deavor to show mainly in what respects. And in the first place, predictions of the ultimate approach of a better, more perfect and happier age, must have awakened lively feelings of the spiritual misery of the ages to which they severally belonged; and hence, have produced a clear consciousness of the peculiar guilt and corruption of the nation. All the descriptions given of a new generation to be raised up which should be more righteous, pious and pleasing in the sight of God, were likewise so many testimonies against the living one, and so many complaints of its deep moral corruption. Every internal and external want with which the nation was oppressed, was thus made to appear as the consequence of the vice prevalent, while all prospect of relief was founded upon the coming of a better generation. These ideal representations of the splendid state of things in prospect, however, were, at the same time, earnest admonitions for hastening this period, and consequently, for striving after perfection. Hence, they served as powerful excitements to thorough improvement, and must have been productive of so much greater effects in this respect from the positive assurance with which they were accompanied, of its being agreeable to the will of God, and of his directing all things to the accomplishment of this end; for with these predictions, the prophets actually connected exhortations, (Isa. 2: 5. 8: 13. LVIII. Jer. 3:22. 31: 18, 22. Ezek. 16: 55.)* Farther, these predictions must also have served to extend purer and more honorable notions respecting God. They represented him as the almighty and benevolent ruler of the world; who exercised care over the heathen

* In regard to all these prophetical testimonies, in which the present and the future are so closely connected together, it is important. to recollect, that in the Bible in general, they are founded upon the view which considered the whole nation, the existing generation together with the future, as one person;-a view which has a deep foundation and is to be met with in other books than the Bible. For the classics upon this subject, vid. Plutarch, De sera Num. vindicta, T. VIII. particularly p. 213-217; comp. Wolf, ad. Demosth. adv. Lept. p. 230; Storr, De Sensu Hist. Not. 183, Op. Ac. I.

nations as well as that of the Jews, and intended they should acknowledge and worship him as such; and hence, by no means as a being who had selected one nation to be his chosen people forever, but who, on the other hand, might choose others in its stead. How directly opposed was all this to the inclinations of the Jews to consider themselves as God's favorites to the exclusion of all others! How much it was calculated to humble their national pride! How could the willingness of the future heathen to yield obedience to the calls of God, be laid before the obstinate nation which had rejected its ancient, and the true God, without exciting in it sensible emotions of shame! Isa. 65: 1, 2. This was directly calculated to subdue its inimical and haughty feelings towards the heathen and create in it an esteem for them,—an esteem as the future people of God, and in general, to teach it to consider the history of the world in a religious aspect and view the hand of God in every thing that happened; inasmuch as these prophecies were interwoven with the history of other nations. If we follow out this train of thought in respect to individuals, we shall find that particular prophecies exerted a particular and especial influence. The destruction of idolatry announced by the prophets with the strongest assurance as an event which would infallibly take place, exhibited the folly of those who gave themselves up to it, and was calculated to create a preponderance in opposition to the allurements by which heathenism, then clad in splendor and universally prevalent, might have blinded the single and weak nation of the Jews, as well as to animate true Israelites to remain faithful to their God, before whom all were one day to bend the knee. The description given of an age in which a spiritual worship of God was to take the place of the limited external worship then in vogue, and the nation to be guided by a childlike disposition and willing obedience instead of a servile submission and the law of bondage, was calculated to excite the nation even then to honor God with something more than sacrificial services,

and render him the worship of the heart,-to elevate it from the low state in which it then was, and lead it to strive after the noble relationship of the children of God. The prospect opened before the separated tribes of Judah and Israel of being ultimately united together again, (Isa. 11: 13. Jer. 3: 18,) was an admonition for them even then, to lay aside all hostility and forgive each other. No representation, however, was calculated to exert a holier and more effectual influence upon the contemporaries of the prophets than that given of the Messiah himself. In him, the highest consolations were presented to all, and the grace of God and forgiveness of sin, rendered certain. The prophecies uttered respecting him, constituted as it were a Gospel before any had been written by the Evangelists. They served to mitigate the chastising severities of the law by exhibiting the soothing consolations of divine compassion. Whenever the nation felt itself trodden down and treated with contempt, a belief in the promise of God to send them a Saviour by whom he was to continue the exercise of his authority over them, was calculated to raise the sinking courage of the desponding and preserve them against total degradation and despair. The representation given of the Messiah, however, was also adapted to exert sometimes a correcting, at others an animating influence upon individuals. It held up an example to kings and magistrates which should have shone before them, have reminded them of their duty and dignity, have guarded them against tyranny and injustice, and excited them to become the fathers of the nation. It exhibited to priests the sanctity of their office, in the person of the supreme and divine Priest, and rebuked them for their unfaithfulness and negligence in regard to the spiritual welfare of the people, (Ezek. xxxiv.) It furnished even the prophets with the archetype, which, in laying down their testimony for the truth and passing through the sufferings incidental to their calling, they were to strive to resemble, and in short was adapted to yield consolation and strength

to all the pious who had to struggle, and suffer.-I do not say that the prophecies of the Old Testament produced these effects and impressions upon all, but that the prophecies themselves, were calculated to produce them; and if only a few made use of these prophecies for this purpose, it was because of indolence and corruption. At all times, however, there certainly were those who read them with a spirit of deep inquiry, and by this means were excited to out-strip the age in which they lived. In the very commencement of the New Testament we find mention of some persons who were animated with. the spirit of nobler hopes respecting the Messiah, (Luke 1: 74-79.2: 30—32, 34, 35, 38,) and this fact renders it so much the more evident that these prophecies were as introductory labor to prepare the way for the kingdom of God.

Accordingly Christ found the idea of such a universal kingdom of God in the Old Testament,* and we know also that this fact was one of great importance to him. All that he taught and did, was in continuation of the Old Testament. His object was to complete what God had there begun. The annunciations of the prophetical writings were to him so many divine hints to which he accurately attended; so many predictions of what was absolutely to be done to him and by him. Hence, the most important problem he had to solve was the initiation of his disciples into that spirit of the Old Testament which referred exclusively to him, and thereby to furnish them with a key for rightly understanding the holy Scriptures and obtaining a knowledge of the unity of the divine plan laid down.

Hess, Lehre, Thaten und Schicksale unsers Herrn, II. 171. "Strictly speaking, our Lord never formed a plan. The great undertaking which was to be executed by him and his disciples (or rather by him alone, making use of his disciples as instruments,) was not one of his projecting, but one which he found already projected in the former course of things and the connexion of divine institutions and transactions, from the time of Abraham down to his own day. This plan lay spread out before him from its first germ to its final development and consummation. Having a knowledge of this sublime plan and his own destination to be its executor, it was altogether improper and superfluous for him to think of plans of his own."

in the Old Testament. That in making use of the Old Testament, Christ did not act from the full convictions of his own heart, but an endeavor to accommodate himself to the representations then prevalent and to the feelings of the nation in general, is one of the most groundless and objectionable opinions that have been advanced in modern times. Not to speak of the impossibility always in the way of reconciling such an accommodation with a strict love of the truth; it may be asked, if Christ was not serious in every thing that he did, how he could have evinced such religious earnestness in considering himself under obligations to fulfil the Scriptures; how he could have thus censured his contemporaries for neglecting to attend to the testimony of the Scriptures, (John 5: 39, 46, 47;) how he could have taken such pains to instruct his disciples in the Scriptures; and how in his prayer to the Father, (John 17:12,) he could have gone so far as to appeal to the Scriptures? The fact, however, that these early annunciations respecting the kingdom of God were already in existence, did not divest this thought of its originality in the mind of Jesus. There was one source from which it flowed both in regard to Jesus and the prophets themselves, that of the same divine spirit. Jesus found himself, found his own spirit in the prophets; and instead of saying that Christ was indebted for his knowledge, to the prophets, we may say, if we believe the intimations of the New Testament (1 Pet. 1: 11,) that the prophets were indebted for their illumination to the spirit of Christ. To all this, however, it may be added, that though the prophets, speaking as the organs of God, cast many remote glances to this divine plan, yet none of them ever conceived the

*

Semler, Von Untersuchung des Canon, I. 125 ff. 2e Ausg.

The view which Jesus took and the manner in which he made use of the Old Testament, have been accurately and completely explained by Hess, 1. c. Abschnitt, Nr. VIII; Ueber Verschiednes, was zur Bildung seines Characters beigetragen, Th. II. S. 81-145; especially S. 40 f. 68 f. of the last edition, Theil 20e. of his collected works. Comp. also Cramer, Bibliologia N. T. L. 1819..