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corporeal affections! Is it necessary to point out the different character of the apostle's reasoning, or the special commendation of Joseph's faith with particular reference to his bones in the epistle to the Hebrews?

Neglect of the Prophets by Philo.] What, however, most indisputably distinguishes the Alexandrian school from the apostles is its neglect of the prophets. Philo's system is based upon an allegorical interpretation of the Pentateuch, to which he generally limits his attention. That alone seems to have been originally translated under the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus, though the narrative of Aristeas, which Josephus follows, is evidently most grossly exaggerated, and the elaborate legend of Philo is yet more incredible. He pretends that the translators chose their words, after much prayer, with such infallible accuracy as to render their version an exact counterpart of the original. To this the title sacred books, or writings, and various equivalent terms, seems exclusively to refer in his pages. His very limited references to other Scriptures, though they are generally recognised as true, useful, and inspired, are of distinct character, usually in the way of authoritative illustration, as by a disciple of Moses, rather than of direct proof, or as the subject of immediate discussion. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, on the other hand, gives special prominence to the Psalms and the Prophets, as establishing the true method of interpreting the law; and, so far from laying stress on any verbal exactness in the Septuagint, seldom or never cites it verbatim, which the Alexandrian, if consistent, must have denounced as a most grievous and unpardonable fault. This contrast is strikingly exhibited

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in the case of Melchizedec.

served in the temple of Serapis. I. 443. The labours of Origen, and his Hexapla, are well known. Hengstenberg regards Aristeas and Manetho as alike mythical (Egypt and the Books of Moses, Appendix, ed. Clark, 1845). Justin was indignant because the Rabbis denied the accuracy of the Septuagint. Dial. p. 295. Studied misinterpretations have been pointed out.

d De Decal. § 29, &c., Оeoû ßißλos. Quod Det. Pot. Insid. § 28.

Philo simply observes that the righteous king (as he interprets the name with Josephus) is introduced by Moses as the high priest of God, without notice of any thing done by him to merit this special honour, and that he is thus distinguished from a tyrant, who introduces lawlessness instead of the dominion of law, and who is only a ruler of war and not a prince of peace. He presented Abraham with exhilarating food, to intimate that the Xcyos, or the priest, whose inheritance is Jehovah, exhilarated the mind with spiritual intoxication. This meagre statement is unaccompanied by any allusion to the 110th Psalm, so unintelligible to the enemies of Jesus, so precious to His friends, which imparts such interest to the historical incident in the epistle to the Hebrews, investing the brief record of Moses with a new character, and rendering it the ground of a lucid and conclusive argument for the necessity and truth of the Gospel, and essential dignity of the High Priest of our profession. Again, when Philo said that, though the kosmos was created and mortal, it shall never perish, on account of the stronger chain, the purpose of the Creator, by which it is firmly held together, he entirely overlooks the 102nd Psalm, cited in the first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews.

The Special Experience of St Paul.] We may now revert to the Apostle, whose admirable teaching, as divinely inspired, we

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σκυτότομος, amongst the philosophers of Athens, and Menedemus was the son, σкηνоррáþοv (II. 122, 125). This last was Paul's occupation, Acts xviii. 13, but its interpretation is disputed. Some render the word 66 a maker of tent cloth;" others, "a preparer of skins," or, "worker on leather." Chrysostom says, ἐπὶ σκηνορραφείου ἑστὼς δέρματα ἔρραπτε. ΙΧ. 499. σμιλὴν μεταχειριζό μevos. III. 786. Cf. VII. 114, VI. 343, V. 596, 914. The Latin Homilist says, "sutor tabernaculorum." VII. 907. It must be remembered that the Talmud requires every parent to teach his children some trade. They then become like fenced vineyards (Biscoe).

have been hitherto illustrating by way of contrast, and study the lesson to be deduced from his special experience. He began to preach immediately after his conversion, and thus attested the exact date of its occurrence: but he was not called to execute his apostleship until a subsequent period. The delay was doubtless necessary. Experience must be acquired. A novice cannot be invested with any important office, or be put prominently forward in the church without great danger to himself, as Timothy was authoritatively told. Not the lessons of Gamaliel, though wiser than Philo's, but the revelation of a personal Christ, imparted true knowledge to the apostle; still he must go to Arabia for a season, not to work, nor to confer with flesh and blood, but to meditate and learn in silence in communion with his God,-even as David had been prepared in the wilderness for his triumph over Goliath; as Moses had been subjected to peculiar discipline after his flight from Egypt, even for forty years, before finally called to deliver and rule his people, notwithstanding his impatient longing for that anticipated call,—and, even then, after a brief appearance in public Paul retired again to Tarsus, and his kindred, for another interval, there probably in a more limited sphere of labour to exercise and strengthen his powers, before he goes forth on his great work.

And now see how he rejoices as a giant to run his beneficent course, as with the majesty of the vernal sun, when he decks the earth with fresh verdure, and is hailed by the grateful songs of winged choristers,-" by action most acceptably glorifying God and hymning his praise." For he is no silent protestant, no dreaming philosopher, no retiring remonstrant, no selfish ascetic, but an undaunted herald of a strange, avowedly exclusive, creed hitherto unhonoured, the living messenger of heavenly mercy as yet unappreciated, clad in a divine panoply, assailing sin in its strongholds, labouring to liberate its slaves, and to constrain every one, whom the terrors of the Lord may arouse, or his living voice can reach, or his conciliatory conduct can win, to flee for refuge to his Christ. Mark too how (in spirit) he already treads the cold damp trenches, the dreary huts, or the drearier dungeons, of province after pro

a I Tim. iii. 6.

vince in a hostile world, "not boasting of another man's line of things made ready to his hand," nor thrusting himself into ground already occupied"; not welcomed by the smiles of prepared and expectant crowds, but assailed by the sneers and reproaches of the very sick and wounded and dying ones, whom he has come to relieve and soothe and heal;-himself without personal influence; often beaten with rods, oft betrayed, oft in bonds; scarcely understood by his truest friends; in the hour of greatest need forsaken and alone! But observe the lamp in his hand. It is the word of a crucified Redeemer, to whose unsought grace he ascribes all the glory of his self-denying toil and marvellous success, as His love alone sustains and cheers him in his arduous work. Human devices and uncertain speculations, or the workings of an excited imagination, can have no place, where "enticing words of human wisdom" are anxiously disclaimed. The impulsive force of a grand idea absorbs all Paul's energies, and concentrates all his faculties on a single object. He is a debtor to every man," because every man is his neighbour, and belongs to his Lord, whose name is ever on his lips, because His cause and glory are ever on his heart, his inspiration and his song, alike in the dungeon of Philippi and in the palace of Nero. No vague faith in the unseen, no mere visions of the intellect, of which some now prate, as if they were the common source of everything grand and noble in life, but the vivid remembrance of what his own eyes had seen, his own ears heard, and his own heart experienced, of the power and love of Emmanuel, constrained him. His therefore is no unstable or eccentric course, as that of the double-minded man, swayed alternately by two inconsistent impulses, necessarily would have been. He steadily obeys the single law of attraction to the centre of light and life, to which he continually approximates, eagerly anticipating the end of his earthly career, or the happy moment of perfect union in a holier state with Him, who is even here "his life," "his all in all."

A stranger to elaborate refinement and eloquent periods,perhaps through the natural bent of the Hebrew mind',-but glowing with fervent love, he pours out his thoughts and

a See Rom. xv. 20, 21; 2 Cor. x. 13, 15, 16.

b See Josephus, Ant. XX. 12. 1.

с

φλογὸς πάσης σφοδρότερος ἦν. Chrys. v. 589.

arguments with the vehemence of the torrent, or the rapidity of the surging waves,-at once clear as the heavens, deep as the

ocean.

He bears testimony before kings, and is not ashamed. Felix trembles before him on his judgment seat, as he calmly reasons "of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come;" Festus marvels, supposing that too much learning has distracted his mind, because he declares a strange Gospel and speaks of the resurrection of the dead with becoming ardour, though in words of soberness and truth; Agrippa almost yields; and now he stands before Nero, the slave of most abhorred sensuality, the perpetrator of the most awful crimes (by some accounted "the" very "mystery of iniquity"," because they deemed it impossible. for any creature to exhibit more of the image of Satan in human form), still as it were reeking with the blood of nobler men than Thrasea, though to secular history unknown, and on earth despised, the humble Christians whom he had barbarously sacrificed to popular hatred, and an atrocious calumny, in order to screen himself from the charge of setting fire to Rome. For a moment the lion is disarmed, and the apostle is delivered.

And yet his was no stoical apathy. He deeply felt a physical temptation, a thorn in the flesh, which, as the object of attention to others, might have rendered one less intellectual, or less inspired, the subject of derision and contempt to strangers, and the removal of which he earnestly sought in fervent prayer, but (as he tells us) without the anticipated success, because its continuance was needful (as the shrunken sinew in Jacob's thigh, after his wrestling with the angel at Peniel), to keep him humble, and served to glorify his God the more, whose enabled His servant to overcome the temptagrace tion, or raised him above it in triumph. Probably this occasioned the weakness, fear, and trembling, with which he had mixed with the refined and voluptuous Corinthians, and rendered

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