or ever thou hadst made the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."

Other nations have doubtless made their history subservient to their mythology; or rather, being ignorant of the facts, they have at once gratified their national vanity, and indulged their moral depravity, in imagining offensive and monstrous chimeras. But do these humiliating infatuations of human kind, universal as they have been, bear any shadow of analogy to the divinely philosophic grandeur of Hebrew piety? All other mythologic histories degrade our nature. This alone restores its primeval dignity. The pious Jews were doubtless the greatest zealots on earth. But for whom? For no "griesly terror," nor "execrable shape," like all other Orientalists, ancient and modern ;-no brute, like the Egyptians, nor deified monster, worse than brute, like the Greeks and Romans. But it was for Him, whom philosophers in all ages have in vain laboured to discover; of whose character, nevertheless, they have occasionally caught some faint idea from those very Jews whom they have despised, and who, in the description even of the heathen Tacitus, awes our minds, and claims the natural homage of our hearts. "The Egyptians," says that unbribed evidence, in the midst even of an odious representation of the Jewish nation, "venerate various animals, as well as likenesses of monsters. The Jews acknowledge, and that with the mind only, a single Deity. They account those to be profane, who form images of God of perishable materials in the likeness of men. Theirs is the supreme eternal God, unchangeable, immortal. They therefore suffer no statues in their cities, and still less in their temples. They have never shown this mark of flattery to their kings. They have never done this honour to the Cæsars."*

What then was zeal for such worship as this, but the purest reason, and the highest magnanimity? And how wise as well as heroic do they appear who made no account of life in such a cause! "O king," say they, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us out of thine hand. But if not, be it known unto thee, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Of such a religion as this, what can be more interesting than the simple, the affectionate history? It is not men whom it celebrates; it is " Him who only hath immortality, who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto." And how does it represent him? That single expression of the patriarch Abraham will fully inform us: "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? That be far from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" A sentiment, short and simple as it is, which carries more light to the mind, and more consolation to the heart, than all the volumes of all the philosophers.

But what was the moral efficacy of this religion? Let the youthful Joseph tell us. Let him, at the moment of his victory over all that has most effectually subdued human nature, discover to us where his strength lay. "How," says he, "shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Of the lesser excellences of these historic records, little on the present *Tacitus Hist. Lib. v. 5.

occasion can, and happily little needs, be said. If the matter is unmixed truth, the manner is unmixed nature. Were the researches of Sir William Jones, and those who have followed him in the same track, valuable on no other account, they would be inestimable in this respect, that, through what they have discovered and translated, we are enabled to compare other Eastern compositions with the sacred books of the Hebrews; the result of which comparison, supposing only taste and judgment to decide, must ever be this, that, in many instances, nothing can recede farther from the simplicity of truth and nature than the one, nor more constantly exhibit both than the other. This assertion may be applied with peculiar justness to the poetic parts of the Old Testament. The character of the Eastern poetry, in general, would seem to be that of floridness and exuberance, with little of the true sublime, and a constant endeavour to outdo rather than to imitate nature. The Jewish poetry seems to have been cast in the most perfect mould. The expressions are strictly subordinate to the sense; and while nothing is more energetic, nothing is more simple and natural. If the language be strong, it is the strength of sentiment allied with the strength of genius which alone produces it. striking dissimilarity, the difference of subject will account. There is one God: this is perfect simplicity. Ile is omniscient, omnipotent, infinite, and eternal: this is sublimity, beyond which nothing can rise. What evinces this to be the real source of excellence in Hebrew poetry is, that no instances of the sublime, in the whole compass of human composition, will bear a comparison with what the Hebrew poets say of the Almighty. For example: what in all the poetry, even of Homer, is to be compared with this passage of David?" Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

It is a peculiarity of Hebrew poetry, that it alone, of all the poetry we know of in the world, retains its poetic structure in the most literal translation; nay, indeed, the more literal the translation, the less the poetry is injured. The reason is, that the sacred poetry of the Hebrews does not appear to depend on cadence or rhythm, or anything merely verbal, which literal translation into another language necessarily destroys; but on a method of giving to each distinct idea a two-fold expression, so that when the poetry of the Old Testament is perfect, and not injured by erroneous translation, it exhibits a series of couplets, in which the second member of each couplet repeats the same, or very nearly the same sense, in a varied As in the beginning of the ninety-fifth psalm :

manner.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord,

Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation;
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,

And show ourselves glad in him with psalms:

For the Lord is a great God,

And a great King above all gods;

In his hand are the deep places of the earth,

And the strength of the hills is his also.

The motive for adopting such a structure, we easily conceive to have been, that the composition might be adapted to responsive singing. But, can

we avoid acknowledging a much deeper purpose of infinite Wisdom, that that poetry which was to be translated in all languages, should be of such a kind as literal translation could not decompose ?

On the subject of Hebrew poetry, however, it is only necessary to refer the reader to Bishop Lowth's work already mentioned; and to that shorter, but most luminous discourse on this subject, prefixed to the same excellent author's translation of Isaiah.

Moral philosophy, in its truest and noblest sense, is to be found in every part of the Scriptures. Revealed religion being, in fact, that "day-spring from on high," of whose happy effects the pagan philosophers had no knowledge, and the want of which they were always endeavouring to supply by artificial but most delusive contrivances. But the portion of the sacred volume which is most distinctly appropriated to this subject, are the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. In the former of these, amid some difficult passages, obscured to us by our ignorance of ancient nations and manners, there are some of the deepest reflections on the vanity of all things earthly, and on the indispensable necessity of sincere religion in order to our ease and happiness, that ever came from the pen of man. It asserts the immortality of the soul, of which some have supposed the Jews ignorant, in terms the most unequivocal: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to the God who gave it." And it ends with a corollary to which every human heart ought to respond, because all just reflection leads to it: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

The Proverbs are an invaluable summary of every species of practical wisdom. The first nine chapters being a discourse on true wisdom, that is, sincere religion, as a principle, and the remainder a sort of magazine of all its varied parts, civil, social, domestic, and personal, in this world; together with clear and beautiful intimations of happiness in a life to come. As for example: "The path of the just is as a shining light, which shine th more and more unto the perfect day." Here one of the most delightful objects in nature, the advancing dawn of the morning, is adduced as the emblem of that growing comfort and cheerfulness which inseparably attend a life of piety. What then, by inevitable analogy, is that perfect day in which it is made to terminate, but the eternal happiness of heaven? Both these books, with the greater part of the Psalms, have this suitable peculiarity to the present occasion, that they issued from a royal pen. They contain a wisdom, truly, which belongs to all: but they also have much in them which peculiarly concerns those who, by providential destination, are shepherds of the people. The 101st psalm, in particular, may be considered as a kind of abridged manual for princes, especially in the choice company.

of their

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Holy Scriptures.-The New Testament.

THE biographic part of the New Testament is above all human estimation, because it contains the portraiture of "him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily." If it were, therefore, our hard lot to say what individual part of the Scriptures we should wish to rescue from an otherwise irreparable destruction, ought it not to be that part which describes to us the conduct, and preserves to us the instructions, of God manifest in the flesh? Worldly Christians have affected sometimes to prefer the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament, on the intimated ground that our Saviour was a less severe preceptor, and more of a mere moralist, than his inspired followers, whose writings make up the sequel of the New Testament. But never surely was there a grosser delusion. If the object be to probe the heart of man to the centre; to place before him the terrors of that God, who to the wicked "is a consuming fire;" to convince him of that radical change which must take place in his whole nature, of that total conquest which he must gain over the world and himself, before he can be a true subject of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom; and of the desperate disappointment which must finally await all who rest in the mere profession, or even the plausible outside, of Christianity; it is from our Lord's discourses that we shall find the most resistless means of accomplishing each of these awfully important purposes.

To the willing disciple, our Saviour is indeed the gentlest of instructors; to the contrite penitent, he is the most cheering of comforters; to weakness, he is most encouraging; to infirmity, unspeakably indulgent; to grief or distress of whatever sort, he is a pattern of tenderness. But in all he says or does, he has one invariable object in view, to which all the rest is but subservient. He lived and taught, he died and rose again, for this one end, that he might "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." His uniform declarations, therefore, are " Ye cannot serve God and mammon.-Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."-" If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee."- Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me, he cannot be my disciple."

To corrupt human nature, these lessons can never be made engaging. Their object is to conquer, and finally to eradicate, that corruption. To indulge it, therefore, in any instance, is wholly to reject them; since it is not with particular vices that Christ contends, nor will he be satisfied with particular virtues. But he calls us, indispensably, to a state of mind which contains, as in a root or principle, all possible virtue, and which avoids with equally sincere detestation every species of evil. But to human nature itself, as distinct from its depravity, to native taste, sound discriminating sense, just and delicate feeling, comprehensive judgment, prefound humility, and genuine magnanimity of mind, no teacher upon this earth ever so adapted himself. In his inexhaustible imagery, his appropriate use of all the common occurrences of life, his embodying the deepest wisdom in the plainest allegories, and making familiar occurrences

the vehicle of most momentous instruction, in the dignified ease with which he utters the profoundest truths, the majestic severity which he manifests where hollow hypocrisy, narrow bigotry, unfeeling selfishness, or any clearly deliberate vice, called forth his holy indignation; in these characters we recognise the purest, and yet most popular, the most awful, and yet the most amiable, of all instructors. And when we read the Gospels with rightly prepared hearts, we see him with our mind's eye, as he actually was in this world, scarce less effectually than those who lived and conversed with him. We too "behold his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

The Acts of the Apostles belong in some degree to the biographic class. Where the matter of a work is of the deepest moment, the mere agreeableness of its manner is of less importance. But where a striking provision has been made for pleasure, as well as benefit, it would be ingratitude as well as insensibility not to notice it. It is indeed impossible for a reader of taste not to be delighted with the combination of excellences which this short but most eventful narrative exhibits. Nothing but clearness and accuracy appear to be aimed at, yet everything which can give interest to such a work is attained. Neither Xenophon nor Cæsar could stand a comparison with it. St. Luke in this piece has seen everything so clearly, has understood it so fully, and has expressed it so appositely, as to need only a simple rendering of his own exact words, in order to his having, in every language, the air of an original.

The epistolary part of the New Testament is, perhaps, that with which the generality of readers are least acquainted. Some profess to be discouraged by the intricacy of the sense, particularly in the writings of St. Paul; and others fairly acknowledge that they conceive this part of scripture to be of less moment, as being chiefly occupied in obsolete controversies peculiar to the time in which they were written, consequently uninteresting to us. Though our limits do not admit of a particular reply to those unfounded prejudices, yet we cannot forbear regretting, what appears to be a lamentable ignorance of the nature and design of Christianity, which distinguishes our times, and which has given rise to both these suppositions. They, for example, who regard religion but as a more sublimated system of morality, and look for nothing in the scripture but rules of moral conduct, must necessarily feel themselves at a stand, when something infinitely deeper seems to present itself before them. But if it were first fully known what the Christianity of the apostles actually was, their sentiments would soon become intelligible. They treat of Christianity as an inward principle, still more than as a rule of conduct. They by no means neglect the latter; but the former is their leading object, in strict observance of that maxim, so variously given by their Divine Master, "Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good." They accordingly describe a process, which, in order to real goodness, must take place in the depths of the heart. They detect a root of evil, which disqualifies man for all real virtue, and deprives him of all real happiness. And they describe an influence proceeding from God himself, through a Divine Mediator, ready to be communicated to all who seek it, by which this evil nature is overcome, and a holy and heavenly nature formed in its room. They describe this change as taking place by means of the truths and facts