The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 6

that tho Moenio conooeeion of polygamy was not in itself good, and IHuJ. merely heun gro.nted to the Jews-as a boon evil indeed, but neceesary-becauile of the hurrlnesR l'f their hearts. 1 Although the eabbath bed become to the Jews the very badgl'l oE nationality, and was being more and more identified by them with the e8Aence of nil religious observanoes, he markedly and repeatedly discouraged the tendency to strain its saorednees into a burden or a bondage. 2 Lastly, whon his own neuest rli8- ciples, in the very region where Elijah had called down fire frcm heaven, appealed to the example of that splendid prophet to justify them in their appeal to him to call down fire from heaven upon those who had insulted hie authority, he told them with stem rebuke that the Elijah spirit is not the Christ spirit, and that he hact come not to destroy men's lives, but to save. 3 If this teaching of Christ be not rc-ver- ently home in mind we shall be constantly tempted to that treatment of the Ol<l Testament which runs through whole modem commentaries, and which, by the strain- ing of words .and the invention of hypotheses, aims at concealing all semblance nf difference between the tone of a Moses e.nd of e. St. John, or between the degree of enlightenment in the moral conduct of a Je.el or e. Mary of Bethany. Nothing but confusion, dishonesty; and retrogression can come of the attempt to elevate the mixed and imperfect conceptions of early Jude.ism to the dignity of gospel morality. To net thus is to assert that thE' stars yield as much light whereby to guide our footsteps as we receive from the Sun of righteousness when it has dawned into boundless day. Scripture has itself made clenr to us, in words e.s plain as it is possible to utter, that tbd dElgree both of religion e.nd morality which we.s vouchsafed to the patriarchs was altogether inferior to that which he.a been granted to us. "By what le.w would you justify the atrocity you would commit ? " asks the young soldier in a great work of fiction. "If thou -a.rt ignorant of it," replied Barley, "thy companion is well O:ware'of the law which gave the men of Jericho to the sword of Joshua, the son of Nun." "•Yeii; but we," answered the divine, "live under a better dispensation, which instructeth us to return good for evil, and to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us."' • 8. !twill be hardly necessary to wam the Christian homilist that be must beware of recoiling into the opposite : extreme. He is not indeed likely to fall into the error of Me.rcion, whose famous •·Antitheses' dwelt upon and exaggerated the supposed contradictions between the Old and New Testament with the express object of support- ing his heresy-that the old dipensation was the work not of God, but oE an inferior 1md imperfect Demiu_rgus ;-hut he may be led to underrate the unspeahble value of the Old Testament Scriptures. The unity of the Old and New Testaments is found in the person e.nd work of Christ. Thus it is that "the Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and the New Testament everlasting life is o.ffered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God nnd me.n." 6 Nothing is more remarkable in the Old Testa.ment, nothing is a more distinct and irrefragable proof of its inspired authority, than this interdependence o:f' the two dispensations-" the Old Testament containing the germ and nucleus of the New, the New containing the realisation and fulfilment of the Old, not as a matter of contrivnnce1 but e.s a matter of broad and patent history, so that the two parts corre- spond like .n .cloven tally." 0 We .must avoid a.like the heresy of those Gnostics who snw notliing of the New Testament in the Old, and the error of unwise controversial- ists who see everi;thing of the New Testament in the Old. But the old rule is trne, 1 9 l\Inrk x. 4. llfal'kii. 27; Luke xiii. 15, &c. 3 Luke ix. 55. 1 Scott, 'Oki l\Iortnlity.' 5 Article. 6 Profcs~or Lcnthcs. ,iii GlrnEf!:\I, INTnODt.iCTION TO THE OLD TESl'A:\IE~'f.