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Types Of The Messiah

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 1. 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, etc. 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 be 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, Pro. 1:6, “To understand a proverb (or parable), and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings;” and from that of the psalmist, Psa. 49:3, 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 mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old.” By a parable is meant an enigmatical symbolical speech. Eze. 17:2, and 23:3. 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. Everything that the wise said must be in a kind of allegory, and veiled with types: as it was also the manner of the heathen oracles, to utter themselves under the like representatives.

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. 25:22, 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; and his name was called Jacob,” or, supplanter. Gen. 27:36, “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.” Hos. 12:3, 6, “He took his brother by the heel in the womb — Therefore, turn thou to thy God,” etc. 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. 32:28, “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. 12:4, “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. 38:29. 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 of his people, that he was made the head and deliverer of, who were preserved in the midst of dangers they were in Egypt, which were ready to overwhelm them, when the prince and people sought to their utmost to destroy 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. 22:17, “He sent from above; he took me, he drew me out of many waters.” And Psa. 18:16. 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, Psa. 144:7, “Send thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children.” And Psa. 69, “I sink in deep mire, where there is not 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 Kin. 13:18-19. The potter’s working a work upon the wheels, and the vessel’s being made 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. 18.

The twelve fountains of water and the threescore and ten palm-trees, that were in Elim, Exo. 15:27 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. Deu. 33:28, “Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine.” Psa. 68:26, “Bless the Lord from the fountain of Israel.” Isa. 48:1, “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. Psa. 92:12; Song 7:7, 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. 61:3, and 60:21 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. 2:21-24, “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 marvelously preserved and delivered. Such a low and weak state as the people were in in Egypt, and such an inability for self-defense, 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. 53:2; Eze. 17:22-24. Affliction and danger in the language of the Old Testament, are called fire. Zec. 13:9, “I will bring the third part through the fire.” Isa. 48:10, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” And God’s marvelously preserving his people, when in great affliction and danger, is represented by their being preserved in the fire from being burnt. Isa. 43:2, “When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee — when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt 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. Zec. 3:2. 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. Psa. 66:12, “We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us into a wealthy place.” Deu. 4:20, “The Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace even out of Egypt.” So 1 Kin. 8:51, and Jer. 11:4.

So Moses’s rod’s swallowing up the magicians’ rods, Exo. 7:12 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 scepter was a token of his power. Thus we read of the rod of the Messiah’s strength, Psalm 110. 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 Exo. 4:9 and chap. 7.) 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. 49:26, “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. 17:8 which God makes use of in Jer. 1:11, 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 beat 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 Kin. 19:29, 30, and Isa. 37:30, 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 Kin. 20.

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 refreshing, and it made a fine show for one day, and then withered and dried up. Jon. 4:6, etc.

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 agreeable 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 Eze. 15. 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 Psa. 90:6, “In the morning it flourisheth 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, etc. 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, Jon. 4:10, 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 pity on the numerous inhabitants of Nineveh, when God had 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 to 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 Chr. 11:2; Psa. 78:70, 71, 72; Jer. 23:4, 5, 6; Eze. 34:23, 24; Chap. 37:24. 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 7:1, 2, and 17:12, 13, and 22:20, 21; and Psa. 35:17 and 62:3, 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.

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 2. The accidental rending of Samuel’s mantle, 1 Sam. 15:27, 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. 7:6, 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 Kin. 11:30, etc. So see 1 Kin. 20:35, etc. and 2 Kin. 13:14-20. 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 Kin. 13:15, etc. The prophet Isaiah by God’s appointment went naked and barefoot, to typify the Egyptians and Ethiopians going naked and barefoot in captivity. Isa. 20. 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 Eurphrates, and returning again to take it from thence. Jer. 13. He was commanded to typify the destruction of the people by breaking a potter’s vessel. Chap. 19. 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. Jer. 25. And he was commanded to make bonds and yokes, and put them upon his neck and send them to the neighboring kings, to typify the yoke of bondage under Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to bring upon them. Chap. 27. Nehemiah shook his lap, Neh. 5:13, 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, etc. Eze. 3. And by lying on his side, and many other things that he was to do, that we have an account of, Eze. 4. And by shaving his head and beard, and burning part of the hair in the fire, etc. chap. 5 and by making a chain, chap. 7:23; and by his removing, with the many circumstances that God directed him to, Eze. 12:1, etc.; and by his eating his bread with trembling, verse 18; by filling a pot with the choice pieces of flesh on the fire, etc.; and by his not mourning for his wife, Eze. 24. The prophet Hosea typified the things he prophesied of, by taking a wife of whoredoms, Hos. 1 and by marrying an adulteress, with the circumstances of it, Hos. 3. 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, Zec. 6; 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. Zec. 11.

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 Kin. 22:11, and Jer. 28:10. 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. Eze. 15.

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, should 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 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. 9:24 speaks of this event, as that in the accomplishment of which prophecies in general are summed up, and have their ultimate confirmation, in which the vision and prophecy, or all prophetical revelation, has its last result and consummation. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city; to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.” That what has been expressed is the import of the phrase of sealing up the vision and prophecy, is evident from the drift and manner of expression of the whole verse, and also from Eze. 28:12, “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” Mr. Basnage, in his History of the Jews, observes, that the rabbis 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 it is evident from the Old Testament, that the Messiah was not only to be the Savior of God’s people, that should be after his coming; but that he was the Savior 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.

It is 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. 12. “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, in thus calling and separating Abraham, to make 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 desired 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, etc. — 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, etc. this reason is given why they should have such representations and memorials of it. Exo. 12:42. 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. 15:17. 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 Kin. 13:15, etc. 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. 3:15, “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, Gen. 3:14, “Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;” it is evident that God speaks concerning that serpent that was a beast of the field. And yet it is also evident by the Old Testament, that he has respect to something pertaining to the state of the devil, that should be brought to pass by the Messiah; as by Isa. 65:25, “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. 11:1-9 together with Isa. 27:1, and Zec. 3:1, 2, etc. 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 Rechad, 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 rabbis (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. p. 150 and part 2. p. 67, 71,77, 78, and 106.

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 3. 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. 41, 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, Isa. 41:2; 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, Isa. 41:2, to call Abraham to his foot. Chap. 42:6, it is said of the Messiah, “I have called thee to righteousness.” Of Abraham it is said, Isa. 41:2, “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 best them small, and make the hills as chaff: so that the wind should carry them away, and the whirlwind should scatter them. Isa. 41:11, 12, 15, 16.

The church or spouse of the Messiah is spoken of, in Song 6:13 as being represented by the company of Mahanaim, that we have an account of Gen. 32, at the beginning, made up of Jacob’s family and the heavenly host that joined them.

The redemption out of Egypt is very often in the Old Testament spoken of as a resemblance of the redemption by the Messiah. Num. 23:22-23, “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 God hath wrought!” Mic. 7:15, “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things.” Isa. 64:1, 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,” etc. Isa. 11:11, “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 Psa. 68:6, “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. Psa. 81:6 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. 11:11, “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.” Verse 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. 43:2, 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;” Isa. 43:16-19, “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.” Isa. 27:12, “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.” Isa. 51:10-11, “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 shall return and come with singing unto Zion,” etc. Verse 15, “But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea,” etc. Isa. 63:11-13, “Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people saying, 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 this 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?” Psa. 68:22, “I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.” Zec. 10:10, 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 Red sea, is spoken of as a resemblance of the destruction of the enemies of God’s people by the Messiah. Isa. 43:16, 17, “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.” 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. 51:9, 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 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,” etc. Pharaoh is called leviathan and the dragon in Psa. 74:13, 14, as the devil is in a like destruction in the Messiah’s time, Isa. 27:1. That Pharaoh is intended in those forementioned places by the dragon and leviathan, is very manifest from Eze. 29:3, and 32:2.

The joy and songs of the children of Israel at their redemption out 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. 2:15, “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. 52:12, “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 reward;” 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. Her see Pool’s Synopsis of Exo. 12:14. 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. 63:13, “That led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness.” Psa. 68:7, “O God, when thou wentest before thy people; when thou didst march through the wilderness;” compared with the rest of the psalm. Hos. 2:14-15, “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.” Eze. 20:34-37, “And I will bring you out from the people, 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. 4, “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. Psa. 68:8, “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. 64:1-4, “Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down a thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth — When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down; the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard,” etc. 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 68:7-9, “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. Psa. 78:24-25, and Psa. 105:40. 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 by the Messiah; how much more may we suppose this great redemption itself, that is the antitype of that,, should by abundantly typified! will God do 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. 31:2, “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. 63:14, “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. Psa. 68:10, “Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.” Verse 13, “Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove,” etc. — 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, Psa. 68:11, 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.” Verse 14, “When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was what as snow in Salmon,” taken with Psa. 68:21-23, “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.” Verse 30, “Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of bulls,” etc. — 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. 2:15, “And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing 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. 28:21, “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 bring to pass his act, his strange act:” together with verse 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 Isa. 30:30, “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 Isa. 32:19, “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 Eze. 38:22, “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; Psa. 83:9-10, “Do into 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 the 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, Psa. 83:7. 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 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 it.

Gideon’s victory over the Midianites, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be accomplished in the Messiah’s days. Isa. 9:4, “For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of is oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” Psa. 83:9, “Do unto them as unto the Midianites.” Verse11, “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 in the Messiah’s times. Eze. 38:21, “Every man’s sword shall be against his brother.” Hag. 2:22, “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 fight for him, against his enemies, is spoken of as a resemblance of what should be in the Messiah’s times. Isa. 28:21, “For the Lord shall ride up as in Mount Perazim.”

In Zec. 9:15, “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 saying or enigma. Psa. 78:2. 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.

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 4. 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, 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. 23:23. 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. 7, 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 23, 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 tool occasion to speak very much of the exaltation of the Messiah, and the glorious privileges of his people consequent thereupon; as in 1 Chr. 16:7-36, especially from verse 22. So in Psa. 68, which was penned or indited on occasion of the ascension of the ark into Mount Sion, as anyone 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. 10:35, 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 Chr. 16. Again, on this occasion the Spirit of God speaks of the things of the Messiah in Psalm 132, which was penned on that occasion, as is very plain from the matter of the psalm, and by comparing verses 8-11, with 2 Chr. 6:41-42.

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 Psalm 60 and 108. Psa. 72, 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. Eze. 5:5.

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. Psa. 72. And that the ascending of the ark into Mount Sion, and the ascension of the Messiah, are also spoken of under one in Psalm 68.

Some of the historical events of the Old Testament, if they are not typical, 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. 6:13. 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. Isa. 42:16, “I will make darkness light before them.” Isa. 9:2, “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.” Isa. 29:18, “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 Eze. 47:7, “Now when I had returned, behold at the bank of the river were very many trees, on the one side and on the other.” Verse 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.” Isa. 41:18, 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 Isa. 51:3, “The Lord will comfort Sion — and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.” Eze. 36:35, “This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;” and Psalm 46:4, “There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God;” taken with Num. 24:5-6, “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 besides the waters;” and Jer. 31:12, “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, Eze. 47:9, 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. Is 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 27:20, 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. Psa. 42:7 and 88:7. 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. Psa. 109:18, “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 wee poured down out of heaven like spouts or cataracts of water. God’s wrath is compared unto this, Psa. 42:7, “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 Isa. 28:17, “The waters shall overflow the hiding-place;” and Amos 9:1, 2, “He that fleeth 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 take 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 Isa. 24:18-20, “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 moved exceedingly — and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon on 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, etc. So the destruction of God’s enemies in the Messiah’s times is represented as being by a flood. Dan. 9:26, “And the end thereof shall be with a flood;” and to a flood occasioned by a mighty rain, Eze. 38:22, “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. 32, at the beginning, “A man shall be a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest.” Isa. 4:6, “And there shall be a place of refuge, and foe a covert from the storm, and from rain.” Isa. 25:4, “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.” Psa. 46:1-3, “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 water thereof roar and are troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof;” Isa. 43:2, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee:” compare these texts with Psa. 32:6, “Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come nigh thee, “ and Psa. 91:7, “A thousand shall fall 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 are 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. Isa. 45:22. 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. 43:6, 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; tigers, 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. 60:11, with the context), when proclamation should be made to everyone to come freely. Isa. 55:1-9. And God would abundantly pardon the wicked and unrighteous, verse 6-9, and would bring again even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters. Eze. 16:53. 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; Psa. 87:4, and 68:31; Isa. 19:18, to the end, and 45:14. The Philistines; Psa. 60:8 and 87:4, and Assyrians; Isa. 19:23-25.; and the most wild and barbarous nations, Tabor and Hermon, that were noted haunts of wild beasts; Song 4:8; Psa. 42:6; Hos. 5:1, and the nations of Arabia and Ethiopia (in many places see fulfillment 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 honor God, and the dragons and the owls, Isa. 43:19-20, 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 fatling 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. 11:6-9, and chap. 65:25, 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. 54:11. But when she is ready to be overwhelmed, God will lead her to the rock that is higher than she, Psa. 61:2, and she shall be brought out of her affliction into a new world, Isa. 65:17, 18, and shall dwell in God’s holy mountain, as is often foretold.

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 5. 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. Nah. 1:6; Isa. 42:25; Jer. 44:6; Lam. 2:4, and 4:11; Eze. 22:21, 22, 31. So it is threatened in allusion to the manner of Sodom’s destruction, Psa. 11:6, 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 the 11th Psalm, “Snares, fire, and brimstone, shall God rain,” etc. 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 20:23. 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. Psa. 73:18, 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). Ecc. 9:12. 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. 19:9; Pro. 29:1, “He that being often reproved hardendeth 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. 3:1-2, “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. 4:1, “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.” Psa. 21:9, “Thou shalt 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. 7:11, “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. Eze. 38:22, “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. 30:30, “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.” Verse 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.” Isa. 29:6, “Thou shalt 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. 33:11-14, “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 everlasting burnings?” Isa. 66:15, 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 verse 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 were, everlasting fore, 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. 13:19, 20; Jer. 49:18, and chap. 50:39, 40; Isa. 1:9. The place, land, or lake where Sodom and its neighbor cities once were, is a place that ever since abounds with that sulfurous 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. 34:8-10, “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 forever; 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 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. 37:3. So the Messiah is everywhere represented in the prophecies, as coming and setting up his kingdom in the latter days. He was Jacob’s beloved son, Gen. 37:3. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as the beloved Son of God. They represent him as the Son of God. (See fulfillment 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 fulfillment of prophecies, etc. § 18.) Joseph was clothed with a beautiful garment. So the prophecies represent the Messiah as clothed with beautiful and glorious garments. Zec. 3:4, 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. 61:10, “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 firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. Psa. 89:27. 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. Psa. 72:11, “Yea, all things shall fall down before him.” Isa. 49:7, “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 verse 23 and Psa. 45, “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. Psa. 22:22, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” But the Messiah is everywhere represented as their Lord and King, whom they honor, and submit to, and obey. Yea, it is promised that every knee should bow to him. Isa. 45:23. 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. (Psa. 97:6, and 50:6) 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. Psa. 96:11-13, 69:34; Isa. 44:23, and 49:13. 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. 24:23; Joel 3:15. And the stars as falling from heaven, Isa. 34:4. 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. Psa. 110:1. Joseph was hated by his brethren, which is agreeable to what the prophecies represent of the Messiah. Psa. 69:8, “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. Zec. 11:12, 13. Joseph was the savior of his brethren and the church of God. He saved their lives. So the Messiah is abundantly represented in the prophecies as the savior of his brethren; the savior 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 savior 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 but corn. Gen. 41:56, 57. And his name Zuphnath-paaneah, in the Egyptian language, signifies the savior 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 guilty of horrid crimes. And had his place and lot among great criminals; and suffered all with admirable meekness; which 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. 49:7. 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. 41:8, 9, etc. This is agreeable to what is represented of the Messiah in Isa. 41, two last verses, and 42:1, “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. 41:38, 39. This is agreeable to what is foretold of the Messiah, Isa. 9:6, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.” Chap. 11:2, 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.” Zec. 3:9, “Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.” Isa. 52:13, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.” See also that forementioned, Isa. 41 and two last verses, and 42:1. Joseph was exalted for this his great wisdom; which is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah, Isa. 52:13, “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. (Psa. 82:1, 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. Psa. 110:1, “Sit thou on my right hand.” Psa. 89, “I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.” Joseph was exalted over all the nobles and rulers of the land of Egypt, excepting Pharaoh himself. Psa. 105:21, 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. 7:9, etc. “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. 12:1. Michael the great prince — together with chap. 10:13, “Michael, the first of the chief princes,” with the context, that speaks of angels as princes. Pharaoh invested Joseph with his own authority and honor 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 honor, seating him on his own throne, and causing him to bear the glory. Zec. 6:12, 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. Zec. 3, and Isa. 61:10. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in fine linen. Gen. 41:42 as the Messiah is represented as clothed in fine linen, Dan. 10:5, 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 Dan. 12:1. Pharaoh, when he exalted Joseph, committed all his treasures and stores into Joseph’s hand, to bestow on others and feed mankind. Psa. 105:21. 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. Psa. 68:18, “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, is Isa. 53, and 54. 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. 3:14, “Turn, O backsliding children, unto me, for I am married unto you.” Compare Hos. 2 throughout; Psa. 45:10 with Eze. 16:3, etc. “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 everywhere 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. 54:4, etc. “Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt 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,” etc. Hos. 2:9, etc. “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.” Verse 19, 20, “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me,” etc. Isa. 62:4, “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall thy land be any more termed Desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, 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 favor 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. 2:14-15, “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. 3:12, 13, 21, 22; Jer. 31:18-20. 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, Zec. 12:10, etc. “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,” etc. Hos. 5:15, “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.” Eze. 36:37, “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” Jer. 29:12-14, “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 angry with them. See, agreeable to this, Jer. 31:18, etc. “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. 45:5-8 and 50:19-21. 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 fulfillment 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 honor 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 favor 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. 45:3, etc., which is agreeable to what is said of the church of God, when delivered and comforted by the Messiah. Psa. 126:1, “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. 46:16. Answering to this in Isa. 44:22, 23, “I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it.” And chap. 49:13, “Sing, O heaven, and be joyful, O earth — for the Lord hath comforted his people.” And Psa. 148:4, “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.”

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 6. 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. Psa. 106:23, “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 Psa. 69, and Isa. 53:2. 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 Psa. 69:1-3, 14, 15; and his deliverance out of those sufferings is represented as his being delivered out of those sufferings is represented as his being delivered out of great waters. Psa. 69:14, 15. The region of the dominion of death and destruction is represented as being down under the waters. Job 25:5-6. 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 out 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; Eze. 17:24 and elsewhere, the twig and the tender plant. This bush was a root out of a dry ground; for it was a bush the 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. 13:5, “I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought.” See Deu. 8:15. 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, Deu. 33:16, 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 fulfillment 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, etc. 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 Exo. 3:8. 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. 21 and the representation the prophets 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 things 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. 3:1-6 and Chap. 15 and 20. The Messiah is represented as saving from all hurt by the most poisonous serpents; Isa. 11:8-9 and 65:25. Sin, our spiritual disease, is in the Old Testament compared to the poison of the serpent. Deu. 32:33; Psa. 58:4; and 140:3. The brazen serpent is called a fiery serpent, Num. 21:8, because it was in the image of the fiery serpents. So the prophets represent the Messiah as set forth as a sinner, appearing in the form of sinners, and of a great sinner. Isa. 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone 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). Verse 9, “He made his grave with the wicked.” Isa. 53:12, “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. Psa. 58:3, 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.” Psa. 140:3, “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. 11:10, 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 Num. 21. 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. 40:9, “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. 65:1, “I said, Behold me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by name.” Chap. 62:10, 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.” Zec. 9:9-12, “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. 52:7, 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. 11:10, “There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.” And Isa. 45:22, “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.)

1069. Types of the Messiah. Section 7. 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. 13:8-16, which signifies Savior. So the Messiah is called by the same name, a Savior, Isa. 19:20, “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 Savior, Isa. 43:3, 11; Hos. 13:4, 9, 10; Oba. 21, and other places. So he is called Salvation, Isa. 62:11, “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 Savior 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. 13