The most satisfactory, doubtless, of all prophecy, is that which is fulfilled by the agency, either of men who had no belief in the prophecy, or of those who neither looked for nor desired its accomplishment, in the manner which they themselves have been instrumental in bringing to pass. The application of this principle to the religion of Christ is sufficiently obvious.-In conclusion, we shall only further observe, that of the strong argument arising from prophecy, the above is necessarily no more than a very faint and most imperfect outline: and that the more you consider the subject, the more will you be led to exclaim with the eyewitnesses of our Saviour's miracles, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

SCRIPTURE IMAGERY.

Original.

No writings whatever abound so much with the most bold and animated figures, as the sacred Books. It is

a

proper to dwell little upon this article; as, through our early familiarity with these books-a familiarity too often with the sound of the words, rather than with their sense and meaning,-beauties of style escape us in the Scripture, which, in any other book, would draw particular attention. Metaphors, comparisons, allegories, and personifications, are there particularly frequent. In order to do justice to these, it is necessary that we transport ourselves, as much as we can, into the land of Judea; and place before our eyes that scenery, and those objects, with which the Hebrew writers were conversant. Some attention of this kind is requisite, in order to relish the writings of any poet of a foreign country, and a different age: for the imagery of every good poet is copied from nature and real life. If it were not so, it could not be lively; and therefore, in order to enter into the propriety of his images, we must endeavour to place ourselves in his situation. Now, we shall find that the metaphors and comparisons of the Hebrew poets present to us a very beautiful view of the natural objects of their own country, and of the arts and employments of their common life.-Natural objects are, in some measure, common to them with poets of

all ages and countries. Light and darkness, trees and flowers, the forest and the cultivated field, suggest to them many beautiful figures. But, in order to relish their figures of this kind, we must take notice, that several of them arise from the particular circumstances of the land of Judea. During the summer months, little or no rain falls throughout all that region. While the heats continued, the country was intolerably parched; want of water was a great distress; and a plentiful shower falling, or a rivulet breaking forth, altered the whole face of nature, and introduced much higher ideas of refreshment and pleasure, than the like causes can suggest to us. Hence, to represent distress, such frequent allusions among them to "a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ;" and hence, to describe a change from distress to prosperity, their metaphors are founded on the falling of showers, and the bursting out of springs in the desert. Thus, in Isaiah, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. For, in the wilderness, shall waters break out, and streams in the desert; and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons, there shall be grass, with rushes and reeds." Images of this nature are very familiar to Isaiah, and occur in many parts of his book.-Again, as Judea was a hilly country, it was, during the rainy months, exposed to frequent inundations, by the rushing of torrents, which came down suddenly from the mountains, and carried every thing before them; and Jordan, their only great river, annually overflowed its banks. Hence the frequent allusions to the noise, and the rushings, of many waters;" and hence great calamities so often compared to the overflowing torrent, which, in such a country, must have been images particularly striking: " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me."-The two most remarkable mountains of the country were Lebanon and Carmel: the former noted for its height, and the woods of lofty cedars that covered it; the latter, for its beauty and fertility, the richness of its vines and olives. Hence, with the greatest propriety, Lebanon is employed as an image of whatever is great,

strong, or magnificent; Carmel, of what is smiling and beautiful. "The glory of Lebanon," says Isaiah, "shall be given to it, and the excellency of Carmel." Lebanon is often put metaphorically for the whole state or people of Israel, for the temple, for the king of Assyria; Carmel, for the blessings of peace and prosperity. "His countenance is as Lebanon," says Solomon, speaking of the dignity of man's appearance; but, when he describes female beauty, "Thine head is like Mount Carmel." It is farther to be remarked, under this head, that, in the images of the awful and terrible kind, with which the Sacred Poets abound, they plainly draw their descriptions from that violence of the elements, and those concussions of nature, with which their climate rendered them acquainted. Earthquakes were not unfrequent; and the tempests of hail, thunder, and lightning, in Judea and Arabia, accompanied with whirlwinds and darkness, far exceed any thing of that sort, which happens in more temperate regions. Isaiah describes, with great majesty, "the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard, and removed like a cottage." And, in those circumstances of terror, with which an appearance of the Almighty is described in the eighteenth Psalm, when "his pavilion round about him was darkness; when hailstones and coals of fire were his voice: and when, at his rebuke, the channels of the waters are said to be seen, and the foundations of the hills discovered ;" though there may be some reference, as Dr Lowth thinks, to the history of God's descent upon Mount Sinai, yet it seems more probable that the figures were taken directly from those commotions of nature, with which the author was acquainted, and which suggested stronger and nobler images than what now occur to us.- -Besides the natural objects of their own country, we find the rites of their religion, and the arts and employments of their common life, frequently employed as grounds of imagery among the Hebrews. They were a people chiefly occupied with agriculture and pasturage. These were arts held in high honour among them; not disdained by their patriarchs, kings, and prophets. Little addicted to commerce, separated from the rest of the world by their laws and their religion, they were, during the better days of their state,

strangers, in a great measure, to the refinements of luxury. Hence flowed, of course, the many allusions to pastoral life, to the " green pastures and the still waters," and to the care and watchfulness of a shepherd over his flock: which carry, to this day, so much beauty and tenderness in them, in the 23d Psalm, and in many other passages of the poetical writings of Scripture. Hence, all the images founded upon rural employments, upon the wine-press, the thrashing-floor, the stubble, and the chaff. To disrelish all such images is the effect of false delicacy. Homer is at least as frequent, and much more minute and particular in his similes, founded on what we now call low life: but, in his management of them, far inferior to the Sacred Writers, who generally mix with their comparisons of this kind, somewhat of dignity and grandeur to ennoble them. What inexpressible grandeur does the following rural image in Isaiah, for instance, receive from the intervention of the Deity: "The nations shall rush, like the rushings of many waters; but God shall rebuke them, and they shall fly far off: and they shall be chased as the chaff of the mountain before the wind, and like thedown of the thistle before the whirlwind."Figurative allusions, too, we frequently find, to the rites and ceremonies of their religion; to the legal distinctions of things clean and unclean; to the mode of their temple-service; to the dress of their priests, and to the most noted incidents recorded in their Sacred History; as to the destruction of Sodom, the descent of God upon Mount Sinai, and the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. The religion of the Hebrews included the whole of their laws and civil constitution. It was full of splendid external rites, that occupied their senses; it was connected with every part of their national history and establishment; and hence, all ideas founded on religion possessed, in this nation, a dignity and importance peculiar to themselves, and were uncommonly fitted to impress the imagination.From all this it results, that the imagery of the Sacred Poets is, in a high degree, expressive and natural; it is copied directly from real objects, that were before their eyes: it has this advantage of being more complete within itself, more entirely founded on national ideas

and manners, than that of most other poets. In reading their works, we find ourselves continually in the land of Judea. The palm-trees, and the cedars of Lebanon, are ever rising in our view. The face of their territory, the circumstances of their climate, the manners of the people, and the august ceremonies of their religion, constantly pass, under different forms, before us. The comparisons employed by the Sacred Poets are generally short, touching on one point only of resemblance, rather than branching out into little episodes. In this respect, they have perhaps an advantage over the Greek and Roman authors, whose comparisons, by the length to which they are extended, sometimes interrupt the narration too much, and carry too visible marks of study and labour; whereas, in the Hebrew poets, they appear more like the glowings of a lively fancy, just glancing aside to some resembling object, and presently returning to its track. Such is the following fine comparison, introduced to describe the happy influence of good government upon a people, in what are called the last words of David, recorded in the second book of Samuel: "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth; even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springeth out of the earth by clear shining after rain." This is one of the most regular and formal comparisons in the Sacred Books.-Allegory likewise is a figure frequently found in them, as in the 80th Psalm, which contains a remarkably fine and well supported one, wherein the people of Israel are compared to a vine. Of parables, which form a species of allegory, the prophetical writings are full: in those early times, indeed, it was universally the mode, throughout all the eastern nations, to convey sacred truths under mysterious figures and representations. But the poetical figure, which, beyond all others, elevates the style of Scripture, and gives it a peculiar boldness and sublimity, is Prosopopoeia, or Personification. No personifications, employed by any poets, are so magnificent and striking as those of the Inspired Writers. On great occasions they animate every part of nature; especially when any appearance or operation of the Almighty is concerned. Before