the power of darkness. Christ, in the language of the prophet, is the sun of righteousness; who, as the natural sun revives the grass and renews the year, brings on the acceptable year of the Lord, and is the great restorer of all things in the kingdom of grace; shining with the new light of life and immortality, to those who once sat in darkness and the shadow of death. And the church has warning to receive him under this glorious character: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, And the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee! Isa. lx. 1. When he was manifested to the eyes of men, he called himself the light of the world, and promised to give the same light to those that follow him. In the absence of Christ as the personal light of the world, his place is supplied by the light of the Scriptures, which is still a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our paths. The word of prophecy is as a light shining in a dark place; and as we study by the light of a lamp, so we must give heed to this light, as if we would see things to come. The moon is used as an emblem of the church, which receives its light from Christ, as the moon from the sun; therefore the renovation of the moon signifies the renovation of the church. The angels or ruling ministers in the seven churches of Asia, (Rev. ii. and iii.), are signified by the seven stars, because his ministers hold forth the word of life, and their light shines before men in this mortal state, as the stars give light to the world in the night-season; of which light Christians in general partake, and are therefore called the children of the light.* : The sun, moon, and stars, also figuratively represent kings, people, and princes or rulers, as in Isa. xxiv. 23; and Ezek. xxxii. 7. For, the figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analogy between the world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic. Accordingly, the whole world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people, or so much of it as is considered in prophecy and the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens and the things therein signify thrones and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and the earth, with the things thereon, the inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called Hades, or Hell, the lowest and most miserable part of them. Great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth are put for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing of an old one, or the beginning and end of a world, for the rise and ruin of a body politic signified thereby. The sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdoms of the world politic; the moon for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate princes and great men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ:-setting of the *The Rev. W. Jones' Lectures on the figurative language of Scripture, Lect. ii. Works, vol. iii. p. 25. sun, moon, and stars; darkening the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom.* There are, moreover, other images from natural objects, which, although in some measure common to other nations as well as the Hebrews, are nevertheless, from the situation and nature of the country, much better known and more familiar to them. There is no metaphor more frequent in the sacred poems, than that by which sudden and great calamities are expressed under the figure of a deluge of waters. This metaphor seems to have been remarkably familiar to the Hebrews, as if directly taken from the nature and state of the country. The river Jordan was immediately before their eyes,† which annually overflowed its banks; for the snows of Lebanon and the neighbouring mountains being melted in the beginning of the summer, the waters of the river were often suddenly augmented by the torrents which burst forth from them. The whole country of Palestine, indeed was watered by very few perennial currents; but being chiefly mountainous, was exposed to frequent floods, rushing violently along the valleys and narrow passages, after great tempests of rain, which periodically took place at certain seasons; and on this account Moses§ himself commends to the Israelites the country which they were about to invade, as being totally different from every thing they had experienced in Egypt, or in the desert of Arabia. This image, therefore, though known to all poets, and adopted by most, may be accounted peculiarly familiar, local in a manner to the Hebrews, and of consequence we cannot wonder at its frequent introduction into their compositions. The prophet seems to have depicted the face of nature exactly as it appeared to him, and to have adapted it to the figurative description of his own situation, when, from the banks of Jordan, and the mountains at the head of that river, he pours forth the tempestuous violence of his sorrow with a force of language and an energy of expression, which have been seldom equalled : Deep calleth unto deep, in the voice of thy cataracts; It may not be improper to remark in this place, that though this metaphor is so usual in all the other sacred writers, whenever an occasion presents itself of introducing it, the author of Job, in the whole of that poem, which, from the nature of the subject, presented excellent opportunities of employing it, has not more than twice,¶ and then but slightly, made the least allusion to it. Nature, indeed, presented a different aspect to the author, whoever he was, of that most noble poem, if, as many learned men conjecture, it was composed in some part of Arabia, for which, we confess, there is great appearance of argument, from that famous simile,** in which he * Sir I. Newton, Observations on the Prophecies, Part I. chap. ii. Psal. xcii. 8. ** Job vi. 15-20. Eccles. xxiv. 26. § Deut. viii. 7; xi. 10, 11. compares his friend with the perfidious brook; a comparison manifestly taken from the rocky parts of Arabia, and adorned by many images proper to that region.* We must not omit noticing in this place, those images which are derived from rivers, and fountains, and the earth recreated with rain; which are indeed used by other poets, but more frequently by the Orientals, to whom nothing was more grateful. For the scarcity of water, the paucity of showers, and the extreme heat of the summer, together with the wonderful fertility of the soil, rendered these more elegant and jocund comparisons in the east than with us. In spring and summer, if the east wind continues to blow a few days, the fields are in general so parched, that scarcely a blade of any thing green remains; many rivers and streams are dried up, the others are rendered briny, and all nature seems at the point of dissolution. After a plentiful shower, however, the fields revive beyond all expectation, the rivers resume their course, and the springs pour forth more delicious water; the whole face of nature is changed; which introduces much higher ideas of refreshment and pleasure, than the like causes can suggest to us. Hence to represent distress, such frequent allusions among them to " a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ;" and hence, to describe a change from distress to prosperity, their metaphors are founded on the falling of showers, and the bursting out of springs in the desert. Thus Isaiah: The desert, and the waste, shall be glad ; And the glowing sand shall become a pool, And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forth The grass, with the reed and the bulrush. Isa. xxxv. 1, 6, 7. Mahomet makes use of this idea frequently, as figurative of the resurrection, and in this he shows himself no less of a philosopher than a poet. Dr. Russel has described this regeneration of nature in most lively colours in his Natural History of Aleppo, a book which every man ought to read, who wishes not only literally to understand the Oriental writers, but to feel them. Indeed, for want of this, many similes appear to us bold and unusual, which among the Oriental writers have a proper and distinct signification. In Isaiah there are many allusions of this nature, the favourable or adverse state of the nations being frequently expressed by this image, which many commentators have attempted to explain with more exactness than a poetical idea will bear. They have taken what the prophet meant figuratively, sometimes in a literal sense; and at other times, they have explained every thing in a mystical manner, and have pretended to define what is meant by the water, who are those that are thirsty, &c. intermingling many pious reflections, but utterly foreign to the subject, and such as never once entered the mind of the poet. For it certainly was not the intention of the poet to write enigmas, but to illustrate and adorn the beautiful figure which * Lowth on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Lect. vi. he introduces. Thus he amplifies the same image in a different manner, in chap. xli. ver. 17, 18, 19. The poor and the needy seek for water, and there is none; 1 Jehovah will answer them; The God of Israel, I will not forsake them. I will open in the high places rivers; And in the midst of the valleys, fountains: I will make the desert a standing pool; And the dry ground streams of waters. In the wilderness I will give the cedars, The acacia, the myrtle, and the tree producing oil: The pine, and the box together. This is admirable painting, and displays a most happy boldness of invention; the trees of various kinds transplanted from their native soils to grow together in the desert; the fir-tree and the pine, which are indigenous to Lebanon, to which snow and rain, and an immense quantity of moisture seem almost essential; the olive, which is the native of Jerusalem: the Egyptian thorn, indigenous to Arabia; both of them requiring a dry soil; and the myrtle, which flourishes most on the sea-shore.* Though trees and flowers, the forest and the cultivated field, suggest to them, in common with poets of all ages and countries, many beautiful figures; yet, in order to relish their images of this kind, we must take notice, that several of them arise from the particular climate and soil of Judea. The frequent recurrence to natural objects, and particularly to plants and trees, is so characteristic of the Hebrew poetry, that it might almost be called the botanical poetry. This circumstance, however, is not at all extraordinary, if we consider that the greater part of that people were occupied with tilling the ground, aud keeping their flocks; and farther, that the cultivation of poetry, instead of being confined to the learned, was so generally diffused, that every valley reechoed the songs of the shepherds. Hence, in the very few remains of the Hebrew writings which are come down to us, there are upwards of 250 botanical terms, which none use so frequently as the poets: and this circumstance gives an air of pastoral elegance to their poetry, which any modern writer will emulate in vain.+ But, in reading their works, we find ourselves continually in the land of Judæa. The palm-trees and cedars of Lebanon are ever rising in view; while a variety of herbs, plants, and trees, among which may be clearly distinguished the aloe (Psa. xlv. 8; Cant. iv. 14); the hyssop (1 Kings, iv. 33); the spikenard (Cant. i. 12); the myrtle (Isa. xlv. 19; lv. 13); the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley (Cant. ii. 1, 16; iv. 5; v. 13), impart beauty and fragrance to this highly favoured land :-" a good land—a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ;"-" a land flowing with milk and honey;"-" a land of wheat and barley, and * See Michaelis' Notes to Lowth, Lect. vi. + Ibid. vines and fig-trees, and pomegranites; a land of oil-olive and honey, whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills they may dig brass." Finally, there is a species of imagery derived also from natural objects altogether peculiar to the Hebrews. Among the mountains of Palestine, the most remarkable, and consequently the most celebrated in the sacred poetry, are Mount Lebanon and Mount Carmel : the one, remarkable as well for its height as for its age, magnitude, and the abundance of the cedars which adorned its summit, exhibiting a striking and substantial appearance of strength and majesty: the other, rich and fruitful, abounding with vines, olives, and delicious fruits, in a most flourishing state, both by nature and cultivation, and displaying a delightful appearance of fertility, beauty, and grace. The different form and aspect of these two mountains is most accurately defined by Solomon, when he compares the manly dignity with Lebanon, and the beauty and delicacy of the female with Carmel. Each of them suggests a different general image, which the Hebrew poets adopt for different purposes, expresssing that by a metaphor, which more timid writers would delineate by a direct comparison. Thus Lebanon is used, by a very bold figure, for the whole people of the Jews, or for the state of the church;† for Jerusalem; for the temple of Jerusalem;§ for the king of Assyria|| even, and for his army; for whatever, in a word, is remarkable, august, and sublime and in the same manner whatever possesses much fertility, wealth, or beauty, is called Carmel.** Thus too, by the fat rams, heifers, and bulls of Basan,++ by the wild beast of the reeds, or lion of Jordan, are denoted the insolent and cruel tyrants of the Gentiles. In this and other imagery of the same kind, though the sacred writers presume to attempt what would not be allowed in the Greek and Latin poets, yet they cannot be accused of any deficiency in perspicuity or elegance, especially if it be remembered that the objects which furnished them with this imagery were all familiar, or, if we may be allowed the expression, indigenous to the Hebrews.++ It is further to be remarked under this head, that, in the images of the awful and terrible, with which the sacred poets abound, they plainly drew their descriptions from that violence of the elements, and those concussions of nature, with which their climate rendered them acquainted. Earthquakes were not unfrequent; which were sometimes accompanied by land-slips, in which pieces of ground, lying on a declivity, are removed from their place. To these the Psalmist alludes when he speaks of the "mountains being carried into the midst of the sea" (Psal. xlvi. 2.); of their" skipping like lambs, and the little hills like young sheep" (Psal. cxiv. 4, 6.); and the prophet Isaiah describes with great majesty a scene of this description, when * Cant. v. 15; vii. 5. Isai. xxxvii. 24; Jer. xxii. 6, 23. || Isai. x. 34. + Isai. xxxiii. 9 : xxxv. 2. Isai. xi. 13. See Ezek. xxxi. ** See as above, and Isai. x. 18; Mic. vii. 14; Jer. iv. 26. Lowth on the Sac. Poet. of the Heb. Lect. vi. |