so he was still farther from desiring to depend solely on his own reflections." * His favourite expositors upon the New Testament were Luther and Hedinger; but dearer and more important to him than either was Scripture itself. "The word of God," he said, "is always valuable and savoury in its own pure and simple form; but when saturated with human explanations, it is apt to cloy." He used prayer for becoming collected and fitted to his work; and the success which attended and crowned it, often drew from him grateful praises and thanksgivings. Thus, when his Gnomon was sent him completed from the Tübingen university press, on the 28th of March, 1742, his spirits were quite raised to thank God and take courage; and he sang that evening the well known hymn 66 "O Thou, who our best works hast wrought, And thus far help'd me to success, "I thank thee, Lord;-my gifts are thine; When he began the revisal of his " Exposition of the Apocalypse,” he said, “O what cause have I to ask continual help of God in this important business!" He wrought not like a hired servant working only for others, but his heart and mind liberally enjoyed the fruit of his labours. Thus we find him saying: "I have been quite delighting myself for some time in the Epistle to the Colossians. How dazzlingly does the incommunicable glory of the Lord shine forth in this epistle; and yet what striking condescension does he here display towards ourselves!"-" I experience particular enjoyment of the second Epistle to the Corinthians. St. Paul, when he wrote it, was continually exposed to perils of death; and yet the epistle breathes nothing but life."—" I have often been in such a frame of mind, that those chapters of the Book of Proverbs, in which I had formerly looked for no connexion at all, ⚫ He also acknowledged, that "conversational remarks which he had often silently listened to, had helped him to many a useful reflection for his annotations." have appeared to me as though their sentences followed one another in an order truly beautiful.”—On 1 Tim. vi. 12, he said, "O God, thou hast called me to eternal life; thou too hast laid hold on me; withdraw not thy hand from me, until I have laid hold on that eternal life."-On 2 Cor. vii. 1, "O God! impress more deeply on my own heart thine exceeding great and precious promises, that I may perfect holiness in thy fear!" CHAPTER V. HIS CHRONOLOGICAL WRITINGS. PROCEEDING now to a more particular account of his works of exposition, we begin with his chronological writings, and first with his "Ordo Temporum."* The object of this work, as its title imports, was to exhibit the whole line of chronology which pervades the historical and prophetic books of the Old and New Testament, from its commencement to its termination; and thus to cumulate proof that the Scriptures form one beautifully connected and credible whole. In the preface he shows, by a series of examples illustrative of each other, that "as the many numerical specifications found in Scripture have a peculiar claim to our attention, because they belong to Divine Revelation, so they have a mutual connexion, which conducts us on to one great and important final point—the day of Christ's appearing. That to this object the historical as well as prophetic books severally contribute; and that by attending to their intimations with simplicity and a desire to learn, we shall find an agreeable path through the obscure labyrinth of their chronology. This path he had attempted to trace; and, in so doing, had suggested a method of explicitly handling whatever appeared most essential and useful." But he considers it necessary to give a few preliminary advices.-1. It was not to be thought, that he presumed to foretell or determine the period of the last day, though many of his investigations seemed to touch very nearly upon it. 2. He requested that, upon matters of this sort, his work might not be prejudiced by the notion, that futurity is intended of God to be hidden from us entirely; or that it is useless and dangerous to attempt determining any thing about it, &c.; for that such a * Its whole title is, "Jo. Alberti Bengelii Ordo Temporum, a principio per periodos œconomiæ divinæ historicas atque propheticas ad finem usque ita deductus, ut tota series et quarumvis partium analogia sempiternæ virtutis ac sapientiæ cultoribus ex Scripturâ V. et N. T. tanquam uno reverà documento proponatur. Stuttg. apud Christoph. Erhard, Bibliop., A. D. 1741." (The second edition, considerably enlarged, was printed at Stuttgart by Joh. Benedict Metzler; curante Eberhardo Friederico Hellwagio.) notion savoured too much of judging Holy Scripture itself by our own fancies and presumptions. 3. He wished that his book might be carefully read through, before any opinion were given of it. 4. He requested the reader attentively to discriminate between what he stated as possible, and what as actual and certain; also, 5. between what he expressly attempts to prove, and what he but cursorily hints at. 6. He desired that judgment might be formed from his own words, and not from sentiments reported to be his. 7. He hoped that persons unskilled in calculations would spare themselves the trouble of attempting to find out by any other method, what cannot be ascertained except by calculation. 8. And that the reader would not spend too much time in endeavouring to digest the tough corticating threads of the chronology, but would take care to enjoy the delicious kernel enveloped in them. The work then commences with an accurate table of the whole chronological line from Adam to the time of the apostles, very useful for the elucidation of essential matters in the body of the treatise. He next proceeds to treat of the notifications of time which are scattered throughout the books of Scripture, and shows how they may all be viewed in intimate connexion as unbroken links of one common chronology. As it will be sufficient here to notice the results of his inquiries, we refer the reader for further information to the book itself. The pre-adamite hypothesis he considers as a mere dream, refuted by Gen. i. 26; ii. 7; v. 1; yet he thinks it probable that the commencement of time corresponds with our autumn; that man's state of innocence was of very short duration; and that the Israelitish day of atonement (the tenth of the seventh month,) is the anniversary of the fall of man. By Genesis v. he reckons from the creation to the Years. deluge 1656 Gen. xi. From the deluge to the birth of 290 Gen. xxi. 5. From the birth of Abraham to Gen. xxv. 26. From the birth of Isaac to that Gen. xli. 46; xlv. 6; xlvii. 28. From the birth of Jacob to that of Joseph 90 2196 Brought forward By Gen. 1. 26. From Joseph's birth to his death Years. 2196 110 140 2446 He obtains the last computation in this series, by comparing Gen. xv. 13, with Judith v. 8, (Lutheran version,) and Acts vii. 8, where it is stated that the seed of Abraham, commencing with Isaac, were to be "strangers" four hundred years. Isaac then, having been born within this period, was sixty years old at the birth of Jacob, who was ninety years old at the birth of Joseph, who lived a hundred and ten years; so that there remain a hundred and forty years to complete the four hundred. Now, by referring to the seventeenth verse of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, where it is stated that the Sinaitic law was given four hundred and thirty years after the promise made to Abraham, we find from the call of Abraham, in his seventieth year, to the giving of the law, four hundred and thirty years exactly. The only difficulty is that suggested by the fortieth verse of the twelfth chapter of Exodus; where the four hundred and thirty years seem to be reckoned (not from the birth of Isaac, but) from Israel's beginning to sojourn in Egypt. But that this is only a chronological diastole,* is evident from various considerations, particularly that of scripture genealogies. Thus, from Adam to the Exodus we have 2446 years. By 1 Kings vi. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 2, there were 480 years from the Exodus to the fourth of the reign of Solomon; or 487 to the completion of the temple. These 487 years are distributed as follows : Deut. i. 3, 4. The sojourning in the wilderness Joshua xiv. 7, 10. The conquest of Canaan Years. 40 5 Judges iii. 11; iii. Period of the judges, • A chronological diastole, is a figure of speech (common in Eastern languages) which dilates into a longer period of time the substance of what actually transpired within a shorter one. Examples of the kind occur in the sacred writings. Thus Matt. xii. 40,-"The Son of Man shall be in the heart of the earth three days and nights." |