book may be considered as a diary, and indeed as the first book of travels ever published. Dr. Shaw, Dr. Pococke, and several others, have endeavoured to mark out the route of the Israelites through the great, dreary, and trackless desert, and have ascertained many of the stages of their journey. Mr. Ainsworth is of opinion that the forty-two stations here enumerated, through which the Israelites were brought to the verge of the promised land, and afterwards taken over Jordan into the rest which God had promised; point out the forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ, through whom the Saviour of the world came; by whose blood we have an entrance into the Holiest, and enjoy the inheritance of the saints in light. And, Mr. Bromley, in his way to the sabbath of rest, considers each name and place as descriptive of the spiritual state, through which a soul passes in the way to the kingdom of heaven. But in cases of this kind fancy has more to do than judgment. In the book of Numbers we see the faithfulness of Jehovah in fulfilling his promises to the patriarchs, in the increase of their posterity, and his providential care of them while wandering in the desert; as well as his inflexible justice in the punishment of the disobedient, who perished in the wilderness. Indeed scarcely any piece of history in the Sacred writings, as Dr. A. Clarke well remarks, is better calculated to impress the mind of a serious reader with a sense of the goodness and severity of God. In every transaction, his holiness and justice appear, in closest union with his benevolence and mercy. From such a Being what have the wicked not to fear!-from such a Father and Friend, what have the upright not to hope! His justice requires him to punish iniquity; but his mercy inclines him to pardon all who truly repent, and believe in his Son. The journeyings of the people, from the time they left Egypt, exhibit a series of providential wonders. Every where, and in every circumstance, God appears: and yet there is no circumstance or occasion, that does not justify those signal displays of his GRACE and his JUSTICE. The genuine history of God's providence must be sought for in this book alone; and as every occurrence happened as an example; we have authority to conclude, that in every case where his own glory and the salvation of man is interested, he will interfere and give the fullest proofs that he is the same to-day, that he was yesterday: and will continue unchangeable, for ever and ever. This book contains one signal prediction relative to the Messiah. (xxiv. 17. 19.) Rosenmüller and some other eminent critics have contended that this passage cannot apply to Jesus Christ. But although it should be granted that it did primarily and literally refer to David, who finally subdued the kingdoms of Moab and Edom, yet it is certain that in its full import, it has ever been considered as referring to him who was the " root and offspring of David: the bright and morning star." (Rev. xxii. 16.) In the Targum of Jonathan, as well as that of Onkelos, it is referred to the Messiah. Dr. Clarke adopts the opinion of Rashi and Maimonides, who consider it as a double prophecy -of David and of Christ. I shall see him, but not now: And destroy all the children of Sheth.† This is DAVID. King MESSIAH. King MESSIAH. King MESSIAH. ‡ Though God had probably rejected Balaam as an apostate prophet, says Dr. Gray, he deigned to employ him on this signal occasion as the heraldof the divine oracles; to illustrate the impotency of the heathen arts, and to demonstrate the power and foreknowledge of the Divine Spirit. This book is divided by the Jews into ten paraschæ or chapters, and thirty-two siderim or sections. In our Bibles it forms thirty-six chapters, which may be divided into five parts. PART. I. The census and marshalling of the Israelites, &c. I. The enumeration of the people, exclusive of the Levites.. chap. i. sacred office, and appointment to serve the tabernacle......chap. iii. iv. * And he smote Moab-casting them down to the ground, 2 Sam. viii. 2. PART. II. The institution of various legal seremonies :— I. The purification of the camp, by the expulsion of unclean persons, and the trial of the suspected adultress by the waters of jealousy...... .......chap. v. - II. The law of the Nazarites, and form of blessing the people..chap. vi. III. An account of the offerings made by the princes of the tribes at the dedication of the tabernacle and the altar....chap. vii. IV. The consecration of the Levites, and the duration of their service appointed.... ...... V. The celebration of the pass-over...... .chap. viii. .. chap. ix. VI. Regulations for the moving and resting of the camp during the march of the Israelites in the wilderness..... ...............chap. x. 1.-10. PART. III. The history of the Israelites' journey from Mount Sinai to the land of Moab. I. The order of their march, with the ceremonies at fixing and removing the tabernacle........... ........... chap. x. 11.-36. II. The people murmur at Taberah, on account of the length of the way, and are punished with fire, which is quenched at Moses' prayer..... III. ......chap. xi. 1.-3. ...................chap. xi. 4.—35. -at Kibroth-hattaavah, for flesh, and are punished with a pestilence...... IV. Miriam and Aaron murmur at Moses: the former smitten with leprosy....... V. Spies sent to examine the promised land, who bring an evil report, in consequence of which the people murmur; the VI. The people attack the Amalekites contrary to the com mand of God, and are discomfited...... .................chap. xiv. 40.—45. VII. Ordinances for conducting the worship of Jehovah in the ......chap. xv. promised land................. VIII. The insurrection of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their associates—they are swallowed up by an earthquake.............. chap. xvi. 1.—40. IX. The congregation murmur on account of the preceding judg ment, and 14,700 of them are cut off............ .............. chap. xvi.41-50. X. Aaron and his family confirmed in the priesthood, by Jehovah's causing his rod to blossom, which is laid up in the tabernacle" for a token against the rebels.".. .....................chap. xvii. .....chap. xviii. xix. XI. The charges of the priests and Levites, with regulations ...... .... chap. xx. 1.-13. ....chap. xx. 14., 29. X/11. Messengers sent to the King of Edom who refuses the Is- ..... chap. xxii.—xxiv. II. The Moabitish women seduce the people to commit fornication and idolatry, for which 24,000 of them are destroyed by the plague.... ...........chap. xxv. III. A second census of the people takes place, and the amount successor.... .chap. xxvi. .....................chap. xxvii. ....... chap. xxviii.—xxx, V. A repetition of sundry laws, with the appointment of ................chap. xxxi. VII. The remaining chapters contain an account of the division of the land on the east of Jordan between the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites; of the forty-two journeys of the people, from their departure from Rameses, till their arrival at Jordan; together with sundry directions relative to the division of the promised land.. Sacred Literature. THAT Department of Literature, which has for its object the criticism and illustration of the Sacred Scriptures, possesses so * See Dr. A. Clarke, on Numb.; Gray's Key-Numb. ;-Allix's Reflections, pp. 155-159. much intrinsic interest, and is so peculiarly important to the members of the Clerical Profession, that it would be deemed superfluous to say much in its recommendation. It may justly be thought surprising, that the philosophical student of History should sometimes content himself with perusing in a translation the curious and venerable remains of Primitive Christianity; to the enlightened friends of Revelation it cannot but appear a momentous enquiry, what is the genuine text, and what may be considered as the most exact interpretation of those Scriptures which they venerate as the authentic records of a miraculous Providence, and as the sole depositories of Theological - Truth. Whether the critical study of the Sacred Scriptures, though it obtains a place in the plan of a professional education, is prosecuted in this country to an extent commensurate with its dignity and importance, is a question which I will leave to the mature consideration of the enlightened and the judicious. Should it be found, on enquiry, that those, who in an inquisitive and liberal age are set for the defence of Christianity are accustomed to array themselves in the panoply of Human Science, and to abandon the appropriate resources of their spiritual warfare for the weapons of philosophical argument and speculation, in the use of which they are sometimes less expert than their antagonists; it will surely not be thought wonderful, that the study the Christian Scriptures should, by the professed "Scholar, be regarded as an uninteresting and unprofitable occupation, and should have sunk, under such unfavorable auspices, into popular disesteem and neglect. The poems of Homer and Virgil and the elegant speculations of Cicero are early imprinted on our memories, by frequent repetition and elaborate criticism, while the study of the Inspired Volume, which, in an enlightened Christian country, if not on account of its literary interest, yet certainly by the importance and authority of its contents, is entitled to no insignificant place in the plan of a liberal education, is confined to the lowest forms of Grammatical Labour, and if prosecuted in after years by any but the professional student, is, by many, thought to savour more of ignorance or of barbarism, than of a liberal taste or true learning. of Pudet -Pudet hæc opprobria nobis W. D. |