but in a secondary sense. Now a secondary sense is unscholastic and enthusiastical. To this we answer, that the Prophecy of Malachi about Elijah, and of Isaiah about bringing all people to his holy mountain, relate to JESUS in a primary sense. He replies, No, but in a mystical, only. Here he begins to quibble, the sure sign of an expiring argument: Mystical signifies as well secondary as figurative. In the sense of secondary, the interpretation of these Prophecies to JESUS is not mystical; in the sense of figurative it is. But is the use of a figurative term enthusiastical or unscholastic, when the end is only to convey information concerning a less known thing in the terms of one more known? Now whether we are to charge this to ill faith or a worse understanding, his Followers shall determine for me. 2. But we will suppose all that an ingenuous Adversary can ask-" That most of the Prophecies in question relate to JESUS in a secondary sense only; the rest in a primary, but expressed in figurative terms; which, till their completion, threw a shade over their meaning, and kept them in a certain degree of obscurity." Now, to shew how all this came about, will add still farther light to this very perplexed question. We have seen, from the nature and long duration of the Jewish economy, that the Prophecies which relate to JESUS, must needs be darkly and enigmatically delivered: We have seen how the allegoric Mode of speech, then much in use, furnished the means, by what we call a double sense in Prophecies, of doing this with all the requisite obscurity. But as some of these Prophecies by their proper light alone, without the confirmation of miracles, could hardly have their sublimer sense so well ascertained; to render all opposers of the Gospel without excuse, it pleased the Holy Spirit, under the last race of the Prophets, to give credentials to the mission of JESUS by predictions of him in a primary and literal sense, Yet the Jewish Economy being to continue long, there still remained the same necessity of a covert and mysterious conveyance. That figurative expression therefore; which was before employed in the proposition, was now used in the terms. Hence, the Prophecies of a single sense come to be in highly figurative words: as before, the earlier prophecies of a double sense (which had a primary meaning in the affairs of the Jewish State, and, for the present information of that People) were delivered in a much simpler phrase. The Jewish Doctors, whese obstinate adherence, not to the letter of the Eaw, as this Writer ignorantly or fraudulently suggests, but to the mystical interpretation 3 of the Cabala, prevents their seeing the true cause of this difference in the BANGUAGE, between the earlier and later Prophets; the Jewish Doctors, I say, are extremely perplexed to give a tolerable account of this matter. What they best agree in is, that the figurative enigmatic style of the later Prophets (which however they make infinitely more obscure by cabalistic meanings, than it really is, in order to evade the relation which the Pres dictions have to JESUS) is owing to the declining state of Prophecy. Every Prophet, says the famous Rabbi, Joseph Albo, that is of a strong, sagacious, and piercing understanding, will apprehend the thing nakedly without any similitude; whence it comes to pass that all his sayings are distinct and clear, and free from all obscurity; having a literal truth in them: But a Prophet of an inferior rank or degree, his words are obscure, enwrapped in riddles and parables; and therefore have not a literal but allegorical truth contained in them. And indeed our fictitious Rabbi seems to have had as little knowledge of this matter as the other; for in answer to what Mr. Whiston, who, extravagant as he was in rejecting all double senses, yet knew the difference between a secondary aud enigmatic prophecy, which, we shall see, Mr. Collins did not, in answer, I say, to Mr. Whiston, who observed Smith's Select Discourses, p..180. that that the Prophecies [meaning the primary] which relate to Christianity are covered, mystical and enigmatical, re‡ plies, This is exactly equal mysticism with, and just as remote from the real literal sense, as the mysticism of the Allegorists [ise the Contenders for a double sense] and is altogether as OBSCURE to the understanding*. His argument against secondary senses is, that they are unscholastic and enthusiastical. Mr. Whiston, to humour him, presents him with direct and primary Prophecies, but tells him at the same time, they are expressed in covered, mystical, and enigmatic terms. This will not satisfy him; it is no better than the mysticism of the Allegorists. Tlow so? We may think perhaps, that he would pretend to prove, because his argument requires he should prove, that enigmatical expressions are as unscholastic and enthusiastical as secondary senses. No such matter. All he says is, that they are as OBSCURE to the understanding, But obscurity is not his quarrel with secondary senses. He objects to them as unscholastic and enthusiastical. But here lay the difficulty; no man, who pretended to any language, could affirm this, of figurative enigmatical expressions; he was forced therefore to have recourse to his usual refuge, OBSCURITY. It is true, he says, these mystical enigmatic Prophecies Yas Mr. Whiston calls them) are equally remote from the real literal sense, as the mysticism of the Allegorists. But this is only a repetition of the blunder exposed above, where he could not distinguish between the literal sense of a Term, and the literal sense of a Proposition, And how gross that ignorance is we may see by the following instance. Isaiah says, "The Volf also shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid; and the Calf, and the young Lion, and the Fatling together, and a little Child shall lead themt. Now I will take it for granted that his Followers understand this, as Grotius, does, of the profound peace which was to follow after Chap. xi. ver 6.. 2.. The Grounds, &c. p. 242. 3 3 the the times of Senacherib, under Hezekiah: but though the terms be mystical, yet sure they call this the literal sense of the prophecy: For Grotius makes the mystical sense to refer to the Gospel. Mr. Whiston, I suppose, denies that this has any thing to do with the times of Hezekiah, but that it refers to those of CHRIST only. Is not his interpretation therefore literal as well as that of Grotius? unless it immediately becomes oddly typical, unscholastic, and enthusiastical, as soon as ever JESUS comes into the question. TION. TION. II. But now, besides the literal primary prophecies concerning the PERSON of JESUS, we say, in the second place, that there are other, which give a primary and direct intimation of the CHANGE OF THE DISPENSAIsaiah foretels great mercies to the Jewish People, in a future Age; which, though represented by such metaphors as bore analogy to the blessings peculiar to the Jewish economy, yet, to shew that they were indeed different from what the figurative terms alluded to, the Prophet at the same time adds, My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord*. This surely implies a different DISPENSAThat the change was from carnal to spiritual, is elegantly intimated in the subjoining words,-For us the HEAVENS are higher than the EARTH, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. But this higher and more excellent Dispensation is more plainly revealed in the following figure: Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree‡; i. e. the new Religion shall as far excel the old, as the fir-tree does the thorn, or the myrtle the brier. In a following Prophecy he shews the EXTENT of this new Religion, as here he had shewn its NATURE; that it was to spread beyond Judea, and to take in the whole race of mankind,-The GENTILES shall come to thy light, and ✰ Ver. 13. Chap. lv. ver. 8. + Ver. 9. kings to the brightness of thy rising*, &c. Which idea the Prophet Zephaniah expresses in so strong a manner, as to leave no room fer evasion: The Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will FAMISH all the GODS OF THE EARTH; and men shall worship him every one FROM HIS PLACE, even all the isles of the GENTILES. The expression is noble, and alludes to the popular superstitions of Paganism, which conceived that their Gods were nourished by the steam of sacrifices. But, when were the Pagan Gods thus famished, but in the first ages of Christianity?-Every one from his placez that is, they were not to go up to JERUSALEM to worship.-Even all the isles of the Gentiles: but when did these worship the God of Israel every one from his place, before the preaching of the Apostles? Then indeed their speedy and general conversion distinguished them from the rest of the nations. This he expresses yet more plainly in another place. "In that day shall there be an "altar to the Lord in the midst of the Land of Egypt;" i. e. the Temple-service shall be abolished; and the God of Israel worshipped with the most solemn rites, even in the most abhorred and unsanctified places, such as the Jews esteemed Egypt. Which Malachi thus diversifies in the expression, And in every place incensė shall be offered unto my name, and a PURE OFFERING§; i. e. it shall not be the less acceptable for not being at the Temple. But Isaiah, as he proceeds, is still more explicit, and declares, in direct terms, that the Dispensation should be changed, Behold I create NEW HEAVENS and a NEW EARTH; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. This, in the prophetic style, means a NEW RELIGION and a NEW LAW; the metaphors, as we have shewn elsewhere, being taken from hieroglyphical expression. He speaks in another place, of the consequence of this change; namely, the transferring the benefits of * Ch. lx. ver. 3. + Ch. ii. ver. 11. § See note [DD] at the end of this Book. G 4 Ch. xix. ver. 19. |