Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/22

 2. More than this we may allow, namely, this—that these same writings—the history and the poetry taken together, are also well adapted to the uses and ends of popular religious instruction in any country and every age, where and when there are classes of the community to be taught that are nearly on a level, intellectually, with the ancient Hebrew race:—that is to say, among those with whom philosophic habits of thought have not been developed, and whose religious notions and instincts are comparatively infantile.

3. But a higher ground than this may be taken, and it is the ground that is assumed throughout the ensuing chapters; and it is in accordance with this assumption that whatever may be advanced therein must be interpreted. It is affirmed then, that, not less in relation to the most highly-cultured minds than to the most rude—not less to minds disciplined in abstract thought, than to such as are unused to generalization of any kind—the Hebrew Scriptures, in their metaphoric style, and their poetic diction, are the fittest medium for conveying, what it is their purpose to convey, concerning the Divine Nature, and concerning the spiritual life, and concerning the correspondence of man—the finite, with —the Infinite.

It is on this hypothesis concerning the Hebrew Scriptures, and not otherwise, that the books of the New Testament take position as consecutive to the books of the Old Testament—the one being the