on the Prophecies, will shew you that rich stream of Prophecy which runs through all the word of God. In forming your sentiments on expressions, take an enlarged view of the whole of a prophecy, before you determine the meaning of a particular sentence in it; for some have taken a single sentence, and applied it to quite a different purpose than to its original use; mark what the prophet himself or other Scriptures testify respecting the time and circumstances of the prophecy; in what year he wrote, under what kings, for Judah or for Israel. This may sometimes be ascertained from the things stated; at least, as far as to point out before, or after, what time they were spoken.

4. Take THE PLAIN LITERAL MEANING OF THE EXPRESSIONS where they are not evidently symbolical. Few things have occasioned more perverted views than figurative interpretation of plain expressions. It has thrown away much of the prophetical use and instruction of lengthened and important predictions. There is, indeed, in almost all the prophecies, and especially in the Revelation, a mixture of symbolical and literal expression, but the figure or symbol may, generally, be easily distinguished from the plain letter, which must as little as possible be departed from. This rule may be, and has been abused, but it is still important to bear it in mind, lest, for instance, without scriptural authority we apply to Gentiles what God intended for the Jews, and to the awful destruction of Jerusalem, the much desired blessing of the second coming of Christ for the salvation of his people. In most cases what is symbolical is manifestly so; and there is need only of the ordinary judgment of a sober mind so to interpret it, though

the meaning of the symbol may be more difficult. The literal meaning, as expressed in the text, must, where there is no adequate necessity for leaving it, always be primarily attended to and made out, and adhered to; and this is only to be departed from when necessity, the context, or subsequent inspiration directs us to a symbolical, or enlarged meaning. Thus the book of Revelation has by applying the name Babylon to Rome, and by varied uses of expressions of the Old Testament, led us to expect in subsequent events of the Roman Empire, a fulfilment in the symbolical Babylon, of those predictions that have not been yet fulfilled in the history of the literal Babylon.1 5. DILIGENTLY COMPARE ONE PART OF SCRIPTURE WITH ANOTHER. No rule is more important for the right investigation of prophecy than this. One scheme, one argument, runs through, not only the more prophetical parts, but the whole volume of Scripture. They are parts of the entire work of a single mind-God himself. They all proceeded, as Horsley observes, from one Author-the Holy Ghost; "that omniscient mind to which the universe is ever present in one unvaried, undivided thought !—the entire comprehension of the visible and intelligible world, with its ineffable variety of mortal and immortal natures;-that mind in which all science, truth, and knowledge is summed up, and comprehended in one vast idea!" Moses and Elias, and we may add, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, David, and the whole choir of prophets, (as Vitringa puts it,) here confer together between themselves and Christ (Mat. xvii. 3.) Thus shall we be taught the entire harmony and

This rule will be farther noticed in a distinct Chapter.

agreement between them; and that each speaks nothing but what the whole speaks. God has also graciously given links or clauses in one prophet, parallel with those of another, the combination of which throws light on the connection of one prophecy with another; just as the comparison of one statement of doctrine with another throws light upon the general truth revealed. For instance, the Revelation is full of references to former Prophets, and contains a concentrated index, and an analytical view of the chief substance of prophecy unaccomplished when it was written.

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Bishop Horsley in his four Sermons on 2 Pet. i. 20, 21, has many striking remarks illustrative of this rule, and shewing that no prophecy of scripture is made its own interpreter or of self-interpretation. He remarks "The maxim is to be applied both to every single text of prophecy, and to the whole. any single text of prophecy, it is true that it cannot be its own interpreter, for this reason: because the Scripture prophecies are not detached predictions of separate independent events, but are united in a regular and entire system, all terminating in one great object-the promulgation of the Gospel, and the complete establishment of the Messiah's kingdom. Of this system every particular prophecy makes a part, and bears a more immediate, or a more remote relation to that which is the object of the whole. It is therefore very unlikely that the true signification of any particular text of prophecy should be discovered from the bare attention to the terms of the single prediction taken by itself, without considering it as a part of that system to which it unquestionably belongs, and without observing how it may stand con

nected with earlier and later prophecies, especially with those which might more immediately precede, or more immediately follow it. Again, of the whole of the Scripture Prophecies, it is true, that it cannot be its own interpreter. Its meaning never can be discovered without a general knowledge of the principal events to which it alludes. Every particular prophecy is to be referred to the system, and to be understood in that sense which may most aptly connect it with the whole, and the sense of prophecy in general is to be sought in the events which have actually taken place."

6. CAREFULLY MARK THE SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECIES. There is much that is symbolical and figurative, but you will find few symbols of the meaning of which the word of God does not give an account. This is often immediately connected with it; like a key tied by a string, close to the lock, that you may have every help for the interpretation; at other times it is given in other parts of the scripture. The New Testament frequently also furnishes a divinely inspired interpretation to the Old Testament prophecies. (See Isaiah Ixi. 1, 2, and Luke iv. 21.) This will give you not only a clear guide to such prophecies, but a help to the right interpretation of similar predictions. It is a just remark of Mr. Allix: "The latter prophecies having always added some new light to those who prophecied before them; it is a good and sure method to expound the old ones by the new, who illustrate the thoughts of those who went before them, and who lay them open in a larger view and brightness. Thus, for example, we find the right sense of several Psalms concerning the return of the Jews from the

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captivity at the second coming of the Messiah, by what is said in Isaiah, chap. xii, wherein he gives the sense of several Psalms."1

7. NOTE, AS ACCURATELY AS YOU CAN, THE LINE

BETWEEN WHAT HAS BEEN FULFILLED AND WHAT HAS

NOT. If we do not this, we may weaken the strong, clear evidence of divine inspiration from fulfilled prophecy. Yet distant events are so intermingled in almost all the prophecies, as to require careful discrimination to separate the fulfilled from the unfulfilled. The passage which our Lord read from Isaiah lxi. 1, 2, in the synagogue at Nazareth is a striking lesson. He read just as far as it had been fulfilled, and then closed the book, and said This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, what follows in Isaiah. The day of vengeance of our God had not then arrived. It is a remark of Irenæus, very useful to keep in view, though too generally and strongly expressed, "All prophecies before they are fulfilled, are enigmas and ambiguous to men, but when the time arrives, and the event predicted is accomplished, then they have a clear and certain exposition." This principle may be extended to the whole scheme of prophecy, which will indeed, not be fully developed, till God's purposes are accomplished in the events foretold.

The PARTICULAR explanation of UNFULFILLED prophecy, is either not to be attempted, or stated with the greatest humility. The GENERAL meaning may be clear, when we go quite beyond our province in attempting to point out the particular mode of its fulfilment. Let us rather attain Habakkuk's spirit. I

1 See Allix on the Psalms, p. xxv.