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but it is evidently more of the nature of a principle, and admits of no exceptions. It is inherent in all symbolic compositions, and must exist in the Revelation. It has not hitherto been found in it; it is therefore still to be discovered in it.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LAW OF THE DOUBLE ALLEGORY.

Br an allegory in the double form, is meant an allegory in which there are two first representations, separate and distinct from each other, both of which convey one and the same second sense. Of an allegory of this kind, the parable delivered by Christ in John x. affords an example, although the difference is very slight between the two versions. It is twofold, or there are two parables with one and the same second The first is thus delivered:

sense.

"He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."-V. 1.

This is one parable or one-half of the twofold parable or allegory.

The interpretation of it is given thus:

"I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they

might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."-Vs. 7-10.

The parable in the second form runs thus:

"He that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers."-Vs. 2-5. And the interpretation of it is:

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."Vs. 11-18.

In the first, the Saviour compares himself to the door of the sheepfold, and in the second to the shepherd.

It is unreasonable to expect a perfect correspondence between the two versions of such an allegory. Two allegories perfectly alike are inconceivable. As there must, of necessity, be some points of difference in the first representation of the one, compared with the other, the second sense will naturally undergo a partial modification. It is sufficient that the second sense is essentially the same.

The prophetic allegories, for the most part, exhibit this feature of double representation. The prophecy of Daniel regarding the four empires of the world is delivered in the form of a double allegory. In the first, which was pictured before the mental eye of Nebuchadnezzar, lost by him, but recovered and interpreted by Daniel, ch. ii. 29-45, there is a representation of a great Image, consisting of Four Metals, broken to pieces by a stone, cut out without hands, which stone, after destroying the image, becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. Here is one allegory. The same prophecy is redelivered in the form of another to Daniel himself, ch. vii. In this, the representation is made of Four Beasts, which are described from their rise in the sea till their end in the burning flame, when the kingdom " is given to the people of the saints of the Most High," or when, in the words of the interpretation of the first allegory, "the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed." Each of these allegories, containing distinct and totally different first representations,

develops, as the interpretations show, the same second sense. One prophecy is delivered which respects the four great world-empires, the destruction of these and the establishment, on their ruins, of God's universal kingdom.

In Zechariah, ch. i., there occurs the following example of one prediction delivered in two allegories, or, as it may be called, a double allegory. In the one, the prophet sees a horseman upon a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees, which is followed by red horses, speckled and white. This is one allegorical picture, which, as appears from the context, predicts the restoration of the Jews. This is followed by a second, in which "four horns" appear, which are said to have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and "four carpenters," which come to cast out the horns of the Gen tiles "which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it." There is thus the same prediction delivered in this twofold and reduplicating form which the structure of the composition manifests, as the partial interpretations rendered and the context show. In the first allegory, the Jewish restoration is not represented with equal fulness, but it is distinctly unfolded in the words, to be taken literally, which immediately follow. "Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that

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