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524 fufferings, he should rife in triumph from the duft, and that his profperity fhould commence in a future ftate. If his friends were convinced that this confidence was well founded, and were alfo infpired by this hope, the difpute was at once decided, and the injuftice of their accufation completely fhewn; if they did not believe this doctrine, how can we account for Job's not making any farther mention of a fubject which, in his circumftances, was of fuch vaft importance to his vindication? Or why does his impatience increase with the progrefs of his difeafe; when this very hope would have inclined him to look forward with compofure at leaft, if not with defire, to the approaching termination of a life fo wretched? Whereas we find that the fubject of accufation and the nature of Job's anfwers remain the fame in all the following as in the preceding dialogues, till the catastrophe fhews that his confidence was well founded, and till his eyes fee God, as his deliverer. Chap. xlii. 5.

To thefe remarks, the Profeffor adds two or three on the expreffions which occur in the original, of which he hopes his tranflation will not be deemed forced and improbable. The latter part of the 25th verfe is literally be fhall ftand next this duft, i. e.. as pleader and protector, as deliverer and defender. Compare chap. xvii. 3, 4. There is a fimilar expreffion in Dan. xii. 1. where the great prince is faid to ftand next the children of the people, i. e. as their deliverer: See alfo Ifaiah xxxii. 8, where tanding by liberal things is explained by Vitringa as defending and protecting them.

The appellation of duft given to his wretched and perishing body, though not ufed by Job in other places, is here peculiarly happy, and ftands clofely connected with the expreffion of his fkin being perforated. The worms peculiar to the leprofy, fee chap. vii. 5. gnawed his fkin, and confumed his body, which, decaying like duft, feemed as if it were speedily to moulder entirely but this, God, the deliverer of innocence, would prevent; he would take this duft under his protection, and heal the perforated fkin. Job, with a body reftored to health, fhould behold God as his protector and friend.

Having thus extracted the fubftance of the Profeffor's ob fervations on this celebrated paffage, our readers may form an idea of the manner in which the work is conducted however, we must add that the learned author feems to have bestowed more labour in the explanation of this text, than of any other; for, in general, his annotations are very concife; and, as the book is intended for common ufe, they are chiefly fuch as, being illuftrative of the figures and allufions that occur in the poem, A fhort will be read with pleafure by every critic of tafte.

appendix

appendix is fubjoined, which is more immediately calculated for those who are converfant with the Oriental languages, and in which the various readings, the opinions of commentators, and other subjects of this nature, are difcuffed.

ART. IX. Befchryving vanden Veldtogt, &c. i. e. An Account of the
-Campaign of the Year 1792, under the Command of the Duke of
Brunfwic, in Letters written by one who was an Eye-witness of the
Facts related. Tranflated from the German. Vol. III.
pp. 190. Holland. 1794.

ΤΗ

8vo.

HE character which we gave, in our last Appendix, of the two former volumes of this anonymous work may fuit the third; with this exception, that the author is ftill more digreffive than in the former part; for the first hundred and twenty pages of the volume before us are filled up with extracts from German writers, and mifcellaneous reflections of his own, on the duties of princes, on liberty, and the French revolution; which, though the circumftances of the campaign may have brought them to his recollection, have no other connection with the events which he profeffes to relate. He does not resume the thread of his narrative till toward the clofe of his book, when he exhibits a continued fcene of diftrefs, which the foldiers underwent in their retreat, from being obliged to march in bad weather through a deep clay, under all the dreadful circumftances of difeafe, of famine, and of the fear of enemies, who, though they did not attack, kept them in continual alarm. To give us an idea of the difficulties which they had to encounter, we are told that, though they were not more than twenty-eight leagues from Luxemburg, three weeks elapfed before they reached this city. Great numbers of the foldiers, exhausted with ficknefs and fatigue, fell down and died on the way; and, as few of the men had fhoes, many of them were fo wounded in their feet, that they were unable to march. We are forry to find, from our author's account, that all thefe fufferings did not contribute to render the foldiers lefs ferocious; for he tells us that all difcipline was neglected; that they plundered without fear or remorfe, and even fet fome villages on fire, as the inhabitants had fled on their approach.

The narration, which contains no details of any importance, concludes very abruptly after having mentioned the arrival of the Pruffians at Limburg, and the taking of this place by the French. The author talks of writing another work, in which he intends to dwell on feveral facts and obfervations which he does not chufe to infert in this. It seems that, having once taken up the pen, he does not know when to lay it down. We opened the work in expectation of facts, and, as his digreffions

in

in the former volumes were lefs numerous, and his obfervations often juft, we afcribed them to his profeffional habits: but that defultory and digreffive manner, which may amufe in a fhort work, becomes tedious when a writer feems to intend being voluminous, and lofes fight of the main object by which the curiofity of the public had been excited.

ART. X. Onderzoek Van den Aart der Voorspellingen, &c. i. e. An Inquiry into the Nature of the Prophecies in the Old Teftament, relative to the Meffiah. By J. KONYNENBURG, Professor of Theology and Ecclefiaftical History in the Society of Remonftrants in Amfterdam. 8vo. pp. 274. Haarlem. 1794.

IT Ir is fo much the intereft of mankind that the gospel should be well understood, and believed on the foundation of rational conviction, that every attempt to elucidate or confirm it must be gratefully received by all who are friends to the best interefts of their fellow-creatures. Hence we feel a degree of uneafinefs when we think that the validity is queftioned of any argument for Christianity which, by long use, is become popular, and which, during our education, we were taught to confider as important. Yet what man is there, who has emancipated his mind from the fetters of fyftematic theology, and has dared to inquire into the grounds of his own religious conviction, whe does not feel that fome arguments have been either injudiciously applied, or too far extended; that, by having been made to prove too much, they have in fact been weakened; and that, however plaufible they may, when thus urged, appear to the fuperficial reafoner, they are by no means calculated to abide the teft of that strict investigation to which, from the inquifitive temper of the age, they must be exposed.

These reflections are remarkably verified with respect to the arguments founded on the prophetic writings of the Old Teftament. On no parts of fcripture have pious and learned divines employed more attention; and yet there are scarcely any in the particular explanation of which they are lefs agreed. Some have maintained that all the paffages of the Old Testament, which are cited in the New, were immediate predictions of those particulars events in the hiftory of which they are quoted; and that the Jewish prophets had a direct reference to the circumftances of the gospel difpenfation. Others, rightly concluding that the immediate defign of words must be collected from the connection in which they ftand, rejected this hypothefis, on account of the violence offered to what was evidently the primary meaning of the paffage applied; and yet, not daring to suppose that the expreffion of fulfilling a prophecy could mean any thing lefs than the accomplishment of a prediction determined by the prophet

prophet to the event related, they have afferted that the prophetic writings must be confidered as having a double fenfe; the one obvious and literal, referring to the Jewish difpenfation; the other myfterious and spiritual, relating to that of Christianity. By means of this curious discovery, the Gordian knot was at once fevered, and every difficulty vanquished; for, according to this mode of interpretation, the grammatical fenfe and connection of words are circumftances of little or no importance, and the ingenious commentator was left at full liberty to affix, to every paffage of the Old Teftament, any fignification that a fertile imagination might fuggeft; and even they, who were moft cautious in the ufe of this expedient, must acknowlege that their proofs were founded not fo much on the prophecies themfelves, as on the application of them by the evangelical writers. Others again, conceiving that the hypothefis of the double reference of prophecy is an arbitrary affumption, unfupported by any authority deduced from the prophets themfelves; and thinking that the paffages in the New Teftament, which feem to favour this fuppofition, may be otherwife explained, by con-fidering the allegorical manner of fpeaking and writing then prevalent among the Jews; have run into the other extreme, and, applying all the prophecies of the Old Teftament folely to the events of the Jewish ftate, have denied that the prophets had any reference whatever to the future reign of the Meffiah.

On all these accounts, the very refpectable directors of Teyler's Theological Society thought fit to publish, in the year 1792, the following propofition, to be difcuffed by the candidates for their prize medal: Are there, in the writings of the Old Teftament, any direct predictions, particular as well as general, referring immediately and exclusively to the Meffiah and his new difpenfation? If there be, the Society requires the enumeration of all fuch paffages, or, at least, of the most remarkable among them; together with an account of thofe principles and rules of interpretation, according to which thefe predictions may and ought to be applied to the events to which they relate. On this fubject, the Inquiry before us was written and prefented to the directors, who adjudged the gold medal to Profeffor KONYNENBURG; though, for reasons which we fhall not prefume to inveftigate, they did not choose to publish the work under the fanction of the Society.

The ingenious author commences with an inquiry into the origin and general nature of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Here he obferves that, to thofe who are acquainted with the study of antiquity, whether facred or profane, and are not prepoffeffed with religious prejudices, it must be evident that the origin of all claim to infpiration, as giving rife to

oracles

oracles and predictions, may be traced to the ignorance of the antients. Every individual, who remarkably excelled his countrymen in wisdom and other mental accomplishments, was naturally confidered, by his contemporaries, as under the inftruction and guidance of a fuperior Being; and every grand and extenfive defign was thought to be fomething divine, (b) and derived from the Deity. Thus, in the language of antiquity, Zaleucus received his code of laws from Minerva, and Minos from Jupiter. It appears from Herodotus that the Egyptians dignified their great men with the appellation of Gods; and hence our author deduces the earlieft notion of the prophetic character among the Jews. In fuppert of this idea, he obferves that Abraham is ftyled a prophet in Gen. xx. 7, on account of the peculiar favour and friendship with which he was honoured by the Supreme Being; and that, in Exod. vii. I, Mofes is faid to be, in the Egyptian fenfe of the word, a God, and Aaron his prophet. We are alfo reminded that the prophets, in the most antient times, had the name of feers, and men of God; and that thefe titles were often affumed by impoftors is concluded from the xiiith and xviiith chapters of Deuteronomy. The companies, or schools, of the prophets the Profeffor fuppofes to have been feminaries, in which youth were properly educated to become the inftructors of their countrymen; and he obferves that, as Providence makes ufe of human inftitutions as the means of promoting its wife and excellent purposes, there can be no inconfiftency in fuppofing that the Deity might employ these inftructors as inftruments to promote the welfare of a nation particularly devoted to his fervice; nor is there any abfurdity in believing that, either mediately or immediately, (but who, alas! can define this diftinction ?) he might communicate information to these perfons in matters that were of great importance to the happiness of mankind.

The learned Profeffor confiders Mofes as the inftitutor of the prophetic office among the Jews; he thinks that the paffage in Deuter. xviii. 15, relates to this inftitution; that it refers to the Jewish prophets in general, without any particular view to the Meliah; and he concludes that the application of it by the apoftles to Chrift must not be understood as exclufive. The prophetic schools, however, our author supposes may be ascribed to Samuel; who, foreseeing the revolution which happened toward the decline of his life, wifhed to establifh a body of men, whofe influence might check the evils that were to be expected from a monarchical government. As he prefided over the company of prophets, he had probably inftructed them how to receive Saul; and as his long experience of government, and his obfervation of the circumftances of the neighbouring monarchies,

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