30

THIS PRINCIPLE CONCEDED

L. I.

which was for to come"" appeared in the person of the Baptist, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Malachi was the rule of the Church of Israel: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments"." But when once that voice was heard crying in the wilderness, "prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," a more expanded and a more spiritual law was promulgated, and this was its sanction, "This is my beloved Son! hear Him'!"

Nor do the frequent appeals of the Lord and his Apostles to Moses and the Prophets invalidate my assertion. The reference is one to witnesses whose inspiration the Jews themselves were ready to acknowledge, and by whose verdict they were bound to abide. It is, in other words, the exhibition of a most important portion of the letters credential of the Prophet that was to come into the world. His commission once unfolded, he

P Mal. iv. 4.

Luke iii. 4.

• Matt. xi. 14. Luke ix. 35. He who delivered the Law was one of the first who prophesied of the Gospel, and told the people so long beforehand, That God would raise a Prophet like unto him, whom they must hear in all things. By which prediction he guarded the people against the prejudice which his own authority was like to create against a new lawgiver; telling them beforehand that when the great Prophet came, their obedience ought to be transferred to him." Bp. Sherlock on Prophecy, Discourse ii. p. 48.

L. I.

IN THE CASE OF THE TYPES.

31

takes his place with his Apostolic assessors as the one supreme authority, by whose plain declarations the conclusions drawn by uninspired men, whether among Jews or Gentiles, from the less plain though by no means less inspired language of the Old Testament Scriptures, must be constantly tested".

The principle for which I contend is one which is freely granted in the case of the Old Testament types. They are, as has been beautifully remarked, like the Egyptian statue, vocal only when illumined by the rising rays of the New Testament Sun. Forgetting this, the Romish controversialist has, in spite of all the teaching of St. Paul, discovered in the bread and the wine of Melchizedek the perpetually recurring sacrifice of the mass, and the continuous line of a correlative priesthood".

The words in 2 Peter i. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy,"-present no real difficulty. For the comparison instituted there is not between the predictive and other portions of holy Scripture, but between the testimony to the Messiahship of Jesus afforded by the prophets, and that which might be derived from the vision on the mount of transfiguration. See Whitby and Scott in loc.

"The dumb elements of the Mosaic ritual are made animated and eloquent, when the Truth comes to act upon them with its light. They are like the Statue which had its chords wrought within, but mute, till the morning sun struck upon them." Davison on Prophecy, Discourse iv. §. v.

p. 139.

Catechismus Romanus. also Note D in the Appendix.

Pars ii. cap. iv. §. 75. See

32

MUCH MORE THEN IN

L. I.

Now if the rule hold good in the exposition of the Pentateuch, why is it to be abandoned when we pass on to the Psalms and the Prophets? Their style affords us no warrant for doing so. It is not certain that we have quitted the region of metaphor and allegory. Figures abound on every side, and in many cases it is plain that, in passing from type to prophecy, we have only exchanged symbols acted for symbols written.

Nor can it be pleaded that the New Testament is silent upon the points involved in the Millennarian controversy. Were the connection between Church and State the subject of our discourse, we might well be driven, by the almost total omission of the matter from the Apostolic volume, to enquire of the Old Testament historians, whether the Lord commended those civil rulers of ancient time, who made the spiritual welfare of their people the object of their paternal solicitude. But as to the doctrines which cluster round the Second Advent, and are, in very deed, part and parcel of it, we have no such excuse for betaking ourselves first to the books of the earlier dispensation. For if there be any points upon which the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles, give full and clear instruction,-those points are the resurrection of the body, the judgment of quick and dead, everlasting life, and everlasting punishment. Nay more; these are the very points upon which the teaching of the Old Testament is so scanty, so

જો

L. I.

THE CASE OF THE PROPHECIES.

33

mysterious, that some have been bold enough to assert that they are not mentioned there at all, and from thence to "feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises."

We have now ascertained,-as originally proposed, the order in which Scripture should be consulted for the determination of the Millennarian controversy.

In the first place, it must, we think, be conceded, that those passages of God's word which are literal, clear, and dogmatic, should take precedence of those which are figurative, mysterious, and obscure.

In the second place, we think we have shewn, that the key of Prophecy and Type alike is in the hand of Jesus and his Apostles.

Future discourses will bring before us, consecutively, the kingdom of Christ, in its twofold aspect as the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of David; the ingathering and glorification of the Church; the judgment of quick and dead'; and the eternal state of the blessed". In the discussion of each several subject, the combined action of the principles I have to-day endeavoured to illustrate and confirm will compel me, first, to lay before you the truth as revealed in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles; and then to consider the particulars in which Pre-Millennarians differ

34

ORDER OF FUTURE LECTURES.

L. I.

from us, with the arguments by which they justify their dissent. Many prophecies therefore, both of this and of the elder dispensation, will necessarily pass under review, even while the due precedence is accorded to the dogmatic teaching of the New Testament Scriptures. I shall not however leave the matter there, for I shall devote my two concluding lectures to the direct consideration of those symbols in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, and those figures in the books of Old Testament prophecy, which are the seat of Millennarianism in general.

To solve in any case every possible question which may be suggested, cannot be either expected or required. But one advantage at least will be gained, if any are persuaded to accept the statements of the Apostolic writings in their plain, literal, and obvious sense, and to relegate the difficulties which attend the interpretation of metaphor and allegory to those portions of the sacred canon to which they would seem (if I may so speak) more properly to belong. Nor shall I have laboured in vain if I only convince some of my younger brethren in the ministry, that there is good reason for them to pause before they enter upon the enticing paths of Millennarian speculation. For perils do indeed surround those paths,-perils of which many even of those who have longest walked in them are little aware,—

d Lecture VII.

e

Lecture VIII.