loped, he surely will take it to his bosom, and thank its Author for the invaluable boon. I conclude with expressing a devout hope, that the Author of the Word of God will accompany this attempt at its vindication with his blessing. May the number of the sincere and devotional lovers of Truth, of all classes and of all parties, be rapidly increased! May they learn to venerate the Word of God as the Word of God, and draw from its exhaustless bosom the streams of genuine truth! Believing, also, the view of the nature of the Scriptures of which a faint sketch has now been given, to be the truth; and feeling the powerful, the unalterable conviction of their divinity which the reception of it imparts; I add, May mankind in general be speedily brought to do justice to a system, which sets the feet of the disciple of Revelation on a rock of adamant, and invests him with a panoply of strength, aimed against which, the keenest shafts of Infidelity will ever fall blunted and harmless! END OF THE LECTURES. APPENDIX. No. I. (Page 89.) PROOFS OF THE SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF THE WRITINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, AFFORDED BY THE REVELATION OF JOHN. for THIS book of the Apocalypse, though itself one of the most mysterious of the books of Scripture, yet affords a key to the interpretation of all the rest;-at least of all those of the Old Testament; it is impossible to read this book with any attention, without discovering, that it is written throughout upon the supposition, that every thing related in Scripture respecting the Jewish church and people, has a symbolic meaning, and is not merely a record of comparatively unimportant matters of fact. If then this book is written by divine inspiration, (and, notwithstanding the objections which some, judging by totally erroneous criteria, have raised against it, there is no book of Scripture in which the Spirit of inspiration discovers itself by more infallible marks,) we have here the most explicit testimony of that Spirit itself to the spiritual nature of the more ancient Scriptures. We will notice a little more particularly than in the text above, some statements which prove these three points; the typical character of the persons mentioned in the Old Testament ;-of the rituals of the Mosaic law;-of the places mentioned in the Old Testament. I. We need go no farther than the second chapter of this extraordinary book, to find proof that the events related in the historical part of the Old Testament, contain an ulterior reference to subjects of a spiritual nature, important to the Church and her members in every age; and that the persons whose actions are recorded in the Holy Word, are all typical characters. For in the divine address to the Church of Pergamos, we have these words: "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit a fornication."* A little further, we find Jesus Christ saying to the church of Thyatira, "Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds: and I will kill her children with death: And all the churches shall know, that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts." In these passages we have two of the characters of the Old Testament brought forward, and described as still occupied in their old work of perverting the church. The book of Numbers relates the history of the prophet Balaam, who was employed by Balak king of Moab, to obstruct the march of the Israelites by his incantations; and who actually did prepare a snares into which they fell, and were visited in consequence by a destroying plague. The narrative afterwards mentions his death by the sword of the Israelites ||: and there, if nothing but a record of natural events were intended, we should expect the history of Balaam and his arts to end. No mention is made of any "doctrine" taught by him; much less of any sect of followers attached to such doctrine. But in the passage just quoted we find mention occur, not indeed of Balaam himself, as being still alive, but of a body of his disciples, existing fifteen hundred years after his death, during the whole of which interval he does not appear to have had any disciples at all! But the other instance we have cited is more remarkable still. Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, one of the most wicked kings that ever reigned in Israel; but who, wicked as he was, was not so abandoned as his wife: for the sacred Record says, "There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.¶ This wicked queen perished miserably** about 2600 years ago, and above eight hundred years before the book of the Revelation of John was written: yet she is here spoken of as being still living,-still practising what she delighted in when alive, which was, to pervert the church, and to seduce or destroy the Lord's faithful servants; and she is represented as being still to undergo the punishment due to her crimes, though that had been so dreadfully inflicted upon her, personally, by the instrumentality of Jehu. Can any thing then be more plain, than that this Rev. ii. 14. + Ver. 20 to 23. Chs. xxii. to xxv. § Ch. xxxi. 16. ** 2 Kings ix. 30 to end. mention of Balaam and of Jezebel in the Apocalypse, is designed to instruct us, that they were both representative characters, and thus that the narratives which record their actions are replete with a hidden meaning, beyond that which appears on the surface? To admit, as all must admit, that they were used as types by John, but to deny that they have a typical signification in the Old Testament, is to maintain a gross inconsistency. John gives no sort of intimation that he is assigning them a new relation, but evidently considers their typical character as a thing fully established, and not to be questioned. We will give two other examples. The Lamb that was seen in the midst of the throne in heaven*, is called "the Lion of the tribe of Juda." This is an allusion to the prophetic benediction of his sons by Jacob; in which we read, "Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, art thou gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up‡:" and thus we are taught, that the ultimate reference of this enigmatical saying is not to Judah, or to his tribe, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the seventh chapter, when four angels were seen holding the four winds, and another angel cried to them, saying, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads;" and when, in consequence, exactly twelve thousand were sealed of each of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:-every one sees that the children of Israel and their tribes cannot be personally meant: and if they have a symbolic meaning here, they must have a symbolic meaning elsewhere; which is thus clearly taught. II. In regard to the notices of the Mosaic rituals. In the eighth chapter we read of " the golden altar which was before the throne," and of an angel having “a golden censer," and to whom was given "much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar."§ This is an allusion to the golden altar which stood before the veil in the tabernacle and temple, and upon which the incense was offered. In the eleventh chapter an angel said to John, "Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein: but the court, which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not¶," &c. This alludes to the temple, its altar and courts, as they existed under the Jewish economy. So, also, when the Revelator says, "I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened**;" "and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God+t;" * Ch. v. 6. + Ver. 5. 1 Ver. 1, 2. ** Ch. xv. 5. Gen. xlix. 9. § Ver. 3. Exod. xl. 26, 27. ++ Ver. 8: See also Ex. xl. 34, & 1 Kings viii. 10. |