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PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.

"Of all the books of the Old Testament" (said the learned Bishop Horsley), "the Book of Psalms is the most universally read, but, I fear, as little as any understood". This opinion will be found to be no less true now than it was then: though it is questionable whether, now at least, it be owing in any considerable degree to the cause which he assigns as the principal-" the misapplied labours of modern expositors, who have employed much ingenuity and learning to find the immediate subject of every Psalm, either in the history of the Jewish nation, or in the occurrences of the life of David."

That so narrow a view of this sublime and divine Book ever should have obtained is indeed incredible: as it supposes an unaccountable oversight of the proofs of an ulterior application in the numerous quotations from it in the New Testament, as applying to events in the Gospel history; in agreement with the declaration of Him by whose Spirit it was indited, when, "opening the understanding of His disciples that they might understand the Scriptures," we read that Jesus said unto them: "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, CONCERNING ME" (St. Luke, xxiv. 44);—an evidence not limited to the passages actually quoted, for (as remarked by Bishop Horne'), "it would be unreasonable to suppose that no

1 Sermon on Ps. ii. 1, quoted in the Preface to his "Translation of the Psalms, with Notes explanatory and critical,"

edited by his son.

2 Preface to his "Commentary on the Book of Psalms."

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parts of the Psalms may by us be spiritually applied, but such as are already expressly applied for us by the inspired writers. Let any man consider attentively a New Testament citation: then let him as carefully read over, with a view to it, the Psalm from which it is taken, and see if it will not serve him as a key wherewith to unlock the treasures of eternal wisdom; if it will not open his eyes, and show him wonderful things in God's law." Or, as the same argument is put by Dr. Allix, in the Preface to his Book of Psalms-"Although the sense of near fifty Psalms be fixed and settled by divine authors, yet Christ and His Apostles did not undertake to quote all the Psalms they could quote, but only to give a key to their hearers by which they might apply to the same subjects the Psalms of the same composure and expression."

Accordingly, such an application of these sacred songs has always been recognised in the Church. "The primitive fathers" (to quote again the words of Bishop Horne), " it is true, for want of critical learning, and particularly a competent knowledge of the original Hebrew, often wandered in their expositions: but they are unexceptionable witnesses to us of this matter of factthat such a method of expounding the Psalms, built upon the practice of the Apostles in their writings and preaching, did universally prevail in the Church from the beginning. They who have ever looked into St. Augustine know that he pursues this plan invariably, treating of the Psalms as proceeding from the mouth of Christ, or of the Church, or of both considered as one mystical person'. The same is true of Jerome, Ambrose, Arnobius, Cassiodore, Hilary, and Prosper. Chrysostom studies to make the Psalter useful to believers under the Gospel. Theodoret attends both to the literal and prophetical sense. But, what is very observable, Tertullian, who flourished at the beginning of the third century, mentions it as if it were then an allowed point in the Church, that almost all the Psalms are spoken in the person of Christ, being addressed by the Son to

1 For example, in Enarr. in Psalm lix. §1:-"You will hardly find a word in the Psalms but is spoken in the Name of

Christ and the Church, either both jointly, or one of the two singly; and if of the Church, then of each one amongst us."

the Father, that is, by Christ to God". In this channel flows the stream of the earliest Christian expositors. Nor did they depart, in this point, from the doctrine held in the Church of the ancient Jews, who were always taught to regard Messiah as the capital object of the Psalter."

And the same is proved, both as it respects the Jewish and the Christian Church, from the use of the Psalms in congregational worship: for, did they relate only to the events of David's life, it were manifestly absurd to read them twice daily in large portions, as did the Jews of old, and as does the Church still, for devotional purposes, at Morning and Evening Prayer,-a practice which is a standing testimony, therefore, to a reference of these inspired compositions to other times, and other persons, than those to whom literally and primarily they may be found to apply.

In a word, it may be considered as fully acknowledged that King David, his enemies, trials, and deliverances-his triumphs and kingdom-and no less David's people, the literal Israel, were types of a greater than David, and of His enemies, sufferings, kingdom, and people: and, as such, were made the theme of the large proportion of the Book of Psalms written by the King of Israel, and relating to his times, under the direction of the Spirit of Prophecy-"the Spirit of the Lord, who [he tells us] spake by him, and whose word was in his tongue" (2 Sam. xxiii. 2).

But here, in this fact thus universally acknowledged-the Prophetical character of this Book-is the real cause why it is so little understood. Not owing to any extraordinary obscurity which attaches to these sacred songs as Prophecies: for (as the same writer who makes the complaint-Bishop Horsley-adds), "of all the prophetic parts of the Scriptures they are certainly the most perspicuous." But, this character once admitted, it is obvious that the Psalms can only be understood in proportion as our views of the Prophetic scheme are just and Scriptural, and as we apprehend distinctly the end or design of redemption

"Omnes penè Psalmi Christi personam sustinent,- Filium ad Patrem, id est,

Christum ad Deum verba facientem, repræsentant."

:

that ultimate "purpose of God in Christ Jesus," by which the various parts of Revelation are adjusted, and its intermediate dispensations explained. And a misconception here-a mistake in our view of the parts of that great Drama which in the end of the ages was to fulfil all that in previous ages had been rehearsed in type, foreshadowed, or prophesied—must inevitably cause a misapprehension of the types and prophecies themselves of the types obviously, but no less of the prophecies, on account of that double sense or primary and secondary reference which every diligent student of them must have observed, and in consequence of which they have (what Lord Bacon has so happily expressed) "a springing and germinant accomplishment through many ages, though the height or fulness of them may refer to some one age" —which he justly regards as a striking proof of their inspiration: 'this double, if we may not say manifold, fulfilment being founded on an analogy of the dispensations by which the facts and events of one are made exactly to represent those of another; which, it is evident, could only be by the arrangement of Him "to whom are known all His works from the beginning of the creation;" and who, in His wisdom, so "constituted the ages" of this world that the History of Revelation is Prophecy, and its Prophecy History.

This principle, however, has been, for the most part, disregarded, or very imperfectly applied, in the existing systems of exposition it being generally taken for granted that when one fulfilment or reference of a Prophecy may be clearly proved, it must necessarily be the only one; and the age or period so referred to, the time of its full accomplishment. By the same reasoning, the spiritual sense has been made to exclude the literal, as though they were repugnant the one to the other, and inconsistent in consequence of which, not only has the fulness of the prophetic word been diminished, but much of it, to which no spiritual meaning could be assigned, suffered to fall to the ground; as if it were not equally true of the Prophets as of the Law, that "not one jot or tittle shall fail till all be fulfilled;" or that what was said of the Promises of one age shall not be found verified in all—“There hath not one word fallen to the ground

of all His good promise which the Lord hath promised by the hand of His servant” (1 Kings, viii. 56). For example :—

1. The history of Israel (as already remarked) presents many unequivocal types of the history of the Christian Church: and in expounding the Psalms, of which so many are founded on incidents in that history, one aim undoubtedly should be to detect and point out these analogies: which cannot be better enumerated than in the following extract from the prelate who has been already quoted, arguing in favour of a spiritual interpretation; of whose eminently pious work (and of all commentaries of this class) it may be considered as giving in brief the plan:

"Of the Psalms which relate to Israel [says Bishop Horne], some are employed in celebrating the mercies vouchsafed them from their going forth out of Egypt to their complete settlement in Canaan. These were the constant standing subject of praise and thanksgiving in the Israelitish Church. But we are taught by the writers of the New Testament to consider this part of their history as one continual figure, or allegory. We are told that there is another spiritual Israel of God; other children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise; another circumcision; another Egypt from the bondage of which they are redeemed; another wilderness through which they journey; other dangers and difficulties which there await them; other bread from heaven for their support; and another rock to supply them with living water; other enemies to overcome; another land of Canaan, and another Jerusalem, which they are to obtain, and possess for ever. In the same light are to be received the various provocations and punishments, captivities and restorations, of old Israel afterwards, concerning which it is likewise true that they happened unto them for ensamples [types or figures], and were written for our admonition.' Care has therefore been taken to open and apply for that salutary purpose the Psalms which treat of the abovementioned particulars."

But there are many Psalms and portions of Psalms, even "of those which relate to Israel," which cannot be so applied: and others where this application is indeed admissible, but does not

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