Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

1

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

T

HE Prophecies of the Old Testament seem to have been less studied, and more misunderstood, than any other part of the facred writings; and indeed this is nothing more than what might have been expected from the very nature of them. Prophecies, by which I here mean predictions of things future, are for the most part expressed in obfcure terms, or fet forth in an allegorical manner in vifions, by visible representations of beasts, birds, &c. It is no wonder therefore, that such Prophecies as relate to events yet future, should be either not understood at all, or misinterpreted.

In the first ages of Christianity, they whơ attempted any explication of the facred Prophecies, confined themselves chiefly to fuch as seemed to them to relate to the first coming of our Lord and Saviour, and to the calling of the Gentiles, which began to be accomplished

A 3

plished in those days. As to the rest of the predictions, which are by far the greater part, they either passed them by, or applied them in an allegorical way to the events abovementioned, or to the state of the Christian Church at that time. Nor are these their misapplications to be wondered at, as the obscurity of many of the scripture Prophecies seems to have been defigned on purpose, that they should not be generally understood, till at, or near, the times of their accomplishment. After the first ages, when the church, by an acceffion of wealth and power, was so corrupted as to mind little else but the enriching itself, to the neglect of scriptural studies in general, it is not strange the study of the Prophecies should be discouraged, and almost wholly neglected; for which also another reason may be given, viz. that those few who applied themselves to the explication of them, during this long continued ecclefiaftical tyranny, seldom failed to find in them some predictions of the gross errors and superstitions which were promoted and upheld by their ecclefiaftical superiors. Upon these accounts it is, that, during the papal tyranny, we have so very few, and those erroneous explications of the Scripture Prophecies in general. But when the Reformation began to take place, and the sacred scripture, scripture, which had been long shut up from the people, was again laid open for the perusal of all Christians, the study of the prophetical parts began to revive, and some very confiderable advances were made toward a right understanding of them. Many of them were with great judgment proved to be already accomplished, and the events to which they related pointed out, and also probable conjectures advanced concerning some of those which are yet future. Amongst those who have successfully laboured in this branch of theology, I know none who deserves more to be remembered than our countryman JOSEPH MEDE, who was the first (of English writers at least) who gave us any consistent or probable explications of the Prophecies. His many learned and judicious interpretations of the Prophecies, in the Revelations to St. John and Daniel, will make this evident to any one who shall consult his works, which I would recommend to every person who is defirous of making a progress in prophetic studies. Since his time we have had feveral learned and judicious expositors, who have, in some points, improved upon him; amongst whom I cannot forbear mentioning Dr. NEWTON, the present bishop of Bristol, whose Differtations on the Prophecies are, upon the whole, perhaps not

to be equalled by any thing that has hitherto been published on that subject. But notwithstanding the very confiderable improvements which have been made in the study of the prophetical parts of scripture, fince the time of the Reformation, yet almost all the writers on this subject, that I have met with, seem to me to have run, more or less, into the following error: They have generally applied the Prophecies relating to the restoration of the Jews and the ten tribes, and the consequent happy state of that nation, and also of the whole Christian world, which is to happen in the latter times, (and which is frequently stiled in scripture, the reign or kingdom of Christ) to the church of Christ, as it has hitherto subsisted in the world; applying the words Ifrael, the feed of Abraham and Jerufalem, in an allegorical sense to Chriftians, or the Chriftian church in general, whenever they meet with them with a promise of great happiness annexed; whereas the great happiness, which is the principal subject of all the Old-Testament Prophets, appears to me to be no way applicable to any state of Christianity that has ever yet exifted, but to relate to the converfion and restoration of the literal Ifrael, the Jews and ten tribes, in the latter times, and to that reign of Christ when the church shall

5

« PoprzedniaDalej »