own age, or at the stupendous labours of the Masorah and the Talmudists in past ages of the Jewish church, to see how vainly man has endeavoured to unseal the writing within the page of God's word. And when we view the combined labours of philosophy, both experimental and speculative, throughout all ages, we shall be equally convinced how vain have been the efforts of human reason, in reading the most important, and apparently to us, the plainest lesson, from the writing without, vix. the works of God.* Hence Pharisaists have read revelation without discerning Christ, in whom it all centres; and philosophers have studied nature, and denied God, whose stupendous work she is: blind guides all, who have taken away the key of knowledge, who have neither entered into heaven themselves, nor suffered other men to do so. This key of knowledge is Christ. He alone, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb slain, can open and unseal the double book, either of nature or revelation. He alone is declared in revelation, and typified in nature. As the seals are broken for each individual by him, he will discern him

For the works of God, like his word, can only make wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ; and faith is the gift of God, not the fruit of unassisted reason.

in all things. Through faith in him, the book of nature, as well as the Scriptures, shall make us truly wise unto salvation; and having our hearts purified by faith, we shall find the blessing of the pure in heart to be, that in all things they shall see God; and on every thing, in that day, shail they see written, holiness to the Lord.

We must not, then, consider judicious spiritual interpretations of Scripture merely in the light of pious meditations, or of adaptations of which the passages are susceptible; nor as arbitrary, though edifying imaginations, which can have no weight in the establishment of religious truth. But we must bear in mind, that Christ is, in actual truth, the fulfilment of the law, the accomplishment of prophecy, and the key of David: and that it is in Him alone, consequently, that the dark parables in which the psalmist spoke can be unlocked; and in him alone, that the types of the ceremonial law, the mysterious figures of the poetic prophets, or the historical personages of the historic ones, can be understood in their real and primary meaning. We are assured, on divine authority, that the grand and primary object of each of these was to declare and typify Him. Therefore, as He expressly states that they all centre in Him, we may rest assured, that when we view Him in

them, we are, in fact, viewing them not only in their just and true, but in their principal sense: whilst, on the contrary, we may be certain, that however learned and however true and ingenious any exposition may be, which does not centre in Him, it yet altogether misses of the principal truth intended.

Nay, so far are we from considering such interpretations as mere edifying reflections, adaptations, or reveries, that we observe that Jesus himself, in speaking to the disciples of his sufferings and resurrection, proved to them, from the prophets, Psalms, and law, that Christ ought to have suffered such things to enter into his glory. Would He have chosen this ground of proof, had it not been solid and tenable? In like manner, all the apostles rested the entire weight of evidence of those miraculous facts of which their preaching consisted, in the previous declarations of the law, the prophets, and the Psalms. They constantly refer to this text; and praise the Bereans, as more noble, because they searched the Scriptures, (of the Old Testament, they alone being extant,) to see if these things were so. It is also remarkable, that St. Peter himself, having seen the excellent glory in the transfiguration, yet preferred to this testimony of his own eyes and ears the more sure

word of prophecy, which was like a burning lamp, shining, though through an obscure envelope: that is, St. Peter considered no single desultory impression on the outward senses so certain, as the accordant testimony of numbers throughout a long series of ages.

Yet all these oracles, to which our Saviour and the apostles refer, and on the declarations of which they leaned the whole weight of their testimony, depended entirely on the spiritual sense elicited from the law, Psalms, and historic and poetic prophets. Accordingly we hear, that the same Holy Ghost, which at first delivered these oracles to the writers, opened the eyes and ears of as many of the hearers as were -saved, and, giving them the true interpretation with the text, enabled them to understand all that in these books was written concerning Christ. It is, then, only through the teaching of the Spirit of God enabling us, by faith, to look steadfastly through these shadows to Christ, who is their grand end, that even the Scriptures of God themselves are enabled to make us truly wise unto salvation. Nor can we become thus wise by the private and particular sense, or literal interpretation, elicited by criticisms on the peculiar customs, manners, or facts, which constitute the literal sense of Scripture. These,

indeed, are true, but the other is their saving truth. We ought, then, in all our biblical researches, assiduously to seek, through the merits of Christ, for the guidance of his Holy Spirit, who is both able and willing to lead the sheep of Christ into the knowledge of all-saving truth; and who is especially promised to take of the things of Christ, and show them to us; thus pointing out that true spiritual sense of every Scripture, which is their end, their spirit, and their life.

If, notwithstanding, any one pertinaciously attaches himself to that letter, which, however we are warned, killeth; resolving to rest solely on the letter, or the facts to be obtained by historic criticism; and should any one pretend that we turn all Scripture into a baseless and delusive allegory; if any one should persevere in rejecting all those spiritual explications, which are grounded on rules laid down by Christ, and which are borne out, as precisely similar to the numerous patterns exhibited by Christ and his apostles; we then can only say to such a person, that, like the Jews of old, he indeed diligently reads Moses and the prophets, whilst, like them, the veil yet remains upon his heart. Who amongst us can pretend to have studied the letter of Scripture with the minute, literal