a miniature representation, but which is more fully declared in the more sure word of prophecy to which he exhorts them to take heed. Then follow the words of our selection. Thus he inculcates the study of prophecy, and then lays down this as a first principle or law of scriptural exegesis. We should therefore carefully examine and religiously observe this law of interpretation in all our investigations of this important subject. What then saith the law?

This passage of scripture has been the subject of much criticism, and different renderings have been given, expressive of different ideas. The Papists claim it as authority for denouncing the right of private judgment, and refusing the Bible to the common people. The Rhemish Testament has the following note in loco, "The scriptures cannot be rightly expounded of every private spirit or fantasy of the vulgar reader, but by the same spirit wherewith they were written, which is resident in the church." And by the church they commonly mean, either the Pope, or a general council, or a council with the Pope at its head. But the fallacy of their scheme is clearly demonstrated by the fact that Popes have condemned Popes, and councils have condemned councils, just as their opinions and passions predominated. It is also adverse to the words of the apostle, who would have the people take heed to the word, and not to be deprived of it.

Some learned men so render the passage as to signify that no prophecy is of any private impulse, or of the prophet's own finding out. But this is inadmissible, inasmuch as in the next verse this is assigned as a reason for the rule, which cannot therefore mean the same thing. The original word rendered interpretation (envoews) signifies loosing a knot, or untying a bundle so as to reveal its contents, and plainly refers to some rule or principle

of scriptural exegesis, by which the meaning of prophecy may be unfolded. The word rendered private (idías) signifies also one's own, separate, and has been translated by Frazer, in his "Key to the Prophecies," by the term insulated, which makes not only a fair and grammatical rendering of the passage, but agrees with the analogy of scripture. The sense then is that no prophecy of scripture is to be interpreted by itself or disjoined from the rest of scripture. There is an essential connexion and dependence of the parts one upon another, and each must be considered in its relation to the whole. This then is the rule:

"THAT NO PROPHECY OF SCRIPTURE IS OF ANY SEPARATE

INTERPRETATION; for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Let us consider this rule more particularly; It requires I. THAT ALL THE PROPHECIES BE UNDERSTOOD ACCORD

ING TO THE GENERAL SCOPE AND TENOR OF THE SAME.

For we must recollect that all scripture, having been given by inspiration of God, though at sundry times and in divers manners, and by different prophets, is a grand whole. There is one general scope or design running through all the parts. There is but one scheme in the whole Bible; the work of one mind; and its several parts are illustrated and explained by the whole. Hence no single prophecy is of an isolated character. It occupies its place in the general scheme and must not be separated from the rest. For as there is in the human system a mutual sympathy of the members in their dependence one upon another, so that the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you; so in the general scheme of prophecy, each part has its respective relation to the whole, and is necessary to the perfect understanding of the same. And it is

not probable that the true signification of any particular prophecy would be discovered from a bare attention to it alone, without comparison with other parts, by which its relation and bearing to the whole may be determined : just as a separate wheel of a complicated machine would. require to be put in its proper place to give us a correct idea of its nature and use.

II. THAT WE DILIGENTLY COMPARE ONE PART OF SCRIPTURE WITH ANOTHER. The study of scripture is made our imperious duty by the command of Christ, and the teachings of his apostles, and this rule shows the necessity of not only searching all the scriptures, but of comparing the different parts one with another. So the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13, says: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." This method of investigation will require close application, constant attention, and much patience; but the result will be ample compensation for the labor. What is of greater importance than a knowledge of the truth? The merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof than much fine gold. Yet how many like Pilate ask the question, What is truth? and are too impatient to wait for an answer. But wisdom says, 66 Blessed is the man that heareth me; watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." Prov. viii. 34.

III. THAT WE FAITHFULLY ADHERE TO THE WORDS OF SCRIPTURE ACCORDING TO THEIR GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION AND RECEIVE THE LITERAL SENSE AS THE ONLY TRUE

ONE. In the 16th verse of this chapter reference is made by the apostle, to the heathen oracles, which he styles cunningly devised fables, being the invention of designing

priests, and so constructed as to admit of various interpretations for the oracles themselves being ambiguous, the sense was determined agreeably to the caprice or fancy of those who consulted them. But it is not so with the Divine oracles, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, no human ingenuity was concerned in their construction, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.. Hence the words were not uttered at random, nor chosen as the fancy of the prophet might prompt; but they were divinely selected under the mysterious impellings of the spirit by which they spake. These prophecies, therefore, have a precise and determinate meaning, to be ascertained from a knowledge of the words themselves, according to their grammatical construction. And the true interpretation of prophecy proceeds upon the signification of words, and determines the sense by the language. This excludes all

fanciful conjecture and imaginative opinions. The business of the interpreter is, not to seek for new and curious expositions of his own, or others' invention, but to find the sense of the words, in which is made known the mind of the spirit. For we cannot suppose that the spirit uses the words in any strange and uncommon sense; but only according to their usual acceptation as signs of ideas. We ought, therefore, to use the best helps we can obtain to ascertain the natural and obvious meaning of the terms employed, and receive the same as the testimony of God. As Vitringa justly observes, "We must never depart from the literal meaning of the subject mentioned in its own appropriate name, if all or its principal attributes square with the subject of the prophecy."

This system of interpretation, designated the literal, takes the natural, obvious and grammatical sense of the word in opposition to that which is spiritual, occult or mystical. It is not intended by this to discard a spiritual

understanding of the word of God, or discernment of divine truth in accordance with the teaching of the spirit, as referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. ii. 14. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Or such as the Savior's language imports in John vi. 63. "It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life :" but that "pernicious rule of interpretation" mentioned by Mosheim in his Ecclesiastical History, Cen. III. Pt 2, ch. iii. sec. 5, by which Origen, the prince of spiritualizers, was led to assert, that "the words of scripture were, in many places, absolutely void of sense, and that though in others there were, indeed, certain notions conveyed under the outward terms according to their literal force and import, yet it was not in these that the true meanings of the sacred writers were to be sought, but in a mysterious and hidden sense, arising from the nature of the things themselves.' And which assumes the spirituality of the events predicted, and merely employs the words of scripture in an allegorical sense; and is what Professor Bush calls "a sublimated conception of the spiritual mysteries of revelation," in opposition to "its literal and palpable representations." Treat. on Millen. 49.

The language of prophecy is either direct or figurative. When direct, the principal subject is at once presented to the mind by the natural sense of the words employed; except in cases of symbols, where the subject of the language is the representative of some analogous person or thing. See the prediction of Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in Matt. xxiv. 2: "Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." This prophecy is couched in direct language, and obtained its literal accom