In the celebrated chapel of King's College, Cambridge, the huge windows of itained glass are filled on one side with subjects from the Old Testament, and on the other with subjects from the New; and often on summer days the student who walks on one side may see the windows nearest to him blazing with sunlight which stream through them from the other side. 'Whenever," says an ingenious writer, "I thus saw the gospel story shining through the Old Testament story, I thought that it wa;i a figure of what we see in the Bible." And so in truth it is. Both in the Old and the New Testament we h11ve type and symbol, narrative and precept, parable and 1 Ps. lxxiii. S, &a. :i $. g. Pa. xxv., :ux.iv., x:n:vii., c.ri., c.rii., cxv., ell?. GENESIS, C n-iii GEXERAL INTRODUCTION TO TBE OLD TESTAMENT.
miracle ; but the sunlight, which ce.n alone interpret and glorify their highest meaning, must come from him who is the Light of the world and the Sun of righteousness, It can only come from God in Christ l and he who would understand and interpret Scrip- ture duly to the enlightenment and salvation of men must often breathe the prayer of one of the greatest of earthly thinkers: " To God the Father, God the Word, God the Spirit we pour forth most humble and hearty supplications that he, remember• ing the calamities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this our life, in which we wear out days few and evil, would please to open to us new refreshments out of the fountain of his goodness for the alleviating of our miseries. This a/,so we liumbly and earnestly beg, that human tl,i:ngs may not pr(/} ttdice such as ai·e JJivine ; neither 0
t/UJJ, from the t1,,uoc/dng of the gata of 86'M6 and the kindling of a g1·eater natural light a11,1Jtking of incre.dulity or intellect,~ might may arise in our minds toward, JJivine mysteries; but rather that by our minds thoroughly clean1e,d ancl purged. from fancy and vanitia, and yet subject, and perfectly given up to the Divine oracle,, tkere may be given v;n,to faith such things as are faith's.'' 1 1 Lord Bacon, • The Student's Pl"tyer THE LEADING PRINCIPLES OF THE
~if.line Jafo ns 1naniftateb in tlJt JtnfrdtutlJ. DY TIIE
RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., BISHOP OF EDINl3URGII.
1. Tm: PENTA'l'EUCH, or II Fivefold Book," is the name, derived from the Greek (,j 1rEvrarwxoc, sc. {3if3'Aoc), of that collection of the writings of Moses which forms the first part of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The titles of the several books are also o.f Greek origin, and were given them by the LXX. translators. In the Hebrew the Pentateuch forms one volume, known to the Jews of all ages as "the Law," (Torali) ,· the separate books being divisions or parts of "the Torah," mt:rely distinguishetl by the first or some important word in the opening sentence o! each division. At the close of the Pentateuch are the words, "Here end the fi\·e fifth- parts of the Law" (cliami-shah chomeslie Torah). It is to be regretted that in our versions o.f the Bible this unity of "The Law" is somewhat obscured, by all notice of that significant name, common to all the five parts, being omitted. If it wcro retained, a ,ery interesting and instructivo parallelism in the structure of the two Testaments would be more obvious than it now is. It would be apparent that the Book of "the Law" holds the same relation to the Old Testament Scriptures as the four Gospels bear to the New. In each case the first portion of the sacred volume is a part complete in itself, the basis of the covenant or Divine economy, and b0ar- ing its characteristic name: "the Ln.w" being the exponent of the relations between God and man by nature, "the Gospel" of those which arc constituted in tht> incarnate Son. Similarly, the historical books of the Oltl Testament, describing tho history of the chosen people from the giving of the law till the spirit of prophecy ceased, have their parallel in the brief history of the Church of Christ in the Acts 0£ the Apasties; while the prophetical books of the Old Testament, being not merely prodictions of future events, but also inspired expositions of the moral and spiritual principles of the Ln.w, correspond to the Apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse, which are in both cases a revelation of God by his Spirit in the spirit of man. 2. The purpose of this Introduction is to investigate the distinctive clrnracter oE the Pentateuch as containing what, throughout the Scriptures both of the Old and of the New Testament, is called II the law," or the "law of Jehovah." Th0 profound importance not only to Christian theology, but to all true religion, of a definito ancl comprehe-nsive knowledge of this subject must be t\dmitted by every one who receives Holy Scriptnre as th) word of God and the rnle of faith and practice. The l'ENTATEUC:H, d ii INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH,