I have quoted Mr. Horne's compendious account of the Book, in order
JOHN CALVIN
in 1524, when Calvin was yet on the benches of the University, and continues up to 1564, the period when the illustrious Reformer died. The greater part of these letters are addressed to Farel, Melancthon, Theodore Beza, and other distinguished theologians. The French letters are written to the King of Navarre, the Duchess of Ferrara, the Prince of Conde, etc. One is addressed to the Duke of Somerset, who exercised then high authority in England, and contains twenty-three pages."
It may not be impossible that a more accurate examination of these documents will prove that some of them are already before the public; yet few, I think, into whose hands this work may fall will abstain from uniting in the hope expressed by our informant, that this correspondence should be published; or, if they are at all acquainted with the writings of Calvin, will fail to agree in the opinion that "it will present to literature some excellent models of style; to the historian, some precious documents; to the theologian, some interesting ideas; and to simple Christians, some edifying sentiments."
I would even venture here to record my own fervent aspiration, that it may please God to dispose men's hearts to afford such renewed encouragement to those who have undertaken the great national work of which this volume forms a portion, that it may not be abandoned until the whole Remains of Calvin, including the above-mentioned letters, shall have appeared in an English dress, and until every emanation from his almost miraculously fertile mind shall have enriched the religious literature of our age and country. I believe, however, I am correct in saying, that it will be impossible to put the top-stone on this monument of his Christian sagacity and industry, unless every exertion be made to obtain supporters by those who are desirous of its completion.
The Work, which it is now my privilege for the first time to introduce to the English Reader, is confessedly by no means the least worthy of its Author. One of the ablest and most laborious of our own Theological critics, Mr. Hartwell Horne, has especially singled it out for eulogy from amongst the whole series of Calvin's commentaries. "His Harmony of the four last books of the Pentateuch (he says) has been much and deservedly admired for its ingenuity. The History contained in them forms a distinct part. The rest is comprised under the following divisions: —
1. Those passages which assert the excellency of the Law by way of Preface;
2. The Ten Commandments, under each of which are comprehended all those parts of the Law which relate to the same subject; and this forms the great body of the Harmony;
3. The Sum of the Law, containing those passages which enjoin Love to God, and Love to our Neighbor;
4. The Use of the Law; and lastly, its Sanctions of Promises and Threats." I have quoted Mr. Horne's compendious account of the Book, in order that its character may at once be understood; and surely the very idea of viii
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 1 thus combining and arranging this portion of Scripture, so as to present its contents in one simple and consistent whole, must strike us as indication of no ordinary grasp and originality of mind. With this Harmony before him, it is somewhat strange that Lightfoot should have thus expressed himself in the Epistle Dedicatory to his "Chronicle of the Times, and the Order of the Texts of the Old Testament;" "I do not remember that I ever heard or saw this kind of task undertaken in any language, namely, 'to harmonize the Old Testament,' and to lay the current of it in a proper series; and, therefore, I acknowledge I have made a very bold venture in attempting to break this ice, and to tread in these untrodden paths, for which foolhardiness I have no other plea than my own ignorance and the reader's gentleness." It was, one would suppose, hardly within the range of possibility that his ignorance could have extended to unacquaintance with this considerable work from the pen of Calvin; and yet, though his own plan was far more comprehensive, and at the same time less artificial in its management than that of Calvin, at least the boast of such absolute originality as he claims, seems to be barred by the existence of the Book I have translated. It is perhaps even still more remarkable that it should be passed over altogether by Dr. Townsend, in the account of previous Harmonies prefixed to his own valuable "Connexion of the Old Testament!"
The only solution I can give of this omission on the part of these two eminent writers — neither of whom would have been at all likely to do intentional injustice to the clarum et venerabile nomen in question — is that at which I have above hinted, viz., that whilst there are undoubtedly manifest points of similarity in their undertaking, there was still a considerable difference in the mode of its performance.
The object which Calvin had in view, and which he has so efficiently executed, was not so much to present the narrative of each of the four last books of the Pentateuch in its regular order of occurrence, though it necessarily happens that, with respect to a great part of them, this must incidentally be the case. His aim was a far higher one than that of a mere Chronologist. He sought not mainly to arrange the facts of Scripture, but rather to systematize its doctrines, and to bring out the mind of the Spirit of God in the revelation of His just, and good, and holy Law in a complete and harmonious form. His work was intended as an auxiliary in that important process of generalization, which every diligent and devout reader of the Bible must to a certain extent, though sometimes even unconsciously, carry on in his own mind; not satisfying himself with the notions conveyed by isolated texts, but "comparing spiritual things with spiritual," until he arrives at a nearer comprehension of that perfect order which reigns in the midst of their apparent discrepancies.
The ingenuity of his arrangement it is impossible to gainsay. That it is open to objections, even of a graver character than have sometimes been alleged against ordinary Harmonies, he seems himself to have felt; but