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Mr. Lowth's remark in his preface to the commentary is perfectly just-" All the privileges appropriated to the Jews in the Old Testament, as God's peculiar people do, in a more eminent manner, appertain to the Church of Christ, which is the true kingdom of God, the Jerusalem coming down from heaven, of which the earthly Jerusalem and the Temple there, was only a type and figure."

This view of the subject is important to be thus fully established, as it not only respects the full interpretation of prophecy, but the right of Christians to all the promises of the Old Testament. Hereby all the promises of God, in Christ are yea, and in him, amen: unto the glory of God by us.

In this view, the Psalms are appointed by the Church of England to assist the daily devotions of her worshippers. Bishop Horne's introduction to his commentary forcibly shews the truth and solidity of this mode of interpretation; and the commentary itself, without defending every particular, in general wisely and beautifully illustrates and exemplifies it. It shows how judiciously and how piously, and with what edification, the promises of the Old Testament may be thus expounded, and how easily and naturally they express the devout feelings of the Christian believer.1

1 It may be interesting to the reader to see the way in which the above view is, in the main, confirmed by different writers; though we allow that several of the quotations go much too far, and would exclude the literal interpretation of prophecy altogether. Investigation and events have thrown a light around prophecy, which these authors did not possess in their day, and would now thankfully improve. Augustine shews, in his Treatise on the City of God, (Book 17.chap iii.) that the promises concern partly the bond-woman bringing forth into bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, and partly the free city of God, the true Jerusalem, eternal and heavenly, whose children are pilgrims on earth in the way of God's word: and there are some which

The wisdom of God is thus wonderfully seen in so foretelling future events, that while they confirm the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and answer other important ends, as PREDICTIONS, accomplished or belong to both, properly to the bond-woman, and figuratively to the free; for the prophets have a triple meaning in their prophecies, some concerning the earthly Jerusalem, some the heavenly, and some both. As I think it a great error in some to hold no relation to things done in the Scripture more than mere historical, so do I hold it a great boldness in them that bind all relations of Scripture unto allegorical reference, and therefore I avouch the meaning in Scripture to be triple, and not two-fold only."

Bishop Hall, writing against those who had, in his days, carnal notions of a Millennium, speaks in much too sweeping a way; he says, "their general fault is that they put a merely literal construction upon the prophecies, which the Holy Ghost intended only to be spiri tually understood. Hence it is that those frequent predictions which we meet in every page of the prophets concerning the kingdom of Christ, the re-edifying of the Jewish cities, the pomp and magnificence of restored Israel, their large privileges, and marvellous achievements, are altogether drawn to a gross, corporal, and syllabilical sense; which the judgment of the whole Christian Church, seconded by the event, hath upon good grounds, ever construed, not of the letter but of the spirit. The truth is, these prophecies have their reference either to God's merciful dealings with Jerusalem on their return from the Babylonish captivity; or by an usual allegory, express his gracious purposes to the Church under the Gospel." See Bishop Hall's Revelation Unrevealed. '

Dr. Owen says on this subject, "Those promises which we find recorded concerning Sion, Jerusalem, the seed of Abraham, Jacob, Israel, respect the Elect of God called to the faith of Abraham, and worshipping God according to his appointment, of what people or nation soever they be." See Dr. Owen on the Hebrews, Exercitations vi. and xviii.

Mr. Lowth, the author of the Commentary, observes, in his directions for reading the Scriptures,-" A particular, very observable in those prophecies which relate to the times of the Messiah, is the mystical sense of several passages in them contained under the literal, of which we may assign several examples. As (1.) When the prophets describe him under such characters as have a more immediate aspect upon some eminent person in or near their own times. 2 Sam. vii. 14; Psalm ii. 6, 7; xlv. and lxxii; lxxxix. 26, 27; Haggai ii. 23; Zech. vi. 11, 12. (2) When they represent the redemption of mankind which he was to accomplish by such expressions as do in their first and pri

The Author, as it will be seen, by no means concurs in the restricted view of Bishop Hall.

accomplishing; they cheer and comfort every individual believer as PROMISES in which he has a personal interest.

At the same time, the way in which the promises are assured to Christians, furnishes a most tender

mary sense allude to some temporal deliverance which God had vouchsafed, (Psalm lxviii. 22, 23.) or would vouchsafe to their own nation. Isaiah xl. 3, &c; xlix. 8, &c; lii. 7, &c; lx. 1, &c. Or lastly, when they set forth the benefits of the Gospel by phrases taken from the forms of divine worship prescribed by their law." Isaiah lx. 6, 7; lxvi. 23; Zech. xiv. 16, 20.

He further shews, that " these providential congruities between the times of the Old and New Testament, as a learned writer styles them, do very much confirm the authority of both Testaments. From hence we learn that the Scriptures comprehend one entire scene of Providence, which reaches from one end of the world to the other: and that God, who is the beginning and end of all things, by various steps and degrees pursues one great design, viz. the setting up the kingdom of his Son, through the several ages of the world, and will still carry it on by such measures as seem best to his infinite wisdom, till the great day of the consummation of all things. Such a gradual opening of this wonderful scene of Providence is a new argument of that infinite wisdom which contrived it, and so fully justifies this mystical way of propounding it."

Bishop Lowth also remarks in his Lectures, that, " In the sacred rites of the Hebrews, things, places, times, offices, and such like, sustain as it were a double character, the one proper or literal, the other allegorical; and in their writings these subjects are sometimes treated of in such a manner as to relate either to the one sense or the other singly, or to both united. For instance, a composition may treat of David, of Solomon, of Jerusalem, so as to be understood to relate simply either to the city itself and its monarchs, or else to those objects which in the sacred allegory of the Jewish religion are denoted by that city, and by those monarchs; or the mind of the author may embrace both objects at once, so that the very words which express the one, in the plain, proper, historical, and commonly received sense, may typify the other in the sacred, interior, and prophetic sense.' He afterwards illustrates this by a particular consideration of the 2nd and 72nd Psalm.

Bishop Hurd has many valuable remarks on this subject. He says, "The same oracles which attest the first coming of Christ, as if impatient to be confined to so narrow bounds, overflow as it were into the future, and expatiate on the principal facts of his second coming. By this Divine artifice, if I may so speak, the two dispensations, the Jewish and the Christian, are closely tied together, or rather compacted together, into one harmonious system. The

motive for the kindest consideration of the Jews. We can claim none of the promises of the Old Testament without being reminded of the lost sheep of Israel, and of our connection with their father Abraham as the channel by which the blessings flow to us. With such views, how inexcusable is contempt of, or indifference to the Jews! Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

events which both these prophetic schemes point out, are so distri buted through all time, as to furnish successively to the several ages of the world the means of a fresh and still growing conviction."

Bishop Horne's introduction to his Commentary on the Psalms, as noticed above, dwells at considerable length on this mode of interpretation. He says, "The writers of the New Testament shew us that there is another Israel of God, other children of Abraham and heirs of the promise, another circumcision; another Egypt from the bondage of which they are redeemed; another wilderness through which they journey; other bread from heaven for their support; and another rock to supply them with living water; other enemies to overcome; and another land of Canaan, and another Jerusalem, which they are to obtain and possess for ever."

It is allowed on all hands, that wisdom is needful in such an application of prophecy, and that many have carried it too far. The literal meaning should ever be first attained, where the sacred text will evidently bear a literal sense. It has pleased the Holy Spirit also to reveal things in a variety of different ways. "Sometimes," says Bishop Lowth, "the obvious or literal sense is so prominent and conspicuous, both in the words and sentiments, that the remote or figurative sense is scarcely permitted to glimmer through it. On the other hand, and that more frequently, the figurative sense is found to beam forth with so much perspicuity and lustre, that the literal sense is quite cast into a shade, or becomes indiscernible." Let us not lean on our own or any other man's wisdom, so much as upon the constant teaching of the Holy Ghost and comparing Scripture with Scripture.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE PROPHECIES.

IT has been shewn that the Christian is entitled to apply to himself the promises of spiritual blessings made to the Jews of old. They are to him all yea and amen in Christ Jesus.

But this has led to a great mistake in the interpretation of the Old Testament Prophecies-(a mistake in which the Author long partook,) of confining their meaning simply to the Christian Church, and not taking their literal application to the Jewish Nation, in an enlarged fulfilment which, we have so much scriptural reason to expect, will take place hereafter.

St. Paul, however, explicitly applies Isa. lix. 20 to a future fulfilment (Rom. xi. 26); Isa. xxv. 8, to the time of the resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 54;) and Hag.ii. 6, to a future shaking of the heavens and the earth. (Heb. xii. 26); and thereby distinctly teaches us that there will be a future fulfilment of the passages. There are statements in the prophecies that cannot without the greatest force upon words, be applied at all spiritually, or be viewed as already literally fulfil

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