partial difference of sentiment, not to give them the same just cause of complaint against himself.

B.

ESSAY II.

On the Fulfilment of Prophecy.

In speaking of the fulfilment of prophecy, we may have two distinct ideas; or, in other words, prophecy may be fulfilled in two distinct ways. One is that, which accords with the more common idea upon the subject, and which takes place when the thing foretold is fulfilled to the letter. The other is, when events occur which in a remarkable manner correspond with the words spoken before. Thus, in one case, something is written down by the inspired penman, and the same thing takes place; and in the other, something is written down, and a corresponding thing takes place. Both, indeed, may happen to one prophecy. And in the latter case, even if we did not perceive the word written to be a prophecy before, we at once see it assume that character, when the correspondence is discovered.

I might in some measure, perhaps, illustrate this distinction, by the two words which we find used in the New Testament, each of which our translators render by the word "fulfilled." Or it may be suggested, that the terms "literal fulfilment," and "spiritual fulfilment," will express my meaning. But then I might seem to lean to that mode of spiritualizing prophecy, which in fact seems greatly in danger of spiritualizing it

away.

Of the first kind, or exact fulfilment of prophecy, many examples might be given. For example: when the children of Israel are told, that, if they adopt certain measures for the taking of Jericho, the city shall fall; follow the directions; and take the place: when a warning is given, that if any one rebuild that city a certain curse shall befal him, the city is rebuilt, and the curse comes upon the builder (Josh. vi. 26; 1 Kings xvi. 34): where, in the New Testament, our Lord tells his disciples to go to a certain spot, and they will find a colt tied; or into the city, and they will see a man bearing a pitcher of water; and they go, and in each instance find it as he said: where, above all, our Lord foretels his own sufferings, death, and resurrection, which all take place.

With respect to the other, or corresponding fulfilment of prophecy, we may illustrate our meaning by various examples. Take, for instance, the types. The prophetic import of a type is fulfilled, not by another type like it, but by an antitype, by something corresponding to it. The typical import, for instance, of

King Solomon's character, is not fulfilled by the appearing of a second king Solomon, but by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Israel, the Son of David, the Prince of Peace, whom Solomon typified. The typical character of the lamb brought as a sacrifice is not fulfilled by bringing another lamb to the same place, but by the coming of "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

This sort of fulfilment may be further illustrated, by our Lord's fulfilment of the law. This fulfilment does not appear to have consisted in his exact observance of the law, in all its ceremonial details (though I have no wish to dispute as to the degree of such observance that he may have actually rendered); but in his peculiarly faithful obedience, and perfect conformity, to its spirit. Thus, whatever was required by the ritual observances of the law, he fulfilled by his entire holiness and purity; whatever was pointed at by the minuteness and particularity of the precepts, he fulfilled by a minute and strict regard to his heavenly Father's will.-I am well aware that these remarks bring us upon debateable ground; and therefore beg that they may be here understood as offered only in illustration.

We may draw a further illustration from scriptural parallelism. A parallelism will often consist, to take a simple form, of two lines corresponding to each other: not the same line repeated, but two lines corresponding. For instance:

"Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea :

His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea." Here the two lines correspond, and constitute what we call a parallelism: if the first line were given twice, then we should not call this parallelism, but repetition.

fits

Such is the fulfilment which we sometimes discern in prophecy. The event corresponds to the words written before; to them, as one board of a tally fits to the other; and thus each verifies its fellow. The event verifies the word written before, as the word of God; the word written before verifies the event, as one not only foreknown, but peculiarly signified by him, and therefore to be peculiarly regarded by us. To fit a lock, we seek not another lock, but a key; and, when we have got the right one, the lock and key correspond, though they are different things. Nor let it be said that this view is derogatory to the dignity of prophecy and that these corresponding fulfilments of prophecy are less important or interesting than the exact ones. We must take these things as it pleases God to set them before us. And the fact is, that a correspondence of this kind will sometimes be found more striking than an exact fulfilment. It

breaks upon us as a discovery. We are surprised, wonder, and adore. There, in the Bible, we have the truth of God, spoken two or three thousand years ago; here, in existing circumstances, we see it verified. All things collateral are changed, yet we plainly discover the agreement. Similar considerations have been urged, with respect to those indirect coincidences, which may be discovered by comparing the Apostolic Epistles with other parts of the New Testament. These, as it has been justly observed, are far more striking than any direct ones could have been. For example: it appears from an expression in one of St. Paul's Epistles (1 Cor. ix. 5), that St. Peter was a married man, his wife travelling with him from place to place. Now if the same thing were merely stated in the Gospels in express terms, we might be less struck an unbeliever might pretend to say that the agreement was designed. But the fact comes out incidentally; mention is made of Peter's wife's mother (Matt. viii. 14): and thus the agreement comes upon our minds with far greater force; and we are the more struck with it, because it appears less direct. So, in some instances, with prophecy.

It is not our design, then, to depreciate those prophecies which have had an exact fulfilment. Let it rather be said, that each kind has its province and its use. Perhaps the strict or literal fulfilments may be more intended for unbelievers, who are thus silenced or convinced; while, where, on the contrary, the fulfilment is to be traced in a correspondence or agreement, the case may be better suited for the believer. Persons who are less settled in the faith generally make but little of such examples: but the believer, in the study of the Word, is constantly led to discover these correspondences; they break on his mind, to his great delight, with great effect, and power of conviction; he sees clearly that what he is reading is the word of God; and though he find not any literal accomplishment of the thing spoken, yet, to his mind, the type, the promise, the prophecy, is satisfactorily fulfilled. These remarks lead on to the views, which I purpose, if the Lord will, to develop further in subsesequent essays.

B.

ESSAY III.

Quotations from the Old Testament in the New.

The suggestions already offered will help us to account for those free and less literal quotations from the Old Testament, which we sometimes meet with in the New. Sometimes the Sacred Writer seems to have quoted from the Septuagint, some

times to have wrought the substance of two or three Old-Testament predictions into one sentence: so that, from one cause or the other, men think that they discover a discrepance, between the citation and the original Hebrew. Now observe. If it were intended to allege that the thing taking place under the New Testament was a literal fulfilment of the citation, then, the citation, not being found word for word in the Hebrew, would present a difficulty. But if it be intended to allege only such a fulfilment as we have been speaking of, a fulfilment equally striking, equally foreknown, equally predicted, but a fulfilment rather of the spirit than of the letter, then the mere discrepancy as to words presents no difficulty whatever. If the citation follow the words of the Septuagint rather than of the Hebrew, the real correspondence is not affected; if it be made up of ideas contained in two or three passages of the Old Testament, the correspondence is helped, brought out, and more strongly marked. And accordingly, whatever may be the frequency of such free citations in the New Testament, they are headed by two examples, which ought to satisfy every objector: for in the first instance we have the authority of an angel; in the second, that of the Jews themselves. In the first instance, that of an angel. It occurs at the beginning of the Gospels, in the first chapter of St. Matthew. The name of our Lord is called JESUS," that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet.....they shall call his name EMMANUEL." Here the name given is not the same as the name predicted, but only a name, as divines have shewn, very remarkably, we may say adorably, corresponding to it. But here the authority, on which this substantial and not literal fulfilment of the prophecy takes place, is no less than an angel," the angel of the Lord," who commands the name of Jesus, not Emmanuel, to be given.—The next instance is that of the Jews themselves. This occurs at the beginning of the second chapter. For when Herod demanded where Christ should be born," they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the Prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a governor, that shall rule my people Israel." Something nearly resembling these words is to be found in the Prophet Micah; but for their exact counterpart we should search the Old Testament in vain. Here, however, the persons quoting are "the chief priests and scribes of the people." We are not to wonder, then, if, upon such double authority, we afterwards find the writers of the New Testament themselves using the same free mode of quotation ever bearing this in mind; that an accomplishment

t

which is real, or which lies in the agreement of things, is always quite as much an accomplishment, as any literal one could be.

This is an important point, and therefore let us consider it a little further. I am not here leaning to the idea of those, who make out quotations of the Old Testament in the New to be merely ingenious applications, and no instances of prophecies fulfilled. This notion I abhor. What I say is, that in every case there is a fulfilment. Take, for instance, the case already noticed, where our Lord receives the name of Jesus, and we are told that this is in fulfilment of the prophecy, which says that his name shall be called Emmanuel. Here the business of the Christian reader is, not to dwell upon the verbal difference, and to make it a pretence for saying that the prophecy was not fulfilled; but to believe that the giving of the one name is a fulfilment of the promise that he should be called by the other name, and then to see whether he cannot discover how it is so.

Nor is this perhaps difficult. Since the meaning of " Immanuel" is "God with us," we are led at once to the inference, that Jesus is God with us. What then does the name of Jesus signify? It is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which was originally Hoshea. The learned observe, that the original name, Hosea, signifies a Saviour, or salvation; and that Joshua, the name afterwards given, (the same in Hebrew as Jesus in the Greek), means, God the Saviour, or, God our salvation. The meaning, then, of the prophecy, as quoted in the New Testament and applied to our Lord, is this: that we can have no Saviour less than God; that Jesus, the Saviour, is God, even God with us: exactly as it is intimated to the Israelites in the Old Testament, that thenceforth an Angel shall go with them, and yet it is plainly signified in other passages, that He who went with them was still no other than the Lord himself: from which we can draw no other inference, than that the Angel was the LORD, the Angel or Messenger of the eternal covenant: "He was their Saviour.......the Angel of his PRESENCE saved them."-Applications of prophecy, viewed in this way, serve not merely, like the literal accomplishment of facts, to surprise the curious, to fix the inquiring, or to gag blasphemers, but to lead us on, by lessons of eternal truth, into all that is deepest and most saving in sound doctrine.

It will be well worth our while to notice those instances, in which the writers of the New Testament, referring to the Old, present us with an accordance of ideas, where there is none very discoverable of words. The above is one. Another, and a very striking one, exists, I think, in the Epistle to the Ephe