\ST U DIA IN /
THE LIBRARY
of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
THE
TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE:
VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH THE WHOLE SERIES OK
THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS
HY
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL,, AND PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW.
In vetere Testamento novum latet, et in novo vetus patet.
AUGUST. QU.*:ST. IN Ex. LXXIII.
VOLUME I.
FOURTH EDITION.
EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON & CO.
MDCCCLXIV.
IfcU
.
MURRAY AND GIBli, PKINTERS, EDINBURGH.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
THE issue of a Fourth Edition of the following Treatise, how
ever gratifying in one respect, is in another not unaccompanied
with a measure of regret. This arises from the number of
alterations which it has been found necessary to introduce into
it, and which will naturally prove of injurious consequence to
the Editions that have preceded. But, in truth, no alternative
was left me, if the work was to keep pace with the age, and
maintain relatively the place it occupied in the earlier stages of
its existence. When I first gave to the public the fruit of my
investigations upon the subject of Scripture Typology, not only
was there great diversity of opinion among theologians respecting
its fundamental principles, but many specific topics connected
with it were only beginning to receive the benefit of modern
research and independent inquiry. It is much otherwise now.
Even during the last ten years, since the Second Edition was
published, from which the Third did not materially differ,
productions, in very considerable number and variety, have
appeared, especially on the Continent, in which certain portions
of the field have been subjected to careful examination not
unfrequently have become the occasion of earnest controversy ;
and to have sent forth another Edition of my Treatise, without
regard being had to the fresh discussions that have taken place,
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
would only have been to leave it in a state of imperfect adapta
tion to the present times.
It is proper to mention, however, that the alterations in
question have respect to the literature of the subject and modes
of representation on particular parts, rather than to the views
and principles which have been exhibited in connection with its
general treatment. These have undergone no essential altera
tion ; indeed, with the exception of a few minor points, which
it is unnecessary to particularize, they remain much as they
were in the two last Editions. The progress of discussion, how
ever, with its varying tides of opinion, naturally called for an
extension of the historical review in the introductory chapter,
which has been coupled with a slight abridgment in some of
its earlier details, and in the later with a softening of the con
troversial tone, which seemed occasionally to possess too keen
an edge. The views, also, which in certain influential quarters
have of late been ventilated, respecting the relation of God s
work in creation to the destined incarnation of the Son, appeared
render the introduction of a new chapter (the fourth in Vol.
I.) almost indispensible, that the subject, with reference more
especially to its typological bearing, might receive the con
sideration that was due to it. These additions, with some other
changes growing out of them, and the employment of a some
what larger type for the Notes and Appendices, have together
brought an enlargement of about fifty pages to the First
Volume.
The alterations in the Second Volume, though more nume
rous, are not quite so extensive in respect to quantity of matter ;
and, partly consisting of more compressed statements, where such
were practicable, they have not added very materially to the
entire bulk of the Volume. They occur most frequently in the
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 5
portions which treat of the institutions and offerings of the
Mosaic economy, on which there has recently been much discus
sion ; and, in particular, the question respecting the relation of
the sin-offerings to transgressions of a moral kind (Ch. III., sec.
5), and the topics handled in one or two of the Appendices, are
here for the first time formally considered. On the whole,
I trust it will be found that the work has been, both in form
and substance, materially improved ; and having now again
(probably for the last time) traversed the field with some care,
and expressed what may be considered my matured views
on the topics embraced in it, I leave the fruit of my labours
to the candid consideration of others, and commend it anew
to the blessing of Him whose word it seeks to explain and
vindicate.
As regards the general plan pursued in the investigation of
the subject, I have only in substance to repeat what was said in
previous editions. It might, no doubt, have been practicable to
narrow at various points the field of discussion, and especially
to abridge the space devoted to the consideration of the law in
Volume Second (which some have thought disproportionate), if
the object had been simply to extract from the earlier dispensa
tions such portions as more peculiarly possess a typical charac
ter. But to have treated the typical in such an isolated manner
would have conduced little either to the elucidation of the sub
ject itself, or to the satisfaction of thoughtful inquirers. The
Typology of the Old Testament touches at every point on its
religion and worship. It is part of a complicated system of
truth and duty ; and it is impossible to attain to a correct dis
cernment and due appreciation of the several parts, without
contemplating them in the relation they bear both to each other
and to the whole. Hence the professed aim of the work is to
b PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
view the Typology of Scripture, not by itself, but in connection
with the entire series of the Divine dispensations.
It is possible some may think, that there is an occasional ex
treme on the other side, and that less has been said than might
justly have been expected on certain controversial topics, which
are ever rising afresh into notice, and which find, if not their
root, at least a considerable part of their support, in the view that
is taken of things pertaining to the institutions of former times.
The proper aim, however, of a work of this sort is hermeneutical
and expository, rather than controversial : it may, and indeed
ought, to lay the foundation for a legitimate use of Old Testa
ment materials, to the settlement of various important questions
belonging to Christian times ; but the actual application of the
materials to the diversified phases of polemical discussion,
belongs to other departments of theology. In certain cases the
application is so natural and obvious, that it could not fitly be
avoided ; but even in these it had been improper to go beyond
comparatively narrow limits ; and if I have not erred by excess,
I scarcely think judicious critics will consider me to have done
so by defect.
Still more limited is the relation in which the inquiry pur
sued in a work like the present stands to the much agitated
question respecting the historical verity of the earlier books of
Scripture, and in particular to the authenticity and truthfulness
of the books of Moses. Incidentally, not a few opportunities
have occurred of noticing, and to some extent repelling, the
objections that have been thrown out upon the subject. But,
as a rule, it was necessary to take for granted the historical
truthfulness of the sacred records ; for, apart from the reality
and Divine character of the transactions therein related, Typo
logy in the proper sense has no foundation to stand upon. The
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 7
service which investigations of this kind, when rightly pursued,
are fitted to render to the inspiration and authority of Scrip
ture, is of a less formal description, and relates to points of
agreement, of a somewhat veiled and hidden nature, between
one part of the Divine scheme and another. To obtain a clear
and comprehensive view of these one must stand, as it were,
within the sacred edifice of God s revelation, and survey with
an attentive eye its interior harmony and proportions. They
who do so will certainly find in the careful study of the Typo
logy of Scripture many valuable confirmations to their faith.
Evidences of the strictly supernatural character of the plan it
discloses will press themselves on their notice, such as alto
gether escape the observation of more superficial inquirers ; and
to them such evidences will be the more convincing and satis
factory, that it is only through patient research they come
to be perceived in their proper variety and fulness. If one
may have, as Dean Milman justly states (Hist, of Jews, i., p.
133, 3d ed.), "great faith in internal evidence, which rests on
broad and patent facts, on laws, for instance, which belong to
a peculiar age and state of society, and which there can be no
conceivable reason for imagining in later times, and during the
prevalence of other manners, and for ascribing them to an
ancient people," not less may such faith be called forth and
exercised by that evidence, which arises from the perception of
a profound harmony of principle and nicely adjusted relations,
preserved amid the endless diversities of form and method
naturally incident to a scheme of progressive development.
P. F.
GLASGOW, 2d November 1863.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST,
BOOK FIRST.
Page
Inquiry into the Principles of Typical Interpretation, with a view
chiefly to the determination of the real nature and design of
Types, and the extent to which they entered into God s earlier
dispensations.
CHAP. I. Historical and Critical Survey of the past and present
state of Theological opinion on the subject, . 17
II. The proper Nature and Province of Typology 1.
Scriptural use of the word Type comparison
of this with the Theological distinctive charac
teristics of a Typical relationship, viewed with
respect to the religious institutions of the Old
Testament, . . . . . G4
III. The proper Nature and Province of Typology
2. The historical characters and transactions of
the Old Testament viewed as exemplifying the
distinctive characters of a Typical relationship
Typical forms in nature necessity of the Typical
as a preparation for the fulness of times, 87
IV. The proper Nature and Province of Theology 3.
God s work in creation, how related to the in
carnation and kingdom of Christ, . 114
V. Prophetical Types, or the combination of Type with
Prophecy alleged double sense of Prophecy, . 137
VI. The Interpretation of particular Types specific
principles and directions, . . . 174
VII. The place due to the subject of Typology as a branch
of Theological study, and the advantages arising
from its proper cultivation, . . . 205
10 CONTENTS.
BOOK SECOND.
THE DISPENSATION OF PRIMEVAL AND PATRIARCHAL TIMES.
Page
Preliminary Remarks, . . . . . . 229
CHAP. I. The Divine truths embodied in the historical transac
tions on which the first symbolical Religion for
fallen man was based, .... 238
... II. The Tree of Life, . . . 250
... III. The Cherubim (and the Flaming Sword), . . 258
... IV. Sacrificial Worship, , . . . 286
... V. The Marriage Relation and the Sabbatical Institution, 303
... VI. Typical things in history during the progress of the
first Dispensation . . . . . 313
SECT. I. The Seed of Promise Abel, Enoch, . 314
... II. Noah and the Deluge, ... 321
... III. The New "World and its Inheritors the
Men of Faith, .... 330
... IV. The change in the Divine Call from the
general to the particular Shem, Abra
ham, ..... 339
V. The subjects and channels of blessing
Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and the twelve
Patriarchs, . . . . 350
... VI. The Inheritance destined for the Heirs of
Blessing, . . . . . 386
CONTENTS. 1 1
Page
APPENDIX A. The Old Testament in the New, ... 423
I. The Historical and Didactic portions, . . 423
II. Prophecies referred to by Christ, . . 430
III. The deeper principles involved in Christ s
use of the Old Testament, . . 436
IV. The applications made by the Evangelists
of Old Testament Prophecies, . 444
V. Applications in the writings of the Apostle
Paul, ..... 452
VI. The applications made in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, .... 460
B. The doctrine of a Future State, . 467
C. On Sacrificial Worship, . . . 487
D. Does the original relation of the seed of Abraham to
the land of Canaan afford any ground for expect
ing their final return to it ? . . . 492
E. The relation of Canaan to the state of final rest, . 496
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
BOOK FIRST.
INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF TYPICAL INTERPRETATION, WITH A VIEW
CHIEFLY TO THE DETERMINATION OF THE REAL NATURE AND DESIGN OF
TYPES, AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY ENTERED INTO GOD S EARLIER
DISPENSATIONS.
CHAPTER FIRST.
HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE PAST AND PRESENT
STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION ON THE SUBJECT.
THE Typology of Scripture has been one of the most neglected
departments of theological science. It has never altogether
escaped from the region of doubt and uncertainty ; and some
still regard it as a field incapable, from its very nature, of being
satisfactorily explored, or cultivated so as to yield any sure and
appreciable results. Hence it is not unusual to find those who
otherwise are agreed in their views of divine truth, and in the
general principles of biblical interpretation, differing materially
in the estimate they have formed of the Typology of Scripture.
Where one hesitates, another is full of confidence; and the
landmarks that are set up to-day are again shifted to-morrow.
With such various and contradictory sentiments prevailing on
the subject, it is necessary, in the first instance, to take an
historical and critical survey of the field, that from the careful
revision of what has been done in the past, we may the more
VOL. I. B
18 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
readily perceive what still remains to be accomplished, in order
that we may arrive at a well-grounded and scriptural Typology.
I. We naturally begin with the Christian Fathers. Their
typological views, however, are only to be gathered from the
occasional examples to be met with in their writings ; as they
nowhere lay down any clear and systematic principles for the
regulation of their judgments in the matter. Some exception
might, perhaps, be made in respect to Origen. And yet with
such vagueness and dubiety has he expressed himself regarding
the proper interpretation of Old Testament Scripture, that by
some he has been understood to hold, that there is a fourfold, by
others a threefold, and by others again only a twofold, sense in
the sacred text. The truth appears to be, that while he con
tended for a fourfold application of Scripture, he regarded it as
susceptible only of a twofold sense. And considered generally,
the principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were not
essentially different from those usually followed by the great
majority of the Greek Fathers. But before stating how these
bore on the subject now under consideration, it will be necessary
to point out a distinction too often lost sight of, both in earlier
and in later times, between allegorical and typical interpreta
tions, properly so called. These have been very commonly con
founded together, as if they were essentially one in principle,
and differed only in the extent to which the principle may be
carried. There is, however, a specific difference between the
two, which it is not very difficult to apprehend, and which it is
of some importance to notice in connection especially with the
interpretations of patristic writers.
An allegory is a narrative, either expressly feigned for the
purpose, or if describing facts which really took place de
scribing them only for the purpose of representing certain higher
truths or principles than the narrative, in its literal aspect,
whether real or fictitious, could possibly have taught. The osten
sible representation, therefore, if not invented, is at least used,
simply as a cover for the higher sense, which may refer to things
ever so remote from those immediately described, if only the
corresponding relations are preserved. So that allegorical inter
pretations of Scripture properly comprehend the two following
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 19
cases, and these only: 1. When the scriptural representation is
actually held to have had no foundation in fact to be a mere
myth, or fabulous description, invented for the sole purpose of
exhibiting the mysteries of divine truth ; or, 2. When without
moving any question about the real or fictitious nature of the re
presentation it is considered incapable as it stands of yielding
any adequate or satisfactory sense, and is consequently employed,
precisely as if it had been fabulous , to convey some meaning of
an entirely different and higher kind. The difference between
allegorical interpretations, in either of these senses, and those
which are properly called typical, cannot be fully exhibited till
we have ascertained the exact nature and design of a type. It
will be enough meanwhile to say, that typical interpretations of
Scripture differ from allegorical ones of the first or fabulous
kind, in that they indispensably require the reality of the facts
or circumstances stated in the original narrative. And they
differ also from the other, in requiring, beside this, that the
same truth or principle be embodied alike in the type and the
antitype. The typical is not properly a different or higher sense,
but a different or higher application of the same sense.
Returning, then, to the writings of the Fathers, and using
the expressions typical and allegorical in the senses now respec
tively ascribed to them, there can be no doubt that the Fathers
generally were much given both to typical and allegorical expla
nations, the Greek Fathers more to allegorical than to typical,
and to allegorical more in the second than in the first sense,
described above. They do not appear, for the most part, to
have discredited the plain truth or reality of the statements
made in Old Testament history. They seem rather to have
considered the sense of the latter true and good, so far as it
went, but of itself so meagre and puerile, that it was chiefly to
be regarded as the vehicle of a much more refined and ethereal
instruction. Origen, however, certainly went farther than this,
and expressly denied that many things in the Old Testament
had any real existence. In his Principia (Lib. iv.) he affirms,
that " when the Scripture history could not otherwise be accom
modated to the explanation of spiritual things, matters have
been asserted which did not take place, nay, which could not
have taken place ; and others again, which, though they might
20 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
have occurred, yet never actually did so." Again, when speak
ing of some notices in the life of Rebecca, he says " In these
things, I have often told you, there is not a relation of histories,
hut a concoction of mysteries." 1 And, in like manner, in his
annotations on the first chapters of Genesis, he plainly scouts
the idea of God s having literally clothed our first parents with
the skins of slain beasts calls it absurd, ridiculous, and unworthy
of God, and declares that in such a case the naked letter is not
to be adhered to as true, but exists only for the spiritual treasure
which is concealed under it. 2
Statements of this kind are of too frequent occurrence in the
writings of Origen to have arisen from inadvertence, or to admit
of being resolved into mere hyperboles of expression. They
were, indeed, the natural result of that vicious system of inter
pretation which prevailed in his age, when it fell, as it did in
his case, into the hands of an ardent and enthusiastic follower.
At the same time it must be owned, in behalf of Origen, that
however possessed of what has been called a the allegorical
fury," he does not appear generally to have discredited the facts
of sacred history ; and that he differed from the other Greek
Fathers, chiefly in the extent to which he went in decrying the
literal sense as carnal and puerile, and extolling the mystical as
alone suited for those who had become acquainted with the true
wisdom. It would be out of place here, however, to go into any
particular illustration of this point, as it is not immediately con
nected with our present inquiry. But we shall refer to a
single specimen of his allegorical mode of interpretation, for
the purpose chiefly of showing distinctly how it differed from
what is of a simply typological character. We make our selec
tion from Origen s homily on Abraham s marriage with Keturah
(Horn. vi. in Genes.). He does not expressly disavow his belief
in the fact of such a marriage having actually taken place
between the parties in question, though his language seems to
point in that direction ; but he intimates that this, in common
with the other marriages of the patriarchs, contained a sacra
mental mystery. And what might this be? Nothing less
than the sublime truth, " that there is no end to wisdom, and
that old age sets no bounds to improvement in knowledge. The
1 Opera, Vol. II., p. 88, Ed. Delarue. 2 Ibid., p. 29.
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 21
death of Sarah (he says) is to be understood as the perfecting
of virtue. But he who has attained to a consummate and
perfect virtue, must always be employed in some kind of learn
ing which learning is called by the divine Word, his wife.
Abraham, therefore, when an old man, and his body in a manner
dead, took Kcturah to wife. I think it was better, according to
the exposition we follow, that the wife should have been received
when his body was dead, and his members were mortified. For
we have a greater capacity for wisdom when we bear about the
dying of Christ in our mortal body. Then Keturah, whom he
married in his old age, is, by interpretation, incense, or sweet
odour. For he said, even as Paul said, ( We are a sweet savour
of Christ. Sin is a foul and putrid thing ; but if any of you
in whom this no longer dwells, have the fragrance of righteous
ness, the sweetness of mercy, and by prayer continually offer up
incense to God, ye also have taken Keturah to wife." And
forthwith he proceeds to show, how many such wives may be
taken : hospitality is one, the care of the poor another, patience
a third, each Christian excellence, in short, a wife ; and hence
it was, that the patriarchs are reported to have had so many
wives, and that Solomon is said to have possessed them even by
hundreds, he having received plenitude of wisdom like the sand
on the sea-shore, and consequently grace to exercise the largest
number of virtues.
We have here a genuine example of allegorical interpreta
tion, if not actually holding the historical matter to be fabulous,
at least treating it as if it were so. It is of no moment, for
any purpose which such a mode of interpretation might serve,
whether Abraham and Keturah had a local habitation among
this world s families, and whether their marriage was a real fact
in history, or an incident fitly thrown into a fictitious narrative,
constructed for the purpose of symbolizing the doctrines of a
divine philosophy. If it had been handled after the manner of
a type, and not as an allegory, whatever specific meaning might
have been ascribed to it as a representation of gospel mysteries,
the story must have been assumed as real, and the act of
Abraham made to correspond with something essentially the
same in kind some sort of union, for example, between parties
holding a similar relation to each other, that Abraham did to
22 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Keturah. In this, though there might have been an error in
the particular application that was made of the story, there
would at least have been some appearance of a probable ground
for it to rest upon. But sublimated into the ethereal form it
receives from the fertile genius of Origen, the whole, history
and interpretation together, presently acquires an uncertain and
shadowy aspect. For what connection, either in the nature of
things, or in the actual experience of the Father of the Faith
ful, can be shown to exist between the death of a wife, and the
consummation of virtue in the husband ; or the wedding of a
second wife, and his pursuit of knowledge 1 Why might not
the loss sustained in the former case as well represent the decay
of virtue, and the acquisition in the latter denote a relaxation in
the search after the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge ?
There would evidently be as good reason for asserting the one
as the other ; and, indeed, with such an arbitrary and elastic
style of interpretation, there is nothing, either false or true in
doctrine, wise or unwise in practice, which might not claim sup
port in Scripture. The Bible would be made to reflect every
hue of fancy, and every shade of belief in those who assumed
the office of interpretation ; and instead of being rendered ser
viceable to a higher instruction, it would be turned into one vast
sea of uncertainty and confusion.
In proof of this we need only appeal to the use which
Clement of Alexandria, Origen s master, has made of another
portion of sacred history which relates to Abraham s wives
(Strom. L. I. p. 333). The instruction which he finds couched
under the narrative of Abraham s marriage successively to Sarah
and Hagar, is that a Christian ought to cultivate philosophy and
the liberal arts before he devotes himself wholly to the study of
divine wisdom. This he endeavours to make out in the follow
ing manner : Abraham is the image of a perfect Christian,
Sarah the image of Christian wisdom, and Hagar the image of
philosophy or human wisdom (certainly a far from agreeable like
ness !). Abraham lived for a long time in a state of connubial
sterility ; whence it is inferred that a Christian, so long as he
confines himself to the study of divine wisdom and religion
alone, will never bring forth any great or excellent fruits.
Abraham, then, with the consent of Sarah, takes to him Hagar,
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 23
which proves, according to Clement, that a Christian ought to
embrace the wisdom of this world, or philosophy, and that Sarah,
or divine wisdom, will not withhold her consent. Lastly, after
Hagar had borne Ishmael to Abraham, he resumed his inter
course with Sarah, and of her begat Isaac ; the true import of
which is, that a Christian, after having once thoroughly grounded
himself in human learning and philosophy, will, if he then
devotes himself to the culture of divine wisdom, be capable of
propagating the race of true Christians, and of rendering essen
tial service to the Church. Thus we have two entirely different
senses extracted from similar transactions by the master and the
disciple ; and still, far from being exhausted, as many more
might be obtained, as there are fertile imaginations disposed to
turn the sacred narrative into the channel of their own peculiar
conceits.
It was not simply the historical portions of Old Testament
Scripture which were thus allegorized by Origen, and the other
Greek Fathers who belonged to the same school. A similar
mode of interpretation was applied to the ceremonial institutions
of the ancient economy ; and a higher sense was often sought
for in these, than we find any indication of in the epistle to the
Hebrews, Clement even carried the matter so far as to apply
the allegorical principle to the ten commandments, an extrava
gance in which Origen did not follow him ; though we can
scarcely tell why he should not have done so. For, even the
moral precepts of the Decalogue touch at various points on the
common interests and relations of life ; and it was the grand
aim of the philosophy, in which the allegorizing then prevalent
had its origin, to carry the soul above these into the high abstrac
tions of a contemplative theosophy. The Fathers of the Latin
church were much less inclined to such airy speculations, and
their interpretations of Scripture, consequently, possessed more
of a realistic and common sense character. Allegorical inter
pretations are, indeed, occasionally found in them, but they are
more sparingly introduced, and less extravagantly carried out. 1
1 See, however, a thorough specimen of allegorizing after the manner
of Origen, on the " Sacramentum," involved in the name and office of
Abishag, in Jerome s letter to Nepotianus (Ep. 52 Ed. Yallars.), indicating,
as he thinks, the larger development of wisdom in men of advanced age.
24 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Typical meanings, however, are as frequent in the one class as
in the other, and equally adopted without rule or limit. If in
the Eastern church we find such objects as the tree of life in
the garden of Eden, the rod of Moses, Moses himself with his
arms extended during the conflict with Amalek, exhibited as
types of the cross ; in the Western church, as represented, for
example, by Augustine, we meet with such specimens as the
following: "Wherefore did Christ enter into the sleep of
death ? Because Adam slept when Eve was formed from his
side, Adam being the figure of Christ, Eve as the mother of
the living, the figure of the church. And as she was formed
from Adam while he was asleep, so was it when Christ slept on
the cross, that the sacraments of the church flowed from His
side." 1 So, again, Saul is represented as the type of death,
because God unwillingly appointed him king over Israel, as He
unwillingly subjected His people to the sway of death ; and
David s deliverance from the hand of Saul foreshadowed our
deliverance through Christ from the power of death ; while in
David s escape from Saul s hand, coupled with the destruction
that befell Ahimelech on his account, if not in his stead, there was
a prefiguration of Christ s death and resurrection. 2 In the treat
ment of New Testament Scripture also, the same style of inter
pretation is occasionally resorted to, as when in the six water-
pots of John s Gospel he finds imaged the six ages of prophecy ;
and in the two or three firkins which they severally held, the
two are taken to indicate the Father and the Son, the three the
Trinity ; or, as he also puts it, the two represent the Jews and
the Gentiles, and the third, Christ, making the two one (Tract
ix. in Joan.). But we need not multiply examples, or prosecute
the subject further into detail. Enough has been adduced to
show, that the earlier divines of the Christian church had no
just or well-defined principles to guide them in their interpre
tations of Old Testament Scripture, which could either enable
them to determine between the fanciful and the true in typical
applications, or guard them against the worst excesses of allego
rical licence. 3
1 On Psalm xli. 2 On Psalm xlii.
3 The major part of our readers, perhaps, may be of opinion that they
have already been detained too long with the subject, believing that such
THE VIEWS OF THE REFORMERS. 25
II. Passing over the period of the middle ages, which pro
duced nothing new in this line, we come to the divines of the
Reformation. At that memorable era a mighty advance was
made, not only beyond the ages immediately preceding, but
also beyond all that had passed from the commencement of
Christianity, in the sound interpretation of Scripture. The
original text then at last began to be examined with something
like critical exactness, and a stedfast adherence was generally
professed, and in good part also maintained, to the natural and
grammatical sense. The leading spirits of the Reformation
were here also the great authors of reform. Luther denounced
mystical and allegorical interpretations as " trifling and foolish
fables, with which the Scriptures were rent into so many and
diverse senses, that silly poor consciences could receive no certain
interpretations are for ever numbered among the things that were. So we
were ourselves disposed to think. And yet we have lived to see a substan
tial revival of the allegorical style of interpretation, in a work of compara
tively recent date, and a work that bears the marks of an accomplished and
superior mind. We refer to that portion of Mr Worsley s Produce of the
Intellect in Religion, which treats of the Patriarchs in their Christian Import,
and the Apostles as the Completion of the Patriarchs. His notion respecting
the Patriarchs briefly is, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob respectively,
"present to us the eternal triune object" of worship, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost ; that the marriages of the Patriarchs symbolize God s union
with His church, and with each member of it ; and especially is this done
through the wives and children of Jacob, at least in regard to its practical
tendency and sanctifying results. In making out the scheme, the names
of the persons mentioned in the history are peculiarly dwelt upon, as fur
nishing a sort of key to the allegorical interpretation. Thus Leah, whose
name means wearisome and fatiguing labour, was the symbol of "services
and works which are of little worth in themselves labours rather of a pain
ful and reluctant duty, than of a free and joyful love." " She sets forth
to us that fundamental repulsiveness or stubbornness of our nature, whose
proper and ordained discipline is the daily taskwork of duty, as done not
to man, nor to self, but to God." Afterwards, Leah is identified with the
ox, as the symbol of stubbornness and wearisome labour; and so "with
Leah the ox symbolizes our taskwork of duty, and our capacity for it,"
while the sheep (Rachel signifying sheep) symbolizes "our labours of love,
i.e., our real rest and capacity for it." (P. 71, 113, 128.) It may be con
jectured from this specimen what ingenuities require to be plied before the
author can get through all the twelve sons of Jacob, so as to make them
symbols of the different graces and operations of a Christian life. We object
to the entire scheme. 1. Because it is perfectly arbitrary. Though Scrip-
26 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
doctrine of anything." 1 Calvin, in like manner, declares that
"the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious
meaning, by which we ought resolutely to abide ;" and speaks
of the "licentious system" of Origen and the allegorists, as
" undoubtedly a contrivance of Satan to undermine the authority
of Scripture, and to take away from the reading of it the true
advantage." 2 In some of his interpretations, especially on the
prophetical parts of Scripture, he even went to an extreme in
advocating what he here calls the natural and obvious meaning,
and thereby missed the more profound import, which, according
to the elevated and often enigmatical style of prophecy, it was
the design of the Spirit to convey. On the other hand, in spite
of their avowed and generally followed principles of interpreta-
ture sometimes warrants us in laying stress on names, as expressive of spiri
tual ideas or truths connected with the persons they belong to, yet it is only
when the history itself draws attention to them, and even then they never
stand alone, as the names often do with Mr Worsley, the only keys to the
import of the transactions : as if, where acts entirely fail, or where they
appear to be at variance with the symbolical ideal, the key were still to be
found in the name. Scripture nowhere, for example, lays any stress upon
the names of Leah and Rachel ; while it very pointedly refers to the bad
eyes of the one, and the attractive comeliness of the other. And if we were
inclined to allegorize at all, we should deem it more natural, with Justin
Martyr (Trypho, c. 42) and Jerome (on Hos. xii. 3), to regard Leah as the
symbol of the blear-eyed Jewish church, and Rachel of the beloved church
of the Gospel. Even this, however, is quite arbitrary, for there is nothing
properly in common between the symbol and the thing symbolized no real
bond of connection uniting them together. And if by tracing out such
lines of resemblance, we might indulge in a pleasing exercise of fancy, we
can never deduce from them a revelation of God s mind and will. 2. But
further, such explanations offend against great fundamental principles the
principle, for example, that the Father cannot be represented as entering
into union with the Church, viewed as distinct from the Son and the Spirit ;
and the principle that a sinful act or an improper relation cannot be the
symbol of what is divine and holy. In such a case there never can be any
real agreement. "Who, indeed, can calmly contemplate the idea of Abra
ham s connection with Hagar, or Jacob s connection with the two sisters
and their handmaids in themselves both manifestly wrong, and receiving
on them manifest tokens of God s displeasure in providence should be the
chosen symbol of God s own relation to the Church ? How very different
an allegorizing of this sort is from the typical use made of them in Scrip
ture will be shown in the sequel.
1 On Gal. iv. 26. 2 On Gal. iv. 22.
THE COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 27
tion, the writers of the Reformation-period not unfrequently fell
into the old method of allegorizing, and threw out typical ex
planations of a kind that cannot stand a careful scrutiny. It
were quite easy to produce examples of this from the writings
of those who lived at and immediately subsequent to the Re
formation ; but it would be of no service as regards our present
object, since their attention was comparatively little drawn to
the subject of types ; and none of them attempted to construct
any distinct typological system.
III. We pass on, therefore, to a later period about the
middle of the seventeenth century when the science of theology
began to be studied more in detail, and the types consequently
received a more formal consideration. About that period arose
what is called the Cocceian school, which, though it did not
revive the double sense of the Alexandrian (for Cocceius ex
pressly disclaimed any other sense of Scripture than the literal
and historical one), yet was chargeable in another respect with
a participation in the caprice and irregularity of the ancient
allegorists. Cocceius himself, less distinguished as a systematic
writer in theology than as a Hebrew scholar and learned ex
positor of Scripture, left no formal enunciation of principles
connected with typical or allegorical interpretations ; and it is
chiefly from his annotations on particular passages, and the
more systematic works of his followers, that these are to be
gathered. How freely, however, he was disposed to draw upon
Old Testament history for types of Gospel things, may be
understood from a single example his viewing what is said of
Asshur going out and building Nineveh, as a type of the Turk
or Mussulman power, which at once sprang from the kingdom,
and shook the dominion of Antichrist (cur. Prior, in Gen. x.
11.). Pie evidently conceived that every event in Old Testament
history, which had a formal resemblance to something under
the New, was to be regarded as typical. And that, even not
withstanding his avowed adherence to but one sense of Scripture,
he could occasionally adopt a second, appears alone from his
allegorical interpretation of the eighth Psalm; according to
which the sheep there spoken of, as being put under man, are
Christ s flock the oxen, those who labour in Christ s service
28 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the leasts of the field, such as are strangers to the city and king
dom of God, barbarians and savages the fowl of the air and
fish of the sea, persons at a still greater distance from godliness ;
so that, as he concludes, there is nothing so wild and intractable
on earth but it shall be brought under the rule and dominion of
Christ.
It does not appear, however, that the views of Cocceius
differed materially from those which were held by some who
preceded him ; and it would seem rather to have been owing to
his eminence generally as a commentator than to any distinctive
peculiarity in his typological principles, that he came to be so
prominently identified with the school, which from him derived
the name of Cocceian. If we turn to one of the earlier editions
of Glass s Philologia Sacra, published before Cocceius com
menced his critical labours (the first was published before he
was born), we shall find the principles of allegorical and typical
interpretations laid down with a latitude which Cocceius himself
could scarcely have quarrelled with. Indeed, we shall find few
examples in his writings that might not be justified on the prin
ciples stated by Glass ; and though the latter, in his section on
allegories, has to throw himself back chiefly on the Fathers, he
yet produces some quotations in support of his views, both on
these and on types, from some writers of his own age. There
seems to have been no essential difference between the typological
principles of Glass, Cocceius, Witsius, and Yitringa ; and though
the first wrote some time before, and the last about half a century
later than Cocceius, no injustice can be done to any of them by
classing them together, and referring indifferently to their several
productions. Like the Fathers, they did not sufficiently dis
tinguish between allegorical and typical interpretations, but re
garded the one as only a particular form of the other, and both
as equally warranted by New Testament Scripture. Hence,
the rules they adopted were to a great extent applicable to what
is allegorical in the proper sense, as well as typical, though for
the present we must confine ourselves to the typical department.
They held, then, that there was a twofold sort of types, the one
innate, consisting of those which Scripture itself has expressly
asserted to possess a typical character ; the other inferred, con
sisting of such as, though not specially noticed or explained in
T1IK COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 29
Scripture, were yet, on probable grounds, inferred by interpreters
as conformable to the analogy of faith, and the practice of the
inspired writers in regard to similar examples. 1 This latter class
were considered not less proper and valid than the other ; and
pains were taken to distinguish them from those which were
sometimes forged by Papists, and which were at variance with
the analogies just mentioned. Of course, from their very nature
they could only be employed for the support and confirmation
of truths already received, and not to prove what was in itself
doubtful. But not on that account were they to be less care
fully searched for, or less confidently used, because thus only,
it was maintained, could Christ be found in all Scripture, which
throughout testifies of Him.
It is evident alone, from this general statement, that there
was something vague and loose in the Cocceian system, which
left ample scope for the indulgence of a luxuriant fancy. Nor
can we wonder that, in practice, a mere resemblance, however
accidental or trifling, between an occurrence in Old, and another
in New Testament times, was deemed sufficient to constitute the
one a type of the other. Hence in the writings of the eminent
and learned men above referred to, we find the name of Abel
(emptiness) viewed as prefiguring our Lords humiliation ; the
occupation of Abel, Christ s office as the Shepherd of Israel ;
the withdrawal of Isaac from his father s house to the land of
Moriah, Christ s being led out of the temple to Calvary ; Adam s
awaking out of sleep, Christ s resurrection from the dead;
Samson s meeting a young lion by the way, and the transactions
that followed, Christ s meeting Saul on the road to Damascus,
with the important train of events to which it led; David s
gathering to himself a party of the distressed, the bankrupt,
and discontented, Christ s receiving into His Church publicans
and sinners ; with many others of a like nature.
Multitudes of examples perfectly similar that is, equally
destitute of any proper foundation in principle are to be found
in writers of our own country, such as Mather, 2 Keach, 3 Wor-
1 Philologia Sac. Lib. II. P. I. Tract. II. sect. 4. Vitringa Obs. Sac.
Vol. II. Lib. VI. c. 20. Witsius De (Econom. Lib. IV. c. 6.
2 The Figures and Types of the Old Testament.
5 Key to open the Scripture Metaphors and Types.
30 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
den, 1 J. Taylor, 2 Guild, 3 who belonged to the same school of
interpretation, and who nearly all lived toward the latter part
of the seventeenth century. Excepting the two first, they make
no attempt to connect their explanations with any principles of
interpretation, and these two very sparingly. Their works were
all intended for popular use, and rather exhibited by particular
examples, than systematically expounded the nature of their
views. They, however, agreed in admitting inferred as well as
innate types, but differed more perhaps from constitutional
temperament than on theoretical grounds in the extent to
which they respectively carried the liberty they claimed to go
beyond the explicit warrant of New Testament Scripture.
Mather in particular, and Worden, usually confine themselves
to such types as have obtained special notice of some kind from
the writers of the New Testament ; though they held the prin
ciple, that " where the analogy was evident and manifest between
things under the law and things under the Gospel, the one were
to be concluded (on the ground simply of that analogy) to be
types of the other." How far this warrant from analogy was
thought capable of leading, may be learned from Taylor and
Guild, especially from the latter, who has no fewer than forty-
nine typical resemblances between Joseph and Christ, and seven
teen between Jacob and Christ, not scrupling to swell the
number by occasionally taking in acts of sin, as well as circum
stances of an altogether trivial nature. Thus, Jacob s being a
supplanter of his brother, is made to represent Christ s sup
planting death, sin, and Satan ; his being obedient to his parents
in all things, Christ s subjection to His heavenly Father and His
earthly parents ; his purchasing his birthright by red pottage,
and obtaining the blessing by presenting savoury vension to his
father, clothed in Esau s garment, Christ s purchasing the
heavenly inheritance to us by His red blood, and obtaining the
blessing by offering up the savoury meat of His obedience, in
the borrowed garment of our nature, etc.
Now, we may affirm of these, and many similar examples
occurring in writers of the same class, that the analogy they
1 The Types Unveiled ; or, The Gospel Picked out of the Legal Cere
monies.
2 Moses and Aaron. 3 Moses Unveiled.
TPIE COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 31
found upon was a merely superficial resemblance appearing be
tween things in the Old and other things in the New Testament
Scriptures. But resemblances of this sort are so extremely
multifarious, and appear also so different according to the point
of view from which they are contemplated, that it was obviously
possible for any one to take occasion through them to introduce
the most frivolous conceits, and to caricature rather than vindi
cate the grand theme of the Gospel. Then, if such weight was
fitly attached to mere resemblances between the Old and the
New, even when they were altogether of a slight and superficial
kind, why should not profane as well as sacred history be ran
sacked for them ? What, for example, might prevent Romulus
(seeing that God is in all history, if this actually were history)
assembling a band of desperadoes, and founding a world-wide
empire on the banks of the Tiber, from serving, as well as David
in the circumstances specified above, to typify the procedure of
Christ in calling to him publicans and sinners at the commence
ment of His kingdom ? As many points of resemblance might
be found in the one case as in the other ; and the two trans
actions in ancient history, as here contemplated, stood much on
the same footing as regards the appointment of God ; for both
alike were the offspring of human policy, struggling against
outward difficulties, and endeavouring with such materials as
were available to supply the want of better resources. And thus,
by pushing the matter beyond its just limits, we reduce the
sacred to a level with the profane, and, at the same time, throw
an air of uncertainty over the whole aspect of its typical cha
racter. 1
That the Cocceian mode of handling the typical matter of
ancient Scripture so readily admitted of the introduction of
trifling, far-fetched, and even altogether false analogies, was one
of its capital defects. It had no essential principles or fixed
rules by which to guide its interpretations set up no proper
1 In the reference made above to the beginnings of David s kingdom, it
will be understood that the characters he associated with himself are simply
viewed in the light contemplated by the writers more immediately in view.
My own conviction is, that 1 Sam. xxii. 2, if rightly interpreted, would
present those who 1 gathered themselves to David as spiritually the better
sort in Israel those who were partly made bankrupt by oppression, and
partly were grieved and vexed in their minds at the existing state of things.
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
landmarks along the field of inquiry left room on every hand
for arbitrariness and caprice to enter. It was this, perhaps,
more than anything else, which tended to bring typical inter
pretations into disrepute, and disposed men, in proportion as
the exact and critical study of Scripture came to be cultivated,
to regard the subject of its typology as hopelessly involved in
conjecture and uncertainty. Yet this was not the only fault
inherent in the typological system now under consideration. It
failed, more fundamentally still, in the idea it had formed of the
connection between the Old and the New in God s dispensa
tions between the type and the thing typified which came to
be thrown mainly upon the mere forms and accidents of things,
to the comparative neglect of the great fundamental principles
which are common alike to all dispensations, and in which the
more vital part of the connection must be sought. It was this
more radical error, which in fact gave rise to the greater portion
of the extravagances that disfigured the typical illustrations of
our elder divines ; for it naturally led them to make account of
coincidences that were often unimportant, and sometimes only
apparent. And not only so ; but it also led them to undervalue
the immediate object and design of the types in their relation to
those who lived amongst them. While these as types speak a
language that can be distinctly and intelligently understood only
by us, who are privileged to read their meaning in the light of
Gospel realities, they yet had, as institutions in the existing wor
ship, or events in the current providence of God, a present pur
pose to accomplish, apart from the prospective reference to future
times, and we might almost say, as much as if no such reference
had belonged to them.
IV. These inherent errors and imperfections in the typo
logical system of the Cocceian school, were not long in leading
to its general abandonment. But theology had little reason to
boast of the change. For the system that supplanted it, with
out entering at all into a more profound investigation of the
subject, or attempting to explain more satisfactorily the grounds
of a typical connection between the Old and the New, simply
contented itself with admitting into the rank of types what had
been expressly treated as such in the Scripture itself, to the
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 33
exclusion of all besides. This seemed to be the only safeguard
against error and extravagance. 1 And yet, we fear, other
reasons of a less justifiable nature contributed not a little to
produce the result. An unhappy current had begun to set in
upon the Protestant Church in some places while Cocceius
still lived, and in others soon after his death, which disposed
many of her more eminent teachers to slight the evangelical
element in Christianity, and, if -not utterly to lose sight of
Christ Himself, at least to disrelish and repudiate a system
which delighted to find traces of Him in every part of revela
tion. It was the redeeming point of the earlier typology, which
should be allowed to go far in extenuating the occasional errors
connected with it, that it kept the work and kingdom of Christ
ever prominently in view, as the grand scope and end of all
God s dispensations. It felt, if we may so speak, correctly,
whatever it may have wanted in the requisite depth and preci
sion of thought. But towards the end of the seventeenth and
the beginning of the eighteenth century, a general coldness
very commonly discovered itself, both in the writings and the
lives of even the more orthodox sections of the Church. The
living energy and zeal which had achieved such important re
sults a century before, either inactively slumbered, or spent
itself in doctrinal controversies ; and the faith of the Church
1 The following critique of Buddeus, which belongs to the earlier part
of last century, already points in this direction : "It cannot certainly be
denied that the Cocceians, at least some of them, have carried this matter
too far. For, besides that they everywhere seem to find images and types
of future things, where other people can discern none, when they come to
make the application to the antitype, they not unfrequently descend to
minute and even trifling things, nay, advance what is utterly insignificant
and ludicrous, exposing holy writ to the mockery of the profane. And here
it may be proper to notice the fates of exegetical theology ; since that in
temperate rage for allegories which appeared in Origen and the Fathers, and
which had been condemned by the schoolmen, was again, after an interval,
though under a different form, produced anew upon the stage. For this
typical interpretation differs from the allegorical only in the circumstance,
that respect is had in it to the future things which are adumbrated by the
types ; and so, the typical may be regarded as a sort of allegorical interpre
tation. But in either way the amplest scope is afforded for the play of a
luxuriant fancy and a fertile invention." I. F. Buddei Isagoge II. hist.
Theolog. 1830.
VOL. I. C
34 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
was first corrupted in its simplicity, and then weakened in its
foundations by the pernicious influence of a widely cultivated,
but essentially anti-Christian philosophy. In such circumstances
Christ was not allowed to maintain His proper place in the New
Testament ; and it is not to be wondered at if He should have
been nearly banished from the Old.
Vitringa, who lived when this degeneracy from better times
had made considerable progress, attributed to it much of that
distaste which was then beginning to prevail in regard to typical
interpretations of Scripture. With special reference to the
work of Spencer on the Laws of the Hebrews, a work not less
remarkable for its low-toned, semi-heathenish spirit, than for its
varied and well-digested learning, he lamented the inclination
that appeared to seek for the grounds and reasons of the Mosaic
institutions in the mazes of Egyptian idolatry, instead of endea
vouring to discover in them the mysteries of the Gospel. These,
he believed, the Holy Spirit had plainly intimated to be couched
there ; and they shone, indeed, so manifestly through the insti
tutions themselves, that it seemed impossible for any one not to
perceive the type, who recognised the antitype. Nor could he
conceal his fear, that the talent, authority, and learning of such
men as Spencer would gain extensive credit for their opinions,
and soon bring the Typology of Scripture, as he understood it,
into general contempt. 1 In this apprehension he was certainly
not mistaken. Another generation had scarcely passed away
when Dathe published his edition of the Sacred Philology of
Glass, in which the section on types, to which we have already
referred, was wholly omitted, as relating to a subject no longer
thought worthy of a recognised place in the science of an en
lightened theology. The rationalistic spirit, in the progress of
its anti-Christian tendencies, had now discarded the innate, as
well as the inferred types of the elder divines ; and the con
venient principle of accommodation, which was at the same time
introduced, furnished an easy solution for those passages in New
Testament Scripture which seemed to indicate a typical rela
tionship between the past and the future. It was regarded as
only an adaptation, originating in Jewish prejudice or conceit,
of the facts and institutions of an earlier age to things essentially
1 Obs. Sac. Vol. II., p. 460, 461.
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 35
different under the Gospel ; but now, since the state of feeling
that gave rise to it no longer existed, deservedly suffered to fall
into desuetude. And thus the bond was virtually broken by the
hand of these rationalizing theologians between the Old and
the New in Revelation ; and the records of Christianity, when
scientifically interpreted, were found to have marvellously little
in common with those of Judaism.
In Britain various causes contributed to hold in check this
downward tendency, and to prevent it from reaching the same
excess of dishonour to Christ, which it soon attained on the Con
tinent. Even persons of a cold and philosophical temperament,
such as Clarke and Jortin, not only wrote in defence of types,
as having a certain legitimate use in Revelation, but also ad
mitted more within the circle of types than Scripture itself has
expressly applied to Gospel times. 1 They urged, indeed, the
necessity of exercising the greatest caution in travelling beyond
the explicit warrant of Scripture ; and in their general cast of
thought they undoubtedly had more affinity with the Spencerian
than the Cocceian school. Yet a feeling of the close and per
vading; connection between the Old and the New Testament dis-
o
pensations restrained them from discarding the more important
of the inferred types. Jortin especially falls so much into the
vein of earlier writers, that he employs his ingenuity in reckon
ing up as many as forty particulars in which Moses typically
prefigured Christ. A work composed about the same period as
that to which the Remarks of Jortin belong, and one that has
had more influence than any other in fashioning the typological
views generally entertained in Scotland the production of a
young dissenting minister in Dundee (Mr M Ewen) 2 is still
more free in the admission of types not expressly sanctioned in
the Scriptures of the New Testament. The work itself being
posthumous, and intended for popular use, contains no investi
gation of the grounds 011 which typical interpretations rest, and
harmonizes much more with the school that had flourished in
1 Clarke s Evidences, p. 420, sq. Jortin s Remarks on Ecclesiastical
History, Vol. I., p. 138-152.
2 Grace and Truth, or the Glory and Fulness of the Redeemer displayed,
in an attempt to explain the Types, Figures, and Allegories of the Old Tes
tament, by the Rev. AY. M Eweu.
36 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the previous century, than that to which Clarke and Jortin
belonged. As indicative of a particular style of biblical inter
pretation, it may be classed with the productions of Mather and
Taylor, and partakes alike of their excellences and defects.
There was, therefore, a considerable unwillingness in this
country to abandon the Cocceian ground on the subject of
types. The declension came in gradually, and its progress was
rather marked by a tacit rejection in practice of much that was
previously held to be typical, than by the introduction of views
specifically different. It became the practice of theologians to
look more into the general nature of things for the reasons of
Christianity, than into the pre-existing elements and character
istics of former dispensations; and to account for the peculiarities
of Judaism by its partly antagonistic, partly homogeneous rela
tion to Paganism, rather than by any covert reference it might
have to the coming realities of the Gospel. As an inevitable
consequence, the typological department of theology fell into
general neglect, from which the Old Testament Scriptures them
selves did not altogether escape. Those portions of them espe
cially which narrate the history and prescribe the religious rites
of the ancient Church, were but rarely treated in a manner that
bespoke any confidence in their fitness to minister to the spiritual
discernment and faith of Christians. It seems, partly at least,
to have been owing to this growing distaste for Old Testament
inquiries, and this general depreciation of its Scriptures, that
what is called the Hutchinsonian school arose in England,
which, by a sort of recoil from the prevailing spirit, ran into the
opposite extreme of searching for the elements of all knowledge,
human and divine, in the writings of the Old Testament. This
school possesses too much the character of an episode in the
history of biblical interpretation in this country, and was itself
too strongly marked by a spirit of extravagance, to render any
formal account of it necessary here. It was, besides, chiefly of
a physico-theological character, combining the elements of a
natural philosophy with the truths of revelation, both of which
it sought to extract from the statements, and sometimes even
from the words and letters of Scripture. The most profound
meanings were consequently discovered in the sacred text, in
respect alike to the doctrines of the Gospel and the truths of
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 37
science. One of the maxims of its founder was, that a every
passage of the Old Testament looks backward and forward, and
every way, like light from the sun ; not only to the state before
and under the law, but under the Gospel, and nothing is hid
from the light thereof." 1 When such a depth and complexity
of meaning was supposed to be involved in every passage, we
need not be surprised to learn, respecting the exactness of Abra
ham s knowledge of future events, that he knew from preceding
types and promises, that "one of his own line was to be sacrificed,
to be a blessing to all the race of Adam ; " and not only so,
but that when he received the command to offer Isaac, he pro
ceeded to obey it, "not doubting that Isaac was to be that person
who should redeem man." 2
The cabalistic and extravagant character of the Hutchinsonian
system, if it had any definite influence on the study of types and
other cognate subjects, could only tend to increase the suspicion
with which they were already viewed, and foster a disposition to
agree to whatever might keep investigation within the bounds of
sobriety and discretion. Accordingly, while nothing more was
done to unfold the essential and proper ground of a typical con
nection between Old and New Testament things, and to prevent
abuse by tracing the matter up to its ultimate and fundamental
principles, the more scientific students of the Bible came, by a
sort of common consent, to acquiesce in the opinion, that those
only were to be reckoned types to which Scripture itself, by ex
press warrant, or at least by obvious implication, had assigned
that character. Bishop Marsh may be named as perhaps the
ablest and most systematic expounder of this view of the subject.
He says, u There is no other rule by which we can distinguish
a real from a pretended type, than that of Scripture itself.
There are no other possible means by which we can know that
a previous design and a pre-ordained connection existed. What
ever persons or things, therefore, recorded in the Old Testament,
were expressly declared by Christ or by His apostles to have
been designed as prefigurations of persons or things relating to
the New Testament, such persons or things so recorded in the
former, are types of the persons or things with which they are
compared in the latter. But if we assert that a person or thing
1 Hutchinson s Works, Vol. I., p. 202. Ibid., Vol. VII., p. 325.
38 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
was designed to prefigure another person or thing, where no such
prefiguration has been declared by divine authority, we make an
assertion for which we neither have, nor can have, the slightest
foundation." 1 This is certainly a very authoritative and peremp
tory decision of the matter. But the principle involved in this
statement, though seldom so oracularly announced, has long
been practically received. It was substantially adopted by
Macknight, in his Dissertation on the Interpretation of Scrip
ture, at the end of his Commentary on the Epistles, before
Bishop Marsh wrote ; and it has been followed since by Vanmil-
dert and Conybeare in their Bampton Lectures, by Nares in his
Warburtonian Lectures, by Chevalier in his Hulsean Lectures,
by Home in his Introduction, and a host of other writers.
Judging from an article in the American Biblical Repository,
which appeared in the number for January 1841, it would appear
that the leading authorities on the other side of the Atlantic con
curred in the same general view. The reviewer himself advo
cates the opinion, that " no person, event, or institution, should be
regarded as typical, but what may be proved to be such from the
Scriptures," meaning by that their explicit assertion in regard to
the particular case. And in support of this opinion he quotes,
besides English writers, the words of two of his own countrymen,
Professor Stowe and Moses Stuart, the latter of whom says,
" That just so much of the Old Testament is to be accounted
typical as the New Testament affirms to be so, and no more.
The fact, that any thing or event under the Old Testament dis
pensation was designed to prefigure something under the New,
can be known to us only by revelation ; and of course all that
is not designated by divine authority as typical, can never be
made so by any authority less than that which guided the writers
of the New Testament." 2
Now, the view embraced by this school of interpretation lies
open to one objection, in common with the school that preceded
it. While the field, as to its extent, was greatly circumscribed,
and in its boundaries ruled as with square and compass, nothing
was done in the way of investigating it internally, or of unfolding
the grounds of connection between type and antitype. Fewer
points of resemblance are usually presented to us between the
1 Lectures, p. 373. 2 Stuart s Ernesti, p. 13,
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 39
one and the other by the writers of this school than arc found
in works of an older date ; but the resemblances themselves are
quite as much of a superficial and outward kind. The real har
mony and connection between the Old and the New in the divine
dispensations, stood precisely where it was. But other defects
adhere to this more recent typological system. The lead ing
excellence of the system thai; preceded it was the constant refer
ence it conceived the Scriptures of the Old Testament to bear
toward Christ and the Gospel dispensation ; and the practical
disavowal of this may be said to constitute the great defect of
the more exact, but balder system, which supplanted it with the
general suffrage of the learned. It drops a golden principle
for the sake of avoiding a few lawless aberrations. With such
narrow limits as it sets to our inquiries, we cannot indeed wander
far into the regions of extravagance. But in the very prescrip
tion of these limits, it wrongfully withholds from us the key of
knowledge, and shuts us up to evils scarcely less to be deprecated
than those it seeks to correct. For it destroys to a large extent
the bond of connection between the Old and the New Testament
Scriptures, and thus deprives the Christian Church of much of
the instruction in divine things which they were designed to
impart. Were men accustomed, as they should be, to search
for the germs of Christian truth in the earliest Scriptures, and
to regard the inspired records of both covenants as having for
their leading object " the testimony of Jesus," they would know
how much they were losers by such an undue contraction of the
typical element in Old Testament Scripture. And in proportion
as a more profound and spiritual acquaintance with the divine
word is cultivated, will the feeling of dissatisfaction grow in
respect to a style of interpretation that so miserably dwarfs and
cripples the relation which the preparatory bears to the ultimate
in God s revelations.
It is necessary, however, to take a closer view of the subject.
The principle on which this typological system takes its stand,
is, that nothing less than inspired authority is sufficient to deter
mine the reality and import of anything that is typical. But
what necessary reason or solid ground is there for such a prin
ciple ? No one holds the necessity of inspiration to explain each
particular prophecy, and decide even with certainty on its fulfil-
40 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ment ; and why should it be reckoned indispensable in the closely
related subject of types ? This question was long ago asked by
Witsius, and yet waits for a satisfactory answer. A part only,
it is universally allowed, of the prophecies which refer to Christ
and His kingdom have been specially noticed and interpreted
by the pen of inspiration. So little necessary, indeed, was in
spiration for such a purpose, that even before the descent of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost, our Lord reproved His disciples as
" fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had
spoken." And from the close analogy between the two subjects
for what is a type but a prophetical act or institution 1 we
might reasonably infer the same liberty to have been granted,
and the same obligation to be imposed, in regard to the typical
parts of ancient Scripture. But we have something more than
a mere argument from analogy to guide us to this conclusion.
For the very same complaint is brought by an inspired writer
against private Christians concerning their slowness in under
standing the typical, which our Lord brought against His dis
ciples in respect to the prophetical portions of ancient Scripture.
In the epistle to the Hebrews a sharp reproof is administered
for the imperfect acquaintance believers among them had with
the typical character of Melchizedek, and subjects of a like
nature thus placing it beyond a doubt that it is both the duty
and the privilege of the Church, with that measure of the
Spirit s grace which it is the part even of private Christians to
possess, to search into the types of ancient Scripture, and come
to a correct understanding of them. To deny this, is plainly to
withhold an important privilege from the Church of Christ ; to
dissuade from it, is to encourage the neglect of an incumbent
duty.
But the unsoundness of the principle, which would thus
limit the number of types to those which New Testament Scrip
ture has expressly noticed and explained, becomes still more
apparent when it is considered what these really are, and in
what manner they are introduced. Leaving out of view the
tabernacle, with its furniture and services, which, as a whole,
is affirmed in the epistles to the Hebrews and the Colossians to
have been of a typical nature, the following examples are what
the writers now referred to usually regard as having something
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 41
like an explicit sanction in Scripture: 1. Persons or charac
ters: Adam (Rom. v. 11, 12; 1 Cor. xv. 22); Melchizedek
(Heb. vii.) ; Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, and by im
plication Abraham (Gal. iv. 22-35) ; Moses (Gal. iii. 19; Acts
iii. 22-26) ; Jonah (Matt. xii. 40) ; David (Ezek. xxxvii. 24 ;
Luke i. 32., etc.) ; Solomon (2 Sam. vii.) ; Zerubbabel and
Joshua (Zech. iii. iv. ; Hag. ii. 23). 2. Transactions or events :
the preservation of Noah and his family in the ark (1 Pet. iii.
20) ; the redemption from Egypt and its passover-memorial
(Luke xxii. 15, 16; 1 Cor. v. 7); the exodus (Matt. ii. 15);
the passage through the Red Sea, the giving of manna, Moses
veiling of his face while the law was read ; the water flowing
from the smitten rock ; the serpent lifted up for healing in the
wilderness, and some other things that befell the Israelites there
(1 Cor. x. ; John iii. 14, v. 33 ; Rev. ii. 17). 1
Now, let any person of candour and intelligence take his
Bible, and examine the passages to which reference is here made,
and then say, whether the manner in which these typical cha
racters and transactions are there introduced, is such as to in
dicate, that these alone were held by the inspired writers to be
prefigurative of similar characters and transactions under the
Gospel ? that in naming them they meant to exhaust the typical
bearing of Old Testament history ? On the contrary, we deem
it impossible for any one to avoid the conviction, that in what
ever respect these particular examples may have been adduced,
it is simply as examples adapted to the occasion, and taken from
1 We don t vouch, of course, for the absolute completeness of the above
list. Indeed, it is scarcely possible to know what would be regarded as a
complete list some feeling satisfied with an amount of recognition in
Scripture which seems quite insufficient in the eyes of others. There have
been those who, on the strength of Gen. xlix. 24, would insert Joseph among
the specially mentioned types, and claim also Sampson, on account of what
is written in Judges xiii. 5. But scriptural warrants of such a kind are out
of date now they can no longer be regarded as current coin. On the other
hand, there are not a few who deem the scriptural warrant insufficient for
some of those we have specified, and think the passages where they are
noticed refer to them merely in the way of illustration. The list, however,
comprises what are usually regarded as historical types, possessing distinct
scriptural authority, by writers belonging to the school of Marsh. The
arguments of those who would discard them altogether will be considered
under next division.
42 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
a vast storehouse, where many more were to be found. They
have so much at least the appearance of having been selected
merely on account of their suitableness to the immediate end in
view, that they cannot fairly be regarded otherwise than as
specimens of the class they belong to. And if so, they should
rather have the effect of prompting further inquiry than of re
pressing it; since, instead of themselves comprehending and
bounding the whole field of Scriptural Typology, they only ex
hibit practically the principles on which others of a like descrip
tion are to be discovered and explained.
Indeed, were it otherwise, nothing could be more arbitrary
and inexplicable than this Scriptural typology. For, what is
there to distinguish the characters and events, which Scripture
has thus particularized, from a multitude of others, to which the
typical element might equally have been supposed to belong ?
Is there anything on the face of the inspired record to make us
look on them in a singular light, and attribute to them a signifi
cance altogether peculiar respecting the future affairs of God s
kingdom ? So far from it, that we instinctively feel, if these
really possessed a typical character, so also must others, which
hold an equally, or perhaps even more prominent place in the
history of God s dispensations. Can it be seriously believed,
for example, that Sarah and Hagar stood in a typical relation to
Gospel times, while no such place was occupied by Rebekah, as
the spouse of Isaac, and the mother of Jacob and Esau ? What
reason can we imagine for Melchizedec and Jonah having been
constituted types persons to whom our attention is compara
tively little drawn in Old Testament history while such leading
characters as Joseph, Sampson, Joshua, are omitted? Or, for
selecting the passage through the Red Sea, and the incidents in
the wilderness, while no account should be made of the passage
through Jordan, and the conquest of the land of Canaan ?
We can scarcely conceive of a mode of interpretation which
should deal more capriciously with the word of God, and make
so anomalous a use of its historical records. Instead of investing
these with a homogeneous character, it arbitrarily selects a few
out of the general mass, and sets them up in solitary grandeur,
like mystic symbols in a temple, fictitiously elevated above the
sacred materials around them. The exploded principle, which
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 43
sought a type in every notice of Old Testament history, had at
least the merit of uniformity to recommend it, and could not be
said to deal partially, however often it might deal fancifully,
with the facts of ancient Scripture. But according to the plan
now under review, for which the authority of inspiration itself
is claimed, we perceive nothing but arbitrary distinctions and
groundless preferences. And though unquestionably it were
wrong to expect in the word of God the methodical precision
and order which might naturally have been looked for in a
merely human composition, yet as the product, amid all its
variety, of one and the same Spirit, we are warranted to expect
that there shall be a consistent agreement among its several
parts, and that distinctions shall not be created in the one
Testament, which in the other seem destitute of any just foun
dation or apparent reason.
But then, if a greater latitude is allowed, how shall we guard
against error and extravagance 1 Without the express authority
of Scripture, how shall we be able to distinguish between a happy
illustration and a real type ? In the words of Bishop Marsh :
" By what means shall we determine, in any given instance, that
what is alleged as a type, was really designed for a type ? The
only possible source of information on this subject is Scripture
itself. The only possible means of knowing that two distant,
though similar historical facts, were so connected in the general
scheme of Divine Providence that the one was designed to pre
figure the other, is the authority of that book in which the
scheme of Divine Providence is unfolded." 1 This is an objec*-
tion, indeed, which strikes at the root of the whole matter, and
its validity can only be ascertained by a thorough investigation
into the fundamental principles of the subject. That Scripture
is the sole rule, on the authority of which we are to distinguish
what is properly typical from what is not, we readily grant
though not in the straitened sense contended for by Bishop
Marsh and those who hold similar views, as if there were no
way for Scripture to furnish a sufficient direction on the subject,
except by specifying every particular case. It is possible, surely,
that in this, as well as in other things, Scripture may indicate
certain fundamental views or principles, of which it makes but
1 Lectures, p. 372.
44 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
a few individual applications, and for the rest leaves them in the
hand of spiritually enlightened consciences. The rather may
we thus conclude, as it is one of the leading peculiarities of New
Testament Scripture to develop great truths, much more than to
dwell on minute and isolated facts. It is a presumption against,
not in favour of, the system we now oppose, that it would shut
up the Tvpology of Scripture, in so far as connected with the
characters and events of sacred history, within the narrow circle
of a few scattered and apparently random examples. And the
attempt to rescue it from this position, if in any measure success
ful, will also serve to exhibit the unity of design which pervades
the inspired records of both covenants, the traces they contain
of the same Divine hand, the subservience of the one to the
other, and the mutual dependence alike of the Old upon the
New, and of the New upon the Old.
V. We have still, however, another stage of our critical sur
vey before us, and one calling in some respects for careful dis
crimination and inquiry. The style of interpretation which we
have connected with the name of Marsh could not, in the nature
of things, afford satisfaction to men of thoughtful minds, who
must have something like equitable principles as well as external
authority to guide them in their interpretations. Such persons
could not avoid feeling that, if there was so much in the Old
Testament bearing a typical relation to the New, as was admitted
on Scriptural authority by the school of Marsh, there must be
considerably more; and also, that underneath that authority
there must be a substratum of fundamental principles capable
of bearing what Scripture itself has raised on it, and whatever
besides may fitly be conjoined with it. But some, again, might
possibly be of opinion that the authority of Scripture cannot
warrantably carry us so far; and that both Scriptural authority,
and the fundamental principles involved in the nature of the
subject, apply only in part to what the disciples of Marsh re
garded as typical. Accordingly, among more recent inquirers we
have examples of each mode of divergence from the formal rules
laid down by the preceding school of interpretation. The search
for first principles has disposed some greatly to enlarge the
typological field, and it has disposed others not less to curtail it.
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 45
1. To take the latter class first, as they stand most nearly
related to the school last discoursed of, representatives of it are
certainly not wanting on the Continent, among whom may be
named the hermeneutical writer Klausen, to whom reference
will presently be made in another connection. But it is the less
needful here to call in foreign authorities, as the view in question
has had its advocates in our own theological literature. It was
exhibited, for example, in Dr L. Alexander s Connection and
Harmony of the Old and New Testament (1841), in which,
while coinciding substantially with Bahr in his mode of explain
ing and applying to Gospel times the symbolical institutions of
the Old Covenant, he yet declared himself opposed to any further
extension of the typical sphere. He would regard nothing as
entitled to the name of typical, which did not possess the
character of "a divine institution;" or, as he formally defines
the entire class, " they are symbolical institutes expressly ap
pointed by God to prefigure to those among whom they were
set up certain great transactions in connection with that plan of
redemption which, in the fulness of time, was to be unfolded to
mankind." Hence the historical types of every description,
even those which the- school of Marsh recognised on account
of the place given to them in New Testament Scripture, were
altogether disallowed; the use made of them by the inspired
writers was held to be " for illustration merely, and not for the
purpose of building anything on them;" they are not thereby
constituted or proved to be types.
The same view, however, was taken up and received a much
keener and fuller advocacy by the American writer Mr Lord,
in a periodical not unknown in this country the Ecclesiastical
and Literary Journal (No. XV). This was done in connection
with a fierce and elaborate review of the first edition of the
Typology, in the course of which its system of exposition was
denounced as " a monstrous scheme," not only " without the
sanction of the word of God," but "one of the boldest and
most effective contrivances for its subversion." It is not my
intention now less, indeed, when issuing this new edition (the
fourth) than formerly to attempt to rebut such offensive
charges, or to expose the misrepresentations on which to a large
extent they were grounded. I should even have preferred, had
46 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
it been in my power to do so, repairing to some vindication of
the same view, equally strenuous in its advocacy, but conducted
in a calmer and fairer tone, in order that the discussion might
bear less of a personal aspect. But as my present object is
partly to unfold the gradual progress and development of
opinion upon the subject of Scriptural Typology, justice could
scarcely be done to it without hearing what Mr Lord has to
say for the section of British and American theologians he
represents, and meeting it with a brief rejoinder.
The writer s mode was a comparatively easy one for proving
a negative to the view he controverted. He began with setting
forth a description of the nature and characteristics of a type,
so tightened and compressed as to exclude all from the category
but what pertained to " the tabernacle worship, or the propitia
tion and homage of God." And having thus with a kind of
oracular precision drawn his enclosure, it was not difficult to
dispose of whatever else might claim to be admitted ; for it is
put to flight the moment he presents his exact definitions, and
can only be considered typical by persons of dreamy intellect,
who are utter strangers to clearness of thought and precision of
language. In this way it is possible, we admit, and also not very
difficult, to make out a scheme and establish a nomenclature of
one s own ; but the question is, Does it accord with the repre
sentations of Scripture ? and will it serve, in respect to these, as
a guiding and harmonizing principle 1 We might, in a similar
way, draw out a series of precise and definite characteristics of
Messianic prophecy, such as, that it must avowedly bear the
impress of a prediction of the future that it must in the most
explicit terms point to the person or times of Messiah that it
must be conveyed in language capable of no ambiguity or double
reference ; and then, with this sharp weapon in our hand, pro
ceed summarily to lop off all supposed prophetical passages in
which these characteristics are wanting holding such, if applied
to Messianic times, to be mere accommodations, originally in
tended for one thing, and afterwards loosely adapted to another.
The rationalists of a former generation were great adepts in
this mode of handling prophetical Scripture, and by the use of
it dexterously got rid of a goodly number of the passages which
in the New Testament are represented as finding their fulfil-
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 47
ment in Christ. But we have yet to learn, that by so doing
they succeeded in throwing any satisfactory light on the inter
pretation of Scripture, or in placing on a Scriptural basis the
connection between the Old and the New in God s dispensations.
How closely the principles of Mr Lord lead him to tread in
the footsteps of these effete interpreters, will appear presently.
But we must first lodge our protest against his account of the
essential nature and characteristics of a type, as entirely arbitrary
and unsupported by Scripture. The things really possessing
this character, he maintains, must have had the three following
distinctive marks : They must have been specifically constituted
types by God ; must have been known to be so constituted, and
contemplated as such by those who had to do with them ; and
must have been continued till the coming of Christ, when they
were abrogated or superseded by something analogous in the
Christian dispensation. These are his essential elements in the
constitution of a type ; and an assertion of the want of one or
more of them forms the perpetual refrain, with which he disposes
of those characters and transactions that in his esteem are falsely
accounted typical. We object to every one of them in the sense
understood by the writer, and deny that Scriptural proof can be
produced for them, as applying to the strictly religious symbols of
the Old Testament worship, and to them alone. These were not
specifically constituted types, or formally set up in that character,
no more than such transactions as the deliverance from Egypt,
or the preservation of Noah in the deluge, which are denied to
have been typical. In the manner of their appointment, viewed
by itself, there is no more to indicate a reference to the Messianic
future in the one than in the other. Neither were they for
certain known to be types, and used as such by the Old Testa
ment worshippers. They unqestionably were not so used in the
time of our Lord ; and how far they may have been at any
previous period, is a matter only of probable inference, but no
where of express revelation. Nor, finally, was it by any means
an invariable and indispensable characteristic, that they should
have continued in use till they were superseded by something
analogous in the Christian dispensation. Some of the anoint
ings were not so continued, nor the Shekinah, nor even the Ark
of the Covenant ; and some of them stood in occasional acts of
48 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
service, such as the Nazarite vow, in its very nature special and
temporary. The redemption from Egypt was in itself a single
event, yet it was closely allied to the symbolical services ; for
it was linked to an ever-recurring and permanent ordinance of
worship. It was a creative act, bringing Israel as a people of
God into formal existence, and as such capable only of being
commemorated, but not of being repeated. It was commemo
rated, however, in the passover-feast. In that feast the Israelites
continually freshened the remembrance of it anew on their hearts.
They in spirit re-enacted it as a thing that required to be con
stantly renewing itself in their experience, as in the Lord s
Supper is now done by Christians in regard to the one great
redemption-act on the cross. This, too, considered simply as an
act in God s administration, is incapable of being repeated ; it
can only be commemorated, and in its effects spiritually applied
to the conscience. Yet so far from being thereby bereft of an
antitypical character, it is the central antitype of the Gospel.
Why should it be otherwise in respect to the type ? The analogy
of things favours it ; and the testimony of Scripture not doubt
fully requires it.
To say nothing of other passages of Scripture which bear less
explicitly, though to our mind very materially, upon the subject,
our Lord Himself, at the celebration of the last passover, declared
to His disciples, " With desire I have desired to eat this passover
with you before I suffer ; for I say unto you, I will not any more
eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke
xxii. 15, 16.) That is, there is a prophecy as well as a memorial
in this commemorative ordinance, a prophecy, because it is the
rehearsal of a typical transaction, which is now, and only now,
going to meet with its full realization. Such appears to be the
plain and unsophisticated import of our Lord s words. And the
Apostle Paul is, if possible, still more explicit when he says,
u For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us (more exactly,
For also our passover has been sacrificed, Christ ) : therefore
let us keep the feast," etc. (1 Cor. v. 7, 8.) What, we again
ask, are we to understand by these words, if not that there is in
the design and appointment of God an ordained connection be
tween the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Passover, so
that the one, as the means of redemption, takes the place of the
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 49
other 1 In any other sense the language would be only fitted
to mislead, by begetting apprehensions regarding a mutual corre
spondence and connection which had no existence. It is alleged
on the other side, that " Christ is indeed said to be our passover,
but it is by a metaphor, and indicates only that it is by His
blood we are saved from everlasting death, as the first-born of
the Hebrews were saved by the blood of the paschal lamb from
death by the destroying angel." Were this all, the Apostle might
surely have expressed himself less ambiguously. If there was
no real connection between the earlier and the later event, and
the one stood as much apart from the other as the lintels of
Goshen in themselves did from the cross of Calvary, why employ
language that forces upon the minds of simple believers the
reality of a proper connection ? Simply, we believe, because it
actually existed ; and our " exegetical conscience," to use a
German phrase, refuses to be satisfied with Mr Lord s mere
metaphor. But when he states further, that the passover, having
been " appointed with a reference to the exemption of the first
born of the Israelites from the death that was to be inflicted on the
first-born of the Egyptians, it cannot be a type of Christ s death
for the sins of the world, as that would imply that Christ s death
also was commemorative of the preservation from an analogous
death," who does not perceive that this is to confound between
the passover as an original redemptive transaction, and as a
commemorative ordinance, pointing back to the great fact, and
perpetually rehearsing it ? It is as a festal solemnity alone that
there can be anything commemorative belonging either to the
Paschal sacrifice or to Christ s. Viewed, however, as redemptive
acts, there was a sufficient analogy between them : the one
redeemed the first-born of Israel (the firstlings of its families),
and the other redeems " the Church of the first-born, whose
names are written in heaven."
There is manifested a like tendency to evacuate the proper
meaning of Scripture in most of the other instances brought into
consideration. Christ, for example, calls Himself, with pointed
reference to the manna, "the bread of life;" and in Kev. ii. 17,
an interest in His divine life is called " an eating of the hidden
manna," but it is only " by a metaphor," precisely as Christ else
where calls Himself the vine, or is likened to a rock. As if
VOL. I. D
50 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
there were no difference between an employment of these natural
emblems and the identifying of Christ with the supernatural
food given to support His people, after a provisional redemption,
and on the way to a provisional inheritance ! It is not the simple
reference to a temporal good on which, in such a case, we rest
the typical import, but this in connection with the whole of the
relations and circumstances in which the temporal was given or
employed. Jonah was not, it is alleged, a type of Christ ; for
he is not called such, but only a "sign;" neither was Mel-
chizedek called by that name. Well, but Adam is called a type
(TZ/TTO? rov yu-eXXo^ro?, Rom. v. 14), and baptism is called the
antitype to the deluge (o /cal rjfjids avrtrvTrov vvv crcofet fianr-
rio-fjia, 1 Pet. iii. 21). True, but then, we are told, the word in
these passages only means a similitude ; it does not mean type
or antitype in the proper sense. What, then, could denote it ?
Is there any other term more properly fitted to express the idea ?
And if the precise term, when it is employed, still does not serve,
why object in other cases to the want of it ? Strange, surely,
that its presence and its absence should be alike grounds of
objection. But if the matter is to come to a mere stickling
about words, shall we have any types at all? Are even the
tabernacle and its institutions of worship called by that name ?
Not once ; but inversely, the designation of antitypes is in one
passage applied to them : " The holy places made with hands,
the antitypes of the true" (avrlrvrrd TWV a\ij0ivcov, Heb. ix. 24).
So little does Scripture, in its teachings on this subject, encourage
us to hang our theoretical explanations on a particular epithet !
It varies the mode of expression with all the freedom of common
discourse, and even, as in this particular instance, inverts the
current phraseology ; but still, amid all the variety, it indicates
with sufficient plainness a real economical connection between
the past and the present in God s dispensations, such as is
commonly understood by the terms type and antitype ; and this
is the great point, however we may choose to express it.
The passage in Galatians respecting Sarah and Isaac on the
one side, and Hagar and Ishmael on the other, naturally formed
one of some importance for the view sought to be established in
the Typology, and as such called for Mr Lord s special considera
tion. Here, as in other cases, he begins with the statement that
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 51
the characters and relations there mentioned have not the term
type applied to them, and hence should not be reckoned typical.
" It is only said," he continues, " that that which is related of
Hagar and Sarah is exhibited allegorically ; that is, that there
are other things that, used as allegorical representatives of Hagar
and Sarah, exhibit the same facts and truths. The object of the
allegory is to exemplify them by analogous things ; not by them
to exemplify something else, to which they present a resem
blance. It is they who are said to be allegorized, that is, repre
sented by something else ; not something else that is allegorized
by them. They are accordingly said to be the two covenants,
that is, like the two covenants ; and Mount Sinai is used to
represent the covenant that genders to bondage ; and Jeru
salem from above that is, the Jerusalem of Christ s kingdom
the covenant of freedom or grace. And they accordingly are
employed [by the Apostle] to set forth the character and condi
tion of the bond and the free woman, and their offspring. Pie
attempts to illustrate the lot of the two classes who are under
law and under grace ; first, by referring to the different relations
to the covenant, and different lot of the children of the bond
and the free woman ; and then, by using Mount Sinai to exem
plify the character and condition of those under the Mosaic law,
and the heavenly Jerusalem, to exemplify those who are under
the Gospel. The places from which the two covenants are pro
claimed are thus used to represent those two classes ; not Hagar
and Sarah to represent those places, or the covenants that are
proclaimed from them." Now, this show of exact criticism
professing to explain all, and yet leaving the main thing totally
unexplained is introduced, let it be observed, to expose an
alleged " singular neglect of discrimination" in the use we had
made of the passage. We had, it seems, been guilty of the
extraordinary mistake of supposing Hagar and Sarah to be
themselves the representatives in the Apostle s allegorization,
and not, as we should have done, the objects represented. Does
any of our readers, with all the advantage of the reviewer s
explanation, recognise the importance of this distinction ? Or
can he tell how it serves to explicate the Apostle s argument ?
I cannot imagine how any one should do so ? In itself it might
have been of no moment, though it is of much for the Apostle s
52 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
argument, whether Hagar and Sarah be said to represent the
two covenants of law and grace, or the two covenants be said to
represent them ; as in Heb. ix. 24, it is of no moment whether
the earthly sanctuary be called the antitype of the heavenly, or
the heavenly of the earthly. There is in both cases alike a
mutual representation, or relative correspondence ; and it is the
nature of the correspondence, inferior and preparatory in the
one case, spiritual and ultimate in the other, which is chiefly
important. It is that (though entirely overlooked by the re
viewer) which makes the Apostle s appeal here to the historical
transactions in the family of Abraham suitable and appropriate
to the object he has in view. For it is by the mothers and their
natural offspring he intends to throw light on the covenants, and
their respective tendencies and results. It was the earlier that
exemplified and illustrated the later, not the later that exem
plified and illustrated the earlier; otherwise the reference of
the Apostle is misplaced, and the reasoning he founds on it
manifestly inept.
One specimen more of this school of interpretation, and we
leave it. Among the passages of Scripture that were referred
to, as indicating a typical relationship between the Old and the
New in God s dispensations, is Matt. ii. 15, where the evangelist
speaks of Christ being in Egypt till the death of Herod, " that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the pro
phet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son." The allusion
to this passage in the first, as well as in the present, edition of
this work, was never meant to convey the idea that it was the
only Scriptural authority for concluding a typical relationship
to have subsisted between Israel and Christ. It was, however,
referred to as one of the passages most commonly employed by
typological writers in proof of such a relationship, and in itself
most obviously implying it. But what says our opponent?
" The language of Matthew does not imply that it (the passage
in Hosea) was a prophecy of Christ ; he simply states, that Jesus
continued in Egypt till Herod s death, so that that occurred in
respect to Him which had been spoken by Jehovah by the pro
phet, Out of Egypt have I called My Son ; or, in other words,
so that that was accomplished in respect to Christ which had
been related by the prophet of Israel." Was there not good
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 53
reason for indicating a close affinity between the typological
principles of this writer, and the loose interpretations of rational
ism ? One might suppose that it was a comment of Paulas or
Kuinoel that we are here presented with, and we transfer their
paraphrase and notes to the bottom of the page, to show how
entirely they agree in spirit. 1 If the Evangelist simply meant
what is ascribed to him, it was surely strange that he should
have taken so peculiar a way to express it. But if the words he
employs plainly intimate such a connection between Christ and
Israel, as gave to the testimony in Ilosea the force of a prophecy
(which is the natural impression made by the reference), who
has any right to tame down his meaning to a sense that would
entirely eliminate this prophetical element, the very element to
which, apparently, he was anxious to give prominence ? What
we have here to deal with is inspired testimony respecting the
connection between Israel and Christ; and it cannot have justice
done to it, unless it is taken in its broad and palpable import.
(See further, under Ch. IV., and Appendix A., c. 4.)
2. We turn now to the other class of writers, whose aim it
has been in recent times to enlarge and widen the typological
field. The chief, and for some time the only distinguished
representatives of it were to be found in Germany ; as it was
there also that the new and more profound spirit of investiga
tion began to develop itself. Near the commencement of the
present century the religions of antiquity began to form the
subject of more thoughtful and learned inquiry, and a depth of
meaning was discovered (sometimes perhaps only thought to be
discovered) in the myths and external symbols of these, which
in the preceding century was not so much as dreamt of.
Creuzer, in particular, by his great work (Symbolik) created
quite a sensation in this department of learning, and opened
up what seemed to be an entirely new field of research. He
was followed by Baur (Symbolik und Mythologie), Gorres
(Mythengeschichte), Miiller, and others of less note, each
1 Kuinoel : Ut adco hie recte possit laudari, quod dominus olim inter-
prete propheta dixit, nempe : ex ^Egypto vocavi filium meum. Paulus :
" TT^YipovaQoii is \ustQ fulfilling.^ as denoting a completion after the resemblance;"
and lie adopts as his own Ernesti s paraphrase, " Here one might say with
greater justice (in a fuller sense) what Hosea said of Israel."
54 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
endeavouring to proceed farther than preceding inquirers into
the explication of the religious views of the ancients, by weav
ing together and interpreting what is known of their historical
legends and ritual services. These inquiries were at first con
ducted merely in the way of antiquarian research and philoso
phical speculation ; and the religion of the Old Testament was
deemed, in that point of view, too unimportant to be made the
subject of special consideration. Creuzer only here and there
throws out some passing allusions to it. Even Baur, though a
theologian, enters into no regular investigation of the symbols
of Judaism, while he expatiates at great length on all the
varieties of Heathenism. By and by, however, a better spirit
appeared. Mosaism, as the religion of the Old Testament is
called, had a distinct place allotted it by Gorres among the
ancient religions of Asia. And at last it was itself treated at
great length, and with distinguished learning and ability, in a
separate work the Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus of Bahr
(published in 1837-9). This continues still (1863) to hold an
important place in Germany on the subject of the Mosaic
symbols, although it is pervaded by fundamental errors of the
gravest kind (to which we shall afterwards have occasion to
advert), and not unfrequently falls into fanciful views on
particular parts. Some of these were met by Hengstenberg in
the second volume of his Authentie des Pentateuchus, who has
also furnished many good typical illustrations in his Christology
and other exegetical works. Tholuck, in his Commentary on
the Hebrews, has followed in the same tract, generally adopting
the explanations of Hengstenberg, and still more recently
(chiefly since the publication of our first edition), further con
tributions have been made particularly by Kurtz, Baumgarten,
Delitzsch. Even De Wette, in his old age, caught something
of this new spirit ; and after many an effort to depreciate apostolic
Christianity by detecting in it symptoms of Judaical weakness
and bigotry, he made at least one commendable effort in the
nobler direction of elevating Judaism, by pointing to the manifold
germs it contained of a spiritual Christianity. In a passage
quoted by Bahr (vol. i., p. 16, from an article by De Wette on
the " Characteristik des Hebraismus "), he says " Christianity
sprang out of Judaism. Long before Christ appeared, the world
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 55
was prepared for His appearance : the entire Old Testament is a
great prophecy, a great type of Him who ivas to come, and has
come. Who can deny that the holy seers of the Old Testament
saw in spirit the advent of Christ long before He came, and in
prophetic anticipations, sometimes more, sometimes less clear,
descried the new doctrine? The typological comparison, also,
of the Old Testament with the New, was by no means a mere
play of fancy ; nor can it be regarded as altogether the result
of accident, that the evangelical history, in the most important
particulars, runs parallel with the Mosaic. Christianity lay in
Judaism as leaves and fruits do in the seed, though certainly it
needed the divine sun to bring them forth."
Such language, especially as coming from such a quarter,
undoubtedly indicated a marked change. Yet it must not be
supposed, on reading so strong a testimony, as if everything were
already conceded ; for what by such writers as De Wette is
granted in the general, is often denied or explained away in the
particular. Even the idea of a coming Messiah, as expressed in
the page of prophecy, was held to be little more than a patriotic
hope, the natural product of certain circumstances connected
with the Israelitish nation (see Ilengs. Christology, vol. iv., p.
391, Trans.). Nor did the new light thus introduced lead to
any well-grounded and regularly developed system of typo
logy, based on a clear and comprehensive view of the Divine
dispensations. Biihr confined himself almost entirely to the mere
interpretation of the symbols of the Mosaic dispensation, and
hence, even when his views were correct, rather furnished the
materials for constructing a proper typological system, than
himself provided. And it has been noted by Tholuck and
other learned men as a defect in their literature, that they are
without any work on the subject suited to the existing position
and demands of theological science. 1
1 This defect cannot yet be said to have been supplied ; not by the
Symbolique du Culte de L Ancicime Alliance (1860) of Neumann, published
since the above was written the work of a German, though written in
French. For not only is the work incomplete (the first part only having ap
peared), but it possesses more the nature of a condensed sketch or outline of
the subject, than a full investigation. So far as it goes, it is written with
clearness and vigour, contains some fine thoughts, and is pervaded by an
earnest and elevated spirit. Justice requires me to add, that it appears to
56 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
It is to be observed, however, that this new current of opinion
among the better part of theologians on the Continent, leads
them to find the typical element widely diffused through the
historical and prophetical, as well as the more strictly religious
portions of the Old Testament. No one who is in any degree
acquainted with the exegetical productions of Hengstenberg and
Olshausen, now made accessible to English readers, can have
failed to perceive this, from the tone of their occasional refer
ences and illustrations. Their unbiassed exegetical spirit rendered
it impossible for them to do otherwise ; for the same connection,
they perceived, runs like a thread through all the parts, and
binds them together into a consistent whole. Indeed, the only
formal attempt made to work out a new system of typological
interpretation, prior to the incomplete treatise mentioned in the
last note, the essay of Olshausen (published in 1824, and
consisting only of 124 widely printed pages), entitled, Ein Wort
uber tiefern Schriftsinn, has respect almost exclusively to the
historical and prophetical parts of ancient Scripture. When he
comes distinctly to unfold what he calls the deeper exposition of
Scripture, he contents himself with a brief elucidation of the
following points : That Israel s relation to God is represented
in Scripture as forming an image of all and each of mankind,
in so far as the divine life is possessed by them that Israel s
relation to the surrounding heathen in like manner imaged the
conflict of all spiritual men with the evil in the world that a
parallelism is drawn between Israel and Christ as the one who
completely realized what Israel should have been and that all
real children of God again image what, in the whole, is found
imperfectly in Israel and perfectly in Christ (pp. 87-110).
These positions, it must be confessed, indicate a considerable
degree of vagueness and generality ; and the treatise, as a whole,
is defective in first principles and logical precision, as well as
be marred by two misleading tendencies : one of excess attempting to carry
religion too much into the domain of science (for example, in the use made
of Goethe s Theory of Colours to explain some of the Old Testament symbols) ;
the other of defect viewing religion almost, if not altogether exclusively,
on the subjective side, which necessarily leads to certain meagre and arbi
trary explanations. Reference may possibly be made to some of them in
the sequel.
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 57
fulness of investigation. Klausen, in the following extract
from his Hermeneutik, pp. 334-345, has given a fair outline
of Olshausen s views : " We must distinguish between a false
and a genuine allegorical exposition, which latter has the sup
port of the highest authority, though it alone has it, being fre
quently employed by the inspired writers of the New Testament.
The fundamental error in the common allegorizing, from which
all its arbitrariness has sprung, bidding defiance to every sound
principle of exposition, must be sought in this, that a double
sense has been attributed to Scripture, and one of them conse
quently a sense entirely different from that which is indicated
by the words. Accordingly, the characteristic of the genuine
allegorical exposition must be, that it recognises no sense besides
the literal one none differing from this in nature, as from the
historical reality of what is recorded ; but only a deeper-lying
sense (vTrovoia), bound up with the literal meaning by an inter
nal and essential connection a sense given along with this and
in it ; so that it must present itself whenever the subject is
considered from the higher point of view, and is capable of being
ascertained by fixed rules. Hence, if the question be regarding
the fundamental principles, accordiiig to which the connection
must be made out between the deeper apprehension and the im
mediate sense conveyed by the words, these have their founda
tion in the law of general harmony, by which all individuals, in
the natural as well as in the spiritual world, form one great
organic system the law by which all phenomena, whether be
longing to a higher or a lower sphere, appear as copies of what
essentially belongs to their respective ideas ; so that the w r hole
is represented in the individual, and the individual again in the
whole. This mysterious relation comes most prominently out
in the history of the Jewish people and their worship. But
something analogous everywhere discovers itself ; and in the
manner in which the Old Testament is expounded in the New,
we are furnished with the rules for all exposition of the Word,
of nature, and of history."
The vague and unsatisfactory character of this mode of re
presentation, is evident almost at first sight ; the elements of
truth contained in it are neither solidly grounded nor sufficiently
guarded against abuse; so that, with some justice, Klausen
58 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
remarks, in opposition to it, " The allegorizing may perhaps be
applied with greater moderation and better taste than formerly;
but against the old principle, though revived as often as put
down, viz., that every sense which can be found in the words
has a right to be regarded as the sense of the words, the same
exceptions will always be taken." If the Typology of Scripture
cannot be rescued from the domain of allegorizings, it will be
impossible to secure for it a solid and permanent footing. It
cannot attain to this while coupled with allegorical licence, or
with a nearer and deeper sense. It is proper to add, that
Klausen himself has no place in his Hermeneutik for typical,
as distinguished from allegorical interpretations. In common
with Hermeneutical writers generally, he regards these as sub
stantially the same in kind ; and the one only as the excess of
the other. Some application he would allow of Old Testament
Scripture to the realities of the Gospel, in consideration of what
is said by inspired writers of the relation subsisting between the
two; but he conceives that relation to be of a kind which scarcely
admits of being brought to the test of historical truth, and that
the examples furnished of it in the New Testament arose from
necessity rather than from choice.
Later writers generally, however, on the Continent, who
have meditated with a profound and thoughtful spirit on the
history of the Divine dispensations, have shown a disposition to
tread in the footsteps of Olshausen rather than of Klausen.
And it cannot but be regarded as a striking exemplification of
the revolving cycles through which theological opinion is some
times found to pass, that after two centuries of speculation and
inquiry, a substantial return has been made by some of the
ablest of these divines though by diverse routes to the more
fundamental principles of the Cocceian school. It was charac
teristic of that school to contemplate the dispensations chiefly
from the divine point of view ; according to which, the end being
eyed from the beginning, the things pertaining to the end were
often, by a not unnatural consequence, made to throw back
their light too distinctly on those of the beginning, and the pro
gressive nature of the Divine economy was not sufficiently re
garded. It was further characteristic of the same school, that,
viewing everything in the scheme of God as planned with re-
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 59
fercncc to redemption, they were little disposed to discriminate
in this respect between one portion of the earlier things belonging
to it and another; wherever they could trace a resemblance,
there also they descried a type ; and everything in the history
as well as in the institutions of the Old Covenant, was brought
into connection with the realities of the Gospel. Now, these
two fundamental characteristics of Cocceianism, somewhat dif
ferently grounded, and still more differently applied, are pre
cisely those to which peculiar prominence is given in the writings
of such men as Hofmann, Kurtz, Lange, and others of the
present day. The first of these, in a work (Weissagung und
Erfullung, 1841-44) which, from its spirit of independent in
quiry, and the fresh veins of thought it not unfrequently opened
up, exerted an influence upon many who had no sympathy with
the doctrinal conclusions of the author, made even more of the
typical element in Old Testament history than was done by the
Cocceians. It is in the typical character of history, rather than
in the prophetic announcements which accompanied it, that he
would find the germ and presage of the future realities of the
Gospel : the history foreshadowed these ; the prophets, acting as
the men of superior discernment, simply perceived and inter
preted what was in the history. Therefore, to elevate the his
torical and depress the prophetical in Old Testament Scripture,
might be regarded as the general aim of Hofmann s under
taking ; yet only formally and relatively to do so : for, as ex
pressive of the religious state and development of the covenant
people, both were in reality depressed, and the sacred put much
on a level with the profane. This will sufficiently appear from
the following illustration : " Every triumphal procession which
passed through the streets of Rome was a prophecy of Augustus
Cassar ; for what he displayed through the whole of his career,
was here displayed by the triumphant general on his day of
honour, namely, the God in the man, Jupiter in the Roman
citizen. In the fact that Rome paid such honours to its vic
torious commanders, it pointed to the future, when it should
rule the world through the great emperor, to whom divine
honours would be paid." This he brings into comparison with
the allusion made in John xix. 36 to the ordinance respecting
the passover lamb, that a bone of it should not be broken ; and
60 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
then adds, " The meaning of the triumph was not fully realized
in the constantly recurring triumphal processions ; and so also
the meaning of the passover was not fully realized in the yearly
passovcr meals ; but the essential meaning of both was to be
fully developed at some future period, when the prophecy con
tained in them should also be fully confirmed" (I., p. 15). But
what, one naturally asks, did the prophecy in such cases amount
to ? It will scarcely be alleged, that even the most gifted
Roman citizen, who lived during the period of triumphal pro
cessions, could with any certainty have descried in these the
future possessor of the imperial throne. It could at the most
have been but a vague anticipation or probable conjecture, if
so much as that ; for, however the elevation of Augustus to that
dignity might, after the event actually occurred, have come to
be regarded u as the top-stone and culminating point in the
history," assuredly the better spirits of the commonwealth were
little disposed to long for such a culmination, or to think of it
beforehand as among the destinies of the future. It is only as
contemplated from the divine point of view, that the triumphal
procession could with any propriety be said to foreshadow the im
perial dignity, a point of view which the event alone rendered
it possible for men to apprehend ; and the so-called prophecy,
therefore, when closely considered and designated by its proper
name, was merely the divine purpose secretly moulding the
events which were in progress, and, through these, marching on
to its accomplishment. This, and nothing more (since Zion is
put on a footing with Rome) is the kind of prophecy which
Hofmann would find, and find exclusively, in the facts and
circumstances of Israelitish history. Because they in reality
culminated in the wonders of redemption, they might be said to
mark the progression of the Divine procedure toward that as its
final aim. But who could meanwhile conjecture that there was
any such goal in prospect 1 The prophets, it is affirmed, could
not rise above the movements of the current history ; not even
the seers, by way of eminence, could penetrate further into the
future than existing relations and occurrences might carry them.
What signified it, then, that a latent prophecy lay enwrapped
in the history ? There was no hand to remove the veil and
disclose the secret. The prophecy as such was known only in
MORE RECENT VIEWS. Gl
the heavenly sphere ; and the whole that could be found in the
human was some general conviction or vague hope that prin
ciples were at work, or a plan was in progress, which seemed
to be tending to loftier issues than had yet been reached.
This scheme of Hofmann is too manifestly an exaggeration
of a particular aspect of the truth to be generally accepted as
a just explanation of the whole ; by soaring too high in one
direction, fixing the eye too exclusively on the Divine side of
things, it leaves the human bereft of its proper significance and
value reduces it, in fact, to a rationalistic basis. Ilengsten-
berg has justly said of it, in the last edition of his Christology
(vol. iv., p. 389), that " by overthrowing prophecy, in the strict
sense, it necessarily involves acted prophecy (or type) in the
same fate ; and that it is nothing but an illusion to attempt to
elevate types at the expense of prophecy." Without, however,
attempting after this fashion to sacrifice the one of these for
the sake of the other, various theologians have sought to com-
O O
bine them, so as to make the one the proper complement of the
other two divinely-appointed factors in the production of a
common result, such as the necessities of the Church required.
Thus Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., Introd., 7, 8), while he con
tends for the proper function of prophecy, as having to do with
the future not less than the present, maintains that the history
also of the Old Covenant was prophetic, " both because it fore
shadows, and because it stands in living and continuous relation
to, the plan of salvation which was going to be manifested."
He thinks it belongs to prophecy alone to disclose, with requisite
freedom and distinctness, the connection between what at any
particular time was possessed and what was still wanted, or
between the fulfilments of promise already made and the ex
pectations which remained to be satisfied; but, in doing this,
prophecy serves itself of the history as not only providing the
occasion, but also containing the germ of what was to come.
He therefore holds that the sacred history possesses a typical
character, which appears prominently, continuously, markedly
in decided outlines, and in a manner patent not only to posterity,
but, by the assistance of prophecy, to contemporaries also, accord
ing to the measure that their spiritual capacity might enable
them to receive it. This character belongs alike to events, in-
62 THE ^TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
stitutions, and dispensations; but in what manner or to what
extent it is to be carried out in particular cases, nothing beyond
a few general lines have been indicated.
These views of the typical element contained in the history
and institutions of the Old Covenant, while they present certain
fundamental agreements with the principles of the Cocceian
school, have this also in common with it, that they take the need
for redemption the fall of man as the proper starting-point
alike for type and prophecy. But another and influential class
of theologians, having its representatives in this country as well
as on the Continent, has of late advanced a step further, and
holds that creation itself, and the state and circumstances of
man before as well as after the fall, equally possessed a typical
character, being from the outset inwrought with prophetic indi
cations of the person and kingdom of Christ. To this class
belong all who have espoused the position (not properly a new
one, for it is well known to have been maintained by some of
the scholastic divines), that the incarnation of Godhead in the
person of Christ was destined to take place irrespective of the
fall, and that the circumstances connected with this only deter
mined the specific form in which He was to appear, and the
nature of the work He had to do, but not the purpose itself of
a personal indwelling of Godhead in the flesh of man, which is
held to have been indispensable for the full manifestation of
the Divine character, and the perfecting of the idea of humanity.
The advocates of this view include Lange, Dorner, Liebner,
Ebrard, Martensen, with several others of reputation in Ger
many, and in this country, Dean Trench (in his Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge). Along with
these there are others in particular, Dr M Cosh, the late Hugh
Miller, also the late Mr M Donald of Edinkillie who, without
properly committing themselves to this view of the incarnation,
yet, on the ground of the analogy pervading the fields alike of
nature and redemption in respect to the prevalence of typical
forms, on this ground at least, more especially and peculiarly,
hold not less decidedly than the theologians above named, the
existence of a typical element in the original frame and consti
tution of things.
Such being the turn that later speculations upon this subject
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 63
have taken, it manifestly becomes necessary to examine all the
more carefully into the nature and properties of a type. We
must endeavour to arrive (if possible) at some definite ideas and
fundamental principles on the general subject, before entering
on the consideration of the particular modes of revelation by
type, which undoubtedly constitute the great mass of what in
Scripture is invested with such a character, and to which, with a
view to the right understanding and proper application of these,
our inquiry must be mainly directed.
CHAPTER SECOND.
THE PROPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY. 1. SCRIP
TURAL USE OF THE WORD TYPE COMPARISON OF THIS
WITH THE THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
OF A TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP, VIEWED WITH RESPECT TO
THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
THE language of Scripture being essentially popular, its use of
particular terms naturally partakes of the freedom and variety
which are wont to appear in the current speech of a people;
and it rarely if ever happens, that words are employed, in respect
to topics requiring theological treatment, with such precision and
uniformity as to enable us, from this source alone, to attain to
proper accuracy and fulness. The word type (TUTTO?) forms no
exception to this usage. Occurring once, at least, in the natural
sense of mark or impress made by a hard substance on one of
softer material (John xx. 25), it commonly bears the general
import of model) pattern, or exemplar, but with such a wide
diversity of application as to comprehend a material object of
worship, or idol (Acts vii. 43), an external framework constructed
for the service of God (Acts vii. 44, Heb. viii. 5), the form or
copy of an epistle (Acts xxiii. 25), a method of doctrinal instruc
tion delivered by the first heralds and teachers of the Gospel
(Rom. vi. 17), a representative character, or, in certain respects,
normal example (Rom. v. 14, 1 Cor. x. 11, Phil. iii. 17, 1 Thess.
i. 7, 1 Pet. v. 3). Such in New Testament Scripture is the
diversified use of the word type (disguised, however, under other
terms in the authorized version). It is only in the last of the
applications noticed, that it has any distinct bearing on the sub
ject of our present inquiry ; and this also comprises under it so
much of diversity, that if we were to draw our definition of a
type simply from the Scriptural use of the term, we could give
no more specific description of it than this a certain pattern or
exemplar exhibited in the position and character of some indivi-
NATURE OF A TYPE. 65
duals, to which others may or should be conformed. Adam stood,
we are told, in the relation of a type to the coming Messiah,
backsliding Israelites in their guilt and punishment to similar
characters in Christian times, faithful pastors to their flocks,
first converts to those who should afterwards believe, a mani
festly varied relationship, closer in some than in others, yet in
each implying a certain resemblance between the parties asso
ciated together; something in the one that admitted of being vir
tually reproduced in the other. Thus defined and understood, it
will be observed, also, that a type is no more peculiar to one dis
pensation than another. It is to be found now in the true pastor or
the exemplary Christian as well as formerly in Adam or in Israel;
and since believers generally are predestined to be conformed
to the image of Christ, he might, of course, be designated for all
times emphatically and pre-eminently the type of the Church.
But presented in this loose and general form, there is nothing
in the nature of a type that can be said to call for particular
investigation, or that may occasion material difference of opinion.
The subject involves only a few leading ideas, which are familiar
to every intelligent reader of Scripture, and which can prove of
small avail to the satisfactory explication of what is peculiar in
the history of the Divine dispensations. When, however, with
reference more to the subject itself than to the mere employ
ment of a particular word in connection with it, we pursue our
researches into the testimony of Scripture, we presently find
relations indicated between one class of things and another,
which, while the same in kind, perhaps, with those just noticed,
have yet distinctive features of their own, which call for thought
ful inquiry and discriminating treatment. These have already
to some extent come into consideration in the historical and
critical review that has been presented of past opinion (see p.
41 sq.). It is enough to refer here to such passages as Heb. ix.
24 where the holy places of the earthly tabernacle are called
the antitypes (avrirvTra) of the true or heavenly ; the latter, of
course, according to this somewhat peculiar phraseology, being
viewed as the types of the other : Heb. viii. 5 where the whole
structure of the tabernacle, with its appointed ritual of service, is
designated an example and shadow (uTroSej/y/za CTKIO) of heavenly
things: Ps. ex. 4; Heb. vi. 10-12, vii. where Melchizedek is
VOL. I. E
66 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
exalted over the ministering priesthood of that tabernacle, as
bearing in some important respects a still closer relationship to
Christ than was given them to occupy : 1 Pet. iii. 21 where
Christian baptism is denominated the antitype to the deluge,
and by implication the deluge is made the type of baptism :
Matt. ii. 15 ; Luke xxii. 16 ; 1 Cor. v. 7 ; John ii. 19, vi. 31-33 ;
1 Cor. x. 4 where Christ is in a manner identified with the
corporate Israel, the passover, the temple, the manna, the water-
giving rock. When reading these passages, and others of a like
description, our minds instinctively inquire what is the nature
of the connection indicated by them between the past and the
present in God s economy? Is it such as subsists between
things alike in principle, but diverse in form? between things
on the same spiritual level, or things rising from a lower to a
higher level ? Is the connection strictly the same in all, or does
it vary with the objects and parties compared ? What light is
thrown by the different elements entering into it upon the
revealed character of God, and the progressive condition of His
Church ? Can we discover in them the lines of a divine harmony
in the one respect, and of a human harmony in the other ? Such
are the questions which here naturally press on us for solution ;
and they are questions altogether occasioned by peculiarities in
preceding dispensations as compared with that of the Gospel.
The relation of the present to the still coming future which is
that simply of the initial to the terminal processes of the salva
tion already accomplished is of a much less complicated and
embarrassing kind, and can scarcely be said to give rise to
questions of the class now specified.
In another respect, however, substantially the same questions
arise namely, in connection with much that is indicated of the
anticipated future of the Christian Church, pointing, as it does,
even after Christian realities had come, to further developments
of the forms and relations of earlier times. For in the pro
spective delineations which are given us in Scripture respect
ing the final issues of Christ s kingdom among men, while the
foundation of all undoubtedly lies in the mediatorial work and
offices of Christ Himself, it still is through the characters,
ordinances, and events of the Old Covenant, not those of the
New (with the exception just specified), that the things to come
NATURE OF A TYPE. G7
are shadowed fortli to the eye of faith ; the forms of things in the
remote past have here also, it would seem, to find their proper
complement and destined realization. Thus, Israel still appears,
among the prophetic glimpses in question, with his twelve tribes,
his marvellous redemption, wilderness-sojourn, and rescued in
heritance (Matt. xix. 28 ; Rev. vii. 4-17, xii. 14, xv. 3) ; and
the tabernacle or temple, with its courts and sanctuaries, its
ark of testimony and cherubim of glory, its altars and offerings
(2 Thess. ii. 4;* Rev. iv. 7, 8, viii. 3, xi. 1, 2, xv. 6-8, xxi. 3);
and the ancient priesthood, with their linen robes and angel-like
service (Kev. iv. 4, xv. 6) ; Zion and Jerusalem, Babylon and
Euphrates, Sodom and Egypt (Heb. xii. 22 ; Rev. xi. 8, xiv.
1-8, xvi. 12, xxi. 2) ; and more remote still, especially when the
mystery of God in Christ is seen approaching its consummation,
paradise with its tree of life and rivers of gladness, its perennial
delights, and over all its heaven-crowned Lord, with the spouse
formed from Himself to share with Him in the glory, and yield
Him faithful service in the kingdom (Rev. ii. 7, vii. 17, xix. 7,
xxi. 9). No more, amid the anticipations of Christian faith and
hope, are we permitted to lose sight of the personages and
materials of the earlier dispensations, than in those which took
shape under >re-Christian times.
Having respect, therefore, to the nature of the subject under
consideration, and the more peculiar difficulties attending it,
rather than to the infrequent and variable use of the word type
in Scripture, theologians have been wont to distinguish between
existing relationships (such as of a pastor to his people, or of
Christ to the heirs of His glory) and those which connect
together bygone with Christian times the things pertaining to
the Old with those pertaining to the New Covenant. The former
alone they have usually designated by the name of types, the
latter by that of antitypes. This mode of distinguishing by
theologians has been represented as an unwise departure from
Scriptural usage, and in itself necessarily fitted to mislead. 1 It
1 "We do not know what right divines have to construct a system" of
theological types, instead of a system of Scripture types. We are sure that
had they kept to the Scripture use of the term, instead of devising a theo
logical sense, they would have been saved from much extravagance, and
evolved much truth. 1 M Cosh, in " Typical Forms," p. 523.
68 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
admits, however, of a reasonable justification ; and to treat the
subject with anything like scientific precision and fulness, with
out determining after such a method the respective provinces of
type and antitype, would be found extremely inconvenient, if
not impracticable. The testimony of Scripture itself, when
fairly consulted, affords ground for the distinction indicated, in
a great measure apart from and beyond the application of the
specific terms. By adhering closely to its usage in respect to
these, and disregarding other considerations, one might readily
enough, indeed, present some popular illustrations, or throw off
a few general outlines of the typical field ; but to get at its more
distinctive characteristics, and explicate with some degree of
satisfaction the difficulties with which it invests, to our view,
the evolution of God s plan and ways, is a different thing, and
demands a greatly more exact and comprehensive line of investi
gation. The extravagance which has too often characterized
the speculations of divines upon the subject has arisen, not from
their devising a theological sense for the word type (which Scrip
ture itself might be said to force on them), but from their failure
to search out the fundamental principles involved in the whole
representations of Scripture, and to make a judicious and dis
criminating application of the light thence arising to the different
parts of the subject. 1
Understanding the word type, then, in the theological sense,
that is, conceiving its strictly proper and distinctive sphere to lie
in the relations of the old to the new, or the earlier to the later,
in God s dispensations, there are two things which, by general
consent, are held to enter into the constitution of a type. It is
held, first, that in the character, action, or institution which is
denominated the type, there must be a resemblance in form or
spirit to what answers to it under the Gospel; and secondly,
that it must not be any character, action, or institution occur
ring in Old Testament Scripture, but such only as had their
ordination of God, and were designed by Him to foreshadow
and prepare for the better things of the Gospel. For, as Bishop
Marsh has justly remarked, " to constitute one thing the type
of another, something more is wanted than mere resemblance.
1 The question, whether the things of creation should be formally treated
as typical, will be considered in Ch. IV.
NATURE OF A TYPE. 69
The former must not only resemble the latter, but must have
been designed to resemble the latter. It must have been so
designed in its original institution. It must have been designed
as something preparatory to the latter. The type as well as the
antitype must have been pre-ordained ; and they must have
been pre-ordained as constituent parts of the same general
scheme of Divine Providence. It is this previous design and
this pre-ordained connection [together, of course, with the resem
blance], which constitute the relation of type and antitype." 1
We insert, together with the resemblance; for, while stress is
justly laid on the previous design and pre-ordained connection,
the resemblance also forms an indispensable element in this
very connection, and is, in fact, the point that involves the more
peculiar difficulties belonging to the subject, and calls for the
closest investigation.
I. We begin, therefore, with the other point the previous
design and pre-ordained connection necessarily entering into the
relation between type and antitype. A relation so formed, and
subsisting to any extent between Old and New Testament things,
evidently presupposes and implies two important facts. It im
plies, first, that the realities of the Gospel, which constitute the
antitypes, are the ultimate objects which were contemplated by
the mind of God, when planning the economy of His successive
dispensations. And it implies, secondly, that to prepare the way
for the introduction of these ultimate objects, He placed the
Church under a course of training, which included instruction
by types, or designed and fitting resemblances of what was to
come. Both of these facts are so distinctly stated in Scripture,
and, indeed, so generally admitted, that it will be unnecessary
to do more than present a brief outline of the proof on which
they rest.
1. In regard to the first of the two facts, we find the desig
nation of " the ends of the world" applied in Scripture to the
Gospel-age; 2 and that not so much in respect to its posteriority
in point of time, as to its comparative maturity in regard to the
things of salvation the higher and better things having now
come, which had hitherto appeared only in prospect or existed
1 Marsh s Lectures, p. S71. 2 1 Cor. x. 11 ; Heb. xi. 40.
70 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
but in embryo. On the same account the Gospel dispensation
is called "the dispensation of the fulness of times;" 1 indicating,
that with it alone the great objects of faith and hope, which the
Church was from the first destined to possess, were properly
brought within her reach. Only with the entrance also of this
dispensation does the great mystery of God, in connection with
man s salvation, come to be disclosed, and the light of a new and
more glorious era at last breaks upon the Church. " The day-
spring from the height," in the expressive language of Zacharias,
then appeared, and made manifest what had previously been
wrapt in comparative obscurity, what had not even been distinctly
conceived, far less satisfactorily enjoyed. 2 Here, therefore, in
the sublime discoveries and abounding consolations of the Gos
pel, is the reality, in its depth and fulness, while in the earlier
endowments and institutions of the Church there was no more
than a shadowy exhibition and a partial experience ; 3 and as a
necessary consequence, the most eminent in spiritual light and
privilege before, were still decidedly inferior even to the less
distinguished members of the Messiah s kingdom. 4 In a word,
the blessed Kedeemer, whom the Gospel reveals, is Himself the
beginning and the end of the scheme of God s dispensations ;
in Him is found alike the centre of Heaven s plan, and the one
foundation of human confidence and hope. So that before His
coming into the world, all things of necessity pointed toward
1 Eph. i. 10.
2 Luke i. 78 ; 1 John ii. 8 ; Rom. xvi. 25, 26 ; Col. i. 27 ; 1 Cor. ii. 7, 10.
8 Col. ii. 17 ; Heb. viii. 5.
4 Matt. xi. 11, where it is said respecting John the Baptist, " notwith
standing he that is least (o fAixgoregos) in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he." The older English versions retained the comparative, and ren
dered "he that is less in the kingdom of heaven" (Wickliffe, Tyndale,
Cranmer, the Geneva) ; and so also Meyer in his Comm., " he who occupies
a proportionately lower place in the kingdom of heaven." Lightfoot, Heng-
stenberg, and many others, approve of this milder sense, as it may be called ;
but Alford in his recent commentary adheres still to the stronger, "the
least ;" and so does Stier in his Reden Jesu, who, in illustrating the thought,
goes so far as to say, " A mere child that knows the catechism, and can say
the Lord s prayer, both knows and possesses more than the Old Testament
can give, and so far stands higher and nearer to God than John the Bap
tist." One cannot but feel that this is putting something like a strain on
our Lord s declaration.
NATURE OF A TYPE. 71
Him ; types and prophecies bore testimony to the things that
concerned His work and kingdom ; the children of blessing were
blessed in anticipation of His promised redemption ; and with
His coming, the grand reality itself came, and the higher pur
poses of Heaven entered on their fulfilment. 1
2. The other fact presupposed and implied in the relation
between type and antitype, namely, that God subjected the
Church to a course of preparatory training, including instruc
tion by types, before He introduced the realities of His final
dispensation, is written with equal distinctness in the page of
inspiration. It is scarcely possible, indeed, to dissociate even in
idea the one fact from the other ; for, without such a course of
preparation being perpetually in progress, the long delay which
took place in the introduction of the Messiah s kingdom would
be quite inexplicable. Accordingly, the Church of the Old
Testament is constantly represented as having been in a state of
comparative childhood, supplied only with such means of instruc
tion, and subjected to such methods of discipline as were suited
to so imperfect and provisional a period of her being. Her law,
in its higher aim and object, was a schoolmaster to bring men
to Christ (Gal. iii. 24) ; and everything in her condition what
it wanted, as well as what it possessed, what was done for her,
and what remained yet to be done concurred in pointing the
way to Him who was to come with the better promises and the
perfected salvation (Heb. vii. viii. ix.). Such is the plain im
port of a great many scriptures bearing on the subject.
It is to be noted, however, in regard to this course of pre
paration, continued through so many ages, that everything in
the mode of instruction and discipline employed ought not to be
regarded as employed simply for the sake of those who lived
during its continuance. It was, no doubt, primarily introduced
on their account, and must have been wisely adapted to their
circumstances, as under preparation for better things to come.
But, at the same time, it must also, like the early training of a
well-educated youth, have been fitted to tell with beneficial effect
on the spiritual life of the Church in her more advanced state
of existence, after she had actually attained to those better things
1 Rev. i. 8 ; Luke ii. 25 ; Acts x. 43, iv. 12 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; 1 Pet. i.
10-12, 20.
72 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
themselves. The man of mature age, when pursuing his way
amid the perplexing cares and busy avocations of life, finds him
self continually indebted to the lessons he was taught and the
skill he has acquired during the period of his early culture.
And, in like manner, it was undoubtedly God s intention that.
His method of procedure toward the Church in her state of
minority, not only should minister what was needed for her im
mediate instruction and improvement, but should also furnish
materials of edification and comfort for believers to the end of
time. If the earlier could not be made perfect without the
things belonging to the later Church (Heb. xi. 40), so neither,
on the other hand, can the later profitably or even safely dis
pense with the advantage she may derive from the more simple
and rudimentary things that belonged to the earlier. The
Church, considered as God s nursery for training souls to a
meetness for immortal life and blessedness, is substantially the
same through all periods of her existence ; and the things which
were appointed for the behoof of her members in one age, had
in them also something of lasting benefit for those on whom the
ends of the world are come (1 Cor. x. 6, 11).
It is farther to be noted, that in this work of preparation for
the more perfect future, arrangements of a typical kind, being
of a somewhat recondite nature, necessarily occupied a relative
and subsidiary, rather than the primary and most essential place.
The Church enjoyed from the first the benefit of direct and ex
plicit instruction, imparted either immediately by the hand of
God, or through the instrumentality of His accredited messen
gers. From this source she always derived her knowledge of
the more fundamental truths of religion, and also her more
definite expectations of the better things to come. The fact is
of importance, both as determining the proper place of typical
acts and institutions, and as indicating a kind of extraneous and
qualifying element, that must not be overlooked in judging of
the condition of believers under them. Yet they were not, on
that account, rendered less valuable or necessary as constituent
parts of a preparatory dispensation ; for it was through them,
as temporary expedients, and by virtue of the resemblances they
possessed to the higher things in prospect, that the realities of
Christ s kingdom obtained a kind of present realization to the
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 73
eye of faith. What, then, was the nature of these resemblances .
Wherein precisely did the similarity which formed more especially
the preparatory elements in the Old, as compared with the New,
really lie? This is tke point that mainly calls for elucidation.
II. It is the second point we were to investigate, as being
that which would necessarily require the most lengthened and
careful examination. And the general statement we submit
respecting it is, that two things were here essentially necessary :
there must have been in the Old the same great elements of truth a*
in the things they represented under the New ; and then, in the
Old, these must have been exhibited in a form more level to the
comprehension } more easily and distinctly cognizable by the minds
of men.
1. There must have been, first, the same great elements of
truth, for the mind of God, and the circumstances of the fallen
creature, are substantially the same at all times. What the
spiritual necessities of men now are, they have been from the
time that sin entered into the world. Hence the truth revealed
by God to meet these necessities, however varying from time to
time in the precise amount of its communications, and however
differing also in the external form under which it might be pre
sented, must have been, so far as disclosed, essentially one in
every age. For, otherwise, what anomalous results would follow!
If the principles unfolded in God s communications to men, and
on which he regulates His dealings toward them, were materially
different at one period from what they are at another, then either
the w r ants and necessities of men s natural condition must have
undergone a change, or these being the same, as they un
doubtedly are the character of God must have altered He
cannot be the immutable Jehovah. Besides, the very idea of a
course of preparatory dispensations were, on the supposition in
question, manifestly excluded; since that could have had no
proper ground to rest on, unless there was a deep-rooted and
fundamental agreement between what was merely provisional and
what was final and ultimate in the matter. The primary and
essential elements of truth, therefore, which are embodied in the
facts of the Gospel, and on which its economy of grace is based,
cannot, in the nature of things, be of recent origin as if they
74 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
were altogether peculiar to the New Testament dispensation, and
had only begun with the entrance of it to obtain a place in the
government of God. On the contrary, their existence must
have formed the groundwork, and their varied manifestation the
progress, of any preparatory dispensations that might be ap
pointed. And whatever ulterior respect the typical characters,
actions, or institutions of those earlier dispensations might carry
to the coming realities of the Gospel, their more immediate
intention and use must have consisted in the exhibition they gave
of the vital and fundamental truths common alike to all dispen
sations.
2. If a clear and conclusive certainty attaches to this part of
our statement, it does so in even an increased ratio to the other.
Holding that the same great elements of truth must of necessity
pervade both type and antitype, we must also assuredly believe,
that in the former they were more simply and palpably exhibited
presented in some shape in which the human mind could more
easily and distinctly apprehend them than in the latter. It
would manifestly have been absurd to admit into a course of
preparation for the realities of the Gospel, certain temporary
exhibitions of the same great elements of truth that were to per
vade these, unless the preparatory had been of more obvious
meaning, and of more easy comprehension, than the ultimate and
final. The transition from the one to the other must clearly
have involved a rise in the mode of exhibiting the truth from a
lower to a higher territory from a form of development more
easily grasped, to a form which should put the faculties of the
mind to a greater streteh. For thus only could it be wise or
proper to set up preparatory dispensations at all. These, mani
festly, had been better spared, if the realities themselves lay
more, or even so much, within the reach and comprehension of
the mind, as their temporary and imperfect representations.
Standing, then, on the foundation of these two principles, as
necessarily forming the essential elements of the resemblance
that subsisted between the Old and the New in God s dispensa
tions, we may now proceed to consider how far they can legiti
mately carry us in explaining the subject in hand ; or, in other
words, to answer the question, how on such a basis the typical
things of the past could properly serve as preparatory arrange-
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 75
merits for the higher and better things of the future ? We shall
endeavour to answer this question, in the first instance, by mak
ing application of our principles to the symbolical institutions of
the Mosaic dispensation, which are usually denominated the ritual
or legal types. For, in respect to these we have the advantage of
the most explicit assertion in Scripture of their typical character ;
and we are also furnished with certain general descriptions of
their nature as typical, which may partly serve as lights to direct
our inquiries, and partly provide a test by which to try the cor
rectness of our results.
Now, viewing the institutions of the dispensation brought in
by Moses as typical, we look at them in what may be called their
secondary aspect ; we consider them as prophetic symbols of the
letter things to come in the Gospel. But this evidently implies,
that in another and more immediate respect they were merely
symbols, that is, outward and sensible representations of Divine
truth, in connection with an existing dispensation and a religious
worship. It was only from their being this, in the one respect,
that they could, in the other, be prophetic symbols, or types, of
what was afterwards to appear under the Gospel ; on the ground
already stated, that the preparatory dispensation to which they
belonged was necessarily inwrought with the same great elements
of truth which were afterwards, in another form, to pervade the
Christian. Had there not been the identity in the truths here
supposed, assimilating amid all outward diversities the two dis
pensations in spirit to each other, the earlier would rather have
blocked up, than prepared and opened, the way for the latter.
A partial exhibition of a truth, or an embodiment of it in things
comparatively little, easily grasped by the understanding, and
but imperfectly satisfying the mind, may certainly make way for
its exhibition in a manner more fully adapted to its proper
nature : The mind thus familiarized to it in the little, may both
have the desire created, and the capacity formed for beholding
its development in things of a far higher and nobler kind. But
a partial or defective representation of an object, apart from any
principles common to both, must rather tend to pre-occupy the
mind, and either entirely prevent it from anticipating, or fill it
with mistaken and prejudiced notions of, the reality. If such a
representation of the mere objects of the Gospel had been all
76 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
that was aimed at in the symbolical institutions of the Old Testa
ment if their direct, immediate, and only use had been to serve,
as pictures, to prefigure and presentiate to the soul the future
realities of the divine kingdom then who could wonder if these
realities should have been wholly lost sight of before, or misbe
lieved and repudiated when they came ? For, in that case, the
preparatory dispensation must have been far more difficult for
the worshipper than the ultimate one. The child must have had
a much harder lessen to read, and a much higher task to acccom-
plish, than the man of full-grown and ripened intellect. And
Divine wisdom must have employed its resources, not to smooth
the Church s path to an enlightened view and a believing re
ception of the realities of the Gospel, rather but to shroud them
in the most profound and perplexing obscurities.
Every serious and intelligent believer will shrink from this
conclusion. But if he does so, he will soon find that there is
only one way of effectually escaping from it ; and that is, by re
garding the symbolical institutions of the Old Covenant as not
simply or directly representations of the realities of the Gospel,
but in the first instance as parts of an existing dispensation, and,
as such, expressive of certain great and fundamental truths,
which could even then be distinctly understood and embraced.
This was what might be called their more immediate and osten
sible design. Their further and prospective, reference to the
higher objects of the Gospel, was of a more indirect and occult
nature ; and stood in the same essential truths being exhibited
by means of present and visible, but inferior and comparatively
inadequate objects. So that in tracing out the connection from
the one to the other, we must always begin with inquiring, What,
per se, was the native import of each symbol ? What truths did
it symbolize merely as part of an existing religion ? and from
this proceed to unfold how it was fitted to serve as a guide and
a stepping-stone to the glorious events and issues of Messiah s
kingdom. This which it was the practice of the elder typolo
gical writers in great measure to overlook is really the founda
tion of the whole matter ; and without it every typological system
must either contract itself within very narrow bounds, or be in
danger of running out into superficial or fanciful analogies.
The Mosaic ritual had at once a shell and a kernel, its shell,
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 77
the outward rites and observances it enjoined ; its kernel, the
spiritual relations which these indicated, and the spiritual truths
which they embodied and expressed. Substantially, these truths
and relations were, and must have been, the same for the Old
that they are for the New Testament worshippers; for the
spiritual wants and necessities of both are the same, and so also
is the character of God, with whom they have to do. There,
therefore, in that fundamental agreement, that internal and
pre-established harmony of principle, we are to find the bond of
union between the symbolical institutions of Judaism and the
permanent realities of Messiah s kingdom. One truth in both
but that truth existing first in a lower, then in a higher stage
of development ; in the one case appearing as a precious bud
embosomed and but partially seen amid the imperfect relations
of flesh and time ; in the other expanding itself under the bright
sunshine of heaven into all the beauty and fruitfulness of which
it was susceptible.
To make our meaning perfectly understood, however, we
must descend from the general to the particular, and apply what
has been stated to a special case. In doing so, we shall go at
once to what may justly be termed the very core of the religion
of the Old Covenant the rite of expiatory sacrifice. That this
was typically or prophetically symbolical of the death of Christ,
is testified with much plainness and frequency in New Testament
Scripture. Yet, independently of this connection with Christ s
death, it had a meaning of its own, which it was possible for the
ancient worshipper to understand, and, so understanding, to pre
sent through it an acceptable service to God, whether he might
perceive or not the further respect it bore to a dying Saviour.
It was in its own nature a symbolical transaction, embodying a
threefold idea : first, that the worshipper, having been guilty of
sin, had forfeited his life to God ; then, that the life so forfeited
must be surrendered to Divine justice ; and finally, that being
surrendered in the way appointed, it was given back to him again
by God, or he became re-established, as a justified person, in the
Divine favour and fellowship. How far a transaction of this
kind, done symbolically and not really by means of an irrational
creature substituted in the sinner s room, and unconsciously de
voted to lose its animal in lieu of his intelligent and rational
78 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
life might commend itself as altogether satisfactory to his view ;
or how far he might see reason to regard it as but a provisional
arrangement, proceeding on the contemplation of something
more perfect yet to come ; these are points which might justly
be raised, and will indeed call for future discussion, but they
are somewhat extraneous to the subject itself now under con
sideration. We are viewing the rite of expiatory sacrifice simply
as a constituent part of ancient worship, a religious service
which formally, and without notification from itself of anything
farther being required, presented the sinner with the divinely
appointed means of reconciliation and restored fellowship with
God. In this respect it symbolically represented, as we have
said, a threefold idea, which if properly understood and realized
by the worshipper, he performed, in offering it, an acceptable
service. And when we rise from the symbolical to the typical
view of the transaction when we proceed to consider the rite
of expiation as bearing a prospective reference to the redemp
tion of Christ, we are not to be understood as ascribing to it
some new sense or meaning ; we merely express our belief that
the complex capital idea which it so impressively symbolized,
finds its only true, as from the first its destined realization, in
the work of salvation by Jesus Christ. For in Him alone was
there a real transference of man s guilt to one able and willing
to bear it ; in His death alone, the surrender of a life to God,
such as could fitly stand in the room of that forfeited by the
sinner ; and in faith alone on that death, a full and conscious
appropriation of the life of peace and blessing obtained by Him
for the justified. So that here only it is we perceive the idea
of a true, sufficient, and perfect sacrifice converted into a living
reality such as the holy eye of God, and the troubled con
science of man, can alike repose in with unmingled satisfaction.
And while there appear precisely the same elements of truth in
the ever-recurring sacrifices of the Old Testament, and in the
one perfect sacrifice of the New, it is seen, at the same time,
that what the one symbolically represented, the other actually
possessed ; what the one could only exhibit as a kind of acted
lesson for the present relief of guilty consciences, the other
makes known to us, as a work finally and for ever accomplished
for all who believe in the propitiation of the cross.
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 79
The view now given of the symbolical institutions of the
Old Testament, as prophetic symbols of the realities of the Gos
pel, is in perfect accordance with the general descriptions we
have of their nature in Scripture itself. These are of two classes.
In the one they are declared to have been shadovjs of the better
things of the Gospel ; as in Ileb. x. 1, where the law is said to
have had " a shadow, and not the very image of good things to
come;" in ch. viii. 5, where the priests are described as "serv
ing unto the example (copy) and shadow of heavenly things;"
and again in Col. ii. 16, where the fleshly ordinances in one
mass are denominated " shadows of good things to come," while
it is added, " the body is of Christ." Now, that the tabernacle,
with the ordinances of every kind belonging to it, were shadows
of Christ and the blessings of His kingdom, can only mean that
they were obscure and imperfect resemblances of these ; or that
they embodied the same elements of Divine truth, but wanted
what was necessary to give them proper form and consistence
as parts of a final and abiding dispensation of God. And when
we go to inquire wherein did the obscurity and imperfection
consist, we are always referred to the carnal and earthly nature
of the Old as compared with the New. The tabernacle itself
was a material fabric, constructed of such things as this present
world could supply, and hence called " a worldly sanctuary ;"
while its counterpart under the Gospel is the eternal region of
God s presence and glory, neither discernible by fleshly eye, nor
made by mortal hands. In like manner, the ordinances of wor
ship connected with the tabernacle were all ostensibly directed
to the preservation of men s present existence, or the advance
ment of their well-being as related to an outward sanctuary and
a terrestrial commonwealth ; while in the Gospel it is the soul s
relation to the sanctuary above, and its possession of an immor
tal life of blessedness and glory, which all is directly intended
to provide for. In these differences between the Old and the
New, which bespeak so much of inferiority on the part of the
former, we perceive the darkness and imperfection which hung
around the things of the ancient dispensation, and rendered them
shadows only of those which were to come. But still shadows
are resemblances. Though unlike in one respect, they must be
like in another. And as the unlikeness stood in the dissimilar
80 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
nature of the things immediately handled and perceived in the
different materiel, so to speak, of the two dispensations, wherein
should the resemblance be found but in the common truths and
relations alike pervading both ? By means of an earthly taber
nacle, with its appropriate services, God manifested toward His
people the same principles of government, and required from
them substantially the same disposition and character, that He
does now under the higher dispensation of the Gospel. For
look beyond the mere outward diversities, and what do you see ?
You see in both alike a pure and holy God, enshrined in the
recesses of a glorious sanctuary, unapproachable by sinful flesh
but through a medium of powerful intercession and cleansing
efficacy ; yet when so approached, ever ready to receive and
bless with the richest tokens of His favour and loving-kindness
as many as come in the exercise of genuine contrition for sin,
and longing for restored fellowship with Him whom they have
offended. The same description applies equally to the service
of both dispensations ; for in both the same impressions are con
veyed of God s character respecting sin and holiness, and the
same gracious feelings necessarily aw r akened by them in the
bosom of sincere worshippers. But then, as to the means of
accomplishing this, there was only, in the one case, a shadowy
exhibition of spiritual things through earthly materials and tem
porary expedients ; while in the other, the naked realities appear
in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ, the rich endowments of
the Spirit of grace, and the glories of an everlasting kingdom.
The other general description given in New Testament Scrip
ture of the prophetic symbols or types of the Old dispensation
does not materially differ from the one now considered, and,
when rightly understood, leads to the same result. According to
it, the religious institutions of earlier times contained the rudiments
or elementary principles of the world s religious truth and life.
Thus in Col. ii. 20, the now antiquated ordinances of Judaism
are called " the rudiments of the world ;" and in Gal. iv. 3, the
Church, while under these ordinances, is said to have been " in
bondage under the elements (or rudiments) of the world." The
expression, also, which is found in ch. iii. 24 of this Epistle to
the Galatians, " the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ," conveys much the same idea ; since it is the special
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 81
business of a schoolmaster to communicate to those under his
charge the rudiments of learning, by which their minds may in
due time be prepared for the higher walks of science and litera
ture. The law certainly did this, to a considerable extent, by
direct instructions in the great principles of truth and duty. But
it did so not less by means of its symbolical institutions and
ordinances, which were in themselves inherently defective, and
yet in their spirit and design entirely analogous to the higher
things of the Gospel. The animal, the fleshly, the material, the
temporal, was what alone appeared in them, when viewed in
respect merely to their ostensible character and object ; yet all
was arranged in a manner fitted to exhibit ideas and relations
that reached far beyond these, and could only, indeed, find their
suitable development in things spiritual, heavenly, and eternal.
The Church had then to be dealt with after the manner of a
child. But the child must have instruction administered to him
in a form adapted to his juvenile capacities. If he is to be
prepared for apprehending the outlines and proportions of the
globe, these must be presented to his view on diagrams of a few
spans long. Or, if he is to be made acquainted with the laws
and principles which bear sway throughout the material universe,
he must again see them exemplified in miniature among the
small and familiar objects of everyday life. In like manner, the
Church of the Old Testament, while in bondage to fleshly insti
tutions and services, yet received through these the rudiments
of all Divine truth and wisdom. In a form which the eye of a
spiritual babe could scan, and its hand, in a manner, grasp,
she had constantly exhibited before her the essential truths and
principles of God s everlasting kingdom. And nothing more
was needed than that the instruction thus imparted should have
been impartially received and properly cultivated, in order to
fit the disciple of Moses for passing with intelligence and delight
from his rudimental tutelage, under the shadows of good tilings,
into the free use and enjoyment of the things themselves.
The general descriptions, then, given of the symbolical insti
tutions and services of the Old Testament, in their relation to the
Gospel, perfectly accord with the principles we have advanced.
And view r ed in the light now presented, we at once see the
essential unity that subsists between the Old and the New dis-
VOL. I. F
82 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
pensations, and the nature of that progression in the Divine plan
which rendered the one a fitting preparation and stepping-stone
to the other. In its fundamental elements the religion of both
covenants is thus found to be identical. Only it appears under
the Old covenant as on a lower platform, disclosing its ideas, and
imparting its blessings through the imperfect instrumentalities
of fleshly relations and temporal concerns ; while under the New
everything rises heavenwards, and eternal realities come distinctly
and prominently into view. But as ideas and relations are more
palpable to the mind, and lie more within the grasp of its com
prehension, when exhibited on a small scale, in corporeal forms,
amid familiar and present objects, than on a scale of large dimen
sions, which stretches into the unseen, and embraces alike the
Divine and human, time and eternity ; so the economy of outward
symbolical institutions was in itself simpler than the Gospel, and,
as a lower exhibition of Divine truth, prepared the way for a
higher. But they did this, let it be observed, in their character
merely as symbolical institutions, or parts of a dispensation then
existing, not as typically foreshadowing the things belonging to
a higher and more spiritual dispensation yet to come. It was
comparatively an easy thing for the Jewish worshipper to under
stand how, from time to time, he stood related to a visible sanc
tuary and an earthly inheritance, or to go through the process of
an appointed purification by means of water and the blood of
slain victims applied externally to his body : much more easy
than for the Christian to apprehend distinctly his relation to a
heavenly sanctuary, and realize the cleansing of his conscience
from all guilt by the inward application of the sacrifice of Christ
and the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit. But for the
Jewish worshipper to do both his own and the Christian s part
both to read the meaning of the symbol as expressive of what
was already laid open to his view, and to descry its concealed
reference to the yet undiscovered realities of a better dispensa
tion, would have required a reach of discernment and a strength
of faith far beyond what is now needed in the Christian. For
this had been, not like him to discern the heavenly, when the
heavenly had come, but to do it amid the obscurities and imper
fections of the earthly ; not simply to look with open eye into
the deeper mysteries of God s kingdom, when these mysteries
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 83
are fully disclosed, but to do so while they were still buried amid
the thick folds of a cumbrous and overshadowing drapery.
Yet let us not be mistaken. We speak merely of what was
strictly required, and what might ordinarily be expected of the
ancient worshipper, in connection with the institutions and ser
vices of his symbolical religion, taken simply by themselves.
We do not say that there never was, much less that there could
not be, any proper insight obtained by the children of the Old
Covenant into the future mysteries of the Gospel. There were
special gifts of grace then, as well as now, occasionally imparted
to the more spiritual members of the covenant, which enabled
them to rise to unusual degrees of knowledge ; and it is a dis
tinctive property of the spiritual mind generally to be dissatisfied
with the imperfect, to seek and long for the perfect. Even
now, when the comparatively perfect has come, what spiritual
mind is not often conscious to itself of a feeling akin to melan
choly, when it thinks of the yet abiding darkness and disorders
of the present, or does not fondly cling to every hopeful indica
tion of a brighter future ? But even the best things of the Old
Covenant bore on them the stamp of imperfection. The temple
itself, which was the peculiar glory and ornament of Israel, still
in a very partial and defective manner realized its own grand
idea of a people dwelling with God, and God dwelling with
them ; and hence, because of that inherent imperfection (it was
plainly declared), a higher and better mode of accomplishing
the object should one day take its place. (Jer. iii. 16, 17.) So,
too, the palpable disproportion already noticed in the rite of
expiatory sacrifice between the rational life forfeited through
sin, and the merely animal life substituted in its room, seemed
to proclaim the necessity of a more adequate atonement for
human guilt, and could not but dispose intelligent worshippers
to give more earnest heed to the announcements of prophecy
regarding the coming purposes of Heaven. But yet, when we
have admitted all this, it by no means follows that the people of
God generally, under the Old Covenant, could attain to very
definite views of the realities of the Gospel ; nor does it furnish
us with any reason for asserting that such views must ever of
necessity have mingled with the service of an acceptable wor
shipper. For his was the worship of a preparatory dispensation.
84 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
It must, therefore, have been simpler and easier than what was
ultimately to supplant it. And this, we again repeat, it could
only be by being viewed in its more obvious and formal aspect,
as the worship of an existing religion, which provided for the
time then present a fitting medium of access to God, and hal
lowed intercourse with heaven. The man who humbly availed
himself of what was thus provided to meet his soul s necessities,
stood in faith, and served God with acceptance, though still
with such imperfections in the present, and such promises for
the future, that the more always he reflected, he would become
the more a child of desire and hope. 1
We have spoken as yet only of the symbolical institutions
and services of the Old Testament ; and of these quite generally,
as one great whole. For it is carefully to be noted, that the
Scriptural designations of rudiments and shadows, which we have
shown to be the same as typical, when properly understood, are
applied to the entire mass of the ancient ordinances in their
prospective reference to Gospel realities. And yet, while New
Testament Scripture speaks thus of the whole, it deals very
sparingly in particular examples ; and if it furnishes, in its
language and allusions, many valuable hints to direct inquiry, it
still contains remarkably few detailed illustrations. It nowhere
1 If any one will take the trouble to look into the elder writers, who
formally examined the typical character of the ancient symbolical institu
tions, he will find them entirely silent in regard to the points chiefly dwelt
upon in the above discussion. Lowman, for example, on the Rational of
the Hebrew Worship, and Outram de Sac., Lib. i., c. 18, where he comes to
consider the nature and force of a type, gave no proper or satisfactory
explanation of the questions, wherein precisely did the resemblance stand
between the type and the antitype, or how should the one have prepared
the way for the other. We are told frequently enough that the u Hebrew
ritual contained a plan, or sketch, or pattern, or shadow of Gospel things : "
that " the type adumbrated the antitype by something of the same sort with
that which is found in the antitype," or " by a symbol of it," or " by a
slender and shadowy image of it," or " by something that may somehow be
compared with it," etc. But we look in vain for anything more specific.
Townley, in his Reasons of the Laws of Moses, still advances no farther
in the Dissertation he devotes to the Typical Character of the Mosaic Insti
tutions. Even Olshausen, in the treatise formerly noticed (Ein Wort iiber
tiefern Schriftsinn), when he comes to unfold what he calls his deeper
exposition, confines himself to a brief illustration of the few general state
ments formerly mentioned. See p. 46.
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 85
tells us, for example, what was either immediately symbolized,
or prophetically shadowed forth, by the Holy Place in the
tabernacle, or the shew-bread, or the golden candlestick, or the
ark of the covenant, or, indeed, by anything connected with the
tabernacle, excepting its more prominent offices and ministra
tions. Even the Epistle to the Hebrews, which enters with such
comparative fulness into the connection between the Old and the
New, and which is most express in ascribing a typical value to
all that belonged to the tabernacle, can yet scarcely be said to
give any detailed explanation of its furniture and services beyond
the rite of expiatory sacrifice, and the action of the high priest in
presenting it, more particularly on the great day of atonement.
So that those who insist on an explicit warrant and direction
from Scripture in regard to each particular type, will find their
principle conducts them but a short way even through that
department, which, they are obliged to admit, possesses through
out a typical character. A general admission of this sort can
be of little use, if one is restrained on principle from touching
most of the particulars ; one might as well maintain that these
stood entirely disconnected from any typical property. So,
indeed, Bishop Marsh has substantially done ; for, " that such
explanations," he says, referring to particular types, " are in
various instances given in the New Testament, no one can deny.
And if it was deemed necessary to explain one type, where could
be the expediency or moral fitness of withholding the explana
tion of others ? Must not, therefore, the silence of the New
Testament in the case of any supposed type, be an argument
against the existence of that type?" Undoubtedly, we reply,
if the Scriptures of the New Testament professed to illustrate
the whole field of typical matter in God s ancient dispensations ;
but by no means if, as is really the case, they only take it up in
detached portions, by way of occasional example ; and still less
if the effect would be practically to exclude from the character
of types many of the very institutions and services which are
declared to have been all " shadows of good things to come,
whereof the body is Christ." How we ought to proceed in
applying the general views that have been unfolded to the
interpretation of such parts of the Old Testament symbols as
1 Lectures, p. 392.
86 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
have not been explained in New Testament Scripture, will no
doubt require careful consideration. But that we are both
warranted and bound to give them a Christian interpretation, is
manifest from the general character that is ascribed to them.
And the fact that so much of what was given to Moses as " a
testimony (or evidence) of those things which were to be spoken
after" in Christ, remains without any particular explanation in
Scripture, sufficiently justifies us in expecting that there may
also be much that is typical, though not expressly declared to be
such, in the other, the historical department of the subject,
which we now proceed to investigate.
CHAPTER THIRD.
THE PROPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY 2. THE
HISTORICAL CHARACTERS AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT, VIEWED AS EXEMPLIFYING THE DISTINCTIVE
CHARACTERS OF A TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP TYPICAL FORMS
IN NATURE NECESSITY OF THE TYPICAL AS A PREPARA
TION FOR THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULNESS OF TIMES.
IN the preceding chapter we have seen in what sense the reli
gious institutions and services of the Old Covenant were typical.
They were constructed and arranged so as to express symbolically
the great truths and principles of a spiritual religion truths and
principles which were common alike to Old and New Testament
times, but which, from the nature of things, could only find in
the New their proper development and full realization. On the
limited scale of the earthly and perishable in the construction
of a material tabernacle, and the suitable adjustment of bodily
ministrations and sacrifical offerings, there was presented a
palpable exhibition of those great truths respecting sin and
salvation, the purification of the heart, and the dedication of
the person and the life to God, which in the fulness of time
were openly revealed and manifested on the grand scale of a
world s redemption, by the mediation and work of Jesus Christ.
In that pre-arranged and harmonious, but still inherently de
fective and imperfect, exhibition of the fundamental ideas and
spiritual relations of the Gospel, stood the real nature of its
typical character.
Nor, we may add, was there anything arbitrary in so em
ploying the things of flesh and time to shadow forth, under a
preparatory dispensation, the higher realities of God s everlasting
kingdom. It has its ground and reason in the organic arrange
ments or appearances of the material world. For these are so
framed as to be ever giving forth representations of Divine truth,
and are a kind of ceaseless regeneration, in which, through
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
successive stages, new and higher forms of being are continually
springing out of the lower. It is on this constitution of nature
that the figurative language of Scripture is based. And it was
only building on a foundation that already existed, and which
stretches far and wide through the visible territory of creation,
when the outward relations and fleshly services of a symbolical
religion were made to image and prepare for the more spiritual
and divine mysteries of Messiah s kingdom. Hence, also, some
of the more important symbolical institutions were expressly
linked (as we shall see) to appropriate seasons and aspects of
nature.
But was symbol alone thus employed ? Might there not also
have been a similar employment of many circumstances and
transactions in the province of sacred history ? If the revela
tion of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the blessings of His great
salvation, was the object mainly contemplated by God from the
beginning of the world, and with which the Church was ever
travailing as in birth if, consequently, the previous dispensa
tions were chiefly designed to lead to, and terminate upon,
Christ and the things of His salvation, what can be more
natural than to suppose that the evolutions of Providence
throughout the period during which the salvation was in pro
spect, should have concurred with the symbols of worship in
imaging and preparing for what was to come ? It is possible,
indeed, that the connection here, between the past and the
future, might be somewhat more varied and fluctuating, and
in several respects less close and exact, than in the case of a
regulated system of symbolical instruction and worship, ap
pointed to last till it was superseded by the better things of the
New dispensation. This is only what might be expected from
the respective natures of the subjects compared. But that a
connection, similar in kind, had a place in the one as well as in
the other, we hold to be not only in itself probable, but also
capable of being satisfactorily established. And for the purpose
of showing this we lay down the following positions : First,
That the historical relations and circumstances recorded in the
Old Testament, and typically applied in the New, had very
much both the same resemblances and defects in respect to the
realities of the Gospel, which we have found to belong to the
HISTORICAL TYPES. 89
ancient symbolical institutions of worship ; secondly, that such
historical types were absolutely necessary, in considerable num
ber and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly
preparative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel ;
and, thirdly, that Old Testament Scripture itself contains un
doubted indications, that much of its historical matter stood
related to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations
exemplified in them were again to meet and receive a new but
more perfect development.
I. The first consideration is, that the historical relations and
circumstances recorded in the Old Testament, and typically
interpreted in the New, had very much the same resemblances
and defects, in respect to the Gospel, which we have found to
belong to the ancient symbolical institutions of worship. Thus
to refer to one of the earliest events in the world s history so
interpreted the general deluge that destroyed the old world, and
preserved Noah and his family alive, is represented as standing
in atypical relation to Christian baptism (1 Pet. iii. 21). It did
so, as will be explained more at large hereafter, from its having
destroyed those who by their corruptions destroyed the earth,
and saved for a new world the germ of a better race. Doing
this in the outward and lower territory of the world s history,
it served substantially the same purpose that Christian baptism
does in a higher; since this is designed to bring the individual
that receives it under those vital influences that purge away the
corruption of a fleshly nature, and cause the seed of a divine life
to take root and grow for the occupation of a better inheritance.
In like manner Sarah, with her child of promise, the special and
peculiar gift of heaven, and Hagar, with her merely natural and
fleshly offspring, are explained as typically foreshadowing, the
one a spiritual church, bringing forth real children to God, in
spirit and destiny as well as in calling, the heirs of His everlast
ing kingdom ; the other, a worldly and corrupt church, whose
members are in bondage to the flesh, having but a name to live,
while they are dead. (Gal. iv. 22, 31.) In such cases, it is
clear that the same kind of resemblances, coupled also with the
same kind of differences, appear between the preparatory and
the final, as in the case of the symbolical types. For here also
90 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the ideas and relations are substantially one in the two asso
ciated transactions ; only in the earlier they appear ostensibly
connected with the theatre of an earthly existence, and with
respect to seen and temporal results ; while in the later it is
the higher field of grace and the interests of a spiritual and
immortal existence that come directly into view.
Or, let the use be considered that is made of the events
which befell the Israelites on their way to the land of Canaan, as
regards the state and prospects of the Church of the New Tes
tament on its way to heaven. Look at this, for example, as
unfolded in the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and the essential features of a typical connection will
at once be seen. For the exclusion of those carnal and unbe
lieving Israelites who fell in the wilderness is there exhibited,
not only as affording a reasonable presumption, but as providing
a valid ground, for asserting that persons similarly affected now
toward the kingdom of glory cannot attain to heaven. Indeed,
so complete in point of principle is the identity of the two cases,
that the same expressions are applied to both alike, without
intimation of any differences existing between them : " the
Gospel is preached" to the one class as well as to the other ;
God gives to each alike " a promise of rest," while they equally
"fall through unbelief," having hardened their hearts against
the word of God. Yet there were the same differences in kind
as we have noted between the type and the antitype in the sym
bolical institutions of worship the visible and earthly being
employed in the one to exhibit such relations and principles as
in the other appear in immediate connection with what is spiri
tual and heavenly. In the type we have the prospect of Canaan,
the Gospel of an earthly promise of rest, and, because not
believed, issuing in the loss of a present life of honour and
blessing ; in the antitype, the prospect of a heavenly inheritance,
the Gospel promise of an everlasting rest, bringing along with
it, when treated with unbelief and neglect, an exclusion from
eternal blessedness and glory.
Again, and with reference to the same period in the Church s
history, it is said in John iii. 14, 15, " As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
HISTORICAL TYPES. 91
everlasting life." The language here certainly does not neces
sarily betoken by any means so close a connection between the
Old and the New, as in the cases previously referred to ; nor are
we disposed to assert that the same connection in all respects
really existed. The historical transaction in this case had at first
sight the aspect of something occasional and isolated, rather than
of an integral and essential part of a great plan. And yet the
reference in John, viewed in connection with other passages of
Scripture bearing on the subject, sufficiently vindicates for it a
place among the earlier exhibitions of Divine truth, planned by
the foreseeing eye of God with special respect to the coming
realities of the Gospel. As such it entirely accords in nature
with the typical prefigurations already noticed. In the two
related transactions there is a fitting correspondence as to the
relations maintained : in both alike a wounded and dying con
dition in the first instance, then the elevation of an object ap
parently inadequate, yet really effectual, to accomplish the cure,
and this through no other medium on the part of the affected,
than their simply looking to the object so presented to their
view. But with this pervading correspondence, what marked
and distinctive characteristics ! In the one case a dying body,
in the other a perishing soul. There, an uplifted serpent of
all instruments of healing from a serpent s bite the most unlikely
to profit ; here the exhibition of one condemned and crucified
as a malefactor of all conceivable persons apparently the most
impotent to save. There, once more, the fleshly eye of nature
deriving from the outward object visibly presented to it the heal
ing virtue it was ordained to impart ; and here the spiritual eye
of the soul, looking in stedfast faith to the exalted Redeemer, and
getting the needed supplies of His life-giving and regenerating
grace. In both the same elements of truth, the same modes of
dealing, but in the one developing themselves on a lower, in the
other on a higher territory ; in the former having immediate
respect only to things seen and temporal, and in the latter to
what is unseen, spiritual, and eternal. And when it is con
sidered how the Divine procedure in the case of the Israelites
was in itself so extraordinary and peculiar, so unlike God s
usual methods of dealing in providence, in so far as these have
respect merely to inferior and perishable interests, it seems to
92 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
be without any adequate reason to want, in a sense, its just
explanation, until it is viewed as a dispensation specially de
signed to prepare the way for the higher and better things of
the Gospel.
Similar explanations might be given of the other historical
facts recorded in Old Testament Scripture, and invested with a
typical reference in the New. But enough has been said to
show the essential similarity in the respect borne by them to the
better things of the Gospel, and of that borne by the ritual
types of the law. The ground of the connection in the one
class, precisely as in the other, stands in the substantial oneness
of the ideas and relations pervading the earlier and the later
transactions, as corresponding parts of related dispensations ; or
in the identity of truth and principle appearing in both, as dif
ferent yet mutually depending parts of one great providential
scheme. In that internal agreement and relationship, rather
than in any mere outward resemblances, we are to seek the real
bond of connection between the Old and the New.
At first sight, perhaps, a connection of this nature may
appear to want something of what is required to satisfy the
conditions of a proper typical relationship. And there are two
respects more especially, in which this deficiency may seem to
exist.
1. It has been so much the practice to look at the connection
between the Old and the New in an external aspect, that one
naturally fancies the necessity of some more palpable and arbi
trary bond of union to link together type and antitype. The
one is apt to be thought of as a kind of pre-ordained pantomime
of the other like those prefigurative actions which the prophets
were sometimes instructed, whether in reality or in vision, to
perform (as Isaiah in ch. xx., or Ezekiel in ch. xii.), meaningless
in themselves, yet very significant as foreshadowing intimations
of coming events in providence. Such prophecies in action,
certainly, had something in common with the typical transac
tions now under consideration. They both alike had respect to
other actions or events yet to come, without which, pre-ordained
and foreseen, they would not have taken place. They both also
stood in a similar relation of littleness to the corresponding cir
cumstances they foreshadowed exhibiting on a comparatively
HISTORICAL TYPES. 1>3
small scale what was afterwards to realize itself on a large one,
and thereby enabling the mind more readily to anticipate the
approaching future, or more distinctly to grasp it after it had
come. But they differed in this, that the typical actions of the
prophets had respect solely to the coming transactions they pre
figured, and but for these would have been foolish and absurd ;
while the typical actions of God s providence, as well as the
symbolical institutions of His worship, had a moral meaning of
their own, independently of the reference they bore to the future
revelations of the Gospel. To overlook this independent moral
element, is to leave out of account what should be held to con
stitute the very basis of the connection between the past and the
future. But if, on the other hand, we make due account of it,
we establish a connection which, in reality, is of a much more
close and vital nature, and one, too, of far higher importance,
than if it consisted alone in points of outward resemblance.
For it implies not only that the entire plan of salvation was all
along in the eye of God, but that, with a view to it, He was
ever directing His government, so as to bring out in successive
stages and operations the very truths and principles which were
to find in the realities of the Gospel their more complete mani
festation. He showed that He saw the end from the beginning,
by interweaving with His providential arrangements the ele
ments of the more perfect, the terminal plan. And, therefore,
to lay the groundwork of the connection between the prepara
tory and the final in the elements of truth and principle common
alike to both, instead of placing it in merely formal resem
blances, is but to withdraw it from a less to a more vital and
important part of the transactions from the outer shell and
appearance, to the inner truth and substance of the history ; so
that we can discern, not only some perceptible coincidences
between the type and the antitype, but the same fundamental
character, the same spirit of life, the same moral import and
practical design.
To render this more manifest, as it is a point of considerable
moment to our inquiry, let us compare an alleged example of
historical type, where the resemblance between it and the sup
posed antitype is of an ostensible, but still only of an outward
kind, with one of those referred to above the brazen serpent, for
94 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
example, or the deluge. In this latter example there was scarcely
any outward resemblance presented to the Christian ordinance
of baptism ; as in no proper sense could Noah and his family
be said to have been literally baptized in the waters. But both
this and the other historical transaction presented strong lines
of resemblance, of a more inward and substantial kind, to the
things connected with them in the Gospel such as enable us to
recognise without difficulty the impress of one Divine hand in
the two related series of transactions, and to contemplate them
as corresponding parts of one grand economy, rising gradually
from its lower to its higher stages of development. Take, how
ever, as an example of the other class, the occupation of Abel
as a shepherd, which by many, among others by Witsius, has
been regarded as a prefiguration of Christ in His character as
the great Shepherd of Israel. A superficial likeness, we admit ;
but what is to be found of real unity and agreement ? What
light does the one throw upon the other ? What expectation
beforehand could the earlier beget of the later, or what confir
mation afterwards can it supply ? Admitting that the death of
Abel somehow foreshadowed the infinitely more precious blood
to be shed on Calvary, what distinctive value could the sacrifice
of life in His case derive from the previous occupation of the
martyr? Christ, certainly, died as the spiritual shepherd of
souls, but Abel was not murdered on account of having been a
keeper of sheep ; nor had his death any necessary connection
with his having followed such an employment. For what pur
pose, then, press points of resemblance so utterly disconnected,
and dignify them with the name of typical prefigurations ?
Resemblances in such a case are worthless even if real, and
from their nature incapable of affording any insight into the
mind and purposes of God. But when, on the contrary, we look
into the past records of God s providence, and find there, in the
dealings of His hand and the institutions of His worship, a co
incidence of principle and economical design with what appears
in the dispensation of the Gospel, we cannot but feel that we
have something of real weight and importance for the mind to
rest upon. And if, farther, we have reason to conclude, not
only that agreements of this kind existed, but that they were
all skilfully planned and arranged, the earlier with a view to
HISTORICAL TYPES. 95
the later, the earthly and temporal for the spiritual and heavenly,
we find ourselves possessed of the essential elements of a
typical connection. We have reason, however, so to conclude,
as has partly been shown already, and will still farther be shown
in the sequel.
2. But granting what has now been stated allowing that
the connection between type and antitype is more of an internal
than of an external kind, it may still be objected, in regard
to the historical types, that they wanted for the most part some
thing of the necessary correspondence with the antitypes ; the
one did not occupy under the Old the same relative place that
the other did under the New existing for a time as a shadow,
until it was superseded and displaced by the substance. Per
haps not; but is such a close and minute correspondence ab
solutely necessary? Or is it to be found even in the case of
all -the symbolical types? With them also considerable differ
ences appear ; and we look in vain for anything like a fixed and
absolute uniformity. The correspondence assumed the most
exact form in the sacrificial rites of the tabernacle worship.
There, certainly, part may be said to have answered to part ;
there was priest for priest, offering for offering, death for
death, and blessing for blessing throughout, an inferior and
temporary substitute in the room of the proper reality, and con
tinuing till it was superseded and displaced by the latter. We
find a relaxation, however, in this closely adjusted relationship,
whenever we leave the immediate province of sacrifice ; and
in many of the things expressly denominated shadows of the
Gospel, it can hardly be said to have existed. In regard, for
example, to the ancient festivals, the new moons, the use or
disuse of leaven, the defilement of leprosy and its purification,
there was no such precise and definite superseding of the Old
by something corresponding under the New nothing like office
for office, action for action, part for part. The symbolical rites
and institutions referred to were typical not, however, as re
presenting things that were to hold specifically and palpably
the same place in Gospel times, but rather as embodying, in
set forms and ever-recurring bodily services, the truths and
principles that, in naked simplicity and by direct teaching,
were to pervade the dispensation of the Gospel.
96 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
There is quite a similar diversity in the case of the historical
types. In some of them the correspondence was very close and
exact ; in others more loose and general. Of the former class
was the calling of Israel as an elect people, their relation to the
land of Canaan as their covenant portion, their redemption from
the yoke of Egypt, and their temporary sojourn in the wilderness
as they travelled to inherit it all of which continued (the two
latter by means of commemorative ordinances) till they were
superseded by corresponding but higher objects under the Gospel.
In respect to these we can say, the new dispensation presents
people for people, redemption for redemption, inheritance for
inheritance, and one kind of wilderness-training for another;
objects in both precisely corresponding as regards the places
they respectively held, and the one preserving their existence
or transmitting their efficacy, till they were supplanted by the
other. But we do not pretend to see the same close connection
and the same exact correspondence between the Old arid the
New in all, or even the greater part, of the historical transactions
of the past which we hold to have been typical ; nor are we
warranted to look for it. The analogy of the symbolical types
would lead us to expect, along with the more direct typical
arrangements, many acts and institutions of a somewhat in
cidental and subordinate kind, in which a typical representation
should be given of ideas and relations, that could only find in
the realities of the Gospel their full and proper manifestation.
If they were not appointed as temporary substitutes for these
realities, and made to occupy an ostensible place in the divine
economy till the better things appeared, they were still fashioned
after the ideal of the better, and were thereby fitted to indoctri
nate the minds of God s people with certain notions of the truth,
and to familiarize them with its spiritual ideas, its modes of pro
cedure, and principles of working. And in this they plainly
possessed the more essential elements of a typical connection.
II. Enough, however, for the first point. We proceed to
the second ; which is, that such historical types as those undei
consideration were absolutely necessary, in considerable number
and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly pre
parative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel.
HISTORICAL TYPES. 97
This was necessary, first of all, from the typical character of
the position and worship of the members of the Old Covenant.
The main things respecting them being, as we have seen, typical,
it was inevitable but that many others of a subordinate and
collateral nature should be the same ; for otherwise they would
not have been suitably adapted to the dispensation to which they
belonged.
But we have something more than this general correspond
ence or analogy to appeal to. For the nature of the historical
types themselves, as already explained, implies their existence,
in considerable number and variety. The representation they
were designed to give of the fundamental truths and principles
of the Gospel, with the view of preparing the Church for the
new dispensation, would necessarily have been incomplete and
inadequate, unless it had embraced a pretty extensive field.
The object of their appointment would have been but partially
reached, if they had consisted only of the few straggling ex
amples which have been particularly mentioned in New Testa
ment Scripture. Nor, unless the history in general of Old
Testament times, in so far as its recorded transactions bore on
them the stamp of God s mind and will, had been pervaded by
the typical element, could it have in any competent measure
fulfilled the design of a preparatory economy. So that what
ever distinctions it may be necessary to draw between one part
of the transactions and another, as to their bein in themselves
/ o
sometimes of a more essential, sometimes of a more incidental
character, or in their typical bearing being more or less closely
related to the realities of the Gospel, their very place and object in
a preparatory dispensation required them to be extensively typical.
To be spread over a large field, and branched out in many direc
tions, was as necessary to their typical as to their more im
mediate and temporary design.
Thus the one point grows by a sort of natural necessity
out of the other. But the argument admits of being consider
ably strengthened by the manner in which the historical types
that are specially mentioned in New Testament Scripture are
there referred to. So far from being represented as singular
in their typical reference to Gospel times, they have uniformly
the appearance of being only selected for the occasion. Nay,
VOL. I. G
98 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the obligation on the part of believers generally to seek for them
throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, and apply them to
all the purposes of Christian instruction and improvement, is
distinctly asserted in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and the
capacity to do so is represented as a proof of full-grown spiritual
discernment (Heb. v. 1114). There is, therefore, a sense in
which the saying of Augustine, " The Old Testament, when
rightly understood, is one great prophecy of the New," 1 is
strictly true even in regard to those parts of ancient Scripture
which, in their direct and immediate bearing, partake least of
the prophetical. Its records of the past are, at the same time,
pregnant with the germs of a corresponding but more exalted
future. The relations sustained by its more public characters,
the parts they were appointed to act in their day and generation,
the deliverances that were wrought for them and by them, and
the chastisements they were from time to time given to ex
perience, did not begin and terminate with themselves. They
were parts of an unfinished and progressive plan, which finds
its destined completion in the person and kingdom of Christ ;
and only when seen in this prospective reference do they appear
in their proper magnitude and their full significance.
Christ, then, is the end of the history as well as of the law,
of the Old Testament. It had been strange, indeed, if it were
otherwise ; strange if its historical transactions had not been
ordained by God to bear a prospective reference to the scheme of
grace unfolded in the Gospel. For what is this scheme itself,
in its fundamental character, but a grand historical development ?
What are the doctrines it teaches, the blessings it imparts, and
the prospects it discloses of coming glory, but the ripened fruit
and issue of the wondrous facts it records ? The things which
are there written of the incarnation and life, the death and
resurrection, of the Lord Jesus Christ, are really the foundation
on which all rests the root from which everything springs in
Christianity. And shall it, then, be imagined, that the earlier
facts in the history of related and preparatory dispensations did
not point, like so many heralds and forerunners, to these un-
1 Vetus Testamentum recte intelligentibus prophetia est Novi Testament!
(Contra Faust. L. xv. 2). And again, Ille apparatus veteris Testament! in
generationibus, factis etc. parturiebat esse venturum (Ib. L. xix. 31).
HISTORICAL TYPES. 99
speakably greater ones to come ? If a prophecy lay concealed in
their symbolical rites, could it fail to be found also in the histori
cal transactions that were often so closely allied to these, and
always coincident with them in purpose and design? Assuredly
not. In so far as God spake in the transactions, and gave dis
coveries by them of His truth and character, they pointed on
ward to the one " Pattern Man," and the terminal kingdom of
righteousness and blessing of which He was to be the head and
centre. Here only the history of God s earlier dispensations
attained its proper end, as in it also the history of the world rose
to its true greatness and glory. 1
III. The thought, however, may not unnaturally occur, that
if the historical matter of the Old Testament possess as much
as has been represented of a typical character, some plain indica
tions of its doing so should be found in Old Testament Scripture
itself ; we should scarcely need to draw our proof of the exist
ence and nature of the historical types entirely from the writings
1 Compare the remarks made by the author in "Prophecy viewed with
respect to its Distinctive Nature," etc., P. I., c. 2 ; also what has been said
here in p. 54 sq. of the views which have obtained currency in Germany re
specting the typical character of Old Testament history. Hartmann, in his
Verbinnung des Alten Test, mit den Newen, p. 6, gives the following from
a German periodical on the subject of Old Testament history, and its con
nection with the Gospel : " Must not Judaism be of great moment to
Christianity, since both stand in brotherly and sisterly relations to each
other ? The historical books of the Hebrews are also religious books ; the
religious import is involved in the historical. The history of the people, as
a divine leading and management in respect to them, was at the same time
a training for religion, precisely as the Old Testament is a preparation for
the New." Still more strongly Jacobi, as quoted by Sack, Apologetik, p.
356, on the words of Christ, that " as the serpent was lifted up, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up " (y-tyu6qva,i dg<) : " History is also prophecy. The
past unfolds the future as a germ, and at certain points, discernible by the
eye of the mind, the greater may be seen imaged in the smaller, the internal
in the external, the present or future in the past. Here there is nothing
whatever arbitrary : throughout there is a divine must, connection, and
arrangement, pregnant with mutual relations." More recently, Hofmann,
in his Weissagung und Erfullung, as noticed in Ch. I., has run to an extreme
this view of Old Testament history, and in his desire to magnify the import
ance of it has depreciated prophecy really, however, to the disparagement
of the prophetical element in both departments.
100 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of the New Testament. It was with the view of meeting this
thought that we advanced our third statement ; which is, that
Old Testament Scripture does contain undoubted marks and
indications of its historical personages and events being related
to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations exhibited
in them were again to meet, and obtain a more perfect develop
ment. The proof of this is to be sought chiefly in the propheti
cal writings of the Old Testament, in which the more select
instruments of God s Spirit gave expression to the Church s
faith respecting both the past and the future in His dispensa
tions. And in looking there we find, not only that an exalted
personage, with His work of perfect righteousness, and His
kingdom of consummate bliss and glory, was seen to be in pro
spect, but also that the expectations cherished of what was to be,
took very commonly the form of a new and higher exhibition of
what had already been. In giving promise of the better things
to come, prophecy to a large extent availed itself of the charac
ters and events of history. But it could only do so on the two
fold ground, that it perceived in these essentially the same
elements of truth and principle which were to appear in the
future ; and in that future anticipated a nobler exhibition of
them than had been given in the past. And what was this but,
in other words, to indicate their typical meaning and design ?
The truth of this will more fully appear when we come to treat
of the combination of type with prophecy, which, on account
of its importance, we reserve for the subject of a separate
chapter. Meanwhile, it will be remembered how even Moses
speaks before his death of " the prophet which the Lord their
God should raise up from among his brethren like to himself"
(Deut. xviii. 18) one that should hold a similar position and do
a similar work, but each in its kind more perfect and complete
else, why look out for another 1 In like manner, David connects
the historical appearance of Melchizedek with the future Head
of God s Church and kingdom, when He announces Him as a
priest after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. ex. 4) ; he foresaw that
the relations of Melchizedek s time should be again revived in
this divine character, and the same part fulfilled anew, but
raised, as the connection intimates, to a higher sphere, invested
with a heavenly greatness, and carrying a world-wide signifi-
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 101
cancc and power. So again we are told (Mai. ill. 1, iv. 5)
another Elias should arise in the brighter future, to be succeeded
by a more glorious manifestation of the Lord, to do what had
never been done but in fragments before ; namely, to provide
for Himself a true spiritual priesthood, a regenerated people, and
an offering of righteousness. But the richest proofs are furnished
by the latter portion of Isaiah s writings ; for there we find the
prophet intermingling so closely together the past and the future,
that it is often difficult to tell of which he actually speaks. He
passes from Israel to the Messiah, and again from the Messiah
to Israel, as if the one were but a new, a higher and perfect
development of what belonged to the other. And the Church of
the future is constantly represented under the relations of the
past, only freed from the imperfections that attached to its state,
and rendered in every respect blessed and glorious.
Such are a few specimens of the way in which the more
spiritual and divinely enlightened members of the Old Covenant
saw the future imaged in the past or present. They discerned
the essential oneness in truth and principle between the two ;
but, at the same time, were conscious of such inherent imper
fections and defects adhering to the past, that they felt it re
quired a more perfect future to render it altogether worthy of
God, and fully adequate to the wants and necessities of His
people. And there is one entire book of the Old Testament
which owes in a manner its existence, as it now stands, to this
likeness in one respect, but diversity in another, between the
past and the future things in God s administration. We refer
to the Book of Psalms. The pieces of which this book consists
are in their leading character devotional summaries, expressing
the pious thoughts and feelings which the consideration of God s
ways, and the knowledge of His revelations, were fitted to raise
in reflecting and spiritual bosoms. But the singular thing is,
that they are this for the New as well as for the Old Testament
worshipper. They are still incomparably the most perfect ex
pression of the religious sentiment, and the best directory to the
soul in its meditations and communings about divine things,
which is anywhere to be found. There is not a feature in the
divine character, nor an aspect of any moment in the life of
faith, to which expression, more or less distinct, is not there
102 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
given. How could such a book have come into existence, cen
turies before the Christian era, but for the fact that the Old
and the New dispensations however they may have differed
in outward form, and the ostensible nature of the transactions
belonging to them were founded on the same relations, and
pervaded by the same essential truths and principles? No
otherwise could the Book of Psalms have served as the great
hand-book of devotion to the members of both covenants. There
the disciples of Moses and Christ meet as on common ground
the one still readily and gratefully using the fervent utterances
of faith and hope, which the other had breathed forth ages
before. And though it was comparatively carnal institutions
under which the holy men lived and worshipped, who indited
those divine songs ; though it was transactions bearing directly
only on their earthly and temporal condition, which formed the
immediate ground and occasion of the sentiments they uttered ;
yet, where in all Scripture can the believer, who now " worships
in spirit and in truth," more readily find for himself the words
that shall fitly express his loftiest conceptions of God, embody
his most spiritual and enlarged views of the Divine government,
or tell forth the feelings and desires of his soul even in many
of its most lively and elevated moods ?
But with this manifold adaptation to the spiritual thoughts
and feelings of the Christian, there is still a perceptible differ
ence between the Psalms of David and the writings of the New
Testament. With all that discovers itself in the Psalms of a
vivid apprehension of God, and of a habitual confidence in His
faithfulness and love, one cannot fail to mark the indications of
something like a trembling restraint and awe upon the soul ; it
never rises into the filial cry of the Gospel, Abba Father. There
is a fitfulness also in its aspirations, as of one dwelling in a dusky
and changeful atmosphere. Continually, indeed, do we see the
Psalmist flying, in distress and trouble, under the shelter of the
Almighty, and trusting in His mercy for deliverance from the
guilt of sin. Even in the worst times he still prays and looks
for redemption. But the redemption which dispels all fear, and
satisfies the soul with the highest good, he knew not, excepting
as a bright day-star glistening in the far-distant horizon. It
was in his believing apprehensions a thing that should one day be
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 103
realized by the Church of God ; and he could tell also somewhat
of the mighty and glorious personage destined in the Divine
counsels to accomplish it of His unparalleled struggles in the
cause of righteousness, and of His final triumphs, resulting in
the extension of His kingdom to the farthest bounds of the earth.
O
But no more the veil still hangs ; expectation still waits and
longs ; and it is only for the believer of other times to say,
" Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation ;" " I have a desire to de
part, and to be with Christ ; or again, " Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know, that when He appears, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
Such is the agreement, and such also the difference, between
the Old and the New. " There we see the promise and prelude
of the blessings of salvation ; here, these blessings themselves,
far surpassing all the previous foreshado wings of them. There,
a fiducial resting in *Tehovah ; here, an unspeakable fulness of
spiritual and heavenly blessings from the opened fountain of
His mercy. There, a confidence that the Lord would not
abandon His people ; here, the Lord Himself assuming their
nature, the God-man connecting Himself in organic union with
humanity, and sending forth streams of life through its members.
There, in the background, night, only relieved by the stars of
the word of promise, and operations of grace in suitable accord
ance with it ; here, in the background, day, still clouded, indeed,
by our human nature, which is not yet completely penetrated
by the Spirit, and is ever anew manifesting its sinfulness, but
yet such a day as gives assurance of the cloudless sunshine of
eternity, of which God Himself is the light." 1
We here conclude the direct proof of our argument for the
typical character of the religion and history of the Old Testa
ment ; but it admits of confirmation from two distinct though
related lines of thought, the one analogical, derived from the
o / o /
existence of typical forms in physical nature, coupled with the
evidences of a progression in the Divine mode of realizing them ;
the other founded inferentially on what might seem requisite
1 Delitzsch, Biblisch-prophetische Thcologie, p. 232.
104 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to render the progression, apparent in the spiritual economy, an
effective growth towards "the dispensation of the fulness of
times." With a few remarks on each of these, we shall close
this branch of our inquiry.
1. The subject of typical forms in nature has only of late
risen into prominence, and taken its place in scientific investiga
tions. It had the misfortune to be first distinctly broached by
men who were more distinguished for their powers of fancy, and
their bold spirit of speculation, than for patient and laborious
inquiry in any particular department of science ; so that their
peculiar ideas respecting a harmony of structure running through
the organic kingdoms, and bearing relation to a pattern-form or
type, were for a time treated with contempt, or met with de
cided opposition. But further research has turned the scale in
their favour : the ideas in question may now be reckoned among
the established conclusions of natural science ; and so far from
occasioning any just prejudice to the interests of a rational
deism (as was once supposed), they have turned rather to its ad
vantage. For, in addition to the evidences of design in nature,
which show a specific direction toward a final cause (and which
remain untouched), there have been brought to light evidences,
not previously observed, of a striking unity of plan. The gene
ral principle has been made good, that in organic structures,
while there is an infinite variety of parts, each with its specific
functions and adaptations, there is also a normal shape, which
it more or less approaches, both in its construction as a whole,
and in each of its organs. Thus, in plants which have leaves
that strike the eye, the leaf and plant are typically analogous :
the leaf is a typical plant or branch, and the tree or branch a
typical leaf, with certain divergences or modifications necessary
to adapt them to their respective places. In the animal king
dom the structural harmony is not less perceptible, and still more
to our purpose. It has been found by a wide and satisfactory
induction, that the human is here the pattern-form the arche
type of the vertebrate division of animated being. In the struc
ture of all other animal forms there are observable striking
resemblances to that of man, and resemblances of a kind that
seem designed to assimilate the lower, as near as circumstances
would admit, to the higher. In all vertebrate animals it is
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 105
found that the vertebrate skeleton is composed of a series of
parts of essentially the same order, only modified in a great
variety of ways to suit the particular functions it has to dis
charge in the different animal frames to which it belongs. Thus,
every segment, and almost every bone, present in the human
hand and arm, exist also in the fin of the whale, though appa
rently not required for the movement of this inflexible paddle,
and the specific uses for which it is designed ; apparently, there
fore, retained more for the sake of symmetry, than from any
necessity connected with the proper function of the organ. 1
Most strikingly, however, does the studied conformity to the
human archetype appear in the formation of the brain, which
is the most peculiar and distinguishing part of the animal frame.
" Nature," says Hugh Miller, " in constructing this curious organ
in man, first lays down a grooved cord, as the carpenter lays
down the keel of his vessel ; and on this narrow base the perfect
brain, as month after month passes by, is gradually built up,
like the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a brain
closely resembling that of a fish ; a few additions more impart
the perfect appearance of the brain of a bird ; it then developes
into a brain exceedingly like that of a mammiferous quadruped ;
and finally, expanding atop, and spreading out its deeply corru
gated lobes, till they project widely over the base, it assumes its
unique character as a human brain. Radically such at the first,
it passes through all the inferior forms, from that of the fish
upwards, as if each man were in himself, not the microcosm of
the old fanciful philosopher, but something greatly more wonder
ful a compendium of all animated nature, and of kin to every
creature that lives. Hence the remark, that man is the sum
total of all animals * the animal equivalent, says Oken, to the
whole animal kingdom. " 2
This, however, is not the whole. For, as geology has now
learned to read w r ith sufficient accuracy the stony records of the
1 It is right to say, only apparently retained, though not strictly re
quired ; for, as Dr M Cosh has justly stated, there may still be uses and
designs connected with arrangements of the kind which science has not
discovered ; and the respect to symmetry may be but an incidental and
subordinate, not the primary or sole reason. See Typical .Fonws, p. 449.
2 Footprints, p. 291.
106 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
past, to be able to tell of successive creations of vertebrate
animals, from fish, the first and lowest, up to man, the last and
highest ; so here also we have a kind of typical history the less
perfect animal productions of nature having throughout those
earlier geological periods borne a prospective reference to man,
as the complete and ultimate form of animal existence. In the
language of theology, they were the types, and he is the anti
type, in the mundane system. Or, as more fully explained by
Professor Owen, " All the parts and organs of man had been
sketched out in anticipation, so to speak, in the inferior animals ;
and the recognition of an ideal exemplar in the vertebrated ani
mals proves that the knowledge of such a being as man must
have existed before man appeared. For the Divine mind which
planned the archetype, also foreknew all its modifications. The
archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh long prior to the
existence of those animal species that actually exemplify it.
To what natural laws or secondary causes the orderly succession
and progression of such organic phenomena may have been
committed, we are as yet ignorant. But if, without derogation
of the Divine power, we may conceive the existence of such
ministers, and personify them by the term NATUKE, we learn
from the past history of our globe, that she has advanced with
slow and stately steps, guided by the archetypal light amidst
the wreck of worlds, from the first embodiment of the vertebrate
idea under its old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed
in the glorious garb of the human form." 1
In this view of the matter, what a striking analogy does the
1 It is curious to notice that considerably before the progress of physical
science had enabled its cultivators to draw this deduction from the lower to
the higher forms of organic being, the same line of thought had suggested
itself to the inventive mind of Coleridge from a thoughtful meditation of the
successive stages of creation as described in Genesis, viewed in the light of
progressive developments in the mental as well as material world. The
passage as a whole is singularly characteristic of its distinguished author ;
but the part we have properly to do with is the following : " Let us carry
ourselves back in spirit to the mysterious week, the teeming work-days of
the Creator ; as they rose in vision before the eye of the inspired historian
of the generations of the heavens and of the earth, in the day that the
Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And who that hath watched
their ways with an understanding heart, could, as the vision evolving still
advanced toward him, contemplate the filial and loyal Bee; the home-
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 107
history of God s operations in nature furnish to His plan in pro
vidence, as exhibited in the history of redemption ! Here, in
like manner, there is found in the person and kingdom of Christ
a grand archetypal idea, towards which, for successive ages, the
Divine plan was continually working. Partial exhibitions of it
appear from time to time in certain remarkable personages, in
stitutions, and events, which rise prominently into view as the
course of providence proceeds, but all marred with obvious
faults and imperfections in respect to the great object contem
plated ; until at length the idea, in its entire length and breadth,
is seen embodied in Him to whom all the prophets gave witness
the God-man, fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.
" The Creator to adopt again the exposition of Mr Miller in
the first ages of His workings, appears to have been associated
with what He wrought simply as the producer or author of all
tilings. But even in those ages, as scene after scene, and one
dynasty of the inferior animals succeeded another, there were
strange typical indications which pie-Adamite students of pro
phecy among the spiritual existences of the universe might pos
sibly have aspired to read ; symbolical indications to the effect
that the Creator was in the future to be more intimately con
nected with His material works than in the past, through a
glorious creature made in His own image and likeness. And
to this semblance and portraiture of the Deity the first Adam
all the merely natural symbols seem to refer. But in the
eternal decrees it had been for ever determined, that the union
of the Creator with creation was not to be a mere union by
proxy or semblance. And no sooner had the first Adam ap
peared and fallen, than a new school of prophecy began, in
which type and symbol w r ere mingled with what had now its
first existence on earth verbal enunciations ; and all pointed to
the second Adam, 6 the Lord from heaven. In Him, creation
building, wedded, and divorceless Swallow ; and, above all, the manifoldly
intelligent Ant tribes, with their commonwealths and confederacies, their
warriors and miners, the husband-folk that fold in their tiny flocks on the
honeyed leaf, and^he virgin sisters with the holy instincts of maternal love,
detached and in selfless purity and not say to himself, Behold the shadow
of approaching humanity, the sun rising from behind, in the kindling morn
of creation ! Thus all lower natures find their highest good in semblances and
seekings of that which is higher and tetter." (Aids to Reflection, i. p. 85.)
108 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
and the Creator meet in reality, and not in semblance. On the
very apex of the finished pyramid of being sits the adorable
Monarch of all : as the son of Mary, of David, of the first
Adam the created of God ; as God and the Son of God the
eternal Creator of the universe. And these the two Adams
form the main theme of all prophecy, natural and revealed. And
that type and symbol should have been employed with reference
not only to the second, but as held by men like Agassiz and
Owen to the first Adam also, exemplifies, we are disposed to
think, the unity of the style of Deity, and serves to show that
it was He who created the worlds that dictated the Scriptures." 1
It is indeed a marvellous similitude, and one, it will be per
ceived, which is not less fitted to stimulate the aspirations of
hope toward the future, than to strengthen faith in what the
Bible relates concerning the history of the past. For, if the
archetypal idea in animated nature has been wrought at through
long periods and successive ages of being till it found its proper
realization in man ; now that the nature of man is linked in
personal union with the Godhead for the purpose of rectifying
what is evil, and raising manhood to a higher than its original
condition, who can tell to what a height of perfection and glory
it shall attain, when the work of God " in the regeneration" has
fully accomplished its aim I " We know not what we shall be,
but we know that we shall be like Him," in whom the earthly
and human have been for ever associated with, and assimilated
to, the spiritual and divine. But the parallel between the method
of God s working in nature, and that pursued by Him in grace,
especially as presented in the above graphic extract, naturally
raises the question (to which reference has already been made,
p. 62), whether, or how far, the creation as constituted and
headed in Adam, is to be regarded as typical of the incarnation
and kingdom of Christ 1 As the question is one that cannot
be quite easily disposed of, while still it has a very material
bearing on our future investigations, we must reserve it for
separate discussion. 2 ^
2. If now we turn from God s plan in nature to His plan
in grace, and think of the conditions that were required to meet
in it, in order to render the progression here also exhibited fitly
1 Witness newspaper, 2d August 1851. 2 See next chapter.
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTKR. 109
conducive to its great end, we shall find a still farther confirma
tion of our argument for the place and character of Scripture
Typology. This plan, viewed with respect to its progressive
character, certainly presents something strange and mysterious
to our view, especially in the extreme slowness of its progression ;
since it required the postponement of the work of redemption
for so many ages, and kept the Church during these in a state
of comparative ignorance in respect to the great objects of her
faith and hope. Yet what is it but an application to the moral
history of the world of the principle on which its physical develop
ment has proceeded, and which, indeed, is constantly exhibited
before us in each man s personal history, whose term of probation
upon earth is, in many cases half, in nearly all a third part con
sumed, before the individual attains to a capacity for the objects
and employments of manhood 1 Constituted as we personally
are, and as the world also is, progression of some kind is indis
pensable to happiness and well-being ; and the majestic slowness
that appears in the plan of God s administration of the world, is
but a reflection of the nature of its Divine Author, with whom a
thousand years are as one day. Starting, then, with the assump
tion, that the Divine plan behoved to be of a progressive character,
the nature of the connection we have found to exist between
its earlier and later parts, discovers the perfect wisdom and fore
sight of God. The terminating point in the plan was what is
called emphatically " the mystery of godliness," God manifest
in the flesh for the redemption of a fallen world, and the estab
lishment through Him of a kingdom of righteousness that should
not pass away. It was necessary that some intimation of this
ulterior design should be given from the first, that the Church
might know whither to direct her expectations. Accordingly,
the prophetic Word began to utter its predictions with the very
entrance of sin. The first promise was given on the spot that
witnessed the fall ; and that a promise which contained, within
its brief but pregnant utterance, the whole burden of redemption.
As time rolled on, prophecy continued to add to its communica
tions, having still for its grand scope and aim " the testimony of
Jesus." And at length so express had its tidings become, and so
plentiful its revelations, that when the purpose of the Father
drew near to its accomplishment, the remnant of sincere worship-
1 10 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
pers were like men standing on their watch-towers, waiting and
looking for the long-expected consolation of Israel ; nor was
there anything of moment in the personal history or work of the
Son, of which it could not be written, It was so done, that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled.
It is plain, however, on a little consideration, that something
more was needed than the hopeful announcements of prophecy.
The Church required training as well as teaching, and training
of a very peculiar kind ; for she had to be formed for receiving
things " which men had not heard, nor had the ear perceived,
neither had the eye seen the things which God had prepared
for those that waited for Him " (Isa. Ixiv. 4). " The new dispen
sation was to be wholly made up of things strange and wonder
ful ; all that is seen and heard of it is contrary to carnal wisdom.
The appearance of the Son of God in a humble condition the
discharge by Him in person of a Gospel ministry, with its
attendant circumstances His shame and sufferings His resur
rection and ascension into heaven the nature of the kingdom
instituted by Him, which is spiritual the blessings of His king
dom, which are also spiritual the instruments employed for
advancing the kingdom, men devoid of worldly learning, and
destitute of outward authority the gift of the Holy Spirit, the
calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of so many among the Jewish
people : these, among other things, were indeed such as the
carnal eye had never seen, and the carnal ear had never heard ;
nor could they without express revelation, by any thought or
natural ingenuity on the part of man, have been foreseen or
understood." l But lying thus so far beyond the ken of man s
natural apprehensions, and so different from what they were
disposed of themselves to expect, if all that was done beforehand
respecting them had consisted in the necessarily partial and
obscure intimations of prophecy, there could neither have been
any just anticipation of the things to be revealed, nor any suitable
training for them ; the change from the past to the future must
have come as an invasion, rather than as the result of an ever-
advancing development, and men could only have been brought
by a sort of violence to submit to it.
To provide against this, there was required, as a proper
1 Vitringa on Isa. Ixiv. 4.
THE FULNESS OF TIME. Ill
accompaniment to the intimations of prophecy, the training of
preparatory dispensations, that the past history and established
experience of the Church might run, though on a lower level,
yet in the same direction with her future prospects. And what
her circumstances in this respect required, the wisdom and fore
sight of God provided. lie so skilfully modelled for her the
institutions of worship, and so wisely arranged the dealings of
His providence, that there was constantly presented to her view,
in the outward and earthly things with which she was conversant,
the cardinal truths and principles of the coming dispensation. In
everything she saw and handled, there was something to attemper
her spirit to a measure of conformity with the realities of the
Gospel ; so that if she could not be said to live directly under
" the powers of the world to come," she yet shared their secondary
influence, being placed amid the signs and shadows of the true,
and conducted through earthly transactions that bore on them
the image of the heavenly.
It is to this preparatory training, as being on the part of
God sufficiently protracted and complete, that we are to regard
the Apostle as chiefly referring, when he speaks of Christ Inn
ing appeared, " when the fulness of the time was come." (Gal.
iv. 4.) Chiefly, though not by any means exclusively. For
there is a manifold wisdom in all God s arrangements. In the
moral as well as in the physical world He is ever making nume
rous operations conspire to the production of one result, as each
result is again made to contribute to several important ends. It
is, therefore, a most legitimate object of inquiry, to search for all
the lines of congruity to be seen in the world s condition, that
opportunely met at the time of Christ s appearing, and together
rendered it in a peculiar manner suited for the institution of
His kingdom, and advantageously circumstanced for the diffu
sion of its truths and blessings among the nations of the earth.
But whatever light may be gathered from these external re
searches, it should never be forgotten that God s own record
must furnish the main grounds for determining the special fit
ness of the selected time, and the state of His Church the para
mount reason. In everything that essentially affects the interests
of the Church, pre-eminently therefore in what concerns the
manifestation of Christ, which is the centre-point of all that
112 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
touches her interests, the state and condition of the Church
herself is ever the first thing contemplated by the eye of God ;
the rest of the world holds but a secondary and subordinate
place. Hence, when we are told that Christ appeared in the
fulness of time, the fact of which we are mainly assured is,
that all was done which was properly required for bringing the
Church, whether as to her internal state or to her relations to
the world, into a measure of preparedness for the time of His
appearing. Not only had the period anticipated by prophecy
arrived, and believing expectation, rising on the wings of pro
phecy, reached its proper height, but also the long series of
preliminary arrangements and dealings was now complete, which
were designed to make the Church familiar with the fundamen
tal truths and principles of Messiah s kingdom, and prepare her
for the erection of this kingdom with its divine realities and
eternal prospects.
It is true that we search in vain for the general and wide
spread success which we might justly expect to have arisen from
the plan of God, and to have made conspicuously manifest its
infinite wisdom. With the exception of a comparatively small
number, the professing Church was . found so completely unpre
pared for the doctrine of Christ s kingdom, as to reject it with
disdain, and oppose it with unrelenting violence. But this
neither proves the absence of the design, nor the unfitness of
the means for carrying it into effect. It only proves how in
sufficient the best means are of themselves to enlighten and
sanctify the human mind, when its thoughts and imaginations
have become fixed in a wrong direction proves how the heart
may remain essentially corrupt, even after undergoing the most
perfect course of instruction, and still prefer the ways of sin to
those of righteousness. But while we cannot overlook the fatal
ignorance and perversity that pervaded the mass of the Jewish
people, we are not to forget that there still was among them a
pious remnant, "the election according to grace," who, as the
Church in the world, so they in the Church ever occupy the
foremost place in the mind and purposes of God. In the bosom
of the Jewish Church, as is justly remarked by Thiersch, "there
lay a domestic life so pure, noble, and tender, that it could yield
such a person as the holy Virgin," and could furnish an atmo-
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 113
sphere in which the Son of God might grow up sinless from
childhood to manhood. There were Simeon and Anna, Zacharias
and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the company of Apostles, the
converts, no small number after all, who flocked to the standard
of Jesus, as soon as the truths of His salvation came to be fully
known and understood, and the believing Jews and proselytes
scattered abroad, who, in almost every city, were ready to form
the nucleus of a Christian Church, and greatly facilitated its
extension in the world. Did not the course of God s prepara
tory dispensations reach its end in regard to these 1 Does not
even the style of argument and address used by the Apostles
imply that it did 1 How much do both their language and their
ideas savour of the sanctuary ! How constantly do they throw
themselves back for illustration and support, not only on the
prophecies, but also on the sacred annals and institutions of the
Old Testament ! They spake and reasoned on the assumption,
that the revelations of the Gospel were but a new and higher
exhibition of the principles which appeared alike in the events
of their past history and the services of their religious worship.
By means of these an appropriate language was already fur
nished to their hand, through which they could discourse aright
of spiritual and divine things. But more than that, as they had
no new language to invent, so they had no new ideas to discover,
or unheard-of principles to promulgate. The scheme of truth
which they were called to expound and propagate, had its foun
dations already laid in the whole history and constitution of the
Jewish commonwealth. In labouring to establish it, they felt
that they were treading in the footsteps, and, on a higher van
tage-ground, maintaining the faith of their illustrious fathers.
In short, they appear as the heralds and advocates of a cause
which, in its essential principles, had its representation in all
history, and gathered as into one glorious orb of truth the
scattered rays of light and consolation which had been emanat
ing from the ways of God since the world began. Tims wisely
were the different parts of the Divine plan adjusted to each
other ; and, for the accomplishment of what was required, the
training by means of types could no more have been dispensed
with, than the glimpse-like visions and hopeful intimations of
prophecy.
VOL. I. II
CHAPTER FOURTH.
THE PKOPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY 3. GOD S
WORK IN CREATION, HOW RELATED TO THE INCARNATION
AND KINGDOM OF CHRIST.
THE analogy presented near the close of the preceding chapter
in an extract from Hugh Miller 1 between pre- Adamite for
mations in the animal kingdom, rising successively above each
other, and those subsequent arrangements in the religious sphere
which were intended to herald and prepare for the personal
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, is stated with becoming
caution and reserve. It keeps strictly within the limits of reve
lation, and assumes the existence of nothing in the work of
creation itself, with respect to typical forms or otherwise, such
as could, even to the most profound intelligences of the universe,
have suggested the idea of a further and more complete mani
festation of God in connection with humanity. The commence
ment of the new school of prophecy, allying itself to type and
symbol of another kind than had yet appeared, is dated from
the era of Adam s fall, as that which at once furnished the
occasion and opened the way for their employment ; while still,
in the mind of Deity itself, or " in the eternal decrees," as it is
expressed in the extract, it had been for ever determined that
there should yet be a closer union between the Creator and
creation than was accomplished in Adam. In other words, God
had from eternity purposed the Incarnation ; though the events
in providence which were to exhibit its need, and give rise to
the prophetic announcements and foreshadowing symbols which
should in due time point the eye of hope toward it came in
subsequently to creation, and by reason of sin; so that the
Incarnation was predestined, because the fall was foreseen.
The same caution, however, has not been always observed
not even in ancient, and still less in recent times. The spirit
1 See p. 107.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 115
of Christian speculation, in proportion as the circumstances of
particular times have called it into play, has striven to connect
in some more distinct and formal manner God s work in creation
with a higher destiny for man in the future ; but the modes of
doing so have characteristically differed. Among the patristic
writers the tendency of this speculation was to find in the ori
ginal constitution of things pre- intimations or pledges of a
higher and more ethereal condition to be reached by Adam and
his posterity, as the reward of obedience to the will of God, and
perseverance in holiness. The sense of various passages upon
the subject gathered out of their writings has been thus ex
pressed : " That Paradise was to Adam a type of heaven ; and
that the never-ending life of happiness promised to our first
parents, if they had continued obedient, and grown up to per
fection under that economy wherein they were placed, should not
have continued in the earthly paradise, but only have commenced
there, and been perpetuated in a higher state." l It is impossible
to say that such should not have been the case ; for what in the
event supposed might have been the ultimate intentions of God
respecting the destinies of mankind, since revelation is entirely
silent upon the subject, can be matter only of uncertain conjec
ture, or, at the very most, of probable inference. It is quite
conceivable that some other region might have been prepared
for their reception, where, free from any formal test of obedi
ence, free even from the conditions of flesh and blood, and
" made like unto the angels," they should have reaped the fruits
of immortality. But it is equally conceivable, that this earth
itself, which "the Lord hath given to the children of men,"
might have become every way suited to the occasion ; that as,
on the hypothesis in question, it should have escaped the blight-
1 This proposition, with the authorities that support it, may be found in
the discourses of Bishop Bull, Works, Vol. II., p. 67. His proofs from the
earlier Fathers Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenseus are somewhat inadequate.
The first explicit testimony is from Theophilus of Antioch, who speaks of
Adam being " at length canonized or consecrated and ascending to heaven,"
if he had gone on to perfection. The testimony becomes more full, as the
speculative tendency of the Greek philosophy gains strength in the Church.
And Clement of Alexandria expressly says in his Liturgy, that "if Adam
had kept the commandments, he would have received immortality as the
reward of his obedience," meaning thereby, eternal life in a higher sphere.
116 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ing influence of sin, so other and happier changes might have
passed over it, and the condition of its inhabitants, not only than
they have actually undergone, but than any we can distinctly
apprehend ; until by successive developments of latent energies,
as well of a natural as of a moral kind, the highest attainable
good for creation might have been reached. For anything
we can tell, there may have been powers and susceptibilities
inherent in the original constitution of things, which, under the
benign and fostering care of its Creator, were capable of being
conducted through such an indefinite course of progressive ele
vation. But everything of this sort belongs to speculation, not
to theology ; it lies outside the record which contains the reve
lation of God s mind and will to man ; and to designate paradise
simply, and in its relation to our first parents, a type of heaven,
is even more than to speak without warrant of Scripture, it is
to regard paradise and man s relation to it in another light than
Scripture has actually presented them. For there the original
frame and constitution of things appears as in due accordance
with the Divine ideal, in itself good, therefore relatively per
fect ; and not a hint is dropped, or, so far as we know, an indi
cation of any kind given, that could beget in man s bosom the
expectation or desire of another state of being and enjoyment
than that which he actually possessed none, till the entrance
of sin had created new wants in his condition, and opened a new
channel for the display of God s perfections in regard to him.
It was the influence of the ancient philosophy, which associated
with matter in every form the elements of evil, or, at least, of
imperfection, that so readily disposed the Fathers of the Chris
tian Church to see in what was at first given to Adam only the
image of some higher and better inheritance destined for him
elsewhere. They did not consider what refinements matter
itself might possibly undergo, in order to its adaptation to the
most exalted state of being. But the same influence naturally
kept them from connecting with this prospective elevation to
a higher sphere the necessary or probable incarnation of the
Word ; since rather by detaching the human more from the
environments of matter, than by bringing the divine into closer
contact with it, did the prospect of a higher and more perfect
condition for man seem possible to their apprehensions. Hence,
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 117
also, in what may be fitly called the great symbol of the early
Church s faith respecting the incarnation the Nicene creed
goes no farther than this, that " for us men, and for the sake
of our salvation, the Word was made flesh." 1
In recent times the speculative tendency, especially among
the German divines, has shown a disposition to take the other
direction namely, to make the incarnation of itself, and apart
altogether from the fall of man, the necessary and, from the
first, the contemplated medium of man s elevation to the final
state of perfection and blessedness destined for him. Some of
the scholastic theologians had already signalized themselves by
the advocacy of this opinion in particular, Rupprecht of Deutz,
Alexander of Hales, Aquinas, Duns Scotus ; but it was so
strongly discountenanced by Calvin and the leading divines of
the Reformation, who denounced the idea (propounded afresh by
Osiander) of an incarnation without a fall as rash and ground
less, 2 that it sunk into general oblivion, till the turn given to
speculative thought by the revival of the pantheistic theology
served, among other results, to bring it again into favour. This
philosophy, while resisted by all believing theologians in its
strivings to represent the created universe as but the self-
evolution and the varied form of Deity, has still left its impress
on the views of many of them as to the nature of the connection
between Creator and creature as if an actual commingling
between the two were, in a sense, mutually essential ; since a
personal indwelling of Godhead in the form of humanity is con
ceived necessary to complete the manifestation of Godhead begun
in Adam, and only by such a personal indwelling could the work
of creation attain its end, either in regard to the true ideal of
humanity, on the one side, or to the revealed character of God
and the religion identified with it, on the other. Adam, there-
1 The divines of the Reformation very commonly concurred, to a certain
extent, in the view of the Fathers, and hence the position is defended by
Turretine, that Adam had the promise of being carried to heaven and
enjoying eternal life there as the reward of his obedience (Loc. Oct., Qwest.
VI.). But he admits that Scripture makes no distinct mention of this, and
that it is only matter of inference. The grounds of inference are in this
case, however, rather far to seek.
a See, for example, Calvin s Inst. L. ii. 12, 5. Maastricht, Theol. Lib. v.,
c. 4, 17.
118 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
fore, in his formation after the divine image, was the type of
the God-man, or the God-man was the true archetype and only
proper realization of the idea exhibited in Adam ; the fall, with
its attendant consequences, only determined the mode of Christ s
appearance among men, but by no means originated the necessity
of his appearing.
The representatives of this transcendental school of Typology,
as it may not inaptly be called which undoubtedly includes
some of the most learned theologians of the present day differ
to some extent in their mode of setting forth and vindicating the
view they hold in common, according to the particular aspect of
it which more especially strikes them as important. To give
only a few specimens Martensen presents the incarnation in
its relation to the nature of God : the true idea of God is that
of the absolute personality ; and as the union of Christ with God
is a personal union, the individual with whom God historically
entered into an absolute union, must be free from everything
individually subjective he must reveal nothing save the absolute
personality. Christ is not to be subsumed under the idea of
humanity, but, inversely, humanity must be subsumed under
Him, since it was He in whom and for whom all things were
created (Col. i. 15). He is at once the centre of humanity and
the revealed centre of Deity the point at which God and God s
kingdom are personally united, and who reveals in fulness what
the kingdom of God reveals in distinct and manifold forms.
The second Adam is both the redeeming and the world-com
pleting principle ; the incarnate Logos, and as such the head
not merely of the human race, but of all creation, which was
made by Him and for Him, and is again to be recapitulated in
Him. 1 Lange makes his starting-point the final issues of the
incarnation, and from these argues its primary and essential
place in the scheme of the Divine manifestations. The post-
temporal, eternal glory of the humanity of Christ points back to
its eternal, ideal existence in God. The eternal Son of God
cannot, in the course of His temporal existence, have saddled
Himself (behaftet sich) for ever with something accidental ; or
have assumed a form which, as purely historical, does not cor
respond to His eternal essence. We must therefore distinguish
1 Dogmatik, 130, 131.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 119
between incarnation and assumption of the form of a servant (so
as, he means, to place the latter alone in a relation of dependence
to the fall of man) ; must also learn to understand the eternal
beginnings of Christ s humanity, in order to perceive how inti
mate a connection it has with the past with the work of crea
tion, with primeval times, and the history of the Old Testament.
The whole that appeared in these of good is to be regarded as
so many vital evolutions of the Divine life that is in Christ ; but
in Him alone is the idea of it fully realized. 1 Both of the writers
just referred to, also Liebner, Kothe, and, greater than them
all, Dorner, lay special stress on the argument derived from the
headship of humanity indissolubly linked to Christ. Humanity,
according to Dorner, as it appears before God redeemed
humanity is not merely a mass or heap of unconnected indivi
duals, but an organism, forming, with the world of higher spirits
and nature, which is to be glorified for and through it, a com
plete and perfect organic unity. Even the natural world is an
unity, solely because there is indissolubly united with it a prin
ciple which stands above it and comprises it within itself namely,
the Divine Logos, by whom the world was formed and is sus
tained, who is the vehicle and the representative of its eternal
idea. But in a higher sense the world of humanity and spirits
is an unity, because through the God-man who stands over it,
and by His personal self-communication of Godhead-fulness per
vades it, its creaturely susceptibility to God is filled; it now
enters into the circle of the Divine life, and stands in living
harmony with the centre of all good. But a matter so essential
to the proper idea of humanity cannot belong to the sphere of
contingency ; it must be viewed as inseparably connected with
the purpose of God in creation. And there is another thought,
w r hich Dorner conceives establishes beyond doubt the belief,
that the incarnation had not its sole ground in sin, but had a
deeper, an eternal, and abiding necessity in the wise and free
love of God, namely, that Christianity is the perfect religion,
the religion absolutely, the eternal Gospel ; and that for this
religion Christ is the centre, without which it cannot be so much
as conceived. Whoso, says he, maintains that Adam might have
1 See the outline of his views in Dorner on the Person of Christ, note
23, Vol. II., P. II. of the original, note 34 of the Eng. Trans.
120 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
become perfect even without Christ, inasmuch as no one can
deem it possible to conceive of perfection without the perfect
religion, maintains, either consciously or unconsciously, two
absolute religions, one without, and one with Christ which is a
bare contradiction. No Christian, he thinks, will deny that it
makes an essential difference, whether Christ, or only God in
general, is the central point of a religion. At the same time,
with Christian candour he admits, that the necessity of the truth
he advocates will not so readily commend itself to theologians,
who are wont to proceed in an experimental and anthropological
manner (that is, who look at the matter as it has been evolved
in the history and experience of mankind), as it must, and
actually does, to those who recognise both the possibility and the
necessity of a Christian speculation, that takes the conception of
God for its starting-point. 1
While this mode of contemplating the incarnation of Christ,
and of connecting it with the idea of creation, has in its recent
development had its origin in the philosophy, and its formal
exhibition in the theology, of Germany, it is no longer confined
to that country ; and both the view itself, and its application to
the Typology of Scripture, have already found a place in our
own. theological literature. Dean Trench, in his Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge, although he ad
vances nothing strictly new upon the subject, yet he speaks not
less decidedly respecting the necessity of the incarnation, apart
altogether from the fall, to enable the race of Adam " to attain
the end of its creation, the place among the families of God,
for which from the first it was designed." Special stress is laid
by him, as by Lange, on the issues of the incarnation, as reflect
ing light on its original intention : " The taking on Himself of
our flesh by the Eternal Word was no makeshift to meet a
mighty, yet still a particular, emergent need; a need which,
conceding the liberty of man s will, and that it was possible for
him to have continued in his first state of obedience, might
never have occurred. It was not a mere result and reparation
of the fall, such an act as, except for that, would never have
been ; but lay bedded at a far deeper depth in the counsels of
1 Person of Christ, Vol. II., Pt. II., p. 1241. Eng. Trans., Div. II.,
Vol. III., p. 232, sq.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 121
God for the glory of His Son, and the exaltation of that race
formed in His image and His likeness. For, against those who
regard the incarnation as an arbitrary, or as merely an historic
event, and not an ideal one as well, we may well urge this
weighty consideration, that the Son of God did not, in and
after His ascension, strip off this human nature again ; He did
not regard His humanity as a robe, to be worn for a while and
then laid aside ; the convenient form of His manifestation, so
long; as He was conversing with men on earth, but the fitness
O O
of which had with that manifestation passed away. So far
from this, we know, on the contrary, that He assumed our
nature for ever, married it to Himself, glorified it with His own
glory, carried it as the form of His eternal subsistence into the
world of angels, before the presence of His Father. Had there
been anything accidental here, had the assumption of our nature
been an afterthought (I speak as a man), this marriage of the
Son of God with that nature could scarcely be conceived. He
could hardly have so taken it, unless it had possessed an ideal
as well as an historic fitness ; unless pre-established harmonies
had existed, such harmonies as only a divine intention could
have brought about between the one and the other."
The application of the view to Typology is apparent from
the very statement of it ; but it has also been formally made,
and so as to combine the results obtained from the geological
territory, with those of a more strictly theological nature. Thus,
the late Mr Macdonald 1 speaks of "the scheme of nature, read
from the memorials of creation inscribed on the earth s crust,
or recorded in the opening pages of Genesis, as progressive, and
from its very outset prophetic ;" and a little farther on he says,
" There is no reason whatever for confining the typical to the
events and institutions subsequent to the fall. The cause of
this arbitrary limitation lies in regarding as typical only what
strictly prefigured redemption, instead of connecting it with
God s manifestation of Himself and His purposes in all His acts
and administrations, which, however varied, had from the very
first one specific and expressed object in view His own glory
through man, at first created in the Divine image, and since the
fall to be transformed into it ; inasmuch as that moral disorder
1 Introd. to the Pent., Vol. II., p. 451.
122 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
rendered such a change necessary. The whole of the Divine
acts and arrangements from the beginning formed parts of one
system ; for, as antecedent creations reached their end in man,
so man himself in his original constitution prefigured a new and
higher relation of the race than the incipient place reached in
creation " (p. 457). The fall is consequently to be understood,
and is expressly represented, merely as a kind of interruption
or break in the march of providence toward its aim, in nature
akin to such events as the death of Abel and the flood in after
times; while the Divine plan not the less proceeded on its course,
only with special adaptations to the altered state of things.
I. It is this more special bearing of the subject, its relation
to a well-grounded and properly adjusted Scriptural Typology,
with which we have here chiefly to do ; and to this, accordingly,
we shall primarily address ourselves. In doing so, we neither
directly question nor defend the truth of the view under con
sideration ; we leave its title to a place in the deductions of a
scientific theology for the present in abeyance; and merely
regard it in the light in which it is put by its most learned
and thoughtful advocates, as a matter of inference from some
of the later testimonies of Scripture concerning the purposes of
God ; and this, too, only as informed and guided by a spirit of
Christian speculation, having for its starting-point the concep
tion of God.
Now the matter standing thus, it would, as appears to us,
be extremely unwise to lay such a view at the foundation of
a typological system, or even to give it in such a system a
distinctly recognised place. For this were plainly to bring a
certain measure of uncertainty into the very structure of the
system founding upon a few incidental hints and speculative
considerations concerning the final purposes of God, in which
it were vain to expect a general concurrence among theolo
gians, rather than upon the broad stream and current of His
revelations. It were also, as previously noticed (p. 58), to
make our Typology, in a very important respect, return to the
fundamental error of the Cocceian school ; that is, would in
evitably lead to the too predominant contemplation of every
thing in the earlier dispensations of God as from the Divine
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 123
point of view, and with respect to the great archetypal idea in
Christ, as from the beginning foreseen and set up in prospect.
This tendency, indeed, lias already in a remarkable manner
discovered itself among the divines who bring into the fore
ground of God s manifestations of Himself the idea of the God-
man. Lange, for instance, has given representations of the
" Divine-human life " in the patriarchs and worthies of ancient
times, which seem to leave no very distinctive difference be
tween the action of divinity in them and in the person of J esus.
Niigelsbach (in his work Der Gottmensch) even represents our
first parent as Elohim-Adam (God-man), on the ground of his
spiritual essence being of a divine nature ; and both in Adam
after the fall, and the better class who succeeded, there was
what he calls an artificial realization of the idea of the God-
manhood attempted, and in part accomplished. Hence, not
without reason has Dorner delivered a caution to those who
coincide with him in his view respecting the incarnation, to
beware of darkening the preparation for Christ by throwing
into their delineation of early times too much of Christ Him
self, or of becoming so absorbed in the typical as to overlook
the historical life and struggles of the people of the Old Cove
nant. 1 The caution, we are persuaded, will be of little avail,
so long as the idea of the incarnation is placed in immediate
relationship with God s work in creation ; for in that case it
must ever seem natural to make that idea shine forth in all the
more peculiar instruments and operations of God, and generally
to assimilate humanity in its better phases too closely to the
altogether singular and mysterious person of Immanuel to find
in it, in short, a kind of God-manhood, whereby the God-man
hood itself would inevitably come to be in danger of gliding
into the shadowy form of a Sabellian manifestation.
Even if this serious error could be avoided, another and
slighter form of the same erroneous tendency would be sure to
prevail, if the incarnation, as the archetypal idea of creation,
were formally introduced, and made the guiding-star of our
Typology. It would inevitably lead us, in our endeavours to
read out the meaning of God s working in creation and provi
dence, to put a certain strain upon the things which appear, in
1 Vol. II., Ft. II., No. 23, or Eng. Trans., No. 34.
124 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
order to bring out what is conceived to have been the ultimate
design in them ; we should be inclined to view them rather as
an artificial representation of what God predestined and foresaw,
than a natural and needed exhibition of things to be believed or
hoped for by partially enlightened but God-fearing men. The
Divine here must not be viewed as moving in a kind of lofty
isolation of its own ; it should rather be contemplated as letting
itself down into the human. We should feel that we have to
do, not simply with Heaven s plan as it exists in the mind and is
grasped by the all-comprehending eye of God, but with this plan
as gradually evolving itself in the sphere of human responsibility,
and developed step by step, in the manner most fitly adapted to
carry forward the corporate growth of the Church toward its
destined completeness, yet so as, at the same time, to mould the
character and direct the hopes of .successive generations in con
formity with existing relations and duties. It is the proper aim
and business of Typology to trace the progress of this develop
ment, and to show how, amid many outward diversities of form
and ever-varying measures of light, there were great principles
steadily at work, and in their operations forecasting, with growing
clearness and certainty, the appearance and kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To such a method also, Typology must owe much
of the interest with which it may be able to invest its proper line
of inquiry, and its success in throwing light on the history and
mutual interconnection of the Divine dispensations. But it were
to depart from this safe and profitable course, if we should
attempt to bring all that, by dint of inference and speculation,
expatiating in the strictly Divine sphere of things, we might find
it possible to connect with the earlier acts and operations of God.
These should rather be brought out in the aspect and relation
they bore to those whom they immediately respected ; in order
that, from the effect they were designed and fitted to produce in
the spiritual instruction and training of men who had in their
respective generations to maintain the cause and manifest the
life of God, the place and purpose may be learned that pro
perly belonged to them in the general scheme of a progressive
revelation.
The statement of Mr Macdonald may be referred to in proof
of what is likely to happen from the neglect of such considera-
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 12,")
tions, and from attempting to carry the matter higher. The
scheme of God, he says, as well that which commenced with
Adam as the preceding one which culminated in him, was
" from the outset prophetic ;" and again : " The whole of the
Divine acts and arrangements from the beginning formed parts
of one system ; for, as antecedent creations reached their end in
man, so man himself, in his original constitution, prefigured a
new and higher relation of the race to the Creator, than the
incipient place reached in creation." Now, taking the terms
here used in their ordinary sense, we must understand by this
statement that the work of creation in Adam carried in its very
constitution the signs and indications of better things to come
for man ; for, to speak of it as being prophetic, or having a pre-
figuration of a higher relation to the Creator than then actually
O O J
existed, imports more than that such a destiny was in the purpose
and decrees of the Almighty (which no one will dispute) : it
denotes, that the creation itself was of such a kind as to proclaim
its own relative imperfection, and at the same time, by means
of certain higher elements interwoven with it, to give promise of
a state in which such imperfection should be done away. The
question, then, is, How did it do so, or for whom ? The Lord
Himself, at the close of creation, pronounced it all very good ;
and the charge given to Adam and his partner spake only of a
continuance of that good as the end they were to aim at, and
of the loss of it as the evil they were to shun. What ground
is there for supposing that more was either meant on God s part,
or perceived on man s, than what thus appears on the broad
and simple testimony of the divine record ? Adam, indeed,
was made, and doubtless knew that he was made, in the image
of God ; as such he was set over God s works, and appointed in
God s name, to exercise the rights of a terrestrial lordship ; but
how should he have imagined from this, that it was in the
purposes of Heaven to enter into some closer relationship with
humanity, and that he, as the image of God, was but the figure
of one who should be actually God and man united? Yet, suppos
ing he could not. might he not have been so in fact without him-
O / O
self knowing it, as in subsequent times we find prefigurations of
Gospel realities, which were but imperfectly, sometimes perhaps
not at all, understood in that character by those who had directly
126 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to do with them 1 But the cases are by no means parallel. For,
in regard to those later prefigurations, the promise had already
entered of a restored and perfected condition ; and believing
men were not only warranted, but in a sense bound, to search
into them for signs and indications of the better future. If they
failed to perceive them, it was because of their feebleness of faith
and defect of spiritual discernment. In the primeval constitution
of things it was quite otherwise : man was altogether upright,
and creation apparently in all respects as it should be; the
Creator Himself rested with satisfaction in the works of His
hand, and by the special consecration of the seventh day invited
His earthly representative to do the same. How, in such a case,
should the thought of imperfection and deficiency have entered,
or any prospect for the future seemed natural, save such as might
associate itself with the progressive development and expansion
of that which already existed? Beyond this, whatever there
might be in the purpose and decrees of God, it is hard to
conceive how room could yet have been found for any expres
sion being given by Him, or hope cherished on the part of man.
Unquestionably there was much beyond in the Divine mind
and purpose. " Known unto God are all His works from the
beginning of the world." With infallible certainty He foresaw
ere time began the issues of that constitution of things which
was to be set up in Adam ; foresaw also, and predetermined, the
introduction of that covenant of grace by which other and hap
pier issues for humanity were to be secured. On this account
it is said of Christ, as the destined Mediator of that covenant,
that He was " fore-ordained before the foundation of the world ;"
and of those who were ultimately to share in the fruits of His
mediation, that they also were chosen in Him before the world
was made (1 Pet. i. 20 ; Eph. i. 4). But it is one thing to assign
a place to such ulterior thoughts and purposes in the eternal
counsels of the Godhead, and another thing to regard them as
entering into the objective revelation He gave of His mind and
will at the creation of the world, so as to bring them within the
ken of His intelligent creatures. In doing the one, we have both
the warrant of Scripture and the reason of things to guide us ;
while the other would involve the introduction, out of due time,
of those secret things which as yet belonged only to the Lord.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 127
According to what may be called the palpable and prevail
ing testimony of Scripture on the subject, the work of God in
creation is to be regarded as the adequate reflection of His own
infinite wisdom and goodness, adapted in all respects to the
special purposes for which it was designed ; but the sin of man
through the cunning of the tempter presently broke in to mar the
good ; and following thereupon the predestined plan of grace be
gan to give intimation of its purpose, and to open for itself a path
whereby the lost good should be won back, and the destroyer be
himself destroyed. This plan starts on its course with the
avowed aim of rectifying the evil which originated in man s
defection ; and it not less avowedly reaches its end when the
restitution, or bringing back again, of all things is accomplished
(Acts iii. 21). It carries throughout the aspect of a remedial
scheme, or restoration of that which had come forth in the fresh
ness and beauty of life from the hand of God. A rise, no doubt,
accompanies the process ; and the work of God at its consum
mation shall assuredly be found on a much higher level than at
the beginning, as it shall also present a much fuller and grander
exhibition of the Divine character and perfections. But still, in
the Scriptural form of representation, the original work continues
to occupy the position of the proper ideal : all things return, in
a manner, whence they came ; and a new heavens and a new
earth, with paradise restored and perennial springs of life and
blessing, appear in prospect as the glorious completion to which
the whole scheme is gradually tending. Since thus the things
of creation are exhibited in a relation so markedly different to
those of redemption, from that possessed by the preliminary, to
the final processes of redemption itself, it were surely to intro
duce an unjustifiable departure from the method of Scripture,
and also to confound things that materially differ, were we, in a
typological respect, to throw all into one and the same category.
Creation cannot possibly be the norm or pattern of redemption,
after the same manner that an imperfect or provisional execution
of God s work in grace is to that work in its full development
and ripened form. Yet, for the very reason that redemption
assumes the aspect of a restoration, not the introduction of some
thing absolutely new, creation assuredly is a norm or pattern, to
which the Divine agency in redemption assimilates its operations
128 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
and results : the one bases itself upon the other, and does not
aim at supplanting, but only at rectifying, reconstructing, and
perfecting it. Twin-ideals they may be called, and as such they
cannot but present many points of agreement, bespeaking the
unity of one contriving and all-directing mind, which it may
well become us on proper occasions to mark. But the distinct
ground this relationship occupies in Scripture should also find its
correspondence in our mode of treating the things that belong
to it ; and for the province of Typology proper, we cannot but
deem it on every account wise, expedient, and fitting that it
should confine itself to what pertains to God s work in grace,
and should move simply in the sphere of " the regeneration."
II. Passing now to the more general aspect of the view in
question respecting the incarnation and kingdom of Christ, or
its title to rank among the deductions of theological inquiry, it
would be out of place here to go into a lengthened examination
of it ; and the indication of a few leading points is all that we
shall actually attempt. The direction already taken on the
typological bearing of the subject, is that also which I feel con
strained to take regarding its general aspect. For, though it
scarcely professes to be more than a speculation, and one pur
posely intended to exalt the doctrine of the incarnation, yet the
tendency of it, I am persuaded, cannot be unattended with
danger, as it seems in various respects opposed to the form of
sound doctrine delivered to us in Scripture.
1. First of all, it implies, as already stated, a view of creation
not only discountenanced by the general current of Scriptural
representation, but not easily reconcileable with the perfect wis
dom and goodness of the Creator. As a matter of fact, creation
in Adam certainly fell short of its design ; or, to express it other
wise, humanity, as constituted in our first parent, failed to realize
its -idea. But as so constituted, was it not endowed with all
competent powers and resources for attaining the end in view ?
Was it absolutely and inherently incapable of doing so apart from
the incarnation ? In that case, one does not see how either the
work of God could possess that character of relative perfection
constantly ascribed to it in Scripture, or the defection of man
should have drawn after it such fearful penalties. Both God s
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 129
work and man s, on the hypothesis in question, seem to take a
position different from what properly belongs to them ; and the
manifestation of God s moral character in this world enters
on its course amid difficulties of a very peculiar and embar
rassing kind. The perplexity thus arising is not relieved by the
supposition, that mankind will be raised to a higher state of
perfection and blessedness through the medium of the incarna
tion than had otherwise been possible, and that this was hence
implied in creation as the means necessary to creation s end ;
for we have here to do with the character of God s work con
sidered by itself, and what immediately sprang from it. Nor
is it by any means certain, or we may even say probable,
that if humanity had stood faithful to its engagements, the
idtimate destiny of its members would have been in any
respect lower than that which they may attain through sin
and redemption. But on such a theme we have no sure light
to guide us.
2. The view presented by this theory of the mission of
Christ, however, is a still more objectionable feature in it ; for,
exalting the incarnation as of itself necessary to the higher ends
of creation, apart from the concerns of sin and redemption, it
inevitably tends to depress the importance of these, and gives to
something else, which was no way essentially connected with
them, the place of greatest moment for the interests of humanity.
The earlier Socinians, it is well known, on this very ground
favoured the scholastic speculations on the subject; they
espoused the view, not, indeed, of an incarnation without a fall
(for in no proper sense did they hold what these terms import),
but of the necessity of the mission of Christ, independently of
the sin of Adam and the consequences thence arising ; in this
they appeared to find some countenance for the comparatively
small account they made alike of the evil of sin, and of the
wondrous grace and glory of redemption. And to a simple,
unbiassed mind it must be all but incredible, that if the incar
nation of our Lord were traceable to some higher and more
fundamental reason than that occasioned by the fall, no explicit
mention should have been made of it, even in a single passage
of Scripture. All the more direct statements presented there
respecting the design and purpose of our Lord s appearance
VOL. I. I
130 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
among men stand inseparably connected with their deliverance
from the ruin of sin, and restoration to peace and blessing. The
distinctive name He bore (Jesus) proclaimed SALVATION to be
the grand burden of His undertaking ; or, as He Himself puts
it, " He came to save the lost," " to give His life a ransom for
many (Matt, xviii. 11, xx. 28) ; or still again, "that men might
have life, and might have it more abundantly" (John x. 10).
He was made of a woman, made under the law, in order that He
might redeem them who were held under the condemnation of
law (Gal. iv. 4). He took part of flesh and blood, in order that
by His death He might destroy him that had the power of death
was made like in all things to His brethren, as it behoved Him
to be, that He might be for them a faithful high priest and make
reconciliation for their sins (Heb. ii. 14-17). It is but another
form of the same mode of representation, when St John says
of Christ, that He was manifested to destroy the works of the
devil (1 John iii. 8) ; and that as the gift of God s love to the
world, it was to the end that men might not perish, but have
everlasting life (John iii. 16). In the Supper also, the most
distinctive ordinance of the Gospel, not the incarnation, but
redemption is presented as the central fact of Christianity.
Such is the common testimony of Scripture : redemption in
some one or other of its aspects is perpetually associated with the
purpose which Christ assumed our nature to accomplish ; and
the greatness of the remedy is made to throw light upon the
greatness of the evil which required its intervention. But
according to the view we now oppose, "both the consequences
of sin and the value of redemption are lowered, since not the
incarnation, but only its special form, is traceable to sin.
That God became man is in itself the greatest humiliation;
and yet this adorable mystery of divine love is not to stand
in any [necessary] connection with sin ! Only the compara
tively smaller fact, that that man in whom God would at any
rate have become incarnate had undergone sufferings and death,
is due to sin ! And what is even more dangerous, redemption
ceases to be a free act of Divine pity, and is represented as a
necessity implied in creation, which would have taken place
whether man had remained obedient or not. Thus /sin is not
the sole cause of man s present state ; and however the incar-
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 131
nation might remain an adorable mystery of love, redemption
could no longer do so, since it had been involved in the de
cree of the incarnation, and could not be regarded as proceed
ing solely from divine mercy and compassion toward fallen
man." 1
There are passages of Scripture sometimes appealed to on
the other side, but they have 110 real bearing on the point which
they are adduced to establish. One of these is Eph. i. 10, in
which the purpose of God is represented as having this for its
object, that "in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might
gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth." The passage simply indicates, among
the final issues of Christ s work, the recapitulating or summing
up (avcucefyakaiaxTao-Oai) of all things in Him, heavenly as well
as earthly ; but it is the historical Christ that is spoken of the
Christ in whom (as is stated immediately before) believers have
redemption through His blood, and are predestinated to life
eternal ; and there is not a hint conveyed of the purpose or pre
destination of God, except in connection with the salvation of
fallen man, and the work of reconciliation necessary to secure
it. What might have been the Divine purpose apart from this,
we may indeed conjecture, but it must be without any warrant
whatever from the passage before us ; and, as Calvin has justly
said, not without the audacity of seeking to go beyond the im
mutable ordination of God, and attempting to know more of
Christ than was predestinated concerning Him even in the Divine
decree (Inst., B. ii., c. 12, 5). The somewhat corresponding
but more comprehensive passage in Col. i. 15-17, has been also
referred to in this connection, but with no better result. For
though expressions are there applied to Christ, which, if isolated
from the context, might with some plausibility be explained to
countenance the idea of an incarnation irrespective of a fall,
yet when taken in their proper connection they contain nothing
to justify such an application. The starting-point here also is
redemption (ver. 14, "in w r hom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins ") ; and the statements in what
immediately follows (vers. 15-17), have evidently for their main
object the setting forth of the divine greatness of Him by whom
1 Kurtz, Bible and Astronomy, Chap. II., 12. Trans.
132 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
it is effected as the One by whom and for whom all things were
created Himself, consequently, prior to them all, and infinitely
exalted above them. But this plainly refers to Christ as the
Logos, or Word, through whom as such the agency is carried on,
and the works are performed, by which the Godhead is revealed
and brought out to the view of finite intelligence. In that
respect He is " the image of the invisible God" (ver. 15) ; be
cause in Him exists with perfect fulness, and from Him goes
forth into actual embodiment, that which forms a just represen
tation of the mind and character of the Eternal. On the same
account also, and with reference simply to His creative agency,
He is "the first-born of every creature;" being the causal be
ginning, whence the whole sprang into existence, and the natural
head, under whom all its orders of being must ever stand ranged
before God. His divine Sonship is consequently the living
root, in which the filial relationship of men and angels had its
immediate ground ; and His image of Godhead that w^hich re
flected itself in their original righteousness and purity. Hence,
as all things came from Him at first in the character of the
revealing Word, so they shall be again recapitulated in Him as
the Word made flesh though in degrees of affinity to Him,
and with diverse results corresponding to the relations they re
spectively occupied to His redemptive agency. Hence, also, the
Divine image, which by Him as the Creator was imparted to
Adam, is again restored upon all who become related to Him as
the Redeemer : they are renewed after the image of Him that
created them (Col. iii. 10, Eph. iv. 24) ; implying that His
work in redemption, as to its practical effect on the soul, is a
substantial reproduction of that which proceeded from Him at
creation.
We have looked at the only passages worth naming which
have been pressed in support of the theory under consideration ;
and can see nothing in them, when fairly interpreted, that seems
at variance with the general tenor of the testimony of Scrip
ture on the subject. But this so distinctly and -constantly
associates the incarnation of Christ with the scheme of redemp
tion, that to treat it otherwise must be held to be essentially
anti-scriptural.
3. The matter is virtually disposed of, in a theological point
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 133
of view, when we have brought to bear upon it with apparent
collusiveness the testimony of Scripture ; nor is there anything
in the collateral arguments employed by the advocates of the
theory, as indicated in the outline formerly given of their views,
which ought to shake our confidence in the result. That, for
example, derived from the wonderful relationship, the personal
and everlasting union, into which humanity has been brought
with Godhead, as if the purpose concerning it should be turned
into a kind of after-thought, and it should sink, in a manner
derogatory to its high and unspeakably important nature, into
something arbitrary and contingent, if placed in connection
merely with the fall : Such an argument derives all its plausi
bility from the limitations and defects inseparable from a human
mode of contemplation. To the eye of Him who sees the end
from the beginning, whose purpose, embracing the whole com
pass of the providential plan, was formed before even the begin
ning was effected, there could be nothing really contingent or
uncertain in any part of the process. Nor, on the other hand,
was the creation of man necessary (in the absolute sense of the
term), any more than the fall of man : it depended on the
movements of a will sovereignly free ; and, hypothetically, must
be placed among the things which, prior to their existence, might
or might not, to human view, have taken place. Besides, since
anyhow the mode of the incarnation was determined by the cir
cumstances of the fall, and the mode, as well as the thing itself,
decreed from the very first, how can we with propriety dis
tinguish between the two ? The one, as well as the other, has
a most intimate connection with the perfections of Deity ; and,
for anything we know, the reality in any other form might not
have approved itself to the infinitely wise and absolutely perfect
mind of God. Otherwise than it is, we can have no right to
say it would have been at all.
The argument founded on the supposed necessity of the
incarnation to the proper unity of the human race, is entitled
to no greater weight than the one just noticed. It assumes a
necessity which has not and cannot be proved to have existed.
Situated as the human family now is, it may no doubt be fitly
designated, with Dorner, " a mere mass," an aggregate of indi
viduals, without any pervading principle to constitute them into
134 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
an organism. But this is itself one of the results of the fall ;
and no one is entitled to argue from what actually is, to what
would have been, if the race had stood in its normal condition.
In the transmission of Adam s guilt to his posterity, with its
fearful heritage of suffering, corruption, and death, we have
continually before us the remains of a living organism, the
reverse side, as it were, of the original likeness of humanity.
Why might there not have been, had its divinely constituted
head proved stedf ast to his engagements, the transmission through
that head of a yet more powerful as well as happy influence to
all the members of the family? We have no reason to affirm
such a thing to have been impossible, especially as the human
head was but the representative and medium of communication
appointed by and for Him who was the causal or creative head
of the family. Dorner himself admits, that even the natural
world is an unity, because in the Divine Logos, as the world-
former and preserver, who in Himself bears and represents its
eternal idea, it has a principle which is above it, yet pervades it,
and comprises it within itself. 1 If so much can be said even
now, how much more might it have been said of the world viewed
as it came from the hand of its Maker, with no moral barrier
to intercept the flow of life and blessing from its Divine foun-
tainhead, and paralyze the constitution of nature in its more
vital functions ! In that case the unity in diversity, which is
now the organic principle of the Christian Church, might, and
doubtless would, have been that also of the Adamic family :
only, in the one case, having its recognised seat and effective
power in Christ as the incarnate Redeemer; in the other, in
Him as the eternal and creative Word. Indeed, from the
general relation of the two economies to each other, we are
warranted in assuming, that as, in regard to individuals, Christ,
the Redeemer, restores the Divine image, which, as to all
essential properties, was originally given by Christ, the Word,
so in regard to the race (considered as the subject of blessing),
He restores in the one capacity what, as to germ and principle,
He had implanted in the other. There are, of course, grada
tions and differences, but with these also fundamental agreements.
As to the argument that Christianity is the absolute religion,
1 Vol. TL, Pt. II., p. 1242 ; Eng. Trans., Div. II., Vol. III., p. 235.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 135
and that without an incarnation there could be no Christianity in
the proper sense, little more need be said, than that it starts a
problem which, in our present imperfect condition, we want the
materials for solving, if, indeed, we shall ever possess them.
To speak of the absolute in connection with what, from its very
nature, and with a view to its distinctive aims, must be inter
woven with much that pertains to the individual and the relative,
is to employ terms to which we find it impossible to attach a very
definite meaning. But if a religion is entitled to be called
absolute, it surely ought to be because it is alike adapted to all,
who through it are to contemplate and adore God the whole
universe of intelligent and moral creatures. How this, how
ever, could have been found in a revelation which had the in
carnation for its central fact, found precisely on this account,
and no otherwise, is hard to be understood, since, to say
nothing of the incarnation as now indissolubly linked to the facts
of redemption, even an incarnation dissociated from everything
relating to a fall, must still be viewed as presenting aspects, and
bearing a relation, to the human family, which it could not have
done to angelic natures. But, apart from this apparent incon
gruity, if there be such a thing possible as a religion that can
justly be entitled to the name of absolute, we know as yet too
little of the created universe, and the relations in which other
portions of its inhabitants stand to the Creator, to pronounce
with confidence on the conditions which would be required to
meet in it. We stand awed, too, by the solemn utterance, " No
man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son may reveal Him ;" and assured that the Son has
nowhere revealed what, according to the mind of the Father,
would be needed to constitute for all times and regions the
absolute religion, we feel that on such a theme silence is our
true wisdom.
CHAPTER FIFTH.
PROPHETICAL TYPES, OR THE COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH
PROPHECY ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE OF PROPHECY.
A TYPE, as already explained and understood, necessarily pos
sesses something of a prophetical character, and differs in form
rather than in nature from what is usually designated prophecy.
The one images or prefigures, while the other foretells, coming
realities. In the one case representative acts or symbols, in the
other verbal delineations, serve the purpose of indicating before
hand what God was designed to accomplish for His people in
the approaching future. The difference is not such as to affect
the essential nature of the two subjects, as alike connecting
together the Old and the New in God s dispensations. In
distinctness and precision, however, simple prophecy has greatly
the advantage over informations conveyed by type. For pro
phecy, however it may differ in its general characteristics from
history, as it naturally possesses something of the directness, so
it may also descend to something of the definiteness, of historical
description. But types having a significance or moral import of
their own, apart from anything prospective, must, in their pro
phetical aspect, be somewhat less transparent, and possess more
of a complicated character. Still the relation between type and
antitype, when pursued through all its ramifications, may pro
duce as deep a conviction of design and pre-ordained connec
tion, as can be derived from simple prophecy and its fulfilment,
though, from the nature of things, the evidence in the latter
case must always be more obvious and palpable than in the
former.
But the possession of the same common character is not the
only link of connection between type and prophecy. Not only
do they agree in having both a prospective reference to the
future, but they are often also combined into one prospective
exhibition of the future. Prophecy, though it sometimes is of
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 137
a quite simple and direct nature, is not always, nor even com
monly, of this description; it can scarcely ever be said to delineate
the future with the precision and exactness that history employs
in recording the past. In many portions of it there is a certain
degree of complexity, if not dubiety, and that mainly arising
from the circumstances and transactions of the past being in
some way interwoven with its anticipations of things to come.
Here, however, we approach the confines of a controversy on
which some of the greatest minds have expended their talents
and learning, and with such doubtful success on either side, that
the question is still perpetually brought up anew for discussion,
whether there is or is not a double sense in prophecy *? That
some portion of debateable ground will always remain connected
with the subject, appears to us more than probable. But, at the
same time, we are fully persuaded that the portion admits of
being greatly narrowed in extent, and even reduced to such
small dimensions as not materially to affect the settlement of
the main question, if only the typical element in prophecy is
allowed its due place and weight. This we shall endeavour,
first of all, to exhibit in the several aspects in which it actually
presents itself ; and shall then subjoin a few remarks on the
views of those who espouse either side of the question, as it is
usually stated.
From the general resemblance between type and prophecy,
we are prepared to expect that they may sometimes run into
each other; and especially, that the typical in action may in
various ways form the groundwork and the materials by means
of which the prophetic in word gave forth its intimations of the
coming future. And this, it is quite conceivable, may have
been done under any of the following modifications. 1. A
typical action might, in some portion of the prophetic word, be
historically mentioned ; and hence the mention being that of a
prophetical circumstance or event, would come to possess a pro
phetical character. 2. Or something typical in the past or the
present might be represented in a distinct prophetical announce
ment, as going to appear again in the future ; thus combining
together the typical in act and the prophetical in word. 3. Or
the typical, not expressly and formally, but in its essential rela
tions and principles, might be embodied in an accompanying
138 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
prediction, which foretold things corresponding in nature, but
far higher and greater in importance. 4. Or, finally, the typical
might itself be still future, and in a prophetic word might be
partly described, partly pre-supposed, as a vantage-ground for
the delineation of other things still more distant, to which, w r hen
it occurred, it was to stand in the relation of type to antitype.
We could manifestly have no difficulty in conceiving such com
binations of type with prophecy, without any violence done to
their distinctive properties, or any invasion made on their re
spective provinces ; nothing, indeed, happening but what might
have been expected from their mutual relations, and their fitness
for being employed in concert to the production of common
ends. And we shall now show how each of the suppositions
has found its verification in the prophetic Scriptures. 1
I. The first supposition is that of a typical action being histo
rically mentioned in the prophetic word, and the mention, being
that of a prophetical circumstance or event, thence coming to
possess a prophetical character. There are two classes of scrip
tures which may be said to verify this supposition ; one of which
is of a somewhat general and comprehensive nature, so that the
fulfilment is not necessarily confined to any single person or
period, though it could not fail in an especial manner to appear
in the personal history of Christ. To this class belong such
recorded experiences as the following : " The zeal of Thine
house hath eaten Me up" (Ps. Ixix. 9 ; comp. with John ii. 17) ;
" He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against
Me" (Ps. xli. 9 ; comp. with John xiii. 18) ; " They hated Me
without a cause" (Ps. Ixix. 4 ; comp. with John xv. 25) ; " The
stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
corner" (Ps. cxviii. 22 ; comp. with Matt. xxi. 42 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6,
7). These passages are all distinctly referred to Christ in the
Gospels, and the things that befell Him are expressly said or
plainly indicated to have happened, that such Scriptures might
1 It is proper to state, however, that we cannot present here anything
like a full and complete elucidation of the subject ; and we therefore mean
to supplement this chapter by an Appendix on the Old Testament in the
New, in which the subject will both be considered from a different point of
view, and followed out more into detail. See Appendix A.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 139
be fulfilled. Yet, as originally penned, they assume the form of
historical statements rather than of prophetical announcements
recorded experiences on the part of those who indited them,
and experiences of a kind that, in one form or another, could
scarcely fail to be often recurring in the history of God s Church
and people. As such it might have seemed enough to say, that
they contained general truths which were exemplified also in
Jesus, when travailing in the work of man s redemption. But
the convictions of Jesus Himself and the inspired writers of the
New Testament go beyond this ; they perceive a closer connec
tion a prophetical element in the passages, which must find its
due fulfilment in the personal experience of Christ. And this
the passages contained, simply from their being, in their imme
diate and historical reference, descriptive of what belonged to
characters David and Israel that bore typical relations to
Christ ; so that their being descriptive in the one respect neces
sarily implied their being prophetic in the other. What had
formerly taken place in the experience of the type, must sub
stantially renew itself again in the experience of the great anti
type, whatever other and inferior renewals it may find besides.
To the same class also may be referred the passage in Ps.
Ixxviii. 2, " I will open my mouth in a parable (lit. similitude) ;
I will utter dark sayings (lit. riddles) of old," which in Matt,
xiii. 35 is spoken of as a prediction that found, and required to
find, its fulfilment in our Lord s using the parabolic mode of
discourse. As an utterance in the seventy-eighth Psalm, the
word simply records a fact, but a fact essentially connected
with the discharge of the prophetical office, and therefore sub
stantially indicating what must be met with in Him in whom
all prophetical endowments were to have their highest mani
festation. Every prophet may be said to speak in similitudes
or parables in the sense here indicated, which is comprehen
sive of all discourses upon divine things, delivered in figurative
terms or an elevated style, and requiring more than common
discernment to understand it aright. The parables of our
Lord formed one species of it, but not by any means the only
one. It was the common prophetico-poetical diction, which was
characterized, not only by the use of measured sentences, but
also by the predominant employment of external forms and
140 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
natural similitudes. But marking as it did the possession of a
prophetical gift, the record of its employment by Christ s pro
phetical types and forerunners was a virtual prediction, that it
should be ultimately used in some appropriate form by Himself.
The other class of passages which comes within the terms of
the first supposition, is of a more specific and formal character.
It coincides with the class already considered, in so far as it
consists of words originally descriptive of some transaction or
circumstance in the past, but afterwards regarded as prophetically
indicative of something similar under the Gospel. Such is the
word in Hos. xi. 1, " I called my son out of Egypt," which, as
uttered by the prophet, was unquestionably meant to refer
historically to the fact of the Lord s goodness in delivering
Israel from that land of bondage and oppression. But the
Evangelist Matthew expressly points to it as a prophecy, and
tells us that the infant Jesus was for a time sent into Egypt,
and again brought out of it, that the word might be fulfilled.
This arose from the typical connection between Christ and
Israel. The scripture fulfilled was prophetical, simply because
the circumstance it recorded w r as typical. But in so consider
ing it, the Evangelist puts no new strain upon its terms, nor
introduces any sort of double sense into its import. He merely
points to the prophetical element involved in the transaction it
relates, and thereby discovers to us a bond of connection between
the Old and the New in God s dispensations, necessary to be
kept in view for a correct apprehension of both.
The same explanation in substance may be given of another
example of the same class the word in Exod. xii. 46, " A bone
of Him shall not be broken," which in John xix. 36 is represented
as finding its fulfilment in the remarkable preservation of our
Lord s body on the cross from the common fate of malefactors.
The scripture in itself was a historical testimony regarding the
treatment the Israelites were to give to the paschal lamb, which,
instead of being broken into fragments, was to be preserved
entire, and eaten as one whole. It could only be esteemed a
prophecy from being the record of a typical or prophetical
action. But, when viewed in that light, the Scripture itself
stands precisely as it did, without any recondite depth or subtile
ambiguity being thrown into its meaning. For the prophecy
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 141
in it is found, not by extracting from its words some nexv and
hidden sense, but merely by noting the typical import of the
circumstances of which the words in their natural and obvious
sense are descriptive.
How either Israel or the paschal lamb should have been in
such a sense typical of Christ, that what is recorded of the
one could be justly regarded as a prophecy of what was to take
place in the other, will be matter for future inquiry, and, in
connection with some other prophecies, will be partly explained
in the Appendix already referred to in this chapter. It is the
/principle on which the explanation must proceed, to which alone
for the present we desire to draw attention, and which, in the
cases now under consideration, simply recognises the prophetical
element involved in the recorded circumstance or transaction
of the past. Neither is the Old Testament Scripture, taken by
itself, prophetical ; nor does the New Testament Scripture invest
it with a force and meaning foreign to its original purport and
design. The Old merely records the typical fact, which properly
constitutes the whole there is of prediction in the matter ; while
the New reads forth its import as such, by announcing the
co-relative events or circumstances in which the fulfilment
should be discovered. And nothing more is needed for per
fectly harmonizing the two together, than that we should so far
identify the typical transaction recorded with the record that
embodies it, as to perceive, that when the Gospel speaks of a
scripture fulfilled, it speaks of that scripture in connection
with the prophetical character of the subject it relates to.
There is nothing, surely, strange or anomalous in this. It
is but the employment of a metonymy of a very common kind,
according to which what embodies or contains anything is viewed
as in a manner one with the thing itself as when the earth is
made to stand for the inhabitants of the earth, a house for its
inmates, a cup for its contents, a word descriptive of events past
or to come, as if it actually produced them. 1 Of course, the
1 So, for example, in Hos. vi. 5, " I have hewed them by the prophets ; "
Gen. xxvii. 37, " Behold I have made him thy lord ;" xlviii. 22, u I have
given thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of
the Amorite " each ascribing to the word spoken the actual doing of that
which it only declared to have been done.
142 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
validity of such a mode of explanation depends entirely upon
the reality of the connection between the alleged type and
antitype between the earlier circumstance or object described,
and the later one to which the description is prophetically
applied. On any other ground such references as those in the
one Evangelist to Hosea, and in the other to Exodus, can
only be viewed as fanciful or strained accommodations. But
the matter assumes another aspect if the one was originally
ordained in anticipation of the other, and so ordained, that
the earlier should not have been brought into existence if the
later had not been before in contemplation. Seen from this
point of view, which we take to have been that of the in
spired writers, the past appears to run into the future, and
to have existed mainly on its account. And the record or de
lineation of the past is naturally and justly, not by a mere
fiction of the imagination, held to possess the essential charac
ter of a prediction. Embodying a prophetical circumstance or
action, it is itself named by one of the commonest figures of
speech, a prophecy.
II. Our second supposition was that of something typical in
the past or present being represented in a distinct prophetical
announcement as going to appear again in the future, the
prophetical in word being thus combined with the typical in act
into a prospective delineation of things to come. This supposi
tion also includes several varieties, and in one form or another
has its exemplifications in many parts of the prophetic word.
For it is in a manner the native tendency of the mind, when
either of itself forecasting, or under the guidance of a Divine
impulse anticipating and disclosing the future, to see this future
imaged in the past, to make use of the known in giving shape
and form to the unknown ; so that the things which have been,
are then usually contemplated as in some respect types of what
shall be, even though in the reality there may be considerable
differences of a formal kind between them.
How much it is the native tendency of the mind to work in
this manner, when itself endeavouring to descry the events of
the future, is evident from the examples, transmitted to us by
the most cultivated minds, of human divination. Thus the
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 143
Pythoness in Virgil, when disclosing to ^Cneas what he and his
posterity might expect in Latium, speaks of it merely as a re
petition of the scenes and experiences of former times. " You
shall not want Simois, Xanthus, or the Grecian camp. An
other Achilles, also of divine offspring, is already provided for
Latium." 1 In like manner Juno, in the vaticination put into
her mouth by Horace, respecting the possible destinies of Rome,
declares, that in the circumstances supposed, " the fortune of
Troy again reviving, should again also be visited with terrible
disaster; and that even if a wall of brass were thrice raised around
it, it should be thrice destroyed by the Greeks." 2 In such ex
amples of pretended divination, no one, of course, imagines it to
have been meant that the historical persons and circumstances
mentioned were to be actually reproduced in the approaching
or contemplated future. All we are to understand is, that others
of a like kind holding similar relations to the parties interested,
and occupying much the same position were announced before
hand to appear ; and so would render the future a sort of re
petition of the past, or the past a kind of typical foreshadowing
of the future.
As an example of Divine predictions precisely similar in
form, we may point to Hos. viii. 13, where the prophet, speaking
of the Lord s purpose to visit the sins of Israel with chastise
ment, says, " They shall return to Egypt." The old state of
bondage and oppression should come back upon them ; or the
things going to befall them of evil should be after the type
of what, their forefathers had experienced under the yoke of
Pharaoh. Yet that the New should not be by any means the
exact repetition of the Old, as it might have been conjectured
from the altered circumstances of the time, so it is expressly
intimated by the prophet himself a few verses afterwards, when
he says, " Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall cat
unclean things in Assyria" (ch. ix. 3) ; and again in ch. xi. 5,
1 Non Simois tibi, nee Xanthus, nee Dorica castra
Defuerint. Alius Latio jarn partus Achilles,
Natus et ipse dea. JBn. vi. 88-90.
2 Trojse renascens alite lugubri
Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur, etc. Carm. L. III. 3, Gl-68.
See also Seneca Medea, 374, etc.
144 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
" He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian
shall be his king." He shall return to Egypt, and still not re
turn ; in other words, the Egypt-state shall come back on him,
though the precise locality and external circumstances shall
differ. In like manner Ezekiel, in ch. iv., foretells, in his own
peculiar and mystical way, the return of the Egypt-state ; and
in ch. xx. speaks of the Lord as going to bring the people again
into the wilderness ; but calls it " the wilderness of the peoples,"
to indicate that the dealing should be the same only in character
with what Israel of old had been subjected to in the desert, not
a bald and formal repetition of the story.
Indeed, God s providence knows nothing in the sacred any
more than in the profane territory of the world s history, of a
literal reproduction of the past. And when prophecy threw its
delineations of the future into the form of the past, and spake
of the things yet to be as a recurrence of those that had already
been, it simply meant that the one should be after the type of
the other, or should in spirit and character resemble it. By
type, however, in such examples as those just referred to, is not
to be understood type in the more special or theological sense in
which the term is commonly used in the present discussions, as
if there was anything in the past that of itself gave prophetic
intimation of the coming future. It is to be understood only
in the general sense of a pattern-form, in accordance with which
the events in prospect were to bear the image of the past. The
prophetical element, therefore, did not properly reside in the
historical transaction referred to in the prophecy, but in the
prophetic word itself, which derived its peculiar form from the
past, and through that a certain degree of light to illustrate its
import. There w y ere, however, other cases in which the typical
in circumstance or action the typical in the proper sense was
similarly combined with a prophecy in word ; and in them we
have a twofold prophetic element one more concealed in the
type, and another more express and definite in the word, but
the two made to coalesce in one prediction.
Of this kind is the prophecy in Zech. vi. 12, 13, where the
prophet takes occasion, from the building of the literal temple
in Jerusalem under the presidency of Joshua, to foretell a simi
lar but higher and more glorious work in the future : " Behold
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 145
the man, whose name is the Branch ; and He shall grow up out
of His place, and lie shall build the temple of the Lord ; even
He shall build the temple of the Lord/ etc. The building of
the temple was itself typical of the incarnation of God in the
person of Christ, and of the raising up in Him of a spiritual
house that should be " an habitation of God through the Spirit."
(John ii. 19 ; Matt. xvi. 18 ; Eph. ii. 20, 22.) But the pro
phecy thus involved in the action is expressly uttered in the pre
diction, which at once explained the type, and sent forward the
expectations of believers toward the contemplated result. Simi
lar, also, is the prediction of Ezekiel, in chap, xxxiv. 23, in which
the good promised in the future to a truly penitent and believing
people, is connected with a return of the person and times of
David : " And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he
shall feed them, even My servant David ; he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd." And the closing prediction of
Malachi, " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." David s
kingdom and reign in Israel were from the first intended to
foreshadow those of Christ; and the work also of Elias, as
preparatory to the Lord s final reckoning with the apostate
commonwealth of Israel, bore a typical respect to the work of
preparation that was to go before the Lord s personal appearance
in the last crisis of the Jewish state. Such might have been
probably conjectured or dimly apprehended from the things
themselves ; but it became comparatively clear, when it w T as
announced in explicit predictions, that a new David and a new
Elias were to appear. The prophetical element was there before
in the type ; but the prophetical word brought it distinctly and
prominently ^out ; yet so as in no respect to materially change
or complicate the meaning. The specific designation of " David,
My servant," and " Elijah the prophet," are in each case alike
intended to indicate, not the literal reproduction of the past, but
the full realization of all that the past typically foretokened of
good. It virtually told the people of God, that in their antici
pations of the coming reality, they might not fear to heighten
to the uttermost the idea which those honoured names were
fitted to suggest ; their anticipations would be amply borne out
by the event, in which still higher prophecy than Elijah s, and
VOL. I. K
146 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
unspeakably nobler service than David s, was to be found in
reserve for the Church. l
III. We pass on to our third supposition, which may seem
to be nearly identical with the last, yet belongs to a stage further
in advance. It is that the typical, not expressly and formally,
but in its essential relations and principles, might be embodied
in an accompanying prediction, which foretold things corre
sponding in nature, but of higher moment and wider import. So
far this supposed case coincides with the last, that in that also
the things predicted might be, and, if referring to Gospel times,
actually were, higher and greater than those of the type. But
it differs, in that this superiority did not there, as it does here,
appear in the terms of the prediction, which simply announced the
recurrence of the type. And it differs still farther, in that there
the type was expressly and formally introduced into the prophecy,
while here it is tacitly assumed, and only its essential relations
and principles are applied to the delineation of some things
analogous and related, but conspicuously loftier and greater.
In this case, then, the typical transactions furnishing the mate
rials for the prophetical delineation, must necessarily form the
background, and the explanatory prediction the foreground, of
the picture. The words of the prophet must describe not the
typical past, but the corresponding and grander future, describe
it, however, under the form of the past, and in connection with
the same fundamental views of the Divine character and govern
ment. So that there must here also be but one sense, though
a twofold prediction : one more vague and indefinite, standing
in the type or prophetic action ; the other more precise and de
finite, furnished by the prophetic word, and directly pointing to
the greater things to come.
1 Those who contend for the actual reappearance of Elijah, because the
epithet of "the prophet," they think, fixes down the meaning to the per
sonal Elijah, may as well contend for the reappearance of David as the
future king ; f or u David, My servant," is as distinctive an appellation of the
one, as "Elijah the prophet" of the other. But in reality they are thus
specified as both exhibiting the highest known ideal the one of king-like
service, the other of prophetic work as preparatory to a Divine manifestation.
And in thinking of them, the people could get the most correct view they
were capable of entertaining of the predicted future.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 147
The supposition now made is actually verified in a consider
able number of prophetical scriptures. Connected with them,
and giving rise to them, there were certain circumstances and
events so ordered by God as to be in a greater or less degree
typical of others under the Gospel. And there was a prophecy
linking the two together, by taking up the truths and relations
embodied in the type, and expanding them so as to embrace the
higher and still future things of God s kingdom, thus at once
indicating the typical design of the past, and announcing in
appropriate terms the coining events of the future.
Let us point, in the first instance, to an illustrative example,
in which the typical element, indeed, was comparatively vague
and general, but which has the advantage of being the first, if
we mistake not, of this species of prophecy, and in some measure
gave the tone to those that followed. The example we refer to
is the song of Hannah (1 Sam. ii. 110), indited by that pious
woman under the inspiration of God, on the occasion of the
birth of Samuel. The history leaves 110 room to doubt that this
was its immediate occasion ; yet, if viewed in reference to that
occasion alone, how comparatively trifling is the theme ! How
strained and magniloquent the expressions ! Hannah speaks of
her " mouth being enlarged over her enemies," of " the bows of
the mighty men being broken," of the " barren bearing seven,"
of the " full hiring themselves out for bread," and other things
of a like nature, all how far exceeding, and we might even
say caricaturing, the occasion, if it has respect merely to the
fact of a woman, hitherto reputed barren, becoming at length
the joyful mother of a child ! Were the song an example of
the inflated style not uncommon in Eastern poetry, we might
not be greatly startled at such grotesque exaggerations ; but
being a portion of that word which is all given by inspiration of
God, and is as silver tried in a furnace, we must banish from
our mind any idea of extravagance or conceit. Indeed, from
the whole strain and character of the song, it is evident that,
though occasioned by the birth of Samuel, it was so far from
having exclusive reference to that event, that the things con
cerning it formed one only of a numerous and important class
pervading the providence of God, and closely connected with
His highest purposes. In a spiritual respect it was a time of
148 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
mournful barrenness and desolation in Israel : " the word of the
Lord was precious, there was no open vision ;" and iniquity was
so rampant as even to be lifting up its insolent front, and
practising its foul abominations in the very precincts of the
sanctuary. How natural, then, for Hannah, when she had got
that child of desire and hope, which she had devoted from his
birth as a Nazarite to the Lord s service, and feeling her soul
moved by a prophetic impulse, to regard herself as specially
raised up to be u a sign and a wonder " to Israel, and to do so
particularly in respect to that principle in the Divine govern
ment, which had so strikingly developed itself in her experience,
but which was destined to receive its grandest manifestation in
the work and kingdom which were to be more peculiarly the
Lord s ! Hence, instead of looking exclusively to her individual
case, and marking the operation of the Lord s hand in what
simply concerned her personal history, she wings her flight
aloft, and takes a comprehensive survey of the general scheme
of God ; noting especially, as she proceeds, the workings of that
pure and gracious sovereignty which delights to exalt an humble
piety, while it pours contempt on the proud and rebellious.
And as every exercise of this principle is but part of a grand
series which culminates in the dispensation of Christ, her song
runs out at the close into a sublime and glowing delineation of
the final results to be achieved by it in connection with His
righteous administration. " The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces ; out of heaven shall He thunder upon
them : the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth ; and He
shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His
anointed." 1
1 The last clause might as well, and indeed better, have been rendered,
u Exalt the horn of His Messiah." Even the Jewish interpreter, Kimchi,
understands it as spoken directly of the Messiah, and the Targum para
phrases, " He shall multiply the kingdom of Messiah." It is the first pas
sage of Scripture where the word occurs in its more distinctive sense, and
is used as a synonym for the consecrated or divine king. It may seem
strange that Hannah should have been the first to introduce this epithet,
and to point so directly to the destined head of the Divine kingdom : it will
even be inexplicable, unless we understand her to have been raised up for a
" sign and a wonder " to Israel, and to have spoken as she was moved by
the Holy Ghost. But the other expressions, especially "the adversaries of
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. MO
Tliis song of Hannah, then, plainly consists of two parts, in
the one of which only the concluding portion it is properly
prophetical. The preceding stanzas are taken up with unfold
ing, from past and current events, the grand spiritual idea ; the
closing ones carry it forward in beautiful and striking applica
tion to the affairs of Messiah s kingdom. In the earlier part it
presents to us the germ of sacred principle unfolded in the type ;
in the latter, it exhibits this rising to its ripened growth and
perfection in the final exaltation and triumph of the King of
Zion. The two differ in respect to the line of things imme
diately contemplated, the facts of history in the one case, in
the other the anticipations of prophecy ; but they agree in being
alike pervaded by one and the same great principle, which, after
floating down the stream of earthly providences, is represented
as ultimately settling and developing itself with resistless energy
in the affairs of Messiah s kingdom. And as if to remove every
shadow of doubt as to this being the purport and design of
Hannah s song, when we open the record of that better era,
which she only descried afar off in the horizon, we find the
Virgin Mary, in her song of praise at the announcement of
Messiah s birth, re-echoing the sentiments, and sometimes even
repeating the very words, of the mother of Samuel : " My soul
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of His hand
maiden. He hath showed strength with His arm : He hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath
put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things ; and the
rich He hath sent empty away. He hath holpen His servant
Israel, in remembrance of His mercy ; as He spake to our
fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever." "Why should
the Spirit, breathing at such a time in the soul of Mary, have
turned her thoughts so nearly into the channel that had been
struck out ages before by the pious Hannah ? Or why should
the circumstances connected with the birth of Hannah s Nazarite
the Lord shall be destroyed, and the ends of the earth shall be judged,"
show that it really was of the kingdom as possessed of such a head that she
spoke. And the idea of Grotius and the Rationalists, that she referred in
the first instance to Saul, is without foundation.
150 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
offspring have proved the occasion of strains which so distinctly
pointed to the manifestation of the King of Glory, and so
closely harmonized with those actually sung in celebration of
the event ? Doubtless to mark the connection really subsisting
between the two. It is the Spirit s own intimation of His
ulterior design in transactions long since past, and testimonies
delivered centuries before, namely, to herald the advent of
Messiah, and familiarize the children of the kingdom with the
essential character of the coming dispensation. 1
Hannah s song was the first specimen of that combination
of prophecy with type, which is now under consideration ; but
it was soon followed by others, in which both the prophecy was
more extended, and the typical element in the transactions that
gave rise to it was more marked and specific. The examples
we refer to are to be found in the Messianic psalms, which also
resemble the song of Hannah in being of a lyrical character,
and thence admitting of a freer play of feeling on the part of
the individual writer than could fitly be introduced into simple
prophecy. But this again principally arose from the close con
nection typically between the present and the future, whereby
the feelings originated by the one naturally incorporated them-
1 The view now given of Hannah s song presents it in a much higher, as
we conceive it does also in a truer light, than that exhibited by Bishop
Jebb, who speaks of it in a style that seems scarcely compatible with any
proper belief in its inspiration. The song appears, in his estimation, to
have been the mere effusion of Hannah s private, and, in great part, un-
sanctified feelings. " We cannot but feel," he says, " that her exultation
partook largely of a spirit far beneath that which enjoins the love of our
enemies, and which forbids personal exultation over a fallen foe." He re
gards it as "unquestionable, that previous sufferings had not thoroughly
subdued her temper, that she could not suppress the workings of a retali-
ative spirit, and was thus led to dwell, not on the peaceful glories of his
(Samuel s) priestly and prophetic rule, but on his future triumphs over the
Philistine armies " (Sacred Literature, p. 397). If such were indeed the
character of Hannah s song, we may be assured it would not have been so
closely imitated by the blessed Virgin. But it is manifestly wrong to re
gard Hannah as speaking of her merely personal enemies, her language
would otherwise be chargeable with vicious extravagance, as well as un-
sanctified feeling. She identifies herself throughout with the Lord s cause
and people ; and it is simply her zeal for righteousness which expresses
itself in a spirit of exultation over prostrate enemies.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 151
selves with the delineation of the other. And as it was the
institution of the temporal kingdom in the person and house of
David which here formed the ground and the occasion of the
prophetic delineation, there was no part of the typical arrange
ments tinder the ancient dispensation which more fully admitted,
or, to prevent misapprehension, more obviously required, the
accompaniment of a series of lyrical prophecies such as that
contained in the Messianic psalms.
For the institution of a temporal kingdom in the hands of
an Israelitish family involved a very material change in the
external framework of the theocracy ; and a change that of
itself was fitted to rivet the minds of the people more to the
earthly and visible, and take them off from the invisible and
Divine. The constitution under which they were placed before
the appointment of a king though it did not absolutely pre
clude such an appointment yet seemed as if it would rather
suffer than be improved by so broad and palpable an introduction
of the merely human element. It was till then a theocracy in
the strictest sense; a commonwealth that had no recognised
head but God, and placed everything essentially connected with
life and well-being under His immediate presidence and direction.
The land of the covenant was emphatically God s land 1 the
people that dwelt in it were His peculiar property and heritage 2
the laws which they were bound to obey were His statutes
and judgments 3 and the persons appointed to interpret and
administer them were His representatives, and on this account
even sometimes bore His name. 4 It was the peculiar and dis
tinguishing glory of Israel as a nation, that they stood in this
near relationship to God, and that which more especially called
forth the rapturous eulogy of Moses, 5 " Happy art thou, O
Israel : who is like unto thee ! The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms." It was a glory,
however, which the people themselves were too carnal for the
most part to estimate aright, and of which they never appeared
more insensible than when they sought to be like the Gentiles,
1 Lev. xxv. 23 ; Ps. x. 16 ; Isa. xiv. 25 ; Jer. ii. 7, etc.
2 Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. xciv. 5 ; Jer. ii. 7 ; Joel iii. 2.
3 Ex. xv. 26, xviii. 16, etc. 4 Ex. xxii. 28 ; Ps. Ixxxii. G.
5 Deut. xxxiii. 26, 29.
152 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
by having a king appointed over them. For what was it but,
in effect, to seek that they might lose their peculiar distinction
among the nations ? that God might retire to a greater distance
from them, and might no longer be their immediate guardian
and sovereign ?
Nor was this the only evil likely to arise out of the proposed
change. Everything under the Old Covenant bore reference
to the future and more perfect dispensation of the Gospel ; and
the ultimate reason of any important feature or material change
in respect to the former, can never be understood without taking
into account the bearing it might have on the future state and
prospects of men under the Gospel. But how could any change
in the constitution of ancient Israel, and especially such a
change as the people contemplated, when they desired a king
after the manner of the Gentiles, be adopted without altering
matters in this respect to the worse ? The dispensation of the
Gospel was to be, in a peculiar sense, the " kingdom of heaven,
or of God," having for its high end and aim the establishment
of a near and blessed intercourse between God and men. It
attains to its consummation when the vision seen by St John,
and described after the pattern of the constitution actually set
up in the wilderness, comes into fulfilment when " the taber
nacle of God is with men, and He dwells wdth them." Of this
consummation it was a striking and impressive image that was
presented in the original structure of the Israelitish common
wealth, wherein God Himself sustained the office of king, and
had His peculiar residence and appropriate manifestations of
glory in the midst of His people. And when they, in their
carnal affection for a worldly institute, clamoured for an earthly
sovereign, they not only discovered a lamentable indifference
towards what constituted their highest honour, but betrayed also
a want of discernment and faith in regard to God ? s prospective
and ultimate design in connection with their provisional eco
nomy. They gave conclusive proof that " they did not see to
the end of that which was to be abolished," and preferred a
request which, if granted according to their expectation, would
in a most important respect have defeated the object of their
theocratic constitution.
We need not, therefore, be surprised that God should have
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 153
expressed His dissatisfaction with the proposal made by the
people for the appointment of a king to them, and should have
regarded it as a substantial rejection of Himself, and a desire
that He should not reign over them. (1 Sam. viii. 7.) But
why, then, did He afterwards accede to it ? And why did He
make choice of the things connected with it, as an historical
occasion and a typical ground for shadowing forth the nature
and glories of Messiah s kingdom? The Divine procedure in
this, though apparently capricious, was in reality marked by the
highest wisdom, and affords one of the finest examples to be
found in Old Testament history of that overruling providence,
by which God so often averts the evil which men s devices are
fitted to produce, and render them subservient to the greatest
good.
The appointment of a king as the earthly head of the com
monwealth, we have said, was not absolutely precluded by the
theocratic constitution. It was from the first contemplated by
Moses as a thing which the people would probably desire, and
in which they were not to be gainsayed, but were only to be
directed into the proper method of accomplishing it. (Deut. xvii.
1420.) It was even possible if the matter was rightly gone
about, and the Divine sanction obtained respecting it to turn
it to profitable account, in familiarizing the minds of men with
what was destined to form the grand feature of the Messiah s
kingdom the personal indwelling of the Divine in the human
nature and so to acquire for it the character of an important
step in the preparatory arrangements for the kingdom. This is
what was actually done. After the people had been solemnly
admonished of their guilt in requesting the appointment of a
king on their worldly principles, they were allowed to raise one
of their number to the throne not, however, as absolute and
independent sovereign, but only as the deputy of Jehovah ; that
he might simply rule in the name, and in subordination to the
will, of God. 1 For this reason his throne was called "the
throne of the Lord," 2 on which, as the Queen of Sheba ex
pressed it to Solomon, he was " set to be king for the Lord his
God ;" 3 and the kingly government itself was afterwards desig-
1 See Warburton s Legation of Moses, B. V. sect. 3.
2 1 Chron. xxix. 23. 3 2 Cliron. ix. 8.
154 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
nated "the kingdom of the Lord." 1 For the same reason, no
doubt, it was that Samuel " wrote in a book the manner of the
kingdom, and laid it up before the Lord ;" 2 that the testimony in
behalf of its derived and vicegerent nature might be perpetuated.
And to render the Divine purpose in this respect manifest to all
who had eyes to see and ears to hear, the Lord allowed the
choice first to fall on one who as the representative of the
people s earthly wisdom and prowess was little disposed to rule
in humble subordination to the will and authority of Heaven,
and was therefore supplanted by another who should act as
God s representative, and bear distinctively the name of His
servant*
It was, therefore, in this second person, David, that the
kingly administration in Israel properly began ; he was the root
and founder of the kingdom as a kingdom, in which the
Divine and human stood first in an official, as they were ulti
mately to stand in a personal union. And to make the pre
paratory and the final in this respect properly harmonize and
adapt themselves to each other, the Lord, in the first instance,
ordered matters connected with the institution of the kingly
government, so as to render the beginning an image of the end
typical throughout of Messiah s work and kingdom. And
then, lest the typical bearing of things should be lost sight of
in consequence of their present interest or importance, He gave
in connection with them the word of prophecy, which, pro
ceeding on the ground of their typical import, pointed the ex
pectations of the Church to corresponding but far higher and
greater things still to come. In this way, what must otherwise
have tended to veil the purpose of God, and obstruct the main
design of His preparatory dispensation, was turned into one of
the most effective means of revealing and promoting it. The
earthly head, that now under God stood over the members of
the commonwealth, instead of overshadowing His authority,
only presented this more distinctly to their view, and served as
1 2 Chron. xiii. 8. 2 1 Sam. x. 25.
3 This appellation is used of David far more frequently than of any other
person. Upwards of thirty times it is expressly spoken of David ; and
in the Psalms he is ever presenting himself in the character of the Lord s
servant.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 155
a stepping-stone to faith, in enabling it to rise nearer to the
apprehension of that personal indwelling of Godhead the true
Immanuel which was to constitute the foundation and the
glory of the Gospel dispensation. Not only was the work of
God s preparatory arrangements not arrested, and the prospec
tive anticipation of the future not marred; but occasion was
taken to unfold this future in its more essential features with
an air of individuality and distinctness, with a variety of detail
and vividness of colouring, not to be met with in any other por
tions of prophetic Scripture.
We refer for illustration to a single example of this com
bination of prophecy with type (others will be noticed, and in
a somewhat different connection, in the Appendix) the second
Psalm. The production as to form is a kind of inaugural
hymn, intended to celebrate the appointment and final triumph
of Jehovah s king. The heathen nations are represented as
foolishly opposing it (vers. 1, 2) ; they agree among themselves,
if the appointment should be made, practically to disown and
resist it (ver. 3) ; the Almighty, however, perseveres in His
purpose, scorning the rebellious opposition of such impotent
adversaries (ver. 4) ; the eternal decree goes forth, that the
anointed King is enthroned on Zion ; that being Jehovah s Son,
He is made the heir of all things, even to the uttermost bounds
of the habitable globe (vers. 5-9). And in consideration of
what has thus been decreed and ratified in heaven, the psalm
concludes with a word of friendly counsel and admonition to
earthly potentates and rulers, exhorting them to submit in time
to the sway of this glorious King, and forewarning them of
the inevitable ruin of resistance. That in all this we can trace
the lines of Messiah s history, is obvious at a glance. Even
the old Jewish doctors, as we learn by the quotation from
Solomon Jarchi, given by Venema, agreed that " it should be
expounded of King Messiah;" but he adds, "In accordance
with the literal sense, and that it may be used against the
heretics (i.e., Christians), it is proper to explain it as relating
to David himself." Strange, that this idea, the offspring of
rabbinical artifice, seeking to withdraw an argument from the
cause of Christianity, should have so generally commended it
self to Christian interpreters ! But if by literal sense is to be
156 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
understood the plain and natural import of the words employed,
what ground is there for such an interpretation ? David was
not opposed in his appointment to the throne of Israel by
heathen nations or rulers, who knew and cared comparatively
little about it ; nor was his being anointed king coincident with
his being set on the holy hill of Zion ; nor, after being estab
lished in the kingdom, did he ever dream of pressing any claims
of dominion on the kings and rulers of the earth : his wars were
uniformly wars of defence, and not of conquest. So palpable,
indeed, is the discordance between the lines of David s history,
and the lofty terms of the psalm, that the opinion which ascribes
it in the literal sense to David, may now be regarded as com
paratively antiquated; and some even of those who formerly
espoused it (such as Rosenmuller), have at length owned, that
" it cannot well be understood as applying either to David or to
Solomon, much less to any of the later Hebrew kings, and that
the judgment of the more ancient Hebrews is to be followed,
who considered it as a celebration of the mighty King whom
they expected under the name of the Messiah."
But has the psalm, then, no connection with the life and
kingdom of David? Unquestionably it has; and a connection
so close, that what took place in him was at once the beginning
and the image of what, amid higher relations, and on a more
extended scale, was to be accomplished by the subject of the
psalm. While the terms in which the King and the kingdom
there celebrated are spoken of, stretch far above the line of
things that belonged to David, they yet bear throughout the
mark and impress of these. In both alike we see a sovereign
choice and fixed appointment, on the part of God, to the office
of king in the fullest sense among men an opposition of the
most violent and heathenish nature to withstand and nullify the
appointment the gradual and successive overthrow of all the
obstacles raised against the purpose of Heaven, and the exten
sion of the sphere of empire (still partly future in the case of
Messiah) till it reached the limits of the Divine grant. The
lines of history in the two cases are entirely parallel ; there is
all the correspondence we expect between type and antitype ;
but the prophecy which marks the connection between them,
while it was occasioned by the purpose of God respecting David,
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 157
and derived from his history the particular mould in which it
was cast, was applicable only to Him who, with the properties
of a human nature and an earthly throne, was to possess those
also of the heavenly and divine.
We shall not here go further into detail respecting this class
of prophecies, which belong chiefly to the Psalms ; but we must
remark, that as it was their object to explain the typical character
of David s calling and kingdom, and to connect this with the
higher things to come, we may reasonably expect there will be
some portions in the Messianic psalms which are alike applicable
to type and antitype ; and also entire psalms, in which there may
be room for doubting to which of the two they may most fitly
be referred. In some the distinctive, the superhuman and divine,
properties of the Messiah s person and kingdom are so broadly
and characteristically delineated (as in Ps. ii., xxii., xlv., Ixxii.,
ex.), that it is impossible by any fair interpretation of the lan
guage to understand the description of another than Christ.
But there are others in which the merely human elements are
so strongly depicted (such as Ps. xl., Ixix., cix.), that not a
few of the traits might doubtless be found in the bearer also of
the earthly kingdom ; while still the excessive darkness of the
picture, as a whole, on the one side, and the magnitude of the
results and interests connected with it, on the other, shut us up
to the conclusion that Christ, in His work of humiliation and
His kingdom of blessing and glory, is the real subject of the
prophecy. Viewed as an entire and prospective delineation, the
theme is still one, and the sense not manifold, but simple. There
are again others, however, of which Ps. xli. may be taken as a
specimen, in which the delineation throughout is as applicable
to the bearer of the earthly as to that of the heavenly kingdom ;
so that, if regarded as a prophecy at all, it can only be in the
way explained under our first supposition, as an historical de
scription of things that happened under typical relations, from
which they derived a prophetical element.
Such varieties are no more than what might have been ex
pected in the class of sacred lyrics now under consideration ; and
the rather so, as they were composed for the devotional use of
the Church at a time when she required as well to -be refreshed
and strengthened by the faith of the typical past, as to be
158 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
cheered and animated by the hope of the still grander antitypical
future. It was necessary that she should be taught so to look
for the one as not to lose sight of the other ; but rather, in what
had already occurred, to find the root and promise of what was
to be hereafter. The word of Nathan to David (2 Sam. vii.
416), which properly began the series, and laid the founda
tion of further developments, presented the matter in this light.
David is there associated with his filial successor, as alike con
nected with the institution of the kingdom in its primary and
inferior aspect ; and the high honour was conceded to his house
of furnishing the royal dynasty that was destined to preside for
ever in God s name over the affairs of men. But this for ever,
emphatically used in the promise, evidently pointed to a time
when the relations of the kingdom, in its then provisional and
circumscribed form, should give way to others immensely greater
and higher. It pointed to a commingling of the divine and
human, the heavenly and the earthly, in another manner than
could possibly be realized in the case either of David himself, or
of any ordinary descendant from his loins. And it became one
of the leading objects of David s prophetical calling, and of
those who were his immediate successors in the prophetical func
tion, to unfold, after the manner already described, something
of that ulterior purpose of Heaven, which, though included, was
still but obscurely indicated, in the fundamental prophecy of
Nathan. 1
IV. But we have still to notice another conceivable combina
tion of type with prophecy. It is possible, we said, that the
typical transactions might themselves be still future ; and might,
in a prophetic word, be partly described, partly presupposed, as
a ground for the delineation of other things still more distant, in
1 According to the view now given, there is no need for that alternating
process which is so commonly resorted to in the explanation of Nathan s
prophecy, by which this one part is made to refer to Solomon and his im
mediate successors, and that other to Christ. There is no need for formally
splitting it up into such portions, each pointing to different quarters ; nor
can the understanding find satisfaction in this method. The prophecy is to
be taken as an organic whole, as the kingdom also is of which it speaks.
David reigned in the Lord s name, and the Lord, in the fulness of time, was
born to occupy David s throne a mutual interconnection. The kingdom
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 159
respect to which they were to hold a typical relation. The
difference between this and the last supposition is quite im
material, in so far as any principle is involved. It makes no
essential change in the nature of the relation, that the typical
transactions forming the groundwork of the prophetical delinea
tion should have been contemplated as future, and not as past
or present. It is true that the prophet was God s messenger, in
an especial sense, to the men of his own age ; and as such usually
delivered messages, which were called forth by what had actually
occurred, and bore its peculiar impress. But he was not neces
sarily tied to that. As from the present he could anticipate the
still undeveloped future, so there was nothing to hinder if the
circumstances of the Church might require it that he should
also at times realize as present a nearer future, and from that
anticipate another more remote. In doing so he would naturally
transport himself into the position of those who were to witness
that nearer future, which would then be contemplated as hold
ing much the same relation typically to the higher things in
prospect, as in the case last considered : that is, the matter-of-
fact prophecy involved in the typical transactions viewed as
already present, would furnish to the prophet s eye the form and
aspect under which he would exhibit the corresponding events
yet to be expected.
The only addition which the view now suggested makes to
the one generally held, is, that we suppose the prophet, while he
spake as from the midst of circumstances future, though not
distant, recognised in these something of a typical nature ; and
on the basis of that as the type, unfolded the greater and more
distant antitype. There is plainly nothing incredible or even
improbable in such a supposition, especially if the nearer future
already lay within the vision of the Church. The circum-
throughout is God s, only existing in an embryo state, while presided over
by David and his merely human descendants ; and rising to its ripened form,
as soon as it passes into the hands of one who, by virtue of His Divine pro
perties, was fitted to bear the glory. The prophecy, therefore, is to be re
garded as a general promise of the connection of the kingdom with David s
person and line, including Christ as belonging to that line, after the flesh ;
but in respect to the element of eternity, the absolute perpetuity guaranteed
in the promise, it not only admitted, but required, the possession of a nature
in Christ higher unspeakably than He could derive from David.
160 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
stances, however, giving rise to prophecies of this description
were not likely to be of very frequent occurrence. They could
only be expected in those more peculiar emergencies when it
became needful for the Church s warning or consolation to over
shoot, as it were, the things more immediately in prospect, and
fix the eye on others more remote in point of time, though in
nature most closely connected with them.
Now, at one remarkable period of her history, the Old Tes
tament Church was certainly in such circumstances the period
preceding and during the Babylonish exile. From the time
that this calamity had become inevitable, the prophets, as already
noticed, had spoken of it as a second Egypt a new bondage to
the power of the world, from which the Church required to be
delivered by a new manifestation of redemptive grace. But a
second redemption after the manner of the first would obviously
no longer suffice to restore the heart of faith to assured confi
dence, or fill it with satisfying expectations of corning good.
The redemption from Egypt, with all its marvellous accompani
ments and happy results, had yet failed to provide an effectual
security against overwhelming desolation. And if the redemp
tion from Babylon might have brought, in the fullest sense, a
restoration to the land of Canaan, and the re-establishment of
the temple service ; yet, if this were all the spirit of prophecy
could descry of coming good, there must still have been room
for fear to enter : there could scarcely fail even to be sad fore
bodings of new desolations likely to arise and undo again the
whole that had been accomplished. At such a period, therefore,
the prophet had a double part to perform, when charged with
the commission to comfort the people of God. He had, in the
first instance, to declare the fixed purpose of Heaven to visit
Babylon for her sins, and thereby afford a door of escape for
the captive children of the covenant, that as a people saved anew
they might return to their ancient heritages. But he had to do
more than this. He had to take his station, as it were, on the
floor of that nearer redemption, and from thence direct the eye
of hope to another and higher, of which it was but the imperfect
shadow a redemption which should lay the foundation of the
Church s well-being so broad and deep, that the former troubles
could no longer return, and heights of prosperity and blessing
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 161
should be reached entirely unknown in the past. Tims alone
could a ground of consolation be provided for the people of God,
really adequate to the emergencies of that dismal time, when all
that was of God seemed ready to perish, under the combined
force of internal corruption and outward violence.
It was precisely in this way that the prophet Isaiah sought to
comfort the Church of God by inditing the later portion of his
writings (ch. xl.-lxvi.), in which we have the most important
example of the class of prophecies now under consideration
The central object in the whole of this magnificent chain of
prophecy, is the appearance, work, and kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ His spirit and character, His sufferings and
triumphs, the completeness of His redemption, the safety and
blessedness of His people, the certain overthrow of His enemies,
and the final glory of His kingdom. The manner in which
this prophetic discourse is entered on, might alone satisfy us
that such is in reality its main theme. For the voice which
there meets us, of one crying in the wilderness, is that to which,
according to all the evangelists, John the Baptist appealed, as
announcing beforehand his office and mission to the Church of
God. And if the forerunner is found at the threshold, who
should chiefly occupy the interior of the building but He whom
John was specially sent to make known to Israel ? The sub
stance of the message also, as briefly indicated there, entirely
corresponds : for it speaks not, as is often loosely represented,
of the people s return to Jerusalem, but of the Lord s return to
His people ; it announces a coming revelation of His glory,
which all flesh should see ; and proclaims to the cities of Judah
the tidings, Behold your God ! Wo are not to be understood
as meaning, that the Lord might not in a sense be said to come
to His people, when in their behalf He brought down the pride
of Babylon, and laid open for them a way of return to their
native land. A reference to this more secret and preparatory
revelation of Himself may certainly be understood, both here
and in several kindred representations that follow ; yet not as
their direct and immediate object, but rather as something pre
supposed, similar in kind, though immensely inferior in degree,
to the proper reality. There are passages, indeed, so general in
the truths and principles they enunciate, that they cannot with
VOL. I. L
162 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
propriety be limited to one period of the Church s history any
more than to another. And again, there are others, especially
the portion reaching from ch. xliv. 24 to xlviii. 22, as also ch. li.,
Hi., which refer more immediately to the events connected with
the deliverance from Babylon, as things in themselves perfectly
certain, and fitted to awaken confidence in regard to the greater
things that were yet destined to be accomplished. He who
could speak of Babylon as already prostrate in the dust, though
no shade had yet come over the lustre of her glory who, at the
very moment she was the scourge and terror of the nations,
could picture to himself the time when she should be seen as a
spoiled and forlorn captive who could behold the once weeping
exiles of Judea, escaped from her grasp, and sent back with
honour to revive the glories of Jerusalem, while the proud
destroyer was left to sink and moulder into irrecoverable ruin
He who could foresee all this as in a manner present, and com
mit to His Church the prophetic announcement generations
before it had been fulfilled, might well claim from His people
an implicit faith, when giving intimation of a work still to be
done, the greatness of which should surpass all thought, as its
blessings should extend to all lands (ch. xlv. 17, 22, xlix. 18-26).
Thus the deliverance accomplished from the yoke of Babylon
formed a fitting prelude and stepping-stone to the main subject
of the prophecy the revelation of God in the person and work
of His Son. The certainty of the one a certainty soon to be
realized was a pledge of the ultimate certainty of the other ;
and the character also of the former, as a singular and unex
pected manifestation of the Lord s power to deliver His people
and lay their enemies in the dust, was a prefiguration of what
was to be accomplished once for all in the salvation to be wrought
out by Jesus Christ. 1
There are few portions of Old Testament prophecy, which
1 The same view substantially of this portion of Isaiah s writings was
given by Vitringa, who thus suras up the leading topics of discourse :
" The great mystery of the manifestation of the kingdom of God and His
righteousness in the world through the Messiah, His forerunner, and
apostles, with the revival of an elect Church, then reduced to a very small
number, with its more remarkable preceding signs, and the means that
should be subservient to the whole work of grace, among which preceding
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 163
altogether resemble the one we have been considering. Perhaps
that which approaches nearest to it, in the mode of combining
type with prophecy, is the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, which
is not a direct and simple delineation of the judgments that
were destined to alight upon Idumea, but rather an ideal repre
sentation of the judgments preparing to alight on the enemies
generally of God s people, founded upon the approaching
desolations of Edom, which it contemplates as the type of the
destruction that awaits all the adversaries. Still more closely
corresponding, however, is our Lord s prophecy regarding the
destruction of Jerusalem and His own final advent to judge the
world, in the twenty-fourth chapter of St Matthew s Gospel ; in
which, undoubtedly, the nearer future is regarded as the type of
the higher and more remote. It would almost seem as if the
two events were, to a certain extent, thrown together in the
prophetic delineation; for the efforts that have been made to
separate the portions strictly applicable to each, have never
wholly succeeded ; and more, perhaps, than any other part of
prophetic Scripture is there the appearance here of something
like a double sense. What reasons may have existed for this we
can still but imperfectly apprehend. One principal reason, we
may certainly conclude, was, that it did not accord with our
Lord s design, as it would not have consisted with His people s
good, to have exhibited very precise and definite prognostics of
His second coming. The exact period behoved to be shrouded
almost to the very last in mystery, and it seemed to Divine
wisdom the fittest course to order the circumstances connected
with the final act of judgment on the typical people and terri
tory, so as to serve, at the same time, for signs and tokens of the
last great act of judgment on the world at large. As the acts
themselves corresponded, so there should also be a correspondence
in the manner of their accomplishment ; and to contemplate
the one as imaged in the other, without being able in all respects
signs the deliverance from Babylon by Cyrus, in connection with the de
struction of Babylon itself, as typical of the overthrow of all idolatrous and
Satanic power, are chiefly dwelt upon, in like manner as the conviction both
of Jews and Gentiles concerning the vanity of idols and the truth of God
and His spiritual worship, hold the most prominent place among the con
current means. 1
164 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to draw the line very accurately between them, was the whole
that could safely be permitted to believers.
The result, then, of the preceding investigation is, that there
is in Scripture a fourfold combination of type with prophecy.
In the first of these the prophetic import lies in the type, and in
the word only as descriptive of the type. In the others there
was not a double sense, but a double prophecy a typical pro
phecy in action, coupled with a verbal prophecy in word ; not
uniformly combined, however, but variously modified: in one
class a distinct typical action, having associated with it an express
prophetical announcement ; in another, the typical lying only as
the background on which the spirit of prophecy raised the pre
diction of a corresponding but much grander future ; and in still
another, the typical belonging to a nearer future, which was
realized as present, and taken as the occasion and groundwork of
a prophecy respecting a future greater, and also more distant.
It is in this last department alone that there is anything like a
mixing up of two subjects together, and a consequent difficulty
in determining when precisely the language refers to the nearer,
and when to the more remote transactions. Even then, how
ever, only in rare cases ; and with this slight exception, there
is nothing that carries the appearance of confusion or ambiguity.
Each part holds its appropriate place, and the connection sub
sisting between them, in its various shapes and forms, is very
much what might have been expected in a system so complex
and many-sided as that to which they belonged.
II. We proceed now to offer some remarks on the views
generally held on the subject of the prophecies which have
passed under our consideration. They fall into two opposite
sections. Overlooking the real connection in such cases between
type and prophecy, and often misapprehending the proper im
port of the language, the opinion contended for, on the one side,
has been, that the predictions contain a double sense the one
primary and the other secondary, or the one literal and the other
mystical ; while, on the contrary side, it has been maintained
that the predictions have but one meaning, and when applied in
New Testament Scripture, in a way not accordant with that
meaning, it is held to be a simple accommodation of the words.
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 165
A brief examination of the two opposing views will be sufficient
for our purpose.
1. And, first, in regard to the view which advocates the
theory of the double sense. Here it has been laid down as a
settled canon of interpretation, that " the same prophecies fre
quently refer to different events, the one near and the other
remote the one temporal, the other spiritual, and perhaps
eternal ; that the expressions are partly applicable to one and
partly to another; and that what has not been fulfilled in the
first, we must apply to the second." If so, the conclusion seems
inevitable, that there must be a painful degree of uncertainty
and confusion resting on such portions of prophetic Scripture.
And the ambiguity thus necessarily pervading them, must, one
would think, have rendered them of comparatively little value,
whether originally as a ground of hope to the Old Testament
Church, or now as an evidence of faith to the New.
Great ingenuity was certainly shown by Warburton in labour
ing to establish the grounds of this double sense, without mate
rially impairing in any respect the validity of the prophecy.
The view advocated by him, however, lies open to two serious ob
jections, which have been powerfully urged against it, especially
by Bishop Marsh, and which have demonstrated its arbitrariness.
1. In the first place, while it proceeds upon the supposition, that
the double sense of prophecy is quite analogous to the double
sense of allegory, there is in reality an essential difference be
tween them. "When we interpret a prophecy, to which a
double meaning is ascribed, the one relating to the Jewish, the
other to the Christian dispensation, we are in either case con
cerned with an interpretation of words. For the same words
which, according to one interpretation, are applied to one event,
are, according to another interpretation, applied to another
event. But in the interpretation of an allegory, we are con
cerned only in the first instance with an interpretation of words ;
the second sense, which is usually called the allegorical, being an
interpretation of tilings. The interpretation of the words gives
nothing more than the plain and simple narratives themselves
(the allegory generally assuming the form of a narrative) ;
whereas the moral of the allegory is learnt by an application of
the things signified by those words to other things which resemble
166 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
them, and which the former were intended to suggest. There
is a fundamental difference, therefore, between the interpreta
tion of an allegory, and the interpretation of a prophecy with a
double sense." 1 2. The view of Warburton is, besides, liable to
the objection, that it not only affixes a necessary darkness and
obscurity to the prophecies having the double sense, but also
precludes the existence of any other prophecies more plain,
direct, and explicit until at least the dispensation, under which
the prophecies were given, and for which the double sense
specially adapted them, was approaching its termination. He
contends that the veiled meaning of the prophecies was neces
sary, in order at once to awaken some general expectations
among the Jews of better things to come, and, at the same time,
to prevent these from being so distinctly understood as to weaken
their regard to existing institutions. It is fatal to this view of
the matter, that in reality many of the most direct and per
spicacious prophecies concerning the Messiah were contem
poraneous with those which are alleged to possess the double
meaning and the veiled reference to the Messiah. If, therefore,
the Divine method were such as to admit only of the one class,
it must have been defeated by the other. And it must also have
been not so properly a ground of blame as a matter of necessity,
arising from the very circumstances of their position, that the
Jews " could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was to
be abolished." (2 Cor. iii. 13.) The reverse, however, was
actually the case ; for the more clearly they perceived the mean
ing of the prophecies, and the end of their symbolical institu
tions, the more heartily did they enter into the design of God,
and the more nearly attain the condition which it became them
to occupy.
These objections, however, apply chiefly to that vindication
of the double sense which came from the hand of Warburton,
and was interwoven with his peculiar theory. The opinion has
since been advocated in a manner that guards it against both
objections, and is put, perhaps, in its most approved form by
Davison. " What," he asks, " is the double sense ? Not the
convenient latitude of two unconnected senses, wide of each
other, and giving room to a fallacious ambiguity, but the com-
1 Marsh s Lectures, p. 444.
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 167
bination of two related, analogous, and harmonizing, though
disparate, subjects, each clear and definite in itself ; implying
a twofold truth in the prescience, and creating an aggravated
difficulty, and thereby an accumulated proof, in the completion.
For a case in point : to justify the predictions concerning the
kingdom of David in their double force, it must be shown of
them, that they hold in each of their relations, and in each were
fulfilled. So that the double sense of prophecy, in its true idea,
is a check upon the pretences of a vague and unappropriated
prediction, rather than a door to admit them. But this is not
all. For if the prediction distribute its sense into two remote
branches or systems of the Divine economy ; if it show not only
what is to take place in distant times, but describe also different
modes of God s appointment, though holding a certain and
intelligent resemblance to each other ; such prediction becomes
not only more convincing in the argument, but more instructive
in the doctrine, because it expresses the correspondence of God s
dispensations in their points of agreement, as well as His fore
knowledge." l
This representation so far coincides with the one given in
the preceding pages, that it virtually recognises a combination
of type with prophecy ; but differs in that it supposes both to
have been included in the prediction, the one constituting the
primary, the other the secondary, sense of its terms. And,
undoubtedly, according to this scheme as well as our own, the
correspondence between God s dispensations might be sufficiently
exhibited, both in regard to doctrine and general harmony of
arrangement. But when it is contended further, that prophecy
with such a double sense, instead of rendering the evidence it
furnishes of Divine foresight more vague and unsatisfactory,
only supplies an accumulated proof of it by creating an aggra
vated difficulty in the fulfilment, it seems to be forgotten that
the terms of the prediction, to admit of such a duplicate fulfil
ment, must have been made so much more general and vague.
But it is the precision and defimteness of the terms in a pre
diction which, when compared with the facts in providence that
verify them, chiefly produce in our minds a conviction of Divine
foresight and direction. And in so far as prophecies might have
1 Davison on Prophecy, p. 196.
168 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
been constructed to comprehend two series of disparate events,
holding in each of the relations, and in each fulfilled, it could
only be by dispensing with the more exact criteria, which we
cannot help regarding in such cases as the most conclusive
evidence of prophetic inspiration.
But as it was by no means the sole object of prophecy to
provide this evidence, so predictions without such exact criteria
are by no means wanting in the word of God. There are pro
phecies which were not so much designed to foretell definite
events, as to unfold great prospects and results, in respect to
the manifestation of God s purposes of grace and truth toward
men. Such prophecies were of necessity general and compre
hensive in their terms, and admitted of manifold fulfilments.
It is of them that we would understand the singularly pregnant
and beautiful remark of Lord Bacon in the Second Book of the
Advancement of Learning, that "Divine prophecies, being of
the nature of their Author, with whom a thousand years are
but as one day, are therefore not fulfilled punctually at once,
but have springing and germinant accomplishment ; though the
height or fulness of them may refer to some one age." The
very first prophecy ever uttered to fallen man, the promise
given of a seed through the woman which should bruise the
head of the serpent, and that afterwards given to Abraham of
a seed of blessing, may be fitly specified as illustrations of the
principle ; since in either case though by virtue, not of a double
sense, but of a wide and comprehensive import a fulfilment
from the first was constantly proceeding, while " the height and
fulness" of the predicted good could only be reached in the
redemption of Christ and the glories of His kingdom.
To return, however, to the matter at issue, we have yet to
press our main objection to the theory of the double sense of
prophecy ; we dispute the fact on which it is founded, that
there really are prophecies (with the partial exceptions already
noticed) predictive of similar though disparate series of events,
strictly applicable to each, and in each finding their fulfilment.
This necessarily forms the main position of the advocates of the
double sense ; and when brought to particulars, they constantly
fail to establish it. The terms of the several predictions are
sure to be put to the torture, in order to get one of the two
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 169
senses extracted from them. And the violent interpretations
resorted to for the purpose of effecting this, afford one of the
most striking proofs of the blinding influence which a theoreti
cal bias may exert over the mind. Such psalms, for example,
as the second and forty-fifth, which are so distinctly charac
teristic of the Messiah, that some learned commentators have
abandoned their early predilections to interpret them wholly of
Him, are yet ascribed by the advocates of the double sense as
well to David as to Christ. Nay, by a singular inversion of
the usual meaning of words, they call the former the literal,
and the latter their figurative or secondary sense, although
this last is the only one the words can strictly bear.
There is no greater success in most other cases ; let us take
but one example : " Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell ;
neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life : in Thy presence
is fulness of joy ; and at Thy right hand are pleasures for ever
more." These words in the sixteenth Psalm were applied by
the Apostle Peter to Christ, as finding in the events of His
history their only proper fulfilment. David, he contends, could
not have been speaking directly of himself, since he had seen
corruption ; and instead of regaining the path of life, and ascend
ing into the presence of God (namely, in glorified humanity),
had suffered, as all knew, the common lot of nature. And so,
the Apostle infers, the words should be understood more imme
diately of Christ, in whose history alone they could properly be
said to be accomplished. Warburton, however, inverts this
order. Of the deliverance from hell, the freedom from corrup
tion, and the return to the paths of life, he says, " Though it
literally signifies security from the curse of the law upon trans
gressors, viz., immature death, yet it may very reasonably be
understood in a spiritual sense of the resurrection of Christ
from the dead ; in which case the words or terms translated
soul and hell are left in the meaning they bear in the Hebrew
tongue of body and grave /" He does not, of course, deny that
Peter claimed the passage as a prophecy of Christ s resurrec
tion ; but maintains that he does so, " no otherwise than by
giving it a secondary or spiritual sense." In such a style of
interpretation, one cannot but feel as if the terms primary and
170 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
secondary, literal and spiritual, had somehow come to exchange
places ; since the plain import of the words seems to carry us
directly to Christ, while it requires a certain strain to be put
upon them before they can properly apply to the case of
David.
Such, indeed, is what usually happens with the instances
selected by the advocates of this theory. The double sense they
contend for does not strictly hold in both of the relations ; and
very commonly what is contended for as the immediate and
primary, is the sense that is least accordant with the grammati
cal import of the words. We, therefore, reject it as a satisfac
tory explanation of a numerous class of prophecies, and on three
several grounds : First, because it so ravels and complicates the
meaning of the prophecies to which it is applied, as to involve
us in painful doubt and uncertainty regarding their proper
application. Secondly, should this be avoided, it can only arise
from the prophecies being of so general and comprehensive a
nature, as to be incapable of a very close and specific fulfilment.
And, finally, when applied to particular examples, the theory
practically gives way, as the terms employed in all the more im
portant predictions are too definite and precise to admit of more
than one proper fulfilment.
2. We turn now, in the last place, to the mode of propheti
cal interpretation which has commonly prevailed with those who
have ranged themselves in opposition to the theory of the double
sense. The chief defect in this class of interpreters consists in
their having failed to take sufficiently into account the connec
tion subsisting between the Old and the New Testament dis
pensations. They have hence generally given only a partial view
of the relations involved in particular prophecies, and not unfre-
quently have confined the application of these to circumstances
which only supplied the occasion of their delivery, and the form
of their delineations. The single sense contended for has thus
too often differed materially from the real sense. And many
portions of the Psalms and other prophetical Scriptures, which
in New Testament Scripture itself are applied to Gospel times,
have been stript of their evangelical import, on the ground that
the writer of the prophecy must have had in view some events
immediately affecting himself or his country, and that no further
RATIONALISTIC SINGLE SENSE. 171
use, except by way of accommodation, can legitimately be made
of the words he uttered.
Such, for example, has been the way that the remarkable
prophecy in Isaiah, respecting the son to be born of a virgin
(ch. vii. 14-16), has often been treated. The words of the pro
phecy are, " Behold the virgin conceiveth and beareth a son,
and she shall call his name Immanuel. Butter [rather milk]
and honey shall he eat, when he shall know (or that he may
know) to refuse what is evil and choose what is good ; for before
this child shall know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good,
the land shall become desolate, by whose two kings thou art dis
tressed." We have what may justly be called two inspired com
mentaries on this prediction, one in the Old, and another in the
New Testament. The prophet Micah, the contemporary of
Isaiah, evidently referring to the words before us, says, im
mediately after announcing the birth of the future Ruler of
Israel at Bethlehem, "Therefore will he give them up, until
the time that she who shall bear hath brought forth" (v. 3).
The peculiar expression, " she who shall bear," points to the
already designated mother of the Divine King, but only in this
prediction of Isaiah designated as the virgin ; so that, in the
language of Rosenmiiller, " both predictions throw light on each
other. Micah discloses the Divine origin of the Person pre
dicted ; Isaiah the wonderful manner of His birth." The other
allusion in inspired Scripture is by St Matthew, when, relating
the miraculous circumstances of Christ s birth, he adds, " Now
all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with
child," etc. And the prophecy, as Bishop Lowth has well
stated, " is introduced in so solemn a manner ; the sign is so
marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz
had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the
whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so
peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing in
them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a com
mon child required, or even admitted ; that we may easily sup
pose, that in minds prepared by the general expectation of a
great deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised
hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested ; especially
172 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered
immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as
the Lord and Prince of Judah. (Ch. viii. 810.) Who could
this be, other than the heir of the throne of David? under
which character a great and even a Divine person had been
promised."
These things leave little doubt as to the real bearing of the
prophecy. But as originally delivered, it is connected with two
peculiarities : the one that it is given as a sign to the house of
David, then represented by the wicked Ahaz, and trembling for
fear on account of the combined hostility of Syria and Israel ;
the other that it is succeeded by a word to the prophet con
cerning a son to be born to him by the prophetess, which should
not be able to cry, My Father, before the king of Assyria had
spoiled both the kingdoms of Syria and Israel. (Ch. viii. 1-4.)
And it has been thought, from these peculiarities, that it was
really this son of the prophet that was meant by the Immanuel,
as this alone could be a proper sign to Ahaz of the deliverance
that was to be so speedily granted to him from the object of his
dread. So Grotius, who holds that St Matthew only applied it
mystically to Christ, and a whole host of interpreters since, of
whom many can think of no better defence for the Evangelist
than that, as the words of the prophet were more elevated
and full than the immediate occasion demanded, they might be
said to be fulfilled in what more nearly accorded with them.
Apologies of this kind, it is easy to be seen, will not avail much
in the present day to save the honesty or discernment, to say
nothing of the inspired authority, of the Evangelist. But there
is really no need for them. It is quite arbitrary to suppose that
the child to be born of the prophetess (an ideal child, we should
imagine, conceived and born in prophetic vision since other
wise it would seem to have been born in fornication) is to be
identified with the virgin s son; the rather so, as an entirely
different name is given to it (Maher-shalal-hash-baz), an ideal
but descriptive name, and pointing simply to the spoliation that
was to be effected on the hostile kingdoms. Immanuel has
another, a higher import, and bespeaks what the Lord should
be to the covenant-people, not what He should do to the ene
mies. Nor is the other circumstance, of the word being uttered
RATIONALISTIC SINGLE SENSE. 173
as a sign to the house of David, any reason for turning it from
its natural sense and application. A sign in the ordinary sense
had been refused, under a pretence of pious trust in God, but
really from a feeling of distrust and improper reliance on an
arm of flesh. And now the Lord gives a sign in a peculiar
sense, much as Jesus met the craving of an adulterous gene
ration for a sign from heaven, by giving the sign of the prophet
Jonas the reverse of what they either wished or expected, a
sign, not from heaven, but from the lower parts of the earth.
So here, by announcing the birth of Immanuel, the prophet
gave a sign suited to the time of backsliding and apostacy in
which he lived. For it told the house of David, that, wearying
God as they were doing by their sins, He would vindicate His
cause in a way they little expected or desired ; that He would
secure the establishment of His covenant with the house of
David, by raising up a child in whom the Divine should actually
commingle with the human ; but that this child should be the
offspring of some unknown virgin, not of Ahaz or of any ordi
nary occupant of the throne ; and that, meanwhile, everything
should go to desolation and ruin first, indeed, in the allied
kingdoms of Israel and Syria (ver. 16), but afterwards also in
the kingdom of Judah (vers. 1725) ; so that the destined pos
sessor of the throne, when he came, should find all in a pro
strate condition, and grow up like one in an impoverished and
stricken country, fed with the simple fare of a cottage shepherd
(comp. ver. 16 with 22). Thus understood, the whole is
entirely natural and consistent ; and the single sense of the
prophecy proves to be identical, as well with the native force
of the words, as with the interpretations of inspired men.
We have selected this as one of the most common and
plausible specimens of the false style of interpretation to which
we have referred. It is needless to adduce more, as the explana
tions given in the earlier part of the chapter have already met
many of them by anticipation ; and the supplementary treatise
in the Appendix will supply what further may be needed. If
but honestly and earnestly dealt with, the Scripture has no reason
to fear, in this or in other departments, the closest investigation ;
the more there is of rigid inquiry, displacing superficial con
siderations, the more will its inner truth and harmony appear.
CHAPTER SIXTH.
THE INTERPRETATION OF PARTICULAR TYPES SPECIFIC
PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS.
IT was one of the objections urged against the typological views
of our elder divines, that their system admitted of no fixed or
definite rules being laid down for guiding us to the knowledge
and interpretation of particular types. Everything was left to
the discretion or caprice of the individual who undertook to in
vestigate them. The few directions that were sometimes given
upon the subject were too vague and general to be of any mate
rial service. That the type must have borne, in its original
design and institution, a pre-ordained reference to the Gospel
antitype that there is often more in the type than in the anti
type, and more in the antitype than the type that there must
be a natural and appropriate application of the one to the other
that the wicked as such, and acts of sin as such, must be ex
cluded from the category of types that one thing is sometimes
the type of different and even contrary things, though in dif
ferent respects and that there is sometimes an interchange
between the type and the antitype of the names respectively be
longing to each : These rules of interpretation, which are the
whole that Glassius and other hermeneutical writers furnish for
our direction, could not go far, either to restrain the licence of
conjecture, or to mark out the particular course of thought and
inquiry that should be pursued. They can scarcely be said to
touch the main difficulties of the subject, and throw no light on
its more distinguishing peculiarities. Nor, indeed, could any
other result have been expected. The rules could not be precise
or definite, when the system on which they were founded was
altogether loose and indeterminate. And only with the laying
of a more solid and stable foundation could directions for the
practical treatment of the subject come to possess any measure
of satisfaction or explicitness.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 175
Even on the supposition that some progress has now been
made in laying such a foundation, we cannot hold out the pros
pect, that no room shall be left for dubiety, and that all may be
reduced to a kind of dogmatical precision and certainty. It
would be unreasonable to expect this, considering both the
peculiar character and the manifold variety of the field em
braced by the Typology of Scripture. That there may still be
particular cases in which it will be questionable whether any
thing properly typical belonged to them, and others in which a
diversity of view may be allowable in explaining what is typical,
seems to us by no means improbable. And in the specific rules
or principles of interpretation that follow, we do not aim at dis
pelling every possible doubt and ambiguity connected with the
subject, but only at fixing its more prominent and characteristic
outlines. We believe, that with ordinary care and discretion,
they will be sufficient to guard against material error.
I. The first principle we lay down has respect merely to the
amount of what is typical in Old Testament Scripture ; it is,
that nothing is to be regarded as typical of the good things under
the Gospel^ which was itself of a forbidden and sinful nature.
Something approximating to this has been mentioned among the
too general and obvious directions which philological writers
have been accustomed to give upon the subject. It is, indeed,
so much of that description, that though in itself a principle
most necessary to be observed and acted on, yet we should have
refrained from any express announcement or formal proof of it
here, were it not still frequently set at naught, alike in theologi
cal discussions and in popular discourses.
The ground of the principle, in the form here given to it, lies
in the connection which the type has with the antitype, and con
sequently with God. The antitype standing in the things which
belong to God s everlasting kingdom, is necessarily of God; and
so, by a like necessity, the type, which was intended to fore
shadow and prepare for it, must have been equally of Him.
Whether a symbol in religion or a fact in providence, it must
have borne upon it the Divine sanction and approval ; otherwise
there could have been no proper connection between the ultimate
reality and its preparatory exhibitions. So far as the institu-
176 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
tions of religion are concerned, this is readily admitted ; and no
one would think of contending for the idolatrous rites of worship
which were sometimes introduced into the services of the sanc
tuary, being ranked among the shadows of the better things to
come.
But there is not the same readiness to perceive the incon
gruity of admitting to the rank of types, actions which were as
far from being accordant with the mind of God, as the impurities
of an idolatrous worship. Such actions might, no doubt, differ
in one respect from the forbidden services of religion ; they
might in some way be overruled by God for the accomplishment
of His own purposes, and thereby be brought into a certain con
nection with Himself. This was never more strikingly done
than in respect to the things which befell Jesus the great
antitype which were carried into effect by the operation of the
fiercest malice and wickedness, and yet were the very things
which the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God had
appointed before to be done. It is one thing, however, for
human agents and their actions being controlled and directed
by God, so as, amid all their impetuosity and uproar, to be con
strained to work out His righteous purposes ; but another thing
for them to stand in such close relationship to Him, that they
become express and authoritative revelations of His will. This
last is the light in which they must be contemplated, if a typical
character is ascribed to them. For the time during which typi
cal things lasted, they stood as temporary representations under
God s own hand of what He was going permanently to establish
under the Gospel. And, therefore, as amid those higher trans
actions, where the antitype comes into play, we exclude what
ever was the offspring of human ignorance or sinfulness ; so in
the earlier and inferior transactions, which were typical of what
was to come, we must, in like manner, exclude the workings of
all earthly and sinful affections. The typical and the antitypi-
cal alike must bear on them the image and superscription of
God.
Violations of this obvious principle are much less frequently
met with now, than they were in the theological writings of
last century. Still, however, instances are occasionally forcing
themselves on one s notice. And in popular discourses, none
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 177
perhaps occurs more frequently than that connected with
Jacob s melancholy dissimulation and cunning policy for ob
taining the blessing. His receiving the blessing, we are some
times told, in the garments of Esau, which his mother arrayed
him with, " is to be viewed as a faint shadow of our receiving
the blessing from God in the garments of Jesus Christ, which
all the children of the promise wear. It was not the feigned
venison, but the borrowed garments, that procured the bless
ing. Even so, we are not blessed by God for our good works,
however pleasing to Him, but for the righteousness of our
Redeemer." What a confounding of things that differ ! The
garments of the " profane " Esau made to image the spotless
righteousness of Jesus ! And the fraudulent use of the one by
Jacob, viewed as representing the believer s simple and confid
ing trust in the other ! Between things so essentially different
there can manifestly be nothing but superficial resemblances,
which necessarily vanish the moment the real facts of the case
rise into view. It was not Jacob s imposing upon his father s
infirmities, either with false venison or with borrowed garments,
which in reality procured for him the blessing. The whole that
can be said of these is, that in the actual circumstances of the
case they had a certain influence, of an instrumental kind, in
leading Isaac to pronounce it. But what had been thus spoken
on false grounds and under mistaken apprehensions, might
surely have been recalled when the truth came to be known.
The prophet Nathan, at a later age, found no difficulty in
revoking the word he had too hastily spoken to David respect
ing the building of the temple, though it had been elicited by
something very different from falsehood by novel and un
expected display of real goodness. (2 Sam. vii. o.) And in
the case now under consideration, if there had been nothing
more in the matter than the mock venison and the hairy
garments of Esau, there can be little doubt that the blessing
that had been pronounced would have been instantly withdrawn,
and the curse which Jacob dreaded made to take its place.
In truth, Isaac erred in what he purposed to do, not less than
Jacob in beguiling him to do what he had not purposed. He
was going to utter in God s name a prophetic word, which, if it
had taken effect as he intended, would have contravened the
VOL. I. M
178 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
oracle originally given to Rebekah concerning the two children,
even prior to their birth that the elder should serve the
younger. And there were not wanting indications in the spirit
and behaviour of the sons, after they had sprung to manhood,
which might have led a mind of spiritual discernment to descry
in Jacob, rather than Esau, the heir of blessing. But living
as Isaac had done for the most part of his life in a kind of
luxurious ease, in his declining years especially yielding too
much to the fleshly indulgences assiduously ministered to by
the hand of Esau, the eye of his mind, like that of his body,
grew dim, and he lost the correct perception of the truth. But
when he saw how the providence of God had led him to bestow
the blessing, otherwise than he himself had designed, the truth
rushed at once upon his soul. " He trembled exceedingly "-
not simply, nor perhaps chiefly, because of the deceit that had
been practised upon his blindness, but because of the worse
spiritual blindness which had led him to err so grievously from
the revealed purpose of God. And hence, even after the dis
covery of Jacob s fraudulent behaviour, he declared with the
strongest emphasis, " Yea, and he shall be blessed."
Thus, when the real circumstances of the case are con
sidered, there appears no ground whatever for connecting the
improper conduct of Jacob with the mode of a sinner s justifi
cation. The resemblances that may be found between them
are quite superficial or arbitrary. And such always are the
resemblances which appear between the workings of evil in
man, and the 0od that is of God. The two belong to essen-
/ C? c"?
tially different spheres, and a real analogy or a divinely or
dained connection cannot possibly unite them together. The
principle, however, may be carried a step farther. As the
operations of sin cannot prefigure the actings of righteousness,
so the direct results and consequences of sin cannot justly be
regarded as typical representations of the exercises of grace and
holiness. When, therefore (to refer again to the history of
Jacob), the things that befell him in God s providence, on
account of his unbrotherly and deceitful conduct, are repre
sented as typical foreshado wings of Christ s work of humilia
tion Jacob s withdrawal from his father s house, prefiguring
Christ s leaving the region of glory and appearing as a stranger
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 179
on the earth Jacob s sleeping on the naked ground with
nothing but a stone for his pillow, Christ s descent into the
lowest depths of poverty and shame, that he might afterwards
be exalted to the head-stone of the corner, and so forth; 1 in
such representations there is manifestly a stringing together of
events which have no fundamental agreement, and possess no
mutual relations. In the one case Jacob was merely suffering
the just reward of his misdeeds; while the Redeemer in the
other and alleged parallel transactions, was voluntarily giving
the highest display of the holy love that animated His bosom
for the good of men. And whatever there might be in certain
points of an outward and formal resemblance between them, it
is in the nature of things impossible that there could be a real
harmony and an ordained connection.
It is to be noted, however, that we apply the principle now
under consideration to the extent merely of denying a typical
connection between what in former times appeared of evil on
the part of man, and the good subsequently introduced by God.
And we do so on the ground that such things only as He sanc
tioned and approved in the past, could foreshadow the higher
and better things which were to be sanctioned and approved by
Him in the future. But as all the manifestations of truth have
their corresponding and antagonistic manifestations of error, it
is perfectly warrantable and scriptural to regard the form of
evil which from time to time confronted the type, as itself the
type of something similar, which should afterwards arise as a
counter form of evil to the antitype. Antichrist, therefore, may
be said to have had his types as well as Christ. Hagar was the
type of a carnal church, that should be in bondage to the
elements of the world, and of a spirit at enmity with God, as
Sarah was of a spiritual church, that should possess the freedom
and enjoy the privileges of the children of God. Egypt, Edom,
Assyria, Babylon without, and Saul, Ahithophel, Absalom, and
others within the circle of the Old Covenant, have each their
counterpart in the things belonging to the history of Christ and
His Church of the New Testament. In strictness of speech, it
is the other class of relations alone which carry with them the
impress and ordination of God ; but as God s acts and operations
1 Kanne s Christus in Alleii Testament, Th. ii., p. 133, etc.
180 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
in His Church never fail to call into existence the world s enmity
and opposition, so the forms which this assumed in earlier times
might well be regarded as prophetic of those which were after
wards to appear. And if so with the evil itself, still more with
the visitations of severity sent to chastise the evil; for these
come directly from God. The judgments, therefore, He inflicted
on iniquity in the past, typified like judgments on all similar
aspects of iniquity in the future. And the period when the good
shall reach its full development and final triumph, shall also be
that in which the work of judgment shall pour its floods of per
petual desolation upon the evil.
II. We pass on to another, which must still also be a some
what negative principle of interpretation, viz., that in determin
ing the existence and import of particular types, we must be
guided, not so much by any knowledge possessed, or supposed to
be possessed, by the ancient worshippers concerning their prospec
tive fulfilment, as from the light furnished by their realization in
the great facts and revelations of the Gospel.
Whether we look to the symbolical or to the historical types,
neither their own nature, nor God s design in appointing them,
could warrant us in drawing very definite and conclusive infer
ences regarding the insight possessed by the Old Testament
worshippers into their prospective or Gospel import. The one
formed part of an existing religion, and the other of a course of
providential dealings ; and in that more immediate respect there
were certain truths they embodied, and certain lessons they
taught, for those who had directly to do with them. Their fit
ness for unfolding such truths and lessons formed, as we have
O
seen, the groundwork of their typical connection with Gospel
times. But though they must have been understood in that
primary aspect by all sincere and intelligent worshippers, these
did not necessarily perceive their further reference to the things
of Christ s kingdom. Nor does the reality or the precise import
of their typical character depend upon the correctness or the
extent of the knowledge held respecting it by the members of
the Old Covenant. For the connection implied in their pos
sessing such a character between the preparatory and the final
dispensations was not of the Church s forming, but of God s ;
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 181
and a very considerable part of the design which He intended
these to serve with ancient believers, may have been accom
plished, though they knew little, and perhaps in some cases
nothing, of the germs that lay concealed in them of better things
to come. These germs iue?e concealed in all typical events and
institutions, considered simply by themselves since the events
and institutions had a significance and use for the time then
present, apart from what might be evolved in the future pur
poses of God. Now, we are expressly told, even in regard to
direct prophecies of Gospel times, that not only the persons to
whom they were originally delivered, but the very individuals
through whom they were communicated, did not always or
necessarily understand their precise meaning. Sometimes, at
least, they had to assume the position of inquirers, in order to
get the more exact and definite information which they desired
(Dan. xii. 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 12) ; and it would seem, from the case
of Daniel, that even then they did not always obtain it. The
prophets were not properly the authors of their own predictions,
but spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Their
knowledge, therefore, of the real meaning of the prophecies
they uttered, was an entirely separate thing from the prophecies
themselves ; and if we knew what it was, it would still by no
means conclusively fix their full import. Such being the case
in regard even to the persons who uttered the spoken and direct
prophecies of the Old Testament, how preposterous would it
be to make the insight obtained by believers generally into
the indirect and veiled prophecies (as the types may be called),
the ground and standard of the Gospel truth they embodied !
In each case alike, it is the mind of God, not the discernment
or faith of the ancient believer, that we have properly to do
with.
Obvious as this may appear to some, it has been very com
monly overlooked ; and typical explanations have in consequence
too often taken the reverse direction of what they should have
done. Writers in this department are constantly telling us, how
in former times the eye of faith looked through the present to
the future, and assigning that as the reason why our present
should be contemplated in the remote past. Thus, in a once
popular work, Adam is represented as having "believed the
182 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
promise concerning Christ, in whose commemoration he offered
continual sacrifice ; and in the assurance thereof he named his
wife Eee, that is to say, life, and he called his son Seth, settled,
or persuaded in Christ." 1 Another exalts in like manner the
faith of Zipporah, and regards her, when she said to Moses,
" A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision," as
announcing " through one of her children, the Jehovah as the
future Redeemer and bridegroom." 2 Another presents Moses
to our view as wondering at the ^reat sio;ht of the burning bush.
O O O O 7
" because the great mystery of the incarnation and sufferings of
Christ was there represented ; a great sight he might well call
it, when there was represented God manifest in the flesh, suffer
ing a dreadful death, and rising from the dead." 3 And Owen,
speaking of the Old Testament believers generally, says, " Their
faith in God was not confined to the outward things they en
joyed, but on Christ in them, and represented by them. They
believed that they were only resemblances of Him and His
mediation, which, when they lost the faith of, they lost all
acceptance with God in their worship." 4 Writers of a different
class, and of later date, have followed substantially in the same
track. Warburton maintains with characteristic dogmatism,
that the transaction with Abraham, in offering up Isaac, was a
typical action, in which the patriarch had scenically represented
to his view the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ;
and that on any other supposition there can be no right under
standing of the matter. 5 Dean Graves expresses his concurrence
in this interpretation, as does also Mr Faber, who says that
" Abraham must have clearly understood the nature of that
awful transaction by which the day of Christ was to be charac-
1 Fisher s Marrow of Modern Divinity, P. 1, c. 2.
2 Kanne s Christus in Alt. Test., I., p. 100.
8 History of Redemption, by Jonathan Edwards. Period I., p. 4.
4 Owen on Heb. viii. 5. In another part of his writings, however, we
find him saying, "Although those (Old Testament) things are now full of
light and instruction to us, evidently expressing the principal works of
Christ s mediation, yet they were not so unto them. The meanest believer
may now find out more of the work of Christ in the types of the Old Testa
ment, than any prophet or wise man could have done of old." On the
Person of Christ, ch. 8.
5 Legation of Moses, B. vi., sec. 5.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 183
terizcd, and could not have been ignorant of the benefits about
to be procured by it." 1 And, to mention no more, Chevallier
intimates a doubt concerning the typical character of the brazen
serpent, because " it is not plainly declared, either in the Old or
the New Testament, to have been ordained by God purposely to
represent to the Israelites the future mysteries of the Gospel
revelation." 2
These quotations sufficiently show how current the opinion
has been, and still is, that the persons who lived amid the types
must have perfectly understood their typical character, and that
by their knowledge in this respect we are bound in great mea
sure, if not entirely, to regulate ours. It is, however, a very
difficult question, and one (as we have already had occasion to
state) on which we should seldom venture to give more than an
approximate deliverance, how far the realities typified even by
the more important symbols and transactions of ancient times
were distinctly perceived by any individual who lived prior to
their actual appearance. The reason for this uncertainty and
probable ignorance is the same with that which has been so
clearly exhibited by Bishop Horsley, and applied in refutation
of an infidel objection, in the closely related field of prophecy.
It was necessary, for the very ends of prophecy, that a certain
disguise should remain over the events it foretold, till they be
came facts in providence ; and therefore, " whatever private
information the prophet might enjoy, the Spirit of God would
never permit him to disclose the ultimate intent and particular
meaning of the prophecy." 3 Types being a species of prophecy,
and from their nature less precise and determinate in meaning,
they must certainly have been placed under the veil of a not
inferior disguise. Whatever insight more advanced believers
might have had into their ultimate design, it could neither be
distinctly announced, nor, if announced, serve as a sufficient
directory for us ; it could only furnish, according to the measure
of light it contained, comfort and encouragement to themselves.
And whether that measure might be great or small, vague and
general, or minute and particular, we should not be bound, even
if we knew it, to abide by its rule ; for here, as in prophecy, the
1 Treatise on the Three Dispensations, vol. ii., p. 57.
2 Historical Types, p. 221. 3 Ilorsley s Works, vol. i., p. 271-273.
184 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
judgment of the early Church "must still bow down to time as
a more informed expositor."
That the sincere worshippers of God in former ages, espe
cially such as possessed the higher degrees of spiritual thought
and discernment, were acquainted not only with God s general
purpose of redemption, but also with some of its more prominent
features and results, we have no reason to doubt. It is impos
sible to read those portions of Old Testament Scripture which
disclose the feelings and expectations of gifted rninds, without
being convinced that considerable light was sometimes obtained
respecting the work of salvation. We shall find an opportunity
for inquiring more particularly concerning this, when we come
to treat, in a subsequent part of our investigations, respecting
the connection between the moral legislation and the ceremonial
institutions of Moses. But that the views even of the better
part of the Old Testament worshippers must have been com
paratively dim, and that their acceptance as worshippers did not
depend upon the clearness of their discernment in regard to the
person and kingdom of Christ, is evident from what was stated
in our second chapter as to the relatively imperfect nature of the
earlier dispensations, and the childhood-state of those who lived
under them. It was the period when, as is expressly stated in
the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. ix. 8), "the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest ; " or, in other words,
when the method of salvation was not fully disclosed to the view
of God s people. And though we may not be warranted to con
sider what is written of the closing age of Old Testament times
as a fair specimen of their general character, yet we cannot shut
our eyes to the fact, that not only did much prevailing ignorance
then exist concerning the better things of the New Covenant,
but that instances occur even of genuine believers, who still be
trayed an utter misapprehension of their proper nature. Thus
Nathaniel was pronounced " an Israelite indeed, in whom there
was no guile," while he obviously laboured under inadequate
views of Christ s person and work. And no sooner had Peter
received the peculiar benediction bestowed, on account of his
explicit confession of the truth, than he gave evidence of his
ignorance of the design, and his repugnance to the thought, of
Christ s sufferings and death. Such things occurring on the
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 185
very boundary-line between the Old and the New, and after the
clearer light of the New had begun to be partially introduced,
render it plain, that they may also have existed, and in all pro
bability did not unfrequently prevail, even among the believing
portion of Israel in remoter times.
But such being the case, it would manifestly be travelling in
the wrong direction to make the knowledge, which was possessed
by ancient believers regarding the prospective import of parti
cular types, the measure of our own. The providential arrange
ments and religious institutions which constitute the types, had
an end to serve, independently of their typical design, in mini
stering to the present wants of believers, and nourishing in their
souls the life of faith. Their more remote and typical import
was for us, even more than for those who had immediately to
do with them. It does not rest upon the more or less imperfect
information such persons might have had concerning it ; but
chiefly on the light furnished by the records of the New Testa
ment, and thence reflected on those of the Old. " It is Christ
who holds the key of the types, not Moses ; " and instead of
making everything depend upon the still doubtful inquiry, What
did pious men of old descry of Gospel realities through the
shadowy forms of typical institutions ? we must repair to these
realities themselves, and by the light radiating from them over
the past, as well as the present and future things of God, read
the evidence of that " testimony of Jesus," which lies written
in the typical not less than in the prophetical portions of ancient
Scripture.
III. But if in this respect we have comparatively little to do
with the views of those who lived under former dispensations,
there is another respect in which we have much to do with
them. And our next principle of interpretation is, that we
must always, in the first instance, be careful to make ourselves
acquainted ivith the truths or ideas exhibited in the types, con
sidered merely as providential transactions or religious institutions.
In other words, we are to find in what they were in their im
mediate relation to the patriarchal or Jewish worshipper, the
foundation and substance of what they typically present to the
Christian Church.
186 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
There is no contrariety between this principle and the one
last announced. We had stated, that in endeavouring to ascer
tain the reality and the nature of a typical connection between
Old and New Testament affairs, we are not to reason downward
from what might be known of this in earlier times, but rather
upward from what may now be known of it, in consequence of
the clearer light and higher revelations of the Gospel. What
we farther state now is, that the religious truths and ideas which
were embodied in the typical events and institutions of former
times, must be regarded as forming the ground and limit of
their prospective reference to the affairs of Christ s kingdom.
That they had a moral, political, or religious end to serve for
the time then present, so far from interfering with their desti
nation to typify the spiritual things of the Gospel, forms the
very ground and substance of their typical bearing. Hence
their character in the one respect, the more immediate, may
justly be regarded as the essential key to their character in
respect to what was more remote.
This principle of interpretation grows so necessarily out of
the views advanced in the earlier and more fundamental parts
of our inquiry, that it must here be held as in a manner proved.
Its validity must stand or fall with that of the general princi
ples we have sought to establish, as to the relation between type
and antitype. That relation, it has been our object to show,
rests on something deeper than merely outward resemblances.
It rests rather on the essential unity of the things so related, on
their being alike embodiments of the same principles of Divine
truth ; but embodiments in the case of the type, on a lower and
earthly scale, and as a designed preparation for the higher de
velopment afterwards to be made in the Gospel. That, there
fore, which goes first in the nature of things, must also go first
in any successful effort to trace the connection between them.
And the question, What elements of Divine truth are symbol
ized in the type I must take precedence of the other question,
How did the type foreshadow the greater realities of the anti
type ? For it is in the solution we obtain for the one, that a
foundation is to be laid for the solution of the other.
It is only by keeping stedfastly to this rule, that we shall be
able, in the practical department of our inquiry, to direct our
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 187
thoughts to substantial, as opposed to merely superficial and
fanciful, resemblances. The palpable want of discrimination in
this respect, between what is essential and what is only acci
dental, formed one of the leading defects in our elder writers.
And it naturally sprang from too exclusive a regard to the anti
type, as if the things belonging to it being fully ascertained, we
were at liberty to connect it with everything formally resem
bling it in ancient times, whether really akin in nature to it or
not. Thus, when Kanne, in a passage formerly referred to,
represents the stone which Jacob took for his pillow at Bethel,
as a type of Christ in His character as the foundation-stone of
His Church, there is, no doubt, a kind of outward similarity, so
that the same language may, in a sense, be applied to both ; but
there is no common principle uniting them together. The use
which Jacob made of the stone was quite different from that in
respect to which Christ is exhibited as the stone laid in Zion
being laid not for the repose or slumber, but for the stability
and support, of a ransomed people. For this the strength and
durability of a rock were absolutely indispensable ; but they con
tributed nothing to the fitness of what Jacob s necessities drove
him to employ as a temporary pillow. It was his misfortune, not
his privilege, to be obliged to resort to a stone for such a purpose.
We had occasion formerly to describe in what manner the
lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness might be
regarded as typical of the lifting up of a crucified Redeemer ;
by showing how the inferior objects and relations of the one
had their correspondence in the higher objects and relations of
the other! 1 But suppose we should proceed in the opposite
direction, and should take these higher objects and relations of
the antitype as the rule and measure of what we are to expect
in the type ; then, having a far wider and more complicated
subject for our starting-point, we should naturally set about
discovering many slight and superficial analogies in the type, to
bring it into a fuller correspondence with the antitype. This is
what many have actually done who have treated of the subject.
Hence we find them expatiating upon the metal of which the
serpent was formed, and which, from being inferior to some
others, they regard as foreshadowing Christ s outward meanness,
i Chap. III., p. 81.
188 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
while in its solidity they discern His Divine strength, and in its
dim lustre the veil of His human nature ! * What did it avail
to the Israelite, or for any purpose the serpent had to serve, of
what particular stuff it was made? A dead and senseless thing
in itself, it must have been all one for those who were called
to look to it, whether the material was brass or silver, wood or
stone. And yet, as if it were not enough to make account of
these trifling accidents, others were sometimes invented, for
which there is no foundation in the inspired narrative, to obtain
for the greater breadth of the one subject a corresponding
breadth in the other. Thus Guild represents the serpent as not
having been forged by man s hand or hammer, but by a mould,
and in the fire, to image the Divine conception of Christ s
human nature ; and Justin Martyr, with still greater licence,
supposes the serpent to have been made in the form of a cross,
the more exactly to represent a suffering Eedeemer. Suppose
it had been modelled after this form, would it have been ren
dered thereby a more effective instrument for healing the
diseased? Or would one essential idea have been added to
what either an Israelite or a Christian were otherwise at liberty
to associate with it ? All such puerile straining of the subject
arose from an inverted order being taken in tracing the con
nection between the spiritual reality and the ancient shadow.
It would no longer be thought of, if the principle of interpre
tation here advanced were strictly adhered to ; that is, if the
typical matter of an event or institution were viewed simply as
standing in the truths or principles which it brought distinctly
into view ; and if these were regarded as actually comprising all
that in each particular case could legitimately be applied to the
antitypical affairs of Christ s kingdom.
The judicious application of this principle will serve also to
rid us of another class of extravagances, which are of frequent
occurrence in writers of the Cocceian school, and which mainly
consist, like those already noticed, of external resemblances,
deduced with little or no regard to any real principle of agree
ment. We refer to the customary mode of handling typical
persons or characters, with no other purpose apparently than
that of exhibiting the greatest possible number of coincidences
1 Guild s Moses Unveiled, and Watson s Holy Eucharist.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS.
189
between these and Christ. As many as forty of such have been
reckoned between Moses and Christ, and even more between
Joseph and Christ. Of course, a great proportion of such re
semblances are of a quite superficial and trifling nature, and
are of no moment, whether they happen to be perceived or not.
For any light they throw on the purposes of Heaven, or any
advantage they yield to our faith, we gain nothing by admitting
them, and we lose as little by rejecting them. They would
never have been sought for had the real nature of the connec
tion between type and antitype been understood, and the proper
mode of exhibiting it been adopted ; nor would typical persons
or individuals, sustaining a typical character through the whole
course and tenor of their lives, have been supposed to exist. It
was to familiarize the Church with great truths and principles,
not to occupy her thoughts with petty agreements and fanciful
analogies, that she was kept so long conversant with preparatory
dispensations. And as that end might have been in part served
by a single transaction, or a special appointment in a lifetime ;
so, whenever it was served, it must have been by virtue of its
exhibiting important aspects of Divine truth such as were to
reappear in the person and work of Christ. It is not, in short,
individuals throughout the entire compass of their history, but
individuals in certain divinely appointed offices or relations,
in which we are to seek for what is typical in this province of
sacred history. 1
1 Scarcely any of the late works on the types, published in this country,
are free from the extravagances we have referred to respecting personal
types. They assume, however, the most extreme form in the German
work of Kanne, published in 1818. There the mere similarity of names
is held as a conclusive proof of a typical connection ; so that Miriam, sister
of Moses, was a type of Mary, for the Jews call the former Maria, as well
as the latter. The work is full of such puerilities. It is the same tendency,
however, to rest in merely superficial resemblances which led Schbttgen,
for example, in his Horse Heb. on 1 Cor. x. 2, and leads some still, to hold
that the Israelites must have been " bedewed and refreshed " by the cloud.
It is true the sacred narrative is silent about that, nor is any support to be
found for it in the Jewish writings ; but it seemed to the learned author
necessary to make out a typical relation to baptism, and so he regards it
as in a manner self-evident. On the same ground, of course, Noah and his
family must have been all sprinkled or dipped in the flood, since this too
was the type of baptism !
190 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
IV. Another conclusion flowing not less clearly than the
foregoing from the views already established, and which we
propose as our next leading principle of interpretation, is, that
while the symbol or institution constituting the type has pro
perly bat one radical meaning, yet the fundamental idea or prin
ciple exhibited in it may often be capable of more than one
application to the realities of the Gospel; that is, it may bear
respect to, and be developed in, more than one department of
the affairs of Christ s kingdom. But in illustrating this pro
position, we must take in succession the several parts of which
it consists.
1. The first part asserts each type to be capable of but one
radical meaning. It has a definite way of expressing some
fundamental idea that, and no more. Were it otherwise, we
should find any consistent or satisfactory interpretation of
typical things quite impracticable, and should often lose our
selves in a sea of uncertainty. An example or two may serve
to show how far this has actually been the case in the past.
Glassius makes the deluge to typify both the preservation of
the faithful through baptism, and the destruction of the wicked
in the day of judgment ; and the rule under which he adduces
this example is, that " a type may be a figure of two, and even
contrary things, though in different respects." * In like manner,
Taylor, taking the full liberty of such a canon, when interpret
ing the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea as a type
of baptism, sees in that event, first, " the offering of Jesus
Christ to their faith, through the Eed Sea, of whose death and
passion they should find a sure and safe way to the celestial
Canaan;" and then this other truth, that "by His merit and
mediation He would carry them through all difficulties and
dangers, as deep as the bottom of the sea, unto eternal rest." 2
In this last specimen the Red Sea is viewed as representing at
the same time, and in relation to the same persons, both the
atoning blood of Christ and the outward trials of life. The
other example is not so palpably incorrect, nor does it in fact go
to the entire length, which the rule it is designed to illustrate
1 Philolog. Sac. Lib. II., p. 1, Trac. II., sec. 4, 8. He quotes from
Cornelius a Lapide, but adopts the rule as good.
2 Moses and Aaron, p. 237.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 191
properly warrants ; for the action of the waters in the deluge is
considered by it with reference to different persons, as well as
in different respects. It is at fault, however, in making one
event typical of two diverse and unconnected results. Many
other examples might be produced of similar false interpreta
tions from what has been written of the tabernacle and its
services, equally indicative, on the part of the writers, of a
capricious fancy, and in themselves utterly destitute of any
solid foundation.
Our previous investigations, we trust, have removed this pro
lific source of ambiguity and confusion ; for, if we have not
entirely failed of our object, we have shown that the typical
transactions and symbols of the Old Testament are by no means
so vague and arbitrary as to be capable of bearing senses alto
gether variable and inconsistent. Viewed as a. species of lan
guage, which they really were a speaking by action instead of
words they could only reach the end they had to serve by giving
forth a distinct and intelligible meaning. Such language can
o o & &
no more do this than oral or written discourse, if constructed so
as to be susceptible of the most diverse and even opposite senses.
By the necessities of the case, therefore, we are constrained to
hold, that whatever instruction God might design to communi
cate to the Church, either in earlier or in later times, by means
of the religious institutions and providential arrangements of
past times, it must have been such as admits of being derived
from them by a fixed and reasonable mode of interpretation.
To suppose that their virtue consisted in some capacity to express
meanings quite variable and inconsistent with each other, would
be to assimilate them to the uncertain oracles of heathenism.
2. This is to be understood in the strictest sense of such
typical acts and symbols, as, from their nature, were expressive
of a simple, uncompounded idea. In that case, it would be an
incongruity to make what was one in the type, present, like a re
volving light, a changeful and varying aspect toward the antitype.
But the type itself might possibly be of a complex nature ; that
is, it might embody a process which branched out into two or
more lines of operation, and so combined two or more related
ideas together. In such a case, there will require to be a corre
sponding variety in the application that is made from the type to
192 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
the antitype. The twofold, or perhaps still more complicated,
idea contained in the one must have its counterpart in the other,
as much as if each idea had received a separate representation ;
though due regard must be paid to the connection which they
appear to have one with another, as component elements of the
same type. For example, the event of the deluge, recently ad
verted to, which at once bore on its bosom an elect seed, in safe
preservation for the peopling of a new world, and overwhelmed
in perdition the race of ungodly men who had corrupted the old,
unquestionably involves a complex idea. It embodies in one
great act a double process a process, however, which was ac
complished simultaneously in both its parts; since the doing of the
one carried along with it the execution of the other. In think
ing, therefore, 6f the New Testament antitype, we must have
respect not only to the two ideas themselves severally represented,
but also to their relation to each other ; we must look for some
spiritual process, which in like manner combines a work of pre
servation with a work of destruction. In the different fates of
the righteous and the wicked, the one as appointed to salvation,
and the other to perdition, we have certainly a twofold process
and result; but have we the two in a similar combination? We
certainly have them so combined in the personal history and
work of Christ, as His triumph and exaltation inevitably in
volved the bruising of Satan ; and the same shall also be found
in the final judgment, when, by putting down for ever all adverse
authority and rule, Christ shall raise His Church to the dominion
and the glory. If the typical connection between the deluge
and God s grander works of preservation and destruction, is put
in either of these lights, the objection we lately offered to the
interpretation of Glassius will be obviated, and the requirements
of a Scriptural exegesis satisfied. A like combination of two
ideas is found in the application made of the deluge by the
Apostle Peter to the ordinance of baptism, as will be shown in
due time. And there are, besides, many things connected with
the tabernacle and its services for example, the use made in
them of symbolical numbers, the different kinds of sacrifice, the
ritual of cleansing which are usually so employed as to convey
a complex meaning, and a meaning that of necessity assumes
different shades, according to the different modifications em-
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 193
ployed in the use of the symbolical materials. Such differences,
however, can only be of a minor kind ; they can never touch the
fundamental character of the typical phenomena, so as to render
them expressive in one relation of something totally unlike to
what they denoted in another. A symbolical act or institution
can as little be made to change its meaning arbitrarily, as a term
in language. Its precise import must always be determined first
by an intelligent consideration of its inherent nature, and then
by the connection in which it stands.
3. It is one thing, however, to maintain that a type, either as
a whole or in its component parts, can express only one meaning;
and another, to allow more than one application of it to the affairs
of Christ s kingdom. Not only is there an organic connection
between the Old and the New dispensations, giving rise to the
relation of type and antitype, but also an organic connection
between one part and another of the Gospel dispensation ; in
consequence of which the ideas and principles exhibited in the
types may find their realization in more than one department of
the Gospel system. The types, as well as the prophecies, hence
often admit of " a springing and germinant accomplishment."
They do so especially in those things which concern the eco
nomical relation subsisting between Christ and His people ; by
reason of which He is at once the root out of which they grow,
and the pattern after which their condition and destiny are to be
formed. If, on this account, it be necessary that in all things He
should have the pre-eminence, it is not less necessary that they
should bear His image, and share in His heritage of blessing.
So closely are they identified with Him. in their present experi
ence and their future prospects, that they are now spoken of as
having " fellowship with him in His sufferings," being " planted
with Him in the likeness of His death," and again " planted with
Him in the likeness of His resurrection," " sitting with Him in
heavenly places," having "their life hid with Him in God," and
being at last raised to "inherit His kingdom, and sit with Him
upon His throne." In short, the Church as a whole is conformed
to His likeness ; while, again, in each one of her members is
reproduced an image of the whole. Therefore the principles
and ideas which, by means of typical ordinances and transactions,
were perpetually exhibited before the eye of the Old Testament
VOL. I. N
194 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Church, while they must find their grand development in Christ
Himself, must also have further developments in the history of
His Church and people. They have respect to our relations and
experiences, our state and prospects, in so far as these essentially
coincide with Christ s ; for, so far, the one is but a partial re
newal or a prolonged existence of the other.
There are things of a typical nature, it is proper to add,
which in a more direct and special manner bear respect to the
Church and people of Christ. The rite of circumcision, for ex
ample, the passage through the Red Sea, the judgments in the
wilderness, the eating of manna, and many similar things, must
obviously have their antitypes in the heirs of salvation rather
than in Him, who, in this respect, stood alone ; He was per
sonally free from sin, and did not Himself need the blessings He
provided for others. So that, when the Apostle writes of the
ordinances of the law, that they were " shadows of good things
to come, but the body is of Christ" (Col. ii. 17), he is not to be
understood as meaning that Christ personally and alone is the
object they prospectively contemplated, but Christ together with
His body the Church the events and interests of the Gospel
dispensation. In this collective sense Christ is mentioned also
in 1 Cor. xii. 12, and Gal. iii. 16. Nor is it by any means an
arbitrary sense ; for it is grounded in the same vital truth, on
which we have based the admissibility of a twofold application
or bearing of typical things, viz., the organic union subsisting
between Christ and His redeemed people " He in them, and
they in Him."
V. Another principle of interpretation arising out of the
preceding investigations, and necessary to be borne in mind for
the right understanding of typical symbols and transactions, is,
that due regard must be had to the essential difference between the
nature of type and antitype. For, as the typical is Divine truth
on a lower stage, exhibited by means of outward relations and
terrestrial interests, so, when making the transition from this to
the antitypical, we must expect the truth to appear on a loftier
stage, and, if we may so speak, with a more heavenly aspect.
What in the one bore immediate respect to the bodily life, must
in the other be found to bear immediate respect to the spiritual
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 195
life. While in the one it is seen and temporal objects that
ostensibly present themselves, their proper counterpart in the
other are the unseen and eternal : there, the outward, the pre
sent, the worldly ; here, the inward, the future, the heavenly.
A change and advance of the kind here supposed, enters
into the very vitals of the subject, as unfolded in the earlier part
of our inquiry. The reason why typical symbols and institu
tions were employed by God in His former dealings with His
Church, arose from the adoption of a plan which indispensably
required that very progression in the mode of exhibiting Divine
truth. The world was treated for a period as a child that must
be taught great principles, and prepared for events of infinite
magnitude and eternal interest, by the help of familiar and
sensible objects, which lay fully open to their view, and came
within the grasp of their comprehension. But now that we have
to do with the things themselves, for which those means of
preparation were instituted, we must take care, in tracing the
connection between the one and the other, to keep steadily in
view the essential difference between the two periods, and with
the rise in the Divine plan give a corresponding rise to the ap
plication we make of what belonged to the ancient economy.
To proceed without regard to this to look for the proper
counterpart of any particular type in the same class of objects
and interests, as that to which the type itself immediately re
ferred, would be to act like those Judaizing Christians, who,
after the better things had come, held fast at once by type and
antitype, as if they stood upon the same plane, and were con
structed of the same materials. It would be to remain at the
old foundations, while the scheme of God has risen to a higher
place, and laid a new world, as it were, open to our view. If,
therefore, we enter aright into the change which has been
effected in the position of the Divine kingdom, "and give to that
its proper weight in determining the connection between type
and antitype, we must look for things in the one, corresponding,
indeed, to those in the other, but, at the same time, proportionally
higher and greater ; and, in particular, must remember that,
according to the rule, internal things now take the place of
external, and spiritual of bodily.
Much discretion, however, which it is impossible to bound by
196 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
such precise and definite rules as might meet all conceivable
cases, will be necessary in applying the principle now indicated
to individual examples. In the majority of cases there will be
no difficulty ; for the distinction we mention between the Old
and the New is so manifest, as to secure a certain degree of
uniformity even among those who are not remarkable for dis
crimination. And, indeed, the writers most liable to err in other
respects, persons of delicate sensibilities and spiritual feeling,
are less in danger of erring here, as they have usually a clear
perception of the more inward and elevated character of the
Gospel dispensation. The point in regard to which they are
most likely to err concerning it, and that which really forms the
chief difficulty in applying the principle now under consideration,
arises from what may be called the mixed nature of the things
belonging to Messiah s kingdom. As contradistinguished from
those of earlier dispensations, and rising above them, we de
nominate the realities of the Gospel spiritual, heavenly, eternal.
And yet they are not totally disconnected with the objects of
flesh and time. The centre-point of the whole, Jesus Christ,
not only sojourned in bodily form upon the earth, but had cer
tain conditions to fulfil of an outward and bodily kind, which
were described beforehand in prophecy, and may also, of course,
have had their typical adumbrations. In the case of the Church,
too, her life of faith is not altogether of an inward nature, and
confined to the hidden man of the heart. It touches continually
on the corporeal and visible ; and certain events essentially con
nected with her progress and destiny such as the miraculous
gifts of the Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles, the persecutions
of the world, the doom of Antichrist could not take place with
out assuming an outward and palpable form. What, then, it
may be asked, becomes of the characteristic difference between
the Old and the New, so far as such things are concerned?
Must not type and antitype still be found substantially on the
same level ?
By no means. The proper inference is, that there are cases
in which the difference is less broadly marked ; but it still
exists. The operations, experiences, and blessings peculiar to
the dispensation of the Gospel, are not all of a simply inward
and spiritual nature ; but they all bear directly on the interests
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 197
of a spiritual salvation, and the realities of a heavenly and
eternal world. The members of Christ s kingdom, so long as
they are in flesh and blood, must have their history interwoven
on every side with the relations of sense and time, and be them
selves dependent upon outward ordinances for the existence and
nourishment of their spiritual life. Yet, whatever is external in
their privileges and condition, has its internal side, and even its
avowed reason, in things pertaining to the soul s salvation, and
the coming inheritance of glory. So that the spiritual and
heavenly is here always kept prominently in view, as the end
and object of all ; while in Old Testament times everything was
veiled under the sensible relations of flesh and time, and, except
ing to the divinely illuminated eye, seemed as if it did not look
beyond them.
For example, the deluge and baptism so far agree in form,
that they have both an outward operation ; but the operation,
in the one case, has to do directly with the preservation and
destruction of an earthly life, while in the other it bears im
mediately upon the life of immortality in the soul. The cruci
fixion of Christ and the slaying of the paschal lamb were alike
outward transactions ; but the direct and ostensible result con
templated in the first, was salvation from the condemnation and
punishment of sin ; in the second, escape from corporeal death,
and deliverance from the yoke of an earthly bondage. In like
manner, it might be said to be as much an outward transaction
for Christ to ascend personally into the presence of the Father,
as for the high priest to go within the veil with the blood of
the yearly atonement ; but to rectify men s relation to a worldly
sanctuary and an earthly inheritance, was the immediate object
sought by this action of the high priest, while the appearance
of Christ in the heavenly places was to secure for His people
access to the everlasting kingdom of light and glory. In such
cases, the common property of a certain outwardness in the acts
and operations referred to, is far from placing them on the
same level ; a higher element still appears in the one as com
pared with the other. But if, on the other hand, we should
say, as has often been said, that Isaac s bearing the wood for
the altar typified Christ s bearing His cross to Calvary, we
bring together two circumstances which do stand precisely upon
198 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the same level, are alike outward in their nature, and in the
one no more than in the other involve any rise to a higher
sphere of truth. Else, how should a common man, Cimon
the Cyrenian, have shared with Christ in the bearing of the
burden ?
But, undoubtedly, the most pernicious examples of this false
style of typical applications are those which, from comparatively
early times, have been employed to assimilate the New Testa
ment economy in its formal appearance and administration to
the Old, and for which Koine is able to avail herself of the
authority of many of the more distinguished fathers. By
means chiefly of mistaken parallels from Jewish to Christian
times, mistaken, because they virtually ignored the rise that
had taken place in the Divine economy, everything was
gradually brought back from the apostolic ideal of a spiritual
community, founded on the perfect atonement and priesthood
of Christ, to the outwardness and ritualism of ancient times.
The sacrifices of the law, it was thought, must have their
correspondence in the offering of the Eucharist ; and as every
sacrificial offering must have a priest to present it, so the priest
hood of the Old Covenant, determined by genealogical descent,
must find its substitute in a priesthood determined by apostolical
succession. It was but a step farther, and one quite natural in
the circumstances, to hold that as the ancient hierarchy cul
minated in a High-priest of Jerusalem, so the Christian must
have a similar culmination in the Bishop of Rome. In these
and many similar applications of Old Testament things to the
ceremonial institutions and devices of Romanism, there is a
substantial perpetuation of the Judaizing error of apostolic
times an adherence to the oldness and carnality of the letter,
after the spiritual life and more elevated standing of the New
has come. According to it, everything in Christianity as well
as in Judaism is made to turn upon formal distinctions and
ritual observances : and that not the less because of a certain
introduction of the higher element, as in the substitution of
apostolical succession and the impressed character of the new
priesthood, for the genealogical descent and family relationship
of the old. Such slight alterations only affect the mode of get
ting at the outward things established, but leave the outwardness
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 199
itself unaffected; they are of no practical avail in lifting Chris
tianity above the old Judaistic level. 1
The Protestant Church, however, has not been without its
false typical applications, proceeding on the same fundamental
mistake. They are found especially among the Grotian school
of divines, whose low and carnal tone is continually betraying
itself in a tendency to depress and lower the spiritual truths of
the Gospel to a conformity with the simple letter of Old Testa
ment Scripture. The Gospel is read not only through a Jewish
medium, but also in a Jewish sense, and nothing but externals
admitted in the New, wherever there is descried, in the form of
the representation, any reference to such in the Old. It is one
of the few services which neological exegesis has rendered to
the cause of Divine truth, that by a process of exhaustion it has
nearly emptied this meagre style of interpretation of the measure
of plausibility it originally possessed. But it is still occasionally
followed, in the particular respect now under consideration, by
theological writers of a higher stamp. Thus, the doctrine of
election, as unfolded in the epistles of the New Testament, is
held by the advocates of a modified Arminianism to be impro
perly understood of an appointment to personal salvation and
an eternal life, on the special ground that the election of the
Jewish people was only their calling as a nation to outward
privileges and a temporal inheritance. Rightly understood,
however, this is rather a reason why election in the Christian
sense should be made to embrace something higher and better.
For the proper counterpart under the Gospel to those external
relations of Judaism is the gift of grace and the heirship of
glory the lower in the one case shadowing the higher in the
other the outward and temporal representing the spiritual and
eternal. Even Macknight, who cannot certainly be charged
with any excess of the spiritual element in his interpretations,
perceived the necessity of making, as he expresses it, " the
natural seed the type of the spiritual, and the temporal blessings
the emblems of the eternal." Hence, he justly regards the out
ward professing Church in the one case, with its election to the
earthly Canaan, as answering in the other to the " invisible
1 See this subject admirably treated in Mr Litton s work on the Church,
p. 53 5, sec. 7 ; also his Bampton Lecture, Sermon viii.
200 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Church, consisting of believers of all nations, who, partaking
the nature of God by faith and holiness, are truly the sons of
God, and have the inheritance of His blessing." 1
The characteristic differences, with their respective limita
tions and apparent anomalies, may be briefly stated thus : It
belongs properly to the New dispensation to reveal divine and
spiritual things distinctly to the soul, while in the Old they are
presented under the veil of something outward and earthly.
The spiritual and divine itself, which always, as a living under
current, ran beneath this exterior veil, might, even during the
existence of the Old, come directly into view ; but whenever it
did so, there was no longer a figure or type of the true, but the
true itself. Thus, in so far as the seed of Israel were found an
election of God, actually partaking of the grace and blessing of
the covenant, in so far as they were a royal priesthood, circum-
1 On Rom. ix. 8. For the other side see Wlritby on the same chapter,
and on 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; Graves Works, vol. iii., p. 233. Archbishop Whately,
in his Essays on the Peculiarities of the Gospel, p. 95, gives the representa
tion a somewhat different turn from Whitby and Graves. He regards the
Israelites as not having been " elected absolutely and infallibly to enter the
promised land, to triumph over their enemies, and live in security, wealth,
and enjoyment ; but only to the privilege of having these blessings placed
within their reach, on the condition of their obeying the law which God had
given them." Whence, he infers, Christians are only elected in the same
sense to the privileges of a Gospel condition and the promise of final sal
vation. In regard to election in the Gospel sense, such a representation
vanishes before a few plain texts, such as, " Many are called, but few are
chosen ; " " elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus ; " " according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of
the world . . . having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to Himself." If such passages do not imply election to a state
of personal salvation, it is not in the power of language to express the idea.
In regard to the Israelites, also, the election and the promise were made
absolutely, " to thy seed will I give this laud," and the proper inference
respecting those who afterwards perished in the wilderness, without being
permitted to enter the land, is simply, that they were not of that portion of
the seed who were elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, to the pro
mised inheritance. It is true they might justly be said to have lost it for
disobeying the law ; but viewed in respect to their connection with the
calling and promise of God, it was their want of faith to connect them with
these, their unbelief, which was the source of perdition, the root at once of
their disobedience, and of the disinheritance which ensued. (Heb. iii. 19).
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 201
cised in heart to the Lord, they showed themselves to be pos
sessed of the reality of a justified condition and a regenerated
life. The exhibitions that may have been given by any of them
of such a state, were not typical in the sense of foreshadowing
something higher and better under the Gospel ; and if those
in whom they appeared are spoken of as types, it must be as
specimens, not as adumbrations patterns of what is common to
the children of faith in every age. The only connection pos
sible in such a case, is that which subsists between type and
impression, exemplar and copy, not that between type and
antitype.
Turning to the things of the New dispensation, we have
simply to reverse the statement now r made. While here the
spiritual and divine are exhibited in unveiled clearness, it is
quite conceivable that they may at times have appeared under
the distinctive guise of the Old, imbedded in fleshly and material
forms. Especially might this be expected to happen at the be
ginning of the Gospel, when the transition was in the course of
being made from the Old to the New, as the Messiah came
forth to lay the foundations of His spiritual and everlasting
kingdom on the external theatre of a present world. It was
natural at such a time for God graciously to accommodate His
ways to a weak faith, and facilitate its exercise, by making the
things that appeared under the New, wear the very livery of
those that prefigured them under the Old. This is precisely
what was done in some of the more noticeable parts of Christ s
earthly history. But in so far as it was done, that is, in so far
as some outward transaction in the Old reappeared in a like
outward transaction in the New, their relation to each other
could not properly be that of type and antitype, but only of
exemplar and copy, unless the New Testament transaction,
while it bore a formal resemblance to that of the Old, was itself
at the same time the sensible exponent of some higher truth.
If it were this, then the relation would still be substantially that
of type and antitype. And such indeed it is, in the few cases
which actually fall within the range of these remarks, and
which, when superficially viewed, seem at variance with the
principle of interpretation we are seeking to establish.
Let us, in conclusion, glance at the cases themselves. The
202 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUKE.
recall of the infant Jesus from the land of Egypt, after a tem
porary sojourn there, is regarded by the Evangelist Matthew as
the correlative in New Testament times to the deliverance of
Israel under the Old. It is impossible to overlook the indica
tion of a similar connection, though none of the evangelists
have expressly noticed it, between Israel s period of trial and
temptation for forty years in the wilderness, and Christ s with
drawal into the wilderness to be tempted forty days of the devil.
The Evangelist John sets the singular and apparently accidental
preservation of Christ s limbs on the cross, beside the prescrip
tion regarding the paschal lamb, not to let a bone of him be
broken, and sees in the one a divinely appointed compliance
with the other (ch. xix. 36). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews
(ch. xiii. 12), the crucifixion of Jesus beyond the gates of Jeru
salem is represented, not indeed as done to establish a necessary,
but still as exhibiting an actual, correspondence with the treat
ment of those sin-offerings which were burned without the
camp. There can be no doubt that in each of these instances
of formal agreement between the Old and the New, the trans
actions look as if they were on the same level, and appear
equally outward in the one as in the other. Shall we say then,
that on this account they do not really stand to each other in
the relation of type and antitype ? or that there was some pecu
liarity in the later transactions, which still, amid the apparent
sameness, raised them to a sufficient elevation above the earlier ?
This last supposition we conceive to be the correct one.
First of all, it was not unnatural, when there was so little
faith in the Church, and when such great things were in the
course of being accomplished, that certain outward and palpable
correspondences, such as we have noticed, should have been
exhibited. It was a kind and gracious accommodation on the
part of God to the ignorance and weakness of the times. The
people were almost universally looking in the wrong direction
for the things connected with the person and kingdom of Mes
siah ; and He mercifully controlled in various respects the
course and progress of events, so as, in a manner, to force on
their notice the marvellous similarity of His working now to
what He had done in the days of old. He did what was fitted
to impress visibly upon the darker features of the evangelical
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 203
history His own image and superscription, and to mark them
out to men s view as wrought according to the law of a foreseen
and pre-established harmony. Yet we should not expect such
obvious and palpable marks of agreement to be commonly
stamped by the hand of God upon the new things of His king
dom, as compared with the old ; we should rather regard them
as a sort of extraordinary and peculiar helps granted to a weak
and unenlightened faith at the beginnings of the kingdom.
And even when so granted, we should not expect them to con
stitute the whole of the matter, but should suppose something
farther to be veiled under them than immediately meets the eye
a deeper agreement, of which the one outwardly appearing
was little more than the sign and herald.
This supposition gathers strength when we reflect that the
outward agreement, however manifest and striking in some
O O
respects, is still never so uniform and complete as to convey the
impression that the entire stress lay there, or that it was de
signed to be anything more than a stepping-stone for the mind
to rise higher. Thus, while the child Jesus was for a time
t? /
located in Egypt, and again brought out of it by the special
providence of God, like Israel in its youth ; yet what a differ
ence between the two cases in the length of time spent in the
transactions, and the whole circumstances connected with their
accomplishment ! Jesus and Israel alike underwent a period of
temptation in a wilderness before entering on their high calling ;
but again, how widely different in the actual region selected
for the scene of trial, and the time during which it was con
tinued ! Christ s crucifixion beyond the gates of Jerusalem,
and the preservation of His limbs from external violence, ex
hibited a striking resemblance to peculiarities in the sacrifices of
the passover and sin-offering enough to mark the overruling
agency of God ; but in other outward things there were scarcely
less marked discrepancies nothing, for example, in the sacri
fices referred to, corresponding with the pierced side of Jesus,
or His suspension on the cross ; and nothing again in Jesus
formally answering to the sacrificial rites of the imposition of
hands, the sprinkling of blood, or the burning of the carcase.
These, and other defects that might be named in the external
correspondence between the New and the Old, plainly enough
204 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
indicate that the outward agreement was, after all, not the main
thing, nor the thing that properly constituted the typical con
nection between them. Else, where such agreement failed, the
connection must have failed too ; and in many respects Christ
should not have been the "body" of the ancient shadows in
more, perhaps, than those in which He actually was. Who
would not shrink from such a conclusion ? But we can find no
consistent reason for avoiding it, except on the ground that the
occasional outward coincidences between our Lord s personal
history and things in God s earlier dispensations, were the signs
of a tvpical relationship rather than that relationship itself, a
likeness merely on the surface, that gave notice of a deeper and
more essential agreement.
This peculiarity in some of the typical applications of Scrip
ture, has its parallel in the applications also sometimes made of
the prophecies. We merely point for examples to the employ
ment by St John, ch. xix. 37, of Zech. xii. 10, " They shall
look on Me whom they have pierced," or by St Matthew in ch.
ii. 23, viii. 17, of other prophetical testimonies, and refer to the
explanations given of them in our Appendix. In such cases it
is obvious, on a little reflection, that the outward and corporeal
things with which the word of prophecy is immediately con
nected, fell so far short of their full meaning, that if they were
fitly regarded as a fulfilment of what had been spoken, it was
more because of the index they afforded to other and greater
things yet to come, than of what was accomplished in themselves.
It was like pointing to the little cloud in the horizon, which may
be scarcely worth noticing in itself, but which assumes another
aspect when it is discerned to be the sign and the forerunner of
gathering vapours, and floods of drenching rain. The begin
ning and the end, the present sign and the coming reality, are
then seen blending together, and appear to form but one object.
CHAPTER SEVENTH.
THE PLACE DUE TO THE SUBJECT OF TYPOLOGY AS A BRANCH
OF THEOLOGICAL STUDY, AND THE ADVANTAGES ARISING
FROM ITS PROPER CULTIVATION.
THE loose and incorrect views which so long prevailed on the
subject of Typology, and which, till recently, had taken a direc
tion tending at once to circumscribe their number and lessen
their importance, have had the effect of reducing it to little more
than a nominal place in the arrangement of topics calling for
exact theological discussion. For any real value to be attached
to it in the order of God s revelations, or any light it is fitted to
throw, when rightly understood, on the interpretation of Scrip
ture, we search in vain amid the writings of our leading herme-
neutical and systematic divines. The treatment it has most
commonly received at their hands is rather negative than posi
tive. They appear greatly more concerned about the abuses to
which it may be carried, than the advantages to which it may be
applied. And were it not for the purpose of exploding errors,
delivering cautions, and disowning unwarrantable conclusions, it
is too plain the subject would scarcely have been deemed worthy
of any separate and particular consideration.
If the discussion pursued through the preceding chapters has
been conducted with any success, it must have tended to produce
a somewhat different feeling upon the subject. Various points
of moment connected with the purposes of God and the inter
pretation of Scripture must have suggested themselves to the
reflective reader, as capable both of receiving fresh light, and
of acquiring new importance from a well-grounded system of
Typology. One entire branch of the subject its connection
with the closely related field of prophecy has already, on ac
count of the principles involved in it, been considered in a
separate chapter. At present we shall look to some other points
of a more general kind, which have, however, an essential bear-
206 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
ing on the character of a Divine revelation, and which will
enable us to present, in a variety of lights, the reasonableness and
importance of the views we have been endeavouring to establish.
I. We mark, first, an analogy in God s methods of prepara
tory instruction, as adopted by Him at different but somewhat
corresponding periods of the Church s history. In one brief
period of its existence, the Church of the New Testament might
be said to stand in a very similar relation to the immediate future,
that the Church of the Old Testament generally did to the more
distant future of Gospel times. It was the period of our Lord s
earthly ministry, during which the materials were in preparation
for the actual establishment of His kingdom, and His disciples
were subjected to the training which was to fit them for taking
part in its affairs. The process that had been proceeding for
ages with the Church, had, in their experience, to be virtually
begun and completed in the short space of a few years. And
we are justly warranted to expect, that the method adopted
during this brief period of special preparation toward the first
members of the New Testament Church, should present some
leading features of resemblance to that pursued with the Old
Testament Church as a whole, during her immensely more
lengthened period of preparatory training.
Now, the main peculiarity, as we have seen, of God s method
of instruction and discipline in respect to the Old Testament
Church, consisted in the use of symbol and action. It was
chiefly by means of historical transactions and symbolical rites
that the ancient believers were taught what they knew of the
truths and mysteries of grace. For the practical guidance and
direction of their conduct they were furnished with means of in
formation the most literal and express ; but in regard to the
spiritual concerns and objects of the Messiah s kingdom, all was
couched under veil and figure. The instruction given addressed
itself to the eye rather than to the ear. It came intermingled
with the things they saw and handled ; and while it necessarily
made them familiar with the elements of Gospel truth, it not
less necessarily left them in comparative ignorance as to the
particular events and operations in which the truth was to find
its ultimate and proper realization.
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 207
How entirely analogous was the course pursued by our Lord
with His immediate disciples during the period of His earthly
ministry! The direct instruction He imparted to them was,
with few exceptions, confined to lessons of moral truth and duty
freeing the law of God from the false glosses of a carnal and
corrupt priesthood, which had entirely overlaid its meaning, and
disclosing the pure and elevated principles on which His king
dom was to be founded. But in regard to what might be called
the mysteries of the kingdom, the constitution of Christ s per
son, the peculiar character of Plis work as the .Redeemer of a
sinful and fallen world, and the connection of all with a higher
and future world, little instruction of a direct kind was im
parted up to the very close of Christ s earthly ministry. On one
or two occasions, when He sought to convey more definite infor
mation upon such points, the disciples either completely misunder
stood His meaning, or showed themselves incapable of profiting
by His instructions (Matt. xvi. 21-23; Luke xviii. 34; John ii.
19-22, vi.). So that in the last discourse He held with them
before His death, He spoke of the many things He had yet to
say to them, but which, as they still could not bear them, had
to be reserved to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who should
come and lead them into all the truth. Were they, therefore,
left without instruction of any kind respecting those higher
truths and mysteries of the kingdom ? By no means ; for
throughout the whole period of their connection with Christ,
they were constantly receiving such instruction as could be con
veyed through action and symbol ; or more correctly, through
action and allegory, which was here made to take the place of
symbol, and served substantially the same design.
The public life of Jesus was full of action, and in that, to a
large extent, consisted its fulness of instruction. Every miracle
He performed was a type in history ; for, on the outward and
visible field of nature, it revealed the Divine power He was
going to manifest, and the work He came to achieve in the
higher field of grace. In every act of healing men s bodily dis
eases, and supplying of men s bodily wants, there was an ex
hibition to the eye of sense at once of His purpose to bring
salvation to their souls, and of the principles on which that sal
vation should proceed. In like manner, when He resorted to
208 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the parabolic method of instruction, it was but another employ
ment of the familiar and sensible things of nature, under the
form of allegory, to convey still farther instruction respecting
the spiritual and Divine things of His kingdom. The procedure,
no doubt, involved a certain exercise of judgment toward those
who had failed to profit, as they ought, by His more simple and
direct teaching (Matt. xiii. 11-15). But for His own disciples
it formed a cover, through which He could present to them a
larger amount of spiritual truth, and impart a more correct idea
of His kingdom, than it was possible for them, as yet, by any
other method to obtain. Every parable contained an allegorical
representation of some particular aspect of the kingdom, which,
like the types of an earlier dispensation, only needed to be
illuminated by the facts of Gospel history, to render it a clear
and intelligible image of spiritual and Divine realities. In all,
the outward and earthly was made to present the form of the
inward and heavenly.
Thus, the special training of our Lord s disciples very closely
corresponded to the course of preparatory dispensations through
which the Church at large was conducted before the time of
His appearing. Such an analogy, pursued in circumstances
so altered, and through periods so widely different, bespeaks the
consistent working and presiding agency of Him " who is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." It furnishes also a ready
and effective answer to the Socinian argument against the
peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, on account of the comparative
silence maintained respecting them in the direct instructions of
Christ. " Can such doctrines," they have sometimes asked,
" enter so essentially, as is alleged, into the original plan of
Christianity, when its Divine author Himself says so little about
them when in all He taught His disciples there is at most but
a limited number of passages which seem even to point with
any definiteness in that direction?" Look, we reply, to the
analogy of God s dealings with His Church, and let that supply
the answer. Christ and the mysteries of His redemption were
the end of all the earlier proceedings of God, and of the institu
tions of worship He gave to His Church ; and yet many cen
turies of preparatory instruction and discipline were permitted
to elapse before the objects themselves were brought distinctly
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 209
into view. Should it then be deemed strange or unaccountable
that the persons immediately chosen by Christ to announce them,
were made to undergo a brief but perfectly similar preparatory
course, under the eye of their Divine Master? It could not
have been otherwise. The facts of Christianity are the basis of
its doctrines ; and until those facts had become matter of history,
the doctrines could neither be explicitly taught nor clearly
understood. They could only be obscurely represented to the
mind through the medium of typical actions, symbolical rites,
or parabolical narratives. And it results as much from the
essential nature of things as from the choice of its Divine
Author, that the mode of instruction, which was continued
through the lengthened probation of the Old Testament
Church, should have found its parallel in "the beginning of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
II. But there is an analogy of faith and practice which is of
still greater importance than any analogy that may appear in the
methods of instruction. However important it may be to note
resemblances in the mode of communicating Divine truth, at one
period as compared with another, it is more so to know that the
truth, however communicated, has always been found one in its
tendency and working ; that the earlier and the later, the Old
and the New Testament Churches, though differing widely in
light and privilege, yet breathed the same spirit, walked by the
same rule, possessed and manifested the same elements of cha
racter. A correct acquaintance with the Typology of Scripture
alone explains how, with such palpable differences subsisting
between them, there should still have been such essential uni
formity in the result.
In the writings of the New Testament, especially in the
epistles, it is very commonly the differences between the Old and
the New, rather than the agreements, that are pressed on our
notice. A necessity for this arose from the abuse to which the
Jews had turned the handwriting of ordinances delivered to
them by Moses. In the carnality of their minds, they mistook
the means for the end, embraced the shadow for the substance,
and so converted what had been set up for the express purpose
of leading them to Christ, into a mighty stumbling-block to
VOL. I. O
210 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
obstruct the way of their approach to Him. On this account it
became necessary to bring prominently out the differences be
tween the preparatory and the ultimate schemes of God, and to
show that what was perfectly suited to the one was quite un-
suited to the other. But there were, at the same time, many
real agreements of a most essential nature between them, and
these also are often referred to in New Testament Scripture.
Moses and Christ, when closely examined and viewed as to the
more fundamental parts of their respective systems, are found
to teach in perfect harmony with each other. The law and the
prophets of the Old Testament, and the gospels and epistles of
the New, exhibit but different phases of the same wondrous
scheme of grace. The light varies from time to time in its
clearness arid intensity, but never as to the elements of which it
is composed. And the very differences which so broadly dis
tinguish the Gospel dispensation from all that went before it,
when taken in connection with the entire plan and purpose of
God, afford evidence of an internal harmony and a profound
agreement.
The truth of what we say, if illustrated to its full extent,
would require us to traverse almost the entire field of Scripture
Typology. We shall therefore content ourselves here with
selecting a single point, which, in its most obvious aspect, belongs
rather to the differences than the agreements between the Old
and the New dispensations. For in what do the two more
apparently and widely differ from each other than in regard to
the place occupied in them respectively by the doctrine of a
future state? In the Scriptures of the New Testament, the
eternal world comes constantly into view ; it meets us in every
page, inspirits every religious character, mingles with every
important truth and obligation, and gives an ethereal tone and
an ennobling impress to the whole genius and framework of
Christianity. Nothing of this, however, is to be found in the
earlier portions of the Word of God. That these contain no
reference of any kind to a future state of rewards and punish
ments, we are far from believing, as will abundantly appear in
the sequel. But still the doctrine of such a state is nowhere
broadly announced, as an essential article of faith, in the revela
tions of Old Testament Scripture ; it has no distinct and easily
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 211
recognised place either in the patriarchal or the Lcvitical dis
pensations ; it is never set forth as a formal ground of action,
and is implied, rather than distinctly affirmed or avowedly acted
on, excepting when it occasionally appears among the confes
sions of pious individuals, or in the later declarations of pro
phecy ; so that, though itself one of the first principles of all
true religion, there yet was maintained respecting it a studied
caution and reserve in the revelations of God to men, up to the
time when He came who was to " bring life and immortality to
light. 1
This obvious difference between the Old and the New Testa
ment revelations, in respect to a future state, has been deemed
such a palpable incongruity, that sometimes the most forced
interpretations have been resorted to with the view of getting
rid of the fact, while, at other times, extravagant theories have
been proposed to account for it. But we have no need to look
farther than to the typical character of God s earlier dispensa
tions for a satisfactory explanation of the difficulty and we shall
find it in nothing else. For, leave this out of view suppose
that God s method of teaching and training the Old Testament
Church was not necessarily formed on the plan of unfolding
Gospel ideas and principles by means of earthly relations and
fleshly symbols, then we see not how it could have consisted with
Divine wisdom to keep such a veil hanging for so many ages
over the realities of a coining eternity. But let the typical
element be duly taken into account ; let it be understood that
inferior and earthly things were systematically employed of old
to image and represent those which are heavenly and Divine ;
and then we shall be equally unable to see how it could have
consisted with Divine wisdom to have disclosed the doctrine of a
future state, otherwise than under the figures and shadows of
what is seen and temporal. For this doctrine, in its naked form,
1 A clear proof in a single instance of what is here said of the Old Testa
ment in respect to an eternal world, may be found in what is written of
Enoch, "He was not, for God took him," and this because he had walked
with God. A causal connection plainly existed between his walk on earth
and his removal to God s presence ; and yet this is so indicated as clearly to
show that it was the Divine purpose to spread a veil of secrecy over the future
world, as if the distinct knowledge of it depended on conditions that could
not then be formally brought out.
212 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
stands inseparably connected with the facts of Christ s death and
resurrection, on which it is entirely based as a ground of con
solation, and an object of hope to the believer. And if the one
had been openly disclosed, while the other still remained under
the veil of temporary shadows, utter confusion must necessarily
have been introduced into the dispensations of God : the Old
Covenant, with ordinances suited only to an inferior and pre
paratory course of training, should have possessed a portion of
the light properly belonging to a complete and finished revela
tion. The ancient Church, with her faith in that case professedly
directed on the eternal world, must have lost her symbolical re
lation to the present; her experiences must have been as spiritual,
her life as hidden, her conflict with temptation, and victory over
the world, as inward as those of believers under the Gospel.
But then the Church of the Old Testament, being without the
clear knowledge of Christ and His salvation, still wanted the
true foundation for so much of a spiritual, inward, and hidden
nature ; and it must have been next to impossible to prevent false
confidences from mingling with her expectations of the future,
since she had only the shadowy and carnal in worship with which
to connect the real and eternal in blessing.
Is this not what actually happened in the case of the later
Jews? In the course of that preparatory training through
which they were conducted, an increasing degree of light was
at length imparted, among other things, in respect to a future
state of reward and punishment ; the later Scriptures contained
not a few quite explicit intimations on the subject (as in Hos.
xiii. 14; Dan. xii. 2; Isa. xxvi. 19); and by the time of
Christ s appearing, the doctrine of a resurrection from the dead
to a world of endless happiness or misery, formed nearly as
distinct and prominent an article in the Jewish faith as it does
now in the Christian. (Acts xxiii. 6, xxvi. 6-8 ; Matt. v. 29,
x. 28, etc.) Now, this had been well, and should have only
disposed the Jews to give to Jesus a more enlightened and
hearty reception, had they been careful to couple with the
clearer view thus obtained, and the more direct introduction of
a future world, the intimations that accompanied it of a higher
and better dispensation of the old things, under which they
lived, being to be done away, that others of a nobler description
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 213
might take their place. But this was what the later Jews, as
a class, failed to do. Partial in their knowledge of Scripture,
and confounding together the things that differed, they took the
prospect of immortality as if it had been directly unfolded, and
ostensibly provided for in the shadowy dispensation itself. The
result necessarily was, that that dispensation ceased in their
view to be shadowy ; it contained in itself, they imagined, the
full apparatus required for sinful men, to redeem them from
the curse of sin, and bring them to eternal life ; and what
ever purposes the Messiah might come to accomplish, that He
should supplant its carnal observances by something of a higher
nature, and more immediately bearing on the immortal interests
of man, formed no part of their expectations concerning Him.
Thus, by coming to regard the doctrine of a future state of
happiness and glory, as, in its naked or direct form, an integral
part of the revelations of the Old Covenant, they naturally fell
into two most serious mistakes. They first overlooked the
shadowy nature of their religion, and exalted it to an undue
rank by looking to it for blessings which it was never intended,
unless typically, to impart ; and then, when the Messiah came,
they entirely misapprehended the great object of His mission,
and lost all participation in His kingdom.
So much, then, for the palpable difference in this respect
between the Old and the New. There was a necessity in the
case, arising from the very nature of the Divine plan. So long
as the Church was under symbolical ordinances and typical
relations, the future world must fall into the background ; the
things concerning it could only appear imaged in the seen and
present. But that they did appear so imaged in this, with all
the outward diversity that prevailed, there still lay an essential
agreement between the Old dispensation and the New. The
minds of believers under the former neither were, nor could be,
an entire blank in regard to a future state of being. From the
very first as we shall see afterwards, when we come to trace
out the elements of the primeval religion there was in God s
dealings and revelations toward them, what in a manner com
pelled them to look beyond a present world; it was so manifestly
impossible to realize here, with any degree of completeness, the
objects He seemed to have in view. And the under-current
214 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of thought and expectation thus silently awakened toward the
future, was continually fed by everything being arranged and
ordered in the present, so as to establish in their minds a pro
found conviction of a Divine retribution. The things con
nected with their relation to a worldly sanctuary, and an earthly
inheritance of blessing, were one continued illustration of the
principle so firmly expressed by Abraham, " that the Judge of
all the earth must do right;" and, consequently, that in the
final issues of things, " it must be well with the righteous, and
ill with the wicked." The bringing distinctly out of this pre
sent recompense in the Divine administration, and with infinite
variety of light and vividness of colouring, impressing it on the
consciences of God s people, was the peculiar service rendered
by the ancient economy in respect to a coming eternity ; and
the peculiar service which, as a preparatory economy , it required
to render. For the belief of a present retribution must, to a
large extent, form the basis of a well-grounded belief in a
future one. And for the believing Israelite himself, who lived
under the operation of such strong temporal sanctions, and who
was habituated to contemplate the unseen in the seen, the
future in the past, there was everything in the visible move
ments of Providence around him, both to confirm in him the
expectation of a coming state of reward and punishment, and
to form him to the dispositions and conduct which might best
prepare him for meeting it. His position so far differed from
that of believers now, that he was not formally called to direct
his views to the coming world, and he had comparatively
slender means of information concerning its realities. But it
agreed in this, that he too was a child of faith, believing in the
retributive character of God s administration ; and in him, as
well as in us, only in a more outward and sensible manner, this
faith had its trials and dangers, its discouragements, its war-
rings with the flesh and the world, its times of weakness and of
strength, its blessed satisfactions and triumphant victories. In
short, his light, so far as it went, was the same with ours ; it
was the same also in the nature of its influence on his heart and
conduct ; and if he but faithfully did his part amid the scenes
and objects around him, he was equally prepared at its close to
take his place in the mansions of a better inheritance, though
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 215
he might have to go to them as one not knowing whither he
went. 1
Thus it appears, on careful examination, that all was in its
proper place. A mutual adaptation and internal harmony binds
together the Old and the New dispensations, even under the
striking diversity that characterizes the two in respect to a
future world. And the further the investigation is pursued,
the more will such be found to be the case generally. It will
be found that the connection of the Old with the New is some
thing more than typical, in the sense of foreshadowing, or pre-
figurative of what was to come ; it is also inward and organic.
Amid the ostensible differences, there is a pervading unity and
agreement one faith, one life, one hope, one destiny. And
while the Old Testament Church, in its outward condition and
earthly relations, typically shadowed forth the spiritual and
heavenly things of the New, it was also, in so far as it realized
and felt the truth of God presented to it, the living root out of
which the New ultimately sprang. The rude beginnings w r ere
there, of all that exists in comparative perfection now.
III. Another advantage resulting from a correct knowledge
and appreciation of the Typology of ancient Scripture, is the
increased value and importance with which it invests the earlier
portions of revelation. This has respect more especially to the
historical parts of Old Testament Scripture ; yet not to these
exclusively. For the whole of the Old Testament will be
found to rise in our esteem, in proportion as we understand and
enter into its typological bearing. But the point may be more
easily and distinctly illustrated by a reference to its records of
history.
Many ends, undoubtedly, had to be served by these ; and
we must beware of making so much account of one, as if it
were the whole. Even the least interesting and instructive
parts of the historical records, the genealogies, are not without
their use ; for they supply some valuable materials both for the
general knowledge of antiquity, and for our acquaintance, in
particular, with that chosen line of Adam s posterity which was
to have its culmination in Christ. But the narratives in which
1 See Appendix B,
216 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
these genealogies are imbedded, which record the lives of so
many individuals, portray the manners and customs of such dif
ferent ages and nations, and relate the dealings of God s provi
dence and the communications of His mind with so many of
the earliest characters and tribes in the world s history these,
in themselves, and apart altogether from any prospective re
ference they may have to Gospel times, are on many accounts
interesting and instructive. Nor can they be attentively perused,
as simple records of the past, without being found " profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness."
Yet when viewed only in that light, one-half their worth is
still not understood ; nor shall we be able altogether to avoid
some feeling of strangeness occasionally at the kind of notices
embraced in the inspired narrative. For whatever interest and
instruction may be connected with it, how trifling often are the
incidents it records ! how limited the range to which it chiefly
draws our attention ! and how easy might it seem, at various
points, to have selected other histories, which would have led
the mind through scenes more obviously important in them
selves, and less closely, perhaps, interwoven with evil ! Unbe
lievers have often given to such thoughts as these an obnoxious
form, and have endeavoured by means of them to bring sacred
Scripture into discredit. But in doing so, they have only dis
played their own onesidedness and partiality ; they have looked
at this portion of the Word of God in a contracted light, and
away from its proper connection with the entire plan of revela
tion. Let the notices of Old Testament history be viewed in
their subservience to the scheme of grace unfolded in the Gos
pel let the field which it traverses, however limited in extent,
and the transactions it describes, however unimportant in a
political respect, be regarded as that field, and those transactions,
through which, as on a lower and common stage, the Lord
sought to familiarize the minds of His people with the truths
and principles which were ultimately to appear in the highest
affairs of His kingdom let the notices of Old Testament history
be viewed in this light, which is the one that Scripture itself
brings prominently forward, and then what dignity and impor
tance is seen to attach to every one of them! The smallest
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 217
movements on the earth s surface acquire a certain greatness,
when connected with the law of gravitation ; since then even
the fall of an apple from the tree stands related to the revolution
of the planets in their courses. And, in like manner, the
relation which the historical facts of ancient Scripture bear
to the glorious work and kingdom of Christ, gives to the least
of them such a character of importance, that they are brought
within the circle of God s highest purposes, and are perceived
to be in reality "the connecting links of that golden chain
which unites heaven and earth."
This, however, is not all. While a proper understanding of
the Typology of Scripture imparts an air of grandeur and im
portance to its smallest incidents, and makes the little relatively
great, it does more. It warrants us to proceed a step farther,
and to assert, that such personal narratives and comparatively
little incidents as fill up a large portion of the history, not only
might, without impropriety, have been admitted into the sacred
record, but that they must, to some extent have been found there,
in order to adapt it properly to the end which it was intended to
serve. It was precisely the limited and homely character of
many of the things related, which rendered them such natural
and easy stepping-stones to the discoveries of a higher dispensa
tion. It is one thing that an arrangement exists in nature,
which comprehends under the same law the falling of an apple
to the ground, and the vast movements of the heavenly bodies ;
but it is another thing, and also true, that the perception of
that law, as manifested in the motion of the small and ter
restrial body because manifested there on a scale which man
could bring fully within the grasp of his comprehension was
what enabled him to mount upwards and scan the similar,
though incomparably grander, phenomena of the distant universe.
In this case, there was not only a connection in nature between
the little and the great, but also such a connection in the order of
man s acquaintance with both, that it was the knowledge of the
one that conducted him to the knowledge of the other. The
connection is much the same that exists between the facts of Old
Testament history and the all-important revelations of the Gos
pel with this difference, indeed, that the laws and principles
developed amid the familiar objects and comparatively humble
218 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
scenes of the one, were not so properly designed to fit man for
discovering, as for receiving when discovered, the sublime
mysteries of the other. But to do this, it was not less necessary
here than in the case above referred to, that the earlier develop
ments should have been made in connection with things of a
diminutive nature, such as the occurrences of individual history,
or the transactions of a limited kingdom. A series of events
considerably more grand and majestic could not have accom
plished the object in view. They would have been too far re
moved from the common course of things ; and would have been
more fitted to gratify the curiosity and dazzle the imagination of
those who witnessed or read of them, than to indoctrinate their
minds with the fundamental truths and principles of God s
spiritual economy. This result could be best produced by such
a series of transactions as we find actually recorded in the Scrip
tures of the Old Testament transactions infinitely varied, yet
always capable of being quite easily grasped and understood.
And thus, what to a superficial consideration appears strange,
or even objectionable, in the structure of the inspired record,
becomes, on a more comprehensive view, an evidence of wise
adaptation to the wants of our nature, and of supernatural
foresight in adjusting one portion of the Divine plan to another.
It will be readily understood, that what we have said of the
purpose of God with reference more immediately to those who
lived in Old Testament times, applies, without any material dif
ference, to such as are placed under the Christian dispensation.
For what the transactions required to be for the accomplishment
of God s purpose in regard to the one, the record of these trans
actions required to be for the accomplishment of His purpose
in regard to the other. Whatever confirmation such things may
lend to our faith in the mysteries of God whatever force or
clearness to our perceptions of the truth whatever encourage
ment to our hopes or direction to our walk in the life of holiness
and virtue, it may all be said to depend upon the history being
composed of facts so homely in their character and so circum
scribed in their range, that the mind can without difficulty both
realize their existence and enter into their spirit.
IV. Another service, the last we shall notice, which a truly
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 219
Scriptural Typology is fitted to render to the cause of Divine
knowledge and practice, is the aid it furnisher to help out spiritual
ideas in our minds, and enable us to realize them with sufficient
clearness and certainty. This follows very closely on the consi
deration last mentioned, and may be regarded rather as a further
application of the truth contained in it, than the advancement of
something altogether new. But we wish to draw attention to an
important advantage, not yet distinctly noticed, connected with
the typical element in Old Testament Scripture, and on which
to a considerable extent the people of God are still dependent
for the strength and liveliness of their faith.
It is true, they have now the privilege of a full revelation of
the mind of God respecting the truths of salvation ; and this
elevates their condition as to spiritual things far above that of
the Old Testament believers. But it does not thence follow,
that they can in all respects so distinctly apprehend the truth in
its naked spirituality, as to be totally independent of some out
ward exhibition of it. We are still in a state of imperfection,
and are so much creatures of sense, that our ideas of abstract
truth, even in natural science, often require to be aided by visible
forms and representations. But things strictly spiritual and
divine are yet more difficult to be brought distinctly within the
reach and comprehension of the mind. It was a relative advan
tage possessed by the Old Testament worshipper, in connection
with his worldly sanctuary, and the more fleshly dispensation
under which he lived, that spiritual and divine things, so far as
they were revealed to him, acquired a sort of local habitation to
his view, and assumed the appearance of a life-like freshness and
reality. Hence chiefly arose that " impression of passionate in
dividual attachment," as it has been called, which, in the authors
of the Old Testament Scriptures, appears mingling with and
vivifying their faith in the invisible, and which breathes in them
like a breath of supernatural life. What Hengstenberg has said
in this respect of the Book of Psalms, may be extended to Old
Testament Scripture generally : " It has contributed vast mate
rials for developing the consciousness of mankind, and the Chris
tian Church is more dependent on it for its apprehensions of
God than might at first sight be supposed. It presents God so
clearly and vividly before men s eyes, that they see Him, in a
220 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
manner, with their bodily sight, and thus find the sting taken
out of their pains. In this, too, lies one great element of its
importance for the present times. What men now most of all
need, is to have the blanched image of God again freshened up
in them. And the more closely we connect ourselves with these
sacred writings, the more will God cease to be to us a shadowy
form, which can neither hear, nor help, nor judge us, and to
which we can present no supplication." 1
Besides, there are portions of revealed truth which relate to
events still future, and. do not at all come within the range of
our present observation and experience, though very important
as objects of faith and hope to the Church. It might materially
facilitate our conception of these, and strengthen our belief in
the certainty of their coming existence, if we could look back to
some corresponding exemplar of things, either in the symbolical
handwriting of ordinances, or in the typical transactions of an
earthly and temporal kingdom. But this also has been pre
pared to our hand by God in the Scriptures of the Old Testa
ment. And to show how much may be derived from a right
acquaintance, both in this and in the other respect mentioned,
with the typical matter of these Scriptures, we shall give here
a twofold illustration of the subject the one referring to truths
affecting the present state and condition of believers, and the
other to such as respect the still distant future.
1. For our first illustration we shall select a topic that will
enable us, at the same time, to explain a commonly misunder
stood passage of Scripture. The passage is 1 Pet. i. 2, where,
speaking of the elevated condition of believers, the Apostle de
scribes them as " elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father, through sanctifi cation of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." The peculiar
part of the description is the last " sprinkling with the blood
of Jesus Christ " which, being represented along with obe
dience as the end to which believers are both elected of the
Father and sanctified of the Spirit, seems at first sight to be
out of its proper place. The application of the blood of Christ
is usually thought of in reference to the pardon of sin, or its
efficacy in the matter of the soul s justification before God ;
1 Supplem. Treatises on Psalms, vii.
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 221
when, of course, its place stands between the election of the
Father and the sanctification of the Spirit. Nor, in that most
common reference to the effect of Christ s blood, is it of small
advantage for the attainment
