Nor is this error confined to the unlearned: it appears to have been fallen into by one who may perhaps be justly styled the most learned commentator on prophecy of the present age; and moreover the very writer who has pointed out the true principle of exposition. The intelligent and profound Dean of Lichfield in his work on the Apocalypse, after pointing out the figurative sense of such passages, yet, strange to say, relinquishes this sense where it seems the most appropriate, and adopts the literal. In allusion to the first establishment of the Jewish Theocracy, we find in Isaiah (li. 16.) the following figurative language. _When I have put my words in thy mouth, and covered thee with the palm of my hand, that I may plant the heaven, and lay the foundation of the earth._ Thus, selecting the Jews to be God’s chosen people, and putting his words in the mouth of the prophet, are said to be _planting the heavens_ and _laying the foundation of the earth_. And in conformity with this style, when the old Covenant was to be dissolved, and the new one to be established, _new heavens_ and _a new earth_ are said to be created. (Isa. lxv. 17.) _For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind._ When St. John, in the Rev. vi. 12. foretels the corruption of Christianity, in a prophecy which appears distinctly applicable to the events that occurred at the beginning of the fourth century; he borrows the same metaphors, and describes the loss or corruption of true religion as the departure of the heavens, and the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. (Rev. vi. 12.) _And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;_ _And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth; even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind._ _And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, &c._ The historical view of this period, taken by Dr. Woodhouse, exactly accords with the figurative sense of the prophecy—yet, to the manifest injury of consistent interpretation, it is here that he relinquishes the figurative, and adopts the literal sense, supposing the day of judgment to be here foretold. While thus compelled to dissent from some particular views of this writer, I cannot pass by this opportunity of expressing the very high estimation in which I otherwise hold his most valuable publication. (Woodhouse on the Apocalypse.) Other commentators on prophecy, who have for the most part adopted the political in preference to the spiritual view, regard _the heavens_, as symbolizing the civil government or ruling powers in a state; and it is true that these expressions have not been always confined in prophecy to the prediction of spiritual events; but have been also used in foretelling the judgments of God upon political states and kingdoms.