In omitting grammatical and lexicographical investigations in his commentary, our Author does not, then, condemn or undervalue them: but only wishes to advance beyond them, to the higher and more appropriate business of commentary, the discovery and illustration of the doctrinal system of the sacred writers. This is his great object. In the doctrinal element he is most at home. And admirably has he succeeded in developing the fundamental truths of the Gospel. No one can read his illustrations, without finding new views of divine truth breaking in upon his mind, and a new interest awakened in views the most familiar, by the novel and original mode in which they are expressed and represented.

In this novel and original phraseology, we have another advantage of this commentary. While our author professes his full assent to the doctrines of faith, as laid down in the Augsburg Confession, he does not deem it essential to exhibit these in precisely the same form and technical phraseology, which is there adopted. To those attached to the symbols of their Church, and who might suspect him of heterodoxy from his not making familiar use of the prescribed phrases and terms, he says, " he hopes, that on nearer examination they will be convinced, that nobody is benefitted by a mere repetition of the current modes of expression, and that Christian exegesis can be promoted, only where the interpreter endeavours, in his own way, to unfold the deep things of the word of God, according to the measure of knowledge he himself possesses; provided the nature of the Gospel, which has been held the same by all true believers, in all ages, notwithstanding the difference of developement and of phraseology, is not altered by his own subjective apprehension of it."

We will mention only one more characteristic of this commentary. Our author makes it his business rather to give his own views of the meaning of Scripture, than to collect the views of others. Instead of perplexing the mind of the student by a variety of interpretations, he simply states his own conceptions of the meaning of the Bible, or alludes to those of others only for the sake of placing his own opinion in a clearer light. The collection of different interpretations is no doubt an important help to the understanding of ScripBut it cannot be well for one to burden himself with a mass of diverse opinions at an early stage of biblical study.

ture.

After wandering through the mazes of Poole, it would be strange if the inexperienced student should not be confounded. Every interpretation proceeds from a particular tendency of sentiment in the Commentator, and cannot therefore be fully understood, unless this tendency is known, which cannot be expected, except in the more advanced stages of biblical study.

It is a principle which Olshausen insists upon, that the study of the New Testament should be prosecuted, not by fragments and isolated portions, but in a continuous and uninterrupted course, so that the reader may receive a lively impression of the unity of life and spirit pervading the whole. But this continuous course must be interrupted, and the impression of the whole obscured, by constant referenceto the opinions of others, proceeding as they do from a thousand different points of view.

The subjoined extract will afford a fair specimen of the peculiarity of our author's method, of the profoundness of his views, and of the proportionate importance which he gives to doctrinal statement, in comparison with grammatical and critical notices.-There will probably be some difference of opinion respecting the view here given of the nature of the evidence afforded by miracles for the truth of Christianity. But such passages as those in Deut. 13: 1-5, and in 2 Thess. ch. 2, seem to us to require a modification of the view commonly given of this subject in our books on the evidences of Religion.-In a future Number, we propose to give the views of Olshausen on the subject of the Demoniacal Possessions of the New Testament.

The third volume of this commentary, containing Romans and the other epistles, will be looked for with great earnestness; and should it justify the expectations excited by the volumes already published, ought to be translated for the benefit of the American public. It is our hope and confident belief, that by the labours of such men as our author and those associated with him, many will be excited to a more thorough study of the Word of God, and thus be led more deeply into those sacred penetralia of divine wisdom, which are opened to those only who search the Scriptures. 19

VOL. I.

[Translated from Olshausen's Biblischer Commentar, Vol. i. p. 242]

HEALING OF A LEPER.

[Matt. 8: 1-4. Mark 1: 40-45. Luke 5: 12-16.]

AFTER exhibiting Christ in his capacity of teacher,* Matthew proceeds now to describe him as the worker of miracles; the two following chapters being occupied with accounts of the miracles of the Redeemer. These miracles, so far as they are considered as revelations of a mighty power, are called in the Scriptures mighty works (dvráμeis, ). When they are considered in connexion with the divine plans or ends, in relation to parts or the whole, they are called signs (onutia, mm). Considered as events awakening surprise and wonder, they are called wonders (répara, Oavμácia, Matt. 21: 15, ). The most significant term employed to designate the miracles of Christ, is works, toya (Matt. 11: 2, and very frequently in the Gospel of John). In this term, it seems to be implied, that the miraculous is the natural form of the agency of the Redeemer, since, as the possessor of divine powers, he must necessarily produce, in exercising them, supernatural effects. He himself was the répas, his miracles are the natural pya of his nature.

And hence it will appear, why we cannot adopt as our own, that notion of miracles according to which they are represented as a suspension of the laws of nature. If we proceed on the Scriptural idea of the immanence of God in the world, we cannot regard the laws of nature as arbitrary, mechanical arrangements, which would need an external invasion for their removal; on the contrary, they must, all of 'them, be considered as resting in the nature of God. Those phenomena, therefore, which are inexplicable from the known or unknown laws of the developement of earthly life, are not on this account to be regarded as disorderly, and suspensions of the laws of nature; these laws are rather themselves comprehended in a higher orderly whole, since the heavenly and the divine is the orderly itself. What is unnatural is accordingly ungodly; and the true miracle is still something natural, only of a higher order, breaking in upon this

*[It is a peculiarity of Matthew, according to the view of Olshausen, that instead of exhibiting our Saviour in the more continuous method of biography, he apprehends and exhibits the life of Christ under certain general points of view; i. e. he describes him now as lawgiver, now as teacher, and again as worker of miracles. Editor.]

ny.

unharmonious world from the world of undisturbed harmoWhere the view of the world here given is adopted, the attempt to explain miracles from natural causes, commonly so called, must be reprobated as wrong: according to this view, the miraculous is as natural (understood in a higher sense), as the natural (commonly so called) is wonderful.*

From this view of miracles, we come naturally to the principle, the justice of which is confirmed by the whole phraseology of Scripture, that no miracle is performed without a REAL power. And since we see most of the Scriptural miracles, especially those recorded in the New Testament, to have been performed by human agents, we are led to the belief of the communicableness of higher spiritual powers to men, enabling them to exert a controlling influence over objects by which they are more nearly or remotely surrounded. Without the supposition of the actual possession of some such element of spiritual power (of the va in his xapiopart; 1 Cor. 12: 10) by the human agent," there would be no connexion between the miracle, and the worker of it; and then the former must appear, as it were, magical. We may find an analogy to this possession of higher spiritual power by a human individual, in Animal Magnetism; only we must beware of confounding this dark and dangerous principle of sensuous life, with that pure element of light which Jesus brought down upon the earth. The reason, now, of the fact, that great fulness of

* Comp. Rud. Stier's Andeut. Pt. I. p. 118, etc.

+ [By real the author here means, higher spiritual power, as distinguished from the derived, dependent, and comparatively unreal powers belonging to creatures. The phraseology is derived from the Platonic distinction of being into the real or essential, and the phenominal or shadowy. Editor.]

[This is an example of the manner in which Animal Magnetism is often alluded to in all the departments of modern German literature. The reality of such a natural power seems there to be taken for granted; and it is referred to abundantly, for the sake of analogy and illustration, by philosophical and theological writers. Our author appears to be sensible of the danger of referring to this natural power, in illustration of the manner in which the miraculous powers of Christ and the Apostles were exerted; and he takes pains to guard against the inference which might be 'drawn from this comparison, that the Scriptural miracles may be accounted for by natural causes. In addition to the caution which he has here suggested, it is proper, in justice to him, that the following passage from the Preface, should be cited. "I deem it important to speak particularly here of the parallel which I have in many cases drawn, between Magnetism and its phenomena, and the cures of our Lord. Although in the commentary itself I have done all in my power to guard against the abuse of this comparison; I feel myself compelled to do this still more emphatically here. I have become so thoroughly persuaded by the latest occurrences in the department of Magnetism, and especially by the history of the Prophetess of Prevorst of the pernicious effects resulting from the application of Magnetism, even by those who are well disposed, that I wish for nothing more earnestly, than that

spiritual power in great men of the church of later times, was not connected with the power of working miracles, is to be found in the course of human developement, and in the different wants of different ages. In the progress of this developement, moments of intenser interest every now and then arrive, calling forth extraordinary phenomena, which, after a temporary efflorescence, gradually disappear.

But there is one thing which must have great effect in determining our views on this subject; viz. that the Scriptures make mention, not only of an holy, heavenly power, as the cause of miracles, but also of an evil power. Two series of miracles run through the sacred history. As the works of the Egyptian magicians stood over against those of Moses (Exod. vii, etc.); so in the New Testament do the miracles of Anti-Christ stand contrasted with those of the Redeemer (Matt. 24: 24. 2 Thess. 2: 9. Rev. 13: 15). This distinction between divine and demoniacal miracles, extorts inevitably the acknowledgement, that the Bible actually teaches the existence of a kingdom of evil spiritual powers, and its influence upon human beings who expose themselves to it. The sacred writers have so variously interwoven their declarations respecting evil spirits with the most important doctrines, that it is impossible to apply to them the mythical interpretation.

This same distinction leads us also to the consideration, that it cannot possibly be the design of miracles, in themselves, to confirm the truth of any particular declaration, since even the kingdom of lies has its miracles; and no criteria are anywhere given by which divine and demoniacal miracles may be distinguished from each other. Nor do the Scriptures anywhere represent this as the design of miracles. They were so understood only by the rude populace, who allowed their judgement to be determined simply by the display of power and the illusions of sense and hence they attached themselves as readily, and even more so, to false prophets and false Christs, as to the true. And it is on this account, that the Saviour sharply rebukes their carnal seeking for miracles, John 4: 48.

this dark power might be left at rest. I would, therefore, have the comparison I have made between the healing power of our Lord and Magnetism, considered as being designed only to enable the reader to form a distinct conception of the mode in which the higher and holy power of Christ operated, from this lower and dangerous power, and its exertions. The nature of the two is wholly different." Editor.]