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the best; it would be waste of time to attempt consulting them all. The best of them often dwell on what has little difficulty, or is of little moment; and points, on which you would wish most to be satisfied, you will often find passed over by them all. The best have their prejudices and nostrums; and, for supporting them, distort and wrest many passages. Often you will find light from critical essays on particular texts, when general and voluminous commentators afford you none. Let not your explications be dictated by your accidental present notions; but founded on, and tried by, well-established general principles of sound criticism. It is for assisting you in discovering these, that the view which I have given, both of the Sources and of the Objects of Scripture Criticism, is intended. Above all, fix a proper and upright aim in studying the Scriptures. Your sole aim should be, to discover the real sense of every passage, and to express it fairly and distinctly. The real sense of a passage is, not any sense which the words will bear, nor any sense which is true in itself; but only that which was intended by the writer in that particular passage. You should endeavour to exhaust the full sense of a passage, but without unduly stretching it, or finding more in it than was intended. Avoid an ostentation of learning, in explaining Scripture. Never affect certainty and decisiveness, where the sense is doubtful. Take care not to overlook the obvious meaning of texts, in searching for ingenious, farfetched, or mystical meanings. Read the Scripture, not with a view to support your own preconceived opinions from it, or to stretch, or explain it away, so as to agree with them; but lay aside all prejudices, that, by reading it, you may perceive how far your opinions need to be corrected. Be not prepossessed in favour of any sense, merely because it is the most received, the most approved, or the most popular. Be not biassed, by your particular turn and temper, to adopt the sense which is most agreeable to them. Especially reject all such loose interpretations as would favour vice. If you cannot clear up the more difficult parts of Scripture, make yourselves well acquainted with the plain parts of it; imbibe their purifying spirit, and be careful to act agreeably to them.

A general and connected View of the Prophecies relative to the Conversion, Restoration, Union, and future Glory of the Houses of Judah and Israel; the Progress and final Overthrow of the Anti-christian Confederacy in the Land of Palestine, and the ultimate general Diffusion of Christianity. By the Rev. George Stanley Faber, B. D. Vicar of Stocktonupon-Tees. 2 vols. Rivingtons. 1808.

This work, which is dedicated to the Bishop of Durham, may be considered as a sequel to the dissertation on the 1260 years, published some time since by the same author: and is conducted on the same plan.

In the former work, Mr. Faber entered into an examination of the prophecies which relate to the whole period of the

1260 years; in this he treats principally of what he calls the eatastrophe of the great Drama. In that work he chiefly confined himself to the prophecies of Daniel and St. John; in the present he has taken a more excursive range, and collected into one point of view, the various scattered predictions which foretel the Restoration of the whole House of Israel, and the final overthrow of Anti-Christ.

We shall present to our readers a summary of the contents of these volumes, with occasional specimens of Mr. Faber's style and manner.

After giving a general statement of what might be collected from prophecy relative to the subject which he proposed to discuss, he enters into the particular prophecies themselves, stating in the first place the prophecies at full length as they stand in Scripture, and then giving a commentary upon each prophecy.

The first relates to the Dispersion, Idolatry, and Restoration of the Israelites. Deut. iv. 27. 31.

II. The Calamities of the Siege of Jerusalem, the various Circumstances of their Dispersion, &c. Deut. xxviii. 15. III. Isaiah, ii. 1. The Millennian Glory of Jerusalem. IV. The Blindness of the Jews with respect to the Messiah, and their Preservation from entire Destruction. Isaiah, vi. 8. 13.

V. The Birth of Christ and his Second Coming-the Blessing

of his Millennian Kingdom. The Restoration and Conversion of Israel, with the Exhaustion of the Mystic Nile and Euphrates, and the Overthrow of the Antichristian Sovereign of the Mystic Babylon in Palestine. Isaiah, xi. xii. xiii. xiv.

The Blessings of the Kingdom of the Messiah.

Isaiah xi. 1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; 3. And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and with equity shall he work conviction in the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the blast of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one.

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5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed together; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. 9. They shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters that cover the depths of the sea.

On this passage Mr. Faber has the following note.

Independent of those ancient poets, Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, and of some of the Arabian and Persian poets, whom Bp. Lowth has noticed as depicting with similar imagery the golden age, two at least, who have written since the Christian era, have attempted to copy the beautiful strains of the Hebrew bard; Nonnus and Pope. The Messiah of the latter is well known; the classical reader will find the passage of the former, to which I allude, in the 41st book of his Dionysiacs. The following is a translation of it:

The tawny lion for a while forgot

His nature, and with wanton gambols play'd
Around the fearless ox; the generous steed
In graceful curvets testified his joy;

The spotted panther frolick'd near the hare;
And close beside the wolf the blithesome kid
Rejoic'd secure, and gaily play'd at will
His wayward fancies.

VI. The Dispersion of the Jews, with the Irruption of Antichrist, at the period of their Restoration. The Character of the Maritime Nation, destined to effect the Restoration*. Antichrist's Possession of Mount Zion, his Invasion of Egypt, and the Religious Connection of Assyria, Israel, and Egypt. Isaiah, xvii. xviii. xix.

VII. The Dispersion and the Restoration of the Jews from the West; their Triumph, with the Lamentation of Judah, on account of the Treachery of Antichrist, and the Exhaustion of the Euphrates and the Nile. Isaiah, xxiv. v. vi. vii. Yet, in the midst of his restoration by this great people, Judah is constrained to lament his leanness, and to complain that he has ex

* What maritime nation is destined to effect this wonderful enterprize Mr. Faber does not in his Commentary presume to conjecture, any farther than, it is his opinion, founded on a passage in Isaiah, that it will be an European Maritime Nation of faithful Worshippers: in his conclusion he appears to hope that Great Britain may be that favoured Nation.

perienced treachery from the treacherous dealers. I know not why Judah should lament his leanness, unless it be on account of his conversion not being universal *; nor whom he can intend by the treacherous dealers, unless they be some nation remarkable in the last days, and even proverbial for their perfidy and treachery. This passage therefore, which is so evidently connected with the restoration of the Jews, seems to me to confirm the opinion of Bp. Horsley, that some of them in an unconverted state will join the army of Antichrist, and seek to regain their own country by his instrumentality. Acting, however, merely from political motives, he will soon give them reason to bewail his wonted perfidy, and their own too easy faith in his promisest. · VIII. The Dispersion and subsequent Restoration of the Jews, and the Overthrow of the Mystic Assyrian. Isaiah, xxx.17.33. IX. The Desolation of the Mystic Edom. The Miracles of Christ at his First and Second Coming. Isaiah xxxiv. 1. 17.

XXXV. 1.

Mr. Faber doubts whether this Edom can be applied to the literal Edom in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

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COMMENTARY.

"These two chapters," says Bp. Lowth, "make one distinct pro"phecy; an entire, regular, and beautiful poem, consisting of two parts: the first containing a denunciation of divine vengeance against the enemies of the people or Church of God; the second "describing the flourishing state of the Church of God, consequent

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upon the execution of these judgments. The event foretold is re"presented as of the highest importance, and of universal concern: "all nations are called upon to attend to the declaration of it: and the "wrath of God is denounced against all the nations; that is, all those "that had provoked to anger the defender of the cause of Zion.

* It seems most natural to understand the leanness, of which Judah here complains, as meaning spiritual leanness; agreeably to that in the Psalms, "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls.” Psalm cvi. 15.

+ The fides Gallica has immemorially been little less proverbial than the fides Punica. "Francis familiare est ridendo fidem frangere" (Vopisc. Procop. C. xiii. P. 237. Ed. Bipont.) "Gens Francorum infidelis est. Si perjeret Francus quid novi faciet, qui perjurium ipsum sermonis genus putat esse non criminis." (Salvian. de Gub. Dei, L. iv. P. 82. Mag. Bib. Pat. 5). "Franci mendaces, sed hospitales.” (Ibid. L. 7. P. 116.) Such was the character of the ancient Franks, upon which Mr Turner observes, "This union of laughter and crime, of deceit and politeness, has not been entirely unknown to France in many periods since the fifth century." (Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. i. P. 56.) In the more stern and energetic language of the apostle, it is predicted, that in the last days, the peculiar days of Antichrist, the days of which Isaiah is now speaking, there should be trucebreakers, traitors, heady, high-minded. 2 Tim. iii. 3, 4.

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Among these, Edom is particularly specified. The principal pro"vocation of Edom was their insulting the Jews in their distress, and joining against them with their enemies the Chaldeans. Accordingly the Edomites were, together with the rest of the neighbouring nations, ravaged and laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar. The general "devastation spread through all these countries by Nebuchadnezzar, may be the event which the prophet has primarily in view in the "34th chapter: but this event, as far as we have any account of it in history, seems by no means to come up to the terms of the prophecy, or to justify so high-wrought and so terrible a description. And it is not easy to discover what connection the extremely flourishing "state of the Church or people of God, described in the next chapter, "could have with those events; and how the former could be the consequence of the latter, as it is there represented to be. By a figure, very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies to the people and kingdom of "God, is put for those enemies in general. This seems here to be the "case with Edom and Bozrah. It seems therefore reasonable to sup

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pose, with many learned expositors, that this prophecy has a fur"ther view to events still future; to some great revolutions to be "effected in later times, antecedent to the more perfect state of the kingdom of God upon earth, and serving to introduce it, which the holy Scriptures warrant us to expect.*

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"That the 35th chapter has a view beyond any thing, that could be "the immediate consequence of those events, is plain from every part, especially from the middle of it, where the miraculous works "wrought by our blessed Saviour are so clearly specified, that we can"not avoid making the application: and our Saviour himself has moreover plainly referred to this very passage as speaking of him and his works. He bids the disciples of John to go and report to their master the things which they heard and saw; that the blind re"ceived their sight, the lame walked, and the deaf heard and "leaves it to him to draw the conclusion in answer to his inquiry, "whether he, who performed the very works which the prophets "foretold should be performed by the Messiah, was not indeed the "Messiah himself. And where are these works so distinctly marked "by any of the prophets, as in this place? And how could they be

marked more distinctly? To these the strictly literal interpretation "of the prophet's words directs us. According to the allegorical in"terpretation, they may have a further view: this part of the prophecy may run parallel with the former, and relate to the future "advent of Christ; to the conversion of the Jews, and their restitution to their land; to the extension and purification of the "Christian faith; events predicted in the holy Scripture, as preparatory to it."

"The enemies of God's Church are often represented by the name of some country which was remarkable for its hatred and ill usage of the Jews, such as Egypt, Babylon, Edom, and Moab; and thus Edom or Ïdumea may be taken here.The words here seem to describe a more general judgment, of which the destruction of Edom was an imperfect representation." Mr. Lowth's Comment on Isaiah, xxxiv. 5.

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