THE HULSEAN LECTURES 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OP 
 CAMBEIDOE IN 1851. 
 
(iDambritige : 
 
THE 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL, 
 
 AS EXHIBITED IN THE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES: 
 
 THE HULSEAN LECTURES, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 CAMBRIDGE IN 1851. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CURREY, B.D., 
 
 PREACHER AT THE CHABTERHOUSE AND BOYLe's LECTURER, FORMERLY 
 FELLOW AND TUTOR OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: JOHN DEIGHTON; 
 
 MACMILLAN & Co. 
 
 LONDON: F. AND J. RIVINGTON. 
 
REV. GEORGE ELWES CORRIE, B.D. 
 
 NORRISIAN PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, 
 
 MASTER OF JESUS COLLEGE, 
 
 AND VICE-CHANCELLOR IN THE YEAR 1850-51, 
 
 REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 AND TO THE 
 
 REV. RALPH TATHAM, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, 
 
 THESE LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
The Rev. John Hulse, M.A., by his will bearing 
 date July 21, 1777, founded a Lectureship in the 
 University of Cambridge, to be held by a Clergyman 
 in the University of the degree of Master of Arts, and 
 under the age of forty years : the Lecturer to be 
 elected annually on Christmas-day, or within seven days 
 after, by the Vice-Chancellor, the Master of Trinity 
 College, and the Master of St John's College, or any 
 two of them : the subject of the Lectures to be as 
 follows ; " The Evidence of Revealed Religion ; the 
 Truth and Excellence of Christianity ; the Prophecies 
 and Miracles ; direct or collateral proofs of the Chris- 
 tian Religion, especially the collateral arguments; the 
 more difiicult texts, or obscure parts of Holy Scrip- 
 ture ; " or any one or more of these topics, at the 
 discretion of the Lecturer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTUEE I. 
 
 THE ELECTION OP THE SEED OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 ISAIAH XLVI. 13. 
 
 TAOE 
 
 / Lrin(f near mif righteousness ; it shall not be far off, 
 and my salvation shall not tarry : and I will place 
 salvation in Zionfor Israel my glory 1 
 
 LECTURE 11. 
 
 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 
 
 MATTHEW II. 15. 
 
 Out of Egypt have I called my Son 29 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 
 
 EXODUS XXXIV. 6, 7- 
 
 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, 
 The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
 longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
 transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
 clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
 upon the children, and upon the children's children, 
 unto the third and to the fourth qeneration ... 61 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE 1>]{0S1*ERITY OF DAVID AND SOI.OMO.N. 
 
 PSALM XLV. 4. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 In thy majesty ride prosperously^ because of truth, and 
 meekness, and righteousness ; and thy right hand shall 
 teach thee terrible things 91 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL OP ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 
 
 JEREMIAH VII. 4. 
 
 Trust ye not in lying icords, saying, The temple of the 
 Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the 
 Lord, are these ]21 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 HOSEA I. II. 
 
 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of 
 Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves 
 one head, and they shall come up out of the land: 
 for great shall be the day of Jezreel 153 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE RESTORATION AND StJRSEQUENT CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 IIAGGAI II. 4. 
 
 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and 
 be strong, Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest ; 
 and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the 
 Lord, and icork : for I am with you, saith the I^ord 
 of hosts 184 
 
CONTENTS. 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE OPPUrflTION OP THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ROMANS XL 11. 
 
 PAttli 
 
 / srt?/ tlien^ Have they stximhled that they should fall ? 
 
 God forbid: but rather tlirowjh their fall salvation 222 
 is come unto the Gentiles. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 THE ELECTION OF THE SEED OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 ISAI. XLVI. 13. 
 
 / bHng near my righteousness ; it shall not he far off, 
 and my salvation shall not tarry : and I luill place 
 salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. 
 
 ^HE principal subject of the last twenty- 
 -*- six chapters of Isaiah is determined 
 by various passages in the New Testament, 
 wherein particular parts are expressly applied 
 to the person and to the kingdom of the 
 Messiah. But had we no such authoritative 
 determination, the language of the prophecies 
 themselves would leave us in no doubt as to 
 their scope and significance. We are pre- 
 cluded from resting satisfied with any inter- 
 pretation which would confine our views to 
 the fortunes of the Jewish nation, not merely 
 by the exalted imagery employed by the 
 Prophet to portray the glories of the coming 
 Kingdom, not merely by the delineation of 
 features which have no part in the idea of a 
 Jewish Commonwealth, not merely by the 
 introduction of a Personage distinct from and 
 superior to every human agent raised up to 
 c. H. L. B 
 
2 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 instruct, to advance, or to restore the chosen 
 seed of Abraham — but by a continual recur- 
 rence to the eternal purposes of God working 
 out blessing and salvation to all the nations of 
 the earth by means of the Kingdom so glori- 
 ously described. "The righteous man" raised 
 up from the East, made to rule over kings', 
 may point to Abraham or to Cyrus, but in 
 either case the person so denominated is the 
 type of the Righteous One, and is introduced 
 as bearing part in the mighty work of right- 
 eousness decreed from all eternity by Him, 
 *' who hath wrought and done it, calling the 
 generations from the beginning, Jehovah the 
 first, and with the last-;" who describes Him- 
 self indeed as the Holy One of Israel, but 
 also asserts His claim to a more extended 
 dominion as the Creator and Governor of the 
 whole earth, and all that is therein. 
 
 Eternal and universal as is His dominion, 
 the Dispensation revealed by His prophets is 
 alike universal and eternal. It extends beyond 
 the confines of time to the regions of eternity. 
 It takes up the nations "as a drop of a 
 bucket," and counts them " as the small dust 
 of the balanced" For it embraces the history 
 of the world, not as a mere succession of 
 thrones, potentates and dominations, but as 
 1 Isai. xli. 2. 2 isj^i. xli. 4. 3 Isai. xl. 15. 
 
I] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 3 
 
 the development of one grand and universal 
 scheme for the renovation and redemption 
 of mankind. *' It is a light thing that thou 
 shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 
 of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. 
 I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, 
 that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end 
 of the earths" " Lift up your eyes to the hea- 
 vens, and look upon the earth beneath : for 
 the Heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and 
 the earth shall wax old like a garment : and 
 they that dwell therein shall die in like man- 
 ner ; but my salvation shall be for ever, and 
 my righteousness shall not be abolished^." 
 
 The history of the Israelites is plainly in- 
 adequate to represent this vast and compre- 
 hensive scheme. But who can look abroad 
 upon the earth, and mark the growth of 
 Christianity, slowly at times it may be, yet 
 surely striking its deep root into the most 
 ungenial soils, bursting asunder with vital 
 energy the untempered mortar of custom, 
 prejudice and superstition, and building up 
 the living stones disengaged from the mass of 
 idolatry into the well-framed building that 
 " groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord^," 
 and doubt whether there be a scheme which 
 answers to the glowing language of prophet- 
 
 1 Isai. xllx. 6. 2 isai. \i Q, 3 Eph. ii. 21. 
 
 B2 
 
4 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 ical inspiration ; a scheme comprehensive 
 enough to include all ages and all tribes of 
 the earth, and whose living reality surpasses 
 all that it was given of old to heart to conceive 
 or tongue to utter in anticipation of its future 
 glory ? 
 
 It is interesting to trace backwards the 
 swelling flood which is spreading its waters 
 over the globe, to mark the tributary streams 
 which in ancient times flowed each in its own 
 channel, yet were all hastening to the same 
 "place of broad rivers'," wherein the Lord 
 has set his glorious Name, as our Judge, our 
 Lawgiver, and our King. It is interesting to 
 observe how when the highways lay w aste, and 
 the wayfaring man ceased^ the axes of the 
 pioneers were removing obstructions, where a 
 highway was to be cast up, and a road carried 
 through the wilderness, for the triumphant 
 march of the mighty Conqueror of the world. 
 For here, as in all God's works, we discover 
 complete harmony and order. The same God 
 who created, governs the world, and calls forth 
 " the chariot and the horse, the army and the 
 power \" He that poureth water upon the 
 thirsty soil, and floods upon the dry ground, 
 poureth His Spirit upon the seed of man, and 
 
 ^ Isai. xxxiii. 21. ^ Isai. xxxiii. 8. 
 
 ' Isai. xliii. 17. 
 
L] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 5 
 
 His blessing upon their offspring'. He who 
 made the sun and moon for the light of the 
 earth, caused also the Sun of Righteousness 
 to arise with healing on his wings. He that 
 created the heavens, and stretched them out ; 
 He that spread forth the earth, and that which 
 Cometh out of it, He that giveth breath unto 
 the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk 
 therein, He called Jacob in righteousness, 
 and gave light to lighten the Gentiles, He 
 brought the former things to pass, and new 
 things did He declare, and before they sprang 
 up He told of their approach 2. 
 
 We are not then to conceive of Chris- 
 tianity as of a scheme detached from the 
 general system of the universe. Rather let 
 us recognize herein the design and end of 
 creation — the good for which all things work 
 together under the guidance and control of 
 a superintending Providence. In the natural 
 world the combination of numerous contri- 
 vances, and their adaptations to one end, has 
 ever been deemed a convincing proof that 
 this end was the result not of accident but of 
 design ; and may not the same line of argu- 
 ment be justly applied to the supernatural ? 
 
 The wonderful concatenation of events 
 upon which Christianity depends furnishes 
 
 ' Isai. xliv. 3. '^ Isai. xlii. 5 — 9. 
 
6 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 the best credentials for the confirmation of 
 its authority. How futile then is the insidious 
 attempt, which has not unfrequently been 
 made, to shake our belief in its divine origin, 
 by enlarging upon the natural causes to which 
 it may have owed its birth, as if these natural 
 causes were not under the control of the God 
 of Nature, as if the Creator were not also the 
 Governor of the universe, but resembled those 
 fancied deities, which have place in the most 
 shallow of all systems of Heathen Philosophy 
 — deities whose imagined perfection was made 
 to consist in an absolute indifference to the 
 interests and to the actions of mankinds 
 
 While therefore the speculations of such 
 objectors can have no termination but in 
 absolute Atheism, we may be taught by a 
 sounder philosophy to follow, if it may be, 
 the mysterious links of the golden chain to 
 the throne of the Almighty — to dwell with a 
 reverent and submissive spirit upon the se- 
 condary causes which have prepared the way 
 for and have contributed to the progress of 
 Christianity, recognizing in all the operations 
 of the First Great Cause, who stilleth the noise 
 of the sea, the noise of the waves, and the 
 tumult of the people, who maketh the out- 
 goings of the morning and evening to praise 
 
 1 Lucret. I. 57. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 7 
 
 HimS who creates good out of evil, and works 
 out His pure intent by the wayward passions 
 and conflicting wills of the human race^. 
 
 And not only is there harmony in the 
 works and decrees of God, but also a won- 
 derful analogy subsists in different parts of 
 His creation, and in different acts of His 
 government. Unity of design is evident in 
 His material works — unity of administration 
 in the constitution set visibly before us, and 
 ill that made known to us by the language 
 of Revelation. The visible and invisible, the 
 things of heaven and the things of earth, 
 are linked together by many a tie, discover- 
 able to our apprehension, and suggestive of 
 a closer union and more intimate connexion, 
 which shall hereafter meet our view when 
 this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
 and the grosser humours have been purged 
 away which interrupt our clear vision of the 
 deep things of God. 
 
 We have an illustration of this analogy 
 in the correspondence between the progress 
 of religious truth in the world, and the growth 
 of an individual, whether physical, intel- 
 lectual, or spiritual. Not without appointed 
 
 ' Psal. Ixv. 7, 8. 
 
 ^ " For working out God's pure intent 
 Is man, on mutual slaughter bent," 
 
8 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 means of supporting and nourishing body 
 and mind, does each of us step by step ad- 
 vance to the stature or the intellect of a man ; 
 not without the ordained means of spiritual 
 sustenance, does he grow in grace, and for- 
 getting those things that are behind, and 
 reaching forth to those things that are before, 
 press toward the mark for the prize of his 
 high calling in Christ Jesus ^ Not unlike 
 this is the process of growth and development 
 which the Almighty has been pleased to ap- 
 point for what may be called the spiritual 
 life of the world. It is gradual, it is pro- 
 gressive ; means conduce to ends ; one thing 
 hangs upon another ; the grain of the word 
 puts forth first the blade, then the ear, then 
 the full corn in the ear 2. God works by 
 measure in Time, but without measure in 
 Eternity. 
 
 Thus there was a " fulness of time" in 
 which it was fitting, according to the self- 
 imposed law of Divine operation, that the Son 
 of God should be "born of a woman, made 
 under the law, to redeem them that were 
 under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons^." 
 
 The lapse of ages before the promulga- 
 tion of Christianity is far from furnishing 
 
 I Philip, ill. 13, 14. 2 Mark iv. 28. '' Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHMI. 9 
 
 matter for just objection or doubt, and is in 
 strict accordance with the general course of 
 Providence. Nor are we to suppose that in 
 these ages the work of God stood still. Man 
 is ever fond of saying "Let Him make speed, 
 and hasten His work, that we may see it; and 
 let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw 
 nigh, that we may know it' ;" but the rod of 
 the almond-tree blossoms in its appointed 
 season : then, and not till then, does He 
 hasten His word to perform it^. We must 
 not push beyond its proper limits the ana- 
 logy which is derived from the consideration 
 of the physical growth of man ; nor are we 
 to imagine that every successive age of the 
 world was more enlightened than that which 
 immediately preceded it. The extreme de- 
 pravation of the whole race which was visited 
 with the Deluge is sufficient to guard us from 
 this error. More nearly akin is the spiritual 
 growth of one, who with many an interruption, 
 and not without many a fall, attains at last, 
 after an arduous race, to a crown incorruptible, 
 and thus fulfils the true end and purpose of 
 his being. So is the history of the world 
 before Christ's coming chequered and diver- 
 sified. There are brighter and darker spots ; 
 but the brightest is but imperfectly illumi- 
 
 ' Isai. V. 19. 2 jer, i u 12. 
 
10 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 nated. It is by alternations of darker and 
 less dark that we compute the lapse of cen- 
 turies ; or if at times the darkness is inter- 
 rupted by the true light of direct revelation 
 from God, it is but as when in the midst of 
 a storm the clouds are lifted for an instant, 
 and the mountain-tops shine forth in momen- 
 tary splendour, but the shadows of gloom 
 again gather quickly round them, and they 
 are enveloped in obscurity as profound, or it 
 may be profounder, than before. 
 
 Evil had, by an inexplicable dispensation, 
 been permitted to enter into the world. Man 
 had been created capable of falling, and had 
 fallen into a state of corruption, which made 
 necessary a process of restoration. But no 
 sooner had he fallen, than the Almighty pro- 
 pounded to him hopes, not of immediate, but 
 of ultimate, triumph over the powers of evil, 
 which then seemed predominant. The sons 
 of Adam were inheritors of his corruption, 
 and were invested with the same mysterious 
 and fatal power of marring with the deformity 
 of sin the face of the Creation of God. The 
 birth of righteousness was attended with 
 many a throe: "for we know that the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth in pain to- 
 gether until now^" But the abundance of sin 
 
 • Rom. vlii. 22. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHA3I. 11 
 
 produces in every way the superabundance 
 of grace, and the very corruption which is 
 thus engendered is made by the Ahiiighty a 
 source of life and renovation. 
 
 Therefore amidst the notes of Gospel-pre- 
 paration we must expect to meet with many 
 a discord, though the general result be har- 
 mony. We must expect to find many a check 
 and interruption, though the whole movement 
 is still onward, — as on a rough and uneven 
 shore the advancing tide seems in places to 
 retire and lose ground, but the sea surely rolls 
 on, and gains steadily on the decreasing shore. 
 
 The history of the antediluvian world, as 
 our brief records describe it, displays to us 
 the work of righteousness under the most 
 unfavourable circumstances : the sons of God 
 gradually degenerating by their alliances 
 with the daughters of men, — corruption all 
 but universal — the wickedness of man great 
 in the earth, and every imagination of the 
 thoughts of his heart only evil continually i. 
 Yet was this scene of degradation not without 
 its moral purpose. To the few who remained 
 faithful upon earth it had its savour of life 
 unto life. It exhibited the full consequence 
 of sin. It taught those who yet would learn 
 how foul and loathsome was its deformity. 
 
 • Gen. vi. 5. 
 
12 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 It taught them the hopelessness of looking 
 to man's moral instincts or natural powers 
 to raise him from the slavery of sin and 
 Satan. And doubtless it made those of a 
 better mind cling with increased energy to 
 the words and promises of God spoken to 
 their fathers, and turn the longing gaze of 
 ardent faith to those glimpses of a future Re- 
 velation which were vouchsafed amid the 
 darkness of the world. "For the creature 
 was made subject to vanity not willingly, but 
 by reason of Him who hath subjected the 
 same in hope, because the creature itself 
 shall be delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption into the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God^" 
 
 Amidst the sjoectacle of shame which the 
 antediluvian world presents, we have notices 
 of purer knowledge and better hopes in some 
 of this generation. The more excellent sacri- 
 fice of Abel was a testimony of his faith, for 
 by it he obtained witness that he was right- 
 eous ; and by it he being dead yet speaketh^. 
 The very institution of sacrifice was mani- 
 festly intended by a typical representation to 
 keep alive among mankind the notion of a 
 propitiatory offering and vicarious suffering ; 
 and was, in all probability, connected by 
 
 ' Rom. viii. 20, 21. 2 Heb. xi. 4. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 13 
 
 direct Revelation with the promise made to 
 Adam of the seed of the woman who should 
 bruise the serpent's head. This was the faith 
 in which Enoch walked with God amidst a 
 seed of evil-doers, children that were corrupt- 
 ers, and by which he was translated that he 
 should not see death ; for without faith it is im- 
 possible to please God^ And the legitimate 
 effect of such light blended with such dark- 
 ness, upon a faithful heart, is seen in Noah, the 
 preacher of righteousness, who moved by fear, 
 by faith condemned the world, and became 
 heir of the righteousness which is by faith ^ 
 
 If we pass from the very general picture 
 of the condition of mankind before the Flood 
 to the more detailed history of later ages, 
 we find continually clearer anticipations of a 
 coming Dispensation. 
 
 The sin of Ham gave occasion to the dis- 
 tinctive annunciation of the fortunes of the 
 posterities of the three sons of Noah, and these 
 fortunes are prophetically connected with a 
 future manifestation of the Divine Power: 
 "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall 
 dwell in the tents of Shem^." The dispersion 
 which was the consequence of the Confusion 
 of Tongues, led the way to the foundation of 
 those empires which in turn predominated 
 
 ' Heb. xl 5. 2 Heb. xi. 7. ' Gen. ix. 27. 
 
14 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 in the earth, whose rise, decline, and fall, 
 exercised so sensible an influence on the con- 
 dition of the world. The very genealogies 
 which are placed in juxtaposition with the 
 history of Noah, seem to derive their signifi- 
 cance from the part assigned to the empires 
 of which the founders are there named in 
 the preparation for the Gospel. The Call of 
 Abraham, on which the sacred historian so 
 soon enters, introduces us at once to an event 
 of which Revelation itself declares the mean- 
 ing and intention. A nation is to spring from 
 his loins, his name is to be made great and to 
 be blessed, but he is also to be the instru- 
 ment of blessing to others ; for in him all the 
 families of the earth are to be blessed \ The 
 traditional knowledge which yet lingered in 
 the plains of Chaldfea, and rendered their in- 
 habitants more enlightened than the dwellers 
 in Canaan, was now confirmed and enlarged 
 by immediate communication with God. A rite 
 was established which was to serve a double 
 purpose, to be a sign of the Everlasting Cove- 
 nant, and a mark of a peculiar people sepa- 
 rated, and for ever to remain separated, from 
 all the nations of the earths The preachers 
 
 > Gen. xii. 2, 3. 
 
 2 'H 'yap d-TTo ^AfSpdajX KaTa aupKa irepiTOfxt] eh crifxeiov 
 icodt] 'tvu »/Te OTTO Tbov dWuiv idi'cSv kui tjj^wv dfpuypia-fxevoi Ka\ 
 'iva /xovoi irdOtiTe d vvv cv tlntj 7racr;;^eTe, kui "va ye'vwvTat at 
 
L] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 15 
 
 of Christianity disclosed the purpose which 
 explains the principle of such national elec- 
 tion. The day of Christ was that to which 
 Abraham rejoiced to look^ and with a view 
 to which his descendants became a chosen 
 race, "that the blessing of Abraham might 
 come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ^." 
 The seed of Abraham was Christ^, in whom 
 all the faithful are engrafted into the true 
 stock ; and the inheritors of Abraham's faith 
 become the heirs also of his promises. 
 
 The formation of the posterity of Abraham 
 into a nation was identical with the organiza- 
 tion of the Church of God ; and therefore is 
 their history of so deep and momentous in- 
 terest in all ages of the world. Hence it is 
 that in the Sacred Volume we find the for- 
 tunes of this race considered as paramount 
 to all other interests. The principal func- 
 tions which other nations, whether in pro- 
 sperity or adversity, are represented as per- 
 forming, is that of conveying the blessings 
 and punishments of the Almighty to His 
 chosen people. The famine which devastated 
 Canaan for seven years is described as having 
 
 ■yuipai vfxdov eptifxoi Ka't al TroXei'; TrvpiKava-Toi^ Kai tou? KCipirov^ 
 evwTTiou vfXMi/ KaTea-OloDO-iv dWoTpiot kcu /^f/Bei? ef vpdov eirijiaivt] 
 
 ek Tfji/ 'lepova-aXrJu. Just. M. Tryph. p. 234. A. Comp. Tert. 
 adv. Jud. ch. 3. 
 
 * John viii. 56. ' Gal. iii. 14. 3 q^I. iii. 16. 
 
16 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 been ordained for the purpose of exalting 
 Joseph, and of bringing Jacob and his de- 
 scendants to sojourn in Egypt. When the 
 time for their departure from Egypt draws 
 nigh the Lord is said to have raised up Pha- 
 raoh to shew in him His power\ for the ex- 
 altation of Israel. The blessings and curses 
 propounded by Moses were to be executed by 
 nations which are regarded but as clay in the 
 potter's hand, raised up or pulled down for 
 the chastisement or reward of Israel. They 
 are mighty so long as the children of Israel 
 serve other gods, but are cut off as the foam 
 upon the water when the strange gods are put 
 away, and the Lord Jehovah is acknowledged 
 and adored. Thus the mighty Assyrian is 
 styled "the rod of the anger of the Lord, and 
 the staft' in the hand of the indignation of 
 Jehovah 2." The great Babylon is " the ham- 
 mer of the whole earth ^" to execute judgment 
 upon Moab, Edom, Philistia and Damascus, 
 for their oppression of God's people*, but in 
 turn to be cut asunder and broken by " the 
 battle-axe of the Lord," raised up to render 
 imto Babylon, and to all the inhabitants of 
 Chaldcea, all the evil that they have done 
 
 1 Exod. ix. 16. 2 isjii. X. 5. ' Jer. 1. 23. 
 
 * See Isaiah, chap, xxxiv.j and Bp. Lowth's notes on this 
 chapter. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 17 
 
 unto Zion'. The valiant and prosperous 
 Cyrus, before whom nations are subdued and 
 the loins of kings ungirded, the two-leaved 
 gates opened, and the bars of iron cut in 
 sunder^ is designated as " the shepherd of the 
 Lord, performing His pleasure"," and is said 
 to have been called " for the sake of my ser- 
 vant Jacob, and of Israel my chosen''." The 
 burden of the prophetic song Avas ever the 
 same as that to which David gave utterance 
 in the forty-eighth Psalm : " Beautiful for sit- 
 uation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount 
 Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the 
 great King. God is known in her palaces as 
 a sure refuge. For, lo, the kings were assem- 
 bled, they passed by together. They saw it, 
 and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and 
 hasted away. Fear took hold of them there, 
 and pain, as of a woman in her travail. Thou 
 breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east 
 wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in 
 the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of 
 our God : God will establish it for ever^" 
 
 This mode of representing every interest as 
 subordinate to that of the Jewish people, and 
 of estimating the history of the world as it 
 
 ' Jer. li. 20—24. 3 jsai. xlv. 1, 2. 
 
 " Isai. xliv. 28. ■• Isai. xlv. 4. 
 
 5 Ps. xlviii. 2—8. 
 C. II. S. C 
 
18 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 bears upon the history of Israel, is doubtless 
 partly to be accounted for by the point of 
 view from which the inspired penmen were 
 made to look forth upon the world. Each 
 kingdom of the earth exerts an influence 
 either immediate or remote upon all the rest, 
 and each may, as far as it is itself concerned, 
 be considered as the centre of all that surround 
 it, as we may calculate the position of the 
 heavenly bodies by their distances from the 
 earth, although, in fact, the globe whereon we 
 dwell is but one of many planets revolving 
 round the central luminary. And so wonder- 
 ful, so harmonious, yet so complicated, is the 
 system of the universe, that it is to each 
 people, nay, to each individual, as if the whole 
 world without had no other function but that 
 of carrying out for that individual or that 
 people the laws of the Supreme Governor. 
 
 A Jewish history may discover to us in 
 some instances the fitness of God's decrees as 
 regards the condition of other nations ; but is 
 mainly concerned to shew the bearing of ex- 
 traneous events upon the condition of the 
 Jews. Yet after every allowance has been 
 made for the peculiarities which might thus 
 arise in the mode of representing the history 
 of nations, there yet remains much which 
 cannot be so accounted for. The increased 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 19 
 
 importance which any connexion with Israel 
 is represented as conferring, the peculiar de- 
 light which God is said to have in this favoured 
 race, and the preference constantly insisted 
 upon, as shewn to Israel before all other 
 people, point to something singular and special 
 in the position of those who are thus distin- 
 guished. " When the most High divided to 
 the nations their inheritance, and when He 
 separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds 
 of the people according to the number of the 
 children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His 
 people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance^" 
 " Thus saith He that created thee, O Jacob, 
 and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not : 
 for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by 
 thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest 
 through the waters, I will be with thee ; and 
 through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
 thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou 
 shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame 
 kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, 
 the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour : I gave 
 Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for 
 thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, 
 thou hast been honourable, and I have loved 
 thee : therefore will I give men for thee, and 
 people for thy life^." It is indeed this view of 
 
 1 Deut. xxxii.8, 9. ' Isai. xHii. 1—4. 
 
 02 
 
20 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 the peculiar position of the Jewish nation 
 which can alone enable us to understand why 
 so large a portion of the Volume, M'hich is 
 common to all mankind, and is written for 
 the instruction of all ages, is occupied with the 
 concerns of one people. The recorded speci- 
 men of the Divine administration of national 
 laws and national judgments, is not, we may 
 be sure, selected at random. And the remark- 
 able continuance of the nation as a distinct 
 body is equally significant. Not only are 
 Hamath, Arphad, and Sepharvaim, swept 
 away, with their gods, from the earth, but the 
 Assyrian himself, the destroyer with the de- 
 stroyed, is come to an end — their memorial is 
 perished with them. The discoveries of recent 
 days have brought before us the forms and 
 features of a race once powerful and numerous, 
 which has left behind no representative. The 
 despised daughter of Zion can still number 
 myriads of her sons, as the Lord declared of 
 old, "Though I make a full end of all nations 
 whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not 
 make a full end of thee\" 
 
 The preeminence thus given to the Jews 
 is explained by the part which was assigned 
 to them in the dispensation for the salvation 
 of mankind ; and as they above all people 
 
 ■• Jer. XXX. 11. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 21 
 
 were chosen to bring good tidings, to lift up 
 their voice with strength, and to say to the 
 cities not only of Jiidah, but of the whole 
 earth, Behold your GodS any review of the 
 preparation for the Gospel must have espe- 
 cial regard to the people of Israel. The 
 argument for the Divine origin of Christi- 
 anity, which may be derived from the con- 
 currence of the events of different ages towards 
 this one end, has appeared to me one of the 
 most forcible and convincing which we pos- 
 sess. And it is my purpose in subsequent 
 discourses to direct your attention to it as 
 enforced and sustained by the history of the 
 people of Israel. 
 
 It will not be necessary for such a purpose 
 to discuss minutely the details of this history. 
 The leading facts, such as their sojourn in 
 Egypt, their conquest of Canaan, their tempo- 
 rary greatness and their subsequent decline, 
 their captivity in Babylon, their dispersion 
 through the East, and their restoration to 
 Judaea, admit of no denial. The reasoning 
 which may shew each of these conditions to 
 have conduced to one great end, is indej^en- 
 dent of the critical examination of the several 
 documents, and of the individual facts which 
 they contain. 
 
 1 Isai. xl. 9. 
 
22 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 It is, therefore, no unphilosophical assump- 
 tion in an argument such as this, to accept 
 without discussion the outlines of the Sacred 
 History, and to base our enquiry upon the 
 general facts which are therein contained. 
 And if, as we proceed, we find the details 
 presented in harmonious order, and furnishing 
 us with a consistent account of the circum- 
 stances which led to the great events of the 
 history ; and find these details, no less than 
 the general facts, forming a scheme in which 
 a great end is constantly and uniformly being 
 carried out, then we may recur to the starting 
 point of our argument, and may assure our- 
 selves that the hypothesis must have been 
 true which assumes the unquestionable au- 
 thority of those documents whence we derive 
 our account of so harmonious a scheme. 
 Thus we may arrive at a proof of the autho- 
 rity of Scripture independent, and to man- 
 kind at large more accessible and intelligible 
 than the external and historical evidence for 
 the genuineness of the documents which we 
 possess, and may be enabled to close our en- 
 quiries with the pious acknowledgement of 
 the Psalmist, " Thy word is tried to the utter- 
 most, and thy servant loveth it^" 
 
 And I am the more disposed to base my 
 
 1 Ps. cxix. 140. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 23 
 
 imperfect contributions to the evidence for 
 Christianity upon a general view of Holy 
 Scripture, partly because I feel that in the 
 discussion of details a want of learning or 
 judgment is especially injurious to the cause 
 which it is attempted to maintain ; and partly 
 because in the present day the ingenuity of 
 those who woidd impugn our Faith is em- 
 ployed to assail the whole by attacking the 
 parts in detail. Although each of these sal- 
 lies may be met (as they have often been 
 met) successfully by equal learning and 
 power on the part of the champions of truth, 
 I doubt whether the study of any isolated 
 arguments is best calculated to produce set- 
 tled and undisturbed conviction. To those 
 who supply an antidote for poison which has 
 been disseminated amongst us, honour and 
 gratitude are due. But I would warn those 
 whom I am addressing, especially my younger 
 brethren, to abstain from the poison, or at 
 least to correct any lurking remains of the 
 evil which they may have imbibed, by a con- 
 templation of the general facts which are 
 obvious and unmistakeable. The very ex- 
 istence of Christianity is such a fact — a fact 
 which the subtlest reasoning of the sceptic 
 cannot overthrow. If any arguments are made 
 use of to shake our belief that this is the 
 
24 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 work of God, we may be assured that there is 
 a fallacy even if we cannot detect it. To put 
 Christianity, with its vivifying influence upon 
 morality and upon civilization, in the same 
 category as Paganism with its foul corruption 
 of morals, or Mahometanism with its deaden- 
 ing influence upon energy and improvement, 
 is so repugnant to the very instincts of our 
 nature, that few would be inclined to ac- 
 quiesce in it. But the mind may be easily 
 puzzled, distracted, and unsettled, when it 
 attempts to follow the sceptic into minute 
 and curious details. Therefore is it good to 
 be accustomed to general and comprehensive 
 views, and to be fortified with arguments 
 resting upon such views. 
 
 I shall then attempt to discover whether 
 such an argument may not be successfully 
 derived from an examination of some of the 
 most striking circumstances connected with 
 the history of the Israelites, endeavouring to 
 shew how each of these led up in harmoni- 
 ous succession to the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, and how this was uniformly carried 
 out under conditions the most diversified ; 
 in poverty and wealth, in victory and defeat, 
 in triumph and captivity, in prosperity and 
 reverse. Amidst influences of the most varied 
 kind tlie work grew and throve ; occurrences 
 
I] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 25 
 
 seemingly the most disastrous were found in 
 the end most favourable. Sin and its punish- 
 ments, virtue and its rewards, alike helped 
 it forward. The cause was of the Lord, and 
 the folly, wickedness, and vanity of man, 
 could not hinder, nay, must unwittingly con- 
 tribute to maintain and further it. 
 
 And it is to be observed that after the 
 Truth had appeared personally upon earth, 
 the opposition which was offered by the blinded 
 Jews was made conducive to the advance of 
 that doctrine which they madly endeavoured 
 to overthrow. From the earliest times in which 
 the cause of Christianity was maintained by 
 Christian apologists, the condition of the Jews 
 has been appealed to as a standing evidence 
 of the truths which they themselves deny: and 
 to the present day they still continue to afford 
 the same involuntary testimony. "Scattered 
 abroad, wanderers, with neither man nor God 
 for their king, they speak a language ex- 
 pressive though silent, giving, in the fulfil- 
 ment of their predicted destiny, an earnest 
 of the fulfilment of those gracious promises 
 which ever accompanied the denunciations 
 of coming punishment. For the same holy 
 voices which prophetically pronounced their 
 doom, ever closed their threatenings with the 
 proclamation of better things to come, when 
 
26 THE ELECTION OF THE [Lect. 
 
 from every nation, people and place, the 
 Lord should gather unto himself more faith- 
 ful worshippers, and to them transfer His 
 peculiar favour, and grace more abundant, 
 as in a more perfect Dispensation'." 
 
 Thus whether in adversity or prosperity, 
 in knowledge or in ignorance, in righteous- 
 ness or in sin, in light or in darkness, in con- 
 junction or in opposition, the chosen seed of 
 Abraham was made by God's hand especi- 
 ally instrumental in promoting the growth of 
 Christianity ; and the comparison which one 
 of their number makes between the burning 
 bush and the children of Israel, is true in a 
 sense far more extended than he imagined. 
 "This miraculous vision," says Philo, "set 
 forth with a silence more eloquent than words 
 the future fortunes of the Jewish race. The 
 burning bush is the symbol of the oppressed, 
 the fire of the oppressor. That it burned, yet 
 was not consumed, indicated that the op- 
 pressed should not perish by the hands of 
 their oppressors, that the violence of the 
 enemy should be without effect, the sufferings 
 of the injured do them no hurt ; while the 
 angel denoted the Providence of God, assuag- 
 ing beyond the expectation of men all the 
 waves of trouble with a holy and miraculous 
 
 1 Tert. Apolog. Cli. xxi. 
 
I.] SEED OF ABRAHAM. 27 
 
 calm ; the frail wood unconsumed by the 
 strong element, illuminated but not devoured 
 by the flame, spoke, almost audibly, to the 
 Israelites in their then prostrate state, Be of 
 good cheer, your weakness is your power; 
 they who would destroy shall preserve you ; 
 nay, when ye seem most desolate, then shall 
 ye shine forth most brightly in renewed 
 honour and glory^" 
 
 Would that they to whom it is given to 
 see thus far into the ways of Providence, 
 might have their eyes yet further opened to 
 know their true mission, their true glory ! 
 Would that they might recognize the voice 
 of God speaking to them by miracles of 
 judgment and of mercy, and saying, "I have 
 surely seen the affliction of my people, and 
 have heard their cry, and I know their sor- 
 rows, and I am come down to deliver them^" 
 that the veil might at length be removed from 
 their hearts, and the voice of their own pro- 
 phets speak, so that they should hear and un- 
 derstand "how beautiful are the feet of them 
 which preach the Gospel of peace, and bring 
 glad tidings of good things^," that so the ful- 
 ness of the Gentiles being come in, all Israel 
 might be saved, as it is written, "There shall 
 
 1 Philo-Jud. de Vit. Mos. p. 475, F. 
 2 Exod. iii. 7- '^ Isai. lii. 7- in Rom. x. 15. 
 
28 ELECTION OF ABRAHAM'S SEED. [Lect. I. 
 
 come out of Zioii the deliverer, and turn away 
 ungodliness from Jacob \" and the righteous- 
 ness of the Lord be brought near, and cease 
 to be far off— and His salvation be placed in 
 Zion for Israel His glory. 
 
 1 Rom. xi. 26. 
 
LECTURE 11. 
 
 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, AND THE DELIVERY OF 
 THE LAW. 
 
 MATTH. II. 15. 
 Out of Egypt have I called my Son. 
 
 nPHE words here adduced by the Evangelist 
 -*- are plainly taken from the prophet Hosea, 
 who twice in substance repeats them : "When 
 Israel was a child I loved him, and called my 
 son out of Egypt^ ;" and again : " By a pro- 
 phet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, 
 and by a prophet was he preserved ^" It is 
 evident that Hosea was referring in part to 
 the people of Israel. It is certain (for S. 
 Matthew declares it) that the prediction had 
 its full accomplishment in Christ. So closely 
 was all that concerned the Israelites bound 
 up with the hopes of the promised Saviour, 
 that the nation was a type of Christ, and the 
 terms Israel and Jacob were employed in the 
 Old Testament (as is asserted by early Chris- 
 tians and confessed by Rabbinical writers^) 
 to denote the person of the Messiah. It is in 
 accordance with their typical character that 
 
 ' Hos. xi. 1. == Hos. xn. 13. 
 
 ^ See Just. M. Tryph. p. 353. A ., and Whitby in Matth. ii. 15. 
 
so THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Leot. 
 
 the condition of this race, at different stages 
 of their national existence, should have had 
 prospective reference to Him of whom they 
 were the type, and that the events of their 
 history should have been preparatory to His 
 coming. 
 
 The brief mention of the origin of various 
 nations in the tenth chapter of Genesis, in- 
 forms us that the Israelites were first brought 
 into contact with the descendants of Ham. 
 The earliest empire established in the world 
 was that founded by Nimrod the son of Cush, 
 who made Babylon his seat of empire, and 
 pushed his conquests into what was after- 
 wards called Assyria ^ and was a mighty one 
 of the earth. At the time of Abraham this 
 empire must have lost much of its early pre- 
 dominance. For there were kings of Shinar, 
 of Ellasar, of Elam, and of nations, each in- 
 dependent of the other, and forming a sepa- 
 rate confederacy for a particular expedition 2. 
 And the descendants of two other sons of 
 Ham, Canaan and Mizraim^ were then nume- 
 rous and independent. 
 
 ^ Gen. X. 11. The marginal reading, He went out into As- 
 syria, seems preferable to the translation in the Authorized 
 Version. Asshur was a son of Shem, (Gen. x. 22). We ob- 
 serve that in the genealogies of the Chronicles (1 Chron. i.), 
 there is no mention of Asshur but as a son of Shem. 
 
 2 Gen. xiv. 1. 
 
 ^ I have adopted the language of Scripture in calling 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 81 
 
 The Canaanites were divided into several 
 petty kingdoms, often at war among them- 
 selves ; the kingdoms of Sodom, of Gomorrah, 
 of Admah, of Zeboiim, and of Bela. But 
 these kingdoms, though independent, were not 
 strong. Even when united, they could not 
 stand their ground against an army which 
 Abraham with three hundred and eighteen 
 servants overcame M nor does there appear 
 to have been any settled occupation of the 
 country ; for Abraham and Lot, though com- 
 ing as strangers with flocks and herds too 
 numerous to allow them to remain together, 
 entered without dispute into the most fertile 
 pastures ; and Jacob's return, with all that he 
 
 Mizraim a son of Ham, but this denomination does not ne- 
 cessarily imply personality. This is proved by the mention in 
 Gen. X. 13, of Ludim, Ananim, &c., and especially of Philis- 
 tim, (in 1 Chron. i. 12, we read "the Philistines"). The ter- 
 mination plainly implies that nations are spoken of, and in the 
 LXX. each name is preceded by the article toi/?. The form 
 of the word Mizraim suggests the idea that this also is the 
 name of a people. Bochart says that the termination is dual, 
 which has been supposed to indicate the two kingdoms of 
 Upper and Lower Egypt. Tliere is, however, some difficulty 
 in the connexion of Mizraim with Canaan and with Cush, 
 who were both individuals. But so in Gen. x. 15, 16, " Ca- 
 naan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusite," &c. 
 It is evident that in this chapter both nations and individuals 
 are spoken of. To which of the two a particular name is to 
 be referred, is not always easy to be determined. 
 ' Gen. xiv. 14. 
 
82 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 had acquired in his sojourn with Laban, met 
 with no impediment from the Canaanites. 
 The most powerful and wealthy tribes had 
 been collected into the cities of the Plain, 
 and were swept away by that terrible visita- 
 tion, which has left its jjermanent record in 
 the waters of the Dead Sea : a devastation, 
 which in all probability weakened still further 
 the Canaanitish poM^er, and contributed to the 
 quiet which the Patriarchs enjoyed in a land 
 not yet given them to possess. 
 
 S. Paul tells us that their position as pil- 
 grims and strangers was calculated to elevate 
 their hopes above this sublunary sphere, that 
 the distance at which they saw the promises 
 enabled them to look beyond their partial 
 completion, and that the desire of a better, 
 that is, of a heavenly country, was infused 
 into their minds, and by them transmitted to 
 their descendants^ 
 
 Before the Israelites took possession of 
 the soil they were to be subjected to other 
 influences, and to dwell among a people dif- 
 fering widely from the tribes of Canaan. 
 
 The land of Egypt was in very ancient 
 days the seat of the arts of civilization. There 
 is so great variety in the number of years 
 assigned by different chronologists to the 
 
 1 ITcb. xi. 13—16. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. S3 
 
 earlier dynasties of the Egyptian empire, that 
 it is impossible to determine with any pre- 
 <;iseness the era of its foundation. It seems, 
 however, most agreeable to the records and 
 to the monuments which we possess, to con- 
 clude that it must be carried back to a period 
 not far removed from the general Deluged 
 The notices which occur in Scripture accord 
 with the information which we derive from 
 other sources of Egyptian history. The two 
 invasions of Palestine by Chedorlaomer, king 
 of Elam^, and the grievous famine^ which 
 sent Abraham into Egypt, furnish us with no 
 improbable causes of the invasions from the 
 East, which we ascertain upon independent 
 authority to have taken place about this time^. 
 And from Scripture we gather incidentally 
 that when Abraham and his household were 
 but a wandering family with no settled abode, 
 removing their tlocks and herds from one 
 pasture to another in the plains of Canaan, 
 Egypt had a "king," and "princes," and 
 
 ^ This is the conclusion to which Poole in his Horee 
 ^gyptiacje arrives from an examination of astronomical and 
 hieroglyphical records. He concludes the era of Mcnes to be 
 B.C. 2717, forty-one years after the Dispersion of mankind, 
 according to Septuagint Chronology. To the first seventeen 
 dynasties of Manetho some assign 700, some 4000 years. 
 
 2 Gen. xiv. 1 and 5. ' Gen. xii. 10. 
 
 4 See Ilor. ^Egypt. Part 11. § 4. 
 
 C. H. L. D 
 
34 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 therefore some settled form of government and 
 organization. And when through the medium 
 of Joseph, Jacob and his sons with their fami- 
 lies placed themselves under the protection 
 of the Egyptians, the more copious notices in 
 Scripture furnish abundant proofs of their 
 culture and civilization. We find mention of 
 " officers," " captains of the guard," "keepers 
 of the prison," "cup-bearers," "priests," "ma- 
 gicians," and "wise men," denoting recog- 
 nized orders and offices of various kinds. The 
 appointment of Joseph, the regular execution 
 of his wise provisions for future want, and 
 the singular account of the enlargement of 
 Pharaoh's authority over his subjects by 
 means of the famine, the collection of the 
 inhabitants into cities, and the enactment of 
 a separate law for the lands and dues of the 
 priests ^ prove the established authority of the 
 law, while the contempt with which they 
 regarded the Hebrews, and their abomination 
 of shepherds^, seems to express the sense 
 entertained by a well-ordered community 
 of their superiority over roving and no- 
 madic tribes. "The jewels of silver, and 
 jewels of gold," of which the Israelites spoiled 
 the Egyptians^ " the treasures of Egypt," 
 
 • Gen. xlvli. 21, 22. ' Gen. xlvi. 34. 
 
 =• Exod. xii. 35. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 85 
 
 which Moses is said to have lightly esteemed ^ 
 the early culture of the soil intimated by the 
 praise bestowed upon Sodom before its de- 
 struction, that it was " even as the garden of 
 the Lord, like the land of Egypt^," and by 
 the fond remembrance entertained by the 
 Israelites of "the cucumbers, and the melons, 
 and the leeks, and the onions, and the gar- 
 lick 3," ''the wisdom of the Egyptians %" in 
 which Moses is said to have been learned, 
 and which had passed into a proverb in the 
 days of Solomon 5, — tally with the wonderful 
 discoveries by which the secrets of remote 
 ages have been laid bare to the penetrating 
 inquiries of modern research and ingenuity. 
 The notion that the Israelites were once 
 the predominant race in Egypt, and that their 
 occupations of that country corresponded with 
 what is styled by Manetho, The dynasty of 
 the Shepherd Kings, seems to have originated 
 in the national vanity of Josephus, and is 
 inconsistent alike with sacred and profane 
 history^. But the monumental records of the 
 
 ' Heb. xi. 26. ' Gen. xiii. 10. 
 
 * Numb. xi. 5. * Acts vii. 22. 
 
 * " Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the chil- 
 dren of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt." 
 I Kings iv. 30. 
 
 ^ Joseph, c. Apion. i. 14. See Kenrick's Egypt, Vol. ii. 
 p. 181. 
 
 D2 
 
36 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 past disclose to us a similarity in many rites 
 and usages between the Egyptians and the 
 Israelites, which fully confirms the Scriptural 
 account that they were in very early times 
 brought into close contact with each other. 
 This similarity has, however, been variously 
 accounted for. Early writers (whether Jewish 
 or Christian), did not hesitate to ascribe to 
 a Hebrew origin all that was common to the 
 two people, whether in customs or in opinions, 
 while some modern writers, adopting the 
 opposite extreme, have supposed the Israel- 
 ites to have copied in every case from the 
 Egyptians, forgetting that a race, which, 
 though subordinate, were daily increasing in 
 numbers and prosperity, can scarcely have 
 failed to impart as well as to receive no in- 
 considerable impression. 
 
 The purer doctrines of religion which the 
 Egyptian priests communicated to the initi- 
 ated alone, doctrines which Grecian sages 
 subsequently received at their hands, may 
 reasonably be supposed to have originated in 
 their intercourse with a people, who were in 
 possession of truths which must have natu- 
 rally recommended themselves to the notice 
 of the wisest among the heathen. And so tra- 
 ditional knowledge of the truth may have been 
 preserved among the priests themselves, who 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. S7; 
 
 yet ill their practice conformed to all the out- 
 ward forms of the popular system. 
 
 This consideration renders it highly pro- 
 bable that the rite of circumcision which with 
 the Egyptians was certainly far from universal,, 
 and seems to have been confined, at least in 
 later times, to the priests, and to the initiated, 
 may have been adopted by them in imitation 
 of the IsraelitesS to whom it had been pre- 
 scribed by Divine command, as a national 
 religious rite. 
 
 The belief of the Egyptians in a Future 
 State is attested by their solicitous care for the 
 preservation of the bodies and of the memory 
 of the dead, and by the representations which 
 yet remain in ancient monuments of Osiris at 
 the tribunal of Justice^. It is, therefore, highly 
 
 ' Herodotus, ii. 104, says, that the Syrians in Palestine 
 (i.e. the Jews,) confessed that they derived this rite from the 
 Egyptians. It is manifestly impossible the Jews could have 
 said this. There is much difference of opinion, whether 
 Herod, ir. 37^ means to confine his assertion to priests, or to 
 maintain that the practice was national. An examination of 
 mummies proves that circumcision was by no means uni- 
 versal. See Kenrick's Egypt, Yol. i. p. 448, and Biihr's 
 Notes on Herod. 1. c. The doubts which confessedly attach to 
 the statements of Herodotus, are certainly in favour of the 
 view that the rite was adopted in imitation of the Israelites, 
 but even if it be otherwise, the peculiarities attending its 
 use among the Jews, exhibit a marked distinction between the 
 Egyptian and the Israelitish circumcision. 
 
 ^ Kenrick's Egypt, Vol. i. p. 405. 
 
58 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 improbable that the Israelites, before whose 
 eyes these monuments must have continu- 
 ally been, should, as some have maintained, 
 have been unacquainted with the doctrine of 
 a Future State, — nor does it seem extravagant 
 to suppose that this doctrine of the Egyptians 
 was confirmed and enforced by their inter- 
 course with a people who in the very name 
 by which they designated the Most High, 
 testified their belief that their ancestors were 
 yet among the living, seeing that He in whom 
 all live, move, and have their being, deigned to 
 be called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and 
 of Jacob'. 
 
 But not to insist upon what is to a great 
 degree conjectural, we may discover more 
 determinately the purposes which the resi- 
 dence in Egypt was intended to serve in 
 reference to the children of Israel. As our 
 Saviour was preserved by his flight into 
 Egypt until the tyranny of Herod was over- 
 past, so did the Lord bring Israel to Goshen 
 to preserve them a posterity in the earth, 
 and to save their lives by a great deliver- 
 ance^ while also time was allowed for the 
 completion of the iniquity of the Amorites\ 
 Meantime, as they multiplied from threescore 
 and ten to six hundred thousand, they were 
 
 • Matt. xxii. 32. ' Gen. xlv. 7- " Gen. xv. lb". 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 39 
 
 subjected to the influence of order and civili- 
 zation, and were familiarized with the idea of 
 a settled government in laws and in religion, 
 while against the gross idolatry and tyranny 
 which was connected with the particular in- 
 stitutions of Egypt, they were guarded partly 
 by their isolation in Goshen, and partly by the 
 cruel operation of the laws upon themselves. 
 
 But although there was much to secure 
 them against the temptations to which they 
 were subjected, and they might have learned 
 the beauty of order, without losing sight of 
 the deformity of error, their subsequent his- 
 tory bears evidence of the impression made 
 by the scenes which they had witnessed, in 
 the infatuated fondness with which their 
 memory clung to the fleshpots, or the sensual 
 pleasures, and to the calves, or the idol-wor- 
 ship of Egypt. 
 
 The ten Plagues were exactly adapted to 
 correct this impression, and to distinguish 
 between error and truth. They were prac- 
 tical proofs of the weakness of the gods in 
 whom Egypt trusted. And as the mythology 
 of Egypt appears to have been grounded 
 upon the deification of the powers of nature, 
 these visitations were " signs" (as they are so 
 often called) not only to the Egyptians but also 
 to the Israelites of the might and supremacy 
 
40 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 of a Being, whom the powers of nature 
 obeyed ; who could at will control the ele-; 
 ments, and reverse their laws ; who sent 
 darkness, and it was dark ; at whose decrees 
 the air thundered and His arrows w^ent 
 abroad ; who made His angels spirits, and 
 His ministers a flaming fire^ 
 
 The last manifestation of the Divine wrath 
 was ushered in by an institution which pointed 
 distinctly to the future Covenant, and to the 
 great Sacrifice by which it was to be confirmed. 
 This was the solemn Feast of the Passover. 
 Israel had long groaned under cruel task- 
 masters, and learned to see in their rule the 
 predominance of the powers of darkness. Nor 
 was this impression lessened by the shameful 
 nature of the visitations with which God had 
 avenged His cause, " the botch of Egypt-," 
 " the diseases of Egypt\" remembered here- 
 after as the instruments of God's anger upon 
 a rebellious people. The passage then from 
 Egypt was regarded as the transition from 
 the bondage of sin : and the renewal of the 
 long disused rites of sacrifice spoke of the 
 removal of contamination which had been 
 sustained from the vicinity of evil. They 
 were entering upon a new Covenant, based 
 
 ' Tsal. civ. 4. ' Dent, xxviii. 27- 
 
 3 Exod. XV. 2(). 
 
11.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 41 
 
 upon the oblation of an atonement to their 
 offended Maker. So in aftertimes the great 
 spiritual awakenings of the people, the public 
 abjuration of past sin, and the renewal of 
 vows of allegiance, were ever solemnized by 
 the Paschal festival. It was the festival of 
 Atonement and Reconciliation, and therefore 
 anticipatory of the great Expiation to be 
 made for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 Moreover the sacramental character of 
 this ordinance — the blood sprinkled upon the 
 doorposts as a sign of deliverance not to be 
 effected without its application — was a pledge 
 of invisible grace, an assurance of some future 
 act of which this was the sign, and to which 
 it owed its efficacy. This sprinkling of blood 
 spoke "of better things than that of Aber,"; 
 *' the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ^," 
 '* the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world^." And although we may not insist 
 too positively upon the fanciful analogies of 
 those who saw the image of the Cross in, 
 the spit on which the lamb was dressed, in 
 the fire by which it was roasted, the ordeal 
 through which He deigned to pass, in the 
 bitter herbs, the bitterness of His sorrows, yet 
 have we the authority of an Evangelist for 
 connecting one of the less prominent par- 
 
 ' Ileb. xii. 24. ' 1 Pet. i. 2. ^ Rev. xiii. 8. 
 
42 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 ticulars of this institution with the person of 
 our blessed Lord, "A bone of Him shall not 
 be broken'," and the application by an Apos- 
 tle of the leaven put away during the Pass- 
 over, to the leaven of sin thereby discarded 
 and destroyed 2. 
 
 While therefore we may reasonably con- 
 clude that in the earlier and better days of 
 the sojourn in Egypt, the Israelites, by their 
 intercourse with this people, received their 
 first lessons in the arts of civilization, and 
 learned to appreciate the advantages of set- 
 tled government, we find that in the days 
 of their oppression they learnt yet more 
 important lessons. They were prepared by 
 the iron rule of cruel taskmasters for that 
 gracious and merciful government, which the 
 Lord their Deliverer should exercise over 
 them. They were taught the necessity of 
 laws to curb the violence and cruelty of man, 
 and so prepared for the reception of wiser 
 and more merciful statutes, than those under 
 which they had groaned. And as affliction 
 must ever incline the sufferer to raise his 
 thoughts from the present hour and the 
 present world, to better times and brighter 
 hopes, these hopes were not left to rest upon 
 
 ' John xix. 36, quoting Exod. xii. 46. 
 ' 1 Cor. V. 7- 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 43 
 
 a mere vague uncertain expectation, but were 
 surely built upon a Sacramental ordinance, 
 speaking of deliverance from evil, atonement 
 for sin, and of reconciliation with God. With 
 these hopes and these promises did the chil- 
 dren of Israel pass through the Red Sea 
 as a Christian passes through the waters of 
 Baptism^ Emancipated by the immediate 
 interposition of God from the slavery and 
 degradation into which they had fallen, they 
 stood upon the shores which separated them 
 from their misery with a new song in their 
 mouths, even a thanksgiving unto their God. 
 Henceforth their road lies through temp- 
 tations and dangers, to the land of Promise. 
 But before they enter upon their pilgrimage, 
 they must stand before the Holy Mount on 
 the plains of Horeb, to receive the Com- 
 mandments, by which they are to be guided 
 in their paths, as proclaimed by the voice 
 of Him who had brought them out of the 
 land of Egypt, out of the house of bond- 
 age. For the soil was to pass through 
 another stage of preparation, that it might 
 be fitted to receive the seed, which should 
 become a mighty tree, in whose branches all 
 the birds of the air might find shelter and 
 habitation. Therefore should Ephraim be 
 1 1 Cor. X. 2. 
 
4i THE SOJOURN IX EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 taught to plow, and Jacob to break up his 
 clods, that they might sow to themselves in 
 righteousness, and reap in mercy, and break 
 up their fallow ground, in time to seek the 
 Lord, until He come to rain righteousness 
 upon them^ 
 
 The immediate purpose of the Mosaic 
 Law was to bind together, as an organized 
 community, a people who had not hitherto 
 been subject to a written code. But their 
 political constitution was based upon those 
 broad foundations of morality, whereon was 
 hereafter to be raised the superstructure of 
 Evangelical Righteousness, and was con- 
 firmed and perpetuated by the institution of a 
 Ritual, which, amid multiplied and peculiar 
 ceremonies, contained provisions for the ex- 
 piation of transgressions, of such a nature as 
 to point to One, in whom alone such expia- 
 tion could be effectual. 
 
 Let us briefly consider how these pur- 
 poses were severally fulfilled by the Moral 
 and the Ceremonial Law. 
 
 Firstly, In estimating the comprehensive- 
 ness of the Moral Law, we must bear in mind 
 a distinction, which has been justly drawn be- 
 tween the precepts spoken by the voice of 
 God himself, and those delivered through the 
 ' IIos. X. ]L 12. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 45 
 
 hands of Moses ^ The former were not only 
 themselves laws, but were the fountains and 
 sources of all the rest. And it was to these 
 that our Saviour referred, when to a question 
 as to the mode of inheriting eternal life, he 
 replied. Keep the Commandments^. The 
 special precepts, which were declared by a 
 Mediator, afford instances of the application 
 of the general principles contained in the 
 Decalogue. 
 
 And not only do the Ten Commandments, 
 when properly understood, comprise the whole 
 cycle of Evangelical duties, but in those pre- 
 cepts that have special reference to the pe- 
 culiar condition of those, to whom they were 
 originally propounded, we recognise no am- 
 biguous traces of that righteousness which was 
 expanded and consummated in the righteous- 
 ness of the Kingdom of Christ. In every one 
 of the particulars in which our Saviour reproves 
 the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 their own laws furnished comments, which 
 might have secured them from the errors into 
 which they fell, and prepared them for the 
 fuller enunciation of the principle of their true 
 interpretation. The injunction, "Thou shalt 
 not hate thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt 
 
 V Philo-Jud. de. Decal. p. 576 C. 
 ' Matt. xix. 17. 
 
46 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 not avenge or bear any grudge against the 
 children of thy people ; but thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyselfV is in strict accordance 
 with the comments of our Lord upon the sixth 
 Commandment, forbidding unkind words no 
 less than violent acts^ And it is remarkable, 
 that in the laws of mercy, is included even a 
 regard for the inferior animals of the creation. 
 The observance of the Sabbath enjoins rest to 
 cattle as well as to man 3; the enactment of 
 the Sabbatical year provides not only "that 
 the poor of thy people may eat," but also that 
 "the beasts of the field may eat*." Nor can 
 we forget the provision for the happiness of 
 His creatures, without whose knowledge not 
 even a sparrow falls to the ground, in the 
 thrice-repeated Law, " Thou shalt not seethe 
 a kid in his mother's milk^;" and in the ten- 
 derness enjoined to a bird upon her nest, 
 "thou shalt not take the dam with the young^" 
 The numerous and special enactments against 
 impurity and uncleanness of all kinds, on 
 which we forbear to dwell, were abundantly 
 sufficient to have enabled the Jewish Doctors 
 to gather better rules, and better principles, 
 
 1 Lev. xix. 17, 18. ' ]\ratt. v. 22. 
 
 " Exod. xxiii. 12. * Exod. xxiii. 11. 
 
 ' Exod. xxiii. 19; xxxiv. 26; Deut. xiv. 21. 
 " Deut. xxii. 6. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 47 
 
 than they taught. The very passages in which 
 they gloried, as giving them liberty of divorce, 
 contained the provision, which our Saviour 
 enforced in opposition to their licentious com- 
 mentaries ^ The habit of rash swearing, ex- 
 hibited both in their glosses and in their 
 practice, was entirely discountenanced by the 
 solemnity with which the name of Jehovah and 
 all His attributes are ever introduced, and by 
 the judicial punishment of the son of Shelo- 
 mith, who "blasphemed the name of the Lord, 
 and cursed 2." The strict law of retaliation, 
 drawn so perversely from the expression of 
 the Law, ** Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth 3," 
 is counterbalanced by the whole spirit of the 
 Law. This is attested more especially by 
 continual enforcement of a class of duties, 
 very imperfectly laid down even in the best 
 codes of mere human origin — the duties of 
 superiors to their inferiors — of masters to their 
 servants — of the rich to the poor — of citizens 
 to aliens. The care for the treatment and re- 
 lease of Hebrew servants'* — the merciful rules 
 for creditors^ — the especial provision for the 
 stranger, the fatherless, and the poor^ afford 
 
 * Deut.xxiv. 1. SeeLightfoot'sTalm. Exerc.onMatt.vi.31. 
 
 * Lev. xxiv. II. 
 
 ^ Exod. xxi. 24; Lev. xxiv. 20; Deut. xix. 21. 
 
 * Exod. xxi. 1—11. « Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. 
 ^ Deut. xxiv. 20. 
 
48 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 instances of this benevolence ; and it is in- 
 teresting to observe tiie laws of compassion, 
 based upon the remembrance of the times of 
 oppression, " Thou shalt not oppress a stran- 
 ger ; for ye know the heart of a stranger, see- 
 ing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt ^" 
 *' Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless 
 child^;" injunctions betokening a higher stand- 
 ard of morality than was to be found among 
 the heathens, though still far short of the ful- 
 ness of the Gospel precepts. The particulars 
 w^hich have been thus adduced represent to us 
 a Law, differing widely from what the glosses 
 and traditions of the elders would have made 
 it, approaching far nearer to the more perfect 
 Law enunciated by our Divine Lawgiver. 
 There was, however, one point in which the 
 old Covenant is expressly distinguished from 
 the New. The former was a Covenant of 
 works, the latter of grace. Repentance was 
 the burden of the Baptist's preaching. Re- 
 pentance, with Remission of sins, the autho- 
 ritative announcement of our Saviour and of 
 his Apostles. But it is remarkable, that al- 
 though the Sinaitic Law contained no cove- 
 nanted provision for the case of the transgres- 
 sors, we have, in the Book of Deuteronomy, a 
 notice of a supplementary Covenant, mIhcIi 
 
 ' Exod. xxiii. 9. ' Exod. xxii. 22. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 49 
 
 seems to have been intended, in some degree, 
 to suj^ply this defect'. " These are the words 
 of the covenant, which the Lord commanded 
 Moses to make with the children of Israel in 
 the land of Moab, beside the covenant which 
 he made with them in Horeb^" The Cove- 
 nant introduced with these words can in no 
 sense be said to be a repetition or renovation 
 of the former Covenant. They are the renewal 
 not of the Laws given from the Mount, but of 
 the Covenant established with the Patriarchs, 
 "as He hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abra- 
 ham, to Isaac, and to Jacobs" And certain 
 clauses of this Covenant are cited by St Paul, 
 as belonging to the righteousness of faith : 
 " For Moses describeth the righteousness 
 which is of the Law, The man that doeth 
 those things shall live by them. But the 
 righteousness which is of faith speak eth on 
 this wise. Say not in thine heart. Who shall 
 ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ 
 down from above :) or. Who shall descend into 
 the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again 
 from the dead). But what saith it? The 
 word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in 
 thy heart : that is, the word of faith, which we 
 
 ' See Bull. Harm. Apost. Pars II. cli. xi. § 3, 
 ^ Dent. xxix. 1. 
 ' Deut. xxix. 13. 
 C. H. L. E 
 
50 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 preach ^" This express application made by 
 an inspired Apostle, strengthened remarkably 
 by the consent of Rabbins, that this part of 
 Scripture pertains to the reign of Christ, au- 
 thorizes us to see herein an enlargement of 
 the spirit of the Law, and therefore anticipa- 
 tions of the Gospel. And we observe that it 
 contains two special promises which are not 
 found in the Sinaitic Law. The promise of 
 remission of the heaviest offences upon a sin- 
 cere repentance, and the promise of the grace 
 of the Holy Spirit to effect the circumcision 
 of the heart. " It shall come to pass, when 
 all these things are come upon thee, the bless- 
 ing and the curse, which I have set before 
 thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among 
 the nations whither the Lord thy God hath 
 driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord 
 thy God, and shalt obey His voice according 
 to all that I command thee this day, thou and 
 thy children, with all thine heart, and with 
 all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God will 
 turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon 
 thee.... And the Lord thy God will circumcise 
 thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love 
 the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
 that thou mayest live^/' 
 
 ' Rom. X. 5—8. ' Deut. xxx. 1—6. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 51 
 
 So that from the very first the Covenant 
 of grace, which was afterward more fully set 
 forth by a series of inspired prophets, was 
 shadowed out even to the Israelites in the 
 Wilderness, that it might accompany and ex- 
 plain the letter of the Law, and prepare the 
 way for the time when He should give them 
 a new Law, and put a new Spirit within them, 
 and take the stony heart out of their flesh, 
 and give them a heart of flesh, that they 
 should walk in His statutes and keep His 
 ordinances, and they be His people and He 
 their God ^ 
 
 Secondly, — Of the Ceremonial Law, the 
 whole force and significance lay in its refer- 
 ence to the great Author of the moral and 
 spiritual regeneration of man. Therein was 
 pointed out His nature, His character, and 
 His oflice, the sufferings He was to undergo, 
 the glory He was to receive, the renovation 
 He was to effect. How far each reference 
 was understood at its first institution, or how 
 far each rite and ceremony had a typical 
 significance, it is not necessary to inquire. 
 The subject has proved a fruitful theme for 
 ingenious conjecture in ages more accustomed 
 than our own to recognize hidden meanings 
 in outward symbols. The two goats (the one 
 
 ' Ezek. xi. 19, 20. 
 
 E2 
 
52 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 for the sin-offering, the other for the scape- 
 goat) have been supposed to intimate the two 
 appearances of the Messiah. In the offering 
 of fine flour by those who were cleansed from 
 leprosy, a reference to the Eucharist has been 
 discovered. Nay, the very bells upon the 
 High Priest's robe have been deemed symbo- 
 lical of the twelve Apostles, dependent upon 
 Christ the High Priest from everlasting, by 
 whose voice the whole earth should be filled 
 with the glory and grace of God, and of His 
 Anointed. And every particular of the Mo- 
 saic institutions has been accounted a figure, 
 sign and annunciation of what was to be done 
 by Christ, of what was to happen to Him, 
 and to those who should believe in His 
 Name'. 
 
 But without descending into details which 
 belong to the region rather of fancy than 
 of argument, we may be contented with the 
 general resemblances indicated by the Word 
 of God. By this Word we are taught that all 
 the Mosaic ordinances carried with them 
 marks of essential imperfection : that the very 
 model of the Tabernacle, and the arrange- 
 ment of its services, were so framed as to 
 
 ' Just. M. Trypho. p. 259— 261. Tertull. adv. Jud. ch. 14. 
 The number of bells on the lii^^h priest's robe is not mentioned 
 in Scripture. Exod. xxviii. 33. 
 
IL] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 53 
 
 express incompleteness. The exclusion of 
 ordinary ministrants from the Most Holy 
 Place, the multiplication and repetition of the 
 sacrifices indicated their inadequacy to atone 
 for the sins for which they were offered : an 
 inadequacy marked expressly on the day of 
 Expiation, when the High Priest alone entered 
 into the Most Holy Place not without blood to 
 atone for sins, for which the daily ministra- 
 tions were ineffectual. Indeed, in the Epistle 
 devoted especially to the subject of the signi- 
 ficance of the Ceremonial Law, the Apostle 
 insists especially upon the intrinsic imperfec- 
 tion of the ministrations of the Law, as the 
 groundwork of the expectation of some fur- 
 ther and more perfect Revelation. 
 
 Therefore is it that the type of the Eternal 
 Priesthood of Christ is found, not in the 
 priesthood of the law, but in that of Melchi- 
 zedek, king of Salem, to whom Abraham gave 
 reverence. By the ordinances of divine ser- 
 vice, the worldly sanctuary, the tabernacle 
 made with hands, the cherubims and the 
 mercy-seat, the Holy Ghost signified that the 
 way into the holiest of all was not yet made, 
 manifest, but that a new and living way 
 should be consecrated to us through the veil, 
 that is to say, His flesh, and that having 
 an High Priest over the house of God, we 
 
54 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 should draw near with the full assurance of 
 faiths 
 
 The account of the Ceremonial Law would 
 be incomplete without special reference to the 
 two rites, which were replaced by the Sacra- 
 ments of the Christian Church. The insti- 
 tution of each preceded the delivery of the 
 Law ; and so their hopes and graces were 
 neither dependent upon, nor annulled by, any 
 subsequent enactment. The Law, which came 
 after, could not make them of none effect". 
 Circumcision was the seal of the Covenant 
 with Abraham, the Covenant, not of works, 
 but of faith — it was the rite of admission to 
 membership of that chosen community, to 
 whom the promises of God appertained. The 
 free and large promises of adoption and inhe- 
 ritance Avhich accrue to a Christian on his 
 baptism, are but the mature development of 
 the germ which Avas contained in the Jewish 
 rite of initiation. For "ye are complete in 
 Him, which is the Head of all principality and 
 power: in Mdiom ye are circumcised with the 
 circumcision made without hands, in putting 
 off the body of the sins of the flesh by the 
 
 > Heb. X. 20—22. 
 
 ^ The argument of S. Paul, Gal. iii. 17, as to the Covenant 
 established with Abraham, may be applied to the institution 
 both of Circumcision and of the Passover. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 55 
 
 circumcision of Christ : buried with Him in 
 baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him 
 through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 raised Him from the dead^" 
 
 The Passover was, as we have before re- 
 marked, the type of the atoning Sacrifice of 
 our Lord, who himself connected it with the 
 Sacrament of His body and blood, adopting 
 from a Jewish custom of the distribution of 
 bread, and of the use of the cup of blessing, 
 the outward sign of this Sacramento So that 
 the re-enactment of the two great federal rites, 
 the one the sign of the Covenant with Abra- 
 ham, the other of the deliverance from Egypt, 
 contributed to stamp upon the Law its highest 
 and most honourable character; that of a 
 schoolmaster leading men to Christ, possess- 
 ing the shadow of heavenly things, which 
 were all summed up in the New Testament of 
 the blood of Jesus, in whom the Ceremonial 
 Law was abolished, not by its destruction, but 
 by its fulfilment ; the Moral not abrogated or 
 annulled, but perfected and spiritualized. 
 " For Christ is the end of the Law for righte- 
 ousness to every one that believeth^." 
 
 A few practical conclusions may naturally 
 
 ' Col. ii. 10—12. 
 
 ^ See Lightfoot, Talmud. Exerc. on Matt. xxvi. 26. 
 
 ^ Rom. X. 4. 
 
56 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect/- 
 
 be derived from these considerations. We 
 have seen that the precepts of tlie Law were 
 precepts of purity and holiness, but they were 
 enforced mainly ii^Don the sanctions of tempo- 
 ral reward, and upon the principles of literal 
 obedience. We have entered upon the new 
 Covenant based upon tlie promise, " I will 
 put my laws into their hearts, and in their 
 minds I will write them^" To imagine then 
 that the Evangelical Covenant exempts us 
 from the performance of any moral duty, is a 
 delusion most dangerous and untenable. As 
 well might we suppose that it is immaterial 
 whether the waters be bitter, because it is 
 imperative that the source be pure, that the 
 character of the graft is of little moment, 
 because the selection of the stock is to be care- 
 fully and judiciously made. Our law is not 
 of the letter, but of the spirit. Its sanctions 
 are eternal, not temporal. We have new helps 
 towards obedience, new incitements to love. 
 " Christ," to use the eloquent words of Bishop 
 Taylor^, "hath taught us more, and given us 
 more, and promised to us more, than was 
 in the world known or believed before Him, 
 and by the strength and coniidence of these 
 thrusts us forward in a holy and wise eco- 
 
 ' Heb. X. IG. 
 
 - Sermon on " lliglitcousncss Evangelical." 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 57 
 
 nomy, and plainly declares that we must 
 serve Him by the measure of a new love ; do 
 Him honour by wise and material glorifica- 
 tion ; be united to God by a new nature, and 
 made alive by a new birth, and fulfil all 
 righteousness ; to be humble and meek as 
 Christ ; to be merciful as our heavenly Father 
 is merciful ; to be pure as God is pure ; to be 
 partaker of the Divine nature ; to be wholly 
 renewed in the frame and temper of our mind; 
 to become people of a new heart, a direct 
 new creation, new principles, and a new 
 being ; to do better than all the world before 
 us ever did ; to love God more perfectly ; to 
 despise the world more generously ; to con- 
 tend for the Faith more earnestly; — for all 
 this is but a proper and just consequent of 
 the great promises which our blessed Saviour 
 came to publish and effect for all the world of 
 believers and disciples." 
 
 Nor may we infer from the abrogation of 
 the Ceremonial Law that all formal rites are 
 needless or vain. The two Sacraments insti- 
 tuted by our Lord Himself afford instances 
 of spiritual blessings bound up with outward 
 ordinances. But let us not presume to attach 
 a sacramental virtue to rites and services of 
 mere human institution, even although we 
 may be able to trace back their origin to 
 
58 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT, [Lect. 
 
 remote antiquity. The fair comeliness which 
 is conducive to the beauty of holiness must 
 never be absent from our Christian services, 
 and we may w ith propriety make use of those 
 appliances which by warming the feelings 
 may touch the heart of the worshipper. But 
 there is ever a tendency in men to rest upon 
 the formal and literal, rather than upon the 
 substantial and spiritual. This arises from 
 the carnality of our depraved nature, and is 
 seen in every system of religious worship. 
 But this tendency may justify a watchful, if 
 not a jealous, care against undue regard to 
 external ceremony, lest we build again the 
 things which have been destroyed, and hav- 
 ing begun in the spirit, think to be made 
 perfect by the flesh K 
 
 To frame the services of the Christian 
 Sanctuary upon the model of the Jewish Tem- 
 ple, or to imagine that because for a special 
 purpose God was pleased to appoint the gor- 
 geous ceremonies of the old Law, such rites 
 are essentially well-pleasing to the Ahnighty, 
 seems to indicate a forgetfulness that the real 
 glory of the Temple consisted not in the perish- 
 able shrine, but in the Divinity which dwelt 
 within it — that the second Temple, inferior as 
 it was in earthly grandeur, was yet more glo- 
 
 ' Gal. ii. 18, and iii. 3. 
 
II.] AND THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW. 59 
 
 rious than the first, because it was frequented 
 by the Son of God, clad in the form of a serv- 
 ant, meek and lowly in His majesty. 
 
 The pious care which delights to adorn, 
 because it loves the House of God, differs 
 materially from a disposition to insist upon as 
 essential that which is in truth accidental, 
 and by giving undue predominance to the 
 former, is in danger of impairing the spirit of 
 our religious service. 
 
 Nor let us imagine that the unity for which 
 our Lord prayed, that they who should believe 
 in His name might be one, even as He and 
 the Father are one^ is to be secured by unity 
 of ritual. That was the bond of union when 
 the Tabernacle or Temple was made the cen- 
 tre of worship, for the purpose of keeping 
 one people separate and distinct from all other 
 nations. The true universality of the Chris- 
 tian Church consists in its embracing in one 
 all national churches, each preserving invio- 
 late its liberty and spiritual independence ; 
 but all depending alike upon the one Head, 
 which controls and governs the whole body 
 of which they severally are the members. 
 
 As obedient sons of our own Church we 
 are bound to observe the laws which she 
 imposes, and to strengthen our ties of union 
 
 ' John xvii. 21. 
 
60 THE SOJOURN IX EGYPT, &c. [Lect. II. 
 
 one with another, by uniformity of practice as 
 well as of doctrine. But if we would extend 
 our views of Christian brotherhood beyond 
 the limits of our own Church, and are unwil- 
 ling to lose sight of our connexion with other 
 branches incorporated in the true Vine, let us 
 remember that true catholicity consists not in 
 uniformity of ceremonial, but in unity of be- 
 lief, and is defined by the inspired Apostle 
 when he beseeches the Ephesians to walk 
 worthy of the vocation in which they were 
 called, wath all lowliness and meekness, 
 with long-suffering, forbearing one another in 
 love ; endeavouring to keep the unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one 
 body, and one Spirit, even as we are called 
 in one hope of our calling; one Lord, one 
 Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of 
 all, who is above all, and through all, and in 
 alU. 
 
 ' Ephes. iv. 1 — 6. 
 
LECTURE III, 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 
 
 EXODUS XXXIV. 6, 7. 
 
 And the Lord passed hy before Mm, and proclaimed, 
 The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
 longsuffering^ and abundant in goodness and truth, 
 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity 
 and transgression and sin, and that ivill by no 
 means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children, and upon the chil- 
 dren's children, unto the third and to the fourth 
 generation. 
 
 rr^HIS solemn proclamation of the attributes 
 -^ of the Divme Majesty was made under 
 circumstances which deserve our especial at- 
 tention. The absence of Moses in the Mount 
 had given occasion to the people of Israel to 
 evince the instability of their faith and the 
 inconstancy of their obedience. At their in- 
 stigation Aaron had made a golden calf, before 
 which they had worshipped and offered sacri- 
 fice. This flagrant act of defection from their 
 true Master had been visited by condign 
 punishment. But the Lord was not yet ap- 
 peased. He threatened to remove His Pre- 
 sence from the midst of them, and it was not 
 without earnest and repeated supplication 
 that the forfeited privilege was won back, and 
 
62 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 Moses obtained for them a renewal of the 
 promise : " My presence shall go with thee, 
 and I will give thee rest^" The reconcilia- 
 tion of God with His people was ratified by 
 a fresh revelation of His attributes. To Moses, 
 who was alone able to bear it, was vouchsafed 
 the miraculous exhibition of the goodness 
 and glory of God recorded in my text. To 
 the people the same truths were communi- 
 cated through Moses, who "gave them in 
 commandment all that the Lord had spoken 
 with him in mount Sinai^" 
 
 Nearly the same words, descriptive of the 
 Almighty, had been pronounced at the first 
 delivery of the Law^; and on more than one 
 critical occasion a reference is dis.tinctly made 
 to this proclamation as containing the sanc- 
 tion of the hopes and fears of Israel in the 
 Divine character thus authoritatively reveal- 
 ed. When the sins of the people called forth 
 the anger of the Lord at Kadesh-Barnea, and 
 he threatened once more to smite and disin- 
 herit them, Moses in his pleadings with the 
 Almighty intreated for the pardon of their 
 iniquity on the ground of this very declara- 
 tion : " Let the power of my Lord be great, 
 according as thou hast spoken, saying, The 
 
 * ExoJ. xxxlii. 14. ^ Exocl. xxxiv. 32. 
 
 ^ Exod. XX. 5, 6. 
 
111.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 63 
 
 Lord is longsiiffering, and of great mercy, for- 
 giving iniquity and transgression, and by no 
 means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity 
 of the fathers upon the children unto the 
 third and fourth generation^" In the remark- 
 able colloquy between Joshua and the people, 
 wherein he sets before them the nature of 
 the Covenant into which they are desirous to 
 enter, he recurs to another part of the same 
 proclamation : *' Thou shalt worship no other 
 God : for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is 
 ajealous God^." "Joshua said unto the people, 
 Ye cannot serve the Lord : for he is a holy 
 God, he is a jealous God ; he will not forgive 
 your transgressions nor your sins\" When 
 Hezekiah attempted again to gather the 
 severed tribes of Israel to the house of God 
 at Jerusalem, his persuasions were enforced 
 by a repetition of the terms in which the 
 Lord had declared to Moses and to the people 
 His graciousness and mercy ^ In the solemn 
 act of humiliation and repentance in the time 
 of Nehemiah, when the people sought the 
 renewal of the favour of God, the Levites in 
 the name of the whole congregation recounted 
 the marvellous acts of the lovingkindness of 
 the Lord, and reverted to the language of my 
 
 ' Numl). xiv. 17, 18. * Exod. xxxiv. 14. 
 
 ^ Josh. xxiv. 19. " 2 Chron. xxx. 9. 
 
64 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 text as the groundwork of their confidence : 
 " For thou art a God gracious and merciful, 
 slow to anger, and of great kindness, and for- 
 sookest them not'." We need not refer to the 
 frequent repetition of these phrases in the 
 Psalms and the Prophets, further than to 
 remark that the method in which they are 
 introduced seems to have been adopted with 
 the purpose of carrying the mind back to the 
 original declaration of the Divine character 
 made to those who w^ere henceforth to be 
 placed under the immediate government of 
 God2. 
 
 It is to be observed that this Revelation 
 is expressly connected with the decree for 
 the dispossession of the idolatrous nations of 
 Canaan: "Behold, I make a covenant: before 
 all thy people I will do marvels, such as have 
 not been done in all the earth, nor in any 
 nation : and all the people among which thou 
 art shall see the w^ork of the Lord : for it is a 
 terrible thing that I will do with thee ^" And 
 in more than one of the passages where these 
 expressions are quoted, reference is at the 
 same time made to the history of the con- 
 quest of Canaan. So that we are led by the 
 
 • Nch. ix. 17- 
 
 " Comp. Psal. Ixxxvi. 15; Joel ii. 13 ; Naluim i. 3. 
 ' Exod. xxxiv. 10. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 65 
 
 consideration of these parts of Holy Writ to 
 the reflection, that the occupation of the Pro- 
 mised Land was iUustrative of the truths 
 declared in my text. 
 
 The people were now to be made practi- 
 cally acquainted with the character of Him 
 whom they acknowledged as their Lord. 
 And this knowledge of the true God was 
 hereafter to be employed to awaken the na- 
 tions of the earth to a truer sense of their 
 relations to the Governor of the Universe. 
 
 Marvellously slow, even from the first, 
 had the Israelites been to believe that which 
 was spoken to them. The remembrance of 
 words seemed to fade away almost the mo- 
 ment after their utterance. They were not 
 induced to desist from gathering manna on 
 the seventh day, until they had gone to 
 gather and found none'. They could not be 
 convinced of the authority of Aaron's priest- 
 hood, until Korah and his company went 
 down alive into the pit, and a fire from the 
 Lord consumed them that offered incense 2. 
 And God was pleased to condescend to this 
 their weakness by affording sensible proofs 
 of the principles which He inculcated by His 
 Word. The rod of Aaron which budded was 
 kept for a token against the rebels^ ; the pot 
 
 ' Exod. xvi. 27. ' Numb. xvi. 33, 35. ''' Numb. xvii. 10. 
 c. H. L. F 
 
66 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 of manna was preserved before the testi- 
 mony ^ ; the broad plates were made from the 
 censers of sinners, to be a memorial, " that 
 no stranger that is not of the seed of Aaron 
 come near to offer incense before the Lord ^" 
 It is agreeable to this method of administra- 
 tion that the revelation of the Divine charac- 
 ter should be made not merely by the verbal 
 enunciation of His attributes, but also by 
 those practical proofs which are felt and ap- 
 preciated by all. They saw the glory of the 
 Lord in the miracles which he performed in 
 their behalf By signs and by wonders, by 
 temptations and by war, by a mighty hand 
 and by a stretched-out arm, they were taken 
 to be a nation, that they might know that the 
 Lord He is God, there is none beside Him. 
 Out of heaven He made them hear His 
 voice, that He might instruct them, upon 
 earth He shewed forth his might to give them 
 knowledge ^. 
 
 The superiority of the God of Abraham, 
 of Isaac, and of Jacob, over the gods of Egypt, 
 had been shewn by the wondrous things done 
 in the field of Zoan" — as Jethro, in his re- 
 joicing for the delivery out of the hand of 
 the Egyptians expressed his conviction of the 
 
 ' Exod. xvi. 34. 2 Numb. xvi. 40. 
 
 ' Dcut. iv. 34—36. * Psal. Ixxviii. 12. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 67 
 
 greatness of the God whom Israel served: 
 " Now I know that the Lord is greater than 
 all gods : for in the thing wherein they dealt 
 proudly He was above them^" But the 
 Lord of Hosts asserted far more than that 
 superiority, which many heathens were ac- 
 customed to claim for their own chief god. 
 It was not a mere conquest over beings, strong 
 it might be, but weaker than Himself, that 
 Jehovah was to effect by the armies of the 
 Israelites. The gods of the heathen were not 
 to be treated as the vanquished or the less 
 strong. They were shewn to be vanity, lies, 
 and abominations. Their names were not to 
 be mentioned. Their altars were to be over- 
 thrown, their pillars broken, their images 
 hewn down, their groves burnt with fire. 
 They were " the lame and the blind," hateful 
 in the eyes of God's servants 2. No compro- 
 mise was to be thought of. They were to be 
 vilely cast away. " Ye shall utterly destroy 
 all the places where the nations which ye 
 shall possess served their gods, upon the high 
 mountains, and upon the hills, and imder 
 every green tree^" How striking a contrast 
 
 ^ Exod. xviii. 11. 
 
 ^ See 2 Sam. v. 8. Luther interprets "the lame and the 
 blind" to denote th^ idols of the Jebusites. 
 ^ Deut. xii. 2. 
 
 F2 
 
68 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 to those scenes of idolatry, where every local- 
 ity had its image, every portion of the smiling 
 land was tenanted by its special guardian, 
 was the spectacle of the great host of the 
 Israelites under the guidance of One of whom 
 Heaven was the throne and earth the foot- 
 stool — who indicated by a visible token the 
 direction of their course — before whom the 
 heavens dropped and the earth was moved, — 
 who arose and His enemies were scattered, 
 and they that hated Him fled before Him' — a 
 God whose one and undivided Being was to 
 be expressed by a method of worship directly 
 opposed to the practices of the heathens. 
 They had their gods in every city and every 
 field. He was to be honoured with the most 
 solemn service only in the place which He 
 should appoint. They crowded round their 
 idols to eye, to touch, to salute them. A veil 
 shrouded from the vulgar gaze the very place 
 of His peculiar Presence. All images, all 
 sensible representations of such a God, were 
 repugnant to every particular of this economy. 
 And though too soon the unspiritual dulness, 
 or the corruption of their hearts, led them to 
 forsake the Lord for Baalim and Ashtaroth, 
 
 ' Psal. Ixviil. 1 . This Psalm seems to have been composed 
 by David to be sung at the removal of the ark. Comp. Numb. 
 X. 35. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 69 
 
 the gods of the nations among whom they 
 dwelt S though by a sad anticipation of the 
 idolatry of after days, a corrupt priest invent- 
 ed a spurious imitation of the service of the 
 Temple, and set up in Dan an image before 
 which to bow^, yet for three hundred years did 
 the Tabernacle in Shiloh, as afterwards the 
 Temple at Jerusalem, stand an abiding monu- 
 ment of the Unity and Presence of God. 
 
 And we may observe, that this people was 
 brought to the conception of one God, not by 
 any philosophic abstraction or scientific specu- 
 lation. He was recognized by them not so much 
 as the Governor of the world, as the Governor 
 of its inhabitants. Man was the subject of His 
 rule — the beasts of the field, the fowls of the 
 air, the fishes of the sea, were put under man's 
 dominion^. But the soil which he occupied 
 he held as a tenant, not as a lord. The grant 
 was originally from Jehovah, and was revo- 
 cable at His pleasure. The nations were His 
 subjects, though they disclaimed His yoke. 
 The grant of the land of Canaan was to Abra- 
 ham and his seed, but not until the Lord 
 should say. Go up, and possess the land. 
 Nay, even after this permission had been 
 given, for the unfaithfulness of those who 
 
 ' Judg. ii. 13. - Judg. xviii. 30. 
 
 ' Psal. viii. ()— 8. 
 
70 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 were to take possession it was recalled. And 
 when, with perverseness which equalled their 
 former want of faith, they made the now for- 
 bidden attempt, their repulse shewed them 
 how vain was the notion of taking that which 
 the Lord had not given ^ When the new 
 generation of warriors was at last enjoined to 
 possess the land from which their fathers had 
 been debarred, a Divine decree determined 
 the countries which they were to occupy. As 
 they passed through the coasts of the chil- 
 dren of Edom, though the Edomites should 
 be afraid of them, they were to take good 
 heed that they meddle not with them, for God 
 had not given them of their land, no, not so 
 much as a foot-breadth. He had given Mount 
 Seir to Esau for a possession 2. The Moabites 
 were not to be distressed, the children of 
 Ammon were to be unmolested ; for God had 
 given Ar to Moab, and the land of Ammon to 
 the children of Lot^ But of Heshbon of the 
 Amorites the Lord said, " Behold, I have 
 begun to give Sihon and his land before thee : 
 begin to possess that thou mayest inherit his 
 land*." The disposal by lot of the lands yet 
 unconquered, before the Tabernacle at Shiloh^ 
 
 ^ Numb. xiv. 44, 45. ^ Deut. ii. 4, 5. 
 
 ^ Deut. ii. 9, 19. " Deut. ii. 31. 
 
 ' Josh, xviii. 1. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 71 
 
 was a solemn and authoritative assertion of 
 the same principle which the plagues should 
 have impressed upon Pharaoh ^ and which 
 had been enunciated by Moses from Mount 
 JVebo, " Behold, the heaven and the heaven 
 of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth 
 also with all that therein is^." The progress 
 of their conquests — their checks no less than 
 their successes — were calculated to enforce 
 this lesson. The walls of Jericho prostrate, 
 when the priests blew the trumpets, might 
 well call forth the shout, The Lord hath 
 given us the city^ and bring to remembrance 
 the words of the Law : " If ye go to war in 
 your land against the enemy that oppresseth 
 you, then ye shall blow an alarm with your 
 trumpets, and ye shall be remembered before 
 the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved 
 from your enemies*." The discomfiture before 
 Ai, when the Lord for a time withdrew His 
 presence, and " the hearts of the people melted, 
 and became as water^" is very difierent from 
 the confidence which they had lately felt when 
 the Lord was with them, and they said to 
 Joshua, " Truly the Lord hath delivered into 
 our hands all the land ; for even all the in- 
 habitants of the country do faint because of 
 
 ' Exod. ix. 29. ' Deut. x. 14. ^ Josh. vi. 16. 
 
 * Numb. X. 9. ^ Josh. vii. 5. 
 
72 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 us'." And so all the victories of Joshua are 
 prefaced by the issue of the Lord's decree : 
 "Fear not, neither be dismayed...! have given 
 into thine hand the king, and his people, and 
 his city, and his land*." So uniformly did 
 every event shape itself to confirm the vision 
 which had appeared to Joshua by Jericho, 
 when the captain of the Lord's host stood 
 over against him with his sword drawn in his 
 hand^ representing Him of whom Joshua was 
 the type, who not only went before the people 
 of Israel to give them possession of the soil of 
 Canaan, but has gone before to secure an en- 
 trance into the heavenly Canaan, the land of 
 promise and of rest, that remaineth unto the 
 people of God". 
 
 But if the Lord was thus manifested as 
 one God, Governor among the nations, the 
 general principles upon which His govern- 
 ment was conducted were no less evidently 
 defined. " He is the Rock, his work is per- 
 fect : for all his ways are judgment : a God of 
 truth and without iniquity, just and right is 
 He^" 
 
 The warfare of Canaan was essentially a 
 warfare against idolatry : "Ye have seen their 
 
 ' Josh. ii. 24. 
 
 - See Josh. vi. 2 ; viii. 1 ; x. 8, 30, 32 ; xl. fi. 
 
 ' Josh. V. 13. * Ilcb. iv. 9. ' Deut. xxxii. 4. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 73 
 
 abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, 
 silver and gold, which were among them'." 
 And besides, the idolatry of the Canaanites 
 was connected, as it ever is, with moral im- 
 purity, never perhaps exhibited in a more 
 odious form. The sins of Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah had of old drawn forth fire from heaven 
 upon some of these tribes. They that re- 
 mained had become scarcely less licentious. 
 The laws against incest of the most detestable 
 kinds are followed by the awful record : *' All 
 these abominations have the men of this land 
 done, which were before you, and the land is 
 defiled^:" "they committed all these things, 
 therefore I abhorred them^." And in after 
 days, the extreme wickedness of one unto 
 whom there was none like, to sell himself to 
 work wickedness, cannot be represented in 
 stronger colors than by the description: "And 
 he did very abominably in following idols, 
 according to all things as did the Amorites, 
 whom the Lord cast out before the children of 
 Israel^." And much of this impurity was con- 
 nected with, and formed part of, the service of 
 their gods. The worship of Chemosh the god 
 of lust, and of Moloch the god of cruelty, 
 though these were gods of the Moabites and 
 
 ' Deut. xxix. 17- ^ Lev. xviii. 27- 
 
 " Lev. XX. 2.3. " 1 Kings xxi. 26, 
 
74 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 Ammonites, and not strictly speaking of the 
 Canaanites, may be taken as a representation 
 of the nature of their idol worship : the more 
 certainly when we remember the description, 
 by Ezekiel, of the worship of the impure 
 Tammuz, the god of the Sidonians^ and the 
 declaration of Moses, that " Every abomina- 
 tion to the Lord, which he hateth, have they 
 done unto their gods ; for even their sons and 
 their daughters have they burnt with fire unto 
 their gods^." The severe decrees pronounced 
 upon the inhabitants of Canaan, the injunctions 
 to destroy, to root up, and to cast them out, are 
 never unaccompanied by a declaration of the 
 impieties which made them liable to so severe 
 a penalty. It was no wanton cruelty and un- 
 just aggression that was enjoined to the armies 
 of Israel. They were the soldiers of the Lord 
 of Hosts, and their deeds were acts of venge- 
 ance upon His enemies. The decree was of 
 the Lord, and they were but the executioners 
 of His wilP. And if their task was likely to 
 awaken in them zeal and indignation, the 
 zeal was for the cause of God, the indignation 
 for the presumption of the ungodly. It was a 
 
 ' Ezck. viii, 14. - Dcut. xii. 31. 
 
 ^ " It is a merciful and thankworthy severity to rid the 
 world of the ringleaders of wickedness." — Hall's Contempla- 
 tions on Elijah with the Baalites. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 75 
 
 zeal which, if rightly directed, could scarcely 
 fail to impress them with reverent and holy 
 awe, such as when Phinehas struck the blow 
 by which the plague was stayed^; and when 
 the Levites, by express command, drew their 
 swords on the Lord's side, every man against 
 his neighbour, and every man against his 
 brother, and every man against his compa- 
 nion 2. How needful was such a manifestation 
 of God's hatred to sin, is seen in numerous 
 passages of the history of the Israelites. They 
 took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the 
 star of their god Remphan, figures which 
 they made to worship them^ They provoked 
 him to anger in the grove, on the mountain, 
 and beneath the green tree ; and proved that, 
 when they spared their foes, it was not 
 from feelings of pity or humanity, but be- 
 cause they lusted after the impurities which 
 they witnessed in the land. The lesson which 
 they found most difficult to learn was incul- 
 cated both by the sufferings which they in- 
 flicted, and by [those which they endured ; 
 that merciful, gracious, and long-suffering, 
 though the Lord be, He " will by no means 
 clear the guilty." 
 
 It is not to be forgotten that although in 
 
 [ Numb. XXV. 7. ^ Exod. xxxii. 27- 
 
 3 Acts vii. 43. 
 
76 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 my text justice and mercy are attributed to 
 God in their universal application, particular 
 reference is made to the case of national 
 visitations. And so is revealed to us a law of 
 the Divine administration, which was more 
 especially exemplified in the fortunes of Israel, 
 and in the destruction of the Canaanites, but 
 holds good in the case of every nation in every 
 age of the world : — that while as individuals 
 we are responsible only for our own conduct, 
 and the fathers are not to be put to death 
 for the children, neither the children to be 
 put to death for the parents, but every one 
 to be put to death for his own sin^ the 
 natural consequences of obedience and of dis- 
 obedience extend beyond the times when it 
 is displayed. The undutiful behaviour of 
 Ham had brought a curse upon his son, and 
 his son's posterity, "Cursed be Canaan; a 
 servant of servants shall he be unto his bre- 
 thren-." Yet had his descendants become 
 mighty and prosperous. Forgetful of the 
 curse which hung over them, they had multi- 
 plied offences, and each generation had added 
 its own contribution to the load of guilt which 
 was to weigh them down. Their iniquity 
 was at last full — and the bolt of vengeance 
 descended. Perhaps in the case of each par- 
 
 ' Dent. xxlv. 10. ' Gen. ix. 25. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 77 
 
 ticular nation the decree was not absolute, 
 but might, as in the case of Nineveh, have 
 been averted by national humiliation and 
 national amendment, according to the limita- 
 tion expressed by the mouth of Jeremiah: 
 "At what instant I shall speak concerning 
 a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck 
 up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that 
 nation against whom I have pronounced turn 
 from their evil, I will repent of the evil that 
 I thought to do unto them^" Perhaps the 
 evil might have been delayed, as when Ahab 
 humbled himself, the Lord declared he would 
 not bring the foretold ruin in his days, but 
 in his son's days". Certainly any apparent 
 inequality which may result from such admi- 
 nistration will be removed by the final adjust- 
 ment of all things, when every individual 
 shall be equitably dealt with. But if the 
 fortunes of nations are in any way under 
 the guidance of a God of Holiness, it seems 
 as agreeable to reason as it is accordant with 
 the whole tenor of Scripture, that their admi- 
 nistration should be conducted upon the prin- 
 ciple, that sin bears in all cases its bitter 
 fruit, and that a people suffer not only for 
 the madness of living rulers, but for offences 
 of past generations. They have left behind 
 
 ' Jer. xviii. 7; 8. M King3 xxi. 29. 
 
78 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 them the seeds of corruption, \yhich, nur- 
 tured m a congenial soil, and fostered in an 
 atmosphere like that in which they sprung, 
 will thrive, blossom, and bear fruit — a har- 
 vest of tribulation and of woe. 
 
 The idea of God as an avenger and 
 punisher of sin seems in general to have 
 been little familiar to the heathens, and the 
 prominence given to this part of the Divine 
 character in the religion of the Jews gave 
 rise to a remark, that there was a people 
 among whom mercy (xpwroT^^) formed no 
 part of the idea of God^ 
 
 There was indeed no people among whom 
 God's abhorrence of sin was so distinctly set 
 forth, and this was an attribute which it was 
 most necessary should be made known — an 
 attribute declared, as we have seen, in the 
 earliest times, and especially illustrated by 
 the history of the conquest of Canaan. 
 
 But so far is it from being true that mercy 
 formed no part of the Divine character, as 
 revealed to this nation, that all which is mys- 
 terious in the dispensations of judgment, is 
 lightened and explained by the exhibition 
 of the dispensation of love. The same system 
 under which a sinner may entail a curse 
 
 ^ Plutarch, cle Stoic. Repugn, c. 38, quoted by Neander, 
 Ch. Hist. Introd. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 79 
 
 upon his posterity, carries forward the bless- 
 ings of a progenitor to ages yet unborn. If 
 God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon 
 the children, and the children's children, unto 
 the third and fourth generation, he also keeps 
 mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
 transgression. The faith of an ancestor was 
 remembered among his posterity. The pro- 
 mises made to the fathers were an inheritance 
 to their children after them. Thus did the 
 descendants of Abraham become the special 
 objects of God's providential care. '* He 
 found him in a desert land, and in the waste 
 howling wilderness; He led him about, He 
 instructed him, He kept him as the apple 
 of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
 fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad 
 her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her 
 wings : so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange God with liimK" 
 
 The miracles which accompanied them in 
 their wanderings, the manna constant in its 
 supply, and in its seventh day's interruption, 
 the springing wells in the dry wilderness, 
 the garments waxing not old upon them, nor 
 the shoes waxing old upon their feet, were 
 standing and extraordinary proofs that the 
 Lord was their God : and that He was a God 
 
 ' Deut. xxxii. 10—12. 
 
80 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 of love. But not less convincing to reflecting 
 minds was the support conveyed to them 
 by more ordinary channels. The manna in- 
 deed ceased, and they drank of the rivers 
 of the earth, but by whose aid went they 
 on in an unbroken series of conquests and 
 possessions, though mighty nations rose up 
 against them, and kings took counsel to de- 
 stroy them ? — a series of conquests unbroken 
 save by their own sin, whose very inter- 
 ruption confirmed the truth which success 
 had declared. " The portion of Jacob is not 
 like them: for he is the former of all things; 
 and Israel is the rod of his inheritance : The 
 Lord of Hosts is his name^" 
 
 Such was the mode in which the attributes 
 of the Almighty were set forth in the con- 
 quest of Canaan. But the full development 
 of the unity, the power, the justice, the mercy 
 and the love of God, was reserved for that 
 more perfect Dispensation to which the for- 
 mer was but the preparation. He was then 
 clearly displayed to be one God, when He 
 was acknowledged not merely as the God of 
 the Jews, and of those who should be incor- 
 porated into or attached to the Jewish nation, 
 but as the God after whom all nations had in 
 their blindness felt, though He was not far 
 
 ' Jer. X. 16. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 81 
 
 from every one of them' — the God in whom 
 all lived, moved, and had their being; the 
 Father of Spirits, to be adored not in Jerusa- 
 lem, or on Mount Gerizim, but in every place 
 where should be offered the pure incense of 
 prayer from those who worshipped Him in 
 spirit and in truths He was then acknow- 
 ledged as in very truth the Governor of the 
 world, when He proved His power, not merely 
 by setting up and plucking down, but by 
 gathering all the kingdoms of the earth under 
 the rule of One, to whose hands He had deli- 
 vered all principalities, and put all things 
 under his feet^ ; when the place of the tent of 
 his people had been enlarged, the curtains 
 of their habitations stretched out, the cords 
 lengthened, and the stakes strengthened; when 
 they had broken forth on the right hand and 
 on the left, and the seed of Abraham had in- 
 herited the Gentiles, and made the desolate 
 cities to be inhabited by the servants of God*. 
 And further, the idea of a Special Provi- 
 dence is developed, not abolished, by the sub- 
 stitution of the Christian for the Jewish Eco- 
 nomy. It has not now, as then, its marked 
 exercise in a single nation. But as it is clear 
 that of old the providential care extended to 
 
 ' Acts xvii. 27. 
 
 '- Mai. i. 11. 
 
 ' Ephes. i. 21. 
 
 * Isai. liv. 2, 3. 
 
 C. H. L. 
 
 G 
 
82 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 all, SO now the fortunes of every nation upon 
 earth are subject to His control. National 
 sin is now, as in times past, followed by na- 
 tional punishment ; national deliverance, and 
 national blessings are now, as they were of 
 old, the immediate gift of God. It may be 
 difficult, in the complication of interests con- 
 cerned, to discover the hand of Providence 
 working out for each nation His laws of jus- 
 tice and of mercy. So is it hard to discover why 
 the Gibeonites should have been spared, the 
 Canaanites destroyed, the Moabites respited, 
 and the Amalekites overthrown. But God 
 has not ceased to be the righteous and moral 
 Governor of nations, or to carry out for all 
 His wise and just decrees. 
 
 But herein lies a wide distinction between 
 Christianity and Judaism. The prominent 
 object in the times before Christ was the fa- 
 voured people of God ; but they were so be- 
 cause in Israel was then the Church of God. 
 Now that this Church has been extended be- 
 yond the limits of nationality to embrace 
 every people upon the earth ; now that its do- 
 minion is spiritual, not temporal, the Special 
 Providence of God is to be seen chiefly in 
 the extension of this Church, and the diffusion 
 by its means of the blessings of righteousness 
 and truth. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 83 
 
 And as each Jew felt that he had as it 
 were a claim upon God's mercy because he 
 was of the seed of Abraham, so must our 
 hopes of the watchful care of God, ordering 
 all things for our good, and pouring upon us 
 the treasures of His love, depend upon our 
 being in very truth members of that mystical 
 body, which is knit together in holy commu- 
 nion with their Saviour, and with their God ; 
 that holy nation, that peculiar people, whom 
 He leads as through the wilderness, and brings 
 in triumph over sin and death into the pos- 
 session of the heavenly Canaan. 
 
 It is evident, then, that the character of 
 the Supreme Being, as propounded in the 
 earliest times by direct revelation, and en- 
 forced by the circumstances under which the 
 Israelites entered upon the Land of Promise, 
 was essentially the same as that which was 
 proclaimed by the Gospel. And although the 
 true idea of the Almighty had been lost sight 
 of amidst the corruption of idolatry and the 
 sophistries of philosophy, there were many 
 causes which, at the time of Christ's Incarna- 
 tion, conspired to prove that this idea alone 
 was adequate to satisfy the requirements of 
 mankind. 
 
 In the ages when science was but in its 
 infancy, men were little disposed to question 
 
 G2 
 
84 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 the existence of Beings watching over them 
 with providential care. The gifts of nature 
 spread before them, and the kindly influ- 
 ences to which they were exposed, led them to 
 deify the powers by which it was thought 
 that these blessings were severally conveyed. 
 Hence they imagined and worshipped a plu- 
 rality of protectors ; but ascribing to them 
 human passions and human feelings, they 
 devised the most monstrous tales of these 
 false divinities. They transferred the cor- 
 ruption of their own manners to the actions 
 of their gods. But as science advanced and 
 thought was exercised, the indications of 
 unity of government were too manifold and 
 too forcible to be resisted, the absurdities of 
 the mythological fables too monstrous to be 
 maintained. The consideration of the unity 
 of government led either to the assumption 
 of a controlling necessity or fate, which de- 
 graded their gods to the rank of subordinate 
 agents, or introduced the conception of the 
 divinity pervading the world, infused into 
 every person and every thing, from which all 
 took their life and being, and into which all 
 would be again absorbed ^ The conviction of 
 the absurdities of mythology gave room for 
 the exercise of keen wit and piercing ridicule, 
 
 ' Virg. Georg. iv. 222—227- 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 85 
 
 denying falsehood but not asserting truth, 
 demolishing but not building up, leaving no 
 substitute for that which had been destroyed. 
 The creations of fancy soon yielded to the 
 assault, and the popular religion was shaken 
 to its foundation. But the mind dispossessed 
 of error turned in vain to philosophy for 
 truth. There was little in the philosophic 
 idea of God to satisfy the requirements of 
 human nature. Conscious as men were of 
 their need of divine protection, the idea of 
 stern necessity was gloomy and unavailing. 
 Yearning after immortality, they found little 
 comfort in the notion of their individual ex- 
 istence being swallowed up in the universal 
 good. While some unwilling to part with so 
 dear a treasure as belief in the protection of 
 the gods, resolutely closed their eyes to the 
 light, and fell back in dogged determination 
 to superstitions more grovelling than be- 
 fore^ ; others, who could not force themselves 
 
 ' This is evinced by the multiplicity of gods (ista turba 
 miniitoriim Deorum) acknowledged by the heathens in the 
 days of S. Augustin. " Quando autem possunt uno loco libri 
 hujus commemorari omnia nomina deorum aut dearum qufe 
 illi grandibus voluminibus vix comprehendere potuerunt sin- 
 gulis rebus propriis dispertientes oflScia numinum ?" — S. Aug. 
 C. D. IV. 8. These deities represent the popular creed, while 
 the philosophers merged all in Pantheism. C. D. iv. 9. 
 
 There is a most curious parallel to these superstitions in 
 the manner in which, in Roman Catholic countries, particular 
 
86 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 back to the ground which they had lost, 
 were left despondent and dissatisfied — with- 
 out hope, because they were without God in 
 the worlds 
 
 Among men in such a condition as this, 
 superstition struggling with infidelity, the 
 presence of the Jewish people must have ex- 
 cited much attention ^ They exhibited a 
 practical belief in a God, unlike the false 
 divinities which men had learned to despise, 
 and the philosophic abstractions which men 
 could not learn to love. They acknowledged 
 
 saints are invoked as the guardians of particular temporal 
 blessings. Luther, who notices this in a Sermon preached to 
 the people at Wittenberg on the First Commandment, so early 
 as 1516, gives a list of saints, both male and female, thus 
 invoked; e.g. S. Yalentinus for the faUing sickness, S. Chris- 
 topher against sudden death, S. Juliana and Othilia for com- 
 plaints of the eyes, and S. Apollonia for the tooth-ache, and 
 remarks : " Adhuc non pudet nos Christianos ita in Sanctos 
 partiri negotia rerum temporalium, ac si esscnt nunc facti 
 servi, et mancipia artificum, ita ut prope redierit ca Lerna 
 supcrstitionum, ut rursus Romanorum illud chaos deorum et 
 quoddam Pantheon extruxerimus." — Luth. Op. Tom. i. p. 7- 
 
 ' See Neander's description of the condition of the heathen 
 world at the time of the first preaching of Cliristianity. — 
 Neand. Ch. Hist. Introd. 
 
 " So Varro, in his condemnation of superstition, appeals to 
 the case of the Jews : " Dicit ctiam antiques Romanes plus 
 annos centum et septuaginta deos sine simulacro coluisse 'quod 
 si adhuc,' inquit, ' mansisnet, castius Dii observarentur.' Cui 
 sententia) tcstem adhibet inter ca^tera ctiam gcntem Judaam." 
 — S. Aug. C. D. IV. 31, 2. 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 87 
 
 a Being, absolutely powerful and essentially 
 One, who had created and therefore governed 
 the universe, and who had exhibited most 
 striking proofs of His special care for the 
 people that served Him. Gladly would men be 
 disposed to listen to those who told them that 
 this God might be their God ; who appealed 
 to the evidence of the history of the Jews, 
 but explained how in their blind nationality 
 the Jews had missed the discovery of His 
 universal character which their own records 
 contained. Gladly would men turn from the 
 dream of philosophy to the assurance of faith, 
 and finding in this new religion the recogni- 
 tion of that watchful and providential care, 
 for which their spirit yearned as for a natural 
 want, unmixed with the falsehood which their 
 reason rejected, would find joy and peace in 
 believing; for God would supply all their need 
 according to His riches in glory by Christ 
 Jesus 1. 
 
 My brethren, there are times when in a 
 Christian land the exclusive study of science 
 and philosophy may produce an effect similar 
 to that which was produced in the climax 
 of the civilization of Paganism. To dwell 
 upon the uniformity of Nature's laws, with- 
 out reference to the God of Nature, has led, 
 
 ' Phil. iv. 19. 
 
88 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. 
 
 unhappily, men of great attainments to that 
 species of infidelity which is content to trace 
 all objects of their contemplation to one 
 general law, and to find in that law their 
 ultimate resting-place. Others, by an over- 
 earnest study of their own minds, and by 
 what they deem a bold and free exercise of 
 their intellectual powers, uncontrolled by a 
 regard to external revelation, have arrived 
 at a vague mysticism, wherein the sense of 
 individual responsibility is weakened, if not 
 obliterated. The old forms of error are re- 
 produced, and the old consequences follow. 
 The idea of a Special Providence is aban- 
 doned as inconsistent with those imaginary 
 laws by which men presume to limit the 
 Divine Power, and the result is that hope- 
 less uncertainty, which leaves to the wearied 
 spirit no abiding place, and no repose. Then 
 when these notions are spread abroad, minds 
 less able to bear such estrangement from 
 Him in whom they have placed their hopes, 
 will often revert to antiquated superstitions, 
 and exploded errors, and will cling rather 
 to a sinking vessel, than abandon themselves 
 to be tossed in the limitless ocean of doubt 
 and uncertainty. 
 
 The remedy against these errors is to be 
 found in a careful study of the nature of the 
 
III.] THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 89 
 
 Divine Being as set forth in those characters 
 wherein He has been pleased to reveal Him- 
 self to man. 
 
 The face of nature and the human mind 
 are each one of the pages of such Revelation, 
 hut neither are to be exclusively studied. 
 The events of history developing the Divine 
 administration speak yet more intelligibly to 
 the great mass of mankind. But the force 
 of all these, whether single or united, will 
 prove, as it has proved, insufficient. There- 
 fore has God been pleased to reveal himself 
 in His written word, and has stamped upon 
 that word the essential character of truth. 
 For He has revealed Himself therein as a 
 Being whose attributes are the same as those 
 which the face of nature and the govern- 
 ment of the world might have discovered to 
 belong to the Author and the Ruler of the 
 universe. 
 
 And if reason is too blind to discover, 
 without extraneous light, the true character 
 of the Almighty, too weak by searching to 
 find out God, yet is it strong enough to recog- 
 nize the consistency of that which is revealed 
 to us by word with that which is revealed 
 to us by the experiences whether of ourselves 
 or of generations that are past. 
 
 The weakness of our reason may well 
 
90 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. [Lect. III. 
 
 warn us not to presume to quit the vantage 
 ground we have gained, or to imagine that it 
 is essential for the security of unprejudiced 
 truth to speculate, like heathens, in the midst 
 of Christianity. The strength of our reason, 
 if strength it may be called, may enable us 
 to fortify our faith by those assistances, which 
 every fresh discovery of God's mercy, good- 
 ness, and truth is calculated to supply — 
 keeping in remembrance all those things 
 which may help us to give a reason for the 
 hope that is in us — and taking heed unto 
 them as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
 place, until the day dawn, and the day-star 
 arise in our hearts ; for Ave have not followed 
 cunningly devised fables, when there has 
 been made known to us by eyewitnesses the 
 power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ'. 
 
 ' 2Pet. i. ]6, 19. 
 
LECTURE lY, 
 
 THE PROSPERITY OF DAVID AND SOLOMON. 
 
 PSAL. XLV. 4. 
 
 In thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and 
 meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand 
 shall teach thee terrible things. 
 
 rilHE conquests of David, and the mainten- 
 -^ ance of them by his son, raised the people 
 of Israel to a condition very different from that 
 which they had before occupied. The power 
 of the seven nations had indeed been effectu- 
 ally broken by Joshua. For although after 
 his time w^e hear of Israel being sold into the 
 hands of Jabin king of Canaan, which reigned 
 in Hazor\ and there is mention of remnants 
 of these nations dwelling among almost every 
 tribe of IsraeP, although we find Jebusites 
 in joint occupation of Jerusalem even in 
 David's time, and by him besieged and over- 
 thrown^ and yet later w^e read of Amorites, 
 Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, 
 upon whom Solomon levied a tribute of bond- 
 servicC; yet none of these nations were ever 
 
 ^ Judges iv. 2. * See Judges, chap. i. and iii. 
 
 *» 2 Sam. V. 6. M Kings ix. 20, 21. 
 
92 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 again permanently great, but they gradually 
 faded away from the land, leaving behind 
 them nothing but the remembrance of their 
 wickedness and its punishment. They appear 
 indeed under other names, and combined with 
 other tribes, in various parts of the world. 
 Some driven northwards lingered in the fast- 
 nesses of Lebanon and Baal-Hermon, or 
 swelled the tide of population which flowed 
 into the ancient Sidon, and increased the 
 multitudes of the mighty Tyre, so long con- 
 spicuous for its commercial wealth, and for 
 the colonies it sent forth to multiply in other 
 lands, and to contend for the mastery of the 
 world. Others were borne along the uncer- 
 tain ocean, and found a resting-place in the 
 coasts and isles of the Mediterranean, whence 
 they carried the rudiments of arts and sciences 
 to the shores of Greece, yet barbarous and 
 uncivilized. The tide of their greatness had 
 been diverted from the Land of Promise, and 
 the impulse of the retiring waters was felt 
 throughout the globe. 
 
 TJie Book of Judges, which embraces a 
 period of more than three hundred years, 
 gives us an account of various contests in dif- 
 ferent parts of the Holy Land. And although 
 each of the wars therein recorded is to be re- 
 garded rather as local than as general, they 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 93 
 
 may be taken as specimens of the struggles 
 through which the people of Israel passed 
 during this portion of their history. Their 
 progress towards an undisturbed possession of 
 the inheritance upon which they had so tri- 
 umphantly entered was very slow. Alterna- 
 tions of servitude and of delivery, of turmoil 
 and of rest, were continually occurring. It is 
 not to be doubted that during an interval of 
 calm the Israelites strengthened themselves 
 in the locality where it was enjoyed. And 
 the ground thus gained was not wholly though 
 partly lost in subsequent calamity. Thus 
 the occupation of Laish^ in the north by 
 Dan was maintained throughout this period, 
 although its position must have exposed it to 
 oppression, at the times of Chushan-risha- 
 thaim king of Mesopotamia, and Jabin the 
 king of Hazor. 
 
 But other nations now rose into greatness, 
 who long exercised a marked influence upon 
 the fortunes of Israel. The destruction of the 
 Canaanites by Joshua loosened the bands of 
 those who had hitherto been kept in subordi- 
 nation. 
 
 Thus the once powerful Amorites had 
 smitten Moab with so severe a stroke that its 
 desolation had passed into a proverb^, but 
 
 xviii. 29. "^ Numb. xxi. 27—29. 
 
94 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 when they in turn were dispossessed, the tribes 
 of Moab and Ammon laid claim to the pos- 
 session which Israel had won ; and at dif- 
 ferent times both the Moabites and Ammon- 
 ites mightily oppressed Israeli Nor were 
 the deliverances effected by Ehud and by 
 Jephthah wholly destructive of the power of 
 these tribes. They continued to exist in the 
 land up to the time of Tiglath-Pileser, some- 
 times subject, sometimes independent, and 
 having shared in the captivity of Israel, were 
 restored in time to offer serious impediments 
 to the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem, 
 and were only finally dispersed by the arms 
 of Judas Maccabaeus. 
 
 There was a still more important tribe, 
 which now became powerful, so powerful that 
 for an hundred years they were, with various 
 interruptions, predominant in the land of 
 Israel. The Philistines seem to have been of 
 the Egyptian, and not the Canaanitish branch 
 of the descendants of Ham^. The extent of 
 the power which they once possessed, is in- 
 dicated by their having given their name to 
 the whole country. 
 
 The checks received by them, first from 
 Shamgar^ and then from that Judge who 
 
 ^ Judges iii. 12; xi. 4. - Gen. x. 14. 
 
 3 Judges iii. 31. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 95 
 
 was especially raised up for their hurt, did 
 not prevent them from attaining in the time of 
 Saul to the highest pitch of greatness. The 
 Israelites were held in such complete subjec- 
 tion that no smith was allowed in their cities^ 
 and Goliath vaunted his proud boasts before 
 the whole army of Israel, while not one man 
 dared to accept his challenge^. 
 
 We are now to contemplate the success of 
 David bringing to submission in tarn every 
 one of Israel's most haughty foes, and evincing 
 by their defeat the overpowering force with 
 which the Lord endows those who seek Him 
 with their whole heart. 
 
 The Moabites, with whom David had affi- 
 nity through Ruth the Moabitess^, and to 
 whose care he committed his parents at a very 
 critical juncture'', seem to have violated the 
 trust reposed in them^, and so to have given oc- 
 casion for the severe punishment subsequently 
 inflicted upon them, when David smote Moab, 
 measuring them with a line, casting them 
 down to the ground^ The insults offered by 
 Hanun to the messengers of David were no 
 less fatal to the Ammonites^ The opening 
 
 1 1 Sam. xiii. 19. 2 i gam. xvii. 24. 
 
 3 Ruth iv. 17. M Sam. xxii. 3, 4. 
 
 5 See Blunt's Script. Coincid. 11. 6. ^ 2 Sam. viii. 2. 
 7 2 Sam. X. 4: xii. 31. 
 
96 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 scene of David's greatness, wherein the fall 
 of Goliath leads to a great slaughter of the 
 Philistines', is followed up by continual in- 
 roads upon that people. The treachery of 
 Saul gives rise to fresh conquests-, and the 
 success with which David as a captain of 
 the king's host prosecuted his warfare, is 
 increased tenfold after his assumption of the 
 throne, when the Lord brake forth upon the 
 Philistines as a breach of waters at Baal- 
 perazim in the valley of Rej^haim^ and the 
 Lord goes before him to smite the Philistines 
 as he smote them from Geba unto Gazer^ 
 
 If we survey the rest of his dominions we 
 find everywhere fresh evidence of David's 
 greatness and David's strength. The power 
 of the Amalekites, which had been crushed by 
 Saul's victory over Agag, is finally destroyed 
 by the inroads of David on the remnant of 
 that people^ The Edomites (who traced their 
 origin to a common progenitor in Isaac) were 
 subdued^ and the elder made to serve the 
 younger, according to the prophecy delivered 
 to Rebekah before the birth of her sons". 
 And the victories of David (which form so 
 
 ^ 1 Sam. xvii. 32. 2 l Sam. xviii. 25. 
 
 3 2 Sam. V. 20. * 2 Sam. v. 25. 
 
 5 2 Sam. vlii. 12. ^ o Sam. viii. H. 
 
 " Gen. XXV. 23. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 97 
 
 important an era in the history of the Israel- 
 ites) are summed up by the sacred historian 
 with the list of all those nations who had 
 been powerful and dangerous foes, but were 
 now subdued, having garrisons put in their 
 coasts, and made to serve David and to bring 
 tribute and gifts ^ 
 
 There were yet other nations who felt the 
 weight of David's victorious arms, whose sub- 
 jection is limited to the times of himself and 
 of his son. The covenant made with Abra- 
 ham was, " Unto thy seed have I given this 
 land, from the river of Egypt unto the great 
 river, the river Euphrates^;" a grant repeat- 
 ed in its full extent both to Moses ^ and to 
 Joshua''. Accordingly we find parts of the 
 northern lands thus bounded, assigned to 
 tribes of Israel long before they entered into 
 possession. It was not however until Israel 
 had pushed their arms successfully against 
 Moab and Amnion, th^t the inhabitants of 
 these countries came into collision with them. 
 Then first the Syrians of Zobah march against 
 IsraeP, and when they are smitten the Sy- 
 rians of Damascus come to the rescue^ : then 
 again the Syrians of Zobah and of Beth-rehob 
 
 1 2 Sam.Ylii. 11—14. 2 Gen. xv. 18. 
 
 3 Deut. xi. 24. ^ Josh. i. 3, 4. 
 
 5 2 Sam. viii. 3. « 2 Sam. vili. 5. 
 C. H. L. U 
 
98 THE' PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 are hired by the Ammonites^; and finally 
 when they have been overthrown, a general 
 combination of Syrians from all quarters takes 
 place, who are in turn defeated by David, 
 and being smitten before Israel make peace 
 and serve them 2. 
 
 The elevation of Israel which had been 
 effected by the conquests of David was se- 
 cured and sustained by the peaceful reign of 
 Solomon. The power acquired by the father 
 was not only retained but increased by the 
 son; "He had dominion over all the region 
 on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to 
 Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river : 
 and he had peace on all sides round about 
 him^" The most mighty monarchs, Hiram 
 king of Tyre, and Pharaoh king of Egypt, 
 courted his friendship and alliance. The 
 Eastern trade which has in turn enriched so 
 many European nations, now brought into 
 Jerusalem its full harvest of wealth and abun- 
 dance. The riches of Solomon surpass all 
 that we know of the splendour of Eastern 
 monarchs : six hundred threescore and six 
 talents of gold coming in every year^ — silver 
 nothing accounted of^ — ships bringing gold, 
 silver, and ivory, from Tharshish*' — horses 
 
 1 2 Sam. X. 6. 2 2 Sam. x. 19. 
 
 3 1 Kings iv. 24. ^ 1 Kings x. 14. 
 
 5 1 Kinjis X. 21. ^ I Kings x. 22. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 99 
 
 from Egypt\ chariots amounting to a thousand 
 and four hundred ^ — silver made in Jesusalem 
 to be as stones, and cedars made to be as the 
 sycamore-trees that are in the vale for abun- 
 dance^ This increase of wealth was followed 
 by a rapid increase of population : the people 
 whom the Lord had given Solomon to govern 
 were like the dust of the earth for multitude*. 
 So that he had need to make the petition for 
 wisdom and knowledge that he might **go out 
 and come in before this people ; for who can 
 judge this thy people that is so great^?" — a 
 petition wdiich won for him the gracious 
 promise that not only should his request be 
 granted, but also those things which he had 
 not asked be heaped upon him — riches, 
 wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings 
 had that were before him, neither should 
 any after him have the like^. 
 
 This increase of numbers and of wealth 
 was fraught with consequences of a very im- 
 portant character. The Temple, which was 
 long the habitation of the glory of God, was 
 now erected with those gorgeous decorations 
 which made it one of the wonders of the 
 world ; and while the fame of the wealth and 
 
 1 1 Kings X. 28. 2 j Kings x. 26. 
 
 3 1 Kings X. 27. ^ 2 Chron. i. 9. 
 
 5 2 Chron. i. 10. 6 2 Chron. i. 12. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect, 
 
 wisdom of this monarch reached the territo- 
 ries of the queen of Sheba, we cannot believe 
 that the Source of all wisdom and strength 
 was forgotten. The aversion to idol-worship 
 which was never wholly lost in the East, 
 may not without probability be derived from 
 the diffusion of truth, which must have been 
 one of the results of the greatness of Solomon. 
 The remembrance of Solomon the son of Da- 
 vid, lord not only of the whole earth, but of 
 the spirits of the air, is preserved in eastern 
 fables, which, idle and unauthenticated as 
 they are in themselves, bear testimony to the 
 existence of a mighty empire whose seat was 
 Jerusalem, whose alliance the proudest mon- 
 archs were fain to secure, and to which the 
 lesser potentates paid homage and rendered 
 submission. And it seems but reasonable 
 to conclude that the wisdom and knowledge 
 which flowed from the lips of the monarch 
 thus powerful, a wisdom and knowledge not 
 his own, but that of the Spirit of God, must 
 have spread a kindly influence in distant 
 lands, and taught the inhabitants what there 
 was of truth amidst the errors which prevailed 
 among them, truth grievously overclouded yet 
 not wholly obscured, until the day when the 
 true Prince of Peace appeared to remove the 
 films of obscurity, and to draw forth, foster, 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 101 
 
 and increase the little spark which yet burned 
 dim and faint within the hearts of men. 
 
 To this greatness of Israel, and therefore 
 to this diffusion of light and truth, every step 
 in the victories both of Joshua and of David 
 had been accessory. The descendants of Ham 
 had been dispossessed, the children of Moab 
 and Ammon subjugated, the Edomites sub- 
 dued, and the Syrians vanquished : and every 
 one of these victories had paved the way for 
 the advancement of the descendants of Abra- 
 ham, and the security of their power. These 
 conquests had moreover exercised an influence 
 on the remoter parts of the earth, and so con- 
 tributed to bring about, by the revolution of 
 empires, the condition in which the world 
 was found at the first appearance of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 This is true with regard to each of the 
 powerful monarchies which in turn predomi- 
 nated in Asia and in Europe. It is seen to be 
 especially true of the empire which as Israel 
 declined became most mighty and powerful. 
 The kingdom of Assyria was but small in 
 comparison with many of its neighbours when 
 David advanced to the river Euphrates. In 
 David's battles with the Syrians we have no 
 mention of any collision with the Assyrians, 
 although the Ammonites sent for aid beyond 
 
102 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 the river, and tribute was imposed on certain 
 people on the other side\ But tlie reduction 
 of the Syrians and other tribes gave room for 
 the Assyrians to expand. Thus when the sins 
 of Israel robbed them of that prosperity which 
 they might have enjoyed, it was found that 
 the same success which had once made Israel 
 triumphant, and should have made them per- 
 manently prosperous, had laid the foundation 
 of the power which was to be instrumental in 
 correcting them, and whose greatness was 
 connected with so many events which bore 
 part in the preparation for the establishment 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 But besides the preparation which we thus 
 discover in historical events, the period which 
 we are now considering is marked by prophe- 
 tical and typical annunciations of the Messiah 
 and his future kingdom. Hitherto the predic- 
 tions of the Saviour of mankind had been 
 brief and general, while it is difficult to deter- 
 mine how far the typical character of the 
 Ceremonial Law was recognized in its par- 
 ticular applications. The faithful Patriarchs 
 had been taught to look for the seed of the 
 woman 2, the seed of Abraham^. The Israelites 
 had been led to anticipate a prophet raised 
 
 ' 2 Sara. X. 16. ' Gen. iii. 15. 
 
 ^ Gen. xxii. 18. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 103 
 
 up like unto Moses^ a captain of the host, 
 leading them into possession like Joshua^ a 
 priest like Aaron, who was to make atone- 
 ment for their sins. Of the Son of David, on 
 whose head all the promises of God were cen- 
 tred, much more is made known. 
 
 This new revelation of Truth was accom- 
 panied and accomplished by a fuller manifes- 
 tation of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God 
 had mdeed never been absent from the earth. 
 He had moved upon the face of the waters 
 when the earth was without form, and void^. 
 He had breathed into Adam the breath of life, 
 and man became a living soul^. By Him had 
 JVoah preached righteousness to the children 
 of disobedience^ He had given to Joseph the 
 power of interpretation", — had been with 
 Moses in the wilderness^ — with Caleb^ and 
 with Joshua^ — had rested upon Eldad and 
 Medad, so that they prophesied in the camp^", 
 and had filled Bezaleel when engaged in the 
 holy work of the Tabernacle". He had put 
 a word into the mouth of Balaam^^ and had 
 caused the lips of Jacob, of Moses, and of 
 
 ' Deut. xviii. 15. * Josh. v. 14. 
 
 « Gen. i. 2. " Gen. ii. 7- 
 
 ' 1 Pet. iii. 19. ' Gen. xli. 38. 
 
 ' Numb. xi. 17. ' Numb. xiv. 24. 
 
 ' Numb, xxvii. 18. '" Numb. xi. 26. 
 
 " Exocl. xxxi. 3. '^ Numb. xxiv. 2. 
 
104 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 Miriam, to utter prophetic songs and holy 
 thanksgivings. Even upon the ungodly Saul 
 did He work by miraculous operation, and 
 Saul was among the prophets i. But when 
 Saul despised the grace which he had en- 
 joyed, the Spirit of God had given Y>\ixce to 
 an evil spirit — had departed from Saul, and 
 rested upon David 2. 
 
 The support which David received under 
 so many trying circumstances is in itself an 
 evidence of the peculiar presence of the Lord. 
 But he has left behind him, in the sweet 
 Psalms which he was taught to utter, the 
 chief proof of Divine inspiration. It is not 
 so much the beauty of composition which 
 arrests our attention in the Psalms of David, 
 though this is so striking and singular as 
 to have furnished poets of every age with 
 thoughts and images : it is the depth, the 
 breadth, and the intensity of their language, 
 embracing so much more than the interests 
 or fortunes of any mere man can satisfy : so 
 that when we read the titles prefixed to some 
 of the Psalms referring to the occasion on 
 which they were written, we naturally as it 
 were turn from these inscriptions to their 
 contents, and scan their meaning and purport 
 
 ' 1 Sam. X. 10, and 1 Sam. xix. 23. 
 * 1 Sam. xviii. 12. 
 
lY.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 105 
 
 from the words of the compositions them- 
 selves. Who shall ascribe to mere human 
 origin these songs wherein the eternal, the 
 invisible, and divine, is ever breaking forth 
 from the veil of language inadequate to ex- 
 press to the full the ideas which it contains ! 
 How utterly inadequate is David in his fidl- 
 est strength to the idea of the mighty Con- 
 queror, "riding on prosperously because of 
 truth, of meekness, and of righteousness." 
 How insignificant is Solomon arrayed in all 
 his glory, compared with the King's Son judg- 
 ing the people in righteousness, feared so long 
 as the sun and moon endureth throughout all 
 generations, his name continued for ever, men 
 blessed in Him, and all generations calling 
 Him blessed ^ While the language then of 
 the Psalms forces us to acknowledge in them 
 more than human compositions, an examina- 
 tion of their contents will discover to us the 
 new light which broke in upon Israel at this 
 period of their national existence. 
 
 The promised Deliverer is now set forth as 
 the Anointed of the Lord. An ancient writer 
 remarks upon the significance of the term 
 Anointed, maintaining that the custom of an- 
 ointing kings did not prevail in any other 
 nation except that in which Christ was both 
 
 ' Psal. Ixxii. 5, 17. 
 
106 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 foretold and anointed, and the name of Christ 
 was to come abroad ^ Whether this assertion 
 be strictly correct or no, we may at least ob- 
 serve the frequent and significant use of 
 anointing in the Law. On the pillar which 
 Jacob dedicated to the Lord he poured oil^. 
 The Tabernacle and the vessels of the sanc- 
 tuary were anointed with oil^ And the High 
 Priest was invested in his office by most 
 solemn unction^ Thus too the designation 
 of David to the throne ^ and the installation 
 of Solomon in his kingly office^ was accom- 
 panied by a similar ceremony ; and this cere- 
 mony invested a Jewish monarch with a 
 sanctity which is expressed in the solemn 
 lament over Saul ; wherein it is set forth, as 
 the highest aggravation of the calamity of 
 Saul's death, that his shield was vilely cast 
 away as though he had not been anointed 
 with oW. 
 
 The idea of the Messiah, which took so 
 strong a hold of the Jewish mind, and which 
 was in after times distinctly expressed by the 
 Chaldean paraphrasts, was now evolved in the 
 person of the son of David, who united all the 
 attributes connected with sacred unction. He 
 
 ' S. Aug. Enarr. in Psalm xltv. (xlv.) § 19. 
 
 ' Gen. xxviii. 18. ' Exod. xl. 9. 
 
 * Exod. xl. 13. " 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 
 
 ' 1 Kings i. 39. ' 2 Sam. i. 21. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 107 
 
 was a Priest for ever, completing the purpose 
 shadowed out in the anointing of Aaron and 
 his successors : " Their anointing shall surely 
 be an everlasting priesthood throughout their 
 generations'." He is a King joying in the 
 strength of the Lord, and in His salvation 
 greatly rejoicing, whose glory is great in the 
 salvation of God, upon whom honour and 
 majesty have been laid — a King made most 
 blessed for ever, and exceeding glad with the 
 countenance of the Lord — a King to whom has 
 been given a long life, even length of days for 
 ever and ever^. He is a Prophet upon whose 
 lips grace is poured^ whose righteousness is 
 openly shewed in the sight of the heathen'', who 
 shall minister to the people in righteousness ^ 
 But besides this high development of the 
 sacred functions of prophet, priest, and king, 
 there are intimations of an unction yet more 
 sacred — the oil of gladness wherewith he is 
 anointed above his fellows^ He is David's 
 Lord as well as his son^ — the first-born of 
 God, higher than all kings of the earth ^ — a 
 mighty and exalted one, chosen out of the 
 people, who shall cry unto God, Thou art my 
 Father, my God, and my strong salvation^ 
 
 1 Exod. xl. 15. 2 Psal. xxi. 1—6. 
 
 3 Psal. xlv. 2. 4 pgal. xcviii. 2. 
 
 5 Psal. ix. 8. e Psal. xlv. 7- '' Psal. ex. 1. 
 
 8 Psal. Ixxxix. 27. ^ Psal. Ixxxix. 19, 26. 
 
108 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 Thus is the coming Saviour set forth in 
 the Psahns as an exalted and Divine Person, 
 exercising prophetical and priestly, no less 
 than regal functions. The particulars of his 
 life, his sufferings and his death, are intimated, 
 though in words intended perhaps rather for 
 recognition by future generations, than that to 
 whom they were originally spoken. The cha- 
 racter of the suffering Messiah was to be drawn 
 out more fully at a later period. In the hour 
 of triumph the triumphant and victorious King 
 is presented before their eyes. But the full 
 meaning of the Book of Psalms is to be ob- 
 tained only by a constant reference to every 
 quality and every action of the Messiah. The 
 early addresses of S. Peter to Jewish audi- 
 ences\ the united prayers of the Christian 
 assembly after the release of S. Peter and 
 S. John^ the arguments of S. Paul in his 
 Epistles, authorise and confirm this principle 
 of interpretation. And if we turn to those 
 parts of the early Apologies for Christianity 
 which were addressed to the Jews, we cannot 
 but be struck by the confidence with which 
 the language of the Psalms is appealed to 
 as decisive and unanswerable. With the 
 ancient Fathers every expression was weighed, 
 and a reference to the Incarnate Word dis- 
 
 ' Acts i. 15 : ii. 14. ' Acts iv. 24. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 109 
 
 covered in every phrase and every collocation. 
 The interpretation of a particular sentence 
 may in many cases be unwarranted, but the 
 general spirit of interpretation is true and 
 sound — far truer and sounder than the cold 
 and hard method which weighs only external 
 circumstances and historical applications ; 
 which views the Psalms as the words of a 
 Jewish king, rather than as the effusion of 
 the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 For instance, in the Psalm from which 
 my text is taken, how unsatisfactory have 
 been the attempts of some modern commen- 
 tators to discover the key of its explanation 
 in a reference to the nuptials of Solomon, 
 and to apply the glorious expressions of the 
 grace, beauty, might, and majesty of the per- 
 son herein described, to the mere greatness 
 of an earthly sovereign ^ How different is 
 the feeling inspired by a perusal of the noble 
 Enarration of S. Augustine on this Psalm ! 
 We may discover in his exposition specu- 
 lations too subtle and refined, but we ac- 
 knowledge at once in the subject of the 
 Psalm Him whom S. Augustine so eloquently 
 describes. " For us then who believe, let 
 the Bridegroom ever come forth in beauty. 
 
 ^ These attempts are well discussed and refuted by Bishop 
 Horsley. See Ilorsley's Sermons. Serm. 5. 
 
110 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 Beautiful as God, as the Word with God — 
 beautiful in the womb of ihe Virgin, where 
 he lost not his divinity, but assumed hu- 
 manity — beautiful in his birth, while he hung 
 yet on his mother's breast ; for even then the 
 Heavens proclaimed Him, and angels sang 
 His praise, a star led the wise men to adore 
 Him in the manger. Beautiful then in hea- 
 ven, beautiful upon earth, in majestic power, 
 in meek humility, in summoning to life, or in 
 despising death, in laying down, or taking 
 up His life. Beautiful upon the Cross, in the 
 Tomb, and in Heaven. Beautiful in perfect 
 majesty, and perfect meekness, perfect truth, 
 and perfect righteousness^" 
 
 But not only w as the personal excellency 
 and majesty of Messiah the Prince now set 
 forth in living characters, but the notion w as 
 developed of a new and mighty Kingdom of 
 which the dominion of David was but the 
 type and representative. For great as we have 
 seen David's kingdom to have been, it answers 
 but poorly to the exalted description of the 
 Kingdom which was to endure for ever. 
 
 The images whereby the Kingdom of 
 Heaven was to be depicted were indeed bor- 
 rowed from an earthly kingdom. The Mes- 
 siah's triumphs were portrayed in David's 
 
 ' S. Aug. Enarr. in Ps. xliv. (xlv.) § 3. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. Ill 
 
 victories. The reign of Solomon was the 
 image of His peaceful reign, who bequeathed 
 peace to His disciples, the peace of recon- 
 ciliation upon earth, the peace of immor- 
 tality in heaven. The city of Zion was a 
 shadow of the New Jerusalem coming down 
 from God out of heaven, " prepared as a 
 bride adorned for her husbands" 
 
 Thus in the eighty-seventh Psalm (one 
 which has presented much difficulty to in- 
 terpreters), the author is led, by a contem- 
 plation of the situation and the beauties of 
 Jerusalem, to break forth into a description 
 of the city of God, whose foundations were 
 on yet holier hills, of which yet more glorious 
 things were spoken — a city of which Rahab 
 or Egypt, Babylon, Ethiopia, Philistia and 
 Tyre, shall be enrolled as members, to which 
 fresh multitudes shall continually press — for 
 the Most High shall establish her^. 
 
 So too it may have been permitted that 
 the nuptials of Solomon should have given 
 first occasion to the utterance of the Sona: of 
 Songs. But the Poem, dictated by inspiration, 
 rises, as the Jewish commentators themselves 
 confess, above any temporary subject, paint- 
 
 ^ Rev. xxi. 2. 
 
 ' See Bishop Home's Commentary on the eighty-seventh 
 Psalm. 
 
112 THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 iiig the Divine love of the heavenly Bride- 
 groom towards her whom He vouchsafes to 
 call his spouse, and depicting the fair beauty 
 and comeliness of that Church which Christ 
 "loved and gave himself for it; that He might 
 sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
 water by the word, that He might present it 
 unto Himself a glorious Church, not having 
 spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that 
 it should be holy and without blemish ^" 
 
 It is plain, then, that the language of the 
 Psalms points to some future state, to which 
 the present is but introductory ; and it can- 
 not escape our notice that the glories of the 
 predicted Kingdom differ not less in kind 
 than in degree from those which would have 
 been appropriate to the description of a Jew- 
 ish state. A feeling of exclusive nationality 
 was the natural consequence of the separa- 
 tion of the Jews from all other people. The 
 consciousness of the peculiar favour of the 
 Almighty was likely to give rise to a confi- 
 dent assertion of superiority. The proud 
 bearing produced by these feelings was the 
 subject of remark, not unaccompanied by 
 surprise, among those who saw in the Jews 
 but one of many nations, nor could discover 
 in them anything to warrant these apparently 
 
 > Eph. V. 25—27. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 113 
 
 extravagant claims. Even in the days of 
 their weakness they did not disguise the 
 contemptuous feelings which they entertained 
 towards the heathen. Nor should we have 
 expected that in the hour of their greatness 
 they would have been less sensible of their 
 own importance, and more favourable to the 
 pretensions of others. Yet the songs which 
 describe their triumphs, and anticipate a 
 still wider dominion, are filled not so much 
 with the subjugation as with the accession 
 of the nations to their sway, and speak less 
 of the wealth and riches which the nations 
 are to bring in, than of the blessings and be- 
 nefits they are to derive. In the future king- 
 dom not only are the heathen to be given 
 for the inheritance of the predicted King, 
 and the utmost parts of the earth for His 
 possession \ but the people are to come vo- 
 luntarily forward to enlist themselves in His 
 service. " A people whom I have not known 
 shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, 
 they shall obey me. The strangers shall sub- 
 mit themselves unto me^." "Blessed is the 
 people that know the joyful sound : they shall 
 walk, O Lord, in the light of thy counte- 
 nanced" "All the ends of the world shall 
 
 ' Psal. ii. 8. 2 psai. xviii. 43, 44. 
 
 5 Psal. Ixxxix. 15. 
 C. H. L. I 
 
114 TIIE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the 
 kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and 
 He is the Governor among the nations ^" 
 " Let the people praise Thee, O God, let all 
 the people praise Thee. O let the nations 
 be glad, and sing for joy; for Thou shalt 
 judge the people righteously, and govern the 
 nations upon earth 2." 
 
 This union of all the kindreds of the earth 
 was so entirely new to mankind, so especially 
 opposed to Jewish feelings, that it is abso- 
 lutely inconceivable that it could have origin- 
 ated in the poetic fervour of any uninspired 
 writer. But there is yet another peculiarity 
 in the description of this kingdom, which is 
 equally new and surprizing. The most cursory 
 observation will satisfy us that the Jews more 
 than any nation dwelt upon the temporal. All 
 their blessings were connected with certain 
 localities, all or nearly all the sanctions of 
 their laws were temporal rewards and punish- 
 ments. God's immediate government was car- 
 ried on in a remarkable degree by direct in- 
 terposition. But the blessings of the future 
 kingdom are essentially spiritual and eternal. 
 *'Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and 
 thy dominion endureth throughout all genera- 
 
 ' Psal. xxli. 27, 28. -" Psal. Ixvii. 3, 4. 
 
IV. j DAVID AND SOLOMON. 115 
 
 tions\" "He shall judge thy people with right- 
 eousness, and thy poor with judgment. The 
 mountains shall bring peace to the people, and 
 the little hills, by righteousness"." "Mercy 
 and truth are met together ; righteousness and 
 peace have kissed each other. Truth shall 
 spring out of the earth, and righteousness 
 shall look down from heaven\" "Oh how 
 great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid 
 up for them that fear thee... Thou shalt hide 
 them in the secret of Thy presence from the 
 pride of man*." "The Lord upholdeth all that 
 fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed 
 down^" "The Lord is righteous in all His 
 ways, and holy in all His works. The Lord 
 is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to 
 all that call upon Him in truths" 
 
 Nay the very change in their government, 
 which they had made when in their wanton- 
 ness they preferred to Jehovah a king, as 
 among the surrounding nations, became an 
 occasion for fresh mercies and fresh promises. 
 They had been familiarized with the idea of 
 the immediate government of God exercised 
 by the disposition of external events. Hence- 
 forth this method of God's rule was less pal- 
 
 ' Psal. cxlv. 13. ^ Psal. Ixxii, 2, 3. 
 
 ^ Psal. Ixxxv. 10, 11. 4 Psal. xxxi. 19, 20. 
 
 ' Psal. cxlv. 14. ^ Psal. cxlv, 17, 18. 
 
 12 
 
116 THE PROSPEraXY OF [Lect. 
 
 pably displayed. But He did not leave them 
 to themselves; He sanctioned by visible tokens 
 the appointment of their first king', He gave 
 to David while in trouble direct answers when 
 he asked counsel at His hands^ But having 
 established upon the throne His chosen ser- 
 vant, He announced by his mouth that the 
 greatness of an earthly monarch was but the 
 shadow of a more excellent greatness, that 
 from the king whom He had anointed should 
 spring forth the Anointed One, who should 
 re-establish in a more spiritual form the The- 
 ocracy which had been slightly regarded: He 
 spake to them of a coming kingdom of Righte- 
 ousness, Mercy, Justice and Truth, under 
 which the land should not flow so much with 
 milk and honey as with the stream of spirit- 
 ual blessings. The happy communion of the 
 members of this kingdom should be good and 
 pleasant — precious as the ointment that de- 
 scended from Aaron's beard unto the skirts of 
 his clothing — like the dew of Hermon which 
 fell upon the hill of Sion. In this kingdom 
 the Lord promised His blessing, and life for 
 evermore^ 
 
 The nature of this kingdom foreshadowed 
 
 1 1 Sam. X. 21. 
 
 ^ 1 Sam. xxiii. 2, 4, 9—12 ; xxx. 7, S. 2 Sam. ii. 1. 
 
 ^ Psal. cxxxiii. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 117 
 
 in the events of David's life, depicted in the 
 songs which he composed, and ever after con- 
 nected in prophecy with the name of David, 
 and of David's Son, is so evident that it has not 
 escaped the Rabbinical writers, who in this, as 
 in so many instances, bear unwilling testimony 
 to the truths of the Gospel Dispensation. With 
 them the Kingdom of heaven is the kingdom 
 of the Messiah, and also that inward love and 
 fear of God, which is coincident with the in- 
 ward and spiritual kingdom of Christ : as our 
 Saviour declared, " Behold, the Kingdom of 
 God is within you\" 
 
 We saw in our last Lecture how the notion 
 of one God, righteously governing and spe- 
 cially directing the affairs of men, supplied 
 the want which at the time of Christ's appear- 
 ance was sorely felt. The victorious progress 
 of Roman power through the greater part 
 of the known world, and the absorption of 
 nation after nation into the vast body of the 
 empire, introduced the idea of a universal 
 kingdom, that should include in one all people 
 and languages. The pride of nationality che- 
 rished among so many nations was gradually 
 fading away. The innate superiority of Greek 
 over barbarian was less insisted upon, and 
 the boast of Roman citizenship less paraded, 
 
 ' Luke xvii. 21. Lightf. Talin. Exerc. on Matth. iii. 2. 
 
lis THE PROSPERITY OF [Lect. 
 
 now that fresh cities were daily admitted to 
 equality of privileges, and one might be born 
 at Tarsus in Cilicia to all intents and pur- 
 poses a citizen of Rome. But a very little 
 reflection would shew how weak was the 
 bond that held this vast body together. The 
 iron image was cemented with mere clay. 
 Still the idea of union thus evolved would 
 naturally arouse the attention to a kingdom 
 which professed to embrace all, and more 
 than all, that the Roman empire contained, 
 and to unite them by ties more binding and 
 more durable. The Jewish Scriptures, which 
 were certainly at this time brought into notice 
 among the heathen, contained the description 
 of such a kingdom ; and, when the atten- 
 tion was thus awakened by the circumstances 
 of the times, and drawn to the prophetic 
 delineations, men would not unnaturally be 
 prepared to listen to those who proclaimed 
 that the full developement of these predic- 
 tions was to be found in the spiritual king- 
 dom now about to be established upon the 
 earth, "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, 
 circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, 
 Scythian, tond nor free, but Christ is all 
 in alP." 
 
 The kingdom described in the Jewish 
 1 Col.iii. 11. 
 
IV.] DAVID AND SOLOMON. 119 
 
 Scriptures was of a twofold character : first, 
 aggressive and triumphant, as under David the 
 conqueror ; secondly, secure and dominant, as 
 under Solomon the king of peace. Rome had 
 during all her existence been extending her 
 arms, and subduing kings, and at the time of 
 Christ's birth was enjoying, in name at least, 
 profound repose. Thus before the very eyes 
 of men was an image (though but an image) 
 of the universal kingdom, which had been 
 foretold — the Kingdom of heaven, which the 
 Baptist preached, and the Saviour came to 
 establish — a kingdom advancing to conquer 
 new nations, and possessing and ruling those 
 already under its sway. It is yet advancing. 
 May its advance be speeded by the Spirit of 
 righteousness, through whom alone the Church 
 of Christ can ride on prosperously in majesty! 
 May the advance be sure and sustained, resem- 
 bling not so much that of an Alexander sweep- 
 ing rapidly over the globe, as that of the Roman 
 power moulding and assimilating all whom it 
 subdued, and making them citizens no less 
 than subjects of an everlasting kingdom ! 
 
 The triumph of David and the prosperity 
 of Solomon were not permanent — a. sad type 
 that the progress of Christianity shall not be 
 without its retardation and imperfection. The 
 idols of impurity, of violence and of carnality, 
 
120 THE PROSPERITY OF DAVID, &c. [Lect.IV. 
 
 of infidelity and of superstition, are yet in 
 the earth. And many yet bow down, and 
 will bow down before them. Let us look to it 
 that in our land we do our best to root them 
 up, and disable them from drawing aside the 
 servants of Christ from their true allegiance. 
 
 Above all, let us look to ourselves, and if 
 we call ourselves His subjects, obey Him as 
 our King, rendering unto Him the homage of 
 a willing and submissive spirit, laying before 
 His feet the costliest offerings in our power, 
 the offerings of faith, obedience and love. So 
 may we hope to be admitted as citizens of the 
 New Jerusalem, where they who h^e been 
 redeemed to God by the blood of Christ shall 
 be made kings and priests, and unite in that 
 hymn of praise to be sung from age to age : 
 *' Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, 
 be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb for ever and ever^ !" 
 
 • Rev. V. 13. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 
 
 JEREMIAH VII. 4. 
 
 Trust ye not in lying ivords, saying. The temple of 
 the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple 
 of the Lord, are these. 
 
 rriHE vast extent of the dominions of Israel, 
 -^ the unexampled prosperity which the 
 people enjoyed, the treasures that flowed in 
 to them from every source, the subjection 
 of their once formidable foes, the submission 
 of their tributaries, the friendship of power- 
 ful allies, the fear and the dread which the 
 Lord had begun to put upon the nations 
 under the whole heaven, might well have 
 induced the Israelite of the days of Solomon 
 to look for the speedy accomplishment of 
 the promises of national exaltation. " What 
 nation," he might ask, " is there so great 
 who hath God so nigh unto them as the 
 Lord our God is in all things that we call 
 upon Him for ? And what nation is there 
 so great that hath statutes and judgments 
 so righteous as all this law ^ ?" " Surely," he 
 
 ' Deut. iv. 7, 8. 
 
122 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 would exclaim, " this great nation is a wise and 
 understanding peopled" And while he would 
 perceive that the promises of future favour 
 were far larger than the blessings conferred, 
 he would not unnaturally suppose that the 
 greatness already achieved was directly in- 
 troductory to further advancement, that the 
 kingdom now established was soon about to 
 embrace within its limits all kingdoms of the 
 earth, and that all people were about to join 
 in willing obedience to Israel's God, and to 
 Israel's king. He would remember that from 
 the very first strangers and foreigners were 
 admissible within the pale of the congrega- 
 tion, and capable of participating in the 
 federal Sacraments of Circumcision and the 
 Passover 2, that by an express ordinance this 
 privilege was conceded to the Edomite and 
 Egyptian ^ while the exclusion of the Mo- 
 abite and Ammonite on special grounds* im- 
 plied a general provision for the incorporation 
 of aliens. All the distinction which wealth and 
 power could confer was now attached to the 
 name of Israel. And it might well be thought 
 that the time was at hand when multitudes 
 should press in from all quarters of the earth, 
 and claim the privilege of enrolling them- 
 
 ' Deut. iv. 6. * Exod. xii. 44. 
 
 ^ Dcut. xxiii. 7, 8. * Deut. xxiii. 3. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 123 
 
 selves as members of this community, esteem- 
 ing it the highest honour to be children of 
 Israel by adoption, and ready to concede to 
 the children by nature the pre-eminence 
 which such a title would deserve. Were not 
 the promises of perpetual possession and 
 universal dominion, so freely and so largely 
 made to the chosen race, now about to be 
 fulfilled? Commencing with the first call of 
 Abraham, they had been again and again 
 repeated, until in David's time it seemed as 
 though the Spirit of God were pointing with 
 more distinctness to the coming reign. And 
 were not the blessings of the Son of David 
 already about to prevail over the blessings 
 of his progenitors unto the utmost bounds 
 of the everlasting hills ^ ? 
 
 Such may have been the result of a super- 
 ficial view of the greatness of the reign of 
 Solomon. But the most absolute declara- 
 tions in favour of the Israelites were qua- 
 lified by conditions, implied, if not expressed. 
 The Lord had indeed said to David and to 
 Solomon his son, " In this house, and in 
 Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the 
 tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever; 
 neither will I make the feet of Israel move 
 any more out of the land which I gave their 
 
 ' Gen. xlix. 26. 
 
124 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 fathers;" but He had added, "only if they 
 will observe to do according to all that I 
 have commanded them'." But man when 
 he is rich and prosperous ever rests chiefly 
 on the promises of God, and is little inclined 
 to examine the foundation upon which his 
 fortunes rest. He is too content with the 
 complacent acknowledgment of external fa- 
 vours, and exclaims, like David in the hour 
 of his prosperity, " I shall never be removed : 
 Thou, Lord, of Thy goodness hast made my 
 hill so strong"." A more careful inspection 
 of the condition of the kingdom of Israel 
 must have caused apprehension to a thought- 
 ful mind, even in the days when all was 
 most fair and flourishing. The turbulent dis- 
 satisfaction which broke out immediately 
 upon the death of Solomon can scarcely have 
 been entirely concealed throughout his reign, 
 while the prophecy of Ahijah and the flight 
 of Jeroboam^ must have troubled the king 
 and all Jerusalem with him. To these sources 
 of anxiety and alarm there was soon added 
 still graver cause for apprehension in the 
 
 * 2 Kings xxi. 7, 8. In 2 Sam. vii. 13, the original promise 
 is recorded, and the conditional natnrc of it less distinctly, 
 perhaps, expressed. This is however declared 1 Kings ix. 
 3 — 9, where reference is made to the original promise, and 
 the two alternatives set plainly fortli. 
 
 ' Psal. XXX. C. ' M Kings xi. 2G— 40. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 125 
 
 idolatry which the king in the latter part 
 of his reign both practised and encouraged. 
 The voice which pronounced judgment upon 
 the sin of Solomon must have found an echo 
 in the breast of every one who knew that sin 
 begets sorrow. And this idolatry furnished a 
 melancholy proof how much corruption lay 
 beneath a fair outside. The kingdom of Israel 
 was less extensive than it appeared. They 
 who so readily went after strange gods, and 
 forgot their allegiance to Jehovah at the in- 
 stance of an earthly monarch, might be His 
 subjects in name; but the Lord reigned not 
 in their hearts. A kingdom composed of such 
 subjects was not the true kingdom which 
 should prosper and prevail because it was the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 When the apprehension of evil was thus 
 awakened, a survey of the dominions would 
 increase rather than allay it. The Edomites, 
 the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 
 and the Syrians, were weak, but they might 
 again become strong. Their submission was 
 of fear more than of love. They were bound 
 down rather than shorn of their strength. 
 Let the anger of the Lord be aroused against 
 His people, and the bonds will become as 
 cords over which the fire has passed, and 
 the strong man will rend them asunder, and 
 
126 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 renew the mightiness of his youth. They 
 who had been so often made the instruments 
 of Divine vengeance were still close uj^on 
 Israel, waiting like some beast of prey until 
 their expected victim shall be within reach 
 of their deadly spring. Behold, sin was lying 
 at the door, and to Israel was its desire: it 
 must be resisted if they were to rule over it. 
 
 These anticipations of reverse were too 
 soon realized. The flower of Israel's beauty 
 was as short-lived as though it had not 
 needed the lapse of centuries to bring it to 
 maturity. The kingdom was to be established 
 by another process than that of continuous 
 growth. The nations were to be brought in 
 by other means than those of conquest or 
 incorporation. 
 
 The defection of the Ten Tribes must be 
 regarded not so much as a deadly blow to the 
 national prosperity, as a proof that this pros- 
 perity was essentially unsound. The impe- 
 rious and overbearing deportment of Reho- 
 boam was but the manifestation of pre-exist- 
 ing disaffection. There had been indications 
 of it in the fierce contention between the men 
 of Israel and of Judah for the honour of 
 bringing David back to Jerusalem^ The 
 ground of this quarrel was the jealousy felt by 
 
 • 2 Sam. xix. 43. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 127 
 
 the other tribes at the pre-eminence assigned 
 to Judah as the royal tribe. And this feeling 
 increased with the increase of the splendour 
 attached to the throne, and to the seat of 
 regal power. So that out of their very strength 
 sprung forth a germ of disunion, and there- 
 fore an element of decay. And it must be 
 remembered that the renunciation of the au- 
 thority of the legitimate sovereign implied 
 an abnegation of the government of God. The 
 distinction enjoyed by Judah had been con- 
 signed by early prophecy, and confirmed by 
 special revelations of the Divine will. The 
 lineal descendant of David was the anointed 
 Vicegerent of Jehovah. Weak and unworthy 
 as the individual might be, he was yet the 
 representative of One mightier than the might- 
 iest, and therefore with him were bound up 
 all the promises of that future kingdom, which 
 was the object of faith, of hope, and of love, 
 to every true Israelite. And it was not merely 
 that political separation brought with it as a 
 natural consequence separation from the place 
 which the Lord had chosen out of all the earth 
 wherein to set His name ; it was not merely 
 that in the spurious services substituted for 
 those of Divine institution, the enactments 
 for the appointment of priests and ministers 
 were entirely set aside ; nay, it was not 
 
128 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 merely that to supply deficiencies too palp- 
 able to escape notice the cunning Jeroboam 
 saw reason to set up graven images in direct 
 disobedience to God's commandment: but it 
 was that they had abandoned the inward 
 spirit of the religion of their fathers, without 
 which the outward form was but a hollow 
 show and empty pageant. The external mi- 
 nistry of the false priests at Dan and Bethel 
 might be a very exact copy of the services 
 of the Holy Temple, they might worship in 
 name the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob, but that deep-seated reality which gave 
 life to every particular of the Mosaic ritual 
 could not but be wanting. The utmost stretch 
 of vision of which the worship at Dan and 
 Bethel would admit, was to see the transcen- 
 dent might of the God in whom they trusted, 
 and to look to Him for present deliverance 
 from temporal calamity ; but the longings for 
 spiritual deliverance were all unsatisfied, the 
 higher hopes of reconciliation and atonement, 
 so continually presented to the minds of the 
 Temple-worshippers, had there no place, the 
 most exalted strains of prophecy were unin- 
 telligible to those who had deliberately severed 
 themselves from the Branch of Jesse, in whom 
 alone these predictions should find their ac- 
 complishment. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 12.9 
 
 The natural consequence of this alien- 
 ation from the source of life appears in the 
 history of the kings of Israel ; dynasty after 
 dynasty is supplanted by treachery and mur- 
 der. Not only is the true God worshipped 
 under vain similitudes, but as if it were a 
 light thing to dishonour Him after the usual 
 fashion, a king worse than all who had pre- 
 ceded sets up Baal in antagonism to Jehovah^ 
 and endeavours by the most cruel persecution 
 to extirpate the prophets of the Lord, and to 
 erase even the remembrance of the true God 
 from the face of the land. And although one 
 is raised up sufficiently zealous for the Lord 
 of Hosts to requite the impious rulers and the 
 false priests, to destroy root and branch the 
 family who had defied the Lord, still the in- 
 consistency of this avenger of evil shews how 
 fatal was a corrupt form of religion to piety 
 and well-doing. The house of Jehu received 
 indeed the reward vouchsafed to the instru- 
 ments even of partial reformation. And the 
 kingdom of Israel under the second Jeroboam 
 attained to prosperity greater than it had yet 
 enjoyed. But the prosperity was purely tem- 
 poral ; nor could it be otherwise so long as the 
 king and people clave to the sin of the son of 
 Nebat. The result was a condition scarcely 
 
 ' 1 Kinos xvi. 30—32. 
 C. H. L. K 
 
ISO THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 more hopeful than before. The righteous zeal 
 of Jehu for the Lord of Hosts did not preserve 
 the kingdom even from the external worship 
 of false gods. They asked counsel at their 
 stocks ; they sacrificed upon the tops of the 
 mountains, and burnt incense upon the hills^ 
 The new moons and sabbaths were observed, 
 the formal rites of the Temple were accu- 
 rately copied ; but at tlie same time the days 
 of Baalim were kept 2. Nay, the very gifts of 
 the bounty of the Lord were prostituted by 
 being employed in the service of Baal: " She 
 did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, 
 and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold 
 which they prepared for BaaP." And if the 
 leaven of Baal- worship still remained among 
 the people, the moral corruption was yet more 
 widely spread. No truth, no mercy, no know- 
 ledge of God was in the land ; by swearing 
 and lying, and killing and stealing, and com- 
 mitting adultery, they brake out, and blood 
 touched blood^. They made the king glad 
 with their wickedness, and the princes with 
 their lies^ It was among the worst symptoms 
 of national depravity, that the amount of 
 wickedness was unsuspected even by the 
 
 IIos. iv. 12, 13. 
 
 ' IIos. ii. 11, 13. 
 
 IIos. ii. 8. 
 
 ^ IIos. iv. 1, 2. 
 
 ' IIos. vii 
 
 . 3. 
 
V.J OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 181 
 
 transgressors. The fire was smouldering 
 which was soon to burst forth into a flame. 
 " They have made ready their heart like an 
 oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker 
 sleepeth all the night; in the morning itburn- 
 eth as a flaming fire^" Therefore in the hour 
 of the greatest apparent strength decay had 
 already commenced. The bud which seemed 
 so promising was empty ; the blossom should 
 go up as dust. They were sowing the wind, 
 and should reap the whirlwind 2. Strangers 
 were devouring their strength, and they knew 
 it not; yea, grey hairs were here and there 
 upon them, yet they knew it not ^ Ephraim 
 was as the morning cloud, as the early dew 
 that passeth away ; as the chafl* driven by the 
 wind from the floor*. Israel was an empty 
 vine, bringing forth fruit unto himself^; the 
 temporary fruit of external splendour, but not 
 the enduring fruit of obedience to God. Such 
 is the picture of the kingdom of Israel drawn 
 by the pen of Inspiration at a time when, to 
 outward appearance, it was most fair and 
 flourishing, towering above its lesser neigh- 
 bours, like the cedar above the thistle of 
 Lebanon*'. And the same Holy Spirit, which 
 
 ' Hos. vii. 6, ^ Ilos. viii. 7- 
 
 * Hos. vii. 9. ■• Hos. xiii. 3. 
 
 ' Hos. X. 1. •'2 Kings xiv. 9. 
 
 K2 
 
132 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 by the mouth of Hosea declared the iniquity 
 of Israel, proclaimed, by one of the contempo- 
 raries of that prophet, the judgment about to 
 be executed for this iniquity. The magnificent 
 scene with which the prophecy of Amos opens 
 portrays the Lord sitting in Zion, and judging 
 all the nations upon earth. The rightful Lord 
 of the Universe is summoning before His tri- 
 bunal those who would not have Him to reign 
 over them. Retribution is exacted of other 
 nations for wrongs done to Israel, because 
 their implacable hatred to the people of the 
 Lord arose from unwillingness to acknow- 
 ledge Him who was their God and King. 
 And if this opposition drew down the Divine 
 wrath upon Israel's foes, what measure was 
 reserved for those who, having entered into a 
 solemn covenant to serve the Lord, had virtu- 
 ally withdrawn their allegiance? His wrath 
 should pass in turn over the surrounding 
 kingdoms, and discharge itself upon Damas- 
 cus, Philistia, Tyre, Ammon, and Moab, imtil 
 at last the storm should reach to Israel, and 
 there rest in its fury^ The full measure of 
 the Divine anger was reserved for those whom 
 the Lord had known alone of all the families of 
 the earthy but who had not known the Lord. 
 
 ' Hengstenberg, Christol. des Alt. Test. Part iir. p. 197. 
 ^ Amos iii. 2. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. ]S3 
 
 But that which was a visitation for sin 
 was also a dispensation for its abolition. The 
 destruction of Samaria again united the hopes 
 and interests of the Ten Tribes with those of 
 the sister-kingdom. The most enlightened 
 among the Israelitish community had ever 
 regarded their severance from Judah as an 
 unnatural state of things, had considered the 
 king who reigned at Jerusalem their legiti- 
 mate sovereign, and looked anxiously for the 
 time when they might again enrol themselves 
 as his subjects, and be reunited to their bre- 
 thren. Elijah the prophet of Israel raised an 
 altar in Carmel with twelve stones, according 
 to the number of the twelve tribes of the sons 
 of Jacobs and the prophets who were sent to 
 Israel were wont to date the times of their 
 prophecies from the reigns of the kings of 
 Judah^. The tribe of Levi, although they took 
 part in the original revolt, repaired their fault 
 almost as soon as it had been committed ; and 
 there are notices of the return of members of 
 different tribes, and of their amalgamation 
 with the people of Judah, at a very early 
 period of the history of the two kingdoms^. 
 The diminution of Israel's strength would of 
 
 ^ 1 Kings xviii. 31. 
 
 "^ Hos. i. 1. See Hengst. Cliristol. Part m. p. 2. 
 ^ Under Rehoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 16, and under Asa, 
 2 Chron. xv. 9. 
 
J 34 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 itself have quickened this disposition to re- 
 turn ; but the destruction of the calves both 
 at Dan and Bethel, which seems to have 
 taken place previously to the final destruc- 
 tion of the kingdom, must have given a strong 
 impulse to this feeling. Hoshea himself ac- 
 quiesced, if he did not encourage it, and so 
 won for himself the partial commendation, that 
 he did evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as 
 the kings of Israel that were before him ^ Ac- 
 cordingly, the invitation sent out by Hezekiah 
 was cheerfully accepted by divers of Asher, 
 and Manasseh, and of Zebulun, who humbled 
 themselves and came to Jerusalem^ ; and after 
 the celebration of the Passover joined in the 
 destruction of images, groves, high places and 
 altars, not only out of all Judali and Benja- 
 min, but in Ephraim also and Manasseh^. 
 Readily, then, after the capture of Samaria 
 did the remnant of Israel flock in to Josiah's 
 Passover, content to acknowledge the supre- 
 macy of Judah, and to form with Judah, Ben- 
 jamin, and Levi, one people deriving their 
 denomination from the third son of Jacob, 
 rather than from that patriarch himself. 
 
 The kingdom of Judah had, as we have 
 seen, a principle of life which subsisted not 
 
 ' 2 Kings xvii. 2. See Prideaux Conn. Oxf. 1838. Vol. i. p. 15. 
 ' 2 Chron. xxx. 11. '2 Chron. xxxi. 1. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 135 
 
 in that of Israel. The interests and the duty 
 of those who remained faithful to David's 
 seed ran parallel. The possession of the true 
 worship of God and of a legitimate sovereign 
 was their boast no less than their protection. 
 Even the ungodly Abijam^ who walked in 
 all the sins of his father, could contrast with 
 confidence the claims of Israel and Judah : 
 " Ought ye not to know that the Lord God 
 of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to 
 David for ever, even to him and to his sons 
 
 by a covenant of salt And now ye think to 
 
 withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the 
 hand of the sons of David, and ye be a great 
 multitude, and there are with you golden 
 calves which Jeroboam made you for gods. 
 Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, 
 the sons of Aaron, and the Levites?...But as 
 for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not 
 forsaken Him; and the priests which minister 
 unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the 
 Levites wait upon their business. ..O ye chil- 
 dren of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord 
 God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper^." 
 In the kingdom of Judah there were many 
 
 ' Abijah in 2 Chron. xiii. 1. For his wickedness see 
 1 Kings XV. 3. 
 
 - Address of Abijah to Jeroboam and all Israel, 2 Chron. 
 xiii. 4—12. 
 
136 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect." 
 
 monarclis to whose piety and perfectness 
 of heart the Scripture bears witness, and 
 after an impious king had led the people to 
 idolatry, we have more than one instance of 
 a reformation conducted by his successor, 
 upon true and sound principles. The Pass- 
 over kept by Hezekiah and by Josiah, of 
 which the former was only surpassed by the 
 latter, are instances of such a revival of reli- 
 gion. The solemn purification of people and 
 priests, the sanctification of the congregation 
 by the sprinkling of blood, the oblation of 
 peace-offerings, and the public confession of 
 sins, the benediction of the people by the 
 priests, and the acceptance of their prayers 
 before God's holy dwelling-place, speak not 
 only of sincerity and devotion, but of that 
 precious blood-shedding, without which there 
 is no remission \ The tribes of Judah had 
 yet part in the spiritual inheritance of the 
 promised seed of David. But with such 
 advantages as Judah possessed over Israel, 
 her internal condition was scarcely less la- 
 mentable. The most flagrant instance of this 
 corruption was the idolatry into which the 
 people were perpetually falling back. Again 
 and again had those kings who did that which 
 was right in the sight of the Lord been com- 
 
 ' See 2 Chron. xxx. and xxxv. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 137 
 
 pelled to remove images and break down 
 altars. The vehement expostulations of Isaiah 
 on the folly and enormity of idol-worship '^ 
 testify how difficult it was to induce them 
 to abandon it, even at a time when one of 
 their monarchs was enjoying the reward of 
 his piety in almost unexampled prosperity. 
 Nor were violence, fraud, and impurity, the 
 constant concomitants of idolatry, slow to 
 follow in the train. The iniquity of Judah 
 in Uzziah's reign is described by Isaiah in 
 terms many of which are identical with those 
 applied by Hosea and Amos to Israel. From 
 the murder of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada 
 there seems to be a stain upon the people, 
 which the best rulers could not wash away. 
 The ground gained by Uzziah and Jotham 
 is quickly lost under Ahaz. The depravity 
 engendered by the wickedness of Ahaz was 
 more lasting than the reformation effected by 
 his son. And the flood of evil which flowed 
 in during the early part of Manasseh's reign, 
 and in that of Amon, was too great to be 
 effectually stemmed by all the righteous 
 energy and zeal of the good Josiah. 
 
 But although the premature and unhappy 
 death of Josiah on the plains of Megiddo^ 
 
 ' e.g. Isai. xliv. 
 
 * Herodotus, (ii. 159) mentions, that Necho defeated the 
 
138 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 seems to shew that in his time the day of 
 grace was past, and that the punishment for 
 the wilful obstinacy of the people was hasten- 
 ing to overtake them, yet was this monarch 
 entrusted with a task that carried with it the 
 most important consequences to the nations 
 over which he ruled ; he was commissioned 
 to carry out a destruction of idols, and all 
 their accompanying abominations, more com- 
 plete than that which Hezekiah had executed. 
 In two progresses ^ throughout his dominions 
 (including now all the country once occupied 
 by Israel) he rooted up groves, broke down 
 images, cut off the workers with familiar 
 spirits, and put away all the abominations 
 that were spied throughout the land. The 
 head quarters of Israel's shame were now 
 made desolate, and the prophecy against the 
 altar of Bethel at last fulfilled. The valley 
 of Hinnom was defiled, and made a place 
 for dead men's bones, henceforth to furnish 
 a fitting image for the place of everlasting 
 punishment. To this judicial overthrow of 
 idols by one of God's anointed kings, other 
 judgments executed by other instruments ra- 
 pidly succeeded. From the death of Josiah 
 
 Syrians eu MaycoXio. Herodotus probably confused Magdolus 
 (Migdol) and Mcgiddo. Sec Biihr, Exc. in 1. c. 
 ' 2 Chron. xxxiv. and 2 Kings xxiii. 
 
V.} OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 139 
 
 to the destruction of the Temple Jerusalem 
 was successively the prey of different foreign 
 invaders. And the flood, which at last swept 
 them away from their native soil, overwhelmed 
 the enemies who had oppressed them of yore, 
 and the idols who had so often proved a snare 
 to them. And though there might still be 
 a few who looked back with blind infatua- 
 tion to the time that was past, and fondly 
 endeavoured to connect the cause of idolatry 
 with the comparative prosperity of the days 
 in which they practised it^ the terrible devas- 
 tation which these pretended gods were so 
 powerless to resist, could not but strike deep 
 into that root of bitterness which had taken 
 so tenacious a hold upon the hearts of the 
 children of Abraham. It may seem strange 
 that the task of confronting Polytheism 
 throughout the world should have been com- 
 mitted to a people who had shewn so obstinate 
 a propensity to fall back into the abomina- 
 tions of idolatry. But the feeling of simple 
 astonishment is soon absorbed in reverent ad- 
 miration at the direction which the course 
 of events was made to take, in order to fit 
 this stubborn and stiffnecked people for a 
 
 ' See Jcr. xliv. 17, and compcare the complaints of the 
 Pagans as to the decline of the Roman power in consequence 
 of the cessation of idolatry. S. Aug. C. D. Lib. i. 
 
J 40 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 task so honourable and important. For when 
 idolatry had consumed the vigour of the 
 chosen people, the instruments which con- 
 summated their ruin were made to contribute 
 to the renovation of their strength by the 
 extirpation of the disease which had so long 
 impaired and wasted it. The two kingdoms 
 of Nineveh and Babylon, which had arisen 
 upon the ruins of a more ancient empire, 
 first competing as rivals for the superiority, 
 then united under one head into a wide- 
 spread and powerful monarchy, trampling 
 under foot all lesser powers, and riding tri- 
 umphant over vanquished foes, are, after all, 
 when seen from this point, but the instru- 
 ments of God working out the destiny of the 
 despised daughter of Zion. The gods of the 
 nations stoop and bow down before the mighty 
 conqueror, but he is not conquering for him- 
 self. The insolent Sennacherib, after his 
 triumphs in Syria and in Egypt, before whom 
 the inhabitants and their gods had proved 
 equally powerless, little guessed the cause 
 of his success ; that it was because these gods 
 were of wood and stone that he had destroyed 
 them' ; that the Lord had brought it about 
 that he should lay fenced cities in ruinous 
 heaps^ But when his rage had been directed 
 
 1 2 KincTs xix. 18. ' 2 Kings xix. 25. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 141 
 
 against the true God, his broken power and 
 ignominious retreat testified the vanity of 
 lifting up the arm to defy the Holy One of 
 Israeli The proud Nebuchadnezzar, walk- 
 
 ^ Of the widespread effect of the invasion of Sennacherib, 
 numerous prophecies of Isaiah give sufficient proof. The 
 account given in Herod, ii. 141, of Sennacherib's campaign 
 against Sethon, king of Egypt, contains so many striking 
 points of resemblance to the Scripture-narrative of the war 
 ■with Hezekiah — the distress of the king — his entering the 
 house of his god and lamenting before the image — the answer 
 bidding him be of good cheer, for the god will avenge his 
 cause — the miraculous discomfiture and retreat of the army — 
 that we must conclude the Egyptian story to have been de- 
 rived from a tradition of what had taken place before Jeru- 
 salem. It is very interesting to observe that some of the 
 latest discoveries of modern days furnish a corroboration of 
 this part of Scripture History. I subjoin an extract from a 
 letter of Colonel Rawlinson, who is engaged in deciphering 
 the inscriptions on the Nineveh remains. The letter is dated 
 Aug. 19, 1851, and appeared in the Atheuceum of Aug. 23. 
 
 " I now go to the annals of Sennacherib. This is the 
 king who built the great palace of Konyunjik, which Mr 
 Layard has recently been excavating. He was the son of 
 Sargina or Shalmaneser, and his name expressed entirely by 
 monograms may have been pronounced Sennachi-riba. The 
 events, at any rate, of his reign, place beyond the reach of 
 dispute his historic identity. * * * * The annals of the 
 third year of the reign of Sennacherib, which I have just 
 deciphered after the copy of an inscription taken by JMr 
 Layard from one of the bulls at the grand Konyunjik palace, 
 contain those striking points of coincidence which first at- 
 tracted my attention, and which, once recognised, have natu- 
 rally led to the complete unfolding of all this period of 
 history. 
 
 "In his third year, Sennacherib undertook, in the first 
 
142 THE DECLINE AXD FALL [Lect. 
 
 ing in his glory, and exulting in the mighty 
 Babylon which he had built, was compelled 
 
 instance, an expedition against Luliya, king of Sidon (the 
 'EAoi/Aa?o<; of Menander), in which he was completely suc- 
 cessful. He was afterwards engaged against some other cities 
 of Syria, which I have not yet identified, and whilst so em- 
 ployed learned of an insurrection in Palestine. The inha- 
 bitants indeed of that country had risen against their king 
 Padiya, and the officers who had been placed in authority 
 over them by the Assyrian monarch, and had driven them 
 out of the province, obliging them to take refuge with He- 
 zekiah, king of Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea. (The 
 orthography of these three names corresponds very nearly 
 with the Hebrew reading, Khazakiyahu representing \"l"'pfn> 
 Ursalimma standing for Q^iiH^j and Jahuda for nnH''-) 
 The rebels then sent for assistance to the kings of Egypt, 
 and a large army of horse and foot marched to their assist- 
 ance, under the command of the king of Pelusium (?) Sen- 
 nacherib at once proceeded to meet this army, and fighting 
 an action with them in the vicinity of Allaku (?) completely 
 defeated them. He made many prisoners also, whom he 
 executed and otherwise disposed of. Padiya then returned 
 from Jerusalem, and was reinstated in his government. In 
 the meantime, however, a quarrel arose between Sennacherib 
 and Hczekiah on the subject of tribute. Sennacherib ravaged 
 the open country, taking ' all the fenced cities of Judah,' and 
 at last threatened Jerusalem. Hezekiah then made his sub- 
 mission, and tendered to the king of Assyria as tribute thirty 
 talents of gold, three hundred talents of silver, the ornaments 
 of the temple, boys and girls, and menservants and maid- 
 servants for the use of the palace ; all these things Sennacherib 
 received, after which he detached a portion of Ilezekiah's 
 villages, and placed them in dependence on the cities which 
 had been faithful to him, such as Hebron, Ascalon, and 
 Cadytis. He then retired to Assyria. Now this is evidently 
 the campaign which is alluded to in Scripture (2 Kings xviii.), 
 and it is perhaps the same which is obscurely noticed by 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 143 
 
 to acknowledge, extol, and honour the Kmg 
 of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and 
 His ways judgment, and those that walk in 
 pride He is able to abased Much more may 
 we, to whom in these latter days the issues 
 of events are laid open, trace, in the triumph 
 of Judah's proudest foes, a preparation for 
 the victory of Him, who is exalted in the hea- 
 then, and in the whole earth ; who makes 
 kings the messengers of His will, and con- 
 querors the forerunners of His coming. 
 
 But there was another corruption besides 
 that which expressed itself in external acts — - 
 there was another reformation needed be- 
 sides that which overthrew material idols. 
 Undue trust in external privileges was a 
 habit less easily destroyed than that of actual 
 idolatry. Even while the Jews could not 
 refrain from offering sacrifice to the host of 
 
 Herodotus ii. 141, and which is further described by Josephus 
 (Ant. X. 1). The agreement between the Sacred Historian 
 and the contemporary chronicle of Sennacherib extends even to 
 the number of talents of gold and silver given as tribute." 
 
 Col. Rawlinson supposes this the first expedition of Sen- 
 nacherib to have been in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's 
 reign, and the second to have been fourteen years later. 
 
 It may be remarked, that if this deciphering may be 
 relied on, Cadytis, which lias often been supposed identical 
 with Jerusalem (Herod, ii. 159 ; iii. 5 : see Bahr's Append, 
 in Herod, ii. 159), was another city. 
 
 ' Dan. iv. 37. 
 
144 THE DECLINE AMD FALL [Lect. 
 
 heaven, they prided themselves upon their 
 possession of the externals of true religion. 
 Their notions of the Kingdom were all carnal. 
 So long as David's heir sat on David's throne, 
 and the Temple of Solomon stood within 
 Jerusalem, they never dreamt of their being 
 other than heirs of the promises, subjects of 
 the Kingdom. They pointed to the mate- 
 rial throne and the material altar, exclaiming, 
 *'The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the 
 Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these." 
 
 At the very time that Josiah was raised up 
 to destroy the outward trappings of idolatry, 
 a messenger was sent forth by God with the 
 special commission to protest against these 
 superficial views, and to proclaim aloud the 
 true nature of the predicted kingdom. The 
 period which intervened between Josiah's 
 death and the close of Jeremiah's ministry, 
 was one of uninterrupted calamity to the Jew- 
 ish people ; and the inspired writings of this 
 prophet bear upon them the stamp of deep 
 and tender feeling for the sin, as well as for 
 the misery, of his countrymen. Nor can it 
 have escaped notice that the tone assumed by 
 Jeremiah towards the enemies of his native 
 land is entirely different from that of the 
 earlier prophets. They spoke of confident 
 and faithful reliance upon the God of battles, 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 145 
 
 of bold and vigorous resistance to those who 
 were His enemies : Jeremiah mournfully coun- 
 sels submission ; nay, threatens those who 
 would take a different course, with God's dis- 
 pleasured He reserves the vehemence of his 
 indignation for untrue Israelites rather than 
 for false heathens. It is not difficult to ex- 
 plain this. The decree of the Lord for the exile 
 of His people had gone forth. The external 
 advantages which the Jews so ill understood 
 were to be taken from them, because they 
 misunderstood them. The accidental must 
 be abolished, that they might learn to cleave 
 to the essential. The Temple of the Lord was 
 not the mere stones which rose at Solomon's 
 command, without the sound of hammer or of 
 axe, on the mount of David^ but the living 
 Temple of the hearts of those who clung faith- 
 fully to the God in whom David trusted. 
 This is the reason why Jeremiah's prophecies 
 are so full of remonstrance against the half- 
 hearted and the formalist. The burden in- 
 deed of all prophecy must, to some extent, be 
 the same. For the struggle between form and 
 reality is ever going on. But the book of 
 Jeremiah seems distinctively to take this as 
 its subject, the prophet seems to be ever 
 dilating on this theme. "Judah hath not 
 
 ' Jer. xxyii. 8. ^ 1 Kings vi. 7- 
 
 C. H. L. L 
 
14.6 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 turned unto me with her whole heart, but 
 feignedly, saith the Lord^" "Circumcise 
 yourselves to the Lord, and take away the 
 foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah 
 and inhabitants of Jerusalem^." 
 
 One chief indication of the state of Judah 
 is to be seen in the false prophets which now 
 multiplied and prevailed. Instead of the 
 priests of false gods, false priests of a true 
 God were now chiefly regarded. Idols had 
 lost much of their power, but the disposition 
 which had induced idolatry found a new vent. 
 Formal sacrifices, outward observances, mate- 
 rial altars, were now their strong confidence 
 and stay ; and the false prophets fostered the 
 delusion. They spake visions out of their 
 own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the 
 Lord^ ; they healed the hurt of the people 
 slightly, saying, Peace, when there was no 
 peace*. Therefore did he whose heart within 
 him was broken because of the prophets, 
 whose bones shook, and who was like a man 
 whom wine hath overcome, because of the 
 Lord, and because of the words of His holi- 
 ness^ lift up his solitary voice in honest grief, 
 to protest against all that was hollow and 
 unreal. Therefore, while it is his sad com- 
 
 ^ Jer. iii. 10. ^ Jer. iv. 4. '' Jcr. xxiii. 16. 
 
 * Jer. vi. 14. ' Jer, xxiii. 9. 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 147 
 
 mission to proclaim the corruption of his 
 countrymen, and to pronounce upon them the 
 irrevocable sentence of protracted exile, his 
 sorrow is cheered by the revelation of better 
 times, to which the present hour of darkness 
 is introductory. And he is inspired to an- 
 nounce the approach of a better system, in 
 which "they shall say no more. The ark of 
 the Covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come 
 to mind, neither shall they remember it, nei- 
 ther shall they visit it, neither shall that be 
 done any more. At that time they shall call 
 Jerusalem the throne of the Lord ; and all the 
 nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name 
 of the Lord to Jerusalem ; neither shall they 
 walk any more after the imagination of their 
 evil hearth" 
 
 The tradition which obtained among the 
 Jews that Jeremiah should appear upon earth 
 previously to the Advent of the Messiah 2, 
 shews the light in which the mission of that 
 prophet was regarded. It indicates an ex- 
 pectation that when the Kingdom of Heaven 
 was at hand there would be need of some in- 
 spired teacher to revive the spiritual doctrine 
 of Jeremiah, some one who should turn the 
 hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of 
 the just. 
 
 ' Jer iii. 16, 17. ' Matth. xvi. 14. 
 
 L2 
 
148 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 The doctrines which the Baptist taught, 
 the severity of his rebukes to those who sub- 
 stituted heartless ceremonies for true repent- 
 ance and spiritual obedience, point him out 
 as an Elijah confronting error, and overthrow- 
 ing falsehood ; as a Jeremiah searching the 
 spirit, and piercing the heart with words sub- 
 versive of vanity and deceit, to the establish- 
 ment of sincerity and truth. Such was the 
 essence of the teaching of Christ and of his 
 Apostles, such the note of preparation sounded 
 by his forerunner. 
 
 And the calamities which fell upon the 
 Jewish people, commencing with the revolt 
 under Rehoboam, carried through the reigns 
 of successive kings, accumulated in the Baby- 
 lonish captivity, and reproduced from time to 
 time as faith waxed cold, seem to have been 
 designed to convey this lesson, that the minis- 
 tration of the Temple and of the Law was to 
 be done away, and superseded by the more 
 glorious ministration of the Spirit. 
 
 And so in later times, under the second 
 Temple, the violation of the Temple by An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes, and by Crassus, must have 
 reminded those who witnessed these acts, 
 that the Majesty of the Lord resided not in 
 Temples made with hands, and taught them 
 that sin should find no protecting shelter in 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 149 
 
 the house of the Lord — a lesson yet more 
 forcibly conveyed when the cry of The Tem- 
 ple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, 
 was vainly raised against the attack of Herod 
 when he was about to take possession of Jeru- 
 salem ^ The defeat more than once sustained 
 in consequence of a literal observance of the 
 Sabbath-rest, and the necessity for the expla- 
 natory decree issued by MattathiasS intimated 
 that regard was to be paid to the Spirit more 
 than to the letter of ritual ordinance, and 
 prepared them to understand the meaning of 
 the declaration, " I will have mercy, and not 
 sacrifice^." 
 
 And as temporal calamities were calcu- 
 tated to clear the views entertained in refer- 
 ence to the coming kingdom, so did they 
 naturally lead to a juster appreciation of the 
 character of the future King. All that pointed 
 to the spiritual nature of the kingdom set 
 forth the spiritual functions of the King. And 
 moreover the idea of suffering, forced upon 
 the mind by their own condition, enlarged 
 their notions as to the trials to which the ser- 
 vants of God may be subjected, and gave rise 
 to the conception of an ordeal of suffering to 
 be undergone as an introduction to future 
 
 ' Prid. Connect. Vol. ii. p. 568. 
 
 ' 1 Mace. ii. 41. ' Matt. xii. 7- 
 
150 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Lect. 
 
 triumph. To the unhappy captives weeping 
 by the waters of Babylon it might well seem 
 less strange that the mighty Prince in whom 
 their hopes reposed should drink of the brook 
 in the way, before he should lift up his 
 head'. 
 
 So in the prophecies to which they clung 
 as the groundwork of their hojDes of future 
 restoration, their hearts were softened by cap- 
 tivity to comprehend those descriptions of the 
 Immility, and the sufferings, as well as of the 
 exaltation of the Messiah, which are found 
 amidst the glorious annunciations of the ap- 
 proaching Kingdom of Heaven. So could they 
 look forward in calm assurance to the final 
 abolition of the sacrifice and oblation as to a 
 consummation of joy, and become familiarized 
 with the notion of Messiah the Prince at the 
 same time that they learnt that He was to be 
 cut off, but not for HimselP. 
 
 And ever in proportion as spiritual or 
 carnal notions of Messiah's kingdom pre- 
 vail, the meek and apparently humble cha- 
 racter of Him whose kingdom is not of 
 this world will be more or less appreciated. 
 The pride of prosperity and of worldly wis- 
 dom refuses to recognize the true dignity 
 of suffering. Thus the Cross was to the Jews 
 
 ' Psal. ex. 7. ' Dan. ix. 26, 27- 
 
v.] OF ISRAEL'S GREATNESS. 151 
 
 a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks fool- 
 ishness\ For they who overvalue temporal 
 blessings consider the loss of them calami- 
 tous and even degrading. The happiness 
 which is to be the aim of man is deemed 
 incompatible with reverse and misfortune^. 
 Not so does Scripture estimate true hap- 
 piness : •' Blessed are they that mourn^." 
 " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you 
 and persecute you*." Not so did He who 
 elevated, by assuming, human nature, exalt 
 its dignity. He taught us that we must be 
 made like unto Him by suffering patiently 
 trial, sorrow and sickness. Both nations and 
 individuals must be made perfect by suffer- 
 ing. Thus were the Jews instructed to put 
 their trust in something more enduring than 
 external forms and worldly splendour. Thus 
 must each individual amongst us bear his 
 burden, nor think it strange though for a 
 season he be in heaviness, that the trial of our 
 faith, being much more precious than of gold 
 that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, 
 may be found unto praise, and honour, and 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 23. In the Dialogue of Trypho, the Jew is 
 made, after conceding all other points, to protest with horror 
 against the notion of the Messiah suffering upon the cross. 
 Just. M. Tryph. p. 317- D. 
 
 -" Arist. Eth. I. 11. " Matt. V. 4. * Matt. v. 11. 
 
152 THE DECLINE AND FALL, &c. [Lect. V. 
 
 glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ : whom 
 having not seen we love ; in whom, though 
 now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; that 
 we may receive the end of our faith, even the 
 salvation of our souls ^ 
 
 ' 1 Pet. i. 7—9. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE DISPERSION OP ISRAEL. 
 
 HOS. I. 11. 
 
 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of 
 Israel he gathered together, and appoint themselves 
 one head, and they shall come up out of the land : 
 for great shall he the day of Jezreel. 
 
 nnHE geographical position of the valley of 
 -■- Jezreel or Esdrelom has made it the na- 
 tural battle-field in all the wars of the Holy 
 Land, especially when the invasion has been 
 from the North. It is a plain of Galilee 
 about eight miles in length and four in breadth, 
 bounded on the South-East by the moun- 
 tains of Gilboa, naturally of great fertility, 
 although now entirely waste and desolate. 
 Here was fought the battle in which Saul fell; 
 here that in which Ahab was slain ; not far 
 from hence was the valley of Megiddo, where 
 Josiah was mortally wounded while contend- 
 ing against Pharaoh-Necho. On these plains 
 did the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar, Vespasian, 
 Justinian, Saladin, and many others, encamp 
 in turn. And here the success of Buonaparte 
 in Syria was brought to a close. In yet later 
 
154 THE DISPERSIOJ^ OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 times it has been the scene of struggles be- 
 tween hordes of Arabs and of Turks — and 
 with this locality is especially connected the 
 desolation of Galilee, once so blooming and 
 so prosperous ^ Well then may the prophet 
 Hosea derive from the plains of Jezreel images 
 of approaching judgment, vengeance and ruin. 
 "The blood of JezreeP" is not simply that 
 which Ahab, or which Jehu shed, but all the 
 similar acts of treachery and cruelty so fre- 
 quent both in Israel and in Judah, calling 
 loudly for the vengeance of an offended God. 
 But the prophet takes occasion, by the etymo- 
 logy of the word, to make another application 
 of the term Jezreel. The original is equiva- 
 lent to the English words " God soweth ;" 
 and the reference to it in my text seems to 
 point to the coming dispersion of Israel and 
 Judah among the nations of the earth, not 
 simply as accomplishing the threatened pu- 
 nishment of disobedience, but also as forming 
 part of a dispensation of mercy, in which the 
 seed-time should be anticipatory of a plen- 
 tiful harvest ; when the scattered members of 
 the Lord's beautiful flock should be gathered 
 into one fold under one shepherd : " I will 
 sow thee among the people, and they shall 
 
 ' Ritter, quoted by Hengstenb. Cliristol. Part in. p. 41. 
 ' IIos. i. 4. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 155 
 
 remember me in far countries, and they shall 
 live with their children, and turn again^" 
 
 We have before remarked that the de- 
 struction of Samaria inclined the members 
 of the tribes of Israel to reunite themselves 
 with Judah. And this is seen in those who 
 were carried captive, no less than in those 
 that were left in the Holy Land. Thus we 
 read of descendants of Abraham in those 
 countries into which the Israelites were car- 
 ried captive ; but it is under the name of 
 Jews ; and in many cases we cannot easily 
 discover to which branch of the nation a par- 
 ticular settlement belonged, all being disposed 
 to union in adversity, and willing to take 
 that name under which the nation was most 
 powerful. So that there seems little ground 
 for the supposition, which some have enter- 
 tained, that the Ten Tribes now exist as a 
 distinct community in regions yet to be dis- 
 covered^. Rather may we conclude that they 
 are to be found under the name of Jews, 
 
 ' Zech. X. 9. 
 
 ^ Joseph. Ant. Jiid. xi. 5, 2, speaks rhetorically of the 
 Ten Tribes living beyond the Euphrates (/xi/pjaBe? am-eipoi), as 
 distinguished from the Jews who w^ere under the Roman 
 Empire in Europe and Asia. Modern travellers have sought 
 for the lost tribes. Grant conceived that he had discovered 
 them in the Nestorians of Khurdistan, But this opinion has 
 been refuted by Ainsworth. See Vaux's Nineveh, p. 63, 3rd 
 Edit. Comp. Layard's Nineveh, Vol. i. ch. 8. 
 
156 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 scattered throughout the world, as S. James, 
 in writing to the Jews of the dispersion, ad- 
 dresses himself, " to the twelve Tribes which 
 are scattered abroad ^" Shalmaneser was not 
 the first who had transplanted Israelites into 
 Assyria. Reubenites, and Gadites, and Ma- 
 nassites, had been brought to Halah, Habor, 
 and Hara, and to the river of Gozan, by Til- 
 gath-Pihieser, while Pekah was king of Israel^. 
 And after the days of Shalmaneser there 
 was a further deportation under his grandson 
 Esarhaddon^, who supplied the places of those 
 
 ^ James i. 1. "1 Chron. v. 26. 2 Kings xv. 29. 
 
 ^ Ezra iv. 2, seems to shew that " the king of Assyria," 
 mentioned in 2 Kings xvii. 24, is not Shalmaneser, but Esar- 
 haddon, and that there was an interval of many years between 
 the facts recorded in ver. 6, and in ver. 24. Josephus, Ant. Jud. 
 XI. 4, 3, who seems to be copying from Ezra, put Shalmaneser 
 for Esarhaddon. Probably this was a mistake either of Jo- 
 sephus or his transcriber. In Ant. Jud. ix. 13, 3, he mentions 
 the importation as if the king of Assyria was the same as he 
 who carried away the captives. It is not improbable that 
 Esarhaddon, both in the deportation and importation, carried 
 out more fully what Shalmaneser had begun. 
 
 This is confirmed by a cylinder in the British Museum, 
 mentioned by Col. Rawlinson, as being "a tolerably perfect copy 
 of the Annals of Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, in which 
 we find a further deportation of Israelites from Palestine, and 
 further settlements of Babylonian colonists in their place." 
 That even this deportation left many Israelites in the land, 
 seems to be proved by the mention of " Israel and Judah," in 
 the account of Josiah's passover in 2 Chron. xxxv. It has 
 been supposed that these were sprung from those who came to 
 Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, (2 Chron. xxx. II). But 
 
YI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 157 
 
 whom lie removed by settlers of a foreign 
 race. 
 
 The successive invasions of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, ending in the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, completed the exile of the whole people 
 from their native land, and changed for a 
 time the scene of their mission to Babylon 
 and the adjacent country. 
 
 But to estimate justly the effect produced 
 by these events in preparing the way for 
 Christianity, we must look beyond the cap- 
 tivity of Babylon, and the restoration under 
 Cyrus ; both of which were striking parts, but 
 only parts, of this dispensation. 
 
 The return under Zerubbabel comprised 
 only a small portion of the people. They 
 were only, as Josephus calls them, a seed, a 
 remnant rescued from the general captivity K 
 Nor did the subsequent return under Ezra 
 exhaust the number of those who had been 
 
 these Israelites after keeping the passover, and joining in the 
 destruction of images, " returned every man to his possession 
 into their own cities," (2 Chron, xxxi. J). It is not indeed 
 impossible that some may have remained mixed up with the 
 tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It seems, however, probable, 
 that members of tlie ten tribes were left in Samaria even by 
 Esarhaddon, and were then incorporated with Judah. 
 
 ^ Joseph. Ant. Jud. xi. 5, 3. In Ant. Jud. xi. 3, 10, where 
 the number of those who returned with Zerubbabel is given, 
 it is clear that either Josephus or his transcribers have substi- 
 tuted myriads for t/iousands. Com p. Ezra ii. 64. 
 
158 THE DISPERSIOX OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 expatriated. The opposition offered by the 
 Ammonites, and by the inhabitants of Sa- 
 maria, prevented for some time any material 
 accession to the number of Jews in Pales- 
 tine — until the favourable decrees obtained 
 from Darius and from Artaxerxes induced 
 many to hasten back to their native soil. 
 But we remark, that, by a Providential ar- 
 rangement, the Jews, almost from the very 
 first, became to a certain extent naturalized 
 in the land of their banishment. The mira- 
 culous exercise of prophetical skill raised 
 Daniel and his companions to the highest 
 offices of state in the province of Babylon. 
 And when the Modes had established their 
 power upon the ruin of the more ancient 
 empire, we find this band of exiles rising 
 rapidly into increased importance. The tra- 
 dition which attributed the erection of the 
 Great Tower at Ecbatana to Daniel as its 
 architect^, is not inconsistent with the facts 
 recorded in Holy Writ — the trust reposed in 
 Mordecai, the jealousy of Haman, the ho- 
 nourable employment of Nehemiah, and the 
 marriage of the great king to a Jewish wife ; 
 while the institution of the Feast of Purim 
 is a standing testimony not only to the facts 
 in which it originated, but also to the number 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jiul. x. 11, 7- 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 159 
 
 and strength of the Jews in all the countries 
 to which the decree was sent. For it gave 
 them liberty to assume a position which could 
 only be effectual to their preservation by 
 reason of the multitude of those who were to 
 have been the objects of attack'. 
 
 It is observable that the dispersion of the 
 Israelites throughout the world, which com- 
 menced in bondage and captivity, was con- 
 tinued and carried out under the most varied 
 circumstances, by monarchs of widely dif- 
 ferent views and dispositions. Not only did 
 Alexander the Great enrol many Jews in his 
 armies, and give permission to those in Media 
 and Babylonia to enjoy without molestation 
 their own laws and customs ^ but in the 
 foundation of the new city which was called 
 by his name, he held inducements to them 
 to settle there by special privileges and im- 
 munities 2. The Jews indeed at this time 
 appear to have possessed a peculiar aptitude 
 for the occupation of foreign lands ; but this 
 
 ' Esth. viii. II, ^ Joseph. Ant. Jud. xi. 8, 5. 
 
 ^ Josephus (Bell. Jud. 11. 18, 70 says that Alexander gave 
 the Jews the right of la-onixla, in reward for their services in 
 Egypt. In Ant. Jud. xii. 1, he ascribes this act of grace to 
 Ptolemy Soter. In c. Apion. 11. 4, he says, that Ptolemy, son 
 of Lagus, entertained the same sentiments towards the Alex- 
 andrian Jews as Alexander had done. Probably Ptolemy 
 renewed the privileges originally granted. 
 
IGO THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 occupation was of the same remarkable cha- 
 racter as that which is observable through- 
 out their whole national existence. They 
 were not like Greek or Roman colonists 
 taking possession of outposts in a foreign 
 soil, which they occupied as conquerors and 
 lords. They formed most important mem- 
 bers of new settlements ; but it was as sub- 
 jects dependent upon rulers of another nation. 
 Alexandria, the seat of their greatest power, 
 was a Greek not a Jewish city ; nor do we 
 find, however numerous they might be, that 
 they any where assumed the supreme sway, 
 or converted the land of their sojourn into 
 a Jewish territory. 
 
 After the disruption of Alexander's do- 
 minions, indignant at the resistance offered 
 to his arms, Ptolemy Soter besieged and 
 captured Jerusalem, and carried to Egypt 
 many Jews, both from the country about 
 Jerusalem, and from the mountainous districts 
 of Judaea; nor did the alteration of his dis- 
 position produce an alteration of his policy. 
 Not only were those who were originally 
 carried captives retained by him in honour, 
 but many more were induced voluntarily to 
 join their brethren in Egypt ^ And upon the 
 subjugation of Libya and Cyrene many were 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 1. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 161 
 
 placed in these countries \ from whom were 
 descended the Jews mentioned in the New 
 Testament as coming from the parts about 
 Libya and Cyrene^. 
 
 Although Judaea was part of the domi- 
 nions of Ptolemy at the time that Seleucus 
 became master of Syria, Seleucus took pains 
 to procure a large body of Jewish colonists, 
 for the purpose of founding the cities of 
 Antioch in Syria, Antioch in Pisidia, and 
 Laodicea^. 
 
 The favour which the Jews experienced 
 at the hands of the earlier Ptolemies, con- 
 tributed to strengthen and midtiply them in 
 the various parts of their dominions. And 
 their fidelity to their governors became so 
 remarkable, that Antiochus the Great, in 
 order to stop a rebellion in Phrygia and 
 Lydia, commanded the removal of two thou- 
 sand families of Jews from Babylonia and 
 Mesopotamia'' to the regions of Asia Minor, 
 where their descendants were so numerous in 
 the days of the Gospel. 
 
 Again, the persecutions of Ptolemy Philo- 
 pator, and of Antiochus Epiphanes, fraught as 
 
 ' Joseph, c. Apion. ii. 4. Prid. Conn. Vol. i. p. 583. 
 ^ Acts ii. 10. Comp. Luke xxiii. 26, " Simon the Cyrcnian." 
 ^ Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 3, 1. 
 
 " Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 3, 3. Prid. Conn. Vol. ii. p. 133. 
 C II. L. M 
 
162 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 they were with other consequences, and de- 
 signed as visitations for national sin, brought 
 about a still further dispersion, partly by 
 forcible transportation ^ and partly by the 
 terror which must have driven many to take 
 refuge in places less immediately exposed to 
 the violence of their oppressors. And con- 
 nected as the Galatians are with the preach- 
 ing of Christianity, it is interesting to read 
 in the Maccabees of conquests achieved, and 
 settlements secured, by Babylonish Jews in 
 that country". 
 
 And when the Romans began to gather 
 the kingdoms of the earth into one universal 
 empire, we cannot but observe how the Jews 
 from time to time won the goodwill of men 
 of influence and power, and so obtained a 
 footing within the imperial city. The sin- 
 gular events of the life of Herod, and the 
 equally romantic adventures of his grandson 
 Agrippa^, in the course of which the heir of 
 the Roman Emperor was entrusted to the 
 care and guardianship of a Jew, acquire a 
 fresh interest when they are viewed as proofs 
 of the extent of Jewish influence, and as 
 
 ' Antioclms Epiphanes sold 40,000 as slaves. 2 Mace. 
 V. 14. 
 
 * 2 Mace. viii. 20. 
 
 ^ For the extraordinary history of Agrippa, see Joseph. 
 Ant. Jud. xviii. 7, and Bell. Jud. ii. 9, II. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 163 
 
 instrumental in increasing this influence at 
 a time when Christianity was shortly about 
 to be preached within the walls of Rome. 
 
 It is most instructive to compare the names 
 of the countries from which the people came 
 together to Jerusalem on the day of Pente- 
 cost ^ with the antecedent history of their 
 settlements under Persian, Syrian, and Egyp- 
 tian kings ; and to trace the progress of the 
 Apostle Paul through lands in which we 
 have the record of the plantation of Jews, 
 and to cities the very names of which are 
 connected with the history of this people, 
 until he is led as a prisoner to the capital 
 of the world, where there are Jews to come 
 together in numbers, that he may expound 
 and testify to them the Kingdom of God. 
 
 There was however a church already es- 
 tablished in that city, composed mainly, as 
 the Epistle to the Romans shews, of con- 
 verted Gentiles. Of these no doubt were 
 *'the brethren^" mentioned in the Acts, as 
 distinct from the Jews whom S. Paul called 
 together. But the Epistle presupposes in 
 those to whom it was written an acquaintance 
 with the pretensions and claims of the Jews, 
 and therefore leads us to conclude, that they 
 had, for the most part, been prepared by a 
 
 ' Acts ii, 8 — 11. * Acts xxviii. 15. 
 
 M'-2 
 
1G4 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 knowledge of Jewish doctrines to accept the 
 teaching of Christianity. And the force of 
 the appeal to the Jewish Scriptures, which 
 is so constantly made in Epistles addressed 
 to churches composed to a great degree of 
 Gentile converts, seems to lie in this, that 
 the Jews had already made these persons 
 sufficiently acquainted with their doctrines 
 and their expectations, to enable simple and 
 honest minds to compare the fulfilment with 
 the promise, and to receive Christianity as 
 that scheme to which the Jewish Dispensation 
 was ordained to lead — guided to the path of 
 truth by those who pointed out, but did not 
 follow it'. 
 
 It were indeed no less unreasonable than 
 irreligious to see in these coincidences the 
 effect of accident and chance. That some 
 great design was being carried out must be 
 admitted by all who do not deny a Provi- 
 dence itself. In a treatise upon the exploits 
 of Alexander the Great, Plutarch complains 
 much of the want of philosophy in those who 
 would attribute such success to chance and 
 fortune ; and he makes use of a very striking 
 illustration in contradiction of such a suppo- 
 
 ' Facti sunt cis tanquam lapides ad milliaria — viatorihus 
 ambulantibus aliquid ostendcrunt, sod ipsi stolidi atque inimo- 
 bilcs remanserunt. S. August. Scrm. 199 in Epiphan. 
 
VI. J THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 165 
 
 sition. Having recounted a plan once pro- 
 posed, of hewing the mountain of Athos into 
 a figure of the conqueror holding a city in 
 one hand, and a lake in the other; " Had this 
 work," he asks, " been executed, should we 
 have seen it in no more than a fortuitous 
 arrangement, into which rocks and stones had 
 of themselves fallen ? And shall we attribute 
 the far greater work which his conquests 
 effected in the world to nought but the issues 
 of chance^?" The heathen philosopher, in con- 
 templating the wonderful progress of civiliza- 
 tion, seems to attribute to the conqueror him- 
 self a foresight which there is not much evi- 
 dence that he possessed, and would represent 
 him as actuated by the most exalted notions 
 of benevolence to his fellow-creatures, rather 
 than by the lust of dominion, and the love of 
 glory. He argues back from the effects pro- 
 duced to the purpose of the agent who pro- 
 duced them. But in very truth the fortune of 
 Alexander was the Providence of God. The 
 beneficial results of his conquests were those 
 which they were intended to effect, intended 
 not by him who was the instrument of achiev- 
 ing, but by the Supreme Being who ordered 
 and directed them. And if in the advance of 
 civilization we can recognize a Providential 
 compensation for the terrors of war ; if the 
 
 ^ Plutarch, de Alex. Mag. Fortun. aut Virtut. Orat. ii. cap. 3. 
 
16Q THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 true mission of a conqueror is best under- 
 stood when the din of arms is hushed, and in 
 the cahn which has replaced the noise of the 
 battle the inhabitants of the earth begin to 
 reap the fruits of past suffering ; if when we 
 observe the arts of peace gaining ground 
 under the banners of conquest, we can under- 
 stand that man has not bled and toiled in 
 vain ; much more may we discover, in the 
 progress of religious truth, a full equivalent 
 for miseries endured, and adore with thankful 
 reverence the God of battles bringing forth 
 out of tumult and discord true harmony and 
 peace. 
 
 To effect this beneficent purpose the 
 Almighty was pleased to employ those whom 
 He had chosen to Himself as a peculiar 
 people. Far as the wheels of the war-chariot 
 roll on, it is theirs to carry forward righte- 
 ousness with healing on her wings, like the 
 Prayers whom the Grecian poet so beauti- 
 fully depicts as following in the rear of Ate 
 to repair the havock and devastation which 
 she produces in the earth'. 
 
 * Kat yap tc AiTai elai Aio? Kovpai fxcyaXoio 
 « « * * * 
 
 cu pa Te K«i fjLeTOTTKTU Atj/t aAeyoucri Ktovaaf 
 >j S' "At^ aOevaptj re kqi upTiiro^' ovvcKa TraVa? 
 TToWov vireKirpoQeei' (pdaveet ?e t€ -naa-av eV alav 
 fSXaiTTOva dt'OpaoTTOv;' a'l S* e^uKeovrai oTr/tro-w. 
 
 Horn. II. /. 498—503. 
 
YI.J THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 167 
 
 The inspired Volume tells of the religious 
 impression made successively upon the minds 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius and Arta- 
 xerxes, and records the means by which this 
 impression was produced. And if we exa- 
 mine the history of religion in the countries 
 where the Jews dwelt, we shall discover many 
 traces of their influence. 
 
 The two great systems of religious wor- 
 ship in the East, the Sabian, which set up 
 visible representations of the Deity, and the 
 Magian, which admitted of no other symbol 
 than that of fire, were shortly after the time 
 of Cyrus brought into open collision with 
 each other. The usurpation of the crown by 
 Smerdis the Magian, and the discovery of his 
 imposture, gave pretence for a great slaughter 
 of the party to which he belonged S and the 
 result was the present triumph of the Sabians 
 or Image-worshippers-. This triumph was, 
 however, checked by the reformation of the 
 Magian religion, effected under the superin- 
 
 ^ Herod, iii. 79. 
 
 * See a curious inscription at Behistan, lately deciphered 
 by Col. Rawlinson. " Says Darius the king, The crown that 
 had been wrested from our race, that I recovered. I established 
 it firmly ; as in the days of old, thus I did. The rites which 
 Goniates the Magian had introduced, I prohibited. I rein- 
 stituted for the state the sacred chants and sacrificial worship, 
 and confided them to the families which Gomates the Magian 
 had deprived of these offices." Yaux's Nineveh, p. 405. 
 
168 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 tendence of Zoroaster. The tradition which 
 assigns to this extraordinary man a Jewish 
 education, if not a Jewish origin, can scarcely 
 be entirely unfounded, although w^e may scru- 
 ple to accept without hesitation all that is 
 related of him, or rely upon those historians 
 who pretend to name the prophet from whom 
 he received instruction. The close resemblance 
 of his particular institutions to those of the 
 Mosaic Law, and the number of passages in 
 the Zendavesta (his book of revelation) exactly 
 copied from the Old Testament, would be suf- 
 ficient to prove the assistance he derived from 
 the Scriptures of the Jews, even if he had not 
 himself styled his book the book of Abraham, 
 and his religion the religion of Abraham'. 
 
 In the midst of the falsehood mixed up 
 with the system adopted by this teacher, 
 and the impostures by which he supported 
 his claims to reverential regard, we observe 
 that he propounded as his first principle the 
 great truth of the Unity of the Supreme 
 Being, which had been lost sight of in the 
 dualistic system of the Magian religion, as it 
 existed before his days ; for in place of the 
 
 ' See a full account of Zoroaster and of the Zendavesta in 
 Prid. Conn. Vol. i. p. 236—200. The reverence with which 
 Abraham's name has ever been regarded throughout the East 
 is well known. 
 
VI.] TPIE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 169 
 
 two independent powers of Light and Dark- 
 ness, he taught that there was one Almighty 
 and Self-existent Being, under whom are the 
 two Angels of Light and of Darkness, the one 
 the minister of good, and the other of evil. 
 And this doctrine, which approaches very 
 nearly to the truth, resembles so closely a 
 passage in Isaiah, that we can scarcely avoid 
 the conclusion that it was derived from that 
 prophet : " I am the Lord, and there is none 
 else, there is no God beside Me : I girded thee, 
 though thou hast not known Me ; that they 
 may know from the rising of the Sun, and 
 from the West, that there is none beside Me. 
 I am the Lord, and there is none else. I 
 form the Light and create Darkness : I make 
 peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these 
 things^" They who give to Zoroaster Py- 
 thagoras as a pupil, would claim for him the 
 honour of communicating to Greece the spi- 
 ritual conceptions of the Deity, which Plato 
 seems to have derived originally from the 
 doctrines of Pythagoras ; and the constant 
 belief, which represented the East as the 
 source of the sublimest truths of Grecian phi- 
 losophy, may seem to strengthen this opi- 
 nion, and to shew that some at least of those 
 remarkable doctrines, which we admire as 
 
 ^ Isai. xlv. 5 — 7^ 
 
170 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 bordering upon, if not anticipatory of, the 
 truths of Revelation, were actually derived 
 from the inspired source of all truth. Nor 
 can we hold it insignificant that the title of 
 Magians (as indicative of the profession of 
 the system of Zoroaster) is given to those 
 Wise Men who were drawn from the East, 
 by the miraculous appearance of a star, to 
 offer before the infant Saviour the firstfruits 
 of homage and of love — prepared, it may be, 
 by those purer views of religion which their 
 great lawgiver had derived from Jewish 
 sources, to expect and to acknowledge one 
 who should arise as a Star out of Jacob, and 
 a Sceptre out of Israeli 
 
 But besides the part which the Jews took 
 in communicating to a system full of error 
 the germ of truth, which made it superior 
 to the grosser forms of paganism, the direct 
 effect of their presence in all the regions 
 whither they were driven must have been 
 yet more remarkable. They were the city 
 set upon a hill, the salt wherewith the earth 
 was to be seasoned, the seed of God scattered 
 throughout the whole earth. They presented 
 to the nations the spectacle of a people sepa- 
 rate and peculiar, basing their separation and 
 peculiarity upon a belief in One God, Maker 
 
 ' Numb. xxiv. 17- 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 171 
 
 of heaven and earth. And not only did the 
 Jews thus proclahn to the world the Unity 
 and Majesty of God, and so prepare the way 
 for the more perfect revelation of His nature 
 and attributes, which was to be made by 
 Christianity, but they introduced religion as 
 a scheme established for the reformation of 
 morals and the condemnation of vice. The 
 idea of religion as it has been developed in 
 the Gospel is so familiar to us, that it seems 
 almost inseparable from morality. We can 
 scarcely conceive a religion which does not 
 introduce some system, though it may be a 
 false one, of morals. But this was by no 
 means the case with Pagans. To put aside 
 the foul immoralities which were sanctioned 
 by, and formed part of their religious rites, 
 it is most certain that the general service of 
 their temples contained no reproval of vice, 
 no inculcation of virtue. " Where was the 
 care," asks S. Augustin, " which those deities 
 exhibited for the lives and morals of their 
 votaries? Where the protest against vice and 
 immorality ? Shew it to us if there be any. 
 Talk not of precepts whispered secretly into 
 the ears of the initiated few, but name and 
 shew the places consecrated to the promul- 
 gation of moral truths — places not assigned 
 to licentious festivals, and to unhallowed 
 
172 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [LecT. 
 
 games, but appointed for the instruction of 
 the people in the duty of abandoning ava- 
 rice, of overcoming ambition, and of restrain- 
 ing lust. Tell us where the services of the 
 gods are connected with the recital of the 
 principles of morality which we see esta- 
 blished every where as an essential part of 
 the preaching of Christianity^" Indeed, in 
 the heathen world the philosophers, not the 
 priests, were they who inculcated the pre- 
 cepts of morality ; and therefore these pre- 
 cepts rested rather upon the Nature of Man 
 and the Fitness of Things, than on the com- 
 mands of God. How imperfect was the force 
 of such natural obligation experience suffi- 
 ciently discovered ; and it is one of the proofs 
 of the Divine origin of Christianity to see 
 that from the very first its efforts were di- 
 rected to the reformation of morals, and the 
 enforcement of the practical duties of life. 
 We have endeavoured on a former occasion - 
 to shew that the Mosaic Law was based upon 
 similar principles, that the duties which arise 
 from the several relations of man to man were 
 therein exhibited and enforced. But the same 
 principles are still more fully set forth in the 
 Avritings of the Prophets, who, assuming the 
 Law as their standard, address themselves to 
 
 ' S. Au<:r. c. D. Lib. II. ch. G. - Lcct. II. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 173 
 
 mankind as transgressors and offenders. The 
 Law propounded true morality, the Pro- 
 phets denounced its violation. Accordingly, 
 S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, after 
 having described the amount of knowledge 
 which the Gentiles possessed in the law 
 written upon their hearts, turns to the Jews 
 as the professed teachers of morality upon 
 higher grounds : *' Behold, thou art called 
 a Jew, and restest in the Law, and makest 
 thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and 
 approvest the things that are more excel- 
 lent, being instructed out of the Law ; and art 
 confident that thou thyself art a guide of 
 the blind, a light of them which are in dark- 
 ness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of 
 babes, which hast the form of knowledge, and 
 of truth in the Law^" 111 as the Jews practi- 
 cally enforced by their example the prin- 
 ciples which they maintained, it was surely 
 no unimportant step towards the inculcation 
 of Christian doctrine, that there should be 
 scattered among the heathen a people who 
 professed to base their morality upon their 
 religion. 
 
 The dispersion of the people, and their 
 continuance as a distinct nation, though scat- 
 tered and disunited, involved the hopes of 
 
 ' Rom. ii. 17—20. 
 
174 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 restoration. And the partial nature of the 
 restorations under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Ne- 
 hemiah, plainly pointed to a more perfect 
 fulfilment of those prophecies wherein their 
 return was foretold. These prophecies spoke 
 clearly of a new kingdom, under one King. 
 And thus the idea of the Messiah as a 
 Redeemer and Restorer would be that on 
 which the dispersed would love to dwell. 
 This is the purport of the well-known vision 
 of Dry Bones, in Ezekiel. The Jews were 
 like the scattered fragments of human skele- 
 tons, disjoined and lifeless. " Our bones," as 
 is said in one of the Psalms, " lie scattered 
 before the pit, like as when one breaketh and 
 heweth wood upon the earths" But as these 
 dry bones are reunited into form and con- 
 sistency, and, finally, revivified by the Word 
 of God, so should the scattered members of 
 the Jewish community be formed again into 
 one body, receiving its life from one Head ; 
 for until the Spirit communicated by the One 
 Head had passed into the body, there was 
 no life in it. These bones are the whole 
 house of Israel. " Behold, I will take the 
 children of Israel from among the heathen, 
 whither they be gone, and will gather them 
 on every side, and bring them into their own 
 
 ^ Psal. cxli. 7. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 175 
 
 land: and I will make them one nation in 
 the land of the mountains of Israel, and one 
 king shall be king to them all; and they shall 
 be no more two nations, neither shall they 
 be divided into two kingdoms any more at 
 all... so shall they be my people, and I will 
 be their God, and David my servant shall 
 be king over them; and they all shall have 
 one shepherd: they shall also walk in my 
 judgments, and observe my statutes, and do 
 them^" 
 
 That these hopes of future restoration 
 involved far more than any restitution of 
 temporal blessings, may be seen from an 
 examination of the prophecies from which 
 they were derived 2. Some say expressly that 
 the restoration of the Jews will take place 
 under Messiah, who is often entitled David 
 the King ; others, without precisely defining 
 the time, introduce the return amid predic- 
 tions of the Messiah^. And, further, the cir- 
 cumstances which are to attend this restoration 
 
 ' Ezek. XXX vii. 21—24. 
 
 ^ All these prophecies are fully discussed by Thomas 
 Burnet " de futura Judasorum restauratione/' in an Appendix 
 to his treatise " De Statu Mortuorum." 
 
 ^ Of the first class are Jer. xxx. 9; xxxili. 15, 16; Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 23, sqq. ; Ezek. xxxvii. 24, sqq.; Hos. iii. 5; Psal. 
 Ixxxix. 20. Of the second class, Isai. ch. ii., iv., xi., xxxii., 
 XXXV., xlix., Ix., Ixvi. ; Jer. xxiii. 5, sqq. ; Amos ix. 11 ; 
 Mic. iv. ; Zech. ii. 10 ; all quoted by Burnet. 
 
176 THE DISPERSION OF ISR.YEL. [Lect. 
 
 are plainly of an extraordinary and miracu- 
 lous character. Righteousness, justice, and 
 holiness, are to flourish and abound. "Then 
 judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and 
 righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And 
 the work of righteousness shall be peace, and 
 the effect of righteousness quietness and assu- 
 rance for ever^" Liberty and security are 
 to be perpetual. " In that day I will break 
 the bow, and the battle, and the sword, out of 
 the earth, and will make them to lie down 
 safely^." The order of nature is to be changed 
 and ameliorated: "Behold, I create new hea- 
 vens and a new earth, and the former shall 
 not be remembered, nor come into mind. But 
 be ye glad, and rejoice for ever in that which 
 I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a 
 rejoicing, and her people a joy^." 
 
 But these images, which are borrowed from 
 the face of nature and applied to the descrip- 
 tion of the condition of those whom the Lord 
 shall redeem — figuring their redemption by 
 their restoration to the city and country of 
 Jerusalem — are constantly accompanied by de- 
 scriptions of spiritual conversion, and spiritual 
 blessings. " Turn ye even to me with all your 
 heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and 
 with mourning; and rend your heart, and not 
 
 ' Isai. xxxli. 16, 17. "- IIos. ii. 18. ' Isai. Ixv. 17, 18. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 177 
 
 your garments, and turn unto the Lord your 
 God... And ye shall know that I am in the midst 
 of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, 
 and none else: and my people shall never 
 be ashamed. And it shall come to pass after- 
 ward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon 
 all flesh. ..And it shall come to pass, that 
 whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord 
 shall be delivered ; for in Mount Zion and 
 in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the 
 Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom 
 the Lord shall call\" 
 
 The Jews themselves, before Christ's com- 
 ing, connected these promises with the future 
 Messiah, and even now many of them look 
 forward to their completion, when their long- 
 expected King shall appear. That the cha- 
 racteristics of this kingdom are such as apply 
 to that kingdom of heaven, which our blessed 
 Saviour established upon earth, proclaiming 
 righteousness, deliverance, peace, and joy, to 
 those who sit in the captivity of sin, writing 
 a new law on the heart of His disciples, and 
 sending His Holy Spirit to those whom He 
 calls out of the world, none to whom the 
 Gospel is made known will venture to deny. 
 But we must remember, that from the time 
 of our Lord's appearance upon earth His 
 
 ' Joelii. 12—22. 
 C. H. L. N 
 
178 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect- 
 
 Church assumed the position which Jeru- 
 salem formerly occupied. Hence the bless- 
 ings proclaimed to Jerusalem are to be fully 
 understood only by a reference to the Chris- 
 tian Church — the redemption of Israel is to 
 be applied only to the Israel of God. 
 
 And although the oft-repeated assurances 
 of the continuance of God's love to the people 
 whom He originally chose, may lead us to 
 expect that there will be a time when some- 
 thing like a general conversion of the Jews 
 will take place, some marked restoration of 
 this people to the true fold ; yet we cannot 
 accede to the idea that the physical bless- 
 ings promised to Messiah's triumphant king- 
 dom are to be interpreted literally, that the 
 earthly Jerusalem is to be the seat of His 
 dominion, or that the conversion of the Jews 
 will necessarily be accompanied by their re- 
 establishment in their native land^ 
 
 It is the character of all prophecy to re- 
 present the alternation of two states — a state 
 of punishment, affliction, and war, and a state 
 of pardon, happiness, and peace. There is 
 scarce a promise unconnected with a warn- 
 ing, scarce a threat unaccompanied by a 
 promise. The chequered aspect which the 
 history of the Jews presents corresponds ex- 
 
 ' These are the views maintained by Burnet. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 179 
 
 actly to this character of prophecy. Thus, 
 Moses in setting before Israel the conse- 
 quences of obedience and of disobedience, 
 speaks of defeat, of captivity, and of disper- 
 sion, to be followed by victory, deliverance, 
 and restoration \ This was the very epitome 
 of all Israel's future history 2, and each of 
 these conditions was continually reproduced. 
 Babylon was to them a second Egypt^, from 
 which there was a second entrance into the 
 Land of Promise. The dispersion which ac- 
 companied the Babylonish captivity was con- 
 tinued after that bondage had ceased, and 
 was again paralleled by the more complete 
 dispersion which followed the second destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem; a dispersion which still 
 presents so remarkable a phenomenon to our 
 eyes. And the restorations which have hither- 
 to been effected are all parts of that Divine 
 Economy which will be completed in a more 
 perfect and more glorious, because more spi- 
 ritual restoration. 
 
 And not only are these alternations to be 
 found in the history of the Israelites. They 
 occur in the Church of Christ, and will occur 
 so long as it is militant upon earth. There 
 
 ' Deut. xxviil. — xxx. 
 
 " This alternation is set forth in a striking manner in 
 Ezek. XX. 
 
 ^ " They shall return into Egypt." Hos. viii. 13. 
 
 N2 
 
180 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lect. 
 
 are and ever will be seasons of ebb and of 
 flow, times of light and of darkness ; and this 
 is why it is often difficult to determine the 
 precise event to which a particular prediction 
 refers. It is not so much that one prophecy 
 refers to two or more distinct events, it is that 
 these events are successive steps in that ope- 
 ration of the Divine Will which is therein 
 foretold. And so when w^e find descriptions 
 which correspond to what followed close upon 
 the prediction, connected almost inseparably 
 with others which point to remote and yet 
 future ages, we must neither dwarf down the 
 larger expressions, and merge all in what may 
 be called the primary fulfilment, nor carry 
 forward every foretold particular, and con- 
 ceive that all, whether temporal or spiritual, 
 will occur together at the time of ultimate 
 completion \ The distinction of future, pre- 
 sent, and past, are only for man as he now 
 exists. With God all is present, and the ful- 
 filment is truly one, although it is executed 
 not at one moment, but at different periods 
 in the world of time. " In those prophecies," 
 says Tertullian, " the time is but one, which 
 seems to us to be divided into separate periods. 
 So that what is still unproved by the event, is 
 
 ' This is the principle which seems to have guided Grotius 
 in his interpretations of prophecy. 
 
VI.] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. ]81 
 
 proved by the fulfilment of other particulars, 
 Avhich formed part of the same prophecy 
 when they too were as yet in futurity^" It 
 is as if a picture were set before us involved 
 in partial obscurity, on various parts of which 
 light from time to time is thrown, and more 
 and more is continually disclosed to our view ; 
 until the brightness of perfect day discovers 
 all the several features blending harmoniously 
 together in one grand and comprehensive 
 design. 
 
 Therefore we do indeed look for the full 
 completion of these glorious prophecies as 
 yet to come. The visible Church of Christ 
 is far from co-extensive with the world. How 
 many nations are there not yet brought under 
 His yoke, ignorant, or opposed to His doc- 
 trines ! The Church is as yet but as seed 
 scattered throughout the world. 
 
 Nor is even the gathering in of the nations 
 into the visible Church the consummation 
 of Prophecy. It is one great step towards 
 it, but it is not all. The Jews being spread 
 abroad, proclaimed truths upon the founda- 
 tions of which Christianity was to be built; 
 but as it by no means followed that all who 
 
 ' " Unum est tempiis apud illas (prophetias) quod apud nos 
 separari videtur. Ita omnia qiui? supcrsunt improbata, pro- 
 bata sunt nobis, quia cum illis, qua? probata sunt, tunc fiituris 
 prvTdicabantur." Tcrtull. Apolog. cb. 19. 
 
1S2 THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. [Lf.ct. 
 
 heard accepted the truth, or that Christianity 
 was universally acknowledged by those to 
 whom it was announced, so does it not follow 
 that all who are engrafted into the Visible 
 Church of Christ shall hereafter be found to 
 be in very truth members of Christ, and 
 children of God. The formation of the Visible 
 Church into one body, sealed by the sacra- 
 ments of our Lord's institution, has been 
 ordained to supply to man effectual means 
 of union with Christ. But not all will avail 
 themselves of the means of union. The mass, 
 whether it be styled Christian or heathen, is 
 yet unleavened. We are apt, perhaps, to 
 wonder at the blindness of those who clung 
 to the grossest idolatry, while they had among 
 them living witnesses of truth. We may be 
 equally surprized that they among whom the 
 light of Christianity has been so widely dis- 
 seminated, are so little influenced by its 
 genuine principles — that the incorruptible 
 seed does as yet bear but a scanty harvest of 
 faith and hope, of obedience and love. Yet 
 the seed is incorruptible, and the harvest will 
 be gathered in. 
 
 They who are called out of the world, and 
 have embraced the religion of Christ, are all 
 in one sense " holy" and " elect," but for final 
 acceptance at the last day there must be an- 
 
VL] THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 183 
 
 Other holiness, another election. They only 
 who live according to their profession, trans- 
 forming themselves by the aid of the Spirit 
 into the image of Christ, shall be called out 
 of the world to receive the inheritance pre- 
 pared to them of their Father. 
 
 The good seed which has brought forth 
 some thirty, some sixty, and some an hun- 
 dred-fold, is that which endureth unto the 
 end. They in whose honest and good hearts 
 the seed is fructifying, are scattered through- 
 out the world. The world knoweth them not ; 
 they are in the world, not of the world, shew- 
 ing forth in various ways the light of God's 
 Truth, but often despised and disregarded. 
 Yet these are they who shall be unmoved 
 when the powers of heaven are shaken, who 
 shall rejoice when all the tribes of the earth 
 mourn, when the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of Heaven with power and great glory 
 shall send His angels with a great sound of a 
 trumpet, and they shall gather together His 
 elect from the four winds, from one end of 
 Heaven to the other \ 
 
 ' Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. 
 
LECTURE VIL 
 
 THE RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT CON- 
 DITION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 HAGGAI 11. 4. 
 
 Yet now be strong, O Zeruhhabel, saith the Lord; 
 and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the 
 high priest ; and be strong^ all ye people of the 
 land, saith the Lord, and work : for J am ivith 
 you, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 TT7E have seen that the restoration of the 
 ^ * Jews to their native soil was by no 
 means complete or universal : that no incon- 
 siderable number of them still remained in 
 foreign lands, and that fresh settlements of 
 this people were formed from time to time 
 in various countries of the East. 
 
 Yet was Jerusalem still the centre of 
 union. The re-edification of the city, and of 
 the Temple, was of almost as much moment 
 to the dwellers in Mesopotamia as to those 
 who had returned under Zerubbabel to the 
 land of Palestine. So Nehemiah, although 
 in a post of wealth and honour at Shushan 
 the palace, when he heard that the remnant 
 of the captivity left in the province were 
 
Lect. VII.] RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 185 
 
 in great affliction and reproach, that the wall 
 of Jerusalem was broken down, and the gates 
 thereof burned with fire, wept and mourned, 
 fasted and prayed; discovering in this cala- 
 mity a punishment for the sins not only of 
 those who were in Judaea, but of all the 
 nation ; for the sins "of the children of Israel 
 which we have sinned against thee\" 
 
 The first attempt to rebuild the Temple 
 and the Holy City met with opposition and 
 obstruction. The local authorities were in- 
 duced to hinder that work which the king 
 had favoured 2. The ancient enemies of the 
 people of Israel made every effort to impede 
 their progress, and persuaded the successor 
 of Cyrus to issue a decree commanding that 
 the city be not built^. But, in spite of diffi- 
 culties and discouragement, the work went 
 on. The delay was of no long continuance. 
 Prophets were raised up to stimulate exertion 
 by promises of Divine support and assist- 
 ance. The heaven was stayed from dew, the 
 earth from her fruits, when the house of the 
 Lord was not built. The time was come — 
 the time that the house should be built. And 
 the Lord of Hosts sent forth His word, "I will 
 
 ' Neh. i. 6. - Ezra iv. 5. 
 
 ^ Ezra iv. 17 — 22. The king called by Ezra, Artaxerxes, 
 seems to have been the king known to the Greeks asCambyses. 
 
186 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, 
 saith the Lord'." The Lord had not departed 
 from the Holy City. '* According to the word 
 that I covenanted with you when ye came 
 out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among 
 you : fear ye not\" " Thus saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, Let your hands be strong, ye that 
 hear in these days these words by the mouth 
 of the prophets, which were in the day that 
 the foundation of the house of the Lord of 
 Hosts was laid, that the Temple might be 
 built. For before these days there was no 
 hire for man, nor any hire for beast, neither 
 was there any peace to him that went out 
 or came in because of the affliction ; for I set 
 all men every one against his neighbour. But 
 now I will not be unto the residue of this 
 people as in the former days, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts. For the seed shall be prosperous, 
 the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground 
 shall give her increase, and the heavens shall 
 give their dew ; and I will cause the remnant 
 of this people to possess all these things^" 
 
 The accomplishment however of these pro- 
 mises may scarcely be dated from the com- 
 pletion of the Temple. Within twenty years 
 from the edict of Cyrus, " the children of 
 Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the 
 
 ' Hag. i. 8. ' Hag. ii. 5. == Zccli. vili. 9—12. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 187 
 
 rest of the children of the captivity, kept 
 the dedication of this house of God with 
 joy^" But it was not until a reformation 
 both in church and state had been conducted 
 by Ezra and by Nehemiah, upon the prin- 
 ciples of the Divine Law, that the Jews can 
 be said to have been securely re-established 
 in their ancient land. The covenant, written 
 and formally sealed by princes, Levites, and 
 priests, nearly one hundred years after the 
 decree of Cyrus^, marks the era of the resti- 
 tution of the Divine favour to Jerusalem, 
 once again become the chosen seat of the 
 kingdom of the Lord. The blessing of the 
 Lord rested again upon Sion's holy hill. 
 Again did the tribes come up from distant 
 regions to celebrate the great national fes- 
 tivals in Jerusalem. To Jerusalem the Jews, 
 wherever they might dwell, were to look as 
 the source from whence the streams of know- 
 ledge were to go forth and water the earth. 
 There was the high-priest who could alone 
 make the ordained atonement for the sins of 
 the whole people. There the spiritual rulers 
 who sat in Moses' seat^. There the throne 
 of David, the seat of legitimate authority 
 over all the tribes of Israel. 
 
 But as the restoration was incomplete as 
 
 ' Ezra vi. 16. ^ Neh. ix. 38. ^ Slatt. xxiii. 2. 
 
188 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 to the number of those who returned, so was 
 it also incomplete as to the amount of power 
 which resided with the Jews at Jerusalem. 
 Their first deliverance from bondage they owed 
 to the bounty of Cyrus — their quiet possession 
 of the recovered land to the favour of succes- 
 sive monarchs, whom they were content to 
 acknowledge as their patrons and protectors. 
 They were again saved from ruin by the 
 clemency of Alexander, to whom they ren- 
 dered not unwilling homage. And, after the 
 division of his vast dominions, they became 
 alternately tributary to the Egyptian and 
 Syrian monarchies, midway between which 
 was their unenviable position. Oppressed 
 and favoured in turn, they still owned a 
 master, until the rising importance of the 
 Roman state aided the Jews in shaking off 
 the Syrian yoke^ ; and the internal dissen- 
 sions which shortly arose both in the Egyp- 
 tian and in the Syrian empire, enabled them 
 to regain independence for a time under the 
 first Asmoneean princes. 
 
 It was during this period of recovered 
 
 ' "A Demetrio cum descivissent Judcci, amicitia Roma- 
 norum petita, primi omnium ex Orientalibus libertatem recc- 
 ]ierunt, facile tunc Romanis dc alieno larc^ientibus." Just. 
 Hist. XXXVI. 3, quoted by Prideaux. Comp. 1 ]\Iacc. viii. 
 2 Mace. xi. 34. Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiii. 9, 2. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 189 
 
 ascendancy in Palestine that the Jews ac- 
 quired that firm footing in Galilee which they 
 retained to our Saviour's time. Galilee had 
 originally been annexed to the Syrian empire 
 by Antiochus the Great \ It appears, how- 
 ever, that it was then inhabited by heathens. 
 But it is probable that the cruelty of Antio- 
 chus Epiphanes, which drove many from Je- 
 rusalem to the refuge of mountain-holds, led 
 to the occupation of various parts of Galilee 
 by Jews. In the wars of the Maccabees we 
 find Simon carrying on a successful campaign 
 in those regions, where the Jews were yet so 
 few that he transplanted them into Judaea, 
 to secure them from their neighbouring ene- 
 mies^ But when upon the death of Antiochus 
 Sidetes, John Hyrcanus took advantage of the 
 weakness of the Syrians to carry the war into 
 their country, he occupied without opposition 
 the plains of Galilee, and established the Jews 
 permanently in that country =^. This was con- 
 tinued and confirmed by the victories of Aris- 
 tobulus, who in the course of his conquests 
 compelled the inhabitants of Ituraea to become 
 proselytes to the Jewish religion*. In the 
 
 ' Prid. Conn. Vol. ii. p. 112. M Mace. v. 21—23. 
 
 ^ Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiii. 9, 1. Joscphus says that this 
 Antiochus was surnamed Pius. Ant. Jud. xiii. 8, 2. 
 ' Ibid. XIII. 11,3. 
 
190 RESTORATIOX AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 wars carried on between Alexander Jannaeus 
 and Ptolemy Lathy rus, Galilee was made the 
 battle-field^ ; and after various successes we 
 find, at the close of Alexander's career, the 
 Jews in possession of numerous cities and dis- 
 tricts of the Syrians, among which the his- 
 torian expressly names Gadara, Gaulonites, 
 Seleucia, and Gabala^. 
 
 The re-establishment of Jewish independ- 
 ence was of no long duration. The power 
 which had aided them to free themselves from 
 their former masters, soon imposed a heavier 
 yoke upon their necks. But it had been pre- 
 dicted that the sceptre should not depart from 
 Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, 
 until Shiloh should come^. And the course 
 of events brought about the completion of 
 this prophecy. The early Graeco-Syrian or 
 Grseco-Egyptian kings contented themselves 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiii. 12. ^ Ibid. xiii. 15, 4. 
 
 ' Gen. xlix. 10. Spanlieim (Dub. Ev. Pars ii. Dub. 17,) 
 discusses the mode and time of the fulfilment of this prophecy. 
 He shews that as from the first the tribe of Judah had a 
 certain pre-eminence^ but the sceptre -was not actually in the 
 hands of a member of that tribe until David's reign, so the 
 withdrawal of power from Judah was gradual; that even when 
 the governors were no longer of the tribe of Judah, the whole 
 tribe had a marked distinction and power, so long as there 
 were any remains of independence among the people. But at 
 the death of Herod the Great every show of independence 
 was removed, and the sceptre finally departed from Judah. 
 
VII] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 19 1 
 
 with little more than nominal authority in 
 Judaea. They left to the Jews the free exer- 
 cise of their own customs and their own laws. 
 And the attempt to establish a different sys- 
 tem brought about absolute liberation from 
 extraneous authority. But as the time of our 
 Lord's birth drew near, there was a marked 
 though gradual abolition of all independent 
 government in Jerusalem. The growth of 
 Roman greatness made it palpable that the 
 Jewish king only occupied the throne at the 
 pleasure of a superior power. 
 
 The dissension between Hyrcanus and 
 Aristobulus brought about direct interference, 
 and Pompey entered the city as a conqueror^; 
 robbed the Jewish state of cities and lands, 
 and made it tributary to the Romans. The 
 hostility of Pompey and of Crassus was, how- 
 ever, not so fatal to Jewish independence as 
 the favour which was shewn by Caesar to 
 Antipater and his sons. When the rightful 
 prince was deposed, and the succession inter- 
 rupted, and Herod entered upon the kingdom 
 by a decree of the Roman senate, there was 
 little left of even the pretence to national 
 power. But Herod, though an Idumsean by 
 birth, was a Jew by adoption ; and Judaea 
 was still in name a Jewish state, under one 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jiid. xiv. 4. 
 
192 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 who prided himself upon being deemed a 
 Jewish king. 
 
 Jerusalem had indeed ceased to be the 
 centre of real authority when Herod held his 
 kingdom of the Roman senate. It ceased to 
 be the centre of nominal authority when the 
 power of life and death resided with a Roman 
 governor at Caesarea ; and the crowning act of 
 Jerusalem's sin could not be accomplished 
 until the kings of the earth stood up, and the 
 rulers were gathered together against the 
 Lord, and against His Anointed ^ 
 
 We proceed to note some particulars which 
 seem especially connected with the prepara- 
 tion of the Gospel. 
 
 I. In the period which we are now con- 
 sidering was the last struggle of idolatry to 
 gain an ascendancy over the Jewish people. 
 In this case idolatry presented itself under a 
 form somewhat different from that in which 
 it had appeared in earlier times. The con- 
 ceptions of the Divinity among the Greeks 
 were more refined than the gross and sensual 
 notions prevalent among the heathen inhabit- 
 ants of Canaan. And although some external 
 forms were imposed as a test of compliance 
 with the edicts of the prince, the attempt 
 seems to have been not so much to compel 
 
 ' Acts iv. 27. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 198 
 
 the Jews to the adoption of a new religion, 
 as to the abandonment of their own peculiar 
 rites, that Jehovah might be identified with 
 the supreme God of the Pagans, and the 
 Jews might learn to regard themselves in no 
 other light than as one portion of a great 
 empire, united in the common worship of 
 One Universal Lord. Hence the stress laid 
 by Antiochus Epiphanes upon the abandon- 
 ment of the rite of circumcision, the dis- 
 tinctive badge of a peculiar people. Hence 
 the tone adopted by those false Jews who, 
 in their readiness to abet the design of the 
 Syrian monarch, preferred a petition for 
 license to set up a gymnasium for the train- 
 ing up of youth in the fashions of the hea- 
 then \ and for permission to enrol themselves 
 and their countrymen as citizens of Antioch. 
 Motives of cupidity and ambition were plainly 
 those which actuated such men as Jason, 
 Menelaus and Alcimus, to betray their coun- 
 try, and to court its oppressor by servile 
 adulation. But " the height of Greek fashions, 
 and increase of heathenish manners 2" in Jeru- 
 salem, must be ascribed to the prevalence of 
 some plausible theory, which affected to prove 
 that the admission of heathen gods and carved 
 images was compatible with the acknow- 
 
 * 2 Mace. iv. 9. ' 2 Mace. iv. 13. 
 
 C. H. L. 
 
194 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 ledgment of the God of their fathers, and 
 represented the interests of civilization as 
 paramount over those of religious truth. Ac- 
 cordingly this apostasy made progress among 
 the higher more than among the lower orders. 
 In times of old the common people had ever 
 been the first to go after strange gods, because 
 the attractions of those idols lay in the in- 
 dulgence of sensual pleasures. The fine web 
 of sophistry was less likely to entangle in 
 its meshes the ruder herd. Therefore when 
 Mattathias and his sons reared the standard 
 of war, there were thousands ready to flock 
 to their side. Resistance to idolatry was now 
 popular, because it was identified with resist- 
 ance to the tyrannical attempt to abolish the 
 cherished customs of their fathers. The hearts 
 of the mass of the people were with the com- 
 pany who had fled to the fastnesses of Gilead, 
 while the princes and priests at Jerusalem 
 were calling in foreign troops, and endeavour- 
 ing to obliterate all that was distinctive in the 
 habits and institutions of the Jews. And if 
 the cause of nationality was thus popular, it 
 was also righteous — not only as it is righte- 
 ous to resist cruel and ungodly oppression, 
 but because it involved all that was most 
 precious to the true Israelite. The peculiar 
 blessing promised to the seed of Abraham, 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 195 
 
 the sure mercies entailed upon the Son of 
 David, must have been abandoned by those 
 who were content to merge their national 
 existence in the mass of which the Syrian 
 empire was composed. Thus was the assault 
 of persecution made instrumental in drawing 
 closer the ties of nationality ; and the feeling 
 of patriotism was quickened and sanctified 
 by the faith, whereby the elders obtained a 
 good report*. By this faith were they upheld 
 in trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, 
 of bonds and imprisonment, wandering in 
 deserts and in mountains, and in dens and 
 caves of the earth, yet not having received 
 the promise ; " God having provided some 
 better thing for us, that they without us should 
 not be made perfect^." 
 
 And the violence employed in the cause 
 did much to engender that hatred of idolatry 
 which henceforth became part of the national 
 character. The erection of a statue of a 
 heathen god in the Temple, the means em- 
 ployed to compel the Jews to take part in 
 heathen processions^, left behind an indelible 
 aversion to the system thus forced upon them''. 
 And as these wanton cruelties were not con- 
 
 ' Heb. xi. 2. ' Heb. xi. 40. ^ 2 Mace. vi. 2, 7. 
 
 * "0? (Ai/TJo^o9 'ETTi^ai^jy?) Tt]u TToXiv e\wv, v<i fjiev KareOvev 
 
 iir\ Tov [iaiiov, Tov vewv Zs tw ^wfiw tovtwv irepieppaive^ crvy- 
 
 02 
 
196 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 fined to Jerusalem, but exercised through- 
 out all the dominions of Antiochus, the same 
 abhorrence of idols was propagated among 
 all Jews, wheresoever they might dwell. And 
 so the backsliding and idolatrous people be- 
 came the zealous champions of Monotheism, 
 and raised aloft among the inhabitants of the 
 world the standard, whose motto recorded its 
 protest against false religions and false divin- 
 ities : "Who is like unto Thee among the 
 gods, O Jehovah^?" 
 
 II. The hopes of future redemption, and 
 the hatred of idolatry, which had become the 
 ruling principles of the Jewish faith, were 
 maintained and confirmed by acquaintance 
 with the sacred books of Divine Revelation. 
 It was the forgetfulness of the command- 
 ments of God which had of old led the people 
 to go after other gods, and it was by a recur- 
 rence to the Word of God that pious kings 
 and priests had reclaimed them from their 
 evil ways. Thus Jehoshaphat, in order to 
 establish religion in the land, sent Levites 
 and teachers throughout the cities of Judah, 
 
 ^ea? Ta lovdaiwv vofxifjia Koi Ttjv iraTpiov avraov ev(T€(3eiav' e(p^ 
 ok e^eTToXe/xuidr] to edvo^ koj UKaTa\\aKTw<s f^x^' Joseph. 
 Ant. Jud. xm. 8, 2. 
 
 * Exod. XV. 11. This motto, adopted by Judas, was the 
 origin of tlie title ]\Iaccabi, composed of the initial letters of 
 the words employed. See Prid. Conn. Vol. n. p. 199. 
 
VII. ] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 197 
 
 who " had the book of the Law of the Lord 
 with them\" And Hezekiah in every step of 
 his reformation consulted these oracles ; for 
 *' in every work that he began in the service 
 of the house of God, and in the Law, and in 
 the Commandments, to seek his God, he did 
 it with all his heart^." 
 
 But the discovery of a copy of the Law in 
 Josiah's reign, and the consternation of the 
 king when its contents were read before him^, 
 prove that up to that time there was no- 
 thing like a general circulation of the sacred 
 volume, or a systematic recital of its contents 
 in the ears of the people. 
 
 There were many causes which concurred 
 to bring the written Word prominently for- 
 ward in the times subsequent to the Captivity. 
 
 1. The miraculous tokens of God's pre- 
 sence — the Shechinah in the Temple — the 
 Urim and Thummim by which He gave coun- 
 sel to the priests — may have been intended 
 to furnish that evidence which in later days 
 written testimony was to supply. Under the 
 first Temple the teaching of the priests thus 
 sanctioned was the principal source of spi- 
 ritual knowledge. Under the second Temple 
 these glories were removed, and they who 
 
 ' 2 Chron. xvii. 9. ^ 2 Chron. xxxi. 21. 
 
 ^ 2King3Xxii. 8—11. 
 
19S RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 remembered them wept at their removal. But 
 the very removal was adapted to fix their 
 regard upon that which remained. They had 
 yet the title-deeds of their inheritance ; and 
 to these they clung the closer, so long as they 
 were withheld from the possession. Therefore 
 in their captivity would this book be dearer 
 unto them than gold and silver, and upon 
 their return would be prized as that in which 
 alone they were to seek an equivalent for 
 glories that were no more. They would learn 
 to exclaim with the Psalmist, " O how love I 
 Thy Law ! it is my meditation all the day. 
 Thou through Thy commandments hast made 
 me wiser than mine enemies : for they are 
 ever with me. I have more understanding 
 than all my teachers : for Thy testimonies 
 are my meditation. I understand more than 
 the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts'." 
 2. The gradual withdrawal of the spirit 
 of Prophecy from the Jewish Church, the 
 sealing up of the Vision, was not only adapt- 
 ed to quicken the expectation of everlasting 
 righteousness soon to be brought in, and of 
 the anointing of the Most Holy, which had 
 been foretold by DanieP, but must also have 
 enhanced the value of those books which were 
 written in the days in which prophet after 
 
 ' Psal. cxix. 97—100. * Dan. ix. 24. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 199 
 
 prophet came forth to proclaim the message 
 committed to them by the Lord ; and the ful- 
 filment of predictions must have accredited 
 the messengers, distinguished the true from 
 the false prophets, and taught the people to 
 value the writings of those who were thus 
 proved to have been men of God. 
 
 3. To place the provision for the spiri- 
 tual wants of the people upon a secure and 
 permanent footing, a special instrument was 
 raised up in the person of Ezra. The account 
 given in the apocryphal book of Esdras^ of 
 the absolute loss and miraculous restitution 
 of the Law seems to be a story founded upon 
 the discovery in the reign of Josiah, and there 
 is every reason to suppose that the part as- 
 signed to Ezra was to collect and transcribe, 
 with some few explanations, books which 
 had been known and preserved during the 
 Captivity. But we are not to conceive of 
 Ezra as of a mere human commentator. 
 Doubtless he was assisted in this work by the 
 Holy Spirit of God, who inspired a prophet 
 to gather together and arrange that which He 
 had inspired others to utter. Nor was this 
 act the less miraculous because human learn- 
 ing, human diligence, and human sagacity, 
 were employed under Divine guidance in its 
 
 • 2 Esdr. xiv. 19—44. 
 
200 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 execution. Indeed, tlie wonderful combina- 
 tion of different means in what is called the 
 natural order of things conspiring to effect 
 one great end, is as truly miraculous as a 
 supernatural interposition to bring about a 
 similar result. It is profoundly remarked by 
 Philo, that the exercise of miraculous power 
 in particular acts, is but as child's play to the 
 great standing miracle of the universe^ 
 
 4. The reformations of Ezra, and of Ne- 
 hemiah, were carried on with a constant refer- 
 ence to the Law, and the same pious care 
 was exerted in making known to the people 
 the contents of the Volume which was to 
 be their guide. The work begun by Ezra 
 was continued by the members of the Great 
 Synagogue; which appears to have been com- 
 posed of a succession of learned men^ whose 
 labours extended over nearly a hundred and 
 fifty years, who made the Scriptures their 
 especial study, and to whom was assigned 
 the important task of closing the Canon of 
 the Old Testament by the addition of the 
 writings of those who died after the time of 
 
 * "Eyi/w yap av evdea^, oti tu irapdho^a ^t] Tavra Kai 
 irapaXoya Qeov Traihia iaTtv, aViBwi/ el's ra tw ovti fxeyaXd 
 Kai <T7rovcrj<: o^ia^ yeveaiv ovpavov. Philo de Vita Mosis^ 
 quoted by Neand. Cli. Hist. Introduct. 
 
 ' Prid. Conn. Vol. i. p. 633. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 201 
 
 Ezra. The extravagant stories^ as to the 
 changes which took place upon the death of 
 Simon the Just, the last of the Great Syna- 
 gogue, shew that this period was considered 
 to form an era in the history of religion, an 
 era which is unhappily marked by the intro- 
 duction of tradition, and the deviation from 
 the principle which had hitherto made the 
 Holy Scriptures themselves the sole guide 
 of conduct, the sole rule of faith. 
 
 5. The divinity schools which arose in 
 Jerusalem after the time of Simon the Just 
 were fruitful of many an error. The Tannaim, 
 or learned doctors recorded in the Talmud, 
 multiplied vain words instead of confining 
 themselves to the simplicity of Scripture. 
 They introduced the idle supposition of an 
 oral as well as of a written Revelation, and 
 placed the two upon an equal footing. They 
 overloaded the text with commentaries which 
 virtually contradicted and annulled it. But 
 it was by unauthorized additions, not by 
 verbal alterations, that they weakened the 
 truth. Amidst the severe rebukes addressed 
 by our Lord to the doctors of the law for 
 evacuating its spirit by their vain glosses, 
 there is none which implies that they had 
 dealt unfairly with the letter itself: indeed, 
 
 * See Prid. Conn. Vol. ii. p. 2. 
 
202 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 their system of interpretation neither required 
 nor favoured alterations in the text. The 
 Rabbins exercised their ingenuity in bringing 
 out hidden meanings ; the less obvious, the 
 more applauded : and they magnified their 
 authority by pretending to possess other 
 sources of Divine Truth, not accessible except 
 to the learned. The contentions which arose 
 in rival schools as to the relative authority 
 of the oral and written Law, soon interposed 
 an effectual barrier against any attempts to 
 corrupt the Sacred Text. And so the fool- 
 ishness of man was made profitable unto the 
 wisdom of God. 
 
 0. The circumstance that the language of 
 the Scriptures had ceased to be the spoken 
 language of the Jews, tended in more than 
 one way to their faithful preservation. It 
 made the study of the Text the especial pro- 
 vince of the learned, and there rose up a 
 body of divines who confined themselves to 
 this province of sacred literature. The autho- 
 rity of these teachers was probably in the 
 first instance based upon ability and indus- 
 try; but they soon assumed a name (that of 
 Masorites^) indicating that they were possess- 
 ed of traditionary lore which rendered them 
 
 ^ Derived from Masorali, whicli signifies tradition. See 
 Prid. Conn. Vol. i. p. 394. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 203 
 
 trustworthy guardians of the Sacred Text. 
 Exaggerated as these claims were, they had. 
 the effect of producing the most scrupulous 
 accuracy. The correctness of every word, 
 every syllable, every letter, was a matter of 
 faith. Obvious irregularities in transcription 
 were deemed to have been purposely made, 
 and were explained in the margin, not cor- 
 rected in the text. Mystical meanings were 
 supposed to lie under the slightest literal 
 variation, and the accuracy of every jot and 
 tittle^ was held essential to a true copy of the 
 Scriptures. It is manifest that the Masorites, 
 to whose revision 2 we owe the Hebrevy Text 
 as it now stands, did but collect and revise 
 the labours of preceding generations ; and it 
 is at least illustrative of the principles adopt- 
 ed by the Jewish school of criticism, that all 
 the manuscripts which we now possess agree 
 together so closely, that they seldom vary 
 except in an occasional letter, vowel, or ac- 
 cent ; and of all the varieties we observe, there 
 is scarce one in a hundred which affects the 
 sensed 
 
 * "El/ Iwra r] fi'ia Kepaia, alludinc^, as IS well known, to the 
 small strokes in certain Hebrew letters. 
 
 ' A.D. 1030. 
 
 ^ Qui hodie extant codices ita inter se conspirant ut ex 
 aliquot centenis variis lectionibus vix una deprehendatur, quse 
 sensum mutet- Circa unam duntaxat yel alteram litteram, 
 
204 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 7. Again, the original Hebrew not being 
 generally understood, it became necessary 
 that for the purpose of publication the Scrip- 
 tures should be translated into the popular 
 language. Hence the Chaldee translations or 
 Targums, of which some that we possess are 
 of great antiquity. And these are valuable 
 not only as furnishing independent testimony 
 to the general correctness of our text, but 
 also as evincing, by paraphrase, the system 
 of interpretation received by the Jews of old, 
 in passages where Christians maintain, but 
 the Jews of the present day deny, a refer- 
 ence to the Messiah. And the very practice 
 of thus expounding and translating the Holy 
 Scriptures seems to have been providentially 
 instrumental in making both the doctrine 
 and the name of the Messiah familiar and 
 frequent with the Jews, many years before 
 the appearance of our Lord\ 
 
 8. The lamentable schism which led to 
 the erection of a rival temple on Mount Geri- 
 zim, with Manasseh for a high-priestS con- 
 tributed to the preservation of the law. The 
 descendants of those who had been originally 
 
 vocalem vel accentum versantur. Roscnmiill. Pra^f. ad. Bibl. 
 Hebr. 
 
 * Pearson on the Creed, Art. II. 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jud. xi. 8. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 205 
 
 imported into Samaria not only received 
 with open arms Jews who seceded from Je- 
 rusalem, but also were content to abandon 
 all the services of false gods, which had 
 hitherto been combined with the acknowledg- 
 ment of Jehovah, and to worship none other 
 than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
 after a form closely imitating the Temple- 
 service at Jerusalem. The frequent changes 
 of inhabitants in Samaria made them from 
 early times in every sense a mixed race'. 
 
 ' Trench (Notes on the Parables, p. 299, 2nd Edit.) con- 
 siders it a mistake to suppose the Samaritans a mixed race, 
 and regards them as of unmingled heathen blood. He believes 
 that after the deportation mentioned 2 Kings xvii., none of 
 the original inhabitants were left in the land, and refers to 
 2 Kings xxi. 13, as bearing the strongest testimony to this 
 assertion : " I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and 
 the plummet of the house of Ahab ; and I will wipe Jerusalem 
 as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down." 
 But can a deduction of this kind be safely drawn from a meta- 
 phorical expression ? I have elsewhere (p. 156, n. 3), given rea- 
 sons for believing that Israelites were left in the land after the 
 removal of captives by Shalmaneser, and by Esarhaddon. And 
 it is highly probable, that if after the Babylonish captivity 
 many of the people of Judah were left in the land, some 
 Israelites should have remained, and mixed with the imported 
 Assyrians. But besides this. Trench seems to have lost sight 
 of the schism of Manasseli and its consequences. Josephus 
 (Ant. Jud. XI. 8, 4,) tells us, that many followed Manasseh, 
 and that Sanballat urged upon Alexander the policy of divid- 
 ing into two the power of the Jews : drjXwv, ol? yafiftpov jueV 
 e^O£ Mava<7a-t^i>, tov twv ^lovcatwv dp-y^iep€U)<; 'lalcov d^eXcpou' 
 vroWovi; ce Kai aWov: avra (rvfiirapovra^ rmv OfxoeOviJov deXeiv 
 
206 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 Assyrians were imported by Esarhaddon, and 
 perhaps by Shalmaneser, from various parts, 
 to supply the place of the captive Israelites ; 
 and Greeks and Macedonians, introduced by 
 Alexander the Great, supplanted the Assyrians 
 in the town of Samaria and its neighbour- 
 hoods This town was razed to the ground, 
 and its inhabitants slain, by John Hyrcanus^ 
 Nor was the city rebuilt until Herod the 
 Great again erected upon the ruins a new 
 town, under the name of Sebaste, which he 
 peopled with soldiers from his armies, and 
 with such of the neighbouring people as were 
 attracted by its magnificence ^ But, besides 
 the heathen elements thus brought in, there 
 was also a seed of the stock of Abraham. 
 And so at all times the Samaritans claimed 
 
 tepov ev Toil's vtt eKeivov tottoi? fjdri KaTaaKevaaai' tovto o 
 eivai Ka\ tw (Saa-iXeT a-v[X(pepov, et? Cvo htaipe'ia-dai Ttju twi/ 
 'lovha'iwu hvvapiv^ 'I'va pt] opoyviapovovi/ to edvov prjot <rvve- 
 <rT09, el veosTepicreie ttote, ■^aKeirov t] to?? (ia<n\evcri. 
 
 The forbidden marriages with heathen were no doubt 
 repeated, and so the terms dWoyevt]^ (Luke xvii, 18,) and d\- 
 XoedveT^ (Josephus), on which Trench insists, would be pro- 
 perly applied to the Samaritans as of mixed blood. There 
 may, however, have been inhabitants of the land of purely 
 heathen origin, but the Samaritans of the Gospel seem cer- 
 tainly to have had more in common with the Jews than could 
 have been the case with mere heathens. 
 
 ' Prid. Conn. Vol. i. p. 554. 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiii. 10, 3. 
 
 ^ Ibid. XV. 8, 5. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 207 
 
 or disclaimed, according to circumstances, 
 affinity with the Jews K Mingled even with 
 the Medians, there was probably a remnant of 
 Israelites in the land, and more may have 
 returned to their homes on the breaking up of 
 the Babylonian power. But the schism, in 
 which Manasseh took the lead, was mainly 
 instrumental in producing an admixture of 
 Hebrew blood in the inhabitants of Samaria. 
 This formed a kind of nucleus around which 
 from time to time all who were disaffected to 
 the government of Jerusalem gathered. On 
 the destruction of their temple they made 
 Sychem their head-quarters, still holding that 
 Mount Gerizim was the place where God 
 should be worshipped^, claiming Jacob for their 
 father^, and owning the authority of the books 
 of Moses. The disloyalty and the forbidden 
 mixture of races, which led to the first schism, 
 and were continued by all who followed them, 
 generated among the Jews at Jerusalem feel- 
 ings of animosity towards them, more bitter 
 than that which was entertained even towards 
 the Gentiles. A Samaritan was the object 
 of the most determined hatred, so that for 
 a Jew even to speak with a Samaritan was 
 deemed an act of surprising condescension*. 
 
 Ant. Jucl. XI. 8, 6. ^ John iv. 20. 
 
 ^ John iv. 12. " John iv. 27- 
 
208 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 Yet both people appealed to the same Law, 
 and by that Law professed to be governed. 
 So that they were independent guardians of 
 its integrity, each jealously watching the other 
 lest they should tamper with and corrupt it. 
 Moreover, the same need of a translation which 
 had occasioned the Targums, gave rise to 
 other and independent versions of this part 
 of the Old Testament for the use of the Sama- 
 ritan people. Nor must we forget that the 
 fugitive Jews, imperfectly as they were in- 
 structed in their duty, and erroneous as were 
 many of the notions which they cherished, 
 carried with them to those with Avhom they 
 were incorporated an expectation of the future 
 Saviour; so that the woman of Samaria in our 
 Saviour's time knew " that Messiah cometh ; 
 when he is come he will tell us all things\" 
 So clear is it that scarce any occurrence is 
 of unmixed evil : for evil and good are alike 
 under the control of an All-wise and All- 
 merciful God. "Shall there be evil in a city, 
 and the Lord hath not done it^ ? " 
 
 9. At the time that Jerusalem became 
 the head-quarters of a school of divines, whose 
 very faults supply as it were a guarantee for 
 their fidelity as guardians of the Oracles of 
 God, the dissemination of the Word was pro- 
 
 ' John iv. 25. * Amos ili. 6. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 209 
 
 moted by an institution, springing not un- 
 naturally from the then condition of the Jews, 
 whose author we may reasonably conclude to 
 have been actuated by the motion of the Holy 
 Spirit Himself. The destruction of the Tem- 
 ple, and the residence of the Jews in a foreign 
 land, had made them sensible of their need of 
 some place of common worship. And shortly 
 after the return from Babylon we find syna- 
 gogues established in every city, and every 
 village of Judaea, for the purpose of public 
 prayer and public reading of the Scriptures ^ 
 Nor was this confined within the limits of 
 Judaea. Wherever Jews established them- 
 selves in any numbers a synagogue was set 
 up. The centurion who besought Jesus to 
 heal his servant had shewn his good will to 
 the Jewish nation by building them a syna- 
 gogue^. In the Gospels and in the Acts we 
 have mention of synagogues at Capernaum, 
 at Nazareth, throughout Galilee, at Antioch 
 in Pisidia, at Thessalonica, at Corinth, and 
 elsewhere'. It was in these synagogues that 
 
 ' For an account of the institution of synagogues, and the 
 nature of their rules and services, see Prid. Conn. Vol. i. 
 p. 416, sqq. 
 
 " Luke vii. 5. 
 
 ^ Matt. iv. 23; Markiii. 1 ; Lukeiv. 16; Acts xiii. 14; 
 xvii. 1 ; xviii. 4. 
 
 C. H. L. - P 
 
210 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 our Saviour preached. It was in these that 
 the Apostles reasoned. 
 
 The decree of the first council appealed to 
 the knowledge of the Law thus diffused among 
 the Jews and their proselytes; "for Moses of 
 old time hath in every city them that preach 
 him, being read in the synagogues every 
 Sabbath day^;" and S. Paul declares to the 
 Corinthians that the minds of the Jews were 
 blinded ; "for until this day remaineth the 
 same veil untaken away in the reading of tlie 
 Old Testament ; which veil is done away in 
 Christ^" And although the truth was to the 
 majority preached in vain, yet were there added 
 to the Church many believers in consequence 
 of these public disputations. When our Lord, 
 in the synagogue of Nazareth, read in the book 
 of Esaias of the acceptable year of the Lord, 
 the eyes of all that were in the synagogue 
 were fastened upon Him, and they wondered 
 at the gracious words which proceeded out 
 of His mouth^. When S. Paul entered into 
 the synagogue at Ephesus and reasoned with 
 the Jews, they desired him to tarry a longer 
 time with them*. For it was not as though 
 the Word of the Lord took none effect. They 
 were not all Israel who were of Israel. The 
 
 ' Acts XV. 21. - 2 Cor. iii. 14. 
 
 = Luke iv. 22. " Acts xviii. 20. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 211 
 
 Gospel of Christ was the power of God unto 
 salvation to every Jew that believed. 
 
 And it is deserving of notice that Antio- 
 chus Epiphanes, in his endeavours to induce 
 the Jews to renounce the religion of their 
 fathers, prohibited under severe penalties the 
 reading of the Law in the synagogues, being- 
 aware that in the Law lay the great obstacle 
 to the system he was desirous to introduce. 
 But this prohibition strengthened in the end 
 the cause of truth. The book of the Prophets 
 being in the first instance substituted for the 
 Law in obedience to this edict, the practice 
 thus originated was continued in better days, 
 together with that which had been disused — 
 so that both Law and Prophets were read 
 constantly in every Jewish synagogue^, and 
 each Jew had an opportunity of acquiring 
 that knowledge which Timothy possessed. 
 "From a child thou hast known the Holy 
 Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise 
 unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus-." 
 
 IIL Among the cities wherein Jews had 
 taken up a permanent abode there was one 
 distinguished above the rest. The situation 
 of Alexandria made it not only the capital 
 
 ' Prid. Con. Vol. i. p. 372. 
 ' 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 P2 
 
212 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 of the Egyptian kingdom, but the mart of 
 Oriental trade, and the centre of communica- 
 tion to the Asiatic and European world. From 
 its foundation the Jews had been attracted 
 thither by advantages of no ordinary kind. 
 The privileges which they enjoyed caused a 
 rapid increase in the number and wealth of 
 the Jewish population in that city ; while the 
 communication opened with other countries 
 led many Jews to transplant themselves from 
 thence to new regions. The constant inter- 
 course afterwards kept up with Alexandria, 
 and their remembrance of it as the place 
 from which they or their ancestors had set 
 forth, induced these Jews to look to Alexan- 
 dria as their mother-country, second only to 
 Jerusalem in its claims upon their regard. 
 Indeed the erection of a second Temple at 
 Heliopolis^ proves that many went beyond 
 the due limits of regard to their Egyptian 
 home ; and those who had juster views of 
 the pre-eminence which God still vouchsafed 
 to Jerusalem, yet regarded Alexandria as the 
 head-quarters of the Hellenistic Jews, who 
 having become naturalized in the countries 
 where they dwelt, were for the most part 
 unacquainted with the language of the Jews 
 of Palestine, and could communicate with 
 
 ' By Onias, b.c. 149. Sec Prid. Conn. Vol. ii. p. 285. 
 
VIL] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 213 
 
 them only through the medium of that lan- 
 guage which the conquests of Alexander had 
 spread throughout all quarters of the globe. 
 
 It was in Alexandria, and by Alexandrian 
 Jews, that the famous translation of the Old 
 Testament was undertaken, whose use in after 
 times to a great degree superseded the use of 
 the Scriptures in the original tongue. The 
 stories 1 as to the mode in which the transla- 
 tion was conducted, are only so far deserving 
 of notice as they evince the credit attached 
 to this version by the Jews, with whom these 
 stories originated. But without ascribing to 
 this version the plenary authority which has 
 been claimed for it by some, we cannot re- 
 gard its execution and promulgation otherwise 
 than as a dispensation of Providence for dif- 
 fusing throughout the earth that knowledge 
 which should prepare mankind for the recep- 
 tion of the Gospel. It was in fact the instru- 
 ment by which the great purpose of the dis- 
 persion of the Jews was carried out. It was 
 
 ^ A full account of these legends will be found in Prid. 
 Conn. Vol. ii. p. 29, sqq. TertuUian's expression (Apolog. 
 ch. 18) de sententice communione, has reference to an agree- 
 ment of sentiment on a particular question, not to a miraculous 
 agreement in the translators. Justin M. ( Apol. i. p. 72,) men- 
 tions the translation without alluding to this agreement, and 
 the repetition of it in Cohort, ad Gent. p. 13 D, is considered 
 by Bp. Kaye as an argument against the genuineness of the 
 treatise. See Kaye's Just. M. p. 7- 
 
214 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 the channel through which the the truths of 
 Revelation were commnnicated to the Hellen- 
 istic Jews, who were for the most part unac- 
 quainted alike with the Hebrew and with the 
 spoken language of Judaea. And so being 
 supplied with Divine truth in a language 
 familiar to those among whom they dwelt, 
 they communicated no less than received it. 
 And we may reasonably connect the know- 
 ledge of the Sacred Volume, thus dissemi- 
 nated in a form accessible to a great portion 
 of the heathen, with the expectation of some 
 extraordinary Person soon about to appear in 
 the world, which we know to have prevailed 
 at the time of our Saviour's birth. 
 
 But the importance of the part which was 
 assigned to the Septuagint in the Divine 
 economy is best seen by a comparison of its 
 contents with the Scriptures of the New Tes- 
 tament. Such a comparison will not only 
 discover to us a similarity of language and 
 expression which renders a study of the 
 Septuagint a most effectual help towards the 
 interpretation of the New Testament, but will 
 also enable us to illustrate the truths of Chris- 
 tianity, by weighing the use and import in 
 the Old Testament of the doctrinal terms so 
 familiar to us in the New^ And that these 
 
 ^ Grinfieltl, in an interesting " Apology for the Septuagint," 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 215 
 
 truths and doctrines were thus intimated both 
 to Jews and Gentiles, is clear from the posi- 
 tion which the Septuagint occupied at the 
 time of our Lord and of the Apostles. In 
 Galilee it seems to have been in general if not 
 in exclusive use. From this version many 
 quotations in the New Testament are mani- 
 festly made : and its use, not only by in- 
 spired writers but by our Lord Himself, 
 gives a sanction not indeed to its verbal 
 accuracy, but to its general fidelity. And 
 therefore will this version be an object of 
 interest and of veneration to all who love to 
 discover the finger of God tracing out in out- 
 lines, hereafter to be filled up, the mysterious 
 truths offered to mankind upon the sure tes- 
 
 Lond. 1850, enlarges upon the Providential dispensation by 
 which the LXX. was made to contribute to prepare the way 
 for the Gospel, He observes (p. 24), that " the most remark- 
 able and important feature of this Version consists in its 
 regular selection of the same doctrinal words and expressions 
 as those which were subsequently adopted by the Evangelists 
 and Apostles. The terms Repentance, Faith, Righteousness, 
 Justification, Redemption, Sanctification, &c., together with 
 the title of Lord, Christ, Saviour, Holy Spirit, &c., are the 
 very same in the Alexandrian Version as in the New Testa- 
 ment, and they are used precisely in the same meaning." 
 
 Without accepting to the full the views of the author on 
 the authority of the LXX., we may be reminded by his 
 treatise of the value of this branch of Biblical Study, in which 
 so much is due to ]Mr Grinfield for his Hellenistic Edition of 
 the New Testament, and its Scholia. 
 
216 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 timony of the Holy Scriptures, from which it 
 is proved that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 
 the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind. 
 
 Again, The confluence of people of va- 
 rious nations to Alexandria, and tlie conse- 
 quent collision of conflicting forms of religion, 
 produced results of the most momentous cha- 
 racter. The weak part of each ancient creed 
 w^as discovered and assailed by its enemies, 
 and the fables originally accepted without 
 inquiry were soon rejected as utterly unte- 
 nable. The absurdity of the mythical records, 
 and the desire to arrive at some element com- 
 mon to all forms of religion, caused attempts 
 to explain away the letter of the old tradi- 
 tions, and to discover philosophical truths 
 hidden beneath acts which were now con- 
 ceived to be symbolical. But these subtle 
 explanations were of very recent date, and 
 were after all little more than ingenious and 
 unauthorized endeavours to prop up the falling 
 edifice of Paganism with supports that should 
 present some show of strength and consist- 
 ency. Eusebius^ in answering these subtle- 
 ties, makes a just protest against their being 
 deemed to represent the original spirit of 
 heathenism. The old mythologists knew no- 
 thing but the actual tales which they recount- 
 
 ' Euseb. Pnnep. Ev. Lib. xv. ch. 1. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS, 217 
 
 ed, and confined themselves to the simple 
 narratives as historically true. The new me- 
 thod of allegorical interpretation arose amid 
 the conflict of Judaism, heathenism, philo- 
 sophy and Orientalism, " meeting as in a kind 
 of border-land, mingling and fermenting in 
 incessant turmoil and strife ^" The ferment 
 thus produced was destructive of error, and 
 so far favourable to truth. The issue both of 
 Greek and Oriental philosophy was the denial 
 of a plurality of gods. And if we have in the 
 writings of Philo a proof of the influence 
 which heathen philosophy had upon the 
 modes of thought and reasoning adopted by 
 Alexandrian Jews, it is only reasonable to 
 conclude that a counter influence must have 
 been exercised by Judaism. It cannot, however, 
 be denied that the combination of philosophy 
 with religion detracted from the simplicity 
 of revealed truth. Yet this combination may 
 with reason be conceived to have familiarized 
 the heathens with principles not elsewhere 
 conveyed, and inclined them to listen to doc- 
 trines compatible with the conclusions to 
 which the wisest of their philosophers had 
 arrived; just as in this same city of Alexan- 
 dria the opinions of a Clement and an Origen 
 were perceptibly tinged by the philosophy 
 
 ' Quart. Rev. clxxvii. p. 174. 
 
218 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 with which they were familiar ; while the 
 reception of Christianity was furthered, be- 
 cause it recommended itself to many as em- 
 bracing all that was true in the speculations of 
 Platonism. In each case the foreign element 
 brought with it an admixture of error, and 
 therefore had its retarding as well as its ad- 
 vancing effect on the cause of truth. In each 
 case the rudiments of instruction were to mve 
 place to more perfect information, and the 
 enticing words of man's wisdom were to be 
 laid aside, that faith should not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the favour of God'. 
 But in each case we recognize a preparation 
 for the time when the knowledge which puff- 
 eth up should vanish, but the knowledge 
 which edifieth should endure; when, that 
 which is perfect having come, that which 
 was yet in part should be done away-. 
 
 We have seen that the Jews were sent 
 forth among the heathen as the messengers of 
 revealed truth. And to every people to whom 
 any portion of God's truth has been made 
 known, the same task is in some degree as- 
 signed. Even the Greeks and the Romans 
 brought with them to the nations whom they 
 conquered comparative enlightenment, and 
 spread opinions less erroneous than those 
 
 ' 1 Cor. ii. 5. ' 1 Cor. xiii. 10. 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 219 
 
 which they found, and were so far forerunners 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 We might extend this reflection to every 
 page of history, sacred and profane. We may 
 extend it to our own. Our position is in some 
 respects similar to that of the Jews of old. 
 There is no people so widely diffused, none 
 which seem to possess so great an aptitude 
 for spreading themselves over the face of the 
 earth ; and the Almighty has been pleased 
 to commit to this nation in an especial man- 
 ner the guardianship of His Word. To the 
 Word of God does our Church make her ulti- 
 mate appeal in all doctrinal controversy ; and 
 therefore it has been ever her especial care 
 to secure both the true interpretation and wide 
 circulation of the Holy Scripture among her 
 sons. In no country have greater pains been 
 bestowed on the translation of the Bible into 
 the vernacular tongue ; in none has more 
 learning and study been applied to the expla- 
 nation and illustration of the contents of the 
 Sacred Volume. And while it should be a 
 source of deep thankfulness that we are 
 members of a Church whose foundations are 
 thus surely laid, we should esteem it our 
 highest privilege, as it is our most sacred duty, 
 to carry with us into whatever lands we 
 occupy this Holy Book, as the groundwork 
 
220 RESTORATION AND SUBSEQUENT [Lect. 
 
 of all our hopes, and the evidence of all which 
 we hold most dear. 
 
 But we may observe, that it was as a 
 Church knit together by the Sacraments of 
 the Law that the Jews performed the task of 
 disseminating the truth. — And while we ho- 
 nour those individuals who go forth alone 
 with their Bible in their hands to be the mes- 
 sengers of salvation in lands where no light 
 has yet penetrated, we must remember that 
 the permanent progress of Christianity is to 
 be made good by exhibiting in those of our 
 own nation who occupy foreign lands a speci- 
 men of a Christian Church knit together by 
 the ties of catholic faith, mutual love, and 
 holy discipline. 
 
 May we not appeal to our own experience 
 as to the most effectual method of propagating 
 truth throughout the world ? For if this is a 
 time at which our missionary labours seem to 
 have been blessed with more than ordinary 
 success, it is also a time at which we have at 
 last been awakened to the policy, no less than 
 the duty, of establishing in our colonies the 
 Church in its integrity, with Bishops as well 
 as Priests and Deacons, to undertake by 
 Divine blessing the care of its administration. 
 It is a time at which, though there be much 
 to grieve and perplex, there is yet many a 
 
VII.] CONDITION OF THE JEWS. 221 
 
 bright spot to cheer and gladden us; few 
 perhaps brighter than those m distant lands, 
 whence we receive continually refreshing ac- 
 counts of the increasing vigour and energy 
 which has been communicated to the several 
 branches of our Colonial Church by the bene- 
 fit of episcopal superintendence. 
 
 May God grant unto this our nation the 
 spirit of wisdom and of knowledge to see 
 the duty Avhich devolves upon it ! May He 
 strengthen the Church within our land, and 
 make it fruitful in works, in labour, and in 
 patience, by every dispensation, whether of 
 good or evil, purifying and enlightening it ! 
 "Therefore," to use the words which the 
 prophet Micah puts into the mouth of the 
 Jewish Church, when mournful and sorrow- 
 ing, " I will look unto the Lord ; I will wait 
 for the God of my salvation : my God will 
 hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine 
 enemy : when I fall, I shall arise ; when I 
 sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto 
 me'." 
 
 * Micah vii. 7? 8. 
 
LECTURE VIIL 
 
 THE OPPOSITION OF THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ROMANS XL 11. 
 
 I say then, Have tliey stumbled that they should fall? 
 God forbid : but rather through their fall salva- 
 tion is come unto the Gentiles. 
 
 "ITT^E have been occupied hitherto with the 
 * ' consideration of ages preceding the great 
 event for which all people and all things were 
 making sure though often unseen preparation. 
 We now reach the time of our Lord's appear- 
 ance upon earth. Henceforth the Jews pre- 
 sent themselves to our view in an asj^ect 
 entirely different from that in which we have 
 hitherto regarded them. Before the birth of 
 Christ the light which shone in the darkness 
 of the world was concentrated around this 
 people, though not entirely confined to them. 
 They alone possessed the authority of Reve- 
 lation for truths which were impressed indeed 
 upon the heart of man, but were obscured by 
 the impure exhalation of his corrupt affec- 
 tions. They alone were supplied with a de- 
 finite and well-grounded expectation of the 
 
VIII.] JEWISH OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 223 
 
 "Desire of all nations^" They were con- 
 scious, they were proud of their mission, to 
 be the propagators of light, of knowledge, 
 and of truth, throughout the world. They 
 performed this task in some degree, though 
 in a very imperfect degree, all unconscious of 
 the imperfection of their performance, little 
 suspecting that the corruptions growing up 
 within their system were consuming its very- 
 heart's core, were destroying its vitality, and 
 engendering a love for darkness rather than 
 light, so that when the True Light should 
 shine upon the earth, they would be unable 
 to comprehend it. From the moment of the 
 annunciation that the Kingdom of heaven was 
 at hand, the Jews were the most determined 
 foes of the religion which Christ came to 
 establish, for the sake of which they had been 
 formed into a nation, and subjected to the 
 marvellous dispensations through which they 
 had passed. But the hand of the Lord is not 
 shortened, that the wickedness and obstinacy 
 of men should defeat His purpose ordained 
 before the foundation of the world. The gifts 
 and calling of God are without repentance. 
 The unbelief of the Jews was made instru- 
 mental in the conveyance of mercy to those 
 who in times past had not believed God 2. 
 
 ' Hag. ii. 7. ' Rom. xi. 29, 30. 
 
224 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 The Apostle in my text, and in the discus- 
 sion with which it is connected, guards against 
 the pernicious doctrine that because God 
 brings good out of evil. He therefore causes 
 the evil in order to produce the good ; that He 
 ordains that man should sin, because the 
 abundance of sin brings with it a greater 
 abundance of grace. It is indeed one of the 
 most striking proofs of the beneficence of the 
 Creator, that the dangerous power which we 
 possess of producing, through sin, misery both 
 to ourselves and to others, is ever so control^ 
 led that the ultimate result is good. Sorrow 
 and pain are not less beneficial than mirth 
 and happiness. The very wickedness of the 
 world purifies and exalts the followers after 
 holiness. The trying of faith worketh pa- 
 tience, and patience has her perfect work, 
 that we may be perfect and entire, wanting 
 nothing'. True as this is of individuals, it is 
 equally true of nations, and perhaps the prin- 
 ciple is more clearly exhibited in national 
 than in individual dispensations. At any 
 rate, the history of the Israelites is pregnant 
 with illustrations of this method of God's deal- 
 ings with man. 
 
 It has been seen that each successive 
 change in the condition of the people of 
 
 ' James i. 3, 4. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 225 
 
 Israel was calculated to correct previous mis- 
 apprehension, and to supply clearer know- 
 ledge of the great object with which they 
 were concerned. But while God is still bring- 
 ing good out of evil, man is ever on his 
 part introducing fresh admixtures of evil, 
 and missing precious opportunities continually 
 held out to him. Whatever of knowledge 
 had been attained was mingled with error 
 and prejudice; and at the time of our Lord's 
 birth these errors and prejudices multiplied 
 and abounded. The gleam of earthly great- 
 ness under John Hyrcanus had fostered those 
 carnal notions, which so fatally interfered 
 with the faithful apprehension of the true na- 
 ture of Messiah's kingdom ; while the study 
 of the Sacred Books was so prosecuted as to 
 engender a knowledge clinging to the letter 
 and missing the spirit. The forced conver- 
 sion of Idumaeans and Iturseans betokened 
 the former views, the multiplication of vain 
 glosses and of idle ceremonies the latter. 
 These errors obtained more and more hold 
 of the Jewish mind, as their external circum- 
 stances were less and less favourable to the 
 hopes to which they gave rise. Bitter feelings 
 of indignation against their oppressors, and 
 proud self-satisfaction in the privileges which 
 had been conferred upon them, became daily 
 
 c H. L. Q 
 
226 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 more general, and resulted in that obstinate 
 opposition which rejected the Lord of life, 
 because He came to bring about a spiritual 
 instead of a carnal restoration. 
 
 It concerns us, however, chiefly to note the 
 service which was rendered to the cause of 
 Gospel-truth by the very opposition raised 
 against it, to mark how through the fall of 
 the Jews salvation was brought unto the Gen- 
 tiles, and the stone which the builders had 
 refused was made by their very refusal the 
 headstone of the corner. " This is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes'." 
 
 1. The great act of our Atonement was 
 itself brought about by this bitter hostility. 
 It was in a cruel and presumptuous spirit that 
 Caiaphas declared it to be expedient "that 
 one man should die for the people." But be- 
 neath this saying lay unsuspected by him who 
 uttered it, the great truth of the Redemption 
 of mankind by the Death and Passion of their 
 Saviour, " that Jesus should die for that nation, 
 and not for that nation only, but that also 
 He should gather together in one the children 
 of God that were scattered abroad^." The 
 Pharisees in their plots and subornations, the 
 fickle multitude in their mad imprecations, 
 the soldiers in their buffetings, mockings, and 
 ' Matth. xxi. 42. ' John xi. 51, .52. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 227 
 
 scourgings, Pilate and Herod in their unjust 
 judgments, were unwittingly conspiring to- 
 gether to bring about all the circumstances of 
 this awful Sacrifice; and " those things which 
 God before had shewed by the mouth of all 
 His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He 
 hath so fulfilled^." They that dwelt at Jeru- 
 salem, and their rulers, because they knew 
 Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets 
 which were read every sabbath-day, they ac- 
 complished them in condemning Him 2. 
 
 2. The early progress of the Gospel 
 affords further illustration of that which we 
 are asserting. The disciple was not above 
 his Master, nor the servant above his Lord, 
 Christ bequeathed to His followers the cross 
 which He had Himself borne, and in this 
 cross was strength. The first imprisonment of 
 Peter and John gave occasion for a declara- 
 tion which amazed and confounded those 
 who had imprisoned them, while their suffer- 
 ings no less than their deliverance being 
 approved by the manifestation of the Holy 
 Spirit, confirmed the believers in the cause 
 which they had espoused ; " and with great 
 power gave the Apostles witness of the Resur- 
 rection of the Lord Jesus^." The great per- 
 secution against the Church at Jerusalem, 
 
 ^ Acts iii. 18. ' Acts xiii. 27. ^ Acts iv. 33. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 which followed the martyrdom of Stephen, 
 scattered abroad j^reachers of the Word not 
 only throughout the regions of Judaea and 
 Samaria^ but also as far as Phoenice, Cy- 
 prus and Antioch. And while the original 
 preachers addressed Jews only, some of those 
 who had derived instruction from them spake 
 unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus ; 
 " and the hand of the Lord was with them, 
 and a great number believed, and turned 
 unto the Lord^." The blind zeal which ani- 
 mated Saul, and those of whom he was the 
 agent, against the Christian Church, was made 
 by the mercy of God the occasion for that 
 miraculous expostulation which converted the 
 furious and uncompromising persecutor into 
 the most zealous and faithful champion of the 
 religion of Christ, the strict and devoted Pha- 
 risee into the free and enlightened Apostle of 
 
 * Acts vlii. I. 
 
 * Acts xi. 19 — 21. In ver. 20, for the common reading 
 'E\Xr]vt<n(U, Grotius and others propose to read "EA.Ar;i/o9. This 
 reading is adopted by Scholz. The Vulg. reads GraDcos, which 
 some understand to mean Grrecisantcs Judasos. But tlie oppo- 
 sition between v. 19 and v. 20 seems to sliew that Gentiles 
 are here meant. Burton's supposition that v. 20 refers to a 
 much later time than v. 19 is very forced. The Commentary 
 of Bede affords the simplest explanation : " 'Ilinc,' inquit Beda, 
 *Ecclesice crescere coeperunt, cum non solum Judajis sed etiam 
 Gentibus praxlicatur.' Ita ille ut pnrcipui quidem non nisi 
 Juda>is locuti intclligantur, quod tamon nonnulli ex iis etiam 
 praedicaverint Gentibus." Not. in Bibl. A^ulg. Ed. Sixt. V. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 229 
 
 the Gentiles. Thus the same preacher, having 
 entered upon his Apostleship, was driven from 
 city to city by the malice of the unbelieving- 
 Jews, to occupy in each case a fresh station, as 
 a new centre of Evangelical truth, until he was 
 attacked and apprehended at Jerusalem, at 
 the very time that he was shewing his respect 
 for the ritual of the Law, and so was brought 
 to Rome to preach among the heathen of that 
 city the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
 3. The providential connexion between 
 Jewish opposition and the enlargement of the 
 Church, was marked by the order ever adopt- 
 ed in the annunciation of the Gospel. The 
 word of God was first spoken to the Jews, 
 and when they put it from them, and judged 
 themselves unworthy of everlasting life, then, 
 and not till then, the preachers turned to the 
 Gentiles ^ Doubtless had the Jews obeyed 
 the call, their obedience would have redound- 
 ed to their own good, and at the same time 
 been in no way prejudicial to the Gentiles. 
 But when they refused, their very disobedi- 
 ence opened the door to those who were with- 
 out. The deadness of the natural branches 
 called for the engrafting of the wild olive- 
 tree. So at Rome S. Paul closes his address 
 to the Jews, whom he had first sought out, 
 
 ^ Acts xiii. 4(?. 
 
230 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect; 
 
 " Be it known therefore unto you that the sal- 
 vation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and 
 that they will hear it^" 
 
 4. The future greatness of any body de- 
 pends, humanly speaking, upon its soundness 
 and health at the time of its first formation 
 and early growth. The admission of any un- 
 sound member is very dangerous to an infant 
 community. Provision was made to meet this 
 emergency. That which in the case of Ana- 
 nias and Sapphira was effected by the mira- 
 culous judgment of God, was continued and 
 enforced by the visitations of ordinary trial 
 as they arose in the midst of persecution. No 
 insincere professor would be much disposed 
 to join himself to the little company who met 
 together with closed doors for fear of the 
 Jews^. No false teacher would have per- 
 severed in his course after the threats held 
 out to them by the rulers, more especially 
 after the sufferings which had actually been 
 sustained by the brethren had proved the 
 determination of their enemies to inflict the 
 menaced punishments. 
 
 5. This circumstance must necessarily 
 have had a further effect in increasing the 
 credit of those who adopted a course at direct 
 variance with all their worldly interests, 
 
 ^ Acts xxviii, 28. 2 John xx. 19. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 231 
 
 Their afflictions were the test of their siii' 
 cerity, and it carried conviction to the minds 
 of all who were willing to be persuaded, to see 
 men voluntarily going forth to the trials so 
 eloquently described by one who had endured 
 them, to " perils of waters, perils of robbers, 
 perils by their own countrymen \" to exile, to 
 imprisonment, and to death, with no apparent 
 motive except that which they professed, that 
 they were constrained to obey God rather 
 than man^: knowing beforehand that bonds 
 and afflictions were abiding them — but moved 
 by none of these things — neither counting 
 their lives dear unto themselves, so that they 
 might finish their course with joy, and the 
 ministry which they had received of the Lord 
 Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of 
 God^. Well then might S. Paul appeal to 
 his sufferings as the surest credentials of his 
 apostleship — " approving ourselves as minis- 
 ters of God, in much patience, in affliction, in 
 necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in impri- 
 sonments, in tumults*." Well might he point 
 to the wounds received from his tormentors as 
 the seal of his election, '*the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus^" and exclaim of tribulation, dis- 
 
 ' 2 Cor. xi. 26. ' Acts v. 29. 
 
 ^ Acts XX. 23, 24. * 2 Cor. vi. 4, 5. 
 
 * Gal. vi. 17- "Ego sum annumeratus in militia Regis 
 asterni, quod multiplices plagfe et cicatrices, in corpora meo pro 
 
232 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 tress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peri], 
 and the sword, " Nay, in all these things we 
 are more than conquerors through Him that 
 loved us\" 
 
 6. The force of the simple test proposed 
 by Gamaliel must have been increased ten- 
 fold by the opposition which was offered in 
 contradiction to his advice 2. If it needed but 
 to "refrain from these men," and await the 
 issue of time, much more when in spite of the 
 utmost efforts of malice the counsel and work 
 grew and prospered, must the inference have 
 been seen to be true that it was of God, and 
 therefore could not be overthrown. For al- 
 though persecutions helped it, it was only 
 because it was the truth. The rains and the 
 wind that beat upon a house founded upon a 
 rock shake it not, nay, give proof of its sta- 
 bility; but if the foundation be upon the 
 sand, it cannot resist the shock. It falls, and 
 great is the fall thereof^ Opposition supplies 
 no energy from without, but calls forth into 
 action that which is already within. It re- 
 moves elements of weakness, but does not add 
 materials of strength. It is the furnace from 
 which the gold comes forth pure by the de- 
 
 Cliristi nomine in persccutionibus accepta^ decent." Anselmus 
 in loc. 
 
 ' Rom. viii. .37. " Acts V. 38. ' Matth. vii. 20. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 233 
 
 struction of the baser metals, but the dross 
 and the dust are not purified, but annihilated 
 by it. 
 
 7. The jealous watchfulness of an ac- 
 knowledged enemy is the greatest security 
 against fraud or deception. And the value 
 of this kind of testimony to the great facts of 
 the Christian religion would be early felt and 
 appreciated. Every word which the Apostles 
 uttered was based upon the assumption of 
 these facts. And the very assumption spoke 
 a language far more forcible than the most 
 elaborate and subtle proofs which logic could 
 have supplied. Indeed the absence of all at- 
 tempts at what may be called logical proof in 
 the writings of the Apostles, shews at least that 
 the writers did not expect their assertions to 
 be questioned or denied, that they were build- 
 ing upon a foundation which they deemed 
 that none would pretend to subvert. And 
 when we remember that these facts had been 
 witnessed, and narrowly observed by those 
 whose interests and prejudices were alike 
 concerned to detect a flaw, we shall under- 
 stand with what force the declarations of the 
 Apostles would come to all who heard them. 
 Thus would the opposition of the Jews pro- 
 mote the reception of Christianity upon the 
 ground of those works which our Saviour 
 
234 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 Himself alleged as testifying of Him. "I 
 have greater witness than that of John ; for 
 the works which the Father hath given me to 
 finish, the same works that I do bear witness 
 of me that the Father hath sent me^" 
 
 8. We may remark, that the same cir- 
 cumstances which contributed to spread tlie 
 Gospel by recommending to the early con- 
 verts its external evidences, have the same 
 significance now as then. If the grain of the 
 Word had early taken firm root, it has now 
 become a great tree, and if its success recom- 
 mended it almost from the first, the present 
 progress of the Gospel can leave no room for 
 doubt or hesitation. If the trials of the Apos- 
 tles evinced their sincerity at the time that 
 they endured them, the weight of this evidence 
 is not lessened because ages have gone by 
 since they laboured, suffered, and died. If the 
 testimony to the miracles of our religion af- 
 forded by the suspicious care of the Jews 
 was from the very first strong to those who 
 had not themselves been eye-witnesses, the 
 reception of these miracles by so many upon 
 such testimony can surely not invalidate it. 
 And we remark that herein is a fundamental 
 distinction between the evidence upon which 
 the Scripture miracles are offered for our be- 
 ' Jolin V, 3G. 
 
Vm.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 235 
 
 lief, and that which is alleged for the so-called 
 ecclesiastical miracles. It has been attempted 
 to assimilate the two classes, and to represent 
 them as resting upon foundations of precisely 
 the same character. But herein lies the 
 whole difference. The one class was witnessed 
 by cavilling enemies, the other by admiring 
 friends ; the one when the little band of 
 brethren was despised, persecuted, and af- 
 flicted, the other when the Church, which 
 sanctioned them, was powerful, if not domi- 
 nant; the one when the spectators were de- 
 terred by every prejudice from yielding their 
 assent, the other, when the multitude before 
 whom they were performed was prepossessed 
 to receive and to extol them. To examine the 
 degree of credit due to these later miracles, or 
 to draw distinctions between this or that case, 
 in order to determine which may be held de- 
 serving, which underserving of credit, is en- 
 tirely foreign to our present subject. Only 
 thus much may be said, that we beware of 
 confusing evidence of different kinds, and of 
 rearing by the side of the substantial edifice 
 of our faith a counterfeit resembling it in all 
 but strength and solidity, and then persuad- 
 ing ourselves that each building is equally 
 secure, lest when the frail edifice of man's 
 erection has yielded to the assault of human 
 
236 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 reasoning, we be deluded into the belief that 
 the building erected by our God will prove 
 equally unsubstantial and unsure. 
 
 9. There is another particular in which 
 the opposition of the Jews enhanced the 
 services which they rendered in preparing 
 the way for Christianity. This concerned 
 their possession of the Sacred Volume. We 
 have seen upon a former occasion how pecu- 
 liarly they were fitted to be faithful guardians 
 of this Volume, and how with them origi- 
 nated that translation which was in common 
 use among the early Christians. The circum- 
 stance of their being opposed to the Chris- 
 tians increased the value of their testimony 
 in this respect, and we find the early apolo- 
 gists urging this triumphantly home upon 
 them\ shewing how their own translation 
 convicted them, and pressing upon them the 
 authority of the Book to which they had 
 themselves attached almost superstitious re- 
 verence. It is however remarkable that as 
 the authority of the Septuagint version grew 
 with the Christians, it declined with the Jews, 
 and this led them to abandon it, and to sub- 
 stitute that of Acjuila^, a translation in which 
 
 1 Just. M. Cohort, ad Geutes p. 14, E. TertulL Apolog. 
 ch. xvni. 
 
 2 Prid. Conn. Vol. ii. p. .">4. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 237 
 
 the letter of the Hebrew is closely and even 
 servilely adhered to. But this very trans- 
 lation furnishes us with the argument which 
 we need in this respect — it gives the surest 
 evidence of the authority of the Scriptures 
 which we receive, as they are handed down 
 to us by the enemies of our faith, and yet 
 these are the Scriptures which testify so fully 
 of Christ, that He himself was content to 
 refer the Jews to their contents, " Search the 
 Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life ; and they are they which testify 
 of me^" *'The withdrawal of the star," says 
 S. Augustine, in a sermon upon the Epi- 
 phany, "and its non-appearance until the 
 Jews, being questioned of the country where 
 Christ was to be born, gave their answer ac- 
 cording to the testimony of Holy Scripture, 
 ' In Bethlehem- Judah ; for so is it written. 
 And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art 
 not the least among the princes of Judah; for 
 of thee shall come forth a ruler, who shall 
 feed his people Israel,' — what, I say, did 
 Divine Providence indicate by this, but that 
 with the Jews the Word of God alone would 
 remain by which the Gentiles should be in- 
 structed, but they be blinded, which they 
 should bear about, not as an instrument of 
 
 ' John V. 39. 
 
238 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 their own, but as a testimony for our salva- 
 tion ? For this day when we allege the 
 aforesaid prophecies of Christ, as illustrated 
 by the light of their fulfilment, should the 
 pagans, whom we desire to wdn, declare that 
 they were delivered not before but after the 
 event, and pretend that the prophecies we 
 adduce have been forged by us Christians — 
 we appeal to the manuscripts of the Jews to 
 remove the doubts of the heathen — the hea- 
 then who were prefigured in those Magi to 
 whom the Jews shewed the city of Christ's 
 birth from the oracles of God, even though 
 they themselves neither sought nor acknow- 
 ledged the information which they gave'." 
 
 10. It is the order of Providence that 
 truth should in general be attained by man 
 not without a struggle. To this, the greatest 
 of human blessings, is attached the same con- 
 dition which is necessary for the acquirement 
 of the lesser blessings by which life is sup- 
 ported. Labour is in all cases the lot of 
 man. Each truth which man wins is won 
 amidst conflict and opposition. Thus from 
 the incessant warfare of the schools of the 
 sophists truth was elicited in the purest form 
 in which it was given to the eyes of mere 
 
 ^ S. August. Sermoucs. Serrn. cc. de Epiphania. 
 
VIIL] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 23S 
 
 reason to behold her. And thus too in the 
 Christian Church, heresy after heresy arose, 
 and the issue of each heresy was the clearer 
 definition of some verity by reason of the vio- 
 lence with which it had been assailed. This 
 is the history of our Creeds. In each Article 
 which we repeat we tread as it were upon 
 the ashes of some extinct fire which once 
 raged and burned with fury, and has left be- 
 hind a precious residuum of truth. And if 
 in some respects the spectacle which the early 
 ages of Christianity present is painful and 
 sad, let us not imagine that these contests 
 express nothing but the vain strivings of men, 
 and were performing no part in the Divine 
 Economy. The view which would pass over 
 whole pages of the history of Christ's Church 
 as containing nothing but the register of hu- 
 man passions and human infirmity, is at best 
 hasty and superficial. Then as ever there 
 was a battle between the powers of heaven 
 and the powers of the world. Then as ever 
 faithful men stood having their loins girt 
 about with truth, and having on the breast- 
 plate of righteousness, and their feet shod 
 with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. 
 The darts of the wicked one were quenched 
 with the shield of faith, and the victory 
 achieved by the sword of the Spirit which is 
 
2i0 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 the Word of God^ It was not that new truths 
 were added to those which the Church before 
 possessed, but each truth was enunciated with 
 a distinctness that was before wanting, or 
 rather was not fully recognized. For the 
 truth lay ever in the written word of God, 
 though by some it was undiscovered or un- 
 heeded. The fiery ordeal through which the 
 Church passed, when the devil was permitted 
 to bring in deadly heresies, was ordained to 
 purify, not to destroy. *' For there must be 
 also heresies among you, that they which are 
 approved may be made manifest among you"." 
 " The words of the Lord are pure words, as 
 silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 
 seven times^." 
 
 This general mode of educing truth by 
 opposition is discoverable in the collision into 
 which the preachers of the Gospel were 
 brought with the Jews from the moment that 
 the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, illus- 
 trating the nature of true repentance by con- 
 trasting it with the vain confidence of the 
 mistaken Pharisees. " Bring forth fruits 
 meet for repentance ; and think not to say 
 w-ithin yourselves. We have Abraham to our 
 father: for I say unto you, that God is able 
 of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- 
 ' Epli. yI. 14—17. = 1 Cor. xi. 19. " Ps. xii. G. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 241 
 
 hamV Our blessed Lord was pleased to 
 allow the most exalted truths which He him- 
 self delivered to be drawn forth by contra- 
 diction. The unspiritual questions of the 
 doubting Nicodemus gave rise to the decla- 
 ration of the mysterious doctrine of the new 
 birth of water and the Spirits The gross and 
 carnal conceptions of the multitude produced 
 the exposition of the true nature of the bread 
 which came down from heaven 3. The great 
 and fundamental doctrine of His Divinity 
 was asserted, illustrated and enforced in reply 
 to the cavils of unbelievers''. And the light 
 which was thus brought forth out of darkness 
 was effectual to the illumination of others, 
 though not of those who were refuted and 
 baffled. " They understood not that He spake 
 to them of the Father^" But " as He spake 
 these words many believed on Him^." 
 
 When the apostles proceeded with the aid 
 of the Holy Spirit to build up the Christian 
 Church upon the foundation which had been 
 laid, and to embody in a systematic form the 
 doctrines delivered to the saints, the eluci- 
 dation of each doctrine was connected with 
 Jewish opposition. First came the open con- 
 
 1 Mattli. iii. 8, 9. 
 
 2 John iii. 
 
 3 John vi. 
 
 * John viii. 
 
 5 John viii. 27. 
 
 ^ John viii. 30. 
 
 C. H. L. 
 
 R 
 
242 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect! 
 
 flict with the Sadducaean impiety. Upon the 
 Resurrection of our Lord was based S. Peter's 
 speech on the day of Pentecost, and it was this 
 verity which was first maintained against those 
 who came upon them, "being grieved that 
 they taught the people, and preached through 
 Jesus the resurrection from the dead^" Each 
 succeeding difficulty strengthens their resolu- 
 tion, produces a more distinct and bold utter- 
 ance of that which it was sought to suppress, 
 and sends them back to their company to ask 
 of God in prayer that with all boldness they 
 may speak the truth; "and daily in the Temple, 
 and in every house, they ceased not to teach 
 and preach Jesus Christy" The next struggle 
 to which the infant Church was exposed was 
 that which resulted in the martyrdom of Ste- 
 phen. The opposition here was from the 
 Pharisees, and in this the people took part 
 with the rulers and the scribes. This led to 
 the inculcation of another set of truths, those 
 which concerned the true import of the 
 Mosaic Law, and the due limits of reverence 
 to the lawgiver. The appeal to the Prophets, 
 as furnishing the best commentary upon the 
 Law, and the severe reproof of the Jews for 
 having rejected these Divine messengers, be- 
 cause they propounded to them the spirit of 
 
 • Acts iv. 2. ' Acts V. 42. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 243 
 
 the Mosaic ordinances, and convicted them of 
 wilful blindness and obstinate transgression, 
 seem to have been the points in S. Stephen's 
 speech which gave such deep offence to 
 those, the refutation of whose errors involved 
 the exposition of truth. And not only did 
 Jewish error thus struggle without, but it 
 found an entrance within the pale of the 
 Christian Church, and there exercised a more 
 subtle, and therefore more dangerous in- 
 fluence. For when the word grew and pros- 
 pered, there were many among the Jews 
 ready to compromise the matter. These 
 would have accepted Jesus for the Messiah, 
 provided the religion which should bear His 
 name retained all the external forms of the 
 Jewish ritual. The observance of the Sab- 
 bath, and the adherence to the rite of cir- 
 cumcision, were the badges of this party ; and 
 if they professed rather to add to than to 
 detract from the truth, these additions were 
 in fact antagonistic to the very spirit of 
 Christianity. This was seen in the heresies 
 which sprung up in the succeeding age 
 among the Judaizing sects of the Christian 
 Church, and the vehemence with which such 
 opinions were assailed by Christian teachers. 
 The well-known opinion which Justin Mar- 
 tyr tells us was held by some of his day, that 
 
 R2 
 
24i THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 observance of Mosaic rites invalidated the 
 faith even of those Avho embraced the whole 
 doctrine of Christianity S testifies that the 
 struggle between Christianity and the remains 
 of Judaism was still going on with great 
 violence. And the earnest expostulations 
 addressed by S. Chrysostom^, at a yet later 
 period, to those of his flock who persisted in 
 bearing part in Jewish fasts and Jewish cere- 
 monies, shews that there was something in 
 this form of error seductive and dangerous, 
 and therefore requiring vigorous resistance. 
 
 We may observe how this tendency was 
 met in the earliest days, and how the propin- 
 quity of error was made conducive to the evo- 
 lution of truth. The person to whom was 
 committed the especial task of maintaining 
 the freedom of the Gentiles had himself been 
 instructed in all the principles of Pharisaic 
 learning, and was perhaps on this account less 
 liable to be deceived as to the real tendency of 
 the claims advanced by the Jews ; while he 
 who was entrusted with the Gospel of the 
 circumcision was for a time misled by their 
 representations. " Before that certain came 
 from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but 
 when they were come, he withdrew and sepa^ 
 
 ' Just. M. Trypli. p. 266, B. 
 
 " S. Chrysost. Ilomil. vi. adv. Juda?os. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 245 
 
 rated himself, fearing them which were of the 
 circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled 
 likewise with him ; insomuch that Barnabas 
 also was carried away with their dissimula- 
 tion \" The notion propounded by S. Chrysos- 
 tom, that the contest between the two apostles 
 was only apparent^, and was assumed in 
 order to give room for the expression of truth, 
 is not borne out by the narrative of S. Paul, 
 and is inconsistent with apostolic simplicity. 
 The dispute was no doubt a real one, and 
 S. Peter was for the time in error, and this 
 dispute furnished the theme for the free and 
 noble speech of S. Paul, in which he asserted 
 even against S. Peter the liberty of the Gen- 
 tiles, and was followed^ by the deliberate 
 decree of the council of Jerusalem, where S. 
 
 » Gal. ii. 12, 13. 
 
 ^ S. Chrysost. Horn, in Gal. ii. 11. He interprets Kara 
 TTpoa-MTrov "in appearance," S. Jerome interprets it in the same 
 manner, and this formed the subject of an expostulation ad- 
 dressed to him by S. Augustin. See Trench on the Sermon on 
 the Mount, p. 68. 
 
 ^ Many have maintained that S. Peter's visit to Antioch 
 was subsequent to the council at Jerusalem : doubtless on 
 account of the order of events in Gal. ii. See Wolf, in Gal. ii. 
 II. But it seems highly improbable that S. Peter should 
 have fallen into this error after the decree of the council. 
 
 .This question is connected with another in reference to S. 
 Paul's visit to Jerusalem mentioned in Gal. ii. 1. It seems to 
 me most probable that this visit was that which S. Paul made 
 
246 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 Peter stood up as the champion of that cause 
 which he had once impugned. From this 
 council may be dated the full promulgation 
 of the liberty of the Gospel of Christ. The 
 same narrow spirit which S. Peter had suc- 
 cessfully combated in the case of the baptism 
 of Cornelius, had now been still further re- 
 pressed, and the privileges which had been 
 conceded to Cornelius and his family only 
 after a special manifestation of the Holy 
 Spirit, were now assured to all, "that the bless- 
 ing of Abraham might come on the Gen- 
 tiles through Jesus Christ; that we might 
 
 after his first journey with Barnabas and Titus, and which 
 led to the decree of the council, Acts xv. But I would place 
 the visit of S. Peter to Antioch before this, possibly when S. 
 Peter after his imprisonment by Herod withdrew to another 
 place (Acts xii. 17)- This would be before S. Paul went forth 
 from Antioch on his first journey (Acts xiii. 2). But more 
 probably it was in the course of the long time which S. Paul 
 spent at Antioch between his first journey and his visit to 
 Jerusalem, during which time the Judaical controversy was 
 growing up. In the Galatians S. Paul may have deviated from 
 chronological order for the sake of his argument. He first 
 recounts the circumstances of his call and the subsequent 
 events of his life until his mission was thoroughly and pub- 
 licly recognized, (Gal. ii. 9). And then to prove his consist- 
 ency and firmness he recurs to the controversy which he had 
 previously maintained with S. Peter on the subject of Juda- 
 ical rites. If we adopt the opinion of Paley (Ilor. Paulin.), 
 that the visit of S. Paul in Gal. ii. 1 is different from that 
 in Acts XV. 2, the difficulty as to the order of narration in the 
 Galatians is disposed of at once. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 247 
 
 receive the promise of the Spirit through 
 faiths" 
 
 The Church, however, had yet to beware 
 of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the 
 Sadducees, and the Apostles were inspired to 
 supply in their epistles what was yet lack- 
 ing, that guarding their converts against evil 
 workers, and against the concision, they might 
 instruct them to worship God in the spirit, and 
 rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confi- 
 dence in the flesh 2. There were certain lead- 
 ing doctrines of Christianity which were thus 
 brought forth ^ 
 
 Firstly, The true doctrine of Evangelical 
 grace. The two sects of the Jews, who re- 
 presented the opposite extremes of opinion, 
 had both perverted the truth in reference to 
 the human will. The Sadducees represented it 
 absolutely free, independent of Divine assist- 
 ance, so that man according to them was 
 sufficient of himself to do every thing as of 
 himself*. The Pharisees had adopted a theory 
 more plausible, which might seem at first sight 
 not far removed from the truth. In the vir- 
 tuous and vicious actions of men they asserted 
 
 ' Gal. iii. 14. -" Philip, iii. 2, 3. 
 
 ^ For the erroneous opinions of the Jews, see Bull, Harm. 
 Apost. Pars II. ch. 15 — 17- 
 4 2 Cor. iii. 5. 
 
248 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 the operation of free will, and were accus- 
 tomed to recognize in their good actions a co- 
 operating rather than constraining influence 
 of God. But the general course of Provi- 
 dence, and the dispositions and fortunes of 
 men, they were wont to ascribe to fate, mean- 
 ing thereby the order appointed at the begin- 
 ning of the world, and subject to no direct 
 interference on the part of Him who had 
 ordained it. Thus notwithstanding the quali- 
 fication in reference to a particular class of 
 actions, they were led to a virtual abnegation 
 of all free will in man, and to an absolute 
 denial of a special Providence, dwelling in 
 fact upon the false theories of astrology, 
 which represented human actions and human 
 interests as bound up with the course of the 
 heavens, and the laws originally imposed 
 upon them by the Creator. 
 
 The remembrance of these two opposite 
 forms of error will best enable us to estimate 
 the apostolical doctrine of grace advanced as 
 their substitute. It laid down the corruption 
 of man's nature, and the necessity of extrane- 
 ous help to renovate and exalt it. It described 
 man in his original state as carnal, sold 
 under sin, doing not the good which he would, 
 but the evil which he would not, that doing, 
 brought into captivity to the law which is 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 249 
 
 in his members, enslaved by the body of 
 this deaths But it represented the liberty, 
 which was the object of so passionate desire, 
 achieved for those which are in Christ Jesus 
 by God sending His own Son in the likeness 
 of sinful flesh, and for sin condemning sin 
 in the fleshy It taught that for those who 
 have been engrafted into the body of Christ's 
 Church, and have become partakers of sacra- 
 mental grace, the law of the spirit of life 
 has made them free from the law of sin and 
 death^, in order that the righteousness of the 
 law might be fulfilled in those who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the spirit^. It pro- 
 pounded the full benefits and privileges of 
 incorporation into Christ's Church — the adop- 
 tion of which we are thereby partakers, the 
 inheritance to which we are therein entitled, 
 the assistance which we receive from the 
 Spirit, who " helpeth our infirmities*," the 
 successive steps of election, justification, and 
 sanctification, by which they who are trans- 
 formed to the image of the sons of God attain 
 to the glory which shall be revealed in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord. 
 
 1 See Rom. ch. vii. On the subject of this chapter see 
 Taylor's Sermon on " The Christian's conquest over the body 
 of sin." 
 
 2 Rom. viii. 3. ' Rom. viii. 2. 
 
 * Rom. viii. 4. ^ Rom. viii. 26. 
 
250 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 Secondly, Reliance upon the Mosaic Law, 
 which prescribed so much that was to all 
 appearances purely external, naturally in- 
 duced a regard rather to the letter than to 
 the spirit. And even those who had learnt 
 that they could not be saved by the ritual 
 law might be inclined to weigh morality rather 
 by the positive act than by the principle of 
 action. So the Pharisee in the parable looked 
 for acceptance with God on the ground not 
 merely of ceremonial, but of moral observ- 
 ance; " I fast twice in the week," said he, " I 
 give tithes of all that I possess ^" and more- 
 over, "I am not an extortioner, unjust, or an 
 adulterer." His moral obedience was esti- 
 mated according to the letter, and if he was 
 not liable to judicial penalty he imagined that 
 he had fulfilled the whole law of God. It 
 is this legal righteousness to which S. Paul 
 opposes the righteousness which is by faith ; 
 these are the works which are excluded from 
 having part in justification, not merely the 
 works of the ceremonial Law, but the works 
 of the moral Law, if they are based upon 
 legality, and abstracted from the spirit of 
 obedience. 
 
 Again, Reliance upon lineal descent from 
 Abraham, and upon the rite of circumcision, 
 
 ' Luke xviii. 12. 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 251 
 
 might lead the mind in the very opposite 
 direction. How extravagant were the opin- 
 ions of the Jews as to the privileges thus 
 attached to them, may be seen in the writings 
 of the most learned and moderate of their 
 doctors. Maimonides, in a treatise upon re- 
 pentance, boldly asserts that the pious men 
 of all other nations, but of Israel even the 
 wicked (with certain restrictions), will be 
 saved ; *' for all Israel have a share in the 
 blessings of the world to come, though they 
 have sinned ; for it is said, ' Thy people shall 
 be all righteous, they shall inherit the land 
 for ever.' (Is. Ix. 21.)^" When converts had 
 learned to abandon the rite of circumcision, 
 and to substitute the Christian for the Jewish 
 Church, the Judaical spirit might so far sur- 
 vive among them as to induce reliance upon 
 their external position, upon the mere fact 
 of their being in name members of the Church, 
 upon their being what they would call " be- 
 lievers." That some such opinions were rife 
 in very early days we learn from the general 
 Epistle of S. James ; and the circumstance 
 that this was addressed especially to con- 
 verted Jews seems to prove the Jewish origin 
 of this doctrine of " faith without works," no 
 
 1 Maimon. Yad Hachazachah — On Repentance, ch. iii. 
 § II. Eng. Transl. 
 
252 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 less than of that of "Avorks without faith," 
 and to illustrate the manner in which even 
 within the Church Jewish error was made 
 instrumental in eliciting Christian truth. 
 
 11. But it has been said, that besides the 
 Pharisees and Sadducees there was another 
 sect of the Jews, and that with this sect the 
 Christians are to be identified. The sect to 
 which allusion is made is that of the Esseni, 
 of whose tenets and practices Josephus gives 
 a full and particular accounts And it is true 
 that these persons did in part resemble the 
 early Christians in the simplicity of their man- 
 ners and in the austerity of their lives — and 
 moreover that some of their usages may have 
 been either introduced by converted Esseni, 
 or imitated by the Christians, because they 
 seemed conducive to purity and self-denial 2. 
 But the very essence of the peculiarities of 
 
 * Joseph. Bell. Jud. 11. 8. 2—13. Also Ant. Jud. xviii. 
 
 ' Some have maintained that the Esseni were really a 
 society of Christian monks, and that Josephus was mistaken 
 in calling them a sect of tlie Jews. See Prid. Conn. Vol. 11. 
 p. 390. It is very probable that the early ascetics borrowed 
 much from the Esseni, but the strictness of their Jewish 
 observances plainly distinguishes them from Christians. It 
 is not undeserving of notice, although it is a minor matter, 
 that the Esseni abhorred the use of oil : KtjXTla ce CiroXaf.iftd- 
 vovai TO 6\ajoi/, kuv dXicpii ti? cikwv, cr|U»;Y6Taj to a-wfxa. Con- 
 trast St James v. 14. v 
 
VIII.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 253 
 
 the Esseni lay in an exact and superstitious 
 observance of Jewish ordinances; and this is 
 entirely contradictory to the supposition of 
 their identity with the Christians. They who 
 observed the Sabbath with all the strictness 
 of fanaticism^, had little really in common 
 with those who endured persecution and death 
 rather than submit to the ritual ordinances 
 of Judaism, whose watchword was that their 
 Master had declared Himself to be Lord of 
 the Sabbath 2, had reproved the Pharisees for 
 their superstitious use of it, and laid down 
 the broad principle, " I will have mercy, and 
 not sacrificeV 
 
 It is evident, then, that Christianity was 
 no development of Judaism, but a new and 
 distinct Revelation communicated to mankind 
 not merely to re-establish the laws of natural 
 religion, which had been forgotten in the cor- 
 ruption of the world, but to restore that spirit 
 which Jewish ignorance and prejudice had 
 banished from their notion of the Law. For 
 although Christianity was not spiritualized 
 Judaism, it was, as we have elsewhere endea- 
 voured to shew*, the spirit of the Law — cere- 
 monial no less than moral — the Law which was 
 abolished only by its being fulfilled in Christ^ 
 
 1 Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 9. 2 L^te vi. 5. 
 
 3 Matt. ix. 13. * Lect. II. 
 
254 THE OPPOSITION OF [Lect. 
 
 Shall we doubt whether a system which 
 was thus both old and new, in which was 
 summed up all that related to the people of 
 Israel, and which yet was so distinct both in its 
 doctrines and promises from the system that 
 had grown up among this people, was the end 
 to which all was tending, and was accom- 
 plished by Him who giveth good gifts to 
 man? 
 
 Christianity may not be regarded simply 
 as a part of God's dealings with man : it is 
 the scheme for the renovation and redemp- 
 tion of mankind, to which all that was before 
 Christ was preparatory and subordinate. 
 
 I have endeavoured to shew this in the 
 case of the people of Israel. And if we have 
 been taught by the rules of sound philosophy 
 to recognize in the purpose which each being 
 fulfils, the end for which it was endowed with 
 faculties by a Supreme Intelligence; to dis- 
 cover in the final result the ordained purpose 
 of a concatenation of causes ; if we have been 
 taught by the first principles of natural reli- 
 gion to acknowledge the world to be God's 
 world, and every event to be at His disposal, 
 then may our belief in Christianity as the 
 Work of God be sustained and confirmed by 
 our review of past ages, and we may discover 
 in the revolutions of time the operations of 
 
Vm.] THE JEWS TO CHRISTIANITY. 255 
 
 the Great First Cause working out His gra- 
 cious purpose of mercy to mankind, " accord- 
 ing to His good pleasure which He hath pur- 
 posed in Himself, that in the dispensation of 
 the fulness of times He might gather together 
 in one all things in Christ'." 
 
 ' Eph. i. 9, 10. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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