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THE

BIBLICAL REPERTORY

AND

PRINCETON REVIEW.

EDITED BY

CHARLES HODGE, D. D.

OCTOBER, 1862.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY

PETER WALKER, 821 CHESTNUT STREET.

AND SOLD BY

CROSBY & NICHOLS, BOSTON; R. CARTER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK; WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, PHILADELPHIA;

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AND TRÜBNER & CO. LONDON.

CONTENTS OF NO. IV.

OCTOBER, 1862.

PAGE

ART. I. The Matter of Prophecy....

559

ART. II.-The Presbyterian Historical Society.....

579

ART. III.-The Church and the Poor......

G01

ART. IV.-A Plea for High Education and Presbyterian Colleges.. 635

THE likeness of the prophets to Moses, and their position in the old economy, determine the task with which they were charged. This was to maintain in its integrity the covenant relation of the people to God, and so to conduct and superintend that relation that it might work out the grand end of its institution, a preparation for the coming of Christ. Hence every thing is viewed by them in its bearings upon that fundamental covenant. It is theirs to develope to the understanding of the people their obligations and privileges arising out of their special relation to God, the fatal consequences which would ensue from its abandonment or neglect, and the glorious issue which God designed to effect for them and for the world by means of it. As they were the authorized expounders of the purposes of God touching a plan still in progress, their communications largely concerned events which were yet future. It was given to them to anticipate the further unfoldings of the divine plan of grace, and to announce what the Most High had in store for Israel and for the world.

The predictions of the prophets are of course qualified and shaped by their grand aim as just exhibited. They are consequently not anticipations of future events selected at random, 71

VOL. XXXIV.-NO. IV.

nor revelations of what was to take place hereafter considered as such; any more than the sacred history is a chance record of the past, in which any thing that has ever occurred might with equal readiness have found a place. All clusters about the covenant of mercy, the gracious scheme of salvation which God was conducting amongst men. The true prophecy differs from the disclosures of the future pretended to by heathen seers, as much as the true miracle does from useless and isolated prodigies. As the miracle is more than a mere wonder of superhuman power, prophecy is likewise more than a wonder of superhuman foresight. The end is in neither case the exhibition of the supernatural. This is but a means, and must be determined in its character and the extent of its employment by the end to which it was subordinated. Inasmuch, therefore, as prophecy was not a field for the display of supernatural prescience, but an agency for the furtherance of a divine plan, it must itself be methodical and form a related system. Its seat was the chosen people, its end the salvation of Christ, Rev. xix. 10, and to this end it worked its way by gradual approaches.

The prophetic disclosures of the future may be classed under three heads, viz. 1. The coming fortunes of the covenant people, or its individual members; 2. Those of gentile nations; and 3. Messianic prophecies. The Mosaic covenant is the polestar from which each of these takes its direction; and each is made to do its part in the instruction and training of the people.

In regard to the first theme, it is shown how the violated covenant shall in every instance be avenged upon transgressors, while the divine blessing shall attend the faithful and obedient. The prophets point out in numberless cases, as divine prescience alone could enable them to do, the particular form of chastisement which would be inflicted for given acts of transgression, or indicate the exact blessing to be expected if a hearty obedience be yielded. The evident aim of these revelations is to render the people steadfast in their adherence to the fundamental covenant, and to deter them from its violation.

In the predictions respecting gentile nations these are contemplated as aliens to the covenant, and as enemies of it. For,