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even the ark itself, the most sacred of all, was not worthy of notice. And it is also abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it was the grand event that, above all other future events, was the object of the contemplations, hopes, and raised expectations of God's people, from the beginning of the world.

And furthermore, the introducing of the Messiah and his kingdom and salvation, is plainly spoken of in the Old Testament, as the great event which was the substance, main drift, and end of all the prophecies of the Old Testament, to reveal which chiefly it was, that the spirit of prophecy was given, in that the angel, in Dan. ix. 24, speaks of this event, as that in the accomplishment of which prophecies in general are summed up, and have their ultimate confirmation, in which the vision and prophecy or all prophetical revelation has its last result and consummation. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city; to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." That what has been expressed is the import of the phrase of sealing up the vision and prophecy, is evident from the drift and manner of expression of the whole verse, and also from Ezek. xxviii. 12. "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." Mr. Basnage, in his history of the Jews, observes, that the rabbies among the Jews still agree to this day, that all the oracles of the prophets relate to the Messiah. Page 371, Col. 1.

And besides, it is to be considered, that this event was that in which the people of God, from the beginning of the world, were most nearly and greatly concerned: yea, was of infinitely the greatest concern to them of all prophetical events; for 'tis evident from the Old Testament, that the Messiah was not only to be the Saviour of God's people, that should be after his coming; but that he was the Saviour of the saints in all ages from the beginning of the world, and that through his coming, and what he should do at his appearing, they all should have the only true atonement for their sins, and restoration from the curse brought upon them by the fall of Adam, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal life.

'Tis much more reasonable to suppose, that many things pertaining to the state and constitution of the nation of Israel, many things which God ordered and appointed among them should be typical of things appertaining to the Messiah; because it is evident from the Old Testament, that the very being of that people as God's people, and their being distinguished and separated from the rest of the world, was to prepare the way for the introduction of that great blessing into the world of mankind, of the Messiah

and his kingdom. It seems to be pretty plainly intimated by God, at the first planting of the tree or founding that ancient church, and separating that people from the rest of the world, in the call of Abraham, in the three first verses of Gen. xii. "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will 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 bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." It here seems to be manifest, that the introducing that great good, which God had in view, to all the families of the earth, was what God had in view in thus calling and separating Abraham, to make of him an happy nation. It is therefore much the more likely, that many things belonging to them should be typical of the great future things appertaining to this great blessing, which was the great end God designed by them and especially considering that we find it to be God's manner under the Old Testament, in both persons and things, to signify and represent beforehand, that which God made or separated them for, or the special use or design God had in view with respect to them. It was God's manner beforehand to signify and represent these things, in what appertained to them, or happened concerning them. So he often did in the signification of the names that he gave them, as in the names of Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, Judah, Joshua, David, Solomon, &c.—and in things which they saw or did, or which came to pass concerning them; as Moses's being drawn out of the water, and what God showed him in Horeb, before he went into Egypt from Midian, in the burning bush; and in David, in his slaying the lion and bear and delivering the lamb.

Again we find that many lesser redemptions, deliverances, and victories of God's people, which it is plain even from the Old Testament, were as nothing in comparison with the salvation and victory of the Messiah, were by God's ordering represented by types; as the redemption out of Egypt. This was much typified afterwards in institutions that God appointed in commemoration of it. And the reason given by God for his thus typifying of it, was that it was so worthy to have signs and representations to fix it in the mind. Thus concerning the representations of their coming out of Egypt, in the passover, by eating it with unleavened bread, with their staff in their hand, &c., this reason is given why they should have such representations and memorials of it. Exod. xiii. 42. It is a night much to be remembered. This redemption out of Egypt was also much typified beforehand. It was typified in the smoking furnace and the burning lamp following it which Abraham saw. Gen. xv. 17. It was typified in Moses's

being drawn out of the water, and in the burning bush that survived the flames, and by Moses's rod's swallowing up the magician's rods. David's victory over the enemies of God's people, and his saving them out of their hands, was typified by his conquering the lion and the bear, and rescuing the lamb. God's giving victory to Israel over the Syrians and delivering them from them, was typified by the prophet's helping the king of Israel shoot an arrow towards them. 2 Kings xiii. 15, &c. The salvation of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's army was typified by the springing of the corn afresh from the roots of the stubble. Hezekiah's being saved from death was typified by bringing back the sun, when it was going down. Since, therefore, God did so much to typify those lesser victories and salvations, is it not exceedingly likely that great victory and redemption of the Messiah, which appears by the Old Testament to be infinitely greater, and that was all along so much more insisted on, in the word of the Lord to the people, should be much more typified?

It is much more reasonably and credibly supposed, that God should through the ages of the Old Testament, be very much in typifying things pertaining to the Messiah and his salvation, not only in prophecies, but also in types; because we find in fact, that at the very beginning of God's revealing the Messiah to mankind, prophecies and types went together in the first prophecy of the Messiah, and the first proper prophecy that ever was in the world, God foretold and typified the redemption both together, when God said to the serpent, Gen. iii. 15, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is undoubtedly a prediction of the Messiah's victory over Satan, and his suffering from Satan, and of the Messiah's people's victory and deliverance through him. And none can reasonably question but that here is also some respect had to that enmity there is between mankind and serpents, and the manner of serpents wounding mankind and of men's killing them'; for God is here speaking concerning a beast of the field that was ranked with the cattle, as appears by the foregoing verse. And this state of things with respect to serpents, was plainly ordered and established in these words. But if we suppose that both these things were intended in the same words, then undoubtedly one is spoken of and ordained as a representation of the other. If God orders and speaks of the bruising of a serpent's head, and thereby signifies the Messiah's conquering the devil, that is the same thing as God's ordering and speaking of the bruising of a serpent's head as a sign, signification, or (which is the same thing) type of his conquering the devil. And in what is said to the serpent, ver. 14, "Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy

belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life" it is evident that God speaks concerning that serpent that was a beast of the field. And yet it is also evident by the Old Testament, that he has respect to something pertaining to the state of the devil, that should be brought to pass by the Messiah; as by Isai. lxv. 25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;" compared with Isai. xi. 1-9, together with Isai. xxvii. 1, and Zech. iii. 1, 2, &c. Thus the very first thing that was ordered and established in this world after the fall, was a type of the Messiah, and was ordered as such: which argues that typifying of the Messiah is one principal way of God's foreshowing him. And as types and prophecies of the Messiah began together, so there is reason to think that they have kept pace one with an

other ever since.

It is more credible, that not only some particular events that came to pass among the Jews, or things appointed to be done. among them, should be typical, but that the state or constitution of the nation, and their way of living in many things, was typical, because we have an instance of an appointment of a way of living in a particular family or race, to continue from generation to generation, in the chief and more important things appertaining to the outward state and way of life, requiring that which was very diverse from the manner of living of all others, and that which was very self-denying, in order to typify something spiritual The instance I mean is that of the posterity of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, who was required by the command of Jonadab, commanding them by the spirit of prophecy to drink no wine, nor build any house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard.

It is a great argument, that the ancient state of the nation of Israel, and both things that appertained to their religious constitution, and God's providential disposal of them, were typical of the Messiah; that the Jews themselves anciently thus understood the matter. The ancient Jewish rabbies (as Mr. Basnage, in his history of the Jews, observes, p. 368,) judged that all things happened to their fathers as types and figures of the Messiah. also Bp. Kidder's Demn. of the Messiah, part 2, p. 40, and part 1, p. 73, 74. Ibid. p. 111, 112. Ibid. 150, and part 2, p. 67, 71. 77, 78, and 106.

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As to the Historical events of the Old Testament, it is an argument that many of them were types of things appertaining to the Messiah's kingdom and salvation, that these things are often in the Old Testament expressly spoken of as represented or resembled by those historical events. And those events are sometimes not only mentioned as resemblances, but as signs and pledges of those

great things of the Messiah. In Isaiah xli. Abraham's great victory over the kings and nations of the east, is spoken of as a resemblance of the victory of the Messiah and his people over their enemies. Abraham is here called the righteous man, verse 2; as the Messiah in the same discourse: in the beginning of the next chapter, the Messiah is called God's servant, that shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and bring forth judgment unto truth, and set judgment in the earth. God is said, xli. 2, to call Abraham to his foot. Chap. xlii. 6, it is said of the Messiah, "I have called thee in righteousness." Of Abraham it is said chap. xli. 2, "That God gave the nations before him, as the dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow:" And this is spoken of for the encouragement of God's people, as a resemblance and pledge of what he would do for them in the days of the Messiah, when he would cause their enemies before them to be ashamed and confounded, to be as nothing and to perish; so that they shall seek them, and should not find them, and they that war against them shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought; and they should thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff; so that the wind should carry them away, and the whirlwind should scatter them. Verses 11, 12. 15, 16.

The church or spouse of the Messiah is spoken of, in Cant. vi. 13, as being represented by the company of Mahanaim, that we have an account of Gen. xxxii. at the beginning, made up of Jacob's family and the heavenly host that joined them.

The redemption out of Egypt is very often in the Old Testament spoken of as a resemblance of the redemption by the Messiah. Num. xxiii. 22, 23. "God brought them out of Egypt, he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel what hath God wrought?" Mic. vii. 15. "According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvellous things." Isaiah lxiv. 1. 3, 4. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens; that that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things that we look not for, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear," &c. Isaiah xi. 11. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time, to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt;" together with verses 15, 16. This redemption out of Egypt, is evidently spoken of as a resemblance of the redemption of the Messiah. In Psalm lxviii. 6. "God bringeth out those that were bound

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