LECTURE XI. THE USES AND EFFECTS OF THE SYMBOLICAL STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURE. Now it hath been shewn what the figurative language of the holy scripture is, by an induction of particulars; we may proceed to speak with more confidence concerning the uses and good effects of it. We now stand as it were upon an hill, up to which our enquiry hath conducted us, thence to survey the fruitfulness of the holy land. We have seen that the law, in its sacrifices and services, had a shadow of good things to come; that its history is an allegory; that God used similitudes by his prophets; that Christ spake in parables; that the apostles preached the wisdom of God in a mystery; in a word, that the whole dispensation of God. towards man, is by signs, shadows and figures of visible things. The law of Mo ses, ses, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels and Epistles, and most of all the Revelation of St. John, use and teach this figurative language: and therefore, in the use and interpretation of it must consist the wisdom of those who are taught of God. Here is the mind that hath wisdom, saith St. John, the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth : Where the word wisdom is applied to this science of decyphering the figurative expressions in the language of the Revelation. So at the end of the 107th Psalm, wherein the salvation of man's soul is set forth under all the forms of deliverance from hodily dangers, it is added, whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Whatever the form and manner may be after which the divine wisdom is communicated, it must be the best: and such we shall find it when we enquire how the improvement of man's mind is promoted, and all the purposes of God's revelation answered by the use of this symbolical or figurative style of speaking from the images of things. 1. This method is necessary to assist the mind in its conceptions, and supply the natural defect in our understandings. Being men, invested with an earthly body, which hath a sense sense of nothing but material things, we cannot see truth and reason, in themselves, as spirits do these things are of a different nature from our sight; and therefore we are obliged to conceive them as they are reflected to us in the glass of the visible forms, and sensible qualities, of outward things. It is the excellence of this mode of speaking that it is not confined to the people of any particular nation or language; but applies itself equally to all the nations of the earth, and is universal. It was not intended for the Hebrew or the Egyptian, the Jew or the Greek, but for man; for that being who is composed of a reasonable soul and a fleshly body; and therefore it obtains equally under the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensation; and is of common benefit to all ages and all places. Words are changeable; language has been confounded; and men in different parts of the world are unintelligible to one another as barbarians; but the visible works of nature are not subject to any such confusion: they speak to us now the same sense as they spoke to Adam in Paradise; when he was the pupil of heaven, and their language will last as long as the world shall remain, without being corrupted. Thus, Thus, for example, if we take the word of God, we have a sound which gives us no idea; and if we trace it through all the languages of the world, we find nothing but arbitrary sounds, with great variety of dialect and accent, all of which still leave us where we began, and reach no farther than the ear. But when it is said, God is a sun and a shield, then things are added to words, and we understand that the being signified by the word God, is bright and powerful; unmeasurable in height, inaccessible in glory; the author of light to the understanding, the fountain of life to the soul; our security against all terror, our defence against all danger. See here the dif ference between the language of words and the language of things. If an image is presented to the mind when a sound is heard by the ear, then we begin to understand; and a single object of our sight, in a figurative acceptation, gives us a large and instructive lesson; such as could never be conveyed by all the possible combinations of sounds. So again, when we are told of a being whose name is the devil, we go to the derivation of the term, and find it signifies an accuser; and accusation may be true or false. But, when instead of the word, we have a serpent as a figure of him, we are are aware of his nature, and of our own danger. We understand that the devil is insidious and insinuating; that his tongue is double; and his wounds poisonous and fatal. When we are told that he is the prince of darkness, then we find that he promotes blindness and ignorance amongst men, as darkness takes away their sight; and that he is contrary to God, who is light. When the devil is said to be a lion, then we understand, that as hunger makes the furious beast wander about the desert in search of prey; so the devil, with an appetite to destroy and devour, is always going to and fro in the earth, to watch and take advantage of the ways of men. So plain is this sort of teaching, and so effectual, that if I were to begin with the first elements of instruction to a child, I think I would teach this ideal language in preference to all the languages of the world; for this is the life and soul of all the rest, and the best preparation of the mind for receiving the wisdom of God, who háth every where instructed us after this form which, while it helps the understanding, has a wonderful power to engage the attention and please the imagination. Man from his childhood is strangely delighted with pictures; and the passion lasts to the end of his life: for when VOL. IV. R |