PART II.

APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES BROUGHT OUT IN THE PRECEDING INVESTIGATION, TO THE PROPER EXPLANATION OF THE TYPICAL MATTER OF OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

BEFORE proceeding to the special illustration of what is typical in Old Testament scripture, a few observations are necessary to indicate the path we mean to follow, and notice some points needing to be kept in view for its successful prosecution. In doing this, we shall not spend time in unfolding the various courses that might be adopted, and the advantages which one has over another; but shall simply content ourselves with pointing out the one we have resolved to adopt, as being in itself the most natural, and the best adapted for a full and orderly application of the principles already established.

1. As all types and symbols were parts of a religious worship or training, and must consequently be viewed in connexion with a religion then existing, as well as a religion still to come; our primary and leading divisions must be sought in the different religious dispensations. Although there were the same elements of truth at the bottom of these dispensations, yet there were also characteristic differences, wisely accommodating them to the varying circumstances of the church. It is from these, therefore, we must take our great starting-points, giving always the first place to the typical institutions which belonged to the current religion, and only afterwards, and as subsidiary to these, considering the typical transactions, which entered into the special dealings of providence therewith connected.

2. In the whole of the history that is past, we find only three grand eras, which are entitled to be regarded as forming the commencement of so many dispensations,-those, namely, of the fall, of the redemption from Egypt, and of the advent of Christ. Between the first and second of these eras, there certainly were two very important events, forming prominent breaks in the history of the period, the deluge, and the call of Abraham. Hence, not unfrequently, the antediluvian is distinguished from the patriarchal church, and the church as it existed before, and as subsequent to the call of Abraham. But however important these events were as eras in sacred history, they mark no substantial change in the

character of the religion then established. In so far as the institutions of worship were concerned, Abraham and his immediate descendants seemed to have been on one footing with those who lived before the flood; and the new ideas evolved by the events in question, considered in a religious point of view, must have been of a secondary, not of a primary nature. The same may also be said of another great event, which formed a similar break during the progress of the second period, the restoration from Babylon. This occupies a very distinguished place in sacred history, and in the prophetic record it stands out even more prominently than the redemption from Egypt. But still, it introduced no essential change into the spiritual relations of the church, nor altered in the very least the form of religion, under which she had to serve God. The second temple was built as near as possible after the pattern, as it stood on the very foundations of the first; and the entire round of services connected with it, was conducted in conformity to the ritual of the law of Moses. So that, as we have to do only with the preparatory dispensations, there remain simply the two grand eras of the fall, and the redemption from Egypt, as properly distinguishing periods in the history of religion, and giving rise to corresponding divisions in the treatment of our subject. The typical matter embodied in the symbols of the patriarchal religion, must first be considered, and in connexion with it the ideas developed in the transactions of a typical providence, till the events belonging to the second period began to take place; and then, commencing as from a new head, we shall come to consider the typical matter embodied in the symbols of the religion which was brought in by Moses, and which might be said to take its rise with the redemption from Egypt, viewed of course in connexion, as in the former case, with the ideas then or afterwards developed in the facts of a typical providence. This latter subject is in itself so wide and important a field, that it must be left for the present; but it is the author's intention immediately to enter on that, if the attempt now made, in the other and earlier field of inquiry, meets with encouragement.

3. Then, in investigating the import of particular types, as the first place is due to those which belonged to the institutions of religion, so our first care must be, according to the principles already established, to ascertain the views and impressions, which, as parts of an existing religion, they were fitted to awaken in the ancient worshipper. It may be impossible, of course, to say in any particular case, that such views and impressions were actually derived from them, with all the precision and definiteness, which may appear in our description; for we cannot be sure, that the necessary thought and application of mind were really directed to the subject. But due care must be taken in this respect, not to make the typical symbols and transactions indicative of more, than what may with ordinary measures of light and grace have been learned from them by the Old Testament believers. It is not, however, to be forgotten, that in their peculiar circumstances, much greater

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progress would be made in learning divine truth through that channel, than we might at first thought imagine. These believers of the olden time were all, in the first instance, orientals, and were no doubt characterized to some extent by those peculiarities of thought and contemplation, which have been wont to distinguish the inhabitants of the east, and of which evident traces are to be found in all the religions which have emanated from that quarter. The mode of contemplation or style of thought that may be said peculiarly to distinguish the nations of the east, "proceeds on the ground of there being an inseparable connexion between the spiritual and the bodily, the ideal and the real, the seen and the unseen. According to it, the whole actual world is nothing but the manifestation of the ideal one, the entire creation is not only a production, but along with this an evidence and a revelation of Godhead; nothing real is merely dead matter, but is the form and body of something ideal; so that the whole world, even to its very stones, appears instinct with life, and precisely for that reason does it become a revelation of Deity, this being what has life essentially in itself. Such a mode of viewing things in nature may be called the peculiarly religious one; for it regards the world as a great sanctuary, whose individual parts are so many marks, words, and letters of a grand revelation-book of Godhead, in which God speaks and imparts information concerning himself. If, therefore, that which is seen and felt was generally regarded by men as the immediate expression of that which is unseen, a speech and revelation of the invisible Godhead to them, it necessarily follows, that if they were to have unfolded to them a conception of his nature, and a representation given them of what his worship properly consisted in, the same language would require to be used, which God spake with them, the same means of representation would need to be employed, which God himself had sanctioned,the sensible, the visible, external."*

If the learned author had merely said, that there was a propriety or fitness in employing the same outward means of representation, as they fell in with the prevailing cast of thought in those among whom they were instituted, and so were likely to reach the end in view, we would have entirely concurred in his conclusion. But that such persons were so riveted to that style of thinking, as to render a symbolical worship in any proper sense necessary, could scarcely be admitted, without, at the same time, implying that it must have been perpetual,-that it could not be supplanted by another and more spiritual one, unless that "peculiarly religious mode of viewing things" had ceased to distinguish them. Besides, it may be a question, whether this mode of viewing things in nature was not rather the result of the symbolical religion under which the Orientals were placed, than that, previously existing of itself, it required to be met by a religion made up of symbolical institutions. At all events, the real necessity

* Baehr's Symbolik, B. 1, p. 24.

for the carnality and outwardness, which distinguished the worship of God in the earlier dispensations, was of a different kind, and arose from the very nature of those earlier religions, as preparatory for the better things, and the spiritual service of the gospel. It is too much the habit of the writer just quoted, though far ahead of most of his countrymen in zeal for the divine authority, and insight into the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament institutions, to view these, not as typical, but simply as symbolical, as parts of a worship complete in itself, at least so far complete, that the mind of the worshipper might have rested in it, without being necessarily carried forward to something higher and better than it provided.

But even allowing the exceptions now made to the sentiments expressed above, there can be no doubt that the mode of contemplation and insight there ascribed to the inhabitants of the east, has remarkably distinguished them, and that it must have qualified them in a singular manner for the intelligent use of symbolical worship. The converse, which they held with God through means of their religious services, though carried on by outward and fleshly signs, was yet perfectly adapted to their views and feelings; they still spoke to God, and he to them, in a language far from being unintelligible, because it was, in a manner, their natural and proper tongue. Nor was this all; for being confined to such a mode of communication with Heaven, they would naturally become much more expert in the use of it, than if it had been one merely of a variety of modes. We are so much accustomed to oral and written discourse, as the means through which we receive our knowledge of divine truth, and give expression to the feelings it awakens in our bosom, that we have some difficulty in conceiving how any definite ideas could either be imparted or expressed, where that was little, if at all, employed as the medium of communication. But this is to judge by a false standard; it is to go to the interpretation of another language with the help merely of our mother-tongue. And when we endeavour to apprehend how much was learned by pious worshippers of the mind and purposes of God, and how much they put forth of faith and love toward him, when the one was revealed through symbolical institutions, and the other exercised by means of symbolical services, we must carefully remember, that those who had to do with them, were fitted and prepared for an intelligent and profitable use of them by natural bent of mind and acquired habit, derived from the constant use of such means, as their only channel of religious communication with Heaven.

4. When the symbolical institutions and services have been explained in the way now mentioned, the next step is to take up the typical matter contained in the historical transactions, which fell out in the respective dispensations. In doing this, care must first of all be taken to view them in their proper place and connexion, as subsidiary to the idea symbolized in the existing religion. And as in reading the typical symbols, so in reading the typical transactions connected with them, we must make the views and impres

sions they were fitted to convey to those whom they immediately respected, concerning the character or purposes of God, the ground and measure of that higher bearing, which they carried to the events of the gospel. Here, also, of course, must be taken into account the religious tendency and habit of mind, which has been noticed as a general characteristic of the inhabitants of the east; for they would doubtless be disposed to do with the acts of providence, as with the works of creation-contemplate them as manifestations of the Godhead, and discern in them the truths and principles of the spiritual world. Besides, it is to be borne in mind, that the historical transactions now in question were all special acts of providence. While they formed part of current events and arrangements, they were, at the same time, so peculiarly connected with the high purposes and immediate interposition of God, that the persons among whom they occurred could scarcely overlook either the hand of God in them, or their intimate connexion with his plans and purposes of grace. In the recorded transactions of Old Testament history, God is every where seen; the operations, which respect his own people, especially bear the mark and impress of his hand; these always seem to occupy a higher and more immediate connexion with him, than the ordinary and common events of providence, which concerned the world at large; and being the operations of a God, whose great object from the period of the fall was the foiling of the tempter, and the bringing in for his people of a redemption from the guilt and ruin of sin, they could not fail to be regarded by intelligent and pious minds as standing in a peculiar relation to this one centrepoint of the world's history. In proportion as God's people had faith to "wait for the consolation of Israel," they would also have discernment to read, with a view to the better things to come, the discoveries of his mind and character, which shone from his acts and dispensations toward his church.

It is in this view of the matter that we are to seek the main reason of God's frequent appearance on the stage of patriarchal history, and his manifested personal agency in the leading affairs of the church down to a comparatively late period. These could not otherwise have accomplished the ends for which they were designed. For they were all intended to carry a religious aspect, and were, indeed, so many parts of the revelation which God was making of himself as the God of grace. It was, therefore, of essential moment to the end he had in view, that his people should be able, without hesitation, to refer them to his special interposition; that they should not merely consider them as his, in the sense in which it may be said generally, that "God is in history;" but his also, in the more definite and peculiar sense of their being discoveries of his character in the relation he held to an elect seed, as the God of peace and salvation. But this could only be attained by his appearing ever and anon personally, or by means of special messengers, upon the scene: thus putting an easily recognised distinction between the acts of providence, in which his church was imme