nearly allied to it. For, whereas the prophets, by the divine direction, assumed characters not naturally belonging to them, and performed actions altogether out of the common course, for the purpose of prefiguring future persons and events, the characters and actions and fortunes of some eminent persons, whose distinguished stations placed them in the view of the world, were so ordered by God as to be exact representations of future persons, who, when they arose, by the likeness of their characters and actions and fortunes to those of the persons by whom they were represented, would make mankind sensible that the inspired teachers spake truly when they declared that the one had been prefigured by the other. In some instances, the persons whose characters and actions prefigured future events, were declared by God himself to be typical, long before the events which they prefigured came to pass. But in other instances, many persons really typical were not known to be such, till after the things which they typified happened.

1. Of the first mentioned sort we have a remarkable example in Abraham, whom God declared to be a typical person by constituting him the father or type of believers of all nations; and by making with him as their father, a covenant in which he promised to be a God to him and to his seed in their generations, and to give to him and to his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession: which promises had not only a literal but a typical or second meaning ; as was shewed at large in Ess. v. sect. 1, 2. &c. consequently the covenant with Abraham was an allegory.

2. A second example of a typical person we have in Melchizedec, who in his character of a king and priest united, was declared by God himself to be a type of his Son's becoming a king and a priest in the human nature; and who, by blessing Abraham, prefigured the efficacy of the priesthood and government of the Son of God in procuring for believers the pardon of their sins. Psal. cx. 4. "The Lord hath sworn, and will not << repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the similitude of "Melchizedec."

3. Jacob likewise and Esau were typical persons: For their struggling together in their mother's womb, prefigured the wars which the nations who were to descend from them were to wage with each other: And Jacob's taking hold of Esau's heel in their birth, prefigured that the descendants of Jacob would subdue the descendants of Esau. So God told Rebecca, Gen.

XXV. 23. "Two nations are in thy womb; and two kinds 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.".

4. Joshua, who was the high-priest of the Jews during the rebuilding of the temple, was an eminently typical person. For he prefigured our great high-priest Christ, as we learn from the vision in which the prophet Zechariah, chap. iii. 3. saw him standing before the angel of the Lord in filthy garments, to represent the iniquity of the many which was to be laid on Christ. These filthy garments the angel commanded to be taken away from him, and said, ver. 4. “Behold I have caused thine iniquity "to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. 5. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head: So they set a fair mitre upon his head," such as the high-priests wore when they officiated, "and clothed him with garments." Then to shew the emblematical meaning of the vision, the angel of the Lord said, ver. 8. "Hear now, O Joshua, the high-priest, "thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men of "wonder," Typical men. So the phrase signifies, Isa. viii. 18 "For, Behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch." Wherefore, Joshua in his character as high-priest, and his fellows the high-priests who preceded him, were all of them types, or prefigurations of God's servant the Branch, in his character as highpriest which also the author of the epistle to the Hebrews hath proved at great length.-Farther, to shew still more clearly that Joshua was a type of Christ, the prophet was ordered by God to take silver and gold and make crowns, and to set them on the head of Joshua in the house of Josiah, and to say to him, chap. vi. 12. "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold "the man whose name is the Branch, He shall grow up out of "his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord,-and he "shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and "the counsel of peace shall be between them both." But the man whose name is the Brunch, and who is here foretold to grow up out of his place, was according to Isaiah to be a descendant of Jesse. Chap. xi. 1. "And there shall come forth a rod out "of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Wherefore, Joshua being a descendant of Aaron, was not the person whom Isaiah foretold under the idea of a Branch growing out of the roots of Jesse. Consequently, when God ordered the

prophet to say to Joshua and the witnesses, after putting the crowns on Joshua's head, Behold the man whose name is the Branch, his meaning certainly was, that Joshua was a type of the man whose name is the Branch, in his two offices of a king and a priest, and as the builder of the true temple of the Lord. Accordingly, that this symbolical transaction might be remembered, and that Joshua in after ages might be known to have been a type and a pledge of the coming of the Man whose name is the Branch, the two crowns which the prophet had put on Joshua's head as symbols of the two offices in which he was a type of Christ, were, by the command of God, delivered to the witnesses to be laid up in the temple as a memorial, ver. 14.

If, because Zerubbabel at this time was the prince of the Jews, any one suspects that he, and not Joshua, was called, the Man whose name is the Branch, he ought to consider that, of the man whose name is the Branch, it is said, ver. 13. not only that "he "shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall sit and rule upon "his throne," but that "he shall be a priest upon his throne.” For this could not be said of Zerubbabel, who was not a descendant of Aaron. We may therefore conclude, that the things said and done to Joshua by the prophet Zechariah, were said and done to him as a type of Christ.

5. Of typical persons who were not declared to be such, till the persons of whom they were types appeared, Adam deserves to be first mentioned. For in respect of his being the author of sin and death to all his posterity, he is said by the apostle, Rom. v. 14. to be by contrast, rvos, "the type or figure of him "(Christ) who was to come" for the purpose of being the author of righteousness and life to mankind. See Rom. v. 14. notes. Hence Christ is called, 1 Cor. xv. 45. The last Adam.-Adam was likewise a type of Christ in this respect, that Eve, who was an image of the church, was formed of a rib taken from Adam's side while he was in a deep sleep. For this transaction prefigured the formation of the church the lamb's wife, by the breaking of Christ's side on the cross, while he slept the sleep of death, as the apostle insinuateth, Ephes. v. 32. See the note on that verse.

6. Of persons who in their natural characters and fortunes were types of future persons and events, Abraham's wives and sons are remarkable examples. His wives Hagar and Sarah, were types of the two covenants by which men become the people of God, and his sons Ismael and Isaac were, in their

characters and state, types of the people of God under these covenants. So the apostle Paul assures us, Gal. iv. 22. "It is "written, that Abraham had two sons; one by the bond-maid, "and one by the free woman. 23. But he verily who was born "of the bond-maid, was begotten according to the flesh but " he who was born of the free woman was through the promise. "24. Which things are an allegory: For these women are the "two covenants: The one verily from Mount Sinai bringing "forth children into bondage, which is Agar. 25. For the "name Agar denotes Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she answereth "to the present Jerusalem, and is in bondage with her children.

26. But the Jerusalem above is the free woman, who is the "mother of us all." See Gal. iv. 24. notes 1, 2. and ver. 25. notes, where, and in the commentary, this allegory is explained.

7. The third typical person I shall mention is David, who was raised by God to the government of the natural seed of Abraham, that in his office as their king, and in his wars against their enemies, he might be a type of Christ the ruler and saviour of Abraham's spiritual seed. This appears from what the angel who announced our Lord's birth said to his mother, Luke i. 32. "The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father

David, and he shall rule over the house of Jacob, for ever, and "of his kingdom there shall be no end." For in what sense could our Lord's spiritual dominion be called the kingdom of his father David, unless David's kingdom was a type thereof? In fact, the power and success with which David governed the natural seed and subdued the neighbouring heathen nations, their enemies, was a fit prefiguration of the power and success with which Christ rules the spiritual seed, and subdues their enemies. That David was a type of Christ appears from this also, that the prophets who foretold to the Israelites the coming of Christ, named him David, and David their king: by a common metonymy giving the name of the type to the person typified. See Jerem. xxx. 9. Ezek. xxxiv. 23. xxxvii. 24. Hosea iii. 4, 5. and Isa. lv. 3. Acts xiii. 34. particularly the last mentioned passage, where the benefits which the spiritual seed derive from the government of Christ, and in particular their safety from their enemies, are termed, The sure mercies of David.-In short, unless David in his government of the natural seed was a type of Christ in his government of the spiritual seed, no just interpretation can be given of the divine revelations and promises which were made to him, and which are recorded by Ethan,

Psal. lxxxix. 19.-37. Whereas, if these things were spoken to David as an image or type of Christ, the whole is plain, and hath received a complete accomplishment.

8. The fourth typical person whose history is given in scripture is Solomon, who in his ruling the natural seed, and in his building the temple, prefigured Christ the ruler of the spiritual Israel, and the builder of the Christian church, the great temple of God which in its perfect form will subsist in the heavenly country. For as David's government was so ordered by God, as to be a striking representation of the powerful government which Christ now exercises, for protecting his people, and subduing their enemies, so God raised up Solomon, a peaceful king, and made Israel enjoy peace and prosperity under his government, and appointed him to build the temple of God at Jerusalem, 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10. to prefigure the peace and happiness which the spiritual Israel shall enjoy after all their enemies are completely destroyed, and they themselves are introduced into the heavenly country, and formed into one great church or temple for the worship of God. This appears from Psal. Ixxii. where Solomon's character and actions as a king, are delineated, and the happy effects of his government are described. For in that Psalm things are spoken of him which do not belong to him, unless as a type of Christ : particularly ver. 5. “They shall fear "thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all gene"rations."-Ver. 11. "All kings shall fall down before him, "all nations shall serve him. 12. For he shall deliver the needy "when he crieth, the poor also, and him who hath no helper.“14. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence; and "precious shall their blood be in his sight.-Ver. 17. His name "shall endure foever; his name shall be continued as long as “the sun and men shall be blessed in him : all nations shall "call him blessed."-This last circumstance indisputably proves Solomon to have been a type of Christ, for it was one of the dis. tinguishing characters of Christ Abraham's seed, That "in him "all the nations of the earth were to be blessed "-Moreover, Psal. xlv. cannot be interpreted of Solomon, unless on the supposition that he was a type of Christ: for in his natural character, it could not be said to Solomon, ver. 6. "Thy throne, O God, "is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre "of rectitude. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wick