given us neither Thy Son nor Thy Spirit; Thou wouldst not have redeemed those who were born to eternal death; Thou wouldst not have created anew by Thy Spirit of Holiness those who were to be for ever the children of wrath.

But Thy will towards us is far other; that we should be born again into Thy heavenly kingdom, never to die any more. For this Thou hast made us once and again after Thine own image, the image of Thy holiness; for this Thou hast redeemed us; for this Thy Holy Spirit has been given to us. That so the process of our heavenly birth might go on without ceasing; the parts of our heavenly nature being fashioned day by day by Thy hand, when as yet there were none of them; that so, when our full time is come, and the heavenly nature is ripened so as to bear to be born into its own proper world, it may be delivered from this mortal body, and receive a new and incorruptible body, and so be truly born.

If this is God's will towards us,-if for this we are, for this we were created,-for this were put into this fair world, with so much to do in it,—what shall be said of us, if we live wholly against God's will, if in every day and every hour of our lives we are living as He would have us not? By what right do we thus, as it were, steal a life to which we have no title; for we were not made to please ourselves? By what right do we live, and are yet

not being daily born for our eternal being? What if in another sense than St. Paul's, we are not being born daily, but daily dying? What shall the end then be, but according to the beginning; and if God's Spirit is not quickening us, and forming us for the kingdom of God, is there not another spirit busy upon us, forming us after another and a hellish nature, and making us be born daily, if we may use such contradictory language, until we are ripened for a life which is death eternal?

RUGBY CHAPEL,

May 29th, 1836.

APPENDIX A.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE TWO SERMONS ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY.

[Extracted from a Manuscript Work of which the rest is incorporated in the Notes to the Sermons.]

IF this view of Prophecy be correct, there flow from it several rules of prophetic interpretation, of no small importance to understand and apply.

I. That whereas some persons have insisted on the literal or primary, and others on the spiritual or second meaning of Prophecy or have attached respectively a literal and a spiritual sense to different parts of the same prophecy, it appears, rather as a general rule, that all prophecies uttered under an imperfect dispensation have both a literal or human meaning, and a spiritual or Divine one; and that the same prophecy is not to be taken in part literally, and in part spiritually, but is all capable of being understood in both senses: in other words, it may be read according to the meaning of its human author, or according to the meaning of its divine author.

II. That prophecies uttered under a perfect dispensation, when the notions of good and evil are presented to us in their pure and spiritual form, divested of those associations with particular persons and places with which they had been mixed. up heretofore, have generally one interpretation only, and that

442 ILLUSTRATIONS OF PRINCIPLES OF PROPHECY.

a spiritual one; and that if the form and language of imperfect prophecy be still in any instances preserved, it is but in form and language, employed for the sake of old associations; and often bearing evident marks, that it is now no more than the ornamental dress in which a truth, wholly spiritual, is conveyed.

From these two main rules of interpretation, others of a subordinate character may be derived. For instance, it follows from the first of them,—

1. That in ascertaining the first, or human meaning of any prophecy, we should proceed as with any other work merely of human composition. We must try, in the first place, to ascertain its date, the circumstances under which it was delivered, and the ideas which were predominant in the mind of the writer. For the benefit of this lower sense of prophecy is chiefly historical; it gives us a reflection of the human mind. under particular circumstances,--disclosing to us at once its sources of trouble and of consolation. And here, I imagine, there is room for the exercise of much deeper learning and sounder criticism, than have ever yet been applied to the books of the Old Testament.

2. That notes of time, place, or individual persons, belong to the lower sense of prophecy alone, and not to the higher : with the exception of such prophecies as may relate to the first coming of our Lord in the flesh. For with the exception of Christ alone, as has been already stated, persons are no pure embodying of principles, nor is there any essential holiness attached to one country more than to another. What is prophesied, therefore, of persons and places, belongs necessarily to the lower and imperfect tone of prophecy; the full truth cannot be estimated till we substitute for these concrete terms the pure and abstract principles for which alone the highest happiness is reserved.

3. That descriptions of good and evil, destined to be the portion of any such individuals or nations, will be hyperbolical

when applied to the human meaning of the prophecy, and true only if applied to its divine meaning. For the language sometimes reaching to the highest conceivable amount of blessing, its fulfilment would be unfit to individuals so compassed about with sin and infirmity. And so, also, will it be with the language which describes the interpositions of God's power to execute judgment. For here, again, the very continued existence of this earth, with its evil and its good dwelling together, is a proof that God's interpositions in judgment hitherto have been but partial and typical; that He has stayed His arm in the midst of his work: and thus that language which describes Him as pouring out the full measure of His anger can only receive its proper fulfilment at that great day, when good and evil shall be so separated as that the abstract principles and the persons in whom they are embodied shall be properly identical.

Now if any reader, having followed me thus far, should be disposed to deny these rules, because prophecies occur to his mind to which he cannot apply them; let him remember that I do not pretend to state them as universal, but as general; that of some apparent exceptions I am myself aware, and others I may possibly have forgotten or passed over. Still I think that the rules are generally true, and I will proceed to try their validity on some of the most remarkable prophecies of the Old Testament, which are especially referred to in the New.

My first instance shall be taken from the second Psalm. Here, as in almost all the Psalms, I shall consider merely the internal evidence in attempting to ascertain its date and circumstances, considered in its human meaning. The titles of the Psalms, to say nothing of the difficulties of the actual interpretation of them, are, I am convinced, of no more authority than the short notes added to St. Paul's Epistles by some of the ancient copyists. Both are found to be inconsistent with the