diction belongs to that Class. (3.) General Signification of Judæa and the surrounding Countries. (4.) The Spiritual Analogy of the relations of Place deduced. (5.) The Signification of the Land of Gog and Magog as result, ing from this Analogy, and of an Invasion thence of the Land of Judæa. (6.) The light thrown by this Prophecy upon that portion of the Prophetic Word which treats in its Letter of particular Countries and Nations. (7.) The Import, in the Language of Analogy, of the Address to the Fowls and Beasts. 2. The Lord's Prophecy of his Second Coming in the Clouds of Heaven, (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30.) (1.) The former part of this Chapter a re- Proofs and Illustrations continued. The Argument, respecting the proof of the Plenary Inspiration of the Scrip- tures by their Style, more distinctly stated. I. Applicability of the Law which governs the Relation between Natural Objects and Spiritual and Di- vine Essences, or of the Science of Analogies, as a Rule for the Interpreta- tion of the Historical Parts of the Divine Word. 1. Sentiments of Biblical Critics, and admissions of Expositors, on the Typical Nature of the Scripture History (1.) In regard to the Miracles; (2.) And other Circumstances. 2. Necessity of making the System uniform. II. Just Ideas of the nature and uses of the Israelitish Dispensation necessary to the right apprehension of the Israelitish History. 1. The selection of the Israelites as a peculiar people, not intended so much for their own benefit as for the general bene- fit of mankind. 2. It promoted this object; (1.) By their filling a station indispensable in the Divine Economy, during a period in which a higher or more extensive Dispensation could not have been received, and in supply- ing the Preparation without which such superior Dispensation could never be given at all: (2.) By furnishing the means by which the Holy Word might be written which they did by representing divine things under Ex- ternal Symbols and Natural Occurrences; for which office they were pecu- liarly suited by their distinguishing Temper and Genius. III. Examples of the Light which results from the application of the Rule of Analogy between Natural things and Spiritual to the Scripture Histories. 1. The Miraculous Capture of Jericho: (Josh. vi.) (1.) The Acts of Violence performed by the Israelites, and some of the Enactments of the Law, merely permitted to them "because of the hardness of their hearts," and because they could be so overruled as to afford exact Symbolic Representations of the Spiritual and Heavenly things which are the real objects of all the Divine Command- ments. (2.) The Spiritual Import of the Command to destroy the Canaan- ites; (3.) of the Circumstances attending the Capture of Jericho. 2. Jeph- thah and his vow: (Judges xi.) Remarks on the literal history. (1.) Ne- cessity for an appearance, on the face of the Narrative, as if the Sacrifice took place. (2.) The Origin of Human Sacrifices: (3.) And of Sacrificial Worship in general; with its Ground in, and Signification by, the Science of Analogies. (4.)* The Signification of an apparent, and of the actual Sacrifice of a Child. (5.)† The principles applied to the case of Jephthah's Vow, and shewn to explain, most satisfactorily, the statements of the Nar- rative. 3. The Combat of David and Goliath. (1 Sam. xvii.) 4. The cir- cumstances attending the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. IV. Examples of the Light which results from the application of the Rule to the Ceremonial Pre- cepts of the Divine Word. 1. The Sacrifices in general: 2. The Prohibi- tion of various kinds of meats: (Lev. xi.) 3. The Law of the Nazarite : (Numb. vi.) 4. Baptism and the Lord's Supper; which were instituted un- der the Christian Dispensation as an Epitome of the whole Ceremonial Law-Inference from the whole. V. Additional Argument, 1. Proposed and Illustrated: A false Rule of Interpretation could not draw from the Scriptures a coherent sense throughout: But the Doctrine of Analogies does this: Wherefore it must be the true Rule of Interpretation, and the Scrip- tures must be written according to it. 2. The Argument afforded by the fact, That a number of Writers, living at distant periods, produced Compo- sitions all uniformly following this Law.-Inference repeated,―That the Style in which the Scriptures are composed is the truly Divine Style of Writing; and that nothing short of Plenary Divine Inspiration could be ade- quate to their production. Thus they are truly denominated THE WORD LECTURE VI.-Page 378 to 439. The whole Fabric of Infidel Objections shewn to be without I. General View of the System and Arguments of the preceding Lectures: 1. The first stage of the Argument: 2. The second: 3. The third: Impor- * Erroneously marked in the place referred to, (3.) † Erroneously marked (4.) tant additional Testimony: 4. The last. II. The four Classes of Infidel Proofs of the Symbolic Character of the Writings of the Old Testament afforded by the Revelation of John An Attempt to discriminate between the Books of Plenary Inspiration contained in the Bible, and those written by the Inspiration generally assigned to the whole The Great Objects and Phænomena of the Mundane System The Signification of the Clouds, when mentioned in Scrip- Illustrations of the Jewish Character; evincing its Aptitude for a Dispensation consisting chiefly in External Rites Critical Examination of Jephthah's Vow Arguments for the Literal Interpretation of the first part of No. VIII. Remarks on the Recent Volume of Bampton Lectures, by xxxviii xlvi lii lx Ixi LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY. INFIDEL OBJECTIONS STATED. Prevalence of infidel sentiments, and of an increasing tendency to think meanly of the Scriptures.-Their Plenary Inspiration generally relinquished.-Design of these Lectures stated. -Necessity of Revelation.—The character that must belong to a Composition which has God for its Author.—Inquiry proposed: Do the books called the Holy Scriptures come up to this character ?-Answered in the affirmative by the Lecturer, but the proof reserved for the subsequent Lectures :—Answered in the negative by the Deist, on the alleged grounds, that the books in question contain statements that are contradictory to each other, some that are at variance with science and reason, and some that are repugnant to morality; and that, beside these positive objections, the greater part of them is occupied with indifferent and insignificant matters.-General reply, that all such objections arise from taking a merely superficial view of the Scriptures, and from an ignorance of their true nature; and that they may be retorted so as to assist in proving what the true nature of the Scriptures is.—Appeal to the reader, on the ill consequences of infidelity. THERE is a prediction in the second Epistle of Peter,* which can hardly fail to present itself to the thoughts of every believer in Divine Revelation, when he reflects * Ch. iii. ver. 3. upon the deluge of infidelity, which, in the present times, is seen pouring upon the world. The apostle says, "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts :" upon which it has been justly remarked by advocates of Christianity, that the circumstance of the wide diffusion of hostility to Revelation which it is the lot of the present generation to witness, itself affords a testimony of the truth of the Scriptures; since it is a fulfilment of a prophecy which the Scriptures contain. Another divine prediction of Holy Writ, will also frequently occur to the recollection of him who contemplates this state of things Jesus Christ says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."* It is now generally admitted by expositors of Scripture, that the so often occurring prophetical figure of the passing away of heaven and earth, denotes the overturning of ecclesiastical and civil establishments. Of these occurrences the present generation has seen more extensive examples than have before been witnessed since the first establishment of Christianity; and were it not for the divine assurance that the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away,—(and these words, in fact, include the whole of the Word of God, since we are assured by Peter that the spirit which inspired the old prophets was the spirit of Christ ;t-were it not for this divine assurance,) we might almost expect, when we observe the activity with which deistical publications are circulated, and the avidity with which, in too many cases, their poison is imbibed, that, amongst the moral and civil revolutions of which the present is so remarkable an era, all belief in divine revelation would be abolished from the human mind; the awful consequences of which would be, to place the moral world in a situation precisely similar to that in which the world of nature would stand, were the sun to be abolished from the firmament. In a neighbour |