the deficiencies which he endeavoured to supply they have not discernment enough to discover. Scott began his commentary ignorant of Hebrew, but, finding its indispensable necessity, endeavoured, though late in life, to supply it. How imperfectly he was able to do this is attested by the blunders which remain ; and, gross as they are, none of his subsequent editors seem to have even the smattering of Hebrew which would detect them. One occurs in Genesis iii., where a note is given conjecturing that the serpent took the form of a seraph to tempt Eve, and asserting that the word serpent is translated fiery (or seraphic) serpents Numb. xxi. 6. This passsge has the adjective following the substantive-being serpents fiery, not fiery serpentsbut no such word as seraph, or shining, occurs in Genesis; yet this blunder stood in the latest editions we have consulted, and probably stands to the present day.

D'Oyly and Mant profess not to give any thing original, and their notes are a perplexing medley from every school of divinity, except the Calvinistic, and where every one may find bits and scraps to his taste, if he be not very orthodox or very singular. There is much that is really excellent in the medley, but it is so entirely neutralized by the company in which it is found that an inquirer might be ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth: and this may be the very reason why it is in favour with so large a body of cautious men, who confess that there is much to be said on both sides in every question, and who, therefore, think it most prudent never to make up their minds!

Of Adam Clarke we will only say, that he denies the eternal Sonship of Christ; that he takes Taylor of Norwich for his guide in Paul's Epistles; and that he at first purposed omitting all comment on the Apocalypse. His notes, too, are so often filled with extracts from heathen writers, none of which are very appropriate, and many of them wholly inapplicable, that a suspicion is generated in the reader that Homer, Virgil, and Ovid occupied the mind of the commentator more frequently than they should have done. But these are the guides which are implicitly followed by a great majority of professing Christians; and by such authorities as these we are answered and put down, when we bring forward the clearest declarations from the word of God.

We are not putting any hypothetical case, but only stating facts which are continually occurring. We ourselves were present at a meeting convened at long notice for discussing the doctrines of the Advent, when one clergyman insisted at great length on the authority of Hammond as deciding the question; another, on the general concurrence of commentators, without naming any; and a Dissenting minister maintained that the

Millennium began at the Reformation. And we know of another meeting, convened at Bristol, at a fortnight's notice, and where many clergymen were present, who all but one passed the question, referring to the notes of Scott as being "perfectly satisfactory" on all points.

It has generally been assumed, and confidently asserted, that great learning and much acquaintance with history would be requisite for every one, if we had not these commentators to help us in understanding the Scriptures: but sure we are, that still more learning and knowledge are necessary to avoid being misled by their comments. Persons are often warned of the danger of mistake in studying for themselves, but seldom duly warned of the tenfold danger of imbibing the errors of others. To understand the word of God for personal edification, is one thing; to interpret it for the instruction of others, is another thing,-the highest gift of God to man. Jesus himself led the way, when, shewing himself to his disciples after his resurrection, and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke xxiv. 27). And a like power gave He to his church in the promised Comforter: "When He the Spirit of Truth is come, He shall guide you into all truth" (John xvi. 13). Without the Holy Spirit no one is a member of Christ or a child of God; and every member may expect such teaching of the Spirit as will enable him to learn from the word of God the duties of his place in the body of Christ; so as to know both the dignity of his calling as a son of God, and joint-heir with Christ, and the nature of the road which leads from this momentary state of bondage and corruption to that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The Scriptures are the infallible word of God, and, trusting to the promise of the Spirit, every believer may be assured that he shall be taught all things thereby, and will need no teaching of man. But commentaries are words of fallible men, who lay no claim to inspiration, and which need a double portion of spiritual illumination-first, to understand the meaning of the words, and then to guard us from the errors in the fallible words themselves. If the Scriptures are difficult, and need illumination, the writings of commentators are doubly difficult.

For instructing others therefore, and for guarding against the mistakes of commentators, learning and acquirements are necessary; but self-edification may be carried on and perfected without these helps.

The word of God is very large, suited to every possible condition of man; but so suited, that, while it includes all, it excludes none. The local circumstances of Judea, and the customs and manners of the Apostles, were very different from our own, and the patriarchal times still more dissimilar; yet the most un

learned of the people find no difficulty in understanding the history, and following the footsteps of Abraham and Moses, of Christ and his Apostles. The Mosaic law, and the book of Genesis, involve far greater difficulties, and need more learning and wisdom to interpret, than any of the Prophecies; but we do not hear men cautioned against studying the Pentateuch, nor is any evil found to arise from the study: the unlearned do not fall into any dangerous mistakes in this most difficult portion of the word of God.

If any distinction be allowable, the Prophecies might be considered as more emphatically the property of all, and the province which all should study; a very large portion of them being denunciations of judgment on the heathen, and the whole world, the great bulk of whom must ever be unlearned and ignorant folk. Whole nations are addressed successively by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; and every class and grade in those nations, and in the whole world-master and servant, buyer and seller, high and low (as Isai. xxiv.)—and since all people of the earth shall give glory to the Lord when his judgments are made manifest, all are held responsible for knowledge of the declarations of those judgments.

Prophecy, if studied simply, is the least difficult and the most instructive portion of the word of God; needful for guidance at all times, but especially in these times, when the professing church, in her ignorance and dotage, is endeavouring to lull all men into slumber; when Infidelity and Liberalism are sweeping all things before them in one mighty torrent, and so many are rushing into the jaws of perdition, now yawning to receive them. The students of prophecy alone will stoutly stem this tide; they alone, standing on Mount Zion, and having the harps of God in their hands, rejoice in the accomplishment of all the purposes of God, having been taught them from the sure word of prophecy. And while the countless myriads of mankind, who have refused to be taught the judgments of the Lord, behold with dismay the approach of that day, and shall call upon the rocks to cover them and hide them; this little band, this hundred and forty and four thousand, shall lift up their heads with unspeakable joy, knowing that their redemption draweth nigh. Prophecy is given in such broad and general terms that all may understand it; and all may, by attention to the word, without any other help than comparing passage with passage, discover all they need to know, for guidance in their own times and circumstances, under the leading of the Holy Spirit. The danger, for the most part, is in being learned, not in being ignorant; for learned commentators have so distorted this portion of God's word that an educated man needs to forget his learning, and take the word simply, to understand its meaning; needs to

become a fool, that he may be wise: he needs to dismiss the systems of theology, and all those contradictory speculations with which man has encumbered Prophecy; which is not to be moulded and fashioned by man, and which came not by the will of man, but holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

And we, who live so near the end of all things; we, who have seen so much already accomplished, and live in the continual expectation of seeing yet greater things than these; we have especial cause of thanksgiving to God for the assurance he has given that we have a sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts. (2 Pet. i. 19.)

Every promise of God is of necessity prophetic. The first promise after the Fall is not yet fulfilled. Christ in his own person hath bruised the head of the serpent; but Christ mystical, the members of Christ, have not yet done so: yet the Lord shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly. Eve expected the immediate fulfilment of this prophecy, and in that hope named her firstborn son Cain, saying, "I have gotten the Man the Lord;" the Bruiser, as she hoped, of the serpent's head. And though Eve was mistaken, and found in Cain his brother's murderer instead of the Redeemer she expected, her mistake made not the prophecy void, but it stood the palladium of the doomed world till the Seed came to whom the promise was made. In like manner, whensoever our forefathers may have antedated the second advent, and have found their expectations delayed, still their misinterpretations should be judged of in the same charity as we judge of Eve's fond anticipation of the hope dearest to her bosom,-the hope of regaining Paradise and of re-union with God, through One mightier than Adam, One wiser than the serpent. In proportion to the fervour of the hope of the second Advent in the church will be the frequency of the disappoint

ment.

All the promises of the Messiah are in the same manner prophecies not yet fulfilled, to receive their accomplishment at the second advent. Christ is the Shiloh (Gen. xlix.); the Lion of Judah; who shall gather the people of Israel, now scattered to the four corners of the earth. He is the Star of Jacob and the Sceptre of Israel, who shall smite the earth with such terrible fury that the seer cries out, in dismay, "Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!" (Num. xxiv.) He is that most Mighty One who girds his sword upon his thigh, and whose arrows are sharp against his enemies; whose dominion is unto the world's end, and his throne for ever and ever. (Ps. lxxii.) He is the mighty God, the Father of the age to come, the Prince of Peace, who shall sit upon the throne of David for ever. (Isa. ix.) He is the

righteous Branch, executing judgment and justice in the earth, over the gathered and reunited remnant of Judah and Israel. (Jer. xxiii.) He is the Lord sitting on the throne of glory in the midst of the children of Israel for ever. (Ezek. xliii.) He is the Son of Man brought to the Ancient of Days to receive dominion under the whole heaven. (Dan. vii.) He is the KING and the LORD of all the minor Prophets: He is the Horn of salvation of the songs of Mary and Zacharias; saluted King of the Jews by the Magi in his cradle, and declared such by the superscription on his cross. To a kingdom was he born-for this end came he into the world-but he himself declared that his kingdom was not then come, nor to be constituted of such a people as the Jews then were. But a kingdom he shall have. He is preparing his kings and priests for it now. They who suffer with him now, shall reign with him then. We continually pray "Thy kingdom come;" and to every one that overcometh He will give to sit with him on his future throne, even as he hath now overcome, and is seated with the Father on his throne in heaven (Rev. iii. end).

All the Gospel truths were once prophecies; and the better part of the Gospel, that which makes it in reality GOOD NEWSthe glory to God in the highest, the peace on earth, the good will towards men-are but prophecy still. Faith may apprehend, and enjoy some little foretaste, of the blessedness of union with Jesus; but what a nothing is this, in comparison with the joy unspeakable and full of glory to be realized in all who believe in the prophecy concerning it, when they shall be for ever with the Lord? Faith may conceive somewhat of the general purport of salvation; and we may stretch our narrow souls, and strain our puny spirits, to magnify the Lord and rejoice in God the Saviour; but how languid and dead will this appear when the reality of salvation is manifested in the radiance of heaven, on one side, and the glare of hell, on the other, as declared in prophecy ! Faith in an absent Saviour, and in an unseen God, cheers us in our weary pilgrimage, and beckons us onward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling; but who can yet realize the joy of seeing our King in his beauty, of beholding that glory which he had with the Father before the world was, of seeing face to face, of knowing even as we are known, of being the subject of that most glorious prophecy, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son!" (Rev. xxi. 7.)

All the glories and triumphs of the church are likewise future, are hitherto unaccomplished prophecies. The little band of believers now, is nothing, compared with the multitudes which no man could number who shall turn from the evil of their ways when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the

VOL. VII.-NO. I.