utterly to destroy it. And, indeed, on the other hand, pleasure watches the footsteps of the foolish man, but endeavours to trip up and undermine the standing ground of the wise man, thinking that he is always meditating its destruction, but that the fool is always considering the means by which its safety may be best secured. But, nevertheless, though pleasure appears to trip up and to deceive the good man, it will in reality be tripped up itself by that experienced wrestler Jacob; and that, too, not in the wrestling of the body, but in that struggle which the soul carries on against the dispositions which are antagonistic to it, and which attack it through the agency of the passions and vices; and it will not let go the heel of its antagonist passion, before it surrenders, and confesses, that it has been twice tripped up and defeated, both in the matter of the birthright, and also in that of the blessing .”—(I. 157–8).

There was a clear foreshadowing of the atonement by Christ in the nature of Abel's offering, namely, a lamb, as there was the very essence of saving faith in the spirit in which it was presented. Philo scarcely appreciates this in what he says on the subject:

"Moses here intimates the difference between a lover of himself, and one who is thoroughly devoted to God; for the one took to himself the first-fruits of his fruits, and very impiously looked upon God as worthy only of the secondary and inferior offerings; for the expression, after some days,' implies that he did not do so immediately; and when it is said that he offered of the fruits, that intimates that he did not offer of the best fruits which he had, and herein displays his iniquity. But the other, without any delay, offered up the first-born and oldest of all his flocks, in order that in this the Father might not be treated unworthily."-(IV. 816.)

Never till Christ came was it known how deep was the meaning latent under the prophecy to Abraham, and the succeeding patriarchs, " in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed;" but we think Philo might have made a nearer approach to conceiving it aright, than he has done in the subjoined extract:—

And

"For in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' this oracle appears to the wise man in respect of himself, and also in respect of others. For if the mind which is in me is purified by perfect virtue, and if the tribes of that earthly past which is about me are purified at the same time, which tribes have fallen to the lot of the external senses, and of the greatest channel of all, namely, the body; and if any one, either in his house, or in his city, or in his country, or in his nation, becomes a lover of wisdom, it is inevitable that that house, and that city, and that country, and that nation, must attain to a better life. For as those spices which are set on fire fill all persons near them with their fragrance, so in the same manner do all those persons who are neighbours of and contiguous to the wise man catch some of the exhalations which reach to a distance from him, and so become improved in their charcters."-(II. 329).

His Comments on the Messianic Prophecies. 749

Philo allegorised the narrative of the fall, and after repeating his feeble explanation of that most fell catastrophe, he almost necessarily failed to detect the full significance of the remarkable scene in which Moses "lifted up the serpent in the wilder

ness:

"The serpent, then, which appeared to the woman, that is, to life depending on the outward senses and on the flesh, we pronounce to have been pleasure, crawling forward with an indirect motion, full of innumerable wiles, unable to raise itself up, ever cast down on the ground, creeping only upon the good things of the earth, seeking lurking places in the body, burying itself in each of the outward senses as in pits and caverns, a plotter against man, designing destruction to a being better than itself, eager to kill with its poisonous but painless bite. But the brazen serpent, made by Moses, we explain as being the disposition opposite to pleasure, namely, patient endurance, on which account it is that he is represented as having made it of brass, which is a very strong material. He, then, who with sound judgment contemplates the appearance of patient endurance, even if he has been previously bitten by the allurements of pleasure, must inevitably die; for the one holds over his soul a death to be arrested by no prayers, but self-restraint proffers him health and preservation of life; and temperance, which repels evils, is a remedy and perfect antidote for intemperance. Andevery wise man looks upon what is good as dear to him, which is also altogether calculated to ensure his preservation." (I. 398.)

He is partially blind to the remote reference of Balaam's prophecy, thinking it enough to make this comment on one of its most remarkable portions

"For a man will come forth, says the Word of God, leading a host and warring furiously, who will subdue great and populous nations." -(III. 477.)

Nor has he a suspicion of the real dignity which should attach to the prophet "like unto Moses," whom God should raise up

"And He says that if they are truly pious, they shall not be deprived of a proper knowledge of the future; but that some other prophet will appear to them on a sudden, inspired like himself, who will preach and prophesy among them, saying nothing of his own (for he who is truly possessed and inspired, even when he speaks, is unable to comprehend what he is himself saying), but that all the words that he should utter would proceed from him as if another was prompting him; for the prophets are interpreters of God, who is only using their voices as instruments, in order to explain what he chooses.' -(III. 190.)

Not in one instance, so far as we have observed, has Philo risen to the proper Messianic interpretation of a prophecy. Nevertheless, there are sundry evangelical sentiments scattered through his great work. He speaks, for instance, of—

"Most acceptable prayers by which they endeavour to gain the favour of God, entreating pardon for their sins, and hoping for his mercy, not for their own merits, but through the compassionate nature of that being who will have forgiveness rather than punishment."-(III. 289.)

Here we have the very essence of evangelical truth, and cannot but feel deeply grieved that Philo, during some of the visits he paid to the home of his nation, had not been brought into contact with Jesus. Similar to the last quotation, but not so satisfactory, is the next :

"Accordingly, the Levite is the minister of the former division, for he performs all the ministrations which have a reference to perfect holiness, according to which the human race is raised up to and brought to the notice of God, either by whole burnt offerings, or else by saving sacrifices, or else by repentance of one's sins."-(I. 239.)

As we learn from Heb. xi., or, indeed, as we might know from the constitution of our own spirit, faith was the animating principle of the old Jewish heroes. Philo recognises its importance

"And he who has learned this lesson, and who is able to keep and preserve these things in his mind, will bring to God a faultless and most excellent offering, namely, faith.”—(I. 196.)

It is not to God incarnate that he refers in the next two passages, but to God in his essence :

"Let an imperishable hope and trust in God the Saviour remain in our souls, as he has often preserved our nation amid inextricable difficulties and distresses."-(IV. 148.)

"The attractive mercies of the Saviour."-(IV. 263.)

Finally, our author acknowledges that divine grace is essential to spiritual life and progress :—

"For without divine grace it is impossible either to abandon the ranks of mortal things, or to remain steadily and constantly with those which are imperishable."-(I. 488.)

Two concluding extracts on the state of the blessed are as true as they are beautiful :

"For in reality every soul of a wise man has heaven for its country, and looks upon earth as a strange land, and considers the house of wisdom his own home; but the house of the body, a lodging-house, in which it proposes to sojourn for a while."-(I. 391).

"But in my opinion, and in that of my friends, death in the company of the pious would be preferable to life with the impious; for those who die in the company of the pious, everlasting life will re ceive; but everlasting death will be the portion of those who live in the other way."—(I. 295).

Assyria and her Monuments.

751

Reading such passages as these, we are reminded of that young man whom when Jesus saw he loved, and said to him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven."

The view here expressed in regard to the moral and religious character of Philo, is held also by Dr Edersheim, who states it in his "History of the Jews," pp. 447-8 (Edinburgh, 1856); while Dean Milman, in his work on "Jewish History" (4 ed., London, 1866), pp. 133, 136, 141, 149, accuses Philo of giving highly coloured representations of the persecution at Alexandria and the embassy to Caligula.

In conclusion, it may be added, that finding it impossible at the end of an article to enter on a cognate subject of considerable extent, and no slight interest, we have for the present forborne to examine the numerous passages in Philo which throw light on the New Testament, the most important being the notice of Pilate's character and proceedings (iv. 164–5), and the doctrine of the Logos, in some respects approaching to, and in others diverging from, that of the gospel and epistles of St John. R. H.

"THE

ART. V.-Assyria and her Monuments.

THE site of the second, or great Assyrian monarchy," says Professor Rawlinson, "was the upper portion of the Mesopotamian Valley. The cities which successively formed its capitals lay, all of them, on the middle Tigris; and the heart of the country was a district on either side that river, enclosed within the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh parallels. By degrees these limits were enlarged; and the term, Assyria, came to be used, in a loose and vague way, of a vast and illdefined tract extending on all sides from this central region. Herodotus considered the whole of Babylonia to be a mere district of Assyria. Pliny reckoned to it all Mesopotamia. Strabo gave it, besides these regions, a great portion of Mount Zagros, the modern Kurdistan, -and all Syria as far as Cilicia, Judea, and Phoenicia." This region has recently started up, as if disentombed from the long years of forgotten centuries. With deep interest has the Christian world marked

*

* The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World. By George Rawlinson, M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, &c. Vol. i., pp. 225, 226.

the discovery and development of the remains of Nineveh; and, notwithstanding the incredulity of such able and conscientious men as the late Lord Macaulay and Sir George Cornewall Lewis, and the still lingering doubts of some British savans, we cannot but regard, in general terms, the decipherment and interpretation of those strange records to be as marvellous and as real as, after the lapse of so many ages, their very appearance and exposure to the light of day. They have a precision and a purpose, an accuracy and a finish, an entire elevation in art and design, indicating the ruins of a great empire, far in advance of those rude sculptures, that for seven miles along the eastern side of the gulf of Suez have singled out the Wadi Mokatteb as one of the grandest picture galleries of Arabia. And, whilst various sources have been, and may be, assigned to the inscriptions of the "Written Valley," there can be little doubt that the great mass of them are of a Pre-christian age, and whether we refer them to a Jewish or a Nabathean origin (for Jethro and his family were in closest intimacy with Moses, and even the Edomites under the Maccabees became Jews), the tablets of the Arabian desert must be allowed to stand out as a time-honoured testimony to the antiquity and truth of the Mosaic record. But the Assyrian monuments fill a wider range, and speak with a louder voice; they tell of a mighty and dominant civilisation, and, transferred to the museums of the most civilised nations of Europe, give a clearer and more decided attestation to the events of Biblical history. Altogether, we live in marvellous times, whether we advert to the decipherment of the hieroglyphics of Egypt; or the hoary records of Phoenicia, dug up from the tombs and sarcophagi of Tyre and Sidon; or the ausam, the tokens of the Bedaween Arabs, scribbled amidst the ruins of Rabbath-Ammon, the metropolis of the old kingdon of Bashan, the graphic symbols that puzzled De Saulcy, as well as most others of our curious antiquarians in the east; or the arrow-headed characters that appear upon the rocks, and the ruins, and the subterranean remains of Nineveh, and Babylon, and Persepolis.

There is unquestionably a feeling of deep emotion and strange wonderment, to be carried back to a period between two and three thousand years, and to see with our own eyes the names of the "Tyrians," and the "Sidonians," and the men of Accho," and to place our finger on the very words, as in the tenth line of the forty-third plate of the British Museum; or, to do the same, to the very names first of "Sennacherib" at the beginning, and then of "Merodach-Baladan" a little way farther on, in plate sixty-third, that of Bellino's cylinder; or, to muse in silence, as we gaze at the slab from the North-West Palace of Nimrod, and mark, in the eighth line of plate thirty