Revelation. Mr. Noble thinks, that Christians should hesitate to affirm so confidently, that miracles constitute a highly important evidence of the truth of Revelation. But the declaration of our Lord himself as to the purpose and object of the miracles which He wrought, may reasonably be thought to justify the view which they have been accustomed to take of them.

The benefits which Revelation has conferred on mankind, apart from its direct and highest purpose, and the obligations which even those persons are under to its communications, who are opposed to its pretensions, we appreciate as highly as Mr. Noble does; the following passage, however, is far from being in accordance, either in principle or taste, with our sentiments and feelings.

To what cause can be attributed the wonderful superiority in literature and the arts, which the inhabitants of Christendom have so long maintained over all the other nations on the globe, but to their minds being more receptive of light of all kinds, in consequence of their admitting the light of Revelation? How extraordinary too is the power which they derive from this source! See how they have covered the whole western world with their colonies, and how the aboriginal inhabitants have faded from before them! Behold what an empire they have established in the east, almost without colonization, by the pure force of moral superiority. It is not meant to be asserted that they have always made the best use of their superiority, but only that it unquestionably exists. Superiority in arms is, undoubtedly, the offspring of superiority in arts and science; and these are the products of natural light, which is the offspring of spiritual; and thus Christians are the arbiters of the destinies of the world, because they are the depositaries of the word of God.'

pp. 22, 23.

Mr. Noble's proof of the plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures is deduced from the Mutual Relation which exists by creation between things natural, or material, spiritual, or moral, and Divine; which is such that the lower order of ob'jects answers to the higher, as certainly and immutably as the reflection in a mirror answers to the substance producing 'it.' (p. 132.) A book written under a plenary Divine Inspira tion must, he maintains, be composed in a style of writing constructed in agreement with the Relation of Analogy, established by the laws of Creation, between natural things and spiritual.

To construct such writings, or to impart such inspiration, the Divine Speech, or the Divine Word, which is the same thing as the Divine Truth, must have emanated, as a sphere of spiritual light, from the bosom of Deity into the circumference or lowest base of creation,

which is the world of nature, and, filling the prepared minds of the human penman, must there have clothed itself with natural ideas, or with images taken from the natural world, before it could be presented, in natural language, to mankind at large.' p. 241.

Should this passage appear to any of our readers obscure or savouring of the schools, they will be able, from some extracts which we shall now lay before them, to perceive the principle of the Author's doctrine. Divinely inspired Scripture, he means to say, as he repeatedly states in almost every part of his work, must contain a spiritual sense distinct from the literal expressions, the literal expressions being employed only as the vehicle of the spiritual sense. From among many illustrations of the principle which his book contains, we cite the following.

We will briefly state what appears to be implied by the circumstances of the present history. (1 Sam. chs. v. and vi.) The ark, under the Israelitish Dispensation, was a symbol of the Divine Presence, which none but the truly good can endure, and they not too near ; and which causes the lusts cherished by the wicked more openly to become their tormentors. The Philistines represent those who exalt faith above charity, making the former every thing, and the latter of no account; which was the reason of their continual. wars with the Israelites, who represent the true church, or those who cherish faith with charity. The idol Dagon is the religion of those who are represented by the Philistines. The emerods with which they were smitten, are symbols of the appetites of the natural man, which, when separated from spiritual affections, as is done by those who do not apply their faith to the purification of their lives, are unclean. The mice, by which the land was devastated, are images of the lust of destroying by false interpretation the spiritual nourishment which the church derives from the Word of God, as is done by those who separate faith from charity. The emerods of gold exhibit the natural appetites as purified and made good. The golden mice symbolize the healing of the tendency to false interpretation effected by admitting a regard to goodness; for of this, as we shall see in the next example, gold is an emblem. The cows are types of the natural man, in regard to such good qualities as he possesses. Their lowing by the way expresses the repugnance of the natural man to the process of conversion. And the offering of them up for a burnt offering, typifies that restoration of order which takes place in the mind, when the natural affections are submitted to the Lord.' p. 195.

Again,

The great neighbour of Israel-the type of the spiritual part of the mind, on one side, was Egypt: which represents what belongs entirely to the natural man, but, specifically, the science or knowledge of the natural man, with the faculty for acquiring it; and the powerful state which bordered upon Israel on the other side, was Assyria, which represents the Rational Faculty, and the Reasoning Powers in

general. Now as Science and Reasoning, when separated from all regard to religion, or to true religion, and placed in opposition to it, are two of its most dangerous enemies, therefore we read so much of the troubles which these two nations brought upon the Israelites ; but as, nevertheless, they are capable of being rendered extremely serviceable to true religion, and are themselves exalted by being submitted to its influence; therefore we meet with predictions of a state in which this union should be effected Thus it is said in Isaiah, “In that day, there shail be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord;"* words, which plainly indicate the complete submission to a divine influence, of the principle, power, or faculty, represented by Egypt, from its inmost essence the midst"-to its last extremity" the borders thereof." &c.' p. 279.

Again.

Jericho was situated just at the entrance to the land of Canaan ; and as the land of Canaan represented the church, Jericho, in a good sense, would represent the first state experienced on full admission into it, and, indeed, the principle by which such admission is effected; which is, instruction in doctrinal truths, accompanied with obedience of life. But while the land of Canaan was occupied by idolatrous nations, every place in it had a signification opposite to its genuine one and, in this sense, Jericho represented the disposition to resist instruction, by opposing to it such sentiments as the corrupt tendencies of the human heart incline the understanding to invent in their excuse. The city itself, then, was the type of such doctrinal sentiments as resist or profane the pure doctrines of the Church; and its wall signifies such false persuasions and confirmations by fallacious arguments as defend such false doctrine, and prevent those who hold it from discerning the evidence of truth. The marching round the city, denotes the explanation of the quality of the principle represented by it; and the action upon it of the sphere of Divine Truth from the Lord was represented by the carrying round of the ark, and the sounding of the trumpets before it by the priests. The sounding of trumpets, in the representative dispensation of the Jews, was a symbol, by an obvious analogy, of the revelation, manifestation, communication, or bringing down of the Divine Truth, from a higher region towards a lower the priests were representatives of whatever in man truly worships the Lord, which is all that belongs to the true love of his name, and which, of course, is the medium by which divine communications are received from him; the shouting of the people expresses consent and confirmation on the part of the inferior faculties, &c.' pp. 465, 6.

In this manner does Mr. Noble proceed to deal with other passages of the Bible, resting the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures on the typical and representative character belong

ing, as he insists, to its verbal expressions, a spiritual sense being included in the letter of Scripture. Such is the criterion by which, according to his method of determining the case, the proper word of God is to be distinguished. It is, however, glaringly manifest throughout the volume, that the spiritual sense which Mr. Noble exhibits as the proof and criterion of Inspired Scripture, is nothing more than the fanciful suggestion of his own mind. There are unquestionably many important parts of the Bible which are of a figurative and symbolical character; but what serious and sober interpreter would ever dream of establishing the claims of the Scriptures to the character of a plenary Inspiration by such a process as Mr. Noble has adopted? To discover the law which governs the relation between natural objects and spiritual essences,' is an undertaking of far too difficult a nature for him to have achieved; nor is it to a mind of his order that the application of that law to such analogies, were its infallibility made known, could be entrusted. The theory which he advances is wild and visionary in the extreme, not defined by any intelligible principle, and limited by no controlling laws. Instead of removing, it increases the obscurities of Scripture, multiplies its difficulties tenfold, and transforms the rule of faith and duty into a book of enigmas. Before Mr. Noble's method, it is true every difficulty must give way, every obscurity must vanish. His explanations belong to his assumptions, and his assumptions are prepared for his explanations; and by similar means the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian pillars and temples might themselves be with facility deciphered.

The professed object of this strange hypothesis of Inspirătion is, the refutation of all objections to the divinity of the Scriptures; and the Author commences this part of his labours by severely reprehending the labours of those advocates who adhere to the literal interpretation of the Bible. There cannot, he maintains, be a greater mistake than to imagine, that the first chapter of Genesis is intended to be an exact description of the process of the Creation of the world; nor are all the events which follow, down to the time of Abraham, intended to give the history of mankind as to their outward transactions, but a history of mankind as to the state of their minds, and their reception or perversion of divine gifts or graces.

The early chapters of Genesis treat of the people who were of this character and genius,-both of those who had an intuitive perception of spiritual things in natural objects, and of those who enjoyed the knowledge of them by science and study; and therefore that part of the book is written in a style similar to that which those

people used; that is, spiritual and interior subjects are described in language borrowed from the appearances of nature,-in the form of apologue and allegory,-in a narrative that appears in the letter to relate only to natural and ordinary facts.' p. 570.

This view of the subject, we are told, (p. 575,) solves all difficulties, and is, itself, absolutely unattended by any. The literal history was never intended to be understood as such; it therefore can contradict nothing, (p. 576.) Such is Mr. Noble's confidence in the perfection of his rule! Doubtless, having performed such a service to the world, by putting it in possession of his notable discovery of the true and only rationale of Biblical interpretation, he is fondly anticipating the gratitude of every Christian, and the surrender on the part of unbelievers of all their objections to the truth of Revelation. Our readers may judge from the following examples, how far the application of Mr. Noble's theory affords a probable means of convincing and satisfying any class of objectors, An unbeliever may, indeed, from Mr. Noble's representations, be induced to believe that Divine Wisdom deems it of no im'portance whatever, if an impression be left of transient events different from the true one; (p. 577.) and he may readily accept the Author's explanation of such a case as the following. In the gospel of St. Matthew, Chap. xxyri: 9, 10. the name of the prophet Jeremiah occurs in connexion with the citation of a passage which is found in the prophecy of Zechariah. The mistake of an early scribe might be imagined to be a probable source of the erratum. But let us hear Mr. Noble.

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If the Word of God be the Word of God indeed, it is a mere truism to affirm, that the Spirit which dictated it cannot possibly regard it as the work of men consequently, that Spirit can never mean to ascribe any of its books to the men whose names they bear. Every prophet who was commissioned to deliver any portion of the Word of God, became, ipso facto, a representative type of the Word of God" itself; specifically, of that portion of it which he was the instrument of writing. When, therefore, a prophet is cited by name in the inspired writings, it is not that prophet, personally, that was in the mind of the Spirit of God; nor even the specific book that bears his name: but his name is used as a symbol of all that portion of Scripture which is of the same character as belongs generally to the writings of the prophet named, whether occurring in his book or in any other. The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, we have noticed, though a real character, is a striking personification of that species of Divine Truth, or of that portion of the Divine Word, which treats of the utter corruption of the Jewish Church, and its mal-treatment of the Word: the latter is precisely the character of the divine declaration which is here cited as from him. And whilst this passage is so decidedly of the same character as distinguishes the writings of Jeremiah,

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