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and was constantly used by all the Jewish interpreters of their law and prophets. In order thoroughly to comprehend any writer, it is necessary that we follow the direction which he himself points out for our investigation, even if it were at the hazard of being sometimes exposed to error. The excess into which both Jews and Christians have been hurried, in their fondness for mystical interpretation, may justly act as a warning to us not hastily to draw conclusions from a source singularly liable to abuse: but can never be produced as a legitimate argument against all enquiry; or as a reason for denying the validity of every conclusion.

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No one will say that it was impossible for the Almighty and All-knowing God to prefigure events as well as to predict them. His thoughts are not as our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways. No one will say that the Scriptures, which purport to be given by His inspiration, contain no reference to such prefigurations. They abound in every part of the sacred volume.

A singularity of this kind, so far from being an objection to the claim which these writings make to inspiration, may almost be said to be the natural consequence of a real revelation

i Isai. lv. 8.

from heaven. Allowing it to be in any degree probable that the will of God should be revealed, and preserved in written documents, in the same degree is it probable that much should be contained in them, with regard both to the matter treated of, and to the manner of treating it, different from what we meet with in any other book whatever; and, certainly, much which is different from the conventional style of argument and arrangement adopted by any particular nation in a distant age. In a work proceeding from the Supreme Intelligence, from Him who changeth not, we might expect to find indications of unity of counsel pervading the spiritual economy of all ages, of which any records exist.

And this is what we do find in the Bible. We may not be able strictly to follow all the steps, by which it has pleased God to indicate the gradual developement of his one great scheme. For "who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" Events, which are long to remain hidden in the obscurity of future ages, are predicted in the language of prophecy, sometimes with the precision with which we relate the past, sometimes in terms designedly more obscure, sometimes in terms immediately

k Mal. iii. 6.

1 Isai. xl. 13.

referring to temporal events, but ultimately to those which shall be completed only in the fulness of time.

Men are also instructed, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, by significant actions as well as by words. The Almighty multiplies visions and uses similitudes by the ministry of his prophets."

m

Again, the whole or a part of one man's life, by a continuance of the same mode of conveying information, is made prophetic of the counsels of God, which are to be completed

in a subsequent age.

But all these various methods of instruction are only modifications of the same general principle, the gradual display of unity of design by a foreknowing and Almighty God. And being commanded, as we are, to search the Scriptures, we dare not leave 'unexamined a most important branch in the interpretation of the book of life.

2

While however we undertake the examination of the wonderful connection of events which we are taught to look for in Holy Scripture, we must be especially careful that we attempt not to be wise above that which is written. There is perhaps no part of sacred interpretation in which so much care is requi

m Hos. xii. 10.

site, that we may rightly divide the word of truth."

If once the mind, instead of being confined within the sober limits of just interpretation, be suffered to wander in the deceitful fields of imagination, it may there build up for itself a fabric fair to the eye, but having no similarity to that whose builder is God.

They who are puffed up with vain conceit of their own understandings, and would en deavour to discover, in Scripture, mysteries which others of less acuteness are unable to discern-they who wish to support upon apparently scriptural grounds the corrupt superstitions of men-they who have a design to explain away the humiliating doctrines and awful threatenings of Holy Writ-they who would undermine the fixed faith of the believer in the Gospel of truth-all these have had recourse to some mystical interpretation as the means of accomplishing their designs.

But the existence of a typical relation, between any two events recorded in the Scriptures, by no means implies that either of them is imaginary. The Old Testament, it is true, prefigures the New Testament. But the events of each are real. And the very connection upon which our conviction of this prefigura

n2 Tim. ii. 15.

tion is founded, is to be discovered from the

assertions of the Scriptures alone, and esta blished upon the principles which they point out.7!

While, with humble faith, and reliance upon God's Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds, we search these oracles of truth, we have good grounds to hope that we shall not search in vain. But, even in the defence of our religion's truth, we must beware that we intrude not with vain curiosity into those mysteries which the Divine wisdom has concealed. The ark of God requires not to be stayed by the un, hallowed strength of man. And he, who, like Uzzah, interposes an unbidden, much more an unholy arm, incurs a degree of guilt, in proportion to his arrogance and rashness.

A sincere reverence for the sacred Volume, a singleness of heart, a humble and a docile mind, equally removed from the temerity which would obtrude its own unauthorized inventions as the doctrines of revelation, and from the timidity which would reject what is clearly contained in the Scriptures, are required of those who would interpret them.

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They who so search the Scriptures will find their labours repaid by a more enlarged insight into the glorious scheme of redemption ema

• 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7.