“The testimony of Jesus in the spirit of prophecy.”
Few, perhaps, of those who read the Scriptures are fully aware of the
extent to which the language of them abounds in metaphor; yet is this
knowledge indispensable to the right understanding of both the Old and the
New Testament, and especially the prophetic parts of these books.
Prophecy, though not the largest, is beyond question the most important
part of Scripture, affording the only irrefragable proofs of God’s moral
government of the world, and of Christ’s being the promised Messiah. These
proofs depend upon no human testimony, but carry their evidence in
themselves, not resting on man’s credibility. Deposited in the hands of
those, whose blindness understands them not, and whose prejudice would
gladly pervert their meaning, they have been handed down to us, who are
blinded by similar prejudices, and in expounding these prophecies are only
a shade more enlightened than the Jews.
This rich mine of miraculous evidence, still remains, almost wholly
unexplored, although it is to this testimony especially, that Christ
himself appealed. _Search the Scriptures_, said he, _for in them ye think
ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me_. This
testimony still remains to Christians of the present day, for the most
part, a sealed book; for beyond a partially successful attempt, to point
out in it, the prediction of a few leading events, fulfilled near two
thousand years ago, and therefore now no longer miraculous evidence to us,
but resting on the authenticity of historical records, all the rest is
veiled from their sight.
The subsequent history of the progress of our religion, continued in these
prophecies, in one uninterrupted series of predictions up to the present
day; detailing the triumphant progress of the Gospel—the downfall of
Judaism—the subversion of Paganism—the corruption of Christianity by the
Gentiles—the long age of darkness consequent thereto—the rise and
successful career of Mahommedism, which has supplanted nominal
Christianity over half the globe—the exact boundary line, affixing a limit
to the dominion of each of these grand apostacies—their co-existence and
simultaneous downfall—and the revival of true Christianity—with other
events, clearly foretold, and now fulfilling before our eyes, have all
escaped the detection of the most learned commentators whether Jewish or
Christian.
The inability to explain these prophecies thus tacitly acknowledged, which
has accompanied their transmission to our hands, is in some degree a
pledge that they have been faithfully handed down to us; for who would be
at the pains to interpolate what none could pretend to explain or apply?
At the same time, the cause of their remaining unexplained, and of their
appearing inapplicable to passing events, becomes a highly interesting
object of inquiry; and will be chiefly found to arise from the
circumstance alleged at the outset, namely, the misinterpretation of the
figurative language of Scripture and Prophecy.
The leading subject of prophecy is the Messiah’s kingdom; a kingdom which
the Jews expected to be a temporal one, and in this expectation, rejected
Christ as a spiritual prince. Whence arose their error?—From their taking
in a literal sense the language, in which the prophets had described that
kingdom. The Apostles, and first disciples of our Lord were under a
similar illusion; and had Christ at once undeceived them, and banished
from their minds all hope of temporal dominion, it is probable they would
to a man have deserted him. In fact, they did so desert him at his
crucifixion; nor did they fully perceive their error, till after his
resurrection, when they received the gift of the Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, and their eyes were at length fully opened to the spiritual
nature of his reign.
The Jews still remain under this illusion, continuing still to look for a
temporal prince, and the literal fulfilment of prophecy. Thousands also of
Christians, who look for the second coming of Christ, expect his personal
advent; that is, that he will come in person to reign with the saints on
earth for a thousand years. And the title of saints, whether assumed by,
or bestowed upon the millenarians, seems to be fondly cherished by them,
in anticipation of the share they expect in the glories of that reign now
approaching, or, as they suppose, just at hand.
That there be any among these, who would, like the first disciples, desert
their Lord, if robbed of this pleasing expectation, it were perhaps
invidious to suppose. Whether, like the Jews, they are led into this hope
of an earthly kingdom, by their misconception of the prophecies that
relate to this period, it were premature as yet to enquire. But certain it
is, that they are for the most part zealous advocates for the literal
sense of prophecy; and equally adverse with the Jews, to what may be
termed the spiritual exposition.
The term spiritual has, however, been so much misunderstood, in regard to
the interpretation of prophecy, that it may be well to explain here what
is intended by it. No more is meant by this term, than that the prophecies
relating to the Messiah’s kingdom, which the Christian must allow to be of
a spiritual nature, foretel events which regard the moral and religious,
and not the political state of the world. In a word, that they foreshow
the progress, and final establishment of true christianity on earth; this
being the Messiah’s kingdom, or his spiritual reign. In this subject, or
the progress of our religion, we have a history abounding in events more
diversified in their nature, and more interesting in their consequences,
because more influential on the happiness of mankind, than any which
political history can furnish. Their chronology and geography are in some
points peculiar; but, rightly understood, even these admit of being marked
with unerring precision, and present some of the most striking proofs of
divine foreknowledge.
We have intimated that prophetic language abounds in metaphor; but this
remains to be proved, as well as stated; and the nature of these metaphors
requires to be pointed out and explained. This can only be done by
citations from the prophecies themselves, which shall, however, be made
with as much brevity as the subject will admit of. The passages shall all
be taken from prophecies relating to the Messiah’s kingdom; and while
their purport is made manifest, it shall at the same time be shewn that
they are uniformly employed in the same sense, when the Messiah’s kingdom
is the subject treated of, throughout the New as well as the Old
Testament. We proceed to show the metaphorical nature of prophetic
language.
When Isaiah (Ch. lxi.) uses such phrases as, _trees of righteousness_,
_garments of praise_, _garments of salvation_, it is manifest that he
cannot mean literal trees or literal garments; the figurative and
spiritual import expressed by the epithet affixed to each, namely
righteousness, salvation and praise, is the only one that can be given to
them.
When the same prophet (Ch. lx.) foretelling the glory of the Messiah’s
reign, by the conversion of the Gentiles, says _The abundance __ of the
sea shall be converted unto thee; the forces of the Gentiles shall come
unto thee_, it is evident that the sea does not mean the literal sea, but
figuratively the Gentile nations, as afterwards expressed.
When he styles the Messiah’s kingdom, _Zion, the city of the Lord, whose
walls shall be called salvation, and whose gates praise_; a spiritual and
not a literal city must be intended. When, changing the metaphor, he calls
the city _a bride_ (Ch. lxii, 5,) or describes it _as a woman in labour,
and bringing forth a male child_, (Ch. lxvi. 6. 8.) it is clear that all
these expressions must be metaphorical; _the mountain, the city, the bride
and the mother_, being alike used to express the same object; and that
object, as the context declares, the spiritual glory of the Messiah’s
reign; splendid in righteousness, abundant in salvation.
Although the spiritual import of these expressions appears self-evident;
while the context may satisfy the Christian that these chapters foreshow
the nature of the Messiah’s kingdom, metaphorically styled by the
prophets, _the Zion of God, His holy mountain, the heavenly Jerusalem,
&c._, terms which alone bespeak its spirituality; yet have we moreover the
direct sanction and authority of the Apostles Paul and John for thus
understanding them.
St. Paul, when comparing the advantages of the two covenants, and
contrasting the rigorous severity of the law, with the indulgent mildness
of the gospel, borrows these very metaphors from the prophets, calling the
former Mount Sinai, and the latter Mount Zion. (Heb. xii. 18.) _For ye are
not come_, says he, _to the mountain that might be touched, and that
burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, &c._
_But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels._
_To the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written
in heaven, &c._
Here we see _Mount Sinai_, from which the law was delivered, figuratively
used to signify the Old Covenant; and _Mount Zion_, and _the Heavenly
Jerusalem_ to signify the New Covenant,—called also the _general assembly
and church of the first-born_; that is of the regenerate through Christ.
In like manner St. John, when foreshowing the final establishment of true
Christianity, uses the same metaphor of a city and a bride, that had been
previously used by Isaiah. (Rev. xxi. 2.) _And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride,
adorned for her husband, &c._
But let it not be erroneously supposed that the figurative character of
prophetic language consists merely in the use of these terms to express
the Messiah’s kingdom; or that the proof of its spirituality is confined
to the employment, however frequent, of such phrases as _trees of
righteousness, waters of life, wells of salvation_, &c.; the fact is, that
every allusion to that kingdom is couched in terms, which admit only of
spiritual interpretation: and where any lengthened description occurs, the
language assumes the form of continued allegory, in which the moral and
religious state of mankind is foreshewn in terms appropriate only to the
physical world. As in Ezekiel xxxiv. 26.
_And I will make them, and the places round about my hill a blessing; and
I will __ cause the shower to come down is his season; there shall be
showers of blessing._
_And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall
yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know
that I am the Lord._
When Jeremiah (xxxi. 12.) in similar language foretels the abundance of
blessings promised in this kingdom, even the Rabbi admits that the
figurative and not the literal sense is to be taken; and that spiritual,
not temporal blessings are here intended by the prophet.
_Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow
together for the goodness of the Lord, for wheat and for wine, and for
oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd_, &c.
But the main point aimed at in the following exposition; and what the
writer wishes to be its distinguishing characteristic is, that of making
scripture its own interpreter; for in every passage that has been referred
to, and perhaps it may be said, in every one that can be referred to,
there will be found in the context sufficient intimation of the purport of
the figurative expressions employed.
On this plan the boldest metaphors will be found to admit of easy
explanation; and passages otherwise inexplicable will find their solution,
upon one consistent and uniform principle of interpretation. A few
examples will afford illustration of the proposed plan of exposition.
One of the boldest metaphors used by the prophets in reference to the
Messiah’s kingdom is, that which represents the establishment of this new
order of things, promised in his reign, as _a new heaven and a new earth_;
in fact as a new creation: a mode of expression, which has no doubt been
often understood, by those who are not sufficiently conversant with the
nature of prophetic language, as literally foretelling a change in the
physical world, that we inhabit.
Nor is this error confined to the unlearned: it appears to have been
fallen into by one who may perhaps be justly styled the most learned
commentator on prophecy of the present age; and moreover the very writer
who has pointed out the true principle of exposition.
The intelligent and profound Dean of Lichfield in his work on the
Apocalypse, after pointing out the figurative sense of such passages, yet,
strange to say, relinquishes this sense where it seems the most
appropriate, and adopts the literal.
In allusion to the first establishment of the Jewish Theocracy, we find in
Isaiah (li. 16.) the following figurative language.
_When I have put my words in thy mouth, and covered thee with the palm of
my hand, that I may plant the heaven, and lay the foundation of the
earth._
Thus, selecting the Jews to be God’s chosen people, and putting his words
in the mouth of the prophet, are said to be _planting the heavens_ and
_laying the foundation of the earth_. And in conformity with this style,
when the old Covenant was to be dissolved, and the new one to be
established, _new heavens_ and _a new earth_ are said to be created. (Isa.
lxv. 17.)
_For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not
be remembered nor come into mind._
When St. John, in the Rev. vi. 12. foretels the corruption of
Christianity, in a prophecy which appears distinctly applicable to the
events that occurred at the beginning of the fourth century; he borrows
the same metaphors, and describes the loss or corruption of true religion
as the departure of the heavens, and the darkening of the heavenly
luminaries. (Rev. vi. 12.)
_And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo there was a great
earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon
became as blood;_
_And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth; even as a fig-tree casteth
her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind._
_And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, &c._
The historical view of this period, taken by Dr. Woodhouse, exactly
accords with the figurative sense of the prophecy—yet, to the manifest
injury of consistent interpretation, it is here that he relinquishes the
figurative, and adopts the literal sense, supposing the day of judgment to
be here foretold.
While thus compelled to dissent from some particular views of this writer,
I cannot pass by this opportunity of expressing the very high estimation
in which I otherwise hold his most valuable publication. (Woodhouse on the
Apocalypse.)
Other commentators on prophecy, who have for the most part adopted the
political in preference to the spiritual view, regard _the heavens_, as
symbolizing the civil government or ruling powers in a state; and it is
true that these expressions have not been always confined in prophecy to
the prediction of spiritual events; but have been also used in foretelling
the judgments of God upon political states and kingdoms.
But when the Messiah’s kingdom is the acknowledged subject, to look to
political events for its fulfilment, is surely to run into the error of
the Jews, and to disregard the intimation expressly given by him; who
declared that _his kingdom was within us_; or as the prophets had
previously foreshewn—_behold, I will put my law in their inward parts; and
write it in their hearts_.
One example more shall suffice, for shewing the superiority of the
spiritual view, in affording the solution of passages, which upon any
other must appear utterly inexplicable. It has been stated that Zion is
also represented as a woman, and a mother; of which the most remarkable
instance occurs in the following extraordinary passage in Isaiah lxvi. 7,
8.
_Before she travailed she brought forth; before her pains came she was
delivered of a man-child._
_Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth
be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for
as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children._
The Christian may perhaps suppose, as some have done, that Christ is the
man-child here intended; but that cannot be. For Zion is the mother, and a
mountain can never be literally understood to bring forth a man; the
mountain is a figurative mother, and the child must be a figurative child.
What does the mother figuratively signify? is then the question most
likely to lead us to the nature of the child. We have already seen that
this term is constantly applied to Israel, and especially with reference
to their spiritual state of regeneration through Christianity. Such we may
presume, then, is the meaning of Zion here; and that the regeneration of
the Jews through Christianity is the birth and parturition here spoken of.
Upon this view Judaism, or the Jewish Church will be the mother, and the
Christian Church or Christianity her child—the man-child, who was ordained
to rule all nations. Ps. ii.
The next question is, how the birth can be said to have preceded the
labour-pains.
Mr. Lowth, to whom more than any other I feel indebted for much valuable
assistance in explaining the Old Testament prophecies, supposes the
labour-pains to be “the destruction of the Jewish Polity, making way for
the growth of Christianity.” And this seems a plausible explanation, as
these troubles of the Jewish Church followed the birth or promulgation of
Christianity forty years.
But the solution is only plausible; for the growth is not the birth; or if
it be taken as the birth, then it no longer precedes but follows the
labour-pains, for whatever effect the destruction of Judaism had in
promoting Christianity, this effect was subsequent and not prior to that
event; and thus the solution fails in the main point.
Moreover, upon the spiritual plan of exposition, it may justly be
objected, that these troubles of the Jewish Church were rather of a
political than a spiritual character; and certainly in no way essential to
the birth of Christianity, and cannot therefore be considered as the
labour-pains, or even as the after-pains of that birth.
This objection being valid, let a more spiritual view be taken, and the
objection will vanish. Let the worldly feelings which prevented the Jews
from receiving Christ as their Messiah, and the inward struggle required
to overcome these, symbolise the pains of labour, and the connexion will
be evident. For this very struggle and victory over worldly feelings
constitute the regeneration through Christ; and this therefore is
essential to the birth of Christianity, “the new birth unto
righteousness.”
But with the first Christians this struggle could not precede the birth,
for they received Christ, before they were aware of the spiritual nature
of his mission; the Apostles did not look for a spiritual Messiah until
after the day of Pentecost, and therefore the birth preceded the pains
with them; but once aware of the sacrifice required, they cheerfully
submitted to every species of persecution, and triumphed over all worldly
feelings. And in every individual who receives Christianity, this struggle
with worldly feelings must in some measure continue during their whole
lives.
With the Jews, the prevalence of these worldly feelings, and the hope of a
temporal Messiah, still prevent their receiving Christianity, or obstruct
their regeneration. And when the evidence of its truth shall be forced
upon them, it is probable that this conviction will precede rather than
follow the entire conquest over worldly feelings; so difficult is it to
change our habits and feelings at once. And in this we may perceive the
sense of the remaining verse, cited above; _Can the earth be made to bring
forth at once? Can a nation be born in a day? For as soon as Zion
travailed she brought forth her children._
The _earth_ and the _nation_ shew that a whole people, or race of men, are
here spoken of; and the _man-child_ of the former verse, we here find
changed into _children_, in the plural number. Such appears to be the
solution of the difficulty, on the spiritual plan of exposition.
If an equally satisfactory solution can be offered by reference to
political events, this will no doubt be the best defence of that mode of
exposition that can be offered. How, then, is the fact? The fact is, that
such commentaries are obliged to consider nine-tenths of these prophecies
still unaccomplished, although a period of two thousand five hundred years
has elapsed since they were uttered; and most of this interval is thus
left, to Christians as well as Jews, a perfect blank in this prophetic
history of the progress of the Messiah’s kingdom; without any proof,
during this time, at least as drawn from these prophecies of the Old
Testament, of God’s foreknowledge of events, of his providence in the
government of the world, or of his interposition in the disposal of human
affairs. Some eight or ten verses, out of six chapters, are all that
appear upon this plan to admit of explanation; whereas, by applying the
prophecy to the progress of Christianity, as Christ’s spiritual kingdom,
and looking to spiritual instead of political events, all the leading
occurrences in the history of our religion, from its first promulgation to
the present day, already fulfilled, or now in the progress of fulfilment,
will be found to be clearly foreshewn in one uninterrupted series of
predictions, comprising every verse and every line in these chapters,
except a few verses which are still veiled in futurity. Admitting the
spiritual interpretation, being in fact equivalent to admitting that
Christ is the Messiah, is the main point at issue between the Rabbi and
the Author; but as many Christians still reject the figurative and
spiritual exposition, it is hoped that to them also the foregoing remarks
may be not altogether useless; nor an unsuitable introduction to the
following new plan of expounding Zechariah’s prophetic view of the
progress of the Messiah’s kingdom.