to enable him to follow history and comprehend doctrine. And may not He who knows what is the nature of man, suit Himself to the creatures fashioned by Him, by instituting, in the realities of His dispensations and His ordinances, those very numerical relations which man will feign by his imagination, where the actual state of things does not present them ?

We certainly do meet in Bible narrative with a recurrence of certain numbers, and these not unlike the numbers which recent science has disclosed in nature. The beasts were gathered into the ark, even as they are assorted in nature, in pairs; and our Lord sent out His disciples, as the fowls of the air are sent out, two and two, to support and comfort each other. Three derives its significancy from the very nature of God, and appears in the triple sacerdotal blessing of Jacob, (Gen. xlviii. 16;) in the thrice holy of Isaiah, (vi. 3;) in the three great religious festivals; in Jonah being three days in the whale's belly; in our Lord being three days in the grave; and in the threefold judgments denounced in the Book of Revelation, where the tail of the great red dragon draws the third of the stars, and three unclean spirits issue from the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Let us not forget that the triad is the representative of Deity in many religions, and appears in the three-forked lightning of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the three-headed dog of Pluto, the tripod of Apollo, the three Fates, three Furies, three Graces, and thrice three Muses. Four appears in Scripture in the altars, and sanctuary, and holy of holies, which was a cube; and groups of four are found in Revelation, such as, heaven, earth, sea, and fountains of waters; kindred, and tongue,

1 See Article in American Biblical Repertory, republished in British and Foreign Evangelical Review, June 1855.

and people, and nation. Five is found in the pillars of the courts of the temple, which were five cubits high, and five cubits apart; and in the ten virgins, five of whom were wise, and five foolish. Six is once or twice mentioned as a significant number in Ezekiel. Seven is the most frequently repeated number in the Bible. We have first the seven days of creation; then the seven days of the week; then a series of seasons regulated by seven; the seventh year was a Sabbatical year, and 7 x 7 gave a year of jubilee; and at the close of the canon there are the seven spirits before the throne, the seven churches of Asia, the seven branches of the candlestick, seven angels with seven trumpets, and seven vials with the seven last plagues. The number ten appears in the tithes devoted to God, in the plagues which devastated Egypt, and in the commandments delivered amidst the thunders of Sinai. Twelve was the number of the sons of Joseph, of the tribes of God's people, and of the Apostles; the holy city measured twelve thousand cubits in length, breadth, and height, and had twelve foundations, twelve gates, and a tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruits. Multiple numbers are very frequent. Forty days, or 4 × 10, was the time of Moses' sojourn on the mount with God, of Elijah's journey to Horeb, and of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness. There were 7x7 days between the passover and pentecost, and 7 x7 years between the times of jubilee. The tabernacle measured ten cubits in breadth and length, and 3 x 10 cubits in length; there were 4 x 12 boards in its frame, and the court was 10 x 10 cubits long, and the sacrifices on certain occasions were multiples of seven. We read of 7 x 10 disciples; Peter was exhorted to forgive his brother not seven times, but seventy times seven, and the redeemed on Mount Zion are 12 x 12 thousand.

This method of instruction is in admirable adaptation to the constitution of man's mind. It lends distinctness to the incident, it helps the intellect to grasp the truth, and the memory to retain it. It is one of many circumstances which adapt the Word like the Works of God to every capacity, to persons of all ages and sexes, times and countries. By these, and similar means, the greatest of all Teachers still encourages little children to come unto Him, when other teachers would forbid them. Its institutions and its incidents strike the fancy and are fixed in the memory of youth; they interest by their correspondences the understanding of the mature man, and are found wrapt round the decaying memory of old age, the burden of which they serve to lighten, and the gloom of which they irradiate.

And in all this, whether in nature or in the Word, we are not inclined to find anything mystical or even mysterious. We are not disposed to believe it to proceed from any inherent power of numbers, as certain mathematicians and philosophists have imagined. Nor does it imply that any one number has a special significance. We have quoted so many cases of numeral relation in order to show that all, or nearly all, the lower numbers, odd and even, appear as principles of co-ordination both in nature and in the Word. No doubt, there are circumstances which have determined the use of certain numbers. Thus, the nature of the plant, as having an axis, with symmetrical sides, may have determined the selection of the odd numbers 3 and 5 in the organs of the vegetable kingdom. The recurrences of 5 and 10 in human enumeration probably originated in the number of the digits. The triune nature of God, and the divine institution of the Sabbath, must have given rise to the frequent use of the numbers 3 and 7; and the circum

stance that the patriarchs were 12 in number must have brought series of twelves in its train. Still, in all this there is no evidence of their being any power, virtue, or significance in any one number considered in itself.

We are not even inclined to look upon these recurrent numbers as implying any mysterious connexion, as theosophists have supposed, between objects which have the same number attached to them. We do not conclude that there is a connexion between the typical organs of dicotyledonous plants and the digits of animals, because they both range round the number 5. Nor are we to look upon biblical events as related, solely because they appear under the same number. It is possible, indeed, that the events may have a connexion in themselves, and have both appeared under the same number because of this connexion; but the evidence of their relation must be sought otherwise than in their numerical correspondence. In vindicating the existence of these numerical relations, we are thus, at the same time, laying an effectual arrest on the abuse of them. We do not admit them in natural science, except on evidence which can stand the rules of inductive logic; and we should not allow them in theology, except on grounds which can stand the tests of sound biblical interpretation.

SECT. III.-TYPICAL SYSTEM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

In looking at any one epoch of our world's history, we find traces of contemporaneous order and fitness. In comparing any one epoch with the preceding one, we find traces of a progression. It should be admitted, however, that we are not altogether in circumstances to determine the character of that progression. In physical and organic nature, it seems, so far as we can discover,

to be an advance from the simple to the manifold; from the more general to the more special; from the type to the archetype. It rises from the crystal to the plant and the animal. Its foundation shows right lines and regular figures, while the superstructure sweeps out into varied curves. There is first the simple capacity in the germ, the bud, and then the unfolding of all the capabilities in distinct members.

Is not this the very law of the advance of the human mind? It begins with the simple and goes on to the multiple. It craves first for mere milk, and then acquires a relish for strong meat and varied dainties. In their literary tastes, men like first very easy and transparent narrative in prose, and songs with the simplest cadences; then more elaborate prose and more adorned poetry; and finally, perhaps, a style, to use the language of Burke, between prose and poetry, and better than either. Is not the history of human civilisation an advance from a union of labour to a division of labour; from few and simple to many and complicated relations? Is not the advance in physical science (as M. Comte has shown) from pure space to body, to bodies with chemical affinities, on to bodies organized ?

It is evident that there is some kind of progress in the history of religion, though we are not in a position to apprehend it closely, or unfold it fully. All the essential and saving truths are embraced in the earliest revelation of God, but they are in the bud, they are hopeful and prophetic; it is only as ages advance that they are expanded to the view. Under the Old Testament the shadow becomes more and more defined as the substance draws nigh; but it is only in the later prophets that we discover distinct lineaments. The figure presented in the first prediction is as large as it ever is afterwards,