was a lively type of Christ. And Samson in an especial manner was so, because he was a nazarite from the womb; hence his mother was restricted by the angel from partaking of such things, whilst she bare him in her womb, as the nazarites were commanded to abstain from. Samson was also a type of Christ; the light, as his name imports, was a shadow of our Lord in those extraordinary endowments which, as a man, were not from any natural causes, but from above. Thus Christ was invested with all power in heaven and in earth; of this the hair on the head of Samson was an emblem: it represented the irradiation of the sun, the source of all ma terial and mechanical power. Thus the supernatural strength of Samson, who had his Hebrew name from the solar light, and who was a most striking type of the Sun of righteousness, was annexed to his seven nazaritical locks of hair, As heat in plants presses out the branches, or in animals shoots forth their hair, in the same manner as fire does streams of light from the sun; so Samson, a type of our Christ, the Sun of righteousness, the hairs of his head being thrust forth by the internal heat, unfolded or displayed themselves like beams of light from the sun. Our Lord was predicted by him, and by the order of the nazarites. The Jews understood hereby one separated, crowned, sanctified, in memory whereof there was an order of persons dedicated by

vow to the service of God, to point out the holiness, purity, and peculiar separation of our Lord Jesus Christ to his work and office.

Samson was a type of Christ as the separated one, as the crowned one, as the sanctified one. Our Jesus was entirely separated from dead works, from sin, and sinners; he was holy, harmless, and undefiled. In order to turn the attention of men to him, as the true nazarite, in whom the type was completely fulfilled, he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, “He shall be called a Nazarene." Matt. ii. 22.

Samson was to be a nazarite to God from the womb: Christ was, in every sense, the holy and separated one to God from the womb to his death; no razor was to come on the head of Samson, because he was to be a perpetual nazarite. Jesus, his antitype, continued in his obedience to all the will of God to his latest breath: "He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Though Christ was not a nazarite, according to the law, yet the whole truth of the type was fulfilled in him: the spirit of holiness, with all his sevenfold influences, in all the perfections of his gifts and graces, rested on him. Jesus was the branch out of the root of Jesse, the crowned Saviour, and eternal deliverer. The hair of Samson, as long as it remained on his head, was a symbol of his strength,

and served to remind him of his being devoted, in an especial manner, to the Lord. I proceed,

Thirdly. To speak of the work and office which Samson was to perform and exercise ; which is declared by the angel thus: "And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines."

Thus he was foretold and raised up, fitted, and qualified by the Lord God to work deliverance for his people Israel, and begin to lay a foundation for their rescue out of the hands of their enemies, the Philistines. This is sufficient to give light into the whole recorded concerning this very extraordinary man. What he did to gain advantage over the Philistines, was not out of private hatred and revenge, but as a judge in Israel, and as actuated by the Lord against the common public enemies of his church and people. Samson was raised up by the Lord to deliver the Israelites from the tyranny and and rage of these people; it is so said in my text, "He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines." His work was to deliver. His office was to act in a public capacity; yet he was but a partial deliverer. Hence it is said, that "He shall begin to deliver Israel." Christ is the complete deliverer of his true Israel; he not only began it, but hath completed it; and he must reign upon his throne, as God-man, Jesus the Almighty Saviour, the Prince of Peace, until

all his enemies, even death itself, is made his footstool.

It is expressly said of Samson, that the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Estaol, ver. 25. His valour and strength was first discovered in his slaying a lion which came out against him, which he rent as though it had been a kid; in which we may consider Christ, his antitype, against whom the roaring lion, the devil, came out and tempted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards in another form renewed his attack upon him; but our Lord overcame him with the two-edged sword of the word.

As a public judge and deliverer, authorized, sent, and qualified by the Lord, Samson acted, and on every proper occasion avenged himself on the Philistines. Great and heroic acts he performed; and we are authorized to say, he did it in the faith of Jesus, because he is classed, in the 11th of the Hebrews, with old testament saints and believers in Jesus; so that it is to undervalue the testimony of the Holy Ghost concerning him to look on him, as too many do, as an unregenerate person. His being a type of Christ, his work and office being of the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord coming on him to enable him to discharge his office, and perform his work, with what is said concerning him in the 11th of Hebrews, is sufficient to prove him a vessel of

mercy.

It should be noticed, when we say that Samson was a type of Christ, that we mean he was so only in a partial sense. Adam, Abel, Noah, Isaac, Joseph, Joshua, Moses, Samson, David, were all of them typical persons; yet it was only in some particulars that they were shadows and types of Messiah, the Prince. Therefore we are not to strain the subject, but should only aim to point out the type and antitype, as they may be designed by the Holy Ghost, lest we follow our own imagination, and not his authority and warrant in the word; and many things it may be lawful to say, by way of accommodation, which we dare not lay any stress upon, as thus: when Samson's birth was foretold, it was declared he should be a nazarite unto God from the womb." When Christ's birth was foretold, his human nature was called holy; "That holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 35. When the angel of the selfexisting essence appeared to Manoah and his wife, and had confirmed the pleasing news concerning Samson's birth, and on the offering of the sacrifice, ascended in the flame of the altar to heaven; such was the terror Manoah was struck with, that he cried out, "We shall surely die because we have seen God." So when the angel of the Lord proclaimed the birth of Christ to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone about them, they were sore afraid. The manner

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