Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

1

the Old Testament is indisputable; but how frequently does this design altogether depend for its effect upon the history of the chosen people, or of individuals among themP! And even this, perhaps, although not in itself a proof of the religious design of the Historical Scriptures, (since even profane history may be cited or alluded to by an inspired writer,) may yet be considered as some confirmation of it, when these writings are at once necessary to the understanding of the Prophets and Psalms, and are component parts of the same sacred canon. And this confirmation would be greatly strengthened, if we proceeded to shew, as we easily might, the use and need of these sacred books as a basis for the doctrinal instructions of the New Testament. But, lastly, these Historical books have in themselves the grand characteristic of works directly seeking a religious object; since they profess to record and reveal not only the ways of man, but the government and providence of God. They are, in truth, a record of Miracles, and they are continually interwoven with Prophecy; and with the cessation of miracle and prophecy under the dis

See Psalm 1xxviii.

See, for instance, the manner in which the history of the Israelites is recapitulated and commented upon in the ninth chapter of Nehemiah.

pensation of the Law, sacred history itself is suspended, pausing to hail the fulfilment of its earlier promises, and a new and more stupendous era of miracles at the advent of the Messiah.

2. After these observations upon the religious character and design of the Historical books of the Old Testament subsequent to the Law of Moses, or during the period of its delivery, we need not expatiate upon the antecedent history. The same character is only more apparent than before.

A prince and a lawgiver, Moses has treated the laws and the ceremonies of religion with a surprising minuteness, precision, and fulness; but has left the details of the civil government of his people in comparative obscurity. And in the earlier history in like manner, although "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and describing a period in their history of the highest political interest, he passes over it with a rapid pen, disclosing no more of the laws and civil condition of the most remarkable of the kingdoms of the world than might give consistency to his narrative, and illustrate the character and fortunes of one individual. And to the history of this individual, his brothers, and the line of their fathers for three generations, the history of a single family, he devotes four out of five portions of a work, which, up to the period when the history be

C

came thus restricted to the family of Abraham, had been occupied with the creation of the world, and the history of the whole human race for above two thousand years. But the whole is consistent nevertheless; and the selection of the subjects, and the mode of treating them, alike depend upon the moral and religious character of the work. Hence, for example, there was precisely the same reason for detailing in the book of Genesis the history of Abraham and his family, as there was afterwards for dwelling upon that of the chosen people, and of the tribe of Judah more especially, which chiefly adhered to the Law, and from which at length the Messiah was to spring. For the family of Abraham was also chosen; it was the subject of a miraculous providence, brought into a peculiar covenant with the Almighty, and the depositary of his great promise to mankind. Hence the prominence given in the history to incidents in themselves sometimes minute, and sometimes even painful, but highly important in the development of human character or of the

In the book of Genesis, thirty-nine chapters out of fifty are devoted to Abraham and his family, during a period of 286 years; whilst 428 years from the flood to the call of Abraham occupy only five chapters; and in six chapters is recorded the history of the whole period before the flood, a space of about 1655 years, nearly four times the preceding period, and above five times the length of that which fills thirty-nine chapters,

Divine Providence-the sale of Esau's birthright, the incest of Lot, the intemperance of Noah. Hence again, in the mode of the narration, those circumstances and those alone are brought out into light which mark the great moral features of the transaction. The history of the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, from the intercession of Abraham in their behalf to the flight of Lot from Zoar, presents a striking instance of the fact. But hence, above all, throughout the whole of the work, from the Creation to the Exodus, it is even less a history of the ways of man than of the providence of God. And no one can be blind to the religious design and character of the history, when not only the acts, and mercies, and promises, and signal judgments, and providential interpositions of the Almighty are continually introduced into the narrative, but all the human transactions which it records are related in their connexion with the Divine Providence.

II. To many, doubtless, enough and more than enough will appear to have been advanced, in illustration of a point so evident, as the religious design of the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament. And yet all that has been said will be insufficient for the correction of some of those misapprehensions

on this subject to which allusion was made in the outset of this Discourse.

1. The persecution, for instance, of Galileo, and the famous decree of the Church of Rome against the theory of the earth's motion, were they not grounded upon an assumption almost too absurd to be expressed in words-as if it had been one of the purposes of holy Scripture to teach astronomy! And yet we also have our writers still, who scarcely hesitate to assume, that sacred Scripture is to teach geology. But can we then disengage the inspired writings from these injurious fancies, by any thing which has been advanced respecting the religious objects of the sacred history? Evidently not. Since one design does not preclude another; and we have not proved that the objects of these Historical books are exclusively religious. These mistaken theories, moreover, rest in part upon other assumptions, concern-. ing the nature of the perfection of the Scriptures, and the extent of their inspiration: and they cannot be overthrown effectually without an examination of these grave questions. For practical purposes, nevertheless, such a conviction of the great design of the Historical books as the preceding observations. tend to establish may suffice to guard us even against these erroneous theories. For let us examine these writings again and again, and trace in every page their grand moral and religious purposes.

« PoprzedniaDalej »