ST. MATTHEW iv. 6.

IF THOU BE THE SON OF GOD, CAST THYSELF DOWN: FOR IT IS WRITTEN, HE SHALL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING THEE; AND IN THEIR HANDS THEY SHALL BEAR THEE UP, LEST AT ANY TIME THOU DASH THY FOOT AGAINST A STONE.

In what I said last Sunday on the subject of Prophecy, I endeavoured to lay down what appeared to be its general object and character; namely, to assure man amidst the existing evils of the world, that the cause of good would be finally and entirely triumphant. And this being so, as it is most certain that no people on earth has ever either perfectly served the cause of good, or utterly opposed it, so it follows, that no people can, if I may so speak, fully satisfy the mind of Prophecy, because no people purely represents those unmixed principles of good and evil, with which Prophecy is alone properly concerned. And thus it has happened, that those who have attempted to trace an historical fulfilment of the language of Prophecy with regard to various nations, have never done their work satisfactorily; nor on their system was it possible to do it. For the language of Prophecy on these subjects could not be literally accom

plished for two reasons; first, because, as I have said before, it was not properly applicable to any earthly nation from the imperfection of all human things; and, secondly, because even that character of imperfect good or evil which made certain nations the representatives, so to speak, of the principles of good and evil themselves, was not and could not be perpetual; there are in the course of generations changes in the character of every people, both for the better and for the worse. Now where such a change took place either for good or for evil, there the prophecy could not be fulfilled at all; as in the case of Jonah's prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh; and they who under such circumstances would require the fulfilment, in order to save, as it were, the honour of the prophecy, are rebuked beforehand in the language addressed to Jonah, when he indulged a similar feeling. God's prophecies are not against Nineveh, but against sin if Nineveh turns from her sin, she is no longer the subject of any prophecy of vengeance. Thus √there may be cases where no historical fulfilment of

national prophecies is to be found at all: but in all cases, the fulfilment will fall short of the full strength of the language, because, to say it once again, the language in its proper scope and force was aimed at a more unmixed good and evil than have ever been exhibited in the character of any earthly people.

And here then, arrived at this view of Prophecy,

and seeing on the one hand the largeness of its promises, and on the other the necessary incompleteness of their fulfilment,-how shall the truth of God's word be reconciled with the laws of his moral government? must he stint for our sin's sake the abundance of his mercy, or impair for his promise's sake the perfection of his justice? Surely here too, as in other respects, the creation was groaning and travailing in pain together; the children were come to the birth, but there was not strength to bring forth: hope and disappointment were struggling together; the promise was still of blessing, but the experience was of sin, and therefore not of blessing, but of judgment.

And look around even now, and does it fare better with the historical interpretation of Prophecy than it did in times past? Does the Christian Israel answer more worthily to the expectations of Prophecy, than the Israel after the flesh answered to them of old? Grant that Rome in later times is in some sense and in some degree the Babylon of Christian Prophecy, yet who that knows the history of the Roman Church from first to last, can pretend that its character is of such unmixed or such intense evil, as to answer to the features of the mystic Babylon of the Revelation? As truly might it be pretended that any historical Church, protestant or primitive, was a faithful image of the heavenly Jerusalem.

But where then is the consolation of Prophecy to

the heart of man? What becomes of the assurance, that it shall be well, infinitely well, with God's people, if no such people are to be found? Prophecy may be true in the abstract, true it may be for other worlds; but how to us and to this world can the magnificence of its promises of blessing be more than the exact measure of the extent of our enemy's triumph; it shows us of how great things sin has deprived us.

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Thus there is a mass of prophetical language, which, according to the view we have now taken, may seem to be indefinitely waiting for its fulfilment. And so it is, and must be, according to the view which we have taken, for it was not and is not oor of augthing in man to be the worthy subject of God's Prophecy. dee- but had in -Not in man merely. But what shall we Conde, if there was one who was man truly, man in his Hurd. Zeb temptations, man in his sufferings, but who was God in his holiness, God in his strength and power! p. 25___ Then there is one who is the true subject of Prophecy; then there is victory for man final and complete; then the cause of good must infinitely triumph as far as this earth is concerned, or else indeed there can be no truth in Prophecy.

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We see then, how that our Lord Jesus Christ is the real subject of all Prophecy for good. We see how his resurrection and ascension into heaven are its entire fulfilment. All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen. à Juni

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For now what is the case before us? Our ex

perience of life tells us, that it has many troubles; that good, such as we see it, has constantly its portion of affliction. This Prophecy recognized; there are pictures of suffering frequently joined to the most exalted pictures of triumph. And so it was with Christ. He bore the troubles which are the portion of man: he turned not back even from that death which seems most to prove the enemy's conquest over us. When he was taken down from the cross and laid in the sepulchre; he in whose life there had been no sin, he who speaking of his human nature merely had been so truly the child of God; when his disciples, in the sorrow of their hearts, said, “We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel;" we did trust so once, but behold our hope is buried in his grave;then was there, if I may so speak, the trial moment, the agony of Prophecy: what could be any more hoped from its promises, if evil and death had triumphed even over him, in whom there was no sin? And so, when the third morning came, and death's triumph was broken, and he rose from the dead to die no more, then was there the justification of all Prophecy; for it was well at last with the righteous, well infinitely, well eternally; all power was given to him in heaven and in earth; all things were put under his feet; death was swallowed up in victory.

And now we see that it was not arbitrarily or capriciously that so many passages in Scripture are