P R E F
A C E
THESE
five books of scripture which are contained in this third volume and which I
have here endeavoured, according to the measure of the gift given to me, to
explain and improve, for the use of those who desire to read them, not only with
understanding, but to their edification--though they have the same divine
origin, design, and authority, as those that went before, yet, upon some
accounts, are of a very different nature from them, and from the rest of the
sacred writings, such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom seen fit to take in
conveying the light of divine revelation to the children of men, that this
heavenly food might have (as the Jews say of the manna) something in it
agreeable to every palate and suited to every constitution. If every eye be not
thus opened, every mouth will be stopped, and such as perish in their ignorance
will be left without excuse. We have piped unto you, and you have not danced,
we have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented, Matt. xi. 17.
I. The books of scripture have hitherto been, for the most part, very plain and
easy, narratives of matter of fact, which he that runs may read and understand,
and which are milk for babes, such as they can receive and digest, and both
entertain and nourish themselves with. The waters of the sanctuary have hitherto
been but to the ankles or to the knees, such as a lamb might wade in, to drink
of and wash in; but here we are advanced to a higher form in God's school, and
have books put into our hands wherein are many things dark and hard to be
understood, which we do not apprehend the meaning of so suddenly and so
certainly as we could wish, the study of which requires a more close application
of mind, a greater intenseness of thought, and the accomplishing of a diligent
search, which yet the treasure hid in them, when it is found, will abundantly
recompense. The waters of the sanctuary are here to the loins, and still
as we go forward we shall find the waters still risen in the prophetical books, waters
to swim in (Ezek. xlvii. 3-5), not fordable, nor otherwise to be passed
over--depths in which an elephant will not find footing, strong meat for
strong men. The same method is observable in the New Testament, where we
find the plain history of Christ and his gospel placed first in the Evangelists
and the Acts of the Apostles; then the mystery of both in the Epistles, which
are more difficult to be understood; and, lastly, the prophesies of things to
come in the apocalyptic visions. This method, so exactly observed in both the
Testaments, directs us in what order to proceed both in studying the things of
God ourselves and in teaching them to others; we must go in the order that the
scripture does; and where can we expect to find a better method of divinity and
a better method of preaching?
1. We must begin with those things that are most plain and easy, as, blessed be
God, those things are which are most necessary to salvation and of the greatest
use. We must lay our foundation firm, in a sound experimental knowledge of the
principles of religion, and then the super-structure will be well reared and
will stand firmly. It is not safe to launch out into the deep at first, nor to
venture into points difficult and controverted until we have first thoroughly
digested the elements of the oracles of God and turned them in succum et
sanguinem--into juice and blood. Those that begin their Bible at the wrong
end commonly use their knowledge of it in the wrong way. And, in training up
others, we must be sure to ground them well at first in those truths of God
which are plain, and in some measure level to their capacity, which we find they
comprehend, and relish, and know how to make use of, and not amuse those that
are weak with things above them, things of doubtful disputation, which they
cannot apprehend any certainty of nor advantage by. Our Lord Jesus spoke the
word to the people as they were able to hear it (Mark iv. 33) and had
many things to say to his disciples which he did not say because as yet they could
not bear them, John xvi. 12, 13. And those whom St. Paul could not speak
to as unto spiritual--though he blamed them for their backwardness, yet he
accommodated himself to their weakness, and spoke to them as unto babes in
Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.
2. Yet we must not rest in these things. We must not be always children that
have need of milk, but nourished up with that, and gaining strength, we must go
on to perfection (Heb. vi. 1), that having, by reason of use, our
spiritual senses exercised (Heb. v. 14), we may come to full age, and put
away childish things, and, forgetting the things which are behind, that
is, so well remembering them (Phil. iii. 13) that we need not be still poring
over them as those that are ever learning the same lesson, we may reach forth to
the things which are before. Though we must never think to learn above our
Bible, as long as we are here in this world, yet we must still be getting
forward in it. You have dwelt long enough in this mountain; now turn and
take your journey onward in the wilderness towards Canaan. Our motto must be Plus
ultra--Onward. And then shall we know if thus, by regular steps (Hos. vi.
3), we follow on to know the Lord and what the mind of the Lord is.
II. The books of scripture have hitherto been mostly historical, but now the
matter is of another nature; it is doctrinal and devotional, preaching and
praying; and in this way of writing, as well as in the former, a great deal of
excellent knowledge is conveyed, which serves very valuable purposes. It will be
of good use to know not only what others did that went before us, and how they
fared, but what their notions and sentiments were, what their thoughts and
affections were, that we may, with the help of them, form our minds aright.
Plutarch's Morals are reputed as a useful treasure in the commonwealth of
learning as Plutarch's Lives, and the wise disquisitions and discourses of the
philosophers as the records of the historians; nor is this divine philosophy (if
I may so call it), which we have in these books, less needful, nor less
serviceable, to the church, than the sacred history was. Blessed be God for
both.
III. The Jews make these books to be given by a divine inspiration somewhat
different from that both of Moses and the prophets. They divided the books of
the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets and the ktwbym--Writings,
which Epiphanius emphatically translates
grafeia--things
written, and these books are more commonly called among the Greeks Hagiographa--Holy
writings: the Jews attribute them to that distinct kind of inspiration which
they call rwh hqds--The Holy Spirit. Moses they supposed to
write by the Spirit in a way above all the other prophets, for with him
God spoke mouth to mouth, even apparently (Num. xii. 8) knew him,
that is, conversed with him face to face, Deut. xxxiv. 10. He was made
partaker of divine revelation (as Maimonides distinguishes, De Fund. Legis,
c. 7) per vigiliam--while awake,1 whereas God manifested
himself to all the other prophets in a dream or vision: and he adds that Moses
understood the words of prophecy without any perturbation or astonishment of
mind, whereas the other prophets commonly fainted and were troubled. But the
writers of the Hagiographa they suppose to be inspired in a degree somewhat
below that of the other prophets, and to receive divine revelation, not as they
did by dreams, and visions, and voices, but (as Maimonides describes it, More
Nevochim--part 2 c. 45) they perceived some power to rise within
them, and rest upon them, which urged and enabled them to write or speak far
above their own natural ability, in psalms or hymns, or in history or in rules
of good living, still enjoying the ordinary vigour and use of their senses. Let
David himself describe it. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word
was in my tongue; the God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, 2
Sam. xxiii. 2, 3. This gives such a magnificent account of the inspiration by
which David wrote that I see not why it should be made inferior to that of the
other prophets, for David is expressly called a prophet, Acts ii. 29, 30.
But, since our hand is in with the Jewish masters, let us see what books they
account Hagiographa. These five that are now before us come, without dispute,
into this rank of sacred writers, and the book of the Lamentations is not
unfitly added to them. Indeed the Jews, when they would speak critically, reckon
all those songs which we meet with in the Old Testament among the Hagiographa;
for though they were penned by prophets, and under the direction of the Holy
Ghost, yet, because they were not the proper result of a visum propheticum--prophetic
vision, they were not strictly prophecy. As to the historical books, they
distinguish (but I think it is a distinction without a difference); some of them
they assign to the prophets, calling them the prophetæ priores--the former
prophets, namely, Joshua, Judges, and the two books of the Kings; but others
they rank among the Hagiographa, as the book of Ruth (which yet is but an
appendix to the book of Judges), the two books of Chronicles, with Ezra,
Nehemiah, and the book of Esther, which last the rabbin have a great value for,
and think it is to be had in equal esteem with the law of Moses itself, that it
shall last as long as that lasts, and shall survive the writings of the
Prophets. And, lastly, they reckon the book of Daniel among the
Hagiographa,2 for which no reason can be given, since he was not
inferior to any of the prophets in the gift of prophecy; and therefore the
learned Mr. Smith thinks that their placing him among the Hagiographical writers
was fortuitous by mistake.3 Mr. Smith, in his Discourse before
quoted, though he supposes this kind of divine inspiration to be more "pacate
and serene than that which was strictly called prophecy, not
acting so much upon the imagination, but seating itself in the higher and purer
faculties of the soul, yet shows that it manifested itself to be of a divine
nature, not only as it always elevated pious souls into strains of devotion, or
moved them strangely to dictate matters of true piety and goodness, but as it
came in abruptly upon the minds of those holy men, and transported them from the
temper of mind they were in before, so that they perceived themselves captivated
by the power of some higher light than that which their own understanding
commonly poured out upon them; and this, says he, was a kind of vital form to
that light of divine and sanctified reason which they were perpetually possessed
of and that constant frame of holiness and goodness which dwelt in their
hallowed minds." We have reason to glorify the God of Israel who gave
such power unto men and has here transmitted to us the blessed products of
that power.
IV. The style and composition of these books are different from those that go
before and those that follow. Our Saviour divides the books of the Old Testament
into the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke xxiv. 44), and
thereby teaches us to distinguish those books that are poetical, or metrical,
from the Law and the Prophets; and such are all these that are now before us,
except Ecclesiastes, which yet, having something restrained in its style, may
well enough be reckoned among them. They are books in verse, according to the
ancient rules of versifying, though not according to the Greek and Latin prosodies.
Some of the ancients call these five books the second Pentateuch of the Old
Testament,4 five sacred volumes which are as the satellites to
the five books of the law of Moses. Gregory Nazianzen5 (carm.
33, p. 98) calls these
ai stichrai pente--the five
metrical books; first Job (so he reckons them up), then David, then the
three of Solomon--Ecclesiastes, the Song, and Proverbs. Amphilochius,
bishop at Iconium, in his iambic poem to Seleucus, reckons them up
particularly, and calls them
stichraV pente BibloV--the five
verse-books. Epiphanius (lib. de ponder. et mensur. p. 533)
pente stichreiV--the five verse-books. And Cyril. Hierosol.
Collect. 4, p. 30 (mihi--in my copy), calls these five books ta
stichra--books in verse. Polychronius, in his prologue to Job,
says that as those that are without call their tragedies and comedies
poihtika--poetics,
so, in sacred writ, those books which are composed in Hebrew metre (of which he
reckons Job the first) we call
stichra biblia--books in verse,
written
kata sticon--according to order. What is written
in metre, or rhythm, is so called from
metroV--a measure,
and
ariqmoV--a number, because regulated by certain
measures, or numbers of syllables, which please the ear with their smoothness
and cadency, and so insinuate the matter the more movingly and powerfully into
the fancy. Sir William Temple,6 in his essay upon poetry, thinks it
is generally agreed to have been the first sort of writing that was used in the
world, nay, that, in several nations, poetical compositions preceded the very
invention or usage of letters. The Spaniards (he says) found in America many
strains of poetry, and such as seemed to flow from a true poetic vein, before
any letters were known in those regions. The same (says he) is probable of the
Scythians and Grecians: the oracles of Apollo were delivered in verse. Homer and
Hesiod wrote their poems (the very Alcoran of the pagan dæmonology) many ages
before the appearing of any of the Greek philosophers or historians; and long
before them (if we may give credit to the antiquities of Greece), even before
the days of David, Orpheus and Linus were celebrated poets and musicians in
Greece; and at the same time Carmenta, the mother of Evander, who was the first
that introduced letters among the natives of Greece, was so called à
carmine--from a song, because she expressed herself in verse. And in such
veneration was this way of writing among the ancients that their poets were
called vates--prophets, and their muses were deified. But, which is more
certain and considerable, the most ancient composition that we meet with in
scripture was the song of Moses at the Red Sea (Exod. xv.), which we find before
the very first mention of writing, for that occurs not until Exod. xvii. 14,
when God bade Moses write a memorial of the war with Amalek. The first, and
indeed the true and general end of writing, is a help of memory; and poetry does
in some measure answer that end, and even in the want of writing, much more with
writing, helps to preserve the remembrance of ancient things. The book of the
wars of the Lord (Num. xxi. 14), and the book of Jasher (Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam.
i. 18), seem to have been both written in poetic measures. Many sacred songs we
meet with in the Old Testament, scattered both in the historical and prophetical
books, penned on particular occasions, which, in the opinion of very competent
judges, "have in them as true and noble strains of poetry and picture as
are met with in any other language whatsoever, in spite of all disadvantages
from translations into such different tongues and common prose,7 nay,
are nobler examples of the true sublime style of poetry than any that can be
found in the Pagan writers; the images are so strong, the thoughts so great, the
expressions so divine, and the figures so admirably bold and moving, that the
wonderful manner of these writers is quite inimitable."8 It is
fit that what is employed in the service of the sanctuary should be the best in
its kind.
The books here put together are poetical. Job is an heroic poem, the book of
Psalms a collection of divine odes or lyrics, Solomon's Song a pastoral and an
epithalamium; they are poetical, and yet sacred and serious, grave and full of
majesty. They have a poetic force and flame, with out poetic fury and fiction,
and strangely command and move the affections, without corrupting the
imagination or putting a cheat upon it; and, while they gratify the ear, they
edify the mind and profit the more by pleasing. It is therefore much to be
lamented that so powerful an art, which was at first consecrated to the honour
of God, and has been so often employed in his service, should be debauched, as
it has been, and is at this day, into the service of his enemies--that his corn,
and wine, and oil should be prepared for Baal.
V. As the manner of the composition of these books is excellent, and very proper
to engage the attention, move the affections, and fix them in the memory, so the
matter is highly useful, and such as will be every way serviceable to us. They
have in them the very sum and substance of religion, and what they contain is
more fitted to our hand, and made ready for use, than any part of the Old
Testament, upon which account, if we may be allowed to compare one star with
another in the firmament of the scripture, these will be reckoned stars of the
first magnitude. All scripture is profitable (and this part of it in a
special manner) for instruction in doctrine, in devotion, and in the
right ordering of the conversation. The book of Job directs us what we are to
believe concerning God, the book of Psalms how we are to worship him, pay our
homage to him, and maintain our communion with him, and then the book of the
Proverbs shows very particularly how we are to govern ourselves
en pash anastrofh--in every turn of human life; thus shall the man of
God, by a due attention to these lights, be perfect, thoroughly furnished
for every good work. And these are placed according to their natural order,
as well as according to the order of time; for very fitly are we first led into
the knowledge of God, our judgments rightly formed concerning him, and our
mistakes rectified, and then instructed how to worship him and to choose the
things that please him. We have here much of natural religion, its principles,
its precepts--much of God, his infinite perfections, his relations to man, and
his government both of the world and of the church; here is much of Christ, who
is the spring, and soul, and centre, of revealed religion, and whom both Job and
David were eminent types of, and had clear and happy prospects of. We have here
that which will be of use to enlighten our understandings, and to acquaint us
more and more with the things of God, with the deep things of God--speculations
to entertain the most contemplative, and discoveries to satisfy the most
inquisitive and increase the knowledge of those that are most knowing. Here is
that also which, with a divine light, will bring into the soul the heat and
influence of a divine fire, will kindle and inflame pious and devout affections,
on which wings we may soar upwards until we enter into the holiest. We may here
be in the mount with God, to behold his beauty; and when we come down from that
mount, if we retain (as we ought) the impressions of our devotion upon our
spirits and make conscience of doing that good which the Lord our God here
requires of us, our faces shall shine before all with whom we converse, who
shall take occasion thence to glorify our Father who is in heaven, Matt.
v. 16. Thus great, thus noble, thus truly excellent, is the subject, and thus
capable of being improved, which gives me the more reason to be ashamed of the
meanness of my performance, that the comment breathes so little of the life and
spirit of the text. We often wonder at those that are not at all affected with
the great things of God, and have no taste nor relish of them, because they know
little of them; but perhaps we have more reason to wonder at ourselves, that
conversing so frequently, so intimately, with them, we are not more affected
with them, so as even to be wholly taken up with them, and in a continual
transport of delight in the contemplation of them. We hope to be so shortly; in
the mean time, though like the three disciples that were the witnesses of
Christ's transfiguration upon the mount we are but dull and sleepy, yet we can
say, Master, it is good to be here; here let us make tabernacles,
Luke ix. 32, 33.
I have nothing here to boast of--nothing at all, but a great deal to be humbled
for, that I have not come up to what I have aimed at in respect of fulness and
exactness. In the review of the work, I find many defects, and those who are
critical, perhaps, will meet with some mistakes in it; but I have done it with
what care I could, and desire to be thankful to God who by his grace has carried
me on in his work thus far: let that grace have all the glory (Phil. ii. 13),
which works in us both to will and to do whatever we will or do that is
good or serves any good purpose. What is from God will, I trust, be to him, will
be graciously accepted by him, according to what a man has, and not according
to what he had not, and will be of some use to his church; and what is from
myself (that is, all the defects and errors) will, I trust, be favourably passed
by and pardoned. That prayer of St. Austin is mine, Domine Deus, quæcunque
dixi in his libris de tuo, agnoscant et tui; et quæ de meo, et tu ignosce et
tui--Lord God, whatever I have maintained in these books correspondent with what
is contained in thine grant that thy people may approve as well as thyself;
whatever is but the doctrine of my book forgive thou, and grant that thy people
may forgive it also. I must beg likewise to own, to the honour of our great
Master, that I have found the work to be its own wages, and that the more we
converse with the word of God the more it is to us as the honey and the honeycomb,
Ps. xix. 10. In gathering some gleaning of this harvest for others we may feast
ourselves; and, when we are enabled by the grace of God to do so, we are best
qualified to feed others. I was much pleased with a passage I lately met with of
Erasmus, that great scholar and celebrated wit, in an epistle dedicatory before
his book De Ratione Concionandi, where, as one weary of the world and the
hurry of it, he expresses an earnest desire to spend the rest of his days in
secret communion with Jesus Christ, encouraged by his gracious invitation to
those who labour and are heavy laden to come unto him for rest
(Matt. xi. 28), and this alone is that which he thinks will yield him true
satisfaction. I think his words worth transcribing, and such as deserve to be
inserted among the testimonies of great men to serious godliness. Neque
quisquam facilè credat quàm miserè animus jamdudum affectet ab his laboribus
in tranquillam otium secedere, quodque superest vitæ (superest autem vix brevis
palmus sive pugillus), solum cum eo solo colloqui, qui clamavit olim (nec hodiè
mutat vocem suam), "Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, ego
reficiam vos;" quandoquidem in tam turbulento, ne dicam furente, sæculo,
in tot molestiis quas vel ipsa tempora publicè invehunt, vel privatim adfert
oetas ac valetudo, nihil reperio in quo mens mea libentius conquiescat quàm in
hoc arcano colloquio--No one will easily believe how anxiously, for a long time
past, I have wished to retire from these labours into a scene of tranquility,
and, during the remainder of life (dwindled, it is true, to the shortest span),
to converse only with him who once cried (nor does he now retract), "Come
unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you,"
for in this turbulent, not to say furious, age, the many public sources of
disquietude, connected with the infirmities of advancing age, leave no solace to
my mind to be compared with this secret communion. In the pleasing
contemplation of the divine beauty and benignity we hope to spend a blessed
eternity, and therefore in this work it is good t o spend as much as may be of
our time.
One volume more, containing the prophetical books, will finish the Old
Testament, if the Lord continue my life, and leisure, and ability of mind and
body for this work. It is begun, and I find it will be larger than any of the
other volumes, and longer in the doing; but, as God by his grace shall furnish
me for it and assist me in it (without which grace I am nothing, less than
nothing, worse than nothing), it shall be carried on with all convenient speed;
and sat citò, si sat benè--if with sufficient ability, it will be with
sufficient speed. I desire the prayers of my friends that God would minister
seed to the sower and bread to the eaters (Isa. lv. 10), that he
would multiply the seed sown and increase the fruits of our
righteousness (2 Cor. ix. 10), that so he who sows and those who reap may
rejoice together (John iv. 36); and the great Lord of the harvest shall have
the glory of all.
|
M.
H.
|
|
Chester,
May 13, 1710.
|
1 See Mr. Smith's Discourses on Prophecy, c. 11.
2 Hil. Megil. c. 2,
§ 11.
3 Vid. Hottinger.
Thesaur. lib. 2, cap. 1, § 3.
4 Damascen. Orthod.
Fid. l. 4, cap. 18.
5 Vid. Suicer.
Thesaur. in stichra.
6 Miscell, part 2.
7 Sir W. Temple, p.
329.
8 Sir R. Blackmore's
preface to Job.
Contents
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