den, at the beginning of the last century. This work, which is the substance of Van Til's lectures, and to which Heidegger's Enchiridion Biblicum served as a syllabus, contains an introduction to the several books, both of the Old and New Testament, relative to the authors of them, to the times when, and the places where they were written, and to their general con

tents.

Of greater value are the Introductions of Carpzovius and Pritius, the one to the Old, the other to the New Testament. Carpzovius, or, as he was called in his own country, Carpzov, was Professor at Leipzig in the former part of the last century, and published, in the year 1721, the first edition of his Introductio ad Libros Canonicos Bibliorum Veteris Testamenti, which was reprinted in 1731, and again in 1741. Carpzov was a man of profound erudition, and indefatigable industry. His work contains the principal materials, which have been afforded by his predecessors, perspicuously arranged, and augmented by his own valuable observations. It is also partly employed in the confutation of Hobbes, Spinoza, Toland, and other antiscripturists.- The service, which Carpzov rendered to the Old Testament, was rendered by Pritius to the New Testament, who in 1704 published at Leipzig, his Introductio ad Lectionem Novi Testamenti, which went through several editions with notes and additions by Kapp and Hofmann. Hofmann's edition was printed at Leipzig in 1737, and reprinted in 1764. Its improvements on the original edition are so considerable, that whoever purchases

the Introduction of Pritius (and it deserves to be purchased by every student in Divinity) must be careful in regard to the date of the title-page.

With respect to French writers of Introductions to the Bible, we may mention in the first place Du Pin's Preliminary Dissertation, or Prolegomena to the Bible, which was prefixed to his work, called The Library of Ecclesiastical Authors, and was reprinted both at Paris and at Amsterdam in 1701, with considerable additions, in two quarto volumes. It explains various subjects relative both to the Old and to the New Testament; and is a very useful work, notwithstanding the severity, with which it was treated by Richard Simon.

The Apparatus Biblicus written by Lamy, a priest of the Oratory, published first in Latin, then in French, and translated into English in 1723, contains likewise much useful introductory information, particularly in respect to Jewish Antiquities.

More extensive and more profound are Calmet's Dissertations, in the form of Prolegomena to the Sacred Writings. Calmet, a very learned Benedictine at the beginning of the last century, first published these dissertations in his Commentary on the Bible, where they were severally prefixed to the books, to which they were intended as introductions. They were afterwards collected into one work by Calmet himself, and published with considerable additions, in three quarto volumes, at Paris in 1720. This work, I believe, has likewise been translated into English: but as I have never seen the translation, I can give no account of it.

L'Enfant, a French Clergyman of the Reformed Church, who, in conjunction with Beausobre, translated the New Testament into French, which was first published at Amsterdam in 1718, wrote a Preface to the translation, which makes a good historical introduction to the New Testament. Of this Preface there has been published an English translation, which some years ago was reprinted at Cambridge.

Nor have our own countrymen, especially within the last sixty years, been deficient in writing Introductions to the Bible. One of our earliest publications of this kind is Collier's Sacred Interpreter. The author of this work, who must be distinguished from the author of the Ecclesiastical History, lived in the former part of the last century. It not only went through several editions in England, but in 1750 was translated into German. It is printed in two octavo volumes, and relates both to the Old and to the New Testament. It is calculated for readers in general, and is a good popular preparation for the study of the Holy Scriptures. The last edition was printed in

1796.

Lardner's History of the Apostles and Evangelists, which was first printed in three volumes in 1756 and 1757, but makes the sixth volume of Kippis's edition of Lardner's works, is an admirable Introduction to the New Testament. It is a storehouse of literary information collected with equal industry and fidelity.

In 1761 the first edition of Michaelis's Introduction, which had been published in Germany in 1750,

was translated into English: and three years afterwards Dr. Owen published his Observations on the Four Gospels. From the three last mentioned works, Dr. Percy, the present Bishop of Dromore, compiled that very useful manual called A Key to the New Testament, which has gone through many editions, and is very properly purchased by most candidates for Holy Orders.

It is a

In imitation of this Key to the New Testament, as the author himself says in his Preface, Mr. (now Dr.) Gray, formerly of St. Mary Hall in Oxford, published in 1790, A Key to the Old Testament and Apocrypha. But it is a much more elaborate performance, than the Key to the New Testament. compilation from a great variety of authors, whose writings are generally quoted: and, as the materials are methodically arranged, it furnishes at one view what must otherwise be collected from many writers. But the author seems to have been unacquainted with some of the most valuable foreign writers. Not even Carpzov is noticed, whose Introduction to the Old Testament contains a treasure of biblical learning, though it had been then published above half a century, and being written in Latin was accessible to every scholar. Nor does the author appear to have been very conversant with that department of sacred criticism, which relates to the manuscripts of the Bible, or he would not have supposed, in a note toward the end of his work, that the celebrated Codex Alexandrinus was at present in any other place, than the British Museum. But, notwithstanding these defects

it is on the whole a valuable publication. A later edition, I believe, was published in 1803: but I cannot say in what respects it differs from the former.

Dr. Harwood's Introduction to the Study and Knowledge of the New Testament, of which the first volume was published in 1767, the second in 1771, I mention at present more on account of its title, than on account of its contents. Though entitled an Introduction to the New Testament, it is not so in the sense, in which the abovementioned works are Introductions. It does not describe the several books of the New Testament, but contains a collection of dissertations, relative partly to the characters of the Sacred Writers, partly to the Jewish history and customs, and to such parts of heathen antiquities, as have reference to the New Testament. But, as these dissertations display great erudition, and contain much information illustrative of the New Testament, Dr. Harwood's Introduction is certainly to be recommended to the theological student.

The last English publication, containing an introduction to the Sacred Writings, is the present Bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Christian Theology, the first volume of which contains an Introduction both to the Old and to the New Testament, and has been since published for that purpose in a separate volume. Having already in another place delivered my opinion on this work, I will here repeat it in the same words: "It is the result of extensive reading; the materials of it are judiciously arranged; the reasonings in it are clear and solid; it is well adapted to the purpose,