360 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



the Old Testament prediction is covered by this principle 

 and by the allied principle clearly recognised in Jer. xxvi. 

 as a thing fully understood by the Hebrews themselves 

 that repentance may avert predicted judgment. But the 

 principle at least seems clear. Prediction is not mechanical 

 but ethical, and is not meant to destroy but to direct 

 human freedom. Now all that Kuenen has to say to this 

 is, that the theory sacrifices the omnipotence and prescience 

 of God, and that the prophets were themselves convinced 

 &quot; both of Jahveh s immutability and of man s powerless- 

 ness to determine the course of the government of the 

 world&quot; (E.T. p. 335 [1877]). Here we begin to see that 

 Dr. Kuenen s method is not so purely inductive and free 

 from a priori presuppositions as it appeared at first sight 

 to be. For observe that it is an essential feature in the 

 theory of conditional prediction that God s purpose is 

 ultimately fulfilled, that His grace does in the long run 

 prevail over man s sin and backsliding. So when Dr. 

 Kuenen ignores this point (he does not even mention 

 it), and says that the theory (which, be it observed, is 

 due to the prophets themselves) is inconsistent with the 

 divine perfection, and makes Him responsible for what is 

 really mere ebb and flow in the temper of the prophet 

 himself (pp. 314, 315), it is plain that his conception of 

 the divine purpose is pantheistic in tendency fatalistic, 

 not ethical. He wishes to banish from God s dealings 

 with man not only all that is anthropopathic but all that 

 is anthropomorphic. God s purpose must not only be 

 absolute in its aim, but rigidly mechanical in its execution. 

 It is to be wrought out in human history, but God must 

 not take man by the hand and adapt His language to man s 

 weakness as a father speaking with a child. Individual 

 personal dealing of God with His people is what Kuenen 

 really excludes when he says that conditional promises 

 and threats are unworthy of divine omnipotence and 

 omniscience. In this he does not stand alone. He 

 speaks the philosophy of his whole school. In Germany 



