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13 xxxii. 24-28. The Messiah was prophesied of by him, under the name of Shiloh, prosperous and the peaceable; in whose hands the pleasure of the Lord prospered, and who made, peace for men by the blood of his cross; and that he should spring from his son Judah, and out of his tribe as he did; and that he should come while civil government, in some form or another, was in Judah; and that when he came, there should be a great gathering of the Gentiles to him; all which have been exactly fulfilled and for Christ, as the author of salvation, provided and promised in the covenant of grace, did the patriarch Jacob wait. Within this period of time, about the time the children of Israel were in Egypt, and before the times of Moses, lived Job, and his three friends: who, though they were not of Israel, but of the race of Esau, yet the covenant of grace, and the blessings of it, were made known to them, as a pledge and earnest of what would be done in after-times. Job was an eminent instance of the of God; his character, as given by God himself, is, that he was a perfect and upright man; perfect, as justified by the righteousness of Christ; upright and sincere, as sanctified by the Spirit; and who, in his walk and conversation, appeared to be one that feared God and eschewed evil, Job i. 8. and as he was a man of great knowledge of natural and civil things, so of things divine, spiritual and evangelical; of the impurity of nature; of the insufficiency of man's righteousness to justify him before God; and of the doctrine of redemption and salvation by Christ. How many articles of faith, and doctrines of grace, are contained in those words of his; I know that my Redeemer liveth! &c. from whence it appears, that he knew Christ as the Redeemer, and as his Redeemer, provided and promised in the covenant of grace; that he then existed; that he would be incarnate, and dwell among men on earth; and come a second time to judge the world; and that there would be a resurrection of the same body, and a beatific vision of God in a future state; Job ix. 30, 31. xix. 25-27. Job's three friends, though they mistook his case, and misapplied things to him, yet were men that knew much of divine things; of the corruption of nature; of the vanity of self-righteousness; this, indeed, was their quarrel with Job, imagining, though wrongly, that he was righteous in his own eyes: and how gloriously does Elihu speak of the great Redeemer as the Messenger of the covenant, the uncreated Angel Christ; as an Interpreter of his Father's mind and will; one among a thousand, the Chiefest of ten thousand, whose of fice it is to shew unto men his uprightness, his own righteousness, to declare and preach it. And as a Ransom found in council and covenant; a proper Person to give his life a ransom for men: Job. xxxiii. 23, 24. Thus the covenant of grace was exhibited, held forth, displayed, and manifested in the grace and blessings of it in the times of the patriarchs.

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OF THE MANIFESTATION OF THE COVENANT

OF GRACE UNDER THE MOSAIC

DISPENSATION.

HAVING traced the manifestation and application of the Covenant of Grace from the times of our first parents, through the patriarchal state, to the times of Moses: I shall now consider it as exhibited in his time, and unto the times of David and the prophets; and shall begin,

1. With Moses, who was a great man of God; and though the law was given by him, he had large knowledge of Christ; of his person, offices and grace ; of the covenant of grace, and the blessings of it. Had ye believed Moses, says Christ to the Jews, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me, - John v. 46.

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Moses was an eminent type of Christ, in whom the grace of Christ, and of the covenant was eminently displayed. The apostle in Heb. iii. runs the pa rellel between Moses and Christ, though he gives the preference to Christ, as it was just he should; they were both, he observes, concerned in the house of God; both faithful therein; with this difference, Moses as a servant, and Christ as a Son in his own house. Moses was a mediator when the covenant on Sinai was given, at the request of the people of Israel, and by the permission of God; and stood between God and them, to deliver his word to them, Deut. v. 5 in which he was a type of Christ, the Mediator between God and man. was a prophet, and spoke of Christ as who should be raised up a prophet like unto him, and was to be heark ned to; and who has been raised up; and God has spoken by him all his mind and will to the sons of men. When Moses and Elias were with Christ on the mount, which shewed harmony and agreement between them; a voice was heard, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him, as the great Prophet of the church; see Deut. xviii. 15. Matt. xvii. 5. Moses was a priest, and officiated as such before Aaron was appointed to that office; and he, indeed, invested him with it by the offering of sacrifices, Exod. xxix. 1. in which he pre-figured Christ in his priestly office, who became man, that he might be a merciful and sympathizing one; and being holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, was fit to be one, and to offer a pure sacrifice for sin. Moses was also a king and a lawgiver under God; a ruler and governor of the people of Israel, Deut. xxxiii. 4, 5. Christ is King of Zion and King of saints; by the designation of his Father, and with the acknowledgment of his people, who own him, and submit to him as such; and of whose government there will be no end, Psal. ii. 6. Once more, Moses was a deliverer or redeemer of the people of Israel, out of that state of bondage in which they were in Egypt, Acts vii. 35. and in this bore a figure of Christ the Redeemer of his people, from a worse than Egyptian bondage, the bondage of sin, Satan, and the law; and herein and hereby through him were held forth

the grace of the covenant, and the blessings of it in Christ to the faith of God's people.

There were many things done by him, and under him, and in his time which exhibited and shewed forth the covenant of grace and the things contained in it. The whole ceremonial law was nothing else than a shadɔwy exhibition of it; it was a shadow of good things to come by Christ, the great high Priest, which are come by him; as peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation. The priests, their garments, and their sacrifices, with other numerous rites, all prefigured Christ, and the grace of the covenant, which is by him. The ceremonial law was the gospel of the Israelites, it was their pædagogue, their schoolmaster, that taught them the first principles of the gospel in their infant-state. Christ was the mark and scope it aimed it, the end of it, and in whom it had its full accomplishment; the Israelites, by reason of darkness, could not see to the end of those things, which are now abolished, and which we with open face behold. It would be too tedious to go over the several particulars in the former dispensation, which held forth the grace of Christ, and of the covenant to the farth of men. It may be sufficient to instance in three or four of them, which were pro-tempore, or of longer continuance, and were either stated ordinances, or extraordinary works of providence which typified spiritual things,

The passover, which was instituted at the time of Israel's going out of Egypt, was kept by faith; not only of deliverance from Egyptian bondage, but in the faith of a future redemption and salvation by Christ; hence he is called Christ our passover, 1 Cor. v. 7. The passover was a lamb without blemish, sluin by the congregation of Israel, between the two evenings; it was then roasted with fire, and eaten whole with bitter herbs, and its blood was sprinkled upon the door-posts of the houses of the Israelites; that when the destroying angel passed through Egypt, to destroy their first-born, seeing the blood where it was sprinkled, passed by the houses in which the Israelites were, and left them unhurt; and hence the institution had the name of the passover. All which was typical of Christ, who is the Lamb of God, without spot or blemish; who was taken by the Jews and crucified and slain; who endured the fire of divine wrath, whereby his strength was dried up like a potsherd; is to be, and is fed upon by faith; even a whole Christ, in his person, and offices, and grace, attended with repentance and humiliation for sin; believers in him, when they look to him by faith, mourn; and a profession of him is, more or less, accoinpanied with bitter afflictions, reproaches, and persecutions; and his blood, which from hence is called the blood of sprinkling, that being shed and sprinkled on the hearts of men, not only purges their consciences from dead works, but secures them from the wrath and justice of God; who, looking upon this blood, which is ever in sight, is pacified towards them, and passes by them, when he takes vengeance on others.

The manna was another type of Christ; that was typical bread, Christ is the

true bread; hence Christ, speaking of the manna, and of himself, says, My Fa ther giveth you the true bread from heaven, John vi. 32. meaning himself, the truth of the type; the manna was only a shadow, Christ is the substance, the solid and substantial food, signified by it, and therefore is called the hidden Manna, which every believer in Christ has a right to eat of, and does; so the old and new testament-saints all eat of the same spiritual meat, 1 Cor. x. 3. The Israelites being in the wilderness, and hungry, complained for want of food, and murmured; God promised to give them bread from heaven, which he did: this when they first saw, they knew not what it was; and asked one another, What is it? it was small in bulk, white in colour, and sweet in taste; this they gathered every day for their daily food, as they were directed; and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans; and on this they lived whilst in the wilderness, until they came to the land of Canaan; see Exod. xvi. and Josh. v. 12. All which pointed to Christ and his grace, the food of faith; who when he came into the world, the world knew him not; nor is he known to the Israel of God before conversion; they are without Christ, without the knowledge of him whilst unregenerate; until it pleases God to call them by his grace, and reveal his Son in them. And he is entirely hidden from the men of the world in whose eyes, and in the eyes of carnal professors, he is little, mean, and contemptible; yet white and ruddy, comely and beautiful, pure and holy, and desireable, to truly gracious souls; to whose taste his fruits, the blessings of his grace, his doctrines, his word and ordinances, are sweet and pleasant; and a crucified Christ, whose sufferings are signified by the manna being ground, beaten and baked, is the food of believers in this present state; what is their daily food, and which they live upon whilst they are in the wilderness, till they come to Canaan's land, and eat of the old corn, the things which God from all eternity has prepared for them that love him.

The water out of the rock the Israelites drank of in the wilderness, was another emblem and representative of Christ and his grace; hence called spiritual drink, and the rock a spiritual rock; and that rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 4.

The Israelities wanting water in the wilderness, murmured, when Moses was ordered by the Lord to smite a rock at two different times and places, from whence water gushed out for the supply of them, their flocks and herds. Christ was signified by the rock, who may be compared to one for height, shelter, strength, and duration; and with which they are followed and supplied whilst they are in this world; and as it was by the rod of Moses the rock was smitten: so Christ was stricken and smitten in a legal and judicial way, being the surety and representative of his people, by which means the blessings of grace flow unto them; as justification, pardon, &c. just as the blood and water sprung from his side when pierced with the spear; and this rock being thus smitten for believers, they have a never-failing supply of grace through the wilderness.

The brazen serpent was another figure of Christ and his grace. The Israelites being smitten with fiery serpents, of which many died; Moses was ordered

by the Lord to make a fiery serpent of brass, and set it on a pole, that whoever was bitten might look unto it and live; which was done accordingly, and the promised effect followed, Numb. xxi. 6-9. Our Lord takes notice of this very significant type himself, and applies it to himself, John iii. 14. The serpent Moses made had the form of a serpent, but not the nature of one: Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but his flesh was not sinful; he was without the poison of the serpent, sin, original or actual: It was a fiery one, denoting either the wrath of God sustained by Christ, or the vengeance he took on his and our enemies when on the cross; or rather, it may denote his flaming love to his people, expressed in his sufferings and death. It being of brass, denoted not only his lustre and glory, but his strength; who, being the mighty God, is able to save to the uttermost all that come and look unto him for salvation. The situation of the serpent of Moses on a pole, may signify the crucifixion of Christ, which he himself expressed by being lifted up from the earth, John xii. 32. or his exaltation at the right hand of God; or rather, the setting of him up in the ministry of the gospel, where he is erected as an ensign and standard to gather souls to him; and where he is held forth evidently as crucified and slain, as the object and ground of hope. And as the end of the erection of the serpent was, that such who were bitten by the fiery serpents might look to it and live; so the end of Christ's crucifixion, and of the ministration of him in the gospel is, that such who are envenomed with the poison of the old serpent, the devil, and whose wound is otherwise incurable, might, through looking to Christ by faith, live spiritually, comfortably, and eternally; as all such do who are favoured with a spiritual sight of him, John vi. 40.

Besides Moses, there were others in his time, in whom the grace of the covenant was remarkably displayed and manifested; particularly Aaron, his brother, called the saint of the Lord, the holy one, with whom were the Urim and Thummim, Deut. xxxiii. 8. a type of Christ, in whom all lights and perfections are; and though Christ, as a priest, was not of the order of Aaron, but of another; yet Aaron, in his priestly office, prefigured him; he was taken from among men, from among his brethren, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin, and did not take this honour to himself, but was called of God to it; So Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest; but was made so by his divine Father, Heb. v. 4. and has offered up a sacrifice for the sins of his people, of a sweet smelling savour to God; which the sacrifices of Aaron and his sons were typical of, by which the faith of believers in those times was led to the great and better sacrifice of Christ. Aaron was also a type of Christ in his intercession, as well as in his sacrifice; he could speak well, and therefore was appointed the spokesman of Moses unto the people. Christ is an advocate for his people; he can speak well to their case for them, and ever lives to appear in the presence of God, and to make intercession for them, and is always heard. Joshua, the successor of Moses, was also a type of Christ, and in him the

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