Ghost, Who wrote it, has been pleased to furnish us for our guidance in this respect, in the Word itself. For instance, when the Spirit tells us, that He has employed "leaven" in the Word, as a type of sin, we are so to employ it ourselves; and not to suppose that it refers, either to the grace of God in the heart, or to the effect of the preaching of the Gospel in the world: which is to mystify the subject, and to contradict the direct testimony of the Word itself. But as I have written at some length on this subject, in considering the Parable of the Leaven in Section 2 of Chapter VI. I shall say nothing further upon it now. In the third place, it is manifest, that positive and absolute statements of the Divine Word must of necessity be received before, and must therefore override, all inferences from other passages, which seem at first sight to contradict them: as such inferences are, of course, merely human. As an illustration under this head, I might refer to the widely-believed human theory of what is called "the secret rapture;" or, that the Church, or some part of it, is to be caught up, before "the great tribulation "—a theory, which is erroneously founded upon inferences derived from such passages as Rev. v.; xii. 1-12; xiv. 1-7, &c.: but which is not only expressly contradicted by numerous absolute and positive statements of Scripture to the contrary; but is also contrary to the teaching of the passages relied upon in support of the theory: as I shall hope to shew when I come to consider this part of the subject, in its proper place. In the fourth place, I would notice, that God's revelations have been progressive; and, as I have pointed out in my First Book of "Outlines," the germ of the whole of the glorious "Gospel of the grace of God," was wrapped up, if I might so say, in that first promise, which was virtually made to Adam and Eve, after they had sinned— "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and thou shalt bruise his heel." it shall bruise thy head, God, therefore, only now recognizes two men, Adam and Christ-"The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit "-" The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven ”—and all men are, therefore, either in the one, or in the other-in Adam, the head of the Old Creation of God; or, in Christ, the Head of the New. Hence there are only two seeds, "the seed of the serpent," and "the seed of God:" and prophecy is simply a history beforehand of these two seeds: setting forth the final destruction of the one, and the final triumph, exaltation and glory of the other.3 Moreover as the Canon of Scripture is now closed, there will be no further revelation from God, until Christ Himself comes again; and the Scriptures, therefore, are to be our sole rule and guide until then.1 Hence in the fifth place, as the Scriptures foretell, that towards the close of this Dispensation, instead of things growing better, they will rapidly grow worse: for "in the last days perilous times shall set in; "5 "evil men and seducers" "waxing worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived:" until Christendom wholly casts off its allegiance to Christ, and receives Antichrist'-the Prophetic Word shews us, that almost all the prophecies, even when they deal primarily with the evil that existed in the days of that prophet, through whom the Lord first uttered the prophecy, look forward finally to the end, and have their complete, and exhaustive, fulfilment, only then. 1 Gen. iii. 15. 21 Cor. xv. 45, 47. 3 Matt. xiii. 38; 1 Thess. v. 5; Eph. v. 6; Gal. iv. 5-7; John i. 12, 13; Gal. iv. 30, 31; Phil. iii. 3; Gal. vi. 8. Gal. iv. 31; Matt. viii. 12; 4 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17; Prov. xxx. 6; Rev. xxii. 18, 19; Psalm cxix. 105; Isaiah viii. 20. 52 Tim. iii. 1. 6 v. 13. 7 Psalm ii. 1-3; Rev. xiii. 8. In the sixth place, I quite agree with Mr. B. W. Newton, in his "Aids to Prophetic Enquiry," when he says that, "All historic detail-such as mention of localities, dates, personages, and the like-in prophetic Scripture is suspended, as soon as the narrative reaches the point at which Jerusalem ceases to hold a national existence in the earth-that is, when it was desolated by the Romans, eighteen hundred years ago and the detail is not resumed, until Israel again becomes possessed of a recognized national position; which will not be, until after they have returned to their own land in unbelief, and have entered upon the last season of Antichristian abomination." Hence, as "the facts of prophetic history are made by Scripture to revolve around Jerusalem as their centre, any system of interpretation which violates this cardinal principle will soon find itself lost in inconsistency." This seems to me to be clearly one of the axioms of the prophetic Scriptures: and if Expositors had borne this in mind they never would have attempted to prove that the doings of the Antichrist in Jerusalem, recorded in the 11th chapter of the Revelation, had reference to the doings of the Pope in Rome; or have explained away the explanation of the Holy Ghost Himself on the subject, by attributing a meaning to it, directly adverse to that of His own. For "the great city" there spoken of, the Spirit tells us "is spiritually," or figuratively, "called" (i.e., by Himself, in other parts of the Word,) "Sodom and Egypt"—as it is in Isa. i. 10, "Hear the Word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah; " and in Amos ix. 7, "Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel? saith Jehovah. Have not I brought up Israel out of Egypt?"— while he further tells us that it was in this very city that 1 "Aids," &c., pp. 10, 11. * See also Jer. ii. 18; xiii. 23. See also Jer. xxiii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 32. "our Lord was crucified"-words, which one would have thought no one could have applied to any other than the city of Jerusalem itself, where this event actually took place.1 Lastly, the blessed Spirit has not only taught us how to ascertain when a prophecy has been fulfilled, or not: but He has likewise given us a rule in the New Testament touching Prophecies in the Old Testament, for this especial object. For in recording, in John xix. 33-37, two of the events which took place at Christ's crucifixion, He thus distinguishes them-"But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him Whom they pierced." Now this passage shews us, that when the whole of what has been predicted in any particular prophecy has taken place, the word "fulfilled" is applied to it: but that when the prophecy has not been thus, as it were, exhausted, but some portion only of what has been predicted has taken place, that then some other phrase is applied to it, as here, "another Scripture saith;" or, as in other places, “It is written." For the first prophecy here referred to, was exhausted, when the event therein referred to actually took 1 The principles enunciated under these 5th and 6th heads form two of the most striking and important features of the Prophetic Word; which will be most fully established and illustrated in the pages of this Work. Indeed I have no hesitation whatever in saying, that it has been for the want of a discriminating perception on this subject, that has occasioned so many erroneous and misleading Expositions of the Prophetic Word to have been from time to time put forth. 1 place: for "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.' But the second prophecy will not be exhausted until Christ's Second Coming; when He "will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him," &c. Hence in the quotation from the prophet in the Gospel, the mourning is left out, as not then applicable to the people: who "looked" indeed "upon Him Whom they had pierced," but certainly did not then "mourn for Him." Some such dissertation as the foregoing, seemed needful as an Introduction to this Second Series of "Outlines:" because it will be seen that in this Volume, I shall have to deal largely, at the close of it, with Prophecies that yet remain to be fulfilled. Nevertheless no rules, nor axioms, will be of any avail in the study of the Divine Word, unless He Who wrote it draw back the vail from our hearts, that we may truly see and understand it. And as I write, not only for students of that Word, but also for the benefit of those, who have "to teach others also; "3 I think I cannot do better than wind up these Exhortations, by touching briefly upon the nature of the vails, that lie naturally upon all hearts; and how only they can be "taken away" from them. For as Payson truly observes, "If there is one fact, or doctrine, or promise in the Bible, which has produced no practical effect upon your temper or conduct, be assured that you do not truly believe it." The first vail then that I shall notice is the vail of Ignorance of which darkness is the emblem in the Scriptures. "They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.' "The way of the wicked is as 1 Rom. vi. 9. 3 2 Tim. ii. 2. 2 Zech. xii. 10. 4 Psalm lxxxii. 5. |