The times of David and Solomon. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to trace minutely the references to the Pentateuch, and the observance of the Law of Moses through these reigns. The facts are the same as before; the Levitical priesthood, the tabernacle, the ark, the sacrifices, all are the same; but there are two things to be observed now, which bring us fresh evidence of the existence of, and the respect paid to, the Pentateuch, and of the acceptance by the nation of the ordinances of the Tabernacle. I. In David we have not only a king but an author. A large number of the Psalms are assignable to him, either as their author or as their compiler. Now it is true, that the later Psalms (such as the 78th, 105th, 106th, 136th) are much fuller of historical references to the Exodus than the earlier Psalms, the Psalms of David: but it will be found that the passing allusions, and the similarity of expressions and sentences, amounting sometimes to evident quotations, are far more abundant in the Psalms of David. It is impossible to compare the following, even in the English Version (but in the Hebrew it is much more apparent), without being convinced that David had in his mind the words or the thoughts of the author of the Pentateuch. iv. 5 (Heb. 6). 6 (Heb. 7). viii. 6, 7, 8. ix. 12. xv. 5. Gen. xxxix. 3, 23. Lev. xxv. 23. Num. x. 35. Deut. xxxiii. 26. Ex. xix. 16. Deut. xxxiii. 2. 4. 7. 8. 17. Ex. XV. II. Ex. xxxiv. 6. Ex.xx. 6. Deut. vii. 9. Gen. xiv. 18. 2. In Solomon we have also a royal author. His language, however, is not so much penetrated with the language of the Pentateuch as is that of David. Indeed the nature of his writings, which are mostly proverbs or apophthegms, does not admit of much reference to earlier works. Yet, even so, where the subject leads to it, we may trace an evident acquaintance with the language of Moses. See for instance the third chapter of Proverbs, where v. 3 appears to allude to Ex. xxii. 9, Deut. vi. 1; v. 9 to Ex. xxii. 29, Deut. xxvi. 2; v. 12 to Deut. viii. 5; v. 18 to Gen. ii. 9. Many other phrases in the Proverbs are borrowed directly from the Pentateuch. Thus in Prov.x. 18, "He that uttereth slander," is a Hebrew phrase of peculiar significance occurring only here and Num. xiii. 32; xiv. 36, 37; the expressions in Prov. x. 1; XX. 10, 23, are taken from the very words of Lev. xix. 36; Deut. xxv. 13. The words of xi. 13; xx. 19, "the talebearer" (literally "he that walketh being a talebearer"), are taken from Lev. xix. 16, "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer," lit. "Thou shalt not walk being a talebearer." But that which specially connects Solomon with the history of the Exodus, is that he was the builder of the Temple. Now the Temple is a fixed and enlarged Tabernacle. All the proportions of the Tabernacle are carefully retained, but the size is exactly doubled. All the instruments and the sacred vessels are the same, except that they are magnified. Nothing material is altered, except that the Temple is a structure of stone, whilst the Tabernacle was a tent covered with skin; and in the Temple there is magnificence, whereas in the Tabernacle, notwithstanding the gold and embroidery, there was comparative simplicity.. Mr Fergusson, the able writer of the article Temple in Smith's 'Dict. of the Bible,' has shewn with great clearness, that the proportions and construction of the Tabernacle were those of a tent, most admirably suited for its purpose in the wilderness, having every requisite which a Tent-temple ought to have. It is a strong proof of the reverence in which Solomon held the original pattern, that he and his architects should have so closely imitated the Tent in their erection of a stone Temple. Unless the Tent and all its accompaniments had existed and been described, the Temple of Solomon would have been almost impossible. No one would have thought of building a house with all the proportions of a tent, except to perpetuate the relation of the house to the tent, the Temple's ancestral rights in the Tabernacle. In the words of Ewald, "The Temple of Solomon itself, notwithstanding all its splendour and its expanded proportions, shews itself to be only a tent on a large scale, though no longer portable." The divided kingdom. had then become excessive, Hezekiah in his ardent zeal for purity of worship brake it in pieces, 2 K. xviii. 4. We turn to the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam is warned by Ahijah the Prophet that he should keep the statutes and commandments of God (1 K. xi. 38), evidently the well-known statutes and commandments of the law. When, instead of doing so, he seduces the people to idolatry, it is still with reference to the history of the Exodus, "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," 1 K. xii. 28. The very place of his worship, Bethel, was probably consecrated by the history of Jacob and the appearance of God to him there. The feast appointed 1 K. xii. 32, was an imitation of the feast of Tabernacles. Though it was "in a month devised in his own heart" (v. 33), and not at the time decreed in the Law, yet it was "like unto the feast that is in Judah," and ordained on purpose to prevent the people from going up "to the sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem' (v. 27). The Levites appear to have remained faithful, and hence Jeroboam is obliged to make the lowest of the people priests (v. 31). We have here the clearest testimony to the existence. and authority of the Law even in the description of the most flagrant breach of it. After the separation of the ten tribes from Judah, though the worship of the true God was preserved only in Judah, and idolatry prevailed in Israel, there is still evidence that in both kingdoms the Pentateuch was acknowledged, both as a history and a law. In Judah, we find "the Book of the Law of the Lord" used as the great text-book for teaching the people in the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xvii. 9). In another reign the king, Uzziah, ventures to offer incense contrary to the Law (Num. xvi. 1 sqq.), and he is stricken with leprosy as a punishment (2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21). Hezekiah, a great reformer in Judah, institutes all his reforms on principles strictly according with the law of the Pentateuch, and is specially noted as having "kept all the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses." 2 K. xviii. 6. To his day had descended that venerable relic of the wilderness "the brazen serpent which Moses had made." The honour paid to it clearly proves the acceptance of its history by the Jewish people: but, because that honour phesied in both kingdoms, and Hosea wholly or chiefly in the kingdom of Israel. In all these prophets there are frequent references to the Law, which three of them distinctly name (Is. v. 24; xxx. 9; Hos. iv. 6; viii. 1; Amos ii. 4). Isaiah seems to speak of it as "the Book" (ch. xxix. 12), just as Moses himself speaks of his own record as "the Book" (Ex. xvii. 14, see above). The familiarity of this great prophet and probably of his hearers with the Pentateuch may be seen by comparing Is. i. 10-14 with Ex. xxxiv. 24; Lev. ii. 1, 16; vi. 14, 15; xxiii. passim. Is. ii. 7, xxxi. with Deut. xvii. 16; Is. iii. 14 with Exod. xxii. 5, 26; Is. v. 26 with Deut. xxviii. 49; Is. xxx. 16, 17 with Lev. xxvi. 8; Deut. xxxii. 30, &c. It is, however, more important for our present purpose to pass on to the other three prophets, as they prophesied in Israel, and so their references will shew, that the Pentateuch, whether as Law or as history, was assumed as the basis of truth even in appeals to the apostate and idolatrous kingdom of Ephraim. In Hosea we have such references as these, "They have transgressed the covenant like Adam" (not "like men" as Authorized Version), Hos. vi. 7. Jacob "took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed, he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel" &c. (Hos. xii. 3, 4, the allusions being to Gen. xxv. 26; xxviii, 11; xxxii.. 24). "She shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came out of the land of Egypt" (ii. 15). "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (xi. 1, cp. Ex. iv. 22, 23). "I have written to him the great things of my law" (viii. 12). Amos says, "I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite," (ii. 10, the last words being in allusion to Gen. xv. 16), "the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt" (iii. 1). He speaks of "the horns of the altar" (iii. 14), in allusion to Ex. xxvii. 2, xxx. 10, and Lev. iv. 7. He speaks of the Nazarites (ii. 11, 12), which doubtless sprang out of the ordinance in Num. vi. 1—21. In chap. iv. 4, 5 he writes, "Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the freewill offerings." These allusions shew an intimate acquaintance with many of the Levitical Laws. One is to the continual burnt-offering, Num. xxviii. Another to the tithe to be laid up at the end of three years, Deut. xiv. 28; xxvi. 13. A third to the prohibition to burn leaven with a meat-offering (Lev. ii. 11), and the exception made in the case of a thank-offering, where direction is given to offer besides the unleavened cakes also an offering of leavened bread (Lev. vii. 12, 13). A fourth allusion is to the freewill offering mentioned Lev. xxii. 18-21; Deut. xii. 6. Indeed the accuracy of agreement in this one passage goes far to prove that the law of which Amos speaks was identical with that which we now possess'. Micah refers to Genesis. "They shall lick the dust like the serpent" () (vii. 17), in allusion to Gen. iii. 14. He mentions the promises to Abraham and to Jacob (vii. 20). He alludes to the history of the Exodus and of the book of Numbers. "I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him," &c. (vi. 4, 5). Is it possible that these prophets, thus speaking, or the people among whom they spoke, should not have had the Books of Moses before them? The reign of Josiah. We come now to the time of Josiah. In his reign we have abundant evidence that the ordinances observed, when the temple had been purified, were those of the Mosaic Law. The Passover was then held unto the Lord God, as it was written 1 McCaul, Examination of Bp. Colenso's Difficulties,' p. 183, third Edition, 1863. in the book of the Covenant (2 K. xxiii.), "according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses" (2 Chron. xxxv. 6). The 14th day of the first month is the day appointed (2 Chr. xxxv. 1). The sacrifices are Mosaic (2 Chr. xxxv. 7-10). The priests assisted by the Levites kill the Passover and sprinkle the blood (Ib. v. 11). The priests are the sons of Aaron (v. 14). The custom of the Passover is traced from the time of Samuel to that of Josiah (v. 18), &c., &c. But in this reign we meet with that remarkable event, the finding of the Book of the Law in the Temple by Hilkiah the High priest. It is unnecessary to determine here what may be meant by "the book of the Law" (2 K. xxii. 8), or "a book of the Law of the Lord by Moses" (2 Chr. xxxiv. 14). Whether it were the whole Pentateuch, or Deuteronomy only, or portions of the whole, has been often questioned. It seems however pretty clear, that Deuteronomy was at least a portion of the book thus found. The curses referred to in 2 Chr. xxxiv. 24, are either those in Lev. xxvi. or those in Deut. xxvii. xxviii. The effect which they produce upon the king, and his evident conviction that they concern himself especially, "for me, and for the people, and for all Judah," (2 K. xxii. 13), seem to point to the curses in Deuteronomy; as there only the king is threatened (Deut. xxviii. 36), there too the judgments denounced seem more specially national, and such as would most signally apply to the condition of Judah in the days of Josiah. But it is a natural question, Whence came it that the book thus found should so have awakened the conscience and aroused the anxieties of the king, if the Pentateuch had all along been the acknowledged statute book of his people, and the text book of their faith? Let us then notice first, that the Law was to be kept carefully in the Tabernacle or Temple. Moses commanded that the book of the law, which he had written, should be put in the side of the ark of the covenant and there preserved (Deut. xxxi. 26). It is extremely probable (the language seems to imply it) that the very autograph of Moses was thus stored up, first in the Tabernacle and afterwards in the Temple. We, who have manuscripts of the New Testament in the fullest preservation 14 or 15 centuries old, and Egyptian papyri, some unquestionably much older than Moses still legible, others written in the 14th century B. C. in perfect preservation, need not wonder if this treasured MS. of the Pentateuch had lasted from Moses to Josiah, a period of only 700 years, and that in the dry climate of Palestine. Let us next observe the long prevalence of idolatry and ungodliness in the reigns preceding that of Josiah. There is a ray of light in the reign of Hezekiah, but the darkness settles down again more thickly than ever in the reign of his son Manasseh. That reign, extending over more than half a century (2 K. xxi. 1), witnessed the greatest spread of idolatry, and of all the vices which accompanied idolatry in Palestine, the most cruel persecution of the faithful, and the most outrageous profanation of the sanctuary ever known in Israel. Manasseh built the high places and reared up altars for Baal; he built idolatrous altars in the courts of the temple, made his sons to pass through fire, dealt with wizards, and even set up a graven image, probably of the foulest possible character, "in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem......... will I put my name for ever" (vv. 3-7, 2 Chr. xxxiii. 7). Thus he seduced the people "to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel" (v. 9). "Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (v. 16, also Joseph. 'Ant.' x. 3. 1). There was no doubt a short season of repentance at the end of his reign (2 Chron. xxxiii. 12 sqq.) in which the idol was taken from the Temple and the altar of the Lord repaired; but his son Amon succeeded, and again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the idols which his father served, and worshipped them (2 K. xxi. 19, sq). To these two evil reigns and to a long inheritance of corruption, Josiah succeeded at eight years of age. He early shewed his piety, even from the age of sixteen turning to the Lord, and at the age of twenty com mencing the purification of worship (2 Chr. xxxiv. 3). At the age of 26 (the 18th of his reign) the book of the Law was found by Hilkiah in the Temple (2 K. xxii. 3). The ark which had been removed from the Temple (2 Chr. xxxv. 3) during the sacrilegious reign of Manasseh, had been brought back again: and wherever the book of the Law may have been concealed, very likely built into a wall by the priests to keep it from the hand of the spoiler, it was now brought to light again by the High priest Hilkiah. Let us remember then, 1st, that very probably this was the autograph of Moses; 2ndly, that since the reign of Hezekiah, a period of seventy-five years, it is very unlikely that any king should have made a copy of the law, as commanded in Deuteronomy (xvii. 18); moreover it is very likely that Hezekiah's copy should have been destroyed or laid aside and forgotten; 3rdly, that by a cruel persecution idolatrous worship had long been upheld, and the worshippers of the Lord prohibited from exercising or teaching their faith; the prophets having been silenced, Isaiah according to Jewish tradition having been sawn asunder early in Manasseh's reign; 4thly, that Josiah was still young and only feeling his way to truth and to the restoration of religion. We shall then not think it strange that he should have been ignorant of much of the purport of the Pentateuch, nor that when the book, perhaps written by the very hand of Moses under the direction of God, was brought out and read to him, he should have been deeply impressed by its burning words, seeming to come straight into his soul as if they had been sent down to him from the cloud and the tempest and the mountain which burned with fire. Writing in those early days was very scarce; reading was probably confined to very few. In the middle ages of Europe, if it were possible to conceive such a state of corruption as that in the reign of Manasseh overspreading any Christian nation, it would not have been impossible for a young king to be ignorant of the contents of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Yet there can be no period of Christian history in which copies of the Scriptures were not far more abundant in every Christian country in Europe, and the power of reading them far more general, than can have been the case in Palestine at any time before the captivity. There is nothing then to astonish us in the effect produced on Josiah by the reading of the threats of judgment from the Temple copy of the Law. That it was the Temple copy of the Law, all the most competent witnesses were satisfied. The High priest, the Scribes, Huldah the Prophetess (see 2 K. xxii. 8, 12, 14), the elders of the people (ch. xxiii. 1), the priests and Levites (xxiii. 4), those to whom some knowledge at least of the past had come down, some acquaintance with the Scriptures must have remained, all apparently acknowledged that the book found was the book of the Law by the hand of Moses. Had it been possible that a forger should then for the first time have produced it, it cannot be that so many independent witnesses should have been imposed upon to receive it. The story of its finding is told simply and without parade. It is what might very easily have happened, for it is like enough that the book would have been hidden, and Josiah's repairing of the Temple would bring it to light. The effect produced on Josiah's pious mind is exactly what might have been looked for. But, that, under all the circumstances of long continued corruption and apostasy, any one should have been able to impose such a work and such a law, as the Pentateuch, on king, priests, elders and people, even if any one at that time could possibly have written it, exceeds all power of credence. The Captivity and the Return. The Prophets of the Captivity acknowledge the Law, and refer to the Pentateuch as much as any of those that preceded them. Jeremiah began to prophesy in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah. The portion of his book from ch. ii. I to ch. viii. 17, is generally ac knowledged to have been written before the finding of the Book of the Law by Hilkiah; but in those chapters there are statements concerning the Law and quotations from the books of Moses, which shew that Jeremiah was then well ac |