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TYPES OF THE MESSIAH, &C.
That the things of the Old Testament are types of things appertaining to the Messiah and his kingdom and salvation, made manifest from the Old Testament itself.
WE find by the Old Testament, that it has ever been God’s manner from the beginning of the world, to exhibit and reveal future things by symbolical representations, which were no other than types of the future things revealed. Thus when future things were made known in visions, the things that were seen were not the future things themselves, but some other things that were made use of as shadows, symbols, or types of the things. Thus the bowing of the sheaves of Joseph’s brethren, and the sun, moon, and stars doing obeisance to him, and Pharaoh’s fat and lean kine, and Nebuchadnezzar’s image, and Daniel’s four beasts, &c. were figures or types of the future things represented by them. And not only were types and figures made use of to represent future things when they were revealed by visions and dreams, but also when they were revealed by the word of the Lord coming by the mouth of the prophets (as it is expressed). The prophecies that the prophets uttered concerning future things, were generally by similitudes, figures, and symbolical representations. Hence prophecies of old were called parables; as Balaam’s prophecies, and especially the prophecies of the things of the Messiah’s kingdom. The prophecies are given forth in allegories, and the things foretold spoken of, not under the proper names of the things themselves, but under the names of other things that are made use of in the prophecy as symbols or types of the things foretold. And it was the manner in those ancient times, to deliver divine instructions in general in symbols and emblems, and in their speeches and discourses to make use of types, and figures, and enigmatical speeches, into which holy men were led by the Spirit of God. This manner of delivering wisdom was originally divine, as may be argued from that of Solomon, Prov. i. 6. “To understand a proverb, (or parable,) and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings;” and from that of the psalmist, Psal. xlix. 3, 4. “My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark sayings upon the harp.” And Psal. lxxviii. 1, 2. “Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old.” By a parable is meant an enigmatical symbolical speech. Ezek. xvii. 2. and xxiii. 3. Hence speeches of divine wisdom in general came to be called parables, as the speeches of Job and his friends. Hence of old the wise men of all nations, who derived their wisdom chiefly by tradition from the wise men of the church of God, who spoke by inspiration, fell into that method. They received instruction that way, and they imitated it. Hence it became so much the custom in the eastern nations to deal so much in enigmatical speeches and dark figures, and to make so much use of symbols and hieroglyphics, to represent divine things, or things appertaining to their gods and their religion. It seems to have been in imitation of the prophets and other holy and eminent persons in the church of God, who were inspired, that it became so universally the custom among all ancient nations, for their priests, prophets, and wise men to utter their auguries, and to deliver their knowledge and wisdom in their writings and speeches, in allegories and enigmas, and under symbolical representations. Every thing that the wise said must be in a kind of allegory, and veiled with types: as it was also the mariner of the heathen oracles, to utter themselves under the like representations.
We find that it was God’s manner throughout the ages of the Old Testament, to typify future things, not only as he signified them by symbolical and typical representations in those visions and prophecies in which they were revealed, but also as he made use of those things that had an actual existence, to typify them, either by events that he brought to pass by his special providence to that end, or by things that he appointed and commanded to be done for that end.
We find future things typified by what God did himself, by things that he brought to pass by his special providence. Thus the future struggling of the two nations of the Israelites and Edomites was typified by Jacob’s and Esau’s struggling together in the womb. Gen. xxv. 22, 23. “And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord; and the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.” And the prevalence of Jacob over Esau, and his supplanting him, so as to get away his birthright and blessing, and his posterity’s prevailing over the Edomites, was typified by Jacob’s hand taking hold on Esau’s heel in the birth. Gen. xxv. 26. “And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob, or, supplanter. Chap. xxvii. 36. “Is he not rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold now he hath taken away my blessing.” Hosea xii. 3, 6. “He took his brother by the heel in the womb Therefore, turn thou to thy God,” &c. And as the Israelites overcoming and supplanting their enemies in their struggling or wrestling with them, was typified by Jacob’s taking hold on Esau’s heel, so Jacob’s and his seed’s prevailing with God, in their spiritual wrestling with him, was typified by his wrestling with God and prevailing. Gen. xxxii. 28. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Hos. xii. 4. “Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore, turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.” The prevalence of the posterity of Pharez over Zarah, who first put forth his hand, was typified by his unexpectedly breaking forth out of the womb before him. Gen. xxxix. 29. So by Moses’s being wonderfully preserved in the midst of great waters, though but a little helpless infant, and being drawn out of the water, seems apparently to be typified the preservation and deliverance 643of his people, that lie was made the head and deliverer of, who were preserved in the midst of dangers the; were in in Egypt, which were ready to overwhelm them, when the prince and people sought to their utmost to destroy them, and root them out, and they had no power to withstand them, but were like an helpless infant, and who were at last wonderfully delivered out of their great and overwhelming troubles and dangers, which in scripture language is delivering out of great waters, or drawing out of many waters. 2 Sam. xxii. 17. “He sent from above; he took me. he drew me out of many waters.” And Psal. xviii. 16. It is the same sort of deliverance from cruel and blood-thirsty enemies that the psalmist speaks of, that the Israelites were delivered from. And so he does again, Ps. cxliv. 7. “Send thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children.” And Psal. lxix. 2. “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me;” with verse 14. “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.” That the king of Israel smote three times upon the ground with his arrows, was ordered in providence to be a type of his beating the Syrians three times. 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19. The potter’s working a work upon the wheels, and the vessel’s being marred in the hand of the potter, so that he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to him to make it, at the time when Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house, was ordered in providence to be a type of God’s dealing with the Jews.Jer. xviii.
The twelve fountains of water and the threescore and ten palm-trees, that were in Elim, Exod. xv. 27. were manifestly types of the twelve patriarchs, the fathers of the tribes, and of the threescore and ten elders of the congregation. The paternity of a family, tribe, or nation, in the language of the Old Testament, is called a fountain. Deut. xxxiii. 28. “Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine.” Psal. lxviii. 26. “Bless the Lord from the fountain of Israel.” Isa. xlviii. 1. “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah.” And the church of God is often represented in Scripture by a palm-tree or palm-trees. Psal. xcii. 12. Cant. vii. 7, 8. And therefore fitly were the elders or representatives of the church compared to palm-trees. God’s people often are compared to trees. Isa. lxi. 3. and lx. 21. and elsewhere.
We find that God was often pleased to bring to pass extraordinary and miraculous appearances and events, to typify future things. Thus God’s making Eve of Adam’s rib, was to typify the near relation and strict union of husband and wife, and the respect that is due, in persons in that relation, from one to the other; as is manifest from the account given of it, Gen. ii. 21-24. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” And when God spake to Moses from the burning bush, concerning the great affliction and oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt, and promised to preserve and deliver them, what appeared in the bush, viz. its burning with fire, and yet not being consumed, was evidently intended as a type of the same thing that God then spake to Moses about, viz. the church of Israel being in the fire of affliction in Egypt, and appearing in the utmost danger of being utterly consumed there, and yet being marvellously preserved and delivered. Such a low and weak state as the people were in in Egypt, and such an inability for self-defence, we find in the Old Testament represented by a bush or low tree, and a root out of a dry ground, as was that bush in Horeb, which signifies a dry place. Isa. liii. 2. Ezek. xvii. 22-24. Affliction and danger in the language of the Old Testament, are called fire. Zech. xiii. 9. “I will bring the third part through the fire.” Isa. xlviii. 10. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” And God’s marvellously preserving his people, when in great affliction and danger, is represented by their being preserved in the fire from being burnt. Isa. xliii. 2. “When thou passes! through the waters I will be with thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” And God’s delivering the people of Israel from affliction, and from the destruction of which they were in danger, through bondage and oppression under the hand of their enemies, is represented by their being delivered out of the fire. Zech. iii. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Yea, that very thing of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, is often represented as their being delivered out of the fire. Psal. lxvi. 12. “We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us into a wealthy place.” Deut. iv. 20. “The Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt” So 1 Kings viii. 51. and Jer. xi. 4.
So Moses’s rod’s swallowing up the magicians’ rods, Exod. vii. 12. is evidently given of God as a sign and type of the superiority of God s power above the power of their gods, and that his power should prevail and swallow up theirs. For that rod was a token of God’s power, as a prince’s rod or sceptre was a token of his power. Thus we read of the rod of the Messiah’s strength, Psalm cx. So the turning of the water of the river of Egypt into blood, first by Moses’s taking and pouring it out on the dry land, and its becoming blood on the dry land, and afterwards by the river itself, and all the other waters of Egypt, being turned to blood, in the first plague on Egypt, was evidently a foreboding sign and type of what God threatened at the same time, viz. that if they would not let the people go, God would slay their first-born, and of his afterward destroying Pharaoh and all the prime of Egypt in the Red sea. (See Exod. iv. 9. and Chap. vii.) God’s making a great destruction of the lives of a people is, in the language of the Old Testament, a giving them blood to drink. Isa. xlix. 26. “And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood.” Aaron’s rod budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit, is given as a type of God’s owning and blessing his ministry, and crowning it with success. His rod was the rod of an almond-tree, Num. xvii. 8. which God makes use of in Jer. i. 11, 12. as a token and type of his word, that speedily takes effect, as Moses’s rod of an almond-tree speedily brought forth fruit.
God caused the corn in the land of Judah to spring again, after it had been cut off with the sickle, and to bring forth another crop from the roots that seemed to be dead, and so, once and again, to be a sign and type that the remnant that was escaped of the house of Judah should again take root downward, and bear fruit upward, and that his church should revive again, as it were out of its own ashes, and flourish like a plant, after it has been seemingly destroyed and past recovery: as 2 Kings xix. 29, 30. and Isa. xxxvii. 30, 31.
God wrought the miracle of causing the shadow in the dial of Ahaz to go backward, contrary to the course of nature, to be a sign and type of king Hezekiah’s being in a miraculous manner, and contrary to the course of nature, healed of his sickness, that was in itself mortal, and brought back from the grave whither he was descending, and the sun of the day of his life being made to return back again, when according to the course of nature it was just a setting. 2 Kings xx.
The miraculous uniting of the two sticks, that had the names of Judah and Joseph written upon them, so that they became one stick in the prophet’s hand, was to typify the future entire union of Judah and Israel.
Also God miraculously caused a gourd to come up in a night, over the head of Jonah, and to perish in a night, to typify the life of man. That gourd was a feeble, tender, dependent, frail vine. It came up suddenly, and was very green and flourishing, and was pleasant and refreshing, and it made a fine show for one day, and then withered and dried up. Jonah iv. 6,. &c.
God reproved Jonah for his so little regarding the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh, by the type of the gourd, which was manifestly intended as a type of the life of man; or of man with respect to his life, being exactly 644agreeable to the representations frequently made of man, and his present frail life, in other parts of the Old Testament. This gourd was a vine, a feeble, dependent plant, that could not stand alone. This God therefore makes use of to represent man, in Ezek. xv. This gourd was a very tender, frail plant. It sprang up suddenly, and was very short-lived. Its life was but one day; as the life of man is often compared to a day. It was green and flourishing, and made a fine show one day, and was withered and dried up the next. It came up in a night and perished in a night; appeared flourishing in the morning, and the next evening was smitten, exactly agreeable to the representation made of man’s life in Psalm xc. 6. “In the morning it flourished! and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth.” The worm that smote the gourd, represents the cause of man’s death. The gourd was killed by a worm, a little thing; as man is elsewhere said to be crushed before the moth. It was that, the approach of which was not discerned; it came under ground: as elsewhere man is represented as not knowing the time of his death, as the fishes are taken in an evil net, &c. And as being smitten by an arrow that flies unseen. That this gourd was intended by God as an emblem of man’s life, is evident from what God himself says of it, and the application he makes of it. God himself compares the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh with this gourd, verse 10, 11. Jonah had pity on the gourd, i. e. on himself for the loss of it; for it was very pleasing and refreshing to him, while it lasted, and defended him from scorching heat. So life is sweet. The Ninevites by its preservation were held back from the wrath of God, that had been threatened for their sins. How much more therefore should Jonah have had a on the numerous inhabitants of Nineveh, when God threatened them with the loss of life, which was an enjoyment so much more desirable than the gourd was to him! And if he found fault with God, that he did not spare to him the shadow of the gourd; how unreasonable was he in also finding fault with God that he did spare the Ninevites their precious lives?
God miraculously enabled David to kill the lion and the bear, and to deliver the lamb out of their mouth, plainly and evidently to be a type, sign, and encouragement unto him, that he would enable him to destroy the enemies of his people, that were much stronger than they, and deliver his people from them. David did this as a shepherd over the flock of his father; and his acting the part of a shepherd toward them, is expressly spoken of as a resemblance of his acting the part of a king and shepherd towards God’s people from time to time. 1 Chron. xi. 2. Psalm lxxviii. 70, 71, 72. Jerem. xxiii. 4, 5, 6. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. Chap. xxxvii. 24. And God’s people in places innumerable are called his flock, and his sheep, and their enemies, in David’s Psalms and elsewhere, are compared to the lion and other beasts of prey that devour the sheep: and David himself calls his own deliverance, and the deliverance of God’s people, a being saved from the lion’s mouth. Psalm vii. 1, 2.and xvii. 12, 13. and xxii. 20 and xxxv. 17. and lvii. 3, 4. And David himself thus understood and improved God’s thus miraculously enabling him to conquer these wild beasts, and deliver the lamb, as a representation and sign of what God would enable him to do for his people against their strong enemies; as is evident from what he said to Saul, when he offered to go against Goliath.
The accidental rending of Samuel’s mantle, 1 Sam. xv. 27, 28. signified the rending of the kingdom from Saul. It was a common thing for God to order and appoint things to be done by men, in order to typify future events; so Samuel poured out water in Mizpeh,1 Sam. vii. 6. to signify their repentance. See Pool’s Synopsis. Ahijah’s rending Jeroboam’s garment in twelve pieces, and giving him ten, was to testify the rending the kingdom of Israel, and giving him ten tribes. 1 Kings xi. 30,. &c. So see 1 Kings xx. 35,. &c. and 2 Kings xiii. 14-20. The prophet’s assisting the king of Israel, in shooting an arrow eastward, towards Syria, was appointed of God to signify that he would assist the king of Israel in fighting with the Syrians. 2 Kings xiii. 15,. &c. The prophet Isaiah by God’s appointment went naked and barefoot, to typify the Egyptians and Ethiopians going naked and barefoot in their captivity. Isaiah xx. Jeremiah by God’s appointment typified the captivity of the Jews into Babylon, with many of its circumstances, by taking a linen girdle and putting it on his loins, and hiding it in a hole in a rock by the river Euphrates, and returning again to take it from thence. Jer. xiii. He was commanded to typify the destruction of the people by breaking a potter’s vessel. Chap. xix. By taking a wine cup and offering it to many nations agreeably to God’s appointment and direction, he typified God’s causing them as it were to drink the cup of his fury. Chap. xxv. And he was commanded to make bonds and yokes, and put them upon his neck and send them to the neighbouring kings, to typify the yoke of bondage under Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to bring upon them. Chap. xxvii. Nehemiah shook his lap, Neh. v. 13. to signify the shaking of every man from his house who should not perform the oath which they had taken. Ezekiel very often typified future events, by things that he did by God’s appointment; as by his eating the roll, &c. Ezek. iii. And by lying on his side, and many other things that he was to do, that we have an account of, Ezek. iv. And by shaving his head and beard, and burning part of the hair in the fire, &c. chap. v. and by making a chain, chap. vii. 23.; and by his removing, with the many circumstances that God directed him to, chap. xii. 1,. &c.; and by his eating his bread with trembling, verse 18.; by filling a pot with the choice pieces of flesh on the fire, &c.; and by his not mourning for his wife, chap. xxiv. The prophet Hosea typified the things he prophesied of, by taking a wife of whoredoms, Hos. i. and by marrying an adulteress, with the circumstances of it, chap. iii. The prophet Zechariah was commanded to typify the things he predicted, by making silver and golden crowns on the heads of those that returned from the captivity, Zech. vi.; and by the two staves called Beauty and Bands; and by his casting money to the potter in the house of the Lord; and his taking the instruments of a foolish shepherd. Chap. xi.
It was so common a thing for the prophets to typify things that were the subjects of their prophecies by divine appointment, that the false prophets imitated them in it, and were wont to feign directions from God to typify the subjects of their false prophecies. See 1 Kings xxii. 11. and Jer. xxviii. 10. Things in common use among the Israelites were spoken of by the Spirit of God as types. Thus the vine-tree is spoken of as a type of man, especially of God’s visible people. Ezek. xv.
It being so much God’s manner from the beginning of the world, to represent divine things by types, hence it probably came to pass, that typical representations were looked upon by the ancient nations, the Egyptians in particular, as sacred things, and therefore called hieroglyphics, which signifies sacred images or representations. And animals being very much made use of in the ancient types of the church of God, so they were very much used in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which probably led the way to their worship of all manner of living creatures.
Now since it was, as has been observed, God’s manner of old, in the times of the Old Testament, from generation to generation, and even from the beginning of the world to the end of the Old-Testament history, to represent divine things by outward signs, types, and symbolical representations, and especially thus to typify and prefigure future events, that he revealed by his Spirit, and foretold by the prophets; it is very unlikely, that the Messiah, and things appertaining to his kingdom and salvation, should not be thus abundantly prefigured and typified under the Old Testament, if the following things be considered.
It is apparent from the Old Testament that these things are the main subject of the prophecies of the Old Testament, the subject about which the spirit of prophecy was chiefly conversant from the beginning of the world. It was the subject of the first proper prophecy that ever was uttered: and it is abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it is every way the chief of all prophetical events. ‘Tis spoken of abundantly as the greatest and most glorious event, beyond all that eye had seen, ear heard, or had entered into the heart of man; at the accomplishment of which not only God’s people and all nations should unspeakably rejoice, but the trees of the field, the hills and mountains, the sea and dry land, and all heaven and earth, 645should rejoice and shout for joy; and in comparison of which the greatest events of the Old Testament, and particularly those two most insisted on, the creation of the world and the redemption out of Egypt, were not worthy to be mentioned or to come into mind, and in comparison of which the greatest and most sacred things of the Mosaic dispensation, 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. Dan. ix. 24. “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 a 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 magicians’ 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 to 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, 646 ver. 14. “Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above ever; beast of the field: upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust shall 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 Isa. 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 Isa. xi. 1-9. together with Isa. 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 another 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. See 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.
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 Isa. 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, ver. 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 to 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. Numb. 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.” Isa. lxiv. 1, 3, 4. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens; 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. Isa. 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 Psal. lxviii. 6. “God bringeth out those that were bound with chains.” Verse 13. “Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold;” in which there is an evident reference to the people’s hands being delivered from the pots in Egypt. Psal. lxxxi. 6. and the context, makes this evident. And the drift and design of the psalm shows this to be a promise of the Messiah’s redemption. God’s dividing the Red sea and the Jordan, and leading the people through them, are often spoken of as resemblances of what God shall accomplish for his people in the days of the Messiah. Isa. 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 that shall be left from Egypt.” Ver. 15, 16. “And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and cause men to go over dry shod. And there shall be an high way for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel, in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” Isa. xliii. 2, 3. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee for I gave Egypt for thy ransom;” ver. 16, 17, 18, 19. “Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember not former things Behold, I will do a new thing.” Chap. xxvii. 12. “And it shall come to pass at that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river under the stream of Egypt,” (or the Lord shall strike off, or smite away, both the channel of the river and the stream of Egypt,) “and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.” Chap. 1i. 10, 11. “Art not thou it which hath dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over? Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion,” &c. Ver. 15. “But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea,” &c. Chap. lxiii. 11, 12. 13. “Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saving, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness?”. Psal. lxviii. 22. “I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.” Zech. x. 10, 11. “I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up, and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.”
The destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red647sea, is spoken of as a resemblance of the destruction of the enemies of God’s people by the Messiah. Isa. xliii. 16, 17. “Thus saith the Lord, which maketh away in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise.” And particularly Pharaoh’s destruction in the Red sea, is spoken of as a type of the Messiah’s bruising the head of the old serpent or dragon. Isa. li. 9, 10. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord. Art not thou it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art not thou it which hath dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion,” &c. Pharaoh is called leviathan and the dragon in Psalm lxxiv. 13, 14. as the devil is in a like destruction in the Messiah’s time, Isa. xxvii. 1. That Pharaoh is intended in those forementioned places by the dragon and leviathan, is very manifest from Ezek. xxix. 3. and xxxii. 2.
The joy and songs of the children of Israel at their redemption put of Egypt, and their great deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red sea, are spoken of as a resemblance of the joy God’s people shall have in the redemption of the Messiah. Hos. ii. 15. “And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth; and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” The Spirit of God seems to have reference to the manner of his leading and guarding the people when they went up out of Egypt, in going before them to lead them, and behind to keep the Egyptians from hurting them; and to compare what he would do in the Messiah’s days thereto. Isa. lii. 12. “For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; the God of Israel will be your rereward;” the God of Israel, that God that thus led Israel out of Egypt, when he entered into covenant with them, and became the God of that people. Here see Pool’s Synopsis on Exod. xii. 14. God’s leading the people through the wilderness, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be accomplished towards God’s people in the Messiah’s times. Isa. lxiii. 13. “That led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness.” Psalm lxviii. 8. “O God, when thou wentest before thy people; when thou didst march through the wilderness;” compared with the rest of the psalm. Hos. ii. 14,15. “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her, and she shall sing as in the days of her youth; as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” Ezek. xx. 34-37. “And I will bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out” (plainly alluding to God’s manner of redeeming the people out of Egypt). “And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face; like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” Where we may also observe that God’s speaking with the people face to face, and entering into covenant with them, and making them his covenant people when he brought them out of Egypt, is spoken of as a resemblance of God’s revealing himself to his people in the days of the Messiah, and bringing them into a covenant relation to himself by him. God’s appearing with the children of Israel in a pillar of cloud and fire, is spoken of as a resemblance of what God would do for his people in the days of the Messiah. Isa. iv. “And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Sion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flame of fire by night. For upon all the glory shall be a defence.” The quaking of the earth and of mount Sinai, at the time of the giving of the law, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be in the Messiah’s days. Ps. lxviii. 8. “The earth shook even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” So the great effect of God’s presence on the mountains, and especially mount Sinai’s being all enkindled by so great and dreadful a fire, is plainly spoken of as a resemblance of what should be in the days of the Messiah. Isa. lxiv. 1-4. “Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou earnest down; the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard,” &c. So the rain that descended on the people, at the time of the thunder and lightning at mount Sinai, or at the time of the great hailstones that God sent on the Amorites, Psalm lxviii. 7, 8, 9. “O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens dropped at the presence of God. Thou, O Lord, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst refresh thine inheritance when it was weary.’’ These things do abundantly confirm, that the redemption out of Egypt, and the circumstances and events that attended it, were intended by the great disposer of all things to be types of the redemption of God’s people by the Messiah, and of things appertaining to that redemption.
It is an argument that the manna God gave the children of Israel was a type of something spiritual, because it is called the corn of heaven and angels’ food. Ps. lxxviii. 24, 25. and Ps. cv. 40. It could be angels’ food no otherwise than as representing something spiritual.
Now by the way I would remark, what was before made use of as an argument, that the great redemption by the Messiah was very much typified beforehand, is very greatly strengthened by what has been now observed. I mean that argument that lesser redemptions were by God’s ordering represented by types, and particularly that the redemption of the children of Israel out of Egypt was much typified beforehand. Now if this was so, that God was much in typifying this redemption beforehand, which itself was a type of the great redemption by the Messiah; how much more may we suppose this great redemption itself, that is the antitype of that, should be abundantly typified! Will God do much to typify that, which was itself but a shadow of the Messiah’s salvation? And shall he not be much more in prefiguring the very substance even that great redemption by the Messiah, in comparison of which the former is often in the Old Testament represented as worthy of no remembrance or notice?
God’s bringing his people into Canaan, to a state of rest and happiness there, is spoken of as a resemblance of what God would do for his people through the Messiah. Jer. xxxi. 2. “Thus saith the Lord, the people that were left of the sword, found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest:” compared with the rest of the chapter and the foregoing chapter. Isa. lxiii. 14. “As the beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. So didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name:” together with the context. Ps. lxviii. 10. “Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.” Ver. 13. “Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove,” &c. together with the context. The manner of God’s giving Israel the possession of Canaan, viz. by a glorious conquest of the kings and nations of the land, is spoken of as a resemblance of the manner in which God would bring his people to rest and glory, by the Messiah, after his exaltation, Ps. lxviii. 11, 12. “The Lord gave the word; great was the company of them that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace; and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.” Ver. 14. “When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon,” taken with ver. 21, 22, 23. “But God shall wound the head of his enemies The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan; I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea: that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.” Ver. 30. “Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of bulls,” &c. together with the rest of the psalm.
What the people of God should be brought to, in the days of the Messiah, is spoken of as represented by the children of Israel’s slaying Achan in Joshua’s time. Hos. ii. 15.“And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall 648sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
What came to pass in the time of Joshua’s battle with the five kings of the Amorites, and particularly God’s sending down great hailstones upon them, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be in the days of the Messiah. Isa. xxviii. 21. “For the Lord shall rise up in mount Perazim, and his wrath as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and brine to pass his act, his strange act:” together with ver. 2. “Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.” And chap. xxx. 30. “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger with tempest and hailstones.” And xxxii. 19. “When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place” (or shall be utterly abased). And Ezek. xxxviii. 29. “I will rain upon him an overflowing rain, and great hailstones.”
What God did for Israel in the victory of Deborah and Barak over the Canaanites, is spoken of as a resemblance of what God would do for his people against their enemies in the days of the Messiah; Psal. lxxxiii. 9, 10. “Do unto them as unto Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison, which perished at En-dor: they became as dung for the earth.” For this psalm is prophetical, and these things have respect to the great things God would do against the future enemies of his church. For it does not appear that there was any such confederacy of the nations mentioned against Israel in David’s or Asaph’s time; and particularly it does not look probable, that there was any such enmity of the inhabitants of Tyre against Israel, as here spoken of, ver. 7. And it is very probable, that as this psalm is prophetical, so it is prophetical of the Messiah’s days; as most of the psalms are. And there is a great agreement between what is here foretold of the destruction of the enemies of the church, and what is foretold of the Messiah’s days in many other places. And the last verse, which speaks of God’s being made known to all mankind as the only true God, and the God of all the earth, further confirms this.
Gideon’s victory over the Midianites, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be accomplished in the Messiah’s days. Isa. ix. 4. “For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” Psal. lxxxiii. 9. “Do unto them as unto the Midianites.” Ver. 11. “Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb; yea, all their princes as Zeba and Zalmunna.” As in the destruction of the Midianites every man’s sword was against his brother; so it is foretold, that it should be with the enemies of God’s people an the Messiah’s times. Ezek. xxxviii. 14. “Every man’s sword shall be against his brother.” Hag. ii. 22. “And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, and I will overthrow the chariots of them that ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down every one by the sword of his brother.”
God’s wonderful appearance for David at Baal-Perazim, to light for him, against his enemies, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be in the Messiah’s times. Isa. xxviii. 21. “For the Lord shall ride up as in mount Perazim.”
In Zech. ix. 15. “The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and shall devour and subdue with sling-stones.” There seems a reference to David’s subduing Goliath with a sling-stone, as though that were a resemblance of the manner in which the enemies of God’s people should be subdued in the times of the Messiah; and this is an argument that David’s bruising the head of this giant and grand enemy of God’s church, is a type of the Messiah, the Son of David, and who is often called by the name of David in Scripture, bruising the head of Satan.
It is an argument that the historical events of the Old Testament in the whole series of them, from the beginning of God’s great works for Israel in order to their redemption out of Egypt, even to their full possession of the promised land in the days of David, and the building of the temple in the days of Solomon, were typical things, and that under the whole history was hid, in a mystery or parable, a glorious system of divine truth concerning greater things than these, that a plain, summary rehearsal or narration of them is called a parable and dark saving or enigma. Psal. lxxviii. 2. It is evident that here by a parable is not meant merely a set discourse of things, appertaining to divine wisdom, as the word parable is sometimes used; but properly a mystical, enigmatical speech, signifying spiritual and divine things, and figurative and typical representations; because it is called both a parable and dark sayings.
It is an argument that many of the historical events of the Old Testament are types of the great events appertaining to the Messiah’s coming and kingdom, that the Spirit of God took occasion from the former to speak of the latter. He either takes occasion to speak of and foretell the Messiah, and the great events appertaining to his salvation, upon occasion of the coming to pass of these ancient events, or on his speaking of these events, celebrating or promising them, he takes occasion to speak of these latter and greater events, joining what is declared of the one with what he reveals of the other in the same discourse; which is an argument that one has relation to the other, and is the image of the other. Thus the Spirit of God, when speaking by Balaam, took occasion, when celebrating the wonderful work of God in bringing them out of Egypt, to foretell that great salvation that God should work for his people by the Messiah. Num. xxiii. 23. So the Spirit of God in Nathan, when speaking of the glorious reign of Solomon, and his building a house to God’s name, and promising these things to David, 2 Sam. vii. takes occasion to foretell and promise the more glorious and everlasting kingdom of the Messiah; as it is evident that David understood the words of Nathan by what he says in chapter xxiii. and in the book of Psalms; and as it is evident from many things in the prophets, the Spirit of God intended them. From the ark’s being carried up into mount Sion, and the great joy and privileges of Israel consequent thereupon, the Spirit took occasion to speak very much of the exaltation of the Messiah, and the glorious privileges of his people consequent thereupon; as in 1 Chron. xvi. 7-36. especially from verse 22. So in Psalm lxviii. which was penned or indited on occasion of the ascension of the ark into mount Sion, as any one may be satisfied by duly considering the matter of the psalm, especially verses 25-29. and by comparing the first and seventh verses of this psalm with Num. x. 35. and by comparing many passages in this psalm with many parts of that song of David, on occasion of the carrying up the ark, that is recorded in 1 Chron. xvi. Again, on this occasion the Spirit of God speaks of the things of the Messiah in Psalm cxxxii. which was penned on that occasion, as is very plain from the matter of the psalm, and by comparing verses 8, 9, 10, 11. with 2 Chron. vi. 41, 42.
From David’s great victories over the Syrians and Edomites, the Spirit of God takes occasion to speak much of the victories of the Messiah in Psalms lx. and cviii. Psalm lxxii. which is evidently a remarkable prophecy of the Messiah, was written on occasion of the introducing of Solomon to the throne of Israel, as is evident from the title, together with the first verse of the psalm.
So the Spirit of God does abundantly take occasion to foretell and promise the redemption of the Messiah, and the overthrow of his people’s enemies by him; from these two events, the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, and the deliverance of Jerusalem from him, and likewise the destruction of Babylon, and the redemption of the Jews from their Babylonish captivity.
Not only does God take occasion from these historical events to speak of the great events that appertain to the Messiah’s coming and salvation; but with regard to several of them, he manifestly speaks of both under one; the same words have respect to both events. One is spoken of under the other, as though one were contained in the other, or as though one were the other; which can be no other way, than by one being the type or representation of the other, in that sense wherein David said the waters of the well of Bethlehem was the blood of those men that bought it in jeopardy of their lives; as the beasts Daniel saw are said to be kingdoms, and the horns to be kings, and as Ezekiel’s hair is said to be Jerusalem. Ezek. v. 5. 649
Thus Balaam prophesied of David who smote the four corners of Moab, and of the Messiah, under one. So it is most manifest that the peace and glory of Solomon’s reign, and that of the reign of the Messiah, are spoken of under one. Psalm lxxii. And that the ascending of the ark into mount Sion, and the ascension of the Messiah, are also spoken of under one in Psalm lxviii.
Some of the historical events of the Old Testament, if they are not typical, must needs be very impertinently taken notice of in the history; as David’s sacrificing when they had gone six paces with the ark; 2 Sam. vi. 13. It must be both insignificantly done and impertinently related in the history, unless there be some signification of some important thing in it. So the relation of there being twelve fountains of water and threescore and ten palm-trees.
The remarkable similitude there is between many of the events in the Old Testament, both miraculous and others, and the prophetical descriptions of events relating to the Messiah, is an argument that the former were designed resemblances of the latter. God’s causing the light to shine out of darkness, as Moses gives us an account of it in the history of the creation, has a great similitude with what is foretold to come to pass in the Messiah’s times. Isaiah xlii. 16. “I will make darkness light before them.” Isaiah ix. 2. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” Isaiah xxix. 18. “The eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” So there is a great resemblance between the account Moses gives us of a river that ran through the midst of Eden to water the trees of paradise, and the descriptions which the prophets give of what should be in the Messiah’s times; as Ezek. xlvii. 7. “Now when I had returned, behold at the bank of the river were very many trees, on the one side and on the other.” Ver. 12. “And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.” Isaiah xli. 18, 19. “I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle and the oil-tree. I will set in the desert the fir-tree and the pine and the box-tree together.” Compared with Isaiah li. 3. “The Lord will comfort Sion and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.” Ezek. xxxvi. 35. “This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;” and Psalm xlvi. 4. “There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God;” taken with Num. xxiv. 5, 6. “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth; as the gardens by the river side; as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar-trees beside the waters;” and Jer. xxxi. 12. “And their soul shall be like a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” So between what we are told of the tree of life in Eden, (which being in the midst of the garden, we have reason to think was by the river,) and the representations made of what should be in the Messiah’s times, Ezek. xlvii. 9, 12. “Every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. Every thing shall live whither the river cometh. And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months. The fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.”
The things that we have an account of in Moses’s history of the deluge, have a great resemblance of many of the Old-Testament representations of things that shall be brought to pass in the time of the Messiah’s kingdom. That destruction of the wicked world by a flood of waters, is very agreeable to the Old-Testament representation of the future destruction that shall come on all God’s enemies, and particularly in the Messiah’s days. The wicked of the old world were destroyed by a dreadful tempest. So it is said concerning the ungodly, Job xxvii. 20, 21. “Terrors take hold on him as waters; a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth; a storm hurleth him out of his place.” Sorrow and misery is very often represented by overwhelming waters, and God’s wrath by waves and billows. Ps. xlii. 7. and lxxxviii. 7. The waters of the flood did not only overwhelm the wicked, but came into their bowels. God’s wrath on the ungodly is compared to this very thing. Ps. cix. 18. “As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, so let it come into his bowels like water.” In the time of the flood the waters were poured down out of heaven like spouts or cataracts of water. God’s wrath is compared unto this, Ps. xlii. 7. “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts.” The waters of the deluge were what the ungodly of the world could not escape, or hide themselves from them by resorting to caves in the ground, or digging deep in the earth, or flying to the tops of mountains; so likewise is the matter represented with respect to God’s wrath on the ungodly, in Isaiah xxviii. 17. “The waters shall overflow the hiding-place;” and Amos ix. 1, 2. “He that fleeth of them shall not flee away: he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them: though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and lake them out thence:” and so in many other places. Particularly is there a great resemblance between the destruction that was brought on the wicked world by the flood, and what is foretold of the wicked in the Messiah’s times; as in Isaiah xxiv. 18, 19, 20. “And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear, shall fall into a pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit, shall be taken in the snare.” (So that there shall be no escaping, let them flee where they will, as it was in the time of the deluge.) “For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved; the earth is moved exceedingly and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it.” There is not only a resemblance between this representation of the punishment of the wicked world in the Messiah’s days, and the history of the flood, but here seems to be an evident allusion to the flood, and a designed comparison of that destruction of God’s enemies, and what was in the time of the flood, when we are told the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, &c. So the destruction of God’s enemies in the Messiah’s times is represented as being by a flood. Dan. ix. 26. “And the end thereof shall be with a flood;” and to a flood occasioned by a mighty rain, Ezek. xxxviii. 22. “I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain.” There is also a remarkable agreement between what we are told in Moses’s history of the preservation of those that were in the ark, and what is often declared in Old-Testament prophecies concerning the preservation and salvation of the church by the Messiah. Isa. xxxii. at the beginning. “A man shall be a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest.” Isa. iv. 6. “And there shall be a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm, and from rain.” Isa. xxv. 4. “Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm when the blast of the terrible ones is as the storm against the wall.” Psal. xlvi. 1, 2, 3. “God is our refuge and strength, we will not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” (as they in a sense were in the flood. They were in the midst of the sea; the sea surrounded and overwhelmed them). “Though the waters thereof roar and are troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Isa. xliii. 2. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee:” compare these texts with Psalm xxxii. 6. “Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come nigh thee,” and Psalm xci. 7. “A thousand shall fell at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.” We may suppose that there was a resorting and flocking of animals from all parts of the world, such as are proper to hot countries, from the south; and such as dwell in colder climates, from the north. And as there 650are many countries that have their peculiar kinds of animals; so we may suppose there was a resorting from every quarter. A resorting of beasts and a flocking of birds, which is a lively resemblance of what is often foretold of the gathering of God’s people into his church from all quarters in the Messiah’s days, and coming to him for salvation when all the ends of the earth should look to him to be saved. Isaiah xlv. 22. When God should bring the seed of his church from the east, and gather them from the west, and would say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back. Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Isa. xliii. 6, 7. and many other parallel places. And God would gather his people from all countries, agreeably to many prophecies, and it shall be said, Who are those that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows? The gathering of all kinds of creatures to the ark, clean and unclean, tame and wild, gentle and rapacious, innocent and venomous; tygers, wolves, bears, lions, leopards, serpents, vipers, dragons; and the door of the ark standing open to them, and their all dwelling there peaceably together under one head, even Noah, who kindly received them and took care of them, fed and saved them, and to whom they tamely submitted, is a lively representation of what is often foretold concerning the Messiah’s days, when it is foretold, that not only the Jews should be saved but unclean Gentile nations, when the gates of God’s church should be open to all sorts of people, (Isa. lx. 11. with the context,) when proclamation should be made to every one to come freely. Isa. lv. 1-9. And God would abundantly pardon the wicked and unrighteous, ver. 6, 7, 8, 9. and would bring again even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters. Ezek. xvi. 53. And those nations should be gathered to God’s church, to be one holy society with Israel, that were wont to be their most cruel and inveterate enemies; such as the Egyptians; Psal. lxxxvii. 4. and lxviii. 31. Isa. xix. 18., to the end, and xlv. 14. The Philistines; Psal. lx. 8. and lxxxvii. 4. Zech. ix. 6, 7. The Chaldeans; Psal. lxxxvii. 4. and Assyrians; Isa. xix. 23, 24, 25.; and the most wild and barbarous nations, Tabor and Hermon, that were noted haunts of wild beasts; Psal. lxxxvii. 12. Cant. iv. 8. Psal. xlii. 6. Hos. v. 1. and the nations of Arabia and Ethiopia, (in many places see fulfilment of prophecies of Messiah, § 160.) countries that abounded with the most rapacious, venomous, and terrible animals. When it is foretold that the beasts of the field should honour God, and the dragons and the owls, Isa. xliii. 19, 20. and when it is foretold, “that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain,” Isa. xi. 6-9. and chap. lxv. 25. events under the Messiah’s kingdom are intended. The ark was a great while tossed to and fro on the face of the flood, ready to be overwhelmed; but at last rested on a high mountain or rock, and the company in it had enlargement and liberty, and were brought into a new world. So the church in the Messiah’s days is long in a state of affliction, tossed with tempest and not comforted. Isa. liv. 11. But when she is ready to be overwhelmed, God will lead her to the rock that is higher than she, Psal. lxi. 2. and she shall be brought out of her affliction into a new world, Isa. lxv. 17, 18. and shall dwell in God’s holy mountain, as is often foretold.
Another historical event, between which and the Old Testament representations of spiritual things, and particular things appertaining to the Messiah’s kingdom, there is a great resemblance in the destruction of Sodom and the neighboring cities. There is a great resemblance between this and the future punishment of the wicked in general, as represented in the Old Testament. Fire and brimstone were poured out from God out of heaven, and rained down on these cities: so the wrath of God is often in the Old Testament compared to fire, and is represented as poured out from heaven on the ungodly, and particularly to be poured out like fire. Nahum i. 6. Isa. xlii. 25. Jer. xliv. 6. Lam. ii. 4. and iv. 11. Ezek. xxii. 21, 22, 31. So it is threatened in allusion to the manner of Sodom’s destruction, Psal. xi. 6. that upon the wicked God would rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible or burning tempest, (as it is in the margin,) and it is said this should be the portion of their cup. That destruction came on Sodom suddenly and unexpectedly, while the inhabitants were in the midst of their voluptuousness and wickedness, and wholly at ease and quiet, in the morning, when the sun arose pleasantly on the earth, and when the idle and unclean inhabitants were drowned in sloth, sleep, and pleasures; which is agreeable to what is often represented in the Old Testament of the manner of God’s bringing destruction on the wicked. It came on Sodom as a snare. So it is said in that 11th Psal. “Snares, fire, and brimstone, shall God rain,” &c. That while the wicked is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and rain it upon him while he is eating, Job xx. 23. That God hath set them in slippery places, and that they are cast down to destruction in a moment, and are utterly consumed with terrors. Psal. lxxiii. 18, 19. That their destruction falls suddenly upon them, as the fishes are taken in an evil net, (when sporting securely in the water,) and as birds are caught in the snare (when they are feeding and pleasing themselves with the bait). Eccl. ix. 12. Particularly this is represented as the manner of destruction’s coming on them that harden their necks when often reproved, as the inhabitants of Sodom had been by Lot, as appears by Gen. xix. 9. Prov. xxix. 1. “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” There is a special resemblance between the destruction of Sodom, and the destruction that is foretold to come on the enemies of God and the Messiah under the Messiah’s kingdom, which is often represented as being by fire. Mal. iii. 1. “Who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire:” A refiner’s fire is a vehement furnace, that burns up the dross. chap. iv. 1. “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts; it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Psal. xxi. 9. “Thou shall make them as a fiery oven in the day of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.” Dan. vii. 11. “I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.” Yea, that destruction is represented as effected by raining down fire and brimstone upon them. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.” Isa. xxx. 30. “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.” Ver. 33. “For Tophet is ordained of old; for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large. The pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” Chap. xxix. 6. “Thou shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” The Messiah’s enemies are represented as destroyed with everlasting fire; Isa. xxxiii. 11-14. “The people shall be as the burning of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Isa. lxvi. 15, 16. “For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render vengeance with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many:” with ver. 24. “And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.” There was something in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to represent this. The fire that destroyed them was, as it 651were, everlasting fire, inasmuch as the destruction it brought upon them was everlasting and irreparable desolation, so that they never could be built again, and never any creature, either man or beast, could live there any more; which is often particularly remarked in Scripture. Isa. xiii. 19, 20. Jer. xlix. 18. and chap. l. 39, 40. Isa. i. 9. The place, land, or lake where Sodom and its neighbour cities once were, is a place that ever since abounds with that sulphurous inflammable matter, that is called bitumen and asphaltum, and in our translation of the Bible, pitch, which is a further representation of eternal burnings, and is a remarkable resemblance of what is foretold concerning the destruction of God’s enemies in the Messiah’s times. Isa. xxxiv. 8-10. “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion; and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, (or bitumen or asphaltum,) and the dust thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day. The smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.” This destruction came on Sodom just as the sun was up, and had enlightened the world by its beams. So it is manifest, from many prophecies, that great destruction of the enemies of the church so often spoken of, is when God comes and appears gloriously for his people, and when the morning of that glorious day of the church’s light, peace, and triumph is come on, and the glory of the Lord shall be risen upon the church, and the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings. Then will the day come that will burn as an oven, and the wicked shall be as stubble. Lot’s being so wonderfully delivered and saved from the destruction, well represents that great preservation of God’s church and people, so often spoken of by the prophets, in that time of God’s indignation and day of his wrath and vengeance on his enemies.
The remarkable similitude there is between very many things in the history of Joseph, and the Old-Testament prophecies of the Messiah, argue the former to be a type of the latter. Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob’s old age. Gen. xxxvii. 3. So the Messiah is every where represented in the prophecies, as coming and setting up his kingdom in the latter days. He was Jacob’s beloved son. Gen. xxxvii. 3. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as the beloved Son of God. They represent him as the Son of God. (See fulfilment of the prophecies of the Messiah, § 15.) They also represent him as one that should be in a very peculiar and transcendent manner the beloved of God. (See fulfilment of prophecies, &c. § 18.) Joseph was clothed with a beautiful garment. So the prophecies represent the Messiah as clothed with beautiful and glorious garments. Zech. iii. 4, 5. “Take away the filthy garments from him. I will clothe thee with change of raiment so they set a fair mitre on his head, and clothed him with garments.” Isa. lxi. 10. “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” The sheaves of Joseph’s brethren in his vision all bow down to his sheaf. So it is prophesied of the Messiah, that God would make him his first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. Psal. lxxxix. 27. Kings are said all of them to be the sons of the Most High; but this king is represented as made the highest by God, and all the rest as being made to bow down unto him. Psal. lxxii. 11. “Yea, all things shall fall down before him.” Isa. xlix. 7. “Kings shall see and arise; princes also shall worship; because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.” See also ver. 23. and Psal. xlv. “He hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” And many other places import the same thing. The saints are often in the prophecies called the children of God. And they are represented as the Messiah’s brethren. Psal. xxii. 22. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” But the Messiah is every where represented as their Lord and King, whom they honour, and submit to, and obey. Yea, it is promised that every knee should bow to him. Isa. xlv. 23. The sun, moon, and stars, are represented as making obeisance to Joseph. So in the prophecies the Messiah is represented as God, whom the Old Testament often speaks of as ruling sun, moon, and stars. And the heavens are represented as declaring the Messiah’s righteousness. (Psal. xcvii. 6. and 1. 6.) And the heavens, and earth, and sea, and the whole universe, is represented as rejoicing and worshipping and praising the Messiah on occasion of his coming and kingdom. Psal. xcvi. 11-13. lxix. 34. Isa. xliv. 23. and xlix. 13. And the sun is represented as being ashamed, and the moon confounded, and the stars withdrawing their shining, (as it were veiling their faces as the worshipping angels do,) before the Messiah, at his coming to reign in the world. Isa. xxiv. 23. Joel iii. 15. And the stars as falling from heaven; Isa. xxxiv. 4. Joseph’s father and mother are represented as bowing down to him to the earth. This was never fulfilled properly with respect to Joseph. His father, when he met him in Egypt, did not, that we have any account, thus bow down to him; and his mother was dead long before; both Rachel and Leah were dead before Jacob went down into Egypt. But the Messiah’s ancestors are represented as worshipping him. The Messiah is represented as the Son of David; but David calls him Lord. Psal. cx. 1. Joseph was hated by his brethren, which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the Messiah. Psal. lxix. 8. “I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.” Joseph was hated by the sons of the same father, Jacob. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as a son of Jacob, one of the seed of Israel, but as hated by the generality of his seed, the Jews. Joseph’s brethren sold him for a few pieces of silver; so the prophecies do represent the Jews as selling the Messiah for a few pieces of silver. Zech. xi. 12, 13. Joseph’s brethren went about to murder him; so the prophecies represent the Messiah as being murdered by the Jews. Joseph was the saviour of his brethren and the church of God. He saved their lives. So the Messiah is abundantly represented in the prophecies as the saviour of his brethren; the saviour of the saints, the church of God, and of the nation of the Jews; and as one that saves them from death. Joseph was the saviour of the world, not only of the seed of Israel, but the Gentile nations, yea of all nations. For the famine was sore in all lands, even over all the face of the earth, and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn. Gen. xli. 56, 57. And his name Zaphnath-paaneah, in the Egyptian language, signifies the saviour of the world. This is exactly agreeable to the Old-Testament representation of the Messiah. Joseph was first in a state of great humiliation, and afterwards in a state of exaltation. In his state of humiliation he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. His disgrace and sufferings were very great. He suffered all unjustly from the hands of men, being innocent, and wrongfully condemned. He suffered as being guilty of horrid crimes. And had his place and lot among great criminals; and suffered all with admirable meekness; which is exactly agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah. Joseph was a servant to one of the chief rulers of Egypt, Potiphar, the captain of the guard. So the Messiah is called the servant of rulers. Isa. xlix. 7. Joseph was one of the king’s prisoners, under the hand of the king’s chief officer of justice, the captain of the guard, and, as it were, high sheriff of Egypt. So the Messiah is represented as suffering from the hands of God, who bruised him and put him to grief, and as executing justice upon him for man’s sins, making his soul an offering for sin. Joseph’s being cast into the dungeon is a fit representation of what the prophecies do represent of the Messiah’s extreme affliction and grief, and his being brought to the grave, (often called the pit in the Old Testament,) and remaining some time in the state of death. Joseph was a prophet. He had divine visions himself, and had knowledge in the visions of God, and could interpret the visions of others. This is agreeable to Old-Testament representations of the Messiah. He was a revealer of secrets, as his name Zaphnath-paaneah signifies in the Hebrew tongue, and revealed those secrets that none other could reveal, and after the wisdom of all the wise men of Egypt had been tried and proved insufficient. Gen. xli. 8, 9,. &c. This is agreeable to what is 652represented of the Messiah in Isa. xli. two last verses, and xlii. 1. “For I beheld, and there was no man even amongst them, and there was no counsellor, that when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” Joseph is spoken of as distinguished from all in that he was one in whom the Spirit of God was. How agreeable is this to the frequent representations in the Old Testament of the Messiah, as one that God puts his Spirit upon! Joseph is spoken of as one to whom none was to be compared for wisdom, and prudence, and counsel through the Spirit of God. Gen. xli. 38, 39. This is agreeable to what is foretold of the Messiah, Isa. ix. 6. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.” chap. xi. 2, 3. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and might; the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.” Zech. iii. 9. “Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.” Isa. lii. 13. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.” See also that forementioned, Isa. xli. and two last verses, and xlii. 1. Joseph was exalted for this his great wisdom; which is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah, Isa. lii. 13. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high.” So agreeably to this, Joseph’s exaltation was very great. He was exalted by the king of the country, who we may well suppose in this case represents God, seeing it is evident by the Old Testament, that kings in their kingly authority are the images of God. (Psal. lxxxii. 1, 6.) Pharaoh exalts Joseph over all his house and people. So the prophecies do often represent God as exalting the Messiah over his people and his house, or temple, and over heaven. The king exalted Joseph to be next to himself in his kingdom, to ride in the second chariot which he had. So the prophecies represent the Messiah as the second in God’s Kingdom, next to God the Father, and exalted by him to this dignity. Psal. cx. 1. “Sit thou on my right hand.” Psal. lxxxix. “I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” Joseph was exalted over all the nobles and rulers of the land of Egypt, excepting Pharaoh himself. Psal. cv. 21, 22. Agreeable to this it is often represented in the prophecies, that all kings shall be made to bow and submit to the Messiah. And it is also implied that the angels of heaven, as well as all nations of the earth, should be subjected to him by God. Dan. vii. 9,. &c. “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit. Thousand thousands ministered unto him I saw one in the night visions, and beheld one like unto the Son of man come forth in the clouds of heaven, and come to the Ancient of days; and they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all nations and languages should serve him.” Dan. xii. 1. Michael the great prince together with chap. x. 13. “Michael, the first of the chief princes,” with the context, that speaks of angels as princes. Pharaoh invested Joseph with his own authority and honour as his representative and vicegerent. For he took off his own ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand. So the prophecies do represent God as investing the Messiah with his authority and honour, seating him on his own throne, and causing him to bear the glory. Zech. vi. 12, 13. And there are many other prophecies that imply the same. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph with change of raiment, pure garments, and ensigns of royalty, agreeably to what is foretold of the Messiah. Zech. iii. and Isa. lxi. 10. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in fine linen. Gen. xli. 42. as the Messiah is represented as clothed in fine linen, Dan. x. 5.: for it may, by well considering the chapter, be gathered, that the person there spoken of is the same with Michael mentioned in verses 13 and 21. and chapter xii. 1. Pharaoh, when he exalted Joseph, committed all his treasures and stores into Joseph’s hand, to bestow on others and feed mankind. Psal. cv. 21. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. And particularly Joseph received those stores and treasures to bestow on his injurious brethren that had been mortal enemies to him; which is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah’s exaltation. Psal. lxviii. 18. “Thou hast ascended on high thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also.” When Pharaoh exalted Joseph he gave him his wife. So the Messiah’s marriage with his church is represented as following his humiliation and attending his exaltation, in Isa. liii. and liv. Joseph marries the daughter of Potipherah, which signifies destroyer of fatness, a word of the same signification with some of the names given in Scripture to the devil. This Potipherah was priest of On, which signifies iniquity, or sorrow. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as bringing his church into espousals with himself from a state of sin and wickedness. Jer. iii. 14. “Turn, O backsliding children, unto me, for I am married unto you.” Compare Hos. ii. throughout; Psal. xlv. 10. with Ezek. xvi. 3,. &c. “Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood behold, thy time was the time of love and I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine.” And the prophecies do every where represent the Messiah as bringing his people into a blessed relation and union with himself from a state of sin. Joseph’s wife’s name was Asenath, which signifies an unfortunate thing. Agreeably to this the Messiah is represented as espousing, after his exaltation, a poor, unhappy, afflicted, disconsolate creature. Isa. liv. 4,. &c. “Fear not, for thou shall not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shall not be put to shame. For thou shall forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more, for thy Maker is thy husband; for the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused.” Verse 11. “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted: behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours,” &c. Hos. ii. 9,. &c. “I will return and take away my corn none shall deliver out of my hand I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees I will visit upon her the days of Baalim I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her and at that day she shall call me Ishi.” Verses 19, 20. “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me,” &c. Isa. lxii. 44. “Thou shall no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall thy land be any more termed Desolate, but thou shall be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Joseph’s brethren are in great trouble and perplexity, and are brought to reflect on themselves for their sins, and deeply to humble themselves before him, before Joseph speaks comfortably to them, and makes known his love and favour to them, and receives them to the blessings and glory of his kingdom. This is agreeable to what the prophecies do often represent of the Messiah with respect to sinners. Hos. ii. 14, 15. “I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her, and I will give her her vineyards from thence and she shall sing there.” See also Jer. iii. 12, 13, 21, 22. chap. xxxi. 18-20. Joseph’s brethren, before they were comforted and made happy by him, are brought to cry with the greatest humility, and earnestness, and penitence, for their abuse of Joseph, to him for mercy. Agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah, Zech. xii. 10,. &c. “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,” &c. Hos. v. 15. “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face: in their affliction, they shall seek me early.” Ezek. xxxvi. 37. “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” Jer. xxix. 12-14. “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity.” When once Joseph’s brethren were thoroughly humbled, then his bowels yearned towards them with exceeding great compassion and tenderness of heart, though before he treated them as if he was very 653angry with them. See, agreeable to this, Jer. xxxi. 18,. &c. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Joseph perfectly forgives all their past ill treatment, or blots it out, as though it had never been, and will have it remembered no more. Gen. xlv. 5-8. and 1. 19-21. This is agreeable to what is often spoken of in the prophecies, as a great benefit God’s people shall have by the Messiah. (See fulfilment of prophecies, § 79. and § 86.) The manner of Joseph’s comforting his brethren in the manifestations and fruits of his special and peculiar love, his bringing them near him, making known himself to them as theirs in a near relation, his treating them with such great tenderness, his embracing them, his manifesting so great a concern for their welfare, his putting such honour upon them before the Egyptians, his entertaining them with a sumptuous joyful feast in his house and at his own table, his clothing them with change of raiment, his bringing them into his own land and there giving them a goodly inheritance, plentifully providing for them in Goshen, a land of light; all is remarkably agreeable to descriptions given in the prophecies of the manner of God’s comforting, blessing, exalting, and manifesting his great favour to his church, after her long-continued sin and sorrows, in the days of the Messiah’s kingdom, in places too many to be enumerated. Joseph’s brethren at this time are like them that dream, Gen. xlv. 3,. &c. which is agreeable to what is said of the church of God, when delivered and comforted by the Messiah. Psalm cxxvi. 1. “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” There is joy in Pharaoh’s court among his servants and nobles on the occasion of Joseph’s receiving his brethren. Gen. xlvi. 16. Answering to this in Isaiah xliv. 22, 23. “I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it.” And chap. xlix. 13. “Sing, O heaven, and be joyful, O earth for the Lord hath comforted his people.” And Psalm cxlviii. 4. “Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens,” with verses 13, 14. “Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people.”
The remarkable agreement between many things in the history of Moses, and the prophecies of the Messiah, argue the former to be a type of the latter. Moses was God’s elect. Ps. cvi. 23. “Had not Moses his chosen stood before him.” In his being so wonderfully preserved and upheld by God when in great danger, preserved in the midst of many waters, when he was cast into the river. Moses was drawn out of the water when a babe. Compare Ps. lxix. and Isa. liii. 2. He was preserved in his banishment, preserved and delivered from the wrath of the king of Egypt, when he from time to time went to him with messages that so much provoked him; preserved at the Red sea, in the wilderness, and in the midst of that perverse, invidious congregation, and delivered from the strivings of the people. This is agreeable to many things said in the prophecies of the Messiah. Moses was twice delivered out of great waters, when he was designed by his enemies for death; once in his being drawn out of the river, and another time in rising out of the Red sea. This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah’s sufferings and death, and his rising from them. Misery, and wrath, and sore affliction, are often in Scripture compared to great waters, to waves and billows, and great deeps, and the like; and the Messiah’s sufferings in particular, as Ps. lxix. 1-3, 14, 15. and his deliverance out of those sufferings is represented as his being delivered out of great waters. Ps. lxix. 14, 15. The region of the dominion of death and destruction is represented as being down under the waters. Job xxv. 5, 6. These deliverances of Moses, therefore, are agreeable to the prophecies of Christ’s resurrection. Moses was not only delivered from his troubles and danger, but his deliverances were followed with great exaltation, resembling the exaltation of the Messiah that the prophecies speak of. After he was drawn put of the water, he was exalted in the king’s palace, as his son and heir. After his banishment he converses with God in mount Sinai, a resemblance of heaven, and is made king over God’s church. In about forty days after his resurrection out of the Red sea, he ascends up to God in mount Sinai.
The things that are said of the burning bush, do wonderfully agree with the Old-Testament representations of the Messiah. It was not a high tree, but a bush; as the Messiah is called the low tree; Ezek. xvii. 24. and elsewhere, the twig and the tender plant. This bush was a root out of a dry ground; for it was a bush that grew in mount Horeb, which was so called for the remarkable dryness of the place. The word signifies dryness; there was no spring about the mountain, till Moses there fetched water out of the dry rock. It was in a thirsty wilderness, where was wont to be no rain. Therefore the children of Israel in that wilderness were supplied with water only miraculously. Hos. xiii. 5. “I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought.” See Deut. viii. 15. That bush was the growth of the earth, as the human nature of Christ in the Old Testament is represented to be. Yet it had the divine nature of Christ in it; for this angel of the Lord that is said to appear in the bush, has been proved to be the same with the Messiah from the Old Testament, in my discourse on the prophecies of the Messiah. This angel is said to dwell in this bush, Deut. xxxiii. 16. the more to represent the divine nature of the Messiah dwelling in the human nature. This bush burnt with fire, agreeably to what the prophecies speak of the sufferings of Christ; great calamity and affliction in the Old Testament are often called fire. This was especially a resemblance of the wrath of God, that is often called fire in the Old Testament, and which the prophecies represent the Messiah as enduring. (See fulfilment of prophecies, § 70.) The bush was preserved from being consumed, though it burnt with fire, agreeably to the prophecies of the preservation and upholding of the Messiah. God’s not suffering his Holy One to see corruption, &c. The bush emerged alive and fresh out of the fire, agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah’s resurrection from the dead, and deliverance from all his sufferings. The angel that dwelt out of that bush, who was the Messiah, comes out of the fire, and appears in the bush, and delivered alive from the flames, to work redemption for his people. See Exod. iii. 8. So the prophecies represent the Messiah rising from the dead, and exalted out of his state of humiliation, to work salvation for his people.
If we consider the remarkable agreement there is between the account Moses gives of the brazen serpent, Num. xxi. and the representation the prophet makes of the Messiah, we shall see good reason to think that the former was intended to be a type of the latter. Doubtless God’s appointing that way for the healing of those that were bitten with fiery serpents, by making an image of those fiery serpents, and putting it on a pole, had some significancy. It was not wholly an insignificant appointment. There was doubtless some important thing that God aimed at in it. It was not an appointment without any aim or any instruction contained in it, as it seems as though it must be, unless some important spiritual thing was represented and exhibited by it. And whoever considers the remarkable agreement between this appointment and its circumstances, and the things spoken concerning the Messiah, will see reason to conclude, that these are doubtless the things signified and pointed forth by it. That sin, misery, and death that the Messiah is represented as coming to save us from, is represented in the Old Testament as being from a serpent. See Gen. iii. 1-6. and xv. and xx. The Messiah is represented as saving from all hurt by the most poisonous serpents: Isa. xi. 8, 9. and lxv. 25. Sin, our spiritual disease, is in the Old Testament compared to the poison of the serpent. Deut. xxxii. 33. Psal. lviii. 4. and cxl. 3. The brazen serpent is called a fiery serpent, Num. xxi. 8. because it was in the image of the fiery serpents. So the prophets represent the Messiah as set forth as a sinner, appearing 654in the form of sinners, and of a great sinner. Isa. liii. 6. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath made the iniquities of us all to meet in him” (for so it is in the Hebrew). Ver. 9. “He made his grave with the wicked.” Ver. 12. “He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many.” He was treated as the greatest of sinners. The Messiah being set forth in the form of a great sinner, he was, as it were, exhibited in the form of a very venomous serpent, according to the manner of representing things in the Old Testament, for there great sinners are represented as poisonous serpents. Psal. lviii. 3, 4. “The wicked are estranged from the womb; their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth up her ear.” Psal. cxl. 3. “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips.” In order to the Israelites being saved from death through the poison of the fiery serpents, the brazen serpent was set up as an ensign to the congregation or army of Israel. For the word translated pole, signifies ensign, which is the much more proper English of the word. This is in exact agreeableness to the prophecies of the Messiah. Isa. xi. 10. “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to the people.” Here the word translated ensign, is the very same with the word translated pole in the 21st of Num. The brazen serpent was set up as an ensign, that it might be exhibited to public view, and the diseased are called upon to look upon it, or behold it. Thus in the prophecies men are from time to time called upon to behold the Messiah; Isa. xl. 9. “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up; be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” We may well suppose, that when the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, there was proclamation made by heralds to that vast congregation, calling upon them to look on that. Isa. lxv. 1. “I said, Behold me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by name.” Chap. lxii. 10, 11. “Lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed to the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” Zech. ix. 9-12. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation and he shall speak peace unto the heathen by the blood of the covenant I will send forth thy prisoners turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope.” Isa. lii. 7, 8. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” The way that the people were saved by the brazen serpent, was by looking to it, beholding it, as seeking and expecting salvation from it: as an ensign saves an army by the soldiers looking on it and keeping it in their view. Agreeably to this, it is said concerning the Messiah, Isa. xi. 10. “There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.” And Isa. xlv. 22. “Look to me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” And faith and trust in the Messiah for salvation is often spoken of in the prophecies as the great condition of salvation through him. The Chaldee paraphrasts looked on the brazen serpent as a type of the Messiah, and gave it the name of the word. (Basnage’s History of the Jews, page 367.)
The great agreement there is between the history of Joshua and the things said of him in Scripture, and the things said of the Messiah in the Old Testament, strongly argues Joshua to be a type of the Messiah. There is a great agreement between the names by which he is called in Scripture and the names and things attributed to the Messiah in the Old Testament. His first name was Oshea, Num. xiii. 8-10. which signifies Saviour. So the Messiah is called by the same name, a Saviour, Isa. xix. 20. “He shall send them a Saviour and a great one.” The word is of the same root with Oshea. So again the Messiah is called a Saviour, Isa. xliii. 3, 11. Hosea xiii. 4, 9, 10. Obad. 21. and other places. So he is called Salvation. Isa. lxii. 11. “Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” And this name is agreeable to what is abundantly spoken of in the prophets, as the great work and office of the Messiah, which is to be a Saviour and Redeemer, and to work out the greatest and most eminent salvation for God’s people that ever was or will be; that which is therefore often called the Salvation. This name Oshea was by Moses changed into Jehoshua. Num. xiii. 16. “And Moses called Oshea, the son of Nun, Jehoshua,” i. e. the Lord the Saviour, or Jehovah our Saviour; which makes his name still more agreeable to the name and nature of the Messiah. And it is difficult to assign any other reason why Moses thus changed his name by the direction of the Spirit of God, but that it might be so. This is agreeable to those names by which the Messiah is called in the prophets, Immanuel, God with us, and Jehovah our Righteousness. So Joshua is called the Shepherd, the stone of Israel; Gen. xlix. 24.; agreeably to names by which the Messiah is often called in the prophets. Joshua’s name being the same with the Messiah’s, and agreeable to his office, make it the more probable that it was that he might be a type of the Messiah; because it was frequently God’s manner to presignify future things by the signification of names; as is evident in many instances. Joshua was God’s elect; he was called to his office and exalted to his high dignity by God’s election and special designation, agreeably to what is said of the Messiah in the prophets. He resembled the Messiah in things spoken of him by the prophets in many things wherein Moses did so; particularly in near access to God in mount Sinai and in the tabernacle. Exod. xxxiii. 11. and xxiv. 13. and xxxii. 17. Joshua was a man in whom was the Spirit in an eminent manner. Num. xxvii. 18. “Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit;” agreeably to what is often said of the Messiah in the prophets. It is said of Joshua that he was full of the spirit of wisdom, Deut. xxxiv. 9.; agreeably to many prophecies of the Messiah. Joshua was both a king and a prophet. See Num. xxvii. 18. and Deut. xxxiv. 9. and Joshua the two last chapters. Herein he is like the Messiah. Joshua was the captain of the host of Israel, that fought their battles for them, and subdued their enemies, though many and mighty. He was their captain in their war with Amalek, and, as we may suppose, the other enemies of Israel that they encountered in the wilderness; and he conquered the numerous and mighty enemies in Canaan; agreeably to what is represented of the Messiah every where by the prophets. He came up out of the Jordan when it was swelled with a great flood, into Canaan; as the Messiah is spoken of by the prophets as coming up out of great affliction, terrible sufferings and death, into heaven, a land of rest and great delight. Great sufferings are in the Old Testament represented by the swelling of the Jordan. Jer. xii. 5. Joshua brought the children of Israel out of the wilderness and out of Bashan, and out of great waters, into Canaan a land of rest flowing with milk and honey, agreeably to Psalm lxviii. 22. “The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea:” and Isa. xi. 10. “There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, and his rest shall be glorious.” Hosea ii. 14, 15. “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her: and I will give her her vineyard from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt:” and agreeably to many prophecies that represent the salvation of the Messiah as a bringing of God’s people into a state of liberty, rest, and joy, in Canaan, out of a state of bondage and great affliction in foreign lands, comparing it to God’s first bringing his people through the wilderness into Canaan, which were observed before; and agreeable to many prophecies which speak of God’s people, as delivered from great misery, and brought into happy circumstances, by the Messiah, and as therein partaking with the Messiah in his deliverance from his sufferings and advancement to a state of rest and glory. Joshua, in going before the children of Israel as the captain of the Lord’s host, and bringing 655them into the land of Canaan, did that which is spoken of in the books of Moses and Joshua themselves, as the office of that angel of God’s presence, who (as I have shown is evident by the Old Testament) was the same person with the Messiah, Num. xxiii. 20. “Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” Verse 23. “For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites,” &c. chap. xxxiii. 14. “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Josh. v. 14. “Nay, but as the captain of the Lord’s host am I now come.” Joshua was a most glorious conqueror, as the Messiah is every where represented to be in the prophecies. Joshua entered Canaan, conquered his enemies, and brought in his people to their rest and inheritance, by his righteousness or strict obedience to God’s commands. Josh. i. 2,. &c. “Go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, into the land which I do give thee every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon, that I have given unto you from the wilderness, and this Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. There shall not a man be able to stand before thee. Unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe and do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and thou shall have good success.” God promised that he would be with Joshua, and would uphold him, and not fail him, till he had complete victory over all his enemies, agreeably to what is said of the Messiah, Isaiah xlii. 1-4. “Behold my servant whom I uphold. The smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles wait for his law.” Verse 6. “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness: I will hold thine hand: I will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people.” Chap. xlix. 2. “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he held me, and made me as a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me.” Verses 7, 8. “Kings shall see and arise; princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful. In a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people.” Psal. lxxxix. 20,. &c. “I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him: with whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted:” and many other places; and agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah, God made his enemies his footstool. Josh. i. 3-5. “Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon,” &c. with chap. x. 24. “Put your feet upon the necks of those kings,” &c. Joshua, agreeably to the prophecy of the Messiah, was an intercessor for his people. Joshua x. The high walls of God’s enemies came down before Joshua agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah. Isa. xxv. 12. “And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” Chap. xxvi. 5. “For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city he layeth it low, he layeth it low even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.” Chap. xxx. 25. “In the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fell.” Joshua destroyed the giants, Josh. xi. 21.; agreeably to this see Isa. xlv. 14. “The Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to thee. In chains shall they come over, and they shall fall down unto thee.” Isa. x. 33. “And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.” This seems to be connected with the prophecy in the beginning of the next chapter, in the next verse but one. God assisted Joshua in battle by destroying his enemies by great hailstones out of heaven. See, agreeable to this, Isa. xxx. 30. and xxxii. 19. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. Joshua conquered among kings. Joshua made Israel to trample their haughtiest and strongest enemies under their feet. Josh. x. 24. See, agreeable to this, Isa. xxvi. 7. Chap. xlix. 23. Zech. x. 5. Psal. lxviii. 23. Mic. vii. 10. Psal. xlvii. 3. Isa. lx. 14. Psal. lviii. 10. Joshua did as it were make the sun stand still over Israel. Agreeably to those prophecies of the times of the Messiah’s kingdom. Isa. lx. 20. Zech. xiv. 6, 7. Joshua houghed the horses, and burnt the chariots of the enemies of God’s people in the fire. Josh. xi. 6, 9. Hag. ii. 22. “And I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down.” Psal. xlvi. 9. “He maketh wars to cease to the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.” Joshua divided unto Israel their inheritance, as one that God had appointed to be judge, what portion belonged to every tribe.
There is also such an agreement between what is said of Israel’s victory over the Canaanites under Deborah, and what is said in the prophecies of the church’s victory over her enemies in the Messiah’s times, as argues the former to be a type of the latter. The Canaanites were exceeding strong, and God’s people very feeble and defenceless, having no weapons of war, and were mightily oppressed by their enemies. So are things represented between God’s people and their enemies, before their glorious victory and deliverance under the Messiah, in places too many to be enumerated. This victory was obtained by a female. So the war under the Messiah against God’s enemies, is spoken of as maintained by the church, and the glorious victory obtained over them by her, who is spoken of almost every where by the prophecies as a woman or female, and is represented sometimes as such in prophecies of her battle and victory over her enemies. Mic. iv. 13. “Arise, thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shall beat in pieces many people.” Cant. vi. 13. “What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.” Cant. i. 9. “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.” Chap. vi. 4. ” Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.” Ver. 10. “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” And Deborah’s being a prophetess, well agrees with the church’s being endowed with such abundant measures of the Spirit of God at the time of the church’s glorious victory over her enemies, and all her members becoming as it were prophets agreeably to the prophecies. The assistance given by Jael, another woman, the wife of Heber the Kenite, a Gentile, who slew Sisera, the captain of the host, and so is said to be blessed among women, well represents the assistance of the Gentile church in the victory over God’s enemies in the Messiah’s days. Deborah tells Barak The Lord is gone out before thee;” which is agreeable to Isa. xlii. 13. “The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy as a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his enemies;” and many other places in the prophecies. The work of God in that victory of Israel is spoken of as parallel with those things that are represented in expressions very much like those used in the prophecies to represent what shall come to pass in the time of the church’s victory over her enemies under the Messiah; such as going out of Seir, his marching out of the field of Edom, and the earth trembling, and heaven as it were dissolving and dropping, and mountains melting. Judges v. 45. See Isa. xxxiv. 4-6.and xxiv. 18-21. and lxiii. 1-6. and lxiv. 1-4. The work of God in this victory is compared to God’s great work towards Israel, at their coming out of Egypt, and in the wilderness, just as the glorious victory of the Messiah is in the Ps. 68th Psalm, almost in the same words, (compare Judges v. 4, 5,. with Psalm lxviii. 7, 8.) which is a clear evidence that this victory is a great image of that. For those things that agree in a third thing, agree among themselves. There was a plentiful shower at the time of that victory, that swelled the brook Kishon, as is 656manifest from Judg. v. 4. and ver. 20, 21. So at the time of the great victory of the church over her enemies under the Messiah, there will be an abundant outpouring of the Spirit, which is often represented in the prophets as a plentiful and very great shower of rain. And these spiritual showers are in the 68th Psalm. compared to the very same showers on Israel that this is. So the effects produced in the time of the Messiah’s victories are compared to the mountains melting, in Isa. lxiv. 1-4. as the effect of this victory is, Judg. v. 5. and both compared to the same effects at mount Sinai. Barak, on this occasion, is called upon to lead captivity captive, Judg. v. 12. in the very same expressions that are used concerning the Messiah, concerning his triumph over his enemies, Ps. lxviii. 18. It is a remnant of Israel that is spoken of as having the benefit of this salvation, Judg. v. 13. as it is a remnant that is often spoken of as having the benefit of the Messiah’s salvation. Isa. iv. 3. Chap. vii. 3. x. 21, 22. xi. 11-16. Jer. xxiii. 3. Joel ii. 32. Mic. ii. 12. and iv. 7. and v. 3. vii. 8. and vii. 18. Zeph. iii. 13. Zech. viii. 12. It is said of the remnant of Israel in Deborah’s time, Judg. v. 13. “Then he made him that remaineth to have dominion over the nobles among the people: the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty,” agreeably to the honour of the saints in the Messiah’s times, spoken of Psal. cxlix. 6,. &c. “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. This honour have all the saints.” And what is said, Isa. xlix. 23. of kings licking up the dust of the church’s feet. The angels of heaven are represented as fighting in this battle, Judg. v. 20. as they are in the battle of God’s people under the Messiah, Psal. lxviii. “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.” Cant. vi. 13. “The company of two armies,” compared with Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. The enemies of Israel in Deborah’s battle were swept away with a flood, Judg. v. 21. See Dan. ix. 26. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. Isa. xxviii. 17. The church, on occasion of Deborah’s victory, triumphs thus: 536536 Judges v.21 “O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.” This is agreeable to Isa. xxvi. 7. Chap. xlix. 23. Zech. x. 5. Ps. lxviii. 23. Mic. vii. 10. Ps. xlvii. 3. and cx. 1. Isa. lx. 14. Ps. lviii. 10.
The great agreement there also is between the story of Gideon’s victory over the Midianites, and things spoken in the prophecies concerning the Messiah, is an argument that the former is typical of the latter. Gideon brought Israel out of the wilderness, and from the caves, rocks, and mountains, where they had had their abode. Judg. vi. 2. This agrees with Psal. lxviii. 22. “The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan!” And lxxxix. 12. “Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.” Hos. ii. 14. “I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her.” Ezek. xx. 35,. &c. “I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” Isa. xlii. 11. “Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice let the inhabitants of the rock sing: let them shout from the tops of the mountains.” Cant. ii. 14. “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock let me see thy face.” And Jer. xvi. 16. “I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks:” taken with the two foregoing verses, and ver. 19, 20, and 21,. following. Isa. xlii. 7. “To bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness, out of the prison-house.” Ver. 22,. &c. “This is a people robbed and spoiled, they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? He hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, fear not, for I have redeemed thee.” Compare this with Judg. vi. 2-6. “The children of Israel made them dens which are in the mountains, and caves and strong holds. And they destroyed the increase of the earth, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass and Israel was greatly impoverished.”
God, agreeably to some of these and other prophecies of the times of the Messiah, first pleaded with Israel concerning their sin, and brought them to cry earnestly to him, before he delivered them by Gideon. Judg. vi. 6-10. God did not send them deliverance till they were brought to extremity. Agreeably to Deut. xxxii. 36, 37. and many other prophecies.
The enemies of Israel, that sought their destruction, that Gideon overcame, were an innumerable multitude, and many nations associated and combined together; agreeably to many prophecies of the victory and salvation of the Messiah. Gideon was appointed “to the office of a saviour and deliverer of God’s people by the sovereign election and special designation of God; agreeably to many prophecies of the Messiah. He was endued with might, and upheld and strengthened immediately from God, and by the Spirit of God and the spirit or might resting upon him. Judg. vi. 14-16, 34. Agreeably to many prophecies of the Messiah. Gideon was as it were a root out of a dry ground, of a poor family, and the least in his father’s house; a low tree, without form or comeliness. Judg. vi. 15. Agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah. Gideon was not only the captain of the host of Israel, but was immediately appointed of God to be a priest to build the altar of God, and to offer sacrifice to God, to make atonement for that iniquity of Israel that had brought that sore judgment upon them, that he came to deliver them from. Judg. vi. 20-28. And he offered a sacrifice acceptable unto God, and of which God gave special testimony of his acceptance, by consuming his sacrifice by fire immediately enkindled from heaven. Ver. 21. And his sacrifice procured reconciliation and peace for Israel, ver. 24. These things are exactly agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah. Gideon destroyed idols, abolished their worship, threw down their altars, and set up the worship of the true God. At this time that Gideon overthrew the idols and their worship, those idols and their worshippers were solemnly challenged to plead and make good their own cause. Judg. vi. 31-33. Agreeably to Isa. xli. 1-7. and 21-29. Gideon drank of the brook in the way, and was so prepared for the battle, and obtained a glorious conquest over the kings and the heads of many countries, and filled the place with the dead bodies, agreeably to Psal. cx. 5-7. “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath: he shall judge among the heathen: he shall fill the places with the dead bodies: he shall wound the heads over many countries: he shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.” The company with Gideon was a small remnant, that was left after most of the people departed. So is the company represented that shall obtain victory over their enemies in the Messiah’s times. Isa. x. 20,. &c. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea; yet a remnant shall return. Therefore thus saith the Lord, O my people, be not afraid of the Assyrian For the Lord shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian.” Mic. v. 8, 9. “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forests, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.” Gideon’s company, with which he overcame his mighty enemies, were not only small but weak, and without weapons of war. Agreeably to this is Isa. xli. 14,. &c. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men (or few men, as it is in the margin) of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff,” &c. And Mic. iv. 7. “I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off, a strong nation;” with verse 13. “Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people,” &c. Zeph. iii. 12. “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they 657shall trust in the name of the Lord.” Ver. 16, 17. “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack, or faint” (as it is in the margin). “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save.” Ver. 19. “Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee, and I will save her that halteth,” &c. The representation of a cake of barley bread tumbling into the host of Midian, and coming unto a tent, and smiting it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along, signifying Gideon’s destroying the host of Midian, Judg. v. 13. is not unlike that in Daniel ii.of a stone cut out of the mountains without hands smiting the image and breaking it all in pieces, that it all became as the chaff of the summer threshing floor. Gideon and his company overcame and destroyed the mighty host of their enemies, without any other weapons than trumpets and lamps. This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah, which show that the weapons by which he should overcome his enemies, should not be carnal but spiritual, and particularly that it should be by the preaching of the word. Ps. cx. 2. “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies:” together with Isa. xi. 4. “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Isa. xlix. 2. “And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.” The word of God is in the Old Testament compared to a lamp and a light. Prov. vi. 23. “For the commandment is a lamp and the law is a light.” Ps. cxix. 105. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path;” and particularly it is so represented in the prophecies of the Messiah’s times. Isa. li. 4. “A law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.” So preaching the word in the Old Testament is compared to blowing a trumpet. Isa. lviii. 1. “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet: show my people their transgression.” Ezek. xxxiii. 2, 3,. &c. “If the people take a man and set him for their watchman; if he blow the trumpet, and warn the people,” &c. Particularly it is so represented in the prophecies of the Messiah’s times. Isa. xxvii. 13. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come that were ready to perish,” &c. Ps. lxxxix. 15. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.” God destroyed the host of Midian by setting every man’s sword against his fellow. Agreeably to this is Hag. ii. 22. “And the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” Ezek. xxxviii. 14. “Every man’s sword shall be against his brother.” Gideon led captivity captive, agreeably to Ps. lxviii. He led those kings and princes in chains that before had taken them captives; agreeably to Ps. cxlix. 7-9. “To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people: to bind their kings in chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron: to execute upon them the judgment written. This honour have all the saints.”
There is a no less remarkable agreement between the things said of Samson in his history, and the things said of the Messiah in the prophecies of him. His name Samson signifies Little Sun, well agreeing with a type of the Messiah, that Great Sun of righteousness, so often compared in the prophecies to the sun. The antitype is far greater than the type, as being its end. Therefore, when the type is called by the name of the antitype, it is fitly with a diminutive termination. Samson and other saviours under the Old Testament, that were types of the great Saviour, were but little saviours. The prophets, priests, kings, captains, and deliverers of the Old Testament, were indeed images of the great light of the church and the world that was to follow. But they were but images: they were little lights, that shone during the night. But when Christ came, the great light arose and introduced the day. Samson’s birth was miraculous; it was a great wonder in his case, that a woman should “compass a man,” as the prophecies represent it to be in the case of the birth of the Messiah. Samson was raised up to be a saviour to God’s people from their enemies, agreeably to prophetical representations of the Messiah. Samson was appointed to this great work by God’s special election and designation, and that in an eminent and extraordinary way, agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah. Samson was a Nazarite from the womb. The word Nazarite signifies separated. This denotes holiness and purity. The Nazarite was, with very great and extraordinary care and strictness indeed, to abstain from the least legal defilement; as appears by Num. vi. 6. and the reason is given in the 8th verse. “All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord:” and with the utmost strictness he was to abstain from wine and strong drink, and every thing that appertained in any respect to the fruit of the vine; wine being the liquor that was especially the object of the carnal appetites of men. And he was to suffer no razor to come upon his head, any way to alter what he was by nature, because that would defile it, as the lifting up a tool to hew the stones of the altar would defile it. The design of those institutions concerning the Nazarite, about his hair and about wine, is declared, Num. vi. 5. “He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair grow.” This sanctity of the Nazarite representing a perfect holiness both negative and positive, is spoken of in Lam. iv. 7. “Her Nazarites were purer than snow: they were whiter than milk: they were more ruddy in body than rubies: their polishing was of sapphire.” Therefore Samson’s being a Nazarite from the womb, remarkably represents that perfect innocence and purity, and transcendent holiness of nature and life in the Messiah, which the prophecies often speak of. The great things that Samson wrought for the deliverance of Israel and the overthrow of their enemies, was not by any natural strength of his, but by the special influence and extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of God, Judg. xiii. 25. and xiv. 6, 19. and xv. 14. xvi. 20. agreeably to many prophecies I have already observed of the Messiah’s being anointed and filled with God’s Spirit, and being upheld, and helped, and strengthened, and succeeded by God. Samson married a Philistine, and all the women that he loved were of that people that were his great enemies. Agreeably to those prophecies that represent the Messiah as marrying an alien from the commonwealth of Israel: as Ps. xlv.: and his marrying one that was the daughter of the accursed people of Canaan, Ezek. xvi. 3, 8,. &c. together with the latter end of the chapter, and the many prophecies that speak of Christ’s calling the Gentiles and his saving sinners. Samson was a person of exceeding great strength; herein he is like the Messiah, as he is represented, Ps. lxxxix. 19. “I have laid help on one that is mighty.” Ps. xlv. 3. “Gird on thy sword on thy thigh, O most mighty, in thy glory and in thy majesty.” Isa. lxiii. 1. “Who is this travelling in the greatness of his strength?” When Samson was going to take his wife, a young lion roared against him. So the enemies of the Messiah and his people are compared to a lion roaring upon him, gaping with his mouth ready to devour him. Ps. xxii. 13. “They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.” Ver. 21. “Save me from the lion’s mouth.” Samson rent the lion as the lion would have rent the kid; which is agreeable to the prophecies which represent the Messiah destroying his enemies as a strong lion devouring his prey. Gen. xlix. 9,. &c. and the many prophecies that speak of his punishing leviathan with his great, and sore, and strong sword, his mightily and dreadfully destroying his enemies, treading them down as the mire, treading them in his anger and trampling them in his fury, sprinkling his raiment with their blood, &c. Samson is fed with honey out of the carcass of the lion, which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the glorious benefits of the Messiah’s conquest over his enemies, to himself and his people, his own ascension, glory, and kingdom, and the glory of his people. Samson made a feast on occasion of his marriage, which is agreeable to Isa. xxv. 6. “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things; a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow; of wines on the lees well refined.” Isa. lxv. 13, 14. “My servants shall eat my servants shall drink my servants shall rejoice my servants shall sing for joy of heart;” and innumerable prophecies that speak of the great plenty and joy of God’s people in the Messiah’s times; and this accompanying the Messiah’s marriage with his spiritual spouse. See Isa. lxii. 4, 5, 7-9. and Hos. ii. 19-22. and Cant. ii. 4. and v. 1. When Samson visited his wife 658with a kid, he was rejected, and her younger sister, that was fairer than she, given to him; Judg. xv. 2. Which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the Messiah’s coming to the Jews first, when he was offered up as a lamb or kid, and making the first offer of the glorious benefits of his sacrifice to them, and their rejecting him, and the calling of the Gentiles, and the more glorious and beautiful state of the Gentile church than of the ancient Jewish church. In Judg. xvi. 1, 2. we have an account how Samson loved a harlot, and from his love to her exposed himself to be compassed round by his enemies. So the prophecies represent the Messiah as loving a sinful people, and from love seeking such a people to be his spouse, as that which occasions his suffering from his enemies. Isa. liii. taken with the following chapter. Samson, while his enemies are compassing him round, to destroy him, rises from sleep, and from midnight darkness, and takes away the strength and fortification of the city of his enemies, the gate of the city, which his enemies shut and barred fast upon him to confine him, and the two posts, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill. Judg. xvi. 3. So the prophecies represent the Messiah, when compassed round by his enemies, rising from the sleep of death, and emerging out of the thick darkness of his sorrows and sufferings, spoiling his enemies, and ascending into heaven, and leading captivity captive. Samson was betrayed and sold by Delilah, his false spouse or companion. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as sold by his false and treacherous people. Samson was delivered up into the hands of his enemies, and was mocked and derided, and very cruelly treated by them; agreeably to what is foretold of the Messiah. Samson died partly through the cruelty and murderous malice of his enemies, and partly from his own act: agreeably to what is foretold of the Messiah. Ibid. § 51, 58, 59, 72. Samson at his death destroyed his enemies, and the destruction he made of his enemies was chiefly at his death; which is agreeable to Isa. liii. 10-12. and Psal. lxviii. 18. Samson overthrew the temple of Dagon, which is agreeable to what the prophecies say of the Messiah’s overthrowing idols and idol worship in the world. Samson destroyed his enemies suddenly in the midst of their triumph over him, so that their insulting him in the prospect of his destruction, instantly issues in their own destruction; agreeably to Isa. xxix. 5-8.
There is a yet more remarkable, manifest, and manifold agreement between the things said of David in his history, and the things said of the Messiah in the prophecies. His name David signifies beloved, as the prophecies do represent the Messiah as in a peculiar and transcendent manner the beloved of God. David was God’s elect in an eminent manner. Saul was the king whom the people chose. 1 Sam. viii. 18. and xii. 13. But David was the king whom God chose, one whom he found and pitched upon according to his own mind, without any concern of man in the affair, and contrary to what men would have chosen. When Jesse caused all his elder sons to pass before Samuel, God said concerning one and another of them, 537537 1 Sam xvi. 10 “The Lord hath not chosen this; neither hath the Lord chosen this,” &c. See 1 Chron. xxviii. 4. There David says, “The Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father, to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel.” See Psal. lxxviii. 67-70. and lxxxix. 3. “I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant;” agreeably to Isa. xlii. 1. “Mine elect,” &c. 49. “And he shall choose thee.” He was a king of God’s finding and providing, and he speaks of him as his king. 1 Sam. xvi. 1. “I will send thee to Jesse for I have provided me a king among his sons.” 2 Sam. xxii. 51. “He is the tower of salvation for his king.” Agreeably to Psal. ii. “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” He is spoken of as a man after God’s own heart, and one in whom God delighted. 2 Sam. xxii. 20. “He delivered me because he delighted in me;” agreeably to Isa. xlii. 1. “Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.” David was in a very eminent manner God’s anointed, or Messiah, (as the word is,) and is so spoken of, Psal. xxii. 51. “He showeth mercy to his anointed, unto David;” and xxiii. 1. “David, the son of Jesse; the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob.” Psal. lxxxix. 19, 20. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him.” Samuel anointed him with peculiar solemnity. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. See how this agrees with the prophecies of the Messiah. David’s anointing remarkably agrees with what the prophecies say of the anointing of the Messiah, which speak of him as a being anointed with the Spirit of God. So David was anointed with the Spirit of God, at the same time that he was anointed with oil. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. “And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” David is spoken of as being a poor man, of a low family, and in mean circumstances. 1 Sam. xviii. 23. “I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed.”2 Sam. vii. 18. “Who am I? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” Agreeably to this, it is said of the Messiah in the prophecies, that he was a root out of a dry ground, that he was a low tree. David is spoken of as an eminently holy person, a man after God’s own heart. He is spoken of in the history of the kings of Judah, as one whose heart was perfect with the Lord his God; 1 Kings xi. 4.; one that went fully after the Lord; 1 Kings xi. 6.; one that did that that was right in the eyes of the Lord. 1 Kings xv. 11. 2 Kings xviii. 3. 2 Chron. xxviii. 1. and xxix. 2. He is spoken of as pure, upright, and righteous; one that had clean hands; that kept the ways of the Lord, and did not wickedly depart from God; 2 Sam. xxii. 21-27. This agrees with what is said in the prophecies of the Messiah. David was the youngest son of Jesse; as the Messiah in the prophecies is spoken of as coming in the latter days. He has frequently the appellation of God’s servant. It would be endless to mention all the places; see them in the Concordance under the word servant David. So has the Messiah often this appellation in the prophecies. Isa. xlii. 1-19. xlix. 3-6. lii. 13. liii. 11. Zech. iii. 8. David’s outward appearance was not such as would have recommended him to the esteem and choice of men, as a person fit for rule and victory, but, on the contrary, such as tended to cause men to despise him as a candidate for such things; 1 Sam. xvi. 7. “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature for man looketh on the outward appearance; but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Sam. xxii. 42. “And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth.” Ver. 56. “Inquire whose son the stripling is.” Eliab, his elder brother, thought him fitter to be with the sheep, than to come to the army. 1 Sam. xvii. 28. Agreeably to Isa. liii. 2. “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” David appeared unexpectedly. Samuel expected a man of great stature, and appearing outwardly like a man of valour; and therefore when he saw Eliab, David’s elder brother, that had such an appearance, he said, surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. His appearance was astonishing to Goliath and to Saul. So the prophecies represent the Messiah’s appearance as unexpected and astonishing, being so mean. Isa. xlii. 14. “Many were astonished at thee. His visage was so marred more than any man.” But yet David was ruddy and of a fair countenance, and goodly to look to. 1 Sam. xvi. 12. xvii. 42. agreeable to Psalm xlv. 2. “Thou art fairer than the children of men.” Cant. v. 10. “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousands.” He was anointed king after offering sacrifice. 1 Sam. xvi. So the prophecies represent the Messiah’s exaltation to his kingdom, after he had by his sufferings offered up a sacrifice to atone for the sins of men. David says of himself, 1 Chron. xxviii. 14. “The Lord God of Israel chose me to be king over Israel for ever.” And God says to him, 2 Sam. vii. 16. “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee. Thy throne shall be established for ever.” This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah. David, by occupation, was a shepherd, and afterwards was made a shepherd to God’s Israel. Ps. lxxviii. 70-72. “He chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes great with young. He brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.” This is agreeable to many prophecies of the Messiah, who is often spoken of in them as the shepherd of God’s people, and therein is expressly compared to David. Isa. xl. 11. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.” Isa. xlix. 9, 10. “They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them; by the springs of water shall he guide them.” Jer. xxiii. 4, 5. “And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them I will raise up unto David a righteous branch,” &c. Ezek. xxxiv. 23. “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; even my servant David: he shall feed them, and shall be their shepherd.” Ezek. xxxvii. 24. “And David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd.” Cant. i. 7. “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.” David was of an humble, meek, and merciful spirit. 1 Sam. xviii.23. 2 Sam.vi.21, 22. vii.18. 1 Sam. xxiv. throughout, and xxvi. throughout; 2 Sam. ii. 5, 21. and iv. 9,. &c. vii. 18. 2 Sam. xxii. 26. and many places in the Psalms show the same spirit, too many to be mentioned. This is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah, Zech. ix. 9. “He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on an ass, and a colt the fool of an ass.” Isa. xlii. 3. “A bruised reed shall he not break,” &c. Isa. xl. 11. “He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isa. liii. 7. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” David was a person that was eminent for wisdom and prudence. 1 Sam. xvi. 18. “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse prudent in matters.” And xviii. 5. “And David behaved himself wisely.” Ver. 14. “And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways.” Ver. 30. “David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul.” Ps. lxxviii. 72. “He guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.” This is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah, Isa. ix. 6. Chap. xi. 2, 3. xli. two last verses, with xlii. 1. lii. 13. Zech. iii. 9. David is said to be “a mighty valiant man.” 1 Sam. xvi. 18. “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, a mighty valiant man.” This is agreeable to Ps. xlv. 3. “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory, and thy majesty.” Isa. lxiii. 1. “Who is this travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” And in this very thing the Messiah is compared to David. Ps. lxxxix. 19, 20. “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have found David my servant.” David was a sweet musician; was preferred as such to all that were to be found in Israel, to relieve Saul in his melancholy. He is called “the sweet Psalmist of Israel.” 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. He led the whole church of Israel in their praises. He instituted the order of singers and musicians in the house of God. He delivered to the church the book of songs they were to use in their ordinary public worship. This is most agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah, which do every where represent, that he should introduce the most pleasant, joyful, glorious state of the church, wherein they should abound in the praises of God, and the world be filled with sweet and joyful songs after sorrow and weeping; wherein songs should be heard from the uttermost ends of the earth, and all nations should sing, and the mountains and trees of the field, and all creatures, sun, moon, and stars, heaven and earth, should break forth into singing, and even the dead should awake and sing, and the lower parts of the earth should shout, and the tongue of the dumb should sing, and the dragons and all deeps; the barren, the prisoners, the desolate, and mourners should sing; and all nations should come and sing in the height of Zion; they should sing aloud, and sing a new song, or in a new manner, with music and praises exalting all that had been before. The particular texts are too many to enumerate. The patriarch from whom Christ descended, for this reason is called Judah, i. e. Praise: and the Messiah is represented as leading the church of God in their sweet and joyful songs. Ps. xxii. 22. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Ver. 25. “My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation.” Ps. lxix. 30-32. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. The humble shall see this and be glad.” Ver. 34. “Let the heaven and the earth praise him, the seas and every thing that moveth therein.” See also Ps. cxxxviii. 1-5. We read in Ps. lxxxix. 15. of the joyful sound that shall be at that time; and the day of the Messiah’s kingdom is compared to the spring, the time of the singing of birds. Cant. ii. David slew a lion and a bear, and delivered a lamb out of their mouths. So the enemies of the Messiah and of his people are in the prophecies compared to a lion, as was observed before. So the prophetical representations made of God’s people that are delivered by the Messiah, well agree with a symbol of a lamb. The prophecies represent them as feeble, poor, and defenceless in themselves, and as meek and harmless. Ps. xlv. 4. and xxii. 26. lxix. 32. cxlvii. 6. and cxlix. 4. Isa. xi. 4. xxix. 19. and lxi. 1. David comes to the camp of Israel, to save them from Goliath and the Philistines, just at a time when they were in special and immediate danger; when the host were going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle. So the Messiah in the prophecies is represented as appearing to save his people at the time of their extremity. So God appeared for the redemption of his people out of Egypt. But Balaam prophesying of the redemption of the Messiah, Numb. xxiii. 23. says, according to this time shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? This is also agreeable to that prophecy of the deliverance of God’s people in the Messiah’s times; Deut. xxxii. 36. “The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.” So Ps. xiv. and liii. and xxi. 11, 12. and xlvi. and lviii. 7,. to the end; and lx. and cxviii. 10,. to the end; and xxviii. 21,22.; and xxix. 5-8.; and xxx.27-30.; xxxi.4-5. xl. the latter end, and xli. throughout, xlii. at the beginning, li. 7. to the end, and many other places. David was hated and envied by his brethren, and misused by them, when he came to them on a kind errand from his father, to bring them provision. Herein he resembled the Messiah as Joseph did. David kills Goliath, who, in his huge stature, great strength, mighty army, and exceeding pride, much resembled the devil, according to the representations of the devil in the prophecies of the Messiah’s conquest and destruction of him; who is called Leviathan, (Isa. xxvii. 1.) which in the Old Testament is represented as a huge and terrible creature of vast strength and impenetrable armour, disdaining the weapons and strength of his enemies, and the king over all the children of pride; Job xli. David went against Goliath without carnal weapons. David prevailed against Goliath with a sling and a stone, which is agreeable to Zech. ix. 15. “The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with sling-stones.” David, when going against Goliath, took strength out of the brook in the way, agreeable to that concerning the Messiah, Ps. cx. 6, 7. “He shall fill the places with the dead bodies: he shall wound the heads over many countries: he shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head.” David cut off the head of the Philistine with his own sword. So it may be clearly gathered from what the prophecies say of the Messiah’s sufferings, and that from the cruelty of his enemies, and the consequences of them with respect to his exaltation and victory over his enemies, that the Messiah shall destroy Satan with his own weapons. David carried the head of Goliath to Jerusalem: which is agreeable to what is foretold of the Messiah, Psal. lxviii. 18. “Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity captive;” together with the context. David put Goliath’s armour in his tent: which is agreeable to Psal. lxxvi. 2, 3. “In Salem is his tabernacle, (or tent,) and his dwelling-place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle.” When Saul saw David returning from his victory, he says repeatedly with great admiration concerning him, “Whose son is this youth?” 1 Sam. xvii. 55. “Inquire whose son this stripling is;” ver. 56. “Whose son art thou?” ver. 58. agreeably to Psal. xxviii. 8. “Who is this king of glory?” Again, ver. 10. and Isa. lxiii. 1. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosrah? This that is glorious in his apparel,” &c. The daughters of Israel went forth to meet king David, and sang praises to him when he returned from the slaughter of the Philistine; agreeably to Psal. xxiv. and lxviii. and many other places. David obtained his wife by exposing his life in battle with the Philistines, and in destroying them: agreeably to what is prophesied of the Messiah’s sufferings and death, his conflict with and victory over his enemies, and his redemption of his church by this means, and the consequent joy of his espousals with the church.
David was a great saviour. He saved Israel from Goliath, and the Philistines, and from all their enemies round about. 2 Sam. iii. 18. “The Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David will I save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies”; agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah. David was greatly persecuted, and his life sought unjustly; agreeably to prophecies of the Messiah. David’s marriage with Abigail, the wife of a son of Belial, a virtuous woman, and of a beautiful countenance, is agreeable to the innumerable prophecies that represent the church of the Messiah, that the prophecies speak of as his spouse, as brought into that happy state from a state of guilt and bondage to sin. David was resorted to by every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was bitter of soul, and he became their captain; which is agreeable to innumerable prophecies that represent the Messiah as the Captain and Saviour of the poor, afflicted, distressed sinners and prisoners, &c. David’s host is compared to the host of God, 1 Chron. xii. 22. which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the divinity of the Messiah, and God’s people in his times, and under him becoming as an host of mighty valiant men, that shall thresh the mountains, and tread down their enemies, &c. David, as it were raised from the dead, was wonderfully delivered from death, when from great danger he was brought back from the wilderness, and from banishment, and from caves of the earth that resembled the grave; (Psal.xxx. 3. “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave;”) which is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah’s restoration from his low and suffering state and resurrection from death. David was made king over the strong city Hebron, that had been taken from the Anakims, the gigantic enemies of God’s people: which is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah’s conquering the strong city, bringing low the lofty city, conquering the devil, and taking possession of the mightiest and strongest kingdoms of the world. David’s followers that came to him to make him king, were men of understanding, mighty men of valour, and men of a perfect heart: 1 Chron. xii.: which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the followers of the Messiah. David was made king by the act and choice both of God and his people. 1 Chron. xi. 1-3. and xii. 2 Sam. ii. 4. v. 1. &c. This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah. Hos. i. 11. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head.” David was made king with great feasting and rejoicing, 1 Chron. xii. 39, 40. which is agreeable to what the prophecies do abundantly represent of the joy of the introduction of the Messiah’s kingdom. David was the first king of Jerusalem, that city so often spoken of in the prophecies as a type of the church of the Messiah. David insulted the idols as lame and blind, and destroyed them. 2 Sam. v. 21. Agreeable to § 132-135, 153. David conquered the strongest hold of the Jebusites and reigned there. See what was said before concerning his reigning in Hebron. He rescued Zion from the strong possession of idols, and the enemies of God’s people, and reigned in mount Zion: agreeable to innumerable prophecies of the Messiah. David’s kingdom gradually increased from small beginnings till he had subdued all his enemies. It was first in David’s time, that God chose him a place to put his name there. Through him God made Jerusalem his holy city, and the place of his special gracious residence: agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah. Psal. cxxxii. 13,. &c. Zech. i.17. and ii. 12. and Isa. xiv. 1. David provided a settled habitation for God, and God is represented as through his favour to David taking up a settled abode with them, no more walking in a movable tent and tabernacle that might be taken down, and giving Israel a constant abode, that they might no more be afflicted, and carried into captivity; 2 Sam. vii. 6, 10, 24.; according to many prophecies of the Messiah. David provided a place for God’s habitation in Zion and in mount Moriah; agreeably to Zech. vi. 12. “He shall build the temple of the Lord.” David brought up the ark to abide in the midst of God’s people; after it had departed into the land of the Philistines, and had long remained in the utmost confines of the land, in Kirjath-jearim: which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the benefit which the people of God in the Messiah’s days shall receive, in the return of the tokens of God’s presence to them, after long absence, and his placing his tabernacle in the midst of them, and his soul’s no more abhorring them. David ascended into the hill of the Lord with the ark, at the head of all Israel, rejoicing, and gave gifts to men. 2 Sam. vi. But this is agreeable to what is said of the ascension of the Messiah. Psal. lxviii. David ascended with the ark wherein was the law of God; as the Messiah ascended with that human nature that was the cabinet of the law. David after he had ascended returned to bless his household, as the Messiah especially blessed his church after his ascension. But Michal his first wife despised his abasement, and received no part in this blessing, but was as it were repudiated; as the prophecies do represent the Jews, as despising the Messiah for his humiliation, and so, as not receiving the benefits and blessing that he should bestow after his ascension, but as being repudiated. When David came to the crown, God broke forth on his enemies, as the breach of water, and in a dreadful storm of thunder, fire, and hail. 2 Sam. v. 20. 1 Chron. xiv. 9. and Psalm xviii. which is agreeable to Isa. xxiv. 18-20. Dan. ix. 26. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. Isa. xxx. 30. xxxii. 19. Yea, the destruction of the enemies of God’s people, in the days of the Messiah, is expressly compared to that very breaking forth of God on the enemies of David; Isa. xxviii. 21. “For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim.” The king of Tyre (that was, above all others in the world, a city noted for merchandise and seafaring) built David a house. 2 Sam. v. 11. 1 Chron. xiv. 1. David was not only a king, but a great prophet, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. and also was a priest. He officiated as such on occasion of the bringing in of the ark. 2 Sam. vi. 13-18. 1 Chron. xv. 27. Again he officiated as such, 2 Sam. xxvii. 17,. to the end, and 1 Chron. xvi. 21,. &c. And in some respects he officiated as chief in all sacerdotal matters, ordering all things in the house of God, directing and ordering the priests in things relating to their function, disposing them into courses, &c. So the prophecies do abundantly represent the Messiah as prophet, priest, and king. David is spoken of as the man that was raised up on high; which is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah in Psalm lxxxix. 19. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people;” and ver. 27. “I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.” Psalm xiv. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever;” and Psalm cx. “Sit thou on my right hand;” and innumerable other places. He is spoken of as eminently a just ruler, one that fed God’s people in the integrity of his heart and executed judgment and justice; 2 Sam. viii. 15. 1 Chron. xviii. 14. which is agreeable to that which is abundantly spoken of the Messiah, as the just Ruler over men; the King that shall reign in righteousness; he shall sit on the throne of his father David, to order and establish it with judgment and justice; the righteous branch that shall grow up to David, &c. God made David a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth. See also 2 Sam. vii. 9. viii. 13. agreeable to Isa. liii. 12. “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great.” The fame of David went out into all lands; the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations. 1 Chron. xiv. 17. Agreeable to Psal. xiv. 17. “I will make my name to be remembered.” Psal. lxxii. 11. “All nations shall serve him.” Ver. 17. “His name shall endure for ever;” and innumerable other places. David carried up the ark, clothed with a robe of fine 661linen; 1 Chron. xv. 27. agreeable to Isa. lxi. 10. “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness.” Zech. iii. 4. “Take away the filthy garments from him; and unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” See also Dan. x. 5. compared with 13, and 21. and xii. 1. God was with David whithersoever he went, and cut off all his enemies. 2 Sam. vii. 9. and viii. 6, 14. 1 Chron. xvii. 8, 10. xviii. 6, 13. 2 Sam. xxii. 1,. &c. agreeable to Psal. ii. and xlv. cx. lxxxix. and innumerable other places. David subdued all the remainder of the Canaanites, and the ancient inhabitants of the land, and so perfected what Joshua had began in giving the people the land. See what is said of Joshua as a type of the Messiah in this respect. David brought it to pass that the Canaanites and enemies of Israel should no longer dwell with them, as mixed among them in the same land. Joel iii. 17. “No stranger shall pass through thee any more.” Zech. xiv. 21. “In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord.” Psal. lxix. 35, 36. “For God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it, and they that love thy name shall dwell therein.” Isa. lxv. 9-11. “And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.” Isa. xxxv. 8. “An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it.” Ezek. xx. 38. “And I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me. I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.” David subdued the Philistines, and the Moabites and Ammonites, and the Edomites, agreeably to Isa. xi. 14. Num. xxiv. 17. Psal. lx. 8. and cviii. 9. Isa. xxv. 10. chap. xxxiv. and lxiii. Ezek. xxxv. xxxvi. 5. David’s kingdom reached from the river to the ends of the earth. 2 Sam. viii. 3. 2 Chron. xviii. 3. agreeable to Psal. lxxii. 8. Zech. ix. 10. David’s reign was a time of the destruction of giants; he slew all the remnant of the race of giants; 1 Sam. xvii. 2 Sam. xxi. 18,. to the end, and xxiii. 20, 21. 1 Chron. xx. 4,. to the end, and xi. 22, 23. agreeable to Isa. x. 33. “And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.” This seems (as I observed before) to be connected with the prophecy in the beginnings of the next chapter, next verse but one. Isa. xlv. 14. “The Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to thee: in chains shall they come over.” Psal. lxxvi. 5. “The stout-hearted are spoiled; they have slept their sleep.” David destroyed the chariots and houghed the horses of the enemies of God’s people. 2 Sam. viii. 4. x. 18. 1 Chron. xviii. 4. and xix. 7. agreeably to Psal. xlvi. 9. “He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the fire.” Psal. lxxvi. 3. “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Ver. 6. “At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.” See also Ezek. xxxix. 9, 10, 20. and Zech. xii. 3, 4. What David says, Psal. xviii. and 2 Sam. xxii. of the manner in which God appeared for him against his enemies, to destroy them in a terrible tempest with thunder, lightning, earthquake, devouring fire, &c. is agreeable to many things in the prophecies of the Messiah. See what has before been observed, when speaking of the deluge and destruction of Sodom, and the destruction of the Amorites in Joshua’s time. Other kings brought presents unto David and bowed down unto him. 2 Sam. v. 11. 1 Chron. xiv. 1. 2 Sam. viii. 2,10. 1 Chron. xviii. 10. 2 Sam. x. 19. 1 Chron. xxii. 4. agreeable to Psal. lxxii. 10, 11. xlv. 12. lxviii. 29. Isa. xlix. 7. and lx. 9.
The honour, dominion, and crown of David’s enemies was given unto him. 2 Sam. xii. 30. and 1 Chron. xx. 2. Ezek. xxi. 26, 27. “Thus saith the Lord, Remove the diadem and take off the crown; this shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high: perverted, perverted, perverted will I make it, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him.” David’s sons were princes. David’s sons were chief rulers or princes, as it is in the margin; agreeably to Psal. xlv. 16. “Instead of thy lathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.” David brought the wealth of the heathen into Jerusalem and dedicated it to God, and as it were built the temple with it. 2 Sam. viii. 11,12. 1 Chron. xviii. 11. and xxvi. 26, 27. and chap. xxii. throughout, and xxix.; agreeably to Mic. iv. 13. “Arise, thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.” Isa. xxiii. 17,18. “The Lord will visit Tyre and her merchandise and hire shall be holiness unto the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.” See also Isa. lx. 5, 6, 9, 11, 13. lxi. 6. and Zech. xiv. 14. David was a mediator; he stood between God and the people, both to keep off judgments and the punishment of sin, and also to procure God’s favour towards them. For his sake God granted his gracious presence and favour with Israel. 2 Sam. vii. 10. Thus we read of favour which God showed to Israel, and withholding judgments from time to time for his servant David’s sake. 1 Kings xi. 12, 13, 32, 34. xv. 4. 2 Kings viii. 19. xix. 34. and xx. 6. And he stood between God and the people of Jerusalem, when he saw the sword of justice drawn against it to destroy it. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17,. to the end. So the Messiah is spoken of as in like manner the Mediator; being himself peculiarly God’s elect and beloved, is given for a covenant of the people, Isa. xlii. 6. xlix. 8. and the messenger of the covenant, and a prophet like unto Moses, who was a mediator. And the prophecies speak of the forgiveness of sin, and the greatest mercy towards God’s people, and an everlasting covenant, and the pure mercies of David, as being through the Messiah.
David as mediator saved the people of Jerusalem from destruction, by offering himself to suffer and die by the sword of the destroying angel, and by building an altar and offering sacrifice; 2 Sam. xxiv. 17,. to the end, agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah.
David not only made a tabernacle for God in mount Zion, and so provided a habitation for the Lord, but he in effect built the temple. He bought the ground on which it was built, built an altar upon it, and made provision for the building of the temple. It was in his heart to build a house to God’s name, and he directed and ordered precisely how it should be built, and ordered all its services, 1 Chron. xxii. and xxiii. xxiv. xxv. xxvi.: agreeably to Zech. vi. 12, 13. Herein David was as the Messiah, a prophet like unto Moses, who built the tabernacle and the altar according to the pattern God gave him, (as he gave David the pattern of the tabernacle,) and gave the ordinances of the house, and ordered all things appertaining to the worship of the tabernacle. God by David gave to Israel new ordinances, a new law of worship, appointed many things that were not in the law of Moses, and some things that superseded the ordinances of Moses. This is agreeable to the things said of the Messiah. David made all manner of preparation for the building of the temple, and that in vast abundance; he laid up an immense treasure; 1 Chron. xxii. 14. xxviii. 14,. &c. xxix. 2,. &c. agreeably to Isa. xxv. 6. “And in this mountain shall the Lord make unto all people a feast of fat things,” &c. Isa. lv. 1-9. “Ho, every one that thirsteth,” &c. Hag. ii. 7. “I will fill this house with glory.” Jer. xxxiii. 6. “I will reveal unto them the abundance of truth and peace.” Isa. lxiv. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,” &c. Isa. lxvi. 12. “I will extend peace to her as a river.” Psal. lxxii. 3. “The mountains shall bring peace.” Ver. 7. “There shall be abundance of peace.” Amos ix. 13. “The mountains shall drop sweet wine.” Joel iii. 18. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Chittim.” And Isa. lx. throughout; besides the things which the prophecies say of the perfect satisfaction of God’s justice, by the sacrifice 662of the Messiah, and the abundance of his righteousness and excellency. David made such great provision for the building of the temple, in his trouble by war, and by exposing his own life, which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of Christ’s procuring the immense blessings of his church, by his extreme sufferings and precious blood. David was the head of God’s people, the prince of the congregation of Israel, not only in their civil affairs, but in ecclesiastical affairs also, and their leader in all things appertaining to religion and the worship of God. Herein he was as the Messiah is represented in the prophecies, which speak of him as a prophet like unto Moses, and as the head of God’s people, as their great king, prophet, and priest; and indeed almost all that the prophecies say of the Messiah, implies that he shall be the great head of God’s people in their religious concerns. David regulated the whole body of the people, and brought them into the most exact and beautiful order; 1 Chron. xxvii. which is agreeable to what is represented of the church in the Messiah’s days, as “beautiful for situation.”Psal. xlviii. 2. “The perfection of beauty.”Psal. 1. 2. 538538 Isa. lx. 15 “An eternal excellency, the joy of many generations.” And what is represented in Ezekiel of the exact measures and order of all parts of the temple, the city, and the whole land. David built the altar in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, on Gentile ground; which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the church of the Messiah being erected in Gentile lands, and being made up of those that had been sinners.
The things that are said of Solomon fall little, if any thing, short of those that are said of David, in their remarkable agreement with things said of the Messiah in the prophecies. His name Solomon, signifies peace or peaceable, and was given him by God himself, from respect to the signification, because he should enjoy peace, and be a means of peace to God’s people. 1 Chron. xxii. 9. “Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about. For his name shall be Solomon; and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.” This is agreeable to Isa. ix. 6, 7. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called The Prince of Peace: of the increase of his peace there shall be no end.” Psal. cx. “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec,” who as the apostle observes, was king of Salem, that is, king of peace. Psal. lxxii. 3. “The mountains shall bring peace unto the people.” Ver. 7. “In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” Psal. xxxv. 10. “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Isa. lii. 7. “How beautiful are the feet of him that publisheth peace.” Jer. xxxiii. 6. “I will reveal unto them the abundance of truth and peace:” and many other places. When Solomon was born it is said the Lord loved him. 1 Sam. xii. 24. And the prophet Nathan for this reason called him by the name Jedidiah; i. e. the beloved of the Lord. He is also spoken of as the beloved son of his father. Prov. iv. 3. “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.” Solomon was the son of a woman that had been the wife of a Hittite, a Gentile by nation; fitly denoting the honour that the prophecies represent, that the Gentiles should have by their relation to the Messiah. God made mention of Solomon’s name as one that was to be the great prince of Israel and means of their happiness from his mother’s womb; agreeably to Isa. xlix. 1. “The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.” God promised to establish the throne of Solomon for ever, in terms considerably like those used by the prophets concerning the kingdom of the Messiah. 2 Sam. vii. 12. “I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thine own bowels: and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” Also 1 Chron. xxii. 10. Isa. ix. 6, 7. “Of the increase of his government there shall be no end upon the throne of David and his kingdom to establish it from henceforth even for ever.” Psal. cx. “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec.” Dan. vii. 14. “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Solomon is spoken of as God’s son. 1 Chron. vii. 14. “I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10. “His name shall be Solomon he shall be my son, and I will be his father.” chap. xxviii. 6. “And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts. For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.” Solomon was in an eminent manner God’s elect. 1 Chron. xxviii. 5,6. “And of all my sons (for the Lord hath given me many sons) he hath chosen Solomon my son, to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And he said, Solomon thy son have I chosen to be my son.” chap. xxxix. 1. “David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen.” Though David had many sons, and many born before Solomon, yet Solomon was made his first-born, higher than all the rest, and his father’s heir and his brethren’s prince; agreeably to Psal. lxxxvii. 27. “I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.” Psal. xlv. 7. “Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The word which Nathan, the minister of the Lord, spake to Bathsheba, David’s wife, and Solomon’s mother, and the counsel he gave her, was the occasion of the introduction of the blissful and glorious reign of Solomon, 1 Kings i. 11-13. So the prophecies represent the preaching of God’s ministers as the means of introducing the glorious kingdom of the Messiah. Isa. lxii. 6, 7. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Chap. lii. 7, 8. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings! Thy watchmen shall lift the voice; with the voice together shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” This earnest incessant preaching of ministers shall be in the first place to the visible church of God, that is represented in the Old Testament both as the wife and mother of Christ. She is represented as his mother, Mic. iv. 10. “Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail;” with the next chapter, ver. 2, 3. “Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth.” Isa. ix. 6. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Cant. iii. 11. “Behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him.” Solomon’s father had solemnly promised, and covenanted, and sworn to Bathsheba long beforehand, that Solomon should reign and sit on his throne. So the sending of the Messiah and introducing the blessings of his reign, was the grand promise, covenant, and oath of God to his church of old, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in David’s and the prophets’ times. Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4. 35, 36. 2 Sam. xxii. 3-5. Jer. xxxiii. 17, to the end,. and many other places. The glorious reign of Solomon is introduced on the earnest petitions and pleadings of Bathsheba with his father. 1 Kings i. 15-21. So the prophecies often represent that the glorious peace and prosperity of the Messiah’s reign shall be given in answer to the earnest and importunate prayers of the church. Ezek. xxxvi. 37. “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” Jer. xxix. 11-14. Cant. ii. 14. Zech. xii. 10. Bathsheba pleads the king’s promise and covenant. So the church is often represented as waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promises with respect to the benefits of the Messiah’s kingdom. Gen. xlix. 18. Isa. viii. 17. and xxx. 18. xl. 31. and xlix. 23. Zeph. iii. 8. Isa. xxv. 9. xxvi. 8. and lxiv. 4. Solomon came to the crown after the people had set up a false heir, one that pretended to be the heir of David’s crown, and for a while seemed as though he would carry all before him. This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah, which represent that his kingdom shall be set upon the ruins of that of others, who should exalt themselves and assume the dominion. Ezek. xvii. 24. “I the Lord have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree,” &c. Ch. xxi. 26. “Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, take off the crown; this shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low; abase him that is high,”663 Ps. ii. “The kings of the earth set themselves; the rulers take counsel together, saying, Let us break their bands, &c. Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion.” Ps. cxviii. 22. “The stone which the builders refused, the same is become the head of the corner.” And particularly this is agreeable to what the prophet Daniel says of the reign of antichrist, that shall precede the glorious day of the Messiah’s reign, who shall set up himself in the room of the Most High, as law-giver in his room, shall think to change times and laws, whose reign shall continue till the Messiah comes to overthrow it, by setting up his glorious kingdom. When David understands the opposition that was made to Solomon’s reign by him that had usurped the kingdom, and by the rulers and great men that were with him, he solemnly declares his firm and immutable purpose and decree of exalting Solomon that day to his throne which was in mount Zion. 1 Kings i. 29, 30. agreeable to Ps. ii. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed; saying, Let us break their bands. Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Solomon was made king by a most solemn oath of his father, that he declares he will not repent of, but fulfil. 1 Kings xxix. 30. “And the king sware, and said, As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day.” Agreeable to Ps. cx. 4. “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec.” When the time came for Solomon to be proclaimed king, all the opposition and interest of his competitors, though very great, and of great men, (and though they seemed to have made their part strong, and to have got the day,) all vanished away as it were of itself, and came to nothing at once, like a dream when one awakes; agreeably to Ps. ii. “The Lord shall laugh at them. Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion.” Isa. xxix. 7, 8. “And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; and he awaketh, and his soul is empty,” &c. Ps. lxviii. 1, 2. “Let God arise; let his enemies be scattered; let them also that hate him flee before him, as smoke is driven away, as wax melteth before the fire.” Isa. lxiv. 1. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.” Dan. ii. 34, 35. “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away.” The followers of Adonijah were dispersed without any battle, only by what they heard and saw of what David had done in exalting Solomon, and the manner in which he was introduced and instated in the kingdom; which is agreeable to Ps. xlviii. 4-6. “For lo, the kings were assembled; they passed by together; they saw it, and so they marvelled. They were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail.” After David had declared the decree, that Solomon should be king in Zion, it was dangerous for the princes and rulers not to submit themselves to Solomon, and behave with suitable respect to him, lest he should be angry, and they should perish. Ps. ii. Solomon, in his way to the throne, is made as it were to drink of the brook. He first descended from the height of mount Zion down into a low valley without the city, to the water-course of Gihon. There he had a baptism to be baptized with. And then he ascended into the state and majesty of a king. Agreeable to Psalm cx. “He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head:” and the many prophecies that speak of his humiliation, and sufferings, and glorious exaltation consequent thereon. Solomon, after he had descended into the valley to the waters of Gihon, ascended up into the height of Zion in a manner resembling the ascension of the Messiah, very much after the same manner that the ascension of the ark resembled it. For he went up with the sound of the trumpet, all the people following him with songs, and instruments of music, and hosannas, rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth rent again. 1 Kings i. 39, 40. Agreeable to Psalm lxviii. and xlvii. 5. and xxiv. That the peaceful, happy, and glorious reign of Solomon should be introduced with such extraordinary joy, shouting, songs, and instruments of music in Zion, is agreeable to what is often foretold concerning the introduction of the glorious day of the Messiah’s reign. Zech. ix. 9. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” To the like purpose, chap. ii. 10. Isaiah xl. 9. and lii. 7-9. Psalm xcvi. 10,. &c. “Say among the heathen, the Lord reigneth; the world also shall be established, that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord:” and Psal. xcvii. 1, 8, 12. xcviii. 4. to the end, and c. 1, 2. Isaiah xlv. 23. xlix. 13. Isaiah lv. 12. and many other places. The great prosperity of Israel through the reign of Solomon was introduced with the sound of the trumpet. 1 Kings i. 34, 39. 1 Chron. xxix. 21, 22. Agreeable to Isaiah xxvii. 13. “The great trumpet shall be blown,” &c. Solomon was the Messiah or anointed in an eminent manner. He was anointed by the special direction both of David and of Nathan the prophet. 1 Kings i. 11, 34, 39. He was anointed with God’s holy anointing oil out of the tabernacle, verse 39. not only was Solomon anointed of God, but he was anointed also by the people. They made him king over them by their own act, 1 Chron. xxix. 22. agreeable to Hos. i. 11. “Then shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel, be gathered together, and appoint over them one head; and they shall come up out of the land. For great shall be the day of Jezreel.” David made Solomon to ride on his own mule, and he sat on his father’s throne, while David was yet living, and was king. His father solemnly invested him with his kingly authority; and himself gives him his charge. 1 Kings i. 30, 33, 35, 47, 48. ii. 12. 1 Chron. xxviii. xxix. This is agreeable to the account that is given of God the Father’s investing the Messiah with his dominion in Dan. vii. See also Zech. vi. 12,13. and Ezek. xlvi. 1, 2. with xliv. 2. Solomon is spoken of as not only sitting on the throne of his father David; but also as sitting on God’s throne, and reigning in some respect in God’s stead, as his vicegerent. 1 Chron. xxviii. 5. “The Lord hath chosen Solomon my son, to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.”. chap. xxxix. 23. “Then Solomon sat upon the throne of the Lord as king in stead of David his father.” 2 Chron. ix. 8. “Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to seat thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God.” So the prophecies do represent the Messiah, as sitting on the throne of David his father. Isa. ix. 7. “On the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it,” &c. Jer. xxxiii 17, 21. And also as sitting on the throne of God. Zech. vi. 13. “He shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne.” Also Dan. vii. 13, 14. and Psal. ii. “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Psal. cx. “Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Psal. xlv. 6. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever.” The beginning of Solomon’s reign was a remarkable time of vengeance on the wicked, and such as had been opposers or false friends of David and Solomon. Many such were then cut off. 1 Kings ii. So that it was as it were the righteous only that delighted themselves in that abundance of peace, and partook of the glory, prosperity, and triumph of God’s people, that was enjoyed in this feign, which is agreeable to Isa. lxi. 2. “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God:” lxv. 12,. &c. “Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter my servants shall eat; but ye shall be hungry,” &c. Chap. lxvi. 14-.16. “And the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his servants, and his indignation towards 664his enemies. For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and the slain of die Lord shall be many.” Isa. xxxiii. 14,. &c. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrite. He that walketh righteously shall dwell on high thine eye shall see the king in his beauty.” Mal. iv. 1-3. “All the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And ye shall tread down the wicked.” Ezek. xx. 38. “And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me.”. Psal. xxxvii. 9-11. “For evil-doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” And many other places. Solomon did not immediately cut off these rebels and transgressors; but gave them opportunity to enjoy the blessings of his reign with others, if they would turn from their evil way, and submit to him, and approve themselves worthy men and faithful subjects. But when they went on still in their transgressions he cut them off. Agreeable to what is foretold should be at the introduction of the glory of the Messiah’s reign, in Psal. lxviii. 18,. &c. ” Thou hast ascended on high thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loaded us with his benefits. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.” Solomon was a man of great and unparalleled wisdom. This is agreeable to Isa. ix. 6. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.” xi.2, 3. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.” Zech. iii. 9. “Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.” See also Isa. xli. two last verses, with xlii. 1. God was with Solomon and greatly established his throne. 1 Kings ii. 12. 2 Chron. i. 1. agreeable to Isa. ix. 7, 9. “Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.” Psal. lxxxix. 2, 3. “Mercy shall he build up for ever: thy faithfulness will thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen.” 20, 21. “With my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.” 36,37. “His throne shall endure as the sun before me: it shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.” Psal. ii. throughout. Psal. xlv. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” Psal. cx. “Sit thou at my right band, the Lord hath sworn,” &c. Isa. xlii. 1, 4. “Behold my servant whom I uphold he shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law.” And xlix. 8. “I have helped thee, and I will preserve thee, to establish the earth.” The Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any before him in Israel. 1 Chron. xxix. 25. 2 Chron. i. 1.; agreeable to Psal. xlv. 2,. &c. ” Thou art fairer than the children of men gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.” Ver. 6. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. Isa. ix. 6. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter, a stranger; agreeably to Psal. xlv. 10. “Hearken, O daughter, consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people,” &c. “She was the daughter of a king;” agreeably to Psal. xlv. 13. “The King’s daughter,” &c. a Gentile, agreeably to Hos. ii. 16. “Thou shalt call me Ishi,” (i. e. my husband.) Ver. 19, 20. “And I will betroth thee unto me.” Ver. 23. ” And I will have mercy upon her that hath not obtained mercy; and I will say unto them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God;” with innumerable other prophecies of the calling of the Gentiles. She was an Egyptian, and Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Agreeably to Psal. lxxxvii. 4. “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me.” Psal. lxviii. 31. “Princes shall come out of Egypt.” Isa. xix. 18, to the end. “In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and there shall be an altar unto the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and the Lord shall be known unto Egypt: and the Egyptians shall know the Lord and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed shall be Egypt my people.” Pharaoh’s daughter being an Egyptian, was of a swarthy complexion; agreeably to Cant. i. 5. “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.” We read of no person that ever offered such great sacrifices as Solomon did. 1 Kings iii. 4,. and viii. 5. 63, 64. 1 Kings ix. 25. This is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the Messiah, as the great priest of God, who by the sacrifices he should offer, should perfectly satisfy divine justice, and truly procure the favour of God for his people; his sacrifices being herein of greater value than thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, and all the beasts of the field. Solomon built the temple; agreeably to Zech. vi. 12, 13. He made the dwelling-place of God, that before was only a movable tent, to become a stable building, built on a rock or everlasting mountain; agreeably to Isa. xxxiii. 20. “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down: not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed; neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.” chap. xxviii. 16, 17. “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” Ezek. xxxvii. 26. “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore,” taken together with the prophetical description of that sanctuary in the fortieth and following chapters. Solomon’s temple and his other buildings in Jerusalem were exceeding stately and magnificent, so that he vastly increased the beauty and glory of the city. Isa. 1. 13. ” The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee. The fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will make the place of my feet glorious.” Ver. 15. “I will make thee an eternal excellency.” chap. liv. 11,12. “Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy windows of agates and the gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” The temple that Solomon built was exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory throughout all lands. 1 Chron. xxii. 5.; agreeably to Isa. ii. 2. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it.” See also Mic. iv. 1, 2. Isa. lx. at the beginning. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee; and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Solomon enlarged the place of sacrificing, so that sacrifices were not only offered on the altar, but all the middle part of the court was made use of for that end, by reason of the multitude of worshippers and the abundance of sacrifices. 1 Kings viii. 64. 2 Chron. vii. 7. which is agreeable to Jer. iii. 16, 17. “And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord,” &c. at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered unto the name of the Lord unto Jerusalem.” Mal. i. 10, 11. “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering:” and many other places. Solomon was a great intercessor for Israel, and by his intercession he obtained that God should forgive 665their sins, and hear their prayers, and pity them under their calamities, and deliver them from their enemies, and fulfil his promises, and supply all their necessities, that they might find mercy and find grace to help in a time of need, and that God might dwell with Israel, and take up his abode among them, as their king, saviour, and father. (2 Kings viii. 2 Chron. vi.) By his intercession and prayer he brought fire down from heaven, to consume their sacrifices; and obtained that God should come down in a cloud of glory to fill his temple. 2 Chron. vii. 1-3. 1 Kings viii. 54. His intercession was as it were continual, as though he ever lived to make intercession for his people, that they might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. See those remarkable words, 1 Kings viii. 59. Solomon was not only an intercessor for Israel, but for the stranger that was not of Israel, but came out of a far country for God’s name sake, when he should hear of his great name and great salvation. 1 Kings viii. 41-43. 2 Chron. vi. 32, 33. which is agreeable to what the prophecies do abundantly represent of the joint interest of the Gentiles in the utmost ends of the earth, with Israel in the Messiah, through hearing his great name, and the report of his salvation. Solomon prayed for all the people of the earth that they might know the true God. 1 Kings viii. 60. So the prophecies do abundantly show, that the Messiah should actually obtain this benefit for all nations of the world. Solomon did the part of a priest in blessing the congregation. 1 Kings viii. 14. 2 Chron. vi. 3. with Numb. vi. 23. which is agreeable to the prophecies which do represent the Messiah as a priest, and also to Gen. xxii. 18. “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” To the like purpose, chap. xii. 3. xviii. 18. and xxvi. 4. and Psal. lxxii. 17. “And men shall be blessed in him.” Solomon made a covenant with the king of Tyre, and the servants of the king of Tyre were associated with the servants of Solomon in the building of the temple: which is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah’s being a light to the Gentiles and covenant of the people; and the Gentiles being associated with the Jews and becoming one people with them; and their coming and building in the temple of the Lord. Zech. vi. 15. Isa. lx. 10. “And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee.” And particularly the prophecies that represent that the nation in the islands and ends of the earth and maritime places, the chief nations for arts, wealth, merchandise, and seafaring, should be brought into the kingdom of the Messiah, bringing their silver and gold to the name of the Lord, &c. And that the Tyrians in particular should be the people of the Messiah. Solomon brought the glory of Lebanon, or the best and fairest of its growth, to build the temple of God; agreeably to Isa. lx. 13. Solomon in an eminent manner executed judgment and justice. 1 Kings iii. 11, 28. andx. 9, 18. His throne of judgment was of ivory, a white, pure, and precious substance, used in the Old Testament as a symbol of purity and righteousness. This is agreeable to innumerable prophecies of the Messiah. It was in Solomon’s time that God first gave his people Israel fully to enjoy that rest in Canaan, that he had promised them in the time of Moses; and Solomon’s rest was glorious. 1 Kings v. 4. “But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side.” And chap. viii. 56. “Blessed be the Lord God, that hath given rest unto his people Israel; according to all that he promised, there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.” This is agreeable to Isa. xi. 10. “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.” Jer. xxx. 10. “So I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return and be in rest and quiet, and none shall make him afraid.” Isa. xxxii. 20. “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.” And xxxii. 17, 18. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.” Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. 1 Kings iv. 25.; agreeable to Mic. iv. 4. “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid.” Zech. iii. 10. “In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall call every man his neighbour under his vine, and under his fig-tree.” In Solomon’s reign there were neither adversary nor evil occurrent. So according to the prophecies in the Messiah’s times there shall be no adversary. Isa. xxv. 5. “Thou shall bring down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of a cloud; the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.” Isa. liv. 14. “In righteousness shall thou be established. Thou shall be far from oppression, for thou shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee.” And xlix. 19. “They that swallowed thee up shall be far away.” Isa. lx. 13. “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.” And xi. 13. “The adversaries of Judah shall be cut off.” So Ezek. xxxvi. 12,13. and many other places. So by the prophecies of the Messiah’s times, there should not be evil occurrent. Isa. xxv. 8. “He will wipe away tears from off all faces.” And xxxv. 10. “Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isa. xxxv. 24. “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.” Isa. lxv. 19. “And the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” Ver. 21. “And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” Zech. viii. 12. “The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit; and the ground shall give her increase; and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things;” and many other places. In Solomon’s time Israel were possessed of great riches, silver, and gold, and other precious things in vast abundance. 1 Kings x. 21-23, 27. agreeable to Isa. lx. 5. “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces (or wealth) of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.” Ver. 6. “The multitude of camels shall cover thee. The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah they shall bring gold.” Ver. 9. “The ships of Tarshish shall bring their silver and their gold.” Ver. 11. “Thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces (or wealth) of the Gentiles.” Ver. 17. “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron.” lxi. 6. “Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.” lxvi. 11, 12. “That ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream; then shall ye suck,” &c. and many other places. Solomon’s reign was a time of great feasting and rejoicing in Israel. 1 Kings iv. 20-22, 23. viii. 65. and x. 5. agreeable to Isa. xxv. 6. “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Isa. lxv. 13, 14. “Behold, my servants shall eat my servants shall drink my servants shall rejoice my servants shall sing for joy of heart.” Ver. 18. “Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy.” Jer. xxxi. 12. “Therefore shall ye come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd, and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” Zech. viii. 19. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy, and gladness, and cheerful feasts.” Chap. ix. 15. “They shall drink and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls and as the corners of the altar.” Also Isa. xxxv. 1, 2, 10. xliv. 23. xlix. 13. and lxi. 3. and li. 11. and very many other places.
There was a vast increase of God’s people Israel in Solomon’s days, so that they were as the sand of the sea, and were so many that they could not be numbered or counted for multitude. 1 Kings iii. 8. iv. 20. The servants 666of Solomon and those that stood continually before him, were pronounced happy, eminently and remarkably so. 1 Kings x. 8. “Happy are these thy men; happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.” Agreeable to Psal. lxxii. 17. “And man shall be blessed in him.” Isa. xxxiii. 17. “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty.” Isa. ii. 5. “O house of Jacob, come ye, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” In Solomon’s reign the remnant of the heathen were made bondmen, but the Israelites were for noble employments. 1 Kings ix. 21, 22. Agreeable to Isa. lxi. 5, 6. “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. Solomon made cedars to be as the sycamore-trees that are in the vale for abundance.” Agreeable to Isa. iv. 13. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Chap. xli. 19. “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle and the oil-tree. I will set up in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together.” Isa. xxxv. 1, 2. “The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.” In Solomon’s days, the house of the Lord was in a remarkable manner filled with glory. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. 2 Chron. v. 13, 14. and vii. 1, 2.; agreeable to Hag. ii. 7. In Solomon’s days, a great and extraordinary feast of tabernacles was kept. 1 Kings viii. 65. 2 Chron. v. 3. and vii. 8-10. It was by far the greatest feast of tabernacles that ever was kept in Israel. This is agreeable to Zech. xiv. 16-19. The blessings of Solomon’s reign were the fruit of God’s everlasting love to Israel. 1 Kings x. 9. “Because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice.” Jer. xxxi. 3. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Solomon reigned from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth, even the uttermost part of the land next to the great sea, as it was called. 1 Kings iv. 21. agreeable to Psal. lxxii. 8. and Zech. ix. 10. Solomon had many chariots. 1 Kings iv. 26. and x. 26. This is agreeable to Psal. lxviii. 18. and Dan. vii. 10. The exceeding greatness of Solomon’s court, the vast number of his servants, ministers, and attendants, which may be learned from 1 Kings iv. 1 19, 22, 23. Chap. ix. 22. 2 Chron. viii. 9, 10. is agreeable to Psal. lxviii. 18. and Dan. x. 13, 21. and xii. 1. compared with Dan. vii. 10. Other kings and nations brought presents unto Solomon. 1 Kings iv. 21. ix. 14. and x. 25. Psal. lxviii. 29. “Because of thy temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bring presents unto thee.” Psal. lxxii. 10. and xlv. 12. The queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and to be instructed by him, and brought great presents, and particularly gold and spices. 1 Kings x. 2, 10. This is agreeable to Isa. lx. 6. “All they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.” Psal. lxxii. 9, 10. “The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” Ver. 15. “To him shall be given of the gold of Sheba.”
The queen of Sheba came bringing her presents on a multitude of camels. 1 Kings x. 2. “And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices and very much gold;” agreeable to Isa. lx. 6. “The multitude of camels shall cover thee: the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense.” Solomon extended his royal bounty to the queen of Sheba, and gave her all her desire. Agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the blessings and favour of the Messiah to be extended to the Gentiles, and his granting the requests of those that look to him from the ends of the earth. Israel, in Solomon’s time, was enriched and adorned with the gold of Ophir, especially they of Solomon’s courts, and of his own family: agreeably to Psal. xlv. 9. “On thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” All the kings and merchants of Arabia brought presents of gold and spices unto Solomon. 1 Kings x. 14, 15. This is agreeable to Isa. xlv. 14. “The merchandise of Ethiopia shall come over to thee.” Zeph. iii. 10. “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants.” Psal. lxviii. 31. “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.” Psal. lxxii. 9, 10. “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” Isa. lx. 6. “The multitude of camels shall cover thee. The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense.” Isa. xlii. 11. “Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit. Let the inhabitants of the rock sing.” Chap. lx. 7. “All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee: the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee.” The ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, and precious stones, and other precious things to Solomon; 1 Kings viii. 26,. to the end, ix. 10, 11.; and Solomon improved what they brought to adorn the temple, ver. 12. agreeable to Psal. lxxii. 10. “The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.” Isa. lx. 5. “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.” Isa. lx. 9. “Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first. Their silver and their gold with them to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel; because he hath glorified thee.” There came of all people from all kings of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and brought presents of gold, silver, spices, &c. 1 Kings iv. 34. “And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom.” 2 Chron. ix. 23, 24. “And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, that God had put in his heart; and they brought every man his present, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness and spices, horses arid mules, a rate year by year.” Thus all kings did as it were bow down unto Solomon. Solomon was a king of kings. 2 Chron. ix. 26. “And he reigned over all the kings from the river even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.”
The labour of Egypt was brought over to Israel in Solomon’s days. 1 Kings x. 28. “And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen yarn. The king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price;” which is agreeable to Isa. xlv. 14. “The labour of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia shall come over unto thee.” From that, 1 Kings x. 28. it is manifest that fine linen was very much used for clothing in Solomon’s days, at least by Solomon’s court, which is a fit emblem of spiritual purity and righteousness, and was manifestly used as such by priests and princes, and was abundantly used as such in the service of the sanctuary. This is agreeable to what is often spoken in the prophets of the extraordinary holiness and purity of the church in the Messiah’s days, and to Isa. lii. 1. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Solomon spake many proverbs, or parables, or dark sayings, 1 Kings iv. 32. “And he spake three thousand proverbs.” This is agreeable to what the prophets represent concerning the Messiah, as an eminent teacher; and what may be learned from them of the wonderful and mysterious things he should teach in his doctrine. Solomon was, as Joseph, a revealer of secrets. 1 Kings x. “The queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions: and Solomon told her all her questions; there was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not.” This is agreeable to what the prophecies say of the Messiah’s being a great teacher, and of the vast increase of light and knowledge that shall be by him. Solomon made a great number of songs. 1 Kings iv. 32. “His songs were a thousand and five.” This is agreeable to innumerable prophecies which represent the Messiah’s times as times of extraordinary singing and melody, wherein God’s people and all the world should employ themselves in joyful songs of praise; yea, wherein all creatures, the mountains, rocks, trees, the sea, the heavens and the earth, should break forth into singing. Solomon had a vast multitude of wives and concubines, fitly representing the vast number 667of saints in the Messiah’s times, who are members of the church that is so often spoken of as the Messiah’s wife.
I shall mention but one thing more under this head of things that we have an account of in the history of the Old Testament, remarkably agreeing with things said in prophecies relating to the Messiah’s kingdom and redemption; and that is, the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity. It is manifest that the great redemption of Messiah is abundantly represented by a redemption of Israel from captivity and bondage under the hand of their enemies in strange and far distant lands, from the north country, and their return to their own land, and rebuilding Jerusalem and the cities of Israel, and repairing the old wastes; in places too many to be enumerated. This redemption of the Jews was accompanied with a great destruction of those mighty and proud enemies, that had carried them captive, that were stronger than they, God pleading their cause and revenging their quarrel on the greatest empire in the world, as it were causing them to tread down the loftiest city, the highest walls and towers in the world, destroying their enemies with a great slaughter, and dreadful havock of their enemies; agreeable to Hag. ii. 22. “And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen.” Isa. xxvi. 5, 6. “For he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city he layeth it low; he layeth it low even to the ground: he bringeth it even to the dust: the foot treadeth it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.” Chap. xxv. 12. “And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” chap. xxxii. 19. “When it shall hail, coming down on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place,” or shall be utterly abased. Chap. xxx. 25. “And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.” See also Isa. xxxiv. 1-8. and Joel iii. 9-17. Isa. ii. 10,. to the end, and many other places. This redemption of the Jews was attended with the final and everlasting destruction of Babylon, that great enemy of the Jewish church, that had oppressed her and carried her captive. This is agreeable to prophecies of the Messiah’s redemption. Isa. xxxix. 10,. to the end, and xli. 11,12. and xliii. 17. Dan. ii. 35. Obad. 10, 17, 18,. and many other places. The temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt by the countenance and authority of Gentile kings. Ezra i. 2., &c. Chap. vi. 6-15. and vii. 11,. &c. Neh. ii. 7-9.; agreeable to Isa. xlix. 23. “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.” It seems to be intimated that the queen of Persia, as well as the king, favoured the Jews, and promoted the restoring of their state, in Neh. ii. 6. The temple and city were rebuilt very much at the charge of Gentile kings and people, who offered silver and gold. Ezra i. 4-8. and vi. 8. and vii. 15-23. Neh. ii. 7-9. This is agreeable to many places mentioned in the preceding section concerning Solomon’s reign. At the time of this restoration of the Jews, strangers or Gentiles, and their princes, assisted with sacrifices for the house of God. Ezra i. 4, 6. vi. 9. and vii. 17. This is agreeable to Psal. xxii. 29. “All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship.” Isa. xlix. 7. “Kings shall see and arise; princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.” Isa. lx. 6, 7. “The multitude of camels shall cover thee; the dromedaries of Midian, &c. They shall bring gold, incense. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee. The rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.” Gold, and silver, and sacrifices, and incense were brought to the new temple at Jerusalem, especially from the nations on this side the river Euphrates. Ezra i. 4, 6. Chap. vi. 6-10. Chap. vii. 16-18, 21-23. Neh. ii. 7-9. Which include Tyre and Ethiopia, Midian and Ephah, Kedar, Nebaioth, and the countries of Arabia, which are spoken of in prophecies that have been already mentioned in this and the foregoing section, as bringing presents, offering gifts, gold, incense, and sacrifices. The Jews at their return out of Babylon, were redeemed without money. Isa. xlv. 13. “He shall build my city and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward.” Agreeable to Isa. lii. 3. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.” The temple was built by Joshua, that signifies Jehovah the Saviour; agreeable to what is often represented of the Messiah in the prophecies. See what has been said above, concerning Joshua the son of Nun.
We often read of praying, fasting, confessing of sin, their own sins, and the sins of their fathers, and weeping and mourning for sin, that attended this restoration of the Jews. Dan. ix. 1-19. Ezra viii. 21-23. Chap. ix. throughout, x. 1-17. Neh. i. 4,. &c. iv. 4, 5. ix. throughout. God gave the Jews remarkable and wonderful protection in their journey as they were returning from Babylon towards Jerusalem, and also in the midst of the great dangers and manifold oppositions they passed through, in rebuilding the temple and city. Ezra viii. 21-23,31. v. vi. vii. Neh. iv. vi. This is agreeable to Jer. xxxi. 8, 9. “Behold, I will bring from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.” Isa. xliii. 2. “When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” There was kept an extraordinary feast of tabernacles on occasion, of this restoration of the Jews, the only one that had been kept according to the law of Moses since the time of Joshua, the son of Nun. Neh. viii. 14. This is agreeable to Zech. xiv. 16-19. After this return from the captivity, the Jews had extraordinary means of instruction in the law of God, much greater than they had before. Ezra vii. 25. Neh. viii. After this, synagogues were set up all over the land, in each of which was kept a copy of the law of the prophets, which were read and explained every sabbath day. And there seems to be a great alteration as to the frequency of the solemn public worship of God. Idolatry was utterly abolished among the Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity. This is agreeable to Isa. ii. 18. “The idols shall he utterly abolish.” Zech. xiii. 2. “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land; and they shall no more be remembered.” Hos. ii. 17. “For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.” Ezek. xxxvi. 25. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you.” Chap. xxxv. 23. “Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things.” See further, fulfilment of prophecies, § 153.
The agreement between what we are told of Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and what is said in the prophecy of the Messiah and his people, is such as naturally leads us to suppose the former a designed type of the latter. Compare Dan. iii. and vi. with Isa. xlviii. 10. and xliii. 2. Psal. xxii. 20, 21. xxxv. 17. Cant. iv. 8.
It is remarkable that it should be so ordered, that so many of the chief women that we read of in the history of the Old Testament, and mothers of so many of the most eminent persons, should for so long a time be barren, and that their conception afterwards of those eminent persons they were the mothers of, should be through God’s special mercy and extraordinary providence; as in Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Manoah’s wife, and Hannah. It is reasonable to suppose, that God had something special in view in thus remarkably ordering it in so many instances. Considering this, and also considering the agreement of such an event with several prophetical representations made of the church of God in the Messiah’s times, there appears a great deal of reason to suppose the one of these to be designed as a type of the other. Ps. lxviii. 6. “God setteth the solitary in families.” Ps. cxiii. 9. “He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.” Isa. liv. 1. “Sing, O barren, and thou that 668didst not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud; thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.”
With respect to some of the principal persons spoken of in the Old Testament, there is this evidence, that they were types of the Messiah, viz. that the Messiah in the prophecies is called by their names. Thus the Messiah is called by the name of Israel. Isa. xlix. 3. “And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” And he is often called in the prophecies by the name of David.Hos. iii. 5. “Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord and David their king.” Jer. xxx. 9. “But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Ezek. xxxvi. 24. “And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them.” chap. xxxvii. 24, 25. “And David my servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them; and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.” Ps. lxxxix. 20. “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him.” Ver. 27. “I will make him my first-born,” &c. The Messiah is called by the name of Solomon. Cant. iii. 7, 11. viii. 11, 12. So the Messiah’s great forerunner is called by the name of Elijah,Mal. iv.; which argues that Elijah was a type of him. The Messiah is called by the name of Zerubbabel. Hag. ii. 23. “In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and I will make thee a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.”
And as the Messiah is called by the proper names of some of the more eminent persons of the Old Testament, so some of them are called by names that it is evident by the prophecies do much more eminently and properly belong to the Messiah. So Joshua is called the shepherd, the stone of Israel; Gen. xxix. 44. which according to the prophecies, are appellations most properly belonging to the Messiah. So the name Israel, though it was the proper name of Jacob rather than of the Messiah, yet its signification, the prince of God, most properly and eminently belongs to the Messiah, according to the prophecies. So it is with the name of Abram, high father, and Abraham, the father of a multitude. David, beloved, and Solomon, peace or peaceable. God also calls Solomon his son, an appellation which most properly belongs to the Messiah.
There is such a commutation of names between not only persons, but also things, that we have an account of in the histories and prophecies of the Old Testament. Thus the people of the Messiah, though it is plain by the prophecies that they should chiefly be of the Gentiles, yet are very generally called by the name of Jacob and Israel. So the church of the Messiah, though it is plain by the prophecies that they shall dwell all over the world, yet are often called by the name of Jerusalem and Zion. So we read in the prophecies of the Messiah’s times of all nations going up from year to year to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of tabernacles, and of their being gathered together to the mountain of the house of the Lord, which is utterly impossible. Therefore, we must understand only things that were typified by Jerusalem and the mountain of the house of the Lord, God’s holy mountain, holy hill, mountain of the height of Israel, &c. and by the feast of tabernacles, and Israel’s going up from year to year to keep that feast. So something appertaining to the Messiah’s kingdom is called by the name of the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem, and it is represented as though all nations should bring sacrifices and offer them there on that altar. Yet this is utterly inconsistent with what the prophecies themselves do plainly teach of the state and worship of the church of God at that time. So something appertaining to the Messiah’s kingdom is called by the names of the temple, and the tabernacle, and of God’s throne in the temple, Zech. vi. 13. But it is plain by the prophecies that there should indeed be no material temple or tabernacle in the kingdom of the Messiah. So we read also, Ezek. xlv. xlvi. of the passover, that grand memorial of the bringing the children of Israel up out of Egypt. But it is evident that there will be no such memorial of that event upheld in the church in the Messiah’s times, by Jer. xvi. 14, 15. and chap. xxiii. 7, 8. Certain officers in the church of the Messiah are called priests and Levites, Isa. lxi. 6. and Jer. xxiii. 18. and yet it is plain by the prophecies that the ceremonial law should be abolished in the Messiah’s times. A work of grace that is wrought on the hearts of men, is often in the Old Testament called by the name of circumcision; and it is evident by the prophecies that this should in a very eminent and distinguishing manner be wrought in the Messiah’s times. Something that the Messiah was to be the subject of, is called in the 40th Psalm. by the name of boring the ear; as was appointed in the law concerning the servant that chose his master’s service. Something in the prophecies of the Messiah is called by the name of oil and anointing, that, it is evident, is not any such outward oil or anointing as was appointed in the ceremonial law. Ps. xlv. 7. Zech. iv. 12-14. Isa. lxi. 1. Ps. ii. 2, 6. and xx. 6. lxxxix. 20. with cxxxiii. So we find something of a spiritual nature called in the prophecies by the name of the golden candlestick that was in the tabernacle and temple, Zech. iv. Something is called by the name of that cloud of glory that was above the mercy-seat, Zech. vi. 13. Something is called by the name of God’s dwelling between the cherubims, Ps. xcix. 1.; and something in the Messiah’s kingdom is called by the name of the precious stones that adorn the temple. Compare Isa. liv. 11,12. with 1 Chron. xxix. 2. and 2 Chron. iii. 8. The name of the incense and the names of the sweet spices that were used in the incense and anointing oil in the sanctuary, are made use of to signify spiritual things appertaining to the Messiah and his kingdom, in the book of the Canticles. and Ps. xlv. 8.; and something spiritual in that prophecy, Ps. xlv. is called needle-work, the name of the work of the hangings and garments of the sanctuary. Exod. xxvi. 36. xxvii. 16. xxxvi. 37. xxxviii. 18. xxviii. 39. and xxxix. 29. The garments of the church of the Messiah are spoken of under the same representation as the curtains of the tabernacle and beautiful garments of the high priest. See also Cant. i. 5. Something in the Messiah’s kingdom is called by the names of the outward ornaments of the temple, Isa. lx. 13.
As the people of the Messiah are in the prophecies called by the name of God’s people Israel, though they should be chiefly of the Gentiles, so likewise we find the enemies of the Messiah’s people called by the names of the enemies of Israel; such as Edom, Moab, the children of Amman, the Philistines, &c. And the places of the abode of those enemies of the Messiah’s people are called by the names of the countries and cities of God’s enemies; as Egypt, Babylon, Bozrah, &c. And yet it is evident that those prophecies cannot have respect to these nations literally, as hereafter to be such grievous and troublesome neighbours to the Messiah’s people, as those nations were to Israel. For the Messiah’s people are to be dispersed all over the world, and not to dwell in the neighbourhood of those countries only.
Here it may be observed that the manna is called by the name of something spiritual. Ps. lxxviii. 25. He had given them the corn of heaven; man did eat angels’ food, which is an argument that it was a type of something spiritual.
It was before observed, that the things of the Messiah are in the prophecies expressly compared to many of the things of the Old Testament: and I would now observe, that many of them, where they are thus compared, are compared in such a manner as to be at the same time called by the same names. Thus the bondage that the Messiah should redeem his people from is called a lying among the pots; Psal. lxviii. 13. And this redemption of the Messiah is expressly called a redeeming them from Egypt. Isa. xi. 11. Zech. x. 10. And something that God would do for them, is called his destroying the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and making men go over dry shod; ver. 15. and dividing the sea and the river. Zech. x. 10, 11. “I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves of the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up.”669 In Psal. lxviii. 22. the redemption of the Messiah is called a bringing God’s people again from the depths of the sea. So something that should be in the days of the Messiah, is called by the name of a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, Isa. iv. Something appertaining to the kingdom of the Messiah is called by the name of the valley of Achor, the place where Achan was slain. Hos. ii. 15. So things appertaining to the destruction of the Messiah’s enemies are often called by the names of things made use of in the destruction of the old world, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of the Egyptians, Canaanites, &c. as a flood of waters, rain, hail, stones, fire and brimstone, a burning tempest, &c. as has been observed before. The redemption of the Messiah is called by the names by which the redemption out of Babylon was called. Jer. xvi. 15. “But the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north.” So again xxiii. 8. That by the north country, or land of the north, was an appellative name by which Chaldea was called, is very manifest. See Jer. iv. 6. vi. 22. and i. 14. and very many other places. (See the Concordance.) Things that shall be brought to pass in the Messiah’s days, are called by the name of what literally came to pass in the wilderness after the redemption of Egypt; in that in the prophecies, we often read of waters in the wilderness, and streams in the desert and in dry places, and the Messiah’s drinking of the brook in the way; and living waters running through the desert in the east country, which is the desert of Arabia; Ezek. xlvii. 8. waters in dry places, to give drink to God’s people, when ready to fail with thirst. Isa. xxxv. 7. xli. 17, 18. xxxii. 2. xliii. 19, 20. and lv. 1.
Sin or corruption, which it is evident by the prophecies the Messiah comes to heal, is called by the same general names that belonged to the leprosy, as wounds, and bruises, and nullifying sores, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. Something that should be in the Messiah’s times is spoken of under the name of a trumpet, an instrument much in use by God’s appointment, in the observances of the ceremonial law; Isa. xxvii. 13. and something seems to be spoken of under the name of that sound that was made with the trumpets on their joyful festivals, especially on the year of jubilee; Psal. lxxxix. 15. Something that should be fulfilled in the Messiah’s times, is called by the name of that which the serpent is doomed to, Gen. iii. 14. “Dust shalt thou eat.” Isa. lxv. 25. “Dust shall be the serpent’s meat.” Something that should be done by the Messiah is spoken of under the name of the application that was made of water in the legal purifications. Isa. lii. 15. “So shall he sprinkle many nations.” Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.” Zech. xiii. 1. “In that day there shall be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.” Compare these with Num. viii. 7. and xix. 13,18-21.
The congregation in the wilderness were in the form of an army, and an army with banners. So the church of the Messiah is often represented as an army. They are represented as being called forth to war, and engaged in battle, gloriously conquering and triumphing, in places innumerable, and are spoken of as being God’s goodly horse in the battle, and as a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots, and being made as the sword of a mighty man, and being gathered to an ensign, (Isa. xi. 10, 12.) and standard; Isa. xlix. 22. lix. 19. and lxii. 10. And having a banner given them, Psal. lx. 4. And setting up their banners in God’s name, Psal. xx. 5. And being terrible as an army with banners, Cant. vi. 4, 10.
Something in the kingdom of the Messiah is spoken of in the prophecies under the name of pomegranates, which were represented in the work of the tabernacle and temple. Cant. iv. 3, 13. vi. 7, 11. vii. 12. viii. 2. Figures that were made in the tabernacle and temple were called cherubim, the same name by which angels are called in the Old Testament: which is an evidence that they were made as types or representations of angels. The church and people of the Messiah are in the prophecies of the Messiah compared to and called a palm-tree, or palm-trees; Cant. vii. 7, 8. Psal. xcii. 12. which is an argument that they were typified by the figures of palm-trees in the tabernacle and temple. Something that should be in the Messiah’s time is represented by what appertained to the manner of God’s appearance in the holy of holies. Psal. xcvii. “Clouds and darkness are round about him.” Compare 2 Sam. xxii. 12.
Some of the persons that we have an account of in the history of the Old Testament, are expressly spoken of as resembling the Messiah. So Moses, “A prophet will the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, like unto me.”Deut. xviii. 15, 18. So Melchizedek,Psal. cx. “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” And the account we have, Isa. vii. concerning Shear-ja-shub, the son of Isaiah the prophet, is equivalent to expressly declaring him to be a type of the Messiah. And Zerubbabel and Joshua are evidently spoken of as types of the Messiah. Haggai ii. 23. “In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, and make thee as a signet.” Zech. iv. 7. “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings; crying, Grace, grace unto it.” Ver. 10. “For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord,” &c. Zech. iii. “And he showed me Joshua the high priest and unto him he said I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, (for they are men wondered at,) for behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.” Zech. vi. 11, 12. “Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua, the son of Josedech the high priest, and speak unto him, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch.”
It is an evidence, that some of the more eminent persons that we have an account of in the history of the Old Testament, are types of the Messiah, that some of them and the Messiah are plainly spoken of under one. It is plain concerning David in the 89th Psalm,. where the name of David is mentioned once and again, and yet the psalm evidently looks beyond David to the Messiah. It is also plain concerning Solomon in the 72d Psalm,. which the title declares to have respect to Solomon, and yet the matter of the psalm most evidently shows that it has respect to the Messiah; many things in it being true of the Messiah, and peculiar to him, and not true of Solomon.
And here, by the way, I would observe, that to the many evidences that have already been taken notice of, that David and Solomon are types of the Messiah, this may be added, that the Jews themselves looked on them as types of the Messiah. (See Basnage’s History of the Jews, page 367.)
Many things occasionally appointed of God, if they signify nothing spiritual, must be wholly insignificant actions, and so wholly impertinent. Such as the setting up a brazen serpent for man to look upon, in order to a being healed. God’s appointing the princes of the congregation to dig a well with their staves, to supply the congregations with water, and a public record’s being made of it by divine inspiration, and its being celebrated in a song of the people that is also recorded by divine inspiration. Num. xxi. 17, 18. Moses’s holding up his hand by divine direction, that Joshua and Israel might prevail over Amalek: Elijah’s stretching himself three times upon the widow of Zarephath’s son, in order to raise him to life. 1 Kings xvii. 21. Elisha’s ordering his staff to be laid on the face of the Shunamite’s dead child, and afterwards his lying upon the child, and putting his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and stretching himself on the child, in order to raise it to life. And so many other like actions that God appointed, might be mentioned.
But to say something more particularly concerning the ceremonial law. There is abundant evidence even in the Old Testament, that the things that belong to that law are typical of the things of the Messiah.
If the things of the ceremonial law are not typical of moral and spiritual things, they are wholly insignifiCant. and so wholly impertinent and vain. For God does abundantly 670declare, even in the Old Testament, that he has no delight in them on their own account, and that they are in his esteem worthless and vain in themselves, and therefore it will follow that they must be worthless and vain to all intents and purposes, unless they are otherwise by the relation they bear to something that God delights in on its own account, i. e. unless they are some way significant of things moral and spiritual. If the things of the ceremonial law were pleasing to God, and were not pleasing on their own account, or by reason of any thing that God saw in them; then it must be on account of something else that they represent, and because they some way stand in stead of them. For instance, when God went out through the land of Egypt to smite the first-born, and saw the blood of the paschal lamb on the door-posts of a house, it is represented as being something pleasing to God, for the sake of which he would spare the inhabitants of that house. But the Old Testament reveals, that blood was not at all pleasing on its own account. For that declares that God hath no delight in the blood of beasts; and therefore the way in which it was something pleasing to God, must be its being something which represented or stood in stead of something that was truly in itself pleasing. So the sweet savour that was made in offering incense is spoken of as something sweet and pleasant to God; and a white clean garment as something pure, and so pleasing to God. But we know that these things were not pleasant or acceptable on their own account, and therefore it must be only as related to something else that was so. But in what way is a sweet smell related to any thing really sweet to God, except as it is a type, or has some signification of it? And which way has the purity of a garment any relation to spiritual purity, but as it has a representation of it?
This leads me to observe, that there is an apparent and designed resemblance between those things that were instituted, that were in themselves worthless, and those moral and spiritual things that in themselves were valuable in the sight of God. Thus it is apparent, that outward cleanliness and purity resemble and shadow forth that which is in the sight of God real purity; and outward sweetness resembles real sweetness to God. So the light of the lamps in the sanctuary had a resemblance of spiritual light; and the preciousness of gold and pearls, that were used in the sanctuary and priests’ garments, had a resemblance of some real preciousness in the sight of God; and the beauty and ornaments of the sanctuary and its vessels and holy garments, &c. had a resemblance of real beauty, and of those things that were ornaments in the sight of God. So that seeming atonement for sin, that was in the legal sacrifices, had a resemblance of that only true atonement the prophecies speak of. The seeming vicariousness there was in the sufferings of beasts for sinners, had a resemblance of a true vicariousness and substitution. And it is also manifest, that God chose those things, or had respect to them in his choice and appointment of them, because they did resemble or shadow forth those correspondent spiritual things, that have a real value and excellency in themselves in his sight. The very nature of the thing makes it manifest. Thus it is manifest that God chose pure garments rather than filthy ones, because outward purity did more resemble real purity. He chose a sweet smell to be offered as a pleasant savour unto him, because sweet smell has more resemblance of what is really sweet to him. It is manifest that he chose the suffering of beasts as an atonement for sin, rather than the feeding and pampering of them, because this has more of a resemblance of a true atonement, which the prophecies speak of as being by the sufferings of a surety. It is evident that God chose the blood or life of the creature to be offered, to make atonement for the soul, rather than the hair, because it has a greater resemblance of the life of a surety, which is a true atonement for the soul, as the prophecies of the Old Testament do represent. But if it be evident, that God in the institution of the things of the ceremonial law, had respect to the resemblance that was in them of spiritual things and things of the Messiah, and appointed those rather than things of a diverse nature, for the sake of that resemblance, this is the same thing as to say, that the former are appointed as types of the latter.
All the people of Israel, if they exercised consideration, must suppose and understand that these things pertaining to the ceremonial law were appointed and used as representations and symbols of something spiritual, and not for the sake of any innate goodness in them, or any value God had for them. As for instance, that God appointed white garments rather than yellow, green, or black, not for any excellency of the colour, but as a more proper representation of righteousness and spiritual purity; and the making a sweet odour with spices, not that God smelt that odour and so was pacified towards men as though he were recompensed by the great pleasure they thereby gave him; but to represent something spiritual that was highly acceptable to him: and so that God appointed them to offer the flesh of beasts and bread, as the food or bread of God as these things are called, and the drink-offering of wine, not that God eat and drank those things, and was pleased with the taste of them, and received refreshment and benefit, as a hungry and thirsty man does by meat and drink; but that these things were mystical and symbolical representations of things of a higher and more divine nature. They must know, that laying hands on the head of the sacrifice, and what was called laying sins on the scape goat, was no real laying sins on those beasts. And besides, God did expressly and abundantly teach his people under the Old Testament the contrary of these things. They must naturally therefore suppose, that they were used as things significant of something of a nature higher than themselves. They must naturally suppose, that the eating the passover with the staff in the hand, and with bitter herbs, and putting the blood of the sacrifices upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, were mystical, and symbolical, and significant of something in itself of value and importance.
With respect to the legal sacrifices, the evidence that they were types of the Messiah is very strong; which will appear if we consider the following things.
It is evident there is some real and proper atonement for sin, which is in God’s account requisite, and which he insists upon in order to the pardon of sin, and which he accepts as a true atonement, and is willing to forgive sin on account of it. Otherwise, God never would designedly have taken a course by such an abundance of institutions, to bring up his people of the nation of Israel in the notion of the need of some atonement for sin, and some vicariousness and substitution of suffering for the sinner, in order to satisfy divine justice, and not only to bring up the Jews in this nation, but his church and people from the beginning of the world, insomuch that all nations received this notion from the first progenitors and founders of the nations and families of the earth.
It is also very manifest that the legal sacrifices of beasts and birds were no real atonement. This appears not only from the nature of the thing, but it is what God abundantly taught his people under the Old Testament, of whom he required these sacrifices. Psal. xl. 6. 1. 5,. to the end, li. 16. Isa. i. 11,. &c. lxvi. 2, 3. Hos. vi. 6. Jer. vii. 21-23,. and especially Mic. vi. 6-8.
It is apparent by the prophecies of the Old Testament, that the Messiah was to offer a true and real atonement for the sins of men. That the Messiah should offer up himself a sacrifice for sin, is very clearly implied in many places there mentioned. But this doctrine is not only implied, but it is declared, that the Messiah should atone for sin, or expiate it by sacrifice. Isa. liii. 10. “When thou shall make his soul an offering for sin.” Dan. ix. 24. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city” to make reconciliation for iniquity, or to expiate iniquity by sacrifice, or to make atonement for iniquity; for the word in the original is the very same that is used from time to time in the law about sacrifices for making atonement. In what follows, it is declared how this atonement was to be made, viz. by anointing the most holy and the coming of the Messiah, and by his being cut off, but not for himself, and making the sacrifice and oblation to cease in the last half of the seventieth week. And it is evident that the atonement for sin here spoken of is a proper atonement, that makes real satisfaction for sin, and truly pays and finishes the debt, by the 671other expressions that are added, Dan ix. 24. “To finish the transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness;” and making the sacrifice and oblation to cease, i. e. by making sin to cease, making an end of sin and finishing the transgression, that there shall be no further occasion for sacrifice and oblation. And making atonement for sin is here prophesied of as that which was to be, but never yet was: it was a new thing, as the prophecy must be understood. But it could be a new thing in no other sense but that, viz. that a true and proper atonement for sin should be offered. For atonement in other senses beside this had been abundantly offered from the beginning of the world. What is translated, to finish the transgression, might have been rendered, to consume transgression. But that expiation for sin that consumes transgression and makes an end of sins, and brings into a state of perpetual righteousness, so as to make all further sacrifices, or attempts, and means, and representations of atonement to cease, and should abolish them as now needless, that is undoubtedly a proper atonement for sin.
Again, it is not only manifest by the Old Testament that the sacrifice of the Messiah is a true real atonement, but that it is the only true and real atonement for sin. For the Old Testament speaks of no other sorts of sacrifices of expiation for sin but those two, viz. the ancient legal sacrifices of beasts, and the sacrifice of the Messiah. What the prophecies sometimes say of sacrifices that should be offered by God’s people, after the Messiah’s ascension, must be understood figuratively; because it is expressly foretold, that the Messiah by his sacrifice should cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. And besides, as I observed before, the Messiah’s making expiation for sin, is prophesied of as a new thing; and as it is foretold as a new thing, or the first thing of that nature, so it is also prophesied of as the last thing of that nature, as is implied in those expressions of his making an end of sin, finishing the transgression, and making the sacrifice and oblation to cease. And these two things put together, imply that this is the only truly expiatory sacrifice. See also Zech. iii. 8, 9. And then, that this is the only sacrifice by which the sins of God’s people are atoned, and that never any one is forgiven and accepted on account of any other atonement, is implied in Isa. liii. 6. ”All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Another thing that is very manifest, is, that the legal sacrifices had a manifold resemblance and representation of that great, true, and proper sacrifice that the prophecies foretold that the Messiah should offer. Thus those beasts that were offered were without blemish, as the prophecies represent the Messiah to be, Isa. liii. and other places. These sacrifices were not of unclean but clean beasts, therein representing that spiritual purity that the prophecies speak of in the Messiah. A very great part of those sacrifices were of lambs, as the paschal lamb, Exod. xxix. 39. and very many other of their sacrifices, which had a resemblance of what the prophecies represent of the feebleness, innocence, meekness, and gentleness of the Messiah. Most of the sacrifices were males, as the Messiah is represented as of the male sex. They were offered by a priest in white robes, representing the purity and holiness of the Messiah; who, when spoken of, Dan. ix. as the great priest that should offer that atonement that should make an end of sin, is called the “Most Holy.” “Seventy weeks are determined to make reconciliation for iniquity and to anoint the Most Holy.” The priests were anointed: herein there was a resemblance between them and the great Messiah, or anointed. The sacrifices suffered as the Messiah, the great sacrifice, is represented to suffer. The sacrifices suffered death, and a violent death, as the Messiah suffered death the sacrifices were burnt by fire from heaven; as the prophecies represent the Messiah as suffering from the immediate hand of God. In most of the sacrifices, their inward parts were to be burnt on the altar, that are abundantly made use of in the Old Testament to represent the soul; which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the Messiah’s making his soul an offering for sin. The fat of the inwards of the sacrifices was melted, and consumed, and burnt up in the fire; which is agreeable to Psal. xxii. 14, 15. “I am poured out like water my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels; my strength is dried up like a potsherd;” and Psal. cii. 4. “My heart is smitten and withered like grass;” and Isa. liii. 12. “He hath poured out my soul unto death.” There was the resemblance of the substitution of the sacrificed beast in suffering for the sinner, as the prophecies represent concerning the Messiah. There was an appearance of laying the iniquities of those for whom the sacrifices were offered, on the animal sacrificed, especially on some of the sacrifices on the head of which the hands of those for whom they were offered were laid, that they might lay their sins upon them. This is agreeable to Isa. liii. 6. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The scape-goat is represented as bearing the sins of those for whom he was offered into the wilderness; which is agreeable to Isa. liii. 4. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, he hath carried our sorrows.” The Messiah is expressly spoken of as being like a lamb, in his being slain, and offered as a sacrifice for sin, Isa. liii. The high priest made intercession for the people with the blood of the sacrifices, agreeably to Isa. liii. 12.
Beside all that has been already observed, this further is manifest, viz. that they are by God called an atonement, and are said to be an atonement, times without number. (See the Concordance under the word Atonement.) Seeing therefore, that the legal sacrifices are declared expressly and abundantly to be no real atonement, but have evidently a great resemblance of the true atonement, and are plainly representations of it, and are abundantly spoken of by him that instituted them, as being an atonement, and as instituted by him that they might be an atonement; it is very apparent, that they were appointed figures and representations of the true atonement. For there are but these two ways of any thing’s being consistently with truth said to be such a thing, by the name of which it is called, viz. either its being that thing truly and properly, or figuratively and by representation. Either it must be that thing that it is said to be in reality, or by representation of the reality, or not at all. We have often in the law of Moses this expression used with regard to the sacrifices. The priest shall make an atonement for him. Now one of these two meanings must be put upon the words, either that he shall make a real proper atonement, or that he shall make an atonement figuratively or significantly. It is either a true atonement or a seeming atonement: otherwise it could not be an atonement in any sense, nor would it be so called by God. If there be such a thing as a real atonement for sin, and the legal sacrifices be not a real atonement for sin, yet are appointed and accepted as an atonement, then they are appointed and accepted instead of an atonement, for that is the same thing. So that it is evident, that God appointed the legal sacrifices to stand in stead of, or to represent, the real atonement. If a man be appointed to stand for another that is absent, and be accepted for an absent friend, then he is his representative. When the prophet called the arrow that the king of Israel shot out of his window, the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, nothing else could be meant, but that it was a sign of the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance. So when the man that interpreted his fellow’s dream, said of the barley cake, “this is the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash;” 539539 Judges vii. 14 he could mean nothing else, but that this signified the sword of Gideon. So when Joseph said, “The seven lean kine are seven years of famine.” 540540 Gen. xl. 26, 27 And so in innumerable other instances that might be mentioned. It is evident from what has been already observed, that here are certain resemblances and shadows of sacrifices, and substitutions in suffering for sinners, and atonements for sin: and it is manifest that it was out of regard to this resemblance there was in the shadow of the atonement, that the shadow was appointed. God himself has decided it by calling the shadow by the name of the substance, and by declaring that he appointed the shadow, that it might be for the substance, which he has done in declaring that he appointed it, that it might be for an atonement, i. e. instead of the real atonement, which is the substance.
These shadows of atonement are not merely called by the name of an atonement, but they are spoken of from 672time to time as being an atonement, and are said to be appointed, that they might be an atonement. Now what other way there is of being an atonement, but either being so really, or being so in figure, and significance, I know not.
The incense appointed in the law had a sweet smell, and was acceptable to the senses, and so had a shadow of that which was acceptable to God and a sweet savour to him. And seeing that it is expressly declared by God in the law, that he appoints this incense for a sweet savour to him, this demonstrates that God in the appointment has respect to that resemblance, that it is appointed to be a standing representation of a true sweet savour to him. Sweet smell is appointed, because it resembles what is truly acceptable to God. When external whiteness and purity, that is a shadow of true purity in the sight of God, is called by the name of true purity; and is declared to be appointed that it might be for purity in the sight of God; this demonstrates that it is appointed to be a standing representation of true purity. So, likewise, when the shadows of sufferings for sinners, and atonements for sin, are called by the name of real sufferings for sinners, and atonements for sin, and are said from time to time to be atonements for sin, and to be appointed that they might be for atonements for sin; it demonstrates clearly, that these shadows of atonement are appointed out of respect to the resemblance they have to the real atonement, and that they might be instead of it, and standing representations of it; or, which is the same thing, that they might be types of it. God appointed the suffering of the creature, rather than the feeding or fatting of it, for the making atonement, because the suffering of the creature has a greater resemblance of that suffering that makes a real atonement for sin. God in thus calling these shadows from time to time by the name of the things resembled, and speaking of them from time to time as being the things resembled, does therein plainly put them in their stead, and does make use of them as representations of them: as if any should on design call one by another’s name, that was not his own name, and ordinarily speak of him and treat him as being that other, this would be the same thing as to substitute him for the other, and to make use of him as the other’s representative.
It is an argument that the sacrifices were types of the Messiah, that when Manoah offered sacrifice by God’s appointment, he that is called the “angel of the Lord,” and who was the Lord, ascended in the flame of the sacrifice, Judg. xiii. 20. And so did, as it were, offer up himself in the flame of the sacrifice, intimating that he was the great sacrifice, that was the antitype of those sacrifices of beasts. The beasts that were sacrificed to God, ascended up in the flame before God for a sweet savour. So the matter is represented in the Old Testament. But here we see, that when the sacrifice was ascending in the flame, the angel of the Lord ascends in the same, to show that that was the end of the sacrificing fire, viz. to cause him to ascend as a sweet savour unto God.
Again there is clear proof, that the legal sacrifices were types of the great sacrifice of the Messiah in Dan. ix. 24. “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;” taken together with ver. 27. “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week shall he cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.” What is translated in ver. 24. “And to make an end of sins,” might have been translated, “He shall seal up the sin-offerings.” The word translated sins in the original is Chattaoth, the very same word that is made use of in the law of Moses, to signify sin-offerings. So that the word might as well be translated sin-offerings here as there. And it is the more likely, that sin-offerings should be meant here, because the word is in the plural number; whereas if what was intended was the same with iniquity in the clause preceding, and transgression in the clause following, thus varying the expression for eloquence sake, it would be more likely this word would have been in the singular number as those are. And besides it is the more likely that the word signifies sin-offerings, because it is evident that this text is a prophecy of the sacrifice that the Messiah should offer for sin. In the next words it is said, “He shall make reconciliation for iniquity.” 541541 Dan. ix. 24. The word rendered reconciliation (as has been already observed) signifies expiation by sacrifice; it being the same that is so often rendered atonement in the law of Moses, when speaking of sacrifices for sin. But what argues yet more strongly that this should have been translated, he shall make an end, or seal up, sin-offerings, is, that in the 24th verse there seems to be a reference to what had been said before in this verse, when it is said, In the midst of the week, or in the half of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. In the 24th verse it had been said, that the sacrifices or sin-offerings should be made an end of or sealed up in seventy weeks; and the 25th, 26th. and 27th. verses are evidently exegetical of that 24th, to explain how the anointed Holy One or Messiah should make atonement for iniquity, and seal up the sin-offering and sacrifices in seventy weeks, viz. from the commandment to build Jerusalem there should be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks, that is, 69 weeks, and then in the remaining week he should establish the covenant with many, and in the half of the week he should make the sacrifice and oblation to cease, or make an end of the sin-offerings, as was said before. Now let us mind the expression; the word translated make an end, in the original is he shall seal up. “He shall seal up the sin-offerings.” It is the very same word that is used in the following clause concerning vision and prophecy. “He shall seal up the vision and prophecy.” The same word being thus used twice in like manner, in different clauses of the same sentence, once concerning the vision and prophecy, and the other time concerning the sin-offering, there is all reason to understand it in both places in the same sense. But the plain meaning of that clause, to seal up the vision and prophecy, is this; then shall be accomplished the grand event so often exhibited by the prophecies of the prophets, and so often represented and signified by the visions which they saw, and so the vision and prophecy shall be finished and brought to their grand accomplishment; that which they ultimately aimed at. Then shall be fulfilled the sum of what was signified in the vision and prophecy. (Ezek. xxviii. 12. “Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”) So when in the same sentence it is said, to seal up the sin-offerings, and make atonement for iniquity, we must in a like sense understand it thus, to offer that grand sacrifice or atonement for iniquity, that is so much exhibited and represented by the sin-offerings. So that the sin-offerings shall be made to cease, their design being obtained and finished, that grand event, that great and true atonement for sin, which was aimed at in them, and which they all signified and represented, being now accomplished.
Again it is evident, that the priests of old, in their office of offering sacrifices, were types of the Messiah in offering his sacrifice: otherwise there is no truth in that prophecy that God declares in so solemn a manner, and confirms with an oath, in Jer. xxxiii. 18. “Neither shall the priests, the Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.” See how solemnly this is confirmed and sworn to, in the following words. Unless this be fulfilled in the true sacrifice or atonement, which the Messiah offers, and in the accomplishment of that prophecy of the Messiah, Psal. cx. “The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek;” it is not fulfilled at all; and is neither agreeable to fact nor to other prophecies. Unless this prophecy be fulfilled thus, it is not agreeable to fact. For the priests and Levites have had no man literally to offer sacrifices literally, for a much longer time than ever they had a man to offer sacrifices. And it is not agreeable to other prophecies, particularly that fore-mentioned, Dan. ix. 24, 27. That speaks of the Messiah’s causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease; and sealing them up, which is directly contrary to this prophecy of Jeremiah xxxiii. if this latter be understood literally. For this very prophecy of Jeremiah is evidently a prophecy of the Messiah. See ver. 15. “I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up to David.”673 So that upon this supposition Jeremiah foretells the Messiah’s abundantly confirming the priests and Levites in their business of offering sacrifice and oblation, so as to perpetuate it for ever; and Daniel foretells his finishing the business wholly, sealing it up and making it to cease. And it is elsewhere foretold that there should be no temple made with hands, no ark, no sacrifices of beasts, in the Messiah’s times.
From what has been now observed of the prophecies foretelling that the Messiah should abolish the legal sacrifices, it is manifest that whenever the prophecies of the Messiah’s times do speak of sacrifices then to be offered, they are to be understood mystically, i. e. of spiritual things typified by the sacrifices, as Isa. xix. 31. lx. 7. Ezek. xi. 40, 41. Mal. i. 11.
The blood of the legal sacrifices is called the blood of the covenant by Moses, Exod. xxiv. 8. “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 concerning all these words.” But God calls the blood of the Messiah the blood of the covenant that he had made with this people, or the blood of their covenant. Zech. ix. 11. “As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water.” It is evident that the blood of the Messiah is that blood by which, the church will be redeemed, when the Messiah comes, which is the time here spoken of. See ver. 9. foregoing, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh,” &c. Therefore, as both these, viz. the blood of the legal sacrifices, and the blood of the Messiah, are called the blood of the church’s covenant, it is manifest that one is represented by the other. The same sacrifices must be intended in that prophecy of the Messiah’s times, Ps. 1. 5. “Gather my saints together, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Thus plain it is that the legal sacrifices were types of the Messiah, the great sacrifice and true atonement for sin, and were appointed as such. And by some things that have been already observed, it is also manifest that their legal purifications were types of that spiritual purity that should be by the Messiah, and the sweet incense a type of that which is spiritual and truly sweet to God. And concerning the incense, I further observe, that spiritual things are expressly compared to it in the Old Testament, Ps. cxli. 2. “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” And the Messiah is expressly compared to a cloud of incense; Cant. iii. 6. White and beautiful garments were appointed the priests by the law of Moses. These garments on the priests are expressly spoken of as representing something in the Messiah, and particularly are there spoken of as representing righteousness. Again, the righteousness of the Messiah is compared to beautiful garments, Isa. lxi. 10. “He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with his ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” Job xxix. 14. “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.” God is represented as clothed with a garment white as snow. Dan. vii. 7. And the Messiah appears to Daniel clothed in linen. Dan. x. 5, 6. and xii. 7. Spiritual purity is represented by the colour white. Isa. i. 18. “Though thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” Dan. xii. 10. “Many shall be purified and made white.” The high priest had broidered garments: such are spoken of as representing righteousness. Ezek. xvi. 9, 10. “Then I washed thee with water; I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee; and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work and I girded thee about with fine linen.”
It is manifest that the legal uncleannesses were types of sin, they are said to be an abomination to the Lord. Yea, they are called sin in the law of the sin-offering. Lev. vi. 6-8. and xiv. 13, 14, 19, 22, 24, 25, 53. xv. 30. Moral impurities seem to be represented by legal impurities, Hag. ii. 11-14. One thing that was a legal pollution, was blood. This is made use of by the prophets to represent sin. Ezek. xvi. 6. “When I saw thee polluted in thy blood.” So 9, 22. Isa. i. 18. “Though your sins be as scarlet and red like crimson.” Chap. iv. 4. “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.”
One kind of legal uncleanness was through menstruous blood. Moral or spiritual pollution is compared to this. Isa. lxiv. 6. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” or menstruous clothes, as it might have been rendered. The leprosy was one kind of legal uncleanness. Sin seems to be compared to this, in Isa. i. 6. “From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.”
The legal purifications by washing the hands in the laver, and other parts of the body in water, is what a spiritual cleansing from sin is compared to. Ps. xxvi. 6. “I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar;” alluding to the priests washing their hands at the laver before they compassed God’s altar. Zech. xiii. 1. “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” Ps. li. 2. “Wash me from my iniquity; cleanse me from my sin.” Isa. i. 16. “Wash ye, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings.” Jer. iv. 14. “Wash thy heart from wickedness.” Prov. xxx. 12. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not cleansed from their filthiness.” Isa. iv. 4. “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion.” Ezek. xvi. 4. “Neither wast thou washed in water.” Ver. 9. “Then washed I thee in water.” Ezek. xxxvi. 25. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness.”
That the anointing under the law typified something spiritual, is confirmed by this, that what is spiritual is called anointing. Ezek. xvi. 9. “I anointed thee with oil.” It is an argument that those officers that were anointed, were types of the Messiah, that his name is Messiah, or the anointed. The holy anointing oil represented the Spirit of God, because the Holy Spirit is represented by holy anointing oil. Zech. iv. 2-6, 12. and Isa. lxi. 1. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me.” By which last words it may also be confirmed, that the anointing of the officers of the Jewish church represented the spiritual anointing of the Messiah.
Something spiritual that shall be in the Messiah’s times is compared to the wine of the drink-offering. Zech. ix. 15. “They shall drink and make a noise as through wine. They shall be filled like bowls and as the corners of the altar.”
We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, that the golden candlestick with its bowl on the top and its seven lamps, and oil for the lamps, is a representation of the church of the Messiah. Zech. iv. taken with the preceding chapter.
The sanctuary or temple was a type of heaven, as may be argued from this, that heaven is called in the Old Testament his dwelling-place, his holy habitation, his sanctuary, and his temple. 1 Kings viii. 30. “Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place.” So 39, 43, 49. 2 Chron. vi. 21, 30, 39.; and 2 Chron. xxx. 27.; and Ps. xxxiii. 13, 14. “The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men; from the place of his habitation he looketh on all the inhabitants of the earth.” Isa. lxiii. 15. “Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and thy glory.” Jer. xxv. 30. “The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation.” Deut. xxvi. 15. “Look down from thy holy habitation.” Ps. lxviii. 4, 5. “Sing unto the Lord; sing praises unto his name; extol him that rideth on the heavens by his name Jah. A judge of the widows is God in his “holy habitation.” Ps. cii. 19. “For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.” Ps. xi. 4. “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.”
That the great, costly, or precious stories that were the foundation of the temple, spoken of 1 Kings v. 19.; and of Solomon’s house, chap. vii. 10. represented the Messiah, is confirmed by Isa. xxviii. 16. Ps. cxviii. 22. Zech. iii. 9. and iv. 7.
It is a confirmation that the frame of the tabernacle and 674temple were typical, from the agreement there is between it, and the visions under which God sometimes manifested himself. The mercy-seat with the cherubims is called the chariot of the cherubims. 1 Chron. xxviii. 18.; agreeable to the vision that Ezekiel had of God riding in a chariot drawn by cherubims. Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot of the cherubims was also agreeable with the frame of the chariot, in which the lavers were set, and represented as drawn by lions, oxen, and cherubim; agreeable to the shapes of Ezekiel’s living creatures. See 1 Kings vii. 27-39.
But a very great and clear evidence, that the city of Jerusalem, the holy city and the temple in all its parts and measures, and its various appendages and utensils, with all its officers, services, sacrifices, and ceremonies, and so all things appertaining to the ceremonial law, and indeed many things appertaining to the civil state of the people as divided into twelve tribes, were typical of things appertaining to the Messiah and his church and kingdom, is that these things are evidently made use of as such, in a very particular manner in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel; that we have an account of the nine last chapters of his prophecy. These there mentioned, which are the same which were in Israel under the law of Moses, are mentioned as resemblances, figures, or symbolical representations of spiritual things. So that God has in these chapters determined, that these things are figures, symbols, or types representing the things of the Messiah’s kingdom, because here he plainly makes use of them as such.
It is no argument, that the things that have been treated of were not designed as types of the Messiah, and things pertaining to his kingdom, that God, when he instituted them, did not expressly declare them to be so. For there is no more necessity of supposing that all types signifying future events, when given should be explained, than that all visions and prophecies signifying future events should be explained. The things that were exhibited in visions, were truly a sort of types of future events; as Abraham’s smoking furnace and burning lamp, which was not explained nor expressly declared to represent any thing future. The twelve fountains and threescore and ten palm-trees at Elim, were evidently types of the twelve tribes, and threescore and ten elders; but yet it is not expressly said so. The like might be observed of Jacob’s taking Esau by the heel at his birth, and God’s making Eve of Adam’s rib, and Moses’s rod’s swallowing up the magicians’ rods, and many other things.
Corollary. Seeing it is thus abundantly evident by the Old Testament itself, that the things of the Old Testament were typical of the Messiah, and things appertaining to him, hence a great and most convincing argument may be drawn that Jesus is the Messiah; seeing there is so wonderful a correspondence, and evident, manifold, and great agreement between him and his gospel, and those types of the Old Testament. And as it is so plain by the Old Testament, that the ancient state of things amongst the Jews was all typical of the Messiah, and the Jews themselves acknowledge it: So it is a great argument, that Jesus and his kingdom were the end and antitype of these things, because presently after he comes and sets up his kingdom, God puts a total and final end to that typical state of the Jews, and all things appertaining to it, blots out all those types at once, and wipes them clean away, and poured the utmost contempt upon them, and covered them with the most dreadful darkness, and utterly destroyed, as by one great fatal and final blow, that whole typical world, and has now continued their abolition for so many ages, much longer than he did their existence, and has followed all that reject the antitype, and will cleave to the types, with so awful and continual a curse, and all this agreeably to the prophecies of what God would do, when the Messiah, this great antitype, was come.
That typical representations were looked upon by God as no trifling matters, but things of great importance, as is manifest in that it is spoken of in Scripture as a matter of such importance, that Christ’s body should not see corruption before it was raised.
It was common for names to be given by a spirit of prophecy. (See Owen on Heb. vii. 2. p. 112.)
We have reason to suppose, that very many things in the Old Testament are intended as types, seeing it is manifest in some instances, that so very minute circumstances were so ordered, such as the negative circumstances of the story of Melchizedek, there being no mention made of his father or mother, of his birth or death.
That all things, even to the least circumstance, prescribed by God about the tabernacle, and its services, were types of heavenly things, appears by the apostle’s manner of arguing, (Heb. viii. 5.) from those words of God to Moses, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” And if they were all types, they were all for our instruction; and if they were for our instruction, then we must endeavour to understand them, even those of them that are no where explained in Scripture.
Heb. ix. 3-5. The apostle there mentioning the ark, mercy-seat, tables of the covenant, the golden censer, pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, concludes thus, “Of which I cannot now speak particularly,” i. e. I cannot now explain particularly the design of those things, and tell you particularly what evangelical and heavenly things were represented thereby; which proves evidently, that many things in the tabernacle were typical, and intended to represent to God’s people evangelical things, which signification is not explained to us in Scripture.
The Jews of old seemed to look on the redemption from Egypt as a type of the redemption which should be accomplished by the Messiah. (See Pool’s Synopsis on Exod. xii. 14.)
It is an evidence that legal uncleanness was a type of sin, that it is in effect called sin. (See Pool’s Synopsis on Lev. xii. 8.)
That the temporal things of the Old Testament were types of the spiritual things of the New. (See Pool’s Synopsis on 2 Sam. ii. 10.)
An objection is raised from the abuse that will be made of this doctrine of types. Answer. I do not know that the types of Scripture are more abused by people that are enthusiastic and of teeming imagination, than the visionary representations of the book of Revelation; and yet none make that an objection against all attempts to understand and interpret that book. We have as good warrant from the word of God to suppose the whole ceremonial law to be given in order to a figurative representing and signifying spiritual and evangelical things to mankind, as we have to suppose that prophetical representations are to represent and signify the events designed by them, and therefore have as good reason to endeavour to interpret them.
The principles of human nature render types a fit method of instruction. It tends to enlighten and illustrate, and to convey instruction with impression, conviction, and pleasure, and to help the memory. These things are confirmed by man’s natural delight in the imitative arts, in painting, poetry, fables, metaphorical language and dramatic performances. This disposition appears early in children.
This may be observed concerning types in general, that not only the things of the Old Testament are typical; for this is but one part of the typical world. The system of created beings may be divided into two parts, the typical world, and the antitypical world. The inferior and carnal, i. e. the more external and transitory part of the universe, that part of it which is inchoative, imperfect, and subservient, is typical of the superior, more spiritual, perfect, and durable part of it, which is the end, and as it were the substance and consummation, of the other. Thus the material and natural world is typical of the moral, spiritual, and intelligent world, or the city of God. And many things in the world of mankind, as to their external and worldly state, are typical of things pertaining to the city and kingdom of God: as many things in the state of the ancient Greeks, and Romans, &c. And those things belonging to the city of God, which belong to its more imperfect, carnal, inchoative, transient, and preparatory state, are typical of those things which belong to its more spiritual, perfect, and durable state; as things belonging to the state of the church under the Old Testament were typical of things belonging to the church and kingdom of God under the New Testament. 675The external works of Christ were typical of his spiritual works. The ordinances of the external worship of the Christian church are typical of things belonging to its heavenly state.
The manner of the apostle’s expressing himself in Gal. iv. 21, 22. will clearly prove that Abraham’s two sons, and their mothers, and mount Sinai, and mount Sion, were intended to be types of those things he mentions; which is a great confirmation that the history of the Old Testament in general is intended to be typical of spiritual things. The apostle’s manner of speaking seems to imply, that it might well be expected of God, that his people should understand such like things as representations of divine things, and receive particular instruction exhibited in them, even before they are particularly explained to them by God by a new revelation.
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