sail and steer by, in the perusal of any book.-(3) | He that dwelleth in the heavens did laugh at them; Hereby, also, you shall have a summary recapitulation or recollection of the chief aim and subjectmatter of every book, much tending both to help judgment and strengthen memory, after the perusal any book of the Old or New Testament. And therefore this course must needs be as a useful key, to unlock the rich cabinet of the Holy Scriptures, and to discover the precious treasures thereof to you."*

of

A word or two on each of these topics:

1. An attention to the order of the several books, and the relation of their various parts, will materially elucidate the different histories, and the allusions made to them by the inspired writers; it will also help us to discover the force and propriety of many directions and exhortations scattered throughout the Bible. Thus, the second Psalm, the literal meaning of which has been greatly overlooked, is materially illustrated by considering it in its chronological connexion. Mr. Townsend refers it with much probability to the end of 1 Chron. xvii. David was at this time in full possession of the throne, all the commotions of the seditious having happily subsided: its sentiments seem most appropriate throughout; and all its parts were literally verified in the occurrences and characters of this memorable occasion. The frequent change of persons is very observable, but at the same time perfectly natural and intelligible. Having remonstrated (in ver. 1-3) with those who had been opposed to the king's accession, the writer (ver. 4-9) declares the divine appointment of David's authority; and admonishes all to secure the blessings of loyalty and obedience, verses 10-12. How appropriate are the references made to the late affairs of national agitation and alarm, in verses 1-3!

Why were the nations tumultuous ?
And why did people imagine vanity?
Chiefs of the land rose up,

And princes conspired together,
Against JEHOVAH and against his anointed:

'Let us break asunder their bands,

"And cast off from us their heavy yokes!" The events here alluded to were, particularly, the civil war in Israel (2 Sam. ii., iii., iv.), which ensued on the death of Saul, and which obstructed, for a season, David's entire possession of the throne; together with the invasion of the Philistines, 2 Sam. v. 17 to the end; 1 Chron. xiv. 8-16. Over all these "tumultuous" scenes the king triumphed; and the rebels of Israel and Philistia "imagined a vain thing." How decidedly is the interposition of God maintained in verses 4-6!

Roberts' Clavis Bibliorum, i. p. 43.

The Lord did have them in derision!
Then spake he to them in his anger;
And in his fury did he confound them:
"Assuredly I have anointed my king,
'Upon Zion, the mountain of my holiness!"
So long ago as Samuel's days, and by the hands of
that celebrated man (1 Sam. xvi.), was David
"anointed ;" and he had repeated assurances, "that
the Lord had established him king over Israel," 2
Sam. v. 12. All attempts, therefore, in opposition,
were to be "derided ;" and must end in the "con-
fusion" of their abettors. In further exposition,
this royal proclamation expressly affirms, verses
7-9,

I will declare the purpose of Jehovah:
He hath said to me :-" Be thou my son,
"This day have I adopted thee!
"Ask of me, and I will give to thee
"The nations for thine inheritance;
"And the ends of the land for thy possession.
"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;

Who was

"Thou shalt shiver them like a potter's vessel!" Verse 7 most distinctly refers to the prophecy of Nathan (1 Chron. xvii. 3—15); and it is not improbable that that faithful prophet did, first of all, "declare" the things of these verses. so likely to act the herald on this memorable day? Most appropriately, too, are the "nations" that had aforetime been "tumultuous" here introduced; and the Philistines, or ends of the land,” so fully subdued by the prowess of David's arms, 1 Chron. xiv. 17.

The national address then closes in suitable admonitions, verses 10-12.

Now, therefore, O chiefs, be wise;
Be instructed, ye judges of the land.
Serve JEHOVAH with fear;
And rejoice with reverence.

Embrace ye the son, lest he be angry,
And ye should perish in the way ;
For his wrath will be kindled in a little.
Happy are all they who confide in him!
Thus correspond the chieftains, or kings, of verses
2 and 10, and the son of verses 7 and 12. The
concatenation of thought and expression is accu-
rately and beautifully preserved throughout the
Psalm.+ Let the forty-second Psalm be read as
the composition of David, penned when he was
fleeing from Absalom, and on the night when he
was about to pass over Jordan; and an accurate
survey be also taken of the existing circumstances
of the pious monarch, and the character of the
surrounding scenery; and that beautiful and af-
fecting composition will appear doubly beautiful
and affecting. The prophetic writings, and the

+ Scripture Magazine, vol. iv. pp. 20-22.

epistles of the New Testament, are also suscep- | tions; and they were ratified with scrupulous and tible of the same kind of illustration; indeed, without connecting them in this way with the several parts of the history to which they are related, the meaning of many passages will remain locked up from our comprehension.

2. The titles of the several Books. These some times declare the design proposed by the author, and therefore assist in understanding his reasoning, &c. By the title of the book, we do not mean the word or words which stand at its head in the respective Versions, but the real title of the book, which will sometimes be found in the first verse or verses, as given by the original penmen. Its importance, in such cases, is obvious.*

most solemn formality. There was no custom more prevalent at Rome; it was regarded as the cement of indissoluble friendship and union among families. Paul knew this; and, in his epistle to the Romans, he makes many beautiful allusions to it. Thus, he speaks of the distinguished privilege of being adopted into God's family, and of the signal happiness of being constituted heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, of a heavenly inheritance. The Romans would perfectly understand him, and his words would have all their effect upon the mind, when he told them, that they had not received the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but that they had, through the benignity of God in the gospel dispensation, received the spirit of adoption, and could, with liberal and filial con

3. The authors of the respective Books may generally be ascertained from the titles prefixed to them in our translation; and it is obvious that a know-fidence, cry out, Abba! Father! So, also, before ledge of the principal features of their character, we proceed to an attentive examination of the circumstances, and style, will materially conduce epistles to the Corinthians, it will be proper to reto our improvement in perusing their works. flect on what Corinth was celebrated for, and what 4. The persons to whom the Books were re- principally distinguished that renowned city. Most spectively and primarily addressed. In the New ancient writers make mention of its abandoned Testament, there is a variety of compositions, luxury and effeminacy, and in their historical and some of these are inscribed and addressed monuments eternise its profligacy, voluptuousness, to particular people, residing in different towns and debauchery. Hence we see with what pecuand countries. The circumstances of such per- liar propriety Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, sons, as also their customs and usages, and the uses every argument and persuasive to deter them other remarkable things by which they were dis- from these vices. Each page is full of the most tinguished, are to be minutely and accurately warm and pathetic admonitions to fly them; and marked. Previously to the critical examination his epistles to this people, more than all his other of an epistle sent to Rome, to Corinth, or to Ephe-writings, abound with remonstrances against these

sus, we should inquire what customs were prevalent in those places; for what such a town was principally celebrated; and what peculiarly ennobled and signalised such a city. Because, in writings addressed to the inhabitants of such places, there must be frequent allusions to their distinguishing circumstances, a knowledge of which will illustrate many passages, and place them in a beautiful and striking point of view. In such figurative allusions consists a considerable part of the elegance and effect of fine writing; for they do not merely soothe and charm the imagination of the reader-they infix the deepest impressions on his mind and memory. For example; we find an epistle inscribed to the Romans. Antecedently to our attentive and critical perusal of it, let us consider what customs eminently distinguished this people. As an instance, we find in their historians frequent mention made of adoption. Their poets are full of it; and it is the perpetual object of the ridicule and banter of their satirists. Families of distinction were continually settling mutual adop

*This will be found to be the case in Matt. i. 1; Mark i. 1;

Luke i. 1-4, &c.

fatal excesses.

We learn also from history, that the Isthmian games were celebrated in the vicinity of Corinth. They were solemnized in honour of Neptune every fifth year, and a vast concourse of people, from all Greece, assembled at Isthmus, on which Corinth was situated. At these games, great numbers of combatants, who were previously prepared by a regular and strict regimen for the arduous contention, entered the lists, and generously vied with each other in various exercises, for the envied palm. With what an elegant and beautiful propriety is it, then, that the apostle addresses the Corinthians, in whose neighbourhood they were solemnized, in the following terms: "Know ye not, that they who run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." These are all agonistic terms, beautifully applied to our vigorous conten

1

1

Exegesis is the act of interpreting, and is therefore be effectually guarded against. The consequence practical.

II. But although we have felt it necessary thus to point out the method in which the science of interpretation is usually discussed, the object proposed in this work requires that we should carefully guard against an unnecessary multiplication of rules. We shall, therefore, at once direct the student's attention to such general principles as may give him a clear perception of the manner in which the process of interpretation is to be conducted, rather than attempt to distribute those principles into a number of formal precepts. It is here, indeed, that some of the best works on the art of interpretation are highly exceptionable. Instead of laying down a few necessary and obvious rules, most biblical writers have so multiplied and distributed the number of them, that the mind of the inquirer is strangely bewildered. This evil, at least, we hope to avoid.

III. To state, in a formal way, that the same principles of interpretation are common to both sacred and profane writings; or, in other words, that the sense of Scripture is to be ascertained by the same process of investigation as that which is applied to other books, will seem to be a truth too obvious for exposition. But the prevailing method of discussing the art of Scripture interpretation will justify such a remark. Distinctions have been multiplied, by the most refined critical ingenuity; and rule has been added to rule, with the utmost industry and labour. One evil consequence of this is, that many have been deterred from entering upon a subject deeply interesting to all; and another, that, bewildered by the multiplicity of canons obtruded upon their notice, in works on Scripture interpretation, not a few have been driven to the opposite extreme, and denied the necessity of any human aids for discovering the sense of the text. Because the penmen of the holy Scriptures are ascertained to have been divinely inspired, it is therefore argued, that they were not influenced by any of those circumstances which contribute to form the character of other literary compositions; and that, consequently, the ordinary rules of interpretation have no claims upon our attention, in attempting to gather the sense of the sacred writings. Can any thing be more unfounded and absurd? For let it be remarked, that the persons who refuse to subject the Bible to the same process of interpretation as that which applies to merely human compositions, do not pretend to lay down any other principles, by the aid of which its meaning can be ascertained, and by which those perversions of its sense that may result from a heated imagination or an exuberant fancy, can

is, that, instead of speaking with precision and cer-
tainty, that volume, which is the gift of inspired
wisdom, the rule of all faith, and the ground of
all hope, is made to mean anything or nothing,
according to the caprice of those who claim the
privilege to discover its meaning, independent of
all human aids. The fact, however, is, that what-
ever degree of inspiration may have been vouch-
safed to the penmen of the sacred Scriptures,*
their words must be interpreted by the same rules
as those which apply to the words of merely
human authors. If the same object was proposed
by the sacred writers as that which is proposed by
other writers, namely, the instruction of their
readers (and who can doubt it?), then the words
they employed must have been used according to
general usage, and as they would naturally be
understood by the persons to whom the writings
were immediately addressed. "If the Scriptures
be a revelation to men," says Professor Stuart,
"then they are to be read and understood by
men. If the same laws of language are not to
be observed in this revelation as are common to
men, then they have no guide to the right under-
standing of the Scriptures; and an interpreter
needs inspiration, as much as the original writers.
It follows, of course, that the Scriptures would be
no revelation in themselves; nor of any use,
except to those who are inspired. But such a
book the Scriptures are not; and nothing is more
evident, than that when God has spoken to men,
He has spoken in the language of men, for he
has spoken by men, and for men."+ But this
doctrine must not be pushed too far.
It is freely
admitted, that divine assistance is really necessary
to the spiritual perception of Scripture; although
it is not conceded, that this aid is intended to
supersede the ordinary means of knowledge, but
only to render those means efficient.

IV. Since the Scriptures, then, are to be interpreted according to the ordinary process employed for eliciting the sense of any other literary composition, we may safely lay it down, as a general maxim, that the great object of solicitude with the biblical student should be, to discover the genuine signification of the individual words, comprising the

*This question is discussed in Part III., chap. i. sect. 1.

Elements of Biblical Criticism, p. 42. --Upon this topic, Dr. Planck has justly remarked, "It is evident that we must act in relation to the Bible, just as in relation to every other writing. We must bring out its true meaning, precisely by the same means as we would apply to any other book; in a word,

in explaining the Bible, we must do the very same thing which

sound understanding and rational logic always require to be done, in explaining every other book in the world."--Introduct. Sacred Philol., Part II., chap. 3.

sacred text. Sentences are made up of words, and | ticulars which it becomes our duty to conit is only in proportion as the elements of which sider. they are thus composed are understood, that their genuine or real meaning can be perceived. It is in this stage of his inquiries that the greater part of those difficulties to which reference has been made in a preceding section, will be found to obtrude themselves upon the student. If there existed a natural or essential relation between words and ideas, or the objects for which the words stand as the representatives, then, indeed, the student might proceed in his business of interpretation with facility, as well as with confidence. In such a case, he would only need to have an accurate perception of the symbol employed, to determine the precise nature of the idea it was designed to represent. But the case is widely different. Letters and words are but arbitrary symbols; they possess nothing in common with the ideas they represent; their meaning is not inherent, but accidental, or conventional; that is, certain persons agree to employ certain words as the indicative marks, or palpable representatives, of certain impalpable ideas; and it is only by ascertaining the exact nature of that agreement, or, in other words, by obtaining a knowledge of the powers which the persons using the words have attached to them, that oral or written language, as a medium of communicating thought, can be rendered intelligible. If we place a book in the hand of an uninstructed person, it is to him a dead letter; its pages are overspread with lifeless forms, meaningless cyphers. To interpret its contents, he must learn the powers of the letters; and, by the aid of grammars and dictionaries, the meaning of the words, and the relations which they bear to each other, as fixed and determined by the persons to whom the language appertained. It is true, that an acquaintance with the general principles of language, which are evidently founded upon the mental operations, and are, therefore, common to the whole human family, in proportion to the intellectual refinement and perfection of its individual parts, will greatly facilitate the study of particular languages or dialects; but then it will only facilitate that study; it will not supersede it: there must be, in every language, the acquisition and remembrance of terms, because these are arbitrary, notwithstanding that they may be connected together, and be governed in their relation by certain principles which are more or less universal in their operation. But our object is not to enlarge on the nature of language any further than is really necessary to confirm and illustrate the proposition laid down; namely, that the meaning of words is altogether conventional, and is therefore only to be ascertained by a certain process of inquiry, involving a number of par

V. It will be evident, upon a little consideration, that the facility and certainty with which the understanding of any author is to be attained, will depend much upon the relative situation in which he stands to us, and also on the subject of which he treats. If he writes in our vernacular language, on a familiar subject, and is not far removed from us by time, we shall have little difficulty in ascertaining the sense in which he intended his words to be understood. If he writes on a scientific or abstruse subject, our difficulties will be in the ratio of our ignorance of the principles of such science, and of the nice shades of meaning attached to the terms employed. If he writes on morality and religion, which involve mixed modes, not easily defined, and presupposes a certain degree of information on the part of his reader, then the difficulties will be greatly multiplied; and especially so, if the topics be treated of in a poetical diction. But if the author writes in a foreign language, we shall have to encounter not only these difficulties, but the additional difficulty of understanding the language itself, which will be in proportion to its antiquity and other accidental circumstances.* Now, all these difficulties united, present themselves in the Bible, which, as Burke has eloquently described it, is "A most venerable, but most multifarious, collection of the records of the divine economy, a collection of an infinite variety of cosmography, theology, history, prophecy, psalmody, morality, apologue, allegory, legislation, and ethics, carried through different books, by different authors, in different ages, for different ends and purposes." Hence, it is not only the most valuable of all books, but the most difficult book to be understood. Its interpretation demands an extent and variety of knowledge, and a degree of application, attainable only by those who feel the value and importance of scriptural studies. Of the nature and sources of this knowledge it is our present business to treat.

VI. It has been judiciously remarked, that two things are essential to the excellence and moral character of any writing which professes to give instruction on subjects of importance; namely, that the words employed should be in the commonly received sense; and that its figures of speech, if any be adopted, should be framed to place in stronger light the sentiment to be conveyed, and to give it greater force with the judg

in his "Inquiry into the Books of the New Testament," pp. 42-80.

* Dr. Cook has some adinirable observations on this subject,