at the head of which I put Poole and Henry, and the older school
who mostly wrote in Latin, and were tinctured with the conceits of
those schoolmen who gathered like flies around the corpse of
Aristotle. He appears to have written before Diodati and Trapp, but
lacked opportunity to publish. I fear he will be forgotten, as
there is but little prospect of the republication of so diffuse,
and perhaps heavy, an author. He is a very Alp of learning, but
cold and lacking in spirituality, hence his lack of popularity.
In 1653, Arthur Jackson, Preacher of God's Word in Wood
Street, London, issued four volumes upon the Old Testament, which
appear to have been the result of his pulpit expositions to his
people. Valuable his works would be if there were no better, but
they are not comparable to others already and afterwards mentioned.
You can do without him, but he is a reputable author. Far more
useful is Ness's History And Mystery of the Old and New Testament,
a grand repository of quaint remarks upon the historical books
of Scripture. You will find it contained in four thin folio
volumes, and you will have a treasure if you procure it.
Need I commend Bishop Hall's Contemplations to your Haak's
Annotations come to us as the offspring of the famous Synod of
Dort, and the Westminster Annotations as the production of a
still more venerable assembly; but if, with my hat off, bowing
profoundly to those august conclaves of master minds, I may venture
to say so, I would observe that they furnish another instance that
committees seldom equal the labours of individuals. The notes are
too short and fragmentary to be of any great value. The volumes are
a heavy investment.
Among entire commentators of modern date, a high place is
usually awarded to Thomas Scott, and I shall not dispute his
right to it. He is the expositor of evangelical Episcopalians, even
as Adam Clarke is the prophet of the Wesleyans, but to me he has
seldom given a thought, and I have almost discontinued consulting
him. The very first money I ever received for pulpit services in
London was invested in Thomas Scott, and I neither regretted the
investment nor became exhilarated thereby. His work has always been
popular, is very judicious, thoroughly sound and gracious: but for
suggestiveness and pith is not comparable to Matthew Henry. I know
I am talking heresy, but I cannot help saying that for a minister's
use, Scott is mere milk and water--good and trustworthy, but not
solid enough in matter for full grown men. In the family, Scott
will hold his place, but in the study you want condensed thought,
and this you must look for elsewhere.
To all young men of light purses let me recommend The Tract
Society's Commentary, in six volumes, which contains the
marrow of Henry and Scott, with notes from a hundred other authors.
It is well executed, and for poor men a great Godsend. I believe
the Society has some special arrangement for poor students, that
they may have these volumes at the cheapest rate.
Gentlemen, if you want something full of marrow and fatness,
cheering to your own hearts by way of comment, and likely to help
you in giving to your hearers rich expositions, buy Dr. Hawker's
Poor Man's Commentary. Dr. Hawker was the very least of
commentators in the matter of criticism; he had no critical
capacity, and no ability whatever as an interpreter of the letter;
but he sees Jesus, and that is a sacred gift which is most precious
whether the owner be a critic or no. It is to be confessed that he
occasionally sees Jesus where Jesus is not legitimately to be seen.
He allows his reason to be mastered by his affections, which, vice
as it is, is not the worst fault in the world. There is always such
a savour of the Lord Jesus Christ in Dr. Hawker that you cannot
read him without profit. He has the peculiar idea that Christ is in
every Psalm, and this often leads him totally astray, because he
attributes expressions to the Saviour which really shock the holy
mind to imagine our Lord's using. However, not as a substantial
dish, but as a condiment, place the Plymouth vicar's work on the
table. His writing is all sugar, and you will know how to use it,
not devouring it in lumps, but using it to flavour other
things.
"Albert Barnes", say you, "what, do you think of Albert Barnes?"
Albert Barnes is a learned and able divine, but his productions are
unequal in value, the gospels are of comparatively little worth,
but his other comments are extremely useful for Sunday School
teachers and persons with a narrow range of reading, endowed with
enough good sense to discriminate between good and evil. If a
controversial eye had been turned upon Barnes's Notes years ago,
and his inaccuracies shown up by some unsparing hand, he would
never have had the popularity which at one time set rival
publishers advertising him in every direction. His Old Testament
volumes are to be greatly commended as learned and laborious, and
the epistles are useful as a valuable collection of the various
opinions of learned men. Placed by the side of the great masters,
Barnes is a lesser light, but taking his work for what it is and
professes to be, no minister can afford to be without it, and this
is no small praise for works which were only intended for Sunday
School teachers.
Upon the New Testament Doddridge's Expositor is worthy of a
far more extensive reading than is nowadays accorded to it. It is
all in the form of a paraphrase, with the text in italics; a mode
of treatment far from satisfactory as a rule, but exceedingly well
carried out in this instance. The notes are very good, and reveal
the thorough scholar. Our authorised version is placed in the
margin, and a new translation in the paraphrase. The four
evangelists are thrown into a harmony, a plan which has its
advantages but is not without its evils. The practical improvements
at the end of each chapter generally consist of pressing
exhortations and devout meditations, suggested by the matter under
discussion. It is sadly indicative of the Socinianism of the age in
which this good man lived, that he feels called upon to apologise
for the evangelical strain in which he has written. He appears to
have barely finished this work in shorthand at the time of his
death, and the later books were transcribed under the care of Job
Orton. No Life Insurance Society should accept the proposals of a
commentator on the whole of either Testament, for it seems to be
the rule that such students of the Word should be taken up to their
reward before their task is quite completed.
Then, of course, gentlemen, you will economise rigidly until you
have accumulated funds to purchase Kitto's Pictorial Bible. You
mean to take that goodly freight on board before you launch upon
the sea of married life. As you cannot visit the Holy Land, it is
well for you that there is a work like the Pictorial Bible, in
which the notes of the most observant travellers are arranged under
the texts which they illustrate. For the geography, zoology,
botany, and manners and customs of Palestine, this will be your
counsellor and guide. Add to this noble comment, which is sold at a
surprisingly low price, the eight volumes of Kitto's Daily
Readings. They are not exactly a commentary, but what
marvellous expositions you have there! You have reading more
interesting than any novel that was ever written, and as
instructive as the heaviest theology. The matter is quite
attractive and fascinating, and yet so weighty, that the man who
shall study those eight volumes thoroughly, will not fail to read
his Bible intelligently and with growing interest.
The Gnomon of the New Testament, By John Albert Bengel, is
the scholar's delight. He selected the title as modest and
appropriate, intending it in the sense of a pointer or indicator,
like the sundial; his aim being to point out or indicate the full
force and meaning of the words and sentences of the New Testament.
He endeavours to let the text itself cast its shadow on his page,
believing with Luther that "the science of theology is nothing else
but grammar exercised on the words of the Holy Spirit". The editor
of the translation published by Messrs. Clarke, says in his
preface, "It is quite superfluous to write in praise of the Gnomon
of Bengel. Ever since the year in which it was first published,
A.D. 1742, up to the present time, it has been growing in
estimation, and has been more and more widely circulated among the
scholars of all countries. Though modern criticism has furnished
many valuable additions to our materials for New Testament
exegesis, yet, in some respects, Bengel stands out still `facile
princeps' among all who have laboured, or who as yet labour in that
important field. He is unrivalled in felicitous brevity, combined
with what seldom accompanies that excellence, namely, perspicuity.
Terse, weighty, and suggestive, he often, as a modern writer
observes, `condenses more matter into a line, than can be extracted
from pages of other writers.'" ..... "In the passages which form
the subject of controversy between Calvinists and Arminians, Bengel
takes the view adopted by the latter, and in this respect I do not
concur with him. But whilst he thus gives an undue prominence, as
it would seem to me, to the responsibility and freedom of man in
these passages, yet, in the general tenor of his work, there
breathe such a holy reverence for God's sovereignty, and such
spiritual unction, that the most extreme Calvinist would, for the
most part, be unable to discover to what section of opinions he
attached himself, and as to the controverted passages would feel
inclined to say, `Quum talis sis, utinam noster esses.'"
Men with a dislike for thinking had better not purchase the five
precious volumes, for they will be of little use to them; but men
who love brain work will find fine exercise in spelling out the
deep meaning of Bengel's excessively terse sentences. His
principles of interpretation stated in his "Essay on the Right Way
of Handling Divine Subjects", are such as will make the lover of
God's word feel safe in his hands: `Put nothing into the
Scriptures, but draw everything from them, and suffer nothing to
remain hidden, that is really in them." "Though each inspired
writer has his own manner and style, one and the same Spirit
breathes through all, one grand idea pervades all." "Every divine
communication carries (like the diamond) its own light with it,
thus showing whence it comes; no touchstone is required to
discriminate it." "The true commentator will fasten his primary
attention on the letter (literal meaning), but never forget that
the Spirit must equally accompany him; at the same time we must
never devise a more spiritual meaning for Scripture passages than
the Holy Spirit intended." "The historical matters of Scripture,
both narrative and prophecy, constitute as it were the bones of its
system, whereas the spiritual matters are as its muscles, blood
vessels, and nerves. As the bones are necessary to the human
system, so Scripture must have its historical matters. The
expositor who nullifies the historical ground work of Scripture for
the sake of finding only spiritual truths everywhere, brings death
on all correct interpretations. Those expositions are the safest
which keep closest to the text."