for the ufe of the faithful: And then he fuppofes that it was put under a veil or cover, in order to keep it from their fight, and confequently to defeat its influence. Thus a subsequent Revelation was added to prevent their receiving any advantage from a preceding one.

Lord Bolingbroke objects, that Mofes did not do fairly by his people, that he actually deceived them, not setting before them the full confequence of their disobedience, in the mention of future punishments; but limited and confined his threatnings to fuch as were temporal P.

believe that they had this doctrine of a future state, and required alfo to believe, that it was fecreted from them.

The Doctor would fuppofe, with the author of the D. L. that types were originally intended for a veil or cover : And he would fuppofe, with the advocates of the common fyftem, that the Jews had the doctrine of a future state. Thus he attempts to incorporate into his belief two principles, which are effentially deftructive of each other.

In fhort, how disagreeable foever the alternative may be, he muft either take party with Lord Bolingbroke, or Dr. Warburton, as he will be obliged either to discard the notion of types and fecondary prophecies, or to deny the Jews the knowledge of a future state.

Unless he borrows and adopts the principle of the D. L. he will indeed leave Lord Bolingbroke no room to reafon about types, fince the fyftem opposed to him will be grofs enough to carry its own confutation along with

it.

P Vol. iv. p. 153, 4. 8vo.
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Accord

According to the learned Doctor, Mofes not only omitted to set those punishments before his people, but drew fuch a veil or cover over them as prevented their enquiry after them.

I should therefore be glad to learn what expedient the Dr. has to remove the imputation of cruelty and injustice, while he continues to fuppofe that future punishments were intended for the fanction of the Jewish Religion.

He

But to return to the learned Prelate. appears not to be more happy in his account many other prophecies than in his folution of the typical and fecondary ones.

of

There

are a set of prophecies, which represent the fpiritual nature and promises of the Gospel figuratively and metaphorically, under the temporal and carnal terms and images of the Law.

His Lordship himself affirms, that there are many prophecies thus circumftanced. "Whoever looks into the prophetical wri

tings, will find that they are generally pen"ned in a very exalted ftyle, full of bold figures defcribing the judgments and the "mercies of God; reprefenting fpiritual blef'fings under the images of temporal profperity, "and oftentimes fuch images as cannot poffibly

4

"

* fibly admit of a literal interpretation ".” Now all the prophecies of this fort will be an easy prey to the Deifts, if they may be allowed to attack his Lordship on his own principles. For, if the fpiritual nature and promifes of the Gospel were to be opened and revealed to the Jewish Church, why need they have been conveyed under the cover of temporal and carnal images? Or what occafion for a veil and fhade, where a doctrine is to lie open and naked, to the fight of all men? Would not this be that specific abfurdity of lighting a candle, and then, putting it under a bufhel, and not upon a candlestick?

The paffage, here quoted, occurs in the fecond difcourfe, wherein his Lordship engages to explain and account for the darkness and obfcurity of the ancient Prophecies. He supposes it may fometimes arife from the metaphorical and highly figurative terms in which the prophecies were delivered; and he contends, that these metaphors and figures were appointed for a veil or cover. But the obfcurity arifing from hence had no reasonable end, as the veil and cover which occafioned it had no ufe: the truth foretold being, it feems, intended for public and common notice.

"The bleffings belonging to the special covenant, given to Abraham and his feed, "were referved to be revealed in God's appointed time. The prophets under the "Law could not be commiffioned to declare "these bleffings nakedly and openly, without anticipating the time of their revelation. "Hence it is that the predictions, concerning "Chrift and his kingdom, are clothed in such figures, as were proper to raise the hope "and attention of the people, without carrying them beyond the bounds of knowledge, prefcribed by God to the age of the Jewish Covenant t.”

cr

"The bleffings here reserved to be revealed "in God's appointed time were the spiritual "promises of the Gofpel." This time his Lordship affures us, was not yet come. However, in this very page, within the diftance of only ten lines, he affirms, "that the "prophets often made ufe of the temporal "deliverances as an argument to encourage the

tr

bopes of the Spiritual." But could they encourage the hopes of a fpiritual deliverance, if the appointed time of revealing the knowledge of that deliverance was not yet come?

No more than two pages before, his Lordship affirms, that the prophecies relative to the

P. 129, 30.

fpiritual

Spiritual covenant, were intended to establish and confirm the hopes of futurity, or the fpiritual bleffings in queftion. But how could thefe fpiritual hopes be established and confirmed in that age, if they were reserved to be revealed in a future and diftant one?

The prophets under the Law could "not "be commiffioned to declare these bleffings "nakedly and, openly, without

time

ANTICI

"PATING the date of their Revelation."

How could they make ufe of the temporal deliverances as an argument to encourage the hope of the Spiritual, without declaring thefe laft openly and nakedly? Or, how could the ancient prophecies eftablish and confirm the hopes of futurity, unless the temporal veil or cover was taken off, and the fpiritual promife, couched beneath, was nakedly and openly expofed?

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"Hence it is that the predictions, "concerning Chrift and his kingdom, are "clothed in fuch figures, as were proper to "raise the hope and attention of the people, "without carrying them beyond the bounds "of knowledge prefcribed by God to the age of the Jewish covenant."

Now these predictions represent the fpiritual bleffings of the Gospel figuratively,