better scheme of things, hereafter to be introduced; certainly so much, as might sufficiently evince the divine intention in that scheme, when it should actually take place; but not enough to indispose them towards that state of discipline, under the yoke of which they were then held. From this double purpose, would clearly result that character, in the prophecies concerning the new dispensation, which we find impressed upon them; and which St. Peter well describes, when he speaks of them, as dispensing a light indeed, but a light shining in a dark place.

Upon the whole, the delivery of prophecy seems well suited to that dispensation which it was given to attest. If the object in view had been one single event, to be accomplished all at once, it might perhaps be expected that the prophecies concerning it would have been clear and precise. But, if the scheme of christianity be what the scriptures represent it to be, a scheme, commencing from the foundation of the world, and unfolding itself by just degrees through a long succession of ages, and to be fully accomplished only at the consummation of all things, prophecy, which was given to attend on that scheme, and to furnish a suitable attestation to it, must needs be supposed to adapt itself to the nature of the dispensation; that is, to have different degrees of

clearness or obscurity according to its place in the general system; and not to disclose more of it, or in clearer terms, at one period, than might consist with the various ends of wisdom which were to be served by the gradual opening of so vast and intricate a scene.

ANOTHER circumstance of affinity with this is apt to strike us in the contemplation of the scriptural prophecies. There is reason to believe that more than one sense was purposely inclosed in some of them; and we find, in fact, that the writers of the New Testament give to many of the old prophecies an interpretation very different and remote from that which may be reasonably thought the primary and immediate view of the prophets themselves. This is what divines call the DOUBLE SENSE of prophecy; by which they mean an accomplishment of it in more events than one; in the same system indeed; but at distant intervals, and under different parts of that systém.

Now, as suspicious as this circumstance may appear, at first sight, it will be found, on inquiry, to be exactly suited to that idea of prophecy which the text gives us of it, as being from the first, and all along intended to bear testimony to Jesus. For from that idea I conclude again,

II. "That prophecies of a double sense may well be expected in such a scheme."

And where is the wonder that, if prophecy was given to attest the coming of Jesus and the dispensation to be erected by him, it should occasionally, in every stage of it, respect its main purpose; and, though the immediate object be some other, it should never lose sight of that in which it was ultimately to find its repose and end?

It hath been before observed, That, between the earlier notices concerning Jesus and the advent of that great person, it seemed good to Infinite Wisdom (I speak in terms, suited to the representation of scripture) to institute the intermediate economy of the Jewish law. Among other provisions for the administration of this law, prophecy was one; and, upon its own pretensions, a necessary one; for the government claims to be strictly theocratical; and the people, to be governed by it, were to be made sensible, at every step, that it was so. Therefore the interesting events in their civil history were to be regarded by them, as coming within the cognizance, and lying under the control, of their divine Governor: to which end, a race of men were successively raised up among them to give them warning of those events, and, by this divine foresight of what was

seen to be accomplished in their history, to afford a clear conviction, that they were in fact under that peculiar government.

Add to this, that the law itself, so wonderfully constructed, was but a part, indeed the rudiments, of one great scheme; was given, not for its own sake, but to make way for a still nobler and more generous institution; was, in truth, a preparatory state of discipline, or pædagogy, as St. Paul terms it, to bring the subjects of it, in due time, to Christ.*

Jesus then, the object of the earliest prophecies, was not overlooked in this following dispensation; which was, indeed, instinct with presages of that

divine person. It gave the shadow of good things to come, but the body was of Christ.† The legal

* Gal. iii. 24.—ὁ νόμος παιδα[ωγὸς ἡμῶν γέγονεν εἰς Χριςόν.

† Coloss. ii. 17. Hence, St. Austin affirms roundly, "That, to such as consider the genius of the revealed system, the Old Testament must appear a continued prophecy of the New."--Vetus Testamentum, recte sentientibus, PROPHETIA est Novi Testamenti [contr. Faustum, l. xv.] and St. Jerom speaks of it as a generally received maxim, "That it is the manner of sacred scripture, to deliver, beforehand, the truth of futurity in types”—-hunc esse morem. scripturæ sanctæ ut futurorum veritatem præmittat, in TYPIS [Hieron. T. iii. 1127.]- I know, that the ancient fathers, and from them many moderns, have exposed themselves to much and deserved

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prophets, in like manner, while they were immediately employed, and perhaps believed themselves to be solely employed, in predicting the occurrences of the Jewish state, were at the same time, preluding, as it were, to the person and dispensation of Jesus; the Holy Spirit, which inspired them, bearing out their expression, and enlarging their conceptions, beyond the worth and size of those objects, which came directly in their view.

censure, by pursuing this principle too minutely and superstitious. ly, in their mystical and allegorical comments on the Jewish scrip. tures. But men of sense will consider, that a principle is not therefore to be rejected, because it has been abused. For instance, that the Passover was instituted with a reference to the sacrifice of Christ, that the paschal Lamb was, in the language of St. Austin, a prophecy, or, in that of St. Jerom, a type, of the Lamb of God, will seem highly credible to one who considers the aptness of the correspondence in two related parts of the same system: But, that the famous Law in Deuteronomy, concerning the marriage of a brother's widow, was prophetic, or typical of the duty, incumbent on the ministers of the gospel, to espouse the widowed church of Christ, is certainly much less clear, and will scarcely be admitted even on the authority of St. Austin. Hoc ipsum-quod uxorem fratris ad hoc frater jussus est ducere, ut non sibi, sed illi sobolem suscitaret, ejusque vocaret nomine, quod inde nasceretur: quid aliud in figura præmonstrat, nisi quia unusquisque Evangelii prædicator ita debet in Ecclesia laborare, ut defuncto fratri, hoc est Christo suscitet semen, qui pro nobis mortuus est, et,quod suscitatum fuerit, ejus nomen accipiat? Contr. Faustum, l. 32. St. Austin might, perhaps, say for himself, that he had an example of this practice in the mystical comments of St. Paul: it may be so: but an example followed without warrant in this instance by the learned father, and not improbably ill understood by him.