"And it shall come to pass in that day;

The great trumpet shall be sounded:

And those shall come, who were perishing in the land

of Assyria;

And those who were dispersed in the land of Egypt:

And they shall bow themselves down before Jehovah

In the holy mountain, in Jerusalem. (Isa. xxvii. 12, 13.) "In these two stanzas, figuratively in the first, and literally in the second, is predicted the return of the Jews from their several dispersions. The first line of each stanza is parallel with the sixth; the second with the fifth; and the third with the fourth. Also on comparing the stanzas one with another, it is manifest, that they are constructed with the utmost precision of mutual correspondence; clause harmonizing with clause, and line respectively with line; the first line of the first stanza with the first line of the second, and so throughout." (Sacred Lit. pp. 54, 55.)

Until very recently, the poetical parallelism was supposed to be confined to the Books of the Old Testament: but Bishop Jebb has shown that this characteristic of Hebrew Poetry also exists to a considerable degree in the New Testament.

III. DIFFERENT KINDS of Hebrew Poetry.

Bishop Lowth reduces the various productions of the Sacred Poets to the following classes:

1. Prophetic Poetry, or that peculiar to the prophetic Books: for, though some parts of them are evidently in prose, yet the remainder are clearly poetical.

2. Elegiac Poetry, of which many passages occur in the prophetical Books, in the Book of Job, in the Psalms, and especially in the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

3. Didactic Poetry, or that which delivers moral precepts in elegant verses. To this class belongs the Book of Proverbs.

4. Of Lyric Poetry or that which is designed to be accompanied with music, numerous instances occur in the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Psalms. See also Exod. xv. Deut. xxxii. and Habakkuk iii.

5. Of the Idyl, or short pastoral poem, the historical Psalms afford abundant instances. See particularly Psalms lxxviii. cv. cvi. cxxxvi. and cxxxix.

6. To Dramatic Poetry Bishop Lowth refers the Book of Job, and the Song of Solomon: but this opinion has been questioned by later critics. Many of the Psalms however are a kind of dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between persons sustaining certain characters.

7. Acrostic or Alphabetical Poems are those which consist of twenty-two lines, or twenty-two systems of lines, periods, or stanzas, according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet; that is, the first line or first stanza begins with (aleph), the second with (beth), and so on. Twelve of these poems are found in the Old Testament, viz. Psalms xxv. xxxiv. xxxvii. cxi. cxii. cxix. and cxlv. Prov. xxxi. 10–31. Lament. of Jeremiah i. ii. iii. iv. Some of these poems are perfectly, and others more or less, alphabetical.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.

SECTION I.. Rules for the Spiritual or Mystical Interpretation of Scripture.

SOME injudicious expositors having unduly preferred the spiritual or mystical sense to the literal sense, which is undoubtedly first in point of nature as well as in order of signification; others have been induced to conclude that no such interpretation is admissible. "A principle," however, is not therefore to be rejected, because it has been abused: since human errors can never invalidate the truth of God." The following Hints will be found useful for the spiritual interpretation of Scripture.

In this department of sacred literature it may be considered as an axiom that the spiritual meaning of a

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passage is there only to be sought, where it is evident, from certain criteria, that such meaning was designed by the Holy Spirit.

The criteria, by which to ascertain whether there is a latent spiritual meaning in any passage of Scripture, are twofold: either they are seated in the text itself, or they are to be found in some other passages.

I. Where these criteria are seated in the text, vestiges of a spiritual meaning are discernible, when the things, which are affirmed concerning the person or thing immediately treated of, are so august and illustrious that they cannot in any way be applied to it, in the fullest sense of the words.

The writings of the prophets, especially those of Isaiah, abound with nstances of this kind. Thus, in the 24th, 40th, 41st, and 49th chapters of that evangelical prophet, the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity is announced in the most lofty and magnificent terms. If we compare this description with the accounts actually given of their return to Palestine by Ezra and Nehemiah, we shall not find any thing corresponding with the events so long and so beautifully predicted by Isaiah. In this description, therefore, of their deliverance from captivity, we must look beyond it to that infinitely higher deliverance, which, in the fulness of time, was accomplished by Jesus Christ.

II. Where the spiritual meaning of a text is latent, the Holy Spirit (under whose direction the sacred penmen wrote) sometimes clearly and expressly asserts, that one thing or person was divinely constituted or appointed to be a figure or symbol of another thing or person: in which case the indisputable testimony of eternal truth removes and cuts off every ground of doubt and uncertainty.

For instance, if we compare Psalm cx. 4. with Heb. vii. 1. we shall find that Melchisedec was a type of Messiah, the great high priest and king. So Hagar and Sarah were types of the Jewish and Christian churches. (Gal. iv. 22—24.)

III. Sometimes, however, the mystical sense is intimated by the Holy Spirit in a more obscure manner: and, without excluding the practice of sober and pious meditation, we are led by various intimations (which require very diligent observation and study) to the knowledge of the spiritual or mystical meaning.

This chiefly occurs in the following cases:

[i.] When the antitype is proposed under figurative names taken from the Old Testament.

Thus, in 1 Cor. v. 7. Christ is called the paschal lamb ;· in 1 Cor. xv. 45. he is called the last Adam; the first Adam, therefore, was in some respect a type or figure of Christ.

[ii.] When, by a manifest allusion of words and phrases, the inspired writers refer one thing to another.

Thus, from Isa. ix. 4. which alludes to the victory obtained by Gideon (Judges vii. 22.), we learn that this represents the victory which Christ should obtain by the preaching of the Gospel, as Vitringa has largely shown on this passage.

So, when St. Paul is arguing against the Jews from the types of Sarah, Hagar, Melchisedec, &c. he supposes that in these persons there were some things in which Christ and his church were delineated, and that these things were admitted by his opponents: otherwise his arguments would be inconclusive.

SECTION II. On the Interpretation of Types.

I. NATURE of a TYPE, and its different species.

A type, in its primary and literal meaning, simply denotes a rough draught, or less accurate model, from which a more perfect image is made: but, in the sacred or theological sense of the term, a type may be defined to be a symbol of something future and distant, or an example prepared and evidently designed by God to prefigure that future thing. What is thus prefigured is called the antitype.

In the examination of the sacred writings three species of types present themselves to our notice; viz.

1. Legal Types, or those contained in the Mosaic law. On comparing the history and economy of Moses with the whole of the New Testament, it evidently appears, that the ritual law was typical of the Messiah and of Gospel blessings: and this point has been clearly established by the great apostle of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Hebrews.

2. Prophetical Types are those by which the divinely

inspired prophets prefigured or signified things either present or future, by means of external symbols. Of this description is the prophet Isaiah's going naked (that is, without his prophetic garment,) and barefoot (Isa. xx. 2.) to prefigure the fatal destruction of the Egyptians and Ethiopians.

3. Historical Types are the characters, actions, and fortunes of some eminent persons recorded in the Old Testament, so ordered by Divine Providence as to be exact prefigurations of the characters, actions, and fortunes of future persons who should arise under the Gospel dispensation.

Great caution is necessary in the interpretation of types; for unless we have the authority of the sacred writers themselves for it, we cannot conclude with certainty that this or that person or thing, which is mentioned in the Old Testament, is a type of Christ on account of the resemblance which we may perceive between them; but we may admit it as possible.

II. Hints for the interpretation of Types.

1. There must be a fit application of the Type to the Antitype. This canon is of great importance; and inattention to it has led fanciful expositors into the most unfounded interpretations of holy writ. In further illustration of this rule, it may be remarked,

[i.] The type itself must in the first instance be explained according to its literal sense; and if any part of it appear to be obscure, such obscurity must be removed: as in the history of Jonah, who was swallowed by a great fish, and cast ashore on the third day.

[ii.] The analogy between the thing prefiguring and the thing prefigured must be soberly shown in all its parts.

2. There is often more in the type than in the antitype.

God designed one person or thing in the Old Testament to be a type or shadow of things to come, not in all things, but only in respect to some particular thing or things: hence we find many things in the type that are inapplicable to the antitype. The use of this canon is shown in the epistle to the Hebrews, in which the ritual and sacrifices of the Old Testament are fairly accommodated to Jesus Christ the antitype, although there are many things in the Levitical priesthood which do not accord. Thus, the priest was to offer sacrifice for his