vii ters of historical detail. We may in this manner go deeper and deeper;-from Court to Court;-and still find (so wonderful the wisdom and the unity of the Bible) principle after principle of Truth arise, almost to an infinity;-and all still pointing to and centring in the true Holy of Holies,-Jesus, the Son of God. The following treatises then have been written as gradations;-as steps to a more free and enlarged reception of the Bible. It struck me, that it would be a great point to induce men to look at the Scriptures under these forms; and I have endeavoured rather to bring them out plainly and systematically, than under any degree of individual perfection. For this reason I have feared to enter too deeply into proofs; but have striven to throw them closely together in one continuous line, that the mind, not wearied by an over minuteness, might perceive at once the perfect harmony of the whole. The chief difficulty is to give the first impression; as I conceive there is little danger that a man, whose ideas have once been familiarized to this mode of receiving Scripture, will again relinquish them for a more contracted interpretation. I have merely to add in regard to the following treatises, that the first, is an adaptation of Scripture to a fact of science, which is very generally recognized at the present day. viii In the Christian Scheme, the only plan pursued has been to bring into unity of design, a principle which all Christians, I believe, have allowed; but which they have not reduced into system. The Inner Sense embraces only one of its features, -the Personal Types. These are the most noble; and it seems to me that the truth of these ought to be fully recognized by the believer, before he descends to those lesser points of assimilation; such as the rites of sacrifice, &c., and the various laws of the Jewish ceremonial;-which are more generally perhaps acknowledged. The reception of the Personal types will give an increased dignity to the ritual shadows; and reciprocally confirming each other, may, it is to be hoped, correspondently strengthen the Faith in Christ to the individual. W. H. T. May, 1838. ! THE CREATION. CHAPTER I. THE earth, according to the received chronology of Moses, has existed rather less than six thousand years. Its creation has usually been fixed, by commentators on the Bible, at four thousand and four years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The genealogies of Moses, from which this æra has been gathered, are drawn up with great distinctness and precision; and admit of no question on their accuracy, which does not at the same time destroy his authority as an inspired writer. We cannot impugn these, and, with any degree of consistency, receive his other statements of professed revelation. Indeed it is scarcely too much to assert, that his entire credit as an historian is bound up in the authenticity of these annals; since his chief object in writing would be frustrated, if they were not worthy of an implicit reliance. The most ostensible design of the Pentateuch was, without doubt, the deliverance from Egypt and the institution of the Law. But the Law |