Old Testament have not been materially corrupted by the Jews since the promulgation of Christianity,-is evident from the many prophecies still remaining in their scriptures, concerning the humiliation and sufferings of the Messiah, in which the Christians always triumphed when they disputed with the Jews. These passages, therefore, we may assure ourselves, would have been the first that the Jews would have practised upon, if it had been in their power, or in their inclination to do it".' 'When corruptions in worship and manners, and many superstitious usages, grew among them, they were,' says Dr. Worthington, obliged to devise an oral law, to be handed down by oral tradition, to countenance those corruptions and innovations; which law they afterwards collected into a body, and committed to writing likewise, But the Mishna had been needless and superfluous, durst they have incorporated their traditions with the scriptures. As they have not done this, in a case in which they were most tempted to do it, there is less room to suspect their having wilfully corrupted them in other respects.' So scrupulously vigilant were the Jews in preserving the scriptures, that their Masorites numbered not only the sections but even the words and letters, that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt the least iota of what they esteemed so sacred. If a word happened to be altered in any copy, it was to be laid aside as useless, or given to a poor man to teach his children by, on condition it was not brought into the synagogue. The prince was to copy the original exemplar of the law, laid up in the sanctuary, with his own hand and every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation, to teach it to his children, and wear part of it on his hands and forehead'.' 'We shall,' says Mr. Gray, be still farther convinced, that the sacred volume has preserved its genuine purity in every important point, if we consider how little the Septua 6 Institutes of Nat. and Rev. Rel. 1782, vol. I. p. 297. gint version of the scriptures differs from the Hebrew copies, notwithstanding the many ages that have elapsed since the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Egypt, who was the second monarch of the Macedonian race, about 270 years before Christ, and under whose reign this trasla tion was made into Greek. It has been maintained, indeed, by some learned men, that only the Pentateuch was translated at first, and that the other books were rendered into Greek successively at different times; however this may have been, they were all translated long before the birth of Christ. This version has no important variations from the Hebrew, except in some chronological accounts, occasioned probably by the carelessness of the copyists. It was used in all those countries, where Alexander had established the Grecian language, and seems to have been admitted into the Jewish synagogues in Judæa, and even at Jerusalem, where that language prevailed; and the Septuagint was certainly most used there in the time of our Saviour.—Thus does the general coincidence between the Hebrew copies, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, demonstrate the unaltered integrity of the scriptures in important points, as we now possess them, and this integrity is still farther confirmed by the conformity which subsists between those various translations of the Bible into different languages, which have been performed since the time of our Saviour.-It appears, therefore, that, from the time of their first inspiration to the present day, the sacred writings have been dispersed into so many different hands, that no possible opportunity could be furnished for confederate corruption, and every designed alteration must immediately have been detected?.' 8 In the bible of Kennicott are the most considerable variations of nearly 700 different Hebrew manuscripts; and many more have been collated by the more recent labors of De Roffi. 9 Key to the Old Test. p. 20, 22. After observing that the Septuagint may have been translated from very ancient Hebrew manuscripts, bp. Newcome adds, this observation may be extended to the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan, made about the time of Christ; to the Syriac version, which · All the books of scripture have also,' observes Dr. Priestley, many internal marks of their being the genuine production of the ages, in which they are said to have been written, as they contain so many allusions to particular persons, places, opinions, and customs, which are known, from other allowed histories, to have existed in those times1. In agreement with this remark of Dr. Priestley, Dr. Hartley asserts, that history and chronology were in so uncertain a state in ancient times, that the prophecies concerning foreign countries could not have been adapted to the facts, even after they had happened, with so much exactness as modern enquirers have shewn the scriptureprophecies to be, by a learned nation, and much less by the Jews, who were remarkably ignorant of what passed in foreign countries"." The pretensions of the Hebrew prophets to be considered as God's appointed servants, were,' says Mr. Gray, ' demonstrated by the unimpeachable integrity of their characters; by the intrinsic excellence and tendency of their instruction; and by the disinterested zeal, and undaunted fortitude, with which they persevered in their great designs. These were still farther confirmed by the miraculous proof which they displayed of divine support, and by the immediate completion of many less important predictions which they uttered. Such were the credentials of their exalted character, which the prophets furnished to their contemporaries; and we, who having lived to witness the appearance of the second dispensation, can look back to the connection which subsisted between the two covenants, have received additional evidence of the inspiration of the prophets, in the attestations of our Saviour and his apostles; and in the retrospect of a germinant and gradually maturing scheme of is generally attributed to the first century; to the imperfect Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, who lived in the second century; and even to the Latin version, of which Jerom was the author in the fourth century.' Attempt towards an Improved Version of Ezekiel, Dublin, 1788. Pref. p. 36. 10 Institutes, vol. I. p. 303. 11 On Man, vol. II. p. 152. prophecy, connected in all its parts. We have still farther incontrovertible proofs of their divine appointment, in the numerous prophecies, which, in these latter days, are fulfilled, and still under our own eyes continue to receive their completion"." The next quotation is from that ingenious and truly liberal prelate, Dr. Newcome, bp. of Waterford. God raised up a succession of prophets among his people for many wise and gracious purposes. They were not only designed to retain the Jews in the worship of the one true God; but to spread the knowlege of him among the neighboring nations, by the fame of their predictions and miracles. They were a barrier against those prevailing kinds of superstition which consisted in the supposed evocation of departed spirits, and in consulting imaginary local deities, for the purpose of gratifying the natural thirst which all mankind have for the knowlege of futurity. It must also be observed, that the attestations given by the prophets to the Mosaic law, their instructions and exortations, their reproofs and threatenings, were powerful means of preserving the Jews in obedience, and eminent displays of the divine goodness and compassion. Another design in sending the prophets was, that-they might record God's dealings with his people and with other adjoining nations and empires; and might thus transmit to after ages a most instructive history of his adorable ways in governing the world. Josephus asserts", that, from the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, the prophets who succeeded that legislator wrote the transactions of their own times.This assertion is confirmed by the sacred writers; who mention the name of many prophets as having recorded the affairs of the Jewish nation. A farther and most important reason for instituting the prophetic order was, that, by a long series of predictions, the attention of the Jews might be turned to the coming of their Messiah; and that the 12 Key to the Old Test. p. 213. 13 Contr. Ap. I. 8. faith of succeeding ages in that great event might be thus confirmed. The writings of these prophets bear plain signatures of their divine authority. Examine the books of the Greek and Roman sages; and observe what discordant opinions they contain on almost every point of theology and philosophy. But in the Hebrew prophets there is a wonderful harmony of doctrine for above a thousand years1; unparalleled in the writings of any country. History teaches us, that a great number of their prophecies has been accomplished; and we know that some of them are accomplishing at this day. It also peculiarly deserves our notice, that these holy men entertained the most worthy conceptions of the Deity in the midst of an idolatrous nation; and inculcated the supreme excellence of moral duties, when all around them, even the few worshippers of Jehovah himself, were solely intent on ritual observances. The writings, which these men of God have transmitted down to us, will be eminently useful in every age of the Christian church; not only as they contain illustrious prophecies of many events and especially of our Blessed Lord's appearance, but for their magnificent descriptions of the Deity, for their animating lessons of piety and virtue, and for the indignation which they express and the punishments which they denounce against idolatry and vice: which particular topics, among many other instructive and important ones, are treated by them with uncommon variety, beauty and sublimity, and with an authority becoming ambassadors of The Most High".' In enumerating the uses of prophecy in ancient times, Dr. Jortin says, '1. It served to secure the belief of a God and of a providence. As God is invisible and spiritual, there was cause to fear, that in the first and ruder ages of the world, 14 From Moses before Christ about 1500, to Malachi before Christ about 436.' 15 An Attempt towards an Improved Version of the Twelve Minor Prophets, 1785, pref. p. 5. |