Jewel in his explanation of both the sacraments of the Church of England. Verbum sapienti.)

There is always in man a tendency to run from one extreme into another, as from literalizing to allegorizing. Spiritual interpretation is neither literalizing nor allegorizing, but it is both: it is typical, and it neither sacrifices the spirit to the letter, nor the letter to the spirit. Those interpreters, for instance, who allegorize water as not literally intended in the ordinance of baptism enjoined in scripture, are as far from the truth, as those who hold that water in baptism properly and really regenerates. And let us take heed while we are sitting in judgment on the Jews, lest we ourselves, to use an elegant expression of old Bunyan, have the shell upon our own heads. Isaiah xxv. 7.

There is no greater blindness to the Law and the Prophets than that of those who hold that the inspired writers of the New Testament have accommodated passages in the Old Testament to the gospel dispensation. There are too many who now read the Classics as if they were inspired, and the Scriptures, vice versa, as if they were uninspired. Let not such persons likewise sit in judgment on Jews. The most wretched pauper who believes the inspiration of scripture, and adopts the revealed wisdom of God implicitly as his light, may say, in respect to such Sadducees, "Thou, O Lord, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than my teachers."

But to proceed with the Masora: immediately after the captivity, at the very time when the punctuation, &c. designed to preserve the Oral Law, by which I intend the Law as spoken and understood while the Hebrew was a living language, when this said Masora or measure, or piercing of the prophets, was most probably introduced with a good intention by some, while the Babylonian Jews might think it a fine opportunity to counteract or corrupt the text, lived the prophet ZECHARIAH, who was slain between the Temple and the Altar, In reference to their opposition to him very probably, our Lord charges the lawyers with lading men with burdens and traditions not to be borne; and immediately adds, in connexion with the death of this said Zechariah: "Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowlege; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in, ye hindered. . . . there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known." Luke xi. 46, &c. Matt. xv. 3.

In the fourth chapter of Zechariah, the prophet is awakened to behold a light set on a candlestick of such a kind as no Jew ever beheld without being thunderstruck. It was of gold, (1 Peter i. 9.) and SEVEN lamps thereon, (Prov. ix. 1.) and TWO olive-trees by it, (Romans xi. 17.) and the word to the Son of David, Zerubbabel, was not by might nor by power, but by the SPIRIT of God, (Gal. iii. 2.) and the great mountain on which the

temple was being founded, was levelled before the typical Zerubbabel, son of David, (Matt. xxiv. 2.) and to the head stone of the corner, uniting two natures and nations, was shouted Grace, (Matt. xxi. 22. Eph. ii. 20. Rev. v. 12, &c.) and it was declared that, as the Son of David had laid the foundation-stone, so should the Son of David complete the temple of the Law and the Prophets, (John ii. 19.) and that this stone (margin to ver. 10.) should have SEVEN eyes, (Isaiah xi. 1, &c. Daubuz. Revel. v. 6, 7.) and that the two olive-trees had the unction of kings and priests before the Lord of all nations. (Revel. xi. 4.) In chap. v., the prophet beholds an expanded roll, containing likewise the original universal curse on the whole world as recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, and the twentieth of Exodus, in two tables, in which were written our duty towards God, and our duty towards our neighbor. In the sixth verse he beholds the false MASORA or measure, in which was the author of original universal sin, borne up by her two daughters, the corrupt in Judah and Israel, as young storks carry their parents, and by them conveyed to BABYLON, (Dan. i. 2.)

The Jews who remained in, or retired to Babylon from before the Masora of God, seem here intended. And hence we learn the parentage of the Babylonian Talmud, and, it may be, of sundry corruptions in the vowels, &c.

In the 6th chapter we have the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, (Daniel vii. 6.) and Roman empires, (compare margin and Dan. vii. 7.) restless spirits, like Satan in Job, walking to and fro through the earth.

The Babylonians are said to have completed the wrath and indignation against the Jews, (ver. 8.) after which follows the ever-blessed kingdom of JESUS, as recorded in the second of Daniel, who shall complete the Temple of the Lord; for however men may have despised the second temple, it is the LORD from HEAVEN, (1 Cor. xv. 45-49.) it is the temple in which ALL NATIONS shall worship, (Zach. vi. 15.) The first temple is earth of earth; the second, God of God. Zachariah seems to predict his own death for this testimony, as being a type of Jesus, in ch. xiii. 6. and other places; and it is perhaps from not knowing the universal principle that the prophets are types, that we have not understood Luke xi. 51.; and if there be a prediction of the Millennium clearer than another, it is the last chapter of Zachariah.

Further it is observable that the parallel passages in Luke xi. 49, 50, and Matt. xxiii. 34 to 39, are found in the first chapter of the second book of Esdras: neither has the inquiry been ever impartially or adequately made by any one, whether our Lord referred to that chapter, or the author of that chapter incorporated with his composition those parallel passages in the gospel, which, it would be difficult to show, were not expressly quoted

from Esdras by our Lord. But any thing satisfies prejudice. See Calmet's Introduction to 2nd Esdras, and that of Mant and Doyly for valuable information.

If we now proceed to Matthew v. 12 to 20, may not our Lord specially intend in the 12th verse the prophets Isaiah and Zachariah; and by the light of the world, the very light that stood before the God of all the earth; (Zach. iv. 14.) as, by the city set on the hill, the spiritual Jerusalem and its temple, typified by the building raised by Zerubbabel; (Zach. iv. 6.) as by the candle and candlestick, may be understood the spiritual light and church under the second temple; which the Babylonian party hid under an ephah, or μódiov, or measure? (Zach. v. 7, 11.) Rode, caper, vitem.

If so, it is clear why our Lord adds emphatically, "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets. (You are they who attempt this.) I am not come to destroy, but to complete.' (Targum on Isaiah ix. 6.) As also, why he adds, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled." By the word kepala has been commonly understood either the Hebrew vowel or the extremities of the consonants. The former meaning is more probable, because a part of a consonant meaus nothing. I understand repaiɑ not as signifying what we call the Masoretic points, but the vowels, which were pronounced while the language was spoken, and which the Masoretic punctures, stigmas and piercing professed to hand down

אדני by tradition as exemplified in

To proceed: the Masora is delivered to St. Paul (Gal. i. 10, 11.) and by St. Paul committed to Timothy, (1 Tim. i. 11. 2 Tim. i. 12.) I know to whom I have entrusted," viz. the Masora, as a light set upon a candlestick, even upon the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth; and the Masora, it thus comes out, was none other than in sum that "without controversy great is the mystery of the right worship. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory." (1 Tim. iii. 15, 16.)

By the martyrdom of Timothy, St. John succeeded to the Masora, the κάλαμος ὅμοιος ῥάβδῳ ; (Rev. xi. 1. as explained by Victorinus) and to him was exhibited the mystery of the seven candlesticks, and the two olive-trees of Zachariah; and the second Sennacherib, the second birth of Immanuel, and the fall of the tenth part of the city, &c. of Isaiah. And yet we are as ignorant of the meaning of these seven golden candlesticks as Zachariah was, and we confine the symbol (which is that of Zachariah continued), to the seven literal churches of Asia, which mantained the faith against Roman Babylon to the Diocletian persecution, after which the throne was set in heaven, and the Masora passed from Ephe

sus to Constantinople, as the fourth and fifth chapters of the Apocalypse demontrate, (Daubuz. compare Rev. iii, the end, with the beginning of ch. iv. and Sir I. Newton on ch. ii. 10. which verse he truly observes can apply only to the Diocletian persecution.) But besides this literal and primary intention, analogy and consistency require that we consider the seven churches of Asia as signifying seven successive states of the Holy Catholic Church during the time of the Gentiles, from the days of St. John to the conversion of the Jews, as I now proceed to prove.

The seven churches of Asia, in Revel. i. ii. iii. xxii. 16. are proved to be the Christian Church privileged with the genuine Masora. (ch. i. 1.) éonμavev he signified, that is, he typically represented the ȧжокáλvis, or development of himself, by the type of his angel; it being impossible to see the Son as HE IS, and to live: accordingly, as being a sign or herald, (which office also is implied in conμavev, and further denoted by the trumpet,) the angel (most probably Gabriel) assumes the appearance, aud speaks in the person of the invisible God, Jesus, precisely as the angel in the bush spake in the name of Jehovah, ch. xix. 9, 10. xxii. 8, 9, 16.

By signified, is also intended that the whole Apocalypse has another sense besides that which is literal and outward, as it is elsewhere expressly declared: "For the spirit (spiritual sense) of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." (ch. xix. 10.)

A sign is never the thing signified; and we might as well say that the sign of the crown is the Crown, or that the picture of the king is the King, (though by a figure of speech they are commonly spoken of as if they were so,) as say that the first intention of the Revelation is not a type of another and spiritual intention.

Accordingly in ch. xii. 1, 3, there appeared a great sign, the very word used by Homer in the sense of a type;

Ενθ' ἐφάνη μέγα σῆμα, δράκων ἐπὶ νῶτα δαφοινός. But this sign in Revel. xii. 1. is taken from Isaiah vii. and viii. ; as that which preceded in ch. xi., viz. the fall of the tenth part of the city, is taken from Isaiahı vi. 13. and Revel. ix.; also from

INB. "Whenever truth or knowlege is explained by fixed principles, it becomes scientific; and he who, instead of investigating the question, declaims against it, must either be deficient in love of truth, or in logical reasoning." (Lavater). The fixed principle here applied, is, compare spiritual things with spiritual; and the mode of applying this principle here adopted, is the application of it in purity, consistency and completeness, as much as in me lies. And the more that this mode of investigating knowlege should be assailed by clamor, the more I should thank God that he had given me an understanding to maintain it. Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito. What is here introduced from the Classics, is not brought either for proof or confirmation.

Isaiah viii. Compare Isaiah vii. 18. and viii. 7. with Revel. ix. 3, 14. and Isaiah vi. 9-12. xiv. 26. with Revel. x. xi. 14. and Isaiah vi. 13. with Revel. xi. 13. and Isaiah vii. 14. with Revel. xii. 1, 2. and Isaiah xiv. 29. with Revel. xii. 3.

Isaiah likewise expressly declares that what he himself beheld, consisted of SIGNS, and therefore not of REALITIES, (ch. viii. 18. Compare Hebrews ii. 13. as also Isaiah vi. 9. with Mark iv. 11.) In the last-mentioned text, it is pronounced that all things in the kingdom of heaven have two intentions, the one shadow, and the other substance, the one exoteric, the other esoteric and spiritual. To suppose indeed that the Apocalypse is in the following chapters a sign, and not in these three first chapters, is to give an inconsistent interpretation to it; especially, since it is demonstrable that the seven spirits of God in this first chapter are a sign. Neither does it at all make for the hypothesis which rejects the significant intention of the seven candlesticks, that they are explained to signify the seven churches of Asia. For the 17th chapter contrasts to these seven Churches, the seven heads of the beast, and in the same way deciphers them to be seven mountains; and the seven mountains, moreover, to be seven SUCCESSIVE governments. (Revel. xvii. 9, 10. See Dean Woodhouse.) In proof then that by the seven Churches of Asia are intended seven successive ages of the Church, two arguments have been here brought, which are, first, that from the word signified; second, that from the analogy of the seven heads of the Beast, to which might be added a parallel in all the sevens in the Apocalypse. A third argument is, that this development of Jesus Christ is one and the same development which is related under the seven seals of chap. v. to the end of the seals, effected by the opening of the Scriptures and the taking away of the veil from all nations in the reading of Moses; and introduced by the same herald or trumpet who appears in this place also; as is most clear from the fourth and tenth chapters compared with this.

(Ver. 4.) Seven-'Eπrà, seven, is derived from paw, the Hebrew word which means seven. The radical meaning of raw is fulness, and the number seven was denoted from this root, because it was on that day from the creation that the Lord completed all his work. (Parkhurst, èπrà.) So says Cicero in his Somnium Scipionis. Seven, he observes, Rerum cunctarum fere nodus est. St. Augustine on the place says that seven is plenitudo. By seven then is to be understood, that which is Catholic and complete; and this is the fourth argument.

The fifth argument is taken from the name of Asia. The scene of the entire Apocalypse, in the letter and sign, is the empire of the literal Babylon, the capital of Ashur or Asia; and of necessity, if consistency be regarded, this empire of Babylon must be called Asia. The thirteenth and seventeenth chapters are proof positive that the empire of Babylon constituted the entire scene