then I observe, that a great majority is against me in this respect.

The ingenuity, that deduces important instructions from a text, which seems not to contain any thing to that special point, excites the approbation and admiration of many: but some think it unwarranted, and that it gives too much scope for fancy; and tends too much to take men off from the plain meaning of scripture, to hunt after such allusions, till they forget the Go, and do likewise, as has been exceedingly the case in the good Samaritan. Your allusions, however, though I own I could not find the ground of them in the Text, were of a practical nature and tendency; and thus calculated to produce good among those, who have a taste for accommodation.

LETTER II.

IF I had not considered you in a very different light, from that in which I do some preachers, in whose sermons imagination and accommodation predominate, I should have evaded the question, or declined giving an answer. But I deem you to be of so right a spirit, and your aim to be so simple, that any thing of this kind, which gives umbrage to some persons, and is not unfrequently ascribed to a wrong cause, must arise from an error of judgment, which may, without much dif

VOL. IV.

ficulty, be rectfied, if indeed we, who judge thus, be in the right.

Your sermons always have a good tendency; as such, I must give my approbation, leaving every man to his own method of attaining his object; though I may think that method is not the best of which he is capable. I am fully satisfied, that you are capable even of excelling, in that way which seems to me most suited to communicate solid instruction-to produce abiding conviction -and so to silence objection, by "sound speech "which cannot be condemned, that they who are "of the contrary part may have nothing to say

against it:" for I have heard you, and others, who are no more favourable to accommodation than I am, have heard you, and have wondered that you did not understand where your forte lay.

When you take a plain text, full of matter, and from the real meaning of the text, raise doctrines, draw conclusions, explain, illustrate, and apply. the subject, there is great weight in your manner of preaching; which the fertility of your invention and liveliness of imagination, kept in due bounds, render more interesting to the many, without giving just ground of umbrage to the few. But, it appears to me and to others, that you frequently choose Texts suited to give scope to the fancy, which is constituted the interpreter instead of the judgment; and that you thus discover

allusions, and deduce doctrines and instructions, true and good in themselves, but by no means contained in the text, nor, indeed, easily made out in the way of accommodation. In this case, your own vigour is principally exerted in the exercise of the imagination; and, while many hearers are surprised, amused, and delighted, their understandings, consciences, and hearts are not addressed or affected, by any means in so powerful a manner, as by a plainer subject.

What St. Peter says of prophecy, that it is "not "of private interpretation," is true of every part of scripture: the Holy Spirit had, in every part, one grand meaning, and conveys one leading instruction; though others may, by fair inférence, subordinately be deduced. This is the real spiritual meaning, which we should first of all endeavour to discover, as the foundation of all our reasonings and persuasions. We should open, alledge, argue, enforce, apply, &c. from this mind of the Spirit in scripture; nor is any passage fit for a text, properly speaking, which does not admit of such an improvement of it, in its real meaning. But that, which you seem to call the 'spiritual meaning,' is frequently no more, than a new meaning put upon it by a lively fancy.-Typical subjects, indeed, have a spiritual meaning, and in another sense, under the literal meaning; being Intended by the Holy Spirit, to shadow forth spiritual blessings under external signs; and some

prophetical visions are enigmatical, and the spiritual meaning is the unriddling of the enigma.Parables, and such parts of scripture as the Canticles, are of the same nature. But in all, the judg ment should be the expositor, not the fancy, and we should inquire what the Holy Spirit meant, not what we can make of it.

But there are many scriptures, that have no other meaning, than the literal; and which are to be improved, not by finding out a new meaning and calling it spiritual; but by trying what useful instruction we can deduce from the plain sense of the passage. To illustrate my meaning, let me bring forward your text as an instance. Nabopolazar, King of Babylon, who, in conjunction with Cyaxares, King of Media, subverted the Assyrian Empire, is supposed to be meant by the dasher in pieces; and your accommodation of this title to the French was fair.-But the latter part of the verse is a challenge to the inhabitants of Nineveh, to do their utmost to withstand the fierce conqueror; with an intimation, that it would be all to no purpose. "Keep the munition; watch the

way; make thy loins strong; fortify thy power "mightily." For, as the Lord had not spared the offending Israelites, but had punished them by the Assyrians, who cruelly intreated them; so he would not spare the Assyrians, but would destroy Nineveh by the Babylonians, who would fully avenge on the Assyrians their cruelties to Israel.

Now, I think, the accommodation of this, to our watching, praying, and using all means of averting the wrath of God from a guilty land, with hopes of success, must appear far fetched to those, who study the scriptures carefully; and who would say The instruction was good, but what right had the preacher to put such a sense on the words? At this rate, we may make the scriptures mean what we please, by putting our own sense on any passage; and there will remain no certainty in interpreting scripture, but it will be equally easy to prove error as truth from thence.' In fact, I thought I could see, that you had some difficulty in making the allusion out; and was too much engaged in that pursuit, to bring it so much home with energy to the heart and conscience as you would have done, if you had said the same things from the words of Joel for instance, chap. i. v. 12-14 or 17; or those of Isaiah, i. 16—18. Nor let it be forgotten, that many hearers of the gospel, love best to have evangelical truths proposed without much application, for reasons best known to themselves, or rather to the Lord.

My dear Sir, I am so deeply convinced, that this way of accommodation is capable of very dangerous abuses, and has been so abused to very bad purposes, by those, who make divisions and deceive souls, that I grieve when any person of real piety and respectability gives countenance to it; and I have so high an opinion of your inte