1854.] Alexander's Connection of Old and New Testaments.

627

in their several successive stages; and an examination of some of the leading types of Christ in the Old Testament, under which division is considered the general typical character of the Levitical institutions. Our limits will not permit us to follow the author in detail through this rich field of investigation. We shall confine ourselves to a brief notice of his position and arguments on some points of vital importance.

One of these is, the condition and prospects of man. If the Old and New Testaments constitute a whole, then it is manifest that the explanation of the redemption revealed in the New Testament, must be found in the fallen condition of man as taught in the Old Testament. For the defenders of the unity of the Holy Scriptures this is a strong, an impregnable point, of which Dr. Alexander has not failed to avail himself. Not to enter here upon the discussion of any vexed question respecting the manner of our connection with Adam, it is sufficient to say, that he has shown very clearly that the New Testament writers assume the historic verity of the Old Testament narrative of our first parents's fall, and, in them, of the fall of the human race, as the basis of the salvation provided for men in the Gospel; so that thus the Old Testament and the New are, in their inmost essence, one and indivisible. Another point of vital importance is, the nature and interpretation of prophecy, especially of Messianic prophecy. Here Dr. Alexander adopts, in opposition to the idea of a twofold fulfilment, the literal and the spiritual, that of "a gradual, or, as Hurd gives it, 'a germinant and springing' fulfilment;" and he quotes with approbation the following words of Bacon:

"In this matter that latitude must be admitted which is proper and familiar to the Divine predictions; viz. that their fulfilment should take place continuously as well as punctually. For they bespeak the nature of their Author, with whom 'one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;' and, though the plenitude and summit of their accomplishment may be, for the most part, destined to some particular age, or even given moment of time, yet have they in the meantime certain grades and stages of fulfilment, through different ages of the world.” 1

This we hold to be, for the great body of Messianic prophecy, the only true principle of interpretation. And we are inclined to think that some, at least, of those who now employ the words “double sense,” do not differ essentially from this view. To take a familiar illustration. The words of the Psalmist: "Wherefore do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" have "the plenitude and summit of their accomplishment" under the Christian dispensation. But this does not exclude a "germinant” accomplishment under David, who was, by the Divine appointment, the visible earthly head of the same church of God of which Christ is, in a high and incommunicable sense, "head over all things." One might say, therefore, that this prophecy was fulfilled under David in a lower sense, and under Christ in a higher sense; meaning that the invincible nature of God's king

1 De Augment. Scient. lib. ii. c. 11, sub init., quoted on pp. 167, 168.

dom, which is from the beginning to the end one and indivisible, was manifested under David in a lower, and, under Christ, in a higher form. Some would call this "a twofold fulfilment," but it is in reality only the "germinant and springing" fulfilment for which our author rightly contends.

A third point is, the typical nature of the Mosaic institutions, which Dr. Alexander firmly maintains, while he rejects the extravagance of those who treat "the histories of Scripture as if they were mere contrivances for the adumbration of spiritual truth-in other words-mere parables."1 He recognizes the typical character of the nation of Israel, with good reason, we think, not only in the rites and ceremonies of the Levitical ritual, but also in the entire system of social and political relations established by Moses under the Divine direction; so that in this way "a twofold character came to belong to many of the sacred institutes of the Mosaic ritual; the one arising from their relation to the nation as a visible community; the other, from their being symbolical of certain spiritual truths, and typical of the facts of the Christian revelation." He shows, further, that in interpreting types, we must lay mere persons and things out of view, and confine ourselves to Divine institutions. "It was not David, or Manasseh, or Ahab, that was the type of Christ, as King of Zion; it was the royal office with which these were invested, symbolical as that was of the theocracy, which was typical of the kingly dignity of the Redeemer."3

In some of his positions, as, for example, that which respects the degree of knowledge of the resurrection possessed by the Old Testament writers, he will, we presume, fail to carry the conviction of all his readers. In so wide and difficult a field as that of the connection between the Old Testament and the New, diversity of judgment must always exist, even among those who are agreed on the essential points at issue with unbelievers. But the work as a whole will, we are fully persuaded, commend itself to the friends of spiritual Christianity as a timely and able treatise.

IV. ALEXANDER'S CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.1

ANOTHER treatise from the pen of Dr. Alexander, consisting of two parts. In the former of these, he vindicates the genuineness and uncorrupt preservation of the four Gospels, in opposition to the hypothesis of an original gospel which has been interpolated, and also to the mythic hypothesis. In the second part, he constructs an argument for the Divine origin of Christianity from the personal character of Christ, from the miraculous events in his life, from the predictions which he uttered, and from his public teaching as a herald of Divine truth. The argument is conducted in a solid and satisfactory manner.

1 P. 311.

2 P. 325.

8 P. 315.

Christ and Christianity: a Vindication of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion, grounded on the Historical Verity of the Life of Christ. By William Lindsay Alexander, D. D. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.

1854.

V. BARNES ON DANIEL.1

THIS we think the ablest of all Mr. Barnes's volumes on the Bible. For common readers, we do not hesitate to pronounce it the best commentary on the book of Daniel that we have ever seen. Though designed for popular use, it is a work which no scholar, however versed and skilled in exegesis, can read without pleasure and great advantage. In fact, it approaches very near to our highest ideal of the right kind of commentary for intelligent laymen. The author has thoroughly examined the rationalistic theories for the interpretation of these remarkable prophecies, and found and proved them to be utterly unsatisfactory and groundless; he has carefully surveyed all the known facts of ancient history adapted to throw light on the subject, and stated the results in language simple, perspicuous and chaste; he proposes his own expositions with modest decision and entire clearness, and his arguments on every contested point are frank, full, and eminently to the purpose.

The entire deference to the authority of the sacred writers, the clear recognition of the perfect inspiration of the Scriptures, the unmistakable reception of the New Testament writers as divinely authorized and infallible interpreters of the Old, the tone of reverence and piety everywhere manifest, distinguish this work above many others written by professedly orthodox commentators of the present and past generation. Some who esteem themselves evangelical, would seem to prefer, on a question of exegesis, the authority of a German rationalist to that of Peter or Paul or even of Christ himself; and openly treat with gross disrespect that same Old Testament which Jesus and his apostles reverenced as the true word of the Omniscient God. We have had enough of this, and too much; let it stop.

Two things we must find fault with. (1) The book abounds with typographical errors. The author was probably unable to correct the proofsheets himself, on account of that disease of the eyes which we all so much regret and so earnestly desire to have removed. (2) For the sake of compressing the book into the smallest possible space, much of it is printed with a type so small, that to study the work as it ought to be studied, would soon reduce the reader's eyes to the same sad condition from which the writer is suffering. We fully sympathize with Mr. Barnes's abhorrence of big books; but this abhorrence may be carried too far. This commentary, no less than the commentaries on Job and Isaiah, is well worthy of two large, fair volumes; and we hope soon to see it in such a form, that we may be able ourselves to read it with comfort, and no longer be afraid to recommend it to students in this day of failing eyes.

1 Notes, Critical, Illustrative and Practical, on the Book of Daniel, with an Introductory Dissertation, by Albert Barnes. New York: Leavitt and Allen. 1853. 12mo. pp. 494.

VI. PROFESSOR EADIE ON THE EPHESIANS.1

THE United Presbyterian Church of Scotland is one of the most intelligent, earnest, liberal and agreeable of the religious denominations of the Old world. It owes its origin to the labors of the Erskines and their associates; and the sect as a body does honor to a parentage so illustrious. The Christian scholar who visits Scotland, will always find himself in congenial society when with the ministers and members of the United Presbyterian Church. The names of Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, of Dr. John Robson of Glasgow, and many others, recall the ideas of orthodoxy without bigotry, of sound learning without pedantry, and of the most agreeable social qualities united with sober and consistent piety.

Of this church Dr. Eadie is a distinguished ornament. He is a laborious teacher and a prolific writer. His numerous works all aim at utility, and they have been remarkably popular. Some of them in a few years have reached even a thirteenth and a fourteenth edition; and, when we consider that they are all theological books of the most serious and chaste sort, this rapid and extensive circulation is the best kind of commendation both of the author and of his Scottish countrymen. The theological literature of Glasgow did not die with the lamented Wardlaw. There are still left Eadie, and Taylor, and King, and Jamieson, and many others, highly distinguished both as preachers and writers. Indeed, it is matter of surprise to the stranger that there can be such an amount of literary labor of the first order in the busy, dingy, smoky, crowded, money-making, manufacturing city of Glasgow. Yet, from the very heart of the Middle Ages, philosophy and theology, poetry and history, science and art have found a genial home in Glasgow; and they still dwell there, amid the lurid fires of numberless furnaces, and the clattering hammers of that endless line of ship-yards along the Clyde, where ships are constructed of solid iron, as if the sons of St. Mungo would say to sneering Samuel Johnson: "If we have no trees, we need them not; our sharpsightedness has discovered beneath the soil a material far better than timber, and our skill and industry can work it up."

The Epistle to the Ephesians is one of the most interesting and important books of the New Testament. Next to the Epistle to the Romans, it is the most thoroughly and systematically doctrinal of all the writings of Paul which have come down to our times; and, like the Romans, it most obstinately refuses to take any form in exegesis except one run in the AugustinianCalvinistic mould. On this Epistle, Dr. Eadie has laid out lustily his strength, and made vigorous application of his extensive and varied learning. He draws interesting and apt illustrations from all sources; not only from the wide range of English and Scotch theological literature, but from the

1 A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, by John Eadie, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. London and Glasgow. 1833. 8vo. pp. 466.

Greek and Latin fathers, the subtle Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, the stalwart Reformers, the French theologians, the poets of older times and such moderns as Goethe and Longfellow, and especially from the exhaustless stores of German erudition in philology and criticism, in history and theology. We know not where else to find information so full and complete on this book of the New Testament. It is one of the many encouraging indications of the present time, that we are no longer to depend exclusively on Germany for Biblical commentaries of the highest order in respect to erudition and literature. The strong good sense of the British and American mind is now most successfully at work in this fruitful field.

VII. CHRIST AS MADE KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT CHURCH.1

THIS is the first instalment of a work intended to occupy four volumes in all. It is printed from the manuscript of its late author, and comprises a series of discourses delivered by him to the congregation in Edinburgh of which he was pastor. As Dr. Gordon was for many years one of the foremost men in the religious world of Scotland, it may be desirable, before noticing his book, to give our readers a brief sketch of his life and character. Few men, indeed, have of late years appeared in Scotland, who have commanded a larger measure of genuine respect and esteem from men of all parties in his own country; though, from a certain unobtrusiveness and perhaps shyness of natural temperament, he did not make himself known by deeds that might have published his fame in other countries. In Edinburgh he stood very high in public respect. Endowed with mental powers of no ordinary kind; bearing in his very exterior an aspect of nobleness; in the habit of weekly addressing multitudes whom the force of his thinking, the deep intensity of his utterance, and the prophet-like earnestness of his whole manner, at once impressed and charmed; and, carrying with him through life a character on which no blot or shadow had ever fallen, he had come to gather around him a full tide of that spontaneous homage which public feeling never fails to yield to intellectual power when associated with integrity and goodness.

Dr. Gordon was a native of Dumfries. His first settlement in the ministry was at Kinfauns, near Perth, to the church and parish of which he was presented by Lord Gray. He was ordained there in 1816, and in 1820 he was translated to the Old Chapel of Ease in Edinburgh. His success as a preacher in the metropolis rendered it desirable that a more commodious place should be provided for him; and, accordingly, he was shortly after transferred to Newington Church, where he preached with undiminished popularity till 1825, when he became one of the ministers of the High Church. Here the movement which ended in the withdrawal of the Free Church

1 Christ as made known to the Ancient Church: An Exposition of the Revelation of Divine Grace as unfolded in the Old Testament Scriptures. By the late Robert Gordon, D. D., F. R. S. E., Edinburgh. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh : Johnstone and Hunter. 1854.