"he who letteth will let," i. e., he who restraineth will restrain.

So with the word charity. In its old English sense it signified love, and is so to be understood in the Bible. Some have forgotten this, and when they read in 1 Peter iv. 8, "charity shall cover the multitude of sins," they suppose that on account of his generosity or giving of alms, a man's sins shall be pardoned, whereas the real meaning is, love shall conceal many faults, and therefore promote unity and peace. The term conversation, which occurs so frequently in Scripture, is also used in its old sense as denoting the whole course of life, and not, as in modern times, merely an interchange of words. The word "carriage" or carriages" signifies not wheeled vehicles, but baggage, 1 Sam. xvii. 22; Isaiah x. 28; Acts xxi. 15. The word "passion" found in Acts i. 3, in the clause, "to whom he showed himself after his passion,"-signifies, as in old English, suffering, and does not at all refer to temper or undue mental excitement. The word "rooms" in the declaration, Matt. xxxiii. 6, “and love the uppermost rooms at feasts," does not mean chambers, but only places or seats. The words "the atonement," Rom. v. 11, denote the reconciliation. The term is here

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used in its literal sense, for it is originally at-onement, or agreement,-the bringing of two foes to be Thus Shakspere says:—

at one.

"He seeks to make atonement (peace, or agreement),

Between the Duke of Glo'ster and your brothers."

The word "earing" in such phrases as these, "earing nor harvest," Gen. xlv. 6; Exodus xxxiv. 21, does not refer to ears of grain, and therefore does not signify autumn. It refers to spring, and to the ploughing of the soil, and is used in its original sense, for it comes from the Anglo-Saxon verb, erian, to plough, and is a sister term with the word-harrow. These instances may suffice for a specimen.

2. Familiarise your minds with the nature and use of figurative language. You all use it, in almost every sentence you utter. When you say of a bold man-he is a lion; or of a raging man—he is a tiger; you use the two words-lion and tiger, in a figurative sense. There is no mystery about figurative language. Many ideas can be expressed in no other way. Operations of the mind, spiritual objects, abstract notions, can only thus be described. So God says, "I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets." While, therefore, a word may have a variety of significations, it can only have

one in the place where it occurs. The English word, letters, has at least three meanings. I may say,-the child learns its letters,-the man of business writes letters,-Goldsmith was a man of letters. The term

has these different senses, yet no one could mistake its real meaning in any such phrases. Lead has weight, the opinion of Matthew Henry has weight. In the first clause, the word "weight" is literal, in the second, it is figurative; but who does not at once perceive the meaning of the figure? Were then ordinary intelligence brought to the figures in the Bible, unless in some peculiar cases, the proper meaning might be easily apprehended. The Bible says, God is a 66 66 sun," a shield," a "rock." Every one feels at once the power and beauty of such modes of speech. Christ says, "this is my body broken for you." Papists take this in a literal sense, and fall into the grossest of all blunders-alike opposed to the senses, to reason, and to Scripture. Their doctrine, that a priest's prayer changes a wafer into a god, to be swallowed by his worshipper, comes from "a strong delusion that they should believe a lie." been written to show their error. wrong to allege, as is sometimes done by Protestants, that Christ could not say, This is like, or this repre

Volumes have

It is altogether

sents, my body, because the language he spoke in, had no verbs of this meaning. It must be a language of great scantiness and poverty indeed, that has no verbs denoting similitude or representation. Christ's mothertongue had abundance of them, if he had chosen to use them. But the best process of refutation is easy and simple. Christ says, "I am the vine," "I am the door." Jacob says of two of his sons, “Judah is a lion's whelp," "Benjamin is a ravening wolf." Nobody mistakes the meaning of those figures of speech, and the words of the Redeemer are precisely similiar in kind. Who would ever dream that Jacob meant to affirm that two of his sons had been changed into quadrupeds, and yet he uses language as strong and peculiar as did the Redeemer. The people of the East delight in such striking metaphors. Instead of saying, the name of the Lord resembles a strong tower, they simply say, "the name of the Lord is a strong tower." Their warm minds neglect the word denoting similitude. Likeness is to them sameness. Endeavour then to know the meaning of the words which the Holy Spirit has employed,—“ The wise shall understand." Every sentence of the Bible," Bishop Horsley observes, "is from God, and every man is interested in the meaning of it."

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In intimate connexion with figurative language, may be mentioned those peculiar persons, events, and things, which are usually termed types. But what is

a type? It is not merely a symbol of some future person or event-it is also a prediction-it is a prophetic symbol. The sacrifices under the laws were types they were both symbols or likenesses, and they were prophecies. They were symbols or representations, for they showed how by the blood of an innocent creature slain in his room, a sinner was forgiven,—and they were prophecies, for they at the same time foretold the certainty of that oblation, whose blood cleanseth from all sin." Every sacrifice showed how atonement was made, and assured the worshipper that it would be made. It was both a symbol and a prophecy-in other words a type. Now, who can ordain such types? Only God, who alone has this prerogative. And how shall we know that types have been ordained? Only when he tells us. There are, therefore, no types, save those that Scripture recognises. We dare not make types, or create them to ourselves by any fanciful ingenuity. If you keep those truths in view, then, in this province of investigation, in "His light shall you see light."

Again, it is difficult to understand many portions of