~*&LuLCi4^ 
 
 THE 
 
 PLENARY INSPIRATION. 
 
 OP 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES 
 
 ASSERTED, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE 
 
 WITH A 
 
 ALL OBJECTIONS^sgSBiif^IVINITY. 
 
 IN SIX LECTURES, 
 (VERY GREATLY ENLARGED,) 
 
 DELIVERED AT ALBION HALL, LONDON WALL. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX, ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL. 
 
 BY THE REV. S. NOBLE. 
 
 o KcXcros, " Et jtt/ 817 &A7j<re<nj/ airoicpivfff&cu (JMI us 
 Troira yap otSa, aAA' ws e| ttre Travruv Ki]8o/j.fV<i) eu av exo*." 
 5e /tot TOISTOV n TreirotTj/cej/ot, a>s et TXS TTJ AtyvTrrw eTriSTj/UTjtros, e^a o/ 
 /Lcey Aiyvjrricav aotyoi, Kara TO. irarpia ypap.iMna t iro\\a fyiXoaotyaai irept roav 
 vap' avrois Vvo/j.ifffji.ft/(av beicov, 01 Se itiiarrai fj.v&as Tivas aKSffavres wv rss 
 \oyss HK fTTis-airai, p.eya CTT' avrois <ppova<riv uero iravra ra fayvTrruav tyvw- 
 Kevai, rots fiuorais avruv fj.afr>iTV(ras, Kai /uTjSew rwv tepewj/ (ru^t|as, ^5* 
 OTTO nvos avTUV ra Aiyvrrriwv airopp-rrra p.a&<av. Orig. cont. Cels. L i. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL, 
 
 STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE STREET. 
 
 1825. 
 
Hodson, Printer, 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden. 
 
 ; 7 /2- V 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 So numerous are the works which have been produced 
 in vindication of the divine authority of the Scriptures 
 and of the truth of the Christian Religion, so high the 
 reputation of many of them, and so unquestionably great 
 their merit, that it might almost appear like presumption 
 in any one again to handle this argument. Certainly, 
 however, while fresh attacks upon the foundations of the 
 Christian Religion are continually .being made, it is ne- 
 cessary that fresh works should be composed in its 
 defence; even though they added no more that is new 
 to the vindication of Revelation, than the renewed ranks 
 of its assailants produce against it. 
 
 But laudable and useful as the production of works of 
 this class is, he who now solicits the attention of the Public 
 would never have appeared as an Author, merely to add 
 to their number. He has long been impressed with a se- 
 rious conviction, that fully to meet the difficulties which 
 infidel writers have raised, it were necessary to put the 
 controversy on a different ground from that which has 
 been taken by the most popular of the Christian advo- 
 cates. He is of opinion, that the ablest of their works 
 are more adapted to silence, than to satisfy, even an in- 
 genuous inquirer. The former effect is or ought to be pro- 
 duced, when such circumstances and considerations are al- 
 
 b 2 
 
iy PREFACE. 
 
 leged as cannot be accounted for upon any other hypo- 
 thesis than that which supposes the truth of the religion : 
 but to accomplish the latter object, the circumstances in 
 the documents of the religion, which, as the Sceptic thinks, 
 are incompatible with the belief of their divine origin, 
 must, also, be satisfactorily explained. This is what few 
 of the modern advocates of Revelation attempt; and 
 they who have attempted it have seldom satisfied even 
 their own friends : indeed it is now usual to admit, that 
 some of the difficulties are such, as, in the present state of 
 knowledge upon the subject, or by any principles 
 which have yet been applied to it, are inexplicable. 
 With this drawback, the success with which they have 
 handled the other part of the argument too often fails to 
 produce any deep conviction; notwithstanding they have 
 proved, with a completeness which leaves little room for 
 fair denial, that Christianity, in general, may, nay, must 
 be true, whether all the seeming difficulties in its records 
 can be explained or not. 
 
 The perpetual theme of modern defenders of Christian- 
 ity, is, Miracles ; which, they shew, were certainly per- 
 formed by Jesus Christ and the apostles, and which they 
 extol as the proper evidences of a Divine Revelation. So 
 far as relates to the latter assertion, the Deist is ready 
 enough to take them at their word : he admits that mi- 
 racles are proper evidences, and desires, therefore, to see 
 some performed. With the express terms of this re- 
 quest, the Christian advocate declines to comply ; but he 
 undertakes to prove, instead of it, that the sceptics of 
 former ages might, if they pleased, have had that satis- 
 faction. 
 
 But do not both parties here somewhat mistake the 
 matter ? If^ the evidence of miracles were so convincing 
 as the Deistical writers usually suppose, how come some 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 of their acutest reasoners to object to Christianity on that 
 very ground, -because it records them among its docu- 
 ments? If, on the other hand, that evidence were so 
 essential as the Christian advocates admit, how can we 
 account for their having ceased ; and ceased, not only in 
 countries were the profession of Christianity is established, 
 but even where attempts are made to sow in new soils the 
 seed of the gospel ? Ought not this palpable fact to make 
 the Christian hesitate about affirming so confidently, that 
 miracles are so highly important as evidences of the 
 truth of Revelation ? Ought it not to lead us to conclude, 
 that, either separate from, or in addition to, this use of 
 miracles, some other cause was required to their exhibi- 
 tion ; and that, this ceasing to operate, they ceased also ? 
 Thus may we not infer, that they were performed under 
 the Jewish dispensation, because they were suited to the 
 nature of that dispensation, and to the Jewish character; 
 that they were performed also at the commencement of 
 Christianity, on account of its original connexion with 
 Judaism ; because, likewise, the Jewish dispensation was 
 not finally terminated till the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 which put a total end to the types and shadows of the 
 ceremonial law; and because, in general, they were suited 
 to the state of the human mind at that time ? but that the 
 cause of their entirely ceasing soon afterwards*, was, 
 
 * What was the exact period of their cessation, whether, with 
 some, we suppose the power of performing them to have died with 
 the Apostles ; or, with others, to have continued for one, two, or three 
 centuries afterwards; or even, with the Roman Catholics, to exist 
 still ; is of little consequence j since few will contend that, after the 
 Apostles, it was constantly enjoyed by the teachers of Christianity, 
 or was so exercised as to add much effect to their preaching. The 
 phenomena which may have sometimes attended private acts of faith, 
 or, as most will prefer to say, (in regard, at least, to modern cases,) of 
 imagination, belong to a different order. 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 because they were not suited to the nature of the Chris- 
 tian dispensation, nor to the state of the human mind 
 which was introduced with, or produced by, that dis- 
 pensation ? It is certain that, with the introduction of 
 Christianity, the human mind received a capacity of being 
 enlightened by the substance of those things of which the 
 Jewish law, with the miracles wrought to confirm it, and 
 those also wrought among the Jews by the Founder of 
 Christianity, were types : and this new state of the mind 
 required evidences more congenial to its own nature. 
 
 Now this view of the subject does more for the sup- 
 port of Christianity, by nullifying the demand of the 
 Deist for present miracles, than would be effected in its 
 behalf by miracles themselves, could they still be pro- 
 duced. For certain it is that miracles would not have 
 that convincing effect which both parties ascribe to them. 
 Accordingly, when they were wrought by the first 
 teachers of Christianity, the conversion of opposers 
 does not appear to have been their chief intention : on 
 the contrary, where opposition prevailed, it is said of 
 the Saviour himself, that he could not do many mighty 
 works, because of their unbelief*; and never did he 
 perform one when defied to it. Still, because no one, 
 in those days, doubted the possibility of such perfor- 
 mances, the fame of them spread abroad. But we 
 well know what excuses the Jews readily framed, for 
 refusing to believe the Revelation thus authenticated 
 to them : and are we sure that even all of those, who 
 now are loudest in condemning the folly, in this re- 
 spect, of the Jews, and who take most pains to prove 
 the infallibility of miracles as evidences to a Divine 
 Revelation, would accept any doctrine which they now 
 reject as contrary to their reason, could its advocates 
 
 * Markvi. 5; Matt. xiii. 58. 
 
PREFACE, vil 
 
 work a miracle for their satisfaction ? Would they not 
 presently evince as much ingenuity as the Jews, in 
 evading the force of the miraculous proof, and justifying 
 their adherence to their former opinion ? We may infer 
 the result from the example of a celebrated controver- 
 sialisyand a strenuous advocate for the efficacy of mi- 
 raculous proof; who yet scrupled not to affirm in one of 
 his publications, that were an angel from heaven to an- 
 nounce to him a certain doctrine, which many think they 
 plainly read in the Scriptures, he would tell him in reply, 
 that he was a Jying spirit : If then a celestial visitor 
 would have been so rudely treated by this mighty po- 
 lemic, who also was an eminent philosopher, what would 
 be the fate of a human teacher of any obnoxious doctrine 
 who should pretend to confirm it by miracles ? Would he 
 not be reviled as a juggler and a cheat ? would not the 
 philosophic science of his antagonists be put in requisi- 
 tion to devise for the phaenomena some plausible solution 
 from natural causes ? and would not some secret method 
 of putting these causes into action be the utmost that 
 would be allowed to the operator ? The only difference 
 between the philosophic and the Jewish opponent would 
 be this; that while the one allowed a positive miracle to 
 have been wrought, but assigned the cause of it to Satanic 
 energy, the other would deny any miracle at all, and 
 would ascribe the whole to the energies of Nature. 
 
 Let us suppose, however, the Deist to be somewhat 
 more candid, and to be capable of being satisfied, at the 
 time, that a miracle had been performed : Imagine him 
 then to appeal to a modern inheritor of the Apostolic 
 gifts, (if any such existed,) enumerating the difficulties 
 with which, to him, the documents of Revelation seem to 
 be attended, affirming that certain statements in the 
 Sacred Records appear to him repugnant to reason and 
 
 i- 
 
yiii PREFACE. 
 
 replete with contradictions, and begging to be informed 
 how the difficulties may be reconciled, and the record 
 containing them viewed as altogether worthy of a divine 
 origin : And suppose the Christian teacher to answer, " I 
 will presently convince you that the Record is from God ; 
 but as for the difficulties in it, you must reconcile them 
 yourself in the best manner you can ;" and were im- 
 mediately to perform some notable miracle : How would 
 the Deist be affected by it ? Would the wonder displayed 
 before his eyes remove all darkness from his mind ? When 
 thus certified that the Revelation came from God, would 
 he understand it any better ? If he before thought it un- 
 worthy of God, would he now see the ground of his 
 error ? If it before appeared to him to include contra- 
 dictions, would these immediately vanish? In short, 
 though silenced, would he be satisfied ? 
 
 Now this appears nearly to resemble the situation,] in 
 which the inquirer, whose attention has been directed to 
 the difficulties which have been raised by Infidel Ob- 
 jectors, is placed by the defences of Christianity most 
 in esteem, when they insist so much upon the miracles 
 wrought at its origin. A compulsory conviction (, com- 
 pulsory as far as it goes,) is produced, that the religion 
 thus evidenced must be true : but the question as to how 
 it can be true, is left just where it was before : and yet 
 till this also be seen ; till the question of reason be as 
 satisfactorily answered as the question of fact ; no con- 
 viction can penetrate very deep. The miracles wrought 
 by the first promulgators of Christianity, are certainly 
 brought again, by the labours of modern advocates, al- 
 most before our senses ; but, happily, not quite : for if 
 they were, the effect would be, to deprive the mind of 
 that superior freedom which Christianity, among its other 
 benefits, was introduced to restore, and not to open the 
 
 
PREFACE. i x 
 
 understanding, but to close it. A sceptic thus convinced 
 that the Scriptures have the sanction of divine authority, 
 would be placed in the situation of an Englishman and a 
 Protestant in such a country as Spain : in his heart he 
 might think the government a tyranny and the religion 
 priestcraft; but being quite satisfied of their power, the fear 
 of the Inquisition might compel him to hold his tongue. 
 It is not congenial to the nature of the human mind to ac- 
 quiesce in implicit faith contrary to the dictates of its own 
 understanding : and if this is not congenial to the nature 
 of the human mind in general, assuredly it is peculiarly 
 repugnant to it at the present day, when so astonishing a 
 spirit of inquiry has so universally gone abroad. The 
 sceptic will now ask, "While the phaenomena of nature 
 are in every direction becoming intelligible, and we are 
 admitted to see the rationale the philosophy, of every 
 other science, is Theology for ever to present nothing but 
 dogmas, for which faith is demanded while understanding 
 is denied ? Will she, alone, never answer the request for 
 her reasons, but by alleging her miracles? " 
 
 Let not, however, these remarks be misunderstood. 
 Nothing is further from the intention of the writer, than 
 to depreciate the merit, or undervalue the utility, of the 
 vindications of Revelation here alluded to : all that is 
 meant to be insinuated is, that they require something in 
 addition to render them fully efficient to their object. If, 
 while the Deist is convinced by them that miracles were 
 actually wrought at the commencement of Christianity, 
 and that Revealed Religion had a divine origin, he is in- 
 duced, in consequence, to suspect that the circumstances 
 in its documents which he regards as revolting to reason 
 only appear so because they are not understood : the con- 
 viction wrought in him may be lasting, arid may finally 
 be exalted into an enlightened faith. But to secure this 
 
 c 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 result, it surely is necessary to lead him, as well as to drive 
 him ; to resolve his doubts and remove his difficulties, 
 as well as to assure him, that the religion is true in spite 
 of them all. 
 
 It has long, then, been the conviction of the writer of 
 these pages, that such a view of the Volume of Revelation 
 might be presented, as should be adequate to this object : 
 but he little thought that ever he should venture to attempt 
 it himself. The present work is entirely the product of 
 circumstances, and its publication is what they who do 
 not acknowledge a Providence in every thing, would call 
 purely accidental. 
 
 The public mind having for some time past had the 
 question respecting the divinity of the Christian Oracles 
 thrust before it in every possible shape, it occurred to 
 the Author, during the last winter, that some benefit 
 might be communicated, at least to a few, by the delivery 
 of some Lectures, in a public Lecture-room, upon the 
 subject. The thought and its execution were equally 
 sudden ; so much so, that the chief part of each Lecture 
 was composed, amid other engagements, and, at first, 
 without the most remote view to any other mode of publi- 
 cation, in the week which preceded its delivery. The ap- 
 probation with which the effort was received, by a nume- 
 rous and respectable auditory, far exceeded the Author's 
 most sanguine expectations. From the commencement, 
 urgent solicitations were made to him to allow the Lec- 
 tures to be printed ; and when, towards the conclusion, he 
 announced his determination to comply with the request, 
 it was received with the strongest expressions of satisfac- 
 tion. This statement is made simply from a sentiment of 
 gratitude, and to account for the appearance and form of 
 the work ; but without any idea on the part of the Author, 
 that the decision of his auditory will in the slightest de- 
 
PREFACE. X J 
 
 gree influence, or even that it can afford any means for 
 anticipating, the decision of the public at large, before 
 whose tribunal he has thus been encouraged to venture. 
 It is also necessary to state, further, that when he consent- 
 ed to publish the Lectures, he really was not aware of 
 what he had undertaken. So hastily had they been pre- 
 pared, that, when he had finished reading them, he hardly 
 knew of what they consisted. He was well apprised that 
 much revision would be necessary, and that many impor- 
 tant things had been cursorily passed over, which must 
 be more distinctly treated : but he fully expected that 
 the whole would have been comprised in less than three 
 hundred pages. The work was put immediately to the 
 press, and the first Lecture was printed without any very 
 considerable alterations from the original copy : the five 
 others, however, have been enlarged, upon an average, to 
 three times their original extent ; and a copious Appendix 
 has also been added.* Altogether, the book has assumed 
 dimensions much beyond what was wished ; but for this 
 it is hoped, the importance of the subject will be a suffi- 
 cient apology. As neither the whole of the work, nor any 
 large portion of it, was ever under the Author's eye toge- 
 ther, till it was irrevocably fixed in print, he is aware 
 that it may afford abundant occasion for the severity of 
 criticism : he would wish therefore that it might be judged 
 by its matter and design, rather than its manner and 
 execution. If the former merit condemnation, let condem- 
 
 * To the last Article of the Appendix, the Remarks upon the 
 late excellent Bampton Lectures by the late Rev. Mr. Conybeare, 
 no reference occurs in the Work itself, the Author not having read 
 them till that part of his Work was printed in which the notice of 
 them would properly have come : he takes the opportunity, therefore, 
 of making the reference here. 
 
Xii PREFACE. 
 
 nation be awarded; but for the latter he craves some indul- 
 gence. The mode of its origin necessarily threw the work 
 into a popular form, which it still retains, especially in the 
 first Lecture : but the Author has endeavoured to render 
 it not unworthy the attention of the lover of studious in- 
 quiry and of biblical literature, while he has mainly en- 
 deavoured to assist the pursuit of the earnest investigator 
 of revealed truth. The question respecting the divinity 
 of the professed Oracles of Revelation, is equally mo- 
 mentous to the simple and to the sage ; and this, he hopes, 
 will be accepted as an apology by the learned, for his 
 having treated it in a concio ad populum* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. Page 1 to 44. 
 
 Introductory. Infidel Objections stated. 
 
 Prevalence of Infidel sentiments, and of an increasing tendency to 
 think meanly of the Scriptures. Their Plenary Inspiration generally 
 relinquished. Design of these Lectures stated. I. Necessity of 
 Revelation. II. The character which must belong to a Composition 
 which has God for its Author. Inquiry proposed : Do the books 
 called the Holy Scriptures come up to this character? Answered 
 in the affirmative by the Lecturer, but the Proof reserved for the 
 subsequent Lectures. Answered in the negative by the Deist, on the 
 alleged grounds, that the books in question contain some Statements 
 which are contradictory to each other, some that are at variance with 
 Science and Reason, and some which are repugnant to Morality ; 
 and that, beside these positive Objections, the greater part of them 
 is occupied with Indifferent and Insignificant Matters. Examples. 
 General Reply : That all such Objections arise from taking a merely 
 Superficial View of the Scriptures, and from an Ignorance of their 
 True Nature ; and that they may be retorted, so as to assist in 
 proving what the True Nature^ of the Scriptures is. III. Appeal 
 to the Reader, on the ill consequences of Infidelity. 
 
 LECTURE 1L Page 45 to 120. 
 
 The True Nature of the Scriptures Explained. 
 
 Design with which the Scriptures were given, and the Nature of their 
 Composition, stated for proof. I. That the title "the Word of 
 God," and the Plenary Inspiration which that title implies, are 
 claimed by the Scriptures. 1. By Moses and the Prophets for their 
 respective Writings. 2. The claim allowed them, and their abso- 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 lute Infallibility asserted, by the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Their 
 
 Plenary Inspiration insisted on by the Apostles. 4. And recognised, 
 
 till lately, by the majority of Biblical Critics. II. Proofs, from 
 
 rational and philosophical grounds, that a Composition which is 
 
 really " the Word of God," must contain stores of wisdom in its 
 
 bosom independently of any thing that appears on the surface. III. 
 
 That the Composition received as the Word of God, continually 
 
 assures us that it is inwardly replenished with such wisdom. 1. This 
 
 intimated by the writers of the Old Testament: 2. Expressly 
 
 declared by the Lord Jesus Christ; 3. And by his Apostles: 4. 
 
 Generally believed by the Christian Church, (1.) for many ages, 
 
 from the Apostles downwards, (2.) and still recognised by the 
 
 best Interpreters. IV. But this great truth having been abused, 
 
 that endeavours have been made, during the last two or three 
 
 Centuries, to restrict the meaning of the Scriptures to their Literal 
 
 Sense alone. Admitted, that all Controversies are to be decided, 
 
 and Points of Faith established, by the Literal Sense : But that the 
 
 objection against a further sense would fall to the ground, could 
 
 it be shewn, that the Scriptures are written throughout according 
 
 to an immutable Law or Rule, a knowledge of which would, in 
 
 explaining them, substitute certainty for conjecture, and cut off 
 
 the sources of vague interpretation. 
 
 LECTURE III. Page 121 to 221. 
 
 The Law or Rule Explained according to which the Scriptures 
 are written. 
 
 Preliminary Remark, on the Reasons why the Scriptures are not 
 written in plainer Language. Short Recapitulation. I. A Univer- 
 sal Rule of Interpretation afforded in the Mutual Relation, which 
 exists by creation, between things Natural or Material, Spiritual or 
 Moral, and Divine. II. The Nature of this Relation considered. 
 1. The whole Universe an Outbirth from the Deity, whence it 
 bears, in all its parts, an immutable relation to the attributes 
 which belong to the Divine Essence. 2. That on all things belong- 
 ing to t the Moral, Intellectual, and Spiritual Worlds, the Divine 
 Creator has thus first stamped a certain Image of himself. 3. And 
 that he has done the same, though under a totally different form, on 
 all the objects of Outward and Material Nature: (1.) In the chief 
 organs and parts of the Human Frame, and in the arrangement of 
 Pairs observable through all Nature : (2.) In the imitation of the 
 Human Form which reigns throughout the Animal Kingdom, and, 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 by Analogous Parts and Functions, in the Vegetable and Mineral 
 Kingdoms also : (3.) In what may be called the Moral Qualities 
 of Animals : (4.) Digression on the origin of Malignant Qualities 
 in Animals and the other productions of Nature. (5.) The subject 
 resumed, and instanced in the Essential Properties of Vegetables 
 and Minerals. 4. Thus that all things in Nature, being Outward Pro- 
 ductions from Inward Essences, are Natural, Sensible, and Material 
 Types of Moral, Intellectual, and Spiritual Antitypes, and, finally, 
 of their Prototypes in God. III. That, were the Relation between 
 these different orders of Existences fully understood, a Style of 
 Writing might be constructed, in which, while none but Natural 
 Images were used, purely Intellectual Ideas should be most fully 
 expressed. 1. That this is in a great measure intuitively perceived 
 by all Mankind. (1.) Hence our conclusions from the Expression 
 of the Countenance to the Emotions of the Mind. (2.) And hence 
 the origin of many Forms of Speech in common use. (3.) If such 
 a relation of Analogy between Moral or Spiritual and Material or 
 Natural Objects exists in a great number of cases, it must be 
 universal. 2. Palpable Instances of the occurrence of such Forms 
 of Speech in the Holy Word. IV. That in ancient times this con- 
 stant Relation between things Natural, Moral or Spiritual, and 
 Divine, was extensively understood. 1. Proved from intimations 
 in the Historical Parts of Scripture. 2. Confirmatory remarks, 
 drawn from the Mythological Fables of the Greeks and Asiatics, 
 and the Hieroglyphics of Egypt, some of which are explained. V. 
 That in this Relation, then, is to be found the Law or Rule accord- 
 ing to which the Scriptures are written, and that a knowledge of it 
 will afford the Key by which their "dark sayings" must be deci- 
 phered. Conclusion : That the Doctrine of Analogies is not liable 
 to the reproach either of Fancifulness or of Novelty, and is worthy 
 the attention of every friend of Revelation and Piety, and of Reason 
 and Knowledge. 
 
 LECTURE IV Page 222 to 382. 
 
 Proofs and Illustrations, evincing that the Scriptures are 
 written according to the Law or Rule developed in the last 
 Lecture. 
 
 I. Of the Style proper to a Divine Composition. Such a Style afforded 
 by the Relation of Analogy between Natural Things and Spiritual, 
 as explained in the last Lecture. II. That if the Scriptures are 
 written by a Plenary Divine Inspiration, they must be composed 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 in this Style. 1. The Word of God must be governed by the 
 same General Law as his Works ; and this is the Law of the above 
 Analogy. (1.) That when the Divine Speech, or the Divine Word, 
 which is the same thing as the Divine Truth, emanates from the 
 bosom of Deity into the circumference of Creation, or into the 
 world of Nature, it there clothes itself with Images taken from 
 that world, and that it cannot otherwise be presented to Mankind : 
 (2.) But it thus is presented with a fulness which no other kind of 
 Language could afford : 2. Variety of Phraseology in the different 
 Inspired Penmen, not inconsistent with Verbal Inspiration. 3. The 
 difference between Plenary and Personal Inspiration ; and that the 
 former is necessarily occasional, and not permanently attendant on 
 certain Persons. III. That the Holy Scriptures are the Divine 
 Truth thus brought into a natural form ; and that therefore their 
 Interior Meaning can only be understood by an application to them 
 of the Law which governs the Relation between Natural Objects 
 and Spiritual and Divine Essences. IV. Applicability of the Rule 
 to the Prophecies of the Divine Word. The View proposed supplies 
 exactly what, in other Systems, was felt to be wanting. 1. Sen- 
 timents of Biblical Critics on the Double Sense of Prophecy. 
 Necessity of making the System uniform. 2. Rule of Analogical 
 Interpretation adopted by Sir Isaac Newton and Bishop Warburton. 
 3. Defects of their Rule, and the necessity of extending it further. 
 V. Examples of the Light which results from the application of 
 the Rule of Analogy between Natural Things and Spiritual to the 
 Prophecies. 1 . Ezekiel's Prophecy of a great Sacrifice upon the 
 mountains of Israel. (Ezek. xxxix. 17 to 20.) (1.) General Re- 
 marks on the Class of Prophecies which can be intended for Spiritual 
 Fulfilment only. (2.) Evidence that this Prediction belongs to that 
 Class. (3.) General Signification of Judaea and the surrounding 
 Countries. (4.) The Spiritual Analogy of the relations of Place 
 deduced. (5.) The Signification of the Land of Gog and Magog 
 as resulting from this Analogy, and of an Invasion thence of the 
 Land of Judaea. (6.) The light thrown by this Prophecy upon 
 that portion of the Prophetic Word which treats in its Letter of 
 particular Countries and Nations. (7.) The Import, in the Lan- 
 guage of Analogy, of the Address to the Fowls and Beasts. 2. The 
 Lord's Prophecy of his Second Coming in the Clouds of heaven, 
 (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30.) (1.) The former part of this Chapter a 
 remarkable instance of that Class of Prophecies which admits a 
 Literal Fulfilment: yet the Spiritual Fulfilment the principal thing 
 intended. (2.) The impossibility of connecting the former part of 
 the Prophecy with the latter by the Literal Sense alone, and the 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Inconsistencies incurred by Commentators in the attempt. (3.) 
 Inquiry instituted into the specific Signification of the Coming of 
 the Son of man in the Clouds. (4.) The terms must have a 
 determinate meaning. (5.) The Import of the phrase, " Son of 
 man," as used in Scripture. (6.) The Ground of that Import in 
 Analogy. (7.) Signification of the Clouds, when mentioned in 
 Scripture ; with the Analogical Reason for it. (8.) The Meaning 
 of the Prophecy thus rendered evident. 3. John's Vision of Spi- 
 ritual Babylon, (Rev. xvii. 3 to 6.) (1.) Signification of Babylon 
 in Scripture, as discoverable from the circumstances predicated 
 respecting it : (2.) Of the circumstances predicated of Babylon 
 personified.* Conclusion : That the Prophetic Parts of Scripture 
 are composed in the Divine Style of Writing, and that, thus far, 
 the claims of the Scriptures to Plenary Divine Inspiration are 
 established. 
 
 LECTURE V. Page 383 to 544. 
 
 Proofs and Illustrations continued. 
 
 The Argument, respecting the proof of the Plenary Inspiration 
 of the Scriptures by their Style, more distinctly stated. I. Ap- 
 plicability of the Law which governs the Relation between 
 Natural Objects and Spiritual and Divine Essences, or of the 
 Science of Analogies, as a Rule for the Interpretation of the 
 Historical Parts of the Divine Word. 1. Sentiments of Biblical 
 Critics, and admissions of Expositors, on the Typical Nature of 
 the Scripture History : (1.) In regard to the Miracles; (2.) And 
 other Circumstances. 2. Necessity of making the System uniform. 
 II. Just Ideas of the nature and uses of the Israelitish Dispensation 
 necessary to the right apprehension of the Israelitish History. 1. 
 The selection of the Israelites as a peculiar people, not intended so 
 much for their own benefit as for the general benefit of mankind. 
 2. It promoted this object j (1.) By their filling a station indispen. 
 sable in the Divine Economy, during a period in which a higher 
 or more extensive Dispensation could not have been received, and 
 in supplying the Preparation without which such superior Dis- 
 pensation could never be given at all : (2.) By furnishing the means 
 by which the Holy Word might be written : which they did by 
 representing 1 divine things under External Symbols and Natural 
 Occurrences ; for which office they were peculiarly suited by their 
 distinguishing Temper and Genius. III. Examples of the Light which 
 results from the application of the Rule of Analogy between Natural 
 
 d 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 things and Spiritual to the Scripture Histories. 1 . The Miraculous 
 Capture of Jericho: (Josh, vi.) (1.) The Acts of Violence per- 
 formed by the Israelites, and some of the Enactments of the Law, 
 merely permitted to them " because of the hardness of their hearts," 
 and because they could be so overruled as to afford exact Symbolic 
 Representations of the Spiritual and Heavenly things which are the 
 real objects of all the Divine Commandments. (2.) The Spiritual 
 Import of the Command to destroy the Canaanites; (3.) of the 
 circumstances attending the Capture of Jericho. 2. Jephthah and 
 his vow: (Judges xi.) Remarks on the literal history. (1.) Ne- 
 cessity for an appearance, on the face of the Narrative, as if the 
 Sacrifice took place. (2.) The Origin of Human Sacrifices : (3.) 
 And of Sacrificial Worship in general ; with its Ground in, and Sig- 
 nification by, the Science of Analogies. (4.)* The Signification of 
 an apparent, and of the actual Sacrifice of a Child. (5.)f The 
 principles applied to the case of Jephthah's Vow, and shewn to 
 explain, most satisfactorily, the statements of the Narrative. 
 3. The combat of David and Goliath. (1 Sam. xvii.) 4. The 
 circumstances attending the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. IV. 
 Examples of the Light which results from the application of the 
 Rule to the Ceremonial Precepts of the Divine Word. 1. The 
 Sacrifices in general : 2. The Prohibition of various kinds of meats : 
 (Lev. xi.) 3. The Law of the Nazarite : (Numb, vi.) 4. Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper ; which were instituted under the Christian 
 Dispensation as an Epitome of the whole Ceremonial Law. In- 
 ference from the whole. V. Additional Argument, 1. Proposed 
 and Illustrated: A false Rule of Interpretation could not draw from 
 the Scriptures a coherent sense throughout : But the Doctrine of 
 Analogies does this : Wherefore it must be the True Rule of In- 
 terpretation, and the Scriptures must be written according to it. 
 2. The argument afforded by the fact, That a number of Writers, 
 living at distant periods, produced Compositions all uniformly fol- 
 lowing this Law. Inference repeated, That the Style in which 
 the Scriptures are composed is the truly Divine Style of Writing ; 
 and that nothing short of Plenary Divine Inspiration could be ade- 
 quate to their production. Thus they are truly denominated THE 
 WORD of GOD. 
 
 * Erroneously marked in the place referred to, (S.) 
 t Erroneously marked (4.) 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 LECTURE VI. Page 545 to 631. 
 
 The whole Fabric of Infidel Objections shewn to be without 
 Foundation. 
 
 T. General View of the System and Arguments of the preceding 
 Lectures: 1. The first stage of the Argument: 2. The second: 3. 
 The third : Important additional Testimony : 4. The last. II. The 
 four Classes of Infidel Objections stated in the first Lecture resumed, 
 and examined by the View which has been developed of the nature 
 of the Holy Word, and of the means of deciphering its true Sig- 
 nification. 1. Imputed Inconsistencies with Reason and Science 
 considered: (1.) Style of Writing in the first part of the book of 
 Genesis. (2.) Genius of Mankind in the Primeval Ages. (3.) Co- 
 incidences between the Narratives of this part of Scripture and 
 ancient Traditions. Conclusion : That the Word of God pro- 
 nounces no dictum upon the questions agitated by Science. 2. Im- 
 puted Contradictions considered. (1.) The case of the water turned 
 into blood by the Magicians of Egypt. (2.) Why were four Gospels 
 written? (3.) Theory of their variations proposed. (4.) Illustrated 
 by the different accounts of the treatment and behaviour of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion : (5.) By the two modes of 
 representing the conduct of the Thieves. (6.) The two accounts of 
 the Temptation in the Wilderness. "(70 Matthew's naming Jere- 
 miah instead of Zechariah a necessary result of his Inspiration. 
 Conclusion : That the varying statements of the Sacred Writers, 
 fairly interpreted, actually become evidences of their Inspiration. 
 3. Imputed Violations of Morality considered. (1.) That they only 
 evince the Representative Character of the Israelitish Dispensation. 
 (2.) David not the Pattern of a saint, but the Type of one. 4. Im- 
 puted Insignificance considered. General Reply confirmed j That 
 all such Objections arise from taking a merely superficial view of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, and from an utter Ignorance of their true 
 Nature. III. Address to Christians on the Necessity of taking 
 higher ground in then: Controversy with Deists. IV. Address to 
 Deists, on the internal causes of Scepticism. 'Conclusion. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page 
 
 No. I. Proofs of the Symbolic Character of the Writings 
 of the Old Testament afforded by the Revelation 
 of John . i 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 No. II. An Attempt to discriminate between the Books of 
 Plenary Inspiration contained in the Bible, and 
 those written by the Inspiration generally as- 
 signed to the whole . .... ix 
 
 No. Ill, The Great Objects and Phsenomena of the Mun- 
 dane System considered, as they are referred to 
 in the Language of Prophecy, and of the Scrip- 
 tures in general xxxv 
 
 No. IV. The Signification of the Clouds, when mentioned 
 
 in Scripture, further Illustrated . . xliv 
 
 No. V. Illustrations of the Jewish Character ; evincing 
 its Aptitude for a Dispensation consisting chiefly 
 in External Rites .... liii 
 
 No. VI. Critical Examination of Jephthah's Vow . Ix 
 
 No. VII. Arguments for the Literal Interpretation of the 
 
 first part of Genesis considered . . Ixx 
 
 No. VIII- Remarks on the Recent Volume of Bampton Lec- 
 tures, by the late Rev. J. J. Conybeare, M.A. ; 
 and on the Support which it affords to the main 
 Principle of the present Work . . Ixxi 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 17 line 6 After treated dele of 
 
 49 27 Dele then 
 
 116 2 For bringing prominently, read bringing prominently 
 
 forward 
 
 126 14 For men read man 
 
 171 14 For is read arc 
 
 190 24 For where read whose 
 
 103 13 For that read then 
 
 247 12 For Bishop Randolph read Dr. Randolph 
 
 271 15 For Judah read Judsea 
 
 366 22 For bodieg read their bodieg 
 
 398 13 For first read second 
 
 406 32 For should read shall 
 
 424 9 For sufficiently read sufficient 
 
 514 7 For uncircumcited. That read uncircumcised, that 
 
 569 8 For image read images 
 
 The reference to Dr. Paley, in the Note, p. 334, should be to his Evidences. 
 Pt. II. Ch. iv. Hi. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. iM'lbliL UIUEC'IIONS STATED. 
 
 Prevalence of infidel sentiments, and of an increas- 
 ing tendency to think meanly of the Scriptures, 
 Their Plenary Inspiration generally relin- 
 quished. Design of these Lectures stated. 
 Necessity of Revelation. The character that 
 must belong to a Composition which has God for 
 its Author. Inquiry proposed: Do the books 
 called the Holy Scriptures come up to this cha- 
 racter ? Answered in the affirmative by the Lee- 
 turer, but the proof reserved for the subsequent 
 Lectures : Answered in the negative by the Deist, 
 on the aliedged grounds, that the books in question 
 contain statements that are contradictory to each 
 other, some that are at variance with science and 
 reason, and some that are repugnant to morality; 
 and that, beside these positive objections, the 
 greater part of them is occupied with indif- 
 ferent and insignificant matters. General reply, 
 that all such objections arise from taking a 
 merely superficial view of the Scriptures, and 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 from an ignorance of their true nature ; and 
 that they may be retorted so as to assist in proving 
 what the true nature of the Scriptures is. Appeal 
 to the reader, on the ill consequences of infi- 
 delity. 
 
 THERE is a prediction in the second Epistle of 
 Peter*, which can hardly fail to present itself 
 to the thoughts of every believer in Divine Re- 
 velation, when he reflects upon the deluge of 
 infidelity, which, in the present times, is seen 
 pouring upon the world. The apostle says, 
 <f there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
 walking after their own lusts :" upon which it 
 has been justly remarked by advocates of 
 Christianity, that the circumstance of the wide 
 diffusion of hostility to Revelation which it is the 
 lot of the present generation to witness, itself 
 affords a testimony of the truth of the Scrip- 
 tures; since it is the fulfilment of a prophecy 
 which the Scriptures contain. Another divine 
 prediction of Holy Writ, will also frequently 
 occur to the recollection of him who contem- 
 plates this state of things: Jesus Christ says, 
 fe Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
 words shall not pass away." f It is now gene- 
 rally admitted by expositors of Scripture, that 
 
 * Ch. fii. ver. 3. f Matt. xxiv. 35. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 3 
 
 the so often occurring prophetical figure of the 
 passing away of heaven and earth, denotes the 
 overturning of ecclesiastical and civil establish- 
 ments. Of these occurrences the present gene- 
 ration has seen more extensive examples, than 
 have before been witnessed since the first esta- 
 blishment of Christianity ; and were it not for the 
 divine assurance that the words of Jesus Christ 
 shall not pass away, (and these words, in fact, 
 include the whole of the Word of God, since we 
 are assured by Peter that the" spirit which in- 
 spired the old prophets was the spirit of Christ*; 
 were it not for this divine assurance, ) we might 
 almost expect, when we observe the activity 
 with which deistical publications are circulated, 
 and the avidity with which, in too many cases, 
 their poison is imbibed, that, amongst the moral 
 and civil revolutions of which the present is so 
 remarkable an era, all belief in divine revela- 
 tion would be abolished from the human mind; 
 the awful consequences of which would be, to 
 place the moral world in a situation precisely 
 similar to that in which the world of nature would 
 stand, were the sun to be abolished from the fir- 
 mament. In a neighbouring nation we actually 
 have seen this revolution temporarily effected. 
 Profligacy of manners and atheistical writings had 
 together destroyed, in a great portion of the peo- 
 ple, all reverence for revealed truth : persons of 
 * i Ep. i. 11. 
 B 2 
 
f PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 this class possessed themselves of the government ; 
 and decrees were issued proclaiming Christianity 
 abolished, and disowning any Divinity but the Divi- 
 nity of reason. The horrors that ensued,, by excit- 
 ing a re-action,, prepared indeed the way for re-es- 
 tablishing the profession of Christianity ; but as 
 this is there disguised among the mummeries of 
 Popery, it is not likely, though now favoured by 
 the government, to make many but political con- 
 versions : and the disregard to the Word of God 
 appears to be nearly as great as ever, though con- 
 tempt for it is not so indecently expressed. In- 
 deed, there is ample reason for believing, that, in 
 all Roman Catholic countries, infidelity, in a 
 greater or less degree, is prevalent with most of 
 those, who consider themselves raised above the 
 vulgar by station and acquirements. 
 
 Are the Protestant countries on the continent of 
 Europe exempt from the contagion? There is rea- 
 son to apprehend, that the poison of infidelity is 
 here also spreading, not less rapidly than where 
 it is fostered by the corruptions of the church of 
 Rome: of which ample evidence might be afford- 
 ed. But here also another extraordinary fea- 
 ture, discovering the tendencies of the present 
 age in regard to the belief in revelation, becomes 
 conspicuous. Not only is absolute infidelity 
 very prevalent, but the religion that is professed 
 is more and more assuming a character, which 
 renders it different from infidelity, less in sub- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 5 
 
 stance than in name. The most low and un- 
 worthy ideas of the Christian Redeemer are 
 daily superseding the honour that is his due; 
 and,, in the same ratio, ideas equally low and un- 
 worthy regarding the inspiration of the Sacred 
 Volume, are spreading with celerity. The 
 church of Geneva, so long regarded by a large 
 portion of the Christian world as the centre of 
 illumination, has published a reformed creed, 
 disavowing any belief in the divinity of the 
 Saviour: and the universities of Germany, which 
 have formerly rendered such essential services to 
 the cause of Biblical Learning, seem now to be 
 labouring, through the works of their Professors, 
 to reduce the standard of inspiration to as 
 low a degree as is consistent with any belief, 
 that the books which claim it contain a system of 
 true religion ; so low indeed, that it becomes 
 difficult to perceive wherein they differ from the 
 productions of writers who do not pretend to 
 be inspired. A few years since, Dr. G. Paulus, a 
 Professor in the University of Jena, and a 
 Clergyman, published a new edition of the works 
 of the celebrated atheist or pantheist, Spinoza, 
 with a laudatory preface, in which he maintains, 
 that the sentiments of this acknowledged infidel 
 respecting the inspiration of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, are the same which, in the hands of Professor 
 Eichhorn of the University of Gottingen, have 
 led to such superior elucidations of the holy 
 
6 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Volume. This Professor Eichhorn has published 
 an Introduction to the Old and New Testaments, 
 with several other works on Biblical criticism, 
 which have been hailed with enthusiasm among 
 his learned compatriots, as prodigies of erudition 
 and genius. By erudition and genius he doubt- 
 less is distinguished: but how far his works 
 tend to exalt the Scriptures, however they may 
 elucidate questions connected with their lan- 
 guage and with oriental antiquities, will be 
 seen when it is stated, that, like our excentric 
 countryman, Dr. Geddes, he denies any inspira- 
 tion to Moses. And it is well known that simi- 
 lar latitudinarianisnr, miscalled liberality, cha- 
 racterizes the works of the modern German li- 
 terati, and teachers of Christianity, in generaJ. 
 Let us now turn our eyes for a moment to our 
 own country. Britain may undoubtedly be re- 
 garded as the Latium of modern times. As 
 in Latium, according to the fables of the 
 ancient mythologists, the virtues of the golden 
 age took refuge after they had been banished 
 from the rest of the world ; so is it in Britian, 
 unquestionably, that the greatest portion of 
 true religion is in these ages to be found. Here 
 also, however, the destroy ing- plague has been 
 let loose ; and its ravages have been exten- 
 sive. Owing in part to the freedom which the 
 human mind in this favoured country enjoys, 
 and the liberty of publishing its thoughts which is 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 7 
 
 necessary to the keeping alive of this inestimable 
 privilege,, deistical and atheistical writings have 
 long been here abundant : a Hobbes set the ex- 
 ample to Spinoza, as did a Toland and Tindal to 
 Voltaire : and the most desponding anticipations 
 were long ago formed by the friends of religion, 
 of the devastating effects which might finally 
 result from the audacity of its assailants. What 
 would these worthy persons have thought, had 
 they witnessed the indecency, as well as audacity, 
 which characterizes the efforts of infidelity in the 
 present age? In their times, but comparatively 
 a few speculative persons entertained any doubts 
 of the truth of the Christian religion: and the 
 attacks which were then made against it only 
 excited attention in the reading portion of so- 
 ciety, which in those days was comparatively 
 small : nay, the authors of such attacks then 
 only addressed them to men of education, and 
 thought the attempt to unsettle the faith of the 
 multitude too desperate an experiment. How 
 different this conduct from that of the present 
 generation of the opposers of Revelation ! Wisely 
 concluding, that the less informed the mind is, 
 the less will it be capable of detecting the 
 fallacy of their arguments, the infidels of the 
 present day chiefly aim at accommodating their 
 publications to the taste of the mob; whose 
 passions, also, they labour to enlist on their side, 
 still more than to convince their understanding. 
 
8 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Arrogant assertion., coarse ridicule, affected con- 
 tempt., bold falsehood., and overweening dog- 
 matism, with unfounded representations of the 
 happiness which would ensue were mankind 
 liberated from what they call the tyranny of 
 kings and priests, and placed under no controul 
 but that of the presumed infallible guide, Rea- 
 son ; these are the chief weapons by which 
 they now make conquests: and as there is un- 
 doubtedly much in the human heart, to which 
 all this is congenial and agreeable, their success 
 has certainly been extensive and alarming. 
 The profligate, to whom the restraints of reli- 
 gion are irksome, finds it extremely consolatory 
 to be assured, that the principles which govern 
 his conduct are really (( the Principles of Na- 
 ture" : and the sciolist in learning feels it 
 highly gratifying to his vanity, to decry as falla- 
 cious, all that is beyond the reach of his puny 
 attainment. Sceptism as incredulity is flatter- 
 ingly called, may be termed a short road to uni- 
 versal knowledge : for he who derides as idle 
 speculation whatever he cannot grasp by the 
 exercise of his sluggish senses, is in his own con- 
 ceit as wise as the archangel, to whom all the 
 mysteries of God's providence stand open, and all 
 the wonders of the Creative Energy are known. 
 
 Here then are two classes of persons among 
 whom the contagion of infidelity has spread ra- 
 pidly indeed. But is it among such, only, that its 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 9 
 
 converts are to be found ? This we would by 
 no means presume to assert. No doubt, many 
 have had their minds unsettled in regard to the 
 truth of revealed religion, who were not pre- 
 pared to take the inoculation of infidelity by a 
 predisposed state of the mental organization; 
 many even, to whom it would be a great relief, 
 could they have their doubts removed to the full 
 satisfaction of their understanding. These arethey 
 who have had their attention directed to certain 
 difficulties which appear to exist in the sacred 
 volume; and which must ever appear as real dif- 
 ficulties to those who are not aware of the true 
 nature of every divine composition, and of the 
 design for which, and the principles according to 
 which, it is written; although when these are 
 correctly understood, all seeming inconsistencies 
 at once disappear. Whilst then these difficul- 
 ties are so industriously brought forward, and 
 presented to the attention with every comment 
 that can help to make them appear insuperable; 
 whilst also an antidote of sufficient power is not 
 afforded by the writings which have been pub- 
 lished in reply, for such, I fear, must be allowed 
 to be the fact; we cannot so much wonder at 
 the immense increase of infidel sentiment at the 
 present day; an increase which is really tre- 
 mendous and appalling ; such as must excite the 
 strongest apprehensions of the final issue with all 
 who do not confidently rely on the assurance of 
 
10 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Jesus Christ : Cf Heaven and earth shall pass 
 away : but my words shall not pass away." 
 
 And whilst the fortress of revelation is thus 
 furiously assailed by those without, how is it de- 
 fended by those within ? Alas ! by giving up its 
 outworks to the enemy, and leaving unguarded a 
 passage to the citadel. I am not now speaking 
 of the works that have been written in defence 
 of Christianity ; but of the principles which., in 
 modern times,, have been laid down from high 
 authority, regarding the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures themselves. By way, as it would appear, 
 of compromising the matter with the enemy,, the 
 doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Holy 
 Word has, within a recent period, been generally 
 relinquished by those who sit in Moses' seat, and 
 who pronounce, ex cathedra,, what the church is 
 to believe. I allude not to such as are generally 
 regarded as apostates from the orthodox faith ; 
 but the authorities to which I refer, are the ac- 
 knowledged oracles of the orthodox church. 
 The present Bishop of Winchester, for example, 
 in his work designed for the instruction of young 
 clergymen, called ff the Elements of Christian 
 Theology/' lays down the doctrine upon this 
 question thus : cc When it is said that the Sacred 
 Scriptures are divinely inspired, we are not to un- 
 derstand that God suggested every word, or dic- 
 tated every expression. From the different styles 
 in which the books are written, and from the dif- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 11 
 
 ferent manners in which the same events are re- 
 lated and predicted by different authors, it ap- 
 pears, that the sacred penmen were permitted to 
 write as their several tempers, understandings, 
 and habits of life, directed ; and that the know- 
 ledge communicated to them by inspiration on 
 the subject of their writings, was applied in the 
 same manner as any knowledge acquired by or- 
 dinary means. Nor is it to be supposed that they 
 were thus inspired in every fact which they related, 
 or in every precept which they delivered. They 
 were left to the common use of their faculties, 
 and did not, upon every occasion, stand in need 
 of supernatural communication ; but whenever, 
 and as far as, divine assistance was necessary, it 
 was always afforded/* Again he says, " Though 
 it is evident that the sacred historians sometimes 
 wrote under the immediate inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit, it does not follow that they derived from 
 revelation the knowledge of those things which 
 might be collected from the common sources of 
 human intelligence. It is sufficient to believe, 
 that by the general superintendance of the Holy 
 Spirit, they were directed in the choice of their 
 materials, enlightened to judge of the truth and 
 importance of those accounts from which they 
 borrowed their information/' (and which he 
 states afterwards were accounts written by unin- 
 spired men) ec and prevented from recording any 
 material error." He is here treating of the 
 
 
12 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 writers of the Old Testament ; of the writers of 
 the New Testament his sentiments are the same. 
 He says, Cf If we believe that God sent Christ 
 into the world to found a universal religion., and 
 that,, by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, he 
 empowered the apostles to propagate the gospel, 
 as stated in these books, we cannot but believe 
 that he would, by his immediate interposition, 
 enable those whom he appointed to record the 
 gospel for the use of future ages, to write without 
 the omission of any important truth, or the in- 
 sertion of any material error/' And these sen- 
 timents are generally received as orthodox 
 are quoted from Bishop Law, and recommended, 
 though not expressly adopted, by the late Bi- 
 shop Watson, in his answer to Paine, and are 
 laid down in numerous works as the true princi- 
 ples of Scripture Inspiration. What ideas the 
 profoundly learned Bishop Marsh, one of the Pro- 
 fessors of Divinity at Cambridge, entertains of 
 the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, is evi- 
 dent from his laboured scheme to account for the 
 composition of the three first gospels, as given 
 with his translation of Michaelis's Introduction to 
 the New Testament; in which he supposes a 
 principal and a supplemental sketch of the Sa- 
 viour's life and discourses to have been first drawn 
 up by unknown authors, to have had various 
 additions made to them afterwards as they passed 
 through various unknown hands, and at last to 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 13 
 
 have been digested by Matthew, Mark, and 
 Luke, with further additions, into the form of 
 their respective gospels. Other statements of 
 this nature might be mentioned; but they all 
 agree in the leading principle of allowing only 
 a very partial inspiration to the sacred writers. 
 Bishop Lowth, for instance, is a name ever to 
 be mentioned with respect by the Biblical student, 
 for his valuable Prelections on Hebrew poetry, 
 and Version of Isaiah : but when he represents 
 the prophets as borrowing ideas from one ano- 
 ther, and as improving or debasing what they 
 thus borrowed according to the sublimity of 
 their poetical genius or the purity of their criti- 
 cal taste; does he not degrade them, in a great 
 degree, from prophets to mere poets? He cer- 
 tainly endeavours to elevate our esteem for their 
 talents as men ; but he assists in abolishing 
 our reverence for their writings as flowing from 
 the immediate dictate of God. 
 
 Now how do Deists receive these concessions 
 so liberally made ? The advocates of Revelation 
 may be regarded as saying to them, ff See ! we 
 have come half way to meet you : surely you will 
 not obstinately refuse belief, now that we require 
 you to believe so little." What does the Deist 
 answer? He says, "You are admitting, as fast 
 as you can, that we are in the right. If you, who 
 view the subject through the prejudices of your 
 profession, are constrained to give up half of 
 
14 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 what we demand, unbiassed persons will augur 
 from the admission, that truth would require a 
 surrender of the whole/' No, rny friends and 
 brethren ! he who would effectually defend the 
 Christian faith must take his station on higher 
 ground than this. What ! tell the world, that to 
 escape the increasing influence of infidelity,, they 
 must surrender the plenary inspiration of the 
 Scriptures ! As well might we tell them, that to 
 obtain security when a flood is rising, they should 
 quit the top of the mountain to take refuge in 
 a cave at its base. 
 
 Assuredly, this is a state of things, calculated 
 to fill the breast of the sincere and humble 
 Christian with profound concern, if not with 
 deep alarm. On the one hand, he beholds 
 Divine Revelation assaulted with unprecedented 
 fury and subtlety by those who avow them- 
 selves as its enemies ; on the other, he sees 
 it half betrayed and deserted by those who re- 
 gard themselves as its friends. Every devout 
 believer in Revelation feels an inward predilec- 
 tion for the opinion, that the inspiration of a 
 divinely communicated writing must be plenary 
 and absolute. He feels great pain on being told, 
 that this is a mistaken notion; that he must 
 surrender many things in the Sacred Writings to 
 the enemy, to retaiu any chance of preserving 
 the rest ; that he must believe the writers of the 
 Scriptures to have been men liable to error, as a 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 15 
 
 preliminary to his assurance that the religion of 
 the Scriptures is true. Surely, every one whose 
 heart does not take part with the assailant of his 
 faith,, must be glad to be relieved from the neces- 
 sity of making surrenders so fatal. The bowed 
 staff eagerly springs back to its natural straight- 
 ness, when lightened of the weight under which 
 it bent: so he who has relinquished the doctrine 
 of plenary inspiration,, only because he saw no 
 other way of accounting for the difficulties which 
 have been pointed out in the Sacred Writings, 
 will return to it with joy, as soon as he sees 
 how those difficulties may be explained, without 
 the hypothesis of error in the inspired penmen. 
 Reflection, then, upon these things, has occasioned 
 a desire in myself and some friends, to bring 
 before the public, a view of the nature of the 
 Holy Word in which this is done, a view which, 
 I strongly feel, is the only one that places the 
 Divine Book beyond the reach of injury from 
 infidel objections. It is, however, with much 
 diffidence, that I address an auditory from a sta- 
 tion, which is at other times occupied by some 
 of the ablest men, whom the Christian ministry 
 of this metropolis can boast:* [and I feel the 
 same self-distrust, in a still greater degree, on 
 addressing the public from the press.] My only 
 
 * A series of Lectures on Scripture Biography was then 
 in a course of delivery at Albion Hall, by the most eminent 
 Ministers of the Independent Connexion. 
 
16 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 hope of obtaining acceptance, is founded in my 
 conviction of the solidity of the sentiments, which 
 I am to be the very inadequate organ of unfold- 
 ing : sure, also, I am, that no candid minds will 
 be less pleased with the truth, because it is offered 
 through a channel, which they might not pre- 
 viously have supposed adapted to convey it. 
 The defence of the oracles which contain the 
 revelation of the Christian religion, is the com- 
 mon duty of all who assume the Christian name: 
 and all who are sincerely attached to the Christian 
 cause, will extend the right hand of fellowship 
 to any one, be he otherwise who he may, who 
 can point out a new line of defence, and shew 
 how the divine authority of Revelation may be 
 more effectually upheld. We are assured, also, 
 that the Lord's care over his church can never be 
 intermitted; that in proportion to the magnitude 
 of the dangers to which she is exposed, will be 
 the communication of means by which she may 
 be defended : and it is perfectly in harmony with 
 the ordinary economy of Divine Providence, that 
 those means should come from a quarter whence 
 they are least expected. Confiding then in the di- 
 vine support, on the one hand, and relying, on the 
 other, on the charity and love of truth which must 
 ever reign in the bosom of the true Christian; 
 appealing also to the liberality and regard to pure 
 reason which is constantly professed by the Deist; 
 I beg the favourable and earnest attention of this 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 17 
 
 auditory,, [and of the reader,] while I discuss the 
 subjects announced for consideration in these 
 Lectures. 
 
 The question of the Necessity of Divine Reve- 
 lation, has been so frequently and so satisfactorily 
 treated 4$ by others, that, as it is my wish, as far 
 as possible, to aroid going" over ground that has 
 been trodden before, I shall not dwell long on 
 this part of the subject. 
 
 The view which I would take of this question, 
 is this. It is certain, that all the facts with which 
 history brings us acquainted in regard to the 
 state of mankind in former ages, and all those 
 which are supplied to us by the observations of 
 travellers respecting the present state of mankind 
 in the different countries on the globe, afford the 
 most decided evidence, that, without aid from 
 Revelation, man is little better than a brute ; 
 that to Revelation are owing all the superior 
 excellences which ennoble his character as a man. 
 Infidel writers talk of the light of reason, and 
 they speak of the duties of man in society, with 
 every thing necessary to his moral and intellectual 
 improvement, as being easily deducible by the 
 light of nature. The high utility of these 
 sources of intelligence I readily admit : but 
 when I hear such assertions as these, I always 
 feel a wish to be informed how it has happened, 
 that the light of nature never conducted man to 
 
 D 
 
18 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 these discoveries, except when Nature had the 
 means of lighting her candle at the torch of Re- 
 velation. It is evidently from the general im- 
 provement in the intelligence of the human mind 
 which Revelation has produced, that modern in- 
 fidels have been enabled to illuminate their reve- 
 ries with some beautiful truths: These truths 
 were not discovered to them either by the light 
 of nature or the light of reason : they took them 
 first from that religion in which they had been 
 brought up ; and then, finding them recommend 
 themselves by their own evidence, and to be 
 agreeable to the light of reason and nature, they 
 have ascribed them to that source ; and thus they 
 set up the offspring of Revelation to destroy the 
 authority of the parent. 
 
 Never yet was a nation known to have emerg- 
 ed from barbarism to civilization, without instruc- 
 tion communicated, either immediately or tra- 
 ditionally, from Revelation. According to the 
 testimony both of the Scriptures, and of other 
 ancient authorities, all religion, which was all 
 originally founded in Revelation, began in the 
 east, and has thence been diffused in the west ; 
 and it is well known, that the same has been the 
 tract in which civilization has flowed over the 
 world. The first created men had, as the Scrip- 
 tures assure us, the knowledge of God and of 
 their duty communicated to them by immediate 
 Revelation. After the flood, Revelation was con- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 19 
 
 tinned in the family of Noah, by whose posterity 
 all the powerful and highly polished nations of 
 antiquity were founded. Even the Grecian and 
 other ancient mythologies were corruptions of 
 the originally true religion communicated by 
 Revelation to Noah and his descendants. This 
 takes away the plea of those, who would appeal 
 to the philosophers of Greece as examples of 
 the efficacy of the light of nature. This plea 
 has indeed been well answered by Leland and 
 others, who have shewn, that, under the name 
 of philosophy, the most ridiculous fancies in 
 theory, and the most corrupt abominations 
 in morals, were often foisted on mankind, and 
 that a man would wander in darkness indeed, 
 who should draw all his light from such foun- 
 tains alone. But admitting, for argument's sake, 
 that it would be safe to take the best of the phi- 
 losophers as guides in religion and morals: it is 
 a well known fact, that both Plato and Pythago- 
 ras derived a part of their systems from the 
 priests of Egypt, whom they went expressly to 
 consult; and though the pure light of Revela- 
 tion was in Egypt greatly obscured, yet it is cer- 
 tain that all the true knowledge of a religious 
 nature which the Egyptians possessed, was what 
 remained from their original descent from the 
 son of Noah. As natives of Greece then, where 
 the religion derived from the revelation to 
 Noah existed under one form of corruption, 
 
20 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 and as students in Egypt, where the same 
 original religion existed under another form of 
 corruption, Pythagoras and Plato possessed 
 themselves of all the remains of knowledge which 
 tradition had preserved from that Revelation. 
 I would by no means affirm, as some learned 
 men have done, that Plato borrowed any of his 
 ideas from the Jews, or that the writings of Moses 
 afforded any of the materials for the Grecian 
 mythology : but there was a revelation existing 
 in the world before that given by the instrumen- 
 tality of Moses, and which was similar to his in 
 substance, though different in form ; and this, 
 turned into symbolic representations, was the 
 foundation of the popular religion, whilst the 
 ideas veiled in those symbols were the basis of 
 philosophic speculation, among all the dis- 
 tinguished nations of antiquity. 
 
 The sceptic may laugh at the assertion, but I 
 arn satisfied that they who can view things in 
 their causes will see its truth; that, whatever they 
 who would separate science "from religion may 
 pretend to the contrary, Revelation is, in an in- 
 direct manner, the fountain-head of all science ; 
 for it is in consequence of the elevation of the 
 faculties that is occasioned by the reception of 
 the truths which are the objects of revelation, 
 and the consequent illumination of the mind 
 with heavenly light, (allow this phrase, ye ad- 
 vocates of the light of nature! for if there be 
 
. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. ... 21 
 
 . ^^.-'fe k < 
 
 such a thing as Revelation,, the perceptions which 
 are its offspring must be the progeny of heavenly 
 light,,) that it becomes receptive of higher de- 
 grees of natural light, and is capable of making 
 greater discoveries in the truths which are the 
 objects of science. It is true that these may be 
 separated, and that men may excel in natural 
 science, who ridicule every thing spiritual : yet 
 it is only in consequence of their receiving the 
 outward part of the sphere of illumination, which 
 continually flows from God into the human 
 mind, through the medium of those who re- 
 ceive the internal part of it, by admitting the 
 truths of Revelation, that progress is made in 
 natural science. All real intelligence, on what- 
 ever subject, must unquestionably be the product 
 of a sphere of illumination flowing continually 
 from God. The highest objects of this illumina- 
 tion must be the truths that relate to man's 
 welfare as an immortal being, the lowest, those 
 which conduce only to his well-being in this 
 world. Intelligence in the former respect then, 
 must be considered as the operation of an interior 
 sphere of divine illumination ; and intelligence 
 in the latter, as the operation of an exterior 
 sphere of the same. Now the former must be to 
 the latter, just what the soul is to the body : and 
 the latter can no more be entirely separated from 
 the former without extinction, than the body can 
 be separated from the soul without death. Again : 
 
22 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Illumination in spiritual things is to illumination 
 in natural^ what the heart is to the members. If 
 the femoral artery be divided and secured, the 
 limb will still receive nourishment through the 
 anastomosing vessels : this answers to the case of 
 the existence of scientific attainments, with those 
 who deny religion ; who yet receive the exterior 
 sphere of illumination from God, in consequence 
 of living in connexion with those who receive 
 the interior sphere also : but separate the limb 
 entirely from communication with the heart, by 
 dividing all the vessels, and the limb will speedily 
 waste away : and this exhibits the fate of science, 
 were it altogether separated from Revelation. 
 Transplant then a colony of atheistic philosophers 
 (Deists, as retaining from Revelation the belief 
 of a God, would not be proper subjects for the 
 experiment : but transplant a colony of atheistic 
 men of learning,) to a remote corner of the globe, 
 and allow them no communication whatever 
 with the disciples of Revelation ; and the certain 
 effect would be, that they would degenerate by 
 degrees into absolute barbarism. To what 
 cause can be attributed the wonderful supe- 
 riority in literature and the arts, which the in- 
 habitants of Christendom have so long main- 
 tained over all the other nations on the globe, 
 but to their minds being more receptive of light 
 of all kinds, in consequence of their admitting 
 the light of Revelation ? How extraordinary too 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 28 
 
 is the power which they derive from this source ! 
 See how they have covered the whole western 
 world with their colonies, and how the aboriginal 
 inhabitants have faded from before them ! Be- 
 hold what an empire they have established in 
 the east, almost without colonization, by the 
 pure force of moral superiority ! It is not meant 
 to be asserted that they have always made the 
 best use of their superiority, but only that it 
 unquestionably exists. Superiority in arms is, 
 undoubtedly, the offspring of superiority in arts 
 and science; and these are the products of 
 natural light, which is the offspring of spiritual ; 
 and thus Christians are the arbiters of the des- 
 tinies of the world, because they are the de- 
 positaries of the Word of God. As the tropical 
 climates so immensely excel all others in the 
 luxuriance of their vegetable productions, be- 
 cause they receive most directly the recreating 
 energies of the orb of day; and as all other 
 countries are productive or otherwise according 
 to the proportion which they obtain of the 
 vivifying beams, till, at the poles, perpetual 
 sterility reigns : so are the powers of the human 
 mind invigorated or otherwise in proportion to 
 their reception of the beams of Revelation, and 
 when excluded from these, they languish in the 
 torpor of dulness and ignorance. Paradoxical 
 then as the assertion may sound in the ears of 
 some, it is a certain fact, that could those who cul- 
 
2 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tivate science without regard to religion, and who 
 reject the Holy Word, the parent of all science, 
 accomplish the object which some of them have 
 aimed at, of destroying the Holy Word by the 
 aid of her rebel progeny; they would accom- 
 plish much more than they intended : in digging 
 a grave for Religion, they would open one, in 
 which, not long afterwards, Science also would 
 be entombed. 
 
 . In one word, Until an instance can be adduced 
 of a nation that has flourished in arts, morals, 
 and civilization, without any assistance from Re- 
 velation, we have full reason for concluding, that 
 Revelation is necessary. For the attainment 
 even of these natural benefits, in order to man's 
 enjoyment of the true excellences and attaining 
 the perfections of his nature, in this life, the light 
 of Revelation is indispensable: of the existence 
 and attributes of God, of his own immortality, 
 of the existence and nature of a life hereafter, 
 and of the means by which he may there attain 
 the true end of his being, without the light of 
 Revelation, he would know nothing at all. Here 
 then it becomes indispensable indeed; and there- 
 fore, in all ages of the world, it has been afforded. 
 
 Since then we have such ample reason for 
 concluding, that a revelation from God, under 
 some form or other, is absolutely necessary to 
 the well-being of man: on the supposition that 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 25 
 
 God, to make the advantages of revelation con- 
 stant and permanent,, should cause it to be com- 
 municated in a written composition ; what is the 
 character which,, we may justly conclude, such 
 a written revelation would assume ? Our ideas 
 on this question will be regulated by the ideas 
 we have conceived of the nature of God Him- 
 self: certainly, if these are such as are worthy 
 of the Father of creation, we shall be led to 
 expect something of a most exalted nature in 
 a written revelation of his will. Who then is 
 this wonderful Being, whom we assume to be the 
 author of the writings called the Holy Word ? 
 Infidelity itself must allow, that this question 
 cannot be more appropriately answered, than is 
 done, as from the mouth of the Lord Himself, 
 by the prophet Isaiah : " I arn the First, and I 
 am the Last, and beside me there is no God." 
 <e Who has measured the waters in the hollow of 
 his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and 
 comprehended the dust of the earth, in a measure, 
 or weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills 
 in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of 
 the Lord, or, being his counsellor, has taught 
 him? With whom took he counsel, or who in- 
 structed him, and taught him in the path of judg- 
 ment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed 
 him the way of understanding? Behold, the 
 nations are as the drop of a bucket, and are 
 counted as the small dust of the balance: be- 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 hold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing: 
 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,, and the beasts 
 thereof for a burnt offering! All nations before 
 him are as nothing, and they are counted to him 
 as less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then 
 will ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye com- 
 pare unto him?" He is (C the High and Lofty One 
 that inhabiteih eternity, whose name is Holy/'* 
 It is by such images as these that the prophets of 
 the Old Testament depict the grandeur of the 
 Author of the Bible ; nor does the New Testa- 
 ment describe him in less impressive terms. 
 When he manifested himself to John, as related 
 in the first chapter of the Revelation, it is writ- 
 ten ; " I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning 
 and the Ending, saith the Lord, Who Is, and 
 Who Was, arid Who is to Come, the Almighty. "f 
 I forbear to add any thing to these scriptural 
 representations : for in attempting to delineate 
 the ineffable perfections of God, all human lan- 
 guage must fall infinitely too low : yea, this is 
 a theme of so transcendant a nature, that the 
 tongues of angels could never do it justice. 
 Let us elevate our ideas as far as we possibly 
 can above all that is earthly and gross; let 
 us form the grandest conceptions we possibly 
 can of the intense ardour of the Divine Love, 
 of the transcendant brightness of the Divine 
 Wisdom, and of the immense extension of the 
 
 * Isa. xliv. 6, xl. 12 to 18, Ivii. 15. f Ver. 8. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 7 
 
 Divine Omnipotence : and then let us recollect, 
 that these Diyine Attributes are infinitely beyond 
 all that the highest efforts of imagination can 
 conceive. 
 
 Now whilst we are meditating on these three 
 grand attributes of Deity, his Love, his Wis- 
 dom, and his Power; if we would endeavour 
 to picture to our thoughts how far they might 
 respectively be exerted, we certainly could never 
 conceive any thing beyond what the Scriptures 
 represent them as having actually performed. 
 Thus if we were to consider in what works the 
 Divine Love might most evidently be displayed, 
 we assuredly could imagine nothing more replete 
 therewith than the wonder^ of our own creation 
 and redemption. For the Lord doubtless created 
 mankind expressly with the design to bless them 
 with every felicity: he also provided an eternal 
 heaven in which that felicity might be perma- 
 nently enjoyed: and what could Infinite Love 
 do more? Yet the Love of the Lord has .done 
 more. For when man had entirely receded from 
 the end of his creation, such was the mercy of 
 Him by whom all things were made, and without 
 whom was not any thing made that was made* y 
 that he assumed man's nature by incarnation in 
 the world, in order to lead him back to his Maker 
 and to bliss. 
 
 If again we were to consider within ourselves, 
 * John i. 3. 
 E 2 
 
28 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in what manner the Divine Power of the Lord 
 might be most evidently displayed, we could 
 not possibly imagine any more stupendous ex- 
 ertions of it than those which we see around us. 
 For what amazing power must that have been, 
 by which this fair globe was formed,, and peo- 
 pled with innumerable inhabitants; by which 
 the enormous orb that gives us light and heat 
 was created; and by which myriads of other 
 such immense repositories of heat and light, 
 each with a train of dependant worlds,, were 
 called into existence, and arranged in an order 
 that baffles all human intellect to conceive, 
 through the boundless fields of immeasurable 
 space ! 
 
 Since then these manifest exhibitions of the 
 Divine Love and the Divine Power are of so 
 immense and magnificent a nature, must we not 
 expect that an immediate revelation of the 
 Divine Wisdom would be equally wonderful and 
 glorious? That in all the works which we have 
 already mentioned the Divine Wisdom is appa- 
 rent, and that none of them could have existed 
 without it, is, indeed, a certain truth : still we 
 may imagine a method in which the Divine 
 Wisdom might be more immediately and ex- 
 pressly discovered. The readiest means we have 
 of judging of the intelligence or understanding of 
 men, is, by their sentiments and conversation ; 
 knd if a man writes a book, we expect to find 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 29 
 
 in it the plainest evidence of his wisdom, know- 
 ledge, and mental attainments. Suppose then 
 the Lord God Almighty himself should reveal 
 his Wisdom in this manner; suppose he should 
 write, or cause to be written, a book for the 
 instruction of man ; should we not conclude, that 
 such as the Lord God Almighty is, such his book 
 would be? should we not infer, that such a book, 
 like its author, must, as to its contents, be infinite 
 and divine? Should we not expect to see the 
 glories of eternal wisdom shine forth from every 
 page? All mankind, with one voice, must answer 
 these questions in the affirmative. 
 
 Here then we come to the great question that 
 is at issue between the Christian ^nd the Deist. 
 It cannot be denied, we see, that a written Reve- 
 lation that is really from God, must answer the 
 character which we have attempted to depict: 
 Do then the writings contained in the book 
 called the Bible, come up to this character; 
 and are we, on that account, authorised to re- 
 ceive those writings as the Word of God? I 
 hesitate not to reply, with the fullest confidence, 
 that they do; and I hope to make this in some 
 degree evident before the conclusion of these 
 Lectures. 
 
 By the Deist, however, such an answer as this 
 may be received with the utmost scorn. He will 
 readily enough admit, that a book that is really 
 communicated by divine inspiration, ought to 
 
30 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 answer to the character which we have just 
 described : but he will declare, that he can 
 discover no traces of such a character in the 
 book called the Bible. He will affirm, that such 
 a character as this can by no means belong to a 
 book in which there are many statements that 
 are contradictory to each other; many that are 
 contradictory to reason and science ; many that 
 are contradictory to just morality; and the greater 
 part of which book, moreover, is occupied with 
 matters of an indifferent nature, unworthy of 
 the concern of an Infinite Being. To these four 
 heads may all the classes of infidel objections to 
 the Scriptures be reduced. Some of the objec- 
 tions are, in my estimation, fully refuted in the 
 many valuable defences of the Scriptures which 
 have been published by various authors ; but 
 some of them, I candidly acknowledge, have not, 
 in my opinion, been adequately met : the reason, 
 I apprehend, has been, because the generality of 
 those who have written in modern times in de- 
 fence of the Sacred Scriptures, had not those just 
 ideas of the primitive ages respecting their true 
 nature and design, which alone can meet every 
 objection fully and without reserve. I will here 
 give a slight statement of the nature of each of 
 these four classes of objections : and I will not 
 shrink from stating them with all the force of 
 which they are susceptible : because I am com- 
 pletely satisfied, that the views I shall develope in 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 31 
 
 the succeeding Lectures, will be fully adequate to 
 overthrow them all. It is of no real use to pre- 
 sent things partially and unfairly : this always 
 gives opportunity of triumph to an enemy ; and 
 will only secure the attachment of a friend, so 
 long as we can secure his remaining in ignorance. 
 
 Great stress has been laid by infidel objectors 
 upon their charge of contradictory statements of 
 facts : and of the instances alleged to be such, 
 they have collected a great number. 
 
 Thus, after Moses had directed Aaron, saying, 
 c( Take thy rod, and stretch out thy hand upon 
 the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon 
 their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all 
 their pools of water, that they may become blood ; 
 and that there may be blood throughout all the 
 land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in 
 vessels of stone*;" and after it is related, in the 
 two next verses, that the miracle was performed 
 accordingly; objectors affirm that Moses must 
 strangely have forgotten himself, to say in the 
 verse following, fc And the magicians of Egypt 
 did so with their enchantments." When all the 
 water of Egypt was turned into blood before, 
 how, it is asked, could the magicians repeat the 
 operation? But the varieties observable in the 
 manner in which the different evangelists state 
 the events of the life of Jesus Christ, sometimes 
 disagreeing in the order of time, and sometimes 
 * Exod. vii. 19. 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in the circumstances with which the facts were 
 attended, have afforded an extensive field for 
 opprobrious animadversions. When Matthew*., 
 in relating the temptation of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ in the wilderness, makes it conclude with 
 the rebuff he gave the tempter on being offered 
 the dominion of all the kingdoms of the world 
 on condition that he would worship the Satanic 
 deceiver; whilst Lukef places last the sugges- 
 tion to throw himself down from the pinnacle 
 of the temple in proof of his being the Son of 
 God ; it is argued., that the whole is a fiction, 
 marked as such by the prevarication which so 
 commonly attends the testimony of witnesses 
 who undertake to support a falsehood : and 
 Christian advocates, while they deny the in- 
 ference that the whole or any part is a fiction, 
 allow that one of the relaters must have been 
 mistaken in regard to the order of time, and 
 that, though he relates true events, he relates 
 them from his own imperfectly informed mind, 
 and not from divine inspiration. Again, the 
 objectors ask, What credit is to be given to 
 the veracity of writers, and, especially, what 
 becomes of their claim to divine inspiration, 
 when they misquote so grossly the books which 
 they esteemed sacred, as to assign to one writer 
 what is only to be found in the book of another? 
 Thus Matthew, on occasion of the purchase of 
 * Ch. iv. 10. f Ch. iv. 9. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 33 
 
 the potter's field with the refunded price of the 
 treachery of Judas, says, "Then was fulfilled 
 that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, 
 saying 1 , ' And they took the thirty pieces of silver, 
 the price of him that was valued, whom they of 
 the children of Israel did value, and gave them 
 for the potter's field; as the Lord appointed 
 me/'* The only passage in the Old Testament 
 which bears any similitude to this, is not in the 
 book of JEREMIAH, but in that of ZECHAiuAH.f 
 And the harmonizers of Scripture have seen no 
 way of surmounting this difficulty, but by one of 
 two equally dangerous admissions; either that 
 Matthew was mistaken ; or that the book of Je- 
 remiah has come down to us in a very mutilated 
 state. The only other example of deistical objec- 
 tions from alleged contradictions which I shall 
 mention, is that drawn from the account of the 
 two thieves who were crucified with Jesus, as 
 given by Matthew and by Luke. After relating the 
 cruel scoffs with which the Saviour was insulted 
 by the Jews as he hung on the cross, Matthew 
 saysj, fc And the thieves also, which were cruci- 
 fied with him, cast the same in his teeth :" 
 whereas Luke affirms that only one of them dis- 
 played this brutality, and that he was rebuked 
 for it by the other; who, so far from mocking, 
 " said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when 
 
 * Matt xxvii. 9, 10. f Ch. xi. 12, 13. : Ch. xxvii. 42. 
 Ch. xXiii. 39 t6 43. 
 
34 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 thou comest into thy kingdom." This difference 
 is accounted for variously by the commentators, 
 some of whom say, that when Matthew speaks of 
 thieves, in the plural, he only means one of 
 them ; whilst others suppose that they both, at 
 first, joined in the scoffs, but that one of them 
 afterwards repented. But the objectors treat 
 these solutions as mere evasions ; affirm that the 
 passages are in direct opposition ; and ask in 
 triumph, which we are to receive as the pure 
 Word of God. 
 
 The second class of Objections the imputed 
 contradictions to science chiefly regard the 
 Mosaic account of the creation and the deluge. 
 The account of the creation in the first chapter 
 of Genesis, it is alleged, cannot possibly be 
 true ; because the science of geology, which 
 within a few years past has received such great 
 improvements, fully evinces that the whole globe 
 of earth, with its innumerable tribes of inhabi- 
 tants, vegetable, animal, and human, was not 
 formed within the short space of six days, as 
 there detailed. Besides, it is affirmed, that, inde- 
 pendently of geology, reason alone proves the 
 inaccuracy of the statement : for light is said to 
 have been produced on the first day*; whereas 
 the sun, moon and stars were not created till the 
 fourth dayf; and it is very certain, as we now 
 often experience on a very cloudy night when 
 
 * Ver. 3, 5. f Ver. 16, 19. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 35 
 
 the moon is below the horizon,, that without sun, 
 moon, and stars, there cannot be any light. It 
 is likewise related, tha't all the vegetable creation 
 was produced on the third day*, thus before the 
 formation of the sun ; yet every rustic knows 
 that without the heat of the sun there can be no 
 vegetation. So also the history states, that, after 
 Cain had killed his brother, he was terrified lest 
 every one that met him should kill him, to 
 prevent which a mark was set on him by Godf ; 
 which evidently supposes, that at this time the 
 earth had numerous inhabitants ; although, ac- 
 cording to the record, none were then living on 
 it, beside Cain, but his father and mother, who 
 would know him whether a special mark were 
 set on him or not. With regard to the deluge, 
 they affirm it to be improbable that any general 
 deluge ever should have existed, after the 
 globe was once brought into a state adapted 
 for the support of a human population ; and they 
 raise great objections as to the possibility of 
 providing room in the ark sufficient for the ac- 
 commodation of the immense multitude to which 
 the prescribed numbers of animals of all species 
 must have amounted^, and to contain, besides, an 
 adequate stock of provision. According to the 
 history, Noah with his companions, animal and 
 human, remained in the ark a year and ten 
 
 * Vcr. 11, 13. t Gen. iv. 14, 15. 
 
 t Cha. vii. 2, 3. 
 
36 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 days* : and a long period must afterwards have 
 elapsed before the devastated earth produced a 
 sufficiency of new food for their support. This 
 objection has been answered by calculations to 
 prove the immense bulk of the ark, which., it has 
 been shewn, must have been equal in magnitude 
 to twenty first rate men of war, and to more than 
 forty of the largest Indiamen ; but this, while it 
 is alleged to be still quite insufficient for the 
 purposes required, has furnished the infidel with 
 another objection, who contends, that no vessel 
 of such magnitude could be made to cohere 
 together. 
 
 But the most serious class of Objections against 
 the divinity of the Sacred Scriptures, is that which 
 has recently been urged in such shameless terms, 
 declaring the Bible, which well-disposed minds 
 have revered for ages as the code of all perfect 
 morality, to be the most immoral book in the 
 world ! Certainly, to ground this charge, as is 
 in great part done, upon those passages in which 
 criminal practices are mentioned for the express 
 purpose of beingcondemned, and of warning man- 
 kind against the dreadful consequences which must 
 overtake the perpetrators ; or even to ground it 
 upon the incidental mention, without comment, 
 of the commission of great crimes; surely this 
 evinces the accusation to have originated in 
 nothing but deep malignity against the Bible, 
 
 * Gen. vii. 11. \iii. 11. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 37 
 
 its Author., and its friends. But the charge 
 deserves more attention when they support it 
 by instances of criminal conduct in persons that 
 are spoken of as peculiarly accepted by God. 
 Thus they dwell much upon the case of Jacob, 
 who, at the instigation of his mother Rebekah, 
 defrauded his brother Esau of his father's bles- 
 sing, by a most extraordinary deception practised 
 upon Isaac, and supported, when the old man 
 suspected it, by the strongest asseveration of a 
 deliberate falsehood.* By the example of the 
 same patriarch, who had two wives and two 
 concubines ; and indeed of nearly all the Jewish 
 worthies and kings, a sanction is given, they 
 allege, to polygamy and concubinage; an opi- 
 nion also which has not been confined to Deists, 
 since Dr. Madan, a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, published a well-known book with the 
 design to prove, from the above examples, that 
 polygamy and concubinage are allowable to 
 Christians. But the objectors contend, that 
 worse things are sanctioned even than these ; 
 for by the examples of Ehud and Jael, licence 
 is given to assassination. The former was one 
 of the Judges, raised up, it is said, by the Lord, 
 to deliver Israel when in subjection to the 
 Moabites ; and who, under the pretence of 
 carrying a present to the king of Moab, ob- 
 tained a private audience, and then sheathed a 
 
 *Gen. xxvii. 6 to 29. 
 
38 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 dagger in his bowels.* Jael was the wife of 
 Heber the Kenite ; and when Sisera, the general 
 of the army of Jabin king of Hazor, was de- 
 feated by Deborah and Barak, "he fled, to the 
 tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for 
 there was peace/' it is expressly said <( between 
 Jabin the King of Hazor, and the house of Heber 
 the Kenite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, 
 and said to him, Turn in my lord, turn in to 
 me: fear not." And when she had thus inveigled 
 him into her power, and had lulled him to sleep, 
 she drove a nail through his templesf : for which 
 act, it is said of her in the prophetic song of 
 Deborah and Barak, Cf Blessed above women 
 shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be; 
 blessed shall she be above women in the tent/' 
 As for the scandals to which the conduct of David 
 has given rise, who, though called the man after 
 God's own heart , was guilty both of murder and 
 adultery || ; these are too painful to dwell upon. 
 Moved by such seeming incongruities, the Mar- 
 cionites and Valentinians, with other early sects 
 of Gnostic Christians, regarded the God of the 
 Jews as an evil genius, as fc the prince of this 
 world" whose power Jesus came to destroylT: and 
 the modern Deists charge Christians with blas- 
 phemy, for receiving the record of such trans- 
 actions as the Word of God. 
 
 * Judges, iii. 15 to 22. f Judges, iv. 17 to 21. } Ch. v. 24. 
 
 * 1 Sam. xiii. 14; Acts, xiii. 22. 
 H 2 Sam. *i. 2, 15. f John xii. 31, xiv. 31. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED; &C. #9 
 
 The last class of Objections against the Sacred 
 Scriptures, is drawn from what persons uninformed 
 respecting their true nature, deem the insigriifi* 
 cance of a large portion of their contents. What 
 sort of ideas (they ask) must we form of the 
 Divine Being, on the supposition that he is the 
 Author of the Bible, when we find whole books 
 filled with directions for the performance of cere- 
 monies, which in themselves can be of no import- 
 ance*; when we see chapters taken up with 
 precepts respecting what sort of food his ser- 
 vants should eat, and what sort of clothing they 
 should wear.f What minute cares must we 
 suppose to engage his breast, when we see him 
 giving such exact instructions about the dimen- 
 sions of the Tabernacle, and the size and form 
 of all its vessels ! J What useless services must 
 we imagine him to be pleased with, when we find 
 him commanding such a variety of sacrifices to 
 be offered, and giving such precise orders res- 
 pecting the manner in which the minutest part 
 of the rites was to be performed ! And what 
 contracted and partial attachments and antipa- 
 thies must we suppose to reign in his bosom, 
 when we behold him exhibiting a peculiar regard 
 to the insignificant nation of the Jews || , to the 
 
 * See Leviticus throughout, and much of Exodus, Numbers, 
 and Deuteronomy. 
 
 t Levit. xi. Exod. xxviii. I Ex. xxv. to xxxi. 
 $ I^v, i. to vii. &e. || Exod. xix. f>. 
 
40 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 exclusion of the rest of the world ; or when we 
 hear of his commissioning prophets, with all the 
 solemnity of divine authority, to denounce ana- 
 themas,, not only against great metropolitan cities,, 
 such as Babylon*, or Ninevehf, or Damascus^, 
 but against the insignificant abodes of an insig- 
 nificant population, sudi as the villages inha- 
 bited by the tribes of Moab and Ammon ! 
 Can the Father of the universe (they de- 
 mand) feel such concern, and command it to be 
 written in his Book for the information of the 
 remotest generations, about the domestic affairs 
 of nations whose very name was shortly to 
 perish from the earth, about the condition of 
 cities which were presently to crumble into 
 dust, and confound the skill of geographers to 
 decide where they stood? Such solicitudes as 
 these (our opponents will allege) might not be 
 unbecoming iu those fancied deities of the ancient 
 heathens, who were supposed merely to preside 
 over particular districts ; but how (they ask) can 
 we conceive them to dwell in the breast of your 
 great I Am, the High and Lofty One that inhabi- 
 teth eternity, the Creator of myriads of worlds? 
 
 Such, under a general form, are the strongest 
 objections which the adversaries of the Scriptures 
 make to their divine authority ; and some of them, 
 it must be candidly admitted, are such as to em- 
 barras the rational inquirer, who enters on the 
 * Jer. 1. li. t Jonah i. iii, | Amos i. iii. $ Jer. xlviii, xlix. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 41 
 
 study of the subject without a correct idea of its 
 proper bearing. However, plausible as they may 
 appear, I undertake to affirm, and hope in the 
 succeeding lectures to make good the affirma- 
 tion, that to adduce from such considerations an 
 argument against the divine inspiration of the 
 Scriptures, is entirely to mistake the whole 
 nature of the case; that the argument thence 
 deduced falls to the ground of itself, as soon as 
 the true nature of the Word of God is seen, and 
 the design is regarded for which it was given to 
 mankind ; that, in fact, the existence of such 
 things in the Scriptures as we have adverted to, 
 affords no argument at all when adduced to 
 prove that they have no origin in Divine Autho- 
 rity, but yields an irrefragable one when applied, 
 as it only ought to be applied, to evince, that 
 the Scriptures must contain much more in their 
 bosom than is extant upon their surface. We 
 propose then to wrest the weapons of the infidel 
 out of his hands, and make them assist in esta- 
 blishing this great truth ; to prove by their aid, 
 not that the Scriptures are not the Word of God, 
 but that they are ; to demonstrate by their help, 
 what is the genuine DIVINE STYLE OF WRITING, 
 what are the true characteristics of a DIVINE 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 I will conclude at present with exhorting all 
 who favour me with their attention, to be care- 
 
42 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ful to cherish such thoughts of God, and of a 
 revelation from God, as are worthy of the sub- 
 ject. Let us above all things be on our guard 
 how we lightly fall in with the prevailing infide- 
 lity of the times. I have no doubt that there is 
 nothing against which the Divine Providence is 
 more anxious to preserve mankind,, (so far as 
 it can be done without infringing that freedom 
 without which man would not be a man,,) than 
 from falling into contempt for the Holy Word : 
 and that man cannot more perversely abuse the 
 noble powers with which he is endowed, nor 
 run more directly counter to the designs of his 
 Maker, than when he reasons himself out of all 
 reverence for the written revelation of the Divine 
 Will. Little as it may generally be supposed, 
 the Holy Word is the chief medium of commu- 
 nication between man and heaven, and indeed 
 between man and God; which communication 
 is cut off, and man falls into a merely natural 
 and animal state, in proportion as he regards 
 with contempt this highest and best of his 
 Maker's gifts. Confirmed infidelity such as 
 extends to scorn and hatred against revelation 
 is in most cases the result of depravity of heart; 
 how speciously soever this may be glossed over 
 before the world by subtle reasonings, and a 
 proud display of merely natural, superficial vir- 
 tues; though indeed even this covering is cast 
 away by some of the present race of Deists and 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 43 
 
 Atheists; whose works exhibit such malignity 
 of disposition, as sufficiently evinces the foulness 
 of the source whence their sentiments issue. 
 Most true is the saying of the Apostle; that cff if 
 the gospel be hid/' (finally, that is; for we 
 are not to judge harshly of those who,, with 
 sincere intentions, are embarrased by honest 
 doubts, ) " it is hid to them that are lost :" that 
 is, to those who are so enslaved to worldly and 
 selfish lusts, as to be unwilling to hear any thing, 
 which, by calling them to higher pursuits, would 
 disturb them in their sleep of darkness and of 
 death. I make not these remarks with any wish 
 to intimidate: the freedom of the rational fa- 
 culty in the present age is too complete to admit 
 of intimidation : but I make them to induce 
 those whose tendency to scepticism has not set- 
 tled into confirmed negation, fairly to weigh 
 both sides of the question before they decide, 
 and to go into the inquiry with that solemnity 
 of attention which is reasonable, where so much 
 is at stake. These I would intreat especially to 
 regard that assurance of Jesus Christ, so conso- 
 nant to pure reason, that rectitude and purity 
 of object in making our inquiries, is the best 
 preservative against error in drawing our con- 
 clusions : " If any man/' says he, " will do His 
 will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it 
 be of God."* This is the only safe rule, where 
 
 * John, vii. 17. 
 
 G 2 
 
44 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF, &C. 
 
 the thing inquired into is religious truth : and 
 my conviction is, that they who act in the spirit 
 of this rule will find their reverence for the Holy 
 Word continually increase,, and their understand- 
 ing of its contents continually improve, till they 
 are satisfied that, like the Word incarnate, it 
 fc proceeded forth and came from God." 
 
LECTURE II, 
 
 THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES CONSIDERED. 
 
 Design with which the Scriptures were given, and 
 the Nature of their Composition, stated for proof. 
 I. That the title fc the Word of God," and the 
 Plenary Inspiration which that title implies, are 
 claimed by the Scriptures ; and that this is recog- 
 nized by many critics. II. Proofs, from rational 
 and philosophical grounds, that a Composition 
 which is really " the Word of God," must contain 
 stores of wisdom in its bosom, independently of any 
 thing that appears on the surface. III. That the 
 Composition received as the Word of God, con- 
 tinually assures us that it is inwardly replenished 
 with such wisdom: 1. This intimated by the 
 writers of the Old Testament ; 2. Expressly 
 declared by the Lord Jesus Christ; 3. And by 
 his Apostles : 4. Generally believed by the 
 Christian Church, for many ages, from the 
 Apostles downwards, and still recognized by the 
 best Interpreters. IV. But this great truth 
 having been abused, that endeavours have been 
 made, during the last two or three Centuries, to 
 
46 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 restrict the meaning of the Scriptures to their 
 literal sense alone. Admitted, that all Points 
 of Faith are to be established by the literal sense : 
 But that the objection against a further sense 
 would fall to the ground, could it be shewn, that 
 the Scriptures are written throughout according 
 to an immutable Law or Rule, a knowledge of 
 which would, in explaining them, substitute cer- 
 tainty for conjecture, and cut off the sources of 
 vague interpretation. 
 
 IN our opening Lecture we took a brief 
 view of the present state of public opinion,, 
 on the subject of the divine inspiration of the 
 Word of God,, or Holy Scriptures ; and we 
 have seen that, while absolute infidelity is at 
 present more prevalent throughout Christendom 
 than at any former period since the establish- 
 ment of the Christian religion ; while the 
 attacks upon the credibility of the Christian 
 revelation were never so unremitted and daring ; 
 the cause has been half betrayed by many 
 of its advocates., in the lax notions which 
 they inculcate respecting the nature of Scrip- 
 tural inspiration. We also drew a faint pic- 
 ture of what must be the character of a compo- 
 sition which has God for its Author; we stated 
 the four leading classes of objections by which 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED 
 
 infidels deny this character to belong to 
 writings called the Holy Scriptures; and we 
 advanced it as a fact, to be afterwards proved., 
 that all difficulties would disappear, were the 
 true nature of the Holy Scriptures distinctly 
 understood, and the design for which they were 
 given fully discerned. What this design was, 
 we now proceed to state. 
 
 When well-meaning men have been induced 
 to make the admission, that the sacred writers 
 might not, on all occasions, be inspired, it has 
 been in consequence of not considering, any 
 more than the opposers to whose railings they 
 have so far yielded, what was the sole design 
 for which the divinely inspired volume was 
 composed. Things, for example, that appear 
 like contradictions, have in some places been 
 pointed out; and though most of these admit 
 of being satisfactorily answered even in the 
 literal sense, yet, because some of them, if we 
 confine our attention to the literal sense alone, 
 are attended with real difficulty, many, even of 
 the sincere friends of Christianity, have admitted, 
 that the Scriptures may, in some instances, have 
 proceeded from fallible authors, from penmen 
 who were not at all times inspired ! This ad- 
 mission they have made, to open a door for 
 retreat, in case any of the statements made in 
 the letter should be proved by an adversary to 
 be indefensible. But surely had it been consi- 
 
48 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 dered, that whatever proceeds immediately from 
 God, in the nature of a communication of his 
 will, must be spiritual and divine, and that the 
 sole design of it, in every part, must be, to im- 
 prove man in the wisdom of salvation ; it would 
 have been seen, that merely historical circum- 
 stances, however important to the actors in them, 
 can never be of such moment in the eyes of an 
 Infinite Being, as that the communication of 
 even the most correct knowledge respecting 
 them can be a thing to have place in his ex- 
 press Word of revealed Wisdom, unless things 
 of far higher consequence be at the same time 
 referred to and represented by them. Hence, 
 when we find such things spoken of in a book 
 which its Divine Author assures us was given 
 from Him, and which bears so many marks, 
 both internal and external, that evince the 
 truth of this assurance; we ought to be sa- 
 tisfied, that things of far higher, even of eternal 
 moment, are shadowed forth, and represented 
 to us, under these historical relations ; as we 
 shall see presently is also expressly declared by 
 the Lord and his Apostles. In short, we ought 
 to conclude, (as we shall find both reason and 
 Scripture assure us must be the case with every 
 composition that has God for its Author,) that 
 in the Sacred Scriptures there is an internal or 
 spiritual sense, distinct from the letter, but con- 
 tained within it, and no otherwise capable of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 49 
 
 being conveyed to human beings in this world 
 of nature; which spiritual sense must treat, not 
 of natural things, but of spiritual; not of things 
 relating to the body of man and his transitory 
 life, but to his soul and life eternal: And we 
 ought to conclude further, that although the 
 historical circumstances detailed in the literal 
 sense are in general substantially true, having 
 occurred as they are related, yet if there are any 
 of them that are in any respect contradictory^ 
 the reason must be, not because the narrative is 
 not divinely inspired, but because the letter has 
 been forced, in such instances, to bend a little, 
 as it were, under the weight of the important 
 matters contained within it, to express which 
 more fully, a slight turn has been given to the 
 literal narration. Nor is there, in this supposi- 
 tion, the smallest degree of inconsistency. For 
 every composition, either human or divine, must 
 be judged of, according as it is adapted to ex- 
 press the Design of the Author. But a revela- 
 tion from God cannot be designed to improve 
 us in natural knowledge, but in heavenly or spi- 
 ritual. If then the literal sense of the Holy 
 Word is so adjusted, as to be a proper vehicle 
 for the divine realities of a spiritual kind with 
 which it is inwardly replenished, <fc*n it answers 
 the Design for which it was given, whether the 
 literal expression, regarded by itself, be in all 
 respects perfectly coherent or not; whether 
 
50 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the historical occurrences,, respecting which,, re- 
 garded by themselves, it is no part of the Divine 
 Author's plan to communicate information, are 
 detailed with all possible clearness or not. In 
 short, if the Design for which a revelation from 
 God must be given, had been steadily kept in 
 view, and the outward expression had been 
 judged of accordingly, it would have been seen 
 that the Word of God does, in every part, con- 
 tain a spiritual sense, which treats solely of the 
 Lord, his kingdom, man's soul, and his improve- 
 ment in heavenly graces, and that the literal 
 sense is constructed purely in subserviency to 
 the spiritual: and then the objections against 
 its divine inspiration would never have been 
 raised, or, if they had, would soon have obtained 
 a completely satisfactory answer. To evince 
 that this is its true character, will be the main 
 object of this and our subsequent Lectures. 
 
 I. The first thing necessary to the clearing up 
 of this argument, is, to ascertain, what is the 
 kind of inspiration which the Scriptures claim 
 for themselves. 
 
 Here then the fact, that the title, C( the Word 
 of God/' is claimed by the Scriptures for them- 
 selves, is alone* sufficient to satisfy us, that they 
 assume to have been written by a plenary divine 
 inspiration. For what can te the Word of God" 
 be, but divine speech or revelation flowing from 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 51 
 
 God? And if this is given us by the instrumen- 
 tality of men,, then must they, so to give it us, 
 have been divinely inspired: otherwise what 
 they wrote would not be the Word of God, but 
 the word of men, of illuminated men, perhaps, 
 but whose writings could convey nothing more 
 than they themselves conceived and apprehended 
 the mere sentiments of the writers. 
 
 1 . That the books of Moses claim to be the 
 Word of God, is expressed by its being so re- 
 peatedly said, that <e the Lord spake unto Moses, 
 saying*/' and also, that (c Moses wrote all the 
 words of the Lord f :" And whoever has looked 
 into the writings of the prophets, knows how 
 often they make the declaration, "The word 
 of the Lord came unto me, saying/' J 
 
 2. But that the title "Word of God" is pro- 
 perly applied to the Sacred Scriptures, is evinced 
 by the use of the expression by the Lord Jesus 
 Christ himself. Speaking of the law written 
 by Moses, he first observes, " For Moses said, 
 Honour thy father and mother : and, Whoso 
 curseth father or mother, let him die the death:" 
 and then he adds, " But ye say, If a man shall 
 say to his father or his mother, It is Corban, that 
 is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be 
 profited by me, he shall be free ; and ye suffer 
 him no more to do ought for his father or his 
 
 * See almost every Chap, ia Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, 
 t Exod. xxiy. 4. J See the Prophets throughout. 
 H 2 
 
52 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 mother; making the Word of God of none effect 
 through your tradition/'* Thus we see that the 
 Scriptures of the Old Testament, which we may 
 be sure do not rank higher than those of the New,, 
 are denominated, by the highest authority, " the 
 Word of God :" of course they must have been 
 given by a plenary divine inspiration. 
 
 The same expression is used again, and the 
 idea conveyed by it affirmed of all that is pro- 
 perly called " the Scripture/' in another debate 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Jews. When 
 they were about to stone him for having said, 
 ff I and the Father are One/' he reasoned with 
 them thus : (C Is it not written in your law, I 
 said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods to 
 whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture 
 cannot be broken, say ye of himf," &c. Here, 
 not only is the revelation communicated to the 
 Jews called by its real Author, " the Word of 
 God/' but it is authoritatively declared, that 
 fc the Scripture cannot be broken;" where the 
 word cf broken" is admitted by the Commenta- 
 tors to be idiomatic, the meaning being, that 
 the Scripture is not to be contradicted or denied, 
 that its authority is not to be infringed. The 
 purport of the clause, then, paraphrased into 
 familiar language, is clearly this: " If he called 
 them gods to whom the Word of God came 
 and this you cannot deny, because the authority of 
 * Mark vii. 10 to 13. f John x. 34, 35. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, <&C. 53 
 
 the Scriptures is unimpeachable, say ye of him/' 
 &c. Thus then the revelation given to the Jews 
 is recognized by fc the Word made flesh/' as 
 the Word of God; and the attributes of that 
 Word are assigned to what is emphatically 
 called the Scripture, which is declared, on this 
 ground, to be, what no partially inspired com- 
 position can be, absolutely infallible, an autho- 
 rity which, on no pretence whatever, is to be 
 impugned. The same sanction, conveyed by 
 the same expression, is given by Jesus Christ 
 to lf the law and the prophets," or to the whole 
 of the ancient Scriptures, when he says, after 
 referring to them, ff Whosoever therefore shall 
 break one of the least of these commandments, 
 and shall teach men so, he shall be called the 
 least in the kingdom of heaven."* Here, to 
 break one of the least of the commandments of 
 the law and the prophets, does not mean merely 
 to live in the neglect of it, but to weaken its 
 authority: the. word in the original is the same 
 as in the passage just quoted from John, and 
 means literally to loosen, or dissolve, that is, to 
 take away its obligation. The unlawfulness of 
 this, we find, in regard to the least of the com- 
 mandments of all the law and the prophets, 
 Jesus Christ most decidedly affirms : what then 
 are we to think of those who tell us, that " it is 
 not to be supposed that they [meaning Moses 
 * Matt. v. 19. 
 
54 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and the prophets,,] were even thus inspired 
 [meaning,, even according to the lowest notions 
 of inspiration,] in every fact which they related,, 
 or in every precept which they delivered" Did not 
 Bishop Tomline see, when he penned these awful 
 words, that he was herein cc loosing/' or destroy- 
 ing the authority of, at any rate, some of ef the 
 least of the commandments/ 'and was thus setting 
 his authority in opposition to the authority of 
 Jesus Christ, who so solemnly recognizes the 
 whole as to the immovable Word of God. 
 
 3. But perhaps it may be objected, that the 
 title^ ff Word of God/' is nevertheless only appli- 
 cable to such parts of the Scriptures as contain 
 precepts expressly delivered in the name of 
 God. We do not, however, find that Jesus 
 Christ makes any such distinction; so that we 
 have divine authority for denying that any such 
 distinction exists. Besides, what a door for un- 
 certainty would this throw open ! If the writers 
 who recorded those precepts which they deliver 
 in the name of God, were not inspired through- 
 out, they might as easily err in this part of their 
 duty as in any other ; and thus it would be im- 
 possible for us to know whether what they de- 
 livered as divine precepts were really such or 
 not. However, we are not left to decide this 
 question by our own reasonings; for, in addi- 
 tion to the unlimiting declarations of Jesus 
 Christ, the Apostle Paul gives us the strongest 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 56 
 
 assurance we can possibly require, as to the en- 
 tire inspiration of the whole. He says, " All 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God*:" 
 And it is here to be noted, that the five words, 
 S( given by inspiration of God/' have but one 
 word [$07rvu<rro] , answering to them in the 
 original; and that is one so expressive, that it 
 conveys all that our translators have stated, 
 with that addition of force which results from 
 condensation. A single word might be framed 
 in English to convey the same meaning, but it 
 would sound harsh, as being unusual : We how- 
 ever might say, (C All scripture is God-breathed:' 9 
 which indeed is just the same in sense as " given 
 by inspiration of God ;" only the word " inspi- 
 ration," being derived from a Latin, and not an 
 English root, does not convey to English ears 
 the primary meaning that belongs to it, which is 
 that of breathing-in. Nothing then can be more 
 conclusive than this passage for the full inspira- 
 tion of the whole of the Word of God. All 
 Scripture was inspired, or breathed-into the writers, 
 by God, was the result of a divine afflatus, 
 which took such entire possession of the inspired 
 penmen, that it was not they who wrote, further 
 than as to the mere motion of the fingers, but 
 God himself who wrote with their hands. This 
 is what is included in the idea of fc Inspiration 
 of God;" and to restrict it to any thing short of 
 * 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
56 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 this, is to charge the Apostle with having spo- 
 ken at random, without understanding the 
 meaning of his language. 
 
 Paul however does not stand alone in this 
 testimony. He is supported in it by Peter, who 
 affirms the same doctrine, though in quite dif- 
 ferent terms. (f Prophecy/' says he, {f came not 
 in old time by the will of man, but holy men 
 of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost/'* It is here to be remembered, that the 
 Jews called the writers of the historical books 
 ff prophets/' as well as those of what we call 
 the prophetical books ; as is known to every one 
 who has seen a Hebrew bible. Now of all 
 these holy men, the Apostle affirms, that they 
 spake, not by the will of man, but as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost: clearly excluding 
 their own will, and of course their own under- 
 standing, from any concern in the matter. And 
 here also it will be useful to attend to the force 
 of the principal original word. The Greek 
 term [<pepojw,svoi] translated fc moved/' is one 
 that conveys a much stronger idea than that of 
 the gentle sort of impression to which we ap- 
 ply the term "moved:'' It means carried away, 
 rapt, transported; taken altogether out of 
 themselves, and possessed entirely by the power 
 of God. So positive is the language of the 
 heaven-taught writers on the subject of divine 
 * 2 Ep. i. 21. 
 
THE SCRIPTUttES ASSEUTRD, &C. 57 
 
 inspiration; and so decisive is the testimony 
 which they bear to the plenary inspiration of 
 the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 Such being the strength and unequivocal nature 
 of the expressions in which the inspiration of the 
 Sacred Scriptures is affirmed by infallible autho- 
 rity, it really seems extraordinary how they who 
 undertake to explain the divine books, should 
 ever have thought of limiting their inspiration 
 to so low a degree of it, as is unworthy of the 
 name altogether: and it can only be account- 
 ed for by the reason before assigned; that 
 being pressed by the Deist with the difficulties 
 which some passages present, and not reflecting 
 that these should lead to a higher mode of inter- 
 pretation., the Christian advocates have seen no 
 way of maintaining the general credibility of the 
 sacred penmen, but by allowing their liability to 
 little mistakes. It would however be but a sor- 
 ry expedient for the preservation of a country 
 situated like Holland, when threatened with an 
 inundation from the fury of the ocean, should 
 they who have the care of the dykes, fearing lest 
 these should be washed away, purposely make 
 a gap in them, as a means of averting the de- 
 structive effects of the waves: here, every one 
 sees, that the country, though in a more gradual 
 manner, would equally be drowned ; but the 
 dykes, though no longer of any use, might pos- 
 sibly be preserved. By admitting only such an 
 
58 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 inspiration as does not exclude fallibility,, religi- 
 ous establishments may perhaps for a time be 
 preserved: but the objects for which they were 
 instituted will be undermined and subverted. 
 Infidelity will be confirmed and extended ; and 
 the Faith that remains, being emptied of its spi- 
 rituality, will differ from infidelity in little but 
 in name. Religion will degenerate into a cold 
 morality, which Deism may supply almost as 
 well. 
 
 4. Such laxity, however, did not characterize 
 the sentiments of former times. Though now it 
 
 o 
 
 is otherwise, the general belief once was, that in- 
 spiration really is inspiration; and they who 
 wrote upon it, did not attempt to define the thing, 
 to be something entirely different from what is 
 expressed by the name. This might be proved 
 by copious evidence, if necessary ; but it will 
 be quite sufficient here to give the statements 
 of Bishop Marsh, in the Notes to the third 
 Chapter of his translation of Michaelis; for 
 though he had such low ideas of the nature of in- 
 spiration, at least as far as regards the inspira- 
 tion of the Evangelists, when he formed his sin- 
 gular theory of the origin of the three first gos- 
 pels, he seems, when he translated the first part of 
 the Work just mentioned, which was several 
 years previously, to have been inclined to favour 
 the higher views of the subject: at least, he had, 
 and has, too much integrity to keep them out of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 59 
 
 sight. He there, complaining of his Author for 
 not himself giving a definition of Inspiration, says, 
 that cc some understand an inspiration of words, 
 as \vell as ideas, others of ideas alone ; a third 
 class understand by inspiration an intervention 
 of the Deity, by which the natural faculties of 
 the sacred writers were directed to the discovery 
 of truth ; and a fourth class assume a kind of 
 negative intervention, by which they were pre- 
 vented from falling into material error; some 
 again assume a total inspiration, declaring that 
 the supernatural influence of the Deity was ex- 
 tended to the most minute historical accounts, 
 while others suppose that it was confined to 
 certain parts of Scripture." And, as the autho- 
 rities for the opinion, that inspiration extends 
 both to words and ideas, he gives " most of the 
 German divines of the last [or seventeenth] 
 century, and many in the present" [the eigh- 
 teenthfor this was written in 1793.] The 
 Author whom he translates, Michael is, seems 
 very unsettled in his own mind, both respecting 
 what he should determine inspiration to be, 
 and what books in the Bible he should regard 
 as possessing it; it appears, however, that where 
 it exists at all, he thought it must be plenary, 
 applying to this subject a passage of Paul, which 
 in our translation stands thus : " We speak not 
 in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
 which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing na- 
 
rtO PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tural things with spiritual*:" which declaration 
 he renders thus : " We deliver doctrines in words 
 taught by the Holy Ghost, explaining inspired 
 things with inspired words/' I do not quote 
 this version by Michaelis as adopting it, or as 
 accepting his application,, in the context, of the 
 doctrine he appears to mean to deduce from it; 
 but only as evidence of what this great scholar's 
 opinion of inspiration really was : Hereupon Bi- 
 shop Marsh justly remarks, "It seems then, that 
 he understands a verbal inspiration, agreeably to 
 the sentiments of many ancient Fathers, and many 
 modern divines, who have considered the Apostles 
 and Evangelists merely as passive instruments. 
 It is true," the Bishop adds, (and we shall con- 
 sider the sentiment in the sequel,) "that this 
 hypothesis renders it difficult to account for the 
 great variety of style observable in the Greek 
 Testament: on the other hand, several writers, 
 especially Ernesti, contend, that it is difficult to 
 abstract an inspiration of ideas from an inspir- 
 ation of words." Assuredly, it is difficult : and 
 this avowal from the celebrated Ernesti, will 
 perhaps be felt as the more valuable, when it is 
 remembered, that he was by no means uninfected, 
 on some points, with the lax principles of the 
 moderns; so that his testimony in favour of 
 plenary inspiration, must be considered as drawn 
 from him by the unassisted force of truth. I will 
 * 1 Cor. iv. 13. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 61 
 
 only add further upon this question, that what 
 the sentiments of profoundly learned British di- 
 vines formerly were respecting it, is sufficiently 
 indicated in the maxim adopted by Pococke, and 
 prefixed as a motto to the Notce Miscellanea, 
 appended to his Porta Mosis of Mairnohides : it 
 is this : " There is not in the Law or Holy Scrip- 
 ture a single letter, on which matters of the 
 greatest importance [in the Hebrew, great moun- 
 tains,] are not dependent.'* * 
 
 These testimonies, I trust, will be sufficient 
 to show, that many writers, and those of the 
 highest authority, have heretofore believed, that 
 when Jesus Christ terms the Scripture the Word 
 of God, and declares that it must not be broken, 
 or its authority impeached ; and when the 
 Apostles assure us that it is given by inspiration 
 of God, and that those who wrote it were carried 
 out of themselves by the Divine Spirit that pos- 
 sessed them ; they really mean what they say : 
 those, therefore, who may now be disposed to 
 believe that they mean what they say, will find 
 a cloud of witnesses to support them. It is true, 
 that, at present, the fashion of the times runs 
 the other way; but it is not a new thing for 
 heaven and the world to stand in opposition : 
 and, on this point, the authorities are sufficiently 
 great and numerous to render the profession of 
 
 rmra r * 
 
62 FLENAKY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the truth honourable in the eyes of men, as well 
 as in the sight of God. 
 
 This question, respecting the nature of the 
 inspiration which the Scriptures claim for them- 
 selves,, though of the greatest moment to the 
 Christian,, will be little regarded by the Deist: 
 it was,, however, necessary to consider it, because 
 we shall find it pregnant with consequences,, in 
 which the Deist also is deeply interested. 
 
 IL It being then certain,, that the Scriptures 
 claim to be ff the Word of God/' according to 
 the full meaning of that weighty expression ; 
 and it being likewise true that many of the 
 greatest Biblical scholars deemed the claim thus 
 made by the Scriptures too positive to be 
 evaded, so that we must as much believe them, 
 when they assert their own plenary inspiration, 
 as when they assert any thing else : we beg to 
 be allowed to assume, for the present, for argu- 
 ment's sake, that they really are the Word of 
 God: and with this admission, we proceed to 
 offer proofs, from rational and philosophical 
 grounds, that, if so, they must contain stores of 
 wisdom in their bosom., independently of any 
 thing that appears on their surface. 
 
 If the Bible could, throughout, be understood, 
 and would,, in every part, afford a clear, intel- 
 ligible, and instructive meaning, by consulting 
 the literal or grammatical sense of the words 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 63 
 
 and phrases alone ; or if by thus restricting our 
 researches after its meaning,, we could always 
 obtain as clear a one as is to be drawn from the 
 works of uninspired writers; there would then 
 be more reason (but by no means sufficient) for 
 contending, that it never was meant to contain 
 any thing- more : but when we find in it pas- 
 sages,, to which, unless we allow them an in- 
 ternal sense, we must deny any intelligible sense 
 at all ; we surely must reject the notion, that 
 the literal sense is all that is intended, a notion 
 so derogatory to the divine inspiration of the 
 Sacred Writings, and which, if suffered to re- 
 gulate our views of them entirely, would compel 
 us to think less highly of the Word of God, than 
 we do of many of the compositions of men. 
 However, I do not mean to beg the question, 
 but to shew that the possession of stores of hidden 
 wisdom, is not only necessary to vindicate for 
 the Scriptures their title of the Word of God, 
 but is an inseparable characteristic of every 
 Divine Composition ; that without it, no writing 
 whatever, were its outward form just what the 
 sceptic would require, (would he define what 
 that is,) can be entitled to that appellation.. 
 
 Who then does not see, that the difference be- 
 tween Compositions that are really the Word of 
 God and the compositions of men, must be as 
 great, as between the works of God and the 
 works of men? And wherein does the latter 
 
64 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 difference most remarkably consist? Is it not in 
 the interior organization which the works of 
 God possess, beyond what appears in their out- 
 ward form? When we look at a picture or a 
 statue, which are among the most exquisite pro- 
 ductions of human ingenuity, after we have seen 
 the surface, we have seen the whole : and al- 
 though there are pieces of curious mechanism 
 which contain a complication of parts within 
 their outside case, this only carries us one step 
 farther : when \ve look at any of the parts, we 
 see the whole ; the interior texture of the ma- 
 terial of which they are composed not being the 
 work of the human artist, but of the Divine 
 Creator. Whereas, when we look at any of the 
 works of his omnipotent hand, beautiful and 
 exact as they are in their outward form, still the 
 most beautiful and wonderful parts of them are 
 within. Some of these hidden wonders are dis- 
 coverable to the diligent inquirer by means of 
 dissections and by the aid of glasses : but when 
 the most ingenious investigator has extended his 
 researches into the interior construction of any 
 natural production to the utmost limits that 
 human means can conduct him, he must, if he is 
 a wise man, be convinced, that what he has thus 
 discovered, is, after all, but general and super- 
 ficial, compared with the greater wonders which 
 still lie concealed within. The most expert 
 anatomist never, for instance, reached the seat of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. \X 65 
 
 the soul, still less the principle of 
 
 ness and life of which the soul itself is merely 
 the organ ; all which, and even the material forms 
 which are their first envelopes, still lie beyond 
 the most subtile forms that the gross observation 
 of the senses can discover. The farther, however, 
 the observation of the senses can extend, the 
 greater are the wonders which appear. Just so 
 it is with the Word of God: and so it must be, 
 if it has in reality God for its Author. 
 
 An attention to one or two more unquestion- 
 able truths, will make this fact more evident; 
 and will discover to us with the utmost certainty, 
 what must be the character of a composition 
 that is rightly named te the Word of God." 
 
 God, we know, is a Being Infinite and Eternal. 
 He made the world, and all things in it; gifting, 
 in particular, every living object with faculties 
 suited to its nature, or to the use it is designed 
 to perform in the grand whole. But although 
 every thing in nature plainly bespeaks its Divine 
 Author, he has not, in any part of nature, a 
 visible existence. His immediate, personal re- 
 sidence, is far above the sphere of this world, 
 or of the universe, of nature, yea, above that 
 of the worlds of spirit, the abodes of angelic 
 beings : ff for behold, even the heavens, and the 
 heaven of heavens, cannot contain Him:" much 
 less this gross, material world, the lowest sphere 
 of his divine activities.' 
 
 K 
 
66 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Now man, while he is an inhabitant of this 
 natural world,, enjoys the gift of speech: and 
 there can be no doubt that he will retain this 
 valuable endowment when he departs hence,, to 
 move in a higher sphere of existence. Indeed, 
 there can be no doubt that this faculty must be 
 enjoyed, in some mode or other, by all orders 
 of intelligent creatures, from man on earth to 
 the angels of the highest heavens, and even up 
 to the Creator himself, from whom finite in- 
 telligences receive it. But as the personal forms 
 of angelic beings are not visible to the corporeal 
 eye of man in the world, so neither is their oral 
 language audible to his bodily ear. Hence the 
 Apostle Paul informs the Corinthians, that when 
 he was caught up, as to his spirit, to the third 
 heaven, he heard there Cf unspeakable words, 
 such as it is riot possible" (according to the 
 marginal reading of our bibles, which is allowed 
 to give the true meaning which the original 
 word bears in this place ; such as it is not pos- 
 sible) ee for man to utter/' There cannot be a 
 plainer testimony to the difference between 
 spiritual and natural speech or language. While 
 the Apostle was in heaven and in company with 
 the angels there, and was thus, for the time, in 
 a state similar to theirs; he heard and understood 
 their discourse, and possibly took a share in it : 
 but when he returned into his natural state, as 
 an inhabitant of the natural world., though no 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 67 
 
 doubt he retained some of the general instruction 
 which was communicated in the angelic dis- 
 course,, as to the ideas, he found he could recollect 
 nothing of the words in which it was conveyed 
 to him,, but only the conviction,, that, by natural 
 organs, they were altogether ineffable. 
 
 If then the words of angels are such as are un- 
 speakable to man; what must the words of God 
 be, as they proceed immediately from himself? 
 Doubtless, they must be far above either the 
 hearing or the comprehension of any finite being ; 
 and they must be immensely, indeed, beyond the 
 hearing or the comprehension of the inhabitants 
 of the natural world. Before they could become 
 apprehensible to them, they must pass through 
 the spheres inhabited by the higher orders of in- 
 telligent creatures, who would hear them in their 
 own spiritual language. For the Divine Being 
 to speak, immediately from his own mouth, in 
 natural language, must be as impossible, as it is 
 for him to appear, in all the glory of his Divine 
 Person, before the natural eye. Consequently, 
 if the Word of God, as we have it, in natural 
 language, is really his Word, its literal sense 
 must be a covering, with which it is invested to 
 adapt it to the apprehension of the inhabitants 
 of the natural world ; and the essentially divine 
 speech must lie concealed far within. And as be- 
 tween the immediate personal residence of Deity 
 and outward nature, must be arranged the abodes 
 
68 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of all intermediate intelligences ; so between the 
 immediate divine speech of the Lord and the 
 natural expressions into which it falls when it 
 descends into the domains of nature,, must be 
 distinct forms of Divine Truth, adapted to the 
 apprehension of all orders of angelic beings. 
 
 But to resume the analogy between the Word 
 of God and his works. From all that has been 
 advanced it may be seen,, that to suppose the 
 literal sense of the Word of God, (upon the as- 
 sumption that it is rightly so named,) to be all 
 that it contains., because nothing more is ob- 
 vious to a superficial inspection, is just as rea- 
 sonable as to affirm., that the human body consists 
 of nothing but skin, because this is all that 
 meets the unassisted eye : but as the researches 
 of anatomists have assured us, that within the 
 skin which covers our frame there are innumera- 
 ble forms of use and beauty, each of which 
 consists again of innumerable vessels and fibres; 
 whilst, after science has carried her discoveries 
 to the utmost, the principle that imparts life to 
 the whole still eludes the search : so the letter 
 of the Holy Word,, which may be regarded as 
 its skin, includes within it innumerable spiritual 
 truths, adapted in some measure to the ap- 
 prehension of spiritually minded men, but more 
 completely to the intellects of purely spiritual 
 beings; whilst the Essential Divine Wisdom 
 which gives life to the whole, is beyond the com- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 69 
 
 prehension of the highest finite intelligence, and 
 can only be known to its Infinite Original. And 
 such must be the character of the ivhole of the 
 Word of God, as well of those passages which 
 afford a clear, instructive sense in the letter, as 
 of those which do not: for the Word of God, to 
 be truly so, must be like itself throughout, and 
 must every where be composed upon one uni- 
 form principle. Every mind that reflects deeply 
 upon the subject, will, I am persuaded, see, that 
 to deny the Holy Word, to possess such contents 
 as we have described, is equivalent to denying 
 it to have God for its author. It makes it no- 
 thing more than the word of men; of men 
 pious, perhaps, and enlightened, but still finite 
 and fallible. 
 
 Such then are the views to which even reason, 
 fairly consulted, would lead us, when we in- 
 quire, what must be the nature of a composition, 
 which is, really and truly, the Word of God : 
 We must now then proceed to inquire, how far 
 these agree with the views which are presented 
 by the Writings which take that title, on the 
 subject of their own nature. 
 
 III. We continually find the Holy Word 
 itself, in its very letter, directing the reader to 
 elevate his mind above the merely literal ex- 
 pression, above the natural ideas and images 
 which compose its outward language, and to 
 
70 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 explore the deep and truly divine wisdom that is 
 contained within; thus the very letter repeat- 
 edly assures us, that the Word of God contains 
 stores of wisdom in its bosom, independently 
 of any thing that appears on the surface. This 
 testimony it bears to itself in all its parts, in 
 the books of the Old Testament, in the discourses 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the writings of 
 the Apostles. 
 
 Many plain intimations are afforded by the 
 writers of the Old Testament ; but I will just 
 notice one or two in the Psalms alone. 
 
 J . What can be meant by that passage in 
 which the Psalmist prays, " Open thou mine 
 eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of 
 thy law?"* Is not this a plain declaration, that 
 the Law or Word of God does contain within it 
 wonderful things, which cannot be discerned 
 unless the eyes of the mind, or the intellectual 
 faculties, be opened to discern them? thus, 
 things which do not appear immediately on the 
 surface, but lie stored up within? And that 
 these wonderful things, or divine mysteries, are 
 not only contained in those parts which give out- 
 ward indications of it, by the obscurity and evi- 
 dently mystical character of the language in 
 which they are expressed, but in those parts 
 likewise where the letter is perfectly plain and 
 simple, is openly declared in the 78th Psalm., 
 
 * Ps. cxix. IS. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 71 
 
 which begins with these words : <c Give ear, O 
 my people, to my law, incline your ears to the 
 words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in 
 a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old." 
 Now nothing can appear more extraordinary, 
 to those who think of nothing further, when 
 they read the Scriptures, than what appears 
 upon the face of them, than to find such a 
 declaration as this prefixed to such a composi- 
 tion as follows. When the writer has declared 
 in so solemn a manner, that he is about to open 
 his mouth in a parable, to utter dark sayings 
 of old, the reader is naturally led to expect, in 
 the continuation of the Psalm, a series of myste- 
 rious language, containing an enigma in every 
 word. But what does follow? Nothing, whate- 
 ver, but a very plain abridgment of the history of 
 the Israelites, from their departure out of Egypt 
 to the reign of David, couched in language 
 that is not even elevated by poetical figures, but 
 appears to be the natural style of sober matter 
 of fact. Can there then be a plainer declar- 
 ation than this, that the whole of the Israel- 
 itish history has a parabolic meaning, that the 
 language^ in which this history is given, plain 
 and simple as it appears, is in reality a series of 
 dark sayings ? Every sentence of a composition 
 written in the style of this Psalm, which, making 
 allowance for the metrical arrangement, is similar 
 to that of the historical parts of Scripture in 
 
72 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 general, is, in fact, more dark, in proportion as 
 it outwardly appears more plain. The hidden 
 spiritual meaning is, in reality, rendered more 
 recondite, by the plainness of the literal historical 
 meaning, the simplicity of which tends to chain 
 the attention to the narrative of facts, and to pre- 
 vent it from looking for any thing beyond. Let 
 any person read this Psalrn, one of the plainest, 
 in its literal sense, in the whole book, and remem- 
 ber at the same time that the inspired writer is 
 throughout speaking parables, uttering dark 
 sayings ; and he must confess that every literal 
 expression here contains a hidden meaning; and, 
 of course, that it is at least highly probable, that 
 the case is the same throughout the Holy Word. 
 
 We find then from this testimony of David, 
 that such is the character of the law of Moses, 
 arid of the historical narratives of the Old Tes- 
 tament; it will therefore be more easily ad- 
 mitted, that such must be the character of the 
 prophetical books also. We proceed then to 
 consider the evidence of the New Testament 
 on the subject ; and we will begin with that of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. Were we to adduce all the testimony which 
 is afforded in the discourses of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ to the spiritual nature of the Scriptures, 
 we should find ample matter for a Lecture by 
 itself; wherefore we must confine ourselves to 
 a few instances. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 73 
 
 One very strong testimony, bat the force of 
 which might be overlooked by a reader who 
 <loes not consider the purport of the chief ex- 
 pressions, is given by Him when he says, "Think 
 not that I am come to destroy the law and the 
 prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to 
 fulfil." * Some have found it difficult to recon- 
 cile this declaration with the fact, that the greater 
 part of the Mosaic law actually was abolished by 
 the establishment of Christianity, the observance 
 of it not being enjoined on Christians, and the 
 power of observing it being taken away even 
 from the Jews, by the destruction of their city 
 and temple, where alone the chief of the cere- 
 monies could be performed. It is indeed said, 
 and with truth, that the whole of the ceremonial 
 law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ in his own per- 
 -son: but this does not account for the abolition 
 of it afterwards : otherwise we must suppose the 
 moral law, which he fulfilled likewise, to be 
 abolished also : and this has never been asserted 
 by any but the wildest Antinomian perverters of 
 Divine Truth. It is besides evident, that he is 
 not here speaking of what was done in his own 
 person, but of what would be the effect of his 
 doctrine, or of the illumination of the human mind 
 which he came to impart. When therefore Jesus 
 Christ declares, that he came to fulfil the law and 
 the prophets, he means that he came to prevent 
 * Matt. v. 17. 
 
74 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 them from being any longer regarded merely as 
 to their surface or shell; to bring to light the 
 divine things with which they are inwardly filled; 
 and to establish a church which should be in the 
 exercise of that spiritual worship, of which the 
 carnal worship of the ceremonial law was a 
 figure or type. The word "fulfil/' being now 
 no longer used except in its secondary senses, 
 which are, ct to answer a prophecy or promise 
 by performance/' " to answer a desire by com- 
 pliance/' ff to answer a law by obedience/' 
 the English reader of the New Testament is apt 
 to forget its primitive meaning, which is, to fill 
 full, "to fill till there is no room for more*;" 
 which also is the primitive and proper meaning 
 of the Greek word [n^pooi] for which it is used : 
 to fulfil the law, is then to Jill it full; and this 
 is, to discover the substance of which the cere- 
 monies were shadows, and the inward principles 
 from which the outward acts, even of the moral 
 law, must be performed. The Divine Speaker 
 immediately proceeds to illustrate his meaning 
 by examples. After referring to the Mosaic pro- 
 hibitions of murder and adultery, he proceeds to 
 forbid all uncharitable sentiments and. unclean 
 thoughts ; and after referring to the Mosaic law 
 of retaliation, he inculcates the most unbounded 
 forbearance and forgiveness : by which he in- 
 structs us, that those precepts of the ancient law 
 * Johnson. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 75 
 
 convey much more than the letter expresses; 
 that under the prohibition of murder, every 
 degree of hostile feeling is interdicted; that the 
 prohibition of adultery extends to every species 
 of uncleanness ; and that the law of retaliation 
 is a representative appointment only,, exhibiting 
 an immutable arrangement of the Divine Order 
 in the government of the universe, which is such, 
 that no evil can be practised or intended, without 
 falling eventually upon the contriver; but that 
 this law is reserved, as to its execution, to the 
 Unerring Judge alone ; and is not meant to be 
 that by which man is to regulate his conduct 
 towards his trespassing brother. These then 
 are examples by which Jesus . Christ shews, 
 how, in the dispensation which he came to 
 institute, the law was to be fulfilled ; in cc the 
 newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the 
 letter*:" by introducing into the outward ob- 
 servance of the moral code the inward spirit and 
 life; and by substituting for the ceremonial 
 observances those vital graces of which they 
 were the types. It was thus that the righteous- 
 ness of the disciples of Jesus Christ was to 
 exceed the righteousness of the scribes and 
 Pharisees, who thought of nothing further than 
 an outward obedience. 
 
 There are however other instances, in which 
 Jesus Christ still more plainly refers to the 
 
 * Rom. vii. G. 
 
76 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 divine wisdom included within the veil of the 
 letter of the Holy Word. What a remarkable 
 statement is that, where it is said, after his re- 
 surrection,, when he discovered himself to his 
 disciples, " Then opened he their understandings, 
 that they might understand the Scriptures !" * 
 Is it not plain from this, that the Scriptures 
 contain a hidden meaning*, not explicitly dis- 
 covered in the letter, which cannot be understood 
 unless the understanding be opened to perceive 
 it? Thus this statement is a counterpart of the 
 prayer of the Psalmist before adverted to; ff Open 
 thoii mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 
 things out of thy law :" and both together 
 illustrate that saying of Jesus Christ, ff Verily 
 I say unto you, that many prophets and righte- 
 ous men have desired to see the things which ye 
 see, and have not seen them, and to hear the 
 things which ye hear, and have not heard 
 themf:" words which imply, that even the sin- 
 cere lovers of truth, who lived under the Jewish 
 dispensation, in which divine things were either 
 enigmatically expressed in the Sacred Writings, 
 or darkly shadowed out in the symbolic rites, 
 could not have that clear understanding and 
 perception of heavenly mysteries, which were 
 brought to light Jby the coming of the Lord, 
 and by that new illumination of the understand- 
 ing which he then afforded. 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 45.' t Matt. xiii. 17. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 77 
 
 This plain distinction between the outward 
 language in which divine Truth is conveyed,, and 
 the divine wisdom which is included within it, is 
 what is intended by the Lord Jesus Christ,, in that 
 otherwise unintelligible question and answer, 
 which he proposes and gives, respecting the ob- 
 stinacy and blindness of the Jews. He says to 
 them, " Why do ye not understand my speech?" 
 and he answers the question by adding, (C Even 
 because ye cannot hear my word/'* Here he 
 makes a plain distinction between his speech 
 and his word. To a superficial reader the two 
 expressions may appear synonimous: but to 
 suppose that they are so, is not only to impute 
 the most insipid tautology to the Divine Speaker, 
 but the most palpable no-meaning: for the 
 whole sense of the declaration is concentrated 
 in the difference which is pointed to between 
 his cc speech*' and his fc word/' Understand by 
 his "speech" the outward expression and literal 
 sense of his divine communications, and by his 
 " word," the pure truth which is concealed 
 within ; and the sense of the declaration at once 
 appears, and is to be found to be most weighty 
 and important; nor cail any other interpretation 
 render it worthy of the Author. Here then we are 
 clearly taught this most momentous truth : that 
 unless the hidden wisdom of the Lord's divine 
 communications be acknowledged and attended 
 
 John viii. 43. 
 
78 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 to, the outward expression of them will never be 
 understood. 
 
 We will quote only one more testimony from 
 the immediate lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 
 the sixth chapter of John he holds a long dis- 
 course with the cavilling Jews, couched entirely 
 in those dark sayings which so generally con- 
 stitute the letter of the Holy Word. He tells 
 them, that He is the living bread which came 
 down from heaven, of which if a man eat he 
 shall live for ever : to which he adds, " And the 
 bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will 
 give for the life of the world/'* This puzzled 
 the Jews extremely, and they (c strove among 
 themselves, saying, How can this man give us 
 his flesh to eat?" Jesus, however, enforced 
 his assertion, and fc said unto them, Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you :" which affirmation he dwelt upon 
 at some length. f This confounded even many 
 of his disciples, and they said, " This is a hard 
 saying: who can hear it|?" meaning, Who 
 can understand and receive such a paradox as 
 this ? But it is added, " When Jesus knew in 
 himself that his disciples murmured at it, He 
 said, Doth this offend you? What and if ye 
 shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he 
 was before?" And he subjoins, as a key to the 
 
 * Ver. 51. f Ver. 52 to 5,8. J Ver. 60. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 79 
 
 mystery, fc It is the spirit that quickeneth; the 
 flesh profiteth nothing- : the words that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."* 
 How is it possible to state more decidedly, that 
 it is the spiritual meaning of divine language 
 which is to be looked for, and that we are not to 
 abide in the gross, carnal interpretation? And 
 how plainly are we hereby instructed, that the 
 difficulties which stagger and offend many, when 
 they look at the mere outward covering", or 
 " flesh'* of the Divine Word, would disappear, 
 could they raise their ideas to a perception of 
 its ec spirit" and its " life!" 
 
 It is clear enough then, from these declara- 
 tions, what is the nature of the words of Jesus 
 Christ; and also what is the nature of the whole 
 Word of God, if it really is the " Word of God/' 
 God-breathed ce given by inspiration of God :" 
 viz. that it every where contains much more 
 than meets the eye or ear. We are now to see 
 how far the Apostles bear a similar testimony. 
 
 3. Not then to dwell upon that passage of 
 Paul, in which he says, that " the letter killeth, 
 the spirit giveth lifef;" although this might be 
 shewn to be strong to our purpose ; we will ad- 
 vert to a few of the numerous instances in which 
 this Apostle directs the attention of his readers 
 to the spiritual signification of the Scriptures of 
 the Old Testament those of the New being not 
 * Ver. 61, 62, 63. t 2 Cor. iii. 0. 
 
80 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 then written ; or such of them as were written 
 not generally known. 
 
 Speaking of the pilgrimage of the children 
 of Israel in the wilderness, the Apostle states,, 
 that fc they did all eat of the same spiritual meat,, 
 and did all drink of the same spiritual drink: for 
 they drank of the spiritual rock that followed 
 them; and that rock was Christ/'* Here we 
 are evidently taught,, that something more was 
 conveyed by the manna which was given them 
 from heaven,, and the water that was produced 
 for them from the rock,, than merely natural 
 food and drink for the support of the body ; as 
 also, that the rock itself, out of which the water 
 was obtained, was representative of the Rock of 
 Ages : for that the rock in Horeb was not literally 
 Christ,, is sufficiently evident : yet the Apostle 
 says, ff and that rock was Christ;" he must 
 mean then, that it was a representation, figure, 
 emblem, or type of Christ, who alone, as being 
 " THE Truthf/' and " THE WordJ," can refresh 
 the fainting soul with streams of ff living water," 
 which is an emblem of pure Truth, communi- 
 cated by the Word, from Himself? 
 
 The same Apostle gives a spiritual meaning 
 of so apparently plain a history as that of 
 Abraham, his wife and concubine, and their 
 sons, Isaac and Ishmael. (f It is written/' he 
 
 * 1 Cor. x. 34. f John xiv. 6. J John i. 1. 
 
 John iv. 10, vii. 38. 
 
THB SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 81 
 
 observes, " that Abraham had two sons,, the one 
 by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman : 
 but he who was of the bond-woman was born 
 after the flesh ; but he of the free woman by 
 promise. Which things/* he continues, Cf are 
 an allegory:" and he accordingly explains them,, 
 as being emblematical of the Israel itish and 
 Christian dispensations.* Now if this plain 
 narrative contains an allegorical or inward 
 meaning besides its literal or outward sense, 
 what reason can be given for doubting, that 
 the whole of the historical relations of the 
 Divine Word do the same? If Isaac, from his 
 birth, was a type of the Christian Dispen- 
 sation in general, may we not conclude, that 
 the nation descending from him represented, 
 in their history, all the particulars of the same? 
 or, what is substantially the same thing, all 
 the spiritual things belonging to the Lord's 
 true Church under every dispensation? This, 
 we- have already seen, is taught us by David; 
 and we shall see in the sequel, that there is 
 abundantly more scriptural evidence of the same 
 great truth. 
 
 But we have not yet done with the testimony 
 
 of Paul, who inculcates this fact more explicitly 
 
 still, because more generally, when he says, 
 
 ! He is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; 
 
 neither is circumcision that which is outward 
 
 * Galatians iv. 22, to end. 
 M 
 
82 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in the flesh : but he is a Jew which is one in- 
 wardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, 
 in the spirit, and not in the letter."* In these 
 words we are clearly instructed,, that when the 
 Jews are mentioned in Scripture,, we are to 
 understand, not merely the descendants of the 
 man named Judah, or the inhabitants of the 
 country called Judaea,, but the member of the 
 Lord's true church, under whatever dispensation ; 
 and that the initiatory rite of Judaism was re- 
 presentative of the purification of the heart and 
 its affections; as is also plainly declared by 
 Moses himself.f 
 
 Of the nature of the Mosaic v writings, the 
 Apostle gives us several more examples in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews. With what force of 
 argument does he demonstrate, that Melchi- 
 zedeck was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ! J 
 So, how positively does he assert the typical 
 nature of all the ceremonial institutions! Thus, 
 speaking of the priests, and of the gifts which 
 they offered according to the law, he says, 
 that they <c serve unto the example" [WoSf typa 
 properly, according to Schleusner, that which 
 presents something visible to the sight] ff and 
 shadow of heavenly things :" which interpre- 
 tation he confirms by adding, cc as Moses was 
 admonished of God, when he was about to 
 
 * Rom. ii. 28, 29. f Deut. x. 16, ch. xxx. 6. 
 
 jChs. v. and vii. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 83 
 
 make the tabernacle; for, See, saith he, that 
 thou make all things according to the pattern 
 [VuTros] shewed to thee in the mount/'* Soon 
 after, taking up more particularly the subject 
 of the tabernacle constructed by Moses, he 
 affirms, that it ff was a figure for the time then 
 present f:" and he presently calls the rituals 
 of the tabernacle worship " the patterns [UTTO- 
 of things in the heavens," and speaks 
 
 * Heb. viii. 5. It is necessary to remark, that the words 
 rt'Troj in this passage, and amrvnrof in that to he noticed 
 immediately, have meanings exactly the reverse of those 
 which the words type and antitype have acquired in English. 
 With the Apostle, the type is the pattern, and the antitype is 
 that which, as a copy, answers to the type: hut with us, the 
 type is the copy, and the antitype is the original, or pattern, 
 of the type. This seems to have originated in inaccurate writers 
 confounding the Greek particle anti with the Latin particle 
 ante. To hear the popular meaning, the word should be 
 spelled antetype : though then it is an incongruous compound 
 from two languages. The ambiguity introduced by the 
 translators in the use of the word pattern, should also be 
 noticed. In the passage above, they use it in the sense to 
 which it is now fixed, as the original from which a copy is 
 made : but in the next quotation they use it in the sense, not 
 of a pattern, but of a copy taken from a pattern. It must 
 further be noticed, that the word amrvwoc, in the passage 
 quoted below from Peter, does not mean an antitype in either 
 of the senses here explained, but something that answers to 
 another thing of the same order as itself; not as a copy to a 
 pattern, or as a pattern to a copy, but as two similar things, 
 of the same kind or degree, that exactly match each other. 
 
 t Hcb. ix. 9. 
 
 M 2 
 
84 
 
 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of them in contrast with C{ the heavenly things 
 themselves* ;" immediately adding, that " the 
 holy places made with hands,, are the figures 
 [awruTro] of the true."f Agreeably to this view 
 of the Mosaic rituals, he speaks of (f the law" as 
 (C having a shadow of good things to come, and 
 not the very image of the thingsj :" where by 
 f( the image/' as has been judiciously remarked, 
 he means, what is respectively a substance; a 
 solid statue being a substance respectively to 
 its own shadow. 
 
 We find then that the testimony of the 
 Apostle Paul is very copious and conclusive : 
 He affirms the representative character of the 
 persons mentioned in the Old Testament; of 
 all the particulars attending the celebration of 
 the Mosaic worship ; of the history of the 
 Israelites in general ; and, in fact, of every thing 
 connected with that people and church: and 
 he repeatedly calls our attention from the 
 mere Cf letter" of Scripture, to the ff spirit" 
 that resides within. 
 
 The epistolary writings of the other Apostles, 
 and the remains of their discourses, being small 
 in extent, and almost entirely occupied with 
 practical exhortations, are less explicit on this 
 subject. Peter, however, plainly discovers, in 
 two or three instances, what his sentiments 
 respecting it were. Thus, in his first sermon, 
 
 * Heb. ix. 23. t Ver. 24. J Cb. x. 1. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 he not only applies to the gift of the spirit, 
 which they had just received, the following part 
 of a prophecy of Joel, " It shall come to pass 
 in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of 
 my spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your 
 daughters shall prophesy, and your young men 
 shall see visions, and your old men shall dream 
 dreams ; and on my servants and on my hand- 
 maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, 
 and they shall prophesy:" but he cites the 
 remainder of Joel's prediction also, as then 
 receiving its accomplishment; ff And I will 
 shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the 
 earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour of 
 smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 and the moon into blood, before that great and 
 notable day of the Lord come."* Now al- 
 though the words first quoted may be con- 
 sidered as bearing, in their literal sense, a relation 
 to the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of 
 Pentecost, it is only in a sense quite different 
 from that of the letter, that the other part of 
 the prediction was then fulfilled. 
 
 The same Apostle assures us, that there is 
 a symbolic meaning in the history of Noah. 
 Having mentioned the ark, " wherein a few, 
 that is, eight souls, were saved by water;" 
 he adds, " the like figure [awruTrov] whereunto, 
 even baptism, doth also now save us, (not the 
 * Actsii. 10 to 21. 
 
86 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the 
 answer of a good conscience towards God,) by 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ/'* Here we 
 are expressly told, that the waters of Noah 
 were as truly a figure of something spiritual, 
 as are the waters of baptism, these being the 
 fellow-type to the other: their import is also 
 briefly stated. 
 
 But not only does Peter mention particular 
 instances in which a spiritual sense is contained 
 within the letter of the Scriptures, but he also 
 declares that this is the case universally, when 
 he says, " We have also a more sure word of pro- 
 phecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, 
 as unto a light shining in a dark place, until 
 the day dawn, and the day-star arise, in your 
 hearts:" If he had concluded here, he would 
 have clearly described the fact, as it exists. 
 The prophetic writings are called a light shining 
 in a dark place : how beautifully does this des- 
 cribe the difference between their literal expres- 
 sion and the divine wisdom within it! the 
 light denoting the pure truth of their inward 
 meaning, and the dark place in which it shines 
 the obscurity of the letter, which is such, that, 
 to discover the light, devout contemplation is 
 necessary, until it shines as the day-star in our 
 own minds also. But to make the fact more 
 certain, and to encourage us to the study of the 
 
 * 1 Pet, iii. 20, 21. See Note above, p. 83. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, 87 
 
 Scriptures under this view of them, the apostle 
 adds, (f Knowing this first; that no prophecy of 
 the Scripture is of any private interpretation."* 
 Now the Scriptures would be of ff private inter- 
 pretation/' if their meaning* were confined to 
 the natural occurrences to which they usually 
 refer in their letter, if nothing more .were in- 
 tended beyond the persons and things there 
 commonly mentioned. I am not unapprized of 
 the other modes in which this statement has 
 been explained ; but I am fully satisfied that 
 this is the only one which comes up to the apos- 
 tle's meaning. If regard is to be had to the 
 context, both that which precedes and that 
 which follows, as well as to the proper force of 
 the words, the meaning surely must be that 
 which is quoted by Dr. Doddridge from Dr. 
 Clarke and Mr. Baxter, who understood the 
 passage as if the Apostle had said, " Scripture 
 is not to be interpreted merely as speaking of 
 the particular person of whom it literally speaks ; 
 but as having a further sense, to which the ex- 
 pressions of the prophets were overruled under 
 the influence of the Spirit/' &c. Evidently, if 
 the meaning of the Scriptures is not be regarded 
 as appropriated merely to the persons and things 
 of which they treat in their letter, if they thus 
 are not of private but of universal interpretation; 
 then they must contain an interior sense, a hid- 
 
 * 2 Pet. i. 19,20. 
 
88 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 den wisdom, adapted to the edification of every 
 Christian in every age of the world. 
 
 The evidence, then, to the nature of the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old Testament, is already very 
 complete : but had all the other writers of the 
 New Testament been silent on the subject, we 
 still should have had sufficient information to 
 guide our judgment, in the book that closes the 
 canon of Scripture. In this book the Revela- 
 tion of John, how full is the testimony which 
 we find to the hidden wisdom contained in all 
 the affairs and writings relating to the Jewish 
 dispensation ! It would, however, engage us too 
 long, were we to examine it in detail : suffice it 
 then to say, that much of the imagery of this book 
 is taken from the state of things which existed 
 under the Mosaic law. Though written, ac- 
 cording to the best computations, upwards of 
 twenty years after the destruction of the city 
 and temple of Jerusalem, it contains repeated 
 mention of both*; as also of the arkf, of the 
 altars of incenset and of burnt offerings, of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel || , notwithstanding ten 
 of them had long before been entirely dispersed 
 and mixed with other nations; beside many of 
 the persons** and placesff treated of in the 
 
 * Ch. iii. 12, xxi. 2, xi. 1, 19, xv. 5, 8, xvi. 1, 17. 
 
 t Ch. xi. 19. : Ch. viii. 3. Ch. xi. 1. || Ch. vii. 4 to 8. 
 
 ** Ch. ii. 14, 20, ch. iii. 7, v. 5, xi. 3, 4, (see Zech. iv. lit 14. 
 
 tf Ch, xi. 8 ; chs. xvii. and xviii. xxi. 2, &c. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 89 
 
 sacred history of the Jews; all which furnish 
 the writer with a copious store of imagery that 
 is evidently purely symbolic : how plain then is 
 the inference, that these things belonging to 
 the circumstances of the Jewish dispensation, 
 and which are here incontrovertibly used as 
 mere symbols, bearing a spiritual meaning, were 
 equally symbols, and equally bore a spiritual 
 meaning, when they really existed in, or in the 
 vicinity of, the land of Canaan, and when they 
 are spoken of in the letter of the other books 
 of Scripture.* 
 
 Thus it is perfectly clear, that every thing 
 relating to the Jews as a people, typified some- 
 thing belonging, either to the true Jews spoken 
 of by Paul, who are such inwardly in the spirit 
 and not outwardly in the letter, or else to those 
 mentioned in the Revelation, (C who say they 
 are Jews and are notf ;" in other words, either 
 to the true or to the merely professing members 
 of the Church universal : and as the whole of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, in the literal sense, refers 
 to such things, it follows, that the whole of the 
 Sacred, Scriptures contains an inward meaning 
 distinct from that of the letter, that they are 
 replete with stores of wisdom in their bosom, 
 independently of what appears upon the surface. 
 And it follows further, that in forming a judg- 
 
 * See this argument farther deduced in the Appendix, No. I. 
 \ Ch. ii. 9, iii. 9. 
 
 N 
 
90 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 merit of their pretensions to inspiration, we are 
 to be guided by their inward contents,, and not 
 solely by their outward form and appearance. 
 To allude again to the image used by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we are not to be offended at 
 the "flesh/* because we have not discernment 
 to discover cc the spirit/' 
 
 4. It having thus been so plainly taught by 
 the Lord and his apostles, that the Scriptures 
 are, in their inward bosom, spirit and life, it will 
 be expected that the primitive Christian Church, 
 which derived its ideas of the nature of the 
 Scriptures from the teaching of the apostles, 
 must universally have allowed them to possess 
 this character : and, accordingly, ecclesiastical 
 history, and the writings of those times which 
 are still extant, shew that such was the case. 
 Indeed, no truth in history is more certain than 
 this ; that for at least fourteen or fifteen hundred 
 years, few who received the Scriptures at all, 
 ever thought of denying that they contained 
 mysteries in their bosom which do not appear 
 updn the surface. It is true that some were 
 dissatisfied, and even disgusted, with the inter- 
 pretations which had been given by others, and 
 rather sought to ascertain the true literal sense 
 than to explore what might lie beyond : but few 
 ever thought of affirming, that nothing beyond 
 the letter was included in them. The accounts 
 which are contained in that well-known work, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 91 
 
 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, abundantly 
 prove this : and as it is not our intention here to 
 inquire what the interpretations were, which, 
 in consequence of their admission of a hidden 
 sense, were given of Scripture by ancient Chris- 
 tian writers, but only to establish the fact, that 
 they believed it to contain such a sense; the 
 statements of this author will be sufficient for 
 our purpose. 
 
 (1.) Mosheim was himself one of the modern 
 writers who lay it down as a ff golden rule," 
 that the Scripture contains but one sense, which 
 is that of the letter ; on which his translator, 
 Dr. Maclaine, found it necessary to remark, that 
 " this golden rule will often be found defective 
 and false*/' unless many exceptions be made 
 to it . Mosheim, however, was strongly attached 
 to it ; and hence the opprobrious language 
 which he uses in regard to all who maintain the 
 opposite opinion, must be received with many 
 grains of allowance. Such being his senti- 
 ments, he evidently is much annoyed at being 
 obliged to record, that the belief of a hidden 
 sense was universal in the primitive ages : he, 
 however, does record it, though he depreciates 
 the writings of those who adopt the principle. 
 Thus, speaking of the mode of interpreting 
 Scripture in the first century, he says, ff It must 
 be acknowledged, that even in this century, 
 * Cent. xvi. Sec. 3, Pt. 2, Ch. 1, 16, Note (a). 
 N 2 
 
92 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 several Christians adopted that absurd and cor- 
 rupt custom, used among the Jews, of darken- 
 ing the plain words. of the Holy Scriptures by 
 insipid and forced allegories, and of drawing 
 them violently from their proper and natural 
 signification,, in order to extort from them cer- 
 tain hidden and mysterious significations. For 
 a proof of this we need go no farther than the 
 Epistle of Barnabas, which is yet extant/'* It 
 is well he did not say " the epistles of Paul;" for 
 we have seen that Paul quite as decidedly favour- 
 ed the practice of drawing from the plain words 
 of Scripture, not, indeed, insipid and forced alle- 
 gories, but weighty and just ones ; and it must 
 be remembered, that Barnabas was an apostoli- 
 cal man, the friend of Paul and the other 
 Apostles, and sometimes called an Apostle him- 
 self f : although then Barnabas might err in his 
 application of the general principle, -that there 
 is a hidden sense in the Scriptures, we hardly 
 can suppose that he was mistaken in the prin- 
 ciple itself. The intimate friend of the Apostles 
 must have known, whether this principle was 
 acknowledged by them, or not.J 
 
 * Cent. 1, Pt. 1, Ch. 3, 2. f Acts, xiv. 14. 
 
 I Mosheim indeed, with some others, does not allow the 
 author of the epistle of Barnabas, to have been the Barnabas 
 who was the companion of Paul; but upon no other grounds, 
 than because he does not consider the epistle to be worthy 
 of such a man. He allows it, however, to be a production 
 of the first century; and none of the early Christians seeni 
 to have denied its being genuine. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 93 
 
 When he comes to the second century, speak- 
 ing of the veneration with which the Holy 
 Scriptures were then regarded, Dr. Mosheirn 
 says, that many employed their (C useful labours 
 in explaining and interpreting them/' As the 
 chief of these expositors he mentions Pantaenus, 
 the head of the Alexandrian school of divinity 
 Clement of Alexandria, whom he had before 
 described as fc the most illustrious writer of this 
 century, and the most justly renowned for his 
 various erudition, and his perfect acquaintance 
 with the ancient sages/' and whose works, Cf yet 
 extant, abundantly shew the extent of his learn- 
 ing, and the force of his genius;" Justin, "a 
 man of eminent piety and considerable learning, 
 who from a pagan philosopher became a Chris- 
 tian martyr;" and Theophilus, Bishop of 
 Antioch, whose works are " remarkable for 
 their erudition/' though not for (C their order 
 and method:" and of these distinguished lights 
 of the church he says, that " they all attributed 
 a double sense to the words of Scripture, the 
 one obvious and literal, the other hidden and 
 mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, 
 under the veil of the outward letter/'* 
 
 Proceeding to the third century, and com- 
 memorating the pains then taken by some to 
 multiply correct copies of the Scriptures, he 
 mentions the celebrated Origen in these words : 
 * Cent. 2. Ft. 2, Ob. 3, 4, 5; and Oh. 2, 5. 
 
94 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 "But Origin surpassed all others in diligence 
 and assiduity ; and his famous Hexapla*, though 
 almost destroyed by the waste of time, will 
 remain an eternal monument of the incredible 
 application with which that great man laboured 
 to remove the obstacles which retarded the 
 progress of the gospel. "f He had previously^ 
 given the character of Origen in stronger terms 
 still. Speaking of the principal writers of the 
 third century,, he says., fc The most eminent of 
 these., whether we consider the extent of his 
 fame, or the multiplicity of his labours, was 
 Origen, a presbyter and catechist of Alexandria; 
 a man of vast and uncommon abilities, and the 
 greatest luminary of the Christian world that 
 this age exhibited to view. Had the justness 
 of his judgment been equal to the immensity 
 of his genius, the fervour of his piety, his indi- 
 fatigable patience, his extensive erudition, and 
 his other eminent and superior talents, all en- 
 comiums must have fallen short of his merit. 
 Yet such as he was, his virtues and his labours 
 deserve the admiration of all ages; and his name 
 will be transmitted with honour through the 
 annals of time, as long as learning and genius 
 shall be esteemed among men/' Higher eulogy 
 
 * A work in which he exhibited, at one view, six copies 
 or versions of the Scriptures, after the manner of the modern 
 Polyglotts. 
 
 t Cent, 3, Pt. 2, Ch. 3, 4. J Ibid, Ch. 2, 7. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 95 
 
 could not easily be penned : and the reserve that 
 is made on the score of his judgment,, may fairly 
 be ascribed to the prejudice of the writer against 
 any but the literal interpretation of Scripture. 
 No literary pursuit requires a more accurate 
 judgment than sacred criticism: and Origen is 
 universally allowed to have been one of the most 
 laborious and judicious critics that ever lived. 
 He was in no respect inferior to the Weststeiris 
 and Griesbachs of our days, in that species of 
 erudition and industry to which they devoted 
 all their attention. He displayed the utmost 
 diligence and acumen in fixing the text, and 
 ascertaining the literal sense, of Scripture : but 
 he did not, like many who have followed him, 
 in modern times, in this walk of biblical litera- 
 ture, because he excelled in it, extol it as the 
 whole, or the highest. This great man, then, 
 strenuously maintained that the chief wisdom 
 in the Scriptures lies beyond the letter. ff He 
 alleged/' to quote again from Mosheim, ff that 
 the words of Scripture, were, in many places, 
 absolutely void of sense; and that though, in 
 others, there were indeed certain notions con- 
 tained under the outward terms according to 
 their literal force and import, yet it was not in 
 these that the true meaning of the sacred writers 
 was to be sought, but in a mysterious and hidden 
 sense arising from the nature of the things them- 
 
96 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 selves/'* Mosheim adds, "A prodigious number 
 of interpreters, both in this and the succeeding 
 ages,, followed the method of Origen, though 
 with some variation; nor could the few who ex- 
 plained the sacred writings with judgment, and 
 a true spirit of criticism/' [so our author is 
 pleased to give his opinion ; though we have 
 seen that Origen himself was one of the greatest 
 of critics,,] " oppose, with any success, the tor- 
 rent of allegory that was overflowing the 
 church/'f Very strong testimony, this, as to 
 the state of opinion in those ages on the nature 
 of the Scriptures. And it must be kept in mind, 
 that : this is all that we are concerned with. I 
 undertake not to vindicate the interpretations 
 themselves, but only the general principle 
 \vhich all such interpretations assume ; that 
 there is in the Scriptures more than meets the eye. 
 
 But if I would not vindicate the interpreta- 
 tions of these early times, farther than as re- 
 gards their general principle, still less would I 
 defend, in any other respect, the expositors of 
 the following ages. It will not however be 
 without its interest and its use, if we take, from 
 our author, a rapid sketch of the state of Scrip- 
 ture interpretation, through the succeeding ages, 
 to the period of the Reformation from Popery. 
 
 As after the third century many deviations from 
 the pure Christian doctrine and worship became 
 
 * Cent. 3, Pt. 2, Ch. 3. 5. f Ibid. 6. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 9? 
 
 general, it cannot be deemed surprising if the 
 interpreters of Scripture should be found to 
 have fallen into serious errors, and grievously 
 to have misapplied the great general truth, that 
 the Scriptures contain a sense beyond that of the 
 letter. We find, however, that all the eminent 
 names in the church continued to adhere to 
 this truth, with very few exceptions, down to 
 the age of Luther. The most learned of the 
 fathers of the fourth century, were Eusebius 
 and Jerome; and these Mosheim puts in his list 
 of allegorical interpreters : he claims Augustine 
 as adhering to the letter; but he cannot mean 
 that this father denied there to be any thing 
 beyond the letter; since his writings contain 
 many beautiful spiritual interpretations. In the 
 fifth century he only gives the names of one or 
 two who confined themselves to the literal sense, 
 as exceptions to the general practice. In the 
 sixth century the number of interpreters is 
 described as considerable: Among the Greeks, 
 our author states, the principal were Procopius 
 of Gaza, Severus of Antioch, and Julian ; and 
 among the Latins, Gregory the Great, Cassio- 
 dorus, Primasius, Isidore of Seville, and Bellator. 
 The commentators of this age, he affirms, may 
 be divided into two classes : the first of whom 
 merely collected the interpretations of the an- 
 cient doctors of the church, (who, we have 
 already seen, proceeded in their writings upon 
 
98 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 the admission of a spiritual sense,) which collec- 
 tions afterwards acquired the technical name of 
 chains ; and the other class followed their own 
 ideas, setting up Origen as their great model. 
 The seventh century produced but few exposi- 
 tors : The Grecian doctors all followed the alle- 
 gorical mode: but "the Latins/' says Mosheim, 
 in his usual sarcastic style, te were so diffident 
 of their abilities, that they did not dare to enter 
 these allegorical labyrinths, [under their own 
 guidance, he means,] but contented themselves 
 with what flowers they could pluck out of the 
 rich collections of Gregory and Augustine." 
 In the eighth century, both the Greeks and 
 Latins confined themselves almost entirely to 
 the task of compilation: but those who framed 
 any thing of their own, as Alcuin, Authpert, 
 and the venerable Bede, all men of the greatest 
 abilities, always sought for the "hidden and 
 mystical meaning, which they usually divided 
 into allegorical, anagogical, and tropological." 
 The same description applies to the writers of 
 the ninth century, with the partial exception of 
 two, Druthmar, and Bertharius : Mosheim con- 
 tinues to divide the rest into compilers and 
 original authors; and he thus describes the form 
 which the system of Scripture-interpretation 
 had now assumed : " The fundamental principle, 
 in which all the writers of this class [those who 
 were not mere compilers] agree, is, that, beside 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 99 
 
 the literal signification of each passage in Scrip- 
 ture, there are hidden and deep senses which 
 escape the vulgar eye; but they are not agreed 
 about the number of these mysterious significa- 
 tions. Some attribute to every phrase three 
 senses ; others four ; others again five ; nay, their 
 number is carried to seven, by Angelome, a monk 
 of Lisieux, an acute though fantastic writer, and 
 who is far from deserving the meanest rank 
 among the expositors of this century." The 
 tenth century was an age of great darkness, 
 which produced few expositors of Scripture; 
 and these were chiefly mere compilers. There 
 were more writers in the eleventh century, and 
 of the same two classes. In the twelfth century 
 the number of interpreters is described as great, 
 but, unless Rupert of Duytz is to be considered 
 as an exception, the same character is given of 
 them as before. "The Christian interpreters 
 and commentators of the thirteenth century, 
 differ very little/' says Mosheim, ff from those 
 of the preceding times. The greatest part of 
 them pretended to draw from the depths of truth, 
 what they called the internal juice and marrow 
 of the Scriptures, i. e. their hidden and mysterious 
 sense:" he adds, (and, I doubt not, correctly; 
 for I repeat, though I conceive their general 
 principle to be right, I readily concede that 
 their application of it was wrong,) "and this 
 they did with so little dexterity, so little plau- 
 
 o 2 
 
 
100 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 sibility and invention, that most of their expli- 
 cations must appear insipid and nauseous to such 
 as are not entirely destitute of judgment and 
 taste/' This I quote,, because he mentions as 
 examples, beside Anthony of Padua, our Arch- 
 bishop Langton, and Hugo de St. Cher, or Car- 
 dinal Hugh de St. Caro; whence we see, as in 
 former instances, that although the biblical ex- 
 positions of those days might be unsound, they 
 often proceeded from the most solid judgments 
 of the age, and from men who deserved well 
 of posterity. The common reader of the Bible 
 is indebted for the facility of finding and re- 
 membering its various contents, to Archbishop 
 Langton, who first divided it into chapters, and 
 who moreover is called by Mosheim's transla- 
 tor, ' f a learned and polite author, for the age in 
 which he lived :" and the more diligent student 
 owes the help he derives from a Concordance, 
 to Cardinal Hugo, who compiled the first that 
 ever was made, and whose work has been the 
 model of all theConcordances which have fol- 
 lowed, whether in Hebrew or Greek, in Latin 
 or English: he, likewise, had so much of the 
 sober-minded critic in his character, that he com- 
 piled a very learned collection of the various 
 readings of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin 
 manuscripts of the Bible. In the fourteenth 
 century, except Nicholas de Lyra, all the com- 
 mentators followed the methods already ex- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, <&C. 101 
 
 plained: and of those of the Jlfteenth century 
 the same character is given. This brings us to 
 the era of the reformation ; when the desire of 
 receding as far as possible from the Roman 
 Catholics, who continued to adhere to the old 
 system,, joined to disgust at the manner in 
 which the doctrine of a spiritual sense had been 
 abused, by being applied to confirm the errors 
 of the Roman Catholic church,, induced some 
 of the Reformers to reject it; though it has 
 continued to have many eminent advocates 
 among them to the present day. If it could be 
 shewn that the doctrine itself was a corrupt in- 
 vention of the Romish church, there would be 
 reason for rejecting it : but when it can be proved 
 to have been the belief of the primitive ages, 
 and this because it is taught in the Scriptures 
 themselves, we ought to take the pains to sepa- 
 rate the errors that have been attached to it, 
 from the truth itself and not reject both to- 
 gether. As, during many ages, every thing 
 connected with religion suffered the most grie- 
 vous perversion, it is not to be wondered at 
 that the same fate attended the spiritual in- 
 terpretation of the Scriptures : but to deny the 
 truth of the principle on this account, is just 
 as reasonable as it would be to deny the truth 
 of the declaration " All power is given to me 
 iu heaven and in earth */' made by the Lord 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 18. 
 
102 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Jesus Christ, because to this doctrine has been 
 attached the monstrous appendage,, that the Pope 
 is his Vicar. 
 
 I will conclude this statement of the senti- 
 ments of the primitive and middle ages on the 
 subject of Scripture-interpretation, in the words 
 of two eminent luminaries of the Anglican 
 Church. Archbishop Wake, one of the most 
 learned and pious prelates that ever sate in the 
 English Metropolitan Chair, in the introduction 
 to his translation of " the Genuine Epistles of 
 the Apostolical Fathers/' has some remarks in 
 defence of the spiritual expositions of Scripture, 
 and of Barnabas in particular. He says*, " I 
 need not say how general a way this was of 
 interpreting Scripture in the time that St. Bar- 
 nabas lived. To omit Origen, who has been 
 noted as excessive in it, and for whom, yet, the 
 learned Huetius has lately made a reasonable 
 apology; who has ever shewn a more diffusive 
 knowledge than Clemens Alexandrinus has done 
 in all his composures ? and yet in his works we 
 find the very same method taken of interpreting 
 the Holy Scriptures, and that without any re- 
 proach either to his learning or judgment. What 
 author has been more generally applauded for 
 his admirable piety than that other Clement, 
 [Clemens Romanus, a disciple and " fellow 
 labourerf" of Paul,] whose epistle to the Corin- 
 * Ch. vii. * 25. t Phil. iv. 3. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 103 
 
 thians I have here inserted? and yet in that 
 plain piece we meet with more than one instance 
 of the same kind of interpretation ; which was 
 nevertheless admired by the best and most pri- 
 mitive Christians/' So Bishop Home, in the 
 Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, 
 speaking of the testimony of the ancients, has 
 these words: "They are unexceptionable wit- 
 nesses to us of this matter of fact : that such a 
 spiritual method of interpreting the Scriptures, 
 did universally prevail in the church from the 
 beginning." 
 
 So far then as authority is to be consulted in 
 the decision of such a question, the weight of 
 evidence for the spiritual sense of the Scriptures 
 is irresistible. What regard is to be had to the 
 doubts of a few moderns, when opposed to the 
 unanimous decision of all antiquity, to the 
 unvarying acknowledgment of so many ages? 
 Although, through part of its course, the doc- 
 trine of spiritual interpretation may have been 
 rendered less clear by the foulness of the channel 
 through which it flowed ; and although it has, 
 in modern times, been made less distinguishable 
 by a mixture of other waters ; it unquestionably 
 had its rise in the virgin days of Christianity: 
 Unless then it is to be contended, that the farther 
 from the fountain, the purer the stream, it must 
 be admitted, that the doctrine of spiritual inter- 
 
104 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 pretation is the pure doctrine of the Christian 
 church. 
 
 (2.) The Reformation from Popery introduced 
 in the Christian church a great variety of opi- 
 nions; and it would be a very extensive task to 
 trace,, through the numerous sects which have 
 thus sprung up, the fluctuations of sentiment in 
 regard to the principles of Scripture-interpret- 
 ation. And the task would be nearly as 
 unprofitable as it would be tedious : since the 
 opinions of the moderns can have no other 
 weight, than that which they derive from their 
 evident reasonableness and agreement with 
 Scripture : as authority, they have none. I shall 
 confine myself therefore to a few English tes- 
 timonies; only observing, once for all, of the 
 modern writers in general, that while the ancients 
 generally believed the spiritual sense to extend 
 throughout the Scriptures, few of the moderns 
 allow it this complete universality; on the other 
 hand, while many of these deny its existence 
 generally, few of them refuse to admit it in 
 particular instances. This qualification then 
 must be applied to the testimonies I shall adduce 
 from them in favour of a spiritual sense ; but we 
 shall see in the sequel, that, if we make the 
 admission at all, we must, with the ancients, 
 make it universal. 
 
 As the most recent of modern testimonies of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 105 
 
 importance, I select that of the Rev. T. H. Home, 
 with an older author or two cited by him: we 
 shall also have occasion to refer to other au- 
 thorities in our subsequent Lectures. In his 
 laborious fc Introduction to the Critical Study 
 and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures/' a 
 work which has rapidly passed through three 
 editions, and has been received with the general 
 applause of biblical students, Mr. Home ex- 
 presses himself thus : f: The spiritual interpret- 
 ation of Scripture has been as much depreciated 
 by some commentators and biblical critics as it 
 has been exaggerated and carried to the extreme 
 by others: but if the argument against a thing 
 from the possibility of its being abused be in- 
 admissible in questions of a secular nature, it 
 is equally inadmissible in the exposition of the 
 Sacred Writings. All our ideas are admitted 
 through the medium of the senses; and conse- 
 quently refer, in the first place, to external 
 objects : but no sooner are we convinced that 
 we possess an immaterial soul or spirit, than we 
 find occasion for other terms, or, for want of 
 these, another application of the same terms to 
 a different class of objects : and hence arises the 
 necessity of resorting to figurative and spiritual 
 interpretation. Now, the object t>f revelation 
 being to make known things which f eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into 
 the heart of man to conceive/ it seems hardly 
 
 p 
 
106 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 possible that the human mind should be capable 
 of apprehending them, but through the medium 
 of figurative language or mystical represent- 
 ations/' * In this passage, as it appears to me, 
 the question is placed upon exactly the right 
 ground ; and a clue is at the same time given 
 to the discovery of the law or rule according to 
 which the Scriptures are written,, and by which 
 their spiritual sense is to be decyphered. It is 
 perfectly true that our ideas are received, in the 
 first instance, by the instrumentality of the 
 senses : these, however, can bring us acquainted 
 with none but external and sensible objects ; the 
 images of which, thus obtained, become, never- 
 theless, the basis of all our future thoughts, and, 
 in numberless instances, are transferred from 
 their primary notions, and used as the signs of 
 totally different things. It has been objected 
 by Infidels, that as all our ideas have a reference 
 to the objects of outward nature, and we cannot 
 think even of immaterial things without the 
 help of images thence compounded, this is a 
 proof that nothing but nature has a real exist- 
 ence, and that all beyond is purely the creature 
 of the imagination : but this is a most gratuitous 
 assumption : the true statement of the case 
 would be, that there is between material and 
 immaterial objects such a sort of regular analogy, 
 that the former present the most appropriate 
 
 * Vol.2, Pt.2, Ch. 1,5. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 107 
 
 signs for the expression of the latter. We shall 
 see in the sequel, that it is by this immutable 
 principle that the Word of God is written. Mr. 
 Home has established this truth by a beautiful 
 quotation from Dr. John Clarke, who states it 
 thus: 
 
 " The foundation of religion and virtue being 
 laid in the mind and heart, the secret dispositions 
 and genuine acts of which are invisible, and 
 known only to a man's self; therefore the 
 powers and operations of the mind can only 
 be expressed in figurative terms and external 
 symbols. The motives, also, and inducements 
 to practice, are spiritual, such as affect man in 
 a way of moral influence, and not of natural 
 efficiency ; the principal of which are drawn 
 from the consideration of a future state ; and, 
 consequently, these, likewise, must be represented 
 by allegories and similitudes, taken from things 
 most known and familiar here. And thus we 
 find in Scripture the state of religion illustrated 
 by all the beautiful images we can conceive. 
 In the interpretation of places, in which any of 
 these images are contained, the principal regard 
 is to be had to the figurative or spiritual, and 
 not to the literal sense of the words. Of this 
 nature are all the rites and ceremonies prescribed 
 to the Jews, with relation to the external form 
 of religious worship ; every one of which was 
 intended to shew the obligation, or recom- 
 
 p 2 
 
108 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 mend the practice, of some moral duty, and was 
 esteemed of no farther use than as it produced 
 that effect. And the same may he applied to 
 the rewards and punishments peculiar to the 
 Christian dispensation, which regard a future 
 state. The rewards are set forth by those 
 things in which the generality of men take 
 their greatest delight; and the punishments 
 are such as are inflicted by human laws upon 
 the worst of malefactors : but they can neither 
 of them be understood in the strictly literal 
 sense, but only by way of analogy, and corres- 
 ponding in the general nature and intention of 
 the thing, though very different in kind/' * 
 
 ec But/' adds Mr. Home, "independently of the 
 able argument a priori, here cited, in favour of 
 the mediate, mystical, or spiritual interpretation 
 of the Scrip, ures, unless such interpretation be 
 admitted" [in conjunction, he means, with the 
 truth of the literal sense,] " we cannot/' [in 
 the conclusive words of the late Bishop of 
 Calcutta,] " avoid one of two great difficulties: 
 for either we must assert, that the multitude of 
 applications made by Christ and his apostles, 
 are fanciful and unauthorized, and wholly in- 
 adequate to prove the points for which they are 
 quoted; or, on the other hand, we must believe, 
 that the obvious and natural sense of such pas- 
 sages was never intended, and that it is a mere* 
 
 * Folio Collection of Boole's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 229. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 109 
 
 illusion. The Christian will object to the former 
 of these positions ; the Philosopher and the 
 Critic will not readily assent to the latter/'* 
 This powerful writer says again,, in a passage 
 not quoted by Home, that,, without such a two- 
 fold explanation,, <c it will be impossible to place 
 any of the citations in the New Testament, 
 except, indeed,, direct and avowed prophecies, 
 on any better footing than that of being acci- 
 dentally apposite to the occasion. A quotation 
 from the Psalms., by St. Paul,, will not, in its 
 application, possess any advantage over a quota- 
 tion from Horace by Addison/'f 
 
 Here then I am contented to rest my case,, in 
 regard to the question, of the propriety of 
 claiming for the Scriptures a spiritual sense, 
 upon the supposition that they are rightly desig- 
 nated "the Word of God. 5 ' If philosophy, 
 and the immutable nature of things, are to be 
 consulted, " the Word of God" must contain 
 such a sense within it. If the testimony which 
 the Scriptures bear to themselves is to be re- 
 garded, they do contain such a sense. If f( the 
 multitude of applications" made of texts ee by 
 Christ and his Apostles" was not " fanciful and 
 unauthorized," the double sense of Scripture 
 is irrefragably established. If the concurrent 
 acknowledgment of all who lived in the best 
 * Doct. of Greek Article, p. 580. f Ibid. p. 588. 
 
110 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 days of Christianity is of any authority, we are 
 constrained to admit this sense. If the pre- 
 servation of this acknowledgment through so 
 many centuries, even through the ages of the 
 greatest darkness, when the sentiments arising 
 from it, together with all the doctrines of the 
 Christian religion, suffered gross perversion; 
 if this, nevertheless, is an index that points to 
 the source whence the acknowledgment was 
 derived ; then is the doctrine that the Scriptures 
 do contain such a sense, a fundamental doctrine 
 of the true Christian religion. And, finally, if 
 the force of truth has pointed out this conclusion 
 to the most intelligent of the moderns; if these, 
 after throwing off the trammels of authority, 
 and recurring to the original sources, are con- 
 strained to confess, that the spiritual sense of 
 the Scriptures cannot be denied, without denying 
 their truth altogether : assuredly we ought to 
 embrace the doctrine, as we would embrace the 
 palladium of the Christian faith. We shall 
 find in the end, that, when rightly apprehended, 
 it will prove a palladium indeed, by its power 
 of preserving the Christian faith from the as- 
 saults of its opponents. 
 
 IV. But, as has already been observed, though 
 the testimony to the fact, that the Word of 
 God contains stores of wisdom in its bosom, 
 independently of what appears on the surface, 
 is so ample, objections, during two or three 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. Ill 
 
 centuries past, have been made to it, and its credit 
 has gradually diminished. The belief in the spi- 
 ritual sense of Scripture, has run parallel with 
 that of its plenary inspiration: as this has de- 
 clined, so has the other. Indeed, they are in- 
 separably connected : for, as we have seen, if 
 the Word of God is written by a plenary divine 
 inspiration, it must contain interior treasures 
 within its outward shell, necessarily formed 
 there by its descent from the Inmost of all 
 things into the world of nature ; whereas if it 
 is not so written, it cannot include such hidden 
 wisdom ; at least, whatever it might thus contain 
 beyond the letter, would be, in the latter case, 
 the result of artificial contrivance in the writers, 
 not, as in the former, naturally inherent in writ- 
 ings so imparted : and the looking at the spiri- 
 tual sense thus, as a merely artificial contrivance, 
 has greatly helped to bring it into doubt. We 
 have seen, also, that the expositions of this sense 
 usually offered, have not been such as were 
 adapted to recommend it. Things of little 
 moment, savouring only of the little minds of 
 men, and quite unworthy of the wisdom of 
 Deity, have too generally been produced as spi- 
 ritual interpretations : and where more elevated 
 ideas have been presented, satisfactory reasons 
 not being assigned for them, they, also, were 
 liable to be ascribed to the mere fancy of the 
 writers. Among the explications thus offered, 
 
112 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 there was likewise an endless variety, and gene- 
 rally as much disagreement. When, therefore,, 
 so much error was thus mixed up with the prac- 
 tice of spiritual interpretation, it was not extra- 
 ordinary that, however true in itself, discredit 
 should in time be thrown upon the principle 
 also. Thus many began to shut their eyes to 
 the Scripture testimonies in its favour; to re- 
 gard it as merely opening a door to uncertainty 
 and confusion; and to insist that the letter of 
 the Holy Word should alone be studied, as the 
 only basis of certainty, and as containing, in 
 fact, all that was intended to be revealed. 
 
 Nothing can be farther from my intention, 
 than to depreciate, in the slightest degree, the 
 literal sense of the Scriptures, or the importance 
 of studying it with diligence : on the contrary, 
 I am fully sensible of the obligations which the 
 Christian world owes to the learned moderns, 
 who have endeavoured to revive a knowledge 
 of the original languages of Holy Writ, and to 
 restore the true import of its words and phrases. 
 Their labours have furnished the biblical student 
 of our days with more efficient helps to the right 
 understanding of the letter of the sacred pages, 
 than have been before enjoyed since the times 
 when Hebrew and Greek were living languages: 
 and if the partial neglect, or even denial, of the 
 spiritual sense, was necessary to turn men's 
 minds to the study of the literal sense, with the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. US 
 
 concentration of powers necessary to its com- 
 plete elucidation ; we may see, in the end for 
 which this was permitted, an object worthy 
 of Divine Providence; for we see the means 
 hereby provided, by which the study of the 
 spiritual sense may be placed on a safer basis 
 than it ever stood upon before. Most heartily 
 do I concur in the observation of Bishop Lowth, 
 that ff the deep and recondite senses" of Scrip- 
 ture, Cf must owe all their weight and solidity 
 to the just and accurate interpretation of the 
 words. For whatever senses are supposed to 
 be included in the Prophet's words, Spiritual, 
 Mystical, Allegorical, Analogical, or the like, 
 they must all entirely depend on the literal 
 sense. This is the only foundation upon which 
 such interpretations can be securely raised ; and 
 if this is not firmly and well established, all that 
 is built upon it will fall to the ground/' * Every 
 one must also admit the following remark to be 
 equally true and candid : " Strange and absurd 
 deductions of notions and ideas, foreign to the 
 author's drift and design, will often arise from 
 the invention of Commentators, who have no- 
 thing but an inaccurate translation to work 
 upon. This was the case of the generality of 
 the Fathers of the Christian Church, who wrote 
 comments upon the Old Testament: and it is no 
 wonder, that we find them of so little service in 
 * Lowth's Isaiab, Prel. Dis. 
 Q 
 
114 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 leading us into the true meaning and deep sense 
 of the Prophetic Writings. 1 ' Whoever then 
 assists us better to understand the letter of the 
 Scriptures, is entitled to our thanks ; and to our 
 forgiveness if, while intent on this, he should 
 have undervalued their spirit. 
 
 But the literal sense of Scripture, and the 
 right understanding of it, have also important 
 uses of their own, independently of that which 
 they furnish in yielding a foundation for the 
 higher meaning to rest on. Although there is 
 a great part of the Word of God, which, with- 
 out the spiritual sense, would be quite useless 
 as to any spiritual improvement, yet there are 
 other parts in which the most important truths 
 are presented to view in the very letter ; and this 
 in sufficient abundance to establish all the points 
 of faith that ought to be insisted upon in the 
 codes of Christian instruction. Unquestionably, 
 all doctrine should be drawn from the literal 
 sense, and proved by it: by this, likewise, 
 should all controversies be decided : and no- 
 thing which cannot thus be shewn and esta- 
 blished, should be considered as binding upon 
 the conscience of any one : otherwise, there 
 would indeed be reason to complain of uncer- 
 tainty in regard to the foundations of our faith ; 
 since the spiritual sense of any particular text, 
 though capable of being clearly exhibited to 
 the intellectual eye, can never appear so un- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 115 
 
 questionable to a mind that judges solely on 
 the evidence of the senses, as a statement of the 
 same truth in plain words. The letter of the 
 Holy Word is therefore so constructed, that the 
 doctrines most necessary to salvation may therein 
 be openly discerned. Although the divine truth 
 and wisdom contained in the Scriptures, only 
 shine with all their glory in the spiritual sense, 
 they do not assume their full power, till they 
 appear in a plain statement in the letter; as the 
 energies of the human mind, assume, as their 
 instrument of action, the human hand. We 
 have compared, in a former part of this Lecture, 
 the letter of the Word of God to the skin that 
 covers the body, and its hidden contents to the 
 interior organs and members ; but, to illustrate 
 the present subject, the Holy Word in general 
 may be compared to a beautiful female, clothed 
 in becoming drapery, but whose face and hands 
 remain uncovered : thus, while the greater part 
 of the letter of the Scriptures consists of truths 
 veiled over by natural images, which cannot be 
 decyphered without a key, the things most 
 indispensable to be known are openly displayed. 
 The spiritual sense of Scripture is not how- 
 ever without its use, in the framing of systems 
 of doctrine also : but its use here will be, not 
 to present the truths which are to be believed, 
 independently of the statements of the letter, 
 but to prevent us from mistaking one of the 
 
1 16 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 two classes of passages just alluded /to for the 
 other,, and thus bringing promineritlWand under- 
 standing according to their outwardexpression, 
 some obscure texts,, as if (to carry on our com- 
 parison) they belonged to an important feature 
 of the face,, while they form part,, in reality, of the 
 skirt of the garment. Every one knows that there 
 are statements in the Scriptures which appear to 
 be in opposition to each other; as when it is 
 sometimes said of the Divine Being, that he 
 repenteth*, and at others, that he repenteth not.f 
 It is evident that both these assertions cannot 
 be true in the same sense : and yet, if they 
 equally form part of the Word of God, they 
 must both be true in some sense: what then is 
 the plain inference, but that the one passage 
 delivers the naked truth, the other, the truth 
 covered w 7 ith the veil of a mere appearance 
 taken from human ideas ? In both declarations, 
 a spiritual sense is included : but in the one it 
 only exalts and extends, in the other it is re- 
 quired to correct and rectify, the statement of 
 the letter. Deny any sense beyond the letter, 
 and you fix such passages in irreconcilable op- 
 position : you have then no alternative, if you 
 still believe the Scriptures to contain a system 
 of truth, but to fix your attention wholly on the 
 one class of passages, and slur over the other 
 without notice : and you may even select for your 
 * Gen. vi. 6. f Numb, xxiii. 19. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 117 
 
 preference the class of passages which present the" 
 truth under a veil, and may confirm in your 
 mind, as the genuine truth, the outward enigmati- 
 cal expression, to the neglect of the truth itself, 
 which other passages openly discover. This has 
 been the immediate origin (though not the final 
 cause,) of all the mistakes, which, in various 
 ages, have been obtruded on the world as the 
 doctrines of the Scriptures : an insight into the 
 interior meaning of the Sacred Word would 
 have corrected them at once. 
 
 We see then, on the one hand, that the most 
 devoted adherents to the letter of Scripture need 
 not oppose the belief of its containing a farther 
 sense besides, under the apprehension, that 
 this would abolish the former: so far from 
 making void the letter, by viewing it in con- 
 nexion with the spirit, we thereby establish the 
 Better. On the other hand we see, that a refer- 
 ence to the spiritual sense is highly requisite, 
 to secure us from error in the interpretation of 
 the literal. Like soul and body, they are 
 equally necessary to each other. As the soul, 
 without the body, could not make its existence 
 perceptible in the world of nature; so neither 
 could the spiritual sense of the Scriptures,, without 
 the letter, be communicated to the inhabitants 
 of the natural world : and as the body, without 
 the soul, would be void of life ; so would be 
 the letter of Scripture, if entirely separate from 
 
118 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 its spirit. It is the translucence of the spirit 
 through the letter which makes this the vehicle 
 of conveying divine truth to the mind, and 
 which presents the truth, in greater or less ful- 
 ness, even to those, who deny its distinct exis- 
 tence ; just as the body of man derives from 
 the soul the life it exhibits, even in the case of 
 the materialist, who will not believe that he 
 has a soul within him. There must be an 
 animating principle somewhere ; and the inquiry 
 must be highly important which would teach 
 us what it is. 
 
 But many fear to admit this idea, in regard 
 to the Scriptures, under the impression, that any 
 departure from the letter must necessarily intro- 
 duce uncertainty and confusion. The objection 
 would be well founded, if no rule could be laid 
 down of general application, but we were to be 
 left to mere conjecture, every expositor being 
 guided solely by his own fancy; in which case, 
 although, like Justin Martyr*, he might be 
 persuaded that he had been endowed with a 
 special gift for understanding the Scriptures, 
 others, not seeing any reason for his expla- 
 nations, must be prone to doubt their truth. 
 But could it be shewn that the Scriptures are 
 written throughout according to an immut- 
 able Law or Rule, a knowledge of which 
 would, in explaining them, substitute certainty 
 
 * Dial. Par. 2. p. 352, 390. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 1J9 
 
 for conjecture and cut off the sources of vague 
 interpretation: then this objection, which is 
 the only plausible one, against their contain- 
 ing a spiritual sense, falls immediately to the 
 ground. That they must be written upon one 
 uniform principle, follows as a necessary con- 
 sequence, upon the supposition that they pro- 
 ceeded from a plenary divine inspiration: that 
 they are thus written, and what the Law or 
 Rule is according to which they are written, 
 we shall endeavour to evince in our subsequent 
 Lectures. 
 
 Here then we pause, for the present. The 
 questions which have been considered in this 
 Lecture are highly important: we have reviewed 
 them at some length : and I hope sufficient 
 reason has been shewn, to incline every serious 
 and candid mind to determine them in the affirm- 
 ative. At least, I cannot think I am myself 
 deceived so far, as to be following an error 
 which has nothing to give it the air of truth : 
 I cannot but believe, that reasons which appear 
 to me to establish beyond all doubt the spiritual 
 sense of the Scriptures, must at least appear 
 to others of sufficient weight to entitle the sub- 
 ject to a full and fair examination. This is all 
 that I solicit. I trust that every Christian will 
 be ready, on sufficient evidence, to accept 
 views which tend so immensely to exalt in his 
 
120 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 estimation the Word of God; and that the 
 Deist also will listen attentively to considera- 
 tions, which, if true, prove it to be the Word 
 of God indeed. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE LAW OR RULE EXPLAINED ACCORDING TO WHICH 
 THE SCRIPTURES ARE WRITTEN. 
 
 Preliminary remark, on the Reasons why the Scrip- 
 tures are not written in plainer language Short 
 Recapitulation. I. A Universal Rule of Inter- 
 pretation afforded in the Mutual Relation, which 
 exists by creation, between things natural or 
 material, spiritual or moral, and divine. II. 
 The nature of this Relation considered: 1. 
 The whole Universe an out-birth from the Deity 
 whence it bears, in all its parts, an immutable 
 relation to the attributes which belong to the 
 Divine Essence. 2. That on all things belong- 
 ing to the moral, intellectual, and spiritual worlds, 
 the Divine Creator has thus first stamped a 
 certain image of himself: 3. And that he has 
 done the same, though under a totally different 
 form, on all the objects of outward and material 
 nature: 4. Whence all things in Nature, 
 being outward productions from inward es- 
 sences, are natural, sensible, and material types 
 
 R 
 
122 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of moral, intellectual, and spiritual antitypes, 
 and finally of their prototypes in God. III. 
 That, were the Relation between these different 
 orders of existences fully understood, a style of 
 writing might be constructed, in which, while none 
 but natural images were used, purely intellec- 
 tual ideas should be most fully expressed 
 
 1. That this is in a great measure intuitively 
 perceived by all mankind, and is the origin of 
 many forms of speech in common use. 2. 
 Palpable instances of the occurrence of such 
 
 forms of speech in the Holy Word. IV. That 
 in ancient times this constant Relation between 
 things natural, moral or spiritual, and divine, 
 was extensively understood; 1. Proved from 
 intimations in the historical parts of Scripture, 
 
 2. Confirmatory remarks, drawn from the my- 
 thological fables of the Greeks and Asiatics, and 
 the Hieroglyphics of Egypt. V. That in this 
 Relation, then, is to be found the Law or Rule 
 according to which the Scriptures are written, 
 and that a knowledge of it will afford the key 
 by which their Cf dark sayings" must be decy- 
 phered. 
 
 WE now approach a part of our inquiry of 
 the very greatest importance ; for we are now 
 to investigate what the Law or Rule is, by 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 123 
 
 which the Holy Scriptures or Word of God 
 are written; and this., being a subject of deep 
 investigation, will require to be gone into with 
 very close and serious attention. It is not in- 
 deed, in itself, ^extremely difficult of comprehen- 
 sion : on the contrary, I am satisfied that it is 
 capable of being made very plain and easy; 
 and even, if sufficient attention be given, that 
 the arguments and instances by which it may 
 be supported, will be found as interesting, as 
 the subject itself is great and important: but 
 it is usual with many, in this superficial age, to 
 be indisposed to any inquiry that requires the 
 exercise of fixed attention. Especially on the 
 subject of religion,, it is common, with great 
 numbers, to be unwilling to regard any thing 
 which is not obvious at first sight. Indeed, this 
 forms one of the objections of Deists against the 
 Christian Revelation in general ; and will per- 
 haps be still more positively urged against the 
 view of it, which we are endeavouring to estab- 
 lish : we will therefore here meet it with a few 
 remarks. 
 
 The Scriptures contain many things, the 
 Deists allege, which, it is allowed on all hands, are 
 hard to be understood; if then the belief of 
 them is so important to man's welfare, why, 
 they demand, is not some standing miracle 
 wrought to assure us of their truth ? And one 
 of the most determined infidels has insolently 
 
 R 2 
 
J24 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 suggested, as a suitable expedient*,, that God 
 ought to cause a permanent inscription to ap- 
 pear on the face of the sun, assuring mankind,, 
 through all countries and all ages, that the 
 Scriptures are true. But they who propose such 
 expedients as these, only shew how utterly ig- 
 norant they are, both of the nature of God, 
 and of the nature of man; and how destitute 
 they are of any idea of the laws of infinite 
 wisdom, by which God regulates his dealings 
 with man. A conviction forced upon man 
 against his will, would not be permanent, 
 nor really beneficial to him; but, on the con- 
 trary, it would expose him to the danger of in- 
 curring far greater guilt than he can possibly 
 rush into while he is left to the uncontrolled 
 exercise of his own freedom, and while the light 
 of Divine Truth is riot poured on his mind 
 with such lustre, as absolutely to compel his 
 assent. It is for this reason, among others, 
 that divine revelation is always couched in lan- 
 guage that is in a great measure parabolic and 
 obscure. Though capable of being easily un- 
 derstood, at least as to every thing essential, by 
 those who are influenced by a sincere desire to 
 know the will of God in order that they may 
 do it, according to the divine declaration of 
 Jesus Christ cc If any man will do his will, 
 he shall know of the doctrine whether it be 
 
 * Painr, Age of Reason, Part :.5. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 125 
 
 of God*;" it yet is not made so plain through- 
 out, as to aggravate the condemnation of 
 those, who, being indisposed to do his will, 
 and only anxious to find pretences to free 
 themselves from the obligation of doing it, 
 would be, in fact, the more offended at any 
 revelation, just in proportion as they found it 
 more difficult to devise plausible reasons for 
 denying its authority. The former class of 
 persons the humble inquirers, are meant by 
 the disciples, and the latter the pertinacious 
 cavillers, by the " others/' or " them that are 
 without," in that saying of Jesus Christ in which 
 he developes the law of Divine Mercy and 
 Wisdom on this subject : " To you," he says, 
 addressing the disciples, " it is given to know 
 the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ; but 
 to others, in parables ; that seeing they might 
 see and not perceive, and hearing they might 
 hear and not understand-)*:" by which words is 
 not meant that an arbitrary distinction is made 
 between one portion of mankind and the rest, 
 but that divine revelation is so framed, as not 
 to force conviction on the understanding, where 
 there is a determined resistance in the will; 
 because, if such persons should be made to 
 assent for a time, their evil propensities would 
 afterwards break out and carry them away : 
 they would then deny the clearest demonstra- 
 
 * John vii. 17. t Luke viii. 10. Mark iv. 11. 
 
126 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tions of divine truth ; and even bad miracles 
 been wrought for their conviction, they would 
 deny these also, resolving them into some un- 
 accountable operations of nature. The guilt 
 thus incurred would be that of profanation. 
 This state is described by Jesus Christ in the 
 mysterious parable of the man out of whom 
 the evil spirit went, but who,, finding no rest in 
 his new state, returned to his former house, 
 taking with him seven other spirits more wicked 
 than the other; of whom the Lord says, " And 
 the last state of that man is worse than the 
 first/'* The first state of this man, is the state 
 of unreformed Hfretm general : the going out 
 
 of the evil spirit,, is his commencement of a new 
 order of life, in consequence of opening his mind 
 to a conviction of the truth of divine revelation 
 and its doctrines, which banishes for a time his 
 spirit of incredulity: his walking through dry 
 places, seeking rest and finding none, implies, 
 that he finds his new state to be without enjoy- 
 ment, because in contrariety to the lusts which 
 were delightful to him, and which he is still 
 unwilling to relinquish : his returning to the 
 house from which he came out, is a relapse 
 into his former state of mind ; but that this 
 state is now attended with profanation, and is 
 incomparably worse than before, because, to 
 return to it, he is obliged to extinguish the 
 * Matt. xii. 45. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 127 
 
 convictions he had received, is expressed by its 
 being said, that he took with him seven other 
 spirits more wicked than himself, and that the 
 last state of that man is worse than the first. 
 It is, then, because Divine Providence is ever 
 watchful to prevent man from falling into so 
 deplorable a state as this, that difficulties are 
 allowed to appear on the surface of the Word 
 of God; and it is for this, among other reasons, 
 that it is so generally written in the language 
 of parable. 
 
 I expect, however, that the infidel (by which 
 term. I mean the confirmed denier of revelation, 
 one whose denial is grounded in a wish to 
 justify himself in the gratification of his corrupt 
 passions,) will call this, preaching. Be it so. 
 1 would however entreat him seriously to look 
 at the doctrine so preached. He must, I am 
 sure, find it agreeable to the purest reason, 
 though such as reason, unenlightened by reve- 
 lation, might not have been able to discover. 
 He must also admit, that the economy of Di- 
 vine Providence which the doctrine unfolds, is 
 equally wise and beneficent, such as might 
 be expected to direct the conduct of a Being 
 of infinite wisdom and goodness, in his deal- 
 ings with a frail creature, like man. Whether 
 then this be preaching or philosophizing, there is 
 assuredly a strong presumption that it is pure 
 truth : and this should recommend it to the 
 
128 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 favourable attention of those, who affect to hold 
 pure truth in so much veneration. Would man- 
 kind but view the Scriptures according to their 
 real nature,, as faintly described in our last 
 Lecture, and understand them by the Rule 
 which we are next to endeavour to explain, 
 they would find them philosophizing* according 
 to the purest truth in every part, every where 
 preaching the most soul-exalting lessons of 
 heavenly wisdom! 
 
 I have been led to make these remarks, that 
 we might not appear to leave too long out of 
 sight one of the objects of these Lectures/ the 
 refutation of infidel objections to divine reve- 
 lation, while we are chiefly intent upon the 
 other, the proof of the plenary inspiration of 
 the Word of God : though this, indeed, carries 
 with it the former : for when once it is seen 
 that the Word of God is actually written by a 
 plenary divine inspiration, all objections against 
 its being received as such, fall to the ground of 
 course. In our last Lecture, then, we endea- 
 voured to prepare the way for the establish- 
 ment of this point. We shewed, first, that 
 the Scriptures do claim for themselves the title, 
 "the Word of God, " and do affirm of them- 
 selves, that they are written by the fullest 
 inspiration of God. We then considered, from 
 rational and philosophical grounds, what must 
 be the nature of a composition which has God 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 for its Author ; when we found that the Word 
 of God must be exactly like his works, that 
 as these contain within them wonderful parts 
 which do not appear on their surface, so must 
 the Word of God include in its bosom bound- 
 less stores of wisdom beyond what appears on 
 a superficial inspection. In the third place, 
 we examined whether this conclusion of reason 
 is supported by any plain declarations of Scrip- 
 ture; of which many instances were presented: 
 indeed we found the Lord Jesus Christ direct- 
 ing his hearers to regard the inward spirit and 
 life of his words, and not to suppose his mean- 
 ing confined to the outward expression: we 
 ascertained, also, that the Apostles, in their 
 writings, continually testify to the existence of 
 an inward or spiritual sense throughout the 
 Word of God ; and we demonstrated, in addition, 
 that hence this belief, in the days of primitive 
 Christianity, was universal ; that, for many ages, 
 it was never doubted ; and that it has continued 
 to be the opinion, to a greater or less extent, of 
 many intelligent theological writers down to the 
 present day. We take this testimony then, 
 joined with the inherent reason of the thing it- 
 self, to be conclusive as to the reality of the fact, 
 that the Word of God does, in every part, 
 contain a spiritual sense, treating of things in 
 which man is interested as a spiritual being and 
 an heir of immortality. 
 
130 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 We are not obliged., however, be it again 
 remembered, nor do we by any means under- 
 take, because we conceive the fact,, that the 
 Scriptures contain a meaning beyond the letter, 
 to be a matter of absolute certain ty, to^ de- 
 fend all the interpretations which at various 
 times have been offered to the world, as result- 
 ing from, or as being, this spiritual sense: we 
 are even ready to allow, that very idle and un- 
 founded explications have sometimes been ob- 
 truded on the public, under the pretended sanc- 
 tion of this great general truth; and we are 
 not surprised that some of the critics, disgusted 
 with the uncertainty which prevailed in the 
 efforts to decypher the spiritual sense, by persons 
 who possessed no certain rule to guide them in 
 the attempt, have relinquished the principle 
 altogether, and have begun to teach, that the 
 Scriptures are to be understood in their literal 
 sense alone. But we contend most decidedly, 
 that the abuse of a good principle is no argument 
 against its legitimate use. In all other cases 
 this maxim is accepted as an axiom : if we deny 
 it, we must deny every thing; at least we must 
 involve ourselves in the cheerless gloom of uni- 
 versal scepticism. Indeed, to argue from the 
 abuse of any sentiment against its use, will plunge 
 us continually into the most palpable absurdities. 
 It is a truth, for instance, which all men of rea- 
 son admit, that there is a God. We find this 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 131 
 
 belief universal throughout the world. Now 
 because it is unquestionably true that there is a 
 God, it certainly by no means folio ws, that all 
 the notions which all nations and religions have 
 taught respecting him, are true likewise : but 
 most assuredly it does not follow, because most 
 nations and religions have erred in their ncTtions 
 of God, that, therefore, there is no God at all: 
 on the contrary, the general belief, in some 
 shape or other, in the existence of a God, how- 
 ever superstition and ignorance may have clouded 
 the pure truth respecting his nature and the mode 
 of his existence, has always been regarded as 
 an insuperable argument in favour of the senti- 
 ment, that the existence of a Divine Being is 
 certain, beyond dispute. Equally strong is the 
 argument, from the general belief of there being 
 a spiritual sense in the Scriptures, that there 
 really is such a sense : and inconsistent or un- 
 founded notions respecting the nature of that 
 sense, no more prove that there is no such sense 
 at all, than similar errors attending the belief in 
 the existence of a God, can prove that there is 
 no God.- 
 
 I. Now what has been wanting to recom- 
 mend the spiritual sense of the Word of God 
 to the acceptance of the calm, reasoning mind, 
 has been, a certain rule by which it may be 
 decyphered. Could such a rule be shewn to 
 
 's 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 exist,, the objections drawn from the tendency 
 of the admission of a spiritual sense to introduce 
 uncertainty and confusion into the explanation 
 of Scripture,, would, as stated in our last, fall at 
 once to the ground: and the existence of such 
 a sense, which multitudes have acknowledged 
 by a kind of intuitive perception, would then 
 be bottomed upon the clearest rational induc- 
 tion; would indeed admit of demonstration 
 not less convincing, though of a somewhat dif- 
 ferent kind, than that which evinces the truth 
 of any problem in mathematics. 
 
 Such a rule, then, it is conceived, is afforded, 
 in the Mutual Relation which exists by creation 
 between things natural or material, spiritual or 
 moral, and divine; which is such that the lower 
 order of objects answers to the higher, as cer- 
 tainly and immutably, as the reflection in a 
 mirror answers to the substance producing it. 
 
 But, alas ! though this was a subject well 
 understood in the times of remote antiquity, it 
 now is not only generally unknown that the 
 Holy Scriptures are written according to this 
 Relation, from which, therefore, we may obtain 
 a Universal Rule for their interpretation ; but 
 it is even far from being generally known that 
 any such relation exists. Approximations have 
 indeed been recently made towards its re-dis- 
 covery, as will be noticed in the sequel ; and 
 there is reason to expect that, ere long, it will 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 133 
 
 seriously occupy the attention of the scientific 
 and religious public. In the hope of promoting 
 this desirable event; and because all that is to 
 follow in these Lectures will refer to it as a 
 first principle ; a slight attempt shall here be 
 made to give a general idea of its Nature. 
 
 II. That there exists, by the laws of creation, 
 a Mutual Relation between things natural or 
 material, spiritual or moral, and divine, may be 
 concluded from the indisputable fact, that every 
 thing in a lower sphere of existence is produced 
 for the sake of something in a higher; and if 
 so, every higher thing, for the sake of which 
 any object of a lower kind is produced, is the 
 proximate cause, by derivation from the First 
 Cause, of the existence of the latter : and there 
 must be an uninterrupted series of such causes 
 and effects, each intermediate effect becoming, 
 in succession, a proximate cause of existence to 
 something beneath it, from the First Cause itself, 
 to the lowest effects of all. Every proximate 
 cause, also, by the urgency, and for the sake 
 of which, something beneath it was produced, 
 is, likewise, the real essence, or ground of being, 
 of such lower production, which, on its part, is 
 thus an outward form, manifesting the existence 
 of such distinct essence. This will lead us to 
 see, that the lower orders of objects must an- 
 swer to the higher, as certainly and immutably, 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 as the reflection in a mirror answers to the 
 substance producing it. Thus, for example, 
 every lower thing that exists is produced to 
 serve, either more nearly or remotely, to the 
 use of man : this being the second cause of its 
 existence, the thing itself is actually an image, 
 under a different form, of something that is in 
 man : and man himself was produced to satisfy 
 the divine love of God thus for the sake of 
 God, that there might be a being in the world 
 capable of receiving, in a conscious manner, 
 gifts from God, and of returning them to Him 
 in love and adoration : and God himself thus 
 being to man both the proximate and First 
 Cause of his existence, man must be, in a cer- 
 tain manner, an image of God; and the most 
 immediately so of any thing that the world 
 contains. We accordingly are assured by di- 
 vine Revelation, that man was created in the 
 image and likeness of God. And if man, alto- 
 gether, is, in a certain manner, an image of 
 God, it follows evidently, that every particular 
 thing which exists in man, (so far as he stands 
 in the order of his creation,) is an image of 
 something that exists in God : and, indeed, every 
 thing in him which is not in the order of his 
 creation, but which he has introduced by the 
 abuse of his faculties, still has reference to 
 something that exists in God, though not as an 
 image, but as an opposite. In short, as God is 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 135 
 
 the Origin and First Cause of all things, it is 
 evident, that nothing whatever can exist which 
 has not some sort of reference to something 
 that is in Him ; which reference is nearer or 
 more remote, in proportion as the sphere in 
 which it stands is nearer to the divine centre or 
 to the extreme circumference of the universe. 
 Thus things natural and material bear a secret 
 Relation to things moral and spiritual, and 
 these again to things divine. 
 
 1 . This will be seen yet more evidently when 
 it is considered, that the proper mode of viewing 
 the creation, is, to regard it as an Out-birth from 
 the Deity; as a production essentially distinct 
 from the Producing Cause, but necessarily bear- 
 ing, through all its parts, to that Infinite Cause, 
 and to the infinite essential properties and attri- 
 butes existing in that Cause, a constant and 
 immutable relation. Among the objects of the 
 visible creation, man, the acknowledged image 
 of his Maker, stands in the highest degree of 
 this relation, and the inert substances of the 
 mineral kingdom in the lowest. This truth is 
 not invalidated by the fact, that the latter came 
 first into existence. It must unquestionably be 
 true, that, in the creation of the world, the globe 
 of earth and water, or the unorganised parts of 
 its composition, though lowest in rank, must 
 have been the first that were formed : but why ? 
 
136 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 because their uses were indispensable to the 
 higher orders of existence,, to afford them nutri- 
 triment and a basis. Then,, doubtless, the 
 vegetable kingdom succeeded, because, without 
 both these, animals could not exist. Thus the 
 higher orders of creatures must have appeared 
 by degrees, and last of all man himself; as he 
 could not begin to exist till every thing neces- 
 sary for his use was provided. Still it was for 
 the sake of man that all inferior things were 
 produced : man was in the divine mind through 
 the whole process : thus every thing produced 
 was an image of something that was to exist 
 in him, and the spiritual and moral essences of 
 all inferior things were concentrated in him ; as 
 he himself was to be an image of the Creator, 
 in whom alone exist, in their first principles and 
 divine essences, all the powers, faculties, and 
 virtues, which were to exist derivatively in 
 man. In fact, the Deity, in the work of cre- 
 ation, cannot be considered as operating at 
 random, producing things which have not in 
 himself their divine prototypes or grounds of 
 being. To produce such things, the Creator 
 must step out of Himself, which is impossible. 
 As the tabernacle with every thing in it, which 
 Moses was instructed to make, was to be made 
 after the pattern or antitype shewn to him in 
 the mount*, or was to be an outward type of 
 
 * Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 137 
 
 such thing's as exist in heaven ; so, no doubt, 
 when God created heaven and earth with their 
 inhabitants, he formed every thing after the 
 image of divine prototypes existing in himself; 
 after the pattern of the ineffable attributes 
 and perfections which exist only in his own 
 divine essence. Thus the whole universe, in- 
 stead of being, as it is sometimes inconsiderately 
 regarded, a production of mere caprice, little 
 better than the offspring of blind chance, was, 
 unquestionably, what may most expressively be 
 called, an Otitbirth of the Deity : and if so, it 
 must bear, in all its parts, an immutable relation 
 to the attributes or essential properties, which 
 belong to the nature of that Omnipotent Being. 
 
 2. If then the whole Universe is thus an 
 Outbirth from the Deity, and hence bears, in 
 all its parts, an immutable relation to Him who 
 gave it birth ; this relation must be more im- 
 mediately perceptible in the spiritual part of 
 the creation. If, on all things that exist, the 
 Divine Creator has stamped, in some mode or 
 other, a certain image of himself, more especially 
 must all things belonging to the moral, intellec- 
 tual, and spiritual worlds, be marked with that 
 image. We will endeavour to make this plain, 
 by considering the two most important par- 
 ticulars in which the divine image is stamped 
 on man the head of the visible creation : for 
 
138 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 extensive as this subject is in itself, it happily 
 can be reduced to a few general principles ; and 
 when these are distinctly seen, the immense mul- 
 titude of particulars into which it diverges will 
 create no confusion. 
 
 That there are two general principles to which 
 all the infinities which compose the divine na- 
 ture have reference/ and to 'which, in like man- 
 ner,, all that man possesses by derivation and 
 gift from his Maker have some relation, would 
 be evident to any one who should deeply 
 examine the subject : this,, also, is pointed out 
 by numerous passages of Scripture. Thus in 
 the account of the origin of the human race,, 
 in the first chapter of Genesis, it is observable, 
 that two terms are employed to describe the 
 relation which man bears to God. It is not only 
 said that man was proposed to be created in the 
 image of God, but alse in his likeness; evidently 
 implying, unless we charge the sacred text with 
 unmeaning tautology, that there are two general 
 things in, which man was designed to resemble 
 his Maker. "God said, Let us make man in 
 our image, after our likeness."* What are we 
 to suppose is intended by the divine Word, 
 when it manifestly points to two distinct things 
 in which man was created a resemblance of his 
 Creator? What can be intended, but an allu- 
 sion to the same truth as philosophy also brings 
 
 * Gen. i. 20. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &<? 
 
 us acquainted with; that man is formed 
 distinct faculties, designed for the reception of 
 the two leading attributes which pre-eminently 
 characterize the Divine Nature 1 
 
 It is generally acknowledged, that the two 
 leading attributes in the nature of the Deity, 
 are Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom, or, what 
 amounts to the same, Infinite Goodness and 
 Infinite Truth, for what is Love, essentially, 
 but Benevolence, and what is Benevolence but 
 Goodness? so, what is Wisdom but the posses- 
 sion and judicious application of Truth ? That 
 these are the two attributes which give the 
 essential character to the divine nature, is so 
 clear a truth, that it cannot be necessary to offer 
 any proof of it; otherwise arguments in con- 
 firmation of it might easily be drawn, both from 
 the whole field of creation and the whole Word 
 of God. If the Lord Ijad not been essential 
 Love, there never could have been any creation, 
 since, otherwise, there could have been no motive 
 capable of calling his creative energy into 
 action. The Apostle accordingly tells us, in 
 the plainest language, that fc God is love*:" 
 and the Lord Jesus Christ, by a most beautiful 
 periphrasis, affirms the same truth, when he 
 says, cc Love your enemies, and do good, and 
 lend, hoping for nothing again : and your re- 
 ward shall be great, and ye shall be the children 
 
 * 1 John iv. 8, 16. 
 T 2 
 
140 PLENARY INSPIRATION Of 
 
 of the Highest ; for he is kind unto the unthank- 
 ful and to the evil : be ye therefore merciful, as 
 your Father also is merciful*:" than which, 
 there cannot be a more decisive assertion of the 
 unbounded benevolence of the Divine Nature. 
 
 But Love alone, though the prime mover of 
 all things, is not sufficient for the production of 
 a universe. By itself, it can do nothing. It 
 wills, intends, and prompts : but before it can 
 arrive at the ends it proposes, it must seek for 
 means in another principle: and no principle is 
 capable of supplying such means, but Wisdom. 
 Divine Wisdom or Divine Truth, is what is spe- 
 cifically called in Scripture, ef the Word," taking 
 that name from the instrument of its enunciation : 
 and of this it is said, C( In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God. All things were made by him 
 [or it]; and without him [or it] was not any 
 thing made that was madef:" plainly teaching, 
 that what is here called f( the Word/' which is 
 easily seen to be the Divine Wisdom or Truth, 
 is the immediate agent by which Divine Love 
 acts in the production of all things. 
 
 * Luke vi. 35, 36. 
 
 t John i. 1,3. I have added the words [or if], because 
 if the Divine Truth he considered as a distinct attribute or 
 essential property of the Being in whom it is, it must be 
 considered, in English, as of the neuter gender. The original 
 admits equally of either mode of translation. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 141 
 
 It will then, I trust, be readily admitted, that 
 Infinite Love and Wisdom, in union, are the two 
 most essential attributes of the Divine Nature. 
 There are others, indeed, such as Omnipotence 
 and Omnipresence,, which, in one respect, are 
 equally essential, since, without them, God 
 would be a limited Being: yet even into these, 
 the former enter, and give them their peculiar 
 quality. Thus the Divine Omnipotence, we 
 may be certain, can never be exerted for any 
 other object, than to give effect to the designs 
 of Divine Love and Wisdom; and thus the Di- 
 vine Love and Wisdom are, in fact, the essence 
 of the Divine Omnipotence: in other words, 
 Infinite Power is nothing but the capacity 
 of irresistible exertion, inherently belonging to 
 Infinite Love and Wisdom. We should find 
 all the other divine attributes as closely con- 
 nected with, and equally dependent upon, these 
 two. 
 
 Now the first being in the scale of the visible 
 creation, the most exalted of the visible works 
 of the Creator, is man : and he is suclv, because 
 he was created in the image and likeness of God. 
 That he might be capable of being such an 
 image, he was endowed with two faculties de- 
 signed for the reception of love and wisdom 
 from his Maker. These are known by the names 
 of the will and the understanding; the will being 
 designed for the reception of the Divine Love or 
 
142 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Good,, and the* understanding for the reception of 
 the Divine Wisdom or Truth. I am aware, that 
 although the ancient metaphysicians universally 
 adopted this most general division of the human 
 faculties, some of the moderns have doubted 
 its correctness, and have been disposed to resolve 
 the whole into intellectual powers alone : none 
 however could deny that man was possessed 
 of passions : and all the passions belong to the 
 general faculty called the will : at least, how- 
 ever some may explain them, it is as the seat 
 of the passions, all of which belong to some 
 species or other of love, that we here speak of 
 the will. I have also been somewhat surprised, 
 on observing that the new philosophic sect who 
 take the name of Phrenologists, though con- 
 tinually at war with the metaphysicians, and 
 rejecting with contempt the idea that all the 
 faculties of the mind are to be resolved into 
 intellect, still disapprove the division into un- 
 derstanding and will ; though nothing can be 
 plainer than that all the faculties of which the 
 Phrenologists make the mind to consist, are 
 only specific divisions of these two general 
 ones : thus all those faculties which they de- 
 signate as "propensities" and "sentiments," 
 and which, they justly affirm, have nothing to 
 do with pure intellect, belong to the province 
 of the will; and those which they designate as 
 "knowing" and "reflecting faculties," as clearly 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 143 
 
 belong to the province of the understanding. 
 Respecting the latter, there can be no dispute; 
 nor yet, I should think, respecting the former, 
 if it be considered, that all the faculties to 
 which they give the name of propensities and 
 sentiments, may be resolved into some species 
 of love. Now a man assuredly wills whatever 
 he loves : and thus every species of love that 
 can have an abode in his mind, may with philo- 
 sophical truth be considered as belonging to a 
 certain general faculty, which is most correctly 
 denominated the Will. The mistake seems to 
 have arisen, from confounding this general 
 faculty, by which we are only inclined to 
 certain actions, with the determination to action, 
 which is the result of the operations of the 
 will and understanding together; and which 
 takes place, when man, by his understanding, 
 sees a fit opportunity of doing the acts, to 
 which his will perpetually inclines him. Un- 
 doubtedly, then, the old general division of 
 the mental powers into understanding and will, 
 so long established by the consent of all the 
 reflecting part of mankind, is destined to re- 
 sume its authority in the schools of philosophy . 
 because it owed its long reign there, not to the 
 caprice of human fancy, but to its firm found- 
 ation in the unalterable nature of things. 
 
 Now the will and understanding of man are 
 a certain image, however faint and feeble, of 
 
144 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the Will and Intellect Divine ; and the more 
 perfectly so, in proportion as man receives in 
 his will the love and goodness of the Lord, 
 and, in his understanding", the divine wisdom and 
 truth. When man wills what the Lord wills, 
 and when the perceptions and thoughts of his 
 understanding flow in agreement with the divine 
 truth; thus when he receives the affections of 
 his will, and the perceptions of his understand- 
 ing, without perversion, from the infinite foun- 
 tain of all goodness and wisdom in God; then 
 is he an image and likeness of God indeed. 
 And even when he entirely perverts his noble 
 endowments; when he makes the ruling affec- 
 tions of his will such as are entirely opposite 
 to the divine love and goodness, and when 
 he adopts in his understanding a tissue of false 
 notions quite contrary to the divine wisdom and 
 truth ; he still, in the faculties of will and under- 
 standing themselves, retains an image, though 
 an inverted one, of his Divine Original : and 
 the relation is farther preserved in this respect, 
 that the will still remains the seat of love, 
 though it is the love of evil, which he accounts 
 his good, and his understanding still continues 
 the seat of his ideas, though these are ideas of 
 error, which he accounts his truth. In the way 
 of opposition, he still bears a relation to his 
 Maker : his faculties of will and understanding, 
 and the subjects of each respectively, still are 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 145 
 
 to him, what pure love and wisdom are to God: 
 a general image remains, however inverted and 
 distorted. 
 
 As then it is evident, that, in the leading 
 features of the moral, intellectual, and spiri- 
 tual part of the head of the visible creation, 
 man, the Divine Creator has thus first stamped 
 a certain image of Himself; there can be no 
 reasonable doubt that the same is true in regard 
 to all the particulars of the moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual worlds. The endless varieties of 
 such things that exist, can only be images, either 
 in direct or in inverted order, of the infinite 
 divine perfections that are in God. In Him, 
 all have their essence or inward ground of 
 being : To Him, they all have an immutable 
 Relation : So far as they are in order, they are 
 transcripts of something that is in Him; and 
 even when in disorder, they point to something 
 in Him of which they are the perversion : In 
 all the phenomena, then, of the moral, intellec- 
 tual, and spiritual worlds which come under our 
 inspection, we might, had we capacities for such 
 discernment, read, as in an image, the divine 
 things to which they owe their first birth. 
 
 3. But the images of divine things that are 
 presented to our observation, are not confined 
 to the phaenomena of the moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual worlds: they descend much lower, 
 
 u 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and display themselves, though under a totally 
 different form, on all the objects of outward 
 and material nature; first, on the corporeal part 
 of man himself; next, on all the inferior ani- 
 mals ; then on the vegetable creation ; and 
 lastly, on the inert mass of earth and water which 
 forms the lowest plane of all ; not to mention the 
 sublime exhibitions of the same which are pre- 
 sented in the phaenomena of the starry heavens. 
 It is not then, merely by a poetical figure that 
 David calls upon all such things to praise the 
 Lord, but in reference to the wisdom concern- 
 ing him, of which they are the silent teachers : 
 Cf Praise ye him, sun and moon, praise him all 
 ye stars of light: Praise him, ye heavens of 
 heavens, and ye waters that be above the 
 heavens: Praise the Lord from the earth, ye 
 dragons and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and 
 vapours, stormy wind fulfilling his word ; moun- 
 tains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars ; 
 beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying 
 fowl."* And I have little doubt that Paul meant 
 to refer to the same fact when he said, " The 
 invisible things of God, from the creation of the 
 world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
 things that are made; even his eternal power 
 and Godheadf ;" though I do not quote this as 
 a proof, because the words may be understood 
 in the merely common and popular sense. 
 * Ps. cxlviii. 3, 4, 7 to 10. t Rom. i. 20. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 147 
 
 (1.) We will again illustrate the subject by 
 an example taken from man. As man has 
 two faculties in his mind which image forth, 
 in an eminent manner, the two greatest es- 
 sential properties of his Creator; so has he 
 also two organs in his body, which, more 
 remotely, have the same relation : answering, 
 however, more immediately, to the two great 
 faculties of his mind. These two bodily organs 
 are the heart and the lungs. As it is on his 
 will and understanding that the life of his 
 spiritual part depends; so is it on the heart 
 and lungs that the life of his corporeal frame 
 depends. What the will and understanding are 
 to the mind, the heart and lungs are to the 
 body: they answer to them in a lower sphere: 
 they are exact images of them. It is on this 
 account that so frequent mention is made, in 
 Sacred Writ, of the heart and soul. It is well 
 known that the word " soul/' in the Scriptures, 
 especially in those of the Old Testament, where 
 it most frequently occurs, does not, as in En- 
 glish, mean the spirit which lives after death, 
 but merely the animating principle or life, and 
 this because its primary meaning is breath: and 
 of breathing, the lungs are the organ. When 
 the soul then is mentioned in conjunction with 
 the heart, it strictly refers to the breath respired 
 by the lungs; and the combined phrase refers, 
 in the language of analogy, to those faculties 
 
 u 2 
 
148 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of the mind, of which the heart and lungs are 
 images in the body. 
 
 But not only are there two general organs in 
 the body, answering to the two leading faculties 
 of the mind, but the whole body itself is made 
 up of two principal constituent materials ; which 
 are, the flesh and blood. These again, then, 
 bear a relation, though still more remote, to 
 the two great constituents of the Divine Nature: 
 it is primarily because there are two of these, 
 that there are two of those : hence also so 
 much mention is made of flesh and blood in 
 the Divine Word, which, we shall eventually 
 find, constantly speaks in terms borrowed from 
 the Relation which we are endeavouring to 
 establish. 
 
 As, again, the human body is composed of 
 solids and fluids, or of flesh and blood, it is 
 necessary, for its support, that it be nourished 
 by aliment of both kinds, or by meat and drink. 
 All meats and drinks, then, have the same general 
 relation to the great attributes of Deity, as is 
 borne by the constituent substances of the human 
 body, by its two vital organs, and, in the mind, 
 by the will and understanding : but their specific 
 reference is to the love and wisdom, or goodness 
 and truth, which are imparted by the Divine 
 Author of all good to support man's spiritual 
 life : for the human mind is nourished by the 
 reception of goodness and truth from their 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 149 
 
 origin in Him, as the body is by its appropriate 
 food and drink : thus natural food and drink 
 are proper images of the spiritual. 
 
 The same analogy is continued, even till we 
 come to the most shapeless masses of inanimate 
 matter. Thus the terraqueous globe in general 
 consists, in like manner, of two general parts, 
 which are earth and water. Indeed, it would 
 be difficult to find any thing, through the whole 
 circuit of creation, both in general and in par- 
 ticular, which is not composed of two principal 
 constituent parts. In man, for instance, arid all 
 animals, there are two sexes : and not only are 
 they thus, in general., arranged in pairs, but all 
 the parts of each shew an extraordinary ten- 
 dency to run in pairs also. Thus, in the face, 
 there are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils; in 
 the body, two breasts, two arms and hands, two 
 legs arid feet. So likewise the internal organs 
 exhibit the same two-fold bias. There are two 
 great divisions of the brain, so distinct, that 
 anatomists describe them by separate names : 
 the heart is divided into its ventricles and au- 
 ricles, of each of which, again, there are two : 
 the sanguineous system dependent upon the 
 heart has also its two marked distinctions of 
 arteries and veins. So there are two lobes of 
 the lungs, two kidneys, &c. And the parts 
 which appear as single, nevertheless, in general, 
 consist of two portions, united by a common 
 
150 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 covering : and many, whose form does not admit 
 of this, are composed of two halves answering 
 to each other : thus, though the mouth, all to- 
 gether, is a single organ, the teeth on each side 
 form a series of pairs ; and even its outward 
 opening is not only formed by two lips, but 
 if these be considered as divided in the middle 
 by a perpendicular line, they each present two 
 parts symmetrically answering to each other : 
 and the same may be observed in the tongue. 
 
 Now since this tendency to a twofold arrange- 
 ment acts so powerfully throughout creation, 
 that we cannot turn our eyes in any direction 
 without seeing it every where presented before 
 them : does not true philosophy lead us to refer 
 the phenomenon to some universally acting 
 cause? and what cause can be adequate to the 
 production of such continually uniform effects, 
 but a marked duality of essential properties in 
 the First Cause of all? Admit, what cannot 
 easily be denied, that Goodness and Truth, in 
 their very essence, are Deity Itself, and we 
 cannot be surprised to find circumstances point- 
 ing to that fact through all the fields of creation; 
 to behold them exhibited more directly in the 
 moral and spiritual productions of the divine 
 plastic hand, as in the will and understanding 
 of man, and imaged not less truly, though more 
 remotely, in the objects of material and even 
 inanimate nature. And if these leading traits 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 151 
 
 in all existing things bear a secret Relation to 
 the leading characteristics of the Divine Nature, 
 it would be unphilosophical to doubt that a 
 similar Relation prevails in all other respects 
 whatever. Most true it must be, that the Creator 
 has stamped a certain image of Himself on his 
 creation, both on the whole, and on every, even 
 the minutest part. Although this shines most 
 plainly in man, it must be visible, to the attentive 
 observer, in all the inferior orders of existence. 
 All must be types, of which the archetype is 
 in God. 
 
 (2.) But that all the inferior parts of creation 
 present a more remote but not less real image 
 of the Divine Creator, will still more indisput- 
 ably appear from another consideration. That 
 man himself presents such an image, is unques- 
 tionably agreeable to the purest dictates of 
 reason ; and to the believers in Revelation, it 
 is placed beyond doubt by the authoritative de- 
 clarations of Scripture. Bnt if man is an image 
 of God, most evident also, it is, that the lower 
 orders of creation, in their respective degrees, 
 bear the same image; for the most cursory in- 
 spection will shew, that they all present, in a 
 certain manner, an image of man. How strong 
 is the tendency to the human form, for example, 
 which is observable among all the subjects of 
 the animal kingdom; and even though more 
 remotely, among all the subjects of the vegeta- 
 
152 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 % 
 
 ble kingdom likewise ! The animals which 
 differ most in their external shape from man,, 
 have,, nevertheless,, most of the organs which 
 are found in the human body., especially those 
 which are most essential to life ; though all 
 display them under endless varieties. All have 
 heads, bodies,, feet : in their heads are eyes, 
 noses, mouths, ears ; and in their bodies, hearts, 
 lungs, and the other viscera. As the animal 
 descends in the scale of existence, the resem- 
 blance becomes less perfect; yet most of the 
 species retain the principal organs; and where 
 these cease, their place is supplied by something 
 analogous, which performs their office in a 
 manner suited to the animal's nature. 
 
 So, again, the similitude between the animal 
 and vegetable kingdoms, the Mutual Relation 
 which they bear to each other, is in many 
 respects very conspicuous. They melt into each 
 other by such imperceptible degrees, that there 
 are animals whose sensitive powers are not much 
 greater than those of vegetables, and there are 
 vegetables which exhibit such an approximation 
 to sensation, as renders the propriety of assign- 
 ing them to the vegetable kingdom almost a 
 matter of doubt. But even those which most 
 decidedly belong to this province of nature, 
 exhibit in a remarkable manner their affinity 
 to the animal kingdom : they display, under 
 another form, some of the most important attri- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 153 
 
 butes of the latter. Not only are they, in com- 
 mon with animals,, animated by a decided 
 principle of life, are propagated from parents, 
 grow from an obscure germ to maturity, flourish 
 in vigour, provide for the continuance of their 
 species, decline, and die sometimes from disease, 
 and sometimes by the mere agency of time; 
 but their life is maintained in an exactly ana- 
 logous manner. Trees, and indeed all veget- 
 ables, circulate sap, which is their blood, through 
 vessels answering to arteries and veins., from 
 their root, which answers to the heart : and 
 they inhale and respire air through pores in 
 their leaves, which perform for them the office 
 of lungs. And the developement of their sexual 
 system, by Linnaeus, has brought to light other 
 wonderful analogies.. The discoveries of modern 
 science have even gone farther, not only esta- 
 blishing general analogies between all animals 
 and all vegetables taken respectively together, 
 but between particular classes of animals and 
 particular classes of vegetables*; and thus 
 leading to the conclusion, that every indvii- 
 dual species in the vegetable kingdom has 
 a species answering to it in the animal kingdom; 
 or, that certain vegetables are, in their kingdom, 
 
 * See " Remarks on the Identity of certain general 
 Laws, which have been lately observed to regulate the natural 
 distribution of [nsects and Fungi;'' by "W. S. Mac Leay, 
 Esq. M. A. F. L. S. Linnccan Transactions, Vol. xiv. Pt. ! 
 p. 40. 
 
 X 
 
154 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 what certain animals are in theirs,, discharging" 
 like functions in regard to the whole. 
 
 Similar observations may be made in regard 
 to the mineral kingdom. Here, also,, extraordi- 
 nary analogies may be traced,, and a tendency 
 to offer an image of the higher orders of creation 
 may be observed; although,, owing to the inert 
 nature of the substances of this kingdom, it is 
 not exhibited in so palpable a manner. It is 
 well known, however, how many mineral pro- 
 ductions there are, which, when left to assume, 
 without constraint, the forms most agreeable 
 to their nature, seem to extricate themselves from 
 their originally unplastic state, and aspire towards 
 the kingdom immediately above them, emulating 
 so exactly the vegetable shape, that, judging by 
 this test alone, it would be difficult to determine 
 to which province of nature they belong. But 
 look again at the image of the circulation of 
 the blood, and thus of the animal creation, 
 which is exhibited in the globe we inhabit. No 
 one can inspect the map of an extensive country, 
 and the plates representing the venous system 
 of the human body in works on Anatomy; with- 
 out being struck by the similarity of form between 
 the rivers in the one, and the veins in the other : 
 both rise from innumerable minute origins, 
 wander through an infinity of small channels > 
 which diminish in number and increase in size as 
 they successively coalesce, till they unite in a com- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 155 
 
 mon trunk which carries them to their final goal. 
 Nor is this an analogy that is only such to the eye. 
 We have before observed, that the water is to 
 the terraqueous globe what the blood is to the 
 body : so,, they both are circulated throughout 
 the whole in an analogous manner, though by 
 very different means. While the heart,, by its 
 extraordinary vicissitudes of contraction and 
 expansion, performs this work for the animated 
 frame of man and animals, distributing the blood 
 by the arteries to nourish every part of the body, 
 and recalling it by the veins; the mysterious 
 economy of alternate evaporation and condensa- 
 tion accomplishes the same task for the insensi- 
 ble frame of the world : By this are the waters 
 raised from their great storehouse,, the ocean, 
 transported by the clouds, which execute the 
 office of the arterial system, to the parts where 
 their fertilizing agency is required, discharged 
 in showers to irrigate the soil, collected again 
 by the rivers as an immense system of veins, 
 and so carried back to their common reservoir, 
 to be thrown again and again, as long as time 
 shall endure, through the same circulation. Now, 
 to borrow the phraseology of an eminent scien- 
 tific writer*, there is no proper affinity between 
 man and animals, and still less between man and 
 vegetables, minerals, and inert globes of earth 
 
 * Mr. Mac Leay, in the Paper above referred to, and in his 
 work entitled, Hone Entomologicce. 
 
156 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and water: but who can observe these and a 
 thousand other wonderful coincidences, without 
 being satisfied that a regular and certain analogy 
 reigns between them all ? Who cannot see,, that 
 all the inferior objects that exist present an 
 image of man, or of something that is in man, 
 and thus, remotely and derivatively, an image of 
 God,, or of something in him? 
 
 (3.) We have now, however, been considering 
 the analogy between the lower objects of the crea- 
 tion and man, chiefly in regard to their physical 
 organization or constitution, and have only 
 pointed to their relation to spiritual and divine 
 things through the analogy observable between 
 the general constitution of the body of man, and 
 that of his mind. But, doubtless, there is a more 
 immediate analogy also : Not only may a rela- 
 tion be traced between the physical powers and 
 forms of man, animals, vegetables, and minerals, 
 which is such that the lower seems constantly to 
 emulate the higher ; but between the mind of 
 man, what may be called the moral qualities of 
 animals, and the essential properties of vegeta- 
 bles and minerals, a not less decided analogy may 
 be observed. Thus, all animals universally are 
 guided by certain general appetites and in- 
 stincts, not dissimilar to those which belong to 
 the inferior part of the human constitution. 
 And not only are the propensities which lead 
 them to provide for their own support by food, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 157 
 
 and for the continuation of their species, similar, 
 in a general way,, to the same propensities in 
 man,, but, in regard to the latter, some of them 
 even recede from the grossness of brutes, and 
 shame the brutal part of the human race, by form- 
 ing conjugal engagements approaching to the 
 tenderness and purity of married love ; whilst,, 
 with respect to attachment for their offspring, 
 and the care with which they provide for its wel- 
 fare, even the most ferocious species emulate 
 the maternal affection of the most exemplary 
 human parent. In other respects, also, there 
 are animals which exhibit feelings so nearly 
 approximating to moral qualities, and instincts 
 which so accurately imitate reason, that some 
 who would be deemed philosophers have denied 
 there to be any essential difference, and have 
 asserted that nothing but speech is wanting to 
 identify their nature with that of man. 
 
 In these particulars, then, between man and 
 animals generally, there is evidently a common 
 analogy; and it is equally certain, that there 
 is a similar analogy between every species of 
 animal, in particular, and something that is in 
 man. For while all animals have certain com- 
 mon appetites and instincts in which they 
 agree, they all have particular ones in which 
 they differ. How great is the contrariety of 
 character between the wolf and the larnb, the 
 lion and the ox! Yet how easy is it to see, 
 
158 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 that the character of each is thus distinct, be- 
 cause it is formed by some specific affection, 
 taken, as it were., out of the human mind., and 
 made the single governing propensity of the 
 animal,, without being modified by the innu- 
 merable variety of other affections,, with which, 
 in that wonderful aggregate of affections, the 
 human mind, it is combined ! That in the 
 human mind are accumulated all the various 
 affections, which, when separated, give a distinct 
 nature to so many species of animals, is evident 
 from the cases sometimes observed, in which 
 one such affection is, in man, so much more 
 powerfully developed than others, as strongly 
 to mark his character. Thus, where pure bene- 
 volence and harmlessness pre-eminently reign, 
 how readily do we recognize the moral features 
 of the lamb ! where general meekness and unsus- 
 pecting honesty, not so devoid of irascibility, 
 prevail, we discover the temper of the ox ; 
 where a tendency to rapine and cruelty con- 
 tinually bursts forth, we note the characteristic 
 of the wolf; and in the nature still prone to 
 deeds of destruction, but exalted by courage 
 and pre-eminent power, we trace a resemblance 
 of the lion. Similitudes of this kind are fami- 
 liar to every observer of nature. Were not 
 their truth generally perceived, poetry would 
 want many of its most striking beauties : and 
 the use in poetry of images borrowed hence, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 could excise no sympathies in the mind of the 
 reader, were they not founded in the fixed laws of 
 nature. We see clearly, that, on some animals, 
 in regard to what may be called their moral 
 qualities, is stamped a decided image of certain 
 moral qualities existing in the human mind : 
 and were we fully acquainted with the leading- 
 moral quality of every species of animal, we 
 shpuld see that every species of animal derives 
 its proximate origin from that to which it thus 
 answers in the human mind, and bears of it 
 the mark. Hence, also, animals are images, 
 though more remotely, of those principles in 
 the Divine Mind from which every thing that 
 exists in the human mind is a faint transcript : 
 only we must here recollect, what has before 
 been remarked, that there is a relation of op- 
 posites, as well as of direct resemblances. 
 Certainly, nothing evil and mischievous can 
 bear a relation or analogy to any thing in 
 the Divine Mind, any otherwise, than as it is 
 the perversion of something intrinsically good. 
 There are many such perversions in the cor- 
 rupt mind of man; and all things noxious in 
 nature are directly images of these, and only 
 inversely of the opposite perfections in the 
 Divine Nature. 
 
 (4.) But perhaps it may be asked, If the whole 
 Universe, as advanced above, is an outbirth from 
 the Deity ; and if every thing so produced has 
 
160 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in Him its divine prototype and ground of being; 
 how came any thing to be created whose re- 
 lation to Him is merely that of an opposite/ 
 It may be answered,, Because, though every 
 inferior creature has its divine prototype in 
 God, it has, as is also stated above, its immediate 
 antitype in man : if then man, by the abuse of 
 the freedom of will with which he was endowed, 
 perverted the divine gifts which he had received, 
 and introduced evil into himself, images of 
 such perversion and evil, by the continued 
 action of the Divine Creative Power, would 
 speedily appear in the lower objects of creation. 
 There can be no doubt, as declared in the be- 
 ginning of Genesis, that all things, as they first 
 came from the Divine Hand, were good : and 
 perhaps it may be questioned, whether any 
 thing that now exists is so purely evil, as not 
 to be capable of being divested of its malignant 
 properties. The letter of Scripture seems to 
 affirm that it may, when it says, in reference to 
 a future glorious state of the Church and its 
 members, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, 
 and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 
 and the calf, and the young lion, and the fading 
 together; and a little child shall lead them. 
 And the cow and the bear shall feed, their 
 young ones shall lie down together ; and the 
 lion shall eat straw, like the ox. And the 
 sucking child shall play on the hole of the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 161 
 
 asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand 
 on the cockatrice* den/'* If we suppose that 
 by the harmless animals and the infants here 
 mentioned, are typified the good, benevolent, and 
 innocent affections of the human mind, and by 
 the noxious animals, such appetites and pro- 
 pensities, as, y>heri not controlled by the former, 
 are of a destructive nature ; and if, by their all 
 dwelling together, we conceive to be meant, 
 the depriving of the latter of their pernicious 
 tendencies by the complete preponderance of the 
 former ; we have a spiritual sense which certainly 
 teaches a most important moral lesson, con- 
 veyed in language most striking and impressive. 
 To dwell, however, upon this, now, would be 
 to anticipate the argument to which we are to 
 proceed by and by : 1 here mention the cir- 
 cumstance to shew, that if there is an evident 
 analogy between the noxious animals, in the 
 state in which they at present exist, and the 
 evil propensities and passions of human nature, 
 the Scripture, when pointing to a state in 
 which the lower appetites and propensities 
 of man shall be divested of their injurious nature 
 by the preponderance of the higher sentiments, 
 preserves the analogy between them and the 
 same animals, by describing the latter as laying 
 aside their destructive tendencies. If the pre- 
 sent species of animals all existed from the 
 
 * Is. xi. 6, 7, 8. 
 
 y 
 
162 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 beginning,, it is certain that some of them must 
 have been greatly altered when evil established 
 itself in the human mind. As all evil is nothing 
 but the perversion of the lower propensities of 
 our nature,, which by creation were good, the 
 animals which were created as representative 
 forms of those affections could not at first have 
 been noxious ; but they might begin to be so 
 when those affections in man suffered perversion. 
 Hence it may be true, as the poet sings, that 
 
 " Thus began 
 
 Outrage from lifeless tilings : but Discord first, 
 Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational, 
 Death introduced, thro' fierce antipathy. 
 Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, 
 And fish with fish : to graze the herb, all, leaving, 
 Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe 
 Of man, but fled him, or, with countenance grim, 
 Glared on him passing." 
 
 And if this was the origin of the noxious nature 
 in beasts, it cannot be doubted, were mankind 
 to return to a state such as is spiritually de- 
 scribed in the passage just quoted from the 
 prophet, in which all the lower appetites and 
 propensities were strictly subordinated to the 
 higher, that the words of the prophet would 
 have a literal-fulfilment likewise, and all animals 
 would again become innocuous. But in any 
 case it is certain, that could evil be removed 
 from the moral world, it would cease in the 
 natural world also, and destructive creatures 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C 163 
 
 Would no longer exist. If it should be deemed 
 unphilosophicai to suppose that those now in 
 being would change their nature,, to which their 
 physical organization is so accurately adapted, 
 it is perfectly agreeable to the discoveries ot 
 science to conclude, that they would cease to 
 exist altogether; since it is well ascertained, 
 from the organic remains found in the bowels 
 of the earth, that many species, and even whole 
 genera, of animals and plants once common, 
 are now no longer known ; and, conversely, 
 that many of those now common were strangers 
 to the primeval ages : thus, having commenced 
 their existence since the beginning of the world, 
 they may relinquish it again before the end. 
 It may then be safely concluded, since nothing 
 noxious can have its direct prototype in God, 
 that all such things either first acquired their 
 noxious nature, or first began to exist, when evil 
 established itself in the human mind ; that they 
 are properly the images of the depraved pro- 
 pensities which there have their seat ; and that 
 if moral evil could .be banished from the world, 
 these expressive images of it would either lose 
 those qualities which make them such, or would 
 disappear altogether. 
 
 (5.) But to return from this digression ; which 
 however was necessary to meet a seeming dif- 
 ficulty. It surely must be readily admitted, 
 when fairly contemplated, that the analogy 
 
 Y 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 between what may be called, in a qualified sense, 
 the moral qualities of animals and the affections 
 of the human mind, is very obvious and striking ; 
 and it cannot be difficult to discover a similar 
 analogy between both of these and the 
 properties of the objects belonging to the 
 vegetable and mineral kingdoms. How closely 
 are the common appetites and instincts, which 
 in animals are subservient to the preservation of 
 the individuals and of the species, emulated in the 
 vegetable creation ! In these, as in those, the 
 life of the individuals is sustained by supplies of 
 nourishment from without. They are provided 
 with sets of vessels, which draw from the soil 
 in which they grow, and from the air which 
 surrounds them, those juices and gases which 
 are congenial with their nature ; and these they 
 select, while they reject such as would be per- 
 nicious, with a discrimination which, though 
 void of all consciousness, answers to, and 
 exactly pictures, under another form, the instinct 
 in regard to these objects so wonderful in ani- 
 mals. So, in the mode by which the continua- 
 tion of the species is provided for, there is so 
 much that seems to rival the attachments of 
 animals, that Poetry, with one of her usual ex- 
 aggerations, has attempted to abolish the differ- 
 ence, by selecting as a theme, f 'the Loves of 
 the Plants*/' and Painting has carried on the 
 * B* Dr. Darwin. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 1()5 
 
 thought, by representing the fabled Deity of 
 the tender passion subduing the vegetable 
 kingdom also to his sway, and levelling his 
 arrows at the susceptible breasts of flowers.f 
 And how exact an analogy of the same univer- 
 sal impulses is displayed through the mineral 
 kingdom also! By how marvellous a power, 
 resembling the animal appetite for food, do 
 many minerals draw from surrounding substan- 
 ces the materials of their accumulation ! How 
 completely magical; how similar to the exercise 
 of affection and choice, is the action of chemi- 
 cal affinities ! How striking an image of con- 
 scious attachment is presented, when, under the 
 influence of the mysterious principle just men- 
 tioned, we behold inanimate matters, substances 
 not possessed even of vegetative life, rush into 
 union, as if actuated by the most ardent mutual 
 affection ! 
 
 But not to dwell on these common resemblan- 
 ces, which assuredly tend very conclusively 
 to establish the continual Mutual Relation, or 
 Relation of Analogy, between all the various 
 orders of creation ; who cannot see a similar 
 analogy between specific moral qualities, the 
 animals in which such qualities are imaged, 
 and the properties ef specific vegetables and 
 minerals? Between all the productions of the 
 
 t See a print in Dr. Thornton's Illustrations of Linnaeus's 
 
 Sexual System. 
 
166 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 vegetable kingdom that afford pleasant and 
 wholesome nutriment, for example, the mild 
 races of animals which are of similar use to 
 man, and the good moral qualities of which 
 these are the pictures, how plainly does this 
 relation exist ! and, on the other hand, how 
 close is the analogy between noxious plants, 
 noxious animals, and the malignant moral 
 qualities which these so aptly typify ! To des- 
 cend to particulars would carry us into too wide 
 a field; otherwise, numerous confirmatory in- 
 stances might easily be pointed out. The sub- 
 stances of the mineral kingdom not affording 
 food to man, their particular relation to the 
 objects of the vegetable and animal kingdomsj 
 and finally to moral qualities, cannot so evidently 
 be shewn ; but that every specific substance of 
 unorganized nature has also properties peculiar 
 to it, which, though quite different from those 
 of vegetables and animals, and especially from 
 the feelings and sentiments of the human mind, 
 are yet exactly analogous to them; is a truth 
 which a little research would easily establish. 
 But Nature herself, by bringing together the 
 analogous objects of her different kingdoms, 
 often calls upon us to note their mutual relation, 
 to observe how, in their respective spheres, 
 they answer to each other. Read, for instance, 
 the description of the Great Western Desart of 
 North America,, that occupies hundreds of miles, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 167 
 
 both in length and breadth,, of the territory that 
 lies between the great rivers Mississippi and 
 Missouri and the Rocky Mountains,, and which 
 has lately been explored by a mission dispatch- 
 ed for the purpose by the government of the 
 United States.* Of this frightful district it is 
 related, (I quote from the Quarterly Review,) 
 that cc In patches where vegetation shews itself, 
 it is mostly confined to tufts of withered grass, 
 prickly pears, and those succulent and saline 
 plants which can derive subsistence out of the 
 most arid, sandy, and sterile soils. Two species 
 of cactus are described as most formidable 
 plants, the cactus ferox and the cactus cylindricus. 
 The former is stated to reign sole monarch over 
 myriads of acres of these desolate plains, in 
 patches, which neither a horse nor any other 
 animal will venture to pass. The latter grows 
 singly, and forms a cluster by itself, increasing 
 to such a size, that, seen from a distance, it is 
 frequently mistaken for a bison. The whole 
 plant is so thickly beset with spines that it 
 forbids all approach to it, either by man or 
 beast/'f Respecting the animated tenants of 
 the more southern part of this horrid desart, it 
 is stated, that ff Clouds of locusts filled the air, 
 uttering shrill and deafening cries ; while the 
 
 * Detailed in the " Account of an Expedition from Pitts- 
 burgh to the Rocky Mountains, &c." by E. James, 
 t Quarterly Review, No, Ivii. p, 16. 
 
168 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Mississipi-hawk, wheeling through their ranks, 
 seemed to enjoy his favourate prey; rattlesnakes 
 of various kinds, and scolopendras of enormous 
 size, were crawling 1 on the naked surface ; and 
 immense black, hairy spiders, like the bird 
 catching animal of South America (rnygale 
 avicularia), watching for prey at the mouth of 
 their subterranean habitations."* Who can 
 read this frightful account, without being struck 
 by the homogeneity of character, so apparent 
 between the unkindly soil and its pernicious 
 products, both vegetable and animal? Who is not 
 led unconsciously to feel, that there is a decided 
 analogy between the characteristic nature of each 
 and those of its accompanyments ? Who does not 
 spontaneously infer, that the barren ground, the 
 horrid thorns, and the venomous reptiles, mutu- 
 ally answer to each other ? And who does not 
 see in them all, striking emblems, and even 
 exact images, of the malignant passions, such 
 as prompt to shoot the poisoned darts of calumny, 
 and to stab with unjust reproaches ? of a dis- 
 position, such as would pervert even the sunshine 
 and rain of heaven into food for those passions ? 
 
 But we must not dwell any longer on these 
 illustrations. As we have before plainly seen, 
 that on all things belonging to the moral, intel- 
 lectual, and spiritual worlds the Divine Creator 
 
 * Quarterly Kevievv, Ivii. p. 23. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 169 
 
 has first stamped a certain image of Himself; so 
 enough may now have been stated to evince, 
 that all objects of outward, and even material 
 nature, bear an image of the moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual world of the human mind, represent- 
 ing its bad as well as its excellent endowments : 
 and thus we plainly see that on these also the 
 divine image is impressed, though sometimes in 
 an inverted and distorted rather than in a direct 
 and beautiful order. Through all the links 
 of creation, lower things continually answer 
 to higher; and the contemplation of them in 
 this light is indeed calculated to "lead from 
 nature up to nature's God." Whilst, through 
 all their varieties, minerals are seen to answer 
 to vegetables, vegetables to animals, and animals 
 to man ; and whilst man is recognized as having 
 been created in the image and likeness of God ; 
 we see how the attributes of the highest natures 
 may be viewed, as in a mirror, in the lowest: 
 we discern how close is the tie which binds to- 
 gether the whole universe of being : we behold 
 how things invisible may be read in the things 
 which are seen. The Relation of Analogy thus 
 every where existing, makes the volume of 
 nature an instructive book indeed. In a stricter 
 sense than the poet ever dreamed of, he who 
 thus views the fields of creation 
 
 " Finds tongues in trees, books in tbe running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every tiling." 
 
 Z 
 
170 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 4. Concluding that it must now be pretty 
 evident, that all things in Nature, being, as we 
 have seen,, outward productions from inward 
 essences., are natural,, sensible, and material types, 
 of moral, intellectual, and spiritual antitypes, 
 and, finally, of their prototypes in God; we 
 draw a step nearer to the important object be- 
 fore us, which is, to shew that a Law or Rule of 
 universal application is hereby afforded for the 
 interpretation of the Word of God. We will 
 here only remark further, that if such an analogy 
 as we have pointed out exists at all,, it must be 
 regular and constant; that the mutual relation 
 between natural types and spiritual antitypes 
 must be immutable; if therefore the Scriptures 
 are written in agreement with this analogy or 
 mutual relation,, the interpretations drawn from 
 an adequate knowledge of it cannot be irregular 
 or uncertain. The doctrine of spiritual inter- 
 pretation will thus be freed from the only ob- 
 jection by which it could be reasonably im- 
 pugned. 
 
 III. Seeing then that a Relation of Analogy so 
 decidedly prevails among the various orders of 
 existences in the universe, insomuch that inferior 
 things are, universally, images of superior, and 
 that all material things are types of immaterial; 
 it will follow, that were this Relation well un- 
 derstood, a style of writing might be con- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 171 
 
 structed, in which, while none but natural images 
 were used, purely intellectual ideas should be 
 most fully expressed : indeed it will be evident, 
 that even a narrative in appearance the most 
 simple, treating, in its literal expression, merely 
 of the objects of nature, if framed by that Infinite 
 Knowledge to which the proper qualities of 
 natural objects all lie displayed, and which sees 
 infallibly of what spiritual antitypes these are 
 the types, might include lessons of wisdom far 
 beyond all that philosophy ever reached. 
 
 1. Now that such a Relation exists, and that 
 such a truly expressive style of writing might be 
 framed by its means, 4y in 1 a great measure, 
 intuitively perceived by all mankind. To be 
 satisfied of this, we need only advert to a few 
 instances which are familiar to us all; which 
 prove, that although the existence of an analogy 
 immutably established by the laws of nature 
 between natural images and spiritual essences, 
 may seem new to us when first we hear it dis- 
 tinctly affirmed, this is only for want of having 
 made it a subject of reflection ; whilst we have 
 at the same time, a natural consciousness of it, 
 which gives birth to many of our conclusions, 
 and is the origin of many forms of speech in 
 common use. 
 
 (1.) In regard to the conclusions which we 
 draw from it : What is better known, for exarn- 
 
 z 2 
 
172 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 pie, to every human being, than that the face is, 
 in a very great degree., an index of the mind, and 
 that it would be most completely such, did not 
 man often endeavour to conceal what is passing 
 within, and thus to give an expression to his 
 countenance which is foreign to the sentiments 
 of his heart? What is more common, when 
 we first see a stranger, than to form an opinion 
 in regard to the dispositions of his mind from 
 certain marks of character which we see written 
 in his face? And though, for the reason just 
 mentioned, we are here liable to be mistaken, 
 this experience does not prevent us from deduc- 
 ing such conclusions altogether, but only from 
 depending on them too much : a person's looks 
 invariably make some impression upon us, and 
 we continually find ourselves apt to draw from 
 them some prejudice or prepossession. 
 
 But although we are liable to mistake in the 
 opinion we thus form of the general character, 
 we can scarcely err in deciding what are the 
 affections which at any time reign in a person's 
 mind, when he is under circumstances that affect 
 him very strongly. None but the most accom- 
 plished hypocrite can prevent us from dis- 
 covering what are the feelings which agitate 
 his breast, when they are under any very 
 powerful excitement. Who cannot tell whe- 
 ther a person is angry or pleased, buoyed up 
 by hope or weighed down by despair, melted 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 173 
 
 by pity or inflamed with rage, merely by 
 observing the lineaments of his countenance? 
 But these discoveries of the interior emotions 
 of the mind from the exterior form of the face, 
 would be utterly impossible, did there not exist 
 a certain relation between things spiritual and 
 things natural, between the spiritual things 
 which exist in the mind and the natural ap- 
 pearances which the face assumes. It is from 
 this origin alone that the invisible things of the 
 mind become visible in the countenance : the 
 higher Hows into the lower, and moulds it in 
 an instant into a form, which, Nature teaches 
 us all, is the image of itself. Yet what two 
 things can be more distinct than the mind and 
 the face? Great disputes have divided the schools 
 respecting the part of the system in which the 
 rnind holds her court; but none have dreamed 
 of placing her seat in the face : yet in the face, 
 unquestionably, much of the mind is to be 
 seen ; and all who there read her emotions, 
 view a branch of the analogy between things 
 material and immaterial, and testify to the fact, 
 that of this, in many respects, man has an 
 intuitive perception. 
 
 (2.) But to state a few of the instances in 
 which this perception is the origin of forms of 
 speech in common use. 
 
 What is more common with mankind, than 
 to use such forms of expression as these : " I 
 
174 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 see what you mean : what you have observed 
 throws a great light on the subject ; it must 
 convince all who will take a candid view of the 
 question, and look at it in all its bearings." 
 And whenever we thus express ourselves, we 
 acknowledge the existence of a fixed relation 
 between natural things and spiritual ; otherwise 
 we should never talk of seeing, taking a view, 
 and looking at, which are the actions of a bodily 
 sense, and of light, which is a natural object, 
 in reference to the operations of the mind : but 
 we speak in this mariner, because we are in- 
 wardly sensible, that the sight of the bodily 
 eye answers to the sight of the mental eye, 
 which is the perception of the understanding; 
 and that the light of the natural world answers 
 to the light of tne moral world, which is truth : 
 thus when we say we see that a thing is so, we 
 mean that we understand it; and when we add 
 that a light is thrown upon a subject, we mean 
 that the truth respecting it is rendered evident. 
 Again : What is more common than to speak 
 of a warm affection, a burning desire ; or, when 
 we behold a person eager in any pursuit, to say, 
 that he is all on Jire ? Yet such forms of speech 
 would be quite destitute of meaning, unless 
 there does actually exist a regular relation 
 of analogy between things spiritual and things 
 natural, between natural heat, which is that 
 of Jire, and spiritual heat, which is that of love: 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 1?5 
 
 thus intensity of love is what we always mean 
 when we thus speak, metaphorically, of heat, 
 and of fire; and whenever we thus express 
 ourselves, we betray an involuntary conscious- 
 ness of the reality of the above relation. Again : 
 How continually do we hear and use such forms 
 of speech as these! When readily assenting to 
 a request, we frequently say, " I will do it with 
 all my heart:" when speaking- in commendation 
 of a person whom we esteem, we often say, 
 Cf lle has a good heart:" and when we see a 
 man extremely intent upon any object, we say, 
 fc His whole heart is in it." But how absurd 
 it would be to use such expressions, if, by the 
 heart, we meant nothing more than the organ 
 by which the blood is impelled through the 
 body ! It is certain that when we thus mention 
 the heart, we mean the will and affections: and 
 the reason why we thus speak of one thing 
 instead of another, is, because there is a mutual 
 relation between them; since, as has been shewn 
 above, the heart discharges a function in respect 
 to the body similar to that which the will 
 discharges in respect to the mind : and our 
 exchanging the terms arises from a secret 
 perception of the truth of this analogy. So, 
 in all ages and among all nations, it has been 
 usual to consider the hand as an emblem of 
 power, and to introduce the name of this im- 
 portant member into various phrases, when we 
 
176 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 mean, either to speak simply of power, or to 
 express some kindred sentiment which has the 
 idea of power as its root : thus, how common 
 it is, among politicians, to talk of strengthening 
 the hands of government, meaning thereby, so 
 to support the government, that it may have 
 power to execute its designs! and here, again, 
 we refer to the sense we all have, of the fixed 
 relation between things material and moral, 
 natural and spiritual. 
 
 These instances are chiefly drawn from the 
 organs of the human body ; and whoever is dis- 
 posed to carry his observation of this class of 
 analogies farther, will find, that we in like man- 
 ner frequently transfer all the terms, which, in 
 their primary signification, describe the action 
 of the bodily senses, to express certain opera- 
 tions of the mind, of which the senses are appro- 
 priate images. 
 
 But we by no means take all our helps to 
 expressive speech of this kind from ourselves ; 
 we as frequently borrow them from the animal 
 creation, mentioning the names of animals when 
 we mean to express the moral and intellectual 
 qualities to which we perceive they answer. 
 Thus we often call children lambs, on account 
 of their innocence: and to describe a pure affec- 
 tion between the sexes we take the suitable 
 image of doves, calling by that name those 
 whose mutual attachment is distinguished by 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 177 
 
 its tenderness and constancy, and by the innocence 
 which it seems to breathe. An eminent war- 
 rior we call a lion, on account of his prowess. 
 The eagle is taken as an emblem of a towering 
 intellect, on account of his mounting to such a 
 height in his aerial excursions, and the steadiness 
 with which he can fix his gaze on the sun ; as is 
 a hawk of acute discernment, for his extraor- 
 dinary keenness of sight. And when we behold 
 a person indulging in flights of a soaring imagin- 
 ation, we borrow the appropriate figure of a 
 winged horse, invented by the ancients, and say, 
 <f He has mounted his Pegasus." 
 
 Were we however to turn our attention to a 
 still lower class of analogies, and endeavour td 
 recollect the multitude of terms and phrases, 
 borrowed from the physical properties of va- 
 rious common and inanimate objects, to express 
 the qualities of the faculties, operations, and 
 products of the mind; we should find ourselves 
 in a spacious field indeed. How familiarly do 
 we speak, and how frequently do we hear, of 
 stabbing with reproaches, or of using cutting 
 words; of corrosive thoughts; of bitter pangs, 
 both of body and mind; of sharp afflictions, 
 arid acute sufferings, likewise of both kinds ; of 
 lacerated feelings ; of biting scarcasms; of grind- 
 ing oppression; of upright dealings; of crooked 
 policy; of straight-forward proceeding; of melting 
 tenderness; of hardened wickedness; of soft 
 
 A A 
 
178 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 compassion; with a thousand other such com- 
 binations ! which are all absolutely heteroge- 
 neous, if the essentially different nature of the 
 ideas combined be alone regarded,, but which, 
 nevertheless., strike no one as absurd, as they 
 would do,, if not in some way founded in the 
 very nature of things. They have such a foun- 
 dation, and therefore they do not offend us : 
 the reason is, because, though heterogeneous in 
 one respect, they are homogeneous in another; 
 though physical properties are applied to moral 
 objects, and are entirely different from the pro- 
 perties of such objects, they answer to them by 
 an exact analogy, and are, in a lower sphere, 
 what the others are in a higher. Of this, all 
 men have a perception ; we therefore readily 
 translate the idea of the physical property into 
 that of the moral one; and this, often, so instan- 
 taneously, that we do not advert to the physical 
 idea at all; all which would be impossible^ 
 did not Nature herself dictate the interpretation, 
 and thus assure us that the language is her own. 
 Men, also, more particularly have recourse to 
 such language, when they most strongly feel 
 what they say; when they speak, as it were, 
 more immediately under the inspiration of 
 Nature, and when their thoughts flow more 
 regularly in agreement with her laws. Then 
 it is that they have a more clear intuition of the 
 analogy that reigns between the various pro- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 179 
 
 vinces of her empire, and thus are better ena- 
 bled to give force to a purely intellectual idea, 
 by calling its counterpart material one to its aid : 
 as the hero, when rising to the defence of his 
 country, fortifies the vital parts of his frame by 
 a clothing of armour fitted over Nature's invest- 
 ment of ribs and flesh, and adds the power of 
 his sword to that of his hand. 
 
 (3.) Now, what all see to hold good in some 
 cases, must also be admitted to hold good uni- 
 versally; and thus we shall find that the com- 
 mon perceptions of mankind irresistibly confirm 
 the existence, through all the kingdoms or 
 spheres of being, of that constant analogy, 
 which we have before endeavoured to establish 
 from the -very nature of things. If there be 
 a great number of instances in which the Mutual 
 Relation between things moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual, and things material, sensible, and 
 natural, is so evident, that every human being 
 intuitively perceives it; must we riot necessarily 
 conclude, that there are innumerable other 
 instances in which a similar relation exists, 
 although it is not so immediately^ obvious to our 
 dark apprehensions? Must it not, indeed, be 
 absolutely certain, that such a relation prevails, 
 not only in many other instances, but in all 
 cases whatsoever ? This is a fact that appears 
 to be capable of demonstration. For we know 
 that all things which exist in this natural world, 
 
 A A 2 
 
180 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 how much soever they may differ from each 
 other, have, nevertheless,, one common nature,, 
 and are derived from one common origin : they 
 all are forms compacted of material substances,, 
 or are modifications of such forms, and they 
 all have the first cause of their existence in God : 
 If then we see, incontrovertibly., that some of 
 the objects which lie obvious to our senses in 
 the natural world, have a Relation of Analogy 
 with certain moral and spiritual things, it fol- 
 lows, by inevitable consequence, that all the 
 other objects of this natural world, by virtue of 
 their possessing the same common nature and 
 the same common origin, must also possess the 
 same kind of Relation to certain other moral 
 or spiritual things. In fact, as has in part 
 been shewn above, the causes of all natural 
 objects immediately lie in the world of spiritual 
 existences, so that, in reality, spiritual things 
 are, instrumental! y, the producing causes, by 
 derivation from the First Cause, of natural 
 things : and hence the spiritual cause and the 
 natural effect, must, universally, answer to each 
 other. 
 
 This is most plainly the case with man's soul 
 and body ; in regard to which we will make 
 this further observation. Man's body, we know, 
 cannot exist a moment alone, any otherwise 
 than as a corpse; whereas, according to the 
 Scriptures, and the truest philosophy, his soul 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. \&l 
 
 is capable of subsisting in a separate state. It 
 is evident, then, that the soul is the higher 
 subsistence of the two ; and it hence becomes 
 certain, that the soul is the immediate producing 
 cause of the body. Even if we suppose, with 
 the materialist, the soul to be nothing but a 
 certain mental life and activity, incapable of 
 existing separately from the body, this will not 
 affect our argument; since it is undeniably true, 
 that it was in order that such mental life and 
 activity might come into existence, that the 
 body is produced. Be the soul what it may, 
 it is certain that the body is formed merely for 
 its sake, and for its use. Now as we have 
 before seen that there is a Relation of Analogy 
 between the face, with certain other organs 
 of the body, and certain faculties of the mind., 
 which is nearly identical with the soul ; so also 
 must it be true, that the whole of the body, 
 taken together, answers to the whole of the 
 soul, and every distinct organ or member of 
 the body to some distinct faculty or principle 
 of the soul ; arid this because it is derived from 
 it, or is formed for its sake, to be its seat and 
 instrument of action in the world of nature. 
 
 Now what is true of the human body and 
 soul, is true likewise of all the objects in nature 
 and of certain spiritual principles which are 
 the proximate causes of their existence ; these, 
 again, being emanations, as it were, from their 
 
182 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 inmost essences in the perfections of Deity, 
 There is a Mutual Relation or Analogy between 
 them. It is evident then, that the instances in 
 which mankind are in the habit of speaking in 
 phrases drawn from this Analogy, are but as 
 a few gems taken from the entrance to an ex- 
 haustless mine; for that every object in nature,, 
 were its properties as well understood as those 
 of the objects from whence our illustrations 
 have been taken, would furnish other such 
 phrases, and the whole together, varieties un- 
 bounded. 
 
 Here we find ourselves repeating in other 
 words, (but now as a conclusion from the pre- 
 mises advanced,) the proposition stated above: 
 That, were the Relation of Analogy between 
 the different orders of existences in the Universe 
 well understood, a style of writing might be 
 constructed, in which, while none but natural 
 images were used, purely intellectual ideas 
 should be most fully expressed. Such a style 
 of language, also, would, as in the instances 
 before noticed wherein this kind of interchange 
 is still in use, be incomparably more forcible 
 than that composed of abstract terms, and 
 would, when applied to exalted subjects, em- 
 brace an infinity more of meaning, than can 
 possibly be infused into the best selected ar- 
 rangement of metaphysical expressions. But 
 then, to employ this language with all its power, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 183 
 
 we must suppose a perfect knowledge of both 
 sides of the analogies; not only of the pro- 
 perties and intrinsic nature of all the natural 
 objects whence images are to be taken,, but of 
 all the moral, intellectual,, and spiritual things 
 to express which the former are to be applied : 
 and this is the wisdom of Omniscience. While 
 then man,, from this treasury , can only borrow 
 a few scattered jewels to set off his intellectual 
 dress, the arrangement of them, through all 
 their series, into glorious forms of suns and 
 stars, to adorn a robe of imperial splendour, 
 demands the skill of the Owner and Author of 
 the whole ; and they who would catch a glimpse 
 of such a production, must study with devo- 
 tional feelings and a teachable spirit, together 
 with just ideas of its nature, the Word of God. 
 
 2. For it is in language of such construction, 
 that the Holy Word is written throughout; as 
 we hope will clearly appear in the sequel: at 
 present we will only mention a few palpable 
 instances of the occurrence in that book of such 
 forms of speech as we have already noticed. 
 
 We have seen above, that the face or coun- 
 tenance of man is an index of his mind, inso- 
 much that the interior emotions and thoughts 
 of his mind are therein expressed : hence, 
 whenever the face is spoken of in the Word of 
 God, the interior affections and ideas or thoughts 
 
184 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of the mind are uniformly to be understood. 
 Thus, mention is very frequently made of the 
 jace of the Lord ; as in the form of blessing the 
 people prescribed to Moses and Aaron : " The 
 Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his 
 face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee ; 
 the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and 
 give thee peace/' * Here,, by the face and coun- 
 tenance of the Lord are meant the interior 
 attributes or properties of the Lord,, or those 
 which constitute his essence ; and these are, 
 generally speaking, divine love and divine wis- 
 dom,, or divine goodness and divine truth; arid 
 by the Lord's making his jface to shine, and lifting 
 up his countenance, upon the objects of his 
 blessing, is signified the communication to them 
 of all the graces,, with their accompanying 
 felicities., of which those divine principles are 
 the source. It may also be observed that the 
 attribute of the sun, which is., to shine, is here 
 ascribed to the Lord's face: so we sometimes 
 read, more explicitly, of the Lord's faee being 
 as the sunf; and as from the sun flow heat and 
 light to recreate the natural objects on which 
 it shines, so from the Divine Sura flow love and 
 wisdom to bless intelligent creatures. We have 
 seen,, also, that the sight of the bodily eye an- 
 swers to the sight of the mental eye, or the 
 understanding, and that natural light bears an 
 
 * Numb. vi. 24, 25, 26. f Matt. xvii. 2, Rev. i. 16. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 185 
 
 exact analogy to spiritual light, which is truth: 
 hence it is written, ff The people that walked 
 in darkness have seen a great light*;'' by which 
 is meant, that they who before were in ignorance; 
 which is spiritual darkness, were brought to a 
 knowledge of the truth : and hence also it is 
 said,, in a passage cited for another purpose in 
 our last Lecture, ef Open thou mine eyes, that 
 I may behold wondrous things out of thy lawf ;" 
 for it is certain that the interior glories of the 
 law or Word of God are not to be beheld by 
 our bodily eyes, but by our mental, that is, 
 they are to be perceived by the understanding. 
 We have seen, likewise, that natural heat, which 
 is that of fire, bears a recognized relation to 
 spiritual heat, which is that of love. Hence it 
 is that the abode of the lost hereafter is com- 
 pared to (C a furnace of fire^," and is said to 
 be a place Cf where the worm dieth not, and 
 the fire is not queched:" for by the never- 
 dying worm is aptly expressed the perpetual 
 gnawing of corrosive thoughts, and by the 
 unquenched fire the insatiate raging of evil 
 lusts. In this instance, fire is mentioned to 
 express love of a wicked and infernal character; 
 but it is frequently used to express such as is 
 heavenly and divine : thus it is said of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that f( He shall baptize with the 
 
 * Isa. ix. 2. f Ps. cxix. 18. t Matt. v. 42, 
 
 Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. Isa. Ixvi. 24. 
 
 B V 
 
186 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Holy Spirit and with Jire*;" by which is 
 meant,, that he will regenerate his disciples by 
 his Spirit of Truth and his Divine Love. We 
 have seen, further, that the heart of man is 
 intuitively perceived to bear a relation of ana- 
 logy to his will. Hence it is said in the Holy 
 Word, that ee the heart of man is deceitful above 
 all things and desperately wickedf;" by which 
 we are taught that the will of man is, through 
 sin, of such a quality; whence the Lord says 
 by the prophet, ff I will take away the stony 
 heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart 
 of flesh^;" by which is signified, that the will 
 of evil shall be removed, and the will of good 
 implanted, with those who submit themselves 
 to be guided by the Lord : arid it is not said 
 that this new heart shall be a heart of flesh, 
 merely to contrast the softness of this material 
 with the hardness of stone, though this affords 
 a poetical figure, likewise founded in a real 
 analogy, and equally beautiful and expressive, 
 but on account, also, of the less remote 
 analogy, which, as we have seen above, flesh 
 itself bears to the principle of goodness. Finally 
 we have noticed, how prolific a source of meta- 
 phorical phrases has been afforded by the plain 
 analogy between the human hand and the prin- 
 ciple of power: and of applications of this 
 image the Scriptures are full. Thus how often 
 * Matt. Hi. 11. f Jer. xvii.9. t Ezek. xi. 19. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 18? 
 
 is it said that the Lord brought the Israelites 
 out of Egypt by fc a mighty hand/' or fc by a 
 mighty hand and a stretched out arm!"* No 
 one supposes that this was done by the visible 
 putting forth of a hand and arm from the person 
 of God ; but all who believe the history allow, 
 that it was effected by a wonderful exertion of 
 Divine Omnipotence. So, when it is said of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that "he was received up 
 into heaven, and sat on the right hand of Godf /' 
 few minds can be so gross as to dare to picture 
 to their imagination two personal divine forms 
 sitting side by side on the throne of heaven; 
 but all must see that the phrase is introduced 
 to teach the same truth respecting the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, as, in another evangelist, he de- 
 clares respecting himself in plain terms: fc All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earthj:" 
 All power is omnipotence : to be received up 
 and sit on the right hand of God, evidently, 
 then, can mean nothing else, than the exaltation 
 of that which was so received up, which was the 
 glorified Human Nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to the full possession and exercise of Divine 
 Omnipotence, to be the instrument by which, 
 thenceforth, the Divine Omnipotence was to 
 be exerted. 
 
 * Dent. iv. 34, v. 15, vi. 21, vii. 8, 19, ix. 26, xi. 2, 
 xxvi. 8, xxxiv. 12. 
 
 f Mark xvi. 19. J Matt, xxviii. 18. 
 
 B B 2 
 
188 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 It would be highly interesting', and would 
 materially help to confirm the important result 
 to which all the facts and examples which we 
 have here noticed tend,, could we stop to ex- 
 amine some instances in the Scriptures,, similar 
 to those adduced above from common discourse, 
 of the formation of expressive phrases by apply- 
 ing the names of animals,, and of the qualities 
 of inanimate objects,, to describe mental powers 
 and properties : but we must not anticipate too 
 far the subject of our two next Lectures. The 
 examples above adduced from common speech, 
 and these few from Scripture,, must be sufficient 
 to establish the fact which we have had in view 
 in this branch of our argument; That were the 
 Relation of Analogy between natural and spi- 
 ritual existences well understood, a style of 
 writing might be constructed, in which, while 
 none but natural images were used, purely in- 
 tellectual ideas should be most fully conveyed : 
 and the examples from Scripture in particular, 
 must surely be felt to render highly probable the 
 further conclusion, that this is actually the style 
 in which the Word of God is written. On the 
 application of the Rule of Analogy, we see 
 how clear and beautiful a sense results from 
 passages otherwise extremely mysterious; and 
 though a general idea of the meaning of such 
 passages as we have now considered, might 
 present itself to almost every reader, we see 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED. &C. 
 
 that what could otherwise be only an 
 shadowy, undefined idea, becomes, on the appli- 
 cation of the Rule, clear, distinct, and definite. 
 There are, however, multitudes of analogies 
 which have quite dropped out of use in common 
 speech, but which are retained in Scripture; and 
 in the interpretation of such passages, without 
 a knowledge of the principle, nothing could be 
 offered but mere conjecture. This, however, 
 will be seen more clearly in the sequel ; what 
 we are here chiefly aiming at is, to establish, 
 beyond question, the universal existence of 
 such a Mutual Relation between things natural, 
 spiritual, and divine, as we have endeavoured 
 to explain. This is testified, we have seen, 
 by every thing that we know respecting all these 
 different orders of being : the conviction comes 
 more closely home to us, when we notice that 
 we intuitively perceive it, and draw from it 
 many of our every-day phrases: and it is fur- 
 ther confirmed still, if, while we only look at 
 the Scriptures as a collection of very ancient 
 writings, composed in an idiom generally in use 
 in the early ages of the world, we find them full 
 of forms of speech evidently constructed on the 
 same universal principle. In fact, the doctrine 
 of Analogy, and the Sacred Scriptures, mutually 
 illustrate each other. In the Scriptures, more 
 than any where else, are afforded the means 
 of recovering the knowledge of this Analogy; 
 
190 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and, without arguing in a circle, we shall find in 
 the end, that the doctrine of spiritual Analogy 
 will afford the only key for arriving at a satis- 
 factory interpretation of the Scriptures. 
 
 IV. Among those, however, who think that 
 nothing which is new can possibly be true, there 
 may be some who will be unwilling to contem- 
 plate those clear proofs of the existence of a Mu- 
 tual Relation between things natural and spiri- 
 tual which Nature every where exhibits, unless to 
 the testimony of Nature, confirmed by Reason, 
 be added that of human authority. This then 
 may be produced in abundance, provided great 
 antiquity should not be deemed as objectionable 
 as absolute novelty: for certain it is, that, in 
 the remote ages, the Relation in question was 
 very extensively understood. The passages al- 
 ready quoted from the Scriptures evince, that, 
 when they were written, the Relation of Analogy 
 between natural and spiritual subjects, if not 
 necessarily known to the writers of the books, 
 was present to the Divine Mind by whose in- 
 spiration they wrote them; and being thus recog- 
 nized by him whe^e existence is from everlast- 
 ing-, it has the sanction of an antiquity coeval 
 with the origin of all creation; of which fact 
 we shall find abundantly more confirmations 
 in the sequel. But if there be any who can 
 fear to give themselves up to this evidence; 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 191 
 
 who will even distrust the voice of God, added 
 to the dictates of Nature, till it is authenticated 
 by the testimony of man : they need not reject 
 it, in this instance^ for the want of such cre- 
 dentials. 
 
 1. It is even unnecessary to travel out of the 
 Word of God itself, for testimony of this kind : 
 for if we only take its relations as authentic his- 
 tory, whether dictated by divine inspiration or 
 not, we shall find that some of them give full 
 proof of the fact, that the knowledge of the Re- 
 lation between things spiritual and natural, 
 whereby they mutually answer to each other, 
 and whereby the natural afford proper images 
 for the expression of the spiritual, was in an- 
 cient times widely diffused. We might instance 
 the case of Balaam, a native of Mesopotamia, 
 who thrice directed Balak to build seven altars, 
 and to offer a bullock and a ram on every 
 altar*, when he was desirous to obtain an 
 cc enchantment against Jacob, and a divination 
 against Israelf ;" and who actually did, in con- 
 sequence of these emblematic preparations, 
 obtain communications from heaven, though 
 of a contrary nature to those which he and 
 his employer wished for : circumstances which 
 evince, that there really was a connexion be- 
 tween the communications obtained and the 
 * Numb, xxiii. 1, 14, 29. t Ver. 23. 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ceremonies performed,, and which establish the 
 really typical character of the latter, and the 
 knowledge of this possessed by Balaam. 
 
 But we have a still more remarkable instance 
 of the preservation of this knowledge, in the 
 account of the events which befel the Philistines 
 after they had taken in battle the ark, which 
 was the most holy symbol in the representative 
 worship of the Jews. The chief circumstances 
 were as follows.* 
 
 On capturing the ark, they placed it in the 
 house of their idol Dagon ; and the conse- 
 quence was, that the next morning they found 
 the idol fallen with his face to the ground before 
 it. They however regarded this as an accident, 
 and set the idol up again; when, the following 
 morning, beside finding the idol thrown down 
 afresh, they found his head and both his hands cut 
 off, and lying upon the threshold. And not only 
 did judgments thus fall upon the idol, but upon 
 his infatuated worshippers, who died in great 
 numbers, and those who died not were smitten 
 with emerods: the land, also, was overrun with 
 mice. They then determined to send the 
 ark away, as the only means of obtaining deli- 
 verance from the miseries which they suffered; 
 but on consulting their priests and diviners, 
 these said, ff If ye send away the ark of the 
 God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any 
 * See 1 Sam. Chs. v. and vi. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 193 
 
 wise return him a trespass offering." Then they 
 said, f( What shall be the trespass offering?" 
 The others answered, Cf Five golden emerods 
 and five golden mice, according to the number 
 of the lords of the Philistines/' They also 
 directed them to make a new cart, and to take 
 two milch kine on which there had come no 
 yoke, and tie them to the cart, and bring their 
 calves home from them, arid send away the ark: 
 and they said, "" See, if it goeth up by the way 
 of his own coast, to Bethshemesh," (which was 
 the nearest Israelitish city,) ff then he (the Lord) 
 hath done us this great evil : but if not, th^ 
 we shall know that it is not his hand that smote 
 us; it was a chance that happened to us." All 
 this was accordingly done: " And the kine/' 
 the history relates, " which drew the cart, took 
 the straight way to Bethshemesh, lowing as they 
 went, without turning either to the right hand 
 or to the left :" and when the people of Beth- 
 shemesh saw it, they offered up the kine for a 
 burnt offering, cutting to pieces the cart, and 
 making the fire with the wood. Now to what 
 purpose could be all these ceremonies, if some- 
 thing were not specifically and correctly sym- 
 bolized by every particular related? Without 
 this, what would the whole proceedings amount 
 to, but a piece of idle mummery? That they 
 were not such, is evident from the effect's 
 being such as was expected : the unguided 
 
 c c 
 
194 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 kine of their own accord, took the way, to 
 Bethshemesh, and the Philistines were re- 
 lieved from their sufferings. The whole then 
 must have been a series of representative images, 
 founded in the Relation of Analogy which exists 
 by the constitution of nature between natural 
 things and spiritual : and a knowledge of this 
 Relation must have been possessed, to some 
 extent, by the Philistine priests and diviners; 
 otherwise, how could they have directed such 
 rites to be performed, as, though seemingly 
 trifling, had the effect of turning away the 
 plagues with which the people were afflicted? 
 The reason why such effects followed the use of 
 such means, is, because, prior to the alteration 
 made in the state and nature of the church 
 by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, all 
 worship was carried on by representative rites 
 significant of spiritual and heavenly things, and 
 it was by such worship, founded in that Relation 
 between things spiritual and natural, whereby 
 the latter are images of the former, that, under 
 the Economy which then prevailed, the commu- 
 nication was maintained between heaven and 
 earth, between God and man; and unless this 
 communication be maintained by some means, 
 neither man nor the earth could continue in 
 existence. Ceremonies then, which, under such 
 an Economy, were solemnly performed accord- 
 ing to this Relation of Analogy, sometimes pro- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 195 
 
 duced natural effects,, answering to those spiri- 
 tual ones which real worship, with its accom- 
 panying graces,, produces in the mind : as was 
 often the case with the rites prescribed by divine 
 authority to the Israelitish Church; of which 
 we shall give an example or two in a subsequent 
 Lecture. 
 
 We will briefly state what appears to be im- 
 plied by the circumstances of the present history. 
 The ark, under the Israelitish Dispensation, 
 was a symbol of the Divine Presence, which 
 none but the truly good can endure, and 
 they not too near; and which causes the lusts 
 cherished by the wicked more openly to be- 
 come their tormentors. The Philistines re- 
 present those who exalt faith above charity, 
 making the former every thing, and the latter 
 of no account; which was the reason of their 
 continual wars with the Israelites, who repre- 
 sent the true church, or those 'who cherish faith 
 in union with charity. The idol Dagon is the 
 religion of those who are represented by the 
 Philistines. The emerods with which they were 
 smitten, are symbols of the appetites of the 
 natural man, which, when separated from 
 spiritual affections, as is done by those who do 
 not apply their faith to the purification of their 
 lives, are unclean. The mice, by which the 
 land was devastated, are images of the lust of 
 destroying by false interpretation the spiritual 
 
196 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 nourishment which the church derives from the 
 Word of God,, as is done by those who separate 
 faith from chad y. The ernerods of gold ex- 
 hibit the natural appetites as purified and made 
 good. The golden mice symbolize the healing 
 of the tendency to false interpretation effected 
 by admitting a regard to goodness ; for of this, 
 as we shall see in the next example, gold is an 
 emblem. The cows are types of the natural 
 man, in regard to such good qualities as he 
 possesses. Their lowing by the way expresses 
 the repugnance of the natural man to the pro- 
 cess of conversion. And the offering of them 
 up for a burnt offering, typifies that restoration 
 of order which takes place in the mind, when 
 the natural affections are submitted to the Lord. 
 It would detain us too long were we to stay to 
 offer proof of the truth of these explanations: 
 every one may verify them for himself, by 
 trying what sense will be drawn from other 
 passages of Scripture, where the same emblems 
 are used, on giving them the same interpreta- 
 tion; for if the signification thus obtained be 
 every were coherent arid satisfactory, the mean- 
 ing assigned to the symbols must be the true 
 one. But whether our explanation be the true 
 one or not, it will riot affect the position for 
 which the history is here cited : It will still be 
 certain, that the ceremonies directed by the 
 Philistine priests and diviners must have been 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 1 ( J7 
 
 intended to have some meaning: As the ex- 
 pected events followed, it must be true that the 
 operations they prescribed must have had a 
 real analogy to certain things of a spiritual 
 nature : and of this, they must have possessed 
 a knowledge. 
 
 But further. That an acquaintance with the 
 Relation which natural things bear to spiritual 
 was in ancient times widely extended, and that 
 it was not altogether lost sight of among the 
 eastern nations at the period of the commence- 
 ment of the Christian era, is evident from the 
 account of the wise men of the east, who, under 
 the guidance of a star, came and ec presented 
 unto" the infant Saviour " gifts; gold, frank- 
 incense, and myrrh/'* Without entering into 
 the inquiry respecting the nature of the star 
 that appeared, the spiritual thing represented by 
 it is obvious. Stars, as being luminous bodies, 
 and thus belonging to the general analogy of 
 light, which, we have seen, answers to truth, are 
 apt images of knowledge or information upon 
 spiritual subjects: hence this star, which con- 
 ducted the wise men to Jesus, was an appro- 
 priate type of that knowledge respecting the 
 promised advent of the Lord, which was retained, 
 from ancient tradition, among the eastern peo- 
 ple. The gifts which they offered were emble- 
 matical of the worship which the truly wise will 
 * Matt. ii. 11. 
 
198 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ever be foremost in yielding to " Him that was 
 born King of the Jews:"* on *vhich subject 
 we will offer a little explanation. 
 
 By the gifts which the wise men presented,, 
 is pointed out, what the nature of all divine 
 worship must be, if he who engages in it wishes 
 it to be acceptable to the Lord or beneficial to 
 himself. An offering of gold, on account of the 
 density, ductility, indestructibility,, beautiful 
 colour, and other superior qualities of that 
 metal,, was seen in ancient times, when the per- 
 ception of such analogies was more extensive 
 than at present, to be expressive of worship 
 from a principle of pure love or goodness in the 
 will, which is the deepest ground from which 
 we can present an offering to the Lord. It was 
 on account of this signification of gold that so 
 much use was made of it in the representative 
 service of the Jewish tabernacle ; most of the 
 holy furniture of which was overlaid or other- 
 wise ornamented with gold, if not made of it 
 entirely : for this use of it was designed to 
 express, that there can be no worship of the 
 Lord, and no religion, unless there be in the 
 heart of the worshipper a principle of sterling 
 goodness, a love towards the Lord and his 
 neighbour. The second offering was of frank- 
 incense, which represents worship from a prin- 
 ciple of truth in the understanding; that is, 
 * Matt. ii. 2. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 199 
 
 not from truth merely known and comprehended., 
 for this,, nevertheless, may not form the spon- 
 taneous sentiment of a man's own mind; but 
 from truth loved,, and of course obeyed, as well 
 as comprehended and known. This signification 
 of frankincense may be gathered from its being 
 the chief ingredient in the holy perfume or 
 incense, which was burnt upon the golden 
 altar in the holy place*; and from its being 
 added as a kind of seasoning to the meat- 
 oflferingsf, and spread upon the she w- bread J : 
 for the smoke of incense is a striking symbol 
 of the aspirations to the Lord of the heaven- 
 directed rnind, and of the thoughts of a heart 
 that continually turns to him. So the offering 
 of myrrh represented worship from a suitable 
 life and conversation : and although this cannot 
 so directly be proved, it is evident from this 
 fact ; that whatever is really in the will, and 
 thence in the understanding, never stops there 
 inactive, but descends, on every suitable occa- 
 sion, into life and action. This is the reason 
 why, in the Scriptures, so many instances occur, 
 as in this passage, of a three-fold arrangement. 
 The particulars so enumerated are sometimes 
 in an ascending series, but more frequently, 
 as here, in a descending one; and then the 
 last in order, as the myrrh is in this instance, 
 denotes the ultimate effect of the union and 
 * Exod. xxx, 34. f Lev. ii. 1, 2, 15, 16, \ Ch. xxiv. 7. 
 
200 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 activity of the prior two. Myrrh,, also, was one 
 of the ingredients of the holy oil with which 
 all the persons and vessels employed in the 
 tabernacle-service were to be anointed*: by 
 which oil v\as signified good of all orders and 
 degrees, beginning from the most common or 
 lowest, represented by the myrrh, which is 
 therefore mentioned in the first place., (the as- 
 cending series being that which is here adopted,) 
 and rising to the purest and most exalted, repre- 
 sented by the pure olive oil, which is mentioned 
 the last. That the ointment thus compounded 
 was intended to be a type of love and charity, 
 with their uniting tendency and all their bene- 
 ficial operations, may be gathered from the 
 manner in which it is mentioned by David : 
 " Behold, how good and pleasant a thing it is, 
 for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like 
 the precious ointment upon the head, that ran 
 down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard ; that 
 went down to the skirts of his garments/'f The 
 introduction here, by the inspired writer, of the 
 " precious ointment," would only make a simile 
 without resemblance, if there were not an ana- 
 logy between its nature and that of the virtue 
 whose praise he celebrates. 
 
 Now it may fairly be inferred, that the wise 
 men would not have ff worshipped*' fe the young 
 child" by these natural emblems, so exactly 
 
 * Exod. xxs. 23, C 24, 25. f Ps. cxxxiii. 1, 2. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 201 
 
 typifying the spiritual worship due to that 
 Divine Nature which was assuming this mode 
 of manifesting itself to the world, had they 
 not been apprized, to some extent, of the ana- 
 logy between things natural and things spiritual. 
 Nothing but this could have dictated the per- 
 formance of acts so significant and appropriate. 
 Without such a guide, they might, certainly, 
 have brought presents, in token of respect : but 
 it must have been by a rare chance indeed that 
 they could have fixed upon articles so exactly 
 symbolic of the sentiments proper to the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 2. But if we were to turn to the writings and 
 other monuments yet extant of profane antiquity, 
 we should find proofs multiplying all round us, 
 to evince, that in very ancient times the know- 
 ledge of the Relation between things spiritual 
 and things natural was very much cultivated 
 indeed: in fact, we should see reason to con- 
 clude, that the ancients knew of no other way 
 of expressing their conceptions respecting spi- 
 ritual and heavenly subjects, but by clothing 
 them with images drawn from natural objects. 
 Who, for instance, can doubt, that the fables of 
 their Mythology were all originally framed upon 
 this principle? These fables have been handed 
 down to us with many mutilations, additions, 
 and other depravations, being now only found 
 
202 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in the writings of authors who did not under- 
 stand them, and who had received them from 
 traditionary relaters, of whom, likewise., many 
 were ignorant of their meaning, and frequently 
 confounded different things together : yet many 
 of these fables still exhibit marks which evince, 
 that their first authors composed them by the 
 aid of a correct knowledge of the spiritual and 
 moral analogy of natural things, and designed 
 them to convey lessons of interior wisdom. 
 Thus, though some of the heathen deities 
 might be no more than deified men, persons 
 who, while they lived, had been benefactors 
 to their species ; (in which light some of the 
 later ancients, and many of the moderns, have 
 chosen to consider them all;) yet how much 
 more reasonable is the opinion of the wiser 
 ancients, followed likewise by many of the 
 moderns, that the personifications of the Gre- 
 cian mythology were only designed to repre- 
 sent the distinct attributes of the One Infinite 
 God, and were not intended to be considered 
 as existing in separate personal forms, but had 
 such forms assigned them merely to render the 
 contemplation of the various divine perfections 
 more easy to the human understanding; whilst 
 the regarding of them as so many separate 
 gods, and the worshipping of them as such, were 
 innovations of the ignorant vulgar, exactly of 
 the same nature as that which has been intro- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 203 
 
 duced by some of the moderns, in making a 
 complete separation of the persons of the 
 Christian Trinity. We will endeavour to sketch 
 an idea of some of the leading characters of 
 this mythology, and of the design of a few of 
 its principal fables. 
 
 It is a fact which will readily be admitted, 
 that the Divine Being is regarded and wor- 
 shipped, by all mankind, through the medium 
 of the conceptions which they have formed of 
 him in their own minds, and that none are able 
 to conceive an idea of him that is at all adequate 
 to what he is in Himself, since it is impossible 
 for a finite being to comprehend the Infinite: 
 hence the idea of God cannot be exactly the 
 same in any two minds ; and in persons of very 
 dissimilar religious sentiments it must be very 
 different indeed. Now it appears to have been 
 the custom among the ancients, when a very 
 great change took place in men's modes of con- 
 ceiving of the Deity, to assign to him a different 
 name : the propriety of which practice seems to 
 be recognized in the Scriptures, where we find 
 the Lord saying lo Moses, when about to com- 
 municate a new revelation different from that 
 which had existed before, " I appeared unto 
 Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob,, by the 
 name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah 
 was I not known to them."* Thus we are 
 
 * Exod. vi. 3. 
 D D 2 
 
204 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 not to conclude that the wiser ancients regarded 
 their supreme god, Jupiter,, as a different divine 
 being from the older supreme god,, Saturn ; but 
 that under those distinct names, to each of 
 which they assigned distinct attributes,, they 
 personified the different ideas of the Supreme 
 Being entertained by two very different genera- 
 tions of mankind, by men of such essentially 
 distinct genius and character as those may well 
 be conceived to have been,, who lived before, 
 and who lived after,, the Scriptural catastrophe 
 of the flood. And as the latter race of men 
 were descended from the former, and their idea 
 of God sprung out of that which had been 
 conceived by the previous generation, was, in 
 fact, the offspring of it, they transferred this 
 idea to the deities themselves, arid described 
 Jupiter as the son of Saturn : for which also 
 there was a further reason, to which we shall 
 presently advert. 
 
 But the occasion on which Jupiter is fabled 
 to have succeeded to the throne of heaven, was 
 this : a war was waged against Saturn by the 
 first race of giants, called the Titans, evidently 
 the (C Nephilim" of the Scriptures*, who, it is 
 pretended, would have succeeded in their enter- 
 prise, had not Jupiter flown to the assistance 
 of his father, and discomfited the enemy with 
 
 * In the original of Gen. vi. 4. The later races of giant* 
 are called Rephaim. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 205 
 
 his thunderbolts; after which, like many other 
 auxiliaries of distressed sovereigns, he seized 
 the reins of government for himself. Now if 
 we conceive Saturn to be a personified idea of 
 the Divine Being more in regard to that pure 
 goodness, which, the poets assure us, prevailed 
 under his dominion among mankind, when 
 
 Sine militis usu 
 Mollia securce perayebant otia gentes, 
 
 and which procured for the Saturnia regna, in 
 the language of analogy, the expressive syno- 
 nyme of " the golden age/' (though the use of 
 that metal was then unknown ; according to 
 the poet, not yet itum est in viscera terrve, nor 
 yet Jerro nocentius aurum Prodierat) ; if we re- 
 gard the Titans as the direful perversions of such 
 a state the lust of empire and pride of self-ex- 
 altation most opposite to inoffensive benevo- 
 lence; if we see in Jupiter a personification of 
 the Divine Being more in regard to that other 
 great essential property of Deity, pure Truth, 
 which is the agent in every divine work of judg- 
 ment and of restoration, and of the manifestation 
 or revelation of which, thunder, often deemed 
 by the vulgar the voice of God, and lightning, 
 the sudden irradiations of which have such an 
 awakening effect, are natural images; and if 
 we conceive further, what was clearly the fact, 
 that the character of the people who lived after 
 die flood was less affectionate and more intellec- 
 
206 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tual than before, that sciences, distinct from the 
 intuitive perceptions inherent in the love of exalt- 
 ed goodness,, then first began to be cultivated, 
 thus, that the altered genius of mankind led them 
 to view the Divine Being more in his character 
 of pure but benignant Truth, than of simple un- 
 mixed Goodness, or as a Jupiter rather than a 
 Saturn ; whence, also, with the reign of Jupiter 
 commenced the silver age, silver being, among 
 metals, the symbol of pure, interior truth, as 
 g'old is that of pure, exalted goodness: If, I say, 
 we accept these views, we at least shall have a 
 theory which well agrees with the facts, as esta- 
 blished by higher authority, and which affords, 
 may I be allowed to say ? a beautiful solution 
 of the circumstances of the fable. 
 
 Nor does the fiction, that it was the practice 
 of Saturn always to devour his offspring, de- 
 tract from the character here given him, as the 
 personification of unmixed goodness: for chil- 
 dren, in the language of analogy, viewed in 
 relation to their father, are as the perceptions 
 and thoughts of the intellect in relation to the 
 love, affection, or desire, which gives them 
 birth. Every one who reflects on the opera- 
 tions of his own mind, must see, that thought, 
 the object of which is truth, or what is esteemed 
 to be truth, is entirely the offspring of affection. 
 Take away all affection, reduce the mind to 
 a state of perfect apathy, and you will imrne- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C 207 
 
 diately cease to think: on the contrary, when 
 any affection is in high excitement, how active 
 are the thoughts! what a tumult of ideas, what 
 multitudes of reasonings, crowd into the intel- 
 lect, when violent passions agitate the will ! It 
 is in agreement, then, with true philosophy, to 
 regard Truth as the offspring of Goodness, this 
 being essentially Love, to some species of which 
 all the affections belong : whence we see the 
 further reason, alluded to above, for considering 
 Jupiter, who was the personification of the 
 Divine Being in respect more to his essential 
 attribute of Truth than of Goodness, as the 
 son of Saturn, who was the personification of 
 the Divine Being in respect more to his essen- 
 tial attribute of Goodness than of Truth. We 
 are not however to suppose that the people of the 
 golden age regarded the Divine Being as Good- 
 ness or Love alone, without Truth or Wisdom, 
 nor that the silver age regarded him as Truth or 
 Wisdom alone without Goodness or Love: the 
 former worshiped him as Divine Goodness from 
 which proceeds Divine Truth, and the latter 
 as Divine Truth within which is Divine Good- 
 ness. Now it was contrary to the peculiar 
 genius of the people of those primeval times, to 
 be willing to contemplate any thing of mere 
 intellect separate from its parent affection : to 
 do so they would have considered as an awful 
 lapse from the perfection of the human charac- 
 
208 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ter: they viewed all truth as inherent in its 
 parent affection, and, though continually pro- 
 duced by it, continually resolving itself into it. 
 In agreement with this sentiment, the preserva- 
 tion of Jupiter and his brothers is fabled to have 
 been effected by the artifice of his mother Rhea 
 the earth, which is a term used in the lan- 
 guage of analogy, for that which, in the lan- 
 guage of theology, is called the external man : 
 it is by inclining to the external that inter- 
 mediate spiritual births are produced by the 
 internal, and it is by the suggestions of the exter- 
 nal, or by acceding to its inclinations, that they 
 are viewed as altogether separate. The artifice, 
 too, by which Saturn was deceived by Rhea, 
 was, her giving him a stone to swallow instead 
 of his son ; a monstrous absurdity, if any 
 thing like a literal history be supposed to be 
 intended, but a beautiful combination of the 
 analogies of different orders of existences, if 
 the involved mystery be regarded. For a stone, 
 among inanimate things of the lowest order, 
 belongs to the same general analogies as a j son 
 does among the highest: both are types of the 
 objects of intellect ; a stone being a symbol of 
 truth in its lowest sphere, when clothed with 
 appearances taken from the world of nature, 
 and a son being a symbol of truth when living 
 in the perceptions of the human mind. Now 
 that, in this sense, strange as it mav sound, stones 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 209 
 
 were swallowed by the primeval inhabitants of 
 the world, cannot be doubted, if we believe, as 
 is highly reasonable, first, that there is such a 
 mutual relation between natural things and spiri- 
 tual, that the latter are reflected by all the objects 
 of creation; secondly, that this analogy was in- 
 tuitively apprehended by those ancients, so that, 
 to them, every thing in nature conveyed a spi- 
 ritual idea, and, by them, ff the invisible things 
 of God were clearly seen in the things that are 
 made ;" and, lastly, that the exalted affection 
 for goodness in which they were principled, be- 
 holding in terrestrial objects nothing but images 
 of heavenly ones, eagerly seized the ideas thus 
 presented, and incorporated them with itself. 
 Hence, as they viewed God through the medium 
 of the conceptions of their own minds, so that 
 their Supreme Deity may be considered, as 
 noticed above in the case of the idol Dagon, 
 as the personified abstraction of their leading 
 religious sentiments, they depicted Saturn as 
 the devourer of his children, or of stones in their 
 stead. 
 
 And here be it observed, that such a mode 
 of representing spiritual subjects, so long as it 
 was understood, must have been equally de- 
 lightful and instructive : but in the degenerate 
 times that succeeded ; to speak in their own 
 language, in the copper age, when men re- 
 garded only external goodness, cultivating merely 
 
210 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 natural affections., and still more in the iron 
 age, when they took their character from a 
 merely external understanding, and no longer had 
 spiritual,, but only natural conceptions of truth; 
 such representations became liable to great 
 abuse. Then,, understanding literally this, so 
 understood, flagitious practice of Saturn, and 
 the similar deeds of their other divinities, they 
 changed the whole into a system of abomina- 
 tion and impurity,, never dreamed-of by its in- 
 ventors; and villainy pretended to perpetrate its 
 crimes under the express sanction of the gods. 
 
 But to return. We have selected the above 
 fables for illustration, as being fundamental ones, 
 on which the whole of the Greek mythology 
 turns: otherwise, some of the others would per- 
 haps admit of a more familiar explanation. When, 
 for instance, a second race of giants is fabled to 
 have made a second insurrection, and to have 
 heaped mountain upon mountain to scale the 
 walls of heaven (, an occurrence which is de- 
 scribed in Scripture by the parallel scheme of 
 building ff a tower whose top should reach unto 
 heaven")*; and when the gods are said, in fear, 
 to have fled for refuge to Egypt, and there to 
 have disguised themselves by taking the forms 
 of various animals, Jupiter assuming the figure 
 of a ram, Juno that of a white cow, and the 
 like ; how aptly may we see described the 
 * Gen. xi. 4. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 211 
 
 desolation, through the prevalence of extra- 
 vagant lusts and wild phantasies, of all that 
 constitutes real religion, until all true know- 
 ledge of the divine nature and attributes is 
 banished, the graces of the truly spiritual man 
 are no more, and nothing of them is left but 
 some good affections (represented by the ani- 
 mals in which the deities lurked,) in the natural 
 man, which in this fable, as in the Scriptures, 
 is typified by Egypt! On this occasion, also, 
 it was oracularly pronounced, that the gods 
 must finally be vanquished, unless they called a 
 mortal to their aid : where again we see a proof, 
 that by their gods they did not strictly under- 
 stand the Deity as he is in Himself, but as he 
 is received, and as ideas are formed of him, in 
 the human mind : for none could imagine that 
 any insurrection from hell could injure the 
 Deity Himself, though it might abolish the 
 graces of which he is the author from the mind of 
 man. The fable adds, that in compliance with 
 the oracle, the gods availed themselves of the 
 assistance of Hercules, the son of Jupiter by 
 a human mother, by whose help they regained 
 Olympus: in which, I think, the serious Chris- 
 tian must discover, whatever the infidel may 
 think of it, a knowledge among the gentiles of 
 that genuine oracular declaration which said, 
 that the seed of the woman should bruise the 
 serpent's head. Indeed, the whole history of 
 
 E E 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Hercules and his labours evinces, that they 
 who constructed it, had a knowledge of the 
 Redeemer who was to come, and of the redemp- 
 tion which was to be wrought by the Incarnate 
 God, who, " having spoiled principalities and 
 powers*," and Cf destroyed him that had the 
 power of death* 'f was to be made Cf perfect 
 through sufferings/'J e( crowned with glory and 
 honour :" which truths they involved in their 
 customary style of fable, filled with circum- 
 stances drawn from the language of spiritual 
 analogy. 
 
 Once more. If we were apprized that, in 
 its spiritual reference, that common Scripture- 
 emblem, the horse, expresses the understanding or 
 apprehension of Truth, whence four horses ap- 
 peared, in the Revelation, to proceed out of a 
 book**, and on another was seen riding in 
 heaven He whose Cf name is called The Word of 
 Godff/' we should perceive the reason why 
 horses were assigned to Neptune, the god of the 
 ocean, or of the waters, though they seem so 
 little adapted to that element: why a chariot 
 and horses of fire were attributed to the sun, the 
 source of light, or to Phoebus, the god of day : 
 why the fountain of Hippocrene, in Mount 
 Parnassus, the haunt of the nine Muses, or the 
 sciences, who were the daughters of Jupiter 
 
 * Col.ii. 15. t Heb.ii. 14. J Vcr. 10. Ver. 9. 
 ** Ch. \i. 1,4, 5,8. ft Ch. xix. 11^ 13. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 and Memory, was said to have been opened by 
 a blow from the hoof of the winged horse, 
 Pegasus: why all the principal heroes and 
 demi-gods were represented to have received 
 their institution in learning from the Centaurs, 
 an imaginary race compounded of the man and 
 the horse; who also were famous for their skill in 
 medicine, and instructed in that art the god of 
 medicine,, ^sculapius himself: why the device, 
 whatever it was, by which the Grecian com- 
 manders introduced a body of troops within 
 the walls of Troy, was symbolized by a wooden 
 horse: and why, on the founding of Athens, 
 that celebrated seat of science and philosophy, 
 when Minerva and Neptune were contending 
 for the honour of giving it a name, Neptune, to 
 display his power, is said to have struck the 
 ground with his trident, when there instantly 
 darted forth a horse; yet the disputed honour 
 was awarded to Minerva, at whose bidding there 
 sprung up an olive-tree ; a fable which beauti- 
 fully represents the superiority of that WISDOM 
 figured by the goddess, which regards the con- 
 duct of life, and leads to the feeling of bene- 
 volence terminating in works of utility, of which 
 sentiment the olive-tree is the symbol, over 
 those mere ACCUMULATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE typified 
 by the waters of the ocean, and having a 
 personified abstract in Neptune ; these only 
 enabling their possessor to dazzle by intellectual 
 
214 
 
 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 display, or to overwhelm by ratiocination; of 
 which exercises the war-horse is so expressive 
 an emblem. 
 
 The brevity to which these explanations have 
 been necessarily confined,, may perhaps have 
 been such as to prevent their truth from being 
 fully perceived : there is also much difficulty 
 in conveying by abstract expressions the exact 
 ideas intended ; in which respect, as intimated 
 above,, the language of analogy, when once 
 understood, has an immense superiority : but 
 surely no one can doubt, that these fables were 
 all intended by their authors to have a specific 
 meaning. There is an evident uniformity in 
 their construction. They are all compounded 
 of personified abstractions, and of material 
 images taken from actually existing objects ; 
 and it is plain that, by the material images 
 applied, material things are not intended, but 
 that they are used as symbols, according to 
 some regular principle, founded in a similitude 
 observed by the composers between the images 
 employed and certain moral or spiritual things 
 intended to be expressed : And what can this 
 regular principle be, and what the similitude 
 observed, but such a Mutual Relation, or 
 Relation of Analogy-, between natural things 
 and spiritual, as renders the former expressive 
 mediums for conveying to the mind ideas of 
 the latter? Altogether, I think it certain, that 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 215 
 
 no one can examine the fables of the Greek 
 mythology, with a view to this inquiry,, without 
 being- satisfied, that such an immutable Relation 
 between the different orders of existences does 
 prevail, and that when those fables were com- 
 posed it must have been well understood. 
 
 The same observation may bo extended to the 
 Asiatic mythologies, since the affinity between 
 these and the Grecian is well known, and modern 
 researches have even discovered, on the banks 
 of the Ganges, some of the imaginary deities so 
 long since banished from the rest of the world. 
 Since the acquisition, by this country, of such 
 extensive possessions in India, the attention of 
 the learned has been much directed to the 
 sacred books and traditions of that very ancient 
 nation; and here, still more than in the mytholo- 
 gical tales of the ancient Greeks, astonishment 
 has been excited by the marvellous character of 
 the relations which compose their records. But 
 little certain knowledge has yet been developed 
 by the illustrious scholars who have endeavoured 
 to open this rich mine of science: the reason is, 
 because they have chiefly sought, in the extra- 
 ordinary narratives which -they have studied, 
 for information on questions of ancient history, 
 geography, and chronology ; whereas, when the 
 traditions of the highest antiquity appear to 
 treat of such matters, it is only for the sake 
 of making them the vehicles of information 
 
216 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 respecting higher subjects. To decypher such 
 compositions,, the science of Analogies will be 
 found to be the master-key. As nothing but 
 this will satisfactorily explain the mythological 
 fables of the Greeks; so likewise must our 
 Orientalists avail themselves of this,, before they 
 will be able to unfold the kindred theogonies 
 of the Hindoos ; for it evidently was by persons 
 skilled in this science, that these, also,, were 
 composed. 
 
 Nor is the once famous country of Egypt to 
 be by any means excluded from this enumeration 
 of the ancient cultivators of this study : on the 
 contrary,, could all written and traditionary 
 learning be extirpated from the earth, Egypt 
 would still present her imperishable monuments, 
 silently but irrefutably proclaiming, that there, 
 indeed, the Relation of Analogy between the 
 various kingdoms of nature, with their individual 
 objects, and each other; and between all of 
 these, again, and things moral, spiritual, and 
 divine; was once yea, for ages, well under- 
 stood ; that there it stamped a character upon 
 all elevated science, and that it regulated there 
 even the first elements of knowledge. What 
 can be more evident than that her celebrated 
 Hieroglyphics, which have so long confounded 
 the skill of the learned, are built on this Analogy, 
 and are expressions of it, and that, if ever they 
 are decyphered, it must be by its means? Who 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 217 
 
 could inspect that extraordinary exhibition,, a 
 year or two since open in London, representing 
 the tomb of an Egyptian king, explored by 
 Mr. Belzoni, and behold the multitude of repre- 
 sentations of natural objects, evidently designed 
 to convey a mystical meaning, without feeling 
 satisfied that the arrangement of them must be 
 governed by some Rule, and that it assumed for 
 its basis a known Analogy? Who can escape 
 the same impressions on viewing the Egyptian 
 antiquities in the British Museum? To par- 
 ticularize only one palpable emblem, the mean- 
 ing of which requires no discussion to establish 
 it : Who can behold those monstrous Jists, 
 carved out of the hardest of rocks, without being 
 convinced that they were designed to symbolize 
 that irresistible power that could crush opposers 
 into annihilation? that their meaning is similar 
 to that of the stone mentioned in the gospel, 
 of which it is said, that ef on whomsoever it shall 
 fall, it will grind him to powder ?"* So it is evident 
 that in the wonderful scheme of symbolic writing 
 contrived by this singular people, the natural 
 objects depicted were put to convey ideas quite 
 distinct from any thing immediately belonging 
 to the objects themselves: they delineated one 
 thing to express another: they evidently were 
 guided by some Analogy which they saw be- 
 tween the two : and it is much more reasonable 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 44. 
 F F 
 
218 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 to conclude that they followed a principle 
 known by them to exist in the nature of things, 
 than that the whole of so complicated a system 
 was merely founded in arbitrary assumption. 
 
 From the whole of this branch of our inves- 
 tigation., then, these conclusions appear to be 
 certain : That among all the celebrated nations 
 of antiquity,, the knowledge of a Mutual Rela- 
 tion, regarded as real, between the different 
 orders of existences in the universe, once was 
 general : that it formed the peculiar learning of 
 the priests, and was studied by all who aspired 
 to the distinction of erudition. 
 
 V. The final conclusion intended to be de- 
 duced by the help of what has been advanced 
 in this Lecture, is, that in the Relation of Ana- 
 logy between things natural and things spiritual, 
 (which we may now, it is hoped, consider as 
 established,) is to be found the Law or Rule 
 according to which the Scriptures are written, 
 and that a knowledge of it will afford the key 
 by which their " dark sayings" must be decy- 
 phered. At least, sufficient reason has perhaps 
 been shewn, to make it highly probable that 
 such is the fact, and to entitle the application 
 of the system of interpretation proposed, to a 
 very attentive examination ; and this probability, 
 and claim to examination, are greatly strength- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 219 
 
 ened, when it is considered, that the early part 
 of the Scriptures was written, whilst this Re- 
 lation was cultivated among many nations as 
 a science, and the latter part before the know- 
 ledge of it was every where quite extinct; 
 which alone affords some presumption, con- 
 jointly with the extraordinary character of their 
 style, that they are composed according to it. 
 But to establish this conclusion by a wider 
 induction will be the object of the two next 
 Lectures. 
 
 Now as it has, I trust, been solidly evinced, 
 that the Relation of Analogy between the differ- 
 ent orders of existences is irreversibly founded 
 in the very nature of things, and may even 
 be considered as one of the most fundamental 
 laws of Nature; and not only so, but that there 
 is a tendency to express ourselves according 
 to it in common speech; this must shield the 
 idea of applying it as a Rule for the interpre- 
 tation of the Scriptures from the imputation of 
 fancifulness : and as it has, I trust, appeared 
 equally certain, from the latter part of this 
 Lecture, that this Analogy was in ancient 
 times well understood, and that many compo- 
 sitions were then framed by its laws; this must 
 vindicate the principle from the charge of 
 novelty. It is true that this science (, for such 
 it may justly be called,) has been lost sight of 
 
 F F 2 
 
220 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 for many ages ; that though mankind have 
 continued to behold its phenomena, they have 
 neglected to reflect on their cause : but it is 
 equally true that for a still longer course of 
 ages, prior to this interval of oblivion, from 
 Adam himself through Noah and his descen- 
 dants, it* was generally understood. Sciences 
 of a more external kind, having natural things 
 alone for their objects, have since been culti- 
 vated in its place : but now, when these seem 
 to have arrived almost at their perfection, 
 when all the mysteries that Nature conceals 
 in her bosom appear nearly to have been 
 opened to our view ; (as to their general 
 branches, we mean, for new particulars will 
 be discoverable to eternity;) it surely is time 
 to turn our attention to a science which con- 
 nects natural knowledge with spiritual, and sheds 
 superior light on both. In the first ages, in- 
 terior wisdom was cultivated, to the neglect 
 of exterior knowledge : in later ages, exterior 
 knowledge has been pursued, to the neglect of 
 interior wisdom : in future ages, doubtless, they 
 will be united. The advantages of this union 
 will be great. As the doctrine of Analogy is 
 cultivated, it will no longer be the reproach, 
 as heretofore, of Science, that she has a ten- 
 dency to lead her votaries to scepticism in regard 
 to religion: for natural things will then all be 
 viewed as the outbirths of spiritual essences, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 and so to be connected by an indissoluble 
 with the Great Author of both, the Crea- 
 tor and Preserver of all things. As, at the 
 same time, religion will be cleared of its cor- 
 ruptions, and the Bible, understood by the 
 aid of this science, will no longer be represented 
 as sanctioning doctrines which reason con- 
 demns ; that enlargement of mind which know- 
 ledge produces will cease to become an obstacle 
 in the way of the most cordial faith. The 
 Science of Analogies, by unfolding the interior 
 contents of the Sacred Volume, and explain- 
 ing, as we shall see in the sequel, all those 
 appearances that seem either trifling or contra- 
 dictory, will reconcile the jarrings, so long 
 thought irreconcilable, between Reason and Re- 
 velation ; just as, by shewing the origin and 
 spiritual relation of all objects in nature, it will 
 conciliate knowledge with piety. Every friend, 
 then to Revelation and to Piety, yea, every 
 admirer of Reason and of Knowledge, is deeply 
 interested in the restoration of this Science ; and 
 both should unite to bring on the time, when, 
 as among the ancients, the highest wisdom shall 
 be that which is conversant with spiritual sub- 
 jects, and the first of sciences that which teaches 
 the Relation between spiritual subjects and the 
 appearances in nature. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS,, EVINCING THAT THE 
 SCRIPTURES ARE WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THE 
 LAW OR RULE DEVELOPED IN THE LAST LECTURE. 
 
 
 
 I. Of the Style proper to a Divine Composition. 
 Such a Style afforded by the Relation of Analogy 
 between natural things and spiritual., as explained 
 in the last Lecture. II. That if the Scriptures 
 are written by a Plenary Divine Inspiration,, they 
 must be composed in this Style. 1. That when 
 the Divine Speech, or the Divine Word, which 
 is the same thing as the Divine Truth, emanates 
 from the bosom of Deity into the circumference 
 of creation, or into the world of nature, it there 
 clothes itself with images taken from that world, 
 and that it cannot otherwise be presented to 
 mankind. 2. Variety of Phraseology in the 
 different Inspired Penmen consistent with Verbal 
 Inspiration. 3. Plenary Inspiration necessarily 
 occasional, and not permanently attendant on 
 certain Persons. III. That the Holy Scriptures 
 are the Divine Truth thus brought into a natural 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 223 
 
 form ; and that therefore their interior meaning 
 can only be understood by an application to 
 them of the Law which governs the Relation 
 between natural objects and spiritual and divine 
 essences. IV. Applicability of the Rule to the 
 Prophecies of the Divine Word. 1 . Sentiments 
 of Biblical Critics on the Double Sense of 
 Prophecy. 2. Rule of Analogical Interpretation 
 adopted by Sir Isaac Newton and Bishop 
 Warburton. 3. Defects of their Rule., and the 
 necessity of extending it further. V. Examples 
 of the light which results from the application 
 of the Rule of Analogy between natural things 
 and spiritual to the Prophetic Writings. In- 
 stances selected; 1. Ezekiel's prophecy of a great 
 sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, (Ezek. 
 xxxix. 17 to 20;) 2. The Lord's prophecy of 
 his Second Coming in the clouds of heaven, 
 (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30;) 3. John's vision of 
 spiritual Babylon, (Rev. xviL 3 to 6.) 
 
 I. THERE cannot, certainly, be a more 
 interesting and momentous exercise proposed 
 to the reflecting mind, than to investigate the 
 nature of that speech or language which God 
 uses, or might be expected to use, in com- 
 municating a divinely inspired code of know- 
 ledge on heavenly subjects. Nothing can be 
 
224 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 more agreeable to reason than to p re-suppose, 
 that the style of language in which God speaks 
 to man, must be very different from that in which 
 men generally speak to each other; and that 
 its beauties and excellences, though necessarily 
 of the most transcendant description, must, 
 nevertheless, be quite different in their kind, 
 from those which adorn the best human com- 
 positions. That is a dictate of reason as well 
 as of revelation which declares, that God's 
 thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways 
 as our ways*; and also, that the things most 
 highly esteemed among men, -the wisdom of 
 this world, may be mere foolishness in the sight 
 of God.f Some have been disgusted with the 
 Scriptures of Divine Truth, and have thought 
 it an argument against their divine origin, be- 
 cause they are not written in the style of the 
 orations of Demosthenes, or of the philoso- 
 phical disquisitions of Plato and Aristotle, or 
 of the legal pandects of Justinian ; because 
 they do not display the tinsel rhetoric of the 
 orator, the artificial subtlety of the dialectician, 
 or the systematic arrangement of the digester 
 of a code of laws, or of a body of divinity. 
 Had the Scriptures, however, been composed 
 in any of these styles, I suspect that they would 
 not have been deemed, even by the same parties, 
 a whit more worthy of reception. We should 
 
 * Isa.lv. 8. f 1 Cor. iii. 19. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 225 
 
 then have been told, (and with more reason 
 than accompanies any of the objections made 
 to them as they are,) that they savoured too 
 much of art and contrivance ; that it were un- 
 worthy of the Divine Majesty to compete with 
 man the palm of elegance or ornament of style, 
 or to be bound to that kind of order which is 
 necessary to the feebleness of human intellect; 
 that a divine composition might naturally be 
 expected to disregard these trifles, and to 
 possess a style peculiar to itself. Arid this 
 would be a just statement of the case. If the 
 thoughts and ways of God differ from ours, 
 it undoubtedly must be, by their infinite supe- 
 riority. et For as the heavens are higher than 
 the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, 
 and his thoughts than our thoughts."* 
 
 Now it is the chief object of these Lectures 
 to shew, that this is the character of the books 
 called the Holy Scriptures or Word of God; 
 that they are distinguished from all other com- 
 positions by the profoundness of their matter, 
 and by the depth of wisdom with which they 
 are inwardly replete ; but that the divine style 
 of writing consists in conveying this wisdom 
 with the utmost fulness, and in the most unin- 
 terruptedly coherent series, under the veil of a 
 continued chain of natural images, in an out- 
 wardly simple style of language, borrowed 
 * Isa. lv. 9. 
 
 G (r 
 
226 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 entirely from the appearances that exist in 
 nature. This we have already repeatedly ad- 
 vanced : we have stated, also, that the genuine 
 import of the Holy Scriptures might be clearly 
 ascertained, and the whole seen to be worthy 
 of a Divine Origin, were it generally known 
 that there is a constant Relation established from 
 creation between moral, intellectual, and spiri- 
 tual essences, and physical, sensible, and material 
 forms; were the Law which governs this Rela- 
 tion distinctly understood ; and were it applied 
 to the decyphering of the symbolic language, 
 of which the letter of the Word of God is 
 every where composed. This application then 
 we 'are to make in this Lecture and our next., 
 and to offer Proofs and Illustrations, to evince, 
 that the Scriptures are written, throughout, 
 according to this Law or Rule. 
 
 The nature of this Analogy, and of the Law 
 which governs it, we endeavoured to investigate 
 in our last Lecture : when we found that man 
 is affirmed by the Scriptures, (and reason cannot 
 dissent from the discovery,) to be created in 
 the image and likeness of God : which, upon 
 the most general interpretation, can mean no 
 less, than that he is provided with faculties and 
 powers for receiving, in a finite degree, those 
 attributes and qualities which exist in their in- 
 finite fulness in the divine nature. Thus the 
 high endowments of the human mind, as enjoyed 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 227 
 
 in their primitive and proper state, without the 
 perversions which evil has introduced, must be 
 derivative resemblances, images, and types, of 
 underived, original, real, archetypes in God. 
 But we have seen, likewise, that all things in 
 the human body are images and types of certain 
 essences and antitypes which exist in the mind ; 
 of which man has so clear an intuitive per- 
 ception, that he often uses, in common discourse, 
 images taken from the organs of his body, to 
 express the affections and other properties of 
 his mind. And we have seen further, that as 
 man is, in a certain manner; an image of God, 
 so all the inferior parts of the creation are, in a 
 certain manner, images of man, and thus are, 
 each in its respective station, lower types of 
 certain antitypes in him. Thus we have found 
 by various examples, (and the evidences of the 
 fact might be multiplied to such an extent, as 
 to render negation extremely difficult,) that all 
 things in nature, being outward productions 
 from inward essences, are natural, sensible, and 
 material types, of moral, intellectual, and spi- 
 ritual antitypes, and finally of their prototypes 
 in God. We have seen also, that were the 
 relation between natural types and their spi- 
 ritual antitypes in all cases fully known, a style 
 of writing might be constructed, in which, 
 while none but natural images were used, 
 purely intellectual ideas should be most fully 
 
 G G 2 
 
228 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 expressed. That such a style of composition 
 has been constructed, that numerous traces 
 of it still exist, and that in ancient times it was 
 extensively understood, are propositions which 
 have also, I trust, been satisfactorily demon- 
 strated. 
 
 II. The existence of such a Relation of 
 Analogy being thus, it is hoped, clearly esta- 
 blished, with the possibility of a style of writing 
 being constructed by its aid, which would be 
 singularly adapted for giving full expression 
 to spiritual and divine ideas ; the question now 
 before us is, Are the Scriptures written in this 
 style? The answer must be in the affirmative, 
 if, on applying this principle to the decyphering 
 of their language, we find that we every where 
 obtain a clear interpretation, consistent with 
 itself, and worthy of a Divine Author. But, 
 in agreement with the plan which we have 
 pursued in our former Lectures, we will first 
 offer some remarks to shew, that if the Scrip- 
 tures really are the productions of a Divine 
 Author, and thus are written by a plenary divine 
 inspiration, they must be composed in this style, 
 and could be composed in no other. 
 
 1. In our first Lecture we endeavoured to 
 evince, that a Composition which has in reality 
 God for its author, must, as to its contents, be 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 infinite and divine, exhibiting, in every page, 
 the glories of eternal wisdom: and in our second 
 Lecture we offered arguments to prove, that 
 this must chiefly be treasured in an internal 
 sense distinct from that of the letter, that a 
 composition which is really the Word of God, 
 as the Scriptures assume to be,, must contain 
 stores of wisdom in its bosom independently of 
 any thing that appears upon the surface. In 
 our last, whilst we endeavoured to establish the 
 certainty of there being a fixed Relation of 
 Analogy between things natural, spiritual, and 
 divine, we shewed, that the ground of this is, 
 because the whole Universe is actually an Out- 
 birth from the Deity, and thence must bear, in 
 all its parts, an immutable Relation to the 
 attributes and essential properties of the Divine 
 Nature. Now, I think, it will, upon a little 
 reflection, appear, that the communication of a 
 Revelation from God to man, must follow the 
 same general law as that which regulated the 
 production of the creation ; that as, in the works 
 of God, spiritual essences gave birth, in nature, 
 to material objects, so, in the Word of God, 
 spiritual ideas, to become perceptible in the 
 natural world, must invest themselves with 
 natural expressions composed of images taken 
 from that world: and thus, as material and 
 natural things answer to moral, spiritual, and 
 divine ones, so do the literal and natural ex- 
 
230 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 pressions of Scripture answer to spiritual and 
 divine ideas. As, again,, the objects of nature 
 could not have been produced by the Divine 
 Hand independently of any connexion with 
 spiritual and divine essences ; so neither could 
 a composition in natural language be produced 
 by the Divine Mind, except by the intervention 
 of spiritual and divine ideas. And both the 
 works and Word of God having such an origin,, 
 must be connected with that origin by a de- 
 terminate Relation of Analogy; and thus,, no 
 Composition really communicated by a Plenary 
 Divine Inspiration, can be written in any style 
 but that which follows the Law of this Relation. 
 We will consider this a little further. 
 
 (1.) When the Divine Truth proceeds from 
 God to irradiate the minds of all intelligent 
 created beings, it evidently must proceed accord- 
 ing to the same order as that by which all crea- 
 tion itself proceeded from Him. What can the 
 Divine Truth be conceived essentially to be,, 
 but a certain spiritual light,, which communi- 
 cates perceptions to the minds of all intelli- 
 gent creatures, according to their respective 
 natures and capacities, whether they be a- 
 dapted for the apprehension of much truth 
 or little? just as natural light, to which we 
 have seen it answers by analogy, communi- 
 cates sensations to the eye, and this also with 
 much variety, according to the structure of the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 231 
 
 organ ; thus the eagle is recreated by the full 
 blaze of day, whilst the owl is reduced by 
 it to a state of torpor, and can only enjoy 
 its existence in the obscure gloom of night. 
 Neither the spiritual light nor the natural light 
 is inherent in the objects which receive it, but 
 is in both cases imparted from a source extra- 
 neous to them. As the natural light is not in- 
 herent in the eye, and no sensation of it is 
 present but when it, flows into the eye from a 
 luminous body, either immediately or by reflec- 
 tion ; so neither is spiritual light inherent in the 
 understanding, and no perception of truth can 
 be enjoyed, but by a communication from the 
 Source of Truth, either immediately or by 
 derivation. 
 
 If we admit there to be angels and arch- 
 angels about the throne of God, they doubtless 
 must be purely spiritual beings, all whose per- 
 ceptions must be of the most purely spiritual 
 and exalted nature; still, even such beings 
 as these must be merely receptive subjects, 
 destitute of the power of possessing wisdom 
 absolutely as their own, without a continual 
 communication from the Only Fountain of Wis- 
 dom in God: for had they such a power, they 
 would actually be Gods themselves: conse- 
 quently, their perceptions of wisdom must be 
 the emanation of Divine Truth, which ever 
 flows from God, like spiritual light from a spi- 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ritual sun, as received in their minds. This is 
 a distinction necessary to be regarded. While it 
 is certain,, that no created being, not even the 
 highest and most distinguished,, can enjoy a 
 single ray of Truth which is not conveyed to 
 him from its Infinite Fountain, it is equally 
 certain, that the perceptions of truth thus ex- 
 isting in a finite mind, must differ immensely 
 from the Truth itself, as existing in its Infinite 
 Original. It is. modified by the limited capa- 
 cities of the receptive mind, and by its descent 
 into a lower sphere. Its form is no longer the 
 same, though one that answers to it by an exact 
 analogy. The pure Divine Truth has already 
 clothed itself with a veil, though a very trans- 
 parent one, taken from the angelic nature by 
 which it is received: and if it be made the 
 subject of oral enunciation, the language for 
 expressing it must be borrowed from the ideas 
 of the angels, and from the objects of the an- 
 gelic world ; still, the purely divine ideas will 
 not cease to exist within. So it is with natural 
 light. This exists in its purity only in the 
 sun; arid even in the objects which reflect it 
 best it loses much of its brightness; and it 
 assumes a boundless variety of tints of colour 
 and degrees of shade, all borrowed from the 
 bodies on which it falls or through which it 
 shines: yet in all these modifications the light 
 itself exists. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 233 
 
 But \ve know well that the divine creative 
 operations have not been confined to the pro- 
 duction of the spiritual and heavenly worlds: 
 natural and material worlds were formed also : 
 and all the objects that exist according to order 
 in the natural worlds, are, as we have already 
 seen, "still outbirths from God Himself; deriving 
 their being from the perfections that exist in 
 the divine nature; forming, in the lowest sphere, 
 types of those perfections; and presenting, in 
 fact, a divinely constructed mirror, in which 
 spiritual and divine things may be seen and 
 read. Suppose then a sphere or emanation of 
 Divine Truth to flow forth from God, and not to 
 stop till it reach the lowest base of creation, 
 and there to present itself in natural language ; 
 Of what might that language be expected to 
 consist, but of images taken from the objects 
 that appear in nature, and from the common 
 modes of thinking and acting of the beings 
 whom it there found? As Divine Truth, 
 if enunciated in the angelic world, must take 
 its expression frcm the ideas of the angels 
 and from the objects of their world; so must 
 it, in the natural world, take its expression 
 from the ideas of men, and from the objects 
 of their world ; that is, from such ideas as the 
 objects of the natural world ^ould suggest to 
 its inhabitants. We have seen in our second 
 Lecture, that natural language, or language 
 
234; PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 such as is spoken by the inhabitants of a 
 natural world, can be conceived and uttered no 
 where but in the natural world; just as, accord- 
 ing to the Apostle Paul, the language of angels 
 is such as is ineffable to man, unspeakable by 
 natural organs ; and it was this language, not 
 natural speech, which he heard, when he was 
 transported as to his spirit into angelic society : 
 Of course, should the Divine Being give a 
 revelation of his Divine Truth to men on 
 earth, the ideas of pure divine truth could not 
 present themselves in natural language till 
 they had descended into the natural world : 
 and then they w r ould clothe themselves in 
 language drawn from the appearances that 
 exist in the natural world ; which they might con- 
 veniently do, because all natural objects, answer- 
 ing by an immutable relation to spiritual and 
 divine essences, afford suitable images for giv- 
 ing them expression. Thus, and no otherwise, 
 could a book, written by a Plenary Divine 
 Inspiration, be given to man: if then the 
 Scriptures are such a book, they must be 
 composed in a style of writing constructed in 
 agreement with the Relation of Analogy es- 
 tablished by the laws of creation between 
 natural things and spiritual. 
 
 (2.) We have seen also, when speaking of 
 this style of writing in our last Lecture, that 
 it is capable of conveying spiritual and divine 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 235 
 
 ideas with a fullness that no other kind of lan- 
 guage could afford. This is a reason why the 
 Word of God would be expressed in the sym- 
 bolic language which we find it clothed with, 
 and not in the abstract, metaphysical language 
 of philosophers, even had it been possible to 
 give it in the latter style ; which it was not. 
 Such abstract, metaphysical language is adapted 
 to the use of men rendered intelligent by the 
 advantages of Revelation, and of men highly 
 illuminated by mediate Revelation; but not of 
 those who are the subjects of immediate Re- 
 velation, or who are inspired to write the Word 
 of God itself. Besides, in the times of remote 
 antiquity, this artificial language was entirely 
 unknown ; and there was no occasion for it, so 
 long as the more forcible and expressive lan- 
 guage of analogy continued to be understood. 
 Revelation regards man as a spiritual being, 
 the destined inhabitant of an eternal world : 
 and its object is, to communicate such know- 
 ledge as is necessary to raise man to a capacity 
 of filling, in that eternal world, a station, of 
 happiness and honour : and this knowledge is 
 such as regards the existence and attributes of 
 God, man's immortal destiny, and the means of 
 acquiring the qualifications for enjoying it. 
 The knowledge necessary to man's existence in 
 the natural world, whatever belongs to that 
 which is called the light of nature, though also 
 H H 2 
 
236 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 imparted continually, together with life, from 
 God; and though, as was shewn in our first 
 Lecture, incapable of existing, in any high per- 
 fection., separately from the light of Revelation; 
 is, nevertheless, not that which Revelation, in 
 the customary sense of the word, is given to 
 afford. Revelation assumes the other as some- 
 thing already known, and takes its sentiments 
 and expressions as vehicles for the conveyance 
 of its own ideas; there being a perfect analogy 
 between all that belongs to man as an inhabitant 
 of a natural world, and what belongs to or 
 concerns him as the heir of a spiritual one; of 
 course, between the light of nature and the 
 light of heaven. Thus the analogical language 
 of the Word of God, though it never uses ab- 
 stract, metaphysical expressions, is not confined 
 to the mention of the irrational and inanimate 
 parts of nature, but embraces all that arises out of 
 man's inclinations and feelings as an animal and 
 naturally rational being, and as a member of civil 
 society ; because all this answers, by a decided 
 mutual relation, to that which belongs to his spi- 
 ritual affections and feelings, as an immortal and 
 spiritually rational being, designed to become 
 a member of angelic society. The Divine 
 Truth then, when descending into the world of 
 nature, clothes itself, in part, with language 
 taken from man's ideas as a naturally rational 
 and social being, and in part, from his ideas as 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 237 
 
 an animal being, or from the ideas of things ne- 
 cessary to his merely animal existence; the 
 whole being bottomed on the images presented 
 to his thoughts by outward and material nature. 
 Between all these and things purely spiritual 
 and divine,, there is a constant Relation of 
 Analogy : and the application of them., by 
 Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge, to the ex- 
 pression of spiritual and divine subjects, forms 
 the truly Divine Style of Writing, and marks 
 the book in which it is found as a truly Divine 
 Composition. 
 
 2. An observation of considerable importance 
 is here necessary to be made. The argument 
 urged with the greatest air of triumph by those 
 who deny the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 is, that if the very words were dictated to the 
 writers, the same phraseology and style of 
 language would every where prevail, and we 
 should not, in these respects, find, in the differ- 
 ent books, so much variety. All the strength 
 of this argument lies in the supposition, that 
 the words and phrases themselves, if of divine in- 
 spiration, must have proceeded immediately, just 
 as we read them, out of the mouth of God: but 
 the view above developed shews that this could 
 not have been the case, and yet that the human 
 penmen had nothing to do with selecting the ex- 
 pressions. The very words of scripture did not, 
 
238 PLENARY INSPIRATION OJF 
 
 we have seen, proceed, as we have them in natu- 
 ral language, from the mouth of God himself: 
 but the emanation of Divine Truth from Him 
 clothed itself with natural words in the natural 
 world. Where could it thus clothe itself? 
 Where, in the world of nature, could the Di- 
 vine Speech find the words required for its 
 natural expression? Where, but in the minds of 
 the human agents, who, as passive instruments 
 under the divine operations, were made the 
 mediums of writing and delivering it to the 
 world ? The emanation of Divine Truth pro- 
 ceeding from the Lord, entering into and fil- 
 ling the minds of the writers, so as to take entire 
 possession of all their faculties, clothed itself 
 there with such words as it found their me- 
 mories stored with : these it adapted to itself, so 
 as to express the divine things intended with the 
 utmost fulness; but it did not infuse new words 
 and phrases, such as the writers had not heard be- 
 fore. And as similar divine things may be 
 expressed in a variety of ways, therefore the 
 Holy Spirit, or emanation of Divine Truth, could 
 find adequate, though varying modes of ex- 
 pression, in the minds of all the different instru- 
 ments it employed. Besides, though the divine 
 things which various penmen were commission- 
 ed to write, had frequently a general simi- 
 larity, there cannot be any absolute sameness; 
 and it is highly reasonable to suppose, that the 
 
THE SCIUPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 239 
 
 Divine Omniscience selected to compose the se- 
 veral books, particular individuals, whose peculiar 
 acquirements and style of language were precise- 
 ly those, which were best adapted to give the 
 proper expression to the peculiar divine subjects 
 which they were to be the organs of revealing; 
 and there surely can be no doubt, that these al- 
 ways were persons who from their youth had been 
 especially prepared by the Divine Providence, 
 and directed to such pursuits and acquirements 
 as were best calculated to adapt them for the holy 
 office to which it was intended to call them. 
 Although then every separate penman had, and 
 must have had, according to the view here offer- 
 ed, his own peculiarity of style, this does not 
 prevent his writings from being divinely in- 
 spired, even as to the very words ; since the Holy 
 Spirit assumed the words in his mind, and thence 
 dictated them to his pen. But whilst each 
 writer had his peculiar style, the truly Divine 
 Style is common to them all. This consists, 
 we have seen, in conveying spiritual ideas by 
 natural images, with undeviating regularity, 
 such as can only be adhered-to by that Omni- 
 science to which the analogies that unite them 
 are perfectly known : and this is done by all 
 the writers of the Divine Word, though living, 
 in very distant ages, though they had no means 
 of settling the plan in concert, and though 
 many of them, certainly, did not understand 
 
240 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 the writings of each other, or even their own. 
 The Divine Spirit which possessed them, arid 
 \vhich possessed them just while they spoke or 
 wrote., and no longer, was every thing, and 
 they, respectively, were nothing. 
 
 3. Another remark of moment, here, also, de- 
 mands insertion. It is customary with biblical 
 critics, to consider inspiration as something 
 inseparably attached to the persons inspired, 
 so that whatever they might write, from the 
 time of their receiving the endowment to their 
 life's end, would be an inspired composition : 
 and some even appear to consider the exercise 
 of the gift as left entirely to the discretion of 
 the party possessing it. That there is such a 
 species of inspiration as this, we readily admit; 
 and also, that it was possessed by the writers 
 of some of the books contained in the collec- 
 tion called the Bible, perhaps by them all : 
 but without an inspiration very different from 
 this, imparted either in addition to it or quite 
 independently of it, no composition that can 
 be called, in a strict and proper sense, fc the Word 
 of God/' could ever have been written. This, 
 we have seen, must be given by a plenary divine 
 inspiration ; and such an inspiration, it is evident, 
 instead of being a constant attendant on any 
 one, could last no longer than while he was 
 delivering the message, or was writing the book, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 241 
 
 for which it was afforded. It might return to 
 the same person again,, as it commonly did to 
 the old prophets, or it might not : and whatever 
 they might say or write during the intervals, 
 could only partake of that inferior inspiration 
 capable of being attached to a person ; and not 
 necessarily of this. We have seen that this 
 inferior inspiration is the only one now generally 
 acknowledged to belong to any of the books 
 contained in the Bible: we admit that some of 
 these books may be composed from this kind 
 of inspiration, and thence have no sense beside 
 that of the letter : but we contend that the 
 far greater quantity, both in bulk and number 
 are certainly written by the higher inspiration, 
 and have a spiritual sense throughout.* To 
 construct such writings, or to impart such in- 
 spiration, the Divine Speech, or the Divine 
 Word, which is the same thing as the Divine 
 Truth, must have emanated, as a sphere of 
 spiritual light, from the bosom of Deity into 
 the circumference or lowest base of creation, 
 which is the world of nature, and, filling the 
 prepared minds of the human penmen, must 
 there have clothed itself with natural ideas, or 
 with images taken from the natural world, 
 before it could be presented, in natural lan- 
 guage, to mankind at large. 
 
 This, it is presumed, must at least be allowed 
 
 * See Appendix, No. IJ. 
 I I 
 
242 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 to be a probable and a philosophical view of 
 the nature of divine inspiration : it will also, I 
 am satisfied, be found to explain., better than any 
 other theory,, the phenomena with which plenary 
 inspiration must necessarily be attended : and I 
 trust that whoever candidly and deeply examines 
 the subject, will find, that this is absolutely 
 the only way in which a revelation of Divine 
 Truth or. a plenarily inspired composition, 
 can be given, in natural language, from God 
 to man. 
 
 III. It will now be readily seen, that if the 
 order above described must necessarily govern 
 every real communication, in the shape of a 
 written revelation, from God to man ; if the 
 Divine Truth must thus clothe itself with ideas 
 and images taken from the world of nature, by 
 the instrumentality of human minds, before it 
 could be brought into a natural form, and be 
 presented to the inhabitants of a natural world ; 
 and if the Divine Style of writing must thus 
 follow the Law of that Analogy which indisso- 
 lubly connects natural objects and ideas with 
 such as are spiritual and divine ; then the 
 spiritual and divine wisdom which such a re- 
 velation must contain within it, could only be 
 understood, by an application to it of this Law. 
 And if, on an application of this Law to the 
 books called the Holy Scriptures, it shall be 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 found that they exhibit a coherent series of 
 spiritual and divine instruction,, it will then 
 follow, that the Scriptures are such a revelation 
 of Divine Truth presented to man in natural 
 language ; that they are indeed the Divine 
 Speech or Divine Word which has emanated 
 from the bosom of Deity into the circumference 
 or lowest sphere of creation. 
 
 Some short specimens of the light which 
 results from the application of the Rule above 
 stated to the language of Scripture were given 
 in our last Lecture : but it is intended, in the 
 sequel of this and in the next, to adduce a few 
 sets of examples from each of the various kinds 
 of composition that are found in the Holy Word, 
 the prophetical, the historical, and the pre- 
 ceptive. 
 
 IV,* Mankind in general are more inclined 
 to accept a spiritual signification in the prophe- 
 cies than in the other parts of the Divine Wri- 
 tings, on account of the mysterious character 
 which they so palpably exhibit; wherefore it 
 will be proper, in the first instance, to shew 
 the Applicability of the Science of Analogies, 
 
 * It would be more proper to mark tbis, and all tbe 
 Sections wbicli follow to the end of the next Lecture, as 
 Subdivisions under the last General Head ; but to avoid the 
 inconvenience of beginning a Lecture with a Subordinate 
 Section, the principal of them are marked as Leading 
 Divisions. 
 
 i i 2 
 
244 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 (for by this name, to avoid circuitous modes 
 of expression, it may be expedient to denomi- 
 nate the system we hare endeavoured to explain,) 
 as a Rule for interpreting' the prophetical parts 
 of Holy Writ. 
 
 In our second Lecture, after having offered 
 various arguments to shew, that a Composi- 
 tion which is rightly denominated "the Word 
 of God/' must contain, and that the Holy 
 Scriptures profess to contain, treasures of wis- 
 dom beyond what is extant on the surface, we 
 adduced some general testimonies from modern 
 writers to the certainty of this fact, and we in- 
 timated that we should mention others in the 
 sequel. We will here then notice the senti- 
 ments of Biblical Critics on what is called 
 the Double Sense of Prophecy ; as we propose 
 to do hereafter on the typical nature of the 
 Scripture History; and we shall find that we 
 still have great names to countenance (if Truth 
 requires countenance,) the views we wish to es- 
 tablish. In the days of man's integrity, doubt- 
 less, truth was seen, by intuition, as soon as 
 it was heard : they then had no need to " teach 
 every man his neighbour and every man his 
 brother*;'' they could decide at once with an 
 infallible "Yea, yea, or Nay, nay;" and it is 
 unquestionably true, as the Divine Instructor 
 affirms, that "whatsoever is more than these 
 * Jer. xxxi/ 34. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 ^<tt> 
 
 cometh of evil *," or is a consequence of 
 obscurity of intellect which evil has introduced. 
 But the axioms are few indeed on which we can 
 now thus unhesitatingly pronounce. Beyond 
 the most common principles, we now require 
 reasoning to assist our judgment; and where 
 the subject is new to us, we often fear to yield 
 even to the clearest train of induction, unless it 
 comes recommended to us by the judgment of 
 others. Now when any system that is presented 
 to us is entirely new, or has not before been 
 adopted by any whose authority we respect, 
 it evidently cannot have this direct recommen- 
 dation : but it may have such an indirect one, 
 as is, perhaps, still stronger. For if we find that 
 others, though they have not hit upon the same 
 principle, have yet evidently felt the want of 
 it ; if they hare seen the necessity of admit- 
 ting some general sentiment of which that 
 proposed is only a more exact modification ; if 
 their ideas, though evidently true in the main, 
 are attended with some deficiency which the 
 principle suggested supplies ; if what in them 
 was vague, unsatisfactory, incoherent, becomes, 
 by the proposed addition, determinate, conclu- 
 sive, and compact : then have we, in their partial 
 dissent, a stronger recommendation of the cor- 
 rection offered, than could have attended the 
 fullest acquiescence. They start a problem ; if 
 
 * Matt. v. 37. 
 
246 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the proposed theory affords precisely that which 
 was felt to be wanting to its complete solution,, 
 then both support each other. Now this ap- 
 pears to me to be the true state of the case, 
 between the Science of Analogies,, as a universal 
 Rule for the interpretation of the Scriptures, 
 and the doctrine of eminent writers respecting 
 the double sense of prophecy, and the typical 
 import of the scripture history. They advance 
 a general principle, which none can deny, with- 
 out maintaining a system of interpretation, or 
 rather of mangling, truly Procrustean : and the 
 Science of Analogies, though not recurred to by 
 them, at least not in a form sufficiently exten- 
 sive and definite, affords the only means of satis- 
 factorily demonstrating their general principle. 
 
 1 . As some theologians of modern times have 
 attempted to deny any but a literal sense to the 
 Word of God in general, they have also, to pre- 
 serve consistency, been obliged to deny any 
 more than a single meaning to the prophetical 
 writings ; although this denial cannot be main- 
 tained without charging the evangelists with 
 gross ignorance, and with mis-application of 
 the prophecies which they have quoted. How- 
 ever, the great violence which must be done to 
 the Scriptures if this be asserted, has hitherto 
 prevented this opinion from becoming very gene- 
 ral : and the weight of most of our great autho- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 247 
 
 ritics, in this country at least, is decidedly in 
 favour of the opinion, that the prophetical wri- 
 tings in general have a double sense. Thus 
 Home lays it down as a Canon of interpretation, 
 in his Introduction to the Critical Study and Know- 
 ledge of the Holy Scriptures, that ff the same 
 prophecies frequently have a double meaning, 
 and refer to different events, the one near, the 
 other remote ; the one temporal, the other spiri- 
 tual, or perhaps eternal * : " and this rule he sup- 
 ports by very convincing quotations from Dr. 
 Woodhouse, Bishop Home, ^shnp Randolph, 
 the distinguished German critic, Rarnbach, and 
 the celebrated Latin commentator on Isaiah, Pro- 
 fessor Vitringa. As, however, in the first Lec- 
 ture, I spoke of Bishop Lowth, as being one of 
 those who have assisted to introduce degrading 
 ideas of the inspiration of the Scriptures, I will 
 here avail myself of his testimony in an in- 
 stance, in which I think he has well employed 
 his elegant pen in vindicating the spiritual na- 
 ture of the Sacred Writings: though this draw- 
 back adheres to his remarks; that he treats the 
 prophetic gift as something inherent in the pro- 
 phets themselves, regarding their inspiration as 
 a permanent and personal endowment; which, 
 we have seen above, is incompatible with the 
 idea of plenary inspiration, such as that of the 
 prophets must necessarily have been. 
 
 * Vol. II. Ft. 11. Ch. vii. Canon 1. 
 
248 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 In the notes to his version of Isaiah, Dr. 
 Lowth contends,, that the whole of the writings 
 of that prophet,, from the 40th chapter to the 
 end of the book,, refer, in their ulterior and 
 more important meaning',, to the coming of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and the spiritual kingdom 
 to be established by him ; while he maintains,, 
 that, in their more immediate sense, they relate 
 to the return of the Jews from their captivity 
 in Babylon. These are his words: " As the 
 subject of his [Isaiah's] subsequent prophecies 
 was to be chiefly of the consolatory kind, he 
 opens them with giving a promise of the restor- 
 ation of the kingdom [of David], and the 
 return of the people from captivity, by the 
 merciful interposition of God in their favour. 
 But the views of the prophet are not confined 
 to this event : as the restoration of the royal 
 family, and of the tribe of Judah, which would 
 otherwise have soon become undistinguished, and 
 have been irrecoverably lost, was necessary, 
 in the design and order of providence, for the 
 fulfilling of God's promise of establishing a 
 more glorious and an everlasting kingdom, 
 under the Messiah, to be born of the tribe of 
 Judah, and of the family of David; the pro- 
 phet connects these two events together, and 
 hardly ever treats of the former without throw- 
 ing in some intimations of the latter; and 
 sometimes is so fully possessed with the glories 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 of the future more remote kingdom, that he 
 seems to leave the more immediate subject of 
 his commission almost out of the question. 
 Indeed/' the Bishop adds, cc this evangelical 
 sense of the prophecy is so apparent, and stauds 
 forth in so strong a light, that some interpre- 
 ters cannot see that it has any other ; and will 
 not allow the prophecy to have any relation at 
 all to the return from the captivity of Babylon." 
 As, however, Dr. Lowth was of opinion, that, 
 iu its primary sense, the prophecy relates to 
 the return from Babylon, he here enters into 
 a view of it in that reference: and he sums up 
 his remarks on the subject thus: " These things 
 considered, I have not the least doubt, that the 
 return of the Jews from Babylon is the first, 
 though not the principal, thing in the prophet's 
 view. The Redemption from Babylon is clearly 
 foretold ; and at the same time is employed as 
 an image to shadow out a redemption of an 
 infinitely higher and more important nature." 
 He makes some other strong remarks upon the 
 necessity of admitting the farther signification 
 of the prophecy ; and concludes with these 
 words: fc If the literal sense of this prophecy, as 
 above explained, cannot be questioned, much 
 less, surely, can the spiritual; which I think is 
 allowed on all hands, even by Grotius himself. 
 If both are to be admitted, here is a plain ex- 
 ample of the Mystical Allegory, or double sense, 
 
 K K 
 
250 PLENARY INSPIRATION 
 
 as it is commonly called, of prophecy ; which the 
 sacred writers of the New Testament clearly sup- 
 pose, and according to which they frequently frame 
 their interpretations of the Old Testament."' 
 
 Here then the learned Bishop strongly con- 
 tends for allowing,, in some instances, the exist- 
 ance in prophecy of the mystical allegory or 
 double sense. Indeed, the fact is so plain to a 
 student of the prophets., that it almost forces 
 itself upon the most sceptical. But I apprehend 
 that every mind not previously aware of the 
 state of opinion on this subject, must be some- 
 what surprised at the saving clause, f( in some 
 instances/' which I have here introduced, that 
 I might not seem to stretch the authority of 
 the Bishop farther than he intended : and be- 
 cause, as observed in the second Lecture, though 
 most modern writers on Scripture Interpreta- 
 tion admit the necessity of having recourse to 
 a spiritual sense in some instances, few of them 
 accept it in all. Will not, however, every 
 person who comes to the question unbiassed, 
 on finding even the most cautious critics com- 
 pelled to adopt a spiritual sense in some in- 
 stances, be ready to exclaim, fc Why not allow the 
 prophets, and the Scriptures in general, to be 
 written according to a regular system ? If there 
 is a double sense in some places, why not in all? 
 It surely would be a far more consistent mode 
 * Lowth's Isaiah, Notes on Oh. xl. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 251 
 
 of interpretation to admit this than otherwise. 
 You then make the Scriptures uniform through- 
 out., and take away that uncertainty which must 
 attend all attempts to explain them, when it is 
 supposed that one part must be understood li- 
 terally, but that another may be understood 
 spiritually, and we are left to jump, as caprice 
 may dictate, from the letter to the spirit and 
 from the spirit to the letter, without knowing, 
 with any certainty, where we are to abide by 
 the one, or where we are to look for the other." 
 We shall touch again, in our next Lecture, 
 upon the inconsistencies into which expositors 
 fall, by following so vague and unsettled a 
 mode of interpretation: yet by admitting a 
 spiritual sense in any case whatever, they es- 
 tablish the general principle, which, when ex- 
 tended and rendered uniform, in the manner 
 we propose, completely solves all the phenomena 
 of the case : and thus their maimed and limping 
 system bears testimony to that by which its de- 
 fects are supplied. Though itself but a mis- 
 shapen shadow, it proves the existence of the 
 symmetrical reality, by an imperfect appre- 
 hension of which it was produced. On this 
 subject we will only add, here, that if it were 
 seen that the prophecies, and indeed the other 
 parts of the Scriptures, everywhere have a literal 
 sense, in which natural events, connected with 
 the fate of Israel and the surrounding nations, 
 
 K K 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 are referred to,, but that all these natural events 
 are themselves types and representations of 
 thing's of spiritual, yea,, of eternal moment; then,, 
 at any rate,, we should regard the Scriptures as 
 being every where consistent with themselves, 
 every where written upon one uniform system : 
 and we should only want the knowledge of the 
 Relation which all natural things bear to spi- 
 ritual, to possess a Rule of certain interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 2. Even an approach to this has been made 
 by that great genius,, Sir Isaac Newton ; who, 
 though his explanations of prophecy have not 
 been generally accepted, yet laid down a Rule 
 of Analogy, or Mutual Relation, between the 
 things mentioned and the things meant, which 
 succeeding commentators have eagerly adopted. 
 But alas ! his rule does not extend far enough ; 
 it not pointing out an analogy between natural 
 things and spiritual things, but only between 
 natural things of a lower order and those of a 
 higher : however, as being an approximation to 
 the true rule of interpretation, and thus tending, 
 as far as it goes, to point to the true rule and 
 confirm it, we will state his system as explained 
 by himself. He delivers it in these words : 
 Cf The figurative language of the Prophets is 
 taken from the analogy between the world na- 
 tural, and an empire or kingdom considered as 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 253 
 
 a world politic. Accordingly, the whole world 
 natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies 
 the whole world politic, consisting of thrones 
 and people, or so much of it as is considered 
 in prophecy : and the things in that world 
 signify the analogous things in this. For the 
 heavens and the things therein signify thrones 
 and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and 
 the earth, with the things thereon, the inferior 
 people ; and the lowest parts of the earth, 
 called Hades or Hell, the lowest or most miser- 
 able part of them. Great earthquakes, and the 
 shaking of heaven and earth, are put for the 
 shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and over- 
 throw them ; the creating a new heaven and 
 earth, and the passing of an old one, or the 
 beginning and end of a world, for the rise and 
 ruin of a body politic, signified thereby. The 
 sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in 
 the kingdoms of the world politic ; the moon, 
 for the body of the common people, considered 
 as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate 
 princes and great men ; or for bishops and rulers 
 of the people of God, when the sun is Christ : 
 the setting of the sun, moon, and stars; dark- 
 ening of the sun, turning the moon into blood, 
 and falling of the stars, for the ceasing of a 
 kingdom." * 
 
 This idea is certainly very striking: accord- 
 * Observations on Prophecy, Pt. i. ch. 2. 
 
254 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ingly, it is taken up and carried on by Bishop 
 Warburton, in these words: cc The old Asiatic 
 style, so highly figurative, seems, by what we find 
 of its remains in the prophetic language of the 
 Sacred Writings, to have been evidently fashioned 
 to the mode of ancient hieroglyphics, both cu- 
 riologic and tropical. Of the second kind, which 
 answers to the tropical hieroglyphic, is the call- 
 ing empires, kings, and nobles, by the names of 
 the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and 
 stars; their temporary disasters, or entire over- 
 throw, by eclipses and extinctions : the destruc- 
 tion of the nobility, by stars falling from the 
 firmament; hostile invasions, by thunder and 
 tempestuous winds ; and leaders of armies, con- 
 querors, and founders of empires, by lions, bears, 
 leopards, goats, or high trees. In a word, the 
 prophetic style seems to be a speaking Hiero- 
 glyphic/'* 
 
 Here, certainly, the existence in Scripture of 
 a Style of Writing formed upon the principle 
 of Mutual Relation, by putting some lower 
 thing to stand as the type of a higher to which 
 it is perceived to answer, is clearly recognized, 
 and the necessity of admitting it is strongly 
 enforced. In the theory, then, of these eminent 
 writers, in which, as stated above, they have 
 been generally followed by later expositors, 
 we certainly have an approximation to the 
 * Div. Legation, Book iv. Sect. 4. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 255 
 
 revival of the Science of Analogies : Dr. War- 
 burton also explicitly affirms the opinion advo- 
 cated in the latter part of our last Lecture, 
 that this Science, in ancient times, was exten- 
 sively understood ; so extensively, according to 
 him, as to give a peculiar character to the com- 
 positions of the countries where it was chiefly 
 cultivated, the language of which he thence 
 denominates " the old Asiatic Style." 
 
 3. But, is the principle of Analogy, as broached 
 by these authors, to form a key to the interpret- 
 ation of the cc speaking Hieroglyphics" of the 
 prophetic style of writing, sufficiently definite, 
 and sufficiently extended? Will it lead us to 
 the knowledge of that which may properly be 
 called, the spiritual sense of Scripture? any 
 otherwise, that is, than as pointing to the right 
 path which will conduct us to this object; as 
 suggesting the principle, which, when rectified 
 and carried on, will attain this end. They inter- 
 pret, we see, one natural thing, as the sun or 
 moon, to mean another natural thing of a different 
 order, as the king or people; and it is evident 
 that the sense thus obtained is but a natural 
 sense, and not a spiritual one, after all. The 
 general truth of the natural interpretation thus 
 established, is, indeed, in many instances, very 
 evident. We have seen that Dr. Lowth affirms 
 that the return of the Jews from Babylon is treat- 
 
256 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ed of by Isaiah, from the fortieth chapter to the 
 end of his prophecies, though in language, even 
 in this application, far from admitting a literal 
 signification : so in the thirteenth chapter, the 
 destruction of Babylon is described in the sym- 
 bolic terms which form the chief subject of the 
 observations on the prophetic style above ad- 
 duced from Sir Isaac Newton: (C The stars of 
 heaven and the constellations thereof shall not 
 give their light: the sun shall be darkened in 
 his going forth, and the moon shall not cause 
 her light to shine* :" and certain it is that the 
 Babylonian empire was entirely overthrown, 
 and that the Jews were restored by its conqueror 
 to their country. These events, then, were 
 ff thejirst though not the principal things in the 
 prophet's view/' Still it must be most certain, 
 that accounts, though delivered prophetically 
 and in symbolic language, of the revolutions of 
 kingdoms, can never be things intended to oc- 
 cupy a place in the Word of God, any otherwise 
 than as types of things of far greater moment. 
 Accordingly, Bishop Lowth assures us, that "the 
 redemption from Babylon is employed as an 
 image, to shadow out a redemption of an in- 
 finitely higher and more important nature:" if 
 so, it is the height of inconsistency to imagine, 
 that any of the numerous other predictions which 
 have natural and temporal catastrophes and de- 
 
 * Isaiah, xiii, 10. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 257 
 
 liverances as the first things in view, have not 
 also such as are spiritual and eternal as the prin- 
 cipal. Could it then be proved that all the pro- 
 phecies of Scripture have thus had a fulfil- 
 ment in external events; and could all their 
 mysterious language be clearly appropriated 
 to corresponding historical circumstances ; it 
 would still be true, that the spiritual things 
 described in the ulterior sense of the prophetic 
 language, were typically pictured by such ex- 
 ternal events; that a spiritual fulfilment was 
 at the same time primarily regarded, and that 
 of this was given, in the corresponding his- 
 torical circumstances, a symbolic scenical repre- 
 sentation. In agreement, then, with the learned 
 authors to whom we have referred, it is to be 
 assumed as an unquestionable fact, that the 
 language of prophecy is composed of series of 
 analogies and mutual relations : but, in agree- 
 ment with the character and necessary design of 
 a divinely inspired composition, the analogies and 
 relations properly intended, are not those which 
 may be traced between certain natural things 
 arid certain other natural things, but between 
 natural things and spiritual. The general 
 spiritual objects regarded are, the Lord, the soul 
 of man, his state hereafter, and the church, as 
 the medium of ministering spiritual things to 
 man. 
 
 We will here repeat the quotation on the 
 L L 
 
258 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 science of analogies, above adduced from Sir 
 Isaac Newton, so altered as to apply to the 
 analogy between the natural things men- 
 tioned in Scripture, and the spiritual things 
 to which they properly answer, instead of the 
 other natural things to which that author re- 
 ferred them.* " The figurative language of the 
 prophets is taken from the analogy between 
 the world natural and a church or congregation 
 of people considered as a world spiritual. Ac- 
 cordingly the whole world natural, consisting 
 of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world 
 spiritual, consisting of an internal and an ex- 
 ternal principle, answering to what is called, in 
 individuals, the internal and external man; and 
 the things in that world signify the analogous 
 things in this. For the heavens and the things 
 therein signify the internal principles, and all 
 the heavenly graces, constituent of a church, or, 
 all that belongs to the internal man; and the 
 earth, with the things thereon, the outward form 
 and order, profession and practice, of the same, 
 or, all that belongs to the external man: and the 
 lowest parts of the earth, called Hades or Hell, 
 the external man when entirely separated from 
 the internal, so as to be the mere abode of infernal 
 lusts and insane follies, with the state of misery con- 
 sequent thereupon hereafter; it also sometimes 
 means a state of temptation, because in this, 
 * The alterations are printed in Italics. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 259 
 
 man appears to be in, or in danger of, such a con- 
 dition. Great earthquakes, and the shaking of 
 heaven and earth, are put for the shaking of 
 churches, so as to distract and overthrow them, or 
 at least to occasion a remarkable change in their 
 state: the new heaven and earth, and the passing 
 of an old one, or the beginning and end of a 
 world, for the rise and ruin of a society of men as 
 constituting a church. The sun is put for the 
 first of heavenly graces constituent of a true 
 church, ivhich is love to the Lord and our neigh- 
 bour; the moon, for that true faith which is the 
 proper consort of such love or charity; the stars, 
 for subordinate particulars of divine knowledge, 
 or for eminent lights of the church, when the 
 sun is Christ: the setting of the sun, moon, 
 and stars, darkening of the sun, turning 
 the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, 
 for the ceasing of a church, or of a society 
 from constituting a church, in consequence of a 
 pure love to the Lord, faith in Him, and a know- 
 ledge of spiritual subjects, being no longer left 
 among them, or being perverted into their oppo- 
 sites." 
 
 Now though the dry statement, that such is 
 the spiritual meaning of certain natural em- 
 blems*, may not carry the conviction of its 
 truth to every mind; yet I -think the significa- 
 
 * See the several particulars taken up, and more fully 
 explained, in the Appendix, No. III. 
 
 L L 2 
 
260 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 lions here assigned to the great objects of ' f the 
 world natural" will at once be seen to have 
 more to recommend them, than Sir Isaac's 
 application of them to the objects of " the 
 world politic:" for the analogies we have sug- 
 gested are founded in the very nature and con- 
 stitution of things, and do not depend, as do 
 some of his, upon the arbitrary institutions of 
 society. His testimony, however, in favour of 
 the principle, is highly valuable. And as many 
 learned and intelligent writers have thus seen 
 the necessity of resorting to analogies between 
 different orders of existences, to obtain a key 
 for decyphering the ff speaking hieroglyphics" 
 of divine prophecy; so, I trust, it must readily be 
 admitted, by all who may think that our former 
 Lecture succeeded in establishing the existence 
 of a real Analogy beteen Natural things and Spiri- 
 tual, that this affords the true Rule for interpreting 
 the language of prophetic inspiration. If, also, 
 the Scriptures are the Word of God, they must 
 be designed to convey, not natural, but spiritual 
 instruction : But the Scriptures, we find, consist 
 in their letter, as is remarkably obvious in the 
 prophets, of continued series of natural images: 
 How then can they convey spiritual instruction, 
 unless there be such a fixed relation between 
 spiritual ideas and natural ones, that the latter 
 will admit of being regularly translated into 
 the former? Admitting these premises, the ap- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED &C. 261 
 
 plicability of the Science of Spiritual Analogies, 
 as a Rule for the interpretation of prophecy,, and 
 as an improvement on the natural analogies 
 proposed by Newton and Warburton, cannot 
 be doubted. And this will convert the material 
 images of the letter, into a mirror resplendent 
 with heavenly glories ; as the gross substances 
 composing the disk of the moon reflect to us 
 the light of the sun. 
 
 V. Since then we find, altogether, so great a 
 concurrence of circumstances, leading us to 
 expect, first, that a real Revelation from God, 
 in natural language, must contain a spiritual 
 sense beyond that of the letter, and must be 
 composed according to the law of the Analogy 
 necessarily subsisting between spiritual things 
 and natural ; and, secondly, that the books com- 
 monly received as the Word of God, do, in 
 general, contain such a spiritual sense, and are 
 written according to this Law: we proceed to 
 ascertain the fact, in regard to the prophetical 
 writings in particular, by trying, in two or three 
 instances, what sort of sense is obtained by ap- 
 plying the Science of Analogies to their inter- 
 pretation. We will select an example from 
 each o'f the three prophetic authorities of the 
 Divine Word ; the Prophets of the Old Tes- 
 tament, the Lord Jesus Christ when on earth, 
 and the Apocalyptic Divine. 
 
262 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 1. In the book of Ezekiel we have this very 
 extraordinary prophetic declaration : cc And thou, 
 son of man, thus saith the Lord God : Speak 
 unto every feathered fowl,, and to every beast of 
 the field,, Assemble yourselves, and come ; 
 gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice 
 that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice 
 upon the mountains of Israel,, that ye may eat 
 flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh 
 of the mighty,, and drink the blood of the 
 princes of the earth, of rams,, of lambs, and of 
 goats, of bullocks, all of them failings, of 
 Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, 
 and drink blood till ye be drunken, of rny sa- 
 crifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus 
 shall ye be filled at my table with horses and 
 chariots, with mighty men and with all men of 
 war, saith the Lord God/'* 
 
 These words form part of a prophecy, oc- 
 cupying the whole of two chapters, against 
 Gog and Magog, who are described as about 
 to invade the land of Israel, there to meet with 
 total destruction: and I have selected them as 
 our first example of the application of the 
 Science of Analogies to the interpretation of 
 the language of prophecy, because they form 
 one of the passages in the prophetic writings that 
 appear most deeply wrapped in mystery, and of 
 which the literal sense is involved in the greatest 
 * Ezek. xxxix. 17 to 20. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 263 
 
 obscurity. The mere sense of the words,, is, 
 indeed, sufficiently obvious ; but what the events 
 are, in the history of the Jews and other nations, 
 to which the prophecy may be supposed to point; 
 or, in the language of Bishop Lowth, what was 
 ft the first thing in the prophet's view" when he 
 delivered it; has never been satisfactorily shewn. 
 In such passages as this, then, the certainty that 
 the Divine Word must contain a spiritual sense, 
 and the need of a key for the decyphering of it, 
 are more peculiarly evident. And as the ex- 
 istence of such passages is calculated to throw 
 much light upon the nature of divine prophecy 
 in general, some remarks upon them may not 
 be out of place. 
 
 (1.) Although it appears that prophecy some- 
 times assumes the form of anticipated history, 
 and receives its first fulfilment in events affect- 
 ing the fates of different nations, yet in some 
 instances it will be found no otherwise to par- 
 take of the nature of anticipated history, than as 
 parable approaches to that of past history ; that 
 is, it is similar in form, but is to be understood 
 as pure allegory, in which, though the ideas con- 
 veyed by the letter are perfectly distinct, they do 
 not announce any corresponding natural events, 
 but are to be spiritually understood altogether. 
 Another very remarkable instance of this kind 
 of prophecy, in which the spiritual sense alone 
 is intended for fulfilment, occurs in Isaiah, who 
 
2C4 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 opens his sixty-third chapter with a sublime 
 dialogue between the prophet and a glorious 
 Personage who is presented to the rapt eye of 
 the seer ; " Who is this that cometh from Edom, 
 with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is 
 glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness 
 of his strength?" " I that speak in righteous- 
 ness, mighty to save." ce Wherefore art thou 
 red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him 
 that treadeth in the wine-fat ?" " I have 
 trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people 
 there was none with me: for I will tread them 
 in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; 
 and their blood shall be sprinkled on my gar- 
 ments, and I will stain all my raiment : for the 
 day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of 
 my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there 
 was none to help, and I wondered that there was 
 none to uphold : therefore mine own arm brought 
 salvation to me, and my fury it upheld me,"* &c. 
 The impossibility of applying this prediction 
 to any historical events, must be evident to all 
 whose minds are not pre-occupied with a system : 
 but I will here deliver my sentiments in the 
 words of Bishop Lowth. Speaking of this pas- 
 sage, he observes, Cf It is by many learned in- 
 terpreters supposed, that Judas Maccabaeus and 
 his victories make the subject of it [the above 
 passage]. What claim Judas can have to so 
 
 * Ver. 1 to 5. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 265 
 
 great an honour, will, I think, be very difficult 
 to make out ; or how the attributes of the great 
 Person introduced can possibly suit him. Could 
 Judas call himself the Announcer of Righteous- 
 ness, mighty to save ? Could he talk of the 
 day of vengeance being in his heart, and the 
 year of his redeemed being come ? or that his 
 own arm wrought salvation for him ? Besides, 
 what were the exploits of Judas in regard to 
 the Idumaeans? he overcame them in battle, and 
 slew twenty thousand of them. And John 
 Hyrcanus, his brother Simon's son and successor, 
 who is called in to help out the accomplishment 
 of the prophecy, gave them another defeat some 
 time afterward, and compelled them by force 
 to become proselytes to the Jewish religion. 
 Are these events adequate to the prophet's lofty 
 prediction ?" The weakness of such a supposi- 
 tion is further exposed by our learned author: 
 and then he adds, ef I conclude, therefore, that 
 this prophecy has not the least relation to 
 Judas Maccabaeus. It may be asked, To whom, 
 and to what event, does it relate ? I can only 
 answer, that I know of no event in history to which, 
 from its importance and circumstances } it can be 
 applied: unless, perhaps, to the destruction of 
 Jerusalem and the Jewish Polity : which in 
 the gospel is called the coming of Christ*, and 
 the days of vengeance. But though this pro- 
 
 * But it is not called a coming from Edom and Bozfah* 
 M M 
 
266 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 phecy must have its accomplishment, there is 
 no necessity for supposing that it has been 
 already accomplished. There are prophecies, 
 which intimate a great slaughter of the enemies 
 of God and his people, which remain to be ful- 
 filled : these, in Ezekiel, ch. xxxviii. and in the 
 Revelation of St. John, ch. xx., are called Gog 
 and Magog. This prophecy of Isaiah may 
 possibly refer to the same or the like event. 
 We need not be at a loss to determine the Person 
 who is here introduced as stained with treading 
 the wine-press, if we consider how St. John, in 
 the Revelation, has applied this image of the 
 prophet. Rev. xix. 13, 15, 16."f 
 
 Dr. Lowth here explicitly gives his opinion, 
 that neither Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and 
 Magog, nor Isaiah's vision of the Lord's com- 
 ing from Edom, have yet received any outward 
 accomplishment: but he evidently is at a loss 
 to reconcile this conveniently with his system, 
 which led him to suppose, that all the predic- 
 tions of Scripture must have such an accomplish- 
 ment; wherefore he suggests, that though this 
 must be the fact, it may be postponed sine die. 
 It is evident, however, that if no historical events 
 answering to these two prophetic declarations 
 occurred previously to the gospel era, nor even 
 up to the present times; so great is the change 
 which has taken place in the situation of the 
 
 t Lowth's Isaiah, Notes on ch.lxiii. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 267 
 
 world and its nations, that no such events can 
 take place hereafter. There are no longer a 
 country of Edom, and its metropolis, Bozrah, 
 from whence an Announcer of Righteousness 
 and Redeemer of his people can come: and 
 though it may be true that the Gog and Magog 
 of the Scriptures, in their literal sense, are the 
 ancient Scythians; yet, should we recognise 
 these again in the modern Tartars ; or, with one 
 of the multitude of expositors who applied the 
 dark prophecies of Scripture to the events 
 of the last great war, could we even discover 
 the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel and John 
 in the Autocrat of Russia and his subjects; it 
 would be idle to expect that these will at any 
 period be gathered together in the land of Israel, 
 to be there whelmed in utter destruction; since 
 the land of Israel can never again be put in 
 the situation which the prophecy supposes, 
 inhabited by Jews returned from the captivity 
 in Babylon. It really then is impossible that 
 these prophecies should ever obtain an external 
 fulfilment: they must have a spiritual one, or 
 none. 
 
 Now the embarrassment which such passages 
 occasion to those who hold the common senti- 
 ments respecting the design of the prophetic 
 writings, arises hence : that although, with Dr. 
 Lowth, expositors affirm certain outward events 
 to be " the first, but not the principal, things in 
 
 MM? 
 
368 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the prophet's view/' they at the same time make 
 this subordinate accomplishment more indi- 
 spensable than the other : for while they look 
 every where for an outward reference of prophecy,, 
 they only allow it to have a spiritual sense in 
 some instances, in those places, where it is too 
 plain to be overlooked. But if the converse 
 of this idea be the true one; if " the principal 
 thing in the prophet's view/' (or rather, in the 
 view of the Inspirer of the prophets,) is the prin- 
 cipal thing indeed; if to impart instruction on 
 spiritual subjects is,, in fact, the only thing- 
 regarded by the Divine Mind in giving a reve- 
 lation ; and if this is equally imparted, by the 
 language of prophecy, when it speaks, in the 
 letter, of natural events, whether such events 
 were ever acted, or intended to be acted, on 
 the outward theatre of the world, or not ; then 
 we have a view of the nature of divine prophecy 
 which can occasion no embarrasment, and we 
 shall not be compelled to torture the facts, to 
 make them agree with the hypothesis. 
 
 Although, therefore, as admitted above, the 
 Scriptures have every where a literal sense, in 
 which natural events, connected with the fate 
 of Israel and the surrounding nations, are re- 
 ferred to; it is by no means essential to the 
 truth of prophecy, that the natural events spoken 
 of should actually be performed. In general, 
 it may be so: if any man can prove it to be so 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 always, v.c can hare no objection; since, where- 
 ever an outward fulfilment takes place, the 
 actual occurrences become, themselves, types of 
 the same spiritual things as are principally re- 
 ferred to in the words of the prophecy. But 
 if the divine origin of prophecy can still be 
 maintained, even where no outward accomplish- 
 ment of it can be satisfactorily shewn, the au- 
 thority of Revelation is certainly made more 
 secure. And it is well known, that though many 
 of the predictions of Scripture have had a clear 
 outward fulfilment in some of their leading 
 
 o 
 
 points, yet thjs can seldom be distinctly traced 
 through the subordinate particulars : which 
 throws over them so much obscurity, that the 
 Infidel finds a pretence for rejecting the applica- 
 tion altogether. Such rejection is certainly 
 unjust. Many Scripture prophecies have had 
 so plain an outward fulfilment in their leading 
 points, that, while these alone are regarded, there 
 is no room for dispute : the conclusion then 
 should be, that the particulars which cannot so 
 well be applied to outward events, are at the 
 same time thrown in, not to invalidate the former, 
 but to lead to the inference, that spiritual things, 
 of far higher moment, are referred to by the 
 whole. For the same purpose, important pro- 
 phecies, like that before us, occasionally occur* 
 to which, unless we allow them a spiritual sense, 
 we cannot assign any consistent sense at all. 
 
270 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Thus, the whole is arranged with admirable 
 wisdom. Many predictions are given, which 
 have had, in their main points, so striking an out- 
 ward accomplishment, as is calculated to awaken 
 the attention even of those who will believe 
 nothing which they cannot verify by their out- 
 ward senses; and upon a closer inspection 
 other parts will be found, calculated to raise 
 the mind to more elevated contemplations, and 
 to satisfy the understanding, that Divine Pro- 
 phecy has higher objects than to announce the 
 fate of nations, or even than, by such marks 
 of Omniscience, to evince the divine origin of 
 Revelation. 
 
 (2.) That the prophecy of Ezekiel before us, 
 of the invasion of the Land of Israel by Gog 
 and his consequent destruction, has no con- 
 nexion with the affairs of the Israelites or any 
 other nations in particular, thus was not in- 
 tended to have any outward accomplishment, 
 is evident from the parallel passage in the Reve- 
 lation, referred to in the extract above given 
 from Bishop Lowth. In Ezekiel, the irruption 
 of Gog is described as taking place, when the 
 people of Israel, having returned from captivity, 
 are enjoying their country in peace; ff It is 
 brought forth out of the nations, and they shall 
 dwell safely all of them*;" "Therefore, son 
 of man, prophesy, and say unto Gog, Thus 
 * Ezek. xxxviii. 8, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 271 
 
 saith the Lord God ; In that day, when rny 
 people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thon not 
 know it? And thou shalt come from thy place 
 out of the north parts., thou, and many people 
 with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a 
 great company and a mighty army; and thou 
 shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a 
 cloud to cover the land* ;" &c. Very similar 
 are the circumstances referred to in the parallel 
 passage of the Revelation, though they are there 
 described under very different images. An in- 
 terval of security is promised, and represented 
 as a period in which the martyrs fc lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand yearsf ;" after 
 which the desperate enemy is to invade 
 and besiege Jerusalem : ff And when the thou- 
 sand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
 out of prison, and shall go out to deceive the 
 nations which are in the four quarters [cor- 
 ners] of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather 
 them together to battle; the number of whom 
 is as the sand of the sea. And they went 
 up on the breadth of the earth [the land of 
 Israel], and compassed the camp of the saints 
 about, and the beloved city : and firej came 
 down from God out of heaven, and devoured 
 them." Now it is perfectly evident, that the 
 latter of these two predictions is not given as 
 
 * Ver. 14, 15, 16. f Rev. xx. 4. t Compare Ezek. xxxviii. 
 22. and xxxix. 6. Rev. xx. 7, 8, 9. 
 
272 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 detailing occurrences which were to take place 
 according to the letter. Since the church of 
 the Lord, instead of being confined, as under 
 the Jewish dispensation, to the territory of 
 Palestine, is spread over a great portion of the 
 globe, it is impossible for its members to be sur- 
 rounded by hordes of barbarians collected from 
 ff the four corners," or remotest extremities, of 
 the earth, audio be shut up in any ' ^beloved city/' 
 in the land of Judea or any where else. The 
 prophecy, doubtless, must be fulfilled ; but only 
 in its spiritual sense can it be fulfilled : of course, 
 the spiritual sense only is that which is intended. 
 And what other conclusion can be drawn re- 
 specting the parallel prophecy of Ezekiel, 
 the main circumstances of which are similar, 
 though more particulars are detailed? No out- 
 ward fulfilment of it took place, between the 
 period in which it was delivered by Ezekiel and 
 that in which the Revelation was given to John ; 
 and after this time, no other fulfilment of it was 
 practicable than such as was alone applicable, to 
 the parallel prediction of the New-Testament 
 prophet : if, then, the one was never intended to 
 have any but a spiritual fulfilment, so, neither, 
 was the other. (I deem it needless to notice 
 the attempts that have been made to find a so- 
 lution of Ezekiel's prediction in the troubles 
 which the Jews experienced from the Macedo- 
 nian kings of Syria. Gog and Magog, who 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 273 
 
 inhabited, according to the Revelation, " the 
 four corners" of the earth, and, according to 
 Ezekiel, " the sides of the north*/' both which 
 phrases are evidently designed to express ex- 
 treme remoteness, cannot possibly be names 
 for Syria, the immediate neighbour of Judaea: 
 nor was any attack upon Judaea by the Antiochi 
 attended with the total destruction of the in- 
 vading nation. All judicious critics, therefore, 
 with Dr. Lowth, reject such an application of 
 the prophecy, as totally unworthy of its majesty 
 and importance.) 
 
 (3.) If then in this prophecy, we are con- 
 strained to look for a spiritual interpretation, 
 let us see how this will be developed by the 
 Science of Analogies. The Israelites, as being 
 anciently the people who alone possessed a know- 
 ledge of the true God, were, as was shewn in our 
 second Lecture by the testimony of the Apostle 
 Paul, types of the true Church of the Lord, and 
 of its true members, under every dispensation ; 
 and the land they inhabited evidently had a 
 similar representation : the land itself repre- 
 sented the church with all that properly belongs 
 to it, in regard especially to the graces by the 
 presence of which the church exists, either in 
 individuals or societies; and its metropolis, Je- 
 rusalem, also represented the church, bat as to 
 
 the more interior and immediate abode of it in 
 
 i 
 
 * Cli; xxxix. 2. marginal translation. 
 
 N N 
 
274 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the human mind; whilst the temple with its 
 worship were expressive of the Lord's presence, 
 and communion with him, in the inmost of all. 
 Now if the land of Judaea thus symbolizes the 
 true Church and all the graces which properly 
 constitute it, Analogy must lead us to conclude, 
 that the countries around it represent the ex- 
 terior relations of the church, which are such 
 general principles in the mind of man as have 
 a greater or less degree of affinity with those 
 which are constituent of the church, accord- 
 ing as they are nearer to the land of Israel 
 or farther off from it: and those which were 
 most remote of all, must be symbolic of such 
 principles in regard to religion as are most gross 
 and external, most distant from every thing 
 that belongs to a true internal church. But the 
 application of Analogy to the formation of a 
 system of Spiritual Geography, demands a more 
 exact consideration. 
 
 (4.) The mind of man evidently consists of a 
 great number of affectuous and intellectual facul- 
 ties and tendencies, very distinct from each other. 
 The love of God and our neighbour, for in- 
 stance, are very different principles from the 
 love of worldly power and worldly possessions; 
 and those intellectual exercises which are con- 
 versant with divine and heavenly subjects, no 
 less vary from those which are confined to matters 
 of a corporeal and earthly nature : and it is evi- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 275 
 
 dently congenial to our natural feelings and 
 perceptions, to assign to the former of each of 
 these classes of sentiments, a higher and more 
 interior seat in the mind, than to the latter; we 
 acknowledge, in common discourse, the one to 
 be sublime and exalted feelings and contempla- 
 tions, the other to be such as are low and grovel- 
 ing. Nor will our conceptions on this subject 
 be much altered, whatever may be the theoretical 
 views which we are inclined to entertain of the 
 nature of the mind. If, with one class of meta- 
 physicians, we believe the mind to be one simple 
 principle, the whole of which is concerned in 
 every one of its exercises, though under a dis- 
 tinct modification in each ; then we must con- 
 sider the whole mind, when under the influence 
 of heavenly love and wisdom, to be in a sublime 
 and exalted state, or to be under a modification 
 of that description : or if, with others, we con- 
 ceive the mind, like the body, to consist of a 
 great variety of organs, each having its pro- 
 per function ; then we must consider those 
 which are the seats of disinterested benevolence 
 and of the perceptions of divine and heavenly 
 subjects, to be placed in an elevated and interior 
 region, and those which are appropriated to 
 grosser tendencies and mean conceptions, to be 
 respectively low and external. Our observa- 
 tions here proceed upon the supposition, that 
 the latter view of the nature of the mind is the 
 
 N N 2 
 
276 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 true one; but we have mentioned the other to 
 shew, that, should the opinion that the mind is 
 one simple principle be correct, the views we 
 assume of the higher and lower nature of its 
 various emotions arid contemplations would still 
 be applicable to it, and would only require a 
 little alteration in the mode of stating them. 
 However, let us suppose the mind itself to be 
 composed of distinct organs, appropriated to 
 distinct affections and distinct classes of thought: 
 It is true that to immaterial principles we cannot 
 assign any of the relations of space or place ; 
 and yet it is certain that we are so sensible of 
 the existence of a determinate analogy between 
 these and the immaterial mind and its properties, 
 as continually to apply to the latter, terms which 
 properly denote the relations of place; thus 
 we talk of a great mind and a little mind, a lofty 
 mind and a low mind; of elevated desires and of 
 grovelling ones, of high thoughts and of creeping 
 ones; of an internal and deep conception of 
 things, or of an external and superficial one; 
 we speak also of provinces of mind, and realms 
 of thought : and use a multitude of other 
 like phrases. 
 
 Suppose then that we possessed a knowledge 
 of the general principles, both voluntary and 
 intellectual, of which the mind consists, and 
 were desirous to present them more distinctly 
 to our view, by describing them by some of 
 
0" 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 the ideas borrowed from the analogy, which 
 we intuitively perceive to subsist, between the 
 relations of mind and the relations of place : 
 suppose, as mathematicians resort to diagrams 
 to assist their conceptions of the relations of 
 quantity, we even wished to assist our con- 
 ceptions of the mind by some sensible deli- 
 neation, and were to conceive the thought of 
 mapping out the various provinces of intellect 
 and affection which we perceive to exist in it : 
 how should we commence the execution of 
 the plan, but by laying down, in the centre of 
 our scheme, a region, to be considered as repre- 
 senting that part of the mind which is the seat 
 of the most exalted affections and sentiments, 
 being those which have for their objects the topics 
 of true religion, or those which embrace the love 
 and vital knowledge of God ? Should we not, 
 around this central region, allot various dis- 
 tricts, to represent those parts of the mind, 
 whose functions consist of attachments to su- 
 bordinate objects and of intellectual exercises 
 of an inferior character? And should we riot 
 place in the circumference of our map of that 
 cc little world/' or microcosm, the mind of man, 
 those faculties, both affectuous and intellectual, 
 which, though still belonging to the mind, have 
 the closest affinity with the body, and partake 
 the least of any thing of a purely spiritual na- 
 
278 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ture, being 1 such as belong to the province of 
 merely corporeal sensations, and of ideas of 
 such things as either afford no room,, or are 
 too grossly apprehended to give occasion, for the 
 exercise of the higher intellectual powers ? Such, 
 certainly, would be our mode of proceeding, 
 were we to attempt to draw a map of the mind, 
 by following out the analogy which every one 
 perceives to exist between the relations of mind 
 and the relations of place. 
 
 Such a map, then, is ready drawn to our hands 
 by the Spirit of God, to whom alone the ana- 
 logies between natural and spiritual things of 
 all kinds are fully known, in the geography of 
 the Scriptures. In this map, the land of Israel 
 is considered as the central region which is the 
 seat of all the truly spiritual affections and per- 
 ceptions of the human mind (: and hence was 
 derived the notion of the Jews, that their coun- 
 try constituted the middle of the earth's surface; 
 an opinion which was true in spiritual though 
 not in physical geography : and a similar trans- 
 ferring, by them, of ideas which are true in a 
 spiritual sense, to a natural application in which 
 they are false, has given rise to many of that 
 people's absurd, superstitious opinions and prac- 
 tices, the origin of which would be otherwise 
 unaccountable). So, following the law of Ana- 
 logy, the countries situated around the land of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 279 
 
 Canaan, will represent the subordinate mental 
 powers and faculties. We will illustrate this by 
 one or two examples. 
 
 The great neighbour of Israel the type of 
 the spiritual part of the mind, -on one side, was 
 Egypt ; which represents what belongs entirely 
 to the natural man, but, specifically, the Science 
 or Knowledge of the natural man, with the 
 faculty for acquiring it : and the powerful state 
 which bordered upon Israel on the other side, was 
 Assyria; which represents the Rational Faculty, 
 and the Reasoning Powers, in general. Now as 
 Science and Reasoning, when separated from all 
 regard to religion, or to true religion, and placed 
 in opposition to it, are two of its most danger- 
 ous enemies ; therefore we read so much of the 
 troubles which these two nations brought upon 
 the Israelites : but as, nevertheless, they are 
 capable of being rendered extremely serviceable 
 to true religion, and are themselves exalted by 
 being submitted to its influence; therefore we 
 meet with predictions of a state in which this 
 union should be effected. Thus it is said in 
 Isaiah, cc In that day there shall be an altar to 
 the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and 
 a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord*;" 
 words which plainly indicate the complete sub- 
 mission to a divine influence, of the principle, 
 power, or faculty, represented by Egypt, from 
 
 * Isaiah xix. 19. 
 
280 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 its inmost essence fc the midst " to its last ex- 
 tremity " the border thereof/' And that this 
 shall be closely connected with the principle, 
 power, or faculty, represented by Assyria, which 
 shall be submitted, with it, to the divine govern- 
 ment, is presently taught in these words: "In 
 that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt 
 to Assyria; and the Assyrian shall come into 
 Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria : and the 
 Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians/'* And 
 again, that both shall be united with the prin- 
 ciple represented by Israel, is beautifully ex- 
 pressed when it is immediately added, ff In that 
 day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and 
 with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the 
 landf:" where the third means that which com- 
 pletes and adds perfection, the number three, 
 so generally considered to involve a mystery, 
 denoting that which is complete and perfect ; 
 for which reason it is also said, that Israel shall 
 be a blessing in the midst of the land; implying, 
 that the principle represented by Israel should 
 become a centre, a sort of life-giving essence, 
 to the other two ; as is the case with the prin- 
 ciple of true religion, when the mind is in its 
 proper order throughout. This also is one of 
 the predictions of Scripture, of which no out- 
 ward fulfilment, at all adequate to the terms of 
 it, can be pointed out ; for to refer it, as is done 
 
 * Ver. 23. f Ver. 24. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 281 
 
 by Bishop Newton and others, to the propaga- 
 tion of Judaism in Egypt and Assyria, in conse- 
 quence of the dispersion and captivities of the 
 Jews in those countries, is merely to trifle with 
 words so august and solemn. And if this pro- 
 phecy has received no outward fulfilment here- 
 tofore, the altered state of the world certainly 
 renders it impossible that it should redeive such 
 an accomplishment hereafter. But we shall 
 have a view which well harmonizes with the 
 expressions, and rises out of them by a just 
 analogy, if we understand them spiritually, as 
 pointing to the union, in a glorious state of the 
 church, of the three great orders or degrees of 
 the intellectual powers. In this view, Egypt is 
 the lowest of these powers, the Science or Know- 
 ledge of the natural man, or such as chiefly 
 arises -from the exercise of the faculty which the 
 metaphysicians call simple perception : Assyria 
 is a higher intellectual power, that which reflects 
 and reasons, or the Intelligence which results 
 from the exercise of the faculties of analysis 
 and comparison : whilst Israel is the supreme 
 intellectual power of all, the Wisdom which 
 connects all with God, and contemplates, with 
 interior discernment, spiritual and divine sub- 
 jects, which it applies, causing the lower attain- 
 ments also to be applied, to the glory of God 
 and the benefit of mankind. And if we consider 
 these three orders of intellectual powers to have 
 
 o o 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 three distinct provinces of the mind appropriated 
 to them as their seats,, we shall see why they 
 are represented by the three countries of Egypt, 
 Assyria,, and Israel ; such representation fol- 
 lowing accurately the Law of that Analogy., 
 which; we have before seen, we all intuitively 
 recognise,, between the relations of mind and 
 the relations of place. 
 
 To prove that such is the signification in the 
 Scriptures of these three countries,, would re- 
 quire a consideration of the numerous occasions 
 on which they are mentioned : it would then 
 appear with clearness from the significant attri- 
 butes and actions ascribed to them respectively : 
 But this would detain us too long, and is also 
 not necessary for our present object, which is 
 merely to shew, that certain faculties or pro- 
 vinces of the mind are meant by the countries 
 mentioned in the Holy Word, without deter- 
 mining that which is specifically intended by 
 each: and this, I trust, must be pretty evident, 
 in regard to the countries of Egypt, Assyria, 
 and Israel, whether the explanations which have 
 been attempted be altogether accepted or not. 
 But 1 think that not much doubt will remain, 
 even here, with any inquirer, who will take the 
 pains to make an extensive examination of the 
 passages where they are mentioned. Let him 
 understand by Egypt, when spoken of unfavour- 
 ably, those fallacies and appearances, with which 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 283 
 
 Science, when not cultivated from pure motives, 
 opposes the doctrines of true religion ; (but 
 under the name of Science is here to be un- 
 derstood, not only the knowledge of natural 
 things, but an acquaintance also with the literal 
 sense of the Word of God, from which, when 
 separated from all connexion with its spirit, 
 confirmations, as is well known, may and have 
 been drawn, in favour of the most erroneous 
 religious sentiments, and in opposition to the 
 most evident truths:) so, by Egypt, when not 
 unfavourably mentioned, are to be understood 
 the views of true Science, natural truths in 
 general, both those drawn from the appearances 
 of nature and those from the literal sense of 
 the Word: Let our inquirer, also, understand 
 by Assyria, when spoken of with censure, that 
 intellectual principle which appears like intelli- 
 gence, but is mere adroitness in reasoning, or 
 dexterity in managing a debate, independently 
 of the truth or falshood of the premises assumed; 
 or, when it is mentioned with approbation, 
 that intelligence which results from the right 
 exercise of the rational faculty : And let him 
 regard both the principle of Science and the 
 Rational principle, as occupying distinct pro- 
 vinces of the mind, and consider these provinces 
 to be what are specifically meant by the realms 
 of Egypt and Assyria. Whoever does this, will 
 find a coherent and beautiful spiritual sense 
 
 00% 
 
284 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 arise,, in every instance where those countries are 
 mentioned ; provided he has some idea of the 
 spiritual reference of the other natural images 
 with which they are accompanied^ which will 
 always be found exactly to harmonize with this 
 signification of the countries.* 
 
 * [ am not sufficiently acquainted with the science, as it 
 is called, of Phrenology, to form any decided opinion of the 
 solidity of its pretensions : Even should its general principles 
 be true, I should apprehend that many mistakes must for 
 a long time be expected to accompany the attempts to follow 
 them out into their various ramifications : But I cannot dis- 
 miss the subject before us without observing, that I was 
 lately much struck, on looking into the transactions of the 
 Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, with the extraordinary 
 coincidence of their description of the organs which they con- 
 sider to be seated in the fore part of the brain, with the idea 
 which I had formed of the signification, in Scripture, of the 
 countries of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel. Their account of 
 the functions of the crgan which they denominate " Indivi- 
 duality," and of their " Knowing Faculties" in general, is 
 exactly that which appears to belong to the " land of Egypt," 
 considered as the symbol of a certain province of the mind : 
 their organs of " Comparison"' and " Causality," or their 
 " Reflecting Faculties" in general, answer, with equal accu- 
 racy, to the Scriptural "land of Assyria;" and their " Ve- 
 neration" and " Benevolence" as certainly b long to the 
 " land of Israel." I am therefore thorough'y convinced, 
 that, in their accounts of these " organs," they exhibit a 
 correct -conception of certain decided faculties or provinces 
 of the mind, whether the parts of the brain in which they 
 suppose these to be located during their connexion with the 
 body, be accurately determined, or capable of being deter- 
 mined, or not. Should, then, future observations confirm 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 285 
 
 (5.) I have dwelt at some length on this part 
 of our subject, because, perhaps, nothing con- 
 nected with the spiritual interpretation of the 
 Scriptures appears more questionable at first, 
 than the assertion, that all the countries men- 
 tioned in the Word of God, designate certain 
 faculties or principles in the human mind; when 
 yet, on the idea being examined, it must be 
 seen, that the analogy which it supposes, that 
 between the relations of mind and the relations 
 of place, is one of those, of which we have 
 the clearest intuitive perception, and from which 
 we draw several phrases in common discourse. 
 All the difficulties then that can afterwards arise, 
 in determining what mental faculties are repre- 
 sented by the various countries spoken of in the 
 Scriptures, will be owing to our imperfect know- 
 ledge of what the faculties of the mind really 
 are, and what are their distinguishing charac- 
 teristics, arid relative dignity. But these diffi- 
 culties can only attach to the countries inter- 
 mediate in their situation between Judaea and 
 
 their discoveries in the main, only correcting what may at 
 present be erroneous ; instead of apprehending from the 
 establishment of their science consequences injurious to 
 the belief of the Scriptures, we may hope to find in it 
 addition 1 means of confirming their plenary inspiration. 
 Assuredly, a strong confirmation of this is afforded, when 
 the same truths are brought to light by Science, as had long 
 before been assumed by Revelation, as the basis of its 
 instructions. 
 
286 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the most remote realms that are mentioned : of 
 these latter,, the signification will be obvious. 
 These, then,, we have already seen, are those 
 which are called., in the prophecy of Ezekiel 
 before us, and in the corresponding" prediction 
 of the Revelation, the land of Gog and Magog, 
 a region situated in " the corners of the 
 earth/' in " the sides of the north:'* which 
 are emphatic descriptions of extreme remote- 
 ness. Apply this description to the mind ; and 
 what province of it can be intended, but that 
 which is the most external, and which borders 
 most closely upon the corporeal sensations, 
 that, whose feelings are the most gross, and 
 whose perceptions the most obscure? When 
 \ve say obscure, we mean, compared with those 
 which partake of the light of true wisdom : To 
 itself they may appear very lucid : as, doubtless, 
 appears the obscurity of night to the owl, whose 
 organs of vision cannot bear the brightness of 
 day. 
 
 Now suppose the degree of intellect hence re- 
 sulting to exercise itself upon the subject of reli- 
 gion, and, with a general acknowledgment of its 
 reality, to undertake the definition of its nature : 
 What sort of a theological system would be 
 the result? Would it not, while it accepted 
 the most general truths of religion, understand 
 them in the most superficial manner, and, while 
 it adhered to the form,, neglect the substance, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 28? 
 
 while it was occupied about the body, disregard 
 the soul? We will take two or three examples. 
 
 It is a most general truth of religion, that 
 God is to be worshipped: would not Gog, (allow, 
 if you please, this term to stand as the expres- 
 sion, like an algebraic sign, of the principle 
 which we have defined; and let us designate by 
 this name the man whose leading character is 
 formed by that principle : would riot Gog) 
 reduce his worship to mere external observances, 
 regardless of the inward feelings which alone 
 render external worship acceptable to the Divine 
 Nature? It is, again, a still more general truth 
 of religion, that there is a God : would not Gog 
 regard his Deity as a being of like passions 
 with himself; good humoured when pleased, 
 revengeful when offended; a compound of good 
 and bad passions, arid capricious in the indul- 
 gence of both? If Gog were a Jew, and ex- 
 pected the coming of a Messiah, as the Redeemer 
 of Israel ; would he not look for a mighty con- 
 queror, who should deliver the nation from a 
 foreign yoke, and restore in greater splendour 
 than ever the kingdom of David; without ad- 
 mitting the thought of a spiritual redemption 
 by him, or being willing to believe that his 
 kingdom is not of this world? If Gog were a 
 Christian, and believed that the Messiah had 
 come to institute a new religion ; would he not 
 be disposed to entertain the idea, that the Saviour 
 
88 .PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 is nothing more than a man,, not differing from 
 other men in nature, though appointed to a high 
 office by God ? Whether Jew or Christian, 
 would he not, at the idea of a miraculous con- 
 ception,, exclaim, with Mary, before she was 
 fully instructed by the angel, " How shall this 
 be?"* without crediting the statement of the 
 fact, as she did, and so acquiring an interest in 
 the divinely inspired declaration, cc Blessed is 
 she that believed ?"f And would he not, with 
 the Jews, on hearing the Assertion from the lips of 
 Jesus, "I and my Father are OneJ," Cf take up 
 stones to stone him;" as far, at least, as that can 
 be done by hard, contradicting speeches, by 
 contending that such words are not to be under- 
 stood in a strict and proper sense, or in any 
 sense which will not include in the affirmation 
 all good men ? To put a final case : If Gog were 
 a believer in the Scriptures generally, and lived 
 in a philosophic age ; would he not reduce the 
 scale of their inspiration to as low a standard as 
 is consistent with any belief that they contain, 
 in any manner, a revelation from God ? Would 
 he not regard them, chiefly, as merely human 
 compositions, and confine the subjects of them, 
 as far as possible, to natural occurrences? from 
 which, also, he would gladly exclude any divine 
 interposition, resolving even the miracles, where- 
 ever he could find a pretence, into the operation 
 * Luke i. 34. f Ver, 45. t John x. 30. * Ver. 31. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 289 
 
 of natural causes. Thus, would he not adhere, 
 mainly, to cf the letter which killeth," and shut 
 out altogether ff the spirit which giveth life?" 
 In short, in every thing connected with religious 
 faith and worship, would not Gog chuse that 
 which is low and grovelling, external and super- 
 ficial, and reject that, which is elevated and 
 soaring, internal and profound? Would he not 
 " fill his belly with the husks that the swine do 
 eat*/' and, with the swine, fc trample the pearls 
 under his feet?"f Nor would any part of this 
 character be incompatible with great attain- 
 ments in erudition : since it is well known that 
 the finer powers of the mind are not unfrequently 
 buried under the dust of learning; and that there 
 is, in the efforts of literature, the bathos as well 
 as the sublime. The poet did not go out of na- 
 ture when he described his king of the dunces 
 as 
 
 " Sinking from thought to thought: a vast profound!" 
 
 Such then being the character of mind repre- 
 sented by Gog and Magog, and such the influence 
 which its preponderance would have upon reli- 
 gion, how easy is it to see that the predictions 
 by Ezekiel and the Revelator, of invasions by 
 them of the land of Israel, must refer to the 
 efforts of such a principle, and of those who are 
 in it, to degrade religion, in faith and worship, 
 into a conformity with the above ideas ! Yea, 
 
 * Luke xv. 16. f Matt. vii. 6. 
 
 P P 
 
290 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 is it not also intimated, from the partial and tem- 
 porary success spoken of as attending the enter- 
 prise of the invaders,, that,, for a time,, such ideas 
 of religion would be extremely prevalent, and 
 would be urged with a confidence by which 
 many would be seduced ? This is clearly the 
 spiritual sense of the predictions : in this sense, 
 then, have they ever been accomplished ? 
 
 Most evidently, the prophecy of Ezekiel was 
 accomplished among the Jews about the time 
 of the Lord's appearance in the flesh. In the 
 doctrine and practice of the Pharisees, we behold 
 that complete separation of every thing that is 
 external in religion from all that is internal, 
 and that destruction of the latter by the former, 
 of which Gog, when he appears in the character 
 of an invader of Israel, is the appropriate type. 
 The church among the Jews, was, indeed, always 
 of an external character, consisting chiefly in 
 outward rites of which the true import was not 
 discerned : yet, doubtless, while that church 
 remained unperverted, the internal things of 
 which their rituals were types, were obscurely 
 felt among them, though not clearly perceived : 
 though unknown, they were not denied : but 
 when elaborate systems of doctrines and pre- 
 cepts were invented, as was done by the Phari- 
 sees, the object of which was to persuade the 
 people that they became holy by an attention to 
 external observances alone, then was the internal 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 291 
 
 essence of religion entirely destroyed by its 
 outward appearances, and Gog indeed "came up 
 against Israel, as a cloud, to cover the land. * 
 Accordingly, we find, that the reproofs which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to the Jews, 
 chiefly ran upon this separation of the forms 
 of religion from its vital principles, and upon the 
 suffocation by the former of the latter. ff He 
 answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias 
 prophesied of you, hypocrites ; as it is written, 
 This people honoureth me with their lips, but 
 their heart is far from me. Full well ye reject 
 the commandment of God, that ye may keep 
 your own tradition : for Moses said, Honour thy 
 father and thy mother; but ye say, If a man 
 shall say to his father or his mother, It is Corban, 
 that is to say, a gift [consecrated to God] by 
 whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; 
 he shall be free; and ye suffer him no more to 
 do ought for his father or his mother; making 
 the Word of God of none effect through your 
 tradition which ye have delivered : and many 
 such like things ye do."f So the awful denun- 
 ciations against the scribes and Pharisees in 
 the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, all turn 
 upon the same point, the destruction of the 
 internal essence of religion by substituting its 
 externals in its place: " Woe unto you, scribes 
 and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour 
 * Ezek. xxxviii. 16. + Mark vii. 6 to 13. 
 
 p P 2 
 
292 PLENARY INSPIRATION <?F 
 
 widows' houses,, and for a pretence make 
 long prayers:" " Woe unto you,, ye blind 
 guides,, which say., whosoever shall swear by 
 the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall 
 swear by the gold of the temple,, he is a deb- 
 tor:" " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
 hypocrites! for ye pay tythes of mint, and anise,, 
 and cummin,, and have omitted the weightier 
 matters of the law, judgment,, mercy and faith /' 
 " Woe unto you,, scribes and Pharisees, hy- 
 pocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the 
 cup and of the platter, but within they are full 
 of extortion and excess/'* So, all the other 
 marks of the character which we have above 
 defined as that of Gog, as connected with re- 
 ligion, were exemplified in these perverters of 
 icligion. Nor did their notion that the Scrip- 
 tures were replete with mysteries, at all con- 
 tradict the gross ideas of the Word of God 
 which they who are represented by Gog would 
 entertain. They took this general belief from 
 those who had a traditionary knowledge of the 
 fact: but the mysteries they pretended to find 
 in the law, were of any but a spiritual nature: 
 they consisted of the most idle puerilities, all 
 calculated to flatter their own pride; such as, 
 instead of fulfilling the law, in the sense which, 
 in our second Lecture, we shewed to belong 
 to that phrase, that is, filling it with heavenly 
 
 * Ver. 14, 16, 23, 25. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 
 
 ideas relating- to the love of God and man, 
 emptied it of every thing of such a character, 
 and made even the most express injunctions of 
 its letter compatible with habits the most selfish 
 and profane. 
 
 If then Gog,, or Gog arid Magog., represent 
 a character antl state of mind of the most gross 
 and external description; if the invasion by 
 them of the land of Israel typifies the introduc- 
 tion of persuasions originating in such a state 
 of mind into every thing connected with re- 
 ligion., till the church is entirely overrun, arid 
 all its doctrines, with all its worship, acquire 
 an external character, entirely separated from, 
 and in opposition to, the internal qualities with- 
 out which they are nothing; and if the Lord 
 Jesus Christ declares that such was the state of 
 the church among the Jews when he was on 
 earth : then had the prophecy of Ezekiel upon 
 the subject at that time received its fulfilment. 
 But the instruction which it conveys is not 
 thereby rendered obsolete, as would be the case 
 if it related to merely natural events, and had 
 been fulfilled by an invasion of hostile armies : 
 but it will for ever continue to teach mankind, 
 what is the proper character of the gross con- 
 ceptions of the natural man, when not rectified 
 by the influence of the spiritual; and what are 
 the deplorable consequences, when man yields to 
 the suggestions of the most external part of his 
 
294 PLENARY INSPIRATION Of 
 
 mental constitution alone, and draws thence his 
 conclusions on the subject of religion. Of this^ 
 in the case of individuals, there is danger at 
 all times. We all must be sensible, that there 
 is in our constitution the principle of which 
 Gog and Magog are the symbols, a principle by 
 which we first become conscious of impressions 
 that come from without, and which, if not sub- 
 mitted to the controul of an enlightened intel- 
 lectual faculty, might even lead to the persua- 
 sion that nothing is real but sense and nature; 
 it would therefore be well if we would profit by 
 the warning which this prophecy affords, and 
 take care how we suffer such a principle to 
 lift itself out of its place. There is in it a tendency 
 to usurpation. Sense is ever disposed to exalt 
 herself above Reason, and falsely to arrogate 
 her name : and then Religion is either banished 
 altogether, or compelled to assume a disguise 
 that hides her beauty, and destroys her benefits. 
 In the last extreme, atheism is the result. 
 
 But if the prophecy by Ezekiel of the inva- 
 sion of Gog and Magog received its general 
 fulfilment in the state of the Jewish Church 
 at the time of the Lord's appearing in the world, 
 we see that the parallel prediction of John must 
 refer to a different event in the spiritual history 
 of mankind, and cannot, as Bishop Lowth sup- 
 poses, mean exactly the same : which supposi- 
 tion degrades, besides, the Divine Word, with 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 295 
 
 the imputation of repetition and tautology. 
 The general signification of Gog and Magog, 
 and of their invasion of the land of the saints, 
 must be, indeed, the same as before; but two 
 distinct irruptions of the principle are certainly in- 
 tended : if then the first of them took place in 
 the last perversion of the Israelitish dispensation, 
 when are we to look for the second? Are corrup- 
 tions of this deplorable kind, ever to overtake the 
 profession of Christianity ? Alarming as is the 
 thought, it seems impossible to doubt that this is 
 pointed-to in the prediction of the Revelation. If 
 we admit the communication to proceed from the 
 Divine Prescience, we must expect such an event. 
 Again will men look at religion under the influ- 
 ence of the most external province of the mind : 
 again will they separate the conclusions which this 
 suggests, from the more enlightened sentiments 
 which would be dictated by the internal man: 
 and the consequence again will be, that, while 
 some will glory in the avowal of the most 
 audacious infidelity, extended even to the self- 
 worship of atheism, a greater number, not 
 venturing to deny religion altogether, will lower 
 down its duties and its doctrines to an agreement 
 with the suggestions of the lowest part of their 
 nature ; that, deeming the vividness with which 
 they conceive their sentiments to be a certain 
 mark of their truth, (though it is only a con- 
 sequence of the proximity of the province of 
 
296 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the mind in which such persons think,, to the 
 senses of the body,) and shutting* out the ad- 
 mission of any light from above,, even till they 
 doubt the reality of every thing of a spiritual 
 nature,, they will rush eagerly to battle against 
 those who affirm that reality,, strong in the con- 
 ceit that their arguments are invincible. But 
 when will this deplorable visitation take place? 
 Have any symptoms of its commencement yet ap- 
 peared? These are questions of deep concern- 
 ment to every Christian ; but to attempt their so- 
 lution would carry us too far. The consideration 
 of them must be left to those who feel sufficiently 
 interested in the subject to pursue it farther: 
 and the way to decide them will be, to reflect 
 maturely on the nature of the principle of which 
 Gog and Magog are types, and of its natural 
 influence,, when made the arbiter of religious 
 sentiment; and then to examine what marks of 
 this influence are discernible in the opinions 
 and controversies which make a noise in the 
 Christian world, and which divide the minds of 
 men on the subject of religion. 
 
 (6.) We have pursued to some extent the ideas 
 suggested by the prophecies respecting Gog 
 and Magog, because, as observed above respect- 
 ing all such prophecies as do not admit of an 
 outward accomplishment, they are so well a- 
 dapted to lead to a just conception of the nature 
 of the Prophetic Word in general; and because 
 
THF SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 297 
 
 these predictions, in particular, eminently tend 
 to illustrate that great portion of the Prophetic 
 Word, which seems to treat, in its letter, of par- 
 ticular countries and nations. If some of the 
 predictions of this kind are such as never could 
 have been intended to receive a literal fulfil- 
 ment; it is evident that they must contain a 
 spiritual sense, and that, when they were given, 
 a spiritual fulfilment was the only one con- 
 templated by their Divine Author : arid if the 
 Scriptures are written upon a uniform and order- 
 ly plan, as they must be, if they are inspired 
 by a God of order, then must a spiritual ful- 
 filment of divine prophecy have been that which 
 was chiefly intended, in every part of it ; although 
 some parts of it were such as admitted, and re- 
 ceived, a general outward accomplishment like- 
 wise. If there are any parts of it, which, though 
 they all contain a double sense, were not de- 
 signed to have a double fulfilment; in which 
 sense, be it asked, is their fulfilment naturally to 
 be looked for, in that which is primary, or in 
 that which is secondary? If the spiritual ac- 
 complishment, "though not the first, [as to 
 time], was the principal, thing in the prophet's 
 view;" and yet the prediction was of such a 
 nature, that, whatever the prophet might have 
 understood by it, it only admitted of a fulfilment 
 in one sense; which must have been the fulfil- 
 ment regarded by the Inspirer of the prophet ? 
 
 Q Q 
 
$98 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Tl e question admits of but one answer. And 
 it is equally evident, that if the prophecies 
 have a spiritual sense any where, and this is the 
 principal sense, they must have it every where. 
 But the literal sense being thus a mere vehicle 
 for the conveyance of the spiritual, may either 
 be outwardly fulfilled or not, as the plans of 
 Providence may render expedient. To com- 
 municate the spiritual sense, the literal sense is 
 indispensable: but to the spiritual fulfilment, 
 the literal fulfilment is entirely unnecessary. 
 When, also, an outward accomplishment of 
 prophecy, affecting the affairs of nations, takes 
 place, it is never, as was noticed above, so exact, 
 as not to leave room for much variety of opinion 
 regarding the application of many particulars of 
 the prediction; thus pointing to a spiritual ful- 
 filment, as that to whicli alone the terms of the 
 prophecy can be unobjectionably applied. 
 
 But these prophecies respecting Gog and 
 Magog, are eminently calculated to illustrate 
 the nature of that great portion of the Prophetic 
 Word, which seems to treat, in its letter, of par- 
 ticular countries and nations. Gog and Magog, 
 according to the literal idea, evidently denote 
 very remote countries and nations: the pro- 
 phecies relating to them are such as never have 
 been outwardly accomplished, and never can be: 
 and if so, then a spiritual fulfilment must alone 
 have been intended. But how are we to disco- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. #99 
 
 ver the nature of this spiritual fulfilment? All 
 ideas respecting it must be merely conjectural 
 and arbitrary, unless we have a certain Rule to 
 guide our conclusions : and what principle in 
 the nature of things can be discovered, capable 
 of affording such a Rule, but the Analogy 
 immutably established between natural things 
 and spiritual, whereby they mutually answer to 
 each other? An obvious analogy, we have seen, 
 exists, between the relations of Mind and the 
 relations of Place : each has its provinces : and 
 it is not at all difficult to conceive, how the one 
 may be represented by the other. We have 
 seen also, that whatever may be the difficulty of 
 determining what provinces or characters of 
 mind are implied by some of the countries and 
 nations mentioned in the Scriptures, this does 
 not extend to the signification of Gog and 
 Magog. These, as the countries and nations 
 most remote from the land of Israel., must de- 
 note the most external province and character 
 that can belong to the human mind. This, then,, 
 may be assumed as certain. But if it is evident 
 that a certain province or character of mind is 
 meant by Gog and Magog, it cannot be doubted, 
 that some certain province or character of 
 mind is equally symbolized by every other 
 country and nation mentioned in the sacred pages. 
 If we admit the premises, the conclusion is una- 
 voidable; unless we would treat the Word of 
 
 Q Q 2 
 
300 
 
 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 God as a chaos of confusion,, ^a mass of isolated 
 discordances., in which no conclusion can be 
 drawn from one fact to another,, let the parallelism 
 between them be ever so complete. 
 
 (7.) Now if it be true that the invasion of 
 Israel by Gog, is a prophetic description of the 
 state of religion among the Jews at the time of 
 the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ,, it will 
 not seem strange to infer, that the extraordinary 
 passage quoted at the beginning of this section, 
 in which the fowls of the air and the beasts of 
 the field are invited to a great feast or sacrifice 
 prepared for them by the Lord, refers to the 
 abundant mercies consequent upon the Lord's 
 coming in the flesh, and dispensed to all who 
 were willing to accept them ; and which were 
 calculated to nourish^ and restore to its right 
 order, every faculty and power of the human 
 mind. By his coming, the Lord put an end to 
 the Israelitish dispensation, which at best was of 
 a very external character, only " having a shadow 
 of good things to come*;" and, in its stead, 
 Cf brought life and immortality to light through 
 the gospelf :" cs for the law was given by Moses; 
 but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. " 
 The spiritual graces which he came to dispense, 
 are frequently compared by him to food and 
 drink, on account of the analogy noticed in 
 our last Lecture between natural food and spi- 
 
 * Heb. x. 1. t 2 Tim. i. 10. \ John i. 17. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 301 
 
 ritual. When the prodigal returned repentant, 
 his father killed for him the fatted calf.* And 
 when the Lord proposes the parable of cc a cer- 
 tain man who made a great supperf ;" or of a 
 dinner given by a certain king on account of 
 the marriage of his son, and who says on the 
 occasion, " My oxen and my failings are killed^;" 
 he evidently describes the heavenly gifts which 
 were offered to man,, for the nourishment of his 
 soul, in consequence of his coming into the 
 world. (It is needless to say, that the guests 
 who were invited, and who refused to come, were 
 the Jews, who possessed the invitations of the 
 Lord in his Word; and that they who were 
 brought in from the highways and hedges, with- 
 out previous invitation, were the Gentiles, to 
 whom the true God was previously unknown.) 
 If then the Lord Jesus Christ himself, thus de- - 
 scribes the blessings presented to man by his 
 gospel under the appropriate emblem of a feast; 
 how natural is the conclusion, that the same 
 blessings are indicated by Ezekiel, in the 
 stronger figures belonging to the prophetic style 
 when, in the conclusion of his prophecy respect- 
 ing Gog, which refers to the state of the Jewish 
 church at the time of the Lord's advent, he 
 speaks of a great feast prepared for the fowls of 
 the air and the beasts of the field ! Let us then 
 briefly notice, how the" particulars of this general 
 * Luke xv. 23. t Cli. xiv. 1C. - t Matt. xxii. 4. 
 
302 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 explanation may be developed by the Science of 
 Analogies. 
 
 We have seen in our last Lecture,, that the 
 human mind is composed, in general, of two 
 great faculties, called the will and the under- 
 standing ; and that the will is the seat of every 
 thing belonging to love or affection, and the 
 understanding of every thing belonging to per- 
 ception and thought: so that the will may in 
 fact be considered as a congeries of innumerable 
 affections, and the understanding as a congeries 
 of innumerable thoughts. Now the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, being dictated by Him cc who knoweth 
 our frame*/' continually regard man as com- 
 posed of these two general principles, and ad- 
 dress him in reference to them both. Thus 
 nothing is more common in Scripture than to 
 speak of ff the fowls of the air and the beasts of 
 the field :" the reason is, because there is an 
 analogy between the winged part of the ani- 
 mal creation, and the intellectual powers of 
 the mind; and between the part of the animal 
 creation constituted by the mammalia, and the 
 affectuous powers of the mind. That beasts in 
 general are apt symbols of the affections, is very 
 evident, and was in some measure shewn in our 
 last Lecture : and birds in general, not less aptly, 
 are types of the thoughts; as will appear to him 
 who contemplates their peculiar properties ; such 
 * Ps. ciii. 14. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 303 
 
 as their capacity of soaring in the air, and the 
 remarkable manner in which they are affected by 
 the light, being rendered lively by its presence, 
 dull by its partial absence, and going to sleep 
 on the approach of darkness, even when the 
 darkness comes on at an unusual time, as when 
 it has been caused by an eclipse not long after 
 sunrise. When therefore the Lord says to the 
 prophet, in the passage we are considering, 
 " Speak unto every feathered fowl, [or, to the 
 fowl of every wing,] and to every beast of the 
 field;" it is not the fowls and beasts who are 
 addressed, (for who could suppose that Jehovah 
 would literally address these ? less absurd would 
 be the story of St. Anthony's sermon to the 
 fishes :) but it is man in general who is appealed 
 to, considered as to the general faculties of his 
 mental constitution, as to all the powers of his 
 mind which are capable of being benefited by 
 divine gifts. As, also, there is an immense 
 variety in the human race, every man being 
 distinguished from others, not less by his pecu- 
 liar mode of thinking and feeling than by the 
 peculiar lineaments of his countenance ; and as, 
 in some, the understanding is more active than 
 the affections, and, in others, the affections are 
 more active than the intellect: therefore those 
 whose peculiar character belongs to the former 
 description, under any possible modification of 
 it, are addressed as the birds of every wing, and 
 
304 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 those whose character belongs to the latter 
 description, with the same variety, are included 
 in the address to every beast of the field. 
 
 Now as the human mind in the aggregate con- 
 sists of two general faculties, which are the will 
 arid the understanding; so are there two general 
 divine gifts by which these are to be nourished ; 
 which are,, goodness and truth. These then are 
 what are meant,, when, on the birds and beasts 
 being commanded to assemble themselvestogether 
 to a great sacrifice which should be sacrificed for 
 them by the Lord, it is said, " that ye may eat 
 flesh and drink blood" ; there being, as noticed 
 in our last Lecture, an exact analogy between 
 flesh and blood, as the chief constituents of 
 animal bodies, and goodness and truth, or love 
 and wisdom, these being, in their origin, the 
 prime essentials of the Divine Nature. But as 
 the mind of man, both as to will and intellect, 
 consists of faculties of various orders and de- 
 grees; so also are there various orders and 
 degrees of the goodness and truth imparted for 
 their nourishment; and nothing can be con- 
 ceived, which becomes an object of feeling and 
 perception, which does not refer, in some way, to 
 the general principle of goodness, or to the gene- 
 ral principle of truth. The various orders and 
 degrees, then, of goodness and truth, which 
 would be bestowed in abundance, under the 
 dispensation of the gospel, for the spiritual nou- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 305 
 
 rishment of man, and for his edification in all 
 heavenly graces, are represented by the various 
 kinds of beings whose flesh and blood should 
 be presented for food, as related in the following 
 verses. Cf Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, 
 and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, 
 of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, 
 all of them fatlings of Bashan." The mighty, 
 here, are they who prevail in spiritual combats, 
 which are such as are carried on internally 
 against the corruptions of the heart and mind; 
 or, more abstractedly, they are those principles 
 of heavenly confidence which give power in 
 those combats; and to eat the flesh of the 
 mighty, is to enjoy the good which is procured 
 by victory in such conflicts. The princes of the 
 earth are the leading and primary truths of the 
 church, on which the subordinate ones depend ; 
 and to drink their blood is to have these fixed 
 in the mind. Rams and lambs are emblems of 
 such good affections as belong to the internal 
 man, relating, chiefly, to love to God and our 
 neighbour; and goats and bullocks are corres- 
 ponding principles in the external man : the 
 bullocks are said to be fatlings of Bashan, to 
 express the excellence of the animals, and, by 
 analogy, of the principle which they represent. 
 To imply the profusion with which these bless- 
 ings should be imparted, it is added, " And ye 
 shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till 
 
 R R 
 
305 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ye be drunken,, of my sacrifice,, which I have 
 sacrificed for you :" fat is here mentioned instead 
 of flesh, as being a symbol of -goodness still 
 more genuine and excellent. The conclusion of 
 the promise is the most extraordinary part of 
 all: " Thus ye shall be filled at my table \vith 
 horses and chariots, with mighty men,, and with 
 all men of war, saith the Lord God." If there 
 be any, who are so disposed to adhere to the 
 literal sense of the*propheey, as to conclude that 
 "Gog and all his multitude" really mean an 
 immense invading army, and to infer that the 
 convocation of the fowls and beasts to " eat 
 flesh and drink blood," is a figurative mode of 
 describing the excess of the slaughter, by 
 adverting to the numbers of birds and beasts 
 which would be drawn together by the scent of 
 the carcases ; and who can bring themselves to 
 think it not unworthy of fc the Lord Jehovah" 
 to make such an address to mere animals of 
 prey ; these words must destroy the illusion : for 
 though some animals of prey would eagerly 
 devour dead horses, they would not devour the 
 chariots which they drew ; and yet, according to 
 the terms of the prediction, the chariots, also, are 
 to form part of the feast. Thus it is, that, through- 
 out the Scriptures, expressions are frequently 
 thrown in, which cannot at all be applied to 
 the subjects which appear to be treated of in the 
 letter; as if Divine Wisdom introduced them 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 307 
 
 on purpose to prevent the attention from resting 
 in the letter, and to awaken it to the spirit which 
 dwells within. All the expressions used in Scrip- 
 ture relating to ways and to journey s, and to the 
 methods by which man assists his progress in 
 his journeys, refer to the exercise of the thoughts. 
 In meditation, every one is conscious of some- 
 thing passing in his mind, analogous to loco- 
 motion. On account of the use of the horse in 
 assisting man in his progress from place to place, 
 he was regarded in ancient times, as noticed in 
 our last Lecture, as a symbol of man's under- 
 standing, or apprehension, of truth, or of what 
 he regards as truth; and to ride on horseback, in 
 the symbolic style of writing, was understood to 
 mean, to acquire intelligence, or to communi- 
 cate instruction, by the exercise of the faculty. 
 Nearly related in signification to the horse, on 
 which a man rides, must be a chariot, drawn by 
 horses, in which he rides : thus, as the one ex- 
 presses, in the language of analogy, the under- 
 standing or apprehension of truth, so does the 
 other the doctrine of truth, or those sentiments 
 respecting truth which the mind assumes as cer- 
 tain, and employs to assist its further progress. 
 Now as birds and beasts may feed on horses, so 
 is the human mind nurtured in spiritual graces 
 by the right understanding of truth : and though 
 no bird or beast can feed on chariots, yet may 
 the human mind be fed with the doctrine of 
 
 R R 2 
 
308 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 truth : and this is what is meant when the Lord 
 says by the prophet, " Ye shall be filled at my 
 table with horses and chariots." ff . Mighty men, 
 and all men of war/' are added,, to express such 
 firm convictions of the truth, grounded in love, 
 in regard to divine subjects, as give a man power 
 over the corruptions of his own heart and mind, 
 as well as over all suggestions in favour of evil 
 and error that may come from without, and 
 which enable him, in every trial, to come off a 
 conqueror. 
 
 Now, though it would require a very extensive 
 discussion, fully to prove that the several par- 
 ticulars of this remarkable prophecy bear the 
 exact signification which we have offered; yet 
 that they must bear some such signification, is, 
 I think, abundantly evident. The spiritual ana- 
 logy of some of the principal symbols, is obvious: 
 that of the others will also appear on reflection : 
 and if the ground, in analogy, of the signification 
 assigned to any of the natural images, should 
 not be discerned by every one, yet every one 
 who will carefully examine the other passages 
 in the Word of God where they are mentioned, 
 may ascertain that they always bear some such 
 meaning. It would require a work on a different 
 plan from that of these Lectures, fully to demon- 
 strate, by the Science of Analogies, and by the 
 manner in which natural images are used in the 
 Scriptures, the meaning of each specific symbol: 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 309 
 
 all that we undertake to prove, is, that the gene- 
 ral principle exists; that there is in reality a 
 definite analogy between natural things and spi- 
 ritual, whereby the former answer to, and form 
 expressive symbols of, the latter ; and that this 
 analogy is observed in the Holy Word. In 
 applying the general rule to particular cases, 
 we shall be satisfied if our interpretations are 
 accepted as probable. In the more important 
 and more general analogies, we hope that this 
 probability will be found very strong : in subor- 
 dinate and respectively unimportant particulars, 
 a lower degree of probability will be sufficient 
 for our purpose. A multitude of probabilities 
 is admitted to constitute a moral certainty : and 
 if it shall appear, in numerous instances, that the 
 spiritual signification which we assign to various 
 natural symbols is probably the true one, every 
 impartial mind will allow it to be morally cer- 
 tain, that some spiritual signification does belong 
 to those symbols. Thus the general principle 
 will be established, whether our explanations of 
 particulars be all concurred in, or not. 
 
 In the passage at present before us, it is im- 
 possible to conceive of Jehovah himself as call- 
 ing the birds and beasts to a sacrifice prepared 
 for them by him, that they might eat flesh and 
 drink blood, without revolting from the ideas 
 suggested by the letter, and concluding instinc- 
 tively, that matters very different, and more 
 
310 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 worthy of Infinite Love and Wisdom, and of 
 the active interference of Deity, must be veiled 
 beneath the expressions. To regard them as 
 merely forming an emphatic mode of describing 
 a great slaughter by one of its consequences, is 
 still to impute unworthy sentiments to the Divine 
 Being. If the prophets are to be considered 
 merely as poets, and it should be deemed allow- 
 able for the poet Ezekiel thus to exult over the 
 destruction of the enemies of his country ; it 
 would be in the highest degree profane for him 
 to introduce on the occasion the most sacred of 
 the names of God, and to deliver his invitation 
 to birds and beasts to feed on his slaughtered 
 foes, in the name of c( the Lord Jehovah." But 
 if, as has already been shewn, no invasion by 
 natural enemies can have been intended by any 
 part of the prophecy, then no devouring of 
 their carcases can be referred to by the invitation 
 to the birds and beasts. Besides, the total de- 
 struction of " Gog and all his multitude" is 
 more explicitly detailed in the former part of 
 the chapter : they are not only described as 
 being all dead, but, likewise, as being all buried* : 
 after which to invite v the birds and beasts to eat 
 their flesh and drink their blood, would look 
 like an after-thought indeed, not easily compati- 
 ble with the previous statements. Every thing 
 then leads us to regard this part of the prophecy, 
 
 * Ver. 11 to 15. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 311 
 
 as well as the rest, as a prophetic allegory, de- 
 signed to have a purely spiritual accomplish- 
 ment, and no other. 
 
 But perhaps it may be objected, " Admitting 
 something of a spiritual nature to be intended by 
 this invitation to the fowls of every wing and 
 to every beast of the field, still it does not appear 
 how their eating the flesh and drinking the blood 
 of Gog and his army, who evidently are the 
 enemies of the church, or injurious principles 
 in regard to religion, can represent the rn part- 
 ing to men of heavenly gifts and graces." But 
 it is to be observed, that the idea of Gog and 
 his army is dismissed with their burial, already 
 recorded, and they are not mentioned any more. 
 According to the literal sense, indeed, it must 
 be inferred to be their flesh and blood that 
 the fowls and beasts are to eat and drink ; but 
 this is not affirmed. The feast is merely repre- 
 sented as consequent upon the destruction of 
 Gog: and thus it suggests the important truth, 
 explicitly affirmed in many parts of Scripture, 
 that all increase of good is in consequence of, 
 and in proportion to, the removal of evil. Both 
 cannot exist together, either in the church at large 
 or in the mind of man: the one must be put 
 away, to make room for the other to enter. The 
 removal then of the evils that destroyed and per- 
 verted all true religion, is described by the de- 
 struction of Gog and his multitude : the recep- 
 
312 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tion of the good which can then be imparted^ 
 is meant by the feast given in consequence to 
 the fowls and beasts. That the flesh and blood 
 which they should eat and drink are not con- 
 sidered as belonging to Gog and his army,, or to 
 any thing that has a bad signification, is evident 
 from their being called the flesh and blood " of 
 rams,, of lambs,, of goats, and of bullocks." Goats 
 and bullocks, indeed, as denoting principles 
 which belong to the external man, which may 
 either be in right order or the contrary, are 
 sometimes mentioned in a bad sense, as well as 
 in a good one : but rams and lambs, as denoting 
 principles which belong to the internal man, 
 the apostle's inward man which delights in the 
 law of God*, are not subject to this ambiguity 
 of interpretation: they are invariably used as 
 symbols of the purest affections that can adorn 
 the human mind. 
 
 Altogether, then, whether the explanation 
 which has been offered be seen, in all the parti- 
 culars, to be true or not; I trust that the general 
 meaning assigned to the whole will be admitted 
 to be highly probable: that the flesh and blood 
 of the various orders of beings mentioned, as 
 forming a sacrifice or feast prepared by Jehovah 
 for the birds of every wing and every beast of 
 the field, are the goodness and truth of various 
 orders and degrees, offered by the Lord to all 
 * Rom. vii. 22. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 313 
 
 \vho had any capacities for receiving them, when, 
 at his coining' into the world, he put an end to 
 the perversion of religion then prevalent among 
 the Jews, in consequence of their looking at 
 divine things under the influence of the most 
 external part of their nature : or, more briefly. 
 That this prophetic feast denotes the profusion 
 of heavenly gifts, resulting from the introduction 
 of the spiritual and pure dispensation of the 
 Gospel, in lieu of the carnal and corrupted dis- 
 pensation of the Law. 
 
 2. The next prophecy that we select for con- 
 sideration, is that of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 comprised in the twenty-fourth" and twenty-fifth 
 chapters of Matthew ; more particularly that 
 part of it which is contained in these words: 
 cf Immediately after the tribulation of those days, 
 shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not 
 give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
 heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
 shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the 
 Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the 
 tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see 
 the Son of man coining in the clouds of heaven 
 with po^ver and great glory/'* 
 
 ( 1 . ) As the passage which we have considered 
 from Ezekiel affords a remarkable instance of that 
 species of divine prediction which admits of no 
 
 * Ch. xxiv. 29, 30. 
 
 s s 
 
314 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 outward fulfilment ; so does this whole discourse 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ supply a remarkable 
 instance of that species of prophecy which 
 does admit of such a fulfilment, it being 5 in 
 fact, of all the predictions of Holy Writ,, the 
 most distinguished for the great exactness with 
 which many of its announcements have been 
 palpably accomplished. It has been justly ob- 
 served, of that part of it which extends from 
 the beginning to the twenty-eighth verse of the 
 twenty-fourth chapter, that many of the parti- 
 culars which it states, so precisely describe the 
 calamities which befel the Jewish nation at and 
 prior to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, that it 
 more resembles a history than a prophecy : and 
 as, nevertheless, it is certain that the prediction 
 was delivered, and the account of it published, 
 before those calamities occurred, an irresistible 
 argument thence arises for the divine inspiration 
 of prophecy, and for the truth of the Christian 
 religion, which has been ably handled by many 
 of the Christian apologists. 
 
 Nevertheless, clearly as some parts of this 
 prophecy have coincided with historical events, 
 it is impossible to adapt it all to circumstances 
 of that kind. A great part of it certainly ad- 
 mits of none but a spiritual fulfilment: hence,, 
 as the whole of it flows in an uninterrupted and 
 most closely connected series, it seems undeniable 
 that a spiritual fulfilment is that which is chiefly 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 315 
 
 designed throughout, and that, in the words of 
 Bishop Lowth so often cited,, the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, thougli " the first, was not the princi- 
 pal thing in the [Divine] Prophet's view/' 
 Still it is certain, that part of the prophecy had 
 an external accomplishment in the events attend- 
 ing the destruction of Jerusalem: we here then 
 have a striking exemplification of the principle 
 advanced above, ff that the spiritual things 
 described in the ulterior sense of the prophetic 
 language, were typically pictured by such ex- 
 ternal events ; that a spiritual fulfilment was 
 at the same time primarily regarded, and that of 
 this was given, in the corresponding historical 
 circumstances, a symbolic scenical representa- 
 tion/'* On no other principle can those particu- 
 lars of the prophecy which may be applied to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, be taken as part 
 of the same series as the other particulars, which 
 do not admit of such an application. And the 
 argument for the divine inspiration of prophecy, 
 and for the truth of the Christian religion, 
 arising from the outward fulfilment, is hereby 
 carried much farther ; since, while we obtain a 
 solution, by the Science of Analogies, of those 
 parts of the prophecy which are inexplicable on 
 the principle of literal interpretation, we obtain, 
 at the same time, for the passages in which a 
 literal interpretation is admissible, a meaning 
 
 * P. 257. 
 
316 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 more worthy of a Divine Author,, than could be 
 afforded by the most exact description of the 
 future fates of nations ; a meaning which, while 
 it rests upon the letter as its basis, rises and 
 points towards heaven. Let us see how this 
 will appear from a general view of the whole 
 prophecy ; exhibiting, first,, the inconsistencies 
 of the common interpretations. 
 
 (2.) It is related, in the first verse, that " Jesus 
 went out,, and departed from the temple: and 
 his disciples came to him to shew him the build- 
 ings of the temple;" and it is added, in the 
 second verse, that fc Jesus said unto them, See 
 ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, 
 There shall not be left here one stone upon ano- 
 ther which shall not be thro\yn down/' First, 
 then, let it be admitted, that these words apply, 
 in their immediate reference, to the temple at 
 Jerusalem and its destruction, which, as is known 
 from the history of Josephus, was as total as is 
 here implied. Let, also, the detailed prediction 
 that follows, through the whole of this and the 
 next chapters, be understood of the events con- 
 nected with the destruction of Jerusalem and its 
 temple, as far as they can possibly be adapted 
 to those occurrences. It is allowed, however, 
 on all hands, that the whole cannot be so adapted : 
 let then the place be pointed out where the new 
 subject commences. But let this be done in such 
 a manner, as to be consistent with the fact, that 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 317 
 
 a space of not much less than two thousand years 
 at the least,, was to intervene,, between the accom- 
 plishment of the latter part of the prophecy and 
 that of the former : for the first part of it is con- 
 sidered to have been fully accomplished about 
 A. D. 70; and the remainder not to be accom- 
 plished yet : it is also to be recollected,, that no 
 events belonging to this intervening period are 
 supposed to be treated of in the prophecy, but 
 that, in whatever place the transition is made, it 
 skips at once from the destruction of Jerusalem 
 to the end of the world. Of course, with these 
 premises assumed, every reader will expect to 
 perceive some well defined mark of so great an 
 hiatus. How will this expectation be answered? 
 So far from discovering any thing like it, no 
 person can read the two chapters, and draw his 
 inference from their contents alone, without con- 
 cluding, that the events announced are to follow 
 each other in succession, unbroken by any wide 
 interruption whatever. Accordingly, though 
 commentators are now generally agreed that 
 the hiatus must exist, they are by no means 
 unanimous in fixing its situation. 
 
 As before observed, the circumstances foretold 
 as far as the twenty-eighth verse of the twenty- 
 fourth chapter, may, by having recourse, here 
 and there, to figure, be applied to the calamities 
 which befel the Jewish nation : what follows, 
 respecting the coming of the Son of man in the 
 
318 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 clouds of heaven., and his sending his angels 
 with a great sound of a trumpet to gather toge- 
 ther his elect from the four winds, from one end 
 of heaven to the other, does not, with equal 
 convenience., admit this application : wherefore 
 many eminent writers consider the prophecies 
 relating to the Jews to terminate with the 
 twenty-eighth verse, and all that follows to 
 belong to the greater events commonly de- 
 signated as the second coming of the Lord, and 
 
 O O * 
 
 the general judgment on the world. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, let both parts of the chapter de- 
 note what they may, they are connected together 
 by the binding word "immediately:" " Imme- 
 diately after the tribulation of those days, shall 
 the sun be darkened,'* &c. "and then shall 
 appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven/' 
 Extreme violence, therefore, is done to the words, 
 by those who thrust in, between the tribula- 
 tion previously described, and this immediate 
 appearing of the Son of man, an interval of two 
 thousand years ! On this account, other eminent 
 writers understand the appearing of the Son of 
 man, and all the rest of the chapter, to be merely 
 added in amplification of the previous subject; 
 affirming, however, that "Jesus Christ intended 
 that his disciples should consider the judgment 
 he was going to inflict on the Jewish nation, as 
 a forerunner and emblem of that universal judg- 
 ment he is to exercise at the last day ;" where- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 319 
 
 fore, they add, {f he gives in the twenty-fifth 
 chapter a description of the last judgment*:' 5 
 for which reasons, they place the grand hiatus 
 between the two chapters. But, unhappily, a 
 particle, the nature of which is to draw things 
 into such close connexion as admits of nothing 
 being interposed between them,, here also occurs. 
 The Divine Prophet concludes the twenty-fourth 
 chapter with describing the reward which the 
 iaithful servant, and the punishment which the 
 unfaithful, shall receive at his coming: and he 
 commences the twenty-fifth chapter thus : cc Then 
 shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten 
 virgins/' Who cannot see that the parable of 
 the ten virgins, cc five of whom were wise, and 
 iive were foolish/' is a continuation and further 
 illustration of the subject introduced by the 
 parable of the faithful and wicked servant ; 
 that both relate to the same series of events, 
 und leave no room for supposing an interval of 
 two thousand years between the one and the 
 other? And even if the subjects were not so 
 obviously connected, what propriety would there 
 be in passing from one event to another so 
 distant, by such a copulative as then, a word 
 lhat always denotes either identity of time, or 
 immediate succession? 
 
 A third modification of the same general plan 
 of interpretation has therefore been proposed by 
 
 * Beausobre and L'Enfant's Note on Matt. xxv. 1. 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. He adheres to the system of 
 the hiatus, but he seems to have felt more 
 strongly than some,, the difficulties with which it 
 is attended : wherefore, in hopes to avoid them, 
 he steers a middle course between the two theo- 
 ries already noticed. Let us see, then, what 
 degree of probability he has been able to give 
 to the scheme. 
 
 He paraphrases the twenty-ninth and thirtieth 
 verses thus : ff Immediately after the affliction of 
 those days which I have now been describing, 
 the sun shall as it were be darkened, and the moon 
 shall not seem to give her usual light; and the 
 stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the 
 heavens, all the mighty machines and strong 
 movements above, shall be shaken and broken to 
 pieces; that is, according to the sublimity of 
 that prophetic language to which you have 
 been accustomed, the whole civil and ecclesias- 
 tical constitution of the nation shall riot only be 
 shocked, but totally dissolved. And then shall there 
 evidently appear such a remarkable hand of pro- 
 vidence in avenging my quarrel upon this sinful 
 people, that it shall be like the sign of the Son 
 of man in heaven at the last day ; and all the tribes 
 of the land shall then mourn, and they shall see 
 the Son of man coming as it were in the clouds of 
 heaven with power and great glory; for that 
 celestial army which shall appear in the air 
 marshalled round the city, shall be a sure token 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. ^^jg 
 
 to them that the angels of God, and the great 
 Lord of those heavenly hosts, are set as it were 
 in array against them." Upon this paraphrase 
 I shall only observe, that if the fiery appear- 
 ances in the sky mentioned by Josephus, and 
 which seem to have been similar to those ob- 
 served during the civil wars in England, and 
 at various other places and times, are really 
 alluded-to in the prophecy, it must be in the 
 former part of it. Where Matthew merely says, 
 that there should be " famines, and pestilences, 
 and earthquakes, in divers places*;" Luke am- 
 plifies thus : ff And great earthquakes shall be 
 in divers places, and famines, and pestilences : 
 and fearful sights and great wonders shall there 
 be from heaven." -\ This will agree with Josephus : 
 for that historian describes the celestial phaeno- 
 mena as having been seen before the siege and 
 capture of Jerusalem, and as portending those 
 eventsj; wherefore it is violating the facts to 
 represent these as being what are foretold as 
 the appearing of the Son of man and his coming 
 in the clouds of heaven, ce after the tribulation 
 of those days :" beside being a mean applica- 
 tion of a most majestic prediction. However, 
 we have only introduced this popular writer's 
 paraphrase, for the sake of his note upon it. 
 On the words, Immediately after the tribulation of 
 
 * Ch. xxiv. 7. t Ch. xxi. 11. 
 
 t Jewish War, B. vi. Ch. 5, 3. 
 
 T T 
 
322 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 those days, he remarks thus : cf Archbishop Til- 
 lotson, and Brennius, with many other learned 
 interpreters,, imagine, that our Lord here makes 
 the transition from the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 which had been the subject of his discourse thus 
 far, to the general judgment : but I think, as it 
 would be very harsh to suppose all the sufferings 
 of the Jewish nation, in all ages, to be called 
 the tribulation of those days;" [what occasion, 
 by the by, for supposing the sufferings of the 
 Jewish nation in all ages to be treated of at 
 all?] tc so it would, on the other hand, be 
 equally so to say, that the general judgment, 
 which probably will not commence till at least 
 a thousand years after their restoration, will 
 happen immediately after their sufferings ; nor 
 can I find any one instance in which zuftecos [im- 
 mediately'} is used in such a strange latitude. 
 What is said below (in Matt. xxiv. 34, Mark 
 xiii. 30, and Luke xxi. 32,) seems also an in- 
 superable objection against such an interpret- 
 ation. I am obliged therefore to explain this 
 section as in the paraphrase; though I acknow- 
 ledge many of the figures used may with more 
 literal propriety be applied to the last day, 
 to which there may be a remote though not an 
 immediate reference/' Moved by these con- 
 siderations, this worthy divine, though he sees 
 some difficulties in the way, determines to apply 
 the prophecy, thus far, to the destruction of Je 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 323 
 
 rusalem. But when he comes to the thirty-sixth 
 verse,, though the series continues to flow without 
 the least sign of interruption, he paraphrases the 
 words, ff But of that day and hour knoweth no 
 man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Fa- 
 ther only," in reference to the ff final sentence" 
 of all mankind; and adds this note: fs I cannot 
 agree with Dr. Clarke in referring this verse to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, the particular day 
 of which was not a matter of great importance; 
 and as for the season of it, I see not how it could 
 properly be said to be entirely unknown, after 
 such an express declaration that it should be 
 in that generation. It seems therefore much 
 fitter, with Dr. Whitby (after Grotius,) to ex- 
 plain it of the last day, when heaven and earth 
 shall pass away." Well then, the Doctor has 
 now taken the leap. The simple connective 
 " but" has carried him over an interval, of not 
 less, according to his computation, than three 
 thousand years. No sooner however has he 
 taken this leap, than he deems it necessary to 
 jump back again. He seems to apply the very 
 next verses to the subject just dismissed: but in 
 a note on the fortieth and forty-first verses, 
 " Then shall two be in the field/' &c. he ex- 
 plicitly says, that though these words " may 
 allusively be accommodated to the day of judg- 
 ment, yet he doubts not they originally refer to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, to which alone they 
 
 T T 2 
 
324 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 are properly applicable." He now, however, 
 determines to fly for the last time across the 
 gulf: so, he adds, " I humbly conceive that the 
 grand transition, about which commentators are 
 so much divided, and so generally mistaken, is 
 made precisely after these two verses." Let the 
 reader then examine whether he can here find 
 the marks of (e the grand transition/' so conspi- 
 cuous to Dr. Doddridge: or whether he will not 
 rather find that the discourse proceeds in the 
 same unbroken series, making no transition but 
 from the announcement of awful facts, to the 
 deducing from them of weighty admonitions. 
 Thus Dr. Doddridge's well-meant attempt to 
 relieve the hiatus scheme of its difficulties, only 
 issues in a demonstration that the difficulties are 
 
 s 
 
 insuperable. 
 
 Now what unprejudiced mind can resolve to 
 maintain an hypothesis thus incumbered? When 
 it is so evident that the whole prophecy is so con- 
 nected, that the events really contemplated by 
 its Divine Author must flow in uninterrupted 
 succession; who can perseveringly determine to 
 break that succession, by supposing a chasm in 
 it, of two, three, or, perhaps, ten thousand years? 
 How much more natural and easy a solution of 
 the whole is obtained, when a series of occur- 
 rences relating to the spiritual state of man, is 
 regarded as the principal subject in the mind of 
 the Divine Speaker ; when the whole prophecy 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 325 
 
 is considered as describing the vicissitudes of 
 religion in the world, and the states of mankind 
 in regard to religion, from the time when the pre- 
 dictions were uttered till the completion of all 
 prophecy ; and when the circumstances attending 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jews 
 as a nation, so far as they are referred to in the 
 external sense of the words, are viewed as types 
 of that part of the series which extends to the 
 consummation of c< the mystery of iniquity*/' and 
 which is antecedent to the ' ' bringing in of ever- 
 lasting righteousness !" f 
 
 If it should here be asked, Why was not the 
 sequel of the prophecy also given in terms that 
 would have admitted of an accommodation to his- 
 torical events ? it may be answered, Because this 
 was impossible, consistently with the plans of 
 Providence, and the state of mankind, to which 
 the plans of Providence are always adapted. If 
 the consummation of f( the mystery of iniquity'' 
 might be appropriately prefigured by the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, the "bringing in of ever- 
 lasting righteousness" must, if the same style of 
 prophecy were continued, be imaged by the 
 restoration and eternal prosperity of Jerusalem : 
 but as such restoration was inconsistent with the 
 plans of Providence, to have seemed to predict 
 it in connexion with announcements actually 
 referring in their lowest sense to historical events, 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 7. t Dan. ix. 24. 
 
326 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 would have led to unfounded expectations. 
 Although, then,, in the spiritual sense,, the whole 
 of the prophecy flows on in one unbroken series, 
 and the events, as they regard the spiritual state 
 of mankind, proceed in uninterrupted succession, 
 that part of them which did not admit of being 
 typically acted on the external theatre of human 
 affairs, is described by images of a totally differ- 
 ent character from the former. In the Revelation, 
 however, all the symbols of which are such as do 
 not admit of a literal interpretation, the con- 
 cluding imagery forms a proper sequel to that 
 used in the former part of the prophecy before 
 us ; for while the Lord Jesus Christ describes the 
 corruptions of his religion under the type of the 
 calamities ending in the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 the Apocalyptic divine depicts its perfect restor- 
 ation, by the symbol of a " new Jerusalem, 
 coming down from God out of heaven/'* 
 
 This divine book, the Revelation of John, 
 furnishes, also, other decisive evidence, that no 
 part of the prophecies that proceeded from the 
 immediate lips of the Lord Jesus Christ termin- 
 ated in the destruction of Jerusalem ; but that 
 the circumstances connected with that event are 
 merely noticed, as symbolizing events of far 
 higher importance. The Revelation was not 
 written, as is admitted by most of the critics, till 
 at least twenty years after Jerusalem had been 
 
 * Rev. xxi. 2. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 327 
 
 overthrown ; and yet, in that book,, many of the 
 same prophetic symbols are employ ed, in describ- 
 ing the latter fortunes of the Christian Church,, 
 as are used by the Lord Jesus Christ in the pro- 
 phecy under consideration. We there read of 
 ff the temple of God, and the altar ;" of " the 
 court which is without the temple/' and " the 
 holy city ;" as being then to be trodden under 
 foot by the gentiles*, just as if the overturning 
 of Jerusalem by the Romans was yet to be per- 
 formed. We read also of the sun becoming 
 black, and the moon being turned into blood, 
 and the stars of heaven falling to the earthf, just 
 as in the passage already cited from Matthew. 
 It is likewise said of the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
 in the Gospels, " Behold, he corneth with 
 clouds !"J and again, John says, " I looked, 
 and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud 
 one sat like unto the Son of man." And at 
 the conclusion of the book we read, " He which 
 testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
 quickly, Amen:" to which the church answers, 
 " Even so, come Lord Jesus/' || Not to men- 
 tion numerous other coincidences. All which 
 plainly evince, that when the same things are 
 stated in this prophecy of Jesus Christ, they had 
 a spiritual meaning, and did not receive a final 
 fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 * Ch. xi. l, 2. f Ch. vi. 12, 13, J Ch. i. 7. $ Ch. xiv. 14. 
 II Ch.xxii. 20. 
 
328 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 The inference from all this is too obvious not 
 to have been seen by some intelligent writers : and 
 we shall not,, I apprehend, much err, if we con- 
 clude this branch of our inquiry in the words 
 of the candid and learned Jortin : ff The destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, and that second coming of 
 the Son of man to take vengeance on his foes, 
 may perhaps pre-figure the destruction of An- 
 tichristian tyranny, and the manifestation of 
 Christ, that is, of his power and spirit ; and then 
 may commence a better and happier era, and 
 such a renovation, as may be called " new 
 heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness/ "* 
 
 (3.) What then must be the specific nature 
 of that ff renovation/' which this intelligent 
 author saw must be signified by the corning of 
 the Son of man, in the clouds of heaven, with 
 power and great glory ? #nd what light do the 
 terms of the prediction afford, respecting the 
 means by which it is to be brought about? 
 
 We need not atop to explain the words by 
 which this prediction is introduced : fc Imme- 
 diately after the tribulation of those days shall 
 the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not 
 give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
 heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
 shaken:" for these have been sufficiently ex- 
 
 * Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 16 f, 
 Ed. 1805. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 329 
 
 plained in the remarks we made above, when 
 noticing Sir Isaac Newton's manner of interpret- 
 ing" these phrases.* But the circumstances., that 
 he who is to come is called the Son of man, and 
 that the mode of his coming is announced to 
 be in the clouds of heaven; are so remarkable, 
 and so significant, as to demand a particular 
 consideration. 
 
 (4.) Whatever may be meant by the Lord's 
 prophecies respecting his second advent, and 
 whatever the time at which it was to take place ; 
 it is now generally acknowledged, that a personal 
 coming in the ethereal clouds cannot be intended. 
 We have seen how Dr. Doddridge, with some 
 of the other writers who apply this part of 
 the prophecy to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 understands it: and we have noticed what vio- 
 lence is done to the facts of history by such an 
 application. The time and manner of the me- 
 teoric appearance mentioned by Josephus, to 
 which they refer this prediction, were the follow- 
 ing. After relating some remarkable circum- 
 stances which occurred at the feast of unleavened 
 bread, not only prior to the destruction of the 
 city, but " before the Jews' rebellion, and before 
 those commotions that preceded the war;'' that 
 author states, that ff a few days after that feast, 
 before sun -setting, chariots and troops of soldiers 
 
 * P. 258, 259. 
 U U 
 
330 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in their armour were seen running about among 
 the clouds, and surrounding of cities/'* Now, 
 whether this was the same sort of electric phseno- 
 menon as has been frequently seen elsewhere, and 
 has suggested to many observers the idea of 
 armed men combating in the clouds ; or whether, 
 as some wish to understand it, it was a real miracle; 
 having taken place several years before the cap- 
 ture of Jerusalem, it cannot, as noticed above; 
 have been what was meant by the sign of the 
 Son of man in heaven, which was not to appear 
 till after that event : and to apply so weighty a 
 prediction to such an occurrence, is really little 
 better than trifling with the prophecies of Scrip- 
 ture, and again making the Word of God of 
 none effect. Other writers therefore are of 
 opinion, that these words, with much of what 
 follows, have no specific meaning at all, but 
 are only intended to denounce divine judgments 
 in general. f However it is most certain, as 
 every person of plain common sense will con- 
 clude, that the words of Infinite Wisdom, the 
 declarations of Omniscience, are not thus to 
 be emptied of their meaning, and treated as if 
 
 * Jewish War, B. vi. ch. 5, 3. (Whistoii's translation.) 
 f " Then shall the sign, fyc. Then shall the supreme power 
 and authority of the Messiah so conspicuously appear, that 
 all the nations of the earth shall acknowledge him in this 
 dreadful judgment." Beausobre and L'Enfant's Note. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 331 
 
 they were idle bombast of human composi- 
 tion, to be put almost on a level with the 
 
 *' words 
 
 Spoke by an idiot; full of sound and fury, 
 'Signifying nothing." 
 
 It is degrading- enough to divinely inspired 
 writers, such as were the prophets of the Old 
 Testament, to judge of their effusions by the 
 rules of ordinary poetry, (as is done even by 
 critics who profess to esteem them most highly,) 
 and to suppose that the expressive symbols with 
 which they every where abound, are introduced 
 like the artificial figures of uninspired authors, 
 merely to elevate the subject in a general 
 manner, but without any specific and appro- 
 priated meaning : but to imagine that he who 
 spake as never man spake*, all whose words are 
 spirit and are life\, should not be above the 
 tinsel arts of rhetoric, or should be capable of 
 using a single expression without a specific 
 meaning, and that a meaning worthy of a speaker 
 who was the Truth Itself; is indeed to form 
 derogatory notions of his sacred character, and of 
 the natureof divine language : it is plucking down 
 heavenly wisdom from above the stars, to seat 
 her in the dust. Most assuredly, every syllable 
 that ever proceeded from the lips of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, or that was dictated to inspired 
 writers by his spirit, must have had a specific, 
 * John vii. 46. f Ch. vi. 63. 
 
 u u 2 
 
332 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 determinate,, divine meaning. Thus,, when he 
 informs us of so important a fact as that the Son 
 of man will come again in the clouds of heaven, 
 he must intend to apprise us of some distinct, 
 definite, great event: and every word of the 
 prediction must have a distinct, definite, spiritual 
 signification. 
 
 It is remarkable, that all the passages in 
 which the second coming of the Lord is fore- 
 told, speak of it as an appearing of him in heaven 
 or the sky, and, generally, in the clouds: It is 
 remarkable also, that, whenever his second 
 coming is treated of, it is always called the 
 coming of the Son of man ; or, if other words 
 are used, they are such as bear, spiritually, the 
 same meaning. The peculiar applicability of 
 this phrase to this event, is exemplified in an ex- 
 traordinary manner in the answer of Jesus Christ 
 to the adjuration of the high-priest: ec The high- 
 priest said unto him, I adjure thee, by the living 
 God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Son of 
 God/' He answered in the form of assent cus- 
 tomary in the language in which he spoke, 
 " Thou hast said:" but immediately proceeding 
 to announce his second corning, he drops the 
 title which he had just claimed of Son of God, and 
 takes instead of it that of Son of man; say- 
 ing, cc Nevertheless I say unto you, that here- 
 after ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the 
 right hand of power, and corning in the clouds 
 
THE SCBPITURES ASSERTED, &C. 333 
 
 of heaven/'* There is in fact but one regular 
 prophetic announcement of the second coming- 
 of the Lord,, in which the Divine Being who is 
 to come is not, in so many words, stated to be 
 the Son of man, and in which the mode of his 
 coming is not affirmed to be in the clouds of 
 heaven : and in that one passage, as we shall see 
 presently such other words are used, as, mean, 
 in their genuine sense, precisely the same 
 things.f 
 
 We proceed then, first, to investigate the 
 meaning of the Lord's title of the Son of man. 
 We will begin with examining the manner in 
 which it is used iu Scripture ; and having first 
 discovered its signification in practice, we will 
 state the grounds of it in Analogy. 
 
 (5.) A very remarkable circumstance con- 
 nected with the use of the phrase, " Son of 
 man/' in application to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 is this; that, except in a passage of Daniel and 
 two in the Revelation, it is never applied to 
 him except by his own mouth: and in those 
 instances is not addressed to him, but is used of 
 him, by prophets speaking under inspiration 
 
 * Matt, xx vi. 63, 64. See also Dan. vii. 13, 14; Matt. xxiv. 
 30,31; Markxiii. 26; Luke xxi. 27; Rev. i. 7, compared 
 with ver. 14 ; Ch. xiv. 14. 
 
 f We do Dot here include the notices of this event con- 
 tained in the Apostolic Epistles, those notices only being ap- 
 plications of the prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ in 
 person, not original predictions. 
 
334 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 from him. The phrases ff Son of God/' and 
 <f Son of man/' occur,, in reference to him, with 
 nearly equal frequency., and are each mentioned 
 about eighty times. The title cc Son of God/' 
 though sometimes used by himself, is much 
 oftener applied to him by others; whereas the 
 title ff Sori of man" is never given to him, except 
 in the above three instances, by any but him- 
 self. The reason, no doubt, is, because the 
 phrase, fc Son of man/' in common apprehen- 
 sion, bears a different meaning from that which 
 it carries when used by the Lord Jesus Christ 
 in reference to himself; because, if applied to 
 him with the ideas men in general attach to it, 
 it would be unsuitable and derogatory : and 
 therefore, though there are some who prefer to 
 speak of the divine Saviour by his title of Son 
 of man, meaning by it just what the words in 
 their ordinary acceptation convey, Paul and the 
 other apostles, who knew that in this acceptation 
 they are wholly inapplicable to their glorified 
 Lord, never presumed to speak of him by that 
 epithet.* 
 
 It is commonly supposed, that the Lord calls 
 himself the Son of man in reference to his birth 
 of a human mother : but in this sense it would 
 
 * I have read some remarks of the same purport as th e 
 above in some eminent writer : I think in Dr. Paley, and 
 in his iSopmong : but on looking for the passage, to make a 
 reference, as this was going to the press I could not find it. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 335 
 
 be entirely unsuited to him after his resurrection ; 
 because, while he never was the Son of man in 
 respect to what men in general receive from their 
 fathers, his person, as most divines acknowledge, 
 underwent such a change at his resurrection, 
 that he could no longer be considered, with any 
 propriety, as the son of Mary. It is remarkable 
 also, that even while he was in the world, though 
 he continually adverted to his relationship to his 
 divine Father, he never acknowledged any to his 
 human mother: she never was called his mother 
 by his own mouth : on some occasions he even 
 refused to own her in that character: and al- 
 though, in his childhood, it is said of her and 
 Joseph, that he ff was subject unto them;" this 
 arose from the necessity of the case, and because 
 he was willing in all things to observe the laws 
 of order and Cf to fulfil all righteousness;" yet 
 eyen then he expressly disallowed her claims 
 to parental authority.* So also he corrected 
 the gross conceptions of the Jews respecting 
 the Messiah, as being the Son of David, in a 
 manner which plainly shewed, that, as to his 
 person, he owned no affinity with that prince, 
 but only with that representative character 
 which David is generally admitted to have 
 borne : for, after quoting the passage of the 
 Psalms, in which David says, cc The Lord said 
 unto my lord; Sit thou on my right hand till I 
 * See John ii. 4. Matt. xii. 46 to 49. Luke ii. 49. 
 
336 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 make thine enemies thy footstool/' he says,, cc If 
 David, in spirit, [or by the spirit, by inspir- 
 ation,] call him Lord, how is he then his son ?"* 
 This question the Jews were unable to answer: 
 no more can they answer it, who believe that 
 Jesus Christ is called, in a merely literal sense, 
 the Son of man. If he owns no proper relation- 
 ship with David as a man, most certainly he can 
 own none with any other human being. As it 
 is only in a representative sense that he is the 
 Son of David, so is it only in a representative 
 sense that he is the Son of man. It is not, 
 however, here intended to investigate, generally, 
 what is the true character and nature of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, or to establish any doctrine upon 
 that subject ; but only to endeavour to ascertain 
 what is the scriptural sense of the title " Son 
 of man :" and if any doubt should yet remain 
 whether it is taken by the Lord in reference to 
 his birth of a human mother, the following de- 
 claration, which affirms the omnipresence of the 
 divine principle so named, should remove all 
 uncertainty: Jesus said, cc No man hath ascended 
 up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, 
 even the Son of man which is in heaven."-^ Now 
 certainly, if we understand by cc the Son of 
 man" that personal form which the Lord took 
 from Mary, this was not previously in heaven, 
 and, of course did not " come down from hea- 
 * Matt. xxii. 41 to 46. f John iii. 13. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 337 
 
 Ven;" nor was this Son of man, when speaking 
 these words,, in heaven. The phrase "Son -of 
 man/' must then mean some divine principle 
 which is not controlled by the limitations of space, 
 but is capable of being, at the same moment of 
 time,, in heaven, and upon earth. 
 
 What then is there,, among the peculiar cha- 
 racters of the Lord Jesus Christ,, to which this 
 description is appropriate? His most peculiar 
 character is,, that he is THE WORD : " In the 
 beg/inning was the Word,, and the Word was 
 with God,, ami the Word was God. And the 
 Word was made flesh."* What is the Divine 
 Word, but the Divine Truth ? and Jesus Christ 
 declares that he is cc THE TRUTH. "f He is 
 also the Word of the Father; and,, address- 
 ing the Father, he says, ' ce thy Word is Truth."* 
 Suppose, then, it should be in reference to 
 his character as the Word, or the Truth, 
 that Jesus Christ calls himself the Son of man. 
 Let us assume this to be the case ; and let 
 us see how this idea will agree with the oc- 
 casions on which he designates himself by this 
 title. 
 
 For it is to be observed, that the Divine 
 Being assumes, in the Scriptures, a great va- 
 riety of names and titles; and it cannot be 
 imagined, if the Scriptures are really dictated 
 by Infinite Wisdom, that these are applied in 
 * John i. 1, 14. f Ch. xiv. 6. | Ch. xvifc 17. 
 X X 
 
338 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 an irregular,, capricious manner. In the Old 
 Testament the Lord takes the names of Jeho- 
 vah, the Lord, God, the Lord Jehovih or Lord 
 God, Jehovah Sabaoth or Lord of Hosts, the 
 Holy One of Israel, the Mighty One of Jacob, 
 the Almighty, and several others : In the New 
 Testament we find applied to him the names of 
 Jesus, Christ, the Lord, God, the Son of God, 
 the Son of man, the Prophet, the Lamb, &c. 
 There can be no doubt that there is some dis- 
 tinction of meaning in them all ; as also, that 
 that name is always employed which best suits 
 the specific occasion. And we will venture to 
 affirm that it would be found, on an examina- 
 tion of the Gospels, that when the divine 
 power of the Lord Jesus Christ, his divinity, 
 his unity with the Father, faith in him, and 
 life from him, are the subjects treated-of, he 
 calls himself " the Son/' and fc the Son of 
 God ;" but that where the subjects of dis- 
 course are his passion, judgment, and, in ge- 
 neral, redemption, salvation, and reformation, 
 as also his second coming, he always calls 
 himself the Son of man. Now if he applies 
 this title to himself in reference to his cha- 
 racter of the Divine Truth, or Word, we shall 
 easily see the reason why he employs it on these 
 occasions. We will adduce a few instances by 
 way of illustration. 
 
 Several examples might be given of the Lord's 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 339 
 
 using this name when his passion is treated-of; 
 as in this passage : Jesus said to the disciples, 
 <c Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son 
 of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, 
 and unto the scribes ; and they shall condemn 
 him to death, arid shall deliver him to the Gen- 
 tiles ; and they shall mock him, and shall scourge 
 him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill 
 him : and the third day he shall rise again."* 
 Were it not for the distinct meaning of the 
 phrase, " Son of man/' would not Jesus, who 
 begins the speech in the first person, ff we go 
 up to Jerusalem/' have continued it in the same 
 person, and have said, " I shall be delivered to 
 the chief-priests/' &c.? The reason why he 
 changed the person, and said " the, Son of man 
 shall be delivered/' &c. ; was, because He 
 suffered the Jews to treat his natural body in a 
 manner answering to that in which they had 
 spiritually treated his Word ; and because the 
 sufferings to which he submitted, represented, 
 by an exact analogy, the manner in which the 
 Jews had perverted the Word, or the Divine 
 Truth contained in it, and had deprived it, 
 as to themselves, of all life, having ec made 
 it of none effect by their traditions/' We see 
 then a good reason why, when foretelling his 
 passion, he called himself the Son of man,, if this 
 title belongs to him in his character as the Word. 
 
 * Mark x. 33, 34. 
 
 x x 2 
 
340 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 The same reason will account for his always 
 calling himself the Son of man when judgment is- 
 treated of. Thus he says,, in the sequel of the 
 prophecy before us, " When the Son of man 
 shall come in his glory,, then shall he sit upon 
 the throne of his glory : and before him shall 
 be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate 
 them one from another,, as a shepherd divideth 
 his sheep from the goats*:" where judgment is 
 evidently the subject, and the Judge is called 
 the Son of man. The reason is explicitly stated 
 in the following passage: " The Father judgetk 
 no man, but hath committed all judgment to the 
 Sonf;" "and/' as is added, a little below, 
 (C hath given him authority to execute judgment 
 also :" Why? "because he is the Son ofman^:'* 
 a reason which would be no reason at all, were 
 it not that this title designates the Lord as to his 
 character of Divine Truth, or the Word, which, 
 all know, is what must judge every one : Ac- 
 cordingly, the Lord says on the same subject, 
 Cf If any man hear my words and believe not, 
 / judge him not : for I came not to judge the 
 world, but to save the world : he that rejecteth 
 me, and receiveth not rny words, hath one 
 that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, 
 the same shall judge him in the last day." This 
 proof seems demonstrative. We are repeatedly 
 
 * Matt. xxv. 31, 32: see also Cli. xix. 2. 
 t John v. 22. J Ver. 27. John xii. 47, 48. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 341 
 
 assured that the world will be judged by the 
 Son of man : yet Jesus declares that he does 
 not come to judge in person, but that his word 
 is what judges: consequently, when he takes the 
 title of Son of man, it must be in reference to 
 his character as the Divine Truth or Word. 
 
 We have also stated,, that, for the same rea- 
 son,, the Lord is called the Son of man when 
 redemption,, salvation, and reformation, are the 
 subjects of discourse. Thus we read, " The Son 
 man came to give his life a ransom [or redemp- 
 tion] for many*:" ef The Son of man came to 
 seek and to save that which was lostf:" ff He 
 that soweth good seed is the Son of man\ :" with 
 many similar statements. Now as the Lord 
 effects these works in and for man by means 
 of his Truth or Word; and as the title, " Son 
 of man/* means the Lord as to the Truth or the 
 Word; therefore he assumes this title when 
 treating of these his divine operations. Ad- 
 mitting this idea, in all the instances which have 
 been adduced, and in every other that can be 
 found, the use of the title, lf Son of man/' is 
 singularly beautiful and appropriate : upon any 
 other supposition, it is impossible to account 
 for its selection, in preference to any other of 
 the Lord's divine names. 
 
 The instances then in which the Lord speaks 
 of himself as the Son of man, appear amply to 
 * Luke ix. 56. t Ch. xix. 10. J Matt. xiii. 37. 
 
342 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 evince, that he always assumes this name in 
 reference to his character as the Divine Truth 
 or Word : but a passage remains to be mentioned 
 which alone is sufficient to make it certain. We 
 have seen above, that he who is to come again, 
 is constantly, one instance alone excepted, called 
 the Son of man : that instance is in the nineteenth 
 chapter of the Revelation, where the second 
 coming of the Lord is described in these words : 
 <c I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; 
 and he that sat on him is called Faithful and 
 True; and in righteousness doth he judge and 
 make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, 
 and on his head were many crowns : and he 
 had a name written which no man knew but 
 he himself: and he was clothed in a vesture 
 dipped in blood. And his name is called the 
 Word of God."* Here is an open declaration, 
 that it is in his character as the Word of God, 
 that the Lord is to make his second advent: 
 but in every other instance it is said that he is 
 to come as the Son of man : the inference is un- 
 aToidable, that, in Scripture-language, the Son of 
 man means the Word of God. 
 
 * Vcr. 11, 12, 13. Observe how this statement, that the 
 Word of God was seen in heaven riding on a white horse, 
 corroborates the signification of horses, and of riding on them, 
 as given above, p. 307. If a horse denotes the understanding 
 of truth, and to ride on a horse to communicate instruction, 
 we see a beautiful reason why the Word of God personified 
 was seen in that action. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 343 
 
 (6.) The meaning* of the phrase, " Son of 
 man/* is now, it is hoped, pretty clearly estab- 
 lished by its use in Scripture: it is necessary 
 however to add a word respecting its ground in 
 Analogy. 
 
 It was briefly shewn in our last Lecture, that 
 the natural relation between a son and his father 
 exactly answers to that which exists between the 
 thoughts of the understanding and the affections 
 of the will. Reduce a man, if that were pos- 
 sible, to a state of entire apathy, so that he 
 should not be animated by any affection or desire 
 whatever; and his torpor would be so com- 
 plete, that he would not be conscious of a single 
 thought ; he would, in fact, be deprived of the 
 power of thinking. Wherever thought is in 
 exercise, affection is in exercise; and the 
 former is in all cases generated by the latter. 
 No one, indeed, while life remains, can be so 
 deprived of affection of every kind, and for every 
 object, as to become void of thought altogether : 
 yet most people experience seasons in which 
 their thoughts are less active than at others; 
 and if they examine the state of their affections 
 at such times, they will invariably find them to 
 be listless and imexcited: "on the contrary," 
 as observed abovef, " when any affection is in 
 high excitement, how active are the thoughts! 
 What a tumult of ideas; what multitudes of 
 
 * P. 207. 
 
344 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 reasonings., crowd into the intellect, when violent 
 passions agitate the will." These are facts which 
 every one must have observed; and they afford 
 a proof which is demonstrative., that thought is 
 the offspring of affection. 
 
 But what is the object of all man's affections, 
 but goodness? not indeed,, in all cases, goodness 
 which is really such, but what he chooses to consi- 
 der as such. Evil is too often substituted for good- 
 ness in man's affections: but then, it is never evil,, 
 as evil, which he makes the object of his attach- 
 ment; but evil appearing to him as good : what- 
 ever he loves, he loves for the sake of something 
 in it which he finds delightful to him, and which 
 he deems a good. Good then, either really or 
 mistakenly such, is always the object of man's 
 love or affections. In like manner, truth, or 
 something that may be referred to truth, is 
 always the material of his thoughts. His opinions 
 may be false; but they are true to him ; and he 
 dwells on and maintains them as truth. A man's 
 thoughts, likewise, or the opinions which in his 
 heart he accounts to be true, always take a 
 character from his affections, and from the objects 
 which he accounts to be good. Whatever he 
 loves, he also loves to think of. If it is an object 
 in prospect, his thoughts run upon the means of 
 obtaining it; if in possession, his thoughts 
 dwell upon the satisfaction which he finds in it. 
 There are, then, various considerations which 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 345 
 
 may convince us, that there is the same relation 
 between Good and Truth, as there is between 
 Affection and Thought : the one may be con- 
 sidered as an outbirth, which discovers the exis- 
 tence and the quality of the other: and as 
 Thought is manifestly the offspring of Affection, 
 so is Truth the progeny of Good. Tn the lan- 
 guage then of analogy, Truth would be called 
 the son, and Good the father. 
 
 According to this view, it will easily be seen > 
 why Cf the Word" mentioned in the Scriptures, 
 which we have already seen is another name for 
 ff the Truth," is called, in the language of 
 Analogy, <e the Son of God;" and thus it will 
 also be seen, that the phrase, ce the Son of God," 
 decyphered by the laws of Analogy, means " the 
 Divine Truth .*' This explanation will not 
 resolve {e the Son of God" into a mere attribute, 
 and nothing more, if all that is said on the sub- 
 ject in the Scriptures be taken into considera- 
 tion; nor, indeed, if reason alone be consulted. 
 For though we can form an idea of Truth, or 
 of Divine Truth, abstractedly, as a property or 
 attribute, yet we readily perceive that a mere 
 property or attribute is nothing, separate from 
 a personal being whose property or attribute it 
 is. The Son of God, then, of the Scriptures, 
 is the Divine Truth personified ; as is evident 
 from its being a name peculiarly given to " the 
 Word made flesh," and never used till the Word 
 
 Y Y 
 
346 LENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 was made flesh,, otherwise than in reference to 
 that event. 
 
 But although it must easily be seen, that, in 
 the language of Analogy., the Divine Truth 
 may be properly called the Son of God ; it may 
 not so immediately be discovered, why, as stated 
 above, the Divine Truth is also called the Son of 
 man. Here then it is necessary to observe, that 
 though the Divine Truth is described by both 
 these names, they respectively refer to it under 
 a different form ; so that the appearance of the 
 Divine Truth which is designated by the title 
 " Son of man," is lower and more external 
 than that which is designated by the title cc Son 
 of God," which is respectively higher and more 
 internal. The one is the pure Divine Truth as 
 proceeding from the bosom of Divine Love, and 
 not yet intelligible to created beings, but in its 
 first preparation for becoming so : the other 
 is the Divine Truth under an accommodated form, 
 adapted to the capacities of apprehension and 
 reception in finite and human creatures. This 
 will account for its being called the Son of man. 
 In no state whatever does the Divine Truth pro- 
 ceed from man: man can never be the author 
 of it : yet it is on account of man that it is pre- 
 sented in the form of which we are here speak- 
 ing: and being so accommodated for his sake, 
 and by bringing it within the sphere of the 
 human intellect as that exists both in this 
 
&c. 347 
 
 world arid in the worlds beyond the grave, it is 
 agreeable to analogy to denominate it, thus 
 manifested, the Son of man. 
 
 The Son of God, then, in the symbolic lan- 
 guage of Analogy and of the Scriptures, is the 
 pure Divine Truth itself; the Son of man is the 
 same Divine Truth so modified as to be accom- 
 modated to human reception. Both titles, be- 
 side this abstract meaning, also refer to the 
 Divine Truth personified in the form of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ.* 
 
 * It will corroborate what is advanced above, here to 
 observe, how naturally the idiom of the language in which 
 the Scriptures of the Old Testament are written, coincides, 
 frequently, with the language of Analogy. In the language 
 of analogy, we have seen that the term Son denotes a relation- 
 ship different from that of natural generation; and in the Hebrew 
 idiom it is often applied to things which are not literally 
 connected by any such relationship. Thus in the original 
 of Job v. 7, sparks are called " the sons of the burning coal;" 
 an arrow, again, is " the son of the bow," [ch. xli. 28,] or 
 arrows are " the sons of the quiver," [Lam. iii. 13,] So, a 
 fruitful hill is " a horn the son of oil" [Isa. v. 1,] a valiant 
 man is " the son of strength," [1 Sam. xiv. 52,] and a person 
 in danger of dying, tilted for it, as it were, by circumstances, 
 is " a son of death." [1 Sam. xxvi. 16, 2 Sam. xii. 5,] 
 Gussetius (in his Comment. Ling. Heb. sub voce PJ33) 
 reckons ten classes of the figurative application, in the Old 
 Testament, of the term son ; and as the New Testament* 
 though written in Greek, follows, in its language, the Hebrew 
 idiom, he shews that all these uses of the word have their 
 parallels in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles. 
 If then a spark is termed " the son of the coal," and an arrow 
 
 Y Y 2 
 
348 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 (7.) If then the title Son of man, in the lan- 
 guage of Scripture., founded in that of Analogy, 
 is appropriated to the Lord in his character as 
 the Word ; it is easy to see that the <c renova- 
 tion' ' of pure Christianity which is in general 
 indicated by the predictions respecting the second 
 coming of the Lord as the Son of man, must be 
 brought about by a renewed and more extensive 
 discovery of the divine truth of his Word. But 
 how does this agree with the announcement, that 
 " they should see the Son of man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven with power and great glory?" 
 What can those clouds be, in which the Son of 
 man, or the Lord as to his Divine Truth, will 
 make his advent ? 
 
 It will go a good way towards putting our 
 
 " the son of the bow," or of " the quiver" as proceeding 
 thence; most properly is the Divine Truth, as proceeding 
 from the Divine Essence, or Divine Good, denominated '* the 
 Son of God"" the Only- begotten of the Father;" and if 
 a person in the prospect of certain or imminent death, is 
 called " a son of death," because fated for it, and as it 
 were appointed to it, as the phrase is sometimes rendered in 
 the English version; [Ps. Ixxix. 11. cii. 20;} most properly 
 is the Divine Truth named " the Son of man," when adapted 
 to human apprehension. 
 
 Another instance, connected with the present subject, of 
 the agreement of the Hebrew tongue with the language of 
 Analogy, may also be worth remarking; it is, that as, in the 
 language of Analogy, the term father has reference to the 
 principle of love or good, or to will in general; so the word 
 by which it is expressed in Hebrew, is derived from a root 
 vhich signifies to will or desire. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 349 
 
 conceptions in a right train upon this question, 
 to notice, (what seems generally to have been 
 much overlooked,) that the circumstance of the 
 Lord's having an abode in the clouds, is by no 
 means discovered for the first time in the pre- 
 dictions relating to his second coming. All that 
 is at all new in this respect, in these predictions, 
 is, that the Lord will then be seen coming in the 
 clouds; which is never stated in reference to his 
 first coming in the flesh : but that he at all times' 
 shelters his glory in the clouds, or has his resi- 
 dence behind or within them, and uses them as 
 a vehicle, was known in the time of David, and 
 of Moses. The latter says, " There is none like 
 unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the 
 heavens in thy help, and in his excellency upon 
 the sky*; 9 ' where the word translated the sky, 
 is one which in many other places is rendered 
 the clouds. But the book of Psalms abounds, 
 more than any other book of the Holy Word, 
 with magnificent descriptions of the Lord, and 
 of the modes of his appearance ; arid there we 
 find him continually spoken of as attended with 
 clouds. We will here only notice one sublime 
 passage, which alone is sufficient to instruct us 
 in the meaning of this important symbol. 
 
 The hundred-and-fourth Psalm commences 
 thus: <e Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord 
 my God, thou art very great, thou art clothed 
 
 * Deut. xxxiii. 26. 
 
350 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 with honour and majesty : who coverest thyself 
 with light as with a garment ; who stretchest out 
 the heavens like a curtain : who layeth the 
 beams of his chambers in the waters ; who 
 maketh the clouds his chariot ; who walketh 
 upon the wings of the wind/' Whoever will 
 consult, with this, the other passages in which 
 clouds are mentioned in the same book*, must 
 be satisfied, that some spiritual thing of which 
 clouds are the proper emblems is continually 
 ascribed in the Holy Word to Jehovah, as a 
 regular appendage of his ineffable majesty, and 
 must be convinced, that though they are called 
 the clouds of heaven and the clouds of the sky, 
 the vapoury clouds that surround the earth, and 
 the visible heavens or sky in which they float, 
 are not the things really intended. 
 
 It is first to be observed, as a general remark, 
 that the phaenomena of nature, when adverted 
 to in the Word of God, are not regarded in the 
 manner in which they are understood by philo- 
 sophers, when this differs from their appearance 
 to the senses, but are always spoken of in the 
 popular way in which they strike an ordinary 
 observer : for the design of Scripture is, not to 
 give lessons in natural philosophy, but of spi- 
 ritual wisdom, only using the images taken 
 from nature for that purpose. Thus the Scrip- 
 
 * See particularly Ps. xviii. 10, 11, xxxvi. 5, Ixviii. 32, 33, 
 34, xcvii. 1, 2, cviii. 3, 4. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 351 
 
 tures, when they allude to the motion of the sun, 
 always seem to assume it to be real, speaking 
 of it as rejoicing to run its course, and the like; 
 without saying any thing of the real fact, so 
 different from the appearance, that it is not the 
 sun which moves, but the earth. Thus again 
 the truth of philosophy informs us, that the 
 clouds do not so properly belong to the heavens 
 or sky, as to the earth, being nothing but a col- 
 lection of watery particles exhaled from the earth 
 and sea, and forming a sort of hollow sphere at 
 a small distance from the terraqueous globe: 
 whereas, to the eye alone, they appear as the 
 lowest basis of the ethereal regions, as a sort 
 of floor spread under the starry heavens. So do 
 the starry heavens themselves appear to be very 
 different from what they are ascertained to be by 
 science, wearing the appearance of a blue arch 
 of some positive substance, with the heavenly 
 bodies, as they are called, stuck on it: whereas 
 the heavenly bodies are known to be other suns 
 and worlds suspended by some inconceivable 
 power in the immensity of space ; whilst the 
 blueness of the seeming vault of the sky is 
 merely the consequence of our looking into 
 a dark void through the denser atmosphere 
 which surrounds the earth, and which is illu- 
 minated with the light of the sun or moon. 
 Now it is according to these appearances, that 
 the heavens and ethereal regions, from the 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 highest part of them, which appears studded 
 with stars, to the lowest which is bounded by 
 clouds, are considered in the Holy Word ; and 
 this for the sake of the exactly suitable emblems 
 which they thus afford for the conveyance of 
 instruction in divine subjects. With this sort 
 of picture, then, of the visible heavens in our 
 thoughts, let us see how the Science of Analogies 
 will help us to understand the passage we have 
 quoted from the Psalms. 
 
 " O Lord my God, thou art very great, thou 
 art clothed with honour and majesty/' Here 
 we have a description of the Lord, as he is in 
 himself, and in the first emanation of his divine 
 energies, as they proceed to impart spiritual life 
 to his creatures. When he is said to be ff very 
 great," the reference is to his infinity, his un- 
 fathomable greatness, his inconceivable love, as 
 it exists in himself, beyond the remotest compre- 
 hension of any finite creature: and when it is 
 said, ef thou art clothed with honour and majesty," 
 the reference is to the first putting forth of his 
 divine excellencies of love and wisdom, in a 
 sphere of intense ardour without him, and form- 
 ing as it were " a sun of righteousness with heal- 
 ing in its rays," that beneficent fountain of life 
 to all creatures, of which it is said in the gospel, 
 that the Lord fc maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good." This is considered, in reference 
 to the images drawn from the visible heavens, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 presently made use of, as beyond any thing that 
 the eye can reach, as exceeding the highest 
 limits of the firmament Then it follows, " Who 
 coverest thyself with light as with a garment;" 
 which is an image taken from the lucidity that 
 fills the visible heavens, and which might na- 
 turally be regarded as the first covering of that 
 still higher region, supposed to be the seat of 
 God's immediate presence. As he no where in 
 nature presents himself to the sight, a mind ac- 
 knowledging his existence, yet drawing its ideas 
 from the appearances of the heavens uncorrected 
 by science, would readily conceive the immediate 
 abode of Deity to be above all that the eye can 
 reach, and concealed from its view by the lucid 
 mantle of the starry heaven. We well know, 
 however, that this cannot be the case. We know 
 that the starry heaven is in fact below us as well 
 as above us, so that all height therein is merely 
 relative to the situation of our globe at any given 
 moment; wherefore it is in vain to think, by soar- 
 ing in imagination beyond the limits of the visible 
 heavens, to find the immediate throne of God. 
 Consequently, the light which we behold in the 
 firmament is not the garment with which the 
 Lord covereth himself: yet it is here spoken of 
 as if it were : and why ? because it is the proper 
 symbol and representative of something which 
 really is so. We have noticed, in our last Lec- 
 ture, what the spiritual thing is of which light 
 
 z z 
 
354 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 is the appropriate emblem. It is indeed so 
 obvious, that every one sees it at the first glance : 
 and common language retains the use of the 
 symbol,, as an elegant way of designating the 
 thing ,to which it answers in spiritual analogy. 
 What is more usual than to talk of the light of 
 truth and the darkness of ignorance, to speak 
 of writings or sentiments as containing light in 
 them,, or the contrary, when we mean that they 
 are irradiated or otherwise with the beams of 
 truth? The light then with \vhich the Lord 
 covereth himself as with a garment, is the 
 Divine Truth proceeding from, and investing, 
 his Divine Good, containing also the Divine 
 Good, which is spiritual heat, in its bosom, and 
 thus recreating with its rays all the angelic hosts. 
 We pass over a few words, the explanation of 
 which is not essential to the inquiry before us, 
 to notice those which say of the Lord, that " he 
 maketh the clouds his chariot/' The clouds, 
 as observed above, are usually considered in 
 Scripture merely as the lowest base of the visible 
 heavens, and as forming a covering or shade to 
 the resplendent light that glows above them: 
 hence, as the light signifies the divine Truth in 
 all the glory of its essentially divine and spiritual 
 nature, the clouds signify the Divine Truth in 
 comparative obscurity, or when shaded over by 
 appearances suited to, and, in some respects, 
 taken from, the ideas of the merely natural man. 
 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERT ED, &C. 355 
 
 Here the truth of natural philosophy will help 
 to illustrate the subject. Although the clouds 
 appear to belong to the heavens, they in reality 
 are composed of exhalations from the earth : yet 
 they are always irradiated, more or less, by 
 light from the ethereal regions, which they 
 transmit to the earth. Thus they aptly represent 
 the Divine Truth that proceeds from the Lord, 
 when enveloped in a covering of natural images 
 and natural ideas, taken from the perceptions 
 of man in a natural state of existence. As light, 
 which is previously mentioned, represents, and 
 is the appropriate symbol of, the Divine Truth 
 as it is perceived in heaven, and by illuminated 
 spiritual minds, so the clouds represent, and are 
 the equally appropriate images of, the Divine 
 Truth as it exists on earth, conveyed in natural 
 language, and clothed with ideas and images 
 taken from the world of nature. Thus they 
 exactly typify the Holy Word, as we possess it, 
 written in a book; that is, they represent and 
 signify the Word in its literal sense, in which it 
 is Divine Truth in its shade, or in its lowest or 
 ultimate form, adapted and modified to the con- 
 ceptions of man considered even as a natural and 
 carnal being ; but within which, or in its spiri- 
 tual sense, is Divine Truth in its clearness and 
 glory, adapted to illuminate with heavenly wis- 
 dom the most refined intellect of man consider- 
 
 z z 2 
 
356 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 eel as a spiritual being,, and of pure spirits them- 
 selves. 
 
 But to point out more distinctly what we 
 mean when we speak of Divine Truth in its 
 clearness and Divine Truth in its shade ; or 
 between Divine Truth as represented by the 
 light of the firmament and Divine Truth as 
 imaged by the clouds of heaven ; it may be 
 expedient to give an example. Every sentence 
 of the Divine Word will afford us one ; though 
 the difference between these two kinds of Divine 
 Truth will appear more striking in some ex- 
 amples than in others. Let us take the pro- 
 phecy which we are considering : ff They shall 
 see the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
 heaven with power and great glory/' Here,, all 
 the expressions made use of, are images taken 
 from the world of nature: such are the terms,, 
 Son of man,, clouds,, power, and glory. It is 
 obvious that the sense which results from the 
 mere combination of the words,, or the literal 
 sense, cannot be that intended by the Divine 
 Speaker; still,, if the words were spoken by 
 the Lord himself, they must be Divine Truth : 
 of course they must be Divine Truth in its low- 
 est for m, or in its shade,, in which the genuine 
 meaning is veiled over in such a manner as not 
 immediately to be seen,, although it nevertheless 
 is actually contained within them. The genuine 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 357 
 
 meaning is, that the Lord., who is the Divine 
 Truth itself, will discover himself, or impart a 
 just knowledge concerning himself and the 
 things of his kingdom., by opening the literal 
 sense of the Holy Word., and disclosing its spi- 
 ritual contents. This,, then,, is that Divine Truth 
 contained in these words, which is represented 
 by the emblem of light or glory; but the words 
 themselves, and the literal sense of them, are 
 the clouds by which the light is shaded and 
 veiled over, the " covering upon the glory/'* 
 
 To draw a general remark from this example, 
 it may be observed, that it illustrates the manner 
 in which the Holy Word is written throughout; 
 only there is a great variety in the density of the 
 veil which the cloud of the literal expression 
 throws over the glory of its spiritual contents. 
 In nature there are clouds of very different kinds, 
 varying from a degree of density that almost ex- 
 cludes entirely the light of heaven, to a thinness 
 which presents scarcely any impediment to the 
 illuminating rays: and just such is the varying 
 character of the letter of the Scriptures, consi- 
 dered as a covering to the genuine Divine Truth 
 contained within. In many passages, as in that 
 before us, the cloud of the letter is so thick, that 
 nothing more of the genuine truth shines through 
 than this; that some extraordinary divine inter- 
 ference will at some period take place: but of the 
 
 * Isa. iv. 5. 
 
358 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 nature of this interference, the letter alone gives 
 us no information. In some parts of the Divine 
 Word, the clouds of the letter are thicker still; 
 as is the case in all those passages from which, 
 if taken alone, sentiments really contrary to the 
 genuine truth might be deduced : such are the 
 passages which seem to ascribe malignant feel- 
 ings to the Divine Being, and which represent 
 him as changing his mind, or as being in any 
 way subject to human infirmities. But in other 
 parts the clouds of which the letter is composed 
 are of so thin a texture, that the light of the ge- 
 nuine truth within is translucent through it; as 
 is the case in the law of the decalogue, and in 
 many of the Lord's precepts in the Gospel. In 
 fact, all that is absolutely necessary to salvation, 
 is, in various parts of the Word, plainly re- 
 vealed; and all such passages, though forming 
 part of what the Scripture calls clouds, are, ne- 
 vertheless, bright and transparent clouds, such 
 as suffer the rays of heavenly light freely to pass 
 through them. Still, clear and bright though 
 the clouds of the letter in many places are, they 
 do not cease to be clouds, and are not that un- 
 diluted light with which the Lord covers his 
 immediate majesty as with a garment. Though 
 a great portion of the literal sense of the Word 
 of God presents us with genuine truth, yet every 
 part of it contains stores of light still more res* 
 plendent within. Every part of the letter is a 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 359 
 
 cloud, though often a beautiful and bright 
 cloud; and every part of it contains a more 
 brilliant glory in its bosom. 
 
 Surely it were much to be wished,, that man- 
 kind in general could be brought to view the 
 Scriptures in this exalting light! How entirely 
 would the mists of infidelity be dispersed before 
 it! How completely would the whole of Sacred 
 Writ be seen to be in harmony with the purest 
 attributes of God, and with the highest reason 
 of man! And, surely, it is easy to see, that there 
 may exist a distinction, in the Scriptures, be- 
 tween Divine Truth in its clearness and Divine 
 Truth in its shade, and that the former is con- 
 tained in their truly spiritual meaning, and the 
 latter in their literal sense ; and also, how aptly 
 they are represented by the light of the firma- 
 ment, or the glory which is always spoken of as 
 surrounding the Divine Presence, and the clouds 
 which veil it ! Surely, the prophecy before us 
 clearly proves the existence of this distinction, 
 and of these senses. When, indeed, we first hear 
 it advanced, that clouds, in Holy Writ, when 
 mentioned in respect to the Lord, signify Divine 
 Truth clothed with natural ideas and images, or 
 the Divine Word in its literal sense, the assertion 
 may seem arbitrary and foreign to the subject : 
 yet how natural does it appear on reflection ! If, 
 as is undeniable, the light of the firmament is 
 an appropriate symbol of Divine Truth in its 
 
360 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 purity ; if it thus is seen that there is between 
 pure light and pure truth a certain and unaltera- 
 ble analogy or mutual relation, so that to men- 
 tion the one when we mean the other is a highly 
 expressive form of speaking, grounded in the 
 very nature and constitution of things ; then, 
 when the relation between the light of the firma- 
 ment and the clouds is examined, it will be found 
 to be exactly similar to that between pure spiri- 
 tual truth, seen in its unclouded, abstract nature, 
 and the same truth veiled over with symbolic 
 language, or invested with a covering of images 
 taken from the world of nature and the ideas of 
 man in his natural state of existence ; or be- 
 tween the interior contents of the Holy Word and 
 its literal form : and thus it will be seen, that to 
 speak of clouds when thereby is meant the literal 
 sense of the Holy Word, is a mode of expression 
 which is also founded in the very nature and im- 
 mutable relations of things, 
 
 (8.) The meaning then of this prophecy, and 
 the means by which the cc renovation/' which 
 Dr. Jortin saw must be intended by it, will be 
 brought about, may now, it is hoped, be suffi- 
 ciently evident. If it be true that by the clouds 
 are signified Divine Truth in its lowest or ulti- 
 mate form, which is the same thing as the Word 
 in its literal sense, it follows, that when the Lord 
 informs us that his second coming will be in the 
 clouds, we are to understand, that it will be 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 361 
 
 effected by an opening of the true meaning of 
 the Holy Word : on which account^ in the pas- 
 sage which we have noticed from the Psalms, the 
 clouds are called the Lord's chariot; a chariot 
 signifying doctrine or instruction, and it being 
 by means of the letter of his Word, and never 
 without it, that the Lord communicates instruc- 
 tion to man. And when we are apprised, that 
 the Lord always takes the title of Son of rnan 
 in reference to his character as Divine Truth,, 
 and as Divine Truth adapted to enlighten human 
 minds, we see with what peculiar propriety it is 
 that he announces his coming, in this character, 
 in the clouds, and with power and great glory; 
 these phrases denoting, that within, and out o 
 the letter of the Holy Word, the efficacy and 
 light of pure Divine Truth will be made appa- 
 rent.* 
 
 3. The last example which we are to offer of 
 the applicability of the Science of Analogies to 
 the interpretation of the prophetical part of the 
 Word of God, is to be taken from the writings 
 of the Apocalyptic Divine; and we have selected 
 his vision of spiritual Babylon; the relation of 
 which, after mentioning that an angel came to 
 shew him the vision, he commences thus: C( So 
 he carried me away in the spirit into the Wilder- 
 
 * See the signification of clouds, when mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture, further illustrated in the Appendix, No. IV. 
 
 3 A 
 
362 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ness. And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet co- 
 loured beast,, full of names of blasphemy, having 
 seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
 arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked 
 with gold and precious stones and pearls; having 
 a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 
 filthiness of her fornication : and upon her fore- 
 head was a name written,, Mystery., Babylon the 
 great, the mother of harlots and abominations of 
 the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with 
 the blood of the saints,, and with the blood of the 
 martyrs of Jesus/'* The description is continu- 
 ed through the whole of this and of the follow- 
 ing chapter. 
 
 As soon as men began freely to examine the 
 Scriptures, at the time of the Reformation,, the pal- 
 pable manner in which the Roman Catholic Reli- 
 gion is portrayed under the emblem of this wo- 
 man, struck every mind ; and from that time to 
 this it has been generally admitted by Protes- 
 tants, that the Harlot of Babylon is the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The application is undoubt- 
 edly just : yet the deep reason of the various 
 symbols employed, has not, perhaps, been ge- 
 nerally seen. For instance : Why is she called, 
 not Rome, but Babylon ? Should it be answered, 
 Because Babylon was the greatest enemy and 
 destroyer of the church of God under the Mosaic 
 dispensation : the question will recur, Why, 
 under a dispensation of an entirely representa- 
 * Rev. xvii. 3 to 6. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 363 
 
 live character, was the king of Babylon made 
 the instrument of destroying the metropolis of 
 Judaea arid the temple of God? Doubtless it 
 must have been, because a representative cha- 
 racter attaches also to Babylon, whenever it is 
 named in the Holy Word : and if modern Rome 
 is spiritually called Babylon, it must be, because 
 the representative character of the Scripture Ba- 
 bylon has become the real one of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 (1 .) When the situation of the places mentioned 
 in the Holy Word, does not alone, as in the case 
 of the land of Gog, indicate what principle they 
 symbolize, it is necessary to note the chief cir- 
 cumstances predicated respecting them; which 
 will generally point to the truth. 
 
 Among the various motives to action by which 
 mankind are governed, there is none which ex- 
 ercises a wider influence than the love of power. 
 This is little attended to among ordinary indi- 
 viduals, because cases do not often occur for its 
 exercise in a very extended form ; and the innu- 
 merable instances in which it displays itself in 
 little matters, escape attention from the very cir- 
 cumstance of their frequency. Yet almost every 
 family will furnish us with instances of persons 
 who are desirous to domineer over those around 
 them : and that the principle is deeply rooted in 
 human nature, in its present state, is evinced by 
 its spontaneous developement in the minds of the 
 
 3 A 2 
 
364 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 young. One cannot become domesticated in a 
 seminary for youth,, without seeing it strongly 
 displayed : even the greatest care on the part of 
 the master can seldom prevent the exercise of 
 cruel tyranny on the part of the stronger children 
 over the weaker. But when we turn our view 
 from private scenes to public,, the monster stalks 
 before us in the most gigantic form. How many 
 conquerors, miscalled heroes, figure in the pages 
 of history, who have spent their lives in the en- 
 deavour to aggrandize their power by the subju~ 
 gation of the surrounding nations ! and how 
 many sovereigns, whom the vicinity of more 
 powerful states has prevented from signalizing 
 themselves by foreign conquests, have gratified 
 their lust of dominion by striving to render their 
 authority in their own kingdoms more absolute, 
 setting their own will above the laws, and dis- 
 posing at pleasure of the property and lives of 
 their subjects ! In short, the lust of dominion in 
 private and in public, with the cruelty and op- 
 pression with which it is associated, is the source 
 of the greatest evils which afflict mankind : even 
 the lust of gold, the auri sacra fames, so cele- 
 brated for the mischiefs of which it is the origin, 
 is, in comparison, a gentle demon. The lust of 
 dominion, soften it as we may by the milder 
 names of ambition and the love of power, is the 
 most direful evil which can reign in the human 
 heart : and it cannot be doubted, that, when en- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, (Sc. 365 
 
 eouraged there, and made the ruling motive of 
 the life, it must finally sink its victim to the low- 
 est gulf which yawns in the kingdom of darkness 
 to swallow up the wicked of mankind. 
 
 But if the lust of dominion in general is of so 
 direful a character, what must we think of it 
 when it seeks to accomplish its ends by hypocri- 
 tical pretences? If to endeavour to subjugate 
 others to its own caprice by the arms of the flesh, 
 is a crime of so deep a die; what does it become 
 when it employs, in the same design, the artillery 
 of heaven? If to desire to rule over all the 
 kingdoms of the world, is so corrupt a lust; 
 what words can express its atrocity, when it seats 
 itself on the pinnacle of the temple, and arrogates 
 such a sovereignty as belongs to God alone? 
 This, it must be admitted, is the worst form which 
 the lust of dominion can ever assume. And this 
 most dreadful form of this most perniciou^iust, 
 is what is specifically represented by Babylon in 
 the Holy Word : as will appear by noticing what 
 is generally predicated of it in the passages 
 where it is mentioned. 
 
 The place which the Greeks called Babylon 
 was by the Hebrews called Babel. The first 
 occasion on which it is mentioned in Scripture, 
 is, when its first building is related. It is said 
 to have been built by Nimrod ; and its represen- 
 tation may in some degree be gathered from the 
 character given of its founder, of whom it is 
 
366 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 said, that cc he began to be a mighty one in the 
 earth/' and that " he was a mighty hunter be- 
 fore the Lord*;" by which is generally under- 
 stood, that he was a hunter whose game was 
 men, a conqueror whose pursuit was power. 
 Next we have an account of the erection of the 
 tower of Babel : and the purpose of the builders 
 is so stated, as to leave no doubt of the symbo- 
 lic meaning of the place they built: for they 
 said, cc Go to, let us build us a city, and a 
 tower whose top may reach unto heaven., and 
 let us make us a name."-\ Whatever might be 
 the nature of the historical fact here referred to, 
 it is plain that the terms in which it is related 
 must be intended to convey a spiritual meaning: 
 for it is impossible to suppose that any persons 
 could think it practicable literally to build up 
 to heaven : under this mode of expression, then, 
 is intimated the desire of some who lived at that 
 time, to found a dominion that should arro- 
 gate authority over the souls of men as well as 
 bodies. 
 
 But there is no passage which exhibits more 
 plainly than is done in a prophecy of Isaiah, the 
 meaning of Babylon, as denoting the lust of ruling 
 over both the bodies and souls of men, by per- 
 verting the doctrines of the church, and invent- 
 ing fictions and imposing them as such doctrines, 
 so as to establish, by their means, an unlimited 
 
 * Gen. x. 8, 9. t Ch. xi. 4. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 367 
 
 dominion. The prophet exclaims, " How art 
 thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,, son of 
 the morning! how art thou cut down to the 
 ground which didst weaken the nations? For 
 thou saidst within thy heart., I will ascend into 
 heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of 
 God, I will also sit upon the mount of the congre- 
 gation in the sides of the north,, I will ascend 
 above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the 
 Most High."* It is from this passage that the 
 prince of the devils has acquired the name of 
 Lucifer: yet whoever will attentively read the 
 whole chapter,, must see clearly,, that this name 
 is not given to any individual evil spirit, but that 
 the pride of dominion, represented by the city of 
 Babylon, is what is thus named and described. 
 For when the subject is opened, it is said to the 
 true church, ff Thou shalt take up this proverb 
 against the king of Babylon^ ;" and towards the 
 conclusion it is said, ef I will rise up against them 
 saith the Lord, and cut off from Babylon the 
 name and remnant, son and nephew, saith the 
 Lordt," &c. Thus it is plain, that Lucifer is a 
 personification of the kind of lust of domination 
 represented by Babylon : and that this is the lust 
 of obtaining dominion by using spiritual things 
 as instruments for that purpose, and of arrogat- 
 ing authority over the souls of men as well as 
 their bodies, is evident from Lucifer's being de- 
 * Isa. xiv. 12, 13, 14. fVer.4. I Ver. 22. 
 
368 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 described as saying, " I will ascend into heaven, 
 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, 
 I will be like the Most High/'* 
 
 We will pass on to Daniel,, who, writing his 
 prophecies at the place itself, whither he had 
 been carried captive, treats largely of Babylon, 
 and consequently of that species of the lust of 
 dominion of which Babylon was a type. Ne- 
 buchadnezzar relates a dream, in which he says., 
 (f I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the 
 earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree 
 grew and was strong, and the height thereof 
 reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the 
 end of all the earth. "f In the interpretation of 
 
 * It should also be observed, that the words in our transla- 
 tion, " the mount of the congregation," are better given by Bi- 
 shop Lowth, " the mount of the divine presence:" for the original 
 term translated " congregation," though it is expressive of 
 meeting together, does not, in this use, merely mean the assem- 
 bling together of the people, hut the meeting together of God 
 and man. The tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, were 
 called the tabernacle and temple, not, as in our version, of the 
 congregation, but of meeting together, because in them the di- 
 vine presence was manifested, and God was considered to 
 meet with man : and the same title was thence transferred to 
 mount Zion, on which the temple stood. When therefore Lu- 
 cifer declares his purpose of establishing himself on the mount 
 of meeting together, the meaning is, that he, as representing 
 the principle which we have described, would interpose him- 
 self between God and man, to become the self- constituted 
 organ of dispensing the divine behests to mankind. 
 
 t Dan. iv. 10, 11. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 369 
 
 this dream,, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, 
 ff The tree which thou sawest, whose height 
 reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to all 
 the earth,, it is thou, O king, that art grown and 
 become strong : for thy greatness is grown and 
 reacheth unto heaven,, and thy dominion unto the 
 ends of the earth/'* Nebuchadnezzar, as being 
 the king of Babylon, bears the same typical re- 
 presentation as Babylon itself: and here we find 
 the circumstance of reaching to heaven, so often 
 mentioned when Babylon is treated-of, again in- 
 troduced ; because it is a phrase expressive of 
 the claiming of dominion over the souls of men; 
 whilst the reaching to the ends of the earth as plainly 
 implies the pretension to universal dominion over 
 their bodies. The blind presumption which ac- 
 companies such pretensions, is represented by 
 Belshazzar's impious feast, which was interrupted 
 by the hand writing on the wall ; on which occa- 
 sion it is related, that cc they brought the golden 
 vessels that were taken out of the temple of the 
 house of God which was at Jerusalem ; and the 
 king and his princes, his wives and his concu- 
 bines, drank in them ; they drank wine, and 
 praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, 
 of iron, of wood, and of stonef :" by which was 
 represented the profanation of which those are 
 guilty who are principled in that love of do- 
 mination of which Babylon and her kings were 
 
 * Ver. 20, 2?. f Chap. v. 3, 4. 
 
 3 B 
 
370 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 types, in consequence of their assuming the ap- 
 pearance of sanctity, and making all the holy 
 doctrines and rites of the church minister to the 
 gratification of their insane lust. The same as- 
 sumption of authority in sacred affairs was repre- 
 sented by the command of Nebuchadnezzar, that 
 all people, nations, and languages, should fall 
 down and worship the golden image that he had 
 set up, under pain of being cast into a burning 
 fiery furnace*: and the pretensions to a power 
 absolutely divine are appropriately expressed by 
 the decree of Darius, when he had obtained pos- 
 session of Babylon, fc that whosoever, for the 
 space of thirty days, should ask a petition of 
 God or man, save of the king only, should be 
 cast into the the den of lions."f 
 
 Many other testimonies to the character of 
 Babylon might be adduced; but these will surely 
 be sufficient to evince, that the lust of dominion, 
 when it seeks to obtain its end by prostituting 
 to its purpose the doctrines and all the sanctities 
 of religion, is what is signified by Babylon, or 
 to represent which, Babylon, as a suitable type, 
 is employed in the Divine Word. To ascertain, 
 then, whether Babylon, in the Apocalypse, bears 
 any allusion to the Romish Church, it is only ne- 
 cessary to ask, Has the Romish Church aimed at 
 such dominion, and by such means ? The an- 
 swer is to be read in every page of the history 
 * Chap. iii. 4, 5, 6. t Ch. vi. 7. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 371 
 
 of Europe,, during the ages that preceded the 
 Reformation of Luther.* 
 
 * History will discover to us the practice of the Roinish 
 Church ; the principles from which the practice proceeded are 
 well brought together in a recent popular work : take the 
 following as a specimen : " According to the Canons, the 
 Pope was as far above all kings, as the sun is greater than the 
 moon. He was King of kings, and Lord of lords, though he 
 subscribed himself the Servant of servants. His power it 
 was which was intended, when it was said to the Prophet 
 Jeremiah, ' Behold, I have this day set thee over nations and 
 kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and 
 to throw down, to build, and to plant.' It was an incompre- 
 hensible and infinite power, because ' great is the Lord, and 
 great is his power, and of his greatness there is no end.' The 
 immediate and sole rule of the whole world belonged to him, 
 by natural, moral, and divine right; all authority depending 
 upon him. As supreme King, he might impose taxes upon 
 all Christians ; and the Popes declared it was to be held as 
 a point necessary to salvation, that every human creature is 
 subject to the Roman Pontiff. That he might lawfully depose 
 kings, was averred to be so certain a doctrine, that it could 
 only be denied by madmen, or through the instigation of the 
 Devil ; it was more pernicious and intolerable to deny it, than 
 to err concerning the Sacraments. All nations and kingdoms 
 were under the Pope's jurisdiction, for to him God had de- 
 livered over the power and dominion in heaven and earth. 
 The Spouse of the Church [as he was called] was Vice-God : 
 men were commanded to bow at his name, as at the name of 
 Christ; the proudest sovereigns waited upon him like menials, 
 led his horse by the bridle, and held his stirrup while he 
 alighted : and there were ambassadors, who prostrated them- 
 selves before him, saying, O thou, that takest away the sins 
 of the world, have mercy upon us ! 
 
 " The advocates of the Papal power proclaimed, that all 
 
 3 B 2 
 
372 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Thus we see that the true reason, why Babylon, 
 in the Revelation, is mentioned as a symbol of the 
 
 pontifical decrees ought for ever to be observed by all men, 
 like the Word of God, to be received as if they came from 
 the mouth of St. Peter himself, and held like canonical Scrip- 
 ture. Even this monstrous proposition has been advanced, 
 that although the Catholic Faith teaches all virtue to be good, 
 and all vice evil; nevertheless, if the Pope, through error, 
 should enjoin vices to be committed, and prohibit virtues, the 
 Church would be bound to believe that vices were good and 
 virtues evil, and would sin in conscience were it to believe 
 otherwise. He could change the nature of things, and make 
 injustice justice. Nor was it possible that he should be 
 amenable to any secular power, for he had been called God 
 by Constantine, and God was not to be judged by man: un- 
 der God, the salvation of the faithful depended on him; and 
 the commentators even gave him the blasphemous appellation 
 of our Lord God the Pope ! It was disputed in the schools, 
 whether he did not, as God, participate both natures with 
 Christ; and whether he was not more merciful than Christ, 
 inasmuch as he delivered souls from the pains of purgatory, 
 whereas we did not read that this had ever been done by our 
 Saviour. Lastly, it was affirmed that he might do things un- 
 lawful, and thus could do more than God !" 
 
 Nor were the inferior clergy left without a handsome par- 
 ticipation in this plenitude of power. It having been deter- 
 mined that the sacramental bread was changed, when con- 
 secrated, into the real body of the Lord; it was held that 
 " the Priest, when he performed this stupendous function of 
 bis ministry, had before his eyes, and held in his hands, the 
 Maker of heaven and earth; and the inference which they 
 deduced from so blasphemous an assumption was, that the 
 Clergy were not to be subject to any secular authority, see- 
 ing they could create God their creator! Let it not be sup- 
 posed," says our author, " that the statement is in the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 373 
 
 corrupt Romish Church,, is, because the govern- 
 ing powers of that church have been inflamed 
 with the lust of universal dominion over both 
 the souls and bodies of men, and have profaned 
 the most holy things by making them subser- 
 vient to that object; and because of this prin- 
 ciple, whether existing in the Rornish Church or 
 in any other, Babylon, in the Scriptures, is con- 
 stantly the symbol. 
 
 (2.) We have examined at some length the 
 signification of Babylon, this affording a key to 
 the whole prediction. The circumstances pre- 
 dicated of this personification of Babylon, in the 
 verses quoted above, will be found, when ex- 
 plained, to be in perfect harmony with the sig- 
 nification of the woman herself; and as the 
 
 slightest part exaggerated ; it is delivered faithfully in their 
 own words." Southetfs " Book of the Church? Vol. i. ch. 10. 
 As a further sample of the manner in which the Romish 
 hierarchy, in the days of their prosperity, profaned the Scrip, 
 tures by applying them to support their extravagant preten- 
 sions, take the following extract of a letter from Saint 
 Thomas Becket to the Pope: " It is by forbearance on our 
 side that the powers of the world grow insolent, and kings 
 become tyrants, so as to believe, that no rights, no privileges, 
 are to be left to the Church, unless at their pleasure. But 
 blessed is he who taketh and dasheth their little ones against 
 the stones! For if Judah does not, according to the command 
 of the law, root out the Canaanite, he will grow up against 
 him, to be perpetually his enemy and his scourge. Ibid. Vol. 
 L ch. 8. 
 
374 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 analogical reasons of their signification are for 
 the most part pretty obvious,, they need not de- 
 tain us long. 
 
 The appearance of the harlot was extremely 
 splendid : she was arrayed in purple and scarlet* 
 and decked with precious stones and pearls,, and 
 held in her hand a golden cup. It is generally 
 supposed, that these things are mentioned,, to 
 describe the magnificence and splendour of the 
 Roman Catholic worship, and the kuper-royal 
 grandeur of the Papal Court ; and, in their li- 
 teral sense, the words will very well bear this 
 application. But this is not the spiritual mean- 
 ing of the terms ; which properly imply, that that 
 church assumes, externally, an appearance as if 
 she were the true bride of the Divine Bride- 
 groom, decorated with all the spiritual elegan- 
 cies which ought to distinguish the true church, 
 whilst, internally regarded, the opposite of this 
 is her state. Garments are always mentioned in 
 reference to the truths possessed by the wearer; 
 as may appear from the passage of the Psalms 
 noticed above, in which light, the proper emblem 
 of the purest truth, is ascribed to the Lord as his 
 garment. The colours and other ornaments of 
 the garments, express the quality of the truth, 
 of which the wearer enjoys, or boasts, the pos- 
 session. Red colours bear an acknowledged 
 analogy to fire and warmth, which as plainly 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 375 
 
 answer, by a spiritual analogy to the principle 
 of love : hence the purple in which this woman 
 was arrayed, being an extremely deep and in- 
 tense red*, represented the appearance which the 
 Popish religion assumes, of possessing, from the 
 truths of the Word, the highest order of good, 
 being that which in the Scriptures is denomi- 
 nated the love of the Lord; and the scarlet, 
 which is a bright red mixed" with flame-colour, 
 and reflecting a great deal of light, represented 
 the appearance of possessing, from the same 
 source, the highest order of truth, being that 
 which proceeds from, and leads to, love to the 
 Lord. By gold is here specifically meant that 
 species of good which the Scriptures call love 
 towards the neighbour : and by precious stones 
 and pearls, on account of the sparkling light 
 which they emit, are signified specific points of 
 knowledge on heavenly subjects. By the gol- 
 den cup in the woman's hand, this being a vessel 
 for containing liquids, is signified the doctrine of 
 that religion, which is cc the wine of her forni- 
 cation," with which fe the inhabitants of the 
 earth have been made drunk f : " it is said to be 
 a golden cup, to intimate that her doctrine is 
 made outwardly to appear as if it were founded 
 in goodness: but by its being said to be " full of 
 abominations and filthiness," is signified, that 
 
 * This was the colour called purple in the Scriptures. 
 f Verse 2. 
 
376 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 such appearance is merely assumed to ensnare 
 the well- disposed, whilst in reality every good 
 and every truth in that religion are adulterated 
 and profaned.* 
 
 But John saw the true character of the Romish 
 Religion revealed in the name written on the 
 woman's forehead : " Mystery, Babylon the great, 
 the mother of harlots and abominations of the 
 earth/' The name is called fc Mystery/' be- 
 cause it discloses that which the Babylonians 
 wish to conceal. When we are apprised that 
 by Babylon is signified the lust of ruling over all 
 mankind,, and even over heaven itself, we need not 
 wonder that it is called tc Babylon the great;" 
 for none think themselves so great as those who 
 are under the influence of this self-magnifying ap- 
 petite. And this will explain, as we shall see pre- 
 sently, why Babylon personified is called "the 
 Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." 
 It is generally admitted that the spiritual signifi- 
 cation of adultery, is idolatry : for it is mentioned 
 in Scripture in a variety of places where the 
 natural crime cannot be meant. Thus Jehovah 
 says by the prophet, c< And I saw, when for all 
 the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed 
 adultery, I had put her away, and given her a 
 bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah 
 
 * For a sample of the abominations and filthiness with 
 which the cup of Popish doctrine is full, see the Note above, 
 p. 371. 
 
TtfE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 377 
 
 feared not,, but went and played the harlot also :" 
 and in the verse following it is said,, that she 
 ff committed adultery with stones and with 
 stocks."* Here, Israel and Judah are regarded 
 as the wives of the Lord; consequently,, the 
 adultery with which they are reproached,, is their 
 infidelity to him, which, by the clearest analogy, 
 is the adultery of the Church : stones and stocks 
 are mentioned, for idols made of stone and idols 
 made of wood ; and to commit adultery with 
 these, is to turn from the worship of the Lord to 
 the worship of idols. And has not Rome been 
 guilty of this sin ? How many idols has she li- 
 terally set up, to share with the Lord the wor- 
 ship of her disciples, or to draw them entirely 
 away from him, who is the true husband of the 
 Church ! 
 
 It is necessary, however, to observe, that it is 
 possible to be spiritually a harlot, and yet not 
 to offer outward worship to any but the true 
 God: for this is also done by those who pervert 
 the genuine truths of the Divine Word, applying 
 them in such a manner as to favour any senti- 
 ment which is not true and good ; especially 
 when they are so misapplied as to seem to con- 
 firm any doctrine that has nothing for its end but 
 the gratification of selfish and corrupt inclina- 
 tions. The proper partner of truth is goodness, 
 and the proper partner of goodness is truth; but 
 
 * Jer. iii. 8, 9. 
 
 3 c 
 
SIS PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 when an unnatural union is effected between 
 truth and evil, or good and a false persuasion,, it 
 is adulterated and defiled. And this is perpetu- 
 ally done by spiritual Babylon. For as Baby- 
 lon represents the love of domineering over 
 others by means of the spiritualities of the 
 church ; and as the genuine doctrines and truths 
 of the church are diametrically opposite to such 
 a lust; they cannot be applied to promote its 
 purposes,, till they are quite wrested from their 
 genuine import, and utterly perverted: and so 
 to pervert them is to adulterate and profane 
 them, thus, to apply them to the purposes of 
 spiritual adultery. And as the lust of dominion, 
 signified by Babylon, is perpetually doing this ; 
 therefore is she called, with the strictest pro- 
 priety, fc the Mother of harlots and abomina- 
 tions of the earth/** 
 
 But the Babylonian harlot is described as 
 guilty of another vice : she is said to be drunken, 
 and that too with a more maddening beverage 
 than wine; for she was cc drunken with the 
 blood of the saints, and with the blood of the 
 
 * Some examples of the adulteration, by ^Babylon, of the 
 truths of Scripture, by applying them to support her blas- 
 phemous pretensions, occur in the Note above, p. 371. It is 
 also well known what a superstructure of imposture she has 
 erected upon the texi relating to the giving of th keys to Pe- 
 ter, combined with that in which Jesus Christ sayg, " All 
 power is given to me in heaven and in earth." 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 31 tf 
 
 martyrs of Jesus." To be drunken, is a phrase 
 sometimes used in the Scriptures, as in Ezekiel's 
 address to the fowls and beasts, merely to ex- 
 press abundance ; but when, as is more common, 
 intoxication is implied, its meaning will appear 
 from observing the spiritual analogy of tha,t 
 state. As man, by natural ebriety, sinks from a 
 rational being to a merely animal one, and yet 
 generally thinks himself, at such times, more ra- 
 tional than those whose intellects are undis- 
 turbed; st> the man who is spiritually intoxi- 
 cated, though he may retain the faculty of na- 
 tural rationality, is deprived of intelligence in 
 spiritual subjects, and is, in regard to these, in a 
 manner insane; yet he, also, commonly exults 
 in his madness, and thinks himself wiser than 
 others. Ebriety, then, in Sacred Writ, denotes 
 insanity with respect to spiritual subjects, and 
 an exulting profession of false sentiments for 
 true ones. But why is the Woman's intoxi- 
 cation ascribed to her drinking the blood of the 
 saints and martyrs of Jesus ? This is commonly 
 supposed to refer to the barbarous persecutions 
 and cruel murders which have stained the hands 
 of the Romish hierarchy : but though the literal 
 sense is here also very applicable, something 
 beyond this is implied by the expressions. It is 
 to be remembered, that the word "rrtartyr" is 
 Greek, and means a witness ; as the word cf saint " 
 is from the Latin, and means a holy one. The 
 
 3 c 2 
 
380 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 holy ones of Scripture, are those whose lives are 
 purified and made holy, by their reception, in 
 affection, of the genuine truths of the Word ; and, 
 abstractedly they are those truths themselves: 
 and the witnesses of Jesus are those who, by 
 the same means, are enabled to bear the testi- 
 mony which their name implies ; and, abstracted- 
 ly, they are those truths of the Word which 
 point to the Lord and unfold his true character. 
 To shed the blood, then, of the saints or holy 
 ones, is to destroy, by false interpretations, those 
 truths of the Divine Word which lead immedi- 
 ately to holiness of life ; and to shed the blood 
 of the martyrs or witnesses of Jesus, is to destroy, 
 by the same means, those truths which lead to 
 the correct and saving knowledge of the Lord. 
 This has been done in abundance by the per- 
 verse expositions of the Romish Church; and 
 in proportion as she has done it, and has drunk 
 the blood thus shed, that is, has imbibed, not 
 the pure truth of the Word, but the most wilful 
 violations of it, which is the signification of 
 blood when shed unlawfully, her spiritual intoxi- 
 cation has increased ; till she has boasted herself 
 infallible, and has exulted in the persuasion 
 that her proud pretensions would be admit- 
 ted for ever; till she has said in her heart, 
 (e I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see 
 no sorrow/'* 
 
 * Chap, xviii. 7. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 381 
 
 In all the particulars, then, of the description 
 of the harlot of Babylon, we find an exact de- 
 lineation of the corruptions which take place, 
 when the lust of dominion intrudes itself into 
 the church, and applies all the sanctities of reli- 
 gion to its own aggrandizement: and because 
 this has been the case, to a most deplorable ex- 
 tent, in the Church of Rome, her portrait is, in 
 this description, so readily to be discerned. 
 
 These specimens are what it was deemed ne- 
 cessary to offer, to evince the applicability of 
 the Science of Analogies, as a Rule of interpret- 
 ation, to that part of the Word of God which 
 is delivered in the style of prophecy. As before 
 remarked, the brevity which it has been neces- 
 sary to consult, has rendered it impossible to 
 give the full proof which might be desired of 
 the meaning of every symbol which we have had 
 to consider ; yet enough has perhaps been ad- 
 vanced, to shew that the truth of every inter- 
 pretation which has been offered is at least 
 highly probable, and to render it morally cer- 
 tain, that the system of Analogy between natural 
 things and spiritual, affords the true and only 
 key for the decyphering of the language of the 
 prophetic Scriptures. The principles laid down 
 at the beginning of this Lecture, on the charac- 
 ter which must necessarily belong to the Divine 
 Style of Writing, must be borne in mind. If, 
 
382 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF, &C. 
 
 as stated above, in a written revelation from God, 
 the Divine Truth must clothe itself with ideas 
 and images taken from the world of nature before 
 it could be presented to man ; and if the Divine 
 Style of Writing must thus follow the Law of 
 that Analogy which indissolubly connects natural 
 objects and ideas with such as are spiritual and 
 divine; it will follow, that the spiritual and 
 divine wisdom which such a revelation must con- 
 tain within it, could only be understood by a 
 right application to it of this Law. And if on 
 an application of this Law to the books called 
 the Holy Scriptures, it should be found that they 
 exhibit a coherent series of spiritual and divine 
 instruction ; it will follow further, that the Scrip- 
 tures are such a revelation of Divine Truth* pre- 
 sented to man in natural language ; that they 
 are the Divine Speech, or Divine Word, which 
 has emanated from the bosom of Deity into this 
 lowest sphere of creation. In regard to the pro- 
 phetical parts of the sacred code, it is hoped, that 
 their title to this character has now, in some 
 measure, been evinced ; and if so, the claims of 
 the Holy Scriptures to Plenary Divine Inspi- 
 ration, will, so far, have been established. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS CONTINUED. 
 
 I. Applicability of the Law which governs the Re- 
 lation between natural objects and spiritual and 
 divine essences, or of the Science of Analogies, 
 as a Rule for the interpretation of the Historical 
 Parts of the Divine Word. 1. Sentiments of 
 Biblical Critics, and admissions of Expositors, 
 on the typical nature of the Scripture History. 
 2. Necessity of making the system uniform. II. 
 Just Ideas of the nature and uses of the Israel- 
 itish Dispensation necessary to the right appre- 
 hension of the Israelitish History. III. Ex- 
 amples of the light which results from the appli- 
 cation of the Rule of Analogy between natural 
 things and spiritual to the Scripture Histories: 
 Instances selected ; 1. The miraculous capture 
 of Jericho; (Josh, vi.) 2. Jephthah and his 
 vow; (Judges xi.) 3. The combat of David 
 and Goliath; (1 Sam. xvii.) 4. The circum- 
 stances attending the Crucifixion of Jgsus Christ. 
 IV. Examples of the light which results from the 
 
384 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 application of the Rule to the Ceremonial Pre- 
 cepts of the Divine Word : Instances selected ; 
 ] . The Sacrifices in general : 2. The prohibition 
 of various kinds of meats : (Lev. xi.) 3. The 
 Law of theNazarite: (Numb, vi.) 4. Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper ; which were instituted 
 under the Christian Dispensation as an Epitome 
 of the whole Ceremonial Law. 
 
 HAVING., in our last Lecture., endeavoured to 
 shew what the truly Divine Style of Writing 
 must necessarily be,, and to evince that the Law 
 of that Analogy which connects natural objects 
 and ideas with such as are spiritual and divine, 
 must afford the Rule for its interpretation; we 
 inferred, that if the books which claim to be the 
 Word of God can be decyphered by the appli- 
 cation to them of this Rule, so as to yield, in 
 every part, a coherent sense, worthy of a Divine 
 Author; this will prove that they are composed in 
 the Divine Style of Writing, and that they must 
 have been given by a Plenary Divine Inspiration. 
 The theorem which we meant to propose may 
 perhaps be more distinctly stated thus : A Divine 
 Composition must be written in a peculiar Di- 
 vine Style: The Divine Style must follow the 
 Law of that Analogy, which, as - was before 
 proved, connects natural objects and ideas with 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 such as are spiritual and divine; being that by 
 which the outward universe was first brought 
 into existence, and by which it is still kept in 
 connexion with its Divine Source, and thus 
 is preserved: Every writing which is composed 
 with undeviating regularity according to the 
 Law of this Analogy, is composed in the truly 
 Divine Style : Consequently, every such writing 
 is a Divine Composition. This then must be true 
 of the books commonly named the Word of 
 God, if, on applying to their interpretation the 
 Law of Analogy, they are found to be written 
 according to it. 
 
 This inference will not be weakened by the 
 fact, that other compositions may have been 
 framed, by persons well acquainted with the 
 Analogy of which we are speaking, in which 
 the same Law, to a great extent, has been ob- 
 served : for the knowledge of analogies in un- 
 inspired writers can never be so complete, as to 
 govern the selection of every expression ; where- 
 as, in the divine afflatus of real inspiration, 
 every expression, to the minutest particle, to 
 every jot and tittle*, would flow in agreement 
 with this Law: and this is the case in the books 
 of the Divine Word. Uninspired writers might 
 frame compositions, which, in their leading points, 
 should contain a spiritual sense; but not such 
 as should carry a spiritual sense in one un- 
 
 * Matt. v. 18. 
 3 D 
 
386 
 
 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 broken series throughout. But even suppos- 
 ing it possible for science to emulate the pro- 
 ductions of inspiration with such exactness,, that 
 no difference could be discerned between them; 
 this would not tend to invalidate the claims of 
 the books which are called the Word of God ; 
 since,, whatever such science might be capable of 
 effecting,, there is'no reason for supposing that the 
 writers of those books possessed it. Moses, in- 
 deed, who was educated in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians, might have some knowledge of it: 
 but it could be shewn, that though it continued 
 to be studied among some of the eastern nations, 
 it was not known to the Jews, who were always 
 a gross and ignorant people. Even if the pro- 
 phets knew any thing of the science, it is certain 
 that their writings were not artificially composed 
 by it; they being evidently unpremeditated, 
 spontaneous effusions, not the laboured produc- 
 tions of study. But it is perfectly clear, that 
 when the books of the New Testament were 
 written, no remains of the science were extant 
 among the Jews; and as the style of writing 
 composed of analogies appears in all its vigour 
 in the latest of those books, the Revelation of 
 John, it evidently is there the purely divine style 
 of writing, which nothing but inspiration could 
 have imparted to the writer. Our inference, 
 then, remains unimpeachable; that if, on an ap- 
 plication to the books which claim to be the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 387 
 
 Word of God, of the Rule of interpretation 
 afforded by the Analogy between natural things 
 and spiritual, we every were obtain a coherent 
 sense worthy of a Divine Author,, those books 
 had a Divine Author, and are written by a Ple- 
 nary Divine Inspiration. 
 
 I. Tn our last Lecture, we endeavoured to give 
 some idea of the mode of applying the rule of 
 spiritual Analogy to the decyphering of the pro- 
 phetical parts of the Scriptures. As introductory 
 to this, we first confirmed, by the testimony of au- 
 thors in high esteem, the general fact; that the 
 prophecies of Scripture do include a meaning be- 
 yond that which appears immediately on the sur- 
 face, that they contain a double sense, the one 
 apply ing to things natural and temporal, the other 
 to things spiritual and eternal. We have seen, in- 
 deed, that the fact is so evident, that it so 
 openly forces itself upon the notice of a serious 
 student of the prophetic writers, as to be ad- 
 mitted by many who are by no means disposed 
 to estimate too highly the character of the Word 
 of God. We have even found, that learned men 
 have laid down a Rule for the interpretation of 
 the prophetic -writings, which proceeds upon the 
 same principle as that which, we are endeavour- 
 ing to prove, is the true Rule for the interpreta- 
 tion of the whole of the sacred Scriptures. The 
 Rule which they have adopted is that of Analogy 
 
 3 D 2 
 
388 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 or Mutual Relation; only their analogies,, being 
 between certain natural things and certain other 
 natural things, thus between things not suffi- 
 ciently separate in their nature,, are in some 
 respects arbitrary and uncertain ; whereas the 
 analogies which we would point out, being be- 
 tween outward forms and inward essences, 
 between things essentially different,, and yet so 
 connected that the lower absolutely draw their 
 origin from the higher, are fixed and certain; 
 they are founded in the unalterable relations of 
 things, and are as immutable as the laws of na- 
 ture; of which, indeed, they constitute a part. 
 
 Having seen that the Prophetic Writings may 
 be consistently interpreted by the application of 
 this rule, and are thus proved to be written by a 
 plenary inspiration; we are now to proceed to 
 try its applicability to the historical parts of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 1 . The prophetical Scriptures form a species 
 of Divine Writing, in which the mind more 
 readily expects to meet with mysteries beyond 
 what the letter exhibits. Laying out of the con- 
 sideration its divine origin, we should not so na- 
 turally look for such mysteries in the plain lan- 
 guage of history, of which a still greater portion 
 of the Word of God consists : and yet in many 
 parts even of the plainest of these histories, a 
 urther reference to things of a spiritual nature 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 389 
 
 is so obviously presented, that unless the mind 
 be fortified against the admission of it by pre- 
 vious confirmations, it can hardly fail to see it 
 as soon as it is pointed out. Accordingly, I find 
 that the typical or symbolic character of many 
 of the actions recorded, and of the persons men- 
 tioned, in the historical parts of the Word of 
 God, is acknowledged by nearly all who receive 
 the Scriptures as containing, in any degree, a 
 divine Revelation. As we have before stated 
 the sentiments of Biblical Critics on the double 
 sense of Divine Prophecy, we will here deliver 
 their views of the typical nature of Scripture 
 History. 
 
 (1.) We will begin with those parts of Scrip- 
 ture History which record divine miracles; there 
 being a general tendency in the Commentators, 
 to admit, in the miracles, a typical representa- 
 tion. 
 
 In regard to these, the Rev. Mr. Home, 
 whose work, as being the most recent, I have 
 repeatedly quoted, lays this down as one of the 
 rules of Scripture interpretation : Cf Although the 
 design of miracles is to mark the divine interpo- 
 sition, yet when perusing the miracles recorded 
 in the Sacred Writings, we are not to lose sight 
 of the moral and spiritual instruction concealed 
 under them ; and especially under the miracles 
 performed by our Saviour/'* This he confirms 
 * Introduction to the Scriptures, Vol. ii. Pt. ii. Cb. iv. ii. 
 
390 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 by this remark of the Rev. W. Jones. (C All 
 his [our Saviour's] miracles were undoubtedly 
 so many testimonies that he was sent from God : 
 but they were much more than this ; for they 
 were all of such a kind, and attended with such 
 circumstances,, as give us an insight into the 
 spiritual state of man, and the great work of 
 his salvation." This is a very important fact, 
 and worthy of the most careful attention : it 
 also leads to very important conclusions ; since, 
 by establishing the symbolic character of some 
 of the historical transactions recorded in the 
 Word of God, it naturally leads us to expect to 
 find the same character in others; at least, if 
 the miracles of the New Testament are clearly 
 seen to be fraught with spiritual instruction, it 
 will be very difficult to deny those of the Old 
 to be equally replete with divine wisdom. We 
 will therefore state a summary view of the pur- 
 port of some of the miracles of Jesus Christ as 
 offered by Dr. Jortin, a writer whom we have 
 had occasion to quote before, and who holds a 
 high station among the sober and learned divines 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 This author considers the spiritual import of 
 the miracles as strengthening the argument which 
 they afford for the truth of Christianity: thus, 
 after having made on them, in reference to this 
 argument, several remarks, he says, "To these I 
 shall add some proofs which are more remote from 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 391 
 
 common observation, and which perhaps have 
 not been sufficiently considered. The miracles 
 of Christ were prophecies at the same time : they 
 were such miracles as in a particular manner 
 suited his character : they were significant 
 emblems of his designs, and figures aptly repre- 
 senting the benefits to be conferred by him up- 
 on mankind; and they had in them, if we may 
 so speak, a spiritual sense. So much may be 
 urged in behalf of this interpretation of them, 
 as shall probably secure it from being ranked 
 among those fanciful expositions which are 
 generally slighted by wise men/* Proceeding, 
 then, to state his view of the Saviour's miracles, 
 he says, " He cast out evil spirits, who were per- 
 mitted to exert themselves at that time, and to 
 possess many persons : by this he shewed that he 
 came to destroy the empire of Satan, and seemed 
 to foretell, that wherever his doctrines should 
 prevail, idolatry and vice should be put to flight. 
 --He gave sight to the blind a miracle well 
 suiting him who brought immortality to light, 
 and taught truth to an ignorant world. Lucent 
 caliganti reddidit mundo, applied by Q. Curtius 
 to a Roman emperor, can be strictly applied to 
 Christ, and to him alone. No prophet ever did 
 this miracle before him, as none ever made the 
 religious discoveries which he made. Our Sa- 
 viour himself leads us to this observation, and 
 sets his miracle in the same view, saying upon 
 
392 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 that occasion, ' I am the light of the world : I 
 am come into this world, that they which see 
 not,, might see/ He cured the deaf, and the 
 dumb, and the lame, and the infirm, and cleansed 
 the lepers, and healed all manner of sicknesses, 
 to shew at the same time that he was the phy- 
 sician of souls, which have their diseases corres- 
 ponding in some manner to those of the body, 
 and are deaf arid dumb, and impotent, and pa- 
 ralytic, and leprous, in a spiritual sense. He 
 fed the hungry multitudes by a miracle ; which 
 aptly represented his heavenly doctrine, and the 
 gospel preached to the poor, and which he him- 
 self so explains, saying, ' I am the living bread 
 which came down from heaven : if any man eat 
 of this bread he shall live for ever/ The fig- 
 tree, which, with all its fair appearance was 
 destitute of fruit, and died away at his rebuke, 
 was plainly a figure of the Pharisaical religion, 
 which was only outside shew ; and of the rejec- 
 tion and fall of the Jewish nation. He raised 
 the dead, a miracle peculiarly suiting him, 
 who at the last day should call forth all mankind 
 to appear before him ; and therefore, when he 
 raised Lazarus, he uttered those majestic words: 
 f I am the resurrection and the life : He that be- 
 lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live/ He performed some miracles upon persons 
 that were not of his own nation, and it was so 
 ordered by Divine Providence, that these persons, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 393 
 
 as the Centurion,, the Syro-phoenician woman, 
 and the Samaritan leper, should shew a greater 
 degree of faith and of gratitude than the Jews 
 to whom the same favours were granted. This 
 was an indication, that the gospel would be 
 more readily received by the gentiles than by 
 the Jews.*'* So, the two states of the Gadarene 
 demoniac, while under the influence of Satanic 
 possession, and when restored to his right rnind, 
 are explained by Mr. Jonesf, as respectively re- 
 presenting the two states of man, first, while 
 living in a course of sinful practice ; and, se* 
 condly, when ' renewed in the spirit of his mind;' 
 listening to the precepts of the gospel, and 
 walking in holiness and righteousness. 
 
 Now surely it must be allowed, that the ana- 
 logies here pointed out, though not always pre- 
 cisely such as a systematic study of spiritual 
 analogies would dictate, are yet so plain and 
 unquestionable, as to satisfy every one that the 
 miracles wrought by Jesus Christ were not 
 merely intended for the transient benefit of a 
 few persons, in a single country, at a certain 
 moment in the history of the world, nor yet 
 merely to stand recorded as instances of the 
 divine power of Him who wrought them ; but to 
 exhibit lessons of perpetual instruction to weak 
 
 * Jortin's Remarks, &c. Vol. i. p. 255 to 261; (Ed. 1805,) 
 where other examples are given, 
 t Cited by Home, as above. 
 
 3 E 
 
394 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and erring man, to lead him to reflect on his 
 infirmities and deficiencies ; and to point out 
 where he may be relieved under them, by guid- 
 ing him to the Omnipotent Physician of souls, the 
 mighty Dispenser of spiritual nourishment, 
 
 (2.) But that the historical parts of the Word 
 of God contain a reference to spiritual and di- 
 vine subjects in other instances, as well as when 
 delivering the account of miracles, is also uni- 
 versally acknowledged. Thus it is generally 
 conceded, that the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment abound with types of things brought to 
 light in the New. Of these, the writers on 
 Scripture interpretation say there are three sorts, 
 viz. legal types, prophetical types, and historical 
 types : and the latter are thus described by 
 Home* from the works of Huet and Macknight: 
 " Historical types are the characters, actions, 
 and fortunes, of some eminent persons recorded 
 in the Old Testament, so ordered by Divine Pro- 
 vidence as to be exact prefigurations of the cha- 
 racters, actions, and fortunes of future persons 
 who should arise under the Gospel dispensation. 
 In some instances, the persons whose characters 
 and actions prefigured future events, were de- 
 clared by Jehovah himself to be typical, long 
 before the events which they prefigured came 
 to pass. But in other instances, many persons 
 
 * I do not here concern myself with the distinction which 
 this author makes between a type and a symbol. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 395 
 
 really typical were not known to be such,, until 
 after the things which they typified had actually 
 happened,, they are consequently ascertained 
 to be such by expositors and interpreters of the 
 Scriptures,, by fair probabilities agreeable to the 
 analogy of faith. The most remarkable typical 
 persons and things mentioned in the Old Testa- 
 ment/' he adds, Cf are Adam, Abel, Noah, Mel- 
 chizedec, Isaac, the ram sacrificed by Abraham, 
 Joseph, the pillar of fire, the manna, the rock in 
 the desert whence water flowed, the scape goat, 
 the brazen serpent, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Samp- 
 son, Samuel, David, Solomon, Jonah, and Zerub- 
 babel." And he concludes with saying, " It would 
 swell this chapter into a commentary upon very 
 numerous passages of Scripture, were we to at- 
 tempt to shew how clearly these characters^ &c. 
 correspond with their great antitype, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ."* 
 
 To this we will add the following remarks, 
 on " the correspondences of types and anti- 
 types/' from that very eminent author, Dr. 
 Clarke : " The analogies between the paschal 
 lamb, and the Lamb of God slain from the 
 foundation of the world; between the Egyptian 
 bondage, and the tyranny of sin; between the 
 baptism of the Israelites in the sea, and in the 
 cloud, and the baptism of Christians : between 
 the passage through the wilderness, and through 
 * Vol. ii. Pt. ii. Ch. viii. ii. 3. 
 
 3 E 2 
 
396 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the present world ; between Jesus [Joshua] bring- 
 ing the people into the promised land, and Jesus 
 Christ being the Captain of salvation to be- 
 lievers ; between the sabbath of rest promised to 
 the people of God in the earthly Canaan,, and the 
 eternal rest promised in the heavenly Canaan ; be- 
 tween the liberty granted from the time of the 
 death of the high priest,, to him that had fled into 
 a city of refuge, and the redemption purchased by 
 the death of Christ; between the high priest en- 
 tering into the holy place every year with the 
 blood of others, and Christ's once entering with 
 his own blood into heaven itself, to appear in 
 the presence of God for us : these, I say, and in- 
 numerable other analogies, between the shadows of 
 things to come, of good things to come, the 
 shadows of heavenly things, the figures for the 
 time then present, patterns of things in the hea- 
 vens, and the heavenly things themselves, cannot, 
 without the force of strong prejudice, be conceived 
 to have happened by mere chance, without any fore- 
 sight and design. There are no such analogies, 
 much less such series of analogies, found in the 
 books of mere enthusiastic writers living in such 
 remote ages from each other. It is much more 
 credible, and reasonable, to suppose, what St. Paul 
 affirms, that these things were our examples ; 
 and that, in the uniform course of God's govern- 
 ment of the world, all these things happened to 
 them of old for examples, and that they are 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 397 
 
 written for our admonition, upon whom the ends 
 of the world are come : And hence arises that 
 aptness of similitude, in the application of several 
 legal performances to the morality of the gospel, 
 that it can hardly be supposed not to have been ori- 
 ginally intended."* 
 
 It is to be observed, that Clarke and Jortin ad- 
 duce their analogies, as affording strong evidence 
 of the divine inspiration of the Word of God : if 
 such is their tendency, when regarded as the re- 
 sult of arbitrary appointment rather than as the 
 effects of a regular and universal Law; how strong 
 indeed does their evidence become, when it is 
 seen that the latter is their true character, and 
 that this Law governs not only the analogies no- 
 ticed by these writers, but every part of the Sa- 
 cred Scriptures ! that, in fact, the Scriptures 
 consist of analogies throughout, and such as do 
 not depend for their meaning on simple appoint- 
 ment, or for their interpretation upon conjecture, 
 but are inherent in the nature of things, and will 
 abide the scrutiny of scientific investigation ! 
 
 2. These large admissions and strong assertions 
 on the subject of types, by the most esteemed 
 writers on Scripture interpretation, are amply 
 sufficient for the purpose for which we have quo- 
 ted them : they prove that the fact is in many 
 
 * Clarke's Evid. of Nat. and Rev. Relig. apud Jortin, Vol. 
 i. p. 151. 
 
398 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 instances unquestionable.* It is true that mo- 
 dern critics take great pains to limit and circum- 
 scribe their admissions on this subject. Some of 
 them tell us, that although those things and per- 
 sons mentioned in the Old Testament, whose 
 typical character is expressly pointed out in the 
 New, must have it allowed them, yet we are 
 not to look for symbols in those things and 
 persons,, whose signification the New-Testament 
 writers have not explained. The late Bishop 
 of Calcutta, for instance, whose observations 
 on the spiritual sense of Scripture we cited 
 in our &Ffc Lecture, while he contends for its 
 necessity, restricts it thus: "Against the doc- 
 trine of a twofold explanation, what is to be 
 urged? 1 know of no objection worthy of re- 
 gard, unless it be said, that the door will thus be 
 opened to the caprice of mystics and enthusiasts. 
 But it is not for unauthorized applications that I 
 contend ; it is only for those which have been made 
 by Christ or his apostles."-^ But who does not see 
 the futility of such a limitation? The New Tes- 
 tament must have been made a much larger 
 volume than it is, were it designed to unfold every 
 particular spiritual reference, contained in every 
 particular part of the Old Testament, where a 
 meaning beyond the letter is to be allowed. 
 
 * Ad propositum satis est, etiam in hoc sapientes vestros in 
 aliquem modum nobiscum consonare. Min. Felix. 
 f Middleton on the Greek Article, p. 587. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 399 
 
 Had not the argument of the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians led the apostle to mention the allegorical 
 character of the history of Hagar and Sarah, 
 the introduction of which is purely incidental, 
 and may almost be called accidental, many 
 critics would have decried the deducing of such a 
 meaning from such a circumstance as an instance 
 of unfounded presumption. So, Melchizedec 
 is now one of the persons in the Old Testament, 
 whose typical character is most cordially admit- 
 ted : but had not the argument of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews incidentally led the writer to men- 
 tion it, we must have concluded, upon these 
 principles, that it did not exist. Indeed -all the 
 notices in the New Testament of the types in 
 the Old, are introduced in the same incidental 
 manner; and they are clearly mentioned, not to 
 inform us, that although those persons and things 
 had a typical reference, this does not apply to any 
 others; but to instruct us, that such is the charac- 
 ter of the Old Testament history in general. 
 There cannot be a plainer inference than this : 
 that if some persons and things mentioned in the 
 Old Testament have a symbolic signification, so 
 have others : and if it was not intended that we 
 should make such an inference, what an un- 
 pardonable omission was it in the Apostles and 
 Evangelists, when they cite passages from the 
 Old Testament as having a spiritual significa- 
 tion, not to have guarded their quotations as 
 
400 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 our modern critics would do ! not to have said 
 to the reader, f4 Observe, this circumstance has a 
 spiritual signification ; but no others are to be 
 interpreted upon the same principle, but such as 
 we have expressly explained !" They, however, 
 have not thus taken away the key of knowledge ; 
 on the contrary, by explaining the nature of the 
 Holy Word in a few passages, they have given 
 a key to the discovery of the whole. What they 
 have explicitly unfolded, must be intended as a 
 sample of the rest. Ex pede Herculem. If the 
 Divine Word contains a divine meaning in one 
 passage, undoubtedly it contains a similar mean- 
 ing in every other. Suppose a man were pre- 
 sented with a casket of jewels, a few of them 
 being also laid upon the lid as a sample : but 
 suppose that, instead of opening the casket in 
 search of more, he should affirm that it was not 
 made to open at all, but was merely a solid 
 log of wood, only to be admired for the singular 
 workmanship of the outside : should we not 
 wonder at his rusticity, and his unconsciousness 
 of the treasure he possessed ? Yet just such is 
 the conduct of those, who, after seeing a few of 
 the jewels of wisdom contained in the Divine 
 Word brought to light by the Apostles, deny 
 the letter to inclose any more. 
 
 But while we regard such conduct as highly 
 inconsistent, we do not mean to censure too 
 severely those who have adopted it. They have 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 401 
 
 done it to avoid what might prove a worse evil. 
 The reason why mankind have become so un- 
 willing to admit the typical and representative 
 character of the historical parts of the Word of 
 God, is precisely the same as that which has 
 made them so reluctant to allow universally the 
 double sense of prophecy; the want of a Rule 
 of interpretation sufficiently clear and decided 
 to be applicable to the whole; and a laudable 
 fear,, without such a Rule, of indulging in un- 
 certain conjecture. I trust however that the 
 Rule which we have before laid down, arising 
 out of the certain Relation existing in the nature 
 of things between objects natural and spiritual, 
 will be found equally capable of an application 
 to this part of the subject. If so, all reasonable 
 objection to the universally typical character 
 of the Scripture history, will be removed. Bishop 
 Middleton, we have seen, admits, that the open- 
 ing of the door to capricious fancies, forms the 
 only objection worthy of regard to the doctrine of 
 a two-fold explanation; remove then this danger, 
 and such minds as his would surely hail with joy 
 a system, which relieves them from the necessity 
 of treating the Word of God itself as a capri- 
 ciously framed production. 
 
 But perhaps it will be said, Suppose we ad- 
 mit there to be a Relation of Analogy between 
 all the productions of nature and certain moral, 
 
 3 F 
 
402 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 intellectual,, or spiritual essences; how will this 
 prove that all the persons, cities, nations, and 
 countries, with all the actions of men, and other 
 contingent events, mentioned in the history of 
 the Bible, are equally symbolic of moral and 
 spiritual things? We answer, This was the result 
 of a divine appointment, and overruling provi- 
 dence ; still having for its basis the natural relation 
 between things natural and spiritual, which in- 
 cludes, as was shewn in our last Lecture, an 
 analogy between the relations of mind and the 
 relations of place. Thus, for the sake of giving 
 a code of divine wisdom more completely than 
 could otherwise have been effected, a certain peo- 
 ple was selected to represent a true church : the 
 country they inhabited was made to assume a 
 similar representation ; and on all the surround- 
 ing countries, as briefly stated in our last, a repre- 
 sentation was also iuduced of the principles con- 
 nected with the former, more nearly or more re- 
 motely, and either in the way of subordination or of 
 opposition. Who, for instance, does not see, that 
 Egypt is a type of the natural state of man, and 
 Canaan of his spiritual state, and that the forty- 
 years' travels and troubles of the children of Is- 
 rael in the wilderness, represent the temptations 
 and trials by which man passes from the one state 
 to the other? These types are so plain, that they 
 have been recognized in all ages : but if the his- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 403 
 
 tory of the Israelites, in this part of it, is sym- 
 bolic,, as it so certainly is,, why may we not con- 
 clude all the other parts of it to be symbolic 
 also ? It is the denial of this truth,, and not the 
 assertion of it, that tends most to introduce uncer- 
 tainty and capricious interpretation. As noticed 
 in our last, it is the jumping at random from the 
 spiritual sense to the literal,, and from passages 
 where commentators admit that types are pre- 
 sented to others where this is denied, without any 
 sufficient guide to direct our judgment in the 
 choice of either, that makes the interpretation of 
 Scripture vague and unsatisfactory. To treat the 
 Word of God as so irregular and inconsistent a 
 production, most strongly tends, in fact, to bring 
 its divine inspiration into doubt. A book that is 
 of divine inspiration must be uniform throughout. 
 If it has a spiritual signification in one place, it 
 must in all. And most assuredly, whether we 
 possess it or not, some universal Rule of interpre- 
 tation must exist, which would make it every 
 where harmonious.* 
 
 * We will here add an example of the inconsistency which 
 must perrade the writings of Biblical Critics, whilst, on the 
 question of spiritual or of merely literal interpretation, they 
 halt between two opinions, reasoning at one time in favour of 
 the former sentiment and at another in favour of the latter, 
 and endeavouring to combine the two systems into one, by 
 portioning out the Sacred Code between them. We have 
 repeatedly cited Home's Introduction to the Scriptures, as 
 esteeming it a very valuable work, and because the learned 
 
 3 F 2 
 
404 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 II. As a knowledge of the true nature of the 
 Scripture history is of so great importance to the 
 
 Author gives many strong testimonies in favour of the spi- 
 ritual sense of the Divine Word : yet, led by the authority of 
 some modern critics of high name, this intelligent writer 
 repeatedly exhibits, on this subject, extreme vacillation, and 
 sometimes so limits his admissions, and so counteracts his most 
 decided assertions, as to make them almost nugatory. The 
 following passage, for instance, would certainly lead the 
 reader to conclude, that he ought, throughout the Scriptures 
 without exception, to look for a spiritual sense : " Since we 
 learn from the New Testament, that some histories, which in 
 themselves convey no peculiar meaning, must be interpreted 
 allegorically or mystically, (as Gal. iv. 22 24,) and that 
 persons and things are there evidently types and emblems of 
 the Christian dispensation, and its divine founder, as in 
 Matt. xii. 40, John iii. 14, 15, 1 Cor. x. 4, and Heb. vii. 2, 3 ; 
 it is plain that the mystical sense ought to be followed in the 
 histories and prophecies of the Old Testament, and especially 
 in such passages as are referred to by the inspired writers 
 of the New Testament; who having given us the key by 
 which to unlock the mystical sense of Scripture, we not only 
 may, but ought, cautiously and diligently to make use of it. 
 Where the inspired writers themselves direct us to such an 
 interpretation, when otherwise we might not perceive its 
 necessity, then we have an absolute authority for the exposi- 
 tion, which supersedes our own conjectures, and we are 
 not only safe in abiding by that authority, but should be un- 
 warranted in rejecting it."* Here he delivers his own senti- 
 ments; and though he particularly mentions the passages 
 which have been explained in a sense different from that of 
 the letter by the writers of the New Testament, he does not 
 exclude any others. By and by, however, he introduces, from 
 
 * VoL ii. Pt. ii. Ch. i. i v. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 405 
 
 right understanding of the Word of God, we 
 will here make upon it a few general observa- 
 
 Beausobre, this limitation: " No mystical or typical sense 
 ought to be put upon a plain passage of Scripture, the mean- 
 ing of which is obvious and natural; unless it be evident from 
 some other part of Scripture that the place is to be understood 
 in a double sense."* But what a remarkable specimen of zig- 
 zay observation, first running in one direction and then in 
 another, have we in the following sentences! In favour of 
 the reality and the superiority of the spiritual sense, he gives 
 this excellent remark; " The literal sense, it has been well 
 observed, is undoubtedly first in point of nature, as well as in 
 order of signification; and consequently, when investigating 
 the meaning of any passage, this must be ascertained before 
 we proceed to search out its mystical import: but the true 
 and genuine mystical or spiritual sense excels the literal in 
 dignity, the latter being only the medium of conveying the 
 former, which is more evidently designed by the Holy Spirit." 
 Yet it seems that this sense so superior in dignity, and for the 
 conveyance of which the letter is composed, is to withdraw 
 upon occasion and leave its conveyance empty; for " Though 
 the true spiritual sense of the text is undoubtedly to be 
 most highly esteemed, it by no means follows that we are to 
 look for it in every passage of Scripture ! " We are not too 
 easily to be satisfied with the mere shell, neither; for the sen- 
 tence adds, " it is not, however, to be inferred that spiritual 
 interpretations are to be rejected, although they should 
 not be clearly -expressed." But, after all, c * the spiritual 
 meaning of a passage is there only to be sought, where it is 
 evident, from certain criteria, that such meaning was de- 
 signed by the Holy Spirit."f These certain criteria are 
 afterwards restricted within limits sufficiently narrow : 
 but, assuredly, no criterion can be more certain, that a 
 
 * Vol. ii. Ch. viii. iii. 9. t Ib. Ch. vi. 
 
406 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tions, before we proceed to illustrate,, by ex- 
 amples, the applicability of the Rule afforded by 
 the science of analogies to its intepretation. 
 
 writing contains a spiritual sense, than, that it was actually 
 dictated by the Holy Spirit, and proceeded from Him, all 
 whose words are spirit and are life ! Our author concludes 
 his chapter " On the spiritual Interpretation of Scripture," 
 with a specimen of similar vacillation : each sentence con- 
 veys an apprehension, that in the previous sentence he had 
 gone too far : they are a series of checks and counterchecks : 
 and he strikes the balance so exactly, that his remarks each 
 way are equipoised, and nothing positive remains. He says, 
 " In the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, there are two 
 extremes to be avoided, viz. on the one hand, that we do not 
 restrict such interpretation within too narrow limits ; and, on 
 the other hand, that we do not seek for mystical meanings in 
 every passage, to the exclusion of its literal and common 
 sense, when that sense is sufficiently clear and intelligible." 
 It is to be remembered, that he had before admitted the 
 literal sense to be " sufficiently clear and intelligible," so 
 much so, that " we might not perceive the necessity" of 
 a spiritual interpretation, in many of the passages " where 
 the inspired writers themselves direct us to such an inter- 
 pretation." However, having now, at the expence of con- 
 sistency with himself and with them, thus settled the two 
 extremes, he dwells through two or three sentences upon the 
 latter of them, and represents " the evils of spiritualizing 
 the sacred writings too much" as so formidable, that the 
 reader is in danger of forgetting the rule first laid down, that 
 we are " not to restrict such interpretation within too narrow 
 limits." Checking himself, therefore, he says, " In these 
 strictures, the author trusts he s4^wW not be charged with im- 
 
 properly censuring that fair and sober accommodation of 
 the historical and parabolical parts to present times and cir- 
 cumstances, or to the elucidation of either the doctrines or 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 407 
 
 To view this subject in its proper light,, we 
 ought to have just ideas of the nature of the 
 
 precepts of Christianity, which is sanctioned by the Word of 
 God: such an accommodation is perfectly allowable, and 
 may be highly useful; and in some cases it is absolutely ne? 
 cessary." But now he again fears that he has gone too far; 
 so, checking himself again, he adds, " Let every truly pious 
 man, however, be aware of the danger of extending this prin- 
 ciple beyond its natural and obvious application," &c. It 
 is thus that writers endeavour to hide their inconsistencies 
 behind loose general terms. In a proper sense, certainly, the 
 " natural and obvious application" of the principle of spiritual 
 interpretation, is, to every part of the Word of God. If the 
 Scriptures contain a spiritual sense at all, to assign this to 
 some places and not to others is in the highest degree un- 
 natural : and this capricious application of it is so far from 
 being the obvious one, that it is contrary to what every person 
 would expect, who considers the undeviating regularity which 
 distinguishes all the works of God. Such a person, being 
 previously assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God, 
 on being told that they contain in some parts both a spiritual 
 and a literal sense, and in others a literal sense alone, would 
 think the assertion just as reasonable, as to be told, that some 
 portions of the human race are constituted both of souls and 
 bodies, and others of bodies only. 
 
 We have not made the above remarks from any inclina- 
 tion to depreciate Mr. Home's valuable " Introduction;" but 
 merely to exemplify the difficulties and inconsistencies which 
 are unavoidable, when the Word of God is regarded as not 
 being a uniform work, but is supposed to be itself affected 
 with the monstrous inconsistency, of being written upon 
 one principle in one sentence, and upon a contrary one in the 
 next. The blemishes we have noticed, do not belong, per- 
 sonally, to Mr. Home, but to his system ; and in them he 
 
408 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 dispensation under which the Israelites lived. Of 
 this Paul gives us plain intimations when he says,, 
 ec that the law was our schoolmaster,, to bring us 
 to Christ*;" and when he also says, of the festivals 
 of the Mosaic ritual,, that they were cf a shadow 
 of things to come, but the body is allf;" and, 
 further, that ff the law having a shadow of good 
 things to come, and not the very image of those 
 things, can never, with those sacrifices which 
 they offered year by year continually, make the 
 corners thereunto perfect^:" declarations which 
 shew, that the Mosaic dispensation was merely 
 an intermediate arrangement of the Divine 
 (Economy, established to form a necessary link 
 in the great chain of the divine operations for 
 
 only follows other writers. Indeed, we think, upon this sub- 
 ject, that his own views are generally superior to those of the 
 authorities whom he quotes ; for some of the best of his re- 
 marks in favour of spiritual interpretation, are his own, 
 whilst those which he introduces against it are adopted by 
 him from others. The two or three puling sentences which 
 we have last animadverted upon, are taken by him from the 
 Christian Observer. Altogether, what he has said in favour 
 of spiritual interpretation, having a strong base in reason and 
 Scripture, cannot be overturned ; what he has advanced against 
 its universality, being loaded with a weight of inconsistency, 
 has, of itself, a tendency to fall: and from a comparison of 
 the whole the Biblical Student must, we should expect, be 
 led to wish for a Rule of interpretation, which would vindi- 
 cate the spiritual nature of the Word of God throughout, 
 and exhibit it as an harmonious and coherent system. 
 
 * Gal. iii. 24. f Col. ii. 17. I Heb. x. 1. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 409 
 
 the salvation of men,, and to fill up the interval 
 between the period when the pure internal wor- 
 ship and knowledge of divine things,, which ex- 
 isted with the posterity of Adam and of Noah, 
 were lost., and that in which they should be 
 restored by the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We thus, also, are instructed, that the rites, 
 records, and prophecies, given to that church* 
 were not so much given for their private ad- 
 vantage, as with a view to the permanent ad- 
 vantage of all nations under a future dispensa- 
 tion, in which should be imparted the know- 
 ledge and enjoyment, the real substance and 
 body, of those divine things, which, among the 
 Jews, were only symbolized and represented. 
 
 1. Whatever may be thought of that ar- 
 rangement of the Divine Economy in the gov 
 ernment of the world, by which the incon- 
 siderable nation of the Israelites, occupying a 
 country of inconsiderable extent, was selected 
 from all others, and invested with privileges as 
 the chosen people of God; and whatever rea- 
 sons the sceptical mind may find for refusing to 
 recognise them in that character; there yet are 
 circumstances attending their history, which, 
 upon any other hypothesis than that which ad- 
 mits their pretensions, it would be impossible 
 to explain. The chief of these cirumstances 
 is the singular fact, that this nation, though by 
 
 3 a 
 
410 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 no means so distinguished by attainments in 
 arts,, sciences,, and literature, as some of those 
 by which it was surrounded, alone maintained, 
 through many hundred years, the great truth 
 of the unity of God, and alone worshipped 
 him as an Infinite Spirit, to attempt the repre- 
 sentation of whom by sculpture or painting, is 
 to be guilty of profanation; while even the 
 most polished of the other nations of the globe 
 were sunk in the grossest polytheism and the 
 most senseless idolatry. That this superiority of 
 the Jews above all other people, in their ideas 
 of the most sublime of all subjects, arose from 
 any superiority of intellect of their own, is a 
 position which no admirer of classical antiquity 
 will admit: nor, indeed, can it with any sha- 
 dow of truth be asserted; since their own his- 
 tory abundantly evinces, that, of themselves, 
 they were as prone to polytheism and idolatry 
 as their neighbours. This was true of them 
 from the highest in rank to the lowest, from the 
 priest and king to the meanest of the populace. 
 Aaron, the brother of Moses and the first high 
 priest, made a .golden calf for the people to 
 worship within a month or two after their de- 
 liverance from Egypt, and after witnessing those 
 extraordinary displays of the power of Jehovah, 
 in the execution of which he had himself been 
 made a principal instrument; and Solomon, who 
 had erected the temple of Jerusalem^ even f( his 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 411 
 
 heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, 
 which had appeared to him twice*/' and he built 
 places of worship for the idols of his foreign 
 wives,, at which he worshipped himself: whilst 
 the bulk of the nation was so addicted to idol- 
 atrous practices,, that they seldom entirely dis- 
 continued them ; from the death of Joshua, pre- 
 sently after which ff they forsook the Lord, and 
 served Baal and Ashterothf/ 5 to the Babylonian 
 captivity, which overtook them ee because of their 
 wickedness which they committed to provoke the 
 Lord to anger, in that they went to burn incense., 
 and to serve other gods/'J These facts suffi- 
 ciently evince what was the bent of that people's 
 mind : it is evident then, that had not a succession 
 of prophets arisen, who continually called them 
 from the worship of idols to that of the one true 
 God, this nation would have been as deeply im- 
 mersed in ignorance respecting the nature and 
 unity of the Divine Being, as the most stupid 
 and superstitious of their neighbours. And 
 whence did the prophets obtain their pure and 
 elevated sentiments ? Arising among a people as 
 prone to the worship of stocks and stones as all 
 those around them., and in the midst of nations, 
 who, though in some respects more enlightened, 
 never produced such witnesses to the one true 
 God; whence could the prophets have received 
 the testimony \vhich they bore, but from Him to 
 * 1 Kings xi, 0. f Judges ii. 13. I Jer, xliv. 3. 
 3 G 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 whose truth they testified? Under all the cir- 
 cumstances of the case,, the existence of the 
 knowledge of the one true God, and the denial 
 of all other gods., whether co-equal or subordi- 
 nate, with the rejection of image-worship,, in the 
 religion of the Jews, are facts which admit of 
 no rational explanation but that which the 
 writers of the Jewish Scriptures advance : that 
 they were immediately taught them by the true 
 God himself. The argument is an unanswerable 
 one : it has been ably handled by many of the 
 Christian advocates; and in their hands I leave 
 it; the simple mention of it being all that is 
 requisite to our present purpose. 
 
 But though the infidel can never satisfactorily 
 account, on his principles, for the great fact just 
 mentioned, he can raise difficulties from other 
 sources, which some may find embarrassing. He 
 objects, If the Jews were really chosen of God 
 in preference to all other people, how comes it 
 to pass that they were not better than all other 
 people? And if God thought proper to reveal him- 
 self to man, how came he to shut up the know- 
 ledge thus revealed in a corner, and confine it so 
 long to one of the most inconsiderable nations of 
 the earth? It is remarkable that the circumstances 
 thus made the ground of objection, are explicitly 
 avowed, as if to anticipate the objections, in the 
 writings of Moses : C( Understand/ 5 he exclaims 
 to the people, " that the Lord thy God giveth 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 413 
 
 thee riot this good land to possess it for thy 
 righteousness ; for thou art a stiff-necked peo- 
 ple/'' f<r The Lord did not set his love uponyou, 
 nor choose you,, because ye were more in num- 
 ber than any people ; for ye were the fewest 
 of all people/'f These facts being so., it has 
 been concluded., by all who are disposed to inter- 
 pret them in a liberal manner,, not that the Jews 
 were not selected at all, there being other con- 
 siderations which so strongly prove the affir- 
 mative., but that they were not selected for any 
 private benefit intended to them above others, 
 but to promote the designs of Divine Benevo- 
 lence towards mankind at large, and thus for the 
 eventual benefit of the whole human race. This 
 also has been urged by many Christian writers. 
 :c Shall we dare," it is well asked by Bishop 
 Watson, fc to accuse God of injustice, for not 
 having distributed the gifts of nature in the same 
 degree to all kinds of animals, when it is probable 
 that this very inequality of distribution may be 
 the means of producing the greatest sum total 
 of happiness to the whole system ? In exactly the 
 same manner/' he adds, " may we reason con- 
 cerning the acts of God's especial providence. 
 If we consider any one act, such as that of ap- 
 pointing the Jews to be his peculiar people, as 
 unconnected with every other, it may appear to 
 be a partial display of his goodness ; it may excite 
 * Deut. ix. 6. Ch. vii. 7. 
 
414 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 doubts concerning the wisdom or benignity of the 
 Divine Nature. But if we connect the history of 
 the Jews with that of other nations,, from the most 
 remote antiquity to the present time, we shall 
 discover that they were not chosen so much for 
 their own benefit or on account of their own me- 
 rit,, as for the general benefit of mankind/'* 
 
 Certainly, this is the reasonable conclusion ; 
 that the selection of the Jews as a peculiar people, 
 or to form for a while the visible professing 
 church, was a necessary link in the great chain 
 of those divine operations, which have for their 
 object to promote, in the greatest possible de- 
 gree, the general welfare of the human race. 
 And what if the very circumstances of their being 
 " a stiff-necked people/' and ef the fewest of all 
 people/' were those which rendered them fitter 
 than any other nation to fill the station to which 
 they were appointed, and thus were the cause of 
 their being selected for it? Paradoxical as this 
 may sound, I apprehend it is the truth. A dis- 
 pensation like that which Moses was the instru- 
 ment of founding, was necessary, before the 
 higher dispensation of the Christian Religion 
 could be imparted : None could be the proper 
 subjects of such a dispensation, but a people of 
 an external but very Deculiar character, little 
 receptive of the interiors of religion, (which is 
 the spiritual meaning of the epithet (C stiff- 
 * Apol. for the Bible, Let. 4. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 415 
 
 necked/') but capable,, beyond those who look 
 more at essentials, of attending to the minu- 
 tiae of ceremonial worship, and of being im- 
 pressed with a sense of sanctity during the per- 
 formance of such worship : And none could be 
 the actors in a ceremonial worship which was 
 only to be performed in one place in the whole 
 country, and at which place the whole male po- 
 pulation was-required to be present three times in a 
 year, but a people few in number, and inhabit- 
 ing a country of small extent. Thus the very 
 qualities of being stiff-necked and few in num- 
 ber, were those which rendered the Jewish peo- 
 ple fit to be subjects, in that peculiar era of the 
 world, of such a dispensation as alone could be 
 given at that era. 
 
 2. Assuming then that the Jews cc were not 
 chosen so much for their own benefit, as for the 
 general benefit of mankind;" how did their se- 
 lection conduce to this great end? I would an- 
 swer, In two ways : first, in forming a church, 
 which, as just stated, was necessary as a prepa- 
 ration for the Christian church,, the establish- 
 ment of which, and its exaltation to a more glo- 
 rious state than has hitherto been seen, have 
 always been intended by Divine Providence, as 
 the means of imparting the greatest possible 
 benefits to mankind: and, secondly, as furnish- 
 ing the means by which the Holy Word might 
 
416 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 be written in the form in which we now possess 
 it; being that which is best adapted to render 
 permanent the blessings of divine revelation, to 
 make them the most extensive, and to secure them 
 from perversion. We will remark upon the 
 utility of the calling of the Israelites., for the 
 accomplishment of both these objects. 
 
 (1.) It is evident to all who have reflected a 
 moment on the subject,, that the Divine Opera- 
 tions ever proceed by regular gradations and by 
 orderly succession : they never jump to the end 
 in view at once, but always act by a series of 
 means terminating in the intended result : and 
 where the actions of intelligent creatures inter- 
 vene,, it even appears that the Divine Providence 
 so accommodates itself to their nature, as to 
 allow them to act, to a certain extent, in contra- 
 vention to its designs, permitting its own plans 
 to be modified by them, yet so overruling the 
 whole, as eventually to accomplish its own pur- 
 poses, though, apparently, by a different course 
 from that which would have been pursued, had not 
 the intractability of self-willed creatures stood 
 in the way. Thus, since much evil exists, which 
 we are certain the Divine Being does not will, 
 it cannot be said with truth, that Cf whatever is, 
 is right" : yet, as we may be sure that no more 
 evil is permitted than cannot be restrained without 
 depriving man of his free-agency, and destroy- 
 ing him as a human being altogether; and as the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 417 
 
 whole is so overruled as to l>e productive in the 
 end of the greatest possible degree of good ; we 
 may say with the utmost confidence, that what- 
 ever is, is best. 
 
 That the divine operations proceed by regular 
 gradations and in orderly succession, is evident 
 from every production of nature. Look, for in- 
 stance, at the origin and growth of a tree. A 
 seed falls to the ground : its parts being at once 
 softened by moisture and opened by warmth, it 
 shoots in one direction a root into the earth and 
 in the other a stem into the air, which succes- 
 sively increasing in height and thickness, and 
 putting forth branches and leaves, till it has at- 
 tained its proper maturity in a certain number of 
 years, the tree at length bears its fruit, and yields 
 again new seeds : and never is it perfected with- 
 out passing through these stages. Look again 
 at man, and consider him only as destined to fill 
 a station in human society. He is born an infant ; 
 the faculties of his mind and body open by de- 
 grees, and more perfectly as they are assisted by 
 culture: at length, in about twenty years, his 
 frame acquires its perfect form and stature, arid 
 his rational powers also are fully developed : 
 and then, and not before, he is capable of filling 
 his place among his fellows in society. Now, 
 though this is the end designed by his Creator 
 from his birth, he never springs up a full grown 
 man at once, nor are any of the steps of the pro^ 
 
 3 H 
 
418 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 cess necessary to his becoming such ever dis- 
 pensed with. His growing up an adult human 
 being and a rational creature, is, however, in the 
 design of his Creator, only a lower end, subor- 
 dinate to that of his becoming a subject of 
 eternal happiness : but to this his own concur- 
 rence is necessary ; wherefore here the Divine 
 Creator allows his own operations and designs 
 to be modified by the determinations and actions 
 of his creature. 
 
 Now if in individual cases, in the individual 
 inhabitants of the world, and even in its inani- 
 mate productions,- the operations of the Divine 
 Hand, the dispensations of the Divine Provi- 
 dence, so clearly follow a regular order and 
 proceed by successive steps ; unquestionably the 
 case must be the same in regard to the human 
 race in general, considered as a whole, and 
 viewed in its progress from the beginning of 
 creation to the latest evolutions of time. There 
 can be no doubt that a similar order is observed 
 in the Divine Economy as it regards the whole, 
 as we see is observed in regard to each indi- 
 vidual of each successive generation ; and if we 
 are not equally sensible of it, the reason must be, 
 because our observation takes in so small a part 
 of the chain; because we are only intimately 
 acquainted with man as he is in the. generation, 
 and in the country, in which we live; and be- 
 cause the knowledge which we possess of former 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 419 
 
 times from history is extremely general and 
 extremely partial, and does not reach, in an 
 authentic form^ except in the Scripture records 
 which are very brief, to any very remote an- 
 tiquity: it, moreover, is seldom studied by us 
 for the light it may afford in regard to the his- 
 tory, not of political events, but of human nature. 
 It is indeed a proverbial remark, that human 
 nature is the same in all times and in all places. 
 As to the general characteristics of human nature, 
 no doubt this is true : but that its general charac- 
 teristics appear under an endless diversity of mo- 
 difications, is a truth equally certain. We see 
 how great these diversities are, among the in- 
 habitants of different countries and climates, the 
 subjects of different governments, and the dis- 
 ciples of various forms of religion, even when, in 
 time, they are all contemporaries : how numer- 
 ous then must the diversities become, when re- 
 moteness of ages is also allowed its operation ! 
 The inhabitants of New Zealand are not more 
 antipodes to the inhabitants of the British me- 
 tropolis in physical than in moral geography: 
 and it is probable, that neither the one nor the 
 other can form an idea approximating to the 
 truth respecting the character of the primeval 
 inhabitants of the globe. But all these varieties 
 must, unquestionably, be arranged by the Divine 
 Operator in some certain order, such as is most 
 conducive to the well being of the whole; more 
 
 3 H 2 
 
420 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 especially the successive varieties, or the changes 
 in the state of mankind during successive gene- 
 rations : and where the perverse self-will of man 
 interferes, so to speak, with the divine designs, 
 so as to prevent them from being accomplished 
 in the most direct manner, still, doubtless, it is 
 overruled so as to be subservient to them in the 
 end. The divine designs are ever kept in view, 
 and will finally take effect, although the opera- 
 tions of the Divine Providence to this purpose 
 receive some modification from the intractability 
 of the subjects on which it has to act, But even 
 where they are resisted most, still a regularity of 
 progression will be maintained. The course of 
 a fever is as regular as the planetary motions : 
 and whatever changes the self-will of man may 
 occasion in his own state ; and however Divine 
 Wisdom may in consequence modify the opera- 
 tions of its Providence; still we cannot doubt 
 that the whole is so arranged as to flow in most 
 regular order, and that the revolutions of the 
 human mind, occurring in successive ages, are 
 guided in as certain a course as the revolutions of 
 the solar system. 
 
 Such seem to be the views which reason would 
 suggest respecting the order observed in all the 
 proceedings of the Divine Economy and Provi- 
 dence ; and the testimony of Scripture is to the 
 same effect: it always represents the divine oper- 
 ations as regarding the fitness of times and states, 
 as never precipitating events till the suitable 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 421 
 
 season has arrived; and also, as allowing the 
 determinations of mankind to modify its ar- 
 rangements. Thus, when the possession of 
 Canaan is promised to Abraham,, the state of 
 the inhabitants at the time is assigned as a 
 reason for deferring the fulfilment of the 
 promise till the fourth generation; "for," says 
 the Divine Speaker, " the iniquity of the Amor- 
 ites is not yet full/'* So, that most important of 
 all events, the coming of the Lord in the flesh, 
 is constantly referred to " the fulness of the 
 timef:" and it would be ridiculous to suppose 
 that the time thus spoken of is determined by 
 any fore-ordained number of days and years, 
 independently of the state into which it was 
 foreseen that mankind would, in such a period, 
 have come. As for the modifications which the 
 arrangements for the bringing into effect the 
 ultimate divine purposes, not those purposes 
 themselves, receive from human determinations 
 and actions ; or the manner in which the Divine 
 Providence adapts its proceedings to contingen- 
 cies which man is allowed to determine; the 
 Scriptures are full of examples: we will mention 
 but one : Jesus Christ says " O Jerusalem, Jeru- 
 salem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee ; how often would 
 I have gathered thy children together, even as 
 a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings : 
 * Gen. xv. 16. f Gal. iv. 4, Eph. i. 10, Mark i. 15. 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left 
 unto you desolate/'* 
 
 Now it is evident from many passages in the 
 New Testament, that the coming of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and the consequent raising up of 
 a church that should look to him for salvation, 
 was the purpose of God., even before the creation 
 of the world, Paul declares that he was com- 
 missioned to preach fc to the intent that now 
 might be known by the church the manifold wis- 
 dom of God,, according to the eternal purpose 
 which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lordf:" 
 and Peter, speaking of Jesus Christ, says, fe Who 
 verily was fore-ordained before the foundation 
 of the world, but was manifest in these last times 
 for you."]; And it is evident that the passages 
 in which Paul and Peter speak of the election 
 and predestination of those to whom they write, 
 do not allude to any divine decree passed from 
 eternity in favour of them as individuals, but to 
 an eternal purpose to raise up a church of be- 
 lievers in the Word Incarnate ; and that all who 
 sincerely enter the church thus eternally predes- 
 tined and elected, are themselves called the pre- 
 destinate and elect. Whatever may be the true 
 mystery of cf God manifest in the flesh/' certain 
 it is that it was looked to from eternity as the 
 only means of permanently effecting the union 
 of God with his creatures, on which depends 
 * Matt, xxiii. 37, 38. | Eph. Hi. 10, 11. \ 1 Pet. i. 20. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 
 
 their salvation. But ii, nevertheless, before this 
 could take place so as to be productive of its full 
 effect, it was necessary that certain preparations 
 should intervene,, and even, as it would appear,, 
 that the human mind should be allowed to des- 
 cend into the lowest state into which it could 
 fall without degenerating from the human into 
 the merely animal nature: then it will be seen 
 that such a dispensation as that given to the 
 Jews was required to fill up the last and darkest 
 portion of the intermediate time. Doubtless the 
 dispensation of divine benefits under which the 
 primitive inhabitants of the world lived, even 
 after sin had entered, was of a higher and more 
 interior nature than any that could be given 
 afterwards: but this became so entirely cor- 
 rupted, that an end was put to the church which 
 lived under it by the flood. The proper time and 
 and suitable state being not yet arrived for the 
 coming of the Second Adam, a new dispensation, 
 evidently of a different nature from the former, 
 and not of so interior a character, that being no 
 longer suited to the more external state into 
 which man had descended, was given to Noah 
 and his posterity. Mankind continuing still to 
 fall lower and lower, this dispensation also suf- 
 fered perversion, and from its ruins arose all the 
 idolatries of the eastern world. Still the time 
 and state had not arrived for the appearance of 
 the Great Restorer : wherefore, mankind being 
 
424 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 disposed to rest in the mere externals of religious 
 worship, with little regard to its essence in the 
 heart and mind, a dispensation was given,, in 
 which the rituals of worship, being prescribed by 
 divine wisdom, and agreeably to the laws of that 
 analogy between natural things and spiritual 
 by which divine essences descend into material 
 forms, were effective of a communication between 
 God and man, sufficient!^ to keep mankind in a 
 salvable state, till cc the fulness of time" should 
 have arrived for the appearance of God in the 
 flesh. 
 
 Thus it appears that the human mind passed 
 through a series of successive changes, descend- 
 ing still lower and lower, or becoming continually 
 of a more gross and external character, but still 
 proceeding with the utmost regularity, from the 
 creation of man to the coming of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ : and it appears also, that the economy 
 of Divine Providence, adapting itself to man's 
 various states, by affording new dispensations of 
 the divine will as the previous ones became per- 
 verted, continued to furnish to man, in every state, 
 the means of salvation. It is also easy to con- 
 ceive, that, in the course of these progressions, a 
 state might occur, which was suited for the esta- 
 blishment of such a dispensation as was given 
 to the Jews, and for no other : in which case, it 
 was worthy of the Divine Being to give such a 
 dispensation. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 425 
 
 But is it objected, that, allowing that a period 
 may have occurred in the history of the human 
 mind in which no other dispensation of divine 
 things than such as was communicated to the 
 Israelites would have been suited to the state of 
 mankind, this does not account for its being con- 
 fined to one small nation? that still it was unjust 
 to deprive the rest of the world of its benefits? 
 It may be answered, that probably other na- 
 tions enjoyed advantages in consequence of this 
 arrangement, which they could not have enjoyed, 
 had not the Jews filled the station which they 
 actually did in the Divine Economy, constitut- 
 ing, for a time, the visible church of God upon 
 the earth. This may sound like a paradox, yet 
 perhaps it will not be difficult to shew that it is 
 true. 
 
 All that we know of the Divine Economy leads 
 to the conclusion, that the existence of a church 
 on earth in which the true God is known, and of 
 persons in that church by whom the true God is 
 worshipped in sincerity, are necessary to the well- 
 being, perhaps to the continuance in existence, 
 of the whole human race. Whoever believes, 
 as every reasonable creature must believe, God 
 to be the sole fountain of life, will easily see 
 that if all communication could be cut off be- 
 tween him and his creatures, the latter must im- 
 mediately fall into annihilation. All must like- 
 wise see, that the communication between God 
 
 3 i 
 
426 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and his creatures must be more direct, and the 
 life of which he is the source must be received 
 in greater fulness., when just ideas are enter- 
 tained of him,, and when, with corresponding 
 affections of the heart, the mind is turned to- 
 wards him its proper centre : may it not then 
 be considered as highly probable, that they 
 who possess this just knowledge of him, and 
 thus receive in its highest degree the life which 
 flows from him, form channels by which an 
 adequate measure of it is conveyed to others? 
 that they afford a chief connecting link by which 
 the Creator is united to his creation? This, at 
 least, is conformable to the order we see observed 
 in other things. Look at the human frame : We 
 see in it two principal organs, the heart and 
 the lungs, upon the action of which the life 
 of the whole depends : They do not constitute 
 the whole of the body ; but the whole of the 
 body lives by its connexion, in all its parts, with 
 them : Thus they are the media, by which life, 
 originally from the Source of Life, actuates the 
 corporeal members. But the more immediate 
 living principle in the body is the brain ; this 
 being the organ of the soul, which lives in a 
 sphere nearer to the Deity, Though the action 
 of the heart and lungs are necessary to the life 
 of the other parts of the body, their action could 
 not continue a moment if all the nerves were 
 separated which connect them with the brain : 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 from this they receive the life, which they dis- 
 pense through the body. It is true that the brain 
 also communicates immediately with all the other 
 parts of the body, which thence derive all their 
 powers of motion and sensation : yet they only 
 can receive these from the brain so long as they 
 remain also in communication with the heart, 
 separated from which they wither and perish. 
 Now may we not say, that what the brain is to 
 the human frame, God is to the whole human 
 race ? He communicates with the soul of every 
 individual on the globe, as the brain communi- 
 cates with every member and fibre in the body ; 
 but may it not be necessary, in order to man's 
 reception, at least, of spiritual life from this 
 communication, that there be some among the 
 mass who should be to the rest what the heart 
 and lungs are to the other members? Who can 
 these be, but those who have a genuine know- 
 ledge of God from revelation, and who are 
 thence capable of being animated by the purest 
 affections, directed by the highest intelligence? 
 May it not then be reasonably presumed, that the 
 existence of a church in the world, favoured with 
 the light of revelation, is necessary to the well- 
 being of the whole human race ? And this the 
 Lord Jesus Christ evidently inculcates, when he 
 says to his disciples, <c Ye are the salt of the 
 earth/' and ee Ye are the light of the world."* 
 
 * Matt. v. 13, 14. 
 
 3 i 2 
 
428 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 But although it is necessary to the welfare of 
 mankind that God should have a church on the 
 earth in which he is known by revelation ; and 
 although it is a high privilege to belong to it ; 
 it may not be necessary that all mankind should 
 be admitted to that privilege, any more than it 
 is necessary that the body should be all heart. 
 If a church exists any where, all mankind are 
 benefited through it in a secret manner: a union 
 is thus maintained between the world and its 
 Maker, of which all the human race enjoy the 
 advantages: but it may not be necessary that 
 they should all be stationed in the direct channel 
 of communication. It does indeed appear to be 
 predicted in Scripture, that a time shall come 
 in which the knowledge of God by means of 
 his Word will become general throughout the 
 earth: yet it cannot be expected that its in- 
 fluence will ever become every where the same : 
 there will always be a centre in which its truths 
 will be more clearly understood, and the life to 
 which they lead more eminently cultivated ; and 
 this centre will be as a heart to the rest. Future 
 ages are no doubt destined to behold a great 
 amelioration of the human race: but none sup- 
 pose that the highest point at present attained 
 is to remain immovable till all mankind have 
 arrived at it : the amelioration then will be 
 effected by a proportionate elevation of the 
 whole. The portion of mankind who are the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 429 
 
 subjects of that true civilization, with its ac- 
 companiments, moral and scientific, which is the 
 result of religion derived immediately from reve- 
 lation, may be compared to a pyramid, of which 
 those which are in the highest light consti- 
 tute the apex : now the sphere of human im- 
 provement derived from this source may go 
 on extending, till it has reached the darkest 
 corners of the earth: but it will always retain 
 its pyramidal form ; and the wider the base, the 
 higher will be the summit. But if such is to 
 be the state of the human race when " the 
 eternal purpose" of God shall have had its full 
 effect, and under a dispensation which brings 
 real advantages to all who become its subjects, 
 very different must have been the case during the 
 times which " God winked at*/' or when the 
 human race at large was in its lowest state of 
 decline, and under a dispensation which, con- 
 ferred little superiority on those to whom it was 
 given. A church in which God was known by 
 revelation, to> form in a manner the heart of the 
 world, was then also necessary : but it was not 
 necessary, to its acting in that capacity, that its 
 members should be numerous. To carry on the 
 simile : in the human frame, a strong action of 
 the heart is indispensable to high health and 
 superior vigour, and perhaps the general powers 
 are all exalted by the increase of its energy, so 
 Jong as the energy of the brain keeps pace with 
 * Acts xvii. 30. 
 
430 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and controls it ; but a very weak and languid 
 action is sufficient to the mere continuance of 
 life : applied to the moral frame of the world, 
 the former state is that which the Divine Bene- 
 volence aims eventually at producing; the latter 
 was all that, at the time when the Jewish Church 
 existed, the state of mankind admitted. If it is 
 true, according to the testimony of the Scrip- 
 tures, that the Lord's disciples, or the members 
 of his Church, are " the salt of the earth/' it 
 also appears to be true, from the same authority, 
 that even the existence of a small quantity of 
 this salt is sufficient for the preservation of the 
 mass : thus, could ten real servants of the Lord 
 have been found in Sodom, it would have been 
 preserved : and, to reverse the mode of statement, 
 the destruction of the kingdom of Israel would 
 have taken place in the days of Elijah, had not 
 seven thousand still been left who had not bowed 
 their knees to Baal.* 
 
 It seems then a just conclusion, that so long 
 as a church is maintained on earth in which the 
 true God is known by revelation, the gentiles 
 also partake of the benefit, and are kept in a 
 salvable state ; and that this benefit results, 
 whether the persons immediately constituting 
 the Church be many or few. Thus this benefit 
 was secured, even by the establishment of the 
 Church in one nation, and that so small a nation 
 as was constituted by the Israelites. And if, as 
 * Gen. xviii. 32, 1 Kings xix. 17, 18. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 431 
 
 may rationally be inferred, the state of mankind 
 at that time was such as did not admit of a higher 
 dispensation than one which consisted chiefly in 
 representative rites, it may easily be conceived, 
 that the advantage of being its subjects was so 
 slight, that no injustice was done to those who 
 were not admitted to the privilege. 
 
 (2.) But if it appears, from the views just de- 
 veloped, that the calling of the Israelites was a 
 measure of Divine Goodness, designed more for 
 the general benefit of mankind than for their 
 own private advantage ; still more will this be 
 seen when their selection is regarded as fur- 
 nishing the means by which the Holy Word 
 might be written in the form in which we now 
 possess it ; being that which is best adapted to 
 render permanent the blessings of divine revela- 
 tion, to make them most extensive, and to secure 
 them from perversion. In this point of view we 
 are also to consider it. 
 
 It was shewn in our last Lecture, that a Reve- 
 lation from God to man, a communication of 
 Divine Wisdom in a form adapted to human ap- 
 prehension, must be produced by a sphere or 
 emanation of Divine Truth flowing forth from 
 God, passing through the angelic and spiritual 
 into the material world, and there presenting it- 
 self in natural language ; and that its language 
 must consist of images taken from the objects 
 that appear in nature, and from the common 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 modes of thinking and acting- of the beings 
 whom there it found.* We have seen also, that 
 there not only is a perfect analogy between all 
 the lower parts and inferior objects of nature, and 
 certain moral, intellectual, and divine essences ; 
 but, likewise, between all that belongs to man as 
 an inhabitant of a natural world, and what be- 
 longs to or concerns him as the heir of a spiritual 
 one : and hence we have observed, that the 
 analogical language of the Word of God is not 
 confined to the mention of the irrational and 
 inanimate parts of nature, but admits all that 
 arises out of man's inclinations and feelings as 
 an animal and naturally rational being, and as a 
 member of civil society ; because all this answers, 
 by a decided mutual relation, to that which 
 belongs to his spiritual affections and feelings, 
 as an immortal and spiritually rational being, 
 designed to become a member of angelic so- 
 ciety, f If this be true, (and surely no plausible 
 objection can be raised against it !) it follows 
 that a Revelation from God, following the laws of 
 the Analogy between natural things and spiritual, 
 cannot be given, which does not treat much, in its 
 letter, of human beings and of human actions. If 
 all the objects of nature answer by regular ana- 
 logy to spiritual things, most of all must man, 
 the principal being in nature, and his actions as 
 a member of civil society. Of man, then, and 
 
 * P. 233. f P' 236. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 433 
 
 his actions,, a composition really given by divine 
 inspiration must extensively treat in its letter. 
 But of what persons and actions could it thus 
 treat? Evidently,, they must either be purely 
 allegorical ones, that is,, such persons as never 
 really existed, and such actions as never were 
 actually performed, or they must be represent- 
 ative ones, real persons invested by divine 
 appointment with a representative character, 
 and whose actions (such of them at least as the 
 sacred history records) were so overruled as to 
 bear a representative signification. Probably, 
 either mode might serve adequately to convey 
 the divine and spiritual things which divine re- 
 velation is designed to communicate : but it is 
 easy to see that this would be accomplished 
 much more fully by the latter method than by 
 the former. If the Bible-history had been a 
 pure allegory throughout, destitute of a founda- 
 tion in actual occurrences, it would long ago 
 have been rejected as a mere fable. Men who 
 had a knowledge of the science of Analogies, 
 as was the case in times of very remote anti- 
 quity, might have been equally benefited by 
 a revelation in the style of pure allegory as by 
 one in the garb of true but representative his- 
 tory; and accordingly, to compose such alle- 
 gories was, in those distant ages, a customary 
 mode, perhaps the only one, of imparting instruc- 
 tion: but when the key for the decypheringof such 
 
 3 K 
 
434 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 compositions was lost ; when the human mind had 
 .become of so gross a character as scarcely to 
 regard any thing as real beyond the objects of 
 sense ; had no divine revelation been extant but 
 a purely allegorical one, it would soon have been 
 entirely neglected nd have fallen into oblivion. 
 The spiritual sense being unknown and the 
 literal sense perceived to be unreal., the whole 
 would have been deemed unworthy of attention. 
 To obviate this mischief, means were provided 
 by Divine Providence, for uniting the advantages 
 of pure allegory with those of true history. In 
 the darkest night of human degeneracy, when 
 man was incapable of any direct perception of 
 heavenly things, and wholly immersed in the 
 carnal part of his nature, Divine Goodness, by 
 selecting a nation which was more entirely of 
 this character than any other, ff a stiff necked 
 people/' to represent those things which they 
 were incapable of interiorly perceiving and feel- 
 ing, brought divine subjects into their most ex- 
 treme and lowest natural form. By causing 
 the Holy Word to be written at this time, and to 
 treat in its literal sense of the transactions of 
 this people, its Divine Author gave to the reve- 
 lation of divine things a fixity of character, of 
 which it could not 6therwise have been made 
 susceptible : he laid for it a foundation in 
 the lowest possible base, as the means of ren- 
 dering it the most securely permanent. He 
 thus conjoined even nature in its extreme cir- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 435 
 
 cumference and uttermost boundary with him- 
 self, and provided the means of extending di- 
 vine instruction to the most debased of man- 
 kind. A revelation thus circumstanced acquired 
 external evidence in addition to the internal. 
 The Jews are to this day witnesses to us of 
 the truth of the leading facts of the Scripture- 
 history, and of the belief of their ancestors, 
 that it was given by inspiration. Thus, even 
 though the deep wisdom which the Divine Word 
 inwardly contains has been unknown, it has 
 generally been received as of divine origin : it 
 has been reverenced as holy ; and hence the im- 
 portant truths which are in many places extant 
 in the letter have been pressed with authority 
 upon the mind and heart, It doubtless, also, is 
 true, that whilst even the bare historical circum- 
 stances are read with an acknowledgment of the 
 divine origin of the record, the mind is disposed 
 to a holy frame, which is a plane for the insemina- 
 tion of spiritual graces ; as the performance of the 
 representative worship of the Jews had a similar 
 effect on the well-disposed among that people. 
 
 This then was the main object of the calling 
 of the individual nation of the Israelites, and of 
 making them the subjects and depositaries of di- 
 vine communications. This singular people was 
 in fact selected, to exhibit, in a sensible manner, 
 for the instruction of all the generations of men 
 that may ever exist on this globe, the conse- 
 
 3 K 2 
 
436 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 quences with which both the obedience and dis- 
 obedience of the divine laws are necessarily at- 
 tended; and at the same time to picture, with 
 the utmost exactness,, all the changes of state that 
 the church at large, or its individual epitome, 
 man, can ever experience. That people in par- 
 ticular was selected for this purpose, not because 
 they were themselves at all more the objects of 
 divine favour than any other nation, but because 
 their genius and temper were such, that they 
 were more capable than any other people of 
 being made the mediums of representing, under 
 external symbols and natural occurrences, all the 
 things and subjects which Divine Wisdom desires 
 to reveal to man. 
 
 The disposition of the Jews to multiply cere- 
 monial observances beyond what was required 
 of them, and to substitute these for the morals 
 enjoined by the law of God, is noticed in the 
 gospel : " The Pharisees, and all the Jews, ex- 
 cept they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding 
 the tradition of the elders : and when they come 
 from the market, except they wash, they eat not : 
 and many other things there be which they have 
 received to hold, as the washing of cups and 
 pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Layin^ 
 aside the commandment of God, ye hold the 
 tradition of men, as the washing of pots and 
 cups : and many other such like things ye do."* 
 * Mark vii. 3, 4, 8. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 437 
 
 So, \vhoeverhas looked into the works \vhich de- 
 scribe the manners and customs of the Jews, 
 or into the writings of the Rabbins, must have 
 been struck with the tendency to minute obser- 
 vances, even regarding* things the most indifferent 
 and insignificant, which they every where exhibit: 
 he must also have been surprised at the subtlety 
 with which they discover, even in "the weightier 
 matters of the law/' some fancied precept for 
 some outward observance, and the dexterity with 
 which they substitute the latter for the former.* 
 It is evident, also, that they have partaken of this 
 character ever since they were a people, and that 
 this gave occasion to some of the rites with which 
 the dispensation, of which they were the subjects, 
 was loaded. " I spake not unto your fathers/' 
 says the Lord by the prophet, " nor commanded 
 them, in the day that I brought them out of the 
 land of Egypt, concerning burnt- offer ings and 
 sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, 
 saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, 
 and ye shall be my people, and walk ye in all 
 the ways that I have commanded you : But they 
 hearkened notf," &c. So, in reference to their 
 conduct in the wilderness, the Lord says by ano- 
 ther prophet, cc Because they had not executed 
 my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and 
 
 * For full proof of this assertion, and for some remarkable 
 illustrations of the Jewish character, see Appendix, No. V. 
 t Jer. vii. 22, 23 24. 
 
438 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were 
 after their father's idols :" which words clearly 
 imply that they did not regard the interior things 
 of religion, but were idolaters at heart ; " where- 
 fore/' it is added, fc I gave them also statutes 
 that were not good, and judgments whereby they 
 should not live*;" referring to the ceremonial 
 observances, which have no sanctifying efficacy 
 of themselves, being representative types, only, 
 of holy things, but not identical with them. 
 
 Now this disposition of that people to neglect 
 essentials and to cleave to formalities, if it 
 disqualified them from constituting an interior 
 church themselves, eminently adapted them to 
 be made the representatives of such a church, and 
 to have their affairs overruled, so as to be sub- 
 servient to such representation. Nor is there 
 any room to object, that such control was incom- 
 patible with their free agency and moral respon- 
 sibility, when this their gross temper and super- 
 ficial disposition is regarded. The actions of the 
 Jews would no doubt have been of the same 
 general character as they were, had they not been 
 subjected to such a controlling influence as we 
 are supposing ; for they were, in fact, very similar 
 to those of other half-civilized nations and tribes : 
 and how easy must it be to the Divine Provi- 
 dence, working as it were upon the general ten- 
 dencies of men of this description, as upon ma- 
 
 * Ezek. xx. 24, 25. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 439 
 
 terials prepared to its hands, to give such a direc- 
 tion to the specific actions resulting from those 
 tendencies, as was necessary to induce on them 
 the form which its purposes required ! Under 
 any circumstances, the persons mentioned in the 
 Bible as doing good or bad actions, would have 
 done good and bad actions : the exact form, 
 only, of the actions, being the result of the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were placed. It is 
 common with philosophical minds to arnuse them- 
 selves with thinking, how certain individuals 
 would have acted under certain circumstances: 
 but few suppose that different circumstances 
 would have changed their character altogether, 
 though they would have differently modified its 
 developements. There is then no difficulty in 
 conceiving how the Divine Providence could 
 overrule the actions of a small nation, such as 
 we are describing, but more particularly of cer- 
 tain individuals in it, so as to render them exactly 
 representative of the subjects which form the pro- 
 per matter of a divine revelation, without affect- 
 ing their inward states of mind as free and ac- 
 countable agents. All that was necessary to 
 adapt the people for being thus acted on, was, 
 the negative quality of not being themselves 
 inwardly principled in the divine and spiritual 
 things which they were made the mediums of re- 
 presenting; for then it would have been impos- 
 sible to separate their representative from their 
 
440 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 proper character, and none could have sustained 
 a holy representation without being holy himself: 
 and as in forming his proper character man is left 
 to his own freedom,, it would thus have been im- 
 possible that a series of representative persons 
 could have been provided. But this was easy 
 with a people disposed to rest entirely in exter- 
 nals: with such,, the external could be so sepa- 
 rated from the internal, that the vilest persons 
 might be made to represent the most holy things: 
 and so entirely were the Israelites of this charac- 
 ter, that even the great truth, that man lives after 
 death, was not to them openly revealed, and the 
 rewards of obedience and punishments of dis- 
 obedience proposed to them were all such as were 
 to be experienced in this life only.* To have, 
 in our actions, a view to the life hereafter, opens 
 and spiritualizes the mind; to have no view but 
 to the life here, closes and materializes it: the 
 nature of the Jewish mind, then, may easily be 
 estimated, by the nature of the motives proposed 
 to them, which, we may be sure, were the highest 
 that they were able to appreciate : and external 
 motives, though not such as will introduce into 
 the mind heavenly graces, are best adapted to 
 induce such conduct as will represent them. 
 
 Such then is the character of the whole of the 
 Israelitish history, as recorded in the Scriptures. 
 From one end to the other, it is representative 
 
 * For summaries of the whole, see Lev, xxvi. & Deut. xxviii. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 441 
 
 and typical of spiritual things; the affairs of that 
 people having been constantly overruled by Di- 
 vine Providence for this purpose. Their history 
 may in fact be considered as a grand divine 
 drama, the first scene of which commences with 
 the calling of Abraham,, and the last concludes 
 with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 
 All their patriarchs and kings, priests and pro- 
 phets, and indeed the whole people, were the 
 actors in this wonderful drama; and the charac- 
 ters represented were the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
 to all that he performed and suffered for the re- 
 demption of mankind, and all the states through 
 which he passed to union with the Father; his 
 Church in all the steps of her progress from car- 
 nal to celestial; and the individual member of 
 the church through all the stages of his corres- 
 ponding advancement : and every thing which 
 creates opposition is at the same time shewn, 
 the obstacles to be overcome, and the lapses to 
 be dreaded, as well as the blessings to be ob- 
 tained. 
 
 This certainly is a view of the design of the 
 selection of the Israelites as a peculiar people, 
 which fully exonerates the Father of the universe 
 from the charge of partiality towards one family 
 of his creatures over the rest, and truly shews 
 that they were not chosen for their own sakes > 
 but that, as was promised to Abraham, through 
 them all the families of the earth might be 
 
 3 L 
 
442 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 blessed; a promise which indeed refers, primarily, 
 to the birth of the Word Incarnate among that 
 nation, but which is also applicable to the gift of 
 the written Word communicated by their means. 
 This view of the subject furnishes, in addition, a 
 complete answer to the objection which demands, 
 tf If the Jews were really chosen of God, in prefer- 
 ence to all other people, how comes it to pass that 
 they were not better than all other people ?" since, 
 if they were not chosen to form a real internal 
 church, composed of heavenly-minded worship- 
 pers of God, but only to represent a church of 
 such worshippers, then individual sanctity was 
 not particularly to be looked for among them, 
 and their private characters had no more neces- 
 sary connexion with the things represented by 
 them, than has the private character of an actor 
 on the stage with that of the prince or hero 
 whom he personifies. In short, every objection 
 which can be raised against the calling of the 
 Israelites, and against the divine inspiration of 
 their history, is entirely removed by this view of 
 the subject, as will be further seen in our next 
 Lecture : and perhaps I may be allowed to ex- 
 press my own convictions by saying, that certain 
 I am, that whoever will candidly study the Jewish 
 character and history, both as recorded in the 
 Scriptures and as presented in the writings of 
 their Rabbins, will find ample reason to conclude 
 that this view is the true one. The Mosaic dis- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 443 
 
 pensation was given,, as the Apostle affirms, 
 ec because of transgressions*;*' because such 
 was the gross character of that people,, and, in- 
 deed, such was the state of the whole of mankind 
 in those ages, before the work of redemption 
 was accomplished, that a dispensation in which 
 spiritual things were openly revealed could not 
 have been received, or would have been imme- 
 diately profaned : and it was given, as is declared 
 in the same place, (e till the seed should come to 
 whom the promise was made ;" that is, as had 
 been explained before, to fill up the intermediate 
 period till the coming of the Lord' Jesus Christ, 
 who was to found a spiritual dispensation. And 
 not merely a transient, but a permanent benefit 
 was conferred on mankind by these means. The 
 dispensation given to the Israelites was full of 
 <c patterns (or types) of things in the heavens*)-/' 
 which are replete with the sublimest instruction 
 when their antitypes are understood : and the 
 very history of the people who were the subjects 
 of this representative dispensation became repre 
 sentative too, depicting to the enlightened ob- 
 server every thing that can be experienced in 
 the spiritual life. This also the Apostle teaches: 
 ' All these things happened unto them for en- 
 samples ; and they are written for our admonition, 
 upon whom the ends of the world are come "J 
 We have seen before, that all who accept the 
 * GaJ. iii. 19. f Heb. ix. 23. J 1 Cor. x. 11. 
 
444, PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Scriptures at all, are constrained to allow a great 
 number of their historical relations to have a 
 typical, representative, and spiritual meaning : 
 we have seen also, that if we allow the Word of 
 God to have a spiritual sense in some parts, we 
 must, to make it consistent with itself, allow the 
 same in all : and the view now presented shews 
 how this may be the case in the divine narra- 
 tions, consistently with the reality of the historical 
 events, agreeably with the attributes belonging 
 both to the nature of God and the nature of 
 man, and in accordance with the laws of that 
 Analogy which must always govern the con- 
 nexion between natural things and spiritual, be- 
 tween the world and its Maker, and between 
 the literal expression and divine import of every 
 composition which has God for its Author. 
 
 III. Having presented these views of the true 
 nature of the Scripture history, we are now to 
 offer a few examples of the applicability of the 
 Science of Analogies to its interpretation. 
 
 1. The first instance which we select is that 
 of the miraculous capture of Jericho, on the 
 entrance of the Israelites into the promised land. 
 
 (1.) Among the objections which have been 
 raised against the Scriptures as containing a re- 
 velation from God, and against the idea that the 
 Je\ys were, in any manner, the elect people of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 445 
 
 God, none has been more insisted upon than that 
 drawn from the extermination by them of the 
 Canaanites, executed, as it would appear, by the 
 express command of God. This has been held up 
 to execration, by the Deists, in the strongest terms, 
 as a measure of the most enormous cruelty and 
 most indefensible injustice: it was a measure, they 
 affirm, which a God deserving of reverence could 
 never authorize, and a people entitled to esteem 
 could never execute. But great as is the clamour 
 which has been raised against this part of the 
 Bible-history, there is no part of it which has 
 been defended by the Christian advocates with 
 more powerful arguments: their success, indeed, 
 in most respects, has here been quite triumphant. 
 As they have shewn, if vice ever deserves punish- 
 ment, then most justly was punishment inflicted 
 on the Canaanites. If the infliction of punish- 
 ment can ever be a measure of mercy, then was 
 mercy displayed in the extirpation of that race: 
 for if the contagion of vice is more deadly in its 
 results than the contagion of disease; and if, to 
 arrest the latter, it is a beneficent act to inter- 
 dict all communication between an infected city 
 and the surrounding country, though the con- 
 sequence may be the death of most of its in- 
 habitants ; then was it an act of goodness, on the 
 part of the Supreme Disposer, entirely to cut off 
 a nation which set examples of the most flagitious 
 criminality to all around, and all whose posterity 
 
446 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 (surely we may allow Divine Omniscience to 
 know this!) would only have grown up to add 
 inhabitants to the kingdom of darkness. Sup- 
 posing, too,, that any who were less criminal suf- 
 fered ; it is to be recollected, that, if man is im- 
 mortal, the death of the body is by no means the 
 greatest calamity which can befal him : it is even 
 reasonable to believe, what the Scriptures inti- 
 mate, that death is often a kind dispensation ; that, 
 among the wicked, they are sometimes removed 
 ff in whom there is found some good thing to- 
 wards the Lord God of Israel*," and that (( the 
 righteous is taken away from the evil to come/'f 
 It were as reasonable then to blaspheme the 
 Divine Power which suffered Herculaneum to 
 be overflowed with burning lava, Lisbon to be 
 swallowed up by an earthquake, and the Caribs 
 and other nations of the West Indies to be ex- 
 terminated by the Spaniards; and which per- 
 mits thousands of persons to be annually de- 
 stroyed in Barbary and Turkey by the plague, 
 and a third part, or more, of the human race to 
 perish in infancy ; as to revile the Divine Word 
 in which is recorded the destruction of the Ca- 
 naanites by the sword of the children of Israel. 
 Christian advocates admit, and have convincingly 
 shewn, that there is here an analogy between the 
 Word of God and his works : and if we would 
 deny the God of Scripture for sanctioning the 
 * 1 Kings xiv. 13, f Isa. Ivii. I. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 447 
 
 extirpation of a most abandoned nation, (who, 
 however, were by no means completely extir- 
 pated, after all,) we must deny the God of nature 
 for permitting such multitudes, not only of the 
 wicked but of the good, to perish by war and 
 murder, by shipwreck and famine, by the con- 
 vulsions of nature and the visitations of disease. 
 
 But though it is perfectly easy to vindicate the 
 Divine Justice in the destruction of the Ca- 
 naanites, whether effected by the sword or by 
 any other means, some difficulty, certainly, still 
 attends the transaction, while the nation to which 
 the execution of it was committed is supposed to 
 have been a nation of saints. The extirpation of 
 the wicked, when their wickedness has arrived 
 at its summit, may be a measure of necessity : 
 but I apprehend that men whose, minds are im- 
 bued with real religion, whose hearts are mo- 
 delled by the spirit which says, cc Love your 
 enemies ; bless them that curse you ; do good to 
 them that hate you ; and pray for them which 
 despitefully use you and persecute you* ;" would 
 revolt from a task of unrelenting slaughter. How 
 much better, then, are the difficulties of this 
 transaction solved, by the view of the character 
 of the Jewish nation, and of the design of their 
 election, which has been given above ! 
 
 So again, though the justice of the measure of 
 extirpating the Canaanites is easily vindicated, 
 * Matt. v. 44. 
 
448 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 yet some difficulty still attaches to it while it is 
 regarded as flowing from the pure will of God, 
 and the executioners are supposed to have been 
 the peculiar objects of his favour. The true 
 character of the objects of divine favour, and that 
 of their God, are brought openly to light in the 
 Gospel ; and there, if we learn that the disciples 
 of pure religion are {C to love their enemies, to 
 bless them that curse them, to do good to them 
 that hate them, and to pray for them who despite- 
 fully use and persecute them ;" we learn also > 
 that they are to do this, " that they may be the 
 children of their Father which is in heaven ; for 
 he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
 good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
 unjust/'* The testimony of the Old Testament, 
 when it describes the divine character as it is in 
 itself, not, as is frequently the case, as it appears 
 to the apprehension of gross and wicked minds, 
 is to the same effect: {C As I live, saith the Lord, 
 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked f ;" 
 " He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the 
 children of men/'J Accordingly, it is never sup- 
 posed that the pains of the wicked in hell will 
 be inflicted by angels of light, but by spirits of 
 darkness : certainly, nothing that requires spirits 
 of darkness for its actors, however indispensable 
 in the Divine Economy, can be positively agree- 
 able to the Fountain of Good : of course, neither 
 * Matt, v.45. f Ezek.xxxiii. 11. J Lam. iii. 33. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 449 
 
 could the Israelites,, when destroying wicked 
 nations, and thus doing the work of the spirits 
 of darkness, be absolutely the objects of divine 
 approbation. All suffering, even when inflicted 
 as the punishment of evil, must then be of divine 
 permission, not directly of divine will. What 
 the Divine Being wills in it, must be, the pre- 
 servation of the good, and restraint upon the 
 perpetration of evil : and as these objects cannot 
 be accomplished without the infliction of punish- 
 ment upon the wicked, this is permitted, as a 
 matter of necessity, though not of itself pleasing 
 to the Divine Nature. This view, founded upon 
 the plainest Scripture-authority, is surely as li- 
 beral as any can desire, except those who would 
 confound all distinctions of right and wrong, and 
 would rather have happiness attached as a re- 
 ward to evil than to good. 
 
 But is it asked, How can these ideas be recon- 
 ciled with the commands so positively laid upon 
 the Israelites to destroy the Canaaniles, and en- 
 forced by threats of punishment on themselves 
 if they omitted it? The view which has been 
 given above, of the manner in which the Divine 
 Truth, emanating from the bosom of Deity, 
 presents itself in the world of nature, solves the 
 enigma, and clears the subject from all remaining 
 difficulty. Divine Truth, we have seen, clothes 
 itself in the world, not only with images taken 
 from exterior nature, but with the ideas proper to 
 
 3 M 
 
450 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the mind of man as an inhabitant of the natural 
 world ; frequently, indeed, with ideas which 
 only belong to him in the merest state of nature. 
 Hence the necessity of distinguishing between 
 those parts of the letter of the Divine Word, which 
 are expressed according to appearances only, and 
 those parts in which the genuine truth is exhi- 
 bited, as noticed in our second Lecture* : and it 
 will always appear to man in a mere state of 
 nature, and who judges by his senses without 
 elevating his rational faculty into a less fallacious 
 light, that all suffering, as well as all good, flows 
 from the immediate will of God. Hence in the 
 letter of the Word of God, which in many parts 
 is expressed according to the ideas of such per- 
 sons, some things will seem to be of command 
 that are only of permission. In the spiritual 
 sense, which is in a sphere above the letter, re- 
 sides the genuine truth : but when this descends 
 into the lower sphere in which are the thoughts 
 of man in his natural state, it there puts on an 
 appearance different from its proper one, and 
 assumes a conformity with his state and ideas. 
 Thus, in the literal sense of the Word, many 
 things are said, and even some practices are per- 
 mitted, in which the ideas of Divine Truth, and 
 the laws of Divine Order, are accommodated to 
 the gross state of apprehension in which the 
 Jews were, among whom, and by whom as in- 
 * P. 115, lie. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 451 
 
 struments, the Word of the Old Testament was 
 written. This is not an unauthorized assertion,, 
 but is expressly taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 When, in answer to the inquiry by the Pharisees, 
 whether it is lawful for a man to put away his 
 wife for every cause, he had laid down the divine 
 law respecting the indissoluble nature of the 
 marriage union, they, in reference to Deut. xxiv. 
 1, said to him, Cf Why did Moses then command 
 to give a writing of divorcement and to put her 
 away ?" to which he answered, fc Moses, be- 
 cause of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you 
 to put away your wives : but from the beginning 
 it was not so."* He had delivered the same 
 doctrine on a former occasion, and had illustrated 
 it, not only by the case of divorce, but of several 
 other things, permitted, and, apparently, com- 
 manded, in the Mosaic law. Thus, in reference 
 to Lev. xix. 12, and Deut. xxiii. 23, he says, ec Ye 
 have heard that it hath been said by them of old 
 time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt 
 perform unto the Lord thine oaths : but I say 
 unto you, Swear not at all/' &c.f So, in regard 
 to the law of retaliation, laid down in Lev. xxiv. 
 19, 20, he says, cf Ye have heard that it hath 
 been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
 tooth : but I say unto you, That ye resist not 
 evilj," &c. Hence, and from other examples, it 
 is evident, that there are enactments in the Mo- 
 
 * Matt. xix. 7, 8. f Ch. v. 33, 34. J Ver. 38, 39. 
 
 3 M 2 
 
452 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 sale code, which, in their external form,, are not of 
 divine will, but only of divine permission, not- 
 withstanding their being delivered in the form of 
 commands. Divine Truth adapted itself to " the 
 hardness of men's hearts/' and to the grossness 
 of their ideas, in regard to many things, which 
 " from the beginning were not so/' which, if 
 they followed the order designed by the Creator 
 when he founded the creation, would be quite 
 otherwise. Of this nature, certainly, is the li- 
 berty which nations arrogate of engaging in 
 mortal conflict. We are permitted at the pre- 
 sent day, and the Jews were apparently com- 
 manded, to slaughter others in war: but this also 
 ff from the beginning was not so:" it was one of 
 the concessions made to the Jews ic because of 
 the hardness of their hearts," and which we 
 claim a right to act upon to a certain extent, 
 because of the hardness of ours. 
 
 None of these things, however, are enjoined 
 upon mankind, even in appearance, under the spi- 
 ritual dispensation of the gospel ; nor would 
 they have been enjoined upon the Jews, and re- 
 corded in the Word of God, had they been the 
 subjects of any but a representative dispensation. 
 Such ordinances were prescribed to them, be- 
 cause, though not holy or even good in them- 
 selves, they were exactly symbolic of things 
 truly spiritual and divine. Thus, had not that 
 nation been selected to represent the subjects 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C.^g^^3 
 
 connected with man's welfare as a spiritual being 
 and an heir of eternity,, we should never have 
 heard of their exterminating the Canaanites by 
 divine command : they might probably have done 
 so in the general course of events, arid as other 
 conquerors have frequently subjugated, and in 
 great part destroyed, other nations: but we should 
 never have been told that they acted by divine au- 
 thority. Every thing that takes place in human 
 affairs, being under the control of Divine Provi- 
 dence, may, so far, be said to be done by divine au 
 thority : here, however, we are certain, that much 
 is done which is not of the divine will, though 
 nothing can occur without the divine permission. 
 That guidance of Providence, then, which in 
 general is tacit and secret, was, in the case of 
 the Israelites, open and avowed, only because 
 their affairs were so directed as to be made sym- 
 bolic of heavenly things. Thus they were not 
 only tacitly led to execute the judgments upon 
 the Canaanites, as the northern nations were led 
 to overrun and destroy the corrupt Roman Em- 
 pire, and as the Turks were led to destroy the 
 equally corrupt empire of the Greeks, but a 
 direction to that effect was given them by divine 
 authority, because it was seen by Infinite Wis- 
 dom, that the whole might be so overruled as 
 to be representative of spiritual things of the 
 greatest importance. But, as observed above, 
 the act of destroying can never in itself be 
 
454 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 pleasing to the God of love, nor can the actors 
 be the peculiar objects of his favour : when 
 therefore the Israelites are charged to do such 
 things, and are promised blessings (temporal 
 blessings, observe,) in consequence, it is solely 
 because they here, as every where else, are 
 carrying on the business of the grand drarna 
 of which they were the appointed performers. 
 It was the things represented, not those exe- 
 cuted, which were the objects really regarded 
 with approbation by the Lord. The external 
 acts obtained for the Jews a transient abode 
 in the earthly Canaan ; but such of them as re- 
 ceived an inheritance in the heavenly Canaan 
 obtained it by very different means. This is 
 only to be acquired by the things represented: 
 and every Christian must do in reality what the 
 extermination of the Canaanites outwardly sym- 
 bolized, before he can be established in that 
 heavenly kingdom, of which a land flowing 
 with milk and honey is, by analogy, an expres- 
 sive representative. 
 
 Although then, in the main, the extermination 
 of the Canaanites has been successfully justified 
 by many Christian advocates, yet a higher view 
 of the subject than has usually been taken is 
 necessary to remove all the difficulties of the 
 case : but all remaining difficulties are most 
 completely removed, when the true character of 
 the Israelitish nation, and of the code of Divine 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 455 
 
 Truth of which they were the subjects, is dis- 
 tinctly apprehended; when it is seen that that 
 nation was selected to represent, only, the states 
 which belong to the spiritual life, without being 
 principled in that life themselves ; and that every 
 circumstance of their history has a representative 
 application. 
 
 (2.) To this account of the command given 
 to the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites, we 
 will add a general statement of its spiritual sig- 
 nification. By a most obvious analogy, natural 
 foes are expressive symbols of spiritual ones; 
 and spiritual foes are not only the unseen powers 
 of darkness, but the tendencies to evil and error 
 which lurk in the corrupt heart of man, all the 
 vile lusts and deceptive persuasions which he is 
 prone to indulge and cherisli. It is against 
 these that the Lord Jesus Christ warns us, 
 when he says, " A man's foes shall be those of 
 his own household*:" for these words do not 
 merely refer to the collisions of opinion, and 
 the animosities on that account, which might 
 be expected to arise in families upon the pro- 
 mulgation of the gospel; but to the discoveries 
 it would make of the corruptions of the hu- 
 man heart, and to the conflict of feelings which 
 man would experience,, in consequence, within 
 his own breast. That the Israelitish people 
 
 * Matt. x. 36. 
 
456 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 were types of the true members of the church, 
 and of the principles which make men such, 
 has been generally acknowledged, and cannot 
 be denied after the statement of the Apostle, 
 quoted in our second Lecture.* The same sen- 
 timent is also recognized on various occasions 
 by the Lord Jesus Christ; as when he calls Na- 
 thanael, on account of his guileless sincerity, ' ' an 
 Israelite indeed. "f Such being the signification 
 of the Jews or Israelites, it follows, that that 
 of their enemies must be the contrary, that 
 they must represent all that is opposite to, and 
 destructive of, the sacred principles which con- 
 stitute man a member of the church ; and that is, 
 all evil and all religious error. This then must 
 be the general signification of the Canaanites : 
 they must denote the corrupt tendencies and 
 sentiments which occupy the mind of man, be- 
 fore it is new modelled by the principles of true 
 religion ; and the command to extirpate them 
 must be meant to affirm the necessity of remov- 
 ing the former before the latter can be esta- 
 blished in security. This analogy is so plain, 
 that its general features have been seen by many 
 of the expositors; though, for want of a regular 
 key of interpretation, they usually err when they 
 descend to particulars : it has even been rendered 
 popular through the medium of poetry; as in the 
 * P. 81. f John i. 47. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 457 
 
 following lines. Taking Joshua as a type of 
 the Saviour, the poet, after speaking of being 
 brought to "Carman's bounds/' proceeds thus: 
 
 " I see an open door of hope ; 
 
 Legions of sins in vain oppose : 
 Bold, I, with thee, my head, march up, 
 And triumph o'er a world of foes. 
 
 Lo ! the tall sons of Anak rise ! 
 
 Who can the sons Anak meet? 
 Captain! to thee I lift mine eyes, 
 
 And lo! they fall beneath my feet. 
 
 Passion, and appetite, and pride, 
 (Pride, my old, dreadful, tyrant/oe,) 
 
 I see cast down on every side ; 
 
 And, conquering, 1 to conquer go." 
 
 Who can avoid being struck with the truth of 
 the analogy thus pointed out, and who can help 
 being affected with its beauty? Arid is not the 
 utility of it equally evident? Every one who 
 knows any thing of that wonderful labyrinth, the 
 human heart, must be aware, that the work of 
 removing its native waywardness and substitut- 
 ing in its place steady principles of virtue, which 
 is the work that divines call regeneration, must 
 include a great variety of particulars, and must 
 be attended with an immense multitude of in- 
 describable emotions ; indescribable, that is, in 
 any other language than that of analogy. What 
 other style of composition could be invented, 
 which should intelligibly delineate the innumera- 
 
 3 N 
 
458 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ble fluctuations and vicissitudes of state, which, 
 in the progress of such an operation, must be ex- 
 perienced? The best devised arrangement of ab- 
 stract terms that could be framed for the purpose, 
 would only appear a confused jumble of endless 
 repetitions. But construct an allegory to de- 
 scribe it : represent it under a series of historical 
 circumstances occurring to a variety of persons 
 all invested with a typical character ; and we 
 easily see that the object may be accomplished. 
 That Infinite Wisdom which is " acquainted 
 with all our ways*/' and which " knoweth the 
 secrets of the heartf;" that Omnipotent God who 
 alone can cf take the stony heart out of our flesh 
 and give us a heart of flesh J," and who alone 
 knoweth all the mysteries of our spiritual as well 
 as of our natural creation; he has described 
 the work in the divinely inspired account of the 
 deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt 
 and their establishment in Canaan: and by ac- 
 tually leading that people through a series of 
 adventures exactly representative of the stages 
 through which man is led to salvation, he has 
 given to the pliability of allegory the solidity of 
 historical fact. With the mere circumstances of 
 the war, then, between the Canaanites and the 
 Israelites, we have nothing to do : nothing is 
 here proposed for our imitation: but the true 
 
 * Ps. cxxxix. 3. f Ps. xliv. 21. J Ezek. xi. 19. 
 
 Ps. cxxxix. 14, 15, 16. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 459 
 
 moral of the history is instructive indeed; and 
 we ought to be eternally grateful that it has 
 been written for our benefit. 
 
 (3.) With this idea of the war of the Israelites 
 against the former inhabitants of Canaan, we 
 shall easily form a general conception of the im- 
 port of the miraculous capture of Jericho. The 
 following are the principal circumstances of the 
 event., as related in the sixth chapter of Joshua : 
 Cf The Lord said unto Joshua, See., I have given 
 into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and 
 the mighty men of valour. And ye shall com- 
 pass the city, all ye men of war, and go round 
 about the city, once. Thus shalt thou do six 
 days. And seven priests shall bear before the 
 ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the se- 
 venth day ye shall compass the city seven times ; 
 and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. 
 And it shall come to pass, that when they make 
 a long blast with the rams' horn, and when ye 
 hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people 
 shall shout with a great shout: and the wall 
 of the city shall fall down flat, and the people 
 shall ascend up, every man straight before him."* 
 This is the command of the Lord to Joshua, who 
 repeats it, a little more particularly, to the priests 
 and people. Care was also taken that all the 
 people, except the priests who blew the trum- 
 pets, should march in silence for the first six 
 
 * Ver. 2 to 5. 
 
 3 N 2 
 
460 PLENARr INSPIRATION OF 
 
 days : for {e Joshua had commanded the people, 
 saying, Ye shall riot shout, nor make any noise 
 with your voice., neither shall any word proceed 
 out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout : 
 then shall ye shout/'* The procession thus 
 moved round the city, once each day, for the first 
 six days. <c And it came to pass, on the seventh 
 day, that they rose early about the dawning of 
 the day, and compassed the city seven times: 
 only on that day, compassed they it seven times. 
 And it came to pass, on the seventh time, when 
 the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said 
 unto the people, Shout! for the Lord hath given 
 you the city. And the city shall be accursed, 
 even it and all that are therein, to the Lord : 
 only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that 
 are with her in the house, because she received 
 the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any 
 wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, 
 lest ye make yourselves accursed when ye take 
 of the accursed thing, and make the camp of 
 Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver 
 and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are con- 
 secrated to the Lord ; they shall come into the 
 treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted 
 when the priests blew with the trumpets. And 
 it came to pass, when the people heard the sound 
 of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a 
 great shout, that the wall of the city fell do\vn 
 
 * Ver. 10. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 461 
 
 flat, so that the people went up into the city, 
 every man straight before him : and they took 
 the city/'* 
 
 Surely every one who believes that this miracle 
 was really performed,, must feel that subjects of 
 universal application must be represented under 
 its various circumstances; that,, grand and mag- 
 nificent as the literal facts are, yet, if no other 
 end was designed to be accomplished by it than 
 the capture of Jericho and the destruction of its 
 inhabitants,, it never would have been performed 
 by an exertion of Divine Power, nor recorded in 
 the Word of Divine Wisdom. The crimes of 
 nations render it necessary that they should be 
 visited by the scourge of war in our days as well 
 as in the days of Joshua, of which the world has 
 of late years had sad experience : but though the 
 hand of Providence is still often strikingly mani- 
 fested in the surprising turns and seeming ac- 
 cidents by which the event of battles or sieges, 
 embracing the fate of empires, is frequently de- 
 cided, yet no results are obtained without the 
 action of causes which have at least something 
 like a direct tendency to produce them. When 
 therefore, in the case before us, we see such great 
 effects produced by means apparently so totally 
 inadequate, we may be satisfied that the whole 
 must have some interior signification, and that it 
 must have been in consequence of their answer- 
 
 * Ver. 15 to 20. 
 
462 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ing to spiritual things by analogy, that the natural 
 events took place. Had, also, nothing been in- 
 tended but to exhibit a signal proof of Divine 
 Power, the city might as well have been de- 
 stroyed by raining upon it fire and brimstone 
 from heaven, as is related of Sodom : but then 
 the occurrence would not have told the par- 
 ticular lesson designed, of which all the accom- 
 panying circumstances were essential parts. 
 
 Among all the emblems employed in the re- 
 presentative worship of the Israelitish church, 
 the ark was the most holy and exalted. Several 
 other great miracles are recorded to have been 
 wrought by its presence, one of which was noticed 
 in our third Lecture : and the reason that such 
 power attended it was, because it was the symbol 
 of the Divine Presence, and thus of the Lord 
 himself, as dwelling in his church, and in the 
 inmost centre of the soul of every true member of 
 the church universal. How can the Lord's pre- 
 sence be thus effected with finite creatures, but 
 by a sphere or emanation proceeding from him- 
 self, analogous to the sphere of heat and light 
 proceeding from the sun of nature, by which the 
 sun is rendered virtually present, and produces 
 effects, in the earth? We have seen in our last 
 Lecture*, that it must be by a sphere or ema- 
 nation of Divine Truth, proceeding forth as spi- 
 ritual light, that perceptions are communicated 
 
 * P. 230, &c. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 463 
 
 to the minds of intelligent creatures, according to 
 their respective natures and capacities : and we 
 have seen also, that it must have been by such 
 a proceeding sphere of Divine Truth, that the 
 Word of God, if any composition deserving that 
 title exists, must have been given. The Word 
 of God, in its letter, is, in reality, the sphere of 
 Divine Truth thus proceeding from God fixed 
 and terminated in language taken from the ob- 
 jects of nature ; and it is, also, the great medium 
 by which the Presence of God is effected in the 
 world. The Divine Presence, then, thus pro- 
 duced, is what was represented by the ark : and 
 to impart to it this representation, there were de- 
 posited in it the two tables of stone on which were 
 written, by the finger of God, as is said, or by a 
 miraculous divine operation, the commandments 
 promulgated from Mount Sinai ; these being the 
 first-fruits of the written Word ; and not only the 
 first-fruits, but the substance of the whole. The 
 tables were two, because they prescribed man's 
 duty to God and his duty to his neighbour : these 
 were condensed into the two precepts, to love 
 the Lord above all things and our neighbour as 
 ourselves: and the Lord Jesus Christ declares, 
 that " on these two commandments hang all 
 the law and the -prophets."* There evidently 
 then is reason in Analogy for the ark's being 
 taken as a symbol of the Divine Presence with 
 
 * Matt, xxii. 40. 
 
464 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 man by the Divine Truth proceeding from him- 
 self: and that to convey this representation was 
 the express design with which the ark was con- 
 structed, is evident from the instructions given to 
 Moses on the occasion. Jehovah said to him, 
 ff In the ark shalt thou put the testimony [the 
 two tables of the law] that I shall give thee. And 
 there I will meet thee, and I will commune with 
 thee from above the mercy-seat, from between 
 the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the 
 testimony, of all things which I will give thee in 
 commandment unto the children of Israel."* 
 That the ark was intended to be a representative 
 of the Divine Presence, is clearly expressed in 
 the words cc there I will meet thee :" and that it 
 was intended to be a representative of the Lord's 
 presence in and by his Divine Truth, is equally 
 clear from its being added, cc and I will commune 
 with thee of all things which I will give thee in 
 commandment unto the children of Israel ;" for 
 it can only be by his Divine Truth that the Lord 
 communicates his will to man. It is hoped then 
 that the signification of the ark of the testimony, 
 as the symbol of the Divine Presence, and, spe- 
 cifically, of the Divine Truth, must be sufficiently 
 evident; as also, that this was its meaning by 
 appointment, arid that there was a ground for 
 that appointment in Analogy. 
 
 Jericho was situated just at the entrance to 
 * Ex. xxv. 21, 22. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 465 
 
 the land of Canaan : and as the land of Canaan 
 represented the church, Jericho, in a good sense, 
 would represent the first state experienced on 
 full admission into it, and, indeed, the principle 
 by which such admission is effected; which is, 
 instruction in doctrinal truths, accompanied with 
 obedience of life. But while the land of Canaan 
 was occupied by idolatrous nations, every place 
 in it had a signification opposite to its genuine 
 one : and, in this sense, Jericho represented the 
 disposition to resist instruction, by opposing to 
 it such sentiments as the corrupt tendencies of 
 the human heart incline the understanding to 
 invent in their excuse. The city itself, then, was 
 the type of such doctrinal sentiments as resist or 
 profane the pure doctrines of the Church ; and 
 its wall signifies such false persuasions and con- 
 firmations by fallacious arguments as defend 
 such false doctrine, and prevent those who hold 
 it from discerning the evidence of truth. Every 
 one must see the analogy between the arguments 
 by which a man defends his sentiments, and pre- 
 vents an adversary from depriving him of them, 
 and the wall that defends a city. As all such 
 persuasions originate in depraved lusts and ap- 
 petites, however they may be glossed over ; and 
 as, in the time of judgment, the arguments with 
 which they are excused will not serve to defend 
 them ; therefore the city was burnt with fire*, 
 
 * Ver.24. 
 
 3 o 
 
466 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and its wall fell down : for fire, as was shewn in 
 our third Lecture, is the proper symbol of love, 
 either good or evil, but always, when considered 
 as to its destroying property, of evil love or lust ; 
 and the falling down of the wall expresses pri- 
 vation of all protection. The marching round 
 the city, denotes the exploration of the quality 
 of the principle represented by it ; and the action 
 upon it of the sphere of Divine Truth from the 
 Lord was represented by the carrying round of 
 the ark, and the sounding of the trumpets before 
 it by the priests. The sounding of trumpets, in 
 the representative dispensation of the Jews, was 
 a symbol, by an obvious analogy, of the reve- 
 lation, manifestation, communication, or bringing 
 down, of the Divine Truth, from a higher region 
 towards a lower : the priests were representatives 
 of whatever in man truly worships the Lord, 
 which is all that belongs to the true love of his 
 name, arid which, of course, is the medium by 
 which divine communications are received from 
 him: the shouting of the people expresses con- 
 sent and confirmation on the part of the inferior 
 faculties. The reason why the priests were seven 
 in number, and why they went round the city 
 seven days, and seven times on the seventh day, 
 is, because that number signifies what is su- 
 premely holy, full, and complete. 
 
 Such, according to the sense resulting from 
 the application of the Rule of Analogies, are the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 467 
 
 general subjects contained in this miracle : but 
 perhaps this will be more clearly seen,, if we make 
 a brief application of it to a state to be expe- 
 rienced in individual regeneration. 
 
 We have before had occasion to notice the 
 doctrine of the Apostle Paul respecting the in- 
 ward and outward, or internal and external mah. 
 These he treats as two distinct regions of the 
 mental constitution ; and he speaks of the ne- 
 cessity of man's becoming ic spiritually minded" 
 as to both. But he describes a state in which the 
 inward man is opened, and replenished with cc the 
 things of the Spirit/' while the outer man, which 
 he sometimes calls " the flesh/' still ff lusteth 
 against the spirit :" thus, placing himself in the 
 situation of such a person, he says, cc I delight 
 in the law of God, after the inward man ; but 
 I see another law in my members, warring 
 against the law of my mind, and bringing me 
 into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
 members."* Now this state seems to be that 
 which is represented by the Israelites, when they 
 had arrived at the entrance of Canaan. The law 
 of God is revealed to the spiritual Israelite in the 
 wilderness, and is there made " the law of his 
 mind." He there also learns to bring his out- 
 ward conduct into conformity to it : for it is not 
 to be supposed that, when the Apostle speaks of 
 the man i: who delights in the law of God after 
 
 * Rom. vii. 22, 23. 
 
468 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the inward man/' as <c seeing- another law in his 
 members, warring against the law of his mind ;" 
 and when he had before said, speaking in this 
 character, ce what I would, that I do not, but 
 what I hate, that I do* ;" he meant to sanction 
 the shocking casuistry of those who pretend, 
 that immoral conduct is compatible with inward 
 holiness. Doubtless, even the Jews were capable 
 of, and many of them practised, good outward 
 moral conduct, in obedience to their law. But 
 the Apostle is not here speaking of actions, but of 
 inclinations : for he opens the subject with say* 
 ing, ff I had not known lust, except the law had 
 said, Thou shalt not covet : but sin, taking oc- 
 casion by the commandment wrought in me all 
 manner of concupiscence f :" he does not say, as 
 he would have done, had he been speaking of 
 actions, that it wrought in him adultery, or theft, 
 or the like. The law in the members, then, is 
 this concupiscence, the evil inclinations that are 
 seated in the external man. Nor can it be sup- 
 posed, when he says that he had not known these 
 but for the law, that he means to affirm that the 
 law was the cause of their existence : what he 
 means is, that the law made him sensible of their 
 existence. But he that delights in the law of 
 God after the inward man, though he may also 
 have brought his outward conduct into confor- 
 mity with it, will not be fully established in the 
 
 * Ver 15. f Ver. 7, 8. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 409 
 
 Lord's kingdom, nor experience the enjoyments 
 which attend it, till the law in the members no 
 longer wars against the law of his mind, but 
 there is one law for them both,, and both find 
 delight in similar things : wherefore the Apostle 
 exclaims, ce O wretched man that I am ! who 
 shall deliver me from this body of death?"* 
 meaning by the body, not the natural body, but 
 the external man, which is to the internal as the 
 body to the soul, and whose affections being 
 opposite to those of the internal, which is ac- 
 tuated by the spirit of life, it is called ec a body 
 of death/' This deliverance is capable of being 
 effected under the spiritual dispensation of the 
 gospel, or by the Lord Jesus Christ ; as the same 
 authority affirms when he adds, cc I thank God : 
 through Jesus Christ our Lordf;" words which 
 mean, in his elliptical mode of expression, cc I 
 thank God, it is done through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord/' He therefore subjoins immediately, cc The 
 law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath 
 made me free from the law of sin and death/' J 
 
 This great work then, of the deliverance of 
 man from " the body of death," or from "the law 
 of sin and death," or from the concupiscences of 
 the external man lusting against the spirit, is 
 what is described, in the spiritual sense, by the 
 extirpation of the Canaanites by the Israelites, 
 under the conduct of Joshua, who is an acknow- 
 * Ver. 24. t Ver. 25. J Ch. viii. 2. 
 
470 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ledged type of the Lord Jesus Christ : and since 
 in spiritual as in natural conflicts much depends 
 upon a decisive first blow, to represent this,, the 
 capture of Jericho, and its complete destruction, 
 were effected by so grand a miracle. In this in- 
 dividual application, the ark will represent the 
 presence of the Lord, by his Divine Truth, 
 in the inmost of the mind, an abode for him 
 having been formed there by the application 
 of the commandments of the Divine Word to 
 the regulation of the life, and by elevating 
 them to the supreme seat in the affections, to 
 reign with absolute sway ; by making, in short, 
 the divine law, ff the law of the mind." When 
 this is effected, and this ark is carried round, or 
 its influence directed upon, the spiritual Jericho, 
 " the law in the members/' no defence can 
 stand before it. Care however must be taken 
 that the action of this battery be directed in the 
 manner prescribed : the ark must be carried 
 round the city seven days, the priests must go 
 before, blowing the trumpets, and on the seventh 
 day, and not before, all the people must shout. 
 The Christian will often discover an evil pro- 
 pensity in his heart, and wish it away, yet find 
 it give him repeated cause to blush and lament 
 for his weakness. The reason is, because the 
 affections side with it too strongly ; because, 
 though, from a view of its corrupt nature pre- 
 sented by the understanding, he fancies he wishes 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 471 
 
 it away, the wish does not really amount to a 
 will ; at least, it falls short of that ardent desire, 
 accompanied by a sense of its intolerable hate- 
 fulness, which must be felt, before it will yield 
 either to his wishes or his prayers, before the 
 influences of the holy ark can be directed upon it 
 with sufficient power to effect its downfal. This 
 was indicated by the direction, that the priests 
 should go before the ark, blowing the trumpets: 
 for, as noticed before, by the priests was repre- 
 sented that inward principle of love from which 
 the Lord is worshipped ; and their blowing the 
 trumpets is the manifestation of Divine Truth, 
 or, what amounts to the same, the communica- 
 tion of an influx from the Lord by his Divine 
 Truth within us, when called down by love to 
 Him, and the strongest desire for the removal of 
 every thing from the bosom which is opposed to 
 that love. But even this is not all that is re- 
 quired. Love may be strong in the internal 
 man ; and yet there may be obstacles in the way 
 of its descent to encounter the evils below. All 
 the lower principles which own the influence of 
 the internal must concur also ; and when this is 
 the case, nothing can resist it any longer. This 
 concurrence is represented by all the people's 
 shouting a great shout at the command of Jo- 
 shua; upon which "the wall of the city fell 
 down flat, and they went up, every man straight 
 before him, and they took the city." The rea- 
 
472 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 son why the people were commanded riot to shout 
 sooner, was, because until Divine Truth, inspired 
 by love, descends in an orderly manner through the 
 interiors to the exteriors; and until the desire is 
 encreased to that holy intensity, and all the ener- 
 gies are called forth with that sacred fulness, 
 which the frequent repetition of the number 
 seven involves ; effort on the part of the exte- 
 riors the mere shouting of the people would 
 be unavailing : as, on the other hand, Divine 
 Truth inspired with desire in the interiors is 
 without power, till a corresponding state is pro- 
 duced in the exteriors: but when both concur, 
 it is irresistible. 
 
 These then are a portion of the truths con- 
 veyed by this beautiful part of the Word of 
 God, when the literal sense is unlocked, by the 
 key afforded by the fixed relation between na- 
 tural things and spiritual. The? analogies might 
 easily be made more conspicuous; but, as ob- 
 served on former occasions, this would extend 
 our discussions to a greater length than most 
 might be disposed to accompany us : and if 
 some leading ones are seen distinctly, this is 
 sufficient to establish the principle. Whether 
 the doctrine thus developed, though the same 
 as is taught by the Apostle, will be acceptable, 
 may perhaps be doubted : it certainly exhibits 
 the Christian warfare in a more serious light 
 than some may be willing to view it : but in a 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 473 
 
 matter of such deep importance the true ques- 
 tion to be asked is, not What do we wish? but 
 What is the truth? How much of the states 
 here described will be perceptible to the expe- 
 rience of the advanced Christian,, we do not un- 
 dertake to say : doubtless, in the work of new- 
 creating his heart and mind, much must be 
 transacted by the Divine Hand in secret : but 
 that the work is real, and will be conspicuous in 
 its effects, is declared by the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 when he says, cc The wind bloweth where it list- 
 eth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
 not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth : 
 so is every one that is born of the spirit."* But 
 if we know not what the Lord doth with us now, 
 we shall know hereafter f: it will form a great 
 subject of our meditations in the life hereafter : 
 and we ought to esteem it a high privilege, if, 
 by obtaining the true key to the interpretation 
 of the Scriptures, we can be instructed in some 
 of its mysteries here. What the Apostle has 
 stated in general terms, in the passages noticed 
 above, is in this part of the Scriptures described 
 as to all its particulars : and whether we have 
 appetites for the wisdom which may hence be 
 learned, or not, we certainly must allow that it 
 is a species of wisdom worthy of God to com- 
 municate, and which, if really couched under 
 the natural images afforded by the Israelitish 
 
 * John iii. 8. f Chap. xiii. 7. 
 
 3 P 
 
474 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 history, renders the affairs of that people worthy 
 to have been directed by God, and to have been 
 written by his inspiration. 
 
 We will only add further on this subject, re- 
 specting the miracle itself, that the views which 
 have been offered above give a rational account 
 both of the reason why, and the means by 
 which, it was performed. It certainly would 
 never have taken place, had not the descendants 
 of Israel been appointed to act the part on the 
 theatre of the world which has been already 
 described ; that is, to represent, in an external 
 form, bearing no resemblance to the things re- 
 presented, and yet answering to them by an exact 
 analogy, such things and states as belong to 
 heaven and the church, and to the progress of 
 man in the spiritual life. But under such a dis- 
 pensation, whenever means were employed cor- 
 responding to the spiritual operations of which 
 they were the types, suitable effects invariably 
 followed: for, though sometimes exhibiting them- 
 selves under the form of extraordinary miracles, 
 these effects were in reality the necessary conse- 
 quences of the means employed, flowing from 
 them according to the order of the relation be- 
 tween spiritual things and natural, and being in 
 fact as natural as any of the ordinary operations 
 of nature. The simple means used for the cap- 
 ture of Jericho, the carrying about of the ark, 
 the sounding of the trumpets by the priests, and 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 475 
 
 the shouting of the people, being prescribed by 
 a Wisdom which knew how exactly they an- 
 swered to certain spiritual operations, by which 
 spiritual foes are dissipated and their refuges de- 
 stroyed, were followed by natural effects, bearing 
 a precise analogy to these spiritual ones; and the 
 presence of a sphere of Divine Power was pro- 
 duced by them, against which a triple wall of 
 brass would have afforded no better protection to 
 the city than its wall of stone. 
 
 2. The next circumstance in the historical rela- 
 tions of the Holy Word to which we are to direct 
 our attention, is the history of Jephthah and his 
 rash vow, as it is commonly called, as related in 
 the llthch. of the book of Judges; the principal 
 circumstances of which are the following. 
 
 The neighbouring people of the Ammonites 
 had overrun the land of Gilead, or the part of the 
 Israelitish country which lay beyond Jordan, 
 and had passed over Jordan also, to invade the 
 land of Canaan itself; so that the nation was 
 reduced to a state of great distress. Jephthah, on 
 being elected to the command, in the first in- 
 stance, endeavoured to bring the Ammonites to 
 reason by treaty : but his overtures being re- 
 jected, "Then (it is said,) the Spirit of the Lord 
 came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, 
 and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of 
 Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed 
 
 3 p 2 
 
476 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 over unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah 
 vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said,, If Ihou 
 wilt without fail deliver the children of Amrnon 
 into my hands ; then it shall be, that whatsoever 
 cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet 
 me,, when I return in peace from the children of 
 Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will 
 offer it up for a burnt-offering/'* However rash 
 this vow might be, the piety of it, according to 
 the genius of those times, and of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, seems to have been acceptable : for 
 he completely defeated the Ammonites, so that 
 they cc were subdued before the children of 
 Israel/' And the sacred narrative proceeds, 
 "Jephthah came to Mizpeh, unto his house: and 
 behold, his daughter came out to meet him with 
 timbrels and with dances; and she was his only 
 child. And it came to pass, when he saw her, 
 that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my 
 daughter ! thou hast brought me very low ; thou 
 art one of them that trouble me ; for I have 
 opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot 
 go back/'f With the spirit of a Spartan heroine, 
 she replied, ec My Father ! if thou hast opened 
 thy mouth unto the Lord, do unto me according 
 to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; 
 forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for 
 thee of thine enemies, even of the children of 
 Ammon. "J She requested however a respite of 
 
 * Ver. 30, 31. f Ver. 33, 34, 35. { Ver. 36, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 477 
 
 two months; to be spent in a solemn mourning 
 for being cut off from the world in her unmarried 
 state ; for, according to the ideas of those times,, 
 the circumstance of leaving no issue was deemed 
 a far greater evil than death itself. The nar- 
 rative concludes thus : ff And it came to pass,, at 
 the end of two months,, that she returned unto 
 her father: who did with her according to his 
 vow which he had vowed : and she knew no man. 
 And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters 
 of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of 
 Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year/'* 
 
 There is no passage of the Holy Word, which 
 has been the subject of more controversy and 
 discussion than this. Infidel writers,, assuming 
 it to be the fact that Jephthah's daughter was 
 offered as a burnt sacrifice, have thought that 
 they have found in it a fair occasion for railing 
 against the volume in which it is narrated, and 
 for denying the divine origin of either the Jewish 
 or the Christian religion, as containing, among 
 the documents on which they rest, a story so re- 
 volting to humanity. Expositors of Scripture, 
 also, have been greatly embarrassed with the 
 narrative, and have been divided into two great 
 parties, the one maintaining that the fair victim 
 of what they both regard as a rash vow, was 
 actually put to death ; the other, that she was 
 only devoted to a life of pious celibacy. Both, 
 * Ver. 39, 40. 
 
478 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 however, have conclusively shewn., that there is 
 here no room for the scoffs of the infidel, let the 
 fact of her having been put to death, or other- 
 wise, have been as it might : since, if such an 
 execution was perpetrated, it was not done in 
 agreement with the divine precepts, but in 
 flagrant violation of them*, and only proved 
 that this Judge of Israel was extremely ignorant 
 of the Mosaic law ; and if he only devoted her to 
 the service of the tabernacle, he still displayed a 
 want of knowledge of the Levitical code, in sup- 
 posing that he (C could not go back" from his 
 vow ; there being an express provision that such 
 vows might be commuted, f But whatever of 
 error there might have been in the transaction, 
 upon the supposition that the sacrifice took 
 place, there would be much in it, even then, that 
 demands admiration. If we understand it thus, 
 what pure patriotism, what generous filial love, is 
 expressed in the young woman's answer, when 
 the fatal tidings are communicated to her ! It 
 is happiness enough for her, that her country is 
 rescued from its oppressors, and that her father 
 is the instrument of its deliverance ; she said, 
 therefore, ce My Father ! if thou hast opened thy 
 mouth to the Lord, do to me according to that 
 which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; foras- 
 much as the Lord hath taken vengeance for 
 
 * Lev. xviii. 21, Ch. xx. 2 to 5. Deut. xii. 29, 30, 31. 
 t Lev. xxvii. 1 to 8. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 479 
 
 thee of thine enemies, even of the children of 
 Ammon."* If she believed,, when she uttered 
 these words,, that she was to be put to death, 
 certainly, neither Greece nor Rome, with all 
 their Leonidae and Decii, can furnish an instance 
 of sublimer self-devotion than this of Jeph- 
 thah's daughter. Had it occurred among those 
 boasting people, instead of the plain unvar- 
 nished tale of the sacred historian, we should 
 have had it pressed on our admiration with all 
 the pomp of eloquence. Nor would the steady 
 resolution, and deep paternal feeling, of Jeph- 
 thah, have passed unpraised. In fact it cannot 
 be doubted, had but he and his daughter been 
 heathens, that the very persons who now find in 
 the transaction nothing but a pretence for vilify- 
 ing the Scriptures, would then have extolled the 
 whole as exhibiting the finest examples of the 
 most noble constancy, the most disinterested 
 virtue. Even the mistaken views from which 
 it could be supposed that such a vow., or such a 
 fulfilment of it, could be acceptable to the Su- 
 preme Being, would have been spoken of as 
 meriting our pity, not our contempt: and the 
 immoveable regard to principle, which in the 
 father proceeded, and in the daughter submitted, 
 to so deplorable a catastrophe, would have been 
 thought to atone for any error of judgment in 
 
 forming that principle, and to exalt those who 
 \ 
 
 * Judges xi. 36. 
 
480 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 were capable of it to the highest rank among 
 the worthies who have shed a lustre on the hu- 
 man race. 
 
 But though the praise of disinterested heroism 
 cannot be withheld either from the father or the 
 daughter,, upon the supposition that she was ac- 
 tually sacrificed, yet Christians in general have 
 thought that the honour of religion was compro- 
 mised in the transaction, because Jephthah was an 
 instrument raised up by Providence for the deliver- 
 ance of Israel, and was divinely favoured as a com- 
 mander and judge; and because no intimation is 
 given in the history that the vow was considered 
 to be illegal, or was attended with any divine 
 disapprobation. But if the honour of religion 
 depended on the blamelessness of the characters 
 distinguished in the Israelitish history, it would 
 be very difficult to maintain it indeed ; as there is 
 scarcely one of them whose conduct might be 
 proposed, without reserve, for the imitation of 
 the Christian. To the best of them, as remarked 
 above, on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 many things were permitted, cc because of the 
 hardness of their hearts/' which fc in the begin- 
 ing were not so," and which are therefore pro- 
 hibited to the member of the true church. Every 
 thing then proves the necessity of regarding the 
 Jews as constituting, according to the view al- 
 ready offered, not a true internal church, but an 
 external representative one, or rather as exhibit- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 481 
 
 ing the representation or type of one ; in which 
 case,, sanctity and intelligence of private cha- 
 racter are by no means implied to attend on the 
 persons who sustained even the most holy and 
 exalted representations. They were placed in 
 those situations for the benefit of others more 
 than for their own ; that, through all genera- 
 tions, instruction of a divine and spiritual nature 
 should be presented to mankind,, in the most per- 
 manent as well as striking form in which it could 
 be imparted. Thus considered, it matters not to 
 us, beyond the interest which the story is calcu- 
 lated to excite, whether Jephthah's daughter was 
 actually sacrificed, or whether she was merely 
 made a nun ; any more than it does whether Aga- 
 memnon's daughter was actually sacrificed, or 
 whether, as some authors affirm, she was, at the 
 critical moment, conveyed away by Diana, to be 
 a priestess in her temple, and a white hind mira- 
 culously substituted in her place. With this 
 view, it matters not to us, whether Jephthah was 
 the man of enlightened piety which he is de- 
 scribed by some writers, or the ignorant barba- 
 rian assumed by others. His conduct, at the 
 worst, was not below that of the most illustrious 
 characters of the most polished nations of his 
 age : it was such as naturally sprung out of the 
 habits and modes of thinking of the times: but 
 it was so overruled by Divine Providence, as to 
 the express form of it, and so related in the 
 
 3 9 
 
482 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Divine Word., as to be representative of a highly 
 important fact and state in the Christian warfare,, 
 and to teach a momentous spiritual truth. And 
 this is all that we have to do with it, considered 
 as one of the narratives of Divine Revelation. 
 
 (I.) It is not then my intention to attempt to 
 decide the much disputed question, whether Jeph- 
 thah's daughter was really put to death or not. 
 My own opinion certainly is, that she was not : but 
 I am led to form this opinion, more from a spiri- 
 tual consideration which will appear in the se- 
 quel, than from any elucidation of the literal 
 history which I have met with ; for after all the 
 pains that have been taken by the learned to 
 make the literal history itself point to this con- 
 clusion, I still think that the most unforced in- 
 ference from the language of the original, and 
 from the history in general, is, that the sacrifice 
 took place.* But, it will then be asked, why is 
 this? Why is the history couched in such terms 
 as would seem to imply that the dreadful rite 
 was performed, when a statement of the con- 
 trary, if that was the fact, would be so agreeable 
 to the feelings of every one who peruses the nar- 
 rative, and would have obviated the objections 
 which are thence urged, against its holy nature? 
 Perhaps the only satisfactory answer which can 
 be given is, Because the subjects treated of in the 
 spiritual sense could not have been so fully re- 
 * See this fully proved in the Appendix, No. VI. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 483 
 
 presented, had not such an appearance been per- 
 mitted in the letter. 
 
 And if both these facts are true, viz. that Jeph- 
 thah's daughter was not put to death, and yet 
 that the literal narrative, without positively af- 
 firming it, seems to point to that inference; it 
 may be remarked, by the way, that we have here 
 such an example of the manner in which the 
 historical relations of the Scriptures are com- 
 posed, as may tend to clear up some other dif- 
 ficulties in the literal accounts. For this will 
 shew, that fully to convey the spiritual sense is 
 the sole object regarded in the construction of 
 the narrative. The circumstances recorded with 
 this design are true; but perhaps they do not 
 immediately exhibit the whole truth, as regards 
 the mere history ; other circumstances, without 
 the knowledge of which the historical relation 
 seems confused and imperfect, being omitted, 
 because the mention of them would have been 
 incompatible with the spiritual lesson intended. 
 This, I am satisfied, is the true cause of the 
 elliptical style so often observable in the sacred 
 writers, and which renders it frequently so dif- 
 ficult to arrive at certainty respecting positive 
 facts. Just so much is recorded as conveys the 
 true spiritual sense, and no more : and Divine 
 Wisdom, which only regards things eternal, 
 deems it of no moment whatever, though an im- 
 pression be thus left of transient events, different 
 
 3 Q 2 
 
484 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 from the true one. Man's salvation and his ad- 
 vancement to eternity in spiritual wisdom,, are 
 the sole objects intended to be promoted by the 
 gift of the Holy Word : but these no more de- 
 pend upon his knowing* with certainty whether 
 Jephthah's daughter was put to death or not, 
 than upon his knowing with certainty whether 
 Mary Queen of Scots was privy to the death of 
 Darnley or not. Both inquiries have exercised 
 the pens of many profound and elegant scholars, 
 because man, as living in time, takes an interest 
 in temporal events : but He who is Eternal, and 
 whose communications to man are addressed to 
 him as an heir of eternity, regards his notions on 
 both subjects as matters indifferent, and no more 
 deems it important that the facts of the one his- 
 tory should be certainly known, than of the other. 
 But when we say, that, notwithstanding the 
 fact was otherwise, yet it is suffered to appear in 
 the letter as if Jephthah's daughter was actually 
 sacrificed, because otherwise the subjects treated 
 of in the spiritual sense could not have been 
 fully expressed : the elucidation may perhaps be 
 thought to render the matter still more obscure. 
 It may be asked, If human sacrifices were, in 
 fact, the greatest abominations that could be 
 offered to insult the Majesty of heaven, and were 
 strictly prohibited in the divine law on that ac- 
 count, how can it be necessary that an appear- 
 ance of the performance of one should occur in 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 485 
 
 this history ; especially when it evidently is not re- 
 lated to represent any thing profane and unholy, 
 but the contrary? It may be answered, For 
 the same reason as it was necessary for Abraham 
 to believe that it was required of him by the 
 Lord to sacrifice his only son, Isaac ; and to act 
 under the influence of this belief so far, as to 
 " stretch forth his hand, and take the knife to 
 slay his son/'* In the case of Abraham, also, 
 the actual deed was prevented ; but the prepa- 
 rations proceeded far enough to shew, that the 
 offering up of a child as a sacrifice, taken only 
 in one point of view, has a holy signification ; 
 though, taken in another, it is in the highest 
 degree profane. The same may be concluded 
 with probability from this circumstance, that, by 
 the Levitical law, the first-born of every thing 
 was considered as belonging to the Lord : fc The 
 Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto 
 me all the first-born ; whatsoever openeth the 
 womb, among the children of Israel, both of man 
 and beast : it is mine."f This is the first instance 
 where this law is delivered : and here the off- 
 spring of man and beast are put on the same 
 footing; and the only idea proposed is, the entire 
 surrender of them, however they were to be 
 afterwards disposed of, to the Lord. Now the 
 first-born of clean beasts were to be offered in 
 sacrifice, without any alternative J: and for the 
 * Gen. xxii. 10. f * xi". 1 3 2 I Numb, xviii. 17. 
 
486 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 first-born of unclean beasts, a clean one was to 
 be substituted and sacrificed also ; as a lamb or 
 kid for an ass.* But because no animal was con- 
 sidered as an equivalent for the first-born of man., 
 he was to be redeemed by the payment of a 
 price f: beside which,, also,, the whole tribe of 
 Levi was taken in lieu of all the first-born of 
 Israel J : but as the actual putting of them to 
 death would have been horrible in itself, and 
 would have borne the profane signification which 
 we have intimated, they were consecrated to the 
 Lord in a different way, and dedicated to the 
 sacred service of the tabernacle ; which, however, 
 was considered as a figurative sacrifice, and a death 
 to the world. This is evident from its being in- 
 stituted in reference to the death of all the first- 
 born of Egypt; ({ All the first-born are mine : 
 for on the day that 1 smote all the first-born in 
 the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the 
 first-born in Israel, both man and beast: mine 
 they shall be : I am the Lord." The death of 
 the first-born of Egypt, both of men and cattle, 
 was evidently representative of the spiritual 
 death, as to all the leading sentiments and af- 
 fections of their minds, of those who would 
 oppress and destroy the true church of God, or 
 the sacred principles which compose it; or a death 
 to every thing holy and heavenly, true and good ; 
 
 * Ver. 15. Ex. xiii. 13. f Numb, xviii. 16. 
 
 t Ch. iii. 12. Ver. 13. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 487 
 
 and the consecration to God of all the first-born 
 of Israel, both of man and beast, must certainly 
 be intended to represent something exactly the 
 opposite of the former ; an entire devotion to the 
 Lord of all the leading sentiments and affections 
 of the mind, and a death to every thing selfish 
 and earthly. Therefore, all the first-born of 
 beasts were actually offered in sacrifice : and if 
 the offering in sacrifice of the first-born of man 
 could, to use the appropriate distinction made by 
 Bishop Warburton, form merely a significative 
 and not at the same time a moral action, it would 
 have been commanded too, as the most complete 
 mode of exhibiting the representation intended : 
 but as it would have been a moral action like- 
 wise, and would, in this respect, have been most 
 flagitious, consecration to the service of the 
 tabernacle was appointed in its stead. 
 
 (2.) Here then we shall have a key to that 
 otherwise inexplicable mystery, the practice of 
 human sacrifices. 
 
 Every one must be apt, on the first thought, to 
 wonder how so horrible a superstition, so re- 
 pugnant to some of the strongest feelings of 
 human nature, as the sacrificing of human victims, 
 and especially of children by their parents, could 
 ever have been tolerated among mankind for a 
 moment; much more, how it could have been so 
 extensively and constantly practised among the 
 various, indeed, as it would appear, among all 
 
488 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the nations of antiquity, as history assures us was 
 the fact.* Even the most polished nations of 
 those times,, the Greeks and Romans., were not 
 untainted with it; and we are assured that it was 
 practised to an enormous extent in this now 
 favoured island of Britain. It is evident from 
 numerous passages of Scripture, that the custom 
 was particularly prevalent among the original 
 inhabitants of Canaan and the surrounding 
 countries,, especially in the worship of 
 
 . Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
 Of human sacrifice, and parent's tears ; 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
 Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire 
 To his grim idol. 
 
 What could have been the reason that a mode of 
 worship, which had every principle of natural 
 feeling and common sense alike opposed to it, 
 could ever obtain so extensive a reception? 
 Only, I apprehend, because, regarded in one 
 point of view, or taken simply as a significant 
 action, it was seen to carry a holy representation. 
 Hence it got into use, in disregard to its character 
 in the other point of view, considered as a moral 
 action; which ought never to be laid out of 
 sight, and in which it was in the highest degree 
 atrocious ; and from which, when actually per- 
 petrated, it became, in its signification also, in 
 * See Bryant's Dissertation on the Human Sacrifices of the 
 Ancients; or Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, Vol. 1, 
 No.V. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 489 
 
 the highest degree profane. The practice then 
 would appear to have had the same origin as 
 many other of the most detestable practices that 
 have ever prevailed among mankind, the per- 
 version of something intrinsically good : and it 
 illustrates the old and very true maxim, The 
 best things, when corrupted, become the worst. 
 
 But to exhibit this in its proper light, it is neces- 
 sary to say something of the origin of sacrificial 
 worship in general; though this will anticipate 
 what we proposed to offer presently on that subj ect. 
 
 (3.) If there be indeed a Mutual Relation and 
 Analogy, not of a merely arbitrary and conjectural 
 kind, but fixed and invariable, between spiritual 
 things and natural ; we certainly must see in it a 
 more clear and satisfactory origin of the practice, 
 anciently quite universal, of the worship by sacri- 
 fices and burnt-offerings, than can be afforded 
 by any other principle : and that worship itself, 
 otherwise so unaccountable, affords, in its turn, a 
 strongly conclusive argument for the reality of 
 that Analogy, and for the fact endeavoured to be 
 established above, that in ancient times the rela- 
 tions of this Analogy were extensively under- 
 stood. A satisfactory theory of the origin of sa- 
 crificial rites is among the great desiderata of 
 modern religious science : and surely it must be 
 agreeable to the intelligent and candid mind, to 
 view so curious a subject in a light which invites 
 the understanding and gratifies it, in a manner of 
 
 3 R 
 
490 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 which light may be justly predicated ; rathei than 
 to acquiesce in regarding the whole as involved 
 in darkness, and to take refuge in the blind per- 
 suasion which some authors of great name would 
 recommend : that sacrificial worship must have 
 originated from God,, because it is too irrational 
 ever to have been invented by man!* Perhaps 
 both parts of this proposition might be success- 
 fully controverted, and it might be shewn, first, 
 that sacrifices were not, strictly speaking, first 
 instituted by God; and, secondly, that when men 
 adopted them they took for their guide a certain 
 law of nature. The former sentiment has been 
 strongly advocated by the celebrated Maimo- 
 nides, among the Jews, and by the learned Spencer, 
 and others, among Christians; and if they had been 
 aware that there is a regular analogy between 
 spiritual things and natural, I doubt not that they 
 would also have incontrovertibly established the 
 latter, and not have fallen into the errors which 
 at present disfigure their systems. To enter into 
 all the inquiries necessary to this investigation, 
 would require a work by itself: this, probably, 
 if life and health be spared me, I may hereafter 
 attempt : a mere sketch, chiefly proposed hypo- 
 thetically, is all that can be offered here. 
 
 We will first see what is the Scriptural idea of 
 the Sacrifices under the Mosaic law. 
 
 * See Abp. Magee's Dissertation On the Natural Unrea- 
 sonableness of the Sacrificial Rite : being No. Iv. in his work 
 On Atonement. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 491 
 
 The prevailing opinion upon this subject is, 
 that they were instituted by divine appointment 
 to prefigure the death or sacrifice of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; and that this was their only design. 
 Most certainly it is true, that He is ee the Lamb 
 of God, that taketh away the sins of the world*:" 
 and that all the sacrifices, yea, all the rituals, of the 
 Mosaic law, yea, the whole Word of God, have 
 a specific reference to him : but it is no less true 
 that they have a reference to us likewise. Be- 
 cause fc Christ our passover is sacrificed for usf ," 
 are we not to ce purge out the old leaven, that 
 we may be a new lump/' and to Cf keep the feast, 
 not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of 
 malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened 
 bread of sincerity, and truth ?"J In other words, 
 are we not to offer a spiritual sacrifice ourselves? 
 None but an Antinomian will answer in the ne- 
 gative. We are not only to look to Jesus Christ, 
 but to follow him : we cannot do this without 
 offering the spiritual worship of the heart and 
 mind : and the Scriptures plainly teach, that, as 
 regards us, this spiritual worship is what the 
 sacrificial worship represented. If sacrifices were 
 designed to be significative of nothing besides 
 the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, why were so 
 many kinds of them prescribed ? Why were so 
 numerous ceremonies directed to be observed in 
 
 * John i. 29. + 1 Cor. v. 7. J Ver. 7. 8. 
 
 Matt. iv. 19, xvi. 24, xix. 21. John xiv. 26, &c. 
 
 3 R 2 
 
492 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the offering of each? And especially, why were 
 certain quantities of flour and oil., either crude 
 or prepared in various ways in the form of cakes, 
 to be burnt upon the altar?* Why were the first 
 fruits of the harvests to be presented ?* These 
 made as necessary a part of the Levitical offerings 
 as the sacrifices of animals : evidently., then, the 
 sacrifices of animals must also have represented 
 spiritual things of the same general nature, though 
 with a variety as to their species, as the offerings 
 of cakes and fruits; and as these cannot repre- 
 sent the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the 
 cross, neither can the others be confined to that 
 signification. The truth then is, that, applied to 
 the case of man, all the numerous sacrifices and 
 offerings of the Levitical code, represented the 
 true worship of the Lord arising from all the 
 affections and sentiments of a heavenly nature 
 that can be inseminated by God into the human 
 heart and mind; and the offering of them upon 
 his altar was expressive of the heartfelt acknow- 
 ledgement, that they all are from the Lord, and 
 to be ascribed to him alone ; in which acknow- 
 ledgment and ascription all true worship essen- 
 tially consists. 
 
 Many declarations, giving this idea of the de- 
 sign of sacrifices, are to be found both in the 
 Old and New Testaments. David, in the depth 
 of his humiliation for his crimes, when, if at any 
 * Lev. ii. &c. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 493 
 
 time,, the mind would be disposed to fly to ex- 
 ternal sacrifices., if either in themselves, or as 
 representing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they 
 possessed any efficacy,, exclaims, "Thou desirest 
 not sacrifice; else would I give it : thou delightest 
 not in burnt offerings : the sacrifices of God are 
 a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O 
 God, thou wilt not despise*:" evidently instructing 
 us what the sacrifices of God, suited to sincere 
 penitence, really are, and, of course, what the 
 Levitical sacrifices represented : namely, a state 
 of the thoughts and affections in which man ac- 
 knowledges, in deep humility, his own unwor- 
 thiness. Accordingly, Jehovah says by the 
 prophet, in a passage which is repeatedly quoted 
 by the Lord in the gospel, " I desired mercy, and 
 not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God rather 
 than burnt-offerings-^:" where it is evident, since 
 sacrifices were nevertheless established under the 
 Mosaic dispensation, that the Divine Reprover 
 means us to understand, that outward sacrifices, 
 separate from the dispositions of heart and rnind 
 intended to be represented by them, cannot be 
 accepted ; and that the heavenly graces for which 
 sacrifices were used as symbols, are mercy or 
 love, and the knowledge of God or a living faith 
 in him. Similar is the doctrine of the Apostles. 
 Paul says to the Romans : ef I beseech you bre- 
 thren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
 
 * Ps. li. 16, 17. f Hos. vi. 6. Malt. ix. 13, xii. 7. 
 
494 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable 
 unto God; which is your reasonable service*:" 
 where it is evident that by a living sacrifice he 
 means a pure life and conversation; and he calls it 
 a reasonable service, to contrast it with the carnal 
 service of sacrifices, and to intimate that the 
 latter was an image of the former. So he says 
 to the Hebrews : " By him let us offer the sacrifice 
 of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of 
 your lips, giving thanks to his name : but to do 
 good and to communicate forget not, for with 
 such sacrifices God is well pleased. "f Here 
 praise and doing good, the service of the lips and 
 of the actions, are described as sacrifices : evi- 
 dently shewing, that the sacrifices of God are 
 the free-will offerings of adoration and love, pro- 
 ceeding from heavenly affections and manifested 
 by beneficent deeds. How plain is the inference, 
 that the offerings of the Levitical law must be 
 meant to represent such offerings of the heart 
 and mind, the pure worship of the Lord, flow- 
 ing from affections of love and charity, offered 
 to him as their only source and author ! 
 
 As then the outward sacrifices were nothing 
 without the spiritual ones of which they were 
 types; nor, indeed, with them, to those whose 
 minds were sufficiently elevated to form just 
 ideas of spiritual worship without the help of 
 the carnal figures, as appears from the example 
 * Ch. xii. 1. t Ch. xiii. 15, T6. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 495 
 
 of David just quoted ; these latter \vere not 
 given to the Israelites of the Divine Will and 
 Appointment, but permitted them on account of 
 the hardness of their hearts ; as is evident from 
 the passage just adduced from Hosea, and 
 more decidedly from those cited above from Je- 
 remiah and Ezekiel.* It has indeed been proved 
 by many learned men, that the sacrifices directed 
 in the Levitical law, with many other of the 
 
 * Pp. 437, 438. " I spake not unto your fathers, nor 
 commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the 
 land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices : but 
 this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I 
 will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye 
 in the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well 
 unto you." (Jer. vii. 22, 23.) " Because they had not exe- 
 cuted my judgments, &c. Wherefore I gave them also 
 statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they 
 should not live.'* (Ez. xx. 25.) These words are evidently 
 contrasted with ver. 11. "I gave them my statutes, and 
 shewed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even 
 live in them." The statutes and judgments in or by which 
 a man should live (for the particle in the original is the same 
 which, in ver. 25, our translators have rendered by,) and 
 which are said to have been delivered to the Israelites upon 
 their coming out of Egypt, are clearly the law of the deca- 
 logue : and the statutes not good, and judgments by which 
 they should not live, and which are said to have been given 
 them for their rebellions in the wilderness, are as clearly the 
 law -of ceremonies. See this fact proved to the completest 
 demonstration, and the paltering attempts of Shuckford to 
 evade it most entirely overthrown, in Warburton's Div. Leg. 
 B. iv. Sec. 6. 
 
496 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 customs introduced into that law, were not insti- 
 tutions given for the first time by Moses, but 
 such as had long before been observed among 
 the eastern nations*: all that was done by Moses 
 respecting them was, to limit the animals which 
 might be offered in sacrifice to certain species, 
 and to prescribe exactly the place, occasions, and 
 manner of offering them. Now how may this 
 previous and general use of sacrificial worship 
 be reasonably supposed to have originated? how 
 so reasonably, as in a knowledge of that fixed 
 analogy between natural things and spiritual, 
 which we have before shewn was extensively pos- 
 sessed in the early ages of the world ? The 
 people of those times well knew of what affec-' 
 tions and sentiments, or of what modes of think- 
 ing and feeling, the various animals are the 
 proper emblems and representative forms : they 
 knew, also, that all genuine worship of the Lord 
 essentially consists in an elevation to him of all 
 the affections and perceptions of the heart and 
 mind : and they knew that to sacrifice the cor- 
 responding animals upon an altar dedicated to 
 the Lord would be a significant action, powerfully 
 expressive of such pure worship. But, it may 
 be asked, could the joining of the significative 
 action to the spiritual worship of the heart and 
 lips render the latter any more acceptable to the 
 
 * See Warburton ubi supra ; and Michaelis's Comm. Law 
 of Moses, Art. 3, 189, &c. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 497 
 
 Lord than it would be without it? This cannot 
 well be supposed : and we may be sure that 
 while men remained in that state of elevated in- 
 telligence which saw clearly the spiritual things 
 to which natural objects answer by analogy, they 
 would not think it necessary, nor even allowable, 
 to add the representative rite to the spiritual 
 reality. Previously to the time of Noah, at least, 
 if it be true that the slaughter of animals, even 
 for food, was unknown, a rite which required it 
 would surely be deemed unlawful. They knew 
 that, as a significative action, it might be expres- 
 sive of pure worship : but they knew also, that 
 the only real part even of representative worship 
 must be the offering to the Lord of the inward 
 states of mind which the animals represented, 
 and that in the slaughter of the animals them- 
 selves there was nothing pleasing to the Lord, 
 but rather the contrary, as it was attended with 
 suffering, which, even when inflicted on an ani- 
 mal, is abhorrent from the will of Infinite Good- 
 ness. So thinks Archbishop Magee ; and doubt- 
 less he here thinks right, though he draws from 
 the fact the opposite conclusion*: and, though 
 
 * Speaking of Abel, he affirms it to be little likely " that 
 he would have resorted to that species of action, which, in 
 the eye of reason must have appeared displeasing to God, the 
 slaughter of an unoffending animal." On Atonement, &c. 
 Disc. ii. Hence, taking it for granted, that when Abel 
 " brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, 
 
 3 s 
 
498 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 he perhaps did not think so correctly, he yet ex- 
 presses as certain a truth, when he affirms that 
 the language of the first men <f cannot be sup- 
 posed so defective, in those terms that related to 
 the worship of God, as to have rendered it ne- 
 cessary to call in the aid of actions to express 
 the sentiment of gratitude or sorrow/'* But the 
 very reason why it was not so defective, was, 
 because it followed the laws of the analogy be- 
 tween spiritual things and natural : whatever 
 idea of a spiritual or divine subject they had 
 conceived in their minds, they did not seek for 
 abstract metaphysical terms to express it, but 
 painted it to the life in terms borrowed from na- 
 tural objects, of the spiritual relations of which 
 they had an intuitive perception. It is related 
 of Adam, that the Lord brought unto him every 
 beast of the field and every fowl of the air " to 
 see what he would call them ; and whatsoever 
 Adam called every living creature, that was the 
 name thereoff:" who can suppose that the mere 
 fact of giving verbal names to animals is all that 
 
 (Gen. iv. 4.) he slew them as a burnt-sacrifice, (though the 
 text does not say so,) the learned Archbishop infers, that he 
 was led by an express revelation to do an act, against which 
 his own reason and moral sense revolted. But the true nature 
 of Abel's offering may be gathered from what is advanced 
 above, and will further appear from a view which we have to 
 offer in the next Lecture. 
 
 * Ibid. + Gen. ii. 19. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 499 
 
 is here intended ? Doubtless,, they are right 
 who infer, that when Adam gave names to all 
 living objects he had an intuitive perception of 
 their nature, in all its relations : or rather, his 
 knowledge of their nature is the thing described 
 in the language of analogy, by the significative 
 action of pronouncing their names. Whilst then, 
 in any considerable degree, the undefiled worship 
 of the Lord was preserved, and the intuitive 
 wisdom of Adam remained, among his posterity, 
 when they conversed of or described such wor- 
 ship, they would borrow images from the signi- 
 ficant actions which they saw would represent it, 
 and would speak of it as of offering, as sacrifices 
 and burnt offerings, animals and the fruits of the 
 earth : and this they would do, owing to the pe- 
 culiar genius of all who lived before the coming 
 of the Lord, when a more powerful illumination 
 of the human mind was afforded, because such 
 symbolic language would give them stronger and 
 fuller ideas of the subject than could be afforded 
 by any other medium. But, with them, it went 
 no further, as may be concluded from a reference 
 to this custom which we find in the prophet 
 Hosea, who, as if on purpose to explain this 
 ancient style of expression, uses it thus : " So 
 will we render the calves of our lips.' 9 * With 
 these offerings, then, in the times of which we 
 were speaking, mankind were content. They 
 
 * Hos. xiv. 2. 
 
 3 s 2 
 
500 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 offered to the Lord the affections of the heart, 
 represented by the calves and other animals 
 used in sacrifices, in their prayers and praises, 
 called by the prophet the lips : but without 
 slaughtering the animals themselves : and they 
 described their worship in the same terms as 
 would be employed in speaking of an animal 
 sacrifice. 
 
 It is easy to see,, however, that, in darker ages, 
 this style of speech and writing would lead to 
 the abuse of offering animal sacrifices them- 
 selves : in the same manner as the formation of 
 hieroglyphic sculptures, to present to the mind, 
 through the intervention of natural images, 
 spiritual and divine ideas, led to a far more 
 flagrant abuse, the absurdities of image-worship. 
 When a generation of grosser minds arose, of 
 men who were more immersed in sensual and 
 carnal objects and regards, and who thence had 
 not such clear perceptions of the hidden meaning 
 of phrases drawn from the Science of Analogies, 
 and of a purely spiritual worship, they began 
 to think it necessary actually to put the animals 
 to death ; much as the Roman Catholic, to 
 strengthen his conceptions, when engaged in 
 devotion, of his redemption by the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, thinJ^ it necessary to have a crucifix 
 before his eyes. And as they who thus intro- 
 duced the carnal part of the worship, by the 
 help of it retained some idea, or some obscure 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 501 
 
 feeling, of what was spiritually represented, the 
 use of actual sacrifices was permitted, by Divine 
 Providence, as necessary to keep this alive. 
 
 Here then, surely, we have a very probable 
 reason, why sacrifices were permitted, and in 
 appearance enjoined, to the children of Israel. 
 Properly speaking, as we have already seen, 
 they were not enjoined them, since their ancestors 
 were in the custom of using them long before ; 
 and the continuance of the practice was per- 
 mitted to the Israelites, because they " rebelled 
 against the Lord in the wilderness* ;" or, in the 
 language of Jesus Christ, " because of the hard- 
 ness of their hearts/' And the moral reason 
 why, under certain regulations, they were per- 
 mitted to the Jews, was, because, though their 
 true spiritual reference was not known to that 
 carnal people, they yet were affected by them 
 with a sense of holiness, and kept in some kind 
 of worship, of which, without such helps, they 
 would have been incapable ; at least, if not al- 
 lowed to worship Jehovah with sacrifices, they 
 would have worshipped with sacrifices Baal and 
 Moloch. But the ultimate reason for the in- 
 stitution of sacrifices among the Israelites, was 
 the same as that of their call and selection as a 
 peculiar people ; that, from the descriptions and 
 precepts relating to this representative worship 
 recorded in the Divine Word, future generations, 
 
 xx. 13. 
 
502 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 under a dispensation of higher light, without 
 returning to the use of the significative actions, 
 might learn, by a knowledge of their meaning, 
 how to offer to the Lord a purely spiritual 
 worship ; a worship that should consist in the 
 consecration to Hint, at all times,, of all the fa- 
 culties of the heart and mind, and in the ascrip- 
 tion of this to him,, at stated periods, in prayers 
 and praises, in their public assemblies. 
 
 (3.) We now, I trust, shall have found a 
 clew, that will unravel the mystery of the ex- 
 tensive prevalence, in former ages, of the prac- 
 tice of human sacrifices. For from what has 
 been offered it will appear, that there may be 
 forms of speaking and writing respecting sacred 
 subjects, and of describing them by imagined 
 significative actions, which would be exceedingly 
 criminal if reduced into practice. We find that, 
 considered as a moral action, the slaughter even 
 of animals cannot enter with strict propriety, 
 or any otherwise than by permission, into the 
 worship of the Lord ; although, viewed merely 
 as a significative action, it affords images highly 
 expressive for representing his genuine worship. 
 So it is, in a much higher degree, when the 
 subject of the sacrifice is considered to be a 
 son or a daughter, If the animals allowed to be 
 sacrificed were representative of certain prin- 
 ciples in the rnind of the offerer dedicated by 
 him to the Lord ; his own children must be re- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 503 
 
 preservative of principles in his mind connected 
 with him still more closely, more nearly allied 
 to, and indeed identical with, the governing mo- 
 tives of all his conduct. They must be signi- 
 ficative of the proper affections of his own will., 
 the proper conceptions of his own understanding ; 
 and these, unless surrendered and consecrated to 
 the Lord, would have self alone for their object ; 
 and this, again, if suffered to reign, would poison 
 every virtue. For this reason, under the repre- 
 sentative dispensation of the Jews, all the first- 
 born, without exception, were declared to be 
 holy to the Lord : and if the sacrificing of them 
 could be merely a significative and not at the 
 same time a moral action, this would, in the 
 fullest manner, convey the important spiritual 
 doctrine. On this account it was that Abraham 
 
 y 
 
 the proper type of the most devoted of the faith- 
 ful, was tried as to his willingness to offer Isaac: 
 he was permitted, as noticed above, to go far 
 enough towards the completion of the sacrifice 
 fully to shew its holy import as a significant 
 action, though he was stopped in time to exclude 
 its enormity as a moral one : and the reason as- 
 signed by Jehovah for the blessing afterwards 
 pronounced upon him, was, " Because thou hast 
 not withheld thy son, thine only son/'* Thus 
 
 * Gen. xxii. 16. Much erudition and genius have been 
 exercised to prove, that the sacrifice of Isaac was designed 
 as a representation of that of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 
 
504 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 it is evident, that, in the language of Analogy, to 
 speak of sacrificing children to the Lord only 
 
 acknowledge it to have been so : indeed, its applicability to 
 that great fact appears too obvious to be overlooked by any 
 one. But, taking the representation under this relation, what 
 part does Abraham sustain in it? Is he a type of " the 
 Father*' of the New Testament, as Isaac is of " the Son" ? 
 This is a conclusion, which, according to the common mode of 
 understanding the transaction, seems impossible to be avoided. 
 Even Warburton is constrained to admit it : though he con- 
 siders the whole to be specially intended to instruct Abraham 
 in the mystery of the Redemption, he cannot help representing 
 the patriarch as standing in a relation of analogy to the Father : 
 thus he says, that " God to instruct him (in the best manner 
 humanity is capable of receiving instruction) in the infinite 
 extent of divine goodness to mankind, ' who spared not his 
 own son, but delivered him up for us all/ [Rom. viii. 32.] let 
 Abraham feel, by experience, what it was to lose a beloved 
 son." [D. Leg. B. vi, Sec. 5.] But how monstrous is such 
 an idea! The relation begins with informing us, (ver. 1,) that 
 " God did tempt Abraham :" if then Abraham represents the 
 Father of Jesus Christ; who is the being here denominated 
 God ? And was the Father himself tempted in the death of Jesus 
 Christ? and by Himself? And is it of himself that he here 
 says, " By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because 
 thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine 
 only son : that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying 
 I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the 
 sand which is upon the sea shore ;" &c. [ver. 16, 17.] Evi- 
 dently, in this view of the matter, there is an utter want of 
 parallelism between the type and the antitype, and the whole 
 is replete with inconsistencies. But consider Abraham him- 
 self as the principal type of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 
 transaction; and admit that in typical language different 
 persons may be mentioned to represent, not different beings, 
 
THK SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 means to devote to him the nearest and inmost 
 affections of the heart. As a significant action, 
 
 but different principles in the same being, whether in 
 God or in man ; and all difficulties vanish. Abraham is the 
 only agent : it is he who surrenders and is about to sacri- 
 fice Isaac, who is quite passive; and he acts in the affair 
 by the command of God : thus the circumstances of the 
 whole become exactly parallel to those of the sacrifice of 
 Jesus Christ, as stated in his own words. He says of him- 
 self, " /lay down my life for the sheep* No man taketh it 
 from me, but / lay it down of myself: I have power to 
 lay it down, and I have power to take it again : this com- 
 mandment have I received of my Father." [John x. 15, 18.] 
 Abraham then represents that principle in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ which says, " I lay down my life of myself:" Isaac 
 is the life laid down, the life of the human nature: and 
 " God" is " the Father," -the Divine Essence Itself, whose 
 love was the moving cause of man's redemption. The life 
 which Jesus Christ says he has " power to take again," is 
 also the life of his human nature glorified at his resurrection, 
 which is represented by the restoration of Isaac to Abraham, 
 as it were " from the dead ; from whence also he received him 
 in a figure." [Heb. xi. 19.] Thus the whole becomes consis- 
 tent, even to the blessing pronounced upon Abraham for 
 his obedience ; which refers to the salvation of man in conse- 
 quence of the assumption by the Lord of the human nature, 
 his laying down of the life of it, and his taking of it again in 
 a glorified state, and thence imparting the gifts of the spirit: 
 [John vii. 39.] his seed who should be multiplied are the 
 church of his faithful followers; or those, to whom he thus 
 " gave power to become the sons of God, even they that be- 
 lieve on his name." [John i. 12.] 
 
 But the reference of this type, in its highest application, 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ, does not exclude it from having a 
 
 3 T 
 
506 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and when suffered to go no farther than to 
 words or signs, the sacrifice of children was 
 clearly representative of something pre-eminent- 
 ly holy. The reason is, because, in this point 
 of view, the children are not regarded as pos- 
 sessing any thing, not even life, as their own, 
 but are considered as if they were the absolute 
 property of their parents; merely as something 
 most dear to them, and which they are to de- 
 dicate to the Lord as an acknowledgment that 
 all good is .from him, and of right is to be as- 
 cribed to him. No doubt then, among the an- 
 cients, who were acquainted with the relation 
 that natural things bear to spiritual, and whose 
 ordinary language was, to a great degree at 
 least, formed upon that relation, whence they 
 used to speak of sacrifices in their conversation 
 
 secondary reference to his faithful disciples. As observed 
 in the text above, we are required to follow him: we are to 
 drink of the same cup, and to be baptized with the same bap- 
 tism; as he said to James and John : " Ye shall indeed drink 
 of the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism that I am 
 baptized withal shall ye be baptized:" [Mark x. 39:] whence 
 the Apostle declares, " We are buried with him by baptism 
 unto death : that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
 by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 newness of life." [Rom. vi. 4.] It is doubtless, then, true, 
 that Abraham is a type of the most faithful of the followers 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as of himself; and in this 
 reference the sacrifice of Isaac must bear the meaning stated 
 in the text above. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 507 
 
 and writings which they never thought of per- 
 forming according to the letter., the sacrifice of 
 children would often be mentioned: and hence 
 arose the abuse : for their ignorant and cor- 
 rupt descendants at length proceeded to the 
 act. This must necessarily be in the highest 
 degree profane : because here the moral nature 
 of the action interferes, and totally changes the 
 character of the significative. For although, 
 in one point of view, children may be considered 
 merely in their relation to their parents, and thus 
 as their property ; yet are they also human beings 
 themselves, having a life distinct from that of 
 their parents, and being, or at least in preparation 
 for becoming, independent moral agents : hence 
 to kill them is murder of the worst kind : and 
 hence the act of sacrificing them, instead of re- 
 presenting the hallowing of the inmost affections 
 to the Lord, represents the direct contrary, the 
 privation of all spiritual life in the affections with 
 which the man is most closely identified, and, in 
 fact, the substitution in the heart of the love of 
 evil for the love of good; which is equivalent to 
 the worship of demons instead of God. 
 
 It surely cannot be difficult to see, that all 
 
 this is grounded, not in any fanciful, but in a 
 
 most certain and determinate analogy. A few 
 
 words will now suffice, to apply these principles 
 
 to the apparent sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. 
 
 (4.) It has been shewn in our last Lecture, 
 
 3 T 2 
 
508 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 that the people or nations who occupied the 
 countries surrounding the land of Canaan,, are 
 all representative of moral and intellectual prin- 
 ciples,, more or less connected with, or opposed 
 to, those which constitute the church in the 
 human mind ; and, less abstractedly, of those 
 classes of persons who make such principles 
 their predominant and influencing motives. One 
 of these nations was that of the Ammonites : 
 and it would be both a curious and interesting 
 inquiry, to endeavour to ascertain, of what spe- 
 cific principle, and class of persons, connected 
 with the church, they were the representatives; 
 but to render the inquiry satisfactory, it would 
 demand more space than we can now spare; 
 and it is not necessary to the immediate object 
 before us. Suffice it to say, that it is a prin- 
 ciple, as appears from the chapter of Judges 
 detailing the history of Jephthah and his 
 daughter, which not only infests the church, 
 represented by the Ammonites overrunning the 
 land, but claims a legitimate right to it*; and 
 which, though clearly confuted from the Word 
 of Godf, does not recede from its pretensions. J 
 But, what throws more light upon Jephthah's 
 vow, it is a principle, the abstract idea of which 
 is typified by the fancied deity who was par- 
 ticularly worshipped by the sacrifice of children, 
 the horrid Moloch : 
 
 * Ver. 13. | Vcr. 15 to 27. [ Vcr. 28. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 509 
 
 " Him the Ammonite 
 
 Worshipped in llabbah and her wat'ry plain, 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 Of utmost Arnon." 
 
 Thus Moloch is emphatically called in Scrip- 
 ture,, " the abomination of the children of Am- 
 rnon."* It is true that in Jephthah's remon- 
 trance, Chemosh is mentioned as their Godf ; 
 who was properly the idol of the MoabitesJ : 
 but the Moabites and the Ammonites are often 
 considered as one people: and Chemosh, also, 
 was worshipped by the sacrifice of children; as 
 is evident from the conduct of his proper votary, 
 tKe king of Moab, who " took his eldest son, 
 that should have reigned in his stead, and offered 
 him for a burnt-offering upon the wall." Now the 
 occasion upon which Jephthah uttered his vow, 
 was, when he was about to engage in mortal con- 
 flict with this nation of sacrificers of their chil- 
 dren. Consider this conflict as representative of 
 that which takes place in the mind, when any 
 evil attachment that has taken deep foot there is 
 to be ejected. Every one must be aware that no 
 evil can be successfully combated but from the 
 opposite good, from a desire for it, and an inward 
 attachment to it: who then does not see, that 
 when the evil to be removed is that of which the 
 Ammonites were types, and which was appro- 
 
 * 1 Kings xi. 7. + Jud. xi. 24. J 1 Kings xi. 7. Num. xxi. 29. 
 2 Kings iii. 27. 
 
510 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 priately represented by the actual sacrifice of 
 their sons and daughters to Moloch or Chemosh, 
 the significant action most proper to represent 
 the opposite good would be., an apparent sacrifice 
 of a son or daughter to Jehovah? 
 
 This then appears to be the true design of this 
 extraordinary transaction : only one or two more 
 of its circumstances need be noticed. No evil, 
 as has just been intimated, can ever be entirely 
 removed, till the mind is made completely willing 
 to relinquish it : and this willingness manifests 
 the presence of an opposite good ; and is such, in 
 fact, itself. It is, however, seldom produced but 
 in a state of deep inward trial : this, therefore, 
 is appropriately represented by the anxiety re- 
 specting the issue of the battle which engrossed 
 the feelings of Jephthah when he made his vow, 
 and which he describes by the strong figure of 
 "putting his life in his hands*:" and his vow as 
 strongly breathes the willingness itself. And that 
 resolutions of relinquishment and of dedication, 
 made in a season of trial, are not to be receded 
 from when it is over, is signified by Jephthah's 
 perseverance in performing, ec when he returned 
 in peace from the children of Ainmon/' that 
 which he had vowed in the hour of jeopardy. 
 
 When, however, we speak of Jephthah's per- 
 severance in performing his vow, we mean, his 
 perseverance such as it appears upon the face of 
 
 * Ch. xii. 3. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 511 
 
 the narration : but that this extended to the actual 
 sacrificing of his daughter, cannot, I think, be 
 supposed. Here, as before observed, the moral 
 character of the action would interfere, and 
 would, beside being so horrible in itself, en- 
 tirely vitiate the significative. Upon the sup- 
 position, however, that she was sacrificed, (the 
 fault of which, we have before seen, would lie 
 entirely in the ignorance of the parties,) as all 
 mention of the actual perpetration of the deed is 
 avoided, the signification of the transaction, as it 
 stands in the record, would not be altered. But, 
 no doubt, the execution was prevented, proba- 
 bly in one of the ways which the commentators 
 have supposed : but as, in the history, the merely 
 significative action is all that is intended for con- 
 sideration ; therefore the narrative is so con- 
 structed as to lead to the conclusion that the 
 sacrifice took place. 
 
 And surely the reason which we have alleged 
 for the narrative's bearing such a construction, 
 must be seen to be amply sufficient. That the 
 only instance in the Israelitish history which 
 presents the appearance of the sacrifice of a 
 child having been vowed or performed by a 
 leader favoured of God, should occur where the 
 object of it was to obtain divine aid against a 
 nation of sacrificers of their children, must have 
 struck all who ever remarked it, as a very extra- 
 ordinary co-incidence: how can it be accounted 
 
512 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 for, but by the analogy which \ve have endea- 
 voured to point out, on the one hand, between 
 the real sacrifice of a child to an idol and the 
 devotion of the nearest affections of the mind to 
 the love of evil, and, on the other, between the 
 apparent sacrifice of a child to God and the 
 devotion of the inmost affections to the love of 
 good; whence the one constitutes the proper 
 opposite, and depicts the proper antidote, of the 
 other? Thus the narrative becomes eminently 
 illustrative of the true character of the Israelitish 
 history ; it strongly confirms the fact, that that 
 history is of a representative character through- 
 out; and it exhibits the necessity of calling in 
 the Science of Analogies for its elucidation, and 
 for clearing up the difficulties with which the 
 letter, regarded by itself, often appears per- 
 plexed. 
 
 We have dwelt at considerable length upon 
 the import, when decyphered by the Science of 
 Analogies, of the capture of Jericho and of 
 Jephthah's vow, because they afforded opportuni- 
 ties of illustrating some important truths of a 
 general nature, which tend to throw consider- 
 able light upon the whole of the subject under 
 inquiry : but, to prevent this work from extend- 
 ing too far beyond the moderate dimensions 
 which it seems advisable to observe, we must 
 confine our explanation of the examples still to 
 
THB SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 5J3 
 
 be offered nearly within the limits of a simple 
 statement. 
 
 3. The combat between David and Goliath, 
 related in 1 Samuel, ch. xvii. bears so many 
 marks of its representative character on the face 
 of the narrative, that maoy expositors have felt 
 that something was intended by it beyond a 
 mere relation of historical facts. 
 
 The victory obtained by a youth, represented 
 as a mere child, with a sling and a pebble from 
 the brook, over a professed champion above nine 
 feet in stature and armed at all points, has ge- 
 nerally been considered as symbolizing, in a 
 very expressive manner, the superiority of di- 
 vine dependance over self-confidence; and un- 
 doubtedly this is the general meaning of the 
 history. The Philistines, we have stated in a 
 former Lecture*, represent, in the Word, those 
 who profess to belong to the church, and who 
 have an extensive knowledge of sacred subjects, 
 but yet give themselves no concern about bring- 
 ing knowledge into practice, about uniting their 
 faith with charity; and who even proceed so far 
 as to affirm, that salvation depends upon faith 
 alone. In all ages, and in all churches, there 
 have been professors of this description, and we 
 know that there is a large body of them at the 
 present day, some of whom even go to the 
 
 ! Page 195. 
 
 3 u 
 
514 PLENARY INSB1EATION OF 
 
 extent of affirming, that they who embrace the 
 gospel are freed from the necessity of observing 
 the law. Now,, as to apply the knowledge of 
 salvation by Jesus Christ to so impure a heresy 
 as this, is deeply to defile it, therefore the Phi- 
 listines are often called in Scripture, by way of 
 reproach, the uncircumcised. . TEat term denoting 
 those who are in all the unclean ness of the un- 
 purified lusts of the natural man. That epithet 
 is, indeed, in a great measure appropriated to 
 them : Thus David says, in the history before 
 us, ff Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that 
 he should defy the armies of the living God?"* 
 The wars, then, between the Philistines and the 
 Israelites, were symbolic of the contests for su- 
 premacy in the church between this doctrine, 
 and that of faith in union with charity. Giants, 
 when mentioned in Scripture, always denote 
 those who are in strong persuasion of their 
 superior power and intelligence, and who are 
 deeply grounded in pride and self-conceit; as is 
 generally the case with those who are in the per- 
 suasion that they are the peculiar favourites of 
 heaven, accepted on account of their faith, but 
 whose natural lusts are at the same time unsub- 
 dued ; especially those who never reflect 
 upon sin in themselves, and conceive that the 
 justification which they have received makes it 
 
 * Ver. 26. See also ver. 36; and Jud. xiv u 3, xv. 18; 
 1 Sain. xiv. 6, xxxi, 4; 2 Sam. i. 20. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 515 
 
 impossible for them to commit any; or, in 
 other words, that whatever they may commit 
 does not appear in the sight of God. The ar- 
 mour wherein the Philistine trusted, affords a 
 suitable image of the false reasonings, and per- 
 versions of truth, by which such persons confirm 
 themselves in their erroneous persuasions. Da- 
 vid, on the contrary, is generally allowed to re- 
 present, in the highest sense, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as to that principle in his nature whereby, 
 when in the world, he combated against and 
 subdued the infernal powers which held man in 
 bondage ; and hence, derivatively, he represents 
 the faithful member of the church, who engages 
 in spiritual conflicts in an humble dependance 
 on the Lord alone. The smooth stones from the 
 brook, are the pure truths of the Divine Word, 
 applied, with the proper power, to detect the 
 fallacies by which they who cherish faith without 
 charity support their cause : and the stone smote 
 the enemy in his forehead, to denote, that the 
 very first and leading principle of the system of 
 doctrine which makes every thing to depend 
 upon faith, the sentiment which forms the head 
 of all the rest, is discovered at once to be er- 
 roneous, when contrasted with any of the plain 
 declarations of Scripture which express the sen- 
 timent, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do 
 not the things which I say?"* 
 
 * Luke vi. 46. 
 
516 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 I am fully satisfied that most of these inter- 
 pretations could be proved, with a weight of 
 evidence which it would be difficult to resist, to 
 be founded in the immutable Relation of Analogy 
 which subsists by creation between all natural 
 objects and certain spiritual counterparts; and 
 that all of them might be demonstrated,, by a 
 sufficiently extensive collation of other passages 
 of Scripture., to be those which,, in the Divine 
 Word, every where belong to these symbols: 
 but, for the reason stated above, we leave them,, 
 thus nakedly propounded, for the lovers of truth 
 to examine for themselves. 
 
 4. The same remark will be applicable to the 
 explanation which we here will offer on some 
 of the circumstances attending the Crucifixion 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is usual to regard the circumstances of in- 
 sult and cruelty which marked the manner in 
 which Jesus laid down his life, as affording strong 
 marks of that depravity and corruption of the 
 human heart, which could excite any who called 
 themselves men, especially any who believed 
 themselves to be the elect people of God, to act 
 with such savage malice towards a being, who, 
 even if not acknowledged to be God incarnate, 
 must be venerated by every impartial mind as 
 the most unoffending, most amiable, most bene- 
 ficent, most perfect of men. But this view of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 517 
 
 the subject, though just,, does not go far enough. 
 Not only were all the circumstances,, generally, 
 expressive of this deep depravity, but every thing 
 that is recorded, even to the most minute, has a 
 distinct spiritual signification. 
 
 All Christians admit, that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 is " the Word of God*/' which is the same thing 
 as the Divine Truth itself; whence we read that 
 fc the Word was made flesh. "f It was also shewn 
 in our last Lecture, that whenever Jesus himself 
 speaks of his approaching passion, he speaks of 
 it as being to be suffered by f( the Son of man ;" 
 because " the Son of man" is a title always ap- 
 plied to him in reference to his character as the 
 Divine Truth or Word.J He suffered then in 
 his character of the Word ; and hence, by all 
 the indignities to which he submitted, was re- 
 presented the manner in which the Word was 
 treated by the Jewish Church in its state of 
 utter debasement : and, in fact, the manner in 
 which the Word is treated in every Church, 
 when it has departed from every thing which 
 gives to a church its title to the name. The 
 Lord was betrayed by Judas, because Judas 
 represents the very lowest principle in the con- 
 stitution of fallen human nature that of mere 
 selfishness, that which is identified as man's 
 proper own, considered as exclusive of every 
 thing that he receives from God : and as this 
 * llev. xix. 13. f John i, 14. \ P. 339. Matt. xxvi. 47. 
 
518 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 principle reigned with the Jewish nation, who 
 were at that time the depositaries of the Word-, 
 of them,, also., Judas was a type. The chief 
 priests and elders, being the leading characters 
 of the Jewish church, may be viewed as per- 
 sonifying its ruling sentiments in regard to 
 charity and faith ; and these being contrary to 
 the love of God and to all genuine faith, and 
 thus such as reject and destroy the truth of the 
 Word, it was by the chief priests and elders that 
 the Son of man was apprehended and first con- 
 demned* ; and his being afterwards condemned 
 by Pilate, who was a gentile, at their accusation 
 and instigation-)*, shews how the Word is re- 
 jected by those who do not profess to belong to 
 the church., but merely to follow the law of 
 nature, because they receive their ideas of it 
 from the misrepresentations of those who call 
 themselves the church, and whom they regard as 
 the proper judges of such a subject;}; : as, also, 
 they whose minds are not pre-occupied with 
 the false doctrines of a corrupt church see many 
 things by the light of nature which are in agree- 
 ment with the truth of the Word ; and as they, 
 likewise, are always loud in their professions of 
 regard for the truth abstractedly ; therefore Pi- 
 late had such strong misgivings on the occasion. 
 The Lord's being scourged and smitten on the 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 47, 66. f Ch. xxvii. 12, 23. 
 
 I John xviii. 35. * 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 519 
 
 head with a reed*,, were exact figures of the 
 treatment which the Word receives from those 
 who reject it : and as a crown is an emblem of 
 wisdom, and thorns of pernicious false senti- 
 ments, his being crowned with thornsf expres- 
 sively symbolized the manner in which the wis- 
 dom of the Word is falsified and perverted. The 
 dividing of his outer garments into four parts 
 among the soldiers^ was indicative of the com- 
 plete dissipation of the truths of the letter of 
 the Word ; but the preserving of his vesture or 
 inner garment entire, represented that its spi- 
 ritual sense could not be thus injured, being 
 sheltered from common observation ; and their 
 casting lots for it, afforded an apt image of the 
 conjecture and debate of which the spiritual 
 sense, or, what is the same thing, the truth itself, 
 becomes the subject, when all right understand- 
 ing of the Word is lost. Without some such 
 meaning, is it reasonable to suppose that such, 
 in themselves, trivial circumstances, would have 
 been recorded ? and not only so, but that they 
 should long before have been expressly foretold? 
 Their crucifying him fully expressed that the 
 church had profaned and destroyed the whole of 
 the Word. Their offering him vinegar to drink 
 mingled with gall ||, exhibited, by an apt symbol, 
 that all their ideas of truth were false, all the truths 
 they possessed being falsified from the influence of 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 26, 30. f Ver. 29. J John xix. 23, 24. 
 
 Ps. xxii. 18. || Matt, xxvii. 34. 
 
520 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 their depraved lusts ; truth falsified bearing the 
 same relation to genuine truth as vinegar does 
 to wine, and its mixture with gall implying de- 
 filement from grievous evils ; wherefore he would 
 not drink it : but afterwards, when, on occasion 
 of his saying " I thirst/' they gave him simple 
 vinegar, the sponge containing it being put upon 
 hyssop, he received it*; because this represented 
 such erroneous sentiments as are grounded, not 
 in evil and the intentional perversion of truth, 
 but in ignorance, such as prevailed among the 
 gentiles, who afterwards were taken to form the 
 church instead of the Jews : hyssop, and other 
 bitter herbs, were symbolic of purification : the 
 Lord's thirst is his ardent desire for the salvation 
 of mankind, through their reception of his life- 
 giving Word. 
 
 This explanation is applied to the treatment 
 of the Lord and his Word by the Jewish Church : 
 but the circumstances will equally suit the man- 
 ner in which he is treated by mankind indivi- 
 dually, whose selfish nature thus treats the Lord 
 and his Word at all times. Indeed, as the Jew- 
 ish Church, which was entirely a representative 
 one, represents, in its state of integrity, the true 
 church of the Lord, both generally, and as 
 formed in the heart of the individual who pro- 
 fesses to belong to it; so in its state of perversion 
 it was symbolic of the mere selfish nature of 
 man ; and its treatment of the Lord depicts the 
 
 * John xix. 28, 29, 30. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 521 
 
 manner in which man regards the Lord, and the 
 divine truths of his Word, when he views them 
 under the influence of his selfish nature alone. 
 
 Now whether or not,, without further explan- 
 ation, the circumstances we have noticed may 
 be seen to bear the exact signification which has 
 been offered, is probably doubtful ; yet that 
 they certainly carry some signification, and are 
 recorded to intimate some spiritual instruction, 
 is surely obvious upon the face of them, To 
 me, at least, after the most impartial examina- 
 tion that I am able to give the subject, it 
 appears so evident, that, without the slightest 
 wish to think harshly of those who entertain the 
 opposite opinion, I can only impute the exist- 
 ence of an opposite opinion to the want of a 
 sufficiently careful and candid examination. To 
 deny the spiritual import of this part of the 
 Word of God after serious consideration, ap- 
 pears to me to demand, not merely a large share 
 of the negative principle of incredulity, but of 
 a positive principle of credulity ; of a principle 
 that can believe any inconsistency, provided it 
 be requisite to support one species of consis- 
 tency; that which assumes, prior to the exami- 
 nation of evidence > that nothing spiritual can 
 be contained in the Scriptures, and which is 
 determined to maintain this assumption, let the 
 presumptions to the contrary become ever so 
 numerous and conclusive. Even Pilate could 
 
 3 x 
 
522 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 listen, with respect, to the Lord's avowal, that he 
 was a king whose kingdom was not of this 
 world ; and to his declaration, that ee every one 
 that is of the truth heareth his voice*:" and 
 surely every thing that is recorded, by the pen 
 of inspiration, of the actions or treatment of 
 such a king, must relate to him as the king of 
 this spiritual kingdom, and must either treat, 
 directly, of the kingdom which is not of this 
 world, or of the manner in which it is received 
 among men. In such persons as Pilate is a 
 type of, it might not be inconsistent to refuse 
 to listen to such a plea: but when those who 
 profess to be the true subjects of ff the King of 
 the Jews" would confine the circumstances of 
 his history to this world only, do they not allow 
 the supremacy of the worldly principle rather 
 than of the heavenly one, and partake of the 
 spirit which exclaimed, " We have no king but 
 Caesar?"f As is observed in another part of this 
 workj; if the Lord Jesus Christ had really a 
 divine nature within him, then not only must 
 all his words, but all his actions too, have flowed 
 according to the order in which divine and spiri- 
 tual things descend into natural, and thus must 
 have been expressions of spiritual and divine 
 ideas: nor could any thing be done to him, or 
 suffered by him, without being brought within 
 the same order: and thus, in every thing recorded 
 * John xviii. 36, 37. f Ch. xix. 1.5. J App. No. II. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 523 
 
 of him, weighty instruction must be included, 
 though conveyed by actions instead of words. 
 To admit that the record of these transactions 
 is the Word of God, is to affirm a truth; but to 
 insist that it is to be understood according to 
 the letter alone, is (, may I be pardoned for the 
 assertion ?) to falsify that truth : assuredly, it is 
 turning the wine into vinegar: but whether the 
 vinegar thus produced be that mingled with gall, 
 or that corrected with hyssop, depends upon the 
 inward disposition of the parties preparing it, 
 and their means of information. 
 
 IV. Nearly related to those parts of the Word 
 of God which, in their form, are strictly histori- 
 cal, are those which detail the rituals of the 
 Ceremonial Law : and that these were intended 
 to shadow out spiritual realities, is so obvious a 
 truth, that it has generally been received among 
 Christians as unquestionable : unquestionable 
 it certainly is, by all who believe that the Apos- 
 tle Paul had any knowledge of the subject, since 
 his declarations respecting it are too positive to 
 be by any means evaded. Indeed, an enlarged 
 consideration of this part of our subject, where 
 proof would be so easy, would perhaps, more 
 directly than any thing else, afford certain evi- 
 dence of the spiritual nature of the Word of 
 God. But it seems scarcely necessary to go into 
 the demonstration of a fact, which every Chris- 
 
 3x2 
 
524 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tian is obliged to believe by the authoritative 
 documents of his faith ; and which even the 
 Deist must admit to be the only rational account 
 of the origin of ceremonial worship. Certain 
 it is, that, in the early ages of the world, cere- 
 monial worship was practised, if not by all, 
 by the most enlightened and polished nations : 
 and can any maintain such a paradox as to affirm, 
 that this general consent of the most intelligent 
 of mankind in the use of such worship, had no 
 origin but chance ?/ Is it not far more reason- 
 able to believe, that it had some reasonable 
 foundation? And what so reasonable as to 
 conclude, that because the primeval inhabitants 
 of the globe had an intuitive perception of the 
 relation of Analogy existing from creation be- 
 tween spiritual objects and natural, men at 
 length began to assist their conceptions of the 
 former by appropriate applications of the latter? 
 
 I. That such was the origin, in particular, 
 of the use of Sacrifices in worship, must, we 
 should apprehend, at least appear highly proba- 
 ble, from the remarks which we have advanced 
 upon the subject in our consideration of Jeph- 
 thah's vow, where we anticipated most of what 
 we think necessary to offer respecting it.* It is 
 perfectly evident, from various parts of Scripture, 
 
 * Page 489500. Sec also the remarks on the significa- 
 tion of animals at p. 158, &c. and 302, &c. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 525 
 
 that the sacrifices offered upon the altar, as also 
 the shew-bread set out upon the table in the sanc- 
 tuary, were considered, strange as it may appear 
 to our ideas, as food offered to the Divine Ma- 
 jesty. Indeed, whatever was put upon the altar, 
 whether consisting of flesh or flour, is frequently 
 called, in one word, bread; according to the 
 known use of the Hebrew language, which often 
 uses the term bread for food in general. Hence 
 it is expressly said of the priests, that they of- 
 fered, and also themselves partook of, the bread 
 of God.* So the parts of the lamb or goat for 
 the peace-offering which were consumed upon 
 the altar, are explicitly called by our translators, 
 " the food of the offering made by fire unto the 
 Lord ;" and cc the food of the offering made by 
 fire for a sweet savour^ :" and the idea of the 
 agreeable scent of roasted food, is applied to the 
 whole burnt-offerings, whether of bullocks, sheep, 
 or doves, each of which is called <c an offering 
 made by fire, of a sweet savour, unto the Lord J:" 
 as also are the offerings of flour, baked or un- 
 baked. The same ideas are used by Jehovah 
 himself, when, reproaching by the prophet the 
 Israelites for their cc abominations," he says, 
 <f Ye have brought strangers, uncircumcised in 
 heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my 
 sanctuary to pollute it, even my house, when ye 
 
 * Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17, 21, 22 ; Ch. xxii. 25. f Ch. iii. 11, 16. 
 J Ch. i. 9, 13, 17. Ch. ii. 2, Q. 
 
526 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 offer my bread, the fat and the blood*:" and by 
 another prophet, still more particularly, the same 
 Divine Speaker says, " Ye offer polluted bread 
 upon mine altar ; and ye say, Wherein have we 
 polluted thee ? In that ye say, The table of the 
 Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind 
 for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the 
 larne and sick, is it not evil? But ye have pro- 
 faned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is 
 polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is 
 contemptible/'f It is impossible for any fact 
 to be more explicitly stated : the altar is con- 
 sidered, by God himself, as his table, and the 
 things offered upon it as his meat. For what 
 purpose then was meat thus presented to him ? 
 The natural idea evidently is, to satisfy the di- 
 vine hunger. But is the divine hunger such as 
 can feed upon the things burnt upon the altar 
 themselves? He himself declares plainly, that if 
 he were subject to such hunger, he would not be 
 dependent upon man for satisfying it : " If I 
 were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the 
 world is mine, and the fulness thereof: Will I 
 eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of 
 goats ?"J What else then is man to present, 
 which Deity can appetite? Himself, continuing 
 the same earnest address, informs us : ff Offer 
 unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the 
 Most High ; and call upon me in the day of 
 * Ezck. xliv. 7. t Matt. i. 7, 8, 12. J Ps. 1. 12, 13. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 527 
 
 trouble : I will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
 glorify me/'* How evident then is it, that the 
 flesh of bulls and the blood of goats, with the 
 other elements of sacrificial worship, are the 
 symbols of the worship of thanksgiving, vows, 
 and invocation ; which, again, are only sincere 
 as they proceed from love, charity, and faith; 
 an& thus that, properly, the things presented 
 upon the altar were natural images, answering, by 
 a just analogy, to all the spiritual graces, by and 
 from which an acceptable worship can be offered to 
 the Most High ! What then can the divine hunger 
 be, which requires to be fed with such food as 
 this ? What, but, like the thirst of Jesus Christ, 
 as noticed above, the ardent desire with which 
 Divine Love yearns for man's salvation, and 
 which is satisfied in proportion as man receives 
 from God the graces which bring salvation ; for 
 the obtaining of which the spiritual worship of 
 God is an indispensable medium; and of the 
 possession of which, such worship as gratefully 
 ascribes them all to him, is both a consequence 
 and a sign? The spiritual idea of hunger is 
 plainly intimated, when the Lord says, " Blessed 
 are they that hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness."-^ By a clear analogy, as natural hunger 
 is an appetite for food, and natural thirst an 
 appetite for drink, so spiritual hunger is a desire 
 for good, and spiritual thirst a desire for truth ; 
 * Ver. 14, 15. + Matt. v. 6. 
 
528 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and divine hunger and thirst can be no other 
 than the Lord's desire, that the goodness and 
 truth of which he is the Author might find an 
 abode in the heart and mind of man,, and be re- 
 turned him again in the ascriptions of genuine 
 worship. 
 
 2. Nearly related to the worship of the Lord 
 by the sacrifice of animals, and to the precepts 
 respecting the species of animals which might be 
 employed in such worship, is the law delivered in 
 Leviticus xi. and Deut. xiv. relating to the species 
 of animals which might or might not be used as 
 articles of food. If, as seems so evident, all 
 living creatures are forms expressive of particular 
 affections and modes of thinking that live in the 
 human breast ; and if the nourishment of the 
 body answers by an exact analogy to the 
 nourishment of the mind ; it cannot be extraor- 
 dinary, that, under a representative dispensation, 
 precise directions should be given upon this sub- 
 ject. By this law then, in general, is taught, 
 how careful man should be respecting what sort 
 of affections he appropriates in his will, and 
 what sort of sentiments he adopts in his under- 
 standing : and the rules laid down for dis- 
 tinguishing the unclean creatures from the clean^ 
 delineate the criteria for discriminating between 
 vil affections and good ones, mischievous sen- 
 timents and beneficial. As, however, this would 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 529 
 
 open to us a very extensive field of investigation, 
 this slight notice of it must suffice. 
 
 3. But under the Israelitish dispensation there 
 were other ceremonial observances, beside those 
 which related either to the bread of God or to 
 the food of man. One of the most remarkable 
 of these was the vow of the Nazarite, the law of 
 which is prescribed in Num. vi. The chief re- 
 gulations of it were,, that the subject of the vow, 
 during its continuance, was to drink no wine, 
 cc and eat nothing that is made of the vine-tree, 
 from the kernels even to the husk;" and no 
 razor was to come upon his head. At the termi- 
 nation of the period for which he was set apart, 
 the length of which is not defined, he was to offer 
 a burnt-offering, a sin-offering, a peace-offering, 
 a meat-offering, and a drink-offering; and he 
 was then to shave his head, and put the hair 
 in the fire under the sacrifice of the peace-offer- 
 ing : after which he was at liberty to drink wine. 
 Both Samson and Samuel were Nazarites for 
 life, by appointment and dedication before they 
 were born* ; and from the growth of his hair 
 in this consecrated state, the former derived 
 his great strength. f Surely, then, the Scrip- 
 tures must mean us to infer, that the Nazarite- 
 ship was representative of a state eminently holy ; 
 and what that state is, the circumstances, con- 
 
 * Jud. xiii, 5, 7. 1 Sam. i. 11. t Jud. xvi. 17. 
 
 3 Y 
 
530 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 sidered as speaking the language of Analogy, 
 very clearly designate. 
 
 There are in the Scriptures numerous intima- 
 tions respecting two sorts of characters belong- 
 ing to the church, those who act more under 
 the influence of good or love, and those who act 
 more under the influence of truth or faith. The 
 former apply the commandments of the Word 
 immediately to life and practice, without think- 
 ing or reasoning upon them; and they hence 
 acquire an intuitive perception of truth, which 
 the Lord refers to when he says, <c Let your 
 communication be Yea, yea, Nay, nay : for 
 whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil* :" 
 the latter take too much pleasure in the (C what- 
 soever is more than these/ 5 to be satisfied with 
 so short a road to wisdom : they love the exercise 
 of thought and reasoning : they scarcely regard 
 truth itself as valuable, but as it is the object of 
 these faculties : they have, however, an ardent 
 love of truth; but their love of goodness is 
 rather a regard to what they see to be the dictates 
 of truth. Now of truth, and of the good which 
 is the result of a love of truth, the vine and its 
 productions are, in the Word, eminent types; 
 as are the olive and its products of the higher 
 love of good. That they who would obtain the 
 proper love of good, should aim at it at once, 
 and not amuse themselves too far with the lower 
 
 * Matt. v. 37. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 531 
 
 love of truth, is then what is meant by the pro- 
 hibition to the Nazarites of the use of wine or 
 the other products of the vine : it is, in fact, the 
 same precept as is delivered by Jesus Christ in 
 plainer terms, when he says, fc Let your com- 
 munication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay." -Never- 
 theless, though they do not make truth their 
 study, they enjoy, by virtue of their love of good, 
 an intuitive knowledge of all truth; accord- 
 ing to that other divine saying, " If any man will 
 do [wiUeth to do~] his will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine whether it be of God."* They have, on 
 every occasion, a perception of the truth or false- 
 hood of every suggestion presented to them ; and 
 in the combats of temptation they apply their 
 Yea, yea, or Nay, nay, with a power, which they 
 who are in evil and error, and all the tempting 
 forces, are unable to resist. Of this power of 
 the true Nazarite, the extraordinary strength of 
 Samson was a symbol. And as the greatest 
 power of truth lies in its lowest manifestation 
 or the strength of Jehovah is in the clouds-^ ; and 
 as the hair, being the extreme part of the bodily 
 frame, denotes the extreme part of the mental 
 constitution, the ultimate of all, the imme- 
 diate seat of the senses and corporeal appetites; 
 and as when divine goodness and truth possess 
 these they possess the whole man, and they do 
 possess even these with those who are principled 
 * John vii. 17, t See App. No. IV. 
 
 3y 2 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 in the proper love of good ; therefore the Na- 
 zarites were commanded not to cut their hair ; 
 arid Sarnson declared that in his hair his great 
 strength resided. As they who Jrave persevered 
 the full period in the kind of Hfe which this vow 
 symbolizes, become regenerate through all their 
 mind, and every principle of their constitution at 
 length spontaneously rises in the worship of the 
 Lord ; this was represented by the Nazarite's of- 
 fering, when the days of his separation were 
 fulfilled, sacrifices of all the kinds directed by 
 the Levitical law. His then consuming his hair 
 in the fire of the altar, was expressive of the 
 complete renewal of the very ultimate principle 
 of his constitution, of which the hair is the type, 
 so that there remains no longer any thing of self 
 in it, but the whole is dedicated to the Lord. 
 And his being at liberty afterwards to drink 
 wine, signifies, that all the recreation and delight 
 that truth can afford are then free to him also ; 
 as to him who seeks first the kingdom of God and 
 his righteousness, all inferior things are given in 
 addition.* 
 
 These are very holy and interior subjects; 
 and, for that very reason, it is to be expected 
 that they will only excite the scorn of those, 
 (should any of that character give them a mo- 
 ment's notice,) who regard nothing but what their 
 corporeal senses dictate. We are warned by 
 
 * Matt. vi. 33. The same subject is illustrated by the 
 obedience of the Rechabites ; Jer. xxxv. 
 
' 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 divine authority of the consequences of present- 
 ing the holy things of celestial good to dogs, 
 and the pure pearls of spiritual truth to swine. 
 Probably, also, to many of better dispositions, 
 but who raise their views with reluctance above 
 the precincts of nature, such matters will appear 
 too remote from ordinary apprehension to de- 
 serve much attention; they will regard them, 
 as the rustic regards the nebulae in the galaxy 
 of heaven, as films not more important than 
 those formed by the exhalations of the marsh ; 
 whilst by the votary of true science they are 
 contemplated with delight mixed with awe, and 
 are regarded, not merely as suns, but as systems 
 of suns, dispensing the beams of light and life 
 to numberless unseen worlds. The truth of the 
 doctrine deduced from this mysterious ceremony, 
 whether it be seen to be taught by the ceremony 
 or not, may, however, be readily appreciated. 
 Assuredly, every breast that has ever glowed 
 with one touch of pure, disinterested affection, 
 which has ever been warmed with one feeling 
 of which the high name of goodness may justly 
 be predicated, must have felt how, when placed 
 in contrast, the coruscations of the brightest in- 
 tellect, the most exalted views of truth, admira- 
 ble and excellent as these, also, nevertheless are, 
 sink into shade. He will naturally then expect, 
 that of a fact so important, some decided intima- 
 tions would be given in a book which is really 
 
534 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 the Word of God ; and if he knows that the 
 Word of God must necessarily be written by the 
 aid of natural images; and is aware, also, that 
 the Jewish nation was selected for the purpose 
 of representing heavenly things by symbolic 
 actions; he will expect to find the subject some- 
 where shadowed out among the rituals of their 
 law. When thus prepared, if possessed, in ad- 
 dition, of some acquaintance with the language 
 of Analogies, he will easily recognise a beautiful 
 representation of it in the Law of the Nazarite. 
 
 4. Finally, we are to notice the ceremonial ob- 
 servances which are retained among Christians : 
 and that some are retained, by divine appoint- 
 ment, under the spiritual dispensation of the 
 gospel, is an argument, surely 5 that spiritual 
 things are included in them ; and, by conse- 
 quence, that spiritual things were represented in 
 the ceremonies of the Jewish Church, of which 
 they are a remnant and epitome. 
 
 There are two things to which all the divine 
 commandments relate, and to which they may 
 be reduced : to the same two things all the 
 ordinances of the Levitical law necessarily had 
 reference : and these are, purification from the 
 evil arid false tendencies of man's selfish nature, 
 and the appropriation and practice, in their stead, 
 of the principles and sentiments of goodness and 
 truth. Such, accordingly, are the order and sub- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 535 
 
 stance of the summaries of religion occasionally 
 given in the Divine Word : " Depart from evil, 
 and do good*:" " Cease to do evil; learn to do 
 well."^ These two things then, in a general 
 way, are pointed at in the ordinances of baptism 
 and the Lord's supper: and thus in them is 
 concentrated the substance of all the rituals of 
 the Mosaic dispensation, and of all the precepts 
 of the Word of God. On how numerous occa- 
 sions washings were prescribed under the Leviti- 
 cal law, is well known to all who have examined 
 it : almost every ceremony, was to be accom- 
 panied with washing : of all these different ablu- 
 tions then the ordinance of baptism was ap- 
 pointed as an epitome. On how many occasions, 
 also, sacrifices were to be offered, and how vari- 
 ous were the kinds of them, are equally well 
 known : instead then of " the flesh of bulls and 
 the blood of goats/* and of all the other sacri- 
 fices, are now substituted, as the substance of them 
 all, the flesh and blood of the Son of man ; and 
 as the former were all called, in one word, the 
 bread of Ged, and were accompanied with liba- 
 tions of wine ; so of these, now, bread and wine 
 are taken as the symbols. 
 
 Now the foundation of these institutions in 
 the universal principle, that spiritual things may 
 be adequately represented by natural images, 
 there being, from the order of creation, a fixed 
 
 * Ps. xxxiv. 14. t I^ a - i' 16 > 17 - 
 
536 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 Relation of Analogy between the one and the 
 other, is, one would think, too obvious to be 
 denied ; and the meaning of them, when decy- 
 phered by that principle, is, one might appre- 
 hend, too clear to be disputed. Between the 
 washing of the person from its impurities, and 
 the purification of the spirit from its defilements, 
 the analogy is seen at once: and the water, which 
 is the medium of effecting the one, is the appro- 
 priate symbol of the truth, which is the agent 
 in accomplishing the other. For how is man 
 ever led to desist from the evil arid error of his 
 ways, but by listening to the commands and 
 exhortations of Divine Truth? Of Divine Truth, 
 regarded, not as to its power of enlightening 
 the mind, but of purifying it, water is, assuredly, 
 a most manifest image ; as it also is, when regard- 
 ed as the element of drinking, of Divine Truth 
 viewed as contributing to spiritual nourishment. 
 Baptism then was instituted, not, as some have 
 strangely supposed, as conferring regeneration, 
 but as a sign of it. It is submitted to as a 
 pledge, that the party undergoing it engages 
 to yield his mind and life to the purifying disci- 
 pline of the truth ; and no doubt it is accompa- 
 nied with a divine influence, conferring on him, 
 more fully, the ability of acting in conformity 
 with his engagement. 
 
 But perhaps there is no instance in which the 
 power of the Science of Analogies in explaining 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 537 
 
 the sacred mysteries of the Word of God is more 
 conspicuous, than in the ordinance of the Lord's 
 supper. This is a subject which has involved 
 the Christian world in endless disputes. One 
 party maintains that the bread and wine, when 
 consecrated, do actually become, by a real tran- 
 substantiation, the body and blood of the Lord : 
 and if we confine ourselves to the literal sense of 
 the Lord's words on instituting the rite,, <( This 
 is my body; This is my blood*;" we shall be 
 forced to confess that this view is correct. The 
 other party maintains, that, notwithstanding the 
 Lord's words literally affirm it, the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation cannot be true, because it 
 supposes an impossibility : and if we consult 
 the suggestions of reason, we must allow that 
 this is undeniable. But when we are apprised 
 that the Lord, for the expression of spiritual and 
 divine ideas, constantly employed natural images 
 answering to them by an exact analogy, the dif- 
 ference is reconciled at once. Flesh and blood, 
 being the two chief elements of man's corporeal 
 frame, must denote, when predicated of a Divine 
 Person, the two first Essentials of the Divine 
 Nature, which are, love and wisdom, or goodness 
 and truth. Bread and wine, as the main articles 
 by which the body is nourished, must have the 
 same signification. We learn then, that by re- 
 ceiving the bread and wine in the Holy Supper, 
 * Mark xiv. 22, 24. 
 
 3 z 
 
538 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 are represented the reception and appropriation 
 in the mind of love and wisdom communicated 
 by the Lord; which have the same effect in 
 nourishing and preserving our souls as the 
 bread and wine have in nourishing and preserv- 
 ing our bodies. And doubtless the rite itself was 
 instituted,, because, in properly corresponding 
 externals, internals are present with greater 
 power than without them ; and thus to the sin- 
 cere communicant who ascribes all good to the 
 Lord as its Author, he himself, with his divine 
 graces of love and wisdom, is then more near 
 than at other times, imparting that heavenly 
 nourishment on which depends the life of his 
 soul. 
 
 But let this be as it may : whether or not any 
 heavenly influences are present at the ordinances 
 of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; it seems im- 
 possible to doubt that such graces as we have 
 described are intended to be represented by 
 those ordinances : In them, therefore, we assur- 
 edly have conclusive evidence, that the Word 
 of God is written according to the laws of that 
 Analogy which so clearly connects together the 
 objects of spirit and of nature, the intellectual 
 and moral with the physical and material world 
 and that this Analogy affords the Rule by which 
 the genuine import of the Word of God may be 
 decyphered. 
 
 Here then we conclude our Proofs and Illus- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 539 
 
 trations of the applicability of the Science of 
 Analogies as a Rule for the interpretation of 
 the Word of God : and though I am aware that 
 the instances selected have not been elucidated 
 with half the strength and clearness which the 
 principle admits; yet amid all the defects of the 
 advocate, it can hardly, I trust, be denied, that 
 from most of the examples such a degree of 
 light has been elicited, as to render it morally 
 certain that the principle is correct. 
 
 But to draw from these elucidations the con- 
 clusion which they are intended to support, we 
 must still remember the principles laid down at 
 the beginning of the fourth Lecture, on the cha- 
 racter which must necessarily belong to the Di- 
 vine Style of Writing. fc If, as there stated, in 
 a written revelation from God, the Divine Truth 
 must clothe itself with ideas and images taken 
 from the world of nature before it could be 
 presented to man; and if the Divine Style of 
 Writing must thus follow the Law of that Ana- 
 logy, which, as was shewn in the third Lecture, 
 indissolubly connects natural objects and ideas 
 with such as are spiritual and divine; it will 
 follow, that the spiritual and divine wisdom 
 which such a revelation must contain within it, 
 could only be understood by a right application 
 of this Law. And if on an application of this 
 Law to the books called the Holy Scriptures, 
 it should be found that they exhibit a coherent 
 
 3 z 2 
 
540 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 series of spiritual and divine instruction ; it will 
 follow,, further, that the Scriptures are such a 
 revelation of Divine Truth presented to man in 
 natural language; that they are the Divine Speech,, 
 or Divine Word, which has emanated from the 
 bosom of Deity, and presents itself under this 
 form in this lowest sphere of creation/' We 
 have now tried the applicability of the Rule to 
 all the species of composition which the Sacred 
 Writings contain, the prophetical, the histo- 
 rical, and the preceptive (, taking our examples 
 of the last from the precepts relating to cere- 
 monial rites) : we iave found that, when de- 
 cyphered by the proposed key, a coherent series 
 of spiritual and divine instruction every where 
 appears : we have a right then to infer, that the 
 Scriptures actually are composed in the truly 
 Divine Style of Writing, and that nothing below 
 the Plenary Divine Inspiration was adequate to 
 their production. 
 
 V. Before I conclude this Lecture, I will add 
 an argument which occurred to my own mind 
 many years ago, and which to me carried irre- 
 sistible conviction. 
 
 1 . It may be simply propounded thus : It is im- 
 possible for a false, yet regular rule for the 
 interpretation of the Scriptures, to draw from 
 them a coherent sense in every passage to which 
 it should be applied : But the Doctrine of Ana- 
 logies is thus universally applicable : Necessarily, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 541 
 
 then, the Scriptures are written throughout ac- 
 cording to that Doctrine, and this affords the 
 true Rule for their interpretation. 
 
 And it may be illustrated thus : Suppose a 
 book were found, written in the English tongue, 
 but in characters grown obsolete by antiquity. 
 The mode of decyphering it, of course, would be, 
 by ascertaining what letters of the present al- 
 phabet answer to those in which the book was 
 written. It is evident that if, in attempting to 
 assign the corresponding letters, we fixed upon 
 wrong ones, though we might appear to make 
 out a word here and there, the sense of the series 
 of words would be as much hidden as ever. 
 Suppose, for instance, 1 assume the letter which 
 is indeed a G to be an M, the O to be an A, and 
 the D an N; and instead of God were to read man, 
 wherever that combination of letters occurred: 
 although I should thus have got a single word, 
 which, for aught that appeared in that instance 
 alone, might be the true one, yet perhaps I might 
 not find another case in which my misconstrued 
 alphabet would make any word whatever ; and 
 certainly I should never find two or three words, 
 so made out, that would read together in a co- 
 herent series. Until, then, the really correspond- 
 ing letters were discovered, all would be doubt 
 and conjecture : we might dispute whether the 
 book were written in the English or in any other 
 language: and probably many would contend, 
 
542 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 that it was not intended to have any series of 
 meaning' at all ; just as is now generally affirmed 
 with respect to the spiritual sense of the Scrip- 
 tures. If, on the contrary, on applying any 
 system of interpretation to the supposed mys- 
 terious book, it should be found to decypher, 
 not one or two words only, but the whole ; if 
 the whole might be read in order, definite words 
 and a coherent sense being found in every part ; 
 the truth of the proposed system of interpretation 
 would be incontestable; there could be no 
 doubt that the unknown characters really an- 
 swered to the common ones which the proposed 
 system substituted for them. Now this case, I 
 venture to affirm, is exactly parallel to that of our 
 proposed interpretation of the Word of God by 
 the Rule drawn from the Doctrine of Analogies. 
 If the signification assigned from this Doctrine to 
 any term used in Scripture were not the true 
 one ^ did not give the properly corresponding 
 idea, though a colourable interpretation of one 
 or two passages might perhaps be offered, yet 
 the application of the same sense to the same 
 term wherever else it occurred would yield 
 nothing but a chaos of confusion. But when we 
 find that the contrary is the case with the system 
 we have proposed; when it is seen, that this 
 explains one passage as readily as another, and 
 the whole as completely as a part ; when the 
 sense assigned by it to any individual term is 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 543 
 
 found to afford a luminous meaning in every 
 instance where that term occurs* ; the conclu- 
 sion is irresistible,, that the system is correct. 
 On this ground we rest the claim of the Doctrine 
 of Analogies to be received as the true key for 
 the interpretation of Holy Writ ; assured that in 
 this will be found the true alphabet for decypher- 
 ing the Divine Style of writing. Let us take this 
 for our guide, and begin with the books of Moses ; 
 and we fear not to say ; Behold, their mysteries 
 unfold. Let us proceed through the Prophets; 
 and nothing so recondite will present itself, as 
 will not, on the right application of this key, 
 expand full to the view. Let us continue our re- 
 searches through the Gospels and Apocalypse, 
 and still we shall find that this Doctrine affords 
 the universal talisman, by which the veil of the 
 letter is every where laid open, and the wonders 
 of God's law, all that man can comprehend of 
 the wisdom of Omniscience, are revealed. 
 
 The two conclusions then, of our proposition 
 above, hence result : 
 
 First, That the Doctrine of Analogies, being 
 thus applicable to the decyphering of the natural 
 images composing the letter of the Divine Word 
 from one end of it to the other, affords the true 
 rule for its interpretation. 
 
 Secondly : That the Divine Word, being thus 
 
 * See this exemplified, with respect to the term clouds, in 
 the fourth Lecture, p. 348, &c. and Appendix No. IV. 
 
544 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 universally capable of being interpreted by the 
 Doctrine of Analogies, must have been inten- 
 tionally written according to it. 
 
 2. Let us extend this argument by the follow- 
 ing supplement: How can it be accounted for., 
 that writings composed by a great number of dif- 
 ferent authors, who were scattered over a period 
 of sixteen hundred years, and were thus without 
 any possibility of settling a plan in concert, 
 should be written throughout by a uniform prin- 
 ciple of so remarkable a kind; especially when 
 it is certain, that at least the greater number of 
 the penmen were quite unconscious that their 
 productions were governed by this principle, 
 and were entirely unacquainted with the spi- 
 ritual contents, which, by virtue of this law of 
 their construction, their writings contained? 
 
 From this circumstance, alone, then, we surely 
 are again intitled to infer, that the style in 
 which the Scriptures are composed, following 
 every where the Law of Analogy, is the truly 
 Divine Style of Writing; and that .nothing 
 short of Plenary Divine Inspiration could be 
 adequate to the production of Compositions so 
 extraordinary. Truly, therefore, are they de- 
 nominated, CC THE WORD OF GOD." 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE WHOLE FABRIC OF INFIDEL OBJECTIONS SHEWN 
 TO BE WITHOUT FOUNDATION. 
 
 I. General View of the System and Arguments of 
 the preceding Lectures : Important additional 
 Testimony. II. The four classes of Infidel Ob- 
 jections stated in the first Lecture resumed, and 
 examined by the view which has been developed 
 of the nature of the Holy Word, and of the means 
 of decyphering its true signification. 1. Im- 
 puted Inconsistencies with R&ason and Science 
 considered : Style of Writing in the Jirst part 
 of the book of Genesis. 2. Imputed Contradic- 
 tions considered : Why four Gospels were 
 written. 3. Imputed Violations of Morality 
 considered: David not a pattern, but a type. 
 4. Imputed Insignificance considered. General 
 Reply confirmed ; That all such Objections 
 arise from taking a merely superficial view of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, and from an utter Ig- 
 norance of their true Nature. III. Address to 
 Christians, on the Necessity of taking higher 
 ground in their Controversy with Deists. IV. 
 Address to Deists, on the internal causes of 
 Scepticism Conclusion. 
 
 4 A 
 
546 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 IT has been the object of our preceding 
 Lectures to shew, that the Holy Scriptures are 
 written according to the laws of the Analogy or 
 Mutual Relation established by creation be- 
 tween things natural and spiritual ; that they 
 thus contain a spiritual sense distinct from the 
 literal expression, which they could not convey, 
 in an orderly series, unless they were divinely 
 inspired throughout; that there is ample evi- 
 dence that they are thus written, and of course 
 that they are divinely inspired ; and thus that 
 they are, what they profess to be, the Word of 
 God. 
 
 I. The line of argument by which we arrive at 
 this conclusion has consisted of four stages, 
 which, now that we are about to close the whole 
 discussion, we will state in one view. 
 
 1. We have seen, in the first place, in our first 
 Lecture, that a Revelation which is indeed from 
 God, must contain, in every part of it, the trea- 
 sures of infinite Wisdom : but we have seen also, 
 that this wisdom does not every where appear in 
 the Scriptures on the face of the letter; so far 
 from it, that infidels have deduced from the ap- 
 pearances of the letter, and in ignorance of their 
 containing any thing further, various plausible 
 arguments for denying them to have proceeded 
 from any superior intelligence. But the fair 
 inference from those appearances is, not that 
 they are not divinely inspired, but that, if they 
 are, they must contain that superior wisdom 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 547 
 
 which is the criterion of inspiration, in an in- 
 terior sense distinct from the literal expression. 
 This the deistical objections appear to me de- 
 cidedly to prove; that if the Scriptures actually 
 do not contain any thing beyond what ap- 
 pears on the surface, they are not the Word 
 of God : but they by no means prove the nega- 
 tion which they aim at, that they are not the 
 Word of God: they only prove, that, to be 
 such, they must contain more than appears on 
 the surface, that they must include a spiritual 
 sense within the letter, in which all difficulties 
 vanish, and the wisdom every way worthy of God 
 opens to the view. 
 
 So far, then, the objections of Deists may 
 clearly be retorted against themselves. We may 
 say to them, "After all your industry in seeking 
 for difficulties in the letter of Scripture; and 
 admitting the difficulties you have brought for- 
 ward to be ever so great, so long as the literal 
 expression alone is attended to; you have not 
 produced any thing that can convince a reflect- 
 ing mind that the Scriptures are not the Word 
 of God; you only elevate our conceptions to 
 higher views respecting what the Word of God 
 must really be. We find in the Scriptures 
 numerous intimations, leading us to look for 
 something beyond the letter: the difficulties you 
 have started are calculated to turn attention the 
 same way : Let us then examine the Scriptures in 
 
 4 A 2 
 
548 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 this new and more exalted point of view ; in which, 
 if you will accompany us, you will probably see 
 reason to change your opinion, and to acknow- 
 ledge that your objections to the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures have all proceeded upon a very 
 partial and entirely inadequate view of the case/' 
 2. This being precisely the situation in which 
 the Christian advocate is placed by the Deistical 
 objector, we proceeded, in the second branch 
 of our argument, contained in our second Lec- 
 ture, to examine the question thus opened for 
 consideration. Here then we gave proofs, from 
 rational and philosophical considerations, that 
 a composition which is really the Word of God, 
 must not only be generally replete with divine 
 wisdom, but must contain the chief stores of 
 such wisdom in its interior recesses, in a spi- 
 ritual sense included within the letter;- -just as, 
 in all the works of God, and especially in his 
 noblest work, man, are contained innumerable 
 forms and wonderful organs, both corporeal and 
 mental, withift the outward form which alone is 
 visible to the eye. This branch of the argu- 
 ment then stands thus: "A composition which 
 has God for its Author, must contain within it 
 stores of hidden wisdom, beyond that which 
 appears on the surface : On the supposition, then, 
 that the Scriptures are the Word of God, they 
 actually must be replete with such hidden wis- 
 dom/' And thus the same conclusion is pressed 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 549 
 
 upon us by considerations grounded in the very 
 iiafTure of things, which we before found was 
 pointed out to us by the infidel objections. 
 
 It is true that this argument does not prove,, that 
 the Scriptures positively are the Word of God, 
 but only, what their nature must be if they are : 
 But as they likewise affirm the same of them- 
 selves, and had that affirmation believed, without 
 reserve, in the days of primitive and pure Christ, 
 ianity, (both which points are also proved in our 
 second Lecture,) a full coincidence is established 
 between what a divine revelation must be, and 
 what the Scriptures pretend to be ; and thus is 
 raised a strong presumption, that this, on due ex- 
 amination, is what they will actually be found to 
 be. Before then the Deist rejects them on account 
 of some things which offend him in the letter, 
 it behoves him to be very certain, that the literal 
 sense is all that is intended: and if he is assured 
 that a further meaning is intended, (and I wish 
 my voice or pen could carry this assurance to 
 every one that ever saw a Bible, whether Deist 
 or Christian!) then ought he, as a candid in- 
 quirer, to pause a while, and examine the evi- 
 dence upon which this statement rests : and sure 
 I am, that whoever would candidly do this, 
 and would take the pains to understand it, must 
 be convinced of its truth, and must learn to 
 prize the Scriptures as his highest treasure, 
 as containing indeed the pure Word of God. 
 
550 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 3. But to determine this point with certainty, 
 it is necessary that we should be acquainted with 
 the Law or Rule by which every divine com- 
 position must be composed, and by which of 
 course it alone can be decyphered: wherefore, 
 as the third branch of our argument, we pro- 
 ceeded to shew, in our third Lecture, that there 
 must be, from the very nature of creation, an 
 unalterable relation between natural things and 
 spiritual, insomuch that all things in nature, 
 being outward productions from inward essences, 
 must be natural, sensible, and material types, 
 of moral, intellectual, and spiritual antetypes, 
 and finally of their prototypes in God. I 
 then availed myself of several testimonies in 
 favour of this great principle: but I will here 
 mention one which was not before the pub- 
 lic at the time of the delivery of my former 
 Lecture, but which is so striking and beauti- 
 ful, that I am sure every lover of truth will 
 be glad to be put in possession of it now. 
 It is contained in an address delivered by the 
 Rev. W. Kirby, M.A., F.R. and L.S., the Chair- 
 man of the Zoological Club of the Linnaean So- 
 ciety, at a late meeting of that body. He offers 
 his views of the existence of fixed analogies 
 among the various orders of being; of the im- 
 portance of the recognition of the principle to 
 the higher interests of Science; and of its ap- 
 plicability to the construction of a highly signi- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 551 
 
 ficant language ; in these terms : cc When we are 
 engaged in the study of animals, and more espe- 
 cially of groups of them, it is of the first im- 
 portance, if we would avoid mistakes, that our 
 attention should be kept alive to what the friend 
 lately alluded to has said on the subject of af- 
 finity and ANALOGY.* By his judicious ob- 
 servations on this subject, he has opened a 
 new door into the temple of nature, and taught 
 us to explore her mystic labyrinths, guided by a 
 safer clew than we were wont to follow. And 
 whoever casts even a cursory glance over her 
 three kingdoms, will every where be struck by 
 resemblances between objects which have no 
 real relation to each other. He will see on one 
 side dendritic minerals ; on another, zoomorphous 
 plants ; on a third, phytomorphous animals ; and 
 among animals themselves he will see number- 
 less instances of this simulation of affinity where 
 the reality of it does not exist. From this part of 
 the plan of the Creator, we may gather, I think, 
 
 THAT EVERY THING HAS ITS MEANING, AS WELL AS 
 
 ITS USE; and that probably to the first pair THE 
 CREATION WAS A BOOK OF SYMBOLS, A SACRED 
 LANGUAGE; OF WHICH THEY POSSESSED THE 
 KEY, and which it was their delight to study and 
 decypher"\ 
 
 * The gentleman alluded to is Mr. Macleay, who has demon- 
 strated the existence of a remarkable analogy between insects 
 and fungi : See our third Lecture, p. 153 and 155 (notes.) 
 
 t Phil. Mag. Dec. 1823, p. 461. 
 
552 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 Here then is asserted in the most conclusive 
 manner,, and as founded on the most certain facts, 
 the very principle which it has been a chief ob- 
 ject of these Lectures to establish. Not only 
 does this enlightened philosopher and divine 
 affirm the existence of a fixed analogy between 
 the various objects of the three kingdoms of 
 nature, but he recognises, as an unavoidable con- 
 sequence, its existence between the kingdoms of 
 nature and those of mind : and when he concludes 
 that it forms a sacred language, of which our 
 first parents possessed the key, he leads by an 
 easy step to our further conclusion, that in this 
 language the Word of God is, and must be, 
 written. Little, certainly, did I think, when I 
 first propounded the principle in this Hall, that 
 it was being advanced, almost at the same mo- 
 ment, in one of the most distinguished philo- 
 sophical societies in the kingdom ! But from this 
 and other tokens I am quite satisfied, that the 
 advances which science is at present making in 
 all directions, are very rapidly leading the mi nd 
 of reflecting men to the same doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture interpretation as has been offered in these 
 Lectures. The final consequence will be, that 
 there will be no resting place to be found be- 
 tween absolute Atheism, and those views of the 
 nature of the Divine Word which we have en- 
 deavoured to develope. These, all real science 
 will be found more and more to confirm : and 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 553 
 
 Atheism,, also, will then become far more inex- 
 cusable, because the testimonies to the divinity 
 of the Scriptures will become so palpable and so 
 abundant. 
 
 4. Finally, we have endeavoured to shew, that 
 the communication of a Revelation from God to 
 man, must follow the same general law as re- 
 gulated the production of the creation ; thus 
 that the Analogy found to exist between natural 
 things and spiritual, must govern the compo- 
 sition of writings constituting such a Revelation ; 
 and that, in point of fact, such a regard to this 
 Analogy is discoverable in every part of the 
 Holy Word, and is the true key for decyphering 
 its contents. Examples in proof of this, with 
 dissertations on the true nature of divinely in- 
 spired prophecy and divinely inspired history, 
 and on the design of the selection of the Israelites 
 as a peculiar people, occupied our two last and 
 longest Lectures : and I do trust, that some of 
 the instances which were given of the applica- 
 bility of the Doctrine of Analogies to the inter- 
 pretation of the Divine Word, though very im- 
 perfectly elucidated, must yet have been suf- 
 ficiently clear to carry conviction to every ac- 
 cessible mind. 
 
 The presumption, then, in favour of the di- 
 vinity of the Scriptures, created by the former 
 part of our argument, now rises to certainty; for 
 this branch of the argument stands thus : A Com- 
 
 4 B 
 
554 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 position which has God for its Author must own 
 the laws of the same Analogy as reigns through 
 all the divine works : This characteristic exists 
 in the Sacred Scriptures : Wherefore they must 
 have proceeded from the Author of nature. If 
 it be objected that this only proves that the 
 Scriptures may have had such an origin., but not 
 that they must; a supplementary member may 
 be added to the argument : As was shewn at the 
 commencement of the fifth Lecture, No com- 
 position could, everywhere, follow the laws of 
 the Analogy between natural and spiritual ob- 
 jects, unless dictated by a Being to whom the 
 properties of all natural and spiritual objects 
 were perfectly known : As then the Scriptures 
 do everywhere follow this Analogy, they must 
 have proceeded from a Being of Infinite Intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 Thus have we arrived fully at the conclusion, 
 that the Scriptures are, what they profess to be, 
 the Word of God. 
 
 II. If then it is true, that such is the nature of 
 the Word of God ; if, as has been shewn, it is 
 not given to communicate to man natural know- 
 ledge, but spiritual, and if, as likewise has been 
 evinced, to communicate spiritual things without 
 a veil would be to injure those who are in states 
 of confirmation against divine things, and not 
 to benefit them ; if, finally, it is because it fol- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 565 
 
 lows the Law which must necessarily govern 
 the communication of a Divine Revelation, that 
 the Word of God is couched in language out- 
 wardly simple, whilst it contains divine wisdom 
 within; which, also, is capable of being de- 
 cyphered by an application to it of the laws ob- 
 servable in nature : then are we furnished with 
 a satisfactory answer to every argument that can 
 possibly be urged against it. It necessarily fol- 
 lows, that it is the Word of God indeed : and it 
 is immediately seen that all infidel objections 
 proceed upon a partial view of the case, and that 
 they fall to the ground of themselves, as soon as 
 the true nature of the Writings against which 
 they are raised is known, without the necessity 
 of being separately refuted. 
 
 By way of conclusion, however, we are to 
 shew more particularly, how the system of which 
 we have been endeavouring to give a sketch, 
 applies to the four classes of infidel objections 
 noticed in our first Lecture ; which impute to it 
 many statements contradictory to each other; 
 many that are contradictory to reason and 
 science; many that are contradictory to just 
 morality ; and many that relate to matters of an 
 indifferent nature, totally unworthy of the con- 
 cern of an Infinite Being. 
 
 1. There will be some convenience in con- 
 sidering fast, that class of infidel objections 
 4-B2 
 
556 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 which imputes to the Scriptures Contradictions 
 to Reason and Science. 
 
 Rightly to estimate the chief of these objec- 
 tions, it is necessary to be acquainted with the 
 peculiarity of style belonging to that part of 
 the Word of God in which they occur; which 
 is., the first portion of the book of Genesis. We 
 have endeavoured to draw the line of distinction, 
 in our fourth Lecture*, between some of the 
 books contained in the collection denominated 
 the Bible, and others, and to shew, that while 
 the greater part are written by the plenary in- 
 spiration for which we contend, and thus contain 
 a spiritual sense within that of the letter, which 
 is the criterion for distinguishing the proper 
 Word of God; the remainder are the offspring 
 of the illuminated intellect of the writers, possess 
 no regular sense beside that of the letter, and 
 cannot claim any higher inspiration than that 
 lax and partial one, which is now all that is 
 usually allowed to the whole of the Sacred 
 Writings. But among those books which are 
 written by the plenary and immediate inspiration, 
 there are also some specific differences of style, 
 though they are all composed in the general 
 divine style. Thus the prophetic style is evi- 
 dently different from the historical. There also 
 are two species of that which assumes the his- 
 
 * Page 340; but more particularly in the Append**, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 557 
 
 torical form ; and which must be distinctly seen, 
 before we can meet effectually that class of 
 infidel objections which is founded on imputed 
 contradictions to reason and science. 
 
 (1 .) We have seen in the fifth Lecture*, that the 
 Israelites were selected by Divine Providence, 
 to be made the instruments of representing things 
 of a divine and spiritual nature ; hence, though 
 the particulars of their history recorded in the 
 Scriptures are all typical, exhibiting spiritual 
 and divine things under symbolic actions and 
 descriptions, they still are histories of real oc- 
 currences, which took place, in general, as they 
 are related. But it is easy to see, that this com- 
 bination of symbolic meaning with actual facts 
 could riot exist, till the nation, thus invested by 
 divine appointment with a representative cha- 
 racter, existed : this species of Divine Writing, 
 therefore, can only commence with the origin 
 of the Israelitish nation. What style, then, 
 might we expect would be employed in that 
 portion of the Word of God, which relates to the 
 affairs of the inhabitants of the earth before the 
 birth of Abraham, the great founder of the Is- 
 raelitish nation? What could be so proper, as 
 the style of writing which prevailed among the 
 natives of the globe at the period it describes ? 
 And this was the style of pure allegory, in 
 which the things meant are so entirely iride- 
 
 * Page 409 to 444; &c. 
 
558 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 pendent on the things mentioned, that the latter 
 are invented to serve merely as a vehicle for the 
 conveyance of the former. 
 
 If such be the fact, there cannot be a greater 
 mistake than to imagine,, that the first chapter of 
 Genesis is intended to be an exact description of 
 the process of the Creation of the world. It can 
 answer to it no further, than as the real order of 
 that creation answered to the order in which the 
 endowments necessary for rendering man a pure- 
 ly intelligent and heavenly-minded being were 
 successively implanted in him; and which was 
 an order similar to that, in which the child now 
 advances from the ignorance in which he comes 
 into the world, to the understanding of a man. 
 All the objections then which scepticism has 
 advanced against the divine inspiration of the 
 Word of God, founded on the inconsistency 
 of some of the facts related in the early part of 
 Genesis with the known principles of reason 
 and science, fall to the ground at once, when it 
 is seen, that this is not intended to be the record 
 of a natural but of a spiritual creation ; and 
 that the events which follow to the time of 
 Abraham, are not intended to give the history 
 of mankind as to their outward transactions, but 
 a history of mankind as to the state of their 
 minds, and their reception or perversion of di- 
 vine gifts and graces. To affirm, as is now the 
 fashion, that the narration is to be literally un- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 559 
 
 derstood, that the ordinary date of human life 
 was then about a thousand years, that ser- 
 pents could talk, and that the woman was liter- 
 ally made of her husband's rib, is to exact of 
 the believer a blind faith indeed. In the early 
 ages of Christianity, her teachers knew better: 
 they did not thus (C bind heavy burthens, and 
 grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's 
 shoulders." Clemens of Alexandria, one of the 
 most learned of the early Fathers, declares, that 
 such was the style customary in the ages to 
 which this history belongs ; observing " that all 
 who have treated of divine subjects, whether 
 Greeks or Barbarians, industriously involved 
 the beginnings of things, and have delivered the 
 truth in enigmas, signs, and symbols, in allegories 
 and metaphors, and other such figures."* Ori- 
 gen, when the shrewd enemy of Christianity, 
 Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the rib, the ser- 
 pent, &c. as childish fables, reproaches him for 
 want of candour, in purposely keeping out of 
 sight, what was so evident upon the face of the 
 narrative, that the whole is a pure allegory. f 
 Indeed, so universal was this sentiment, that 
 De la Bigue, in his Bibiiotheca Patrum, after 
 quoting a number of testimonies to this effect, 
 says, <c For these reasons, the Interpreters whom 
 we have mentioned, understanding all that is 
 
 * Strom. 1. v, p. 658, Ed. Ox. 
 t Cont. Cels. 1. iv. p. 187, Ed. Sp. 
 
560 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 said of Paradise in a spiritual manner, affirmed,, 
 that divers heresies had arisen, because certain 
 persons had understood what is said of God and 
 Paradise after a carnal manner*:" so that al- 
 though orthodoxy, as the prevailing opinion is 
 always called, has since gone over to the other 
 side, it is certain that, in the primitive days, the 
 heretics were those who interpreted this part of 
 Scripture according to the letter. 
 
 However, there is an evident prospect, that 
 Reason and Truth will, in this respect, again 
 resume their sway ; for just sentiments in regard 
 to the bearing of Revelation on physical science, 
 are now frequently promulgated from high au- 
 thority : Indeed, the sentiment which I have 
 advanced, that Divine Revelation is not intended 
 to communicate to mankind natural knowledge, 
 but moral and spiritual, seems likely soon to be 
 generally admitted. Thus the Rev. W. D. Cony- 
 beare, in his admirable Introduction to " Out- 
 lines of the Geology of England and Wales/' 
 by himself and Mr. Phillips, delivers his views 
 on this question thus : " Before we examine the 
 bearings of physical science on Revelation, our 
 ideas should first be settled as to what may rea- 
 sonably be expected from Revelation in this 
 respect. Both its opponents and some of its 
 defendants often seem to argue, as if it should 
 have included the discovery of a system of phy- 
 
 " Propter has causas," &c. torn. i. p. 270. (Par. 1589.) 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 561 
 
 sical truth ; which, it would not be difficult to 
 shew, gives an entirely erroneous view of its pro- 
 fessed object; to treat, namely, of the history 
 of man, only, and that, even, but as far as affects 
 his relations to his Creator, and the dealings 
 of Divine Providence in regard to him/'* He 
 afterwards gives three views of the manner in 
 which the term days may be understood in the 
 first chapter of Genesis; the second of which, and 
 by far the most tenable one, he states thus : "We 
 may perhaps without real violence to the in- 
 spired writer, regard the periods of creation 
 recorded by Moses, and expressed under the term 
 of days, not to have designated ordinary days 
 of twenty-four hours, but periods of definite but 
 considerable length ; such a mode of extending 
 the signification of this term being not unexam- 
 pled in the Sacred Writings. Those who em- 
 brace this opinion, will of course assign the 
 formation of the secondary strata, in great part 
 at least, to these days of creation ; and we have 
 the authority of several divines in favour of this 
 mode of interpretation.''! 
 
 Here we have the principle openly admitted, 
 that to convey physical instruction cannot be 
 the design of the book of God; and that even 
 to make the statements which appear in the form 
 of physical details harmonize with the unques- 
 tionable discoveries of true science, great lati- 
 * Page 1. t P. lx. 
 
 4 c 
 
562 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 tude must be taken in the interpretation of the 
 terms. The same doctrine is powerfully advo- 
 cated in a late Number of the Quarterly Review ; 
 which I 'ad vert to, because that journal is devoted 
 to the interests of religion, as understood in the 
 Church of England, and because the reputed 
 author of the article alluded to is likewise a 
 clergyman.* Supposing, however, that this part 
 
 * The passage is rather long ; but its interest being fully 
 commensurate with its length, it is here given. It forms 
 part of the review of Professor Buckland's late work, Reli- 
 quice Diluviance. 
 
 " The more the strata which compose the crust of the 
 earth are examined, the stronger evidence do they present 
 of revolutions and catastrophes occurring at wide intervals 
 of time, of slow progressive advancement to its present state, 
 and of the existence of varied orders of created beings which 
 successively occupied its surface before it was finally fitted 
 for the abode of man. These phenomena, or rather the 
 principles on which they are explained in the modern schools 
 of geology, have been thought to militate against the history 
 of the creation contained in the first chapters of Genesis. 
 
 " The usual mode of solving the difficulty has been, to 
 interpret the six days of creation, not as natural days deter- 
 mined by the revolution of the earth on its axis, but as inde- 
 finite periods of time : and to this explanation Mr. Buckland 
 seems disposed in that [his Inaugural] Lecture to incline. 
 Others object to it with great vehemence, as wholly incom- 
 patible with the institution of the Sabbath, which is manifestly 
 set forth as the seventh day : and therefore they contend, that 
 the other six must necessarily be regarded as days in the 
 same sense, and of the same kind. 
 
 " Instead of presuming to decide peremptorily in this 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 563 
 
 of the narrative of the beginning of Genesis, 
 were capable, by this latitude of interpretation, 
 
 matter; our object will rather be to caution tbe friends of 
 religion against a rash and possibly mischievous mode of 
 vindicating their opinions. We beseech them to bear in 
 mind, that similar alarm has been taken, and similar zeal 
 manifested, in the cause of religion, in several instances 
 which have all terminated in establishing the points so much 
 dreaded ; and yet Christianity, so far from receiving a shock, 
 has only emerged from the controversy with increased vigour 
 and lustre. It is hardly necessary to remind them of the 
 persecutions raised against the first teachers of the Copernican 
 system of the universe. The doctrine was pronounced to be 
 contradictory to the language of Holy Writ, and was accor- 
 dingly condemned as false and impious. Nay, so late as the 
 early part of the eighteenth century, when the Jesuits' edition 
 of Newton appeared, it was thought necessary by the Editors 
 to prefix an advertisement, disclaiming all belief in the system 
 thus demonstrated, because it had been declared unscriptural 
 by the church, and setting it forth only as a series of deduc- 
 tions from a false hypothesis. 
 
 " Well indeed it is for us, that the cause of revelation does 
 not depend upon questions such as these : for it is remarkable 
 that in every instance the controversy has ended in a gradual 
 surrender of those very points which were at one time re- 
 presented as involving the vital interests of religion. Truth, it 
 is certain, cannot be opposed to Truth. How inconsiderate a 
 risk do they run, who declare that the whole cause is at issue 
 in a single dispute, and that the substance of our faith hangs 
 upon a thread upon the literal interpretation of some word 
 or phrase against which fresh arguments are springing up from 
 day to day ! 
 
 " Why, for' instance, must we be compelled to understand 
 the word day in the first chapter of Genesis precisely in the 
 
 4 c 2 
 
564 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of being reconciled with the facts as now ascer- 
 tained, much difficulty would still remain to 
 account for the existence of light for four days 
 (and days too of this indefinitely long duration, 
 amounting, altogether, at least to hundreds of 
 years; to account for the existence of light 
 all this while) before the creation of the sun, 
 moon, and stars : for the hypothesis which has 
 been so eagerly caught at by some of the Chris- 
 same sense it now bears, viz. the period of the earth's rotation 
 upon its axis ? Certain it is from the narrative itself that the 
 word does not hear the same meaning throughout the whole 
 chapter ; for the first three days were passed before the 
 creation of the sun is mentioned : and yet in these, no less 
 than in the others, the portion of time is denoted by the words 
 'evening and morning:' which, according to their received 
 import, necessarily suppose the existence of the sun. Let us 
 not, however, be misunderstood. We are firmly convinced 
 that the institution of the Sabbath is a divine ordinance from 
 the beginning that the observance of it is enjoined as com- 
 memorative of the close of the great work of creation, and 
 that its solemn obligation is expressed by the parallel which 
 it pleased God to draw between the progress of his own 
 works, and the destined employment of that being whom he 
 made in his own likeness. Yet no one can believe, when 
 it is said God rested from his works, that be really under- 
 went fatigue and required repose. The same principle of 
 accommodation to our perceptions and modes of speaking 
 must be admitted here as it is in a thousand other passages of 
 Holy Scripture. Our duty cannot be mistaken, whatever 
 interpretation we put upon the disputed words ; and it is this 
 duty which it is the wain purpose of that volume to declare 
 and to impress upon us" Q. R. No. Ivii. p. 162 to 164. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 565 
 
 tian advocates, that this light was what certain 
 modern philosophers have called " the matter of 
 light/' diffused through all space, cannot be 
 accepted till it is shewn, that light can ever be 
 rendered perceptible without some luminous 
 centre to put it into activity. When such phi- 
 losophic advocates of the literal sense can intro- 
 duce us into a closed room, containing neither 
 lamp nor candle, yet fully illuminated by the 
 universally diffused ef matter of light/' their 
 explanation of Genesis may be received : but to 
 receive it before, is only to combine the dreams 
 of philosophers with the dreams of divines. But 
 every difficulty would be surmounted at once, 
 were it admitted, that to describe the spiritual 
 creation, the endowment of man with those 
 gifts and graces which were so eminently con- 
 spicuous in the primitive times, in those times 
 which the poets have designated as the golden 
 age, and have represented by the fiction of the 
 garden of Jupiter, and which our Scriptures 
 depict by the happiness of man when the garden 
 of Eden was his abode; were it admitted 
 that to describe this creation is the true object 
 of this relation in Genesis. The truth is, that 
 the circumstances detailed agree with the facts 
 attending the physical creation, so far as the ana- 
 logy between the one and the other is exact ; but 
 when it holds no longer, the inspired relation 
 
566 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 follows the course of the moral creation , and dis- 
 regards the physical altogether. 
 
 (2.) The truth of this view will be greatly 
 strengthened, if we stop a little to consider the 
 genius of the inhabitants of the world in those 
 very ancient times,, according to the best idea 
 we can form of it from the traditions and 
 accounts handed down from ancient writers. 
 
 This is a circumstance which has much puz- 
 zled the explorers of antiquity, and which has 
 frequently led historians immensely out of the 
 way ; that all history is, in the beginning, in- 
 volved in fable. Trace up the records of any 
 very ancient nation to its origin, and they are 
 universally found to become enveloped in mys- 
 tery, to contain relations as remote from pro- 
 bability as those delivered in the early part of 
 Genesis; wherefore they are considered by all 
 as incredible. Now the air which they thus 
 wear of incredibility, cannot possibly arise from 
 their antiquity alone. Never was there a more 
 gross attempt to impose an egregious sophism 
 upon the public, than when a celebrated infidel 
 advanced, that all testimony diminished in credi- 
 bility in the ratio of its age. The history of 
 Thucydides and the commentaries of Caesar, will 
 carry as much conviction to the mind of the 
 reader that they were intended to be records of 
 actual occurrences, and are in the main true, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 567 
 
 five thousand years hence, as they do now, or 
 ever did: whereas the fabulous history of the 
 origin of Thebes, and of the armed men that 
 sprung out of the earth when Cadmus had killed 
 a dragon and sown his teeth in the ground, 
 equally wore the character of fable when first the 
 story was broached as at the present day: only, 
 they who lived in the age of its invention, knew 
 that it was to be regarded as an allegorical and 
 not as a real history ; they knew, also, how such 
 allegories were to be interpreted ; and did not, 
 like many of the modern learned, suppose, that 
 every writing wearing the historical form was 
 meant to be understood literally, and that, if it 
 was in this shape incredible, it was to be rejected 
 altogether. The fact is, as the remains of Gre- 
 cian, Egyptian, and Indian antiquity which have 
 come down to us abundantly evince, that it was 
 the custom in very ancient times, not only with 
 the people who lived before the flood, but with 
 those who flourished many ages afterwards, to 
 couch whatever they wished to be conveyed to 
 posterity under the form of an historical rela- 
 tion, but intermingled, like the history of Adam 
 and Eve, with circumstances so extraordinary, 
 as shewed that it was not designed to be literally 
 apprehended. But in process of time the mean- 
 ing of the symbols which they used was for- 
 gotten; and then the narratives composed by 
 their aid, being accompanied with a traditional 
 
568 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 feeling of respect which prevented their total 
 rejection, began to be understood in their literal 
 sense only, arid mankind were lost in amazement 
 at the marvellous things, which they supposed 
 their ancestors witnessed. Thus the vulgar, in 
 the latter ages of Greece and Rome, looked back 
 with admiration at the times when their heroes 
 went to school to the centaurs, and sacred statues 
 or holy shields fell from heaven for the pro- 
 tection of favoured cities; as the vulgar of 
 modern date, such of them, at least, as love 
 the world so well they fain would never leave it, 
 envy the longevity of the antediluvian patri- 
 archs, and think how happy they should be 
 were a thousand years still the duration of human 
 life. 
 
 But further: The people of the earliest ages 
 of the world were of a turn of mind so devoted 
 to exalted sentiments and sublime contempla- 
 tions, that they never thought of committing to 
 writing accounts of common occurrences : they 
 were too indifferent to the affairs of this world, 
 in which they knew they were but pilgrims and 
 sojourners, to deem them worth recording: for 
 which reason, no authentic history of political or 
 civil events, of any very great antiquity, exists. 
 Hence the well-known remark of the learned 
 Varro : that the space of time before the flood 
 was a&jXov, the period of utter obscurity ; that 
 the age from the flood to the first Olympiad was 
 

 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 569 
 
 the period of fable or mystery; and 
 that it was only with the first Olympiad that com- 
 menced the period i?opixov that of literal his- 
 tory. The reason why the genius of these an- 
 cients led them to describe interior subjects in 
 the language of allegory, was, because the illu- 
 mination of their minds was such as to enable 
 them to discern, in natural objects, the imagefbf 
 the spiritual and divine things which are the 
 causes of their production ; because, as elegantly 
 expressed by Mr. Kirby, fc the creation was to 
 them a book of symbols, a sacred language, of 
 which they possessed the key, and which it was 
 their delight to study and decypher." Hence, 
 when they wished to communicate to others 
 their interior perceptions, they would veil their 
 thoughts in language borrowed from natural 
 objects and occurrences. Whilst, indeed, this 
 knowledge was possessed intuitively, they pro- 
 bably would not think of writing at all. The 
 whole creation was to them an open book : what- 
 ever they had occasion or desire to know, they 
 there could read: every object in it spoke to 
 them, in the clearest terms, of the supreme ob- 
 jects, of their regard, of God, arid heaven, and 
 heavenly things; and reading every thing there, 
 they had no occasion for any books beside. 
 But when this faculty of intuitive perception 
 began to decline, in consequence of their begin- 
 ning to turn their affections towards outward 
 
 4 D 
 
570 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 objects,, instead of only using these,, as before, as 
 means for nourishing their love for heavenly things 
 as contemplated in them ; whilst yet, among the 
 better sort, a desire for the knowledge of heavenly 
 things remained; then,, we may conclude, they 
 would study those things as a science which they 
 before knew by intuition. Then books would 
 bqgin to be composed, in which they would 
 endeavour to express their meaning by analogies 
 taken from the objects of nature, the knowledge 
 of which they would long regard as the first of 
 sciences, and the distinguishing mark of wisdom 
 and learning. 
 
 Now the early chapters of Genesis treat of 
 the people who were of this character and genius, 
 both of those who had an intuitive perception 
 of spiritual things in natural objects, and of 
 those who enjoyed the knowledge of them by 
 science and study ; and therefore that part of the 
 book is written in a style similar to that which 
 those people used; that is, spiritual and interior 
 subjects are described in language borrowed from 
 the appearances of nature, in the form of apo- 
 logue and allegory, in a narrative that appears 
 in the letter to relate only to natural and ordi- 
 nary facts. Whole classes of people, whose 
 modes of thinking and feeling, especially in re- 
 gard to sacred subjects, were similar, are perso- 
 nified as one man, to whom an age is assigned, 
 answering, probably, to the period during which 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 571 
 
 the principles represented continued to prevail: 
 the manner in which one class of religious sen- 
 timent and profession is propagated from another 
 is described by family descents: and the fates 
 among mankind of religion in general, or the 
 vicissitudes which the church of God, under 
 different forms, experienced, are represented by 
 the fortunes of these allegorical personages. 
 That such a mode of describing such subjects is 
 agreeable to nature, is evident from the ten- 
 dency to it which still occasionally shews itself; 
 of which many examples might be given from 
 modern compositions. 
 
 (3.) That such is the character of the Scripture 
 history antecedent to the birth of Abraham, may 
 also be inferred from the similarity which is ob- 
 servable between the events which it relates and 
 the traditionary accounts of the ancient heathen 
 rnythologers. This resemblance has been ob- 
 served by many of the Christian advocates, from 
 Justin and Clemens to Bryant and Faber ; and 
 has been dwelt upon as affording a strong tes- 
 timony to the authenticity of the Mosaic writings. 
 Many, however, have here run into an error, 
 which has thrown a shade of doubt and sus- 
 picion over all that they have urged upon the 
 subject : they have assumed, that whatever 
 exists in heathen writings which bears some 
 similitude to facts, or apparent facts, detailed in 
 our Scriptures, was borrowed from this source : 
 
 4 D 2 
 
572 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 and they who do not affirm this,, consider such 
 fables of the heathens to be mere distortions of 
 matters of fact, which are simply true as recorded 
 in the Bible. But the argument in favour of 
 the authority of the Volume of Revelation is 
 much stronger, when it is admitted, as doubtless 
 is the truth, that neither the mythological stories 
 nor the corresponding relations in Genesis are 
 details of external facts, but both are allegorical 
 records of the same facts in the moral and spi- 
 ritual history of mankind., handed down through 
 different channels : the former being the pro- 
 ductions of men who possessed the knowledge, 
 and wrote in the style, which was common to the 
 learned of those ages * and the latter being also 
 composed in the style which was common to those 
 times, so far as this consisted in the purely al- 
 legorical character of the narration, but written 
 by absolute inspiration, and thus possessing all 
 the fulness arid truth which inspiration only can 
 convey. This will account for the considerable 
 variety in the images under which the circum- 
 stances are described. Thus, for example, we 
 have the record in Scripture of the termination 
 of two distinct dispensations of divine things to 
 man; the first of which, beginning with Adam, 
 closes with the flood ; and the other, which com- 
 menced with Noah, began to be corrupted at the 
 building of the lower of Babel, and was totally 
 so by the abominations which were plunged into 
 

 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 
 
 by the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Assyrians,, 
 and other nations which flourished in those ages., 
 and which originally were branches of the Noetic 
 Church. These events are evidently the same 
 as are described in the Grecian mythology, by 
 the two wars waged against heaven by two dif- 
 ferent races of giants, the first called the Titans, 
 and the second, simply the giants.* The first 
 race is described in Scripture by the giants 
 which are said to have existed before the flood, 
 and who are represented as having sprung from 
 the intercourse of the sons of God with the 
 daughters of men : and the second race, though 
 not denominated giants in the Scriptures, are 
 they who undertook the gigantic enterprise of 
 building a tower whose top should reach to 
 heaven, an enterprise very similar to that of 
 scaling heaven by a pile of mountains. By these 
 relations, both the mythological and Scriptural, is 
 not meant that a race of people of enormous 
 stature then existed ; but giants, in the language 
 of Analogy, are they who are great in their own 
 conceit; and such giants as are here spoken of, 
 were they who absolutely looked upon them- 
 selves as deities, arrogating all merit, all good- 
 ness, and all wisdom to themselves, and not 
 allowing that every thing they possessed which 
 was really good was imparted to them by gift 
 and perpetual derivation from the Lord alone. 
 * Sec our third Lecture, p. 204 & 2 1 0. 
 
574 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 In short, the symbol of monstrous giants was 
 adopted, to represent those who fell into such 
 direful persuasions, as to imagine that the Deity 
 had actually transfused himself into them, so as 
 to have no existence independently of them; 
 approximations to which sentiment are to be 
 found in some of the doctrines of the Greek 
 philosophers ; and at this day it lies at the 
 bottom of the religious system of the Hindoos, 
 and has decided affiliations in that of Thibet and 
 China : the origins of all which rise to the highest 
 antiquity. 
 
 Is it not then, we may now ask with confidence, 
 in the highest degree probable, that the early 
 part of Genesis, and the mythological tales which 
 bear so much resemblance to it, relate to the 
 same facts, not in the political and civil, but in 
 the moral and spiritual history of mankind ? that 
 they equally are composed in the general style 
 prevalent in the ages to which they refer ? that 
 neither the one narrative nor the other was ever 
 intended to be understood according to the literal 
 form ? that both are intermixed with such stories 
 as, in the literal sense, are in the highest degree 
 extravagant and incredible, purposely, among 
 their other uses, to intimate to mankind that a 
 common record of facts was not intended? but 
 that the mythological tales, though originally 
 composed by men who possessed a knowledge of 
 interior things and their analogies with natural 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 575 
 
 objects, yet not being communicated by plenary 
 inspiration, have not a spiritual sense, except as 
 to the general circumstances, do not exist in 
 any record which carries a spiritual idea in every 
 expression, and are not always, perhaps, exact 
 representations of the things intended ; whereas, 
 in Genesis, the same occurrences are described in 
 language inspired throughout, and all the re- 
 presentatives are infallibly exact ? 
 
 We may, I trust, now repeat as a certain 
 fact : that this early part of Genesis is written in 
 the language of pure allegory, because it de- 
 scribes the moral history of a people with whom 
 that style of writing was the only one in use ; 
 and because, further, it could not be given in the 
 style of true but representative history, whilst 
 the nation afterwards raised up to sustain the 
 proper representations was not yet in existence ; 
 arid because, finally, these are the only two species 
 of narrative that can be delivered by plenary in- 
 spiration ; from which source, a history of mere 
 facts, containing no internal meaning, never can 
 proceed. 
 
 Now what objection, carrying the smallest 
 weight, can be raised against this view of the 
 subject? I can see none. It solves all difficul- 
 ties, and is, itself, absolutely unattended by any.* 
 Nothing further, then, needs be urged to overturn 
 * See Appendix, No. VII. 
 
576 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 from the foundation that class of Infidel Objec- 
 tions which rejects the Word of God for the alleged 
 contradictions to reason and science to be found 
 in this part of its contents. The literal history 
 was never intended to be understood as such ; it, 
 therefore, can contradict nothing. The ques- 
 tions,, then, respecting the manner arid order in 
 which the world was created, and respecting the 
 vicissitudes which its surface has undergone; 
 whether all the convulsions of which symptoms 
 are apparent in the disposition of its strata, and 
 in the vegetable and animal remains found in its 
 bowels, took place before it was brought into a 
 state fit for the habitation of man, or whether 
 part of the indications have been occasioned by 
 a general deluge which it has undergone since ; 
 are matters which may safely be left for deci- 
 sion to the unfettered progress of science. The 
 Word of God pronounces no dictum upon such 
 subjects : and nothing which Science may ever 
 bring to light respecting them, can, in the slight- 
 est degree, affect the title of the Scriptures to be 
 received as the Word of God. The only bear- 
 ing of all real Science upon the Word of God, 
 is, to point to and confirm its true nature. 
 
 2. The class of infidel objections which we 
 are next to consider, is that which is drawn from 
 apparent contradictions between the various 
 statements made by the sacred writers. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 577 
 
 It is undoubtedly true., as is generally urged 
 by the advocates of Revelation, that the greater 
 part of these admit of a sufficient explanation 
 when the context is fairly considered : but, as 
 was stated in the second Lecture, if there are 
 any which cannot thus be reconciled, it is, be- 
 cause, in such cases, the letter has yielded a little 
 to the weight of the matters contained within ; 
 a slight turn has been given it to make it express 
 more fully the spiritual contents, respecting 
 which alone it is the object of inspiration to 
 impart instruction.* Of this an example was 
 given, and the principle more explicitly deve- 
 loped, in our last Lecture, from the history of 
 Jephthah and his daughter. Though the cir- 
 cumstances related are true, they may not imme- 
 diately exhibit the whole truth, as far as the 
 outward history is concerned. "Just so much 
 is recorded as conveys the true spiritual sense, 
 and no more: and Divine Wisdom, which only 
 regards things eternal, deems it of no moment 
 whatever, if an impression be thus left of tran- 
 sient events different from the true one/'f Ad- 
 mit this principle, (and if we admit that a Reve- 
 lation from God must primarily treat of spiritual 
 subjects, it will be difficult to dispute it,) and we 
 shall find no instances of seeming contradiction 
 which can occasion the smallest embarrassment 
 to the candid inquirer. 
 
 * P. 48, 49. f P. 483, 434, 
 
 4 E 
 
578 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 (1.) In the case, for instance, of the turning 
 of the waters of Egypt into blood, by Moses 
 and Aaron; when it is afterwards said that Cf the 
 magicians did so with their enchantments ;" upon 
 which the Deist asks, When all the water of 
 Egypt was changed before, how could the ma- 
 gicians repeat the operation?* It is here well 
 answered from the letter, that the context shews 
 that water was still attainable for the expe- 
 riment, since we read, two verses below, that 
 <( the Egyptians digged round about the river 
 for water to drink/' If, however, it had been 
 more difficult to account for the manner in which 
 the magicians obtained their water, there still 
 would have been a necessity, to convey the spi- 
 ritual lesson intended, that the narrative should 
 be so framed as to imply in the letter, that all 
 the waters of Egypt were changed into blood 
 by Moses and Aaron, and yet that the magicians 
 performed a like miracle afterwards. The sub- 
 ject here spiritually treated of is respecting the 
 false persuasions which adhere to those who cul- 
 tivate natural science, but oppose themselves to 
 the will of God and the truth of his Word, and 
 respecting the judgments with which they are 
 visited to compel them to desist. The waters of 
 Egypt are all the truths possessed by such per- 
 sons : blood, when considered in any way differ- 
 ent from its proper relation, is the symbol of 
 
 * See the first Lecture, p. 31. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 579 
 
 truth to which violence is done by wresting it 
 from its just application. Moses is the type and 
 representative of that Law or Word which was 
 given by his instrumentality ; and Aaron,, as his 
 prophet, or spokesman, represents the true doc- 
 trine or instruction which that teaches. The 
 miracle, therefore, was performed by them, to 
 indicate, that, before the wicked are finally 
 condemned, their real state, as Divine Truth 
 discovers it, is shewn to them. But fc the ma- 
 gicians did so with their enchantments," to repre- 
 sent how the natural man finds excuses for riot 
 setting his heart to consider the divine judgments 
 when openly displayed before him, referring them 
 to other causes : in fact, the magicians are the 
 proper types of that ingenious mode of reasoning 
 from fallacies, which resolves the most express 
 interferences of Deity into the common opera- 
 tions of nature. The spiritual lesson, surely, is 
 deeply interesting, and the analogies from which 
 it results self-evident : to yield those analogies 
 is the main thing regarded in the construction of 
 the letter : and when matters so weighty are to 
 be expressed, it surely is more important that 
 the language of the sacred history should be 
 such as gives the spiritual contents in all their 
 fulness, than that it should be absolutely free 
 from obscurity in regard to all the minutiae of 
 the literal details! 
 
 But the difficulties in the literal narratives 
 4 E 2 
 
580 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of the Word of God which appear most consi- 
 derable^ to those who do not attend to the pro- 
 per design with which all the narratives of the 
 Word of God are constructed, are those which 
 are presented by the frequently varying accounts 
 of the four Evangelists. 
 
 (2.) The question,, why so many as four authentic 
 Gospels should have been written, has embarrassed 
 not a few inquirers. Many, even of those who 
 have no prejudice against them on account of 
 any part of their contents, would be glad of a 
 plausible pretext for ejecting some of them from 
 the Canon : thus the celebrated Michaelis, enter- 
 taining the common notions of inspiration, re- 
 garding it as a personal and permanent endow- 
 ment, and being at a loss for a certain rule to 
 discriminate between compositions which are in- 
 spired and such as are not, would fain limit the 
 inspiration of the New Testament to the Apos- 
 tles* writings alone: and he intimates that no 
 small advantage would result from accepting 
 Apostleship as the criterion of inspiration, since 
 there would then be but two Gospels which we 
 should be concerned to harmonize.* But if we 
 regard the historical Scriptures as containing 
 throughout a spiritual meaning, and conclude 
 that, where the same general fact is variously 
 related, it is for the sake of teaching the same 
 
 * Introd. by Marsh, Vol. i. Ch. iii. Sec. 3; Vol. iii. Pt, i. 
 Ch. ii. Sees. 4 & 5; CL. vi. Sec. 2, 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 581 
 
 general spiritual lesson with some specific mo- 
 difications ; we shall have no need to wish that 
 the number of inspired books were fewer, or to 
 murmur at their Divine Author for the abun- 
 dance of his benefits. 
 
 The Apostle and Evangelist John concludes 
 his gospel with observing, (f There are also 
 many other things which Jesus did, the which,, if 
 they should be written every one, I suppose that 
 even the world itself could not contain the books 
 that should be written/' This would be an ex- 
 travagant hyperbole indeed, if it referred to the 
 acts of Jesus as they appeared in their simple 
 performance; but it becomes a sober truth, if 
 we understand by it, all that was included and in- 
 volved within the outward appearances. Only let 
 it be acknowledged, or supposed even, that Jesus 
 was Cf the Word" or Divine Truth itself " made 
 flesh*/' thus was God Incarnate; and it follows 
 inevitably, that there must have been an infinity 
 of meaning in every one both of his words and 
 of his actions; and it may be easily conceived, 
 that one mode of narrating them would be in- 
 sufficient for their full representation. 
 
 Perhaps, also, in agreement with that unvary- 
 ing constancy with which all the divine opera- 
 tions follow fixed laws, there may be some di- 
 vine law which rendered it necessary that the 
 Gospels should neither be fewer nor more than 
 
 * John i. 14. 
 
582 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 four: indeed, if inspiration be allowed to them, 
 such must be the fact ; since it were a contra- 
 diction in terms to affirm, that Divine Inspira- 
 tion produced the exact number of four Gospels by 
 chance. It is somewhat remarkable, that we read 
 respecting the <c river which went out of Eden to 
 water the garden," that " from thence it was 
 parted, and became into four heads* :" and it 
 seems possible that the coincidence was not 
 unintentional, which was noticed by an ancient 
 father; that " there were four Evangelists, four 
 rivers of Paradise, four corners and four rings to 
 the ark of the covenantf;" not that the first of 
 these circumstances was the cause of the others, 
 nor even that the others were provided to form 
 types of the first ; but that they all owed their 
 origin to the same general principle; that the 
 same law regulating the descent of divine things 
 into nature, governed the one circumstance as 
 the others. Now, what could the rivers of Para- 
 dise represent, but the streams of truth and wis- 
 dom which nourished the mind of man in his 
 paradisiacal state? And why were there four 
 of them, but because that number expresses ful- 
 ness and abundance ? for it is a number which is 
 used in reference to the four quarters of the 
 world, -the east, west, north, and south, in con- 
 nexion with which it is frequently mentioned in 
 
 * Gen. ii. 10. f Jerome, apud Lardner, vol. xii. p. 82. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 583 
 
 the Scriptures* ; and while each of these, singly, 
 refers to some specific quality, the four together 
 manifestly stand for the whole. So, if the four 
 rivers of Paradise, together, were representa- 
 tive of the truth and wisdom, in all their fulness 
 and abundance, which, in the primeval ages, 
 animated and endowed the human mind; each 
 of them must have been the symbol of some ge- 
 neral class of these graces. What this is, is dis- 
 coverable from the import, in the language of 
 Analogy, of the four quarters, from which the 
 number four draws its signification of fulness. 
 The east, being consideied as the seat of the sun, 
 represents much the same as the sun does,- a 
 state of love, and of the illumination immediate- 
 ly proceeding from love, in its highest intensity; 
 and the west is the same general state in a lower 
 degree : so the south is expressive of a state of 
 intelligence, with its attendant charity, in the 
 highest brightness; and the north of the same as 
 verging towards obscurity. Thus the east and 
 west, and the south and north, are to each other, 
 respectively, as the internal and external of one 
 general principle. If the cardinal points did 
 not bear, in the language of Analogy, which is 
 that of the Word of God, some such meaning, 
 would they be so frequently noticed in that 
 Word; and this even in its prophecies and 
 
 * As when John " saw/owr angels standing on the four cor- 
 nersofthe earthy holding tlicjour winds of the earth." Rev. vii. 1 . 
 
584 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 visions?* Now what if four Gospels were 
 given, describing the history of the birth and 
 ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ,, with a re- 
 ference to these four general states? to be di- 
 vine streams of truth and wisdom,, possessing, 
 respectively, these general qualities? to form 
 the unfailing rivers of the Christian Paradise, 
 the church, supplying to its inhabitants the 
 waters of life? I throw out this suggestion, 
 not as a certain truth, but because, to me, it 
 yields a probable reason for the number of 
 the Gospels, and because it includes ideas, 
 which, as we shall see presently, tend consider- 
 ably to clear up the mystery of their varying 
 statements. To me, also, it appears quite evi- 
 dent, that the obviously distinct characters of 
 the several Gospels tally remarkably with those 
 which this view supposes. Will not all who 
 venerate these sacred narratives confess, that the 
 Gospel of John displays the highest order of the 
 illumination here alluded to, treating more openly 
 of the highest subjects of divine illumination, 
 which are, the true nature and character of Him 
 whose history it relates, and the necessity of love 
 to his name? that the Gospel of Luke, with 
 its sweet delineations of charity, and luminous 
 
 * See Ezekiel's vision of the New Temple, in the last nine 
 chapters of his hook, and John's of the New Jerusalem; Rev. 
 xxi. For the general frequency with which the quarters are- 
 mentioned, see a Concordance. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 585 
 
 statements of so many essential truths, ranks 
 next in clearness? and that those of Matthew 
 and Mark, though fully imbued with the same 
 spirit, treat their subjects in a more external 
 manner, or clothe them with a somewhat thicker 
 veil, and are to the former, respectively, what the 
 north and west are to the south and east ? 
 
 (3.) Supposing there to be any truth in this 
 view of the subject, the reader of the Gospels 
 would expect, that, in recording any transaction, 
 each Evangelist would relate such of the circum- 
 stances attending it as belonged to the proper 
 character of his Gospel, and would omit others : 
 and if there are any cases in which the circum- 
 stances related by different Evangelists are quite 
 incompatible with each other, he would expect 
 further, that the narrative of the facts, as they 
 actually appeared to the senses of the beholders, 
 would most probably be found in one of those 
 Gospels (, Matthew's or Mark's,) which treat the 
 subjects under their most external form ; whilst 
 the seemingly incongruous circumstances, if any, 
 mentioned by the others, equally belong to the 
 transaction, but exhibit the inward state of mind 
 of the parties concerned, which did not manifestly 
 appear in the words or actions actually spoken 
 or performed, but yet were as really present as 
 those words or actions themselves. 
 
 This suggestion may be illustrated in a very 
 familiar manner. Every one knows how fre- 
 
 4 F 
 
586 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 quently the words and actions of persons in so- 
 ciety greatly differ from their inward thoughts 
 and inclinations. To take a rather coarse, but 
 too common example : how often does the greedy 
 expectant of a profitable reversion, express with 
 his lips a great desire for the restoration of the 
 sick possessor's health, while the language of his 
 heart is, cc I wish you were dead, out of the way !" 
 Now, if these words were actually ascribed to him 
 by a narrator who knew the heart, there would be 
 no real contradiction between this account and 
 that of another who reported the language of his 
 tongue : they would both record different parts 
 of the same transaction, and both records would 
 be true, though one of them could have flowed 
 from the pen of none but an inspired writer. 
 This is so obvious an idea, that I remember to 
 have seen it very pleasantly illustrated in a fable 
 for the instruction of youth. The writer imagines 
 the existence of an edifice called the Palace of 
 Truth ; the inmates of which are unconsciously 
 compelled to speak and act according to their 
 real thoughts and inclinations : the consequence 
 is, that they are continually disgusting each 
 other by rudeness of language and demeanour, 
 whilst they fancy themselves to be behaving 
 with perfect good manners, and saying the 
 civilest things imaginable. Who doubts that 
 the universe is, to its Architect, a Palace of Truth, 
 in which the inmost thoughts are as audible as 
 the outward declarations ? 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 58? 
 
 But not only is there frequently this palpable 
 difference between the thoughts and inclinations 
 and the words and actions a difference of which 
 the parties themselves are sensible ; but doubt- 
 less there is much more included within every 
 single idea of thought than comes to the appre- 
 hension of him who conceives it : and if the 
 moving springs from which it arises, with all 
 their complications, were discovered to him, they 
 would sometimes be so different from what he 
 himself suspects, that he would hardly recognise 
 himself in them, though they belonged to the 
 very essence of his distinguishing character. If 
 then these unconscious thoughts and inclinations 
 were actually ascribed to him by the pen of that 
 Omniscience to which they are all known, the 
 picture drawn of him would still be in exact ac- 
 cordance with the reality, though the likeness 
 would not be discernible to a superficial ob- 
 server. 
 
 We now, I apprehend, shall be in possession of 
 the true principles for reconciling the seeming 
 discrepancies of the divinely inspired recorders 
 of the Gospel-history. When circumstances 
 are omitted by one Evangelist which are men- 
 tioned by another, it is, because they belong 
 to a different specific modification of the same 
 general spiritual lesson, and, in fact, to a differ- 
 ent order of Divine Truth, from those which it 
 is within the province of that Evangelist to 
 
598 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 deliver.- When, if ever, the circumstances are 
 such as could not, both,, have outwardly oc- 
 curred, one of them is the expression of the 
 state of mind of the parties, within or above 
 their outward speech and actions : it gives such 
 developements of inward character as would have 
 taken place had the parties been speaking or 
 acting in the Palace of Truth ; and, to carry on 
 the allegory, it belongs, sometimes to the lower 
 and sometimes to the upper stories of that edi- 
 fice, or is more near to, OP more remote from, the 
 actual consciousness of the actors or speakers. 
 
 From theory, let us now descend to facts, and 
 try the application of our principles to the actual 
 relations of the Gospels. 
 
 (4.) A remarkable example of variations, from 
 both these causes, is, I conceive, afforded by 
 the history, as delivered by the four Evan- 
 gelists, of the treatment of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ at his crucifixion, and of his behaviour 
 on the cross. Matthew and Mark, agreea- 
 bly to their office of presenting things as 
 they appeared to the outward observer, and 
 also, as they were perceived by the parties 
 in the lowest and most external sphere of their 
 thoughts and feelings, are very full, especially 
 the former, in the detail of the cruel insults 
 which were heaped upon the Saviour in that 
 dismal scene. They describe all the bitterness 
 of his temptation thence arising, and the seve- 
 rity of his mental as well as body suffering. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 589 
 
 They record his despairing exclamation, "My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me* :" 
 and these, as far as can be gathered from them, 
 were the only words uttered from the cross. 
 Luke, on the contrary, states much less of the 
 aggravating scoffs with which the Redeemer was 
 assailed as he hung, and narrates nothing in his 
 conduct which indicates that the sufferings in- 
 flicted on him engaged much of his attention. 
 According to this Gospel, when going to execu- 
 tion, he says to the mourning women, ( 'Daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for 
 yourselves, and for your children/ 'f Instead of 
 any exclamation of despair upon the cross, we 
 have this effusion of imperturbable confidence: 
 (C Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit^ :" 
 and these, with the encouraging declaration to 
 one of the thieves, and a prayer for his mur- 
 derers, were, as far as can be gathered from 
 this Evangelist, the only words uttered by him 
 in that situation. How plain then is it, that Luke 
 relates the perceptions and feelings of Jesus on 
 this occasion, as they existed in a sphere of his 
 mind above that, the sensations of which are re- 
 corded by Matthew and Mark ; with the words 
 which he spoke from this different order of sen- 
 timents! And still more is this the case with 
 the narrative of John. This seems to describe 
 his feelings in a sphere of his mind to which no 
 * Matt xxvii. 46, Mark xv. 34. i Ch. xxiii. 28. J Ver. 46. 
 
590 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 consciousness whatever of his indignities and 
 sufferings reached. It therefore does not at all 
 notice the insults addressed to him on the cross. 
 He is represented as occupied with no consider- 
 ations whatever which regarded himself. To 
 represent his care of the church, which ever 
 dwells with those of whom " the disciple whom 
 he loved" was a type, "he saith to his mother/' 
 in reference to that disciple, ec Woman, behold 
 thy son !" and to the disciple, who thenceforth 
 took her to his own home, "Behold thy mo- 
 ther !"* To express his ardent desire for man's 
 salvation, and ff that the Scripture might be ful- 
 filled/' he exclaimed, " I thirst/'f And, so far 
 from indicating any feeling bordering upon de- 
 spair, he does not even express any sense of 
 needing support : he does not, even in appear- 
 ance, refer to any Divine Helper out of himself; 
 but, experiencing already a perfect conscious- 
 ness of his union with Divinity, and " knowing 
 that all things were now accomplished" necessary 
 to effect that union, and with it to secure the 
 redemption of mankind, he simply, and with 
 divine composure, says, "It is finished.";}; 
 
 Now though these very different narratives, 
 may not, regarded only as to the letter, be irre- 
 concilable with each other; though it is pro- 
 bable that all the circumstances recorded by 
 each Evangelist did actually occur ; and though 
 * Ch. xix. 26, 27. t Ver. 28. t Ver. 30. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 591 
 
 the very dissimilar speeches related might all ac- 
 tually be spoken : yet every one must see, that 
 the different narratives and the different speeches 
 breathe different feelings, and belong to decidedly 
 different classes of sentiment; which would have 
 been broken and confused had they been jum- 
 bled into one continued discourse, but are pre- 
 served in all their distinctness and beauty, by 
 the wise provision of Providence, that several 
 Gospels should be written. 
 
 (5.) Another striking example of the excel- 
 lence of this arrangement, is afforded by the 
 account of the conduct of the two thieves, as 
 related by Matthew and Mark, and by Luke. 
 
 Without particularly dwelling upon the beha- 
 viour of these unhappy men, Matthew, after 
 mentioning the taunts of the chief priests and 
 scribes, adds, " The thieves also, which were 
 crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth*:" 
 Mark also says, ff And they that were crucified 
 with him reviled himf:" a circumstance deeply 
 aggravatory of the Saviour's sufferings, when 
 he had to endure the insults of the very out- 
 casts of society; and therefore well suited to 
 be introduced in the, Gospels of Matthew and 
 Mark, the nature and design of which necessarily 
 included the insisting upon such details. Luke, 
 however, who does not give so much of the scoffs 
 of the priests and scribes, mentions the reviling 
 * Ch. xxvii. 44. t Ch. xv. 32. 
 
592 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of one of the thieves only,, and this, chiefly, to 
 contrast it with the becoming behaviour of the 
 other: his words are these: " And one of the 
 malefactors which were hanged with him, railed 
 on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself 
 and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, 
 Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the 
 same condemnation? and we indeed justly; for 
 we receive the due reward of our deeds : but this 
 man hath done nothing amiss. And he said 
 unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou com- 
 est into thy kingdom/'* Now whether both 
 these narratives describe things which took place 
 in outward form, just as they are related, or not ; 
 it is certain, that, spiritually, both narratives 
 are true, and that both were necessary for con- 
 veying the spiritual lesson intended. 
 
 Thieves, in the Word, are types of those who 
 deprive others of truths by infusing false and 
 heretical opinions ; as, also, of those who possess 
 the knowledge of truth, but pervert it from its 
 proper object, which is, to lead to a life of good- 
 ness: they likewise represent such as arrogate 
 to themselves what belongs to the Lord. The 
 two thieves, then, are they who act thus, either 
 from a confirmed principle of evil in the will, 
 or from a false principle assumed by the under- 
 standing ; and they thus will represent the Jew 
 and the Gentile world. Both these classes of 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 39 to 42. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, <&C. 593 
 
 spiritual thieves, viewed as to their doctrinal 
 sentiments, reviled the Son of man ; both Jews 
 and Gentiles entertained opinions adverse to 
 the true doctrines of the Word of God : and this 
 is represented by the fact as stated by Matthew 
 and Mark, that " the thieves, also, cast the same 
 in his teeth :" "they that were crucified with 
 him reviled him/' But though both classes thus 
 reviled the Lord externally, it was only with 
 one that the outward conduct proceeded from 
 an internal ground : Luke, therefore, who relates 
 the circumstances as they exist in, or flow from, 
 an interior sphere, ascribes determined malevo- 
 lence to but one of the malefactors : the other, 
 who is the type of those who, like the Gentiles, 
 entertain false sentiments merely from ignorance, 
 and of those who fall into improper conduct 
 because they have not had the advantage of such 
 instruction as would teach them better, when 
 brought, even in this extremity, into the pre- 
 sence of the Son of man, made acquainted 
 with the Truth Itself, feels all the compunction 
 that a conviction of his error and misconduct 
 ought to excite, and solicits the mercy of him 
 whom he is thus brought to know : and because 
 no one in heart can acknowledge the Lord 
 but from some good principle, Jesus answers, 
 <c To-day/' in this state, " thou shalt be with 
 me in paradise." Considered then as represen- 
 tative characters, as the types of two classes 
 
 4 G 
 
594 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 of spiritual thieves,, there evidently is no con- 
 tradiction whatever between the accounts of Mat- 
 thew and Luke : they describe different parts of 
 the same general facts,, and parts so distinct, 
 being those which constitute its external form 
 and its internal, that they could not possibly 
 have been included in the same narrative. And 
 the case will be the same, if, without looking at 
 the thieves as types of general classes, we regard 
 them as individual transgressors of two different 
 characters. Many a one has been led, by untu- 
 tored passions, into excesses which he never de- 
 liberately purposed, and has afterwards been 
 awakened, by the voice of Truth, to the most 
 sincere feelings of remorse. The law may have 
 been so far violated, that the gibbet must expi- 
 ate the offence: but who will affirm that the 
 redeeming feelings in the heart of the sufferer 
 will go for nothing in his final account, though, 
 being beyond the eye of the human judge, they 
 cannot change his doom here? Every criminal 
 act reviles the Son of man : but we cannot posi- 
 tively affirm, of every one who has been hur- 
 ried into the commission of a criminal act, that 
 his heart does the same. The outward conduct, 
 then, of these two characters, in which they ap- 
 peared similar to each other, is described by 
 Matthew and Mark, and their inward state, in 
 which they were dissimilar, by Luke. 
 
 Seeing then the spiritual reason for the varia- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 595 
 
 tion of these narratives is so evident, and the 
 spiritual lessons they inculcate are so com- 
 pletely satisfactory ; to know, how far the facts 
 mentioned by Matthew and Luke appeared ma- 
 nifestly before the spectators of the scene, be- 
 comes a matter of perfect indifference. It may 
 be true, as some of the commentators suppose, 
 that both the Gospels relate facts as they hap- 
 pened; that both the thieves at first joined in 
 blasphemous language, but that afterwards one 
 repented, and behaved as stated by Luke : sup- 
 posing it were so, the view we have offered above 
 clearly explains why neither Evangelist states 
 both facts : to have done this, would have confused 
 the spiritual sense, and would have been a devi- 
 ation from the proper character of his Gospel. 
 It may be true, again, that Luke alone relates 
 the facts as they happened, and that the penitent 
 thief never reviled with the other : and in this 
 case, whether we suppose, with most of the 
 critics, that Matthew and Mark, who say, " the 
 thieves," and " they" loosely, and not " both the 
 thieves," and " both of them/' emphatically, use 
 the plural number for the singular by the gram- 
 matical figure called enallage (of which they 
 produce several examples) ; or whether we con- 
 clude that they were really ignorant of the differ- 
 ent circumstances recorded by Luke; we still see, 
 as before, that there is no mistake in the matter, 
 and that the spiritual sense of the whole tran- 
 
 4 G 2 
 
596 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 saction would have been mutilated had not both 
 records of it been made. Or, finally., the out- 
 wardly apparent circumstances might only have 
 been those given by Matthew and Mark ; either, 
 positively, both thieves did revile, or this might 
 be said because one of theai, though silent, gave 
 no outward indication of dissent from the con- 
 duct of the other; and still it may be perfectly 
 true that the language of their heart was that 
 given by Luke, though what this spoke, in the 
 penitent, was only audible to him to whom all 
 hearts are known : if, however, such sentiments 
 were there actually heard by Him, he did not 
 make one Evangelist contradict another, when 
 he caused him to give them an open tongue. One 
 or other of these three solutions must be the 
 true one; which, is to us of no moment whatever : 
 and it is plain from either of them, that the Gos- 
 pels are not here really at variance, but only 
 relating different parts of the same transaction, 
 which all belonged to it with equal truth. 
 
 We mentioned, in our first Lecture, two of 
 the other seeming difficulties on which infidel 
 writers have founded objections ; and as, though 
 solvable upon the same principles, they rather 
 differ in kind from those just considered, it may 
 be expected that we shall not dismiss them with- 
 out specific notice. 
 
 (6.) The first of these is the circumstance, 
 that in the history of the temptation of Jesus 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 597 
 
 in the wilderness,, as delivered by Matthew* and 
 by Lukef, there is an inversion of the order of 
 two of the principal facts; the first Evangelist 
 making the devil set the Saviour on a pinnacle 
 of the temple., before he shews him, from a high 
 mountain, all the kingdoms of the world; whereas, 
 Luke places this latter circumstance before the 
 other. Regarded as a record of outward facts, 
 there must here be allowed to exist a difficulty ; 
 but there will remain none at all when it is ad- 
 mitted, that to communicate information re- 
 specting the same general spiritual fact is the 
 main design in both narratives; but that this 
 general fact includes two leading branches, one 
 of which is represented by one Evangelist, and 
 the other by the other. 
 
 It must here be observed, that all the circum- 
 stances of this temptation prove strongly the 
 generally spiritual nature of the Gospel-history, 
 and evince that it treats of spiritual subjects 
 under natural representatives. For who can 
 imagine that Jesus Christ, as to his person, was 
 thus at the disposal of the devil ? was personally 
 transported by him from the wilderness to a high 
 mountain, and thence to the summit of the temple 
 in (f the holy city ?" or that, to effect the tempta- 
 tion, Satan shewed himself in proper form, and 
 carried it on by actual colloquy? And where could 
 the mountain be found, so " exceeding high/' 
 * Ch. iv. 1 to 11, t Oh. iv. 1 to 13. 
 
598 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 that from the top of it might be seen,, by any 
 optics., " all the kingdoms of the world?" Some 
 of the critics would surmount this difficulty, by 
 wishing us to believe,, that the world, here, only 
 means the land of Judaea: but how will the 
 phrase,, " all the kingdoms of the world/' apply 
 to this little speck of it? Doubtless,, then, it was 
 in spirit, and in vision, that these things were 
 presented to the Saviour's perceptions; just as 
 Ezekiel was transported "in the visions of God 
 to Jerusalem*/' and as John also was " carried 
 away in the spirit to a great and high moun- 
 tain, "f Thus the transaction, being altogether 
 a spiritual one, must bear, in all its circumstances, 
 a spiritual signification. 
 
 A mountain is a symbol, in the Scriptures, of 
 an exalted state of love, either heavenly or in- 
 fernal : to be incited, thence, to desire the pos- 
 session of all the kingdoms of the world, is to be 
 tempted with the lust of self-aggrandizement, 
 either as regards the monopoly of all power, or of 
 all wealth, or of both : to be set upon the pin- 
 nacle of the temple, and thence incited to do a 
 rash act that includes the persuasion of possessing 
 divine power, is to be tempted by a still more 
 extravagant species of the lust of power, what 
 may be called the ecclesiastical thirst for do- 
 minion, that which aims at sovereignty over 
 men's souls as well as their bodies. But the ill- 
 * Ezek. viii. 3. t Rev. xxi. 10. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 599 
 
 timate end which is proposed by any passion 
 that sways the human breast, is what determines 
 its positive quality. There doubtless have been 
 Popes and Grand Lamas, who, in arrogating do- 
 minion over the souls of men, have made this pre- 
 tension and lust subservient to the desire of tem- 
 poral power and wealth : the latter have been their 
 supreme objects of regard; and the former has been 
 valued as a means to the attainment of these ends. 
 These then have yielded to the suggestions of 
 Satan, as they are represented by Matthew. 
 Other occupants of the pontifical thrones of 
 Rome and of Lassa, have unquestionably been 
 possessed, as their ruling aim and object, with 
 the lust of spiritual domination, and have 
 grasped at temporal power and wealth as calcu- 
 lated to promote it: These then have adopted 
 the persuasions of the devil, as they are arranged 
 by Luke. Thus, while it is perfectly evident 
 that there exist these two general kinds of the 
 lust of domination, it appears no less certain, 
 that each of them undergoes a modification, as 
 it is made subservient, or paramount, to the 
 other. This is even indicated by the Evan- 
 gelists in the minute distinctions of their lan- 
 guage: thus Luke, who represents the appetite 
 for temporal power and wealth as subservient 
 to the ecclesiastical lust, calls the symbol of the 
 state, simply a. "high mountain;" whilst Matthew, 
 who exhibits it as predominant, exalts its symbol 
 
600 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 into "an exceeding high mountain/' Now it can- 
 not be doubted,, since the Saviour cc was in all 
 points tempted as we are*/* was made sensible,, 
 in the human part of his constitution,, of the 
 strongest instigations to every evil that ever 
 beset the most corrupt child of Adam ; that the 
 tempter injected the propensity to both these 
 general evils in both these states of their de- 
 velopement. But the only way,, in the language 
 of analogies, in which the two forms of them 
 could be described, was, by placing the repre- 
 sentatives of them before, and after, each other, 
 respectively. To have done this in the same 
 narrative would have appeared a strange tauto- 
 logy; neither would it have expressed the order 
 of their manifestation or existence, the one abid- 
 ing within, or occupying a more interior sphere 
 than, the other. Therefore the symbolic descrip- 
 tion of each is given in a separate book: arid as 
 Matthew's Gospel treats of things in their more 
 exterior, and Luke's in their more interior deve- 
 lopements, therefore, in agreement with the res- 
 pective characters of the narratives, the more 
 exterior and superficial developement of these 
 direful evils forms the subject of the temptation 
 as described by the first Evangelist; while the 
 latter represents them in their more interior 
 form, and opens, in its still deeper recesses, 
 their diabolical nature. 
 
 * Hcb. iv. 15. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 601 
 
 (7.) The only other case which we have to 
 notice,, is that in which Matthew cites a text, as 
 from the prophet Jeremiah, which is only to be 
 found in the book of Zechariah t he gives it thus: 
 "" Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 
 Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the 
 thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was 
 valued, whom they of the children of Israel did 
 value, and gave them for the potter's field ; as 
 the Lord appointed me/'* In an ordinary writer, 
 this certainly would argue strange negligence: 
 but what if, occurring where it does, it affords 
 a positive argument for the Evangelists plenary 
 inspiration? What if it should be absolutely 
 impossible for a writer whose pen was irresisti- 
 bly guided by the Spirit of God, to cite these 
 words, how well soever he might know that he 
 had read them in Zechariah, without ascribing 
 them to Jeremiah? Such, I apprehend, will rea- 
 dily appear to be the fact. And indeed, how is 
 it possible that the change of name could have 
 originated in mistake? Is it credible that Matthew 
 could know so little of the Scriptures as to be 
 ignorant in what book the words were extant? 
 And if so monstrous an improbability might for 
 a moment be supposed, is it imaginable that, 
 among those to whom he first communicated his 
 Gospel, there was none who possessed sufficient 
 knowledge of the ancient Word, with which 
 * Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. Comp. Zech. xi. 12, 13. 
 4 H 
 
602 PLENARY INSPIRATION OP 
 
 every Jew was familiar from his cradle, to inform 
 him of the erratum'! Really the difficulties of 
 conceiving it to be an unintended error, are 
 greater than those of supposing that it was a 
 dictate from the Spirit of God : they indeed are 
 such as directly point to this conclusion. And 
 in this we shall find an easy and natural solution 
 of the whole seeming inconsistency. 
 
 If the Word of God be the Word of God 
 indeed, it is a mere truism to affirm, that the 
 Spirit which dictated it cannot possibly regard 
 it as the work of men: consequently, that Spirit 
 can never mean to ascribe any of its books to 
 the men whose names they bear. Every prophet 
 who was commissioned to deliver any portion of 
 the Word of God, became, ipso facto, a repre- 
 sentative type of the Word of God itself; spe- 
 cifically, of that portion of it which he was the 
 instrument of writing. Now every such portion 
 of it has a distinctive character of its own, more 
 or less obviously discriminated. So plain is 
 this, in some instances, as to have become pro- 
 verbial: thus Isaiah is commonly called the 
 evangelical prophet, on account of his open an- 
 nunciations of the incarnation of the Lord and 
 his advent in the flesh ; and Jeremiah is popularly 
 denominated the weeping prophet, for his pathetic 
 lamentations over the fall and utter corruption 
 of the Jewish Church, and its rejection and mal- 
 treatment of the Word of God, in its personal 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 603 
 
 type, the prophet himself, and in its still plainer 
 type, the roll of inspired writing which Jehoiakim 
 committed to the flames.* When therefore a 
 prophet is cited by name in the inspired writings, 
 it is not that prophet, personally, that was in the 
 mind of the Spirit of God ; nor even the specific 
 book which bears his name: but his name is used 
 as a symbol of all that portion of Scripture 
 which is of the same character as belongs, gene- 
 rally, to the writings of the prophet named, 
 whether occurring in his book or in any other. 
 Usually, indeed, it cannot but happen, that the 
 passage quoted is in the book of the prophet who 
 stands as the type of that species of divine com- 
 position which distinguishes his own writings: 
 but where occasion occurs for citing a passage of 
 a different character from that which belongs, 
 in general, to the book in which it is found, and 
 of the same as belongs to another principal pro- 
 phet, Divine Inspiration, which regards the in- 
 trinsic qualities of things and not merely their 
 external circumstances, adduces the quotation 
 in the name of the latter prophet instead of the 
 former. Of this, indeed, only this one instance 
 occurs: it cannot, therefore, be illustrated by 
 other examples : but this one itself is admirably 
 illustrative of the principle, and points to it with 
 a clearness which it were difficult to overlook. 
 The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, we have noticed, 
 
 * See Ch. xxxvi. 
 
604 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 though a real character, is a striking personifi- 
 cation of that species of Divine Truth,, or of 
 that portion of the Divine Word, which treats 
 of the utter corruption of the Jewish Church, 
 and its maltreatment of the Word : the latter is 
 precisely the character of the divine declaration 
 which is here cited as from him ; it treats of the 
 low estimation in which the Word was at this 
 time held by the Jews,, who hoped to have pur- 
 chased of Judas the power of destroying its 
 actual personification, the Word incarnate. And 
 whilst this passage is so decidedly of the same 
 character as distinguishes the writings of Jere- 
 miah, it as evidently does not at all belong 
 to the general character of the book of Ze- 
 chariah, which is mostly composed in a cheering 
 strain, and dwells more upon the restoration 
 of the church, and her glorious state in con- 
 sequence of receiving the Lord as the Word, 
 than of her previous debasement and infide- 
 lity. The two subjects are nearly connected 
 together, since the one event follows the 
 other; and hence the prophets seldom dwell 
 long upon the desolation of the church and her 
 rejection of the Lord, without some reference to 
 her restoration and her reception of him : but 
 the one subject constitutes the predominant topic 
 of Jeremiah, and the other of Zechariah: where- 
 fore the Spirit of Inspiration designates the state- 
 nierits which even Zechariah delivers on the 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 605 
 
 former subject,, by the name of its proper type,, 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 Surely I may be allowed to say, how satis- 
 factory,, and how beautiful, is this explanation! 
 It is a perfectly easy solution of a difficulty,, 
 which,, upon every other theory, is insurmount- 
 able.* But from our system it flows unforced; 
 and not only so, but as a natural and necessary 
 result. May we not then assume, that both the 
 solution arid the system must indubitably be 
 true? 
 
 The Doctrine that the Sacred Scriptures every 
 where contain a spiritual sense, for the sake of 
 conveying which the letter is constructed, with 
 a knowledge of the just mode of decyphering it 
 by the Doctrine of Representation and Analogy, 
 will solve every other seeming contradiction in 
 the statements of the inspired writers. To exa- 
 mine, in this manner, all the passages in the Gos- 
 pels which appear contradictory, would consti- 
 tute a work of much interest: but our design in 
 the present work is, simply to lay down the prin- 
 
 * It is affirmed by some, that Jeremiah is named instead 
 of Zechariah, because he anciently stood first in the copies 
 of the prophets, and so might be taken as a name for them 
 all: but that there is no authority for such an assertion, is 
 sufficiently shewn iii the Appendix, No. II. p. xix. Others 
 consider the name of Jeremiah to be an accidental interpo- 
 lation ; but certainly it were such an interpolation as it could 
 never come into the head of any scribe to make. 
 
606 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 ciples upon which they are to be solved, and 
 to illustrate the applicability of the theoiy to 
 the facts, by such examples as might be ne- 
 cessary for that purpose. This may now have 
 been done. And I trust that it cannot but be 
 seen, that varying statements, proceeding from 
 inspired pens, may all equally be true, and may 
 detail circumstances which equally belong to the 
 same transaction, though sometimes, possibly, to 
 such parts of it as were beyond the ken of ordi- 
 nary observation, and could have been known to 
 none but inspired writers. Of their inspiration, 
 then, such circumstances, fairly interpreted, 
 actually become evidences. Thus in this case, 
 as in every other, the system of interpretation 
 which we propose, wrests the weapons of the 
 infidel out of his hands, and makes them assist 
 in demonstrating the divinity of the Scriptures. 
 
 3. On the Class of Objections which are drawn 
 from the imperfect morality of some of the dis- 
 tinguished characters of the Israelitish Church, 
 little needs be added, after the view given of the 
 design of the calling of that people, and of the 
 nature of their history, in our last Lecture. 
 
 (1.) Admit the Israelites to have been chosen 
 merely to represent the subjects belonging to the 
 church ; and consider all the persons distinguished 
 among them as representative characters only; 
 and all difficulties arising from the questionable 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 607 
 
 morality of some of them immediately disappear. 
 We then see, how the record may be essentially 
 the Word of God, notwithstanding the craft im- 
 puted to the immediate founder of the nation, 
 their adherence to eastern manners in regard to 
 the intercourse of the sexes, and the acts of 
 violence and treachery which several of their 
 heroes and heroines scrupled not to commit. 
 Some of these might perhaps be allowable ac- 
 cording to the laws of nations that prevailed in 
 those distant ages : but still they were such as 
 could not, themselves, have been agreeable to 
 the divine will, or have been practised by persons 
 who were the subjects of a spiritual dispensation. 
 The slaughter, noticed in our first Lecture, of 
 Eglon by Ehud, though effected under fair pre- 
 tences, and thus by treachery, was indeed no 
 more than would have been done, and gloried 
 in, by the most illustrious heroes of Greece and 
 Rome, among whom tyrannicide, by whatever 
 means accomplished, was deemed highly meri- 
 torious: but it may be doubted whether any 
 national opinions or customs would justify the 
 still more insidious act of Jael. What then ? 
 Does this prove that the book in which they are 
 recorded is not the Word of God ? Far from it. 
 It only proves that the Jews were not the sub- 
 jects of a real church, possessing inward prin- 
 ciples of life arid grace, but only of the type of a 
 church, of a dispensation which symbolized 
 
608 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 spiritual things by external acts, the performers 
 of which might be far from any participation of 
 spiritual feelings. 
 
 (2.) How heavenly things might be occasion- 
 ally represented even by acts of violence, has been 
 shewn at large in the last Lecture : and when 
 this is seen, every objection which the infidel 
 can raise against the divine origin of the Scrip- 
 tures on this ground, is entirely surmounted. 
 We also see how greatly they err, who propose 
 the exploits of the Jewish worthies, in their 
 outward form, as things for the imitation of 
 Christians ; a principle which^ at various pe- 
 riods, has been adopted by fanatics, who have 
 perpetrated the greatest outrages under its sanc- 
 tion. The crimes of the Old-Testament saints, 
 as they are considered, have, likewise, always 
 formed the main bulwark of Antinomianisrn ; 
 which hence has invented the profane sentiment, 
 that the saints are often permitted to fall into 
 great sins, to convince them that salvation is by 
 faith only, and to make them more illustrious 
 examples of the sovereignty of grace. But when 
 David, for instance, is no longer considered as 
 the pattern of a saint, but as the type of one, there 
 is an end to the pretended sanction of lust and 
 cruelty, drawn, and which I have myself known 
 to be drawn and openly avowed, from some of 
 his actions. The worst parts of his conduct will 
 then only be viewed as symbolizing the dis- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 609 
 
 covery which must be made to the highly gra- 
 duated Christian, to become the ground of his 
 humility and self-abhorrence, of the tendencies 
 to evil which lurk in the recesses of his heart; 
 not as intimating that he may appropriate and 
 practise sucb evils, and hope for impunity. This 
 will be perfectly evident, if we consider, for a 
 moment, who that Saint or Holy One specifically 
 is, of whom David was eminently a type. 
 
 This king of Israel is allowed, in his 
 highest reference, to be a type of the cc King of 
 saints*/' the Lord Jesus Christ. But, he, it is 
 admitted by all, though <f in all points tempted 
 as we are," yet was tf without sin."f Sin is 
 evil appropriated in the will and thought, and 
 brought, when convenient opportunity serves, into 
 act. Jesus was ff without sin :" how then could 
 David, in his fall, be a type of him? Because, 
 though never was the slightest evil appropriated 
 by the Redeemer in will, thought, or act, but 
 always instantly rejected with a " Get thee hence, 
 Satan J ;" yet, in the nature taken by him from the 
 human mother, were, before it was renewed by 
 spiritual conflicts, the same tendencies as belong 
 to ordinary humanity: As the Apostle declares, 
 " In all things it behoved him to be made like 
 unto his brethren^ :" and since, in the nature 
 taken from the mother, the likeness was so com- 
 plete, ff we have not a high priest who cannot 
 * Rev. xv. 3. f Heb. iv. 15. { Matt. iv. 10. Heb. ii. 17. 
 
610 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."* 
 Had it been otherwise, it would have been impos- 
 sible for Hell to have approached him with tempt- 
 ations, and thus the great end of his coming 
 would have been defeated ; which, according to 
 the same Apostle, was, "that through death he 
 might destroy him that had the power of death, 
 that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through 
 fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage. "f The death he underwent included, 
 not only the death of the material frame, but of 
 every principle of his constitution which partook 
 of human infirmity, and which presented an im- 
 pediment to his returning to perfect union with 
 his Father; and this death he was undergoing 
 through the whole period of his life: "I have a 
 baptism to be baptized with; and how am I 
 straitened till it be accomplished '."J The fall 
 of David, then, represented, not the falling into 
 sin of Him who was "without sin," but the deep 
 temptations undergone by him, from the action 
 of "him that had the power of death" upon those 
 principles of human nature appertaining to him 
 which were susceptible of the influence: the re- 
 morse and penitence of David typified the utter 
 rejection, by Jesus, of every thing in his nature 
 which could be susceptible of such an excitement; 
 and David's restoration to divine favour, the 
 renewal of the Lord's human nature, and of every 
 principle in it, by communication from his divine. 
 * Ch. iv. 15. f Ch. ii. 14, 15. | Luke xii. 50. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 611 
 
 Now how could the perceptions and feelings 
 which must have been experienced by Jesus dur- 
 ing the suffering of this inward process, be other- 
 wise represented, than by a detail of correspond- 
 ing outward acts? And what could those out- 
 ward acts which were positively sinful typify, in 
 regard to Him who was without sin, but his expe- 
 rimental discovery, that the tendencies to it were 
 inherent in that human nature of which he had 
 become a partaker, and which in him, as in us, 
 was to be "made perfect through sufferings?"* 
 For he, also, "learned obedience by the things 
 which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he 
 became the Author of eternal salvation unto all 
 them that obey him/'f 
 
 What then is the doctrine taught by this 
 part of the history of David, to the Christian? 
 What but this? that he has iu his nature the 
 seeds of the evils which in David proceeded to 
 such flagitious acts. And what is the practical 
 lesson taught by this part of David's conduct, 
 viewing him as the type of a saint, and decypher- 
 ing the type by comparing it with the known 
 Antitype, the king of saints? that it is excu- 
 sable in the Christian, because he has the seeds 
 of such evils in his nature, to adopt them in his 
 will, or thought, or act, as was done by the type ? 
 No ! but that, like the great Antitype, who alone 
 is his pattern, he is to engage in conflict with 
 * Heb. ii. 10. f Ch. v. 8, 9. 
 
 4 i 2 
 
612 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 them within; to reject them as soon as lie is made 
 sensible of their existence in his breast; and to 
 seek from above for that renewal of the heart, 
 which,, far from favouring the least tendency to 
 evil, delights in nothing but goodness and purity. 
 This is the real use which is to be made by the 
 Christian of the history of David. Referred to his 
 acknowledged chief Antitype,, it becomes intel- 
 ligible at once. We are to study him as a type, 
 not as an example, and are to take for our ex- 
 ample the Antitype alone. Accordingly, the 
 Lord never says to his disciples, " Follow David/' 
 but, continually, " Follow me."* 
 
 Under such views of the Word of God as these, 
 what becomes of the blasphemous imputation of 
 its encouraging immorality? 
 
 (4.) With regard to the charge of Insigni- 
 ficence, brought against great part of the Word 
 of God, it cannot now be necessary to say a 
 syllable. When it is seen that every part of the 
 Sacred Records is profoundly significant, and 
 that the most apparently trifling ceremonies^ 
 directions, and statements, include representations 
 of things of all others the most important to 
 immortal beings; the imputation against them 
 of Insignificance comes with the same weight, 
 as would attend a decree, censuring the structure 
 of the universe, and pronouncing the unimport- 
 * Mat. iv. 19; viii. 22; ix. 9; xvi. 24; xix. 21 ; &c. 
 
7 Bit SI 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. ^B13 
 
 ^x^j 1 -- u^u 
 
 ance of the stars, issued by a conclave of 
 moles. 
 
 After this view of the bearing of all Infidel 
 objections against the Word of God as rightly 
 understood, may it not be assumed as certain, 
 that all such objections arise from taking a 
 merely superficial view of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, and^from an utter ignorance of their true 
 nature? 
 
 May 1, then, now hope, that the affirmation 
 made in the first Lecture* will be considered as 
 made good ? Does it not clearly appear, that to 
 adduce from such considerations as are urged 
 by Deisls an argument against the divine inspi- 
 ration of the Scriptures, is entirely to mistake 
 the whole nature of the case ? Is it not evident, 
 that the argument thence deduced falls to the 
 ground of itself, as soon as the true nature of 
 the Word of God is seen, and the design is 
 regarded with which it was given to mankind ? 
 In short, is it not a fact, that a view of the true 
 nature of the Divine Word overturns from the 
 foundation the whole fabric of Infidel Objec- 
 tions? that it takes the ground on which the 
 Infidel stands in making his objections, entirely 
 away from under his feet? 
 
 III. But although the objections of Infidels 
 avail nothing whatever against the Word of God, 
 
 * Page 41. 
 
614 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 as it is in itself, they are not so contemptible 
 when urged against the views of it which com- 
 monly prevail. They afford no argument at all 
 when advanced to prove that the Scriptures have 
 no origin in Divine Authority; but they yield 
 an irrefragable one when applied,, as they only 
 ought to be applied, to evince that the Scriptures 
 must contain much more in their bosom than is 
 extant on the surface. 
 
 On this subject, then, I fain would address an 
 earnest appeal to all Christian advocates, and 
 to all the portion of the Christian world in ge- 
 neral, who adhere to the merely literal interpre- 
 tation. I would say to them, with all respect, 
 Consider, my brethren, whose zeal in the cause 
 of what you believe to be the truth I venerate, 
 and who, I doubt not, are actuated by a sincere 
 desire to uphold the credit of the Word of God, 
 how much you compromise that credit, when 
 you affirm, (as we have seen is now so generally 
 the case,) that the Scriptures are every where 
 to be understood according to the letter alone; 
 that no spiritual sense is to be looked for, unless, 
 perchance, in those passages where it is expressly 
 referred to in the New Testament ; that the in- 
 spiration by which they were written, so far from 
 being plenary, and dictating the very words to 
 the writers, did not even secure them from any 
 but <e material errors/' It is true, probably, 
 that you have adopted these views of the Scrip- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 615 
 
 tares,, from disgust at the absurdities and abo- 
 minations which have formerly been advanced, 
 drawn, as was pretended, from their spiritual 
 sense: but are you sure, that while you thus flee 
 from a Imn, you have not been met by a bear?* 
 Is the literal sense attended with no difficulties ? 
 and is the abiding, simply, by it, an unfailing 
 preservative from all delusion and error? Are 
 not some of the greatest delusions, such as have 
 just been noticed of the Antinomians and other 
 fanatics, the offspring of the separated letter 
 alone ? Assuredly, then, even if, by embracing 
 such ideas of the Word of God, you afforded no 
 advantage to the enemies of religion, you de- 
 prive your own souls of great benefits, and 
 expose yourselves to very serious mistakes. 
 
 But when, by thus binding the understanding 
 to the letter alone, you give so great odds to our 
 Deistical and other adversaries, and so encumber 
 the Christian cause with difficulties not its own, 
 as to render it, in the eye of reason, almost un- 
 tenable ; how serious indeed does the mischief 
 become! The objections, for example, which 
 are urged from the literal sense of the beginning 
 of Genesis, are fully demonstrative against the 
 credibility of that sense taken alone: they thus, 
 as we have seen, point to the real divinity of the 
 
 * Amos v. 19. The lion, when mentioned in a bad sense, 
 is the symbol of such false persuasions as arise from the per- 
 version of the interiors of the Word ; the bear, of such as result 
 from abiding by the letter alone, without understanding it. 
 
616 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 Word, by pointing to a spiritual sense : why 
 then give them a direction, which, without 
 abating an atom of their force, makes them 
 fatal to the divinity of the Word altogether? 
 The whole style of the narration in those chap- 
 ters is such as might satisfy any one, that the 
 literal sense is not that which is intended. Many 
 circumstances are introduced which are clearly 
 designed, among their other uses, to demonstrate, 
 that a spiritual sense only is what is proposed. 
 In what a situation, then, is the modest inquirer 
 placed, when he is told, that he must either give 
 his faith to incredibilities which bear palpable 
 marks that they were intended to be regarded as 
 incredibilities, or must reject the record alto- 
 gether! Any one who believes in a God, may 
 believe that, on occasions sufficiently important, 
 a miracle may be performed, a deviation may 
 take place from the customary proceedings of 
 nature; and he will not reject a narration assum- 
 ing to be divine for affirming such facts: but the 
 marvels of the first chapters of Genesis are not 
 delivered as miracles, but as things in the com- 
 mon course of events ; and the most extraor- 
 dinary of them, the talking of the serpent, 
 if it is to be taken as a miracle, was wrought, not 
 by the hand of God, but of Satan ; of whom, ne- 
 vertheless, not a word is said in the letter. To 
 insist then that the literal sense is here to be be- 
 lieved ; and not only so, is all that is to be 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 617 
 
 believed ; if it is not crucifying the Son of man 
 afresh, is delivering him,, bound, into the hands 
 of Pilate and his soldiers, to be by them mocked, 
 and scourged, and crucified. The infidel, amid 
 his scoffs, may now quote in extenuation the 
 divine declaration, (e He that hath delivered me 
 unto thee, hath the greater sin/'* Indeed, the 
 literal interpreters ascribe such absurdities to the 
 letter of the Word as are not to be found in it : 
 for, as has been well remarked* the Sacred Nar- 
 rative does not, with these interpreters, refer the 
 cause of the fall to the eating of the produce of 
 any sort of natural fruit-tree whatever. But when 
 Condorcet ridicules Christianity for imputing the 
 origin of evil to Eve's eating an apple ; if he were 
 asked where he learned this, when the Sacred 
 Record says nothing of a tree that bore apples or 
 any such fruit, but calls it " the tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil," thus plainly intimating 
 that a spiritual, not a natural tree is signified ; he 
 might answer in excuse, ft The orthodox told 
 me so:" and Voltaire might make the same 
 apology for his jests upon Eve's idle a tdte with 
 the serpent. How much better was the chance 
 which Christianity stood with her adversaries, 
 when Origen could reproach Celsus with dissem- 
 bling what he could not but know, that the 
 whole history is an allegory, and was so consi- 
 dered by those whom he was attacking ! Were 
 
 * John xix. 11. 
 4 K 
 
618 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 this the unanimous confession of Christians now, 
 what modern Celsus would think of again level- 
 ling the shafts of ridicule, thus deprived of their 
 point? Before he could find a butt to aim at, 
 he must, like Bolingbroke, change sides with 
 modern Christian advocates, arid prove, what 
 they have laboured at so long, that the literal sense 
 is what we are here to abide by : and as the proof 
 of this would be as impossible to him as to them, 
 this part of the Word of God would stand for 
 ever invulnerable to his assaults. 
 
 The difficulties under which the Christian ad- 
 vocate labours in defending the Scriptures, by 
 their literal sense alone, from the charge of con- 
 tradictions, are not, perhaps, quite so great; but 
 still they are such as ought to convince him of the 
 necessity of recurring to higher views of the sub- 
 ject. I wish not to detract from the usefulness 
 of the harmonists; though 1 think that no one 
 can ever have read what is called a Harmony of 
 the Gospels, combining their respective narra- 
 tives into one, without feeling himself in a maze 
 of confusion, the consequence of its jumbling 
 together things which Infinite Wisdom provided 
 and intended should be kept distinct. 1 acknow- 
 ledge, however, the validity of some of the solu- 
 tions of seeming contradictions drawn out of the 
 literal sense alone: but in general, I think, it 
 must be allowed, that to seal that validity, and 
 entitle it to pass without dispute, higher inter- 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 619 
 
 pretations must be joined with them: for though 
 the solutions drawn from the letter alone, in 
 many instances may be true, a reason is still 
 wanting why the appearance of a contradiction 
 should exist, why the direct literal interpreta- 
 tion should often be such as to involve a contra- 
 diction. It must be allowed, too, after all, that 
 many of the solutions attempted to be drawn 
 from the letter alone, so desperately torture it to 
 wring them out, that, where doubt has once 
 entered, they can never expel it. Your very 
 friends confess this. " The violent methods," 
 says Michaelis, " which have been used to re- 
 concile the accounts of Mark and Luke with 
 those of the other Evangelists, and the insupera- 
 able difficulty which has hitherto attended the 
 harmony of the Gospels, have cast a dark shade 
 on our religion, and the truth and simplicity of 
 its history have been almost buried under the 
 weight of explanations."* Why then, my bre- 
 thren, not accept the views which alone can 
 satisfactorily remove all difficulty? Why present 
 the Scripture as a jewel of agate, carved in such 
 a manner as is little suited for ornament, and yet 
 insist that its value consists in its outside appear- 
 ance alone ; when the reasons of its peculiarity of 
 form would immediately appear, were it known, 
 that it was made to open, and that its singular 
 shape arose from its exact adaptation to hold 
 
 * Jntrod. Vol. i. CU. iii. Sec. 3. 
 4 R 2 
 
620 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and preserve the rubies and diamonds which 
 glow within ? Why allow the world to condemn 
 as flaws, what are merely the junctures, designed 
 to lead the examiner from the surface to the 
 contents ? 
 
 But again : Most certainly, none but such views 
 as we have offered of the nature of the Israelit- 
 ish dispensation, can meet the objections of the 
 Deist on the score of the immoral conduct, and 
 the acts of wrong and outrage, committed by 
 those who, if we refuse to look beyond the letter, 
 were the personal favourites of heaven. You deny, 
 (most of you,) a typical character to any persons 
 or actions which are not expressly recognised in 
 that capacity, in the New Testament. You deny 
 then such a character to Jael and her slaughter 
 of Sisera: then how justify or excuse them? 
 It is in vain to say, as some have done, that 
 this was a transaction for which the performer 
 alone was accountable, it not being owned 
 by the God of the Scriptures; whereas, as no- 
 ticed in our first Lecture, it is expressly eulo- 
 gized by the voice of prophecy. With what 
 sort of feelings do you read of a woman's 
 killing her guest in his sleep, while you believe 
 that it was the act itself, and not something 
 represented by it, which was really agreeable 
 to him who hath said, " Thou shalt not kill ?" 
 Beautiful and impressive docs the narrative be- 
 come, when we read in it the manner in which 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 621 
 
 wicked persons of the specific character repre- 
 sented by Sisera, endeavour to escape detection, 
 by lurking behind the assumed appearance of 
 that species of good of which Jael is the type; 
 and how, when they have thus filled up the mea- 
 sure of their iniquity by adding hypocrisy to 
 their other vices, they sink into a merely natural 
 state, of which sleep is the symbol, and thence 
 pass, unconsciously, into complete spiritual 
 death; nailed to the earth, to earth-born feel- 
 ings, for ever. Jael is thus seen as the repre- 
 sentative of goodness of a genuine kind, which 
 does not suffer itself to be prostituted by being 
 made a cover to vice. Here is something on which 
 the divine approbation cannot but rest : but, 
 without it, how vindicate the transaction ? Per- 
 sons even of the best disposed minds, while they 
 look at nothing beyond the letter, cannot recon- 
 cile such a deed with the universal command 
 prohibitory of murder, but by affirming, that he 
 who gave the precept, retains the right, when he 
 sees fit, to remit its obligation ; that the occa- 
 sions for its suspension were communicated to 
 such characters as Jael by a divine impulse; 
 and that the slaughter which ensued then be- 
 came, instead of murder, a judicial infliction. 
 But what a door would be opened by this ca- 
 suistry to the most horrid enormities! and not a 
 few have actually been perpetrated under its 
 sanction. If a judicial infliction were all that 
 
PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 was intended, how much more impressively would 
 this be exhibited by an immediate visitation, 
 as in the cases of Ananias and Sapphira!* In- 
 deed, the sentiment leads directly to the conclu- 
 sion, that there is no such thing as immutable 
 right or wrong; that He who gave the moral 
 code could reverse it also. But what a being 
 does this make of the Author of creation ! Does 
 it not paint him like those tyrants that blot the 
 pages of history, who made their mere will the 
 law, and whose will was guided by caprice alone? 
 It is true, that the will of God is, and ever must 
 be, the standard of morals, and that obedience 
 to it must always remain the test of virtue: but 
 to imagine that his will can be mutable ; that 
 it is not unalterably determined to goodness in 
 the abstract; and that essential goodness can 
 ever be any thing else than love, or its duties 
 any but such as love would dictate: surely this 
 is to display any but a just idea of the Divine 
 Nature! It is, in fact, to deny to God any unal- 
 terable attribute but that of Infinite Power: and 
 the worshippers of mere Power, it may fairly 
 be affirmed, would worship Satan himself, had 
 it been possible for him to have succeeded in the 
 enterprise which is ascribed to him, and to have 
 seized the throne of heaven. 
 
 Consider then, I beseech you, rny Christian 
 brethren, the consequences in which you involve 
 * Acts. v. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED., &C. 623 
 
 yourselves, and the cause of God and of Truth, 
 by denying a regular spiritual sense to the Scrip- 
 tures of Truth. Consider how this persuasion 
 degrades the Word of God, and disgraces its 
 Divine Author. Believe it to be possible that in- 
 spiration really may be inspiration; thatthe Word 
 of God may be the Word of God indeed, and that 
 the wisdom of God may be actually included in 
 it. Look for it then^, as you would look for 
 God himself. As you do not expect to find him 
 in the scenes of nature, but in the inmost sphere 
 of mind ; so neither is it reasonable to expect 
 to find his pure wisdom in the outward letter of his 
 Word, but in a sphere within it. Look again, 
 I would also intreat you, at the objections of the 
 Infidels. Pretend not to meet them in their own 
 valley, where they can deploy their nine hundred 
 chariots of iron; but let the array they make there 
 convince you, as it did Barak*, of the necessity of 
 taking that elevated station which is your proper 
 sphere, and of rushing down upon them from 
 thence. Suffer them not to persuade you that the 
 Scriptures are not the Word of God; but permit 
 them to point out to you what their nature must 
 be if they are. Thus will the weapons of the In- 
 fidel be wrested out of his hands, and made effi- 
 cient to his discomfiture; as the sword of Goliath 
 became an instrument of mighty efficacy when 
 wielded by a David. f But unless you deal with 
 
 * Judges iv. 12, 13, 14. f 1 Sam. xvii. 51; Ch. xxi. 9. 
 
624 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 them thus, they will eventually accomplish the 
 object at which they aim. Either Christians 
 must rise to higher views of the nature of the 
 Scriptures, and of the laws of their composition, 
 or, I presume to affirm, the day will come, 
 when all veneration for them as the proper 
 Word of God, all belief of their having been 
 dictated by any thing at all worthy of the name 
 of Inspiration, all sense of their inherent sanc- 
 tity, and all communication by means of them 
 with God and heaven, will cease to exist through 
 the greater portion of the Christian world. Avert, 
 I beseech you, the catastrophe, by preserving 
 the Palladium in the centre of the Christian 
 Temple. Cast not the Ark of the Testimony out 
 of the Holy Place. Regard the Word as possess- 
 ing an internal principle within it: and then, 
 and then only, you may defy the fiercest attacks 
 upon the outer bulwarks. 
 
 IV. But it is time to turn to the Deists : 
 and to them I would say, Imagine not, men and 
 brethren, should even the half of Christendom 
 openly go over to your side, that you have ob- 
 tained any victory over Christianity or over the 
 Word of God. Flatter not yourselves that your 
 success were the triumph of truth over error : it 
 were nothing, be assured, but a triumph of one 
 species of error over another, of simple fallacy 
 over falsified truth. It were not a triumph of 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 625 
 
 the light of nature over the light of the Word, 
 but over a view of the Word which extinguishes 
 its light and that of nature together. It has be- 
 come the general opinion of Christians, that the 
 Divine Word is to be understood in its literal 
 sense alone ; or rather, as, when looked at merely 
 in the letter, it often cannot be understood at all, 
 that it is to be simply believed : you look at it 
 with these preconceived impressions; and as you 
 thus find in it much that you cannot believe, and 
 are not led to look for its true meaning in a 
 higher sense, you reject it. But what you thus 
 reject is not so properly the Word Itself, as a 
 mistaken idea of it, which you have taken from 
 those whom you regard as its proper interpreters. 
 A very different view of the Divine Book, and to 
 which, as we have seen, none of your objections 
 are in the slightest degree applicable, has now 
 been laid before you. As was observed to me 
 by a gentleman, once of your sentiments, who 
 saw, as soon as this view was presented to him, 
 that against the Scriptures, thus interpreted, 
 nothing which he had read in the deistical 
 writers would attach ; your Paines and Vol- 
 neys would here have all their work to begin 
 again. An opportunity then is now afforded 
 you, of trying the sincerity of that love of truth 
 which you profess so loudly : for here, I hesi- 
 tate not to say, is offered you the truth itself; 
 that is, a just view of the Word of Truth itself; 
 
 4 L 
 
626 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 and this declares, by its proper organ, the mouth 
 of the Word Incarnate, " Every one that is of 
 the truth heareth my words/' 
 
 But, alas! I know too well how many causes, 
 very different from the proper love of truth, tend 
 to swell the ranks of Infidelity, to expect that 
 any great proportion of you will listen to this 
 appeal. Though perfectly satisfied that the view 
 here offered is the truth, I by no means expect 
 that it will satisfy those confirmed deniers of the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures, who, instead of 
 being desirous to know the will of God in order 
 that they may do it, would be better pleased to 
 obtain demonstration that there were no God at 
 all whose will they need consider; that they 
 are free from all obligation of regarding any will 
 but their own. Of those who, from this ground, 
 <s hear not Moses and the prophets/' Divine 
 Truth has declared, that cc neither would they 
 be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."* 
 But to such of you as are of a different character, 
 who have fallen into states of doubt, in conse- 
 quence of having been led to fix your attention 
 upon those parts of the Scriptures, which, when 
 regarded as to the literal statements alone, ap- 
 pear repugnant to reason, but who feel un- 
 easiness in consequence, and would gladly see 
 a way by which your difficulties might be re- 
 moved ; the view which has been developed may 
 * Lukcxvi. 31. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 627 
 
 certainly afford all the satisfaction which you 
 can desire. 
 
 Since then there are two so very different 
 origins of scepticism, I would earnestly and af- 
 fectionately exhort every one who is in such a 
 state, or who feels a tendency towards it, dis- 
 passionately to examine his own heart, in order 
 to ascertain the first source of his impressions. 
 You will all, perhaps, eagerly reply, that you 
 follow in your sentiments nothing but the un- 
 biassed suggestions of reason. I would ask 
 in return, Are you sure of that ? Every phi- 
 losopher knows what an extraordinary influence 
 is exercised by the inclinations of the will over 
 the conclusions of the understanding : it has 
 even become a proverbial remark, that what- 
 soever a man ardently wishes to find true, he 
 seldom fails in the end to persuade himself is 
 true Let then every one, before he trusts too 
 implicitly to what he deems the dictates of his 
 reason, faithfully ascertain, whether he inwardly 
 wishes to find that which is offered him as a 
 Divine Revelation true or false : and whether, 
 in the event of sufficient evidence of its truth 
 being presented, he is prepared, cheerfully and 
 without reserve, to follow the course of duty, 
 which it enjoins. If he can answer this inquiry 
 in the affirmative, then can we allow him to be an 
 impartial inquirer after truth, all whose scruples 
 we are convinced we could satisfy. Another test 
 
 4 L 2 
 
628 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 by which any one may judge of his own im- 
 partiality, is this : Does he find as much satis- 
 faction, when looking over the Scriptures, in 
 those passages which present truly exalted ideas 
 of God, and the most pure and sublime pre- 
 cepts of moral duty, as when he discovers state- 
 ments which, to his notions, appear extravagant 
 and irreconcilable to reason ? Does he look 
 for and dwell upon these with satisfaction and 
 triumph ? and does he feel not disposed to look 
 attentively at the others, but to slur them over, 
 experiencing something like mortification at 
 finding any thing indisputably excellent in a 
 book which he would fain regard as worthy of 
 nothing but contempt? If so, it is plain to which 
 of the two classes of sceptics before described he 
 belongs, and he will do well to relinquish his 
 boast of impartiality, and to allow that his re- 
 jection of the Scriptures is not the result of rea- 
 son but of prejudice; of prejudice, the offspring 
 of pride and self-conceit, if not of more palpably 
 disgraceful vices. 
 
 He, on the other hand, who is really disposed 
 to look impartially at the matter, must surely 
 feel his heart glow with inward devotion, when 
 he reads such a description of the Divine Majesty, 
 as we quoted, in our first Lecture, from Isaiah; 
 in which, as in many other instances, the great 
 attributes of Infinity and Eternity are exhibited 
 with a sublimity and force to which Philosophy 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED, &C. 629 
 
 never pretended. And again : while the Scrip- 
 tures so excel in describing the Divine Majesty 
 and attributes., when did Philosophy deliver so 
 striking and affecting a delineation of the whole 
 duty of man, both to God and his fellow crea- 
 tures., as in the declarations of Moses, quoted by 
 Jesus Christ as the proper answer to an inquirer, 
 who asked, "What was the great command- 
 ment of the law/' (t The first of all the com- 
 mandments," said he, <f is, Hear, O Israel, the 
 Lord thy God is one Lord; and thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
 strength: And the second is like unto it: Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:" to which 
 he adds this emphatic declaration; tf On these 
 two commandments hang all the law and the 
 prophets."* Here we are plainly instructed, 
 that to inculcate love to God and man is the 
 design of the whole Word of God : if then there 
 are any parts of that Word in which this design 
 does not appear upon the surface, the just infer- 
 ence is, that there is something beneath the sur- 
 face which does not shew itself on a superficial 
 inspection. So, again, in that other beautiful and 
 impressive summary of all moral duty: "Whatso- 
 ever ye would that men should do unto you, even 
 so do ye unto them ;" to which also the Divine 
 Speaker adds, "for this is the Jaw and the pro- 
 * Mat. xxii. 36 to 40. 
 
630 PLENARY INSPIRATION OF 
 
 phets."* Now, surely, none who is animated by 
 a sincere affection for truth, and who actually 
 loves the charity which he is so ready to eulo- 
 gize, can help feeling deeply affected by such 
 touching appeals to the heart and conscience as 
 these; and he who thus feels their power cannot 
 be disposed eagerly to reject, as a fable or 
 a forgery, the whole book in which they are 
 found, and of which they are a part ; especially, 
 too, when these declarations affirm so positively, 
 that ail the rest of the book is of the same cha- 
 racter as themselves. Let him then listen can- 
 didly to a system which points out how the rest 
 of the book is of the same character as these 
 specimens; which evinces, that there is a spiri- 
 tual sense contained throughout the whole, which 
 shines plainly through the very letter in such 
 passages as we have just quoted, but which 
 equally exists every where else, though veiled 
 from immediate view by a clothing of images 
 taken from natural objects. In short, every one 
 who is not rendered inimical to the Word of God 
 by passion, prejudice, or pride, may find abundant 
 reason to conclude in its favour upon a candid 
 examination of the general scope of its letter : 
 he may there find, for himself, plain indications 
 that it is inwardly replenished with real divine 
 wisdom: and when he sees this proved by the 
 views of its nature which have now been deve- 
 
 * Ch. vii. 12. 
 
THE SCRIPTURES ASSERTED,, &C. 631 
 
 loped, he surely will take it to his bosom, and 
 thank its Author for the invaluable boon. 
 
 I conclude with expressing a devout hope, 
 that the Author of the Word of God will accom- 
 pany this attempt at its vindication with his 
 blessing. May the number of the sincere and 
 devotional lovers of Truth, of all classes and of 
 all parties, be rapidly increased ! May they learn 
 to venerate the Word of God as the Word of 
 God, and draw from its exhaustless bosom the 
 streams of genuine truth ! Believing, also, the 
 view of the nature of the Scriptures of which 
 a faint sketch has now been given, to be the 
 truth; and feeling the powerful, the unalterable 
 conviction of their divinity which the reception 
 of it imparts ; I add, May mankind in general 
 be speedily brought to do justice to a system, 
 which sets the feet of the disciple of Revelation 
 on a rock of adamant, and invests him with a 
 panoply of strength, aimed against which, the 
 keenest shafts of Infidelity will ever fall blunted 
 arid harmless! 
 
 END OF THE LECTURES. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. (Page 89.) 
 
 PROOFS OF THE SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF THE WRITINGS OF THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT, AFFORDED BY THE REVELATION OF JOHN. 
 
 THIS book of the Apocalypse, though itself one of the most mys- 
 terious of the books of Scripture, yet affords a key to the interpre- 
 tation of all the rest; at least of all those of the Old Testament ; for 
 it is impossible to read this book with any attention, without dis- 
 covering, that it is written throughout upon the supposition, that 
 every thing related in Scripture respecting the Jewish church and 
 people, has a symbolic meaning, and is not merely a record of com- 
 paratively unimportant matters of fact. If then this book is written 
 by divine inspiration, (and, notwithstanding the objections which 
 some, judging by totally erroneous criteria, have raised against it, 
 there is no book of Scripture in which the Spirit of inspiration dis- 
 covers itself by more infallible marks,) we have here the most 
 explicit testimony of that Spirit itself to the spiritual nature of the 
 more ancient Scriptures. We will notice a little more particularly 
 than in the text above, some statements which prove these three 
 points ; the typical character of the persons mentioned in the Old 
 Testament ; of the rituals of the Mosaic law; of the places men- 
 tioned in the Old Testament. 
 
 I. We need go no farther than the second chapter of this extra- 
 ordinary book, to find proof that the events related in the historical 
 part of the Old Testament, contain an ulterior reference to subjects of 
 a spiritual nature, important to the Church and her members in 
 every age ; and -that the persons whose actions are recorded in the 
 Holy Word, are all typical characters. For in the divine address to 
 the Church of Pergamos, we have these words : " But I have a few 
 things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the 
 doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before 
 the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit 
 
11 APPENDIX. NO. I. 
 
 fornication."* A little further, we find Jesus Christ saying to the 
 church of Thyatira, " Notwithstanding, I have a few things against 
 thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth 
 herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce ray servants to commit 
 fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her 
 space to repent of her fornication ; and she repented not. Behold, I 
 cast her into a- bed, and them that commit adultery with her into 
 great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds : and I will kill 
 her children with death : And all the churches shall know, that I am 
 he which searcheth the reins and hearts. "f In these passages we 
 have two of the characters of the Old Testament brought forward, 
 and described as still occupied in their old work of perverting the 
 church. 
 
 The book of Numbers^ relates the history of the prophet Balaam, 
 who was employed by Balak king of Moab, to obstruct the march of 
 the Israelites by his incantations ; and who actually did prepare a 
 snare into which they fell, and were visited in consequence by a de- 
 stroying plague. The narrative afterwards mentions his death by the 
 sword of the Israelites || : and there, if nothing but a record of natural 
 events were intended, we should expect the history of Balaam and 
 his arts to end. No mention is made of any " doctrine" taught by 
 him ; much less of any sect of followers attached to such doctrine. 
 But in the passage just quoted we find mention occur, not indeed of 
 Balaam himself, as being still alive, but of a body of his disciples, 
 existing fifteen hundred years after his death, during the whole of 
 which interval he does not appear to have had any disciples at all ! 
 
 But the other instance we have cited is more remarkable still. 
 Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, one of the most wicked kings that ever 
 reigned in Israel ; but wjio, wicked as he was, was not so abandoned 
 as his wife: for the sacred Record says, " There was none like unto 
 Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the 
 Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.^j" This wicked queen 
 perished miserably** about 2600 years ago, and above eight hundred 
 years before the book of the Revelation of John was written : yet she 
 is here spoken of as being still living, still practising what she de- 
 lighted in when alive, which was, to pervert the church, and to seduce 
 or destroy the Lord's faithful servants ; and she is represented as 
 being still to undergo the punishment due to her crimes, though that 
 had been so dreadfully inflicted upon her, personally, by the instru- 
 mentality of Jehu. Can any thing then be more plain, than that this 
 
 * Rev. ii. 14. + Ver. 20 to 23. f Chs.xxii. to xxv. Ch. xxxi. 16. 
 )| Ch. xxxi. 8. H 1 Kings xxi. 25. ** 2 Kings ix. 30 to end. 
 
NO. I. APPENDIX. N 111 
 
 mention of Balaam and of Jezebel in the Apocalypse, is designed to 
 instruct us, that they were both representative characters, and thus 
 that the narratives which record their actions are replete with a hidden 
 meaning, beyond that which appears on the surface ? To admit, as all 
 must admit, that they were used as types by John, but to deny that they 
 have atypical signification in the Old Testament, is to maintain a gross 
 inconsistency. John gives no sort of intimation that he is assigning 
 them a new relation, but evidently considers their typical character as 
 a thing fully established, and not to be questioned. 
 
 We will give two other examples. The Lamb that was seen in the 
 midst of the throne in heaven*, is called " the Lion of the tribe of 
 Juda"\ This is an allusion to the prophetic benediction of his 
 sons by Jacob ; in which we read, " Judah is a lion's whelp : from 
 the prey, my son, art thou gone up; he stooped down, he couched 
 as a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall rouse him up J :" and thus 
 we are taught, that the ultimate reference of this enigmatical saying 
 is not to Judah, or to his tribe, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 In the seventh chapter, when four angels were seen holding the 
 four winds, and another angel cried to them, saying, " Hurt not the 
 earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants 
 of our God in their foreheads j" and when, in consequence, exactly 
 twelve thousand were sealed of each of the twelve tribes of the 
 children of Israel: every one sees that the children of Israel and 
 their tribes cannot be personally meant : and if they have a symbolic 
 meaning here, they must have a symbolic meaning elsewhere j which 
 is thus clearly taught. 
 
 II. In regard to the notices of the Mosaic rituals. In the eighth 
 chapter we read of " the golden altar which was before the throne," 
 and of an angel having " a golden censer," and to whom was given 
 " much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints 
 upon the golden altar ." This is an allusion to the golden altar 
 which stood before the veil in the tabernacle and temple, and upon 
 which the incense was offered. || In the eleventh chapter an angel 
 said to John, " Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, 
 and them that worship therein : but the court, which is without the 
 temple, leave out, and measure it notf[," &c. This alludes to the 
 temple, its altar and courts, as they existed under the Jewish 
 economy. So, also, when the Revelator says, " I looked, and, behold, 
 the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened**;" 
 " and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of Godff ;" 
 
 * Ch. v. 6. t Ver. 5. t Gen. xlix. 9. Ver. 3. || Exod. art. 26,27. 
 II Ver. 1,2. **Ch.xv.5. ft Ver. 8 : See also Ex.xl.34, & 1 Kings viii. 10. 
 
 a2 
 
IV APPENDIX. NO. I. 
 
 " and I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven 
 angels* ;" " and there came a great voice out of the temple of 
 heaven, from the throne, saying, It is donef ;" " And the temple of 
 God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark 
 of his testament "% It is plain that these things are all here men- 
 tioned as symbols of spiritual things j and what they denote is also 
 in some measure hinted ; and thus we are taught that they have a 
 symbolic meaning when mentioned in the Old Testament. 
 
 Beside those which are properly rituals, many of the other repre- 
 sentatives of the Old Testament are also alluded to, and their repre- 
 sentative character thus clearly established ; as the tree of life. ; the 
 manna \\; the key of David*^; and the plagues of Egypt.** 
 
 III. Respecting the places mentioned in the Israelitish history, there 
 are several allusions. The river Euphrates is mentioned thus: John 
 " heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is 
 before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose 
 the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates ft:" 
 "The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, 
 and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the 
 east might be prepared."^ As Commentators are disposed, though 
 with very questionable success, to interpret these passages literally, 
 we will not build any thing upon them, but leave them to the con- 
 sideration of the intelligent, while we mention other passages for 
 which none can claim a literal interpretation. 
 
 Of the two witnesses it is said, after they are killed by the beast 
 that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, that " their dead bodies shall 
 lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom 
 and Egypt; where also our Lord was crucified." Here it is diffi- 
 cult to suppose that these figurative witnesses, when slain by a 
 figurative beast, can lie in any other than a figurative city : and what 
 can that be, but some state of opposition to, or of the perversion of, 
 divine things ? The nature of this state then must be denoted by 
 the names which are applied to it ; and of course Sodom and Egypt 
 must have a similar meaning when mentioned elsewhere in the Holy 
 Word ; otherwise it would be quite unmeaning to call such a state 
 by those names here. 
 
 * Rev. xvi. 1. -r Ver. 17. f Ver. 19. Ch. iii.7; xxii.2, 14. 
 
 B Ch. ii. 17. 5 Ch. Hi. 7 : (compare Isa. xxii. 22.) 
 ** The turning of the waters into blood, ch. xvi. 3, 4: The plague 
 of frogs (allusion to,) ver. 13: The plague of boils, ver. 2: The plague 
 of hail mingled with fire, ch. viii. 7: The plague of loeiibts, ch. ix. 3: 
 The plague of darkness, ch. viii. 12. 
 
 it Ch. iz. 13, 14. if Ch.xvi. 13. ^ Ch. xi. 8, 
 
NO, I. APFENDIX. V 
 
 Of Mount Sion, we have this remarkable notice : " I looked, and 
 lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with him a hundred and 
 forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written in their fore- 
 heads."* Mount Sion, or Zion, is frequently mentioned in the Old 
 Testament, and is generally allowed to have a spiritual signification ; 
 which this passage demonstrates; and also shews that its spiritual 
 reference must be to something of the most holy and exalted nature. 
 The hundred and forty-four thousand here again mentioned, are, no 
 doubt, the same as were before said to have been sealed out of all the 
 tribes of Israel : and what is here said of them further evinces, that 
 we are not to understand by them Israelites according to the flesh, 
 but " Israelites indeed, in whom is no guilef;" or them who receive 
 in the most ample manner the graces of salvation, and yield the most 
 unhesitating obedience to all the divine will : for it is presently added, 
 " These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are 
 virgins" [but not necessarily in the Roman Catholic sense] : " these 
 are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth : these were 
 redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and to the 
 Lamb : and in their mouth was found no guile ; for they are without 
 fault before the throne of God."J 
 
 The Jews were carried captive to Babylon; and the judgments 
 which afterwards befel that proud city, are repeatedly foretold in Isaiah 
 and Jeremiah, whose predictions are considered to have received a 
 complete fulfilment in the total desolation which that metropolis has 
 experienced. But two whole chapters of the Revelation, and parts of 
 three others, are occupied with accounts of Babylon and her fall, 
 as if she were still standing, and her fall still to come, at the late 
 period to which those parts of the book evidently refer: and what 
 is equally remarkable, much of the language used on the occasion by 
 John, is the same, or nearly so, as was before used, in reference to 
 Babylon, by Isaiah and Jeremiah. An angel says in the fourteenth 
 chapter of the Revelation, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen^;" in the 
 eighteenth chapter, another angel cries mightily, saying, "Babylon 
 the great is fallen, is fallen\\:" in the twenty-first of Isaiah a watch- 
 man says, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen^:" and Jeremiah says, 
 " Babylon is suddenly fallen, and destroyed."** The angel in the 
 Revelation adds, "and is become the habitation of demons, and 
 the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and 
 hateful birdff:" Isaiah says, " Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, 
 and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall 
 
 * Cb.xiv. 1. + John i. 47. {Rev. xiv. 4, 5. Ver. 8. || Ver. 2, 
 * Ver. 9. ** Cb. li.8. ft Ch. xviii. 2. 
 
VI APPENDIX. NO. 1. 
 
 dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there:"* So it is said in Jere- 
 miah, " The wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the 
 islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein."f The 
 Apocalyptic angel proceeds to say, " For all nations have drunk of 
 the wine of the wrath of her fornicationj;" and when Babylon was 
 seen under the figure of a woman, she had " a golden cup in her hand, 
 full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:" Jeremiah 
 says, " Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that hath 
 made all the earth drunken ; the nations have drunken of her wine ; 
 therefore the nations are mad."|] Another voice was heard by John, 
 saying, " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of 
 her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues : for her sins have 
 reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities^]":" 
 Jeremiah says, " Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every 
 man his soul : be not cut off in her iniquity ; for this is the time of 
 the Lord's vengeance; he will render her a recompense**:" and again, 
 " Forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country : for her 
 judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skiesff:" 
 and again : " My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver 
 ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord."JJ The 
 voice heard by John proceeds to say, " Reward her, even as she 
 hath rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her 
 works:" Jeremiah says, " Recompense her according to her works j 
 according to all that she hath done, do unto her."|||| The voice in 
 the Revelation describes her pride and its consequences thus : " She 
 saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no 
 sorrow: therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and 
 mourning, and famine^:" which is thus paralleled in Isaiah : " Thou 
 saidst, I shall be a lady for ever ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither 
 shall I know the loss of children : but these two things shall come 
 unto thee in a moment, in one day ; the loss of children and widow- 
 hood."*** Much then follows in the Revelation which closely resem- 
 bles what is said of the destruction of Tyre in the twenty-sixth and 
 twenty -seventh chapters of Ezekiel ; after which it is written, " And 
 a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and cast it 
 into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon 
 be thrown down, and shall be found no more at allff f:" What was 
 thus done by an angel in the sight of John, resembles what was done 
 
 * Ch. xiii.21. t Ch. 1. 39. J Rev. xviii. 3. ^ Ch. xvii. 4. 
 flCh.li.7. H Rev. xviii. 4, 5. ** Ch. li. 6. t f Ver. 9. |J Ver.45. 
 -H Rev.xviii.6. |j|| Ch. 1. 29. Hi Ch. xviii.7, 8. *** CJi. xlvii. 7, 8, 9. 
 f-tt Ch. xviii. 21. 
 
NO. I. APPENDIX. Vii 
 
 by a messenger sent by Jeremiah to ancient Babylon; he directed 
 him, when he arrived there, to read the prophecy against it ; and he 
 concludes his injunctions in these words : " And it shall be, when 
 thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a 
 stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates : and thou shalt 
 say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I 
 will bring upon her."* 
 
 Now it is evident that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is altogether 
 a spiritual Babylon; as also, that the sublime images by which her 
 judgment is described are all a series of pure symbols, having none 
 but a spiritual signification. But the very same things are said res- 
 pecting the judgment on Babylon pronounced by the old prophets: 
 is it not then evident, that the Babylon of the Old Testament, though 
 a real city, was nevertheless a typical one? as likewise, that the 
 language in which the old prophets announced its destruction, was 
 equally symbolic with the same language when used by the Apo- 
 calyptic divine, and that although, with them, it had a literal sense, 
 it had a spiritual sense also ? Are we not thus plainly taught by the 
 Revelator, what is the nature of the prophetic style of the Old Testa- 
 ment ? When he uses the same language, and treats of the same 
 places, as they do ; and this long after the places had ceased to exist ; 
 does he not clearly inform us, that the places treated of by them had 
 a typical character, and that the language in which they spoke of them 
 had a meaning beyond that which appears on the surface ? 
 
 There remains but one other place to notice, which is Jerusalem. 
 It is allowed by commentators in general, that Jerusalem is a type of 
 the church ; which principle is frequently recognised by the translators 
 of the English- Bible, in the summaries of the contents prefixed to 
 the chapters. There are, however, various passages in the Old Tes- 
 tament, in which, under the name of Jerusalem, the church is treated 
 of as being in a state of desolation or corruption : and many in 
 which, on account of their plain applicability to the circumstances of 
 the actual or carnal Jerusalem, there might be room to doubt whether 
 any thing further is intended, were it not for other passages which 
 do not admit of such limitation. But in the Apocalypse, Jerusalem 
 is never mentioned in a way that will admit of an application to the 
 carnal Jerusalem at all. In the only passage where an allusion is 
 made to the carnal Jerusalem, as the place " where our Lord was 
 crueifiedf," it is called, not Jerusalem, but " Sodom and Egypt." 
 Whenever "Jerusalem" is mentioned, it is always in a manner that 
 fully establishes its meaning to be, the true church of the Lord; 
 
 * Jer. li. 63, 64. t Ch. xi. 8. 
 
Viii APPENDIX. NO. I. 
 
 thus completely establishing", at the same time, the symbolic or typical 
 character of the city Jerusalem under the Jewish dispensation. To 
 guard against its being referred to the mere city Jerusalem, it like- 
 wise is always called either the "new Jerusalem* " or the "holy 
 Jerusalem^--" and it is spoken of as "coming down from God out of 
 heavenj:" Just as Paul, to preserve the same distinction, calls the 
 carnal Jerusalem, or Jerusalem taken as a type of the Jewish church, 
 the "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children ;" 
 and he terms the true church " the Jerusalem above," or the heavenly 
 Jerusalem: thus he says, continuing the sentence of which a part is 
 just quoted, "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the 
 mother of us all|j:" and again, "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, 
 and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."^ So 
 when the Revelator speaks of a new Jerusalem, such a one as cometh 
 <lown from God out of heaven, while he clearly predicts by the sub- 
 lime symbol a future glorious state of the church among men, 
 ("Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men** ;") he distinctly points 
 to the typical character of the ancient Jerusalem, as designating the 
 church in general: and, to reverse the proposition, the acknowledged 
 typical character of the ancient Jerusalem, points out what is meant 
 by the new Jerusalem here. To adopt the words of one of the 
 most learned and esteemed commentators, Dr. Hammond: "The 
 true meaning of the New Jerusalem mentioned here (ch. xxi. ver. 2,) 
 and again with the addition of holy, and the glory of God upon it 
 (ver 11,) will be a key to the interpreting of this chapter." [He might 
 have added, and of all the passages in the Old Testament where 
 Jerusalem is mentioned, He proceeds to say] " That it signifies not 
 the state of glorified saints in heaven, appears by its descending from 
 heaven in both places, (and that, according to the use of the phrase, 
 ch. x. 1. and xviii. l,as an expression of some eminent benefit and 
 blessing in the church;) and so it must needs be here on earth: and 
 being here set down, with the glory of God upon it, it will signify the 
 pure Christian church, joining Christian practice with the profession 
 thereof; and that in a nourishing condition, expressed by the new 
 heaven and new earth. In this sense we have the supernal Jerusalem, 
 (Gal. iv. 26,) the New Jerusalem, (Rev. iii. 12,) where, to the constant 
 professor is promised, that God will write upon him the name of God, 
 and the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, which there sig- 
 nifies the pure, catholic, Christian Church" Filled with this view of 
 the subject, which is so evidently the true one, the pious Watts, in a 
 
 * Ch. iii. 12, xxi. 2. t Ver. 10. Ch. iii. 12, xxi. 2. 
 Gal. iv.25. ||Ver.26. fl Heb. xii.22. ** Rev. xxi, 3. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. IX 
 
 kymn entitled "A Vision of the Kingdom of Christ among men*," 
 has these rapturous stanzas : 
 
 " From the third heaven, where God resides, 
 
 That holy, happy place, 
 The New Jerusalem comes down, 
 Adorned with shining grace. 
 
 How long, dear Saviour, O how long 
 
 Shall this bright hour delay ? 
 Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time, 
 
 And bring the welcome day." 
 
 Altogether, then, I trust, it is perfectly evident, that had the Reve- 
 lation of John been written by that Apostle as an express commentary 
 upon the Old Testament, it could not have taught us more clearly 
 than it does, that every thing relating to the history of the Jews, to 
 their worship, and to the countries and cities inhabited by them and 
 by the nations with whom they had intercourse, as recorded by the 
 pen of inspiration, had a symbolic and spiritual meaning. Had the 
 Revelation been an express commentary, we might indeed have been 
 informed more explicitly what that meaning is: but the general prin- 
 ciple, that there is such a meaning, that all the inspired writings do 
 positively contain a sense beyond that which is extant on the surface, 
 could not have been more decisively established. If we deny this prin- 
 ciple, we deny to the whole of the Revelation of John any meaning at 
 all : we convert his sublime symbols into a senseless jargon : and, if we 
 still admit his book to have been written by inspiration, we charge 
 with egregious trifling the unerring Spirit of God. 
 
 No. II. (Page 241.) 
 
 AN ATTEMPT TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THE BOOKS OF PLE- 
 NARY INSPIRATION, CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE, AND THOSE 
 WRITTEN BY THE INSPIRATION GENERALLY ASSIGNED TO THE 
 
 WHOLE. 
 
 WE are advocating in this Work " the Plenary Inspiration of the 
 
 Scriptures ;" and we are endeavouring to shew, that no writing can be 
 
 produced by Plenary Inspiration without including stores of spiritual 
 
 and divine wisdom within the outward covering of the literal expres- 
 
 * Book i. Hymn 21. 
 
 b 
 
X APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 aion. It must however be admitted, that there are some books con- 
 tained in the collection called the Bible, which, though they are to be 
 received as the productions of men endowed with an extraordinary 
 share of divine illumination, do not contain the spiritual sense here 
 claimed for the absolute Word of God, and thus cannot be the results 
 of that immediate and Plenary Inspiration which is essential to such 
 writing's as are the Word of God indeed. The particular examination 
 of this subject could not conveniently be introduced into the Lectures 
 themselves ; wherefore we will make some remarks upon it here. It 
 is necessary that the distinction should not be passed without notice ; 
 since, without a knowledge of its existence, they who should endea- 
 vour to interpret the Scriptures by the Rule drawn from the Analogy 
 between natural things and spiritual, or to try the validity of the Rule 
 itself, might be disappointed in the results, in consequence of applying 
 it to those parts of the Bible which are not composed according to 
 it, or are not written by the plenary and immediate, but by the more 
 lax and mediate species of inspiration. 
 
 We have stated in our early Lectures the sentiments which are now 
 generally held by the learned on the nature of the inspiration of the 
 Word of God ; and we objected to them as not going far enough, 
 and as not giving a proper idea of compositions that are absolutely 
 divine. They all proceed upon the supposition, that inspiration, be 
 it what it may, is a personal and permanent gift to the man by whom 
 an inspired book is written ; that the writers of the Scriptures were 
 divinely illuminated men, who, with few exceptions, wrote in their own 
 words the perceptions of their own minds, which were the constant 
 seats of the illumination of the Holy spirit : (though some will not 
 admit so much as this.) If this deBnition were intended for a certain 
 portion, only, of the books commonly called the Holy Scriptures, we 
 should be constrained to admit it to be correct; but we deem it 
 grossly defective when applied to the greater part of them. The 
 inspiration by which these were written, was, we have endeavoured to 
 shew, such as took an entire possession, for the time, of the faculties 
 of the writers ; and after they had written what was intended, it again 
 would leave them, and then they would return into their ordinary state ; 
 in which they would not necessarily understand the meaning of the 
 things, which, in their state of ecstacy, they had spoken or written. 
 The other books admitted into our Canon of Scripture, appear, for the 
 most part, to have been composed by persons, who were endowed 
 with such a degree of illumination, by the Spirit of God, as to discern, 
 in the former class of writings, the doctrine suited to the dispensation 
 of Divine Truth under which they lived, and which they were raised 
 up to assist in establishing, such of them as lived under the Jewish 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XI 
 
 dispensation, the doctrine of the Jewish church, and such of them as 
 were raised up to establish Christianity, the doctrine of the Christian 
 Church : and the writings of the latter are justly taken, by the 
 Christian Church, as authoritative declarations of her authentic doc- 
 trines. Beside the doctrinal writings of this class, there are also 
 some historical ones. All writings of this class are to be interpreted 
 by their literal sense alone ; allowing, however, for their occasional 
 use of figurative expressions, and of words and phrases taken from 
 tkose Scriptures which have a spiritual sense, and which, of course, 
 must bear the same meaning when excerpted as in their original repo- 
 sitory. In short, these writings are to be explained by the same sort 
 of criticism as would be exercised to ascertain the meaning of other 
 ancient authors. 
 
 I. The assertion, that there are writings of two so distinct classes 
 contained in the sacred collection called the Bible, may at first appear 
 arbitrary and unsupported by the reason of the case : and yet when it 
 is more attentively considered, I apprehend it will be discovered to be 
 founded, not merely in reason, but in absolute necessity ; for it will 
 appear, that the designs of the Almighty Father in giving a dispen- 
 sation of his will to man, could not otherwise have been made effec- 
 tual. 
 
 1. We have endeavoured to prove, in the third, and in the preceding 
 part of this fourth Lecture, that no composition which is truly and 
 absolutely the Word of God, could be produced, the literal sense of 
 which should not be composed of natural images, and of appearances 
 of things taken from the world of nature : and that such is actually 
 the case with the books of Scripture which are written by the plenary 
 inspiration, is shewn in the sequel of this, and in the following Lecture. 
 From this peculiarity of construction, it inevitably follows, that the 
 letter cannot every where present such ideas openly to the view, 
 as are proper to form the doctrine of the church founded upon 
 it : as remarked in our second Lecture*, passages which even appear 
 to be in opposition to each other not unfrequently occur, one of which 
 delivers the genuine truth, and the other the truth covered with the 
 veil of a mere appearance taken from human ideas. But the choice 
 between them is not without its difficulties. It is evident, for the con- 
 struction of coherent doctrine, that one of these classes of passages 
 must be so explained as to be reconciled with the other: but man, in 
 his untutored, natural state, is not qualified to decide with accuracy 
 by which he ought to abide ; and when he studies the Word under 
 the influence of an unpurified heart, he is but too apt to catch at the 
 appearance to the exclusion of the reality ; he is ever disposed to kill 
 
 * P. 116. 
 b 
 
Xii APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 the prophets, and to stone them that are sent unto him, and he is never 
 so well pleased as when he can destroy, spiritually, the disciples of the 
 Lord, or the pure truths of which the disciples are the depositaries, 
 under the persuasion that he is doing God service, and can allege as 
 his authority the letter of God's Word, of the ambiguities of which 
 he avails himself for the purpose. 
 
 That the ambiguities of the letter of the Word are very numerous, 
 that it is a sword which turns every way, ia a fact which has 
 become proverbial. Every sect turns it in favour of its peculiar doc- 
 trines; and into what a multiplicity of sects the Christian Church 
 has been divided, and what monstrous sentiments have by some of 
 them been maintained, are things well known : yet the most extra- 
 vagant of them all have professed to found their sentiments upon the 
 Word of God, and have produced passages from its letter which 
 might be construed in their favour. Of this fact, the writers of the 
 Romish Communion have not failed to take advantage : the Word of 
 God, on account of its admitting, as to its letter, of such a variety of 
 interpretations, has, by them, been blasphemously denominated Liber 
 Heeresiafum } and they invite their opponents to take refuge from its 
 uncertainties in the ever-consistent decisions of a self-constituted 
 infallible church. If then men have thus parted the Lord's gar menu 
 ttmong- them, and cast lots upon his vesture, (which circumstances are 
 explained in our fifth Lecture,) notwithstanding it has been provided, 
 as will presently be seen, that the books written in the language of 
 Analogy should be accompanied with others in which the leading 
 doctrines of the former are explicitly developed ; to what extremes 
 of perversion would they not have gone, had they been left, without 
 such help, to draw their doctrines from the more mysterious books 
 for themselves ! 
 
 It being then a demonstrable fact, that writings composed in the 
 style which belongs to the absolute Word of God, cannot be under- 
 stood by the simple and unenlightened, without the help of doctrine, 
 as a lamp to direct their path, drawn thence by some person or 
 persons endowed with special illumination for the purpose ; there 
 arises a necessity, that, ever since a written Revelation has been the 
 medium of conveying the divine will to man, in every church pos- 
 sessed of such a Revelation, divinely illuminated persons should be 
 raised up, qualified to deliver, either by oral instruction or by writing, 
 such views of doctrine, founded on that Revelation, as were adapted to 
 the genius of the people among whom they lived, and to the character 
 of the dispensation of which they were the subjects : and there can be 
 no reasonable doubt that the Author of Revelation would provide the 
 aids necessary to render it effectual to its object. Under the Jewish 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. Xlii 
 
 dispensation, which, as well as the Jews themselves, was of a very 
 external character, and in which very enlightened views of doctrine 
 would have surpassed the comprehension of the people, little was 
 wanted beyond the literal enunciation of the Mosaic law, all the 
 rituals of which were by them to be observed according to the letter ; 
 yet even then teachers arose, who composed codes of morality, and 
 delivered doctrinal precepts, adapted to impress upon the minds of 
 the Jews such of the truths involved in their law as were more 
 especially calculated for their state and capacities : and, under the 
 Christian dispensation, teachers, gifted with much higher illumination, 
 were raised up, to discover more of the truths involved in the ancient 
 Scriptures, and to declare that " Christ is the end of the Law for 
 righteousness to every one that believeth* j" and that " he that 
 loveth another hath fulfilled the lawf ;" because " the end of the 
 commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good con- 
 science, and of faith unfeigned." J Nor can it be reasonably doubted, 
 that, if any further discoveries of the divine will should ever be ne- 
 cessary, they would be made in a similar manner : nay, maay believe 
 that, if not further discoveries, re-discoveries of it have thus been 
 made by Luther and Calvin, to whom some ascribe a spirit of under- 
 standing in the Scriptures not much inferior to that enjoyed by the 
 Apostles: indeed, most sectaries entertain a similar opinion of the 
 leaders whom they respectively follow $ and though they may be 
 greatly mistaken as to the fact, their belief of it affords a recognition 
 of the principle. So general, indeed, is the conviction, that without 
 sound doctrine as a guide, the Word cannot be understood, that many 
 have viewed the labours of that first of modern Institutions the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, in circulating the Scriptures without 
 note or comment, as pregnant with mischief, and, tacitly adopting the 
 Roman Catholic principle, have imagined, that thus to communicate 
 the Word of God, is in effect to sow the seeds of heresy. There would 
 have been less room for this apprehension, had the fact not been 
 overlooked, that in the Bible, together with the books which are 
 eminently THE Scriptures, are included writings which deliver the 
 leading doctrines of the former without any recondite meaning. 
 Divine Wisdom knew that books composed in the purely divine style 
 were liable to be misunderstood by the simple and unintelligent ; 
 wherefore it has provided that they should be accompanied with 
 writings intended to fix their general import, and to afford a clew to 
 their safe and profitable interpretation^ 
 
 * Rom. *. 4. t Ch. xiii. 8. } 1 Tim. i. 5. 
 
 $ It must however be confessed, that many things in these writings 
 also, are, as must unavoidably be the case in all writings of great an- 
 
XIV APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 2. It may now, we would hope, in some measure appear, that there 
 was reason grounded in absolute necessity for the production of 
 writings of this second class to accompany those of the first : but 
 perhaps it may not immediately be seen that there was any neces- 
 sity for the production of writings of any other kind than these. The 
 doctrinal purport of these being more easily intelligible, they seem to 
 have acquired, by degrees, a superior degree of estimation: at least it 
 is certain, that it is from these that ministers most frequently take the 
 subject of their discourses in the pulpit ; and probably many would 
 wish that the whole Bible consisted of such compositions, and are 
 somewhat scandalized that it does not. But to this it may be suf- 
 ficient to answer, that had not the Scriptures of plenary inspiration 
 first been given, the others would never have been composed. They 
 were all written by men to whom the compositions which are the 
 Word of God, absolutely, were previously familiar; and the kind of 
 inspiration by which they were produced, consisted in endowing the 
 writers with the faculty of discerning the doctrines contained in that 
 Word; to which, therefore, as higher authority, they continually refer. 
 Indeed, it is a fact, on which something is said in the fifth Lecture, 
 that without the existence of the Scriptures of plenary inspiration in 
 the world, no illumination in divine things could, in the present state of 
 mankind, be afforded. Accordingly, after the resurrection of the Lord, 
 it is said respecting his disciples, " Then opened he their under- 
 standings that they should understand the Scriptures*:" And in 
 
 tiquity, "hard to be understood;" they being full of allusions to cir- 
 cumstances and opinions of which nothing at all is now known, except by 
 the learned, and but little by them, and containing many words used in a 
 sense peculiar to the writers : hence it is but too true, that some of the 
 greatest theological errors have been founded upon these very writings ; 
 as was naturally to be expected when men went to the study of ancient 
 writers with minds pre-occupied by modern ideas. 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 45. It is to be observed, that, in the Bible, no writings 
 are ever called, simply, " the Scriptures," but those which are written 
 by the Plenary Inspiration : to them the term is applied by way of 
 eminence, and as an ellipsis for the divine or inspired Writings. It will 
 hardly be maintained, that when Peter, (2 F,p. iii. 16,) in contradistinc- 
 tion to the writings of Paul, mentions " the other Scriptures," (T<X? ^otTraj 
 ypapa?), he means to admit that the Epistles of that Apostle are 
 writings of the same kind. It is to be remembered, that the term 
 ** Scriptures" simply means Writings, and that the Greek name for 
 them is the common name for writings : when, therefore, the Apostle 
 Peter, after mentioning the Epistles of Paul, speaks of ** the other 
 writings," the fair inference is, that he means to advert to the plenarily 
 inspired Scriptures as writings of another kind, -of that kind which are 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XV 
 
 giving- the promise of the Holy Ghost, the Lord says, " These things 
 have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you : but the Com- 
 forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in uiy 
 name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your re- 
 membrance, whatsoever I have said unto you * :" that is, he should 
 recall all the Lord's words, and teach them to understand them. One 
 of the chief effects, then, of the communication of the Holy Spirit, 
 was to be, to enable the disciples to understand the Lord's words, 
 together with the Scriptures, given by plenary inspiration, which are 
 equally his words though communicated in a different manner, not to 
 write new Scriptures themselves : and such of them as did write new 
 books of Scripture, must have done it by a special additional inspira- 
 tion, distinct from that which was common to them all, and which 
 constantly abode with them. Accordingly, they began their preaching 
 with explaining the ancient Scriptures-fa and this seems to have con- 
 tinued to be their usual practice : and all their discourses and writings 
 are filled with the light which this illumination, or this mediate and 
 personal inspiration, brought to their minds. If it can be shewn that, 
 in their ordinary discourse or writing, they ever spoke or wrote from 
 immediate dictation, in those instances their ordinary and personal 
 was exalted into extraordinary and plenary inspiration, and their 
 language flowed according to the Laws of Analogy, and contained, 
 what Was not the case at ether times, a spiritual and divine meaning 
 beyond the outward expression. 
 
 If then there are, in the collection called the Bible, writings or 
 books of these two very different classes, it becomes a matter of great 
 importance to discriminate between them. This, therefore, we will 
 attempt ; first, in regard to the books of the Old Testament ; and then 
 of the New. 
 
 usually called the Writings by way of eminence. Believing this to be 
 the Apostle's meaning, I do not think the interpretation is to be accepted 
 which understands by " the other writings," the other writings of Paul, 
 beside those which treat of the specific subject here under discussion : though 
 Schleusner seems to adopt this meaning, which he gives as that " pie- 
 rorumque interpretum." If this is the true meaning, there is not left a 
 shadow of pretence for the notion, that Peter puts his brother Apostle's 
 writings on the same footing with those which are eminently the Scrip- 
 tures. Schleusner also shews, that the word here translated " other," 
 is as frequently used in the New Testament in reference to other things 
 of other kinds as to other things of the same kind. Peter's accurate dis- 
 crimination on the subject of inspiration is noticed below, p. xxii. 
 John xiv. 25, 26. t Acts ii. 16, &c. 
 
XVI APPENDIX. NO. II, 
 
 II. The existence of writings in the Old Testament, written under 
 two species of inspiration, is expressly affirmed by the Jews them- 
 selves: they, indeed, have placed in the second class some which 
 belong to the first; but the error is easily rectified by the testimony 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, who quotes no books, and acknowledges 
 none as the Scriptures, but those which are written by the Plenary 
 Inspiration, or those in which, in the language of the Apostle Peter, 
 " the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of men*," or wrote by their 
 hands. 
 
 1. The Jews divided their, sacred books into the Law, the Prophets, 
 and the Ketubim or Hagiographa, (Writings, or Holy Writings.) 
 (I.) The Law includes the five books of Moses, so called from the 
 preceptive character of great part of their contents : though Moses is 
 to be considered as a prophet, and the greatest of prophets ; as indeed 
 he is expressly called. f (2.) The division denominated by them the 
 Prophets, contained all the books which we call the historical ones, 
 tvritten before the Babylonian captivity, viz. those of Joshua, Judges, 
 Samuel, and Kings; with all those, one only excepted, which we 
 commonly call the prophets. The former of these they called the 
 Prior or interior Prophets, and the others the Later or Posterior; 
 and they so named them, not, as Home J and others have affirmed, " with 
 regard to the time when they respectively flourished ;" for it is certain 
 that the writings of some of the later prophets were composed before 
 those of some of the prior ; but doubtless for another reason assigned 
 by Leusden : " Quia Anteriores, &c. Because the anterior prophets 
 relate affairs transacted before, or anterior to, the time of narrating 
 them ; whereas the posterior prophets treat of things to happen after, 
 posterior to, or later than, the delivery of the prophecy ." (3.) The 
 division styled Hagiographa contains, according to the modern Jews, 
 the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, 
 Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. But 
 it appears certain, by the testimony of Josephus]], that Daniel, in 
 his time, was reckoned, as he so clearly ought to be, among the 
 Prophets ; and he seems to have been transferred to the Hagiographa, 
 because those books were not regularly read in the Synagogue, and 
 the Rabbins, after the time limited by his prophecy of the seventy 
 weeks for the coming of the Messiah had undeniably expired, became 
 unwilling to read before the people so plain a proof of their error in 
 rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ; and because, also, by placing him 
 among books not regarded as possessing prophetic authority, the 
 
 * Acts i. 16. f Deut. xviii. 15, xxxiv. 10. 
 
 J Introduction, vol. ii. p. 149, vol. iv. p. 27. (Ed. 1822.) 
 
 S Phil. Heb. Dis. ii. riii. || Ant. B. x. Cli. xi. 7. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XVli 
 
 weight of his testimony would be diminished It also appears well 
 established, that the Lamentations and the other writings of Jeremiah 
 were anciently reckoned as one book ; and equally stationed, as is so 
 evidently necessary, among the Prophets. 
 
 2. Before we proceed further, it appears necessary to ascertain what 
 is the idea properly belonging to a Prophet and his writings. 
 
 It seems extraordinary that so learned a writer as Leusden should 
 pronounce it improper to call all the books so denominated by the 
 Jews the Prophets, " because some of them are in reality historical 
 books, and differ much from prophetical writings properly so called*;" 
 when it is certain that the seeming impropriety only arises from our 
 attaching the modern idea to the term prophet, and forgetting that of 
 the ancients, and particularly of the Jews. We now generally think of 
 a Prophet as a foreteller of future events ; but this idea is not at all 
 conveyed by the Hebrew name for the character, which properly im- 
 plies an utterer or enunciator of communications from God ; or, as 
 Parkliurst gives it, more generally, an interpreter of God's will, 
 to whom he freely and familiarly revealed himself: in which sense 
 alone is it applicable to Abraham; [Gen. xx. 7;] or to Aaron: "And 
 the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, 
 and Aaron thy brother shall be THY PROPHET : thou shalt speak all 
 that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pha- 
 raoh," not a prediction, observe, but a command, " that he send 
 the children of Israel out of his land." [Ex. vii. 1, 2.] This is 
 illustrated in another place, where the Lord says to Moses, "Thou 
 shalt speak unto him, [Aaron,] and put words in his mouth; and he 
 shall be thy spokesman unto the people : and he shall be to thee instead 
 of a mouth, and thou shalt be tcf him instead of God" [Ch. iv. 15, 16.] 
 If then Moses was to Aaron what God is to a prophet, and Aaron 
 was to Moses what a prophet is to God, it is perfectly evident thae, 
 in the original sense of the tjgrm, a prophet is one who receives words 
 from God, and declares them to man : he is an enunciator of a divine 
 message, let the subject of that message be what it may: and it is 
 only because it frequently happened that divine communications 
 related to things future, that the word at last acquired the significa- 
 tion of a predicter of future events. As the above is the idea con- 
 stantly attached in the Scriptures of plenary inspiration to the word 
 prophet, the Jewish philologers have endeavoured to find it in the 
 word itself. The Hebrew root is NJBBA (fcO3) > which the celebrated 
 Solomon Jarchi says is formed from another root, NOWB or MB Q}), 
 by the addition of an aleph (^) taken out of the name of God 
 : now tne word N B radically signifies to put forth as a 
 
 * Phil. Heb. Dis. ii. Hi. 
 c 
 
APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 plant its buds or fruit, whence, transferred to human speech, it means 
 to utter, which is another kind of putting forth : when therefore from 
 this verb is formed the verb NBBA, by the addition of an aleph taken 
 from the name of God, it means to utter from divine dictation. The 
 signification thus given to the word for prophesying is equally clear 
 and weighty : nor does it suffer any detraction from the fancifulness 
 of the etymology : for the meaning of the word is not dependent upon 
 the etymology, but the etymology was invented to account for the 
 well-known meaning of the Word.* That the ancient Greeks, from 
 whom we have received the word prophet, understood it in a similar 
 sense, is abundantly proved by Schleusner. 
 
 It is quite evident then, that the word prophet, in the Scriptures, 
 does not merely signify a foreteller of future events, but may be as 
 applicable to Anterior as to Posterior Prophets. It is also evident, 
 that when the Jews gave this name to their sacred writings, they meant 
 to affirm that they were written by immediate divine dictation : and 
 as the propriety of the application is recognised, as will presently be 
 seen, by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have, in this name alone, no con- 
 temptibU evidence, that the books to which it is applied are the pro- 
 ductions of plenary and verbal inspiration. 
 
 3. Such being the character of the Prophets, what is that of the 
 Hagiographa ? 
 
 (1.) Among the books of the Hagiographa, when the catalogue is 
 corrected as above, it is certain that the Lord Jesus Christ only ac- 
 knowledges as divine the book of Psalms ; for when speaking of the 
 whole Scripture, he calls it the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and 
 the Psalms : " All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the 
 Law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning 
 mef:" and, doubtless, there is no book among those written by 
 plenary inspiration, which does not, either in its literal or mystical 
 sense, treat at all of him. At other times, when he intends to 
 speak of the whole Word of God, he calls it, more compendiously, 
 " the Law and the ProphetsJ," or " Moses and the Prophets;" and 
 then he evidently includes among "the Prophets" the book of Psalms, 
 much of which is palpably, and the whole of it really, of a prophet- 
 ical character : accordingly, David, the chief author of the Psalms, is 
 expressly denominated by Peter " a prophet]);" which title is never 
 conferred on the writers of the other books called Hagiographa. 
 Ezra himself, whom the Jews hold in such honour, has no higher 
 rank given him than that of " a scribe^]"," f a ready scribe in the law 
 
 * See Gusset. Contm. in voce. + Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
 J Matt. v. 17 ; xi. 13 ; xxii. 40. Luke xvi. 29, 31 ; xxiv. 27. 
 
 || Acts ii. 30. f Neh. viii. 1. et passim. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XIX 
 
 of Moses*/' and " a scribe of the law of the God of heavenf;" 
 titles which lend much support to the opinion, that he restored the 
 copies of the plenarily inspired Scriptures, and in a manner repub- 
 lished them, but give no countenance whatever to the notion that 
 his original writings are equally inspired. On other occasions the 
 Lord Jesus Christ calls the whole of the books which are eminently 
 THE Scriptures, " the Lawj," and especially quotes the Psalms by 
 that name. It is quite certain then, that, by this infallible Authority, 
 the Psalms are placed on an equality with the Law and the Prophets, 
 and are even recognised as a part of them : a rank which can on no 
 pretence be claimed for the other books of the Hagiographa. By 
 the same divine authority, Daniel is taken from the Hagiographa, and 
 established in his proper grade among the Prophets [|: the book of 
 Lamentations did not require a similar recognition, if it was then 
 reckoned as part of Jeremiah. 
 
 An objection or two here demand notice. 
 
 (2.) When I say, that this rank can on no pretence be claimed for 
 the other books of the Hagiographa, I am not ignorant that it is cus- 
 tomary to affirm, that where the Lord mentions the Law, the Prophets, 
 and the Psalms, he includes under the latter title the whole of the Ha- 
 giographa : but really this is a pure figment, invented by the schools to 
 support the credit of books, the true nature of which they did not 
 know how to estimate, and which they saw, unless they could thus be 
 tacked on to the Psalms, must be confessed to be disowned, by divine 
 authority, as forming part of the proper Word of God. In behalf of 
 this fiction it is urged, that it was customary with the Jews to connect 
 several books in a volume, and to call them all by the name of the 
 first t but no example of their thus connecting so many and so different 
 books together, and giving to them all the name of the first, can be 
 produced. It is urged, that it was usual thus to unite the books of 
 Judges and Ruth, and to call them both "Judges:" but everyone must 
 see that this is by no means a parallel case, since Ruth might, without 
 any obvious impropriety, be considered as a supplement to Judges. 
 The union of Jeremiah with Lamentations, which is also pleaded, 
 is stHl less in point : since these are unquestionably from the pen 
 of one writer. The calling of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah 
 the first and second books of Ezra, is not more to the purpose, 
 since this originated in the mistake of supposing that celebrated 
 " scribe" to be the author of them both. And to appeal to the book 
 of the twelve minor prophets, is to produce a comparison destitute of 
 all similitude, since this combination is not named, as the case hi 
 
 * Ezra vii. 6. + Ver. 12, 21. J Matt. v. 18 ; Luke xvi. 17. 
 
 $ John x. 34. || Matt. xxiv. 15. 
 
 c2 
 
XX APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 proof of which it is cited requires, Hosea, but the Twelve. Indeed, 
 as well might the Divine Speaker, instead of " the Law" have said 
 " Genesis," and " Judges" instead of " the Prophets," as have 
 named " the Psalms" instead of the Haglographa : and as well might 
 the learned undertake to prove that he deviated from the peculiar 
 Jewish modes of citation in not using the two first titles, as that he 
 followed it in using the last.* 
 
 (3.) Nor is the division of the Scriptures anciently used by the 
 Greeks, which regards the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccle- 
 siastes, and Canticles, as possessing a common poetical character, and 
 thus proper to form a general book together ; and which many have 
 maintained to be the division alluded to by the Lord Jesus Christ ; at 
 all capable of being better accommodated to his words : though it 
 seems to have been contrived expressly for the purpose. This theory 
 assumes as its basis, that these five books are the only poetical books 
 in the Bible, and may on that account all be included under the de- 
 scription of psalms or hymns : but beside that none of these, except 
 the proper book of Psalms, (unless it be that of Canticles,) is at all 
 adapted for singing, it is indubitably known, since the labours of 
 Bishop Lowth, that all the prophetical books have as much right to 
 be called poetical as these, the language of them all possessing quite 
 as decided a rhythmical arrangement. Josephus, also, who, beside 
 the law and thirteen historical and prophetical books, reckons four 
 others, says of these four, that they " contain hymns to God, AND 
 precepts for the conduct of human lifef;" whence it is evident, that 
 the title of Hymns or Psalms, far from being common to all the 
 books since called the poetical ones, was then, as now, limited to the 
 
 * An example which Home gives of " the Jewish manner of quoting," 
 (vol. ii. p. 149. Note 2.) with a view to illustrate this subject, is singu- 
 gularly mal-a-propos, and shews to what weak shifts the defenders of the 
 notion are fain to have recourse : " St. Peter," he observes, ** when ap- 
 pealing to prophecies in proof of the gospel, says * All the prophets from 
 Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise 
 foretold of these days,' (Acts Hi. 24.) In which passage," adds the learned 
 writer, " the apostle plainly includes the books of Samuel in the class of 
 prophets." Who doubts it ? And who doubts that when Jesus Christ speaks 
 of" the prophets," he includes the books of Samuel ? But St. Peter ought 
 only to have mentioned Samuel when he meant all the prophets, to 
 lend any countenance to the inference, that when Je^us Christ mentions 
 the Psalms he meant all the Hagiographa. Peter's mentioning, beside 
 Samuel, " all the prophets," plainly shews that it was not <; the Jewish 
 manner of quoting" to cite by the lump, and to destroy all intelligible 
 meaning by palpable misnomers. 
 
 + Against Apion, B. i. 8. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXI 
 
 single book which alone answers to the name. And assuredly the 
 language of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not less justly appropriated to 
 its subject, or employed with less discrimination, than that of the 
 historian Josephus. 
 
 Altogether, it is perfectly evident, that the Jews never gave the 
 name of " the Psalms" to any books but the one which bears it at 
 present, and that the notion that this was a generic name for the 
 whole Hagiographa has nothing to support it but gratuitous assertion : 
 hence it follows, that when the Lord, in the passage above cited, 
 mentions "the Psalms," he uses the title in its proper and specific 
 sense, and meant to select the book so named from those which the 
 Jews called the Hagiographa, and to place this, to the exclusion of 
 the rest, in the same rank with " the Law and the Prophets," to 
 claim for it alone, in conjunction with the Law and the Prophets, the 
 honour of immediate and plenary inspiration. 
 
 4. Another proof that the books called the Law and the Prophets, 
 with the Psalms, are the only books of THE WORD in the Old Tes- 
 tament, and that those properly named Hagiographa are not so, 
 but merely, as the name implies, the writings of holy men, is afforded 
 by the striking fact, that the latter are never quoted, or in any way 
 referred-to, by the Lord or by the Evangelists. Neither are any of 
 them, except the book of Proverbs, (four or five times,) and the book 
 of Job, (once,) cited or alluded to in the Apostolic Epistles, which 
 so abound with citations from the Law and the Prophets. We shall 
 see presently, that the book of Proverbs is an authentic doctrinal 
 writing of the Jewish Church ; whence it is properly acknowledged 
 in the authentic doctrinal writings of the Christian Church : but as 
 such writings, though produced under a special illumination, are not 
 absolutely divine, they are not noticed in those books which are 
 divine indeed; being the compositions of men, though of highly 
 gifted men, they are not recognised by Him who receiveth not testi- 
 mony from man.* If their being quoted in the Epistles proved them 
 to belong to the plenarily inspired Scriptures, we must receive as 
 plenarily inspired Scripture the apocryphal book of Enoch, quoted by 
 Judef, and the comedies of Menander, cited by Paul}; if not, also, 
 the Phenomena of Aratus, and the Chresmol of Epimenides||. 
 
 5. The distinction, then, between the Hngiographa and those wri- 
 tings which the Scriptures themselves acknowledge as THE SCRIP- 
 TURES, is marked, by the highest Authority, with a line sufficiently 
 broad and impassable : and it is equally admitted by the Jews them- 
 selves, who, though their ideas on the subject do not seem very clear, 
 
 * John v. 34. t Ver. 14. t 1 Cor - xv - 33 - 
 
 k Actsxvii. 28. II Tit. i, 12. 
 
APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 affirm the inspiration of the Hagiographa to be essentially different 
 in its kind from that of the Law and the Prophets. Home states on 
 this subject*, (and his statement is the same in substance with that of 
 Leusdenf,) that " this third class or division of the Sacred Books has 
 received its appellation of Cetubim, or Holy Writings, because they 
 were not orally delivered, as the law of Moses was; but the Jews 
 affirm, that they were composed by men divinely inspired, who, how- 
 ever, had no public mission as prophets : and the Jews conceived, 
 that they were dictated not by dreams, visions, or voice, or in other 
 ways, as the oracles of the prophets were, but that they were more 
 immediately revealed to the minds of their authors :" and what is this 
 but confessing, that they were not positively dictated at all, but were 
 the thoughts of the minds of the authors, the result of a certain 
 illumination which they had received? It is true, that this is de- 
 scribed by the Jews in pretty high terms j but not in higher than 
 those in which they speak of their Talmud and its Rabbins, all 
 whose writings or sayings, though often avowedly contradictory to 
 each other, they equally affirm to be the productions of inspiration. J 
 They admit, however, this inspiration to be not the same as that of 
 Moses and the prophets. But only two general kinds of inspiration 
 can possibly be conceived ; the one being that in which the inspired 
 person is entirely possessed by the inspiring power, and, no longer 
 compos sui, is the mere organ for expressing its dictations ; in which, 
 according to the precisely accurate definition of the Apostle Peter, 
 the prophecy, or thing enunciated, comes not at the will, or pleasure, 
 of man, but the party speaks as he is moved or actuated by the Holy 
 Ghost ; and the other being that in which the speaker or writer 
 still remains his own master, and what he delivers proceeds from his 
 own mind, though from a mind illuminated by a wisdom which is 
 the gift of God j which species of inspiration, also, the same Apostle 
 defines with the same accuracy, when he says, "Even as our beloved 
 brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath writ- 
 ten unto you." || Now as the Jews do not affirm that their Hagiogra- 
 phers possessed the first of these kinds of inspiration, it follows, how- 
 ever they may express it, that they only mean to claim for them the 
 second. 
 
 6. A clear distinction, then, we find, between the inspiration of 
 the absolute Word of God and that of the Hagiographa, comes out full 
 on all hands : and a slight inspection of the principal of these writings 
 will further evince, that an inferior kind of inspiration, but sometimes 
 
 Introd. Vol. ii. p. 150. + Phil. Heb. Dis. ii. $ ix. 
 
 t Leusd. Phil. Heb. Mixt. Dis. xii. vi. Dis. xiii. 
 
 2 Pet. i. 21. (1 Ch. iii. 15. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XX111 
 
 attended with great illumination, is the highest to which they have 
 any pretensions. 
 
 (1.) We have stated above, that, owing to the manner in which the 
 letter of the Divine Word is necessarily constructed, it is according 
 to the order of Divine Providence, that, under every dispensation 
 which derives its knowledge of divine things from a written Word, 
 men should be raised up to deliver authoritatively, in less ambiguous 
 language, the doctrines proper to guide the faith and practice of that 
 church ; which doctrines are all contained in the Word itself, and are 
 all capable of being confirmed by express declarations of its literal 
 sense. Now who will not readily admit, that the books of Proverbs 
 and Ecclesiastes, though not drawn up in the style that would be 
 chosen by modern composers of Bodies of Divinity, are writings of 
 this character, delivering, in a compendious form, the authentic 
 doctrines of the yet uncorrupt church of Israel? How many plain 
 precepts of true wisdom are presented, in the former part of the book 
 of Proverbs, as the exhortations of Wisdom personified ! In the latter 
 part, how many dictates of prudence regarding the conduct of life ! 
 In the book of Ecclesiastes, how impressive a sermon is delivered on 
 the unsatisfactoriness of all earthly enjoyments; a sermon most 
 admirably adapted to the correction of the Jewish character, which 
 is so prone to place, in earthly enjoyments, the whole of its satisfac- 
 tions ! So, after the author of " the Proverbs," has propounded the 
 design of the book, and has stated, almost in so many words, that he 
 is about to deliver a body of doctrine, how suitably to such a design 
 does he begin his instructions with declaring, in a quotation from the 
 plenarily inspired Scriptures which speaks the plain truth in the letter, 
 that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge*!" and 
 how appropriately as well as pithily does the author of Ecclesiastes 
 close his work with the sum of all true doctrine, concisely stated in 
 language taken from the same source : " Let us hear the conclusion 
 of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this 
 is the whole duty of manf !" It is true that both these books contain 
 much figurative language; but they are not written with a uniform 
 regard to the laws of spiritual Analogy, and do not, like those books 
 which are so written, include a spiritual sense in a regular series : 
 thus the words in which the sentiments are expressed were not dic- 
 tated, as in the other books, to the pen of the writer, but were se- 
 lected by himself: and though phrases borrowed from the language of 
 Analogy are frequently introduced, they are such as are still, for the 
 most part, easily intelligible, and must, among the orientals, have been 
 quite familiar. Indeed, one intention of the book of Proverbs is 
 
 * Prov. i. 7 : See Ps. cxi. 10. + Eccl. xii. 13 : See Deut. vi. 2. 
 
XXIV APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 expressly stated to be, to enable the reader " to understand a proverb, 
 and the interpretation ; the words of the wise, and their dark 
 sayingvS*:" and thus to afford a clew to the doctrinal interpretation of 
 the Holy Word, according to the highest views that were capable of 
 being received under the Jewish dispensation. 
 
 (2.) But a considerable portion of the books of the Hagiographa 
 consists of historical writings ; and these, if not directly useful for the 
 doctrinal interpretation of the Word, are yet eminently so for the 
 elucidation of many allusions in it, which it would be difficult to 
 understand without a knowledge of some facts, respecting which the 
 historical books of the Word itself are silent. This remark is eminently 
 true in regard to the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles : what- 
 ever then might be the degree of the secondary inspiration enjoyed by the 
 writers and compilers of those books, we can have little hesitation 
 in conceding to them, all that Bishop Tomline requires us to admit 
 respecting the historical books that are absolutely THE Scriptures; 
 when he says, " It is sufficient to believe, that, by the general 
 superintendance of the Holy Spirit, they were directed in the choice 
 of their materials, enlightened to judge of the truth and importance 
 of those accounts from which they borrowed their information, and 
 prevented from recording any material error ;" a description which 
 is as honourable and just, when applied to these Hagiographers, as 
 it is unjust and degrading when applied to the interior Prophets. 
 
 (3.) But what shall we say of the Song of Solomon? Doubtless 
 the reader expects that I should be glad of a plea for taking this 
 book out of the Hagiographa, and vindicating its title to a place 
 among the prophets. Many who will deny THE Scriptures to be 
 written in the language of Analogy, and will not hear of their 
 containing a spiritual sense throughout, will be ready enough to 
 make us a present of this book, to be thus decyphered, and proved 
 to be really an edifying performance. But we cannot avail ourselves 
 of the boon : and we think that modern expositors have erred as 
 much in seeking for spiritual mysteries in this amatory effusion, 
 as in rejecting them in the greater part of the books which are 
 essentially divine. Here the interpreters are ready to adopt any 
 mode of explanation that will give a religious turn to what ? to a 
 work which never speaks of God, nor shews by a single trait that 
 God was ever in the thoughts of the writer. Even the true principle 
 of spiritual interpretation has here been thought of, and endeavoured 
 to be applied : and the analogy of the marriage covenant has been 
 beautifully deduced for this purpose by Bishop Lowth.f Speaking 
 of the covenant between God and his church, the conditions of which 
 * Ch. i. 6. t Apud Home, Vol. iv. p. 141, 142. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 are, " on the one part, love, protection, and support ; on the other, 
 faith, obedience, and worship pure and devout ;" he proceeds thus : 
 " This is that conjugal union between God and his church ; that solemn 
 compact so frequently celebrated by almost all the sacred writers 
 under this image. It is, indeed, a remarkable instance of that species 
 of metaphor which Aristotle calls analogical ; that is, when, in a 
 proposition consisting of four ideas, the first bears the same relation to 
 the second as the third does to the fourth, and the corresponding words 
 may occasionally change their places without any injury to the sense. 
 Thus, in this form of expression, God is supposed to bear exactly the 
 same relation to the church as a husband to a wife j God is represented 
 as the spouse of the church, and the church as betrothed to God. 
 Thus also, when the same figure is maintained with a different mode 
 of expression, and connected with different circumstances, the relation 
 is still the same : thus the piety of the people, their impiety, their 
 idolatry, and rejection, stand in the same relation with respect to the 
 sacred covenant, as chastity, modesty, immodesty, adultery, with 
 respect to the marriage contract," &c. This is a valuable testimony 
 in favour of the principle of Analogy, the regularity which properly 
 belopgs to it, and its use in the Word of God : it is also an elegant and 
 clear elucidation of the specific analogy which the marriage-union 
 bears to the connection of God with his church ; but to apply this to 
 the erotic strains of the Song of songs, appears a feal prostitution. 
 The image is truly said to be of frequent occurrence in the really 
 divine books of Scripture ; but it is there always used with the dignity 
 and gravity suited to the august Being who is the principal party in 
 the represented union. It is true, also, that the image afforded by 
 the conjugal covenant is exactly representative of the union between 
 God and his church : but every love-song is not therefore to be gravely 
 explained of this sacred union : and it will be difficult to say, if this 
 explanation is to be admitted in regard to the Song of Solomon, why 
 it should not be applied to the Idyls of Theocritus, between which 
 and the Hebrew poem the critics have discovered some extraordinary 
 points of similitude. It is true, again, that the language of the book, 
 like that of all oriental poetry, is, throughout, loaded with figures, 
 some of which, no doubt, are drawn from the language of Analogy : 
 but it is not the containing of a few, nor even of many, phrases and 
 ideas of this kind, that will impart to a book a truly spiritual sense. 
 As hieroglyplucal representations were applied to other subjects beside 
 religious ones, so were the forms of speech drawn from the lower 
 analogies. Thus, of ideas connected with the subject of love, numer- 
 ous images may be found in inanimate and irrational objects. Various 
 significant phrases of this kind are contained in this poem ; and be- 
 
 d 
 
APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 cause these give it a mystical air, it has been assumed to be a divine 
 composition, treating of no lower love than that between the Lord 
 and his church. As a sample of Asiatic poetry, the Song of Solomon 
 may be very beautiful ; and it certainly is very interesting, as a curious 
 remain of antiquity : but as it contains nothing that savours of holiness, 
 any further than as all mutual love that is sincere and pure is holy, 
 there is room to suspect that the Jews have made a mistake in putting 
 this poem even among their Hagiographa. Not one reference to 
 it can be fairly traced in the New Testament; though the com- 
 mentators, sensible how much it stood in need of countenance, 
 have not failed to force a few. 
 
 Very different is the book of Job, which abounds with real spiritual 
 analogies, and the whole structure of which is doubtless framed to 
 convey an important spiritual lesson. Its great antiquity is acknow- 
 ledged ; and indeed it scarcely seems to be a writing belonging to the 
 Mosaic dispensation : but an attempt to estimate the true character 
 of this book would demand an extended discussion, and is not at 
 all necessary to the present argument. 
 
 Perhaps we may now be permitted to consider, that the point in 
 question, as far as regards the Old Testament is established; that 
 in that division of the Bible the books properly called the Law and 
 the Prophets, with the Psalms, are alone written by the plenary in- 
 spiration ; and that the bulk of those denominated Hagiographa 
 consists of doctrinal, and supplementary historical writings, designed 
 to assist the interpretation of the former. 
 
 HI. In regard to the smaller collection of the New Testament, 
 the case will be found to be the same : and though here we do not 
 possess, respecting the several books which compose it, the recorded 
 testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to determine to which class they 
 respectively belong, the internal evidence afforded by the books them- 
 selves is sufficient to guide our judgment : beside which, strong exter- 
 nal evidence may also be offered. 
 
 Suppose then, in the New Testament, the four Gospels be con- 
 sidered as possessing a character similar to that of the Law and 
 Anterior Prophets of the Old Testament, and the Apocalypse as 
 belonging to the same class as the Posterior Prophets; whilst the 
 Acts of the Apostles, and their Epistles, answer to the ancient Ha- 
 glographa, though replete with the superior light belonging to a 
 higher dispensation : thus that the Gospels and Apocalypse were 
 written by the primary and plenary, and the Acts and Epistles by the 
 secondary and personal inspiration : in which case, in the former books 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXV11 
 
 the very words will be inspired, and will contain a spiritual sense 
 within them, and in the latter, the doctrinal sentiments alone will 
 partake of inspiration. 
 
 1. We will not here offer any examples to shew, that the Gospels 
 and Apocalypse contain a spiritual sense, which is the necessary 
 consequence of plenary inspiration ; some are given in the Lectures 
 themselves. But we may observe, (1.) as some sort of external 
 evidence, that an idea of the greater sanctity, and more immediate 
 divinity, of the Gospels than of the Epistles, extensively prevailed 
 in the early ages of Christianity. I lake a few testimonies hastily 
 from Lardner. 
 
 Ignatius speaks of " fleeing to the Gospel as the flesh of Jesus, 
 and to the Apostles, as the presbyters of the church"* Justin Martyr 
 says, " The Gospels were read publicly as well as the Old Testa- 
 mentf;" but he does not say the same of the Epistles. Irenaeus 
 says, " the doctrines of the Apostles are agreeable to the Sacred 
 Scriptures};" thus distinguishing them from THE Scriptures them- 
 selves. Augustine says, " In the New Testament, the four Gospels 
 have the highest authority " 
 
 (2.) That the Gospels are written by the plenary inspiration, is also 
 what any man would naturally expect, who reflects on the nature of 
 the matters which they contain; for surely no language but that 
 of plenary inspiration can be worthy of recording the actions and 
 discourses of the Incarnate God. The subject is too eminently 
 sacred, and too profoundly important, to be easily compatible with 
 the supposition, that He to whom it relates would suffer the narratives 
 of it, which have actually been received as authentic and venerated as 
 divine through all ages of the church, to be composed in any but the 
 truly divine style of writing. If the books of Moses and the Anterior 
 Prophets, which are chiefly of the historical kind, recording the deal- 
 ings of God with the children of Israel, were* on account of the 
 spiritual signification of the things of which they treat, delivered in 
 the style which constitutes a writing the absolute Word of God, and 
 were, as we have seen, acknowledged as such by the Word Incarnate ; 
 much more should we expect that the authentic accounts of the 
 Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection, and Glorification, of the Word 
 made Flesh, would be given by the same inspiration, and would equally 
 belong to the written Word. All such parts of them as record the 
 discourses of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they only faithfully record 
 them, must be of this character. For, as is shewn in the Lectures, 
 all revelation of the Divine Truth flows from God, who is in the 
 
 * Gospel History, vol. iii. p. 178. 8vo. ed. 
 + Vol. iii. p. 262. i Ib. p. 393. S Vol. xii. p. 302. 
 
 d2 
 
XXV111 APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 inmost of all things, into the world of nature, and there clothes itself 
 with natural expressions ; whence it necessarily includes spiritual 
 and divine ideas in its bosom which do not appear upon the surface : 
 now if we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, to have 
 been the Divine Truth itself personified, to have been " the Word" 
 which "was with God," and which " was God*," " made Fleshf," 
 then must all his words have been divine in the most absolute sense ; 
 they must have flowed from the Divinity resident within him, and 
 must have been the proper expressions, in natural language supplied 
 from the human part of his constitution, of the pure Divine Wisdom : 
 accordingly, as is shewn in the second Lecture^, he himself claims 
 for them a spiritual and divine meaning. And all the actions of this 
 wonderful Being must have been equally expressive. For, as is 
 shewn in the third Lecture, none of the objects in outward nature are 
 arbitrary creations, mere shells of matter unconnected with any spiri- 
 tual essence, but are actual outbirths from things of a superior order, 
 -developernents in a lower sphere of purer existences in a higher, and 
 first originating in their prototypes in the Divine Nature, for the ex- 
 pression of which they thus afford the proper corresponding types. Now 
 if this is the character of all the works of Divinity, it must equally be 
 the character of all the actions of a Being who had Divinity within him. 
 As every word which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke while on earth, he 
 spoke from the Divinity within him ; so every work which he performed, 
 he performed from the same Source j and both must equally have 
 been expressions of divine affections and ideas. When he spoke, he 
 could not but communicate divine instruction j and when he acted, he 
 could not but communicate divine instruction also ; only, as the com- 
 mentators affirm of many typical events in the Old Testament, he 
 then communicated instruction by actions instead of words. Is it then 
 to be supposed, that the just recording of actions so weighty, the true 
 import of which might be lost by the slightest misstatement, or by the 
 use, in describing them, of a single inappropriate expression, would 
 not be provided for by a plenary and verbal inspiration ? The recording 
 of the most wonderful of all events that have ever been transacted on 
 the theatre of the universe, and the most pregnant with eternal con- 
 sequences, is too holy an ark tojie touched with unhallowed hands ; 
 and all hands must here be regarded as unhallowed, even those of the 
 holiest of men, if in any respect actuated by " the will of men," if 
 not entirely, to the exclusion of all human operation, possessed and 
 " moved by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 (3.) But proof quite demonstrative of the plenary and verbal in- 
 spiration of the Evangelists, might, I am satisfied, be drawn out of 
 * Jobni.l. f Ver. 14. t P. 73, 74. 
 
NO. If. APPENDIX. XXIX 
 
 the famous controversy on the origin of the three first Gospels : but to 
 do any justice to this argument would require an extended discussion ; 
 and our limits will here confine us to a brief statement. 
 
 No one can have read the New Testament with any attention, with- 
 out having observed, that there is, among the three first Gospels, a 
 considerable similarity, which extends so far, that they frequently 
 detail occurrences in the very same words. This has given rise to an 
 opinion, that they, in part at least, copied from each other $ and as the 
 resemblance is greatest between Matthew and Mark, it became usual 
 with many to consider the Gospel of Mark as a mere abridgment 
 of that of Matthew. More accurate examination, however, has 
 shewn, that this is a mistake ; and it has even been proved to be in the 
 highest degree probable, that the Evangelists never saw each other's 
 compositions, and quite certain that not one of them copied from 
 either of the others in preparing his own. This being ascertained, 
 the critics, to account for their resemblances, had recourse to the sup- 
 position, that seme prior document, since lost, was extant before any 
 of the Gospels was written, and that the three first Evangelists, 
 though they did not copy from each other, all drew from one common 
 source. But it was soon found that the supposition of one previous 
 document would by no means account for all the circumstances of the 
 case : and whoever wishes to see the extent of gratuitous supposition 
 which the advocates of this theory are compelled to employ, before they 
 can make it yield even a possible solution of the difficulty, should 
 consult Bishop Marsh's elaborate Essay on the origin of the three first 
 Gospels, appended to his translation of Michaelis on the New Testa- 
 ment : the learned writer is obliged to conjure up no fewer than ten 
 imaginary sets of memoirs, before he can find sufficient materials 
 for the construction of these Gospels : and, after all, his hypothesis 
 has been shewn, by Bishop Randolph, Mr. Veysie, and others, not 
 completely to explain the phenomena, and, if it did, to be itself 
 attended with difficulties which render its truth impossible. Other 
 attempts to account for the coincidences and variations of the three 
 first Evangelists, upon the supposition of their being drawn from prior 
 documents, have been made : but their failure has been such as com- 
 pletely to prove, that the theory of their copying from previous 
 documents is as incapable of solving the circumstances of the case, as 
 that of their copying from one another. 
 
 What then must be the conclusion ? 
 
 The facts, be it remembered, are these : 
 
 A frequent verbal agreement occurs among the three Evangelists, 
 and this, not only when they relate the discourses of the Lord Jesus 
 
XXX APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 Christ, where some agreement might be expected ; but when they are 
 narrating facts. 
 
 But it is evident, that if two or three eye-witnesses of certain facts 
 were afterwards to draw up an account of them, though they might 
 agree in the main circumstances, they would never relate them in pre- 
 cisely the same words. 
 
 Where, then, two or more merely human historians relate their 
 facts in precisely the same words, we have a sure proof that they 
 either copied from each other, or from some common document 
 accessible to them all. 
 
 But it appears to be certain, that the coincidences of the Evangelists 
 cannot be accounted for from either of these causes. 
 
 What solution then remains, but that they drew from a common 
 source of a different nature ; viz. from the Spirit of God, which not 
 only inspired them in regard to the facts which they were to record, 
 (which degree of inspiration, even, is totally incompatible with the 
 picking and culling, altering and omitting processes which the other 
 theories involve,) but dictated to their pens the very words in which 
 they should record them ? This is, in reality, the most natural 
 solution of the difficulty ; or rather, it is a solution of the case which 
 removes all difficulty : since the circumstances are found to admit of 
 no other, it is the only possible one, also ; and, to those who admit 
 the possibility, which, I believe, none have ever denied, of plenary 
 and verbal inspiration, it is equally easy and satisfactory. 
 
 And if this will account for the verbal agreements of the Evan- 
 gelists, it will equally account for their variations : but that is a ques- 
 tion which we will not take up here. Something is said upon it in the 
 sixth Lecture. 
 
 There is' then, unquestionably, very strong reason for supposing, that 
 the Gospels are written by plenary inspiration, and, of course, contain a 
 spiritual sense within the outward expression : and surely as much 
 may be said of that evidently symbolic and mysterious composition, 
 the Apocalypse. We may then safely assume, that these books are 
 the plenarily inspired writings, the Law and the Prophets, of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 2. And it will be found, on a careful examination, that the other 
 books of the New Testament are its Hagiographa, and are to be 
 understood, except when they relate visions or prophecies, by their 
 literal expression alone; that they contain the doctrines of the 
 Christian religion, with the actions of some of its first promoters, 
 written by men whose minds were under a general illumination from 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXXI 
 
 (1.) In application to these books, the nature of inspiration is 
 accurately laid down by Dr. A. Clarke, in the words of Dr. Whitby, 
 one of the most learned and highly esteemed of the Commentators on 
 the New Testament : but I choose to take his testimony from Dr. 
 Clarke, because it thus conies as the decision both of Church-of- 
 England and of Methodist orthodoxy. Dr. W., indeed, applies his 
 assertions to all the writers of the New Testament ; but it is remark- 
 able, that he finds his proofs in the Epistolary compositions alone. 
 His words are these : 
 
 " I contend only for such an inspiration or divine assistance of the 
 sacred writers of the New Testament, as will assure us of the truth of 
 what they wrote, whether by inspiration of suggestion, or direction, 
 only; but not for such an inspiration as implies, that even their 
 words were dictated, or their phrases suggested, by the Holy Ghost. 
 This, in some matters of great moment, might be soj St. Paul 
 declaring that 'they spoke the things which were given them of 
 God, in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth,' (1 Cor. ii. IS 1 ;) 
 if that relate not to what the Holy Ghost had taught them out of the 
 Old Testament. But that it was not always so, is evident, both from 
 the consideration that they were Hagiographers, who are suffered to 
 be left to the use of their own words ; and from the variety of the 
 style in which they write*, and from the solecisms which are some- 
 times visible in their compositions ; and more especially from their 
 own words, which manifestly shew, that, in some cases, they had no 
 such suggestion from the Holy Ghost, as doth imply, that he had 
 dictated those words unto them. For instance, when St. Paul declares 
 his will or purpose to do what he was hindered by the providence of 
 God from doing; as when he says to the Romans : " When I go into 
 Spain, I will come to you," (ch. xv. 24.) " I will come by you into 
 Spain," (ver. 28.) For though he might, after his enlargement, go into 
 the west, where St. Clement says he preached ; and even into Spain, 
 as Cyril, Epiphanius, and Theodoret, say he did ; yet it is certain he 
 did not designedly go to Rome in order to an intended journey into 
 Spain : And when he says to the Corinthians, " I will come to you 
 when I pass through Macedonia," (1 Cor. xvi. 5.) and yet confesses, 
 in his second Epistle (i. 15, 16, 17,) that he did not perform that 
 journey : for it is not to be thought the Holy Ghost should incite 
 him to promise, or even to purpose, what he knew he would not 
 perform. This also we learn from all those places in which they do 
 express their ignorance, or doubtfulness, of that which they are 
 speaking of; as when St. Paul says, " I know not whether I baptized 
 
 * This however, as is shewn in the Lecture above, is not a conclusive 
 reason. 
 
XXX11 APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 any other," (i Cor.i. 16 :) and again, " Perhaps 1 will abide with you, 
 and winter with you," (1 Cor. xvi. 6:) and when St. Peter says, " By 
 Sylvanus, a faithful brother, as I suppose, I have written unto you." 
 (1 Pet. v. 12.) For these words do plainly shew, that in all these 
 things they had no inspiration or divine assistance. This, lastly, may 
 be gathered from all those places in which they only do express their 
 hope, and that conditionally, of doing this or that ; as in these words : 
 " I hope to see you in my journey," (Rom. xv. 2 :) "I will come unto 
 you quickly, if the Lord will:" (1 Cor. iv. 19:) " I hope to stay some 
 time with you, if the Lord permit :" (1 Cor. xvi. 7.) " / hope in 
 the Lord Jesus to send Timothy quickly to you;" (Phil. ii. 19,23.) 
 " And / trust that I myself also shall come quickly;" (24.) " These 
 things I write, hoping to come to thee quickly ; but if I should tarry, 
 that thou mayest know how to behave thyself in the church of God;" 
 (1 Tim. iii. 14, 15.) " I hope by your prayers, to be given unto 
 you;" (Philem. 22.) " This will we do, if the Lord permit ;" (Heb. 
 vi. 3:) "7 hope to come to you." (St. John, 2 Ep. 12, 3 Ep. 14.) 
 For spes est incertce ret nomen ; the word hope implies an uncer- 
 tainty ; whereas the Holy Spirit cannot be uncertain of any thing ; nor 
 can we think he would inspire men to speak so uncertainly ; and there 
 can be no necessity, nor even a use, of a divine assistance to enable a 
 man to express his hopes, seeing all men do, by natural reflection, 
 know them." 
 
 It will doubtless be admitted, that Dr. Whitby has here proved, with 
 perfect clearness, that the New Testament has its Hagiographa as 
 well as the Old. Thus he has proved, that the Apostolical Epistles 
 are not writings of plenary inspiration, and that the personal inspi- 
 ration of the first teachers of Christianity consisted in a general illu- 
 mination and divine direction, but did not extend to their very words. 
 I will only add a few remarks upon a passage in their writings, which, 
 while it plainly declares that their inspiration was not in general more 
 immediate than this, has mistakenly been supposed to imply also, 
 that on some occasions what they delivered was the absolute Word of 
 the Lord. 
 
 (2.) The Apostle Paul, when giving his advice on certain questions 
 relating to the marriage state, says, " But I speak this by permission, 
 not of commandment."* Presently he says, "And unto the married 
 7 command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her 
 husband : but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be recon- 
 ciled to her husband : And let not the husband put away his wife. But 
 to the rest speak I, NOT the Lord."-\- Again he says, " No\v concerning 
 virgins, / have no commandment of the Lord : yet I give my judg~ 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 6. t Ver. 10, 11, 12. 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXX111 
 
 merit, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."* 
 Again, respecting a widow's remaining single, he says, " She is 
 happier if she so abide, after my judgment : and I think also that I 
 have the Spirit of 6W."f Here he expressly gives his own judgment, 
 as something distinct from, and inferior to, the positive command of 
 the Lord, and not even infallible ; and yet as the result of a certain 
 inspiration, of his possessing the Spirit of God. He plainly teaches 
 then, that his own personal inspiration consisted in a certain general 
 illumination of the understanding : but what is the commandment of 
 the Lord, which he considers so superior? Authors tell us, " that the 
 subject of which the Apostle here delivers his opinion, was a matter 
 of Christian prudence, not a part of religious sentiment or practice." 
 " But," they say, " the Apostle's declaration, that as to this particular 
 matter, he spoke by permission and not of commandment, strongly 
 implies, that in other things, in things really of a religious nature, he 
 did speak by commandment from the Lord. Accordingly, in the 
 same chapter, when he had occasion to speak of what was matter of 
 moral duty, he immediately claimed to be under divine direction in 
 what he wrote : And unto the married I command, yet not I but the 
 Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband."^ But the distinc- 
 tion between points of duty and of prudence here laid down, will not 
 hold through: for the advice which the Apostle introduces with, 
 " But unto the rest speak I, not the Lord," does relate to a question 
 of moral duty: it is no less than this: Whether the reception of 
 Christianity is a justificatory plea for putting away a wife or deserting 
 a husband : and the Apostle decides it thus : " If any brother hath 
 a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let 
 him not put her away$:" &c. - The decision is worthy of a judgment 
 enlightened, as the Apostle affirms of his, by " the Spirit of God :" 
 again then we ask, What is that commandment of the Lord which he 
 considers so superior? Evidently, it is the express decision of the 
 Lord himself, pronounced while in the world, and recorded in the 
 books of plenary inspiration : and we find the very commandment 
 which Paul says is not his but the Lord's in Matt. xix. 9, Mark x. 
 11, 12, and Luke xvi. 8: and the first Gospel was certainly written, 
 and the others very probably, before this Epistle to the Corinthians : 
 But if it can be proved that he had not learned the fact in this way, 
 then it will follow, that, as he seems to intimate in Gal. i. 12, 
 he had received by immediate revelation a knowledge of the 
 chief passages of the Lord's life and discourses in the world: 
 
 * Ver. 25. + Ver. 40. 
 
 J Parry on the Inspiration of the Apostles, &c. apud Home, vol. i. p. 563. 
 
 $ Ver. 12 to 15. 
 
 e 
 
XXXIV APPENDIX. NO. II. 
 
 and this may afford countenance to the opinion which many have 
 entertained, that he was the real author of the third of the Gospels, 
 and that it was only written by Luke as his amanuensis. How- 
 ever he became acquainted with it, certain it is that he knew that 
 the Lord had delivered such a commandment, and that he speaks 
 of this as a different thing from his own customary and personal 
 inspiration. Just in the same manner he distinguishes, on other occa- 
 sions, between his own sentiments and the authoritative declarations 
 of THE Scriptures themselves ; as when he says in the next chapter 
 but one, " Say I these things as a man ? or saith not the Law the 
 same also?"* and quotes a passage from Deuteronomy. Plainly then 
 does this Apostle avow, what Peter affirms of him, that he wrote 
 according to the wisdom given unto him ; and fairly does he acknow- 
 ledge that this inspiration is different from that, the subjects of which 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Altogether it appears perfectly evident, that the Epistles are doc- 
 trinal writings, given through eminently illuminated men, to afford 
 a clew to the doctrinal interpretation of the plenarily inspired Scrip- 
 tures; respecting which they testify, among other things, that they 
 are written by a more immediate inspiration, and, differently from 
 themselves, contain a spiritual sense within the covering of the 
 Letter j some of their testimony to which effect is given in our second 
 Lecture.f 
 
 Without the slightest wish then to depreciate either the Apostolic 
 writings or the Hagiographa of the Old Testament, it must, we think, 
 be conceded, that the Gospels and Apocalypse, the Law and the Pro- 
 phets, are compositions of a very different order. All that is said, 
 by modern definers of Inspiration, of the sacred books in general, we 
 readily concede to be true of the writings which we have now been 
 considering : these we leave where the critics have placed them : but 
 we would fain elevate the others far higher. Respecting the character 
 of the Apostolic writings in particular, I fully accept the definitions 
 of the generally approved Author last quoted : " When they acted as 
 writers, recording Christianity for the instruction of the church in all 
 succeeding times, I apprehend, that they were under the guidance of 
 the Spirit as to the subject of which they treated ; that they wrote 
 under his influence and direction; that they were preserved from 
 all error and mistake in the religious sentiments they expressed ; and 
 that, if any thing were inserted in their writings, not contained in that 
 complete knowledge of Christianity of which they were previously 
 possessed, (as prophecies for instance,) this was immediately com- 
 municated to them by revelation from the Spirit. But with respect 
 * Ch. ix. 8. f P. 54, &c. and p. 75 to 87, 
 
NO. II. APPENDIX. XXXV 
 
 to the choice of words, I know not but they might be left," says 
 our author, who might safely have omitted the words of hesitation, 
 " to the free and rational exercise of their own minds, to express 
 themselves in the manner that was natural and familiar to them, 
 while at the same time they were preserved from error in the ideas 
 they conveyed."* All this is true: but it is greatly to be lamented, 
 that what is true of a part of the writings contained in the Bible, 
 of the hagiographical compositions, only, should inadvertently have 
 been extended to the whole. As it is obvious to every student and 
 believer of the Bible that some of its writers were under the influence 
 of a secondary and personal inspiration, it has been concluded that 
 this was the case with them all : and as it is evident that writings thus 
 produced can have none but the plain grammatical sense; whilst the 
 radical difference between compositions of this character and those 
 which are the result of an immediate divine afflatus has been over- 
 looked; many have at length concluded, that there is no real sense 
 but the grammatical one throughout the Word of God. 
 
 No. III. (Page 259.) 
 
 THE GREAT OBJECTS AND PHENOMENA OP THE MUNDANE SYSTEM 
 
 CONSIDERED, AS THEY ARE REFERRED TO IN THE LANGUAGE 
 
 OF PROPHECY AND OF THE SCRIPTURES IN GENERAL. 
 
 The significations by Analogy offered in the Lecture, of the great 
 
 objects of what Sir Isaac Newton calls " the world natural ;" of 
 
 heaven, earth, and earthquakes ; of the sun, moon, and stars ; and of 
 
 the darkening of the sun, turning of the moon into blood, and falling 
 
 of the stars ; must, it is presumed, be readily perceived to be well 
 
 founded. Not much argument then will be required to establish 
 
 them. It may, however, be useful to add a few remarks upon them, 
 
 and to shew, by some examples, that such is actually the meaning 
 
 borne by these magnificent symbols in the language of prophecy, and 
 
 of the Holy Word in general. 
 
 I. When the earth or world, in a most general sense, including the 
 whole "world natural," is mentioned in Scripture for the church 
 universal, the church considered in the most general manner; it is 
 only by a modification of a mode of expression frequent in common 
 discourse. We constantly speak of various countries, not with any 
 
 * Parry apud Home, vol. i. p. 561. 
 fi2 
 
XXXVI APPENDIX. NO. III. 
 
 allusion to the mere soil, but as a metonymy for the nations that in- 
 habit them, for the government and people. It is in this sense 
 that we speak of the distress or prosperity of our own country ; of 
 the policy of France, Austria, or Russia ; of the general aspect of 
 the continent; and of the growing power of America, or of the new 
 world. Just so it is when particular countries, or when the earth 
 in general, are mentioned in the Word of God : the continent is put 
 for the contents; the land for the inhabitants. This then seems to 
 support Sir Isaac Newton's application of " the world natural" to 
 " the world politic." But we are to remember, that, in the Word of 
 God, he who uses the figure is the Divine Being himself: and in what 
 respect can the inhabitants of the earth be supposed to be regarded 
 by the Divine Mind, but as to their reception or otherwise of the prin- 
 ciples which constitute the church ? It is not, we may be certain, as 
 to their political, but as to their spiritual relations, that the inhabitants 
 of the world are regarded by God. They are considered as belonging 
 either to the church properly so called, consisting of that portion of 
 the inhabitants of the earth who stand in a nearer relation to the 
 Author of their existence, in consequence of possessing a knowledge 
 of him by revelation; or to the church universal, which includes the 
 whole of mankind considered in their relation to God. As then, when 
 the earth is mentioned in Scripture, the inhabitants of it are meant ; 
 and as the inhabitants are only regarded in their relation to God, 
 that is, as connected with his church ; it is perfectly agreeable to the 
 use of a well-known figure of speech, to name the earth to signify 
 the church. 
 
 It is also well known, that when the earth is mentioned, it is fre- 
 quently only the land of Canaan that is referred to; and this is an 
 acknowledged symbol of the church : and the meaning is similar, but 
 more universal, when the earth is named for the whole " world na- 
 tural." 
 
 Now that this use of the term is frequent with the prophets, 
 might be shewn by numerous examples. Thus, in that beautiful 
 prediction so evidently referring to a future glorious state of the 
 church, when it is declared that " the wolf shall dwell with the lamb," 
 and when it is said of various noxious animals, "they shall not hurt nor 
 destroy in all my holy mountain;" the reason assigned for it is this ; 
 " For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
 waters cover the sea."* So in that awful denunciation of judgments 
 upon the earth, in the twenty-fourth chapter of the same prophet, 
 where the word earth or land is repeated almost in every verse ; 
 although some of the calamities enumerated might seem to relate to 
 * Is. xi. 9. 
 
NO. III. APPENDIX. XXXVii 
 
 the earth t literally, yet there is much which shews that the subject 
 really treated of is the church. To what else can these words be 
 applied: "The windows from on high are open, and the foundations 
 of the earth do shake : the earth is utterly broken down ; the earth 
 is clean dissolved ; the earth is moved exceedingly : the earth shall 
 reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage ; 
 and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fail 
 and not rise again" ?* The last clause, in particular, is by no means 
 predicable of the earth ; but the whole is most accurately descriptive, 
 in the language of Analogy, of the utter destruction of the Jewish 
 church : and to this alone, and to the substitution of pure Christianity 
 for corrupt Judaism, can be applied what is said of the sun and moon 
 at the conclusion of the prophecy : " Then the moon shall be con- 
 founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in 
 Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously ,"f 
 II. Without then further extending our quotations, it must, we may 
 presume be readily seen, that the earth, when mentioned generally, 
 is used as a symbol of the church. But heaven is spoken of in the 
 Scriptures as frequently as the earth; and it often happens, that 
 heaven and earth are mentioned together : and then it may be seen 
 with equal clearness, that by heaven is meant the internal of the 
 church, or, with respect to individuals, the internal man, and by 
 earth the external of the church, or the external man. 
 
 Two states of the church, the church militant and the church 
 triumphant, are usually recognised by divines ; all who are members 
 of the church on earth constituting the former, and all who are enjoy- 
 ing the reward of victory in heaven, constituting the latter: thus 
 the church militant is that which is usually called simply the church t 
 and the church triumphant is but another name for heaven. Now it 
 is certainly a very remarkable circumstance, that in so many languages 
 the name for the state and habitation of the blest is the same as that 
 for the visible fieavens or sky; or rather, the name properly belong- 
 ing to the latter is transferred to mean the former. In the English 
 language indeed, which has two words that signify the expanse above 
 or around the earth, we now more frequently apply the term heaven 
 to the seats of the blest, and the term shy to the visible firmament; 
 though we still frequently use the former word in its primitive signi- 
 fication : 
 
 " As from the face of heaven the scattered clouds 
 
 Tumultuous rove." 
 
 and we are apt to transfer the latter to the figurative sense ; thus, the 
 soul 
 
 " Breathes hopes immortal, and affects the skies." 
 * Ver. 18, 19, 20. t Ver. 2S. 
 
XXXV1J1 APPENDIX. NO. III. 
 
 Now whence came this application, by consent of nations, of the 
 name of the visible heavens to express the invisible, but from a per- 
 ception that they properly answer to each other by analogy, and that 
 the lower heavens are a proper type and symbol of the higher ? Hence 
 in the Word of God, the one is constantly described by the name of 
 the other. 
 
 But further: As, in addition to the analogies of each taken sepa- 
 rately, there is a similar relation between the visible heaven and earth 
 as between the heavenly state, or the church in heaven, and the church 
 on earth ; therefore, also, these are described by the combined phrase 
 heaven and earth : As, likewise, there is a similar relation between 
 the internal principles and heavenly graces constituent of a church 
 and its external order, profession and practice ; and between all that 
 belongs to the internal man and all that belongs to the external; 
 therefore these, also, are included in the meaning of the phrase, heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 Of the use of the terms in these significations, abundant instances 
 are afforded by the Scriptures. What else can be meant by these 
 images, when the prophet says, " Drop down, ye heavens, from 
 above, and let the skies pour down righteousness : let the earth open, 
 and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up 
 together?"* It is perfectly evident that the heavens and skies which 
 pour down righteousness, and the earth which opens to receive it, 
 and from which, in return, salvation and righteousness spring up, 
 cannot be the visible heavens, and the material earth : neither can 
 they be Sir Isaac Newton's " thrones and dignities" and " the in- 
 ferior people :" but they must be the heavens the abodes of bliss, and 
 the church rendered fruitful in good works by the divine influences 
 thence descending : and the same language may be applied to the two 
 principles of the human constitution recognised in theology by the 
 names of the internal and external man. So when Jehovah, in re- 
 ference to the establishment of the Christian dispensation, speaks of 
 heaven and earth as being then to be created, and says, " I have put 
 my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of my 
 hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the 
 earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my peoplef :" and when he says 
 again, "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the 
 former shall not be remembered nor come into mind : but be ye glad 
 and rejoice for ever in that which I create j for, behold, I create Je' 
 rusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joyj:" who can fail to see, that 
 the heavens, and new heavens, here spoken of, are the internal 
 principles of the Christian church, and the earth, and new earth, her 
 * Isa. xlv. 8. + Isa. li. 16. J Ch. Ixv. 17, 18. 
 
NO. III. APPENDIX. XXXIX 
 
 corresponding external ? whence they are in both cases mentioned in 
 connexion with Zion and Jerusalem, the acknowledged types of the 
 church ; and the creating of new heavens and a new earth is actually 
 spoken of as synonymous with creating Jerusalem a rejoicing and her 
 people a joy. Equally easy will be the interpretation of these symbols, 
 drawn from " the world natural," wherever they occur in the sacred 
 writings ; understand by heaven, in relation to the church, or to the 
 man of the church, the internal essence, and by the earth the external 
 form, and you will obtain a satisfactory and coherent meaning for every 
 passage in which they are mentioned throughout the Word of God. 
 
 III. If it be admitted that the earth signifies the external of the 
 church and of man, it will easily be admitted that the lowest parts of 
 the earth, with Hades or Hell, will signify the external man when 
 entirely separated from the internal, so as to be the mere abode of 
 infernal lusts and insane follies; with the state of misery consequent 
 thereupon hereafter : and also, that it may sometimes signify a state 
 of temptation, because then man appears to himself to be in danger 
 of such a condition. In the former sense of the phrase, the Psalmist 
 says, " But those that seek my soul to destroy it, shall go into the lower 
 parts of the earth"* On account, also, of the manifest analogy, the 
 term Hades or Hell, though originally signifying merely a subter- 
 raneous region, has been transferred to denote, in common use, the 
 state and place of misery hereafter j just as heaven, though originally 
 signifying the visible firmament, has come to be regarded as the 
 proper name of the state and place of eternal blessedness. But that 
 sometimes the term is used for a 'state of extreme temptation, 
 appears from the prayer of Jonah, all whose adventure with the fish 
 was representative of such a state, and who says respecting it, " Out 
 of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice."^ 
 
 IV. From the signification of the earth, and of heaven and earth, 
 as expressive of the church, it necessarily follows, that great earth- 
 quakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, are put for the shaking 
 of churches, so as to distract and overthrow them, or at least to 
 occasion a remarkable change in their state. Thus in the passage 
 quoted above from the twenty-fourth of Isaiah, in which the earth 
 so evidently signifies the church, it is said of it that its " foundations 
 shake," and that it shall " reel to and fro like a drunkard." As no 
 change in the state of the church ever occurred so great as that con- 
 sequent upon the Lord's coming into the world; therefore, in re- 
 ference to that event, it is written, " For thus saith the Lord of hosts : 
 Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the 
 earth, and the sea, and the dryland; and I will shake all nations; 
 
 * Ps. lxiii.9. t Ch. ii. 2. J Hag. ii.6,7. 
 
Xl APPENDIX. NO. III. 
 
 and the Desire of all nations shall come."* So, that a change in 
 the constitution of the church not less extraordinary was once again 
 to be experienced, seems to be intimated by the Revelator ; when, 
 after he heard '* a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the 
 throne, saying, It is done," he adds ; " And there were voices and 
 thunders, and lightnings : and there was a great earthquake, such as 
 was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and 
 so great ; -f* :" a most significant emblem, surely, of such a change as 
 must attend such a consummation as alone is worthy to be indicated 
 by the emphatic words heard from the throne of God, " It is done !" 
 
 V. We have considered already the signification of the creating of a 
 new heaven and anew earth, and, by consequence, of " the passing of 
 an old one, or of the beginning and end (or rather end and be- 
 ginning) of a world." If, as we have seen, the new heaven and new 
 earth predicted by Isaiah describe the Christian church, which was 
 to be a new dispensation both as to inward essence and outward 
 form, of course, the former heaven and earth, which, it is de- 
 clared, should no more be remembered nor come into mind, 
 must be the corrupt internal and ceremonial external of the Jewish 
 church : and, as the Word of God must ever be consistent with itself, 
 similar must be the import of these portentous symbols wherever they 
 occur in its pages. Certain it is that this interpretation of them will 
 every where yield a good and coherent sense. 
 
 VI. Sir Isaac Newton, though he interprets the sun of " the whole 
 species and race of kings," yet allows it occasionally to be Christ : 
 and that it is a striking representative of the Divine Being is testified 
 by the consent of the numerous nations who have worshipped him 
 under this image. Accordingly, the Psalmist affirms that " the Lord 
 God is a sun\:" so, Isaiah says of the restored church, " Thy sun 
 shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for 
 the Lord shall be thine everlasting light:" and by Malachi, still 
 more directly, the Lord declares, " But unto you that fear my name 
 shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." || 
 Indeed, the analogy between the Lord as the source of life to all 
 creation; of spiritual life, which consists in love and wisdom, imme- 
 diately, to all intelligent creatures, and of natural life, mediately, 
 to inanimate and irrational subjects ; and the sun as his vicegerent 
 for the communication of its life to mere matter, by dispensing its 
 beams of natural heat and light to this nether world ; is too obvious 
 to escape the attention of any one. The analogy between the heat 
 of the solar beams and the ardour of divine love, between the lucidity 
 
 * Hag. ii. 6, 7. t Rev. xvi. 17, 18. J Ps. Ixxxiv. 1 1 . 
 
 Ch. lx.20. y Ch.iv.2. 
 
NO. III. 
 
 APPENDIX. XJi 
 
 of the sun's rays and the illuminating efficacy of divine wisdom, are 
 also most striking. It has been shewn in the third Lecture*, that 
 there is an obvious and fixed relation between fire and love, between 
 light and truth ; and this must eminently hold between the solar fire 
 and light, and the love and wisdom of the Lord. The sun also, as 
 the secondary source of existence to its dependent worlds, cannot but, 
 in the very nature of things, image forth in its properties the First 
 Cause of existence, the Creator of itself and of all things. It cannot 
 then be doubted, that in writings composed upon the principles of 
 Analogy, the sun would often be taken as a symbol of the Lord -, as 
 we see is done in the passages above quoted. 
 
 But it is not so much of the Divine Being, personally, that the sun 
 is taken as an emblem in the Scriptures, as of the first essential 
 property of the Divine Nature, which is the divine love; whence it is 
 often coupled with the moon, and it is even said, as in the passage just 
 cited from Isaiah, that the Lord will be both sun and moon to his 
 people; for the moon, as shining by a borrowed light, is the apt 
 symbol of the principle of faith, which is produced in the mind 
 by instruction in divine subjects outwardly communicated. There is 
 also a distinction made in the Scriptures between the light of the 
 moon, and the light of the sun. The light of the sun is a perception of 
 divine truth grounded in love : it is that which is experienced by those 
 whom the Lord calls his friends, or, as the original more strongly 
 says, his lovers, and who become such by doing whatsoever he com- 
 mands them-\~. and of which he declares, that it consists in a know- 
 ledge, communicated by him, of all things that he hath heard from his 
 Father^: but the light of the moon is that of those whom the Lord 
 calls servants, whose faith, being not so much founded in love, is not 
 attended with so clear an illumination of the understanding ; whence 
 the same Authority says, that the servant knoiveth not what his lord 
 doeth. Hence the one state is called in the Scriptures a state of days 
 the other, respectively, a state of night, not of a dark night, but of 
 a night irradiated by the light of the moon : thus we are called upon 
 to praise " him that made great lights; the sun to rule by <%,-r- 
 the moon and stars to rule by night "\\ 
 
 The stars, as noticed in the third Lecture^, are apt images of hea- 
 venly truths, or of specific matters of knowledge on spiritual subjects. 
 
 That such is the signification, in Scripture, of the sun, moon, and 
 stars, may sufficiently appear from this circumstance alone. John the 
 Revelator beheld " a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under 
 her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:'** Now this 
 
 * Page 174. + John xv. 14. J Ver. 15. Ibid. 
 
 I! Ps. oxxxvi. 7, 8-, 9. 5 P. 197. ** Rev. xii. 1. 
 
Xlli APPENDIX. NO. III. 
 
 woman is evidently the same as is elsewhere called " the bride, the 
 Lamb's wife*;" that is, she is the representative of the true church ; 
 wherefore also she is a personification of the new Jerusalem.-^ The 
 sun with which she appeared clothed, is a plain image of the divine 
 love by which the true church is animated, encompassed, and pro- 
 tected. The moon under her feet, forming as it were her footstool, 
 is a suitable image of that true faith upon which the church is repre- 
 sented in Scripture as founded: thus when Peter avowed his faith 
 in the Son of God, the Divine Person who was the object of his 
 belief said, " Upon this rock," the great doctrine of faith just 
 acknowledged, " will I build my church." J Because then the 
 church is built upon a true faith in the Lord, her personified emblem 
 was seen standing upon the moon, which is the symbol of such a faith. 
 The crown of twelve stars upon her head, was expressive of the 
 wisdom which results from the possession of all the truths of the 
 Word; for the number twelve is always mentioned as implying all 
 the truths of the Word and of the church, both those relating to faith 
 and those relating to charity; which is the reason that there were 
 twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles, that the new Jerusalem had 
 twelve foundations, and that this number, with its multiples, a hun- 
 dred and forty-four, and twelve thousand and a hundred and forty- 
 four thousand, is used on so very many occasions. The signification 
 of this number, however, not being requisite to the present inquiry, 
 we will not turn aside to consider it. 
 
 But the sun and moon are sometimes mentioned, not as images of 
 the Lord's divine love, and of a true faith, but of principles diametri- 
 cally opposite; which is the reason why the light of the sun and moon 
 is sometimes put in contrast with that of which the Lord is the au- 
 thor ; as in the passage of which a part was before quoted from Isaiah : 
 " The sun shall no more be thy light by day, neither for brightness 
 shall the moon give light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee 
 an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. " Still they retain their 
 general signification of love and faith t but denote different species 
 of them : the sun is then that self-love which rules with those who 
 reject the love of God, and the moon is that tissue of human inventions, 
 which, in such a state, men miscall faith. In this sense they are spoken 
 of as shedding evil influences, from which the objects of divine pro- 
 tection are to be secured : " The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor 
 the moon by night||:"* " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
 any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat."^ 
 VII. The signification of the sun, moon, and stars, in Scripture, 
 
 * Ch. xxi. 9, Ch. xix. 7. f Cb. xxi. 2. J Matt. xvi. 18. 
 Ch. Ix. 19. See also Rev. xxi. 23. Ps. cxxvi. 6. H Rev. vii. 16. 
 
NO. III. APPENDIX. 
 
 and the ground of that signification in that positive Analogy which 
 forms part of the laws of nature, must now, we would fain hope, 
 appear very certain : and if so, the signification of the darkening of 
 the sun, turning of the moon into blood, and fatting of the stars, 
 must also be evident, and they must be seen to denote the ceasing in 
 the professing church, or the perversion into their opposites, of pure 
 love to the Lord, true faith in him, and all just knowledge of spiritual 
 subjects. Thus we read in Joel, " I will shew wonders in the heavens 
 and in the earth, blood, fire, and pillars of smoke : the sun shall be 
 turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the 
 terrible day of the Lord come."* When was this prophecy fulfilled? 
 Peter, at the first effusion of the Holy Spirit, after the Lord's ascen- 
 sion, affirms that it was accomplished then.\ But what sun was then 
 darkened, but the sun of love in the Jewish church ; when a Divine 
 Teacher said of them, " I know you, that ye have not the love of God 
 inyouj;" "and this is the condemnation ; that light is^come into the 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds 
 were evil" And what moon was then turned into blood, but the 
 moon of true faith; when even the books of Moses were not believed 
 by them in any beneficial manner ; whence the same infallible Autho- 
 rity says of them, " Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed 
 me; for he wrote of me : but if ye believe not his icritings, how shall 
 ye believe my words ;"\\ and they are further reproached, not only 
 for departing from all true faith, but for setting up a false one in its 
 place, " teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."^ So, 
 when it is said that the tail of the dragon "drew the third part of 
 the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth**," how striking an 
 image is presented of the influence exercised by the evil upon the pure 
 truths of heaven, which are deprived, by low interpretations, of their 
 heavenly nature, and reduced to matters of common, earth-born 
 knowledge. 
 
 We will conclude with a word respecting the application of these 
 grand symbols to the downfal of particular nations ; as of Babylonff , 
 of Idumsea^, and of Egypt. In the truly spiritual sense, the signi- 
 fication will still be the same ; only then the nations also must be spi- 
 ritually understood, as representative of some general principle, or 
 class of persons, connected with the church. Even in reference to 
 the actual downfal of those states, as kingdoms of the " world politic," 
 it would be very difficult to shew that the sun is the king, the moon the 
 people, and the stars the great men; beside that they are thus 
 
 * Ch. ii. 30, 31. t See Acts ii. 16 to 20. f John v - 42 - 
 
 ^ Ch. iii. 19. || Ch. v. 46, 47. I Mark vii. 7. ** Rev. xii. 3. 
 ft Isa xiii. 10. Jt Ch.xxriv. 4. ^ Ezek. xxxii. 7. 
 
 f 2 
 
APPENDIX. ftO. IV. 
 
 reduced into tautological repetitions, the heavens and earth having 
 before been explained, by Sir Isaac, to signify princes and people. 
 Even then with regard to "the kingdoms of the world politic," it would 
 afford better sense to interpret the sun, moon, and stars, to be those 
 principles in the state, which love and faith, with divine knowledge, are 
 in the church ; and these will be, justice and judgment, civil good and 
 political wisdom, national integrity and sound maxims of state ; without 
 the cultivation of an adequate share of which, the mightiest empires 
 hasten to dissolution. 
 
 But all applications of such symbols to natufal objects or political 
 affairs are attended with great uncertainty, and it can seldom be shewn 
 that, with respect to these, they have a determinate signification : be- 
 cause these were not the things regarded in the Divine Mind, from which 
 the Word proceeded. In giving a revelation, its Divine Author must 
 have had eternal ends and spiritual objects in view: and if we explain, 
 of spiritual objects, the natural images employed in the divine style of 
 writing, we may always, if we possess the proper key, obtain a mean' 
 ing which is clear and satisfactory ; because between all natural objects 
 and certain spiritual ones there exists by creation a fixed analogy, which 
 may readily be traced, when we are sufficiently acquainted with the 
 properties of each. How far this has been accomplished in this essay, 
 in regard to the great objects and phaenomena of the mundane system, 
 it must be left to the reader to determine. 
 
 No. IV. (Page 361.) 
 
 THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE CLOUDS, WHEN MENTIONED IN 
 SCRIPTURE, FURTHER ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 The explanations of Scripture terms which are offered in this 
 Work, being new to most of our readers, would require, to do them 
 justice, a more extended elucidation and defence than our limits will 
 permit: However, if only one explanation, clearly drawn from a 
 fixed analogy, is firmly established, it is sufficient to evince the solidity 
 of the principle as a Rule of interpretation. We have dwelt at some 
 length, in the Lecture above, on the signification of clouds, and have 
 shewn, it is hoped, with some weight of evidence, that, when men- 
 tioned in reference to the Lord, they signify the Divine Truth clothed 
 with natural ideas and images, or the Word in its literal sense, which 
 is the Divine Truth so clothed : and as this explanation, though, when 
 
NO. IV. APPENDIX. 
 
 first propounded, it may appear unexpected and forced, seems to be- 
 come, on reflection, perfectly natural and easy, and to be capable of 
 being established with a certainty which nothing but the extreme of 
 scepticism can dispute ; we will here dwell upon it a little further, and 
 try what degree of light may be drawn, by its aid, from several obscure 
 and obviously enigmatical passages of the Holy Word. We have selected 
 this term for a detailed examination, not only because it is well cal- 
 culated to illustrate what we have called the Science of Analogies, 
 and to prove that in that Science must be sought the key for the true 
 interpretation of the Scriptures, but because it is also eminently 
 adapted to throw light upon the nature of the Scriptures themselves, 
 to evince that they consist of a glory and its covering, and to demon- 
 strate that their literal sense is actually a cloud which veils over the 
 supernal light that beams within. 
 
 I hope, however, that whoever reads this article, will first read the 
 part of the Lecture to which it is appended (; from p. 348). 
 
 I. It has been remarked above, that the signification of clouds, as 
 being the Divine Truth veiled over with the appearances of nature, 
 or the Word in its literal sense, may, when first announced, appear 
 arbitrary and forced: yet if it thus appears to any one, it must be 
 for want of his having noticed, that this is one of the analogies of 
 which every one knows something by common perception, and from 
 which phrases are frequently borrowed in common discourse. I hope, 
 for instance, that what I am now writing will not be deemed a cloudy 
 composition ; for I well know how common it is with writers to 
 cloud a clear subject by imperfect attempts at explanation. There 
 are many things respecting which the truth discovers itself to the 
 mind by its own inherent light, and which efforts to illustrate only 
 envelope in clouds. Such phrases as these, of which every one im- 
 mediately sees the meaning, and which every one readily frames for 
 himself, evince that the human mind intuitively perceives, not only 
 the analogy between light and Truth in its clearness, but also that be- 
 tween clouds and Truth in the shade. It is only then in compliance 
 with a principle which nature dictates to us all, that clouds are men- 
 tioned in Scripture as the chariot of God : for God, all acknowledge, 
 must dwell in his own Divine Truth, and of Divine Truth, when shaded 
 over with natural images and expressions borrowed from human ideas, 
 as in the literal sense of the Divine Word, clouds are evidently the 
 proper symbol. 
 
 II. It being certain then that reason gives a decided testimony in 
 favour of the use of the term clouds as an appropriate emblem of the 
 Word of God in its literal sense, we proceed to consider further, how 
 
APPENDIX. NO. IV. 
 
 this is corroborated by the instances in which the expression is used 
 in the Scriptures in connexion with the Lord. 
 
 1 . We have cited in the Lecture this passage of Moses : " There 
 is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in 
 thy help, and in his excellency in the sky* ;" where we have noted, 
 that the word translated sky is one which in many other places is ren- 
 dered the clouds. Jeshurun is a name for Israel, which typically 
 means the church, or the true member of the church : and how is it 
 that, in help of the member of the church, God rides in heaven, and 
 in his excellency (greatness or strength) in the clouds ? how, unless 
 these phrases mean, that he imparts to man instruction, consolation, 
 and support, by the internal graces of his Word and kingdom, sig- 
 nified by heaven, communicated by means of the external or literal 
 sense of his Word, signified by the clouds ? The reason of this is, 
 because it is a fact, though not always reflected on and acknowledged, 
 that whatever man receives to build him up as a member of the Lord's 
 church, he receives, either immediately or remotely, by the medium 
 of the Holy Word: it is hence that he obtains all his knowledge re- 
 specting the Lord and his kingdom, either drawing it thence himself 
 or receiving it from others who have drawn it from that source : it is 
 by the truths thus acquired that he directs his path : it is the pro- 
 mises which he hence learns that support him and enable him to 
 resist his spiritual foes : and it is even by what he thus imbibes that 
 the graces of charity, as well as those of faith, are infused into his 
 bosom. For the Holy Word, though a system of Divine Truth, is not 
 a system of truth alone. Every truth which it contains has some 
 heavenly affection that properly belongs to it. When the truth is ad- 
 mitted into the understanding merely, still the affection is present and 
 urgent to be received with it : so that although man is not conscious 
 of it, it really is by the Holy Word, and not at all independently of it, 
 that every heavenly grace of which he ever becomes a partaker enters 
 his breast. The Word of God, both as to its internal spirit and life 
 and external form and letter, is the grand medium by which the Lord 
 imparts aid to his spiritual Jeshurun, his true church j it is thus that 
 he rideth upon the heaven to his help, and in his excellency on the 
 clouds. If we suppose the visible heaven and vapoury clouds to be 
 meant, what becomes of the sense of the passage ? 
 
 2. In the eighteenth Psalm we hare a sublime description of the 
 deliverance of the church, or of the member of the church, in the 
 person of David, from a state of severe temptation ; and 'in the de- 
 scription of the interference of the Divine Being on the occasion 
 occur these words : " He bowed the heavens also, and came down, 
 
 * Deut.xxxiii. 
 
NO. IV. APPENDIX. 
 
 and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and did 
 fly ; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his 
 secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and 
 thick clouds of the skies : at the brightness that was before him his 
 thick clouds passed : hail stones and coals of fire."* To bow the 
 heavens and come down, is a phrase expressive of the Lord's presence, 
 with the interior things of his Divine Truth or Word, signified by the 
 heavens, in its exteriors, to which the former come down. The 
 darkness under his feet is the Divine Truth in its lowest form, where 
 the light of its internal contents terminates in the cloud of the letter : 
 this appears as darkness to those who are in a state of opposition, 
 and who can discern nothing of the light which shines through the 
 letter from the pure truth within : witness the reproaches cast upon 
 the Word by Deists and Atheists, who would fain persuade the world 
 that it is the most senseless and even pernicious book that ever was 
 produced. A cherub is used in Scripture as a personification of the 
 Word in its letter: but to go into the proof of this would lead us too 
 far from our immediate object. " He maketh darkness his secret 
 place ; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds 
 of the skies," is said in amplification of the same subject, and still 
 relates to the investing of Divine Truth, in its ultimate form, with a 
 clothing of appearances, within which, neverthelesss, abides the 
 Divine Presence. And when it is added, " At the brightness that 
 was before him his thick clouds passed j hail-stones and coals of fire," 
 the allusion is, to the dispersion of the false notions which are often 
 drawn from the literal sense, of the Word not understood, by the 
 manifestation of the Divine Truth contained within, which is called 
 the brightness that was before him : hail-stones, being frozen drops of 
 rain, which descend indeed from the clouds, but in a form which gives 
 them a destructive instead of a fertilizing nature, are appropriate 
 symbols of truths from the letter of the Holy Word falsified by per- 
 verse interpretations ; and coals of fire are suitable emblems of the 
 lusts or concupiscences of the natural man, especially of his lust of 
 perverting and misrepresenting the Word by regarding it under the 
 influence of his evil inclinations. These are spoken of as sent forth 
 by the Lord ; as is also the case when similar judgments are de- 
 scribed in the account of the plagues of Egypt : yet we are certain 
 that he cannot be the author of the perversions of his Word by man- 
 kind: the meaning then is, not that such things actually proceed 
 from him and his Word, but that their existence is discovered at his 
 presence and at that of his Divine Truth ; and that when judgment is 
 
 * Ver. 9 to 12. 
 
xlviii APPENDIX. NO. iv. 
 
 executed upon the wicked, they are left to their own false and evil 
 imaginations, and to the misery which attends such a state. 
 
 It may here be necessary to meet a difficulty which some minds 
 may feel at this representation of the Divine Truth, which we affirm 
 to be the same as the Word, as enveloping the Divine Majesty. 
 
 Whilst we think of the Word merely as a book, there certainly is 
 some difficulty in conceiving how it can form " a pavilion" for the 
 residence of the Majesty of heaven. It is easily seen by most persons, 
 as soon as mentioned, that the most essential attributes of the Divine 
 Nature are Love and Wisdom, Goodness and Truth. It is also readily 
 apprehended, that every grace which can adorn the mind of man has 
 reference to Love and Wisdom, Goodness and Truth, under some 
 form or combination or other. Now it is allowed on all hands, that 
 man can receive nothing, nothing of a heavenly nature, except it 
 be given him from above; according to the Lord's own words, "With- 
 out me, ye can do nothing."* Yet it is also acknowledged by all, 
 that God is infinitely higher than man, or than the highest finite intel- 
 ligence : how then can the heavenly graces of which he alone is the 
 Author, be imparted from God to beings so much below him? how, 
 but, correspondingly, as heat and light, the proper symbols of love 
 and wisdom, are conveyed to the earth from the Sun of Nature, the 
 best though faint image of the Sun of Righteousness ? that is, by a 
 continual emanation of love and wisdom, goodness and truth, flowing 
 from the Lord, as heat and light continually emanate from the sun. 
 By such an emanation then, doubtless, they are communicated : and 
 ail that thus proceeds from the Lord, whether it be regarded as reduced 
 to writing or not, is called in Scripture the Word of God, and is repre- 
 sented by the light, terminating at length in the clouds, with which, 
 in the passage of the Psalms examined in the Lecture, Jehovah is 
 said to clothe himself as with a garment. Of course, it is not the 
 written Word of which it is said, " By the Word of the Lord were 
 the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath (or spirit) 
 of his mouthf;" and "All things were made by him (or it)."* Now 
 this sphere of Divine Truth (, as we will continue to term it,) eman- 
 ating from the Lord, when it comes within the confines of the world 
 of nature, clothes itself, as is attempted to be shewn in the Lecture 
 above, with such ideas and images as we find in the literal sense of 
 the written Word : nevertheless, it may easily be conceived of sepa- 
 rately from the writings in which we possess it : it may be regarded 
 as a chain of ideas occupying the minds of a certain class of intelligent 
 beings j or even as a sphere of perceptions, independently of any 
 minds supposed to perceive them, surrounding the Godhead, but far 
 * John xv. 5. t Ps. xxxiii. 6. John i. 3. P. 233. 
 
NO. IV. APPENDIX. 
 
 beneath the seat of his immediate presence. But it is perfectly evi- 
 dent, that a chain or sphere of ideas of this kind might be reduced 
 to writing without at all changing its nature: accordingly, this has 
 been done in the written Word, which comprehends the sphere of 
 Divine Truth, or the ideas with which it invests itself, when it comes 
 within the precincts of nature, reduced, further, into natural language; 
 and the written Word thus presents, in its literal sense, the very Divine 
 Truth rendered obvious to our senses under its lowest form or ma- 
 nifestation. 
 
 Now although it may at first be difficult to conceive how the literal 
 sense of the Word of God, as contained in a book, can afford, as stated 
 in the passage we have just been considering, a pavilion for the Most 
 High ; it is easy enough to apprehend how a sphere or emanation of 
 Divine Truth, clothed with natural ideas, may be regarded under the 
 image of such a pavilion : and yet we see also, that such a sphere of 
 Divine Truth clothed with natural ideas might easily be reduced into 
 writing; that is, a book or writing might be framed which should 
 convey the same ideas to the mind of its reader. Thus it is perfectly 
 evident, that all that is true of an emanation of Divine Truth clothed 
 with ideas taken from the world of nature and from human percep- 
 tions, is equally true of the written Word in its literal sense : of this 
 also it may be said, in reference to its Author, that " his pavilion 
 round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies." 
 Considered as a mere collection of words and letters, the Holy Word, 
 as existing in a book, would indeed be nothing ; but considered as to 
 the ideas which those words in their literal sense convey to the mind 
 of an intelligent being, the written Word is the same as the Divine 
 Truth emanating from the Lord, and forming a sphere around him, 
 when brought down to the apprehension of man regarded only as an 
 inhabitant of the world of nature : and thus both the one and the 
 other, both the written Word in its letter and the sphere of Divine 
 Truth in its extreme circumference,- are considered in Scripture as 
 the clouds of heaven, as the basis in which the pure Divine Truth 
 terminates, and as the covering which shields from unprepared minds 
 its otherwise too dazzling glories. 
 
 3. We will proceed to try the application of this interpretation of 
 " the clouds" to another remarkable passage of the Psalms, which 
 reads, " Ascribe ye strength unto God ; his excellency is over Israel, 
 and his strength is in the clouds"* Here, as every where else where 
 clouds are mentioned in connexion with the Lord, the merely literal 
 sense affords no intelligible meaning at all : for what sense would there 
 be in saying that the strength of the Lord is in the clouds, if by th 
 * Ps. Ixviii. 34. 
 
1 APPENDIX. NO. IV. 
 
 clouds were meant the mere unstable vapours that float over our heads. 
 But understood in the spiritual signification of the term, as we 
 have explained it, the meaning is most beautiful, and the symbol 
 chosen to express it most appropriate. For it is in the lowest or 
 most ultimate form of Divine Truth, which is what is meant by the 
 clouds, that its strength principally resides ; provided, that is, it be 
 not separated from its interior contents; for then it becomes like 
 a body without a soul, which is a powerless carcase. It is known to 
 all, that man's body is the covering of his soul, and that, though his 
 soul is capable of existing without the body, it quits with the body 
 all power of acting upon the solid substances of this world of nature : 
 and so the Divine Truth, as seen in heavenly light, would be without 
 the power of affecting the minds of men in this world of nature, were 
 it not invested with its literal sense for that purpose: but in this It is 
 clothed with all its fulness and with all its power. Something similar 
 obtains in human compositions and discourses. Every attentive ob- 
 server of such subjects must have noticed, that the more the ideas 
 which a speaker wishes to convey are clothed with natural images, 
 provided the intended meaning is distinctly seen, the more strong do 
 the language, and the sentiment too, appear. An orator who should 
 address even a polished assembly in a chain of subtle reasoning, 
 presenting none but abstract ideas expressed in the artificial language 
 of philosophers, would make but little impression ; but he who should 
 appeal to their natural feelings, in ideas taken from their common 
 sentiments, and conveyed in language drawn from sensible images, 
 would be esteemed a speaker of far greater power. In the same 
 manner, the Word in its letter is always felt to possess great strength 
 and power, if there be a perception at the same time of its genuine 
 meaning; and the same truths conveyed in abstract terms are rela- 
 tively unimpressive. Thus if we hear this sentiment, " The Lord at 
 some period will reveal himself to the church by the discovery of the 
 spiritual sense contained within the letter of his Word :" the sense 
 intended is very clear, but it does not affect the mind with any 
 strength : but if the sentiment be expressed in the language of the 
 letter of the Word, " Then shall they see the Son of man coming 
 in a cloud with power and great glory ;" and it be at the same time 
 seen that such is the real sense of these words ; they will then be 
 attended by a perception of power as well as clearness ; this portion 
 of " the clouds" will be felt to possess strength. 
 
 Admitting then this interpretation of the symbol, as being expres- 
 sive of the Word in its literal sense, it perhaps will be seen with 
 what accurate propriety it is said of Jehovah, that " his strength 
 
NO. IV. APPENDIX. 11 
 
 4. There is, moreover, one passage of the Psalms, in which this 
 interpretation of the clouds is given almost in express terms Ad- 
 dressing the Lord, it is said, " Thy mercy is great above the heavens, 
 and thy TRUTH reacheth unto the CLOUDS."* Is not this a plain 
 affirmation, that the clouds are used for the lowest plane or basis 
 in which the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lerd terminates and 
 closes ? and this, certainly, is in the literal sense of the written Word. 
 
 5. This view of the subject will also enable us to see the reason 
 why, on various most important occasions, divine revelations, or 
 enunciations of most important divine truths, are said to have been 
 made from clouds. 
 
 The ten commandments were thus delivered at Mount Sinai. For 
 that purpose " the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a 
 thick cloud-\- :" and accordingly "it came to pass on the third day in 
 the morning, that there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick 
 cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud."J 
 How beautiful and expressive was this, if a cloud is the symbol of the 
 Word in its letter, from and by which it is that God communicates his 
 will to man ! 
 
 The same remark may be applied to this parallel example. When 
 Moses was afterwards called up into the mount to receive the tables 
 on which the law was written, and to have further revelations com- 
 municated to him, the same symbol was repeated : "And Moses went 
 up into the mount ; and a cloud covered the mount : and the glory 
 of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it, six 
 days: and the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the 
 cloud." 
 
 So, because it is by the Word in its letter that all divine instruction 
 is imparted to man, it was customary for a cloud to appear over the 
 mercy-seat : thus the Lord says to Moses, " Speak unto Aaron thy 
 brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the 
 veil before the mercy-seat, that he ctfe not : for I will appear in the 
 cloud upon the mercy-seat." || And it was from over the mercy-seat, 
 thus out of this cloud, that the Lord, after the tabernacle was erected, 
 held his usual discourses with Moses : " Thou shalt put the mercy- 
 seat above the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I 
 shall give thee : and there I will meet thee, and will commune with 
 thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim 
 which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things whick I will 
 give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."^ How well 
 the signification of the ark accords with that of the cloud which com- 
 
 * Ps. cviii. 4. + Ex. xix. 9. J Ver. 16. Ex. xxv. 15, 16. 
 
 1 Ex. xxv. 21, 22. 
 
ii APPENDIX. NO. IV. 
 
 monly hovered over it, may appear from what is said on the former 
 subject in the fifth Lecture. We have noticed above, that the cherubs 
 also were personified emblems of the Divine Word in its letter. 
 
 When, likewise, Moses had removed his tent or tabernacle out of 
 the camp, on account of the idolatry of the Israelites in the affair of 
 the golden calf, " it came to pass, as Moses entered into the taber- 
 nacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the taber- 
 nacle 3 and the Lord," say our translators, "talked with Moses*:" 
 but as the Lord is not mentioned in the original, it is actually affirmed 
 that the cloudy pillar talked with Moses. 
 
 A cloud being the emblem of the Word in the letter ; and it being 
 by the Word, in which the Lord himself has an abode, that the Chris- 
 tian is guided in his spiritual journey ; how beautifully and aptly was 
 this represented in the journey of the Israelites through the wilder- 
 ness ; when " the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud 
 to lead them the way !"f As in his darkest states the Christian is still 
 under the Divine Protection, and is led by the Divine Love when his 
 perceptions of truth are most obscure r this was represented by the 
 pillar of fire which guided the Israelites by night. 
 
 We find the same symbol employed, to teach the same lesson, upon 
 a most weighty occasion, in the Gospel. W T hen Jesus was transfigured 
 before the three disciples, " behold a bright cloud overshadowed them : 
 and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him."J 
 
 As, however, many of the images used in the Word, retaining their 
 most general signification, often take two opposite specific! ones ; ?o 
 are clouds sometimes used as enjblems of darkness and ignorance ; of 
 a state in which no light is seen from the letter of the Word, but 
 false persuasions, adopted as true, exclude the light of heaven ; as 
 when the prophets speak of " a day of darkness and gloominess, a day 
 of clouds and of thick darkness." 
 
 Surely, on thus beholding how constantly the passages in which 
 clouds are mentioned in connexion with the Lord, yield a lucid and 
 instructive sense, when they are regarded as symbols of Divine Truth 
 in its shade, or when it is veiled over by a covering of appearances, or, 
 specifically, of the Word in its letter : it must be difficult to doubt 
 that this is the true interpretation of the image. This signification 
 is grounded, we have seen, in a clear and just analogy : and when we 
 find that on its application to the clouds of the literal sense they in so 
 many instances lose their obscurity, and become bright clouds trans- 
 lucent with the light of heaven ; we surely have reason, not only to 
 
 * Ch. xxxiii. 9. t Ch. xiii. 21, &c. 
 
 . $ Mat. xvii.5. k Joel ii. 2. 
 
NO. V. APPENDIX. liii 
 
 accept this as the true interpretation, but to admit also, that the prin- 
 ciple on which it is founded affords the true key for deeyphering the 
 symbolic language of Holy Writ. Such perpetual coincidences could 
 never originate in chance. 
 
 No. V. (Page 437.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE JEWISH CHARACTER ; EVINCING ITS APTITUDK 
 FOR A DISPENSATION CONSISTING CHIEFLY IN EXTERNAL RITES. 
 
 It is affirmed in the text above, that the Israelites were selected to 
 represent those spiritual things which they were incapable of inwardly 
 perceiving and feeling ; and it is observed that their genius and temper 
 were such as rendered them better adapted than any other people to 
 this purpose ; for they were distinguished by a remarkable tendency 
 to multiply ceremonial observances, even beyond what was required of 
 them, and to substitute these for the morals enjoined by the Law of 
 God. Further to prove that this was really their character I have trans- 
 lated and abridged, from the Synagogn Judaica of Buxtorf, a number 
 of examples of the manner in which they find, in almost every text of 
 Scripture, an authority for some trifling ceremony or custom. These 
 exhibit such marks of a gross and superficial turn of mind, as one 
 would hardly suspect was to be found in the history of man : but idle 
 and ridiculous as they are in themselves, they teach a lesson that is 
 weighty and important, if they establish the view offered in the Lec- 
 tures, of the purpose for which the Israelites were selected as a peculiar 
 people : they also are not a little curious, as unfolding an extraordinary 
 chapter in the great complex volume of human nature. Buxtorf every 
 where gives as his authorities the Talmud and the Rabbins. 
 
 It was the practice, says the book Coldo, and in some places is so 
 still, when a child first began to learn to read the Law, to give him 
 some cakes made of honey and milk ; because it is written, " He 
 made him to suck honey out of the rock :" [Deut. xxxii. 13 :] and 
 again, " Honey and milk are under thy tongue:" [Cant. iv. 11 :] and 
 the letters of his horn-book, also, were smeared over with honey, which 
 he was to lick with his tongue, because the Psalmist says, "How 
 sweet are thy words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter than honey to my 
 mouth !" [Ps. cix. 103.]* A truly devout Jew ought to rise before 
 daylight, because David says " I will awake the morning ;" [Ps.lvii. 
 9 j in our translation, " I will awake early ;"] that is, they say r " I 
 * Synag, Jud. Cap. vii. 
 
v APPENDIX. NO. V. 
 
 awake the morning; not, The morning awakes me." This is alleged 
 to be necessary on account of the early prayers, which are to be of- 
 fered at the rising of the sun, and not after it, because David teaches 
 again, " They shall fear thee with the sun ;" [Ps. Ixxii. 6 ;] that is, 
 as they explain it, " They ought to praise thee, in their morning 
 prayers, at the very rising of the sun."* (It is to be observed, that in 
 this passage, as in many other instances, they adhere to the letter of 
 the original in a manner that totally destroys its sense, which is here 
 properly given in the English Version.) They affirm, from Ps. Ivi. 8, 
 that there is great efficacy in tears shed profusely; and the book 
 Reshith Chocmah states, that if the forehead be washed with tears, 
 certain sins, which are written there, are blotted out ; and that this is 
 referred to when it is written, " Set a mark upon the foreheads of the 
 men that sigh and cry for all the abominations," &c. [Ez. ix. 4.]f 
 
 Their superstitious practices connected with their Tzitzith, called 
 by our translators (Matt, xxiii. 5.) " the borders of their garments," 
 being dangling appendages to the corners, and their Tephillin or 
 Phylacteries, which are little boxes, containing texts of Scripture, 
 which they fasten on their forehead and arm ; and which they found 
 on Num. xv. 38, Deut. xxii. 12, ch. vi. 6, 8, and Ex. xiii. 9, 16; are 
 too numerous to be recited : we will mention only one circumstance. 
 Beside the passages of Scripture put in the Tephillin or Phylacteries, 
 they represent on that which they fix on the forehead the letter {% 
 on the band which fastens it the letter *f, and on the thong which 
 binds the other to the arm the letter \ Taken together, these letters 
 make the word ^"f^/ (Shaddai), which is one of the names of God ; 
 and thus they affirm is fulfilled, with all its advantages, the promise 
 which says, " And all the people of the earth shall see that the name 
 of the Lord is called (or read) upon thee, and they shall be afraid of 
 thee." [Deut. xxviii. 10.]J Instead, however, of the women's 
 wearing these phylacteries, or these talismans, (for such they consider 
 them,) it is sufficient for them to say " Amen" to their husbands' 
 prayers ; which, they allege, Isaiah teaches when he says, " Open ye 
 the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may 
 enter in :" [Ch. xxvi. 2.] The Hebrew word for truth is Amen : 
 hence they affirm, that to say, " the nation which keepeth the truth" 
 is the same thing as to say, " they who observe the Amen, who say 
 Amen to every thing, who believe all that is said in the prayers, and 
 respond Amen ! Selah .'" 
 
 Respecting their Synagogues and the mode of behaving in them, 
 they have numerous precepts, consisting of similar applications of the 
 words of Scripture to external things and performances. Their 
 
 * Cap.viii. i Ibid. $ Cap. ix. ^ Ibid. 
 
NO. V. APPENDIX. IV 
 
 doctors teach that the synagogue should be built in the highest part 
 of the town, because Solomon says that Wisdom " crieth in the head 
 or crown of those who are tumultuous" [in prayer, as they interpret 
 Prov. i. 21 :] It ought therefore to be raised above all the houses in 
 the place, according to the words of Ezra, " to exalt the house of our 
 God." [Ch. ix. 9.]* The worshippers ought to rush violently into it 
 like soldiers who take a city by assault j because David says, (as they 
 understand him,) " We will walk into the house of God with noise and 
 haste;" [Ps: Iv. 14 :] that is, they say, " as if dogs were set at us, 
 and we felt them fastening their teeth in our hind quarters." They 
 also ought to tremble and shake on entering : for David says " Worship 
 the Lord in the glory (or beauty') of holiness; [Ps. xxix. 2;] where 
 they direct us not to read 111*7/111 (.behadrath) " in glory/* but 
 JlTirO (bechardath} "in trembling. "f They are to recite the 
 prayers which they call Shmon'esre, standing with both feet straight ; 
 because it is said of the living creatures in Ezekiel's vision, " And 
 their feet were straight feet" [Ez. i. 7-]t When they conclude their 
 prayers, they are to leap three steps backward, bowing at the same 
 time, and before they raise themselves up they are to incline their 
 head towards the left, because there is the right hand of God, before 
 which, when they pray, they are to consider themselves as standing. 
 Their wise men say that this is done in memory of a miracle which 
 happened at Mount Sinai when God gave the people the law On 
 that occasion we read, that when " all the people saw the thunder- 
 ings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the moun- 
 tain smoking, they removed, and stood afar off:" [Ex. xx. 18 :] and 
 the Rabbins affirm, that their terror was such, that in a single moment 
 they fled away three miles. When they go out of the synagogue, 
 they are to walk backwards ; and the Talmudists prove the necessity 
 of doing so by the contrary example of the wicked men seen by 
 Ezekiel, " with their backs toward the temple of the Lord :" [Ch. viii. 
 16:] they are also to retire slowly, making very short steps; for 
 their steps are counted by God, and, if numerous, obtain a great re- 
 ward ; as it is written, " For now thou numberest my steps." [Job 
 xiv. 16.]|j 
 
 He who prays at home must choose a convenient place, which must 
 not be an elevated, but a low one ; that he may be able to say with 
 David, " Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." [Ps. 
 cxxx. 1.] He must also shake and twist his body in all directions; 
 to fulfil the words, " All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto 
 thee?" [ Ps. xxxv. lO.]^f 
 
 The commandments which enjoin obedience to the law, they apply 
 * Cap. x. t Ibid. % Ibid. Ibid. || Ibid. H Ibid. 
 
Ivi APPENDIX. NO. V. 
 
 to the mere reading or hearing of it. Thus they say, that on a man's 
 returning from morning prayers, before he goes out about his usual 
 business, he must spend some time in reading the law; a command- 
 ment for which they find in Deut. vii. 12. The word which our 
 translators have there rendered if, " It shall come to pass, if ye 
 hearken/' &c. means, in its primary sense, the heel ; wherefore the 
 Jews prefer to read the passage thus : " The heel shall be, and ye 
 shall hear;" the sense of which they say, is, " Before you lift up 
 your heels to go out, you must read or hear something out of the 
 Law :" The importance of this practice they illustrate by this strange 
 perversion". While the first temple was standing, they state, the 
 people practised at Jerusalem many evils, indulged in heinous sins, 
 committed all kinds of incest, and defiled themselves with the vilest 
 idolatry : all this God passed over, taking no notice of it till they neg- 
 lected the study of the Law ; but then he destroyed or dispersed the 
 people, and levelled the temple with the ground : according to his 
 words in Jeremiah : " Wherefore is the land perished, and is like the 
 burnt up wilderness ? Because they have forsaken my Law, which I 
 set before them." [Ch. ix. 12, 13.]* 
 
 Various trifling ceremonies are to be observed on sitting down to 
 table, and blessing the bread. So, in blessing the wine, the cup is 
 first to be lifted up with both hands, because David says, " Lift up 
 your hands in holiness and bless the Lord." [Ps. cxxxiv. 2.] It is 
 afterwards to be held with the right hand alone, but if too heavy, the 
 right hand may be supported by the left ; because it is written, in the 
 singular number, " / will lift up the cup of salvation, and call upon 
 the name of the Lord." [Ps. cxvi. 13.]f Salt is by all means to be 
 put upon the table, because they compare the dining table to the 
 ancient altar and the food which was offered upon it ; respecting which 
 it is said, " Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with 
 salt:" [Lev. ii. 13:] hence their wise ones say, "If there be salt 
 on the table in which to dip the consecrated bread, the table becomes 
 an altar of expiation, and a protection against punishment." When 
 they give thanks, they cut deeply into the loaf, but take care not quite 
 to divide it ; because, as they choose to understand Ps. x. 3, it is 
 written, " The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire j and he that 
 cutteth through when he giveth thanks, irritateth the Lord."J 
 
 Their synagogue-copies of the Law are fastened to wooden rollers, 
 elegantly ornamented, by which alone they are to be carried or touched. 
 These they call the tree of life, the same word in Hebrew signifying 
 both a tree and a piece of wood ; and they give this name to the han- 
 
 * Cap, xi. t Cap. xii. $ Ibid. 
 
NO. V. APPENDIX. 
 
 dies of the books, because Solomon has said, "Wisdom is a tree of 
 life to -them that lay hold upon hen" Prov. iii. 18.]* 
 
 They deem it necessary to celebrate the Sabbath with much festivity, 
 and particularly to have three sumptuous meals, one on the Friday 
 evening- when the Sabbath begins, another at the Saturday noon, 
 and the third in the evening. They find this prescribed by Moses, 
 when, speaking of the manna to be eaten on the sabbath, he says, 
 "Eat that to-day: for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye 
 shall not find it in the field :" [Ex. xvi. 25 :] where, because to-day 
 is repeated three times, Moses, they say, meant to intimate, that they 
 should have, on the sabbath, three regular feasts. They are also to 
 wear the best clothes they can afford to purchase. It is written of the 
 sabbath, "Thou shalt honour it;" [Is. Iviii. 13:] How is it to be 
 honoured? The Talmud answers, " By not suffering your sabbath- 
 day garment to be like your common garment." At dinner, the bread 
 is first laid upon the table-cloth, and then covered with a napkin, in 
 memory of the manna: for, in the wilderness, the dew fell first, then 
 the manna, and then dew again, so that the manna lay in the midst 
 of the dew, just as if it were between two cloths : therefore the bread 
 should be laid upon one cloth and be covered with another. For the 
 same reason, the devout housewives make pies containing meat be- 
 tween two layers of dough. They prove that genial indulgences are to 
 be practised on the sabbath from various texts, and among others 
 from one in which none but a Jew could discover such a meaning. 
 The whole verse of Isaiah before cited is this : " If thou turn away 
 thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, 
 .and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and 
 shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own 
 pleasure, nor speaking thine own words -, then" &c. Here the 
 words, " call the sabbath a delight" mean, they affirm, that the 
 sabbath is to be filled with att kinds of delights. Many of the Rabbins 
 have given similar precepts, supported by similar applications of texts 
 of Scripture : we will conclude with one by Rabbi Judah, who re- 
 ceived it, he says from the still older sage, Rabh : " Whoever spends 
 the sabbath merrily, shall obtain from God the petitions of his heart : 
 as it is written, ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee 
 the desires of thy heart/ " [Ps. xxxvii. 4.]f 
 
 Respecting the feast of unleavened bread, this injunction is given in 
 Exodus : " Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days ; and there 
 shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be 
 leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters." [Ch. xiii. /] This they 
 have made the ground of various practices, the most remarkable of 
 
 * Cap.xiv. f Cap. xv. 
 
 h 
 
APPENDIX. NO. V. 
 
 which is, a formal search, on the night but one before the passover, 
 by the master of the family, assisted by his male servants and 
 children, all with wax candles in their hands, into every corner of the 
 house, in quest of leaven. Supposing such a regular search to be 
 intended by the commandment, why conduct it by candle light ? Be- 
 cause it is written in Zephaniah, " I will search Jerusalem with 
 candles," [Ch. i. 12.]* At the feast of Pentecost, in memory of the 
 Law received at that time, they strew the floors of their houses, 
 synagogues and streets, with grass, put green boughs, roses, and other 
 flowers in their windows, and wear green chaplets on their heads. 
 What has this to do with the giving of the Law ? They answer, The 
 pastures were green at the time when Moses went up into the 
 mountain ; for it is written, " Let not the flocks nor herds feed 
 before that mountain." [Ex. xxxiv. 3.]f 
 
 At the day of Atonement they light up candles in the synagogues, 
 one for every man who belongs to it : for it is written, '/" Glorify ye 
 the Lord in the fires ;" [Is. xxiv. 14 :] which they read, " Glorify the 
 Lord with lights" But why light them up for the men only ? Take 
 here a specimen of the ingenuity of the Cabbalists, and of the kind 
 of mysteries which they find in the Divine Word. The letters of the 
 word "j^ (Afo 1 )* which signifies a candle, stand for the number 250. 
 Now it is a received opinion with the Jews, that the members of a 
 man's body are in number two hundred and forty-eight ; to which if 
 you add two, for his soul and spirit, you have the number 250 : the 
 word *")3 {Ner} therefore, whose letters make that number, stands for 
 a man as well as a candle. But a woman, according to their system 
 of physics, has four members more than a man ; so she cannot be 
 resolved into a Ner or candle. Very pious persons often light up two 
 wax candles, one for the body and one for the soul, and call the latter, 
 which is the largest, the candle of the soul. As also the soul is 
 called a candle by Solomon, [Prov. xx. 27,] they say that to light up a 
 candle for it, makes an atonement for the soul.J 
 
 Respecting the mode of slaughtering and cutting up animals for 
 food, they have invented so many rules, that the art of the butcher 
 forms with them one of the learned professions, and is not allowed to be 
 practiced without authority from the Rabbins, conveyed by a regular 
 diploma. No sanction is alleged for their fancies from the Scriptures, 
 but the following passage: "If the place which the Lord thy God 
 hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou 
 shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee, 
 as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever 
 thy soul lusteth after." [Deut. xii. 21.] Now as no directions are 
 * Cap. xvii. t Cap. xx. \ Cap. xxv. 
 
NO. V. APPENDIX. llx 
 
 any where given respecting the mode of killing animals, they affirm 
 that the words, " as I have commanded thee," (though it is not the 
 Lord who is here the speaker, but Moses,) mean, " as I commanded 
 thee orally in Mount Sinai :" the specific directions therefore are not 
 to be sought in the Written, but in the Oral Law, that is, hi their 
 traditions ; from which source they draw them in great abundance, 
 and have composed bulky treatises on the subject.* 
 
 Of the numerous observances with which their weddings are solem- 
 nized, we will mention but one. The bride is led three times round 
 the bridegroom, because it is written, " A woman shall compass a 
 man." [Jer. xxxi. 22 ]f 
 
 The relatives who attend the funeral of a person deceased, when 
 they return, are to sit bare footed on the ground for seven days, 
 neither eating meat nor drinking wine, but exhibiting the utmost 
 wretchedness j and for thirty days they are to wear mournful and 
 squalid apparel, neither washing themselves nor any of their clothes. 
 Nothing about the duration of mourning is said in their Law 5 but 
 they find it clearly defined there notwithstanding. It is written 
 in Amos, " I will turn your feasts into mourning:" [Ch. viii. 10:] 
 hence they conclude, as the duration of a festival was seven days, 
 that the duration of the deepest mourning must be the same. But 
 the thirty-days neglect of their persons, a part of which consists 
 in not combing or dressing their hair, depends for its sanction on 
 Cabbalistic ingenuity. Aaron and his two remaining sons, when his 
 two eldest were struck dead, were commanded " not to uncover their 
 heads ;" [Lev. x. 6 j] that is, the Rabbins say, not to clip their hair, 
 but to let it grow. But how does this point to the number of thirty 
 days ? Because the Nazarite was also commanded to let his hair grow, 
 and prohibited from clipping it, all the days of his vow; [Num. vi. 5 ;] 
 and this was a period of thirty days. How do they gather this, when 
 still the number is not mentioned ? From its being added, [ver. 8,] 
 " All the days of his separation, he shall be holy to the Lord ;" 
 where the concluding word FPPJI* when its letters are reckoned as 
 numerals, makes the number 30. By plain consequence, then, the 
 days of separation were thirty ; and by a consequence equally plain, 
 the same should be the days of mourning !| 
 
 Some apology may seem requisite for detaining the reader so long 
 among such a wilderness of absurdities ; which, however, cannot fail 
 to afford him some amusement : but when the object was, to establish 
 a tendency to ceremonial observances as belonging to the national 
 character of the Jews, it was necessary to produce more than a few 
 instances, which might be regarded as isolated and accidental. 
 
 * Cap. xxxvi. + Cap. xxxix. $ Cap. xlix. 
 
 * h 2 
 
|X APPENDIX. NO. VI. 
 
 Enow, surely, have now been given, fully to prove our position: 
 Buxtorf furnishes a great number more. How striking a comment 
 do they afford upon the Lord's words ; " Laying aside the command- 
 ment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots 
 and cups ; and many other such like things ye do !" But, as observed 
 in the Lecture, " this disposition of that people to neglect essentials 
 and to ckave to formalities, if it disqualified them from constituting 
 an interior church themselves, eminently adapted them to be made 
 the representatives of such a church, and to have their affairs over- 
 ruled, so as to be subservient to such representation." And surely 
 the indubitable fact, that such was their distinguishing genius, affords, 
 by itself, an argument of no inconsiderable weight, that the designs of 
 Providence in selecting them from all other nations, were purely those 
 which we have endeavoured in this Lecture to develope, and were 
 not connected with any partial favour to them, but solely regarded the 
 general benefit of all future generations of mankind. 
 
 No. VI. (Page 482.) 
 
 CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF JEPHTHAH'S Vow. 
 Judges xi. 31. 
 
 As some modern writers have thought they have succeeded in 
 clearly establishing the more pleasing view of the fate of Jephthah's 
 daughter from the very words of the vow; and I have nevertheless 
 stated, that I think that the most unforced inference from the language 
 of the original, and from the history in general, is, that the sacrifice 
 took place; it seems necessary to give a view of the progress and 
 present state of opinion upon the subject, and critically to examine 
 the various renderings which have been proposed. 
 
 Four different senses, in ages distant from each other, have been 
 given to the words of the Hebrew original. 
 
 I. The first is this: "WHOSOEVER cometh out of the doors of 
 my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of 
 Ammon, shall be the Lord's, and I will offer HIM up for a burnt- 
 offering." 
 
 3. The second is that adopted in the text of the common English 
 Bible : " WHATSOEVER cometh out of the doors of my house, &c. 
 shall be the Lord's, AND I will offer IT up for a burnt-offering." 
 
NO. VI. 
 
 APPENDIX. Ixi 
 
 3. The third is that given in the margin of the English Bible: 
 " WHATSOEVER cometh out of the doors of my house, &c. shall 
 be the Lord's, OR I will offer IT up for a burnt'Offering." 
 
 4. The fourth was proposed about sixty years ago by Dr. Randolph, 
 and is this: " WHOSOEVER cometh out from the doors of my house, 
 &c. shall be the Lord's; and I will offer (to) Him [namely, the 
 Lord,] a burnt-offering." 
 
 These shall be called, in the following remarks, the first, second, 
 third, and fourth renderings or translations. 
 
 I. How the transaction was understood by the Jews while Hebrew 
 was their vernacular language, it is impossible to determine; but 
 certain it is, that, in the most remote period to which our means of 
 ascertaining their sentiments extend, they understood the vow in the 
 first of the above senses : they believed that a human sacrifice was 
 intended by Jephthah from the beginning, and that his daughter was 
 actually put to death. Thus the Greek version commonly called that 
 of the Septuagint, which was made by Jews between two and three 
 hundred years before the Christian era, gives the pronouns in the 
 masculine gender: o exTropsyo^Evo? 05 > |eA$>9 en TUV Svyuv ra OMOV 
 |M., sqroti ra xvpiov, xai avoicra ocvrov o^oxavru^a.: of which the 
 FIRST RENDERING given above is an exact translation in English. 
 With this, also, the Latin Vulgate, supposed to have been made from 
 the Septuagint in the first century, and corrected by Jerome from 
 the Hebrew in the fourth, completely coincides. 
 
 Josephus, the next ancient Jewish testimony, gives a sense agreea- 
 ble to our SECOND RENDERING, or that of the text of the English 
 Bible : he makes Jephthah promise " to offer in sacrifice what living 
 creature soever should first meet him," and he affirms that the vow, 
 in that sense, was executed by him: " he sacrificed his daughter as 
 a burnt-offering, offering such an oblation as was neither conformable 
 to the law nor acceptable to God."* The same sense is given in the 
 Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase, which was written later. One or 
 other of these two renderings, was received, for many ages, by all 
 who read the Scriptures, both Jews and Christians. 
 
 The celebrated Rabbi, David Kimchi, who flourished in the twelfth 
 century, seems to have been the first who proposed the THIRD TRANS- 
 LATION, or that given in the margin of the English Bible. This has 
 been since adopted by many commentators and translators : and the 
 discussions on the subject were for a long time confined to the ques- 
 tion, which of these two renderings, (our second and third,) should 
 be preferred. The arguments pro and con, may be seen at large in 
 Poole's Synopsis, and in many other works : but as a specimen of 
 * Ant. B. v. Ch. vii. S 10. 
 
Ixil APPENDIX. NO. VI. 
 
 the nature of the discussions which are included in this inquiry, and 
 as a remarkable instance of the great obscurity which hangs over the 
 whole question, we will give some observations of Noldius on the 
 subject. 
 
 This learned writer, in his Concordantiee Particularum Ebreeo- 
 Chaldaicarum, among the instances in which the Hebrew particle *), 
 which commonly signifies and, bears the sense of or, adduces this vow 
 of Jephthah; on which he adds this note. Kimchi in hoc loco, &c. 
 " Kimchi on the place, and in his Michlol, says, rPiT) & c - I* 
 shall be sacred to Jehovah, if it be not Jit for sacrifice; OB / will 
 offer it as a sacrifice, if it be fit for sacrifice. This is a right dis- 
 tinction : for many things might be consecrated to God, (Lev. xxvii. 
 2 to 9, 11, 14, 16;) but only these five might be sacrificed; viz. oxen, 
 sheep, goats, doves, and pigeons. (Lev. i. 2, 10, 14.) The meaning 
 then is, that the daughter of Jephthah, as she could not lawfully 
 be sacrificed, was consecrated to the peculiar worship of God. 
 Whether or not she was put to death, is, however, a question of great 
 difficulty. Capellus, in his Diatribe on Jephthah's vo\v, contends for 
 the affirmative : because it is said, (Lev. xxvii. 29,) " Every thing 
 devoted (.Cher em) shall surely be put to death :" from which he 
 gathers, because (ver. 28) men, as well as other things in our power 
 are mentioned as liable to be devoted by Cherem, that children might 
 lawfully be devoted and put to death by their parents, and servants 
 by their masters. A harsh and unreasonable assertion! nor is it 
 much softened by Hachspan and Maimonides, who only allow this 
 right to be possessed by the Israelites over their Canaanitish slaves. 
 For though the servitude of these was perpetual, and they were not, 
 like Hebrew servants, to be emancipated in the seventh year or in the 
 year of jubilee; yet they were under the common protection of the 
 laws, which provided that they should not be ill-treated, (Ex. xxii. 
 21, and xxiii. 9, Lev. xix. 33, Deut. x. 19, Zech. vii. 10;) and even 
 pronounced a curse against those who should oppress them : (Deut. 
 xxvii. 19; comp. Mai. iii. 5, and Num. xv. 16, 29:) hence the Jews 
 could not assume over them, much less over their own children, the 
 right of life and death : and the Scriptures afford no example of their 
 doing so. As to the passage, Lev. xxvii. 28, 29, by which Capellus 
 defends his opinion, Maimonides rightly distinguishes between the 
 Cherem of God and the Cherem of the priests, (Num. xviii. 14,) 
 which Leusden more clearly designates as the destructive and the 
 common Cherem. The former kind includes such things as were 
 either to be put to death in honour of God, as clean animals for 
 sacrifice, (Lev. xxvii. 28,) or to be destroyed as abominable, (Num. 
 xxi. 2, 3; Deut. vii. 26; Job. vi. 7, 18, and vii. 12, 13; 1 Sam. xv. 3 j 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX. 
 
 1 Ks. xx. 42 ; Is. xxxiv. 5 & 43 ; Zech. xiv. 1 1 ; Mai. iv. 6 ; Ezr. x. 18 : 
 This is called Anathema, Rom. ix. 3; 1 Cor. xii. 3; Rev. xxii.3.) The 
 latter kind includes whatever was destined to sacred uses, never more 
 to return to its former owner, (Lev. xxvii. 28 ; Num. xviii. 4; I Sam. 
 ii. &c.) It is in vain that Capellus adduces the words, EVERY Cherem, 
 [Lev. xxvii. 29] to support his opinion ; what is meant is, EVERY 
 DESTRUCTIVE Cherem. Thus it is said [Num. xviii. 14,] " EVERY 
 Cherem shall be given to the priests;" and yet that which was killed 
 must be excepted ; viz. that which was anathema, the hostile and 
 the sacrificial Cherem, &c. for this, being taken out of existence, 
 cannot be said to be given to the priests.* Universal propositions 
 are not always absolute, but the subject must always be such as suits 
 the predicate. The execution of Jephthah's vow was postponed for 
 two months : and who can believe, in all this time, even if the people 
 did not interfere, as they did in the similar case of Saul and Jonathan; 
 (1 Sam. xiv. 44, 35;) that the priests would not have prevented the 
 perpetration of such a parricide ? which they might have done by a 
 simple statement of the law upon the subject." Having offered these 
 arguments, with so much appearance of conviction, against the idea 
 of the execution, our learned author here pauses, and then proceeds 
 thus : " These were our first thoughts upon this question ; but upon 
 re-examining them, I am almost brought to follow the reasons ad- 
 vanced on the other side, and to acknowledge the actual immolation. 
 For beside^that this is steadily affirmed by so many Fathers, Rabbins, 
 and Divines ; I do not see how Jephthah, who was a pious and prudent 
 man, could have been so deeply moved (ver. 35,) for the mere con- 
 secration of his daughter to the service of God, if she was to suffer 
 nothing worse. But further: we never read of any such custom 
 among the Jews, as that of vowing perpetual virginity : on the con- 
 trary, to be childless was esteemed by them a reproach (1 Sam. i. 
 10, 11, Luke i. 25:) wherefore this was what the daughter of Jeph- 
 thah lamented (ver. 37). Nor do we read that females ever undertook 
 the Nazariteship ; and yet even the Nazarites were not restricted to 
 celibacyf; as may be seen in the cases of Sampson and Samuel, [who 
 were dedicated to God from their birth.] Finally, the long continued 
 
 * These two kinds of Cherem are better illustrated in Dr. Randolph's 
 discussion of the subject. 
 
 + This argument is met by Dr. Randolph with an observation which 
 is certainly of considerable weight : He remarks, that devotement of 
 females, differently from that of males, must have included abstinence 
 from marriage, because the latter engagement would abrogate the former, 
 and the domestic duties of the wife and mother would be incompatible 
 with a constant attendance on the sanctuary. 
 
APPENDIX. NO. VI. 
 
 custom of an annual assembly and lamentation of the virgins in all 
 Israel, seems to demand a more serious origin than a young woman's 
 remaining unmarried. And suppose Jephthah's wife, or some other 
 married person of his family, had come out to meet him ; how would 
 the devotion to celibacy then have taken place ? Such instances of 
 living single for a pious purpose as are mentioned Luke ii. 37 and 
 1 Cor. vii. 5, were either not enforced by a vow, or were for a time 
 only: but we no where read of vows of virginity; much less of 
 parents making such vows for their children. And the separation of 
 David's concubines (2 Sam. xx. 3,) was not made in pursuance of any 
 vow, but on account of the incest by which they had been defiled, 
 and independently of their own will ; whereas all vows must be free 
 From all which it will follow, that Jephthah's daughter was sacri- 
 ficed." 
 
 These are the reasons which led Noldius to relinquish his first 
 sentiments: but whoever wishes to see a very strong defence of 
 the opinion that Jephthah's daughter was actually immolated, by a 
 recent author, should consult the celebrated Michaelis's Commen- 
 taries on the Laws of Moses, by Dr. Smith, vol. ii. p. 276 to 279 and 
 286 to 290. For the best modern defence of the contrary opinion, 
 see Dr. Randolph's Sermon, entitled Jephthah's Vow Considered: in 
 which he proposes our FOURTH TRANSLATION : which we are now 
 to notice. 
 
 Dr. Randolph makes Jephthah's vow to include two things ; first, 
 the consecration to the peculiar service of the Lord of some person ; 
 and, secondly, the offering to Him, as a burnt-sacrifice, of some clean 
 animal. The foundation of his translation is a remark of BuxtorPs 
 in his Thesau. Gram. L. ii. c. 17; where, having explained the con- 
 si ruction of the Verb with the affixed Pronoun, he adds, Denique, &c. 
 " This construction often gives rise to a contracted and elliptical 
 form of speech ; the affixed pronoun serving instead of .a dative, ac- 
 cusative, or ablative, with a preposition prefixed." Dr. Randolph 
 therefore supposes the affix, Iff, which is joined to the verb of 
 offering, CirprP/J/m) to be here used instead of the regular 
 pronoun and preposition ^7, and construes it accordingly as a dative, 
 referring it, as its antecedent, to Jehovah, not to whatsoever or who- 
 soever ; which gives the sense stated above. This thought so pleased 
 Bishop Lowth, that, in his Isaiah, he speaks of it thus : " A late 
 happy application of this grammatical remark to that much disputed 
 passage, has perfectly cleared up a difficulty, which for two thousand 
 years had puzzled all the translators and expositors, had given oc- 
 casion to dissertations without number, and caused endless disputes 
 among the learned, on the question, whether Jephthah sacrificed his 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX. 
 
 daughter, or not : in which both parties have been equally ignorant of 
 the meaning of the place, of the state of the fact, and of the very 
 terms of the vow : which now at last has been cleared up beyond all 
 doubt by my very learned friend Dr. Randolph, Margaret Professor of 
 Divinity at Oxford, in his Sermon*," &c. 
 
 II. Such being the history of the four renderings, what is the pre- 
 sent state of opinion on the subject ? 
 
 After such a commendation, by such a judge, in a book so well 
 known, of Dr. Randolph's explanation; and after this had been 
 adopted also in another well known work, Parkhurst's Heb. Lexicon ; 
 one would have expected to find it received into all later comments on 
 the Scriptures published in this country : yet this is far from being 
 the fact. Even Home, who, in the Appendix to the first Volume of 
 his " Introduction," offers short answers to the principal infidel ob- 
 jections, though he mentions Dr. Randolph's Sermon in a note, takes 
 no notice of his solution of the difficulty, but gives an extract from 
 Dr. Hales, who follows the third interpretation; being one of those 
 which are so contemptuously spoken of by Dr. Lowth. Among the 
 modern British annotators on the Bible, D'Oyley and Mant, Brown 
 (last edition by Raffles,) and Reeve, also advocate the third ren- 
 dering. Scott honestly rejects this as not supported by the natural 
 meaning of the words, and strenuously contends for the second ren- 
 dering and the actual sacrifice. Dr. A. Clarke, after appearing to 
 favour the third, abides, without naming Dr. Randolph, by his, or 
 the fourth translation: but as he gives it, it is adapted to have but 
 little weight; since he does not notice the grammatical argument 
 afforded by Buxtorf, which is its chief support 5 and, provided the 
 Hebrew pronoun may be translated by the English him, he seems to 
 think it of no consequence, whether that him answer to a dative or 
 an accusative. Indeed, he here exhibits a strange hallucination, but 
 little in accordance with the high attainments in Biblical literature, for 
 which some give him credit.f Randolph's, or our fourth rendering, is 
 expressly given by Hewlett alone. What is remarkable enough, 
 D'Oyley and Mant give the practical reflections with which Randolph 
 concludes his sermon, but take no notice of his explanation. Alto- 
 gether, it is evident, either that Dr. Randolph's view is hitherto but 
 very partially known, or that it has met with but very partial ap- 
 
 * Note on Ch. xlii. 16. 
 
 t He supposes that, instead of the affix ^|"J, it might originally have 
 been^i"]: that is, the nominative instead of the accusative! But for 
 this, he says, there is no absolute need, " because the pronoun ^/^, 
 ia the above verse, may with as much propriety be translated him, as lY." 
 True : but ^/"J, understood of a person, must be translated he ! 
 
 i 
 
APPENDIX. NO. VI. 
 
 probation : I have not, however, seen any thing urged expressly 
 against it. 
 
 III. Having stated the four renderings, their history, and the 
 present state of opinion respecting them, we will give a brief estimate 
 of the probability of each, as favoured or otherwise by the gram- 
 matical construction of the vow, and by the thoughts which Jephthah 
 must have had in his mind when he uttered it. 
 
 The FIRST and most ancient RENDERING, or that of the Septuagint 
 and the Vulgate, which gives it, " WHOSOEVER cometh out of the 
 doors of my house, &c. shall be the Lord's and I will offer HIM up 
 for a burnt offering;" is liable to no grammatical objection whatever, 
 but is that which the words, if they alone be considered, most natu- 
 rally present : yet as it is attended with the insurmountable objection 
 of supposing that Jephthah had a human sacrifice in his thoughts 
 when he made the vow, it has now, I believe, no advocates : it found 
 one, however, not much more than a century ago, in Seb. Schmidt, 
 who, in his Latin Translation of the Bible, gives the passage thus : 
 " Exiens, QUI exibit extra januas domus mese, &c.-~erit Jehovaa, et 
 offeram ILLUM (in) holocaustum." 
 
 The SECOND RENDERING, which may be called that of the trans- 
 lators of the English Bible, being adopted by them in their text, 
 " WHATSOEVER cometh forth of the doors of my house, &c. shall 
 be the Lord's, AND I will offer IT for a burnt offering;" is in like 
 manner liable to no grammatical objection : but it supposes Jephthah's 
 thoughts, when he made the vow, to have been such as it was 
 scarcely possible that they could have been. It makes him intend to 
 offer in sacrifice the first living creature that came out of his house to 
 meet him when he returned in peace from the children of Ammon : 
 but what living creature could he conceive most likely to come to 
 congratulate him on his victory ? a human being or an animal ? Could 
 he have thought of any but a human being ? and, among human beings, 
 who so likely as the one he best loved ? Or if, by some strange 
 fatality, this never entered his head, could he think it probable that 
 any animal that could be lawfully sacrificed would come forth to him ? 
 Had he a sheep, a goat, or an ox, so tame, attached, and intelligent, 
 as to run to fawn upon him with joy on his return ? As has been re- 
 marked by others, the only animal likely to do this, would be a dog : 
 but this was an animal that could not be offered in sacrifice. 
 
 The THIRD RENDERING, or that of Kimchi, " WHATSOEVER 
 cometh forth of the doors of my house, &c. shall be the Lord's, OR I 
 will offer IT for a burnt offering ;" is liable to a very important gram- 
 matical objection. It is certain that the particle ") is never used to 
 disjoin things so completely as this translation supposes. It might, 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX 
 
 indeed, easily be shewn, that the particle always retains its proper 
 meaning as a copulative ; and that, even when used disjunctively, it 
 still connects the words to which it is joined with some common af- 
 firmation ; quite the contrary of which would be the case if it were 
 used disjunctively here. (See Gusset. Comm. Ling. Ebr.} Most cri- 
 tics have therefore felt that this rendering is extremely forced and harsh, 
 and have only acquiesced in it to get rid of what they esteemed a greater 
 difficulty. It also makes the second clause of the vow entirely un- 
 necessary ; for if Jephthah meant to say, that whatsoever came out of 
 his house should be consecrated to the Lord in such manner as was 
 suitable to its nature, this is fully conveyed in the first clause; and the 
 addition of the second, separated from the former by an OR, instead of 
 helping to determine his meaning, is of no use but to perplex it. 
 
 Finally, the FOURTH, or Dr. Randolph's RENDERING, "WHO- 
 SOEVER cometh out of the doors of my house, &c. shall be the 
 Lord's, AND I will offer (to) HIM a burnt-offering;" seems to come 
 within the rules of grammar, and it supposes nothing that must 
 necessarily have been foreign to Jephthah's thoughts : it meets the 
 expectation he must naturally have had, that a human being would 
 be the first to come to meet him ; and when he resolved to consecrate 
 that person to the Lord, it is not unlikely that he should propose to 
 accompany the ceremony with a burnt-sacrifice. Dr. R/s version is, 
 nevertheless, attended with considerable difficulties; and as I have no- 
 where seen any critical remarks upon it, I will offer the following 
 
 Although Dr. R.'s translation appears to be justified by the usage 
 of the sacred writers, it certainly does not follow their common usage j 
 nor, though probably the true rendering, is it one which any Hebraist 
 would have thought of, if not driven, by the necessity of the case, 
 to seek for a meaning different from that first presented by the words. 
 He, accordingly, candidly acknowledges that it is not without diffi- 
 culties ; and he chiefly relies upon moral considerations for its support. 
 These, of course, lend equal support to the third or Kimchi's ren- 
 dering, and are much the same as the advocates of that rendering 
 usually offer : but against that, the grammatical objections are so 
 great, that (for this reason, I suppose,) Dr. R. has thought it un- 
 worthy of the least notice. For his own, he offers, in addition to his 
 moral arguments, two philological ones; the value of which I will 
 endeavour to estimate. 
 
 The first, as already noticed, is founded upon an observation of 
 Buxtorf's. But it is to be observed, that this is given, not as a 
 grammatical rule, but as an occasional exception. The Rule is, 
 " Affixed Pronouns belong properly to none but active Verbs \ and 
 they denote the person of the patient, which those Verbs express by 
 
 i 2 
 
Ixviii APPENDIX. NO. vi. 
 
 the accusative case." They are, in fact, precisely in the same pre- 
 dicament, as an accusative case governed by an active verb in Latin. 
 As then the construction is a deviation from the regular rale, Buxtorf, 
 after giving some instances of it, guards it with this caution : " These 
 and similar instances, Kimchi observes in his Michlol, are to be 
 observed and noted by use; but all verbs, promiscuously, are not 
 to be drawn to this construction. The Hebrew language does indeed 
 frequently use this concise and contracted mode of expression, where 
 the sense, notwithstanding, remains clear: but great care must be 
 taken lest the style be rendered harsh, or ambiguous, and lest any 
 violence be offered to the meaning. It must only be resorted to 
 where the language loses by it nothing of its clearness and elegance." 
 Here the irregularity is itself limited by a rule ; and if the rule be 
 accurate, if the affixed pronoun is never used for the regular dative 
 where it would create harshness or ambiguity; then, certainly, it 
 cannot be so used in the words of Jephthah 3 where, if it is, the 
 ambiguity it occasions is such, that this acute grammarian himself, 
 who first explained this construction, never suspected its existence 
 here. It is remarkable, also, that among the instances of this con- 
 struction collected by Buxtorf and Parkhurst, are none in which it 
 attends verbs of offering or sacrificing. Such verbs often have the 
 pronoun affixed to denote the thing offered, but not another example 
 can be found, in which it is used for the Being to whom the offering 
 is made. 
 
 The second philological argument urged by Dr. Randolph in favour 
 of his translation, and much insisted on by Parkhurst and A. Clarke, 
 is, the omission of the preposition 7 before the word for burnt- 
 offering, H/U/- " If Jephthah had meant," says Mr. Parkhurst, 
 " as translated, / will offer it for a burnt-offering, ^, for, ought to 
 have been prefixed to rh*\y> as in Gen. xxii. 2, 13." It is extraor- 
 dinary that the author of a Hebrew Lexicon, who must have been 
 familiar with every word in the Bible, should say that there ought to 
 be a 7 in this place, when there are many similar instances of its absence. 
 In the writings of Moses, indeed, it seems to be commonly, perhaps 
 always, used $ but seldom in the other books ; I believe, never. Thus 
 (1 Sam. vi. 14,) we read, that when the ark was sent home by the 
 Philistines, the men of Bethshemesh offered the cows (for) a burnt- 
 offering,' fJ^J/, (without the ^ prefixed,) to the Lord. In the next 
 chapter (ver. 9,) we have, in the marginal reading called the Ken, which 
 is evidently right, the very same construction as in Jephthah' s vow: the 
 affixed pronoun, ^j-J, is joined to the verb to express the thing offered, 
 
 and the S is omitted before the noun : "Then Samuel took a sucking 
 
 it 
 Jamb, and offered it (for) a b unit-offering (n/TJJ in/j^D whole 16 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX. 
 
 the Lord." For other examples, see Isa. xl. 16, and Jer. xix. 5. But 
 in 2 Kings iii. 27, is a case exactly parallel to this of Jephthah. What 
 Jephthah, according to the most direct import of his words and the 
 Septuagint rendering of them, is supposed to have promised to do, 
 the king of Moab, when sore pressed by the kings of Israel, Judah, 
 and Edom, is affirmed to have done ; and in precisely the same words 
 joined in precisely the same construction. Of the king of Moab it 
 is said, " Then took he his eldest son, that should have reigned in 
 his stead, and offered him (for) a burnt-offering upon the wall." 
 The words that express, and offered him (for) a burnt-offering, are 
 Thy VfSWs Jephthah's are fiV^ irTJT^J/nV the only 
 difference is in the mood, tense and person of the verb, and a common 
 variety in the spelling of the noun: the same affix, *]?], is used in 
 both ; .in both the 7 is omitted. 
 
 It must now, I think, be evident, that although Dr. Randolph's 
 interpretation may possibly be correct, its credit must stand entirely 
 upon the strength of his first grammatical argument, the applicability 
 of which to the case is, we have seen, not indisputable : his second, 
 we find, is destitute of any validity whatsoever. 
 
 And it is no less evident, that, after all the labours of the learned 
 to fix a sense, upon Jephthah's vow which should exclude the idea 
 that a human sacrifice was either intended by it or might be its 
 unintended result, nothing satisfactory has been produced. It is still 
 undeniable, that the old common translation, or rather the older one 
 of the Septuagint, is that which naturally flows from the words, if ta- 
 ken in their regular construction. Certain it is, that if Jephthah had 
 spoken English, and had said, " Whosoever cometh out of the doors 
 of my house, &c. shall be the Lord's, and I will offer him up for a 
 burnt-offering;" and these words had been translated from English 
 into Hebrew ; they could not otherwise have been exactly rendered 
 than by the very words which now stand in the Hebrew Bible. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, I think, it will be admitted, that the assertion 
 in the Lecture is fully made out, ' that the most unforced inference 
 from the language of the original, and from the history in general, is, 
 that the sacrifice took place." But as, nevertheless, there are other 
 considerations which render it in the highest degree improbable that 
 such a sacrifice did take place, it seems to be reasonable to conclude, 
 that the letter is so framed as apparently to affirm it, because, other- 
 wise, the subjects treated of in the spiritual sense, for the sake of 
 which, pre-eminently, the letter is constructed, could not have been so 
 fully represented. How important then does the doctrine of a spi- 
 ritual sense become, as affording the only key to a satisfactory solu- 
 tion of such difficulties ! 
 
1XX APPENDIX. NO. VII. 
 
 No. VII. (Page 575.) 
 
 ARGUMENTS FOR THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST 
 PART OF GENESIS CONSIDERED. 
 
 I have stated in the text above, that the regarding of the early part 
 of Genesis as a pure allegory, solves all the difficulties attending it, 
 and is itself unattended by any. Jam aware, however that difficulties 
 have been attempted to be raised against the allegorical interpre- 
 tation ; but the arguments by which they are supported appear to me 
 to be scarcely deserving of the least consideration, to be such as 
 would never have been offered but in behalf of a cause altogether 
 indefensible. We will, here notice one or two that are most insisted 
 on; being the only ones I have seen which make any approach towards 
 plausibility. 
 
 It has been urged, that the account of Adam and Eve, and of the 
 other antediluvian patriarchs, is referred to in the New Testament 
 as real. But, certainly, nothing is any where said of them which is 
 not as applicable to the spiritual as to the literal acceptation of the 
 history. For instance : When Paul says, " that as in Adam all die, 
 even so in Christ shall all be made alive*," the meaning is the same 
 if we understand by Adam the first assemblage of human beings 
 who were ever formed by God into a Church, and by the departure 
 of whom from the primeval integrity man at this day inherits a cor- 
 rupt nature, as if we understand by him a single individual : indeed 
 it is perfectly evident, that the Apostle uses the term Adam for 
 man's state by nature. In like manner, when the genealogy of Jesus 
 Christ is carried up to Adam, the true meaning is the same, whether 
 some of those personages be purely allegorical characters or not. 
 For although those from Abraham, or perhaps from Eber, were in- 
 dividual men who lived as such in the world, they still were all repre- 
 sentative characters, and they are mentioned in that genealogy to 
 denote certain species of human minds, or certain piinciples which 
 enter into the composition of the human mind : these then are enu- 
 merated as ancestors, according to the flesh, of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to inform us, that in his human nature was concentred every thing 
 belonging to the human character, from highest to lowest, from first 
 to last ; every thing that had ever entered into it, from the primeval 
 times, when human nature appeared in its highest integrity, so as to 
 be almost a pure, abstract essence, till the age in which he was born 
 among the Jews, who then were the most gross and carnalized race 
 that ever existed : thus that all was assumed, and all was redeemed, 
 by him. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 21. 
 
NO. VIII. APPENDIX. 
 
 Of the same nature is the objection of Lord Bolingbroke, whose 
 statement is quoted by one of the advocates of the literal interpreta- 
 tion, and who introduces it thus : " Even Lord Bolingbroke (than 
 whom Revelation never had a more subtle opposer) justly rejects 
 the allegorical interpretation : * It cannot (says he) be admitted by 
 Christians ; for if it was, what would become of that famous text 
 [that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head,] where- 
 on the doctrine of our redemption is founded?'"* But the writer 
 who has adduced this as authority, while he declares the subtilty of 
 this opponent of revelation, has here, in his own simplicity, overlooked 
 the snake in the grass. The passage he quotes is itself an example 
 of the subtilty of the noble infidel; whose object, doubtless, was, to 
 clog the belief of Revelation with all possible difficulties ; and who 
 therefore wished to shut out the allegorical interpretation of this 
 part of the Word of God, because he saw that, if this were admitted, 
 no solid objection would lie against it. Whether the woman spoken 
 of in this prophecy denote the first female of the human race, or 
 human nature in general as to its principle of affection or will, it 
 equally was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was as truly the 
 seed of the woman in the spiritual as in the literal sense of the words. 
 
 In another instance it has been attempted to overturn the whole doc- 
 trine of allegorical interpretation by a quibble: it has been said, that 
 " a figurative fall would require only a figurative redemption*" But 
 it is not the fall itself which the allegorical interpretation represents as 
 figurative, but the description of it : the fall itself it considers as real, 
 and, of course, that it required a real redemption. 
 
 Altogether then, I trust, it must be seen, that every consideration 
 which can be brought to bear upon this question, confirms the fact, 
 that the history in this part of Genesis is a continued allegory ; and that 
 no reasonable objection can be raised against it. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE RECENT VOLUME OF BAMPTON LECTURES, BT 
 THE LATE REV. J. J. CoNYBEARE, M. A.; AND ON THE SUP- 
 PORT IT AFFORDS TO THE LEADING PRINCIPLE OF THE PRE- 
 SENT WORK. 
 It has yielded no small encouragement to the Author of the work 
 
 * Home's Introd. vol. i. p. 174. 
 
APPENDIX NO. VIII. 
 
 now offered to the public, to see issue from the press while these Lec- 
 tures were in it, a volume which, to a considerable extent, espouses and 
 most ably maintains the same argument ; a volume, also, the character 
 and intrinsic merits of which must recommend it to a large and influ- 
 ential body of readers : whilst it can hardly fail to generate, in the 
 minds of many who peruse it, ideas upon the spiritual interpretation of 
 Scripture, which nothing but such a consistent system as the present 
 work endeavours to develope can satisfy and fill. As was to be ex- 
 pected, the amiable and learned author, whose sudden loss to the 
 church of which he was so decided an ornament I sincerely unite with 
 her in lamenting, does not attempt to free the system of spiritual inter- 
 pretation from those incumbrances and inconsistences, with which, as 
 has been noticed in our Lectures above, it has in modern ages been 
 crippled. But the reason evidently is, because he had not found in the 
 writers on Scripture-interpretation whom he had examined, any Rule 
 of uniform and universal application. Had such a regular system been 
 presented to him, it appears reasonable to infer, from the affirmative 
 sentiments with which his mind was so strongly imbued on the general 
 question, that lie would have accepted it with joy ; and therefore, 
 beside the general grounds for regretting his premature removal, I 
 cannot but think that I have a personal one also, and that the present 
 work has lost by the dispensation, not only a well qualified and candid, 
 but, in addition, a favourable judge. 
 
 Mr. Conybeare (who was brother to the gentleman from whose 
 valuable writings on Geology an extract or two are taken in our Lec- 
 ture above*,) describes his work as "An attempt to trace the history, 
 and to ascertain the limits, of the Secondary and Spiritual Interpretation 
 of Scripture ;" and the argument of the whole is precisely the same, 
 though in a form so much more extended, as that of the third Section 
 of our second Lecture. Had not our work been so enlarged as almost 
 to render the single volume to which it is necessarily, by its original 
 plan, confined, a book of inconvenient bulk, I should have deemed 
 it advisable, for certainly it would materially promote my own 
 design, to examine these Bampton Lectures at a length propor- 
 tioned to their importance and interest : as it is, I must confine my 
 notice of them to a few quotations and some brief remarks. Not 
 to notice them at all would be doing equal injustice to my readers and 
 myself. 
 
 The first Lecture, after proposing the design of the work, is chiefly 
 occupied with arguments on the reasonableness and necessity of admit- 
 ting the Scriptures to contain, in general, a spiritual sense, and against 
 
 * 
 
 * P. 560,561. 
 
NO. vin. APPENDIX. Ixxiii 
 
 the low principles of Scripture-interpretation which have become ge- 
 neral on the continent. 
 
 In the following- passage the author advances several of the princi- 
 ples which we have endeavoured to establish in this work : " However 
 we may scruple (as many in the fair and legitimate exercise of private 
 judgment doubtless will scruple) to follow the more learned and emi- 
 nent of these [the authors who have enumerated several divisions and 
 varieties of the spiritual sense] to the full extent of their respective 
 theories j yet, that such a secondary and spiritual meaning was, from 
 the earliest period, partially at least, involved in the traditional and 
 written monuments of the Jewish faith, cannot, we hold, be fairly and 
 successfully denied ; cannot even be doubted by any one who, with a 
 belief in their inspiration, and an unprejudiced and impartial frame of 
 mind, applies himself to the study of the books of Moses. Nor can 
 this position be reasonably objected to a priori as appearing unnatural 
 or improbable ; for in the earlier and simpler stages of society and lan- 
 guage, such a mode of giving utterance to the conceptions of mind, so 
 far from seeming rare and unintelligible, is known to have been usually 
 more prevalent and popular.* The original signification ef those me- 
 taphors, which make up so large a part of all language both spoken 
 and written, must then have been fresher in the memory of man ; 
 they were daily, if we may so express ourselves, in the process of be- 
 ing increased in their number, and extended and modified in their im- 
 port, as the occurrence of new ideas or new associations demanded. 
 The mind habituated to this process would catch and retain, with quite 
 sufficient rapidity and distinctness, the truths and instructions convey- 
 ed through the medium of those images and allegories, which in fact do 
 so largely and constantly present themselves in the literature, both 
 sacred and profane, of the ruder ages.f It may be added, that the 
 wisdom and theology of the Egyptians, to whose customs the Israelites 
 had been so long inured, appear, from the remotest antiquity to which 
 we can trace them, to have been involved in figurative and mystical re- 
 presentations. The whole hieroglyphical system must have been little 
 else than a tissue of metaphor and allegory addressed to the eye in- 
 stead of the ear. J These considerations might well lead us to suspect, 
 that even they whom we regard as having needlessly and fancifully as- 
 sumed or exaggerated the mystical sense of many parts of the Mosaic 
 record, are at least not more unphifosophical than they who utterly 
 proscribe every interpretation of the kind, however sanctioned by the 
 
 * See our Lect. III. p. 170, &c. and p. 190, &c. 
 
 t See our Lect. VI. p. 566, &e. and p. 571, &c. 
 
 J See our Lect. III. p. 216, &o. 
 
 k 
 
1XX1V APPENDIX. NO. VIII. 
 
 authority of the New Testament, or countenanced by fair and reason- 
 able analogies."* 
 
 The length of time during which this doctrine was that of the 
 Christian Church universal, is brought down by Mr. C. later than by 
 me; for he says, " The truth and reasonableness of this view of the 
 Mosaic records has been acknowledged, until within the last half 
 century, by the whole, or nearly the whole, of the Christian Church."-!* 
 
 He quotes and adopts, with unreserved commendation, a sentiment 
 of " the learned Spencer," in which " he acknowledges unhesitatingly 
 the distinction between the ' Scriptura exterior cujus sensus minime 
 difficilis se cuivis offert,' and the ( Scriptura interior legis mirabilia 
 continens, quse ut planius et apertius intueatur psalmista oculos 
 retectos expetit.' "\ 
 
 I mig'ht add some powerful reasoning of our author in confirmation 
 of his assertion, that "we not only find that our Lord and his followers 
 themselves affix a secondary and more exalted sense to many passages 
 of the Old Testament, but that they argue as though such a principle 
 of interpretation were acknowledged as legitimate :" but I will only 
 take further, from the first Lecture, some remarks which are exactly 
 coincident with some of my own, respecting those Christian teachers 
 who would reject the spiritual sense of the Scriptures altogether. 
 " We may grant," says Mr. C., " somewhat to the influence of out- 
 ward circumstances, somewhat more perhaps to the alleged, and, 
 we hope, sincere desire of conciliating the open adversaries of our 
 faith || ; a conciliation however seldom effected, and certainly not 
 worth the purchasing, by the surrender of nearly all that distinguishes 
 the Gospel from the mere philosophical creed of the deist^j"; but 
 where we are told, in a voice purporting to be that of all the reasona- 
 ble divines of protestant Europe, that every type, every prophecy, 
 every adumbration of the Messiah's work' and kingdom, to which 
 we have been accustomed to look for the confirming our faith and 
 the invigorating our devotion, is to be at once and entirely discarded, 
 as matter of nothing better than Jewish superstition ; where we see 
 this rejection of all spiritual interpretation coupled with an undis- 
 guised anxiety to divest even the historical relations of Scripture of 
 every thing exceeding human powers and attainments**, we are as- 
 suredly tempted for the moment to inquire, Can these men be 
 Christians ?"ft 
 
 * P. 13 to 16. + P. 19. See our Lecture II. p. 90. 
 
 J P. 20. See our Lect. II. p. 70. $ P.24. See our Lect. II. 72, &c. & p. 79, 
 &c. || See our Lect. I. p. 10, &c. Lect. II. p. 47 and 57. 
 See our Lect. I. p. 13, 14. ** See our Lect. I. p. 11, 12. 
 
 -H- P. 30, 31. 
 
NO. VIII. APPENDIX. IxXV 
 
 He afterwards shews that it is an unfounded error to suppose, as 
 some would have us, that the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, 
 introduced into Christianity from its foundation, originated with, or 
 even prevailed among, the Pharisees, or that it was borrowed from 
 them or the other Jews. 
 
 The design of the six next Lectures is to evince, that the principles 
 which thus appear evidently proposed to us upon the face of the 
 Scriptures themselves, have accordingly been assumed and acted upon 
 by the whole body of interpreters of Scripture till within a very recent 
 period; in reference to which fact he observes, "It is both useful and 
 gratifying to find, that those opinions which we believe to be grounded 
 on the firm warranty of Scripture and of reason, have received the sup- 
 port of the wise and the pious in former ages."* Here then they who 
 may wish to see a more detailed and complete examination of this im- 
 portant point than could be afforded by the brief and popular view 
 given in our second Lecturef, will find ample satisfaction : but the two 
 accounts differ in nothing but their length and form j in their tenor 
 and conclusions they exactly coincide. 
 
 Having in his second Lecture remarked upon the traces of this 
 mode of interpretation which are found in the Apocryphal books of 
 the Old Testament, and upon the manner in which it was cultivated by 
 the Judaic school of philosophy at Alexandria, and especially by the 
 celebrated Philo ; Mr, C. commences his third Lecture with these im- 
 portant remarks : " In the two former Lectures it was endeavoured to 
 shew, that there were reasonable grounds for attaching a secondary 
 and spiritual sense to much of the Law and the Prophets ; and that 
 such was, as far as we have the opportunity of ascertaining matters of this 
 nature, the opinion, if not of the whole Jewish church, yet certainly 
 of many among its most learned and pious members. That the prac- 
 tice of such interpretation was carried by some to an unwarrantable 
 excess j, affords no proof that it was not originally founded upon just 
 conceptions of the character of the older revelation, or that it is re- 
 pugnant to the wise and benevolent intentions of Him by whom all 
 Scripture was given, and to whom were known all his tvorks from the 
 beginning: The course of our inquiry has now brought us to that 
 period, at which the preaching of a new and more perfect dispensation 
 was committed by its divine Author to the apostles and ministers of 
 his choice ; committed with the express assurance, and confirmed and 
 sanctioned by the conscious and sensible presence of his informing 
 Spirit. If we believe them to have spoken and written under the gui- 
 
 * P. 11. t Sec. iii. 4. p. 90, &c. 
 
 t See our Lect. II. p. 96 and 101 ; Lect. III. p. 130, 131. 
 k 2 
 
1XXV1 APPENDIX. NO. VIII. 
 
 dance of that Spirit, to have been led (as it was promised) into all 
 truth', if we hold upon any theory, the proper inspiration of that 
 which they delivered j I do not see with what consistency we can re- 
 fuse (as some would do) to acquiesce in their interpretation of the 
 Scriptures of the Old Testament. That to these Scriptures they do affix 
 a secondary and spiritual meaning, and that they refer to them with 
 this view, not merely in a few partial and dubious instances, but re- 
 peatedly, and with a distinctness only to be questioned by the most 
 determined prejudice, seems equally clear.* If indeed with one 
 school we are to deny the existence of all types and prefigurations of 
 the Messiah and his kingdom, and to contend that where the Law is 
 said to have had a shadow of the good things to come, no more is 
 meant than that in comparison with the gospel it was as valueless as a 
 shadow when compared to a substance 1 ; we would answer, that such 
 a theory claims for plain and specific language a much greater laxity 
 and licence of interpretation than any which it objects to. If with 
 others'" we attempt to resolve the whole into one system of ac- 
 commodation, we certainly do not a little shake the credibility of 
 those witnesses who could rest so much upon so sandy a foundation. 
 But the writers of the New Testament in no place appear either to 
 confess or to suspect that the secondary or allegorical sense, which 
 they attach to the Law and the Prophets, are [is] thus arbitrary and 
 unreal. That we are content to regard some few instances of obscure 
 application as thus accommodated, (and the lists usually given of such 
 accommodations might indeed be much reduced,) does not, any more 
 than the exceptions in various other cases, invalidate the general rule." 
 On this subject the author introduces this highly judicious remark j 
 " And here I would venture even to submit, whether, as we consent, 
 both from their own internal evidence and from the acknowledged in- 
 spiration of those who adduce them, to receive the great bulk of the 
 Scriptural quotations so adduced in the New Testament as truly and 
 originally typical and prophetical, it may not be the part of Christian 
 humility and sober criticism rather to suspend the judgment as to those 
 few which present real difficulties, than to attempt the accounting for 
 or reconciling them by any hypothesis of accommodation, or partial 
 and individual application ; by conceding that they are no more than 
 ornaments of diction or at best argumenta ad liominem."-\ The most 
 difficult of the supposed accommodations are a quotation or two in Mat- 
 
 * See our Lect. II. p. 79, &c. and Appendix, No. I. 
 a " This is the hypothesis of Sykes in his answer to Collins. 
 b " This hypothesis the theologians of modern Germany have derived 
 chiefly from the school of Le Clerc. 
 
 t P. 75 to 80. 
 
NO. VIII. APPENDIX. 
 
 thew's Gospel ; but from these all difficulty would vanish, if we un- 
 derstood the spiritual sense of both the records. 
 
 The preceding remarks relate to the Old Testament ; but our au- 
 thor equally contends for the spiritual sense of part, at least, of the 
 New. " It cannot," he observes, " be denied or questioned, that even 
 in the records of the new covenant, the thing's which concern the re- 
 newal of the inner man, and the salvation of the believer, are in more 
 than one case shadowed out to us under types and analogies, which, if we 
 accept the testimony of those records, we are not only authorized but 
 bound to understand and to apply spiritually. To pass over mueh of 
 that part of our Lord's teaching which was confessedly in parables ; if 
 \ve allow that there be any spiritual grace connected with the right 
 usage and reception of the Christian sacraments, we must admit their 
 outward elements to be the certain and pre-ordained symbols of that 
 grace, and of the means whereby it is conveyed to us : we must (be it 
 spoken with reverence and faith) admit the material body and blood of 
 our glorious Redeemer himself to be typical of that spiritual food where- 
 by the inward life of the believer's soul, that life which, as we are ex- 
 pressly told, is hidden with Christ in God, is produced and supported.* 
 When the apostle urges, (in which our church has well and wisely 
 followed him,) that as our Saviour died and rose again for us, so 
 should we who are buried with him in baptism die unto sin and rise 
 again unto righteousness ; when he expressly exhorts the believers 
 as those who are risen with Christ; we cannot deny that he sees in 
 the history of thus much at least of his Master's life a spiritual as 
 well as a literal import. The luxuriance of human ingenuity may 
 indeed, as it has often done, push its imitation of these mysterious 
 analogies much too far; the pride of scepticism may refuse to be 
 taught at all after this manner, and its votary may question the 
 inspiration of those Scriptures which would thus teach him : but 
 neither the abuses of the one nor the perverseness of the other can 
 invalidate the truth of the general position, that the New Testament 
 does not only assert the secondary and spiritual meaning of much 
 that is contained in the Old, but authorizes and strengthens the 
 legitimacy of such interpretation by affixing the like to portions also 
 of its own contents."f 
 
 These extracts are quite sufficient to shew, how decided is the support 
 which Mr. C.'s work lends to the doctrine of the spiritual interpretation 
 of Scripture. If it is thus certain, that " portions," at least, of 
 the productions of Inspiration possess' a spiritual sense, it is equally 
 certain that they possess it universally; as has, I apprehend, been 
 
 * See our Lect. V. p. 535 to 538. t P. 82,. S3. 
 
Ixxviii APPENDIX. NO. viii. 
 
 fully proved in our Lectures above.* One position being granted, the 
 other follows of course. It is most true, as our author remarks, that 
 if " the practice of such interpretation was carried by some to an 
 unwarrantable excess, this affords no proof that it was not originally 
 1 founded upon just conceptions of the character of revelation, or that 
 it is repugnant to the intentions of Him by whom all Scripture was 
 given ;" but in what consists this excess ? Not in applying it univer- 
 sally, but without a just knowledge of its nature: not in drawing from 
 every part of Scripture a spiritual sense, but in deducing from it, 
 under the name of the spiritual sense, notions of mere human inven- 
 tion ; or rather, in inventing' such notions and endeavouring to force 
 them into the Scriptures. It' is thus that " the luxuriance of human 
 ingenuity may indeed, as it often has done, push its imitation of these 
 mysterious analogies much too far;" being ignorant of the real 
 analogies, it substitutes for them some of its own : but this no more 
 proves that the abused passages have no spiritual analogies properly 
 belonging to them, than the personation of the Earl of Warwick, 
 Edward Plantagenet, by Lambert Simnel, proved that no such Earl of 
 Warwick existed. Hence no negative conclusion can be drawn against 
 the affirmative principle thus established, from the circumstance, that 
 when Mr. C., after having in the six intermediate Lectures traced the 
 history of spiritual interpretation, and shewn that it was, for many 
 ages, universally admitted to be of universal application, and never 
 entirely denied till within a very recent period, comes, in his last Lec- 
 ture, to attempt to ascertain its limits, he exhibits some doubt and 
 vacillation ; for doubt and vacillation must, as has been shewn in our 
 Lectures abovef, ever attend on the expositor, who, while he admits 
 the principle at all, is deterred from accepting it as universal, by the 
 extravagances into which some have run, who have been guided, in 
 their endeavours to decipher it, by no more certain clew than fancy 
 or conjecture. This is evidently the origin of Mr. C/s attempted 
 limitations ; and thus, instead of proving the non-universality of the 
 spiritual sense, they only prove the want and necessity of such a 
 universal rule for its developement as we have endeavoured to present 
 in this work. Many of the expositions which he details, as samples 
 of the spiritual mode of interpretation as practised in different ages, 
 are certainly sufficiently capricious and unfounded: and though he 
 gives some which he acknowledges to be striking and beautiful, and 
 others which he objects to only because the letter is plain and intelli- 
 gible without them; (a strange objection, by the by, to follow the 
 admission, respecting the plain and intelligible history of the death 
 
 * See our Lect. IV. p. 250, 251, 297, 298. Lect. V. p. 398 to 403. 
 t Ibid. See particularly the Note, p. 403 to 408. 
 
NO. VIII. APPENDIX. 
 
 and resurrection of Jesus, that " thus much at least of his life had 
 a spiritual as well as literal import;") yet it seems as if the wading 
 through so immense a chaos of contradiction and confusion as he was 
 compelled to examine to obtain the materials for this learned part of 
 his work, had had rather an unfavourable effect upon his judgment, and 
 had scarcely left it proof against the effects of unavoidable disgust. 
 His mind was evidently in a state here of great indecision. The 
 doctrine of a spiritual sense, so long as it is supposed, if it exists at 
 all, to be the consequence of arbitrary appointment, is attended with 
 difficulty* ; but when it is seen, as we have endeavoured to evince is 
 the fact, to be the result of an immutable law of nature, and absolute- 
 ly essential to, and inseparable from, the truly divine style of writing^; 
 all difficulty disappears. Then its universal becomes far more defen- 
 sible than its partial existence. Not even " the pride of scepticism" 
 can then allege a plausible argument against it, or for " refusing to 
 be taught after this manner;" and the votary of scepticism, instead of 
 drawing from it a plea for " questioning the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures which would thus teach him," may find in it a proof demon- 
 rtr?tive of their divinir" t I cannot, then, but believe, that had this 
 view of the siiojec oeen presented to Mr. C., he would have accepted 
 it with eagerness : for he certainly rather considered it impracticable, 
 upon any principles with which his researches had brought him ac- 
 quainted, to discover the true spiritual sense of the Scriptures, except 
 where it is pointed out by the apostles, than actually denied its uni- 
 versal existence. I would fain examine several of his positions, but 
 my limits forbid. While he viewed the subject as being as yet en- 
 veloped in much obscurity, he evidently anticipated that the darkness 
 would not be suffered to endure for ever. He decidedly admits the 
 
 * See our Lect. ll. p. 111. t See our Lecture IV. p. 228 to 242. 
 
 $ Mr. C. frequently cites the judicious canon of the early fathers, 
 " Argumentum mjsticum non valet ad 'probanda fidei dogmata," which 
 affirms the same principle as we have urged in our second Lecture, p. 114, 
 115: but he surely extends it too far, when he seems to infer, that no 
 argument can be drawn from the spiritual sense in proof of the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures. To prove by the spiritual sense a specific doctrine, 
 is quite a different thing from proving, from the literal sense, and from 
 rational and scientific considerations, that there must be a spiritual sense 
 within, and that, if so, objections drawn from the letter not understood are 
 invalid. Mr. C. makes his remark, (p. 316, note n,) in reference to a 
 work, dedicated to the Sceptic, entitled " An Analytical View of 
 Christianity :" How far that work may seem to provoke such an observa- 
 tion, I cannot say, having never seen it. 
 
 " All," he observes, (p. 2, 3,) " who profess to accept and to search 
 
APPENDIX. NO. VIII. 
 
 Word of God to be still in a great measure a sealed book : but he 
 doubtless believed the prophecies which announce that this darkness 
 shall have an end; that the time will come in which he who is THE 
 WORD will open more of the contents of the written Word to his 
 church ; in which it shall be said, ' he Lion of the tribe of Judah 
 hath prevailed to open the book, and loose the seven seals thereof." 
 Altogether, the appearance of such a work at the present juncture, 
 from such a quarter, is not a little extraordinary. I have touched in 
 these Lectures, and Mr. C. also dwells in his, upon the prevalence, 
 in the present day, not only of absolute infidelity, but of low and un- 
 worthy ideas of the Scriptures among those who still profess to ac- 
 cept them as the sources of true religion ; ideas which not only reign 
 almost universally on the continent, but have spread their contagion 
 in this country to a greater extent than Mr. C. might deem it prudent to 
 notice. The influence of such sentiments is evidently rapidly increas- 
 ing. According to appearance, the bulk of the Christian public is fast 
 verging into such notions of the "ivine Word,- ,pe~ in- 
 
 fidelity in little but in name. In r '<-h a staff of things, arc . :o reg& 
 Mr. C/s publicati( *," : vain, 
 
 to check the spreac .^lished, tr^m '! - v^,- ^n^ that 
 
 Anglican Church, oi ^ r*he 
 
 but for a moment, "ere Ui-*,waai uaituiess imiy am "* Or may we 
 hail it as the real harbinger of returning day ? as the symptom of a 
 new order of intelligence arising in the Christian mind of this country ? 
 as indicative of a state of preparation commencing among British 
 Christians for the reception of just views of the Word of God, for the 
 diffusion among them of the genuine light of that Word ? Fax'it Deus ! 
 
 the Scriptures as the record and testimony of God, (without the exception 
 even of those whom we regard, not perhaps unjustly, as leaning to the 
 side of error and enthusiasm,) do uniformly admit that a partial, though 
 not always an impenetrable cloud, yet rests upon the sanctuary of divine 
 truth." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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