spiritual signification. So that, within or above the apparent sense of Scripture, called also the natural or literal sense, he recognizes a higher meaning which he calls the internal or spiritual. This higher or spiritual sense, is to that of the letter, as the soul is to the body: and it dwells in every part of the written Word as the soul dwells in every part of the body. As the body without the soul is dead, so the literal sense of the Word apart from the spiritual, is dead also. As the body derives all its life and strength from the in-dwelling soul, so the literal sense of the Word receives its vitality and power from the spiritual sense. And as the body is the normal outbirth of the soul, and corresponds to it as an effect corresponds to its producing cause, so the literal sense of the Word is the normal outbirth of the spiritual, and corresponds to it in like manner. And as body and soul are united by correspondence, the one being filled, pervaded, and animated by the
Even the men of that age were living symbols of the God-man." "The poetry of the Bible, indeed all poetry, is symbolic. Nature is made to express, by her fields, her forests, her mountains, seas, and rivers, sublime religious truths." "The promise of Christ's dominion over the nation is another of these divine symbols that embodies the history of ages."—"The prophetic symbols of the Bible are, perhaps, most beautiful, sublime, and mysterious." "The great Teacher employed symbols, because He could thereby more fully convey his thoughts to men. . . The apostles do not, in their epistles, imitate our Lord, but they do expound and apply the Old Testament symbols"—Presbyterian Quarterly Review for April, 1862.
