Wv+3
0
"I give
ias was three days and three nights in
the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth p. 239-
Lecture XIII.
The allusion made by our Lord to the manna
which was given to the Israelites in the wil
derness.
John vi. 32, 33. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily,' I say
unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven : but my
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life
unto the world p. 257.'
Lecture XIV.
The Passover a Type of Christ.
Luke xxii. 14, 15, 16. And when the hour was come, he sat
down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto
them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with
you before I suffer : for I say unto you, I will not any more
eat thereof, until il be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. .p. 277.
contents. xv
PART III.
TYPES MENTIONED IN scripture after the
EVENTS, WHICH WERE PREFIGURED, HAD
OCCURRED. Lecture XV.
The Levitical Priesthood, the Tabernacle, and the
services were typical of the person and offices of
Christ.
Heb. hi. 1. Holy brethren, partakers cf the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus p. 302.
Lecture XVI.
The Sacrifices of the Levitical Law were typical
of Christ.
Heb. xiii. 11, 12. The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burnt
without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sane- ¦
tify the people with his own blood, suffered without the
gate ; : p. 325.
Lecture XVII.
The people of Israel typical of the person of
Christ : and their history prefigurative of the
institutions of Christianity.
1 Cor. x. 1, 2, 3, 4. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye
should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the
cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea : and did all eat the
same spiritual meat : and did all drink the same spiritual
drink : for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
them, and that Rock was Christ p. 348.
XVI CONTENTS.
Lecture XVIII.
The descendants of Abraham historically typical
of all true believers ; Canaan of heaven : Joshua
of Christ.
Gal. iv. 24. Which things are an allegory p. 369-
Lecture XIX.
Isaac typical of Christ.
John viii. 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day ;
and he saw it, and was glad p. 391.
Lecture XX.
Adam and Melchisedec typical of Christ.
Recapitulation. Conclusion.
Heb. xiii. 8. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day,
and for ever p. 4,15.
LECTURE I.
GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE ARGUMENT DRAWN
FROM THE HISTORICAL TYPES CONTAINED
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
COL. II. 17.
Which, are a shadow of things to come.
That there exist two books, historically in
dependent of each other, the one purporting
to contain, among other things, the laws and
institutions of the Jewish nation, the other
the extraordinary birth, actions, and death of
Jesus of Nazareth, who was called Christ, is
a fact which no one can dispute.
That these books have been transmitted to
our own times in a state of general accuracy,
and that they are the genuine productions of
the writers whose names they bear, has often
been most satisfactorily proved.
And that these writers were faithful and
credible witnesses of the facts which they re
late no one can reasonably doubt, who has
learned, as all may learn, their unshaken reso-
A
2 Lecture I.
lution in encountering the perils and sufferings,
to which they voluntarily exposed themselves,
solely in attestation of the truth of those facts.
But when the Scriptures lay claim to the
pecuhar title of a rule of life, it becomes ne
cessary, not only to establish their authenticity,
but to shew that "all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God."3 This assertion is to be
proved by the evidence of miracles and pro
phecy, and by the inherent excellence of the
doctrines which the writings contain. And who
ever will read with attention the proofs, which
have already been accumulated with this in
tention, will rise from the investigation with
a perfect confidence in the certainty of those
things, in which he has been instructed.
But there is also a collateral branch of
proof, by which it seems possible to confirm
the divine authority of the Scriptures : and it
is this. The historical authenticity of the Old and
New Testaments can be estabhshed each by
a separate proof. Now between the events
recorded in the two books there exists a close
and avowedly preconcerted connection. The
Old Testament throughout plainly prefigures
the New, and is declared to do so. Its his
tory, laws, and institutions, the apparently
' 2 Tim. iii. 16.
Lecture 1. 3
casual events which occurred to the Jewish
people, all had reference to future events, which
were literally fulfilled in the person of Jesus
Christ, and were all fulfilled in no other. The
national records of the Jews are a continued
prophecy of Christ: a prophecy pervading all
their existence as a people: a prophecy dis
cernible from the earhest ages; in the calling
and trials of their father Abraham, in then-
Egyptian bondage, in their wanderings in the
desert, in their hymns of victory over the ene
mies of Sion, and in their lamentations of
captivity by the waters of Babylon: even more
conspicuously displayed in their religious rites,
in the judgments which they suffered, in the
favours which they received at the hand of
God — whether they obeyed or whether they
rebelled, still were they made the instruments
of perpetuating, by types and figures, the
memorial of Him, in whom the promises and
threatenings of the law all had their comple
tion. Now, by whatever means we satisfy our
selves that this studied mutual relation exists,
the connection, if once established, affords a
proof of design in the events, and of inspi
ration in the volumes, which record them and
found their claim to inspiration upon such a
connection. a2
4 Lecture I.
This too is a proof , in some degree inde
pendent both of verbal prophecy and of mira
cles. For it might exist if there were not one
direct prophecy in the whole volume of Scrip
ture; and if all the facts recorded in it, when
separately considered, indicated no deviation
from the ordinary course of events.
So far, indeed, as the declared connection
of two series of facts, in the relation of histo
rical type and antitype, may be regarded as
a mode of conveying information respecting
future events and of recording their comple
tion, the argument from this connection is of
the same nature as that which is drawn from
the fulfilment of prophecy; and may be re
garded as one branch of that extensive divi
sion of evidence.
It will also be found that verbal prophecy:
tends materially to establish that preconcerted
connection between different events, upon which
the whole proof depends.
But there is this pecuhar advantage attend
ing an enquiry into the prefigurations of the
Gospel dispensation, that they never could have
been fraudulently inserted. They are woven
into the , very texture of the narrative, and
can be detached by no force but such as is
sufficient to destroy the whole.
It is a conceivable supposition, for it has
Lecture I. 5
been asserted, that a short direct prophecy
might have been interpolated. And it often
requires much labour, and may not always be
possible," to trace its existence, from the day
in which it was uttered by the inspiration of
the Spirit of God, to the time when the caviller
comes forth to demand a reason of the hope
that is in us.
But no imaginable ingenuity could invent,
and impose upon a people as a correct his
tory of their nation, a long series of events
which had no foundation in truth. Nor could
any impostor exercise such a control over the
events of his life, as to fulfil this series in his
own person.
The questions, therefore, which we have to
determine, are these : whether the connection
between the events do exist; and whether this
connection be a preconcerted one. And a satis
factory decision upon these points can be ob
tained only by a careful comparison of the
several events, which lay claim to this character.
Now there are, undoubtedly, facts in the
Old Testament, to which express reference is
made in Holy Scripture, as being, in some
sense, typical of corresponding events in the
New Testament. And to those who are fully
convinced, from other sources, that the Scrip
tures are the revealed word of God, this eir-
6 Lecture I.
cumstance is conclusive in proving that the
one had reference to the other, whether the
connection may to us be obvious or not.
In arguing from the fulfilment of types
alone to the inspiration of Scripture, we must
undoubtedly not assume that inspiration to
exist. Yet when an action, in the life of Christ,
is expressly declared to correspond with a pre
vious action, in the life of some person recorded
in the Old Testament; when that correspond
ence is perhaps even predicted ; and is in itself
obvious : too particular to have been occa
sioned by accidental coincidence; and entirely
independent of the personal agency of Christ
himself; the very aUegation of such a fact is
a phenomenon, which, at least, challenges en
quiry by its very singularity. There is nothing
like it in the recorded history of the world.
A resemblance, indeed, in certain circum
stances of the history of two individuals in
different ages might exist, without the one
being a type of the other. One person may
imitate the actions ascribed to another. This
has been done. Yet he, who unconsciously
thus served as a model, was never conceived
to have been the type of him, who endea
voured to follow his example. And on this
supposition the circumstances of correspondence
Lecture I. 7
must be few; for they must be solely in the
power of the imitator.
One person may casually be placed in cir
cumstances similar to those of another. Yet,
however close the connection may be, it will
be of a very different kind from that of type
and antitype. It would be no difficult task
to point out a similarity in the actions related
of different persons in the Grecian and Roman
history, or even in the Scriptures, while yet
the coincidences are of such a nature, that nc*
argument can be founded upon them, in favour
of a preconcerted connection between the events,
in which they were severally engaged. And
this preconcerted connection is the peculiar
characteristic of a type.
Similarity alone proves nothing.
But when there appears «Spon earth an in
dividual, evidently endued with power from
above, speaking as never man spake,b and doing
works such as no man can do except God be
with him ;c restoring sight to the blind, energy
to the impotent, hearing to the deaf, life to
the dead: when this same prophet, in addi
tion to the miracles which he performs and
the verbal prophecies which he fulfils, refers
expressly to certain most extraordinary events,
confessedly the shadows of things to come/
» John vii. 46. c John iii. 2. d Col. ii. 17-
8 Lecture I.
well known to the people whom he addresses,
and forming a prominent part in their singular
national history, as prefiguring other events,
equally extraordinary, which were to be directed
against this heavenly messenger himself: when
the manna, which their fathers did eat in the
wilderness, is appealed to as a figure of that
bread of life which came down from heaven:6
when a fact so wonderful as a brasen serpent
erected in the wilderness, upon which who
soever looked was healed of the deadly effects
of a venomous bite, is asserted to have fore
shadowed, the lifting up of the Son of Man,f
and that, before the event occurred which
was to accomphsh the prediction : when the
miraculous preservation of the prophet Jonah
is declared in the same manner to have sig
nified the time, *%i^ which this prophet's body
should continue in the earth :B when the sa
crifice of the paschal lamb is set forth as a
symbol, which was to be " fulfilled in the king
dom of God:"h and when, upon a closer en
quiry, these, and numerous other alleged cir
cumstances in the history of the Jews, are
found to correspond both almost and altogether
with the life, sufferings, death, and resurrection
of Him, who founds upon that resemblance the
c John vi. f John iii. 14.
' Matt. xii. 40. h Luke xxii. 16.
Lecture I. 9
reality of his divine mission — we surely have
a proof of unity of counsel in the purposes
of God, of his Providence overruling and or
dering the events of this world so as to com
plete his designs, and of the inspiration of those
volumes, which, purporting to, contain his re
vealed will, exhibit this internal evidence of
their heavenly origin.
It must not however be denied that :• the
argument drawn from the fulfilment of types
requires to be applied with great caution.. It
has been contended that the very fulfilment,
which is the basis of our reasoning, is purely
imaginary : that it exists only in the fancy
of the commentator, who has mistaken acci
dental similarity for preconcerted design : that
the narratives of Scripture, when impartially
considered, afford no sufficient foundation for
the weight of proof which is laid upon them :
and that men of ardent minds have carried
the analogous method of allegorical interpre
tation to such excess as even to destroy the
truth of history. To such objections it will
be sufficient to reply that, in cautiously apply
ing typical illustration, we introduce no new
nor visionary scheme. This mode of interpre
tation is familiar to the age and country in
which the Scriptures were first published, it
is frequently adopted by the inspired writers;
10 Lecture I.
and was constantly used by all the Jewish in
terpreters of their law and prophets. In order
thoroughly to comprehend any writer, it is
necessary that we follow the direction which
he himself points out for our investigation,
even if it were at the hazard of being some
times exposed to error. The excess into which
both Jews and Christians have been hurried,
in their fondness for mystical interpretation,
may justly act as a warning to us not hastily
to draw conclusions from a source singularly
liable to abuse: but can never be produced as
a legitimate argument against all enquiry; or
as a reason for denying the validity of every
conclusion. No one will say that it was impossible for
the Almighty and All-knowing God to pre
figure events as well as to predict them. His
thoughts are not as our thoughts, neither are
his ways our ways.1 No one will say that
the Scriptures, which purport to be given by
His inspiration, contain no reference to such
prefigurations. They abound in every part of
the sacred volume.
A singularity of this kind, so far from being
an objection to the claim which these writings
make to inspiration, may almost be said to be
the natural consequence of a real revelation
1 Isai. Iv. 8.
Lecture I. 11
from heaven. Allowing it to be in any de
gree probable that the will of God should be
revealed, and preserved in written documents,
in the same degree is it probable that much
should be contained in them, with regard both
to the matter treated of, and to the manner of
treating it, different from what we meet with
in any other book whatever; and, certainly,
much which is different from the conventional
style of argument and arrangement adopted
by any particular nation in a distant age. In
a work proceeding from the Supreme Intel
ligence, from Him who changeth not,k we
might expect to find indications of unity of
counsel pervading the spiritual economy of all
ages, of which any records exist.
And this is what we do find in the Bible.
We may not be able strictly to follow all
the steps, by which it has pleased God to indi
cate the gradual developement of his one great
scheme. For "who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath
taught him?"1 Events, which are long to re
main hidden in the obscurity of future ages,
are predicted in the language of prophecy,
sometimes with the precision with which we
relate the past, sometimes in terms designedly
more obscure, sometimes in terms immediately
k Mai. iii. 6. ' Isai. xl. 13.
12 Lecture I.
referring to temporal events, but ultimately to
those which shall be completed only in the
fulness of time.
Men are also instructed, under the direc
tion of the Holy Spirit, by significant actions
as well as by words. The Almighty multi
plies visions and uses similitudes by the mi
nistry of his prophets."1
Again, the whole or a part of one man's
life, by a continuance of the same mode of con
veying information, is made prophetic of the
counsels of God, which are to be completed
in a subsequent age.
But all these various methods of instruction
are only modifications of the same general prin
ciple, the gradual display of unity of design
by a foreknowing and Almighty God. And
being commanded, as we are, to search the
Scriptures, we dare not leave unexamined a
most important branch in the interpretation
of the book of hfe.
While however we undertake the exami
nation of the wonderful connection of events
which we are taught to look for in Holy Scrip
ture, we must be especially careful that we
attempt not to be wise above that which is
written. There is perhaps no part of sacred
interpretation in which so much care is requi-
m Hos. xii. 10.
Lecture I. 13
»
site, that we may rightly divide the word of
truth." If once the mind, instead of being confined
within the sober limits of just interpretation;
be suffered to wander in the deceitful fields
of imagination, it may there build up for itself
a fabric fair to the eye, but having no simi
larity to that whose builder is God.
They who are puffed up with vain conceit
of their own understandings, and : would en
deavour to discover, in Scripture, mysteries
which others of less acuteness are unable to
discern — they who wish to support upon ap
parently scriptural grounds the corrupt super
stitions of men — they who have a design to
explain away the humiliating doctrines and
awful threatenings of Holy Writ — they who
would undermine the fixed faith of the believer
in the Gospel of truth — all these have had
recourse to some mystical interpretation as the
means of accomplishing their designs.
But the existence of a typical relation, be
tween any two events recorded in the Scrip
tures, by no means implies that either of them
is imaginary. The Old Testament, it is true,
prefigures the New Testament. But the events
of each are real. And the very connection
upon which our conviction of this prefigura-
" 2 Tim. ii. 15.
14 Lecture I.
tion is founded, is to be discovered from the
assertions of the Scriptures alone, and esta
bhshed upon the principles which they point
out. While, with humble faith, and reliance upon
God's Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds, we
search these oracles of truth, we have good
grounds to hope that we shall not search in
vain. But, even in the defence of our religion's
truth, we must beware that we intrude not
with vain curiosity into those mysteries which
the Divine wisdom has concealed. The ark
of God requires not to be stayed by the un
hallowed strength of man. And he, who, hke
Uzzah,° interposes an unbidden, much more
an unholy arm, incurs a degree of guilt, in
proportion to his arrogance and rashness.
A sincere reverence for the sacred Volume,
a singleness of heart, a humble and a docile
mind, equally removed from the temerity which
would obtrude its own unauthorized inventions
as the doctrines of revelation, and from the
timidity which would reject what is clearly
contained in the Scriptures, are required of
those who would interpret them.
They who so search the Scriptures wiU find
their labours repaid by a more enlarged insight
into the glorious scheme of redemption ema-
0 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7.
Lecture I. 15
nating from the free grace of God. They will
perceive the great design gradually displayed
to mankind by direct prophecy, by types and
prefigurations, all originally preparing the world
for the Saviour, who was ushered in with such
a pomp of witnesses, and now bearing con
tinued testimony to the reality of his mission
and the truth of his doctrines.
The object, then, of the ensuing Lectures
will be, to point out the connection between
typical interpretation and the general inter
pretation of the Holy Scripturesp — to shew the
proper use which may be made of this branch
of sacred criticism, the degree of certainty which
may be expected to result from such an en
quiry : the dangers which flow from its abuse —
the rules by which any investigation of this
nature should be conducted*1 — and afterwards
to arrange,1 and examine in detail,8 the more
prominent historical types which the Scriptures
contain. » Lect. II. i Lect. III.
r Lect. IV. s Lect. V— XIX.
LECTURE II.
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE INTERPRETATION
OF SCRIPTURE GENERALLY, AND THAT OF
THE HISTORICAL TYPES.
Matt. XXIV. 15.
Whoso readeth let him understand.
If a revelation of the Divine will is to be
made to the world, and to be delivered down
from age to age, some method must be in
vented or adopted, by which the ideas formed
in one mind may be accurately communicated
to another. It has pleased the Almighty to make use
of written language for that purpose.
The selection of this medium of intercourse
presupposes a language already existing, pos
sessing terms to which a definite meaning is
affixed, and these united according to esta
blished rules ; and also that the human writers
had received, either by language or by some
other means, a knowledge of the facts or doc
trines which they transmit.
Lecture II. 17
In order then to- understand the Scriptures,
we must attend to the circumstances which
have had the greatest influence in modifying
language : and this will lead us to observe the
different methods of interpretation, and their
mutual dependence.
Whatever may have, been the origin of: lan
guage ; whether the gift of utterance and the
knowledge of what was spoken were originally,
implanted in our first parents by. their Creator,
or the faculty were speedily acquired by the
use of those noble endowments of mature in
tellect, with which man was blessed when he
proceeded from the hands of God, created in
His own image, after His likeness : the power
of communicating its sentiments by speech was,
doubtless, one of the earliest acquirements of
the human mind.
But we have no reason to imagine that lan
guage was either imparted or acquired, at first,
in a state of greater . advancement than was
necessary for the limited intercourse of the
earhest ages of society.
The original progenitors of the human race
had few natural wants, and no artificial desires.
Every impression made by the senses was clear
and definite. Every instant opened some source
of enquiry before unnoticed: and the attractions
of all were enhanced by the graces which
B
18 Lecture II.
novelty imparts to objects otherwise indiffer
ent. Ideas, therefore, derived from objects of
sense would naturally be the first to which a
name was affixed; and their most simple re
lations the first which were expressed.
Soon, however, the invisible operations of
the mind within itself, the incomprehensible
spiritual nature of God, and of the soul, which
man could not but perceive within him, would
require to be discussed.
In order to effect this, a comparison would
be made in the mind, between the ideas, of
which the senses alone could convey no notion,
and those, of which the notion was already
acquired by the senses, and fixed by a word.
Thus terms, originally applicable to the out
ward senses, would be diverted from their first
meaning, and apphed to that which was con
ceived to bear some relation to it. Hence there
would soon be introduced a variety oi figura
tive terms.
In proportion to the simplicity, and it may
be said to the poverty, of the language, would
be the relative number of terms which had
thus acquired an adventitious sense. What
had been begun almost from necessity would
be continued by habit or by choice. And as
the powers of language were cultivated, men
Lecture II. 19
of ardent imaginations would discover beauties
in these figurative expressions. They would
find themselves and their hearers animated by
the sensible images presented to their minds :
and soon learn to cultivate as an art modes
of expression, which were rather to be avoided,
if possible, as conveying inadequate, if not er
roneous, conceptions.
The further cultivation of language would
probably tend to diminish the use of figurative
terms. Or, what is practically the same, they
would cease to be considered figurative. Meta^
phorical words would by degrees become fami
liar in their remote meaning; and at last cease
definitely to excite in the mind the primary
idea derived from the senses.
Experience appears to justify these conclu
sions. Whenever it has been possible to make
observations upon men in the rudest state of
society, their language has been found thus
to abound in figurative terms.
We need not then be surprized that, in
the recorded account of the events which oc-,
curred in the first ages after the creation of
the human race, we should find instances of
the greatest boldness of verbal imagery; espe
cially when there is occasion to describe the
things which belong unto God. In the very
sentence which the Almighty pronounced upon
b2
20 Lecture II.
the first murderer, the terms appropriated to
the bodily sense of hearing are apphed to the
intimation conveyed to the Lord respecting the
offence of Cain— " What hast thou done? the
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me
from the ground."3
Throughout the whole of Scripture, indeed,
it is principally in treating of the actions and
attributes of God, that figurative terms are
introduced in consequence of the imperfection
of language. The bodily parts, the affections,
and even the passions of animal nature are ver
bally ascribed to Him, who, as we also know
from Holy Scripture, is without parts or pas
sions, for "God is a Spirit."b
The language of Scripture must be the lan
guage of man, or it would not be intelligible
to man. I. In interpreting, then, simply the words
used in Scripture, the first difficulty wall be
to distinguish between those terms which are
literal, and those which are figurative.
This difficulty, however, extends to the
words only. The terms, whether literal or
figurative, do not necessarily involve any am
biguous or hidden meaning.
When it is said that Joab " took three darts
in his hand, and thrust them through the heart
1 Gen. iv. 10. * John i v. 24.
Lecture II. 21
of Absalom,"" the sacred writer expresses him
self literally. When it is said that " Joab per
ceived that the king's, heart was towards
Absalom,'"1 the same writer expresses himself
figuratively, although by an obvious and scarcely
perceptible metaphor. But the meaning in
tended to be conveyed is in each case clear:
and the ambiguity, if any, is only verbal.
II. But there is stiU another mode in which
words are used, which is, with less propriety,
sometimes called figurative.
The terms which are used may convey, in
addition to their original meaning, another
meaning of a nature totaUy distinct.
This is beautifully exemplified in Scripture
by many instances of fable and parable; in
which instruction is conveyed by means of a
fictitious narrative.
Jotham's parable of the trees, which went
forth on a time to anoint a king over them,e
is the earhest example extant of this method.
The parable which Nathan delivered to David/
that of the woman of Tekoah,8 and Ezekiel's
parable representing, under the image of two
eagles and a vine, the judgment which God
would bring upon Jerusalem,11 are also well
c 2 Sam. xviii. 14. d 2 Sam. xiv. 1.
c Judges ix. 8—15. f 2 Sam. xii. 1—4.
« 2 Sam. xiv. h Ezek. xvii. 1 — 10.
22 Lecture II.
known instances. And those of our Saviour
are so simple, varied, and expressive, that, in
dependently of their authority and holiness,
they must always be admired as perfect models
of this style of composition.
In every parable, in addition to the primary
literal sense, there is a secondary spiritual sense.
The literal sense expresses the similitude ; the
spiritual sense conveys the moral instruction.
The primary sense is verbally complete in itself.
But, in order fully to understand the mean
ing of the speaker, we must also discover the
instruction which these words are intended to
convey. The parable of the sower, for instance, re
lates in simple terms a series of ordinary oc
currences; the sowing of seed, with the pro
gress which it makes in its vegetation under
various circumstances. The spiritual meaning,
the thing signified, is the growth or falling
away of grace in the soul of man.
In the interpretation of parables, the literal
sense requires first to be explained : and, in the
explanation, terms may probably occur, which
will require to be distinguished as respectively
literal and figurative. The connection of the
spiritual sense with the general purport of the
literal sense must then be discovered, either
from the explanation which is given in Scrip-
Lecture II. 23
ture, from the context, or from a careful con
sideration of the occasion on which the parable
was dehvered.
III. But in the Holy Scriptures there occur
other passages, for the full understanding of
which, it is necessary to introduce principles
different from those of mere verbal interpre
tation. In all ages of the world, and especially in
the earlier stages of society, information of
events has been conveyed by expressive actions
as well as by words. And although written
language is the means by which we now have
the Holy Scriptures presented to us, this
method, so familiar to the inspired writers, and
often the very method in which they were
instructed in what they record, has had great
influence upon the phraseology of the sacred
volume; and occupies a principal part even in
the revelations which it has pleased God to
make to mankind.
A sign, as well as an articulate sound, may
be made the conventional indication of an idea.
And, when its meaning is once estabhshed, its
use will be even more expressive, and far more
general, than that of language. In the legal
transactions of almost all nations, in the transfer
of property, in the manumission of slaves, in
the administration of an oath, some bodily
24 Lecture II.
action has- been chosen to accompany and to
ratify the act. As early, at least, as the time
of Abraham, he who bound himself by an
oath put his hand under the thigh of him
to whom he sware.1 In hke manner there were
actions by which the several passions were ex
pressed. He who had seen Jacob, with his
clothes rent and with sackcloth upon his loins,
'would at once have perceived the affliction of
his soul, as well as if he had heard him ver
bally declare, " I will go down into the grave
unto my son mourning.""
By an extension of this method of convey
ing intelligence, the use of material emblems
was introduced, bearing nearly the same rela
tion to sounds that hieroglyphical symbols in
writing bear to syllabic or literal characters.1
It is not necessary for our present purpose
to dwell upon the effects which this very
curious circumstance has introduced. It has
been often noticed, that signs of a similar
nature were actually used in picture-writing:
were improved and familiarized : and that these
images were incorporated into the idiom of
the languages spoken by those who used
them. The style of the sacred writers is deeply
imbued with materials derived from this source,
1 Gen. xxiv. 2. xlvii. 29. k Gen. xxxvii. 34.
1 Herodot. IV. 131.
Lecture II. 25
in their intercourse with1 other eastern nations,
and especially with Egypt.1"
As long, however, as actions, symbols, and
allegorical words were used, to signify present
or past events, they were merely emblematical
representations of what might have been known
by natural means, and : expressed by articulate
sounds. But the same method was also applied to
predict future events. A very large portion
, of the prophetic parts of Holy Scripture treats
of instruction conveyed by action.
The sacrifice of Isaac was probably in
tended to give the Patriarch Abraham. intima
tion of the great events which it thus repre
sented." '
When Moses slew the Egyptian who smote
an Israelite," he did it not unadvisedly nor
hastily, but in order to shew by action,' under
the direction of God's Spirit, the deliverance
which was to be accomplished. " For he sup
posed his brethren -would have understood how
that God by his hand would deliver them."p
When Ahijah was commissioned to fore-
1 tei that the kingdom should be taken from
Solomon, he clad himself with a new garment,
1 and found Jeroboam in the way. " And Ahj-
m See Hurd on Prophecy. Serm. IX.
n See Warburton's Divine Legation. Book V. Sect. 5.
0 Exod. ii. 12. p Acts vii. 25.
26 Lecture II.
jah caught the new garment that was on him,
and rent it in twelve pieces.'"1 And he gave
ten pieces to Jeroboam, to signify by action,
as well as by word, that the kingdom should
be rent out of the hand of Solomon, and ten
tribes should be given to him.
When Elisha the prophet was fallen sick
of the sickness whereof he died, "Joash the
king of Israel came down unto him and wept
over his face."
The prophet, under the inspiration of hea
ven, proceeded to inform him by a symbolical
action, of the events which should come to
pass. He commanded the king to take bow
and arrows, and to put his hands upon them,
to indicate his war with Syria. And Ehsha
put his hand upon the king's hands, to shew
that victory came from God alone. He directed
him to open the window eastward, towards
the country beyond Jordan, which was then
possessed by the Syrians, and to shoot. And
the king shot. And the prophet said, " The
arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow
of deliverance from Syria : for thou shalt
smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have
consumed them. And he said, Take the ar
rows: and he took them. And he said unto
the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground.
,1 1 Kings xi. 30.
Lecture II. 27
And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the
man of God was wroth with him, and said,
Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times ;
then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst
consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite
Syria but thrice."1
The whole of this transaction was prophe
tical instruction by action. The king's hands
laid upon the bow, the prophet's hands laid
upon the king's hands, the arrow shot forth,
the smiting of the ground, were all intelligi
ble signs of what was to take place. Almost
the only words used were those by which the
prophet directed the king what he was to
do. In many instances the prophet of God was
commanded himself to perform actions signi
ficant of the events which the Holy Spirit
enabled him to foresee.
Thus Isaiah was commanded to loose the
sackcloth from off his loins, and to put off the
shoe from his foot: and, thus divested of that
part of his dress which designated his pecu
liar character,8 to walk for a sign and a wonder,
or rather as a type and a pattern,' concerning
Egypt and Ethiopia: thus indicating in his
own person the captivity and degradation of
r 2 Kings xiii. 14 — 19- s Zech. xiii. 4.
1 See Bishop Chandler's Defence, Chap. iii. Sect. 1.
28 Lecture II.
the Egyptians and Ethiopians, by the king of
Assyria." Thus Jeremiah^ by breaking a potter's ves
sel, in the valley of Hinnom, described to the
Jews who were present the destruction of
their city. By making bonds and yokes, and,
having first put them upon his neck, sending
them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon,
and Tyrus, he declared their subjugation to the
yoke of the king of Babylon.y And his last
recorded prophecy was an instance of the same
kind. , After writing in a book aU the evil
which had come upon Babylon, -he commanded
Seraiah to bind a stone to the book which he
had written, and, as he cast it into the midst
of the Euphrates, to say, " Thus shall Babylon
sink, and shaU not rise from the evil that
I wiU bring upon her:"z the very same sym
bolical action, and nearly the same words, as the
angel in the Apocalypse3 uses in prophesying
the destruction of the spiritual Babylon.
Thus also the prophet Ezekiel was unto
them a sign.
Among numerous other expressive actions,
he pourtrayed upon a tile the holy city and
its siege.b He caused a razor to pass upon his
head and upon his beard, and with the hair
u Isai. xx. 2 — 4. x Jer. xix. * Jer. xxvii.
' Jer. li. 64. R Rev. xviii. 21. b Ezek. iv. 1.
Lecture II. 29
he performed what the Lord commanded him,
as a testimony against Jerusalem.0 He pre
pared his stuff for removing, and dug through
the wall and carried it out thereby,4 and when
the house of Israel asked him, what doest thou?
his answer was, " I am your sign."6
Again, he ate bread with quaking, and
drank water with trembling and carefulness,
to set forth the desolation of the land, and
the captivity of Zedekiah and the people in
Babylon.' This method of conveying information was
so common, that even false prophets adopted
it as the most significant.
When a lying spirit went out to deceive
Ahab to his death, " Zedekiah the son of Che-
naanah made him horns of iron; and he said,
Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou
push the Syrians until thou have consumed
them."g In the New Testament the same method
is adopted. Agabus "took Paul's girdle and
bound his own. hands and feet, and said, Thus
saith . the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at
Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this
girdle."h
c Ezek. v. d Ezek. xii. 3, 5, 11.
' Ezek. xii. 11. ' Ezek. xii.«18.
e 1 Kings xxii. 11. h Acts xxi. 11.
30 Lecture II.
The vision of St. Peter is another instance
of a similar nature.1
Now allowing that some of the symbolical
actions, mentioned by the prophets of the Old
Testament with the boldness of poetical ima
gery, were transacted in vision only, many
are related as real with such simphcity of
expression, that we cannot regard the narra
tive as any other than the plain assertion of
a fact.k In such passages sober interpretation forbids
us to regard the recital as fictitious, or as re
presenting what took place in vision. We
must consider these actions as the familiar and
expressive mode adopted by the Spirit of God,
to declare to mankind events which should
afterwards be fulfilled.
IV. We are now led to a method of in
formation stiU more recondite than any of those
methods which have been considered, that con
veyed by a personal or historical type.
One person is an historical type of another,
when the real actions of his ordinary life de
signedly, by the Providence of God, prefigure
the real actions of the life of the person to
whom reference is made. And an event is
historically typical of a future event, when the
1 Acts s. 9—16.
k As Ezek. xii. 6—11. Isai. vii. Zech. iii. 8.
Lecture II. 31
first has the same designed connection with
the second.
This mode of conveying information differs
from a moral allegory or a parable, in which
the narrative is fictitious ; but is very nearly
allied to prophetical instruction delivered by
action, which is also sometimes called typical.
Those acts of the prophets, however, were
individual acts, avowedly performed for an
especial purpose. Some of them, as those
recorded in the first three chapters of Hosea,
might occupy a long portion of time ; but they
were not completely interwoven into the ordi
nary business of the prophet's life.
But the typical actions, which are to he
made the foundation of our enquiry, arose imme
diately out of the events in which the typical
person was engaged. They often formed part
of the daily occurrences of his hfe. The cha
racter in which he performed them was not
an assumed character, but his own.
As the prophet sometimes knew what events
he predicted, or set forth by a significant action,
so the person, who prefigured another, was
sometimes conscious of his typical character.
Sometimes, although he himself knew not
the fact, the connection was declared by the
spirit of prophecy before the events prefigured
came to pass.
32 Lecture II.
Sometimes, again, the person who typified
another was not even declared to be typical,
until after the antitype had appeared: but the
relation subsisting between them is ratified by
prophecy dehvered by him who was prefigured.
The Scriptures of the New Testament con
tain also many references to types in the Old
Testament, which were not declared to have
existed, until after the events which fulfilled
them had taken place.
In all these instances, if once the fact of
a designed prefiguration is estabhshed, we have
a species of prophecy of a most remarkable kind,
extending itself over successive ages, embodied
in the transactions of private and national history.
Thus then we find the Spirit of the most
High God accommodating its mode of opera
tion to human apprehension, adopting various
methods of instructing mankind ; and requiring
on their part corresponding pains to investi
gate and to comprehend His revealed will.
The word of God, as we possess it, is
a written word.
Hence there arise the difficulties of com
prehending the idiom of the languages in which
it is expressed; and of knowing the local cus
toms, manners, and laws of the people to whom
it was first delivered.
Lecture II. 33
In addition to the particular difficulties of
the original languages of Scripture, there are
others arising from the general structure of all
language. There are verbal difficulties arising from the
necessary use of figurative terms. There are
difficulties which arise from the allegorical use
of words, in parables and even in enigmas;1
and from the introduction of symbolical terms.
There are also difficulties which arise from the
substitution of pecuhar actions for words, either
to designate the past, or to foretel the future.
And there is an extensive class of real
events occurring, even when miraculous, in the
ordinary course of the lives of individuals, and
in the history of nations, which require to be
interpreted with pecuhar care, because they are
set forth to us as connected with other future
events, as prefiguring and prefigured, type and
antitype, shadow and substance.
The difficulties which occur in the inter
pretation of types are not merely verbal diffi
culties. When Christ is called "The Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world,"1" the assertion is more than the appli
cation of a metaphorical term.
Neither are the difficulties of interpreting
types altogether of the same nature as those
1 Judges xiv. 14. m John i. 29-
34 Lecture II.
which occur in the interpretation of parables.
The parables of Scripture are conversant with
fictitious events : types with real. The con
nection of the primary and secondary senses
in parables, may often be discovered by the
context, or by considering the occasion on which
they were delivered. The connection of typical
events with those which they foreshew, can
be determined by authority only. For unless
the Scripture has declared that the connection
exists, we can never ascertain that any resem
blance, however accurate, is any thing more
than a fanciful adaptation ; and we may go on
to multiply imaginary instances without end.
Supported, however, by such a declaration,
we may boldly take one stand ; and examine
with reverence and with care how accurate the
claim is. In this examination we shall tread
upon the confines of prophecy, and there re
cognize the infallible tokens of Divine fore
knowledge, and an overruling Providence. And
if at any time we approach those high things
of God, into which the very angels in heaven
desire to look," we must thence take occasion
not to indulge an unhallowed curiosity, but
to adore that inscrutable wisdom and goodness
which hath done so great things for man.
n 1 Pet. i. 12.
LECTURE III.
THE USE OF HISTORICAL TYPES AUTHORIZED BY
scripture: THE DEGREE OF ASSURANCE WHICH
MAY BE EXPECTED : THE DANGER OF ABUSE :
AND RULES OF INTERPRETATION.
2 Pet. iii. 16.
In which are some things hard to he understood, which
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do
also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Since it is asserted that the Sacred Writings
record events which are historically typical of
other events, this alone is a sufficient reason to
induce us to- examine them with care. And
the fact, if it be estabhshed, will afford a cor
roboration of the more direct arguments in
favour of the inspiration of the Scriptures.
It will be desirable, however, as a previous
step, to examine some of the grounds, which
the Scriptures afford to authorize such a re
search; to shew the use, which may properly
be made of the types of the Old Testament;
to point out some of the errors, which have
arisen from the abuse of analogous methods
c 2
36 Lecture III.
of interpretation : and to lay down the princi
ples, upon which any enquiry into them should
be conducted. I. The perusal of the Epistle to the He
brews is alone sufficient to convince any un
prejudiced enquirer, that the history of the
New Testament lays claim to a preconcerted
connection with the events recorded in the Old
Testament: that this connection consists not
in the mere casual similarity of circumstances,
is not produced by a perversion of facts to
satisfy a system of ingenious accommodation;
but is sometimes clear, decided, unequivocal:
so obvious that no one can deny the existence
of the claim ; so intimate as to pervade, at least,
all the peculiar institutions of the Jewish
people. The inspired author of that epistle, address-*
ing those who were most learned in the Jewish
law, all along considers the law given by Moses
as preparatory to the grace and truth which
came by Jesus Christ. He regards the law
as the shadow, the gospel as the substance : the
law as possessing only " the patterns of things
in the heavens," while the gospel possesses " the
heavenly things themselves."3
This connection is more fully shewn, by
a comparison between the word spoken by an-
" Heb. x. 1 . ix. '2l>.
Lecture III. 37
£els, and that " which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed by
them that heard him:"b by shewing the supe
riority of Christ, the high priest of our pro
fession, who was faithful as a son over his
own house, compared with Moses, who was
faithful, indeed, but in an inferior degree, as
a servant :v by contrasting the imperfect priest
hood of Aaron with the eternal priesthood of
Christ, after a more ancient and more exalted
order :d and by observing, that the tabernacle
and the sacrifices of the law were but a figure
for the time then present,6 an incomplete deli
neation of that greater and more perfect taber^
nacle, not made with hands, and of the sacrifice
of himself made by Christ to take away sin.
And the whole argument is concluded by ap
plying to the Christian dispensation, the object
of these prefigurations, the very terms origi
nally appropriated to the types which repre
sented them : as if the earthly Sion were iden
tified with the celestial mount which it re
presented, and the city of Jerusalem with the
courts of the kingdom of heaven :
" Ye," as Christians, " are not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burned
-with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and
" Heb. ii. 3. c Heb. iii.
d Heb. v. vi. vii. ' Heb. ix. 9.
38 Lecture III.
tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the
voice of words;" "But ye are come unto
mount Sion, and unto the city of the hving
God, the heavenly Jerusalem."'
Undoubtedly, there is found in the whole
of this Epistle an unhesitating boldness, in re^
ferring the historical types to their correspond
ing antitypes, which nothing but the authority
of inspiration can justify. And that interpreter
would be worse than injudicious, who should
presumptuously endeavour to found an argu
ment upon any aUeged similarities of a kindred
nature, which his unassisted imagination might
discover in the sacred volume.
But he who presumes to deny the exist
ence of all preconcerted connection, between the
history and ritual institutions of the Jews, and
the economy of the Gospel, acts a still more
unwarrantable part.
The reasoning and iUustrations of the Apo
stle were not denied by those to whom they
were addressed; men, be it remembered, ex
posed to all the seductions which the sophistry
of their countrymen could devise ; and, in many
instances, prepossessed with an opinion, which
their own Scriptures might have refuted, that
the laws and institutions of Moses were in
tended for perpetual obligation.
' Heb. xii. 18. 22.
Lecture III. 39
Now the Apostle' would not have had re
course to a line of argument, which might
have been in a moment refuted, had it been
unfounded, while he was so amply provided
with others, against which no possible objec
tion could have been alleged.
The same mode of interpretation, which is
adopted by the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, is occasionally used in other parts of
the sacred Scriptures. And no one can tho
roughly understand the whole revealed scheme
of Divine Providence, by which the world was
prepared for the coming of the predicted Mes
siah, without examining the historical events,
which are declared to have prefigured him.
The degree of connection between two cor
responding events, may vary, by minute shades
of difference, from clear and express prophecy,
to allusion or implied similarity. But, what
ever may be the weight of evidence, which
a careful examination of the Scriptures may
establish, the believer in the inspiration of
Holy Writ knows it to be his duty to search
all that is written in the Law of Moses, and
in the prophets, and in the Psalms concern
ing Christ.6 And even the unbehever would
expose himself to the charge of culpable neg
ligence, who should neglect well to consider
g Luke xxiv. 44.
40 Lecture III.
ah the circumstances by which a revelation is
asserted to be estabhshed, before he draws the
cheerless conclusion, that no revelation exists.
The question is not to be met with affected
indifference, nor with superficial cavils. It is
to be discussed with the care which an inter
est higher than the highest human concerns
demands; and with the seriousness and rever
ence which the nature of the investigation
requires. In the Scriptures we think we have the
words of eternal hfe.h And the testimony
which they bear to Christ, and Christ to them,
the consistency of so many complicated parts,
the unity of so extensive a design, from the
foundation of the world to that period when
the mystery of God shall be finished,1 is one
powerful argument, by which their pretensions
to a divine original are estabhshed.
II. The necessity, then, of consulting the
evidence afforded by the historical types of
the Old Testament, fulfilled in the person of
Christ, being assumed, let us consider the de
gree of assurance, which a proof of this nature
may reasonably be expected to possess ; and
the collateral benefits which may be derived
from our research.
1. Now a type mentioned in Scripture may
h John v. 39. » Rev. x. 7.
Lecture III. 41
not afford intrinsic irresistible evidence of in
spiration. If the connection of the events in question
be only slightly mentioned, the objector will
be ready to reply, that the application is fal
lacious : and, if the connection be expressly
declared, he will stih demand by what au
thority we beheve the infahibihty of those
Scriptures, on the divine inspiration of which
the certainty of the alleged connection entirely
depends. Upon those, who have learned to give a
reason of the hope which is in them, objections
such as these wih have little influence. The
pure and holy doctrines of their religion, the
miracles wrought, and the prophecies fulfilled
and fulfilling, have long since taught them the
divine authority of their Bible. And, know
ing this, they are confident, that whatever is
therein contained is truth. With us, therefore,
the assertion of Scripture is sufficient.
But, without referring any doubtful enquirer
to the other extensive sources, by which the
inspiration of the Scriptures is proved, we may
find, in the very consideration of the historical
types contained in them, intrinsic evidence of
their heavenly origin.
The mere assertion of any writer, that two
events, evidently similar in many remarkable
42 Lecture III.
respects, and occurring in different ages, are
connected in the relation of type and antitype,
affords no proof that the document which
contains the assertion is inspired; because the
necessary connection can be established only
by assuming that fact.
But ah the types of Scripture are not
thus founded upon a simple affirmation.
Some of them, as we shah hereafter see,
are so intimately connected with prophecy,
that the same historical evidence, which esta
blishes the existence of the alleged type and
its antitype, estabhshes also the prediction of
an event and its completion.
In such instances, the fulfilment of the pro
phecy cannot be separated from the fulfil
ment of the type. The accomplishment of the
predicted event proves the Scripture, in which
it is contained, to be given, as it purports
to be given, by inspiration of God: and we
therefore rely with perfect assurance upon the
connection of the type and antitype, which
that Scripture pronounces to exist.
The correspondence is sometimes also itself
the subject of prophecy ; and, therefore, is
necessarily preconcerted, and furnishes imme
diate proof of the inspiration of Scripture.
2. The historical types of Scripture tend
also to vindicate the ways of God to man, by
Lecture III. 43
shewing the importance of events, apparently,
trifling, when taken in connection with other
events, and forming a part of one grand de
sign. The arrogance or the presumption of men
has often represented some of the histories of
Holy Writ as unworthy of that dignity, which
their judgement would establish as the cha
racteristic of a revelation from above.
But " shall mortal man be more just than
God ?"k Those things which pass man's un
derstanding, and such are ah questions respect
ing the agreement of that which is clearly
revealed, with the incomprehensible nature of
God, it becomes not man to affect to judge.
The objection, however, is as futile as it
is presumptuous. For the confirmation of our faith, it has
pleased God to shew, that many of these events,
minute and insignificant as they may appear
to the inconsiderate mind, are in reality the
connecting hnks of that golden chain which
unites heaven and earth. In the place where
they are related, they may stand as solitary,
facts, which might be detached without appa
rently affecting the immediate coherence of the
narrative. But in the appointed time the Di
vine counsels are perfected. The event is
k Job iv. 17.
44 Lecture III.
declared and proved to have had some precon
certed reference to a future important event;
to have prefigured, to have typified it : to
have served in some measure to prepare the
minds of men for the revelation of the pur
poses and wih of God; and to afford proof
to all succeeding ages, that His will has been
revealed. 3. Another beneficial result, which may be
expected from a careful study of the types
contained in the Scriptures, is the conviction,
which they afford, of the continued Providence
of God overruling the affairs of the whole
world. Particular stress is laid upon the types, as
establishing this fact, because in them more
especially the fierceness of man is seen to turn
to the praise of God. If one person is, in
many respects, the designed representative of
another who shah afterwards appear, the events
of his life are necessarily so directed as to com
plete the design of the Almighty counsels.
It may be difficult to conceive how this
effect can be produced consistently with that
free agency, which alone appears to render man
an accountable creature. But such a difficulty,
which is not peculiar to these actions, alters
not the fact.
In the accomplishment of many of his pro-
Lecture III. 45
vidences, God moves in a mysterious way to
perform his will. But upon the hves of those,
who were ordained and declared to be types
of the glories which should hereafter be re
vealed, it has pleased his unsearchable wisdom
to stamp the visible impress of his sovereign
power. They are so manifestly led by His
hand through those passages of their lives, in
which they were made the hving models of
His future designs, that the most inconsider
ate cannot fail to acknowledge the existence
of a controlling power, regulating the compli
cated events and conflicting interests of the
world. 4. The types of Scripture shew also the
unity which pervades ah the ways of God in
his dealings with mankind.
From the very instant, in which Adam by
transgression fell, the same scheme of salva
tion was faintly discovered. The redemption
of fallen man by the death of Christ, the place,
the time, the manner of his birth; the nation,
the tribe, the family whence he should spring ;
the very persons who should first come for
ward as the representatives of the Gentiles,
to hail the new-born King, and to offer gifts :l
the circumstances which should accompany his
ministry, his death, his burial, his resurrection,
1 Psal. lxxii. 10.
46 Lecture III.
his ascension, were ah revealed to the world,
at sundry times, and in divers manners, by pro
phecy and by type. But the coming into the
world of a suffering and yet a triumphant
Messiah, in whom ah the prophecies and types
received their final completion, is the one ob
ject to which these magnificent preparations
had respect.
While then we attempt, with humility yet
with earnestness, to search the Scriptures in
Order to discover the prefigurations of Christ
which are contained in them, we may reason
ably hope to add somewhat to our confidence
in the faith which we profess, to perceive the
wisdom which has directed the minutest in
cidents recorded in Scripture ; and to discern
infallible marks of the continued Providence
of God, and of the unity of his eternal coun
sels. III. Still we must remember that, in in
vestigating the traces of designed coincidence
in the several histories of Holy Writ, we are
treading upon dangerous ground. The figura
tive interpretation of Scripture, which we thus
approach, is pecuharly hable to abuse.
Some have suffered their imaginations to
lead them so far astray, as even to consider
the historical parts of Scripture as nothing
more than an ahegorical recital.
Lecture III. 47
It is not perhaps so much to be wondered
at, that they who could find no other wea
pons, with which to attack the Christian faith,
should have had recourse to this extravagant
fiction. If one adversary ra could thus set aside
the recorded history of the fall of man, upon
the reality of which ah our knowledge of the
origin of evil is to be obtained — if another"
could, in hke manner, destroy that testimony
of Jesus, which the spirit of prophecy affords—
if the sober narrative, which sets forth the
splendid miracles of the Gospel, could be re
duced to the emptiness of mere allegorical
fables0 — and the history of Christ and his Apo
stles be treated as a mystical representation of
the great phasnomena of the natural world ;p
the very foundations of our religion must sus
tain a grievous shock. And they who believe
it to be their present interest, that the doc
trines of Christianity should not be true, nor
m Blount, in the Oracles of Reason, adopted this strange
hypothesis, proposed by Dr. Burnet of the Charter-house;
Archaeolog. Lib. II. Chap. vii. It is even used by Origen
against Celsus. Bp. Marsh, Lect. XVIII. See Jenkins' Rea
sonableness of Christianity, Vol. II. A similar principle of
mythical interpretation is favoured by many of the modern
German divines.
n Collins. ° Woolston.
p Volney. See Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, Book VI.
Chap. vi. Sect. III. 1. Sir W. Drummond in his (Edipus
Jtvdaicys, endeavours to support a fancy of the same kind.
48 Lecture III.
its threatenings a real subject of alarm, act,
at least, a consistent part, when they endea
vour to subvert it by such misrepresentations.
But, at an early period in the history of
the Christian Church, the very persons who
undertook the defence of our faith against its
adversaries, unadvisedly replied to their ob
jections, not only by sober argument and by
an appeal to the solid grounds of evidence,
but also by introducing the unsound princi
ples of mystical interpretation, already familiar
to the fanciful Jews, and to the subtle ex
pounders of the heathen mythology.
In later ages the same unwarrantable licence
has been used by injudicious men. Visionary
expositions of Holy Writ have been given by
those whose imaginations were misled by a
too great desire to penetrate into the high
things of God ; and its clearest narratives ex
plained away, from the vanity of those who
are wise in their own conceits, and would
measure the wisdom and the power of God
by the standard of human reason.
The sober interpretation of the historical
types in Scripture, has nothing in common
with errors such as these. The type is indeed
compared to the shadow, of which the anti
type is the substance: but the comparison is
made solely with respect to the degree of
Lecture III. 49
perfection in which the Divine will is dis
played, in two distinct series of real events.
Others have erred, without running into the
extreme of denying the reality of history, by
endeavouring to establish doctrines upon fan
ciful types, unauthorized by Scripture.
The church of Borne, having first proposed,
as a principle of interpretation, that Scripture
may have, in the same passage, more than one
historical meaning, and any number of mystical
senses9 which her ingenuity can discover, and her
authority establish, has made ample use of the
unhmited powers which she has thus usurped.
If some of her members,1 led away by a
sincere desire to do honour to the Sacred Writ
ings, have injudiciously applied illustrations,
and assumed a connection between events, for
which Scripture offers httle, if any, authority;
their error is to be lamented, and, if possible,
to be avoided.
But other interpretations have been ad
vanced, upon principles utterly subversive of
all sober use of the Holy Scriptures.
The creation of two great hghts,8 the one
q See Waterland, Preface to Scripture Vindicated. Glas-
sius Philologia Sacra, Lib. II. Part 1. Tract I. Sect. 2. Aug.
PfeifFer Hermenentica Sacra, Cap. iv. Sect. 1 — 10.
r Pascal is not always exempt from errors of this kind.
See his Pensees; seconde partie, Art. IX.
s Gen. i. 16. D
50 Lecture III.
to rule the day and the other to rule the
night, is interpreted, by the highest autho
rity of the Roman church,' to signify the su
periority of the pontifical authority to that of
any earthly sovereign."
The promise made to David, "I wih sta-
blish the throne of his kingdom for ever,"x is
adduced to predict the endless duration of the
papal power, of which David, and even Christ,
is assumed to be the type. The sacerdotal
tribe of Levi is asserted to be the figure of
the Roman hierarchy. And when Moses, in
ahusion to their impartial judgement upon the
idolatrous Israelites, pronounces a prophetic
blessing upon Levi, "who said unto his father
and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither
did he acknowledge his brethren," y he is con
sidered as authorizing the monastic vow made
by children even without their parents' con
sent. And the unhmited papal supremacy,
in its several branches, is declared to be pre-
' Pope Innocent III. Fecit Deus duo magna luminaria,
id est, duas dignitates instituit, quae sunt, Pontificalis au-
toritas, et regalis majestas : sed ilia quae prasest diebus, id est,
spiritualibus, major est altera quae noctibus, id est, carna-
libus : ut quanta est inter solem et lunam, tanta inter pon-
tifices et reges differentia cognoscatur.
u See Glassius Philolog. Sacra, Lib. II. Part 1. Tract II.
Sect. 3. Art. VI. and Sect. 4. Art. V. Luther on Gen. ix
Turrecremata — Summa de ecclesia, Lib. I. Cap. xc.
x 2 Sam. vii. 13. y Deut. xxxiii. Q.
Lecture III. 51
figured in the universal dominion which has
been given to man by his Creator, over the
beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and
the fishes of the sea.z
Other Christian interpreters have not alto
gether escaped similar errors.
The lion which met Samson in the way,a
has been fancifuhy set forth as a type of
St. Paul.b When Christ calls his disciples from
their nets, and promises to make them fishers
of men, he has been supposed, without any
scriptural authority, to represent the ordinary
occupations in which they had been engaged,
as designedly and minutely figurative of their
future exertions and success.11 And the avowed
existence of types, in some of the events of
the Old Testament, has induced visionary minds
to regard the whole history of the Jews as
a perpetual, uninterrupted representation of the
history of Christ and his Church : and to search
the Scriptures in order to discover traces of
those revolutions which have happened, and wih
continue to happen to the end of time.d
z Antoninus, Bishop of Florence, on Psalm viii. 7- Deus
omnia subjecit pedibus ejus, id est, pontificis Romani : oves,
id est Christianos, et boves, id est, Judaeos et haereticos,
pecora campi, id est paganos: pisces maris, id est, animas
in purgatorio. a 'Judges xiv. 5.
b Vitringa Observat. Sacrae, Vol. II.
c Lampe Prolegomena ad Evang. Joh.
d Joh. Cocceius : see Mosheim, Cent. XVII. Sect. 2. Part. II.
D2
52 Lecture III.
The mention of such dreams, put forth as
interpretations of the word of truth, is a suf
ficient refutation of them. But their existence
shews with what caution the Holy Scriptures
should be approached: and how careful we
should be not to go beyond the written word
of God to say less or more.
The imaginations of man are vain and un
substantial : the words, which God has spoken
unto us, they are spirit and they are life.6
IV. But even if we confine our attention
to the words of Scripture, it is necessary that
we do not attribute more than its just weight
to any particular branch of sacred interpreta
tion. The plain facts, the plain prophecies, the
plain doctrines of Scripture, are in themselves
sufficient to establish the inspiration, and, there
fore, the authority of the sacred volume. The
exphcation of the less obvious modes of proof,
however important, must be considered as sub
ordinate to these.
The fundamental articles of our faith, and
the rules for the regulation of our hves, are
revealed with the greatest plainness of speech.
They are comprized in a few simple words,
to understand which requires nothing but the
ordinary perception of right and wrong.
c John vi. 63-
Lecture III. 53
The innocence of our first parents, created
in the image of God ; their fall, and its grievous
consequences, the redemption of man by the
death of Christ, the means of grace afforded
him here, by the influence of the Spirit of
truth ; and the hopes of glory hereafter, through
faith in the sacrifice of his Redeemer — the
duties, which man is commanded to fulfil, as
proofs of the inward influence of religion in
his heart — to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with his Godf — to be
kindly affectionate one to another with bro
therly love,8 to do to ah men as we would
they should do to us,h to provide things honest
in the sight of ah men, and, if possible, to
live peaceably with them,1 to visit the father
less and widow in their affliction, and tb keep
ourselves unspotted from the world" — doctrines
and precepts such as these, are inscribed in
the sacred volume with such legible characters,
that he may run that readeth them.1
That which is thus plainly revealed is to
be made the standard, to which we must, if
possible, refer, in all doubtful interpretation
of the more obscure parts of Scripture : and
no figurative sense must ever be made to.con-
f Micah vi. 8. e Rom. xii. 10.
h Matt. vii. 12. Luke vi. 31. ! Rom. xii. 17, 18.
k James i.. 27- * Hab. ii. 2.
54 Lecture III.
tradict the plain hteral sense of any other
portion of Holy Writ.
This caution, which is necessary in the in
terpretation of all the figurative and allego
rical parts of Scripture, must be carefully borne
in mind in examining the types.
The observations into which we have been
led will also suggest other rules of typical
interpretation. The error of those who suffer their imagi
nations to suppose the existence of types where
they are not, should warn us that no action
must be selected as typical of another, unless
it be distinctly declared, or plainly intimated
in some part of Scripture, to possess that cha
racter. Again, the relation between an historical
type and its completion, must be considered
as a general relation, which does not necessa
rily extend to every minute particular. Simi
larity by no means implies equality. In the
typical action, there may be many circum
stances which have no place in the antitype:
especially when men, subject to passion and
often slaves of sin, were, in some parts of their
lives, made the figures of the spotless Son of
God. In the typical action there may also be less
than there is in the antitype. For the sha-
Lecture III. 55
dow of good things to come, could not be
expected to set forth, in its fulness, the per
fect image of those things.
There may also be, in different parts of
Holy Scripture, various types, ah having a
reference to the character and offices of Christ
and of the religion which he taught; but re
ferring to them in different respects and with
various degrees of precision. These partial
types, at the same time that they ihustrate
the great object to which they ah have fespedt,
support and strengthen one another.
Above ah, it must not be forgotten, that
no doctrine is to be taught, as necessary to
salvation, which is founded solely upon those
passages of Scripture which are typical.
These wonderful manifestations of the coun
sels of God, as gradually displayed to the
world, will be found in perfect accordance with
the great truths which are distinctly revealed
for our instruction, and upon which our faith
and practice are to be built.
We examine the prefigurations and types
of the Old Testament, as astonishing indica
tions of Almighty power, disclosing the myste
ries of futurity by means which human wisdom
could never have devised, nor unassisted human
agents have accomplished. We regard them
as one of the various modes by which our
56 .Lecture III.
heavenly Father has rendered visible, to his
servants upon earth, his intimate knowledge of
all future contingencies, and his ever watch
ful Providence over the affairs of men. We
admire the wonderful harmony which is thus
discovered in all the parts of the various dis
pensations, under which God's moral govern
ment has been displayed. We see the patriarchs
of old time, and the Israelites by their pub
lic and private history, by their law, and by
their prophets, alike having respect to Him,
in whom all the promises of God are yea, and
amen.m Pursuing with caution the traces laid down
in the book of truth, we know that we are
not fohowing " cunningly devised fables."11 We
see, it is true, much which is obscure : much
which we may wish to have more clearly de
veloped: much which our present . powers of
mind are perhaps unable to comprehend. Still
we permit not this acknowledged uncertainty, in
some points, to shake our well-grounded confi
dence in those things, which are clearly revealed.
Nay, difficulties, such as these, serve even
to animate the hope of further intellectual at
tainments in some future state.
God, who has made nothing in vain, has
yet endued man with an insatiable curiosity,
m 2 Cor. i. 20. ' n 2 Pet. i. 16.
Lecture III. 57
which is innocent, if exercised under due re
straint. Now every thing around us is sedu
lously adapted to the circumstances of its con
dition. The wants and desires of all animated
nature are confined to a limited scale : and
no more is required. Man alone forms an
exception to this general rule. In him alone
do we recognize desires of what is utterly
unattainable by the use of the faculties, which
he has received from his Creator.
How can this anomaly be explained ? Why
is this contradiction found in the body and
the mind of man himself? How is it that,
in the midst of a creation, in which every
other individual is endued with the very Avishes
which it is capable of gratifying, there should
exist a being blessed with faculties superior
to those of ah other creatures, which never
can be satisfied? Why do we find the eye
made to see, and the tongue to speak, and
the feet to walk ; but the active mind of man
continuahy grasping after conceptions which
it can never reahze — -vainly endeavouring to
seize what is incomprehensible, to circumscribe
infinity ?
Analogy itself would lead us to the con
clusion, that these high faculties were also in
tended to be satisfied: and, since experience
shews that they can never be satisfied here,
58 Lecture III.
that man will be, at least, capable of perfect
ing his knowledge hereafter.
But weak is the degree of assurance which
any mere reasoning can give, upon themes like
these, compared with the satisfaction which the
word of God affords. And upon this point
that word speaks as one having authority ;
"Now we see through a glass darkly; but
then face to face: now I know in part; but
then shah I know even as also I am known."0
° 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
LECTURE IV.
DIVISION of types
2 Tim. II. 15.
Rightly dividing the word of truth.
It has been noticed, that the historical types
of the Old Testament form only one of the
various methods, by which the Spirit of God
has, from time to time, declared his wih, and
revealed his designs to man. They were in
tended to foreshadow, by real events, other
real events which were afterwards to be ac
complished. In this view they may be considered as a
branch of prophecy: for, provided the infor
mation is clearly conveyed, it is evidently a
matter of indifference, whether God's foreknow
ledge of future transactions be indicated by the
words of inspired prophets, by the particular
significant actions which they perform; or by
the course of events in which they are natu
rally engaged.
60 Lecture IV.
If it be assumed, that the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments are given by inspi
ration of God, the arbitrary arrangement of
the historical types, contained in them, may
vary with the particular design with which
any enquiry into them is conducted.
But when the historical types of Scripture
are considered, in connection with prophecy,
as affording a corroboration of the other proofs
of inspiration, it is desirable to arrange them
in an order suggested by that connection, and
by the degree of proof which they are capa
ble of affording.
I. The first division wih contain those
which are the most nearly connected with ver
bal prophecy : those, if any, which are declared
to be prophetical at the time the type was
represented; or at any other period previous
to the appearance of the antitype.
The first part of these is very important,
as estabhshing, upon the most incontrovertible
grounds, the connection subsisting between the
type and antitype, and consequently the au
thority of the Scriptures in which they are con
tained. But it cannot be expected to con
tain many types. Historical types, by their
very nature, indicate future events more ob
scurely than verbal prophecy, or than those
symbolical actions which were performed for
Lecture IV. 61
the express purpose of foresbewing a particular
event. The connection of the type and antitype
may, after the events prefigured have come to
pass, be clear and intehigible, and evidently
preconcerted; and, if it be so, that fact is suf
ficient for the purpose which they were designed
to answer. But it is by no means necessary,
in order to prove this connection, that it should
be declared at the very period when the per
son appeared in the character of the type.
The difficulty, indeed, of conceiving how his
practical free-agency could be reconciled with
the extraordinary Providence, under which he
is avowedly placed, wih be nearly in propor
tion to the degree of knowledge, which he
appears to possess, of this peculiarity in the
circumstances of his life.
Accordingly, upon searching the history of
the Old Testament, we discover but one, or,
at most, but two persons, who, during their
hves, were declared to prefigure the events
which should occur in the Christian dispen
sation. These persons are Moses, and Joshua
the high priest, in company with his fellows,
as recorded in the book of Zechariah the pro-'
phet. 1. The well known prophecy, which Moses
received at the giving of the law, and deli
vered to the people of Israel before his death,
62 Lecture IV.
referring to a prophet whom the Lord God
should raise up unto them of their brethren,
hke unto him,3 at once points him out as a
person who, during some part of his life, was
aware of his own typical character.
The existence of the prophecy is indispu
table: the assertion of its fulfilment in the
person of Christ is express : and the comple
tion wonderfully accurate.
This one fact alone estabhshes, upon sure
grounds, the existence of historical types in
the dispensations of God's Providence ; and sets
in a clear point of view the intimate connec
tion which subsists between the interpreta
tion of types* and that of verbal prophecy.
2. The other typical person, who was de
clared to be so, during his life, was Joshua,
the high priest of the Jews, during the re
building of the temple.
When Zechariah the prophet was enlight
ened by the Spirit of God, to declare to the
Jews, desponding at the interruption of their
work," that the temple and its service should
reahy be restored, the information was con
veyed to the prophet0 by a vision, in which
Joshua the high priest appeared, arrayed in
the new vestments of his sacerdotal office, and
with a fair mitre set upon his head. In order
' Deut. xviii. 15. " Ezra v. c Zech. iii.
Lecture IV. 63
to shew the typical meaning of this vision,
the high priest and his fellows are declared
to be men of wonder, or men who appeared
as signs and types. And in order to deter
mine the person? who was to be the corres
ponding antitype, there fohows immediately
the prophecy, "for behold I will bring forth
my servant THE BRANCH;" a person dis
tinct from Joshua, and already well known
to the Jews by the prophecies of Isaiah and
Jeremiah, as the Messiah, the promised seed
of David, the rod that should come forth out
of the stem of Jesse, and the Branch that should
grow out of his roots.6
Now the restoration of the temple, and the
estabhshment of the high priest, took place as
was predicted. In this action, then, of his hfe,
Joshua was the declared type of the Messiah :
and it wih remain to be considered who was
the person who fulfilled the type, and com
pleted the accompanying prediction.
If it should appear, from the writings of
the New Testament, that this person was Jesus
of Nazareth, we shah have an additional rea
son to conclude, that he alone was the object
so often prefigured and predicted by the law
and the prophets.
d Ver. 8. See Bp. Chandler; Defence of Christianity,
Chap. iii. Sect. 1. * Isaiah xi. 1. Jer. xxiii. 5.
64 Lecture IV.
The fulfilment of prophecy establishes also,
more indirectly, the claim of other persons to
the character of historical types.
Thus the prophecy made by David of an
eternal priest after the order, or likeness, of
Melchizedec/ points out that extraordinary per
son as designedly prefiguring some future
priest, and king. And those prophecies which
appear to ahude immediately to David or
Solomon, but are apphed in the New Tes
tament to Christ, will give occasion to enquire,
how far such application imphes the existence
of designed connection between their hves, and
that of Christ.
II. The second division of types, wih
contain those which, although not prophetical
in the type, nor ratified by any subsequent
prediction, were stamped as authentic by the
seal of completed prophecy, in him who pro
fessed to be the antitype.
The history of the Old Testament records
some particular fact; without expressly stating,
that it had a designed reference to any thing
which should hereafter happen. The history
of the New Testament records the apphcation
which Jesus Christ made of this fact to him
self, during his ministry upon earth. But the
application is made by Christ with respect to
' Psal. ex. 4. Heb. v. 6. vii. 15.
Lecture IV, 65
some future event, entirely independent of
his own will; and afterwards accurately ful
filled. If this be estabhshed, it forms an intrinsic
proof of preconcerted connection in the events,
as well as of foreknowledge in the person of
Jesus. No greater evidence can be offered in favour
of superhuman knowledge, than the fact of
a person foretelling, with accuracy, the circum
stances of his own death. No greater evidence
can be given in favour of the sincerity of a
prophet so inspired, than the fact of his using
no means to escape from the malice of his
enemies, but voluntarily surrendering himself
into their power, although he knew ah things
which should be accomplished.
And when to this evidence of prophecy
there is added the evidence of miracle ; when
the conclusion, deduced from the apphcation
of typical illustration, imphes not only the
death, but the resurrection of the Prophet, and
states the very period, during which his body
shah be retained in the earth; and when all
this too is fulfilled to the very letter — we ar
rive at a degree of moral certainty, with respect
to the Prophet's claims, which none can resist,
without endangering the foundation of every
truth. E
66 Lecture IV.
Men may bring themselves to doubt any
thing. But they who approach the Scriptures
with a hearty desire to search whether these
things be so, wih weigh, indeed, with caution,
the evidence which these writings offer, but
will stih keep their minds open to conviction:
and being once convinced that they are given
by inspiration of God, they will hesitate no
longer to take them as the guide of their
faith, and the rule of their hves.
1. Under this division is to be placed, the
type of the brasen serpent, which was erected
in the wilderness by Moses, to heal the wounded
Israelites. The narrative of the fact by Moses8 is clear
and concise. It there stands as an isolated,
though wonderful, fact. The serpent itself is
long preserved as a memorial of the event:
and is destroyed by Hezekiah, in consequence
of an abuse arising from excessive and super
stitious reverence.11
At length appears a person known to be
a teacher come from God, by the miracles that
he performed, and therefore sought out and
visited at night by a ruler of the Jews. And
this teacher declares of himself, that " as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up."1
* Numb. xxi. 8, 9. '' 2 Kings xviii. 4. ' John iii. 14.
Lecture IV. 67
As it is predicted, so does it come to pass.
His death ensues, violent, painful, ignominious :
in the very manner which was thus predicted!,
probably at the very beginning of his ministry,
and certainly long before his enemies had ma
tured their schemes for accomplishing their
designs. The completion of the prophecy is here an
intrinsic proof of the authority, with which
the prophet expounded the word of God ; and
the exposition implies; at least, some precon
certed connection subsisting between the events
which took place in the wilderness, and upon
the hill of Calvary.
2. A similar allusion; although not so de
finite, is made by our Lord to the fact of
his violent death ; when he is discontsing, in
the synagogue of Capernaum, of the manna
which the Israelites ate in the wilderness.
" Your fathers did eat manna in the wilder
ness, and are dead.... I am the hving bread
which came down from heaven; if any man
eat of this bread he shah hve for ever: and
the bread which I will give js my flesh, which
I will give for the life of the world." k
Whatever be the degree* of correspondence,
which the discourse of Jesus implies, between
the manna and himself, we have here a dis-
k John vi. 49, 51.
E2
68 Lecture IV.
tinct prophecy of his own death, accompany
ing and ratifying his exposition of the Jewish
history. 3. The typical nature of the paschal
sacrifice is, in like manner, confirmed by an
ahusion which our Lord made to its fulfil
ment in the kingdom of God, at the time
when he dehvered a clear prediction of his
own sufferings.1
4. Again, the book of the prophet Jonah
relates his miraculous preservation for three
days and three nights ; his being swallowed
up, and his restoration to life and activity
at the end of that period.
The sacred volume soon closes upon the
prophet's history; and the narration is left
as one of those wonders, which it has pleased
the Almighty, from time to time, to display in
his dealings with mankind. But the fact was
not only a fact of wonder : it was intended
to prefigure a greater miracle wrought by a
greater prophet.™
An evil and adulterous generation came to
Jesus, and sought after a sign from heaven.
But Christ declared that no sign should be
given them but the sign of the prophet Jonas :
for as Jonas was three days and three nights in
the whale's belly, so should the Son of Man be
1 Luke xxii. 15, 16. '" Luke xi. 32.
Lecture IV. 69
three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth." The powers of darkness triumphed; and
Christ, by wicked hands, was crucified and slain.
His grave was appointed with the wicked:
but with the rich man was his tomb. The third
day came ; and Jesus rose from the dead : thus
realizing the prophecy which he had uttered, by
a miracle unheard of in any former prophet,
however favoured of God; and exhibiting the
full reahty of that design, which the prophet
Jonah displayed feebly, by the shadow of a
type. III. Types which are accompanied by pro
phetical declarations, either at the time when
they are exhibited, or before they are com
pleted in the antitype, become, if confirmed
by the fulfilment of the prophecy and the
correspondence of the prefigured events, an
intrinsic proof of the authority which declares,
or plainly infers, their mutual connection. But
the same proof, which estabhshes the authen
ticity of one part of the Holy Scriptures, neces
sarily tends to estabhsh that of the whole.
There wih arise, consequently, a third
division of the types mentioned in the Old
Testament, which are not supported by the
aid of verbal prophecy, either in the type or in
n Matt. xii. 40.
70 Lecture IV.
the antitype : such as are declared to be types,
either by express assertion, or by imphcit allu
sion, after the events have occurred, which they
were ordained to prefigure.
The connection is estabhshed solely on the
authority of revelation, the existence of that
revelation being founded upon previous proof.
Under this division may be classed the
numerous types contained in the levitical
sacrifices, and in the law of Moses, so fully
developed by the author of the Epistle to
the Hebrews.
Those passages of Scripture in which the
whole people of Israel, during the various
events of their national history, are represented
tp have, in some degree, prefigured the person
of Christ and the institutions of his religion,
will also suggest several instances.
It is true that types of this nature are
liable to be confounded with those events, in
the history of the Old Testament, which are
employed by the writers of the New Testa
ment, merely in order to elucidate the doctrines
which they inculcate.
If, however, an instance aheged as a type,
should to any one appear to be only an accom
modation, such an application of Scripture
history is neither fanciful nor useless. There
are to be found many passages in the Holy
Lecture IV. 71
Scriptures, in which the first teachers of
Christianity, apphed those methods of illustra
tion, which were famihar to their new con
verts, as the readiest mode of conveying in
struction, and touching their hearts.
If to us, who are familiarized with a differ
ent style of reasoning, any of their applications
should appear inconclusive, or the connection
difficult to be traced, we must beware that
the error rest not with ourselves : that we be
not mistaking the object of the Sacred Writers ;
and endeavouring to deduce from them that
which they never intended; — that we do hot
look for argument, where they propose illus
tration merely.
The Scriptures were given as the foundation
of ah that we are to believe, and ah that we
are to hope. But it requires no long study to
discern, that their aim is not so much to reach
the heart of man by first convincing his under
standing, as practicahy to influence his conduct
by engaging his affections. There doubtless
are found in Scripture the most convincing
proofs of a Divine original. Upon these it is
built firm and stedfast. And these evidences
must be diligently examined by all who would
be ready to give to those who ask them, a
reason of the hope that is in them.p There
' 1 Pet. iii. 15.
72 Lecture IV.
is found, in the volume of inspiration, matter
of unlimited enquiry. In its extensive regions
there are heights, which surpass the most exalted
flights of human intellect, depths, which the
most profound research can never fathom.
But, in the inspired writings, there is also
found much which must be felt as weh as
understood. And this influence upon the heart
of man is often conveyed, in Scripture, by an
appeal to the modes of thinking and acting
established among the people, to whom it is
immediately addressed.
These accommodations may not be adapted
to stop the mouths of gainsayers. Their cavils
are to be met, and the authority of the Scrip
tures is to be estabhshed, upon different grounds.
But the humble and faithful believer in the
inspired word wih hesitate before he denies the
justness of an application, which he knows to be
made by God himself. To him, the continued
allusion made, in the writings of the New
Testament, to the history and laws of the Old
Testament, will be a source of delight and satis
faction. It will disclose to him, in the trans
actions of all ages, one great, pervading, intel
ligent, superintending mind, carrying on the
most merciful and magnificent designs for the
recovery and salvation of fallen man. And he
wih learn to distrust that spirit of cavihing and
Lecture IV. 73
doubt, which would reduce all things to the
fallible decision of his erring reason.
IV. There wih still remain those numerous
alleged types, which are not expressly mentioned,
nor even alluded to, in the Scriptures, but have
been inferred from the narratives contained in
them. But whatever probabihty may attach to these,
and however useful the application of them may
be for reproof or for instruction in righteousness,
the connection between the two events, assumed
to correspond, can never be established with the
degree of certainty which is required, before
they can be produced in corroboration of the
writings in which they occur. A fertile
imagination may discern a similarity of cir
cumstances, while the proof of preconcerted
connection is entirely wanting.
If we consider the history of Joseph, sold
by his brethren, deposited in the earth, and
thence restored to life, reduced to the ex
tremity of distress, in that distress foretelling
the delivery of one of his fellow-sufferers, and
the destruction of the other, and, finally, raised
to great glory, and making his brethren par
takers of his exaltation ; we may perceive many
points of resemblance between his life and the
life of Christ.q But since it is no where asserted
q Pascal, Pensees, Partie II. Art. IX. §¦ 2. Prosper de
Promiss.
74 Lecture IV.
in Scripture, either openly or by allusion, that
Joseph is a type of Christ, we can establish
no conclusion upon such a similarity.
When Aaron the high priest, arrayed in
the robes of his holy office, puts on incense and
makes atonement for the people, standing be
tween the dead and the living, and the plague
is stayed:1 we cannot fail to recognize a
striking correspondence between this action,
and the offering made for the sins of the
whole world, by the great High Priest of our
salvation. But unless it can be shewn, that
the character of Aaron is in Scripture con
sidered typical of Christ, we shah fail in
estabhshing a designed correspondence in the
particular events.
Similar objections may be made to bringing
forward the history of Sampson as typical.6
Undoubtedly there are strong features of
similarity between his history and that of
Christ. Born in consequence of a miraculous
revelation, separated as a Nazarite from the
womb, rising in the night and carrying away
Promiss. et Praedict. Part I. c. xxix, quoted by Pearson on the
Creed, Art. V. It has been thought that Stephen alludes to
Joseph as a type of Christ, from a comparison of Acts vii. 51,
52. with Acts vii. 9. But the inference appears very slightly
founded. See W. Jones, (of Nayland,) Vol. III. Lect: 8.
' Numb. xvi. 47-
' Jortin, Eccles. Hist. Vol. I. p. 186. Vitringa, Observat.
Sacrsc, Vol. II.
Lecture IV. 75
the doors of the gate which defended the
hostile city, and victorious over his enemies
even in death; he unites in his own person.
circumstances of agreement with the corres
ponding events in the life of Christ, which we
can hardly imagine to have been entirely with
out design, when we know how other events
have really been connected by the Providence
of God. But the design being no where as
serted or implied in Scripture, the comparison
rests only on the authority of human inter
preters. Far be it from any one to discountenance
the temperate discussion of these and similar
points of resemblance to Christ, in the history
of eminent men recorded in the Old Testament.
The enquiry may be made the means of much
religious instruction, and may serve to shew the
similarity, at least, of the means, which the Pro
vidence of God has devised, in different ages,
to promote his designs. The minds of men
were, perhaps, thus led on and prepared for the
great revelation of the Gospel. The events of
Christ's birth, and ministry, and death, however
wonderful, were no new thing; no strange,
sudden deviation from the course of God's
Providence. In many instances the deahngs of
tke Almighty are unveiled in his word, and the
steps by which the Gospel dispensation was
76 Lecture IV.
prefigured are displayed. Probably in many
more the same great design was promoted
effectually, though secretly to us; and the
traces of it may be investigated, with advan
tage, by those whose leisure and attainments
enable them to undertake the task.
But our present enquiry, confined to those
historical types which may be considered evi
dences of the inspiration of Scripture, and
intentionahy ihustrative of the mutual con
nection of its several parts, wih exclude ah
those, either in the patriarchal or Jewish dis
pensation, in which the connection of the
events is neither expressed nor imphed in the
sacred volume.
It wih comprise only,
First, those which are supported by accom
plished prophecy, delivered previously to the
appearance of the antitype : or,
Secondly, those supported by accomplished
prophecy, delivered in the person of the anti
type : or,
Thirdly, those which in Scripture are ex
pressly declared, or clearly assumed, to be typi
cal, after the prefigured events had taken place^
LECTURE V
MOSES WAS A PREDICTED HISTORICAL TYPE OF
SOME GREAT PROPHET: AND THE TYPE WAS
NOT COMPLETED IN ANY PROPHET OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT.
Deut. xviii. 15.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto
me; unto him ye shall hearken.
When Moses, under the immediate inspira
tion of the Spirit of God, uttered this prediction
to the people of Israel, he gave a specific pro
phecy, to which their descendants were, in future
ages, to look ; and also indicated a remarkable
peculiarity in his own character.
He was already known to those whom he
addressed as their leader and deliverer, their
lawgiver, their prophet, and their priest. The
miracles which he had wrought, the manifesta
tions of divine favour which had been bestowed
upon him, had long pointed him out as an
individual eminently distinguished above his
fellows. They who had come out of Egypt, and they
78 Lecture V,
who had been born in the desert, however they
might occasionahy rebel, must equally have
acknowledged him to be endued with wisdom
and power from on high. The eye-witnesses
of the wonderful works, which he had per
formed before Pharaoh, could not doubt the
reality of his divine mission. They, who had
walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea,
and seen ah their enemies dead upon the sea
shore, could not forget at whose bidding the
waters had been divided, and the sea had after
wards returned to its strength. Nor could they,
who had trembled before the thunders of Mount
Sinai, have entirely shaken off the impression of
those terrors, by which the authority of Moses
had been confirmed. His wonders also in the
desert, which all had seen and known, must
have confirmed the young in their behef of
those more ancient things, of which their
fathers had told them.
Such was the Prophet, who was now de
livering his last injunctions to his country
men. At this concluding period of his ministry,
Moses was gifted with a greater measure of
the prophetic spirit, than he had exhibited in
the whole course of his past life ; and disclosed
to the people of Israel a fact hitherto concealed
from them : that his own actions, wonderful as
Lecture V. 79
they , were in themselves, and convincing, as
proofs of his own prophetic character, had
ah an ulterior object : that they were intended
to introduce and to prefigure the actions of
that Prophet, whom the Lord God should
raise up from among them, like unto him
self. This prediction of the future influences and
modifies the past also. When correspondence
with the several actions of Moses is laid down
as the criterion, by which he who fulfilled the
prophecy is to be tried, to those very actions is
ascribed, in some degree, a symbolical character.
The prophecy is a verbal prophecy. But the
connection between the first series of events,
in which Moses was engaged, and the second
series of events, in which the predicted Prophet
should be engaged, is strictly the connection of
historical type and antitype. The existence of
the prophecy proves, incontrovertibly, that the
similarity, if it be found to exist, is precon
certed: and the completion of the prophecy
involves also the completion of the type.
If, therefore, it should be found that Jesus,
both by himself and by his disciples, was
asserted to be this Prophet like unto Moses;
and that he alone fulfilled, in every respect, the
conditions which Moses prescribed; we shall
have a proof, at once from verbal prophecy and
80 Lecture V.
from typical prefiguration, " that Jesus was
Christ."3 This prophecy is so important in establishing
the claim of Jesus to the character of the Mes
siah, that the adversaries of Christianity have
laboured with more than usual earnestness to
prove, that it received its fulfilment in some of
the inspired persons recorded in the Old Testa-
ment.b Before we can enter, then, upon the
aheged correspondence between Moses and
Christ, it will be necessary to shew, from a con
sideration of the circumstances under which the
prediction was made, that it did not ahude solely,
or principahy, to any succession of prophets,
nor to any single prophet, raised up among
the people of Israel before the coming of
Christ. Moses delivered this prophecy to the
Israelites, when he was renewing, in the plains
of Moab, the enactments of their law ; and
reminding them of the circumstances under
which they had been made. But he had him
self received this prophetic intimation at a much
earlier period of his hfe.
The promise of a Prophet like unto himself,
a Acts xviii. 28.
" See Munster and Fagius on Deut. xviii. 18. Limborch,
Arnica Collatio cum erudito Judaea Secund. Script. Judaei,
p. 9.
Lecture V. 81
was evidently" first made to Moses at the solemn
delivery of the law upon Mount Sinai ; although
the prediction was not published to the people
of Israel until forty years afterwards.
The people, terrified at the display of God's
glory, desired that they might not hear again
the voice of the Lord their God, nor see that
great fire any more lest they should die. It
pleased the Almighty to acquiesce in the desire
of his people ; and to promise Moses, in their
name, even more than they desired. He per
mitted him to act as the mediator between God
and man, at the same time making a solemn
promise to Moses, of a future great Prophet
like unto him : " they have weh spoken that
which they have spoken : I wih raise them up
a Prophet from among their brethren hke unto
thee."d Forty years elapsed after this declara
tion to Moses, during which period that pro
phet, conscious that he bore a typical character,
promulgated his laws, performed many of his
miracles, and gave evident testimony of his
communion with heaven.
At the end of that time the same promise
was made to the people at large. Moses knew
that they were about to be tempted to ido
latry, by the nations among whom they should
c Compare Exod. xx. 1&. Deut. v. 27- xviii. 16.
d Deut. xviii. 17, 18. F
82 Lecture V.
be placed. He therefore warned uiem, mai
they should not learn to do after their abo
minations ; but that they should be perfect
before the Lord their God. That they might
be encouraged to preserve their fidelity to the
God of their fathers, Moses declared to them,
what the Lord had before revealed to him,
that a Prophet should be raised up like unto
himself, unto whom they should hearken.
Now the Almighty frequently vouchsafed
to deliver to his servants some splendid pre
diction of the future glories of the Messiah, as
an encouragement under sorrow, and a support
under imminent temptation.
The promise, that in him all the families of
the earth should be blessed, was first made to
Abram when he was called to leave his country,
and his kindred, and his father's house.8 The
hmitation of the kingdom to the tribe of Judah,
and the prophecy that Shiloh should cpme, was
also delivered at the time when the dying
patriarch Jacob left his descendants in a
strange land, in which they were afterwards
enslaved/ And the clearer predictions of the
later prophets were promulgated at a time of
captivity. It was therefore perfectly in accordance with
the usual mode of God's dealings, that his Holy
' Gen. xii. 1. f Gen. xlix. 10.
Lecture V. 83
Spirit should direct Moses studiously to select
this occasion for delivering to the Israelites some
direct prophecy of the Messiah, who is pre
dicted in no other part of the book of
Deuteronomy. Such a prophecy do we con
ceive to have been delivered in the words
before us; "The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee,
of thy brethren, hke unto me; unto him ye
shall hearken."
In discussing, then, this prophecy, it is
necessary to distinguish two distinct periods
of time. It was first given to Moses, when the people
desired to be defended from the terrors which
accompanied the publication of the law, and
desired a mediator to stand before them.
It was afterwards given by Moses to the
people, when he wished to warn them against
the temptation to idolatry, and the forbidden
arts of divination.
That the prophecy, as first revealed, applied
solely to the Messiah, there can be no doubt ;
and the immediate connection, which it thus
displays, between the law and the Gospel, is
most striking. But the opposers of Christ
ianity have altogether avoided the consideration
of the first delivery of this prophecy, and have
argued, from the circumstances which accom-
F 2
84 Lecture V.
panied its second delivery, that it points to
some more early completion in the immediate
successors of Moses, who were to possess a por
tion of the prophetic spirit, and make all those
without excuse, who should forsake the true
God, to hearken unto observers of times and
diviners. Now even allowing tbe truth of this asser
tion, it would by no means follow that the
prediction had no further intent. The voice
of inspiration speaketh not as man speaketh.
Since one person or one event is often design
edly prefigurative of another person or event,
it sometimes happens, that the prophetic lan
guage of Holy Scripture includes, in its com
prehensive meaning, the imperfect figure as
well as the "very image."g And if the cor
respondence between the predicted facts, and
the action of any Prophet who is selected as its
supposed object, be manifestly imperfect, we
must still look to some more favoured indi
vidual as the ultimate scope of the prophetic
declaration. Now the very terms of the prediction de
livered to the Israelites, which direct their
attention not to prophets, but to a single Pro
phet, appear to preclude the supposition, that
a succession of prophets, of nearly equal dig-
g Heb. x. 1.
Lecture V. 85
nity, was solely here promised to them by
Moses. If, however, it be yet contended, that
the words were completed in some one of the
long and illustrious line of inspired men whom
God did raise up, it must be shewn, that he
possessed the distinguishing characteristic, pro
posed as the authenticating seal of his claim,
similarity to Moses. Now the lawgiver of the
Jews was, in every respect, no ordinary man.
The hnes of his character are strongly and
decidedly marked : and resemblance to him, if
resemblance exist, is readily pointed out, and
easily recognized.
Among the holy men of old time, Joshua
and Jeremiah are the two persons who have
been most frequently- selected by the later
Jewish interpreters, each as the individual indi
cated in this prediction. But neither of them
wih bear the test, which the deliverer of the
prophecy himself proposes.
Joshua had been already selected from
among the Israelites, at the time when Moses
spake. He had been a minister to Moses when
he went up unto the mount of God.h He
had been declared to be a man in whom was
the spirit of wisdom :! and he had received,
by the imposition of the hands of Moses, a
h Exod. xxiv. 13.
1 Compare Deut. xxxiv. 9. with Numb, xxvii. 18.
86 Lecture V.
portion of his honour.k The especial commu
nications, which he afterwards held with God,
and the wonders, of which he was the faithful
instrument, were a continuance of the powers
which he had received, rather than indications
of a new commission. But the very words
of the prediction delivered by Moses imply,
that the Prophet hke unto him was a prophet
to be raised up, in some time subsequent to
that in which he was addressing the Israehtes:
and therefore could not have received their
fulfilment in Joshua, who had been already
set apart for the service of God.
Neither was Joshua in other respects a pro
phet like unto Moses.
There is, it is true, one point of resem
blance between these chosen men. The people
were to hearken to the predicted Prophet, as
they did to Moses. And, when Moses was
dead, " They answered Joshua, saying, Ah that
thou commandest us we will do, and whither
soever thou sendest us we wih go. Accord
ing as we hearkened unto Moses in ah things,
so will we hearken unto thee." 1 But with this
similarity as a military leader and deliverer,
the comparison ceases. However lax a mean
ing be attached to the term, like unto Moses,
k Numb, xxvii. 20.
1 Josh. i. 16, 17- See also Josh. iv. 14.
Lecture V. 87
no one could fulfil the conditions, who was
in reality not a prophet at all, in the highest
sense in which the appellation is used. And
it may reasonably be doubted, whether the
assertion, upon which much has been built,
that "Joshua was the successor of Moses in
prophecies," m can be advanced with truth. He
was, indeed, a man highly favoured by God,
as the appointed commander of His people.
But we no where read of his mind having
been enlightened with the knowledge of futu
rity. The time of a prophet's death was usually
that at which he was peculiarly gifted with
wisdom from on high. Especially at that hour,
when his friends were gathered around him,
before his departure, to receive his solemn in
junctions, the dimness which envelopes futu
rity was wont, if ever, to be cleared from the
mental eye. So was it with Jacob," with
Joseph," with Moses.p
But in the declining years of Joshua, al
though his dying commands are recorded, we
trace no distinct marks of such superhuman
prescience. When Joshua waxed old and was stricken
in age, he called for all Israel;' but it was
m Ecclus. xlvi. 1. n Gen. xlix.
° Gen. 1. 24, 25. p Deut. xxxiii.
q Josh, xxiii. xxiv.
88 Lecture V.
to remind them of the prophecies which Moses
had delivered; to impress upon their minds
their obligation to serve the Lord and obey
his voice; and not to add to those revelations
of future events, which had been so clearly
made by his predecessor.
Other instances might easily be aheged, in
which the comparison between Moses and
Joshua totally fails. But the Scripture itself
expressly refutes the notion, that Joshua could
be the person of whom Moses exclusively
spake. In the conclusion of the book of Deuter
onomy, when it is declared, that "Joshua,
the son of Nun, was fuh of the spirit of
wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon
him ; and the children of Israel hearkened unto
him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses ;"
there is immediately added, "and there arose
not a prophet since in Israel hke unto Moses,
whom the Lord knew face to face," or rather,
who knew the Lord face to face, " in ah the
signs and the wonders which the Lord sent
him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh
and to ah his servants, and to all his land:
and in ah that mighty hand, and in ah the
great terror, which Moses shewed in the sight
of Israel."1 At whatever time, before the clos-
r Dent, xxxiv. 9 — 12.
Lecture V. 89
ing of inspiration, this assertion was made, it
completely destroys the supposition, that Joshua
was the Prophet like unto Moses: and it
points out the hind of similarity which must
be looked for, in any person, who prefers a
claim to that character.
Considerations of a similar nature will con
vince us, that neither Jeremiah, nor any other
of the prophets recorded in the Old Testa
ment, ever reached the measure of the sta
ture which Moses attained. The wonderful
gifts of the Spirit were not poured out upon
him with a sparing hand. He was endowed
with greater powers than those bestowed upon
any of the other chosen instruments, whom
God ordained among his people.
The Jewish writers themselves8 distinguish
the degree of inspiration which Moses pos
sessed, from that enjoyed by ah the other
prophets. 1. When God spake to other prophets, the
revelation was made by dream or by vision.
" Hear now my words," said the Lord him
self, "if there be any prophet among you,
I the Lord wih make myself known unto
him in a vision, and wih speak unto him in
a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who
s See Smith, Discourse on Prophecy, Chap. xi. in Wat
son's Tracts, Vol. IV. Sherlock, Sermon VI. on Prophecy.
90 Lecture V.
is faithful in ah mine house. With him wih
I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently,
and not in dark speeches, and the similitude
of the Lord shall he behold."1 In this man
ner, the Lord before "spake unto Moses face
to face, as a man speaketh with his friend.""
It is, undoubtedly, difficult clearly to con
ceive the mode of communication indicated in
these words, between a man of hke passions
with ourselves, and God, whom no man hath
seen at any time,51 yet there surely is here
declared such an intimate communion with the
Most High, as is asserted of no other human
being. 2. When the other prophets received in
timations of the wih of the Almighty, their
human nature was often too weak to bear the
splendours which were displayed.
"I Daniel," says the prophet, "alone saw
the vision I was left alone, and saw this
great vision, and there remained no strength
in me: for my comeliness was turned in me
into corruption, and I retained no strength.
Yet heard I the voice of his words, and when
I heard the voice of his words, then was
I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face
toward the ground." y
( Numb. xii. 6—9. » Exod. xxxiii. 11.
"¦ John i. 18. y Dan. x. 7 9.
Lecture V. 91
But when Moses was permitted to con
verse with God himself, his physical and
mental powers were undazzled and unspent by
that celestial cohoquy. He went up into the
very presence of the God of the whole earth,
descending upon mount Sinai. With such
strength was he strengthened in his soul, that
the ineffable glories of the Divine splendour
shook not the settled firmness of his purpose
to obey the commands of God who called
him. Although he did exceedingly fear and
quake,2 he was yet enabled to retain his self-
possession. The people trembled, and " mount
Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the
Lord descended upon it in fire : and the smoke
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace,
and the whole mount quaked greatly. And
when the voice of the trumpet sounded long,
and waxed louder and louder, MOSES
SPAKE, and God answered him with a
voice." a
3. To the other prophets the power of pre
dicting was vouchsafed at intervals. The Lord
put a word into their mouth; and they then
spake as they were commanded. But with
Moses there seem to have been no such in
termissions. He was constantly blessed with
some portion of the prophetic spirit: and with
z Heb. xii. 21. a Exod. xix. 18, 19-
92 Lecture V.
the privilege of enquiring of the Lord, upon
all occasions of difficulty and doubt."
But the legislative character of Moses is
that by which he is most distinguished, from
ah the prophets of the Old Testament who
succeeded him.
Moses was, as a lawgiver, pre-eminent. The
laws which he promulgated were remarkable :
adapted to the peculiar government under which
the Israelites lived; enforced by sanctions such
as no one but an inspired prophet could im
pose; present success or immediate temporal
calamity, intended, and sometimes understood,
to indicate future reward or punishment.
Now of all the illustrious prophets whom
the Old Testament records, not one introduced
a new law. Not one, therefore, was a pro
phet like unto Moses, in this distinguishing
point of resemblance.
From the very circumstances, then, under
which this remarkable prophecy was delivered,
we have reason to conclude, that Moses is set
forth as an historical type of some one great
Prophet, who was to be raised up, and when
raised up should be known by his similarity
to him: and that the prophecy was not ful
filled in Joshua, nor in Jeremiah, nor in any
other of the prophets of the Old Testament.
" Numb. vii. 89. ix. 8.
Lecture V. 93
It wih remain to be shewn, on a subse
quent occasion, that Christ Jesus was the Pro
phet thus prefigured and predicted.
That fact, then, for the present being as
sumed, let us consider how the conviction of
it should influence our thoughts and our con
duct. The first feehng which a due consideration of
these facts must excite, is that of astonishment.
How far does a scheme of this magnitude
and importance, surpass every contrivance of
human wisdom. The law of Moses is repre
sented as most strictly connected, throughout,
with the Gospel, for which it prepared the
world. At the very time when it was first
delivered, Moses was taught to look beyond
its temporal enactments; to regard himself as
the representative of some greater Prophet, and
the ceremonies and rites, which were imposed
upon the Israehtes, as foreshadowing fuller and
better blessings.
To what degree the minds of Moses, and
of the more holy and spiritual among his coun
trymen, were enlightened, so as to discern in
the figures for the time then present6 the
reahties which they represented, it would be,
perhaps, in vain to enquire. But that he did
consider them in some degree symbolical, we
c Heb. ix- 9.
94 Lecture V.
can hardly doubt, knowing that he was " ad
monished of God when he went about to
make the tabernacle: for see, saith he, that
thou make ah things according to the pattern
shewed to thee in the mount."d As, there
fore, he at least knew the tabernacle and its
services to relate to the heavenly things which
he had seen in the mount, we cannot imagine
him to have been ignorant that the whole
law had also the shadow of good things to
come.' Neither did the fathers of old, in their
obedience to the law, look only for temporal
promises. Life and immortality were brought to light
through the Gospel ;f but some faint beams
of this latter glory had, at times, been im
parted to mankind, sufficient to guide their
steps, and to lead them onwards on their way.
" These all died in faith : not," indeed, " having
received the promises, but having seen them
afar off; and were persuaded of them and
embraced them."g But, whatever degree of
hope might, from this source, be derived by
the Jew, the continued intimate connection
between the law and the Gospel, since it has
been made clear by the Spirit of God, is to
d Heb. viii. 5. e Heb. x. 1.
f 2 Tim. i. 10. « Heb. xi. 13.
Lecture V. 95
the believing Christian a confirmation of his
faith, and a subject of contemplation most
striking and most wonderful.
But a material part of the law, given by
Moses, had a more individual object : an object
in which we, as men and as Christians, have
all the deepest interest. The very same moral
commandments, which the Lord spake unto
the Israelites of old, out of the midst of the
fire, Christ embodied in the precepts which
he commanded his followers to obey. It is
true, that no man may hope to be saved by
his obedience to these precepts ; " for all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God."'1
But it is also true, that no man may hope
to be saved without obedience : obedience, after
ah, interrupted and imperfect, but stih con
stituting the only external evidence which we
can give, that we are under the influence of
a rational, lively, saving faith.
The exposition, then, of the moral law of
Moses,- given by Christ himself, wih furnish
us with two brief, but comprehensive heads
of serious self-examination.
1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,
with ah thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with ah thy mind, and with all thy strength.
This is the first and great commandment.'"
h Rom. iii. 23. ' Matt. xxii. 37, 38. Mark xii. 30.
96 Lecture V.
Now when we retire to the secret cham
bers of our own hearts, and there examine
the hidden springs of action, what answer can
we sincerely return respecting the great lead
ing principle of duty, love to God? If this
love existed in proportion to its importance,
it might be expected to absorb ah other feel
ings : to engross all the affections which are
implanted in our hearts. As often as we re
flect upon the favours which we have received
from God, we ahow them to transcend ah
others. Our creation, preservation, and all the
blessings of this hfe, above ah, our redemp
tion through Christ Jesus, the means of
grace and the hopes of glory, are advantages
which no human benefactor can bestow, and
excite expectations which ho earthly objects can
raise. But it is a most humiliating proof of
the imperfection of our nature, that these
things, inconceivably great and important as
we confess them to be, do not, in fact, ever
affect us in a degree adequate to their mag
nitude : and often not at ah. There are many,
who were never once influenced simply by the
love of God, and the desire to please Him, in
any transaction of their lives. There are many
more, who profess to love God, and yet, when
ever the love of God and the desire of pleas
ing man are opposed, choose to obey man
Lecture V. 97
rather than God. Many feel a distaste for
every thing which tends to set God before
their thoughts: avail themselves of every plea
to excuse their neglect of his service, his word,
his ordinances ; avoid his house, refuse his
sacraments: pray not to Him for assistance;
praise Him not for benefits received. They
think of ah other things ; of their favourite
studies, their business, their amusement, their
advancement in the world: but in ah their
thoughts God is not." There cannot be a
stronger proof of the absence of the love of
God than this fact. What we love we think
of often. It frequently recurs to our minds,
whether we wish to reflect upon it or not.
It gradually gains possession of us ; influences
the whole train of our ideas ; regulates insen
sibly the whole course of our actions. Those
who forget, and those who neglect God, as
weh as those who deny Him, certainly can
not be said to "love God with all their heart,
and with ah their soul, and with ah their
mind, and with all their strength"— cannot be
said to love Him, in reality, at all.
In estimating, however, the degree of in
ternal love which different men may entertain
towards God, there is room for much uncer
tainty, and, what is worse, for much self-
k Psalm x. 4.
G
98 Lecture V.
deceit. But Christ himself has laid~down as
certain rule, by which our love to him, and
therefore to the Father,1 may be known: "if
ye love me, keep my commandments." m
If we recognize within ourselves an habitual
respect to the commandments of God, an earnest
desire to obey his will, a reverent fear of offend
ing him, a hearty repentance and deep remorse
for our past sins, and a firm resolution, by
his grace, to walk henceforth in newness of
life ; we have good reason to hope that the
love of God actuates our hearts, and to pray
that it may be increased.
If we perceive none of these signs, if we
are living in the commission of known sin,
deferring the day of repentance, encouraging
ourselves with the example of others, we are
still far from the love of God; and therefore
still wanting in a duty essential to our final
salvation. 2. Such is the first and great command
ment of the law. "And the second is hke
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself."" This is like it in importance; and in the
close analogy which it bears to it in practice.
Without the love of man the love of God
1 John xiv. 7- m John xiv. 1 5.
n Matt. xxii. 39-
Lecture V. 99
cannot exist. " If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar," saith St. John :
and for an obvious reason ; " he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?"0
A rule thus extending to all the friendly
offices and kindly charities of life, pervading
ah our intercourse with our families and the
world, intended to regulate the very desires
which give birth to evil passions and unholy
practices, is plain to be discerned and applied,
but difficult, indeed, to be satisfied. A minute
enquiry into our own hearts wih hardly fail
to discover numerous instances, in which we
have faded to comply with this standard. It
wih discover much self-love: much love of
worldly honours and vain distinctions; and
often but little of that disinterested love of
others, which the law of Mosesp and the more
perfect law of Christ,q expressly command.
¦ To a rule thus perfect, obedience is enjoined:
and to those who strive with ah dihgence to
comply with these conditions, is promised the
grace of God to assist their weakness, and to
supply their imperfection. Between the seve
rity of God's justice, and the sins of man,
there stands an intercessor, the Mediator of
0 1 John iv. 20. p Lev. xix. 18.
« Matt. xix. 19.
g2
100 Lecture V.
the new covenant, prefigured by Moses upoB
the holy mount.
While we have time, then, how earnest
should we be to obtain a personal interest in
the benefits which Christ has purchased for
us, "holding fast the profession of our faith
without wavering:'" using ah the means of
grace; "not forsaking the assembling of our
selves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another."3
The sanctions of the law of Moses were
awful in the extreme: the law of Christ is
established with stih greater authority. "He
that despised Moses' law, died without mercy
under two or three witnesses. Of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be
thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto
the Spirit of grace? For we know him that
hath said, Vengeace belongeth unto me, I will
repay, saith the Lord.'" Be it our earnest
prayer, that we may never know, by woful
experience, how fearful a thing it is " to fall
into the hands of the living God."u
' Heb. x. 23. • Heb. x. 25.
* Deut. xxxii. 35. Heb. x. 28— 30. " Heb. x. 31.
LECTURE VI.
CHRIST WAS THE PROPHET PREDICTED AND
TYPIFIED BY MOSES.
Deut. xviii. 15.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto
me; unto him ye shall hearken.
It has been already observed, that this remark
able prophecy, which was made known to Moses
at the dehvery of the law, and declared to
the Israehtes immediately before his death,
pointed him out as an historical type of some
one great Prophet, whom the Lord God should
raise up. And it has been concluded, from
a consideration of the circumstances accompany
ing its delivery, that it was not fulfilled in
Joshua, nor in any of the prophets of the
Old Testament.
In examining a prophecy, which we have
always considered to be fulfilled by a par
ticular event, we are subject to two errors
of different kinds. The one is, that our pre
conceived opinion may influence our judg
ment, and induce us to consider the corres
pondence between the prediction and the event
102 Lecture VI.
more accurate than it really is : the other, that
long familiarity with the plain circumstances
of the fulfilment may cause us to undervalue
that relatively inferior degree of precision, with
which the prediction is expressed.
It is, therefore, highly desirable to correct
our judgment, by enquiring what degree of
expectation any specific prophecy had excited,
before the event had taken place, which is
supposed to have been predicted. A prophecy,
indeed, which had excited no expectation pre
viously to its accomplishment, may yet be
sufficiently clear, when elucidated by the event.
The absence of expectation can form no suf
ficient ground of objection to the alleged ful
filment of prophecy, although its previous
existence is a strong corroboration of the con
clusion formed subsequently to the event.
Let us apply this principle to the prophecy
of Moses, which we are now considering. Let
us examine, whether any trace can be found
of the interpretation which the Jews put upon
it before the Christian eera : whether they con
sidered it to have been fulfilled in the prophets
of the Old Testament, or still looked forward
to some one Prophet, greater than all that
preceded him, who should be raised up, like
unto Moses. If it can be shewn, that such
an expectation existed, even after the sealing
Lecture VI. 103
of the book of canonical Scripture, Ave shall
have reason to believe, that the prediction was
in itself sufficiently clear; and that the inter
pretation, which the Jews would now put
upon the passage, is an invention of compa
ratively recent date.
One of the singular privileges conferred
upon Moses, was personally to answer the
questions of the Israehtes, in the same man
ner as the high priest is said, in after ages,
to have answered after the judgment of Urim,*
when enquiry was made on subjects of pub
lic importance.Again, one of the pecuhar titles, by which
Moses was known among the Jews, was the
Faithful Prophet. So God himself designated
him:b and by this very term, the Apostle,
addressing the Hebrews, and adopting their
estabhshed phraseology, shews the similarity
between Moses and Christ."
Now, in the second century before the
Christian aera, and after the cessation of pro
phecy in the Jewish church, we find that
there was stih an expectation of a Prophet,
who should return answers to enquirers, as
Moses did, and be like him, also, a faithful
prophet.
* Numb, xxvii. 21. 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15.
" Numb. xii. 7- Q Heb. iii. 2.
104 Lecture VI.
The first book of Maccabees, which, although
an uninspired composition, and not free from
error, may be taken, at least, as historical au
thority for the national acts and general opi
nions of the Jews at the time, on two occasions,
indicates this expectation.
When Judas and his brethren went up to
cleanse the sanctuary, and repair the altar, which
Antiochus had profaned, "he chose priests of
blameless conversation, such as had pleasure
in the law, who cleansed the sanctuary, and
bare out the defiled stones into an unclean
place. And when as they consulted what to
do with the altar of burnt-offerings which was
profaned, they thought it best to pull it down...
And laid up the stones in the mountain of
the temple, in a convenient place, until there
should come a Prophet to shew what should
be done with them," or rather, to return answer
concerning them.d
Now the gift of prophecy was known to
have ceased with Malachi : and no ordinary
prophet was expected, until Elijah should be
sent " before the coming of the great and ter
rible day of the Lord." e This public act, there
fore, acknowledging the hope entertained by
* /ac^oi tou napayei'riOrjvat 7rpo(ptjTtjv -tov a 7r OKptOtj va i
mtp\ avruiv. 1 Mace. iv. 12 — 40".
• Mai. iv. 5.
Lecture VI. 105
the Jews of a future Prophet who should re
turn answer, shews that, in their opinion, the
prediction which Moses dehvered, of a Pro
phet hke unto himself, was stih unfulfilled.
The same expectation is again discovered in
the remarkable reservation, which they made, in
conferring the government and priesthood upon
Simon, the brother of Judas, and his posterity.
The act of registry, written in tables of
brass, and set upon pillars in mount Sion,
declared that "the people of the Jews Were
weh pleased that Simon should be their
governor and high priest for ever," that the
dignity should be no longer personal, but
hereditary, "until there should arise a faithful
Prophet."f This passage, as well as the preceding, has
always8 been considered to indicate the con
tinued expectation which the Jews entertained,
' 1 MaCC xiv. 41. — etvai Siyudra tj^ov/ievov xai dpyiepea eh
tov aliSva era? tov dvac e'fti, avatr-
Trjaei a-ot Kvpios 6 Geo? o-ov.—TIpocpriTrjv ctvaa Trja- ta ai)™?.
Perhaps the term ek tov almva has also a reference to the
expected Age of the Messiah, of which the author of the
book of Tobit speaks in similar words : ewe wXtjpwdcSai naipoi
tov aiwi/o?. Tobit xiv. 5. The same mode of expression is
often used in Scripture; Psalm lxxii. 5, 17.' lxxxix. 36, 37.
Dan. ix. 27- Matt. xxiv. 3. Mark xiii. 4. Luke xxi. 7. See
Kidder's Demonstr. of the Messias, Part III. Chap. ix. p. 378.
e See Bp. Chandler's Defence, Chap. i. Sect. I, 2.
106 Lecture VI.
that some one great Prophet should appear.
And the specific ahusion to the very terms
of Moses' prophecy, and to their opinion that
the prophet so raised up should be a Faith
ful Prophet, identifies the object of their ex
pectation with him whom Moses predicted.
This expectation, first excited among the
Israehtes before the death of Moses, was thus
preserved among all their national calamities.
It survived after the voice of prophecy had
ceased: and served to animate their hopes in
ah the struggles which they maintained against
their numerous and powerful enemies.
The same expectation remained at the time
when Christ Jesus appeared upon the earth.
The council of the Jews, who sent to demand
of John the Baptist who he was, well read
in the prophecies of Malachi, first asked if he
were Ehas? And when he said, I am not,
they again asked, probably with ahusion to the
prophecy of Moses, Art thou that Prophet?11
They who were looking for the consolation
of Israel, and imagined they had discovered
him, could devise no words more apposite to
describe their conviction than those of Philip,
"We have found him, of whom Moses in the
law and the prophets did write." The peo
ple, trained up in the traditional knowledge of
b John i. 21. ' John i. 15.
Lecture VI. 107
the mighty miracles which Moses had wrought,
and taught to expect a prophet like unto him
in his sacerdotal and regal character, "when
they had seen a miracle which Jesus did, said,
This is of a truth that Prophet that should
come into the world :" and they were eager to
take him by force and make him a king."
The very conduct of the rulers of the Jews
to Peter, when he applied this prophecy of
Moses to Christ, may, in this part of the ar
gument, be brought to prove, at least, the
interpretation which the Jews generahy adopted.
Anxious as they were to destroy the rising
church of Christ, and perceiving Peter and
John to be unlearned and ignorant men, they
would at once have declared them to be but
setters forth of strange opinions, when they
heard them establishing their doctrines upon
this prophecy, had they then generahy received
the interpretation, to which the Jews of the
present day have recourse, that the words of
Moses were fulfilled in the prophets of the
Old Testament.
Even impostors took advantage of this ex
pectation, to deceive many, by pretending to
imitate the miraculous acts of Moses.1 And
the open avowal of some of the Jews them-
k John vi. 14, 15.
1 Joseph. Antiq. xx. 8. 1. De Bell. Jud. ii. 13. 5. Acts xxi. 38.
108 Lecture VI.
selves refers this prediction to the Messiah :
" It cannot be, but that a prophet shah at last
rise like to Moses, or greater than he : for the
king Messiah shah be as great or greater : there
fore these words, ' there arose not a prophet
since in Israel, like unto Moses,' are not to
be expounded as if there should never be such
a prophet, but that in all the time of the fol
lowing prophets, tih the cessation of prophecy,
none should arise like unto Moses. But after
that, there shah arise one hke him, or greater
than he."m
A prophet, then, hke unto Moses, who
should at once fulfil the prediction and the
type, having been so long promised, and so
continually expected, after the gift of prophecy
had ceased, and up to the very time when
Christ appeared, it is now to be shewn that
He was the person to whom the prophetic
words and actions of Moses had reference, and
that in Him they were completely fulfilled.
In the first place, then, Christ himself sup
ported his claim to the belief of the Jews, by
a reference to the prophecy of Moses. " Had
ye believed Moses, ye would have beheved me,
for he wrote of me."n Our Lord was, in this
discourse, asserting his title to the character
m The author of Sepher Ikarim, iii. 20. quoted by Patrick
on Djeut. xxxiv. 10. " John v. 46.
Lecture VI. 109
of the Messiah. He had appealed to the tes
timony of John ; to the greater witness of the
works which he did: he had instructed them
to search the Scriptures, which testified of
him: and he concluded his argument, with
alleging the predictions which Moses had de
hvered. It is surely, therefore, in the highest
degree probable, that Christ, preferring this
claim to be the Messiah pointed out generally
in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and
in those which Moses relates in the Penta
teuch, ahuded to this, the most pointed pro
phecy, which Moses delivered in his own person
and recorded in his writings; and which ah
the Jews considered to bear reference to their
expected great Dehverer.
After the resurrection of Christ, and the
miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon
the assembled disciples, the mind of St. Peter
was enhghtened with a fuller knowledge of
the prophecies and prefigurations of the Old
Testament. And in his address to the Jews in
which he persuades them that, in the death
of Christ, God had fulfilled those things which
he had shewed by the mouth of all his pro
phets, he cites verbahy the prediction of Moses,
as the most exphcit among the prophecies to
which he alludes."
° Acts iii. 18, 22, 23.
110 Lecture VI.
When St. Stephen was brought before the
council of tbe Jews, and was endued with such
supernatural wisdom and power, that the in
ward influence of the Spirit was even reflected
upon his countenance, he also adduced this pro
phecy of Moses, as affording the fullest con-;
firmation of the divine mission of Christ.p
To the believer in revelation; one express
assertion in the New Testament, that Christ
was the person who fulfilled any prophecy con
tained in the Old Testament, is, in itself, a
sufficient proof. No further certainty can be
added to perfect assurance. But when the com
pletion of prophecy is produced as a proof of
the divine authority of the books in which it
is found, the enquirer may reasonably desire
to be satisfied that the alleged correspondence
actually exists.
Now the first particular, which the predic
tion of Moses teaches us to expect in him
who should be raised up to fulfil it, is, that
he should be a Prophet hke unto him. And
in the fullest sense in which the terms can
be used, Christ Jesus was such a Prophet.
The title of prophet was, sometimes, given
to those holy men, who were inspired with
wisdom from above, and empowered to de
clare to the people the will of the Almighty.
p Acts vii. 37.
Lecture VI. Ill
That Christ was such a teacher sent from
God, the whole tenor of his blameless life, the
purity of his precepts, their wonderful adapta
tion to the precise wants, and secret weaknesses
which every one must feel in his own heart, and
the miracles which he wrought, sufficiently tes
tify. These alone were satisfactory proofs that
he was a prophet, in the estimation of those to
whom they were first displayed; before they
knew, what has since been shewn to the world,
the exactness with which ah the prophecies of
the Old Testament were fulfilled in him, and
the accuracy with which his own predictions
have been accomplished.
Christ takes compassion upon the widow of
Nain, whose son is carried out. He speaks, and
the dead revives. The conclusion, which the
eye-witnesses of this transaction drew, was
irresistible. "There came a fear on all: and
they glorified God, saying, That a great pro
phet is risen up among us."q The most
illiterate could not fail to reason accurately from
such premises. When a man blind from his
birth, who received his sight by the wih of
Christ, was asked what opinion he formed of
him that had opened his eyes; his answer
immediately was, " He is a prophet."1
But those inspired persons are with peculiar
» Luke vii. 16. * John ix. 17-~
112 Lecture VI.
propriety denominated prophets, who were
gifted with the power of foretelling future
events. Now the prophecies, delivered by Christ, are
unexampled in number and accuracy. Some
predictions, which should speedily be fulfilled,
were uttered to confirm his disciples' faith.
Other prophecies were delivered, which were
not to be fulfilled until a later period, but stih
at such a time, that they who heard the pre
diction were also the witnesses of its comple
tion. Christ foretold the influence which the
obscure fishermen, whom he selected as his
Apostles, should exercise, when they had
become fishers of men :s that they should have
power given them to speak with other tongues,
and to perform miracles;' and should "go
forth as witnesses unto him, both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth."" He foretold the
persecutions of his disciples in general," the
very mode of Peter's death :y and intimated
which of his disciples should survive the de
struction of the holy city.7
But the most remarkable of Christ's pro
phecies were those which he delivered respecting
¦ Matt. iv. 19. Mark i. 17. ' Luke xxiv. 49. Mark xvi. 17.
n Acts i. 8. * John xv. 20. Luke xxi. 12.
' John xxi. 18. z John xxi. 22.
Lecture VI. 113
himself. That he should be betrayed by one of
his own disciples,7 denied by another,3 forsaken
by ah;b that Jerusalem was the place appointed
for his death,0 the Jews the cause,* the Gentiles
the instruments;6 that they should mock, and
spitefully entreat him, and scourge him, and
spit upon him, and crucify him ; that the third
day he should rise again ;f that after his re
surrection he should appear to his disciples,
in Galilee;8 that he should again ascend into
heaven,h and thence send another Comforter to
abide with them for ever1 — ah these circum
stances, which could be conjectured by no
analogy, nor fulfilled by any collusion, were '
repeatedly declared to his disciples, at first by
obscure intimations, and, at the last, in terms
the most clear and express.
Other prophets have been illuminated with
the Spirit of God. Others have dehvered to the
world predictions which have been fulfilled in
% John vi. 70. xiii. 21, 26. Matt. xxvi. 21. Mark xiv.
20, 42.
" Luke xxii. 31, 32. John xiii. 38.
" Matt. xxvi. 31. John xvi. 32.
c Matt. xvi. 21. xx. 18. Luke xviii. 31.
d Mark viii. 31. x. 33. Luke ix. 22.
* Matt. xx. 19. John iii. 14.
f Luke xviii. 31 ...33. Matt. xvii. 22. John ii. 19, 21. x. 17.
Mark x. 34. viii. 31.
B Matt. xxvi. 32. Mark xiv. 28.
h John vi. 62. xvi. 28.
' John xiv. 16. xvi. 7- H
114 Lecture VI.
distant ages. But a series of declarations so
explicit, respecting the very person in whom
they were accomphshed, often by the instru
mentality of hostile agents, is sought for in
vain, even in the pages of revelation.
But the similarity, between the prophetic
character of Moses and that of Christ, wih ap
pear most visibly, by comparing the prophecies
which each delivered of the very same event;
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the disper
sion of the Jewish nation.
The prophecy of Christ is not merely an
application of the previous prediction of Moses.
Circumstances are added which prove it to be
an original prophecy. That of Moses is desti
tute of any marks of time. That of Christ
specifies the very generation in which it shall
come to pass. The prophecy of Moses was ful
filled in more than one event which happened
to the Jews. That of Christ was fulfilled, in
its temporal sense, only by one, signal, catas
trophe. The event referred to was future, both with
respect to Moses and to Christ. Whether,
therefore, Christ intended to ahude to the pro
phecy of Moses or not, his prophetic power was
equahy apparent. He singled out, from the
various vicissitudes to which the people of the
Jews were subjected, one specific age, not yet
Lecture VI. 115
distinguished by any remarkable signs of the
times, which could lead to a conjectural apphca
tion of Moses' prediction, as the period in which
the destruction of Jerusalem should take place.
And that generation did not pass away until all
was fulfilled.
The celebrated prophecy of Moses, contained
in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy,
is, doubtless, one of the most remarkable which
the Old Testament records. Before the Israehtes
had set foot in the land which they were to
inhabit, and fifteen hundred years before the
final completion of the prediction, the Spirit of
God enabled Moses to discern and characterize
the nations of the world, which as yet existed
not, and to foresee the fate of the cities of Judea,
before their foundations had been laid. His
prediction is not, indeed, delivered in terms of
positive affirmation. He lays before them a
blessing and a curse: but, with a prophetic
consciousness of their disobedience, he dwells,
with an accuracy painfully minute, upon the
miseries which they should endure, if they did
not observe the words of the law which are
written in the book."
This prophecy has received, and is stih
receiving its completion, with the most won
derful precision, in the dispersed and afflicted
k Deut. xxviii. 58... 68
H2
116 Lecture VI.
people of Israel. They are scattered "among
ah people from the one end of the earth
even unto the other :" and among those na
tions they find no ease, neither doth the sole
of their foot have rest : but they have had, and
still have, " a trembling heart, and fading of
eyes, and sorrow of mind:"1 and they are
become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by
word, among ah nations whither the Lord has
led them.m Wherever we go forth on the face
of the whole earth, there we meet the suffering
remnant of the Jews, existing every where as
a separate people, and nowhere as a nation, Uv
ing evidences of the prescience with which God
had endued his servant Moses, and monuments
of Divine wrath.
But there arose one greater Prophet than
Moses, who predicted the same events in
stih more definite and authoritative tennis.
Both prophets designated the most fatal
enemies of Judea, by a pointed ahusion to
their eagle," the ensign of their armies, and the
emblem of their rapid march. Both foretold a
siege in ah their gates. Both predicted their
dreadful sufferings in that siege.0 Both declared
1 Deut. xxviii. 64, 65-
m Deut. xxviii. 37-
" Deut. xxviii. 49. Matt. xxiv. 28. Comp. Job xxxix. 30.
" Deut. xxviii. 52 ... 57. Matt. xxiv. 21. Luke xix. 43.
Lecture VI. 117
that Israel should be led away captive into all
nations ;p and both clearly intimated the fact,
of which we are ah this day eye-witnesses,
that they should in their dispersion be stih
known among ah the people of the earth, unin
corporated with the general mass of society,
" trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfihed.q"
So far the prophecies of Moses and of
Christ are similar. But to that delivered by
our Lord are added circumstances, which
indicate a fuller knowledge of the Divine
counsels than was unfolded to Moses.
The immediate object of Moses1 was to
caution the Israehtes against general dis
obedience ; that they might observe ah the
words written in that book; and therefore
might be ready to hear that Prophet hke
himself, whom in that book he had just pre
dicted. The object of Christ was to forewarn
his disciples, that when they saw these things
coming upon the land, he that was in Judea
might flee into the mountains, and they that
were in the countries not enter thereinto/ He
adds, therefore, definite marks of time, and
signs which should precede the threatened de-
v Deut. xxviii. 25. ' Luke xxi. 24.
i Deut. xxviii. 65. Luke xxi. 24.
1 Matt. xxiv. 16. Luke xxi. 21.
118 Lecture VI.
struction. He predicts false Christs and false
prophets : " he warns them not to be terrified at
wars and rumours of wars, and commotions, for
that the end is not yet.' He 'prepares them to
expect earthquakes in divers places, and famines,
and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great
signs from heaven." And he predicts the per
secutions which they should endure, and the
success which the Gospel should attain," be
fore the days of vengeance should come, that
ah things which were written might be ful
filled/ The prophecies of Christ were not vain
words. The Providence of God has so ordered
the course of the world, that we have stronger
historical evidence of their minute, nay, verbal,
fulfilment, than can, probably, be produced to
attest the completion of any other prediction.
The weak subterfuge of a pretended fabrica
tion, subsequent to the event, is ah that the
advocates of infidelity can oppose to a proof of
Divine authority so complete.
But we have not, I trust, so learned Christ.'
We have learned to recognize in him, the object
pointed out by ah the prophecies, and types,
and ceremonies of the law: to acknowledge
' Matt. xxiv. 5, 24. Luke xxi. 8. ' Luke xxi. g. Mark xiii. 7-
" Luke xxi. 11. " Mark xiii. 10.
v Luke xxi. 22. ' Ephes. iv. 20.
Lecture VI. 119
him to be the long expected Prophet like
unto Moses.
But shah we have learned all these things
in vain ? Shah ah this goodly train of holy
men and inspired prophets, have prepared the
way for " The Prince of peace,"3 and yet
our reception of him be confined to a cold
and barren acknowledgement of his presence?
Shah we confess Christ with our hps, while
we deny him in our lives ? We believe Christ
to be the Prophet so long predicted and pre
figured: so ardently desired by the Israehtes
of old : so rapturously welcomed by ah among
his own nation who looked for the consolation
of Israel ; and by many devout worshippers
of the Gentiles. We believe that " there is
none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved."b We know
the command, " Let every one that nameth
the name of Christ, depart from iniquity."0
Shah then any of us stih live as without a
Saviour, and without God in the world?
The state, in which we are placed as Christ
ians, is a state full of comfort, if we wih use
the means, which, through the mercy of God,
we possess.When Moses left the world, he promised
a Prophet like unto himself. And in Christ
* Isai. ix. 6. b Acts iv. 12. c 2 Tim. ii. 19.
120 Lecture VI.
Jesus such a Prophet came. When Christ
left the world, he promised his disciples not
to leave them comfortless, but to send them
another Comforter/ And, as on this day/
the Holy Spirit was poured out upon ah
flesh. The same Spirit, which visibly descended
upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost,
stih invisibly aids, strengthens, and supports
the faithful Christian in the discharge of
his arduous duties. The Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, and maketh intercession for
us/ But as the assurance, that God's Holy
Spirit is ever present with us, represents the
Christian's hfe as fuh of comfort, it also repre
sents it as a state of peculiar responsibility.
" Know ye not," says the Apostle, " that ye
are the temple of God; and that the Spirit
of God dweheth in you ?" g The body of man
is henceforth a living temple, devoted to the
service of God, in which his Spirit continually
dwells. It may not, without great sin, be pro
faned by deeds of unhohness and impurity ; it
may not be made the lurking-place of passion,
nor the abode of lust. "If any man defile
the temple of God, him shall God destroy:
d John xiv. 16, 26.
c This Lecture was delivered on Whitsunday.
' Rom. viii. 26. g 1 Cor. iii. 16.
Lecture VI. 121
for the temple of God is holy ; which temple ye
are.'"1 The Christian is no longer his own : he
is bought with a price : and therefore is com
manded to glorify God in his body, and in his
spirit, which are God's.1 These commands are
addressed to all Christians in ah ages: to the
young as well as to the old. They bend not to
the sudden impulse of headstrong passion, nor
to the stubborn obstinacy of habitual vice.
They represent our members as members of
Christ; and our personal offences, as direct
offences against him who is of purer eyes
than to behold evil, and cannot look on ini
quity/ By a hfe of purity God is glori
fied : by a hfe of impurity he is set at
nought. " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a hving sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service."1 Pray to
him to set a watch before your mouth, and
to keep the door of your lips,m that ah things
which offend and defile the man may be
rejected, and that ye may be "builded to
gether for an habitation to God, through the
Spirit." "
h 1 Coy. iii. 17- '1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.
k Hab. i. 13. ' Rom. xii. 1.
m Ps. cxli. 3. n Ephes. ii. 22.
LECTURE VII.
CHRIST FULFILLED THE PROPHECY AND TYPE OF
MOSES ; 1. IN COMMUNICATION WITH GOD'.
2. IN MIRACULOUS POWER: 3. IN AUTHORITY.
John V. 46.
Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me ;
for he wrote of me.
In the Scriptures of the Old Testament, we
are not only taught that a prophet should be
raised up, who should fulfil the verbal pro
phecy of Moses, and therefore complete the
type of his person; but we have also an inti
mation* of some of the features of resemblance,
which the predicted prophet should possess:
1. That he should, as Moses did, know God
face to face :
2. That he should perform signs and won
ders, such as the Lord sent Moses to do in
the land of Egypt:
3. And that he should be endued with
* Deut. xxxiv. 10, 11, 12.
jECTURE
VII. 123
visible authority, as Moses was, in ah the
great terror which he shewed in the sight of
ah Israel. That Christ was, in the fuhest sense of the
words, a prophet like unto Moses, has been
already proved. Our Lord, therefore, appealing
to signs of future events which accordingly
came to pass,b fulfilled the very conditions,
which no false prophet could fulfil;" and, con
sequently, was a Divine teacher, to whom those
who were addressed were required, at least, to
hearken. This one proof of inspiration invests
ah his words with the character of infallible
truth. We may now, therefore, use the assertions
of Christ himself as evidences, not merely that
he declared himself to have been similar to
Moses, but as proofs that the facts which he
states were certain, and his inferences just.
I. The first criterion of similarity, which
the Scriptures of the Old Testament teach us to
expect, in him who should fulfil the prediction
of Moses, is, that he should have a more intimate
communion with God, than any other inspired
prophet. This was the marked distinction of
the type; and must, therefore, be the dis
tinction of the antitype.
Now in the whole series of prophets re-
" John xiii. 19- xiv. 29- c Deut. xviii. 22.
124 Lecture VII.
corded both in the Old and New Testament,
Moses and Christ alone are found to have
held communion with God, without the in
tervention of dream or vision. Moses was
permitted to converse, face to face, with the
angelic Being who represented the invisible
God: and at his own earnest request, was
favoured with some more clear revelation of
the glory of God, than was at any other time
vouchsafed to man/
Upon the authority of Moses, known to
be a prophet of God by the wonders which
he performed, we beheve and know that these
things are so.
Upon the authority of Christ, similarly at
tested, we also beheve and know that what
he declares of himself is true.
It is not necessary, for our present purpose,
to dwell on the mysterious union of two dis
tinct natures in the person of Christ, which is
so clearly revealed in Holy Writ. But the
passages which declare that doctrine, necessarily
imply that the intimate communion, which
subsists between Christ and his heavenly Fa
ther, is incomparably superior even to that
which Moses enjoyed. Of them that were
born of woman there was not a greater than
John the Baptist;" and he declares of Christ,
d Exod. xxxiii. 18 ...23. ' Matt. xi. 11.
Lecture VII. 125
that " God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto him."f Jesus is called, " the only-begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father."8
Christ declares of himself, what is said of no
other person angehc or human, "the Father
loveth the Son, and sheweth him ah things
which himself doeth."h And he plainly as
serts, that he alone hath seen the Father.1
There are two events, in the histories of
Moses and of Christ, closely connected with
the intimate communion which each held with
the spiritual world, and exhibiting, very clearly,
the correspondence of the historical type with
the prefigured antitype.
When the Lord delivered to Moses the law
upon Mount Sinai, the Prophet was there forty
days and forty nights. And when he came
down from the mount, the glories of heaven,
with which he had been so long conversant,
were, in some faint degree, reflected upon his
countenance. The very skin of his face shone,
and the people were afraid to come nigh him/
Many ages elapsed, and this wonderful event
stood alone in the history of. the world. No
prophet appeared like unto Moses; none who
made the least pretensions to such a Visible
token of heavenly communication.
' John iii. 34. B John i. 18. h John v. 20.
' John vi. 46. k Exod. xxxiv. 30.
126 Lecture VII.
But the event foreshadowed upon Mount
Sinai, was completed upon Mount Tabor.
Christ went up into the mountain to pray
with his three disciples, and was transfigured
before them. "His face did shine as the
sun, and his raiment was white as the light."1
Moses himself, the representative of the law,
and Elias, the chief ofthe prophets, "appeared
in glory, and spake of his decease which he
should accomphsh at Jerusalem."1"
All the circumstances attending these two
events, corresponded in a remarkable manner.
The skin of Moses' face shone. " The
fashion of Christ's countenance was altered ;"
and his face did shine as the sun.1' When
Aaron and ah the children of Israel saw
Moses coming down from the mountain of
Sinai, they were afraid to come nigh him/
And when Christ came down from the mount
ain of Transfiguration, " straightway ah the peo
ple," says St. Mark, " when they beheld him"
with some rays of majesty and glory stih re
maining upon his countenance, "were greatly
amazed ;"p the very expression which the same
1 Matt. xvii. 2. ™ Luke ix. 31.
n Luke ix. 21. » Exod. xxxiv. 30.
* Mark ix. 15. Ilac 6 o-yXoi llmv clvtov egeBanfttjdt].
Comp. Mark xvi. 5. Ela-eXdovaat eh to fivrmelov, eTSov veavta-Kov
Kadtjuevnv Col. ii. 9. n Matt. vii. 29-
138 Lecture VII.
times, but rarely, he ahuded to the works which
he had performed, and to the prophecies which
he fulfilled, as testimonies of the reality of
his Divine mission. But more frequently he
laid down his maxims with imposing autho
rity. " It has been said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt per
form unto God thine oaths. But / say unto
thee, Swear not at ah."0
Such was the tone of independent com
mand with which Christ issued his moral pre
cepts. Other prophets were wont to reiterate the
assertion of their inspiration ; and to impress
upon their hearers the remembrance, that what
they spoke was, in reahty, the command
of God. They often commenced, or con
cluded, their exhortations, with the assevera
tion, " Thus saith the Lord ;" or with some
phrase of the like import. Such asseveration
was very natural, and quite conformable to
what we might expect from those who spake
under authority of the highest kind, felt by
themselves, and acknowledged by those whom
they addressed. The prophets thereby appealed
to the strongest confirmation which human
testimony could receive. How is it then, that
we meet with no one instance of this kind in
0 Matt. v. 33, 34.
Lecture VII. 139
the discourses of Christ ? It is not because he
knew not the mind of the Lord. For he
dwells upon the majesty and power of God,
upon the influence of the Holy Spirit, upon
the various mansions of his Father's house, hke
one who speaks that which he knows, and
testifies that which he has seen/ Yet his ad
vice, his exhortations, his warning, his threat
ening, although enforced with unparalleled
seriousness, and with the most earnest and
affectionate warmth, are stih advanced upon
the sole authority of his own word.
How can we account for this anomaly in
the conduct of one, who was indisputably a
prophet sent from God? It was not a pe
culiarity of the gospel dispensation. For the
Apostles and disciples of Christ recur to the
same method of enforcing their assertions which
the old prophets adopted; with this singular
addition, that they quote the words of Christ
himself as the last authority, from which hes
no appeal. " Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus,"9 was a command to their converts, at
once acknowledged and obeyed.
If Christ were merely a prophet, such as
the other inspired men were, how can we re
concile this uniform assertion of independent
authority, with the meekness and humility
p John iii. 11. '' Acts xx. 35:
140 Lecture VII.
which ah his actions displayed? If he were
only a teacher sent to enlighten the world,
by instructing them in a purer morality, and
a more spiritual worship, why should he stu
diously avoid introducing a sanction, which ah
other prophets justly considered as adding to
their reasonings and precepts the authority of
immutable truth? Upon one principle only
can the difficulty be solved : that Christ, the
glorious antitype, of which Moses and many
others were the imperfect type, spake by his
own authority: that there was in him a power
greater than had ever been vested in any human
being, however favoured by the inspiration of
heaven : that, therefore, he spake as never
man spake ;r that, therefore, the words which he
dehvered, "they are spirit, and they are hfe."s
2. In the performance of his miracles, the
authority of Christ is as conspicuous as in his
teaching. Calm, dignified, collected, he but speaks the
word, and the powers of nature obey. There
is no appearance of effort or constraint ; no
elaborate preparation, no studied effect.
Christ, and his disciples, entered into a
ship. " And there arose a great storm of
wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so
that it was now fuh. And he was in the
' John vii. 46. ! John vi. 63.
Lecture VII. 141
hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow :
and they awake him, and say unto him,
Master, carest thou not that we perish? And
he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto
the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm."
With reason might the disciples, who wit
nessed this, fear exceedingly, and say one to
another, "What manner of man is this, that
even the wind and the sea obey him?'"
In the synagogue of Capernaum, there was
a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil.
And Jesus rebuked him: and he came out.
And they who witnessed it "were ah amazed,
and spake among themselves, saying, What
a word is this ! for with authority and power
he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they
come out.""
We cannot, by the exertion of our finite
intehect, pretend to appreciate omnipotence.
But an intrinsic power, such as is here exer
cised by Christ, over ah the operations of
nature with which we are conversant, calm
ing the seas, and stilling the winds, and con
trolling those, evil spirits, of which we can think
only with a feehng of indefinite terror ; and
conveying the same authority to those whom
he would, does seem, not only to complete
< Mark iv. 36—41. u Luke iv. 33—36.
142 Lecture VIL
the highest idea we could form of a Prophet
hke unto Moses, in ah that mighty hand which
he shewed in the sight of ah Israel; but as
approaching to that power of the Almighty
and Eternal God, immeasurable, and incompre
hensible, by the boldest conceptions of human
imagination. 3. This highest degree of authority, which
the very circumstances would lead us to as
cribe to Christ, is confirmed by the express
assertion of Holy Writ.
When Jesus had completed ah that was writ
ten of him, and finished the work which God
sent him to do ; when he had, by his ignominious
death and glorious resurrection, for ever proved
himself to be the very Christ, he addressed
these plain words to his assembled disciples,
before he ascended visibly in their presence
into that heaven whence he came down. "Ah
power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth."" It is impossible for language to ex
press more precisely a fact of immense im
portance. He now, at least, speaketh plainly,
and speaketh no proverb/ Here is no ambi
guity, no figurative construction, no forced
inference. The meaning cannot be mistaken:
and the authority thus ascribed to the person
and commands of Christ is such, as excludes
x Matt, xxviii. 18. > John xvi. 29-
Lecture VII. 143
the supposition of any superior. He, who has
ah power in earth, has a right to the obe
dience of man : He, who has ah power in
heaven, has a prerogative which is peculiar
to God. At a much earlier period of his ministry,
Christ declared his authority in terms equally
express ; with the addition of the pecuhar nature
of the power given to him, as the Judge of
all the world. "As the Father hath hfe in
himself, so hath he given unto the Son to
have hfe in himself; and hath given him au
thority to execute judgment also, because he
is the Son of Man."2
Before authority such as this, all earthly
splendour and power sink into absolute insig
nificance. They are but the glimmering of the
morning-star, fading away before the glorious
rising of the day-spring from on high.
In the fulness of time, then, there did arise
a Prophet in Israel hke unto Moses, whom
the Lord knew face to face; hke him, also,
in the signs and wonders which he did, and
in the authority with which he was invested.
And that Prophet was Jesus of Nazareth.
Knowing, therefore, that these things are
' John v. 26, 27-
144 Lecture VII.
so, what manner of persons ought we to be
in ah holy conversation and godliness?3
The great terror which Moses exhibited,
was unexampled upon earth; and we may, in
some measure, conceive the dread with which
the Israelites received a law introduced by such
awful sanctions. We read, with a mixture of
pity and regret, the history of their wilfulness,
and obstinacy, and sin; and we almost wonder
that, after having witnessed such an impressive
display of God's power, they should yet have
forsaken his ordinances, and given no conti
nued credence to his word. We read of the
warnings which they had received by the
voice of God's Prophet, and of the judgment
which overtook them in their sins ; and are
almost tempted to regard such infirmity of
purpose, as an unaccountable instance of more
than ordinary weakness. But while we con
template the fate of those who were disobe
dient to the law of Moses, let us not over
look our own neglect of a law, purer in its
nature, and still more awful in its sanctions.
Moses spake to the people of Israel the
words of God's law. Christ has spoken unto
us often; by his word of revelation, by the
warnings of his Providence, by the inward
admonitions of our own consciences, by afflic-
a 2 Pet. iii. 11.
Lecture VII. 145
tion in ourselves, by the example of the fate
of others. But although he so speaks, it is
at the present possible for man not to hearken ;
and many do not. Many refuse to hear him
that speaketh : some, through negligence, some
through wilfulness, some through the impe
rious slavery of their sinful passions. We may
not altogether disbelieve : few comparatively do
that : but thousands, who profess the faith, have
yet an evil heart of practical unbelief. Their
faith restrains them from no evil, leads them
into no good word nor work. For a time, a
very short time, we may thus delude ourselves.
But it is a delusion from which we shall sooner
or later be alarmingly awakened. The autho
rity, which Christ claims, is no speculative au
thority ; to be merely reasoned upon and talked
about: it is an authority which will hereafter
be seen, and known, and felt by every soul
of us, before men and angels. " Marvel not
at this ; for the hour is coming, in the which
ah that are in the grave shah hear his voice,
and shah come forth ; they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of hfe; and they
that have done evil unto the resurrection of
damnation."" These are words of most awful import: let
not the frequency with which we hear them,
* John v. 28, 29-
K
146 Lecture VII.
diminish their effect upon us. They open a
scene, beyond ah comparison, more fearful
than any that was ever disclosed before the
eyes of man. They place before us a blessing
and a curse ; hfe and death ; the ineffable
joys of heaven ; the unknown but dreadful
torments of those dreary regions, where the
worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.
While it is cahed to-day, then, "see that
ye refuse not him that speaketh : for if they
escaped not who refused him that spake on
earth, much more shah not we escape, if we
turn away from him that speaketh from hea
ven."0
* Heb. xii.5.
LECTURE VIII.
CHRIST WAS PREDICTED AND TYPIFIED BY MOSES,
1. AS A LAWGIVER! 2. AS A MEDIATOR AND
PRIEST : 3. AS A KING : 4. IN OTHER POINTS
OF RESEMBLANCE.
John V. 46.
Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me,
for he wrote of me.
We have already attempted to establish the
accuracy of this assertion of our Lord, by com
paring some of those points of resemblance,
which the Scriptures lead us to expect, between
Moses and the Prophet who should be raised
up hke unto him. We have observed, that
Christ was hke Moses by being a prophet ; by
holding intimate communion with God; by
his power of working miracles ; and by the
authority which he displayed. But there still
remain some striking peculiarities in which
Christ, and no one else, accurately completed
the type exhibited in the person of Moses.
Let us for the present, therefore, direct
k2
148 Lecture VIII.
our attention to this similarity displayed in the
character of Christ;
I. As a Lawgiver;
II. As a Mediator and Priest;
III. As a King;
And in some other more minute circum
stances of correspondence.
I. The character of a lawgiver is a very
obvious feature, which has been shewn to dis
tinguish Moses from every other prophet re
corded in the Old Testament. Yet no pro
phet could be said to be like unto Moses, who
was unhke him in this particular : and the pro
phecies of the holy volume continually taught
the people to expect some fuller, more per
fect, and more general law to be dehvered, by
a Legislator commissioned from above.
Centuries passed away after the giving of
the law of Moses : and still the voice of pro
phecy warned the people that they were to
look to another law, an everlasting covenant/
" It shall come to pass in the last days," says
Isaiah, " that the mountain of the Lord's house
shah be estabhshed in the top of the moun
tains, and shah be exalted above the hills : and
all nations shah flow unto it. And many peo
ple shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house
* Jer. xxxii. 40.
Lecture VIII. 149
of the God of Jacob: and he wih teach us
of his ways, and we will walk in his paths;
for out of Zion shah go forth the law, and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."b Again,
the Spirit speaketh expressly: "Hearken unto
me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my
nation; for a law shah proceed from me, and
I wih make my judgment to rest for a hght
of the people."0
At the very period which other recorded
prophecies pointed out for the appearance of
such a great Prophet and Lawgiver, Christ
came down upon earth, to introduce the new
covenant, to put the law into the minds of
men, and to write it in their hearts/ Christ
came, indeed, not to destroy the law, but to
fulfil it/ He. came to exhibit the reahty which
ah the ceremonies, and types of the law, had
faintly prefigured. He came to be obedient
to the whole law, to satisfy its utmost severity.
But Christ also came to fulfil the moral law,
by the introduction of a new commandment;
to explain, to modify, to enlarge, to spiritualize
those positive injunctions, which God had before
dehvered to the world by his servant Moses.
This was the very character which Christ
assumed, when he first began to teach the peo-
" Isai. ii. 2, 3. c Isai. li. 4.
d Jer. xxxi. 33. Heb. viii. 10. * Matt. v. 17-
150 Lecture VIII.
pie. Having been miraculously set apart to
his sacred office, by the voice from heaven,
which attested his divine nature at his bap
tism ; having ratified the truth of his mission
by many miracles, having applied to himself
the written prophecies of the Jewish Scrip
tures/ and selected twelve apostles to be the
especial ministers and teachers of his word,
he proceeded to dehver his laws to the assem
bled multitude, with the authority which his
heavenly commission entitled him to exert.
Many of these laws had reference to those
which Moses had dehvered to the Israehtes;
many were directed against the abuses, which
the traditionary expositions of the Jews had
introduced into their system : and many were
strictly new laws, adapted to the final scheme
of Christian revelation, with as much propriety,
as the peculiarities of the Mosaic code were
to the singular circumstances of God's selected
people. Moses had commanded the people in the
name of God, " Thou shalt not kill." g Christ
declares in his own name, "I say unto you,
That whosoever is angry with his brother, with
out a cause, shah be in danger of the judg
ment;"11 and he adds particular instances, as
1 Luke iv. I6k..21. > Deut. v. 17.
h Matt. v. 22.
Lecture VIII. 151
specimens of the mode in which the precept
of general Christian charity should be carried
into effect. Moses had commanded the Jews,
that they should not commit adultery. Christ
enjoins the regulation of the very passions and
thoughts of the heart.' The bond of marriage,
which, by the law of Moses,k and -the lax in
terpretation of the later Jews, might be dis
solved at the caprice of an individual, was,
by our Saviour, pronounced to be indissoluble,1
as it had been from the beginning. God had
declared by Moses, " Ye shah not swear by
my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane
the name of thy God."m But the command
of Christ amounts to a prohibition of ah extra
judicial oaths. "I say unto you, Swear not at
ah.'' "Let your communication be yea, yea,
nay, nay."n The austerity of the Mosaic law,
is expressed in terms hke these. "Thine eye
shah not pity; but hfe shah go for life, eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot
for foot." ° The mild character of the Christian
doctrine is comprized in the few words, " I say
Unto you, That ye resist not evil."p
Such an impression did Christ's uniform
1 Matt. v. 28. k Deut.,xxiv. 1—4.
1 Mark x. 4. . . 12. m Lev. xix. 12.
» Matt. v. 34, 37- ° Deut. xix. 21.
t Matt. v. 39-
152 Lecture VIII.
practice of expounding and extending the law
of Moses make upon his hearers, that his very
enemies made this fact the ground of cap
tious enquiry, that they might have to ac
cuse him. When the woman, taken in adul
tery, was brought before Christ, the Scribes
and Pharisees said unto him, " Now Moses, in
the law, commanded that such should be stoned,
but what say est thou?"q
As Christ thus extended the influence of
the laws which Moses gave, by adding new
precepts, and enforcing them by new sanc
tions, so he demohshed at once the unsound
fabric, which the traditions of men had raised
and displayed as the commands of God. And
from all the precepts which the books of the
law contained, he singled out two, the love
of God, and the love of man, as containing
the summary of ah the duties which we are
required to practice. These, and ah his laws,
he enforced by his own indisputable authority,
founded upon the public claims which he first
estabhshed to the character of the Christ.
The Prophet, then, who was to come like
unto Moses, must, when he came, have been
a lawgiver ; for as a lawgiver Moses was emi
nently known.
Search now the whole range of inspired
1 John viii. 5.
Lecture VIII. 155
prophets : view that long line of eminent men
distinguished by various degrees of inspiration,
having diversities of gifts from the same Holy
Spirit; some endued with the power of work
ing miracles, healing the sick, and raising the
dead; some enabled, with the glance of their
mental vision, to pierce the gloom of futurity,
and depict with the boldest, yet most accu
rate imagery, events yet distant ; seek out
Joshua, the chosen captain of Israel, the tri
umphant leader of her hosts; Samuel, called
to consecrate her kings; David, himself the
anointed of the Lord; Elijah, a man of hke
passions with ourselves, but gifted with Divine
wisdom in his life, and distinguished in his
death above the sons of men ; and Elisha,
upon whom the spirit of Ehjah rested:' con
template those twelve holy men, who declared
ah the wih of the Lord, until vision and pro
phecy were sealed up : and behold ah these
enforcing, with ah the authority of their office,
and in the name of the most High God,
the sanctions of the Mosaic law, and often
giving intimations of some greater Lawgiver,
who should be raised up; yet in no one in
stance themselves introducing any new law.
Behold the world, left for a series of years
in darkness, uncheered by one ray of inspira-
1 2 Kings ii. 15.
154 Lecture VIII.
tion, until at length the gospel day begins td
dawn. The Spirit begins to be poured out upon
ah flesh. The prophetic dream, the vision, and
the superhuman voice/ are once more displayed
among the people of Israel. The messenger
comes in the wilderness to prepare the way of
the Lord : and then the long predicted, and
typified, and expected Prophet appears, hke
unto Moses in many respects, and delivering
laws, as Moses did, with authority and power.
Surely in ah this we recognize the hand of
God. We see him who estabhshed the his
torical type in the character of Moses, complet
ing the antitype in the person of Christ.
II. There are, besides, instances in the
life of Moses, in which he appears in another
character, different from that of any other
prophet: as a personal mediator and priest.
Throughout the Old Testament, God com
missioned the prophets to speak to the people
in his name ; and, by such commission, invested
them with an office, in some degree, similar to
that which Moses was thus called upon to
sustain, but inferior in dignity. God also
appointed under the law, certain rites, as the
means by which it pleased him that atone
ment should be made for offences. Under
* John xii. 28, 29. Matt, iii; 17. xvii. 5. See Smith's
Dissertation on Proph. Chap. x.
Lecture VIII. 155
this law, the high priest, in virtue of his
office, offered both gifts and sacrifices for
sins/ And no man took that honour unto
himself; but he that was called of God,
as was Aaron." The fearful punishment of
those, who "offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not," x suffi
ciently indicates how sinful in his sight was
any unauthorized assumption of such a charac
ter, in which a human being, compassed with
infirmities, presumed to stand, as it were, be
tween God and man.
But Moses was permitted and personally
called to undertake these most solemn offices.
The law " was ordained of angels in the hand
of a mediator." y At the time when God
manifested his peculiar presence upon Mount
Sinai, and spake unto the people by his
angel messenger/ astonishment and terror took
possession of their minds. They desired, in
their alarm, that they might no more hear
the voice of the Lord, nor see that great fire,
the symbol of his presence, lest they should
die/ God granted their request; and while
he gave a promise to Moses of the one great
Prophet hke unto himself, who should be
' Heb. v. 1. u Heb. v. 4.
T Lev. x. 1, 2. ' Gal. iii. 19.
1 Acts vii. 38. Heb. ii. 2. * Deut. xviii. 16.
156 Lecture VIII.
raised up, he permitted his chosen servant to
stand between the Lord and the people,b a
mediator of the old covenant.
A revelation of the Almighty so awful as
this, opening a scene so infinitely surpassing
the highest conceptions of human intehect, is
not to be approached but with reverence and
fear. But if the most fertile imagination
were to feign an action, which should pur
posely represent upon earth, the office which
we are assured Christ exercises in heaven ;
which should place before our eyes, " one
God, and one mediator between God and
man ;" ° no action could be conceived more
appropriate than that which Moses here per
forms; and none so awfully impressive. On
one side are displayed the terrors of the Lord;
on the other, the people trembhng under the
consciousness of their weakness ; unable to
stand when He appeareth. Between them is
interposed the appointed mediator, the averter
of expected destruction, the only channel of
intercourse between heaven and earth.
That Christ is this mediator of a new and
better covenant,*1 is one of the fundamental
articles of faith, upon which ah our hope of
final acceptance with God is built. And, un-
» Deut. v. 5. c 1 Tim. ii. 5.
11 Heb. viii. 6. ix. 15-
Lecture Vill. 157
doubtedly, it does add to the confidence with
which we hold fast our faith, that this im
portant office is so plainly prefigured by
Moses himself, at the very time, when he de
livered the law which was to introduce the
gospel, and first received the promise, that a
Prophet hke unto himself should be raised
up. The hkeness was, in one principal part,
to consist in the very character which Moses
was then representing, imperfectly, indeed, as
a faint shadow represents a substance of ex
quisite symmetry, and elaborate construction.
If Christ were not the person who fulfilled
this type which Moses then exhibited, and the
prophecy which was made to him, no other
person ever appeared upon earth, who did com
plete them. If Christ were so designedly fore
shadowed, the fact could arise only from the de
terminate counsel and foreknowledge of God,
who has revealed his wih to man, and given
the world this, among other proofs of the
reality of his revelation.
Within awhile after this significant inter
position of Moses between Jehovah and his
people, the Israehtes forgat God their Saviour;
made a calf in Horeb ; and worshipped the
molten image/ On this occasion we find
Moses again offering himself as the mediator
• Exod. xxxii. Deut. ix. 7—21. Psalm cvi. 19.
158 Lecture VIII.
to turn away the just wrath of God, which
had waxed hot. And his successful interces
sion is, in this instance, the more remarkable, as
it was employed to avert the Divine indig
nation already excited; and was accompanied
by a voluntary offer of himself. " Moses
returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this
people have sinned a great sin, and have made
them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt,
forgive them their sin ; and if not, blot me, I
pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast
written." f
Now the weakness of human nature, and
the earnestness of affection, may lead men
to express themselves with great warmth: as
Moses, on another occasion/ prayed to be re
leased from the burden of hfe ; and Saint
Paul could wish that himself were accursed
from Christ for his brethren/ Stih, without
the express permission and command of God,
the prayer of Moses were both presumptuous
and useless. Whosoever hath sinned against
God, him will he blot out of his book.1
" None can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him."k Yet
the intercession of Moses was effectual. God
' Exod. xxxii. 31, 32. e Numb. xi. 15.
h Rom. ix. 3. ' Deut. xxxiii. 33.
k Psalm xlix. 7-
Lecture VIII. 159
said, that he would destroy the Israelites,
had not Moses his chosen stood before him in
the breach, as a champion in a besieged city,
to turn away his wrath.1 And, that the zeal
or the impatience of Moses, should cause
him unadvisedly to express a desire, that his
own name might be blotted from the book of
life; that his faith in the promises of God
should fail, or that he should presume, unbid
den, to offer himself the just for the unjust;
are suppositions all difficult to reconcile with
the acceptance of his prayer, and with the
acknowledged mode of Divine government
under which he was placed.
But the whole transaction becomes intel
ligible and luminous, if we regard it as an
event in which Moses was engaged, under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, through his desire
to restore the people to the favour of God;
while the Prophet, perhaps unconsciously,
although designedly, prefigured the voluntary
sacrifice of Christ, who was cut off, but not
for himself"
On these two occasions we have seen Moses
standing forth as a mediator ; the type of Christ
the mediator of the new covenant. Another
circumstance of resemblance is found in his
priestly office, when he ratified that first cove-
1 Psalm cvi. 23'. m Dan. ix. 26.
160 Lecture VIII.
nant with blood. " He took the book of the,
covenant, and read in the audience of the peo
ple: and they said, Ah that the Lord hath
said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses
took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people,
and said, Behold the blood of the covenant
which the Lord hath made with you concern
ing ah these words." When Christ established
the eucharist, he made a pointed allusion to
this ratification of the first covenant. " He
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to
them, saying, Drink ye ah of it : for this is
my blood of the New Testament," or covenant,
"which is shed for many for the remission of
sins."0 The author of the epistle to the Hebrews,
expressly reasons upon the correspondence be
tween this dedication of the first covenant by
Moses, not without blood, and the ratification
of the second covenant by Christ with his
own blood/ It is an act different from
the sacrifices, which were made under the
Mosaic law, although connected with them
by a plain analogy. Without assuming the
authority of revelation, we may not be able
to shew, that in this act Moses was typical
of Christ ; but guided by that revelation we
" Exod. xxiv. 7, 8. ° Matt. xxvi. 27, 28.
p Heb. ix. 19, 20.
Lecture Vill. 161
know that he was : and certainly no other
prophet ever appeared, who in this singular
dedication could have been foreshadowed.
III. There stih remains a remarkable pe
culiarity, in which Moses was a living type
of Christ ; the regal authority with which he
was invested.
No one of the other prophets was king,
except David ; who, in many instances, himself
typified the Messiah. But of Moses probably
it is declared, " He was king in Jeshurun,"
or Israel/ "when the heads of the people and
the tribes of Israel were gathered together." r
To what extent and with what precise limita
tions the title of king is thus ascribed to
Moses, it is not material here to enquire.
Nor wih the conclusion be materially affected,
if these words should be interpreted so as to
refer, not to Moses, but to God himself. It
is sufficient that Moses was invested with
the kingly office, as is manifest from his
whole history; that he was entrusted under
God with the supreme power, with the au
thority of imposing and executing laws; that
he was the leader of the armies of Israel, the
chosen instrument for first consecrating the
priests and their holy places, and the presider
over their national assembhes.
« Deut. xxxii. 15. r Deut. xxxiii. 5.
162 Lecture VIII.
If now we are to search for a prophet like
unto Moses, where shall we look for one, who
unites to his other high qualifications the
eminent dignity of king? David alone of
those prophets, who are recorded in the Old
Testament, was so exalted : but David was
not a lawgiver, nor a mediator, nor a priest.
He knew not God face to face. He per
formed no miracle ; he was not like Moses
in ah the signs and wonders which God sent
him to do, nor in ah that mighty hand and
great terror which Moses showed in the sight
of ah Israel/ In Christ only, the Son and
Lord of David, is the type completed in all
its fulness. If Moses was king in Israel,
Christ is set as a king upon the holy hill of
•Sion/ Of him, the Messiah the Prince," was
it declared long before he came upon the
earth; "The government shah be upon his
shoulder : and his name shah be cahed Won
derful, Counsehor, The mighty God, The ever
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and peace there
shah be no end, upon the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice,
from henceforth, even for ever."" These splen-
3 Deut. xxxiv. 12. * Psalm ii. 6.
u Dan. ix. 25. x Isai. ix. 6, 7-
Lecture VIII. 163
did assertions are not applied to Christ in
the looseness of figurative expression : they are
not the effusions of a poetic imagination; but
the sober realities of truth. The words are
lofty, for the conceptions which they convey
are divine.
The same testimony to the regal character
of Christ, thus given by the spirit of pro
phecy, was borne to him while upon earth.
He received, without a rebuke, the acknow
ledgment of Nathaniel, " Thou art the Son of
God, thou art the King of Israel." y That he
was Christ a king, was one of the accusations
under which he suffered. And he replied,
with a dignified affirmation, to the question
of Pilate, demanding if he were a king/
But stih more emphatic are the terms in
which his exaltation is expressed, since his
ascension into the glories of heaven. God
hath " set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places, far above ah principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come ; and hath
put ah things under his feet." a " God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name
which is above every name, that at the name
y John i. 49. z Luke xxiii. 2, 3.
* Ephes. i. 20, 21,22. L 2
164 Lecture VIII.
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the -earth : and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father." b Hear also the
words of him, to whom was opened, in
vision, some faint view of the majesty with
which Christ is invested on high : " I beheld,
and I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne, and the beasts and the
elders : and the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands
of thousands ; saying, with a loud voice,
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re
ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and honour, and glory, and bless
ing. And every creature which is in hea
ven, and on the earth, and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea, and ah that
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and
honour, and glory, and power, be unto him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb, for ever and ever."0
Before distinctions and glories such as these,
the highest earthly honours vanish away.
Human types are, indeed, but shadows com
pared with the splendid realities of such an
antitype. Stih, it has pleased the Almighty,
" Phil. ii. 9, 10, 11. ' Rev. v. 11... 13.
Lecture VIII. 165
that this inconceivable exaltation, should be
made the subject of prophecy and of type. As
Moses represented and predicted Christ as a
prophet, as a worker of miracles, as a law
giver, and as a mediator; so we conceive he
foreshadowed, in his regal character, the ma
jesty of Christ, to whom all power is given
in heaven and in earth.
IV. But besides the general features of
similarity, which have already been noticed,
there exist other minute coincidences in the
characters of Moses and Christ, which, al
though, perhaps, insufficient as grounds of
proof in themselves, afford strong confirma
tion of the designed connection between the
type and antitype/
As Moses was preserved in his infancy from
the danger of that death, to which those of his
own age were exposed, so was Christ rescued
from the massacre of the infants made by He
rod. As " by faith Moses, when he was come to
years, refused to be cahed the son of Pharaoh's
daughter ; choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the plea
sures of sin for a season;"6 so Christ, when
tempted by the great adversary, refused all the
d See Jortin, General Preface to Ecclesiastical History,
p. 282... 290. Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica, Lib. iii.
§. 2. e Heb. xi. 25.
166 Lecture VJII.
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.'
When Moses had been driven by the tyranny
of the king, to flee from Egypt into the
land of Midian, and was cahed of God to
return to his countrymen, "The Lord said
unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt,
for all the men are dead which sought thy
life."6 When Christ, in his infancy, had been
driven by similar tyranny into the land of
Egypt, and when Herod was dead, behold,
an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt, saying, almost in the
very words which the Spirit had already ap
plied to Moses, " Arise, and take the young
child and his mother, and go into the land
of Israel ; for they are dead which sought the
young child's life."h
Moses and Christ both fasted during the
same period of forty days and forty nights.1
Moses fed the people with manna; Christ
with bread miraculously augmented: Moses
sent out twelve men to spy out the land,k
the precursors of that conquest over Canaan,
which should afterwards be accomplished:
f Matt. iv. 8. « Exod. iv. 19.
h Matt. ii. 19, 20. Compare the Septuagint version of
Exod. iv. 19 t eOvtinaat yap rrdvTcs ol fpjToiI»T(! too
Ttjv \j/v^tjv with Matt. ii. 19, 20. T£0i/f;Ya Lectures, Chap. xvii. Book I. 18.
Lecture X. 219
This correspondence is confirmed, in a re
markable manner, by the terms which, in Scrip
ture, designate Christ. David and Christ stand
in the same relation, with respect to Jesse:
the one as type, the other as antitype. Hence,
the Messiah is often denominated David, and
spoken of as the son of Jesse.1 Solomon
and Christ stand in the same relation, with
respect to David: the one as type, the other
as antitype. Hence, the Messiah is often de
nominated the Son of David. But the Mes
siah is never cahed, either in Scripture, or by
the Jews, the Son of Solomon, because no such
son was distinguished as a hving representa
tive of Cbrist.m
All these considerations lead to one con
clusion: that David and Solomon, in addition
to the great designs which they were made
instrumental in accomphshing, were raised up
by the Almighty to prefigure the Messiah :
and that the prefigurations were, in every re
spect, completed in Jesus Christ.
1 Isai. xi. 1, 10.
m See Bp. Chandler's Defence, Chap. iii. Sect. 3.
LECTURE XI.
THE BRASEN SERPENT.
John iii. 14, 15.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Soti of man be lifted up : that whosoever be
lieveth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Having already considered those historical types
of Christ, which are mentioned in Scripture, and
corroborated by prophecies, delivered before the
appearance of the antitype, and subsequently
fulfilled, we may now turn to those typical per
sons and events, which are ratified by the com
pletion of prophecy, delivered by him who pre
fers a claim to the character of the antitype.
One prominent event of this nature, is the erec
tion of the brasen serpent by Moses.
The existence of a preconcerted connection
between two series of events may be revealed
with various degrees of precision. Their mu
tual relation may be so strongly marked, and so
plainly asserted, that no one who believes the
Lecture Xf. 221
authority of the writings, in which they are re
corded, can doubt its reality. Or, on the other
hand, although great similarity may exist, the
intentional connection may be so faintly pointed
out, that the most ardent mind may reasonably
hesitate before it wdl draw the conclusion, that
the one was designedly intended to prefigure the
other. And, between the two extremes, there
may be conceived any number of intermediate
gradations. Now, it is certain, that the lifting up of the
brasen serpent is not plainly declared, either in
the Old or New Testament, to have been or
dained by God, purposely to represent, to the
Israehtes, the future mysteries of the Gospel
revelation. And there appears no sufficient
ground for concluding, that the serpent was
such a type of Christ, as some men of fervid
imagination have been anxious to shew, by an
enumeration of fanciful resemblances. Stih,
some kind of connection between the two
events seems to be intimated by Christ him
self. And that intimation is made the founda
tion of a very remarkable prophecy, accurately
fulfilled. We may, therefore, institute a cau
tious and unprejudiced enquiry, in order to dis
cover what degree of preconcerted connection
is set forth in Scripture, between the lifting up
of the serpent, and the lifting up of the Son of
222 Lecture XI.
man. If any such connection were assumed
by Christ, before the second event took place,
the accompanying prophecy, since completed,
invests his interpretation with infallible au
thority. And even if the inferred connection
should be too shght to justify the conclusion,
that the one event clearly prefigured the other,
we still shah find, in the exact prophecy of
Christ, one of those incontrovertible proofs,
upon which the reality of his divine mission
is founded. The history of the brasen serpent is well
known. When the time appointed for the wan
dering of the Israehtes, in the wilderness, had
nearly expired, the murmuring of the people,
which had long been directed against Moses and
his family, at length broke out into open rebel
lion against the Most High. " They journeyed
from mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea,
to compass the land of Edom,"a through which
they had in vain attempted to procure a pas
sage/ Their steps were thus turned once more
from the promised land of Canaan; " and. the
soul of the people was much discouraged be
cause of the way. And the people spake
against God and against Moses, saying, Where
fore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die
in the wilderness ? For there is no bread, nei-
* Numb. xxi. 4— 9. * Numb. xx. 14. . .21.
Lecture XI. 22:5
ther is there any water, and our soul loatheth
this light bread." Their impiety was soon
visited with a special judgment. "The Lord
sent fiery serpents among the people, and they
bit the people : and much people of Israel died.
Therefore the people," terrified at the fearful
visitation, "came to Moses and said, We have
sinned: for we have spoken against the Lord
and against thee: pray unto the Lord that he
take away the serpents from us. And Moses
prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent," in form and
colour hke those which had been the instru
ments in producing the plague, "and set it
upon a pole," or, perhaps, set it up for a sign :e
" And it shah come to pass, that every one that
is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shah live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it
upon a pole : and it came to pass, that if a ser
pent had bitten any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he hved."
Such is the simple and brief narration of this
miraculous event. Of the fact itself there can
be no doubt. Many experienced the salutary
effects in the heahng of their deadly wounds :
and thousands were witnesses of its efficacy.
The brasen serpent itself was, for many cen
turies, preserved among the people as a memorial
* See Kidder's Demonstr. of the Messiah, Book I. chap. vii.
224 Lecture XI.
of the event/ Neither can there be any doubt,
that the cure was supernatural. The Jews
themselves weh knew, that the effect was not
produced, as has been fancifully asserted, by any
subtle incantation/ nor by any human art, but
by the power of God alone. They regarded the
serpent as " a sign of salvation, to put them in
remembrance of the commandment of the law."
For they knew that "he that turned himself
toward it was not saved by the thing that he
saw, but by Him who is the Saviour of all."f
Some of them, calling to mind the various pro
mises, which had been made of old time to their
fathers, instructed to look for that seed of the
woman, which should bruise the serpent's head/
deeply feeling, in their own hearts, their need of
a physician, who should heal them of the plague
of sin, knowing how strictly the Israelites were
forbidden to make any image, and yet that
Moses was expressly commanded to make this,11
d 2 Kings xviii. 4.
e Sir John Marsham attempted to shew, that the brasen
serpent was a talisman. Canon Chronic. JEgypt. Saecul. X.
Sect. 9. See Calmet ; Bible on Numb. xxi. 8. The notion is
confuted in Shuckford's Connection, Book. XII.
f Wisdom xvi. 6, 7- ' Gen. iii. 15.
h As early as the second century of the Christian JEra, the
Jews acknowledged, that they could give no account of this
apparent contradiction, unless the fact were considered typical
of some future blessings. Justin Martyr, Dial, cum Tryphone,
p. 322. B. Fol. Paris, 1636. See also Fagius on Numb. xxi. 9-
Lecture XI. 225
might even regard the serpent in the same light
in which many of the Jews have since regarded
it, as a sacramental emblem of some higher
blessing, which it prefigured. But no intima
tion occurs in the canonical Scriptures of the
Old Testament, that the miracle had a designed
reference to any subsequent event. From the
day in which Hezekiah destroyed the image,
and cahed it Nehushtan, a brasen bauble, we
read no more of that serpent, until the day
when Christ Jesus held his conference with
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
On that memorable occasion, he discoursed
on subjects of the deepest interest. Founding
his instruction on the acknowledged authority
of those miracles, which proved him to be a
teacher come from God, Christ opened to the
astonished ears of the teacher of Israel, the
wonders of the spiritual world. The necessity
of a new birth, the difference between that
which is born of the flesh, and that which
is born of the Spirit, were laid down with
the accuracy of perfect knowledge. Christ
claimed to himself a degree of wisdom and
power, to which no mere man could ever pre
tend. Nicodemus was no . stranger to the em
phatic question proposed by Agur, " Who hath
ascended up into heaven or descended? who
hath gathered the wind in his fists ? who hath
P
226 Lecture XI.
bound the waters in a garment ? who hath esta
blished all the ends of the earth ? what is his
name and what is his son's name, if thou canst
tell ?" ' But such knowledge was too excehent
for unassisted reason to attain. The question
remained a hard saying which none could an
swer, until Christ then declared, that " no man
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of man, which
is in heaven." k Having thus laid the sure
grounds on which his high commission rested,
Christ proceeds to speak, in the spirit of pro
phecy, of the causes which the mercy of God
has rendered efficacious for the salvation of
fahen man ; the meritorious cause, his own
sufferings and death, and the instrumental cause,
sincere faith in those to whom the doctrine is
propounded. Christ conveys this instruction to
Nicodemus, by referring to the erection of the
brasen serpent. " As Moses lifted up the ser
pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be hfted up : that whosoever beheveth in
him should not perish but have eternal life."
Here, then, we find one, acknowledged to
be a teacher come from God, in the beginning
of his ministry, instructing a disciple well
learned in ah the customs and history of the
Jews, by the delivery of a prophecy, the com-
1 Prov. xxx. 4. k John iii. IS.
Lecture XI. 227
pletion of which depended upon the similarity
between the things which he was to suffer, and
a wonderful and notorious event in the previous
history of the Jewish nation. And in this
prophetic assertion, two distinct circumstances
of resemblance are pointed out ; the outward
act ; the lifting up of the Son of man, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ; and the
benefit, which the free mercy of God extended
to those who looked with faith upon this sym
bol of salvation.1
The words in which the first part of this
prophecy is expressed, are sufficiently clear to
prevent any ambiguity in the apphcation of
them. The term, "to lift up," m apphed to the
death of the cross, was so frequently used in
that sense, that its meaning here cannot be
mistaken : but being a figurative expression, it
possessed precisely the degree of uncertainty
which would prevent its exact signification from
being known, untd interpreted by the event.
On two other occasions, our Saviour employed
the same words for the same purpose. He re
ferred the Jews for a more perfect knowledge
of his mission, to the time when they should
1 'ZiixftoXov craiTtip'iat. Wisdom xvi. 6.
m See Pearson on the Creed, Art. IV. p. 200. Fol. 1676.
Bochart. Hierozoicon. Lib. IV. Cap. xiii. p. 426. Schleusner.
in voc. v-^/ow.
P 2
228 Lecture XL
have " lifted up the Son of man." " And at
another time he declared, " I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, wih draw ah men unto me."
And " this" we know " he said, signifying what
death he should die." ° When, therefore, Christ
said, " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up," he declared it to be determined in
the Divine counsels, that he, who alone had
come down from heaven, "who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God," had now made himself of no
reputation, and taken upon himself the form of
a servant, and had been made in the hkeness
of man : and that, being found in fashion as a
man, he should humble himself, and become
obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross/ Every man, who has read the undisputed
narratives of the evangehsts, corroborated by
the testimony even of their adversaries, knows
how accurately this prediction was accomplished
by the crucifixion of Christ. The resemblance
between the two events, the hfting up of the
serpent, and the hfting up of the Son of man,
was perfect.
Still it was a resemblance, which a mere
conjecture of Christ could hardly have devised ;
" John viii. 28. ° John xii. 32, 33. p Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8-
Lecture XL 229
and which no sagacity could have anticipated,
when the first event occurred; even if the
general circumstances of the second event could
have been contemplated.
If an Israelite had conceived the idea of a
prophet exciting the animosity of his country
men, so as at length to be put to death at their
instigation, the hfting up of the serpent would
have conveyed to others no adequate notion of
such a transaction. The fulfilment implied a
most important pohtical change. Crucifixion
was not a Jewish, but a Roman, punishment.
If Christ were gudty of blasphemy, of which
they afterwards accused him, they had a law,
and by that law he ought to die/ But death
for such a crime would be inflicted by stoning/
It had been revealed, however, in the prophets
and in the law, that the Messiah should suffer
death upon the cross : and the fate of empires
was so ordered as to complete the designs of
Divine wisdom. And Christ himself, to whom
the Spirit was given without measure, knew
from the beginning all things which must be
fulfilled : and what he foresaw he also foretold.
He knew, and he declared, that the Son of
man must suffer many things, and be rejected
by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes:5
that they should condemn him to death, and
' John xix. 7- ' Lev. xxiv. 14, 16. ' Matt. xvi. 21.
230 Lecture XI.
" dehver him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to
scourge, and to crucify him.'" And with full
consciousness of this termination of his earthly
ministry, he declared to Nicodemus, " As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up."
The prophecy, thus delivered by Christ, ap
pears also to ihustrate the previous narrative of
the sacred volume. There seems to be no
assignable connection, between the lifting up of
a brasen serpent, and the cure of those who had
been bitten. It is not necessary to suppose, as
some have done, that looking upon the serpent
of brass would have naturally aggravated the
deadly symptoms. But it is evident, that to
cast a look upon such a representation had no
intrinsic effect in producing the cure. To
account for the benefit received, it might be
Sufficient to refer to the uncontrollable will of
God, who will have mercy upon whom he will
have mercy, by the means which his sovereign
wisdom dictates. But it has pleased him, even
in his miraculous acts, often to render his ways
in some degree visible and intehigible : to work
by means, to which He has attached some
ordinary efficacy. To purify the waters of
Marah by casting into them a tree/ or those of
' Matt. xx. 18, lp. u Exod. xv. 2.5.
Lecture XI. 231
Jericho by infusing salt ; *• to heal a leprosy by
washing in the waters of Jordan/ or a grievous
bod by the apphcation of a vegetable prepara
tion/ were ah instances, among many others, in
which the immediate power of God was ex
hibited by preternaturahy augmenting the effect
of the natural means employed. Upon other
occasions, the effectual fervent prayer of a right
eous man was immediately answered, by the
cure of the sick, or the restoration of the dead
to life : the blessing, ordinarily promised to
the prayer of faith, being thus increased, and
bestowed in an extraordinary manner. But in
the desert it pleased the Almighty to appoint an
instrument, which in itself had manifestly no
influence in producing the cure. The thing
which the wounded Israelites saw could never
save them. If the serpent had no reference to
any future event, there is no apparent connec
tion between the means and the end. If we
conceive it to have designedly prefigured the
lifting up of Christ upon the cross, this connec
tion is supphed. Although they who were
bitten could not be cured by the thing which
they saw, they might be, and on this supposi
tion they were, cured by Him who is the Sa
viour of all.
1 2 Kings ii. 21. y 2 Kings w 14.
1 2 Kings xx. ~. Isai. xxxviii. 21.
232 Lecture XI.
From the mode, then, in which Christ intro
duces the mention of the brasen serpent, from
the manner in which the very pecuhar prophecy
of his own death is connected with it, from the
accurate resemblance in the external circum
stances, and from the absence of ah other assign
able connection between the means employed
and the cure effected, it seems highly probable,
that the lifting up of the serpent in the wilder
ness, was intended to prefigure the lifting up of
the Son of man.
The conclusion, thus deduced from the cor
respondence in the external acts of the two
events, is confirmed by the similarity in the
effects which were produced, expressly pointed
out by Christ : " As Moses hfted up the ser
pent in the wdderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth on
him should not perish, but have eternal life."
By the sin of our first parents, ah mankind
were far gone from original righteousness. In
Adam all died. The sting of death, sin, was
deeply fixed in our nature ; and man lay ex
posed to the wrath of God, unable, by his
own power, to raise himself from this state of
misery: aptly represented by the fainting
Israelites, extended upon the desert, dying with
the mortal bite of the fiery serpents. But
behold the mercy and loving-kindness of God.
Lecture XL 233
Whde we were yet sinners, God sent into the
world the promised seed of the woman, who
should bruise the serpent's head. He gave his
own Son to be made sin for us, although him
self without sin/ to take upon him our nature,
to pass a hfe of privation and suffering ; to bear
our griefs and carry our sorrows ; to be de
spised, and rejected, and buffeted, and scourged,
and to suffer death upon the cross : that as
Moses hfted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so the Son of man should be lifted up;
and that when so hfted up, he should draw ah
men unto him.
And the means, by which, as in Adam all
died, even so in Christ ah should be made ahve,
were precisely simdar to those by which the
brasen serpent, erected by Moses, was made effi
cacious to heal the Israehtes. It was an act of
faith, to which the wisdom of God attached an
exclusive blessing. No other remedy was pro
vided for the wounded Israelites, than to look
upon the sign which Moses hfted up. Salva
tion is now proposed by no other means than by
faith in the blood of Christ, who was in hke
manner lifted up upon the cross. Ah who
looked upon the serpent of brass lived. All
who believe in Christ shah not perish, but have
eternal life. They who tempted and rebelled
* 2 Cor. v. 21.
234 Lecture XL
against Christ in the wdderness, were destroyed
of the serpents/ They who now tempt and
rebel against him, by neglecting his revealed
word, have no promise, and, therefore, can have
no ground for hope, that they wih be enabled
effectually to resist "that old serpent, which
deceiveth the whole world."0
Without pursuing the comparison by a de-:
duction of any more minute coincidences, these
resemblances are sufficient to shew a remarkable
correspondence, between the effects produced by
the elevation of the serpent in the wdderness,
and the hfting up of Christ upon the cross.
And the correspondence, being predicted by
Christ himself, arises from no ingenious accom
modation of circumstances accidentally simdar.
Christ, while dehvering an undoubted prophecy,
clearly fulfilled, points out the lifting up of the
serpent in the wdderness, and the cure per
formed by it, as an event to which the circum
stances and consequences of his own death
should be hke. In order, therefore, to fulfil the
prophecy, as it was fulfilled, the two series of
events were, by the Providence of God, to be
made to correspond. And it is difficult to con
ceive any correspondence, unless, either the ser
pent, when it was so lifted up, intentionally
prefigured the future death of Christ upon
h I Cor. x. 9. c Rev. xii. 9.
Lecture XI. 235
the cross, or that death were adapted, if we
may so speak, to an event previously indifferent.
Now the lifting up of Christ on the cross
was not an isolated fact. It was the great
event so long predicted in the prophets,4 and
foreshadowed in the law/ Christ himself con
tinually referred, during his life, to this termi
nation of his ministry : and his fohowers, after
his death, preached what was a stumbling-block
to the Jew, and foolishness to the Greek/ as the
foundation of ah their hopes. When so vast a
fabric harmonizes, in this manner, with a single
event, we ean scarcely avoid the conclusion, that
the correspondence was designed from the be
ginning : that the connection between the hft
ing up of the serpent in the wdderness, and the
hfting up of the Son of man upon the cross, was
preconcerted, and therefore typical.
But whatever opinion may be formed re
specting the typical character of the brasen ser
pent, indicated in the words of Christ, the prac
tical doctrine, which those words convey, is of
the highest interest to ah.
There are few doctrines which have been
more opposed, than that which attaches such
pre-eminent importance to belief in Christ.
Endless are the cavils and discussions to which
* Zech. xii. 10. Psalm xxii. 16, 17-
« Exod. xii. 46. See Lect. XIV, XV, XVI. ' 1 Cor. i. 23.
236 Lecture XI.
it has given rise. But surely it is not for man
to supply the secret connection, which the
Almighty counsels have established, between
an act performed, and the benefit received. No
Israehte, burning with the wound of the fiery
serpent, would have stayed to make the enquiry,
" how can these things be ?" before he looked
up to the sign of salvation erected by God's
command, that by looking he might hve. The
act of looking, might originally have been an
indifferent act. But God commanded it to be
performed ; and it then became a duty.
So it is in spiritual things. God has thought
fit, in his unerring wisdom, to make faith in his
Son the indispensable means of salvation, to ah
those to whom the doctrine is propounded.
The benefits freely proposed are incomparably
greater than any which this world can offer:
the pardon of sin ; release from eternal death ;
the gift of everlasting hfe. What should be
said of that man, who, instead of searching the
revealed wih of God to know, with certainty,
whether these things be so, and receiving with
thanksgiving such inestimable benefits, will con
tinue to harden himself in sin, and refuse his
assent, because he cannot precisely comprehend
the mode, in which the rehef is conferred ? Yet
this is the conduct of thousands.
If, then, the Son of man were hfted up,
Lecture XI. 237
"that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have eternal life ;" if by grace we
are saved, through faith, and that not of our
selves, since it is the gift of God : g it is most
important, that we ah consider whether we have
this faith or not. Now to say, we beheve, is
most easy and most common. We are all
Christians in name. And God alone can read
the heart, and know how fervent and how effec
tual is the behef of any man. But there is one
criterion by which ah may, in some degree, judge
of the insincerity of faith. No faith is sincere,
which does not produce the fruits of a holy,
pure, rehgious, charitable hfe. "A good man,
out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth
forth good things : and an evil man, out of
the evil treasure, bringeth forth evd things/"1
Actions, therefore, and actions only, shew
to other men the truth and sincerity of reh
gious principles. And if any man affect to
possess a saving faith, whfle he indulges in the
known practice of unrepented sin, the reply to
his pretensions is made in the words of Saint
James : " What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith, and have not
works? can faith save him?" "Faith, if it
hath not works, is dead being alone. Yea, a
man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have
* Ephes. ii. 8. " Matt. xii. 35.
238 . Lecture XL
works : shew me thy faith without thy works,
and I wih shew thee my faith by my works." !
To those who thus sincerely, although im
perfectly, endeavour to fohow the precepts of
our holy religion, the doctrine of the atonement
is full of comfort. They feel, hke the Israehtes,
the mortal bite of sin. They feel their moral
strength fail. They know how widely the
poison is spread : that the whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint. Stih wih they raise
the eye of faith to Him who was lifted up, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wdderness,
that whosoever beheveth in him should not
perish, but have eternal hfe. They wih contem
plate the wonderful love of God thus shewed to
his creatures. They wih receive " the ministry
of reconciliation : to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconcihng the world unto himself, not im
puting their trespasses unto them:" "for he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteous
ness of God in him."k
* James ii. 14, 17, 18. k 2 Cor. v. 19, 21.
LECTURE XII.
JONAH A TYPE OF CHRIST.
Matt. xii. 40.
As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's
belly ; so shall the Son of man be three days and three
inghts in the heart of the earth.
In the same manner in which Christ pro
phetically indicated the circumstances of his
death, by a reference to the erection of the
brasen serpent in the wilderness, he predicted
the wonderful fact of his resurrection, by a
corresponding ahusion to the miraculous deli
verance of the prophet Jonah. This prophecy
affords indisputable proof of the Divine mis
sion of Jesus : whde the mode, in which it is
dehvered, appears to point out the remarkable
coincidence between the history of Jonah, and
the circumstances attending the resurrection of
Christ, as the result of design.
On more than one occasion/ the Jews, un
satisfied and unconvinced by the numerous
"¦ Matt. xvi. 1, 4. Luke xi. 16.
240 Lecture XII.
miracles which Christ had performed before
their eyes, came to him, and required a sign;
some token from heaven,b such as other pro
phets had exhibited/ and such as the promised
Messiah was expected to perform:4 a sign so
manifest, and so decisively supernatural, as at
once to remove every doubt. But the wisdom
of God, which furnishes proof enough to sa
tisfy the unprejudiced enquiry of the humble
mind, wih in no wise deviate from the course
which seems good to Him, in order to remove
the obstinacy of unbelief. Of ah the wdes
of infidelity, not one is more deceitful, than
that which continually demands some newer
and fuller proof, after sufficient evidence has
been given. They, who refused to give cre
dence to the merciful words and mighty works
of Christ, would readdy have found some sub
terfuge to elude conviction, had the very sign-
which they demanded been immediately af
forded. But although the ways of heaven were not,
and could not be, the ways of man, God
would not leave himself without witness.
Christ promised them a sign : not, indeed, the
sign from heaven which their presumption re-
b Luke xi. 16.
c Exod. ix. 22. Josh. x. 12. 1 Sam. vii. 9, 10. 2 Kings i. 10.
d Dan. vii. 9 — 14.
Lecture XII. 241
quired: but a sign greater than any which
had before been shewn; in which heaven and
earth should bear testimony to the divine cha
racter of Him who predicted and accomplished
it. Jesus "answered, and said unto them, An
evil and adulterous generation seeketh after
a sign; and there shah no sign be given to it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as
Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's behy, so shah the Son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the
earth." It is scarcely possible for any prophecy to
be expressed in terms more clear than these.
The facts ahuded to were weh known to the
Jews : they were contained in the volume
of their canonical Scripture, which the Pha
risees, and Scribes, and Sadducees ah received
with implicit deference. In that sacred book
they read/ that Jonah was commanded to " go
to Nineveh, and cry against it:" but that he
disobeyed the divine command; and rose up
to flee from the presence of the Lord, and
went down to Joppa, and entered into a ship
to go to Tarshish. "But the Lord sent out
a great wind into the sea, and there was a
mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship
was like to be broken." The mariners then
" Jonah i.
Q
242 Lecture XII.
took counsel in their fear, and cast lots that1
they might know for whose cause the evd had
come upon them : and the lot feh upon Jonah.
The prophet acknowledged his guilt to be the
cause of the great tempest which was upon
them; and offered himself as a voluntary ex
piation. The mariners reluctantly yielded to
necessity. " The men rowed hard to bring"
the ship " to the land, but they could not :" and,
having prayed to the Lord not to lay upon
them innocent blood, they "took up Jonah,
and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea
ceased from her raging." But "the Lord had
prepared a great fish to swahow up Jonah.
And Jonah was in the behy of the fish three
days and three nights ;"f again, "the Lord
spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry land."g
All this was weh known to the Jews, whom
our Lord addressed. Whatever, therefore, was
the precise nature of the sign which Jesus pro
mised, it's general features were marked with
sufficient accuracy. The simdarity could not
be complete, unless the Son of man gave him
self a voluntary and satisfactory offering for
sin ; were kept in the heart of the earth, three
days and three nights, and at the end of that
time restored, as Jonah was, to hfe. The evil
' Jonah i. 17- B Jonah ii. 10.
Lecture XII. 243
and adulterous generation of the Jews might
not understand the fuh import of this and
other prophecies of Christ, predicting his re
surrection after three days' imprisonment in the
tomb: but, when he had been crucified and
slain, they weh remembered that such had
been the tenor of his words : for " the chief
priests and Pharisees came together unto Pdate,
saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver
said, whde he was yet ahve, After three days
I wih rise again ;"h and they endeavoured,
with impotent precaution, to prevent the
completion of the sign.
The fulfilment of the prophecy was as ac
curate as the prediction was circumstantial.
One sign of the prophet Jonah had been
already actuahy shewn by Christ, and by no
other person. For he too had slept amidst ah
the terrors of a storm; had been awakened
by his alarmed companions in their anxiety
for their safety; and had convinced them, that
he was indeed- a prophet, by causing the wind
to cease, and ahaying the raging of the waves.1
But a greater sign was stih to come. As Jonah
was judged by the very persons for whose
dehverance he offered his hfe a ransom; so
was Christ brought before his own, who re
ceived him not. As the mariners delayed to
h Matt, xxvii. 62, 6$. ' Matt. viii. 23—27-
q2
244 Lecture XII.
execute sentence upon Jonah ; so the governor
himself, who condemned Christ, made fruitless
efforts to save him; and endeavoured to ex
culpate himself from the guilt of innocent
blood/ As the effects of God's temporal judg
ment ceased, when the prophet Jonah was cast
into the sea; so his wrath was turned away
from a guilty world by the death of Christ.
As Jonah was given up to destruction; so
Christ suffered, was dead, and buried. But the
holy One of God saw not corruption. At the
predicted time, he broke the bands of death,
under which it was not possible he should be
retained, and shewed himself ahve by many
infallible proofs.
It would be superfluous, on the present
occasion, to dwell at any length upon the
evidence, by which this fundamental part of
our holy faith is estabhshed. Friends and ene
mies, the keepers who did shake and become
as dead men, the angels from heaven who de
clared that Christ was risen, testified to the
world the reahty of this great event. He held
converse with those who had known him per
sonally before his death ; being seen of them
forty days.1 He was seen of Peter, then of
the twelve: after that, he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once;1" of whom the
" Matt, xxvii. 24. ' Acts i. 3. m 1 Cor. xv. 5, 6.
Lecture XII. 245
greater part were appealed to as living wit
nesses, by those, who, forsaking all their usual
employments, submitted to persecution and
danger, and death, that they might pubhsh
the fact. To be a witness of this, was the
principal qualification of the apostolic office:
to preach the resurrection, the principal part
of the apostolic duties. Upon this they built
ah their hopes of present influence, and future
glory. If there be one fact estabhshed upon
sure grounds, that fact is the resurrection of
Christ. We know, then, and are weh assured, that
Christ, at different times during his hfe, pre
dicted his own death, and that after three days
he should rise again : that one of those pre
dictions was founded upon a comparison in
time and circumstances, between the deliver
ance of the prophet Jonah from the fish, which
God had prepared to swahow him up, and
that of Christ from the heart of the earth:
and that this prediction was fulfilled by a
miracle, to which even the volume of Scripture
itself affords no parallel.
Whatever interpretation Christ, who so
prophesied, and so rose from the dead, put
upon the words of Scripture, that interpre
tation we must receive as indisputably true.
And it is to be considered, whether the studied
246 Lecture XII.
introduction of so singular a fact, into the pre->
diction of an event stih more astonishing, does
not indicate some kind of preconcerted con
nection between the two events.
Now there is something very remarkable
in finding this narrative of the prophet Jonah,
and this only, among the canonical Scriptures
of the Jews. In those writings, we might ex
pect to find most fully recorded, and most
carefuhy preserved, the prophecies which im
mediately relate to themselves. And this is
the case with the other prophets of the Old
Testament. Their predictions related either
directly, or indirectly, to the Israehtes. Those
inspired men prophesied to the selected people
of God, and laboured principally to keep alive
the expectation of the coming of the Messiah.
Yet many of their predictions immediately ap
plied to the temporal affairs of their country
men ; or foretold to them the fate of those
powerful enemies, whose pohtical state had
the greatest influence upon their national wel
fare. Now the book of Jonah refers not to the
Israelites. Although he was a prophet in Israel
as early as the days of Jeroboam, the son of
Joash," the words of the prophecies, in which
he promised peace to the afflicted people, have
v " 2 Kings xiv. 25.
Lecture XII. 247
.not been written and preserved, by the Spirit
of God, for the instruction of after ages. The
recorded prophecies which he delivered, and
the warnings, which he was commissioned to
preach, were directly addressed to a distant
and a hostile people : and they were addressed
without producing an effect which had much,
if any, influence upon the Jewish nation. The
prophet was cahed from his own country, and
his father's house, and was compehed to do
the Lord's bidding. He fled from the presence
of the Lord : and was miraculously taken from
the course which he had proposed to himself;
rescued from impending destruction; and sent
to preach to the city of Nineveh. The Ninev-
ites repented at the preaching of Jonah : " And
God saw their works, that they turned from
their evd way ; and God repented of the evil,
that he had said that he would do unto them ;
and he did it not."0 The only addition which
is made to this narration, in any part of Scrip
ture, is the history of the anger, and reproof
of the prophet, when the punishment which
he had predicted was suspended.
The book of the prophet Jonah, then, has
this singularity ; it has no immediate connec
tion with the history of the Israelites, among
whose Scriptures it is recorded ; whde the pro-
0 Jonah iii. 10.
248 Lecture XII.
pliecies of Jonah, to themselves, are not so pre
served. Stih, the miracle performed in the preserva
tion of Jonah, the detail of which forms so large
a part of the history, and is related with scru
pulous minuteness, stamps an importance upon
the whole transaction; and, undoubtedly, was
neither performed nor recorded in vain. Yet
it may be doubted/ whether the miracle was
ever advanced by Jonah, as affording the cre
dentials of his high commission to the people
of Nineveh ; or as corroborating his claims to
the title of a prophet in his own country.
Both the history, and the miracle, appear to
stand, in the Old Testament, as events unac
companied by any direct consequence.
The observation of this fact would natu
rally lead us to look beyond the history itself,
for its full explanation. And the analogy, sug
gested by a careful perusal of the other books
of the Old Testament, would further direct
our enquiry to some part of the Gospel dis
pensation, to see if any connection can be dis
covered between the transactions in which
Jonah was engaged, and any subsequent events.
That very connection appears to be indi
cated in the prophecy of Christ. His assertion
brings together, on indisputable authority, two
p Compare Matt. xii. 39—41. xvi. 4. Luke xi. 29, SO, 32.
Lecture XII. 249
.distant and astonishing events, as objects of
comparison: the exactness of the correspond
ence being the measure of the accuracy with
which the prophecy was to be fulfilled. The
sign of the prophet Jonas was no ordinary sign.
Since the ereation of the world, it was not
heard, that any other man had come in such
perd of his hfe, and been so miraculously pre
served. No other event afterwards occurred,
in any degree similar. Yet Christ singled out
this remarkable sign, as connected with the
conclusive evidence of his divine commission.
"An evd and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign; and there shah no sign be given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For
as Jonas was three days and three nights in
the whale's behy, so shah the Son of man be
three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth." Between the sign shewn by Jonah,
and the sign afterwards exhibited in the re
surrection of Christ, the correspondence is most
exact. The similarity is so perfect, both in
the circumstances, which are very peculiar, and
in the time, in which there is nothing remark
able, except its coincidence with this and other
predictions/ that it could hardly have escaped
the notice of any person who became acquainted
with the two events after their completion.
« Hosea vi. 2. John ii. 19, 21. Mark x. 34.
250 Lecture XII.
But the very closeness of the resemblance,
which would render subsequent observation
comparatively easy, entirely removes the sup
position of any conjectural apphcation, before
the fulfilment. Jesus knew that Jonah had
been swallowed up, and restored to life after
three days. But He only, who knoweth all
things, could have known, that in like man
ner, Jesus should be buried, and in three days
should rise again : and He only, with whom all
things are possible, could have fulfilled the pre
diction, by so raising up Jesus on the third day.
Thus the narrative, contained in the book
of the prophet Jonah, is connected with the
events of the gospel history: and we can
scarcely avoid concluding, that the Providence
of God, which preserved his prophet from de
struction, and recorded the circumstances of
his delivery, directed the course of that mira
culous event, so as to prefigure the death and
burial of Christ, and the very time during
which his body should be retained in the grave.
The previous history of the prophet corres
ponds, in a remarkable manner, with the events
of the life of Christ ; and the repentance of
the heathen Ninevites, at the preaching of
Jonah, formed no faint emblem of the con
version of the gentile world to the true faith;
a work which was first commanded to be
Lecture XII. 251
undertaken by the apostles of Christ, after his
resurrection; and by preaching the resurrection
was principahy effected.
The book of the prophet Jonah, then, no
longer appears as a portion of holy writ un
connected with the general scheme of revela
tion. It contained a shadow of good things
to come. The typical event was not calcu
lated, hke direct prophecy, to raise any pre
vious expectation of the corresponding miracle
in the Messiah's restoration to life; it might
not, even when pointed out by our Lord, dis
tinctly inform his hearers as to the precise
degree of simdarity for which they were to
look: but they who are now enabled, by the
grace of God, to read in his word the whole
series of his dealings with the world, will re
ceive, from the evident and predicted connec
tion of these two distant events, an accession
of faith, a fresh confidence in their religious
truth. They wih recognise the highest wis
dom in recording and preserving this part of
the history of Jonah. They wih consider the
prophet, under the immediate and forcible con
trol of a direct Providence, unwillingly made
the instrument of warning the luxurious Ninev-
ites to repentance, and unconsciously prefi
guring, in his miraculous dehverance, the re
surrection of his Saviour and his God. Thus,
252 Lecture XII.
the more closely we examine the events re
lated in Scripture, the more convincing proofs
do we obtain, that one Providence has directed,
and one Spirit recorded them.
It is true, that the fact of the resurrec
tion is not to be proved by prophecy, nor by
type. That is estabhshed upon evidence alone.
It is true, that the importance of the resur
rection requires not to be corroborated by aids
drawn from such a source: for that is suffi
ciently apparent, from every page of the New
Testament : it is the very corner-stone of the
gospel fabric. But it is satisfactory to perceive
the same great event gradually revealed to
mankind, at sundry times, and in divers man
ners. To behold Isaac received again from the
dead, "in a figure,"1 and the sign of the pro
phet Jonah circumstantially displaying the
same important event.
But the resurrection of Christ is not to be
considered only as a miraculous fact, long pre
dicted and prefigured. It is most intimately
connected with all that we beheve, and ah that
we hope. " If we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, them also which sleep in
Jesus, will God bring with him."8
One principal object of the Christian dis
pensation was, to bring life and immortality
' Heb. xi. 19. ¦ 1 Thess. iv. 11.
Lecture XII. 253
to light. Independently of revelation, man
never did, nor ever could, know, with cer
tainty, that death was not the termination of
his existence. He might argue from an as
sumed analogy between the material and spi
ritual world. He might reflect upon the in
trinsic difference between man, endowed with
the power of thought, and the mere beasts
that perish. He might breathe many an ardent
aspiration after a futurity of happiness, and an
endless improvement of his faculties : but his
most successful labours served rather to nou
rish his hopes, than to convince his judgment :
they could do little more than shew the pos
sibility of a future hfe after death. Even in
the revelation which God made of his wih,
the knowledge of a resurrection was not at
first fully displayed. There were, doubtless,
many holy men of understandings more en
lightened than those of their fehows, who
looked with confidence to the imphed promises
of future glory. These knew that the right
eous had hope in his death :' that when the
dust returned to the earth as it was : the spirit
returned to God who gave it/ They knew
that death should be swallowed up in vic
tory •/ that their dead men should hve/ and be
' Prov. xiv. 32. u Eccles. xii. 7-
1 Isai. xxv. 8. y Isai. xxvi. 19-
254 Lecture XII.
ransomed from the power of the grave :* that
they who sleep in the dust of the earth, should
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
shame and everlasting contempt:3 and they
trusted, when they should awake, to be satis
fied with the hkeness of God/ But it was
not tdl Christ rose from the dead, and became
the first-fruits of them that slept, that the full
assurance of the nature and manner of the
resurrection was made known to man.
Since the resurrection of Christ, the high
destinies of man have been clearly revealed.
That which was contemplated only with timid
hope, has become an object of definite and cer
tain knowledge. No one wih now say, that it
is a thing incredible, that God should raise
the dead/ when Christ himself, in his human
nature, has triumphed over the powers of dark
ness. No one wih now say, that there will
be no resurrection of the dead. For Christ
himself, who so died and rose again, declares
"the hour is coming, in which ah that are in
the grave shall hear his voice, and shah come
forth ; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life ; and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.'"1
'¦ Hosea xiii. 14. » Dan. xii. 2.
11 Psalm xvii. 1.5. * Acts xxvi. 8.
d John v. 28.
Lecture XIL 255
In that judgment, then, shah the men of
Nineveh rise up with this generation, and con
demn it? "They repented at the preaching of
Jonas." The first day, in which they heard
the terrors of the Lord, was the first also
which witnessed their contrition and amend
ment. But, "behold, a greater than Jonas is
here:"6 greater in his office, greater in his
power. The judgment, which he threatens on
the disobedient, is more fearful: the reward,
which he promises to the obedient, more glo
rious : the motives to repentance more noble :
the means of grace more full and more
effectual. We ah profess to look to the resurrection
as the consummation of ah our hopes. But
we can never reflect too frequently, that those
promises of God, animating and encouraging
as they are, are made only to the sincere, the
penitent, and the reformed. To "them who,
by patient continuance in weh doing, seek for
glory, and honour, and immortality." f If we
would attain the promises, some change, ana
logous to the resurrection for which we look,
must be begun, even in this life. We must
be planted in the hkeness of his death, if we
would be planted in the hkeness of his resur
rection/ We must die to sin, and rise again
' Matt. xii. 41. ' Rom. ii. 7. * Rom. vi. 5.
256 Lecture XII.
unto righteousness : we must cease to do evd,
and learn to do well. We must mortify our
members which are upon the earth. We must<
here endeavour, by the use of ah the means,
which the Providence of God has granted,
to be transformed by the renewing of our
minds,h to be made like our heavenly Saviour
in humility, in piety, in the devotion of every
thought and wish to the wih of God, if we
would look with confidence to a happy resur
rection hereafter.
h Rom. xii. 2.
LECTURE XIII.
THE ALLUSION MADE BY OUR LORD TO THE
MANNA GIVEN IN THE WILDERNESS
TO THE ISRAELITES.
John vi. 32, 33.
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven ; but my
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven, and giveth life unto the zoorld.
The mode in which Christ here makes ahusion
to the manna, which the Israehtes ate in the
wdderness, is different from that in which he
refers to the brasen serpent, and to the miracu
lous preservation of the prophet Jonah. In
the passages which contain those references, our
Lord himself suggested the historical facts as
subjects of comparison with the events, which
he predicted at the same time. The selec
tion, therefore, and the apphcation, were both
made on his own authority ; ratified by the
miracles which he had previously wrought,
and confirmed by the completion of the ac
companying prophecy. It has already been
R
258 Lecture XIII.
argued, that such a selection of those facts
points them out as events designedly prefigura-
tive of the corresponding events in the death
and resurrection of Christ.
But the same reasoning will not precisely ap
ply to the subject of our present consideration.
Upon attentively perusing the discourse, in
which Christ compares his person and his doc
trine, with ah its consequences, to the bread
which came down from heaven, it wih be per
ceived, that the subject was suggested by the
observations of the Jews themselves, who first
referred to that miraculous fact ; and it will,
perhaps, appear more probable, that the ahusion
which our Lord was thus led to make, and the
comparison which he instituted, were intended
rather to enforce his doctrine by an apposite
ihustration, than to infer a preconcerted con
nection, between the sending of the manna, and
his own coming into the world.
Still, as this allusion has often been con
sidered to point out the manna as a designed
type of Christ, was made the foundation of a
direct prophecy, and is, at least, an instance in
which Christ founded his own instruction to
the Jews upon a well known event in their
history ; its discussion may, without impropri
ety, be introduced in this part of our present
enquiry.
Lecture XIII. 259
A brief review of the passage, in which
the ahusion is contained, compared with some
other discourses, in which our Lord introduced
similar illustrations, wih be the easiest method
of ascertaining the general import of the refer
ence, and wih shew how naturally it arose out
of the subject in question.
Jesus had performed, in the desert of Beth-
saida, one of his most mighty works, the only
miracle which is recorded by ah the four evange
lists. He had fed five thousand men with a few
barley-loaves, and two fishes. He had again
convinced his disciples, that he was the Son
of God/ by walking upon the water, and calm
ing the boisterous wind: and, having landed
on the coast of Gennesaret, near to Caper
naum, gave additional proof of his miraculous
power, by making perfectly whole as many as
were brought unto him, from the villages, or
city, or country/ The day fohowing that on
which the people had been miraculously sup
plied with food, they who had witnessed the
transaction, having in vain sought Jesus in the
desert, took shipping and came to him to Ca
pernaum : and having found him in the syna
gogue/ they addressed him with surprise and
reverence, and "said unto him, Rabbi, when
1 Matt. xiv. 33. b Matt. xiv. 36. Mark vi. 56.
e John vi. 59.
R 2
260 Lecture XIII.
earnest thou hither?" If Jesus had been anx
ious to satisfy incredulity, by multiplying the
proofs of his Divine mission, he might now
have referred the enquirers to the eye-witnesses,
who had just seen him suspending, by his
power, the estabhshed laws of nature. If he
had sought personal aggrandisement, the re
spect with which he was accosted, by the very
men who would, the day before, have taken
him by force, to make him a king,d might
have been improved, in such a manner as to
satisfy the most aspiring ambition. But the
kingdom of Jesus was not of this world.
As was customary in his discourses/ instead
of answering their questions of curiosity, or
courting popular applause, he chose rather to
address himself immediately to the instruction
of those with whom he conversed. He knew
the heart, and declared, that they sought
him, not from a thorough conviction of his
Divine authority, so miraculously attested be
fore them ; but because they did eat of the
loaves and were filled. Then, adopting a figure
familiar to the Jews/ and immediately sug
gested by the subject of his discourse, he
added, " Labour not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
d John vi. 15. * Luke xiii. 23. John xii. 34.
' Psalm xix. 10. cxix. 103. Prov. ix. 5. Jer. xv. l6.
Lecture XIII. 261
unto everlasting hfe, which the Son of man
shah give unto you: for him hath God the
Father sealed,"8 with the Spirit: him hath He
proved to be the Messiah, by the signs which
He has enabled him to perform.
The Jews understood the easy metaphor
under which the instruction of Jesus was
couched ; they knew, that the labourer was
worthy of his hire ; and, according to their
customs, might eat of the things in which he
laboured, of the fruit of the vine, or of the
fig-tree, or of the corn field/ They demand
ed, therefore, in reply, upon what conditions
they might partake of the blessings thus pro
vided. " What shall we do," in what em
ployment shah we engage, " that we might
work the works of God," and thereby qualify
ourselves for that food which endureth for
ever? "Jesus answered, and said unto them,
This is the work of God, that ye beheve on
him whom he hath sent." To believe, there
fore, on him whom God the Father had so
sealed, is the means of becoming a partaker of
that heavenly food. This interpretation, given
by Christ himself, wdl serve to explain the
whole of the succeeding passage, in which
the same course of illustration is pursued.
But many of the Jews refused thus to be-
s John vi. 27- h See Lightfoot on John vi.
262 Lecture XIII.
heve. If Jesus had bid them do some great
thing, they would perhaps have done it.1 But
this simple doctrine, beheve and live, so differ
ent from any which they had before heard,
required, in their estimation, to be estabhshed
by some greater proof. " They said, therefore,
unto him," as at other times,k " What sign
shewest thou, then, that we may see, and be
lieve thee ? What dost thou work ?" AVe know
that when the Messiah cometh, he shah be a
prophet hke unto Moses, who shewed signs
from heaven. Thou hast fed a multitude
miraculously, by increasing the quantity of
bread ; but Moses fed the whole people of
Israel for forty years : " Our fathers did eat
manna in the desert ; as it is written, He gave
them bread from heaven to eat :" l and our tra
ditions have led us to expect, that the latter
Redeemer shah perform the same miracle/
The reply of Jesus was to this effect ; The
very sign which ye demand is now exhibited
before you. Moses gave you not the bread
from heaven ; but my Father is giving you
the true bread from heaven. For that is the
bread of God, which is distinguished by two
characteristic marks, "it cometh down from
1 2 Kings v. 13. k Matt. xii. 38. John ii. 18.
1 Psalm lxxviii- 24.
m See Lightfoot on John vi. 31.
Lecture XIII. 263
heaven, and giveth life," not to a selected
few, but '"to the whole world."
Many of the Jews now understood our
Lord's discourse sufficiently to perceive how
desirable were those blessings, which he pro
mised under this inviting figure. They said,
therefore, unto him, "Lord, evermore give us
this bread." But they yet knew not precisely
what they asked. Jesus, therefore, proceeded to
explain, more fully, the sense of his assertion ;
declaring that the two signs of the bread, which
came down from heaven, were completed in
himself. "Jesus saith unto them, I am the
bread of hfe. He that cometh to me, shall
never" spiritually " hunger ; and he that be
lieveth on me, shall never thirst.'"1 Such per
fect confidence shah he attain in the evidence
of my mission, and such faith in my doctrines,
that he shah become partaker in the ;blessings
to be purchased by the atonement for sin, and
the privdeges thereby obtained to the faithful.
Ye demand a sign, that ye may see and beheve
me. " But I said unto you, That ye also have
seen me, and beheve not." Still, although
ye beheve not, others wih. " Ah that the
Father giveth me shah come to me ; and him
that cometh to me, I wih in no wise cast out."0
Then Jesus declared, that he thus came down
- John vi. 35. " Ver. 36, 37-
264 Lecture XIII.
from heaven to do his Father's wih: and an
nounced the particulars in which that wih con
sisted. " The Jews then murmured at him, because
he said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven." p They considered him only as Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother
they knew/ In answer to this objection, our
Lord further declared the necessity of God's
preventing and assisting grace, before any man
could be induced to beheve and to obey.
"No man can come to me, except God the
Father draw him : and I wih raise him up at
the last day."r The prophets of old time, taught
you to look for this divine teaching in the latter
days. " It is written in the prophets, And they
shah be ah taught of God/ Every man, there
fore, that hath heard, and hath learned -of the
Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man
hath seen the Father, save he which is of God,
he hath seen the Father."'
Our Lord's discourse is thus brought back
to the fact of his descent from heaven, as the
bread of hfe. And he then proceeds to explain
the manner in which the second characteristic
of the true bread from heaven, the giving of
life to the whole world, appertained to himself.
» John vi. 41. ¦> Ver. 42. r Ver. 44.
1 Isai. liv. 13. * John vi. 45, 46.
LfictuRE XIII. 265
"Verily, verdy, I say unto you, He that be
lieveth on me, hath everlasting life : I am that
bread of life. Your fathers did" indeed "eat
manna in the wilderness, and" yet " are dead." u
The manna in the wilderness, therefore, how
ever miraculous, could not be truly that bread
from heaven of which Jesus spake : for "this is"
the property of " the bread which cometh down
from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and
not die. I am the hving bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this
bread, he shah hve for ever : and, the bread that
I wih give is my flesh, which I wih give," not
for the temporal preservation of a few indi
viduals, but "for the" eternal "hfe of the"
whole" world." x
In these words, Christ gave a plain pro
phecy of his own death, as an atonement for
sin. But this doctrine appeared still more
unintelligible, to many of the Jews, than the
preceding. They put their own construction
on the figurative words of Christ, as if he
should give the flesh of his body to be eaten :
and "strove among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to eat?"y
Jesus, in reply, adopted their own interpreta
tion of his words, repeated his former declara
tion in stih more forcible terms, and, continu-
u John vi. 47, 48, 49- x John vi. 50, 51. * Ver. 52.
266 Lbcture XIII.
ing the same metaphor, added the circumstance
of drinking his blood, as necessary to salvation.
He spake figuratively of that partaking in the
atonement, purchased by the sacrifice of his
body which was given, and his blood which
was shed, and of that future communion
with him, which is promised to true behevers;
at the same time plainly intimating the nature
of the rite, which he should afterwards institute,
in commemoration of the sacrifice which he
had just predicted/ " Jesus said unto them,
Verdy, verdy, I say unto you, Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood, ye have no hfe in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
hfe; and I wih raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in
him. As the living Father hath sent me, and
I live by the Father; so he that eateth me,
even he shah hve by me." B
Having thus declared, in language suffi
ciently intehigible, although figurative, the
nature of that true bread from heaven,
Jesus, in conclusion, repeats the terms of his
first proposition ; " This is that bread which"
* See Waterland on the Eucharist; chap. vi.
* John vi. 53.. .57-
Lbcturb XIII. 267
reahy " came down from heaven : not as your
fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that
eateth of this bread shah hve for ever.""
Now, upon reviewing the natural and un
forced ahusion, made by our Lord, to the t
manna which the Israelites did eat in the
wdderness, it may certainly admit of much
doubt, whether it were intended by him to
indicate any designed connection between that
bread, which was given from heaven, and him
self. It must be remembered, as was before
noticed, that the circumstance in the Jewish
history is not selected by Christ, and explicitly
apphed to himself. The mention of it naturahy
arises from the discourse in which he is en
gaged. It is first suggested by the Jews them
selves, and its developement is made in those
points, which their successive objections unfold.
Neither must the figure, by which his in
struction is first delivered, be considered as one
which was new and strange to his hearers.
This discourse was made in the synagogue,
whither the Jews resorted to hear the Scrip
tures. The images presented in the phrase
ology of their sacred books, and preserved in
the traditional learning of their scribes, would
be fresh in their minds. They had heard the
words, which Solomon ascribes to the person
" John vi. 58.
268 Lect.ure XIIL
of Divine Wisdom ; " Wisdom hath budded
her house.... she crieth upon the highest places
of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn
in hither: as for him that wanteth under
standing, she saith to him, Come, eat of my
bread, and drink of the wine which I have
mingled." c And they knew that the meaning
of the invitation was, that they should " for
sake the foolish and hve: and go in the way
of understanding.'"1 They had been familiar
ised to the forcible imagery of Isaiah. "Ho,
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy,
and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and mdk without
money, and without price." e And they knew
also the exposition of this invitation, given
by the prophet himself; " Inchne your ear,
and come unto me: hear, and your soid shah
live."f And the interpretations of their law,
abounded in simdar expressions/ The Jews,
therefore, who heard the words of Christ, ex
horting them to "labour not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that which endureth
unto everlasting hfe," would weh understand
instruction, conveyed in words adapted to their.
previous conceptions and habits of thoughts
c Prov. ix. 1. . .5.
d Prov. ix. 6.
' Isai. Iv. 1.
' Ver. S,
* See Whitby on 1 Cor. x. 3.
Lecture XIII. 269
Our Lord himself, on other occasions, took
advantage of the circumstances in which he
was placed, in order to introduce his instruction
under the same familiar image, or by ahusions
of a similar kind. To the woman of Samaria
he proposed the saving doctrines of the Gospel,
by the figure of "hving water," suggested by
the subject of their conversation. Jesus said
unto her, " Whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shah give him, shah never thirst : but
the water that I shah give him shah be in him
a weh of water, springing up into everlasting
hfe."h Soon after, when "his disciples prayed
him, saying, Master, eat ;" his reply was, " I
have meat to eat that ye know not of." " My
meat is to do the wih of him that sent me,
and to finish his work."'
Again, Jesus was in the synagogue on the
feast of tabernacles. The eighth and last day
of the feast was come, which the traditions
of the Jews had invested with peculiar so
lemnity. The water from tbe pool of Sdoam
was cohected in the golden vessel, and brought
with the voice of the people, crying, " With
joy shah ye draw water out of the wells of
salvation,"" and with singing, and with the
sound of the trumpet, to the priest; who
h John iv. IS, 14. ' John iv. 31, 32, 34.
k Isai. xii. 3.
270 Lecture XIII.
poured it, mixed with wine, upon the sacri
fice, as it lay upon the altar.1 Jesus per
mitted not to pass unnoticed a scene so cal
culated to attract the imaginations of the peo
ple. He adbpted the words suggested by the
occasion ; and " stood, and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink. He that believeth in me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake
he of the Spirit." m
Our Lord addressed his own disciples, in
a similar manner, soon after he had performed
a miracle, analogous to that which is the basis
of our present enquiry, by feeding four thou
sand men, as related by Saint Matthew and
Saint Mark/ His disciples had forgotten to
take bread : " Then Jesus said unto them,
Take heed, and beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees." ° And
when they understood not, Christ referred
them to the two miracles which he had per
formed, at once to remind them, that they
needed not to be careful for the meat which
perisheth, and to recal to their minds the
1 See Bishop Lowth on Isai. xii. 3. — Lightfoot and Whitby
on John vii.
m John vii. 37, 38, 39.
" Matt. xv. 32.. .38. Mark viii. 1. . .9.
u Matt. xvi. 5, 6.
Lecture XIII. 271
discourse, which St. John onlyp records to have
followed the first miracle ; the discourse in
which the doctrines and person of Christ were
presented under the figure of the bread, which
came down from heaven. " Then understood
they how that he bade them not beware of
the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees.'"1
These instances are sufficient to shew how
frequently our Lord, in his discourses, adopted
a style already familiar to his hearers, by pro
pounding his doctrines under the image of
material food. The mode of ihustration in
them ah is simdar, and in many of them there
is no appearance of any typical ahusion.
In the instance which we have now been
considering, the connection between the circum
stances produced by the Jews, and the instruc
tion derived from them, appears too incidental
to be adduced as a proof, that our Lord im
plied a preconcerted connexion between the
p Saint Matthew here alludes to a discourse of our Lord,
which he does not record : while Saint John, who relates the
discourse, makes no mention of the subsequent allusion to it.
Many coincidences of this nature, evidently undesigned on
the part of the Evangelists, are found in the Gospels. These
might be expected in independent narratives, made by artless
persons, who were conscious of the truth of what they related,
and, therefore, regardless of appearances ; but they are entirely
inconsistent with the supposition of any collusion.
* Matt. xvi. 12.
272 Lecture XIII.
manna which feh in the wdderness, and his
own person and doctrines: we have, therefore,
no sufficient ground to conclude, upon his au
thority, that the one was historically typical
of the other.
That the manna in the wdderness had, in
deed, some designed reference to the Christian
dispensation, may appear sufficiently, from the
argument which St. Paul, in his Epistle to
the Corinthians/ founds upon that connection.
But the consideration of that argument wih
be introduced with greater propriety among
those types, which require us to assume the
divine authority of Scripture, in order to
estabhsh their existence/
If, however, the comment of our Lord, upon
the Jewish history, do not necessarily imply
any such typical relation, it must stih be re
garded with the utmost reverence and atten
tion. It unfolds doctrines of the most mo
mentous import, immediately ratified, as well
by the miracle which he had performed, as by
the foreknowledge, which it imphes, of his own
death for the sins of the whole world. Ah
the words, indeed, which Christ gave to the
world, are dignified with the authority of truth :
for "him hath God the Father sealed.'" But
this discourse is confirmed, as many others are,
• 1 Cor. x. 3. ' Lect. XVII. ' John vi. 27-
Lecture XIII. 273
by its intimate union with a miraculous fact,
and a fulfilled prophecy. The doctrine is con
nected directly with the miracle ; and the pro
phecy inseparably interwoven with the instruc
tion. This doctrine is, that whoever partakes of
the benefits of his propitiation made for sin
shah have eternal life: and that there is no
other mode by which men can be saved. These
benefits are given by the free grace of God;
and are ordinarily conveyed to the mind of
man by the means which he has provided.
Doubtless they may, by his mercy, be ex
tended to those, who hved before the coming
of Christ upon earth ; and to those who now
hve where the sound of the Gospel has not
yet been heard. But of us, who have long
received the doctrines of life, is clearly required
a compliance with the appointed means of im
provement. We must have faith; for this
is the work of God, that we believe on him
whom he hath sent/ We must hear his
word, and must spiritually eat the flesh of
Christ, and drink his blood in the sacrament
of his Church.
But, besides this doctrine, so intimately con
nected with the illustration of our Lord, his
words contain also practical instruction, on the
u John vi. 29-
S
274 Lecture XIII.
importance of working out our salvation, and
encouragement to persevere. The sum of that
instruction is briefly comprehended in these
words: "Labour not for the meat which pe-
risheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting hfe, which the Son of man shall
give unto you."x
There is little fear, in these days, that any
one should so misinterpret the words of Christ,
as to conclude it unlawful to labour at all
for the support of the present life. The fruit
ful annals of heresy offer, indeed, distances of
those, who so perverted the meaning of Scrip
ture, forgetful of the example and commands
given us by St. Paul, and the apostles/ The
danger with us is of an opposite nature. Day
after day, and year after year, " man goeth
forth to his work, and to his labour,'" for the
meat which perisheth. For this end, no toil
is considered too irksome, no exertion too long
continued. He is made to possess months of
vanity ; and wearisome nights are appointed
to him/ He will compass sea and land : he
wih expose himself to the pestilence that
walketh in darkness ; and to the arrow that
flieth in the noon-day. This is the object of
" John vi. 27-
>' Acts xviii. 3. xx. .'it. I Cor. iv. 12. 1 Thess. iv. 1-1-
J Thess. iii. 10.
' Psalm civ. 23. » Job vii. 3.
Lecture XIII. 275
his dady care, and of his nightly dreams. He
thus "walketh in a vain shew," and is dis
quieted in vain. "He heapeth up riches, and
knoweth not who shah gather them."b
Such labour, which reason alone would dis
approve, our Lord condemns. Labour not thus-
for the meat which perish eth : but rather labour
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of man shah give unto
you. The means of so labouring are afforded
us by Christ. His invitation stih is " Ho, every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and
he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and. eat :
yea, come buy wine and mdk, without money,
and without price. Wherefore do ye spend your
money for that which is not bread, and your
labour for that which satisfieth not? Inchne
your ear and come unto me : hearken and your
soul shah hve."c The means of knowledge, by
his Scriptures ; the means of grace, by search
ing those Scriptures, and partaking of his holy
ordinances ; the means of justification and sanc
tification, by the merits of his death, and the
influence of his Holy Spirit — all these are freely
bestowed upon such as labour earnestly for
the bread of hfe. Stdl, our own endeavours,
our constant, persevering exertions, are indis
pensable. We must work out our own sal-
b Psalm xxxix. 6- l Isai. Iv. I, 2, 3.
S2
276 Lecture XIII.
vation; with fear, indeed, and trembling;
for we have fradties and errors, and sins in
numerable to contend with; but stih with
humble confidence in the support which we
are promised from above : for it is God which
worketh in us, both to will and to do of his
good pleasure/ If a man labour for the meat
which perisheth, he often but sows the wind
and reaps the whirlwind/ His toils are great
and incessant, and often all ultimately fail.
But he that earnestly labours for the meat
which endureth for ever, shah assuredly not
labour in vain. He relies upon a wisdom
which can foresee all things, and upon a power
which nothing can resist. He knows in whom
he has trusted ; for he has read the sure word
of the Gospel of truth ; " Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for
they shah be filled." f
d Phil. ii. 12, 13. ' Hos viii. 7- f Matt. v. 6.
LECTURE XIV.
THE PASSOVER A TYPE OF CHRIST.
Luke xxii. 14, 15, 16.
And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the
twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them,
With desire I have desired to eat this passover with
you before 1 suffer : for I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the
kingdom of God.
JCiVERY believer in revelation weh knows, that
the sacrifice of the paschal lamb prefigured
Christ our passover, who was sacrificed for us.
But the assertions in Scripture, which prove
this fact, are principahy such as were made
after the death of Christ. The inspiration,
therefore, of Scripture, must be assumed, before
any reasoning can be founded solely upon them.
Accordingly, the consideration of this remark
able type would properly be deferred till we
come to discuss those, the proof of which pre
supposes the divine authority of the Scrip
tures, did not the words, of our Lord, in allusion
to the rite, while distinctly intimating his own
death, connect the prefiguration with a pro-,
278 Lecture XIV.
phecy, the completion of which immediately
authenticates his exposition. The type is thus
brought within the present division of our sub
ject. In confirmation of the accuracy of the
resemblance, briefly alluded to by our Lord,
we may refer to other parts of the New Tes
tament, the divine authority of which is to
be considered firmly estabhshed upon other
grounds. The necessity of thus anticipating
what should, strictly, be reserved for a more
advanced period of the investigation, might
render the present instance less adapted to
furnish independent proof of the authority of
Scripture, if the resemblance rested solely upon
an assertion. But the close coincidence, which
no unprejudiced mind can deny, between all
the circumstances observed in celebrating the
Jewish passover, and the corresponding events
in the death of Christ, is one of those histo
rical facts, which alone render in the highest
degree probable the designed connection of
the Jewish with the Christian dispensation,
and, consequently, the divine origin of both.
The assertion of Scripture is, to us, a fuh con
firmation of that, which observation alone might
have pointed out: and is the sole foundation
of the doctrinal instruction which may be built
upon the resemblance.
Lecture XIV. 279
The prophetic assertion of our Lord, respect
ing the passover, was made immediately be
fore its fulfilment. But the fact, upon which
it is founded, was often before disclosed in
the course of his ministry. Every one who
has read, with attention, the narratives of the
evangelists, must have been struck with the
calmness which characterizes ah the discourses
of Jesus respecting his own death. There is
nothing vague, or indefinite, in his expressions
respecting an event, which, of all others, is
usually regarded by man with the greatest
uncertainty, as weh as with aversion, while it
is yet distant. But to the mind of Jesus, the
time, the manner, the causes, the consequences
of " his decease which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem,"3 were all present with the pre
cision, with which the most retentive human
memory contemplates past events.
Jesus displayed this knowledge on various
occasions ;b at first, by obscure intimations ; and
a Luke ix. 31.
b Seven distinct prophecies, or allusions, are enumerated ;
1. John ii. 19.
2. Luke ix. 22.
3. Mark ix. 12.
4. Matt. xvii. 23. Mark ix. 31. Luke ix. 44.
5. Luke xvii. 25.
6. Matt. xx. 19. Mark x. 34. Luke xviii. 32.
7. Matt. xxvi. 2.
280 Lecture XIV.
afterwards by predictions of stih increasing
clearness ; till, at the last, he spake openly to
his disciples. Weh knowing the malice of his
enemies, the bitterness of that death which he
was about to taste for the sin of the whole
world, and the inconceivable horrors which he
should endure in those hours of darkness, he
yet spake and acted with ah the serenity of
a composed mind. The near approach of his
sufferings diminished in no respect the con
sistent firmness, which had marked his earlier
conduct. The feast of the passover drew nigh: and
Jesus came to Jerusalem. The discourses, which
he there delivered, had all a reference to his
death, and the important issues depending upon
it. He foretold the destruction of the holy
city : and declared, with even greater precision
than before, "Ye know, that after two days,
is the feast of the passover, and the Son of
man is betrayed to be crucified."0 Twice, dur
ing the week preceding his passion, had our
Lord been anointed with precious ointment;
and, on each occasion, he reminded those who
witnessed with indignation this costly demon
stration of respect, that she who performed
the office had done it for his burial/ "Then
c Matt. xxvi. 2.
* Matt. xxvi. 6... 12. Mark xiv. 3. • .9, John xii. 3. . -7-
Lecture XIV. 281
came the day of unleavened bread, when the
passover must be killed."6 And Jesus sent
Peter and John, to make ready the passover;
discovering in the minuteness of his regula
tions, his perfect knowledge of every future
contingency. " And when the hour was come,
he sat down, and the twelve apostles with
him. And he said unto them, With desire
I have desired to eat this passover with you
before I suffer; for, I say unto you, I wih
not any more eat thereof, untd it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God ;"f untd that, which
is foreshadowed by the significant emblem of
the paschal lamb, be fulfilled by the sacrifice
of the true " Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sins of the world;"6 until the Gospel dis
pensation be estabhshed, and that heavenly
kingdom be appointed, in which "ye may eat
and drink at my table." h These words of Christ
contain a distinct ahusion to the typical nature
of the paschal lamb. The precise mode, in
which the type was to be "fulfilled in the
kingdom of God," is not, indeed, for the pre
sent pointed out. But enough was said to
excite the attention of the disciples, and to
enable them to understand, and to cah to
remembrance, when a fuller revelation of the
' Luke xxii. 7. ' Luke xxii. 14, 15, 16.
* John i. 29. h Luke xxii. 30.
282 Lecture XIV.
Divine counsels should be made to them, that
their Lord had told them before it came to
pass. Accordingly, in the allusion which St. Paul
makes to the typical character of the Jewish
passover, he introduces the fact, as one well
known to his Corinthian converts, of which
they require rather to be reminded than in
formed. He is commanding them to put away
from among them an incestuous person ; and
he urges his injunction, by an unforced refer
ence to the Jewish feast of unleavened bread,
which was probably near, at the time his epistle
was written.' " Know ye not," says the Apo
stle, adopting a proverbial expression,1* " that a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ? Purge
out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may
be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For
even Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us :
therefore let us keep the feast, not with the
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth."1 This assertion of the
Apostle implies, that the passover, in all its
circumstances, bore a designed and acknow
ledged reference to the death of Christ.
The same intimation of the typical nature
of the paschal lamb is also supplied by the
' I Cor. xvi. 8. k Gal. \. [). '1 Cor. v. 6, 7, 8.
Lecture XIV. 283
interpretation of the Old Testament, given by
the evangelist St. John. He saw, and bare
record, that after the crucifixion of our Lord,
the soldiers came, and brake the legs of those
who were crucified with him ; " but when they
came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs." And he
declares, that "these things were done, that
the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of
him shall not be broken."1" Now there are
three passages in the Old Testament, to which
it has been supposed that reference is here
made. The first two are the commands given
with respect to the paschal lamb, in which
the Israehtes were forbidden to " break a bone
thereof:"11 and the third is that assertion of
David, " Many are the afflictions of the right
eous ; but the Lord dehvereth him out of
them ah. He keepeth ah his bones ; not one
of them is broken."0 But the close corres
pondence, between the form of words adopted
by the evangelist, and those which were ori
ginally spoken of the paschal lamb, shows
clearly, that his immediate intention was to
quote the passages which describe the insti
tution of the passover. But there is no con
tradiction in supposing, that an allusion was
m John xix. 32, 33, 36. n Exod. xii. 46. Numb. ix. 12.
° Psalm xxxiv. 19, 20.
284 Lecture XIV.
also intended to the words of David, who,
being a prophet, in asserting the general care
of the Almighty over the righteous, might
be guided by the Spirit of God, to speak of
him who was peculiarly "the Holy One, and
the Just."p He might use words, which bore
reference to the preceding type, while they
propheticahy indicated the corresponding cir
cumstances, which the Divine Providence should
accomplish in the future antitype.
St. John, therefore, writing, as we believe,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, apphes
to the person of Christ, passages in the Old
Testament, which have a direct reference to
the paschal lamb. This could not be, unless
he regarded the one as foreshewing the other:
unless he considered the passover of the Jews
as a figure of those things which were to be
"fulfilled in the kingdom of God," by the
death and passion of our Saviour Christ.
The prediction, then, of our Lord, and the
words of his apostles, teach us to regard the
paschal lamb as typical of the death of Christ.
And upon referring to other passages of Scrip
ture, the suggested correspondence, in every
particular, is found to be wonderfully exact.
The animal sacrificed at the passover, was
to be a lamb without blemish/ Christ is styled
p Acts iii. 1 1. ri Exod. xii. 5.
Lecture XIV. 285
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world;1 a lamb without blemish and
without spot/ The paschal lamb was to be
one of the flock. Christ, the Word who was
made flesh, and dwelt among us/ was taken
from the midst of the people, being in all
things made hke unto his brethren." The
sacrifice of tbe passover differed from other
sacrifices, in being a public act of the whole
people: it was to be slain by "the whole as
sembly of the congregation of Israel."" The
chief priests, and the rulers, and the people,
were consenting to the death of Jesus/ The
blood of the passover was, at its first institu
tion, to be sprinkled upon the lintel, and the
two side-posts/ for the protection of the people ;
and in the subsequent celebration of the paschal
sacrifice, " the priests sprinkled the blood, which
they received of the hand of the Levites."a
It is by the sprmkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ, that our consciences are purged,b and
protection and salvation obtained/ The pass-
over was to be eaten by the Israelites, in the
character of travehers, with their loins girded,
their shoes upon their feet, and their staff in
r John i. 29, 36. s 1 Pet. i. 19- See Isai. Iiii. 7-
1 John i. 14. u Heb. ii. 17-
x Exod. xii. 6. y Luke xxiii. 13.
z Exod. xii. 7, 22. a 2 Chron. xxx. 16. xxxv. 11.
" Heb. ix. 14. Q Heb. xii. 24. 1 Pet. i. 2.
286 Lecture XIV.
their hand/ They, for whom Christ is sacri
ficed, are compared to strangers and pilgrims/
and are commanded to stand, having their
loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breast-plate of righteousness, and their feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace/ The Israelites were to eat the pass-
over in haste/ We are to give diligence to
make our calling and election sure :h and to
flee for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us/ The passover was to be sacri
ficed only in the tabernacle, and afterwards
only in the temple at Jerusalem/ Neither
could it be that Christ should perish out of
Jerusalem.1 The month, and day of the month,
on which the passover was to be sacrificed
by the Israelites, is laid down with accuracy.
And, on the very day on which the pass-
over ought to be slain,™ and on which Christ
celebrated the paschal feast with his disciples,
he endured his agony and bloody sweat: and
he suffered death upon the cross, on the day
when, at least, the scribes and Pharisees, and
some of the principal men among the Jews,
did " eat the passover." "
A Exod. xii. 11. '1 Pet. ii. 11. ' Eph. vi. 15.
K Exod. xii. 11. "2 Pet. i. 10. ' Heb. vi. IS.
k Deut. xvi. 5, 6. ' Luke xiii. 33-
m Luke xxii. 7. 'Ei< ij F.Alil Oveo-Oai tu -wda-^a.
" John xviii. 28.
Lecture XIV, 287
Another pecuharity in the paschal offering
is the time of the day, at which it was appointed
to be slain. " The whole assembly of the con
gregation shah kill it in the evening ;" ° or, as
the expression is rendered in the margin, be
tween the two evenings.
The time designated by this expression is
sufficiently clear, from a comparison of other
passages in which it is found/ The term, even
ing, was taken, with considerable latitude, to
indicate the whole time, between the declining
of the sun from noon and its setting: and the
period was divided into the former and the
latter evening. Thus the same time, described
by St. Luke in the words, "the day began to
decline,'"1 is denominated by St. Matthew, even
ing : and from the account given by St. Matthew
himself, it is evident, that he is speaking of the
former evening : for after the miracle, which he
describes, is performed, some considerable time
elapses before the second evening of the same
day comes, when Christ, having gone up to a
mountain apart to pray, was there alone/ The
comparison of these two corresponding accounts
proves, that, in the time of our Saviour, at least,
the term " between the two evenings" did not
° Exod. xii. 6.
p Exod. xxx. 8. Levit. xxiii. 5. Numb, xxviii. 4.
11 Luke ix. 12. 'H ce fj/tepa rjp^uTo n\iveiv.
' Matt. xiv. 15, 23.
288 Lecture XIV.
mean, as has been supposed/ the period of twi
light, that intermingling of light and darkness,
which takes place between the setting of the
sun, and the obscurity of night. The tradi
tions and customs of the Jews shew also what
interpretation they put upon the words. For
the second daily sacrifice was commanded to be
continually offered "between the two evenings;"'
and it is known, that the lamb was slain be
tween the eighth and ninth hour of the Jews;
and offered between their ninth and tenth
hour/ Josephus also expressly states, that the
evening sacrifice took place about the ninth
hour:* and that the paschal lamb was slain
from the ninth to the eleventh hour/
When any thing, then, was commanded to
be done " between the two evenings," it was
usuahy performed at the ninth hour, the
point of time equidistant from the begin
ning and the end of the whole period.
Now, at the very time appointed for the
sacrifice of the paschal lamb, between the two
evenings, Christ our passover was sacrificed
for us. The scene of suffering began at the
s Aben Ezra on Exod. xii. Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. in verb.
my
' Exod. xxix. 39- Numb, xxviii. 4.
11 Talmud tract, de pasch. cap. 5. See Godwin's Moses
and Aaron, p. 133. Kidder. Demonstr. of the Messiah,
p-219- x Ant. xiv. 4, 3. y Bell. Jud. vi. 9. 3.
Lecture XIV. 289
third hour of the day/ And at the sixth
hour there was darkness over ah the land
until the ninth hour/ And about the ninth
hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave
up the ghost/
Many other circumstances of resemblance
have long since been observed, between the
type exhibited in the passover, and Christ
the antitype/ The comparison which was
made, as early as the second century of the
Christian sera, between the particular mode
in which the paschal lamb was prepared in
roasting, and the manner in which the body
of our Lord was fixed to the cross,d may,
perhaps, appear too fanciful to be insisted on.
But when we find, that the covenant of the
passover Avas made with those who ate the
flesh of the lamb ; and the gospel covenant
with those who embrace the true faith, or,
in the language of Christ himself, who " eat
the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood:"6 that, as the whole lamb was to be eaten,
so the whole doctrine of Christ is to be em
braced without reserve: that, as no one, who
1 Mark xv. 25.
* Matt, xxvii. 45. Mark xv. 33. Luke xxiii. 44.
b Matt, xxvii. 46, 50. Mark xv. 34, 37-
c See Bochart: Hierozoicon, Par. 1. Lib. II. cap. 1. Witsius
de cecon. Faederum, Lib. IV. cap. ix. 35. . .38.
* Justin Martyr Dial, cum Tryphone, p. 259- B.
' John vi. 53. T
290 Lecture XIV.
was legally impure, might partake of that
banquet ; f so every one that nameth the
name of Christ, must depart from iniquity ;B
for, without holiness, no man shah see the
Lord : h that, as a second passover was ex
pressly ordained for those who were "unclean
by reason of a dead body," or were "in a
journey afar off;" ' so Christ, who was in
mercy given as the second passover, was
given to quicken those who were dead in
trespasses and sins,k and to make nigh by
his blood, those " who sometimes were far
off:"1 that, as the lamb was brought to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb ; so Jesus, before his accusers, opened
not his mouth : m that, as the passover was
at first killed before Israel was dehvered
from bondage ; so Jesus suffered before the
world was " dehvered from the bondage of cor
ruption, into the glorious liberty of the chddren
of God :" " that, as the paschal lamb was to be
eaten With bitter herbs, and with unleavened
bread, the bread of affliction ; ° so every Christ
ian must " through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God;"p must beware of the
f Numb. ix. 6. « 2 Tim. ii. 19-
h Heb. xii. 14. * Numb. ix. 10.
k Ephes. ii. 1. ' Ephes. ii. 13.
m Isai. Iiii. 7- John xix. 9. "Rom. viii. 21.
0 Exod. xii. 8. Deut. xvi. 3. » Acts xiv. 22.
Lecture XIV. 291
leaven of hypocrisy/ and " keep the feast, not
with the old leaven, neither with the leaven
of mahce and wickedness, but with the un
leavened bread of sincerity and truth"1 — we
must confess, that ah these circumstances of
resemblance could not have occurred without
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, who instituted the ordinance, to com
memorate the temporal dehverance, which he
would immediately bring upon his people;
and also to shadow forth the eternal de
hverance, which should be wrought for the
world, when that which was typified in the
passover, should be "fulfilled in the kingdom
of God."Some of these resemblances might have
been accidental ; some may be imaginary :
but can any one beheve, that ah of them
can have happened by chance? If this be
inconceivable, we have here the finger of
God. We find an ordinance commemorative
of a miraculous fact, instituted long before
the event took place : an ordinance, incon
venient to be observed, and too remarkable
to be forgotten. It was transmitted from
generation to generation for fifteen hundred
years. The solemnity might be from time
to time interrupted: but the remembrance
' Luke xii. 1. ' 1 Cor. v. 8.
T 2
292 Lecture XIV.
of it was retained amidst ah their national
calamities. Its celebration brought the scat
tered people of Israel from the extremities of
their land: it united them in friendly socie
ties. Their chddren were introduced that en
quiry might be made, what mean ye by this
service?8 As long as their city stood, even
while the enemy was besieging them in ah
their gates, the paschal lamb was slain, and
the feast of the Lord's passover kept:' re
garded by ah as a memorial of past mercies,
and, perhaps, by some as a prophetic inti
mation of future spiritual deliverance/ At
length the Divine counsels are fulfilled. Jesus
Christ the Lamb, slain from the foundation of
the world, appears upon earth. At the close
of his ministry, he partakes of the passover,
and points it out as a figure of what shah be
" fulfilled in the kingdom of God." His pre
diction is accomplished by the sacrifice of him
self, the true Paschal Lamb : and soon the
place, which the Lord chose to put his name
there, is destroyed : and the typical passover
cah no longer be offered "in such sort as it
was written." x
s Exod. xii. 26.
* Josephus ; Jewish War, vi. 9. §. 3.
u Justin M. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 297. D. quotes a remark
able passage to this effect from Ezra, which he asserts to have
been erased by the Jews. x 2 Chron. xxx. 5.
Lecture XIV. 293
All these circumstances could not have
been brought to pass without the especial in
terference of the Divine power; nor predicted
by Christ, without the immediate inspiration
of Divine wisdom. No man could foresee,
that the place of his death should be Jeru
salem ; because if was the place appointed for
the celebration of the Lord's passover. No
man could foresee, that the time of his
death should be that festival, which was
usually distinguished by acts of mercy ; by
dehverance of the captive, and setting free
those who were bound : that the hour of
his death should be precisely that, at which
the paschal lamb was slain : that his body
should be removed from the cross on the
same day, as no, part of the paschal lamb
was permitted to remain untd the morning:
and that he should die upon the cross, before
those who were crucified at the same time
with him ; and his body, consequently, remain
unmutilated; in order that the scripture
should be fulfilled, " A bone of him shah
not be broken." The prophet, who so spake,
must have been a true prophet: the doc
trines, so attested, must have been given
from above.
II: But the comparison between the pas
chal lamb considered as the type, and Jesus
294 Lecture XIV.
Christ as the antitype, proves more than the
general truth of the Christian religion. It
proves, that the death of Christ was a real
sacrifice for the sins of the world.
The passover was strictly a sacrifice; dis
tinct, indeed, from the four general kinds of
sacrifice, which were instituted by the law
of Moses : but, still, denominated, in the
Scriptures of the Jews, a sacrifice/ and an
offering;" and included, by the expounders
of their law, among those three pecuhar sa
crifices which were closely ahied to peace-
offerings/ At its first institution, it was probably
sacrificed in every house by the first-bom,
who exercised the priestly office, untd they
were afterwards redeemed, and the tribe of
Levi separated for the priesthood/ The pas
chal lamb was always brought to the taber
nacle, or to the temple/ where it was pre
sented, and offered up to God by the priest,
although not always slain by him ; its blood
was sprinkled upon the altar,4 and the entrads
y Exod. xii. 27- xxiii. 18. xxxiv. 25. Deut. xvi. 2, 4, 5, 6.
1 Corban. — Numb. ix. 7, 13.
a See Cudworth,, Discourse on the Lord's Supper, p. 10.
" Numb. iii. 40. ..51.
c Deut. xvi. 5. compared with Deut. xii. 5, 6, 11, 14.
4 2 Chron. xxx. 15, 16. xxxv. 11. See Magee on Atonement,
No. 35.
Lecture XIV. 295
burned. And thus ah the essential, distin
guishing marks of a real sacrifice were united
in the offering of the paschal lamb.
This sacrifice was also, in its original insti
tution, expiatory. The sprinkling of the blood
was the appointed means for averting the
wrath of God, when the destroying angel
passed by the door of the house in which
the offering was made.
Now, in the same sense in which the
paschal lamb was sacrificed, " Christ our pass-
over, is sacrificed for us." The type being an
expiatory sacrifice, so must the antitype be.
For the analogy, upon which the apostle's ar
gument depends, would totahy fail, if the
death of Christ were either not a sacrifice at
ah, or a sacrifice of a nature entirely distinct
from that of the paschal lamb.
III. The same comparison will elucidate
the true nature of the Sacrament instituted
by our Lord, at the same time in which he
prophetically referred to the passover, as typi
cal of 'himself. The paschal lamb being slain
as a sacrifice, the eating the flesh of the vic
tim was strictly analogous to those feasts
upon the things sacrificed, which were uni
versally estabhshed/ both among Jews and
' See Exod. xviii. 12. xxxii. 6. xxxiv. 15. 1 Sam. i. 3, 4.
xvi. 11. Cudworth on the Lord's Supper, ch. i. ,
296 Lecture XIV.
heathens. And as the death of Christ cor
responds with the sacrifice of the passover,
the Christian eucharist, which we are com
manded to keep, corresponds with the sub
sequent feast of the passover. We celebrate
these holy mysteries, not as a material sacri
fice/ nor only as a memorial of the death of
Christ ; but as the means by which the faith
ful partaker receives, continuahy, fresh acces
sions of grace and strength to his soul; as
they, who were admitted to feast upon the
sacrifices under the law, rose from the privi
leged banquet, with bodies invigorated and
refreshed. The Apostle Paul himself makes use of
this analogy between the feasts upon the
ancient sacrifices, whether offered by the Jews
or by the heathens, and the communion of
the body and blood of Christ. He is com
manding the Corinthians to flee from idola
try, to which they were peculiarly tempted:
and, in answer to some question which they
had propounded, is persuading them, that it
is unlawful to partake of things which were
confessedly offered to idols : he argues that
although, as they justly aheged, neither the idol
is any thing, nor that which is offered in sacri
fice to idols any thing, different from what it
' On this point sec Waterland on the Eucharist, ch. xii.
Lecture XIV. 297
Was before; yet they, who ate of the things
sacrificed to idols, are, by that very act, con
sidered to become partakers of the sacrifice,
and to hold communion with the demons to
whom the offering is made.
The Apostle then proceeds to argue with
them upon principles which, whether as Christ
ians or as Jews, they could not deny ; "I
speak," says he, "as to wise men ; judge ye what
I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not the communion of the blood of Christ,"
which was shed ? " The bread which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ,"
which was broken ? Because the bread is one/
we, being many, are one body : for we are ah
partakers of that one bread. " Behold," again,
" Israel after the flesh ;" who worship God by
sacrifices according to the law of Moses : " Are
not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers"
or communicants,11 " of the altar ;" mutually
participating in the benefits of the sacrifice?
" What say I then ? that the idol is any
thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to
idols is any thing? But I say, that the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils, and not to God : and I would not that
8 "Oti eh d'oros, e'v aa>p.a ol •woXXol iapev ol yap TravTe<; en
tou e»m aprov peTe-^ofiev. 1 Cor. x. 17- See Waterland on
the Eucharist, chap. viii.
h Kavuivol. Ver. 18.
298 Lecture XIV.
ye should have fehowship with devils," be, as
it were, communicants of them.1 "Ye cannot
drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of
devds: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's
table, and of the table of devils." k
The whole argument of the Apostle is
manifestly founded upon the fact, that the
Christian eucharist is of the same nature with
those feasts upon the things sacrificed, esta
bhshed among the Jews, by the sanction of their
law, and among the Gentiles, either by imita
tion of the practice of the Jews, or by tradi
tion from the patriarchal ages.
The analogy, thus assumed by the Apostle,
supposes also the Sacrament of the Lord's Sup
per, to be a federal rite : one of those cove
nanting ordinances, by which it has pleased the
Almighty, conditionahy, to offer advantages to
his creatures, in return for their obedience and
homage. The act of eating and drinking with
one another, was one of the most ancient modes
by which a covenant was ratified between man
and man.1 And they who did eat of that which
was offered upon the altar of God, did, in hke
manner, testify to the existence of a covenant
between God and themselves. The act was a
s Ou 6eXm oe vpds notvtavovs ™» hatpov'iwv yeveatiat. Ver. 20.
k 1 Cor. x. 15...2I.
1 Gen. xxvi. 30. xxxi. 46. Josh. ix. 14. comp. Psalm xii. 9-
Lecture XIV. 299
"partaking of God's table, whereby he owned
his guests to be in his favour, and under his
protection; as they, by offering sacrifices, ac
knowledged him to be their God."m
When, therefore, the Apostle draws a paral
lel between eating of the sacrifice, as practised
by Israel after the flesh, and partaking of the
communion of the body and blood of Christ,
he presumes, what is also established upon other
grounds, that this Holy Sacrament is " the
new covenant in the blood of Christ:"" and
that they, who devoutly and worthily comply
with the conditions required on their part,
. shah receive the invaluable blessings promised
by God, and purchased by the death of his
Son :' as they, who partook of the sacrifices
of the altar, were considered partakers of the
benefits procured by the previous sacrifice.
Thus wonderful are the wisdom and mercy
of God : thus consistent is the scheme, which
he has formed, for the salvation of offend
ing man, and revealed for his instruction.
To redeem mankind from eternal death,
Christ our passover was sacrificed. To this
event ah the prophecies, and ceremonies, and
types of the law, had respect : in this they
were fulfilled. The passover was, by the
m Potter on Church Government.
" Luke xxii. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 25.
300 Lecture XIV.
Jews, regarded principally as a memorial of
past mercies. To the Christian, the contempla
tion of it is most interesting, as a prophetic in
timation, handed down by the practice of suc
cessive generations, of that which was to be
"fulfilled in the kingdom of God." The
obligation of celebrating the passover ceased,
when the death of Christ, which it prefigured,
had come to pass. But it is succeeded by a
rite, perfectly analogous to it, shewing the
same death of our Lord, untd he come/
What then shah be said of those nominal
professors of Christianity, who, confessing that
Christ our passover is thus sacrificed for them,
confessing that they have no hope of salva
tion but by his merits, do yet refuse to " keep
the feast ;" habitually disregard the positive
commands of their Saviour, and their God, and
slight the means of grace which infinite mercy
has provided ?
This neglect of one of the primary duties of
Christianity is of no uncommon occurrence.
Few of those, who ordinarily attend the
public worship of our Church, approach the
table of the Lord with bended knees and
contrite heart, as often as they are invited to
commemorate " the death and passion of our
Saviour Christ, whereby alone we obtain re-
" 1 Cor. xi. 26.
Lecture XIV. 301
mission of our sins, and are made partakers
of the kingdom of heaven." Let not such
men deceive themselves — God is not mocked.
Excuses may easily be devised to satisfy then-
own minds, and to elude, if not to satisfy, the
expostulations of others. But no excuse will
avad at the day of judgment, against the posi
tive command of Christ himself; "this do in
remembrance of me."p
" p Luke xxii. 19- 1 Cor. xi. 24.
LECTURE XV.
THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOO, THE TABERNACLE,
AND THE SERVICES, ARE TYPICAL OF THE
PERSON AND OFFICES OF CHRIST.
Hebrews iii. 1.
Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, con
sider the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus.
It has been proposed to divide the historical
types of the Old Testament into three parts;
the first two containing those, which may be
considered as confirming the divine authority
of the Scriptures ; and the third, those, which
cannot be proved to exist, without first assuming
that divine authority.
If, during the occurrence of a series of
events, they are declared to be prefigurative
of another series of future events ; or if a pro
phecy be founded upon the similarity between
a past event, and one which is future; the ful
filment of the predicted correspondence affords,
in either case, an intrinsic proof, that the con
nection between the events was preconcerted;
Lecture XV, 303
and that the prophet, who spake, was divinely
inspired. The only thing requisite, in these
instances, is to prove the facts, and the ex
istence of the prophecy before its completion.
The historical types, then, which have been
already considered, as far as they fall under
either of these heads, are evidences tending
to prove, that the Scriptures, which contain
them, are given by inspiration of God. But
there are other types, which cannot, with cer
tainty, be known to exist, without assuming
the authority of the writings in which they
are so expounded. And although the study
of these is not, in itself, calculated to furnish
immediate testimony to the inspiration of Scrip
ture, it may stih serve to disclose the harmony
subsisting between the various dispensations,
by which it has pleased God to regulate the
spiritual affairs of the world ; to illustrate what
is, in itself, obscure, by a comparison with that
which is more obvious ; and to shew utihty,
beauty, and order, in institutions which, at
first sight, appear unconnected and confused.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is the book
of the Holy Scriptures, which most clearly
developed the connection between the law of
Moses, and the Gospel of Christ. It is in
tended, not to convince those who are strang
ers to the Gospel; but "leaving the principles
304 Lecture XV.
of the doctrines of Christ," a to shew to those
who already believe, the connection which sub
sists between all the institutions of God in
his dealings with man; at the same time dis
playing the great superiority possessed by the
Christian dispensation, over those which pre
ceded it.
In the course of his profound argument,
the author of that Epistle compares the apo
stolic office of Moses, with that of Christ; and
the priesthood of Aaron, with that borne by
the High-Priest of our profession/ He com
pares the tabernacle, and the services, - with
heaven, which it represented; and the offices
which Christ there performs for us :e and the
sacrifices of the law, with the corresponding
sacrifice offered by Christ for the sins of the
whole world/ This general argument, how
ever, has been so fully illustrated by one of
my predecessors in the office which I hold/
that it wih not be necessary for me to en
large upon so difficult and extensive a subject.
My object wdl only be, assuming the reason
ing and conclusions of the Apostle, to point
out some of the leading facts, which shew that
the comparison between the Law and the Go-
* Heb. vi. 1 . b Heb. iii. . .viii.
1 Heb. ix. <• Heb. x.
' Franks' Hulsean Lectures for 1823,. Lect. XI XX.
Lecture XV. 305
spel, is not made in the looseness of figurative
language; that the institutions of the law are
not only inferior, in duration, to the promises
of the Gospel, but are designedly intended to
prefigure them.
I. This law was first established by the
undoubted authority of heaven. Moses was
neither deluded by a vain imagination to be
heve himself inspired with powers, which in
reahty he did not possess; nor did he assume
a character, to which he had no claim, for the
purpose of deceiving others. He was learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians: he acted,
when he first received his Divine commission,
with the greatest calmness : he even reluctantly
obeyed the command of God, when he dared
no longer refuse : and he displayed the real
tokens of his prophetic character, by signs and
wonders, which struck dismay into the hearts
of the oppressors of Israel. The same proofs
of his Divine authority were exhibited in the
desert. The terrors, which were displayed upon
mount Sinai, were too mighty to have been
produced by any agency, but the immediate
operation of the Lord of heaven. And under
the pubhc sanction of this visible interference
of the Almighty, Moses delivered to the people
the laws which he received from God.
The law, thus given to the Israelites, in
U
306 Lecture XV.
a manner different from that in which any other
code of laws was ever promulgated, impressed
with the very seal of God's power, might be
expected to be different also in its nature, from
any laws, which mere human reason had de
vised, and human authority established. It was
avowedly imposed for a pecuhar purpose. "It
was added because of transgressions, till the
seed should come to whom the promise was
made."f It was intended to select a people
from the rest of the world, and to keep ahve
a memorial of the gracious promise of the
Messiah, who had been already predicted, un
til the fulness of time should come. There
was, therefore, nothing improbable in the sup
position, that a law, established by God him
self with such an intention, should contain,
within its own pecuhar injunctions, some
memorial of the great design which it intro
duced. And, on the authority of revelation,
we are persuaded that such was the case ; that
the law was a schoolmaster to bring men unto
Christ/ by prefiguring, generahy, in its priest
hood, and sacrifices, and ordinances, the things
which should hereafter be brought to pass.
II. Every notion which can be formed of
religion supposes the existence of one Supreme
Being. "He, that cometh to God, must be-
' Gal. iii. 19. * Gal. iii. 24. -
Lecture XV. 307
heve that he is; and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him."h But the con
sciousness of guilt is inseparably connected, in
the mind of sinful man, with the conviction
that there exists a God of perfect purity.
To estabhsh, then, any communication between
heaven and earth, it has pleased God to ap
point, that some mediator should be taken from
among men, who might " offer," in their name,
"both gifts and sacrifices for sins."1 This in
stitution was not without reference to future
things. WeTknow that, in the patriarchal ages,
the regal priesthood of Melchisedec prefigured
that of Christ: and the inferior order of the
levitical priesthood was also so constituted,
as to foreshadow the great High Priest of our
profession. The comparison, between the high priest
of the Mosaic dispensation and Christ, is made
the express ground of the argument in the
fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews;
the whole of which, plainly infers the typical
character borne by the high priest.
The circumstances of similarity are, indeed,
too numerous to have been considered as casual
coincidences, even if they were not thus noticed
on infallible authority. Every high priest was
to be "taken from among men."k Christ was
h Heb. xi. 6. ' Heb. v. 1. k Heb. v. 1.
u2
308 Lecture XV.
" made flesh, and dwelt among us."1 The high
priest, although exalted, by his office, above
his brethren, was yet a man of hke passions
with them, " compassed with infirmity : and by
reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so
also for himself, to offer for sins."m Christ
Jesus "made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men :"" and "in the
days of his flesh," " offered up prayers and
supphcations, with strong crying and tears,
unto him that was able to save him from
death, and was heard in that he feared."0 The
high priest was thus a human being, that he
might "have compassion on the ignorant, and
on them that are out of the way."p " Where
fore, in all things, it behoved" Christ "to be
made hke unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest- in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people.'"1 "Though he were
a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered."1 Of the Jewish high priest
it was expected, that he should not be inferior
to his brethren in form and riches, and wis
dom, and strength/ Although Jesus, in his
1 John i. 14.
m Heb. v. 2, 3.
¦ Phil. ii. 7-
0 Heb. v. 7.
i' Heb. v. 2.
q Heb. ii. 17.
1 Heb. v. 8.
s Outrani de Sacrif. Diss. I. iv.
Lecture XV. 309
human nature, had no form nor comeliness ;
nor any beauty that they should desire him;'
yet, spiritually, he is described as "fairer than
the children of men ;" one into whose lips grace
was poured/ The Jewish high priest was
clothed in vestments of peculiar splendour, an
emblem of the righteousness" with which the
Holy One should be invested, and of the sal
vation which he should bring to those who
beheved upon him. The inferior priests were
at first consecrated, by being partially anointed
with oil/ the sensible representation of the gifts
and graces of the Holy Spirit/ But upon the
head of the high priest only was the precious
ointment poured, that ran down upon the beard,
and went down to the skirts of his garments ;a
a sacred unction of honour and joy, as weh
as of holiness, significant of that effusion of
the Spirit " without measure,b by which "God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth, with the Holy
Ghost and with power,"0 as weh as with the
od of gladness above his fellows/ The high
priest, under the Jewish dispensation, was " or
dained for men," to act on their behalf/ "in
things pertaining to God;"f a faint image of
' Isai. Iiii. 2. ¦ ™ Psalm xiv. 2.
• Psalm cxxxii. 9- y Lev- vui- 30-
' 1 John ii. 20, 27- a Psalm cxxxiii. 2.
b John iii. 34. c Acts x. 38.
d Psalm xiv. 7. e oirip dvdpuiirav.
f Heb. v. 1.
310 Lecture XV.
that " one mediator between God and man, the
man Christ Jesus,"6 through whom only we
have access unto the Father ;h who " is able also
to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them."1 No man could take
the honour of the high priesthood unto him
self, but he that was cahed of God, as was
Aaron/ "Christ glorified not himself to be
made an high priest, but he that said unto
him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I be
gotten thee."1
Now, is it conceivable, that this close con
nection should subsist, between the high priest
hood of Aaron and that of Christ, without
the resemblance having been designed ? or that
ah these comparisons should be made by the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, unless
the inspired writer intended to point out, and
ratify this design? It is true, that he does
not in express terms assert, that the levitical
priesthood was a type of that which Christ
exercises. But the whole tenor of his reason
ing evidently implies that it was so. He con
nects the law and the Gospel in terms indi
cating the relation of cause and effect. He
considers the possession of certain qualifications,
by the levitical priesthood, to be a reason
* 1 Tim. ii. 5. h Eph. ii. IS. ¦ Heb. vii. 25.
k Heb. v. 1. ' Heb. v. 5. P^alm ii. 7-
Lecture XV. 311
for their existence in the person and offices
borne by Christ; a conclusion which implies,
not only the superior authority of the priest
hood of Christ, but its designed connection
with the levitical priesthood.
III. The typical nature of the levitical
dispensation will appear still more clearly, if
we consider the place in which the sacrifices
were to be offered. In the account which
Moses himself gives of the building of the
tabernacle, he expressly makes allusion, in se
veral instances,1" to a pattern or prototype,
which had been exhibited to him in the mount,
after which ah things wrere to be constructed.
Now whatever that pattern were, whether it
were a sensible model, or a verbal description,
or a representation immediately conveyed to
his mind by the inspiration of God, its ex
hibition clearly shewed to him, that the taber
nacle, which he erected, was not intended to
be complete in itself, but to be a figure of
heavenly things. And his studied repetition of
the fact might have led all, as it did lead some
of those who read his history, to regard the
ceremonials of their religion in a similar point
of view. But, not to leave the fact to mere conjecture,
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews de-
m Exod. xxv. 9, 40. xxvi. "0.
312 Lecture XV.
clares the figurative nature of the tabernacle,
and its service, in the most exphcit terms.
It must be observed that, in the authorized
version of this Epistle, two different words of
the original" are both rendered by the same
word, " pattern." To prevent ambiguity, how
ever, it wih be desirable to denominate the
model shewed to Moses, the pattern, and that
which is made after the model, the copy.
The Apostle's argument seems to imply a
scheme of revelation, composed of three several
gradations mutually connected. The objects are,
First, the sensible representation of heaven
itself; the pattern, or similitude, or type, which
was shewed to Moses in the mount.
Secondly, the levitical tabernacle; the copy
of this pattern ; the antitype of this type.
Thirdly, the heavenly places, as revealed in
the Gospel dispensation, winch were success
ively represented, both in the pattern, and in
the copy.
The levitical tabernacle is thus a copy,
with respect to the pattern of heavenly things,
after which it was immediately formed; and
prefigurative, with respect to the heavenly
places, into which Christ entered. It is thus
said to be " a figure for the time then present,"0
" TuVot, Heb. viii. 5. vwoiuy^a, Heb. ix. 23.
° Heb. ix. 9-
Lecture XV. 313.
to be, with its services, the "copies of things
in the heavens ;"p to possess the "shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image
of the things :"q and they who serve in it, are
said to serve "unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things:'" while, on the contrary,
Christ is declared to have " passed into the
heavens:* to be "set down on the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary and of the true
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not
man;'" to have come "an high priest of the
good things to come, by the greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that
is to say, not of this budding:"" to have en
tered not "into the holy places made with
hands, which are the figures of the true, but
into heaven itself."*
These expressions, considered, for the pre
sent, only as far as they refer to the taber
nacle itself, point out the place in which the
levitical high priest exercised his office as pre-
figurative of the place into which Christ, our
High Priest, is entered.
But if the tabernacle be typical, so must
v Heb. ix. 23. " Heb. x. 1. r Heb. viii. 5.
s Heb. iv. 14. * Heb. viii. 1, 2.
u Heb. ix. 11. dp%iepev Heb. viii. 1, 2.
Lecture XV. 323
the right hand of God ; the Holy Spirit pro
mised. " If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,
and he is the propitiation for our sins." k But
to the wilfully impenitent, to the slave of
passion, and the voluntary servant of sin, this
gracious revelation wih have been made in
vain. They who travad, and are heavy laden
with the consciousness of many a sin, and yet
endeavour " to go on unto perfection," ' are
invited to " come boldly unto the throne of
grace," that they may " obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need;"1" even as
"the earth which drinketh in the rain that
cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, re
ceiveth blessing from God." n But upon those
who oppose or slight such proffered mercy, a
fearful doom is pronounced. " That which
beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." °
But we, I trust, have not so learned Christ.
We have learned to search the Scriptures, to
obey his command, to pray for his grace, to
trust in his merits; to look up to him as
"the High Priest of our profession,"" who
k I John ii. 1, 2. ' Heb. vi. 1.
m Heb. iv. 16. n Heb. vi. 7-
0 Heb. vi. 8. * Heb. iii. 1.
X 2
324 Lecture XV.
is able "to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them.'"1
« Heb. vii. 25.
LECTURE XVI.
THE SACRIFICES OF THE LEVITICAL LAW WERE
-TYPICAL OF CHRIST.
Hebrews xiii. 11, 12.
The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are
burnt without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate.
No unprejudiced person, who reads these words,
would ever doubt, that the author's design was
to express an intentional correspondence be
tween the sacrifices for sin, under the levitical
law, and the death of Christ.
Some parts of the Epistle to the Hebrews
require great attention, in order to perceive and
fohow the train of reasoning which is used.
Some passages are rendered difficult to be un
derstood from the use of uncommon words,
or an unusual collocation of them. But the
words themselves are here so simple, and
their connection so obvious, that we might
have imagined no one who reads them could
have mistaken the writer's meaning, and no
326 Lecture XVI.
one who is satisfied of his inspiration, could
doubt the truth of his conclusion. But
who shah say to the pride of reason, hitherto
shalt thou come, and no further? The most
positive assertions are eluded, the plainest con
clusions are denied, when they oppose the
preconceived opinions of a favourite system.
With those who would deny the Divine au
thority of the writings, in which this asser
tion is contained, we have, for the present,
no concern. We know in what we have be
lieved : and should, I trust, be ready to give
to any one who asked us a reason of our behef.
But our observations wih be directed against
the errors of those, who, allowing ah Scripture
to be given by inspiration of God, do yet
either extenuate, or distort, or deny the con
clusions, to which the plain interpretation of
Scripture necessarily leads.
It has already been concluded, upon the
authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that
the levitical high priest, the tabernacle, and
the services performed in it, were intended to
prefigure the priesthood of Christ, the place,
and the manner of his heavenly ministry. It
will now be our object to shew, that the sa
crifices under the law, were, in like manner,
intended to prefigure the sacrifice which Christ
offered for the sins of the whole world.
Lecture XVI. 327
We need not attempt the discussion of the
difficult question respecting the origin of sacri
fice ; whether it were derived from the dictates
of natural reason, or estabhshed in obedience
to the direct command of God. Whatever
opinion is formed respecting the patriarchal
sacrifices, no one doubts, that those under the
levitical dispensation were expressly enjoined,
as part of the very pecuhar laws under which
the Israehtes were to live.
Neither wih it be requisite to enquire, whe
ther sacrifice were adopted as part of the law
of Moses, in comphance with a custom, to
which the people had long been habituated in
their intercourse with idolatrous nations ; or as
an additional sanction to a divine rite, esta
bhshed by patriarchal tradition. It is not dis
puted, that the sacrifices under the law were
accompanied with circumstances which charac
terized no other sacrifices ; ah distinguished
with scrupulous care in the book of the levi
tical law, and observed through a succession of
ages with corresponding accuracy. It is in
these peculiarities that the principal proofs of
a designed prefiguration must be looked for :
and they are neither few in number, nor doubt
ful in degree.
The animal sacrifices under the Mosaic dis
pensation were of various kinds, differing in
328 Lecture XVI.
the object for which they were offered, and ah
bearing some reference to the great sacrifice of
the death of Christ.
1. The most ancient kind was, doubtless,
the burnt-offering, in which the whole of the
victim was consumed and went up before God,
as the name imports/ either as an expression
of gratitude for past favours, or as adding
weight to the prayers which accompanied the
sacrifice," to deprecate evd, or to supplicate
good. Under the levitical law, the whole
burnt-offering was often expiatory ; c it was
expressly required on several specific occa
sions;"1 and was permitted as a votive, or a
free-wih-offering, either by a Jew, or by a
stranger. The peculiarity of this sacrifice was
its completeness : and to this is almost exclu
sively* apphed the assertion, that it is, with
reference to the Almighty, a sweet-smelling
savour. f
2. The second kind of sacrifice was the
peace-offering ; of which part was consumed in
the fire, and part divided between the priest
"¦ j-ftiy from ,-f?}? ascendit.
" Job i. 5. xiii. 8. Numb, xxiii. 2, 14, 30.
c Lev. xiv. 20.
d Lev. xii. 8. xiv. 19, 20. xv. 15, 30. xvi. 24. Numb.
vi. 11,14.c Lev. iv. 31.
f Exod. xxix. 18. Lev. i. 9, 13, 17. Numb. xv. 14.
Lecture XVI. 329
who officiated, and him who brought the offer
ing. It was either made on the occassions en
joined by the law,8 or brought for a thanks
giving, or for a vow, or for a voluntary offer
ing/ 3. But the most numerous and important
sacrifices were those of an expiatory nature,
offered in acknowledgment of sin, and as the
means appointed by God to avert its fatal con
sequences. Whether it were a sin-offering, or
whether it were a trespass-offering, the imme
diate object was simdar, to atone for the gudt
of some offence committed either against God,
or against man.
Now, in the Scriptures of the New Testa
ment, the death of Christ is frequently spoken
of in terms appropriated to the sacrificial wor
ship of the Jews : and that, not only by ahu
sion, or figure, but in such a pointed manner,
as to .indicate a designed connection between
those sacrifices and that of Christ. Some pas
sages in Scripture intimate the general con
nection of sacrifice with Christ's death: others
refer, especiahy, to the peculiar rites wkh
which sacrifice of a particular kind was ac
companied. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
argues from the fortieth Psalm, that all the
* Exod. xxix. Numb. vi. 14. h Lev. vii. 12, 16.
330 Lecture XVI.
sacrifices and offerings of every kind, under the
law, were introductory to the perfect sacrifice,
which was foreshadowed by them, and super
seded them. To shew that " it is not possible
that the blood of buhs and of goats should take
away sins,"1 he introduces the words which
David, by the spirit of prophecy, long be
fore uttered, in the person of the Messiah.
" Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no
pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do
thy wih, O God." k The apostle then subjoins
a full explanation of the prophet's assertion.
" Above when he saith, Sacrifice and offering,
and burnt-offerings, and offering for sin thou
wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein;
which are offered by the law ; then said he, Lo,
I come to do thy wih, O God. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second.'"
The first, which was to be so taken away, in
cluded ah the animal sacrifices and other offer
ings of the levitical law: the second, which
was to be so established, was " the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for ah."m
1 Heb. a. 4. * Heb. x. 5... 7.
1 Heb. x. 5... 9- mHeb. x. 10.
Lecture XVI. 331
In another instance, St. Paul compares the
sacrifice of Christ with the offerings made under
the levitical law, with a more pecuhar refer
ence to the burnt-offerings. " Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-
smelling savour;"" the very terms which are
used respecting the burnt-offering, voluntarily
brought to the door of the tabernacle, and there
offered, and accepted "to make atonement for
him" that offered it/
But the sacrifices more immediately typical
of the death of Christ were those of an en
tirely expiatory nature ; the sin-offering, and
the trespass-offering. The language of various
parts of Scripture so uniformly suggests this
connection, that the most laboured and in
genious attempts to explain them away, by
considering them as mere figurative ahusions,
have been unsuccessful.
Jesus Christ is said to have been " brought
as a lamb to the slaughter;" to have "borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows;" to have
"borne the sins of many;"p to have "been
offered'"1 for that purpose; to have given "his
life a ransom for many,"1 "for all;"5 to have
n Ephes. v. 2. ° Lev. i. 2, 4, 9, &c.
p Isai. Iiii. 5, 7, 12- Acts viii. 32. ' Heb. ix. 28.
r Matt. xx. 28. Mark x. 45. » 1 Tim. ii. 6.
332 Lecture XVI.
shed his blood "for many, for the remission
of sins;'" to have been "dehvered for our
offences;"" to have been set forth by God "to
be a propitiation through faith in his blood ;"x
to have been sent "to be the propitiation for
our sins ;"y to have " died for the ungodly ;"z
to have " died for our sins ;"a and by his death,
to have reconciled us to God;b to have "by
himself purged our sins;"0 to have made "re
conciliation for the sins of the people;"3 to
have "entered in once into the holy place,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by his own blood, having obtained eternal re
demption for us ;"e " by one offering" to have
"perfected for ever them that are sanctified ;"f
to have been slain, and to have redeemed us
to God by his blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation ; g to have
been "the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sins of the world;'"1 "the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world;"1 to have been
made "sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in
him."k It is declared, that God " laid on him
' Matt. xxvi. 28. u Rom. iv. 25.
" Rom. iii. 25. y 1 John ii. 2. iv. 10.
z Rom. v. 6. a 1 Cor. xv. 3.
* Rom. V. 10. c Heb. i. 3. Kaddptapov Troitio-dpevo<;
d Heb. ii. 17- ' Heb. ix. 12. f Heb. x. 14.
* Rev. v. 9- h John i. 29. * Rev. xiii. 8.
k 2 Cor. v. 21.
Lecture XVI.
the iniquity of us ah;" and made "his soul
an offering for sin j"1 that redemption, and for
giveness of sins are obtained through his blood:"1
and that " we are sanctified through the offer
ing of the body of Jesus Christ once for ah.""
St. Peter also solemnly addresses the Christian
Church, in terms of encouragement ; which yet
are powerless and unmeaning, unless the death
of Christ were a real offering to take away
sin: "Pass the time of your sojourning here
in fear : forasmuch as ye know that ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver
and gold, from your vain conversation, re
ceived by tradition from your fathers : but
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot."0
When we find the Scriptures thus uniformly
applying to the death of Christ the terms,
which were originally applicable to the expi
atory sacrifices of the levitical law, the obli
gation of which entirely ceased, as soon as the
great Atonement was made for sin, we cannot
avoid the conclusion, that a designed connec
tion existed between those sacrifices and the
death of Christ : that they were the shadow,
of which he possessed the " very image," the
type of which he was the antitype.
1 Isai. iiii. 6, 10. m Ephes. i. 7- Col. i. 14.
n Heb. x. 10. ° 1 Pet. i. 17... 20.
334 Lecture XVI.
This conclusion wih be strengthened, by
referring to the very pecuhar solemnities which
were appointed to be observed, at the offering
of some of the expiatory sacrifices; ceremonies
apparently unmeaning in themselves, but found
to possess a most singular analogy to the man
ner, in which Scripture assures us the death of
Christ is made instrumental in taking away the
sins of the world.
Every minute circumstance, in the levitical
sacrifices, was prescribed by the law given by
the immediate inspiration of heaven/ The se
lection of the victim, the manner of preparing
it, the offering of it at the door of the taber
nacle, the imposition of hands upon its head
with prayer, the solemnities with which it was
to be slain, the manner in which the several
parts were to be distributed, the various me
thods in which some of the blood was to be
sprinkled, either upon the mercy-seat, or upon
the horns of the golden altar in the sanctuary,
or upon the brasen altar of burnt-offering, upon
its horns, upon its sides, or upon its base, and
the remainder poured out: the significant
ceremonies to be performed with the parts of
the victim, in the peace-offerings of the whole
congregation, and the trespass-offering of the
leper/ by waving them towards the various
p See Lighttbot's Temple Service, ' Lev. xiv. 12, 24. xxiii. 20.
Lecture XVI. 335
quarters of the earth, and heaving them in
the air — ah these were prescribed by the law
of Moses, or by tradition, and scrupulously
observed. Some of these ceremonies were such as, in
ah ages, and in almost all nations, had been
used to accompany sacrifice: and it has been
forcibly argued, that ah sacrifices had reference
to the death of Christ, by observing the uni
versality of the principle of vicarious atone
ment which they pre-suppose, and represent by
significant actions.
But some of the expiatory sacrifices under
the levitical law are declared, in Scripture,
to have peculiarly foreshadowed the sacrifice
of Christ. Such are the sacrifices, the blood
of which was carried into the sanctuary, and
their bodies afterwards burnt without the
camp. The flesh of many of the expiatory offer
ings, as weh as that of the peace-offerings,
was given to be eaten ; but it was to be eaten
by the priests alone, in the holy place, in the
court of the tabernacle of the congregation/
But other sin-offerings were required to be
made with ceremonies of a more solemn nature.
There were some sin-offerings, of which they
might not eat, who served the sanctuary : and
r Lev. vi. 25, 26. x. 17-
336 Lecture XVI.
a remarkable pecuharity of these offerings was,
that the blood of ah of them was taken either
into the outer or inner sanctuary, in token of
the more important nature of the expiation
which was made by these sacrifices ; and their
bodies were commanded to be burnt without
the camp/
Now, for what purpose can we imagine re
gulations such as these to have been inserted
in a law confessedly of divine appointment?
They clearly indicated some especial design:
a design which they, who received the law,
might not comprehend, but which they might
hope should be revealed in the fulness of time
for the confirmation of their faith. This pur
pose has been fully declared by the inspired
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He
selects these very offerings for sin, the bodies
of which were burnt without the camp, as
especiahy bearing a typical relation to Christ.
They were unblemished in body, as ah other
victims were, in order to represent more pro
perly the spotless purity of the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world.
Their blood was carried into the outer sanc
tuary, and there sprinkled upon the altar, to
prefigure the shedding of Christ's blood, that
he might with it sanctify the people : and their
5 Lev. iv. 12, 21. xvi. 27.
Lecture XVI. 337
bodies were taken out, and burnt without
the camp in the wilderness, and afterwards
without the city of Jerusalem, to foreshew,
by a continued and most significant emblem,
that Christ should so suffer without the
gate. These resemblances might have been ob
served as coincidences of a very remarkable
kind, by any one who was made acquainted
with the sacrificial ceremonies of the Israelites :
and some designed connection might have been
presumed between different parts of the same ,
system, which possess such obvious features of
simdarity. But the existence of design is esta
bhshed upon grounds which no one can doubt,
who ahows the authority of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and takes notice of the reasoning of
the apostohc writer. " We have an altar," that
is, a sacrifice offered upon an altar, "whereof
they have no right to eat who serve the taber
nacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose
blood is brought into the sanctuary by the
high priest for sin, are burnt without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood, suffered with
out the gate.'" In this passage, it is evident,
that these particular sacrifices are assumed to
have prefigured the sacrifice of the death of
1 Heb. xiii. 10... 12.
Y
338 Lecture XVI.
Christ, and the place in which it should be
offered. But there is still another kind of sin-offer
ing, even more solemn than these: that which
was annuahy made on the great day of atone
ment. This has already been adduced as typical
of Christ in its general circumstances/ It shad
only, therefore, be now observed, that those
victims without blemish, the blood of which
was, once every year, carried into the most
holy place, within the vail, and there sprinkled
upon the mercy-seat, and the bodies of which
were also to be burnt without the camp, united
in themselves ah those marks of a typical cha
racter, which the other expiatory sacrifices par
tially possessed. They prefigured the purity
and holiness of Christ, the propitiation made
by his death, the place on earth in which the
sacrifice was offered, and the courts of heaven
into which he entered once, by his own blood,
having obtained eternal redemption for us/
The levitical sacrifices, then, and especially
those of an expiatory nature, having been ap
pointed as typical of Christ's death, a very
important consequence necessarily fohows from
the subsistence of such a relation.
Those sacrifices were generally vicarious : the
victim was considered to be laden with the
" Lecture XV. " Heb. ix. 12.
Lecture XVI. 339
burden of sin; and its life was given and ac
cepted as a ransom for the offender. This fact
is clearly estabhshed, by a careful consideration
of the manner in which expiatory sacrifice is
mentioned throughout the Old Testament : and
it is confirmed, by the testimony of those
Jewish writers who have explained their law/
But there are three prominent circumstances
which at once shew the vicarious nature of
the sacrifices under the law.
1. The first is the imposition of hands upon
the head of the victim, signifying the removal
of the offender's gudt. It is true, that this
ceremony was used both in the burnt-offerings
and peace-offerings of individuals/ which were
more properly of an eucharistic, than of an
expiatory nature. Yet, even in these, some
reference appears to have been made to a con
fession of sin accompanying the laying on of
the offerer's hands/ But, whatever might be
the import of the ceremony in those sacrifices,
the express words of Scripture assure us, that
the imposition of hands upon the head of a
sin-offering was intended to express the removal
of the guilt from the offender to the victim.
One of the most expressive and remark-
y See Outram de Sacrifices, Dissert. I. cap. xxii.
1 Lev. i. 4. iii. 2, 8, 13. iv. 4, 24, 29-
a See Outram de Sacrifices, Dissert. I. xv. 8.
Y2
340 Lecture XVI.
able parts of the atonement, which was made
on the great day of expiation, was that effected
by the two goats, together making one sin-
offering,0 one of which was slain, and the other
sent into the wilderness as a scape-goat. The
high priest was thus directed : he " shah lay
both his hands upon the head of the live goat,
and confess over him ah tbe iniquities of the
children of Israel, and ah their transgressions
in all their sins, putting them upon the head
of the goat, and shah send him away by the
hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and
the goat shall bear upon him ah their iniquities
unto a land not inhabited."0 No terms can
more clearly express the transference of the
guilt of the offenders to the selected victim,
by the appropriate symbol of imposition of
hands : and the intention being declared in this
instance, we cannot doubt that the same cere
mony had the same import, when used in other
sin-offerings, either for individuals, or for the
whole congregation.
2. The second circumstance which shews,
that the guilt of the offender was considered
to be transferred to the victim, is the fact,
that the sin-offering, upon which the solemn
imposition of hands had been made, was cere-
" Lev. xvi. 5. . . 10. See Magee on the Atonement, No. 73.
c Lev. xvi. 21, 22.
Lecture XVI. 341
moniahy unclean, and communicated this defile
ment to those who came into contact with it.
The man who led forth the scape-goat into
the wdderness, and they, who on the same day
carried out the bullock, which was burnt with
out the camp, after it had been solemnly offered
with the usual ceremonies of expiatory sacri
fices, and, therefore, probably with the impo
sition of hands/ contracted legal uncleanness,
by performing the ceremony : for they were
commanded to wash their clothes, and bathe
their flesh in water before they were permitted
to come into the camp/ The ceremonial de
filement, in the principal expiatory sacrifices,
doubtless arose from the symbolical commu
nication of the offender's gudt, by the imp6-
sition of hands upon the head of the victim.
It would appear, that a simdar pohution
was incurred by those, who burned without
the camp the bodies of any beasts the blood
of which was brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin: and it certainly was
communicated to those, who, in the same man
ner, consumed and gathered the ashes of the red
heifer, which partook of the nature of an ex
piatory sacrifice, and was a purification for sin/
In these institutions we perceive, then, an
d Lev. iv. 4, 15, 24, 29, 33. ' Lev. xvi. 26. . .28.
' Numb. xix. 8, 9. See Outram de Sacrificiis, Diss. I. xvii. 1 .
342 Lecture XVI.
individual, or a whole people, confessedly la
bouring under the guilt of sin, and anxious
to avert its punishment, by obeying a specific
ordinance of God, appointed for that purpose.
We observe a victim, selected with every pre
caution which should insure its perfection and
purity, solemnly dedicated to God, with the
rites which He had ordained : and, as soon as
these rites are terminated, we perceive those
who offered the sacrifice to be purged from
their sins ; but the victim to have acquired the
greatest ceremonial pohution. Nothing could
more significantly mark the fact, that the sins
of the offender were transferred to the victim.
3. The punishment also of the victim was
strictly vicarious, in that life was given for
hfe. The various disputes which have so often
been held, respecting the principle of vitality,
sufficiently shew, how necessary it was, if a
vicarious sacrifice were made, to fix upon some
sensible symbol which should designate that
which was invisible, the life of the animal:
and if any part be once fixed upon, and de
clared so to represent the life, it is evident
that no reasonable objection can be made -to
the selection. Now the part, Avhich was se
lected in the levitical sacrifices, is the blood;
an emblem, perhaps, the most obvious of any
Lecture XVI. 343
that could have been chosen, and excellently
adapted to the purpose: for its continuance
in the body is necessary to animal life; and,
when shed, it stih possesses a separate and
visible existence; and leaves the body of the
victim unmutdated, except by the wound in
flicted for its death.
The blood of animals acquired, therefore, in
the Mosaic economy, an adventitious holiness.
The Israelites were forbidden to eat of it ; for
it represented the hfe itself, which was reserved
to make atonement in sacrifice for the life of
him who offered it. "The life of the flesh,"
it is declared in the law, " is in the blood, and,"
or therefore/ "I have given it to you upon
the altar, to make an atonement for your souls ;
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement
for the soul."
These three facts, the transference of guilt
by the imposition of hands upon the victim's
head, the consequent legal pollution of the
victim, and the life of the animal being repre
sented by the blood, and offered upon the altar,
prove that, at least, the expiatory sacrifices of
the Jews were of a strictly vicarious nature.
And this conclusion agrees with the certainly
unprejudiced opinions of the Jews themselves/
s See Patrick on Lev. xvii. 1 1 .
h See Magee on Atonement, No. 33.
344 Lecture XVI.
Now to these sacrifices the death of Christ
is compared, not casually, not incidentahy, not
unadvisedly, but continually, and with evident
design : not in mere figurative language, which,
originating in the mind of the speaker, might
imply no real connection between the objects
of comparison ; but by an analogy between the
things themselves. The death of Christ is, in
the Christian dispensation, what expiatory sacri
fice was in the levitical dispensation. The two
were connected by the design of Divine Pro
vidence, the first shadowing forth, imperfectly,
what was exhibited fuhy and completely in
the second.
If, then, the expiatory sacrifices of the law
were strictly vicarious, so was the sacrifice of
Christ. If the gudt of the sinner was trans
ferred, under the law, to the victim which
was slain, the gudt of a sinful world was in
like manner transferred to Christ, who gave
himself a ransom for ah.1 If the' victim, before
immaculate, received a stain from the sins which
it bore, Christ also, who knew no sin, was
ready made sin for us/ If the life of the
animal was given by the sprinkling of its blood,
that of Christ was actuahy made an offering
for sin.1 The language of Scripture, and the
prefigurations of the law, unite in shewing the
1 1 Tim. ii. 6. k 2 Cor. v. 21. ' Isai. Iiii. 10.
Lecture XVI. 345
reality, as well as the efficacy, of the sacrifice
of Christ. In ah the animal sacrifices, then, of the levi
tical law, we observe many remarkable restric
tions and ceremonies, ah expressly enjoined on
the authority of God's command. Many of
these restrictions were, in themselves, incon
venient, and some of the ceremonies apparently
trivial : yet, they were united in one compacted
scheme, and observed from age to age. Some
of the rites are agreeable to the notions which
ah nations have held respecting sacrifice : others
are peculiar to the levitical dispensation. But,
as long as we continue to reason upon the
origin and intention of animal sacrifice, with
out any assistance from above, we find our
selves but wandering in a mighty maze, without
a plan to direct our footsteps. Even in the
books of the Old Testament, the obscurity
which envelopes many of the sacrificial ordi
nances, is but partially dissipated. We, there
fore, refer to the word of God, revealed in
the New Testament ; and there we find a lamp
unto our feet, and a hght unto our path. We
perceive much, which was before uncertain,
fixed, much which was imperfect, completed.
We learn, that all this train of sacrifices was
designed to prefigure, by various means, the
one great sacrifice offered by Christ ; that they
346 Lecture XVI.
all perpetuated a symbohcal representation of
the same important events, which the prophets
delivered by word, or by sign ; and other holy
men exhibited by the real actions of their or
dinary lives: that, in this one sacrifice, the
true expiation was made for the sins of men;
and then the obligation of making any other
offering for sin for ever ceased. We are thus
enabled to discern the mutual connection be
tween the various parts of the scheme, devised
by Divine wisdom, for the salvation of fahen
man: and should be led to adore the mercy
which has thus provided a remedy for sin,
commensurate with the magnitude of the evd.
With what humility, then, should we con
template our own unworthiness, and the ex
ceeding sinfulness of our faden nature, which
could only by such a sacrifice be restored to
the favour of God. With what gratitude should
we reflect upon the mercy of our Redeemer,
who " came into the world to save sinners :"ra
and with what earnestness should we labour
to be made partakers of such inestimable bene
fits. "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacri
fice of praise continually, that is, the fruit of
our lips, giving thanks to his name."" Let
us give all diligence to add to our " faith virtue,
and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
m 1 Tim. i. 15. " Heb. xiii. 15,
Lecture XVI. 347
temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly
kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity:"0
forgetting not "to do good and to commu
nicate" to the necessities of others, " for with
such sacrifices God is weh pleased.""
0 2 Pet. i. 5, 7. p Heb. xiii. 16.
LECTURE XVII.
THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL TYPICAL OF THE PERSON
OF CHRIST I AND THEIR HISTORY PREFIGURATIVE
OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY.
1 COR. X. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be igno
rant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea; and were all bap
tized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea; and
did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink
the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spi
ritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was
Christ.
There is something very remarkable in the
instruction deduced in the New Testament from
the history of the Israehtes. Christianity hav
ing been founded upon Judaism, it was per
haps to be expected, that the attention of early
Christian writers should be directed to ah
those, who, "having obtained a good report
through faith, received not the promise:"3 that
the examples of holy men, who hved under
the law, should often be produced for a warn
ing, or an encouragement to those who had
received the Gospel. All this, accordingly, we
• Heb. xi. 39.
Lecture XVII. 349
do find. But we find much more. We find
various passages of the New Testament, in
which, while reference is made to the history
of the Israelites, for the purpose of enforcing
moral and religious improvement, some kind
of connection is intimated between those his
torical transactions, and the things which should
come to pass in the latter days.
These intimations are given in different
parts of Scripture with different degrees of
clearness. If we look for decided assertions,
that the history of the Israehtes prefigured the
several parts of the Christian scheme of reve
lation, we perhaps expect more than we shah
discover in Scripture. The connection is rather
to be inferred from the general mode, in which
the inspired writers of the New Testament
treat of the Jewish history, than to be proved
from any one broad affirmation. Still there
are intimations enough to induce us to en
quire, whether the same people, who in their
religious rites so clearly prefigured the offices
which Christ sustains, and the sacrifice which
he offered, might not also prefigure, in the
astonishing events of their national history,
some circumstances of the dispensation which
Christ introduced: and our enquiry will shew,
that there is, at least, a high degree of pro
bability that such a connection subsists.
350 Lecture XVII.
I. The first passage, which shall be noticed,
is one which appears to point out the people
of Israel as a type of Christ personahy.
St. Matthew relates, that our Lord, in his
infancy, was taken into Egypt, " that it might
be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have
I cahed my Son."b The impression upon the
mind of any man reading this passage would
certainly be, that it was quoted as a distinct
prophecy of the event related by the Evan
gelist ; and that the person spoken of was no
other than Jesus. But a reference to the ori
ginal prophecy of Hosea shews/that the asser
tion was made respecting the people of Israel :
" When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and cahed my son out of Egypt."0
This application of the words of the pro
phet is undoubtedly difficult to be explained;
and the variety of interpretations, which have
been proposed, have themselves introduced fresh
difficulties. Without entering upon any dis
cussion, respecting the different opinions which
have been held by those, whose names have
deservedly the greatest weight, it must be ob
served, that the quotation is made in the most
definite and positive terms; and that, if the
authority of the Evangelist be allowed, we
" Miltt- »• 15. >¦¦ Hos. xi. 1.
Lecture XVII. 351
must consider the passage to bear direct allu
sion to Christ. On the other hand, the connec
tion of the original words with the expostulation
of the prophet Hosea to the Israehtes is so
obvious, that perhaps no one, in reading that
passage alone, would detect any appearance of
prophetic allusion to a future event.
What, then, would be the natural conclusion
of any unprejudiced mind? It would surely
be, that the people of Israel, in that part of
their history, prefigured, by the providence of
God, the events in which Jesus should after
wards be engaged: that thus, the same words,
which related historically to the coming of
the Israehtes out of Egypt, related also pro
phetically to the corresponding circumstance
in the history of Jesus; not from any accom
modation of words spoken in one sense, and
quoted in another, not from any ambiguity
in the meaning of the terms, not from any
figurative, or proverbial use of the expression,
but from a preconcerted, designed connection
between the two events.
In any other history, uncorroborated by the
authority which the Scriptures possess, it must
be allowed, that a conclusion of this nature
would be inadmissible; because, in no history
but that of the Bible, is the veil lifted up,
which conceals the counsel of the Most High
352 Lecture XVII.
in his dealings with mankind. And, even here,
the conclusion is to be adopted only as it seems
inevitably to fohow from the comparison of
two passages, both of which we beheve, and
know, to have proceeded from the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures contain also other texts,
which are, at least, consistent with the suppo
sition, that the people of Israel was, in some,
measure, typical of the Son of God. The Lord
is said to be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim
to be his first-born ;d as Israel is denominated
the Anointed/ or Christ ; the Son, and the first
born of God:f and, conversely, Christ himself
is addressed under the designation of Israel/
and probably alluded to under the name of
Jacob/ There is another remarkable passage of the
prophet Hosea, in which the whole people of
Israel is spoken of in terms, which are alluded
to in the New Testament, as bearing reference
to Christ. When St. Paul is reminding the Corinth
ians of the foundation of the faith, which had
been preached to them, he addresses them in
these words : " I delivered unto you, first of
d Jer. xxxi. 9. ' Hab. iii. 13.
r Exod. iv. 22. s Isai. xlix. 3.
h Psalm xxiv. 6.
Lecture XVII. 353
all, that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day, according to the scriptures."1
There can be no doubt that the term " accord
ing to the scriptures," refers, in each clause
of the sentence, to some verbal prediction which
is contained in the Old Testament, relating to
the death of Christ, and his resurrection on
the third day.
With respect to the death of Christ for
our sins, there are numerous prophecies of the
most circumstantial kind/ His resurrection
also is predicted in terms sufficiently clear:1
and the time, during which his body should
remain in the earth, is typically represented
by the sign of the prophet Jonah. But the
only verbal prophecy, which intimates that
Christ should be raised up on the third day,
is that addressed by the prophet Hosea imme
diately to the people of Israel : " Come and
let us return unto the Lord : for he hath torn,
and he wih heal us : he hath smitten, and he
wih bind us up. After two days will he re
vive us; in the third day he will raise us
up,
and we shall live in his sight.'"" It is
i 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.
k Psal. xxii. 16, 17- Isai. Iiii. 5, 8, 12, &c.
1 Psal. xvi. 10. compared with Acts ii. 31.
m Hos. vi. 1, 2. Z
354 Lecture XVII.
evident, upon a review of the whole expos
tulation of the prophet, that he is promising
the people of Israel a restoration from their
national calamities and captivity, on condition
of their repentance, under the figure of a re
surrection from the dead ; a figure frequently
used in the poetical and prophetical books of
Scripture." But the mention of the precise
time, " the third day he will raise us up," a
circumstance which is verbahy predicted in no
other part of the Bible, and yet is said by
St. Paul to have come to pass in the resur
rection of Christ " according to the Scriptures,"
strongly confirms the opinion of those, who
consider the passage as a distinct prophecy
of the resurrection of Christ. Even if the
words were in some measure fulfilled by the
recovery of the people from national distress,
after an intermediate time, indicated by the
prophetical period of two days, the fact would
prove only, that the national history of the
Jews was, in this instance also, so ordered, as
faintly to prefigure the death of Christ, and
his rising again.
This comparison of different passages of
Scripture shews, then, that the Holy Spirit has
made use of words, which bear reference to the
"Psal. xxx. 3. lxxi. 20. lxxxvi. 13. Ezek. xxxvii. 11. Isai.
xxvi. 19.
Lecture XVII. 355
people of Israel, and, by the same authority, are
apphed to the person of Christ. The chosen
descendants of Abraham are thus pointed out,
at least in some part of their wonderful national
history, as designedly foreshadowing that one
Seed of Abraham, in whom the promises, made
to himself, and to his posterity, should ah be
accomplished. II. But it by no means follows, because
the people of Israel was historically typical of
the person of Christ, in some respects, that the
same relation should subsist in other instances.
Neither must we permit our imaginations to
multiply resemblances, which have no founda
tion in the word of God. Persons and events
are often, in Scripture, ahuded to as bearing
typical reference, partly to one future event,
and partly to another; as the same event is
also foreshadowed in its different circumstances
by different preceding events.
An instance of this nature is found in the
notice which is taken of a later period in the
history of the Israehtes, their passage through
the Red sea, and wandering in the desert ; an
ahusion which represents the people of Israel
as prefiguring the Christian Church; and the
instruments of some of their miraculous deliver
ances, as designed types of the institutions and
person of Christ. z 2
356 Lecture XVII.
St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinth
ians, replies to various questions which his con
verts had proposed/ Some of them, puffed up
with the conceit of superior knowledge, appear
to have relied on their privileges as Christians ;
and to have underrated the strength of the
temptations to which they were exposed. They
were conscious of enjoying the ordinary means
of grace ; they had been baptized into the
Christian faith, and received the cup of blessing,
and the bread which was broken, the com
munion of the body and blood of Christ/
They considered, that they might join in the
feasts, which the heathen around them made
upon the victims offered to idols, without in
curring the danger of apostacy from the faith.
To such as these the apostle addresses the im
portant instruction, " Let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fah."q To enforce
the necessity of constant vigilance, after re
ferring to the care which he himself used to
keep under his body, and bring it into sub
jection, lest that by any means, when he had
preached to others, he himself should be a cast
away;1 St. Paul refers to tbe history of the
Israelites. " Moreover, brethren," he writes, " I
would not that ye should be ignorant, how that
• 1 Cor. vii. 1. PI Cor. x. 16.
« 1 Cor. x. 12. r ! Cor ix 2J
Lecture XVII. 357
ah our fathers were under the cloud, and ah
passed through the sea; and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and
did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did
ah drink the same spiritual drink : for they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
them: and that Rock was Christ.""
In this passage, the object of the Apostle is,
not only to represent the Israelites as having
been partakers of miraculous benefits, in the
food which they ate, and the water which they
drank. For he introduces terms which were
quite unnecessary for that purpose, and were
calculated to excite notions in those who read
them, which, on that supposition, the writer
never meant. The assertion, that the Israelites
" were ah baptised unto Moses in the cloud and
in the sea," could not fail to suggest some de
gree of correspondence between the initiatory
rite of the Christian covenant, and that part of
the history of the Israehtes. St. Paul then
denominates the food of the Israelites in the
wdderness, " the same spiritual meat," and " the
same spiritual drink." If it were his intention
to imply, that the material sustenance of the
Israehtes represented food of a divine and
spiritual nature; that there was a designed
analogy, between the nourishment of the Israel-
> 1 Cor. x. 1. ..4.
358 Lecture XVII.
ites, and the elements consecrated in the Lord's
Supper, in order to represent the body and
blood of Christ ; that what was commemorated
in the Christian ordinance, was prefigured in the
Jewish history ; the apostle could scarcely have
selected terms better calculated to convey such
an impression : especially when the words are
taken in connection with those immediately
preceding them. And, to remove ah ambiguity,
he concludes the ahusion with an assertion clear
and express: "They drank of that spiritual
Rock which fohowed them, and that Rock was
Christ." Whatever degree of knowledge, then, re
specting the future events of the Gospel, the
apostle supposes the Israelites to have possessed,
his whole argument proceeds upon the supposi
tion, that circumstances in their dehverance
were designed, under the immediate Providence
of God, to shadow forth the institutions of
Christianity, and to be so understood by the
Christian Church.
The simdarity thus indicated extends to a
variety of remarkable particulars. The Israel
ites were under the protection and guidance
of a cloud, which was spread out as a cover
ing/ the sensible representation of that Pro-
vidence, which conducted them to the land of
' Psalm cv. 39-
Lecture XVII. 359
Canaan, the lot of their inheritance," as it now
protects the Church of Christ collectively, and
guides the faithful in their course through this
world, to the rest which remaineth to the people
of God/ The children of Israel "all passed
through the sea, and were ah baptized unto
Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea." Their
descent into the channel, which the hand of
God made for them, through the midst of the
sea, and their rising again from the waters,
which "were a wall unto them on their right
hand, and on their left," y was an apt, and the
apostle intimates, a designed, representation of
the baptism by which Christians enter into
covenant with God.
The emblem was rendered, perhaps, more
striking by the showers which were poured out
from the cloud, for the refreshment of the peo
ple in their wanderings. For that some asper
sion of this nature took place, we learn from the
words of David, in speaking of their march
through the wdderness ; " Thou, O God, didst
send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst con
firm thine inheritance when it was weary.'"
The cloud also sometimes descended, as a cloud
of glory, into the midst of the congregation;*
as the baptism " with the Holy Ghost and with
" Psalm cv. 1 1 . x Heb. iv. 9.
>' Exod. xiv. 22. l Psalm lxviii. 9.
a Exod. xi. 34.
360 Lecture XVII.
fire,"0 was afterwards sent down upon the
Christian Church. By their descent into the
sea, and passing under the cloud, the Israehtes
were convinced of the authority of Moses, were
consecrated to the dispensation which he was
appointed to introduce, were separated from
the slavery of their previous condition, and
enabled to prosecute their journey towards
Canaan ; representing, by a series of real events,
the institution of Christian baptism, and the
benefits derived from it.
The Israehtes were also miraculously made
partakers of meat and drink which, in addition
to their primary effect in sustaining their sink
ing strength, had also an inward spiritual mean
ing, prefiguring the sacramental elements which
Christ ordained to be received in his Church.
" They did ah eat the same spiritual meat."
Well might the manna, the angels' food
which the Israehtes ate, be thus denominated:
celestial in its origin, pure in its nature, miracu
lously given to the people of God, and bearing
a sacramental reference to the true bread of
God, which should come down from heaven/
They did also " ah drink the same spiritual
drink." The water which flowed in streams
from the rock which Moses smote, and followed
the Israelites in their wanderings, foreshadowed
* Matt. iii. 11. Acts ii. 3. c John vi. 32, 33.
Lecture XVII. 361
the blood of Christ which should be shed, and
was analogous to the wine which he appointed
to be drank by his fohowers, as the memorial of
that event.
Thus the argument- of the apostle imphes,
that the national history of the Israehtes had a
designed analogy to the state of the Christian
Church : that the faithful of old possessed
privdeges resembling those which the Christians
enjoyed in their sacraments ; the one prophetic,
the other commemorative. They were initiated
into the Mosaic dispensation, by a baptism in
the cloud and in the sea; as the new converts
were baptized into the Christian faith. And,
when entered upon the course to their promised
earthly inheritance, they were renewed from
time to time with spiritual meat and drink ; as
the confirmed Christian is provided with the
means of grace, by partaking of the sacred
ordinance established by Christ.
The benefits also of each flowed from an
analogous source. The deductions made by
human reason, even from the premises esta
bhshed by Holy Writ, are always to be received
with caution. But the conclusions derived from
the apostle's reasoning, in the present instance,
are confirmed by an assertion which no believer
in the inspiration of St. Paul can for a mo
ment dispute : " They drank of that spiritual
362 Lecture XVII.
Rock that followed them, and that Rock was
Christ." Before a declaration so positive as this, ah
cavil must disappear. We may not be able to
understand, fuhy, how the rock represented
Christ ; we never could have known that it did,
without the authority of Scripture. But we
cannot explain away, and dare not contradict,
a fact which the Holy Spirit has thus esta
blished. When, however, the analogy, between the
rock in the desert and Christ, is pointed out, we
may be justified in observing points of simdarity
between them, which we might have passed
unnoticed, unless under the direction of an in
fallible guide. The rock in the wdderness,
from which "tbe waters gushed out, and the
streams overflowed,"4 was a designed represen
tation of Christ, who invited ah who thirst to
come unto him; and promised hving water to
those who ask" of him/ The resemblance, how
ever, was imperfect. Ah, who drank of the
water which flowed from the rock smitten by
Moses, received refreshment to their weariness :
but the relief was merely temporary. Whoever
drank of that water thirsted again. But who
ever shall drink of the water, which flows from
the Rock of our salvation, shall never thirst ;
Phil. ii. 9, 10. ' Numb. xiv. 6. . .9.
' John iii. 12, 13. « Heb. ii. 10.
Lecture XVIII. 388
witness, the material emblem of heaven, and
the pledge of the immediate presence and
favour of God, "into the possession of the
Gentdes, whom God drave out."u And the
true Jesus introduced into the Gentde world,
who lay in darkness, and the shadow of death,
the spiritual benefits themselves. Joshua, by
the immediate command and supernatural
assistance of Heaven, arrayed the people of
Israel, and triumphed over the temporal kings
of Canaan, who opposed his progress/ Jesus
armed his faithful followers with weapons of
warfare, "not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds :" y " and
having spoded principalities and powers, made
a shew of them openly, triumphing over them"2
in his cross. At the command of Joshua, the
Israelites compassed the city of Jericho, and
the priests blew with the trumpet, and the
people shouted with a great shout; and the
wall of the city fed down flat/ At the illus
trious "appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,"0
"the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God:"0 and the very
"heavens shah pass away with a great noise,
u Acts vii. 45. x Josh. x. T 2 Cor. x. 4.
« Col. ii. 15. a Josh, vi- 20. b 1 Tim. vi. 14.
« 1 Thess. iv. 16.
384 Lecture XVIII.
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat :
the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burnt up."d
Knowing, then, that the people, whom
Joshua led, were typical of the faithful in ah
ages ; that the country, into which he led
them, prefigured that heavenly rest, which
was seen afar off, even by the fathers who
died in faith, and stih remaineth to the peo
ple of God; that the very name of Jesus
was given to him ; and that his actions, in many
respects, correspond with those ascribed to the
Saviour of the world; we have good reason to
believe, that his life was, by the Providence of
God, so ordered, as to represent future things ;
that he was a personal type of the true Jesus.
But tbe history of the Israehtes not only
contains information respecting the deahngs of
God : it unfolds a series of events " written
for our admonition,"6 and apphed by the au
thority of divine wisdom. The caution deh
vered by the Apostle, in his address to the
Hebrews, is a caution to all Christians in ah
ages: and a caution of the most important
nature : " Take heed, brethren, lest there be
in any of you an evd heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God." f
To all of us, of whatever age, or station,
d 2 Pet. iii. 10. * 1 Cor. x. 11. ' Heb. iii. 12.
Lecture XVIII. 385
or acquirements, this solemn warning affords
a subject of deep and earnest meditation. But
many of those, who are here assembled, are just
entering upon that dangerous period of their
lives, when they are first left to think and act
for themselves. To such I would particularly
apply the exhortation of the apostle.
You are now liberated from many of
those restraints, which the experience of your
instructors, or the anxious sohcitude of parental
care, has imposed during your earliest youth.
Many of you, it is to be hoped, have been
brought up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord; accustomed sincerely to reverence
the institutions, and the duties, which reli
gion prescribes. You have heard, perhaps,
much of the danger of unbelief; and know,
that man, in his weakness, has sometimes pre
sumed to doubt, and, in his wickedness, has
sometimes dared to deny, the God who cre
ated, the Saviour who redeemed, the Holy
Spirit who sanctifieth him. But. you have not
yet been yourselves tempted to unbelief. The
companions and familiar friends of your youth
may have led you into folly and sin, of. which
you earnestly now repent : but, amidst all your
errors, they, as well as yourselves, believed
that " there is a reward for the righteous,"8 that,
* Psalm lviii. 11.
Bb
386 Lbcture XVIII.
doubtless, there is a God that judgeth the earth.
The time is now come, when some of you
may be cahed to know, by your own experience,
how deceitful and specious are frequently the
wiles of infidelity. Even among the young,
there are sometimes found those, whom a de
ceived heart has turned aside. Men of no
mean attainments, and, perhaps, of manners
more than usually prepossessing, may occa
sionally be found, even within the wahs of
this our Sion, who have learned to make sport
of holy things. Sometimes it may be the
pride of self-conceit, and the vanity of appear
ing superior to common prejudices, which in
duces them to speak lightly and irreverently
of those mysteries, into which hoher beings
than any human creature desire with humihty
to look : and arrogantly to question the actions
of that incomprehensible and eternal God, be
fore whose throne the angels and blessed spirits
of heaven fall down with faces veiled/
Sometimes the very course of their stu
dies may have led them into an error, appa
rently less presumptuous, but equally dangerous.
Satan may be transformed into the resemblance
of an angel of light; may delude them under
the specious pretence of "science falsely so
cahed."1 They may cavil at the proof of our
11 Rev. vii. 11. '1 Tim. vi. 20.
Lecture XVIII. 387
religion's truth. They may, perhaps, have been
so engaged for a time in the cultivation of
abstract reasoning, as to be less forcibly affected
with that degree of certainty, which moral
demonstration is calculated to produce. They
may have been so occupied in perusing the
eloquent pages of heathen morality, as to be
less sensible to those precepts and doctrines,
which are often delivered only with the majestic
plainness of truth. Or they may have been
so entangled in the deceitful maze of meta
physical subtlety, as to overrate the bounds
of human knowledge: they may expect to re-
concde what to them appears contradictory, in
their conceptions of heavenly things : to define
and explain the power, the wisdom, the jus
tice, and the mercy of God, by the feeble
efforts of their own fallible minds.
From whatever cause such a heart of un
belief may have originated, beware that it
deceive you not. If, in your hours of social
intercourse, you meet with those, who would
unsettle your fixed faith in the holy profes
sion of your religion, by levity, or by argu
mentation, take heed how ye hear : " take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God."k
" Heb. iii. 12.
BE 2
388 Lecture XVIII.
I wih suppose, that you so far benefit by
the opportunities afforded you here, as to study
for your own conviction the proofs, upon which
the truth of our rehgion is budt, as upon a
rock firm and stedfast. And, undoubtedly,
such a research, undertaken with a humble
and unprejudiced mind, wih terminate in es
tablishing your faith. Search with what accu
racy and acuteness you can, the reasons of the
hope that is in you. The more minute your
scrutiny is, the more complete wih be your
satisfaction. But such a work requires both
time and labour. And that you may not be
carried away by every fair semblance of per
verted reason, remember how much easier it
is, in every subject, to advance a specious ob
jection, than to furnish a satisfactory reply :
how many cavds, which appear unanswerable
to the inexperienced mind, have been long
since confuted : how many apparent contradic
tions have been reconciled, by patient compa
rison and research. Look, besides, to the hves
of those who are imbued with any of the
diversified shades of unbelief; and see whether
the practice, to which their principles generahy
lead, point them out as safe models for your
imitation. But the most dangerous temptation to in
fidelity is that Avhich arises from the influence
Lecture XVIII. 389
of a vicious life upon the judgment. A heart
of unbelief is frequently first an evil heart.
In general, a man does not begin by disbe
lieving the doctrines, and then proceed to dis
obey the commands of religion. So complicated
are the motives, by which even the reason
ing powers are influenced, that they, who would
be thought persons of superior acuteness, are
very commonly led to believe what they hope,
upon grounds which, in any other case, they
would justly consider insufficient. He, who
is once "hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin," l is soon led to imagine, that God may
not be of eyes so extremely pure, requiring
truth in the inward parts; so just, so true,
so unchangeable, so fearful in judgment, as the
Scriptures declare : and upon that feeble foun
dation he budds his hope of eventually escaping
the punishment pronounced upon ah unre-
pented sin. Whenever, then, you are tempted
to sin, remember that you are tempted, not
only to disobey the positive commands of
religion, but to weaken the very tie which
binds religion to the soul.
If ye continue faithful unto the end, great
shah be your reward. There remaineth a rest
for the people of God: an eternal rest from
sin, and trial, and sorrow ; a sabbath of blessed-
1 Heb. iii. 13.
390 Lecture XVIII.
ness and peace, into which "they, to whom
it was first preached, entered not in because
of unbelief. "m "Let us labour, therefore, to
enter into that rest, lest any man fah after
the same example of unbelief.""
m Heb. iv. 6. n Heb. iv. 11.
LECTURE XIX.
ISAAC TYPICAL OF CHRIST.
John viii. 56.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and he
saw it, and was glad.
We cannot bring to a close an enquiry into
the typical prefigurations of the Gospel history,
which are contained in the Old Testament,
without directing our attention to the volun
tary offering, which Abraham made of Isaac.
Whether this event be considered as the
triumph of confiding faith over the natural
feelings of humanity, and the affection of a
parent; as an instance, in which the sovereign-
power of God interfered, to cause an apparent
deviation from the usual laws, by which the
moral world is governed; or as one of those
"things hard to be understood," which it is
difficult to reconcde with the notions which
human reason would form, respecting the deal
ings of the Almighty ; it must always be re
garded as a subject of the greatest interest.
392 Lecture XIX.
To dweh, however, upon any of these
points would be at present superfluous : for
they have not long since been here elucidated,
with more than ordinary eloquence and learn
ing/ Our present enquiry, in conformity with
the plan which has been pursued, wih lead us
only to consider the action, which tried the
faith of the patriarch, as far as it is designedly
prefigurative of the death and resurrection of
Christ. Very few of those, who cah themselves
Christians, hesitate to acknowledge, that the
offering up of Isaac was more than a simple
historical event : that it was, in some measure,
representative and prophetical of Christ's " day."
But various opinions have been held, respecting
the degree of accuracy, with which the predicted
event was set forth ; the precise manner, in
which the information was conveyed ; and how
far its import was understood by Abraham him
self. A correct judgment upon this question can
be formed only by an examination of those por
tions of the New Testament, which ahude to
the trial of Abraham, compared with the his
tory, as recorded in the book of Genesis.
The first passage, which appears to relate to
this subject, is the celebrated assertion made by
* Benson's Hulsean Lectures for 1822. Lect. XIV, XV.
Lecture XIX. 393
our Lord in one of his discourses with the Jews.
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my
day :" or rather, earnestly desired that he might
see my day; "and he saw it, and was glad."0
Jesus was vindicating his own authority, and
his superiority to Abraham, from the imputa
tions of his opponents, by a reference to the tes
timony of heaven and earth. "If I honour
myself, my honour is nothing : it is my Father
that honoureth me, of whom ye say, that he is
your God." c This was a direct appeal to the
numerous evident tokens, which Christ had re
ceived, that he was a prophet sent from God.
He had been declared the Son of God by a
voice from heaven : d and had performed, pub
licly, such miracles as attested his Divine com
mission. If he had not done the works of his
heavenly Father, they would not have been
bound to beheve. But, when he had done
them, though they believed not him, they
should have beheved the works/ But, the
Jews having referred to Abraham, Jesus pro
ceeds to shew, that the patriarch himself had,
, through faith, seen the things which were then
displayed upon earth. "Your father Abraham
b tjyaXX ida-aTo "va i'S ty Trjv tjpepav Ttjv iptjv' John
viii. 56.
c John viii. 54. d Matt. iii. 17-
' John x. 37, 38.
394 Lecture XIX.
earnestly desired that he might see my day ;
and he saw it, and was glad."
We, who are fully persuaded of our Lord's
authority, know from these words, that by
some means, and on some specific occasion,
Abraham, during his life, did see Christ's day.
But the assertion of Jesus proves more than
that. It was produced to convince the Jews,
with whom he reasoned, by a reference to a fact
either acknowledged by them, or capable of
being established upon grounds, which they
would not question. It, therefore, proves, that
this insight into futurity, granted to Abraham
at his earnest desire, was expressed or implied in
the Scriptures, which the Jews acknowledged
to be given by inspiration of God.
Now the history of Abraham, from his first
being called out of his country, and from his
kindred, and from his father's house/ to the
period of his death/ is related with great
minuteness in the book of Genesis. The Scrip
ture records a gradation of promises made to
Abraham, increasing in clearness and impor
tance. The patriarch, when he was first cahed,
and obeyed, received the general promise; "I
wih make of thee a great nation, and I will
bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou
shalt be a blessing : and I will bless them that
f Gen. xii. 1. * Gen. xxv. 8.
Lecture XIX. 395
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:
and in thee shah ah families of the earth be
blessed."11 When he separated himself from
Lot, and dwelt in the land of Canaan, the pro
mise was renewed, with an assurance, that the
land which he saw should be given to him and
his seed for ever, and that his seed should be
as the dust of the earth.1 Immediately after he
was returned from rescuing his kinsman, Lot,
and the slaughter of the kings, and had paid
tithes to Melchisedec, the general promise of
increase was limited to his own son : "and he
beheved in the Lord, and he counted it to him
for righteousness."k A new assurance of the
Divine promise was given to him, when the
covenant of circumcision was first appointed ;
and a corresponding change made in the name
of the patriarch, who was to be a father of many
nations, and of Sarah, of whom the Son, accord
ing to the promise, should be born.1 But it was
not untd Abraham had given the fuhest proof
of his faith in God, by offering up Isaac, the
son of his old age, that the blessing to all na
tions, which was to be by his seed, that is, by
Christ,m was fully declared with the utmost pre
cision, and ratified by an oath. Because God
b Gen. xii. 1. . .3. ' Gen. xiii. 14, 16.
k Gen. xv. 6. : Gen. xvii.
m Gal. iii. 16.
396 Lecture XIX.
could swear by no greater, he sware by him
self/ saying, " In blessing I will bless thee, and
in multiplying I wih multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is
upon the sea-shore : and thy seed shall possess
the gate of his enemies ; and in thy seed shah
all the nations of the earth be blessed."0
In ah these successive revelations, extending
over so large a portion of Abraham's hfe, he
doubtless received true, although imperfect, in
formation respecting his one great descendant.
But the question is, whether these promises con
veyed that clear and anxiously expected insight
into futurity, which our Lord imphes, when he
declares, "Your father Abraham earnestly de
sired to see my day : and he saw it, and was
glad." All these promises were calculated to
inspire the patriarch with confidence ; since
they assured him, upon authority which he
knew to be infahible, of many great and pre
cious blessings, which should descend upon his
numerous posterity ; and, by the means of his
seed, be diffused over the whole earth. And
Abraham " was glad," when the birth of Isaac
was distinctly foretold : for " he fell upon his
face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a
child be born unto him that is an hundred
years old?"r And this he did, not from unbe-
" Heb. vi. 13. ° Gen. xxii. 16, 18. '' Gen. xvii. 17-
Lecture XIX. 397
lief, for "he staggered not at the promise of
God ;" but with a severe and holy joy, " giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded, that
what he promised he was able also to per
form." q Wherefore also the chdd of promise
was named Isaac, laughter, not from the sub
sequent incredulity of his mother, when she
"laughed within herself,"' but in token of the
exultation of his father when he received the
promise. Stih it appears not, that this promise
was made in consequence of any specific earnest
desire, which Abraham had entertained.
There was, however, one action of his life, in
which so clear an intimation of the great events
of the Gospel was conveyed, that it may with
the greatest propriety be cahed, seeing the day
of Christ. And this information was given
at the very time when the patriarch was most
likely to have been animated with that " earn
est desire," which our Lord declares he did
possess at some period of his life. That action
was the intended sacrifice of Isaac.
Abraham was well acquainted with the pro
mises of a Redeemer, which had been made im
mediately after the fall of man, and renewed
from time to time ; until the revelations made
to himself limited the blessing to his own per
sonal descendants. Having so long continued
.« Rom. iv. 20, 21. ' Gen. xviii. 12.
898 Lecture XIX.
under an extraordinary providence, and seeing
Isaac his son growing up to years of manhood ;
knowing that in Isaac his seed should be cahed,"
perhaps even regarding him as the individual,
by whom the whole design of God's gracious
scheme should be perfected; it is no impro
bable supposition, that he might "earnestly
desire," before his death, some especial informa
tion respecting the manner, in which the sal
vation so long expected should at length be
brought to pass : and that the command to offer
up his own son as a sacrifice was given, among
other wise purposes, with the intention of afford
ing him this information, by a real action, pre
figuring what should come to pass in the latter
days, enabling him to SEE the day of Christ.
This opinion, it is well known, was sup
ported by a distinguished writer in the last cen
tury/ But it is not necessary, with him, to
suppose the whole transaction to have been a
scenical representation, analogous to those speci
fic symbolical actions, which the prophets were
afterwards commanded to perform. Whether
this hypothesis be weh founded or not, the
events in which Abraham was then engaged
were certainly calculated to afford the patriarch
some insight into the scheme of Divine Provi-
• Gen. xxi. 12.
' Warburton, Div. Legation, Book VI. Sect. 5.
Lecture XIX. 399
dence ; to shew to future ages, that the sacrifice
of Christ was contemplated in the counsels of
the Almighty, long before it came to pass ; and
that Isaac was, by an immediate Providence,
engaged in events, which clearly prefigured
those of the Gospel history.
The whole transaction bears a degree of
simdarity to the events of Christ's death, which
the most cursory observation cannot fail to dis
cover. Isaac, the " only-begotten" and beloved
son of an indulgent father, was given up, as an
innocent victim to suffer death, upon one of the
mountains of Moriah/ Christ, the only-begot
ten Son of God, who knew no sin, was made
sin for us,x and was crucified and slain upon
one of the same mountains. As Isaac was led
up to the place appointed by God for the sacri
fice, he was laden with the wood, which Abra
ham clave for the burnt-offering/ When Jesus
was led away to be crucified, he went forth
"bearing his cross."2 Isaac appears to have
given himself up as a willing victim to the
command of God, although at his period of
life/ he might have effectually resisted the com
parative feebleness of his aged father. In order
» Gen. xxii. " 2 Cor. v. 21.
T Gen. xxii. 3, 6. z John xix. 17-
a Josephus says he was 25 years of age, Ant. Book I.
ch. xiii. §. 2. -
400 Lecture XIX.
to fulfil the scriptures, that thus it must be,
Jesus was "brought as a lamb to the slaugh
ter:"0 although he might have prayed the
Father, and presently have received from him
"more than twelve legions of angels." c The
sacrifice of a ram was appointed and accepted
by God, instead of that of Isaac. The long
train of levitical sacrifices was estabhshed, on
the same Divine authority, to prefigure for a
time the sacrifice of Christ, and to occupy the
same part in the Jewish dispensation, which
the death of Christ occupies in the Christian.
But the offering of Isaac prefigured the
resurrection of Christ after three days, as weh
as his death. The words of scripture, on this
point, are most clear. " By faith Abraham,
when he was tried, offered up Isaac ; and he
that had received the promises offered up his
only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That
in Isaac shall thy seed be cahed: accounting
that God was able to raise him up, even from
the dead ; from whence also he received him in
a figure,'"1 or in a parable. And this offering
was made "on the third day"e after Abraham
had set forth, and counted his son as one dead.
To interpret these words as containing an
assertion, that Abraham received Isaac from
b Isai. Iiii. 7- ' Matt. xxvi. 53.
d e'v TrapaftoXii. Heb. xi. 17. ..19- * Gen. xxii. 4.
Lecture XIX. 401
the dead, in a dramatical representation/ may be
to force the language of scripture to an unwar
rantable extent. But the authority of the apo
stle expressly declares, at least, a remarkable
point of resemblance between the history of
Isaac and that of Christ ; that when the arm of
the patriarch was arrested by the angel of God,
who cahed unto him out of heaven, and for
bade him to slay his son, he received Isaac,
figuratively, from the dead ; as we know that
Christ, having been retained in the grave during
the same period, ready arose from the dead, on
the third day, being made the first-fruits of
them that slept.
The offering, then, of Isaac appears to be
that part of the sacred history, in which Abra
ham may, with pecuhar propriety, be said to
have earnestly desired to see Christ's day, and
having seen it, to have been glad. In all the
promises which were successively made, in ah
the bright prospects which they were calculated
to open, he might anticipate the blessings which
should be bestowed personahy upon himself ; he
might discern, with the eye of faith, his de
scendants becoming as the stars of heaven, and
as the sand upon the sea-shore, innumerable : he
might foresee their possession of a land flowing
with milk and honey ; their peculiar privileges
' See Faber, Horae Mosaicee. Book II. Sect. 3 ch.iii. §. 5.
C c
402 Lecture XIX.
as the people of God ; and the general blessing
which should come upon all the famdies and
nations of the earth, by Abraham and his seed.
But, at the time when he offered his son, he was
favoured with a more express communication of
the Divine will. This was the last trial of his
faith ; the concluding period in the series of
revelations, which he received from above. No
clearer insight into futurity appears to have
been granted to the patriarch : and no higher
degree of certainty respecting the Divine pro
mise could have been obtained, than that which
was ratified by the sanction of an oath.
We may not be able to ascertain the precise
degree of knowledge, which Abraham possessed
respecting the things typified in the offering up
of Isaac. But he might understand, that the
redemption, which he expected, should be ob
tained only by some sacrifice, analogous to that
which he was commanded to offer, that of an
only-begotten son : he might know, that some
of the circumstances of time and place, attend
ing that sacrifice, should correspond with the
action which he had been commissioned to per
form ; and that a real resurrection from the
dead should authenticate the Saviour of the
world, as he received Isaac from the dead in a
figure. That some knowledge of " Christ's
day" was afforded him, the assertion of our
Lecture XIX. 403
Lord fully proves. That this knowledge ex
tended to some correct information respecting
the event which was foreshadowed, appears
from the name which he affixed to the place.
Adopting the words, which he had uttered in
faith, as he ascended the mountain, " God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering;"8
Abraham cahed the name of that place, Jeho-
vah-jireh, — The Lord will provide. And we
have the authority of Moses for declaring, that
the event and the place were kept in remem
brance, in after ages, by a proverbial expression
respecting the mount. We read no more of
the trials of Abraham. Henceforth he con
tinued to live satisfied in the faith : and in that
faith he died ; " not having received the pro
mises, but" yet " having seen them afar off." h
There exists, besides, a very remarkable
piece of history, which appears to shew how
the sacrifice of Isaac was understood in the
patriarchal ages. A knowledge of so remark,
able a transaction would, very probably, have
beeen preserved in the family of Esau, and dif
fused through his posterity among the nations
of the east. And such a tradition, however
distorted by ignorance or superstition, might
stih retain sufficient indications of its origin;
and, even by its exaggerations, serve to shew
* Gen. xxii. 8. h Heb. xi. 13.
C C 2
404 Lecture XIX.
the kind of interpretation which was originally
put upon the facts. Such a tradition, seems to
have been transmitted in the singular mystical
sacrifice of the Phoenicians.'
Human sacrifices were common among that
deluded people. Sometimes tbe victims were
taken indiscriminately : sometimes they gave
even their first-born for their transgression ;
the fruit of their body for the sin of their
soul/ And in times of peculiar danger and
distress, the king of the country, or the chief
man of any city, offered the most dearly be
loved of their chddren, as a victim to appease
the anger of heaven. And this sacrifice, it is
said, was performed mystically. The sacrifice
is reported to have arisen from that made by
a former prince of the land, who decorated
his only -begotten son in royal apparel, and
offered him as a burnt-offering upon an altar.
There can be httle doubt, that this tradi
tion originated in the sacrifice of Isaac, although
perverted by the addition of fictitious circum
stances, and made subservient to gross super
stition. Independently of the similarity of the
events, the very names, given to the son who
was offered up, and to his mother, bear such
evident reference to those of the sacred his^
1 See note (A) at the end of the Lecture.
L Micah vi. 7-
Lecture XIX. 405
tory, that the correspondence cannot be con
sidered accidental.
This tradition confirms, in a remarkable
manner, the truth of the Scripture history.
But there is another singular circumstance at
tending it. This is the only sacrifice of the
gentde world, which is declared to have been
offered mystically.1 Such a character could not
be ascribed to this barbarous rite, if it were
only commemorative of a previous event.. The
very term indicates, that it was considered to be
prefigurative of something to come. And this
traditionary notion, so remote from the con
ceptions of the people who held it, affords a
strong presumption, that the sacrifice of Isaac,
from which it was derived, was understood to
be typical even in tbe patriarchal ages.
Thus, then, the trial of the patriarch was
rendered subservient to the wisest purposes.
Having displayed the eminence of his faith,
and proposed him as an example to ah men
in ah ages, it was chosen as the occasion of
delivering some of the most explicit verbal
prophecies respecting the Messiah, which were
ratified by the oath of God himself. It was
made the means of conveying partially to him
self, and his contemporaries, a representation
of the "day" of Christ; and, since it has been
1 Bryant, Observations and Inquiries, p. 291.
406 Lecture XIX.
elucidated by the Gospel history, it stands re
corded as one of those real events, which most
clearly shew the wisdom and the power of
God, and confirm the fact, that his wih has
been revealed to mankind.
When we read of an event hke that of the
trial of Abraham, produced by the immediate
interference of the Almighty, and unexampled
even in Scripture, we are too apt to rest satis
fied with a knowledge of the circumstances,
and of their connection with the other parts
of Holy Scripture ; without referring the prin
ciples, by which holy men of old were influ
enced, to the regulation of our own hves. It
is far more easy to render Scripture, in some
measure "profitable for doctrine" only, than
to apply it " for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness ; that the man of
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
ah good works." m
But let us not so dismiss the consideration
of that history, which records the triumph and
reward of faith. In these our days, and in this
land, we are not cahed upon personahy to en
dure so great a fight of afflictions. The sacri
fices, which we are required to make, are not
generally of a nature so severe as those which
tried the fathers of old time. Nay, the legi-
m 1 Tim. iii. 16, 17-
Lecture XIX. 407
timate exercise of our affections is usuahy ar
rayed on the side of our duty: we are cahed
upon rather to regulate than to violate them.
But it must not be denied, that, even now,
great sacrifices are sometimes required, not
unhke that by which Abraham was tried.
We may, perhaps, have fixed our hearts
with too great an anxiety upon the perishable
things of this world: and God, for wise pur
poses, may detach us from them. To use the
strong language of Scripture, our hfe may be
bound up in the hfe of another/ We may
have seen some beloved object growing up in
ah the freshness and cheerfulness of youth,
uncontaminated as yet by the evil influence
of the world; ignorant ahke of its guilt and
of its sorrows. It may have been our delight,
to watch the first dawnings of infant intehect ;
to correct the first deviations from the paths
of rectitude ; to infuse into the uninstructed
mind, those maxims of religion, which are em
braced with more readiness, before the soul is
warped by the indulgence of passion, or seduced
by habitual vice. The hopes of our imagina
tion may at length have been crowned with
success. The delicate plant may have thriven
beneath our care, and have grown up "as the
tender grass, springing out of the earth, by
n Gen. xliv. SO.
408 Lecture XIX.
clear shining after rain."0 Beholding this fa
vourite of our hopes flourishing in all the vigour
of youth, we may almost have cherished the
expectation, that it would long continue. Our
imagination may have conferred upon it a
durability, which even our own experience
might have denied. We may have fixed upon
it many an anxious thought, and many an
ardent wish : and have bestowed upon the crea
ture that exclusive attention, which can be
claimed only by the Creator. While we are
thus secure, the course of God's Providence
may cah upon us, suddenly, to part with the
object in whom the warmest affections of our
hearts have centered. The desire of our eyes
may be taken away with a stroke. Our bright
est hopes may be in a moment withered : and
we may be left alone upon the earth, to bear
our burden and our sorrow as we may. When
the mind recovers from the first stunning sense
of a loss hke this ; when it begins to feel the
reality of that dispensation of the Almighty,
which at first appears only hke a dream ; and
to experience that aching void which chills
the heart, when it looks round for those who
once were, and finds them not — whither shah
it turn for comfort adequate to the affliction?
Time, it is true, will induce patience, and
" 2 Sam. xxiii. 4.
Lecture XIX. 409
make the mind sullenly acquiesce in an in
evitable loss. But the action of time is slow
and wearisome indeed. Philosophy may at
tempt to shew the uselessness of unavailing
grief: and an unfeeling world may strive to
distract the mourner from his painful contem
plations, and to fix his attention on its frivolous
and unsatisfactory pursuits. But truly mise
rable comforters are they ah. The only sure
consolation is that, which enabled the patriarchs
in old time, and holy men in all ages, to ob
tain a good report : a fixed faith in the pro
mises of God, revealed in his word. And it
is no shght effort of faith, which can surmount
a trial such as this : which can rely with con
fidence upon the promises of future blessings,
which have been made to us in the gospel
of truth : looking forward to a re-union with
those whom we lament : accounting that God
is able to raise them up from the dead : and
that, if we continue faithful unto the end, he
shah raise us up also by Jesus, and present
us with them/
Again, we may be placed in circumstances
which demand a wdhng sacrifice of obedience
to God; which cah upon us to make an im
mediate and decisive choice between the things
of heaven and those of earth. Temptations to
f 2 Cor. iv. 14.
410 Lecture XIX.
flagrant violations of duty may not often occur.
Nor are they, perhaps, the most dangerous ;
for they find us prepared. Those are to be
most dreaded, which assad us in our unguarded
hours ; which come recommended under an
appearance of thoughtless gaiety, and not un
frequently enlivened by ah the brilliancy of a
playful imagination. They who are just attain
ing the age of manhood, are peculiarly exposed
to a trial of this nature. And such are some
of you. You may have hitherto met with
httle difficulty in the path of duty. Guarded,
by the care of others, from many of the temp
tations to which the inexperience of youth
is exposed, taught to respect ah the ordinances
of rehgion, you enter the world, prepared,
doubtless, to meet with much which may cah
for circumspection; and somewhat, which may
try your constancy and faith. But you may
expect, perhaps, to find the hne, which sepa
rates virtue and vice, more strongly and de-
didedly marked than it frequently is. You
may not be aware how speciously the first
temptations to sin are often disguised, and how
unexpectedly they are advanced. It may be
in your moments of innocent relaxation, or
in the ordinary intercourse of society, that the
deadly snare may first be laid. It may not
be an open enemy, one who is notorious for
Lecture XIX. 411
his follies or vices, who first attempts to per
suade you from the strict path of unaccom
modating duty. It may be a companion and
a familiar friend ; one with whom you have
often taken sweet counsel, and walked unto
the house of God in company/ If such a
temptation do assail you, beware that it pre
vail not. You may be exposed to the ridicule
of those around you : you must expect to meet
with much opposition in your perseverance ;
for by so doing you reproach them : and you
wih find, within yourselves, a secret enemy
soliciting you to comply. Stih, dare to be
singular. Be prepared to offer unto God the
sacrifice which he requires. Pray to him for
grace to strengthen your weakness ; and your
resistance shah not be in vain.
But there is stih a trial, harder than any
which arises from external temptation, the call
to forsake an inveterate habit of sin. We may
cherish within our bosom some favourite pas
sion, which our better reason disapproves : some
darhng vice, more than usually congenial to
our disposition, estabhshed by indulgence, con
firmed by habit. Against other sins we, per
haps, strive sincerely; and our exertions are,
by the grace of God, rewarded with success.
But this one easily besetting sin is viewed
« Psalm lv. 14.
412 Lecture XIX.
with complacency ; faintly resisted, perhaps so
licited and encouraged. We aggravate the force
of temptation when it arrives: we yield: and
seek for a palliation of our guilt in the weak
ness, which we have ourselves contributed to
produce. At length, by some of those means
which the Almighty employs to rouse the
slumbering conscience, the voice of God is
heard : it commands us to take this beloved
sin, and to offer it upon His altar. Like Abra
ham, we have means of knowing, that the
words proceed from God. They may be found
written in the volume of His revealed wih.
Here, then, begins the mortal struggle between
our inclination and our duty. Here is the
right arm to be struck off: the right eye to
be plucked out. But he who is a faithful
follower of Abraham, will not hesitate to obey
the call. He wih immediately arise, and ad
dress himself to the great work. Conscious of
his own weakness, he wdl yet rely upon Him
who is mighty to save ; and prepare to com
ply with the specific commands of God. His
faith, like that of Abraham, wih be declared by
his works ; and by works wdl his faith be
made perfect.'
Perhaps, when the resistance to evd is sin
cerely made, obedience may be found less dif-
1 James ii. 22.
Lecture XIX. 413
ficult than the repentant sinner at first believed.
A ram was prepared and offered instead of Isaac.
And the grace of God, which is promised to
ah who ask with faith, may, with the temp
tation, also have sent some way to -escape,
which the eye of man could not discern, nor
his sagacity foresee.
But all that we can present to God, in
this life, must stih be incomplete. Our resig
nation to his wih must often be sulhed by
a lingering remembrance of past enjoyments,
too nearly allied to discontent. Our resistance
to external temptation must often fail: our
struggle against the weakness of our own
hearts must often end in defeat. Stih, let
not the faithful Christian despair. Let him
look to the sacrifice once offered for sinners.
Let him contemplate that Lamb, which God
provided for a burnt-offering : the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Let him
turn to that book which contains the whole
wih of God, and read those gracious promises
made, through the merits of that sacrifice, to
all who believe and repent. So, when he
falls, he shah rise again : when he is weak
he shah be made strong. He shall go on
from strength to strength : and, in ah his trials,
will look forward with hope, though with no
presumptuous confidence, to the period when,
414 Lecture XIX.
according to the sure promise of God, they
which be of faith shall be blessed with faithful
Abraham.8
' Gal. iii. 9. Note (A), p. 404.
This history is related in a fragment of the translation
of Sanchoniatho's history by Philo Byblius, preserved by Eu
sebius, Praeparatio Evangel. Lib. I. cap. x. Lib. IV. cap. xvi.
"Fidos nv Toh iraXaiots, iv Tah fi.eya\ai<; trvfxtpopah twv Kivovvtav, dvTt
Tr]<: iravTiav (pdopas, to rjyanrtjpevov twv TeKvtav tou? KpaTovvTai rj
TroAe&K rj 'edvovs eh p!aoiu7£i} tcivo'vvtnv en iroXepov peyl&TWv KaTeiXricpoTwv T^f ytapav,
p3 a a- 1\ t k w Koa-pLrjo-as a- %rj p a t 1 tov vlov, fiwfjLov Te Ka-
TaGnevaaapevos, KaTe8v)"p unicus,
unigenitus; the very word used Gen. xxii. 2. in the command
given to offer up Isaac. And Bochart interprets Anobret,
ex gratia concipiens, an appropriate appellation of Sarah,
Heb. xi. 11.
Bryant considers that this mystical sacrifice typified
Christ ; but had no reference to previous events. Magee
thinks that it related to Abraham, and also was prefigura-
tive of Christ. The argument in the text rests upon the
fact, that it was acknowledged to be typical — KaTe Isai. Iiii. 8. Sec Heb. vii. 1. . .25.
Lecture XX. 423
result of any fancied resemblance observed
after the events had come to pass, but cer
tainly foreseen, because predicted in the days
of David. In vain should we seek for a ful
filment of these particulars in any other priest
and king. They were reserved for Him alone,
who, "being made perfect," "became the au
thor of eternal salvation unto ah them that
obey him ; cahed of God an high priest after
the order of Melchisedec.""
III. We wih now revert to the hne of
argument, which it has been attempted to
pursue, in our whole examination of the prin
cipal circumstances in the life of Christ, which
have been designedly prefigured.
The Spirit of God has adopted a variety
of means to indicate his perfect foreknowledge
of ah events, and his power to control them.
This is sometimes declared by express verbal
prophecy; sometimes by specific actions per
formed by Divine command; and sometimes
by those pecuhar events, in the lives of indi
viduals, and the history or religious observances
of the Israehtes, which were caused to bear a
designed reference to some parts of the Gospel
history. The main point, in an enquiry into these
historical types, is to establish the fact of a pre-
* Heb. v. 9; 10-
424 Lecture XX.
concerted connection between the two series
of events. No similarity, in itself, is sufficient
to prove such a correspondence. Hence, ah
those aheged types have been omitted, how
ever probable, which are not mentioned, directly
or indirectly, in the holy Scriptures. Even
those recorded in Scripture are recorded under
very different circumstances. If the first event
be declared to be typical, at the time when
it occurs, and the second event correspond with
the prediction so delivered, there can be no
doubt that the correspondence was designed.
If, before the occurrence of the second event,
there be dehvered a distinct prophecy, that it
wih happen, and wdl correspond with some
previous event; the fulfilment of the prophecy
furnishes an intrinsic proof, that the person
who gave it, spake by Divine inspiration. It
may not, from this fact, fohow, that the two
events were connected by a design formed be
fore either of them occurred: but it certainly
does fohow, that the second event, in some
measure, had respect to the first; and that,
whatever degree of connection was, by such
a prophet, assumed to exist, did reahy exist.
If, again, no specific declaration be made, re
specting the typical character of any event or
person, untd after the second event has oc
curred, which is then declared to have been
Lecture XX. 425
prefigured ; the fact of preconcerted connection
wih rest solely upon the authority of the per
son who advances the assertion. But, if we
know, from other sources, that his words are
the words of truth, our only enquiry will be,
if he either distinctly asserts, or plainly infers,
the existence of a designed correspondence.
The fact, then, of a preconcerted connection
between two series of events, is capable of
being estabhshed in three ways: and the his
torical types have been accordingly arranged
in three principal divisions. Some of them
afford intrinsic evidence, that the Scriptures,
which record them, are given by inspiration
of God ; the others can be proved to exist
only by assuming that fact: but ah, when
once estabhshed, display the astonishing power
and wisdom of God; and the importance of
that scheme of redemption, which was ushered
into the world with such magnificent prepa
rations. In contemplating this wonderful system,
we discern one great intention interwoven, not
only into the verbal prophecies and extraor
dinary events of the history of the Israelites,
but into the ordinary transactions of the lives
of selected individuals, even from the creation
of the world.
Adam was "the figure of him that was
426 Lecture XX.
to come."0 Melchisedec was "made hke unto
the Son of God."c Abraham, in the course of
events in which he was engaged by the espe
cial command of Heaven, was enabled to see
Christ's day :d and Isaac was received from the
dead "in a figure."6 At a later period, the
paschal lamb was ordained to be sacrificed,
not only as a memorial of the immediate deli
verance, which it was instituted to procure,
and to commemorate, but also as a continued
memorial of that which was to be " fulfilled
in the kingdom of God."f Moses was raised
up to deliver the people of Israel; to be to
them a lawgiver, a prophet, a priest; and
to possess the regal authority, if not the title,
of king. But, during the early period of his
life, he was himself taught, that one great
Prophet should be raised up hke unto him:
before his death he dehvered the same pro
phecy to the people: and, after that event,
the Israehtes continuahy looked for that faith
ful prophet, who should return answer to their
enquiries/ Their prophets ah pointed to some
greater lawgiver, who should introduce a new
law into their hearts, and inscribe them upon
their minds/ The whole people of Israel were
b Rom. v. 14. ' Heb. vii. 3. * John viii. 56.
* Heb. xi. 19- ' Luke xxii. 16.
« 1 Mace. iv. 46. xiv. 41. h Jer. xxxi. "."-
Lecture XX. 427
also made, in some instances, designedly repre
sentative of Christ: and the events, which
occurred in their national history/, distinctly
referred to him. During their wanderings in
the wdderness, God left not himself without
witness, which should bear reference to the
great scheme of the gospel. They ate spiritual
meat. It was an emblem of the true bread
of hfe, which came down from heaven.1 " They
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them :
and that Rock was Christ."" They were de
stroyed of serpents ; and a brasen serpent was
lifted up on a pole, that whosoever looked
might hve. It was a sensible figure of the
Son of man, who was, in hke manner, to be
lifted up; "that whosoever beheveth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life."1
Besides, their rehgious ordinances were only
" a figure for the time then present."1" Their
tabernacle was made after the pattern of hea
venly things;" and was intended to prefigure
the "greater and more perfect tabernacle, not
made with hands."0 The high priest was a
hving representative of the great " High Priest
of our profession:"" and the levitical sacrifices
plainly had respect to the one great sacrifice
1 John vi. 32. k 1 Cor. x. 4.
1 John iii. 15. m Heb. ix. 9-
11 Heb. viii. 5. Exod. xxv. 9, 40. ° Heb. ix. 11.
t Heb. iii. 1-
428 Lecture XX-
for sins. Joshua the son of Nun represented
Jesus in name : and by his earthly conquests
in some measure prefigured the heavenly tri
umphs of his Lord. In a subsequent period,
David was no indistinct type of " the Messiah
the Prince,'"1 for a long time humbled, and
at length triumphant over his enemies. And
the peaceable dominion of Solomon prefigured
that eternal rest and peace, which remaineth
to the people of God. In a stih later age,
the miraculous preservation of the prophet
Jonah displayed a sign, which was fulfilled
in the resurrection of Christ. And when the
temple was rebuilt, Joshua, the son of Josedech,
the high priest, and his fellows, were set forth
as "men of sign," representative of the
BRANCH, which should, in the fulness of
time, be raised up to the stem of Jesse/
The illustration, then, to be derived from
the historical types of the Old Testament, is
found diffused over the whole period, which
extends from the creation of the world, to the
time when vision and prophecy were sealed.
And all the light, which emanates from so many
various points, is concentrated in the person
of Christ. In some of these instances, the express cir
cumstances of similarity are pointed out on
i Dan. ix. 25. ' Zech. iii. 8. Isai. xi. 1.
Lecture XX. 429
the authority of Scripture : in others only the
general likeness is so estabhshed ; and the spe
cific detail is to be supplied, by observing the
correspondence, in the recorded history of the
typical person, and that of Christ. But the
conclusions are all founded upon Scripture:
and they extend to so many circumstances in
the history and offices of Christ, as to form
a prominent part among the various proofs
which estabhsh the certainty of his Divine
commission. The place of Christ's birth was prefigured
as weh as predicted: for in the same place,
David, a type of Christ, was born/ His name
was cahed Jesus : the very same name that was
imposed, by Divine command, upon Joshua
the son of Nun. In his infancy, he was per
secuted, as Moses was. He was cahed out of
Egypt, as the people of Israel were brought
out thence, and denominated, with reference
to that event, the Son of God/ That he should
dehver laws, and that his preaching should be
accompanied with miracles and prophecies, was
indicated, when it was declared, that he should
be the Prophet like unto Moses. And his
transfiguration upon the mount, when "his
face did shine as the sun,"u was remarkably
3 1 Sam. xvii. 12. ' Hos. xi. 1. Matt. ii. 15.
" Matt. xvii. 2.
430 Lecture XX.
simdar to the corresponding circumstance in
the history of Moses, when he came down
from the mount, and "the skin of his face
shone." *
But the events, which attended the conclu
sion of his earthly ministry, were most distinctly
prefigured, as they were most clearly predicted,
in the Old Testament. That he should be
betrayed by one of his familiar friends, was
typified by the treachery of Ahithophel to
David: and the fate of the traitor was the
same in both instances ; he hanged himself and
died/ His% submission to the wih of his hea
venly Father was faintly set forth in the con
duct of Isaac, when he was bound by Abraham
his father, and laid upon the altar. His inno
cence was typified in the unblemished victims
of the levitical sacrifices, and the unspotted
purity of the paschal lamb. The time of year
appointed for his death was that in which the
annual feast of the Passover was kept : the hour
of the day was the same at which that lamb
was slain. The place of his death was upon
one of the mountains of Moriah, as was the
typical offering of Isaac. He "suffered with
out the gate ;" as " the bodies of those beasts,
whose blood was brought into the sanctuary
for sin, were burnt without the camp."z He
T Exod. xxxiv. .10. i 2 Sam. xvii. 23. z Heb. xiii. 11.
Lecture XX. 431
was lifted up on the cross; as the brasen ser
pent was hfted up in the wdderness: yet no
bone of him was broken ; as the paschal lamb
was commanded to be kept entire. His side
was pierced, by the wanton violence of the
soldiery, "and forthwith came thereout blood
and water ;"a as that Rock which "was
Christ,"0 was smitten with the rod of Moses,
so that the waters gushed out, and ran in
the dry places hke a river/ Lastly, he was
buried, and rose again on the third day; as
Jonah was cast alive into the sea; was swal
lowed up; and after three days was restored
to life: and as Isaac was received as from the
dead, by his father, on the third day after
they departed to perform the sacrifice.
These are ah weh known particulars in
the pubhc history of Christ, prefigured at
sundry times and in divers manners : and the
correspondence depends upon the authority
of Scripture. They are far too numerous,
and too remarkable, to have been produced
by accidental coincidence; even if the proof
of preconcerted design were not indehbly im
pressed upon many of them by the sure word
of prophecy. They could never have arisen
from the intentional imitation of a false pro
phet : for they were all, either accompanied
¦* John xix. 34. " 1 Cor. x. 4. c Psalm cv. 41 .
Lecture XX.
by the fuhest proof of a Divine commission,
or brought to pass by the means of his very,
enemies. Here, then, is a branch of prophecy,
which proves the truth of the Christian reli
gion, while it throws a light upon ah the
transactions which have been brought to pass
by the immediate Providence of God; and
written for our learning, by the inspiration of
his Holy Spirit. It shews the manner in
which events, apparently casual, have been
overruled ; it affords a satisfactory reason
why others, apparently trivial, have been re
corded : and it displays, throughout ah ages,
unity of counsel, pursuing a mighty purpose,
by means surpassing human knowledge and
human power.
By the typical prefigurations contained in
the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is also shewn
to be "the same yesterday, and to-day, and
for ever," in his offices, as well as in his actions
and sufferings. He was prefigured as a pro
phet, by Moses; as a priest, by ah the long
train of the levitical hierarchy : as a king, by
Moses, in power if not in name ; and both in
power and name by David and by Solomon :
as both a priest and king, by Melchisedec, and
by Joshua the Son of Josedech : d as a mediator,
and intercessor, by Moses ; by the ordinary
* Zech. vi. 12.
Lecture XX. 433
office of the levitical high priest ; and, especi
ally, by that performed every year at the
great day of atonement. The sacrifice, which
Christ made for sin, was long prefigured by
those of the law, with astonishing clearness and
fidelity. And the efficacy, graciously imparted
to faith in that sacrifice, was exemplified in
the miraculous cure of those, who looked upon
the brasen serpent and hved ; and by the power
of the levitical offerings to wipe away the stain
of ceremonial pohution. The very means of
grace afforded in the sacraments, which Christ
ordained in his Church, were prefigured in the
events which occurred to the Israehtes : and
all our hopes of future glory were faintly
typified in that land of promise to which they
aspired. So wonderful are the ways of God:
so unchangeable his purpose : and so extensive
the means which he employs to bring it to
pass. From the days of Adam to the days
of Christ, one plan is gradually unfolded ; one
merciful design for reconcihng the world to
God ; one Lord, one faith ; one Saviour " Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever." Upon every thing, which emanates from the
Divine counsels, the stamp of immutabihty is
impressed. Man and his pursuits change in
cessantly. From day to day, and from year to
E E
434 Lecture XX.
year, new objects of interest arise; new de
sires, new hopes. But the Almighty changes
not. From eternity to eternity, he exists the
same. Now this is not a fact of mere specula
tion. It is brought home to our own bosoms,
by our relation to God through the Scriptures.
We ah have access to the revealed wih of
God, which sets forth this his unchangeable
purpose for the regulation of our hves. And
observe what exceeding importance is thus
given to that sacred volume. Did it proceed
from one of hke passions with ourselves, sub
ject to change, we might be led to question
some of its doctrines : we might have some
shew of reason for neglecting to comply with
some of its commands. Were we not assured,
by observing the course of the world in ah
ages, as well as by the assertion of holy writ,
that Jesus Christ and his religion is " the same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," we
might suppose, that the relative position of
God and man, in the lapse of ages, might
have varied : we might have thought that
what was revealed respecting the Divine na
ture and intentions, at one period, might
cease to be true at another period ; and,
therefore, that the duty of man might not
always be the same. In every thing which de
pends upon the mutable wdl of man, this effect
Lecture XX. 435
is produced. With whatever wisdom human
laws are compded, they continuahy require
revision. The penalty affixed to peculiar of
fences, varies with the state of civilization;
and the very same action, which in one age is
permitted without restraint, in another may
be visited with the utmost severity of punish
ment. In order to live according to human
laws, it is necessary to know the time when
they were made, as weh as the persons who
imposed them. They are, like their authors,
hable to change. With the law of God it
is not so. What is therein written, is writ
ten. When we read the Bible, we read not
only the words of truth, but the words of
unchangeable truth.
Since, then, there is revealed the means of
salvation by the unchangeable purpose of God,
with what earnestness does it become us to
search the Scriptures, in which that purpose
is declared. Whenever we do search them,
with a sincere desire to hve according to
their holy precepts, we shah discover, that in
many things we have ah offended; and are,
consequently, exposed to the punishment
which is therein denounced. If, then, we
would escape this sentence, which we know
wih neither be reversed nor modified, we
must ourselves change. The wicked must
436 Lecture XX.
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and he must return unto the Lord,
who has promised to have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he wih abundantly par
don/ Let not the contrite sinner despair. God
is unchangeable in his purpose of redemption,
as well as in his declaration of punishment
upon unrepented sin. The humble penitent
must contemplate with devout reverence, not
unmixed with fear, "the Father of hghts,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning ;"f but he knows that the un
changeable " Spirit also helpeth our infirmi
ties," and "maketh intercession for us:"g and
he wih stih lift his eyes to the Redeemer,
" that died, yea, rather that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God,"h
" Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to
day, and for ever."
* Isai. Iv. 7- ' James i. 17.
* Rom. viii. 26. h Rom. viii. 34-
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