9), the same Father remarks, He inquires, not as if really ignorant, but as a judge interrogates a prisoner ;' and Luther, in reference to the passage (Ps. ii. 4) where laughter is ascribed to the Deity, thus observes, 'Not that God laughed as men do, but to point out the absurdity of men's undertaking impossibilities.' (Works, ii. Ep. ps. 37).
Anthropomorphitic phrases are found throughout the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testa ments. In the infancy of mankind conceptions derived from the human senses were universal, and the Deity is constantly spoken of in anthropomor phitic phrases. We find these ideas more pure after the times of Moses, who forbade the making of any representation of the Deity (see DECALOGUE). The conceptions of men became still less sensuous in the times of the Prophets, who propounded still clearer notions of the sublime perfections of the Deity. But even under the Christian dispensation anthropomorphitic modes of expression were un avoidable; for although Christianity imparts purer and more spiritual sentiments than the former reve lations, the inspired teachers could not express themselves without the aid of images derived from human objects, if they would make their communi cations in regard to divine things intelligible to their hearers, who were habituated to the antitro pomorphitic expressions of the Old Testament.
Such a mode of teaching was therefore indispensable in itself, and tended to promote the instruction and enlightenment of mankind ; the attention was more easily kept up among the sensuous hearers and readers of the sayings and writings of Jesus and his apostles ; the truths, figuratively presented, made a deeper impression on the mind; it intro duced variety into the discourse ; the affections were moved, and religious instruction the more readily communicated' (see Seiler's Biblical Her meneutics, part i. sect. 2, § 54-62, London, 1835, and Glassius, Philologia Sacra, Bk. v. Tr. I. c. 7). —W. W.