mighty image of worldly power upon the feet, and overthrow it. Accordingly, as Christianity grew stronger, the Roman empire declined, and was soon reduced nearly to the state in which we now see it.

Lord of all things, with
which they are to traffick
in this state of probation,
and improve them to the
best of their power. He
who makes no improvement
will lose what he has got,
and then he is poor indeed.
In the prophecy of
Daniel, the four monar-
chies of the world were
signified by the chief metals
which are taken from the
earth, all united in that
visionary image which ap-
peared to Nebuchadnezzar.
The head of gold meant
the Assyrian monarchy;
the breast of silver was the
Persian; the brazen part
was the Grecian; and the
legs and feet of iron and
clay were the Roman. The
last was inferior to all the
rest in quality, but exceeded
them in strength, as iron
breaks all other things in
pieces. The kingdom of
Christ, arising in the time
of the fourth monarchy, is
meant by the "stone cut
out of the mountain," (that
is, out of the Church,) with-
out hands, to smite this lation.

We have taken a review of the natural creation, so far as the compass of these Lectures will permit, and have seen how the Scripture has applied the several parts of it for the increase of our faith and the improvement of our understandings. taught how to make the best and the wisest use to which this world can be applied. The Creator Himself hath made this use of it, in revealing His will by it, and referring man to it for instruction from the beginning. For this use He intended it when it was made; and without such an intention, there never could have been such an universal agreement between nature and reve

Thus we are

• Chap. ii,

In this use of the world | versal language, in which

men differ from brutes, who can see it only with the eyes of the body, and can apply it to nothing but the gratification of the appetites. The ambitious and the covetous are wasting their time to gain as much as they can of it, without knowing what it is; as children covet new books for the pictures and the gilding, without having sense to improve by what is within them. To those who consider only how the creation can furnish matter to their lusts and passions, it is no better than a vain shadow: but to those who take it rightly, it is a shadow of heavenly things; a school in which God is a teacher; and all the objects of sense in heaven and earth, and under the earth, are as the letters of an uni

all nations have a common interest.

There was an opinion (I should rather call it a tradition) amongst some heathen philosophers, that the world is a parable, the literal or bodily part of which is manifest to all men, while the inward meaning is hidden, as the soul in the body, the moral in the fable, or the interpretation in the parable. They had heard there was such a thing; but to us the whole secret is opened, by the Scripture accommodating all nature to things spiritual and intellectual; and whoever sees this plan with an unprejudiced mind, will not only be in a way to understand the Bible, but he will want no other evidence of the Christian doctrines.

D

NEXT in order to those figures of the Scripture which may be called natural, as being taken from nature, we are to examine those which are borrowed from the institutions of the law, and may be called artificial, as being ordained and accommodated to this purpose by the Lawgiver Himself.

treated of by Christ and His Apostles, which will serve as a key to the language of the law, and shew us the intention of its ceremonies and precepts.

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, gives us this general idea of the law, that it had "a shadow of good things to come";" by which he means to teach us, that it was in its ordinances a figure of the blessings of the gospel. It was, as a shadow is, just and and descriptive in its linea

The chief ordinances of the law are referred to in the Prophets, the Psalms, and the New Testament, and many passages are cited from thence

a Heb. x. 1.

ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE &C.

as

51

ments, but it had in itself | Lamb taken from the flock neither substance nor life. of His people. 2. That He When the gospel refers us was a Sacrifice, put to death to the law, it refers us to a shadow of itself; and such references will necessarily be figurative and want an interpretation; of which I shall now proceed to give some examples.

Among the institutions of the law, the first place is due to its sacrifices and priesthood; and the first and greatest sacrifice of which we have any particular description is that of the passover.

From this

the Apostle instructs us in the benefits of Christ's death, together with the qualifications necessary to a participation of them; and in so doing he uses the terms of the institution itself; "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." This expression carries us back to the cause and end for which the passover was instituted; and it appears from this reference of the Apostle, 1. That Christ is what the passover was, a

b 1 Cor. v. 7.

an Offering to God. 3. That this was done for us, for our redemption and deliverance from the divine wrath; as the passover was sacrificed for the redemption of the Hebrews, when the first-born of Egypt were destroyed.

All this is comprehended in the use the Apostle has made of those terms: and this will be still plainer, if we attend to the particulars. For the character of our blessed Saviour was answerable in all respects to that of the paschal lamb: He was without blemish, innocent and perfect in His nature; and, as the prophet describes Him, like the "lamb when brought to the slaughter," meek and unresisting. When John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to the Jews as the Messiah, he chose to do it in those words, "Behold the Lamb of God";" see and acknowledge the true