He retains the old terminology, but cannot retain, unmodified, the old doctrine. He is a thorough Calvinist, but is not yet, according to the New England standard, a "consistent Calvinist."

We have not attempted to show how he has employed parallelism to reach his exegetical conclusions. Indeed, allowing that his theory of parallelism is true, and is exemplified in this Epistle, we can but think that he greatly overestimates the advantages which, as a commentator, he derives from it. His fine power of analysis renders any such aid needless; and results which he credits to the principles of parallelism, we can but think are due to his own logical and philological skill.

ARTICLE VII.

REVELATION AND INSPIRATION.

BY REV. E. P. BARROWS, D.D., LATELY PROFESSOR OF HEBREW LITERATURE IN ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

NO. VII.

ANTECEDENTS OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY.

FROM the great central truth of our Lord's supernatural manifestation, we legitimately infer, as has been shown in a previous number, the probability of subsequent supernatural revelations, such as those recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and everywhere implied in the apostolic Epistles. With even greater certainty may we infer the existence of antecedent, preparatory revelations. Consider, for a moment, how much is implied in the great historic fact that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world, and that he certified to men his heavenly mission, as well by the supernatural character of his teaching as by the stupendous series of supernatural works which he performed. It establishes at once the fundamental principle that supernatural interposition enters into the plan of the divine

government; that it is not, as some would have us believe, a government of pure natural law, behind which the Creator hides himself forever, and through which alone his existence and attributes can be inferred; but rather a government administered in the interest of the rational intelligences whom he has made capable of having communion with himself, and to whom he holds the relation of a moral governor. If their wants require immediate manifestations of himself, outside of the laws of nature, such manifestations will be made, and their supernatural character certified to those who receive them. Since, moreover, the whole order of providence, as well as of nature, is "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear," we infer, naturally enough, that such a mighty supernatural manifestation as we have in the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, which is certainly "the full corn in the ear," must have been preceded by "the blade" and "the ear." More reasonable would it be to believe that the fields white for the harvest had been preceded by no seed-time, than that the way for the advent of the Son of God had not been prepared by previous supernatural revelations.

Then, again, it was not by chance that the Messiah appeared, not in Egypt in the days of Pharaoh, nor in Nineveh or Babylon or Greece or Rome, but among the Jewish people, who alone were prepared for his advent.

That a belief in the unity of God and in his infinite perfections, not to specify other particulars, was a necessary foundation for the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, all of which are overlaid by that of trinity in unity, is self-evident. Now, this belief was peculiar to the Jews, in contrast with all the other ancient nations; and it was held, moreover, not simply as a speculative doctrine by a few philosophers, but in a practical way by the masses of the people, and that, often, in the face of bitter and long-continued persecution. No other example of a whole nation receiving and holding firmly this fundamental doctrine of religion existed in that age; and no adequate explanation of this grand fact has

ever been given, except that it was brought about by a series of supernatural revelations, such as are recorded in the Old Testament. The attempt to account for it from the original peculiarity of the Hebrew mind1 is simply an absurd expedient, adopted only to avoid the admission of the supernatural element in the history of the Israelitish people. Admit the historic reality of the divine revelations recorded in the Hebrew scriptures, and we see at once how the way for the Saviour's advent was prepared, and why he was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. Deny the historic reality of these preparatory revelations, and we have a mystery, but not one of divine origin. It is simply a man-made mystery, created in the interest of those who have decided beforehand that the true supernatural is an impossibility, and that, accordingly, its existence anywhere in the line of human history must be stoutly denied in the face of all possible evidence.

But the impossibility of the attempt to dissever the revelations of the New Testament from the preparatory revelations of the Old appears most clearly when we consider the explicit declarations of our Saviour, and, after him, of his apostles, on this point. If we know anything whatever concerning the teachings of our Lord, we know that he constantly affirmed that he had come in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament. It is not necessary here to anticipate the question of the inspiration of the record. We need only assume (what we are abundantly warranted to do, as has

1 As is done by Renan: "La conscience sémitique est claire, mais peu étendue; elle comprend marveilleusement l'unité, elle ne sait pas atteindre la multiplicité. Le monotheisme en resume et en explique tous les caractères." "The Semitic conscience is clear, but narrow. It has a marvellous comprehension of unity, but cannot attain to the idea of multiplicity. Monotheism sums up and explains all its characteristics."- Langues sémitiques, i. 1, where one may see much more to the same purport. In accordance with his fundamental principle, that no such thing as a supernatural element exists in human history, Renan makes the religion of the Hebrews simply a natural development from "the Semitic conscience"; and that in the face of a stupendous system of supernatural revelations, culminating in the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, and as well attested as historic facts can be.

been shown in previous numbers) that the evangelists were honest and competent men, and that they have faithfully reported the substance of our Lord's teaching. If there were in his discourses only here and there a remote allusion to the prophecies concerning him contained in the Hebrew scriptures, there might be some show of reason in the hypothesis that the disciples misapprehended their Master's meaning. But his declarations on this point are so numerous and explicit that such an explanation is not to be thought of for a moment. It was with two of them a matter of personal knowledge that, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" 1; and with all of them that he said, after his resurrection, in reference to his past teachings: "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me."2 Notice that our Lord, in this last instance, refers, not to certain specific declarations, but to the broad current of his teachings. That in him were fulfilled the prophecies and types of the Old Testament appears in every variety of form in the writings of the New. The Hebrew scriptures constitute, so to speak, the warp into which the Saviour wove the web of his daily instructions. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Here we have the shuttle of the New Testament flying in the warp of the Old under the Saviour's own hand, and lengthening out the gospel web from day to day. If, now, a stray thread or two of Hebrew prophecy had found its way into this warp, unlike all the rest in substance and color, we might, perhaps, attempt to dissect it out as something foreign and accidental. But we find, upon examination, that the warp itself is made up of Old Testament materials; and to dissever all these from our Lord's discourses would be to remove all the threads of the warp, and

1 Luke xxiv. 27.

2 Luke xxiv. 44.

8 Matt. v. 17.

then the web itself would be gone. There are some who seem inclined to treat the New Testament with much respect, while they speak disparagingly of the Old. We should like to ask them whether they do or do not believe that Christ and his apostles claimed to stand on the platform of the Old Testament. Did any unbiased reader ever gain from the perusal of the New Testament any other idea than that Jesus of Nazareth came in accordance with a bright train of supernatural revelations, going before, and preparing the way for his advent? The answer is, No. This idea is so incorporated into the very substance of the New Testament that it must stand or fall with it.

But there is another and a deeper view of the unity of the plan of redemption. We find the Old Testament thickly sown with those great principles which underlie the gospel, and the removal of which would be the removal of its very foundations. Here we specify the following particulars:

1. The fallen condition of man, which is the substratum of the plan of redemption through Christ. From the opening chapters of Genesis we learn that alienation from God, with the extreme wickedness that necessarily accompanies it, is not the original condition of the race. Man's normal state, if we may so speak, is that of holy communion with God. In that state he was created; from that state he fell; and to that state it is the end of the gospel to restore him. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested," says the bosom disciple, "that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 These are the very works described in the narrative under consideration, namely, the seduction of man from his allegiance to God, with the misery and death that followed. The primitive Hebrew narrative contains, then, the key to the plan of redemption. So it is plainly regarded by the writers of the New Testament. The apostle Paul makes the universality of man's fallen condition through the sin of Adam the platform on which is built the universality of the provisions of salvation through Christ. "As by

1 1 John iii. 8.