when too late, that in the earlier part of life they spent their strength unsparingly in the duties of the pulpit." p. 262.

66

Caries; probably derived from erode, to scoop, or hollow out." p. 503.

, to dig into, penetrate, or

CLASS THE FOURTH.

Neurotica (from vɛupov, a nerve): Diseases of the Nervous Function.

"All these diversities of vital energy are now well known to be dependent on the organ of the brain, as the instrument of the intellectual powers, and the source of the sensific and motony." vol. iv. p. 3.

Four orders are comprised under this class:-Phrenica, affecting the intellect; Esthetica, affecting the sensation; Cinetica, affecting the muscles; and Systatica, affecting several or all the sensorial powers simultaneously.

The "Physiological Proem" notices,-the general nature of the brain, its ramifications and substitutes-the principle of sensation and motion-and the intellectual principle. pp. 4-57.

"Of the nature of the mind or soul itself, we know little beyond what revelation has informed us; we have no chemical test that can reach its essence; no glasses that can trace its mode of union with the brain; no analogies that can illustrate the rapidity of its movements. With such information we may well rest satisfied; and, with suitable modesty, direct our investigations to those lower branches of this mysterious subject that lie within the grasp of our reason." p. 37.

"It was Locke's imperishable Essay on Human Understanding that gave the first check to the wild and visionary conceits in which the most celebrated luminaries of the age were at that time engaged :-recalled mankind from the chasing of shadows to the study of realities-from a pursuit of useless and inexplicable subtleties to that of important and cognoscible subjects; or, rather, to the only mode in which the great inquiry before him could be followed up with any reasonable hope of success or advantage. The author may speak of it with warmth, but he speaks from a digested knowledge of its merits; for he has studied it thoroughly and repeatedly, and there is, perhaps, no book to which he is so much indebted for whatever small degree of discrimination, or habit of reasoning he may possibly be allowed to lay claim to." pp. 48, 49.

"Alusia (illusion) is derived from aλvous, aberratio; whence also the Latin term, hallucinatio." p. 140.

"Somnambulists, says Dr. Spurzheim, (Physiolog. System, p. 175) even do things of which they are not capable in a state of watching; and some dreaming persons reason sometimes better than they do when awake. A singular and amusing instance of this occurred not many years ago to a very excellent and justly celebrated friend of the author's, the Rev. W. Jones, of Nayland, Suffolk; who, among other branches

of science, had deeply cultivated that of music, to which, indeed, he was passionately attached. He was a man of an irritable temperament, ardent mind, and most active and brilliant imagination; and was hence prepared by nature for energetic and vivid ideas in his dreams. On one occasion, during his sleep, he composed a very beautiful little ode of about six stanzas, and set the same to very agreeable music; the impression of which was so firmly fixed in his memory, that, on rising in the morning, he sat down and copied from his recollection both the music and the poetry." pp. 180, 181.

"The memory is the great storehouse of intelligence; and in one sense, at least, the Platonic doctrine is universally true,-that all knowledge is reminiscence." p. 188.

CLASS THE FIFTH.

Genetica (from yɛveσɩ, origo, ortus): Diseases of the Sexual Function.

Here are included three orders:-Cenotica, affecting the fluids; Ogastica, affecting the ogasm; and Carpotica, affecting the impregnation. Vol. v. p. 2.

The general nature of this function regards,-the machinery by which it operates-the process by which it accomplishes its ultimate end—and the difficulties accompanying this process, which still remain to be explained. p. 4.

CLASS THE SIXTH.

Ecoritica (from Ekkptvw, to strain off): Diseases of the Excernent Function.

Three orders belong here:-Mesotica, affecting the Parenchyma; Catotica, affecting internal surfaces; and Acrotica, affecting the external surface. Vol. v. p. 267.

A highly interesting" Physiological Proem" is also given here, and occupies pp. 268291.

The first order comprises five genera, the second has four, and the third contains ten.

At the conclusion of the last volume, which is the fifth, is a " General Index," very judiciously and satisfactorily prepared.

SCRIPT. ENCYCLOP.

Biblical Gleanings.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT.

THE expositions which I have seen of St. Paul's reasoning, in Gal. iii. 15—20, have never given satisfaction to my mind. It appears to me that some confusion has arisen, first, from not sufficiently distinguishing two senses of the word "seed," essentially distinct from each other; secondly, from want of precision in treating the covenant of God with Abraham, as if it were a covenant in the common sense of the word, instead of a simple engagement or promise which God was pleased to make to that faithful patriarch. St. Paul draws his first argument from the terms of the original promise, as employing the word "seed" in the singular number. Now, the word "seed" has two quite distinct applications; first, as denoting the subjects of the promised blessing, or the parties blessed; secondly, the Mediator or Dispenser of the blessing. Now it is in the latter sense that the apostle uses the word "seed," in the passage now under consideration. The subjects of the blessing, the parties blessed, were "all the nations of the earth," believers in every age and country, whether Jews or Gentiles. All who should follow Abraham in his faith were to be accounted his children, and heirs of the promise; for the promise ran thus: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." But the word seed in this promise plainly denotes the vehicle, or Mediator or Dispenser, of the blessing; and it is as plain that we ought to understand the apostle as using the word in the same sense, for he is but quoting the words of the original promise. Now, this being admitted, the point and force of his argument lie in the distinction between Christ and Moses as the mediators of the two covenants, rather than between the subjects of the two covenants; and the conclusion against Judaism rests on this, that the very terms of the promise restricting the dispensing of the blessing to one single seed of Abraham, it could not be applied to both, nor indifferently to either; and therefore, as Christ was universally understood to be designated by the "seed" here promised, Moses could have no share in the dispensing of it; nor obedience to the law be the ground-work of justification, but faith only in Christ. To attach justification to the law would have been to cancel the promise, or to superadd to it an incompatible ground of justification, contrary to the maxims of good faith which prevail even in the case of human covenants or engagements, which, once ratified, can never afterwards be superseded.

The reasoning of the apostle may be paraphrased thus :-" Brethren, I appeal to the principle even of human laws. In the case of engagements entered into by man to man, when they are once ratified and confirmed, it is not allowed either to supersede them or to add any thing to them. If this rule, then, be held sacred

and binding upon man, how much more must it be deemed inviolable by a God of truth and faithfulness! How, then, ran the tenor of God's promise to Abraham? It was most expressly restricted to Abraham's Seed, not to seeds in the plural number, as applicable to more descendants of Abraham than one, but in the singular number, as being limited to one only: And in thy Seed.' It being therefore universally admitted, that by the Seed is here foretold the Messiah, no other person can be designed, the use of the singular number excluding all but one. Now the promise, being thus originally confined to Christ, could not, after being solemnly ratified by God, be cancelled, superseded, or added to by any subsequent dispensation. To suppose this is to derogate from the faithfulness of God, and to lower it below that of man. Yet thus should we dishonour God, if we ascribed justification to the law of Moses, or attached the inheritance to legal obedience; for if it be attached to legal obedience, it is no more of promise,that is, matter of gratuitous favour: but God gratuitously gave it (xxapiotai) by promise; so that, to ascribe the inheritance to the law, is both to change the ground of acceptance, and to belie the original covenant of God made with Abraham. And as the law, as a covenant of works, was in its nature thus in opposition to the promise, as a dispensation of free grace; so they in like manner stood equally opposed in their origin and institution. The law, as a covenant, properly so called, implied two contracting parties; but the promise was the mere spontaneous engagement of God himself, who was the sole contracting party."

This is, it appears to me, the purport of the apostle's argument in ver. 20, suggested to his mind by his mention of the cause and manner of the dispensing of the law. The idea of justification by the law being shut out, it might have been insinuated, that it was therefore a useless dispensation; this insinuation he therefore proceeds to obviate. "Wherefore then," he says, "serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions,"— -on account of the proneness of Israel to idolatry, and to guard them about by a strong line of separation from the surrounding Gentile world; foreshadowing, at the same time, the future deliverance, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; being dispensed, he adds, by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now the very idea of a mediator implies two contracting parties, whereas God was sole party in giving the promise. "A mediator is not a mediator of one, but God (who gave the promise) is one." Now this essential diversity in the original form and manner of dispensing of the two covenants marking their distinctive character; the one as a covenant of grace, shews clearly, that they are not to be confounded, and that the inheritance promised to Abraham was not to be the reward of obedience to the law, but to be considered as a free gift of pure bounty and mercy, tendered to all who should lay hold of it by faith; in a word, that the Abrahamic covenant had not and could not have its consummation in the law of Moses, but solely and exclusively in the gospel of Christ.

D. M. P.

1 Christian Observer, Sept. 1826, pp. 523, &c.

The Scripture Almanack

FOR 1826:

PURPORTING TO EXHIBIT

SOME OF THE MEMORABLE EVENTS AND SACRED SEASONS

OF THE BIBLE,

TOGETHER WITH

An Arrangement of the Scriptures, in Chronological Order,

TO BE READ THROUGH THE YEAR,

WITH THE RESPECTIVE

PORTIONS OF EACH DAY. 1

DECEMBER.

Tebeth is said to be the Chaldee or Persic name of the tenth month; and probably so called from the Hebrew 3. to swell, (3 being changed into, as usual) on account of the swelling of the waters by the rains which fall in that season. Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. p. 256.

This word only occurs at Esth. ii. 16; but it is observable, that the Sept. reads the twelfth month, Adar, dwdɛkarw μnvi, og εsiv Adap, instead of the tenth month, Tebeth!

The definition given of this term by Leigh is, "na December, Est. ii. 16. tantum. Ab aquarum inundatione, minus recte quidam meo judicio, dictum nomen putant, quasi sit a y quod est immagere, quum vox sit peregrina, Mercer. in Pagn."-Critica Sacra, p. 89. Is it not very questionable, whether the names of the Hebrew months were significantly given? Might they not have been arbitrarily imposed-given, as they were, "at various times, and in divers manners"?

The names of this month, by other nations, might be worthy of consideration, especially in a critical and ample disquisition on such a topic. See Usher's Letters, p. 533. Adam's Rom. Antiq. p. 328.