COMMENTARIES ON THE FOUR LAST BOOKS OF MOSES, ARRANGED IN THE FORM OF A HARMONY. VOL. I. BX 9420 .A23 1844 V.3 FOR PUBLICATION OF TRANSLATIONS OF THE WORKS OF JOHN CALVIN. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, ONE POUND, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE ON 1ST JANUARY. FOUR VOLUMES: CIRCULATED IN TWO HALF-YEARLY ISSUES. Acting and Editorial Secretary, Robert Pitcairn, F.S.A. Scot. Calvin Office, 9, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh. COMMENTARIES ON 22.152 THE FOUR LAST BOOKS OF MOSES, ARRANGED IN THE FORM OF A HARMONY. BY JOHN CALVIN. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, AND COMPARED WITH THE BY THE REV. CHARLES WILLIAM BINGHAM, M.A., RECTOR OF MELCOMBE-HORSEY, DORSET, AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. VOLUME FIRST. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR THE CALVIN TRANSLATION SOCIETY. M. DCCC. LII. ST. AUGUSTINE, FOR SHARP INSIGHT AND CONCLUSIVE JUDGMENT IN EXPOSITION OF PLACES OF SCRIPTURE, WHICH HE ALWAYS MAKES SO LIQUID AND PERVIOUS, HATH SCARCE BEEN EQUALLED THEREIN BY ANY OF ALL THE WRITERS IN THE CHURCH OF GOD, EXCEPT CALVIN MAY HAVE THAT HONOUR; FOR WHOM (WHEN IT CONCERNS NOT POINTS IN CONTROVERSIE) I SEE THE JESUITS THEMSELVES, THOUGH THEY DARE NOT NAME HIM, HAVE A HIGH DEGREE OF REVERENCE."-Dr. Donne. [Entered at Stationers' Hall.] WITH CALVIN, THE THEOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE PENTATEUCH REACHED ITS HIGHEST POINT, THAT IS, RELATIVELY. HE STANDS STILL HJGHER ABOVE THOSE WHO FOLLOWED HIM THAN ABOVE HIS PREDECESSORS. IT IS CURIOUS ENOUGH HOW SUCH A LEADER SHOULD HAVE SUCH FOLLOWERS. IT CAN BE EXPLAINED ONLY ON THE SUPPOSITION THAT THEY HAVE NEVER READ HIS WORKS, OF WHICH, INDEED, WE EVERYWHERE FIND EVIDENCE."-Dr. Hengstenberg. EDINBURGH PRINTED BY T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY, TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. COMING into the field as a Translator of CALVIN so late as I do, and after the various able Preliminary Notices of my predecessors in the task, it would ill become me to offer any lengthened remarks, either generally on the personal character and theological system of our illustrious author, or more particularly on his merits as a Commentator upon Scripture. It may not, however, be deemed superfluous that I should refer my readers to the brief but interesting MEMOIR OF CALVIN, written by his associate and friend THEODORE BEZA, and translated by HENRY BEVERIDGE, Esq., in Volume I. of CALVIN'S TRACTS in this Series. It would, I presume, be scarcely possible to produce within a similar compass any Biography of the great Reformer which could at all be brought into competition with this. That the colouring of partiality may be discerned in it, the circumstances of the case would lead us to expect; but as to the main facts of his life, whilst there can be little ground for supposing BEZA to be ignorant of them, so is he above the suspicion of having intentionally falsified them. "Every reasonable person, says BAYLE, “will agree with me, that, with respect to the historical sequence of CALVIN'S travels, no author is more credible than THEODORE BEZA when the occurrences are of such a nature as neither to injure nor enhance the glory of CALVIN." It would at any rate appear to be peculiarly unseasonable, at the present moment, to attempt any new LIFE OF CALVIN, |