prophecies are somewhat dark, till events explain them. They are, besides, delivered in such lofty and figurative terms, and with such frequent allusions to the customs and manners of times and places the most remote, that ordinary readers cannot, without some help, be supposed capable of understanding them. What is not understood is seldom read: or, if at any time it be, it is only as a task, begun without inclination, gone through without pleasure, and ended without profit. It must therefore be of use to make the language of prophecy as intelligible as may be, by explaining those images and figures of speech in which it most frequently abounds: and this generally may be done, even when the prophecies themselves are obscure.

As

Some prophecies seem as if it were not intended that they should be clearly understood before they are fulfilled. they relate to different periods, they may have been intended for exciting the attention of, mankind, from time to time, both to Providence and to Scripture, and to furnish every age with new evidence of the truth of Divine revelation; by which means they serve the same purpose to the last ages of the world that miracles did to the first. Whereas, if they had been in every respect clear and obvious from the beginning, this wise purpose had been in a great measure defeated. Curiosity, industry, and attention, would at once be at an end; or, by being too easily gratified, would be little exercised.

Besides, a great degree of obscurity is necessary to some prophecies before they can be fulfilled; and if not fulfilled, the consequence would not be so beneficial to mankind. Thus, many of the ancient prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, had a manifest relation to the remoter destruction by the Romans, as well as to the nearer one by the Chaldeans. Had the Jews perceived this, which was not indeed clear enough till the event explained it, they would probably have wished to have remained for ever in their captivity at Babylon, rather than expose themselves or their offspring, a second time, to a destruction so dreadful as that which they had already experienced. In like manner, the prophecies relating to the Messiah had a view both to his first and to his second coming; they spoke of him as suffering, and yet conquering and reigning. The Jews, led by their situation first to wish, and then to expect a conquering Messiah, did not clearly see the order of the prophecy, and that it behoved Christ first to suffer, and then to enter into his glory; and therefore, ignorantly and in unbelief, they were instrumental in fulfilling the prophecy, by shedding that blood which was

to atone for the sins of mankind: but this they could never have been so impious as to have attempted, had they fully known that they were crucifying the Lord of Glory.

With respect to our times, by far the greatest number of prophecies relate to events which are now past; and, therefore, a sufficient acquaintance with history, and with the language and style of prophecy, is all that is requisite in order to understand them. Some prophecies, however, relate to events still future: and these too may be understood in general, although some particular circumstances connected with them may remain obscure till they are fulfilled. If prophecies were not capable of being understood in general, we should not find the Jews so often blamed, in this respect, for their ignorance and want of discernment. That they did actually understand many of them, when they chose to search the Scriptures, we know. Daniel understood from the prophecies of Jeremiah the time at which the captivity in Babylon was to be at an end; and the scribes knew from Micah, and told Herod, where the Messiah was to be born. A very little attention might have enabled them in the same manner to understand others, as they probably did; such as the 70 weeks of Daniel; the destruction of the Babylonian empire, and of the other three that were to succeed; and also the ruin of the people and places around them, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Philistia, Egypt, and Idumea. Perhaps, indeed, a few enigmatical circumstances might have been annexed, which could not be understood till they were accomplished; but the general tenor of the prophecies they could be at no loss to understand. With regard to prophecies still future, we are in a similar situation. We know in general, that the Jews will be gathered from their dispersions, restored to their own land, and converted to Christianity; that the fulness of the Gentiles will likewise come in, that Antichrist, Gog, and Magog, and all the enemies of the church will be destroyed; after which the Gospel will remarkably flourish, and be more than ever glorified. But several circumstances connected with those general events must probably remain in the dark, their accomplishment shall clearly explain them.

till

Nevertheless, the obscurity which sometimes attends prophecy, does not always proceed from the circumstances or subject; it frequently proceeds from the highly poetical and figurative style in which prophecy is for the most part conveyed, and of which it will be proper to give some account. To speak of all the rhetorical figures with which the Prophets adorn their style, would lead us into a field too wide, and

H

would be more the province of the rhetorician than of the commentator. It will be sufficient for our purpose at present, to attend to the most common of them, consisting of Allegory, Parable, and Metaphor; and then to consider the sources from which the Prophets most frequently borrow their images in those figures, and the sense which they wish to convey by them.*

By allegory, the first of the figures mentioned, is meant that mode of speech in which the writer or speaker means to convey a different idea from what the words in their obvious and primary signification bear. Thus, "Break up your fallow-ground, and sow not among thorns" (Jer. iv. 3.), is to be understood not of tillage, but of repentance. And these words, "Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas" (Ezek. xxvii. 6.), allude not to the fate of a ship, but of a city.

To this figure, the parable, in which the Prophets frequently speak, is nearly allied. It consists in the application of some feigned narrative to some real truth, which might have been less striking, or more disagreeable, if expressed in plain terms. Such is the following one of Isaiah (v. 1, 2.): "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." The 7th verse tells us that this vineyard was the house of Israel, which had so ill requited the favour which God had shewn it. There is, besides, another kind of allegory not uncommon with the Prophets, called mystical allegory, or double prophecy. Thus, it is said of Eliakim (Isa. xxii. 22.), " And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. In the first and obvious sense, the words relate to Eliakim, but in the secondary or mystical sense, to the Messiah. Instances of the same kind are frequent in those prophecies that relate to David, Zerubbabel, Cyrus, and other types of Christ. In the first sense, the words relate to the type; in the second, to the antitype. The use of this allegory, however, is not so free or so frequent as that of the former. It is generally confined to things most nearly connected with the Jewish religion; with Israel, Sion, Jerusalem, and its kings and rulers: or such as were most opposite to

* Vid. Lowth de Sacr. Poes. Hæb. passim. et Houbigant in præf. ad proph.

these; Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Idumea, and the like. In the former kind of allegory the primitive meaning is dropped, and the figurative only is retained in this, both the one and the other are reserved; and this it is that constitutes the difference.

But of all the figures used by the Prophets, the most frequent is the metaphor, by which words are transferred from their primitive and plain, to a secondary and figurative meaning. This figure, common in all poetry, and in all languages, is of indispensable necessity in Scripture; which, having occasion to speak of divine and spiritual matters, could do it only by terms borrowed from sensible and material objects. Hence it is that the sentiments, actions, and corporeal parts, not only of man, but also of inferior creatures, are ascribed to God himself; it being otherwise impossible for us to form any conceptions of his pure essence and incommunicable attributes. But though the Prophets, partly from necessity, and partly from choice, are thus profuse in the use of metaphors, they do not appear, like other writers, to have the liberty of using them as every one's fancy directed. The same set of images, however diversified in the manner of applying them, is always used both in allegory and metaphor, to denote the same subjects, to which they are in a manner appropriated. This peculiar characteristic of the Hebrew poetry might perhaps be owing to some rules taught in the prophetic schools, which did not allow the same latitude in this respect as other poetry. Whatever it may be owing to, the uniform manner in which the Prophets apply these images, tends greatly to illustrate the prophetic style; and, therefore, it will be proper now to consider the sources from which those images are most frequently derived, and the subjects and ideas which they severally denote. These sources may be classed under four heads; Natural, Artificial, Religious, and Historical.

I. The first and most copious, as well as the most pleasing source of images in the prophetic writings, as in all other poetry, is Nature; and the principal images drawn from nature, together with their application, are the following:

The sun, moon, and stars, the highest objects in the natural world, figuratively represent kings, queens, and princes or rulers; the highest in the world politic: "The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed," Isa. xxiv. 23. “I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light," Ezek. xxxii. 7.

Light and darkness are us d figuratively for joy and sorrow,

prosperity and adversity: "We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness," Isa. lix. 9. An uncommon degree of light, denotes an uncommon degree of joy and prosperity; and vice versa: "The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold," Isa. xxx. 26.-The same metaphors are likewise used to denote knowledge and ignorance: they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them," Isa. viii. 20. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light,” Isa. ix. 2.

66

Dew, moderate rains, gentle streams, and running waters, denote the blessings of the Gospel: "thy dew is as the dew of herbs," Isa. xxvi. 19. "He shall come unto us as the rain," Hosea vi. 3. " I will water it every moment," Isa. xxvii. 3. "I will pour water on him that is thirsty," Isa.

xliv. 3.

Immoderate rains, on the other hand, hail, floods, deep waters, torrents, and inundations, denote judgments and destruction: "I will rain upon him an overflowing rain and great hailstones," Ezek. xxxviii. 22. "Waters rise up out of the north, and shall overflow the land," Jer. xlvii. 2.

Fire also, and the east wind, parching and hurtful, frequently denote the same: "They shall cast thy choice cedars into the fire," Jer. xxii. 7." He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind," Isa. xxvii. 8.

"The

Wind in general is often taken in the same sense: wind shall eat up all thy pleasures," Jer. xxii. 22. Sometimes it is put for any thing empty or fallacious, as well as hurtful: "The Prophets shall become wind," Jer. v. 13. "They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind," Hos. viii. 7.

Lebanon and Carmel; the one remarkable for its height and stately cedars, was the image of majesty, strength, or any thing very great or noble: "He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one," Isa. x. 34. "The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon," Ezek. xxxi. 3. The other mountain (Carmel), fruitful, and abounding in vines and olives, denoted beauty and fertility: "The glory of Lebanon shall be given it, the excellency of Carmel," Isa. xxxv. 2. The vine alone is a frequent image of the Jewish Church: "I had planted thee a noble vine," Jer. ii. 21.

Rams, and bullocks of Bashan, lions, eagles, sea-monsters, or any animal of prey, are figures frequently used for cruel and oppressive tyrants and conquerors: Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, which oppress the poor," Amos iv. 1. "The lion