is obvious that their own past or future history could be incorporated with predictions concern prophet Jonah." Matt. xii. 39. It was indeed no marvellous thing for a man to be swallowed by a huge sea-monster; but the mira-ing Christ. Hence" the Lord of cle was, that, on the third day, Hosts" said concerning Solomon, the captive should be released from the fish's jaws ALIVE. In this miraculous deliverance, however, there was an apt exhibition of our Lord's RESURRECTION ON THE THIRD DAY: and such a type recorded in the scriptures may amount to a clear and decisive prediction. On this ground we can easily account for the language of the Apostle Paul, who says, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was BURIED, and that he ROSE AGAIN the THIRD DAY according to THE [JEWISH] SCRIPTURES." Cor. xv. 3, 4. 1 I will be HIS father, and HE shall be my Son, [or LORD of ALL worlds.*] If HE commit iniquity, I will chasten HIM with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men : but my mercy shall not depart from HIM, as I took it from Saul." 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15.-Now no man who reads the first of Hebrews can fairly conceive that he has any scriptural warrant to apply the absolute part of these predictions to Solomon; nor can any man find such a warrant to transfer the conditional part from Solomon to Him who 66 was in all points tempted like as we are, yet WITHOUT SIN." No man, however, who is mereHere it may be proper to pausely a type, can incorporate his own in order to consider the difference history with predictions concernbetween Jonah as a type, and Da-ing Christ with that facility which vid as an ancestor. In the first is afforded to a progenitor, proplace, then, it may be observed vided such progenitor has a that he who is merely a type can knowledge of his relationship to only, to a certain degree, be the Christ as David had. For when representative of Christ in points Peter quoted David's prophecies, of resemblance; whereas an an- he appears to have attributed the cestor may not only exhibit his peculiarity of the language to descendant in points of resem- David's KNOWLEDGE of his blance, but may be said to do or relationship to Christ.+ Jonah, suffer ANY thing that is done or however, having no such knowsuffered by his descendant. Thus ledge, could not speak of the David was never crucified; and Messiah as David did. Therefore, yet he says, "They pierced MY any prediction emanating from hands and MY feet." Ps. xxii. 16. Jonah must be ofa different kind: Nor did the Roman soldiers ever and indeed it was not so much share one portion of David's rai- Jonah as his peculiar circumment, and cast lots for the other; stances that constituted any type and yet he says, They part of things to come. Hence our MY garments among them, and Lord says, "AS Jonah was in cast lots for MY vesture." Ps. the stomach of the great fish till xxii. 18.-Moreover, as ancestors the third day [only,] SO will the of the Messiah spoke of their descendant in the same manner as any man speaks of himself, it 68 * See Heb. i. 5, and Acts x. 36. Son of man be in the bosom of the earth till the third day [only]." Matt. xii. 40. together they formed a compen- as a point of time falls short of We have, however, a striking instance of a typical person in Melchizedek, king of Salem, who appears to have been as eminenting as far short of the substance, for piety in the land of Canaan as Job was in the land of Uz: and one remarkable circumstance relating to Melchizedek is, that his birth and death are kept out of sight-so that he is exhibited to us, as if he had neither predecessor nor successor. Thus a vast eternity is expressed by abstracting from human life the boundaries that limit its duration. As Melchizedek then was priest of the Most High God, and as his Here we have arrived at priesthood was peculiar, and had another point where we must something like eternity attached pause, in order to distinguish to it, he was "MADE LIKE unto between a type, and a mere the Son of God," Heb. vii. 3. illustrative object. For though a Nothing, indeed, can be a type type is always an illustrative obwithout Divine appointment: but ject, yet there may be many ilGod himself said, in reference to lustrative objects that are not the Messiah, "Thou art a priest types. For every type is a spefor ever after the order of Mel- cies of Divine revelation; and, chizedek." Ps. cx. 4. consequently, must be authentiSuch is the wonderful cha-cated by a Divine appointment. racter of the Messiah, that no If, therefore, we have no scriptype was adequate to express tural warrant for the appointment, his glory. Hence a great variety we have none for the type and, of types were appointed, some in such a case, an object which is glancing at one particular, some imitated by any personage or shadowing forth another, and event should be considered as others exhibiting a third, till all merely illustrative. For instance, Jezebel, wife of Ahab, seems to have been imitated by some part of the Church in Thyatira: and hence Jesus says, in reference to that Church, "I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman JEZEBEL, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols," Rev. ii. 20. Now the very same things which this Jezebel taught are, in the fourteenth verse, called God called the light DAY; and, in this sense of the word day, three days would only be about thirty-six hours. Hence, to prevent mistakes, a period of twenty-four hours was sometimes called a day and a night. In the Hebrew idiom too, a cardinal number is frequently used for the corresponding ordinal number; so that if a child were to die on the third day of its age, it would be said to be three days old. Consequently, to say three days and three nights, is equivalent to saying in the third twenty-four-hour period, or, according to the English mode of speaking, on the third day. the doctrine of BALAAM: and, in the eleventh verse of Jude, those who pursued the erroneous course of Balaam, are said to have gone in the way of CAIN, and to have exposed themselves to certain perdition in the rebellion of KORAH. No man, however, can produce scriptural evidence that AHAB's WIFE was a Divinely appointed type of any individual who imitated her pernicious conduct in the Church of Thyatira. Jezebel, indeed, as well as Balaam, Cain, or Korah, may be resorted to as a Simile, or as a Metaphor, but not as a Type. In short, the most that can be said of Jezebel, or the other characters referred to, is that they are imitated, and so are convertible into an allegory: and the same thing may be affirmed of any birds, beasts, or fishes, which are all convertible into an allegory at the option of the Fabulist. No man, however, can add Fables to Scripture without exposing himself to the most serious consequences: for even with respect to the closing book of the New Testament, (a book we are the most in danger of misinterpreting,) it is said, "If any man shall ADD unto these things, God will add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall TAKE AWAY from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city." Rev. xxii. 18, 19.-Under such penalties, therefore, are we prohibited from CHANGING the Truth of God INTO A LIE," and from attending to the "TRADITION OF MEN," or to any "DREAMER OF DREAMS."+ Nor should it be See Matt. xv. 1-6. Col. ii. 8. forgotten that if we once lose sight of Divine authority as a guide to what is typical, we may proceed from step to step in allegorizing and establishing types, till we cease to be surrounded with the light of the land of Goshen, and become irretrievably involved in Egyptian darkness. To proceed with the object of this paper, it may be observed, in the last place, that the exhibition of Divine truth by visionary objects has been effected in such a way as infinitely to transcend the power of mortals. For those dreams and visions to which such objects have been subservient, are dreams and visions that represent those things "which the Father hath reserved in HIS OWN power." Acts i. 7. In short, such an exhibition of future events can only be accounted for on the principle laid down in Acts xv. 18: "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Hence, in every age, Jehovah has been proved to be the living and the true God; and all existing Revelation has, by the same means, been proved to be of Divine authority. Nay Jehovah has himself appealed to prophecy as a proof of Deity. Thus he is represented as saying to the heathen gods, "Show the THINGS THAT ARE TO COME TO PASS HEREAFTER, that we may know that ye are GODS." Isai. xli. 23.-On the same principle, therefore, the Divine Being proves HIMSELF to be GOD. Hence he says, "I am JEHOVAH; that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things ARE COME TO PASS, and new things do I declare: BEFORE THEY SPRING FORTH I tell you of them." Isai. xlii. 8, 9.-By such a crite-only Peter, however, but Paul rion, then, may Heathens perceive also employed prophecy in reathe fallacy of their idol worship, soning with the Jews. Nay at and be induced to seek Him who Thessalonica he adopted this plan has so incontestably proved that for three Sabbath-days succeshe is the true God. By the same sively: " and some of them BEcriterion too, may Unbelievers LIEVED," Acts xvii. 4.-Apollos learn to revere every page of the likewise "MIGHTILY CONSacred Volume; and Jews like-VINCED the Jews, and that pubwise may learn that Jesus of Na-licly, showing BY THE SCRIPzareth was the promised Messiah,TURES that Jesus was the MESsince he himself also uttered pre- SIAH." Acts xviii. 28. dictions, and appealed to them for a proof of his Messiahship. Now," says he on one occasion, "I tell you BEFORE it come, that WHEN IT COME TO PASS, ye may BELIEVE that I am HE." John xiii. 19. 66 It is true, indeed, that some parts of Nature are characterized by such a stability as to enable ANY man to predict future occurrences to a limited extent. Thus when one day is departing, we have a firm persuasion that the setting sun will rise again, and produce another day, whether we live to see it or not: and it is on this principle that all the Astronomer's calculations are made. Nevertheless, this very stability Great then is the design and efficacy of prophecy.-When the veil of the temple was rent in twain, when the earth quaked, and the Saints arose from the silent tomb, the Jews had a soul of marble, that could neither feelin God's works is founded on nor tremble. But, on the day of Pentecost, the heart of stone became a heart of flesh; and thousands began to exclaim in the anguish of their souls, "What shall we do to be saved?" But what was the means of producing the salutary effects? It was the proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. But how was this proved? By the Jewish Scriptures quoted and explained by the Apostle Peter. But what portions of Scripture could they be that proved Jesus to be the Messiah? They must have been such as described him beforehand, and which accorded with his character and circumstances when he came; and such a description of any personage before he as sumes the character described must be a PROPHECY.-Not Thus it is evident that God hopoured prophecy by connecting with it the saving influence of the HOLY SPIRIT. HIS PROMISE: for he has said, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and DAY and NIGHT shall NOT CEASE." Gen. viii. 22. But there is, in the dark abyss of futurity, a day which will awfully derange all the machinery of astronomical computations, and show that there is an infinite difference between them and Divine predictions. What then shall we say concerning those who, in the dark ages of the world, were accustomed to blend the noble science of Astronomy with the dogmas of heathen superstition;t and who made gods of the + Astrology falls before the pure Gosin 'ancient heathen nations it had a pel, like Dagon before the Ark. But mighty influence on the human mind. Hence when the Israelites were scattered among such a people, they were addressed in these memorable words: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the WAY OF THE HEATHEN, and planets by ascribing to them the Divine province of showing "the things that are to come to pass hereafter?"* at the same moment,) this Query has arisen ;-How can a created being possess such attributes as seem to belong to the Creator of all things exclusively; or how can we distinguish between the omnipresence of the Author of all things, Thus have Divine predictions been preserved from age to age, unrivalled and unravelled. For this world is so full of uncertain-and the omnipresent action of an ties and changes, as to exonerate evil and malicious spirit, which all ancient prophecy from the by direful experience we all feel suspicion of being a collection of to our distress and dismay?" probabilities founded on the existing state of things. More over, when Divine predictions are couched in language which renders them unintelligible till Providence illustrates them, no man, or fallen angel, can KNOWINGLY be accessory to their accomplishment. Hence prophecy derives its efficacy from its ANTIQUITY and its ORIGINAL OBSCURITY; and thus the ancient prophets ministered "not to themselves, but to US"+ who live under the reign of the Messiah. Permit me to make a few re marks on a question which appeared in your valuable miscellany for May, 1822. Your respectable correspondent, W.H.A. says, "Having my mind much perplexed in thinking on the omnipresence or ubiquity of the enemy of all righteousness, (for by my of all righteousness, (for by what other names I know not how to express his being able to act by evil suggestions on my mind in Britain, and on that of another person at Bombay, or New York, be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them." Jer. x. 2. *See Isai. xli. 23, already quoted. † See 1 Pet. i. 12. 1. I apprehend that his notion of this world is too large. Our world is not the universe. So far from this being the case, astronomers tell us that by an eye that could take in the whole, the annihilation and disappearing of this little world, our planet, could not be noticed. 2. On the other hand, his notion of angelic powers is far too diminutive. Here we must recollect that we know nothing of angels, good or evil, but what we learn from revelation. The scriptures give no countenance to the idea of Satan's being omnipresent; and, indeed, such an idea is totally inconsistent with the first principles of Deism, (not to say of Christianity also,) for he who is the poetical book of Job, Satan omnipresent, must be God. In is represented as going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it. What is the earth to angel may go to and fro, and walk an angel? This mighty fallen up and down in it, for aught we know, as easily as we can examine and explore a single apartment in a large house. And yet, notwithstanding, he may be perfectly ignorant, or very inadequately informed, of the general affairs of the universe, and even of this globe which we inhabit. 3. When your correspondent says, "at the same moment,” I hesitate to concur with him. |