have serious theologians like Ewald, not only have accomplished scholars like Renan, endeavored to draw out the thousand threads by which Christianity was connected with the previous history of mankind; but modern writers of Jewish extraction have begun to acknowledge that "to leave out of sight the rise1 of "the Christian Church in considering the story of "Judaism would be a sin against the spirit of history; "that Christianity declared itself at its entrance into "the world to be the fulfilment of the Jewish Law, "the coping-stone of the Jewish religion."

2

There was a thoughtful work written some forty years ago, by one whose genial wisdom I recall with grateful pleasure, entitled "Propædia Prophetica," or the " Preparation of Prophecy." The special arguments therein contained would not, perhaps, now be considered by many as convincing. But, if the word and thought may be so applied, the period between the Captivity and the Christian era might well be called "Propædia Historica," or the "Preparation of His"tory." However much in the study of this part of the Hebrew story we may endeavor to abstract our minds from its closing consummation, the thought of that consummation is the main source of the interest of every enlightened student, whether friendly or hostile, in all its several stages. Whether by fact or by prediction, it is the "Præparatio Evangelica." Whatever may have been the actual expectations of the

1 Jost, i. 394.

2 By Dr. Lyall, formerly Dean of Canterbury.

Jewish people, however widely the anticipations of an anointed King or Prophet may have wavered or varied, whether fulfilled or disappointed in Cyrus, Zerubbabel, or the Maccabees- there is no question that the brightest light which illuminates this dark period is that reflected from the events which accompany its close. The plain facts of the Asmonean or Herodian history are sufficiently striking, if left to speak for themselves. Christian theology must have sunk to a low ebb, or have been in a very rudimentary state, when Epiphanius1 thought that to disprove the lineal descent of Herod from David was the best mode of answering those who regarded that wayward and bloodstained Prince as the Messiah; or when Justin, amidst arguments of real weight, insisted on 2 doubtful coincidences of names and words, which, even if acknowledged, are merely superficial. It is one of the advantages of the study of this period that it fixes the mind. on the more solid grounds of expectation contained in the history of the time, which, whilst it contains hardly any trace of those artificial combinations, exhibits, even amidst many and perhaps increasing relapses, that onward march of events which is the true prelude of the impending crisis. Just as in the history of Christendom we are sustained by the succession of those larger and more enlightened spirits which even in the darkest ages have never entirely failed, and have been the salt that has saved Christianity from the corruption of its factions and its follies, so in this period of the Jewish

1 Hær., i. 20.

2 Adv. Tryph., c. 97, 102, 103, 111.

Church, amidst the degeneracy and narrowness of Priests and Scribes, of Pharisees and Sadducees, there is a series of broader and loftier souls, beginning with the Evangelical Prophet, reappearing in the Son of Sirach and in Judas Maccabæus, and closing in the Book of Wisdom and the teaching of Hillel and of Philo. These sacred "Champions of Progress," though not classed with any of the contemporaneous schools or parties, constantly preserved the ideal of a Spiritual Religion, and, even within the strictest circle of Judaism, kept the door open for the entrance of a wider teaching, and a deeper thinking, and a higher living than any which had hitherto been recognized as Divine. And the greater the diversity of elements which, outside the pale of Judaism, appeared to foreshadow or contribute towards this ideal, so much the larger was the horizon which such a character would fill, if ever it should appear.

Yet again, if, as we approach the decisive moment, the scene becomes more crowded with ordinary personages and with vulgar display, more occupied with the struggles of Oriental courts, and with the familiar machinery of political controversy and intrigue - if on the soil of Palestine the vague and imperfect though splendid forms of the earlier Patriarchs and Prophets are exchanged for the complete and well-known shapes of Pompey, and Cæsar, and Antony, and Crassus, and

1 To have included Philo's teach- to refer to the Essay on the subject ing in this survey would have antici- in Professor Jowett's Commentary on pated too much, and it is sufficient St. Paul, i. 448–514.

Herod, whose very words we possess, whose faces we know, whose coins we have handled - so much the more clear to our view must be the surroundings, so much the more impressive the appearance, of One who shall be born deep amongst the circumstances of the age, yet shall soar high above them all. It is a result of travelling in Palestine that the Gospel History presents itself to the mind in a homely fashion, that seems at times startling and almost profane. A similar effect is produced by stumbling upon that history when following the beaten track of the narrative of Josephus and the disquisitions of the Talmud. But the grandeur of the events becomes not the less but the more remarkable because of the commonplace or degrading atmosphere in which they are enveloped.

It was a saying of Scotus Erigena that whatever is true Philosophy is also true Theology. In like manner on a large scale whatever is true History teaches true Religion, and every attempt to reproduce the ages which immediately preceded or which accompanied the advent of Christianity is a contribution, however humble, to the understanding of Christianity itself.

There is still left the yet greater task, in conformity with the plan laid down in these Lectures, of portraying the historical appearance of the Founder and the first teachers of Christianity in the light of their acknowledged, yet often forgotten, connection with the long series of prophets and heroes of Israel. Much has been attempted in this interesting field within the last few years in England by Dean Milman, and more

d

recently by the author of "Ecce Homo" and by Dr. Farrar, in France by Renan and Pressensé, in Germany by Neander and Ewald; and it would be presumptuous and needless to travel once again in detail over their well-worn footsteps. But as in this and the previous volumes of this work an endeavor has been made to discard the temporary, and to insist on the permanent elements of the earlier Jewish History, so there may be an attempt to gather up from the records of its latest stage, and from the labors to which I have just referred, the like lessons; and these are of more transcendent value and need more urgently to be emphasized, in proportion as the final stage of the Jewish nation is also its grandest, in proportion as the primal truths of Christianity are more sacred, more spiritual, and it may be added, often more deeply obscured by the developments of subsequent ages, even than the primal truths of Judaism.

That such a task will be permitted amidst the increasing shadows and the multiplying calls of the years that may remain, it would be presumptuous to forecast. The manifold shortcomings of the present volume are sufficient warning not to indulge so precarious and so arduous an expectation. Yet it is a hope which, having its roots in the memory of a past never to be forgotten, may, perchance, carry with it, in some shape its own fulfilment. It is a hope founded in the conviction that the study of the highest and purest elements of Religion will, though in different forms, repay alike the patient consideration of the speculative inquirer