LECTURE IV.

PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, EVINCING THAT THE

SCRIP

TURES ARE WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THE LAW OR RULE DEVELOPED IN THE LAST LECTURE.

1. 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 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 na

tural things and spiritual to the Prophetic Writings.—Instances 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. xvii. 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 communicating a divinely inspired code of knowledge on heavenly subjects. Nothing can be more agreeable to reason than to pre-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 compositions. 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.† Some have been disgusted with the Scriptures of Divine Truth, and have thought it an argument against their divine origin, because they are not written in the style of the orations of Demosthenes,-or of the philosophical 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 Scrip

tures, 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 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 unworthy 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. And 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 superiority. "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 compositions 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 uninterruptedly coherent series, under the veil of a continued chain of natural images,—in an outwardly simple style of language, borrowed entirely from the appearances that exist in nature. This we have already repeatedly advanced: 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 spiritual essences, and physical, sensible, and

* Isa. lv. 9.

material forms; were the Law which governs this Relation 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 infinite fulness in the divine nature. Thus the high endowments of the human mind, as enjoyed 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 perception, 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 spiritual antitypes, and finally of their prototypes in God. We have seen also, that were the relation between natural types and their spiritual 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 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 demonstrated.

II. The existence of such a Relation of Analogy being thus, it is hoped, clearly established, 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 Scriptures 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 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