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at the zeal which is everywhere manifest? Let it not be thought, that by the establishment of day-schools, Sunday-schools will be disparaged, or rendered less necessary. By no means; the Sabbath-school will then assume its proper position, as a decidedly religious institution, and the order and discipline of the day-school will prepare the minds of youth for instruction and edification on the Sabbath, in a manner, such as hitherto has not been experienced. They are two kindred institutions, which should work together in the most delightful harmony and union. We, therefore, appeal to our brethren, far and near, in behalf of our Day-schools. Those already established require a more powerful support, and several others might be opened at this present period, especially in London, Manchester, Birmingham, and the larger towns of our country, with every prospect of success, and of being almost self-supported, if the means were only provided for their first establishment. We have heard from the Cape of Good Hope, from New York, and from Cincinnati, that youth educated in these day-schools, have carried the "precious seed" of the New Church doctrines with them. In supporting these schools, therefore, we, at the same time, are supporting a missionary institution, which, when we consider the numerous emigrants who annually leave our country, and especially from the class of children educated in these schools, is eminently deserving of the patronage and support of all who desire to see the cause of genuine Christianity triumph in the world. We, therefore, appeal to our numerous readers in behalf of these institutions. The frequent public examinations to which the children have been submitted, have plainly demonstrated the efficient manner in which the most useful knowledge, and especially the doctrines of the New Church have been taught and inculcated in these schools.*

We know that the Lord's kingdom is a "kingdom of uses,"-of benevolent actions; and what use can possibly be greater than that of training youth to become good, wise, useful, and happy here, that they may hereafter become angels of the Lord's kingdom for ever? This is the great object of our schools, and all who contribute to the promotion of this object, are helping to perform the greatest acts of heavenly usefulness that can possibly be accomplished. All donations, and names for annual subscriptions, in aid of this great and good work, will be duly and gratefully acknowledged.

Exchange-street, Manchester.

T. AGNEW, Secretary.

* See this Magazine for September and January last, where an account of these examinations may be seen.

ON THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.

THE Lord Jesus Christ said, "Now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe." (John xiv. 29.) This is a divine canon whereby we are to believe the fulfilment of Prophecy. He who delivered it was the Grand Prophet: from His power to look into futurity, He, for the wisest of purposes, has, on various occasions, raised up instruments to announce certain events by which it is to be distinguished. Whatsoever has been so delivered to man, must have been intended for his edification—to affect him as a spiritual being—and, therefore, it is important that he should carefully consider, and accurately comprehend its particular application. To understand the principles on which the Prophecies have been written, is of the utmost consequence to a well-digested and proper reception of practical Christianity: it is, also, indispensable to perpetuate in the mind that veneration which is due to their authority and truth. On this ground it may be useful, if we endeavour to shew what was the principal design for which the Prophecies were written; and, at the same time, to point out where it is proper that we should look for their true and actual fulfilment.

There is no portion of the Holy Word on which the minds of the learned have been more assiduously employed than that of its Prophecies; nor is there any part of it on which so much erudition has been employed, as in the attempts which have been made to trace out the facts of history in which the predictions of the Word have been supposed to have received their fulfilment. The design of those attempts has been, for the most part, to authenticate and establish the pretension of this portion of the Scriptures to Divine origination,—to do this on the ground that none but the Divine mind could see into the circumstances of futurity; and, therefore, if the facts by which futurity is found to be distinguished, should strictly answer to the prophetical descriptions, they will afford incontestable evidence of the omniscient origin of what has been written concerning them.

Now, although the principle which has thus been assumed may be correct, and the accuracy of the conclusion undeniable, yet the evidently figurative language in which the Prophecies have been delivered, leave some room to enquire whether the facts, which commentators have announced to have been their fulfilment, were actually those which were contemplated in the Divine mind on the occasion of their announcement. The facts which have been usually employed to decipher the Prophecies

are of an historical and external kind; and although some of them may be considered to answer pretty closely to some of the predictions, we think that such facts were not the principal or primary events alluded to.

To remove the difficulties by which this subject has been surrounded, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the real principle on which the Divine composition of the Word has been constructed. Expositors of the Prophecies have, in general, seen the propriety of adopting some principle on this subject for the purpose of guiding them in their interpretations; but each one may be said to have chosen a principle which has been peculiarly his own and none that has been adopted can be said to have had any higher authority than the ingenuity of their propounders. If they have sometimes been tolerably accurate in the application of external events to the interpretation of Prophecy, this has resulted rather from the plainness of the literal construction of the narrative, than from following out any distinct principle that was capable of guiding to an infallible conclusion. The knowledge of such a principle has been reserved for communication to the world until these latter days, and it constitutes one, among the many profound doctrines which distinguish and adorn the New Jerusalem.

As we have intimated, it has been customary with those who have attempted to discover facts for the fulfilment of Prophecy, to search for them in the histories of the various nations of the earth,—in the circumstances which attended their rise and progress, their wars and commotions, their decline and fall. Also in the fate of monarchs, the disposal of governers, the establishment of the papacy and its presumptuous domination. That such is the kind of facts which are commonly understood to be treated of in the prophecies of the Word, could be proved at length by quotations from almost every respectable commentator who has written on the subject. But it is unnecessary to do more than merely to refer the reader to "Newton, on the Prophecies," and "Predeaux's Connection of the Old and New Testaments."

Now, although we do not mean to assert that they are absolutely wrong in some of the facts which they have considered to be the fulfilment of particular Prophecies, yet we can have no hesitation in saying that such an interpretation of them is of a most external character, suited only to the condition of a very external Church, and only adapted to impart satisfaction to minds of a very external quality. Whatsoever truths there may be in the interpretations referred to, it must be evident that they are not the only things adverted to by such Prophecies, nor the primary objects which were intended to be spoken of by the Lord. If they were, then the narratives, having received their fulfilment, must

as Prophecies fall into disuse. What beside a vague notion of the by-gone dispensations of the Divine Providence, can be said of a Prophecy which had only a special application to the circumstances of a nation which has long since passed away? To estimate the true value of Divine Prophecy, it is necessary to acknowledge its application to every age, to our own times, yea to ourselves.

The external circumstances by which nations have been distinguished, and which have been fixed upon as the fulfilment of some of the Prophecies, were only such as resulted from the working of a certain combination of principles in the minds of men; and, therefore, the primary reference of those Prophecies of the Word is to the existence of those principles, their peculiar manifestation, and the spiritual consequences of their activity. Hence it is to the minds of men, individually and collectively, in all times of their existence, and especially to the states of the Church, that we are to look for the application and fulfilment of Prophecy; and only to nations and their historical transactions as secondary matters, and as such principles are exhibited in their natural consequences. It is principles which regulate the mind, determine the conduct, and form those outward circumstances by which the nations and governments of the world have been, and will continue to be, characterized. Revelation is addressed to man as their possessor, -to teach him that certain principles belong to his nature,-to inform him concerning the arrangement which it is proper they should attain and preserve, in order to produce wisdom and happiness; and to forewarn him of the disasterous consequences that must result from their disorder and pervertion: these are among the chief things which have been regarded by the Divine mind in making prophetical communications to the world; and these are the things to be first considered in our enquiries after the evidences of the fulfilment of Prophecy.

Although the announcement of events before they happen, is the popular acceptation of the term Prophecy, it is not its only signification, or the sense in which it is always employed in the Word. The Prophets were the authorized instructors of the people, and the Prophecies which they announced were intended for public edification: so that teaching is the idea which ought to be attached to the Prophets and their writings; for, notwithstanding there is contained in those documents the mention of circumstances that were to transpire, posterior to the time of their production, yet such kind of narrative is very far from being the general feature of those which are called the Prophetical writings. Indeed, it may be safely affirmed, that prediction, which was to receive fulfilment in after times in outward and literal form, constitutes but a

small portion of those documents. If we do sometimes find such fulfilment in external events, it is only because the principles of the mind have produced and terminated in them. From such causes it has sometimes happened that the general circumstances of a country, and the condition of its government, have been such as to tally with the leading features of a Prophecy; nevertheless, we may rest assured that such circumstances were not those which were specifically in view of the Divine foresight when the narrative was directed to be written, but rather the principles of mind which produced them.

Indeed, this conclusion seems to be unquestionably certain, from the fact that it is only the leading features of particular portions of history that can be made to answer with the most conspicuous statements of Prophecy. Neither ingenuity nor erudition has been enabled to accomplish more than this. There is no instance of a fact of history, which is usually set forth as the fulfilment of Scriptural Prophecy, which squares with it in every particular. What are considered to be the subordinate parts of such predictions, and for which no relative circumstances can be discovered in connexion with the principal fact, are commonly set aside, as not affecting the truth of the general conclusion.

But it must be evident to the reflecting, that the portions so set aside, must, as being the Word of God, be equally important with the rest, and that they must in all their minutiæ, be distinctly cognizable in any fulfilment that is true and complete. The Divine mind has not caused any thing to be written for us in vain; nor without having had in view a distinct individuality of purpose, besides its more general design. These facts, when connected with the consideration that all the Prophecies of the Word are written in language more or less decidedly figurative, lead to the conclusion, that their chief reference is to the principles which, in some of their manifold arrangements and activities, characterize the human mind: so that a spiritual fulfilment of such predictions, is to be anticipated and realized, by the spiritual states and condition of the man of the Church, rather than by those natural occurrences in the world, which can only affect him for a time and as a resident below.

Such are, we believe, the chief designs with which the Divine Predictions of the Holy Word have been given. We think that they have been scrupulously attended to, not in one Prophecy merely, or in one class of them, but in all that have been mercifully vouchsafed. This view not only agrees with the spiritual purposes and eternal ends, which must have been before the Divine mind, in causing any thing to be written for our instruction, but it also affords an interior evidence, and most satisfactory vindication of their Divine origin. For who but

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