
 scattered the seeds of infidelity far and wide, even while 
 clothed in the garb of a divine teacher and an ambassador 
 of Christ. The theological professor has not hesitated un- 
 blushingly to declare, when pressed with a genuine and well 
 authenticated miracle ; J\li/ jjhllosophi/ forbids me to re- 
 cognise the existence of a miracle. 
 
V. 
 
 Not less than four or five master-spirits have, within com- 
 paratively few years, commanded, for the time being, almost 
 universally, the admiration of the German literati. Leib- 
 nitz, Wolf, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, like waves of the sea 
 have chased each other forward, each one successively 
 overwhelming its predecessor, until merged, in its turn, in 
 comparative obhvion, by its triumphant successor. In the 
 midst of their ever varying and discordant systems, some of 
 their writers began to congratulate the nation as the only 
 one in possession of a theology which livedo and breathed, 
 and grew, while that of other nations was in a wretched 
 state of torpor, fraught with error, degraded by irrational 
 views of God, obscured by mysticism, destitute oiimprove- 
 ■ment, invention, and rationality. 
 
 We do not mean to assert that there have not existed 
 some honourable exceptions to these remarks — some illus- 
 trious scholars whose minds were sound, and whose senti- 
 ments and pious conduct were such as comported with the 
 word of God, which they professed to receive. But we 
 think v/e are warranted by personal observation and reading, 
 in savi'ig, that this state of things, with its consequences, 
 became so general as to form the prevailing features in the 
 character of the most literary and best informed portion of 
 Germany. 
 
 If we may judge, however, from the modifications which 
 the metaphysical philosophy is apparently undergoing, from 
 the relaxing of its more rigid features, and from the disre- 
 spect with which these philosophical speculations are begin- 
 ning to be spoken of by certain influential writers, the sway 
 of this falsely named philosophy is becoming daily less ex- 
 icnsive and imperious.* 
 
 * " Sortie of the metaphysical writers have lately also enlistpd them- 
 selves on the side of Christianity. Roppen, in hia P kilosnpkie des 
 Ckritfcnthums, has attempted to show the truth of the doctrine of 
 ^>rio-inal sin on nhilosonhical jjrounds. A celebrated phvsician of 
 
VI. 
 
 2. Some of the more serious and judicious of their theo- 
 logians have, for some years past, candidly acknowledged 
 and publicly deplored the state of theological opinion, and 
 the almost imperceptible practical influence of Christianity*" 
 wherever these loose opinions have gained currency ; and^ 
 in some instances, a change of sentiment and a degree of 
 recantation has taken place. The later productions of De 
 Wette, Kaiser, and Ammon, for example, and some expres- 
 sions which dropped from Staeudlin for some years before 
 his decease, the evangelical views and pious labours of Tho- 
 luck, and the increasing seriousness and spirituality among 
 some of the theological students, encourage us to hope that 
 the dawn of a brighter day is begun. 
 
 3. Tl:>e decided position which the present king of Prus- 
 sia has taken, in favour of the promulgation of pure Gospel 
 truth, his evangelical sentiments — not received by inherit- 
 ance from his ancestors, but the result of an ingenuous ex- 
 amination of the word of God, because he had "applied 
 himself assiduously to the Bible, and sought therein the doc- 
 trines taught by Christ and his Apostles"! — the influence 
 which his opinions and deportment are calculated to exert, 
 owing to the high and noble sphere in which he moves, not 
 only upon the community at large, and upon his court, but 
 
 Leipsic, Dr. Heinroth, lias annoyed the Rationalists dreadfully, by 
 a treatise on Anthropology, in which his views of the intellectual and 
 ' moral part of man are entirely at variance with them, and in unison 
 with the orthodox notions. The masterly nature of the work, aiwl 
 the high reputation of the author, were equally subject of annoyance 
 with the Rationalists." Rose's Discourses. Report. Vol. ii. p. 10. 
 note. 
 
 * "Bretschneidor has published a pamphlet on this subject, called : 
 Ueber die UnkirkUchkcit dicser Zeit, in which he says, that 
 so many have been published, that he doubts if any thing new can be 
 said." Rose's Discourses. Repert. Vol. iii, p. 4. note. 
 
 f Letter to the Dutchess of Anhalt Coethen, on her renouncing 
 the Protestant religion for the Catholic. 
 
VII. 
 
 especially upon his universities,* seem to forebode a liappy 
 change, at no very distant period, in the moral aspect of 
 Prussia. And when we consider the high standing of her 
 theological professors, the reputation of her numerous and 
 scattered universities, and their close connexion in lang-uage, 
 manners, and literature, with the other German states, the 
 anticipation is by no means a presumptuous one, that the 
 whole of theological and literary Germany will come more 
 or less under the benign influence of evangelical truth. 
 
 4. Semler, who is regarded as the founder of the Ration- 
 alizing school, commenced his neological career under cir- 
 cumstances highly favourable to the dissemination of his 
 doctrines. His daring intellect, his comprehensive range of 
 thought, his ardent thirst for knowledge, his extensive litera- 
 ry acquirements, commanded the admiration and confidence 
 of his contemporaries. The plausibility and novelty of his 
 views — which last quality is so bewitching to the German 
 mind — prepared the way for their general reception. Seve- 
 ral causes had been operating for some years before his ap- 
 pearance, through whose instrumentality the theologians and 
 the philosophers of Germany were predisposed to the cor- 
 dial adoption and the industrious application of his principles. 
 We allude to the want, which the Protestant churches expe- 
 rienced, of control over the wildest and most licentious spirit 
 of innovation, the loss of respect for their symbolical books, 
 the misguided zeal of the Pietists who maintained that Chris- 
 tianity consisted solely in virtue, and the consequent reaction 
 which produced a philosophical and even a mathematical 
 school of theology ; and, fiually, the disposition to employ 
 this very philosophy to explain away and soften down the 
 more obnoxious doctrines, and to elevate the unassisted ef- 
 forts of human reason to a supremacy in matters of religion 
 which it poorly merits. 
 
 * He lately elevated Tholuck to a high and coninrjanding situa- 
 tion in the Univeraily of Halle, which is any thing but orthodox. 
 
VIII. 
 
 But the brilliant talents of Semler no longer dazzle the 
 eyes of his admiring countrymen. The etTervescence is 
 past. The novelty has ceased. The experiment has been 
 made. An eventful but instructive portion of the history of 
 theology in Germany, from the Reformation to the present 
 time, furnishes a detail of facts upon which the speculative 
 mind of the German may seize and theorize with hardly a 
 possibility of error. It is ardently to be desired, that the 
 German Church may profit by the lesson which the last two 
 centuries have taught so clearly that " he that runneth may 
 read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err 
 therein." 
 
 5. The writings of Storr^ Tittmann, Knapp, Tholuck, and 
 others, are not consigned to neglect and oblivion. If we are 
 not mistaken in the signs of the times, they, as well as their 
 authors, are commanding an increased respect; whilst the 
 latter, by their lives, have evinced, or are still evincing, that 
 a sincere piety and the profoundest learning, a simple-hearted 
 faith, and the keenest spirit of research, may form a lovely 
 and harmonious union, ennoble the heart of the christian, and 
 shed a benignant light on all within the sphere of his influ- 
 ence. 
 
 6. This httle tract also, by Tholuck, which we have trans- 
 lated for the Repertory, and which seems to have been de- 
 signed by the author to awaken the attention of the students 
 of theology more particularly, to the importance of the study 
 of the Old Testament, is an additional item in the amount of 
 encouragement. Although somewhat loosely put together, 
 diffuse in style, and bordeiing on the enthusiastic in senti- 
 ment, the spirit which it breathes, the entire subjection of 
 reason to Revelation which it inculcates, the importance 
 which it attaches to a living faith, the prominency which it 
 gives to those views and doctrines which we are wont to re- 
 gard as all-important to salvation, will, we doubt not, gratify 
 our readers as a pledge of good things to come. 
 
iX. 
 
 Let us bear in mind also the nationaFpropensity of the 
 Germans, under the influence of which the intellectual cha- 
 racter of the student is formed. We allude to a strong thirst 
 for abstract, refined, and sometimes vague speculations, of 
 which, if we mistake not, there are some traces in the piece 
 before us. Let us remember also the influence which our 
 early philosophical education is wont to exert upon our riper 
 years, even where the spirit of meek and humble piety pre- 
 dominates, and we shall not be startled at some few extrava- 
 gancies of expression, or mystical and enthusiastical senti- 
 ments, discoverable here and there in the writings of this 
 promising young theologian. 
 
 May the great Head of the Church revive in this land — 
 the cradle of the Reformation — the spirit of the Reformers, 
 so that the mantle of Luther may fall upon his professed fol- 
 lowers and admirers, — that all who pretend to teach may be 
 taught of God, — men of faith, learning, research, and above 
 all, of ardent and unfeigned piety. 
 
HINTS 
 
 ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 S^fit Sttttifi oi tilt mtf m^tmnmt 
 
 For the last twenty or thirty years, the sentiment has 
 prevailed almost universally, both among theologians and 
 private christians, t/ial the study of the Old Testament, 
 for theologians, as ivell as the devotional reading of the 
 same, for the laity, is either entirely profitless, or, at 
 least, promises hut little advantage. Adapting our re- 
 marks more especially to the theologian, we shall attempt, 
 in this Essay, clearly to show, 
 
 I. The importance of the study of the Old Tes- 
 tament, EVEN ON the supposition THAT IT IS NOWISE 
 CONNECTED WITH THE NeW ; 
 
 II. The profound wisdom displayed in the provi- 
 dential LEADINGS, AND IN THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS 
 
 OF THE Hebrews ; and, 
 
 III. The entire dependance of the New Testa- 
 ment UPON THE Old ; — and that Christ is the sum 
 and substance of the Old Testament. 
 
 As this subject has enlisted the attention of thinking men 
 in all ages, it may naturally be expected, that many valuable 
 thoughts have already been broached by others. It is not 
 our design, therefore, in this Essay, to furnish much that is 
 new, but merely to lay before the theologia.is of our day the 
 substance of what has been already advanced. 
 
 3 c 
 
12 IMPORTANCE OV THE STUDl' 
 
 I. Now fa?', then, do the hooks of fhe Old Testament 
 deserve our serious study, evni luhnitting the absence of 
 all connexion with Chris- ianiti/ ? 
 
 If steadfastness and indipcndeiice be celebrated as dis- 
 tirg:Mshed excellencies, in the character of an individual; 
 much more are they worthy of our admiration, when exhi- 
 bited in the character of a whole nation. Josej^hus {Contr. 
 Jip ii. 31.) remarks: "Were it not a fact, that the Jewish; 
 nation is universally known, and their voluntary subjection 
 to their laws, a matter of pubhc notoriety, the Greeks — if 
 our institutions were described to them, or if it were told 
 them that, beyond the limits of the then known world, such 
 a people had been discovered, entertaining such exalted con- 
 ceptions of the Deity, and abiding true to their laws for so 
 many centuries, — the Greeks, I say, would be in utter amaze- 
 ment ; for they know of nothing but continual change.'''' 
 
 But this constant variation and change, some one will 
 object, JO/ oaV/ce life ; and it is this very life which elevates 
 the Greeks so high on the scale of intellect, whilst the whole 
 East has been torpid from time immemorial. But the grand 
 object of human existence, is certainly not a mere activity 
 of mind devoid of aim (which the Persian Dschelaleddin 
 compares with the unceasing How of a stream) : for, when 
 the truth is once discovered, it is quite superfluous to search 
 for it anew ; and the Apostle of the Gentiles delineates, in 
 the most striking manner, the character of all the heathen, 
 of a cient and of modern times, when he describes them as 
 " ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of 
 the truth." 
 
 The Hebrews nos'^essed a religious service, which, as we 
 shall see, satisfied the demands of an humble mind, not yet 
 elevated to the higher degrees of spirituality. To this ser- 
 vice they continued faithful. In conformity with it, they 
 fashioned their whole life ; and Josephus {Contr. Ji}]. ii. 20.) 
 
6P THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 -can say with justice : " It affords no ground for obiection 
 against us, that ice have discovered noihing new. It rather 
 proves that we needed nothing better.''^ " What can we 
 conceive more lovely," continues this spirited writer, "than 
 a state whose whole administration resembles a common re- 
 ligious festival ? Whilst other nations have preserved, 
 scarcely for the space of a few days., thtir festivals and 
 their mysteries, we celebrate, ivith inflexible purpose 
 ('a|u-sra*£(JTOj), our religious ordinances, from, century to 
 century.'''' 
 
 Now, if such a perseverance arid persistency be not the 
 result of a deficiency of internal vigour and energy, it must 
 be regarded as something tinily noble ; as in the case of 
 Sparta, the conqueror of nations, whose praise is sounded 
 far and wide, because she was enabled to adhere, for many 
 centuries, to the brazen laws of Lycurgus. 
 
 But who would venture to attribute to the Israelites a de- 
 ficiency of internal vigour, who, without union in the times 
 of the Judges ; in a flourishing condition during the brilliant 
 periods of a David and a Solomon ; torn with internal com- 
 motions, and harassed by wars from without, during the reigns 
 of tiie kings; subjugated by their enemies in the Babylonian 
 captivity ; and under the Maccabees, with heroic energy, as- 
 serting again their pristine importance ; — experienced all 
 the vicissitudes which fall to the lot of nations. True, their 
 want of energy and their extreme languor were but too ap- 
 parent at the time of our Saviour. But a new order of 
 things was then introduced. Fearful were the last agonies, 
 when the ruins of Jerusalem entombed the antiquated and 
 now unmeaning Sanctuary ; as, long before, at Niacveh, the 
 smouldering ruins of the royal palace had buried the efTcmi- 
 nate Sardinapalus, and, with him, the sunken glory of ASS3- 
 ria. It must, therefore, be highly instructive, to investigate 
 the source of this brazen perseverance (iV;i(ufo^vwao(ri;yr;,) 
 
14 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 which was noticed and admired in this people, at an early 
 period, hy the Grecian Hecataens,* a native of Abdera. 
 
 If the inquiry be made, by what means the Sj)artan state 
 was raised to its iofty elevation ; and if this inquiry must be 
 answered by pointing to ambition and untameable pride, as 
 the nurse of the Spartan constitution ; and toLycurgus, en- 
 deavouring to cherish and to strengthen the native rudeness! 
 of the Doric tribe, and establishing the greatness of the citi- 
 zens of Sparta, upon the brutal dejzradation of the legitimate 
 inhabitants — the Lacedemonians ;+ then the Hebrew nation 
 also will appear in a still more interesting light, the more of 
 truth we discover in those words of Josephus :§ " To account 
 for our steadfast faith in God and his commandments, it is ne- 
 cessary to recur to the fact, that our system of laws was far 
 more useful than that of any other nation. For Moses re- 
 garded all the virtues as suburdinnte parts of piety to 
 Gody and not piety as a mere subdivision of virtue. In 
 his legislation, he recognises all our actions as having dva.- 
 (popav -Kfog 020V a relation to God.'''' And no impartial his- 
 torian will deny, that precisely in this uniform recognition 
 of the relation of all events to God, is to be found the source 
 of the great power of the Israelites ; inasmuch as those pe- 
 
 * Josephus, Contr. Ap. i. 22. The arguments against the au- 
 thenticity of Hecataeus, in Eichhorn's Bibfv'thek, Vol. v. p. 431 , are 
 outweighed by those of Zorn, in his Eclogae Abderitae, Altona, 1730, 
 p. 192. Who pan tell, how much evil and false, this Hecataeus re- 
 lated concerning the Jews, together with the good? Read what 
 Zorn has said of Hecataeus the Milesian, in reference to this very 
 thing, in the work above cited, p. 47. 
 
 f Plutarch justly reprehends their stern and savage rigour, when 
 Lycurgus, for example, extirpates all the vines, in order to prevent 
 the use of wine. See Plut. De audiend. poet. ed. Wittenb. Vol. i. 
 p. 5'2. 
 
 I Manso's Sparta, I. i. p. 129. 
 
 i Contr. Ap. ii. 10. 
 
OP THE OLD TESTAMENT, 15 
 
 riods when piety is languid or extinct, are the most deficient 
 in firm and manly characters ; for these are produced only 
 by resting firmly and reposing confidently upon God. 
 
 Next to the steadfastness and independence of the He- 
 brews, their far-famed antiquity claims our respect. More 
 than six hundred years before Lycurgus, Moses gave his 
 laws. Six hundred years before Pindar, the king of the 
 Hebrews composed his divine psalms. Three hundred years 
 before the fabulous heroes, Orpheus, Hercules, and Theseus, 
 sailed to Colchis, Moses founded a Ttieocracy frau;^ht with 
 the marks of divine wisdom. If we refuse to acknowledge 
 the antiquity of the Pentateuch, still the historical facts are 
 certain. But the antiquity of the Pentateuch is called in 
 question, not by the student of history, but solely by theolo- 
 gians, who are offended at its extraordisiary colouring.* 
 
 It fares with the remotest antiquity as with our inflmcy. 
 Tota ilia aetas periit dil:vio sicut infantiani mergere 
 solet oblivio, says St. Augustine ; '•■ ^11 those years were 
 drowned in the deluge, as our infancy is wont to be 
 merged in oblivion.'''' Of those ages we know, therefore, 
 but little. What has been preserved, however, from those 
 remote times, by tradition, is presented by Moses in the first 
 ten chapters of Genesis, in a more inteUigible form, than is 
 found in all the maze of Grecian, Indian, Egyptian, and 
 Chinese fable.t Admitting that what Moses relates of the 
 
 * For the authenticity of the Pentateuch, the late Jahn has argued 
 profoundly, in Bengel's Archiv, ii. Si, iii. Tuebingen, 1817 and 1818. 
 
 f " It is easy to see why I could meddle only orally with the won- 
 derfully learned, and, often enough, learnedly wonderful, things 
 which make a talk among us, out of Egypt, India, the world of fable, 
 &.C. merely because we prefer an obscure perception of wisdom at a 
 distance, to a near and practical apprehension of it where it really 
 exists. Thus much, however, is certain, that things are not rendered 
 Gospel, by even the most extensive and intricate reading." Schoels- 
 ser's Wdtseschichtc, Vol. i, Pt. 2. in the preface. 
 
16 IMPORTANCE OP THE STUDY 
 
 antc-patriarchal times, belongs to an age of darkness, when 
 tradition exerted its transforming influence ; still, no one can 
 deny the important truths contained in the chapter concern- 
 ing the Creation and the Fall ; nor can any one mistake the 
 truly historical colouring which shows itself in the history of 
 the patriarchs. To begin with the history of Abraham ; who 
 would venture to assert that, after a thousand or sixteen hun- 
 dred years, when every thing was now changed, some one 
 toak it into his head to invent the expedition of the five 
 kings against Sodom, in the description of which every 
 thing betrays the pen of a contemporary 1* Slime pits, and 
 the dry crust of earth impregnated with slime, impede the 
 flight of the inhabitants of Sodom.t Fugitives direct their 
 flight across the mountains of Judea, into the plain where 
 Abraham had pitched his tent, and uiform him of what had 
 transpired. Three hundred and eighteen "trained servants, 
 born in his own house," accompany Abraham. With him 
 also were three confederates. On their return, they are hos- 
 pitably received by the priest and king of Salem. Presents 
 are given and received. What an air of genuine antiqueness 
 pervades the whole ! How truly historical ! Would not all 
 
 * Let us listen to John v. Mueller : " On no book, have I reflect- 
 ed so much ; no one has afforded me so much pleasure, as Moses. 
 Nature is depicted in Moses with as much truth and fidehty, as in 
 Homer; in a greater variety of forms, also, and m a more familiar dress. 
 No condition of life, no age, no sex, but may find examples and vvarn- 
 ino- in these books. Tliat Ezra wrote the books of Moses, is about 
 as true as that you wrote them. There is quite another spirit in the 
 ancient lawgiver. He wrote every thing for his times, for his peo- 
 ple, and for his plan. I have in my mind a multitude of thoughts, 
 witli which I cannot to-day make you acquainted; this, however, is 
 certain, that I might write a book for Moses and the Prophets against 
 the Rabbis and the theologians. For, these folks had eyes and saw 
 not ; — especially were thrir sensibilities frozen, admitting they ever 
 had any." Letter to his brother. Werke, Vol. v. p. 78. 
 
 •j- Gen. xiv. 10. 
 
OP THE OLD TESTAMENT. 17 
 
 this, in the annals of every other people, be received as his- 
 tory? 
 
 If the authenticity of Ossian is disputed,* hecdiuse ships are 
 there spoken of, at a time when the Caledonians had no- 
 thing but curucae, constructed of intertwisted oziers, cover- 
 ed with ox-hides ;t because chimneys are there mentioned 
 as in use among a people that scarcely had huts ; because 
 the hunted roe is spoken of, when Martial says, 
 
 Nuda Caledonio sic pectora prsebuit urso; — 
 
 why shall we not regard that " rust of antiquity," that child- 
 like simplicity of manners, so conspicuous in these Hebrew 
 books, as a witness for their authenticity, and the genuineness 
 of the history of the patriarchs. Abraham employs a piece 
 of cunning, not to tell a falsehood, but to conceal the truth ;| 
 for Sarah was also his §ister.§ Rebecca deceived the aged 
 Isaac. Jacob, by a crafty contrivance, enlarges his flock, 
 much to the prejudice of Laban. Instances such as these 
 have been cited by the Tindals and the Celsuses of every age, 
 against the authority of the Bible. But they are continually 
 pressed with this question in return : Does not all this hear 
 testimony to the veracity of narrators? Consider only 
 how much an interpolator might have interwoven, |j and 
 
 * Mfthridates, Vol. ii. f Ccesar, Bell. Gall. 
 
 I 1 Mos. xii. 13. } ch. xx. 12. 
 
 II The most splendid testimony to the genuineness of the Hebrew 
 accounts, is furnished by that passage of Hecatajus the Milesian, 
 cited by Diodorus Sicnlns. from whom it has been preserved to us 
 by Photius in his Mu^io/3)/3Xi'ov, Cod. ccxliv. [We subjoin to this 
 note the following words from Townley's Illustrations, Sfc. Vol. i. p. 
 292. " The JMyriohiblion or Library is a Review of the works of two 
 hundred and eighty authors, theologians, commentators, philosophers, 
 historians, orators, physicians, aad grammarians. It was undertaken 
 at the request of his brother Tarasias, and composed whilst he was 
 a layman, and, as it seems during an embassy at the court ofBagdat. 
 It is one of the most precious remains of antiquity ; and is the model 
 
18 IMPORTANCE OP THE STUDTT 
 
 what palliating circumstances he might have introduced. 
 Schloetzer* remarks of the Jews, that '•'' they stand promi- 
 nent amon^ the nations of the worlds not merely in connex- 
 ion with the christian history, as the people of God, but as 
 a powerful nation, who, in the season of their greatness, 
 numbered more than five millions of souls ; a cultivated 
 nation, the depository of all the fenowledge which re- 
 tnains to us from, the remotest antiquity, long before 
 the oldfst records of the comparatively recent Greeks.'''' 
 Josephus {Contr. ^p. i. 2.) eloquently observes: "It is a 
 matter of astonishment to me, that, in all that pertains to 
 antiquity, mankind imagine they must confide in the Greeks 
 alone, but not in us, and in others. For my part, I believe 
 that precisely the contrary coursq must be pursued, if we 
 are disposed, not to follow vain imaginations, but to search 
 for the truth from the original sources themselves ; for, 
 among the Greeks, every thing is rf recent date — a day 
 or two old — the founding of states, for example, the 
 invention of arts, the enactment of laws, and, — the 
 most recent of all — their historical writings " 
 
 Let us now consider the spirit which breathes in this 
 very ancient history. Every where we shall find the most 
 lively apprehensions of the presence and character of the 
 Deity. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus styles the historian " the minister of 
 Providence.'''' '■'■Letme not, 0, thou divine Providence,^' 
 says Lessing,t " because thy footsteps are invisible, en- 
 
 on which the critical journals have been formed, which in modern 
 times, have so much engaged the learned ot different nations and 
 contributed to the advancement of literature. An interesting account 
 of this most learned and accomplished scholar, is given in Berring- 
 ton's Literary History of the JtUddle Ages, App. i pp. 554 — 562. His 
 Myriobiblion, or Library, has been several times printed ; the best 
 edition is that of And. Schottus, Rolhom. fol. 1653." [Tr.] 
 
 * Wellgeschichte, 1792. p. 198. 
 
 t Ueber die Erziehung dcs J\Iensckengescklechts, p. 84. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 19 
 
 lertain a doubt of thy existence.'^ Divine vengeance 
 reigns,with uncontrollable might, in the history of the world. 
 Plato exclaims: 'O @s% rta.\Ta ysu^^T^si — The Deity metes 
 out all things. In the history of the Hebrews, how- 
 ever, this all-pervading Deity appears, not as a dark and un- 
 intelligible Jidrasiea ; but, as Lavater expresses it, as an 
 absolute God^ — a free and almighty Sovereign, who re- 
 veals himself to his chosen ones, and who, with wisdom 
 and irresistible power creates and destroys. It is remarked 
 by Philo : " The Greeks lost sight of the Creator in the 
 creature." Just so, also, the historians who are aSsoi sv tu 
 xofffAu — without God in the world, forgat, and still continue 
 to forget, that the God who metes out all things, is above 
 and in the world. They affect to know the breath, which 
 communicates life and motion to the otherwise dry and life- 
 less collection of bones, sinews, and flesh.* If we are 
 struck with the conduct of Herodotus,! who never forgets 
 the hand of the Eternal, which regulates the movements of 
 time, how much more important must it be, to discover the 
 only God, the '■'■ possessor of heaven and earth''"' — thus he 
 was styled by the royal priest Melchizedec,:{: — energizing in 
 the history of the Hebrews ? The goddess of Vengeance is 
 seen flying through the histories of the Greeks ; but the 
 Jewish and the Christian religion were the first to exhibit 
 the counselling, provident, and affectionate God, in the affairs 
 of the world. And what is all history worth, without a re- 
 gard to the original source, from which the noisy streams of 
 time proceed? '■'•God is a sphere,'^ says the profound 
 
 * The remark of Herder, in his By-iefe uher das Stud. d. Theol. iii. 
 p. 323., that " Ecclesiastical history, without the Spirit of God, is 
 like a Polyphemus, without his eye," is strikingly applicable to the 
 !iistory of the Israelites, 
 
 f See Herodotus, ed. Wesscling, p. 14, and Valkenaer';? note, 
 p. 216. 
 
 t 1 Mos. xiv. 10. 
 
 3 D 
 
20 IMPORTAXCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Proclus, -whose cenh^e is every where^ whose circumfer- 
 ence is nowhere.'''' Where is this more true than in history. 
 
 Thanks, therefore, to the Hebrews for having immediately, 
 and through Christianity, instructed us in the genuine spirit 
 of history. It must be acknowledged that the nations of the 
 East, in general, endeavour, with a sacred zeal, to dissolve 
 the world in God, and thus to destroy the liberty of the 
 creature ;* while those of the West also strive, with a blind 
 precipitancy, to evaporate God into the world. "But, 
 sunt certi deniqxie fines ^'' there is a middle-way, which he 
 will find who is taught of the Spirit of God. 
 
 As faith in the universal and wise government of the 
 Highest, reigns in the history of the Israelites, so also confi- 
 dence in his paternal care of each individual, pervades their 
 didactic poetry, and inspires love and consolation. Into 
 these mysteries, the eye of the pious heathen cast many a 
 wistful look ; especially the enlightened eye of the noble 
 Plutarch, who relates of Arion, that he desired to be rescued 
 from a watery grave, for this reason particularly, that he 
 might for the future confide more firmly in the gods.t And, 
 indeed, in this as well as in other respects, we are constrain- 
 ed to exclaim, with John v. Mueller :t "Will not the Chae- 
 ronaean rise up, at some future day, as a witness for the 
 truth against a goodly number of theologians ?" The con- 
 flict of the pious soul with sore afflictions, which serve to 
 kindle its faith, as the fire waxes in the storm, where can 
 we learn it better than in the admirable book of the Psalms ? 
 And here, too, we never find a desperate grappling with 
 dark powers, but trials which generate hope — a hope that 
 " maketh not ashamed." But the internal excellencies of 
 
 * It was a great offence to the pious Mohammedans, that the 
 Arabian and Greek peripatetics admitted a (pijtfis. See the .More JW- 
 tochim of MaimonideS; ed. Biixtorf. Basil, 1629. p. 159. 
 
 * " 'w; 'ArJ.fooi 'Ksf Sswv 6ogav /3s;3a(av." See Plut. Sept. Sapient. 
 Conviv. ed. Wyttenb. i. 2. p. 141. \ IFerkc, vii. p. 9. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. . 21 
 
 thesebooks^which,althoughwritten during a period of thir- 
 teen centuries (including tiie Apocrypha,) breathe the same 
 spirit of divine elevation — are much too numerous, to per- 
 mit a particular enumeration on the present occasion. We 
 shall call the attention to one only — the idea which the Is- 
 raelites entertained of the holiness of God, and the conse- 
 quent sense of guilt, and feeling of humility. While the 
 gods were regarded as more nearly resembling men, men 
 also thought themselves to be more like the gods. An in- 
 solent haughtiness blighted all the nobler blossoms of vir- 
 tue. Socrates alone, in all antiquity, knew himself to be 
 rich in the midst of his poverty. Would that he could 
 also have banished that sarcastic smile, which bears witness 
 to his pride of his own humility. There is a deep self- 
 abasetnent which clings close to the side of real humility , 
 with a simplicity at the same time which storms the 
 very heavens. And if David had been a tenfold greater 
 sinner than he was, his sins had all been obliterated by that 
 simple-hearted humility and penitence which was, is, and 
 will continue to be, a folly to all the heathen. Tarry only in 
 the perusal of the single book of the Psalms, and an inexhaus- 
 tible store of the profoandest moral sentiments will unfold 
 itself to our view. " In my prosperity, I said, 1 shall not be 
 moved," says the royal servant of God, " but thou didst hide 
 thy face, and I was troubled,"* "Before I was aftllcted I 
 went astray ; but now have I kept thy word," is the song of 
 another man of God.t Such lang age of humility was not 
 heard throughout the whole extent of proud Greece. We 
 must, however, for want of room, leave this part of the sub- 
 ject, and endeavour to show, 
 
 II. The profound wisdom, displayed in the providen- 
 tial leadings, a7id in the religious institutions of the He- 
 brews. 
 
 * Read the excellent commentary of Lutlier, in V/alch's edition 
 of his Worlds i. p. 1391. + Ps. cix. 67. 
 
22 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Let US first of all speak of the providential leadings of 
 the Israelites. 
 
 " History," says Leibnitz, " instructs us in the true philoso- 
 phy." The observation of Clarke also is well founded : " In 
 religion men are apt to be more easily wrought upon, and 
 more strongly affected, hy good testimony than by the 
 strictest argumeiits.''''* Mankind, therefore, who are so 
 much under the dominion of sense, cannot receive the truth , 
 by means of a system of abstract demonstrations, but only by 
 •means of facts ; as he alone can rightly be said to believe the 
 doctrines and wonders of Christianity, who has himself ex- 
 perienced and witnessed their power. The language of 
 Providence is the most familiar language of God, addressed 
 to the heart of every individual. Doctrinal and ethical 
 knowledge was communicated, therefore, to the Israelites, 
 by means of the leadings of Providence. 
 
 Why, however, some one perhaps will ask, did God se- 
 lect only one people, and reveal himself to them ? How 
 comes it to pass that other nations advanced almost as far, 
 Avithout any special divine guidance? Why was precisely 
 this people chosen ? The first (Question is met by the inge- 
 nious Sti Martin with a counter-question : " How does it ~ 
 happen, seeing so many members stood in need of the 
 marrow-bones, that the body has but ojie ?"t Lessing 
 replies to the other questions, comparing the human race to 
 
 * Discourse concerning God, the Obligations of Nature, &lc. p. 199. 
 
 f In reference to this sentence, we are constrained to adopt the 
 words of Caslellio, on 1 Pet. iv. 6., "Hunc locum non intelligo, ideo- 
 que ad verbum transtuli " The sentence in the original runs thus : 
 " Warum, da so viele Glieder der Markroehren beduerften, hat der 
 Leib nur Eine ?" If the passage means to intimate that there is but one 
 marrow-bone in the human frame, it is anatomically incorrect. If it 
 means that while so many individual members or limbs required and are 
 furnished with marrow-bones, the body or trunk contains but one, it 
 seems to be an inapposite rejily to the question which it is intendeu 
 to meet. — (Tk.) 
 
OP THE OLD TESTAMENT. 23 
 
 an individual man : " Will education appear useless, because 
 the children of nature sometimes overtake, if not surpass, 
 the children of education ?" And again: " Is it not of capital 
 importance, that God should fashion to himself the most un- 
 cultivated and the most rebellious people, so that the strug- 
 gle between the divine and the hitman might be developed 
 in the most striking manner?" All this is undoubtedly true. 
 But Lessing has overlooked the fact also, that no nation — 
 the Persians the nearest; the Greeks, not at all — could cope 
 with the Hebrews, in what Avas then, and is now, the ma- 
 terial thing, — in humble and genuine knowledge of God : 
 for every thing else is mere tinsel. He has also overlooked 
 another circumstance, that a people whose eye is not single, 
 is entirely unfit to receive a revelation ; that, therefoie, nei- 
 ther the imaginative Indians, nor the vain and speculative 
 Greeks, nor the haughty Romans, could have received a re- 
 velation without marring it. If we consult the records of 
 the Hebrews, we shall discover that the experimental know- 
 ledge of God, communicated through the medium of the 
 senses and visible divine interpositions, was the main thing 
 which prevented the entire apostacy of the corrupted race 
 from that God who exclaims so emphatically :* " For who, 
 as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me 
 since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that arc 
 coming and shall come, let them show unto them." 
 
 By the side of the special providential leadings of the 
 Israelites, we may place the Law and the Prophets, as di- 
 vine means of grace. " Into this land of wonders," says John 
 V. Mucllcr,t " Moses conducted the Israelites. From the 
 summit of the mountain, where, of old, adoration was of- 
 fered, the Israelites received their Laws. But the spirit of 
 these laws was itself a wonder." This law, and the manner 
 in v/hlch it was given, is become an offence to all unbelievers. 
 But few of the heathen can extol the law as StraboJ does.§ 
 
 ■"'' Is xliv. 7. f Algcm. Geschichfe, i. p. 439 t Lib. xvi. 
 
 ^ Origen, in liis second book cspi' d^xdv, expresses the belief" that 
 
24 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Among its defenders, however, a great diversity of opinion 
 prevails. The learned Spencer endeavours to show, that some- 
 thing must of necessity be borrowed from paganism, for the 
 use of the people of Israel, if the stiff-necked race were to be 
 prevented from entire apostacy. Opposed to him stands 
 Witsen, who seeks to prove, that every thing which the Is- 
 raelites possess, is peculiarly and appropriately their own. 
 Between the two is Warburton, who, from the circumstance 
 that only terrestrial rewards and punishments are insisted on, 
 thinks to establish the divine origin of the Law. If, now, 
 this one thing is indubitably certain, that the other nations 
 have not been entirely neglected by God, — that they have 
 derived many a divine stamen from the primeval revelation 
 made toman; andif we seek to ascertain the principle of the 
 universal economy of God, it will then appear to us perfectly 
 clear, why the Israelites had so much in common with other 
 nations. For, it seems to be established in the universal 
 economy of the divine decrees, that a ceremonial worship 
 and a sacrificial service should every where precede the 
 worship "in spirit and in truth." Whether the nations 
 would not at once have received a system of spiritual doc- 
 trines ; or, whether the Chinese and the Japanese are not 
 already ripe for a purer faith, is beyond the power of any 
 mortal to decide. We shall see and know, however, when the 
 dial-plate is removed from the grand clock-work of the world. 
 We find, therefore, among all the pagan nations, imposing 
 ceremonies ; and among the Jews also, a splendid external 
 worship; but — and here is the striking difference — monothe- 
 ism, and a symbolical, and typical meaning stamp upon the 
 Israelitic worship a peculiar character. The religious laws 
 of the Jews had plainly two grand objects in view ; — to in- 
 scribe monotheism upon the very tablet of the heart, and 
 to awaken a lively sense of sin. Sin, Sin ! This is the 
 word which is heard again and again in the Old Testament ; 
 
 a clear undcvstandinrr of the reasons of the Israelitic economy, and of 
 all the Levitical laws, belongs to the privileges of the future life." 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 25 
 
 and had it not there, for centuries, rung in the ear, and fas- 
 tened on the conscience, the joyful sound of Grace for 
 Grace could not have been heard, at the time of Christ, as 
 the watchword of the New Testament. What need of 
 Grace have those heathen, who will hear nothitjg of Sin, 
 while, alas ! they feel but too much its destructive conse- 
 quences ? To this end was the whole system of sacrifices ; 
 to this end, the priesthood, — that all flesh might know that 
 it is grass. It was obviously essential that thereby the law 
 should prepare the way for Christianity. In every view, the 
 sacrificial worship must be regarded as one of the most un- 
 accountable institutions of the ancient world. Strange, in- 
 deed, that uncorruptcd nature,even without the aid of grace, 
 should feel, in so lively a manner, its dependance upon God, 
 and its deep pollution ! Indeed, we are constrained to adopt 
 the words of the wise Messenger :* " Do you ask if this sen- 
 timent descended from remote antiquity? Or how this rever- 
 ential fear of the unseen God, having once become current 
 among men, could be propagated to the succeeding genera- 
 tions ? The answer is easy. Water descends with ease, and 
 finds its own way ; bat, by tracing the stream upwards, we 
 arrive at length at a point which is the highest, and there the 
 water no longer descends, but gushes from the fountain. It 
 is a more difficult question than many are wont to imagine, 
 how the first sacrificer came by the idea of a sacrifice."! 
 
 * Claudius' Werke iii. p. 65. [Matthias Claudius, who, from the 
 titlepage of his miscellaneous writinjrs (Sacmtliche Werke dps WandS' 
 hecker Bolcn,) was commonly known by the name of the Wandsbeck 
 Messenger, was born in Holstoin, in 1743, and died in 1815, and is 
 numbered among llie most original and ingenious writers of his day. J 
 (Tr.) 
 
 f Grotius — what a man by the side of many of o'lr day! — is of thn 
 sams opinion. De Veritat. Rel. Chr. i. h. 7. "Sunt vero instituta 
 quaedam ita hominibus communia, ut non tam naturae instinctui, 
 aut evidenti rationis collectioni, quam perpetuae traditioni accepta 
 fcrri dcbeant : qualis olimfuit victimaruni in sacris mactalis. 
 
26 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 The belief also in one only God, what a tone of genuine 
 piety it produced ! This has not been hitherto sufficiently 
 appreciated. The gods of the Greeks were exalted men, 
 who, being unequal in might, were embroiled in mutual con- 
 tentions. As he who knows no better protection and no 
 surer defence, than the favour of a powerful party, never 
 can attain to quietude and tranquillity ; but, one while, full of 
 anxiety, lest his party should be forced to succumb ; at an- 
 other, disquieted with solicitude, lest he should lose its fa- 
 vour, must dierish in his bosom an everlasting conflict and 
 dread ; so aiso was it impossible that an unclouded spiritual 
 life could dawn in the bosom of a serious-minded Greek. 
 He could not say with the Psalmist : " Truly my soul waiteth 
 upon God." An unceasing ebb and flow must have disquieted 
 the fainting heart, when one deity was known to hurl defi- 
 ance in the face of another : 
 
 W snot ^firria^u fj.sv 
 
 Aurars |i(^ai5 ■n'vsu/jia x^a^aivoj, 
 Ku/i,a 8s ifovTou T^aj^s? ^o5ic.j 
 Sv'y)(_C}CSiSv Tuv <;■' ou^aviwv 
 "ArfT^wv SioSovs, sg T£ xsXaivov 
 Ta^Ta^ov a|(5v]v ^i-^sis ^s'/xag 
 Touf^iov, avayjcrjg ffTSpgafg oivaig* 
 
 " Let the sharp and jagged lightning be hurled against me ; 
 let the air be convulsed by the thunder and the rage of 
 fierce winds ; let the tempest upturn the earth from its low- 
 est foundations, and confound, in its frightful whirl, the waves 
 of the sea and the course of the stars ; let him plunge mc, 
 
 * Aeschylus, Promelheus, vs. 1045. ed. Glasg. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 27 
 
 by the irresistible whirlwind, into gloomy Tartarus ; still, he 
 cannot slay me." Such was far from being the case with 
 the Hebrew. He knew that Ms God was the God of heaven 
 and earth, who gave to all nations their habitations, to whom 
 " every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear."* The 
 effects of this constant flowing forth of the heart toward the 
 only living and the true God, are known to those who lead 
 a spiritual life. What it means, to look away from man, and 
 to look solely to God, was well understood by all the holy 
 men of the Jewish and the Christian Church, by all the 
 martyrs, and by Luther also, when he replied to the Prince 
 Elector : " You cannot protect me by your might, but /can 
 protect 1/oit by my prayers." 
 
 Such then were the effects of the faith in the only 
 true God. Still more beneficent was the faith in the only 
 living God, as the Holy One who reigns above the powers 
 of Nature. The deities of the Greeks were dependant pro- 
 fessedly upon Nature. Of course, there was nothing in 
 their system by which the soul of man might range beyond 
 the limits of time. Nay, terrestrial things were even conse- 
 crated in the eye of the Greek. It seemed therefore to him 
 temerity, to lift himself above them and see them beneath 
 his feet. 
 
 If we direct our attention to the political portion of the 
 Law, we shall find that in this respect the institutions of Mo- 
 ses will cope with those of any other nation. The natural 
 sentiment of humanity and equity was laid at the foundation, 
 and from this principle proceeded most of the commands. 
 Witness the humanity and gentleness toward strangers, wi- 
 dows, orphans, and even beasts. How tender is the prohi- 
 bition (2 Mos. xxii. 21. xxiii. 9.) : " Thou shalt neither vex 
 a stranger nor oppress him : for ye know the heart of a 
 stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
 And again (3 Mos. xix. 34.) : " But the stranger that dwell- 
 
 * Is. xlv. 23. 
 3 E 
 
28 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 eth with you, shall be unto you as one born among you, and 
 thou shalt love him as thyself." Witness also the numerous 
 commands concerning widows and orphans, in substance as 
 follows : Ye shall wrong neither the widow nor the or- 
 phan : for they will cry unto me, and I ivill hear their 
 cry, and my anger shall burn, so that you shall be slain 
 with the sivord, and your wives shall be made widows 
 and you children orphans. Compare 2 Mos. xxii. 15., 3 
 Mos. xix. 32., 5 Mos. xv. 7., 5 Mos. xxiv. 10., 5 Mos. xxiv. 
 14. 17., and in relation to beasts, 2 Mos. xxiii. 11., 3 Mos. 
 xxii. 24., 5 Mos. xxii. 1. And before all other commands, 
 those which enjoin as follows : Thou shalt love God su- 
 premely, and thy neighbour as thyself* 
 
 This Law and this religious service, were, it is true, a mere 
 vail. They became, about the time of our Saviour, more 
 and more spiritless and nerveless. Then it was that the 
 winged Psyche burst from its chrysalis state, and extended 
 its wings toward heaven. Until this happened, holy men 
 were sent continually, down to a very late period, who breath- 
 ed forth the Spirit of the Almighty, and enlivened the age. 
 We poor mortals are in a fallen state, and so long as we are 
 not enlightened from above, have no scale by which to mea- 
 sure what is Divine, when presented to us. Hence the con- 
 tempt of the natural man for the Holy Scriptures. It is 
 only after long wrestling and agonizing, that we come to par- 
 ticipate in a'^y illumination ; and as in divine matters every 
 one knows only as far as his own experience extends, so we 
 become acquainted with what is divine in the Scriptures, just 
 in the proportion in which it begins to increase in ourselves. 
 This is particularly true in the reading of the Prophets. 
 Their words must appear dry and barren to every heathen, and 
 
 * On this and other points discussed in this Essay, I would refer 
 the reader to George Mueller's Philosophische Aufsaetze— a book 
 full of profound thoughts. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 29 
 
 we cannot be surprised to find him resorting, with a hnn- 
 dred-fold more gratification, to Homer and Anacreon. But 
 when we receive the Spirit of God as our teacher, a new 
 sense is generated ; — then we understand the prophecies, 
 the miraculous annunciations, and the unfathomable depth 
 of the spiritual meaning. More, however, of this below. 
 
 If we wish to obtain a correct view of the Prophets, we 
 must transport ourselves entirely into antiquity. Origen 
 {Contr. Cels. i. 36.) regards it as certain, that the heathen 
 world had revelations of the future. That the Jews might 
 not apostatize, it was necessary, says he, that they also should 
 have their prophets ; and for these prophets they must have 
 been indebted to God himself. From whatever source the 
 pagan priests may have derived their knowledge of the fu- 
 ture,* the Jewish prophets had theirs undoubtedly from God. 
 
 * For this field, the magnetical and somnambn'istical phcnume- 
 na of our day, furnish entirely new results. It fares however with 
 these inquiries, as with tii? ptiilosophy of Kant. StilHng thought, 
 that Providence had now laid open another door, by which mankind 
 might enter heaven; inasmuch as philosophy herself had exposed 
 her own weakness. How very few, however, is it probable, have thus 
 arrived at the truth ! By the phenomena of magnetism, again, it was 
 thought, that mankind must certainly be convinced of a God who 
 reigns in and over Nature. In place of this, however, the advocates 
 of pantheism undertake to prove, by means of magnetism, the iden- 
 tity of the sou! and the body, and make Jesus nothing but a magne- 
 tiser. What shall we conclude from these things? That the Gospel 
 will be its own witness. Still, however, the theologian can always 
 employ those phenomena for the advantage of his department. Na- 
 tuie is in itself indifferent. But. as soon as a moral being begins to 
 stir up its powers with good or bad intention, the kindred good or 
 bad spirits join themselves to hnn accordingly. Besiles, the more 
 uncorrupted, — the more consistent with nature a man is, in so much 
 the closer relation does he stand to siirroundmg nature Tins re- 
 mark serves to explani why it is ihat, in more ancient ages, univer- 
 sally, operations upon nature were frequent. It will als(. be plain 
 from this remark, that dni si idemfaciiint non est idem. Mo-es could 
 command nature; so could the Egyptian magicians also (if indeed 
 
30 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Anciently mankind lived in a more immediate connexion 
 witli the world above, than they do at present. Hence the 
 lively sentiment, that nothing could be done sine Numine. 
 It is from this point of view that we must regard the prophets. 
 They must in every thing stand between God and man. 
 Inasmuch as the conducting of the affairs of the Hebrews 
 exerted a pecu'iarly important influence upon their religion 
 — for the doctrinal system of the Israelites was inscribed in 
 large characters upon their providential leadings — prophecy 
 also must, of necessity, have an immediate reference to this. 
 So long as the will of God was thus communicated to the souls 
 of his holy ones, the people continued in an intimate con- 
 nexion with their God. The new-fashioned notions of those, 
 therefore, are altogether erroneous, who can see in the pro- 
 phets nothing but demagogues and poets. Isaiah can with 
 as little truth be styled the minister ofivar, in the cabinet 
 of Hezekiah, as Tiresias, the minister of religion, at the court 
 of Oedipus ; or the Bramin Bidpai, Chancellor of state of 
 the wise Dabschelim of India. Still more strange does it 
 sound, to hear some speak of court-prophets, as of court- 
 comedians. With what propriety can those be denominated 
 demagogues, who manifested their zeal toward the kingdom, 
 because the worship of God was sinking or rising ; — who 
 threatened wars only as the punishment of ungodliness, who 
 promised peace only as the reward of piety, who never 
 
 they wore not mere jugglers); to the former, therefore, every thing 
 was possible ; to the latter only much was possible. The principle 
 of self is always corrupt; the principle of Ihe subjection of self to 
 Gnd is always divine. Again, nothing can be more absurd and un- 
 historical than to refuse assent to all the accounts of oracular histo- 
 ries. How very definite and express are many narratives from those 
 ancient times. I would call the attention of the reader to some im- 
 portant narratives of this kind drawn from the Arabian antc-Mohani- 
 medan antiquities. See, concerning the prophetess Dharifat al Chairj 
 Do Sacy, in the Memoires cle V Acad, des Inscript., xlviii. p. 49?. 
 634, &c. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 31 
 
 sought their own interest, who foretold the future and still 
 continued herdsmen (as in the case of Amos), and who, on 
 account of their severe chastisement of apostacy, must have 
 heen in continual dread of being slain with the sword and of 
 being sawn asunder? Who would venture to class such men 
 as these, of whom the world was not worthy, with Cleon 
 the leather maker ? And what kind of poetry do they think 
 of, when they cite Jeremiah and Isaiah in the capacity of 
 poets? The external form was nothmg in their estimation. 
 They could not therefore, out of regard to the form, be 
 styled poets. The spirit, however, and the towering flight 
 of the thoughts, certainly cannot be denominated rnerely 
 poetry, provided we believe the Spirit of God to be actively 
 operating upon the souls of the men, and see more in their 
 books than the lofty aspirations of the human powers. If the 
 Spirit of God announced what lay beyond the sphere of hu- 
 man knowledge, then the words of the prophets were not 
 merely external exhibitions of the movements of the soul 
 within ; they were the ivords of God. If not, how could 
 the prophets complain of false prophets, — foretellers of the 
 future, whom God had not commissioned ? But even admit- 
 ting they could have done this, under the influence of arro- 
 gance and self-delusion, how can we account for the exist- 
 ence of a fact such as we read of in Jer, xxviii. : " And Ha- 
 naniah spake in the presence of all the people, saying. Thus 
 saith the Lord, Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all nations within 
 the space of two full years." Then said the prophet Jere- 
 miah unto Hananiah the prophet. Hear now, Hananiah, The 
 Lord hath not sent thee ; but thou makest this people to 
 trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I 
 will cast thee from off the face of the earth : this year thou 
 shalt die ; because thou hast taught rebellion against the 
 Lord. So the prophet Hananiah died the same year, in the 
 seventh month." Is it possible that Moses could have meant 
 
32 IMPORTANCE OF THE STtiDy 
 
 by a propbet, a poet and a well meaning demagogue, when 
 he threatens, 5 Mos. xviii. 20. : " But the prophet which 
 shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not 
 commanded him to speak ****** even that prophet shall 
 die." And again, in vs. 21.: "If thou say in thine heart, 
 How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not 
 spoken ? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, 
 if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing 
 Avhich the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spo- 
 ken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him." 
 
 We now proceed to the third and most important point, 
 viz. to show, 
 
 III. The entire dependance of the New Testament 
 upon the Old; — and that Christ is the sum and 
 substance of the Old Testament: for, ^'Non sapit 
 vetus scriptura, si non Christus in ea intelligatur* — The 
 Old Testament is savourless, if Christ be not tasted 
 in it.'' 
 
 This intimate connexion between the New and the Old 
 Testament, may be viewed in a four-fold light. 
 
 1. The principal features of the New Testament ethics 
 are found also in the Old Testament, and seem to have ori- 
 ginated there. 
 
 2. The system of doctrines of the New Testament, is the 
 development and illustration of the doctrine of faith, con- 
 tained in the Old Testament. 
 
 3. The prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in 
 the New. 
 
 4. Christ is the centre of all prophecy. 
 
 In regard to the ethics of the New Testament, we may 
 remark that three things unite to constitute the harmony of 
 the Christian life — hximility, faith and love. Of all these, 
 the presentiment and elementary principle existed in the 
 
 i 
 
 * Auir. Tr. 9. in Job. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 3'3 
 
 Jewish religion, and of the first two, in the Jewish rehgioii 
 alone. We have seen that humihty was the scope of the 
 sacrificial system. The priesthood and the Law were or- 
 dained for the purpose of awakening a sense of sin. Hence 
 we find such frequent and striking allusions to humihty in 
 the Old Testament. " The Lord is nigh unto them that are 
 of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."* 
 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth 
 the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, 
 and to walk humbly with thy God ?t " For thus saith the 
 high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity ; I dwell in the 
 high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and 
 humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to re- 
 vive the heart of the contrite ones."| " For all these things 
 hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith 
 the Lord : but to this man will I look, even to him that 
 is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."|j 
 
 It seems, then, that lowliness of mind, and a meek, hum- 
 ble, and broken spirit, which the heathen regarded as a blem- 
 ish,§ were regarded by the Hebrews as the proper tem- 
 perament of the soul ; and while the heathen extolled the 
 " elatio animi,'''' and the " Sujxos dyauk " it is recognized 
 as a prominent feature in the economy of the God of Israel, 
 that, " He resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the hum- 
 ble." 
 
 If, in reference to this important point, we examine the 
 views of the pagan nations of the East, we shall find, it is 
 true, among them, something of a more elevated character, 
 than among the Greeks. But, in their rage for speculation, 
 they found themselves at length upon a giddy elevation. 
 " Father, mother, property, passions, every wish, must be 
 relinquished in order to arrive at that state of self-anuihiJa- 
 
 * Ps. xxxiv. 12. f Micah. vi. 8 | Is. Iviii. 15. 
 
 (] Is. Ixvi. 2. A Cic. (le Off. iii. 3?. 
 
34 IMPORTANCE OP THE STUDY 
 
 tion in M^hich we can contemplate the Deity :" says the In- 
 dian-Chinese book Sticheiilhchan^king * " When the 
 true light of God enters, then is the sense of self-annihilation 
 so great, that knowledge also ceases :" is the doctrine of 
 the Nyaya sect.* Thus it appears that self-annihilation, for 
 the sake of God, was a doctrine of the speculative East. 
 This doctrine is unfruitful in the practical benefits of life. 
 Still a deeper meaning lies in these doctrines than in those 
 of the Grecian voluptuousness. 
 
 Another christian virtue, which is found in its elementary 
 state in the Jewish religion, is Faith — a virtue utterly un- 
 known to the pagan world. Faith, in the christian sense, is 
 "a firm belief and clear anticipation of a more exalted stage 
 of existence, into which we enter through a preparation of 
 heart, although its nature cannot be fully comprehended by 
 us. Inasmuch as we carry about with us, in the interior of 
 our heart, the image and the seed of a more exalted exist- 
 ence, as strangers and pilgrims in the world in which we 
 live, we can, from this very circumstance, be satisfied within 
 ourselves, of the reality of the light which beams to us from 
 that higher stage of existence, and feel within ourselves the 
 truth of the more exalted life which is destined for us. The 
 Apostle John, therefore, declares, not merely emphatically 
 or figuratively, but with a profound and direct meaning : o 
 CitrrsJcov — g'p^ei ^wr/V aJcliviov. — /jiSTa/Ps/STjxsv sx Toi; ^avocTOU £(S Tr;V 
 <^w>iv " He that believeth — has life everlasting — has passed 
 from death unto life." The Saviour himself points out, 
 most clearly, the profound meaning of this passage, when he 
 says : to u5wp, S ^wo'w k'jtw, yevijCsTai Iv auT^j 'Xif\y^ C(5aT05 dXAo/xs- 
 vou £(5<^wi^v aiwviov " But the water that I will give him shall 
 be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."* 
 
 * Mem. de I' Acad, xxxviii. p. 320. 
 f Ayeen Akbe ■!. ed. (jiatlwic, p. 397. 
 I JXeandcr's Berniiard, p. 332. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMEVT. 35 
 
 In this divinely profound sense of the word, the Hebrews 
 wer€ unacquainted with Faith. But the cordial, uncondition- 
 al resignation to God, which appears in the lives of the pious 
 Fathers of the Old Testament, was the most excellent pre- 
 paration thereto. With what vigour did this spiritual life 
 display itself, when Abraham, in obedience to the divine 
 command, could resign his son — his only heir, the biTspring 
 of many prayers, in whom was the promise of the Seed. 
 Jn the visions of the night, tiie well known voice was heard. 
 Jn the morning he departs with two of his trusty servants. 
 To no one, neither to the mother, nor to the son, nor to the 
 servants, does he make known the conflict of faith. His 
 lacerated heart betrays itself only in the memorable words : 
 •'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-otfer- 
 ing." This is a faith — this is a submission, which might well 
 exalt the patriarch to be the " Father of the faithful."* 
 
 Thus does the idea of submission in faith run through all 
 the books of the Old Covenant: nay, we might even tarry 
 at the word Covenant, and contemplate in it the magnitude 
 of the idea, of y ait h. What a thought! God covenants with 
 7nan ! "A presumptuous idea, if our own invention, a lofty 
 one, if revealed to us ;" says George Mueller. It could hardly 
 fee otherwise than that men should walk in the strength of 
 faith, although this in itself is so difficult. "All the circum- 
 stances in which we are involved," says Philo,t " persuade 
 us to confide in our miglit, our health, our strength, and our 
 wisdom : to look away, therefore, from all these things, and 
 to depend solely upon God, iJ-SyaXr^; xal 0X0,^^10 j (havolas itfiri 
 is an indication of a great and heavenly tnind.^^ 
 
 But how is it with regard to Love, the remaining chris- 
 tian virtue ? Can we discover the elements of this virtue also 
 
 * Compare what a prorour.d thiiikc-r, Baurnrrarten-Cnisius. in Iiis 
 EinleUimg in die Dogmalik. p. G7. says on the t^ubjt'Ct of Faith. 
 
 T Quis rcrum divinarvm Jiccns, ed. PfeifTcr iv. p. 43. 
 3 F 
 
36 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 in the Jewish religion ? Undoubtedly we can. The Lonl 
 God thus commands the Israelites (5 Mos. vi. 5.) : " And 
 thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine- heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy might." And what does 
 be promise — ^he who thus commands the love of his people 
 
 \q order to show himself worthy of their love ? " For the 
 
 mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but my 
 kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the cove- 
 nant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mer- 
 cv on thee" (Is. liv. 10.). And again : " But Zion said, The 
 Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 
 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not 
 have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may 
 forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Is. xliv. 14, 15.). 
 
 This is indeed the language of love, and a language which 
 mi<^ht well stir up the hearts of the Israelites to fulfil, on their 
 part, Ihe command of love. And if, after so many affecting 
 exhibitions of love, tlie lightnings of wrath are seen to play, 
 still the heart was already resolved and the soul warmed. 
 And this must have been the effect also of the bare conside- 
 ration of the providential leadings with which the people 
 were favoured, whom the Holy One had chosen for his pe- 
 culiar possession. These guidances induced a hearty con- 
 fidence ; and no such confidence can exist without love. 
 
 Here we are met by the old objection : •' The God of Israel 
 wsis ?L jealous, an^rij, zwa/A/i^/ God." But the expression 
 ^yO ^^—a jealous God, denotes, not a ivrathful, angry 
 God, bat a God who suffers not his rights to be invaded, and 
 exercises a tender vigilance over the object of his affection. 
 In this sense it becomes a precious epithet. Besides this, 
 the reply of Origen may be adduced, in answer to the objec- 
 tion : " The sinner is not merely to be treated v/ilh clev^cn- 
 cy ; his fears also must be appealed to." Even now, after 
 the message of love is come to us in the Gospel, we may still 
 peruse those startling passages, and acknowledge with hu- 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 37 
 
 mility that they conduce to our edification and safety, in the 
 midst of our constantly recurring infirmities. . Besides, this 
 jealous God addressed his chosen ones in quite a diffierent 
 tone from that in which he speaks to the rebeUious people.* 
 When the Lord passed by before Elijah, it is said (I Kings xix. 
 II, 12, 13.) : "And a great and stron;^ wind rent ihe moun- 
 tains, and brake in pieces the rocks, before the Lord ; but the 
 Lord was not in the wind : and after the wind an earthquake ; 
 but the Lord was not in the earthquake : and after tbe earth- 
 quake a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire : and after the 
 fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, 
 that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out, &;c." 
 
 Such then is the love of God towards men, and such the 
 love of men towards God. In regard to the love of men for 
 their fellow-men, how can it be expressed in more direct 
 terms than in the command : " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." Here the idea of love is sufficiently elevated. 
 That some degenerate minds, at a later period, lowered and 
 contracted this precious command, cannot hurt the command 
 itself. 
 
 Thus we see, even in Moses and the Prophets, the embryos 
 of the celestial and harmonious christian virtues ; and as sooa 
 as humility and love burst forth into full and vigorous life, 
 we find lowly and aftectionate hearts, as that of an Anna, an 
 Elizabeth,. a Mary, a Simon, and a Joseph, ready to welcome 
 them. 
 
 And if the moral elements of the christian life can be found 
 in the Jewish religion, the same may be said of tlie doctrines 
 of Christianity. A two-fold view, however, may be taken of 
 
 * It is well remarked by Procopius (on Sam. i. 21.) : sVjo'rjfAatvsa'- 
 Sai 6si wg o'i smfl'T-^fxovfb tou -ff^oTe^ou XaoC v/TTOv sip^o'vi^ov Twv ff(^ii.aTi- 
 xwv Tou vofiou 'Ka.^a.yyzk^kTuy. To which we may add, that aii were 
 required to sacrifice in the Temple, Elias, howevei, sacrifices upon 
 Carmel, and Samuel in Mizpeh. 
 
38 IMPOHTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 this matter. All theologians are ready to acknowledge the 
 intimate connexion between the doctrines of the Old and 
 those of the New Testament. Some of them, however, aiiect 
 to show liow,. m the natural progress of human things, the 
 Gospel might grow out of the rehgion of the Hebrews; while 
 others, admitting an unremitting providential guidance of the 
 children of Israel, endeavour to prove that the " Ancient of 
 days" designed gradually to prepare all hearts and- mmds for 
 the coming of the Saviour of the world. Adopting a process 
 of inductive reasoning, we may arrive at the truth by showing 
 that tile Hebrew nation is an inexplicable riddle to ttie meje 
 historian ; that their sentiments are a wonder, their law a 
 wonder, their leadings a wonder ; and then, from the cir- 
 cumstances and condition of the world, and of the Hebrew 
 nation at iiie time of Christ, as well as from the history of 
 our Lord, we may conclude, with the utmost confidence, that 
 Christianity never could, in the natural course of things, have 
 grown out of the Jewish religion. Still this mode of reason- 
 ing may not prove so coaviucing, as to enter into the doctrine 
 of redemption, and to become acquainted with the power of 
 the Holy Spirit, and then, on the authority of Christ, to look 
 for more in the religion of the Jews, than at first sight pre- 
 sents itseif ; and to admit no natural development without the 
 special superintendence of God. He who pursues thiscoarse — 
 who suffers himself to be born agam of the Holy Ghost — is 
 liberated from all doubts ; for it is not, properly speaking, 
 the understanding that doubts, but the will. 
 
 Which now are the doctrines of the New Testament that 
 are exhibited to us in the Old? In our opinion, all are found 
 in the Old Testament, more or less clearly delineated. The 
 proofs of this we cannot introduce here in detail, nor is it 
 necessary. We confine ourselves to a remark on the his- 
 tory of the Old Testament doctrines. 
 
 It cannot be denied that many doctrines made their ap- 
 pearance, for the first time, after the lapse of many ages — 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 39 
 
 for example, after the captivity. Are these doctrines — the 
 doctrines, to wit, of Immortality, of a Resurrection, of a 
 Universal Judgment, of Demons, — all of foreign origin? 
 And ifso, are they therefore false and fabulous? Unfortu- 
 nately the testimony out of those times is so deficient, that, 
 without being able to adduce any thing satisfactory, we are 
 driven to hypothesis. Resting on the authority of Christ 
 and listening to the words of Cicero and of Augustine : " nul- 
 la falsa doctrina est quae non aliquid veri permisceat," we 
 may admit that in every ancient religion, there were some 
 divine elements. This is particularly true of the religion of 
 the Parsees. He has not left himself without a witness in 
 any nation. 
 
 Now we find, on the other hand, allusions to various doc- 
 trines, in the books of the Old Testament ; for example, to 
 the doctrine of Immortality, in the translation of Enoch and 
 Elijah;* to the Resurrection, in Ps. xvii. 15;+ and to the 
 Universal Judgment, in the innumerable passages where the 
 expression occurs K"11i D1^ " the great and terrible day 
 of the Lord ;^' and finally, to the doctrine of Evil Spirits 
 in Gen. iii. where the serpent as certainly denotes the " father 
 of lies," as in the Zend-avcsta, it denotes Ahriman ; and in 
 Mos. xvi. 8. 10. 2G., where Gesenius also adopts the mean- 
 ing, evil spirit.X Hence we are constrained to believe (as 
 De Wette, on Ps. cciv., supposes, and as Drusius before him 
 
 * Compare 1 Kiriffs xix. 4- whore Elijali exclaims; "Now, O 
 Lord, take away my life" — in which expression a peaceful and liappy 
 removal is intended, a violent one is denoted by another word ^iJ^X 
 
 t See De Wette on this passage: '■ If our view of the passage be 
 correct, we liave found here, in this psalm, the hope of im.mortality." 
 
 \ The Jews have also recognized an evil spirit — AsascL- see Ei- 
 scnmengcr Entilecktes Jiidcnthiim \. p. 823. 825. The Christians of 
 tit. John also have an evil spirit of this name. Vid. Onomasticon ad 
 F-jibr. Adami. p. 31. 
 
40 IMPORTANCE OP THE STUDY 
 
 had attempted to prove,) that the Hebrews also had a kind 
 of secret do^jtrine, which was handed down traditionally 
 amOiig the better informed and wiser sort, and faintly glim- 
 mers, now and then, through their common didactic writings'.' 
 In support of this opinion, we might also adduce the univer- 
 sal admission among the Jews of a HS y^'^l^' HIin-aQ 
 oral law : at least we may conclude, from this universal 
 admission, that the opinion is not entirely without founda- 
 tion. If this supposition then be well founded, the circum- 
 stances of declining Judaism and those of declining pagan- 
 ism, are very similar. Creutzer has shown that the heathen, 
 as soon as Christianity threatened to subvert their entire sys- 
 tem, brought to viev/ whatever in their mysteries bore a resem- 
 blance to the christian doctrines,* and here and there accom- 
 modated it perhaps to the christian system. In the same 
 manner, as it seems, the Jewish religion came, in the dispen- 
 sations of Providence, into such close contact with the Per- 
 sian doctrines, that the instructions which had long been be- 
 queathed from one to another in cautioils secrecy, at length 
 were published, were illustrated and perfected by their close 
 connexion with the Persian doctrines, and thus served to lay 
 the fotmdation for the new order of things which Christ intro- 
 duced.! This appears to us to have been the true origin of 
 these doctrines. Providence designed that they should be 
 disseminated, just before the advent of Christ, in order that 
 
 * Compare what Mostieim says in his treatise: "l>e turhata 
 per Plalonicos Ecclc.iia," }. xxv. and Hebenstreit : " DeJamhlichi doc- 
 irina, chrisiianae rcUgioni, quam imitari sludet, noxia. 
 
 f How little ground we hare to reject all the doctrines of the ex- 
 tra-Jewish world, is manifest from the fact that so much in the Mo- 
 saic ritual was of Egyptian origm, and was consecrated only by its 
 reception mto the Jewish religious service. It is universally th? case 
 that where things divine have gained the ascendancy of things pro- 
 fane, the previous tbrm of the profane is not oblitevatodj but is rea- 
 dered sacred. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 41 
 
 be who was merely to bring the new Spirit, and, by means of 
 this, to destroy the veil of the law, and to illustrate these doc- 
 trines, need furnish no system of doctrines, but merely an- 
 nounce, by his precepts and his life, the one great doctrine : 
 *' God hath so loved the world. " Those post-Babylonian 
 doctrines were illusti'ated, however, by the instructions of 
 Jesus and the Apostles to such a degree, that they appear in 
 an entirely new and spiritual light,* as the pure and disem- 
 bodied spirit, escaped from the lifeless body of the Rabbinical 
 system. 
 
 Let us turn now to the third connecting link between the 
 Old and the New Testament, viz. the Prophecies. And 
 here we may distinguish between such as relate in general 
 to the times of Christianity — the kingdom of Heaven upon 
 the earth ; and such as treat merely of the person of the Sa- 
 viour. If any portion of the Scriptures has suffered from a 
 loose treatment, it is the prophetical portion of the Old Tes- 
 tament. Without considering that the New Testament was 
 composed by the disciples of our Lord, within the space of a 
 few years, whilst the Old Testament was written, during the 
 space of eleven centuries, by priests, kings, neatherds, and 
 legislators — all, however, impelled by one and the same 
 spirit ; — without considering this, the exposition of the Old 
 Testament was conducted like that of the New, as if all its 
 books had been the production of one and the same age. But 
 we who stand, as it were, upon the summit of almost six thou- 
 sand years, must survey, with an eye that takes in the whole 
 extent of universal history, the ages that are past, in order 
 rightly to understand the plan of the "Ancient of Days," 
 
 * Compare, for example, what Sueskind (Jlagazin, x. p. 92.) says 
 on the notions which the Jews entertained concerning the Messiah, 
 as about to awaken the sleeping dead, and to judge the world; and 
 concerning his kingdom at the end of the world. This learned and 
 faithful theologian exposes the wide difference between the Rabbini- 
 cal and the cJiristian exhibition of the doctrine. 
 
42 IiaPORTAJ.CE OF THE STUDY 
 
 even in the history of the Jewish people. He, however, 
 " who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, 
 and meted out heaven with the span," has also set bounds 
 to the times of knowledge ; and if thousands on thousands 
 of years must roll away, ere the bucket be filled, drop b}^ 
 drop, still we must believe that " with him a thousand years 
 are as one day," and exclaim with the prophet : " Who hath 
 taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of under- 
 standing ?" 
 
 Thus we find that the idea of a Kingdom of God, of a Day 
 of Judgment, and of a Spiritual King of Israel, unfolded it- 
 self gradually among the people of God. It is not our design 
 here to run into detail, but to present only the prominent 
 ideas. There are implanted in the human soul certain semi- 
 na eternitatis — seeds of eternily, as Jos. Scaliger styles 
 them ; that is, certain enlivening conceptions, which a rational 
 faith embraces and clings to in the ceaseless whirl of temporal 
 affairs. Such sentiments were prevalent among the heathen 
 of more ancient times, and are still prevalent among many 
 of the heathen without the limits of Europe. In Europe, 
 however, many considered themselves too wise to retain and 
 acknowledge such sentiments. Would that the vrords of the 
 late genuine philosopher* were taken to heart and their truth 
 felt. " The conviction is indeed spreading abroad, how very 
 slender is the foundation upon which rests that vaunted qua- 
 lity, denominated of late years, strenf^lh of mind; and that 
 it demands a much greater strength of mind^ to believe, 
 without cavilling and without the mania for explanation, the 
 mysteries of Religion, than to reject, as insipid and weak, 
 every thing wJiich will not forthwith harmonize with the 
 most common rules of reason and philosophy." 
 
 As examples of such "seeds of eternity," we may mention 
 
 * Solger's Philo^nphischr Gc.iprncchc — a Look fraiiplit witli profound, 
 valuable and correct views. Sec pp. 191. 195. 210, 217. 249. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 43 
 
 the notions of God, of Liberty, and of Immortality, compre- 
 hended and held by the sound mind, through the instru- 
 mentaUtyof a faith which transcends all knowledge, — which 
 observes rather than de^nonstrates, and jiistijies rather 
 than construes.^ Upon the same foundation rests also 
 the notion of a primeval happy condition of man, of an inti- 
 mate connexion between the spiritual and the material world, 
 of a revelation from God, of a Saviour of the world, and of 
 a blissful eternity. Among all the nations of the earth, the 
 feeling of these truths displayed itself, and continues to 
 display itself, in various ways. Among the Jews, however, 
 this seed grew gradually till it became " a tree, so that the 
 birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." 
 Two stars were seen by their wise men to twinkle in the 
 dubious twilight — a period of terrestrial felicity, and a Re- 
 deemer. As the time approached, however, when both 
 should appear, these stars shed continually a brighter and 
 more certain light. 
 
 True, the hope of a Redeemer was cherished in other na- 
 tions also, under a variety of forms. The Chinese, the Thi- 
 betans, the Indians, the Persians, and the Greeks, possess 
 their traditions concerning the golden age and its return. 
 
 * It promises to be an advantage to many young and inexperienced 
 minds, that the spiritless abstraction of the philosophy of our day, 
 is carried so far and with such consistent conclusiveness, as to render 
 it manifest, that the end of all such speculation can only be a com- 
 fortless material or ideal Pantheism, which robs us of God, of Liberty, 
 and of Immortality.* If, however, philosophy would leave its regions 
 of speculation, and consider attentively, and with the caution which 
 becomes it, the everlasting wants of man, which can never be de- 
 nied, it would then be content to see Christianity entirely founded upon 
 these wants. Then, with Koeppen (Philos. des Chrid. i. p. 30.), it 
 might [prove even the doctrine of Original Sin, — the fundamental 
 doctrine of a living Faith. 
 
 * For an impersonal God is no God, an ideal Liberty, no Liberty, and an ideal Im- 
 mortality, no Immortality, 
 
 3 G 
 
44 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Among the Indians, we find Chrishna, among the Persians 
 Oschanderbami, among the Irish, the hero Thor, as the 
 personage who is to effect the dehverance. But fable glim- 
 mers with a doubtful and changeable light. Among the 
 Jews, on the contrary, the Messiah is the fixed and the bright 
 centre of all hope. At every period, they believed him near 
 at hand, as the Apostles did in regard to the Day of the Lord 
 --the second appearance of the Messiah. I do not say, in- 
 deed, that in Gen. iv. 1. Eve supposed already that the Mes- 
 siah was to come from her womb. Passing by other argu- 
 ments which might be mentioned, the Fathers of the Church 
 discover in this passage no prophecy. But Jacob, beyond 
 a doubt, believed his appearance near at hand. So also did 
 David. It cannot, therefore, with any justice, be urged a& 
 an objection to the ninth chapter of Isaiah, that the prophet 
 mentions, as a sign of a thing at hand, an event which was 
 shrouded in the darkness of distant futurity ; for by the Is- 
 raelites it was regarded as most certain, that the Redeemer 
 would come, and whilst the prophet recalls to their recol- 
 lection this most certain fact of redemption, and enlarges 
 upon it, and confirms it, the promise which lay nearer at 
 hand becomes more certain and established. Nay, the no- 
 tion of a Messiah was so very prominent in all the imagina- 
 tions and conceptions of the Hebrews, that in the eleventh 
 chapter the prophet recurs to it again, inasmuch as this per- 
 sonage who was to come, was to satisfy every want, to 
 procure peace upon earth, and to re-establish righteousness, 
 holiness, government, religion and law. Beyond all contro- 
 versy, in the promise of the Seed, in Gen. iii., which should 
 bruise the head of the serpent, the Messiah is meant. This 
 the christian asserts as confidently, as the Indian does that 
 the serpent, whose head is bruised by Chrishna, is the evil 
 spirit;* or as the pagan Icelander does that the dragon^ 
 
 * Maurice's History of Hindoslan ii. p. 290. 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 45 
 
 whose head is bruised by Thor,is the Devil.* This precious 
 promise descended, in early times, from generation to gene- 
 ration, until He came " who should come." Accordinir to 
 the doctrine of Zoroaster, in the last days of the world the 
 holy man Oschanderbami (Oschanderbegha), will come to 
 contend with the evil spirit, for the space of twenty years. 
 He will at length obtain the victory, justice will return, kings 
 will render him homage, and peace will dwell upon the 
 earth, t 
 
 This glorious hope beams forth again for the first time in 
 1 Mos. xhx. 10,J in the words of the dying patriarch, inspir- 
 ed by the breath of the Eternal. Whether the Messiah is in- 
 tended in 5 Mos. xviii., admits of doubt. In the Psalms of 
 David, the light of hope again shines with indubitable clear- 
 ness. The Second, and the Hundred and Tenth Psalm, can 
 be explained, by a sound exegesis, only of the Messiah.§ 
 
 * Edda, Fab. ii. 25. 27. 
 
 f Hyde De Religione Pe7-ss. vetcrum, ch. 31. Comp. Zend-avosta ii. 
 p. 375. 
 
 I We particularly recommend to the reader to compare wliat Jahii 
 has said, in his Einleilung ins Alte Testament. Vienna, 1802 p. 607, 
 In the seventh or eighth century, appeared, for the first time, tiie 
 reading H^'u^. As late as the tenth century, the Egyptian Jew 
 Saadias translated it — He whose it is. Geseuius, also, by the Sfiilok, 
 understands the Messiah. 
 
 [As a compound, the word H/tli' is composed of J^*, equivalent 
 to 1tJ*N;^ an'J (17' the same as "j^ to him,. The expression " Until 
 Shiloh come" would then denote : Until he comes whose it (the sceptre) 
 is. It may gratify some of our readers to see the different transla- 
 tions of this word, adopted by the ancient versions. From the Hex- 
 apla of Origeri and the Polyglot of VValtou, we extract the follovvinf. 
 u diroxSirai --fjr whom it is reserved: Aquila and Symmachus. toc 
 affoxsi'fASva a'jTCi — the things reserved for him : Septuagmt. Qui mi(- 
 tendui- est — who is to be sent: Vulgate. KPf^C^'O — Messiah: Tar- 
 gum of Onkelos. Parificus — the peaceful: Samaritan version. Is cu- 
 jus illud est — He whose it is: Syriac version.] — (Tr.) 
 
 § See Datiie Kuinoel. Messicin. TFcissag. 
 
46 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 So far we recognise in the expected Messiah a King^ or 
 rather, a royal Priest. His Kingdom, however, is not yet 
 described. A picture of it is first presented in the Prophets. 
 Almost all of them beheld, with a prophetic eye, Him who 
 was to come ; but, as the sun breaks through the cloud and 
 spreads around it a thousand different hues, so tlie light of 
 this celestial hope, puts on its various colours according to 
 the mind from which it is reflected. Most of the Seers re- 
 present him as a royal priest. Isaiah, with a more definite 
 perception, recognises him as God, styles him the *' Ev- 
 erlasting Father, ^^ and designates even the place of his 
 appearance, in the passage (Is. ix. 1.) unhappily mistranslated 
 by Luther: "It shall not, however, (always) be dark where 
 (now) is distress. Formerly he (Jehovah) afflicted the land 
 of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali ; but then he will hon- 
 our the land by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Gali- 
 lee, of the nations. The people that walk in darkness be- 
 hold a great light."* 
 
 Another interval succeeds, and another prophet behcJds 
 this same Deliverer, and delineates even his sufferings (Is. Hi.). 
 Malachi also, who closes the series of the divinely commis- 
 sioned prophets, beheld Him who was to come, as "the 
 Messenger of the Covenant of the Lord," who should " sud- 
 denly come to his Temple."! This " Messenger of the Cove- 
 nant," however, is the very same personage that conducted 
 the Israelites in all their journeyings, that is, the "Teacher 
 come from God" for ever and ever.J 
 
 Here closes the Old Testament. A silence succeeds for 
 the space of nearly four hundred years. During this inter- 
 
 * From Gesenius' German Translation. — (Tr.) 
 
 t CI), ii. 1. 
 
 \ The nin* ^kSd— •^"»e^ of the Lord, \s Jehovah in 1 Mos. 
 six. 21. : "The Lord rained ****** fire from the Lord out of 
 heaven." Compare 1 iV;os. xxii. 11. and following. 
 
GP THE OLD TESTAMENT. 47 
 
 val, every thing was ripening for the expected time when the 
 foundations of the earth should be shaken. Daring this in- 
 terval, was developed the doctrine of the Logos, and of 
 J'Visdom ; and the Angel of the Covenant assumed the more 
 glorious character of fVisdom and the Word of God, under 
 which the Saviour of the world is introduced to us by the 
 EvangeHst John. The years which intervene from Malachi 
 until the Baptist, constitute a period of vast importance and 
 significancy. The semina aeterna which enlivened the re- 
 ligions of all the Asiatic nations, were brought toward wes- 
 tern Asia. All that was valuable in these, and all that was 
 adapted to instruct and enlighten the world, was concentred 
 in Judea, for the purpose of weaving into the texture of the 
 Jewish doctrines, whatever, from this source, might be use- 
 ful for all ages. How could John have delineated, in such 
 worthy language, the dignity of his Master, unless, by the 
 dispensations of Providence, the idea of the Logos had be^ 
 come universally familiar ?* 
 
 * IF the wise providence of God is manifest in bringing the West 
 and the East into contact in Alexandria, why is it not equally so in 
 the conimunication of ideas which flowed into the West, from the 
 very ancient and venerable traditions of the East? Compare the fol- 
 lowing admirable passage from the Letters of Jnhn v. Mueller xiv. p. 
 299. : " Tu me demanderas par quel moyenje me sms convaincu de V origine 
 divine de celui, qui est venu annoncer au monde rimmorlalite: je ne parlerai 
 point du sentiment interieur de la verite, qui pour man cmur est une preuve 
 svJTisante ; mais je te demanderois^ si tu rCavois jamais vu le soleil, et si ton 
 ceil suivoit un beau jour tous les rayons^ qui en divergent, pour eclairer 
 Vunivers, i'iZ les suivoit jusqu^d leur origine, s'j7 trouvoit le point, duquel ils 
 sortent tous, ne croirois tu pas que ce cen/rf, est le soleil ? Or, cela m''arrive : 
 plus j'' etudie Vhistoire et mieux je vois que les plus grands ivenements de 
 Vantiquite alloient tous, par un merveilleux enthainement au but, que le 
 maitre de Vunivers s'eloi: propose, de faire,pnroitre le Christ avec cette doc- 
 trine dans le terns le plus propre d lui faire prendre racine." — " You will 
 ask, by what means I am convinced of the divine origin of Him who 
 came to announce Immortality to the world. I shall say nothing of 
 the iawavdfcehng of the truth, which for me is a sufficient testimonv; 
 
48 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY" 
 
 Side by side with the doctrine of the Messiah, in the pro- 
 phets, we find the anticipation of his kingdom. This sub- 
 ject deserves a full and particular consideration. We are con- 
 strained, however, to restrict ourselves in its discussion to 
 one view of it. Accordingly, we shall merely show the fluc- 
 tuations of the ideas of the prophets on this subject, — some- 
 times rising to a glorious elevation, and sometimes remaining 
 at a lower point. The humblest conception is that of a 
 kingdom, in which Israel shall enjoy perfect tranquillity from 
 without, shall be served by their enemies as by slaves, shall 
 quietly devote themselves to God, and shall experience un- 
 exampled prosperity under a Governor of the race of David.* 
 Connected with this view is the idea also of extraordinary 
 righteousness and holiness, which every individual will exhi- 
 bit. " But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord ; men 
 shall call you the Ministers of our God. ***** For as the 
 earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes the 
 things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the Lord God 
 will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all 
 the nations. "1 " In that day there shall be a fountain open- 
 ed to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 for sin and for uncleanness."| The Redeemer will come in 
 behalf of the penitent and take away every sin. " And the 
 Redeemer shall come to Zion,and unto them that turn from 
 
 but T would ask you whether, if you had never beheld the sun, and 
 on a clear transparent day, your eye should follow all the rays which 
 pour from it to illuminate the system, up to their source, unfil it 
 reached the pomt whence all diverged, you would not conclude that 
 this centre is the sun? Now this is just my case : ihe more I study 
 liistory, the more clearly I see how the most important events 
 of antiquity were directed, by means of a wonderful concatenation, 
 to the great end which the L6rd of the universe had in view, — to 
 brine about the appearance of the Messiah vi^ith this doctrine, at the 
 very time when it was most likely to take root." 
 
 * Compare Luke i. 74. -f- Is. Ixi. 6. 11. % ^ach. xiii. 1. 
 
Of the 0LD TESTAMENT- A9 
 
 ti-ansgression in Ja^ob, saith the Lord,"* <' I have blotted 
 out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a 
 cloud, thy sins : return unto me, for I have redeemed 
 thee.'"'] Blended with this glorious picture of the holiness 
 and righteousness of Israel, is the expectation of the salvation 
 which is prepared for the heathen nations also. In this well 
 defined hope, that the whole heathen world will become ac- 
 quainted with Israel's God, the divine character of the pro- 
 phecy displays itself with striking clearness. " Ho every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath 
 no money ; come ye, buy and cat ; yea, come, buy wine and 
 milk without money, and without price."J " Then thou 
 shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and 
 be enlarged ; because the abundance of the sea shall be con- 
 verted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto 
 lhee,"§ The prophecy mounts still higher in another place, |[ 
 where Judaism is described as almost obliterated; for the 
 prophet announces that the Lord would take of the hea- 
 then for priests and for Leviles, and that missioiiaries 
 from among the Jews should go forth into all lands to 
 2ireach the Lord to the heathen. Well then might the 
 prophet foretell that the earth should " be full of the know- 
 ledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,"1[ and " the 
 Lord shall be king over all the earth : in that day shall there 
 be one Lord, and his name One.'"** 
 
 It is beyond our present faculties to determine a priori 
 the divine dispensations. We must deduce, from facts and 
 revelations, our knowledge of the laws of God. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, that the annunciation of the coming 
 Salvation, was made in such a variety of ways, and in so ge- 
 neral a manner. We remark, b)' the way, that whenever a 
 divine revelation is blended with the affairs of time, it is 
 
 * Is. lix. 20. f Is. xliv. 22. \ Is. Iv. 1. } Is. Ix. 5. 
 
 II Is. Ixvi. 19. and following. If Is. xi. 9. •** Zach. xiv, 9. 
 
50 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDV 
 
 more intimately connected with them, than the human un^- 
 derstanding, reasoning a priori, would have been led to ex- 
 pect.* Hence it happens, that the expectation of the king- 
 
 * The ancients, both christians and pagans, have constantly alluded 
 to the deficiency of all human modes of representing divine thinag, 
 and of accommodating the ways of God to human comprehension. 
 What golden vs^ords are those of Gregory Nanzianzen {Opp. ed Pru- 
 naeus. i. p. 545. m the Thirty-Fourth discourse) : " ufi'KS^ d(5!;vaT0'/ 
 vtrs^S'/^vai rrjv lauTs tfxiav, xai Tw Xi'av inrsiyofxhu) (cp^avsi ya.? dsi 
 todirm o(Tou xaraXafJo/SavSTai), rj toX^ o^aro~s irXT^ffiaffaj ttjv o-vj^iv Siya 
 <rS av ^s(Tu (pWTog xul ds'^05, >j tuv uSaruv l^w tyiV vr]xTriv qjutfiv Sio'kKf- 
 Sai'vsiv Htus a.^-'i)-)(^a.\iov toT? sv tfwfAaTi, ^I'p^a twv CwfjiaTixilJv *dvT*] ys- 
 vjC&ai (XSTot Twv vosjxsvwv. — ^s it is impossible to overtake one''s own shw 
 doiv,, how great soever our haste {for it always advances with as much rapi- 
 dity as we employ in the pursuit) ; or tojix the eye upon visible objects, with- 
 out an intervening medium of light and air ; or to swim without water ; S9 
 impossible is it also, for those who are yet in the body, dismissing corporeal 
 things, to be altogether engrossed with those which are spiritual. Origeii 
 also (Opp. ed Wjrceb. xu. p. 316., in the Eighth Discourse on Luke), 
 maintains that our conceptions of divine things will be the more glo- 
 rious, just in proportion to our spiritual ennoblemenl : " Unusquit^qu© 
 nostrum ad imaginem Christi formansanimam suam, aut majorem ei, 
 aut minorem ponit imaginem, vel obsoletam vel sordidam, aut clarara 
 atque lucentem et splendentem, ad effigiem imaginis principalis. 
 Quando igitur grandem fecero imaginem imaginis, id est, animam meam, 
 et magnificavero cumoperccogitatione, sermone,\tunc imago Dei grandie 
 efficitur " — This the correct idea of the nature of the prophetical vi- 
 sion. The same sentiment is expressed by Plutarch, in one of the 
 most elegant and profound passages of his work De Pythiae Oraculis 
 [Opp. Mur. ed. Wyttenb. ii. De P. Or. ch. xxi.) : " As the body 
 makes use of various members as instruments, so the soul makes use 
 of the body and its members as instruments. The soul however isj 
 an instrument of God. Now it belongs to the instrument, to answer, 
 as far as possible, the design of the user. It cannot however do this 
 fully ; and the nature of the user is tarnished by the nature of the in- 
 strument. One and the same object, when seen in concave and convex 
 mirrors, appears of a thousand different forms. The light of the sua 
 is deteriorated in the moon — its colour and splendour are changed, 
 and its warmth is gone. But it is the same sun-light still. In the " 
 same manner aa the moon reflects the light of the sun. does the sou! 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 51 
 
 dom of God, unfolds itself in forms so diversified among the 
 Hebrews. This also may serve to explain, why tlie univer- 
 sal conversion to the Saviour Jesus Christ, appears only as a 
 turning to the God of Israel, and to the Holy Place at Jeru- 
 salem. But when the times were accomplished, then the 
 design and meaning of the Spirit of God was clearly un- 
 folded. 
 
 How shall we account for the fact, that whenever the 
 Judgment is spoken of — the }*{"11J QV—lhe terrible day of 
 the Lord^ it is ordinarily accompanied with the annuncia- 
 tion of the salvation which is to come through the Messiah? 
 The thought readily suggests itself, that the good never 
 makes its appearance, without a hvely conflict with the evil ^ 
 and thus we might naturally explain this union and connex- 
 ion. But the Lord himself unfolds to us its meaning. Even 
 the Baptist, who saw the " Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sins of the world," saw also, at the same time, the fan 
 in his hand and the axe laid at the root of the trees. — 
 The disciples expected forthwith " the Day of Vengeance," 
 " the Woes of Time." And what does Jesus do ? He inter- 
 poses centuries between his appearance and those woes — 
 he distinguishes a twofold apjiearance of the Messiah. In- 
 structed by these facts, we can readily see how ages crowded 
 upon ages, in the perspective, to the minds of the prophets 
 who looked downward through futurity ; and how the ap- 
 pearance of the terrestrial kingdom was identified, in their 
 minds, with that of the eternal kingdom of God. Now, 
 however, the kingdom of heaven upon the earth, and that 
 above, is one and the same ; for, as soon as we become sub- 
 jects of the dispensation of Grace by Jesus Christ, we are 
 citizens of the everlasting 'Kuki^sla. We feel the influences 
 
 reflect the ideas of God which have beamed upon it from above ;— 
 they are darken^ed and cloiidod by the mortal body, and tlie unceas- 
 ingly active soul, which is unable, without a motion of its own, to 
 give itself away to Him that moves it." 
 
 3 H 
 
o2 lAirORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 which stream from above, and our home is in heaven. Hencft 
 the Saviour speaks of the kingdom of heaven, at one time as 
 having aheady appeared, and at another as yet to come. If we 
 assume this point of view, the eig/if significations of the word 
 (jSagi'Asla) which Schleusner gives,* will flow together into 
 one — into one, however, which is peculiar and everlasting. 
 
 Although all these glorious views might be still fartlier 
 developed, we shall close with a few words about the typi- 
 cal and symbolical meaning of the History and Ritual of the 
 Israelites. He who cannot approach this subject with an ac- 
 curate acquaintance with the East, had better withhold his» 
 judgment. In the P^ast every thing is symbolical. Greece 
 also, in its earliest days, breathed the Oriental spirit, and 
 this symbohcal character pervaded also the mysteries with 
 their ceremonies. It is perfectly natural, then, that in the 
 erection of the Tabernacle and of the Temple, every thing- 
 should have a secret meaning. The Oriental is fond of im- 
 mediate and intuitive modes of instruction. Coldly imagi- 
 native, and asserting only one kind of mental activity, viz. 
 reflection, every species of discursive instruction is otTensive 
 to him. As Nature, unfolding its productions in the East 
 without uniform regularity, constantly sprouts and grows, so 
 it is with the Oriental in his mode of instruction. He pre- 
 sents the full and entire flower, crowded with an endless 
 variety of materials ; to this he adds another and another, 
 without dismembering the rich calix, leaf by leaf. Accord- 
 ingly, speculation with him becomes poetry ; history, fable ; 
 and religion, symbolical. The notion is therefore incorrect, 
 both of those who suppose that 7ione of the Jewish ceremo- 
 nial laws have any ulterior object in view, and of those who 
 acknowledge a remote meaning only in the principal CQ;ve- 
 monial regulations.! 
 
 * Some valuable thoughts on this subject may be foun J in the short 
 Essay entitled, Aphorismen ueber den Zusamvicnh. dcs A. T. and dcs 
 jy. T. by Allioli. Rogensb. 1818. 
 
 f Those of the tbriaer class among the Jews are opposed by Mai- 
 
OF THE OT,n TESTAMENT. 53 
 
 Ja the same manner we may find much that is symbolical 
 ■Simong the Indians, the Chinese, the Persians, the Egyptians, 
 and the Greeks. The Jewish system, however, is distin- 
 guished from every other, by this particular, that in their 
 symbols are unconscious but definite allusions to the fiiture. 
 Their symbols, therefore, not only point to the past, but pre- 
 figure the future. As the older theologians were very ex- 
 travagant on this point,* it becomes us to obtain such a set- 
 tled and liberal view of the types of the Old Testament, as 
 shall not be shaken by those who are to come after us. This 
 may be effected by distinguishing accurately between the 
 ideal and the actual, the know7i and the unknown. What 
 I mean is this. We must inquire whether the fact in itself 
 was to excite in the minds of the Hebrews, the expectation, 
 that at some future day a'^similar fact would unfold itself in 
 the Messiah ; or whether they were to be familiarized mere- 
 ly with the ideas naturally suggested by means of facts, as 
 in the case of the erection of the serpent in the wilderiiess, 
 and by means of ordinances, as in the case of the various of- 
 ferings for sin. The latter seems to be the truth, for we 
 nowhere find reason to believe, that Moses or his people had 
 the most definite and circumstantial conceptions of the com- 
 ing Messiah. In this case, we cannot regard the types as 
 known to them to be such ; and their advantage will be con- 
 fined to this circumstance, that certain notions, otherwise not 
 
 Bionides, in his More JVevochim, ch. xxvj. The laiter opinion is de- 
 fended by Thomas Aquinas in his Quaestiones. 
 
 * Witsius, De Oeconom. Foederum Dai cum Hominihus IV. 6. {. S. 
 advances the following sentiment: " Licet modus in rebus sit, toler- 
 abilius eum peccare existimem, qui Christum sevidere arbitratur, ubi 
 fortasse sese non ostendat, quam qui eum [non ?J videre, ubi se clarn 
 satis afFert." Granting a golden mean in all things, slill I consider 
 his error more tolerable^ toko thinks he sees Christ where, peiyt/ij's, he 
 is not to be found, than his, who fails to see him where he is distmctly 
 zisible. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDTT 
 
 easily introduced, were thus to become universal among the 
 people, in order to awaken still further ideas,* and to pre- 
 pare the way for the christian economy. In this sense, we 
 may apply to the universality of the types, what Lehmus in 
 his Letter to Hurms^ p. 48. says, with great propriety, of 
 the prophecies : " The entire religious system of the Jews 
 is, in the most appropriate sense, a prophecy ; and the in- 
 dividual passages of their sacred books are merely the strong- 
 est expressions of that spirit which enlivens the whole mass." 
 To the same purport are the passages Col. ii. 17. and fieb. 
 X. 1., where the cna or shadow is the obscure and imperfect 
 resemblance, which falls so far short of the glorious splen- 
 dour of the reality, that it can excite but very faint ideas of 
 it.t Let us hear what a recent and ardent, although not 
 always perspicuous and luminous, commentator on the Gos- 
 pel of John,;): says concerning the symbol of the serpent in 
 the wilderness : " The position which Jesus seems to assume 
 in this allegory is this : He regards the Old Testament ac- 
 count as a7i indefinite sytnhol of the Jltonement — as a 
 (Tij,a/;oXov CwrviPiKg, And, indeed, it evidently embraces the 
 two most important points in the notion of the Atone- 
 ment, in the first place, a life-giving faith — that spiritual 
 confidence, which, in the Old Testament, stood yet in 
 need of sensible things, whereas in the New Testament it 
 is />?/re/y spiritual in the regenerated family of the Lord ; 
 and secondly, the expiatory virtue of death in every thing 
 which is sinful and corruptible ; from which proceeds, 
 in the Old Testament, an earthly life, in the New Testa- 
 ment, a heavenly one ; in the former case figuratively ; 
 
 * Without such preparatory ideas, tlie author of the liii. ch. of 
 Isaiah could not perhaps have taken up this prophecy. 
 
 f See Rau, Ueber die Tt/pohgie, p. 71. The researches of this 
 writer, however, in this department, are not sufficiently prolound and 
 fundamemtal. 
 
 J Luecke, Comm. ueber d. Schrift. dcs Joh. p. 598. 
 
or THK OLD TESTAMENT. 55 
 
 in the latter, in deed and in truth ^^ la this sense the rais- 
 ing of the brazen serpent was also a type or prefiguration of 
 what was yet to come, so regulated by Divine Providence, 
 in order that, in later times, the faith in a spiritual deliver- 
 ance, might confirm itself upon the certainty of the temporal 
 deliverance. In regard to the symbolical meaning of the 
 providential leadings of the Israelites, we may call to mind 
 the passage cited above from Solger's Gespraeche, in which 
 it is maintained that the collective history can be well un- 
 derstood, only when we can comprehend the divine ideas 
 which it contains.* We may also concede, that the ideas 
 which are communicated through the history of the people 
 of God, must be far more noble and important than those 
 communicated by means of other histories. Further than 
 this we cannot go. Conscious of this, we should hold our- 
 selves in readiness at all times to make the application. 
 
 Thus we see that the writings of the Old Testament are 
 rendered venerable by their antiquity, their perfect keeping, 
 their doctrines, awd their historical documents ; that the / 
 Jewish nation stands pre-eminent, on the score of antiquity, 
 steadfastness and wise legislation ; and also that, in respect 
 of morals, doctrines and history, the New Testament rests 
 upon the Old. Let all those, therefore, who design to be- 
 come labourers in the desolate and much neglected vineyard 
 of the Lord of Heaven, peruse and receive the books of the 
 
 * The words of Solger, to wliicli he refers, are contained in a short 
 note, (unfortunately overlooked by the compositor) on pao^e 22, line 
 8. Although of no great value in itself, we insert it here because it 
 is referred to in this passage; and that the author may appear, in his 
 citations from others, as well as in his own views, in histruelight ; and 
 that we may avoid, also, the imputation of a designed omission. " Ev- 
 ery thing in the world has an allegorical sense. How significant 
 does the study of history become, when in every capital occurrence 
 a a,ran(l idea is presented for our contemplation." Plulosophische 
 Gespraeche p. 149. — (Tr-) 
 
58 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Old Testament, with that earnestness and sacred awe with 
 which they deserve to be perused and embraced ; so tliat 
 every copy of the Word of God, which the venerable Bible 
 Societies are distributing, may meet with a Philip,* ready 
 to expound what the Spirit has spoken in the obscure 
 Avord of prophecy, and point to the bright and morning star 
 that shineth in a dark place. 
 
 Those times are past when the Scriptures were trodden 
 under foot. But let us take heed to ourselves, lest, in our 
 modern agility, we leap clean over them. Let us approach 
 this sacred volume, as one of exalted sacredness, and of im- 
 mense importance to all ; — with a holy seriousness, therefore, 
 that we may prove whether it contains the truth in relation 
 to our own hearts. Whoever reads the Bible with any 
 other aim than this, had better turn to other food. We may 
 apply to him what Porphyry says, in his treatise irs^i a-Tropf^ 
 g|*v)>iJ5fwv, I. §. 27. : That he gives his " exhortations oJ toTs tov 
 crpaYjixaTfxov /3iov sVavsXo/jLs'vois* dv&^cjcrw 5i XHXoyirfixs'vw TiiTZ sffriv 
 xui 'jro&sv sX>)Xu&£v, <rtoTrs cmso^siv ocpsi'Ksi ; for," he adds, " we 
 cannot tender the same advice to him who is constantly doz- 
 ing, and, his whole life through, seeks for nothing but ano- 
 dynes, and to him who continually strives to shake off sleep, 
 and to be vigilant." 
 
 Disregarding, therefore, for the present, every thing at 
 -which the understanding stumbles, we ought to make proof 
 of those portions alone which concern our own hearts and 
 our corruptions. If those be once recognised as true and 
 certain,! then will be excited that hungering after a Saviour, 
 and after strength from above, without which we never can 
 be sanctified and purified. When wc have once attained to 
 this firm and deeply rooted faith, then the words of the Sa- 
 viour are of divine authority, every thing which the Bible 
 
 * Acts vili. 29. and followin"^. 
 
 t Let us keep contimially before our eye3, Plato's image of the 
 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 57 
 
 Contains, receives a higher meaning, and a spirit of exposition 
 will be generated which the critically philological commen- 
 taries of our day do not possess, — which conducted the Fa- 
 thers of the church in the early centuries ; which conducted 
 a Calvin, a Luther, and a Melancthon, into those depths of 
 scriptural knowledge which the Spirit of God alone explores. 
 It is well said by Bacon, Lord Verulam — also one of those 
 genial spirits that bowed themselves beneath the Gospel : 
 " Speculative philosophy resembles the lark, which mounts 
 into the air with sprightly song and circling flight, but de- 
 scends with nothing. Practical philosophy, on the other 
 hand, resembles the hawk, which soars into the clouds only 
 to return with spoil.^' And where can "a man of long- 
 ing"* find satisfaction, in the midst of the straining and driv- 
 ing after fruitless speculation, which our age exhibits, if the 
 heart be not full and the soul warmed ? Every one who has 
 discovered what it is which alone can satisfy the cravings of 
 the human heart, will exclaim with Epicurus : x"?'S ''"?5 (J^w^a- 
 ^I'a (purfS), 071 TO. avayKOiTa eVoi'iiO's sv'KopdTa, tw 8s Svd'xo^iifTtt oCx 
 
 chariot of the human soul, to which is joined a white and a black 
 steed, — the black steed, however, pressing onward more swiftly and 
 ungovernably; or the image of the Persian poet Ssaadi, in the Bus- 
 tan (Cod. ms. Bibl. Berol. Lib. v.) who compares the human mind with 
 its passions, to a boy who stands high upon a steep declivity, holding 
 by the halter a perverse young colt. For there is no nation that has 
 not a lively feeling of the dark interior of the human heart, which the 
 Arabian denominates so appositely " the grain of pepper in the heart." 
 It is the medicine and not the recipe that cures the disease. Gene- 
 ral instructions and prescriptions will be of little avail, to induce men 
 to take up arms against self. A new and divine seed must come 
 from without, and be implanted in the soul; a new weapon must bo 
 furnished, 'i?self\s to gain the victory over self. The love of the 
 world and of sin is something real; the love of God must be some- 
 thing real also. 
 
 * The old servant of Christ, Amos Comenius, thanked his God 
 that from his youth upward he had been a " vir desideriorum," 
 
58 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY, &€. 
 
 dmyxajta — " Thanks to nature, for having rendered necessEo-y 
 things, of easy attainment, while those of difficult attainment 
 are not necessary." Moses also declares :* " For this com- 
 mandment, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden 
 from thee, neither is it far otf : It is not in heaven that thou 
 shouldst say. Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it 
 unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? Neither is it beyond 
 the sea, that thou shouldst say. Who shall go over the sea 
 for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? 
 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and ia 
 thy heart, that thou mayest do it." 
 
 * 5 Mos, XXX. 11. and following* 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 ^— *i^ 
 
 ««»^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IM U S A.