of an assembled senate, the meed of praise, which he so richly merited from those, who now conveyed to him his country's grate ful thanks for his benevolent exertions in behalf of the most destitute and outcast members of her community. a the After having visited most of the prisons in England, France, Holland, Flanders, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Malta, and Turkey, he was taken very ill whilst remaining at Cherson. Being fully prepared for change, which was now rapidly approaching, on the 18th of January, 1790, the symptoms of this great and good man's disease began to assume a still more alarming appearance, for he was then seized with a violent hickupping, which continued next day, until it was somewhat allayed by some musk draughts, administered by direction of his medical attendant. On a friend, Admiral Priestman, inquiring af ter his health, he replied, That his end was approaching very fast, that he had several things to say to him, and thanked him for having called upon him. "There is a spot," said he, "near the village of Dauphigny; this would suit me nicely. You know it well, for I have often said, that I should like to be buried there; and let me beg of you, as you value your old friend, not to suffer any pomp to be used at my funeral; nor any monument, nor monumental inscription, whatsoever, to mark where I am laid; but lay me quietly in the earth, place a sun-dial over my grave, and let me be forgotten." When his friend returned to him with the intelligence, that he had executed his commission respecting the place of his interment, his Countenance brightened, a gleam ever of satisfaction came over his face, and he prepared to go to bed, As the Admiral still remained with him, he gave him the letter to read, which communicated the improvement that seemed to have taken place in his son's health : and when he had read it, he turned his languid head on the pillow, and asked, "Is not this comfort for a dying father?" He then expressed great repugnance to being buried according to the rites of the Greek church, and begged the Admiral not only to prevent all interference on the part of the Russian priests, but himself to read the burial service of the Church of England over his body, at his interment, which was the last request he made, and indeed nearly the last words his lips pronounced, as he was soon afterwards seized with a third fit, and ceased to speak for an hour or two previous to his decease. Still, however, he was sensible a while; as, on being requested to let the physician be sent for, who was then at some little distance from his residence, he nodded his head by way of assent, though it was too late. Before he could arrive, the rattling in his throat had begun, and he soon afterwards breathed his last, at about 8 o'clock in the morning of the 20th of January, 1790. We shall conclude this brief Memoir of Mr. H. with the celebrated panegyric of Mr. Burke on his character. "I cannot name this gentleman without remarking, that his labours and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe-not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art, nor to collect med als, or collate manuscripts; but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten,, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and compare and collate the distresses of His all men in all countries. plan is original: it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in every country: I hope he will anticipate his final reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own." [Eng. Bap. Mag. Religious Communications. DISSERTATION ON HEBREWs vi. 4-6. IN the next clause of the passage, in which the apostle speaks of their having tasted of the heavenly gift, the evidence rises, if possible, still higher. By the heavenly gift, we are to understand Jesus Christ, including all the blessings of the covenant of grace which are deposited in his hands, and which believers enjoy in him. Then tasting of the heavenly gift imports a participation of those blessings, and such a knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus Christ, as is peculiar to true believers. Thus says the prophet, "O taste and see that the Lord is good."'* And thus the apostle exhorts christians: "As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Tasting, so far as the writer has observed, is uniformly expressive of experimental, in distinction from speculative knowledge of the object tasted. Thus said our Lord: "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste death, until they see the Son of Man coming • Isa. xxxiv. 8. § Heb. ii. 9. Tast in his kingdom." So Christ is said to have tasted death for every man. And he says, "None of those men that were bidden, shall taste of my supper." ing that the Lord is good, that he is gracious, desiring the sincere milk of the word, and tasting of Christ's Supper, are unquestionably expressive of such a partici pation of the blessings of divine grace as is peculiar to real saints; and unless we can find some other texts where tasting, with Christ as its object, is predicated on persons of an opposite character, the regular rules of exigesis will oblige us to allow that the Apostle is here describing the character of real saints. By the phrase, partakers of the Holy Ghost, some have understood the common influences of the Spirit of God; but it does not appear to be true in fact, that those who have been under the common or awakening influences of the divine Spirit, and have fallen away, are absolutely beyond the reach of mercy, so that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Others have refer ed it to the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, and say that these gifts were imparted to unregenerate men, in common with real christians, that Judas had the power of working miracles, and casting out devils. But this does not seem to be quite certain; for although Judas was numbered with the twelve Apostles, to whom those powers were given; yet we have no particular account that Judas personally ever exercised any such powers: But if, to avoid a needless dispute, we should admit that Judas had those powers, and did occasionally employ them, in common with the rest of the twelve, it would prove very little to the purpose. The case of Judas was manifestly singular and in every respect extraordinary; the station he filled, the relation in which he stood, the character which he sustained, and the part he acted, were peculiar to him: to himself, those traits of character belonged, to the exclusion of all other men; so that the case of Judas never can with propriety be drawn in as a general example. It is very plain that Peter considered the reception of the Holy Ghost, as an evidence of real grace, when he said; "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ?*" On the supposition that the impartation of the divine Spirit was common to believers and unbelievers, the argument of the Apostle would have been totally inconclusive; as their having received the Holy Ghost, would have been no evidence that Cornelius and his friends were true believers, and so the proper subjects of christian baptism. Tasting the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, do if our former obser vations are correct, express such an experimental knowledge and enjoyment of them as is peculiar to true believers. But the great difficulty still remains; the question which, it is presumed has induced many divines to reject this plain and natural exposition of the passage under consideration, is this; does it not prove the liability of real saints so to apostatize, as to be finally tost? The answer is, that it does not, any more than our Saviour's saying, "If I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like unto you," proves the liability of Jesus Christ to deny his knowledge of his Father, and become a liar. The fact is, that there are vast numbers of hypothetical propositions in the Scriptures, which were never intended to assert the fact supposed. Although this text does not prove the liability of saints to final apostacy, yet it proves what the Apostle intended to prove by it, that is, that true christians can never be in such circumstances, as that it should be necessary for them to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith towards God. This could never be necessary, unless the foundation once laid, should be raised by crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame: This the Apostle assures will never take place: But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 66 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed towards his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister; which is as much as if he had said: you have, brethren, exhibited the proper evidences that you are true believers, and as God has en Acts ix. 47. † Heb. ix. 10. gaged that true believers shall be kept by his power, through faith unto eternal salvation, I rely upon his faithfulness, and am persuaded that you will not fall away, nor crucify the Son of God afresh; and upon this principle I exhort you to shew the same diligence in learning experimentally the mind of God until you arrive at the full assurance of hope. It will be seen, that this passage of scripture, when rightly understood, is so far from proving the final apostacy of saints, that it proves the reverse; and so far from being a ground of perplexity, doubt, and discouragement to christians, it was intended, and is happily calculated, to remove their doubts, and to establish and comfort them. It only remains for the writer to express his fervent, devout desires that this feeble effort to shed light upon this text may be attended with the divine blessing. PHILOLOGOS. METAPHORS OF SCRIPTURE. A metaphor signifies a transfer; and implies that the term so used is diverted from its literal and primary sense. As this figure occurs more frequently in Scripture than all others united, it merits some attention. I might also add, that the Bible, more than almost any other book that falls under our notice, abounds with this figure. One obvious reason is, the nature of its subjects. It treats of the affections of the soul, of God, of spirits, of the resurrection and final judgment, of heaven and hell ;-subjects the farthest removed from the observation of our senses, and with which we have the least acquaintance. Our only knowledge of some of these is derived from VOL. III. 7 the Scriptures. Now it is obvious that the inspired writers, in order to communicate to us instruction concerning subjects, of which we had little or no previous knowledge, must have recourse to material objects for illustration; must take language already existing and already appropriated to particular ideas, and adapt it to other subjects; i. e. use it metaphorically. Metaphor, like figurative language generally, has its foundation in the relation of similitude. It is in fact, though not in form, a comparison. Thus the metaphorical expression, God is a sun, is not different in the sentiment from the comparison, God is like the sun. It is evident, however, that a formal comparison is not so forcible, nor so well adapted to express strong emotions, as a metaphor. The grand fault in the interpretation of metaphors, is, extending the 'resemblance beyond what the writer intended. The writer has in his eye some single point of resemblance. This point is generally very obvious; though from the nature of the subject, the resemblance is often somewhat remote. Thus God is denominated a shield. Is any labour necessary to show that in most respects there is no resemblance between God and a shield? that it cannot be with respect to the substance, shape, or sound of the shield? Its use, i. e. to afford protection, appears to be the point in view; though even, as to this point, the resemblance cannot be very strict. God is called a Father: therefore say some, it cannot be, that he will cause or permit any of his creatures to be forever wretched. But is he not also called a King and Judge? Let the same mode of reasoning be applied to these terms, and what will be the prospects of transgressors and rebels like ourselves. Because man is said to have been created in the image of God, some have supposed that God was a corporeal being: and because our Saviour is called the Son of God, others have imagined him to be as literally and strictly so, as Isaac was the son of Abraham. Christ is called a vine, door, way, corner-stone, shepherd, lamb, physician. What a heterogeneous being should we make him, if we attempted to unite in him all or any considerable part of the properties of these various objects! Christians, by the same figure, are called the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the temple of God, sheep. Now we are not to inquire, how many resemblances a visionary interpreter might fancy between christians and salt, light, temples, sheep. But what are the resemblances, the prominent, leading resemblances, aimed at by the writer? SCRIPTURE PARABLES RIES. IMLAC. AND ALLEGO THE word Parable is used with considerable latitude of signification. It sometimes denotes any thing spoken obscurely, and needing explanation; and so comprehends proverbs and enigmas. At other times, it seems to denote little more than moral precept; (as Luke xiv. 7.) or a comparison or illustration; (as Luke, xv. 4, and 8.) But more commonly, it is a formal narrative, in stituted to convey some particular instruction. This narrative may be fictitious, or founded on fact. All parables are a kind of allegory. An allegory is a figure by which one thing is presented to the view, and another thing signified by it. The former, or the thing presented to one of the external senses, has been denominated the immediate representation; and the latter, or thing signified, the ultimate representation. The former is the mere livery or dress of the latter. The interpretation of the former, is an interpretation of words; but the interpretation of the latter, is an interpretation of things. Had this distinction been observed, much wildness in explaining this kind of writing might have been avoided. But by jumbling together these two different operations, we become interpreters of words, and not of things signified by them. Take, for example, the parable of the mustard seed, to which the kingdom of heaven is likened: (Matt. xiii. 31.) In attempting to give the meaning of this, how unskilful would any person appear, if, instead of looking at the only thing designed, to wit, the increase of Christ's kingdom, he should dwell on the principal word in the immediate representation; should enter into a detail of the qualities of mustard, and run a parallel between these qualities and the kingdom of heaven! But this is what has been practised on many of the parables. An allegory cannot, like a metaphor, consist of a single word. It comprises the whole immediate proposition, which is intended to suggest another to which it bears some resemblance. This resemblance, however, arises not from the meaning of single words, but from the meaning of the whole taken together. For example, it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.' This is the immediate representation, designed to indicate the ultimate one. The wo |