THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1823.

ART. I. A Treatise on the Genius and Object of the Patriarchal, the Levitical, and the Christian Dispensations. By George Stanley Faber, B.D .2 vols. 8vo Rivingtons.

1823.

It is impossible to survey the dealings of Divine Providence toward mankind, as recorded in the sacred Scriptures, without feelings of astonishment and veneration. We not only discover the unceasing agency of a celestial power, but also, even amid the awful mysteriousness of its operations, perceive a continued display of mercy and benevolence. In the patriarchal ages, the Divine communications and interpositions were numerous, till it pleased the sovereign Lord to adopt a different mode of religious government by the institution of the Mosaic economy. This remained for a long period: but when the prophetical voice had been silent for some centuries, it again sounded forth in the inspired heralds of Christianity, the echo of which is now abroad in all the world, and will resound yet louder and louder to the final termination of this sublunary scene. Thus do the sacred writings contain the history of God's especial care for the moral improvement of his creatures, as exhibited in the Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian Dispensations, which last is to endure to the consummation of all things.

Each of these dispensations has something peculiar, something which distinguishes it from the rest, while at the same time they have a mutual relationship. With many distinctive features they have many things in common. They are all founded in one and the same system of divine grace, which, commencing with the fall, was successively developed, till it shone with its most resplendent lustre at the advent of our Redeemer. They promulgate the same truth, though with different degrees of clearness; and they conspire with wonderful harmony and accordance in announcing to man the R VOL. XX. SEPT. 1823.

grand scheme of redemption through a Mediator. Christ is the mighty Deliverer promised to the patriarchs, typified in the Levitical law, and described in the Gospel; he, like the sun in the solar system, is the object about which they revolve, and for the manifestation of whom they were designed in the deep counsels of Omnipotence. From first to last the Incarnate God is the subject of their proclamation; and under every religious institution the Almighty has been progressively carrying on a stupendous plan of grace and mercy for the salvation of his creatures.

To inquire with humble reverence into the nature of the several dispensations of Eternal Wisdom to man, is an employment of the intellectual faculties at once the most noble and the most useful. Every sober investigation of the works of God, either in the natural or moral world, tends to display more fully the divine attributes, and thereby to excite the flame of piety in the human heart. The same result follows a reverential examination of his revealed will in its successive stages, for the more we know of it the more it appears to have originated in the immensity of his goodness. It was not, therefore, without high anticipation that we began the perusal of the volumes before us, which are intended to investigate the genius and object of the dispensations of God to man; nor have our expectations been disappointed. The celebrity which Mr. Faber has acquired by his other publications will not be diminished by the present performance. To point out its excellencies, and they are numerous, is an easy and pleasant task; but critical justice no less requires us to take some notice of those parts which appear to be exceptionable. Not that we design to lay our finger upon every passage where the author has, in our opinion, gone astray, or to enter into a laboured refutation of his errors; but we propose to comment upon the work with the srictest impartiality; and by doing so we hope to present to our readers a correct view of these ingenious volumes.

The learned author following the natural division of the subject, discusses the genius and object of the Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian Dispensations, in three successive books. After some introductory and extremely valuable observations on the peculiar nature of these dispensations, he enters upon an examination of the theory of Bishop Warburton, relative to the state of man from his first creation to the promulgation of the law. In the course of his inquiries he is often brought in collision with the author of The Divine Legation of Moses, and whenever he enters into the field of controversy with this distinguished prelate, he opposes a

firm and able lance. In the present rencontre Mr. Faber has evidently the advantage. Warburton, as is well known, maintained the paradoxical notion, that Adam and Eve were not placed in Paradise immediately upon their creation, but existed for a period of undefined length in an ante-paradisiacal state, during which they were kept under the tutelage of natural, as contradistinguished from revealed, religion; and were liable to the death of the body, and the annihilation of the soul, having been created mortal. It pleased the Supreme Being, however, to remove them out of this state into Paradise, where they became, for the first time, subject to the controul of revealed religion; and where, for the first time, they became immortal. Yet was the grant of immortality not absolute, but conditional, being suspended upon the observance or non-observance of an arbitrary precept. Unhappily for themselves and their posterity they transgressed the commandment, in consequence of which they were brought back to their aboriginal condition, again became mortal, and were again subjected to the law of nature, as contradistinguished from the law of revelation, which subjection to the law of nature continued to the time of Moses, when a revealed law, though of limited operation, was delivered through his agency from Mount Sinai. From all this the Bishop infers that the doctrine of a future state was generally unknown both before and under the law; and that, during this period, man lived under an especial or extraordinary Providence. Such is Warburton's theory, and, if it could be established, it would at once demolish what is denominated the patriarchal dispensation; for, if nothing except mere natural religion existed previous to the promulgation of the law, there could be no such thing as any patriarchal dispensation. Little indeed is the evidence which the genius of Warburton could adduce in support of this notion; but little as it is, it must nevertheless be thoroughly sifted in order to pave the way for an examination of the ante- Mosaical revelations.

It was incumbent, therefore, upon Mr. Faber to upset the Bishop's theory, as it lies at the very threshold of his inquiry; and he has, in our judgment, successfully combated all the arguments by which his lordship supports it, with the ехсерtion of one, in the refutation of which he does not appear to be equally happy. In proof of an ante-paradisiacal state the Bishop argues, that as God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, (Gen. ii. 5.) not the vegetables themselves, but only

their seeds, were originally created; and that, consequently, a considerable time must have elapsed before the garden of Paradise could be fit for the reception of Adam and Eve, who were created only three days after the seeds of vegetables, their only subsistence, were created. Now this argument rests upon the supposition that the seeds only of vegetables were originally created, which is so far from being affirmed that the sacred narrative implies directly the reverse. Moses expressly says that the Lord God formed every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew, thus denominating the vegetables created "plants" and "herbs," which he would scarcely have done had he meant that the "seeds" of vegetables were first formed; because, in the preceding chapter, he distinguishes the plants and herbs from their seeds. Hence it is fair to infer, that these plants and herbs were created in their state of full productive maturity. The Bishop's argument being thus built on an erroneous assumption necessarily falls to the ground. But even allowing his premises, that Power which called the vegetable seeds into. existence, could easily hasten their growth with sufficient rapidity to afford subsistence to the newly created animals.

Mr. F. however, acquiescing in the Bishop's interpretation, that the seeds only of vegetables were originally created, is compelled to deny that the six days of the creation were six natural days, and to consider them as six periods of very considerable length. If this opinion be correct, the first formed seeds would undoubtedly have time to arrive at maturity before the creation of the animals, and he thus argues in its defence:

"That the six demiurgic days, instead of being nothing more than six natural solar days, were each a period of very considerable length, may be proved, partly by analogy of language, partly by the very necessity of the narrative, partly by ancient tradition, and partly by the discoveries, or possibly the re-discoveries of modern physiologists." (Vol. I. p. 111.).

Now with respect to the first of these arguments, it will readily be conceded, that if one of the seven mundane days be a natural day, they must all be natural days; and conversely, if one of the seven mundane days be a period of great length, they must all be periods of great length. (p. 112.) But how is it attempted to be proved that any one of the seven' days was a period of great length? He takes the seventh for this purpose, and observes that, if God laboured six natural days, and rested on the seventh natural day, the very statement implies his having resumed his

labours on the eighth natural day, or on the first day of the following natural week; but God did not resume his labours on the eighth natural day, and therefore the sabbath must certainly be extended beyond the limits of the seventh natural day. The Divine sabbath, he thinks, is still continuing, and will not terminate until the predicted dissolution of the present order of things. (p. 114. et seq.) But this reasoning has no foundation in the sacred text, which is, On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Gen. ii. 2, 3.) The seventh day is here pointed out as the day on which the Almighty rested after his work of creation; but whether he continued to rest, or resumed his labours on the eighth day, the history is altogether silent,: and the one may as well be supposed as the other. The se-, cond argument depends upon Bishop Warburton's interpretation of Gen. ii. 5, which has been already shewn to be erroneous. The third argument, derived from the correspondency of ancient traditions, is wholly insufficient, since tradition, whatever weight it may have as corroborative testimony, can have but very little in the silence of holy Scripture. And the fourth argument, built upon the discoveries of mo dern physiologists, stands upon very precarious ground. Geological science has scarcely yet been so far advanced as to afford proper data for a sound conclusion; and others, who must be supposed far superior to Mr. Faber in physiological, knowledge, have arrived at very different results.

Not only is our author's notion of the six demiurgic days bottomed upon uncertain grounds, but it is likewise open to several objections. There is no intimation in other parts of the sacred volume, that the six days of creation were six vast periods of indefinite duration, which would be truly astonish ing had they been really so, and not six natural days. The phraseology also of the inspired historian," the evening and the morning were the first day," and "the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night," implies that each portion of the work was performed in the course of one entire day, or within the period of one revolution of our planet round its axis. To this may be added, that the sanctification of the seventh, shews it to be a natural day; for the expressions "God blessed the seventh, and sanctified it," denote, as the best commentators observe, that God ordered it to be. set apart for the purpose of preserving the memory of the. creation, and of offering prayer, praise, and adoration to the great Creator; a purpose which can alone be answered