subjects in a Decoming spirit may be seen (to select two works, widely differing in other respects) in Dr. Robinson's 'Biblical Researches in Palestine,' and the Prefaces to Dr. Pusey's Commentary on the Minor Prophets.' Indeed it may safely be said-and it is the almost inevitable result of an intimate acquaintance with the language, the topography or the poetry of the Bible—that whoever has passed through any one of these gates into a nearer presence of the truths and the events described, will never again be able to speak of them with the cold and stiff formality which once was thought their only safeguard.

Thirdly, it has been my intention to make these Lectures strictly ecclesiastical.' The history of the Jewish race, language, and antiquities belongs to other departments. It is the history of the Jewish Church of which my office invited me to speak. I have thus been led to dwell especially on those parts of the history which bear directly on the religious development of the nation. I have never forgotten that the literature of the Hebrew race, from which the materials of these Lectures are drawn, is also the Bible-the sacred Book, or Books, of Christendom. I have constantly endeavoured to remind my hearers and readers that the Christian Church sprang out of the Jewish, and therefore to connect the history of the two together, both by way of contrast and illustration, wherever opportunity offered. Whatever memorials of any particular form or epoch of the Jewish History can be pernianently traced in the institutions, the language, the imagery, of either Church, I have endeavoured carefully to note. The desire to find in all parts of the Old Testament allegories or types of the New, has been pushed to such an excess that many students turn away from this side of the history in disgust. But there is a continuity of character running through the career of the Chosen People which cannot be disputed, and on this, the true historical basis of 'types'which is, in fact, only the Greek word for 'likenesses '—I have

not scrupled to dwell. Throughout I have sought to recognise the identity of purpose-the constant gravitation towards the greatest of all events-which, under any hypothesis, must furnish the main interest of the History of Israel.

These are the chief points to which I have called attention in my Lectures, and to which I here again call the attention of my readers. There are many collateral questions naturally arising out of the subject, for which the purpose of this work furnishes no scope. Discussions of chronology, statistics, and physical science—of the critical state of the different texts and the authorship of the different portions of the narrative-of the precise limits to be drawn between natural and supernatural, providential and miraculous- unless in passages where the existing documents and the existing localities force the consideration upon us, I have usually left unnoticed. I have passed by these questions because I do not wish to disturb my readers with distinctions which to the Sacred writers were for the most part alien and unknown, and which, within the limits of the plan of this work, would be superfluous and inappropriate. The only exception which I have made has been in favour of illustrations from Geography. These, from the circumstances of my having been twice enabled to visit the scenes of Sacred History, I felt that I might be par- . doned for offering as my special contribution to the study of the subject, even if they somewhat exceeded the due proportion of the rest 2 of the work. On all other matters of this secondary nature, I have been content to rest on the researches 3 of others, and to refer to them for further elucida

1 For an able statement of this question I may refer to an article on 'The Supernatural' in the Edinburgh Review, No. 236, since incorporated into the Duke of Argyll's Reign of Law.

2 This must excuse the references to another work, Sinai and Palestine, which was originally undertaken with the purpose of a preparation for such a work as is here attempted. I have also given in the Appendix an account of the two most

remarkable scenes, witnessed in a second journey to the Holy Land, the Mosque of Hebron, and the Samaritan Passover.

3 It will be seen that there is one name constantly recurring here, as in all else that I have written on these subjects. It is an unfailing pleasure to me to refer to Mr. Grove's continued aid-such as I could have received from no one else in like degree-in all questions connected with Sacred history and geography.

tion. No one will, I trust, suspect me of undervaluing these researches. It is my firm conviction that in proportion as such inquiries are fearlessly pursued by those who are able to make them, will be the gain both to the cause of Biblical science and of true Religion; and I, for one, must profess my deep obligations to those who in other countries have devoted their time and labour, and in this country have hazarded worldly interests and popular favour, in this noble, though often perilous, pursuit of Divine Truth.

To name any, in a field where so many have contributed to the general result, would be difficult and invidious. But there is one so distinguished above the rest, and so closely connected with the subject of this work, that I must be permitted to express here, once for all, the gratitude which I, in common with many others, owe to his vast labours.

1

It is now twenty-seven years since Arnold wrote to Bunsen, 'What Wolf and Niebuhr have done for Greece 'and Rome seems sadly wanted for Judæa.' The wish thus boldly expressed for a critical and historical investigation of the Jewish history was, in fact, already on the eve of accomplishment. At that time Ewald was only known as one of the chief Orientalists of Germany. He had not yet proved himself to be the first Biblical scholar in Europe. But, year by year, he was advancing towards his grand object. To his profound knowledge of the Hebrew language he added, step by step, a knowledge of each stage of the Hebrew Literature. These labours on the prophetic and poetic books of the ancient Scriptures culminated in his noble work on the History of the People of Israel-as powerful in its general conception, as it is saturated with learning down to its minutest details. It would be presumptuous in me either to defend or to attack the critical analysis, which to most English readers savours of arbitrary dogmatism, with which he assigns special dates and authors to the manifold constituent parts of the 'Arnold's Letters, Feb. 10, 1835 (Life and Correspondence, i. 338.)

several Books of the Old Testament; and from many of his general statements I should venture to express my disagreement, were this the place to do so. But the intimate acquaintance which he exhibits with every portion of the Sacred Writings, combined as it is with a loving and reverential appreciation of each individual character, and of the whole spirit and purpose of the Israelitish history, has won the respect even of those who differ widely from his conclusions. How vast its silent effect has been may be seen from the recognition of its value, not only in its author's own country, but in France and in England also. One instance may suffice :-the constant reference to his writings throughout the new 'Dictionary of the Bible,' to which I have myself so often referred with advantage, and which more than any other single English work is intended to represent the knowledge and meet the wants of the rising generation of Biblical students.

But, in fact, my aim has been not to recommend the teachings or the researches of any theologian however eminent, but to point the way to the treasures themselves of that History on which I have spent so many years of anxious, yet delightful, labour. There are some excellent men who disparage the Old Testament, as the best means of saving the New. There are others who think that it can only be maintained by discouraging all inquiry into its authority or its contents. It is true that the Old Testament is inferior to the New, that it contains many institutions and precepts (those, for example, which sanction and regulate polygamy and slavery) which have been condemned or abandoned by the tacit consent of nearly the whole of Christendom. But this inferiority is no more than both Testaments freely recognise; the one by pointing to a Future greater than itself, the other by insisting on the gradual, partial, imperfect character of the Revelations - that had preceded it. It is true also that the rigid acceptance of every part of the Old Testament, as of equal authority, equal value, and equal accuracy, is rendered impossible by every

advance made in Biblical science, and by every increase of our acquaintance with Eastern customs and primæval history. But it is no less true that by almost every one of these advances the beauty and the grandeur of the substance and spirit of its different parts are enhanced to a degree far transcending all that was possible in former ages.

My object will have been attained, if, by calling attention to these incontestable and essential features of the Sacred History, I may have been able in any measure to smooth the approaches to some of the theological difficulties which may be in store for this generation; still more if I can persuade anyone to look on the History of the Jewish Church as it really is; to see how important is the place which it occupies in the general education of the world-how many elements of religious thought it supplies, which even the New Testament fails to furnish in the same degree-how largely indebted to it have been already, and may yet be in a still greater degree the Civilisation and the Faith of mankind.

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD:

Sept. 16, 1862.