The substance of the future announcements is intrinsically the same as the past. The former blessings which had been showered down upon Israel are again alluded to in connection with those which have been promised, but which are still unaccomplished. The nation, in faith looks forward to the one on the strength of the fulfilment of the other; and the Being who had hitherto "ruled them prudently with all his power"-still continues to bring the great work to an excellent conclusion. But to touch once more, cursorily, on the mode of the Revelation. There can I think be no difficulty in allowing that the voice which called to Samuel was an audible voice. The record states, that, when Samuel was laid down to sleep "the Lord called him." He arose without delay, supposing that Eli, the High Priest, who also slept in a chamber in the court of the tabernacle, had called him. Finding that this was not the case, he returned again to his chamber and lay down. "And the Lord called yet again, Samuel." A second time, so palpable was the sound to his natural senses, the child arose and ran to Eli. Eli had not called, and again he returned. "And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, here am I; for thou didst call me."

Then was it that the High Priest perceived that God had spoken to the child. He saw in it, as others before him, a repetition of the mysterious agency in which He had revealed himself in earlier ages to the ancestors of his nation; and counselled the destined prophet in the manner in which he should receive the vision.

"And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered and said, Speak; for thy servant heareth!"

I see not, how a revelation given in such words as these, can be interpreted except as one given to the outward senses while in a state of consciousness. The repetition of the voice ;-the frequent passage of Samuel to the chamber of Eli; the listening for the sound when assured that it was God who had called; the awakened state in which his mind must necessarily have been; all present points of difficulty, unless taken in their obvious sense; while above all, there seems an incongruity in this imaginary voice thrice heard in a dream; and thrice at the same time breaking the sleep with such a vivid impression of its reality. The directions of Eli seem directly opposed to such a reception of the vision. Go, lie down; and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth."

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Let the thought once more rest on the saying; that no man hath heard the voice of the Father; and at this æra, so important as the commencement of a new form of government to Israel, it reaches the great truth that Jesus the Mediator, was the Lord (JEHOVAH) who spake audibly to Samuel.

Now, so strong does this instance appear, both as to its present influence, and its effect on the future annals of Israel under its monarchs, that we shall press onward at once to the revelations which were given during the same period by the prophets.

We leave the examination of the passage, I Sam. iii. 21., where it is stated that "the Lord appeared

again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord." We leave the appeal of Samuel to the Lord, on the appointment of Saul as king. The visions and disclosures which were made to Solomon. We relinquish these, and a few passages of a similar nature and tendency; in the belief, that the principle which appears so firmly rooted in the first vision to Samuel, is carried on throughout, without presenting any point of rest for the timidity of the believer, or the denial of the objector. They are simply confirmations of the past history, and as such may be passed over, and left to individual research, without detriment to the main object of the plan which we have sketched out.

DIV. III.

In entering on an analysis of the prophets, it is necessary to remember, that the religion of the Jews was Deism in its purest state. The language therefore of the prophets is conveyed in terms and form of language which were in accordance with the prevailing ideas of the unity of God, without regard to the two other Powers which are combined in the Christian's notions of the Being of the Godhead; and it is only by bringing our increased knowledge of his true Essence to bear on their predictions, that we are enabled to detect in them the existence of the Son, and a continuance of his agency in the affairs

"Hear,

of Israel. With this knowledge however, we can not only elicit this truth, but give to them a force and power of interpretation of which the mind of the Jew must have been wholly incapable. In the very first vision, for instance, of Isaiah, we draw an inference which could never have been elicited by the Israelite; and behold an agency which his closest penetration could never have suspected. O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord (JEHOVAH) hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."* The Jew would recognize in this passage the agency of Jehovah in the unity of the Eternal; the one Essence to whom his worship was addressed. His creed admitted no second Being; and the language of the prophet was accommodated to his belief.

But to the mind of the Christian, persuaded that the Law was both given and its provisions subsequently supported by the power of Christ, a thought would arise of a higher and far different character; and in the declaration of the ingratitude which had been displayed, the Person of Christ would stand forth as the Being against whom it had been directed. The bringing up out of Egypt by Christ, and the nourishment in the wilderness and in Canaan by Christ would ascend into view, and against Him would the reproach seem to be launched which said, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me."

It is not, however, on this mode of proof alone, that we feel compelled to rest the arguments which may be drawn from the prophets. We name it

Isaiah i. 2

merely as an illustration of the form in which the prophecies are for the most part moulded, and of the inferences which may be claimed, whenever the name of God is introduced. If pursued in this train of reflection, every syllable of prophecy will resolve itself into an allusion to Jesus, as the Being to whom the rule and lordship of the earth has been confided, and who to the end of time, will administer to its interests. Within the name of Jehovah to the Jew, the real agency of Christ unfolds itself to the Christian; and the same unity is preserved in the announcements of the prophet, which has been conspicuous in the annals of the historian. Still as we have said, this mode of reasoning is not, of itself, sufficiently conclusive. We conjoin it with other proof.

The fifth chapter of Isaiah opens with a severe expostulation with the Jews on the ingratitude they had been guilty of towards the Lord; and denounces a heavy judgment upon their Church and nation as the fruit of their continued guilt. "Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down."

It seems generally agreed, that the prophet speaks