The Typology of Scripture [pp. 508-520]

_Fairbairn on Ezekiel.
offence) in its pretensions, is the work upon Ezekiel, an elegant
octavo, the superior typography of which may be understood,
we trust, as indicating the success of the Typology, and a wide
demand for something inore from the same pen. The intrepidity, for which we give the author credit, is strikingly exemplified in his readiness to grapple with the most enigmatical of
all the prophets. The tone of the preface excites expectations
which are scarcely realized, at least by a perfunctory perusal.
Such a perusal is indeed rendered difficult by the external
form of the author's exegetical method, which appears to be a
favourite with Scotch interpreters, but which appears to us far
less adapted to the popular utility of such works than the old
fashioned practice of making the conventional divisions of the
text more prominent, and indeed the frame work of the composition. Here, on the contrary, as in Dr. Brown's learned work
upon First Peter, the text is broken up into masses varying in
form and size, according to the sense indeed but so that the
form of the original is merged in the stream or ocean of the
exposition, and can only be seen rising to the surface here and
there at irregular intervals.'Now the two great uses of expository works are to be read continuously, and referred to occasionally; and both these ends are in our opinion much more
effectually answered by well constructed annotations on the
chapters and verses of the Hebrew or the English Bible, than
by the most ingenious disguises or substitutes for these universally familiar forms.
Here too, as in the "Jonah," we observe a disposition to
extenuate the difficulties, or to charge them on the errors of
interpreters or the stupidity of readers, and an occasional impatience of minute investigation, in the very places where it seems
most unavoidable, leading the author to adopt the conclusions
of his favourite authorities, sometimes without sufficient reason,
or to represent the questions which he cannot solve as wholly
unimportant and unworthy of attention. This superiority to
little things, however useful it may be in other cases, as a safeguard against trifling and belittling treatment of the greatest
matters, can scarcely be regarded as a special qualification in
an expounder of Ezekiel, who should either let the task alone
or come to it prepared for the handling of the sharpest and
~ [Jutt
518