Wo is me! wherefore was I born to see this! The treading down of my people; Even the treading down of the holy city! And to sit idly there, while she given into the hands of the gentiles; Even the sanctuary into the hands of strangers! Her temple is become as an inglorious man ; The vessels of her glory are carried away captive: Her young men with the sword of the enemy: All her ornaments are taken away; Instead of a freewoman, she is become a slave! (4) The manner of Hebrew Poetry accurately, though not spiritedly, retained by rabbinical writers.] Their aphoristic sentences rarely excced the limits of a quatrain, generally containing an alternate parallelism of the antithetical kind. From Vorstius," De Adagiis Nov. Test." and from Schoettgen's "Hora Hebraicæ," I have selected a few examples of this description; the best, indeed, that I could find: but it can hardly fail to strike every reader, that, in vigour, in raciness, and in variety, they are far inferior, not merely to the specimens given from the Old Testament, but also to those adduced from the Apocrypha. The subjectmatter often resembles that of our Lord's discourses; but *That this is the force, in this place, of the verb kadiα, has been shown by Professor Kuinoel, of Leipzig, in a note on S. Matt. iv. 16. See his "Observationes in Nov. Test. ex Libr. "Apocr. V. T." p. 6. how different the manner, and the spirit!-Hv yag didaσxav, ὡς εξουσιαν εχων, και ουχ ̓ ὡς οι γραμματεις. This is an important branch of the internal evidence of the Gospel. Whosoever maketh himself humble, him the holy blessed One exalteth; But whosoever exalteth himself, him the holy blessed One maketh humble: And whosoever pursueth dignity, him dignity fleeth ;. But whosoever fleeth dignity, to him doth dignity return. Cod. Talm. Erubin. c. i. When the number of sins on earth is increased; The holy name also is not glorified on earth : But when the number of sins on earth is not increased; Then the holy name of God is glorified on earth. Sohar. Deut. fol. 127. col. 503. Do the will of God, like thine own will; That he also may do thy will like his own: Forego thine own will, on account of his will; That he also may frustrate the will of others on account of thy will. Pirke Aboth. ii. 4. Whosoever taketh on himself the yoke of the precept against usury; Taketh on himself the yoke of the kingdom of But whosoever casteth off the yoke of that precept; heaven. Siphra, fol. 104. 4. Whosoever maketh himself little on account of the law in this world; He becometh great in the world to come: And whosoever maketh himself a slave on account of the study of the law in this world; He shall be free in the world to come. Bava Mezia. fol. 84. 2. When the holy blessed One judgeth the gentiles, he judgeth them in the night; At the time when they sleep in their transgressions: But when he judgeth the Israelites, he judgeth them in the day; At the time when they are employed in the study of the law. Midrasch Tehillim. ad Ps. ix. If any one giveth attention to the law, for the sake of the law; That study becometh to him an odour of life: But if a man studieth not for the sake of the law; To him it becometh an odour of death. Taanith. fol. 7. 1. (5) The native and imperishable excellencies of the Hebrew parallelism.] I can by no means consider the adoption by our Lord of the Hebrew poetical manner, as exclusively, or even primarily, an accommodation to the habits and feelings of his countrymen; though for argument sake, it has been so regarded in the text; and though it must, beyond doubt, have been eminently grateful to those habits and feelings. But this manner can never become obsolete; and, the more thoroughly it is investigated and understood, the more will it be found a noble auxiliary of the best moral philosophy. The antithetical and gradual distinctions which it continually requires, induce the natural developement, and almost unconscious reception, of a system of moral oppositions and gradations, alike beautiful, just, and useful. In virtue of this manner, the Hebrew sages had, in no slight degree, anticipated the dialectic sagacity of St. Augustine, and the analytic acuteness of the schoolmen, unalloyed by the severity of the one, or by the ostentation of the other. That our Lord was pleased to move in the path, thus prepared, I hope abundantly to prove; and what has been the result? A result universally felt, though, so far as language is concerned, the causes of it have never been sufficiently explored; that, in HIS discourses, profoundness and simplicity meet with unexampled union. Never was so much said, in so few words; and never did so much beauty come forth, as if without being called for. (6) The New Testament not written in a purely Greek style.] The controversy that once so violently agitated the learned world, respecting the style of the New Testament, has long been set at rest: the first biblical scholars are now unanimously agreed, that, while the words are Greek, the phraseology is Hebrew. They who are desirous to acquaint themselves competently with the subject, will find the necessary information, or will be guided to the sources of it, in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. vol. iii. p. 224-227; in Ernesti, Instit. interpr. Nov. Test. p. 83-100. edit. 1809; in Michaelis, Introd. to New Test. c. iy. vol. i. p. 97—200; in Dr. Campbell's first and second Preliminary Dissertations to the four Gospels; and in Dr. Maltby's Illustrations of the Truth of the Christian religion, 2d ed. p. 1-12. Several excellent observations are also made by the learned Mosheim, Cogit. de Interpr. et Emend. SS. Litt. published in his Observ. Sacr. Amst. 8vo. 1721; or, enlarged and improved, in his Syntagma Dissert. Lips. 4to. 1733. The preface, too, of Fecht, to Raphel's observations on the N. T. may be read with advantage. The following extracts, it is presumed, will show the expectation to be far from unreasonable, that, among other peculiarities of Hebrew construction, the parallelism must be found in the New Testament. "Negari non potest, Deum ter Opt. Max. admira"bilem, minimeque fortuitam loquendi cum hominibus, in . utroque S. voluntatis suæ et religionis instrumento 66 servasse consonantiam, congruentiamque. Unde fac"tum est, ut cum verba essent alterius linguæ in Novo "Testamento, ratio loquendi eadem animadverteretur: "Aut, si clarius dicendum est, ut character Veteris Testa❝menti non quasi interpretatione libera, sed retentis "formulis, totaque indole representatus, agnosci posset. "Usus ipse et experientia locupletissimum præbent tes"timonium, neque facilius, neque gravius, ad ipsum "Novi Testamenti nucleum perveniri, quam ea resolvendi "interpretandique ratione, quæ Vet. Test. stylo, novi fœde"ris libros, metitur, expendit, evolvit. "Ex ipsa divinissimarum rerum, humanisque nec "mentibus comprehensarum, nec linguis pronunciata"rum (ita enim omnino de evangelio, et sacris scripturis, << respectu humanorum operum scriptorumque, loquen"dum est) indole, novus quidem orationis character, sua "sponte exhibetur. Atque, ut philosophia suayyλın ευαγγελικη "Novi Testamenti cum nullo monumento præterquam "cum Veteris Testamenti sapientia conferri potest, ita, "dictio, quæ rerum genium mira exprimendi arte gra"vitateque sequitur, non alia quam ejus styli compara" tione designabitur, quo talia primum, et quidem cum "respectu ad Novum Testamentum secuturum, adeoque cum "tacita exempli conformitate, Divinus Spiritus consig❝ navit. "Extra dubium mihi videtur, stylum Novi Testamenti a "cætera græcitate tota humanorum operum diversum esse. "Si quæras, qua ratione potissimum? Dicam xaτα TOV 66 χαρακτήρα της λέξεως, qui ad idioma Veteris Testamenti "(quod citra controversiam singulare est, et exemplo "caret) proxime accedit. Argumenti loco amplius con"siderandum hic proponimus, quod Novum Testamentum « in nullam omnino linguam, tam facile, et quasi de verbo "ad verbum transferri potest, sicuti in Hebræam: adeo "quidem, ut cum duplex alias interpreti labor oriatur, "quomodo nimirum et mentem scriptoris quem inter |