sanctity of such statements. It is not the confronting of those conclusions by an opposite array of the same kind of evidence by which they are supported-it is not an enlightened striking the balance between conflicting probabilities—but a violent foreclosure of all deductions except on the ground of an authority, which it is sacrilege to question. The man of science, therefore, is pushed to the wall by the force of the literal dogma, and his position is the more galling from the fact, that his soul may reverence the authority from which the alleged dogma proceeds; and yet he recognizes the same authority in the science that he does in the revelation, because they both proceed from the same source. is restive in this dilemma, and by only one method can be released from it, and that is by a clear definition of the precise object of Revelation-by establishing the position, that it does not profess to enunciate the absolute truth in matters that fall properly within the range of the human faculties. Consequently it not only interposes no restriction on the most unlimited freedom of inquiry over the whole field of creation, but its literal sayings are not to be cited in arrest of the deductions of a sound philosophy.

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This, however, will not be a readily conceded point. It will be yielded only because it is extorted. The claim will be contested at every step, and hard names, of which German rationalism will be among the mildest, will be copiously showered upon its assertors. They must, doubtless, make up their minds, not so much to be confuted in the fair field of argument, as to be denounced to have their reverence for Scripture called in question to have their names cast out as evil-and various forms of odium invoked upon them. But Truth

-immortal Truth-knows not how to die under such assaults. Though "beat to earth, 'twill rise again," and its final triumph will honor its humble friends, while its mistaken but well meaning opponents will inherit the mortification of knowing in the end, that they have pulled down what they had purposed to build up.

APPENDIX.

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, THE MOST NOTABLE EPOCH IN THE SACRED WRITINGS.

Translated from the Fifth Section of a Latin Tract," On the Spirit of Prophecy," by the Rev. John Lightfoot, D. D., &c.

By RICHARD ROE, Exeter, Eng.

HAVING made some observations on the departure of the Holy Spirit from the Jewish church, and on the manner in which it became inundated with corrupt traditions, it seems proper to add a few words on its unutterable and deservedly fatal desolation. When God visited his own habitation and city, the places formerly most chosen to himself, with an overthrow so dire and fatal, and when he thus cut off his peculiar people, formerly dear and beloved beyond all others, with plagues deadly and tremendous beyond all ever before inflicted on mortals,—it is not surprising that it should be painted in the most dark and mournful colors.

I. Of these, the principal, and that which chiefly affects both the eyes and the mind, is that this fall is described as if it were the fall of the universe, and the dissolution, in its last day, of the entire frame and mechan

ism of the world. Such are these figures of divine oratory:-"I beheld the earth, and lo, it was ana (tohu vabohu) without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heaven were fled." Jer. 4. 23-25. You would think, that the whole world was relapsing into its pristine chaos and disorder; when these words signify nothing more than the perdition of that nation, land, and city, as evidently appears in the following: "I beheld, and, lo, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were broken down, at the presence of the Lord," &c.

Matt. 24. 29, 30: "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." These, you will say, plainly express the dissolution of the whole universe, and last judgment. But, consider well, among others, ver. 34, and they speak, without controversy, of the fall of Jerusalem alone: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

In the same style and rhetoric are these, 2 Pet. 3, 10:-"The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up," &c. Who would not, without all doubt, understand these words to speak of the conflagration of the world in the day of judgment? But compare Deut. 32. 22:— "A fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."

Hag. 2. 6: "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land." Heb. 12. 26: “I will shake, not the earth only, but the heavens." And observe, that, by the elements, are to be understood the Mosaical, Gal. 4. 9, Col. 2. 20; also of what times the apostle is speaking; and then you will not doubt, that he speaks of the conflagration of Jerusalem, the subversion of the nation, and the annihilation of the Mosaic economy.

To these the words of the Apocalypse are parallel, 6. 12, 13:-"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell. : . and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together," &c. Where, if you will observe the foregoing plagues, with which God, according to his most frequent threatenings, destroyed that nation: namely, "the sword," ver. 4; " famine," 5; and" pestilence," ver. 8; and compare these words:" And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us," &c., (ver. 16, 17,) with "Then they shall begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us," (Luke 23. 30,) it will sufficiently appear, that those phrases relate to the tremendous judgment and fall of that nation and city.

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II. To this corresponds that form of expression, in which the day and time of that vengeance and fall is called "the day of the Lord," and "the coming of Christ in the clouds, and with glory," as if the discourse was on the final judgment.

Acts 2. 20" Before that great and terrible day of the Lord come." Let it be observed, that Peter applies this prophecy of Joel to those times, and you will see, without a commentary, what he means by "that day of the Lord."