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in separate parcels indeed, by the different instruments which it hath at different times employed; or that any tached part of his sacred volume may be safely expounded, without reference to the whole! The Divine knowledge is indeed too excellent for man, and could not otherwise be imparted to him than in scraps and fragments: but these are then only understood, when the human mind, by just and dexterous combinations, is able to restore them, in some imperfect degree, to the shadow and the semblance at least of that simplicity and unity in which all truth originally exists in the self-furnished intellect of God.

But, farther. As there cannot but be harmony and connexion in the knowledge and the thoughts of God, so there cannot but be unity and consistency of design in all his communications with mankind. The end, indeed, of all that extraordinary intercourse which the great God who made heaven and earth hath vouchsafed to hold with the inhabitants of this lower world, is the moral improvement of the human character, the improvement of man's heart and understanding, by the establishment and propagation of the Christian religion. All instruction from Heaven, of which the prophecies make a part, is directed to this end. All the promises given to the patriarchs, the whole typical service of the law, the succession of the Jewish prophets,-all these things were means employed by God to prepare the world for the revelation of his Son; and the later prophecies of our Lord himself, and his inspired apostles, are still means of the same kind for the farther advancement of the same great design,—to spread that divine Teacher's doctrine, and to give it full effect upon the hearts of the faithful. The great object, therefore, of the whole word of prophecy, is the Messiah and his kingdom; and it divides itself into two general branches, as it regards either the first coming of the Messiah, or the various fortunes of his doctrine and his church, until his second coming. With this object, every prophecy hath

immediate or remote connexion. Not but that in many

predictions, in many large portions of the prophetic word, the Messiah and the events of his kingdom are not immediately brought in view as the principal objects; yet in none of the Scripture prophecies are those objects set wholly out of sight, inasmuch as the secular events to which many parts of prophecy relate, will be found, upon a close inspection, to be such as either in earlier times affected the fortunes of the Jewish people, or in later ages the state of Christendom, and were of considerable effect upon the propagation of the true religion, either as they promoted or as they obstructed it. Thus, we have predictions of the fall of the old Assyrian empire, and the desolation of Ninevah, its capital; of the destruction of Tyre, and the ravages of Nebuchadnezzar in the neighbourhood of Palestine; of the overthrow of the Babylonian empire, by Cyrus; of the Persian, by Alexander; of the division of the eastern world, after the death of Alexander, among his captains; of the long wars between the rival kingdoms of Syria and Egypt; of the intestine quarrels and court intrigues of those two kingdoms; of the propagation of Mahomet's imposture; of the decline of the Roman empire; of the rise and growth of the papal tyranny and superstition. Such events as these became the subject of prophecy, because their consequences touched the state of the true religion; and yet they were of a kind in which, if in any, the thoughtless and inconsiderate would be apt to question the control of Providence. Read the histories of these great revolutions: you will find they were effected by what you might the least guess to be the instruments of Providence,-by the restless ambition of princes, by the intrigues of wicked statesmen, by the treachery of false sycophants, by the mad passions of abandoned or of capricious women, by the frenzy of enthusiasts, by the craft of hypocrites. But, although God hath indeed no need of the wicked man, yet his wisdom and his mercy find frequent use for him, and render even his vices subservient to the benevolent purposes of providence.

The evidence of a vigilant providence, thus mercifully exerted, arises from the prediction of those events, which, while they result from the worst crimes of men, do yet in their consequences affect the state of religion and the condition of the virtuous. If such events lay out of the control of God's providence, they could not fall within the comprehension of his prescience: but, what God hath predicted, he foreknew, what he foreknew, he predetermined, what God hath predetermined, whatever bad action he permits to be done, must no less certainly, though less immediately than the good actions which he approves, operate, by the direction of his universal providence, to the final benefit of the virtuous. This comfortable assurance, therefore, "that all things work together for good to them that love God," is derived from prophecy, especially from those parts of prophecy which predict those crimes of men by which the interests of religion are affected: and, to afford this comfort to the godly, such crimes are made the subject of the sacred oracles.

Thus you see, that, in all prophecy, the state of religion is the object, and the interests of religion are the end. Hence it is, that as a man, whose mind is bent upon the accomplishment of some great design, will be apt, upon every occasion of discourse, to introduce allusions. to that which is ever uppermost in his thoughts, and nearest to his heart, so the Holy Spirit of God, when he moved his prophets to speak of the affairs of this low world, was perpetually suggesting allusions to the great design of Providence, the uniting of all things under Christ. And whoever would edify by the prophetic word, must keep this great object constantly in view, that he may be ready to catch at transient hints and oblique insinuations, which often occur where they might be the least expected.

Nor is an active attention to the events of the world less necessary. That prophecy should fetch its interpretation from the events of history, is a necessary consequence of

its divine original: it is a part of the contrivance, and a part without which prophecy would have been so little beneficial--rather, indeed, pernicious to mankind-that, seeing God is infinitely wise and good, this could not but be a part of his contrivance. This is very peremptorily declared in the original of my text; where the expression is not, as in the English, "no prophecy is," but " no prophecy is made of self-interpretation." No prophecy is to be found in Scripture, which is not purposely so framed as not to be of self-interpretation. It was undoubtedly within the power of the Almighty, to have delivered the whole of prophecy in terms no less clear and excplicit than those in which the general promises of revelation are conveyed, or particular deliverances of the Jewish people occasionally announced: but his wisdom reprobated this unreserved prediction of futurity, because it would have enlarged the foresight of man beyond the proportion of his other endowments, and beyond the degree adapted to his present condition. To avoid this mischief, and to attain the useful end of prophecy, which is to afford the highest proof of Providence, it was necessary that prophecy should be delivered in such disguise as to be dark while the event is remote, to clear up as it approaches, and to be rendered perspicuous by the accomplishment. And in this disguise prophecy hath actually been delivered, because it comes from God, who is good and wise, and dispenses all his blessings in the manner and degree in which they may be truly blessings to his creatures. Knowledge were no blessing, were it not adjusted to the circumstances and proportioned to the faculties of those to whom it is imparted.

I trust that it appears to you, that the apostle's maxim, "that no prophecy can be its own interpreter," does necessarily follow from the matter of fact alleged as its foundation, that "all prophecy is from God."

You will reap a rich harvest of improvement from these disquisitions, if, now that you understand the apostle's

rule of interpretation, you will learn to use it when you read or hear the prophecies of holy writ. In my next Discourses, I shall endeavour, with God's assistance, to teach you the use of it, by examples of its application.

SERMON XVI.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not at any time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.-2 PETER i. 20, 21.

THIS period hath already been the subject of one Discourse, in which it hath been my endeavour to explain its meaning, and to show the coherence of its parts. Its meaning,--that it propounds a maxim for the interpretation of the prophecies of holy writ, which is this negative proposition, that no prophecy is its own interpreter; and alleges the principle upon which that maxim is founded, that all prophecy came from God. The coherence of its parts,--inasmuch as the maxim, by necessary and obvious consequence, rises out of the principle alleged as the foundation of it.

I now proceed, as I proposed, to instruct you in the use of the apostle's maxim, by examples of its application. I would not fatigue your attention with unnecessary repetition; but it is of importance that you should recollect that the apostle's negative maxim, "that no prophecy is of self-interpretation," has been shown in effect to contain two affirmative rules of exposition,-that every single text of prophecy is to be considered as a part of an entire system, and to be interpreted in that sense which may best connect it with the whole; and that the sense of prophecy in general is to be sought in the events which have ac-. tually taken place.

To qualify the Christian to make a judicious application of these rules, no skill is requisite in verbal criticism