preaching of John the Baptist; and with a solemnity becoming the last of the prophets, he closes the sacred canon with enjoining the strict observance of the Mosaic law, till the forerunner, already promised, should appear in the spirit of Elias, to introduce the Messiah, who was to establish a new and everlasting covenant. Malachi lived in the decline of the Hebrew poetry, which greatly degenerated after the return from the Babylonian captivity; but his writings are by no means destitute of force or elegance, and he may justly be considered as occupying a middle place among the minor prophets.

PART I.

CHAPTER THE THIRD:

THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY ABRIDGED,

AND

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS CONTINUED

TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY THE

ROMANS.

THE

E Old Testament begins with the history of the Creation, which Moses was enabled by B. C. divine Inspiration to relate. From Revelation 4004. therefore we learn, that the world was created (a)

in six days, and that "on the seventh day God
ended his work which he had made, and blessed
the seventh day, and sanctified it (b)."
first man Adam was created on the sixth day.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image,

The

after

(a) According to the Hebrew text, which we follow in this work, the world was created 4004 years before the birth of Christ. The Septuagint version places the creation 5872 years, and the Samaritan Pentateuch 4700, before the Christian æra.

after our likeness (c); and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl

of

(c) "In our image, after our likeness:"-Two words, some think, to express the same thing, with this difference only, as Abarbinel explains it, that the last words, after our likeness, give us to understand, that man was not created properly and perfectly in the image of God, but in a resemblance of him. For he doth not say, in our likeness, says that author, as he had said, in our image, but after our likeness; where the Caph of similitude, as they call it, abates something of the sense of what follows, and makes it signify only an approach to the divine likeness, in understanding, freedom of choice, spirituality, immortality, &c. Thus Tertullian explains it: Habent illas ubique lineas Dei, quâ immortalis anima, quâ libera et sui arbitrii, quâ præscia plerumque, quâ rationalis, capax intellectus et scientiæ, lib. 2. cont. Marc. cap. 9. And so Greg. Nyssen, cap. 16. de Opis. Hom. Пavtes τα διανοείσθαι και προβολευειν δύναμιν έχεσι, &c. All have a power of considering and designing, of consulting and fore-appointing of what we intend to do. Purity and holiness likewise seem to be comprehended in this, as may be gathered from the apostle, Col. c. 3. v. 10. For the new man consists in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. c. 4. v. 24. But though he was created with a faculty to judge aright, and with a power to govern his appetites, which he could control more easily than we can do now; yet he was not made immutably good (quia hoc soli Deo cedit, which belongs to God alone, as Tertullian excellently discourses in that place) but might, without due care, be induced to do evil, as we see he did: for an habituated confirmed estate of goodness was even then to have

K3

of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.-And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul (d).” Man was created innocent, upright, and happy, with powers of understanding and will, a rational and moral free-agent. He was immediately placed in the fruitful and pleasant garden of Eden, and was, with one exception, indulged in the free use of every thing which surrounded him. A single prohibition was imposed by his Creator, as the mark of his dependence, and the test of his obedience. He was forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree which was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, with a solemn denunciation from God, that if he did eat of it, he should surely die. But neither his residence in the garden of Eden, in which was every thing "pleasant to the sight and good for food," nor

his

have been acquired by watchfulness and exercise, whereby, in process of time, he might have become so stedfast, that he could not have been prevailed upon by any temptation to do contrary to his duty.-Patrick.

(d) Gen. c. I. v. 26 and 27. c.2. v.7.

his absolute "dominion over all creatures of the earth, and of the sea, and of the air," could render man happy without a rational companion. "And God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him (e)." And God formed the first woman, Eve, out of one of Adam's ribs, and brought her unto Adam as his wife, to prove that this Being was of the same nature as himself, and therefore worthy to be considered as his companion. And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (f)" thus was man pronounced to be a social being, and thus was marriage instituted, by divine authority, from the beginning of the world.

But the happiness of our first parents was soon interrupted by the malignity of Satan, or the Evil Spirit, who was permitted to tempt them to transgress the command of their benevolent Creator, in the form of a serpent (g), which is said

(e) Gen. c. 2. v. 18.

(f) Gen. c. 2. v. 23 and 24.

(g) See Patrick's Commentaries, Sherlock's Discourses, and Maurice's History and Indian Antiquities, upon this subject. The prophet Isaiah, c. 27. v. 1. evi