source. Samples, so to speak, of different kinds have been given us; and others closely akin to those given, have been passed over; and so each type authorized is the representative of a kindred class; and the authority of Inspiration may be regarded as affixed, not to the individual instance only, but to the class. The Church, upon whom the New Testament was bestowed, already recognized the typical character of the Old Testament; and so must continue to do, the rather because while so much was authorized, so much which she recognized as typical was virtually sanctioned. The typical character of these further types would seem matter of instinct and perception, for which some reasons may be given (as has been above attempted,) but which in itself require none. Such reasons influenced, doubtless, the ancient Church, yet (it is more probable) only imperceptibly; the types are mentioned (where they occur) naturally, as by persons who had a vivid perception of the relation of the Old to the New Testament, and of things visible to the invisible; and who see them, not reason upon them; the recurrence of any recognized symbol, much more the combination of two or more, at once suggests to them the reality. Nothing, they are persuaded, is accidental in Holy Scripture: so then, neither the frequent mention of water, nor that the fountain of "living water" was covered over by a "stone," which they knew to be a symbol of their Lord; nor,since "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," was to offer Himself upon the tree, the Son of man to be lifted up upon the cross, that wood was brought into connection with the element, wherein they were baptized; nor that the Presence of the Trinity, Whose invocation over themselves in Baptism was their stay and their hope, seemed any where to be intimated. --- The details may safely be left to be accepted by every one as he is able to bear them: to judge from experience, they will, to any one who does not rudely reject them, gradually recommend themselves more and more; but it is the principle, rather than the details, probably, which, for the most part, has the sanction of Catholic consent. The certainty, however, of the principle is even the more established by any variations as to details; for we have not simply a giv by, and glorify Thee. Thou sentest also Thy Holy Apostles, commanding them to preach and baptize all nations in the Name of," &c. (Ib. 198, and fuller and more like the Greek, ib. 206, 7.) The Antioch-Jerusalem Liturgy, (ib. 218.,) the Jerusalem, (ib. 227.,) the Apostolic by Severus, (ib. 290.) are formed upon the same model, though verbally differing. The Maronite refers in the same way to the "brooding upon the waters." "As the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world brooded upon the waters, and they produced living and creeping things of every kind, so, O Lord God, let the Holy Spirit brood upon this Baptism, which is a spiritual womb, and may He abide therein, and sanctify it, that for the earthy Adam it may produce the heavenly Adam." (Ib. 340.) VOL. II.-10. en number of types, the knowledge whereof may have been secured by a general tradition; (although with regard to some types, there seems doubtless to have been such a tradition) but we have also the principle, universally felt, that certain symbols, whenever they occurred, contained a hidden intimation of Baptism. In consequence, each father selected out of the rich abundance, such types as at the time recommended themselves, not doubting that the rest, which he omitted, bore the same reference, but rather implying that they did so, because the same principle which justified those which he selected, justified the others also. And this themselves also state; thus S. Gregory of Nyssa having given one of the fullest selections, breaks off,* "But as to the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, I must here close, for the discourse would be unbounded, were any to wish to collect all, and put them in one book." And S. Ambrose,† "Another (type) although not in order; for who, as the Apostle said, can comprise all the acts of Christ ?" Yet even as to the details, it will have been already observed that there is, in some cases, much coincidence; that the Fathers, who in general adhered most to the literal interpretation, and its moral meanings, (as St. Chrysostome) yet, when occasion offers, insist upon the same types as do others; and so little has this perception of sacramental types to do with any abuse of allegorical interpretation, that it will, perhaps, be found that those, ever reputed to be over fond of the allegorical interpretation (as Origin) have less of the sacramental, while those of a literal school (as Theodoret) have much more of it. Thus, throughout the history of Genesis, St. Chrysostome insists on the ethical meaning of the same histories, whose typical import was insisted on (as we have seen above) by other writers, speaking directly on Holy Baptism; yet when he has to explain our Lord's appeal to Nicodemus, "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" he understands him not in our modern way, as referring Nicodemus to certain baptisms of proselytes, but, as to the "birth," to such histories of births in the Old Testament, as were above the laws of nature,―as to the means of that birth" of water and the Spirit," to the prophetic intimations of Baptism, in the typical cleansing by water, therein contained. And for these last he adduces types of the same sort, as do others, and some even of the more recondite :‡ "The first formation of man, and the women produced from his side, and the barren women; and what was wrought through water, (such as the fountain whence Elisha raised the iron; the Red Sea, which the Jews passed over; the pool which the angel moved; the history of Naman the Syrian, purified in the Jordan ;) all these *1. c. iii. p. 178. De Sacr. ii. 4. § 12. Chrys. Hom. 26. (al. 25.) in Joann. 6 things proclaimed before, as in type, the birth and purification which was to be; and the things spoken by the prophets hint at the manner of the birth, as the generation to come shall be declared to the Lord,' and 'they shall declare His righteousness to a people which shall be born, whom the Lord hath made,'* that thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle's,'t that be enlightened‡ Jerusalem,'' behold thy King cometh,' and 'blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven. Isaac also was a type of this birth. For say, O Nicodemus, how was he born? By the law of nature? No." Something moreover of a consent as to details also, may be seen in the types dwelt upon in the ancient liturgies. The earliest of our western Church recognize a considerable number, which is the more remarkable on account of their great brevity. Thus, in that of Gelasius, water is consecrated in the Name of the Father, Who had given these earnests of it in the Old Testament, and of the Son, Who by His miracles had consecrated it in the New. "I bless thee, O creature of water, through the Living God, through the Holy God, through God, Who, in the beginning, by a word, separated thee from the dry ground, ¶ and in four streams commanded thee to water the whole earth: Who, by an infused sweetness, made thee, when bitter in the desert, fit to drink; and for the parched people brought thee out of the rock. I bless thee, also, through Jesus Christ, His Only Son, our Lord: Who in Cana of Galilee, by His wondrous power miraculously changed thee into wine: Who with His feet walked on thee; and in thee was by John baptized in Jordan; Who, out of His own side, together with Blood, brought thee forth; and commanded His disciples, that they who believed should be baptized in thee, saying, 'Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”** These types, moreover, are evidently alleged in the Liturgies, as instances only; and it is remarkable how, of the history of the Creation, different parts of the whole are alleged: in the Latin, "the brooding of the Holy Spirit," and the separation from the dry land; in the Greek, the former is omitted, but there are added "the waters above the heavens," as the dwelling place of the heavenly spirits; the "founding of the earth upon the waters," as our clay de The Roman Missal inserts, "Whose Spirit was borne above thee; Who caused thee to flow from the fount of Paradise, add," &c. Ass. ii. 4. n. ** Ass. ii. 3, 4. and less fully, p. 6. Gregorian, p. 8. Roman, p. 33. (with the addition note T,) and the verbal difference "thee, being bitter in the desert, made, by wood, sweet and fit to drink; Who brought thee out of the rock, that He might refresh, when faint with thirst, the people, whom He had freed from Egypt." rives its spiritual life from the waters of Baptism; in the Maronite, the presence of the Holy Spirit is also dwelt upon; and so on, in slighter variations; thereby showing, the more, the universal conviction of the typical character of the whole history of the waters in the Creation, so that the striking of one note sufficed to bring out the harmony of the whole. It is remarkable too how some of the less obvious types occur when one should least expect them, and where they yield most independent evidence; as the sacrifice of Elijah in the Coptic Liturgy, where it is altogether distinct from the Greek. Typical histories, again, are selected as lessons, and in this way also are formally adopted in the respective Churches.* The same principle which requires us not to restrain the types of things, to such as have been laid down for us in the New Testament, will apply yet more forcibly to the verbal allusions to those types. Since the flood, and the passage of the Red Sea, and the Levitical washings, or sprinklings, were (as we know) types of Baptism, then the passages of the Prophets, which relate to these, must relate also to Baptism. The words wherein they are spoken of, must bear the same relation as the things of which they speak. The words are authentic interpretations given by the prophets to the typical actions; the actions set before the eyes the teaching of the words. It were, then, obviously inconsistent in any one, who accepts the typical meaning, given by Holy Scripture to certain acts or events, to interpret, without any reference to this authenticated meaning, other language of the Divine Record, framed upon those same events.Having the comment supplied to us in the one case, we are no longer at liberty, (if we would,) to disregard it in the other. Thus, since the passage of the Red Sea is typical of Baptism, the overwhelming of the enemy in the sea, of the effacing of sin and the deliverance from Satan, then, when the Prophet Micah (after the manner of the prophets,) parallels the future deliverance with the past, the days of the Gospel with "the days of their coming out of the land of Egypt;"t and then prophesies that God would "cast all their iniquities into the depths of the sea;" on no consistent system of interpretation can he be understood otherwise than he was in the ancient Church, as prophesying of the remission of sin in Baptism.§ * Thus St. Ambrose mentions that the history of Naaman was used as a Baptismal lesson in his Church (Milan.) De Myster. § 16. de Sacram. i. 5. and the cure at Bethesda; "what was read yesterday." De Sacram. ii. 2. The argument from the lessons generally was appreciated in the ancient Church. S. Optatus appeals to the "unity of the life in the Church, the common lessons, the one Faith, the same sacrament of Faith, the same mysteries." v. 1. † vii. 15. ‡ ver. 19. "Micah prophesies of the grace of Baptism." Jer. ad Oc. So also S. In what way Baptism may be available to the baptized for sins afterwards committed, what further privileges it may introduce them to, is obviously a further and secondary question. Whatever privileges may be wrapt up in Baptism, the primary meaning of the prophet's declaration must be the plenary destruction of our enemies through that which the passage of the Red Sea denoted, i. e. as we know from Holy Scripture itself, the sacrament of Baptism. Yet it is from neglecting so obvious a rule, that the modern unsacramental theory, without compunction, effaces from the Old Testament the predictions of our Lord's ordinances; claims, without hesitation, for the older dispensation, the privileges of the New; and then for itself, under the New, these same full privileges, without any reference to the ordinances to which they are annexed. Thus, when Ezekiel, a priest, prophesies," Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will put my Spirit within you," he is plainly to be understood, (as antiquity understood him,) to be foretelling the birth "of water and of the Spirit," which effaces in us the stains of our old nature, and " renews us in the image of Him who created us." Thus each part of this prophecy has its fulfilment he plainly refers to the Levitical washings, whereof he was a minister, and so points to some act corresponding with them; but foretells that it shall not be, like these,-unprofitable; but that when bedewed with the water, their " consciences" should be sprinkled" also; that they should be sprinkled not with the water only, but with water accompanied by the Spirit. The prophet thus provided a remedy for the difficulties of Nicodemus; and masters in Israel, who with Nicodemus, might otherwise have stumbled at the birth of "water and the Spirit," had its meaning laid up for them in their own prophets. St. Jeromet gives the connection of the passage very clearly: "Which when I had seen, not for their sakes, but for my Holy Name (for I am Creator of all) I spared them, and sanctified them, aud restored them to their former glory, so as to 'pour upon' those who believed, and were converted from erring, the 'clean water' of saving Baptism, and cleanse them from their abominations, and all their errors, and to give them a 'new heart,' that they should believe on the Son of God, and a 'new spirit,' whereof David speaks.‡ 66 Basil in Ps. 28. § 8. “And their” [the Jews'] "sins the Lord cast into the depth of the sea, but ours.He effaces through the holy and Divine bath, whereof the Red sea, according to the Divine apostle was a type, passing through which, they were freed from the Egyptian bondage. According to that type let us also, freed from the tyranny of the devil, through the holy bath, be careful for our salvation," &c. Theodoret ad loc. Its language is used in an ancient MS. of the Greek Liturgy. (Ass. ii. 131.) See also S. Ambrose, below, p. 299. * xxxvi. 25-27. Ps. li. 12. † Ad loc. |