name; others delivered by Moses in his own name, without express Divine authority. Laws of various kinds, and for various purposes; moral, judicial, social, ceremonial; some temporary and special, others intended for the whole dispensation, some world-wide and eternal. Laws, therefore, of very different importance, and divers grades of authority. To us but few may be of direct value; the majority serve merely to shew, how a wise legislation should suit its enactments to the spirit and exigencies of the times; how those two great elements, expediency and abstract right, may and should be blended. The laws of Moses are thus a model for all future legislation; not to be followed servilely, but with a full appreciation of the character and requirements of the times for which they were specially intended, and the many important alterations which have intervened since then, requiring corresponding alterations in the laws. This value will the Mosaic legislation ever have, besides those many revelations of God's character and will which it contains. But to the ancient Jews the worth of such a code was far higher. To them these laws stood in the same position as the precepts of the Gospels do to us, and could as little be dispensed with. The pious Israelite, from Joshua's days to Christ's, knew no higher rule of action, no higher standard of appeal than the law of Moses. On it were built the covenants of Horeb, Moab, Shechem. Obedience to it was to ensure Divine approval and every wished-for blessing; disobedience was to bring down the direst curses. Well had it been for Israel had she always kept that law, not only in the letter, but the spirit. Then had she still been a light of the world, a blessing unto all nations. But to return ;-put aside this law as non-Mosaic, its enactments as mere embodiments of abstract ideas, never intended to be put in force; and not only do we ourselves lose much of the advantage which else we had derived from it, but again the conclusion is forced home upon us, that, during the whole period from Moses to Christ, the religion, the worship, the social state,

the justice of Israel, was built upon a false foundation, and this time one, not of fiction merely, but of forgery.*

Such are the results, to which the adoption of Bishop Colenso's view of the value and purport of the Pentateuch, would inevitably lead us. Thank God, we are not called upon to accept them as true. We have put the matter to the test, we have examined carefully, and we trust also impartially, the evidence on which this view professes to be based, and that same evidence has shewn its utter fallacy. Many authors there may have been, whose writings are preserved to us in the Pentateuch. But most surely the chief of these was the great Law-giver himself, the rest with small exception his predecessors or contemporaries. The books lose nothing by this diverse origin, rather in their earlier portions do they gain, a higher antiquity enhancing yet further their interest and credibility. They are authentic, genuine, Mosaic. Yet more; they are Divine. The words of man, written concerning man, written for man, they are yet so breathed through in their every part by God's own Spirit, that they may well be called His Word as well. His voice is heard in them, His Truth is taught through them, His Will declared by them, even so as His omniscient Wisdom saw it was best for man it should be. Given at first to Israel's chosen race, to them a priceless, because a matchless, treasure, they have been handed down to us, a precious legacy for all the world. Hoar with antiquity they are, yet beaming with life and light as ever; like him who wrote them, though full of years, their brightness is undimmed, their natural vigour unabated. We respect them for their very age, we think of all the work that they have done, the influence that they have exercised, and our veneration rises with

*The evidence for this assertion, that the Laws of the Pentateuch were known and revered in Israel from the earliest times, has been considered in chap.xi. Bishop Colenso's objections concerning the Morality of some of the laws will be found discussed in Appendix No.3.

the view. But we have higher thoughts than these. We regard them, not only as the work (in greatest part) of one of the wisest, greatest, noblest men who ever trod this earth, but as the gift of a gracious Father to his erring, fallen children, as such to be revered, beloved and studied.

Thus, then, would we sum up the conclusions to which our present inquiries have led us. The Pentateuch is an authentic history of the world's and Israel's first origin and early fortunes, intended chiefly for the instruction and the guidance of God's ancient people, but full of interest and worth for all mankind in every age and clime; written for the most part by those who were eye-witnesses of the events recorded, and themselves chief actors in them; chosen by God to be the first instalment of that Written Revelation in which he has been pleased to manifest Himself to man. In its structure, in its purpose, in its scope, it is the Book of Man; in its immediate origin, the Book of Moses; in its spirit, its authority, its primal source, the Book of GOD.

APPENDIX No. I.

BISHOP COLENSO'S REMARKS ON PREVIOUS VOLUME.

IN the Introduction to our previous volume we wrote as follows, p.v.,

Bishop Colenso comes before us, not as a captious caviller, who seeks for objections, because he hates the Truth; but as a conscientious doubter, who has been driven into the conclusions he adopts, against his will. With such an one, more especially, we should endeavour to deal fairly and honestly; not distorting or mutilating anything that he says to serve our own purpose, nor imputing aught to him which he does not say; but giving to every statement just that meaning which he himself attached to it, and no

more.

That our effort to this end was not altogether unsuccessful appears from the remarks of Bishop Colenso in the preface to his Part III.,p.viii.,—

There are some [Replies], such as those by the Rev. W. H. Hoare, the Rev. W. Houghton, the Rev. E. Greswell, A Layman (Skeffington), and others, which from their general fairness and their tone of courtesy and Christian feeling, demand, and have received, my respectful attention.

This being so, it was certainly to be expected, that Bishop Colenso would manifest a like general fairness' in return. That he has not done so will appear from his comments on certain portions of the book, contained in the following note, Part III.,pref.p.viii.-ix.,—

In an editorial note of the Edinburgh Review, No.240,p.505, 'The

Layman's' work, above mentioned, is commended as effectually disposing of the greater part of Dr. Colenso's objections'. It is sufficient to say that one of my principal difficulties is effectually disposed of', p.31, by assuming that Jacob went down to Egypt with a thousand or more' followers, who were all reckoned as his children, and as the progenitors of the two or three millions, who came out of Egypt,and this, although we read, Deut.x.22, thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons'-and although it is equally plain that ten asses, Gen.xlii.26-7, could scarcely have brought up corn enough from Egypt to support a thousand servants, besides Jacob's own children and grandchildren, for twelve months in a time of famine. So another series of overwhelming difficulties is disposed of', p.152-3, by assuming that the Priests formed originally five households, of which Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, were the heads',—that each of these five families consisted of about forty souls, including a considerable number of servants, married and unmarried,' p.68, and that all the males of proper age among these 200 souls, servants and all, were reckoned as sons of Aaron', or 'Priests.'!! Let any reader turn to Lev.viii.,ix.,x., upon this pointespecially x.12,16. On p.61, again, another objection which Bishop Colenso urges with great force, and which, if established, would be fatal to the entire argument', is 'disposed of' by the assertion that the 'firstborns' of man were not to be openers of the womb', though it is distinctly laid down in Ex.xiii.2, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, among man and among beast, it is mine.' In short, the book, though ably and pleasantly written, will be found to be full of fallacies, such as those above instanced.

6

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These three, then, are put forward as fair samples of the whole book, and as involving manifest fallacies. Whether the answers proposed to Bishop Colenso's objections on these points, are or are not really fallacious, is a matter which each reader can decide for himself. Our purpose here is not so much to defend ourselves, still less to adduce further arguments in support of the positions then adopted, as rather to point out the unfair statement which has here been made of the character and import of the arguments referred to.

1. With respect to the Increase of the children of Israel in Egypt, we may observe, (i) that the number of servants who went down with Jacob, is only one out of four causes of increase alleged (see p.43), not the sole ground of explanation, as Bishop Colenso represents; indeed more than half the increase is ascribed to servants acquired after the descent into Egypt (p.31-5,45-6), besides that arising from polygamy, and intermarriages. (ii) That the large size of Jacob's household is not