together with his knowlege of the difpofition of his countrymen, enabled him to foresee the confequences with which the introduction of monarchy among the Jews would be attended, it is probable that he taught the prophets that line of conduct which would obtain and fecure for them influence both with the court and with the people. After the death of Samuel, we find the prophets Gad and Nathan at the court of David, and Shemaiah at that of Rehoboam; and it is obfervable that, dur ing the reigns even of the worst of the Jewish kings, there was always fome prophet, eminent on account of his zeal for the religious and political welfare of the ftate, who affumed the right of free accefs to the monarch, boldly reproved his vices, or cenfured the measures of his government, and whofe facred character and influence rendered him formidable to a bad prince. One part of their office appears to have been to impart religious instruction, and not only to prevent the introduction of idolatry, but also to check that tendency to fuperftition, into which ceremonial obfervances are fo apt to degenerate; hence we find fome of them inculcating the inefficacy of the rites and ceremonies even of their law, and recommending the practice of virtue as effentially neceffary to fecure the favour and protection of God. This, however, the Profeffor obferves, was only a fubordinate part of their duty; for, as the Mofaical difpenfation must be confidered as a political eftablishment, founded on the acknowledgment and worship of God as the fupreme civil magiftrate, fo the diftinguishing character of the prophetic office among the Jews is that it was political; all their prophecies, whether addreffed to individuals, or to the people at large, were evidently of this kind: they were founded on the authority and command of God, as the lawgiver and fupreme governor of the nation; the imagery in which they were clothed was taken from times remarkable for political profperity, or adverfity; the motives urged were either the hope of the divine bleffing, as productive of national happiness, independence, and liberty, to, gether with abundance of the comforts and enjoyments of this life, or elfe the fear of being punished by national calamities and afflictions of a temporal kind even the zeal with which the prophets declaimed againft idolatry, was founded in the grand political principle of the allegiance due to God, as the fupreme governor of the Jewish ftate. The fame political object, fays our author, is manifeft in all their predictions of future events, whether these be understood to be immediate revelations from God to the prophet; or whether they be confidered as hiftorical narrations, written in a prophetic ftyle, after the events had already happened, and which, because their authors were unAPP. REV. VOL. XV.

known,

known, were inserted in the prophetic writings by those who formed the collection of them tranfmitted to us.

In this part of the work, we find feveral excellent obfervations on the progress of prophecy in the different periods of the Jewish ftate, and on its decline after the Babylonian captivity: but here our limits will not permit us to follow the author.

Profeffor KONYNENBURG next inquires into the origin and progrefs of the Jewish notion of a Meffiah, or Chrift. He obferves that, though the priests, and fome of the prophets, were confecrated by unction, the appellation of the Meffiah, or the Anointed, was feldom given, except to kings, and generally occurs in fuch a connection that it seems to imply the regal dignity. Hence he thinks that the particular notion of a Meffiah, among the Jews, could not have become popular, till after the establishment of their monarchy; for it would be abfurd to fuppofe that, before this period, a pious Ifraelite, who confidered God as his political fovereign, fhould imagine that the future profperity of his country was founded on a monarchical government, the defire of which he had been taught to regard as a rejection of the Deity in the character of fupreme magiftrate:for, though Mofes forefaw this change in their conftitution, and provided for it; yet the manner in which he expresses himfelf concerning it is very far from recommending it as eligible and productive of national happiness; and, in the eighth chapter of Samuel, God is introduced as faying that the people rejected him by defiring a king. Before the introduction of monarchy, the Jews founded their ideas of national prosperity on the divine promises to the patriarchs, and had learned from Mofes to connect these ideas with the immediate government of God, instead of that of any Meffiah, or anointed delegate of the Almighty.

The character of David, as being in a political fenfe the man after God's heart, and his exemplary attachment to the worship of the Deity, together with the profperity and happiness which the nation derived from his government, and from the establishment of the throne in his family, feem to be the circumstances that more immediately influenced the Jews in forming their ideas of the welfare of their conntry; as this monarch was much beloved by the people, it was natural for them to indulge the hope that their defcendants might be governed by princes of his family, who might resemble him in difpofition and character, and, like him, be the means of fecuring to them the divine protection and favour. The prophets confirmed this idea, by the bleffings which they pronounced on this prince, and on thofe of his fucceffors who fhould walk in his ways; as well as by declaring,

declaring, in the poetical ftyle of prophecy, that his throne should be established for ever. Thus the reign of David became the ftandard by which that of all his fucceffors was estimated; and, amid all the calamities, which the ill conduct of many of thefe" princes drew on the Jews, they looked back for confolation to the reign of their favourite monarch, and to the promises made to him; trufting that, though this royal family were afflicted for a time, they would not be for ever abandoned. They ftill hoped that fome fon of David might fucceed to the throne, who fhould walk in the ways of his great anceftor; who, like him," fhould be the man after God's heart; and under whofe government the ten tribes might return to their allegiance, the nation enjoy the divine favour, be made to triumph over all its enemies, and be diftinguished by a long feries of profperity, fecured to it by a race of kings, who fhould imitate the religious and excellent character of the restorer of national happiness. Such, in our, author's opinion, were the circumftances and hopes which led the Jews to form their ideas of a Meffiah; and fuch, he thinks, were the prospects indulged by Ifaiah, on the acceffion of Hezekiah; to whom he applies the paffages predictive of national happiness, in the ninth and eleventh chapters of this prophet, which most divines have confidered as referring to Chrift. On this popular hope, which arofe from the confidence that God would never utterly forfake the family of David, was founded the expectation with refpect to a future deliverer; and, though fome of the prophetic expreffions relative to this hope may seem to point to certain times and events of their history, the Profeffor thinks that no fuch particular reference was intended; and he lays it down as a character of the prophecies of the Meffiah, that they are general and indefinite with respect to the individual predicted, and the time when he was to appear. He also observes that all these prophecies imply the perpetuity of the Jewish theocracy, and of Jerufalem as the feat of empire; that they all coincide with the popular ideas concerning the uninterrupted fucceffion of the race of David to the crown; and that they are all conditional: they are all calculated to promote national virtue, by continually enforcing the idea of God's peculiar favour to his people, which, though they might lose it for a time by their apoftacy, would be restored to them on their repentance and return to the worship of the Deity and obedience to his commands.

It is farther obferved by the author, as a character of the prophecies concerning the Meffiah, that the happiness predicted to the Jews was to be enjoyed by them under a monarch who, like David, was to be the Anointed of the Lord, and thus, in the ftrictelt fenfe, a man after God's heart; who fhould restore the

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religion of Mofes in all its purity; under whofe government Ifrael and Judah fhould be reunited; and by whom the heathen nations fhould be fubdued, and converted to the worship of the true God, who would then confer on them, as well as on the Jews, an uninterrupted series of peace and of the highest temporal felicity but that the revolution, by which this happy change was to be effected, would be violent, and be preceded by many calamities.

Hence Profeffor KONYNENBURG argues that, whether the Jewish prophecies be fuppofed to be founded on particular revelation; or, as poetical effufions of the national fpirit, to reft on no other ground than the general authority of the divine promifes, they could have no direct reference to the spiritual kingdom of Jefus, or the moral bleffings of the gofpel. The prophets and their contemporaries were fo far from having any idea that their theocracy would be diffolved, that their whole fyftem was founded in its perpetuity; fo far were they from imagining that a new religion was to fuperfede the Mofaical difpenfation, that they confidered this as the only means by which happiness could be communicated to mankind, and expected that all the Gentile world would be brought under it. The felicity which they foretold did not confift in the moral advantages nor in the bleflings of another world, propofed by Christianity, but merely in temporal happiness and national profperity, derived from their political relation to God as their fupreme magiftrate, and depending on their ftrict adherence to the principles of this conftitution. The ingenious author's arguments for thefe opinions, though they may not be fatisfactory to perfons who have been accustomed to confider the prophecies as predictions referring directly to Chrift, deferve attention. Among other things, he obferves that direct predictions of a Meffiah, who was to be born many ages afterward, in the circumftances in which our Saviour came into the world; whofe appearance would be productive of the entire fubverfion of the theocracy; and who, inftead of the political profperity and temporal happiness, which the Jews expected, would beftow moral and fpiritual bleffings on all mankind; would have been fo contrary to the national fpirit, as to be unintelligible; and if this were the cafe, they could have been of no ufe in promoting the confolation and improvement of thofe to whom they were addressed. Thefe ends were admirably anfwered by promifes, in which their reftoration to national happiness was made to depend on their repentance and reformation; in which no particular time of accomplishment was determined; and in which only the general characters of the perfon were laid down who was to be the means of conferring thefe bleffings, in a manner conformable

to

to what had been the popular ideas and expectations during fo many ages.

After thefe preliminary obfervations on the nature of the prophecies which refer to the Meffiah and his government, the author enumerates, in a chronological order, thofe paffages which he confiders in this view:-but for thefe we must refer to the work at large; as likewife for other valuable obfervations, for which we want room.

The Profeffor obferves that the prophecies here quoted coincide in the principles on which they are founded, which are God's choice of the patriarchs, and the covenant that he made with them, and afterward confirmed to their pofterity; and they all feem to have à particular reference to the divine acceptance of Solomon's praises on the dedication of the temple. They alfo agree in defcribing the future Meffiah in general terms, which denote nothing farther concerning his defcent than that he fhould be a Jew; for our author, without declaring his own opinion, fays that the expreffions, relating to the defcent from David, are by many confidered as metaphors, conformable to the popular opinion, which must not be understood in the literal fense; and he thinks that the mention of Beth-lehem, in Micah v. 2, is not a part of the prophecy, but only a rhetorical figure with which it is introduced by way of antithefis. He also takes notice that these paffages do not mention any particular circumstances or events of the Meffiah's acceffion and reign, but only point him out as a monarch whofe government fhould be permanently eftablifhed.

In the next chapter, the Profeffor gives a fketch of the new dispensation under the Meffiah, deduced from the prophecies already cited: but, as this is little more than a collection of the ideas difperfed in the former chapters, we fhall not dwell on it, but proceed to the concluding part of his eflay; in which he lays down rules that, he thinks, ought to be obferved, in the explanation and application of the prophecies relating to the Meffiah.

These rules are preceded by too poftulates; the firft of which is that we are not to be implicitly guided by the application or citation of prophecy in the writings of the evangelifts and apoftles. They did not write in the language of the prophets, but in the Helleniftic Greek; very few of the paffages which they quote agree with the Maforetic text, which is now confidered as genuine; many of them depend on readings that are loft; and others are taken from the Alexandrian verfion. As therefore, fays the author, it has never been proved that the Hebrew text of the prophets was tranfmitted in all its purity to the evangelical writers, that the Alexandrian verfion was free from all error, and that they had uncorrupted copies of it; and

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