me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' It is also testified that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.'" Pp. 304-305.

And from these passages he concludes that the whole of mankind are to be restored to their original holiness. Now, the new covenant which Jeremiah tells us of, is, as he sets it forth, a covenant with Israel only. We learn, indeed, from the apostle Paul (Heb. viii. 8-13), that it is the same covenant which is made with all Christ's people; but most certainly the language used in it cannot apply to any who are not in covenant with Christ. If Mr S. insists on arguing from the language of it, to the state of the whole nations on the earth during the millennium, then he must go a little farther than he has done, and suppose not only that they are all righteous, but that they are all in covenant with Christ. Besides, this passage serves to refute his notion regarding the nature of the pre-millennial conversion. It shows that the subjects of it must be brought then under the very same covenant under which we stand now. It is most manifest then, that then as well as now, men are to be saved by the same Saviour, washed in the same blood, and forgiven through the same well-ordered covenant. The coming dispensation may in many respects be new, but the foundations on which it is built are the same on which believers have built from the beginning. It is a covenant which expressly takes for granted that men are sinners even then, for its great provision is summed up in these words, I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.' Yet, if our author be correct, the inhabitants of the world are to be restored to the condition of Adam before he fell; and yet, on the other hand, not to be united to Christ, nor dwelt in by his Holy Spirit. Again, this universal righteousness is declared to be the operation of the Holy Ghost. It is by the out-pouring of the Spirit upon all flesh that the nations are to be converted, such of them at least as are converted at all. Of this Pentecost was only an earnest. What was done then is just a specimen of what is to be done over the whole world. Joel's prophecy, quoted by Peter, in that day, began then to be accomplished. But it awaits its full accomplishment at the commencement of the millennial age. We have had a few drops, but the full shower is still in reserve for the thirsty earth. Yet, if Mr S.'s theory be true, Pentecost was not an earnest of the millennial shower at all. It was something totally different, for, according to him, in these latter days, there is to be no indwelling of the Spirit, no imputed righteousness, nay, no sanctification by the Spirit, in those converted nations who are not caught up to meet Christ. If this be the case, what does Mr S. make of such predictions as those which have special reference to

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Israel in their millennial state. Ezek. xxxvi. 27, I will put my Spirit within you;' or Isaiah lix. 21, which is to be fulfilled after the Redeemer has come to Zion, my Spirit that is upon thee... shall not depart,' &c. These passages, and others similar, seem to us completely opposed to the sentiments we have quoted above. We are at a loss to conceive how they are to be explained away so as to be brought into accordance with the author's theory.

The truth seems to be, that these declarations as to the holiness, &c., of millennial times, are not intended to be taken in the same unrestricted sense in which our author would understand them. There must be during that period different classes of men on the renewed earth. Besides those who are not united unto Christ, there will be the risen saints inhabiting the new or heavenly Jerusalem, and there will be also the nations who walk in the light thereof. Most of the passages referred to by our author, are intended to set forth the character of the latter class of the world's inhabitants. And in regard to those of a more general nature, such as 'The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, even as the waters cover the sea,' we consider that they will be amply fulfilled when Satan is bound, and the whole earth is paying an outward homage to the Lord of glory, even although there should be a portion still unconverted. It seems to us that there is direct proof that all nations are not during the millennium in a state of original righteousness. Independently of the fact of there being death during that period, as we have already shown, and therefore, consequently, sin, we are told by Zechariah of nations that shall refuse to obey the command of the Lord, and come up to the feast of tabernacles, (Zech. xiv. 16-19.) These surely cannot be in the state in which Adam was before the fall. We would speak very cautiously of the final apostacy, because there is very little revealed on the subject; but it does not appear to us that it requires any such extravagant theory to account for it. It is surely far from impossible, that while there shall be during the millennium, a universal outward recognition of the authority of Christ, there may be consistently with this, a number of unconverted persons. It is easy to see how, supposing Satan the tempter to be bound, the world, even in this imperfect state, might present a picture of peace and holiness, strongly contrasting with its present condition. Nor does it seem at all unlikely, but rather the natural result of such a state of things, that when a new generation shall have risen up, (and Mr Scott himself admits the possibility of this), who may at all events be many of them unconverted, whatever their fathers may have been; and when Satan shall have been again let loose, those who have never been really united unto Christ, and whose homage to him has been hitherto merely of an outward character, proceeding from an unrenewed, and not from a renewed heart, should be drawn aside from their allegi

ance, and constitute the post-millennial apostacy. If we must theorize on this subject, such should be our theory; but we confess we have no desire to do so. We are contented to take the facts as they stand recorded, and leave it to time, or to a fuller revelation to account for them.

It may seem ungracious to have spent so much time in discussing the points in which we differ with Mr Scott, and to have passed over so briefly the far more numerous points in which we agree. To these, however, we intend to devote an article before long, and therefore we have purposely refrained from an investigation which, within the limits which we could have allotted to it, would have been necessarily unsatisfactory. The subjects which we have brought before our readers, are in themselves of sufficient interest and importance to warrant our treating them at length. We believe that a right apprehension of the sure word of prophecy will be of incalculable advantage to the Church of Christ, in the conflict into which she is now apparently entering, and that it is also very helpful to individual Christians in their efforts after personal holiness. And seeing that there is so much unreasonable prejudice at present abroad against what we conceive to be the only tenable view of unfulfilled prophecy, it ought to be our care to disencumber it of every thing which can afford reasonable ground of objection. Nor are we without hope that Mr Scott himself will, on reconsidering the matter, come to agree with us. The objectionable theories in question do not naturally belong to his system. They are only excrescences upon it; and were they carefully pruned away, the character of his work would be very greatly raised.

ART. IV.-The Biblical Cabinet.

New Series, Vol. I. Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Psalms. Translated by Rev. P. FAIRBAIRN, Minister at Salton. Edinburgh: T. Clark, 1844.

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We have here an able translation of a very valuable work. The precise value of Hengstenberg's Commentary lies in its minute and accurate investigation of the sense of each individual passage. It is in this species of work that he excels, and he has enriched his pages with occasional selections from other writers. Scattered throughout every Psalm are such remarks as the following: In Psalm i. 2. 'Such meditation day and night is only to be found in him, who, according to the expression of Luther, has, through desire, become one cake with the word of God; as the love makes of him who loves, and that which is loved, one thing.' In Psalm v. 7, The fear of God, a reverent regard to him, is the fruit of the manifestation of

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his fulness of love,—of the display of his glory in the Psalmist's deliverance. As the product of God's manifestations, fear is not unfrequently named; for example, Gen. xxviii. 17, where, after one of God's richest manifestations of grace had been noticed, it is said, Jacob was afraid.' In Psalm vi., where we have such a view of woe presented, the author beautifully prefaces his criticism by remarking—that supposed greatness of soul which considers suffering as a plaything, upon which one should nerve himself with manly courage, is not to be met with in the territory of Scripture. Upon that everywhere appear faint, weak, and dissolving hearts, finding their strength and consolation only in God. This circumstance arises from more than one cause; first, suffering has quite another aspect to the members of God's church than to the world,-while the latter regards it only as the effect of accident which one should meet with manly courage, the pious man recognises in every trial the visitation of an angry God, a chastisement for his sins,—this is to him the real sting of the suffering from which it derives its power to pierce into the marrow and bones. "Rightly to feel sin," says Luther, "is the torture of all tortures.” 2. The tenderer the heart, the deeper the pain. Living piety makes the heart soft and tender, refines all its sensibilities, and consequently takes away the power of resistance which the world possesses from the roughness of its heart.' In Psalm xiii. 1, he quotes Luther, "here hope itself despairs, and despair hopes notwithstanding, and there only lives the unutterable groaning with which the Holy Spirit intercedes in us, Rom. viii. 26, "who moved upon the darkness that covered the waters." In another he remarks, this verse points to the elastic nature of right, according to which every infliction calls forth a counter-infliction.' There is truth in his remarks on Psalm vii. 12, the apparently coarse manner of expression in our text has for its foundation the coarseness of sinners, and the weakness of faith on the part of believers.' minds us of Rev. ii. 22, where the Lord, referring to the soft couch of sin on which Jezebel committed her adulteries, uses terms suggested by the sense, Behold, I will cast her into a bed,' that is, into great tribulation."

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But Hengstenberg does not aid us in the interesting question of the Messianic application of the Psalms. He refuses to apply to Christ any excepting those which are throughout clearly intended of him alone. His rule on this subject is thus stated, (p. 37,) 'The Messianic interpretation of a psalm can only be fully justified, when we are both able to point to a revelation through which the writer was incited to give a subjective representation of its contents, and can find a substratum for the particular representation in the relations of the writer, or in those of his time.' Now, we ask our readers to say if such a rule be not entirely arbitrary? Where has he

got authority for enacting such a canon as this? To us it appears to proceed on the secret belief, that the Psalms were much more the product of the human mind than the gift of an inspiring Spirit. If they be merely, or mainly, efforts of the Jewish muse, then we might fairly insist on being shown the sources whence the poet drew his representations of Messiah,-we might fairly demand both a previous revelation on which he grounded the effusions of his genius, and the existence of circumstances in the poet's life that led him to the theme. But if, as we believe, these Psalms are originated by the Holy Ghost, as well as conveyed by him to the Psalmist at due seasons, then we need demand nothing as to previous revelations, or present events in the writer's history. If the Psalms are, as we are accustomed to believe, inspired compositions that partake of the nature of prophecy, as well as history; or rather, if they be acknowledged to possess the double character of a reference to both past and future history, then we can easily see how the Spirit spoke in them of things utterly unthought of by the singers of Israel, who were his instruments in conveying them to the world. Inspired men were the harp from which the Spirit struck his notes; and surely he might on the same harp express a hundred feelings, or celebrate a hundred acts, that he himself knew, though the harp itself was unused to such themes. We are afraid that, while Hengstenberg is throughout evangelical in all essential doctrines, he is not decided enough in his views of inspiration. For in p. 225, he denies the 17th Psalm to be Messianic, and sums up his reasons by saying, that those will agree with him, who, taking properly into account the whole relation in which the New Testament stands to the Old, have attained to a comprehensive view of the free manner in which our Lord and his apostles handle the application of prophecy.'

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It must have appeared to our readers somewhat anomalous at first sight to find the same men, who are devotedly fond of spiritualising the prophecies of Isaiah, and Zechariah, and Ezekiel, becoming literal to excess, and rejecting everything but bare literality, when they sit down to the consideration of the book of Psalms. On the other hand, as a general rule, we find that the literal interpreters of the prophetic books are also the most inclined to adopt the more than bare literality of the book of Psalms. But in point of fact, this is the direct result of the principles of both. The one class of interpreters are content with getting a little out of the word; the other class are not content unless they get very much. Those who spiritualise prophecy, and literalise the Psalms, are content with getting two or three berries on every olive, while those who in prophecy seek for the literal sense, do it in order to find hanging thereon a cluster of spiritual truths; and in the Psalms they suppose that the literal events were but the stalks on which the rich grapes were to hang.