him even as we are known; and then shall we be "for ever with the Lord." While a melancholy cloud hangs over this place by the removal of such an excellent minister, let us remember that there are tens of thousands of the prayers of that warmhearted apostle, Whitfield, yet to be answered, and your prayers have been added to his; and all our prayers and all our wishes shall by and by be united together to praise Him, "who hath loved us, and washed us in his own blood from our sins, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, for ever and ever." I will conclude with one word of exhortation.

O ye young ones, we love to see the beautiful blossoms in the spring, but we love them better when these blossoms are set for fruit, and we love them best of all when, full of fatness, they drop into the granary of our God, and are destined to be "for ever with the Lord." O you, who are young in life, begin to serve God by times.

I have been serving my dear Lord and Master ever since I was sixteen years of age, and now I have lived far beyond eighty-four, and blessed be God, I never found his work to be my burden, though I frequently found, from the corruptions of my nature, that I could not serve him at any time as I could truly wish. But we warn you, ye young ones, to set out early in the divine life. All of yon may do something for God; for we are never kept in the good way, but as we are kept in an active way.

Good may come in a right place, but it cannot come in a wrong place. "Be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." There is a word for you; never have an idle hour; spend and be spent for the glory of his name, and it shall not be "in vain in the Lord." If you visit the sick, if you instruct the children of the poor, or do whatever you may of a godly sort, it shall not be in vain. Fight against every spiritual adversary with all your ability and zeal. You who have arrived at the meridian of life, O come, look back and blush; blush to think how little you have done for God. Look back and blush, and pray that your lamp may burn brighter as you get older. Undoubtedly when the stars of heaven begin to sink down towards the horizon, they look a little dimmer, but you and I, from the moment of our regeneration, began to leave the region of darkness, and to ascend to a higher region, that we might

67

shine the brighter. If, in our declining days, memory fail us, we may yet live to God. The world itself shall fail, but "the word of our God endureth for ever," and the more you love that, the warmer you will feel towards matters of eternal glory. O may you thus be enabled to go on your way rejoicing! I have known some professors of religion set out well at first; they seemed to go on tolerably well through the middle stages of life, but then the world met with them, they looked a little around, then they made a pause, and there are grievous instances on record, that they have retraced their steps, and gone back again to the world. The nearer you get to heaven, the brighter may your prospects be, and the warmer may your hearts be! May you enter into the joy of your Lord, and be for ever with him "who hath loved you, and given himself for you!" You that are aged like myself, come beloved, the battle is almost won-we shall soon gain the day! Henceforth, by infinite grace and mercy, is laid up for us, for us, unworthy as we are, (but we have a worthy Saviour that deserves this reward, and who gives it to us through the purchase of his blood) "a crown of glory.' To enter into the joy of the Lord shall, by and by, be the happy portion of the believer on the Son of God.

Though my good brother Wilks, forbade us to say much respecting him, yet verily, we cannot say too much respecting Him, who made him what he was; and we would rather speak on that side of the question. It was said of Paul," they glorified God in him." And, beloved brethren, may we have so much of God in us, that the world may see a brightness belonging to our character, that will constrain them to glorify God through us. If my memory would allow me, I should be glad to repeat a variety of those expressions which fell from the lips of your deceased pastor; my eyes are now dim with age, but my heart was never chilled in the work, and God forbid that it ever should. I would rather die ten thousand deaths, than that the cause of God should grow cold upon my unworthy heart.

The Rev. gentleman then requested Mr. Campbell to read a paper, which had been put into his hands by Mr. J. Wilks, the substance of which will be found in our last number; after which Mr. Hill remarked: How sweetly the Lord made his bed in his sickness, and put his everlasting arm beneath him; literally, he was

that parts of the Holy Scriptures, professing to be predictions, were proved to be such, by an application of the following

tests:

First.-That there was full and satisfactory evidence of their being published to the world, before the events which they describe took place.

Second. That the agreement between the predictions and the facts was so clear and palpable, as not to require ingenuity to render it apparent, or to authorise the conclusion, when the comparison is made between the prophecy and the occurrence.

Third.-That the events were of such a nature, that when the prophecy was given to the world, it must have been impossible far human sagacity to have foreseen its occurrence. From these positions, the argument in favour of Christianity, was most triumphantly brought out.

But of this discourse the object is different. The Divine authority of the Scriptures, and, of course, of the prophetic Scriptures, has been proved by ample and various evidence; and it therefore follows, that Christians are under a general obligation to study all that God has made known, and, among the rest, prophecies of future things. It plainly results, that those servants of Christ who have means and opportunity, without invading the province of more important duties, labours, or investigations, "do well" thus to employ some portion of their time in the study of prophecy. It is said in the Book of Revelation, twice, "Here is wisdom;" and those who "have understanding" are summoned to employ it, in order to arrive at a certain knowledge of what is conveyed under the symbols of prophecy. But we cannot give a higher place to this study, and the very language of the text decides the propriety of thus ranking it. Thus Peter affirms that the testimony of prophecy, is the faint glimmering light shining upon the obscure path of a traveller, making his way through a forest at midnight. But when the event has cast an illumination upon the prediction, it is beautifully compared to the "day star," which ushers in the bright horizon, which every moment appears more and more like what will follow when the sun arises.

There are two things of absolute necessity, in every case of prophetic investigation,

I. A correct knowledge of the genuine meaning of the prophecy itself.

II. A perfect acquaintance with the na

ture, and character, and circumstances of the facts that are brought under examination as the accomplishment of that prophecy.

A defect in either of these will lead to fallacious and dangerous results; and, therefore, in laying down the principles of prophetic interpretation, these are most necessary rules for the conducting of our enquiries in order to the end thus conceived.

It is also essential that we should have a correct conception of what prophecy is; and it will not appear superfluous to spend a few moments in clearing up this, which to some appears very simple, but which is not in reality so.

1. A PROPHECY is not A SAGACIOUS CONJECTURE.-There are men of learning and talent, called Christian ministers and professors of theology, who maintain that the declarations of the prophets were no more than the wise, penetrating, sagacious anticipations of able men, whose insight into the secrets of cabinets and state affairs, and large knowledge of human nature, enabled them, without hazard, to predict certain probable and near events, couching them under dark enigmas and symbols. Against this we protest, as at variance with abundant evidence; a political conjecture is not prophecy.

2. Nor is PROPHECY a declaration of uny EXPECTATION, FOUNDED ON GROUNDS OF PHILOSOPHICAL ANALOGY.-For instance, in one of the classical writers, there is found a passage which clearly points to the discovery of the American continent. But if it be examined with close attention, it will be seen to be nothing more than the confident anticipation of a philosophical mind, reasoning on the grounds of analogy, that the whole of that part of the earth beyond the Atlantic could not be occupied by water alone. It is not, therefore, any prediction of philosophical analogy which is to be considered as prophecy.

3. Nor is an ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATION to be considered as PROPHECY. It is well known to most persons now, that we possess a sufficient knowledge of the laws of the heavenly bodies, to be able to calculate, with certainty, their changes, relative influence, &c.; and this has not been unfrequently employed to alarm the minds of the ignorant, and to impress them with a notion of supernatural knowledge, on the part of those who were skilled in the art. But this is not prophecy.

4. Neither is it proper to include, under the appellation of PROPHECY, those declarations of God's word which make known

the GENERAL PURPOSES OF MORAL GOVERNMENT, and the RETRIBUTIONS OF THE WORLD TO COME. For instance, when we read, "Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him," Is. iii. 11. "He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad," 2 Cor. v. 10. "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed," 1 Cor. xv. 52. Such passages ought not, I think, to be included under prophecy; for though they are declarations of future events, and their accomplishment most certain, they fall not under the cognizance of men in the present state of existence: they cannot be adduced as arguments on the evidences of revelation.

5. Having thus stated what is NOT PROPHECY, it becomes necessary to shew what this term implies. It may be thus

other

described. A PROPHECY IS A DECLARATION MADE BY A CREATURE, whether human or of a superior order, UNDER THE INSPIRATION OF GOD, OF AN EVENT, OR A SERIES OF EVENTS, WHICH COULD NOT HAVE BEEN KNOWN BY ANY HUMAN SAGACITY; BUT WHICH SHALL TAKE PLACE IN THE PRESENT LIFE. Such are the predictions recorded in the word of God, by Noah, Moses, David, and a number of raised up persons, and inspired by the Spirit of God, among the Israelites, under their judges and kings. Among them were Samuel, Nathan, David, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, and many more, some of whom are mentioned by name, and others only introduced as prophets, or seers, or men of God. There were likewise those holy men of God, who "spake as they were moved," influenced, impelled, “by the Holy Spirit," and whose writings, though they are by no means all prophetic, form the prophetic canon of the Old Testament. These are called by the Jews, the latter prophets, because they came after Samuel and others, who flourished under the judges and kings, and after the most splended period of the Hebrew history, which closed with the separation of the ten tribes.

The first of these was JONAH, who lived in the time of Jeroboam II.; and about fifty years later, we find NAHUM.

Both of these prophesied concerning the judgments which God would bring on the proud and tyrannous Assyrian empire. Twenty years af:er this, flourished Aмos; and fifty years after him, HOSEA. Their predictions chiefly relate to the purposes of God, concerning the kingdom of Israel, or the ten tribes. In the eighth century before Christ, we find a constellation of prophets, nearly contemporary—MICAH, ISAIAH, HABAKKUK, and JOEL. These delivered predictions regarding the future state of both Judah and Israel, and several of them, with respect to the surrounding nations, the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Philistines, Tyrians, Sidonians, Syrians, Babylonians, Assynians, Egyptians, and others. A century after this, we have ZEPHANIAH, who prophesied of the calamities coming upon the Jews, on account of their sins, exhorted them to repentance, and comforted the pious among them, with promises of future deliverance. At the time of the ruin of Judah, JEREMIAH was called to mourn over the wretched fate of his country, and to utter many important predictions. During the captivity, we have EZEKIEL and OBEDIAH; and at the close of it, DANIEL. At the return of the Jews, HAGGAI and ZACHARIAH; and about seventy years afterwards, in the time of Nehemiah, who was raised up to animate and reform the people, the prophet MALACHI brought up the rear of inspired prophecy, and completed the canon of the Old Testament.

Our object now is to ascertain by what means, under the divine blessing, we may obtain a just knowledge of the meaning of the holy prophecies. And I venture to lay down the following rules, which appear to my own mind as certain in themselves, and without which any attempt to obtain a just insight into the meaning of the prophetic Scriptures must prove in vain.

First.-IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE SHOULD ACQUIRE INFORMATION, AS FULL AND CORRECT AS CAN BE OBTAINED FROM

ITS PROPER SOURCE, THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, CONCERNING THE LIFE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PARTICULAR PROPHET WHOSE COMPOSITION IS UNDER CONSIDERATION.

The time when he lived, the station he occupied, his connection with the kings, the government, the people; and what share he bore, or interest he took, in the political and religious affairs of the king

dom, should all be ascertained with precision. For example; and this one alone will give us an illustration of the principle; ISAIAH was invested with a divine mission, in the last year of Uzziah. The next reign was that of Jotham, which lasted sixteen years. He was an upright prince, who strove, but to little purpose, against the depravity of the nation, their adoption of foreign manners, and growing conformity to neighbouring nations. The state of Judah, during the reign of Jotham, was flourishing, peaceful, and rich, and promising still higher prosperity. Under these circumstances, lasiah comes forth with animated descriptions of the condition and manners of the people; utters the most pointed denunciations and threatenings against them, for their wickedness; and with this, mingles consolation for the people of God; invitations to flee from sin to the Divine protection, and promises of support and deliverance in the midst of the coming judgments. Then followed Ahab, who reigned sixteen years: a weak, superstitious, idolatrous, and wicked prince. At the commemcement of his reign, the rival kingdom of Israel and the neighbouring kingdom of Syria formed an alliance to invade the country, and in this they were encouraged by_a treasonable party in the kingdom. In this state of things, Ahab determined to seek the protection of a more powerful nation that of Assyria. The prophet came forth at this juncture-admitting the danger, but forbidding the course proposed by the king, and assuring the people that God was the only object to which they should look for protection and deliverance; that by relying upon Assyria, and invoking that arm of flesh, they would bring upon themselves destruction. In opposition to all this, however, Ahab and his court determined to obtain the protection of Assyria. That protection was granted; the king of Assyria interfered, and overthrew the two hostile powers; but at a ruinous cost to the kingdom of Judah. The next king was Hezekiah, who endeavoured to throw off the heavy tribute which had been levied upon the nation, by the king of Assyria. In this he was opposed by the seditious party, who domineered over him. However, he persevered, and refused payment of the tribute. The consequence was, that Sennacherib invaded the country with a mighty army, which it, was impossible for the little kingdom of

Judah to resist. Nothing being before them but ruin, the king and the people looked to Egypt and Ethiopia for aid. Against this the prophet remonstrated, pointed out its evil, and gave a prediction of that deliverance which was to be effected by the destruction, in one night, of Sennacherib's army. After this, Hezekiah's dangerous illness occurred, from which he was miracuously recovered, and upon receiving an embassy from Babylon, to congratulate him upon the occurrence, he imprudently indulged his vanity in an exhibition of his riches. Upon this the prophet came forward, remonstrated with the prince upon his pride and folly, and pointed out the ruinous consequences which would result to the nation within a period of twenty years. Throughout the whole period of his prophetic office, Isaiah stood forth as the teacher of religious truth and duty, the reprover of public vices, and exposer of the treacherous sins of all ranks of his countrymen. As a prophet, he predicted things to come, concerning those surrounding nations with which Judah had any connection, as the Israelites, Syrians, Assyrians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Tyrians. He depicted in lively colours, the Chaldean invasion, the ruin of Judah, the deliverance by Cyrus, and the subsequent condition of the people. And to all this, he was enabled to add most wonderous and glorious descriptions of the incarnation, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of the Messiah; the spread of his doctrines, and the glorious triumph, and permanent establishment of his kingdom. But it is evident, that all these admonitions, instructions, and predictions, sprang out of the personal circumstances, and public relations, of Isaiah. It therefore follows, that in order to a correct interpretation of the writings of the prophet, we should, as much as possible, take our stand in his age and place, and contemplate events from the same point of view in which they were presented to him.-We should,

Secondly. DIVIDE THE MATTER IN

THE PROPHETIC BOOKS INTO SUCH PORTIONS AS THE NATURE OF THE SUBJECT DEMANDS.

With the exception of some smaller books, the writings of the prophets comprise many parts, perfectly distinct, by some critics called oracles, delivered at different times, and under very dissimilar