Extracts. Scripture Quotations. "Some, however, understand such quotations as this, where the Apostle says, 'It is written,' as mere accommodation, not implying prediction of the thing to which they are applied. This is a most unwarranted and baneful method of handling the Word of God. It is in this light that both Professors Tholuck and Stuart, in their commentaries on this epistle, view this form of expression. But on the contrary, it is always used in introducing what is represented as a fulfilment of prediction, or an interpretation of meaning. If neologians are to be blamed for explaining the miracles of Christ on natural principles, are they less guilty who explain, as mere accommodation of Scripture language, what is quoted by an Apostle as a fulfilment of prophecy? . Nothing has been more mischievous, more audacious, and more dishonourable to the character of revelation, than the doctrine that represents the New Testament writers as quoting the Old Testament prophecies by way of accommodation. It is based on the supposed difficulty or impossibility of explaining the agreement in the literal accomplishment. To this it may be replied, that satisfactory solutions of the cases of difficulty have been given. But though no satisfactory solution were given, the supposition would be inadmissible. It contradicts most explicitly the Spirit of God, and must be rejected, let the solution be what it may. The New Testament writers, in quoting the Old Testament prophecies, quote them as being fulfilled in the event which is related. If it is not truly fulfilled, the assertion of fulfilment is false. The fulfilment by accommodation is no fulfilment, in any real sense of the word. This interpretation, then, cannot be admitted, as being palpably contradictory to the language of inspiration. To quote the Old Testament prophecies in this way could not, in any respect, serve the purpose of the writers of the New Testament. What confirmation to their doctrine could they find from the language of prophecy, that did not really refer to the subject to which they applied it, but was merely capable of some fanciful accommodation?"-Robert Haldane on the Romans, vol. i. pp. 97, 98, and 106, 107. The Rainbow. "The assurance of this great truth, even the continuance of the earth, and of the animal life thereon, was the grace given to Noah, whereof the rainbow is the appointed sign; and methinks, like all the signs and symbols of God, it hath a great appropriateness to the thing which it signifies. For upon the bosom of the dark cloud, its resplendent colours shew themselves, like the beauty of an eternal world arising out of the darkness of this world's present sinful state. It is produced from the light of the sun-yea, it is nothing different from the light of the sun, of whose pure whiteness it discovereth the hidden parts of beauty. It is light disclosed in its essential component parts, for beauty and for glory. But in order to this glorious manifestation of the mystery of light, it must first pass through the rain-drops of the falling shower, whose waters, as they fall, catch the beams of the glorious sun, and spread their parts of beauty upon the dark clouds of the sky. Now the falling showers, the rain, and the small rain, and the dew-drop, and water in all its forms, are symbols of the Holy Ghost; and the effluence proceeding from the matter of light, the very light of very light, the effulgence of the glory, are the continual symbols of the Son; and the rainbow, thus produced, becomes the proper symbol of the attributes of Godhead, manifested by the coming forth of the Son, and his dissemination through the Holy Ghost. And whereas the rainbow, light's revealed glory, displays itself upon the bosom of the wintry cloud which threatens to deluge, and once did destroy all life; even so, upon the bosom of the death-producing creation, upon the bosom of this world and its animated dust, now death-stricken, shall the varieties, and the beauties, and the glories of the Divine goodness, through redemption, be for ever and ever revealed. And oh! much further, if I were not speaking to a dull-eared generation, who scoff and sport themselves with their infidelity, could I say concerning this glorious symbol and assurance of a creation washed from sin, with the washing of regeneration and the purifying of the Holy Ghost." The Duty and Advantage of Looking for Christ's Second Coming. "As it was before the first coming, all their thoughts and searchings of heart were after the day, and time, and glory of it (1 Peter i. 10, 11). And the nearer his coming was, the more ardently was he expected. Hence, such flocking to John's ministry. Hence, Simeon waited long for the consolation of Israel.' So the espoused and beloved of the He has left them as orphans in Lord, look out for his coming now. this world. He has divers of his elect yet to bring home, and enemies to put under his feet, and then they know he will come; and this day they look for; as Christ expects it, (Heb. x. 13). By the same Spirit they look for it. "This is that which Christ so oft presses on his disciples, foreseeing the slumbers of the world, to be ever watching for his second coming, and hence these alone are accounted blessed (Luke xii. 37, 38). That, let Christ come at any watch, oh blessed! The duration of the world, from the first to the second coming, is but, as it were, a night divided into several watches; the saints are the watchmen of the world, who you know look for day-light; though it be long, it is but a night, it will be morning. All the rest are like birds at their chaff. "And hence, he tells them, the reason of the uncertainty of his coming, makes this the end of it. They are evangelical commands with which there goes a power. Look through all the primitive church in the golden age, they had all this stamp (1 Cor. i. 7); 'Waiting,' (1 Thess. i. 10). To wait for Christ from heaven,' nay (Heb. ix. 28), he professeth those only may know the fruit of his first coming, that him.'"-Shephard's Parable of the Ten Virgins, ch. x. 1. now look for “Oh ! now remember, and look for this day (1 Cor. xv. 25). 'He must reign.' Lord, what a comfort will it be to see Christ then! Men come to see him king here, but, oh! what will it be when he shall come himself, to see all secrets open, and the Lord glorified in himself and people, of all creatures? Look for this, to see the last plot of God brought to perfection. Oh, think, that is our day, that is our victory!" —Ib. "All creatures look for this in a manner (Romans viii. 22, 23). Nay, Christ and saints in heaven look for this day (Heb. 10. 13). From thence, expecting till his enemies,' &c. Nay, devils look for it, but tremble. Only a secure world, locked asleep to their eternal woe, look not for it."—Ib. "Methinks this is the glory of a Christian, that he turns his back upon the world, and lives and waits for the coming of the Lord."-Ib. “ Hence, see one special way to prevent and remove security when it has fallen upon the hearts of any, and that is by daily setting before you the coming of the Lord. The apostles penned this, and saints believe this" (1 Thess. i. ult.)—Ib. "It is certain, if you complain of security, I dare complain against you, that this is the cause. You look upon the coming of the Lord as a long time off, and see it not daily; it converted some in scoffing Athens to the faith; much more if converted, doth it awaken."—Ib. "It is a rare thing among us to see such burning lamps, as look and long for Christ's coming; which, when I consider, though there be other causes, yet one great one is this. O the heart is gone away by violent lusts after these things here."-Ib. ch. x. 1. Double Prophecy. "Now, in regard to prophecy generally, we agree with the idea so admirably developed by Hengstenberg (Christologie, d. A.T.S. 299, ff.), that it is to be viewed as a spiritual sight. By virtue of this sight of the future, as something really present to their spirit-(the best designation we can give it, is that of a perspective sight)—that which should occur became actually visible to the Prophets, but they certainly did not perceive either the distance of the event foreseen from the present to which they belonged, or the intervals between the individual objects beheld. This explains the fact, that in the prophecies of the Old Testament, the two appearances of Christ, in humiliation and in glory— although the Prophets acknowledged both-are not separated by wide spaces, but closely connected, The birth of the promised child (Isa. ix. 6, 7) is immediately succeeded by his peaceful reign; the outgoing of the rod from the stem of Jesse, is directly followed by changes of nature (Isa. xi. 1-6), and so everywhere in the Old Testament, the one appearing of the Lord is viewed as only just preceding the full blessing that results from the other."-Olshausen. The Risen Saints. "These are they who live and reign with Christ upon the earth a thousand years before the general resurrection unto judgment. Not that this judgment maketh any let or hindrance, or any way interrupteth the continuity of their blessed being; but rather otherwise: for it is well to be believed, that if this earth hath been fruitful and glorious during the thousand years, when death still abideth upon the people born and living in the flesh, that it shall be much more blessed and glorious when death shall have been cast into the hell of the second death; when the dust of the wicked shall have been gathered from the substance of the earth; when an end shall have been made of all evil, upon the face of the world, and Christ and his saints shall possess, in immortal bodies, an immortal inheritance. Of what kind, then, shall be the beauty of the earth; of what brilliancy the aspect of the heavens, or what temper the elements of the world; of what nourishment shall be the fruits of the ground, and of what blessed influence the sun and moon and stars; it passeth comprehension to know; and if we knew, it would surpass words to utter. But, will man cease to be all-enjoying man, or will the earth cease to be the all-producing earth? No, never. They may mock their fill, and laugh and deride and scoff their wicked pleasure, because we say that man will eat and drink, and take unto himself the earth's well-pleased ministry. But why should they thus deride the word of God, to their own shame and condemnation ? Let them "stand in awe, and sin not; " let them meditate the wonderful things which God hath said, and not be offended at His word. Oh! if man's wicked and corruptible flesh do now, by eating and drinking, change the sweet odours, and decompose the juicy, fragrant fruits which God doth provide for us, proving thereby that all the forms of sin and evil, as they proceeded from man at first, and filled the world, do still from him propagate themselves abroad; why should it not be-yea, surely it must be, that, when his body hath attained unto incorruption and immortality, it shall, by its use of all things, bless, beautify, and change into a thousand more excellent forms, all things which it useth; that, receiving from the earth its beautiful, fragrant, juicy nourishments, and possessing them by eating and by drinking, the body will purify, sweeten, and, in a thousand unknown ways, refine what it partaketh; which, flowing forth at every pore, shall ensphere us with incense and with odours, and with sweet fragrancy exhaling all around, more exquisite than the flower-gardens of the summer, and the spices which blow from Araby the blest."-Irving. The Schekinah. "And to these living ones what doth the Son of God proclaim? He summoneth them up into the chambers of salvation with these words: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indig เ nation be overpast' (Isaiah xxvi. 20); which, I make no doubt, referreth to a deliverance of the living saints before the judgments fall in upon the nations. Up within the skirts of that glorious cloud in which He shall come to execute His Father's faithful word of deliverance unto Judah and Israel, of perdition unto Antichrist, of all sorest calamities of the world,-up within the skirts of that cloud, which once arose over Egypt to guide the children of the Lord from thence, and confounded Pharaoh and his host, and inwrapped the summit of Sinai, and rode marching in the heavens through the wilderness, and rested in Shiloh in the tabernacle, and in the temple of Jerusalem made its seat, and departed from the earth in the days of Ezekiel, and hath not visited us again, save at times, as in the mount of transfiguration, and unto Saul in his way to Damascus, but which Ezekiel, with the Psalmist, assureth us shall come again,-up within the skirts of that cloud, with which Messiah shall come again, not manifestly, but in his sign riding upon the cherub (Psalm xviii.), which is his church,-up thither, with the sound of the last trumpet, shall we, his waiting-people, be summoned into the ark of salvation, into the chambers of his presence, being counted worthy to escape all these things which are coming upon the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man."—Ib. Incense. "Now, of what kind that incense was which might be offered unto God, is by Himself prescribed (Exod. xxx. 34); and all strange incense, or strange fire, is strictly prohibited (Exod. xxx. 9; Lev. x. 1). From the composition of this incense, consisting of many precious ingredients, it is, as I think, that the word incense, in our text, is in the plural number, which our translation hath in a manner preserved by using the word odours. It was compounded of the most precious and odoriferous spices which nature yieldeth, which yield their sweet smell spontaneous, and scent the air around; to signify that there ought continually to ascend from the heart of man a spontaneous effluence of praise and prayer and heavenward thought, so that our godliness and heavenly-mindedness may evermore reveal themselves to those in our company, as do the sweet odours of an aromatic garden; while, at the same time, as by bruising and by burning a more strong and potent odour is extracted from the incense-bearing plant-wherefore God required that fire should be put in the censers beneath the incense, that it might ascend unto Him in clouds of sweet odours-even so shall the fiery trials of this life, and the inward contritions of the soul through sense and shame of sin, cause a larger and more fervent offering of prayer and praise and thanksgiving to ascend unto God Most High; for it is said that the incense is the prayers of saints (or, literally, the prayers of the saints). From which expression I gather, that the incense which was required to be offered in every sacrifice doth signify the spiritual actings and sufferings and exercises of the soul wherewith the sacrifice must be accompanied, if it would find acceptance before the throne of God. And accordingly the sacrifice was offered in the face of |