is a perfect analogy between all the lower parts and inferior objects of nature, and certain moral, intellectual, and divine essences; but, likewise, between all that belongs to man as an inhabitant of a natural world, and what belongs to or concerns him as the heir of a spiritual one: and hence we have observed, that the analogical language of the Word of God is not confined to the mention of the irrational and inanimate parts of nature, but admits all that arises out of man's inclinations and feelings as an animal and naturally rational being, and as a member of civil society; because all this answers, by a decided mutual relation, to that which belongs to his spiritual affections and feelings, as an immortal and spiritually rational being, designed to become a member of angelic society.* If this be true, (and surely no plausible objection can be raised against it!) it follows that a Revelation from God, following the laws of the Analogy between natural things and spiritual, cannot be given, which does not treat much, in its letter, of human beings and of human actions. If all the objects of nature answer by regular analogy to spiritual things, most of all must man, the principal being in nature, and his actions as a member of civil society. Of man, then, and his actions, a composition really given by divine inspiration must extensively treat in its letter. But of what persons and actions could it thus treat? Evidently, they must either be purely allegorical ones, that is, such persons as never really existed, and such actions as never were actually performed, or they must be representative ones,-real persons invested by divine appointment with a representative character, and whose actions (such of them at least as the sacred history records) were so overruled as to bear a representative signification. Probably, either mode might serve adequately to convey the divine and spiritual things which divine revelation is

* P. 162.

designed to communicate but it is easy to see that this would be accomplished much more fully by the latter method than by the former. If the Bible-history had been a pure allegory throughout, destitute of a foundation. in actual ocurrences, it would long ago have been rejected as a mere fable. Men who had a knowledge of the science of Analogies, as was the case in times of very remote antiquity, might have been equally benefited by a revelation in the style of pure allegory as by one in the garb of true but representative history; and accordingly, to compose such allegories was, in those distant ages, a customary mode, perhaps the only one, of imparting instruction : but when the key for the decyphering of such compositions was lost; when the human mind had become of so gross a character as scarcely to regard any thing as real beyond the objects of sense; had no divine revelation been extant but a purely allegorical one, it would soon have been entirely neglected and have fallen into oblivion. The spiritual sense being unknown and the literal sense perceived to be unreal, the whole would have been deemed unworthy of attention. To obviate this mischief, means were provided by Divine Providence, for uniting the advantages of pure allegory with those of true history. In the darkest night of human degeneracy, when man was incapable of any direct perception of heavenly things, and wholly immersed in the carnal part of his nature, Divine Goodness, by selecting a nation which was more entirely of this character than any other," a stiff-necked people," -to represent those things which they were incapable of interiorly perceiving and feeling, brought divine subjects into their most extreme and lowest natural form. By causing the Holy Word to be written at this time, and to treat in its literal sense of the transactions of this people, its Divine Author gave to the revelation of divine things a fixity of character, of which it could not otherwise have been made susceptible: he laid for it a foundation in the

lowest possible base, as the means of rendering it the most securely permanent. He thus conjoined even nature in its extreme circumference and uttermost boundary with himself, and provided the means of extending divine instruction to the most debased of mankind. A revelation thus circumstanced acquired external evidence in addition to the internal. The Jews are to this day witnesses to us of the truth of the leading facts of the Scripture history, and of the belief of their ancestors, that it was given by inspiration. Thus, even though the deep wisdom which the Divine Word inwardly contains has been unknown, it has generally been received as of divine origin: it has been reverenced as holy; and hence the important truths which are in many places extant in the letter have been pressed with authority upon the mind and heart. It doubtless, also, is true, that whilst even the bare historical circumstances are read with an acknowledgment of the divine origin of the record, the mind is disposed to a holy frame, which is a plane for the insemination of spiritual graces ; as the performance of the representative worship of the Jews had a similar effect on the well-disposed among that people.

This then was the main object of the calling of the individual nation of the Israelites, and of making them the subjects and depositaries of divine communications. This singular people was in fact selected, to exhibit, in a sensible manner, for the instruction of all the generations of men that may ever exist on this globe, the consequences with which both the obedience and disobedience of the divine laws are necessarily attended; and at the same time to picture, with the utmost exactness, all the changes of state that the church at large, or its individual epitome, man, can ever experience. That people in particular was selected for this purpose, not because they were themselves at all more the objects of divine favour than any other nation, but because their genius and temper were such, that

they were more capable than any other people of being made the mediums of representing, under external symbols and natural occurrences, all the things and subjects which Divine Wisdom desires to reveal to man.

The disposition of the Jews to multiply ceremonial observances beyond what was required of them, and to substitute these for the morals enjoined by the law of God, is noticed in the gospel: "The Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders and when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not: and many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables.-Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do."* So, whoever has looked into the works which describe the manners and customs of the Jews, or into the writings of the Rabbins, must have been struck with the tendency to minute observances, even regarding things the most indifferent and insignificant, which they every where exhibit : he must also have been surprised at the subtlety with which they discover, even in the weightier matters of the law," some fancied precept for some outward observance, and the dexterity with which they substitute the latter for, the former. It is evident, also, that they have partaken of this character ever since they were a people, and that this gave occasion to some of the rites with which the dispensation, of which they were the subjects, was loaded. "I spake not unto your fathers," says the Lord by the prophet, "nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be

* Mark vii. 3, 4, 8.

† For full proof of this assertion, and for some remarkable illustrations of the Jewish character, see Appendix, No. V.

your God, and ye shall be my people, and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you: But they hearkened not,"* &c. So, in reference to their conduct in the wilderness, the Lord says by another prophet, "Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols :"-which words clearly imply that they did not regard the interior things of religion, but were idolaters at heart; "wherefore," it is added, "I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live ;" referring to the ceremonial observances, which have no sanctifying efficacy of themselves, being representative types, only, of holy things, but not identical with them.

Now this disposition of that people to neglect essentials and to cleave to formalities, if it disqualified them from constituting an interior church themselves, eminently adapted them to be made the representatives of such a church, and to have their affairs overruled, so as to be subservient to such representation. Nor is there any room to object, that such control was incompatible with their free agency and moral responsibility, when this their gross temper and superficial disposition is regarded. The actions of the Jews would no doubt have been of the same general character as they were, had they not been subjected to such a controlling influence as we are supposing; for they were, in fact, very similar to those of other halfcivilized nations and tribes: and how easy must it be to the Divine Providence, working as it were upon the general tendencies of men of this description, as upon materials prepared to its hands, to give such a direction to the specific actions resulting from those tendencies, as was necessary to induce on them the form which its purposes required! Under any circumstances, the persons mentioned in the

* Jer. vii. 22, 23, 24.

† Ezek. xx. 24, 25.