The typology of scripture : viewed in connection with the whole series of the divine dispensations

THE LIBRARY

of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Toronto

TIII-;

TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE:

V1K\VEI> IN CONNECTION WITH THK WHOLE SERIES OF

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,

PRINCIPAL, AJJU PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW.

lu vetero Testamento novum latet, et in novo vetus patet

AUGUST. QU.KST. IN Ex. L.XXIII.

VOLUME II.
FOURTH EDITION.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN : JOHN ROBEKTSON & CO

MDCCCLXIV.

1S&4

v. 2.

EMMAUUi,

MURRAY AND OIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH

CONTENTS OF VOLUME SECOND.

BOOK THIRD.

Page
The Dispensation with and under the Law, ... 1

CHAP. I. The Divine Truths embodied in the Historical Transac
tions connected with the Redemption from Egypt,
viewed as preliminary to the Symbolical Institutions
brought in by Moses, . . . . • 1

SECT. I. The Bondage, ..... 1

... II. The Deliverer and his Commission, . . 24

... III. The Deliverance, .... 35

... IV. The March through the Wilderness — Manna —
Water from the Rock— The Pillar of Cloud
and Fire, ..... 59

... II. The direct instruction given to the Israelites before the
erection of the Tabernacle, and the Institution of its
Symbolical Services — the Law, ... 89

SECT. I. What properly, and in the strictest sense,
termed the Law, viz., the Decalogue — its per
fection and completeness both as to the order
and substance of its precepts, . . 89

... II. The Law continued — apparent exceptions to
its perfection and completeness as the Per
manent and Universal Standard of Religious
and Moral Obligation — its references to the
special circumstances of the Israelites, and
representation of God as jealous, . . 115

iv CONTENTS.'

IV:..

SECT. III. The Law continued — further exceptions — the

Weekly Sabbath, . . . . ' 134

... IV. What the Law could not do — the Covenant
standing and privileges of Israel before it
was given, . . . . . 152

V. The purposes for which the Law was given,
and the mutual interconnection betwixt it
and the Symbolical Institutions, . . 166

VI. The relation of Believers under the New Tes
tament to the Law — in what sense they are
free from it — and why it is no longer proper
to keep the Symbolical Institutions con
nected with it, .... 184

CHAP. III. The Eeligious Truths and Principles embodied in the
Symbolical Institutions and Services of the Mosaic
Dispensation, and viewed in their Typical reference
to the better things to come, . . . 203

SECT. I. Introductory — On the question why Moses was
instructed in the Wisdom of the Egyptians,
and what influence this might be expected to
exercise on his future Legislation, . . 203

... II. The Tabernacle in its general structure and

229

III. The Ministers of the Tabernacle— the Priests

and Levites, . . 255

IV. The Tabernacle in its several Divisions— 1. The

Fore -court, with its two articles, the Laver
and the Altar of Burnt-offering — Sacrifice by
Blood in its fundamental Idea and ritual Ac
companiments (Choice of the Victims, Impo
sition of Hands, and Sprinkling of the
Blood), . ... 289

CONTENTS. v

Page

V. The different kinds of Offerings connected with
the Brazen Altar in the Court of the Taber
nacle — Sin-offerings — Trespass-offerings —
Burnt-offerings — Peace or Thank-offerings —
Meat-offerings, . . . . 317

... VI. 2. The Holy Place— The Altar of Incense— the

Table of Shew-Bread— the Candlestick, . 358

... VII. 3. The Most Holy Place, with its Furniture, and
the Great Annual Service connected with it
on the Day of Atonement, . . . 374

.. VIII. Special Rites and Institutions chiefly connected
with Sacrifice— the Ratification of the Cove
nant — the Trial and Offering of Jealousy —
Purgation from an uncertain Murder — Ordi
nance of the Red Heifer — the Leprosy and
its Treatment — Defilements and Purifications
connected with Corporeal Issues and Child
birth — the Nazarite and his Offerings — Dis
tinctions of Clean and Unclean Food, . 393

... IX. Stated Solemnities or Feasts— the Weekly
Sabbath— the Feast of the Passover— of Pen
tecost — of Trumpets and New Moons — the Day
of Atonement — the Feast of Tabernacles —
the Sabbatical Year, and Year of Jubilee, 429

CHAP. IV. Historical Developments, 461

SECT. I. The Conquest of Canaan, . 461

II. The Theory, Working, and Development of the

Jewish Theocracy, . 472

APPENDIX A. Views of the Reformers regarding the Sabbath, . 507

B. The Altar of Burnt-offering (with illustration), 524

C. Supplementary Remarks on the Subject of Sacrifice

by Blood, . . 524

D. On the term Azazel, . . 534

THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

BOOK THIRD.

THE DISPENSATION WITH AND UNDER THE LAW.

CHAPTER FIRST.

THE DIVINE TRUTHS EMBODIED IN THE HISTORICAL TRANS
ACTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE REDEMPTION FROM EGYPT,
VIEWED AS PRELIMINARY TO THE SYMBOLICAL INSTITU
TIONS BROUGHT IN BY MOSES.

SECTION I.

THE BONDAGE.

THE history of what is called the Patriarchal religion may be
said to terminate with the descent of the children of Israel into
Egypt, or at least with the prosperous circumstances which
attended the earlier period of their sojourn there ; for the things
which afterwards befell them in that land, rather belong to the
dispensation of Moses. They tended, in various respects, to
prepare the way for this new dispensation, more especially by
furnishing the facts in which its fundamental ideas were to be
embodied, and on which its institutions were to be basrd. Thr
true religion, as formerly noticed, has ever distinguished itself
from impostures, by being founded on great facts, which, by

VOL. II. A

THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

bringing prominently out the character of God's purposes and
government, provide the essential elements of the religion He
prescribes to His people. This characteristic of the true religion,
like every other, received its highest manifestation in the Gospel
of Christ, where every distinctive element of truth and duty is
made to grow out of the facts of His eventful history. The
same characteristic, however, belongs, though in a less perfect
form, to the Patriarchal religion, which was based upon the
transactions connected with man's fall, his expulsion from the
garden of Eden, and the promise then given of a future De
liverer ; — these formed, in a manner, the ground-floor of the
symbolical and typical religion under which the earlier inhabit
ants of the world were placed. Nor was it otherwise with the
religious dispensation which stood midway between the Patri
archal and the Christian — the dispensation of Moses. For here
also the groundwork was laid in the facts of Israel's history,
which were so arranged by the controlling hand of God, as
clearly to disclose the leading truths and principles that were to
pervade the entire dispensation, arid that gave to its religious
institutions their peculiar form and character.

When we speak of fundamental truths and principles in
reference to the Mosaic religion, it will be readily understood
that these necessarily required to be somewhat more full and
comprehensive than those which constitute the foundation of the
first and simplest form of religion. The Mosaic religion did
not start into being as something original and independent ; it
grew out of the Patriarchal, and was just, indeed, the Patriarchal
religion in a farther state of progress and development. So
much was this the case, that the mission of Moses avowedly
begins where the communications of God to the patriarchs end ;
and, resuming what had been for a time suspended, takes for its
immediate object the fulfilment of the purpose which the Lord
had, ages before, pledged His word to accomplish.1 Its real
starting-point is the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, with an especial reference to that part of it which con
cerned the occupation of the land of Canaan. And as the one
dispensation thus commenced with the express design of carry
ing out and completing what the other had left unfinished, the
1 Ex. iii. 7-17.

THE BONDAGE. 3

latter of the two must be understood to have recognised and
adopted as its own all the truths and principles of the first.
What might now be regarded as fundamental, and required as
such to be interwoven with the historical transactions by which
the dispensation of Moses was brought in, must have been, to a
considerable extent, super-additional, — including those, indeed,
wliii-h belonged to the Patriarchal religion, but coupling with
them such others as were fitted to constitute the elements of a
more advanced state of religious knowledge and attainment.

We are not to imagine, however, that the additional religious
truths and principles which were to be historically brought out
at the commencement of the Mosaic dispensation, must have
appeared there by themselves, distinct and apart from those
which descended from Patriarchal times. We might rather
expect, from the common ground on which the true religion
always erects itself, and the common end it aims at, that the
New would be intermingled with the Old ; and that the ideas
on which the first religion was based, must reappear and stand
prominently forth in the next, and indeed in every religious
dispensation. The Patriarchal religion began with the loss of
man's original inheritance, and pointed, in all its institutions of
worship and providential dealings, to the recovery of what was
lost. It was the merciful provision of Heaven to light the way
and direct the steps of Adam's fallen family to a paradise
restored. The religion brought in by the ministry- of Moses
began with an inheritance, not lost, indeed, but standing at an
apparently hopeless distance, though conferred in free grant,
and secured by covenant promise for a settled possession. As
an expression of the good-will of God to men, and the object of
hope to His people, the place originally held by the garden of
Eden, with the way barred to the tree of life, but ready to be
opened whenever the righteousness should be brought in for
whirh the Church was taught to wait and strive, was now sub
stantially occupied by that land flowing with milk and honey,
which had become the destined inheritance of the heirs of pro
mise. It was the immediate design and object of the mission
• >t' Moses to conduct the Church, as called to cherish this new
form of hope, into the actual possession of its promised blessings ;
and to do this, not simply with the view of having the hope

4 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

turned into reality, but so as at the same time, and in accordance
with God's general plan, to unfold the great principles of His
character and government, and raise His people to a higher
position in all religious knowledge and experience. In a word,
God's object, then, was, as it has ever been, not merely to bring
His Church to the possession of a promised good, but to furnish
by His method of doing it the elements of a religion corre
sponding in its nature and effects to the inheritance possessed
or hoped for, and thus to render the whole subservient to the
highest purposes of His moral government.

When we speak, however, of the inheritance of Canaan
being in the time of Moses the great object of hope to Israel,
and the boon which his mission was specially designed to realize,
we must take into account what, we trust, was satisfactorily
established concerning it, in the earlier part of our investiga
tions.1 1. The earthly Canaan was never designed by God,
nor could it from the first have been understood by His people,
to be the iiltimate and proper inheritance which they were to
occupy ; things having been spoken and hoped for concerning
it, which plainly could not be realized within the bounds of
Canaan, nor on the earth at all, as at present constituted. 2.
The inheritance, in its full and proper sense, was one which
could be enjoyed only by those who had become children of the
resurrection, themselves fully redeemed in soul and body from
the effects and consequences of sin. 3. The occupation of the
earthly Canaan by the natural seed of Abraham, in its grand
and ultimate design, was a type of the occupation by a redeemed
Church of her destined inheritance of glory. Hence everything
concerning the entrance of Israel on that temporary possession
had necessarily to be ordered, so as fitly to represent and fore
shadow the things which belong to the Church's establishment
in her final and permanent possession. The matter may thus
be briefly stated : God selected a portion — for the special ends
in view, the fairest portion — of the earth,2 which He challenged
as His own in a peculiar sense, that He might convert it into
a suitable habitation and inheritance for the people whom He

1 Vol. i., see section on the hope of the inheritance.

2 Ezek. xx. 6 : u A land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk
and honey, which is the glory of all lauds."

THE BONDAGE. 5

had already chosen to be peculiarly His own. On this people,
settled in this possession, He purposed to bestow the highest
earthly tokens of His gracious presence and blessing. But
what He was going to do for them in temporal and earthly
things, was only a representation and a pledge of what, from
before the birth of time, He had purposed to do in heavenly
things, when the period should come for gathering into one His
universal Church, and planting her in His everlasting inherit
ance of life and glory. There is, therefore, a twofold object
to be kept in view, while we investigate this part of the Divine
procedure and arrangements, as in these also there was a two
fold design. The whole that took place between the giving of
the hope to the patriarchs, and its realization in their posterity,
we must, in the first instance, view as demonstrating on what
principles God could, consistently with His character and govern
ment, bestow upon them such an inheritance, or keep them in
possession of its blessings. But we must, at the same time, in
another point of view, regard the whole as the shadow of higher
and better things to come. We must take it as a glass, in which
to see mirrored the form and pattern of God's everlasting king
dom, and that with an especial reference to the grand principles
on which the heirs of salvation were to be brought to the enjoy
ment of its future and imperishable glories.

We are furnished at the very outset with no doubtful indi
cation of the propriety of keeping in view this twofold bearing,
in the condition of the heirs of promise. These, when the
promise was first given, and for two generations afterwards, were
kept in the region of the inheritance ; and if the purposes of
God respecting them had simply been directed to their occupa
tion of it as a temporal and earthly good, the natural, and in
every respect the easiest plan, would manifestly have been, to
give them a settled place in it at the first, and gradually to have
opened the way to their complete possession of the promised
territory. But instead of this, they were absolutely prohibited
from having then any fixed habitation within its borders ; and
by God's special direction and overruling providence, were
carried altogether away from the land, and planted in Egypt.
There they found a settled home and dwelling-place, which they
were not only permitted, but obliged, to keep for generations,

THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

before they were allowed to possess any interest in the promised
inheritance. And it was precisely their long-continued sojourn
in that foreign country, the relations into which it brought
them, the feelings and associations which there grew upon them,
and the interests with which they became connected, that so
greatly embarrassed the mission of Moses, and rendered the
work given him to do so peculiarly difficult and complicated.
Had nothing more been contemplated by their settlement in
Canaan than their simply being brought to the possession of a
pleasant and desirable inheritance, after the manner of this
world, nothing could have been more unfortunate and adverse
than such a deep and protracted entanglement with the affairs
of Egypt. Considered merely in that point of view, there is
much in the Divine procedure, which could neither be vindicated
as wise, nor approved as good ; and the whole plan would mani
festly lie open to the most serious objections. But matters pre
sent themselves in a different light, when we understand that
everything connected with the earthly and temporal inheritance
was ordered so as to develop the principles on which alone God
could righteously confer upon men even that inferior token of
His regard ; and this, again, as the type or pattern according to
which He should afterwards proceed in regulating the concerns
of His everlasting kingdom. Viewed thus, as the whole ought
to be, it will be found in every part consistent with the highest
reason, and, indeed, could not have been materially different,
without begetting erroneous impressions of the inind and char
acter of God. So that, in proceeding to read what belongs to
the work and handwriting of Moses, we must never lose sight
of the fact, that we are tracing the footsteps of One whose ways
on earth have ever been mainly designed to disclose the path to
heaven, and whose procedure in the past was carefully planned
to prepare the way for the events and issues of " the world to
come."

The first point to which our attention is naturally turned,
is the one already alluded to, respecting the condition of the
Israelites, the heirs of promise, when this new stage of God's
proceedings began to take its course. We find them not only
in a distant country, but labouring there under the most grievous
hardship and oppression. When this adverse position of affairs

THE BONDAGE. 7

took its commencement, or how, we arc not further told, than in
the statement that "a new king arose up over Egypt, who knew
not Joseph," — a statement which has not unfrequently been
thought to indicate a change of dynasty in the reigning family
of Egypt. This ignorance, it would seem, soon grew into
estrangement, and that again into jealousy and hatred ; for,
afraid lest the Israelites, who were increasing with great ra
pidity in numbers and influence, should become too powerful,
and should usurp dominion over the country, or, at least, in
time of war prove a formidable enemy within the camp, the
then reigning Pharaoh took counsel to afflict them with heavy
burdens, and to keep them down by means of oppression.

It is quite possible there may have been peculiar circum
stances connected with the civil affairs of Egypt, which tended
to foster and strengthen this rising enmity, and seemed to justify
the harsh and oppressive policy in which it showed itself. But
we have quite enough to account for it, in the character which
belonged to the family of Jacob, when they entered Egypt,
coupled with the extraordinary increase and prosperity which
attended them there. It was as a company of shepherds they
were presented before Pharaoh, and the land of Goshen was
assigned them for a dwelling-place, expressly on account of its
rich pasturage.1 But " every shepherd," it is said, " was an
abomination to the Egyptians;" and with such a strong feeling
against them in the national mind, nothing but an overpowering

1 Gen. xlvii. 11 : " And Joseph gave them a possession in the land of
Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses." " The land of
Goshen," says Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, " was the best of the
land ; and such, too, the province of Esh-Shfirkiyeh has ever been, down to
the present time. In the remarkable Arabic document translated by De
Sacy, containing a valuation of all the provinces and villages of Egypt in
the year 1376, this province comprises 383 towns and villages, and is valued
at 1,411,875 dinars, — a larger sum than is put on any other province, with
one exception. During my stay in Cairo, I made many inquiries respecting
this district ; to which the uniform reply was, that it was considered the

best province in Egypt There are here more flocks and herds than

anywhere else in Egypt, and also more fishermen." Wilkinson also states,
that " no soil is better suited to many kinds of produce than the irrigated
edge of the desert (where Goshen lay), even before it is covered by the fer
tilizing deposit of the inundation." — Manners and Customs of the Aitfimt
Egyptians, i., p. 222. How such a rich and fertile region should have been

8 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

sense of the obligation under which the Egyptians lay to the
Israelites, could have induced them to grant to this shepherd
race such a settlement within their borders. Nor can it be
wondered at, that when the remembrance of the obligation
ceased to be felt, another kind of treatment should have been
experienced by the family of Jacob than what they at first
received, and that the native, deep-seated repugnance to those
who followed their mode of life should begin to break forth.
That there was such a repugnance, is a well-ascertained fact,
apart altogether from the testimony of Scripture. The monu
ments of Egypt furnish ample evidence of it, as they constantly
present shepherds in an inferior or despicable aspect, sometimes
even as the extreme of coarseness and barbarity, and the objects
of unmingled contempt.1 We cannot suppose this hatred towards
shepherds to have arisen simply from their possessing flocks and
herds ; for we have the clearest evidence in the Pentateuch that
Pharaoh possessed these, and that they existed in considerable
numbers throughout the land.2 It seems rather to have been
occasioned by the general character and habits of the nomade or
shepherd tribes,3 who have ever been averse to the arts of culti
vation and civilised life, and most unscrupulous in seizing, when
they had the opportunity, the fruits that have been raised by
the industry and toil of others. From the earliest times the rich
and fertile country of Egypt has suffered much from these
marauding hordes of the desert, to whose incursions it lies open
both on the east and on the west. And as the land of Goshen
skirted the deserts of Arabia, where especially the Bedouin or
wandering tribes, from time immemorial, have been accustomed
to dwell, we can easily conceive how the native Egyptians would
watch with jealousy and dread the rising power and importance

so little occupied at the time of Jacob's descent into Egypt, as to afford
room for his family settling in it, and enlarging themselves as they did, need
occasion no anxiety, as the fact itself is indisputable. And Robinson states,
that even at present there are many villages wholly deserted, and that the
province is capable of sustaining another million.

1 Rosselliiii, vol. i., p. 178; Wilkinson, vol. ii., p. 16; also Heeren's
Africa, ii., p. 146, Trans.

2 Gen. xlvii. 16, 17 ; Ex. ix. 3, etc.

3 See Heeren's Africa, ii., p. 157 ; Rosselliiii, Mou. dell' Eg., i., p. 177,
etc. ; Hengstenberg, Beitr., ii., p. 437.

THE BONDAGE. 9

of the Israelites. By descent they were themselves .allied with
those slu-phm! tribes ; and, by the advantage of their position,
they held the key on an exposed side to the heart of the king
dom ; so that, if they became strong enough, and chose to act
in concert with their Arab neighbours, they might have over-
spread the land with desolation. Indeed, it is a historical fact,
that " the Bedouin Arabs settled in Egypt have always made
common cause with the Arabs (of the Desert) against the
communities that possessed the land. They fought against the
Saracen dynasty in Egypt ; against the Turkomans, as soon as
they had acquired the ascendancy ; against the Mamlook sultans,
who were the successors of the Turkomans ; and they have been
at war with the Osmanlis without intermission, since they first
set foot upon Egypt more than 300 years ago."1

Hence, when the Israelites appeared so remarkably to flourish
and multiply in their new abode, it was no unnatural policy for
the Egyptians to subject them to hard labour and vexatious bur
dens. They would thus expect to repress their increase, and
break their spirit ; and, by destroying what remained of their
pastoral habits, and training them to the arts and institutions of
civilised life, as these existed in Egypt, to lessen at once their
desire and their opportunities of leaguing for any hostile pur
pose with the tribes of the desert. At the same time, while such
reasons might sufficiently account for the commencement of a
hard and oppressive policy, there were evidently other reasons
connected at least with the severer form, which it ultimately
reached, and such as argued some acquaintance with the peculiar
prospects of Israel. It was only one ground of Pharaoh's anxiety
respecting them, that they might possibly join hands with an

1 Prokesch, Errinneruugen aus Eg., as quoted by Hengstenberg in his
Eg. and the books of Moses, p. 78. If Egypt had previously been overrun,
ami for some generations held in bondage, by one of these nomnde tribes of
Asia, there would have been a still stronger ground for exercising toward
tlu» family of Jacob the jealous antipathy in question. Of the fact of such
an invasion and possession of Egypt by a shepherd race, later investigations
into the antiquities of Egypt have left little room to doubt ; but the period
of its occurrence, as connei-U-d with the history of the Israelites, is still ;i
matter of uncertainty. A full review of the opinions and probabilities
roim,.cted with the subject, may be seen in Kurtz, Geschichto des Alten
Bund, ii., p. 178, sq.

10 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

enemy and fight against Egypt ; another fear was, that they
" might get them up out of the land." 1 This seems to bespeak
a knowledge of the fact, that some other region than Goshen be
longed to the Israelites as their proper home, for which they were
disposed, at a fitting time, to leave their habitations in Egypt.
Nor, indeed, would it be difficult for the king of Egypt to obtain
such knowledge, as, in the earlier period of their sojourn, the
Israelites had no motive to hold it in concealment. Then, the
announcement of Jacob's dying command to carry up his remains
to the land of Canaan, of which the whole court of Pharaoh
was apprized, and afterwards the formal withdrawal of Joseph
and his family from the court of Pharaoh, to identify themselves
with the state and prospects of their kindred, were more than
sufficient to excite the suspicion of a jealous and unfriendly
government, that they did not expect to remain always connected
with the land and fortunes of Egypt. " It is clear that Pharaoh
knew of a home for these stranger-Israelites, while he could
on no account bear to think of it; and also that though his
forefather had treated them to a possession in the land of
Egypt, he now considered them as his servants, whom he was
determined not to lose. It is precisely because he would know
nothing of freedom and a home for Israel, that the increase of
Israel was so great an annoyance to him. The seed of Abraham
were, according to the promise, to be a blessing to all nations,
and should, therefore, have been greeted with joy by the king of
Egypt. But, since the reverse was the case, we can easily see,
at this first aspect of Israel's affairs, that the further fulfilment
of the promise could not develop itself by the straightest and
most direct road, but would have to force its way through im
pediments of great strength and difficulty."2

The kinds of service which were imposed with so much rigour
upon the Israelites, though they would doubtless comprehend
the various trades and employments which were exercised in the
land, consisted chiefly, as might be expected in such a country,
in the several departments of field labour. It was especially " in
mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field,
that their lives were made bitter with hard bondage."3 The

1 Ex. i. 10.

- Baumgarten, Theol. Com., i., p. 393. 3 Ex. i. 14; v. 6-19.

THE BONDA(!i:. 11

making of bricks formed of clay and straw appears, during the
later period of the bondage, to have been the only servile occu
pation in which they were largely engaged, and, of course, along
with that, the erection of the buildings for which the bricks were
made. As the hard and rigorous service to which they were
subjected in this department of labour did not seem to answer
the end intended, but the more they were afflicted the more they
multiplied and grew, the gloom and distress that hung around
their condition were fearfully deepened by the issuing of a cruel
edict, commanding that their male children should be killed as
soon as they were born. This was too atrocious an edict even
for the despot of a heathen land to enforce, and he could not
find instruments at his command wicked enough to carry it into
execution. In all probability it was soon recalled, or allowed
gradually to fall into abeyance ; for though it was in force at
the birth of Moses, we hear nothing of it afterwards ; and its
only marked effect, so far as we are informed, was to furnish
the occasion of opening a way for that future deliverer into the
temples and palaces of Egypt. So marvellously did God, by
His overruling providence, baffle the design of the enemy, and
compel " the eater to give forth meat !" The only evil in their
condition which seems to have become general and permanent,
was the hard service in brick-making and collateral kinds of
servile labour, and which, so far from suffering relaxation by
length of time, was rather, on slight pretexts, increased and
aggravated. It became at last so excessive, that one universal
cry of misery and distress arose from the once happy land of
Goshen, — a cry which entered into the ear of the God of Abra
ham, and which would no longer permit Him to remain an inac
tive spectator of a controversy which, if continued, must have
made void His covenant with the father of the faithful.1

So much for the condition itself of hard bondage and oppres
sive labour to which the heirs of the inheritance were reduced,

1 A modern rationalist (Von Boblcn,Einleitungznr Genesis) has at tempted
to throw discredit 011 the above account of the hard service of the Israelites,
by alleging that the making of bricks at that early period belonged only to
the region of Babylonia, and that the curl} K^yjitians were accustomed to
build with hewn stone. " We can scarcely trust our own eyes," says Heng-
steuberg, "when we read such things," and justly, as all well-informed

12 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

before the time came for their being actually put in possession
of its blessings. And situated as they were within the bounds
of a foreign kingdom, at first naturally jealous, and then openly
hostile towards them, it is not difficult to account for the kind of
treatment inflicted on them, viewing the position they occupied
merely in its worldly relations and interests. But what account
can we give of it in its religious aspect — as an arrangement
settled and ordained on the part of God? Why should He have
ordered such a state of matters concerning His chosen seed?
For the Egyptians — "though their hearts thought not so"-

\vriters concerning ancient Egypt, whether of earlier or of later times, have
concurred in testifying that building with brick was very common there —
so common, indeed, that private edifices were generally of that material.
Herodotus mentions a pyramid of brick, which is thought to be one of those
still standing (ii. 136). Modern inquirers, such as Champollion, Rossellini,
and Wilkinson, speak of tombs, ruins of great buildings, lofty walls, and
pyramids, being formed of bricks, and found in all parts of Egypt. — (See
the quotations in Hengstenberg's Eg. and books of Moses, p. 2, 80.) Wil
kinson says (Ancient Egyptians, ii., p. 96), " The use of crude brick, baked
in the sun, was universal in Upper and Lower Egypt, both for public and
private buildings; and the brick-field gave abundant occupation to nume
rous labourers throughout the country Inclosures of gardens, or

granaries, sacred circuits encompassing the courts of temples, walls of
fortifications and towns, dwelling-houses, and tombs, — in short, all but the
temples themselves, were of crude brick ; and so great was the demand, that
the Egyptian government, observing the profit which would accrue from a
monopoly of them, undertook to supply the public at a moderate price, — thus
preventing all unauthorized persons from engaging in the manufacture.
And in order the more effectually to obtain this end, the seal of the king,
or of some privileged person, was stamped upon the bricks at the time they
were made." He says, farther, " It is worthy of remark, that more bricks
bearing the name of Thothmcs II. (whom I suppose to have been king of
Egypt at the time of the Exodus) have been discovered than of any other
period." And not only have multitudes of bricks been thus identified with
the period of Israel's bondage, and these sometimes made of clay mingled
with chopped straw, but a picture has been discovered in a tomb at Thebes,
which so exactly corresponds with the delineation given by Moses of the
hard service of the Israelites, — some digging and mixing the clay, others
fetching water for it ; others, again, adjusting the clay to the moulds, or
placing the bricks in rows ; the labourers, too, being of Asiatic, not Egyptian
aspect, but amongst them four Egyptians, two of whom carry sticks in their
hands, taskmasters, — that Rossellini did not hesitate to call it, whether cor
rectly or not, " a picture representing the Hebrews as they were engaged
in making brick."

THE BONDAGE. 13

were but instruments in His hands, to bring to pass what the
Lord had long before announced to Abraham as certainly to
takc> place, viz., " that his seed should be strangers in a land that
was not theirs, and should serve them, and be afflicted by them
four hundred years." (Gen. xv. 13.)

1. Considered in this higher point of view, the first light in
which it naturally presents itself is that of a doom or punish
ment, from which, as interested in the mercy of God, they
needed redemption. For the aspect of intense suffering, which
it latterly assumed, could only be regarded as an act of retribu
tion for their past unfaithfulness and sins. We should be per
fectly warranted to infer this, even without any express infor
mation on the subject, from the general connection in the Divine
government between sin and suffering. And when placed by
the special appointment of Heaven in circumstances so peculiarly
marked by what was painful and afflicting to nature, the
Israelites should then, no doubt, have read in their marred con
dition, what their posterity were, in like circumstances, taught
to read by the prophet — " that it was their own wickedness
which corrected them, and their blackslidings which reproved
them." But we are not simply warranted to draw this as an
inference. It is matter of historical certainty, brought out in
the course of the Mosaic narrative by many and painful indica
tions, that the Israelites were not long in Egypt till they became
partakers in Egypt's sins ; and that the longer their stay was
protracted there, they only sunk the deeper into the mire of
Egyptian idolatry and corruption, and became the more
thoroughly alienated from the true knowledge and worship of
God. Not only had they, as a people, completely lost sight of
the great temporal promise of the covenant, the inheritance of
the land of Canaan, but God himself had become to them as a
strange God ; so that Moses had to inquire for the name by
which he should reveal Him to their now dark and besotted
minds.1 The very same language is used concerning their con
nection with the abominations of Egyptian idolatry, while they
sojourned among them, as is afterwards used of their connection
with those of Canaan: "they served other gods," "went u
whoring after them;" and even long after they had left the
1 Ex. iii. 13.

14 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

region, would not " forsake the idols of Egypt," but still carried
its abominations with them, and in their hearts turned back to
it.1 Of the truth of these charges they gave too many affecting
proofs in the wilderness ; and especially by their setting up, so
recently after the awful demonstrations of God's presence and
glory on Sinai, and their own covenant engagements, the wor
ship of the golden calf, with its bacchanalian accompaniments.
Their conduct on that occasion was plainly a return to the
idolatrous practices of Egypt in their most common form.2
And, indeed, if their bondage and oppression in its earlier stages
did not, as a timely chastisement from the hand of God, check
their tendency to imitate the manners and corruptions of Egypt,
as it does not appear to have done, it could scarcely fail to be
productive of a growing conformity to the evil. For it destroyed
that freedom and elevation of spirit, without which genuine
religion can never prosper. It robbed them of the leisure they

1 Josh. xxiv. 14 ; Lev. xvii. 7 ; Ezek. xxiii. 3, xx. 8 ; Amos v. 25, 26 ;
Acts vii. 39.

2 It is admitted on all hands, that the worship of the gods under sym
bolical images of irrational creatures had its origin in Egypt, and was
especially cultivated there in connection with the cow, or bovine form. It
was noticed by Strabo, 1, xvii., as singular, that " no image formed after
the human figure was to be found in the temples of Egypt, but only that of
some beasts" (ruv d'hoyuv £uuv -rivo;). And no images seem to have been
so generally used as those of the calf or cow, though authors differ as to
the particular deity represented by it. It would rather seem that there
were several deities worshipped under this symbol. Most of the available
learning on the subject has been brought together by Bochart, Hieroz. Lib.
ii., ch. 34 ; to which Hengstenberg has made some addition in his Beit., ii.,
p. 155-163. The latter would connect the worship of the golden calf in the
desert with the worship of Apis ; Wilkinson connects it with that of Mnevis
(Manners of Ancient Eg., 2d series, ii., p. 96) ; and Jerome had already
given it as his opinion, that Jeroboam set up the two golden calfs in Dan
and Bethel, in imitation of the Apis and Mnevis of Egypt. — (Com. on Hos.,
iv. 15.) But however that may be, there can be no doubt, that if the
Israelites were disposed to Egyptize in their worship, the most likely and
natural method for them to do so, was by forming to themselves the image
of a golden cow or calf, and then by engaging in its worship with noisy and
festive rites. For it is admitted by those (for example, Creuzer, Symbol., i.,
p. 448) who are little in the habit of making any concessions in favour of a
passage of Scripture, that the rites of the Egyptians partook much of the
nature of orgies, and that a very prominent feature in their religion was
its bacchanalian character.

THE BONDAGE. 15

required for the worship of God and the cultivation of their
minds (their Sabbaths seem altogether to have perished), and it
brought them into such close contact with the proper possessors
of Egypt, as was naturally calculated to infect them with the
grovelling and licentious spirit of Egyptian idolatry. So that
probably true religion was never at a lower ebb, in the family
of Abraham, than toward the close of their sojourn in Egypt ;
and the swelling waves of affliction, which at last overwhelmed
them, only marked the excessive strength and prevalence of that
deep under-current of corruption which had carried them away.
Now this condition of the heirs of promise, viewed in refer
ence to its highest bearing, its connection with the inheritance,
was made subservient to the manifestation of certain great prin
ciples, necessarily involved in this part of the Divine procedure,
in respect to which it could not properly have been dispensed
with. (1.) It first of all clearly demonstrated, that, apart from
the covenant of God, the state and prospects of those heirs of
promise were in no respect better than those of other men — in
some respects it seemed to be worse with them. They were
equally far off from the inheritance, being in a state of hopeless
alienation from it ; they had drunk into the foul and abominable
pollutions of the land of their present sojourn, which were utterly
at variance with an interest in the promised blessing; and they
bore upon them the yoke of a galling bondage, at once the
consequence and the sign of their spiritual degradation. They
differed for the better only in having a part in the covenant of
God. (2.) Therefore, secondly, whatever this covenant secured
for them of promised good, they must have owed entirely to
Divine grace. In their own condition and behaviour, they could
see no ground of preference ; they saw, indeed, the very reverse
of any title to the blessing, which must hence descend upon them
as Heaven's free and undeserved gift. This they were after
wards admonished by Moses to keep carefully in remembrance:
" Speak not thou in thy heart, saying, For my righteousness
the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land. Not for thy
righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go
to possess the land, but that the Lord may perform the word
which He sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."1
1 Dent. ix. 4-6.

16 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

(3.) Hence, finally, the promise of the inheritance could be made
good in their experience only by the special kindness and inter
position of God, vindicating the truth of His own faithful word,
and in order to this, executing in their behalf a work of redemp
tion. While the inheritance was sure, because the title to it
stood in the mercy and faithfulness of God, they had of necessity
to be redeemed before they could actually possess it. Having
become the victims of corruption, they were also the children of
wrath ; sin had brought them into bondage ; and before they
could escape to the land of freedom and rest, the snare must be
broken. But the hand of Omnipotence alone could do it. If
nature had been left to itself, the progress would only have been
to a fouler corruption and a deeper ruin. It was simply as the
Lord's chosen people that they held the promise of the inherit
ance, and they could enter on its possession no otherwise than
as a people ransomed by His power and goodness. So that the
great principles of their degenerate and lost condition, of their
absolutely free election and calling to the promised good, of re
demption by the grace and power of God in order to obtain it,
were interwoven as essential elements with this portion of their
history, and imprinted as indelible lines upon the very founda
tions of their national existence.

The parallel here, in each particular, between the earthly
and the spiritual, or, as we more commonly term it, between the
type arid the antitype, must so readily present itself to all who
are conversant with New Testament Scripture, that we need do
nothing more than indicate the agreement. It is most expressly
declared, and indeed is implied in the whole plan of redemption
unfolded in the Gospel, that those who become heirs of salvation
are in their natural state no better than other men, — they are
members of the same fallen family, — the same elements of cor
ruption work in them, — they are children of wrath even as
others.1 When, therefore, the question is put, who makes them
to differ, so that while others perish in their sins, they obtain
the blessed hope of everlasting life? the only answer that can
be returned is, the distinguishing goodness and mercy of God.
The confession of Paul for himself, " By the grace of God I
am what I am," is equally suited to the whole company of the

1 Eph. ii. 1-3 ; Rom. iii. 9-20, vii. ; Matt. ix. 13 ; Luke xiii. 3, etc.

Till: BONDAGE. 17

redeemed ; nor is there anything in the present, or the future
heritage of blessing, which it shall be given them to experience,
that can be traced, in the history of any of them, to another
source than the one foundation of Divine goodness and compas
sion.1 And as the everlasting inheritance, to the hope of which
they are begotten, is entirely the gift of God, so the way which
leads to it can be that only which His own outstretched arm has
laid open to them ; and if as God's elect they are called to the
inheritance, it is as His redeemed that they go to possess it.2

2. We have as yet, however, mentioned only one ultimate
reason for the oppressed and suffering condition of the Israelites
in Egypt, though in that one were involved various principles
bearing upon their relation to the inheritance. But there was
another also of great importance — it formed an essential part of
the preparation which they needed for occupying the inheritance.
This preparation, in its full and proper sense, must, of course,
have included qualities of a religious and moral kind ; and of
these we shall have occasion to speak at large afterwards. But
apart from these, there was needed what might be called a natu
ral preparation ; and that especially consisting of two parts, — a
sufficient desire after the inheritance, and a fitness in temper
and habit for the position which, in connection with it, they were
destined to occupy.

(1.) It was necessary by some means to have a desire awak
ened in their bosoms towards Canaan, for the pleasantness of
their habitation had become a snare to them. The fulness of its
natural delights by degrees took off their thoughts from their
high calling and destiny as the chosen of God ; and the more
they became assimilated to the corrupt and sensual manners of
Egypt, the more would they naturally be disposed to content
themselves with their present comforts. To such an extent had
this feeling grown upon them, that they could scarcely be kept
afterwards from returning back, notwithstanding the hard service
and cruel inflictions with which they had latterly been made to
groan in anguish of spirit. What must have been their state if

1 1 Cor. iv. 7, xv. 10 ; Eph. i. 4 ; John iii. 27, vi. 44 ; Matt. xi. 25 ; Phil,
i. 29, etc.

• Eph. i. 6, 7, 18, 19 ; Col. i. 12-14 ; 2 Tim. i, 9, 10 ;*Heb. ii. 14, 15 ;
1 Pet. i. 3-5, etc.

VOL. II. B

18 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

no such troubles had been experienced, and all had continued to
go well with them in Egypt ? How vain would have been the
attempt to inspire them with the love of Canaan, and especially
to make good their way to it through formidable difficulties and
appalling dangers !

The affliction of Israel in Egypt is a testimony to the truth,
common to all times, that the kingdom of God must be entered
through tribulation. The tribulation may be ever so varied in
its character and circumstances ; but in some form it must be
experienced, in order to prevent the mind from becoming wedded
to temporal enjoyments, and to kindle in it a sincere desire for
the better part, which is reserved in heaven for the heirs of salva
tion. Hence it is so peculiarly hard for those who are living in
the midst of fulness and prosperity to enter into the kingdom of
God. And hence, also, must so many trying dispensations be
sent even to those who have entered the kingdom, to wean them
from earthly things, and constrain them to seek for their home
and portion in heaven.

(2.) But if we look once more to the Israelites, we shall see
that something besides longing desire for Canaan was needed to
prepare them for what was in prospect. For that land, though
presented to their hopes as a land flowing with milk and honey,
was not to be by any means a region of inactive repose, where
everything was to be done for them, and they had only to take
their rest, and feast themselves with the abundance of peace.
The natural imagination delights to riot in the thought of such
an untaxed existence, and such a luxurious home. But He who
made man, and knows what is best suited to the powers and capa
cities of his nature, never destined him for such a state of being.
Even the garden of Eden, replenished as it was with the tokens
of Divine beneficence, was to some extent a field of active exer
tion : the blissful region had to be kept and dressed by its posses
sor as the condition of his partaking of its fruitfulness. And
now, when Canaan took for a time the place of Eden, and the
covenant people were directed to look thither for their present
home and inheritance, while they were warranted to expect there
the largest amount of earthly blessing, they were by no means
entitled to look for a state of lazy inaction and uninterrupted
rest. There was much to be done, as well as much to be en-

THE BONDAGE. 19

joyed ; and they could neither have fulfilled, in regard to other
nations, the elevated destiny to which they were appointed, as
the lamp and witness of heaven, nor reaped in their own experi
ence the large measure of good which was laid up in store for
themselves, unless they had been prepared by a peculiar training
of vigorous action, and even compulsive labour, to make the proper
use of all their advantages. Now, in this point of view, the
period of Israel's childhood as a nation in Egypt might be re
garded as, to some extent, a season of preparation for their future
manhood. It would not have done for them to go and take
possession of Canaan as a horde of ignorant barbarians, or as a
company of undisciplined and roving shepherds. It was fit and
proper that they should carry with them a taste for the arts and '
manners of civilised life, and habits of active labour, suited to the
scenes of usefulness and glory which awaited them in the land of
their proper inheritance. But how were such tastes and habits
to become theirs ? They did not naturally possess them, nor,
if suffered to live at ease, would they probably ever have attained to
any personal acquaintance with them. They must be brought, in
the first instance, under the bands of a strong necessity ; so that
it might be no doubtful contingence, but a sure and determinate
result, that they left Egypt with all the learning, the knowledge
of art and manufacture, the capacity for active business and
useful employment, which it was possible for them there to
acquire. And thus they went forth abundantly furnished with
the natural gifts, which were necessary to render them, not only
an independent nation, but also fit instruments of God for His
work and service in the new and not less honourable than ardu
ous position they were destined to occupy.1

1 The view given in the text may be said to strike a middle course between
that of Kitto, in his History of Palestine, vol. i., p. 150, etc., and that of
Hengsteuberg, in his Authen., i., p. 431, etc. (We mention these two
writers, chiefly as being among the last who have held respectively the
views in question, not as if there was anything substantially new in either.
Deyling has a clear and, in the main, well-conducted argumentation for the
view adopted by Hengstenberg, and against the opposite, at the end of P. I.
of his Obs. Sac.) The former regards the Israelites, at the period of their
descent into Egypt, as distinguished by all the characteristics of the wander
ing and barbarous shepherd tribes, and not improbably giving occasion at
first, by some overt acts of plunder, to the Egyptian government to adopt

20 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

The correspondence here between the type and the antitype
has been too much overlooked, and even the more direct inti
mations of New Testament Scripture, respecting the state :md
employment of saints in glory, have too seldom been admitted
to their full extent, and followed out to their legitimate practical
results, as regards the condition of believers on earth. The
truth in this respect, however, has been so happily developed
by a well-known writer, that we must take leave to present it in

harsh measures toward them. Most German writers of the rationalist school
not only go to the full length of maintaining this, but, apparently forgetting
the discipline to which the Israelites were subjected in Egypt, consider it to
.have been their condition also when they left the country ; and object to the
account given of the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, as implying
too much skill in various kinds of arts and manufactures for a simple shep
herd race. So, in particular, Winer and Vatke. Hengstenberg, on the other
hand, maintains that the roughness and barbarity properly distinguishing
the shepherd tribes never belonged to the Hebrews — that their possessing
the character of shepherds at all, arose chiefly from the circumstances in
which they were placed during their early sojourn in Canaan — that they
were glad to abandon their wandering life and dwell in settled habitations,
whenever an opportunity afforded — that, set down, as they afterwards were,
in one of the most fertile and cultivated regions of Egypt, which they held
from the first as a settled possession (Gen. xlvii. 11, 27), their manner of
life was throughout different from the nomadic, was distinguished by posses
sions in lands and houses, and by the various employments and comforts
peculiar to Egyptian society. This view must be adopted with some modi
fication as to the earlier periods of their history ; for, though the Israelites
never entered fully into the habits of the nomade tribes, yet they were mani
festly tending more and more in that direction toward the time of their
descent into Egypt. The tendency was there gradually checked, and the
opposite extreme at last reached — as it appears, that at the time of the
Exodus they had all houses with door-posts (Ex. xii. 4, 7, etc.), lived to a
considerable extent intermingled with the Egyptians in their cities (Ex. iii.
20-22, xi. 1-3, xii. 35, 36), were accustomed to the agricultural occupa
tions peculiar to the country (Deut. xi. 10), took part even in its finest
manufactures, such as were prepared for the king (1 Chron. iv. 21-23), and
enjoyed the best productions both of the river and the land (Num. xi. 5,
xx. 5). It is but natural to suppose, however, that some compulsion was
requisite to bring them to this state of civilisation and refinement; and as it
was a state necessary to fit them for setting up the tabernacle and occu
pying aright the land of Canaan, we see the overruling hand of God in tho
very compulsion that was exercised. For an example of a modern Arab
tribe settling down to agricultural occupations in the same region, see
Robinson's Researches, i., p. 77.

TIM: BONDAGE. 21

his own words : " Heaven, the ultimate and perfected condition
of human nature, is thought of, amidst the toils of life, as an
elysiurn of quiescent bliss, exempt, if not from action, at least
from the necessity of action. Meanwhile, every one feels that
the ruling tendency and the uniform intention of all the arrange
ments of the present state, and almost all its casualties, is to
generate and to cherish habits of strenuous exertion. Inertness,
not less than vice, is a seal of perdition. The whole course of
nature, and all the institutions of society, and the ordinary course
of events, and the explicit will of God declared in His word,
concur in opposing that propensity to rest which belongs to the
human mind; and combine to necessitate submission to the hard
yet salutary conditions under which alone the most extreme evils
may be held in abeyance, and any degree of happiness enjoyed.
A task and duty is to be fulfilled, in discharging which the want
of energy is punished even more immediately and more severely
than the want of virtuous motives."

He proceeds to show that the notices we have of the heavenly
world imply the existence there of intelligent and vigorous
agents : —

" But if there be a real and necessary, not merely a shadowy,
agency in heaven as well as on earth ; and if human nature is
destined to act its part in such an economy, then its constitution,
and the severe training it undergoes, are at once explained ; and
then also the removal of individuals in the very prime of their
fitness for useful labour, ceases to be impenetrably mysterious.
This excellent mechanism of matter and mind, which, beyond
any other of His works, declares the wisdom of the Creator,
and which, under His guidance, is now passing the season of its
first preparation, shall stand up anew from the dust of dissolu
tion, and then, with freshened powers, and with a store of hard-
earned and practical wisdom for its guidance, shall essay new
labours in the service of God, who by such instruments chooses
to accomplish His designs of beneficence. That so prodigious a
of the highest qualities should take place, as is implied in
the notions which inanv Christians entertain of the future state,
is indeed hard to imagine. The mind of man, formed as it is to
be more tenacious of its active habits than even of its moral
dispositions, is, in the present state, trained, often at an immense

22 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

cost of suffering, to the exercise of skill, of forethought, of
courage, of patience; and ought it not to be inferred, unless
positive evidence contradicts the supposition, that this system of
education bears some relation of fitness to the state for which it
is an initiation? Shall not the very same qualities which here
are so sedulously fashioned and finished, be actually needed and
used in that future world of perfection ? Surely the idea is in
admissible, that an instrument wrought up at so much expense
to a polished fitness for service, is destined to be suspended for
ever on the palace-walls of heaven, as a glittering bauble, no
more to make proof of its temper ?

" Perhaps a pious but needless jealousy, lest the honour due
to Him, l who worketh all in all,' should be in any degree com
promised, has had influence in concealing from the eyes of
Christians the importance attributed in the Scriptures to sub
ordinate agency ; and thus, by a natural consequence, has im
poverished and enfeebled our ideas of the heavenly state. But,
assuredly, it is only while encompassed by the dimness and
errors of the present life, that there can be any danger of at
tributing to the creature the glory due to the Creator. When
once with open eye that excellent glory has been contemplated,
then shall it be understood that the Divine wisdom is incom
parably more honoured by the skilful and faithful performances,
and by the cheerful toils of agents who have been fashioned and
fitted for service, than it could be by the bare exertions of irre
sistible power ; and then, when the absolute dependence of
creatures is thoroughly felt, may the beautiful orders of the
heavenly hierarchy, rising and still rising toward perfection, be
seen and admired, without hazard of forgetting Him who alone
is absolutely perfect, and who is the only fountain and first
cause of whatever is excellent."1

It is only further to be noticed here, that, as preparation of
this kind is necessary for the future occupations and destinies
of God's people, so in their case now, as in that of the Israelites
in Egypt, a method of dealing may in this respect also require
to be taken with them very different from what they themselves
desire, and such as no present considerations can satisfactorily
explain. The way by which they are led, often appears more en-
1 Natural History of Enthusiasm, p. 150-154.

TIN: BONDAGE. 23

compassed with hardship and difficulty than they are able to
understand ; hut it docs so, only because they cannot trace with
sufficient clearness the many threads of connection between the
present and the future — between the course of preparation in
time, and the condition awaiting them in eternity. Let them
trust the paternal guidance and sure foresight of Him who can
trace it with unerring certainty, and they shall doubtless find at
the last, that everything in their lot has been arranged with
infinite skill to adapt them to the state, the employments, and
services of heaven.

SECTION SECOND.

THE DELIVERER AND HIS COMMISSION.

THE condition to which the heirs of promise were reduced in the
land of Egypt, we have seen, called for a deliverance, and this
again for a deliverer. Both were to be pre-eminently of God —
the work itself, and the main instrument of accomplishing it.
In the execution of the one here was not more need for the
display of Divine power, than for the exercise of Divine wisdom
in the selection and preparation of the other. It is peculiar to
God's instruments, that, though however to man's view they may
appear unsuited for the service, they are found on trial to possess
the highest qualifications. " Wisdom is justified of all her
children," and especially of those who are appointed to the most
arduous and important undertakings.

But in the extremity of Israel's distress, where was a deliverer
to be found with the requisite qualifications ? From a family of
bondsmen, crushed and broken in spirit by their miserable ser
vitude, who was to have the boldness to undertake their deliver
ance, or the wisdom, if he should succeed in delivering them, to
make suitable arrangements for their future guidance and disci
pline? If such a person was anywhere to be found, he must
evidently have been one who had enjoyed advantages very superior
to those which entered into the common lot of his brethren —
one who had found time and opportunity for the meditation of
high thoughts, and the acquirement of such varied gifts as would
fit him to transact, in behalf of his oppressed countrymen, with
the court of the proud and the learned Pharaohs, and amidst the
greatest difficulties and discouragements to lay the foundation of
a system which should nurture and develop through coming ages
the religious life of God's covenant people. Such a deliverer
was needed for this peculiar emergency in the affairs of God's
kingdom ; and the very troubles which seemed, from their long

TI110 DELIVERER AND HIS COMMISSION. 25

continuance and crushing severity, to preclude the possibility of
obtaining what was needed, were made to work toward its ac
complishment.

It is not the least interesting and instructive point in the
history of Moses, the future hope of the Church, that his first
appearance on the stage of this troubled scene was in the dark
est hour of affliction, when the adversary was driving things to
the uttermost. His first breath was drawn under a doom of
death, and the very preservation of his life was a miracle of
Divine mercy. But God here also "made the wrath of man
to praise Him ;" and the bloody decree which, by destroying the
male children as they were born, was designed by Pharaoh to
inflict the death-blow oil-Israel's hopes of honour and enlargement,
was rendered subservient, in the case of Moses, to prepare and
fashion the living instrument through whom these hopes were
soon to be carried forth into victory and fruition. Forced by the
very urgency of the danger on the notice of Pharaoh's daughter,
and thereafter received, under her care and patronage, into
Pharaoh's house, the child Moses possessed, in the highest degree,
the opportunity of becoming " learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians," and grew up to manhood in the familiar use of every
advantage which it was possible for the world at that time to
confer. Bat with such extraordinary means of advancement for
the natural life, with what an atmosphere of danger was he there
encompassed for the spiritual ! lie was exposed to the seductive
and pernicious influence of a palace, where not only the world
was met with in its greatest pomp and splendour, but where also
superstition reigned, and a policy was pursued directly opposed
to the interests of God's kingdom. How he was enabled to with
stand such dangerous influences, and escape the contamination
of so unwholesome a region, we are not informed ; nor even how
he first became acquainted with the fact of his Hebrew origin,
and the better prospects which still remained to cheer and ani
mate the hearts of his countrymen. But the result shows, that
somehow he was preserved from the one, and brought to the
knowledge of the other ; for when about forty years of age, we
are told, he went forth to visit his brethren, and that with a faith
already so fully formed, that he was not only prepared to sym
pathize with them in their distress, but to ha/ard all for their

26 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

deliverance.1 And, indeed, when he once understood and be
lieved that his brethren were the covenant people of God, who
held in promise the inheritance of the land of Canaan, and whose
period of oppression he might also have learned was drawing near
its termination, it would hardly require any special revelation,
besides what might be gathered from the singular providences
attending his earlier history, to conclude that he was destined
by God to be the chosen instrument for effecting the deliverance.
But it is often less difficult to get the principle of faith, than
to exercise the patience necessary in waiting God's time for its
proper and seasonable exercise. Moses showed he possessed the
one, but seems yet to have wanted the other, when he slew the
Egyptian whom he found smiting the Hebrew. For though the
motive was good, being intended to express his brotherly sym
pathy with the suffering Israelites, and to serve as a kind of
signal for a general rising against their oppressors, yet the action
itself appears to have been wrong. He had no warrant to take
the execution of vengeance into his own hand ; and that it was
with this view, rather than for any purpose of defence, that
Moses went so far as to slay the Egyptian, seems not obscurely
implied in the original narrative, and is more distinctly indicated
in the assertion of Stephen, who assigns this as the reason of the
deed, "for he supposed they would have understood, how that
God by his hand would deliver them." The consequence was,
that by anticipating the purpose of God, and attempting to ac
complish it in an improper manner, he only involved himself in
danger and difficulty ; his own brethren misunderstood his con
duct, and Pharaoh threatened to take away his life. On this
occasion, therefore, we cannot but regard him as acting unad
visedly with his hand, as on a memorable one in the future he
spake unadvisedly with his lips. It was the hasty and irregular
impulse of the flesh, not the enlightened and heavenly guidance
of the Spirit, which prompted him to take the course he did ;
and without contributing in the least to improve the condition of
his countrymen, he was himself made to reap the fruit of his
misconduct in a long and dreary exile.2

1 Kx-. ii. 11-15 ; Acts vii. 23 ; Heb. xi. 24.

2 We can scarcely have a better specimen of the characteristic difference
between the stern impartiality of ancient inspired history, and the falsely

mi: I>KU\T.I:KR AND HIS COMMISSION. 27

We cannot, therefore, justify Moses in the deed lie com-
mitted, far less say of liim with Buddcus (Hist. Eccles. Vet.
Test., i., ]>. •!'.>-), Patrick, and others, that he was stirred up to it
by a Divine impulse, nor regard the impulse of any other kind
than that which prompted David's men to counsel him to slay
Saul, when an occasion for doing so presented itself (1 Sam.
xxiv.), — an impulse of the flesh presuming upon and misapply
ing a word of God. The time for deliverance was not yet come.
The Israelites, as a whole, were not sufficiently prepared for it ;
and Moses himself also was far from being ready for his peculiar
task. Before he was qualified to take the government of such a
people, and be a fit instrument for executing the manifold and
arduous part he had to discharge in connection with them, he
needed to have trial of a kind of life altogether different from
what he had been accustomed to in the palaces of Egypt, — to
feel himself at home amid the desolation and solitudes of the
desert, and there to become habituated to solemn converse with
his God, and formed to the requisite gravity, meekness, patience,
and subduedness of spirit. Thus God overruled his too rash

coloured partiality of what is merely human, than in the accounts preserved
of the first part of Moses' life in the Bible and Josephus respectively. All
is plain, unadorned narrative in the one, a faithful record of facts as they
took place ; while in the other, everything appears enveloped in the wonder
ful and miraculous. A prediction goes before the birth of Moses to announce
how much was to depend upon it — a Divine vision is also given concerning
it to Amrarn— the mother is spared the usual pains of labour — the child,
when discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, refuses to suck any breast but that
of its mother — when grown a little, he became so beautiful that strangers
must needs turn back and look after him, etc. But with all these unwar
ranted additions, in the true spirit of Jewish, or rather human partiality, not
a word is said of his killing the Egyptian ; he is obliged to flee, indeed, but
only because of the envy of the Egyptians for his having delivered them
from the Ethiopians (Antiq., ii., 9, 10, 11). In Scripture his act in killing
the Egyptian is not expressly condemned as sinful ; but, as often happens
tluTc, this is clearly enough indicated by the results in providence growing
out of it. Many commentators justify Moses in smiting the Egyptian, on
the ground of his being moved to it by a Divine impulse. There can be no
doubt that he *'////»/>, </ himself to have had such an impulse, but that is a
different thing from his actually having it ; and Augustine judged rightly,
when lie thought Moses could not be altogether justified, "quia nullam
adhuc legitimatn potestatem gerebat, nee acceptam divinitus, nee humaii;i
societate ordinatam." — Quaest. in Exodum, § ii.

28 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and hasty interference with the affairs of his kindred, to the
proper completion of his own preparatory training, and provided
for him the advantage of as long a sojourn in the wilderness to
learn Divine wisdom, as he had already spent in learning human
wisdom in Egypt. We have no direct information of the man
ner in which his spirit was exercised during this period of exile,
yet the names he gave to his children show that it did not pass
unimproved. The first he called Gershom, " because he was a
stranger in a strange land," — implying that he felt in the in
most depths of his soul the sadness of being cut off from the
society of his kindred, and perhaps also at being disappointed of
his hope in regard to the promised inheritance. The second he
named Eliezer, saying, " The God of my father is my help,'' —
betokening his clear, realizing faith in the invisible Jehovah,
the God of his fathers, to whom his soul had now learnt more
thoroughly and confidingly to turn itself, since he had been
compelled so painfully to look away from the world. And
now having passed through the school of God in its two grand
departments, and in both extremes of life obtained ample oppor
tunities for acquiring the wisdom which was peculiarly needed
for Israel's deliverer and lawgiver, the set time for God was
come, and He appeared to Moses at the bush for the special pur
pose of investing him with a Divine commission for the task.

But here a new and unlooked-for difficulty presented itself,
in his own reluctance to accept the commission. We know how
apt, in great enterprises, which concern the welfare of many,
while one has to take the lead, a rash and unsuccessful attempt
to accomplish the desired end, is to beget a spirit of excessive
caution and timidity — a sort of shyness and chagrin — especially
if the failure has seemed in any measure attributable to a want
of sympathy and support on the part of those whose co-opera
tion was most confidently relied on. Something not unlike this
appears to have grown upon Moses in the desert. Kemembering
how his precipitate attempt to avenge the wrongs of his kindred,
and rouse them to a combined effort to regain their freedom,
had not only provoked the displeasure of Pharaoh, but was met
by insult and reproach from his kindred themselves, he could
not but feel that the work of their deliverance was likely to
prove both a heartless and a perilous task, — a work that would

TIIK DELIVKIIF.I! AND HIS COMMISSION. 29

need to bo wrought out, not only against the determined oppo
sition of the mightiest kingdom in the world, but also under the
most trying discouragements, arising from the now degraded and
<l;i-t;mlly spirit of the people. This feeling, of which Moses
could scarcely fail to be conscious even at the time of his flight
from Egypt, may easily be conceived to have increased in no
ordinary degree amid the deep solitudes and quiet occupations
of a shepherd's life, in which he was permitted to live till he
had the weight of fourscore years upon his head. So that we
cannot wonder at the disposition he manifested to start objections
to the proposal made to him to undertake the work of deliver
ance ; we are only surprised at the unreasonable and daring
length to which, in spite of every consideration and remon
strance on the part of God, he persisted in urging them.

The symbol in which the Lord then appeared to Moses, the
bush burning but not consumed, was well fitted on reflection to
inspire him with encouragement and hope. It pointed, Moses
could not fail to remember, when he came to meditate on what
he had seen and heard, to " the smoking furnace and the burning
lamp," which had passed in vision before the eye of Abraham,
when he was told of the future sufferings of his posterity in the
land that was not theirs. — (Gen. xv. 17.) Such a furnace now
again visibly presented itself ; but the little thorn-bush, emblem
of the covenant people, the tree of God's planting, stood un
injured in the midst of the flame, because the covenant God
Himself was there. Why, then, should Moses despond on
account of the afflictions of his people, or shrink from the ardu
ous task now committed to him ? — especially when the distinct
assurance was given to him of all needful powers and gifts to
furnish him aright for the undertaking, and the word of God
was solemnly pledged to conduct it to a successful issue.

It is clear from the whole interview at which Moses received
his commission, that the difficulties and discouragements which
pressed most upon his mind were those connected with the sunk
and degenerate condition of the covenant people themselves, who
appeared to have lost heart in regard to the promise of the cove
nant, and even to have become deeply estranged from the God
of the covenant. His concern on the latter point led him to ask
what he should say to them when they inquired for the name of

30 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the God of their fathers, under whose authority he should go to
them? His question was met witli the sublime reply, " I AM THAT
I AM : thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath
sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, JEHOVAH, the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is My name for ever,
and this is My memorial unto all generations." In this striking
revelation we have to look, not merely to the name assumed by
God, but to the historical setting that on each side is given to it,
whereby it is linked equally to the past and the future, and be
comes in a great measure self-explanatory. He who describes
Himself as the " I AM THAT I AM," and turns the description into
the distinctive name of JEHOVAH, does so for the express purpose
of enabling Israel to recognise Him as the God of their fathers
— the God who, in the past, had covenanted with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and who now, in the immediate future, was
going to make good for their posterity what He had promised to
them. Obviously, therefore, we have here to do, not with the
metaphysical and the abstract, not with being simply in the sense
of pure absolute existence, — an idea unsuitable alike to the cir
cumstances and the connection ; nor can we think of a manifes
tation of the attributes of being with respect alone to the future
— as if God would represent Himself in relation only to what
was to come — the God pre-eminently and emphatically of the
coming age (" I. will be what I will be "). For this were to narrow
men's ideas of the Godhead, and limit the distinctive name to
but one sphere of the Divine agency — making it properly expres
sive of what was to be, in God's manifestations, not as connected
with, but as contradistinguished from, what had been — therefore
separating, in some sense, the God of the offspring from the
God of the fathers. If, looking to the derivation of the word
Jehovah (from the substantive verb to be), we must hold fast to
simple being as the root of the idea ; yet, seeing how this is im
bedded in the historical relations of the past and the future, we
must understand it of being in the practical sense : independent
and unalterable existence in respect to principles of character
and consistency of working. As the Jehovah, He would show
that He is the God who changeth not (Mai. iii. G), — the God

Till: DELIVERER AND HIS COMMISSION. 31

who, having inadi- with the patriarchs an everlasting covenant,
continued to abide in the relations it established, and who could
no more resile from its engagements than He could cease to be
what IK- was. Nothing, therefore, could be better suited to the
urgencies of the occasion, as well as to the stage generally that
had been reached in the Divine dispensations, than the revela
tion here made to Israel through Moses, summed up and ratified
by the signature of the peculiar covenant name of God. The
people were thus assured, that however matters might have
changed to the worse with them, and temporary darkness have
come over their prospects, the God of their fathers remained
without variableness or shadow of turning — the God of the pre
sent and the future, as well as of the past. And so, in the deve
lopment now to be given to what already existed in germ and
promise, they might justly expect a higher manifestation than
had yet appeared of Divine faithfulness and love, and a deeper
insight into the manifold perfections of the Divine nature.1

With such strong encouragements and exalted prospects, was
Moses sent forth to execute in the name of God the commission
given to him. And as a pledge that nothing would fail of what
had been promised, he was met at the very outset of his arduous
course by Aaron his brother, who came from Egypt at God's

1 The view given above substantially accords with what appears now, after
not a little controversy, and the exhibition of extremes on both sides, to be
the prevailing belief among the learned on the name Jehovah, as brought out
in Ex. iii. 14, 1 5, and vi. 3-8. A summary of the different views may be
seen in the article Jehovah, by CEhler, in Hertzog's Enclycopaxlia. The
name itself has been much disputed : Ewald maintaining that the proper
form can be nothing but Jahve, Caspari and Delitzsch with equal confidence
aflirming we can only choose between Jahaveh and Jahavah ; while CEhler
thinks it may be read either Jahveh or Javah. It is admitted to be derived
from the imperfect, or from the future used as the imperfect, of the sub
stantive verl>, after its older form (nin). As to the meaning, had it been
viewed more with reference to the occasion and the context, there would have
probably been less disputation ; but the result comes virtually to the same
thing. " God," says (Klder, " is Jehovah, in so far as for the sake of men
He has entered intu an hi.>u>nr;il relationship, and in this constantly proves
Himself to lie that which He is. and, indeed, is \\lio He is." According to
him, it comprises t\\<> fundamental ideas — God's absolute independence (not
as arbitrariness, or as free grace, but generally) in his historical procedure,
and this absolute continuity or UTK han^ealilciiess remaining ever inessential
ment with Himself in all He does and says. In this absolute inde-

32 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

instigation, to concert with him measures for the deliverance of
their kindred from the now intolerable load of oppression under
which they groaned.

The personal history of the deliverer and his commission,
viewed in reference to the higher dispensation of the Gospel,
exhibits the following principles, on which it will be unnecessary
to offer any lengthened illustration : — 1. The time for the
deliverer appearing and entering on the mighty work given him
to do, as it should be the one fittest for the purpose, so it must
be the one chosen and fixed by God. It might seem long in
coming to many, whose hearts groaned beneath the yoke of the
adversary ; and they might sometimes have been disposed, if they
had been able, to hasten forward its arrival. But the Lord
knew best when it should take place, and with unerring precision
determined it beforehand. Hence we read of Christ's appear
ance having occurred " in due time," or " in the fulness of
time." There were many lines then meeting in the state of the
Church and the world, which rendered that particular period
above all others suitable for the manifestation of the Son of
God. Then for the first time were all things ready for the
execution of Heaven's grand purpose, and the vast issues that
were to grow out of it.

pendence or self -existence of God, lies, of course, His eternity (which the
Jewish interpreters chiefly exhibit), in so far as He is thereby conditioned
in His procedure by nothing temporal, or as He is Himself, the first and
the last (Isa. xliv. 6, xlviii. 12). But the idea of unchangeableness, as
through all vicissitudes remaining and showing Himself to be one and the
same, is ((Ehler admits) the element in the name most frequently made pro
minent in Scripture (Mai. iii. 6 ; Deut. xxxii. 40 ; Isa. xli. 3, xliii. 13, etc.).
Much the same also Keil (on Genesis, 1861), only with a somewhat closer
reference to the historical connection: "Jehovah is God of the history of
salvation." But this signification, he admits, limiting it to the history of
salvation, does not lie in the etymology of the word ; it is gathered only from
the historical evolution of the name Jehovah. From the very import of the
name as thus explained, it is evident that the patriarchs could not know
it in anything like its full significance ; they could not know it as it be
came known even to their posterity in the wilderness of Canaan ; and this
is all that can fairly be understood by what is said in Ex. vi. 3. It is alto
gether improbable, as (Khler states, that Moses, when bringing to his people
a revelation from the God of their fathers, should have done so under a
name never heard of by them before. Only, therefore, a relative ignorance
is to be understood as predicated of the patriarchs.

TIII-: I>KUYI:!;KK AND ins COMMISSION. 33

2. The Deliverer, when II • came, must arise within the
Church itself. He must be, in the strictest sense, the brother
of those whom He came to redeem; bone of their bone, and
flesh of their flesh ; partaker not merely of their nature, but also
of their infirmities, their dangers, and their sufferings. Though
lie had to come from the highest heavens to accomplish the
work, still it was not as clad with the armoury and sparkling
with the glory of the upper sanctuary that He must enter on it,
but as the seed of the vanquished woman, the child of promise
in the family of God, and Himself having experience of the
lowest depths of sorrow and abasement which sin had brought
upon them. He must, however, make His appearance in the
bosom of that family ; for the Church, though ever so depressed
and afflicted in her condition, cannot be indebted to the world
for a deliverer ; the world must be indebted to her. With her
is the covenant of God ; and she alone is the mother of the
victorious seed, that destroys the destroyer.

3. Yet the deliverance, even in its earlier stages, when exist
ing only in the personal history of the deliverer, is not altogether
independent of the world. The blessing of Israel was interwoven
with acts of kindness derived from the heathen ; and the child
M-i-es, with whom their very existence as a nation and all its
coming glory was bound up, owed his preservation to a member
of Pharaoh's house, and in that house found a fit asylum and
nursing-place. Thus the earth " helped the woman," as it has
often done since. The Captain of our salvation had in like
manner to be helped; for, though born of the tribe of Judah,
He had to seek elsewhere the safety and protection which " His
own" denied Him, and partly — not because absolutely necessary
to verify the type, but to render its fulfilment more striking and
palpable — -was indebted for his preservation to that very Egypt
which had sheltered the infancy of Moses. So that in the case
even of the Author and Finisher of our faith, the history of
redemption Hides itself closely to the history of the world.

4. Still the deliverer, as to his person, his preparation, his
gifts and calling, is peculiarly of God. That such a person
as Moses was provided for the Church in the hour of her
extremity, was entirely the result of God's covenant with
Abraham: and the whole circumstances connected with his
. VOL. II. C

34 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

preparation for the work, as well as the commission given him
to undertake it, and the supernatural endowments fitting him
for its execution, manifestly bespoke the special and gracious
interposition of Heaven. But the same holds true in each par
ticular, and is still more illustriously displayed in Christ. In
His person, mysteriously knitting together heaven and earth ;
in His office as Mediator, called and appointed by the Father ;
prepared also for entering on it, first by familiar converse with
the world, and then by a season of wilderness-seclusion and
trial ; replenished directly from above with gifts adequate to
the work, even to His being filled with the whole fulness of
the Godhead ; — everything, in short, to beget the impression,
that while the Church is honoured as the channel through
which the Deliverer comes, yet the Deliverer Himself is in all
respects the peculiar gift of God, and that here especially it
may be said, " Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all
things."

SECTION THIRD.

THE DELIVERANCE.

WF, have now come to the actual accomplishment of Israel's
deliverance from the house of bondage. One can easily ima
gine that various methods might have been devised to bring it
about. And had the Israelites been an ordinary race of men,
and had the question simply been, how to get them most easily
and quickly released from their state of oppression, a method
would probably have been adopted very different from the one
that was actually pursued. It is by viewing the matter thus,
that shallow and superficial minds so often form an erroneous
judgment concerning it. They see nothing peculiar in the case,
and form their estimate of the whole transactions as if only
common relations were concerned, and nothing more than
worldly ends were in view. Hence, because the plan from the
first savoured so much of judgment, — because, instead of seek
ing to have the work accomplished in the most peaceful and
conciliatory manner, the Lord rather selected a course that was
likely to produce bloodshed, — nay, is even represented as hard
ening the heart of Pharaoh, that an occasion might be found
for pouring a long series of troubles and desolations on the
land, — because the plan actually chosen was of such a kind,
many have not scrupled to denounce it as unworthy of God,
and more befitting a cruel and malignant than a wise and
beneficent being.

Now, in rising above this merely secular view, and the
erroneous conclusions that naturally spring from it, it is first of
all to be borne in mind that higher relations were here concerned,
and more important objects at stake, than those of this world.
The Israelites were the chosen people of God, standing in a
covenant relation to Him. However far most of them had
been living beneath their obligations and their calling, they still
occupied a position which was held by no other family on earth.

3<> THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

With them was identified, in a peculiar sense, the honour of
God and the cause of heaven ; and the power that oppressed
and afflicted them, was trampling at every step on rights which
God had conferred, and provoking the execution of a curse
which He had solemnly denounced. If the cause and blessing
of Heaven were bound up with the Israelites, then Pharaoh, in
acting toward them as an enemy and oppressor, must of neces
sity have espoused the interest and become liable to the doom
of Satan.

Besides, it must be carefully borne in mind, that here espe
cially, where God had immediately to work, His dealings and
dispensations were of a preparatory nature. They were planned
and executed in anticipation of the grand work of redemption,
which was afterwards to be accomplished by Christ, and were
consequently directed in such a manner as to embody on the
comparatively small scale of their earthly transactions and in
terests, the truths and principles which were afterwards to be
developed in the affairs of a divine and everlasting kingdom.1
This being the case, the deliverance of Israel from the land of
Egypt must have been distinguished at least by the following
features : — 1. It must, in the first instance, have appeared to be
a work of peculiar difficulty, requiring to be accomplished in
the face of very great and powerful obstacles, rescuing the
people from the strong grasp of an enemy, who, though a cruel
tyrant and usurper, yet, on account of their sin, had acquired
over them a lordly dominion, and by means of terror kept them
subject to bondage. 2. Then, from this being the case, the
deliverance must necessarily have been effected by the execu
tion of judgment upon the adversary ; so that, as the work of
judgment proceeded on the one hand, the work of deliverance
would proceed on the other, and the freedom of the covenant
people be completely achieved only when the principalities and
powers which held them in bondage were utterly spoiled and
vanquished. 3. Finally, this twofold process of salvation with
destruction, must have been of a kind fitted to call forth the
peculiar powers and perfections of Godhead ; so that all who
witnessed it, or to whom the knowledge of it should come,
might be constrained to own and admire the wonder-working
1 Vol. i., Book I., <-. ft.

Hi I. DELIVERANCE. 37

hand of God, and instinctively, as it wore, exclaim, "Behold
what Ciod hath wrought! It is His doing, and marvellous in
• -iir eyes." — We say, all this mn*t have been on the supposition
of the scriptural account of the work being taken; and, except
ing on that supposition, we cannot be in a fit position to judge
of the things which concerned it.

On this scriptural ground we take our stand, when proceed
ing to examine the affairs connected with this method of deli
verance ; and we assert them not only to be capable of a satis
factory vindication, but to have been incapable of serving the
purposes which they were designed to accomplish, if they had
not been ordered substantially as they were. It is manifestly
impotable that here, any more than in what afterwards befell
Christ, the order of events should have been left to any law
less power, working as it pleased, but that all must have been
arranged "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God," and arranged precisely as they occurred. The out
stretching of the Divine arm to inflict the most desolating
judgments on the land of Egypt, the slaying of the first-born,
and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, were essential parts
of the Divine plan. But since these appear as the result of the
hardening of Pharaoh's heart, this also must have formed an
essential element in the plan ; and was therefore announced to
Moses from the first as an event that might certainly be ex
pected, and which would give a peculiar direction to the whole
series of transactions.1 For this hardening of the heart of
Pharaoh was the very hinge, in a sense, on which the Divine
plan turned, and could least of all be left to chance or uncer
tainty. It presents itself not simply as an obstacle to be re
moved, but as a circumstance to be employed for securing a
more illustrious display of the glorious attributes of God, and
effecting the redemption of His people in the way most consis
tent with His righteous purposes. It could not, therefore, be
allowed to hang merely upon the will of Pharaoh; somehow
the hand of (Jod iniixt have been in the matter, as it belongs to
Him to settle and arrange all that concerns the redemption of
His people and the manifestation of His own glory. Nor,
otherwise, could there have been any security for the Divine
1 Ex. iii. 19, iv. '21.

38 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

plan proceeding to its accomplishment, or for its possessing such
features as might render it a fitting preparation for the greater
redemption that was to come.

It seems to us impossible to look at the hardening of Pharaoh's
heart in the connection which it thus holds with the entire plan
of God, or to consider the marked and distinct manner in which
it is ascribed to His agency, and yet to speak of Pharaoh being
simply allowed to harden his own heart, as presenting a sufficient
explanation of the case. It is true, he is often affirmed also to
have himself hardened his heart ; and in the very first announce
ment of it (ch. iii. 19, "I am sure, or rather, I know, that the
king of Egypt will not let you go"), as acutely remarked by
Baumgarten, " the Lord characterizes the resistance of Pharaoh
as an act of freedom, existing apart from the Lord Himself ; for
I know that which objectively stands out and apart from me."1
At the same time, it is justly noticed by Hengstenberg, that as
the hardening is ascribed to God, both in the announcement of
it beforehand, and in the subsequent recapitulation (Ex. iv. 21,
vii. 3, xi. 10), " Pharaoh's hardening appears to be enclosed within
that of God's, and to be dependent on it. It seems also to be
intentional, that the hardening is chiefly ascribed to Pharaoh at
the beginning of the plagues, and to God toward the end. The
higher the plagues rise, the more does Pharaoh's hardening assume
a supernatural character, and the reference was the more likely
to be made to its supernatural cause."2

The conclusion, indeed, is inevitable. It is impossible, by
any fair interpretation of Scripture, or on any profound view of
the transactions referred to, to get rid of the Divine agency in

1 Commentary on Ex. iii. 19, 20.

2 Authentic, ii., p. 462. Some stress is laid by Hengstenberg on the
hardening being ascribed seven times to Pharaoh, and the same number of
times to God, as indicating that it has respect to the covenant of God, of
which seven is the sign. Baumgarten also lays some stress on the numbers,
but finds each to be ten times repeated, the sign of completeness. Both
have to deal arbitrarily with the sacred text to make out their respective
numbers (for example, Hengstenberg leaves out the three hardenings of God
in ch. xiv. ; and Baumgarten treats ch. vii. 13 and 14, as if they spoke of
two distinct hardenings). It is also against the simplicity of the Scripture
narrative to draw from the incidental form of its historical statements such
hidden meanings.

THE DELIVERANCE. 39

the matter. Even Tholuck says, " That the hardening of the
Egyptian was, on one side, ordained l>y God, no disciple of
Christian theology can deny. It is an essential doctrine of the
Bible, that God would not permit evil, unless He were Lord
over it : and that lie permits it, because it cannot act as a check
upon His plan of the world, but must be equally subservient to
Him as good — the only difference being, that the former is so
compulsorily, the latter optionally."1 That God had no hand in
the sin, which mingles itself with evil, is clearly implied in the
general doctrine of Scripture ; since He everywhere appears
there as the avenger of sin, and hence cannot possibly be in
any sense its author. In so far, therefore, as the hardening of
Pharaoh's heart partook of sin, it must have been altogether his
own ; his conduct, considered as a course of heady and high-
minded opposition to the Divine will, was pursued in the free
though unrighteous exercise of His own judgment. This, how
ever, is noway inconsistent with the idea of there being a positive
agency of God in the matter, to the effect of limiting both the
manner and extent of the opposition. " It is in the power of
the wicked to sin," says Augustine, " but that in sinning they do
this or that by their wickedness, is not in their own power, but in
God's, who divides and arranges the darkness."2 A later autho
rity justly discriminates thus : " God's providence extendeth
itself to all sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare
permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and
powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing them,
in a manifold dispensation, unto His own holy ends ; yet so as
the sin fulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and
not from God."3 It is wholly chargeable on man himself, if
there is a sinful disposition at work in his bosom ; but that dis
position existing there, and resisting the means which God
employs to subdue it, the man has no longer any control over

1 On Rom. ix. 19, note furnished to English translation, Bib. Cab., xii.,
p. L'lO. Bush, however, in his notes on Exodus, still speaks of the mere
permission as sufficient : " God is said to have done it, because He permitted
it to be done." His criticism on the words does not in the least contribute
to help this meaning. Dean Graves, as Arminian writers generally, hold
the same view. — (Works, vol. iii., p. 321, etc.)

2 Liber, de Prae lestinatione Sanctorum, $ :'>:!.
•' Westminster Confession, ch. v.

40 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the course and issue of events. This is entirely in the hands of
God, to be directed by Him in the way, and turned into the
form and channel, which is best adapted to promote the ends of
His righteous government. " He places the sinner in such
situations, that precisely this or that temptation shall assail him
— links the thoughts to certain determinate objects of sinful
desire, and secures their remaining attached to these, and not
starting off to others. The hatred in the heart belonged to
Shimei himself ; but it was God's work that this hatred should
settle so peculiarly upon David, and should show itself in
exactly the manner it did. It was David's own fault that he
became elated with pride ; the course of action which this pride
was to take was accidental, so far as he was concerned ; it
belonged to God, who turns the hearts of kings like the rivers
of waters. Hence it is said, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, ' The anger of the
Lord was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against
them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.' Yet wras he not
thereby in the least justified, and therefore, ver. 10, he confesses
that he had greatly sinned, and prays the Lord to take away his
iniquity."1

Now, applying these views to the case of Pharaoh, it was
certainly his own proud and wicked heart which prompted him
to refuse the command of God to let Israel go. But he might
have retained that disposition in all its force, and yet have acted
differently from what he did. Mere selfishness, or considerations
of policy, might have induced him to restrain it, as from like
motives, not from any proper change of heart, his magicians
first, and afterwards his counsellors, appear to have wished. —
(Ex. viii. 19, x. 7.) But the hand of God exerted such control
over him, so bounded and hedged him in, that while he clung to
the evil principle, he must pursue his infatuated and foolhardy
course : this one path lay open to him. And for his doing so,
two things were necessary, and in these the action of Omnipo-

1 Authentie, ii., p. 4GG. See also Calvin's Institutes, B. I., c. 18, and
B. II., c. 4, for the proof, rather than the explanation, of the fact, that
" bare permission is too weak to stand, and that it is the merest trifling to
substitute a bare permission for the providence of God, as if He sat in a
watch-tower, waiting for fortuitous events, His judgments meanwhile de
pending on the will of man."

•mi: KKLIVKKANCI:. 41

ten cc was displayed: — 1. First, the strong and courageous dis
position capable of standing fast under formidable dangers and
grapplingwith gigantic difficulties — a natural endowment which
could only have been derived from God. That such a disposition
should have been possessed in so eminent a degree by the Pharaoh
who then occupied the throne of Egypt, was the result of God's
agency, though Pharaoh alone was responsible for its abuse.
2. But, besides, there was needed such a disposal of circum
stances as might tend to prompt and stimulate to the utmost this
disposition of Pharaoh ; for otherwise it might have lain compa
ratively dormant, or, at least, might have been far from running
such a singularly perverse and infatuated course. Here also
the hand of God manifested its working. It was He who, in
the language of Tholuck, " brought about those circumstances
which made the heart disposed to evil still harder." Many writers,
who substantially admit this, limit the circumstances tending to
produce the result in question to the lenity and forbearance of
God, in so readily and frequently releasing Pharaoh from the
execution of judgment. There can be no doubt that this was
one of the circumstances which, on such a mind as his, would
be fitted to produce a hardening effect ; but it was not the only
nor the chief one : there were others, which must have had a still
more powerful tendency in the same direction, and which were
also more properly judicial in their character. Such, in the first
instance, and most evidently, was the particular kind of miracles
which Moses was instructed to work at the commencement of his
operations — the transforming of his rod into a serpent, and back
again to a rod ; for this was precisely the field on which Pharaoh
might be tempted to think he could successfully compete with
Mo-es, and might rival at least, if not outdo, the pretended
messengers of Heaven. However inexplicable the fact may be,
of the fact itself there can be no question, that from time im
memorial the art of working extraordinary, and to all appear
ance supernatural, effects on serpents, has been practised by a
particular class of persons in Egypt — the Psylli. Many of the
ancients have written of the wonderful exploits of those persons,
and celebrated their magical power, both to charm serpents at
their will, and to resi>t unharmed the bites of the most venomous
species. And it would seem, by the accounts of some of the

42 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

most recent inquirers, that descendants of the ancient brother
hood still exist in Egypt, forming an association by themselves,
and able to handle without fear or injury the most noxious
serpents, to walk abroad with numbers of them coiling around
their necks and arms, and to make certainly one species of them
rigid like a rod, and feign themselves dead.1 It is also certain,
that when they do these wonders, they are in a sort of phrenzied
or ecstatical condition, and are believed by the multitude to be
under divine influence. That this charming influence was, at
least in its origin and earlier stages, the offspring to some extent
of demoniacal power, is not inconsistent with what Scripture
testifies concerning the workings of that power generally, and is
most naturally implied in the particular statements made respect
ing the magicians when contending with Moses. For although
we might, without much violence to the interpretation of the text,
suppose it to represent that as being done which to all appearance
was done, without being understood positively to affirm that the
effect was actually produced ; yet the language used of their
changing the rods into serpents, and on a small scale also turn
ing water into blood, and producing frogs, does in its proper
import indicate something supernatural — corresponding, as we
conceive, to the wonders of the demoniacal possessions of our
Lord's time, and still more closely perhaps to " the working of
Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders," which is
made to characterize the coming of Antichrist. — (Matt. xxiv. 24 ;
2 Thess. ii. 9 ; Rev. xiii. 13.) But even without pressing this,
the mere fact of there being then a class of persons in the service
of Pharaoh, who themselves pretended, and were generally be
lieved, to be possessed of a divine power to work the wonders in
question, must evidently have acted as a temptation with Pha
raoh to resist the demands of Moses, being confident of his ability
to contend with him on this peculiar field of prodigies. And

1 See the quotations from the ancients in Bochart, Hieroz., ii., p. 393 and
4 ; and for the account of the moderns, Hengstenberg's Egypt and Books
of Moses, p. 98-103. See also Mr Lane's account of the modern serpent-
charmers (Modern Eg., c. 20), who represents them as certainly doing extra
ordinary feats, but states it as an ascertained fact, that they do not carry
serpents of a venomous nature about their persons till they have extnu'U'ii
the poisonous teeth. It is to be inferred that the ancient Psylli did tin;
same, though they professed differently.

Till: DKL1VERANCK. 1-'.

having fairly ventured on the arena of conflict, we can easily un
derstand how, with a proud and heaven-defying temper like his,
he would scorn to own himself vanquished; even though the
miraculous working of Moses clearly established its superiority
to any act or power possessed by the magicians, and they them-
M-lves were at last compelled to retire from the field, owning the
victory to be Jehovah's.

This, however, was only one class of the circumstances which
wen- arranged by God, and fitted to harden the heart of Pharaoh.
To the same account we must also place the progressive nature
of the demands made upon him, in beginning first with a request
for leave of three days' absence to worship God ; then, when this
was granted for all who were properly capable of taking part in
the service, insisting on the same liberty being extended to the
wives and children ; and again, when even this was conceded,
claiming to take with them also their flocks and herds : so that it
became evident an entire escape from the land was meditated.
There was no deceit, as the adversaries of revelation have some
times alleged, in this gradual opening of the Divine plan ; nor,
when the last and largest demand was made, was more asked than
Pharaoh should from the first have voluntarily granted. But so
little was sought at the beginning to make the unreasonableness
of his conduct more distinctly apparent, and the gradual and
successive enlargement of the demand was intended to act as a
temptation, to prove him, and bring out the real temper of his
heart.

Finally, of the same character also was the last movement of
Heaven in this marvellous chain of providences — the leading of
the children of Israel, as into a net, between the Red Sea and
the mountains of the wilderness, fitted, as it so manifestly was, to
suggest the thought to Pharaoh, when he had recovered a little
from his consternation, and felt the humiliation of his defeat, that
now an opportunity presented itself of retrieving his lost honour,
and with one stroke avenging himself on his enemies. He was
thus tempted, in the confident hope of victory, to renew the con
flict, and, when apparently sure of his prey, was led, by the open
ing of the sea for the escape of the Israelites, and the removal of
the Divine cloud to the rear, so as to cover their flight, into tin-
fatal snare which involved him in destruction. In the whole, we

44 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

see the directing and controlling agency of God, not in the least
interfering with the liberty of Pharaoh, or obliging him to sin,
but still, in judgment for his sinful oppression of the Church
of God, and unjust resistance to the claims of Heaven, placing
him in situations which, though fitted to influence aright a well-
constituted mind, were also fitted, when working on such a
temperament as his, to draw him into the extraordinary course
he took, and to render the series of transactions, as they actually
occurred, a matter of moral certainty.

13ut to return to the wonders which Moses was commissioned
to perform : it is to be borne in mind, that the humiliation of
Pharaoh was not their only design, nor even the redemption of
Israel their sole end. The manifestation of God's own glory
was here, as in all His works, the highest object in view ; and
this required that the powers of Egyptian idolatry, with which
the interest of Satan was at that time peculiarly identified, should
be brought into the conflict, and manifestly confounded. For
this reason, also, it was that the first wonders wrought had such
distinct reference to the exploits of the magicians or serpent-
charmers, who were the wonder-workers connected with that
gigantic system of idolatry, and the main instruments of its
support and credit in the world. They were thus naturally
drawn, as well as Pharaoh, into the contest, and became, along
with him, the visible heads and representatives of the " spiritual
wickednesses" of Egypt. And since they refused to own the
supremacy and accede to the demands of Jehovah, on witness
ing that first and, as it may be called, harmless triumph of His
power over theirs ; since they resolved, as the adversaries of God's
and the instruments of Satan's interest in the world, to prolong
the contest, there remained no alternative but to visit the hind
with a series of judgments, such as might clearly prove the
utter impotence of its fancied deities to protect their votaries
from the might and vengeance of the living God. It is when
considered in this point of view, that we see the agreement in
principle between the wonders proceeding from the instrumen
tality of Moses, and those wrought by the hand of Christ. They
seem at first sight to be entirely opposite in their character — the
one being severe and desolating plagues; the other, miracles of
mercy and healing. This seeming contrariety arises from their

THE DEL1VEKA 45

having been wrought on enthvlv different fields — tlio.se of V
on mi avowedlv hostile territory, tliose of Christ on a land and
amoni^ a people that were peculiarly His own. But as in both
cases alike there was a mighty adversary, whose power and
dominion were to he brought clown, so the display given in each
of miraenlons working, told with the same effect on his interest,
though somewhat less conspicuously in the one case than in the
other. While Christ's works were, in the highest sense, miracles
of mercy, supernatural acts of beneficence towards " His own,"
they were, at the same time, triumphant displays of Divine over
satanic agency. " The Son of God was manifested to destroy
the works of the devil." As often as His hand was stretched
out to heal, it dealt a blow to the cause of the adversary ; and
the crowning part of the Redeemer's work on earth, His dying
the accursed deatli of the cross, was that which at once perfected
the plan of mercy for the faithful, and judged and spoiled the
prince of darkness. In like manner we see mercy and judgment
going hand in hand in the wonders that were done by the in
strumentality of Moses on the " field of Zoan;" only, from that
being the field of the adversary, and the wonders being done
directly upon him, the judgment comes more prominently into
view. It was essentially a religious contest between the God of
heaven on the one side, and the powers of Egyptian idolatry on
the other, as represented by Pharaoh and his host ; and as one
stroke after another was inflicted by the arm of Omnipotence,
there was discovered the nothingness of the divinities whose cause
Pharaoh maintained, and in whose power he trusted, while " the
God of Israel triumphed gloriously, and in mercy led forth the
people whom He had redeemed, to His holy habitation."

It is not necessary that we should show, by a minute exami
nation of each of the plagues, how thoroughly they were fitted
to expose the futility of Egyptian idolatry, and to show how
completely everything there was at the disposal of the God of
Israel, whether for good or evil. The total number of the
plagues was ten, indicating their completeness for the purposes
intended by their infliction. The first nine were but prepara
tory, like the mirarnlons works which Christ performed during
His active ministry; the last was the ureat act of judgment,
which was to earrv with it the complete prostration of the ad-

46 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

versary, and the deliverance of the covenant people. It was
therefore, from the first, announced as the grand means to be
employed for the accomplishment of Israel's redemption. — (Ex.
iv. 22, 23.) But the preceding miracles were by no means
unnecessary, as they tended to disclose the absolute sovereignty
of Jehovah over the whole province of nature, as well as over
the lives of men (which came out in the last plague), and His
power to turn whatever was known of natural good in Egypt
into an instrument of evil, and to aggravate the evil into tenfold
severity. This was manifestly the general design ; and it is not
necessary to prove, either that these plagues were quite different
in their nature from anything commonly known in Egypt, or
that each one of them struck upon some precise feature of the
existing idolatry. In reference to the first of these points, we
bv no means think, with Ilengstenberg, that in the natural
phenomena of Egypt there was a corresponding evil to each one
of the plagues, and that the plague only consisted in the super
natural degree to which the common evil was carried ; nor can
any proof be adduced in support of this at all satisfactory. But
as the evil principle (Typhon) was worshipped in Egypt not less
than the good, and worshipped, doubtless, because of his sup
posed power over the hurtful influences of nature,1 we might
certainly expect that some at least of the plagues would appear
to be only an aggravation of the natural evils to which that land
was peculiarly exposed : so that these, as well as its genial and
beneficent properties, might be seen to be under the control of
Jehovah. Of this kind unquestionably was the third plague
(that of lice, or, as is now generally agreed, of the gnats, with
which Egypt peculiarly abounds, and which all travellers, from
Herodotus to those of the present day, concur in representing as
a source of great trouble and annoyance in that country).1 Of
the same kind, also, was the plague of flies, which swarm in
Egypt, and that also of the locusts ;3 to which we may add the

1 Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, p. 362, 380. See also the note of Mosheim
to Cudworth's Intellectual System, vol. i., p. 353. Tegg's ed., and Bochart,
llieroz. Lib. ii., c. 34.

2 See the note in the Pictorial Bible on Ex. viii. 17. Also Hengsteu-
berg's Eg. and Books of Moses, for quotations from various authorities.

3 Ibid.

TIN-; DELIVERANCE. 47

plague of boils, which Scripture itself mentions as possessing :i
peculiarly Egyptian character. — (Deut. xxviii. 27.) But while
wr can easily account for the production, on a gigantic scale, of
the-M- natural evils, the same object — viz., the executing of judg
ment upon the gods of Egypt — would also lead us to expect other
plagues of an entirely different kind, in which the natural good
was restrained, and even converted into a source of evil. For in
this way alone could confusion be poured upon the worship of
the good principle, and which, there as elsewhere, took the form
of a deification of the genial and productive powers of nature.
Some of these belonged to Egypt in a quite extraordinary de
gree, and were regarded as constituting its peculiar glory. Such
especially was the Nile, which was looked upon as identical with
Osiris, the highest god, and to which Pharaoh himself is evi
dently represented as paying divine honours, in Ex. vii. 15, viii.
20.1 Such, also, are its almost cloudless sky and ever-brilliant
sun, rendering the climate so singularly clear and settled, that a
shade is seldom to be seen ; and not only the more violent tem
pests, but even the gentlest showers of rain, are a rarity. Hence
of the earlier plagues, the two first — those of the turning of the
water into blood, and the frogs — took the form of a judgment
upon the Nile, converting it from being the most beneficial and
delightful, into the most noxious and loathsome, of terrestrial
objects ; while in the two later plagues of the tempest and the
thick darkness, the Egyptians saw their crystal atmosphere and
resplendent heavens suddenly compelled to wear an aspect of
indescribable terror and appalling gloom. So that whether
nature were worshipped there in respect to her benignant or her
hurtful influences, the plagues actually inflicted were equally
adapted to confound the gods of Egypt — in the one case by chang
ing the natural good into its opposite evil, and in the other by
imparting to the natural evil a supernatural force and intensity."
'Faking this general and comprehensive view of the prelimi-

1 Hengstenborg, p. 109, where the authorities are given. Also Yossius,
<le Ori^ine et Prog. Molatrise, L. ii., c. 74, 75.

'-' W,' ;ire surprised that Heoglteaberg (also Kurtz) did not see the neces
sity of the one class of wonders as well as of the other, for the object in view.
He has hi'iire. laboured to find a corresponding natural evil to all the plagues,
and in sonic of the cases has most palpably laboured in vain. lie is at paius

48 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

nary plagues, it will easily be seen that there is no need for our
seeking to find in each of them a special reference to some
individual feature of Egyptian idolatry. If they struck at the
root of that system in what might be called its leading principles,
there was obviously no necessity for dealing a separate and
successive blow against its manifold shades and peculiarities of
false worship. For this an immensely greater number than nine
or ten would have been required. And as it is, in attempting
to connect even these ten with the minutiae of Egyptian idolatry,
much that is fanciful and arbitrary must be resorted to. So
long as we keep to the general features and design, the bearing
of the wonders wrought can be made plain enough ; but those
who would lead us more into detail, take for granted what is
not certain, and sometimes even affirm what is manifestly absurd.
To say, for example, that the plague of flies had any peculiar
reference to the worship of Baal-zebub, the Fly-god, assumes a
god to have been worshipped there who is not known for certain
to have had a place in the mythology of Egypt. It is equally
arbitrary to connect the plague of locusts with the worship of
Serapis. And it is surely to draw pretty largely on one's
credulity, to speak of the miracle on the serpents as intended to
destroy these, on account of their being the objects of worship ;
or to set forth the plague on cattle as aimed at the destruction
of the entire system of brute worship, as if no cattle were killed
in Egypt, because the Deity was there worshipped under that
symbol I1 The general argument is weakened by being coupled

to prove, that the Nile, when swollen, has somewhat of a reddish colour, and
that it is not without frogs — the wonder, indeed, would be, if it were other
wise in either respect ; but he has not produced even the shadow of proof
that these things belonged to it to such an extent as to render it nauseous
or unwholesome, or so much as to suggest the idea of a plague. On the
contrary, the redness of the water is rather a sign of its becoming again fit
for use. — (See Pictorial Bible on Ex. vii. 17.) Resort is had by Kurt/, and
some others, for a natural basis, to a lately discovered fact, that a sli^htly
red tinge is occasionally given to the waters of the Nile by certain micro
scopical fungi or infusoria. But microscopical observations in such .
are entirely out of the question, so long as the people know nothing of it as
a practical evil. The same virtually may be said of storms and thunder,
which are all but unknown in Egypt.

1 The contrary needs no proof, as every one knows who is in the least
acquainted with ancient Egypt, that " oxen generally were used both for

Till: DELIVERANCE. 49

with such puerilities; and the solemn impression also, which the
wonders were designed to produce, would have been frittered
down and impaired, rather than deepened, by so many allusions
to the mere details of the system.

But now, when God had by the first nine plagues vindicated
1 1 is j lower over all that was naturally good or evil in Egypt, and
had thus smitten with judgment their nature-worship in both of
its leading characteristics, the adversary being still determined
to maintain his opposition, it was time to inflict that last and
greatest judgment, the execution of which was from the first
designed to be the death-blow of the adversary, and the signal
of Israel's deliverance. This was the slaying of the first-born,
in which the Lord manifested His dominion over the highest
region of life. Indeed, in this respect, there is clearly discernible,
as was already noticed by Aben-ezra and other Jewish writers,1
a gradual ascent in the plagues from the lower to the higher
provinces of nature, which also tends to confirm the view we
have presented of their character and design. The first two
come from beneath — from the waters, which may be said to be
under the earth (the Nile-blood and the frogs) ; the next two
from the ground or surface of the earth (the lice and the flies) ;
the murrain of beasts and the boils on men belong to the lower
atmosphere, as the tempest, the showers of locusts, and the
darkness, to the higher ; so that one only remains, that which is
occupied by the life of man, and which stands in immediate
connection with the Divine power and glory. And as in the
earlier plagues God separated between the land of Goshen and
the rest of Egypt, to show that He was not only the Supreme
Jehovah, but also the covenant God of Israel, so in this last and
• Towning act of judgment it was especially necessary, that while
the stroke of death fell upon every dwelling of Egypt, the habi
tations of Israel should be preserved in perfect peace and safety.

food and sacrifice" (Heercn, Af., ii., p. 147) ; and evidence has even been
found amony the ancient documents, of a company of curriers, or leather-
dressers. — (Ib.. p. 137.) Bryant, in his book on the plagues, led the way to
those weak and frivolous opinions, and he has been followed by many with
out examination. See. for example, the Philosophy of the Plan of Salva
tion, chapter iii.

1 See in Baumgarten's Commentary, i., p. 459.
VOL. II. I)

50 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

But two questions naturally arise here : Why in this judgment
upon the life of man should precisely the first-born have been
slain ? and if the judgment was for the overthrow of the adver
sary and the redemption of Israel, why should a special provision
have been required to save Israel also from the plague ?

1. In regard to the first of these points, there can be no
doubt that the slaying of the first-born of Egypt had respect to
the relation of Israel to Jehovah : " Israel," said God, " is My
son, My first-born : if thou refuse to let him go, I will slay thy
son, thy first-born."— (Ex. iv. 22, 23.) But in what sense
could Israel be called God's first-born son ? Something more
is plainly indicated by the expression, though no more is very
commonly found in it, than that Israel was peculiarly dear to
God, had a sort of first-born's interest in His regard. It implies
this, no doubt, but it also goes deeper, and points to the divine
origin of Israel as the seed of promise ; in their birth the off
spring of grace, as contradistinguished from nature. Such
pre-eminently was Isaac, the first-born of the family, the type
of all that was to follow ; and such now were the whole family,
when grown into a people, as contradistinguished from the
other nations of the earth. They were not the whole that were
to occupy this high and distinctive relation ; they were but the
beginning of the holy seed, the first-born of Jehovah, the first-
fruits of a redeemed world, which in the fulness was to compre
hend " all kindreds, peoples, and tongues." Hence the promise
to Abraham was, that he should be the father, not of one, but
" of many nations." But these first-fruits represent the whole,
and, themselves alone existing as yet, might now be said to
comprehend the whole. If they were to be destroyed, the rest
cannot come into existence, for a redeemed Israel was the only
seed-corn of a redeemed world ; while if they should be saved,
their salvation would be the pledge and type of the salvation of
all. And, therefore, to make it clearly manifest that God was
here acting upon the principle which connects the first-fruits
with the whole lump, acting not for that one family merely, and
that moment of time then present, but for His people of every
kindred and of every age, He takes that principle for the very
ground of His great judgment on the enemy, and the redemp
tion thence accruing to His people. As the first-born in God's

THE DELIVERANCE. 51

elect family is to be spared and rescued, so the first-born in the
house of the enemy, tin* beginning of his increase, and the heir
of his substance, must be destroyed : the one a proof that the
whole family were appointed to life and blessing; the other, in
like manner, a proof that all who were aliens from God's cove
nant of grace, equally deserved, and should certainly in due
time inherit, the evils of perdition.

2. In regard to the other question which concerns Israel's
liability to the judgment which fell upon Egypt, this arose
from Israel's natural relation to the world, just as their redemp
tion was secured by their spiritual relation to God. For,
whether viewed in their individual or in their collective capa
city, they were in themselves of Egypt : collectively, a part of
the nation, without any separate and independent existence of
their own, vassals of the enemy, and inhabitants of his doomed
territory ; individually, also, partakers of the guilt and corrup
tion of Egypt. It is the mercy and grace alone of God's
covenant which makes them to differ from those around them ;
and, therefore, to show that while, as children of the covenant,
the plague should not come nigh them, not a hair of their head
should perish, they still were in themselves no better than
others, and had nothing whereof to boast, it was, at the same
time, provided that their exemption from judgment should be
secured only by the blood of atonement. This blood of the
lamb, slain and sprinkled upon their door-posts, was a sign
between them and God : the sign on His part, that, according
to the purport of His covenant, He accepted a ransom in their
behalf, in respect to which He would spare them, " as a man
spareth his son;" and the sign on their part, that they owned
the God of Abraham as their God, and claimed a share in the
privileges which He so freely vouchsafed to them. Thus, in
their case, " mercy rejoiced against judgment ;" yet so as
clearly to manifest, that had they been dealt with according to
their desert, and with respect merely to what they were in
themselves, they too must have perished under the rebuke of
Heaven.

It was in consideration of the perfectly gratuitous nature of
this salvation, and to give due prominence and perpetuity to the
principle on which the judgment and the mercy alike proceeded.

52 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

that the Lord now claimed the first-born of Israel as peculiarly
His own. — (Ex. xiii.) The Israelites in their collective capa
city were His first-born, and as such were saved from death,
the just desert and doom of sin which others inherited ; but
within that election there was henceforth to be another election,
— a first-born among these first-born, who, as having been the
immediate subjects of the Divine deliverance, were to be pecu
liarly devoted to Him. They were to be set apart, or literally,
" to be made to pass over to God" (Ex. xiii. 12), — leaving
what might be called the more common ground of duty and
service, and connecting themselves with that which belonged
exclusively to Himself. It implied that they had in a sense
derived a new life from God — lived, in a sense, out of death,
and consequently were bound to show that they did so, by
living after a new manner, in a course of holy consecration to
the Lord. This was strikingly taught in the ordinance regard
ing the first-born of cattle and beasts, afterwards introduced, of
which the clean were to be presented as an offering to the Lord,
that is, wholly given up to Him by death (Ex. xxii. 29, 30 ;
xxxiv. 19, 20); while in the case of the unclean, such as the ass,
a lamb was to be sacrificed in its stead. The meaning evidently
was, that the kind of consecration to Himself which the Lord
sought from the first-born, as it sprung from an act of redemp
tion, saving them from guilt and death, so it was to be made
good by a separation, on the one hand, from what was morally
unclean, and, on the other, by a self-dedication to all holy and
spiritual services. But then, as the redemption in which they
had primarily participated was accorded to them in their cha
racter as the first-fruits, the representatives of their respective
households, and all the households equally shared with them in
the deliverance achieved, so it was manifestly the mind of God
that their state and calling should be regarded as substantially
belonging to all, and that in them were only to be seen the
more eminent and distinguished examples of what should cha
racterize the people as a whole. Hence they were in one
mass presently addressed as " a kingdom of priests and an
holy nation" (Ex. xix. <>) ; they were called to be generally
what the first-born were called to be pre-eminently and pecu
liarly. In short, as these first-born had been as to their re-

Till: DELIVERANCE.

drmption the proxies, in :i manner, of the whole, so were they
in their subsequent consecration to be the symbolical lights and
patterns of the whole. Nor was any change in this respect
made by the substitution of the tribe of Levi in their room. —
(Num. iii. U.) For this, as will appear in its proper place, was
only the supplanting of a less by a more perfect arrangement,
which was also done in such a way as to render most distinctly
manifest the representative character of the tribe, which entered
into the place of the first-born ; — so that we see here, at the
very outset, what was God's aim in the redemption of His
people, and how it involved not simply their release from the
thraldom and the oppression of Egypt, but also their standing
in a peculiar relation to Himself, and their call to show forth
His glory. We perceive in this act of redemption the kernel
of all that was afterwards developed, as to duty and privilege,
by the revelations of law and the institutions of worship. And
we see also what a depth of meaning there is in the expression
used in Ileb. xii. 23, where it is represented as the ennobling
distinction of Christians, that they have "come to the Church
of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven." To
designate the Church as that of the first-born, is to present it
to our view in its highest character as being in a state of most
blessed nearness to God, having a peculiar interest in His
favour, and a singular destination to promote the ends of His
righteous government ; it is the calling and destination of those
who have been ransomed from the yoke of servitude, to live
henceforth to His glory, and minister and serve before Him.1

1 It is singular how frequently commentators have missed the proper
force of this passage in Hebrews. The first-born to which Christians are
come, says TVhitby, are the apostles, who have received the first-fruits of
the Spirit. But it is of the New Testament Church generally, of which the
apostles were a part, that the declaration is made ; and the explanation
amounts simply to this: — Ye who have the first-fruits of the Spirit are
come to those who have the first-fruits of the Spirit ! Macknight is no
better : — " The first-born of man and beast being reckoned more excellent
than tin- sul.s.'ijtinit births, wnv appropriated to God. Hence the Israel
ites had the name of God's Jirat-ln>rn given them, to show that they be
longed to God, and were more oxo-lh-nt than the mst of the nations." A
poor distinction, surely, on which, as a basis, to raise the peculiar pri\
and hopes of the rede

54 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

When we come to consider the commemorative institution of
the Passover, we shall see how admirably its services were
adapted to bring out and exhibit to the eye of the Church the
great principles of truth and duty, which were involved in the
memorable event in providence we have now been reviewing.
But before we leave the consideration of it as an act of provi
dence, there is another point connected with it, at which we
would briefly glance, and one in which the Egyptians and
Israelites were both concerned. We refer to what has been
not less unscripturally than unhappily called " the borrowing of
jewels " from the Egyptians by the Israelites on the eve of their
departure.1 That the sacred text in the original gives no
countenance to this false view of the transaction, we have ex
plained in the note below ; and, indeed, the whole circumstances
of the case render it quite incredible that there should have
been a borrowing and lending in the proper sense of the term.
It is not conceivable that now, when Moses had refused to
move, unless they were allowed to take with them all their flocks
and herds, any thought should have been entertained of their
return. Nor could this, at such a time, have been wished by

1 The sense of borrowing was, by a mistranslation of the Septuagint on
ch. xii. 35, first given to the Hebrew word. This misled the fathers, who
were generally unacquainted with Hebrew ; and even Jerome adopted that
meaning, though possessed of learning sufficient to detect the error. The
Hebrew word is tatJ>, which simply means to ask or demand : " Speak now
to the ears of the people, and let every man ask of his neighbour jewels
(rather, articles) of gold," etc. (ch. xi. 1-3). It is the same word that is
used in xii. 36, and which has there so commonly obtained the sense of
lending. Here it is in the Hiphil or causeform, and strictly means, " to cause
another to ask," = give, or present. Rendered literally, the first part of the
verse would stand, " And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of
the Egyptians, and they made them to ask or desire." This can only mean,
that the Lord produced such an impression upon the minds of the Egyptians
in favour of the Israelites, that, so far from needing to be cozened or con
strained to part with the articles of gold, silver, and apparel, they rather
invited the Israelites to ask them : take what you will, we are willing to
give all. Even Ewald, though the narrative is merely a tradition in his
account, which he handles after his own fashion, yet affirms it to be the
self-evident import of the account, that the plundering was no act of theft,
that only Pharaoh's subsequent breach of promise rendered the restoration
of the goods impracticable, and that the turn matters took was to be re
garded as a kind of Divine recompense.— (Gesch., ii., p. 87.)

THE DELIVERAM I

any ; for after the land had been smitten by so many plagues
on account of them, and when, especially by the last awful
judgment, CVCTV heart was paralyzed with fear and trembling,
the desire of the Egyptians must have run entirely in the op
posite direction. Such, we are expressly told, was the case ; for
" the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might
send them out of the land in haste : for they said, We be all
dead men." Besides, what possible use could they have had for
articles of gold, silver, and apparel, if they were only to be
absent for a few days ? The very request must have betrayed
the intention, and the utmost credulity on the part of the
Egyptians could not have induced them to give on such a sup
position. It is farther evident that this must have been the
general understanding in Egypt, from the numbers — "the mixed
multitude," as they are called — who went along with the Israel
ites, and who must have gone with them under the impression
that the Israelites were taking a final leave of Egypt. Hence
the reasoning of Calvin and other commentators — who, under
the idea of its being a proper borrowing and lending, endeavour
to justify the transaction by resting on the absolute authority of
God, who has a right to command what lie pleases — falls of
itself to the ground.

Now, that this giving on the part of the Egyptians, and
receiving on the part of the Israelites, was intimately connected
with God's great work of judgment on the one, and mercy to
the other, is manifest from the place it holds in the Divine
record. It was already foretold to Abraham, that his posterity
should come forth from the land of their oppression with much
substance. That the prediction should be fulfilled in this par
ticular way, was declared to Moses in God's first interview with
him — (Ex. iii. 21, 22.) And both then, and immediately before
it took place, and still again when it did take place, the Lord
constantly spoke of it as His own doing — a result accomplished
by the might of His outstretched arm upon the Egyptians. We
can never imagine that so much account would have been made
of it, if the whole end to be served had simply been to provide
the Israelites with a certain supply of goods and apparel. A
much higher object was unquestionably aimed at. As regards
the Egyptians, it was a part of the judgment which God was

56 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

now visiting upon them for their past misdeeds, and which here,
as not ^infrequently happened, was made to take a form analogous
to the sin it was designed to chastise. Thus, in another age,
when the Israelites themselves became the objects of chastise
ment, they said, " We will flee upon horses ; therefore (said
God) ye shall flee, and they that pursue you shall be swift." —
(Isa. xxx. 16.) And again, in Jeremiah, " Like as ye have for
saken Me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye
serve strangers in a land that is not yours." — (Ch. v. 19.) In
like manner here, the Egyptians had been long acting the part
of oppressors of God's people, seeking by the most harsh and
tyrannical measures to weaken and impoverish them. And
now, when God comes down to avenge their cause, He con
strains Egypt to furnish them with a rich supply of her treasures
and goods. No art or violence was needed on their part to ac
complish this ; the thing was in a manner done to their hand.
The enemies themselves became at last so awed and moved by
the strong hand of God upon them, that they would do anything
to hasten forward His purpose. Their proud and stubborn
hearts bow beneath His arm, like tender willows before the
blast ; and they feel impelled by an irresistible power to send
forth, with honour and great substance, the very people they
had so long been unjustly trampling under foot. What a
triumphant display of the sovereign might and dominion of
God over the adversaries of His cause ! What a striking mani
festation of the truth, that He can not only turn their counsels
into foolishness, but also render them unconscious instruments of
promoting His glory in the world ! And what a convincing
proof of the folly of those who would enrich themselves at the
expense of God's interest, or would enviously prevent His
people from obtaining what they absolutely need of worldly
means to accomplish the service lie expects at their hands !

Yet, palpable as these lessons were, and affectingly brought
home to the bosoms of the Egyptians, they proved insufficient
to disarm their hostility. The pride of their monarch was only
for the moment quelled, not thoroughly subdued ; and as soon
as he had recovered from the recoil of feeling which the sti'oke
of God's judgment had produced, he summoned all his might to
avenge on Israel the defeat he had sustained ; but only with the

THE DI<;UVI;KANCE. 57

effect of leaving, in his example, a more memorable type of the
final destruction that is certain to overtake the adversaries of
God. In a few days more the shores of the Red Sea resounded
with the triumphant song of Moses : " I will sing unto the Lord,
for lie hath triumphed gloriously : the horse and his rider hath

lie thrown into the sea The Lord is a man of war : the

Lord is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He
cast into the sea : his chosen captains also are drowned in the
Red Sea. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power :
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And
in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them
that rose up against Thee : Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which
consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of Thy nostrils
the waters were gathered together," etc. Of this song, " com
posed on the instant of deliverance, and chanted to the music of
the timbrel," Milman justly says : " What is the Roman arch of
triumph, or the pillar crowded with sculpture, compared, as a
memorial, to the Hebrew song of victory ; which, having sur
vived so many ages, is still fresh and vivid as ever, and excites
the same emotions of awe and piety in every human breast sus
ceptible of such feelings, which it did so many ages past in those
of the triumphant children of Israel ? " ! How closely also the
act of victorious judgment this ode celebrates stands related to
future acts of a like kind, — how, especially, it was intended to
foreshadow the final putting down of all power and authority
that exalts itself against the kingdom of Christ, is manifest from
Rev. xv. 3, where the glorious company above are represented
as singing at once the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in the
immediate prospect of the last judgments of God, and of all
nations being thereby led to come and worship before Him. It
is also in language entirely similar, and indeed manifestly bor
rowed from that song of Moses, that the Apostle, in 2 Thess. ii. 8,
di -scribes the sure destruction of Antichrist, " whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit (or breath) of His mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of His coming." Overlooking the
scriptural connection between the earlier and the later here in
God's dealings, between the type and the antitype, — overlooking,
too, the rise that has taken place in the position of the Church,
1 History of the Jews, third ed., vol. i., p. 95.

58 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and its relations to the world, by the introduction of Christianity,
not a few writers have sought to fasten upon those prophetic
passages of the New Testament an interpretation which is too
grossly literal even for the original passage in the Old, as if
nothing would fulfil their import but a corporeally present
Saviour, inflicting corporeal and overwhelming judgments on
adversaries in the flesh. The work of judgment celebrated in
the song of Moses is ascribed entirely to the Lord : it is He who
throws the host of Pharaoh into the sea, and by the strength of
His arm lays the enemy low. But did He do so by being cor
poreally present ? or did He work without any inferior instru
mentality ? Was there literally a stretching out of his own
arm ? or did He actually send forth a blast from His nostrils ?
But if no one would affirm such things in regard to the over
throw of Pharaoh, how much less should it be affirmed in regard
to the destruction of Antichrist, with his ungodly retainers ! Here
the Church has to do, not with a single individual, an actual
king and his warlike host, as in the case of Pharaoh, but with
an antichristian system and its wide-spread adherents ; and the
real victory must be won, not by acts of violence and bloodshed,
but by the spiritual weapons which shall undermine the strong
holds of error and diffuse the light of Divine truth. Whenever
the Lord gives power to those weapons to overcome, He substan
tially repeats anew the judgments of the Red Sea ; and when
all that exalteth itself against the knowledge of Christ shall be
put down by the victorious energy of the truth, then shall be
the time to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.

SECTION FOURTH.

THE MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS — MANNA — WATER
FROM THE ROCK — THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE.

THE children of Israel are now in the condition of a ransomed
people, delivered from the yoke of the oppressor, and per
sonally in a state of freedom and enlargement. They have been
redeemed for the inheritance, but still the inheritance is not
theirs ; they are separated from it by a great and terrible wilder
ness, where many trials and difficulties must certainly be encoun
tered, and nature, if left to itself, will inevitably perish. They
were not long in feeling this. To the outward eye, the prospect
which lay immediately before them, when they marched from
the shores of the Red Sea, was peculiarly dark and dishearten
ing. The country they had left behind, with all the hardships
and oppressions it had latterly contained for them, was still a
rich and cultivated region. It presented to the eye luxuriant
fields, and teemed with the best of nature's productions ; they
had there the most delicious water to drink, and were fed with
flesh and bread to the full. But now, even after the most extra
ordinary wonders had been wrought in their behalf, and the
power that oppressed them had been laid low, everything assumes
the most dismal and discouraging aspect : little to be seen but a
boundless waste of burning sand and lifeless stones ; and a tedious
march before them, through trackless and inhospitable deserts,
where it seemed impossible to find for such an immense host
even the commonest necessaries of life. What advantage was it
to them in such a case, to have been brought out with a high
hand from the house of bondage ? They had escaped, indeed,
from the yoke of the oppressor, but only to be placed in more
appalling circumstances, and exposed to calamities less easy t«>
be borne. And as death seemed inevitable anyhow, it might
have been as well, at least, to have let them meet it amid the
comparative comforts they enjoyed in Egypt, as to have it now

60 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

coining upon them through scenes of desolation and the linger
ing horrors of want.

Such were the feelings expressed by the Israelites shortly
after their entrance on the wilderness, and more than once ex
pressed again as they became sensible of the troubles and perils
of their new position.1 If they had rightly interpreted the
Lord's doings, and reposed due confidence in His declared pur
poses concerning them, they would have felt differently. They
would have understood, that it was in the nature of things im
possible for God to have redeemed them for the inheritance, and
yet to suffer any inferior difficulties by the way to prevent them
from coming to the possession of it. That redemption carried
in its bosom a pledge of other needful manifestations of Divine
love and faithfulness. For, being in itself the greatest, it im
plied that the less should not be withheld ; and being also the
manifestation of a God who, in character as in being, is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, it bespoke His readiness to
give, in the future, similar manifestations of Himself, in so far
as such might be required.

The Israelites, however, who were still enveloped in much of
the darkness and corruption of Egypt, though they were out
wardly delivered from its thraldom, understood as yet compara
tively little of this. They knew not how much they had to
expect from God, as the JEHOVAH, the self-existent and un
changeable, who, as such, could not leave the people whom Pie
had redeemed to want and desolation, but must assuredly carry
on and perfect what He had so gloriously begun. They readily
gave way, therefore, to fears and doubts, and even broke out
into open murmuring and discontent. But this only showed
how much they had still to learn in the school of God. They
had yet to obtain a clearer insight into God's character, and a
deeper consciousness of their covenant relation to Him. And
they could not possibly be in a better position for getting this,
than in that solitary desert where the fascinating objects of the
world no longer came between them and God. There they
were in a manner forced into intimate dealings with God ; being
constantly impelled by their necessities, on the one hand, to
throw themselves upon His care, and drawn, on the other, by
1 Hx. xv. 24, xvi. 2, xvii. 2, 3 ; Num. xi., xx.

TIIK M.\i;rii Tintorcii TIII: WII.DKKXESS. 61

Hi- •/niciuu-* interpositions in their bclialf, into a closer acquaint
ance- \\ith His character and goodness. By the things they
suffered, not less than those they heard, they were made to learn
obedience, and were brought through a fitting preparation for
the calling and destiny that was before them. Even with all
the advantages which their course of wilderness-training pos
sessed for this purpose, it proved insufficient for the generation
that left Egypt with Moses ; and the promise of God required
to be suspended till another generation had sprung up, in whom
that training, by being longer continued, was to prove more
thoroughly effectual. So 'again, in later times, when their pos
terity had fallen from their high calling, the Lord had again to
put them through a discipline so entirely similar to the one now
undergone, that it is spoken of as a simple repetition of what
took place after the deliverance from Egypt.1 And is it not
substantially so still with the sincere believer in Christ ? Spiri
tually he enters upon a desert the moment he takes up his
Master's cross and begins to die to the world, and never alto
gether leaves it till he enters the rest which remains for the
people of God. But what life to him here may be, will neces
sarily depend to a large extent on the use he makes of his privi
leges as a believer, and the manner in which he prosecutes his
calling in the Saviour. If his soul prospers, he may, as to other
things, be in health and prosperity, and his present condition
may approach nearer and nearer to that which awaits him here
after.

In regard to the Lord's manifestations and dealings toward
Israel during this peculiar portion of their history, the general
principle unfolded is, that while He finds it needful to prescribe
to His ransomed people a course of difficulty, trial, and clanger,
before putting them in possession of the inheritance, He gives
them meanwhile all that is required for their support and well-
being, and brings to them discoveries of His gracious nearness

1 See Kzek. xx. 35, ;!'•>, an.l tin- I want if ul passage, Hos. ii. 14-23, which
describe the course to be adopted for restoring a degenerate Church, and
God's future dealings with her, as if the whole were to bo a re-enacting of
the transactions which occurred at the beginning of her history. The same
mode of procedure was to be adopted now which had been pursued then,
though the actual scenes and operations were to be widely different.

62 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

to them, and unfailing love, such as they could not otherwise
have experienced.

I. This appeared, first of all, in the supply of food provided
for them, and especially in the giving of manna, which the Lord
sent them in the place of bread. It is true that the manna
might not necessarily form, nor can scarcely be supposed to have
actually formed, their only means of subsistence during the latter
and longer period of their sojourn in the wilderness ; for, to
say nothing of the quails, of which at first in kindness, and again
in anger, a temporary supply was furnished them (Ex. xvi. ;
Num. xi.), there were within reach of the Israelites not a few
resources of a common kind. The regions which they traversed,
though commonly designated by the name of desert, are by no
means uniform in their character, and contain in many places
pasturage for sheep and cattle. Hence considerable tribes have
found it possible, from the most distant times, to subsist in them
— such as the Ishmaelites, Midianites, Amalekites. That the
Israelites afterwards availed themselves of the means of support
which the wilderness afforded them, in common with these tribes
of the desert, is clear from what is mentioned of their flocks and
herds. They are expressly said to have left Egypt with large
property in these (Ex. xii. 38) ; and that they were enabled to
preserve, and even perhaps to increase, these possessions, we may
gather from the notices subsequently given concerning them,
especially from the mention made of the cattle, when they
sought liberty to pass through the territory of Edom (Num.
xx. 19) ; and from the very large accumulation of flocks and
herds by Gad and Reuben, which led to their obtaining a por
tion beyond the bounds of what was properly the promised
land. — (Num. xxxii.) The Israelites thus had within themselves
considerable resources as to the supply of food ; and the sale of
the skins and wool, and what they could spare from the yearly
increase of their possessions, would enable them to purchase
again from others. Besides, the treasure which they brought
with them from Egypt, and the traffic which they might carry
on in the fruit, spices, and other native productions of the
desert, would furnish them with the means of obtaining provi
sions in the way of commerce. Nor have we any reason to

TIIK MARCH THROUGH THE WILDKRNKSS. 63

think that the Israelites neglected these natural opportunities,
but rather the reverse ; for Moses retained his father-in-law
with tin-in, that, from his greater experience of the wilderness-
life, he might be serviceable to them in their journeyings and
abodes (Num. x. 31); and it would seem that during the
thirty-eight years of their sojourn, appointed in punishment for
tln-ir unbelief, their encampment was in the neighbourhood of
Mount Seir, where they had considerable advantages, both for
trade and pasturage. So that the period of their sojourn in the
wilderness may have been, and most probably was, far from being
characterized by the inactivity and destitution which is commonly
supposed ; for Moses not only speaks of their buying provisions,
but also of the Lord having " blessed them in all the ivorks of
their hands, and suffered them to lack nothing." — (Deut. ii. 6, 7.)1

1 The view given in the text was maintained by several writers long be
fore the controversies which have recently sprung up respecting the nuin-
I>er8 of Israel in the wilderness, and the difficulties connected with their
support. See, for example, Vitringa, Obs. Sac., Lib. v., c. 15 ; Hengstenberg'a
Bileam, p. 280. A distinction must be made between the case of the
people themselves, and that of their flocks and herds. The exact numbers
of the latter are not stated, though such epithets as great and very much
are applied to them ; but no mention is made of any miraculous supply of
food for them ; and we are led to infer, that ordinarily sufficient pasturage
was found for them in the desert. Two considerations are here to be taken
into account, by way of explanation. One is, that in point of fact large
tracts of good pasture land exist in what goes generally by the name of
desert. The desert of Suez, in which before the Exodus, and partly perhaps
even after it, the Israelites, pastured their flocks, is u full of rich pasture
and pools of water during winter and spring." So says Burckhardt (Syria
and Palestine, ii., p. 462), confirmed by later authorities. In the neigh
bourhood of Sinai itself, in the El Tyh ridge of mountains, which form
the northern boundary, Burckhardt testifies that they are peculiarly " the
l>;Lsturing-places of the Sinai Bedouins," and that these " are richer in camels
and flocks than any other of the Towara tribes (p. 481). Again and again
he speaks of falling in with wadys (Wady Genne, Feiran, Kyd, etc.), which
were covered with pasturage, sometimes even presenting an appearance of
• Kvp verdure. Lcake, who edited the travels of Burckhardt, in his preface
i his as tin- result of B.'s testimony: "The upper region of Sinai,
\vliu 'h forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty miles in diameter, possess
ing numerous sources of water, a temperate climate, and a soil capable of
supporting animal and vegetable nature, was the part of the peninsula best
adapted to the residence of near a year, during which the Israelites were
numbered and received their laws" (p. xiii.). But another important con-

64 THE TYPOLOGY OF flCKIPTTTl!K.

It is clear, however, that these natural resources could not
well become available to the Israelites till they had lived for
some time in the desert, and had come to be in a manner
naturalized to it. To whatever extent they may have luvn
indebted to such means of subsistence, it must have been chiefly
during those thirty-eight years that they were doomed by the
judgment of God to make the wilderness their home. And as
that period formed an arrest in their progress, a sort of moral
blank in their history, during which, as we shall see at the close
of this chapter, the covenant and its more distinctive ordinances

sideration is, that there is good reason to believe changes to the -worse have
passed over the region in question — some of them even at no very distant
date — which have rendered it greatly less fertile than it once was. Burck-
hardt and other travellers have found large tracts, which not long previous
had been well wooded and clothed with pasture, from various causes reduced
to a state of desolation. Ewald admits the fact as incontrovertible, that the
peninsula could at the time of the Exodus " support more human beings
(of course also more flocks and herds) than at present." So also Stanley
(Sinai and Pales., p. 24), who reckons it as certain that " the vegetation of
the wadys has considerably decreased," and mentions various circumstances
to account for it. There is nothing, therefore, to argue the improbability
of this part of the scriptural narrative, when due allowance is made for all
the circumstances of the case ; and if anything more might be required, we
cannot reasonably doubt, that, as the Psalmist suggests, the extraordinary
nature of the occasion called forth from above special showers of refresh
ment (Ps. Ixviii. 9). As regards the people themselves, their numbers are
more specifically given ; and if the numbers are correct, the whole, young
and old, cannot be estimated at less than two millions. Nor, after all the
conjectures and modes of solution that have been tried on the one side and
the other, does it seem probable that the number is exaggerated, or that a
body materially smaller could have sufficed for the extensive work of con
quest and possession afterwards accomplished by it. That considerable por
tions of them would often be at some distance from the main body— the camp
— is extremely probable, and would hence more readily find a measure of
support from natural sources. But still, that for such a body large supplies
of a supernatural kind would be required, is certain, and is admitted in the
sacred narrative. The growth of Jacob's family into such a host seems to
imply both the existence of very special influences favouring it (plainly in
dicated also in Ex. i. 7-12), and a longer residence in Egypt (so, at least,
I believe) than is assigned it in the common chronology. I think the state
ment in Ex. xii. 40, of 430 years' sojourn, should be taken in the strictest
sense, and that the genealogies, which seem to conflict with this, should be
regarded as abbreviated — a practice well known to have been in frequent

Till: MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 85

wi-tv raspendsd, we need not wonder if the things properly
tyjiii-al in tln-ir condition should also have suffered a measure of
derangement. It is to these things, as they happened to them
during their march through the wilderness and encampment
around Sinai, that we are to look for the types (in their stricter
sense) of Gospel realities. And there can be no doubt that,
with reference to this period, the entire people were dependent
upon manna for the chief part of their daily support. With a
considerable proportion of the people, those who were in humbler
circumstances, it must, indeed, have been so to the last. There
fore the nocturnal supply could not cease, though it may have
varied in amount, till the people actually entered tjie territory of
Canaan. It was the peculiar provision of Heaven for the
necessities of the wilderness.1

In regard to the manna itself, which formed the chief part
of this extraordinary provision, the description given is, that it
fell round about the camp by night with the dew ; that it con
sisted of small whitish particles, compared to hoar-frost, coriander-
seed, and pearls (for so fvia in Num. xi. 7 should be rendered,
not bdellium ; see Bochart, Hieroz., P. ii., p. 675-7) ; that it
melted when exposed to the heat of the sun, and tasted like
wafers made with honey, or like fresh oil. Now it seems that
in certain parts of Arabia, and especially in that part which lies
around Mount Sinai, a substance has been always found very
much resembling this manna, and also bearing its name — the
juice or gum of a kind of tamarisk tree, which grows in that
region, called tarfa, oozing out chiefly by night in the month of

1 In Ex. xvi. 35, the supply of manna is spoken of as continuing till the
people " came to a land inhabited," or to their reaching " the borders of
Canaan." In Josh. v. 12, its actual cessation is said to have taken place
only when they had entered Canaan, and ate the corn of the land. Heng-
stenberg's explanation of the matter does not seem to us quite satisfactory.
But why might not the first passage, written in anticipation of the future,
indicate generally the period during which the manna was given, — viz., the
exclusion of the people from a land in such a sense inhabited, that ttu •;-
still dependent on miraculous supplies of food ? Then the passage in Joshua
is the fact, that this dependence actually ceased only when they had
crossed the Jordan, and lay before Jericho ; so that we may conclude their
conquests to the east of Jordan, though in lands inhabited, had not sufficed
till the period in question to furnish an adequate supply to their wants.

VOL. ii. i:

66 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

June, and collected before sunrise by the natives. Such a fact
was deemed perfectly sufficient to entitle modern rationalists to
conclude that there was no miracle in the matter, and that the
Israelites merely collected and used a natural production of the
region where they sojourned for a period. But even supposing
the substance called manna to have been in both cases precisely
the same, there was still ample room for the exertion of miracu
lous power in regard to the quantity ; for the entire produce of
the manna found in the Arabian peninsula, even in the most
fruitful years, does not exceed 700 pounds, which, on the most
moderate calculation, could not have furnished even the thou
sandth part necessary for one day's supply to the host of Israel !
Besides the enormous disproportion, however, in regard to
quantity, there wrere other things belonging to the manna of
Scripture which clearly distinguished it from that found by
naturalists — especially its falling with the dew, and on the
ground as well as on plants ; its consistence, rendering it capable
of being used for bread, while the natural is rather a substitute
for honey ; its corrupting, if kept beyond a day ; and its coming
in double quantities on the sixth day, and not falling at all on
the seventh. If these properties, along with the immense abun
dance in which it was given, be not sufficient to constitute the
manna of Scripture a miracle, and that of the first magnitude,
it will be difficult to say where anything really miraculous is to
be found.

But this by no means proves the absence of all resemblance
between the natural and the supernatural productions in ques
tion ; and so far from there being aught in that resemblance to
disturb our ideas regarding the truth and reality of the miracle,
we should rather see in it something to confirm them. For
though not always, yet there very commonly is a natural basis
for the supernatural, or, at least, an easily recognised connection
between the two. Thus, when our Lord proceeded to administer
a miraculous supply of food to the hungry multitudes around
Him, He did not call into being articles of food unknown in
Judea, but availed Himself of the few loaves and fishes that
were furnished to His hand. In like manner, when Jehovah
was going to provide in the desert a substitute for the corn of
cultivated lands, was it not befitting that lie should take some

THE MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 07

natural production of the desert, and increase or otherwise
modify it, in adaptation to the end for which it was required?
It is in accordance with all reason and analogy, that this corn of
the desert should, to some extent, have savoured of the region
with which it was connected ; and the few striking resemblances
it is found to bear to the produce of the Arabian tamarisk are
the stamp of verisimilitude, and not of suspicion ; the indication
of such an affinity between the two as might justly be expected,
from their being the common production of the same Divine
hand, only working miraculously in the one case, and naturally
in the other.1

It is obvious that this miraculous supply of food for the desert
was in itself a provision for the bodily, and not for the spiritual
nature of the Israelites. Hence it is called by our Lord, " not
the true bread that cometh down from heaven," because the life
it was given to support was the fleshly one, which terminates in
death : " Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are
dead." — (John vi. 32, 49, 50.) And even in this point of view
the things connected with it have a use for us, apart altogether
from any higher, typical, or prospective reference they might also
bear to Gospel things. Lessons may be drawn from the giving

1 There has been a considerable controversy among the learned, whether
the manna of Scripture is to be held as formally the same with that of the
shrub in question, or essentially different (see Kurtz's Hist, of Cor., vol. iii.,
s. .3, Trans.). The two main points of difference urged by Kurtz — viz., that
the food ate by the Israelites for forty years was not produced by the tarfa
shrubs of the desert, and that the one had nutritive qualities which the other
has not — must be allowed to constitute most material differences between the
two. But still it is important not to overlook the agreements, for these were
evidently designed as well as the other. They may be of service also in
exposing the fanciful and merely superficial nature of many of the resem
blances specified by typical writers between the manna and Christ : for
example, the roundness of the manna, which was held to signify His eternal
nature ; its whiteness, which was viewed as emblematic of His holiness ; and
its sweetness, of the delight the participation of Him affords to believen.
These qualities the manna had simply as manna, as possessing to a certain
t \tnit tin; properties of that production of the desert. In such things there
was nothing peculiar or supernatural ; and it is as unwarrantable to search
for spiritual mysteries in them, as it would be for a like purpose to aualy/."
the qualities and appearance of tin- watt r which issued from the rock, and
which, so applied, would convey in some respects a directly opposite instruc
tion.

68 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and receiving of manna in regard to the interests and transactions
of our present temporal life — properly and justly drawn ; only
we must not confound these, as is too commonly done, with the
lessons of another and higher kind, which it was intended, as
part of a preparatory dispensation, to teach regarding the food
and nourishment of the soul. For example, the use made of it
by the Apostle in the second Epistle to the Corinthians (viii. 15),
to enforce on the rich a charitable distribution of their means to
the needy, so that there might be provided for all a sufficiency of
these temporal goods, such as was found by the children of Israel
on gathering the manna : this has no respect to any typical bear
ing in the transaction, as in both cases alike it is the bodily and
temporal life alone that is contemplated. In like manner, we
should regard it, not in a typical, but only in a common or his
torical point of view, if we should apply the fact of their being
obliged to rise betimes and gather it with their own hands, to
teach the duty of a diligent industry in our worldly callings ; or
the other fact of its breeding worms when unnecessarily hoarded
and kept beyond the appointed time, to show the folly of men
labouring to heap up possessions which they cannot profitably
use, and which must be found only a source of trouble and
annoyance. Such applications of the historical details regarding
the manna, are in themselves perfectly legitimate and proper,
but are quite out of place when put, as they often are, among
its typical bearings ; as may be seen even by those who do so,
when they come to certain of the details — to the double portion,
for example, on the last day of the week, that there might be an
unbroken day of rest on the Sabbath ; for, if considered, as in
the examples given above, with reference merely to what is to
be done or enjoyed on earth, the instruction would be false — the
day of rest being the season above all others on which, in a
spiritual point of view, men should gather and lay up for their
souls. They are here, therefore, under the necessity of mixing
up the present with the future, making the six days represent
time, during which salvation is to be sought, and the seventh
eternity, during which it is to be enjoyed. Yet there is an im
portant use of this part also of the arrangement regarding the
manna, in reference to the present life, apart altogether from
the typical bearing. For when the Lord sent that double

Till. MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 69

portion on the last day of the week, and none on the next, it
was as much as to say, that in His providential arrangements for
this world, lie had given only six days out of the seven for
worldly labour, and that if men readily concurred in this plan
they should find it to their advantage : they should find, that in
the long run they got as much by their six days' labour as they
either needed or could profitably use, and should have, besides,
their weekly day of rest of spiritual refreshment and bodily re
pose. Nor can we regard this lesson of small moment in the eye
of Heaven, when we see no fewer than three miracles wrought
every week for forty years to enforce it, viz, a double portion of
manna on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the preserva
tion of the portion for the seventh from corrupting when kept
beyond the usual time.

When we come, however, to consider the Divine gift of
manna in its typical aspect, as representative of the higher and
better things of the Gospel, we must remember that there are
two distinct classes of relations — corresponding, indeed, yet still
distinct, since the one has immediate respect only to the seen
and the temporal, and the other to the unseen and the eternal.
In both cases alike there is a redeemed people, travelling through
a wilderness to the inheritance promised to them, and prepared
for them, and receiving as they proceed the peculiar provision
they require for the support of life, from the immediate hand of
God. But in the one case it is the descendants of Abraham
according to the flesh, redeemed from the outward bondage and
oppression of Egypt, at the most from bodily death ; in the other,
the spiritual members of an elect Church redeemed from the
curse and condemnation of sin : in the one, the literal wilderness
of Arabia, lying between Egypt and Palestine ; in the other, the
figurative wilderness of a present world : in the one, manna ; in
the other, Christ. That we are warranted to connect the two
together in this manner, and to see the one, as it were, in the
other, is not simply to be inferred from some occasional passages
of Scripture, but is rather to be grounded on the general nature of
the Old Testament dispensation, as intended to prepare the way,
by means of its visible and earthly relations, for the spiritual and
Divine realities of the Gospel. Whatever is implied in this
general connection, however, is in the case of the manna not

70 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

obscurely intimated by our Lord in the sixth chapter of St
John's Gospel, where He represents Himself, with evident
reference to it, as "the bread which cometh down from heaven;"
and is clearly taken for granted by the Apostle Paul, when he
calls it " the spiritual meat " of which the Israelites did all eat.
— (1 Cor. x. 3.) Not as if, in eating that, they of necessity
found nourishment to their souls ; but such meat being God's
special provision for a redeemed people, had an ordained con
nection with the mysteries of God's kingdom, and, as such, con
tained a pledge that He who consulted so graciously for the life
of the body, would prove Himself equally ready to administer to
the necessities of the soul, as He did in a measure even then,
and does now more fully in Christ. The following may be pre
sented as the chief points of instruction which in this respect
are conveyed by the history of the manna : —

(1.) It was given in consideration of a great and urgent
necessity. A like necessity lies at the foundation of God's gift
of His Son to the world ; it was not possible in the nature of
things for any other resource to be found ; and the actual be-
stowment of the o;ift was delayed, till the fullest demonstration
had been given in the history of the Church and the world that
such a provision was indispensable.

(2.) The manna was peculiarly the gift of God, coming freely
and directly from His hand. It fell by night with the dew
(Num. xi. 9), which is itself the gift of heaven, sent to fertilize
the earth, and enable it to yield increase for the food of man
and beast. But in the wilderness, where, as there is no sowing,
there can be no increase, if bread still comes with the dew,
it must be, in a sense quite peculiar, the produce of heaven —
hence called " the corn," or " bread of heaven." — (Ps. Ixxviii.
24, cv. 40.) How striking a representation in this respect of
Christ, who, both as to His person and to the purchased blessings
of His redemption, is always presented to our view as the free
gift and offer of Divine love !

(3.) But plentiful as well as free ; the whole fulness of the
Godhead is in Jesus, so that all may receive as their necessities
require ; no one needs to grudge his neighbour's portion, but all
rather mav rejoice together in the ample beneficence of Heaven.
So was it also with the manna ; for when distribution was made,

Till: MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 71

there was enough for all, and even he who had gathered least
hud no lack.

(4.) Then, falling as it did round about the camp, it was
near enough to be within the reach of all ; if any should perisli
for want, it could be from no outward necessity or hardship, for
the means of supply were brought almost to their very hand.
Nor is it otherwise in regard to Christ, who, in the Gospel of
His grace, is laid, in a manner, at the door of every sinner : the
word is nigh him ; and if lie should still perish, he must be with
out excuse — he perishes in sight of the bread of life.

(5.) The supply of manna came daily, and faith had to be
exercised on the providence of God, that each day would bring
its appointed provision ; if they attempted to hoard for the mor
row, their store became a mass of corruption. In like manner
must the child of God pray for his soul every morning as it
dawns, " Give me this day my daily bread." He can lay up no
stock of grace which is to save him from the necessity of con
stantly repairing to the treasury of Christ ; and if he begins to
live upon former experiences, or to feel as if he already stood so
high in the life of God, that, like Peter, he can of himself confi
dently reckon on his superiority to temptation, his very mercies
become fraught with trouble, and he is the worse rather than
the better for the fulness imparted to him. His soul can be in
health and prosperity only while he is every day " living by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and gave Himself for
him."

(6.) Finally, as the manna had to be gathered in the morning
of each day, and a double portion provided on the sixth day, that
the seventh might be hallowed as a day of sacred rest ; so Christ
and the things of His salvation must be sought with diligence
and regularity, but only in the appointed way, and through the
divinely-provided channels. There must be no neglect of season
able opportunities on the one hand, nor, on the other, any over
valuing of one ordinance to the neglect of another. We cannot
prosper in our course, unless it is pursued as God Himself
authorizes and appoints.

There is nothing uncertain or fanciful in such analogies ; for
they have not only the correspondence between Israel's temporal
and the Church's spiritual condition to rest upon, but the elui-

72 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

racter also of an unchangeable God. His principles of dealing
with His Church are the same for all ages. When transacting
with His people now directly for the support of the spiritual
life, He must substantially re-enact what He did of old, when
transacting with them directly for the support of their bodily
life. And as even then there was an under current of spiritual
meaning and instruction running through all that was done, so
the faith of the Christian now has a most legitimate and profit
able exercise, when it learns from that memorable transaction
in the desert the fulness of its privilege, and the extent of its
obligations in regard to the higher provision presented to it in
the Gospel.

II. But Israel in the wilderness required something more
than manna to preserve them in safety and vigour for the inherit
ance ; they needed refreshment as well as support — " a stay of
water," not less than " a staff of bread." And the account given
respecting this is contained in the chapter immediately following
that which records the appointment of God respecting the manna.
— (Ex. xvii.) Here also the gift was preceded by a murmuring
and discontent on the part of the Israelites. So little had they
yet learned from the past manifestations of Divine power and
faithfulness, and so much had sight the ascendancy over faith
in their character, that they even spoke as if certain destruction
were before them, and caused Moses to tremble for his life. But
however improperly they demeaned themselves, as there was a
real necessity in their condition, which nothing but an imme
diate and extraordinary exertion of Divine power could relieve,
Moses received the command from God, after supplicating His
interposition, to go with the elders of Israel and smite the rock
in Horeb with his rod, under the assurance, which was speedily
verified, that water in abundance would stream forth.1

1 This occurrence must not be confounded with another considerably
similar, of which an account is given in Num. xx. This latter occurrence
took place at Kadesh, and not till the beginning of the fortieth year of the
sojourn in the wilderness, when the period of their abode there was draw
ing to a close. — (Comp. ch. xx. with ch. xxxiii. 36-39.) On account of the
rebellious conduct of the people, Moses called the rock smitten, in both cases,
by the name of Meribah, or Strife. But as the occasions were far separate,
both as to space and time, the last was also unhappily distinguished from

TI 1 11 MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 78

The Apostle says of this rock, that it followed the Israelites.
— (1 Cor. x. 4.) And some of the Jewish Kabbis have fabled
that it actually moved from its place in Horeb and accompanied
them through the wilderness ; so that the rock, which nearly
forty years after was smitten in Kadesh, was the identical rock
which had been originally smitten in Horeb. We need scarcely
say that such was not the meaning of the Apostle.1 But as the
rock at Horeb comes into view, not as something by itself, but
simply as connected with the water which Divine power con
strained it to yield, it might justly be spoken of as following
them, if the waters flowing from it pursued for a time the same
course. That this, to some extent, was actually the case, may
the first, in that Moses and Aaron so far transgressed as to forfeit their right
to enter the promised land. Aaron was coupled with Moses both in the sin
and the punishment ; but it is the case of Moses which is most particularly
noticed. His sin is characterized in ch. xx. 12 by his " not believing God,"
and in ver. 24, and ch. xxvii. 14, as a " rebelling against the word of God."
Again, in Deut. i. 37, iii. 26, iv. 21, the punishment is said to have been laid
on Moses " for their sakes," or, as it should rather be, u because of their
words." The proper account of the matter seems to be this : Moses, through
their chiding, lost command of himself, and did the work appointed not as
God's messenger, in a spirit of faith and holiness, but in a state of carnal and
])assionate excitement, under the influence of that wrath which worketh not
the righteousness of God. The punishment he received, it may seem, was
peculiarly severe for such an offence ; but it was designed to produce a salu
tary impression upon the people, in regard to the evil of sin : for when they
saw that their misconduct had so far prevailed over their venerable leader as
to prevent even him from entering Canaan, how powerfully was the circum
stance fitted to operate as a check upon their waywardness in the time to
come ! And then, as Moses and Aaron were in the position of greatest
nearness to God, and had it as their especial charge to represent God's holi
ness to the people, even a comparatively small backsliding in them was of a
serious nature, and required to be marked with some impressive token of the
Lord's displeasure.

1 Yet the charge has been made, and is still kept up (for example, by
De Wette, Rlickert, Meyer), that the Apostle does here fall in with the
Jewish legends, and uses them for a purpose. We utterly disavow this; but
we cannot, with Tholuck (Das Alte Test, im neue, p. 39), deny the exist
ence of the Jewish Ic^nids, and hold that the passages usually referred to
on the subject, speak only of the water of the well dug by Moses and the
princes out of the earth. Some of them certainly do, but not all. Those
produced by Schottgen on 1 Cor. x. 4, clearly show it to have been a Jew
ish opinion, that, not the water indeed by itself, but the rock ready to give
forth ita supplies of water, did somehow follow the Israelites.

74 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

be inferred from the great profusion with which they are de
clared to have been given — " gushing out/' it is said, " like
overflowing streams," " and running like a river in the dry
places." — (Ps. Ixxviii. 20, cv. 41 ; Isa. xlviii. 21). It is also
the nearly unanimous opinion of interpreters, both ancient and
modern, and the words of the Apostle so manifestly imply this,
that we can scarcely call it anything but a conceit in St Chry-
sostom (who is followed, however, by Horsley, on Ex. xvii.), to
regard the Apostle there as speaking of Christ personally. But
we are not thereby warranted in supposing, with some Jewish
writers, that the waters flowing from the rock in Horeb so
closely and necessarily connected themselves with the march of
the Israelites, that the stream rose with them to the tops of
mountains, as well as descended into the valleys.1 Considering
how nearly related the Lord's miraculous working in regard to
the manna stood to His operations in nature, and how He re
quired the care and instrumentality of His people to concur with
His gift in making that miraculous provision effectual to the
supply of their wants, we might rather conceive that their course
was directed so as to admit of the water easily following them,
though not, perhaps, without the application of some labour on
their part to open for it a passage, and provide suitable reser
voirs. Nor are we to imagine that they would require this
water, any more than the manna, always in the same quantities
during the whole period of their sojourn in the wilderness.
They might even be sometimes wholly independent of it ; as
we know for certain it had failed them when they reached
the neighbourhood of Kadesh, and were on their way to the
country of the Moabites. — (Num. xx. and xxi.) It was God's
special provision for the desert — for the land of drought ; and
did not need to be given in any quantities, or directed into any
channel, but such as their necessities when traversing that land
might require.2

Understanding this, however, to be the sense in which the

1 Lightfoot on 1 Cor. x. 4.

2 The exact route pursued by the Israelites from Sinai to Canaan is
still a matter of uncertainty. At some of the places where they are sup
posed to have rested, there are considerable supplies of water. — (See Bib.
Cyclop., Art. Wandering.) It is, however, certain that the region of

TIIK MARCH THROUGH TIIK WILDKRXESS. 75

rock followed the Israelites, what does the Apostle farther mean
by saying, that "that rock was Christ?" Does he wish us to
understand that the rock typically represented Christ? — and
so represented Him, that in drinking of the water which flowed
from it, they at the same time received Christ? Was the drink
furnished to the Israelites in such a sense spiritual, that it con
veyed Christ to them? In that case the flowing forth and
drinking of the water must have had in it the nature of a
sacrament, and answered to our spiritually eating and drinking
of Christ in the Supper. This, unquestionably, is the view
adopted by the ablest and soundest divines ; although there are
certain limitations which must be understood. The Apostle is
evidently drawing a parallel between the case of the Church in
the wilderness and that of the Church under the Gospel, with
an especial reference to the sacraments of Baptism and the
Lord's Sapper. The passage of the Israelites through the Red
Sea, under the guidance and direction of Moses, he represents
as a sort of baptism to him ; because in the same manner in
which Christian baptism seals spiritually the believer's death to
sin, his separation from the world, and his calling of God to sit
in heavenly places with Christ, in the very same, outwardly, did
the passage through the Red Sea seal the death of Israel to the
bondage of Pharaoh, their separation from Egypt, and their ex
pectation of the inheritance promised them by Moses. In what
he says regarding the manna and the rock, he does not expressly
name the ordinance of the Supper ; but there can be no doubt
that he has its sacred symbols in view, when he calls the manna
the spiritual food of which the Israelites ate, and the water from
the rock the spiritual drink of which they drank, and even
gives to the rock the name of Christ. Such language, however,
cannot have been meant to imply that the manna and the water
directly and properly symbolized Christ, in the same sense that
this is done by the bread and wine of the Supper ; for the gift
of the manna and the water had immediate respect to the supply
of the people's bodily necessities. For this alone they were

Sinai is very elevated, and that toot only are the mountain ridges im-

mcn.M'Iy higher than the suuth uf Palestine, but the ^n>'in<l .-lopes from tin-
base to a considerable distance all round, so that the water would naturally
How so far with the Israelites ; but how far can in \ ined.

7G THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

directly and ostensibly given ; and hence our Lord, speaking of
what the manna was in itself, depreciates its value in respect to
men's higher natures, and declares to the Jews it was not the
true bread of heaven, as was evident alone from the fact that
the life it was sent more immediately to nourish, actually per
ished in the wilderness. Not, therefore, directly and palpably,
but only in a remote, concealed, typical sense, could the Apostle
intend his expressions of spiritual food and drink to be under
stood. Still less could he mean, that all who partook of these,
did consciously and believingly receive Christ through them to
salvation. The facts he presently mentions regarding so many
of them being smitten down in the wilderness by the judgments
of God for their sins, too clearly proved the reverse of that.
The very purpose, indeed, for which he there introduces their
case to the notice of the Corinthian Church, is to warn the dis
ciples to beware lest they should fall after the same example of
unbelief; lest, after enjoying the privileges of the Christian
Church, they should, by carnal indulgence, lose their interest in
the heavenly inheritance, as so many had done in regard to the
earthly inheritance, notwithstanding that they had partaken of
the corresponding privileges of the ancient economy. But as
the bread and wine in the Supper might still be called spiritual
food and drink, might even be called by the name of Christ,
who is both the living bread and the living water, which they re
present, although many partake of them unworthily, and perish
in their sins ; so manifestly might the manna and the water of
the desert be so called, since Christ was typically represented
in them, though thousands were altogether ignorant of any
reference they might have to Him, and lived and died as far
estranged from salvation as the wretched idolaters of Egypt.

In perceiving the higher things typically represented by the
water flowing from the rock, the Israelites stood at an immense
disadvantage compared with believers under the Gospel ; and
how far any did perceive them, it is impossible for us to deter
mine. In regard to the great mass, who both now and on so
many other occasions showed themselves incapable of putting
forth even the lowest exercises of faith, it is but too evident that
they did not descry there the faintest glimpse of Christ. But,
for such as really were children of faith, we may easily under-

T 1 1 1 ; M A UCII THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 7 7

stand how they might go a certain way at least, in rising
through the provisions then administered, to the expectation of
better tilings to come. They must, then, have discerned in the
inheritance which they were travelling to inherit, not the ulti
mate good itself which God had destined for His chosen, but
only its terrestrial type and pledge — something which would be
for the present life, what, in the resurrection, the other would
be for the spiritual and immortal life. But, discerning this, it
could not be difficult for them to proceed one step farther, and
apprehend, that what God was now doing to them on their way
to the temporal inheritance, by those outward, material provi
sions for the bodily life, He did not for that alone, but also as a
sign and pledge, that such provision as He had made for the
lower necessities of their nature, Pie must assuredly have made,
and would in His own time fully disclose, for the higher. And
thus, while receiving from the hand of their redeeming God the
food and refreshment required for those bodily natures which
were to enjoy the pleasant mountains and valleys of Canaan,
they might at the same time be growing in clearness of view
and strength of assurance, as regarded their interest in the
imperishable treasures which belonged to the future kingdom
of God, and their relation to Him who was to be pre-eminently
the seed of blessing, and the author of eternal life to a dying
world.

But, whether or not those for whom the rock poured out its
refreshing streams may have attained to any such discernment
of the better things to come, for us who can look back upon the
past from the high vantage-ground of Gospel light, there may
certainly be derived not a little of clear and definite instruction.
In seeking for this, however, we must be careful to look to the
real and essential lines of agreement, and pay no regard to
such as are merely incidental. It is not the rock properly that
we have to do with, or to any of its distinctive qualities, as is
commonly imagined, but the supply of water issuing from it, to
supply the thirst and refresh the natures of the famishing
Israelites. No doubt, the Apostle, when referring to the trans
action, speaks of the rock itself, and of its following them, but
plainly meaning by this, as we have stated, tin- water that flowed
from it. No doubt, also, Christ is often in Scripture represented

78 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

as a rock ; but when He is so, it is always with respect to the
qualities properly belonging to a rock — its strength, its dura
bility, or the protection it is capable of affording from the heat
of a scorching sun. These natural qualities of the rock, how
ever, do not come into consideration here ; they did not render
it in the least degree fitted for administering the good actually
derived from it, but rather the reverse. There was not only no
seeming, but also no real aptitude in the rock to yield the water ;
while in Christ, though He appeared to have no form or comeli
ness, there still was everything that was required to constitute
Him a fountain-head of life and blessing. Then, the smiting of
the rock by Moses with the rod, could not suggest the idea of
anything like violence done to it; nor was the action itself done
by Moses as the lawgiver, but as the mediator between God and
the people ; while the smiting of Christ, which is commonly held
to correspond with this, consisted in the bruising of His soul
with the suffering of death, and that not inflicted, but borne by
Him as Mediator. There is no real correspondence in these
respects between the type and the antitype ; and the manner in
which it is commonly made out, is nothing more than a specious
accommodation of the language of the transaction, to ideas
which the transaction itself could never have suggested.1
The points of instruction are chiefly the following : —
(1.) Christ ministers to His people abundance of spiritual
refreshment, while they are on their way to the heavenly
inheritance. They need this to carry them onward through the

1 This has been done most strikingly by Toplady, in the beautiful hymn,
" Rock of Ages cleft for me," which derives its imagery in part from this
transaction in the wilderness. Considered, however, in a critical point of
view, or with reference to the real meaning of the transaction, it is liable
to the objections stated in the text ; it confounds things which essentially
differ. Ainsworth produces a Jewish comment, which seems to justify the
interpretation usually put on it : " The turning of the rock into water, was
the turning of the property of judgment, signified by the rock, into the
property of mercy, signified by the water." But Jewish comments on this,
as well as other subjects, require to be applied with discrimination, as there
is scarcely either an unsound or a sound view, for confirmation of which
something may not be derived from them. Water may as well symbolize
judgment as mercy, and was indeed the instrument employed to inflict the
greatest act of judgment that has ever taken place in the world— the
deluge.

TIIK MARCH THKonJIl TI1K \VI I.I iKIIXKSS. 79

trials and dillicnlties that lie in their way ; and lie is ever ready
to impart it. " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink." What IK- then did in the sphere of the bodily life, lie
cannot but be disposed to do over again in the higher sphere of
the spiritual life ; for there the necessity is equally great, and
the interests involved are unspeakably greater. Let the be
liever, when parched in spirit, and feeling in heaviness through
manifold temptations, throw himself back upon this portion of
Israel's history, and he will see written, as with a sunbeam, the
assurance that the Saviour of Israel, who fainteth not, nor is
weary, will satisfy the longing soul, and pour living water upon
him that is thirsty.

(2.) In providing and ministering this refreshment, lie will
break through the greatest hindrances and impediments. If
His people but thirst, nothing can prevent them from being
partakers of the blessing. " He makes for them rivers in the
desert ;" the very rock turns into a flowing stream ; and the
valley of Baca (weeping) is found to contain its pools of
refreshment, at which the travellers to Zion revive their flagging
spirits, and go from strength to strength. How often have the
darkest providences, events that seemed beforehand pregnant
only with evil, become, through the gracious presence of the
Mediator, the source of deepest joy and consolation !

(3.) " The rock by its water accompanied the Israelites — so
Christ by His Spirit goes with His disciples even to the end of
the world." — (Grotius.) The refreshments of His grace are
confined to no region, and last through all ages. Wlierever the
genuine believer is, there they also are. And more highly
favoured than even Israel in the wilderness, he has them in his
own bosom — he has there " a well of water springing up unto
life everlasting," so that " out of his belly can flow rivers of living
water."

III. The only other point apart from the giving of the law,
occurring in the march through the wilderness, and calling for
notice here, was the pillar of fire and cloud, in which from tin-
first the Lord accompanied and led the people. The appearamv
of this symbol of the Divine Presence was various, but it is uni
formly spoken of as itself one — a lofty column rising toward

80 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

heaven. By day it would seem to have expanded as it rose, and
formed itself into a kind of shade or curtain between the Israel
ites and the sun, as the Lord is said by means of it to have
" spread a cloud for a covering" (Ps. cv. 39), while by night it
exchanged the cloudy for the illuminated form, and diffused
throughout the camp a pleasant light. At first it went before
the army, pointing the way ; but after the tabernacle was made,
it became more immediately connected with this, though some
times appearing to rest more closely on it, and sometimes to rise
higher aloft.1 The lucid or fiery form seems to have been the
prevailing one, or rather, to have always essentially belonged to
it (hence called, not only " pillar of fire," but " light of fire,"
E>S ">w? i.e., lucid matter presenting the appearance of fire), only
during the day the circumambient cloud usually prevented the
light from being seen. Sometimes, however, as when a mani
festation of Divine glory needed to be given to overawe and
check the insolence of the people, or when some special revela
tion was to be given to Moses, the fire discovered itself through
the cloud. So that it may be described as a column of fire
surrounded by a cloud, the one or the other appearance be
coming predominant, according as the Divine purpose required,
but that of fire being more peculiarly identified with the glory
of God.— (Num. xvi. 42.)

(1.) Now, as the Lord chose this for the visible symbol, in
which He would appear as the Head and Leader of His people
when conducting them through the wilderness, there must have
been, first of all, in the symbol itself, something fitted to display
His character and glory. There must have been a propriety
and significance in selecting this, rather than something else, as
the seat in which Jehovah, or the angel of His presence, ap
peared, and the form in which He manifested His glory. But
fire, or a shining flame enveloped by a cloud, is one of the fittest

1 Ex. xiii. 21, 22, xiv. 19, xl. 34-38 ; Num. ix. 15-23. This subject has
been carefully investigated by Vitringa in his Obs. Sac., L. v., c. 14-17, to
which we must refer for more details than can be given here. What is stated
in the text claims to be little more than an abstract of his observations.
Those who wish to see the attempts of German rationalists to bring down
the miraculous appearance to ordinary caravan -fires, may consult Kurtz,
Geschichte des Alien Bundes, p. 149, sq.

Till: MAKl'lI TMKOLT.H TIIK WILDKIIXESS. 81

and most natural symbols of the true God, as dwelling, not
simply in light, but " in light that is inaccessible and full of
glory," — light and glory within the cloud. The fire, however,
was itself not uniform in its appearance, but, according to the
threefold distinction of Isaiah (ch. iv. 5), sometimes appeared as
light, sometimes as a radiant splendour or glory, and sometimes
again as flaming or bnrnino fire. In each of these respects it
pointed to a corresponding feature in the Divine character. As
light, it represented God as the fountain of all truth and purity.
— (Isa. Ix. 1, 19 ; 1 John i. 5 ; Rev. xxi. 23, xxii. 5.) As splen
dour, it indicated the glory of His character, which consists in
the manifestation of His infinite perfections, and especially in
the display of His surpassing goodness as connected with the
redemption of His people ; on which account the " showing of
His glory" is explained by " making His goodness pass before
Moses." — (Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19 ; comp. also Isa. xl. 5.) For as
nothing appears to the natural eye more brilliant than the shin
ing brightness of fire, so nothing to the spiritual eye can be
compared with these manifestations of the gracious attributes of
God. And as nothing in nature is so awfully commanding and
intensely powerful in consuming as the burning flame of fire, so
in this respect again it imaged forth the terrible power and
majesty of His holiness, which makes Him jealous of His own
glory, and a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity. Hence
the cloud assumed this aspect pre-eminently on Mount Sinai,
when the Lord came down to give that fundamental revelation
of His holiness, the law of the ten commandments. — (Ex. xxiv.
17; Deut. iv. 24; Isa. xxxiii. 14, 15; Heb. xii. 29.) Still,
whatever the Lord discovered of Himself in these respects to
His ancient people,, it was with much reserve and imperfection :
they saw Him, indeed, but only through a veil ; and therefore
the glory shone forth through a cloud of thick darkness.

This, it is true, is the case to a great extent still. God even
yet has His dwelling in unapproachable light; and with all the
discoveries of the Gospel, He is only seen " as through a glass
darkly." This feature, however, of the Divine manifestations
falls more into the background in the Gospel; since Qod has
now in very deed dwelt with men mi the earth, and given such
revehtions of Himself l.y Christ, that " he who hath seen Him,"

VOL. II. F

82 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

may be said to " have seen the Father." It seems now, com
paring the revelations of God in the New with those of the Old
Testament, as if the pillar of cloud were in a measure removed,
and the pillar of light and fire alone remained. And in each of
the aspects which this pillar assumed, we find the corresponding
feature most fully verified in Christ. He is the light of men.
The glory of the Father shines forth in Him as full of grace
and truth. lie alone has revealed the Father, and can give the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Therefore He is the Word or revelation of God, and the efful
gence of His glory. And while merciful and compassionate in
the last degree to sinners — the very personification of love — He
yet has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet as of burning
brass ; and He walks amid the golden candlesticks, as He did
in the camp of Israel, to bring to light the hidden works of
darkness, and cause His indignation to smoke against the
hypocrites.1

(2.) But besides being a symbol of the Lord's revealed cha
racter, the pillar of fire and cloud had certain offices to perform
to the Israelites. These were for guidance and protection. It
was by this that the Lord directed their course through the
dreary and trackless waste which lay between Egypt and
Canaan, showing them when to set forth, in what direction to
proceed, where to abide, and also affording light to their steps
when the journey was by night. For this purpose, when the
course was doubtful, the ark of the covenant with its attendant
symbol went foremost (Num. x. 33) ; but when there was no
doubt regarding the direction that was to be taken, it appears
rather to have occupied the centre (Num. x. 17, 21), — in either
case alike appearing in the place that was most suitable, as con
nected with the symbol of the Lord's presence. In addition to
these important benefits, the pillar also served as a shade from
the heat of a scorching sun ; and on one occasion at least, when
the Israelites were closely pursued by the Egyptians, it stood as
a wall of defence between them and their enemies.

That in all this the pillar of fire and cloud performed exter
nally and visibly the part which is now discharged by Christ

1 John i. 4, 5, 11, viii. 12, ix. 5; Matt. xi. '21 ; Kj-h. i. 17 ; Heb. i. 3 ;
Kev. i. 14, 15, ii., iii., etc.

THE LONG SOJOURN IX TIIK WILDERNESS. 83

toward His people in the spiritual and divine life, is too evident
to require any illustration. He reveals Himself to them as the
Captain of salvation, by whom they are conducted through the
wilderness of life, and brings them in safety to His Father's
house. He leaves them not alone, but is ever present with His
word and Spirit, to lead them into all the truth, to refresh their
souls in the time of trouble, and minister siipport to them in the
midst of manifold temptations. He presents Himself to their
view as having gone before them in the way, and appoints them
to no field of trial or conflict with evil, through which He has
not already passed as their forerunner. Whatever wisdom is
needed to direct, whatever grace to overcome, He encourages
them to expect it from His hand ; and " when the blast of the
terrible ones comes as a storm against the wall," they have in
Him a "refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat."
Does it seem too much to expect so great things from Him ? Or
does faith, struggling with the infirmities of the flesh and the
temptations of the world, find it hard at times to lay hold of the
spiritual reality ? It will do well in such a case to revive its
fainting spirit by recurring to the visible manifestations of God
in the wilderness. Let it mark there the goings of the Divine
Shepherd with His people ; and rest in the assurance, that as
lie cannot change or deny Himself, but is the same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever, so what He then did amid the visible reali
ties of sense and time, He cannot but be ready to perform anew
in the spiritual experience of His believing people to the end of
time. The record of what was done in the one case, stands
now, and for all time, as a ground for faith and hope in respect
to the other.

The whole of what has been said regarding the sojourn in
the wilderness, has reference more immediately to the compara
tively brief period during which properly the Israelites should
have been there. The frequent outbreakings of a rebellious
spirit, and especially the dreadful revolt which arose on tin-
return of the spie> from searehing the land of Canaan, so mani
festly proved them to be unfit for the proper occupation of the
promised land, that the Lord determined to retain them in the
wilderness till the older portion — those- who were above twenty

84 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUKK.

years when they left Egypt — had all perished. It was some
time in the second year after their departure, that this decree of
judgment was passed ; and the period fixed in the decree being,
in round numbers, forty years, — a year for every day the spies
had been employed in searching the land, including, however,
what had been already spent, — there remained the long term of
upwards of thirty-eight years, during which the promise of God
was suffered to fall into abeyance. Of what passed during the
greater part of this unfortunate period scarcely anything is re
corded. The only circumstances noticed respecting it, till near
the close, are those connected with the case of the Sabbath-
breaker, and the rebellion of Korah and his company. How
far the miraculous provision for the desert was affected by the
change in question, we are not told, though we may naturally
infer it to have been to some extent — to such an extent as might
render it proper, if not necessary, to bring into play all the
available resources naturally belonging to the region. It was a
time of judgment, and the very silence of Scripture regarding it
is ominous. That their state during its continuance was to be
viewed as alike sad and anomalous, may be inferred alone from
what is recorded at the close of the period in Josh. v. 2-9, where
we are told, that from the period of their coming under the
judgment of the Lord up till that time, they had not been cir
cumcised ; the reason of which, though not very explicitly
stated, is yet distinctly connected with the people's detention in
the wilderness, as a punishment for their having " not obeyed
the voice of the Lord." And now, when the circumcision was
renewed, and the whole company became a circumcised people,
" the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the
reproach of Egypt from off you."

What is meant here by the reproach of Egypt, is not the
reproach or shame of the sin they had contracted in Egypt, as
if now at length that impure state had come to an end, and had
been publicly purged away : this were too remote1 an allusion to
have been connected with such an occasion. The thing meant
is the reproach which the people of Egypt were all this time
casting upon them for the unhappy circumstances in which they
were placed ; the genitive in such cases always denoting the party
from whom the reproach comes. — (Isa. li. 7 ; E/ek. xvi. 57 ;

'I ill: LONG SOJOUUN IX Till-: \VILl)Ki:XESS. *•"»

Xi'l>h. ii. 8.) It w;is that reproach which Moses so much dreaded
on a former occasion, when lie prayed the Lord not to pour out
His indignation on the people to consume them: "For wherefore
(says he) should the Egyptians say, For mischief did lie bring
them out to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them
from the face of the earth?" — (Ex. xxxii. 12.) And this re
proach was again the first thought that presented itself to the
mind of Moses, when, on the occasion of the return of the spies,
the Lord threatened to consume the mass of the people, and
raise a new seed from Moses himself : " Then the Egyptians
shall hear it (for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might
from among them), and they will tell it to the inhabitants of
this land," etc. — (Num. xiv. 13-16.) The ground and occasion
of the reproach was, that the Lord had not fulfilled in their
behalf the great promise of the covenant, for the realization of
which they had left Egypt with such high hopes and such a
halo of glory. So far from having obtained what was pro
mised, they had been made to wander like forlorn outcasts
through the wilds and wildernesses of Arabia, where their car
cases were continually falling into a dishonoured grave. The
covenant, in short, was for a time suspended — the people were
lying under the ban of Heaven ; and it was fitting that the ordi
nance of circumcision, the sacrament of the covenant, should be
suspended too. But now that they were again received through
circumcision into the full standing and privileges of a covenant
condition, it was a proof that the judgment of God had expired
— that their proper relation to Him was again restored — that He
was ready to carry into execution the promise on which He had
caused them to hope ; and that, consequently, the ground of
Egypt's reproach, as would presently be seen, was entirely rolled
away.1

1 See Hengstenberg's Authentic, ii., p. 17 ; also Keil on the passage. It
is scarcely necessary to notice the various opinions which have been enter
tained ivspccting the reproach that was removed — the Egyptian state of
bondage (Theodoret), the state of uucircumcision itself, which was eyed with
disfavour or contempt in Egypt (Spencer, Clericus, etc.), unfitness for war
(Maurer): all fanciful, and unsuitcd to the circumstances. Kurtz (Ges-
chichte desalt. Bundes, ii., p. 414 ; Eng. Trans., iii.. p. :;_':'.) lays stress simply
upon the expression in Josh. v. 7, which states, that those who had com.-
o'.it of Egypt "were not circumcised by the way." and views the omission

86 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUKK

It would seem, as might also have naturally been expected,
on the supposition of this view of the case being correct, that
the celebration of what might now be called the other sacrament
of the covenant, the Passover, was suspended during the same
period. We read of its having been celebrated at the beginning
of the second year after their departure from Egypt (Num. ix.),
but never again till the renewal of circumcision on the borders
of Canaan. — (Josh. v. 10.) The same cause which brought a
suspension of the one ordinance, naturally led to a disuse of the
other, since the circumcised alone could partake of it. The
more so, indeed, as it was the children who were more directly
concerned in the ceasing of circumcision, while the non-celebra
tion of the passover directly touched the parents themselves.
Even in regard to the ordinance of circumcision, the parents
could not but conclude, that as that rite had ceased to be per
formed, which was the peculiar sign of the covenant, their cir
cumcision had become in a manner uncircumcision. On their
account, the flow of the Divine goodness toward the congrega
tion had meanwhile received a check as to its outward manifes
tation ; and even what was promised and in reserve for their
children, must for the present lie over, till the revival of a better
spirit opened the way for the possession of a more privileged
condition.

But the question will naturally occur, Did the whole of that
generation, which came out of Egypt as full-grown men,
actually perish without an interest in the mercy of God ? Did
they really live and die under the solemn ban of Heaven, aliens
from His commonwealth, and strangers to His covenant of
promise ? Was not Aaron, was not Moses himself, among
those who bore in this respect the punishment of iniquity, and
died while the covenant was without its sacraments ? Un-

of the rite in the wilderness as a matter merely of convenience. But in
that case no explanation is given of the rolling away of the reproach of
Egypt by the performance of the rite, nor of the express reference to the
judgment of God in keeping them in the wilderness, at ver. 6. Bi'.«i'l"s.
during the forty years how many opportunities must they have had of per
forming the rite, if it had seemed in itself a suitable thing to be done at
the time ! The circumstance of their being by the way might account for
the suspension of the rite during the first period, when they really were
on their way to Canaan, but not for the delay afterwards.

NIK LONG SOJOURN IN THE WILDERNESS. ^7

doubtedly, :ind this alone may suffice to show that there was
mercy mingled \\-ith the judgment. The Lord did not cease to
be the gracious God, long-suffering, and plenteous in goodness
to those who truly sought Him. His grace was still there, as it
is in every judgment He executes on those who have come near
to him in privilege ; but it was grace in a disguise — grace as
breaking through an impending cloud, rather than as shining
forth from a clear and serene sky. Hence, while the two
greatest ordinances of the covenant were suspended, others were
still left to encourage their hope in the Lord's mercy : there was
the pillar of fire and cloud, the tabernacle of testimony, the altar
of sacrifice, not to mention others of inferior note. So that, to
use the words of Calvin, who had a far better discernment of
the anomalous state of things which then existed than the great
majority of commentators since : " In one part only were the
people excommunicated ; there still were means of support to
bear them up, that (the truly penitent) might not sink into de
spair. As if a father should lift up his hand to drive from him
a disobedient son, and yet with the other should hold him back
— at once terrifying him with frowns and chastisements, and
still unwilling that he should go into exile."

The feelings to which this verv peculiar state of Israel gave
rise are beautifully expressed in the 90th Psalm, — whether actu
ally written by Moses or not, — which breathes throughout the
mournful language of a people suffering under the judgment of
God, and yet exercising hope in His mercy. We need have no
doubt, therefore, that subjects of grace died in the wilderness,
just as afterwards, when the covenant with most of its ordinances
was again suspended, subjects of grace, even pre-eminent grace,
were carried to Babylon and died in exile. Yet there is much
reason to fear, in regard to the Israelites in the wilderness, that
the number of such was comparatively small, both on account
of the nature of the judgment itself, and also from the testi
monies of the prophets (especially Ez. xx. and Amos v. 25, 20),
concerning the extent to which the leaven of Egypt still wrought
in the midst of them.

This ivmurkahle portion of God's dealings brings strikingly
out a few important truths, which are of equal moment for all
times. 1. The tendency of sin to root itself in the soul : seeing

88 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

that, when once fairly dominant within, it can resist all that
is wonderful in mercy and terrible in judgment. For what
astonishing sights had not those men witnessed ! what awful
displays of God's justice ! what glorious exhibitions of His
goodness ! Yet, with the vast majority, all proved to be in vain.

2. The honour God puts upon His ordinances, especially the
sacraments of His covenant. These are for the true children
of the covenant ; and when those who profess to belong to it have
flagrantly departed from its obligations and aims, they thereby
cease to be the proper subjects of its more peculiar ordinances.

3. The inseparable connection between the promise of God's
covenant and the holiness of His people. The inheritance
cannot be entered into and possessed but by a believing, spiritual,
and holy seed. God must have such a people, and will rather
let His inheritance lie waste than have persons of another stamp
to possess it, who could only abuse it to their sinful ends.
Hence lie waits so long now, as of old He waited for the fit
occupants of Canaan. The kingdom is for those who are of
clean hands and a pure heart ; and till the destined number of
such is prepared and ready, it must be known only as an " in
heritance reserved in heaven." 4. Finally, how heavy a guilt
attaches to a backsliding and unfaithful community ! It stays
the fountain of God's mercy ; it brings reproach on His name
and cause, and compels Him, in a manner, to visit evil upon
those whom He would rather — how much rather ! — encompass
with his favour, and with the blessings of His well-ordered
covenant.

CHAPTER SECOND.

THE DIRECT INSTRUCTION GIVEN TO THE ISRAELITES BEFORE
THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE, AND THE INSTITUTION
OF ITS SYMBOLICAL SERVICES — THE LAW.

SECTION I.

WHAT PROPERLY, AND IN THE STRICTEST SENSE, TERMED THE
LAW, VIZ., THE DECALOGUE — ITS PERFECTION AND COM
PLETENESS BOTH AS TO THE ORDER AND SUBSTANCE OF ITS
PRECEPTS.

THE historical transactions connected with the redemption of
Israel from the land of Egypt, were not immediately succeeded
by the introduction of that complicated form of symbolical wor
ship which peculiarly distinguishes the dispensation of Moses.
There was an intermediate space occupied by revelations which
were in themselves of the greatest moment, and which also
stood in a relation of closest intimacy with the symbolical re
ligion that followed. The period we refer to is that to which
belongs the giving of the law. And it is impossible to under
stand aright the nature of the tabernacle and its worship, or the
purposes they were designed to accomplish, without first obtain
ing a clear insight into the prior revelation of law, and the
place it was intended to hold in the dispensation brought in by
Moses.

AY hut precisely formed this revelation of law, and what was
the nature of its requirements? This must be our first subject
of inquiry ; and by a careful investigation of the points con-
nected with it, we hope to avoid some prolific sources of con
fusion and error, and prepare the way for a correct understand-

90 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

ing of the dispensation as a whole, and the proper adjustment of
its several parts.

I. There can be no doubt that the word law is used both in
the Old and the New Testament Scriptures with some latitude,
and that what is meant by " the law " in one place, is sometimes
considerably different from what is meant by it in another. It
is used to designate indifferently precepts and appointed observ
ances of any kind, as well as the books in which they are en
joined. This only implies, however, that the things commanded
by Moses had so much in common, that they might be all com
prehended in one general term. It does not prevent that the
law of the ten commandments may have been properly and
distinctively the law to Israel, and on that account might have a
peculiar and pre-eminent place assigned it in the dispensation.
We are convinced that such in reality was the case, and present
the following considerations in support of it.

1. The very manner in which these commandments were
delivered is sufficient to vindicate for them a place peculiarly
their own. For these alone, of all the precepts which form the
Mosaic code, were spoken immediately by the voice of God ;
while the rest were privately communicated to Moses, and by
him delivered to the people. Nor was the mode of revelation
merely peculiar, but it was attended also by demonstrations of
Divine majesty such as were never witnessed on any other
occasion. So awfully grand and magnificent was the scene, and
so overwhelming the impression produced by it, that the people,
we are told, could not endure the sight, and Moses himself ex
ceedingly feared and quaked. That this unparalleled displav
of the infinite majesty and greatness of Jehovah should have
been made to accompany the deliverance of only these ten com
mandments, seems to have been intended to invest them with a
very peculiar character and bearing.

2. The same also may be inferred from their number — ten,
the symbol of completeness. It indicates that they formed by
themselves an entire whole, made up of the necessary, and no
more than the necessary, complement of parts. A good deal of
what, if not altogether fanciful, is at least incapable of any solid
proof, has recently been propounded, especially by I'mlir and

Till: DKCALOCJl'K. 91

Elengstenberg, regarding the symbolical import of numbers.
But there aiv certain points which may be considered to have
been thoroughly established respecting them ; and none more so
than the symbolical import of ten, as indicating completeness.
The ascribing of such an import to this number appears to have
been of very ancient origin ; for traces are to be found of it in
the earliest and most distant nations ; and even Spencer, who
never admits a symbol where he can possibly avoid it, is con
strained to allow a symbolical import here.1 "The ten," to use
the words of Biihr,2 " by virtue of the general laws of thought,
shuts up the series of primary numbers, and comprehends all
in itself. Now, since the whole numeral system consists of so
many decades (tens), and the first decade is the type of this end
lessly repeating series, the nature of number in general is in this
last fully developed, and the entire course comprised in its idea.
Hence the first decade, and of course also the number ten, is
the representative of the whole numeral system. And as number
is employed to symbolize being in general, ten must denote the
complete perfect being, — that is, a number of particulars neces
sarily connected together, and combined into one whole. So
that ten is the natural symbol of perfection and completeness
itself — a definite whole, to which nothing is wanting." It is on
account of this symbolical import of the number ten that, the
plagues of Egypt were precisely of that number — forming as
such a complete round of judgments ; and it was for the same
reason that the transgressions of the people in the wilderness
were allowed to proceed till the same number had been reached
— when they had " sinned ten times," they had filled up the
measure of their iniquities. — (Num. xiv. 22.) Hence also the
consecration of the tenths or tithes, which had grown into an
established usage so early as the days of Abraham. — (Gen. xiv.
20.) The whole increase was represented by ten, and one of

1 De Leg. Heb. iii. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matt. xxv. 1 : Xumero
dciiario gavisji jilurimum est gens Judaiea et in sacris et in civilibus. But
see the proof fully given in Biihr, Symb. i., p. 175 ss. Among other ancient
authorities he produces the following : Etymol. Mgn., s. v. Ime

i» otvTy vcivret doi^u-ov. Cyrill. in Hos. iii.: <n/^/3oXo» Bt' rf^nornro; 6
iffTiv oioKJpo;, ir*i,Tf*fto; uv. llonn. Trisin.-^. Poemand. 13 : w 'met; ov»
Xo'yov T»JV 0:x.o.0» £^f/ x.otl ») oir.ot; rrtv iuotCtx..

8 Syrabolik, i.. p. 175.

92 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTI'I!!-:.

these was set apart to the Lord, in token of all being derived
from Him and held of Him. So this revelation of law from
Sinai, which was to serve for all coming ages as the grand
expression of God's holiness, and the summation of man's duty,
was comprised in the number ten, to indicate its perfection as
one complete and comprehensive whole — " the all that a divinely
called people, as well as a single individual, should and should
not do in reference to God and their neighbour."1

3. It perfectly accords with this view of the ten command
ments, and is a farther confirmation of it, that they were written
by the finger of God on two tables of stone — written on both
sides, so as to cover the entire surface, and not leave room for
future additions, as if what was already given might admit of
improvements ; and written on durable tables of stone, while the
rest of the law was written only on parchment or paper. It
was for no lack of writing materials, as Hengstenberg has fully
shown,2 that in this and other cases the engraving of letters
upon stones was used in that remote period ; for materials in
great abundance existed in Egypt and its neighbourhood, and
are known to have been used from the earliest times, in the pa
pyrus, the byssus-manufacture, and the skins of beasts. " The
stone," he justly remarks, " points to the perpetuity which be
longs to the law, as an expression of the Divine will, originating
in the Divine nature. It was an image of the truth uttered by
our. Lord, i Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all
be fulfilled.' "

4. Then these ten words, as they are called, had the singular
honour conferred on them of being properly the terms of the
covenant formed at Sinai. Thus Moses, when rehearsing what
had taken place, says, Deut. iv. 13, " And He declared to you
His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten

1 Sack's Apologetik, p. 180. As further examples of the scriptural
import of ten, we might have mentioned the ten men in Zechariali laying
hold of the skirt of a Jew, ch. viii. 23, the parable of the ten virgins, and
the ten horns or kingdoms in Revelation.

- Authentic, i., p. 481 ss. So Buddeus, Hist. Eccl., i., p. 606 : Argu-
mento vero id etiam erat, perennem istam legem e?3c atque pcrpetuaui, etc.,
and Calvinistic divines generally.

Tin: DKCALOCI i:. 93

commandments; ami He wrote them upon two tables of stone."
Again, in cli. ix. '.>, 11, he calls these tables of stone "the tables
of the covenant." So also in Ex. xxxiv. 28, "the words written
upon the tables, the ten commandments," are expressly called
"the words of the covenant." To mark more distinctly the
covenant nature of these words, it is to be observed (as re
marked by Devling, Obs. Sac., L. ii., obs. 47), that the Scripture
never once uses the expression, "the tables of the law," but
always simply the tables, or the testimony, or, conjoining the
two, the tables of the testimony, or tables of the covenant. It is
true, some other commands are coupled with the ten, when, in
Ex. xxxiv. 27, the Lord said to Moses, that " after the tenor of
(at the month of, according to) these words he had made a
covenant with Israel." It is true, also, that at the formal rati
fication of the covenant, Ex. xxiv., we read of tie book of the
covenant, which comprehended not only the ten commandments,
but also the precepts contained in ch. xxi.-xxiii.; for it is clear
that this book comprised all that the Lord had then said, either
directly or by the instrumentality of Moses, and to which the
people answered, " We will do it." But it is carefully to be
observed, that a marked distinction is still put between the ten
commandments and the other precepts ; for the former are
called emphatically " the words of the Lord," while the addi
tional words given through Moses are called " the judgments "
(ver. 3). They are, indeed, peculiarly rights or judgments, hav
ing respect, for the most part, to what should be done from one
man to another, and what, in the event of violations of the law
being committed, ought to be enforced judicially, with the view
of rectifying or checking the evil. Their chief object was to
secure, through the instrumentality of the magistrate, that if
the proper lore should fail to influence the hearts and lives of
the people, still the right should be maintained. Yet while
these form the great body of the additional words communicated
to Moses and written in the book of the covenant, the symboli
cal institutions had also a certain place assigned them ; for both
in ch. xxiii., and again in ch. xxiv., the three yearly feasts, and
one or two other points of this description, are noticed. But
still tins;- directions and judgments formed no proper addition
to the matter of the ten commandments, considered as God's

94 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

revelation of law to His people. The terms of the covenant
still properly stood, as we are expressly and repeatedly told, in
the ten commandments; and what, besides, was added before
the ratification of the covenant, cannot justly be regarded as
having had any other object in view, in so far as they partook
of the nature of laws, than as subsidiary directions and restraints
to aid in protecting the covenant, and securing its better ob
servance. The feast-laws, in particular, so far from forming
any proper addition to the terms of the covenant, had respect
primarily to the people's profession of adherence to it, and con
tained directions concerning the sacramental observances of the
Jewish Church.

5. What has been said in regard to the ten commandments,
as alone properly constituting the terms of the covenant, is fully
established, and the singular importance of these command
ments further manifested, by the place afterwards assigned
them in the tabernacle. The most sacred portion of this, that
which formed the very heart and centre of all the services con
nected with it, was the ark of the covenant. It was the pecu
liar symbol of the Lord's covenant presence and faithfulness,
and immediately above it was the throne on which He sat as
King in Jeshurun. But that ark was made on purpose to con
tain the two tables of the law, and was called " the ark of the
covenant," simply because it contained " the tables of the cove
nant." The book of the law was afterwards placed by Moses
at the side of the ark (Deut. xxxi. 26), that it might serve as a
check upon the Levites, who were the proper guardians and
keepers of the book ; it was a wise precaution lest they should
prove unfaithful to their charge. But the tables on which the
ten commandments were written alone kept possession of the
ark, and were thus plainly recognised as containing in them
selves the sum and substance of what in righteousness was held
to be strictly required by the covenant.

6. Finally, our Lord and His apostles always point to the
revelation of law engraven upon these stones as holding a pre
eminent place, and, indeed, as comprising all that in the strict
and proper sense was to be esteemed as law. The Scribes and
Pharisees of that age had completely inverted the order of
things. Their carnality and self-righteousness had led them to

II IK DECALOGUE. 05

exalt the precepts respecting ceremonial observances to the
highest place, and to throw the duties inculcated in the ten
commandment! comparatively into the background, — thus treat
ing the mere appendages of the covenant as of more account
than its very ground and basis. Hence, when seeking to expose
the insufficient and hollow nature of " the righteousness of the
Scribes and Pharisees," our Lord made His appeal to the testi
mony engraved on the two tables, and most commonly, indeed,
though not exclusively, to the precepts of the second table,
because lie had to do more especially with hypocrites, whose
defects and shortcomings might most readily be exposed by a
reference to the duties of the second table. — (Matt. xix. 16 ;
Luke x. 25, xviii. 18, etc.) The object of our Lord naturally
led Him to give prominence to those things by which a man
approves himself to be just, or the reverse. Those parts of duty
which more immediately relate to God in their proper observance,
have to do so peculiarly with the heart, that it is comparatively
easy, on the one hand, for hypocrites to feign compliance with
them, and difficult, on the other, to make a direct exposure of
their pretensions. For the same reason, Christ's Sermon on the
Mount, which was chiefly intended to be an exposition of the
real nature and far-reaching import of the ten commandments,
bears most respect to those commandments which belonged to
the second table, and which had suffered most from the corrup
tion of the times. But the prophets of the Old Testament had
done precisely the same thing in reproving the ungodliness
prevalent in their day. They were continually striving to recall
men from the mere outward observances which the most worth
less hypocrites could perform, to the sincere piety toward God,
and deeds of substantial kindness toward man, required by the
law of the two tables ; so that the prophets, as well as the law,
were truly said to hang upon one and the same commandment
of love.1 In like manner, the Apostle Paul, after Christ, as the

1 See especially Fs. xv., xxiv., which describe the righteousness required
mulcr the covenant, by obedience to the ten commandments, and more
particularly to those of the second table; specially indited, no doubt, to
meet the tendency which the more attractive and orderly celebration then
introduced into the ritual service was fitted to awaken, tfee also I's. xl., 1..
li. ; Isa. i., Ivii., etc. ; Micah vi.

90 TIIE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

prophets before, when discoursing in regard to the law, what it
was or was not, what it could or could not do, always has in view
pre-eminently the law of the two tables. Without an exception,
his examples are taken from the very words of these, or what
they clearly prohibited and required. — (Rom. ii. 17-23, iii. 10-18,
vii. 7, xiii. 9, 10; 1 Tim. i. 7-10.) This could not, of course,
be expected in the argument maintained in the Epistles to the
Galatians and Colossians, where the error met and opposed
consisted in an undue exaltation of the ceremonial institutions
by themselves, as if the observance of these by the Christian
Church were essential to salvation. In this case he could not
possibly avoid referring chiefly to precepts of a cei'emonial
nature, and discussing them with respect to the light in which
they were improperly viewed by certain parties in the apostolic
Church. But when the question was, what the law in its strict
and proper sense really required, and what were the ends it was
fitted to serve, he never fails to manifest his concurrence with the
other inspired writers, in taking the ten words as the law and the
testimony, by which everything was to be judged and determined.
We should despair of proving anything respecting the Old
Testament dispensation, if these considerations do not prove that
the law of the ten commandments stood out from all the other
precepts enjoined under the ministration of Moses, and were
intended to form a full and comprehensive exhibition of the
righteousness of the. law, in its strict and proper sense. No
doubt, many of the other precepts teach substantiallv what these
commandments did, or contain statements and regulations bearing
some way upon their violation or observance. But this was not
done with the view of supplying any new or additional matter of
obligation ; it was merely intended to explain their real import,
or to give instructions how to adapt to them what might be
called the jurisprudence of the state. We cannot but regard it
as an unhappy circumstance, tending to perpetuate much mis
understanding and confusion regarding the legislation of Moses,
that the distinction has been practically overlooked, which it so
manifestly assigns to the ten commandments, and that they have-
so frequently been regarded by the more learned theologians a>
the kind of quintessence of the whole Mosaic code, as the frw
general or representative heads under which all the rest are to

Till: DECALOGUE. 97

he ranged. Thus Calvin, while he held the ten commandments
to he a perfect rule of righteousness, and gave for the most part
a correct a^ we-11 as admirahle exposition of their tenor and
design, yet failed to bring out distinctly their singular and pro
minent place in the Mosaic economy, and in his commentary
reduces all the ceremonial institutions to one or other of these
ten commandments. They were therefore regarded by him as
standing to the entire legislation of Moses in the relation of
general summaries or compends. And in that case there must
have been, as he partially admits there was, something shadowy
in the one as well as in the other. But what was chiefly a
defect of arrangement in Calvin and many subsequent writers,
has in Biihr assumed the form of a guiding principle, and is laid
as the foundation of his view of the whole Mosaic system.
Agreeing substantially with Spencer, whom he here quotes with
approbation, and who considered the decalogue as a brief com-
pend or tabular exhibition of the several classes of precepts in
the law, he says : " The decalogue is representative of the whole
law ; it contains religious and political, not less than moral, pre
cepts. The first command is a purely religious one ; as is also
the fourth, which belongs to the ceremonial law ; and indeed,
generally, by reason of the theocratic constitution, all civil com
mands were at the same time religious and moral ones, and
inversely ; so that the old division into moral, ceremonial, and
political, or judicial, appears quite untenable."1 There is an
element of truth in this. The theocracy, doubtless, stamped all

1 Symbolik, i., p. 384. He elsewhere, p. 181, seeks to justify this view
from the number ten, in which the law was contained ; and which number
he considers to have been employed in the promulgation of this law, because
u it was the fundamental law of Israel, in a religious and political respect —
the representative of the whole Israelitish constitution." It certainly might
be called the fundamental law of Israel, but that is a different thing from
its being also the representative of the whole Israelitish constitution. In
this case the ten must have been individually and conjunctly comprehensive
of the whole, 'and that in their distinctive character as component elements
of the Israelitish constitution. But what has any of them in that sense to
do, for example, with sacrifice for sin? or with thankofferings for mercies?
or with distinctions in meat and drink ? If the whole law had been com-
l>ri-.' -I in ten groups, and the decalogue had consisted of one from i-acli
group, we could then, but only then, have seen the force and justice of the
iiitrri>retation.

VOL. II. O

'.'* THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

with a religious impress, and brought the ceremonial and political
into close connection with the moral. But it by no means
follows that these were all indiscriminately fused together;
otherwise, they must also have been retained, or have fallen
together. The view overlooks distinctions which arc both real
and important, as will appear in the course of our remarks upon
some parts of the decalogue itself, and also afterwards, when
unfolding the relation of the decalogue to the ceremonial insti
tutions. It is such an error as confounds the means of salvation
with the great principles of religious and moral obligation, and
leaves, if followed out, no solid basis for the doctrine of a vicari
ous atonement to rest on. With perfect consistence, Ba'hr
constructs his system without the help of such an atonement ;
sacrifice in all its forms was but an expression of pious feeling
on the part of the worshipper, and consequently fell under one
or other of the duties man owed to his Maker.

II. We proceed now to consider the excellence of this law of
the ten commandments, and to show, by an examination of its
method and substance, how justly it was regarded as a complete
and perfect summary of religious and moral duty.

It is scarcely possible, even at this stage of the world's his
tory, to consider with any care the precepts of the decalogue,
without in some measure apprehending its high character as a
standard of rectitude. And could we throw ourselves back to
the time when it was first promulgated — instead of looking at
it, as we now do, from the eminence of a fuller and more per
fect revelation — could we distinctly contemplate it, as given
seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and received as
the summary of all that is morally right and dutiful by a people
who had just left the polluted atmosphere of Egypt, we could
not fail to discern, in the very existence of such a law, one of
the most striking proofs of the Divine character of the Mosaic
legislation. We should be much more disposed to exclaim here,
than in regard to the outward prodigy which first called forth
the declaration, " This is the finger of God."

A remarkable testimony was given to the general excellence
of the decalogue, and its vast superiority, as a code of morality,
to anything found among the native superstitions of the East,

THE DECALOGUE. 99

in tlu- language of those Indians referred to by Dr Claudius
Buchanan : " If you send us a missionary, send us one who has
learned your ten commandments."1 If modern idolaters were
thus taken \\ith tin: Divine beauty and singular preciousness
of these commandments, we know those could have no less
reason to be so to whom they were first delivered ; for the
land of Egypt, out of which they had recently escaped, was
as remarkable for the grossness of its superstition as for the
superiority of its learning and civilisation. As far back as our
information respecting it carries us, — at a period certainly more
remote than that in which Israel sojourned within its borders, —
the Egyptians appear to have been immersed in the deepest
rnire of idolatry and its kindred abominations ; and on them, in
an especial sense, was chargeable the guilt and folly of " having
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things." " The innermost sanctuary of their temples,"
says Clement of Alexandria, u is overhung with gilded tapestry;
but let the priest remove the covering, and there appeal's a cat or
a crocodile, or a domesticated serpent, wrapt in purple." Wor
shipping the Deity thus under the image of even the lower crea
ture-forms, the religion of Egypt must have been of an essentially
grovelling tendency, and could scarcely fail to have carried along
with it many foul excesses and pollutions. There are not want
ing indications of this in Herodotus, and several allusions are
also made to it in the Books of Moses. But some of the most
profound inquirers into the religion of the ancients have recently
shown, on evidence the most complete, that the worship of ancient
Egypt was essentially of a bacchanalian character, full of lust
and revelry ; that its most frequented rites were accompanied
with scenes of wantonness and impure indulgence ; and that it
sometimes gave rise to enormities not fit to be mentioned.2

Such was the atmosphere in which the Israelites had lived
during their abode in Egypt ; and it was when fresh from such
a region that the law of the ten commandments was proclaimed
in their hearing, and given to be enshrined in the innermost re-

1 Essay on the Estab. of an Episcopal Church in India, p. 61.

2 Creuzer, Symbolik, i., p. 448, SB. ; cotnp. also, llengsteaberg, Authen
tic, i., p. 118, ss. ; Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 203, ss.

100 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

cess of their sacred structure, — a law which unfolds the clearest
views of God's character and service — which denounces every
form and species of idolatry as inconsistent with the spirituality
of the Divine nature — which enjoins the purest worship and the
highest morality, and in its very form is a model of perfection
and completeness. Wisdom of this kind Moses could least of all
have learned from the Egyptians ; nor could it have been his,
unless it had descended to him from above.1

1. This revelation of law is equally remarkable for the
order and arrangement of its several parts, and for the round
ness and completeness of its summary of moral obligation ; in
both respects a certain perfection belongs to it. As regards
the former, there are general features which strike one at the
first glance, and about which there can be no difference of
opinion. This is the case especially with the relative place
assigned in it to those things which have more immediate respect
to God, and those which concern the rights and interests of one's
fellow-men. However the line of demarcation may be drawn
between the two, there can be no doubt — for it stands upon the
surface of the code — that the forms and manifestations of love
to God occupy the first and most prominent place, while those
which are expressive of love to man take a secondary and, in a
sense, dependent rank. Religion was made the basis of morality
— piety toward God the living root of good-will and integrity
toward men; and on this great principle, that unless there were
maintained a dutiful and proper regard to the great Head of the
human family, it could not reasonably be expected that men
would feel and act aright to the different members of the family.
We have here, therefore, the true knowledge and love of God
virtually proclaimed to be, what was so happily expressed by
Augustine, the parent, in a sense, and guardian of all the virtues
(mater quodammodo omnium custosque virtutum) ; or, as it is

1 See the subject again referred to at B. iii., c. 5. It is one of the few
correct things which Tacitus states concerning the religion of the Jews, that
they counted it profanity to make images in the likeness of man, and that
they worshipped only one supreme, eternal, unchangeable, and everlasting
God. — (Hist., v. 5.) It would be difficult, however, to throw together a
larger amount of ignorance and error in the same space, than is expressed
in this and the preceding chapter, by Tacitus, respecting the religious cus
toms and rites of the Jews.

THE DECALOGUE. 101

put by Josephus, " religion was not made a part of virtue, but
other virtiK-s were ordained to be parts of religion." — (Apion.,
ii. 17.)

There may, no doubt, be a measure of love and fair dealing
between man and man, where there is no spiritual acquaintance
with God, and no principle of dutiful allegiance to Him. Were
it not so, indeed, society in countries where the true religion is
unknown would fall to pieces. But in such cases, the love is
destitute of what might give it either the requisite stability or the
proper spirit ; it is not sustained by adequate views of men's rela
tionship to God, nor animated by the motives which are supplied
by a consideration of their higher calling and destiny : hence it
is necessarily defective, partial, irregular, in its manifestations.
It was, therefore, in accordance with the truest wisdom, that the
things which belong to God were, in this condensed summary of
Divine requirement, exalted to the first place ; and in farther
attestation of their pre-eminent rank and importance, it is to the
commands connected with this branch of duty chiefly, if not
exclusively, that special reasons have been attached enforcing
the obedience required. In all the later precepts there is a
simple enunciation of the command.

So far all are agreed ; but in regard to the manner of
making out the division between what is called the first and
the second tables of the law, there is not the same general
unanimity among theologians. Scripture itself gives no explicit
deliverance on the subject. It frequently enough affirms the
law to have been written on two tables ; but it never intimates
how many of the ten words were inscribed on the one, how
many on the other ; and while it more than once comprises the
ten in two still more fundamental and comprehensive precepts —
to love the Lord with all the heart, and one's neighbour as one's
self (Deut. vi. 5 ; Lev. xix. 18 ; Matt. xix. 37)— it leaves alto-
gether undecided the question, how much of the decalogue is
embraced in the one, and how much in the other. We cannot
but think that there is a profound design in this reserve of
Scripture, which it had been good for Christian divines to )iave
inquired into, rather than to have insisted on sharply distin
guishing, some in one way, some in another, what perhaps is
incapable of a complete and formal separation. Fur iu this

102 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

revelation of law, while there is a diversity of parts, there is a
pervading unity of principle; and, branching out, as it does, the
whole sphere of obligation into two great lines of duty, it would
yet have us to regard these as cognate and affiliated, rather than
absolutely diverse — the one merging into the other, and both to
a certain extent mutually overlapping each other. Thus, the
command enjoining the sacred observance of the weekly Sabbath,
in its most obvious and direct aspect, bears on the duty one owes
to God, and is in consequence, by all classes of theologians,
associated with the first table of the law ; while yet the rest to
which it calls is inseparably bound up with the best interests
of mankind ; and the violation of it by the rich was sternly
denounced by the prophets among other acts of hardship and op
pression.— (Deut. v. 15 ; Isa. Iviii. 13 ; Jer. xvii. 20-22.) In His
exposition of the sixth commandment, our Lord has given a strik
ing illustration of the manner in which the love it demands toward
a fellow-creature intertwines itself with the love which is due to
God, and the service He requires of man. — (Matt. v. 23, 24.)
So also the command to honour father and mother has points of
affinity with both departments of duty, according as parents are
contemplated in the light of Heaven's representatives, clothed
with a measure of supernal authority, or as standing merely in
the highest rank of earthly relations. Philo, in his treatise on
the decalogue, draws attention to this peculiarity, and repre
sents the command as having its place on the confines of the
two tables, because of the parental relationship appearing to
partake partly of the Divine and partly of the human element.
Formally, however, he assigns it to the first table ; and makes
the division of the ten to consist of two fives — the first terminat
ing with the command to honour father and mother. Josephus
follows exactly the same method, throwing the whole into two
equal halves, and making the command to honour parents the
closing member of the first five. — (Ant., iii., c. 6, § 6.)

There can be no reasonable doubt that these ancient Jewish
writers expressed in this matter the common belief of their coun
trymen ; and the division of the decalogue into two fives, with
an acknowledgment that the boundary line was not very broadly
marked, or altogether free from dubiety, is the one which has
the highest claim to antiquity. It has also the advantage of

TIIK DECALOGUE. 103

being the most natural and simple; for as the whole law is
comprehended in ten, the number of completeness, and from its
very nature falls into two grand divisions, we naturally think of
two fives — each by itself the symbol of incompleteness, but, as
related to each other, the component parts of a perfect whole —
for the proper distribution of the commands. Other considera
tions come in aid of this conclusion : in particular, the circum
stance that the fifth command is, like those preceding it, enforced
by a reason which places it in immediate connection with the
great ends of the covenant ; and the sacredness attached by the
Apostle Paul to the discharge of the duties enjoined in it, as
being, on the part of the young, the showing of piety at home
(1 Tim. v. 4), — a spirit characteristically different from that of
brotherly love. And, indeed, the relation of a child to a parent
is not strictly that of neighbour to neighbour. " It is through
the parents that the creative power of God, on which all life
depends, is communicated to the children ; so that God, as the
Creator of life, appears to the children primarily in the parents
— the earthly divinities (diis terrestribus)^ as Grotius calls them.
But since the relation between parents and children is the basis
of all the divinely-constituted relations of human society, which
involve stations of superiority and inferiority, since the names
also of father and mother have been made to stretch over the
whole natural circle (Gen. xlv. 8 ; Judg. v. 7) — [and even the
name of God, it might have been added, is sometimes given to
the judges, who represented Him, Ex. xxii. 8, 28 ; Ps. Ixxxii. f>]
— it is certainly in the spirit of the law to explain this com
mand, with Luther, in reference to the sphere of the civil life "
(Baumgarten). Hence, also, we may most easily explain why
this should be called the first commandment with promise (Eph.
vi. 2), because it is the one in respect to which we have first
to do with the authority of God, as appearing in those earthly
representative! ; and on which the greater stress is justly laid,
since in them that authority is associated with so much of a
winning and attractive nature, that if it fails to elicit from those
placed under it a reverential and pbedient spirit, much more may
the same failure be expected when account has to be made only
of the mysterious and dread majesty of Heaven.

These considerations, it seems to vis, aiv sufficient to esta-

104 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

blish the propriety of this ancient division of the ten command
ments into two halves ; one which was acquiesced in by the two
most learned of the fathers, — Origen (in his 8th Homily on
Genesis), and Jerome (on Eph. vi. 2), — and became also the
received opinion in the Greek Church. It is preferable to
that which has so generally prevailed in the Reformed Church,
and which so far concurs with the earlier view as to hold the
command respecting parents to be the fifth in order, but differs in
laying the chief stress upon the human element in the parental
relation, and consequently assigning the fifth command to the
second table of the law. The division then falls into four and
six, and thereby loses sight of the significance of number in the
two divisions, though making account of it in the totality,
and, at the same time, overlooks the more distinctive peculi
arities of the precept respecting the honouring of parents. But
if, in comparison of this view, the other seems deserving of
preference (though the difference between them, it must be
owned, is not very material), much more is it so when compared
with another view which received the sanction of Augustine,
and from him has descended to the Romish, and in great part
also to the Lutheran Church. According to it, the division falls
into three and seven — the three, however, terminating with the
fourth command, while the first and second are thrown into one ;
and the seven is made out by splitting the tenth into two, and
placing the coveting of a man's wife in a different category
from the coveting of his house and other possessions. Augus
tine expressed his preference for this distribution primarily on
the ground, that in the three directly pertaining to God he saw
an indication of the mystery of the Trinity. — (Quast. in Ex., §
71.) This was evidently the consideration that chiefly weighed
with him, although he also thought there was ground for
coupling the prohibition against idol-worship with that against
the acknowledgment of another God than Jehovah, and for
distinguishing between concupiscence toward a neighbour's wife,
and concupiscence in respect to material possessions. Kurtz,
along with not a few Lutherans of the present day, still adheres
to this view, and very much also from regard to the sacred
three and seven, which is thereby obtained. — (Hist, of Old Cov.,
ii., sec. 47, § 3.) But in a grand objective revelation, any

Till-; DECALOGUE. 105

to numbers, except such as is quite natural and simple,
would be entirely out of place ; and the recondite considera
tions which are required here to discover and elevate into sig
nificance a three and a seven, betray the character of their
origin : they might do for the speculations of the closet, but
were greatly too far to seek for what was required in the fun
damental document of a popular religion. Besides, the ac
knowledgment of one God is not by any means inconsistent
with the worship of that God by idols — as, indeed, the history
of the Old Testament renders manifest by the marked distinc
tion it draws between the sin of Jeroboam, who corrupted the
worship of Jehovah by idols, and the much greater sin of Ahab,
who introduced the worship of strange gods : therefore, what
are usually called the first and second commandments, are not
to be identified ; the one has respect to the object, the other to
the mode, of worship. On the other hand, the concupiscence
condemned in the tenth commandment is substantially one,
whatever possession or property of a neighbour's may be its
more immediate object : to regard it when directed towards his
wife as specifically different from what it is when directed to
other objects, were virtually to identify it with what is forbidden
in the seventh commandment. And then there is this fatal
objection to the rending of the tenth into two, that it obliges
us to discard the form of the precept as given in Exodus, and
substitute that in Deut. v. 21 as the more correct : for in this
last alone does the wife, as an object of prohibition, stand first ;
while in Ex. xx. 17, first the house is forbidden to be coveted,
then the wife, afterwards man-servant, and whatever may
belong to one's neighbour. A theory which requires for its
support either a corruption in the text of Exodus, of which
there is no evidence, or the assertion of a higher claim in
respect to originality for the form of the decalogue given in
Deuteronomy as compared with that in Exodus, has manifestly
but a poor foundation to stand upon.1

1 It seems strange that any one should view the passage in Deut. v.
r>-21 in any other light than as a free rehearsal of the commands given as
originally uttered in Ex. xx. The account itself professes to be nothing
else than such a rehearsal ; and, in connection with one of the commands,
gives explicit intimation of this : " Honour thy father and thy mother, an

106 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Holding then by the generally received view in the Re
formed Church, that, in making out the ten commands of the
law, the prohibition against idol-worship ranks independently
of the first, and that the prohibition against concupiscence is
not diverse, but one ; holding, farther, that the simplest and
most natural, as it is also the oldest, division of the whole, is
into two fives, — though the division is not to be understood as
very sharply drawn, or as involving anything like an abrupt
and formal separation of the one portion from the other, — there
is found in this summary of moral and religious obligation a
beautiful order and progression in the precepts which compose
it. In that part which has more immediate reference to God,
it demands for Him the supreme love and homage of mankind —
(1) in respect to His being, as the one living God ; (2) to His
worship, as, like Himself, spiritual, and abhorrent to the rites of
idolatry ; (3) to His name ; (4) to His day of holy rest ; (5) to
His earthly representatives. Then, as the two last commands
have already brought the duties of God's service into contact
with the interests of one's fellow-men and the relations of social
life, the Divine revelation now passes formally over to the
things which directly concern the well-being of our neighbour,
claiming for him what is due successively in regard to his life, his
domestic happiness, his property, his good name in the world, his
place in the feelings and affections of our heart. Nothing could
be more orderly, and at the same time more compact.

2. But it is of more importance to note the character of the
decalogue in regard to the revelation of duty contained in it,
or the substance of its precepts. Does it prove itself here, on
examination, to be indeed a comprehensive summary of all
moral and religious duty ; and that with reference to the heart
as well as the outward behaviour?

An extremely low estimate, in this respect, is formed of the
ten commandments by Spencer and his school, as well as of the

the Lord thy God commanded thee." The addition, also, at ver. 15, in con
nection with the fourth commandment, where the people are, as by a sepa
rate word of exhortation, called upon to re-member that they had been
bondmen in Egypt, and had been redeemed by the Lord, has all the ap
pearance of an after-thought, thrown in at a later period, when Israel was
farther removed from the era of redemption.

Tin: DECALOGUE. 107

other portions of the law of Moses. Spencer himself smiles at
the idea <>f all religious and moral obligation being contained
here in its fundamental principles, and affirms that snch an
extent of im-aning can be brought out of it only by forcing on
its worth an import quite foreign to their proper sense. He
can find nothing more in it than a few plain and disconnected
precepts, aimed at the prohibition of idolatry and its natural
effects.1 " In the Mosaic covenant," says one, who here trod in
the footsteps of Spencer, " God appeared chiefly as a temporal
prince, and therefore gave laws intended rather to direct the
outward conduct than to regulate the actings of the heart. A
temporal monarch claims from his subjects only outward honour
and obedience. God, therefore, acting in the Sinai covenant as^
King of the Jews, demanded from them no more."2 What!
the holy and righteous God stoop to form a mock covenant
like this, and resort to such a wretched expedient to uphold
His honour and authority ! Could it possibly become Him to
descend from heaven amid the awful manifestations of Divine
power and glory, in order to proclaim and settle the terms of a
covenant, the only aim of which was to draw around Him a set
of formal attendants and crouching hypocrites — men of show
and parade — the mere ghosts and shadows of obedient children !
It is the worst part of an earthly monarch's lot to be so often
surrounded with creatures of this description ; but to suppose
that the living God, who from the spirituality of His nature
must ever look mainly on the heart, and so far from seeking,
must indignantly reject, any profession of obedience which does
not flow from the wellspring of a loving spirit — to suppose that
He should have been at pains to establish a covenant of blood
for the purpose of securing such a worthless display, — betrays
an astonishing misapprehension of the character of God, or the
most shallow and unsatisfactory view of the whole transactions
connected with the revelation of Moses.3

1 De Legibus Heb., I,, i., c. 2.

2 Tlieol. Dissertations by Dr John Erskine, p. 5, 37.

3 It is strange that this notion, so unworthy of God, and so obviously
inconsistent with the nature <>t' tin- la\v itself, and the recorded facta of
Israelit i>h history, still holds its ground among us. The shades of Spencer
and \Varburtou still rest even upon many minds of vigorous thought. The

108 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Indeed, if no more had been required by God in His law
than what these divines imagine, the commendations bestowed
on it, and the injunctions given to study and weigh its precepts,
as a masterpiece of Divine wisdom, could only be regarded as
extravagant and bombastical. What, on such a supposition,
could we make of the command laid upon Joshua to meditate
in it day and night (Josh. i. 8) ; or of the celebration of its
matchless excellence and worth by the Psalmist, as better than
thousands of gold and silver (Ps. cxix. 72) ; or of his prayer, that
his eyes might be opened to behold the wondrous things con
tained in it ? — (Ps. cxix. 18.) Such things clearly imply a latent
depth of meaning, and a large compass of requirement in the
law of Moses, more especially in that part of it which formed
the very heart and centre of the whole — the decalogue. Nor
would the low and shallow views respecting it, on which we
have animadverted, ever have been propounded, if, as Calvin
suggests,1 men properly considered the Lawgiver, by whose
character that of the law must also be determined. An earthly
monarch who is capable of taking cognisance only of the out
ward actions, must prescribe laws which have respect simply to

covenant of law is with the utmost confidence, and with the tone of one
who had made a sort of discovery in the matter, represented by Mr John-
stone, in his Israel after the Flesh, as a simply national covenant, having no
other object than to maintain the national recognition of God, and no
respect whatever to individuals. — (Ch. i.) Mr Litton, in his Bampton
Lecture, has, however, taken a more correct view, and brought out dis
tinctly the spiritual element in the law. See especially Lect. III. The ten
commandments express the spirit and essence of the whole economy, and
only the first of them refers to the national acknowledgment of God. If
that had been all they required, how could the Israelites in the wilderness
have been treated as guilty of a breach of the covenant for simply failing
to exercise faith in a particular word of God ? Or how could our Lord
charge the Scribes and Pharisees of His time with being condemned by
their law, while they rigidly adhered to the acknowledgment of God?
Besides, the law is not now, and never was intended, to be viewed as
standing by itself. It was a mere appendage to the covenant of Abraham,
and the revelations therewith connected. And if these were express on any
point, it was, as we have shown in vol. 1st, on the necessity of personal
faith and heart-holiness, to fulfil the calling of a son of Abraham. If the
law did not require spiritual service, it must have been a retrogression, not
an advance, in the revelation of God's character.
1 Institutes, B. ii., c. 8, § G.

TIII: DECALOGUE. lo'.t

these. But, for a like reason, the King of heaven, who is Him
self a Spirit, and a Spirit of infinite and unchanging holiness,
can nev<-r pivsrnlu- :i law but such as is in accordance with His
own Divine nature; one, therefore, which pre-eminently aims at
the regulation of the heart, and takes cognisance of the outward
behaviour only in so far as this may be expressive of what is felt
within. And it is justly inferred by Biihr from this view of
God's character even in regard to the ceremonial part of the law
of Moses, that the outward observances of worship it imposed
could not possibly be in themselves an end ; that they must have
been intended to be only an image and representation of internal
and spiritual relations ; and that the command not to make any
likeness or graven image, is of itself an incontestable proof of
the symbolical character of the Mosaic religion.1

Perhaps nothing has tended more to prevent the right per
ception of the spirituality and extent of the law of the ten
commandments, than a mistaken view of the generally negative
aspect they assume, as if their aim were more to impose
restraints on the doing of what is evil, than to enforce the prac
tice of what is pure and good. If this, however, were the right
view of the matter, there manifestly would have been no excep
tion to the negative form of the precepts ; they would one and
all have possessed the character simply of prohibitions. But the
fourth and fifth have been made to run in the positive form ; and
one of these — the fourth — combines both together, as if on pur
pose to show, that along with the prohibition of the specified sins,
each precept was to be understood as requiring the correspond
ing duties. In truth, this predominantly negative character is
rather a testimony to their deep spiritual import, as confronting
at every point the depravity and sinfulness of the human heart.
The Israelites then, as professing believers now, admitted by
divine grace into a covenant relation to God, and made heirs of
His blessed inheritance, should have been disposed of them
selves to love and serve God ; they should not even have needed
the stringent precepts and binding obligations of law to do so.
But as a solemn proof and testimony how much the reverse was
the case, the law was thrown chiefly into the prohibitory form :
" Thou shalt not do this or that ;" as much as to say, Thou art
1 Symbolik, i., p. 14.

110 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of thyself ready to do it — this is the native bent of thy incli
nation — but it must be restrained, and things of a contrary
nature sought after and performed.

It is perhaps too much to say, with Hengstenberg, that the
law was called the testimony (Ex. xxv. 16, xxx. 6, etc.), and the
tables on which it was written, the tables of the testimony (Ex.
xxxi. 18, xxxiv. 29), simply on account of the revelation therein
made of God's judgment against man's sin (Pent., ii., p. 600) ;
for this was rather an incidental result, than the direct object
of the law : yet it was a result which so inevitably took place,
that the name could scarcely have been imposed without some
reference to it. In one passage we even find the idea distinctly
exhibited, though with reference to the book generally of the law,
when Moses was commanded to have a copy of it placed beside
the ark of the covenant, that it might be for a witness against
Israel. — (Deut. xxxi. 26.) The same, undoubtedly, was done in
a pre-eminent degree by the two tables, which, as containing the
essence of the whole legislation, were put within the ark. And
their position there directly under the mercy-seat, where the
blood of atonement was perpetually sprinkled, could signify
nothing else than that the accusation which was virtually borne
against Israel by the law of the covenant, required to be covered
from the eye of Heaven by the propitiatory above it. In itself,
however, the law was simply the revelation of God's holiness,
with its circle of demands upon the faith, love, and obedience of
His people : it testified of what was in His heart as the invisible
Head of the kingdom, in respect to the character and conduct
of those who should be its members. But the testimony it thus
delivered for Him necessarily involved a testimony against them,
because of the innate tendency to corruption which existed in
their bosoms. And this incidental testimony against the sinful-
ness of the people, — which is, at the same time, an evidence of
the law's inherent spirituality and goodnesss, — has its reflection
in the very form of the precepts in which it is contained.

The more closely we examine these precepts themselves, the
more clearly do we perceive their spiritual and comprehensive
character. That they recognise love as the root of all obedience,
and hatred as inseparable from transgression, is plainly intimated
in the description given of the doers and transgressors of the

mi: DECALOGUE. ill

l;i\v in the second commandment ; the latter being characterized
as " those that hate God," and the former as " those that love
Him ami keep His commandments." And that the love required
was no slight and superficial feeling, such as might readily give
manifestation of itself in a few external acts of homage, —
that, on the contrary, it embraced the entire field of man's spiri
tual agency, and bore respect alike to his thoughts, words, and
deeds, — is manifest from the following analysis and explanation
of the second table, given by Hengstenberg:1 " Thou shalt not
injure thy neighbour — 1. In deed, and that (1) not in regard to
his life, (2) not in regard to his dearest property, his wife, (3)
not in regard to his property generally [in other words, in regard
to his person, his family, or his property]. 2. In word (' Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour'). 3. In
thought (' Thou shalt not covet'). While it may be admitted,
however, that the prohibition of lust or covetousness has an in
ternal character, it may still with some plausibility be maintained,
that on this very account the preceding commands are to be
taken externally — that we are not in them to go beyond the
word and deed — that the mere outward acts, for example, of
murder and adultery, are prohibited, so that the four first
precepts of the second table may be satisfied without any in
ward feeling of holiness, this being required only in the last.
There is certainly some degree of truth in this remark. That
a special prohibition of sinful lust should follow the rest, shows
that what had been said in reference to word and deed primarily
has respect to these. Still it must not be overlooked, on the
other hand, that precisely through the succession of deed, word,
and thought, the deed and word are stript of their merely out
ward character, and referred back to their root in the mind, are
marked simply as the end of a process, the commencement of
which is »to be sought in the heart. If this is duly considered,
it will appear, that what primarily refers only to word and deed,
carried at the same time an indirect reference to the emotions
of the heart. Thus, the only way to fulfil the command, ' Thou
shalt not kill,' is to have the root extirpated from the heart, out

1 Authentic, ii., p. 600. Substantially the same analysis was ma-It- by
Thoinas Aquinas, in a short but very clear quotation given by Hengstenberg
from the Sumuui, i. i', q. 100, § 6.

112 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of which murder springs. Where that is not done, the command
is not fully complied with, even though no outward murder is
committed. For this must then be dependent upon circum
stances which lie beyond the circle of man's proper agency."

There is no less depth and comprehensiveness in the first
table, as the same learned writer has remarked ; and a similar
regard is had in it to thought, word, and deed, only in the reverse
order, and lying somewhat less upon the surface. The fourth
and fifth precepts demand the due honouring of God in deed ;
the third in word ; and the two first, pointing to His sole God
head and absolute spirituality, require for Himself personally,
and for His worship, that place in the heart to which they are
entitled. Very striking in this respect is the announcement in
the second commandment, of a visitation of evil upon those that
hate God, and an extension of mercy to thousands that love Him.
As much as to say, It is the heart of love I require ; and if ever
My worship is corrupted by the introduction of images, it is only
to be accounted for by the working of hatred instead of love in
the heart. So that the heart may truly be called the alpha and
the omega of this wonderful revelation of law : it stands promi
nently forth at both ends ; and had no inspired commentary
been given on the full import of the ten words, looking merely
to these words themselves, we cannot but perceive that they
stretch their demands over the whole range of man's active
operations, and can only be fulfilled by the constant and unin
terrupted exercise of love to God and man, in the various regions
of the heart, the conversation, and the conduct.

We have commentaries, however, both in the Old and the
New Testament Scriptures, upon the law of the ten command
ments, and such as plainly confirm what has been said of its
perfection and completeness as a rule of duty. With manifest
reference to the second table, and with the view of expressing in
one brief sentence the essence of its meaning, Moses had said,
" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev. xix. 18) ; and
in like manner regarding the first table, " Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy might." — (Deut. vi. 5.) It is against all reason to sup
pose, that these precepts should require more than what was
required in those which formed the very groundwork and heart

THE DECALOGUE. 113

• if the whole Mosaic legislation ; and we have the express
authority of our Lord for holding, that the whole law, as well
as the prophets, hung upon them. — (Matt. xxii. 40.) Nor only
so, but, as already noticed, in the Sermon on the Mount, He
has Himself given us an insight into the wide reach and deep
spiritual iiK'juiing of the ten commandments, clearing them from
the false and superficial glosses of the carnal Pharisees. That
this is the true character and design of that portion of our Lord's
discourse, that it was intended to bring distinctly out the full
import of the old, and not to introduce any new and higher legis
lation, is now generally admitted by at least the sounder portion
of exegetical writers.1 And, to mention no more, the Apostle
Paul, referring to the law of the ten commandments, calls it
" spiritual," " holy, just, and good," — represents it as the grand
instrument in the hands of the Spirit for convincing of sin, —
and declares the only fulfilment of it to be perfect love. — (Rom.
vii. 7-14, xiii. 10.)

We trust enough has been said to establish the claim of the
law of the ten commandments to be regarded in the light in
which it has commonly been viewed by evangelical divines of
this country, as a brief but comprehensive summary of all reli
gious and moral duty. And, as a necessary consequence, the
two grand rules with which they have been wont to enter on
the exposition of the decalogue are fully justified. These rules
are — 1. That the same precept which forbids the external acts of
sin, forbids likewise the inward desires and motions of sin in the
heart ; as also, that the precept which commands the external
acts of duty, requires at the same time the inward feelings and
principles of holiness, of which the external acts could only be
the fitting expression. 2. That the negative commands include
in them the injunction of the contrary duties, and the positive
commands the prohibition of the contrary sins, so that in each
there is something required as well as forbidden. Nor is the

1 Tholuck. imlre.l. as usual on such points, holds a sort of middle opinion
lu-re in hia Comm. on the Sermon on the Mount, although he is substantially
of the opinion expressed above, and opposed to the view of Catholic, So-
finian. and Anninian writers. See, however, Baum.u'arten, Doc. Christi de
I^oge Mosaica in Oratione Mon., with whom also Hengstenberg concurs,

/.«-. rit.

VOL. II. H

1 H THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

language too strong, if rightly understood, which has often been
applied to this law, that it is a kind of transcript of God's own
pure and righteous character, — i.e., a faithful and exact repre
sentation of that spiritual excellence which eternally belongs to
Himself, and which He must eternally require of His account
able creatures. The idea which such language conveys is
undoubtedly correct, if understood in reference to the great
principles of truth and holiness embodied in the precepts, though
it can be but partially true if regard is had to the formal acts in
which those principles were to find their prescribed manifesta
tion ; for the actual operation of the principles had of necessity
to be ordered in suitable adaptation to men's condition upon
earth, to which, as there belong relations, so also there are rela
tive duties, not only different from anything with which God
Himself has properly to do, but different even from what His
people shall have to discharge in a coming eternity. There, such
precepts as the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, or the eighth, as to
the formal acts they prohibit or require, shall manifestly have
lost their adaptation. And of the whole law we may affirm,
that the precise form it has assumed, or the mould into which it
has been cast, is such as fitly suits it only to the circumstances
of the present life. But the love to God and man, which con
stitutes its all-pervading element, and for which the several
precepts only indicate the particular ways and channels wherein
it should flow — this love man is indispensably bound in all times
and circumstances to cherish in his heart, and manifest in his
conduct. For the God in whom he lives, and moves, and has
his being, is love ; and as the duty and perfection of the creature
is to bear the image of the Creator, so to love as He loves —
Himself first and supremely, and His offspring in Him and for
Him — must ever be the bounden obligation and highest end of
those whom He calls His children.

SECTION II.

THE LAW CONTINUED — APPARENT EXCEPTIONS TO ITS PER
FECTION AND COMPLETENESS AS THE PERMANENT AND
UNIVERSAL STANDARD OF RELIGIOUS AND MORAL OBLIGA
TION — ITS REFERENCES TO THE SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
OF THE ISRAELITES, AND REPRESENTATION OF GOD AS
JEALOUS.

IT is necessary to pause here for a little, and enter into some
examination of the objections which have been raised out of the
ten commandments themselves, against the character of perfec
tion and completeness which we have sought to establish for
them. For if any doubt should remain on this point, it will most
materially interfere with and mar the line of argument we mean
afterwards to pursue, and the views we have to propound in
connection with this revelation of law to Israel.

By a certain class of writers, we are met at the very thres
hold with a species of objection which they seem to regard as
perfectly conclusive against its general completeness and univer
sal obligation. For it contains special and distinct references
to the Israelites as a people. The whole is prefaced with the
declaration, " I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out
of the land of Egypt," while the fifth commandment embodies
in it the promise of the land of Canaan as their peculiar inherit
ance. And this, we are told, makes it clear as noon-day, that
the decalogue was not given as a revelation of God's will to
mankind at large, but was simply and exclusively intended for
the Israelites — binding, indeed, on them so long as the peculiar
polity lasted under which they were placed, but also ceasing as
an obligatory rule of conduct when that was abolished.1 But,

1 Bialloblotzky, de LegisMos. abrogatione, p. 131. Archb. Whatelyalso
repeats the same objection, in his Essay on the Abolition of the Law, p. 1st!.
— (Second Series of Essays.) The view of both these authors, which is radi
cally the same, regarding the abolition of the law under the Christian M0<

1 1 () THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

on this ground, the Gospel itself will be found scarcely less im
perfect, and we might almost at every step question the fitness
or obligation of its precepts in respect to men in general. For
it carries throughout a reference to existing circumstances ; and
by much the fullest development of its principles and duties, —
that, namely, contained in the epistles, — was given directly and
avowedly to particular persons and churches, with the primary
design of instructing them as to the things they were respec
tively to believe or do. So that, if the specialties found in the
law of the two tables were sufficient to exempt men now from
its obligation, or to deprive it at any time of an ecumenical
value, most of the revelations of the Gospel might, for the same
reason, be shorn of their virtue ; and in both alike, men would
be entitled to pick and choose for themselves, what they were to
regard as of temporary moment, and what of perpetual obligation.
But were not this egregious trifling? The objection over
looks one of the most distinctive features — and, indeed, one of
the greatest excellences — of God's revelation, which at no period
was given in the form of abstract delineations of truth and duty,
but has ever developed itself in immediate connection with the
circumstances of individuals and the leadings of Providence.
From first to last it comes forth entwined with the characters
and events of history. Not a little of it is written in the trans
actions themselves of past time, which are expressly declared to
have been " written for our learning." And it is equally true
of the law and the Gospel, that the historical lines with which
they are interwoven, while serving to increase their interest and
enhance their didactic value, by no means detract from their
general bearing, or interfere with their binding obligation. The
ground of this lies in the unchangeableness of God's character,
which may be said to generalize all that is particular in His
revelation, and impart a lasting efficacy to what was but occa-

nomy, we shall have occasion to notice afterwards. The affirmation of the
Archbishop, at p. 191, that " the Gospel requires a morality in many respects
higher and more perfect in itself than the law, and places morality on higher
grounds," has already been met in the preceding section. We admit, of
course, that the Gospel contains far higher exemplifications of the morality
enjoined in the law than are to be found in the Old Testament, and presents
far higher motives for exercising it ; but that is a different thing from main
taining that this morality itself is higher, or essentially more perfect.

AITAKI;NT KKCEPTIONS. 117

sioual in its origin. Without variableness or shadow of turning
in Himself, Pie cannot have a word for one, and a different
word for another. And unless the things spoken and required
were so manifestly peculiar as to be applicable only to the indi
viduals to whom they were first addressed, or from their very
nature possessed a merely temporary significance, we must hold
them to be the revelation of God's mind and will for all persons
and all times.

That the Lord uttered this law to Israel in the character
of their Redeemer, and imposed it on them as the heirs of His
inheritance, made no alteration in its own inherent nature ;
neither contracted nor enlarged the range of its obligation; only
established its claim on their observance by considerations pecu
liarly fitted to move and influence their minds. Christ's en
forcing upon His disciples the lesson of humility, by His own
condescension in stooping to wash their feet, or St Paul's en
treating his Gentile converts to walk worthy of their vocation,
by the thought of his being, for their sakes, the prisoner of the
Lord, are not materially different. The special considerations,
coupled in either case alike with the precept enjoined, leave
perfectly untouched the ground of the obligation or the rule
of duty. Their proper and legitimate effect was only to win
obedience, or, failing that, to aggravate transgression. And
when the things required are such as those enjoined in the ten
commandments, — things growing out of the settled relations in
which men stand to God and to each other, — the obligation to
obey is universal and pennanent, whether or not there be any
considerations of the kind in question tending to render obe
dience more imperative, or transgression more heinous.

But what if some of the considerations employed to enforce
the observance of the duties enjoined, involve views of the
Divine character and government partial and defective, at
variance with the principles of the Gospel, and repulsive even
t<> enlightened reason? Can that really have been meant to be
of standing force and efficacy as a revelation of duty, which
embodies in it such elements of imperfection 1 Such is the form
the objection takes in the hands of another large class of ob
jectors, who think they find matter of the kind referred to in
the declarations attached to the second commandment. The-

1 18 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

view there given of God as a jealous being, and of the manner
in which His jealousy was to appear, has by some been repre
sented as so peculiarly Jewish, by others as so flagrantly ob
noxious to right principle, that they cannot tolerate the idea
of the decalogue being considered as a perfect revelation of
the mind and will of God. The subject has long afforded a
favourite ground of railing accusation to avowed infidels and
rationalist divines ; and Spinosa could not think of anything
in Scripture more clearly and manifestly repugnant to reason,
than that the attribute of jealousy was ascribed to God in the
decalogue itself.

The treatment which this article in the decalogue has met
with, is quite a specimen of the shallow and superficial character
of infidelity. It proceeds on the supposition that jealousy, when
ascribed to God, must carry precisely the same meaning, and be
understood to indicate the same affections, as when spoken of
men. Considered as a disposition in man, it is commonly in
dicative of something sickly and distempered. But as every
affection of the human mind must, when referred to God, be
understood with such limitations as the infinite disparity between
the Divine and human natures renders necessary, it might be no
difficult matter to modify the common notion of jealousy, so far
as to render it perfectly compatible with the other representa
tions given of God as absolutely pure and good. But even this
is scarcely necessary ; for every scholar knows that the word in
the original is by no means restricted to what is distinctively
meant by jealousy, and that the radical and proper idea, unless
otherwise determined by the context, has respect merely to the
zeal or ardour with which any one is disposed to vindicate his
own rights. Applied to God, it simply presents Him to our
view as the one Supreme Jehovah, who as such claims — cannot
indeed but claim — He were not the One, Eternal God, but an
idol, if He did not claim — the undivided love and homage of His
creatures, and who, consequently, must resist with holy zeal and
indignation every attempt to deprive Him of what is so pecu
liarly His own. It is only to give vividness to this idea, In-
investing it with the properties of an earthly relation, that the
Divine affection is so often presented under the special form of
jealousy. It arises, as Calvin has remarked, from God's conde-

GOD AS JEALOUS. 119

Bcendiog t<> assume toward His people the character of a husband,
in which iv>]>rrt He cannot bear a partner. " As lie performs
to us all the offices of a true and faithful husband, so He stipu
lates for love and conjugal chastity from us. Hence, when He
rebukes the Jews for their apostasy, He complains that they have
cast off chastity, and polluted themselves with adultery. There
fore, as the purer and chaster the husband is, the more griev
ously is he offended when he sees his wife inclining to a rival ;
so the Lord, who has betrothed us to Himself in truth, declares
that He burns with the hottest jealousy, whenever, neglecting
the purity of His holy marriage, we defile ourselves with abomi
nable lusts ; and especially when the worship of His Deity,
which ought to have been most carefully kept unimpaired, is
transferred to another, or adulterated with some superstition ;
since, in this way, we not only violate our plighted troth, but
defile the nuptial couch, by giving access to adulterers."1

Allowing, however, that the notion of jealousy, when thus
explained, is a righteous and necessary attribute of Jehovah, does
not the objection hold, at least in regard to the particular form of
its manifestation mentioned in the second commandment ? If it
becomes God to be jealous, yet is it not to make His jealousy
interfere with His justice, when He declares His purpose to visit
the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation ? So one might judge, if looking not merely
to the attacks of infidels, but to the feeble and unsatisfactory
attempts which have too often been made to explain the decla
ration by Christian divines. Grotius, for example, resolves it
simply into the absolute sovereignty of God, who has a right
to do what He will with His own.2 Warburton represents it
as a temporary expedient to supply the lack of a future state
of reward and punishment under the law ; and in his usual
way, contends that no otherwise could the principle be vindi
cated, and the several Scriptures referring to it harmonized.3
Michaclis,1 I'alcy,5 and a host besides, while they also regard
it as, to a great extent, a temporary arrangement, rest their de
fence of it mainly on the ground of its having to do only with

1 Inst., B. ii., c. 8, § 18. 2 De Jure Belli et Pacis, ii., p. 593.

3 Divine Legation, B. v., sec. 5. 4 I^aws of Moan.

5 Sermons.

120 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

temporal evils, and in no respect reaching to men's spiritual and
eternal interests. It is fatal to all these attempts at explana
tion, that none of them fairly grapples with the visitation of evil
threatened as a punishment ; for, viewed in this light, which
is unquestionably the scriptural one, such attempts are mani
festly nothing more than mere shifts and evasions of the point
at issue. When resolved into the sovereignty of God, it still
remains to be asked, whether such an exercise of His sovereignty
is consistent with those ideas of immutable justice which are
implanted in the human breast. When viewed as a temporary
expedient to supply a want which, to say the least, might, if
real, have admitted of a very simple remedy, the question still
waits for solution, whether the expedient itself was in proper
accordance with the righteous principles which should regulate
every government, whether human or divine. And when it is
affirmed, that the penalties denounced in the threatening were
only temporal, the reply surely is competent, Why might not
God do in eternity what He does in time ? Or, if the principle
on which the punishment proceeds be not in all respects justi
fiable, how could it be acted on by God temporarily, any more
than eternally ? Is it consistent with the notion of a God of
infinite rectitude, that He should do on a small scale what it
would be impious to conceive Him doing on a large one *?

The fundamental error in the false explanations referred to,
lies in the supposition of the children, who are to suffer, being
in a different state morally from that of their parents — innocent
children bearing the chastisement due to the transgressions of
their wicked parents. But the words of the threatening pur
posely guard against such an idea, by describing the third and
fourth generation, on whom the visitation of evil was to fall, as
of those that hate God ; just as, on the other hand, the mercy
which was pledged to thousands was promised as the dowry of
those that love Him. Such children alone are here concerned,
who, in the language of Calvin, " imitate the impiety of their
progenitors!" Indeed, Augustine has substantially expressed the
right principle of interpretation on the subject, though he has
.sometimes failed in making the proper application of it, as when
he says : " But the carnal generation also of the people of God
belonging to the Old Testament, binds the sons to the sins of

GOD AS JEALOUS. 121

their parents ; but the spiritual generation, as it has changed
the inlicritamv, so also the threatenings of punishment, and the
promises of reward."1 And still more distinctly in his commen
tary on Ps. cix. 14, where he explains the visiting of the
" iniquities of the fathers upon them that hate Me," by saying,
" that is, as their parents hated Me ; so that, just as the imitation
of the good secures that even one's own sins are blotted out, so
the imitation of the bad renders one obnoxious to the deserved
punishment, not only of one's own sins, but also of the sins of
those whose ways have been followed." In short, the Lord con
templates the existence among His professing worshippers of two
entirely different kinds of generations : the one haters of God,
and manifesting their hatred by depraving His worship, and
pursuing courses of transgression ; the other lovers of God, and
manifesting their love by stedfastly adhering in all dutiful
obedience to the way of His holy commandments. To these
last, though they should extend to thousands of generations, He
would show His mercy, causing it to flow on from age to age in
a perennial stream of blessing. But as He is the righteous God,
to whom vengeance as well as mercy belongs, the free outpour
ing of His beneficence upon these, could not prevent or preju
dice the execution of His justice upon that other class, who were
entirely of a different spirit, and merited quite opposite treat
ment. It is an unwelcome subject, indeed ; the merciful and
gracious God has no delight in anticipating the day of evil,
even for His must erring and wayward children. lie shrinks,
as it were, from contemplating the possibility of thousands being
in this condition, and will not suffer Himself to make mention
of more than a third or a fourth generation rendering themselves
the objects of His just displeasure. But still the wholesome
truth must be declared, and the seasonable warning uttered. If
men were determined to rebel against His authority, He could
not leave Himself without a witness, not even in regard to the
first race of transgressors, that He hated their iniquities, and
must take vengeance of their inventions. But if, notwithstand
ing, the children embraced the sinfulness of their parents, with
the manifest seal of Heaven's displeasure on it, as their iniquity
would be more aggravated, so its punishment should become
1 Contra Julianum Polagianutu, Lib. vi..

122 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

more severe ; the descending and entailed curse would deepen
as it flowed on, increasing with every increase of depravity and
corruption, till, the measure of iniquity being filled up, the wrath
should fall on them to the uttermost.

That this is the aspect of the Divine character and govern
ment which the declaration in the second commandment was
meant to exhibit, is evident alone from the glowing delineations
of mercy and goodness with which the visitation of evil upon
the children of disobedient parents is here and in other places
coupled.1 But it is confirmed beyond all doubt by two distinct
lines of reflection, and, first, by the facts of Israelitish history.
These fully confirm the principle of God's government as now
expounded, but give no countenance to the idea of a punishment
being inflicted on the innocent for the guilty. However sinful
one individual or one generation might be, yet if the next in
descent heartily turned to the Lord, they were sure of being
received to pardon and blessing. We are furnished with a strik
ing instance of this in the 14th chapter of Numbers, where we
find Moses pleading for the pardon of Israel's transgressions on
the very ground of that revelation of the Divine name or cha
racter in Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7, which precisely, as in the second com
mandment, combines the most touching representation of the
Divine mercy with the threat to visit the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children. It never occurred to Moses that this threat
stood at all in the way of their obtaining a complete forgiveness.
He found, indeed, that the Lord had determined to visit upon
that generation their iniquities, so far as to exclude them from
the land of Canaan, but without in the least marring the better
prospects of their children, who had learned to hate the deeds of
their fathers. And when, indeed, was it otherwise ? Is it not
one of the most striking features in the whole history of ancient
Israel, that, so far from suffering for the sins of former genera
tions, they did not suffer even for their own when they truly
repented, but were immediately visited with favour and bless
ing? And, on the other hand, how constantly do we find the
Divine judgments increasing in severity when successive gene
rations hardened themselves in their evil courses ? Nor did it
rarely happen that the series of retributions reached their last
1 Compare besides Ex. xxxiv. 5, C; Num. xiv. 18: Ps. ciii. 8, 'J.

(it )D AS JKALOrs. 123

issues by the third or fourth generation. It was so in particular
with those who were put upon a course of special dealing — such
as the house of Jeroboam, of Jehu, of Eli, etc.

Another source of confirmation to the view now presented
we find in the explanations given concerning it in the prophecies
of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. These prophets lived at the time
when the descending curse had utterly failed, so far as it had
gone, to turn the children from the sinful courses of their
fathers, and was fast running to a fatal termination. But the
infatuated people being not less distinguished for self-righteous
pride than for their obstinate perseverance in wickedness, they
were constantly complaining, as stroke after stroke fell upon
them, that they were made unjustly to bear the sins of their
fathers. Anticipating our modern infidels, they charged God
with injustice and inequality in His ways of dealing, instead of
turning their eye inward, as they should have done, upon their
own unrighteousness, and forsaking it for the way of peace.
The 18th chapter of Ezekiel contains a lengthened expostula
tion with these stout-hearted offenders, in the course of which
he utterly disclaims the interpretation they put upon the word
and providence of God, and assures them, that if they would
only turn from their evil doings, they should not have to suffer
either for their own or their fathers' guilt. And Jeremiah, in
his 31st chapter, speaking of the new covenant, and of the
blessed renovation it would accomplish on those who should be
partakers of its grace, foretells that there would be an end of
such foolish and wicked charges upon God for the inequality of
His ways of dealing ; for such an increased measure of the Spirit
would be given, such an inward conformity to His laws would
be produced, that His dealing with transgressors would in a
manner cease — His ways would be all acquiesced in as holy,
just, and good.

SECTION III.

THE LAW CONTINUED — FURTHER EXCEPTIONS — THE WEEKLY
SABBATH.

OBJECTIONS have been raised against the decalogue as a com
plete and permanent summary of duty, from the nature of its
requirements, as well as from the incidental considerations by
which it is enforced. It is only, however, in reference to the
fourth commandment, the law of the Sabbath, that any objec
tion in this respect is made. The character of universal and
permanent obligation, it is argued, which we would ascribe to
the decalogue, cannot properly belong to it, since one of its pre
cepts enjoins the observance of a merely ceremonial institution
— an institution strictly and rigorously binding on the Jews,
but, like other ceremonial and shadowy institutions, done away
in Christ. It would be impossible to enumerate the authors,
ancient and modern, who in one form or another have adopted
this view. There can be no question that they embrace a very
large proportion of the more learned and eminent divines of the
Christian Church, from the fathers to the present time. Much
diversity of opinion, however, prevails among those who agree
in the same general view, as to the extent to which the law of
the Sabbath was ceremonial, and in what sense the obligation
to observe it lies upon the followers of Jesus. In the judgment
of some, the distinction of days is entirely abolished as a Divine
arrangement, and is no further obligatory upon the conscience,
than as it may be sanctioned by competent ecclesiastical autho
rity for the purposes of social order and religious improvement.
By others, the obligation is held to involve the duty of setting
apart an adequate portion of time for the due celebration of
Divine worship, — the greater part leaving that portion of time
quite indefinite, while some would insist upon its being at least
i-qtial to what was appointed under the law, or possibly even

Till: Wi.F.KI.Y SAI5I5ATII. 125

more. Finally, there are still others, who consider the ceremo
nial and shadowy part of the institution to have more peculiarly
stood in the observance of precisely the seventh day of the week
as a day of sacred rest, and who conceive the obligation still in
force, as requiring another whole day to be consecrated to reli
gious exercises.

It would require a separate treatise, rather than a single
chapter, to take up separately such manifold subdivisions of
opinion, and investigate the grounds of each. We must for the
present view the subject in its general bearings, and endeavour
to have some leading principles ascertained and fixed. In doing
this, we might press at the outset the consideration of this law
being one of those engraved upon tables of stone, as a proof that
it, equally with the rest, possessed a peculiarly important and dur
able character. For the argument is by no means disposed of,
as we formerly remarked, by the supposition of Ba'hr and others,
that the ceremonial as well as the other precepts of the law
were represented in the ten commandments ; and still less by
the assertion of Paley, that little regard was practically paid in
the books of Moses to the distinction between matters of a cere
monial and moral, of a temporary and perpetual kind. It is
easy to multiply assertions and suppositions of such a nature ;
but the fact is still to be accounted for, why the law of the Sab
bath should have been deemed of such paramount importance,
as to have found a place among those which were " written as
with a pen in the rock for ever ?" Or why, if in reality nothing
more than a ceremonial and shadowy institute, this, in particular,
should have been chosen to represent all of a like kind ? Why
not rather, as the whole genius of the economy might have led
us in such a case to expect, should the precept have been one
respecting the observance of the great annual feasts, or a faith
ful compliance with the sacrificial services ? l It is impossible
to answer these questions satisfactorily, or to show any valid
reason for the introduction of the Sabbath into the law of the
two tabK-s, on the supposition of its possessing only a ceremonial

1 Tin- lioman Catholics have felt the force of this in reference n> tin-M
own Church, which, like the Jewish, deals so much in ceremonies, au<l there-
fore have sometimes in their o:itirhi>m presented the fourth commandment
thus : Remember the festivals, to keep them holy.

126 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

character. But we shall not press this argument more fully,
or endeavour to explain the futility of the reasons by which it
is met, as in itself it is rather a strong presumption than a
conclusive evidence of the permanent obligation of the fourth
command.

It deserves more notice, however, than it usually receives in
this point of view, and should alone be almost held conclusive,
that the ground on which the obligation to keep the Sabbath is
based in the command, is the most universal in its bearing that
could possibly be conceived. " Thou shalt remember the Sab
bath-day, to keep it holy ; for in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the
seventh day." There is manifestly nothing Jewish here ; no
thing connected with individual interests or even national his
tory. The grand fact out of which the precept is made to grow,
is of equal significance to the whole world ; and why should not
the precept be the same, of which it forms the basis ? God's
method of procedure in creating the visible heavens and earth,
produced as the formal reason for instituting a distinctive, tem
porary Jewish ordinance ! Could it be possible to conceive a
more " lame and impotent conclusion ?" And this, too, in the
most compact piece of legislation in existence ! It seems, indeed,
as if God, in the appointment of this law, had taken special pre
cautions against the attempts which He foresaw would be made
to get rid of the institution, and that on this account He laid its
foundations first in the original framework and constitution of
nature. The law as a whole, and certain also of its precepts,
He was pleased to enforce by considerations drawn from His
dealings toward Israel, and the peculiar relations which He now
held to them. But when He comes to impose the obligation
of the Sabbath, He rises far beyond any consideration of a
special kind, or any passing event of history. He ascends to
primeval time, and, standing as on the platform of the newly
created world, dates from thence the commencement and the
ordination of a perpetually recurring day of rest. Since the
Lord has thus honoured the fourth commandment above the
others, by laying for it a foundation so singularly broad and
deep, is it yet to be held in its obligation and import the nar
rowest of them all ? Shall this, strange to think, be the only

Till: WKKKLV SAIIHATII. 127

one which did nut utter a voice for all times and all generations I
How much more reasonable is the conclusion of Calvin, who in
this expressed substantially the opinion of all the more eminent
reformers : " Unquestionably God assumed to Himself the
seventh day, and consecrated it when He finished the creation
of the world, that lie might keep His worshippers entirely free
from all other cares, while they were employed in meditating on
the beauty, excellence, and splendour of His works. It is not
proper, indeed, to allow any period to elapse, without our atten
tively considering the wisdom, power, justice, and goodness of
God, as displayed in the admirable workmanship and govern
ment of the world. But because our minds are unstable, and
are thence liable to wander and be distracted, God in His own
mercy, consulting our infirmities, sets apart one day from the
rest, and commands it to be kept free from all earthly cares and
employments, lest anything should interrupt that holy exercise.
... In this respect the necessity of a Sabbath is common to us
with the people of old, that we may be free on one day (of the
week), and so may be better prepared both for learning and for
giving testimony to our faith."1

But then it is argued, that whatever may have been the
reason for admitting the law of the Sabbath into the ten com
mandments, and engraving it on the tables of stone, it still is in

1 Comm. on Ex. xx. 11. The same view is taken in his notes on Gen.
ii. 3 : " God, therefore, first rested, then He blessed that rest, that it might
be sacred among men through all coming ages. He consecrated each seventh
day to rest, that His own example might continually serve as a rule," etc.
To the same effect, Luther on that passage, who holds, that u if Adam had
continued in innocence, he would yet have kept the seventh day sacred ;"
and concludes, " Therefore the Sabbath was, from the beginning of the
world, appointed to the worship of God." We have already treated of this
branch of the subject in vol. i., and need not go farther into it at present.
It is proper to state, however, that the leading divines of the Reformation,
and the immediately subsequent period, were of one mind regarding the
appointment of a primeval Sabbath. The idea, that the Sabbath was first
given to the Israelites in the wilderness, and that the words in Gen. ii. only
proleptically refer to that future circumstance, is an after-thought, origi
nating in the fond conceit of some .Jewish Kabbins, who sought thereby
to magnify their nation, and was adopted only by such Christian divines
as had already made up their minds on the temporary obligation of the

Sabbath.

128 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

its own nature different from all the rest. They are moral, and
because moral, of universal force and obligation ; while this is
ceremonial, owing its existence to positive enactment, and there-
fore binding only so far as the enactment itself might be ex
tended. The duties enjoined in the former are founded in the
nature of things, and the essential relations in which men stand
to God or to their fellow-men : hence they do not depend on
any positive enactment, but are co-extensive in their obligation
with reason and conscience. But the law of the Sabbath, pre
scribing one day in seven to be a day of sacred rest, has its
foundation simply in the authoritative appointment of God, and
hence, unlike the rest, is not fixed and universal, but special
and mutable.

There is unquestionably an element of truth in this, but the
application made of it in the present instance is unwarranted
and fallacious. It is true that the Sabbath is a positive institu
tion, though intimately connected with God's work in creation ;
and apart from His high command, it could not have been ascer
tained by the light of reason, that one entire day should at regu
lar intervals be consecrated for bodily and spiritual rest, and
especially that one in seven was the proper period to be fixed
upon. In this respect we can easily recognise a distinction
between the law of the Sabbath, and the laws which prohibit
such crimes as lying, theft, or murder. But it does not there
fore follow, that the Sabbath is in such a sense a positive, as to
be a merely partial, temporary, ceremonial institution, and, like
others of this description, done away in Christ. For a law may
be positive in its origin, and yet neither local nor transitory in its
destination ; it may be positive in its origin, and yet equally
needed and designed for all nations and ages of the world.

For of what nature, we ask, is the institution of marriage ?
The seventh commandment bears respect to that institution, and
is thrown as a sacred fence around its sanctity. But is not mar
riage in its origin a positive institution ? Has it any other foun
dation than the original act of God in making one man and one
woman, and positively ordaining that the man should cleave to
the woman, and the two be one flesh?1 Wherever this is not

1 Gen. ii. 23, 24. This has a great deal more the look of a proleptical
statement than what is written at the beginning of the chapter about the

THE WEEKLY SABBATH. 129

recognised, as it is not, in part at least, in Mahommedan and
heathen lands, and by certain infidels of the baser sort in Chris
tendom, tin-re also the moral and binding obligation of the ordi
nance is disowned. But can any humble Christian disown it?
Would he not indignantly reject the thought of its being only a
temporary ordinance, because standing, as to its immediate origin,
in God's method of creation, and the natural obligations growing
out of it ? Or does he feel himself warranted to assume, that
because, after Christ's appearing, the marriage-union was treated
as an emblem of Christ's union to the Church, the literal ordi
nance is thereby changed or impaired? Assuredly not. And
why should another course be taken with the Sabbath ? This
too, in its origin, is a positive institution, and was also, it may
be, from the first designed to serve as an emblem of spiritual
things — an emblem of the blessed rest which man was called
to enjoy in God. But in both respects it stands most nearly on
a footing with the ordinance of marriage : both alike owed their
institution to the original act and appointment of God ; both
also took their commencement at the birth of time — in a world
unfallen, when, as there was no need for the antitypes of re
demption, so no ceremonial types or shadows of these could
properly have a place ; and both are destined to last till the
songs of the redeemed shall have ushered in the glories of a
world restored.

The distinction, we apprehend, is often too broadly drawn, in
discussions on this subject, between the positive and the moral ;
as if the two belonged to entirely different regions, and but inci
dentally touched upon each other ; as if also the strictly moral
part of the world's machinery were in itself so complete and in
dependent, that its movements might proceed of themselves, in a
course of lofty isolation from all positive enactments and insti
tutions. This was not the case even in paradise, and much less
could it be so afterwards. A certain amount of what is positive
in appointment, is absolutely necessary to settle the relations in
connection with which the moral sentiments are to work and

S;il)l>uth, for it speaks of leaving father and mother, while still Adam and
Eve alone existed. Yet our Lord regards it as a statement fairly and natu
rally drawn from the facts of creation, and as applicable to the earlier as to
the later periods of the world's history. — (Matt. xix. 4, 5.)

VOL. II. I

130 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

develop themselves. The banks which confine and regulate the
current of a river, are not less essential to its existence than the
waters that flow within them ; for the one mark out and fix the
channel which keeps the other in their course. And, in like
manner, the moral feelings and affections of our nature must
have something outward and positive, determining the kind of
landmarks which they are to observe, and the channels through
which they are to flow. There may, no doubt, be many things
of this nature at different times appointed by God that are vari
able and temporary, to suit the present condition of His Church
and the immediate ends He has in view. But there may also be
some coeval with the existence of the world, founded in the very
nature and constitution of things, so essential and necessary, that
the love which is the fulfilment of all obligation cannot operate
stedfastly or beneficially without them.

The real question, then, in regard to the Sabbath, is, whether
such love can exist in the heart, without disposing it to observe
the rest there enjoined? Is not the present constitution of nature
such as to render this necessary for securing the purposes which
God contemplated in creation ? Could mankind, as one great
family, properly thrive and prosper even in their lower interests,
as we may suppose their beneficent Creator intended, without
such a day of rest perpetually coming round to refresh their
wearied natures ? Could they otherwise command sufficient
time, amid the busy cares and occupations of life, to mind the
higher interests of themselves and their households ? Without
such a salutary monitor ever and anon returning, and bringing
with it time and opportunity for all to attend to its admonitions,
would not the spiritual and eternal be lost sight of amid the seen
and temporal ? Or, to mount higher still, how, without this
ordinance, could any proper and adequate testimony be kept up
throughout the world in honour of the God that made it? Must
not reason herself own it to be a suitable and becoming homage
rendered to His sole and supreme lordship of creation, for men
on every returning seventh day to cease from their own works,
and take a breathing-time to realize their dependence upon Him,
and give a more special application to the things which concern
His glory ? In short, abolish this wise and blessed institution,
and must not love both to God and man be deprived of one of

TIN: WEEKLY SABBATH. 131

its best safeguards and most appropriate methods of working ?
Must not God Himself become practically dishonoured and for
gotten, and His creature be worn down with deadening and
oppressive toil .'

Experience has but one answer to give to these questions.
Hence, where the true religion has been unknown, it lias always
been found necessary to appoint, by some constituted authority,
a certain number of holidays, which have often, even in heathen
countries, exceeded, rarely anywhere have fallen short of, the
number of God's instituted Sabbaths. The animal and mental,
the bodily and spiritual nature of man, alike demand them.
Even Plato deemed the appointment of such days of so benign
and gracious a tendency, that he ascribed them to that pity
which " the gods have for mankind, born to painful labour,
that they might have an ease and cessation from their toils."1
And what is this but an experimental testimony to the wisdom
and goodness of God's having ordered His work of creation with
a view to the appointment of such an institution in providence ?
It is manifest, besides, that while men may of themselves provide
substitutes to a certain extent for the Sabbath, yet these never
can secure more than a portion of the ends for which it has been
appointed, nor could anything short of the clear sanction and
authority of the living God command for it general respect and
attention. The inferior benefits which it carries in its train are
not sufficient, as experience has also too amply testified, to main
tain its observance, if it loses its hold upon men's minds in a re
ligious point of view. So that there can scarcely be a plainer
departure from the duty of love we owe alike to God and man,
than to attempt to weaken the foundations of such an ordinance,
or to encourage its habitual neglect.

If the broad and general view of the subject which has now
been given were fairly entertained, the other and minuter ob
jections which are commonly urged in support of the strictly
.Jewish character of the Sabbatical institution would be easily
disposed of. Even taken apart, there is none of them which, if
due account is made of special circumstances, may not be satis
factorily removed.

1. No notice is taken of the institution during the antedi-
1 De Leg., ii., p. 787.

132 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

luvian and earlier patriarchal periods of sacred history; the
profanation of it is not mentioned among the crimes for which
the flood was sent, or fire and brimstone rained upon Sodom and
Gomorrah ; it never rises distinctly into view as a Divine insti
tution till the time of Moses ; whence it is inferred, it only then
took its commencement. But how many duties of undoubtedly
perpetual and universal obligation might be cut off on similar
grounds? And how few comparatively of the sins which we
may infer with the utmost certainty to have been practised, are
noticed in those brief records of the world's history ! It is rather,
as we might have expected, the general principles that were
acted upon ; or, in regard to heinous transgressors, the more
flagrant misdeeds into which their extreme depravity ran out,
that find a place in the earliest portions of sacred history.
Besides, even in the later and fuller accounts, it is usual,
through very long periods of time, to omit any reference to
institutions which were known to have had a settled existence.
There is no notice, for example, of circumcision from the time
of Joshua to the Babylonish exile ; but how fallacious would
be the conclusion from such silence, that the rite itself was not
observed ! Even the Sabbath, notwithstanding the prominent
place it holds in the decalogue and the institutions of Moses,
is never mentioned again till the days of Elisha (nearly seven
hundred years later), when we meet with an incidental and
passing allusion to it. — (2 Kings iv. 23.) Need we wonder
then, that in such peculiarly brief compends of history as are
given of antediluvian and patriarchal times, there should be a
similar silence ?

And yet it can by no means be affirmed that they are without
manifest indications of the existence of a seventh day of sacred
rest. The record of its appointment at the close of the creation
period, as we have already noticed, is of the most explicit kind,
and is afterwards confirmed by the not less explicit reference in
the fourth commandment, of its origin and commencement to
the same period. Nor can any reason be assigned one-half so
natural and probable as this, for the sacredness attached from
the earliest times to the number seven, and for the division of
time into weeks of seven days, which meets us in the history of
Noah and the later patriarchal times, and of which also very

THE WEEKLY SABBATH. 133

early traces occur in profane history.1 Then, finally, the manner
in which it first presents itself on the field of Israelitish history,
as an existing ordinance which God Himself respected, in the
giving of the manna, before the law had been promulgated
(Ex. xvi.), is a clear proof of its prior institution. True, indeed,
the Israelites themselves seem then to have been in a great
measure ignorant of such an institution ; not perhaps altogether
ignorant, as is too commonly taken for granted, but ignorant of
its proper observance, so far as to wonder that God should have
bestowed a double provision on the sixth day, to relieve them
from any labour in gathering and preparing it on the seventh.
Habituated as they had become to the manners, and bowed
down by the oppression, of Egypt, it had been strange indeed
if any other result should have occurred. Hence it is mentioned
by Moses and by Nehemiah, as a distinguishing token of the
Lord's goodness to them, that in consequence of bringing them
out of Egypt, He made them to know or gave them His Sab
baths.— (Ex. xvi. 29; Deut. v. 15; Neh. ix. 14.)

2. But the institution of the Sabbath was declared to be a
sign between God and the Israelites, that they might know that

1 Gen. viii. 10, 12, xxix. 27. A large portion of the Jewish writers
hold that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation, and was observed by
the patriarchs, although some thought differently. References to various
of their more eminent writers are given in Meyer, De Temporibus Sacris et
Festis Diebus Hebrseorum, P. ii., c. 9. Selden (Ue Jure Nat. et Gent., L.
iii. 12) has endeavoured to prove that the elder Jewish writers all held the
first institution of the Sabbath to have been in the wilderness, though by
special revelation made known previously to Abraham, and that the notice
taken of the subject at the creation is by prolepsis. This, however, does
not appear to have been the general opinion among them — certainly not that
of some of their leading writers ; and, as Meyer remarks, it by no means
follows from their having sometimes held the proleptical reference in Genesis
to the institution of the Sabbath in the wilderness, that they therefore
denied its prior institution in paradise. See also Owen's Preliminary
Dissertations to his Com. on Heb. Ex. 36 ; where, further, the notices are
gathered which are to be found in ancient heathen sources regarding the
primitive division of time into sevens, and the sacrednese of the seventh
day. As to the ancient nations of the world not observing it, or not being
specially charged with neglecting it, the same may be said in reference to
the third commandment, the fifth, many of the sins of the seventh, eighth,
and ninth. Besides, when they forsook God Himself, of how little import
ance was it how they spent His Sabbaths?

134 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

He was the Lord who sanctified them. — (Ex. xxxi. 13.) And
if a sign or token of God's covenant with Israel, then it must
have been a new and positive institution, and one which they
alone were bound to observe, since it must separate between
them and others. So Warburton,1 and many besides. We say
nothing against its having been, as to its formal institution, of
a positive nature ; for there, we think, many defenders of the
Sabbath have lost themselves.2 But its being constituted a sign
between God and Israel, neither inferred its entire novelty, nor
its special and exclusive obligation upon them. Warburton
himself has contended, that the bow in the cloud was not
rendered less fit for being a sign of the covenant with Noah,
that it had existed in the antediluvian period. And still less
might the Sabbath's being a primeval institution have rendered
it unfit to stand as a sign of the Israelitish covenant, as this had
respect not so much to its appointment on the part of God, as
to its observance on the part of the people. He wished them
simply to regard it as one of the chosen means by which He
intended them to become, not only a comfortable and blessed,
but also an holy nation. Nor could its being destined for such
an use among them, in the least interfere with its obligation or
its observance among others. Circumcision was thus also made
the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, although it had been
observed from time immemorial by various surrounding tribes
and nations, from whom still the members of the covenant were
to keep themselves separate. For it was not the merely external
rite or custom which God regarded, but its spiritual meaning
and design. When connected with His covenant, or embodied
in His law, it was stamped as a religious institution ; it acquired
a strictly religious use ; and only in so far as it was observed
with a reference to this, could it fitly serve as a sign of God's
covenant.

1 Divine Leg., B. iv., Note R. R. R. R.

2 It has been called a moral-positive command, partly moral and partly
positive ; in itself a positive enactment, but with moral grounds to recom
mend or enforce it. See, for example, Ridgeley's Body of Divinity, ii., p.
267, who expresses the view of almost ah1 evangelical divines of the same
period in this country. The distinction, however, is not happy, as the same
substantially may be said of all the ceremonial institutions. Moral reasons
were connected with them all, and yet they are abolished.

Till: WKKKLY SABBATH. 135

Indeed, a conclusion exactly the reverse of the one just re
ferred to, should rather be drawn from the circumstance of the
Sabbath having been taken for a sign that God sanctified Israel.
There can be no question that holiness in heart and conduct
was the grand sign of their being His chosen people. In so far
as they fulfilled the exhortation, " Be ye holy, for I am holy,"
they possessed the mark of His children. And the proper
observance of the Sabbatical rest being so specially designated
a sign in this respect, was a proof of its singular importance to
the interests of religion and morality. These, it was virtually
said, would thrive and flourish if the Sabbath was duly observed,
but would languish and die if it fell into desuetude. Hence, at
the close of a long expostulation with the people regarding their
sins, and such especially as indicated only a hypocritical love to
God, and a palpable hatred or indifference to their fellow-men,
the prophet Isaiah presses the due observance of the Sabbath as
in itself a sufficient remedy for the evil : " If thou turn away
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy
day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways,
nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words :
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee
to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it." — (Isa. Iviii. 13, 14.)

This passage may fitly be regarded as an explanation of the
sense in which the Lord meant them to regard the Sabbath as
a sign between them and Him. And it is clear, on a moment's
reflection, that the prophet could never have attached the im
portance he did to the Sabbath, nor so peculiarly connected it
with the blessing of the covenant, if the mere outward rest had
been all that the institution contemplated. This is what the
objectors we now argue with seem uniformly to take for granted ;
as if the people were really sanctified when they simply rested
every Sabbath-day from their labours. The command had a far
deeper import, and much more was involved in such a com
pliance with it, as should prove a sign between them and God.
It was designed at once to carry tin- heart up in holy affection
to its Creator, and outwards in acts of good-will and kindness to

136 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

men on earth. Hence its proper observance is so often put,
botli in the law and the prophets, for the sum of religion. This
is frankly admitted by some who urge the objection (for ex
ample, Barrow), while they still hold it to have been a ceremonial
institution. But we would ask, if any other ceremonial institu
tion can be pointed to as having been thus honoured ? Are they
not often rather comparatively dishonoured, by being placed in a
relation of inferiority to the weightier matters of the law ? And
we might also ask, if precisely the same practical value is not
attached to the strict religious observance of the Lord's day now,
by all writers of piety, and even by those who, with strange
perversion or inconsistency, labour to establish the freedom of
Christians from the obligation of the Sabbath ? It is one of
the burdens, says Barrow, which the law of liberty has taken off
from us ; and yet he has no sooner said it, than he tells us, in
regard to the very highest and most spiritual duties of this law,
that we are much more obliged to discharge them than the Jews
could be.1 Paley, too, presently after he has endeavoured to
relax the binding obligation of the Sabbath, proceeds to show
the necessity of dedicating the Sunday to religious exercises, to
the exclusion of all ordinary works and recreations ; and still
more expressly in his first sermon, written at a more advanced
stage of life, when he knew more personally of the power of
religion, he speaks of " keeping holy the Lord's day regularly
and most particularly," as an essential mark of a Christian.2
The leading Reformers were unanimous on this point, holding it
to be the duty of all sound Christians to use the Lord's day as
one of holy rest to Him, and that by withdrawing themselves
not only from sin and vanity, but also from those worldly em
ployments and recreations which belong only to a present life,
and by yielding themselves wholly to the public exercises of
God's worship, and to the private duties of devotion, excepting
only in cases of necessity or mercy. The learned liivet, also,
who unhappily argued (in his work on the decalogue) against
the obligation of keeping the Sabbath as imposed in the fourth
commandment, yet deplored the prevailing disregard of the

1 Works, v., p. 565, 568.

2 Moral and Polit. Philosophy, B. v., c. 7 and 8, conip. with 1st of the
Sermons on several subjects.

THE WEEKLY SA1IUATII. 137

Lord's day as one of the crying evils of the times ; and Vitringa
raised the same lamentation in his day (on Isa. Iviii. 13).

What, then, should induce such men to contend against the
strict and literal obligation of the fourth command 1 They
must be influenced by one of two reasons : either they dislike
the spirit of holiness that breathes in it, or, relishing this, they
somehow mistake the real nature of the obligation there imposed.
There can be no doubt that the former is the cause which
prompts those who are mere formalists in religion to decry this
obligation ; and as little doubt, we think, in regard to the lie-
formers and pious divines of later times, that the latter considera
tion was what influenced them. This we shall find occasion to
explain under the next form of objection.

3. It is objected that the Sabbath, as imposed on the Jews,
had a rigour and severity in it quite incompatible with the genius
of the Gospel : the person who violated its sacredness, by doing
ordinary work on that day, was to be punished with death ; and
so far was the cessation from work carried, that even the kind
ling of a fire or going out of one's place was interdicted. — (Ex.
xvi. 29, xxxv. 3.) It looks as if men were determined to get rid
of the Sabbath by any means, when the capital punishment in
flicted on the violators of it in the Jewish state is held up as a
proof of its transitory and merely national character. For there
is nothing of this in the fourth commandment itself ; and it was
afterwards added to this, in common with many other statutes,
as a check on the presumptuous violation of what God wished
them to regard as the fundamental laws of the kingdom. A
similar violation of the first, the second, the third, the fifth, the
sixth, the seventh commandments, had the same punishment
annexed to it ; but who would thence argue, that the obligation
to practise the duties they required, was binding only during the
Old Testament dispensation ?

The other part of the objection demands a longer answer ;
in which we must first distinctly mark what is the exact point
to be determined. The real question is, Did the fourth com
mandment oblige the Jews to anything which the people of I Jod
are under no obligation now to perform ? Did it simply enjoin
a rigid cessation from all ordinary labour, every seventh day, and
did such cessation constitute the kind of sanctification it re-

138 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

quired? Such unquestionably was the opinion entertained by
Calvin and most of the Reformers ; who consequently held the
Sabbath exacted of the Israelites under this precept to be chiefly
of a ceremonial nature, foreshadowing through its outward
repose the state of peaceful and blessed rest which believers
were to enjoy in Christ, and like other shadows, vanishing when
He appeared. There is certainly a measure of truth in this
idea, as we shall have occasion to notice under the next objec
tion, but not in the sense understood by such persons. Their
opinion of what the Jewish Sabbath should have been, almost
entirely coincided with what it actually was, after a cold and
dead formalism had taken the place of a living piety. But so
far from being justified by the law itself, it is the very notion
which our Lord sought repeatedly to expose, bv showing the
practical impossibility of carrying it out under the former dis
pensation itself. Parents performed on the Sabbath the ope
ration of circumcising their children ; priests did the work
connected with the 'temple service ; persons of all sorts went
through the labours necessary to preserve or sustain life in
themselves or their cattle; and yet they were blameless — the
command stood unimpaired, notwithstanding the performance
of such works on the seventh day, for they were not inconsistent
with its real design. In regard to all such cases, Christ an
nounced the maxim, " The Sabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath," — meaning, of course, the Sabbath in its
original purport and existing obligation — not under any change
or modification now to be introduced ; for had there been any
intention of that sort, it would manifestly have been out of place
then to speak of it — but the Sabbath as imposed in the fourth
commandment upon the Israelites : — this Sabbath was made for
man, as a means to promote his real interests and well-being,
and not as a remorseless idol, to which these were to be sacri
ficed. " To work in the way of doing good to a fellow-creature
(such was the import of Christ's declaration), or entering into
the employments of God's worship, is not now, nor ever was, any
interference with the proper duties of the Sabbath, but rather
a fulfilment of them. ' Therefore the Son of man is Lord also
of the Sabbath,' — He who is Lord of man must needs also be
Lord of that which was made for man's good — but its Lord, not

THE WEEKLY SABBATH. 139

to turn it to any other purpose than that for which it was origi
nally given — no, merely to use it Myself, and teach you how to
use it for the same. You do therefore grievously err in sup
posing it possible for Me to do anything inconsistent with the
design of this institution ; for though, as the Father worketh
hitherto, I also must work on this day (John v. 17), so far as
the ends of the Divine government may require, yet nothing is
or can be done by Me, which is not in the strictest sense a
Divine work, and as such suitable to the day of God."1

It is to wrest our Lord's words quite beside the purpose for
which they were spoken, to represent Him in those declarations
He made respecting the Sabbath, as intending to relax the exist
ing law, and bring in some new modification of it. His discourse
was clearly aimed at convincing the Jews that this law did not,
as they erroneously conceived, absolutely prohibit all work, but
work only in so far as the higher ends of God's glory and man's
best interests might render needful. Precisely as in the second
commandment, the prohibition regarding the making of any
graven image or similitude was not intended simply to denounce
all pictures and statues — both, in fact, had a place in the temple
itself — but to interdict their employment in the worship of
God, so that His worshippers might be free to serve Him in
spirit and in truth. And as men might have abstained from
using these, while still far from yielding the spiritual wor
ship which the second command really required, so they might
equally have ceased from ordinary labour on the seventh day,

1 No texts have been more perverted from their obvious meaning, by
the opponents of the Sabbath, than those referred to in Mark ii. 27, 28,
about the Son of Man being Ix>rd of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath being
made for man, as if the Lord had been there bringing in something new,
instead of explaining what was old. The latter is also held "as manifestly
implying that the observance of the Sabbath was not a duty of an essential
and unchangeable nature, such as those for which man is especially consti
tuted and ordained." — (Bib. Cyclop., Art. Sabbath.) But the same may be
siid of marriage — it was made for man, and not man for it; and seeing, if
there be no marriage, there can be no adultery, is therefore the seventh
command only of temporary obligation ? Or, since where there is no pro
perty there can be no theft, and man was not made for property, is the eighth
command also out of date? The main point is, Were they not all alike
coeval with man's introduction into his present state, and needful to abide
with him till its close?

140 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and yet been far from sanctifying it according to the fourth
commandment.

This was distinctly enough perceived by some of the more
thinking portion of the Jews themselves. Hence, not only does
Philo speak of " the custom of philosophizing," as he calls it, on
the seventh day, but we find Abenezra expressly stating, that
" the Sabbath was given to man, that he might consider the
works of God, and meditate in His law." To the same effect
Abarbanel : " The seventh day has been sequestered for learn
ing the Divine law, and for remembering well the explanations
and inquiries regarding it. As is taught in Gemara Hierosol. :
( Sabbaths and holidays were only appointed for meditating on
the law of God ; and therefore it is said, in Medrash Schamoth
Kabba, that the Sabbath is to be prized as the whole law.'"
Another of their leading authorities, 11. Menasse Ben Isr., even
characterizes it as " a notable error to imagine the Sabbath to
have been instituted for idleness ; for as idleness is the mother
of all vice, it would then have been the occasion of more evil
than good."1

These comments, wonderfully good to come from such a
quarter, are in perfect accordance with the import of the fourth
commandment ; that is, if this commandment is to be subjected
to the same mode of interpretation which is made to rule the
meaning of the rest — if it is to be regarded simply as prohibit
ing one kind of works, that those of an opposite kind may be
performed. Yet, in strange oversight of this, perhaps also un
wittingly influenced by the mistaken views and absurd practices
of the Jews, such men even as Calvin and Vitringa held, that
in the Jewish law of the Sabbath there was only inculcated a
cessation from bodily labour, and that the observance of this
cessation formed the substance of Sabbatical duty.2 Their hold
ing this, however, did not, we must remember, lead them to
deny the fact of God's having set apart, and men's being in all
ages bound to observe, one day in every seven to be specially
devoted to the worship and service of God. This with one

1 See Meyer de Temp. Sacris et Festis diebus Hub., p. 197-199, where
the authorities are given at length.

2 Calvin, Inst., ii., c. 8. Vitringa Synagog. vet., ii., c. 2, and Com. in
Isa., c. Ivi.

TIIK WKKKLY SABBATH. Ill

voice tlicy held : but they conceived the primeval and lasting
institution of the Sabbath to have been so far accommodated to
the ceremonial character of the Jewish religion, as to demand
almost nothing from the Jews but a day of bodily rest. And
this rest thcv farther conceived to have been required, not as
valuable in itself, but as the legal shadow of better tilings to
come in Christ: so that they might at once affirm the Jewish
Sabbath to be abolished, and yet hold the obligation binding
upon Christians to keep, by another mode of observance, one
day in seven sacred to the Lord. This is simply what they did.
And therefore Gualter, in his summary of the views of the
divines of the Reformation upon this subject, has brought dis
tinctly out these two features in their opinions — what they
parted with, and what they retained : " The Sabbath properly
signifies rest and leisure from servile work, and at the same time
is used to denote the seventh day, which God at the beginning
of the world consecrated to holy rest, and afterwards in the
law confirmed by a special precept. And although the primi
tive Church abrogated the Sabbath, in so far as it was a legal
shadow, lest it should savour of Judaism ; yet it did not abolish
that sacred rest and repose, but transferred the keeping of it to
the following day, which was called the Lord's day, because on
it Christ rose from the dead. The use of this day, therefore,
is the same with what the Sabbath formerly was among the
true worshippers of God." Only, the particular way, or kind
of service, in which it is now to be turned to this sacred use, is
different from what it was in Judaism ; and he goes on to de
scribe how the Reformers thought the day should be spent,
viz., in a total withdrawing from worldly cares and pleasures,
as far as practicable, and employing the time in the public and
private exercises of worship.1

1 I liavo entered so fully into the views of the Reformers, because their
sentiments on this subject are almost universally misunderstood, even by
theologians, and thc-ir names have often been and still are abused, to support
views which they would themselves have most strongly reprobated. The
ground of tin: whole error lay in their not rightly understanding — what, in
deed, is only now coming to be properly understood — the symbolical cha
racter of the Jewish worship. Tli< y virwrd it too exclusively in a typical
aspect, in its reference to Gospel things, and saw but very dimly and im
perfectly its design and fitness to give a present expression to the faith and

142 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

It presents no real contrariety to the interpretation we have
given of the fourth commandment, as affecting the Jews, that
Moses on one occasion enjoined the people not to go out of their
place or tents on the Sabbath-day. For that manifestly had
respect to the gathering of manna, and was simply a prohibition
against their going out, as on other days, to obtain food.
Neither is the order against kindling a fire on the Sabbath any
argument for an opposite view ; for it was not less evidently a
temporary appointment, suitable to their condition in a wilder
ness of burning sand — necessary there, perhaps, to ensure even a

holiness of the worshipper. Hence, positive institutions were considered as
altogether the same with ceremonial, and the services connected with them
as all of necessity bodily, typical, shadowy — therefore done away in Christ.
In this way superficial readers, who glance only at occasional passages in
their writings, and do not take these in connection with the whole state of
theological opinion then prevalent regarding the Old and New dispensations,
find no difficulty in exhibiting the Reformers as against all Sabbatical obser
vances ; while, if it suited their purpose to look a little farther, another set
of passages might be found which seem to establish the very reverse. Arch
bishop Whately says (Second Series of Essays, p. 206) that the English
Reformers were almost unanimous in disconnecting the obligation regarding
the keeping of the Lord's day among Christians from the fourth command
ment, and resting it simply on the practice of the apostles and the early
Church — thus making the Christian Lord's day an essentially different insti
tution from the Jewish Sabbath. We don't need to investigate the subject
separately as it affects them ; for their opinions, as the Archbishop indeed
asserts, agreed with those of the Continental Reformers. But we affirm
that the Reformers, as a body, did hold the Divine authority and binding
obligation of the fourth command, as requiring one day in seven to be em
ployed in the worship and service of God, admitting only of works of neces
sity and of mercy to the-poor and afflicted. The release from legal bondage,
of which they speak, included simply the obligation to keep precisely the
seventh day of the week, and the external rest, which they conceived to be
so rigorously binding on the Jews, that even the doing of charitable works
was a breach of it — the very mistake of the Pharisees. In its results, how
ever, the doctrinal error regarding the fourth commandment has been very
disastrous even in England, but still more so on the Continent. However
strict the Reformers were personally, as to the practical observance of the
lord's day — so strict, especially in Geneva, that they were charged by some
with Judaizing — the separation they made here between the law and the
Gospel soon wrought most injuriously upon the life of religion ; and the
saying of Owen was lamentably verified : " Take this day off from the basis
whereon God hath fixed it, and all human substitutions of anything in the
like kind will quickly discover their own vanity." — See Appendix A.

Till: WEEKLY SABBATH. 143

decent conformity to the rest of the Sabbath, but palpably un
suitable to the general condition of the people, when settled in
a land which is subject to great vicissitudes, and much diversity
as to heat and cold. It was, in fact, plainly impracticable as a
national regulation ; and was not considered by the people
at large binding on them in their settled state, as may be in
ferred from Josephus noticing it as a peculiarity of the Essenes,
that they would not kindle a fire on the Sabbath. — (Wars, ii.,
c. 8, § 9.) Indeed, it is no part of the fourth commandment,
fairly interpreted, to prohibit ordinary labour, excepting in so
far as it tends to interfere with the proper sanctih'cation of the
time to God ; and this in most cases would rather be promoted
than hindered by the kindling of a fire for purposes of comfort
and refreshment. So we judge, for example, in regard to the
sixth commandment, which, being intended to guard and pro
tect the sacredness of man's life, does not absolutely prevent all
manner of killing, nay, may sometimes rather be said to require
this, that life may be preserved. In like manner, it was not
work in the abstract that was forbidden in the fourth command
ment, but work only in so far as it interfered with the sanctified
use of the day, as was already indicated in the Sabbath of the
Passover, which, while prohibiting ordinary work from being
done, expressly excepted what was necessary for the preparation
of food. — (Ex. vii. 16.) And the endless restrictions and limita
tions of the Jews, in our Lord's time and since, about the Sab
bath-day's journey, and the particular acts that were or were
not lawful on that day, are only to be regarded as the wretched
puerilities of men in whose hands the spirit of the precept had
already evaporated, and for whom nothing more remained than
to dispute about the bounds and lineaments of its dead body.

4. But then there is an express abolition of Sabbath-days in
the Gospel, as the mere shadows of higher realities ; and the
Apostle expressly discharges believers from judging one another
regarding their observance, and even mourns over the Galatians,
as bringing their Christian condition into doubt by observing
days and months and years. We shall not waste time by con
sidering the unsatisfactory attempts which have frequently been
made to account for such statements, by many who hold the
still abiding obligation of the fourth commandment. But sup-

144 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

posing this commandment simply to require, as we have en
deavoured to show it does, the withdrawal of men's miuds from
worldly cares and occupations, that they might be free to give
themselves to the spiritual service of God, is it conceivable,
from all we know of the Apostle's feelings, that he would have
warned the disciples against such a practice as a dangerous
snare to their souls, or raised a note of lamentation over those
who had adopted it, as if all were nearly gone with them ? Is
there a single unbiassed reader of his epistles, who would not
rather have expected him to rejoice in the thought of such
a practical ascendancy being won for spiritual and eternal
things over the temporal and earthly ? It is the less possible
for any one to doubt this, when it is so manifest from his his
tory, that he did make a distinction of days in this sense, by
everywhere establishing the practice of religious meetings on
the first day of the week, and exhorting the disciples to observe
them aright. When he, therefore, writes against the observing
of days, it must plainly be something of a different kind he has
in view. And what could that be but the lazy, corporeal, outward
observance of them, which the Jews had now come to regard as
composing much of the very substance of religion, and by which
they largely fed their self-righteous pride ? Sabbath-days in this
sense it is certainly no part of the Gospel to enforce ; but neither
was it any part of the law to do so : Moses, had he been alive,
would have denounced them, as well as the ambassador of Christ.
But this, it may perhaps be thought, scarcely reaches the
point at issue ; for the Apostle discharges Christians from the
observance of Sabbath-days, not in a false and improper sense,
but in that very sense in which they were shadows of good
things to come, placing them on a footing in this respect with
distinctions of meat and drink. It is needless to say here, that
certain feast-days of the Jews, being withdrawn from a common
to a sacred use, were called Sabbaths, and that the Apostle
alludes exclusively to these.1 There can be no doubt, indeed,

1 This is Haldane's explanation in his Appendix to his Com. on Romans,
as it had also been Ridgeley's and others' in former times. But if that
explanation were right — if the Apostle really intended to except what the
world at large pre-eminently understood by Sabbath-days — it would be
impossible to acquit him of using language almost sure to be misunderstood.

Till; WF.KKI.Y SABBATH. 1 !."»

that they were so called, and arc also included here; but not to
the exclusion of the seventh-day Sabbath, which, from the very
nature of the ca^-c, was the one most likely to be thought of by
the Colossians. Unless it had been expressly excepted, we
must in fairness suppose it to have been at least equally in
tended with the others. But the truth is simply this : what the
observance of the seventh-day Sabbath was not necessarily, or
in itself, it came to acquire in the general apprehension, from
the connection it had so long held with the symbolical services
of .Judaism. In its original institution there was nothing in it
properly shadowy or typical of redemption ; for it commenced
before sin had entered, and while yet there was no need for a
Redeemer. Nor was there anything properly typical in the
observance of it imposed in the fourth commandment ; for this
was a substantial re-enforcement of the primary institution,
only with a reference in the letter of the precept to the circum
stances of Israel, as the destined possessors of Canaan. But,
becoming then associated with a symbolical religion, in which
spiritual and divine things were constantly represented and
taught by means of outward and bodily transactions, the bodily
rest enjoined in it came to partake of the common typical
character of all their symbolical services. The same thing
happened here as with circumcision, which was the sign and
seal of the Abrahamic covenant of grace, and had no immediate
connection with the law of Moses ; while yet it became so iden
tified with this law, that it required to be supplanted by another
ordinance of nearly similar import, when the seed of blessing
arrived, which the Abrahamic covenant chiefly respected. So
great was the necessity for the abolition of the one ordinance
and the introduction of the other, that the Apostle virtual! v
declares it to have been indispensable, when he affirms those
who would still be circumcised to be debtors to do the whole
la\\. At the same time, the original design and spiritual import
of circumcision he testifies to have been one and the same with
baptism — speaks of baptized believers, indeed, as the circum
cision of Christ (Col. ii. 11) — and consequently, apart from the
peculiar circumstances arising out of the general character of
the Jewish religion, the one ordinance might have served the
purpose contemplated as well as the other.

VOL. II. K

146 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

So with the Sabbath. Having been engrafted into a religion
so peculiarly symbolical as the Mosaic, it was unavoidable that
the bodily rest enjoined in it should acquire, like all the other
outward things belonging to the religion, a symbolical and
typical value. For that rest, though by no means the whole
duty required, was yet the substratum and groundwork of the
whole; the heart, when properly imbued with the religious
spirit, feeling in this very rest a call to go forth and employ
itself on God. To aid it in doing so, suitable exercises of
various kinds would doubtless be commonly resorted to;1 but
not as a matter of distinct obligation, rather as a supplementary
help to that quiet rest in God, and imitation of His doings, to
which the day itself invited. This end is the same also which
the Gospel has in view, but which it seeks to accomplish by
means of more active services and direct instruction. The end
under both dispensations was substantially the same, with a cha
racteristic difference as to the manner of attaining it, corre
sponding to the genius of the respective dispensations — the one
making more of the outward, the other addressing itself directly
to the inward man ; the one also having more of a natural, the
other more of a spiritual, redemptive basis. Hence the mere
outward bodily rest of the Sabbath came, by a kind of un
avoidable necessity, to acquire of itself a sacred character,
although ultimately carried to an improper and unjustifiable
excess by the carnality of the Jewish mind. And hence, too,
Avhen another state of things was introduced, it became neces
sary to assign to such Sabbaths — the Jewish seventh day of rest
— a place among the things that were done away, and so far to
change the ordinance itself as to transfer it to a different day,
and even call it by a new name. But as baptism in the Spirit
is Christ's circumcision, so the Lord's day is His Sabbath ; and
to be in the Spirit on that day, worshipping and serving Him in
the truth of His Gospel, is to take up the yoke of the fourth
commandment.

5. This touches on, and partly answers, another objection —

1 2 Kings iv. 23, where the Shunammite woman's husband expressed his
wonder that she should go to the prophet when it was neither new moon
nor Sabbath, implie-s that it was customary to meet for social exercises on
these days.

TIIK VVKKKLY SAIJI5ATH. MT

tlie only one of any moment that still remains to be adverted to
— that derived from the change of day, from the last to the first
day of the week. This was necessary, not merely, as Horsely
states,1 to distinguish Christian from Jew, but also to distinguish
Sabbath from Sabbath — a Sabbath growing up amid symbolical
institutions, which insensibly imparted to it a spirit of outward
ritualism, and a Sabbath not less marked, indeed, by a with
drawal from the cares and occupations of worldly business, but
much more distinguished by spiritual employment and active
energy, both in doing and receiving good. Such a change in its
character was clearly indicated by our Lord in those miracles of
healing which He purposely performed on the Sabbath, that
His followers might now see their calling, to use the oppor
tunities presented to them on the day of bodily rest, to minister
to the temporal or the spiritual necessities of those around them.
And in fitting correspondence with this, the day chosen for the
Christian Sabbath was the first day of the week — the day on
which Christ rose from the dead, that He might enter into the
rest of God, after having finished the glorious work of redemp
tion. But that rest, how to be employed ? Not in vacant re
pose, but in an incessant, holy activity, in directing the affairs of
His mediatorial kingdom, and diffusing the inestimable blessings
He had purchased for men. A new era then dawned upon the
world, which was to give an impulse hitherto unknown to all the
springs of benevolent and holy working ; and it was meet that
this should communicate its impress to the day through which
the Gospel was specially to develop its peculiar genius and
proper tendency. But pre-eminent as this Gospel stands above
all earlier revelations of God, for the ascendancy it gives to the
unseen and eternal over the seen and temporal, it would surely
be a palpable contrariety to the whole spirit it breathes, and the
ends it has in view, if now, on the Lord's day, the things of the
world were to have more, and the things of God less, of men's
regard than formerly on the Jewish Sabbath. Least of all could
any change have been intended in this direction ; and the only
variation in the manner of its observance, which the Gospel itself

1 Works, vol. i., p. 35G. The greater part of his three Sermons is excel-
Iriit, though he docs not altogether avoid, we think, s-niie of the
heiiMons re-ferret! to above.

148 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

warrants us to think of, is the greater amount of spiritual
activity to be put forth on it, flowing out in suitable exercises
of love to God, and acts of kindness and blessing towards our
fellow-men.

What though the Gospel does not expressly enact this
change of day, and in so many words enjoin the disciples to
hallow the ordinance after the manner now described? It
affords ample materials to all for discovering the mind of God
in this respect, who are really anxious to learn it ; and what
more is done in regard to the ordinances of worship generally,
or to anything in God's service connected with external arrange
ments ? It is the characteristic of the Gospel to unfold great
truths and principles, and only briefly to indicate the proper
manner of their development and exercise in the world. But
can any one in reality have imbibed these, without cordially
embracing, and to the utmost of his power improving, the ad
vantages of such a wise and beneficent institution ? Or does
the Christian world now not need its help, as much as the
Jewish did of old ? Even Tholuck, though he still does not see
how to give the Christian Sabbath the right hold upon the con
science, yet deplores the prevailing neglect of it as destructive to
the life of piety, and proclaims the necessity of a stricter obser
vance. " Spirit, spirit ! we cry out : but should the prophets of
God come again, as they came of old, and should they look upon
our works — Flesh, flesh ! they would cry out in reponse. Of a
truth, the most spiritual among us cannot dispense with a rule,
a prescribed form, in his morality and piety, without allowing
the flesh to resume its predominance. The sway of the Spirit of
God in your minds is weak; carry, then, holy ordinances into
your life."1

It is not unimportant to state farther, in regard to the change
of day from the last to the first day of the week, that while

1 Sermons, Bib. Cab., vol. xxviii., p. L'i. The absolute necessity of a
strict observance of the Lord's day to the life of religion, is well noted in a
comparison between Scotland and (Jlerniaiiy, by a shrewd and intelligent
observer— Mr Laing, in his Notes on the Pilgrimage to Treves, ch. x. He
does not profess to state the theological view of the subject, and even admits
there may be some truth in what is sometimes pleaded for a looser ob.>er-
vance of the day, especially in regard to those situated in large towns : but
still holds the necessity of a well -spent Sabbath to produce and maintain a

Till; WKKKLV SAIMJATII. 140

strong reasons existed for it in the mighty change that liad been
introduced by the perfected redemption of Christ, no special
stress appears, even in the Old Testament Scripture, to have
been laid on the precise day. Manifestly the succession of six
days of worldly occupation, and one of sacred rest, is the point
chiefly contemplated there. So little depended upon the exact
day, that on the occasion of renewing the Sabbatical institution
in the wilderness, the Lord seems to have made the weekly series
run from the first giving of the manna. His example, therefore,
in the work of creation, was intended merely to fix the relative
proportion between the days of ordinary labour and those of
sacred rest — and with that view is appealed to in the law. Nay,
even there the correspondence is closer than is generally con
sidered between the Old and the New ; for while the original
Sabbath was the seventh day in regard to God's work of creation,
it was man's first. He began his course of weekly service upon
earth by holding Sabbath with his Creator; much as the Church
was called to begin her service to Christ on His finishing the
work of the new creation. Nor, since redemption is to man a
still more important work than creation, can it seem otherwise
than befitting to a sanctified mind, that some slight alteration
should have taken place in the relative position of the days, as
might serve for a perpetual memorial that this work also was
now finished. By the resurrection of Christ, as the Apostle
shows, in 1 Cor. xv. 20, sq., a far higher dignity has been won
for humanity than was given to it by the creation of Adam ;
and one hence feels, as Sartorius has remarked (Cultus, p. 154),
that it would be alike unnatural and untrue, if the Church now
should keep the creation-Sabbath of the Old, and not the resur
rection-Sabbath of the New — if she should honour, as her holy-
day, that day on which Christ was buried, and not rather the one
on which He rose again from the dead. It was on the eve of

due sense of religion, and attributes the low state of religion in Germany
very much to their neglect of the Sabbath. He justly says, the strict ob
servance of Sunday " is the application of principle to practice by a whole
people ; it is the working of their religious sense and knowledge upon thrir
Imbit.s ; it is the sacrifice of pleasures, in themselves innocent — and these
are the most difficult to be sacrificed — to a higher principle than sc-lf-in-
dulgence. Such a population stands on a much higher moral and intellectual
stop than the population of the Continent," etc.

150 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the resurrection-day that lie appeared to the company of the
disciples, announced to them the completion of His work, gave
them His peace, and authorized and commissioned them to
preach salvation and dispense forgiveness to all nations in His
name. — (Luke xxiv.) So that, if Adam's Sabbath was great by
the Divine blessing and sanctification, Christ's Sabbath was still
greater through the Divine blessing of peace, grace, and salva
tion, which He sheds forth upon a lost world, in order to re
establish the Divine image in men's souls, in a higher even than
its original form, and bring in a better paradise than that which
has been lost.

In conclusion, we deem the law of the Sabbath, as inter
preted in this section, to have been fully entitled to a place in
the standing revelation of God's will concerning man's duty,
and to have formed no exception to the perfection and complete
ness of the law : —

(1.) Because, first, there is in such an institution, when
properly observed, a sublime act of holiness. The whole
rational creation standing still, as it were, on every seventh day
as it returns, and looking up to its God — what could more
strikingly proclaim in all men's ears, that they have a common
Lord and Master in heaven ! It reminds the rich that what
they have is not properly their own — that they hold all of a
Superior — a Superior who demands that on this day the mean
est slave shall be as his master — nay, that the very beast of the
field shall be released from its yoke of service, and stand free to
its Creator. No wonder that proud man, who loves to do what
he will with his own, and that the busy world, wrhich is bent on
prosecuting with restless activity the concerns of time, would
fain break asunder the bands of this holy institution ; for it
speaks aloud of the overruling dominion and rightful supremacy
of God, which they would willingly cast behind their backs.
But the heart that is really imbued with the principles of the
Gospel, how can it fail to call such a day the holy of the Lord,
and honourable I Loving God, it cannot but love what gives
it the opportunity of holding undisturbed communion with Him.

(2.) Secondly, because it is an institution of mercy. In
perfect harmony with the Gospel, it breathes good-will and
kindness to men. It brings, as Coleridge well expressed it,

Till: WKKKIA SAI5HATII. 151

fifty-two spring-days every year to this toilsome world ; and
may justly be regarded as a sweet remnant of paradise, miti
gating the now inevitable burdens of life, and connecting the
region of bliss that has been lost with the still brighter glory
that is to come. As in the former aspect there is love to God,
so here there is love to man.

(3.) Lastly, we uphold its title to a place in the permanent
revelation of God's will to man, because of its eminent use and
absolute necessity to promote men's higher interests. Religion
cannot properly exist without it, and is always found to thrive
as the spiritual duties of the day of God are attended to and
discharged. It is, when duly improved, the parent and the
guardian of every virtue. In this practical aspect of it, all men
of serious piety substantially concur ; and as a specimen of
thousands which might be produced, we conclude with simply
giving the impressive testimony of Owen : " For my part, I
must not only say, but plead, whilst I live in this world, and
leave this testimony to the present and future ages, that if ever
I have seen anything of the ways and worship of God, wherein
the power of religion or godliness hath been expressed — any
thing that hath represented the holiness of the Gospel and the
Author of it — anything that looked like a prelude to the ever
lasting Sabbath and rest with God, which we aim, through
grace, to come unto, — it hath been there, and with them, where,
and among whom, the Lord's day hath been held in highest
esteem, and a strict observation of it attended to, as an ordi
nance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The remembrance of their
ministry, their walk and conversation, their faith and love, who
in this nation have most zealously pleaded for, and have been
in their persons, families, parishes or churches, the most strict
observers of this day, will be precious to them that fear the
Lord, whilst the sun and moon endure. Let these things be
despised by those who are otherwise minded ; to me they are of
great weight and importance." — (On Heb., vol. i., 726, Tegg's
ed.)

SECTION FOURTH.

WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO — THE COVENANT STANDING
AND PRIVILEGES OF ISRAEL BEFORE IT WAS GIVEN.

HAVING now considered what the law, properly so called, was
in itself, we proceed to inquire into the ends and purposes for
which it was given, and the precise place which it was designed
to hold in the ancient economy. Any misapprehension enter
tained, or even any obscurity allowed to hang upon these points,
would, it is plain, materially affect the result of our future
investigations. And there is the more need to be careful and
discriminating in our inquiries here, as, from the general and
deep-rooted carnality of the Jewish people, the effect which the
law actually produced upon the character of their religion was,
to a considerable extent, different from what it ought to have
been. This error on their part has also mainly contributed to
the first rise and still continued existence of some mistaken
views regarding the law among many Christian divines.

There can be no doubt that the law held relatively a diffe
rent place under the Old dispensation from what it does under
the New. The most superficial acquaintance with the state
ments of New Testament Scripture on the subject, is enough to
satisfy us of this. " The law came by Moses, but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ." There is, however, one point —
the first that properly meets us in this department of our sub
ject — in regard to which both dispensations are entirely on a
footing. This point has respect to the condition of those to
whom the law was given, and which, being already possessed,
the law could not possibly have been intended to bring. So
that an inquiry into the nature of that condition, of necessity
carries along with it the consideration of what the law could
not do.

Now, as the historical element is here of importance, when
was it, we ask, that this revelation of law was given to Israel V
Somewhere, we are told, about the beginning of the third month

WHAT Till: LAW COULD NOT DO. 153

after their departure from the land of Egypt.1 Hence, from
the very period of its introduction, the law could not come as a
redeemer from evil, or a bestower of life and blessing. Its
object could not possibly be to propose anything which should
have the effect of shielding from death, rescuing from bondage,
or founding a title to the favour and blessing of Heaven — for
all that had been already obtained. By God's outstretched
arm, working with sovereign freedom and almighty power in
behalf of the Israelites, they had been brought into a state of
l'ivedom and enlargement, and under the banner of Divine pro
tection were travelling to the laud settled on them as an inherit
ance, before one word had been spoken to them of the law in
the proper sense of the term. And whatever purposes the law
might have been intended to serve, it could not have been for
any of those already accomplished or provided for.

It is of great importance to keep distinctly in view this
negative side of the law ; what it neither could, nor was ever
designed to do. For if we raise it to a position which it was
not meant to occupy, and expect from it benefits which it was
not fitted to yield, we must be altogether at fault in our reckon
ing, and can have no clear knowledge of the dispensation to
which it belonged. It is in reference to this that the Apostle
speaks in Gal. iii. 17, 18: "And this I say, that the covenant,
which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that
it should make the promise of none effect. For if the- inherit
ance be of the law, it is no more of promise : but God gave it to
Abraham by promise." The Jews had come in the Apostle's
time, and most of them, indeed, long before, to look to their
deeds of law as constituting their title to the inheritance ; and
the same leaven of self-righteousness was now beginning to
work among the Galatian converts. To check this tendency in
them, and convince them of the fundamental error on which it
proceeded, he presses on their consideration the nature and
design of God's covenant with Abraham, which he represents
as having been "confirmed before of God in Chart," became
in making promise of a seed of blessing it had respect pre-emi
nently to Christ, and might justly be regarded, in its leading
1 i;.x. xix. 1.

154 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

objects and provisions, as only an earlier and imperfect exhibi
tion of the Christian covenant of redemption. But that cove
nant expressly conferred on Abraham's posterity, as Heaven's
free gift, the inheritance of the land of Canaan ; and it must
also have secured their redemption from the house of bondage,
and their safe conduct through the wilderness, since these were
necessary to their entering on the possession of the inheritance.
Hence, as the Apostle argues, their title to these things could
not possibly need to be acquired over again by deeds of law
afterwards performed ; for this would manifestly have been to
give to the law the power of disannulling the covenant of pro
mise, and would have made one revelation of God overthrow
the foundation already laid by another.

But that God never meant the law to interfere with the gifts
and promises of the covenant, is clear from what He said to the
children of the covenant immediately before the law was given :
" Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare
you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now
therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My cove
nant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all
people ; for all the earth is Mine. And ye shall be unto Me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." — (Ex. xix. 5.) Here
God addresses them as already standing in such a relation of
nearness to Him, as secured for them an interest in His faithful
ness and love. He appeals to the proofs which He had given of
this, as amply sufficient to dispel every doubt from their mind,
and to warrant them in expecting whatever might still be needed
to complete their felicity. " Now therefore, if ye will obey My
voice " — not because ye have obeyed it, have the great things
which have just been accomplished in your experience taken
place ; but these have been done, that you might feel your call
ing to obey, and by obeying fulfil the high destiny to which you
are appointed. In this call to obedience we already have the
whole law, so far as concerns the ground of its obligation and
the germ of its requirements. And when the Lord came down
upon Mount Sinai to proclaim the words of the law, He is
simply to be regarded as giving utterance to that voice which
they were to obey. Hence, also, in prefacing the words then
spoken by the declaration, " I am the Lord thy God, which

WHAT Till: LAW COULD NOT DO. 155

brought tlice out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bond-
ago," He rests his claim to their obedience on precisely the same
ground as here : He resumes what Pie had previously said in
regard to the peculiar relation in which lie stood to them, as
proved by the grand deliverance He had achieved in their behalf,
and on that founds His special claim to the return of dutiful
obedience which He justly expected at their hands. And when
it was proclaimed as the result of this obedience, that they should
be to God " a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation," they were given to understand, that thus alone could
they continue to occupy the singular place they now held in the
regard of Heaven, enjoy intimate fellowship with God, and be
fitting instruments in His hand for carrying out the wise and
holy purposes of His Divine government. This, however,
belongs to another part of the subject, and has respect to what
the law ivas given to do.

We see, then, from the very time and manner in which the
law was introduced, that it could not have been designed to
interfere with the covenant of promise ; and as all that pertained
to redemption, the inheritance, and the means of life and bless
ing, came by that covenant, the law was manifestly given to
provide none of them. Nor could it make any alteration on the
law in this respect, that it was made to assume the form of a
covenant. Why this was done, we shall inquire in the sequel.
But looking at the matter still in a merely negative point of view,
it is obvious that the law's coming to possess the character of a
covenant could give it no power to make void the provisions of
that earlier covenant, which secured for the seed of Abraham, as
Heaven's free gift, the inheritance, and everything properly
belonging to it. And if the Israelites should at any time come
to regard the covenant of law as having been made for the pur
pose of founding a title to what the covenant with Abraham had
previously bestowed, they would evidently misinterpret the mean
ing of God, and confound the proper relations of things. This,
however, is what they actually did on a large scale, the grievous
error and pernicious consequences of which are pointed out in
Gal. iv. 21-31 : " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law.
do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons ; the one by a bond maid, the other by a five woman.

156 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCItlPTURE.

But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh ;
but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are
an allegory : for these arc the two covenants ; the one from the
Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For
this Ilagar is (i.e., corresponds to) Mount Sinai in Arabia, and
answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with
her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is
the mother of us all. For it is written (Isa. liv. 1), Rejoice,
thou barren that bearest not ; break forth and cry, thou that
travailest not : for the desolate hath many more children than
she that hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise," etc.

Here the proper wife of Abraham, Sarah, and his bond maid
Hagar, are viewed as the representatives of the two covenants
respectively ; and the children of the two mothers as, in like
manner, representatives of the kind of worshippers whom the
covenants were fitted to produce. Sarah, the only proper spouse
of Abraham, stands for the heavenly Jerusalem ; that is, the
true Church of God, in which He perpetually resides, and begets
children to Himself. Whoever belong to it are born from above,
" not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." And that Sarah's son might be the fit repre
sentative of all such, his birth was delayed till she had attained
an advanced age. Born as Isaac was, it was impossible to over
look the immediate and supernatural operation of God's hand in
his birth ; and if ever mother had reason to say, " I have gotten
a man from the Lord," it was Sarah, when she brought forth
Isaac. But what was true of Isaac's natural birth, is equally
true of the spiritual birth of God's people in every age. The
Church, as a heavenly society, is their mother. But that Church
is so, simply because she is the habitation of God, and the
channel through which His grace, flowing into the dead heart
of nature, quickens it into newness of life. And the covenant
in the hand of this Church, by which she is empowered to bring
forth such children to God, must be substantially the same in
every age — viz., the covenant of grace, which began to be dis
closed in part on the very scene of the fall — which was again
more distinctly revealed to Abraham, when he received the pro
mises of a seed of blessing, and an inheritance everlasting, and

WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO. 1 ">7

which has been clearly brought to light and finally confirmed
in Christ for the whole elect family of God. This unquestion
ably is the covenant which answers to Sarah, and belongs to the
heavenlx . Jerusalem : to this covenant all the real children of
God m\v their birth, their privileges, and their hopes; those
who are born of it, in whatever age of the Church, are born in
freedom, and heirs of the inheritance.

Ir is this Church, standing in and growing out of this cove
nant, that the prophet Isaiah addresses, in the passage quoted
by the Apostle, as a "barren woman, a widow, and desolate,"
and whom he comforts with the promise of a numerous offspring.
He does not expressly name Sarah, but he evidently has her in
his eye, and draws his delineation both of the present and the
future in language suggested by her history. For, as in her
case, so the seed of the true Church was long in coming, and
slow of increase, compared with those born after the flesh. It
seemed often, especially in such times of backsliding and deso
lation as those contemplated by the prophet, as if the spouse
were absolutely forsaken, or utterly incapable of being a mother ;
and she appeared all the more in need of consolation, as her
carnal rival even then possessed a large and numerous offspring.
But the prophet cheers her with the prospect of better days to
come ; and gives her the assurance, that in the long run her
spiritual seed would greatly outnumber the fleshly seed of the
other. This prospect began (as the Apostle intimates, ver. 31)
to be more especially realized when the kingdom opened the
door of salvation to the Gentiles.

The other covenant, which answers to Hagar, was the cove
nant of law, ratified at Sinai ; but that by no means correspond
ing, as is often represented, to the Old Testament dispensation as
a whole. For, viewed in the light of mothers, the two covenants
are spoken of as directly opposite in their nature, tendency,
mid effects, while the Old and New Testament dispensations
present no such contrast to each other. They are rather to
be regarded as in all essential respects the same. They differ,
not as Ishmael differed from Isaac, but only as the heir when
a elald differs from the heir when arrived at maturiu. Of all
the true members of both Churches, Abraham is the common
parent and head; and whether outwardly descended from his

158 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

loins or not, they constitute properly but one people. They are
all the children of faithful Abraham, possessing his covenant
relation to God, and his interest in the promises of good things
to come. — (Rom. iv. 11-13 ; Gal. iii. 29.) But the seed that
came by Hagar, which was born, not properly of God, but of
the will of the flesh, was entirely of another kind, and repre
sented no part of the true Church in any age : it represented
only the carnal portion of the professing Church — the unregene-
rate, idolatrous, or self-righteous Israelites of former times, who
deemed it quite enough that they were able to trace their descent
from Abraham ; and the merely nominal believers now, who
satisfy themselves with an outward standing among the followers
of Jesus, and a formal attendance on some of the ordinances
of His appointment. These are they " who say they are Jews,
but are not ;" they no more belonged to the seed of God under
the Old Testament, than they do under the New ; they are
Ishmaelites, not Israelites— a spurious fleshly offspring, that
should never have been born, and when born, without any title
to the inheritance and the blessing.

It was the prevailing delusion of the Jews in our Lord's time,
as it had been also of many in former times, not to perceive this
— failing to understand, what yet God had taken especial pains
to teach them, that the subjects of His love and blessing were
always an elect seed. From the time of Abraham, they had
chiefly belonged to his stock, but never had they at any period
embraced all his offspring : not the sons of Ilagar and Keturah,
but only the son of Sarah ; not both the sons of Isaac, but only
Jacob ; not all the sons of Jacob, but only such as possessed his
faith, and were, like him, princes with God. The principle, " not
all Israel who are of Israel," runs through the entire history; and
too often also do the facts of history afford ground for the conclu
sion, that those who were simply of Israel had greatly the prepon
derance in numbers and influence over such as truly were Israel.

But how did such children come to exist at all ? How did
they get a being within the bosom of the Church of God?
They also had a mother, represented by Ilagar, and that mother,
as well as the other, a covenant of God — the covenant of Sinai.
But why should it have produced such children ? In one wny
alone could it possibly have done so ; viz., by being elevated

WHAT ill!. LAW COULD NOT DO. 1 •">'.>

out of its proper place, and turned to an illegitimate use. God
never designed it to be a mother ; no more than Hagar, respect
ing whom Abraham sinned when he turned aside to her, and
took her for a mother of children : her proper place was that
only of an handmaid to Sarah. And it was, in like manner, to
pervert the covenant of law from Sinai to an improper purpose,
to look to it as a parent of life and blessing ; nor could any
better result come from the error. " It gendereth unto bond
age," says the Apostle ; that is, in so far as it gave birth to any
children, these were not true children of God, free, spiritual,
with hearts of filial confidence and devoted love ; but miserable
bondmen, selfish, carnal, full of mistrust and fear. Of these
children of the Sinaitic covenant we are furnished with the most
perfect exemplar in the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's
time — men who were chiefly remarkable for the full and ripened
development of a spirit of bondage in religion — who were com
plete in all the garniture of a sanctified demeanour, while they
were full within of ravening and wickedness — worshipping a
God, whom they eyed only as the taskmaster of a laborious ritual,
by the punctual observance of which they counted themselves
secure of His favour and blessing — crouching like slaves beneath
their yoke of bondage, and loving the very bonds that lay on
them, because nothing better than the abject and hireling spirit
of slavery breathed in their hearts. Such were the children
whom the covenant of law produced, as its natural and proper
offspring. But did God ever seek such children ? Could lie
own them as members of His kingdom ? Could He bestow
on them an interest in its promised blessings ? Assuredly not ;
and therefore it was entirely against His mind, when His pro
fessing people looked in that direction for life and blessing. If
really His people, they already had these by another and earlier
covenant which could give them ; and those who still looked for
them to the covenant of law, only got a serpent for bread —
instead of a blessing, a curse.1

1 On this negativ,- side of the law, may be consulted Bell on the Cove
nants, which, though full of repetition, is clear and satisfactory on this part
of tin- subject ; it forms a sort of expand.-d, thuii-h eertainly rather tedious,
illustration of Yitringa's Com. on Isa. liv. 1. On the positive side of the
law, or what it was designed to do, the work is by no means so successful.

160 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUIIK.

It seems very strange that so many Christian divines, espe
cially of such as hold evangelical principles, should here have
fallen into substantially the Jewish error, representing tin-
Israelites as being in such a sense under the covenant of law,
that by obedience to it they had to establish their title to the
inheritance. Not only does Warburton call the dispensation
under which they were placed, roundly " a dispensation of
works,"1 but we find Dr John Erskine, an evangelical writer,
among many similar things, writing thus : " He who yielded
an external obedience to the law of Moses, was termed rtyhteow,
and had a claim in virtue of his obedience to the land of Canaan,
so that doing these things he lived by them. Plence Moses says,
Deut. vi. 25, ' It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do
all these commandments before the Lord our God ;' i.e., it shall
be the cause and matter of our justification — it shall found our
title to covenant blessings. But to spiritual and heavenly bless
ings, we are entitled by the obedience of the Son of God, not by
our own."2 It was very necessary, when the learned author
made obedience to the covenant of Sinai the ground of a title to
the inheritance of Canaan, that he should bring down its terms
as low as possible ; for had these not been of a superficial and
formal nature, it would manifestly have been a mockery to make
the people's obedience the ground of their title. But what, then,
becomes of the covenant of Abraham, if the inheritance, which
it gave freely in promise to his seed, had to be acquired over
again by deeds of law ? And what, indeed, becomes of the
spiritual and unchangeable character of God, if, in one age
of the Church, He should appear to have imposed duties of an
external kind, as the ground of a title to His blessing, while
in another all is given of grace, and the duties required are
pre-eminently inward and spiritual ? In such a case, there not
only could have been no proper correspondence between the
earlier and the later dispensations, but the revealed character
of God must have undergone an essential change: He could
not be " the Jehovah, that changeth not." The confusion ari^e-
from assigning to the covenant of law a wrong place, and ascrib
ing to it what it was never intended to do or give. " God
did never make a new promulgation of the law by revelation to
1 Div. Leg., B. v., Note C. '-' Theological Dissertations, p. 41.

WHAT TIIK LAW COULD NOT DO. I'll

sinful men, in order to keep them under mere law, without set
ting before them, :it the same time, the promise and grace of the
new covenant, by which they might escape from the curse which
the law denounced. The legal and evangelical dispensations
have been but different dispensations of the same covenant of
grace, and of the blessings thereof. Though there is now a
greater degree of light, consolation, and liberty, yet if Chris
tians are now under a kingdom of grace, where there is pardon
upon repentance, the Lord's people under the Old Testament
were (as to the reality and substance of things) also under a
kingdom of grace."1 So that it is quite wrong, as the judicious
author states, to represent those " who were under the pedagogy
of the law, as if they had been under a proper and strict cove
nant of works."

Biihr, who rises immeasurably above all who, have imbibed
their notions of the legal dispensation in the school of Spencer
and Warburton, and who everywhere exhibits a due appreciation
of the moral and religious element in Judaism, still so far coin
cides with them, that he elevates the law to a place not properly
its own. After investigating the descriptions given of the deca
logue, he draws the conclusion, that " for Israel this formed the
foundation of its whole existence as a people, the root of its reli
gious and political life, the highest, best, most precious thing the
people had — their one and all."2 So also again, when speaking
of the covenant and the law being entirely the same, he says to
the like effect : " This covenant first properly gave Israel as a
people its being; it was the root and basis of the life of Israel as
a people."3 No doubt understanding, as he does, by the law or
covenant all the precepts and institutions of Moses, which he
holds to have been represented in the decalogue, the idea here
expressed is not quite so wide of the truth as it might otherwise
appear. But still the statement is by no means correct; it is
utterly at variance with the facts of Israel's history, and calcu
lated to give a false impression of the whole nature and design
of the Mosaic legislation. It presents this to our view simply as
a dispensation of works, having law for the root of life, and con
sequently the deeds of law for the only ground of blessing. In

1 Fraser on Sanctification ; Kxplic. of Rom. vii. s.

- Symbolik, i., 386, 387. :ubolik, ii., ]>.

VOL. II. I.

1 62 i ] i K TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

plain contrariety to the assertion of the Apostle,1 it virtually says
that a law was given which brought life, and that righteousness
was by the law. Finally, it gives such a place to the mere re
quirements and operations of law, that nothing remained for
grace to do, but merely to pardon the shortcomings and trans
gressions of which men might be guilty, as subject to law : all
else was earned by the obedience performed; even forgiveness
itself in a manner was thus earned, because obtained as the
result of services rendered in compliance with the terms and
prescriptions of law.

This glorification of law, however, has not been confined to
the Old Testament Church. There are not a few Christian
divines who are so enamoured of law, that the Gospel of the
grace of God has become in their hands only a kind of modified
covenant of works ; and they can only account for faith holding
the peculiar place assigned to it in the work of salvation, because
in their view it comprises all other graces and virtues in its bosom.
Salvation appears not directly and properly as the free gift of
Divine grace in Christ, but rather as the acquired result of man's
evangelical righteousness, or, as it is generally termed, his sincere
though imperfect obedience. The title to heaven must still be
earned, only the satisfaction of Christ has secured its being done
on much easier conditions. There is no need for our entering
into any exposure of this New Testament legalism, as we have
seen that its prototype under the Old Testament, though it had
more seemingly to countenance it, was still without any proper
foundation. But we may briefly advert to the statements of
another class of theologians, who, while they admit that the Old
as well as the New Testament Church was under a dispensation
of grace, to which it owed all its privileges, blessings, and hopes,
at the same time regard the covenant of Sinai as in itself pro
perly the covenant of works, by obedience to which, if faithfully
and fully rendered, men would have founded a title to life and
blessing. They justly regard it as in substance a republication
of the law of holiness originally impressed upon the soul of
Adam ; but fall into perplexity and confusion by adopting a
somewhat erroneous view of the primary design and object of
that law. The righteousness there required they are accustomed
1 Gal. iii. iM.

WHAT Till-: L-UV COl'M) .NOT DO. 163

to represent as that " by the doing of which man was to found
his right to promised blessings;"1 or, to use the language of
another, " in virtue of which he might thereon plead and de
mand the reward of eternal life."2 Then, viewing such a law
or covenant of works in reference to men as sinful, the works
required in it are necessarily considered as " the condition of
a sinner's justification and acceptance with God," " a law to
be done that he might be saved."3

But was a law ever given, or a covenant ever made with
man, with any such professed design ? Was it even propounded
thus to Adam in paradise ? Had he not received as a free gift
from the hand of God, before anything was exacted of him in
the way of obedience, both the principle of a divine life and an
inheritance of blessing 1 So far from needing to found by deeds
of righteousness a title to these, he came forth at the very first
fully fraught with them ; and the question with him was, not
how to obtain what he had not, but how to continue in the
enjoyment of what he already possessed. This he could no
otherwise do than by fulfilling the righteous ends for which he
had been created. To direct him towards these, therefore, must
have been, if not the sole, at least the direct and ostensible
object of whatever law was outwardly proposed to him, or in
wardly impressed upon his conscience. If the word to him
might be said to be, "Do this and live," it could only be in
the sense of his thereby continuing in the life, in the possession
and blessedness of which he was created. And it was the fond
conceit of the Pharisaical Jews, that their law was given for
purposes higher even than those for which any law was given
to man in innocence ; that they might, by obedience to law,
work out a righteousness, and acquire a title to life and glory,
which did not naturally belong to them. It is simply against
this groundless and perverse notion, which had come latterly to
diffuse its leaven through the whole Jewish mind, that our Lord
and His apostles are to be understood as speaking, when in a
manifold variety of ways they endeavour to withdraw men's

1 Bell on Covenants, p. 198.

•'ii's Notes on Marrow of Modern Divinity, p. 1, Introd.
; 11)., 1'. 1, c. 1, and the Marrow itself there; also Fraser on Rom. vii. 4,

and Chalmers' Works, vol. x., p. :M7.

164 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTU1M..

regards from the law as a source of life, and point them to the
riches of Divine grace.1

It is, then, carefully to be remembered, in regard to the Old
Testament Church, that she had two covenants connected with
her constitution — a covenant of grace as well as of law ; and
that the covenant of law, as it came last, so it took for granted
the provisions of the elder covenant of grace. It was grafted
upon this, and grew out of it. Hence, in revealing the terms
of the legal covenant, the Lord spake to the Israelites as already
their God, from whom they had received life and freedom (Ex.
xx. 2), — proclaimed Himself as the God of mercy as well as of
holiness (vers. 5, 6), — recognised their title to the inheritance as
His own sovereign gift to them (ver. 12), — thus making it clear
to all, that the covenant of law raised itself on the ground of the
previous covenant of grace, and sought to carry out this to its
legitimate consequences and proper fruits.2

That this also is the order of God's procedure with men

1 Rom. iii., vii. ; 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7; Gal. iii. 11, 21 ; Phil. iii. 8, 9; Eph.
i. 3-7 ; Tit. iii. 4-7 ; 1 John i., v. 11 ; also of our Lord's discourses, Luke
xv., xix. 1-10; John iii. 16-18, vi. 51. When He directed the lawyer,
who tempted Him with the question, " Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life ? " to the commandments of the law, and in reference to the
perfect love there required to God and man, said, " This do and thou shalt
live," it is clear He merely met the inquirer on his own ground, and aimed
at sending him away with an impression of the impossibility of obtaining
life by perfecting himself in the law's requirements. So, also, such expres
sions as that in Rom. vii. 10, of " the commandment being ordained to life"
(lit., which was for, or unto life), cannot mean that it was given to confer
life, or to show the way of obtaining it, for this is denied of any law that
ever could have been given to sinful men (Gal. iii. 21). It simply means,
that the law was given to subserve or promote the purposes of God in respect
to life.

2 The relation between the two covenants is briefly but correctly stated
by Sack in his Apologetik, p. 179 : " The matter of the law is altogether
grounded upon the covenant of promise made with Abraham. . . . The
law neither eould nor would withdraw the exercise of faith from the cove
nant of promise, or render that s-ujierfluous, but merely formed an inter
mediate provision until the fulfilment came." The relation is seldom
correctly made out by writers of the class last referred to. For example,
Boston would have the two covenants to have been revealed simultaneously
from Sinai, making the Sinaitic covenant as much a covenant of grace as of
law (on the Marrow, p. 1, c. 2). Burgess (on Mural Law and Covenants,
p. 224) represents it as properly a covenant of grace.

WHAT TIIK LAW COULD NOT DO. l''~<

under the Gospel, nothing but the most prejudiced mind can
fail to perceive. Everywhere does God there present Himself
to His people as in the first instance a giver of life and blessing,
and only •ftenmdfl as an exacter of obedience to His commands.
Their obedience, so far from entitling to salvation, can never
be acceptably rendered till they have become partakers of the
blessings of salvation. These blessings arc altogether of grace,
and are therefore received through faith. For what is faith,
but the acceptance of Heaven's grant of salvation, or a trusting
in the record in which the grant is conveyed ? So that, in the
order of each man's experience, there must be, as is fully
brought out in the Epistle to the Romans, first a participation in
the mercies of God, and then growing out of this a felt and
constraining obligation to run the way of God's commandments.
1 low can it, indeed, be otherwise ? How were it possible for
men, laden with sin, and underlying the condemnation of
Heaven, to earn anything at God's hands, or do what might
seem good in His sight, till they become partakers of grace?
Can they work up to a certain point against the stream of His
displeasure, and prosecute of themselves the process of recovery,
only requiring His supernatural aid to perfect it? To imagine
the possibility of this, were to betray an utter ignorance of the
character of God in reference to His dealings with the guilty.
He can, for His Son's sake, bestow eternal life and blessing on
the most unworthy, but He cannot stoop to treat and bargain
with men about their acquiring a title to it through their own
imperfect services. They must first receive the gift through
the channel of His own providing ; and only when they have
done this, are they in a condition to please and honour Him.
Not more certainly is faith without works dead, than all works
are dead which do not spring from the living root of faith al
ready implanted in the heart.

SECTION FIFTH.

THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE LAW WAS GIVEN, AND THE
MUTUAL INTERCONNECTION BETWIXT IT AND THE SYM
BOLICAL INSTITUTIONS.

WE proceed now to advance a step farther, and to consider
what the law was designed to do for Israel. That it did not come
with a hostile intent, we have already seen. Its object was not
to disannul the covenant of promise, or to found a new title to
gifts and blessings already conferred. It was given rather as an
handmaid to the covenant, to minister, in an inferior but still
necessary place, to the higher ends and purposes which the cove
nant itself had in view. And hence, when considered as stand
ing in that its proper place, it is fitly regarded as an additional
proof of the goodness of God towards His people : "He made
known His ways unto Moses, His statutes and His judgments
unto Israel ; He hath not dealt so with any people."

1. The first and immediate purpose for which the law was
given to Israel, was that it might serve as a revelation of the
righteousness which God expected from them as His covenant
people in the land of their inheritance. It was for this inherit
ance they had been redeemed. They were God's own peculiar
people, His children and heirs, proceeding, under the banner of
His covenant, to occupy His land. And that they might know
the high ends for which they were to be planted there, and how
these ends were to be secured, the Lord took them aside by the
way, and gave them this revelation of His righteousness. As
the land of their inheritance was emphatically God's land, so
the law which was to reign paramount there must of necessity
be His law, and that law itself the manifestation of His right
eousness. With no other view could God have stretched out
His hand to redeem a people to Himself, and with no other
testimony set them as His witnesses before the eye of the world,
on a territory peculiarly His own. For His glory, viewed in

PURPOSES FOK WHiril THE LAW WAS GIVEN. 107

respect to His moral government, is essentially bound up with
the interests of righteousness ; and those whom He destined to be
the chosen instruments for showing forth that glory in the
region prepared for them, must go thither with the revelation of
His righteousness in their hand, as the law which they were to
carry out into all the relations of public and private life.

The same thing might be said in this respect of the land as
a whole, which the Psalmist declares in reference to its spiritual
centre — the place on which the tabernacle was pitched : " Lord,
who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy
holy hill ? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteous
ness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." — (Ps. xv.) And
again in Psalm xxiv.: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord ? and who shall stand in His holy place ? He that hath
clean hands, and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul
to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." There can be no doubt that
the character here meant to be delineated is that of the true
servants of God as contradistinguished from hypocrites — of the
real denizens of His kingdom, whose high distinction it was to
be dwellers and sojourners with Him. The going up to the
hill of God, standing in His holy place, or abiding in His taber
nacle, is merely an image to express this spiritual idea. The
land as a whole being God's land, the people as a whole should
also have been found dwelling as guests, or sojourning with
Him. — (Lev. xxv. 23.) But this they could only be in reality,
the Psalmist means to say, if they possessed the righteous
character he delineates. In both of the delineations he gives,
it is impossible to overlook a reference to the precepts of the
decalogue. And that such delineations should have been given
at a time when the tabernacle service was in the course of being
set up anew with increased splendour, was plainly designed to
sound a warning in the ears of the people, that whatever regard
should be paid to the solemnities of worship, it was still the
righteousness in thought, word, and deed, as required in the
precepts of the decalogue, which God pre-eminently sought.
This was what peculiarly fitted them for the place they occu
pied, and the destiny they had to fill. Hence, not only the
righteousness of the decalogue in general, but that especially
of the second table, is made prominent in the description, be-

1G8 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

cause hypocrites have so many ways of counterfeiting the works
of the first table.1

It makes no essential alteration on the law in this point of
view, that it was made to assume the form of a covenant. For
what sort of covenant was it ? And with what object ratified ?
Not as an independent and separate revelation ; but only, as
already stated, an handmaid to the previously existing covenant
of promise. On this last, as the divine root of all life and bless
ing, it was grafted; and rising from the ground which that
former covenant provided, it proceeded to develop the require
ments of righteousness, which the members of the covenant
ought to have fulfilled. It was merely to impart greater solem
nity to this revelation of righteousness — to give to its calls of
duty a deeper impression and firmer hold upon the conscience —
to render it clear and palpable, that the things required in it
were not of loose and uncertain, but of most sure and indispens
able obligation, — it was for such reasons alone that the law,
after being proclaimed from Sinai, was solemnly ratified as a
covenant. By this most sacred of religious transactions the
Israelites were taken bound as a people to aim continually at
the fulfilment of its precepts. But its having been turned into
a covenant did not confer on it a different character from that
which belonged to it as a rule of life and conduct, or materially
affect the results that sprung either from obedience or disobe
dience to its demands ; nor was any effect contemplated beyond
that of adding to its moral weight and deepening its hold upon
the conscience. And the very circumstance of its being ratified
as a covenant, having God in the relation of a Redeemer for
one of the contracting parties, was fraught with comfort and
encouragement; since an assurance was thus virtually given,
that what God in the one covenant of law required His people
to do, He stood pledged in the other covenant of promise \\ith
His Divine help to aid them in performing. The blood of the
covenant as much involved a Divine obligation to confer the
grace to obey, as it bound them to render the obedience. So
that, while there was in this transaction something fitted to
lighten rather than to aggravate the burden of the law's yoke,
there was, at the same time, what involved the necessity of com-
1 See Hengstenberg and Calvin on Ps. xv. 2.

PURPOSES FOK wincn TIII-: LAW WAS CIVKN. 169

pliance with tin- tenor of its requirements, and took away all
excuse from the wilfully disobedient.

The sum of the matter, then, was this : The seed of Abra
ham, as God's acknowledged children and heirs, were going to
receive for their possession the land which He claimed as more
peculiarly His own. But they must go and abide there par
takers also of His character of holiness, for thus alone could
they either glorify His name or enjoy His blessing. And so,
bringing them as He did from the region of pollution, He would
not suffer them to plant their foot within its sacred precincts,
until He had disclosed to them the great lines of religious and
moral duty, in which the resemblance most essentially stands to
His character of holiness, and taken them bound by the most
solemn engagement to have the pattern of excellence set before
them, as far as possible, realized in practice, through all the
dwellings of Canaan. Had they been but faithful to their
engagement — had they as a people striven in earnest through
the grace offered them in the one covenant to exemplify the
character of the righteous man exhibited in the other, " delight
ing in the law of the Lord, and meditating therein day and
night," then in their condition they should assuredly have been
" like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth
his fruit in his season, whose leaf doth not wither, and whatso
ever he doth prospereth." Canaan would then, indeed, have
verified the description of a land flowing with milk and honey.

We thus see, in the immediate purposes of God respecting
Israel, a sufficient reason for the introduction of the law, and
for the prominent place assigned to it in the Divine dispensa
tion. But if we connect the immediate with the ultimate design
of God in this portion of His dealings, we see the absolute
necessity of what was done, in order to make the past a faithful
representation of the future. Canaan stood to the eye of faith
the type of heaven ; and the character and condition of its
inhabitants should have presented the image of what theirs shall
be, who have entered on the kingdom prepared for them before
the foundation of the world. The condition of such, we are
well assured, shall be all blessedness and glory. The region of
their inheritance shall be Immamiers land, where the vicissi
tudes of evil and the pangs of suffering shall be alike unknown,

170 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

— where everything shall reflect the effulgent glory of its
Divine Author, and streams of purest delight shall be ever
flowing to satisfy the souls of the redeemed. But it is never to
be forgotten, that their condition shall be thus replenished with
all that is attractive and good, because their character shall first
have become perfect in holiness. No otherwise than as con
formed to Christ's image can they share with Him in His in
heritance ; for the kingdom of which they ai'e the destined heirs
is one which the unrighteous cannot inherit, nor shall corrup
tion in any form or degree be permitted to dwell in it. " Its
people shall be till righteous " — that is their first characteristic ;
and the second, depending upon this, and growing out of it as
its proper result, is, that they shall be all filled with the goodness
and glory of the Lord.

Hence, in addition to the moral ends of a direct and imme
diate kind which required to be accomplished, it was necessary
also, in this point of view, to make the experience of God's
ancient people, in connection with the land of promise, turn
upon their relation to the law. As He could not permit them
to enter the inheritance without first placing them under the
discipline of the law, so neither could He permit them after
wards to enjoy the good of the land, while they lived in neglect
of the righteousness the law required. In both respects, the
type became sadly marred in the event ; and the image it pre
sented of the coming realities of heaven, was to be seen only in
occasional lines and broken fragments. The people were so far
from being all righteous, that the greater part were ever harden
ing their hearts in sin. On their part, a false representation was
given of the moral perfection of the future world ; and it was
in the highest degree impossible that God on His part should
countenance their backsliding so as notwithstanding to render
their state a full representation of its perfection in outward bliss.
He must of necessity trouble the condition and change the lot
of His people, in proportion as sin obtained a footing among
them. The less there was of heaven's righteousness in their
character, the less always must there be of its blessedness and
glory in their condition ; — until at last the Lord was constrained
to say : " Because they have forsaken My law which I set
before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked

PURPOSES FOR WHICH Till. I..UV WAS GIVEN. 171

therein ; but have walked after the imagination of their own
heart : therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel ; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and give
them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among
the heathen, and will send a sword after them, till I have
consumed them."1 Such were the imperfections of the type;
let us rejoice that in the antitype similar imperfections can have
no place. All there stands firm and secure in the unchanging
faithfulness of Jehovah ; and it will be as impossible for sin as
for adversity and trouble to have a place in the heavenly Canaan.
The view now presented as to the primary reason for the
giving of the law, is in perfect accordance with what is stated
by the Apostle in Gal. iii. 19: "Wherefore, then, serveth the
law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed
should come to whom the promise was made." The meaning
is, it was added to the provisions and blessings secured in the
earlier covenant of promise, because of the disposition in the
hearts of the people to transgress the obligations under which
they stood, and fall in with the corruptions of the world. To
check this disposition — to keep their minds under the discipline
of a severe and holy restraint — and circumscribe and limit their
way, so that no excuse or liberty should be left them to turn
aside from the right path — for this reason the law was added to
the covenant. But for that inherent proneness to sin, now
sufficiently made manifest, there should have been no need for
such an addition. Had the members of the covenant thoroughly
imbibed its spirit, and responded as they should have done to the
love God had manifested toward them in making good its pro
visions, they would of themselves have been inclined to do the
things which were contained in the law. This, however, they
were not ; and hence the law came, presupposing and building
upon the moral aim of the covenant, and more stringently bind
ing upon their consciences the demands of righteousness, in
order to stem the current of their sinful inclinations. It was to
these inclinations alone that the law carried a hostile and frown
ing aspect : in respect to the people themselves, it came as a
minister of good, and not of evil; and so far from being op
posed to the promises of the covenant, it was rather to be viewed
1 Jer. ix. 13-16.

1 72 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

{is a friendly monitor and guide, directing the people how to
continue in the blessing of the covenant, and fulfil the ends for
which it was established.

2. There was, however, another great reason for the law
being given, which is also perhaps alluded to by the Apostle in
the passage just noticed, when he limits the use of the law, in
reference to transgressions, to the period before Christ's appear
ance. Christ was to be pre-eminently the seed of promise,
through whom the blessings of the covenant were to be secured;
and when He should come, as a more perfect state of things
would then be introduced, the law would no longer be required
as it was before. While, therefore, it had an immediate and
direct purpose to serve in restraining the innate tendency to
transgression, it might be said to have had the further end in
view of preparing the minds of men for that coining seed. And
this it was fitted to do precisely through the same property
which rendered it suitable for accomplishing the primary design,
viz., the perfect revelation it gave of the righteousness of Heaven.
It brought the people into contact with the moral character of
God, and bound them by covenant sanctions and engagements
to make that the standard after which they should endeavour to
regulate their conduct. But conscience, enlightened and aroused
by the lofty ideal of truth and duty thus presented to it, became
but the more sensible of transgressions committed against the
righteousness required. Instead of being a witness to which
men could appeal in proof of their having fulfilled the high ends
for which they had been chosen and redeemed by God, the law
rather did the part of an accuser, testifying against them of
broken vows and violated obligations. And thus keeping per
petually alive upon the conscience a sense of guilt, it served to
awaken in the hearts of those who really understood its spiritual
meaning, a feeling of the need, and a longing expectation of
the coming, of Him who was to bring in the more perfect state
of things, and take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

The certainty of this effect both having been from the first
designed, and also to some extent produced, by the law, will
always appear the more obvious, the more clearly we perceive
the connection between the law and the ritual of worship, and
see how inadequately the violations of the one seemed to have

PURPOSES FOi; winni TIM: \..\\\ WAS GIVEN. 173

been met by the provisions of the other. We shall have occasion
to refer to this more fully under the next division. But in
some of the confessions of the Old Testament saints, we have
undoubted indications of the feeling that the law, which they
stood bound to obey, contained a breadth of spiritual require
ment which they were far from having reached, and brought
against them charges of guilt from which they could obtain no
satisfactory deliverance by any means of expiation then provided.
The dread which God's manifested presence inspired, even in
such seraphic bosoms as Isaiah's, " Wo is me, for I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of Hosts," is itself a proof of this ; for it
betokened a conscience much more alive to impressions of guilt
than to the blessings of forgiveness and peace. It showed that
the law of righteousness had written its convictions of sin too
deeply on the tablet of the heart for the ceremonial institutions
thoroughly to supplant them by the full sense of reconciliation.
But a still more decided testimony to the same effect was given
by the Psalmist, when, in compositions designed for the public
service of God, and of course expressing the sentiments of all
sincere worshippers, he at once celebrated the law of God as
everv way excellent and precious, and at the same time spake of
it as "exceeding broad," — felt that it accused him of iniquities
"more in number than the hairs of his head;" so that if "the
Lord were strict to mark them, none should be able to stand
before Him" — nay, sometimes found himself in such a sense a
sinner, that no sacrifice or offering could be accepted, and his
soul was left without any ostensible means of atonement and
cleansing, — with nothing indeed to rest upon, but an uncondi
tional forgiveness on God's part, and renewed surrender on its
own.— (Ps. li.)

It was this tendency of the law to beget deep convictions of
sin, and to leave upon the mind such a felt want of satisfaction,
which truly disposed enlightened consciences to give a favourable
hearing to the doctrines of the Gospel, and to rejoice in the
consolation brought in by Christ. It was this which gave in
their minds such emphasis to the contrast, "The law came by
Muses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," and which
led St Paul to hold it out as an especial ground of comfort to

174 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

believers in Christ, that " by Him they might be justified from
all things from which they could not be justified by the law of
Moses." It was this feature also of the law which the same
Apostle had more particularly in his eye, when he described it
as a " schoolmaster to lead men to Christ," shutting them up,
by its stern requirements and wholesome discipline, to the faith
which was afterwards to be revealed. And the contrast which
he draws in the third chapter of the second Epistle to the
Corinthians, between the law and the Gospel, proceeds entirely
upon the same ground in reference to the law; that is, it is
viewed simply as by itself, in the matter of its precepts, a re
velation of the perfect righteousness of God, and, apart from
the covenant of promise, with which it was connected, fitted
only to inspire fear and trembling, or to bring condemnation
and death. He therefore calls it the ministration of condemna
tion, a letter that killeth, as in Rom. vii. 10 he testifies of having
found it in his own experience to be unto death. The Apostle
does not mean to say that this was properly the object for which
the law was given, for then it had come directly to oppose and
subvert the covenant of promise ; but that it was an inseparable
effect attending it, arising from the perfection of its character
as a rule of righteousness, compared with the manifold imper
fections and sins ever discovering themselves among men. And
hence it only required spiritual minds, such as would enter
thoroughly into the perception of the law's character, first to
make them deeply sensible of their own guilt, and then to
awaken in them the desire of something higher and better than
was then provided for the true consolation of Israel.

An important connection thus arises between the law and
the Gospel, and both are seen to hold respectively their proper
places in the order of the Divine dispensations. " It is true,"
as Tholuck has remarked with sound discrimination, " that the
New Testament speaks more of grace than of sin ; but did it
not on this very account presuppose the existence of the Old
Covenant with the law, and a God who is an holy and jealous
God, that will not pass by transgression and sin? The Old
Covenant was framed for the conviction of sin, the New for the
forgiveness of sin. The moral law, which God has written in
indelible lines upon the heart of every man, was once also pro-

PURPOSES FOI: wnicii TIM: LAW WAS GIVEN. 17.')

claimed with much solemnity from Sinai, that it might be clear
that God, who appci:uvd in liiv and flame as the revealer of His
holy law, is the same who has imprinted the image of holiness
deep in the secret chambers of the bosom. Is not Israel, inces
santly resisting with his stiff neck the God of love, until he
has always again been reduced to subjection by the God of fiery
indignation, an image of proud humanity in its constant war
fare against God, who seeks to conquer them by anger and
love ?" 1 Hence the order of God's dispensations is substantially
also the order of each man's experience. The sinner must be
humbled and bruised by the law — that is, through the manifesta
tion of God's righteousness, he must have his conscience aroused
to a sense of sin — before he can be brought heartily to acquiesce
in the Gospel method of salvation. Therefore, not only had the
way of Christ to be prepared by one who with a voice of terror
preached anew the law's righteousness and threatenings, but
Christ Himself also needed to enter on the blessed work of the
world's evangelization, by unfolding the wide extent and deep
spirituality of the law's requirements. For how large a portion
of the Sermon on the Mount is taken up in giving a clear and
searching exposition of the law's righteousness, and rescuing it
from the false and extenuating glosses under which it had been
buried ! Nay, Christ, during His personal ministry, could pro
ceed but a small way in openly revealing the grace of the Gos
pel, because, after all, the work of the law was so imperfectly
done in the hearts even of His own disciples. And so still in
the experience of men at large ; it is because the sense and
condemnation of sin are so seldom felt, that the benefits of sal
vation are so little known.2

3. The necessary connection that subsisted between the law
and the ceremonial institutions of the Old Testament, may be

1 From a work, Die Lehre von der Sunde und von Vereohner, as quoted
by Bialloblotzky, De Abrogatione Legis, p. 82, 83.

2 The use of the law now described, though properly but its secondary
design, is very commonly given by popular writers of this country as its
chief, or almost only, use to the Israelites. Thus Bell, on Cov., p. 1 li'.
speaking of God's design in giving the law from Sinai, says, u God gave it
in subserviency to the promise, to show unto sinners tin ir transgression and
their guilt, and of consequence to drive them unto it." So another still

176 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

given as a still further reason of its revelation and enactment ;
although, when properly understood, this was not so much a
distinct and separate end, as a combination of the two already
specified. This law, perfect in its character and perpetual in
its obligation, formed the groundwork of all the symbolical
services afterwards imposed ; as was distinctly implied in the
place chosen for its permanent position. For as the centre of
all Judaism was the tabernacle, so the centre of this again was
the law — the ark, which stood enshrined in the Most Holy Place,
being made for the sole purpose of keeping the two tables of
the covenant. So that the reflection could hardly fail to force
itself on all considerate and intelligent worshippers, that the
observance of this law was the great end of the religion then
established. Nor could any other use be imagined, of the
strictly religious rites and institutions which so manifestly
pointed to this law as their common ground and centre, than
either to assist as means in preserving alive the knowledge of
its principles, and promoting their observance, or as remedies
to provide against the evils naturally arising from its neglect
and violation.

These two objects plainly harmonize with the reasons already
assigned for the giving of the law, and present the ceremonial
services and institutions to our view as partly subservient to the
righteousness it enjoined, and partly conducive to its ulterior
end of drawing men to Christ. It will be our endeavour in the
next Book to bring fully out and illustrate this relation between
the law of the two tables and the symbols of Judaism ; but
at present we must content ourselves with briefly indicating its
general nature.

(1.) In so far as those symbols had in view the first of the
objects just mentioned, they are to be regarded in the same

more strongly : " God made it (viz., the covenant of law, which is regarded
by the author as the same with the covenant of works) with the Israelites
for no other end than that man, being thereby convinced of his weakness,
might flee unto Christ."— (Marrow of Modern Div., P. i., c. 2.) Their put
ting this design first, and making it in a manner all, arose from their
viewing the religion of the Old Covenant too exclusively in a typical aspect,
as if the things belonging to it had not also had another and more direct
bearing.

PURPOSES FOK WHICH THE LAW WAS (II YEN. 177

general light as the means and ordinances of grace under the
New Testament. It is through these that the knowledge of the
Gospel is diffused, its divine principles implanted in the hearts
of men, and a suitable channel also provided for expressing the
thoughts and feelings which the reception of the Gospel tends to
awaken. Such also was one great design of the law's sym
bolical institutions, though with a characteristic difference suited
to the time of their appointment. They were formal, precise,
imperative, as for persons in comparative childhood, who re
quired to be kept under the bonds of a rigid discipline, and a
discipline that should chiefly work from without inwards, so as
to form the soul to right thoughts and feelings, while, at the
same time, it provided appropriate services for the exercise of
such when formed. Appointed for these ends, the institutions
could not be of an arbitrary nature, as if the authoritative com
mand of God were the only reason that could be assigned for
their appointment, or as if the external service were required
simply on its own account. They stood to the law in the stricter
sense — the law of the ten commandments — in the relation of
expressive signs and faithful monitors, perpetually urging upon
men's consciences, and impressing, as it were, upon their senses,
the essential distinctions between right and wrong, which the
law plainly revealed and established. The symbolical ordinances
did not create these distinctions ; they did not of themselves
even indicate wherein the distinctions stood ; and in this partly
appeared their secondary and subservient position as compared
with the law of the two tables. The ordinance, for example,
respecting clean and unclean in food, pointed to a distinction in
the moral sphere — to one class of things to be avoided as evil,
and another to be sought after as good ; but it gave no intima
tion as to what the one or the other actually was : for this, it
pointed to the two tables of the covenant. Or, to look to another
ordinance, why should the touch of the dead have defiled? The
touch might come by accident, or even in the discharge of
domestic duty ; yet defilement was not the less its result; and
only after a series of lustrations could the subjects of it return
to the freedom and privileges of God's covenant. The reason
was, that as the children of the living God, they should have
been conscious only of righteousness and life : neither sin nor
VOL. II. M

178 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

death (which is the wages of sin) should have been found within
their borders. And so, to constitute the visitation of death, or
even the touch of a dead man's bone, into a ground of defilement,
was virtually to admonish them of the accursed nature of sin,
and of their still abiding connection with the region where sin
was working. In short, it ought to be held as a most certain
principle, that in the ceremonialism of the Old Covenant nothing
was simply ceremonial : the spirit of the whole was the spirit of
the ten commandments.

Such being the connection between the moral law in the
legislation of Moses, and the symbolical rites and services an
nexed to it, it was plainly necessary that the latter required to
be wisely arranged, both in kind and number, so as fitly to pro
mote the ends of their appointment. They were not outward
rites and services of any sort. The outward came into existence
merely for the sake of the religious and moral elements embodied
in it, for the spiritual lessons it conveyed, or the sentiments of
godly fear and brotherly love it was fitted to awaken. And
that such ordinances should not only exist, but also be spread
out into a vast multiplicity of forms, was a matter of necessity ;
as the dispensation then set up admitted so veiy sparingly of
direct instruction, and was comparatively straitened in its sup
plies of inward grace. Imperfect as those outward ordinances
were, — so imperfect, that they were at last done away as unpro
fitable, — the members of the Old Covenant were still chiefly de
pendent upon them for having the character of the Divine law-
exhibited to their minds, and its demands kept fresh upon the
conscience. It was therefore fit that they should not only per
vade the strictly religious territory, but should even be carried
beyond it, embracing all the more important relations of life,
that the Israelite might thus find something in what he ordi
narily saw and did, — in the very food he ate, and the garments
he wore, — to remind him of the law of his God, and stimulate
him to the cultivation of that righteousness which it was his
paramount duty to cherish and exemplify.

AVere these things duly considered, another and worthier
reason would easily be discovered for the occasional interming
ling of the moral and the ceremonial parts of the Mosaic legis
lation, than what is very commonly assigned. This did not

PURPOSES FOK \\IIini Till: I..UV WAS GIVEN. 179

arise from a confounding of the positive and moral, the shadowy
and tin- abiding, as if they stood upon the same level, and no
distinction \\i-n- recognised betwixt them. The position of the
law of the ten commandments in the ark of the covenant, as we
have already stated, to say nothing of the other marks of dis
tinction belonging to it, stood as a perpetual sign before the
eyes of the people, that the things there enjoined held im
measurably the highest rank. It is, in truth, the most sublime
exaltation of the moral above all material symbols of revelation,
<>r ceremonial forms of worship, to be found in the religious annals
of antiquity. In heathendom there is nothing to be compared
with it, nor in the after-history of the covenant people is there
anything that can justly be placed above it. The elevated
moral teaching of the prophets is but the reflection, or specific
and varied application, of what stood embodied before them in
the lofty pattern exhibited in the handwriting of Moses, wherein
the ceremonial was appointed only for the sake of the moral,
and in a relation of subservience to it.

From the views now unfolded, an important conclusion fol
lows of a practical kind : for, since the symbolical institutions
of Judaism continually bore respect to the moral law, and in a
manner re-echoed its testimony, it is plain that God never could
be satisfied with a mere outward conformity to the letter of the
Mosaic ritual. Support has often been sought in Scripture
itself for such an idea, especially in regard to the sacrifices ; and
the prophets have not unfrequently been represented as by their
teaching serving to correct the tendency of the law in this
respect, and going far in advance of it. The prophets, however,
only comparatively depreciated the ceremonial institutions of
the law (for at fitting times they also zealously enjoined their
observance, Ps. li. 19, cxviii. 27 ; Isa. xliii. 23, 24, Ivi. 7 ; Mai.
i. 11, iii. 9, iv. 4, etc.), and for the purpose of meeting a corrupt
tendency among the people, to lay undue stress on merely out-
ward rites and services. But, in reality, the law itself, when pro
perly understood, did tin- saim-. No one who looked into it with
a considerate spirit could avoid the impression, that " to obey was
In -Her than sacrifice ;" and that they who made the outward cere
monies of one part a substitute for the spiritual reqoiremetitl of
another, were taking counsel of their own hearts, rather than

180 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

sitting at the feet of Moses, llengstenberg justly remarks,
that " there cannot be produced out of the whole Old Testa
ment one single passage, in which the notion that sacrifices of
themselves, and apart from the state of mind in the offerers, are
well-pleasing to God, is noticed, except for the purpose of vigo
rously opposing it. When, for example, in Lev. xxvi. 31, it is
said in reference to the ungodly, ' I will not smell the savour of
your sweet odours ;' and when, in Gen. iv. 4, 5, we find that,
along with an outward similarity, the offerings of Cain and
Abel met with such a different reception from God, and that
this difference is represented as being based on something per
sonal to the individuals, it is all but expressly asserted, that
sacrifices were regarded only as expressive of the inner senti
ment."1 And again: "That the law, with all its appearance
of outwardness, still possessed throughout a religious-moral, an
internal, spiritual character, is manifest from the fact, that the
two internal commands of love to God and one's neighbour
are in the law itself represented as those in which all the rest
lie enclosed, the fulfilment of which carried along with it the
fulfilment of all individual precepts, and without which no obe
dience was practicable : ( And now, Israel, what does the Lord
thy God require of thee,' etc. — (Deut. x. 12, vi. 5, xi. 1, 13,
xiii. 3, xxx. 15, 20; Lev. xix. 18.) If everything in the law is
made to turn upon love, it is self-evident that a dead bodily
service could not be what was properly required. Besides, in
Lev. xxvi. 41, the violation of the law is represented as the
necessary product of ' an uncircumcised heart;' and in Deut. x.
10 we find the remarkable words: 'And ye shall circumcise
the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked,' — which
condemn all Pharisaism, that is ever expecting good fruit from
bad trees, and would gather grapes from thorns, and figs from
thistles."'2 — What is called the ceremonial law, therefore, was, in
its more immediate and primary aspect, an exhibition by means
of symbolical rites and institutions of the righteousness enjoined
in the decalogue, and a discipline through which the heart
might be wrought into some conformity to the righteousness
itself.

(2.) But the more fully the ceremonial parts of the Mosaic
1 Introduc. to Ps. xxxii. 2 Authentic, ii., p. 611, 612.

PURPOSKS FOR wincii Tin; LAW WAS GIVEN. 181

legislation were fitted to accomplish this end, they must so much
the more liavi- traded to help forward the other end of the law,
viz., to produce conviction of sin, and prepare the heart for
Christ. " r>\ tin- law is the knowledge of sin" — the sense of
shortcomings and transgressions is in exact proportion to the
insight that has been obtained into its true spiritual meaning.
And the manifold restrictions and services of a bodily kind
which were imposed upon the Israelites, as they all spoke of
holiness and sin, so, where their voice was honestly listened to,
it must have been with the effect of begetting impressions of
guilt. They were perpetually uttering without the sanctuary
the cry of transgression, which was rising within, under the
throne of God, from the two tables of testimony. They might
even be said to do more ; for of them more peculiarly does it
hold, "They entered that the offence might abound," since,
while calling upon men to abstain from sin, they at the same
time multiplied the occasions of offence. The strict limitations
and numerous requirements of service, through which they did
the one, render it unavoidable that they should also do the
other ; as they thus necessarily made many things to be sin
which were not so before, or in their own nature, and conse
quently increased both the number of transgressions, and their
burden upon the conscience. How comparatively difficult must
it have been to apprehend through so many occasions and wit
nesses of guilt the light of God's reconciliation and love ! How
often must the truly spiritual heart have felt as heavy laden
with its yoke, and scarcely able to bear it ! And how glad
should have been to all the members of the covenant the tidings
of that " liberty with which Christ makes His people free !"

This, however, was not the whole. Had the ceremonial
institutions and services simply co-operated with the decalogue
in producing upon men's minds a conviction of guilt, and shut
ting them up to the necessity of salvation, the yoke of bondage
would have been altogether intolerable, and despair rather than
the hope of salvation must have been the consequence. They so
far differed, however, from the precepts of the law, that they pro
vided ;i pivsL-nt atonement for the sin which the law mudi-mnrd
— met the conscious defect of righteousness which the law pro
duced, with vicarious sacrifices and bodily lustrations. But

182 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

these, as formerly noticed, were so manifestly inadequate to the
end in view, that though they might, from being God's own
appointed remedies, restore the troubled conscience to a state of
peace, they could not thoroughly satisfy it. First of all, they
betrayed their own insufficiency, by allowing certain fearful
gaps in the list of transgressions to stand unprovided for. Be
sides, the comparatively small distinction that was made, as
regards purification, between mere bodily defilements and moral
pollution, and the absolute necessity of resorting anew to the
blood of atonement, as often as the sense of guilt again returned,
were plain indications that such services " could not make the
comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the conscience." To
the thoughtful mind it must have seemed as if a struggle was
continually proceeding between God's holiness and the sin of
His creatures, in which the former found only a most imperfect
vindication. For what just comparison could be made between
the forfeited life of an accountable being and the blood of an
irrational victim ? Or between the defilements of a polluted con
science and the external washings of the outward man ? Surely
considerate and pious minds must have felt the need of some
thing greatly more valuable to compensate for the evil done
by sin, and must have seen, in the existing means of purifica
tion, only the temporary substitutes of better things to come.
Such, at least, was the ultimate design of God ; and whatever
may have been the extent or clearness of view in those who
lived among the shadows of the law, regarding the coming
realities of the Gospel, it is impossible that they should have
entered into the spirit of the former dispensation without being
prepared to hail a suffering Messiah as the only true consolation
of Israel ; and prepared also to join in the song of the redeemed,
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
blessing." 1

At the same time, there can be no doubt that here peculiarly

1 It is assumed here, that the sacrifices appointed under the law were
intended to meet the sense of guilt produced by the law, and provide for it
a present relief — the one, therefore, having to do with moral considerations
as well as the other. But see this point formally discussed in connection
with the sin-offeriny, Ch. III., sec. 7.

PURPOSES FOR WHICH Till. LAW WAS GIVEN. 183

lay the danger of the members of the Old Covenant — a danger,
which the issue too clearly proved, that but a small proportion
of them were able properly to surmount. Not seeing to the
end of the things amid which they were placed, and wanting
the incalculable advantage of the awful revelation of God's
righteousness in Christ, the law failed to teach them effectually
of the nature of that righteousness, or to convince them of sin,
or to prepare them for the reception of the Saviour. But fail
ing in these grand points, the law became a stumbling-block
and a hindrance in their path. For now men's consciences
adjusted themselves to the imperfect appearances of things, and
acted much in the spirit of those in present times, who, as a
sensible and pious writer expresses it, " try to bring up the
power of free-will to holiness, by bringing holiness down to the
power of free-will."1 The dead letter, consequently, became
everything with them ; they saw nothing beneath the outward
shell, nor felt any need for other and higher realities than those
with which they had immediately to do. Self-righteousness was
the inevitable result ; and that, rooting itself the more deeply,
and raising more proudly aloft its pretensions, that it had to
travel the round of so complicated a system of laws and ordi
nances. For, great as the demand was which the observance of
these made upon the obedience, still, as viewed by the carnal eye,
it was something that could be measured and done — not so huge
but that the mind could grapple with its accomplishment ; and
hence, instead of undermining the pride of nature, only supply
ing it with a greater mass of materials for erecting its claims on
the favour of Heaven. The spirit of self-righteousness was the
prevailing tendency of the carnal mind under the Old Dispensa
tion, as an unconcern about personal righteousness is under the
New. How many were snared by it ! and how fatally bound !
Of all "the spirits in prison" to whom the word of the Gospel
came with its offers of deliverance, those proved to be the most
hopelessly incarcerated in the strongholds of error, who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous, and stumbled at the
rock of a free salvation.

1 Fraser ou Sanctification, p. 298.

SECTION SIXTH.

THE RELATION OF BELIEVERS UNDER THE NEW TESTAMENT
TO THE LAW — IN WHAT SENSE THEY ARE FREE FROM IT —
AND WHY IT IS NO LONGER PROPER TO KEEP THE SYMBOLI
CAL INSTITUTIONS CONNECTED WITH IT.

THE relation of believers under the New Testament to the law
has been a fruitful subject of controversy among divines. This
has arisen chiefly from the apparently contradictory statements
made respecting it in New Testament Scripture ; and this,
again, partly from the change introduced by the setting up of
the more spiritual machinery of the Gospel dispensation, and
partly also in consequence of the mistaken views entertained
regarding the law by those to whom the Gospel first came,
which required to be corrected by strong representations of an
opposite description. Thus, on the one hand, we find our Lord
saying, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I
say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whoso
ever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the king
dom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them, the
same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."1 Stronger
language could not possibly be employed to assert the abiding
force and obligation of the law's requirements under the New
Testament dispensation ; for that this is specially meant by
" the kingdom of heaven," is too obvious to require any proof.
In perfect conformity with this statement of our Lord, we find
the apostles everywhere enforcing the duties enjoined in the
law ; as when St James describes the genuine Christian by
" his looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing
therein," and exhorts the disciples " not to speak evil of the
1 Matt. v. 17-19.

THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE LAW. 185

law, or to judge it, but to fulfil it;"1 or when the Apostle
Paul not only speaks of himself as " being under the law to
Christ,"2 but presses on the disciples at Koine and Galatia the
constant exercise of love on the ground of its being " the ful
filling of the law;"3 and in answer to the question, "Do we
then make void the law through faith ?" he replies, u God for
bid : yea, we establish the law."4

But, on the other hand, when we turn to a different class of
passages, we meet with statements that seem to run in the pre
cisely opposite direction, especially in the writings of St Paul.
There alone, indeed, do we meet with them in the form of dog
matical assertions, although in a practical fonn the same ele
ment of thought occurs in the other epistles. In the first Epistle
to Timothy he lays this down as a certain position, that " the
law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient."6 And in the Epistle to the Romans he indicates
a certain contrast between the present state of believers in this
respect with what it was under the former dispensation, and
asserts that the law no longer occupies the place it once did :
" Now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that
wherein we were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit,
and not in the oldness of the letter."6 And again : " Sin shall
not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but
under grace." 7

That in all these passages the law, in the strict and proper
sense, is meant, — the law of the ten commandments, the sum of
whose precepts is perfect love to God and man, — we may here
take for granted, after what has been said regarding it in the
first section of this chapter. It seems perfectly unaccountable,
on any grounds of criticism at least, that so many English
writers should have thought of solving the difficulty arising from
the use of such language, by alleging the Apostle to have had
in view simply the ceremonial law, as contradistinguished from
the moral. This view, we should imagine, is now nearly ex
ploded among the better-informed students of Scripture ; for

1 -his. i. 25, ii. 8-12. 3 1 Cor. ix. I'l.

8 Rom. xiii. 10 ; Gal. v. 14. 4 Rom. iii. 31.

5 1 Tim. i. 9. 6 Rom. vii. 6.

" Rom. vi. 14.

186 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

not only does the Apostle, as Archbishop Whately states, speak
of the freedom of Christians from the law, " without limiting or
qualifying the assertion, without even hinting at any distinction
between moral and ceremonial or civil precepts," but there can
be no doubt that it is what is commonly understood by the moral
part of the Mosaic legislation — the decalogue — that he has spe
cially and properly in view.1

In what respect, then, can it be said of Christians, that they
are freed from this law, or are not under it ? We must first
answer the question in a general way ; after which only can we
be prepared for pointing out distinctly wherein the relation of
the members of the New Covenant to the law differs from that
of those who lived under the Old.

1. Believers in Christ are not under the law as to the ground
of their condemnation or justification before God. It is not the
law, but Christ, that they are indebted to for pardon and life ;
and receiving these from Him as His gift of grace, they cannot
be brought by the law into condemnation and death. The
reason is, that Christ has, by His own pure and spotless obe
dience, done what the law, in the hands of fallen humanity,
could not do — He has brought in the everlasting righteousness,
which, by its infinite worth, has merited eternal life for as
many as believe upon Him. " There is therefore now no con
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ; " " Whosoever
believeth upon Him is justified from all things ; " or, in the still
stronger and more comprehensive language of Christ Himself,
" He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
hath passed from death to life."2

This, it will be perceived, is what is commonly understood
by deliverance from the law as a covenant. But it is proper to
remark, that though the idea expressed in such language is

1 The work of Fraser on Sanctification, which has been less known in
England than it should have been, ia perfectly conclusive against Locke,
Hammond, Whitby, and others, that the Apostle in Romans had in view
the moral rather than the ceremonial law. It is impossible, indeed, that
such a notion could ever have been entertained by such men except through
strong doctrinal prejudices.

2 Rom. viii. 1 ; Acts xiii. 39 ; John. v. '24.

TIN: IM'.LATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE LAW. 187

scriptural, the language itself is not so, and is rather fitted to
mislead; for it appears to imply that, as the law certainly
formed the basis of a covenant with the Old Testament Church,
its being so tunned made it something else than a rule of life,
and warranted the Israelites to look to it, in the first instance at
least, for life and blessing. This, we have already shown, was
not the purpose for which the law was either given or established
as a covenant among them ; and deliverance from it in the sense
mentioned above, marks no essential distinction between the case
of believers under the Old and that of those under the New
Testament dispensation. The standing of the one as well as
the other was in grace ; and when the law came, it came not
for the purpose of subverting or changing that constitution, but
only to direct and oblige men to carry out the important ends
for which they had been made partakers of grace and blessing.
Strictly speaking, therefore, the Church never was under the
law as a covenant, in the sense commonly understood by the
term ; it was only the mistake of the carnal portion of her
members to suppose themselves to have been so. But as God
Himself is unchangeable in holiness, the demands of His law,
as revealed to men in grace, must be substantially the same as
those which they are bound in nature to comply with under
pain of His everlasting displeasure. In this respect all may be
said, by the very constitution of their being, to be naturally
under law to God, and, as transgressors of law, liable to punish
ment. But through the grace of God we have ceased to be so
under it, if we have become true believers in Christ. We have
pardon and acceptance through faith in His blood; and even
though "in many things offending, and in all coming short,"
yet, while faith abides in us, we cannot come into condemna
tion. To this belong all such passages as treat of justification,
and declare it to be granted without the law, or the deeds of the
law, to the ungodly, and as God's gift of grace in Christ.

'2. But this is not the only respect in which the Apostle
aiiinns believers now to be free from the law, nor the respect at
all which lie has in view in the sixth and seventh chapters of
his Epistle to the Romans ; for the subject he is there handling
is not justification, but sanctification. The question lie is dis
cussing is not how, as condemned and sinful creatures, we may

188 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

be accepted as righteous before God ; but how, being already
pardoned and accepted in the Beloved, we ought to live. In
this respect, also, he affirms that we are dead to the law, and are
not under it, but under grace — the grace, that is, of God's in
dwelling Spirit, whose quickening energy and pulse of life takes
the place of the law's outward prescriptions and magisterial
authority. And if it were not already clear, from the order of
the Apostle's thoughts, and the stage at which he has arrived in the
discussion, that it is in this point of view he is now considering
the law, the purpose for which he asserts our freedom to have been
obtained would put it beyond all reasonable doubt, viz., " that
sin might not have dominion over us" (ch. vi. 14), or, " that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." — (Ch. viii. 4.)1

According to the doctrine of the Apostle, then, believers are
not under the law as to their walk and conduct ; or, as he says
elsewhere, " the law is not for the righteous :" believers " have
the Spirit of the Lord ; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty." But is not this dangerous doctrine ? For where now
is the safeguard against sin 1 May not each one do as he lists,
oblivious of any distinction between holiness and sin, or even de
nying its existence, as regards the children of God, on the ground
that where no law is, there is no transgression? To such questions
the Apostle's reply is, " God forbid," — so far from it, that the
freedom he asserts from the law has for its sole aim a deliverance
from sin's dominion, and a fruitfulness in all well-doing to God.

The truth more fully stated is simply this : When the be
liever receives Christ as the Lord his righteousness, he is not
only justified by grace, but he comes into a state of grace, or

1 It seems very strange, considering bow plain and explicit the Apostle's
meaning is, that the late Professor Lee of Cambridge should still say: "The
main question, I think, here discussed (viz., in ch. vii.) by the Apostle is,
How is a man to be justified with God?" — (Dissertations, i., sec. 10.)
Haldane, also, in his Commentary, maintains the same obviously untenable
view. Fraser (Sanctification, on Rom. vii. 4) justly remarks, that though
the similitude of marriage used by the Apostle in ch. vii. " might be ex
plained to show that the sinner cannot attain justification or any of its
comfortable consequences by the law," yet that it is another consequence of
the marriage covenant and relation that he hath in his eye," viz., "the
bringing forth of fruit unto God; " in other words, the maintaining of such
holy lives as constitute our sanctification.

TIIK RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE LAW. 180

gets grace into his heart as a living, reigning, governing prin
ciple of life. What, however, is this grace but the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus? And this Spirit is emphatically the Holy
Spirit ; holiness is the very element of His being, and the
essential law of His working ; every desire He breathes, every
feeling He awakens, every action lie disposes and enables us to
perform, is according to godliness. And if only we are suffi
ciently possessed of this Spirit, and yield ourselves to His
direction and control, we no longer need the restraint and dis
cipline of the law ; we are free from it, because we are superior
to it. Quickened and led by the Spirit, we of ourselves love
and do the things which the law requires.

Does not nature itself teach substantially the same lesson in
its line of things ? The child, so long as he is a child, must be
subject to the law of his parents ; his safety and well-being
depend on his being so ; he must on every side be hemmed in,
checked, and stimulated by that law of his parents, otherwise
mischief and destruction will infallibly overtake him. But as he
ripens toward manhood he becomes freed from this law, because
he no longer needs such external discipline and restraint. He is
a law to himself, putting away childish things, and of his own
accord acting as the parental authority, had he still been subject
to it, would have required and enforced him to do. In a word,
the mind has become his from which the parental law proceeded,
and he has consequently become independent of its outward pre
scriptions. And what is it to be under the grace of God's Spirit,
but to have the mind of God? — the mind of Him who gave the
law simply as a revelation of what was in His heart respecting
the holiness of His people. So that the more they have of the
one, the less obviously they need of the other ; and if only they
were complete in the grace of the Spirit, they should be wholly
independent of the bonds and restrictions of the law.

Or let us bring into comparison the relation in which a good
man stands to the laws of his country. In one sense, indeed, he
is under them ; but in another and higher sense he is alum-
them, and moves along his course with conscious freedom, as if
he scarcely knew of their existence. For what is the object of
such laws but to prevent, under severe penalties, the commission
of crime 1 Crime, however, is already the object of his abhor-

190 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

rence ; he needs no penalties to keep him from it. He would
never harm the person or property of a neighbour, though there
were not a single enactment in the statute-book on the subject.
His own love of good and hatred of evil keep him in the path
of rectitude, not the fines, imprisonments, or tortures which the
law hangs around the path of the criminal. The law was not
made for him.

It is not otherwise with one who has become a partaker of
grace. The law, considered as an outward discipline placing him
under a yoke of manifold commands and prohibitions, has for
him ceased to exist. But it has ceased in that respect only by
taking possession of him in another. It is now within his heart.
It is the law of the Spirit of life in his inner man ; emphatically,
therefore, " the law of liberty:" his delight is to do it; and it
were better for him not to live, than to live otherwise than the
tenor of the law requires. We see in Jesus, the holy child of
God, the perfect exemplar of this free-will service to Heaven :
for while He was made under the law, He was so replenished
with the Spirit, that He fulfilled it as if He fulfilled it not ; it
was His very meat to do the will of Him that sent Him ; and
not more certainly did the law enjoin, than He in His inmost
soul loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Such also, in a
measure, will ever be the case with the devout believer in Jesus
— in the same measure in which he has received of his Master's
Spirit. Does the law command him to bear no false witness
against his neighbour ? He is already so renewed in the spirit
of his mind, as to speak the truth in his heart, and be ready to
swear to his own hurt. Does the law demand, through all its
precepts, supreme love to God, and brotherly love to men V
Why should this need to be demanded as matter of law from
him who has the Eternal Spirit of love bearing sway within, who
therefore may be said to live and breathe in an atmosphere of
love ? Like Paul, he can say with king-like freedom, " I can
do all things through Christ strengthening me ;" even in chains
I am free ; I choose what God chooses for me : His will in
doing or suffering I embrace as my own ; for I have Him work
ing in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Now it is here that the difference properly comes in between
the Old and the New Testament dispensations, — a difference.

THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE LAW. 1 '-'1

however, it must be carefully marked, of degree only, and not
of kind. Tin- saving is here especially applicable, — "On the
outside of things look for differences, on the inside for like-
ncsses." l In correspondence with the change that has taken
place in the character of the Divine administration, the relative
position of believers to the law and the Spirit has changed ; but
under both covenants alike, an indispensable place belongs to
each of them. In the former dispensation the law stood more
prominently out, and was the more peculiar means for leading
men to holiness — supplying, as by a sort of artificial stimulant
and support, the still necessary defect in the inward gift of the
Spirit's grace. We say the necessary defect ; for the proper
materials of the Spirit's working, not yet being provided or
openly revealed, the Spirit could not be fully given, nor could
His work be carried on otherwise than in a mystery. It was so
carried on, however ; every true member of the covenant was a
partaker of the Spirit, because he stood in grace at the same
time that he stood under the law. But his relation to the Spirit
was of a more hidden and secret, to the law of a more ostensible
and manifest, character. In the New Testament dispensation
this relation is exactly reversed, although in each respect it still
exists. The work of Christ, which furnishes the proper materials
of the Spirit's operations, having been accomplished, and Him
self glorified, the Spirit is now fully and unreservedly given.
Through the power of His grace, in connection with the word
of the Gospel, the Divine kingdom avowedly purposes to effect
its spiritual designs, and bring forth its fruits of righteousness
to God. This, therefore, it is to which the believer now stands
immediately and ostensibly related, as the agency through which
he is to f ultil the high ends of his calling ; while the law retires
into the background, or should be known only as existing
within, impressed in all its essential lines of truth and duty
upon the tablet of the heart, and manifesting itself in the deeds
of a righteous life. But whether the law or the Spirit stand
more prominently forward, the end is the same — namely, right
eousness. The only difference that exists, is as to the means of
securing this end — more outward in the one case, more inward
in the other ; yet in each a measure of both required, and one
1 Ihir/s iluussea after Truth, ii., p. 3.

192 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and the same point aimed at. Hence the words of the Apostle :
" Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believeth," i.e., both alike are for righteousness — this is the
one great end which Christ and the law have equally in view.
But in Christ it is secured in a far higher way than it could
possibly be through the law, since He has not only perfected
Himself as the Divine Head and Surety of His people in the
righteousness which the law requires, but also endows them with
the plentiful grace of His Spirit, "that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in them, walking not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit."

With these distinctions clearly perceived, we shall easily
understand what is said in the New Testament Scriptures of
the difference, in a practical point of view, as to the condition
of believers under the past and the present dispensations respec
tively. This is spoken of as a state of comparative freedom, that
of a certain species of restraint or bondage — not the bondage,
indeed, of slaves and mercenaries, which belonged only to the
carnal, as opposed to the believing portion of the Church — but
the bondage of those who, though free-born children, arc still
in nonage, and must be kept under the restraint and discipline
of an external law. This, however, could in no case be the
whole of the agency with which the believer was plied, for then
his yoke must have been literally the galling bondage of the
slave. He must have had more or less the Spirit of life within,
begetting and prompting him to do the things which the law
outwardly enjoined — making the pulse of life in the heart beat
in harmony with the rule of life prescribed in the law ; so that,
while he still felt as under tutors and governors, it was not as
one needing to be " held in with bit and bridle/' but rather as
one disposed readily and cheerfully to keep to the appointed
course. This would be the case with him always the more, the
more diligently he employed the measure of grace within his
reach ; and if in a spirit of faith he could indeed " lift the latch
and force his way" onwards to the end of those things which
were then established, he might even have become insensible to
the bonds and trammels of his childhood-condition, and attained
to the free and joyful spirit of the perfect man. So it unques
tionably was with the Psalmist, and doubtless might have been

THK KK1.ATION OF CHRISTIANS To THK LAW l'.«:i

with all, if thrv h:ul but used, as he did, the privileges granted
them. For such, the law was not a mere outward yoke, nor in
any proper sense a burden : it was " within their heart ;" they
delighted in its precepts, and meditated therein day and night ;
to listen to its instructions was sweeter to them than honey,
and to obey its dictates was better than thousands of gold and
silver.1

It is only, therefore, in a comparative sense, that we are to
understand the passages in the New Testament Scripture
formerly referred to ; and in the same sense, also, that similar
passages are to be interpreted in Old Testament Scripture, —
such, for example, as Jer. xxxi. 31-34 : " Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took
them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt . . .
but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law
in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be
their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour," etc. (Comp. Ezek. xxxvi.
25-27, which differs only in particularizing the agency by which
the better state of things was to be introduced — the larger gift
of the Spirit.) " The discourse here cannot be of a new and
more complete revelation of the law of God, for this is common
to both economies : no jot or tittle of it can be lost under the New
Testament, nor can a jot or tittle be added to it ; God's law
rests on His nature, and this is eternally immutable. — (Mai. iii.
6.) Just as little can the discourse be of the introduction of an
entirely new relation, which by no means has the former for its
groundwork. In this respect Kimchi rightly remarks : ' Non
erit foederis novitas, sed stabilimeutum ejus' (not a change, but
an establishing of the covenant). The covenant with Israel is
eternal ; Jehovah would not be Jehovah, if an absolutely new
lu'^iniiing could take place. — (Rom. xv. 8.) When, therefore,
tin- subject of discourse is here the antithesis of an Old and :i
New covenant, the former must designate, not the relation of
( Jod to Israel in itself, and in all its extent, but rather only the
1 Sir especially 1's. i., xv., xxiv., xl.. cxix.

M)L. II. N

194 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

former manifestation of this relation — that through which the
Lord, until the time of the prophet, had made Himself known
as the God of Israel."1 And in regard to the difference indi
cated by the prophet, as to the believer's connection with the
law under the two covenants, the learned author, expressing his
concurrence in particular with Calvin and Buddeus, goes on to
show that this also is not absolute, but only relative. He justly
states that the idea of a purely outward giving of the law is
inconceivable, as God would then have done for Israel nothing
farther than He did for the traitor Judas, in whose conscience
He proclaimed His holy law, without giving him any power to
repent — that the terms in which the law is spoken of by the
Psalmist, in the name of the Old Testament saints, -shows it to
have been in their experience no longer a law that worketh
wrath, but a law in connection with the Spirit, whose commands
are not grievous ; and that the antithesis between the Old and
the New state of things, though in itself but relative, was ex
pressed in the absolute form, merely because the gift of the
Old Testament appeared, when compared with the infinitely
more important and richer blessing of the New, as so small, that
it vanished out of sight.

Tint something else than that should also vanish from our
sigiu. For if we enter as we should into these views, the idea
of the law's abrogation or abolition under the New Testament,
in whatever form proposed, will be repudiated as equally dan
gerous and ungrounded. The law is in no proper sense abolished
by the revelations of the Gospel ; nor does the Apostle in any
fair construction of his language say that it is. He merely says,
that through grace we are not under it, and in a conjugal respect
are dead to it. In a certain qualified sense, believers in Old
Testament times might be said to have been married to it, or to
have been under it ; only, however, in a qualified sense, for God
Himself — the God of grace as well as of law — was properly
their husband (Jer. xxxi. 32), and they stood under the cove
nant of grace before they came under the covenant of law. But
though, even in that qualified sense, believers are not now under
the law, or married to it, the righteousness required is as much
binding upon their consciences, and expected at their hands, as
1 Hengstenberg's Christology on Jer. xxxi. 31.

Till: KKI.ATIO.X OK CHKISTIANS TO Till' LAW. 195

it ever was at any former period of the Church's history. More
so, indeed ; for the very reason, as the Apostle tells us, why they
are placed less directly under the law, and more under the
Spirit, is, that the- end of the law might be more certainly at
tained, and a richer harvest yielded of its fruits of righteous
ness. Therefore it is, that in the same epistle in which those
expressions are used, conformity to the law's requirements is
still held out, and inculcated as the very perfection of Christian
excellence. — (Rom. xiii. 8-10.) For it is not as if these two,
the law and the Spirit, were contending authorities, or forces
drawing in two distinct and separate lines. On the contrary,
they are essentially and thoroughly agreed — alike emanations
of the unchanging holiness of Godhead — the one its outward
form and character in which it was to appear, the other its
inward spring and pulse of life. What the one teaches, the
other wills — what the one requires, the other prompts and
qualifies to perform ; and as the law at first came as an hand
maid to the previously existing covenant of grace, so does it still
remain in the hand of the Spirit to aid Him, amid the work
ings of the flesh and the imperfections of grace, in carrying
out the objects for which He condescends to dwell and act in
the bosoms of men.

Hence appears the monstrous absurdity and error of Antino-
mianism, which proceeds on the supposition of the law and the
Spirit being two distinct, possibly contending, authorities — a doc
trine not so much opposed to any particular portion of Scripture,
as the common antithesis of all its revelations, and the subversion
of all its principles. But let it once be understood that the law
and the Spirit have but one end in view, and one path, in a sense,
to reach it — that the motions of the Spirit within, invariably,
and by the highest of all necessities, take the direction prescribed
by the law withqut — let this be understood, and Antinomianism
wants even the shadow of a ground to stand upon. — It is not
merely the Antinomians, however, who contend for the abroga
tion of the law ; the same thing is substantially done by many
divines who belong to an entirely different class. For example,
Archbishop Whately, in his Essay 011 the Abolition of the Law,
maintains this position : " The simplest and clearest way then of
.stating the case, is to lay down, on the one hand, that the Mosaic

196 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

law was limited both to the nation of the Israelites, and to the
period before the Gospel; but, on the other hand, that the natural
principles of morality which, among other things, it inculcates,
are, from their own character of universal obligation, and that
Christians are bound to obey the moral commandments it con
tained, not because they are commandments of the Mosaic law,
but because they are moral." This view, which puts the deca
logue on a footing with the laws of Solon or Mahomet, in so far
as any obligation on the conscience is concerned, is that also
maintained, and with a considerable show of learning supported,
by Bialloblotzky, in his work De Abrogatione Legis. The form
into which the learned author throws his statement is, that the
nomothetical authority of the Mosaic law is abolished, but its
didactical authority remains ; in other words, it has no binding
force as a law upon the conscience, but may still be profitably
used for direction in the way of duty, — due allowance of course
being made for all that belonged to it of temporary appointment
and ceremonial observance, which is no longer even a matter of
duty. His chief arguments in supporting this view are, that in
some things, especially in regard to the Sabbath, marriage, the
symbolical rites (for all are thrown, as we observed before, into
one mass), Christ and His apostles have corrected the law,
and that they oppose the authority of the Spirit to the external
tyranny of the law (as if these were two contending masters; and
we actually have the passage, " No man can serve two masters,"
produced in proof of the argument, p. 63). Such views have
been substantially met already ; and we simply remark farther,
that they necessarily open the widest door for Antinomians and
^Rationalists : for if, as possessors of the Spirit, we must first
judge what part of the law is moral or didactic, — and even when
we have ascertained this, still are permitted to hold that we are
not connected with it as a matter of binding and authoritative
obligation, — it is easy to see what slight convictions of sin will be
felt, what loose notions of duty entertained, how feeble a barrier
left against either the carnal or the fanatical spirit ridding itself
of the plainest obligations. It is quite possible, no doubt, to
produce unguarded statements, easily susceptible of an improper
meaning, and partly, indeed, expressing such, from Luther's
works on the law. But his real views, when carefully and doc-

THE RELATION <>]' CHRISTIANS TO THE LAW. 197

triually, not controversially expressed, were substantially correct,
as will appear t'ruiii a quotation to be given presently, or from
Melancthoif s works, which Luther is well known to have held to
be better expositions than his own of their doctrinal views. For
example, after speaking (vol. i., p. 309) of the Mosaic law as not
availing to justification, and in its civil and ceremonial parts done
away, Melancthon adds : " But the moral law, since it is the
wisdom of God and His eternal rule of righteousness, and has
been revealed that man should be like God, cannot be abolished,
but remains perpetually (Rom. iii. 31, viii. 4)."

The question, however, naturally arises, Of what use is the law
to those who really are under the Spirit I We answer, it would
be of none, if the work of spiritual renovation, which His grace
is given to effect, were perfected in us. But since this is far
from being the case — since imperfection still cleaves to the child
of God, and the flesh, in a greater or less degree, still wars
against the Spirit, the outward discipline of the law can never
be safely dispensed with. Even St Paul was obliged to confess
that he found the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and that
though he was ever following after, he was conscious of not
having yet attained to the full measure of grace and excellence
in Christ. Therefore, for his own quickening and direction, as
well as for that of others, he felt it needful to press the demands
of law, and to look to the exceeding breadth of its requirements.
Luther also, and his fellow-labourers, although their views were
not always correct as to the relation in which Israel stood to the
law, nor by any means clear regarding the precise nature of the
change introduced by the Gospel, yet were sound enough on
this point. Thus they say in one of their symbolical books :
" Although the law was not made for the righteous (as the
Apostle testifies, 1 Tim. i. 9), yet this is not to be understood as
if the righteous might live without law ; for the Divine law is
written upon their hearts. The true and genuine meaning,
therefore, of Paul's words is, that the law cannot bring those
who have been reconciled to God through Christ under its
curse, and that its restraint cannot be irksome to the renewed,
since they delight in the law of God after the inner man. . . .
But believers are not completely and perfectly renewed in this
life ; and though their sins are covered by the absolutely per-

198 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

feet obedience of Christ, so as not to be imputed to believers to
their condemnation, and though the mortification of the old
Adam and the renovation in the spirit of their mind has been
begun by the Holy Spirit, yet the old Adam still remains in
nature's powers and affections," etc.1

There are three different respects in which we still need the
law of God, and which it will be enough briefly to indicate :
1. To keep us under grace, as the source of all our security and
blessing. This we are ever apt, through the pride and self-
confidence of the flesh, to forget, even though we have already
in some measure known it. Therefore the law must be our
schoolmaster, not only to bring us to Christ at the beginning of
a Christian life, but also afterwards to keep us there, and force
continually back upon us the conviction, that we must be in all
respects the debtors of grace. For when we see what a spiritu
ality and breadth is in the law of God, how it extends to the
thoughts and affections of the heart as well as to our words and
actions, and demands, in regard to all, the exercise of an un
swerving devoted love, then we are made to feel that the law, if
trusted in as a ground of confidence, must still work wrath, and
that, convinced by it as transgressors, we must betake for all
peace and consolation to the grace of Christ. Here alone, in
His atonement, can we find satisfaction to our consciences ; and
here alone also, in the strengthening aid of His Spirit, the ability
to do the things which the law requires. 2. The law, again, is
needed to restrain and hold us back from those sins which we
might otherwise be inclined to commit. It is true, that in one
who is really a subject of grace, there can be no habitual incli
nation to live in sin ; for he is God's workmanship in Christ
Jesus, created in Him unto good works. But the temptations of
the world, and the devices of the spiritual adversary, may often
be too much for any measure of grace he has already received,
successfully to resist: he may want in certain circumstances tin-
willing and faithful mind either to withstand evil or to prosecute
as he should the path of righteousness ; and therefore the law
is still placed before him by the Spirit, with its stem prohibitions
and awful threatenings to move with fear, whenever love fails
to prompt and influence the heart. Thus the Apostle : " I am
1 De Abrog. Legis.. p. 7i\ 78.

THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO TIIK LAW. 199

determined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him
crucified" — it is my delight, my very life, to preach the doctrines
of His salvation ; but if the flesh should recoil from the work,
and render the spirit unwilling, " a dispensation is committed to
me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel." Thus the
discipline of the law comes in to supply the imperfections of the
Spirit, and curb the still remaining tendencies of sin. 3. And
it is yet farther needed to present continually before the eye
of the mind a clear representation of the righteousness which,
through the grace of the Spirit, believers should be ever striving
to attain. While that grace is still imperfect, they are neces
sarily in danger of entertaining low and defective views of duty;
nay, in times of peculiar temptation or undue excitement, they
might even mistake the motions of the flesh for the promptings
of the Spirit, and under the guise of truth embrace the way of
error. But the law stands before them, with its revelation of
righteousness, as a faithful and resplendent mirror, in which
they may behold, without any danger of delusion or mistake,
the perfect image of that excellence which they should be
ever yielding to God. "We are free — we have the Spirit,
and are not. subject to bondage." True, but free only to act as
servants of Christ, and not to throw around you a cloak of
maliciousness. Believers are free, not to introduce what they
please into the service of God, for He is a jealous God, and will
not allow His glory to be associated with the vain imaginations
of men ; they are free to worship Him only in spirit and in
truth. Shall any one say he is free to give or withhold, as seems
good to him, what may be needed to advance the cause of God
in the world — to employ or not for holy ends the means and
opportunities he enjoys ! How impossible ! seeing that if he is
really filled with the Spirit, the love of God must have been
breathed into his soul, so as of necessity tovmake it his delight
to do what he can for the Divine glory, and to engage in the
M-rvices which bring him into nearest fellowship with Heaven.
Thus the freedom of the Spirit is a freedom only within the
bounds and limits of the law ; and the law itself must stand,
lest the flesh, taking advantage of the weakness of the Spirit's
grai-e, should in its wantonness break forth into courses which
are displeasing to the mind of God.

200 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

So much for the law in the strict and proper sense, — the law
of the ten commandments, — the freedom from which enjoyed
by the Christian is not absolute, but relative only ; just as the
Israelites' want of the Spirit was also of a simply relative de
scription. But in regard to what is called the ceremonial law,
the freedom is absolute ; and to keep up the observance of its
symbolical institutions and services after the new dispensation
entered, was not only to retain a yoke that might be dispensed
with, but also an incongruity to be avoided, and even a danger
to be shunned. For, viewed simply as teaching ordinances,
intended to represent and inculcate the great principles of truth
and duty, they were superseded at the introduction of the
Gospel by the appointment of other means, more suitable as
instruments in the hand of the Spirit for ministering instruction
to the minds of men. The change then brought into the divine
administration was characterized throughout by a more imme
diate and direct handling of the things of God. They were
now things no longer hid under a veil, but openly disclosed to
the eye of the mind. And ordinances which were adapted to a
state of the Church when neither the Spirit was fully given,
nor the things of God were clearly revealed, could not possibly
be such as were adapted to the Church of the New Testament.
The grand ordinance here must be the free and open manifesta
tion of the truth — written first in the word of inspiration, and
thenceforth continually proclaimed anew by the preaching of
the Gospel ; and such symbolical institutions as might yet be
needed, must be founded upon the clear revelations of this
word — not like those of the former dispensation, spreading a veil
over the truth, or affording only a dim shadow of better things
to come. Hence the old ritual of service should have fallen
into desuetude whenever the new state of things entered ; and
the tenacity with which the Judaizing Christians clung to it,
was the indication of an imperfect enlightenment and a per
verted taste. Had they known aright the new wine, they would
straightway have forsaken the old. So long as they could ^vt
the kernel only through the shell, it was thc'ir duty to take the
one for the sake of the other. But now, when the kernel itself
was presented to them in naked simplicity, still to insist upon
having the shell along with it, was the clear sign of a disordered

TIIK RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THK LAW. 201

condition, — an undoubted proof that tliey had not yet come to
the full knowledge and appreciation of Gospel truth, and were
disposed to rest unduly in mere outward observances. The
Apostle, therefore, on this ground alone, justly denounces such
Judaizers as carnal, — in spiritual things acting the part of per
sons who, though of full age, have not put away childish things,
but continue in a willing " bondage to the elements of the world."
This, however, was by no means the whole of the misappre
hension which such conduct betrayed. For while those ordi
nances of the former dispensation were in one point of view
means of instruction and grace, in another they were signs and
acknowledgments of debt. Calling, as they did, continually for
acts of atonement and cleansing, and yet presenting nothing
that could satisfactorily purge the conscience, they were, even
when rigorously performed, testimonies that the heavy reckon
ing for guilt was not yet properly met — bonds of obligation for
the time relieved, but standing over to some future period for
their full and adequate discharge. This discharge in full was
given by Christ when He suffered on the cross, and brought in
complete satisfaction for all the demands of the violated law. He
is therefore said to have " blotted out the handwriting of ordi
nances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to His cross." The charges of guilt and condemnation which
that handwriting had been perpetually making against men as
transgressors, wrere now laid in one mass upon the body of the
crucified Redeemer, and with its death were for ever abolished.
So that those ceremonies being, as Calvin justly terms them,
u attestations of men's guilt, and instruments witnessing their
liability," " Paul with good reason warned the Colossians how
seriously they would relapse, if they allowed a yoke in that way
to be imposed upon them. By so doing, they at the same time
deprived themselves of all benefit from Christ, who, by His
eternal sacrifice once offered, had abolished those daily sacri
fices, which were indeed powerful to attest sin, but could do
nothing to destroy it."1 It was in effect to say, that they did
not regard the death of Christ as in itself a perfect satisfaction
for the guilt of their sins, but required the purifications of the
law to make it complete — at once dishonouring Christ, and
1 Inst., B. ii., c. 7, § 17.

202 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

showing that they took the Old Testament ceremonies for some
thing else than they really were.

It has sometimes been alleged, that in the case of the Jewish
helievers there was still a sort of propriety, or even of obliga
tion, in continuing to observe the ceremonies of Moses — until,
at least, the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, formally dis
charging them from all further attendance upon such services.
But there is no real foundation for such an opinion. It is true
that no express and authoritative injunction was given at first
for the discontinuance of those services ; but this arose simply
out of accommodation to their religious prejudices, which might
have received too great a shock, and among their unbelieving
neighbours excited too outrageous an opposition, if the change
had at once been introduced. But so far as obligation and
duty were concerned, they should have required no explicit an
nouncement on the subject different from what had already
been given in the facts of Gospel history. When the veil was
rent in twain, abolishing the distinction at the centre, all others
of an outward kind of necessity gave way. When the great
High Priest had fulfilled His work, no work remained to be
done by any other priest. The Gospel of shadows was conclu
sively gone, the Gospel of realities come. And the compliances
which the apostles generally, and Paul himself latterly, made
(Acts xxi.) to humour the prejudices and silence the senseless
clamours of the Jews, though necessary at first, were yet car
ried to an undue and dangerous length. They palpably failed,
in Paul's case, to accomplish the end in view ; and, in the
case of the Jewish Christians themselves, were attended with
jealousies, self-righteous bigotry, growing feebleness, and ulti
mate decay. " Before Messiah's coming, the ceremonies were
as the swaddling bands in which He was wrapt ; but after it,
they resembled the linen clothes which He left in the grave.
Christ was in the one, not in the other. And using them as
the Galatians did, or as the Jews do at this day, they and their
language are a lie ; for they say He is still to come who is come
already. They are now beggarly elements, having nothing of
Christ, the true riches, in them."1

1 BellonCov., p. 140.

CHAPTER THIRD.

THE RELIGIOUS TRUTHS AND PRINCIPLES EMBODIED IN THE
SYMBOLICAL INSTITUTIONS AND SERVICES OF THE MOSAIC
DISPENSATION, AND VIEWED IN THEIR TYPICAL REFERENCE
TO THE BETTER THINGS TO COME.

SECTION FIRST.

INTRODUCTORY — ON THE QUESTION WHY MOSES WAS IN
STRUCTED IN THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND WHAT
INFLUENCE THIS MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO EXERCISE ON
HIS FUTURE LEGISLATION.

THE learning of Moses was briefly adverted to in an earlier
part of our investigations.1 But this is the proper place for a
more formal discussion of it, when we are entering on the ex
planation of the Mosaic symbols of worship and service. That
an acquaintance with Egyptian learning was advantageous to
Moses, to the extent formerly stated, no one will be disposed to
question. Whatever ' might be its peculiar character, it would
at least serve the purpose of expanding and ripening the faculties
of his mind, would render him acquainted with the general
principles and methods of political government, would furnish
him with an insight into the religious and moral system of the
most intelligent and civilised nation of heathen antiquity, and
so would not only increase his fitness, in an intellectual point of
view, for holding the high commission that was to be entrusted
to him, but would also lend to the commission itself, when
bestowed, the recommendation which superior rank or learning
ever yields, when devoted to a sacred use.

Such advantages, it is obvious, Moses might derive from
1 Vul. ii., Chap. I., s. i'.

204 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

liis Egyptian education, irrespective altogether of the precise
quality of the wisdom with which he thus became acquainted.
It is another question, how far he might be indebted to that
wisdom itself, as an essential element in his preparation, or to
what extent the things belonging to it might be allowed to
mould and regulate the institutions which he was commissioned
to impose on Israel. Scripture throws no direct light upon this
question ; it affords materials only for general inferences and
probable conclusions. And yet the view we actually entertain
on the subject cannot fail to exert a considerable influence on
the spirit in which we investigate the whole Mosaic system, and
give a distinctive colouring to our interpretations of many of its
parts.

1. The opinion was undoubtedly very prevalent among the
Christian fathers, that no small portion of the institutions of
Moses were borrowed from those of Egypt, and were adopted as
Divine ordinances only in accommodation to the low and carnal
state of the Israelites, who had become inveterately attached to
the manners of Egypt. With the view, it was supposed, of wean
ing them more easily from the errors and corruptions which had
grown upon them there, the Lord indulged them with the reten
tion of many of the customs of Egypt, though in themselves
indifferent or even somewhat objectionable, and gave a place in
His own worship to what they had hitherto seen associated with
the service of idols. They rarely enter into particulars, and
never, so far as we remember, formally discuss the grounds of
their opinion ; but very commonly think it enough to refer, in
support of it, to Ez. xx. 25, where the Lord is said to have
given Israel " statutes that were not good, and judgments where
by they should not live." This passage is also much pressed by
Spencer, and, indeed, is the main authority of a scriptural kind
to which both he, and after him, Warburton (Div. Legation,
B. iv., c. 6), appeal in confirmation of their general view of the
Mosaic ritual. By an arbitrary interpretation of the passage
referred to, they regard the decalogue as the statutes in them
selves really and properly good, for breaking which in the wilder
ness, others — namely, the ceremonial observances — were imposed
on them : " Because they had violated my first system of laws,
— the decalogue, — I added to them my second system, the ritual

•ffl i-riAN i.r.AKMM: or MOSES. 205

law, very •pttydUMCtaned (\vln-n set in opposition to the moral
law) by statutes tliat wnv not good, and by judgments whereby
they should not live." — (Warburton.) A quite groundless dis
tinction in the circumstances ; for certainly they could least of
all have lived by the moral law, which, as the Apostle testifies,
brings the knowledge of sin, and the judgment of death ; and
through whatever channel the life they possessed might come,
it could by no possibility come from such a source. Besides,
Moses had got all the instruction regarding the tabernacle and
its ordinances before the revolt with the golden calf took place ;
so that the tabernacle-worship went before this, and was no
after-thought, resorted to in consequence of the revolt. But it
is quite beside the purpose of the prophet to compare one part
of the law with another : " it is impossible that he could, espe
cially after his own declarations regarding the law, designate it
by such terms ; the laws not good, bringing death and destruc
tion, are opposed to those of God ; they are the heathen obser
vances which were arbitrarily put in the room of the other."—
(Ilavernick.) So also Calvin, Vitringa, Obs. Sacra?, L. ii., c. 1,
sec. 17. Indeed, Jerome, though he hesitates as to the proper
meaning, has correctly enough expressed it in these words :
" Hoc est, dimisit eos cogitationibus, et desideriis suis, ut face-
rent qua3 non conveniunt." — Parallel is Ps. Ixxxi. 12, " So I
gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their
own counsels;" Acts vii. 42, " He gave them up to worship the
host of heaven ;" Rom. i. 24 ; 2 Thess. ii. II.1

Spencer, supporting himself on the authority of the fathers,
and by a distorted interpretation of one or two passages of

1 The references to the fathers may be found in Spencer, De Leg. Hebr.
1, c. 1. Deyling has an acute dissertation on this passage (Obs. Sac., P. ii.,
ch. i':5), in which he very successfully refutes the interpretation of the
fathers, Spencer, and those of later times, who substantially adopt his view,
but also objects to the view given of it here, and contends, that the statutes
not good, and the laws by which they could not live, were God's chastise
ments, punishing them for their violations of His good and life-giving ordi
nances. We have no doubt that these chastisements were in the eye of tin-
prophet, but not to the exclusion of tlic other: God gave them up to foolish
counsels ami a reprobate mind, that they mi-lit manifestly apjiear to be un
deserving of His care, and be left to inherit the recompense that wa>
for their perversity.

200 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Scripture, has, with great learning and industry (in his work
De Legibus Ilebroeorum), endeavoured to make good the propo
sition, that the immediate and proper design of the Mosaic law
was to abolish idolatry, and preserve the Israelites in the worship
of the one true God ; and that, for the better effecting of this
puqoose, the Lord introduced many heathenish, chiefly Egyptian,
customs into His service, and so changed or rectified others, as
to convert them into a bulwark against idolatry. He coupled
with this, no doubt, a secondary design, " the mystic and typical
reason," as he calls it — that, namely, of adumbrating the better
things of the Gospel. But this occupies such an inferior and
subordinate place, and is occasionally spoken of in such dis
paraging terms, that one cannot avoid the conviction of his
having held it in very small estimation. He even represents
this mystical reference to higher things than those immediately
concerned, as done partly in accommodation to the early bent
given to the mind of Moses.1 And of course, when he comes to
particulars, it is only in regard to a few things of greater promi
nence, — such as the tabernacle, the ark, and the more important
institutions, — that he can deem it advisable to search for any
mystical meaning whatever. To go more minutely to work, he
characterizes as a kind of " sporting with sacred things;" and
declares his concurrence in a sentiment of Chrysostom, that " all
such things were but venerable and illustrious memorials of
Jewish ignorance and stupidity."2

It is not so much, however, in this depreciation of the sym
bolical and typical import of the Mosaic ritual, that the work of
Spencer was fitted to give a false impression of its real character
and object, as in the connection he necessarily sought to esta
blish, while endeavouring to prove his main proposition, between
the institutions of Moses and the rites of heathenism. Though
charged with a Divine commission, Moses appears, in point of
fact, only as an improved Egyptian, and his whole religious
system is nothing more than a refinement on the customs and
polity of Egypt. Not a few of the rites introduced were useless
(legibus et ritibus inutilibus, p. 26), some were viewed as only
tolerable fooleries (quos ineptias nonit esse tolerabiles, p. 640),
and would never have found a place in the institutions of
1 De Leg. Heb., p. 210. - Ibid., p. 215.

r.CVl'TIAN LKAKNING OF MOSES. 207

Moses, but for tin- eunvney they luul already obtained in Egypt,
and the liking the Israelites liad there acquired for them. But
on such a view, it is impossible to conceive how to worship God
according to the ritual of Moses could have been an acceptable
service, and the very imposition of such a ritual in the name of
God must have been a kind of pious fraud. " God," to use the
language of Biihr, " appears as a Jesuit, who makes use of bad
means to accomplish a good end. Spencer, for example, con
siders sacrifice as an invention of religious barbarity — an evi
dence of superstitious views of the Divine nature. Now, when
God by Moses not only confirmed for ever the offerings already
in common use, but also extended and enlarged the sacrificial
code, instead of thereby extirpating the mistaken views, He
would really have sanctioned and most strongly enforced them.
. . . Besides, the relation of Israel to the Egyptians, and that
in particular of Moses, as represented in the Pentateuch at
the time of the Exodus, would lead us to expect an intentional
shunning of everything Egyptian, especially in religious matters,
rather than an imitating and borrowing. The deliverance of
Israel from Egypt is set forth as the special token of Divine
love and power, as the greatest salvation wrought for Israel, as
the peculiar pledge of the covenant with Jehovah ; and a sepa
rate feast was devoted to the commemoration of this Divine
goodness. It is unquestionable that there was here every- in
ducement for Moses making the separation of Israel from Egypt
as broad as possible. For this, however, it was indispensably
necessary to brand everything properly Egyptian, and extirpate
by all means the very remembrance of it. But by adopting the
Egyptian ritual, Moses would have directly sanctioned what was
Egyptian, and would have perpetuated the remembrance of the
land of darkness and servitude."1

Indeed, the objectionable character of Spencer's views could
scarcely be better exposed than in the words of Lord Boling-
broke, when railing in his usual style against the current

1 Symbolik, B. i., s. 41, 42. The later part is stated rather too compre
hensively, as we shall show by and by. The circumstances were such as to
have led Moses rather to avoid than to seek an imitation of what was Egyp-
tian, but it was impossible altogether to exclude it, or precisely to brand
c vt-iything properly Egyptian.

208 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

theology of his day : "In order to preserve the purity of His
worship, God prescribes to them a multitude of rites and cere
monies, founded on the superstitions of Egypt, from which they
were to be weaned, or in some analogy to them. They were
never weaned entirely from all the superstitions ; and the great
merit of the law of Moses was teaching the people to adore one
God, much as the idolatrous nations adored several. This may
be called sanctifying pagan rites and ceremonies in theological
language, but it is profaning the pure worship of God in the
language of common sense."1

But while Spencer's views lay open to such formidable ob
jections, and were opposed to the more serious theology of the
age, they gradually made way both in this country and on the
Continent ; and the influence of his work may be traced through
a very large portion of the theological literature connected with
the Old Testament down even to a recent period. The work
owed this extraordinary success to the immense pains that had
been bestowed upon it — its exact method, comprehensive plan,
and lucid expression — and also to the great skill which the
author displayed in availing himself of all the learning then
accessible upon the subject, and bringing it to bear upon the
general argument. His views were eagerly embraced on the
Continent by Le Clerc, and (in his work on the Pentateuch)
pushed to consequences from which Spencer himself would have
shrunk. Then Michaelis came with his masculine intellect, his
stores of oriental learning, but low and worldly sense, discovering
so many sanatory, medicinal, political, and, in short, all kinds of

1 Philosophical Works, vol. v., p. 377. It is remarked by Archbishop
Magee, that Spencer's work "has always been resorted to by infidel writers,
in order to wing their shafts more effectively against the Mosaic revelation."
See note 60 to his work on the Atonement, where also are to be found some
good remarks on such views generally, although, in resting upon the ground
of Witsius, he does not place the opposition to them on its proper basis. He
speaks of Tillotson as having been beforehand with Spencer in propound) HL:
the general view regarding the nature of the Mosaic ritual ; and certainly
Barrow (in his Sermon on the Imperfection of the Jewish Religion) exhibits
to the full as low a view of the legislation of Moses as Spencer himself did
shortly afterwards. We have no doubt that the view itself %vas an offshoot
of the semi-deistical philosophy which sprang up at that period in England
as a kind of reaction from Puritanism, and almost simultaneously insinuated
itself into various productions of the more learned theologians.

EGYPTIAN I.KARNING OF MOSES. 209

reasons but moral and religious ones, for the laws and institu
tions of Moses, that if the .Jewish lawgiver was in some measure
vindicated from the charge of accommodating his policy to
heathenish notions and customs, it was only to establish for him
the equally questionable reputation of a well-skilled Egyptian
sage, or an accomplished worldly legislator. In this case, as
well as in the other, it was impossible to avoid the conviction,
that it was somewhat out of character to claim for Moses a
properly divine commission, and quite incredible that signs and
wonders should have been wrought by Heaven to confirm and
establish it. After such pioneers, the way was open for the
subtle explanations of rationalism, and the rude assaults of
avowed infidelity.1

In Britain the influence of Spencer's work has also been
very marked, though, from the character of the national mind,
and other counteracting influences, the results were not so di
rectly and extensively pernicious. The more learned works
that have since issued from the press, connected with the inter
pretation of the Books of Moses, have for the most part borne
no unequivocal indications of the weight of Spencer's name ;
while the better convictions and the more practical aim of the
authors, generally kept them from embracing his views in all
their grossness, and carrying them out to their legitimate con
clusions. Even Warburton, who espouses in its full extent
Spencer's view regarding the primary and immediate design of
the Mosaic institutions, as being intended to " preserve the doc
trine of the unity by means of institutions partly in compliance
to their Egyptian prejudices, and partly in opposition to those
and the like superstitions,"2 yet gives a decidedly higher place
to the typical bearing of the Mosaic ritual, and comes much
nearer the truth in representing both its religious use under the
Old Testament dispensation, and its prospective reference to
the New.3 Such writers as Lowman4 and Shaw5 gave only a

1 Michaelis did not himself positively avow his disbelief of the miraculous
in the history of Moses, but he plainly betrayed his anxiety to get rid of it
as far as possible, by his questions to Niebuhr in regard to the passage
through the lied Sea.

- Divine Leg., B. iv., s. 6, and v., s. 1. 3 Ibid., B. vi., s. 5 and 6.

4 Rational of the Ritual of the Hebrew Worship.

5 Philosophy of Judaism.

VOL. II. O

210 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUHK.

partial and reluctant assent to some of Spencer's positions ; and
chiefly, it would seem, because they did not see how to dispose
of his proofs and authorities. The latter, in particular, though
he afterwards substantially grants what Spencer contended
for, yet expresses his dissatisfaction with the general aim of
Spencer's work, by saying, that " upon the whole he was still
apt to imagine, that however it might have been one part of the
Divine purpose to guard Israel against a corruption from the
Egyptian idolatry, by the institution of the Mosaic economy,
this was not the principal design of it." It would have been
strange, indeed, if such had been its principal design. And
strange it certainly was, that men, not to say of penetration and
learning, but with their eyes open, could ever have imagined
that it was so. For what do we not see, when we direct our
view to the latter days of the Jewish commonwealth ? We see
this end most completely attained. A people never existed that
were more firmly established in the doctrine of the unity, and
more thoroughly alienated from the superstitions of heathenism ;
and yet never were a people less intelligently and properly
acquainted with the true knowledge of God, and more hostile
to the claims of Heaven. So that, in adopting the hypothesis
in question, one must be prepared to maintain the monstrous
proposition, that the principal and primary design of that reli
gious economy might have been accomplished, while still the
persons subject to it were neither true worshippers of the living
God, nor fitted to enter into the kingdom of His Son.

The same considerations hold in regard to the other reason
commonly assigned by this class of writers for the rites of
Judaism — the separation of the people from the other nations
of the earth. Indeed, from the very nature of things, that
could not have been more than an incidental and temporary
end. The covenant, out of which all Judaism grew, containing
the promise that in the seed of Abraham all the families of the
earth should be blessed, it could never be the direct intention
and design of the ordinances connected with it, to place them in
formal antagonism to other nations. This effect was no farther
to have been produced than by the Israelites becoming too holy
for intercourse with their Gentile neighbours. In so far as this
distinction did not exist, both were virtually alike : the Israelites

EGYPTIAN LKAKMXG OF MOSES. 211

also were uncircumcised, virtually heathen; and the circum
stance of their being placed under such sanctifying ordinances,
was chiefly designed to have a salutary influence on the sur
rounding nations, and induce them to seek for light and blessing
from Israel. Hence, Deut. xxxii. 43, "Rejoice, O ye nations,
with His people;" and Isa. Ivi. 7, " Mine house shall be called
an house of prayer for all people."

2. A widely different, and in many respects entirely opposite,
view of the institutions of Moses, has also been maintained. Its
chief expounder and advocate, as opposed to Spencer, was
Witsius, whose yEgyptiaca was published with the express de
sign of meeting the arguments and counteracting the influence
of the work of Spencer.1 In this production, Witsius admits at
the outset that there is a striking similarity between the rites of
the Mosaic law and those of other ancient nations, — in particular
of the Egyptians ; and he even quotes with approbation a passage
from Kircher, in which this similarity is asserted to have been
so manifest, that " either the Egyptians must have Hebraized, or
the Hebrews must have Egyptized." Nor does he think it im
probable that this may have been the reason why the Egyptian
and Jewish rites were so often classed together at Home, and
enactments made for restraining them as alike pernicious.2
But he contends, at the same time, that some of the things in
which this resemblance stood were not peculiar to the Egyp
tians, but common to them with other nations of heathen anti
quity ; and especially, that in so far as there might be any

1 Spencer's work called forth many other opponents, but Witeius con
tinued to hold the highest place. The J^gyptiaca was followed by a respect
able work of Meyer, De Temporibus et Festis diebus Hebraeorum — the first
part against Sir John M:\rsham, the second against Spencer, taking up sub
stantially the same ground as Witsius. Vitringa also opposes the leading
views of Spencer, in various parts of his Obs. Sacra, as is done by Deyling
also, in his Obs. Sac. In this country, Shuckford in the first vol. of his Con
nection of Sacred and Profane History, and Graves in his Lectures on the
Pentateuch (he has only one lecture on the subject, P. ii., Lee. v.), with
various other writers of inferior note, have opposed Spencer, on the ground
of Wit.-ius, but without adding to its strength. Uaubeny's Connection
between the Old and the New Testament, though praised by Magee in his
notes on this subject, does not touch on the controversy, and, in a critical
point of view, is an inferior work.

2 Lib. i., c. -2.

212 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

borrowing in the case, it was more likely the Egyptians bor
rowed from the Hebrews than the Hebrews from the Egyptians.
His positions were generally acquiesced in by the more orthodox
and evangelical divines of Britain ; and it is a somewhat singular
fact, that the commencement of a false theology in regard to
the Old Testament had its rise in this country, and this country
itself derived the chief corrective against the evil from abroad.
In two important respects, however, the argument of Witsius
was not satisfactory, and failed to provide a sufficient antidote
to the work of Spencer. 1. He failed in proving, or even in
rendering it probable, that the Egyptians borrowed from the
Israelites the rites and ceremonies in which the customs of the
two nations resembled each other. Warburton is quite success
ful here in meeting the positions of Witsius and his followers,
both on account of the unquestionable antiquity of the Egyptian
institutions, and the want of any such connection between the
two nations as to render a borrowing on the part of the Egyp
tians from the Israelites in the least degree likely. And the
more recent investigations which have been made into the his
tory and condition of ancient Egypt, and the better knowledge
that has been obtained of its religious rites and ceremonies, have
given such confirmation to the views of Warburton in this re
spect, that they may now be regarded as conclusively established.
It is not only against probability, but we may even say against
the well-authenticated facts of history, to allege that the Egyp
tians had to any extent borrowed from the Israelites. 2. If in
this respect the argument of Witsius was erroneous, in another
it was defective ; it made no attempt to supply what had partly
occasioned the work of Spencer, and certainly contributed much
to its success — a more solid and better grounded system of
typology. This still remained as arbitrary and capricious in its
expositions of Old Testament events and institutions as it had
been before — like a nose of wax, as Spencer somewhere sneer-
ingly, though not without reason, terms it, which might be bent
any way one pleased. ( )rthodox divines should, as Hengsten-
berg remarks, "have directed all their powers to a fundamental
and profitable investigation into the symbolical and typical
meaning of the ceremonial institutions."1 But not having done
1 Authentie, i., p. 8.

KtiVlTIAN LEARNING OF MOSES. 213

this, though they succeeded in weakening some of Spencer's
statements, and proving the connection between the Jewish and
Egyptian customs to In- less in certain cases than he imagined,
yet his system, as u whole, had the advantage of an apparently
settled and consistent groundwork, while theirs seemed to swim
only in doubt and uncertainty.

3. In recent times, considerable advances have been made
toward the supplying of this deficiency on the part of Witsius
and his followers. Much praise is due especially to Biihr, for
having laid the foundation of a more profound and systematic-
explanation of the symbols of the Mosaic dispensation, although,
from some radical defects in his doctrinal views, the meaning he
brings out is often far from being satisfactory. On the particular
point now under consideration, he substantially agrees with Wit
sius, holding the institutions of Moses to have been in no respect
derived from Egypt ; but differing so far, that he conceives the
Egyptians to have been as little indebted to the Israelites, as the
Israelites to the Egyptians. He maintains, that whatever simi
larity existed between their respective institutions, arose from
the necessity of employing like symbols to express like ideas,
which rendered a certain degree of similarity in all symbolical
religions unavoidable. " Even if we should grant," he says, " a
direct borrowing in particular cases, why should not the lawgiver
have adopted that which appeared formally suitable to him? The
natural and the sensible is by no means in itself heathenish, and
the sensible things of which the heathens availed themselves, to
represent religious ideas, did not become in the least heathenish
from having been applied to such a use. The main inquiry still
is, what was indicated by these signs, and that not merely in the
particulars, but pre-eminently in their combination into one
entire system. Besides, no case is known to us, in which any
such borrowing can with certainty be proved."1 "The investi
gations," he again says, " recently prosecuted in such a variety
of ways into the religions of the eastern nations show, that what
was formerly regarded as peculiarly Egyptian in the religion of
Moses, is also to be found among other nations of the East,
especially amongst the Indians, and yet nobody would maintain
that Moses borrowed his ceremonial institutions from India." J
1 Symbolik, i., p. 34. 2 Ibid., 42.

214 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Unquestionably not ; but there may still be sufficient ground for
holding that, without travelling to India to see what was there,
he took what suited his purpose near at hand. Besides, Heng-
stenberg, in his Egypt and the Books of Moses, has endeavoured
to prove — and in some cases we think has successfully proved —
that there are distinct traces to be found in the Mosaic legisla
tion of Egyptian usages, and that Biihr is not borne out by his
authorities in alleging the same usages to have existed else
where. We are disposed, therefore, to regard Biihr's position
as somewhat extreme; and on the whole subject of the Egyptian
education of Moses, and the influence this might warrantably
be supposed to exert upon the institutions he was afterwards
honoured to introduce, — a subject not formally discussed by
either of these authors, — we submit the following propositions,
as at once grounded in reason, and borne out by the analogy
of 'the Divine procedure.

(1.) It is, in the first instance, to be held as a sacred principle,
that whatever might be the acquaintance Moses possessed with
the customs and learning of Egypt, this could in no case be the
direct and formal reason of his imposing anything as an obliga
tion on the Israelites. For the whole and every part of his work
he had a commission from above ; and nothing was admitted into
his institutions which did not first approve itself to Divine wis
dom, and carry with it the sanction of Divine authority. " When
the Lord was going to found a new commonwealth, as it was
really new, He wished it also to appear such to the Israelites.
Hence its form or appearance, not as fabricated from the rub
bish of Canaanite or Egyptian superstitions, but as let down
from heaven, was first shown to Moses 011 the sacred mount,
that everything in Israel might be ordered and settled after that
pattern. Nor did He wish liberty to be granted to the people,
to determine by their own judgment even the smallest points in
religion. He determined all things Himself, even to the minutest
circumstances ; so that, on pain of instant death, they were for
bidden either to omit or to change anything. Thus, it became
the majesty of the supreme God to subdue His people to Him
self, not by the wiles of a tortuous and crooked policy, but by a
royal path — the simple exercise of His own authority ; and so
to accustom them from the first to lay aside all carnal considera-

I.CVI'TIAN I.KAKXING OF MOSES. 215

tions, and to take the will alone of their King and Lord as their
common rule in all things."1 The passage in Deut. xii. 30-32
is alone sufficient to establish the truth of this : " Take heed that
thou inquire not after their gods (viz., of the nations of Canaan),
saying, How did these nations serve their gods "? even so will I
do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God : for
every abomination to the Lord which lie hateth have they done
unto their gods. What thing soever I command you,.observe to
do it : thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."

That, in point of fact, there was a marked difference between
the religious customs and sacrificial system of the Israelites and
those of other nations, sufficient to stamp theirs as peculiarly their
own, even heathen writers have in the strongest terms affirmed.2
That it would be so, was implied in the declaration of Moses to
Pharaoh, when he insisted upon being allowed to leave the land
of Egypt, lest " they should sacrifice the abomination of the
Egyptians." In whatever respects this might be the case, —
whether in the kind of victims offered, or in the manner of
offering them, — the statement at least indicates a strong con
trariety between the worship to be instituted among them, and
that already established among the Egyptians. And in the
further statement of Moses, " We shall sacrifice to the Lord
our God as He shall command us" (Ex. viii. 27), he grounds
their entire worship, whether it might in some respects resemble
or differ from that of the Egyptians, on the sole and absolute
authority of God.

(2.) But as the laws and institutions which God prescribes
to His people in any particular age, must be wisely adapted to
the times and circumstances in which they live, so it is impos
sible but that the fact of the lawgiver of the Jewish people
having been instructed in all the wisdom of the most civilised
nation of antiquity, must have to some extent modified both the
civil and religious polity of which he was instrumentally the
author. No man legislates in the abstract : there must be in
eu-ry code of laws an adaptation to the existing state and aspect

' Witeius, ^Egyptiaca, L. iii., c. 14, § 3.

2 Moses, quo sibi in posterum geiitem firmarct, novos ritus, contrariosque
caeteris mortalibus, iiidi Jit. Profana illic omuia, quae apud noa sacra, etc. —
Tacitus, Hist., L. v. 4 ; also Plin. II. N. xiii. 4.

216 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of society ; and this always the more, the higher the skill and
wisdom of the legislator. Moses, it must be remembered, did
not stand alone in his connection with what was counted wise
and polished among the Egyptians ; he only possessed in a
more eminent degree what belonged also in some degree to his
brethren. And that the people for whom he was to legislate
had grown up in a civilised country and an artificial state of
society, familiar, at least, with the results of Egyptian learning,
if but little initiated into the learning itself, naturally called
for a corresponding advancement in the whole structure of his
religious polity ; for what was needed to develop and express
either the civil or the religious life of a people so reared, would
in many respects differ from what might have suited a rude and
uncultivated horde. So that a certain regard to the state of
things in Egypt was absolutely necessary in the Hebrew polity,
if it was to possess a suitable adaptation to the real progress of
society in the arts and manners of civilised life. To instance
only in one particular — the knowledge of the art of writing
must alone have exercised a most material influence on the code
of laws prescribed to this new people. Where such an art is
unknown, the laws must necessarily be few, the institutions
natural and simple, and the degree of instruction connected with
them of the most elementary nature — such as oral tradition
might be sufficient to preserve, or the verses of some popular
bards to teach. But if, on the other hand, the legislation is for
a people among whom writing is known and familiarlv used, it
will naturally embrace a much wider range, and branch itself
out into a far greater variety of particulars. Nor can we doubt
that, for this reason among others, the Israelites were associated
with the manners of Egypt, and Moses was from his youth
instructed in all its learning. For, whatever mystery hangs
over the first invention of letters, there can no longer be any
doubt that Egypt was the country where the art of writing
was first brought into general practice, and that at a period long
prior to the birth of Moses. But, without an intimate and
familiar acquaintance with this art, Moses could not have de
livered such a system of lawrs as constituted the framework of
his dispensation — which, from their multiplicity, it had been
impossible to have accurately preserved, and from their pre-

KdVlTIAN LEARNING OF MOSES. 217

vailing character, as opposed to the corrupt tendencies of the
people, the people themselves were but too willing to forget.
It was therefore necessary that they should all be written,
and that what was pre-eminently the law should even be
engraved, for the sake of greater durability, upon tables of
stone. All this implies a certain amount of learning on the
part of the lawgiver, as requisite to fit him for being instru-
mentally the author of such a dispensation, and a certain in
fluence necessarily exerted by his learning on his legislation.
It implies also a considerable degree of civilisation on the part
of the people, whose circumstances were such as to admit of
and call for such a legislator.1

(3.) We can very easily, however, advance a step farther, and

1 We have already spoken, toward the close of Chap. I., s. 1, of the con
nection between the civilisation of the Israelites, and the ultimate purposes
of God in respect to them. The particular point more especially noticed in
the text here — the existence and familiar use of the art of writing in Egypt,
at the time of Israel's sojourn there — has given rise to a good deal of con
troversy, but is now virtually settled, so far as our immediate purpose is
concerned. How alphabetical writing was invented, or by whom, or whether
it was not transmitted from the ages before the flood, and might conse
quently be claimed by each of the more eminent races or nations that after
wards arose as their own, — these are still unexplored mysteries, and likely to
remain such. The opinion is now very prevalent, that the invention belongs
to Egypt, and grew out of a gradual improvement of the original hieroglyphic
or picture writing. So especially Warburton, Div. Leg., B. iv., s. 4, and
many of the recent writers on hieroglyphics. But this opinion is by no
means universal, and it stands connected with such difficulties, that some
of those who have devoted most attention to the subject, hold the order of
things to have been precisely the reverse. They conceive that the most
complicated was also the last — that out of the alphabetical writing came
the phonetic hieroglyphic, and this again gave rise to the ideographic and
figurative. So, in part at least, Zoega, also Klaproth, 1,-atronne, and
Ilrn-rstenberg, who remarks, in confirmation of this view, that " the hiero
glyphic writing was exclusively a sacred one, and hence conveys the im
pression, that it was intended to darken what already existed in a simple
form ; if we seek in hieroglyphic writing the commencement of writing in
general, we can scarcely comprehend how it should from the first have been
• •xiMii.siu-ly .•mi'loyi-d by the priests." — (Authentic, des Pent., i., p. 4-1-1 r,.
win-re also see quotations from the other writers mentioned as holding this
view.) But, however this may be, it is certain that the knowledge and use of
writing by letters reaches back to a period beyond all authentic profane his
tory, and dates from the very infancy < f the human race. Hence, by most

218 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

perceive how a still more direct and intimate connection might
in some respects be legitimately, and even advantageously, estab
lished, between the state of matters in Egypt, and that intro
duced by Moses among the Israelites. In things, for example,
required for the maintenance of a due order and discipline
among the people, or for the becoming support of the ministers
and ordinances of religion, — things which human nature is dis
posed, if not altogether to shun, at least improperly to curtail
and limit, — it might have been the part of the highest wisdom
to adopt substantially the arrangements which already existed
in Egypt ; for as these must, from their very nature, have im
posed a species of burden upon the Israelites, the thought that
the same had been borne even by the depraved and idolatrous

early nations, the invention of it was ascribed to one of their gods — by the
Phoenicians to Thaaut, by the Egyptians to Thot or Hermes, etc. The fact,
also, that a person, whether personally designated, or characterized by the
name of Cadmus, a supposed contemporary of Moses, brought letters from
Phoenicia to Greece, is a sufficient proof that letter-writing was then iu
current use in the East. Even "Winer (Real Wort., art. Screib-Kunst) ad
mits that Moses might possibly have become acquainted with it in Egypt.
The Greek writers, Diodorus (Hi., c. 3), Plato (De Leg., L. vii.), speak of it
as customary in Egypt for the multitude learning letters ; and the name
given by Herodotus to the alphabetic kind of writing, demotic (popular),
and by Clemens and Porphyry, epistolic, implies it to have been generally
known and used. " In Egypt," says Wilkinson, " nothing was done with
out writing. Scribes were employed on all occasions, whether to settle
public or private questions, and no bargain of any consequence was made
without the voucher of a written document." — (Vol. i., p. 183.) He tells
us also, that papyri of the most remote Pharaonic period have been found
with the same mode of writing as that of the age of Cheops. — (Vol. iii., p.
150.) Rosselini says, that " they probably wrote more in ancient Egypt,
and on more ordinary occasions than among us" — that " the steward of the
house kept a written register" — that "their names used to be inscribed
upon their implements and garments" — that " in levying soldiers, persons
wrote down their names as the commanders brought the men up," etc. —
(Vol. ii., p. 241, ss.) That this accords with the representations given in
the Pentateuch, and that the Israelites partook in the privilege, is evident
from the name given to their officers both in Egypt and Canaan, slioterim,
or scribes (Ex. v. 15 ; Deut. xx. 5), and also from the very frequent refer
ences to writing in the books of Moses, — for example, Ex. xxxii. 16 ; Deut.
vi. 9, xi. 20, xxvii., where they were enjoined to have the whole law written
upon stones covered with chalk or plaster (according to a practice common
in Egypt, Wilkinson, iii., p. 300), that all might see it and read it.

I:<;YITIAN U:.\I:XIN<; OF MOSES. 219

people from whom they were now separated, would the more
easily reconcile them to its obligations. This is a principle
which we find recognised and acted on in Gospel times. There
must be self-denial, and a readiness to undergo labour and
fatigue, in the Christian ; and this the Apostle enforces by a
reference to the toils of the husbandman, the hardships of the
soldier, and even the painstaking laborious diligence of the com
batant in the Grecian games.— (2 Tim. ii. 3-6 ; 1 Cor. ix. 24.)
There must be a decent maintenance provided for those who
devote their time and talents to the spiritual work of the mini
stry ; and the reasonableness and propriety of this, he in part
grounds on what was usually done amongst men in the com
monest occupations of life, as well as the custom, prevalent alike
among Jews and Gentiles, for those who ministered at the altar
to live of the altar. — (1 Cor. ix. 7-14, x. 21.) It was absolutely
necessary, however distasteful it might be to men of corrupt
minds, that proper means should be employed in the Church for
the preservation of order, and the enforcement of a wholesome
discipline ; and the state of things among the Gentiles is appealed
to as in itself constituting a call to attend to this, sufficient even
to shame the churches into its observance. — (1 Cor. v., xi. 1-16.)
Not only so, but the officers appointed in the Christian Church
to take charge of its internal administration, and preside over its
worship and discipline, it is well known, were derived, even to
their very names, from those of the Jewish synagogue, which
was not immediately of Divine origin, but gradually arose out of
the exigencies of the times : the Holy Spirit choosing, in this
respect, to make use of what was known and familiar to the
minds of the disciples, rather than to invent an entirely new
order of things.1

We should not, therefore, be surprised to find the applica-

1 Abrogate templt liturgia et cultu, utpote ceremoniali, cultum atque
publicam Dei adorationera in Synagogis, quse quidem moralis erat, Deus in
ecclesiam transplantavit Christianani, publicum scilicet ministerium, etc.
Hinc ipsissima nomina ministrorum evangi'lii, Angelus ecclesise, atque Ejiis-
copus, quae ministrorum in Synagogis, etc., Lightfooti, Op. ii., p. L>79. But
the full and satisfactory proof is to be found only in Vitringa, De Synagoga
Vet., in the third part of which it is demonstrated, that the form of govern
ment and ministry belonging to the synagogues was in a great measure
transferred to the Christian Church.

220 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

tion of this principle in the Mosaic dispensation — to find that
some things there, especially of the kind supposed, bore a sub
stantial conformity to those of Egypt. The officers, or shoterim,
mentioned in Deut. xx., were evidently of this class. And such
also were some of the arrangements respecting the apportion
ment of the land, and the support ministered from its produce
to those who were regarded more especially as the representa
tives of God. In these respects there was the closest resem
blance between the Egyptian and Jewish polities, and in the
points in which they agreed they differed from all the other
nations of antiquity with which we are acquainted. It is an
ascertained fact, confirmed by the reports of the Greek historians,
that the king was regarded as sole proprietor of the land in
Egypt, with the exception of what belonged to the priests, and
that the cultivators were properly fanners under the king. Dio-
dorus, indeed (L. i. 73), represents the military caste as having
also a share in the land ; and Wilkinson (vol. i., p. 263) says,
that kings, priests, and the military order, these, but these only,
appear to have been landowners. Herodotus, however, explains
this apparent contradiction in regard to the military order, by
stating (B. ii., sec. 141) that their land properly belonged to the
king ; that they differed from the common cultivators only in
holding it free of rent, and in lieu of wages ; that hence, while
it had been given them by one king, it had been taken away by
another. He also mentions, that not only had the priests pro
perty in land connected with the temples in which they served,
but also that they had allowances furnished them out of the
public or royal treasures, .and along with the soldiers received a
salary from the king (ii. 37, 168). These are very striking
peculiarities, and, as Hengstenberg justly remarks,1 imply, at
least in regard to the king's proprietorship in the land, a histo
rical fact through which it was brought about. We have such
a fact in the history of Joseph (Gen. xlvii.), when he bought
the land for Pharaoh, but rented it out again to the people, on
condition of their paying a fifth of the produce, with the excep
tion, however, of the land of the priests, whose land Pharaoh
had no opportunity indeed of purchasing, because they had a
stated allowance from his stores.

1 Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 62, Trans.

U:AI;MN<; OF MOSES. 221

It is perhaps not too much to say, that one of the reasons why
this singular state of things was introduced into Egypt by the
instrumentality of Joseph, was, that a similar arrangement in
regard to the land of Canaan might the more readily be gone
into on the part of the Israelites. The similarity is too striking
to have been the result of anything but an intentional copying
from the Egyptian constitution. For in the Jewish common
wealth God is represented as King, to whom the whole land
belonged, and the people were as tenants under Him — obliged
also, by the tenure on which they held it, to yield two-tenths, or
a fifth, of the yearly produce unto God, who again provided out
of this fifth for the support of the priests and Levites, the widow
and the orphan, His peculiar representatives.1 This large con
tribution from the regular increase of the land was necessary
for the proper administration of Divine ordinances, and the
beneficent support of those who, according to the plan adopted,
had no other resources to trust to for their comfortable main
tenance. But it implied too entire a dependence upon God, and
exacted too much at their hands, to meet with a ready com
pliance. And it was not only compatible, but we should rather
say in perfect accordance with the highest wisdom, to adopt an
arrangement for securing it, which was thus grounded in the
history and constitution of Egypt, rather than to contrive one
altogether new : for it thus came to them, on its first proposal,
recommended and sanctioned by ancient usage. And the thought
was obvious, that if the citizens even of a heathen empire, in
consideration of a great act of kindness in the time of famine,
gave so much to their earthly sovereign, and held so depend-
ently of him, it was meet that they should willingly yield the
same to the God who had redeemed them, and freely bestowed
upon them everything they possessed.

In these, and probably some other matters of a similar kind,
wt' can easily understand how the Egyptian learning of Moses,
without the slightest derogation to his Divine commission, might
be turned to valuable account in executing'the work given him
to do. Nor have we any reason to suppose that the Divine
direction and counsel imparted to him superseded the light he

1 Deut. xviii. ; Lev. xxv. ; comp. also Michaelis' I^aws of Moses, vol. ii.,
p. 258, and Hengstenbt-rg's Authentic, ii.. p. ;

222 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

had obtained, or the benefit he had derived by his opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the internal affairs of Egypt.

(4.) But there is a still farther point of connection between
the Egyptian learning of Moses, coupled with the Egyptian
training of the people, and what might justly be expected in
the institutions under which they were to be placed, and one
still more directly bearing on the religious aspect of the dis
pensation. For the handwriting of ordinances brought in by
Moses was predominantly of a symbolical nature. But a
symbol is a kind of language, and can no more than ordinary
speech be framed arbitrarily ; it must grow up and form itself
out of the elements which are furnished by the field of nature
or art, and be gathered from it by daily observation and expe
rience. The language which we use as the common vehicle of
our thoughts, and which forms the medium of our most hal
lowed intercourse with heaven, is constructed from the world of
sin and sorrow around us, and, if viewed as to its origin, savours
of things common and unclean. But in its use simply as a
vehicle of thought or a medium of intercourse, it is not the less
fitted to utter the sentiments of our heart, and convey even our
loftiest aspirations to heaven. Why should it be thought to
have been otherwise with the language of symbol ? This too
must have its foundation to a great extent in nature and
custom, in observation and experience ; for as it is addressed to
the eye, it must, to be intelligible, employ the signs which, by
previous use, the eye is able to read and understand. Plow
should I imagine that white, as a symbol, represents purity, or
crimson guilt, unless something in my past history or observa
tion had taught me to regard the one as a fit emblem of the
other ? It would not in the least mar the natural import of the
symbol, or destroy its aptitude to express, even on the most
solemn occasions, the idea with which it has become associated
in my mind, if I should have learned its meaning amid employ
ments not properly sacred, or the practices of a forbidden super
stition. No matter how acquired, the bond of connection exists
in my mind between the external symbol and the spiritual idea ;
and to reject its religious use because I may have seen it
abused to purposes of superstition, would not be more reason
able than to have proscribed every epithet in the language of

EGYPTIAN LEARNING OF MOSKs. 223

Greece or l\uim>, which had been anyhow connected with the
worship and service of idolatry.

Now, it so happened in the providence of God, that the
children of Israel were brought into contact with the religious
rites and usages of a people deeply imbued, no doubt, with a
spirit of depravity and superstition, but abounding, at the same
time, with symbolical arts and ordinances. And it was in the
nature of things impossible that another religion abounding
with the same could be framed, without adopting to a large
extent the signs with which, from the accident of their position,
they had become familiar. The religion introduced might
differ — in point of fact, it did differ — from that already estab
lished, as far as light from darkness, in regard to the spirit
they respectively breathed and the great ends they aimed at.
But being alike symbolical, the one must avail itself of the
signs which the other had already seized upon as fitted to
express to the eye certain ideas. This had become, so to speak,
the current language, which might to some extent be modified
and improved, but could not be arbitrarily set aside. And as
such language consists for the most part of a figurative use of
the sensible things of nature, the assertion of Biihr is undoubt
edly correct, that a very large proportion of the symbols so em
ployed must be common to all religions of a like nature. Yet
as each nation also has its peculiarities of thought, of custom, of
scenery, of art and commerce, it can scarcely fail to have some
corresponding peculiarities of symbolical expression. And it
should by no means surprise us — it is rather in accordance with
just and rational expectation, if, since the Egyptians were in
various respects so peculiar a people, and the Israelites in gene
ral, and Moses in particular, had been brought into such close
and intimate connection with their entire system, the symbols of
the Jewish worship should in some points bear a resemblance to
those of Egypt, which cannot be traced in those of any other
nation of heathen antiquity.

Such in reality is the case, as will afterwards appear ; and

we perceive in it a mark, not of suspicion, but of credibility

;ind truth. It bears somewhat of the same relation to the

authenticity of the Books of Moses, and the original genuine-

of the revelation contained in them, that the language of

224 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the New Testament Scripture, the peculiar type of the period
to which it belonged, does in reference to the truths and state
ments contained in them. Though certain critics, of more zeal
than discretion, have thought it would be a great achievement
for the literature of the New Testament, if they could establish
its claim to be ranked in point of purity with the best of the
Greek classics, no individual of sound judgment will dispute,
that if they had succeeded in this, the loss would have been
immensely greater than the gain ; that one most important
proof of the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testa
ment record would have perished, and that the language itself
would have become less pliant and expressive as a medium for
communicating the spiritual ideas of the Gospel. In like
manner, it is no discredit to the religion of Moses, that its
symbols can so generally be identified with those currently
employed at the period when it arose ; and the peculiar resem
blance borne by some of them to the customs and usages of
Egypt, is like a stamp of veritableness impressed upon its very
structure, testifying of its having originated in the time and
circumstances mentioned in the original record. Nor can we
fail to see in this the marvellous wisdom of the Divine working,
in connection with the history of the undertaking of Moses,
that while he was to be commissioned to set up a symbolical
religion among the Israelites, the reverse in all its great features
of that prevalent in Egypt, he should yet have been thoroughly
qualified by his original training to serve himself of whatever
suitable materials were furnished by the land of his birth.
These were in a sense part of the spoils taken from the enemy,
out of which the tabernacle of the wilderness was reared —
though still all things there were made after the Divine pattern
shown to Moses in the mount ; and in the truths it symboli/ed,
and the purposes for which it was erected, it was an embodi
ment, not of the things pertaining to a corrupt nature-worship,
but of those which reveal the character of a righteous God, and
the duty of service which His redeemed owe to Him.

It is not certainly for the purpose of finding any continua
tion in a theological point of view, to the argument maintained
in the preceding pages, but only to show the foundation in
nature, or the scientific basis which it also has to rest upon, that

KIJYITIAN U:AI;M\<; OK MOSES. 225

we produce the following quotation from C. O. Miiller. The
quotation is farther valuable, as it exhibits the view of a pro
found thinker, and one who has made himself intimately con
versant with the thoughts and customs of remote antiquity, in
regard to the meaning treasured up in the symbols of ancient
worship, and the aptitude of the people to understand them. It
is possible, that in the work from which we give the extract he
carries his views to an extreme, as we certainly think he does, in
often making too much of particular transactions, and also in
making the instruction by myths and symbols not only inde
pendent of, but in some sort inconsistent with, direct instruction
in doctrine. The general soundness, however, of his view re
garding the significance of those ancient forms of instruction,
especially of symbol, there are few men of learning or judgment
who will now be disposed to call in question. "That this
connection of the idea with the sign when it took place, was
natural and necessary to the ancient world ; that it occurred in
voluntarily; and that the essence of the symbol consists in this
supposed real connection of the sign with the thing signified,
I here assume. Now, symbols in this sense are evidently
coeval with the human race ; they result from the union of
the soul with the body in man ; nature has implanted the feel
ing for them in the human heart. How is it that we under
stand what the endless diversities of human expression and
gesture signify ? How comes it, that every physiognomy
expresses to us spiritual peculiarities, without any conscious
ness on our part of the cause ? Here experience alone cannot
be our guide ; for without having ever seen a countenance like
that of Jupiter Olympus, we should yet, when we saw it, im
mediately understand its features. An earlier race of mankind,
who lived still more in sensible impressions, must have had a
still stronger feeling for them. It may be said that all nature
wore to them a physiognomical aspect. Now, the worship
which represented the feelings of the Divine in visible external
actions, was in its nature thoroughly symbolical. No one can
seriously doubt that prostration at prayer is a symbolic act;
for corporeal abasement very evidently denotes spiritual sub
ordination: so evidently, that language cannot even describe
the spiritual, except by means of a material relation. But it is

VOL. II. P

226 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

equally certain that sacrifice also is symbolical ; for bow would
the feeling of acknowledgment, that it is a God who supplies us
with food and drink, display itself in action, but by withdraw
ing a portion of them from the use of man, and setting it apart
in honour of the Deity ? But precisely because the symbolical
has its essence in the idea of an actual connection between the
sign and the thing signified, was an inlet left for the super
stitious error, that something palatable was really offered to the
gods — that they tasted it. But it will scarcely do to derive the
usage from this superstition ; in other words, to assign the
intention of raising a savoury steam as the original foundation
of all sacrifice. It would then be necessary to suppose, that at
the ceremony of libation the wine was poured on the earth, in
order that the gods might lick it up ! I have here only brought
into view one side of the idea, which forms the basis of sacrifice,
and which the other, certainly not less ancient, always accom
panied, namely, the idea of atonement by sacrifice ; which was
from the earliest times expressed in numberless usages and
legends, and which could only spring from the strongest and
most intense religious feeling : ' We are deserving of death ; we
offer as a substitute the blood of the animal.' " l — He states a
little further on, that we must not always presuppose that a
particular symbol corresponds exactly to a particular idea, such
as we may be accustomed to conceive of it ; that the symbols
will partly, indeed, remain the same as long as external nature
continues unchanged, but that their signification will vary with
the different national modes of intuition and other circum
stances; so that a moral and religious economy, like that of
Judaism, might be engrafted on the nature-worship of Egypt,
— meaning thereby, we suppose, that while many of the sym
bols were retained, a new and higher meaning would be imparted
to them.2

Having given the sentiments of one high authority, bearing
on the external resemblance in some points between Judaism
and the religions of heathen antiquity, we shall give the senti
ments of another as to the radical difference in spirit and cha
racter which distinguished the true from the false, — an authority

1 M tiller's Introd. to Scientific System of Mythology, p. 196, Eng.
Trans. 2 Ibid., 219, 222.

EGYPTIAN LEARNING OF MOSES. 227

\\ hose defective views on some vital points of doctrine only render
his opinion here the less liable to suspicion. "Heathenism,"
says Biihr, " as is now no longer disputed, was in all its parts a
nature-religion ; that is, the deification of nature in its entire
compass. That mode of contemplation which was wont to per
ceive the ideal in the real, proceeded in heathenism a step
farther ; it saw in the world and nature not merely a manifes
tation of Godhead, but the very essence and being of nature
were regarded in it as identical with the essence and being of
( iodhead, and as such thrown together : the ultimate foundation
of all heathenism is pantheism. Hence the idea of the oneness
of the Divine Being was not absolutely lost ; but this oneness
was not at all that of a personal existence, possessing self-con
sciousness and self-determination, but an impersonal One, the
great 7f, a neuter abstract, the product of mere speculation,
which is at once everything and nothing. Wherever the Deity
appeared as a person, it ceased to be one, and resolved itself into
an infinite multiplicity. But all these gods were mere personi
fications of the different powers of nature. From a religion
which was so physical in its fundamental character, there could
only be developed an ethics which should bear the hue and form
of the physical. Above all that is moral rose natural necessity
— fate, to which gods and men were alike subject ; the highest
moral aim for man was to yield an absolute submission to this
necessity, and generally to transfuse himself into nature as
being identified with Deity, to represent in himself its life, and
especially that characteristic of it, perfect harmony, conformity
to law and rule. — The Mosaic religion, on the other hand, has
for its first principle the oneness and absolute spirituality of
God. The Godhead is no neuter abstract, no It, but I ;
Jehovah is altogether a personal God. The whole world, with
everything it contains, is His work, the offspring of His own free
:ut, I Ii^ creation. Viewed as by itself, this world is nothing;
llr alone is — absolute being. He is in it, indeed, but not as
property one with it; lie is infinitely above it, and can clothe
Himself with it as with a garment, or fold it up and lay it aside
;i> Hi- PRIM'S. Now this God, who reveals and manifests Him
self through all creation, in carrying into execution His pur
pose to save and bless all the families of the earth, revealed and

228 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

manifested Himself in an especial manner to one race and
people. The centre of this revelation is the word which He
spoke to Israel ; but this word is His law, the expression of His
perfect holy will. The essential character, therefore, of the
special revelation of God is holiness. Its substance is, " Be ye
holy, for I am holy." So that the Mosaic religion is through
out ethical ; it always addresses itself to the will of man, and
deals with him as a moral being. Everything that God did for
Israel, in the manifestations He gave of Himself, aims at this as
its final end, that Israel should sanctify the name of Jehovah,
and thereby be himself sanctified."1

There can be no doubt that this view of the being and
character of God, unfolded in the books of Moses, entered as a
pervading element into the religion of the Old Covenant, and
gave a tone altogether peculiar to everything connected with it.
Even where the form of Egyptian laws and institutions was
retained, these became informed with another spirit, and directed
to a nobler aim. Religious worship itself assumed a new cha
racter ; it ceased to be, as in heathenism, an abject prostration
of spirit before powers known only as working in nature, and
subject to it, — powers that might be worshipped with cringing
homage or dread, but could not be properly loved or adored, —
and became a free and elevated communion with the Great
Parent of the universe, Himself the lofty ideal of all that is
pure and good. From his relation to such a Being, each indi
vidual was raised to a higher sphere of life and action. It was
a kind of sacrilege now to view him as the simple property of
his fellow-men, the creature of circumstances, or the tool of
arbitrary sway ; he had become the subject and servant of
Jehovah, in whose covenant he stood, and whose image he bore.
All the relations, too, which he filled, — domestic, social, and
public, — were brought under the influence of the same hallowed
and elevated spirit ; and the object he was called to realize in
the midst of them was, not a mere conformity to external order
or hereditary custom, — the common aim of heathenism, — but
the cultivation, the exercise, of that moral excellence and purity
which was seen in the character and law of his God.

1 Symbolik, i., p. 35-37, where also confirmatory testimonies are pro
duced from Creuzer, Gorres, Hegel, Schlegel.

SECTION SECOND.

THE TABERNACLE IN ITS GENERAL STRUCTURE AND DESIGN.

BY the establisliment of the Sinaitic covenant the relation be
tween God and Israel had been brought into a state of formal
completeness. The covenant of promise, which pledged the
Divine faithfulness to bestow upon them every essential blessing,
was now properly supplemented by the covenant of law, which
took them bound to yield the dutiful return of obedience He
justly expected from them. The foundation was thus outwardly
laid for a near relationship subsisting, and a blessed intercourse
developing itself between the God of Abraham on the one hand,
and the seed of Abraham on the other. And it was primarily
with the design of securing and furthering this end, that the
ratification of the covenant of Sinai was so immediately followed
up by the adoption of measures for the erection of the tabernacle.

I. The command is first of all given for the children of Israel
bringing the necessary materials : " And let them make Me," it
is added, " a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." — (Ex.
xxv. 8.) The different parts are then minutely described, after
which the general design is again indicated thus : " And I will
dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And
they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought
them out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them :
I am the Lord their God."— (Ex. xxix. 45, 46.) With this
representation of its general design, the names or designations
applied to it perfectly correspond.

(1.) Most commonly, when a single name is used, it is that
which answers to our word dwelling or habitation,1 although the
word generally employed in our translation is tabernacle. Some
times we find the more definite term house,2 the house of God,
or the Lord's house (Ex. xxiii. 19 ; Deut. xxiii. 18 ; Josh. ix.

230 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

23; Judg. xviii. 31), or tent.1— (Ex. xxvi. 11.) The dwelling
in its original form was a tent, because the people among whom
God came to reside and hold converse were then dwelling in
tents, and had not yet come to their settled habitation. But
afterwards this tent was supplanted by the temple in Jerusalem,
which bore the same relation to the ceiled houses in the land of
Israel, that the original tabernacle held to the tents in the wil
derness. And coming, as the temple thus did, in the room of
the tabernacle, and holding the same relative position, it was
sometimes spoken of as the tent of God (Ez. xli. 1), though
more commonly it received the appellation of the house of God,
or His habitation.

(2.) Besides these names, certain descriptive epithets were
applied to the tabernacle. It was called the tent of meeting*
for which our version has unhappily substituted the tent of the
congregation. The expression is intended to designate this tent
or dwelling as the place in which God was to meet and converse
with His people ; not, as is too commonly supposed, the place
where the children of Israel were to assemble, and in which
they had a common interest. It was this certainly ; but merely
because it was another and higher thing — because it formed for
all of them the one point of contact and channel of intercourse
between heaven and earth. This is clearly brought out in Ex.
xxix. 42, 43, where the Lord Himself gives an explanation of
the " tabernacle of meeting," and says concerning it, " Where I
will meet with you, to speak there unto thee ; and there I will
meet with the children of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by
My glory."

(3.) The tabernacle is again described as the tabernacle of
the testimony, or tent of ivitness.3 — (Ex. xxxviii. 21 ; Num. ix. 15,
xvii. 7, xviii. 2.) It received this designation from the law of
the two tables, which were placed in the ark or chest that stood
in the innermost sanctuary. These tables were called "the
testimony" (Ex. xxxi. 18, xxxiv. 29), and the ark which con
tained them "the ark of the testimony" (Ex. xxv. 21, 22);
whence, also, the whole tabernacle was called the tabernacle or
tent of the testimony. For God dwells in His law, which makes

nnyn

nnyn

Till: TABERNACLE IN ITS GENERAL STRUCTURE. 231

known what lie Himself is, and on what terms He will hold
fellowship with men. The witnessing, as previously noticed
(Ch. II., sec. 1), had respect more immediately to the holiness of
God, but by necessary implication also to the sinfulness of the
people. While the tables expressed the righteous demands of
the former, they necessarily witnessed in a condemnatory manner
respecting the latter. So that the meeting which God's people
were to have with Him in His habitation, was not simply for
receiving the knowledge of the Divine will, or holding fellow
ship with God in general : it was for that, indeed, more directly ;
but it also bore a prominent respect to the sins on their part,
against which the law was ever testifying, and the means of
their restoration to His favour and blessing.

Viewing the tabernacle, then (or the temple), in this general
aspect, we may state its immediate object and design to have
been the bringing of God near to the Israelites in His true
character, and keeping up an intercourse between Him and
them. It was intended to satisfy the desire so feelingly ex
pressed by Job, " O that I knew where I might find Hi in,
that I might come even to His seat;" and to provide, by means
of a local habitation, with its appropriate services, for the at
tainment of a livelier apprehension of God's character, and the
maintenance of a closer and more assured fellowship with Him.
To some extent this end might have been reached without the
intervention of such an apparatus ; for in itself it is a spiritual
thing, and properly consists in the exercise of suitable thoughts
and affections towards God, calling forth in return gracious
manifestations of His love and blessing. But, under a dispensa
tion so imperfect as to the measure of light it imparted, the
Israelites would certainly, without such outward and visible help
a> was afforded by a worldly sanctuary, have either sunk into
practical ignorance and forgetfulness of God, or betaken them
selves to some wrong methods of bringing divine tilings more
distinctly within the grasp and comprehension of their minds.
It was thus that idol-worship arose, and was with such difficulty
repressed in the chosen family itself. Till God was made mani
fest in flesh, in the person of Christ, even the pious mind
anxiously sought to lay hold of some visible link of communion
with the higher region of glory. So Jacob, after he had seen

232 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the heavenly vision on the plains of Bethel, could not refrain
from anointing the stone on which his head was laid, and calling
it " the house of God." He felt as if that stone now formed a
peculiar point of contact with heaven ; and had his mind been
less enlightened in the knowledge of God, he would assuredly
have converted it in the days of his future prosperity into an
idol, and erected on the spot a fane where it might be enshrined
and worshipped.

It was therefore with the view of meeting this natural ten
dency, or of assisting the natural weakness of men in dealing
with divine and spiritual things, that God condescended to pro
vide for Himself a local habitation among His people. His
doing so was an act of great kindness and grace to them. At
the same time, it manifestly bespoke an imperfect state of things,
and was merely an adaptation or expedient to meet the existing
deficiencies of their religious condition, till a more perfect dis
pensation should come. Had they been able to look, as with
open eye, on the realities of the heavenly world, they would
have been raised above the necessity of any such external ladder
to place them in apposition with its affairs ; they would have
found every place alike suitable for communing with God.
And hence, when the intercourse between Him and His re
deemed shall be brought to absolute perfection — when " the
tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He shall dwell with
them," no temple shall any longer be seen;1 for the fleshly
weakness, which at one time required this, shall have finally
disappeared : everywhere the presence of God will be realized,
and direct communion with him maintained. But it was other
wise amid the dim shadows of the earthly inheritance. There a
visible pattern of divine things was required to help out in men's
minds the imperfection of the spiritual idea ; a habitation was
needed for the more peculiar manifestations of God's presence,
such as could be scanned and measured by the bodily eye, and
by serving itself of which the eye of the mind might rise to a
clearer apprehension both of His abiding nearness to His people,
and of the more essential attributes of His character and glory.

II. But that this material dwelling-place of God might be
i Rev. xxi. 3, 22.

TIIK TAHKKXACI.i: IN ITS CKNKKAI, STRUCTURE. 233

a safe guide and real assistance in promoting fellowship with
Heaven — that it might convey only right impressions of divine
things, and form a suitable channel of communication between
God and man, it must evidently be throughout of God's, and
not of man's devising. Hence there was presented to Moses
on the mount, the pattern form after which it was in every par
ticular to be constructed (Ex. xxv. 40) ; and though it was to
be a tabernacle built with men's hands, yet these — from Moses,
who was charged with the faithful execution of the whole, to
the artificers who were to be employed in the preparation of the
materials — must all be guided by the Spirit of God, supplying
" wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge " for the occasion.
This plainly indicates the high importance which was attached
in the mind of God to the proper construction of this Divine
habitation, and what a plenitude of meaning was designed to be
expressed by it. Yet here, also, there is a middle path which is
the right one; and it is possible, in searching for the truths
embodied in those patterns of heavenly things, to err by excess
as well as by defect. Due regard must be had to the connection
and order of the parts one with another — their combination so
as to form one harmonious whole — the circumstances in which,
and the purposes for which, that whole was constructed. And
it is no more than we might expect beforehand, that in this
sacred structure, as in erections of an ordinary kind, some things
may have been ordered as they were from convenience, others
from necessity, others again from the general effect they were
fitted to produce, rather than from any peculiar significance
belonging to them in other respects. Such, we think, will
appear to be the case in regard to the only two points we are
called to consider in the present section — the materials of which
the tabernacle was formed, and its general structure and appear
ance.

(1.) In regard to the materials, one thing is common to them
all — that they were to be furnished by the people, and presented
as an offering, most of them also as a free-will offering, to the
Lord: " Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring Me
an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart
ye shall take My offering." — (Ex. xxv. 2.) That the materials
were to be brought by the people as an offering, implied that

234 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the structure for which they were given was altogether of a
sacred character, being made of things consecrated to the Lord.
And that the offering should have been of a free-will descrip
tion, implied that there was to be no constraint in anything
connected with it, and that, as in the erection of the dwelling,
so in the carrying out of the purposes for which it was erected,
there must be the ready concurrence of man's sanctified will
with the grace and condescension of God. And the people,
who had recently experienced the Lord's pardoning mercy, after
their shameful violation of the covenant, gave expression to their
grateful feelings by the readiness and abundance of their con
tributions. Other ideas have sometimes been sought in connec
tion with the source from which the materials were derived, but
without any warrant from Scripture. For example, much has
frequently been made of the circumstance that these materials
formed a portion of the spoils of Egypt. There can be no doubt
that they were, to a considerable extent at least, of that descrip
tion ; but the text is silent upon the subject, and at the time
when they were brought in free-will offering by the people they
were their own property, and simply as such (not as having been
in any particular manner obtained) were the people called upon
to give them. Again, a portion of the materials — the whole of
the silver, it would seem, which was employed in the erection —
was formed of the half-shekel of redemption money, which
Moses was ordered to levy from eX'ery male in the congregation ;
and as this was chiefly used in making the sockets of the sanc
tuary, special meanings have been derived from the circum
stance. But that nothing peculiar was designed to be intimated
by that, is clear from the twofold consideration, that a part of
this silver was applied to a quite different use, to the making of
hooks and ornaments for the pillars, and that all the sockets
were not made of it ; for those of the door or entrance were
formed of the free-will offerings of brass. — (Ex. xxxviii. 25-28.)
The materials themselves were of various sorts, according to
the uses for which they were required : Precious stones, of
several kinds ; gold, silver, and brass ; shittim-wood ; linen or
cotton fabrics of blue, purple, and scarlet, and skins for external
coverings. Separate and distinct meaning have been found in
each of these, derived either from their inherent qualities or

Till. TAUKRNAfLK IN ITS (il'NT.HAL STRUCTl'IiK. 235

from their colours, and by none with so much learning and
ingenuity as Biihr; but still without any solid foundation.
That tin- wood, for example, should have been that of the
shittah-tree, or the acacia, as it is now generally supposed to
have been, had a sufficient reason in the circumstance, which
Biihr himself admits,1 that it is the tree chiefly found in that
part of Arabia where the tabernacle was constructed, and the
only one of such dimensions as to yield boards suitable for the
purpose. It was not, therefore, as if a choice lay between this
and some other kinds of trees, and this in particular fixed upon
on account of some inherent qualities peculiar to itself. Besides,
in the temple, which for all essential purposes was one with the
tabernacle, the wood employed was not the acacia, but the cedar ;
and that, no doubt, for the same reason as the other had been,
being the best and most suitable for the purpose which the
region afforded. The lightness of the acacia wood, and its
being less liable to corrupt than some other species,2 were inci
dental advantages peculiarly fitting it for the use it was here
applied to. But we have no reason to suppose that anything
further, or more recondite, depended on them ; according to the
just remark of Ilengstenberg, that in so far as things in the
tabernacle differed from those in the temple, they must have
been of an adventitious and external nature.3

In regard to the other articles used, it does not appear that
any higher reason can be assigned for their selection, than that
they were the best and fittest of their several kinds. They con
sisted of the most precious metals, of the finest stuffs in linen
manufacture, with embroidered workmanship, the richest and
most gorgeous colours, and the most beautiful and costly gems.
It was absolutely necessary, by means of some external appa
ratus, to bring out the idea of the surpassing glory and mag-

1 Symbolik, i., p. 262.

8 That it was absolutely incorruptible, is not of course to be imagined,
though the language of JosephuB, l*hilo, and some heathen writers, would
seem to imply as much. It is called £j/Xoj/ Bayx-rov by the LXX., and
Joseph us affirms it could not "suffer corruption." For other authorities,
i B;ihr, i., p. 262. The simple truth seems to have been, that it was
light, and stood the water well ; hence was much used by the Egyptians in
in.-ikiiiy boats, and was loosely talked of as incorrupt iW'1.

3 Authentic, ii.. p. 639.

236 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

nificence of Jehovah as the King of Israel, and of the singular
honour which was enjoyed by those who were admitted to
minister and serve before Him. But this could only be done
by the rich and costly nature of the materials which were em
ployed in the construction of the tabernacle, and of the official
garments of those who were appointed to serve in its courts.
It is expressly said of the high priest's garments, that they were
to be made "for glory (or ornament) and for beauty" (Ex.
xxviii. 2) ; for which purpose they were to consist of the fine
byss or linen cloth of Egypt (Gen. xli. 42 ; Luke xvi. 19), em
broidered with needlework done in blue, purple, and scarlet, the
most brilliant colours. And if means were thus taken for pro
ducing effect in respect to the garments of those who ministered
in the tabernacle, it is but reasonable to infer that the same
would be done in regard to the tabernacle itself. Hence we
read of the temple, the more perfect form of the habitation, that
it was to be made " so exceeding magnifical as to be of fame
and glory throughout all countries" (1 Chron. xxii. 5), and that
among other things employed by Solomon for this purpose,
" the house was garnished with precious stones for beauty." —
(2 Chron. iii. 6.) Such materials, therefore, were used in the
construction of the tabernacle, as were best fitted for conveying
suitable impressions of the greatness and glory of the Being for
whose peculiar habitation it was erected. And as in this we
are furnished with a sufficient reason for their employment, to
search for others were only to wander into the regions of un
certainty and conjecture.

We therefore discard (with Hengstenberg, Baumgarten, and
others) the meanings derived by Biihr, as well as those of the
elder theologians, from the intrinsic qualities of the metals, and
the distinctive colours employed in the several fabrics. They
are here out of place. The question is not, whether such things
might not have been used so as to convey certain ideas of a
moral and religious nature, but whether they actually were so
employed here ; and neither the occasion of their employment,
nor the manner in which this was done, in our opinion, gives
the least warrant for the supposition. So far as the metals
were concerned, we see no ground in Scripture for any sym
bolical meaning being attached to them, separate from that sug-

THK TABERNACLE IN ITS GENERAL STRUCTURE. 237

gested by their costliness and ordinary uses. That brass should
have been tin- Jin-vailing metal in the fittings and furniture of
the outer court, where the people at large could come with their
offering, and in the sanctuary itself silver and gold, might
undoubtedly be regarded as imaging the advance that is made
in the discovery of the Divine excellence and glory, the more
one gets into the secret of His presence and is prepared for be
holding His beauty. A symbolical use of certain colours we
undoubtedly find, such as of white, in expressing the idea of
purity, or of red, in expressing that of guilt ; but when so used,
the particular colour must be rendered prominent, and connected
also with an occasion plainly calling for such a symbol. This
was not the case in either respect with the colours in the taber
nacle. The colours there, for the most part, appeared in u
combined form ; and if it had been possible to single them out,
and give to each a distinctive value, there was nothing to indi
cate how the ideas symbolized were to be viewed, whether in
reference to God or to His worshippers. Indeed, the very
search would necessarily have led to endless subtleties, and pre
vented the mind from receiving the one direct and palpable
impression which we have seen was intended to be conveyed.
As examples of the arbitrariness necessarily connected with
such meanings, Ba'hr makes the red significant, in its purple
shade, of the majesty, in its scarlet, of the life-giving property
of God ; while Neumann, after fresh investigations into the
properties of light and colour, sees in the red the expression of
God's love, inclining as purple to the mercy of grace, as scarlet
to the jealousy of judgment. With Ba'hr, the blue is the symbol
of the skyey majesty whence God manifests His glory ; with
Neumann, it points to the depth of ocean, and is the symbol
of God's substance, which dwells in light inaccessible, and lays
in the stability of the Creator the foundation of the covenant.
Such diverse and arbitrary meanings, rivalling the caprice of the
elder typologists, show the fancifulness of the ground on which
they are raised. And interwoven as the colours were in works of
embroidery, not standing each apart in some place of its own, we
have in i reason to imagine they had any other purpose to serve
than similar works of art in the high priest's dress, viz., for
ornament and beaut v.

238 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

The total value of the materials used in the construction of
the tabernacle must have been very great. Estimated according
to the present commercial value, the twenty-nine talents of gold
alone would be equal to about L.I 73,000 ; and Dr Kitto's aggre
gate sum of L.2 50,000 might probably come near the mark of
the entire cost. But there can be no doubt that the precious
metals and stones were much more common, consequently of
much less comparative value, in remote antiquity than they are
now. In some of the ancient temples, as well as treasure-houses
of kings, we read, on good authority, of almost incredible stores
of them. For example, in the temple of Belus at Babylon, there
was a single statue of Belus, with a throne and table, weighing
together 800 talents of gold ; and in the temple altogether about
7170 talents. . Still, even this was greatly outdone by the amount
of treasure which, on the most moderate calculation, we have
reason to think was expended on the temple at Jerusalem. In
such vast expenditure, whether on the tabernacle or the temple,
it is not necessary to think of an accommodation to heathen
prejudices, nor of anything but an intention to represent sym
bolically the greatness and glory of the Divine Inhabitant.

(2.) Looking now to the general structure and appearance of
the tabernacle, we might certainly expect the following charac
teristics : that, being a tent, or moveable habitation, it would be
constructed in such a manner as to present somewhat of the
general aspect of such tenements, and be adapted for removals
from place to place ; and that, being the tent of God, it would
be fashioned within and without so as to manifest the peculiar
sacredness and grandeur of its destination. This is precisely
what we find to have been the case. Like tents generally, it
was longer than broad — thirty cubits long by ten broad ; and
while on three of the sides possessing wooden walls, which as
similated it in a measure to a house, yet these were composed
of separate gilded boards or planks, rising perpendicularly
from silver sockets, kept together by means of golden rings,
through which transverse bars were passed, and hence easily
taken asunder when a removal was made. So also the larger
articles of furniture belonging to the tabernacle, the ark, the
table, and the altars of incense and burnt-offering, were each
furnished with rings and staves, for the greater facility of trans-

Till: TABERNACLE IN ITS GENERAL STRUCTURE. 239

portation. But neither within nor without must the wooden
walls be seen, otherwise the appearance of a tent would not be
preserved. Hence a series of curtains was provided, the inner
most of which was formed of fine linen — ten breadths, five of
which were joined together to make each one curtain, and the
two curtains were again united together by means of fifty loops.
This innermost curtain or covering was not only made of the
finest material, but was also variegated with diverse colours and
cherubic figures inwrought. Hence it is probably to be regarded
as the tent in its interior aspect, consequently not merely form
ing the roof (where there were no wooden boards),' but also
attached by some means to the pillars (like the veil in ver. 33) so
as to hang down inside to near the floor of the dwelling. In this
way at least, one can more easily understand why it should be
called simply the tabernacle or dwelling (mishkan) both at Ex.
xxvi. 1, where the direction is given for making the curtains,
and again at ver. 8, where, when joined together, they are
represented as forming one dwelling (mishkan). Then over
this another set of curtains, made of goats' hair, was thrown,
certainly forming an external covering, and, being two cubits
longer than the other, reaching to well-nigh the bottom of the
boards. To this day, the usual texture of Arabian tents is of
goats' hair; and this being the tent proper as to its external
aspect, it was designated the tent (Ohel, Ex. xxvi. 11), as the
other, which appeared from within, was called the habitation or
dwelling. And above both these sets of curtains a double
coating of skins was thrown, but merely for the purpose of pro
tection from the elements — the first consisting of rams' skins
dyed red, the other and outermost of skins of tachash, which
have often been rendered, as in our version, badgers' skins, but
which are now more commonly understood to be those of the
seal, or, perhaps, some kind of deer.1

1 WL- have purposely confined our description to the leading features, for
the minute questions about the thickness of the planks, the setting of the
pillars, etc., which are still agitated, would be here out of place. The chief
point of dispute in regard to what is stated, has respect to the innermost
set of curtains, — whether, after covering the top, they hung over outsMc:
or, as we are rather inclined still to believe, though stating it only as a
probability, were made to fall inside, and cover to within a cubit or so of
the bottom the interior of the boards. This latter view was given by Biihr,

240 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

These parts and properties, or things somewhat similar, were
essential to this sacred erection as a tent ; it could not have pos
sessed its tent-like appearance without them, or been adapted
for moving from place to place. Therefore, to seek for some
deeper and spiritual reasons for such things as the boards and
bars, the rings and staves, the different sorts of coverings, the
loops and taches, etc., is to go entirely into the region of con
jecture, and give unbounded scope to the exercise of fancy. A
plain and palpable reason existed for them in the very nature
and design of the erection ; and why should this not suffice ?
Or, if licence be granted for the introduction of other reasons,
who shall determine, since it must ever remain doubtful, which
ought to be preferred ? It is enough to account for the things
referred to, that as God's house was made in the fashion of a
tent, these, or others somewhat similar, were absolutely neces
sary : they as properly belonged to it in that character, as the
members of our Lord's body and the garments He wore be
longed to His humanity; and it is as much beside the purpose to
search for an independent and separate instruction in the one, as
for an independent and separate use in the other. Hence, when
the house of God exchanged the tent for the temple form, it
dropt the parts and properties in question, as being no longer
necessary or suitable ; which alone was sufficient to prove them
to have been only outward and incidental.

But other things, again, were necessary, on account of the
tabernacle being not simply a tent, but the tent of the Most

(Symbolik, i., p. 222, 223), and is concurred in by Neuman (Die Stiftshiitte,
p. G5), also by Keil, Kurtz, Torneil, etc. ; while the opposite is held by
Lund, Ewald, Friedrich, Umbreit, and latterly with some keenness by Rig-
genbach (Die Mosaische Stiftshiitte, p. 12 sq., 1862). Upon the whole, the
former seems the more natural view, as it both affords an easy explanation
of the designations employed for the two sets of coverings, and shows how
the tent-form of the erection would still be preserved. Indeed, the boards
in the original description appear only as a sort of accessory, and are not
referred to till after the two sets of curtains which properly formed the tent
are described. — (Ex. xxvi. 18, sq.) They were merely instead of the usual
poles for bearing up the curtains, and the curtains hence occupy the chief
prominence in the description, and are spoken of in their relation to each
other as if the boards were not regarded. The view has also in its support
the analogy of the temple, all the interior walls of which were ornamented
by carved figures of cherubiins.

T!!i: T A !!K IINACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 241

High God, for purposes of fellowship between Him and His
people, — Mich as tin- ornamental work on the tapestry, the divi
sion of the tabernacle into more than one apartment, and the
encompassing it with a fore-court by means of an enclosure of
fine liiu'ii, which in a manner proclaimed to the approaching
worshippers, Procul profani! That the apartments should have
consisted of no more than an outer and inner sanctuary, or that
the figures wrought into the tapestry should have been precisely
those of the cherubim, — in these we may well feel ourselves jus
tified in searching for some more special instruction ; for they
might obviously have been ordered otherwise, and were doubt
less ordered thus for important purposes. On which account,
both characteristics reappear in the temple as being of essential
and abiding significance. The square form of the erection
itself, and of the court also, — the predominant regard to certain
numbers in the several parts, especially to five, ten, seven, and
twelve, — could not be without some reason for the preference,
of which occasion will afterwards be found to speak. But
considered in a general point of view, the external form, the
embroidery, the separate apartments, and the surrounding en
closure, may all be regarded as having the reason of their ap
pointment in the sacred character of the tabernacle itself, and
the high ends for which it was erected. Such things became it
as the tent which God took for His habitation.

III. This habitation of God, whether existing in the form
of a tent or of a temple, was at once the holiest and the great
est thing in Israel, and therefore required not only to be con
structed of such materials and in such a manner as have now
been described, but also to be set apart by a special act of con
secration. For it was the seat and symbol of the Divine kingdom
on earth. The one seat and symbol ; because Jehovah, the God
of Israel, being the one living God, and though filling heaven
and earth with His presence, yet condescending to exhibit, in
an outward, material form, the things concerning His character
and glory, behoved to guard with especial care against the idea
so apt to intrude from other quarters, of a divided personality.
In heathen lands generally, and particularly in Canaan, every
hill and grove had its separate deity, and its peculiar solemnities
VOL. II. Q

242 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of worship. — (Deut. xii.) God therefore sought to check this
corruption in its fountain-head, by presenting Himself to His
people as so essentially and absolutely one, that He could have
but one proper habitation, and one throne of government.
Here alone must they come to transact with God in the things
that concerned their covenant relation to Him. To present
elsewhere the sacrifices and services which became II is house,
was a violation of the order and solemnities of His kingdom ; 1
while, on the other hand, to have free access to this chosen
residence of Deity, was justly prized by the wise among the
people as their highest privilege. Exclusion from this was like
banishment from God's presence, and excision from His cove
nant. And, as appears from the experience of the Psalmist,
pious Israelites, in the more nourishing periods of the Theo
cracy, counted it among the most dark and trying dispensations
of Providence, when events occurred to compel their separation
from this appointed channel of communion with the Highest.

Still enlightened worshippers understood that the enjoyment
of God's presence and blessing was by no means confined to
that outward habitation, and that while it was the seat, it was
also the symbol, of the kingdom of God. They perceived in it
the image of His character and administration in general, and
understood that the relations there unfolded were proper to the
whole Church of God. Hence the Psalmist represents it as
the common privilege of an Israelite to dwell in the house of
God,, and abide in His tabernacle (Ps. xv., xxiv.), though in the
literal sense not even the priests could be said to do so. Of
himself he speaks as desiring to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of his life (Ps. xxvii.), by which he could only
mean, that he earnestly wished continually to realize and abide in
that connection and fellowship with God which he saw so clearly
symbolized in the form and services of the tabernacle. And,
indeed, this symbolical import of the tabernacle was plainly
indicated by the Lord Himself to Moses, in the words, " And I

1 Hence sacrificing in the high places, though occasionally done by true
worshippers, always appears as an imperfection. In times of war or great
internal disorder, such as those of Samuel, when the ark was separated
from the tabernacle, and the stated ordinances suffered a kind of suspen
sion, sacrifices in different places became necessary.

TIIK TAHERNACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 243

will set My tabernacle among you, and I will walk among you,
and will be your God, and ye shall be My people." — (Lev.
xxvi. 11, 12.) The least in spiritual discernment could scarcely
fail to learn here, that what was outwardly exhibited in the
tabernacle of God's nearness and familiarity with His people,
was designed to be the image of what should always and every
where be realizing itself among the members of His covenant ;
that the tabernacle, in short, was the visible symbol of the
church or kingdom of God.

No\v, to fit it for this high destination and use, a special act
of consecration was necessary. It was not enough that the
materials of which it was built were all costly, and so far pos
sessing a sacred character that they had been all dedicated by
the people to God's service ; nor that the pattern after which
the whole was constructed, was received by direct communica
tion from above. After it had been thus constructed, and
before it could be used as the Lord's tabernacle, it had to be
consecrated by the application to all its parts and furniture of
the holy anointing oil, for the preparation of which special
instructions were given. — (Ex. xxx. 22, sq.)1 "And thou shalt
sanctify them," was the word to Moses regarding this anointing
oil, " that they may be most holy ; whatsoever toucheth them
shall be holy."

Old Testament Scripture itself provides us with abundant
materials for explaining the import of this action. It expressly
connects it with the communication of the Spirit of God ; as in
the history of Saul's consecration to the kingly office, to whom
it was said by Samuel, after having poured the vial of oil upon
his head, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee."
(1 Sam. x. 6.) And still more explicitly in the case of David
is the sign coupled with the thing signified : " Then Samuel
took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his
brethren : and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from
that day forward. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from
Saul." — (xvi. 13, 14.) The gift, symbolized by the anointing,
having been conferred upon the one, it was necessarily with-

1 It consisted of olive-oil, mixed with the four best kinds of spices,
myrrh, sweet ciim;imon, calamus, aud cassia, producing, when compounded
together, the moat fragrant suielL

244 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIFTUUK.

drawn from the other. More emphatically, however, than even
here, is the connection between the outward rite and the inward
gift, marked in the prophecy of Isaiah, Ixi. 1 : " The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon me, because He hath anointed me to
preach good things," etc.

This passage may fitly be regarded as the connecting link
between the Old and the New Testament usage in the matter.
It designated the Saviour as the Christ, or Anointed One, and
because anointed, filled without measure by the Spirit, that in
the plenitude of spiritual grace and blessing He might proceed
to the accomplishment of our redemption. In His case, however,
we know there was no literal anointing. The symbolical rite
was omitted as no longer needed, since the direct action of the
Spirit's descent in an outward form gave assurance of the reality..
He was hence said by Peter to have been " anointed with the
Holy Ghost and with power." — (Acts x. 38.) And because
believers are spiritually united to Christ, and what He has with
out measure is also in a measure theirs, they too are said to be
" anointed by God," or " to have the unction (xpia/j,a) of the
Holy One, which teacheth them all things." — (2 Cor. i. 21 ; 1
John ii. 20.) Even under the dispensation of the New Testa
ment, in regard to its earlier and more outward, its miraculous
operations, we find the external symbol still retained : " The
apostles anointed many sick persons with oil, and made them
whole in the name of the Lord" (Mark vi. 13) ; and James even
couples this anointing with prayer, as means proper to be em
ployed by the elders of the Church for drawing down the healing
power of God (v. 14). But the external rite could now only
be regarded as appropriate in such operations of the Spirit as
those referred to, in which the natural and symbolical use of oil
ran, in a manner, into each other.

This sacred use of oil, however foreign to our apprehensions,
grew quite naturally out of its common use in the East, especi
ally in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine. There it has from the
earliest times been regarded as singularly conducive to bodily
health and comfort, and the custom has descended to modern
times. Niebuhr tells us that the inhabitants of Yemen always
anoint their bodies when the intense heat comes in, because it
serves to protect them from excessive perspiration and other

Til i: TABERNACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 245

enervating effects of the climate. The inhabitants of Africa do
the same, and find in it a sort of light clothing both for sun
and shade. — (Livingstone's Travels, p. 246.) Even in Greece,
where the heat is less enervating, the bodies of the combatants
in the public games, it is well known, were always copiously
rubbed and suppled with oil. And when mixed with perfumes,
as the oil appears generally to have been, the copious application
of it to the body, partly from usage, and partly also from physi
cal causes, produced the most agreeable and invigorating sensa
tions. So much, indeed, was this the case, especially in respect
to the head, that the Psalmist even mentions his "being anointed
with oil" among the tokens of kindness he had received from the
hand of God ; and in entertainments, it was so customary to
administer this species of refreshment to the guests, that our
Lord charges the omission of it by Simon the Pharisee as an
evident mark of disrespect (Luke vii. 46); and in ancient Egypt
" it was customary for a servant to attend every guest as he
seated himself, and to anoint his head."1

As the body, therefore, which was anointed with such oil,
felt itself enlivened and refreshed, and became expert and agile
for the performance of any active labour, it was an apt and
becoming symbol of the Spirit-replenished soul, which is thus
endowed with such a plenitude of grace, as disposes and enables
it to engage heartily in the Divine service, and to run the way of
God's commandments. So that, in the language of Vitringa,
" the anointed man was he who, being chosen and set apart by
God for accomplishing something connected with God's glory,
was furnished for it by His good hand with necessary gifts.
And the more noble the office to which any one was anointed,
the greater was the supply of the Spirit's grace which the
anointing brought him."2 Understood thus in reference to
persons, to whom the outward symbol was both most naturally
ami most commonly applied, we can have no difficulty in appre
hending its import when applied to the tabernacle and its furni
ture. This being a symbol of the true Church as the peculiarly
consecrated, God-inhabited region, the anointing of it with the
sacred oil was a sensible representation of the effusion of the

1 Wilkinson, Manners, etc., of Eg., ii. 213.

2 Com. in LSI., vul. ii., p. -ll'l ; cuinp. also i., p. 289.

246 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Holy Spirit, whose part it is to sanctify the unclean, and draw
them within the sphere of God's habitation, as well as to fit
them for occupying it. And as the anointing not only rendered
the tabernacle and its vessels holy, but made them also the im-
parters of holiness to others, — " whatsoever toucheth them shall
be holy," — the important lesson was thereby taught, that while
all beyond is a region of pollution and death, they who really
come into a living connection with the Church or kingdom of
God are brought into communion with His spiritual nature,
and made partakers of His holiness. It is only within the
sphere of that kingdom that true purification and righteousness
proceed.1

IV. In turning now to Gospel times for the spiritual and
heavenly things which answer to the pattern exhibited in that
worldly sanctuary, we are not, of course, to think of outward
and material buildings, which, however necessary for the due

1 In connecting the spiritual with the natural use of this symbol, Bahr
does not appear to us to be happy. He throws together the two properties
of oil, as does more recently Neumann (Symbolique, p. 149), — its capacity
for giving light, and for imparting vigour and refreshment, — and holds the
anointing symbolical of the Spirit's gift, as the source of spiritual light and
life in general ; or rather (for he evidently does not hold the personality of
the Spirit), as symbolical of the principle of light and life, or, in one word,
of the holiness which was derived from the knowledge of God's law. — (ii., p.
173.) But to say nothing of the doctrinal errors here involved, why should
those two quite distinct properties of oil be confounded together? The quali
ties and uses of oil as an ointment had nothing to do with those which belong
to it as a source of light, and should no more be conjoined symbolically than
they are naturally. Oil as an ointment does not give light, and it is of no
moment whether it were capable of doing so or not. When used as an oint
ment, it was also usually mixed with spices, which still more took off men's
thoughts from its light-giving property ; and especially was this the case in
regard to its symbolical application in the tabernacle. — When oil began to
be applied symbolically for consecrating persons and things, ia unknown. It
was so used by Jacob on the plains of Bethel, and there is undoubted proof
of its having been used in consecrating kings and priests in Egypt.- — (\\\\-
kinson, v. 279, ss.) But the spirit of the action in Egypt, it must be re
membered, was very different from what it was in Canaan, inasmuch as
consecrating or setting apart to a heathen god or temple bespoke nothing
of that separation from sin, that high and holy calling, which consecration
to Jehovah necessarily carried along with it. The oil was the symbol of
sacredness, indeed, but not of moral purity.

Till: TAI'.F.KXACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 247

celebration of Divine worship, must occupy an entirely different
place from that anciently possessed by the Jewish tabernacle or
temple. "What is true of the Divine kingdom generally, must
especially hold in respect to the heart and centre of its admini
stration, viz., that everything about it rose, when the antitypes
appeared, to a higher and more elevated stage ; and that the
ideas which were formerly symbolized by means of outward and
temporary materials are now seen embodied in great and abid
ing realities. Of what, then, was the tabernacle a type ? Plainly
of Christ, as God manifest in the flesh, for the redemption of
His people, and their participation in the life and blessing of
God. This is Heaven's grand and permanent provision for
securing what the tabernacle, as a temporary substitute, aimed
at accomplishing. In Christ personally the idea began, in the
first instance, to be realized when, as the Divine Word, " He
became flesh, and dwelt (e<r/a/z/<uo"ei>, tabernacled) among us."
For the flesh of Jesus, though literally flesh of our flesh, yet,
being sanctified in the wromb of the Virgin by the power of the
Holy Ghost, possessed in it " the whole fulness of the Godhead
bodily " (awfjiariKa)^ in a bodily receptacle or habitation) ; and
held such pre-eminence over other flesh, as the tent of God had
formerly done over the tents of Israel. But this was still merely
the first stage in the development of the great mystery of godli
ness ; only as in the seed-corri was the indwelling of God with
men seen in the person of the incarnate Word. For Christ's
flesh was the representative and root of all flesh as redeemed ;
in Him the whole of an elect humanity stands as its living
Head, and therein finds the bond of its connection with God
the channel of a real and blessed fellowship with Heaven. So
that, as the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, He again
dwells in the Church of true believers as His fulness ; and the
idea symbolized in the tabernacle is properly realized, not in
Christ personally and apart, but in Him as the Head of a
redeemed offspring, vitally connected with Him, and through
Him having access even into the Holiest. Consequently the
idea, as to its realization, is still in progress; and it shall have
readied its perfect consummation only when the number of the
redeemed has been made iip, and all are set down with Jesus
amid the light and glories of the New Jerusalem.

248 TUE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Every reader of New Testament Scripture is aware how
prominently the truths involved in this representation are brought
out there, and how much the language it employs of divine
things bears respect to them. The transition from the outward
and shadowy to the final and abiding state of things, is first
marked by our Lord in the words, " Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up" (John ii. 19), by which He plainly
wished it to be understood that His body had now become what
the temple had hitherto been — or rather, that the great idea
symbolized in the temple was now actually embodied in His
person, in which Godhead had really and properly taken up its
dwelling, that men might draw near and have fellowship with
it. As there could be but one such place and medium of inter
course, Christ's saying this of His body, of necessity implied
that the outward temple, built with men's hands, had served its
purpose, and was among the things ready to vanish away. But
the peculiar expression he uses implies somewhat more than
this. For when He speaks of the destroying of the temple, and
the raising of it up again in three days, He so identified His
body with the temple, as in a manner to declare that the de
struction of the one would carry along with it the destruction
of the other ; that that alone should henceforth be the proper
dwelling-place of Deity, which, from being instinct with the
principle of an immortal life, could be destroyed only for a
season, and should presently be raised up again to be the per
petual seat and centre of God's kingdom. From that time,
therefore, the other must necessarily lose its significance and
use, and had, indeed, as our Lord intimated, become as a house
left desolate.— (Matt, xxiii. 38.)

But this inhabitation of God in the man Christ Jesus, being
not for Himself alone, but only as the medium of intercourse
and communion between God and the Church, we find the idea
extended so as to embrace both each individual believer and the
entire company of believers as one body. The Church is '" the
house of God," or "His habitation through the Spirit" (1 Tim.
iii. 15; Eph. ii. 21, 22); and as the Church universal of be
lievers is only an aggregate of individuals, who must each be in
part what the whole is, so they also are designated "a building
of God," and more especially "the temple of the living God;"

Till- TABERNACLi; IN ITS DKSKiN. 249

or, as St Piter de-cribes them, " lively stones built up on Christ
the living ^tone, into a spiritual house." — (1 Cor. iii. 9, vi. 19;
Eph. iii. 17; 1 1'et. ii. 5, 6.) In this apparent complexity of
meaning tin-re is still a radical oneness; and it is by no means
as if tin- tabernacle or temple idea were applied to so many
objects properly distinct and apart. There is an essential unity
in the diversity, arising from the vital connection subsisting
between Christ and His people ; for all redeemed humanity is
linked with Ilis, as His is linked with the Godhead, so that
what belongs to the one is the common property and distinction
of the whole. This was unfolded in the sublime words of Christ
Himself, which describe the ultimate realization of what was
typified in the temple : "And the glory which Thou gavest Me
1 have given them ; that they may be one, even as We are one :
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in
one ; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and
hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." — (John xvii. 22, 23.)
And as everything in the original tabernacle required to be
sprinkled with the holy anointing oil to fit it for its sacred desti
nation and use, so in these higher and ultimate realities of the
Divine kingdom all is pervaded and consecrated by the living
Spirit of God. It is as replenished with His fulness that Jesus
accomplished in His own person the work of reconciliation, and
placed on a secure foundation the intercommunion between God
and man. It is, again, as having received from the Father the
promise of the Spirit, and shedding forth His regenerating grace
upon the members of the kingdom, that it becomes a hallowed
region, consecrating whatever really comes within its borders,
and that every one whom a living faith brings into contact with
Christ, is made partaker of His holiness. It is thus, indeed,
that all becomes instinct with life and blessing. The ordinances
of the Church are made fruitful of good because they are the
ordained channels of the Spirit's communications. lie who has
become really united to the one spiritual body, has done so by
bring bapti/cd into it by the one Spirit. — (1 Cor. xii. 13.) He
who, through the word of the Gospel, has been convinced of sin,
righteousness, and judgment, is a monument in what he has
experienced of the powerful and blessed agency of that Spirit.
(John xvi. 8, 14.) And of wry grace lie exhibits, and every

250 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

work of acceptable service he performs, it may be said, that the
will and the power to perform it have been wrought by the self
same Spirit.

In the preceding remarks we have made no allusion to the
views of other writers respecting the tabernacle, but have simply
unfolded what we conceive to be the true idea of it, and its rela
tion to Christ and His kingdom. It may be proper, however, to
give here a brief outline of other views, noticing, as we proceed,
what is mainly erroneous or defective in them.

1. By Philo, the tabernacle was taken for a pattern of the
universe : to the two sanctuaries belonged ra vorjTa, and to the
open fore-court ra dia-QrjTa ; the linen, blue, purple, and scarlet,
were the four elements ; the seven-branched candlestick repre
sented the seven planets, — the light in the centre, however, at
the same time representing the sun ; the table with the twelve
loaves pointed to the twelve signs of the zodiac and months of
the year, etc. Josephus adopts the same view, only differing in
some of the details ; as do also many of the fathers, — in par
ticular, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Chrysostom, and Theo-
doret. Several of the Jewish Rabbis also concur in regarding
the erection as an image of creation both in heaven and earth,
references to whom, as well as the others, are given by Biihr, i.,
p. 104, 105. The view proceeds on an entire misapprehension
of the true spirit of the Old Testament worship, and would
place its symbols substantially on a footing with those of hea
thenism ; both alike would have been employed in the service of
a mere nature-worship. Not only would the peculiar ideas and
principles of the true religion have been excluded from the one
sanctuary and centre of all its services, but religious symbols of
a precisely opposite kind must have occupied their place. This
was plainly impossible.

2. But Biihr's own view so far coincides with the one just
mentioned, that he also holds the tabernacle to have been a
representation of the creation of God, which he endeavours to
show is frequently exhibited in Scripture as the house or build
ing of God ; not, however, in the heathen sense — not as if the
Deity and creation were identified, but in the sense of creation
being the workmanship and manifestation of God — the outgoing

Til I ; TABERNACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 251

and witness of IIi> glorious perfections. In like manner, the
tabernacle was the place and structure through which God
gave to Israel a. testimony or manifestation of Himself ; and,
therefore, it must contain in miniature a representation of the
universe — the habitation, in i-ts two compartments, representing
heaven, God's peculiar dwelling-place, and the fore-court the
earth, which lie has given to the sons of men.

It may be regarded as alone fatal to this view, that amid the
many allusions in Scripture to the tabernacle, and express ex
planations of the things belonging to it, no idea of the kind is
ever once distinctly brought out. And as a great deal is found
there in direct confirmation of the view we have presented, we
are fully entitled to consider it as involving a substantial re
pudiation of the other. No doubt heaven and earth are often
represented in Scripture as a building of God ; but, as Heng-
stenberg justly remarks,1 " there is not to be found in all Scrip
ture a single passage in which the universe is described as the
building or dwelling-place of God ; so that the view of Biihr
fails in its very foundation." He further remarks, that it pro
vides no proper ground for explaining the separation between the
Holy and the Most Holy Place, and that Biihr has hence been
obliged to put a false interpretation upon the furniture belong
ing to the Holy Place. As for the confirmation which the
learned author seeks for the basis of his view, in the opinion of
Philo and Josephus, as if that were the originally Jewish mode
of contemplating the tabernacle, no one unbiassed by theory
can regard it in any other light than as the fruit of that anxiety,
which these writers constantly display, to bring the Jewish
Scriptures and religion into some degree of conformity with the
heathen philosophy. It is proper to note, however, that in his
later treatise on the temple of Solomon (1848), Biihr has con
siderably modified his original view, and represents the sanctuary
as a symbol of the covenant relation of God to Israel, for holy
aims and purposes ; so that in the outer court there was a kind
of concentrated covenant land, as in the sanctuary a like con
centrated dwelling of Jehovah. In this later work also he
recognised an organic connection between the Old and tin-
New, rendering the one strictly typical of the other.
1 Authentic, ii., p. 639.

252 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

3. The work of Biihr has called forth a laboured defence of
another view, equally unsupported in Scripture, and still more
arbitrary — according to which the tabernacle was made in
imitation of man as the image of God. This view had been
briefly indicated by Luther, not as a formal explanation of the
proper design and purpose of the tabernacle, but rather by way
of illustration and similitude, when expounding the words of
Mary's song : " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
rejoiceth in God my Saviour." There, after mentioning the
different divisions of the tabernacle, he says : " In this figure
there is represented a Christian man ; his spirit is the Holy of
Holies, God's dwelling, in dark faith without light ; for he be
lieves what he sees not. His soul is the Holy Place, where are
the seven lights, — that is, all sorts of understanding, discernment,
knowledge, and perception of corporeal and visible things. His
body is the fore-court which is open to all, so that every one can
see what it does, and how it lives." Biihr had justly said of
this, that it was only an allegorical explanation, and intimated
that he conceived it impossible to carry out such a view into the
particulars. But a zealous Lutheran, Ferdinand Friederich,
offended at the slight thus put upon " the words of the blessed
Luther," has undertaken a vindication of the view, in a volume
of considerable size, and accompanied bv twenty-three plates.
The work contains some good remarks on the more objectionable
parts of Biihr' s system, yet adopts a number of its errors, displays
throughout, indeed, the want of a sound discrimination, and
utterly fails to establish the main point at issue. The objections
given above to Biihr's view apply with increased force to this.

4. The view of what are distinctively called the typical
writers, errs primarily and fundamentally in considering the
tabernacle as too exclusively typical, in seeking for the adum
bration of Christ and His salvation as the only reason of the
things belonging to it. Hence no proper ground or basis was
laid for the work of interpretation ; and unless where Scripture
itself had furnished the explanation, the most arbitrary and even
puerile meanings were often resorted to, without the possibility
of applying, on that system, any proper check to them. Not
keeping in view the complex idea or design of the tabernacle,
everything for the most part was understood personally of Christ ;

TIIK TAl'.KIIXACLE IN ITS DESIGN. 253

and oven where ;i measure of discretion was observed in abstain
ing from too great minutix, and keeping in view the larger
features of the Christian system, as in Witsius (Miscellanea
Sacra), still all swims in a kind of uncertainty, because no care
was taken to investigate the meaning of the symbols before
they were interpreted as types.

5. The only remaining view requiring a separate notice is
what is commonly regarded as the Spencerian, although Spencer
did not originate it, but found its leading principles already laid
down by Maimonides.1 It proceeds on the ground of an ac
commodation in the grossest sense to the heathenish tendencies
and dispositions of the people. The Egyptians and other nations
had dwellings for their gods ; it was not convenient or practic
able at once to abolish the custom ; and God must, therefore,
to prevent His people from lapsing into heathenism, suit Himself
to this state of things, and have a tabernacle for His dwelling,
with its appropriate furniture and ministering servants. We
have already, in the introductory chapter, substantially met this
view ; as it rests upon the same false principles which pervade
the whole system of Spencer. According to it, God accommo
dates Himself not merely to what is weak and imperfect in His
creatures, but to what is positively wrong ; and lowers and
adjusts His requirements to suit their depraved tastes and incli
nations. Consequently the views of God which such a structure
was fitted to impart, and the services connected with it, must
have been quite opposed to the spiritual nature of God, and an

1 He is substantially followed by many of the Later Rabbis, who represent
the tabernacle and temple as constructed with the view of imitating, and
at the same time outdoing, the palaces of earthly monarchs. Various quota
tions may be seen in Outram. That from R. Shem Tob is the most distinct
and trraphic, and is held in great account by Spencer: " God, to whom be
praise, commanded a house to be built for Himself, such as a royal house is
wont to be. In a royal house all these things are to be found of which we
have spoken : namely, there are some to guard the palace ; others, whose
part it is to do things belonging to the royal dignity, to prepare banquets, and
do other things necessary for the monarch. There are others, besides, who
serve with vocal and instrumental music. There is a place also for making
ready victuals ; a place for burning perfumes ; a table also for the king, and
an apartment appropriated to himself, where none are permitted to en tor,
excepting his prime minister, and those who are specially favoured by him.
In like manner God," etc.

254 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

obstruction, rather than a help, to pious Israelites in their en
deavours to worship and serve Him aright. It was not a tem
porary and fitting expedient to aid men's conceptions of divine
things, and to render the divine service more intelligible and
attractive ; but a sop put into the mouth of a rude and heathenish
people, to keep them away from the grosser pollutions of idolatry.
God's house could never be reared on such a foundation. — Some
of the elder typical writers, such as Outram (De Sac., L. i. 3),
trod too closely upon this view of the tabernacle, as regards its
primary intention for Israel ; and so also, we regret to say, does
Dr Kitto among recent writers (Hist, of Palestine, i. 245-6).

SECTION THIRD.

THE MINISTERS OF THE TABERNACLE — THE PRIESTS AND
LEVITES.

THE general divisions of the tabernacle, and even its particular
parts and services, were so peculiarly connected with the per
sons who were appointed to tread its courts, that it is necessary,
before proceeding farther, to understand distinctly the place
which these held in the Mosaic dispensation, and especially
how they stood related to God on the one hand, and to the
people on the other. This section must therefore be devoted to
the consideration of the Levitical priesthood.

I. It is somewhat singular, that the earliest notices we have
of a priesthood in Scripture, refer to other branches of the
human family than that of the line of Abraham. The first
person with whom the name of priest is there associated, is
1 Melchizedek, who is described as " king of Salem, and priest of
the Most High God." To him Abraham, though the head of
the whole chosen family, paid tithes of all, and thus virtually
confessed himself to be no priest as compared with Melchizedek.
Then, in the days of Joseph, we meet with Potipherah, priest
of On, or Heliopolis in Egypt, and of the priests generally, as a
distinct and highly privileged order in that country (Gen. xli.
45, xlvii. 22) ; and a few generations later still, mention is
made of Jethro, the priest of Midian. Not till the children of
Israel left the land of Egypt, and were placed under that
peculiar polity which was set up among them by the hand of
Moses, do we hear of any individual, or class of individuals,
holding the office of the priesthood as a distinct and exclusive
prerogative. IIo\v, then, did they make their approach to God
and present their oblations ? Did each worshipper transact for
himself with God? Or did the father of a family act as priest
for the members of his household ? Or was the priestly func-

256 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

tion among the privileges of the first-born ? This last position
has been maintained by many of the leading Jewish authorities
(Jonathan, Onkelos, Saadias, Jarchi, Aben-ezra, etc.), and also
by some men of great learning in Christian times (Grotius, Sel-
den, Bochart, etc.). They have chiefly grounded their opinion
on the circumstance of Moses having employed certain young
men to offer the sacrifices, by the blood of which the covenant
was ratified (Ex. xxiv. 5), connecting this fact, on the one hand,
with the profaneness of Esau in having despised his birthright,
which is thought to have been a slighting of the priesthood,
and, on the other, with God's special consecration of the first
born after their redemption in Egypt. This opinion, however,
may now be regarded as almost universally abandoned. The
consecration of the first-born on the eve of Israel's departure
from Egypt did not, as we shall see, include their appointment
to the priestly office ; nor was this reckoned among the rights
of primogeniture. These rights Scripture itself has plainly
restricted to pre-eminence in authority among the brethren, and
the possession of a double portion in the inheritance. — (1 Chron.
v. 1-4.) And it would appear, from the scattered notices of
patriarchal history, that there was no bar then in the way of
any one drawing near and presenting oblations to God, who
might feel himself called to do so. So long, however, as the
patriarchal constitution prevailed, it was by common consent
felt due to the head of the family, as the highest in honour, and
the proper representative of the whole, that he should be the
medium of their communications with God in sacrificial offer
ings. By degrees, as families grew into communities, and the
patriarchal became merged in more general and public authori
ties, the sacerdotal office also naturally came to be vested, at
least on all great and special occasions, in the persons of those
who occupied the rank of heads in their respective communities,
or of others, who, being regarded as peculiarly qualified for
exercising the priestly function, were expressly chosen and dele
gated to discharge it. So in particular with the chosen family.
In earlier times each patriarch did the work of a sacrifice!- ; but
when they had become a numerous people, and were going as a
people to offer sacrifice to God, while they were primarily repre
sented by Moses, whom God had raised up for their head, and

MINISTERS OF THE TABERNACLE. 257

who, therefore, alone properly did the part of a priest at the
ratification of the covenant, by sprinkling the blood, they
appear, as was natural, to have appointed certain of their
number, pre-eminent in rank, in comeliness of person, or quali
ties of mind, to assist in priestly offices. These, no doubt, were
the persons from whom Moses selected a few to furnish him
with the blood of sprinkling on the occasion referred to, and
who had previously been spoken of as a body under the name
of priests.— (Ex. xix. 22.)1

Indeed, so far from wondering that there was no distinct
class invested with the office of priesthood during the patriarchal

1 Vitringa, Obs. Sac., i., De Pracrogativis Primogenitorum in Eccl. Vet.
This subject, and the closely related one of the consecration of the Levites
in the room of the first-born, is so ably and satisfactorily discussed there,
that little has been left for subsequent inquirers. Of the general practice
in appointing persons to exercise priestly functions, where no separate
order existed for the purpose, and which prevailed in common with God's
more ancient worshippers and many heathen nations, he says, " Nothing is
more certain, than that the ancients required sacrifices to be performed,
either by princes and heads of families, or by persons singularly gifted in
body and mind, as being deemed more deserving than others of the Divine
fellowship." This holds especially of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Of
the former, C. O. Miiller says, that " the worship of a deity peculiar to any
tribe was, from the beginning, common to all the members of the tribe ;
that those who governed the people in the other concerns of life, naturally
presided over their religious observances, the heads of families in private,
and the rulers in the community ; and that it might be said with just as
much truth, that the kings were priests, as that the priests were kings."
And so much was it the practice in the properly historical periods of

-, to have priestly offices performed by means of public magistrates,
or persons delegated by the community, that he does not think " there ever
was in Greece a priesthood, strictly speaking, in contradistinction to the
laity."— (Introd. to Mythology, p. 187, 188, Trans.) Livy testifies that,
among the early Romans, the care of the sacred things devolved upon their
kings, and that after the expulsion of these, an officer was appointed for
the purpose, with the name of Rex Sacrorum. — (L. ii. 2.) It was still
customary, however, as is well known, for private families to perform tln-ir
own peculiar sacrifices and libations to the gods. On special occasions,
besides, persons were temporarily appointed for the performance of sacred
oliiivs, as on the occasion of the taking of Veise, thus related by Livy, v. fc
_:.' : " Delwti <-x oinui exm-itu juvenes, pure lotis corporibus, Candida

• luibus deportanda Romam Regina Juno assignata er;it, \vncnibuudi
templum iniore, priino religiose aduioventes manus ; quod id signum more

VOL. ii. u

258 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

period of sacred history, it should rather have been matter of
surprise if any had appeared. For, in those times, everything
in religion among the true worshippers of God was characterized
by the greatest simplicity and freedom. They possessed as yet
no temple, nor even any select consecrated place in which their
offerings were to be presented, and their vows paid. Wherever
they happened to dwell, in the open field, or under the shade of
a spreading tree, they built an altar and called upon the name
of God. And it would have been a sort of anomaly, an insti
tution at variance with the character of the worship and the
general condition of society, if there had been so artificial an

Etrusco, nisi certae gentis sacerdos, attrectare non esset solitus." In Virgil,
we find : " Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phcebique sacerdos" (yEn., iii.
80), on which Servius remarks : " Sane majorum hsec erat consuetude, ut
rex etiam esset sacerdos vel pontifex, unde hodieque Imperatores pontifices
dicimus." So also Aristotle, speaking of the heroic times, says : <rrpotTv*/6f
yiip vj» x.ett 0<*«<mjf o /3«ovX£i>£, xetl tu» vpo; rot)? 6eov$ x.i>pio;. — (Pol. iii. 14.)
There was nothing peculiar, therefore, in the fact of Melchizedek having
been at once a king and a priest. The only remarkable thing was, that
among such a people he should have been a priest of " the Most High God,"
and so certainly called of God to the office, that even Abraham recognised
his title to the honour. It is impossible with any certainty to trace the
transition from this to that other state of things which prevailed in some
ancient countries, and in which the priests existed as an entirely separate
class — a distinct caste. Yet, in regard especially to Egypt, the country
where such a state of things probably originated, the transition may have
implied no very great change, and may have been quite easily effected.
For it is now understood that the earlier kings there were priest-kings,
either belonging to the priest caste, or held in great dependence by that
body ; that the land was originally peopled by a kind of priest colonies,
who either appointed one of their number to rule in the name of a certain
god, or at least formed, in connection with the ruler, the reigning portion
of the community. The members of this caste consequently were the first
proprietors of lands in each district. Even by the account of Herodotus,
they appear still in his day to have been the principal landed proprietors ;
each temple in a particular district had extensive estates, as well as a staff
of priests connected with it, which formed the original territory of the set
tlement, and were subsequently farmed out for the good of the whole : so
that " the families of priests were the first, the highest, and the richest in
the country ; they had exclusively the transacting of all state affairs, and
carried on many of the most profitable branches of business (judges, phy
sicians, architects, etc.), and were to a certain extent a lii;/ltly privileged
nobility."— (Heeren. Af., i., p. 368, ii., p. 122-12'J ; Wilkinson, i. 245, etc.)

MINISTERS OF THF. TABKRNACLE. 259

arrangement MS :i distinct order of persons appointed exclusively
to minister in holy things.

Hut this la-ing the case, does it not seem like a travelling in
the wrong direction, to institute at last an order of priests for
that purpose ? Was not this to mar the simplicity of God's
worship, and throw a new restraint around the freedom of access
to Him ? In one sense unquestionably it was ; and separating,
as it did, between the offering and him in whose behalf it was
presented, it introduced into the worship of God an element of
imperfection which cleaves to all 'the sacrifices under the law.
In this respect, it was a more perfect state of things which per
mitted the offerer himself to bring near his offering to God, and
one that has, therefore, been restored under the Gospel dispen
sation. But, in other respects, the worship of God made a
great advance under the ministration of Moses, and an advance
of such a nature as imperatively to require the institution of a
separate priesthood. So that what was in itself an imperfection
became relatively an advantage, and an important handmaid to
something better. — The patriarchal religion, while it was cer
tainly characterized by simplicity, was at the same time vague
and general in its nature. The ideas it imparted concerning
Divine things were few, and the impressions it produced upon
the minds of the worshippers must, from the very character of
the worship, have been somewhat faint and indefinite. By the
time of Moses, however, the world had already gone so far in
the pomps and ceremonies of a false worship, that on that
ground alone it became necessary to institute a much more
varied and complicated service ; and the Lord, taking advantage
of the evil to accomplish a higher good, ordered the religion lie
now set up in such a manner as to bring out far more fully His
own principles of government, and prepare the way more effec
tually for the work and kingdom of Christ. The groundwork
of this new form of religion stood in the ei'ection of the taber
nacle, which God chose for His peculiar dwelling-place, and
through which He meant to keep up a close and lively inter
course with His people. But this intercourse would inevitiibly
have grown on their part into too great familiarity, and would
thus have failed to produce proper and salutary impressions
upon the minds of the worshippers, unless something of a

260 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

counteracting tendency had been introduced, fitted to beget
feelings of profound and reverential awe toward the God
who condescended to come so near to them. This could no
otherwise be effectually done, than by the institution of a sepa
rate priesthood, whose prerogative alone it should be to enter
within the sacred precincts of God's house, and perform the
ministrations of His worship. And so wisely was everything
arranged concerning the work and service of this priesthood,
that an awful sense of the holiness and majesty of the Divine
Being could hardly fail to be awakened in the most unthinking
bosom, while still there was given to the spiritual worshipper a
visible representation of his near relationship to God, and his
calling to intimate communion with Him.

For the Levitical priesthood was not made to stand, as the
priesthood of Egypt certainly stood, in a kind of antagonism to
the people, or in such a state of absolute independence and ex
clusive isolation as gave them the appearance of a class entirely
by themselves. On the contrary, this priesthood in its office
was the representative of the whole people in its divine calling
as God's seed of blessing ; it was a priesthood formed out of a
kingdom of priests ; and, consequently, the persons in whom it
was vested could only be regarded as having, in the higher and
more peculiar sense, what essentially belonged to the entire
community. In them were concentrated and manifestly dis
played the spiritual privileges and dignity of all true Israelites.
And as these were represented in the priesthood generally,
so especially in the person of the high priest, in whom again
everything belonging to the priesthood gathered itself up and
reached its culmination. " This high priest," to use the words of
Vitringa,1 "represented the whole people. All Israelites were
reckoned as being in him. The prerogative held by him be
longed to the whole of them, but on this account was transferred
to him, because it was impossible that all Israelites should keep
themselves holy, as became the priests of Jehovah. But that
the Jewish high priest did indeed personify the whole body of
the Israelites, not only appears from this, that he bore the name's
of all the tribes on his breast and his shoulders, — which unques
tionably imported that he drew near to God in the name and
1 Obs. Sac., i., p. 292.

MINISTERS OF Till-: T A Hi: UNA OLE. 2C1

of all, — but also from the circumstance that when he com
mitted any heinous sin, his guilt was imputed to the people.
Tims, in Lev. iv. 3, * If the priest that is anointed sin to the
trespass or guilt of the people' (improperly rendered in the
English version, ' according to the sin of the people '). The
anointed priest was the high priest. But when he sinned, the
people sinned. Wherefore ? Because he represented the whole
people. And on this account it was that the sacrifice for a sin
committed by him had to be offered as the public sacrifices were
which were presented for sin committed by the people at large :
the blood must be brought into the Holy Place, and the body
burnt without the camp."

There was even more than what is here mentioned to impress
the idea, that the priesthood possessed only transferred rights :
for as the sins of the high priest were regarded as the people's,
so theirs also were regarded as his ; and on the great day of
atonement, when the most peculiar part of his work came to be
discharged, he had, in their name and stead, to enter into the
Most Holy Place with the blood of sprinkling, and thereafter
confess all their sins and iniquities over the head of the live
goat. On other occasions, also, we find this impersonation of
Israel by the high priest coming distinctly out, as in Judges xx.
27, 28, where, not the people (as the construction in our version
might seem to imply), but Phinehas, in the name of the people,
asks, " Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children
of Benjamin, my brother ? " and receives the answer, " Go up,
for to-morrow I will deliver them into thine hand." Besides, in
one most important respect, the priestly function was still allowed
to remain in the hands of the people, even after the consecration
of Aaron and his family. The paschal lamb, which might justly
IK- regarded as in a peculiar sense the sacrifice of the covenant,
was by the covenant people themselves presented to the Lord,
and its flesh eaten ; which was manifestly designed to keep up a
pi-rpetual testimony to the truth of their being a kingdom of
priests. So Philo plainly understood it, when he describes it as
the custom at the passover, " not that the laity should bring the
sacrificial animals to the altar, and the priests offer them, but the
whole people," says he, " according to the prescription of the
law, exercise priestly functions, since each one, for his own part,

262 THE TYPOLOGY OP SCRIPTURE.

presents the appointed sacrifices."1 And as thus the priestly
functions of the people were plainly not intended to be destroyed
by the institution of the Aaronic priesthood, but were only, at
the most, transferred to that body, and represented in them, we
can easily understand how pious Israelites, like the Psalmist,
could read their own privileges in those of the priests, and speak
of " coming into the house of God," and even of " dwelling in
it all the days of their life." 2 Betokening, however, as the insti
tution of such a priesthood did, a relative degree of imperfection
on the part of the people, we can also easily understand how the
spirit of prophecy, when pointing to a higher and more perfect
dispensation, should have intimated the purpose of God to make
the priestly order again to cease, by the unreserved communica
tion to the people of its distinctive privileges : " Ye shall be
named the priests of the Lord, men shall call you the ministers
of our God." 3 This purpose began to be realized from the time
that, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, believers were
constituted a " royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
to God," and is destined to be realized in the fullest sense in the
future kingdom of glory, when the redeemed shall be able with
one voice to say, " Thou hast made us kings and priests unto
our God."

The relation, then, in which the Levitical priesthood stood to
the people, still consisted with the preservation, to a considerable
extent, of their spiritual privileges. Even through such an insti
tution they could see the dignity of their standing before God,
and their right to hold near fellowship with Him. But if, in
this part of the arrangement, care was taken to keep up a sense
of the grace and condescension of God toward the whole cove
nant people, care was also taken, on the other hand, by means
of the priesthood's peculiar relation to God, to keep up a sense
of His adorable majesty and untainted righteousness ; for how
ever the people were warranted to regard themselves as admitted
by representation into the dwelling-place of God, they were yet
obliged personally to stand at an awful distance. One tribe alone

1 Vita Mosis. iii., p. 686. 2 Ps. v. 7, xxvii. 4, etc.

3 Isa. Ixi. 6, Ixvi. 21 ; Jer. xxxiii. 22 ; on which last see Hengstenberg's
Christol. ; as also on Zech. iii. 1, for some good remarks on the subject now
under discussion.

MINISTERS OF THE T A I'.KKXACLE. 263

was selected and set apart to the office of handling the things
that concerned it. But not even the whole of this tribe was
permittr 1 to enter the sacred precincts of God's house, and mini
ster in IN appropriate services. That honour was reserved for
one family of the tribe — the family of Aaron ; and even the
members of that family could not be allowed to discharge the
duties of their priestly office without the most solemn rites of
consecration ; nor, when consecrated, could they all alike traverse
with freedom the courts of the tabernacle : one individual of
thrm alone could pass the veil into its innermost region, the pre
sence-chamber of God, and he only in such a manner as must
have impressed his soul with the intense sanctity of the place,
and made him enter with trembling step. Guarded by so many
restrictions, and rising through so many gradations, how high
must have seemed the dignity, how sublime and sacred the privi
lege, of standing in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, and
ministering before Him ! And as regards the people generally,
how clearly did all show, that while God dwelt among them, He
was yet at some distance from them ! At once a manifested and
a concealed God ! in whose courts the darkness still intermingled
with light, and fear alternated with love.

II. But we must now inquire into the leading characteristics
of this priestly office : what peculiarly distinguished those who
exercised it from the nation at large ? Nothing for certain can
here be learned from the name (jnb, colien\ the derivation of
which is differently given by the learned, and the original import
of which cannot now be correctly ascertained. But looking at
their position and office in a general light, we cannot fail to
reir.-ird them as occupying somewhat of the place of God's friends
and familiars.1 Their part was not to do much in the way of
active and laborious service, but rather to receive and present
to God, as His nearest friends and associates, what properly

1 Yitringa (Obs. Sac., i., p. 272) gives this even as the radical significa
tion of the name coltcn, " familiarioris accessionis amicuin," appealing for
proof to Isa. Ixi. 10. In this he followed Cocceius, who makes the funda
mental idea of the verb to be that of drawing near to a superior. Many,
after Kinichi, understand it of the performing of honourable and dignified
service ; while many again in recent times resort to the Arabic, and find

264 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

belonged to Him. And on this account also was a great pro
portion of the sacrifices divided between God and them ; and the
shew-bread, as well as other meat-offerings, were consumed by
them, there being such a close relationship and intimacy between
them and God, that it might be regarded as immaterial whether
anything were appropriated by them or consumed on the altar
of God. But there were evidently three elements entering into
this general view of their position and office, which together
made up the characteristics of the priestly calling, and which are
distinctly brought out as such in the description given by Moses
on the occasion of Koran's rebellion : " And he spake unto
Korah, and unto all his company, saying, To-morrow the Lord
will show who is His, and who is holy ; and whom He makes to
draw near to Him : and him whom He chooses will He make
to draw near to Himself." — (Num. xvi. 5.) There can be no
doubt, from the connection in which this stands, that it was
intended to be a description of the properties or personal cha
racteristics of a Divine calling to the priesthood ; for it was
intended to meet the assumption of Korah and his company,
that as the whole congregation was holy, they had an equal
right with Aaron to enter into the tabernacle of God, and mini
ster in holy things. The person to whom such a right belonged,
must be in a peculiar sense the choice or property of God — must
be a possessor of holiness, and have the privilege of drawing near
to God ; and these qualities it was declared belonged to the family
of Aaron as to no other. It could only be, however, as having
these things in a peculiar sense that the Aaronic priesthood were
here meant to be characterized ; for they were also the charac
teristics of the congregation generally as a kingdom of priests,
and are mentioned as such in the 19th of Exodus. The people
are there described as having been " brought unto God," as
being chosen for " a peculiar treasure to Him," and as " an holy
nation." So that everything was affirmed to be theirs, which was

the sense of discovering secret things, prophesying, which they consider as
the original one. — (Pye Smith on Priesthood of Christ, p. 82.) There can
he no doubt, however, that, whether from usage or from original meaning,
the word came to convey the idea of something like a familiar or chosen
friend and counsellor. Hence, David's sons being priests (2 Sam. viii. 18),
is explained in 1 Chron. xviii. 17 by their being at the hand of the king.

MINISTERS OF THE TABERNACLE. 265

peculiarly to distinguish the family of Aaron. And there can
be no doubt, that it was on the ground of this passage which
had m;ulf a divp impression upon all the people, that the rebel
lion of Korah was raised. The differences were those of degree,
not of kind ; but still, as matters now stood, they were differ
ences on the side of the family of Aaron.

(1.) They were in a peculiar sense God's property, or the
objects of His election — for these two expressions properly in
volve but one idea. The choice of God, as well in respect to the
priesthood as to the people at large, exercised itself in selecting
a particular portion from the general property of God, to be His
peculiar possession. As thus chosen and set apart for God,
Israel was His heritage among the nations ; and as similarly
chosen and set apart for the special work of the priesthood, the
family of Aaron was his heritage in Israel. The privilege was
to be theirs of drawing peculiarly near to God, and their first
qualification for using it was that they were the objects of His
choice. Their designation and appointment must be from above
— not assumed as of their own authority, or derived from the
choice of their fellow-men — " for no man taketh this honour
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." —
(Heb. v. 4.) Referring to this, and recognising in it the essen
tial distinction of every true Israelite, the Psalmist says, "Blessed
is the man whom Tliou choosest, and causest to approach unto
Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts."— (Ps. Ixv. 4.) The
grounds of the Divine choice in the case of Aaron are nowhere
given ; nor even when Korah contested with him the right to
the office, did the Lord condescend to assign any reason for
having selected that family in preference to the other families of
Israel. He wished His own election to be regarded as the ulti
mate ground of the distinction ; and by making the office heredi
tary in the family of Aaron, He kept the appointment for all
coming time, as it were, in His own hands. This does not,
however, preclude the possibility of such ostensible grounds of
preference existing in Aaron and his family, as might have been
sufficient to commend the Divine choice to the people ; such as
his distinguished rank as the first-born of the house to which
Moses belonged, the services he had already rendered to the cause
of Israel, or his personal fitness for the office. But there is no

266 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

authority for holding, with Philo, Maimonides, and other Jewish
writers, that the priesthood was conferred on this family as ;i
reward for their zeal and devotedness to the service of God.
So far from thisy at the very time when the appointment of
Aaron was intimated to Moses, he was going along with the
people in the worship of the golden calf.1

(2.) The second element in the distinctive properties of the
priesthood, was the possession of holiness. Expressly on the
ground of holiness being the general characteristic of the people,
did the company of Korah assert their claim to the prerogatives
of the priesthood ; and on this point especially was the trial by
means of the twelve rods laid up before the Lord designed to
bear a decisive testimony. The rod of the house of Aaron alone
being made to bud, and blossom, and yield almonds, was a visible
miraculous sign from heaven, of a holiness belonging to the
family of Aaron, which did not belong to the congregation at
large. For what is holiness but spiritual life and fruitfulness ?
And of this there could not be a more natural emblem than a rod
flourishing and yielding fruit after its kind. Such singular and
pre-eminent holiness became those who were to be known as the
immediate attendants and familiars of Jehovah, who revealed
Himself as " the Holy One of Israel." Hence, not only is it said
in the general, that " holiness becometh God's house," — that is,
those who dwell and minister in its courts, — but Aaron is called
by way of distinction " the saint of the Lord ;" and the law en
joins with special emphasis respecting the priests as a body, that
they should be " holy unto their God :" " for," it is added, " I
the Lord, that sanctify you, am holy." — (Ps. xciii. 5, cvi. 16 ;
Lev. xxi. 8.) Hence also, as holiness in the priesthood derived
the necessity of its existence from the holiness of the Being
whose attendants they were, it must have been holiness of the
same character and description as His ; the law of the ten com
mandments, which was the grand expression of the one, must
undoubtedly have been intended to form the fixed standard of
the other. It was an excellence which, however it might be

1 Spencer, De Leg., L. i., c. 8, concurs with the Jewish writers in the
reason they assign, and quotes Philo with approbation : naturally enough,
as his grand reason for the institution of the priesthood was simply the pre
vention of idolatry !

\1 1 MSTERS OF THE TABERNACLE. 267

symbolized by outward things, could not possibly be formed of
these, but iiui-t h.ivc been a real and personal distinction. This
is forcibly brought out in the description given of the cha
racter of those who were originally appointed to fill the sacred
functions of the priesthood in Mai. ii. 1-7; and it is also clearly
implii-d in the threatenings uttered against the house of Eli,
and their ultimate degradation and ruin, on account of the
moral impurities into which they fell. Their wicked course
of life disqualified them from holding the sacred office, which
must therefore have indispensably required purity in heart and
conduct.

(3.) The last distinction belonging to the priesthood, was
their right to draw near to God, — a right which grew out of
their election of God, and their eminent holiness, as the end and
consummation to which these pointed. The question in the rebel
lion of Korali was, Who were in such a sense chosen by God, and
holy, as to be privileged to draw near to Him ? And the decision
of God was given on the two former, with a special respect to
this latter prerogative : " And him whom He chooses will He
make to draw near to Himself." Hence, " those who draw near
to Jehovah," is not uncommonly given as a description of the
priests (Ex. xix. 22 ; Lev. xxi. 17 ; Ez. xlii. 13, xliv. 13) ; and
the distinctive priestly act in all sacrificial services is called " the
bringing near" (nnpn) ; as also the thing sacrificed is called, in
its most general designation, corban (pip) — the thing brought
near, offering. On this account, what is mentioned in one place
as " an offering of burnt-offerings," is described in another as a
"bringing near" of them. — (2 Sam. vi. 17 ; 1 Chron. xvi. 1.)
But this right of the priesthood to come into the immediate
presence of God, and submit to His acceptance the gifts and
offerings of the congregation, of necessity involved the idea of
their occupying an intermediate position between God and the
people, and gave to their entire work the character of a media
tion. " They were ordained for men in things pertaining to
God," charged to a certain extent with the interests of both
parties, but having especially to transact with God in the behalf of
those whom sin had removed to a distance from Him. Through
them the families of Israel were blessed, as through Israel — thr
kingdom of priests — all the families of the earth were to be

2G8 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

blessed. In the high priest alone, however, was this function
fully realized, as was plainly indicated by the outward distinc
tions held by him above the other priests, as well as above the
people at large. " For to the outward of the high priest it be
longed : First, that while the people, remaining at a greater or
less distance from the sanctuary, approached to it only at befit
ting times, the high priest, on the contrary, was always in the
midst — so that though his functions were few, and confined
to certain times, yet his whole existence appeared consecrated ;
and secondly, that though the people presented their offerings
to God by the collective priesthood, still the sacrifice of the
great day of atonement was necessary as an universal com
pletion of the rest ; and this the high priest alone could present.
The idea, therefore, of his office seems to be, that while to the
Jewish people their national life appeared as an alternation of
drawing near to God, and withdrawing again from Him, the
high priest was the individual whose life, compared with these
vacillating movements, was in perpetual equipoise ; and as the
people were always in a state of impurity, he was the only per
son who could present himself as pure before God."1

III. It was not, however, the sole end of the appointment
of the priesthood, to represent the people in the sanctuary, and
mediate between them and God and holy things. It belonged
also to their office to secure the diffusion among the people of
sound knowledge and instruction ; so that there might be a
right understanding among the people of the nature of God's
service, and a fitness for entering in spirit into its duties, while
the priests were personally employed in discharging them. A
certain amount of such knowledge was necessary, in order that
the people might be disposed to bring their gifts and offerings
at suitable times ; and a still greater, that, in the presentation
of these by the hand of the priests, they might be blessed as
acceptable worshippers. With the oversight of this, therefore,
so nearly connected with their sacred employments about the
tabernacle, the priesthood were charged : " And that ye may
teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord

1 Schleierraacher's Glaubenslehre, as quoted by Tholuck, iu Diss. ii., in
Com. on Ep. to Hebr., Bib. Cabinet, xxxix., p. 265.

MINISTERS OF Til K TA I'.KRNACLE. 269

hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." — (Lev. x. 11.)
So again in Dent, xxxiii. 10, "They shall teach Jacob Thy
judgments, and Israel Thy law." The words of Malachi also
are express on this point : " For the priest's lips should keep
knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth ; for
he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." — (ii. 7.) As a
teacher, he had a divine mission to accomplish ; and it was
hence justly charged against the priesthood of his day by the
prophet, as an entire subversion of the great end of their
appointment, that instead of teaching others the law, " they
caused many to stumble at it." The prophet Hosea even
ascribes the general ruin to their neglect of this part of their
functions : " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge :
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to Me." — (iv. 6.)

The office of the priesthood thus necessarily involved some
what of a prophetical or teaching character ; and in after times,
when those destined lights of Israel became themselves sources
of darkness and corruption, prophets were raised up, and
generally from among the priesthood, for the express purpose
of correcting the evil, and supplying the information which
the others had failed to impart. It is plain, however, that even
if the priests had been faithful to this part of their calling, they
were quite inadequate, from their limited number, to be per
sonally in any proper sense the teachers of all Israel. It is
true, they enjoyed peculiar advantages for this in the frequent
recurrence of the stated feasts, which caused the people to
assemble in one place thrice every year, and kept them on each
returning solemnity for a week at the very centre of priestly
influence. But much beside what could then be accomplished
would require to be done, to diffuse a sufficient acquaintance
with the law of God, and give instruction from time to time
concerning numberless cases of doubt or difficulty, which in
daily life would be certain to arise. On this account, moiv
particularly, were the Levites associated with the priesthood,
and planted at proper distances in certain cities throughout the
tribes of Israel. They were "given to Aaron and his sons," to
minister unto him in subordinate and preparatory offices, wliik-
he was doing the service of the tabernacle, and generally " to

270 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

execute the service of the Lord." — (Num. iii. 5-10, viii. II.)1
In fulfilling this appointment, it fell to them to keep the taber
nacle and its instruments in a proper state for the divine service,
to bear its different parts when removing from place to place,
to occupy in later times the post of door-keepers in the temple,
to take part in the musical arrangements connected with the
public service, to assist at the larger feasts in the killing and
flaying of victims, etc. — (1 Chron. xxiii. 28-32 ; 2 Chron. xxxv.
6, 11.) But separated as the Levites were from secular employ
ments, without lands to cultivate, and " wholly given to the
service of the Lord," it was obviously but a small number of
them who could be regularly occupied with such ministrations
about the sanctuary ; and as both their abundant leisure and
their dispersion through the land gave them many opportunities
of acting as the spiritual instructors of the people, it must have
been chiefly through their instrumentality that the priests were
to keep the people acquainted with the statutes and judgments
of the Lord. This is clearly implied, indeed, in those passages
which speak most distinctly of the obligation laid upon the
priesthood to diffuse the knowledge of the law, and which refer
equally to the priests and the Levites. Thus their common
calling to "teach Jacob God's judgments and Israel His law,"
is announced in the blessing of Moses upon the whole tribe (Deut.
xxxiii. 8-11) ; and in Malachi the failure of the priesthood to
instruct the people in divine knowledge, and their guilt in
causing many to err from the law, is called a " corruption of
the covenant of Levi."

Common discretion and self-interest, concurring with the
principles of piety, must have enforced upon them this obliga
tion, and dictated the employment of active measures for the
diffusion of divine knowledge by the instrumentality of the

1 They were given to Aaron, the Lord's familiar, as a sacrifice offered up
and consecrated to the Ixml in the room of the first-born. The first-born,
at the deliverance from Egypt, had represented all the people, — in them, all
the people were redeemed; so now the people, when substituting the
Levites in their place, had to lay their hands on their heads, and Aaron
waved them before the Lord as an offering ; and as originally God accepted
the blood of the lamb for the blood of the first-born, so now He accepted a
burnt-offering and a sin-offering for the Levites, on which they had to
place their hands.— (Num. iii. and viii.)

MINISTERS OF TIIK TAIJERNACLE. 271

Lcvitcs. If these possessed the spirit of their office as men
dedicated to the Lord's service, in subordination to the priest
hood, they must have felt it their duty to prepare the minds of
the people for the solemnities of the tabernacle-worship, much
more than to prepare the instruments of the tabernacle itself for
the same. A moment's reflection must have taught them, that
their services, as ministering helps, to promote the ends of the
priesthood, were greatly more necessary for the one purpose
than the other. But if higher considerations should fail to
influence them in the matter, they were still urged to exert
themselves in this direction from a regard to their own com
fortable maintenance, which was made principally to depend
upon the tithes and offerings of the people. The chief source of
revenue was the tithe, which belonged to the tribe of Levi, from
their being more peculiarly the Lord's ; the whole property
being represented by the number ten, and one of these being
constantly taken as a tribute-money or pledge, that the whole
was held in fief or dependence upon Him. Then, out of this
tithe accruing to the entire tribe, another tithe was taken and
devoted to the family of Aaron, as the peculiarly sacred portion
of the tribe. But for the actual payment of these tithes and the
other offerings of the people in which they had a share, the
priests and Levites were dependent on the enlightened and
faithful consciences of the people. The rendering of what was
due, was simply a matter of religious obligation ; and where this
failed, the claim could not be enforced by any constraint of law.
It consequently became indispensable to the very existence of
the sacred tribe, that they should be at pains to preserve and
elevate the religious sense of the community, as with this their
own respect and comfort were inseparably connected. And
when they proved unfaithful to their charge, as the representa
tives of God's interest, and the expounders of His law among
the people (as they appear to have done in the age of Malachi),
their sin was visited upon them, in just retribution, by a with
drawal on the part of the people of the appointed offerings. So
that, although nothing was said as to the particular means proper
to be employed for the purpose (the Church being left then, a>
in New Testament times, to discharge the obligation laid upon
it by suitable arrangements), there can be no doubt that the

272 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

obligation was imposed upon the priesthood to be partly them
selves, and still more through their ministers the Levites, the
teachers of the people in divine knowledge. The proper dis
charge of the priestly, presupposed and required a certain
discharge of the prophetical function ; and prophets, as extra
ordinary messengers, after having been occasionally sent to
chastise their unfaithfulness and rouse them from their lethargy,
were at last instituted as a distinct and separate order, only to
supply what was found to be a lack of service on the part of
those regular instructors. Indeed, as the members of the pro
phetical order seem generally to have been taken from the tribe
of Levi, the institution of that order may be regarded as a
perfecting of the Levitical office in one of its departments of
duty.1

1 Vitr. Synag. Vet., L. i., P. 2, c. 8, where also see various Jewish au
thorities in proof of the calling of the Levites to be teachers and expounders
of the law, and especially one from Baal Hattarim, which expressly assigns
this as the reason of the dispersion of the Levites among the Israelites (dis-
pergentur per omnes Israelitas ad docendam legem). See also Mover's
Kronik, p. 300, and Graves on Pent., ii., Lee. 4. Michaelis (Com. on Laws
of Moses, i., art. 35, 52) has asserted, that a great many civil and literary
offices belonged to the priests and Levites — that they were not only mini
sters of religion, but physicians, judges, scribes, mathematicians, etc., holding
the same place in Israelitish that the Egyptian priesthood did in Egyptian
society — and that on this account alone were such large revenues assigned
them. This view has been too often followed by divines, especially by the
rationalist portion of them, and is still too much countenanced in the Bib.
Cyclop., art. Priest, and even by Mr Taylor in his Spiritual Despotism, p.
99. It is entirely, however, without foundation, and has been thoroughly
disproved by Biihr (Symbolik, ii., p. 34, 53), and by Hengstenberg, who has
shown that the Levites, as well as the priests, were set apart only for re
ligious purposes, and that in particular the civil constitution as to judges,
as settled by Moses, was merely the revival and improvement of that
patriarchal government which had never been altogether destroyed in
Egypt.— (Authentic, ii., p. 260, 341, 654, etc.) There can be no doubt
that the Egyptian and Indian priests held many of the offices referred to ;
that their political went hand in hand with their religious influence ; and
that, especially in Egypt, the most fertile lands belonged to them, with
many other lucrative privileges. It was very different with the Levitical
priesthood — no lands worth naming — a dependence upon the offerings of the
people for their livelihood ; so that they are commended to the care of the
people as objects of kindness with the widow and orphan (Deut. xii, 12, xvi.
11, 14), and were often, from'the low state of religion, in comparative want.

MINISTERS OF TIIK TAUKIINACLE. 273

IV. Now, the outward and bodily prescriptions which were
given respecting the priesthood, were merely intended to serve,
by their observance, as symbolical expressions of the ideas we
have seen to be involved in the nature of their calling and
office. It is not necessary for us to enter into any minute detail
concerning them ; and we shall content ourselves with briefly
noticing some of the leading points.

(1.) There were, first, personal marks and distinctions of a
bodily kind, the possession of which was necessary to qualify
any one for the priesthood, and the absence of which was to
prove an utter disqualification. These, therefore, being mani
festly given or withheld by God, bore upon the question of a
person's election ; and when not possessed, bespoke the individual
not to be chosen by God in the peculiar sense required for the
priestly office. Such were all kinds of bodily defects ; it was
declared a profanation of the altar or the sanctuary, for any one
to draw near in whom they appeared. — (Lev. xxi. 16-24.) Not
that the Lord cared for the bodily appearance in itself, but
through the body sought to convey suitable impressions regard
ing the soul. For completeness of bodily parts is to the body
what, in the true religion, holiness is to the soul. To the re
quirement or the production of this holiness, as the perfection
of man's spiritual nature, the whole of the Mosaic institutions
were bent. And as signs and witnesses to Israel concerning it,
those who occupied the high position of being at once God's
and the people's representatives, must bear upon their persons
that external symbol of the spiritual perfection required of them.
The choice of God had to be verified by their possessing the
outward symbol of true holiness.1 — The age prescribed for the

1 The Greeks and Romans, it is well known, were very particalar in
i vL,r:inl to the corporeal soundness and even beauty of their priests. Among
the former, every one underwent a careful examination as to his bodily
frame before he entered on the priestly office ; and among the Romans there
arc instances of persons resigning the office on receiving some corporeal
blemish — such as M. Sergius, who lost his hand in the defence of his country.
Rut holiness was not the perfection aimed at in those religions ; and such
ivLranl was j>ai<l to bodily completeness merely because it was thought a
token of Divine favour, and an omen of good success. Hence Seneca, Con-
trov. iv. 2 : Sacerdos non iutegri corporis quasi mali omiuis res vitanda est.
See Bahr, ii., p. 59.

VOL. II. 3

274 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Levites (which would probably be regarded as the usual rule
also for the priests) entering upon their office, and again ceasing
from active service, carried substantially the same meaning. It
comprehended the period of the natural life's greatest vigour
and completeness, and, as such, indicated that the spiritual life
should be in a corresponding state. The age of entry is stated
in Num. iv. at thirty, while in chap. viii. twenty-five is given ;
but the former has respect simply to the work of the Levites
about (not at or in) the tabernacle, in transporting it from place
to place ; the latter speaks of the period of their entering on their
duties generally; and it would seem that the practice latterly
made it even so early as twenty. — (1 Chron. xxiii. 27 ; 2 Chron.
xxxi. 17.)1

(2.) Then, certain restrictions of an external kind were laid
upon the priests, as to avoiding occasions of bodily defilement ;
such as contact with the dead, excepting in cases of nearest
relationship ; cutting and disfiguring the hair of the beard, as in
times of mourning ; marrying a person of bad fame, or one that
had been divorced. And the high priest, as being in his own
person the most sacred, was still farther restricted, so that he
was not to defile himself even for his father or mother, and
should marry only a virgin. These observances were enjoined
as palpable symbols of the holiness, in walk and conduct, which
became those who stood so near to the Holy One of Israel.
Occupying the blessed region of life and purity, they must exhibit,
in their external relations and deportment, the care and jealousy
with which it behoves every one to watch against all occasions
of sin, who would live in fellowship with the righteous Jehovah.

(3.) The garments appointed to be worn by the priesthood
in their sacred ministrations were also, in some respects, strik
ingly expressive of the holiness required in their personal state,
while in certain parts of the high priest's dress other ideas be
sides were symbolized. The stuff of all of them was linen, and,
with the exception of the more ornamental parts of the high
priest's dress, must be understood to have been white. They
are not expressly so called in the Pentateuch, but arc incidentally
described as white in 2 Chron. v. 12 ; and such also was known

1 Hengstenberg, Authentic, ii., p. 393 ; Relandi, Antiq., ii., 6, 3 ; Light-
foot, Op., ii., p. 691.

MINISTERS OF TIIK TAHEKNACLE. 275

to be the usual colour of the linen of Egypt, as worn by the
priests. The coolness and comparative freedom from perspira
tion attending the use of linen garments, had led men to associate
with them, especially in the burning clime of Egypt, the idea of
cleanliness. Their symbolical use, therefore, in an ethical re
ligion like the Mosaic, must have been expressive of inward
purity ; and hence, in the symbolical language of Revelation,
we read so often of the white and clean garments of the heavenly
inhabitants, which are expressly declared to mean " the righteous
ness of saints." — (Rev. xix. 8, iv. 4, vi. 11, etc.) Hence also,
on the day of atonement, the plain white linen garments which
the high priest was to wear, are called " garments of holiness "-
evidently implying that holiness was the idea more peculiarly
imaged by clothing of that description. It was this idea, too,
that was emblazoned in the plate of gold which was attached to
the front of the high priest's bonnet or mitre, by the engraving
on it of the words, " Holiness to the Lord." This became the
more necessary in his case, on account of the rich embroidery
and manifold ornaments which belonged to other parts of his
dress, and which were fitted to lessen the impression of holiness,
that the fine white linen of some of them might otherwise have
been sufficient to convey. The representative character of the
high priest was symbolized by the breast-plate of the Ephod,
which in twelve precious stones bore the names of the tribes of
the children of Israel, indicating that in their name and behalf
he appeared in the presence of God. The Urim and Thummim
(lights and perfections) connected with the breast-plate, if not
identical with it, and through which, in cases of emergency, he
obtained unerring responses from heaven, bespoke the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the mind and will of God, with which
he should be endowed to fit him for giving a clear direction to
the people in the things of God, and the perfect rectitude of the
decisions he would consequently pronounce respecting them. —
The girdle with which his flowing garments were bound together,
denoted the high and honourable service in which he was en-
gaged ; and tin.- la'lls and pomegranates, which were wrought
upon the lower edge of the tunic below the Ephod, bespoke the
distinct utterances he was to give of the Divine word, and the
fruitfulness in righteousness of which this should be productive.

276 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Finally, the fine quality of the stuff of which all the garments
of the priests were made, and the gold, and diversified colours,
and rich embroidery appearing in the ordinary garments of the
priesthood, expressly said to have been for ornament and beauty,
(Ex. xxviii. 40), were manifestly designed to express the elevated
rank and dignity of those who are recognised by God as sons in
His house, permitted to draw near with confidence to His pre
sence, and to go in and out before Him.1

(4.) Lastly, the rites of consecration proclaimed the neces
sity of holiness — a holiness not their own, but imputed to them
by the grace of God ; and following upon this, and flowing from
the same source, a plentiful endowment of gifts for their sacred
office, with the manifest seal of Heaven's fellowship and approval.
They were first brought to the door of the tabernacle and
washed — as in themselves impure, and requiring the application
of water — the simplest and commonest element of cleansing.
Then, the body being thus purified, the pontifical garments
were put on ; and on the high priest first, afterwards on the other
priests, was poured the holy anointing oil, which ran down upon
their garments. — (Ex. xxviii. 21, xxx. 30, etc.) And in the
case of the sons the anointing is declared to have constituted

1 We have not specified in detail the different parts of the priest's gar
ments ; they consisted, in the case of the priesthood generally, of breeches
or drawers of linen, a coat or tunic reaching from the neck to the ankles
and wrists, an embroidered girdle, and a mitre or turban (the usual parts,
in fact, of an Oriental dress). But in the case of the high priest, there were,
beside these, a mantle or robe of blue, worn over the inner coat or tunic,
and immediately under the ephod ; then the ephod itself, a sort of short coat,
very richly embroidered and ornamented, with its corresponding girdle and
breast-plate, with the Urim and Thummim, which was regarded as the
peculiar and distinctive garment of the high priest, who is thence often
described as he " who wore the ephod." (Common linen ephods, however,
were worn by the priests generally, and sometimes even by laymen.) That
there was much in these garments peculiar to the Israelites, and differing
from what existed in Egypt, we think Biihr has sufficiently established.
For example, the tunics of the Egyptian priests appear to have reached only
from the haunch to the feet, leaving the upper part naked ; the mitres were
of a different shape, and fell back upon the neck ; the girdle seems not to
have been used, but they wore shoes, and on great occasions leopard skins,
which the Israelitish priests did not. — (Symbolik, ii., p. 92.) It is clear,
therefore, there could be no slavish imitation, as Spencer and others have
laboured to show. Yet this by no means proves that there might not have

MINISTERS OF TI1K TA1JKRNACLE. 277

them "an ovi-Hasting priesthood through all their generations"
(Ex. xl. 1 .")) — meaning, apparently, and as has been commonly
understood, that the act did not need to be renewed in respect
to the ordinary members of the priesthood. This was the
peculiar act of consecration, and symbolized the bestowal upon
those who received it, of the Spirit's grace, so as to make them
Ht and active instruments in discharging the duties of God's
service. As such anointing had already stamped the tabernacle
as God's hallowed abode, so now did it hallow them to be His
proper agents and servitors within its courts (p. 243). But,
different from the senseless materials of the tabernacle, these
anointed priests have consciences defiled with the pollution and
laden with the guilt of sin. And how, then, can they stand in
the presence of Him who is a consuming fire to sinners, and
minister before Him ? The more they partook of the unction
of the Holy One, the more must they have felt the necessity of
another kind of cleansing than they had yet received, and raised
in their souls a cry for the blood of atonement and reconciliation.
This, therefore, was what was next provided, and through an
entire series of sacrifices and offerings they were conducted, as
from the depths of guilt and condemnation, to what indicated

been in some leading particulars the same symbols employed to represent
substantially the same ideas. That this was the case in regard to the white
linen garments, seems indisputable ; Spencer's proofs there, as Heugsten-
bcrg remarks against Biihr (Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 146), are quite
conclusive. Such dresses were peculiar only to the priests of Egypt and
Palestine as symbolic of cleanliness or purity ; hence the former were called
by Juvenal " grex liniger," by Ovid u linigera turba," by Martial u linigeri
calvi," by Seneca u liiiteali senes." — (Spencer, de Leg., L. iii., c. 5, s. 2.)
Tin.' iv does seem also to have been a reference in the Urim and Thummim to
the practice in Egypt of suspending the image of the goddess Thmei, who
was honoured under the twofold character of truth and justice, from the neck
of the chief judge. — (See Hengstenberg as above, p. 150, with the quotations
there, espeeudly from Wilkinson.) Still there was a very characteristic dif-
feivnee, in that the high priest did not act properly as a judge, but as a
spiritual servant of God, and was only represented as having a sure revela-
tion if ho faithfully waited u] on (lod, and sought in earnest to guide the
people into the ri^ht knowledge of <Iod, and a true judgment of matters as
between them and (ind. For direct consultation with (Jod, the Trim and
Thummim seems only to have been used in cases of emergency, when ordi
nary resources failed. And what it was precisely, or how responses were
obtained by it, cannot now be ascertained.

278 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

their possession of a state of blessed peace and most friendly
intercourse with God. Even Jewish writers did not fail to mark
the gradation in the order of the sacrifices. " For first of all,"
says one of them, " there was presented for the expiation of sin
the bullock of sin-offering, of which nothing save a little fat was
offered (on the altar) to God (the flesh being burned without
the camp) ; because the offerers were not yet worthy to have
any gift or offering accepted by God. But after they had been
so far purged, they slew the burnt-offering to God, which was
wholly laid upon the altar. And after this came a sacrifice like
a peace-offering (which was wont to be divided between God,
the priests, and the offerers), showing they were now so far re
ceived into favour with God, that they might eat at His table." !
This last offering is called the " ram of consecration," or of
" filling," because the portions of it to be consumed upon the
altar, with its accompanying meat-offering, were put into Aaron's
hands, that he might present and wave them before the Lord.
Being counted worthy to have his hands filled with these, the
representatives of what he was to be constantly presenting and
eating before the Lord, he was thereby, in a manner, installed
in his office. But first he had to be sprinkled with the blood of
the victim — the blood in which the life is, and which, after
being sprinkled on the altar, and so uniting him to God, was
applied to his body, signifying the conveyance of a new life to
him, a life out of death from God, and in union with God. Nor
was Aaron's body in the general only sprinkled with this holy
life-giving blood, but also particular members apart : — his right
ear, to sanctify it to a ready and attentive listening to the law
of God, according to which all His service must be regulated ;
his right hand, and his right foot, that the one might be hallowed
for the presentation of sacred gifts to God, and the other for
treading His courts and running the way of His commandments.
And now, to complete the ceremony, he receives on his person
and his garments a second anointing — not simply with the oil,
but with the oil and this blood of consecration mingled together
— symbolizing the new life of God, in which he is henceforth
to move and have his being, in conjunction with the Spirit,
on whose softening, penetrating, invigorating influence all the
1 R. Levi Ben Gerson, as quoted by Outram, De Sac., p. 56.

MINISTERS OF THE TABERNACLE. 279

powers and movements of that divine life depend. So that the
Levitical priesthood appeared emphatically as one coming "by
water and by blood." It spoke aloud, in all its rites of con
secration, of sin on man's part, and holiness on God's. The
memorials of human guilt, and the emblems of divine sanctity,
must at once meet on the persons of those who exercised it.
Theirs must be clean hands and a pure heart, sanctified natures,
a heaven-derived and heaven-sustained life, such as betokened a
real connection with God, and a personal interest in the benefits
of His redemption.

The full meaning, however, of the offerings connected with
the consecration of the priests will only appear when we have
considered the various kinds of sacrifices employed on the
occasion. It is enough at present to have given the general
import. The whole was repeated seven times, on as many suc
cessive days — because seven was the symbol of the oath or
covenant, and indicated here that the consecration to the priestly
office was a strictly covenant transaction. That it was done,
not merely seven times, but on seven successive days, might also
be intended to indicate its completeness — a week of days being
the shortest complete revolution of time. That the parts of the
peace and the bread-offering, which were put into Aaron's hand,
and which were to be his for ever, were burnt on the altar, and
not eaten by Moses (who here acted, by virtue of his special
commission, as priest), may have simply arisen from Moses not
being able to eat the whole ; he had to eat the wave bread,
which might be enough ; hence also what remained over of the
parts given to Aaron to be eaten, were to be burnt. — (Ex. xxix.
34.) We see nothing, therefore, in that arrangement to be
regarded as a difficulty, though Kurtz has noted it as one. —
(Mosaische Opfer, p. 249.) The action of the second anointing
we have explained substantially with Baumgarten, and not
differing very materially from Bahr. — (Symb., ii., 424, etc.)
We cannot, with Mr Bonar (Comm. on Lev., p. 160), regard the
first anointing as the consecration of the man, and the second as
that of tlie priest; for at the first as well as the second, Aaron
had on the priest's garments, and nothing could more distinctly
intimate, that what was afterwards done had respect to him as
priest. The fire which came out from before the Lord and

280 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

consumed the burnt-offering on the altar, the first which Aaron
presented for the people (Lev. ix. 24), was the solemn seal and
recognition of Heaven to the office and work of the high priest.
It inaugurated not Aaron merely, but the priesthood generally
of the covenant, as the elect of God. The rites of consecration
differ materially from those used in Egypt. In particular, the
shaving of the whole body, which was practised in Egypt every
three days (Herod., ii. 37), and kept the head as well as the body
generally bald, was entirely omitted here. It was done at first,
but only then, with the Levites (Xum. viii.) as an act of cleans
ing, along with the sprinkling of water and washing of the
clothes. It hence appears to have been regarded as a symbol of
an inferior kind, as the consecration of the Levites was much
less solemn than that of the priests.

V. In applying now what was ordained respecting the Levi-
tical priesthood to the higher things of Christ's kingdom, we
find, indeed, everywhere a shadow of these, but " not the very
image" of them. The resemblances were such as imperfect,
earthly materials, and an instrumentality of sinful beings, could
present to the heavenly and divine — inevitably presenting,
therefore, some important and palpable differences. Thus,
from the high priest being taken from among men, he neces
sarily partook of their sinfulness, and required to be himself
cleansed by rites and offerings, to be invested with what might
be denominated an artificial, imputed holiness, in order that he
might mediate between the holy God and his sinful fellow-men.
And then, that he might go through such a process of purifica
tion as should raise him to a proper religious elevation above his
brethren, there were meanwhile needed the ministrations of one
standing between him and God. The mediator of the covenant,
who consecrated, had of necessity to be different from, and
higher than, the person who was consecrated for high priest.
These were obvious though unavoidable imperfections, even as
regarded the preparatory dispensation itself ; and it must have
suggested itself as manifestly a more perfect arrangement, could
it have been obtained, if the high priest had been possessor of
the nature, without being partaker of the guilt of his brethren,
and by his inherent qualities had united in his own person what

M I NLSTERS OF 'HI K TA I'.KRNACLE. 281

fitted him to be at once mediator and high priest over the house
of God.

Now, this is precisely what first meets us in the Gospel
constitution of the kingdom ; and the defects and imperfections
which gave a sort of anomalous and arbitrary character to the
arrangements under the Old Testament, have no place whatever
here. He who is the Mediator, is also the High Priest of His
people; and while partaker of flesh and blood like the brethren,
yet being "without sin," "holy, harmless, and undefiled," He
needed no offerings and ablutions to consecrate Him to the office
of priesthood. At once very God and true man, the Eternal
Son in personal union with real though spotless humanity, He
was thoroughly qualified to act the part of the day's-man be
tween the Father and His sinful children, being able to " lay His
hand upon them both." Who could appear as He the friend and
familiar of God ? — He, who was in the bosom of the Father, and
who could say in the fullest sense, " I and the Father are one ? "
— who even as the Son of Man, appearing in the likeness of
sinful flesh, yet Himself had no fellowship with the accursed
thing, but ever shunned and abhorred it ? With the divine and
human thus meeting all purely in His person, He has every
thing that could be desired to render Him the proper Head and
High Priest of His people. The arrangement for reconciling
heaven and earth, and re-establishing the intercourse between
lost man and his Creator, is absolutely perfect, and leaves
nothing to be desired. On the one side, as the Beloved Son of
God, in whom the Father is well pleased, lie has at all times
free access to the presence of the Father, and in whatever He
asks must also have power as a prince to prevail. On the other,
as the representative of His people, and one in nature with
themselves, they can at all times make known with confidence
to Him the sins and sorrows of their condition, and, recognising
what is His as also theirs, can rise with filial boldness to realize
their near relationship to God, and their full participation in
the favour and blessing of Heaven.

It is impossible, surely, to contemplate the God-man as the
head of iv>ti>ivd humanity, and the pattern after which all
believers shall be formed, without feeling constrained to >.iv,
not only how admirable is the arrangement, but also how amaz-

282 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

ing the condescension ! How wonderful, that the Most High
should thus accommodate Himself to man's nature and neces
sities ! And how wonderful, on the other hand, that He should
elevate this nature into such near and personal union with Him
self, and, for the sake of establishing a fit medium of commu
nication and intercourse between the creature and the Creator,
should make it His own eternal habitation and instrument of
working! It is this pre-eminently which crowns our nature
with dignity and honour, and tells to what a peerless height our
humanity is destined. We know not what we shall be, but we
know that we shall be like Him in whom our nature is linked in
closest union with the Godhead ; and to have our lot and destiny
bound up with His, is to be assured of all that it is possible for
us to enjoy of blessing and glory.

In accomplishing this great work of mediation, however, the
High Priest of our profession, like the earthly type, " must have
somewhat to offer." And here, again, where the very heart and
centre of His work is concerned, such differences appear as
betoken the one to have been only the imperfect shadow, not
the exact image, of the other. For, under the Old Testament
priesthood, the offerer was different, not only from the thing
offered, but also, for the most part, from the person on whose
behalf the offering was presented. And so impossible was it,
amid the imperfections of the shadow, to combine these properly
together, that on the great day of atonement it was found neces
sary to cause the high priest to offer first for himself apart, and
then for the people apart. But now that the perfect things of
God's kingdom have come, this imperfection also has disap
peared. The one grand offering, through which Christ has
finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in the
everlasting righteousness, was at once furnished by Himself,
and offered by Himself. He gave Himself to death as thus
laden with their guilt, an offering of a sweet-smelling savour to
God, and rose again for their justification, as one fully able of
Himself to provide and to do everything that was needed to
close up the breach which sin had made between man and God.

Yet, while there were such imperfections as we have noted,
rendering the Levitical priesthood but a defective representation
of the Christian, there were, at the same time, many striking

MINISTERS OF THE TABERNACLE. 283

resemblances, and the fundamental principles connected with
the priesthood of Christ were as fully embodied there as it was
possible for them to be in a single institution. For,

(1.) The Levitical priesthood was for Israel the one medium
of acceptable approach to God. Aaron and his sons were called,
and alone called, to the office of presenting all the offerings of
the people at the house of God, and securing for them the
blessing. And the attempt made on one occasion to supersede
the appointment, and dispense with their ministrations, only led
to the discomfitiire and perdition of those who impiously at
tempted it. What else can be the result of any similar attempt
under the Gospel ? A far higher necessity, indeed, reigns here,
and any dishonour done to Jesus in His priestly function must
be revenged with a much sorer condemnation. The one Medi
ator between God and man, no one can come to the Father but
by Him ; and they only who are redeemed by His blood, and
presented by Him to the Father as His own ransomed and elect
Church, can be accepted to blessing and glory. Therefore it is
the Father's will that all men should honour the Son, even as
they honour the Father ; and salvation by any other name than
that of Jesus is absolutely unattainable.

(2.) The personal holiness of Christ in His priesthood was
also strikingly typified in the consecrations and garments of the
Levitical priesthood, and especially in the purifications by water
and blood. In His case, however, the holiness was not acquired,
but original, inherent, and complete, manifesting itself in the
fulfilment of all righteousness, and magnifying the law of God
to the fearful extent of bearing the penalty it had denounced
against numberless transgressions. His obedience was such as
left no demand of righteousness unsatisfied, and His blood was
that of the Lamb of God, without spot or blemish— blood of
infinite value. If God accepted the services and heard the
intercessions of the priesthood of old, all lame and imperfect as
their righteousness was, how much more may His people now
count on the blessing, if they approach in humble reliance on
the worth and sufficiency of Christ ?

(3.) Then we see the representative character of His priest
hood, and all its functions, imaged in that of the high priest,
possessing as he did the names of the twelve tribes upon his

284 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

breast when he entered the tabernacle, and having their cause
and interest ever before him. Christ, in like manner, does
nothing for Himself, but only as the Shepherd and Saviour
of His people. " For their sakes He sanctified Himself," by
laying down His life to purchase their redemption. And none
of them escapes His regard. " He knows His sheep." All the
real Israel whom the Father has given to Him, are borne upon
His bosom within the veil, and shall assuredly reap the fruits of
His successful mediation.

(4.) Farther, his thorough insight into the mind of God, and
capacity to give forth clear revelations and unerring judgments
of His will, was prefigured in the Urim and Thummim of the
Jewish high priest, through which the priesthood gave oracular
decisions in regard to the things of God, and in the authority
generally committed to the priesthood of declaring the Divine
will. " No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Himself the Divine
Word, through whom Godhead, as it were, speaks and makes
itself known to the creatures, it is His part in all His operations,
but especially in the discharge of His priestly functions, to de
clare the Father. In Him, as fulfilling the work connected
with these, is seen, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord ; and
while He conducts His people to an interest in what He has
done for their redemption, it is as the truth that He manifests
Himself to them. He has even promised to lead them into all
the truth, and to fill them with the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.

(5.) Once more, in the anointing of the high priest, we
plainly read the connection between the work of Christ and the
agency of the Holy Spirit. As the oil there sanctified all, so
the Spirit here seals and works in all. By the power of the
Spirit was the flesh of Christ conceived ; with the fulness of the
Spirit was He endowed at His baptism: all His works w*re
wrought in the Spirit, and by the Spirit He at last offered Him
self without spot to God. The Father had given the Spirit not
by measure to Him ; and as the oil that was poured on the head
of Aaron flowed down upon his garments, so is this Spirit ever
ready to descend from Christ upon all who are members of His
body.

MIMSTKUS OF THE TAUKRNACLE. 285

The priesthood of Aaron was certainly highly honoured in
being made to represent beforehand, in so many points, the
eternal priesthood of Christ. But in one respect a manifest
blank presents itself, which required to be met by a special cor
rective. As seen in the Old Testament institution, the priestly
bore a distinct and easily recognised connection with the pro
phetical or teaching office ; but none, or at least a very distant
and obscure one, with the kingly. This of necessity arose from
God Himself being King in Israel when the priesthood was
instituted ; so that no nearer approximation to the ruling autho
rity could be allowed to the members of the priesthood, than
that of being expounders and revealers of the law of the Divine-
King. Something more than this, however, was required to
bring out the true character of the Eternal priesthood, especially
after the time that an earthly head of the kingly function was
appointed, and the priesthood became still less immediately con
nected with an authority to rule in the house of God. Hence,
no doubt, it was that the Spirit of prophecy, in directing the
expectations of the Church to the coming Messiah, began then
so peculiarly to supply what was lacking in the intimations of
the existing type, and to make promise of Him as " a priest
after the order of Melchizedek." — (Ps. ex.) There were in
reality far more points of similitude to Christ's office in the
priesthood of Aaron than in that of Melchizedek ; but in one
very important and prominent respect the one supplied what the
other absolutely wanted — Melchizedek being at once a king and
a priest, a priest upon the throne. And it was more especially
to teach that Messiah should be the same, and in this should
differ from the Aaronic priesthood, that such a prediction was
then given. It was virtually an assurance to the Church, that
the sacerdotal and regal functions, then obviously dissevered,
should be united in the person of Him who was to come ; and
that as the power and splendour of royalty was, in His hands,
to be tempered by the tenderness and compassion of the priest,
the coming of His kingdom should on that account be looked
for with eager expectation. The prediction was again renewal,
though without any specific reference to Melchizedek, by Zecha-
riah after the restoration. — (Ch. vi. 13.) But while this was tin-
main reason and design of the reference, — when the Jews of

286 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

our Lord's time not only overlooked the leading point of the
prediction, but entirely misconceived also the relation that the
Levitical priesthood bore to Christ's work and kingdom, the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews took occasion to bring out
various other and subordinate points of instruction from the
prophecy in the 110th Psalm, which it was also fitted to convey.
These were mainly directed to the purpose of establishing the
conclusion, that the priesthood of our Lord must, by that re
ference to Melchizedek, have been designed to supersede the
priesthood of Aaron, and to be constituted after a higher model ;
that both in His person and His office lie was to stand pre
eminent above the most honoured of the sons of Abraham,
as Melchizedek appears in the history rising above Abraham
himself.

It only remains to notice, that in virtue of the law in Christ's
kingdom, by which all His people are vitally united to Him, and
partake, to some extent, in every gift and distinction which belongs
to Himself, sincere believers are priests after His order and pat
tern. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, conse
crated by the sprinkling of His blood on their consciences, and
the unction of His Spirit, and brought near to God, they are " an
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ." It is their privilege to go nigh through Him
even unto the holiest of all, and minister and serve before Him
as sons and daughters in His kingdom. And as in their Great
Head, so in them the priestly calling bears relation to the pro
phetical office on the one hand, and to the kingly on the other.
As those who are privileged to stand so high and come so near
to God, they obtain the " unction which teaches them all things"
— " leads them into all the truth," makes them " children of
light," and constitutes them " lights of the world." And along
with this spirit of wisdom and revelation, there also rests on
them the spirit of power, which renders them a " royal priest
hood." Even now, in a measure, they reign as kings over the
evil in their natures, and in the world around them ; and when
Christ's work in them is brought to its proper consummation,
they shall, as kings and priests, share with Him in the glories
of His everlasting kingdom.

Hence, in the Christian priesthood as well as in the Jewish,

MINISTERS OF TIIK TAUKKNACLE. 287

everything in the first instance depends upon the condition of
the person. It is not the offering that makes the priest, but the
priest that makes the offering. He only who has attained to a
state of peace and fellowship with God, who has been regene
rated by Divine grace, and brought to a personal interest in the
blessings of Christ's salvation, is in a fit condition for presenting
to God the spiritual sacrifices of the New Testament. For
what are these sacrifices? They are the fruits of grace, yielded
by a soul that has become truly alive to God ; and simply con
sist in the willing and active consecration of the person himself,
through the varied exercises of love to God and his fellow-men.
It is only, therefore, in so far as he is already a subject of grace
standing on the ground of Christ's perfected redemption, and
replenished with the life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit,
that his good deeds possess the character of sacrifices, acceptable
to God. They are, otherwise, but dead works, of no account in
the sight of Heaven, because presented by unclean hands, and
coining from those who are unsanctified ; and even though
formally ri<jht, they must rank among the things of which God
declares that He has not required them at men's hands. — (Isa.
i. 12 ; Hag. ii. 10-13.)

But those, on the other hand, who are in the spiritual condi
tion now described, have freedom of access for themselves and
their offerings to God ; and let no man spoil them of their
privilege. Chosen as they are in Christ, and constituted in Him
a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, to interpose
any others as priests between them and Christ, were to traverse
the order of God, and subvert the arrangements of His house.
It were to block up anew the path into the Holiest, which
Christ has laid fully open. It were to degrade those whom He
has called through glory and virtue — nay, to disparage Christ
Himself, the living root out of which His people grow, in whose
life they live, and in whose acceptance they are accepted. A
priesthood, in the strict and proper sense, apart from what be
longs to believers as such, can have no place in the Church of
the New Testament ; and the institution of a distinct priestly
order, such as exists in the Greek and Roman communities, is
an unlawful usurpation, proceeding from the spirit of error and
of antichrist. In such a kingdom as Christ's, where everv real

288 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCKIITI KM

member is a priest, there can be room only for ministerial func
tions necessary for the maintenance of order and the general
good. But as regards fellowship with Heaven, there can be no
essential difference, since all have access to God by faith, through
the grace wherein they stand, and rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God.

SECTION FOURTH.

THE TABERNACLE IN ITS SEVERAL DIVISIONS — 1. THE FORE
COURT, WITH ITS TWO ARTICLES, THE LAVER AND THE
ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING — SACRIFICE BY BLOOD IN
ITS FUNDAMENTAL IDEA AND RITUAL ACCOMPANIMENTS
(CHOICE OF THE VICTIMS, IMPOSITION OF HANDS, AND
SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD).

IN the preceding chapters we have contemplated the tabernacle
and its officiating priesthood in a somewhat general light, —
with reference simply to the great design of the one, and the
distinctive character and privileges of the other. It is necessary
now to descend to particulars, and look at the several compart
ments into which it fell, with their respective furniture and
services, so as to apprehend with some distinctness the religious
ideas more particularly associated with each, the relation in
which they stood one to another, and the regulated system of
worship, both in its primary and in its typical character, which
found here its common centre and development. The divisions
of the tabernacle will form in this part of our inquiry the most
appropriate divisions of the subject.

The tabernacle proper had merely a twofold division, an
outer and an inner compartment — a Holy and a Most Holy
Place, or, as they are sometimes called, the Sanctuary and the
Holy of Holies. The innermost of the two was the smallest in
compass, but the most perfect in its proportions, being an exact
cube of ten cubits — the length, height, and breadth being all
equal. It is scarcely possible to doubt that the number ten here
WMS symbolic, as well as in the number of commandments
written upon the two tables, which belonged to this compart
ment ; for in both cases alike it stood quite prominently out,
and, from the modes of thought prevalent in ancient times
respecting number, would quite readily convey the idea of com
pleteness. The cube form alone, with whatever nuiiil>i>r
VOL. II. T

290 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

dated, might have suggested this — as in the case of the New
Jerusalem seen in the apocalyptic vision, where attention is
specially called to the circumstance that " the length, and the
breadth, and the height were equal" (Rev. xxi. 16); but the cube
being formed of ten, itself a symbol of perfection, would natu
rally serve to strengthen the impression. This region of inner
most sacredness and perfection was separated from the other
part of the tabernacle by a curtain or veil, which was formed of
the same kind of material, and inwrought with the same figures
as the curtain which formed the interior of the roof, and, most
probably, also of the walls of the structure. The curtain was
suspended from four pillars, overlaid with gold. Then from
this to the door of the tabernacle was a space of twenty cubits
in length by ten in breadth and height — the proportions, though
larger, being manifestly less perfect ; while also the curtain
which hung over the doorway or entrance was without the
cherubic figures inwoven, though otherwise resembling the in
terior curtain, and was suspended by golden hooks upon five
pillars. Here there were evidently certain marks of incomplete
ness, which seemed to denote this as relatively the inferior place,
and standing at some remove from the region of absolute per
fection. But there was a sacred region without, as well as these
two hallowed compartments within, the tabernacle ; an outer
court, surrounding the tabernacle on every side, and consisting
of 100 cubits long and 50 cubits broad. This court was en
closed by a screen of linen, of fine quality, but not embroidered,
five cubits in height, and was supported by 60 pillars, 20 on
each side, and 10 at each end, to which the linen was attached
by hooks and fillets of silver, while the pillars themselves rested
in sockets of brass. The veil, or curtain, however, which hung
at the doorway, of 20 cubits broad, was made after the pattern
of the outer veil of the tabernacle, and similarly embroidered.
The exact position of the tabernacle within this court is not
given, though we naturally suppose it to have been such as to
leave more space at the entrance than tit the further end, as
there more room was required for the laver, which stood imme
diately in front, and the altar of burnt-offering in front of that
again. But in the prevalence of the number five, in the use of
silver where before there was gold, and of brass where there

DIVISION OF T1IK TAIJKLXACLK. 291

was silver, — in the employment also of plain instead of embroi
dered linen, and the unprotected openness of the court above,
— one descries still farther signs of relative imperfection.

The tabernacle, it may be added, with its surrounding court,
was appointed to stand with the entrance fronting the east; so
that the two sides looked the one toward the north, the other
towards the south, and the end, containing the Most Holy Place,
toward the west. That in the general position a respect was
had to the four quarters of the earth, as emblems of universality,
may readily be conceived : the sacred structure, however limited
in dimensions, was still the habitation of Him to whom the earth
and all his fulness belongs, and whose kingdom, spiritually as
well as naturally, must rule over all. But why the more pecu
liarly sacred region should have looked towards the west, no
certain reason has been discovered. Some have supposed it was
with reference to the site of paradise, as understood to lie in a
somewhat westerly direction. But more commonly the reason
has been sought in the relation which was thereby secured for
the entrance towards the east — that the tabernacle might catch
the earliest rays of morn, or that in worshipping men might
have their backs towards the sun and their faces towards God,
the real source of light and blessing ; and such like. It is,
however, better to confess ignorance than to multiply reasons of
this description, which are mere conjectures, and can yield no
real satisfaction.

Not attempting to explain all the adjustments in this sacred
erection, or to go into the minute details in which many of the
more learned expositors have lost themselves, there still are
connected with the great outlines of the matter certain easily
recognised principles, both of agreement and diversity, in the
revelation God made of Himself to Israel, and the extent to
which this might be entered into, and appropriated by, the
people. Being collectively, at least by profession, a kingdom
of priests to Jehovah, or members and subjects of the theocracy
1 Ie established among them, they, one and all, stood in a definite
relation to the whole and every part of the tabernacle, which lie
constituted the seat of the kingdom. There could be no inoiv
than relative differences between one part and another, as also
among the people themselves the distinction subsequently intro-

292 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

duced of priesthood and laity was only relative, not absolute ;
and hence, isolated and withdrawn as the Most Holy Place
seemed to be, there was yet a point of contact between it and
the remotest article in the outer court : for it was with blood
taken from the altar of burnt-offering that the mercy-seat,
under the very throne of God, was propitiated in the one yearly
service connected with it, and that, too, a service in which the
entire community were formally represented. In the furniture,
therefore, and service of the Most Holy Place, as well as in
those of the sanctuary and the outer court, the covenant people
as a body had a representation of what, on the one side, Jehovah
was to them, and what, on the other, they should be and do to
Jehovah : in the whole, they were to read their privileges, their
calling, their obligations. But seeing that, in point of fact, they
were only allowed directly to enter the outer court, and even
there had to transact with God through the mediation of the
priesthood, this plainly spoke of imperfection in their actual
condition ; ordinarily, and as a whole, they were not able to be
very close in their relation and very intimate in their walk
with God. A higher stage, however, they might reach, if they
distinctly realized their calling, and pressed anxiously forward
in the course it set before them : they might in spirit do what
was visibly done by a representative priesthood, when daily
entering into the sanctuary and performing the service of God.
Nay, higher still, if they but rose to the nobler exercises of faith
and love which lay within their reach, they might even approach
as near to God, and be as close in their communings with Him
as the high priest, when, with the cloud of incense and the blood
of sprinkling, he went to the footstool of the Divine Majestv,
and stood in the presence of His manifested glory. That this
action could be done so seldom by the high priest too clearly
indicated that, as matters then stood, such spiritual elevation
was one that should be but rarely reached by the children of
the covenant. And yet, what less is it than this, that we see
so strenuously aimed at, and in a measure also realized, by the
Psalmist, when he speaks of abiding in God's tabernacle — see
ing God's glory in the sanctuary, — nay, making it, in a manner,
the one desire of his soul to dwell in the house of God, that
he might there behold His beauty, and inquire in His temple ? —

DIVISION OF THE TAIlERNACI.i; 298

(Ps. xv. 1, xxvii. 4, Ixiii. 2). This, surely, savoured of priestly,
even of high-priestly privilege and service ; not the less, we may
rather say the more, that it was experienced and done in the
Spirit; and la-ing l>y him represented as so done, it but told
distinctly out to all Israel, what, in the silent yet expressive
language of symbol, the structure and services of the tabernacle
were continually witnessing before them. While, therefore, we
are ready to admit with Kurtz (Sac., Worship of Old Test., B.
i., c. 2), that the court of the tabernacle imaged the stage of
Israel, in so far as Israel generally attained, the sanctuary with
its priestly freedom and service before God that of the Christian
Church, and the Most Holy Place that of the beatific vision, we
hold it not less clear and certain, that in respect to each of the
successive stages, a measure of attainment lay open also for
Israel, and that nothing represented in any of the divisions of
the tabernacle was absolutely peculiar to any one class, or to
any particular age of the Church of God.

Again, looking simply to the general aspect of things, and
considering how, in the tabernacle proper, while all bore the
name of God's dwelling and served as His meeting-place with
Israel, still the Most Holy Place was the apartment which He
most peculiarly identified with Himself : tliere was His throne,
His law, the symbol of His glory — the region, in short, of His
immediate presence ; and it is, consequently, in connection with
the furniture and services of this place of pre-eminent sacred-
ness that we may expect to find the things which most expressly
revealed Jehovah, and showed what He, as King of Zion, should
be toward His people, and how His purposes in their behalf
should proceed. The other division, or the sanctuary, being
that into which the priesthood, as representatives of the people,
could enter daily and perform certain ministrations, had obvi
ously somewhat of the same relation to them that the other had
to God ; and though everything here also bore on it the name
ami impress of God's character, yet it was through its furniture
:uul si-rvices that one might chiefly expect to see imaged what
should be ever appearing in their walk before Him. In neither
iv-juvt arc we to be understood as indicating an absolute and
unqualified distinction, but merely such general and predomi
nant characteliaticfl as were reflected in the formal aspect and

294 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCKIPTURE.

appearance of things. And in the examination of the particu
lars, we shall find everything in accordance with the impres
sions which the relative adjustment and bearing of the parts are
fitted to produce.

THE FORE-COURT AND ITS FURNITURE.

What is meant by the fore-court was that part of the enclo
sure surrounding the tabernacle which stood directly in front
of the erection. It probably occupied a space of about 50
cubits (or eight yards) square, and was the only part of the
entire area to which the people had access. In this spot, how
ever, by far the greater number of the actions connected with
the tabernacle-worship proceeded ; and though in one respect it
might be said to represent the lowest stage of religious privilege
and communion, in another it stood associated with whatever
was most fundamental and important in the religious state and
prospects of Israel. This relative importance it derived from
the two pieces of sacred furniture belonging to it — the laver,
and the altar of burnt-offering — but especially from the latter,
which was the proper centre of the whole sacrificial system.

1. The laver. — This utensil is nowhere very exactly de
scribed; but it was a sort of wash-pot or basin, usually sup
posed to have been of a roundish shape, and placed on a foot or
basement. — (Ex. xxx. 17-21.) Both were of brass (more strictly,
indeed, of bronze, as what is now known by the name of brass,
a composition of copper and zinc, was not known to the ancients),
and the material in this case was derived from a specific source.
Moses, we are told (Ex. xxxviii. 8), " made the laver of brass,
and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women
assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation ;" or, as it should rather be, " of the serving-
women who served at the door of the tabernacle of meeting."
The expression in the original (fcov) is the term commonly
applied to designate military service ; but it is also used of the
stated services of the priests in their sacred vocation (Num. iv.
23, 35, 49, viii. 25), and is here transferred to a class of females
who appear from early times to have devoted themselves to
regular attendance on the worship of God, for the purpose of

COURT OF Tin: T.\r,i:i;N.\ru:. 295

performing such services as they might be capable of rendering.
In process of time, :i distinct place was assigned them some
where in the precincts of the tabernacle. Latterly, and pro
bably not till the post-Babylonian times, the service of the
women in question appears to have consisted much in exercises
of fasting and prayer. Hence the Septuagint, interpreting rather
than translating, renders, "the looking-glasses of the fasting-
women who fasted." And Aben-ezra, as quoted by Lightfoot
(vol. ix., p. 419, Pitman's ed.), thus explains: "It is the custom
of all women to behold their face every morning in a mirror,
that they may be able to dress their hair ; but To ! there were
women in Israel that served the Lord, who abandoned this
worldly delight, and gave away their glasses as a free-will
offering, for they had no more use of them ; but they came every
day to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to pray,
and hear the words of the commandments." Such a woman in
the Gospel age was Anna (Luke ii. 37), and it is interesting to
know that she had her representatives at the very commencement
of the tabernacle-worship, in the women who, whatever other
service they might be in the habit of rendering, gave a becom
ing example of devotedness, in the consecration of their metallic
mirrors to the higher ends of God's worship. There can be no
reasonable doubt that it was of or from the metal of these
glasses that the laver was formed ; for the sense put upon the
passage by Biihr, that the laver was " furnished with mirrors of
the women" (i., p. 485), or by Knobel, " with forms, likenesses
of women," is both in itself unsuitable and grammatically un
tenable. The same construction again occurs in ver. 30, where
tin- preposition (3) is used of the material of which certain
articles were made, as also generally of all the materials em
ployed in the construction of the tabernacle at ch. xxxi. 4 ; and
here it can with no propriety be understood in any other sense.
So also the ancient translators all understood it.

The laver thus made was placed between the door of the
tahmiarle and the altar of bnnit-offering, in the most convenient
position for the ministering priests, who were always to wash at
it their hands and their feet, before either serving at the altar or
going into the tabernacle, lest they should die. — (Ex. xxx. 20,
1M.) That merely the hands and the feet were to be washed at

29G THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the laver, arose simply from these being the organs immediately
employed in the service ; the hands being engaged in presenting
the sacred oblations, and the feet in treading ground that was
hallowed. The action, in accordance with the whole spirit of
the Mosaic institutions, was symbolical of inward purity; it
bespoke the freedom from pollution which should characterize
those who would present an acceptable service to Jehovah. As
the sanctification or holiness of Israel was the common end
aimed at in all the institutions under which they were placed,
it was indispensable that they who ministered for them in holy
things should be in this respect their exemplars, and in the
daily service of the sanctuary should have a perpetual admoni
tion of the nature of their calling. The Psalmist clearly indi
cates the meaning of the rite, and shows also how, according to
the spirit of the ordinance, he held it to be not less applicable
to himself than to the priests, when he says, " I will wash mine
hands in innocency: so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord"
(xxvi. 6). And that he spoke of no corporeal ablution, but of
the state of his heart and conduct, is evident from the whole
tenor of the Psalm, which is throughout moral in its import,
protesting his separation from the ways of "evil-doers" and
" dissemblers," and even praying God to " try his reins and his
heart." In like manner, when describing the true worshipper
in Ps. xxiv., in answer to the question, " Who shall ascend into
the hill of God, or who shall stand in His holy place?" lie
replies, " He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." As
much as to say, such an one is the true priest in God's house,
whether he have the outward calling of a priest or not ; he
alone serves Him in spirit and in truth.

The symbol here employed is of so natural a kind, and so
fitly adapted for purposes of spiritual instruction, that it has
been in a sense retained, and raised to still higher .significance
in the Christian Church. For in the rite of baptism, whatever
may be the precise mode of administration adopted, there can be
no doubt that the cleansing nature of the element is the natural
basis of the ordinance, and that from which it derives its appro
priate character, as the formal initiation into a Christian state.
Symbolically, it conveys the salutary instruction, that he who
becomes Christ's, and through Christ would dedicate himself to

Till: ALTAR OF WIRM'-OITKKING. 297

the work and service of God, must be purified from the guilt
and pollution of sin — must be regenerated unto holiness of life.
Genuine believers are therefore described as " having their
bodies washed with pure water" (Ileb. x. 22), as if the outward
ness of the old economy were still in force, though it is unques
tionably the real sanctification of the person that is meant. Or
they are said to have undergone " the washing of regeneration"
(Tit. iii. 5), where the internal nature of the work is distinctly
intimated, as it is also presently afterwards coupled with the
efficient cause in the mention that is made of " the renewal of the
Holy Ghost." Or, still again, the entire body of the redeemed
Church is represented as brought into its present condition by
having been " sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water
by the word" (Eph. v. 26), where the same result is exhibited,
but the instrumental cause in connection with it made promi
nent. However represented, both the initiatory rite of baptism,
and the general language of New Testament Scripture, proclaim
the fact, that they only who have been cleansed from the defile
ments of sin, and made partakers of a new nature, can be recog
nised as the true servants of Christ, and heirs of His salvation.
Or, as our Lord himself put it, after the symbolical service He
had performed in the circle of His disciples, " If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with Me." — (John xiii. 8.)

2. The Altar of Burnt-offering. — This formed, as to its posi
tion, the outermost of all the sacred furniture of the tabernacle,
having its place immediately before the door of the court, while
still it was on many accounts the most important article con
nected with the whole apparatus of worship. Nothing, in a
manner, could be done without it — neither in the more common
rites of sacrifice and oblation, which were every day proceeding,
nor in the more peculiar services of the great religious festivals.
In its construction it was of the most simple and unpretending
character ; indeed, the general direction given for the formation
of altars Mvinrd scarcely to leave room for any exercise of art :
a sort of rude mound, rather than a regular structure, was the
ideal presented. " An altar of earth shalt thou make unto Me,
and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings," etc.; "in all places
where I record My name I will come unto thee and bless tluv."
It was added, that if they would employ stones instead of earth,

298 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the stones should at least be unhewn ; for should a tool be lifted
upon it, the altar would be polluted.— (Ex. xx. 24, 25.) This,
at first sight, appears somewhat strange, especially when viewed
in connection with the many costly materials and elaborate
workmanship which were expended on the tabernacle itself and
its internal furnishings. The repudiation of human skill and
outward pomp here could have arisen from no abstract dislike
to these, but must have had its reason in the leading object and
design of the erection itself. What was this altar? It was
emphatically the meeting-place between God and men — the one
as infinitely holy and good, the other as sinful — that they might
transact together respecting sin and salvation, that the fallen
might be again restored, or if already restored, might be enabled
to grow in the fellowship and blessing of Heaven. That such a
meeting-place should be somewhat raised above the common
level of the ground, and carry in its very form a heavenward
aspect, could not but seem natural to the feelings of the wor
shipper. Hence this is the idea which was embodied in the
names most generally adopted in antiquity for the designation
of altar.1 But in the true religion this idea required to be tem
pered by another, derived from the unworthiness of those who
might come there to present the worship, as compared with the
surpassing greatness and glory of Him who was the object of it
— something to image the wonderful condescension which ap
peared in His appointing any place in this sinful world, where
He would record His name and meet with men. Naturally,
His curse rests upon the ground for man's sake, and man him
self cannot remove it. By no art or elaboration on his part can
the natural relation of things be changed : these would but serve
to disguise its real character, or dispose men to forget it ; and
only in the condescension of God, stooping in His rich grace to
meet the necessities of His fallen creature, and by a kind of new
creation to renovate the face of nature, can the evil be properly
dealt with and overcome. This, therefore, is what must espe
cially express itself in His chosen meeting-place with men as
sinful : it must be of God's workmanship rather than man's —
1 The Hcb. HC3, bamah, high place ; Gr., /3<u^o',-, primarily an elevation
of any sort, then a sacred elevation for worship ; Latin, altare, from «//«.-•,
high, or ara, cognate with the Gr. «<j«, I raise, or lift up.

TIN-: ALTAI; or r.ruNT-oiTKRixG. 299

naked, simple, unadorned, such as might convey the impression
of a direct contact between the God of heaven and the earth
which Himself had made.

The prominent idea thus intended to be impressed on the
form of the altar, was also confirmed and deepened by the name
specially appropriated to it. For here we meet in Scripture
with a departure from the common usage of antiquity, and one
that brings vividly out the humbling element on man's side, and
the condescension and grace on God's. The distinctive name
for it was misbeach (from rat, to kill or slaughter), the slaughter
ing-place, or the place where slaughtered victims were to be
brought and laid, as it were, on the table of God. This denoted
how pre-eminently the communion between God and sinful men
must be through an avenue of blood, and the sentence of death
must ever be found lying across the threshold of life. In such
a case, pomp and ornament, such as man himself could have
furnished, had been altogether out of place. Materials directly
fashioned by the hand of God were alone suitable, and these
not of the more rare and costly description, but the simple earth
formed originally for man's support and nourishment, but now
the witness of his sin, the drinker-in of the blood of his forfeited
life, the theatre and home of death.

Contemplating a stationary provision for the offerings of
God's people in the altar before the sanctuary, it was necessary
so far to depart from this simple erection of earth as might be
required to secure for it a regular form and consistence. Hence
directions were given for the construction of a kind of case,
made, like all otlier wooden portions of the tabernacle, of the
shittim or acacia tree, and overlaid, not with gold, but with
brass — whence it not unusually got the name of the brazen
altar. Of the same material were made the several instruments
attached to it — pans, shovels, flesh-hooks, etc. The boards that
formed the external walls of the altar, were a square of five
cubits (somewhere about eight feet), and in height three (or from
four and a half to five feet). No stress, perhaps, is here to be
laid on the five and the three, as they were probably adopted
more from their convenient and suitable proportions than any
thing else; the rather as iu the altar subsequently erected at
the temple, not only are the dimensions greatly enlarged, but

300 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the ratio is also different — twenty being now the number for the
length and breadth, and ten for the height — which were again
changed, as we learn from Joseph us (Wars, v. 5, 6), in the
Herodian temple into fifty cubits for the length and breadth,
and fifteen for the height. In the altar connected with the
ideal temple of Ezekiel, the dimensions correspond with none
of these (Ez. xliii. 13-1G) ; but as in all the square-form was
retained, we can scarcely err in imputing to this a symbolic
meaning, indicating the relative order and perfection which
must ever characterize the institutions of God's kingdom. In
respect to the boards, however, it must be remembered they
formed only the exterior case or shell of the altar ; the interior
part, and what more properly constituted the altar as the place
of sacrifice, M'ould undoubtedly be composed, according to the
original prescription, of earth or stones, and so we find Jewish
writers interpreting the matter.1 " Hollow with boards shalt
thou make it," that is, with a vacant or hollow space to be
partially filled up and adjusted, so as to adapt it to the various
purposes of sacrifice. But this is naturally left to be under
stood ; and almost the only other part of the description which
requires explanation is what is said of a kind of lattice-work
connected with it. " Thou shalt make for it," we read in Ex.
xxvii. 4, " a trellis, network, of brass . . . and thou shalt put it
under the compass (23"!?, karkob, environment) of the altar from
beneath, arid the net shall be unto the half of the altar." Such
is the literal rendering, and it points, not, as used commonly to
be supposed, to an internal grating (Lightfoot, " a grate of
brass hanging within it for the fire and sacrifice to lie upon "),
but to an external framework, reaching from the ground to
the middle of the altar, and compassing it outside. The karkob
was a kind of projecting bank or ledge, and under it, and sup
porting it, was the network of brass, surrounding the altar on
all sides. " It formed," says Fr. von Meyer," who has the
merit of bringing distinctly out this part of the structure,
"along with the encompassing bank or karkob, a projecting

1 Altare terreum est hoc ipsum seneum altare, cujus concavura terra
implebatur.— Jarchi, on Ex. xxvii. 5. Cavitas vero altaris terra replebatur ,
quo tempore castra ponebunt. — Bechai, in ibid.

- BibcUeutungeii, p. 206.

Till: ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING. 301

shelf, by menus of which the lower half of the altar appeared
broader than the upper. Upon this bank or ledge the priest
stood when he offered sacrifice, laid down wood, or performed
anything about the altar." This can only be rendered quite
plain by a pictorial representation.1 But as the altar was fur
nished with the projecting ledge and its supporting network
for the convenience of priestly ministrations, it was also fur
nished with projecting horns at each corner, which were to have
the appearance of coming out of it. — (Ex. xxvii. 2.) These
horns were undoubtedly to be regarded as shaped like those of
oxen (Jos., as above, Keparoei&els irpoav^wv 7&>z/ta<?, jutting up
horn-like corners), and, according to the emblematic sense ever
ascribed to these in Scripture, were intended to symbolize that
divine strength which necessarily distinguishes the place of
God's manifested grace and love, and which forms, in a manner,
its crowning elevation. Hence, to lay hold of the horns of the
altar, if only it were warrantably done, was to grasp the almighty
and protecting arm of Jehovah. — (1 Kings i. 50, ii. 28.)

Such, briefly, was the altar of burnt-offering, the peculiarly
chosen and consecrated place where Jehovah condescended to
reveal His grace to sinners, and accept the offerings they
brought in token of their self-dedication to Him. These offer
ings were to be consumed there, in part by His appointed repre
sentatives, and in part by fire. This fire, once at least issuing
directly from the clouds of glory in the tabernacle (Lev. ix.
24), was the visible symbol of Jehovah's acceptance of the
offerings ; but it did so then, as appears, onlv for the purpose of
giving a visible seal to Aaron and his sons in their official mini
strations. The altar had been for several days before that the
scene of sacrificial action, in which fire must have been em
ployed ; and on the particular occasion referred to, the light
ning-Hash which came out from the Most Holy Place and
consumed the burnt-offering and the fat of Aaron's sacrifice, is
not said to have left any permanent flame behind. It was a
sign, however, to testify that the acceptance then openly given
to Aaron's offering, as the consecrated head of the priestly onK-r,
would be equally given to the sacrifices which in time coming
might be offered through him or his successors at that altar.
1 See Appendix B.

302 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Consumed there by fire under the hand of God's accredited
priesthood, they were owned to be in accordance with God's
holiness (which the fire symbolized), and, if not marred by sin,
stamped with His approval. Hence the expression so com
monly used of those offerings by fire, that they were a sweet-
smelling savour, or a savour of rest for Jehovah, ascending up,
as it were, to the region of His presence like a grateful and
refreshing odour.1

3. Sacrifice by Blood in its fundamental idea, and Ritual
Accompaniments. — From what has been said respecting the
altar of burnt-offering, the conclusion forces itself upon us,
that the great object of its appointment, and the essential
ground of its importance in the Old Testament worship, arose
from the connection in which it stood with the presentation
before God of the blood of slain victims. And we have now
to inquire into the truths involved in this fundamental part of
the tabernacle service, with the view of ascertaining distinctly
both its direct and its prospective bearing. In doing so, we
shall present in as brief a manner as possible what appears to us
the correct account of the institution and its related service;
and throw into an appendix the discussion of some of the points
which have been made matter of special controversy.2

The grand reason of the singular place which, in the hand
writing of Moses, is assigned to sacrifice by blood, is that ex
pressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is said, that
" without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins," con
sequently no peace or fellowship with God for the sinner. The
principle was still more fully brought out, however, in a declara
tion of Moses himself, which in this connection is entitled to the
most careful consideration. The passage is in Lev. xvii. 11,
which, according to the correct rendering, runs thus : " For the
soul (t?Bj) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to
you upon the altar, to atone for your souls, for the blood atones

1 There appears to be no need for contemplating the action of fire in
sacrifice in any other light than that here presented. The express and
authoritative sanction of God for it was enough. And the traditionary
belief, that it was first kindled from heaven, then perpetually piv.-erved by
the priesthood, has no distinct warrant in Scripture. It is more, indeed, a
heathenish than a scriptural notion.

2 See Appendix C.

SACRIFICE r.Y BLOOD. 303

through the soul" (t'333). It is scarcely possible to mistake the
general souse of this important passage; but its precise and
definite meaning has been often obscured, by not perceiving
that the soul at the close of the verse refers back to the soul at
the beginning, and expresses the principle or seat of life, not in
him who is to be atoned for, but in the creature by which the
atonement is made for him. And the full and correct import
of the passage is to the following effect : " You must not eat the
blood, because God has appointed it as the means of atonement
for your sins. But it is the means of atonement, as the bearer
of the soul. It is not, therefore, the matter of the blood that
atones, but the soul or life which resides in it ; so that the soul
of the offered victim atones for the soul of the man who offers
it." The passage, indeed, is intended simply to provide an
answer to two questions : Why they should not eat blood ? viz.,
because the blood was appointed by God for making atonement.
And, why should blood have been appointed for this purpose '?
viz., because the soul or life is there, and hence is most suitably
taken for the soul or life of man forfeited by sin. This is also
the only sense of the passage that can be grammatically justi
fied ; for the particular preposition (a) here used after the verb
to atone ("IM), invariably denotes that by which the atonement
is made ; while as invariably the person or object for ichich it is
made is denoted by another preposition (*? or *}y). And the
general form of expression upon the subject is, that suclr a person
is atoned for concerning his sin, or he is covered upon in respect
to that which needed to be put out of sight. — (Lev. iv. 35, v.
13; Ex. xxx. 15; Lev. xvi. 11, etc.)

The ground upon which this merciful arrangement plainly
proceeds, is the doomed condition of men as sinners, and the
purpose of God to save them from its infliction. Their soul or
life has, through sin, been forfeited to God, and, as a debt din-
to His justice, it should in right be rendered back again to
Him who gave it. The enforcement of this claim, of cour>e.
inevitably involves the death of transgressors, according to the
sentence from the very first hung over the commission of sin,
denouncing its penalty to be death. l>nt as God appears in
the institution of sacrifice providing a way of r.M-ape from this
deserved doom, lie mercifully appoints a substitute — the soul

304 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

or life of a beast, for the soul or life of the transgressor ; and
as the seat of life is in the blood, so the blood of the beast, its
life-blood, was given to be shed in death, and served up on the
altar of God, in the room of that other and higher but guilty
life, which had become due to Divine justice. When this was
done, when the blood of the slain victim was poured out or
sprinkled upon the altar, and thereby given up to God, the
sinner's guilt was atoned (covered) ; a screen, as it were, was
thrown between the eye of God and his guilt, or between his
own soul and the penalty due to his transgression. In other
words, a life that had not been forfeited was accepted in the
room of the sinner's that was forfeited ; and this was yielded
back to him as now again a life in peace and fellowship with
God — a life out of death.

It is clear, however, that while in one respect the life or soul
of the sacrifice was a suitable offering or atonement for that of
the sinner, as being unstained by guilt, innocent ; in another it
was entirely the reverse, and could not in any proper and satis
factory sense take away sin. This imperfection or inadequacy
arose from the vast disproportion between the two — the one soul
being that of a rational and accountable creature, free to think
and act, to determine and choose for itself ; the other that of an
irrational creature, destitute of independent thought and moral
feeling, and so incapable alike of sin or of holiness. It is there
fore only in a negative sense that the sacrificed victim could be
regarded even as innocent ; for, strictly speaking, the question
of guilt or innocence belongs to a higher region than that which,
by the very law of its being, it was appointed to occupy. And
being thus so inferior in nature, how far was it from possessing
what yet the slightest reflection could easily discern to be neces
sary to constitute a real and valid atonement or covering for the
sinner's deficiency, viz., an equivalent for his life ! The life-
blood, then, which God gave for this purpose upon the altar,
must obviously have been but a temporary expedient ; His
offended holiness could not rest in that, nor could He have in
tended more by the appointment than the keeping up of a pre
sent testimony to the higher satisfaction which justice demanded
for the sinner's guilt, and a symbolical representation of it.
Then, out of these radical defects there inevitably arose others.

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 305

which still further marked with imperfection and inadequacy
the sacrifices of irrational victims. For here there was neces
sarily wanting that oneness of nature between the sinner and
his substitute, and in the latter that consent of will to the
mutual interchange of parts, which are indispensably requisite
to the idea of a perfect sacrifice. Nor could the sacrifice itself
— which was a still more palpable incongruity — be, like the sin
for which it was offered in atonement, a voluntary and personal
act : the priest and the sacrifice were of necessity divided, and
the work of atonement was done, not by the victim in willing
self-dedication, but upon it, all unconsciously, by the hand of
another.

Such defects and imperfections inhering in the very nature
of ancient sacrifice, it could not possibly have been introduced
or sanctioned by God as a satisfactory and ultimate arrange
ment. Nor could He have adopted it even as a temporary one,
so far as to warrant the Israelitish worshipper to look for pardon
and acceptance by complying with its enactments, unless there
had already been provided in His eternal counsels, to be in due
time manifested to the world, a real and adequate sacrifice for
human guilt. Such a sacrifice, we need scarcely add, is to be
found in Christ ; who is therefore called emphatically " the
Lamb of God" — "fore-ordained before the foundation of the
world" — and of whose precious blood it is written, that "it
cleanseth from all sin."

How far, however, the Jewish worshippers themselves were
alive to the necessity of this alone adequate provision, and real
ized the certainty of its future exhibition, can only be matter
of probable conjecture or reasonable inference. As the light
of the Church, generally, differed at different times and in
different individuals, so undoubtedly would the apprehension of
this portion of Divine truth have its diversities of comparative
clearness and obscurity in the Jewish mind. If there were faith
only to the extent of embracing and acting upon the existing
arrangements, — faith to present the appointed sacrifices for sin,
and to believe in humble confidence, that imperfect and defec
tive as these manifestly were, they would still be accepted for
an atonement, and that God Himself would know how to supply
what His own provision needed to complete its efficacy, — if only
VOL. II. U

306 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

such faith existed, we have no reason to say it was insufficient
for salvation ; it might be faith very much in the dark, hut still
it was faith in a revealed word of God, implicitly following the
path which that word prescribed. It was the child relying on a
father's goodness, and committing itself to the guidance of a
father's wisdom, while still unable to see the end and reason of
the course by which it was led.

But it was scarcely possible for thoughtful and reflective
minds, for any length of time at least, to stand simply at this
point. The felt imperfection and deficiency in the appointed
sacrifices could not fail in such minds to connect itself with the
Messiah, with whose coming there was always associated the
introduction of a state of order and perfection. Some even of
the Rabbinical writers speak as expressly upon this point as the
New Testament itself does.1 And " when the conscience of the
Israelite (to use the words of Kurtz, Mos. Opfer, p. 43, 44) was
fairly awakened to the insufficiency of the blood of irrational
creatures to effect a real atonement for sin, there was no other
way for him to obtain satisfaction than in the supposition that
a perfect, ever available sacrifice lay in the future. This sup
position was the more natural to him, and must have readily
suggested itself, as the Israelite, according to his constitutional
temperament, was " a man of desire," and was farther stimulated

1 Schcettgen (Hor. Heb. et Tal., ii., p. 612) produces from Jewish autho
rities the following plain declarations : " In the times of the Messiah all
sacrifices will cease, but the sacrifice of praise will not cease." u When the
Israelites were in the holy land, they took away all diseases and punish
ments from the world, through the acts of worship and the sacrifices
which they performed ; but now Messiah takes these away from the sons of
men." One quoted by Bahr from Eisenmenger (Entdectes Judenthum,
ii., p. 720) goes so far as to say, " that He would pour out His soul unto
death, and that His blood would make atonement for the people of God."
It is right to state, however, that the value of such testimonies is greatly
diminished by the multitude of directly opposite ones, which are also to be
found in the Rabbinical writings. In the very next page, Schoettgeu has
passages affirming that the day of expiation should never cease, and the
mass of the Jews in our Lord's time certainly believed in the perpetuity of
the law of Moses. The utmost that can be fairly deduced from the quota
tions noticed above is, that there were minds among them seeking relief
from felt Avants and deficiencies, in the expectation of that more perfect
state of things which was to be brought in by Christ.

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 307

and encouraged by the whole genius and tendency of his religion
to look forward to the future. Besides, his entire life and his
tory, his ancestors, his land, his people, his law, all bore a typical
character, which his own spiritual tendency prompted him to
search for, and which antecedent Divine revelations instructed
him to find. . . . And had not Moses himself given some indica
tion of the typical character of the whole ritual introduced by
him, when he testified that the Eternal Archetype of it was
shown him upon the holy mount ? How natural was it, more
over, to bring the heart and centre of the entire worship into
connection with the promises respecting the seed of the woman
and of the patriarchs, and possibly with still other elements
in the earlier revelations or devout breathings ! How natural
to connect together the centre of his expectations with the centre
of his worship — to descry a secret though still perhaps incom
prehensible connection between them, and in that to seek the
explication of the sacred mystery !"

The ritual directions given respecting the sacrificial blood,
as well before as after its being shed in death, tend in every
respect to confirm the views now exhibited of its vicarious im
port. They relate chiefly to the selection of the victim — the
imposition of the offerer's hands on its head — and the action with
(the sprinkling of) the blood.

(1.) The selection of the victim. This was limited to " the
herd and the flocks" (oxen, sheep, and goats), and to individuals
of these without any manifest blemish. Why animals from
such classes alone were to be taken, was briefly but correctly
answered even by Witsius,1 when treating of the connection
between the restriction as to clean animals for food, and the
appointment of the same for sacrifice upon the altar : " God
wished (says he) these two to be joined together, partly that
man might thereby exhibit the more clearly his gratitude to
God, in offering what had been given him for the support of his
own life, and partly that the substitution of the sacrifice in his
stead might be rendered the more palpable. For man offering
the support of his own life, appeared to offer that life itself."
This last thought, we have no doubt, indicates what may be
called the primary reason, and brings the selection of the victim
l. Sac., Lib. ii., Diss. 2, § 14.

308 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

into closest contact with the essential nature of the sacrifice.
It was not permitted to offer in sacrifice human victims, be
cause none such could be found free from guilt, and so they
were utterly unfit for being presented as a substitution for sinful
men. But to make the gap as small as possible between the
offerer and the victim — to secure that at least the animal natures
of the two should stand in the nearest relation, the offerer was
obliged to select his representative from the tame domestic ani
mals of his own property and of his own rearing, the most
human in their natural disposition and mode of life; and not
only that, but such also as might in a certain sense be regarded as
of one flesh with himself — so far homogeneous, that the flesh of
the one was fit nutriment for the flesh of the other. The fact,
however, that the animal was the representative of the offerer,
and on that account alone was either desired or accepted by God,
is a vitally important one in this connection. God did not, and
as a spiritual Being could not, care for material offerings, con
sidered simply by themselves ; and in Scripture He often re
pudiates in the strongest terms the offerings of those who so
presented them. What He sought was the worshipper himself,
and pre-eminently the heart of the worshipper : the offerings
laid upon His altar were acceptable only in so far as they repre
sented and embodied this. Then they became in a sense His
food, and yielded Him holy delight. (See next section.) But
as regards the principle which lay at the bottom of the selection
of victims for the altar, like every other in the ancient economy,
it is seen rising to its perfect form and highest manifestation in
Christ, who, while the eternal Son of God, and as such infinitely
exalted above man, yet brought Himself down to man's sphere,
became literally flesh of man's flesh, and, sin alone excepted, was
found in all things like to man, that He might be a suitable
offering, as well as High Priest, for the heirs of His salvation.1

1 The reasons often given for the choice of the victims being confined to
the flock and the herd, such as that these were the more valuable, were more
accessible, ever at hand, horned (emblematical of power and dignity), and
such like, fall away of themselves, when the subject is viewed in its proper
connection and bearings. It is, of course, quite easy to find many analo
gies in such respects between the victims and Christ ; but they are rather
beside the purpose, and tend to lead away the mind from the main idea.
The thought also of the animal being, as a living creature, dear to the offerer,

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 309

It was for a reason very closely related to the one noticed,
that the particular animal offered in sacrifice was to be always
perfect in its kind. In the region of the animal life it was to
be a fitting representative of what man should be — what his real
and proper representative must be, in the region of the moral
and spiritual life. Any palpable defect or blemish, rendering
it an imperfect specimen of the natural species it belonged to,
would have visibly marred the image it was intended to present
of the holy beauty which was sought by God first in man, and
now in man's substitute and ransom. For the reality we are
again pointed by the inspired writers of the New Testament to
Christ, whose blood is described as that "of a lamb without
blemish and without spot," and who is declared to have been
such an High Priest as became us, because "holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners."

In cases of extreme poverty, when the worshipper could not
afford a proper sacrifice, the law permitted him to bring pigeons
or turtle-doves, the blood of which was to be brought to the
altar as that of the animal victim. That these rather than
poultry are specified, the domestic fowls of modern times, arose
from the manners prevalent among the ancient Israelites. These
doves were, in fact, with them the tame, domesticated fowls,
and in the feathered tribe corresponded to sheep and oxen among
animals. No mention whatever is made of home-bred fowls or
chickens in Old Testament Scripture.

(2.) The second leading prescription regarding the victim,
— viz., that before having its blood shed in death, the offerer
should lay his hand or hands upon its head, — was still more
essentially connected with the great idea of sacrifice. This im
position of hands was common to all the bloody sacrifices, and
is given as a general direction before each of the several kinds
of them, except the trespass-offering (Lev. i. 4, iii. 2, iv. 4-15,
xvi. 21 ; 2 Chron. xxix. 23), and was no doubt omitted in regard
as a part of his domestic establishment, — on which some, among others
Kurtz, -would lay stress, — is rather fanciful than solid. The offerer might
gel his ox or sheep anywhere— only it required to be his own propi-ny,
that lie might be free to use it for such a purpose as this. But to make its
special fitness or worth sacrificially depend on its value qua property, as
llofmanu and many more do, is another thing, and one which has no
warrant iu Scripture.

310 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

to it on account of its being so much of the same nature with
the sin-offering, that the regulation would naturally be under
stood to be applicable to both. There can be no question that
the Jewish writers held the necessity of the imposition of hands
in all the animal sacrifices except the passover.1 What the rite
really imported would be easily determined, if the explanation
were sought merely from the materials furnished by Scripture
itself. There the custom, viewed generally, appears as a sym
bolical action, bespeaking the communication of something in
the person who imposes his hands, to the person or being on
whom they are imposed. Hence it was used on such occasions
as the bestowal of blessing (Gen. xlviii. 14; Matt. xix. 15);
and the communication of the Holy Spirit, whether to heal
bodily disease (Matt. ix. 18 ; Mark vi. 5; Acts ix. 12-17, etc.),
or to endow with supernatural gifts (Acts xix. 6), or to designate
or qualify for a sacred office. — (Num. xxvii. 18 ; Acts vi. 6 ;
1 Tim. v. 22.) In all such cases there was plainly a conveyance
to one who wanted from another who possessed ; and the hand,
the usual instrument of communication in the matter of gifts,
simply denoted, when laid upon the head of the recipient, the
fact of the conveyance being actually made. What, then, in
the case of the bloody sacrifices, did the offerer possess which
did not belong to the victim f What had the one to convey to
the other "? Primarily, and indeed always, guilt. This, as we
have already shown, was the grand and fundamental distinction
between the offerer and his victim. It was especially as being
the representative of him in his state of guilt and condemnation,
that its blood required to be shed in death, to pay the wages of
his sin. And as God had given it to be used for such a pur
pose, so the offerer's laying his hands upon its head, indicated
that he willingly devoted it to the same, and made over to it as
innocent the burden of guilt with which he felt himself to be
charged. Besides this, however, other things in the offerer
might also be symbolically transferred to the sacrifice, according

1 Omnibus victimis, quae a quopiam privato offerebantur, sive ex prse-
cepto, sive ex arbitrio offerentur, oportebat ipsum impouere man us dum
vivebant adhuc, exceptis tantum primitiis, decimis, et agno paschali. Mai-
mon. Hilc. Korbanoth 3. See also Outram, De Sac., L. i., c. 15 ; Ains-
worth, on Lev. i. 4, xvi. 6, 11. Magee on Atonement, Note 39.

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 311

to the more special design and object of the sacrifice. As his
substitute, presented to God in his room and stead, it might be
made to embody and express whatever feelings toward God had
a place in his bosom — not merely convictions of sin and desires
of forgiveness, but also such feelings as gratitude for benefits
received, or humble confidence in the Divine mercy and loving-
kindness. And when the law entered with its more complete
sacrificial arrangements, appointing sin and trespass-offerings
as a distinct species of sacrifice, there can be no doubt that in
these would more especially be represented the sense of guilt on
the part of the offerer, while in the peace or thank-offerings it
would be the other class of feelings, those of gratitude or trust,
which were more particularly expressed. But still not to the
exclusion of the other. In whatever circumstances, and with
whatever special design, man may approach God, he must come
as a sinner, conscious of his unworthiness and his guilt. Nor, if
he comprehends aright the relation in which he naturally stands
to God, will anything tend more readily to awaken in his bosom
this humble and contrite feeling, than a sensible participation
of the mercies of God ; for he will regard them as tokens of
Divine goodness, of which his sinfulness has made him altogether
unworthy. So that the nearer God may have come to him in
the riches of His grace, the more will he always be inclined to
say with Jacob, " I am not worthy of all the mercies and the
truth which Thou hast shown unto Thy servant;" or with the
Psalmist, " Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him ?
or the son of man, that Thou visitest him1?" It was there
fore of necessity that there should have been even in such
offerings a sense of guilt and unworthiness on the part of the
worshipper, and hence the stress laid in all the animal sacrifices
under the law on the shedding and sprinkling of the blood, a
peculiarity quite unknown to heathenism. Even in the thank-
offerings, the atoning property of the blood was kept promi
nently in view.

It is impossible, then, we conceive, to separate in any case
the imposition of hands on the head of the victim from the
expression and conveyance of guilt; because the worshipper
could never approach God in any other character than that of
a sinner, consequently in no other way than through the shed-

312 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

ding of blood. The specific service the blood had to render in
all the sacrifices, was to be an atonement for the sinner's guilt
upon the altar ; and in reference to that part of the victim —
always the most essential part — the imposition of the offerer's
hands was the expression of his desire to find deliverance
through the offering from his burden of iniquity, and acceptance
with God. In those offerings especially — such as sin and tres
pass-offerings — in which the feeling of sin was peculiarly pro
minent in the sinner's bosom, the outward ceremony would
naturally be used with more of this respect to the imputation of
guilt ; the whole desire of the offerer would concentrate itself
here. And in perfect accordance with what has been said, we
learn from Jewish sources that the imposition of hands was
always accompanied with confession of sin, but this varying,
as to the particular form it assumed, according to the nature
of the sacrifice presented. And in the only explanation which
Moses himself has given of the meaning of the rite, — namely, as
connected with the services of the day of atonement, — it is repre
sented as being accompanied not only with confession of sin,
but also with the sin's conveyance to the body of the victim :
"Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat,
and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,
and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat" l

The principle involved in this transaction is equally applicable
to New Testament times, and, stripped of its external form, is
simply this, that the atonement of Jesus becomes available to
the salvation of the sinner only when he comes to it with heart-

1 Lev. xvi. 21. The Jewish authorities referred to may be seen in
Outram, L. i., c. 15, § 10, 11 ; Ainsworth, on Lev. i. 4; Magee, Note 39.
Upon the sin-offering the offerer confessed the iniquity of sin, upon the
trespass-offering the iniquity of trespass, upon the burnt-offeriug the ini
quity of doing what he should not have done, and not doing what he ought,
etc. Outram gives several forms of confession, of which we select merely
the one for a private individual, when confessing with his hands on his sin-
offering : "I beseech Thee, 0 Lord, I have sinned, I have done perversely,
I have rebelled, I have done so and so (mentioning the particular trans
gression) ; but now I repent, and let this victim be my expiation." So
closely was imposition of hands associated in Jewish minds with confession
of sins, that it passed with them for a maxim, " Where there is no confession

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 313

felt convictions of sin, and with mingled sorrow and confidence
disburdens himself there of the whole accumulation of his guilt.
Repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ
must grow and work together, like twin sisters, in the experience
of his soul. And assuredly, if there be no genuine sense of sin,
showing itself in a readiness to make full confession of the short
comings and transgressions in which it has appeared, and an
earnest desire to turn from it and be delivered from its just con
demnation through the blood of sprinkling, as there is then no
real preparedness of heart to receive, so there can be no actual
participation in, the benefits of Christ's redemption.

(3.) The only remaining direction of a general kind, ap
plicable to all the sacrifices of blood, was the killing of the victim,
and the action with the blood after it was shed. The killing is
merely ordered to be done by the offerer, and on the north side
of the altar (Lev. i. 11), at least in the case of sheep, but is
understood also to have been the same with oxen. Why on
that side, however, rather than on any other of the altar, has
never been distinctly ascertained. And perhaps nothing more
can be gathered from it, than that the killing also was matter of
specific arrangement, ordered by God as the necessary conse
quence and result of the destination of the animal to bear the
burden and doom of sin. The blood was collected by the priest,
and by him was sprinkled — on ordinary occasions — upon the
altar round about ; but on the day of atonement, also upon the
mercy-seat in the inner, and the altar of incense in the outer
apartment of the tabernacle. For the present we confine our
attention to the ordinary use of it. "This sprinkling of the

of sins there is no imposition of hands ; " and they also held it equally cer
tain, that the design of this imposition of hands " was to remove the sins
from the imliviilual and transfer them to the animal.'1— (Outram, L. i., c.
xv. 8, xxii. 5.) The circumstance of the hearers of blasphemy being ap
pointed to lay their Lands on the head of the blasphemer before he was
stoned (Lev. xxiv. 14), is no contradiction to what has been said, but
rather a confirmation ; for till the guilt was punished, it was looked upon
as belonging to the congregation at large (comp. Josh, vii.; -' Sain, xxi.),
and by this rite it was devolved entirely upon himself, that he might bear
the punishment. — Bahr finds nothing in the rite but a symbolical declara
tion, that the victim was the offerer's own property, and that he was ready
to devote it to death.

314 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

blood," Outram remarks, "was by much the most sacred part of
the entire service, since it was that by which the life and soul
of the victim were considered to be given to God as supreme
Lord of life and death ; for what was placed upon the altar
of God was supposed, according to the religion of the Old
Testament, to be rendered to him."1 But in what relation
did the blood stand, when thus rendered to God ? Was it as
still charged with the guilt of the offerer, and underlying the
sentence of God's righteous condemnation ? So the language
just quoted would seem to import. But how then shall we meet
the objection, which naturally arises on such a supposition, that
a polluted thing was laid upon the altar of God ? And how
could the blood with propriety be regarded as so holy when
sprinkled on the altar, that it sanctified whatever it touched ?
We present the following as in our judgment the true repre
sentation of the matter : By the offerer's bringing his victim,
and with imposition of hands confessing over it his sins, it
became symbolically a personation of sin, and hence must
forthwith bear the penalty of sin — death. When this was done,
the offerer was himself free alike from sin and from its penalty.
But was the transaction by which this was effected owned by
God ? And was the offerer again restored, as one possessed of
pure and blessed life, to the favour and fellowship of God 1 It
was to testify of these things — the most important in the whole
transaction — that the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar took
place. Having with his own hands executed the deserved
penalty on the victim, the offerer gave the blood to the priest,
as God's representative. But that blood had already paid, in
death, the penalty of sin, and was no longer laden with guilt
and pollution. The justice of God was (symbolically) satisfied
concerning it ; and by the hands of His own representative He
could with perfect consistence receive it as a pure and spotless
thing, the very image of His own holiness, upon His table or
altar. In being received there, however, it still represented the
blood or soul of the offerer, who thus saw himself, through the
action with the blood of his victim, re-established in communion
with God, and solemnly recognised as possessing life, holy and
blessed, as it is in God Himself. His soul had been accepted as
1 De Sac., L. i., c. 16, § 4.

SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 315

a holy thing on the place where God most peculiarly recorded
His name, and he could now go forth as one received under the
shadow of the Almighty. — (Ps. xci. 1.)

How exactly this representation accords with what is written
of Christ, must be obvious on the slightest reflection. When
dying as man's substitute and representative, He appeared laden
with the guilt of innumerable sins, as one who, though He knew
no sin, yet had " been made sin," bearing in His person the con
centrated mass of His people's pollution ; and on this account
He received upon His head the curse due to sin, and sank under
the stroke of death, as an outcast from heaven. But the moment
He gave up the ghost, an end was made of sin. With the pour
ing out of His soul unto death, its guilt and curse were exhausted
for all who should be heirs of salvation. Godhead was com
pletely glorified concerning it ; and when the life laid down in
ignominy and shame was again resumed in honour and triumph,
and this, or the blood in which it resided, was presented before
the Father in the heavenly places, it bespoke His people's accept
ance in Him to the possession of a life out of death, to nearest
fellowship with God, and the perpetual enjoyment of the Divine
favour ; so that they are even said to " sit with Him in heavenly
places," and to have " their life hid with Him in God." Hence
also the peculiar force and significancy of the expression in 1
Pet. i. 2, formerly explained (vol. i., p. 220 sq.), " unto," not
only obedience, but also " sprinkling of the blood of Jesus ;" in
other words, unto the participation of His risen, divine, heavenly
life — a life that is replete with the favour and partakes of the
blessedness of God. It is there spoken of as the end and con
summation of a Christian calling. Not as if such a calling
could really be entered upon without a participation in Christ's
risen life ; but there must be a growing participation ; and the
spiritual life of a child of God approaches to perfection, accord
ing as he becomes " complete in Jesus," and is through Him
" filled into the fulness of God."

But it is unnecessary here to enter into a full exhibition of
the truth, as it will again occur, especially in connection with
the sen-ice of the day of atonement. When formerly explain
ing the passage in First Peter, the sprinkling was viewed with a
more special reference to the service at the ratification of the

316 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

covenant, when the blood was partly sprinkled on the altar and
partly on the people, to denote more distinctly their participation
and fellowship in what belonged to it. In the case of ordinary
sacrifices, however, this was not done ; nor could it be said to be
necessary to complete the symbolical action. The offerer, after
having brought his victim to the altar, laid his hands on its head
with confession of sin, and having solemnly given it up for his
expiation, could have no difficulty in realizing his connection
with the blood, and his interest in its future application. The
difficulty rather stood in his realizing God's acceptance of such
blood in his behalf, and on its account restoring him to life and
blessing. Now, however, the difficulty is entirely on the other
side, and stands in realizing not the acceptance of Christ's soul
or blood by the Father, but our personal interest in it, — in appre
hending ourselves to be really and truly represented in the pour
ing out of His soul for sin, and its presentation for acceptance
and blessing in the heavenly places. Hence, while respect is
also had to the former in the New Testament, yet, in the prac
tical application of the doctrine of redemption, the latter is
commonly made more prominent, viz., " the sprinkling of the
believer's heart," or " the purging of his conscience" with the
blood of Jesus. This is done, however, simply out of respect to
the difficulty referred to ; and stript of their symbolical colour
ing, the essential and radical idea in all such representations is,
God's owning in the behalf of His people, and receiving into
fellowship with Himself, as pure and holy, that life which has
borne in death the curse and penalty of sin ; so that the recom
pense of blessing and glory due to it becomes also their heritage
of good. This owning and receiving on the part of God, is
what is meant by Christ's sprinkling with His blood the heavenly
places. And to realize on solid grounds the fact of its having
been done for us, is on our part to come to the blood of sprink
ling, and enter into the participation of its divine life.1

1 See further in Appendix C.

SECTION FIFTH.

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF OFFERINGS CONNECTED WITH THE
BRAZEN ALTAR IN THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE — SIN-
OFFERINGS — TRESPASS-OFFERINGS — BURNT-OFFERINGS —
PEACE OR THANK-OFFERINGS — MEAT-OFFERINGS.

WE here take for granted what has been unfolded in the preced
ing section, and the appendix attached to it, respecting the proper
nature and design of sacrifice by blood, and the symbolical actions
therewith associated. It was common, as we have seen, to all
sacrifices of that description, that there should be in them, on the
part of the offerer, a remembrance of sin, and, on the part of
God, a provision made for his reconciliation and pardon. The
death of the animal represented the desert due to him for sin,
the wages of which is death. God's appointing the life-blood of
His own guiltless creature to be shed for such a purpose, and
afterwards sprinkled on His altar, denoted that He accepted this
symbolically as an atonement or substitution for the life of the
guilty offerer, and typically implied that He would in due time
provide and accept a real atonement or substitution in Christ.
In so far as the ancient believer might present the blood of his
sacrifice according to the manner prescribed, and in so far as the
believer now appropriates by faith the atoning blood of Christ,
in each case alike the blessed result is — He is justified from sin,
and has peace with God.

But it is evident on a moment's consideration, that while the
things now mentioned form what must have been the fundamen
tal and most essential part of every sacrifice, various other things,
of a collateral and supplementary kind, were necessarily required
to bring out the whole truth connected with the sinner's reconcili
ation and restored fellowship with God, as also to give suitable
expression to the diversified feelings and affections which it be
came him at different times to embody in his acts of worship. If
anything like a complete representation was to be given, by means

318 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of sacrifice, of the sinner's relation to God, there must, at least,
have been something in the appointed rites to indicate the diffe
rent degrees of guilt, the sense entertained by the sinner, not only
of his own sinfulness, but also of his obligations to the mercy
of God for restored peace, his several states of comparative dis
tance from God and nearness to Him, and the manifold conse
quences, both in respect to his condition and his character,
growing out of his acceptable approach to God. This could not
otherwise be done than by the institution of a complicated ritual
of sacrifice, suited to the ever varying circumstances of the
worshipper, prescribing for particular states and occasions the
kinds of victims to be employed, the application that should be
made with the blood, the specific destination of the several parts
of the offering, or the supplementary services with which the
main act of sacrifice should be accompanied. In these respects,
opportunity was afforded for the symbolical expression of a very
considerable variety of states and feelings. And it was more
particularly by its minute prescriptions and diversified arrange
ments for this purpose, that the Mosaic ritual formed so decided
an improvement on the sacrificial worship of the ancient world.
Before the time of Moses, this species of worship was compara
tively vague and indefinite in its character. There appear to
have been at most but two distinct forms of sacrifice, and these
probably but slightly varied — the burnt-offering and the peace-
offering. That such distinctions did exist, as to constitute two
kinds of sacrifice under these respective appellations, seems un
questionable, from mention being made of both at the ratifica
tion of the covenant (Ex. xxiv. 5), prior to the introduction of
the peculiar distinctions of the Mosaic ritual ; and also from the
indications that exist in earlier times of a feast in connection
with certain sacrifices, while it was always the characteristic of
the burnt-offering that the whole was consumed by fire. — (Gen.
xxxi. 54.) But the line of demarcation between the two was
probably restricted to the participation or non-partiripation on
the part of the offerers of a portion of the sacrifice, leaving
whatever else might require to be signified respecting the state
or feeling of the worshipper, to be either expressed in words, or
to exist only in the silent consciousness of his own mind.

It is, no doubt, partly on account of this greater antiquity,

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SACRIFICE. 319

especially of the burnt-offering and of its more comprehensive
character, that the precedence was given to it in the sacrificial
ritual. — (Lev. i.) Yet only partly on that account ; for as this
kind of offering is the only one that had no special occasions
connected with it, and was that also which every morning and
every evening was presented for all Israel, it was plainly intended
to be viewed as the normal sacrifice of the covenant people, —
embodying the thoughts and feelings which should habitually
prevail in the bosom and regulate the life of a pious Israelite.
Hence, also, the altar of sacrifice bore the name of the altar
of burnt-offering. As they who really were children of the
covenant stood already in an accepted condition before God,
the idea of expiation could manifestly not hold the most
prominent place in the sacrifice ; this place rather belonged
to the sense of entire dependence on God, and devoted sur
render to His service, which Israel was called as God's redeemed
heritage to profess and manifest. Yet, with this as the more
predominant idea in the burnt-offering, there could not fail also
to be associated with it thoughts of sin and atonement : for the
proper idea of their calling was never fully realized by even the
better portion of Israel ; and with every day's expression of devout
acknowledgment of God's goodness, and renewed surrender to
His service, there behoved to be also such consciousness of sin
and umvorthiness as called for fresh application to the blood of
atonement. In the burnt-offering both of these were provided
in that general form which was suited to a people who were
presumed to be in a state of reconciliation with God ; while,
for the more explicit confession of sin, and the blotting out
of its guilt, the yearly service of the great day of atonement
was specially appropriated for Israel as a whole, and the occa
sional sin and trespass-offerings for those who had been guilty
of particular offences, which seemed to call for more immediate
personal dealing with God. But while the considerations now
mentioned enable us to explain why, in the ritual for the dif
ferent kinds of offering (Lev. i.-vii.), they stand in the order
there exhibited, if respect be had to the natural order and
succession of ideas connected with sacrifice, especially after the
introduction of the law, the offerings which made most distinct
recognition of sin properly took rank before the others. By

320 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the law is the knowledge of sin. It did not, indeed, originate
that knowledge, but it contributed botli to impart much clearer
views and awaken a deeper consciousness of sin than generally
existed before its promulgation. And as, with fallen man, the
consciousness of sin must ever be regarded as the starting-point
of all acceptable worship, those offerings which, in a sacrificial
system, that had specially to do with sin and forgiveness, could
not fail to be regarded as being of a more fundamental cha
racter than the others. It was to them that resort was naturally
first made by those who had not yet attained to a covenant
standing, or had by transgression fallen from it. Accordingly,
on those occasions which called for a complete round of sacri
ficial offerings, in order to express every kind and gradation of
feeling appropriate to the worship of God, the offerings for sin
invariably come first (Ex. xxix. ; Lev. viii., ix., xvi.) : the order
was, sin-offering or trespass-offering (occasionally even both),
burnt-offering, peace-offering, the two latter supplemented with
a meat-offering. Such, also, will be the most appropriate order
in which to take them here, where they must be chiefly viewed
with respect to the religious ideas and feelings expressed in them.
It is proper, however, to draw attention — before entering on
the several kinds of sacrifice — to the general name by which they
are designated in the law — namely, offerings (corbanini). This
is the more deserving of notice, as the term was a more general
one even than sacrifice, and included whole classes of things
which were not for presentation at the altar, while yet the com
mon name sufficiently indicated that in some fundamental point
they coincided. The word corban (|3"?P), signifying literally a
gift (Mark vii. 11), everything which was solemnly dedicated
or presented for holy uses, might be called generally a gift or an
offering to God. The free-will contributions which were made
by the people for the erection of the tabernacle were so called
(Ex. xxv. 2, etc.), though consisting of all sorts of materials ;
and what was afterwards required for the maintenance of the
daily service, bore the same character : in particular, the half-
shekel, which was first levied of all i^rown males at the institu
tion of the tabernacle, and called their ransom-money — this,
though originally applied to the construction of the tabernacle
(Ex. xxxviii. 25-31), was afterwards, according to the manifest

DIITKKKNT KINDS OF SACRIFICE. 321

design of the ordinance, regularly levied, and was the memorial-
offering from the children of Israel, " to make atonement for
their souls," — that, namely, which served as a connecting link
between the members of the congregation and the atonement
services of the sanctuary. — (Ex. xxx. 16 ; Neh. x. 32 ; Matt. xvii.
24.) Through this, which ministered the supplies, they gave
formal expression to their desire to have an interest in all the
expiatory rites of the daily service ; and there were also occasional
offerings which had the same end in view. — (Num. vii. 3, xxxi.
50.) Beside these, however, which stood in close proximity to
the sacrificial institution, though they did not strictly belong to
it, there were the contributions which went to support the mini
sters of the sanctuary, but which, in their proper nature and
design, were offerings of a religious kind — tithes, first-fruits, and
free-will offerings. These bore in common the name of cor-
lanini) or offerings, because solemnly dedicated to a sacred use
(Ex. xxiii. 15; Num. xviii. 15-18; Deut. xvi. 16, 17); and,
along with the others mentioned before, were required by God
from His people to maintain in due consideration and regard the
house which for their advantage and honour He condescended
to set up among them. But it was of His own they gave to
Him ; they took a select portion for tribute-offerings, in token of
their holding all of Him as the supreme Lord of the land which
they had received for a possession, and in the hope that they might
obtain His blessing on what remained. It was really this feel
ing of dependence, coupled with spiritual desire and expectation
of the Divine favour, which the Lord sought in the offerings,
and without which they could be of no avail in His sight. On
the other hand, where these feelings were actually experienced,
the heart could not rest satisfied with an inward consciousness
of them, but would seek, and with an earnestness proportioned
to their strength, to have them embodied in outward manifesta
tions, such as the nature of God's service required. " While
the people," as happily expressed by CEhler (Hertzog, x., p. 625),
" in appearing before God, did not come before Him empty, but
brought Him gifts of the increase they had gained in their ordi
nary calling, they not only gave a practical testimony that all their
gain, all the fruits of their labour, were from the Divine blessing,
but they at the same time consecrated their worldly activity,
VOL. II. X

322 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and along therewith their life itself, with all its powers, to the
Lord, who had taken them for His peculiar treasure."

But still more would such feelings prevail in regard to another
class of offerings — those which pertained to the altar of God,
which consequently were rendered directly to Him. It was on
that altar most especially and peculiarly that He gave promise of
meeting with them to bless them. There, in a manner, was His
table ; and in return for the offerings which His people laid on
it, — if they only did so in a right spirit, presenting their offer
ings as the expression of what they themselves thought and felt,
— He came near and visited them with such favour as He bore
to His own. The altar-offerings were hence called in a more
peculiar sense the bread of Jehovah, a fire-offering of sweet
savour to Jehovah. — (Lev. i. 9, viii. 21, xxiv. 9.) If this should
appear to infringe on the propitiatory character of sacrifice, by
presenting it simply in the light of a gift rendered, or a homage
paid, by man to God, it must be remembered that here also the
gifts were not primarily man's : they had been received from the
hand of God, that they might be applied to the purposes for
which they were intended ; and, in particular, the blood or soul
of the victims was expressly given by God, that it might be
employed as the medium of atonement. — (Lev. xvii. 11.) As all
life is of God, so it belonged only to Him to make such a desti
nation of it, even in the lower sphere of the animal creation, and
for the ends of a symbolical worship. And the principle has its
noblest exemplification in the higher sphere of the New Cove
nant ; for the infinitely precious life, by the surrender of which
the real atonement was accomplished, is made known as pre
eminently the Father's gift to a perishing world. Yet in each
case alike the divine must reach its end through the instrumen
tality of a human agency : the altar of God must be furnished
by the offerings and ministrations of those who are warranted to
approach it from among men ; and not as a matter thrust on the
Church by arbitrary appointment, but thankfully appropriated,
and by a living devoted faith rendered back to God from a soul
respondent to the will of Heaven, must the work of sacrifice and
atonement equally in the lower and the higher sphere proceed.
The place of this could no otherwise be the one where God
recorded His name to come unto His people and bless them (Ex.

TIIK SI\-nlTi;i;iN<;. 323

xx. 24), or the propitiatory where heaven and earth meet in
loving accord. — (Rom. iii. 25, 26.)

THE SIN-OFFERING.

The offering so called was that which had specially to do
with the consciousness of sin and its atonement ; and on this
account, being so identified with sin, it came to receive its
distinctive name — the same word (riN^n) denoting both. In the
great majority of cases, perhaps, it was offered on special occa
sions, when some particular act of sin had interrupted the
covenant relationship, and called for a specific atonement to re
establish the offender's position. But to impress upon Israel the
conviction that such sins were always proceeding, even though
they might not be distinctly brought home to the people's con
sciousness, and made the subject of individual confession and for
giveness, the service of the day of yearly atonement was appointed,
which derived its peculiar character from the regard that was to
be had in it to all the sins and transgressions of Israel, and the
purging of them away by a grand sin-offering. In this case, of
course, the sins of the people were contemplated in their totality,
and not with reference to particular kinds or occasions. And
the same was the case when there was the introduction to a new
sphere of covenant relationship, as at the consecration of Aaron
and his sons, or at the joint consecration of priesthood and
people in their relation one to another (Lev. viii. 9) ; in such
services we find the sin-offering taking precedence of all others,
not because of any formal acts of sin committed, but because
the transaction proceeded on the idea of a new stage or develop
ment going to be reached of covenant standing, and it was fit
that the sin and unworthiness of the parties concerned should be
brought to remembrance and purged away. Although no ex-
pivss instances are on record, yet it will be understood of itself —
the analogy of the preceding cases clearly involves it — that when
persons for the first time sought to be admitted into the bond
of the covenant, it would need to be done, among other servk-es,
with confession of sin and the presentation of a sin-offering.
And as sins generally had to be thought of in connection with
those greatrr occasions which called for the sin-offering, it

324 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

plainly unwarrantable to limit its application, as necessarily and
in its own nature referring only to sins of a subordinate or
inferior kind.

It is true, when we turn to the ritual of the sin-offering as
prescribed for special occasions, there is a certain limitation, not
so properly in the kind of sins to be atoned, as in the mode of
their commission. The sins themselves are characterized quite
generally, — " If a soul shall sin against any of the command
ments of the Lord" (Lev. iv. 2) ; this is the common description
which is afterwards in succession applied to priest, congregation
as a body, ruler, private individual, in almost the same words,
and in each case varied by the explanatory statement of some
thing having been done which should not be done. But the
doing is qualified by the term bishgagah (njJtJa), not strictly in
ignorance, as the English Bible puts it, but l>y erring, by mistake,
or oversight. The expression is partly explained by an additional
clause, as at ch. iv. 13, where the thing said to have been done
bishgagah is represented as " hid from the eyes of the congrega
tion," and only afterwards becomes known to them ; and again,
at vers. 23, 28, where the discovery of the sin is spoken of as the
occasion of offering the sacrifice. Some light is thrown on it
tlso by being used in one place of the manslayer (Num. xxxv.
11), as compared with the later description, which distinguishes
him from the murderer by his having done the deed " without
knowing" (nj?"T v23), and " not hating him in times past." —
(Deut. iv. 42.) Then, finally, we have sins of this description
further distinguished by being contrasted with sins of presump
tion, literally "sins with a high hand" (Num. xv. 28-30), —
that is, sins committed in deliberate and open defiance of the
authority of Heaven, and as with a wilful determination to contest
with Him the supremacy. For sins of this description no sin-offer
ing was to be allowed, while it should be accepted for the others.1

1 There was undoubtedly a rigour in the Old Testament regarding pre
sumptuous sins, which is not found in the New. The greater manifestation
of grace in the latter called for a difference, though still it is a difference
only in degree ; for here also there is a hardened impenitence which is prac
tically beyond the reach of mercy — a phase of sin for which there is no for
giveness, as the following passages show : Matt. xii. 31 ; Heb. x. 26-29 ; 1
Tim. i. 20 ; 1 John v. 16, etc. Nov,\ however, the range and compass of
mercy has become greater.

II IK SIX-OFFERING. 325

It is quite plain, by putting together these comparative and
explanatory statements, what are to be understood by the sins
under consideration. If one might say, with Kurtz, that from
the stress laid on the sins being at first hid from the guilty party,
and only afterwards becoming known, unconscious and unin
tentional sins were those primarily meant — the normal sins, in a
manner, of this class — yet it is impossible to think only of such ;
and Kurtz himself (Sacred Offerings, § 90) has latterly found
it needful to include many that were done knowingly and inten
tionally — sins of infirmity, committed in the violence of passion,
under some powerful temptation, or from some motive appealing
to the weaker part of the soul, as contradistinguished from de
liberate and settled malice. Some of the cases specified at the
beginning of ch. v., as among those for which sin-offerings
might be presented,1 put it beyond a doubt that sins of that de
scription were to be understood. For while we have there such
things mentioned as touching, even unwittingly, the carcase of
an unclean beast, or the person of a man who at the time hap
pened to be in a state of uncleanness, there is also the case of
one who, when solemnly called upon to give evidence regarding a
matter of which he had been cognizant, yet, for some selfish reason
operating on him at the time, withheld the testimony he should
have given (ver. 1), and the case of one who had pronounced
a rash vow or oath, committing himself to do what should
either not at all or not in the circumstances have been under
taken (ver. 4). These were plainly things which could not have
happened without knowledge or consciousness on the part of the
transgressor ; but they betrayed hastiness of spirit, or the moral

1 There is an unfortunate division and heading of chapters here ; for the
law of the sin-offering should include all ch. iv., and also ch. v. of Leviticus
to the end of ver. 13. It is only at ver. 14, where a new section opens with,
" And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," that the law of the trespass-
offering begins, while there is no such formal introduction of a new subject
.it the commencement of the chapter. With the exception of Bahr and
llofmann, most commentators of note are now agreed on this as the proper
division. That the word trespass sometimes occurs in the earlier part of
I'll, v., merely aro>efroin tin- two kinds of otYerinj,' having much in common,
though still the proper sueriiiee here is once and again called a sin-oiY
(vers. (i, 7, 9, 11, 12), and the victims appointed are also those of the
•in-offerinf.

326 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

weakness which could not resist a present temptation. Viewed
in this light, too, they cannot be regarded otherwise than ;i^
specimens of a class ; for no one could possibly imagine, that
moral weakness displaying itself in the matter of rash swearing,
or in a cowardly refusal to give faithful testimony on fitting
occasions, was different in kind from such weakness when taking
many other directions. On this account, and also on account of
the close connection between the sin and trespass-offering (which
differed only, as will appear, in subordinate points), we are cer
tainly warranted to include the sins mentioned in Lev. vi. 1-5,
as belonging to the class now under consideration ; and among
these are lying, deceit, betrayal of trust, false swearing, fraudu
lent behaviour. In farther proof of the same thing, we find
even adultery mentioned elsewhere (Lev. xix. 20), if committed
with a bondmaid, as an offence which might be expiated by this
class of offerings.

From this induction of particulars several important con
clusions follow, in respect to the nature and design of the
offerings for sin and trespass, as indeed of the sacrificial worship
generally of the Old Covenant, which, if duly considered, should
put an end to certain partial and mistaken views, that occa
sionally appear in quarters and obtain a countenance they are
not entitled to. (1.) One of these is, that sin-offerings availed
only for special acts of sin, or sins committed on special
occasions, — a view that we are surprised to see Kurtz still
adhering to. Undoubtedly special sins formed appropriate
occasions — and, indeed, the greater number of occasions — on
which such offerings were expected to be presented ; but not
by any means the whole. The grand sin-offering of every
year was alone conclusive proof against such an idea, since in
it a remembrance was made of sins without distinction, and the
object was to cleanse the people from all their impurities. The
sin-offerings at the consecration of Aaron, and the formal
entrance of the people on the tabernacle-worship, constitute
another proof. Coupling with such things the specific instruc
tions given for the presentation of a sin-offering, as often as
conviction of some particular sin bore in upon their souls, con
scientious and thoughtful Israelites must have felt, that when
ever a sense of sin troubled their conscience, and made them

TIN: SIX-OFFKRIN<; 327

afraid of (J<><l's ivlmkc, it was through an offering of this de
scription that ivlief should be sought.

(2.) Another and greatly more common, though equally
ungrounded notion, is, that offerings for sin, or, as it is some
times put, all offerings under the Old Covenant, availed only
for the atonement of ceremonial transgression, or the removal
of ceremonial uncleanness. Biihr has exhibited this view of the
sin-offering, holding it to have contemplated only theocratical
sins, but not such as were in the stricter sense moral, though he
has in this met with little support from the abler theologians of his
own country, as in his view of sacrifice by blood generally. But
there has ever been a tendency on the part of Unitarian writers,
or such as are opposed to the doctrine of a vicarious atonement,
to restrict the object of the sin-offerings to merely ceremonial
and slighter offences. So zealously was the idea advocated by
them about the close of last century, that Magee found it ne
cessary to give the subject a measure of consideration. — (On
Atonement, Note 27.) Since then, however, it has occasion
ally appeared in the writings of evangelical divines, who hold
entirely orthodox views on the person and the work of Christ,
and who would explain the connection between the Old and the
New as to sin and sacrifice, by all being outward and ceremonial
in the one, inward and real in the other. According to them,
the sins atoned, not merely by the special sin-offerings, but also
on the day of yearly atonenent, are to be regarded as mere
"breaches of legal order and ceremonial etiquette, involving
neither moral guilt nor even bodily soil or stain." As a neces
sary consequence, the purification effected was entirely of the
same kind : it rectified the worshipper's relation merely in an
outward respect to the camp of God's people, or the courts of
1 1 is house, secured for him a right of access to these, and to the
external privileges therewith connected; but left all the sins
which really wounded his conscience and disturbed his spiritual
relation to God untouched, except in so far as he could descry
through the outward and ceremonial services the type and
a— urance of a higher redemption.1 There can be no doubt
that the essentials of Christian doctrine can in this way be set

1 See, for one of the latest exhibitions of this view, Dr Candlish's work
on tlu- Atonement, ch. v.

328 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

forth and maintained, and also that the connection between
type and antitype can be formally preserved; but it seems
scarcely less certain, that the character of the Old Testament
religion, and the organic relation which especially its sacrificial
institute held to the work of Christ, would suffer material
damage, and be virtually undermined. For what could we
seriously think of a religion which took specially to do with the
moral and religious training of a people, gave them the purest
law, and, in connection therewith, often charged them with the
gravest sins, which yet in its most solemn services contemplated
nothing higher than points of religious etiquette — matters simply
of conventional propriety, and lying outside the strictly moral
sphere ? Could the means, in such a case, seem to have been
in fitting correspondence with the aim ostensibly pursued ?
And the punctilios of Pharisaism, instead of being the improvable
follies and perversions of men who had lost sight of the spirit
and design of the institutions under which they lived, should
they not have been the native tendency and proper develop
ment of the system ? If the most solemn parts of their religion
spoke only of religious etiquette and outward decorum, it had
surely been hard to blame them if they made this their chief con
cern : they but took the impress of the economy they lived under.
And yet this economy, strange to think, was set up by the God
of the Bible, which is throughout so predominently ethical in its
tone, and sets so little by the outward where the outward alone
was to be found ! The whole, on such a view, appears full of in
consistencies and practical contradictions. Nor can the objections
thus raised be met by pointing to the higher things typified by
those ceremonial expiations ; for this typical element had no
formal place in the system : it existed no otherwise than as
something underlying or implied in the great principles and
relations on which the system was constructed ; and how, even
after such a fashion, could it exist, if the moral element was
wanting in the typical ? In the antitypical things of Christ's
redemption the moral is the one and all; and if the ritual of
Old Testament sacrifice had carried no proper respect to it, either
as to guilt or purification, then the most vital link of connec
tion between the two systems was missing. But when we look
to the sacrificial institute itself, we find the view we contend

Till; SIN-OFFERING. 329

against destitute of foundation in fact. Ilengstenberg, in his
treatise on the sacred offerings, has justly said, in opposition to
liiihr, that " such a separation between the moral and the cere
monial law was quite foreign to the spirit of the Old Testa
ment ; and it can only be upheld with any appearance of truth
by those who utterly misconceive the symbolical character of the
ceremonial law."1 Indeed, as we have shown in an earlier part
of this volume (Ch. II., sec. 5), there was nothing merely cere
monial in the Old Covenant : the moral element pervaded the
whole, and every part of it ; and neither an exclusion nor a pri
vilege was rightly understood, till it was seen in a moral light.
Besides, in the ritual prescriptions concerning offerings for sin
and trespass, breaches of the moral law (as we have seen) not only
are included, but even occupy by much the largest place ; and
both in that ritual and in the service of the day of atonement, "all
transgressions," or sins against " any of the commandments of
God, in doing what should not be done," are expressly mentioned.
(3.) A still further though closely related form of error,
regarding this part of the ancient sacrificial system, consists in
distinguishing, not between moral and ceremonial (for this is
held by the parties concerned — chiefly, though not exclusively,
of the school of Spencer — to be untenable), but between external
and internal, or sin as a political and social misdemeanour, and
sin as a spiritual evil and disease of the heart. The law of Moses
generally, it is alleged, and its prescriptions especially respecting
offerings for sin, had to do with transgressions only in the one
aspect, but not in the other. The code which regulated penalties
and atonements among the Jews, was " a mere system of exter
nal control, exactly parallel to the penal codes of other nations,
except so far as it was modified by its recognising no sovereign
but God Himself." This exception, however, was an all-im
portant one ; for as the Sovereign, so of necessity His law ; the
one being holy, — holy in the sense of spiritual, inward, requiring
truth in the heart, — the other could not be different^ And yet
the theory in question proceeds on the supposition that they

1 See also Keil, .1 /•«•// ,r .,' »//( •, i , p. jf-jo, who repeats the same senti
ments; ami Kurt/, in his Sacred Offerings, § 92. Both hold the division
iHJtween positively religious or ceremoniiil ami mural laws, to have uo exist-
i the Mosaic economy as to sacrifice.

330 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

were different. It acknowledges that, from the state being a
theocracy, sins were necessarily regarded as crimes, and vice
versa ; but holds overt acts only to have possessed this character.
These alone exposed to excision ; and it being the object of ex
piatory sacrifice to prevent excision, its atoning value went no
further. AVhat the worshipper gained by his offerings for sin,
was simply to have the overt acts covered which violated its
code of external jurisprudence ; but sin as a defilement of the
conscience, or a moral depravity, was alike beyond legal punish
ment and legal sacrifice. How, then, on such a view, shall we
reconcile the Lawgiver with His law ? They stand in ill agree
ment with each other ; for, by the supposition, the spiritual and
holy Jehovah legislated much like an earthly sovereign, and
dealt with things rather than with persons. Now, the law of
the sin-offering, as the law of sacrifice in general, was based
upon the exactly opposite principle : it had respect to persons, and
to these as related to a God of righteousness and truth, in the
proper sense of the terms ; and to the offerings only in so far as
they represented what belonged to the persons, not to anything
they might or could be by themselves. Their object, conse
quently, was not alone to prevent excision from the theocracy,
but rather to secure continuance therein with the favour and
blessing of Him who presided over its interests, without which,
to the true Israelite, the theocracy was but a shell without a
kernel. Such an one knew perfectly that the God with whom
He had to do, tried the reins and the hearts; that, however
blameless outwardly, still if he regarded iniquity in his heart,
God would not hear or bless him ; and so, when called to think
of having atonement made for whatever he had done against
any of the commandments of God, and which should cleanse
him from all his transgressions, it was inevitable that the in
ward as well as the outward, the moral as well as the political,
defections, should have risen into view. It mattered not that
the theocracy itself had a local habitation and a temporal his
tory, and that its penalties partook of the same local and tem
poral character ; for not the less on that account did they bear
on them the impress of God's will and character, and it was
this with which all the laws and services of the religion of the
Israelite were designed to bring him into harmony. The higher

TIN: BIN-OFFERING 331

and future worlds wen- comparatively veiled to his view: with
the present alone lie had directly and ostensibly to do; but with
this as subject to the oversight and control of One who, in His
method of dealing, could not but show that He loved righteous
ness and hated iniquity. And the sprinkling of the blood of atone
ment, whether on the horns of the altar (as in the private sin-offer
ings) or on the mercy-seat (as in the day of atonement), could not
have properly met His case, if it had not furnished him with a pre
sent deliverance from any burden of guilt under which he groaned.
It is not, in truth, so much a consideration of the passages
of Old Testament Scripture which treat of the sacrificial offer
ings for sin, that has given rise to the views we have been con
troverting, as certain passages in the New Testament, which
appear to deny to those ancient sacrifices any validity as to the
purifying of the soul. Thus it is said by Paul, " that by Christ
all who believe are justified from all things, from which they
could not be justified by the law of Moses." — (Acts xiii. 39.)
And still more strongly and expressly in Hebrews, it is declared,
that the gifts and sacrifices of the law " could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience" (ix. 9) ;
that it was " not possible the blood of bulls and of goats could
take away sins" (x. 4) ; and that such blood, as the ashes also
of the heifer sprinkling the unclean, could but avail to the
purifying of the flesh, while the blood of Christ, and this alone,
can purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living
God (ix. 13, 14). If such passages were to be taken absolutely,
they would certainly deny any spiritual benefit whatever to the
Old Testament worshipper from his legal sacrifices. But that
they cannot be so taken, is evident alone from this, that even
when viewed as offerings for such offences as affected the out
ward and theocratical position of an Israelite, and satisfying for
these, they did not, and could not, stand altogether apart from
his conscience ; to a certain extent, at least, conscience had been
aggrieved by what was done, and must have been purged by the
atonement presented. But in all the passages the Apostle is
speaking of what, in the proper sense, and in the estimation of
God, or of a soul fully enlightened by His truth, can afford a
real and valid satisfaction for the guilt of sin, not of what might
or might not provide for it a present and accepted though in-

332 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

adequate atonement. The matter stood thus : A certain visible
relationship was established under the old economy between
Israel and God — admitting of being re-established, as often as
it was interrupted by sin, through a system of animal sacrifices
and corporeal ablutions. But all was, from the nature of the
case, imperfect. The sanctuary itself, in connection with which
the relationship was maintained, was a worldly one — the mere
image of the heavenly or true. And even that was in its inner
glory veiled to the worshipper : God hid at the very time He
revealed Himself — kept Himself at some distance, even when He
came nearest, so that manifestly the root of the evil wras not yet
reached : the conscience was not in such a sense purged as to
be made perfect, or capable of feeling thoroughly at its ease in
the presence of the Holy One ; for that another and higher,
medium of purification was needed, and should be looked for.
At the same time, there was such a purification administered
as secured for those who experienced it a certain measure of
access to God's fellowship and sense of His favour ; it sanctified
their flesh, so as to admit of their personal approach to the place
where God recorded His name, and met with His people to bless
them. The flesli of the worshipper, in such a connection,
becomes the correlative to the worldly sanctuary, on the part of
God ; not as if these were actually the whole, though ostensibly
they were such; and while atonements mediated between the
two, removing from time to time the barrier which sin was ever
tending to raise, yet it was by so imperfect a medium, and with
results so transitory, that the conscience of the worshipper could
not feel as if the proper and efficient remedy had yet been found.
Hence, as elsewhere it is said of the difference between the Old
and the New in God's dispensations, " The law came by Moses,
but grace and truth by Jesus Christ," or, "The darkness is
past, the clear light now shineth" — not as if there had been no
light, no grace and truth before, but merely none worthy to be
compared with what now appeared ; so in the passages under
consideration, the measure of relief and purification to guilty
consciences which were afforded l.y the provisional institutions of
the tabernacle, because of their inadequate character, and the
imperfect means employed in their accomplishment, are for
the occasion overlooked or placed out of sight, in order to bring

THK SIN -OFFERING. 333

prominently out the real, the ultimate, and perfect salvation that
had been at length brought in by Christ.

With these explanations in regard to the general nature of
the sin-offering, and the objects for which it was presented, we
turn now to the ritual concerning the offering itself. And first
in respect to the choice of victims : where we meet with a strik
ing diversity, according to the position of the party for whom
the offering was to be made. When the sin was that merely of a
private member of the congregation, the offering was to consist
of a female kid of the goat or lamb (Lev. iv. 28, v. 6) — so also
at the discharge of the Nazarite, and the purification of the
leper (Num. vi. 14 ; Lev. xiv. 10) — or, in cases of poverty, two
turtle-doves or two young pigeons, but merely as a substitute
for the normal offering ; and when even such would have proved
too heavy a tax on the circumstances of the offerer, a little flour
was allowed to be used, though without oil or frankincense.
When the offender was a ruler in the congregation, the offer
ing was to be a male kid, — when it was the congregation or the
high priest, on ordinary occasions, a young bullock ; while on
the day of atonement the offering for the congregation consisted
of two goats, and that for the high priest was a bullock ; because
not only in his official capacity did he represent the congrega
tion, but, from his standing in a relation of peculiar nearness to
God, sinfulness in him assumed a more offensive and aggravated
character. There was thus, by means of a graduated scale in the
offerings, brought out the important lesson, that while all sin is
offensive in the sight of God, so as by whomsoever committed
to deserve a penalty, which can only be averted by the blood of
atonement, it grows in offensiveness with the position and num
ber of transgressors ; and the higher in privileges, the nearer to
( Jod, so much greater also is the guilt to be atoned. Hence, in
Ezekiel's vision of judgment, the words, " Slay utterly young and
<>ld, and li'ijin (d my sanctuary" (ix. 6) — where, namely, the sin
was most aggravated.

But the chief and most distinctive peculiarity in this species
of sacrifice, was the action with the Hood, which, though varir
ously employed, was always used so as to give a relatively
strong and intense expression to the ideas of sin and atonement.

334 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

When the offering had respect to a single individual, a ruler or
a private member of the congregation, the blood was not simply
to be poured round about the altar, but some of it also to be
sprinkled upon the horns of the altar — its prominent points, its
insignia, as they may be called, of honour and dignity. When
the offering was of an inferior kind, and consisted only of doves,
as in the case of very poor persons, this latter action was not
prescribed. — (Lev. v. 9.) But if it was for the sin of the high
priest (" the priest that is anointed," Lev. iv. 3, meaning, how
ever, the high priest, because he had the anointing in a pre
eminent sense ; comp. Lev. xvi. 32 ; Ps. cxxxiii. 2), or of the
congregation at large, besides these actions in the outer court,
a portion of the blood was to be carried into the Sanctuary,
where the priest was to sprinkle with his finger seven times
before the inner veil, and again upon the horns of the altar of
incense. It was to be done in the Holy Place before the veil,
because that was the symbolical dwelling-place of the high
priest, or of the congregation as represented by him ; and upon
the altar of incense in particular, because that was the most
important article of furniture there, and one also that stood in
a near relation to the altar of burnt-offering. A still higher
expression, and the last,— the highest expression which could be
given of the ideas in question by means of the blood, — was pre
sented when the high priest, on the day of atonement, went
with the blood of his own and the people's sin-offering into the
Most Holy Place, and sprinkled the mercy-seat — the very place
of Jehovah's throne. In this action the sin appeared, on the one
hand, rising to its most dreadful form of a condemning witness
in the presence-chamber of God, and, on the other, the atonement
assumed the appearance of so perfect and complete a satisfaction,
that the sinner could come nigh to the seat of God, and return
again not only unscathed, but with a commission from Him to
banish the entire mass of guilt into the gulph of utter oblivion.
It is from the peculiar character of the sin-offering as God's
special provision for removing the guilt of sin, from what might
be called the intensely atoning power of its blood, that the other
arrangements, especially in regard to the flesh, were ordered.
The blood was so sacred, that if any portion of it should by
accident have come upon the garments of the persons officiating,

Till: SIN-OFFERING. 335

the garment "whereon it was sprinkled was to be washed in
the Holy Place" (Lev. vi. 27) ; it must not be carried out
beyond the proper region of consecrated things. The flesh was
not consume! upon the altar — the fat alone was burned, as
standing in near connection with the more vital parts, and the
indication of life in its greater healthfulness and vigour (but
see under Peace-offering, in which the burning of the fat formed
a more distinguishing feature) ; and though the kidneys and the
caul above -the liver, or rather, the greater lobe of the liver,
which had the caul attached to it, are also mentioned as parts to
be burnt, yet it was simply from their being so closely connected
with the fat, that they were regarded as in a manner one with
it (whence, in Lev. iii. 16, vii. 30, 31, all the parts actually
burnt are called simply the fat). These portions, as specially set
apart for Jehovah, were burnt upon the altar, in token of His
acceptance of the offering, and were declared to be " a sweet
savour" to Him (Lev. iv. 31) — so completely had the guilt been
abolished by the blood of expiation. But while the flesh itself
was not consumed upon the altar, it was declared to be most
holy (literally, " a holy of holies "), and could be eaten by none
but the officiating priests, not even by their families, and by
themselves only within the sacred precincts of the tabernacle.
And if the vessel in which it was prepared was earthen, receiv
ing as it must then have done a portion of the substance, it was
required to be broken, as too sacred to be henceforth applied to
a common use ; or if of brass, it was ordered to be scoured and
rinsed in water, that not even the smallest fragment of flesh so
holy might come in contact with common things, or be carried
beyond the bounds of the sanctuary. — (Lev. vi. 25-29, vii. 6.)

In connection with this eating of the flesh of the sin-offering
by the priesthood, there is a passage which has given rise to a good
deal of controversy ; it is that in which Moses said to Aaron of
this offering, " It is most holy, and it is given you to bear the
iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before
tin- Lord." — (Lev. x. 17.) This cannot mean that the flesh of
the sin-offering still had the iniquities of the people, as it were,
inhering in it, and that the priests, by devouring the one, made
finally ;i\\;iy with the other. In that case, the flesh must rather
have been ivgarded as most polluted, instead of being most holy.

336 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

And it seems strange that Hengstenberg should still adhere to
that view, which was adopted by some of the older commen
tators. But the atonement, in the strict and proper sense, was
made when, after the imposition of hands, the penalty of death
\vas inflicted on the victim, and its blood sprinkled on the altar
of God. This denoted that its life-blood was not only given,
but also accepted by God, in the room of the sinful ; which was
further exhibited by the burning of the fatty parts as a sweet
savour. And the eating of the flesh by the priests, as at once
God's familiars and the people's representatives, could only be
intended to give a symbolical representation of the completeness
of the reconciliation — to show by their incorporation with the
sacrifice, how entirely through it the guilt had been removed,
and the means of removing it converted even into the suste
nance of the holiest life. The "bearing of the iniquity," if
viewed in reference to the eating of the flesh by the priesthood,
could only be viewed as a still farther exhibition of the same
idea — completing the transaction by the surrender of the Lord's
portion to His chosen servants for their enjoyment, and thereby
showing the perfected result of the atonement. But it is not
necessary to connect what is said in the passage referred to
specifically with the eating of the flesh : the view of Hofmann,
adopted by Kurtz and several others, seems the more correct,
viz., that it is of the sin-offering itself, not of the eating of its
flesh, that God had given it to the priesthood to take away the
iniquity of the congregation ; and this is mentioned for the pur
pose of showing why it should be regarded by them as a most
holy thing, and therefore fit to be eaten. When, however,
Kurtz says (Sac. Offerings, § 118), that "the eating of the
flesh by the priests had no other signification than to set forth
the idea that the priests, as the servants of God and the mem
bers of His household, were supplied from the table of God,"
this seems to carry the matter somewhat too far on the other
side ; for it was surely a most natural inference to draw from
such eating, that God intended thereby to set before the offerer
how completely his sin had been taken away, and his restoration
to the favour of Heaven had been effected.1

1 The elder, and indeed mcst also of the recent typologists, completely
misunderstood this eating of the flesh of the sin-offering, regarding it as a

Till-: SIN-OFFEKING. 337

But it was only in the case of sin-offerings for the private
member, or the single ruler in the congregation, that the flesh
was to be eaten by the priesthood : in those cases in which the
blood was carried within the sanctuary, that is, when the offer
ing had respect to a sin of the high priest, or of the congrega
tion at large — with whom, as the public representative, he was
nearly identified — then the flesh was appointed to be carried
without the camp, and burnt in a clean place. — (Ch. iv. 12, 21,
vi. 30.) These being sacrifices of a higher value, and bearing
on them a stamp of still greater sacredness than those whose
flesh was eaten by the priesthood, the injunction not to eat of
it here, but to carry it without the camp and burn it, could not,
as Biihr remarks (ii., p. 397), have arisen from any impurity
supposed to reside in the flesh. It is true that all impure things
were ordered to be carried out of the camp, but it does not fol
low from this, that everything taken without the camp was
impure ; and in this case it was expressly provided, that the

kind of eating of the sin, and so bearing it, or making it their own. See, for
example, Gill on Lev. x. 17 ; Bush on ibid, and ch. vi. 30 ; also Deyling,
Obs. Sac., i., sect. 65, § 2. It was thought in this way to afford the best
adumbration of Christ, whom the priests typified, being made a sin for His
people, or taking their guilt upon His own person and bearing it away.
But it proceeds upon a wrong foundation, and utterly confounds the proper
relation of things ; the flesh as most holy, and appointed to be eaten, must
have represented the acceptableness or completeness of the sacrifice, not the
sinfulness of the sin atoned. Keil's statement in support of the other view,
that the priests, by virtue of their office, and as the holy ones, who them
selves needed no atonement, took the sins of the people on themselves and
consumed them, would place the atoning power in the priesthood rather
than in the sacrifice, and would also regard the flesh as being still charged
with sin, after it had become most holy. Philo, De Viet., § 13, as quoted by
< Kliler, who takes the view we advocate, gave the sense correctly when he
said, God would not have allowed His priests to partake of such a meal, if
full forgiveness of sin had not entered. By this view also the correspond
ence is best preserved between the sin-offering and Christ. For, as soon
as He completed His offering by bearing the penalty of death, the relative
impurity was gone; He was immediately treated as the Holy One and the
His Spirit passed into glory, and even His body was preserved as a

1 thing and treated with honour, providentially kept from violence.
sought for and received by the rich among the people, and committed to
the tomb with the usages of an honourable burial. Christ's work of humi
liation was consummated in His death, and from that moment began to

,r the precursors of His exaltation to glory.
VOL. II. V

338 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

place to which the flesh was brought should be clean, implying
that it was itself pure. The arrangement both as to the not
eating, and the burning without the camp, seems to have arisen
from the nature and object of the offering. In the cases re
ferred to, the high priest was himself concerned, directly or
indirectly, in the atonement, and could not properly partake
of the flesh of the victim, as this would have given it the cha
racter of a peace-offering. The flesh, as well as the blood, must
therefore be given to the Lord. But it could not be burnt on
the altar, for this would have given it the character of a burnt-
offering ; neither could there in that case have been so clear an
expression of the ideas which were here to be rendered promi
nent, viz., first, the identification of the offering with the sinner's
guilt, then the completeness of the satisfaction, and the entire
removal of the iniquity. These ends were best served — as in
private cases by the priest eating the flesh — so here, by the
carrying of the carcase to a clean place without the camp, and
consuming it there as a holy of holies to the Lord ; for as all
in the camp had to do with it, it was thus taken apart from them
all, and out of sight of all devoted by fire to the Lord.1

The only additional regulation regarding the sin-offering
was, that of no meat or drink-offering accompanying it; and

1 The same fundamental error here also pervades most of the typical
interpretations, which generally proceed on the supposition of the flesh
being still charged with sin, and very commonly regard the consuming of
it with fire as representing either the intense suffering of Christ, or the
personal sufferings of the lost hereafter. Besides going on a wrong supposi
tion, this notion is still further objectionable on account of its deriving the
idea of suffering from what was absolutely incapable of feeling it. The
dead carcase was unconscious alike both of pain and pleasure ; and then,
as it was entirely consumed, if referring to Christ, it must have signified
His absolutely perishing under the curse — if to the lost sinner, His annihila
tion by the sufferings. — The reference made in Heb. xiii. 11, to the burning
of the carcase of the sin-offerings without the camp, is in perfect accordance
with the explanation given above : " For the bodies of those beasts, whose
blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin (i.e., the sin-
offerings), are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us, therefore," etc. It is rather an allusion to the rite than an explicit
and proper interpretation of it. The real city, to which God's people belong,
and out of which Christ suffered, is heaven, as the inspired writer, indeed,

1 Hi: SIN-OFFERING. 339

in those cases of extreme poverty, in which an offering of flour
was allowed to be presented, instead of the pigeons or the goat,
no oil or frankincense was to be put on it, " for it is a sin-offer
ing." — (Ch. v. 11.) The meaning of this is correctly given by
Kurtz : " Oil and incense symbolized the Spirit of God and the
prayer of the faithful ; the meat-offering, always good works ;
but these are then only good works and acceptable to God, when
they proceed from the soil of a heart truly sanctified, when they
are yielded and matured by the Spirit of God, and when, farther,
they are presented to God as His own work in man, accompanied
on the part of the latter with the humble and grateful acknow
ledgment that the works are the offspring, not of his own good
ness, but of the grace of God. The sin-offering, however, was
pre-eminently the atonement-offering ; the idea of atonement
came so prominently out, that no room was left for the others.
The consecration of the person, and the presentation of his good
works to the Lord, had to be reserved for another stage in the
sacrificial institute."1

[The occasions on which the private and personal sin-offer
ings were presented, beside those mentioned in Lev. iv. and v.,
were : when a Nazarite had touched a dead corpse, or when the
time of his vow was completed (Num. vi. 10-14) ; at the purifi-

intimates in ver. 14. But the overruling providence of God so ordered
matters, that there should be an image of this in the place of Christ's suffer
ings as compared with the earthly Jerusalem. In His case it was designed
to be a mark of infamy, to make Him suffer without the gate — a sign that
He could not be the Messiah. But viewed in reference to the ancient type,
it proved rather the reverse, as, in addition to all the proper and essential
marks of agreement between the two, it served to provide even a formal
and external resemblance. Though the bodies of those sin-offerings were
burnt without the camp, they were still a holy of holies to the Ixmi : they
did not on that account become a polluted thing ; and Christ's having, in
like manner, suffered without the gate, though certainly designed by men
t<> exlubit Him as an object of ignominy and shame, did not render Him
the less the holy child of God, whose blood could fitly be taken into the
highest heavens. But if He satined Himself to l>e cast out, that He might
bear our doom, it surely would ill become us to be unwilling to go out and
bear His re|'roaeh. This is the general idea; but the passage is rather of
the hortatory than the explanatory kind, and passes so rapidly from one
point to another, that to press each particular closely would be to make it
yield a false and inconsistent meaning.
1 Mosau-ehe Opfer, p. I'.i'J.

340 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRTPTUKK.

cation of the leper (Lev. xiv. 19-31), and of women after lon<^-
continuetl haemorrhage or after child-birth (Lev. xii. 6-8, xv.
25-30), pointing to the corruption not only indicated by the
bodily disease, but also strictly connected with the powers and
processes of generation — the fountain-head, as they might be
called, of human depravity. This also accounts for the case men
tioned in Lev. xv. 2, 14, being an occasion for presenting a sin-
offering ; as it does also for the relative impurity connected in
so many ways with the same, even where an atonement was not
actually required, but washing only enjoined.]

THE TRESPASS-OFFERING.

That the trespass, or, as it should rather be called, the guilt
or debt-offering (Q^'N, asham\ stood in a very near relation to
the sin-offering, and to a great extent was identified with it in
nature, is evident from the description given of the trespass-
offering in Lev. v. 14-vi. 7, and in particular from the declara
tion in ch. vii. 7, " as the sin-offering is, so is the trespass-offer
ing : there is one law for them." But great difficulty has been
found in drawing precisely the line of demarcation between the
two kinds of offerings, and in pointing out, regarding the tres
pass-offering, what constituted the specific difference between
it and the sin-offering. The difficulty, if not altogether caused,
has been very much increased, by the mistake adverted to in a
preceding note, of supposing the directions regarding the tres
pass-offering to begin with ch. v., whereas they really commence
with the new section at ver. 14, where, as usual, the new subject
is introduced with the words : " The Lord spake unto Moses,
saying." These words do not occur at the beginning of the
chapter itself; the section to the end of the 13th verse was
added to the preceding chapter regarding the sin-offering, with
the view of specifying certain occasions on which it should be
presented, and making provision for a cheaper sort of sacrifice
to persons in destitute circumstances. But in each case the
sacrifice itself, without exception, is called a sin-offering, vers. 6,
7, 8, 9, 11, 12. In one verse, indeed (the 6th), it is said in our
version, "And he shall bring his trespass-offering;" but this
is a mere mistranslation, and should have been rendered, as it

Till-: TKF.Sl'ASS-UFFKKIN*;. 341

is in tlu- very next verse, where the ezpVeMion in the original
is the same, "And he shall bring for (or as) his trespass."
Throughout the section the sin is denominated an asJtam, that
is, a matter of guilt or debt ; and all sin is such, viewed in re
ference to the law of God, so that every sin-offering might also
be called an asham, as well as a hattah, or sin-offering. The
same mode of expression is used in respect to what was unques
tionably the sin-offering (see ch. iv. 3, 13, etc.). But what
were distinctively called by the name of as/mm, were offerings
for sins in which the offence given, or the debt incurred by the
misdeed, admitted of some sort of estimation and recompense ;
so that, in addition to the atonement required for the iniquity,
in the one point of view, there might also, in the other, be the
exaction and the payment of a restitution.

That this is the real import of the as/taw, as distinguished
from the hattah or sin, is clear from the passage Num. v. 5-8,
where the former is marked as a consequence of the latter, and
such a consequence as admitted and demanded a material re
compense : " When a man or woman shall commit any sin that
men commit, to do a trespass (or deal fraudulently) against the
Lord, and that person be guilty (noti'X) ; then they shall con
fess their sin which they have done : and he shall recompense
his asham with the principal thereof, and add to it the fifth part
thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed
(literally, to whom he has become guilty). But if the man have
no kinsman to recompense the asham unto, let the asham be re
compensed unto the Lord, to the priest, besides the ram of the
atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him."
The Lord, in this latter case, as being the original proprietor of
the land, slept into the room of the deceased person who had sus
tained the injury, and received, through His representative, the
priest, the earthly restitution, while the sacrifice was also given
to the Lord for the offence committed against His authority.
In the primary law on the subject in Leviticus, there are two
sections, each beginning with the formula, "And the Lord
spake to Moses," — ch. v. 14-17, vi. 1-7, — and each including a
distinct class of cases for trespass-offerings. The relation of the
two to each other has been matter of much controversy of late ;
but the order and succession of topics may be briefly stated, and

342 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

in a perfectly clear and natural manner. In the first section
are mentioned in the front rank sins committed against the holy
things of God, i.e., anything devoted or vowed to Him, tithes,
first-fruits, etc., — a want of faithfulness in respect to these, and
done in ignorance or oversight; then, besides these, in vers.
17-19, all sins whatever against the commandments of the Lord
are included, if done in a similar manner, unconsciously, or from
want of due consideration. In the other section, beginning with
the next chapter, a different class of cases is introduced, and
one in which there must have been a perfect consciousness on
the part of the person offending, viz., violation of a pledge or
trust committed to any one, swearing falsely regarding it, or
regarding lost property which had been found, and generally
acting in a deceitful and fraudulent way concerning the pro
perty of another. It is impossible but that there must here
have been a clear perception of the nature of the things done,
and a sense of their wrongness ; while yet, if no reconciliation
and atonement had been allowed for the offender, the law would
have proved too rigorous for human frailty and imperfection.
This, consequently, was allowed. But in all such cases a debt
was manifestly incurred ; and, indeed, a twofold debt : a debt,
first of all, to the Lord as the only supreme Head of the com
monwealth whose laws had been transgressed, and a debt also
to a party on earth whose constitutional rights had been invaded.
In both respects alike the priest was to make an estimate of the
wrong done ; and in the first respect, the debt (whatever might
be the valuation) was discharged by the presentation of a ram
for the asham or trespass-offering, ver. 15 ; while in the other,
the actual sum was to be paid to the party wronged, with an
additional fifth.

The same limitations as to the manner of committing the
sins in question, were evidently intended to apply here, as in
respect to those for which the sin-offering was presented. They
were such as had been done in ignorance, unawares, through
the influence of passion or temptation ; and it is plain, that
those most distinctly specified could not possibly have been com
mitted without a consciousness of sin at the very time of their
being done. But the precise aspect under which the sins wciv
considered, was taken from a somewhat lower point of view than

Till: TKKSI'ASS-OFFKIMNC. 343

in the case of the sin-offering. It was a reckoning for sin with
a predominant respect to the social and economical evils growing
out of it, or to the violation of rights involved in its commission ;
the higher and primary relations not being, indeed, overlooked,
— for every violation of duty is also a sin against God, — but only
less prominently exhibited. Hence,' while, to mark the amount
of evil done, a ram from the flock was always to be the offering,
the manner of dealing with it, when presented, was such as to
indicate that a relatively inferior place belonged to it as compared
with the sin-offering ; the blood was only poured around the
altar, not sprinkled on the horns, nor carried within the sanctu
ary ; and on those more public and solemn occasions on which a
whole series of offerings was to be presented, we never find the
trespass-offering taking the place of the sin-offering, or occur
ring in addition to it. — (Ex. xxix.; Lev. xvi.; Num. vii., xxviii.,
xxix.) So that the trespass-offering may justly be regarded as
a kind of sin-offering of the second rank, intended for such
cases as were peculiarly fitted for enforcing upon the sinner's
conscience the moral debt he had incurred by his transgression,
in the reckoning of God, and the necessity of his at once ren
dering satisfaction to the Divine justice he had offended, and
making restitution in regard to the brotherly relations he had
violated.1

There can be little doubt that this more restricted and in
ferior character of the trespass-offering is the reason why, in
New Testament Scripture, the one great sacrifice of Christ is
never spoken of with special reference to it, while so often pre
sented under the aspect of a sin-offering. We find there, how
ever, mentfon frequently enough made of sin as a debt incurred
toward God, rendering the sinner liable to the exaction of a
suitable recompense to the offended justice of Heaven. This
satisfaction it is possible for him to pay only in the person of
his substitute, the Lamb of God, whose blood is so infinitely
precious, that it is amply sufficient to cancel, in behalf of every

1 This view of the trespass-offering is now generally concurred in. ;il><>
by Hengstenberg iu his last treatise, Mos. Op., p. 21, as well as by Bahr,
Kurt/., and others. For the reason of a trespass-offering being required in
the purification of a leper, and also of a Nazarite who had broken his vow,
tee what is said in connection with the two cases.

344 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUItE.

believer, the guilt of numberless transgressions. But while this
one ransom alone can satisfy for man's guilt the injured claims
of God's law of holiness ; wherever the sin committed assumes
the form of a wrong done to a fellow-creature, God justly
demands, as an indispensable condition of His granting an
acquittal in respect to the higher province of righteousness, that
the sinner show his readiness to make reparation in this lower
province, which lies within his reach. He who refuses to put
himself on right terms with an injured fellow-mortal, can never
be received into terms of peace and blessing with an offended
God. And if he should even proceed so far as to bring his gift
to the altar, while he there remembers that his brother has
somewhat against him, he must not presume to offer it, as he
should then offer it in vain, but go and render due satisfaction
to his brother, and then come and offer the gift. — (Matt. v. 23,24.)

THE BURNT-OFFERING.

The name commonly given in Scripture to this species of
sacrifice is olah (no>), an ascension, so called from the whole being
consumed and going up in a flame to the Lord. It also received
the name kalil (/^), the whole, with reference also to the entire
consumption, and possibly not without respect to its general and
comprehensive character.

For in this respect it was distinguished from all the other
sacrifices, and raised above them. The sin and trespass-offerings
were presented with the view sjmply of making atonement for
sin, very commonly particular sins, and had for their object the-
restoring of the offerer to a state of peace and fellowship with
God, which had been interrupted by the commission of iniquity.
But the burnt-offering was for those who were already standing
within the bonds of the covenant, and without any such sense
of guilt lying upon their conscience as exposed them to excision
from the covenant. We are not, however, to suppose on this
account, that there was to be no conscience of sin in the offerer
when he presented this sacrifice ; for he was required to lay his
hand on the head of the victim (with which confession of sin
was always accompanied), and it was expressly said "to be ac
cepted for him, to make atonement for him;' — (Lev. i. 4, and

11 1 K BURNT-OFFERL\< i . 345

also cli. xvi. 24.) But the guilt for which atonement here re
quired to be made, was not that properly of special and formal
acts of transgression, but rather of those shortcomings and
imperfections which perpetually cleave to the servant of God,
and mingle even with his best services. Along, however, with
this sense of unworthiness and sin, which enters as an abiding
element into the state of his mind, there is invariably coupled,
especially in his exercises of devotion, a surrender and consecra
tion of his person and powers to the service of God. While he
is conscious of, and laments the deficiencies of the past, he can
not but desire to manifest a spirit of more complete devotedness
in the time to come. And it was to express this complicated
state of feeling, to which the whole and every individual of the
covenant people should have been continually exercising them
selves, that the service of the burnt-offering was appointed.

Hence this offering, combining in itself to a considerable
extent what belonged to the other sacrifices, might be regarded
as embodying the general idea of sacrifice, and as in a sense
representing the whole sacrificial institute. So it appears in
Deut. xxxiii. 10, where the office of the priesthood in the pre
sentation of offerings is described simply with a reference to
this species of sacrifice : " They shall put incense before Thee,
and whole burnt-sacrifice upon Thy altar." On the same ac
count, it was the kind of offering which was to be presented
morning and evening in behalf of the whole covenant people,
and which, especially during the night, when the altar was
required for no other use, was to be so slowly consumed that it
might last till the morning. — (Ex. xxix. 38-46 ; Num. xxviii. 3 ;
Lev. vi. 9.) So that it was the daily and nightly, in a sense the
perpetual sacrifice — the symbolical expression of what Israel
should have been ever receiving from Jehovah as the God of
the covenant, and what they, as children of the covenant, should
ever have yielded to Him in return. And on account of its hav
ing such a position in the sacrificial institute, as formerly noticed,
the altar of sacrifice came to be familiarly called "the altar of
burnt-offering."

All the more special directions regarding particular burnt-
offerings agree with the view now exhibited. In conformity
with its general and comprehensive character, or its connection

346 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

with the abiding and habitual state of the worshipper, much was
left to his own discretion, both as to the kind of victim to be
presented, the greater or less amount of the sacrifice (which on
very joyful occasions rose to an immense height, 1 Kings iii. 4,
etc.), and the particular times for presenting it. It might be
chosen either from the herd or the flock, but in each case must
be a male without blemish, the best and most perfect of its kind ;
or he might even go to the genus of fowls, and choose a turtle
dove or young pigeon. The blood of the victim was simply
poured around the altar, the most general form of the atoning
action ; and, with the exception of the skin, which was all that
could be given to the priests without detracting from the com
pleteness of the offering, the whole carcase, after being cut into
suitable pieces, and the filth that might adhere to any of them
washed off, was laid upon the altar and burnt. (In the case of
the pigeons, the crop was first removed, as but imperfectly be
longing to the bird, not properly a part of its flesh and blood.)
In that consumption of the whole, after the outpouring of the
blood, for his acceptance, the offerer, if he entered into the spirit
of the service, saw expressed his own dedication of himself, soul
and body, to the service of God — self-dedication following upon,
and growing out of, pardon and acceptance with God. And as
such consecration of the person to God must again appear, and
express itself in the fruits of a holy life, the burnt-offering was
always accompanied with a meat and drink-offering, through
which the worshipper pledged himself to the diligent perform
ance of the deeds of righteousness. — (Num. xv. 3-11, xxviii.
7-15.) For the thankful consecration of the person to the Lord
must show itself in a life and conduct conformed to the Divine
will, responding to the word of Christ, " Ye are My friends, if
ye do whatsoever I command you."

That Christ was here also the end of the law, and realized
to the full what the burnt-offering thus symbolized, will rent lily
be understood. In so far as it contained the blood of atone
ment, ever in the course of being presented for the covenant
people, it shadowed forth Christ as the one and all for His
people, in regard to deliverance from the guilt of sin — the foun
tain to which they must daily and hourly repair, to be washed
from their uncleanness. And in so far as it expressed, through

Till. I'KACE-OFFERINC. 347

the consumption of the victim and the accompaniment of food,
the dedication of the offerer to God for all holy working and
fruitf ulness in well-doing, the symbol met with unspeakably its
highest realization in Him who came not to do His own will,
but the will of the Father that sent Him ; who sought not His
own glory, but the glory of His Father ; who said, even in the
last extremities, and in reference to the most appalling trials,
" Not My will, but Thine, be done. I have glorified Thee on
earth : I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with
the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."

But in this the blessed Redeemer did not stand alone ; here
it could no longer be said, " Of the people there was none with
Him." As bearing the doom and penalty of sin, He is infinitely
exalted above the highest and holiest of His brethren. None of
them can share with Him either in the burden or the glory of
the work given Him to do. These are exclusively His own, and
it is for them simply to receive from His hand, as the debtors of
His grace, and enter into the spoils of His dear-bought victory.
But in the spirit of self-dedication and holy obedience, which
animated Him throughout the whole of His undertaking, He
was the forerunner of His people, and the same spirit must
breathe and operate in them. As He yielded Himself to the
Father, so they must yield themselves to Him, drawn by the
constraint of His love and the mercies of His redemption to
present themselves in Him as living sacrifices, that they may
prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
And the more always they realize their interest in His blood for
the pardon of sin and acceptance with God, the more will they
be disposed to yield themselves to the Lord for a ready submis
sion to His righteous will, and to say with the Psalmist, " O
Lord, truly I am Thy servant ; I am Thy servant, the son of
Thine handmaid : Thou hast loosed my bonds."

THE PE ACE-OFFERIX< ! .

The general name for this species of offering is xlu'lnmim
(DVpto): it comes from a root which signifies to make up, to
supply what is wanting or deficient, to pay or recompense ; and

348 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

hence it very naturally came to express a state in which, all
misunderstandings having been removed and good experienced,
there was room for friendship, joy, and thankfulness.1 And
the sacrifice which went by this name, might be employed in
reference to any occasion on which such ideas became strikingly
displayed.

The peace-offerings appear under three divisions — the sacri
fice of thanksgivings or praise (n"^n)> of a vow (T!?.)> an(l of
free-will ("^"li). The last of these is marked as being somewhat
inferior, by the circumstance that an animal with something
lacking or superfluous in its parts might be offered (Lev. xxii.
23), while in both the other sorts the rule, of being without
blemish, was strictly enforced (ver. 21). And again a difference
is marked, a measure of inferiority in both of the two last as
compared with the first, in that they are treated conjointly, as
coming under the same general laws (Lev. vii. 16-21), while
the first has a section for itself (vers. 11-15) ; and also that the
flesh of those two might be eaten, either on the first or the
second day, while the flesh of the thank-offering required to be
eaten on the first, or else burnt with fire. These are certainly
rather slight distinctions ; but they are quite sufficient to indi
cate degrees of excellence or worth in the respective offerings,
in which the sacrifice of praise holds the highest, and that of
free-will the lowest place. While also the free-will and the
votive peace-offering had much in common, and are made to
stand under one general law as to the service connected with
them, they are not unfrequently presented as in a kind of con
trast to each other.— (Lev. vii. 16, xxii. 21, 23, etc.) This.
however, merely arose from the different circumstances in which
they were usually presented. Persons, who received some striking
interpositions of Providence at a time when they could not make
any suitable outward return, — or, more commonly, persons who
were involved in danger or distress, and greatly desired the
interposition of the Divine hand to bring deliverance, — were ac
customed to vow certain offerings to the Lord in respect to the

1 Some recent commentators would derive the terra from the Piel of the
verb (D&EOj "which means to compensate or repay ; and hence the idea of
thankfulness comes more distinctly out. Thank-offerings, rather than
peace-offerings, they regard as the proper appellation.

Tin: rK.UT.-ni-TKKiNC. 349

goodness cither actually vouchsafed or fervently sought. From
the moment that the vow was made, they lay under an express
obligation to perform what was specified ; their sacrifice as to its
obligation ceased to be a voluntary service; and if some time
elapsed between the promise and the performance, there was con
siderable danger of the feeling that dictated the vow suffering
abatement, and the worshipper either failing to make good his
obligation, or doing so under a constraint. Jacob himself, the
father of the covenant people, formed a memorable example of
this ; having failed in the strict and proper sense to pay the vow
he made at Bethel, after he returned to Canaan, until, reproved
by judgments in his family, and warned by God, he repaired
to the place. — (Gen. xxxv. 1-7). Hence not only the sort of
contrast sometimes indicated between the votive and the free
will offerings, but also the pointed allusions to the necessity of
fulfilling such vows after they were made, and the care which
pious men took to maintain in this respect a good conscience. —
(Ps. xxii. 25, Ixvi. 13, Ixxvi. 11 ; Prov. xx. 25 ; Eccl. v. 4, 5,
etc.) When actually presented, such votive offerings must have
partaken chiefly of the nature of thanksgivings, as in the mode
of their origination they possessed somewhat of the character of
a prayer. In ordinary circumstances, however, and when the
worshipper was in a condition to give outward and immediate
expression to his feelings in an act of worship, it would seem
that the free-will peace-offering was the embodied prayer, as
we find peace-offerings presented in circumstances which natu
rally called for supplication, and which preclude the thought
of any other free-will offerings. — (Judg. xx. 26, xxi. 4 ; 1 Sam.
xiii. 9 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 25.) And the relation of the three kinds
to each other, with their respective gradations, may be indicated
with probable correctness as follows: The thank or praise-offer
ing was the expression of the worshipper's feelings of adoring
gratitude on account of having received some spontaneous tokens
of the Lord's goodness — this was the highest form, as here tin-
grace of God shone prominently forth. The vow-sacrifice was
the expression of like feelings for benefits received from the
Divine beneficence, but which were partly conferred in con
sideration of a vow made by the worshipper — this was of a lower
grade, baying something of man connected with it. And the

350 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

free-will offering, which was presented without any constraint of
necessity, and either without respect to any special acts of mercy
experienced, or with a view to the obtaining of such, occupied a
still lower ground, as the worshipper here took the initiative, and
appeared in the attitude of one seeking after God.1

In regard to the offerings themselves, they were all to be
accompanied with imposition of hands and the sprinkling of the
blood round about the altar, which implied that they had, to some
extent, to do with sin, and, like all the other offerings of blood,
brought this to remembrance. The occasion of their presenta
tion being some manifestation of God, of His mercy and good
ness, whether desired or obtained, it fitly served to remind the
worshipper of his unworthiness of the boon, and his unfitness in
himself to stand before God in peace when God should be draw
ing near. It was this feeling which gave rise to the sentiment,
that no one could see God's face and live, and which so often
found vent for itself in the ancient worshipper, even when the
manifestation actually given of God was of the most gracious
kind. This is well brought out by Biihr in reference to the
matter now under discussion, however his defective views have
led him to misapply the statement, or to overlook the plain infer
ences deducible from it : " The reference to sin and atonement
discovers itself in the most striking and decided manner, pre
cisely in regard to that species of peace-offerings which was the
most important and customary, and which might seem at first
sight to have least to do with such a reference, viz., in the praise-
offering. The word (n*^n) comes from a verb, which signifies
as well to confess to Jehovah sin, guilt, misconduct, as to ascribe
adoration and praise to His name. — (Comp. Ps. xxxii. 4. ; 1 Kings
viii. 33 ; also Josh. vii. 19.) The confession of sin can only be
made in the light of God's holiness ; hence, when man confesses
his sin before God, he at the same time confesses the holiness of
God. But as holiness is the expression of the highest name of
Jehovah, the confession of sin with Israel carries along with it

1 Kurtz, Mosaische Opfer, p. 138-9. The view given above is substan
tially the same also with that of Scholl, Hengstenberg, Baumgarteu, (Ehler
(in Hertzog), and in its leading features was already given by Outnim.
i. 11, § 1. Biihr differs on some points, and is far, indeed, from being a
safe guide in regard to any of the sacrifices.

Till: I'KACE-OFFERING. 351

the confession of the name of Jehovah ; and every confession of
this name, as the front and centre of all Divine manifestations,
is at the same time glory and praise to God. Accordingly, the
Hebrews necessarily thought in their praise-offerings of the con
fession of sin, ;in<l with this coupled the idea of an atonement ;
so that an atoning virtue was properly regarded as essentially
belonging to this sacrifice."1

It was not peculiar to the peace-offerings (for the same also
had place in the ordinary sin-offerings), but it was a more marked
and pervading characteristic in them, that the fat, with the parts
on which it chiefly lay (the kidneys and the greater lobe of the
liver), had to be burnt on the altar. In such offerings this was
the one part reserved for consumption by fire ; and the reason
undoubtedly was, that the fat stood nearest to the blood as the
representative of life. It was in a manner " the efflorescence of
the animal life " — the sign of its full healthf ulness and vigour ;
and hence, in well-fed animals, found clustering in greatest ful
ness around the more inward and vital parts of the system ;
though in the sheep also growing into a lump on the tail. On
this account the term fat was commonly applied to everything
that was best and most excellent of its kind (Gen. xlv. 18 ;
Deut. xxxii. 14, etc.) ; and the fat of the offering, as the richest
portion of the flesh, was fitly set apart for Jehovah. It was, how
ever, peculiar to the peace-offerings that certain parts of the
flesh were, by a special act of consecration, waving and heaving,
set apart for the priests, and given them as their portion. These
parts were the breast and the right shoulder. Why such in parti
cular were chosen is nowhere stated ; but it probablv arose from
their being somehow considered the more excellent parts. And
in regard to the ceremony of consecration, according to Jewish
tradition, it was performed by laying the parts on the hands of
the offerer, and the priest putting his hands again underneath,
then moving them in a horizontal direction for the waving, ami
in a vertical one for the heaving. It would appear that the
ivivmony was commonly divided, that one part of it alone was
usually performed at a time, and that in regard to the peace-
offerings the waving was peculiarly connected with the breast, —
which is thence called the wave-breast, Lev. vii. 30, 32, 34, — and
1 Syrabolik, ii., p. 379, 380.

352 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the heaving with the shoulder, for this reason called the heave-
shoulder. There can be little doubt that the rite was intended
to be a sort of presentation of the parts to God, as the supreme
Ruler in all the regions of this lower world and in the higher
regions above : the more suitable in connection with the peace-
offerings, as these were acknowledgments of the Lord's power
and goodness in all the departments of Providence, and in the
blessings which come down from above. When those parts were
thus presented and set apart to the priesthood, the Lord's fami
liars, the rest of the flesh, it was implied, was given up to the
offerer, to be partaken of by himself and those he might call to
share and rejoice with him. Among these he was instructed to
invite, beside his own friends, the Levite, the widow, and the
fatherless.— (Deut. xii. 18, xvi. 11.)

This participation by the offerer and his friends, this family
feast upon the sacrifice, may be regarded as the most distinctive
characteristic of the peace-offerings. It denoted that the offerer
was admitted to a state of near fellowship and enjoyment with
God, shared part and part with Jehovah and His priests, had a
standing in His house, and a seat at His table. It was there
fore the symbol of established friendship with God, and near
communion with Him in the blessings of His kingdom ; and was
associated in the minds of the worshippers with feelings of pecu
liar joy and gladness, — but these always of a sacred character.
The feast and the rejoicing were still to be " before the Lord,"
in the place where He put His name, and in company with those
who were ceremonially pure. And with the view of marking
how far all impurity and corruption must be put away from such
entertainments, the flesh had to be eaten on the first, or at farthest
the second day, after which, as being no longer in a fresh state,
it became an abomination.

Turning our view to Christian times, we find the ideas sym
bolized in the peace-offering reappearing, and obtaining their
adequate expression, both in Christ Himself and in His people.
What it indicated in regard to the presenting of an atonement,
could of course find its antitype only in Christ, as all the blood
shed in ancient sacrifice pointed to that blood of His which
alone cleanseth from sin. And inasmuch as all the blessing
which Christ obtained for His Church were received in answer

TIIK rKACE-OFFEKINO. 353

to intercessory prayer, ami when received, formed the occasion
also on His part of giving praise and glory to the Father, so here
also we see the grand ivali/ation of the peace-offering in Him
who, in the name and the behalf of His redeemed, could say,
" My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation : I will
pay My vows before them that fear Him." — (Ps. xxii. 25.)

Viewed, however, as a representation of the state and feel
ings of the worshipper, the service of the peace-offering bears
respect more directly and properly to the people of Christ than
to Christ Himself. And so viewed, it exhibits throughout an
elevated and faithful pattern of their spiritual condition, and the
righteous principles and feelings by which that is pervaded.
In the feast upon the sacrifice, the feeding at the Lord's own
table, and on the provisions of His house, we see the blessed
state of honour and dignity to which the child of God is raised ;
his nearness to the Father, and freedom of access to the best
things in His kingdom ; so that he can rejoice in the goodness
and mercy which are made to pass before him, and can say, " I
have all, and abound." But let it be remembered, that the very
place where the feast was held — "before the Lord" — and the
careful exclusion of all putrid appearances, give solemn warning
that such a high dignity and blessed satisfaction can be held only
by the sanctified mind, and the spiritual delight which is reaped
cannot possibly consist with the love and practice of sin. Nay, in
the prayers, the vows, the thanksgivings and praises with which
those peace-offerings were accompanied, and of which they were
but the outward expression, let it be perceived how much the
possessors of this elevated condition should be exercised to the
work of communion with Heaven, and especially how sweet
should be te them " the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of the lips !"
— (Ileb. xiii. 15.) And then, in the way by which the wor
shipper attained to a fitness for enjoying the privilege referred to,
— namely, through the life-blood of atonement, — how impressive
a testimony was borne to the necessity of seeking the road to all
dignity and blessing in the kingdom of God through faith in a
crucified Kedeemer ! By Him has the provision been made, and
the door opened, and the invitation issued to go in and partake.
Such only as have been covered upon by His atoning blood can
be admitted to taste, or be prepared to relish, the feast of fat

VOL. II. Z

354 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

things He sets before them ; for through Him, as the grand
medium of reconciliation and acceptance, must their persons be
brought nigh, their devotions presented, and their souls prepared
for communion and fellowship with God. The unsanctified by
the blood of Christ must of necessity be aliens from God's house
hold, and strangers at His table.

THE MEAT-OFFEEING.

The proper and distinctive name for what is called the meat
offering, was mincha (i"1™*?), although the word is sometimes used
in a more extended sense, as a general name for offerings or
things presented to the Lord. It is not expressly said that this
kind of offering was only to be an addition to the two last species
of bloody sacrifices (the burnt-offering and peace-offering), and
that it could never be presented as something separate and inde
pendent. But the whole character of the Mosaic institutions,
and the analogy of particular parts of them, certainly warrants
the inference, that it was not the intention of God that the meat
offering should ever be presented alone ; as there was here no
confession of sin and no expiation of guilt. And accordingly,
when the children of Israel were enjoined to bring, on two sepa
rate occasions, special offerings of this kind, — the sheaf of first-
fruits, and the two loaves (Lev. xxiii. 10-12, 17-20), — on both
occasions alike the offering had to be accompanied with the
sacrifice of slain victims. The ordinary employment of the
meat-offering was in connection with the burnt and peace-offer
ings, which were always to have it as a necessary and proper
supplement. — (Num. xv. 1-13.)

The meat-offering, as to its materials, consisted principally of
a certain portion of flour or cakes, with which, it would seem,
there was always connected a suitable quantity of wine for a
drink-offering. The latter is not mentioned in Lev. ii., which
expressly treats of the meat-offering, but is elsewhere spoken of
as a usual accompaniment (Ex. xxix. 40 ; Lev. xxiii. 13 ; Num.
xv. 5, 10, etc.), and was probably omitted in the second chapter
of Leviticus for the same reason that it is also noticed only by
implication with the show-bread, viz., that it formed quite a
subordinate part of the offering, and was merely a sort of acces-

THE MEAT-OFFERING. 355

sory. Being of the same nature with the show-bread, which
will be treated of in next section, we need not enter here on any
investigation into the design of the offering ; but may simply
mention, in respect to this generally, that it was appended to the
two kinds of offerings specified, to show that the object of such
offerings was the sanctification of the people by fruitfulness in
well-doing, and that without this the end aimed at never could
be attained.

This meat-offering was not to be prepared with leaven or
honey, but always with salt, oil, and frankincense. Leaven is a
piece of dough in a state of putrefaction, the atoms of which are
in a continual motion ; hence it very naturally became an image
of moral corruption. Plutarch assigns as the reason why the
priest of Jupiter was not allowed to touch leaven, that " it comes
out of corruption, and corrupts that with which it is mingled." '
This, however, has been thought by some to be too recondite a
reason for the prohibition, especially as there can be no doubt
that leavened bread was used in ordinary life by the covenant
people, without apparently suggesting any idea of corruption.
It is thought to be more natural, and altogether more in accord
ance with the original prohibition of leaven, to understand by it
simply the old, that which savoured of the state of things to be
done away, whereas the unleavened was the new, the fresh, the
unmixed, consequently pure. — (Ewald, Keil, Baur, Legrer, etc.)
Such, certainly, may have been the original ground on which
leaven was forbidden, though in this way also it came to be
viewed as a symbol of corruption — corruption as a penetrating
and pervading power. The New Testament usage leaves no
room to doubt, that while leaven might be viewed simply with
reference to its penetrating and expansive qualities (Matt. xiii.
33), it was commonly understood to symbolize malice and wick
edness — whatever tends to mar the simplicity and corrupt the
purity of the people of God — from which, therefore, the symbo
lical offerings that represented the good works and holy lives of
the worshipper must be kept separate. — (Matt. xvi. 6 ; Luke xii.
1 ; 1 Cor. v. 6-8 ; Gal. v. 9.) The prohibition of honey is
variously understood ; and is very commonly regarded as inter
dicted for the same reason Mibstantially which excluded leaven,
1 Qu. Norn. ii. 289.

356 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

as being both in itself, and as an article of diet, when taken in
any quantity, liable to become sour and corrupt. So Winer,
Biihr, Baurngarten, and many others. But this seems rather
far-fetched, and has little to countenance it in the references
made to honey in the Old Testament. There it almost uniformly
appears as of all things in nature the most sweet and gratifying
to the natural taste — the fitting representative, therefore, of
whatever is most pleasing to the flesh. Hence, as Jarclii says,
" All sweet fruit was called honey ;" and another Jewish autho
rity, connecting the natural with the spiritual here, testifies that
" the reason why honey was forbidden, was because evil concu
piscence is sweet to a man as honey." — (See Ainsworth on Lev.
ii. 11.) As, therefore, the corrupting element of leaven was
forbidden, to indicate the contrariety of everything spiritually
corrupt to the pure worship and service of God, so here the most
luscious production of nature was also prohibited, to indicate that
what is peculiarly pleasing to the flesh is distasteful to God, and
must be renounced by His faithful servants.1

In regard to the ingredients with which the meat-offering
was to be accompanied, there is scarcely any room for diversity
of opinion. Salt is the great preservative of animal nature,
opposing the tendency to putrefaction and decay. It was there
fore well fitted to serve as a symbol of that moral and religious
purity which is essential to the true worship of God, and on
which all stability and order ultimately depend. Hence, also,
it is called " the salt of the covenant of God," being an emblem
at once of the perpetuity of this, and of the principles of holy
rectitude, the true elements of incormption, for the maintenance
of which it was established. When our Lord said to His
disciples, " Ye are the salt of the earth," He wished them to
know that it was their part to exercise in a moral respect the
same sanatory, healthful, purifying, and preservative influence
which salt did in the things of nature. And Avhen again assert-

1 The prohibition of leaven and honey was only for the usual meat-offer
ing, and did uot apply to the first-fruits, as the first-fruits of everything had
to be presented to the Lord ; hence the wave-loaves were leavened, Lev.
xxiii. 17, and honey is mentioned among the first-fruits presented in 2 Chron.
xxxi. 5. These, however, did not come upon the altar, but were only pre
sented to the Lord, and given to the priests.

THi: MEAT-OFFERING. 357

i

ing that everyone should have "salt in themselves, and that
every sacrifice must be salted with salt" (Mark ix. 49, 50), He
intimates that the property which enters into the lives of God's
people, and renders them a sort of spiritual salt, must be within,
consisting in the possession of a good conscience toward God. —
The oil, symbol of the grace of God's Spirit, with which the
meat-offering was to be intermingled, implied that every good
work, capable of being presented to God, must be inwrought by
the Spirit of God. And that frankincense was to be put upon
it, bespoke the connection between good works and prayer, and
that all righteous action should be presented to God in the spirit
of devotion. So that " the good works of the faithful are re
presented by the oil, as prompted, quickened, and matured by
the Holy Spirit — by the frankincense, as made acceptable and
borne heavenwards in prayer — and by the salt, as incorruptible,
perpetually abiding signs and fruits of God's covenant of
grace." 1

1 Kurtz, Mos. Opfer, p. 102. Compare also what is said on the shew-
bread in next section.

SECTION SIXTH.

THE HOLY PLACE — THE ALTAR OF INCENSE — THE TABLE OF
SHEAV-BREAD — THE CANDLESTICK.

As the court of the Tabernacle was the place where the body
of the covenant people could have access to God, so the Sanc
tuary or Holy Place was the more hallowed ground, where they
could only appear by representation. Into this apartment the
priests, in their behalf, went every day to accomplish the service
of God, having freedom at all times to go in and out. It might
therefore be justly regarded as their proper habitation ; and the
furniture and services belonging to it might as naturally be
made to express their relation to God, as those of the Most Holy
Place the relation of God to them. We shall find this fully
borne out by a consideration of the several particulars. The
first of these is —

THE ALTAR OF INCENSE.

Its position appears to have been the nearest to the veil,
which formed the entrance into the Most Holy Place, and,
indeed, immediately in front of it. " Thou shalt put it before
the veil, that is, by the ark of the testimony ; before the mercy-
seat, that is, over the testimony, where I will meet with thee."
— (Ex. xxx. 6.) The meaning of the direction obviously is, that
this altar was to be placed directly before the veil, in close rela
tionship to it, and in the middle of the apartment ; and this for
the reason that, being so placed, it might the more readily be
viewed as standing in a kind of juxtaposition to the mercy-seat.
Hence also, in Lev.xvi. 18, it is called "the altar that is before
the Lord," being as near to His throne as the daily service to be
performed at it admitted. In regard to its form and structure,
it was a square-like box, on the top one cubit each way, and
two cubits in height (i.e., about 3^ feet high, and 21 inches

mi: ALTAR OF INCKNSK. 359

square on the top) ; made of sliittim-woocl overlaid with gold,
with jutting points or corners called horns, and a crown or
ornamented edge of gold. The name of misbeach (sacrificing
place), commonly rendered altar, was applied to it, not from
there being any sacrifices, in the strict sense, or slain victims
presented on it, — for it served merely as a stand for the pot of
incense which was placed on it, — but probably from the intimate
connection in which it stood to the altar of burnt-offering. It
was with live coals taken from this altar that the incense daily
offered in the sanctuary was to be kindled ; so that the one
altar might be regarded as a kind of appanage to the other,
serving to carry forward the intercourse with God, which it had
begun. In its position nearer to the peculiar dwelling-place of
Jehovah, this altar of incense bespoke intercourse with Him of
a more advanced and intimate kind ; and what we naturally
expect to find in connection with it is a symbolical expression of
the innermost desires and feelings of a devout spirit. On this
account, also, it probably was, that of all the articles belonging
to the Holy Place, the altar of incense alone was sprinkled with
blood on the day of atonement, as being the highest in order of
them all, and the one that held a peculiarly intimate relation to
the mercy-seat ; hence most fitly taken to represent them all.

The incense, for the presentation of which before the Lord
this altar was erected, was a composition formed of four kinds
of sweet spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense
— of which the latter alone is known with certainty. The com
position was made, we have eveiy reason to think, with the view
of yielding the most fragrant and refreshing odour. The people
were expressly forbidden to use it on any ordinary occasion, and
the priests restricted to it alone for burning on the altar — that
there might be associated with it a feeling of the deepest sacred-
ness. It possessed the threefold characteristic of " salted (not
tempered together, as first in the LXX., and from that trans
ferred into our version, Ex. xxx. 35 ; see Ainsworth there, and
P»lihr, i., p. 424), pure, holy;" that is, having in it a mixture of
salt, the symbol of uncorruptness, but otherwise unmixed 01
unadulterated, and set apart from a common to a sacred use.
And the ordinance connected with it was, that when the otlu-iat-
ing priest went in to light the lamps in the evening, and again

360 THE TYTOLOGY OP SCRIPTURE.

when he dressed the lamps in the morning, he was to place on
this golden altar a pot of the prescribed incense with live coals
taken from the altar without, that there might be " a perpetual
incense " ascending before the Lord in this apartment of PL's
house. — (Ex. xxx. 8.)

The meaning of the symbol is indicated with sufficient plain
ness even in Old Testament Scripture, and in perfect accordance
with what might have been conjectured from the nature and
position of the altar. Thus the Psalmist says, " Let my prayer
be set before Thee as the incense" (cxli. 2), literally, Let my
prayer, incense, be set in order before Thee, — implying that
prayer was in the reality what incense was in the symbol. The
action also in Isa. vi. 3, 4, where the voice of adoration is
immediately followed by the filling of the temple with smoke,
proceeds on the same ground ; as by the smoke wre are doubtless
to understand the smoke of the incense, the only thing of that
description commonly found there, and which, as an appropriate
symbol, appeared to accompany the ascription of praise by the
seraphim. Passing to New Testament Scripture, though still
only to that portion which refers to Old Testament times, we
are told of the people without being engaged in prayer, while
Zacharias was offering incense within the sanctuary (Luke i.
10) ; they were in spirit going along with the priestly service.
And in the book of Revelation the prayers of saints are once
and again identified with the offering of incense on the golden
altar before the throne. — (Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4.)1

That the devotional exercises, the prayers of God's believing
people, should have been symbolized by this offering of incense,
may appear to some in our age and country to carry a somewhat
fanciful appearance. Yet there is a very natural connection
between the two, which persons accustomed to the rites of a
symbolical worship could have had no difficulty in apprehending.

1 Iu tbe last of these passages the incense is said to have been offered
" with the prayers of saints," whence some have inferred that the two were
different — that the incense symbolized only Christ's intercession, and not the
prayers of saints. But in ch. v. 8 the incense is expressly called "the
prayers of saints." And it is the usual style of the Apocalypse to couple the
symbol with the reality, as, besides the instance before us, the golden
candlesticks and the churches, the white linen and the righteousness of the
saints, etc.

TIM: ALTAR OF INCENSE. 3G1

For what arc the odours of plants and flowers, but a kind of
sweet breath, which they arc perpetually exhaling? It is the
free and genial outpouring of that spirit of fragrance which is
in them. And taking prayer in its largest sense, which we
certainly ought to do here, as consisting in the exercise of all
devout feeling and spiritual desire towards God — in the due
celebration of His adorable perfections — in thanksgiving for the
rich and innumerable mercies received from His bountiful hand
— in humble supplications for His favour and blessing, — if we
understand prayer in this wide and comprehensive sense, how
can -it be more suitably regarded than as the breath of the
Divine life in the soul ? Here especially there is the pouring
out before God of the best and holiest affections of the renewed
heart. There is the earnest reaching forth of the soul to unite
itself in appropriate actings with the great centre of Being, and
to consecrate its best energies to Him. Of such spiritual sacrifices
it is saying little, that the presentation of them at fitting times is
a homage due to God from His redeemed offspring. The per
mission to offer them is, on their part, a high and ennobling
privilege, in the exercise of wrhich they rise to sit in heavenly
places with Christ, and occupy the lofty position of princes with
God. Nor, when done in sincerity and truth, can it ever fail, on
God's part, to meet with His cordial reception and most favour
able regard. In such breathings of childlike confidence and
holy affection He takes especial delight ; and hence chose for
a symbol of these the incense of sweet spices, that by the grate
fulness of the one to the bodily sense, might be understood the
spiritual satisfaction yielded by the other.

But it ought ever to be considered what kind of devotions it
is that rise with such acceptance to the sanctuary above. That
the altar of incense stood before the Lord, under His imme
diate I'M-, intimates that the adorations and prayers lie regards
must be no formal service, in which the lip rather than the
heart is employed; but a felt approach to the presence of the
living God, and a real transaction between the soul and Him.
That this altar, from its very position, stood in a close relation
to the mercy-scat or propitiatory, on the one hand, and by its
character and the live coals that ever burned in its golden vials,
stood in an equally close relation to the altar of burnt-offering,

362 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

on the other, tells us, that all acceptable prayer must have its
foundation in the manifested grace of a redeeming God, — must
draw its breath of life, in a manner, from that work of propitia
tion which He has in His own person accomplished for the sinful.
And since it was ordained that a " perpetual incense before the
Lord" should be ever ascending from the altar — since injunc
tions so strict were given for having the earthly sanctuary made
peculiarly and constantly to bear the character of a house of
prayer, most culpably deaf must we be to the voice of instruc
tion that issues from it, if we do not hear enforced on all who
belong to the spiritual temple of an elect Church, such a lesson
as this — Pray without ceasing ; the spirit of devotion is the very
element of your being, the indispensable condition of health and
fruitfulness ; all, from first to last, must be sanctified by prayer ;
and if this be neglected, neither can you fitly be named a house
of God, nor have you any ground to expect the blessing of
Heaven on your means of grace and works of well-doing.

THE TABLE OF SIIEW-BREAD.

This table was made of the same materials as the other
articles in the tabernacle — of the same height as the ark of the
covenant, but half a cubit narrower in breadth ; and as the
table was for a service of food, a provision-board, it had con
nected with it wrhat, in our version, are called " dishes, spoons,
covers, and bowls," the usual accompaniments of such a table
among men. It is proper to notice, however, that these names
scarcely suggest what is understood to have been the exact
nature and design of the articles in question. What on such a
table could be the use of spoons or covers, it is impossible to
understand. The rendering, accordingly, of these parts of the
description may with good reason be inferred to be erroneous,
and in regard to the latter of them most certainly was so. Of
the four subsidiary articles mentioned (Ex. xxv. 29), the first
(niiyp) were probably a sort of platters for carrying the bread to
and from the table, on which also it might stand there ; the
second (niSQ, from sp, the hollow of the hand), some sort of
hollow cups, or vessels, possibly for the frankincense (the L X X .
have expressly censers} ; the third and the fourth, (nit"P) and

Ill K TABLE OF SKEW-BREAD. 363

, with the latter of which in Ex. xxv. 29, and with the
former in Num. iv. 7, there is coupled the additional ex
pression, " to pour withal " (not " to cover withal," as in our
version), were most likely the vessels appropriated for the wine,
and are probably rendered with substantial correctness by the
LXX. by words corresponding to " bowls and cups." That we
cannot fix more definitely the form and use of these inferior
utensils, is of little moment ; as we can have no doubt that
they were simply such as were required for the provisions and
services connected with the table itself. The vessels were all of
pure gold.

Turning, therefore, to the provisions here mentioned, the
main part, we find, consisted of twelve cakes, which, when
placed on the table, were formed into two rows or piles. The
twelve, the signature of the covenant people, evidently bore
respect to the twelve tribes of Israel, and implied, that in the
symbolical design of these cakes the whole covenant people
wrere equally interested and called to take a part. These cakes,
as a whole, were called the " show-bread," literally " bread of
faces or presence." The meaning of the expression may,
without difficulty, be gathered from Ex. xxv. 30, where the
Lord Himself names it " show-bread before Me always ; " it
was to be continually in His presence, or exhibited before His
face, and was hence appropriately designated " show-bread," or
" bread of presence." The table was never to be without it ;
and on the return of every Sabbath morning, the old materials
were to be withdrawn, and a new supply furnished. Why pre
cisely on the Sabbath, will be explained when we come to
speak of the Moadeem, or stated feast-days.

It has been thought that something more must have been
intended by the peculiar designation " bread of presence," than
we have now mentioned, since, if this were all, the altar of
incense and the golden candlestick might, with equal propriety,
have been called the altar and candlestick of presence — which,
however, they never an- (Biihr). But a special reason can
easily be discovered for the peculiar appropriation of this epithet
to the bread, viz., to prevent the Israelites from supposing, —
what they might otherwise, perhaps, in their carnality, have
done, — that this bread was, like bread in general, simply for

3ti4 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

being eaten ; to instruct them, on the contrary, that it was
rather for being seen and looked on with complacency by the
holy and ever-watchful eye of God. They would thus more
easily rise from the natural to the spiritual use, from the symbol
to the reality. The bread, no doubt, was eaten by the officiat
ing priests each Sabbath ; not on the table, however, but only
after having been removed from it, and simply because, being
most holy, it might not be turned to a profane use, but must be
consumed by God's representatives in His own house. As con
nected with the table, its design was served by being exhibited
and seen, for the well-pleased satisfaction and favourable regard
of a righteous God ; so that it is not possible to conceive a fitter
designation than the one given to it, of shew-bread, or bread of
presence.

But in what character precisely was this bread laid upon
the table ? We are furnished with the answer in Lev. xxiv. 8,
where it is described as " an offering from the children of Israel
by a perpetual covenant ;" a portion, therefore, of their sub
stance, and consecrated to the honour of God. It wras, conse
quently, a kind of sacrifice ; and as the altar of God was, in a
sense, His table, so this table of His in turn possessed somewhat
of the nature of an altar : l the provision laid on it had the
character of an offering. Hence, also, there was placed upon
the top of each of the two rows a vessel with pure frankincense
(Lev. xxiv. 7), which was manifestly designed to connect the
offering on the table with the offering on the altar of incense,
and to show that they not only possessed the same general
character of offerings presented by the people to the Lord, but
also that there existed a near internal relationship between the
two : " Thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row for
the bread, for a memorial (a calling to remembrance, viz., of the
covenant people before the Lord), an offering of fire unto the
Lord." Now, the offering of incense was simply, as we have
seen, an embodied prayer ; and the placing of a vessel of in
cense upon this bread was like sending it up to God on tin-
wings of devotion. It implied that the spiritual offering sym
bolized by the bread was to be ever presented with supplication,

1 Sicut enim ara mensa Dei, ita mensa Dei ara quae lam erat,
plane vicera przestabat.— (Outrain. Do Sac., L. i., c. 8, § 7.)

THE TABLE OF SKEW-BREAD. , 365

and only when so presented could it meet with the favour and
blessing of Heaven. Thus hallowed and thus presented, the
bread became a most sacred thing, and could only be eaten by
the priests in the sanctuary : " for it is most holy (a holy of
holies) unto him, of the offerings of the Lord, made by fire by
a perpetual statute."

It is also to be borne in mind, with the view of helping us
to understand the symbolical import of the show-bread, that
there was not only frankincense set upon each row, but also a
vessel, or possibly two vessels, of wine placed beside them. This
is not, indeed, stated in so many words, but is clearly implied in
the mention made of bowls or vessels for " pouring out withal,"
or making libation with them to God. Wine is well known to
have been the kind of drink constantly used for the purpose ;
and the simple mention of such vessels, for such a purpose,
must have been perfectly sufficient to indicate to the priesthood
what was meant by this part of the provisions. Still, from the
table deriving its name from the bread placed on it, and from
the bread alone being expressly noticed, we are certainly en
titled to regard it as by much the more important of the two,
the main part of the provisions, and the wine only as a kind of
accessory, or fitting accompaniment. But these two, bread or
corn and wine, were always regarded in the ancient world as
the primary and leading articles of bodily nourishment, and
were most commonly put as the representatives of the whole
means of life. — (Gen. xxvii. 28, 37 ; Judges xix. 19 ; Ps. iv.
7 ; Hag. ii. 12 ; Luke vii. 33, xxii. 19, 20, etc.) And from
the two being placed together on this table,. with precisely such
a prominence to the bread as properly belongs to it in the field
of nature, it is impossible to doubt that something must have
been symbolized here which bore a respect to the Divine life,
similar to what these did in the natural.

But the things presented here, we have already stated, pos
sessed the character of an offering to the Lord : if spiritual
food was symbolized, it must have been so in respect to Him.
And how, it will naturally be asked, could His people present
anything to Him that might with propriety be regarded as
ministering nourishment or support to the all-sufficient God?
Not certainly as if lie needed anything from their hands, or

366 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

could derive actual refreshment from whatever they might be
capable of yielding in His service. But we must remember the
relation in which Israel stood to God, and He again to Israel, —
their relation first in respect to what was visible and outward,
— and then we shall have no difficulty in perceiving how fitly
what was here presented in that lower region shadowed forth
what was due in respect to things spiritual and divine. The
children of the covenant were sojourners with God in that land
which was peculiarly His, and on which His blessing, if they
only remained faithful to the covenant, was perpetually to rest.
On their part, they were to obtain bread and wine in abundance
for the comfortable support of their bodily natures, as the fruit
of their labours in the cultivated fields and luxuriant vineyards
of Canaan. And even in this point of view they owed a return
of tribute-money to God, as the absolute Lord and Sovereign of
the land, in token of their holding all in fief of Him, and de
riving their increase from the riches of His bounty. This they
were called to render in their tithes, and first-fruits, and free
will offerings. But as the table of shew-bread was part of the
furniture of God's house, where all bore a religious and moral
character, it is with the spiritual alone we have here to do, and
with the outward and natural only as the symbol of the other.
The children of the covenant, as God's royal priesthood, had a
spiritual relation to fill ; they had a spiritual work to do for the
interests of God's kingdom, and in the doing of which they had
also from His hand the promise of fruitfulness and blessing.
How was such a result to appear ? What here corresponds to
the bread and wine obtained in the province of nature ? It can
only be the fruits of righteousness, for which the spiritual mind
ever hungers and thirsts, and which, the more it grows in the
Divine life, the more must it desire to have realized. But as
the Divine life exists in its perfection with God, He must also
supremely desire the same : a becoming return of righteousness
from His people cannot be otherwise than a refreshment to His
nature; and with such a spiritual increase, they must never
leave His house unfurnished. Had they been the subjects of
an earthly king, it would have been their part to keep his table
replenished with provisions of a material kind, suited to the wants
of a present life. But since God is a Spirit, infinitely exalted

Tin: TABLE OF sn I:\V-MREAD. 367

above the pressure of outward necessities, and seeking what is
good only from His love to the interests of righteousness, it is
their fruitful obedience to His commandments, their abounding
in whatsoever things are just, honest, pure, lovely, and of good
report, on which, as the very end of all the privileges He had
conferred, His soul ever was, as it still is, supremely set. These
are the provisions which, as labourers in His kingdom, they
must be ever presenting before Him ; and on these His eye
ever rests with holy satisfaction, when sent up with the incense
of true devotion from the humble and pious worshipper.
Hence, while in Ps. 1. 13, 14, he repudiates the idea of His
requiring such gross materials of refreshment as the blood and
flesh of slain victims, He earnestly desires (vers. 14, 23) the
spiritual gifts of a pure and holy life. Sacrifices of any kind
were acceptable only in so far as they expressed the feelings
and desires of a righteous soul.

If the community of Israel at large had entered aright into
the mind of God, they would, in the ordinance of the shew-
brcad, have seen this to be their calling, and laboured with
unfeigned earnestness to fulfil it. It was in reality done only
by the spiritual members of the seed, who too frequently formed
but a small portion of the whole. To such, however, Cornelius
is plainly represented as belonging, even though he had not yet
been admitted to an outward standing in the community of the
faithful, when, in the language of this ordinance, it is said of
him, that "his alms-deeds and his prayers came up for a memo
rial before God" — for a memorial or bringing to remembrance
of the worshipper for his good ; the very description given of
the design of the shew-bread with its pot of incense. For God
never calls His people to serve Him for nought. He seeks from
them the fruits of righteousness, only that He may send them
in return abundant recompenses of blessing. And every act of
uraoe or deed of righteousness that proceeds from their hands,
does for them in the upper sanctuary the part of a remem
brancer, putting their heavenly Father, as it were, in mind of
His promises of love and kindness. What encouragement to
be faithful! IIow does God strew the path of obedience with
allurements to tin- practice of every good and pious work ! And
in proportion to His anxiety in securing these happy results of

368 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

righteousness and blessing, so must be His disappointment and
indignation when scenes of an opposite kind present themselves
to His view. Of this a striking representation was given by tin-
symbolical action of our Lord in blasting the fig-tree, on which
He went to seek fruit but found none (Matt. xxi. 19), and in
the parables of the barren fig-tree in the vineyard, and of the
wicked husbandman to whom a certain householder let out his
vineyard. — (Luke xiii. 6-9 ; Matt. xxi. 33-43 ; comp. also Isa.
v. 1-7.)

It is scarcely necessary to add, that the lesson taught in the
ordinance of the shew-bread speaks with a still louder voice to
the Christian than it could possibly do to the Jewish believer ;
as the gifts of grace conferred now are much larger than for
merly, and the revenue of glory which God justly expects to
accrue from them should also be proportionally increased. We
accordingly find in New Testament Scripture the strongest calls
addressed to believers, urging them to fruitfulness in all well
doing ; and every doctrine, as well as every privilege of grace,
is employed as a motive for inciting them to run the way of
God's commandments. So much is this the characteristic of
the Gospel, that its highest demands on the obedience of men
come always in connection with its fullest exhibitions of grace
to their souls ; and nothing can be more certain than that,
according as they become subject to its influence, they are effec
tually taught to " deny themselves to all ungodliness and worldly
lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world." l

TIIE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK.

This is the only remaining article of sacred furniture in the
Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Its position was to be on the
south side, opposite the table of shew-bread, the altar of incense
being in the middle, and somewhat nearer to the veil of separa
tion. It was not so properly a candlestick, as a stand or support
for lamps. It was ordered to be made with one erect stem in
the centre, and on each side three branches rising out of the

1 The provisions of the table of shew-bread were but another and higher
mode of exhibiting what was constantly being presented directly by the
people in the outer court by means of the meat and drink-offerings.

'Ill I : GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 369

main stem in regular gradation, and each having at the top a
place fitted for holding a lamp, on the same level and of the
same construction with the one in the centre. The material
was of solid gold, and of a talent in weight; so that it must
have been one of the costliest articles in the tabernacle.

In the description given of the candlestick, nothing is said
of its height, or of the proportions of its several parts. Both in
the stem, however, and in the branches, there was to be a three
fold ornament wrought into the structure, called " bowls, knops,
and flowers." The bowls or cups appear to have been fashioned
so as to present some resemblance to the almond-tree (Ex. xxv.
33), as, in the passage referred to, they are called " almond-
shaped cups." The knops or globes are supposed by Josephus
to have been pomegranates, and by the ancient Jewish writers
generally to have been apples ; but the word used in the original
is not that elsewhere employed for apples or pomegranates, and
there is no certain ground for holding such to be the mean
ing of the term here. That they were some sort of rounded
figures, is all we can certainly know of them. And from the
relative position of the three, according to which the flowers
come last, it seems out of place to find in the candlestick a re
presentation of a fruit-bearing tree, with a trunk, and on each
side three flowering and fruitful branches. We should at least
proceed on fanciful ground, did we make anything depend for
the interpretation of the symbol on this notion ; and for aught
we can see to the contrary, the figures in question may have
been designed simply as graceful and appropriate ornaments.
Its being of solid gold denoted the excellency of that which it
symbolized ; and the light it diffused being sevenfold (seven
being the signature of the holy covenant, hence of sanctificution,
holiness) denoted that all was of an essentially pure and sacred
character.

In the lamps on this candlestick Aaron was ordered to burn
pure olive oil ; but only, it would seem, during the night. For
in Ex. xxvii. 21 he is commanded to cause the lamps to burn
"from i-viMiing to morning before the Lonl;" and in ch. xxx.
7, 8, his " dressing the lamps in the morning " is set in oppo
sition to his " lighting them in the evening." The same order
is again repeated in Lev. xxiv. 3. And in accordance with this
VOL. n. 2 A

370 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

we read in 1 Sam. iii. 3 of the Lord's appearing to Samuel
" before the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord "
— which can only mean early in the morning, before sunrise.
Josephus, indeed, mentions that the custom was to keep the
lamps burning night and day; but this only shows that the
arrangement in the second temple varied from the original con
stitution. The candlestick appears to have been designed in its
immediate use to form a substitute for the natural light of the
sun ; and it must hence have been intended that the outer veil
should be drawn up at break of day, as in ordinary tents, so far
as might be needed to give light for any ministrations that
should be performed in the sanctuary.

This symbol has received such repeated illustration in other
parts of Scripture, that there is scarcely any room for difference
of opinion as to its fundamental import and main idea. In the
first chapter of Revelation, the image occurs in its original form,
" the seven golden lamps " (not candlesticks, as in our version,
but the seven lamps on the one candlestick), which are explained
to mean " the seven churches." These churches, however, are
to be understood not merely as so many organized communities,
but as replenished by the Spirit of God, and full of Divine
light and power ; and hence in the 4th chapter of the same
book we again meet with seven lamps of fire before the throne
of God, which are said to be " the seven spirits of God" — either
the One Spirit of God in His varieties of holy and spiritual
working, or seven presiding spirits of light fitted by that Spirit
for the ministrations referred to in the heavenly vision. Through
out Scripture — as we have already seen in ch. iii. of this part —
oil is uniformly taken for a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It is so
not less with respect to its light-giving property than to its qua
lities for anointing and refreshment ; and hence the prophet
Zechariah, ch. iv., represents the exercise of the Spirit's gracious
working and victorious energy in behalf of the Church, under
the image of two olive trees pouring oil into the golden candle
stick — the Church being manifestly imaged in the candlestick,
and the Spirit's assisting grace in the perpetual current of oil
with which it was supplied. Clearly, therefore, what we see in
the candlestick of the tabernacle is the Church's relation to God
as the possessor and reflector of the holy light that is in Him,

THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 371

which she is privileged to receive, and bound again to give forth
to others, so that where she is there must be no darkness, even
though all around should be enveloped in the shades of night.
It is her high distinction to dwell in a region of light, and to act
under God as the bountiful dispenser of its grace and truth.

But what exactly is meant by darkness and light in this rela
tion ? Darkness, in a moral sense, is the element of error, of
corruption and sin ; the rulers of darkness are the heads and
instigators of all malice and wickedness ; and the works of dark
ness are the manifold fruits of unrighteous principle. Light, on
the other hand, is the element of moral rectitude, of sound know
ledge or truth in the understanding, and of holiness in the heart
and conduct. The children of light are those who, through the
influence of the Spirit of Truth, have been brought to love and
practise the principles of righteousness ; and the deeds of light
are such as may stand the examination and receive the approval
of God. When of God Himself it is said, that " He is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all," it implies not only that He is
possessed of all spiritual discernment so as to be able to distin
guish with unerring precision between the evil and the good, but
also that this good itself, in all its principles of truth and forms
of manifestation, alone bears sway in His character and govern
ment. And so, when the Apostle writes to believers (Eph. v. 8),
" Ye are light in the Lord, walk as children of the light," he
immediately adds, with the view at once of explaining and of
enforcing the statement, " for the fruit of the Spirit (or of light,
as it is now generally read) is in all goodness, and righteousness,
and truth :" these are the signs and manifestations of spiritual
light ; and only in so far as your life is distinguished by these,
do you prove and verify your title to the name of children of
light.

The ordinance, therefore, of the golden candlestick, with its
sevenfold light, told the Church of that age — tells the Church,
indeed, df every age — that she must bear the image of God, by
walking in the light of His truth, and shining forth in the gar-
incuts of righteousness for the instruction and edification of
others. Our Lord virtually gives a voice to the ordinance, when
Hi ityi t<> His disciples, " Ye are the light of the world: let
your light so shine before men, that they seeing your good works

372 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

may glorify your Father in heaven." Or it may be heard in the
stirring address of Isaiah, pointing to Christian times : " Arise,
shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord has arisen
upon thee." As much as to say, Now, since the true light has
shone, since He has come who is Himself the life and the light
of men, it is day with thee ; therefore, not a time to slumber and
take thy rest, but to be up and doing in thy Master's service.
Self-pleasing inaction, or unhallowed enjoyment, is no privilege
in God's kingdom. He has brought to thy hand the richest
talents of grace, not that they may be wrapt up in a napkin, but
faithfully laid out for the glory of Him who conferred them.
Arise, therefore, and shine ; reflect the light which has shone
from heaven upon thy soul ; give forth, in the acts of a consist
ent and godly life, becoming manifestations of that glory which
the Spirit of Glory has poured around thy spiritual condition.

In the preceding discussions regarding the Holy Place, we
have avoided referring to the interpretations of the elder typolo-
gists, or the views of commentators. It would have taken too
long to notice every diversity, and it seemed better to notice none
till we had unfolded what we conceive to be the correct view of
the several parts. And this, we trust, has appeared so natural,
and is so fully borne out by the language of Scripture, that the
contrary opinions may be left without special consideration.
Indeed, little more is needed than to look at them, to see how
uncertain and unsatisfactory they commonly are, even to those
who propound them. Biihr, indeed, speaks dogmatically enough,
although his fundamental error regarding the general design of
the tabernacle, formerly referred to, carried him here also for the
most part in the wrong direction. But take, for example, what
Scott says in his commentary regarding the shevv-bread, which
may be paralleled by many similar explanations : " They (the
cakes) might typify Christ as the bread of life and the continual
food of the souls of His people, having offered Himself unto God
for them ; or they may denote the services of believers, presented
before God through Him, and accepted for His sake ; or, the
whole may mean the communion betwixt our reconciled Father
and His adopted children in Christ Jesus, who, as it were, feast

Tin: GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 373

at the same table," etc. What can any one make of this diver
sity of meaning ? When the mind is treated to so many and
sucli different notions under one symbol, it necessarily takes in
none distinctly ; they become merely so many perhapses ; and
instead of multiplying the benefit and instruction of the ordi
nance, we only leave it without any clear or definite import. The
ground of most of the erroneous interpretations on the furniture
and services of the Holy Place, lay in understanding all directly
and peculiarly of Christ. And this, again, arose from not
perceiving that the Tabernacle was intended to symbolize what
concerned the people as dwelling with God, not less than what
concerned God's dwelling with them. It is not to be forgotten,
however, that when Christ is contemplated, not as the substitute,
but as the Head, the Pattern, and Forerunner of His people,
everything that was here shadowed forth concerning them is
true in a pre-eminent sense of Him. His prayers, His work of
righteousness, and His exhibition of the light of Divine truth
and holiness, take precedence of all that in a like kind ever has
been, or ever may be, presented by the members of His body.
But as Christ's whole undertaking is something stii generis, and
chiefly to be viewed as the means of securing salvation and
peace, provided by God for His people — as under this view it
is more especially symbolized in the furniture and services of the
Most Holy Place, it is better, and more agreeable to the design
of the tabernacle, to consider the things belonging to the Holy
Place as having immediate respect to the calling and services of
Christ's people.

SECTION SEVENTH.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE, WITH ITS FURNITURE, AND THE GREAT
ANNUAL SERVICE CONNECTED WITH IT ON THE DAY OF
ATONEMENT.

THOUGH the tabernacle, as a whole, was God's house or dwell
ing-place among His people, yet the innermost of its two apart
ments alone was appropriated for His peculiar place of abode —
the seat and throne of His kingdom. It was there, in that hal
lowed recess, where the awful symbol of His presence appeared,
or possibly had its fixed abode, and from which, as from His
very presence-chamber, the high priest was to receive the com
munications of His grace and will, to be through Him made
known to others. The things, therefore, which concern it, most
immediately and directly respect God : we have here, in symbol,
the more special revelation of what God Himself is in relation
to His people.

I. The apartment itself was a perfect cube of ten cubits,
thus bearing on all its dimensions the symbol of completeness —
an image of the all-perfect character of the Being who conde
scended to occupy it as the region of His manifested presence
and glory. The ark of the covenant, with the tables of the
testimony, and the mercy-seat, with the two cherubims at each
end, formed origiitally and properly its whole furniture. The
ark or chest, which was simply made as a depository for holding
the two tables of the law, the tables of the covenant, was formed
of boards of shittim-wood, overlaid with gold, two and a half
cubits long by one and a half broad, with a crown, or raised
and ornamented border of gold, around the top. This latter it
had in common with the table of shew-bread and the altar of
incense ; so that it could not have been meant to denote any
thing connected with the peculiar design of the ark, and in all
the cases, indeed, it seems merely to have been added for the
purpose of forming a suitable and becoming ornament.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE, WITH ITS FURNITURE. 375

The mercy-seat, as it is called in our version, was a piece of
solid gold, of precisely the same dimensions in length and
breadth as the ark, and ordered to be placed above, on the top
of it, probably so as to go within the crown of gold, and fit
closely in with it. The Hebrew name is capporeth, or covering ;
but not exactly in the sense of being a mere lid or covering for the
ark of the covenant. This might be said rather to suggest than
to express the real meaning of the term, as used in the present
connection. For the capporeth is never mentioned as precisely
the lid of the ark, or as simply designed to cover and conceal
what lay within. It rather appears as occupying a place of its
own, though connected with and attached to the ark, yet by no
means a mere appendage to it ; and hence, both in the descrip
tions and the enumerations given of the holy things in the
tabernacle, it is mentioned separately. — (Ex. xxv. 17, xxvi. 34,
xxxv. 12, xxxix. 35, xl. 20.) It sometimes even appears to stand
more prominently out than the ark itself, and to have been
peculiarly that for which the Most Holy Place was set apart ;
as in Lev. xvi. 2, where this Place is described by its being
"within the veil before the mercy-seat," and in 1 Chron. xxviii.
11, where it is simply designated "the house of the capporeth,"
or mercy-seat.

What, then, was the precise object and design of this por
tion of the sacred furniture? It was for a covering, indeed,
but for that only in the sense of atonement. The word is never
used for a covering in the ordinary sense ; wherever it occurs, it
is always as the name of this one article — a name which it derived
from being peculiarly and pre-eminently the place where cover
ing or atonement was made for the sins of the people. There
was here, therefore, in the very name, an indication of the real
meaning of the symbol, as the kind of covering expressed by it
is covering only in the spiritual sense — atonement. Hence the
rendering of the LXX. was made with the evident design of
bringing out this : i\aa-Ti)piov eTrlOepa (a propitiatory covering).
Yet, while the name properlv conveys this meaning, it was not
given without some respect also to the external position of the
article in question, which was immediately above and upon, not
the ark merely, but also the tables of the testimony within :
" And thou shalt put the mercy-seat upon the ark of the testi-

376 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

mony " (Ex. xxvi. 34) ; " the mercy-scat that is over the testi
mony" (xxx. G) ; "that the cloud of incense may cover the
mercy-seat that is upon the testimony." — (Lev. xvi. 13.) The
tables of the covenant, as formerly explained (p. 110), contained
God's testimony, primarily indeed for what, in His character of
holiness, He required of Plis people, but not without regard to
the counter tendency which existed in them ; so that inciden
tally it became also a testimony against them on account of sin ;
and as they could not stand before it when thundered with
terrific majesty in their ears from Mount Sinai, neither could
they spiritually stand before the accusations it was constantly
raising against them in the presence of God, in the Most Holy
Place. A covering was therefore needed for them between it,
on the one hand, and God on the other — but an atonement-
covering. A mere external covering would not do; for the
searching, all-seeing eye of Jehovah was there, from which
nothing outward can conceal; and the law itself also, from
which the covering was needed, is spiritual, reaching to the
inmost thoughts of the heart, as well as to every action of the
life. That the mercy-seat stood over the testimony, and shut it
out from the bodily eye, was a kind of shadow of the provision
required ; but still, even under that dispensation, no more than
the shadow, and fitted not properly to be, but only to suggest,
what was really required, viz., a covering in the sense of an
atonement. The covering required must be a propitiatory, a
place on which the holy eye of God may ever see the blood of
reconciliation ; and the Most Holy Place, as designated from it,
and deriving thence its most essential characteristic, might fitly
be called " the house of the propitiatory," or the " atonement-
house." — (1 Chron. xxviii. 11.)

At the two ends of this mercy-seat, and rising, as it were,
out of it — a part of the same piece, and constantly adhering to
it — there were two cherubim, made of beaten gold, with out
stretched wings overarching the mercy-seat, and looking inwards
towards each other, and towards the mercy-seat, with an appear
ance of holy wonder and veneration. The symbolical import
of these ideal figures has already been fully investigated,1 and
nothing more is necessary here than a brief indication of their
1 Vol. i., B. ii., s. 3.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE, WITH ITS FURNITUKE. 377

design as connected with the mercy-seat. Placed as they were
with their outstretched wings rising aloft and overshadowing the
mercy-seat, they gave to this the appearance of a glorious seat
or throne, suited for the occupation or residence of God in the
symbolic cloud as the King of Israel. That forms of created
beings were made to surround this throne of Deity, and impart
to it an appearance of becoming grandeur and majesty — this was
simply an outward embodiment of the fact, that God ever makes
Himself known as the God of the living, of whom not only
have countless myriads been formed by His hand, but attendant
hosts also continually minister around Him and celebrate His
praise. And that the particular forms here used were compound
figures, representations of ideal beings, and beings whose com
ponent parts consisted of the highest kinds of life on earth in
its different spheres, — man first and chiefly, and with him the
ox, the lion, and the eagle, — this, again, denoted that the forms
and manifestations of creature-life, among whom and for whom
God there revealed Himself, were not of heaven, but of earth
— chiefly, indeed, and pre-eminently man, who, when the work
of redemptio'n is complete, and he is fitted to dwell in the most
excellent glory of the Divine presence, shall be invested with
the properties of what is still to Him but an ideal perfection, and
be made possessor of a yet higher nature, and stand in yet
nearer fellowship with God than he did in the paradise that
was lost. But these new hopes of fallen humanity all centre in
the work of reconciliation and love shadowed forth upon the
mercy-seat : thither, therefore, must the faces of these ideal
heirs of salvation ever look, and with outstretched wing hang
around the glorious scene, as in wondering expectation of the
tilings now proceeding in connection with it, and hereafter to
be revealed. So that God sitting between the cherubim is God
revealing Himself as on a throne of grace, in mingled majesty
and love, for the recovery of His fallen family on earth, and
their final elevation to the highest region of life, and blessedness,
and glory.— This explanation applies substantially to the cur
tains, which appear to have formed the whole interior of the
tabernacle, and which were throughout inwrought with figures
of cherubim. Not the throne merely, but the entire dwelling
of God, was in the midst of these representatives (as we con-

378 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

ceive them to have chiefly been) of redeemed and glorified
humanity.

The articles now described formed properly the whole furni
ture of the Most Holy Place, being all that was required to give
a suitable representation of the character and purposes of God
in relation to His people. But three other things were after
wards added, and placed, as it is said, before the Lord, or before
the testimony — the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, and the
entire book of the law. These were all lodged there in the
immediate presence of God, as in a safe and appropriate deposi
tory — lodged partly as memorials of the past, and partly as signs
and witnesses for the future. The manna testified of God's
power and willingness to give food for the life of His people
even in the most destitute circumstances — to sustain life in
parched lands — and was ready to witness against them in all
time coming, if they should distrust His goodness or repair to
other sources for life and blessing. The rod of Aaron, which in
itself was as dry and lifeless as the rods of the other tribes, but
which, through the peculiar grace and miraculous power of
God, " brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded
almonds," testified of the appointment of Aaron to the priestly
office — of him alone, though not, as some wickedly affirmed, to
the detriment and death of the congregation, but rather for their
life and fruitfulness in all that is pure and good. It was there
fore well fitted to serve as a witness in every age against those
who might turn aside from God's appointed channel of grace,
and choose to themselves other modes of access to Him than
such as He had Himself chosen and ordained. Finally, the book
of the law, which contained all the statutes and ordinances, the
precepts and judgments, the threatenings and promises, delivered
by the hand of Moses, and which it was the part of the priests
and Levites to teach continually, and on the seventh or sabba
tical year to read throughout in the audience of the people, — this
being put beside, or in the ark of the covenant, testified God's
care to provide His people with a full revelation of His will, and
stood there as a perpetual witness before God against His mini
stering servants, in case they should prove unfaithful to their
charge. — (Deut. xxxi. 2G.) But these things were rather acces
sories to the furniture of the Most Holy Place, than essential

THE MOST HOLY PLACE, WITH ITS FURNITURE. 379

parts of it. The ark of the covenant, with the tables of testimony
within, and the mercy-seat with the cherubim of glory above, upon
the testimony, — these alone were the sacred things, for the recep
tion of which that interior sanctuary was properly reserved and set
apart. It is only with these, therefore, that we have now to do.

II. Now, considered in themselves, and without respect to
any service connected with them, what a clear and striking repre
sentation did they present to the Israelite of the spiritual and
holy nature of God ! How much was here to be learned of His
perfections and character ! It is true, as certain writers have
been at pains to tell us, there was nothing absolutely original in
the plan of a sacred building or structure having an inner sanc
tuary, with a chest or shrine of the Deity deposited there, in
whose honour the house was erected. But what then ? Does
this general similarity account for what we have here, or place
the one upon a level with the other ? Far from it. For what
do we perceive, when we look into those shrines that stood in the
innermost recesses, more especially of Egyptian temples ? Some
paltry or hideous idol, formed after the similitude of a beast,
sacredly preserved and worshipped as a representative of the
Deity, and this only as a substitute for the living creatures them
selves, which appear to have been kept in the larger temples.
" Living animals (says Jablonsky, Pan. Proll., p. 86), such as
were worshipped for images or statues, and treated with all
Divine honours, were to be found only in temples solemnly con
secrated to the gods, and indeed only in certain of these. But
effigies of these animals were to be seen in many other temples
tl in nigh the whole of Egypt, and are still discovered among their
ruins;' And another says, " Some of the sacred boats or arks
contained the emblems of life and stability, which, when the
veil was drawn a>ide, were partially seen ; and others presented
the xinvd beetle of the sun, overshadowed by the wings of two
iigiuvs of tin- goddess Thmei or Truth."1 But what, on the
other hand, do we perceive, when we turn from these instruments

1 Wilkinson, v., p. 265, last ed. We should doubt if in any case emblems
<if life and stability formed the only or even the chief figures, since beast-
worship was the leading characteristic of Egyptian idolatry. But even in
external form, none of the articles referred to present any proper reseni-

380 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of a debasing and abominable superstition, to look into the inner
most sanctuary of the tabernacle ? No outward similitude of any
kind that might be taken for an emblem or an image of God ;
nor any representation of Him but what was to be found in
that revelation of law which unfolds what He is in Himself, by
disclosing what He requires of moral and religious duty from
His people, — a law which, the more reason is enlightened, the
more does it consent to as " holy, just, and good," and which,
therefore, reveals a God infinitely worthy of the adoration and
love of His creatures. We here discern an immeasurable gulph
between the religion of Moses and that of the nations of heathen
antiquity ; and see also how the Israelites were taught, in the
most central arrangements of their worship, the necessity of serv
ing God in spirit, and of rendering all their worship subservient
to the cultivation of the. great principles of holiness and truth.

But, considered farther, with reference to the professed object
and design of the whole, what correct and elevated views were
here presented of the fellowship between God and men ! Had
God only appeared as represented by the law of perfect holiness,
who then could stand before Him ? Or if without law, as a
God of mercy and compassion, stooping to hold converse with
sinful men, and receiving them back to His favour, what security
should have been taken for guarding the rectitude of His govern
ment ? But here, with the ark and the mercy-seat together, we
behold Him, in perfect adaptation to the circumstances of men,
appearing at once as the just God and the Saviour — keeping in
His innermost sanctuary, nay, placing underneath His throne, as
the very foundation on which it rested, the revelation of His
pure and holy law, and, at the same time, providing for the
transgressions of His people a covering of mercy, that they might
still draw near to Him and live. It is already in principle the
mystery of redemption — the manifestation of a God essentially
just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly — of a God whose throne
is alike the dwelling-place of righteousness and mercy — right-

blance of the ark of God. They always possess the ship or boat form, with
something like an altar in the midst ; they have nothing corresponding to
the mercy-seat ; and the chief purpose for which they appear to have been
used, was to preserve an image of the creature that was worshipped as em
blematical of the god.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE, WITH ITS FURNITURE. 381

cousness upholding the claims of law, mercy stretching out the
sceptre of grace to the penitent : both, even then, continually
exercised, but rising at length to unspeakably their grandest dis
play on the cross of Calvary, where justice is seen rigidly exact
ing of the Lamb of God the penalty due to transgression, and
mercy providing, at an infinite cost, a way for the guilty to
peace and blessing.

Since the ark of the covenant and the mercy-scat contained
sucli a complete revelation of what God was in Himself and
toward His people, we can easily understand why the symbol of
His presence, the overshadowing cloud of glory, should have
been immediately in connection with that, and why the life and
soul of the whole Jewish theocracy should have been contem
plated as residing there. There peculiarly was " the place of
the Lord's throne, and the place of the soles of His feet, where
He had His dwelling among the children of Israel." — (Ez.
xliii. 7.) Hence it was called emphatically " the glory of the
Lord ;" and on their possession or loss of this sacred treasure,
the people of God felt that all which properly constituted their
glory depended. — (Ps. Ixxviii. 61 ; 1 Sam. iv. 21, 22.) It was
before this, as containing the symbol of a present God, that
they came to worship (Josh. vii. 6 ; 2 Chron. v. 6) ; and from
a passage in the life of David (2 Sam. xv. 32), where it is said,
according to the proper rendering, " And it came to pass that
when David was come to the top (of the Mount of Olives,
where the last look could be obtained of the sacred abode),
where it is wont to do homage to God," it would appear, that
as soon as they came in sight of the place of the ark, or ob-
taiiu-d their last view of it, they were in the habit of prostrating
themselves in adoration. Happy, if they had but sufficiently
remembered that .Jehovah, being in Himself, and even there
ivpivsenting Himself, as a spiritual and holy God, while He
condescended to make the ark Ilis resting-place, and to connect
with it the symbol of Ilis glory (Lev. xvi. 2, " for I will
appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat"), yet could not so
indissolubly bind His presence and His glory to it, as if the one
might not be separated from the other ! By terrible things in
righteousness the Israelites were once and again made to learn
this salutary lesson, when, rather than appear their patron and

382 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

guardian in sin, the Lord showed that He would, in a manner,
leave His throne empty, and surrender His glory into the
enemy's hands. The cloud of glory was still but a symbol,
which must disappear when the glorious Being who resided in
it could no longer righteously manifest His goodness, and the
ark itself, and the tabernacle that contained it, became as a
common thing. Nor is it otherwise now, whenever men come
to hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. The partial
extent to which they exercise belief in the truth utterly fails to
secure for them any real tokens of His regard. Even while
they handle the symbols of His presence, He is to them an
absent God ; and when the hour of trial comes, they find them
selves forsaken and desolate.

III. But it is only when viewed in connection with the
sen-ice of the day of atonement, — the one day on which the
Most Holy Place was entered by the high priest, — that WTC can
fully perceive either the symbolical import or the typical bear
ing of its sacred furniture. We therefore notice this service
here, in connection with the place which it chiefly respected,
rather than postpone the consideration of it to the time when it
was performed. That not only no Israelite, but that no conse
crated priest, not even the high priest himself, was permitted at
all times to enter within the veil, — that even he was limited in
the exercise of this high privilege to one day in the year, "lest
he should die," — this most impressively bespoke the difficulties
which stood in the way of a sinner's approach to the righteous
God, and how imperfectly these could be removed by the mini
strations of the earthly tabernacle, and the blood of slain beasts.
It indicated that the holiness which reigned in the presence of
God, required on the part of men a work of righteousness to lay
open the way of access, such as could not then be brought in,
and that while the Church should gladly avail itself of the tem
porary and imperfect means of reconciliation then placed within
her reach, she should be ever looking forward to a brighter
period, when eveiy obstruction being removed, her members
would be able to go with freedom into the presence of God, and
with open face behold the manifestations of His glory.

1. In considering more closely the service in question, we

THE MOST HOLY PLACE— THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 383

have first to notice the leading character of the day's solemni
ties. The day, which was the tenth of the seventh month, and
usually happened about the beginning of our October, was to
be " a Sabbath of rest" (Lev. xvi. 31), yet not, like other Sab
baths, a day of repose and satisfaction, but a day on which
" they should afflict their souls." It is not expressly said they
were to fast (nor is fasting as an ordinance ever prescribed in
the Pentateuch), but it would very naturally come to be observed
in that way, and in later times was familiarly styled the fast.
— (Acts xxvii. 9.) This striking peculiarity in the mode of its
observance arose from the nature of the service peculiar to it ;
it was the day of atonement, or, literally, of atonements (Lev.
xxiii. 27), not a day so much for one act of atonement, as for
atonement in general — for the whole work of propitiation. The
main part of the Mosaic worship consisted in the presentation
of sacrifice, as the guilt of sin was perpetually calling for new
acts of purification ; but on this one day the idea of atonement
by sacrifice rose to its highest expression, and became concen
trated in one grand comprehensive series of actions. In suitable
correspondence to this design, the sense of sin was in like manner
to be deepened to its utmost intensity in the national mind, and
exhibited in appropriate forms of penitential grief. It was a
day of humiliation and godly sorrow working unto repentance.
But why all this peculiarity on the day of entrance into the
Most Holy Place ? Was it not a good and joyful occasion for
men personally, or through their representative, to be admitted
into such near fellowship with God ? Doubtless it was ; but
that dwelling-place of God is a region of absolute holiness : the
fiery law is there which reveals the purity of heaven, and is
ready to flame forth in indignation and wrath against all un
righteousness of men. And so the day of nearest approach to
God, as it was on His part the day of atonement, must be on
the part of His people a day for the remembrance of sin, and
for the exercise of that godly sorrow and contrition which it
ought to awaken. For to the penitent alone is there forgive
ness ; not simply to men as sinners, but to men convinced of
sin, and humbling themselves before God on account of it.
" If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
them ;" but without confession there can be no forgiveness, no

384 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

atonement, as we have not yet entered into God's mind respect
ing the character and desert of sin.

2. But if the remembrance of iniquity which was made on
this day, gave to it a character of depression and gloom, the
purpose and design of its services could not fail to render it in
the result a season of blessed rest and consolation. For atone
ment was then made for all sin and transgression. It was
virtually implied, that the acts of expiation which were ever
taking place throughout the year, but imperfectly satisfied for
the iniquities of the people, since the people were still kept out
wardly at some distance from the immediate dwelling-place of
God, and could not even through their consecrated head be
allowed to go within the veil. So that when a service was
instituted with the view of giving a representation of complete
admission to God's presence and fellowship, the mass of sin
must again be brought into consideration, that it might be
blotted out by a more perfect atonement. And not only so,
but as God's dwelling and the instruments of His worship were
ever contracting defilement, from " remaining among men in
the midst of their uncleanness," so these also required to be
annually purified on this day by the more perfect atonement,
which was then made in the presence of God. Not that these
things were in themselves capable of contracting guilt ; they
were so viewed merely in respect to the sins of the people,
which were ever proceeding around them, and, in a sense, in the
very midst of them. For the structure and arrangements of
the tabernacle proceeded on the idea, that the people there
dwelt (symbolically) with God, as God with them ; and conse
quently the sins of the people in all their families and habita
tions were viewed as coming up into the sanctuary, and defiling
by their pollutions the holy things it contained. No separate
offering, therefore, was presented for these holy things, but
they were sprinkled with the blood that was shed for the sins of
the land, as these properly were what defiled the sanctuary.
And that no remnant of guilt, or of its effects, might appear to
be left behind, the atonement was to be made and accepted
for sin in all its bearings — for the high priest and his house, for
the people in all their families, for the tabernacle and all its
utensils.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE— THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 385

3. In this service, then, which contained the quintessence of
all sacrifice, and gave the most exact representation the ancient
worship could afford of the all-perfect atonement of Christ,
there was evervthing in the manner of accomplishing it to mark
its singular importance and solemnity. The high priest alone
had here to transact with God ; and as the representative of the
entire spiritual community, he entered with their sins as well as
his own, into the immediate presence of God. After the usual
morning oblations, at which, if he had personally officiated, he
had to strip himself of the rich and beautiful garments with
which he was wont to be attired, as unsuitable for the services
of a day which was fitted to stain the glory of all flesh ; and
after having washed himself, he put on the plain garments,
which, from the stuff (linen) and from the colour (white), were
denominated " garments of holiness" (Lev. xvi. 4), and were
peculiarly appropriated for the work of this day. Then, when
thus prepared, he had first of all to take a bullock for a sin-
offering for himself and his house, that is, the whole sacerdotal
family, and go with the blood of this offering within the veil.
Yet not with this alone, but also it is said with a censer full of
burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord (viz.,
the altar of incense, though the coals for it had to be obtained
from the altar of burnt-offering) ; and to this he was to apply
handfuls of incense, that there might arise a cloud of fragrant
odours as he entered the Most Holy Place — the emblem of
acceptable prayer. The meaning was, that with all the pains
he had taken to purify himself, and with the blood, too, of
atonement in his hand, he must still go as a suppliant into that
region of holiness, as one who had no right to demand admit
tance, but humbly imploring it from the hand of a gracious
God. Having thus entered within, he had to sprinkle with the
blood upon the mercy-seat, and again before the mercy-seat
seven times : the seven the number of the oath or the covenant ;
and the double act of atonement, first, apparently, having re
spect to the persons interested, and then to the apartments and
furniture of the sanctuary, as defiled by their uncleanness.

When this more personal act of expiation was completed,
that for the sins of the people commenced. Two goats were
presented at the door of the tabernacle, which, though two, are

VOL. II. 2 B

386 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

still expressly named one victim (ver. 5, " two kids of the goats
for a sin-offering"), so that the sacrifice consisted of two, merely
from the natural impossibility of otherwise giving a full repre
sentation of what was to be done ; the one being designed more
especially to exhibit the means, the other the effect, of the atone
ment. And this circumstance, that the two goats were properly
but one sacrifice, and also that they were together presented
by the high priest before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
(ver. 7), indisputably stamped the sacrifice as the Lord's. Nor
was the same obscurely intimated in the action which there took
place respecting them, viz., the casting of lots upon them ; for
this was wont to be done only with what peculiarly belonged to
God, and for the purpose of ascertaining what might be His
mind in the matter. The point to be determined respecting the
two, was not, which God might claim for Himself, and which
might belong to another, but simply to what particular destina
tion He appointed the two parts of a sacrifice, which was wholly
and exclusively His own. And, indeed, the destination itself of
each as thus determined could not be materially different ; it
could not have been an entirely diverse or heterogeneous destina
tion, since it appeared in itself an immaterial thing which should
take the one place arid which the other, and was only to be de
termined by the casting of the lot.1

Of these lots, it is said that the one was to be for the Lord,
and the other for the scape-goat, as in our version, but literally
for Azazel. The one on which the Lord's lot fell was forthwith
to be slain as a sin-offering for the sins and transgressions of
the people ; and with its blood, as with that of the bullock pre
viously, the high priest again entered the Most Holy Place, and
sprinkled, as before, the mercy-seat first, and then before it
seven times ; making atonement for the guilt of the congrega
tion, both as regarded their persons and the furniture of the
tabernacle. After which, having come out from the Most Holy
into the Holy Place, he sprinkled the altar of incense seven
times with the blood both of the bullock and of the goat, " to
cleanse and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of
Israel." — (ver. 19, comp. with Ex. xxx. 10.)

It was now, after the completion of the atonement by blood,
1 See Bahr, Symbolik, ii., p. 678.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE— THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 387

that the high priest confessed over the live goat still standing at
the door of the tabernacle, " all the iniquities of the children of
Israel, and all their transgressions," and thereafter sent him away,
laden with his awful burden, by a fit person into the wilderness,
into a land of separation, where no man dwelt. It is expressly
said, ver. 22, that this was done with the goat that he might bear
all their iniquities thither ; but these iniquities, as already atoned
by the blood of the other goat — the other half, so to speak, of
the sacrifice — for as, on the one hand, without shedding of blood
there could be no remission of sin by the law of Moses, so, on
the other hand, where blood was duly shed, in the way and
manner the law required, remission followed as a matter of
course. The action with this second goat, therefore, is by no
means to be dissevered from the action with the first ; but rather
to be regarded as the continuation of the latter, and its proper
complement. Hence the second or live goat is represented as
standing at the door of the tabernacle, ver. 10, while atonement
was being made with the blood of the first, as being himself
interested in the work that was proceeding, and in a sense the
object of it. He was presented there, not to have atonement
made with him, as is incorrectly expressed in our version, but as
the people's substitute in a process of absolution. And it is only
after this process of absolution or atonement is accomplished that
the high priest returns to him, and, as from God, lays on him the
now atoned for iniquities, that he might carry them away into a
desert place. So that the part he has to do in the transaction, is
simply to bear them off and bury them out of sight, as things
concerning which the justice of God had been satisfied, no more
to be brought into account — fit tenants of a land of separation
and forgetfulness.1

1 That tho sense here given to the expression in ver. 10 respecting the
live goat, V;>y "IM^i *° cover upon him, or to make atonement for him, is
the correct and only well-grounded one, may now be regarded as con
clusively established. Bochart, Witsius, Stiel, also Kurtz and some others,
would render it, as in our version, to make atonement with him. But
Cocceius already stated that he could find no case in whu-h the expres
sion was used, u excepting for the persons in whose behalf the expiation was
made, or of the sacred utensils," when spoken of as expurgated, ll.ilir
expressly affirms that the means of atonement is never marked by ^>y, but
always by 3, and that the former regularly marks the object of the atone-

388 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Thus, from the circumstances of the transaction, when cor
rectly put together and carefully considered, we can have no
difficulty in ascertaining the main object and intent of the action
with the live goat — without determining anything as to the
exact import of the term Azazel. We shall give in the Ap
pendix a brief summary of the views which have been enter
tained regarding it, and state the one which we -are inclined to
adopt.1 But for the right interpretation of this part of the
service, nothing material, we conceive, depends on it. What
took place with the live goat was merely intended to unfold, and
render palpably evident to the bodily eye, the effect of the great
work of atonement. The atonement itself was made in secret,
while the high priest alone was in the sanctuary ; and yet, as all
in a manner depended on its success, it was of the utmost im
portance that there should be a visible transaction, like that of
the dismissal of the scape-goat, embodying in a sensible form
the results of the service. Nor is it of any moment what be
came of the goat after being conducted into the wilderness. It
was enough that he was led into the region of drought and deso
lation, where, as a matter of course, he should never more be
seen or heard of. With such a destination, he was obviously
as much a doomed victim as the one whose life-blood had
already been shed and brought within the veil : he went where
"all death lives and all life dies;" and so exhibited a most
striking image of the everlasting oblivion into which the sins of
God's people are thrown, when once they are covered with the
blood of an acceptable atonement.

The remaining parts of the service were as follows : The
high priest put off the plain linen garments in which, as alone

ment. — (Symbolik, ii., p. 683.) Hengstenberg also concurs in this view
(Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 165), who further remarks, that by the live
goat being said to be atoned for, " he was thereby identified with the first,
and the nature of the dead was transferred to the living ; so that the two
goats stand here in a relation entirely similar to that of the two birds in the
purification of the leper, of which the one let go was first dipped in the
blood of the one slain."— The minute special objections plied against this view
by Kurtz (Sac. Offerings, § 209), seem to me an exemplification of that hair
splitting tendency, which, in seairliing for an overstrained exactness, is apt
to overlook the more natural and obvious aspect of things. — (See App. C.)
1 See Appendix D.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE— THE DAY OF ATONF.MKNT. 389

appropriate for such a service, the whole of it had been per
formed, and laid them up in the sanctuary till the next day of
atonement should come round. Then, having washed himself
with water — which he had to do at the beginning and end of
every religious service — and having put on his usual garments,
he came forth and offered a burnt-offering for himself, and
another for the people ; by the blood of which, atonement was
again made for sin (implying that sin mingled itself even in these
holiest services), as by the action with the other parts there was
expressed anew the dedication of their persons and services to
the Lord. The fat of the sin-offering also — as in cases of sin-
offering generally — the high priest burnt upon the altar ; while
the bodies of the victims were — as in the case of sin-offerings
generally for the congregation, or the high priest as its head,
Lev. iv. 1-21 — carried without the camp into a clean place, and
burned there. The import of these rites has already been ex
plained in connection with sin-offerings as a class, and need
not be repeated here. Finally, the person employed in burning
them, as also the person who had conducted the scape-goat into
the wilderness, were, on their return to the congregation, to wash
themselves, as being relatively impure : not in the strict and
proper sense ; for if they had really contracted guilt, an atone
ment would have had to be offered for them ; and the relative
impurity could only have arisen from their having been en
gaged in handling what, though in itself not unclean, but rather
the reverse, yet in its meaning and design carried a respect to
the sins of the people.

IV. It is the less necessary that we should enlarge on the
correspondence between this most important service of the Old
Testament dispensation, and the work of Christ under the New,
since it is the part of the Mosaic ritual which of all others has
received the most explicit application from the pen of inspira
tion. It is to this that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
most especially and frequently refers when pointing to Christ
for the great realities which were darkly revealed under the
ancient shadows. He tells us that through the flesh of Christ,
given unto death for the sins of the world, a new and living
way has been provided into the Holiest, as through a veil, no

390 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

longer concealing and excluding from the presence of God, but
opening to receive every penitent transgressor ; of which, indeed,
the literal rending of the veil at Christ's death (Matt, xxvii. 51)
was a matter-of-fact announcement ; — that through the blood of
Jesus we can enter not only with safety, but even with bold
ness, into the region of God's manifested presence ; that this
arises from Christ Himself having gone with His own blood
into the heavens, that is, presenting Himself there as the per
fected Redeemer of His people, who had borne for them the
curse of sin, and for ever satisfied the justice of God concerning
it : — and that the sacrifice by which all this has been accom
plished, being that of one infinitely worthy, is attended with
none of the imperfections belonging to the Old Testament ser
vice, but is adequate to meet the necessities of a guilty conscience,
and to present the sinner, soul and body, with acceptance before
God. — (Heb. ix. x.)1 This is the substance of the information
given us respecting the things of Christ's kingdom, in so far as
these were foreshadowed by the services of the day of atone
ment; in which, it will be observed, our attention is chiefly
drawn to a correspondence in the two cases of essential relations
and ideas. We find no countenance given to the merely out-

1 The only part of the statement, perhaps, which calls for a little expla
nation is what is said of the veil : " the veil, that is to say, His flesh" (ch.
x. 20), identifying apparently our Lord's body with the veil which separated
between the Holy and the Most Holy Place. It is clear that this is only
meant to be taken in a kind of figurative or popular sense ; for the veil had
already been referred to as, in spiritual things, forming the ideal boundary
line between the state of believers here and their prospective condition in
glory (ver. 19). Yet one can easily perceive certain points of resemblance,
on account of which Christ's flesh might in that general way be identified
with the veil. For the use of this was, first to conceal the Most Holy Place
from common view, and second to provide at proper times the way of
entrance. So the flesh or humanity of Christ, so long as it existed in the
life of His humiliation, concealed the most excellent glory of the Godhead —
nay, by its very holiness seemed to put this at a greater distance from man
kind ; but when given to death for their sin, and received in their behalf to
glory, it then laid open the way for the guilty. The rent veil was therefore
the proper symbol of the access opened through Christ's death into the very
presence of God. But as it was the atoning value of Christ's death which
gave it this power, while in the veil, considered by itself, there was nothing
similar, it is obvious the analogy cannot be carried very far, and must
necessarily be understood with some license.

THE MOST HOLY PLACE— THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 391

ward anil superficial resemblances, which have so often been
arbitrarily, and sometimes even with palpable incorrectness,
drawn by Christian writers; such as, that in the high priest's
putting on and again laying aside the white linen garments, was
typified Christ's assuming, and then, when His work on earth
was finMiecl, renouncing, the likeness of sinful flesh; in the two
goats, His twofold nature ; in their being taken from the con
gregation, His being purchased with the public money ; in the
slain goat a dying, in the live goat a risen Saviour ; or, in the
former Christ, in the latter Barabbas, or, as the elder Cocceians
more commonly have it, the Jewish people sent into the desert
of the wide world, with God's curse upon them. This last notion
has been revived by Professor Bush in the Biblical Repository
for July 1842, and in his notes on Leviticus, who gravely states,
that the live goat made an atonement simply by being let go
into the desert, and that the Jewish people made propitiation for
their sins by being judicially subjected to the wrath of Heaven !
\Ve inevitably run into such erroneous and puerile conceits,
or move at least amid shifting uncertainties, so long as we isolate
the different parts of the outward transaction, and seek a dis
tinct and separate meaning in each of them singly, apart from
the grand idea and relations with which they are connected.
But, rising above this defective and arbitrary mode of interpre
tation, fixing our view on the real and essential elements in the
respective cases, we then find all that is required to satisfy the
just conditions of type and antitype, as well as much to confirm
and establish the hearts of believers in the faith. For what do
we not behold? On the one side the high priest, the head
and representative of a visible community, all stricken with the
sense of sin, going under the felt load of innumerable transgres
sions into the awful presence of Jehovah, as connected with the
outward symbols of an earthly sanctuary ; permitted to stand
there in peace and safety, because entering with the incense of
devout supplication and the blood of an acceptable sacrifice ;
and in token that all sin was forgiven, and all defilement purged
away, sending the mighty mass of atoned guilt into the waste
howling wilderness, to remain for ever buried and forgotten.
On the other side, corresponding to this, we behold Christ, the
head and representative of a spiritual and invisible Church,

392 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

charging Himself with all their iniquities, and, having poured
out His soul unto death for them, thereafter ascending into the
presence of the Father, as with His own life-blood shed in their
behalf ; so that they also, sprinkled with this blood, or spiritually
interested in this work of atonement and intercession, can now
personally draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, having
their sins blotted out from the book of God's remembrance, and
shall in due time be admitted to dwell amid the bright effulgence
of His most excellent glory. Does faith stagger while it con
templates so free an absolution, ventures on so near an approach,
or cherishes so elevating a prospect ? Or, having once appre
hended, is it apt to lose the clearness of its view and the firmness
of its grasp, from having to do with things which lie so much
within the territory of the unseen and eternal? Let it throw
itself back upon the plain and palpable transactions of the type,
which on this account also are written for our learning and
assured consolation. And if truly conscious of the burden of
sin, and turning from it with unfeigned sorrow to that Lamb of
God who has been set forth as a propitiation to take away its
guilt, then, with what satisfaction Israel of old beheld the high
priest, when the work of reconciliation was accomplished, send
their iniquities away into a land of forgetfulness, and with what
joy they then rejoiced, let not the humble believer doubt that
the same may also, with yet more propriety, be his ; since in
what was then transacted there were but the imperfect adum
brations of the symbol, while now he has to do with the grand
and abiding realities of the substance.

SECTION EIGHTH.

SPECIAL RITES AND INSTITUTIONS CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH
SACRIFICE — THE RATIFICATION OF THE COVENANT — THE
TRIAL AND OFFERING OF JEALOUSY — PURGATION FROM AN
UNCERTAIN MURDER — ORDINANCE OF THE RED HEIFER —
THE LEPROSY AND ITS TREATMENT — DEFILEMENTS AND
PURIFICATIONS CONNECTED WITH CORPOREAL ISSUES AND
CHILD-BIRTH — THE NAZARITE AND HIS OFFERINGS — DIS
TINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN FOOD.

THE subjects which we bring together in this section are of a
somewhat peculiar and miscellaneous nature, though they have
also certain points in common. We mean to introduce, respect
ing them, only so much as may be necessary for the explanation
of what more particularly belongs to each, as the more general
principles they embodied and illustrated have already been fully
considered. The remarks to be submitted must, therefore, be
taken in connection with what goes before respecting the greater
and more important sacrificial institutions, and presupposes an
acquaintance with it.

THE RATIFICATION OF THE COVENANT.

The account given of this solemn transaction is referred to
in the Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. ix. 18-22), with an especial
respect to the use then made of the sacrificial blood, and for the
purpose of proving, that as the inferior and temporary covenant
thru ratified required the shedding of animal blood, blood of a
fur higher and more precious kind must have been required to
seal the everlasting covenant brought in by Christ. The whole
ceremony stood thus : Moses had on the previous day read the
law of the ten commandments, " the words of the Lord," in the
audience of the people, with the few precepts and judgments

394 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

that had been privately communicated to him after their pro
mulgation. Then, on the following morning, he caused an altar
to be built under the hill, and twelve stones erected beside it,
to represent the twelve tribes of the congregation ; certain young
men, appointed as helps to the mediator to do priestly service
for the occasion, were next sent to kill oxen for burnt-offerings
and peace-offerings ; and the blood of these slain victims being
received in basins, Moses divided it into two parts — the one of
which he sprinkled on the altar, thereby making atonement for
their sins, and so rendering them ceremonially fit for being
taken into a covenant of peace with God ; and with the other
half — after having again read the terms of the covenant, and
obtained anew from the people a promise of obedience — he
sprinkled the people themselves, and said, " Behold the blood of
the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning
all these words." — (Ex. xxiv. 5-8.) It is added in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, that the book of the covenant was also sprinkled ;
which, we presume, must have been done with the first half of
the blood, and with somewhat of the same meaning and design
with which the mer.cy-seat, that was afterwards placed over the
tables of the covenant, was annually sprinkled in the Most Holy
Place.

The grand peculiarity in this service was manifestly the
division of the blood between Jehovah and the people, and the
sprinkling of the latter with the portion appropriated to them.
We found something similar in the consecration of Aaron, whose
extremities were touched with the blood of the ram of consecra
tion. But the action here differed in various respects from the
other, and was directed to the special purpose of giving a
palpable exhibition of the oneness that now subsisted between
the two parties of the covenant. Naturally they stood quite
apart from each other. Sin had formed an awful gulph between
them. But God having first accepted in their behalf the blood
of atonement, by that portion which was sprinkled on the altar,
they were brought into a capacity of union and fellowship with
Him ; and then, when they had solemnly declared their adher
ence to the terms on which this agreement was to be maintained,
as declared in the tables of the covenant and the judgments
therewith connected, the agreement was formally cemented by

I Hi: RATIFICATION OF THE COVENANT. 395

the sprinkling of the other part of the blood upon them. Thus
they shared part, and part with God : the pure and innocent life
lie provided and accepted in their behalf became (symbolically)
theirs ; a vital and hallowed bond united the two into one ;
God's life was their life ; God's table their table ; and as a
farther sign of this conjunction of feeling and interest, they
partook of the meat of the peace-offerings, which formed the
second kind of sacrifices presented.

There were, of course, obvious imperfections marring the
completeness of this service ; and in Christ alone and His king
dom is a reality to be found, such as the necessities of the case
and the demands of God's righteousness properly required.
Here, too, the parties are naturally far asunder, the members
of the covenant being all by nature the children of wrath, even
as others. And that the covenant of reconciliation and peace
might be established on a solid, satisfactory, and permanent
basis, it was necessary not only that there should be the shed
ding of blood, but also that it should be blood having a common
relation to both the contracting parties, and as such, fit to be
come the blood of reconciliation. Such, in the strictest sense,
was the blood of Jesus ; and in it, therefore, we discern the real
bond and only sure foundation of a covenant of peace between
man and God. lie whose conscience is sprinkled with this, is
thereby made partaker of a Divine nature ; he is received into
the participation of the life of God, and is consecrated for ever
more to live at once in the enjoyment of God's favour and for
the interests of His kingdom.

Bat a question may here, perhaps, suggest itself in respect to
the covenant itself, which was ratified between God and Israel
in the manner we have noticed. For if the terms of that cove
nant were, as we formerly endeavoured to show, specially and
peculiarly the law of the ten commandments, and if this law is
equally binding on the Church now as a permanent rule of duty,
how should it have been taken as the distinctive covenant or
bond of agreement with Israel? Was not this, after all, to
place Israel simply on a footing with men universally ? And
does it not appear something like an incongruity, to ratify such
a covenant by such symbolical and shadowy services ? There
would undoubtedly be room for such questions, if this covenant

396 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

were entirely isolated from what went before and came after —
if it were not viewed in connection with the circumstances out
of which it grew, and with the ordinances and institutions by
which it was presently followed up. On the one hand, the
covenant was prescribed by God as having redeemed His people
from a state of bondage and conferred on them a title to an in
heritance of blessing, thereby pledging Himself to give whatever
was essentially needed, to aid them in striving after conformity
to its requirements of duty. But while these requirements of
necessity pointed to the great lines of religious and moral duty
binding on the Church in every age — for God's own character
of holiness being perpetually the same, He could not then take
His people bound to live according to other principles of duty
than are always obligatory — while, therefore, they necessarily
possessed that broad and general character, still, in the peculiar
circumstances in which Israel stood, many things were needed to
go along with what properly constituted the terms of the cove
nant, which were of a merely national, shadowy, and temporary
kind. The redemption they had obtained was itself but a shadow
of a greater one to come, and so also was the inheritance to
which they were appointed. No adequate provision was yet
made for the higher wants of their nature ; and though, even in
that lower territory, on which God was avowedly acting for
them, and openly revealing Himself to them, He could not but
exact from them a faithful endeavour after conformity to His
law of holiness, as the condition of their abiding fellowship with
Him, yet the ostensible provision for securing this was also mani
festly inadequate, and could only be regarded as temporary. So
that the covenant on every hand stood related to the symbolical
and typical, though itself neither the one nor the other. As it
grew out of relations having a typical bearing, so it of necessity
brought with it ordinances and institutions which had a typical
character ; " it had (appended to it, or bound up with it) ordi
nances of Divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." — (Heb. ix.
1.) These could not be dispensed with during the continuance
of that covenant ; and the members of the covenant were bound
to observe them, so long as the covenant itself in that temporary
form lasted. The new covenant, however, can dispense with
them, because it brings directly into view the things that belong

THE TRIAL AND OFFERING OF JEALOUSY. 397

to salvation in its higher interests and ultimate realities. The
inheritance now held out in prospect is the final portion of the
redeemed, and the redemption that provides for their entrance
into it is replete with all that their necessities require. It is,
therefore, a better covenant, both because established upon
better promises, and furnished with ampler resources for carry
ing its objects to a successful accomplishment. Yet, in respect
to fundamental principles and leading aims, both covenants are
at one : a people established in friendly union with God, and
bound up to holiness that they may experience the blessedness
of such a union — this is the paramount object of the one cove
nant as well as of the other.

THE TRIAL AND OFFERING OF JEALOUSY.

The prescribed ritual upon this subject, recorded in Num. v.
11-31, is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable in the Mosaic
code ; and we introduce it here because it can only be rightly
understood when it is viewed in relation to the covenant engage
ment between God and Israel. The national covenant had its
parallel in every family of Israel, in the marriage-tie that bound
together man and wife. This relation, so important generally
for the welfare of individuals and the prosperity of states, was
chosen as an expressive image of that in which the whole people
stood to God ; and on the understood connection between the
two, Moses represents in another place (Num. xv. 39), as the
later prophets constantly do, the people's unfaithfulness to the
covenant as a committing of whoredom toward God. It was,
therefore, in accordance with the whole spirit of the Mosaic
legislation, that the strongest enactments should be made re
specting this domestic relation, that the behaviour of man and
wife to each other throughout the families of Israel might pre
sent a faithful image of the behaviour Israel should maintain
toward God; or if otherwise, that exemplary judgment might
be- inflicted. This was the more appropriate under the Mosaic
dispensation, as it was in connection with the propagation of a
pure and holy seed that the covenant was to reach its great end
of blessing the world. So that to bring corruption and defile
ment into the marriage-bed, was to pollute the very channel of

398 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

covenant blessing, and in the most offensive manner violate the
obligation to purity imposed in the fundamental ordinance of
circumcision. Adultery, therefore, if fully ascertained, must be
punished with death (Lev. xx. 10), as a practice subversive of
the whole design of the theocratic constitution. And not onlv
must ascertained guilt in this respect be so dealt with, but even
strong suspicions of guilt must be furnished with an opportunity
of bringing the matter by solemn appeal to God, since guilt of
this description, more than any other, is apt to escape detection
by arts of concealment, and particularly in the case of the
woman has many facilities of doing so. It is also on the
woman that most depends for the preservation of the honour
and integrity of families, and hence of greater moment that in
cipient tendencies in the wrong direction should in her case be
met by wholesome checks.

It was on this account that the ritual respecting the trial
and offering of jealousy was prescribed. The terms of the ritual
itself imply, and the understanding of the Jews we know actu
ally was, that the rite was to be put in force only when very
strong grounds of suspicion existed in regard to the fidelity of
the wife. But when suspicion of such a kind arose, the man
was ordained to go with his wife to the sanctuary, and appear
before the priest. They were to take with them, as a corban or
meat-offering, the tenth part of an ephah of barley-meal, but
without the usual accompaniments of oil and frankincense.
The priest was then to take holy water — whence derived, it is
not said, but most probably water from the laver is meant, and
so the Chaldee paraphrast expressly renders it. This water the
priest was to put into an earthen vessel, and mingle it with some
particles of dust from the floor of the sanctuary. He was then
to uncover the woman's head, and administer a solemn oath to
her — she meanwhile holding in her hand the corban, and he in
his the vessel of water, which is now called " the bitter water
thatcauseth the curse." The oath was to run thus: "If no man
have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside unto un-
cleanness under thy husband (so it should be rendered, meaning,
while under the law and authority of thy husband), be thou free
from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast
gone aside under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some

THE TRIAL AND OFFERING OF JEALOUSY. 399

man have lain with thee, while under thy husband, the Lord
maki- thce a curse and an oath among thy people, by the Lord
making thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell ; and this water
that causeth the curse, shall go into thy bowels, to make thy
belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot." To this the woman was to
say, Amen, amen ; and the priest, proceeding meanwhile on the
supposition of the woman's innocence, was then to blot out the
words of the curse with the bitter water, and afterwards to wave
the offering of barley-flour before the Lord, burning a portion
of it on the altar ; — which done, he was to close the ceremony
by giving the woman the remainder of the water to drink.

The most important part of the rite, undoubtedly, was the
oath of purification. The spirit of the whole may be said to
concentrate itself there. And, in accordance with the character
generally of the Mosaic economy, — a character that attached
to the little as well as the great, to the individual as well as
the general things belonging to it, — the oath took the form of
the lex talionis ; on the one side announcing exemption from
punishment, if there was freedom from guilt ; and on the other
denouncing and imprecating, when guilt had been incurred, a
visitation of evil corresponding to the iniquity committed — viz.,
corruption and unfruitfulness in those parts of the body which
had been prostituted to purposes of impurity. The draught of
water was added merely for the purpose of giving increased
force and solemnity to the curse, and supplying a kind of repre
sentative agency for certifying its execution. It was called
bitter, partly because the very subjection to such a humiliating
service rendered it a bitter draught, and also because it was to
be regarded as (representatively) the bearer of the Lord's righte
ous jealousy against sin, and His purpose to avenge Himself of
it. Hence, also, the water itself was to be holy water, the more
plainly to denote its connection with God; and to be mingled
with dust, the dust of God's sanctuary, in token of its being em
ployed by God with reference to a curse, and to show that the
person who really deserved it was justly doomed to share in the
original curse of the serpent. — (Gen. iii. 14 ; comp. Ps. Ixxii. 9 ;
Micah vii. 17.) Of course, the actual infliction of the curse de
pended upon the will and power of God, whose interference was
at the time so solemnly invoked; and the action proceeded on the

400 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

belief of a particular providence extending to individual cases,
such as would truly distinguish between the righteous and the
wicked. But the whole Mosaic economy was founded upon
this assumption, and justly — since that God, without whom a
sparrow falleth not to the ground, could not fail to make His
presence and His power felt among the people upon whom He
more peculiarly put His name ; nor refuse to make His ap
pointed ordinances of vital efficacy, when they were employed
in the way and for the purposes to which He had destined them.
From not being acquainted with the whole of the circumstances,
the principle might often appear to men involved in difficulty as
regarded its uniform application. But that it was, especially
then, and, with certain modifications, is still, a principle in the
Divine government, no believer in Scripture can reasonably
doubt.

The other and subordinate things in the ceremonial — such
as the use of an earthen vessel to contain the water, the appoint
ment of barley-meal for an offering, without oil or incense, and
the uncovering of the woman's head — admit of an easy explana
tion. The two former, being the cheapest things of their
respective kinds, were marks of abasement, and were intended
to convey the impression, that every woman should regard her
self as humbled, on whose account they had to be employed.
The impression was deepened by the absence of oil, the symbol
of the Spirit, and of incense, the symbol of acceptable prayer.
By the uncovering of the head, this was still more strikingly
signified, as it deprived the woman of the distinctive sign of
her chastity, and reduced her to the condition of one who
had either to confess her guilt, or to be put on trial for her
innocence. The only parts of the transaction that are attended
with real difficulty, are those which concern the praentation of
the corban of barley-meal. Many both defective and erroneous
views have been given of what relates to these ; but without
referring more particularly to them, we simply state our con
currence generally with the view of Kurtz (Mosaische Opfer, p.
326), who has placed the matter, we think, in its proper light.
This offering, which in ver. 25 is called "the jealousy offering,"
is also in ver. 15 called expressly the woman's offering. And
that it is to be identified with her rather than with the man, is

THE TIMAI, AND OITKUING OF JEALOUSY. 401

plain also from the circumstance, that she was appointed, during
the administration of the oath, to hold this in her hands. Nor
can we justly understand more by the direction in ver. 15, to
the man to bring it, than that, as the whole property of the
familv belonged to him, he should be required to furnish out of
his means what was necessary for the occasion. And as the
woman was obliged to go with him to the sanctuary for this
service, whenever the spirit of jealousy so far took possession of
his mind, the offering, though more properly hers, might with
perfect propriety be also called the offering of jealousy, being
itself the offspring of the spirit of jealousy in the husband. The
woman, as was stated, during the more important part of the
ceremony, held the offering in her hands, while the priest held
in his the water of the curse. The priest then appears, not as
the representative and advocate of the man who holds his wife
guilty (for there, we think, Kurtz has slightly deviated from the
natural view), but as the minister of Jehovah, whose it was to
see the right vindicated, and, as such, fitly places himself before
her with the symbol and pledge of the curse. The woman, on
the other hand, maintaining her innocence, as fitly stands before
him with the symbol of her innocence, the meat-offering, which
was an image of good works, and which could only be rendered
by those who were in a full state of acceptance with God. As
soon as the curse was pronounced, and the woman had responded
her double Amen, then the articles changed hands. The priest
received from the woman her meat-offering, waved and pre
sented it to God, the heart-searching and righteous ; so that, if
lie found it a true symbol of her innocence, lie might give her
to know in her experience, that " the curse causeless should not
come." The woman, on her part, received from the priest the
water of the curse, and drank it ; so that, if it were a true sym
bol of her guilt, it might be like the pouring out of the Lord's
indignation in her innermost parts. Thus the matter was left
in the hands of Him who is the searcher of hearts. If there
was guilt before Him, then the offering was a remembrancer of
iniquity ; but if not, it would be a memorial of innocence, and
a call to defend the just from false accusations of guilt. The
whole service, viewed in respect to individuals, was fitted to
convey a deep impression of the jealous care with which the
VOL. II. 2 C

402 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

holy eye of God watched over even the most secret violations
of the marriage vow, and the certainty with which lie would
avenge them. And viewed more generally, as an image of things
pertaining to the entire commonwealth of Israel, it proclaimed
in the ears of all the necessity of an unswerving and faithful
adherence to covenant engagements with God, otherwise the
curse of indelible shame, degradation, and misery would inevit
ably befall them.

PURIFICATION FROM AN UNCERTAIN MURDER.

The rite appointed to be observed in this case so far re
sembles the preceding one, that they both alike had respect, not
to the actual, but only to the possible, guilt of the persons con
cerned. They differed, however, in the probable estimate that
was formed of the relation of the parties to the hypothetical
charge. The presumption in the last case was against the
accused, here it is rather in their favour ; and so the rite in the
one seemed more especially framed for bringing home the charge
of iniquity, and in the other for purging it away. The rite in
this case, however, should not be termed, as it is in the heading
of our English Bibles, and as it is also very commonly treated
by divines, the expiation of an uncertain murder ; for there is no
proper atonement prescribed. The law is given in Deut. xxi.
1-9, and is shortly this : — When a dead body was found in the
field, in circumstances fitted to give rise to the suspicion of the
person having come to a violent end, while yet no trace could
be discovered of the murderer, it was then to be presumed that
the guilt attached to the nearest city, either by the murdcivr
having come from it, or from his having found concealment in
it. That city, therefore, had a certain indefinite charge of guilt
lying upon it — indefinite as to the parties really concerned in
the charge, but most definite and particular as regards the great
ness of the crime involved in it, and the treatment due to the
perpetrator. For deliberate murder the law provided no expia
tion. Even for the infliction of death, not deliberately, but by
some fortuitous and unintentional stroke, it did not appoint any
rite of expiation, but only a way of escape by means of a partial
exile. Here, therefore, where the question is respecting a umr-

PURIFICATION FROM AN UNCERTAIN MURDER. 403

dor, the prescribed ritual cannot contemplate a work of expiation.
Nor is the language employed such as to convey that idea. The
elders of the city were enjoined to go down into a valley with a
stream in it, bringing with them a heifer which had never been
yoked, and there strike off its head by the neck. Then in pre
sence of the priests, the representatives and ministers of God,
they were to wash their hands over the carcase of the slain
heifer in token of their innocence, and to say, " Our hands have
not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful,
O Lord, unto Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed,
and lay not innocent blood unto Thy people of Israel's charge.
And (it is added) the blood shall be forgiven them."

The forgiveness here meant was evidently forgiveness in the
more general sense ; the guilt in question would not be laid to
the charge of the elders of the city, nor would the punishment
due on account of it be inflicted on them. They were personally
cleared from the guilt, but the guilt itself was not atoned ; there
was a purgation, but not an expiation. And, accordingly, none
of the usual sacrificial terms are applied to the transaction with
the heifer. It is not called an oblation, a sacrifice, a sin or tres
pass-offering ; nor was there any sprinkling of its blood upon
the altar ; and even the mode of killing it was different from
that followed in all the proper sacrifices — not by the shedding
of the blood, but by the lopping off of the head. Indeed, the
process was merely a symbolical action of judgment and acquit
tal before the priests, not as ministers of worship, but as officers
of justice. The heifer, young and unaccustomed to the yoke,
in the full flush and beauty of life, was yet subjected to a
violent death — a palpable representative of the case of the per
son whose life had been wantonly and murderously taken away.
The carcase of this slain heifer is placed before the elders, and
over it, as if it were the very carcase of the slain man, they wash
their hands, and solemnly declare their innocence respecting the
violent death that had been inflicted on him. The priests, sit
ting as judges, receive the declaration as satisfactory, and hold
the city absolved of guilt. The washing of the hands in water
was merely to give additional solemnity to this declaration, and
exhibited symbolically what was presently afterwards announced
in words. Hence, among other allusions to this part of the rite,

404 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the declaration of the Psalmist, "I will wash mine hands in
innocence " (Ps. xxvi. C) ; and the action of Pilate, when wish
ing to establish his innocence respecting the death of Jesus,
though it cannot be considered as done with any allusion to the
part here performed by the elders over the body of the heifer,
yet serves to show how natural it was in the circumstances,
according to the customs of antiquity. The leading object of
the rite was to impress upon the people a sense of God's hatred
of deeds of violence and blood, and make known the certainty
with which He would make inquisition concerning such deeds,
if they were allowed to proceed in the land. It was one of the
fences thrown around the second table of the law ; and if per
formed on all suitable occasions, must have powerfully tended
to cherish sentiments of humanity in the minds of the covenant
people, and promote feelings of love between man and man.

ORDINANCE OF THE RED HEIFER.

The ordinance regarding the Red Heifer (described in Num.
xix.) had respect to actual defilements, though only of a parti
cular kind, and to the means of purification from them. The
defilements in question were such as arose from personal con
tact with the dead, such as the touching of a dead body, or
dwelling in a tent where death had entered, or lighting on
the bone of a dead man, or having to do with a grave in which
a corpse had been deposited. In such cases a bodily unclean-
ness was contracted, which lasted seven days, and even then
could not be removed but by a very peculiar element of cleans
ing, viz., the application of the ashes, mixed with water, of the
body of a heifer, red-coloured, without blemish, unaccustomed
to the yoke, burnt without the camp, and with cedar-wood,
hyssop, and scarlet cast into the midst of the burning.

In regard, first, to the occasion of this very peculiar service,
it will readily be understood that, in accordance with the general
nature of the symbolical institutions, the body stands as the
representative and image of the soul, and its defilement ami
cleansing for actual guilt and spiritual purification. This, in
deed, was clearly indicated in the ordinance being called " a
purification for sin " (ver. 9). But it is the soul, not the body,

ORDINANCE OF THE RED HEIFER. 405

which is properly chargeable with sin ; and the whole, therefore,
of what is here described, was evidently intended to serve as the
mere shell and representation of inward and spiritual realities.
Divine truths and lessons were embodied in it for all times and
ages. For what, according to the uniform language of Scrip
ture, is death? It is the direful wages of sin — the visible earthly
recompense with which God visits transgression ; and being in
itself the end and consummation of all natural evils, the state
from which flesh naturally and most of all shrinks with abhor
rence, it is the proper image of sin, both as regards its universal
prevalence and its inherent loathsomeness. This may be said of
death merely in the aspect it carries to men's natural state and
feelings, but much more does such language become applicable
to it when viewed in relation to the Most High. For it belongs
to Him to have life in Himself, yea, to stand in such close con
nection with the powers and blessings of life, that no corruption
can dwell in His presence. But death is the very climax of cor
ruption ; it is therefore most abhorrent to His nature, and has
been appointed as the proper doom of sin, the awful seal and
testimony of His displeasure on account of it. Hence, the
priests who had to minister before Him were forbidden to come
into contact with the dead, except in the case of their nearest
relatives (Lev. xxi. 1-4), and the high priest even in the case
of his father or mother (ver. 11).

This is the painful truth which lies at the foundation of
the whole of the rite respecting the Red Heifer. It is a rite
which presents in bold relief what was one grand design of
the law's observances — the bringing of sin to remembrance,
and teaching the necessity of men's being purified from its
pollution. It is true there was no actual sin in simply touching
a dead body, or being in the place where such a body lay. In
the case of ordinary persons it was even a matter of duty to
defile one's self in connection with the death of near relatives.
But, as the corporeal relations were here made the signs and
interpreters of the spiritual, there was, in such cases, the
coming, on the part of the living body, into contact with
what bore on it the awful mark and impress of sin — a breath
ing of the polluted atmosphere of corruption, most alien to
tlu- region where Jehovah has his peculiar dwelling, and which

406 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

corruption cannot inherit. Therefore, in a symbolical religion
like the Mosaic, the neighbourhood or touch of a dead body
was most fitly regarded as forming an interruption to the inter
course between God and His people, — as placing them in a
condition of external unfitness for approaching the sanctuary
of His presence and glory, or even for having freedom to go
out and in among the living in Jerusalem. That sin, which
is the bitter well-spring of death, is utterly at variance with
the soul's peace and fellowship with God, — that it should, there
fore, be most carefully watched against and shunned, — that on
finding his conscience defiled with its pollution, the sinner
should regard himself as incapacitated for holding intercourse
with Heaven, or performing any work of righteousness, and
should betake himself without delay to the appointed means
of purification, — these are the important and salutary truths
which the Lord sought continually to impress upon the people
by means of the bodily defilements in question, and the channel
provided for obtaining purification.

In regard now to the purifying apparatus, there are certainly
some points connected with it, which it is scarcely possible to
explain quite satisfactorily, and which probably refer to customs
or notions too familiar and prevalent in the age of Moses to
have then appeared at all strange or arbitrary. But the leading
features of the ordinance would present, we conceive, little diffi
culty, were it not that the whole has been viewed in a somewhat
mistaken light. Recent as well as former writers have gene
rally gone on the supposition that the ideas concerning sin, and
atonement or cleansing, are here represented in a peculiarly
intense form, and that from this point of view everything must
be explained. We regard the occasion as pointing rather in the
opposite direction. It was not an ordinance for purging away the
guilt of actual sin, although it had the character of a sin-offering
(vers. 9, 17), but for a sort of incidental corporeal connection
with the effect and fruit of sin, — the means of purification not
from personal transgression, but from a merely external contact
with the consequence of transgression, — a symbolical ordinance
of cleansing for what, in itself, was only a symbolical defilement.
Directly, therefore, and properly it is the flesh and not the spirit
that is concerned ; and we might certainly expect a marked in-

ORDINANCE OF THE RED IIKIFKU. 407

feriority in various respects between this ordinance and the offer
ings which had for their object the expiation of real guilt. This
is what we actually find. The victim appointed was a female,
while in all the proper sin-offerings for the congregation, a male,
an ox, was required. And of this victim no part came upon the
altar ; even the blood was only sprinkled before the tabernacle
of the congregation, and that not by the high priest, but only
by the son of the high priest ; and while the carcase was burnt
entire without the camp, not even the skin or the dung was
removed from it. From the respect the offering had to bodily
defilements, the priest and the other persons engaged in the
work contracted a similar defilement, and had to wash their
clothes, and bathe themselves in water. That the ashes were
regarded as in themselves clean, is obvious from a clean person
being required to gather them up and put them in a clean
place; as also from their being the appointed means of purifica
tion. For this it was necessary that living or running water
should be poured upon them ; and then during the seven days
that the defilement from contact with the dead lasted, the per
sons or articles requiring it were twice sprinkled, first on the
third, then on the seventh day ; after which the restraint was
taken off, as to fellowship with the camp. The mixture of the
ashes strengthened the cleansing property of the water, not,
however (as Biihr and Kurtz), by rendering it a sort of wash, —
if that had been all, common ashes might have served the pur
pose, — but rather from their connection with the sin-offering,
through which the curse of death was taken away. That the
wash should be called the water of abomination (n^p *p), not
of purification, as in the English Bible, is to be explained in
the same way as the application of the term sin to the sin-
offering : it was water which had specially to do with abomi
nations, or defilements, but to do with them for the purpose
of taking them away. And the bearing of the whole on Chris
tian times, with respect to the higher work of Christ, is so
plainly and distinctly intimated in the epistle to the Hebrews,
that there is no need for any further comment : " If the ashes
of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying
of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,

408 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God !" Whoever looks with this view to the ordinance, will see
in it the perfect purity and completeness of Christ's character,
the corrupt and loathsome nature of that for which lie died, and
the sole as well as perfect efficacy of His blood, so that he who
has not this applied to his conscience must inevitably perish.1

[We have taken little or no notice of some of the peculi
arities connected with this ordinance, which have given rise to
much discussion, but have as yet ended in no satisfactory result.
The female sex of the victim (sufficiently accounted for, we
trust, above) has been thought by Biihr to point to Eve, or the
female sex generally, as the mother of life among men, and
others have produced equally fanciful reasons. The colour was
by the Jewish doctors accounted of such difficult interpretation,
that they conceived the wisdom of Solomon to have been inade
quate to the discovery of it. With Biihr, Keil, Kurtz, etc., it is
the colour of blood, life in an intensive form ; with Hengsten-
berg, of sin, etc. And the latter recently, as well as many
others in former times, have found an allusion in it to the
Egyptian notion, that the evil god Typhon was of red colour,
and the practice prevalent in Egypt of sacrificing red bullocks
to him. Only, that the rite here might savour somewhat less
of heathenism, not a bullock, but an heifer, was required, to
discountenance the idolatrous veneration paid in Egypt to the
cow. We deem it quite unnecessary to enter upon any particu
lar examination of these different opinions. None of them can
be regarded as quite natural and satisfactory. And it is possible
that the colour of the animal had originally some ideas associated
with it, of which later times lost the key. Of the two reasons
suggested above, that which connects it -with the life — life in its
more intensive form — is certainly the preferable ; but one does
not readily perceive, either why in this one case the red colour
should so distinctly symbolize life, or why in this particular ordi
nance that idea should be so prominently displayed, when only
the ashes of a slain creature were to be employed. Possibly red
may have been chosen as emphatically the flesh colour, since the

1 For the contrast indicated in the passage from Hebrews between the
bodily and the spiritual purifications, — as not absolute, but relative, — see
under SIN-OFFERING, in sec. 5.

Till; LEPROSY AND ITS PURIFICATION. 409

ordinance pointed in a peculiar manner to the purification of
the flesh. But we would lay no stress on any reason that can
now be assigned. The burning, along with the victim, of cedar-
wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool, has also given rise to a great
variety of suppositions. The cedar from its loftiness, and the
hyssop from its smallness, have been regarded by Ilengstenberg
(Egypt and Books of Moses, and again in Commen. on Ps. li. 7)
as emblems, the one of the Divine majesty, and the other of the
Divine condescension. But the supposition is quite arbitrary,
and has nothing properly to support it in Scripture. Besides,
it could scarcely be the lofty cedar which was meant to be used
in the ordinance, for such were not to be found in the desert ;
it must rather have been some species of juniper. It is more
commonly regarded as an emblem of life or immortality. The
hyssop, it would appear, was anciently thought to possess some
sort of medicinal or abstergent properties, and on that account
is supposed to have been used in purifications. It appears to have
been usually employed among the Hebrews in sprinklings, along
with some portion of scarlet wool. — (Comp. Ex. xii. 22 ; Lev. xiv.
6, 7 ; Ps. li. 7 ; Heb. ix. 19.) It is quite possible that notions
and customs regarding these articles, of which now no certain
information is to be had, may have led to their use on such
occasions as the present. It would seem, however, from what is
said in the case of the leper (Lev. xiv. 6, 7), that their use was
merely to apply the cleansing or purifying element — the scarlet
and hyssop being probably attached to a stick of cedar. On
this account a portion of each was here burnt along with the
carcase of the heifer, as the whole together were to furnish the
means of purification. But it is needless to pursue the matter
farther, as certainty is unattainable, and little comparatively
depends on it for a general understanding of the purport and
design of the ordinance.]

THE LEPROSY AND ITS PURIFICATION.

The case of the leper, with its appointed means of purifica
tion, stood in a very close relation to the one just considered,
and the lessons taught in each are to a considerable extent the
same. As disease generally is the fruit and evidence of sin,

410 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

every form of disease might have been held to be polluting, and
to have required separate purifications. This, however, would
have rendered the ceremonial observances an intolerable burden.
One disease, therefore, was chosen in particular, and that such
an one as might fitly be regarded at the head of all diseases, the
most affecting symbol of sin. This disease, that of leprosy (the
white leprosy, as it is sometimes called, to distinguish it from
other forms of the same malady), is described with much minute
ness by Moses (Lev. xiii., xiv.), and various marks are given to
distinguish it from others, which, though somewhat resembling
it, yet did not possess its inveterate and virulent character. It
began in the formation of certain spots upon the skin, small at
first, but gradually increasing in dimensions ; at their first ap
pearance of a reddish colour, but by and by presenting a white,
scaly shining aspect, attended by little pain, but incapable of
being healed by any known remedy. Slowly, yet regularly, the
spots continued to increase, till the whole body came to be over
spread with them, and assumed the appearance of a white, dry,
diseased, unwholesome scurf. But the corruption extended in
wardly while it spread outwardly, and affected even the bones
and marrow : the joints became first relaxed, then dislocated ;
fingers, toes, and even limbs, dropt off ; and the body at length
fell to pieces, a loathsome mass of dissolution and decay. Such
is the description of the disease given in Scripture, taken in con
nection with what is known of certain bodily disorders which
still go by the name of leprosy. It was disease manifesting itself
peculiarly in the form of corruption — a sort of living death.

Persons on whom any apparent symptoms were found of
this disease, were ordered to go to the priests for inspection ; and
if it was ascertained to be real leprosy, then the diseased was
removed into a separate apartment, and shut out of the camp,
or the city, as a person politically dead. So rigidly was this
regulation enforced, that even Miriam, the sister of Moses, could
not obtain exemption from it ; nor at a later period king Uzziah,
since we are told, that from the time he was smitten with
leprosy to the day of his death, " he dwelt in a several house"
(2 Kings xv. 5) — literally, a house of emancipation, as one dis
charged from the ordinary service and occupations of the Lord's
people. Even in the kingdom of Samaria, where the Divine

TIIK LKPttOSY AND ITS PURIFICATION. 411

laws were by no means so strictly observed, the history presents
to our view lepers dwelling in a separate house before the gate,
which they were not permitted to leave even during the strait-
ness of a siege. — (2 Kings vii. 3—10.) And that there was a
place or hill set apart for such in Jerusalem, and called by their
name, may be inferred from Jer. xxxi. 39, where mention is
made of the hill Garcb, which means, the hill of the leprous.

Besides this careful separation of the leper, he was to cany
about with him every mark of sorrow and distress, going with
rent clothes, with bare and uncovered head, with a bandage on
the chin or lip ; and when he saw any one approaching, was
to give timely warning of his condition by crying out, " Un
clean, unclean!" Why, we naturally ask, all this in the case
only of leprosy ? It could not be simply because it was a severe
and dangerous disease, for no other disease was ordered to have
such signs of grief attached to it ; nor did they give occasion to
uncleanness, excepting in disorders connected with generation
and birth, presently to be noticed. Neither could such singular
precautions and painful treatment have been employed here on
account of the infectious character of the disease, as if the great
object were to prevent it spreading around. For had that been
all, several of the things prescribed would have been needless
aggravations of the distress, such as the rent clothes, bare head,
and covered chin ; and, besides, the diseases which go by the
name of leprosy, and which are understood to possess the same
general character, though hereditary, are now known not to be
infectious ; while the really infectious diseases, such as fevers
or the plague, have no place whatever in the law, either as re
gards uncleanness or purification.

The only adequate reason that can be assigned for the manner
in which leprosy was thus viewed and treated, was its fitness to
serve as a symbol of sin, and of the treatment those who indulge
in sin might expect at the hand of God. It was the visible sign
and expression upon the living, of what God thought and felt
upon the subject. Hence, when lie manifested His righteous
severity toward particular persons, and testified His displeasure
against their sins by the infliction of a bodily disease, it was in
the visitation of leprosy that the judgment commonly took effect,
as in the cases of Miriam, Uzziah, and Geliaxi. Hence, also,

412 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Moses warned the people against incurring such a plague (Deut.
xxiv. 9) ; and when David besought the infliction of God's judg
ment upon the house of Joab, leprosy was one of the forms in
which he wished it might appear. — (2 Sam. iii. 29.) So general
was the feeling in this respect, that the leprous were proverbially
called the smitten, i.e., the smitten of God ; and from the Messiah
being described in Isaiah as so smitten, certain Jewish interpre
ters inferred that He should be afflicted with leprosy. — (Hengst.,
Christol. on Isaiah liii. 4.) Now, viewing the disease thus, as a
kind of visible copy or image of sin, judicially inflicted by the
immediate hand of God on the living body of the sinner, it is
not difficult to understand how the leper especially should have
been regarded as an object of defilement, as theocratically dead,
until he was recovered and purified. He bore upon him the im
press and mark of iniquity, the begun and spreading corruption
of death, the appalling seal of Heaven's condemnation. He was a
sort of death in life, a walking sepulchre (Spencer, " sepulchrum
ambulans"), unfit while in such a state to draw near to the local
habitation of God, or to have a place among the living in Jeru
salem. And his exiled and separate condition, his disfigured
dress, and lamentable appearance, while they proclaimed the
sadness of his case, bore striking testimony at the same time to
the holiness of God, and solemnly warned all who saw him to
beware how they should offend against Him. But these things
are written also for our learning ; and the malady, with its attend
ant evils, though but rarely visible to the bodily eye, speaks still
to the ear of faith. It tells us of the insidious and growing
nature of sin, spreading, if not arrested by the merciful interpo
sition of God, from small beginnings to a universal corruption —
of the inevitable exclusion which it brings when indulged in from
the fellowship of God and the society of the blessed — of the
deplorable and unhappy condition of those who are still subject
to its sway — and of the competency of Divine grace alone to
bring deliverance from the evil.

The purification of the leper had three distinctly marked
stages. The first of these bore respect to his reception into the
visible community of Israel, the next to his participation in their
sacred character, and the last to his full re-establishment in the
favour and fellowship of God. When God was pleased to

THE LEPROSY AND ITS PURIFICATION. 413

recover him from the leprosy, and the priest pronounced him
whole, before lie was permitted to leave his isolated position out
side the camp or city, two living clean birds were to be taken
for him ; the one of which was then to be killed over a vessel of
living or fresh water, so that the blood might intermingle with
the water, and the other, after being dipt in this blood-water,
was let loose into the open field. That the two birds were to be
regarded as ideally one, like the two goats on the day of atone
ment, and that they together represented what was adjudged to
belong to the recovered leper, is clear as day. The life-blood of
the one, mingled with pure fresh water, imaged life in its state of
greatest purity ; and by the other bird being dipt in this, showed
its participation in what it signified, as did also the sprinkling
of the recovered leper seven times with the same. Then, as
thus alike identified with that life of freshness and purity, the
recovered leper saw represented in the bird's dismissal, to fly
wherever it pleased among the other fowls of heaven, his own
liberty to enter into the society of living men, and move freely
up and down among them. But in token of his actual partici
pation in the whole, and his being now separated from his
uncleanness, he must wash his clothes and his flesh also, even
shave his hair, that every remnant of his impurity might appear
to be removed, and nothing be left to mar the freedom of his
intercourse with his fellow-men.

In all this, however, there was no proper atonement ; and
though the ban was so far removed, that the leper was now re
garded as a living man, and could enter into the society of other
living men, he was by no means admitted to the privileges of a
member of God's covenant. He had to remain for an entire
wivk out of his own dwelling. Then, for his restoration to the
full standing of an Israelite, he had to bring a lamb for a tres
pass-offering, another for a sin-offering, and another still for a
burnt-offering, with the usual meat-offering, and a log of oil. It
was a peculiarity in the case, that both a trespass and a sin-offer
ing were required ;unong the means of purification. But it may
l>f explained by the consideration, that the leper was regarded by
his leprosy as having become unfitted for doing the part of a
proper citi/.en. and in consequence lying under debt to the com-
niomvealth of God from failure in what it had a right to expect

414 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of all its members. The lamb for the trespass-offering, and the
log of oil, were for his consecration — the second stage of the
process ; and for this purpose they were first waved before the
Lord. Then with a portion of the blood of the trespass-offering
the priest sprinkled his right ear, the thumb of his right hand,
the great toe of his right foot, repeating the same action after
wards with the oil, and pouring also some upon his head. This
action with the blood and oil was much the same with that
observed in the consecration of the priesthood ; but differed, in
that the blood used on this occasion was that of a trespass-offer
ing, whereas the blood used on the other was that of a peace-
offering. The service still further differed, in that here the
consecration came first, whereas, as in the case of Aaron, the sin
and burnt-offering preceded it. The differences, however, are
such as naturally arose out of the peculiar situation of the
restored leper. As a man under the ban of God and the doom
of death, he had lost his place in the priestly kingdom, and a
fitness for the discharge of its obligations. By a special act of
consecration he must be received again into the number of this
family, before he can be admitted to take any part in the usual
services of the congregation. And the blood by which this was
chiefly done was most appropriately taken from the blood of a
trespass-offering, because, having forfeited his life to God, there
was here, according to the general nature of such an offering,
the payment of the required ransom, the (symbolical) discharge
of the debt ; so that he was at one and the same time installed
as the Lord's freeman, and consecrated for His service. The
consecration of Aaron, on the other hand, was that of one who
already belonged to the kingdom of priests, and only required an
immediate sanctification for the peculiar and distinguished office
to which he was to be raised. It therefore came last, and the
blood used was fitly taken of the peace-offering. But when the
recovered leper had been thus far restored, — his feet standing
within the sacred community of God's people, his head and
members anointed with the holy oil of Divine refreshment and
gladness, — he was now permitted and required to consummate the
process, by bringing a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, and a meat
offering, that his access to God's sanctuary, and his fellowship
with God Himself, might be properly established. What could

OTHER DEFILEMENTS AND PURIFICATIONS. 415

more impressively bespeak the arduous and solemn nature of the
work, by which the outcast, polluted, and doomed sinner regains
an interest in the kingdom and blessing of God ! The blood and
Spirit of Christ, appropriated by a sincere repentance and a
living faith — this, but this alone, can accomplish the restoration.
Till that is done, there is only exclusion from the family of
God, and alienation from the life that is in Him. But that
truly done, the child of death lives again — he that was lost is
again found.1

DEFILEMENTS AND PURIFICATIONS CONNECTED WITH COR
POREAL ISSUES AND TUB PROPAGATION OF SEED.

A considerable variety of prescriptions exists in the books of
Leviticus and Numbers, relating to these defilements and puri
fications ; but, for obvious reasons, we refrain from going into
particulars, and content ourselves with giving their general
scope and design. The laws upon the subject are to be found
chiefly in the 12th and the loth chap, of Leviticus, the one re
lating to the uncleanness arising from the giving birth to children,
and the other to that arising from issues in the organs therewith
connected. The impurities of this class were all more or less
directly connected with the production of life. And it may
seem strange, at first sight, that production and birth, as well as
disease and death, should have been marked in the law as the
occasions of defilement. It would be not only strange, but in
explicable, were it not for the doctrine of the fall, and the in
herent depravity of nature growing out of it. By reason of
this the powers of human life are tainted with corruption, and
all that pertains to the production of life, as well as to its cessa-

1 We have said nothing of what is called the leprosy of clothes and
houses, for nothing certain is known of the thing itself, although Michaelis
speaks dogmatically enough about both. The whole of what he says upon
the leprosy is a striking specimen of the thoroughly earthly tone of the
author's mind ; and if Moses had looked no higher than he represents him
to have done, he would certainly have been little entitled to be regarded as
a messenger of Heaven. The leprosy in garments and houses was evidently
considered and treated as an image of that in man ; and on that account
alone was purification or destruction ordered. See Hengstenberg's Christol.
on Jer. xxxi. 38 ; Baumgarteu on Lev. xiii., xiv.

416 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

tion, appears enveloped in the garments of impurity. That the
whole was viewed in this strictly moral light, and not in rela
tion to natural health or cleanliness, is evident, not only from
the predominantly ethical character of the whole legislation of
Moses, but also from the kind of purifications prescribed, in
which atonement is spoken of as being made in behalf of the
parties concerned (Lev. xii. 6, xv. 30); and also from the refer
ences made to the cases under consideration in other parts of
Scripture — as in Ezek. xxxvi. 17; Lam. i. 17 — which point to
them as defilements in a moral respect. There is no possibility
of obtaining a satisfactory view of the subject, or accounting for
the place assigned such things in the symbolical ritual of Moses,
excepting on the ground of that moral taint which was believed
to pervade all the powers and productions of human nature, and
thus regarding them as an external embodiment of the truth
uttered by the Psalmist, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and
in sin did my mother conceive me." — (Ps. li. 5.) Some of the
Hebrew doctors themselves have virtually expressed this idea,
as in the following quotation produced from one of them by
Ainsworth on Lev. xii. 4 : " No sin-offering is brought but only
for sin ; and it seemeth unto me, that there is a mystery in this
matter, concerning the sin of the old serpent" — the sin, namely,
introduced by the temptation of the old serpent, and in imme
diate connection with the moral weakness of the woman.

Indeed, it is by a reference to that original act of transgres
sion that we can most easily explain, both the general nature of
the legal prescriptions respecting defilements and purifications
of this sort, and some of the more striking peculiarities belonging
to them. In what took place in that fundamental transaction, an
image was presented of what was to be ever afterwards occurring.
The woman having taken the leading part in the transaction,
she was made to reap in her natural destiny most largely of
its bitter fruits, and that especially in respect to child-bearing :
" Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception, and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children."
No doubt, the evil originating in the fall was to cleave to the
nature, and appear in the condition of each portion of the human
family ; but in the female portion the signs of it were to be
most apparent, and particularly in connection with the bearing

OTHER DEFILEMENTS AND PURIFICATIONS. 417

of children. Hence, perhaps, the emphasis laid on this side by
the Psalmist, " In sin did my mother conceive me." — (Ps. li. 5.)
This one fact, prominently written in God's word, and per-
petuallv exemplified in history, sufficiently accounts for the
peculiar stress laid on the case of the female in the regulations
of the law. The occasions that called for purification on the
other side were comparatively rare ; but in hers they were of
constant recurrence. And hence also, partly at least, is to be
explained the difference in regard to the continuance of the
period of her uncleanness when the birth was a female child, as
compared with what it was at the birth of a male. In the one
case a term of seven days only of total separation from the usual
business and intercourse of life, and three and thirty more from
the sanctuary ; but in the other, a term of fourteen days of
total separation, and sixty-six more from the sanctuary. It was
not from any physical diversity in the cases, as regards the
mother herself, that the two periods in the latter case were
exactly the double of those in the former ; but because it was
the birth of one of that sex with which the signs of corruption
in this respect were more peculiarly connected. Partly, we say,
on this account, not wholly ; for the express mention of circum
cision in the case of the male child (chap. xii. 3), seems plainly
intended to ascribe to that circumstance a portion of the dif
ference. The first stage of the mother's cleansing terminated
with the circumcision of her son. On the eighth day he had
the corruption of his fleshly nature (symbolically) removed, and
stood, as it were, by himself, as the mother also by herself. The
terms of separation, therefore, were fitly shortened, so as to make
the one only a full week, and the other a full month. But in
the case of a female child there was no ordinance to distinguish
so precisely between the mother and her offspring ; and as if
there were a prolonged connection in what occasioned the defile
ment, so there was for her a prolonged period of separation from
social life and access to the sanctuary. Together with the other
circumstances referred to, this is enough to account for the
seeming anomaly; and serves also to render more obviously and
conclusively certain the reference in the whole matter to moral
considerations.

There is no necessity for enlarging on the prescribed means

VOL. II. 2 D

418 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of purification. They were such, both in the case of men and
women, as to bear distinct reference to guilt, and to renewed
surrender to the Lord's service. A sin-offering, as well as a
burnt-offering, was necessary. But to render the way of pardon
and acceptance open to all, turtle-doves or pigeons were allowed
to be substituted for the more expensive offerings.

THE NAZARITE AND HIS OFFERINGS.

The institution of the Nazarite vow is introduced without
any explanation (Num. vi.), either as to the manner or the
reason of its original appointment ; and some have hence in
ferred that its origin is to be sought in Egypt, and only its
proper regulation to be ascribed to Moses. But no traces of it
have been found among the antiquities of Egypt, nor could it
properly exist there. The Nazarite was to be a living type and
image of holiness ; he was to be, in his person and habits, a sym
bol of sincere consecration and devotedness to the Lord. It
was no mere ascetical institution, as if the outward bonds and
restraints, the self-denials in meat and drink, were in themselves
well-pleasing to the Lord. Such a spirit was as foreign to
Judaism as it is to Christianity. The Nazarite was an acted,
symbolical lesson in a religious and moral respect ; and the out
ward observances to which he was bound were merely intended
to exhibit to the bodily eye the separation from everything sinful
and impure required of the Lord's servants.

The import of the name Nazarite, is simply the separate one ;
and the vow he took — in all ordinary cases, voluntarily took —
upon him, is said to have been (ver. 2) " for separating to the
Lord." What was implied in this separation? There must
have been, unquestionably, a withdrawing from one class of
things as unbefitting, that there might be the more free and
devoted application to another class, as proper and becoming.
And we shall best understand what both were by glancing at
the requirements of the vow.

The first was an entire abstinence from all strong drink ;
from whatever was made of grapes — from grapes themselves,
whether moist or dried — from everything belonging to the vine.
There can be no doubt that it was the intoxicating property of

THE NAZARITE AND HIS OFFERINGS. 419

the fruit of the vine which formed the ground of this prohibi
tion ; for special stress is laid upon the strength of the drink ;
and as the vine in Eastern countries was the chief source of
such drink (although other ingredients, it would seem, were
sometimes added to increase the strength), not only wine itself,
but the fruit of the vine in every shape, even in forms without
any intoxicating tendency, was interdicted, that the separation
might be the more marked and complete. A like abstinence
was imposed upon the priests when engaged in sacred ministra
tions. — (Lev. x. 8.) Like the ministering priest, the Na/arite
was peculiarly separated to the Lord ; and in his drink, not less
than other things, he was to be an embodied lesson regarding
the manner in which the Divine service was to be performed.
This service — such was the import of that part of the Nazarite
institution — requires a withdrawal and separation from what
ever unfits for active spiritual employment — from everything
which stupifies and benumbs the powers of a divine life, and dis
poses the heart to carnal ease and pleasurable excitement rather
than to sacred duty. There must, indeed, be a careful and
becoming reserve in regard to the means and occasions of a
literal intoxication ; but not in respect to these alone. The
more inward and engrossing love of money, the eager pursuit
after worldly aggrandizement, or the delights of a soft and
luxurious ease, may as thoroughly intoxicate the brain, and
incapacitate the soul for spiritual employment, as the more
grovelling vice of indulgence to excess in liquor. From all
such, therefore, the true servant of God is here wanied to
abstain, and admonished to keep his vessel, in soul and body,
as holiness to the Lord.

The next thing exacted of the Nazarite was to leave his hair
unshorn. And this was so different from the prevailing custom,
\vt so strictly enjoined upon him, that it might be regarded as
the peculiar badge of his condition. Hence, if, by accidentally
coming into contact with any unclean object, his vow was broken,
IK- had to shave his head and enter anew on his course of ser
vice. So also, wlu-n the period of the vow had expired, his hair
was cropt, and burned as a sacred thing upon the altar. Thus
he was said to bear "the consecration (literally the separation,
the distinctive mark, the crown) of his God upon his head."

420 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

The words readily suggest to us those of the Apostle Paul in
1 Cor. xi. 10, and the appointment itself is best illustrated by
a reference to the idea there expressed. Speaking of the pro
priety of the women wearing long hair, as given to her by nature
for a modest covering, and a token of subjection to her husband,
the Apostle adds, that " for this reason she must have power
upon her head;" i.e. (taking the sign for the thing signified,
as circumcision for the covenant, Gen. xvii. 10), she must wear
long hair, covering her head, as a symbol of the power under
which she stands, a sign of her subjection to the authority of
the man. For the same reason, because the hair did not cover
the face, a veil was added, to complete the sign of subjection.
But the man, on the other hand, having no earthly superior,
and being in his manly freedom and dignity the image of the
glory of God, should have his face unveiled, and his hair cropt.
Hence it was counted even a shame, a renouncing of the proper
standing of a man, a mark of effeminate weakness and degene
racy, for men, like Absalom, to cultivate long tresses. But the
Nazarite, who gave himself up by a solemn vow of consecration
to God, and who should therefore ever feel the authority and
the power of his God upon him, most fitly wore his hair long,
as the badge of his entire and willing subjection to the law of
his God. By the wearing of this badge he taught the Church
then, — and the Church, indeed, of all times, — that the natural
power and authority of man, which in nature is so apt to run
out into self-will, stubbornness, and pride, must in grace yield
itself up to the direction and supremacy of Jehovah. The true
child of God has renounced all claim to the control and maskTy
of his own condition. He feels he is not his own, but bought
with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God with his body
and spirit, which are His.1

The only other restriction laid upon the Nazarite, of a

1 We deem this by much the most natural and appropriate view of the
Xazarite's long hair. It is not a new one, but may be found (though only,
indeed, as one among other reasons) in Aiusworth, and later commentators ;
last and best in Baumgarten, Comm. on Num. vi. It also renders the best
explanation of the loss of power in Samson, flowing from his allowing his
hair to be shorn ; for this, viewed in the light presented above, betokened
the breaking of his allegiance to his God, ceasing to make God's arm his
dependence, and God's will his rule.— The idea of Hengstenberg (Egypt

THE NAZARITK AND HIS olTKKIXGS. 421

special kind, was in regard to contracting defilement from the
dead ; for, like tin- priest, he was discharged from entering into
the chamber of death and mourning for his nearest relatives.
Separated for God, in whose presence death and corruption can
have no place, the Nazarite must ever be found in the habita
tions and the society of the living. He must have no fellow
ship with what bore so distinctly impressed on it the curse and
wages of sin. But this sin itself is, in the sphere of the spi
ritual life, what death is in the natural. It is the corruption
and death of the soul. And as the Nazarite was here also an
embodied lesson regarding things spiritual and divine, he was a
living epistle, that might be known and read of all men, warn
ing them to resist temptation and flee from sin — teaching them
that, if they would live to God, they must walk circumspectly,
and strive to keep themselves unspotted from the world.

Such persons in Israel must have been eminently useful, if
raised up in sufficient number, and going with fidelity and zeal
through the fulfilment of their vow, in keeping alive upon men's
consciences the holy character of God's service, and stimulating
them to engage in it. The Nazarites are hence mentioned by
Amos along with prophets, as among the chosen instruments
whom God provided for the good of His people, in proof of His
covenant faithfulness and love : " And I raised up of your sons
for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites" (ii. 11).
They were a kind of inferior priesthood in the land — by their
manner of life, as the priests by the duties of their office, acting
the part of symbolical lights and teachers to Israel. And the
institution was farther honoured by being connected with three
of the most eminent servants of God, — Samson, Samuel, and
John the Baptist, — on whom the vow was imposed from their
very birth, to show that they were destined to some special and
important work of God. This destination to a high and pecu-

and Books of Moses, p. 190), that the long hair was the sign of the Nazarite's
withdrawing from the world to give himself to the Ix>rd, separating from
the world's habits and business, is not sufficiently grounded, more especi
ally as it docs not appear that the Na/.arite vow bound men actually to
bom worldly employments. Tin- idea of Uahr, that the hair of men
, -"iids to the grass of the earth, the blossoms and leaves of trees, and
thus imaged the- spiritual blossoms and productions of men, the fruits of
holhu>s, is too fanciful and far-fetched to need any special refutation.

422 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

liar service, in connection with the Nazarite vow, still more
clearly indicated its symbolical character ; the more so, as the
end of the institution appears to be always the more fully real
ized, the higher the individual's calling, and the more entirely
he consecrated himself to its fulfilment. Of the three Nazarites
referred to, Samson was unquestionably the least, because in
him the spiritual separation and surrender to the Lord was most
imperfect: he did not resist the temptation, to which his singular
gift of corporeal strength exposed him, of trusting too much to
self ; and the gift, when exercised, led him to act chiefly on the
lower and merely physical territory. Though in one respect a
remarkable witness of the wonderful things which God could
do, even on that territory, by a single instrument of working,
he yet proved in another a sad monument of the inefficacy of
such instruments to regenerate and save Israel. A far higher
manifestation of Divine power and goodness developed itself in
Samuel, by whom, more than all the other judges, the cause of
God was revived ; and a higher yet again in John the Baptist.
But highest and greatest of all was Jesus of Nazareth, in whom
the idea of the Nazarite rises to its grand and consummate
realization — although in this, as in other things, the outward
symbol was dropt, as no longer needed. In Him alone has one
been found who was " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners," light of light, perfect even as the Father is per
fect ; so that, without the least flaw of sin or failing of weakness,
he executed immeasurably the mightiest undertaking that ever
was committed to the charge of a messenger of Heaven.

The offerings prescribed for the Nazarite refer to two points
in his history — to his contracting defilement, whereby the vow
was broken, and to the period of its fulfilment. In the first
case, he had to bring a lamb for a trespass-offering, having, like
the leper, contracted a debt in the reckoning of God, by failing
to fulfil what he had vowed, and so requiring to be discharged
from this bond before anything could be accepted at his hands.
One pigeon or turtle-dove for a sin-offering, and another for a
burnt-offering, had also to be brought, that he might enter anew
on his vow, as from the starting-point of full peace and fellow
ship with God; and the time past being all lost, his hair had to
be cut or shaved, to mark the entirely new commencement.

DISTINCTIONS OF FOOD. 423

Then, when his period of consecration was finished, he had to
bring a whole round of offerings : a sin-offering, in token that,
however carefully he might have kept himself for the Lord, sin
had still mingled itself with his service, and that he was far
from having anything to boast of before God ; a burnt-offering,
to indicate his desire that not only the sins of the past might be
blotted out, but that the imperfection of his obedience to the
will of God might be supplemented by a more full, an entire
surrender ; lastly, a peace-offering, with various kinds of bread
and drink-offerings (including wine, of which he also now
partook), to manifest that he had ceased from his peculiar state
of consecration, and entered upon the more ordinary path of
dutiful obedience, in settled friendship and near communion
with God.

DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN IN FOOD.

The distinctions made in the Mosaic law regarding food
(Lev. xi.), are quite analogous in their nature to some of the
prescriptions already noticed under the preceding heads, and
stand also in several respects very closely related to the sacri
ficial institutions. From this latter respect, certain portions of
all animals were forbidden to be used as food : the blood, the
fat that covered the inwards, — probably, also, these inwards
themselves, — and the tail of the sheep, which, in the Syrian
sheep, is a mass of fat. These were the portions which were
set apart in sacrifice for the altar of the Lord, and were hence
regarded as too sacred for common use. — (Lev. iii. 17, xvii. 11.)
Why such parts in particular were devoted to the altar, has
alivady been considered. — With the exception of the parts just
mentioned, the bodies of all creatures that could be used in
sacrifice were considered as clean, and given for food. More,
indeed, than these ; for the permission extended to all animals
that at once chew the cud and divide the hoof, comprising
chiefly the ox, sheep, goat, and deer species — to such fish as
have both fins and scales — and in ivgard t<> fowls, though no
general rule is given, but only individuals are mentioned, yet it
would appear that such as feed on grain or grass were allowed.
All others, such as birds of prey, feeding on other birds or

424 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

carrion, or fish, or insects, serpents, and creeping things, fishes
without scales or fins, and animals that do not both divide the
hoof and chew the cud, were accounted unclean, and expressly
forbidden.1

Now, in thinking of what was thus prohibited and allowed
in respect to food, we can see at a glance that the restrictions
could not have been issued for the purpose properly of forming
a check upon the gratification of the palate. The articles per
mitted include, with very few exceptions, all that the most re
fined and civilised nations still choose for their food. And
whether from a certain natural correspondence between the
bodily taste and the kinds of meat in question, or from these
possessing the qualities best adapted for food and nourishment,
or perhaps from both together, one thing is manifest, that the
restrictions under which the Israelites were here lajd imposed
upon them no heavy burden ; and that, practically, they were
allowed to eat nearly all that it was desirable or proper for them
to consume.2

Some commentators have rested the whole matter upon this
ground ; and have thought that the prohibition to use other
kinds of flesh was sufficiently accounted for by those allowed
being the most easy of digestion, the fullest of nourishment, the

1 There is very considerable difficulty in making out the precise species
of birds interdicted. Several of the modern names given to them, are
given merely on the authority of the rabbinical writers, which is not greatly
to be depended on. There are twenty in all named ; and even as given in
our English Bibles, they are, with scarcely an exception, such as are in
modern times thought unfit as articles of diet.

2 The kind of flesh that seems principally to form an exception is pork,
which is now in common use, and yet was forbidden food to the Israelites.
Indeed, it was regarded as so peculiarly forbidden, that it was sometimes
put as the representative of whatever is most foul and abominable. — (Isa.
Ixv. 4, Ixvi. 3, 17.) But though in common use now, it is still esteemed
an inferior sort of butcher meat, and chiefly consumed by persons in humble
life. And the special dislike to it among the Israelites probably arose in
part from their connection with Egypt, where, though once a year every
house sacrificed a pig to Osiris, yet the animal itself was accounted unclean ;
and the swineherds formed an inferior race, with whom the other tribes
would not intermarry, and who were not permitted even to enter the temples
of the gods.— See Heeren, Afr. ii., p. 148 ; Wilkinson, i. 239, iii. 34, iv. 46.
The filthy habits of the sow also rendered it a very natural and fitting image
of what is impure. Reference to this is expressly made in 2 Pet. ii. '2~2.

DISTINCTIONS OF FOOD. 425

best adapted to prevent disease and promote a healthful state of
body. In these respects the kinds permitted were certainly of
the highest order; but this is the whole that can be said, as
some of those prohibited were not absolutely either distasteful
or unhealthy. And it was a proof of the Divine wisdom and
goodness in this part of the legal arrangements, that the articles
appointed for food were among the best which the earth affords.
But higher grounds than this must have entered into the dis
tinction ; otherwise the line of demarcation would not have been
drawn as between clean and unclean, but rather as between
wholesome and unwholesome. That the different species per
mitted were pronounced clean, this evidently brought them
within the territory of religion ; defilement, excision, death, was
the consequence of trespassing the appointed landmarks. — (Lev.
xi. 43-47.) The law respecting the two classes is made to rest,
in the passage referred to, upon the same footing with all the
rights and institutions of Judaism, viz., the holiness of God,
demanding a corresponding holiness on the part of His people.
So that the outward distinctions could only have been intended
to be observed as symbolical of something inward and spiritual.
Of what, then, symbolical ?

If we look to the Jewish doctors for the answer, we shall
certainly find that they understood by the unclean animals
different sorts of people, with whom the Jews were to have no
communion, as between brethren — such as the Babylonians,
Modes, Persians, Romans, etc. And we can readily perceive
how the restrictions in question would, in point of fact, operate
to prevent any free and friendly intercourse at meals ; for at
the table of a heathen, not only might the eye of a Jew be
offended by seeing articles served up for food which his law
taught him to regard as abominations, but he would scarcely
feel at liberty to taste of others, lest in the preparation the flesh
had not been carefully separated from the blood and fat. Prac
tically, there can be no doubt, the distinctions as to clean and
unclean, lawful and unlawful in food, did, to a great degree,
cut off the Jews from social intercourse in meat and drink from
the rest of the world. But if we ask, why the forbidden articles
of diet should have represented idolatrous nations, rather than
any other sources of defilement within the land of Israel itself;

426 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

or what fitness there was in the particular things prohibited for
food, to stand as images of the persons or things to be shunned
in the daily intercourse of life, — we shall look in vain for any
satisfaction to the Jewish doctors, nor is it possible to find this
by treading in their footsteps.

We must look somewhat deeper ; and if we do, the leading
principles at least of the distinction will be found intelligible
enough, and in perfect accordance with the general spirit of the
Mosaic economy. The body requires food ; and as in all its
relations the body was made to image relations of a higher and
more important nature, so, in particular, the manner it was dealt
with in respect to food must be of a kind fitted to represent
what concerned the proper sustenance and enjoyment of the
soul. The food, therefore, could not be everything that might
come in the way capable of being turned into an article of
diet ; for in a fallen world the soul that would be in health and
prosper, must continually exercise itself to a choosing between
the evil and the good. Hence, to present a shadow of this in the
lower province of the bodily life, there must here also be an evil
and a good — a permitted and a forbidden — a class of things to
be taken as lawful and proper, and another class to be rejected
as abominable. It must also be God's own word which should
regulate the distinction, which should single out and sanctify
certain kinds of food from the animal creation (within which
alone the distinction could properly be drawn) for the comfort
able support of the body. But, in doing this, the word of God
did not act capriciously or without regard to the natural consti
tution or fitting order of things ; and while it prescribed, with
an absolute authority, what should or should not be eaten, it
selected in each department for man's use the highest of its kind
— whatever it was best and most agreeable to its nature to par
take of. But in choosing out such things in the sphere of the
bodily life, putting on them a stamp of sacredness, that they
might be adapted to the use of a consecrated people, and com
manding them to look upon all that lay beyond as common and
unclean, what was it but to make the things of that lower sphoiv
speak as a kind of elbow monitor in regard to the higher — to
bring perpetually to the remembrance of the covenant people,
that they must restrain and regulate the dispositions of their

DISTINCTIONS OF FOOD. 427

nature, and that, surrounded as they were on every hand with
the instruments and occasions of evil, they must be ever directed
by a spiritual taste, formed after the pattern of the law of God ?
The object of the whole was, as expressly stated in Lev. xi. 44,
that as Jehovah, the Holy One, was their God, they should
sanctify themselves, and be also holy. It said — it says still, for
though the outward ordinance is gone, its spiritual meaning re
mains — Child of God, thou must put a bridle in thy mouth, and
a rein upon the neck of thy lust ; thy path must be chosen with
the most careful discrimination, and a holy reserve maintained
in thy intercourse with the objects and beings around thee.
For the world has a thousand channels through which to pour
in upon thee its pollution, and separate between thy soul and
God. Let His word, therefore, in all things be thy directory ;
make the precepts of His mouth thy choice ; and since " evil
communications corrupt good manners," set a watch upon thy
companionships as well as thy doings : go not in the way of
sinners, nor be desirous to eat of their dainties ; for righteousness
has no part with unrighteousness, and the companion of fools
shall be destroyed.

Taking this view of the ordinance, we get at once at the
root of the matter, and have no need to search for recondite
and fanciful reasons in the scales and fins, or the chewing of
the cud and the dividing of the hoof. Neither do we need to
stop at the merely external, and in part arbitrary, distinction
between one nation and another ; for we have here a principle
which comprehends that, and much more, within its bosom.
We see also how completely the Jews of our Lord's time erred
regarding this ordinance, from their carnal sense and want
of spiritual insight. They erred here, as in other things, by
res* ing in the mere outward distinction — as if God cared with
what sort of flesh the body was sustained! or as if the holiness He
was mainly in quest of depended upon the things which ministered
to men's corporeal necessities ! Gross and carnal in their ideas,
they practically forgot that God is a Spirit, who, in all His
ordinances, deals with men as spiritual beings, and seeks to form
them to the love and practice of what is morally good. Christ,
therefore, sharply relinked their follv, and declared, with the
utmost plainness, that defilement in the eye of God is a disease

428 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and corruption of the heart, and that not the kind of food
which enters into the body, but the kind of thoughts and affec
tions which come out of the soul, is what properly renders men
clean or unclean. This obviously implied that the outward
distinction was from the first appointed only for the sake of
the spiritual instruction it was fitted to convey. It implied,
further, that the outward, as no longer needed, and as now
rather tending to mislead, was about to vanish away, that the
spiritual and eternal alone might remain. And the vision
shortly after unfolded to St Peter, with the direction immedi
ately following, to go and open the door of faith to the Gentiles,
as in God's sight on a footing with those who had eaten nothing
common or unclean, made it manifest to all, that as at first the
outward symbol had been established for the sake of the spiritual
reality, so again, for the sake of that reality which could now be
better secured otherwise, the symbol was finally and for ever
abolished.

By looking back upon this ancient ordinance, the follower of
Christ may be taught to remember : 1. That he is constantly in
danger of contracting spiritual defilement, through the love of
improper objects, or entering into unhallowed alliances. 2. That
he is therefore bound to exercise himself to watchfulness, and to
practise self-denial, apart from which the graces of religion can
never grow and flourish in the world. 3. But that still, so far
from losing by this restraint and discipline of his nature, he is a
gainer in everything essential to his real happiness and well-
being. The Lord withholds nothing that is good ; and the
enjoyments He does interdict are only such dangerous and
hurtful gratifications as never fail to bring with them a painful
recompense of evil.

SECTION NINTH.

STATED SOLEMNITIES OR FEASTS — THE WEEKLY SABBATH —
THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER— OF PENTECOST — OF TRUM
PETS AJSTD NEW MOONS — THE DAY OF ATONEMENT — THE
FEAST OF TABERNACLES — THE SABBATICAL YEAR AND
YEAR OF JUBILEE.

IN a symbolical religion like that of the Old Covenant, it was
unavoidable that time should be brought within the circle of
sacred tilings, and that, among other means for accomplishing its
important ends, there should be the consecration of particular
days and seasons. By the perpetual burnt-offering on the altar,
every day might be said to be sanctified, as a call was thereby
addressed to all the members of the covenant to dedicate their
daily life to God. But this was manifestly not enough ; and as
nature itself requires an alternation of rest with work, — season
able periods of relief perpetually coming round to break the
monotony of its daily taskwork, — so, to keep up in Israel the
proper feeling of a community chosen and set apart for the
service of Jehovah, it was necessary to take advantage of such
periods, and turn them into occasions for freshening up in the
minds of the people a sense of their sacred calling. Not only
was this actually done, but the extent to which it was carried out
rendered it one of the more distinguishing features of the Old
Testament ritual.

The term feasts, which in the English Bible has been applied
as a general designation to the most of these sacred seasons, is
far from being appropriate, and is even apt to suggest mistaken
MI-US. It is the common rendering of two Hebrew words which
differ considerably in regard to their exact shade and compass of
meaning. The one is hag (JH), the root meaning of which is to
move in a circle, to whirl round, or dance, and was doubtless
applied to certain of the greater solemnities, on account of the

430 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

joyful processional movements with which they were wont to
be celebrated. Indeed, in the beginnings of their national
existence, the covenant people (as might be inferred from their
Egyptian sojourn, and as actually appears from the first solem
nity they kept in the wilderness (Ex. xxxii. 5, 19) would asso
ciate with such occasions the excitement and even revelry of the
joyous throng as their chief attraction. But when the true
character of the religion established among them became better
understood, their ideas in this respect necessarily changed ; and
while the name was still retained for some of the sacred seasons
and the observances accompanying them, the thoughts it sug
gested would be more in accordance with the spirit of the
Mosaic institutions. The word is very rarely applied, excepting
to the passover and the feast of tabernacles (Ex. xii. 14 ; Lev.
xxiii. 39 ; Num. xxix. 12 ; Deut. xvi. 13), which were both
regarded as occasions for special manifestations of joy and
gladness ; and, in later times, the term became almost appro
priated to the feast of tabernacles, which was called emphati
cally the hag, on account of the greater hilarity which used
to mingle in its processions and services.

The name which is employed to denote the entire series of
the stated solemnities connected with particular seasons, in the
passage which treats of these in order (Lev. xxiii.), is moadeem
(DHJflD). There is a difference of opinion as to the sense in
which the word should be understood when so applied — whether it
should be meetings, or places of meeting; if of meetings, whether
not such only as were held around the tabernacle. But while
the word undoubtedly sometimes bears the sense of places of
meeting, the manner in which it is used in the passage referred
to points simply, and at the same time distinctly, to the meetings
themselves. In ver. 2 it is said, " The moadeem of Jehovah, on
which ye shall call holy convocations, these are the moadeem"
Their prominent characteristic is here plainly declared to be
one that should express itself in convocations or meetings for
holy purposes.1 And though the tabernacle would certainly be

1 There can be no doubt that such is the meaning of the expression,
CHp NTpD, and that Cocceius and Vitringa, after some Jewish authorities,
quite misunderstood it, when they explained it by an announcement of
holiness, or a proclamation (at the sanctuary) that the day or time was holy.

STATED SOLEMNITIES OR FEASTS. 431

regarded as the proper place of holding thorn, in so far as it
might be accessible, yet as attendance there was enjoined, and
indeed practicable, only in the case of a limited number, it could
never have been designed to associate the convocations generally
with that particular locality. Those held around the taber
nacle at the three stated solemnities (the Passover, Pentecost,
and Tabernacles) would naturally be of a kind better adapted
for realizing the idea of such meetings than the others, and,
as such, fitted to give a tone to the rest. But wherever or
however held, the holiness so expressly connected with them
clearly distinguishes the meetings in question from mere social
or political gatherings. That they might have been designed
— those especially which were to be kept at the tabernacle — to
foster the spirit of brotherhood among the covenant people, and
strengthen the bond of their national unity, may readily be
admitted ; but this could be no more than an incidental and
secondary result. The oneness aimed at, as justly stated by
Biihr, " was primarily and chiefly a religious, and not merely a
political one; the people were not simply to meet as among
themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before
Him as one body. The meeting together was in its very nature
a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it
was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul
of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and
political existence of Israel, the covenant of Jehovah. To keep
the people's consciousness alive to this ; to revive, strengthen,
and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapted as such
meetings together." l

It was no doubt to keep up this idea of sacredness in con
nection with the festal solemnities, that the number seven played
so prominent a part in them. The seventh day Sabbath — the
day peculiarly set apart from the period of creation, and stamped
with an impression of sacredness — not only forms the starting-
point of the whole series, but also imparts its distinctive charac
ter to each of them, and determines the periods of their cele
bration. In each of the three greater feasts, the solemnity
commenced with a Sabbath, and in two of them also — the pass-
over and tabernacles — it ended with a Sabbath, after completing
1 Symbolik, ii., p. 543.

432 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

a week of sacred observances. Seven times seven days, or a
week of weeks, separated the feast of first-fruits (Pentecost)
from that of the passover. The seventh month of the year was
made the peculiarly sacred one, distinguished by three solemni
ties — the feast of trumpets on the first day, of the yearly atone
ment on the tenth, and of tabernacles on the fifteenth. And
then, though not strictly belonging to the cycle of feasts, yet
nearly allied to them, came, at the distance of seven annual
revolutions, the Sabbatical year; and again, after seven times
seven, the year of jubilee. Throughout, we see a predominant
regard to that sacred seven, which, originating with .the work of
God in creation, perpetually recalled the thoughts of His people
to Him, as the One by whom and for whom all was made ; and
finding, as it did from the first, its culmination in a day of hal
lowed rest, it also served, when thus associated with their pecu
liar seasons of worship, to impress them with a sense of their
calling, as the people who were themselves sanctified and set
apart for Jehovah. Hence the seven as a number, and the
seventh as a portion of time, might be regarded as in an espe
cial sense the signature of the covenant, viewed in respect to its
higher ends and obligations. — (Ex. xxxi. 12-17.) The number
appears again with this meaning in the seven-branched candle
stick, and in the seven sprinklings practised in some of the more
solemn services of purification.

Beside this regard to the number seven, however, and the
idea of holiness associated with it, a respect was had in the
order and relative adjustment of the sacred festivals both to the
historical periods, which were of special importance to Israel,
and to the continued manifestations of God's goodness to them
in the land of Canaan. The three greater festivals were all
linked at once to fitting seasons in nature, and to great moments
in the national history of the people. In an historical respect,
the passover recalled the deliverance from the land of Egypt,
which gave birth to their national existence ; the feast of first-
fruits pointed to the miraculous preservation of the first-born,
and the consecration practically grounding itself therein of all
their increase to the Lord ; while the feast of tabernacles
reminded them of their long sojourn in the wilderness, and of
the lessons this was intended to render perpetual in their experi-

Till: WEEKLY SABBATH. 433

encc as to faith and holiness. In beautiful accordance with
these historical grounds for the different ordinances, were the
seasons appropriated to each : the passover being assigned to
Abib (the ear-month), when the fresh hopes of spring began to
take distinct shape ; the first-fruits to summer, when the har
vest-field had already yielded its produce ; and tabernacles to
the period of late autumn, when, all the year's fruits being
gathered, the experience of another season's heritage of good
brought anew the call to rejoice before the Lord, heightened by
the comparison of what they now had with what they had wanted
in the earlier period of their existence. Thus nature and grace,
the ordinary providences of the present, and the more special
providences of the past, were marvellously combined together in
the general arrangements which were made respecting the feasts.
Other points of a like nature will suggest themselves as we pro
ceed to particulars.

THE WEEKLY SABBATH.

When this ever-recurring day of rest was placed by the
Lawgiver at the head of the moadeem (Lev. xxiii. 3), it was
viewed as an existing institution, not now imposed for the first
time, and merely needing to have its relation determined to
other institutions which had certain points of agreement with it.
The words employed in this connection regarding it are very
few : " Six days shall work be done : the seventh day is the
Sabbath of rest (literally, Sabbath of sabbatism), an holy con
vocation ; ye shall do no work : a Sabbath to Jehovah is it in
all your dwellings." The reference in the last clause to the
private dwellings of the people, as scenes that ought to witness
the due observance of the Sabbath, is a proof that the day is
here contemplated in its general aspect, and not simply with
respect to the observances of the sanctuary. The additions,
also, that were required to be made to the ceremonial of worship
for that day would have been mentioned, if the matter had been
viewed in its more special light. As actually presented, how
ever, in the sacred text, there are just two points on which stress
is laid — the distinctive character of the Sabbath among the days
of the week, and the appointment to hold on it holy convo-
VOL. II. 2 E

434 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

cations. The former was, doubtless, the more fundamental
point, and that which constituted the ground or occasion of the
other. The day is for sabbatism, or resting ; but this not as in
itself all : for it is resting to Jehovah that is spoken of; namely,
keeping the day apart from ordinary business, that the soul
might be at leisure for the things of God — resting from the
world in order to rest in God. Hence also was it so expressly
connected with the manifestations which God had given of Him
self, not merely in the work of creation, but also in His covenant
dealings with Israel, so that its observance might fitly serve, as
already noticed, for a characteristic sign of the covenant between
God and His people. — (Ex. xxxi. 17 ; Deut. v. 15.) The simple
return of the Sabbath, therefore, brought with it a call to lift
their minds to the believing contemplation of God, and to long
after the nearer communications of His presence and favour.

Mere repose from worldly labour, however, would have gone
but a short way to accomplish such an end, had it stood alone ;
and without any employment of a religious kind to take the
place of the occupations of ordinary life, the listless inactivity
of the seventh day could have been of little service in promoting
the higher ends of the covenant. Holy convocations, or meet
ings for sacred purposes, were hence declared to be appropriate
to the day. They were simply indicated in this connection, not
specifically defined. Separate households and local parties were
left to regulate them in the manner they might find most pro
fitable or convenient — as, indeed, in the peculiar circumstances
of the Israelites, first sojourning in the wilderness, then occupy
ing a territory which for generations was not wholly theirs, it
was impossible that any uniform rule should be observed. But
they were from the first taught to regard meetings for religious
purposes as adapted to the Sabbath, and tending, by the inter
change of spiritual thought and the exercises of devotion they
would naturally lead to, to render it subservient to the duties of
their calling. Nor can we well conceive how, without some such
helps, they could in any proper measure realize the description
given by Isaiah of a well-spent Sabbath : " If thou turn away
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy
day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own \va\-.

THE WEEKLY SABBATH. 435

nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words :
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause
thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father" (Iviii. 13, 14).

In recent times this view of the Mosaic legislation, regarding
the practical observance of the Sabbath, has been vindicated by
impartial writers, even though in other respects their opinions
are somewhat loose. Biihr maintains expressly enough that the
Sabbath had a positive as well as a negative side ; that it was
not merely for the withdrawal of the soul from worldly business,
but, along with this, for the sake of its participation in the rest
of God ; and that it was a day for the Israelites having holy
convocations among themselves, as well as at the tabernacle (ii.,
p. 542). In the practical treatment of the matter, however, he
seems to make little account of such meetings. Hengstenberg
goes farther. He not only opposes the view of Vitringa, as to
the Jewish Sabbath aiming at nothing higher than bodily rest,
but holds it as certain that meetings for the reading of the law,
prayer, and sacred song, were in accordance both with the letter
and the spirit of the Mosaic legislation. — (Tag des Herrn, p. 33,
34.) Keil represents the Sabbath as designed for quickening
the souls of the people, by bringing them into fellowship with
God's rest; and regards the holy convocations mentioned as
among the means appointed for attaining this end, by reason of
the edifying converse to which they would necessarily lead in
the law of the Lord. — (Archceol., i., p. 363.) Yet Moses Stuart
(Old Testament Canon, p. 66) could speak of there being no
command in the whole Pentateuch to keep the Sabbath by
attendance on public worship, and affirms that, in point of fact,
the covenant people, up to the Babylonish exile, had no public,
social devotional worship. What, then, could have been meant
by the holy assemblies prescribed for every Sabbath, whether
stated or occasional? And if, in earlier times, God had never
given nor the people enjoyed such, how could they be said to
be again taken away ? — (llos. ii. 11.) Josephus showed u better
insight into the Mosaic legislation, when he stated that Moses
"commanded not that they should hear the law once, or twice,
or frequently, but that every week they should leave their work,
and assemble to hear the law, and learn it accurately." — (Ap.,

436 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

ii., § 17.) If it be asked, Who were to preside over and con
duct those assemblies I the law, it should be remembered, called
every parent, and, in particular, every elder in Israel, to be a
teacher of its truths and precepts : the people were still, to some
extent, a kingdom of priests ; but those who were specially set
apart to Levitical and priestly service had it as their more pe
culiar charge, " to teach the children of Israel all the statutes
which the Lord had spoken to them by the hand of Moses." —
(Deut. xxxiii. 10 ; Lev. x. 11.) And for the purpose of secur
ing facilities toward the discharge of this important mission,
they were at once separated from ordinary business, and dis
persed at convenient distances throughout the land. Whatever
grounds there may be for holding that the synagogal institution,
with its separate buildings, official organization, regulated dis
cipline, and prescribed ritual of service, came into being only
after the Babylonish exile, — and so far we think the arguments
of Vitringa conclusive (De Synag., L. i.), — there is nothing in
this to invalidate the obligation imposed in the law to observe
the weekly meetings under consideration, or to disprove the
fact, that in the better periods of Israel's history such meetings
were generally observed. (See at sec. iii., p. 2 68.)

The special services appointed for the Sabbath at the sanc
tuary are in perfect accordance with the views now advanced.
These consisted first in the doubling of the daily burnt-offering
— two lambs instead of one, with a corresponding increase in
the meat-offering (Num. xxviii. 9) — stamping the Sabbath, to
use the expression of Biihr, as the day of days, the most import
ant of all the days of the week in its bearing on the people's
calling to dedicate themselves, soul and body, to the Lord's
service. The other service, which consisted in presenting the
fresh loaves of shew-bread on the Lord's table (Lev. xxiv. 5-9),
was of quite similar import ; for this bread, like the meat-offering
generally, was a symbol of the fruitful and holy lives which the
members of the covenant were to be ever rendering to the Lord.
And that the Sabbath should have been chosen as the day for the
perpetual renewal of this offering, clearly indicated the place it
was intended to hold then, and which the Lord's day must hold
still, in disposing and enabling the people to abound in such
fruitfulness. It virtually declared, that " while diligence in good

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER. 437

works should pervade the whole life, yet this would soon flag did
it not receive fresh invigoration on the day of rest and meeting
together before the Lord. Without the day of the Lord, the
Church can never reach its aim of doing righteousness and
justice." — (Hengs., as above, p. 60.) Such also is the instruc
tion conveyed on the subject by that psalm which is entitled a
Psalm-song for the Sabbath-day (Ps. xcii.), the main theme of
which is the characteristic of the true Israelite as called to the
meditation of God's work, and finding therein an incitement to
perseverance in the duties of an upright and godly life. Such
was to be specially his Sabbath employment; and the mere
circumstance of a psalm having been indited to indicate this,
besides conveying the instruction in question, incidentally fur
nishes a testimony to the religious meetings proper to the day,
and the kind of exercises with which they should be accom
panied.

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER.

This, in point of order, was the first of the annual feasts,
and fitly stands next the weekly Sabbath. It was called the
feast of unleavened bread, as well as of the passover, and
especially when there was need for distinguishing between the
sacrifice and the other parts of the solemnity. — (Lev. xxiii. 5-8,
etc.) It could be held only in the place where the altar and
house of God were stationed, and all the males — with such
females, of course, as could conveniently accompany them — were
ordered to repair thither at the appointed time for its celebration.
This time was the month Abib (literally the ear-month, when
the corn was in the ear), the first month in the Jewish calendar,
and usually corresponding with the time between the beginning
and middle of our April. The actual commencement, as in all
the other Jewish months, was determined by the moon. On
the tenth day of that month, each head of a household was
required to separate a kid, or a lamb, — in later times apparently
:il\vays the latter, — without blemish, and on the fourteenth to kill
it toward the evening (literally between the evenings, or, as the
phrase strictly means, between sunset and total darkness, but
according to later Jewish usage, any time between three in the

438 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

afternoon and sunset). The feast did not commence till the
fifteenth day, or the time immediately after sunset on the four
teenth, though the sacrificial action with the lamb would usually
take place before the close of the fourteenth. The blood, after
the erection of the tabernacle, was given to the priests to be
sprinkled upon the altar, which determined it to be a sacrifice ;
and indeed the Lord more than once calls it, by way of emi
nence, My sacrifice. — (Ex. xxiii. 18, xxxiv. 25; see Ainsworth,
Rivet, in loc., and Hengstenberg, Authen., ii., p. 372.1) The
body of the lamb was immediately roasted entire, none of its
bones being allowed to be broken, nor its flesh to be boiled ; if
any portion should remain uneaten, to prevent it from seeing
corruption, or being put to a common use, it was to be con
sumed with fire.

At the original institution the Israelites were commanded to
eat the passover with their loins girt, their shoes on their feet,
and their staff in their hand ; but this appears to have been
enjoined only in consideration of the circumstances in which
they were then placed, as ready to take their departure from
Egypt, and, like the sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts,
seems afterwards to have been discontinued. The only perma
nent accompaniments of the feast appear to have been the un
leavened bread and the bitter herbs with which the lamb was to
be eaten. So strict was the prohibition regarding leaven, that
they were ordered to make the most careful search for it in
their several dwellings before the slaying of the paschal lamb ;
so that it might not be killed upon leaven (as the expression
literally is in the passage last referred to), that there might be
nothing of this about them at the time of the sacrifice. And
the prohibition extended throughout the whole of the seven
days during which the feast lasted. Finally, in addition to the
daily offerings for the congregation, there was presented on each
of the seven days a goat for a sin-offering, and two bullocks,

1 This has never been denied except for some polemical reasons, as by
Chemnitz, Calov, and some other Lutherans, in their controversies with the
Catholics about the Supper, and by Socinians and Rationalists of later times,
in their efforts to make void the doctrine of a vicarious atonement. In the
present day, no one will scarcely attempt to establish for the passover a
different character from that which he concedes to the other sacrifices by
blood.

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER. 439

one ram, and seven lambs for a burnt-offering, with meat and
drink-offerings.

The feast was, in the first instance, of a commemorative
character, being intended to keep in everlasting remembrance
the execution of judgment upon Egypt by the slaying of the
first-born, and the consequent liberation of Israel from the house
of bondage. That was the birth-season of their existence as a
people. It was the stretching out of Jehovah's arm to save them
from destruction, and vindicate them to Himself as a peculiar
treasure above all the nations of the earth. By mighty acts the
Lord then did what He afterwards expressed when he said, " I
have formed thee, O Jacob ; I have redeemed thee, O Israel :
thou art Mine." Above all others, then, this event deserved to
be embalmed in the hearts of the people, and held in everlasting
remembrance.

But while thus instituted to commemorate the past, the ordi
nance of the passover at the same time pointed to the future.
It did this partly in common with all other acts in which God
executed judgment upon the adversary, and brought redemption
to His people. For what Bacon said of history in general —
" All history is prophecy" — holds with special application to such
portions of it. They are the manifestations of God's character
in His relation to His covenant people ; and that character being
unchangeably the same, He cannot but be inclined substantially
to repeat for them in the future what He has done in the past.
Hence we find the inspired writers, in the Psalms and elsewhere,
when feeling their need of God's interposition in their behalf,
constantly throwing themselves back upon what He had formerly
done in avenging the enemies of His cause, and delivering it
from adversity ; assured that He who had so acted once, had in
that given them a clear warrant to look for a like procedure
again. But another and still higher element of prophetical
import mixrd with that singular work of God, which gave rise to
the institution of the passover. For the earthly relations then
exiting, and the operations of God in connection with them,
framed on purpose to represent and foreshadow correspond
ing but immensely superior ones, connected with the work and
kingdom of Christ. And as all adverse power, though rising
here to its most desperate and malignant working, was destined

440 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

to be put down by Christ, that the salvation of His Church
might be finally and for ever accomplished, so the redemption
from the land of Egypt, with its ever recurring memorial, neces
sarily contained the germ and promise of what was to come ; the
lamb perpetually offered to commemorate the past, pointed the
expecting eye of faith to the Lamb of God, one day to be slain
for the yet unatoned sins of the world ; and only when it could
be said, " Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us," did the
purpose of God, which lay enclosed as an embryo in the paschal
institution, meet with its full development.

This twofold bearing runs also through the subordinate and
accompanying arrangements. The lamb had to be prepared for
food to those in whose behalf its blood was accepted, that the
sacrifice, by which they were ransomed from destruction, might
become to them the food of a new and better life.1 And for this
purpose the lamb must be preserved entire, and roasted, so that
it might not be served up to them in a mutilated form, nor have
part of its substance wasted by being boiled in water. Itself
whole and undivided, it was to be partaken of at one and the
same time by entire households, and by an entire community,
that all might realize their Divine calling to the same life, and
the oneness as well as completeness of the means by which it
was procured and sustained. So also, in the higher things of
Christ's work and kingdom, while He gave Himself unto death
for sinners, and suffered the doom He voluntarily took upon
Him amid the furious assaults of men and devils, yet a special
providence secured that His body, after it had received the stroke
of death, should be dealt with as a sacred thing, and be preserved
free from mutilation or violence — the sign and token of its pre-
ciousness in the sight of the Father, and of the completeness of
the redemption it had been given to provide. But this Saviour,
even in death whole and undivided, must also be received as

1 It was in this personal eating of the flesh by each household, rather
than the killing of the victim, that the people exercised a priestly dignity
at the annual celebration of the passover. At the original celebration, a
separate priesthood had not yet been appointed, and so each head of a house
hold did the whole. But afterwards the priests alone could sprinkle the
blood, though the households still ate the flesh of the sacrifice. We mention
this in qualification of the opinion of Philo, formerly quoted, which erro
neously makes the mere killing a priestly act.

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER. 441

such by His people. No more in their experience than in His
own prrsiui, can lie be divided. He is, in the fulness of His
perfected redemption, the one bread of life ; and by partaking
of tliis in a simple and confiding faith, — thus, but no otherwise, —
do sinners become in Him one bread and one body — possessors
of His life, and fellow-heirs of His glory. — (1 Cor. x. 17 ; John
vi. 43-57.)

The- bitter herbs, with which the lamb was to be eaten, may
possibly have borne respect to the affliction and bondage which
the Israelites had endured in Egypt ; on which account it is
thought by many, both Jewish and Christian, commentators, to
have been omitted in the later passages of the Pentateuch which
refer to the ordinance. But we should rather regard them as
pointing, at least chiefly, to that intermingling of sorrow and
grief, amid which the soul enters into the fellowship of the life
which is of God. That life itself, when actually established in
the soul, is one of serene and elevated joy ; but, as it can only
be entered on by the deep in working of a sense of sin, and the
crucifixion of nature's affections and lusts, there must be painful
experiences in the way that leads to its possession. The Israelites
were made conscious of this in the lower territory of a present
life, when, at the very time that they were brought to the par
ticipation of the goodness and mercy of God, the judgment of
Heaven was awakening all around the wail of sorrow, and they
were obliged to flee in haste and for ever from a land in which
they had found many natural delights. And in the higher
region of Christ's everlasting kingdom, the same thing in prin
ciple is experienced by all who, through the godly sorrow that
worketh repentance unto salvation, take up their cross and follow
Jesus.

The putting away of the leaven, that there might be the use
only of unleavened bread, may also be regarded as carrying some
respect to the circumstances of the people at the first institution
of the feast. And on this account it seems to be called " the
bread of affliction" (Deut. xvi. 3), because of the trembling haste
and anguish of spirit amid which their departure was taken from
Kgypt. But there can be no doubt that it mainly pointed, as
already shown in connection with the meat-offering to holiness
in heart and conduct, which became the ransomed people of the

442 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Lord — the uncorrupt sincerity and truth that should appear in
all their behaviour. Hence, while the bitter herbs were only to
be eaten with the lamb itself, the unleavened bread was to be
used through the whole seven days of the feast, — the primary
sabbatical circle, as a sign that the religious and moral purity
which it imaged was to be their abiding and settled character.
It taught in symbol what is now directly revealed, when it is
declared, that the end for which Christ died is, that He might
redeem to Himself a people, who must put off the old man
with his evil deeds, and be created anew after the image of
God.

The only remaining part of the solemnity was the presenta
tion to the Lord of a sheaf of barley, which took place on the
second day of the feast, and was done by waving it before the
Lord, accompanied by a burnt-offering, with its meat-offering
(Lev. xxiii. 12), expressive of that sense of sin, and renewed
dedication of heart and life to God, which wras proper to such a
season. On this account, in part at least, the time for the cele
bration of the feast was fixed at a season when it was possible
to obtain a few handfuls of ripening corn. The natural thus
fitly corresponded with the spiritual. The religious presentation
of the first ripe grain of the season was like presenting the
whole crop to God, acknowledging it to be His property, and
receiving it as under the signature of His hand. It thereby
acquired throughout a sacred character ; for " if the first-fruits
be holy, the lump is also holy." The service bore respect to the
consecration of the first-born at the original institution of the
passover, and was therefore most appropriately connected with
this ordinance. Those first-born, as previously noticed, repre
sented the whole people of Israel, and in their personal deliver
ance and future consecration all Israel were saved and sanctified
to the Lord. So, after they had reached the inheritance for
which all was done, there was the yearly presentation of the first
of their increase to the Lord, in token of all being derived and
held of Him ; and as the passover feast served as a perpetual
renewal of their birth to the Lord, so the waving of the first
sheaf was a sort of perpetual consecration of their substance to
His glory. Whence, also, being thus connected with the very
existence of the people in their redeemed condition, and with

THE FEAST OF WEEKS, PENTECOST. 443

the first of their annual increase, the month on which the pass-
over was celebrated was fitly made to stand at the commence
ment of the Jewish calendar. In Christian times, in like
manner, everything may be said to date from the work of Christ
in the flesh ; everything in the history of the believer from his
new birth in Christ to God. Till then he was dead, now he is
alive in the Lord ; and partaking of the life of Him who is the
first-born among many brethren, he grows up to a meetness for
the same blessed and glorious immortality.

THE FEAST OF WEEKS, PENTECOST.

This feast was appointed to be held at the distance of seven
weeks complete, a week of weeks, from the second day of the
passover, when the first ripe barley sheaf was presented — there
fore on the fiftieth day after the former. The males were then
again to repair to the house of God. And from the Greek word
for fifty being Pentecoste, the feast itself in the New Testament,
and in later times generally, came to be designated Pentecost.
But its Bible name is rather that of Weeks, being determined
by the complete cycle of weeks that followed the waving of the
barley sheaf at the time of the passover, and forming the close
of that period which stretched from the one solemnity to the
other ; whence it was frequently called by the ancient Jews
Atzereth (Josephus, iii. 10, 6, Asartha), i.e., the closing or shut
ting up.

There are, however, two other names applied to it in the
Pentateuch. In Ex. xxiii. 16 it is called " the Feast of Har
vest," because it was kept at the close of the whole harvest,
wheat as well as barley — the intervening weeks between it and
the passover forming the season of harvest. And in the same
passage, as again in Num. xxviii. 26, it is also called " the Feast
of the First-fruits," because it was the occasion on which the
Israelites were to present to God the first-fruits of their crop,
as now actually nv.li/ed and laid up for use. This was done
by the high priest waving two loaves in the name of the whole
congregation. But, besides this, as they wore enjoined to give
" the first of all the fruit of the earth to the Lord," to whom it
all properly belonged, it was ordered that at this feast they

444 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

should bring these first-fruits along with them. The precise
amount to be rendered of such was not fixed, but was left as a
free-will offering to the piety of the individual. — (Deut. xvi. 10.)
The offering itself, however, was a matter of strict obligation ;
whence the precept of the wise man : " Honour the Lord with
thy substance, and with the first-fruits of thine increase." — (Prov.
iii. 9.) The form of confession and thanksgiving recorded in
Deut. xxvi. was commonly used on such occasions.

In later times the feast is understood to have been held for
an entire week, like the passover ; and is often regarded as
having been appointed to continue for the same period. But
no time is specified in Scripture for its continuance, and as a
holy solemnity it appears to have been limited to one day, when
the same number and kind of offerings were presented as on
each day of the Paschal Feast. — (Num. xxviii. 26-30.) But as
the people were specially required at this feast to extend their
liberality to their poorer brethren, and to invite not only their
servants, but also the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the
Levite, to share with them in the goodness which the Lord had
conferred upon them (Deut. xvi. 10), it is obvious that a succes
sion of days must have been required for its due celebration.

This feast has been very commonly viewed as at least partly
intended to commemorate the giving of the law, which certainly
took place within a very little of fifty days after the slaying of
the passover — although the time cannot be determined to a
day. But not a hint occurs of this in Scripture, nor is any trace
to be found of it either in Philo or in Josephus. It was main
tained by Maimonides and one class of Rabbinical writers, but
denied by Abarbanel and another class ; and it seems somewhat
strange that the opinion should so readily have found acceptance
with so many Christian authors. The points of ascertained and
real moment in connection with the feast are — (1.) Its reference
to the second day of the passover, when the first barley sheaf
was presented — the former being the commencement, the latter
the completion, of the harvest period. Hence, all being now
finished, and the year's provision ready to be used, the special
offering here was, not of ripe corn, but of loaves, baked as usual
with leaven, representing the whole staff of bread. In this case
the fermenting property of leaven was not taken into account

THE FEAST OF WEEKS, PENTECOST. -1 1 .">

Hut the loaves were not placed upon the altar, to which the
prohibition about leaven strictly referred; they were simply
waved before the Lord, and given to the priests. (2.) Then,
lecondly, there was the reference it bore to the week of weeks —
the complete revolution of time, shut in on each hand by a stated
solemnity, and thus marked off as a time peculiarly connected
with God, a select season of divine working. Why should this
season in particular have been so distinguished? Simply be
cause it was the reaping time of the year. Canaan was in a
peculiar sense God's land : the people were guests and sojourners
with Him upon it ; lie was bound by the relation in which He
stood to them (so long as they continued faithful in their alle
giance to Him) to provide for their wants, and satisfy them with
good things. The harvest was the season more especially for
His doing this ; it was His peculiar time of working in their
behalf, when He crowned the year with His goodness, and laid
up, as it were, in His storehouses what was required to furnish
them with supplies, till the return of another season. Hence it
was fitting that he should be acknowledged both at the beginning
and ending of the period — that as the first of the ripening ears
of corn, so the first of the baked loaves of bread, should be pre
sented to Him — and that as guests well cared for, and plentifully
furnished with the comforts of life, they should at the close come
before the Lord to praise Him for His mercies, and give sub
stantial expression to their gratitude, by sharing with His repre
sentatives a portion of their increase, and causing the poor and
needy to sing for joy.

There are important lessons of instruction here for every
age of the Church, in respect even to the sphere of the natural
life. For as God still pours into the lot of His people of the
bounties of His providence, the same regard to His hand, amid
the operations by which this is accomplished, and the same grate
ful and liberal acknowledgment of it when the results have been
obtained, which were required of the ancient Israelite, should
now in substance be exercised by Christians. But looking to
the higher things of grace and salvation, which alone form the
antitype to the other, we are reminded by the arrangements of
this feast of the two great seasons in the history of Chri>t's
redemption — the one of working towards the provision of its

446 I THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

blessings, the other of participation and enjoyment in -what has
been provided. The eventful period of our Lord's ministry on
earth, with all its trials and triumphs, its perfect obedience to the
will of the Father, and in doing and suffering, accomplishing
whatever was needed for laying anew the foundation of man's
peace with God — this was the peculiar season of divine working,
during which the rich provisions of grace were, in a manner,
brought to maturity, and reaped for the benefit of those who
should be the heirs of salvation. Then, when this work of pre
paration was over, and the feast of fat things so long in prospect
was now ready to be enjoyed, there came, after our Lord's
ascension in glorified humanity, the actual dispensation to be
lieving souls of the treasured good, through the free outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. What day could be more fitly chosen for
such a purpose than that of Pentecost ? The Spirit was expressly
promised and given for the purpose of taking of the things of
Christ, and showing them to His people ; in other words, to
turn the riches of His purchased redemption from being a trea
sure laid up among the precious things of God, into a heritage
of good actually possessed by His people, so that they might be
able to rejoice, and call others to rejoice with them, in the good
ness of His house. It was the day of the Church's first-fruits,
and these were a pledge from the Spirit of the whole that
remains to complete the fulness of the purchased possession.

THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS AND THE NEW MOONS.

We couple these together, for, to a certain extent, they were
of the same description. Strictly speaking, the New Moons
were not feasts, and have no place among the moadeem in the
twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. They were not days of
sacred rest, nor of holy convocations. But being the commence
ment of a new portion of time, and of that monthly revolution
of time which might be said to rule the whole year, they were
so far distinguished from other days, that the same special
offerings were presented on them which were presented on the
moadeem. — (Num. xxviii. 11-15.) And they were further dis
tinguished by the blowing of trumpets over the burnt-offerings.
— (Num. x. 10; Ps. Ixxxi. 3.) This latter service brought

TIIK IT. AST OF TRUMPETS AND THE NEW MOONS. 447

them into a close connection with the Feast of Trumpets, which
took place on one of them, and was a day of rest and holy con
vocation : it had its peculiar and distinctive characteristic, from
the blowing of trumpets ; and it is hence probable, that on it
the blowing of these would then be continued longer, and made
to give forth a louder sound than on other days. The feast so
characterized took place on the first day of the seventh month,
which fell about the latter end of September or the beginning
of October ; and though the people were not required to appear
at the tent of meeting, yet, in token of the importance of the
day, an additional series of offerings was presented, beside those
appointed for the new moons in general.

There can be no doubt that the sacred use of the trumpet
had its reason in the loud and stirring noise it emits. Hence it
is described as a cry in Lev. xxv. 9 (the English word sound
there is too feeble), which was to be heard throughout the whole
land. The references to it in Scripture generally suggest the
same idea. — (Zeph. i. 16; Isa. Iviii. 1 ; Hos. viii. 1, etc.) On
this account the sound of the trumpet is very commonly em
ployed in Scripture as an image of the voice or word of God.
The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount Sinai,
were heard together (Ex. xix. 16, 18, 19), first the trumpet-
sound as the symbol, then the reality. So also St John heard
the voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet (Rev. i. 10, iv. 1), and
the sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the
harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great
glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead
to life, and make all things new. — (Matt. xxiv. 31 ; 1 Cor. xv.
52 ; 1 Thess. iv. 16.) The sound of the trumpet, then, was a
symbol of the majestic, omnipotent voice or word of God ; but
of course only in those things in which it was employed in re
spect to what God had to say to men. It might be used also as
from man to God, or by the people as from one to another. In
this case, it would be a call to a greater than the usual degree
of alacrity and excitement in regard to the work and service of
God. And such, probably, was the more peculiar design of the
blowing of trumpets at the festivals gc¥iuT:illy, and especially at
the festival of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month.
That month was distinguished above all the other months of the

448 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

year, for the sacred services to be performed in it : as noticed
near the commencement of this section, it was emphatically the
sacred month. For not only was its first day consecrated to
sacred rest and spiritual employment, but the tenth was the
great day of yearly atonement, when the high priest was per
mitted to sprinkle the mercy-seat with the blood of sacrifice, and
the liveliest exhibition was given which the materials of the
earthly sanctuary could afford of the salvation of Christ. And
then on the fifteenth of the same month commenced the Feast
of Tabernacles, which was intended to present a striking image
of the glory that should follow, as the former of the humiliation
and sufferings by which the salvation was accomplished. In
perfect accordance with all this, not only is the feast named the
Feast of Trumpets, but " a memorial of blowing of trumpets,"
a bringing to remembrance, or putting God, as it were, in mind
of the great things by which (symbolically) He was to dis
tinguish the month that was thus introduced ; precisely as, when
they went to war against an enemy that oppressed them, they
were to blow the trumpet ; and it is added, " Ye shall be remem
bered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from
your enemies." — (Num. x. 9.)1

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

This day formed the most distinguishing solemnity of the
seventh month, and indeed of the whole sacrificial ritual. But
we have already treated of it in another connection, and refer to
what is written there. — (Sec. VII.)

i

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

This had all the marks of a great and solemn feast. The
males were to repair for its celebration to the place where God

1 Most commonly by the Jews, and generally also by Christian writers,
the Feast of Trumpets is called that of the New Year, viz., of the civil year,
as distinguished from the sacred. But Biihr justly remarks, there is nothing
in Old Testament Scripture of this twofold year, nor does any record of it
exist till after the Babylonish captivity. It is therefore quite arbitrary to
regard this feast as pointing at all in such a direction.

Till-: FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 449

put His name1; it was to bo begun and ended by a day of
holy convocation, and the last the eighth, an additional day, so
that the whole reached a day beyond the feast of unleavened
bread. It is sometimes called " the Feast of Ingathering in the
end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of
the field" (Ex. xxiii. 16; Deut. xvi. 13); for it took place im
mediately before the winter months, and after the labours, not
only of the harvest, but also of the vintage and the fruit season
generally, were past. The year might, therefore, with an agri
cultural population like the Israelites, be then considered as
tending towards its close ; and the comparative leisure of the
winter months being before them, they would have ample time
for the celebration of the feast. But we remark in passing,
that this feast, which began on the fifteenth of the seventh
month, being spoken of as falling about the close of the year, is
a clear enough proof how little, in the mind of the lawgiver, the
Feast of Trumpets at the beginning of it had to do with a New
Year.

The more distinctive appellation, however, of this feast
was that of Tabernacles, or, as it should rather be, of booths
(niSDH jn)j because during the continuance of the feast the
people were to dwell in booths. A booth is not precisely the
same as a tent or tabernacle, though the names are frequently
interchanged. It properly means a slight, temporary dwelling,
easily run up, and as easily taken down again, — a house or shed
for a day or two ; such as Jacob made for his cattle in the place
which, on that account, was called Succoth (booths, Gen. xxxiii.
17), and Jonah, for himself, which was so slim and insufficient,
that he was glad of the foliage of a gourd to cover him. Tents
might also be called booths, as being habitations of a very im
perfect description, light and moveable, speedily pitched, and
easly transported, the proper domiciles of a yet unsettled and
wandering population. In this respect they form a contrast to
solid, fixed, and comfortable houses ; as with the Rechabites,
whose father commanded them not to build houses, but to dwell
in tents; and with the Israelites at large before, as rompaivd
with their condition after, they entered the promised land.
There seems no necessity for pressing the matter further in
regard to the use of booths at this feast; and for saving, with
VOL. II. 2 F

450 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

Biihr, that they were intended to recall the deprivations and
troubles of the wilderness life ; or with Keil, that respect was
had in them rather to the gracious care and protection of God,
while they were exposed to these. It is enough to say, that the
booth-like structures, which were to serve for tents in the feast,
were symbols of the wilderness state, leaving all besides, which
this was fitted to suggest, to be supplied.

The reason assigned for the ordinance in Scripture indicates
so much, and no more: the people had to dwell in booths, "that
their generations might know that the Lord made the children
of Israel to dwell in booths, when lie brought them out of
the land of Egypt." — (Lev. xxiii. 43.) In this respect it was
designed, in the first instance, to serve what may always be
regarded as the immediate end of all commemorative religious
institutions, — that, namely, of keeping properly alive the remem
brance of the historical fact they refer to. In every case of this
nature, it is of course understood, that the fact itself be one of a
primary and fundamental character, containing the germ of
spiritual ideas vitally important for every age of the Church.
Such certainly was the character of the period of Israelitish
history, when the people were made to dwell in tents or booths
after they had left the land of Egypt. It was, in a manner,
the connecting link between their house of bondage on the one
hand, and their inheritance of blessing on the other. Then
especially did the Lord come near and reveal Himself to them,
pitching His own tabernacle in the midst of theirs, communi
cating to them His law and testimony, and setting up the entire
polity which was to continue unimpaired through succeeding
ages. Hence, the annual celebration of the Feast of Taber
nacles was like a perpetual renewing of their religious youth ; it
was keeping in fresh recollection the time of their espousals,
and re-enforcing upon their minds the views and feelings proper
to that early and formative period of their history. — On this
account we have no doubt it was, that the Feast of Tabernacles
was the time chosen, every seventh year, for reading the whole
law to the people (Deut. xxxi. 10-13), and not, as Ba'lir thinks,
because it was the greatest feast, and the one most largely fre
quented. The law was given them in the wilderness on their
way to the land of Canaan, as the law by which all their doings

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 451

in k> regulated, when they were settled in the land, and
on the faithful observance of which their continued possession
of it depended. So that nothing could be more appropriate,
when commemorating the period and reviving the thoughts and
feelings of their religious youth, than to have the law read in
their hearing. But this shows, at the same time, that the Feast
of Pentecost could not have been intended to commemorate the
giving of the law ; as in that case, unquestionably, the time of
its celebration would rather have been chosen for the purpose.

Even in this point of view, there was a much closer connec
tion between the wilderness-life, the booth-dwelling portion of
Israel's history, than if it had formed the mere passage from
Egypt to Canaan. But the same will appear still more, if we
look to the bearing it had upon the personal preparation of
Israel for the coming inheritance. It was not simply the time
of God's manifesting His shepherd care and watchfulness to
ward them, guiding them through great and terrific dangers,
and giving them such astonishing proofs of His goodness in the
midst of these, as were sufficient to assure them in all time
coming of His faithfulness and love. It was this, doubtless ;
but, at the same time, much more than this. While the whole
period was strewed with such tokens of goodness from the hand
of God, by which He sought to draw and allure the people to
Himself, it was also the period emphatically of temptation and
trial, by which the Lord sought to winnow and sift their hearts
into a state of meetness for the inheritance. Hence the words
of Moses, Deut. viii. 2-5 : " Thou shalt remember all the way
by which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what
wa> in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His command
ments or not. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not,
neither did thy fathers know, that He might make thee know
that man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that pro-
ceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord," etc. This alternating
process of want and suppl}-, of great and appalling danger, ever
ready to be met by sudden and extraordinary relief, was the
grand testing process in their history, bv which the latent evil
in their bosoms was brought fully to light, that it might be con-

452 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

demned and purged out, and by which they were formed to that
humble reliance on God's arm, and single-hearted devotedness
to His fear, which alone could prepare them for taking posses
sion of, and permanently occupying, the promised land. It
proved in the issue too severe for by far the greater portion of
the original congregation ; or, in other words, the evil in their
natures was too deeply rooted to be effectually purged out, even
by such well-adjusted and skilfully applied means of purifica
tion ; so that they could not be allowed to enter the promised
land. But for those who did enter, and their posterity to latest
generations, it was of the greatest moment to have kept per
petually alive upon their minds the peculiar dealing of God
during that transition period of their history, in order to their
clearly and distinctly realizing the connection between their con
tinued enjoyment of the land, and the refined and elevated state,
the lively faith, the binding love, the firm and devoted purpose,
to which the training in the wilderness conducted. They must,
in this respect, be perpetually connecting the present with the
past — at the close of every season renewing their religious
youth ; as it was only by their entering into the spirit of that
period, and making its moral results their own, that they had
any warrant to look forward to another season of joy and plenty.
For this high purpose, therefore, the feast was more especially
instituted. And while the fulness of supply and comfort amid
which it was held, as contrasted with their formerly poor and
unsettled condition, called them to rejoice, the solemn respect it
bore to the desert-life taught them to rejoice with trembling :
reminded them that their delights were all connected with a
state of nearness to God, and fitness for His service and glory :
and warned them, that if they forsook the arm of God, or looked
to mere fleshly ease and carnal gratifications, they should inevi
tably forfeit all title to the goodly inheritance they possessed.
Hence, also, when this actually came to be the case, when the
design of this feast had utterly failed of its accomplishment,
when Israel " knew not that it was the Lord who gave her corn,
and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold," He re
solved to send her again through the rough and sifting process
of her youth : " Therefore will I return, and take away My corn
iu the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof. I will

Till: FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 453

also cause all her mirth to cease, and I will destroy her vines
and her fig-trees ; and I will allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and will speak comfortably unto her. And I will
give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a
door of hope," etc. — (Hos. ii. 8-15 ; compare Ezek. xx.) Not
that the literal scenes were to be enacted over again ; but that
a like process of humiliation, trial, and improvement had to be
undergone — the severe training first, and then the holy, earnest
spirit of the past revived, that they might be fitted for being
partakers of the goodness of the Lord.

This view of the nature and design of the feast, which
we take to be the only scriptural one, sufficiently discovers the
fallacy of those representations which would make the cele
bration of this feast to have been an occasion merely for carnal
merriment, dancing, feasting, and revelry. When the people
themselves became carnal, it would, no doubt, partake too much
of that character ; but such was by no means the manner in
which God designed it to be kept. They were, indeed, to
rejoice over all the goodness and mercy which the Lord had
given them to experience ; but their joy was still to be the
joy of saints, and nothing was to be done or relished which
might have the effect of weakening the graces of a divine life,
or disturbing their fellowship with God. It is, no doubt, in
connection with the joy that was to characterize the feast, and
as symbolical of it, that branches of palms and other trees were
to be taken (whether in their hands or on their booths, is not
said, Lev. xxiii. 40). Having taken these, they were to " rejoice
before the Lord," — the joy having respect more immediately to
the gathered produce of the year, and more remotely to the
abundance of Canaan, as contrasted with the barrenness of the
desert. The palm-tree was specially selected, most probably
from having the richest foliage, and thus presenting the fittest
symbol of joy. The history of our Lord shows how naturally
the people associated the palm leaf with joy. — (John xii. 12.)

In regard to the mode of celebrating the feast, beside the
dwelling in booths, there was a great peculiarity in the offerings
to be presented. The sin-olYeiing was the same as on the other
feast-days, a single goat ; but for the burnt-offering the rams and
lambs were double the usual number, two and fourteen instead

454 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

of one and seven ; while, in place of the two young bullocks of
other days, there were to be in all, during the seven days of the
feast, seventy, and these so divided, that on the last day there
were to be seven, eight on the day preceding, and so 011 up to
thirteen, the number offered on the first day of the feast. The
eighth day did not properly belong to the feast, but was rather
a solemn winding-op of the whole feast season : the offerings for
it, therefore, were much of the usual description. But for those
peculiarities in the offerings properly connected with this feast, —
the double number of one kind, and the constant and regular de
crease in another, till they reached the number of seven, — we are
still without any very satisfactory reason. The greater number
may possibly be accounted for by the occasion of the feast, as
intended to mark the grateful sense of the people for the Lord's
goodness, after having reached not only Canaan, but the close of
another year of its plentiful increase in all natural delights. We
make no account of its being called in a passage often quoted
from Plutarch (Sympos., i. 4, 5), " the greatest of the Jewish
feasts," as also by Philo, Josephus, and most of the Rabbins ; for
there is no ground in Scripture for making it in itself greater
than the passover, and in deep solemnity both of them fell
below the day of atonement. The other point is more obscure.
That some stress was intended to be laid on the whole number
seventy, ten times seven, the two most sacred and complete
numbers, is probable. But the gradual diminution till seven is
reached, remains a sacred enigma. The views of the Rabbins
are mere conjectures, most of them frivolous and nonsensical.
To see in it, with Bahr, a reference to the waning moon, is
entirely fanciful ; iior is it less so to understand it, with the
greater part of the elder typologists, of the gradual ceasing of
animal sacrifice, for there should then have been none on the
last day, or at most one, whereas there were still seven — the
very symbol of the covenant. We might rather regard it as
intended to signalize this covenant, as designed to impress upon
the people the conviction that, however their blessings might
increase, and however many their grateful oblations might be,
yet they must still settle and rest in the covenant, as that with
which all their privileges and hopes were bound up. But we
can scarcely venture to present this as a satisfactory explana-

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 455

tion. We only mention farther, regarding the observance of the
feast, that several things were added in later times, and, in
particular, the practice of drawing water from the fountain of
Siloam, and pouring it on the sacrifice, together with wine,
amid shouts of joy, and eveiy manifestation of exuberant de
light. This was done, however, only during the seven days of
the feast, not on the eighth or last, as is commonly represented.
— (See Winer's Real-wort, on the Feast ; also Lightfoot, Hor.
Ileb. Ev. Joh., vii. 37.) And if our Lord, in John vii. 37,
when He said, on- the last, the great day of the feast, " If any
man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink," made any refer
ence to the libations connected with the feast, it must have been
to what had taken place on the previous days, and of which there
was a marked absence on this last day. Taking advantage of
the cessation, He intimated that in Him the reality was to be
found of the symbolical service that had been performed with
such demonstrations of joy on the preceding days.

The Israelites, in their outward history, were a collective
type of the real children of God ; and, therefore, in this feast,
which brought the beginnings and the endings of their history
together, we naturally look for a condensed representation of a
spiritual life, whether in individuals or in the Church at large.
We see its antitype first of all, and without its imperfections, in
the man Christ Jesus, — who also was led up, after an obscure
and troubled youth, into a literal wilderness to be tempted forty
days, a day for a year, that the people might the more readily
identify Him with the true Israel ; and when Satan could find
nothing in Him, so that He was proved to be fitted for accom
plishing the work of God, and casting out the wicked one from
his usurped dominion, He came forth to enter on the great
conflict of man's and the world's redemption. In this great
work, too, the beginning and the end meet together, and are
united by a bond of closest intimacy. The sufferings neces
sarily go before, and lay the foundation for the glory. Jesus
must personally triumph over sin and death, before He can
receive the kingdom from the Father, or be prepared to wield
the sceptre of its government, and enjoy with His people the
riches of its fulness. And, therefore, even now, when He has
entered on His glory, to show the bond of connection between

456 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the one and the other, He still presents Himself as " the Lamb
that was slain," and receives the adorations of His people, as
having, by His obedience unto death, redeemed them from sin,
and made them kings and priests unto God.

With a still closer resemblance to the type, because with a
greater similarity of condition in the persons respectively con
cerned, is the spiritual import of the feast to be realized in the
case of all genuine believers. And on this account the Prophet
Zechariah, when speaking of what is to take place after the final
overthrow of the Church's enemies, represents all her members
as going up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles
(xiv. 16). She shall then rejoice in the fulness of her purchased
and redeemed inheritance, and have her experiences of heavenly
enjoyment heightened and enhanced by the remembrance of
the past tribulation and conflict. Now she is passing through
the wilderness ; it is her period of trial and probation ; she must
be sifted and prepared for her final destiny, by constant alter
nations of fear and hope, of danger and deliverance, of diffi
culties and conquests. By these she must be reminded of her
own weakness and insufficiency, her proneness to be overcome
of evil, and the dependence necessary to be maintained on the
word and promises of God ; the dross must be gradually purged
out, and the pure gold of the divine life refined and polished
for the kingdom of glory. Then shall she ever hold with her
Divine Head a feast of tabernacles, rejoicing in His presence,
satisfied with His fulness ; and so far from grudging at the
trials and difficulties of the way, rather reflecting on them with
thankfulness, because seeing in them the course of discipline
that was needed for the fulfilment of her final destiny. The
blessed company in Rev. vii., clothed in white robes, and with
palms in their hands, representatives of a redeemed and trium
phant Church, are the final antitypes of the Israelites keeping
the Feast of Tabernacles.

THE SABBATICAL YEAR.

The appointment of a sabbatical year does not strictly be
long to the stated festivals, nor is it included umong these in
the 23d chapter of Leviticus ; but it was very closely related to

Til I- SABBATICAL YEAR. 457

them, and in some respects had the same purposes to serve. It
is hence called by the name moed, festival, in Deut. xxxi. 10.
The principal law on the subject is given in Lev. xxv. 1-7.
There it is enjoined, that after the children of Israel came into
possession of the land cf Canaan, they were to allow it every
seventh year an entire season of rest. The land was to be un-
tilled — a promise being also given of such plenty on the sixth
year as would render the people independent of a harvest on
the seventh. They might enjoy a year's respite from their toils,
and yet be no losers in their worldly condition. But as there
would still be a certain return yielded from the fruit-trees and
the ground, so whatever grew spontaneously was to be used,
partly indeed by the owner, but by him in common with the
poor and the stranger that might sojourn among them. And
along with this freedom to the humbler classes of the community,
there was also ordained, by a subsequent law (Deut. xv.), a
release from all personal bondage and a cancelling of debts.
The name given to this year, " a Sabbath of rest," and " a
Sabbath to the Lord," alone denotes its close connection with
the weekly Sabbath ; and this was farther confirmed by the
promise of a larger increase than usual on the sixth year, corre
sponding to the double portion of manna that fell on the sixth
day in the wilderness. On account of this connection and re
semblance, Calvin has assigned it (in his Commentary), as one
of the reasons of the appointment, that " God wished the observ
ance of the Sabbath to be inscribed upon all the creatures, so
that wherever the Jews turned their eyes, they might have it
forced on their notice."

The sacredness of the rest during this year was more especi
ally indicated by the prescription, that the whole law should be
road at the Feast of Tabernacles. Such a prescription indicated
soiiK'thing more than that provision should be made for this
j)urj)ose at the feast ; for that might have been done, so far as
the necessary time, was concerned, any year. It must rather
have been designed to teach the Israelites, that the year, as a
whole, should be much devoted to the meditation of the law,
and engaging in exercises of devotion. If they entered, as
they should have done, into the Divine appointment, the release
from ordinary work would be gladly taken as an opportunity to

458 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

direct the mind more to Divine things, to be more frequent in
conversing with each other upon the history of God's dealings,
and to take order that anything which seemed to be out of
course in respect to the Divine appointments might be rectified.
How much, too, would the periodical return of such a season
tend to impress upon all ranks and classes of the people the
important truth, that the land, with every plant and creature in
it, was the Lord's ! Nor could it be less fitted to impress upon
the richer members of the community the image of God's bene
ficence and tender consideration of the poor and needy. Such
an institution was utterly opposed to the niggardly and selfish
spirit which would mind only its own things, and would grind
the face of the poor with hard exactions or oppressive toil, in
order to gratify some worldly desires. No one could imbibe
the spirit of the institution without being as distinguished for
his humanity and justice toward his fellow-men, as for his piety
toward God.

It may possibly be thought, that the encouragement given
to idleness by such a long cessation from the ordinary labours
of the field, would be apt to counterbalance the advantages
arising from the ordinance. The cessation, however, could only
be comparative, not absolute ; and each day would still present
certain calls for labour in the management of household affairs,
the superintendence or care of the cattle, the husbanding of
the provisions laid up from preceding years, and the execution,
perhaps, of improvements and repairs. The appointment was
abused, if it was turned to an occasion for begetting habits of
idleness. But the solemn pause which it created in the com
mon occupations and business of life — the arrest it laid on men's
selfish and worldly dispositions — and the call it addressed to
them to cultivate the graces of a pious, charitable, and benefi
cent life, — these things conveyed to the Israelite's, and they con
vey still to the Church of God (though the outward ordinance
has ceased), salutary lessons, which in some form or another
must have due regard paid to them, if the interest of God is to
prosper in the world.

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE. 459

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.

This institution stood in the closest relation to the sabbatical
year, and may be regarded as the higher form of the same. It
was appointed that when seven weeks of years had run their
course, this great Sabbath-year, the year of jubilee, should
come ; when not only, as in the ordinary sabbatical year, the
land should be allowed to rest, the fruit-trees to grow unpruned,
and debts to be cancelled, but also every personal bond should
be broken, every alienated possession restored to its proper
owner, and a general restitution should take place. — (Lev. xxv.
9, sq.) The sabbatical idea, as involving a participation in the
perfect order and peaceful rest of God, rose here, so far as social
arrangements were concerned, to its proper consummation ; it
could ascend no higher in the present imperfect state of things,
nor accomplish any more. Its object was one of deliverance —
deliverance from trouble, grievance, and oppression, — a restitu
tion to order and repose, so that the face of nature and the aspect
of society might reflect somewhat of the equable, brotherlv, well-
ordered condition of the heavenly world. As such it fitly began,
not at the usual commencement of the year, but on the day
after the yearly atonement, in the seventh month, when the
sins of the people in all their transgressions were (symbolically)
atoned for and forgiven by God — when all, in a manner, being
set right between them and God, it became them to see that
everything was also set right between one person and another.
It implied, however, that Canaan was not the region of bliss in
which the desire of the righteous was to find its proper satisfac
tion, but only an imperfect type and shadow of what should actu
ally possess this character. It implied that everything there was
constantly tending, through human infirmity and corruption, to
change and deteriorate what God had settled; so that times of
restoration must perpetually come round to check the downward
tendency of things, to rectify the disorders which were ever
ri>ing into notice, and especially to maintain and exhibit the
principle, that every one entitled to dwell with God was also
entitled to share in His inheritance of blessing (ver. 23).

Happy had it been for Israel if he had heartily fallen in
with these restorative sabbatical institutions. But they struck

400 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

too powerfully against the current of human depravity, and
drew too largely upon the faith of the people, to be properly ob
served. Considered in respect to the people generally, there is
but too much reason to believe that the breach of the law here
was greatly more common than the observance ; since the
seventy years' desolation of the Babylonish exile is represented
as a paying of the long arrears due to the land for the want of
its sabbatical repose, — "until the land had fulfilled her Sab
baths." — (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21.) The promise, however, con
tained in this year of jubilee for the Church and people of God,
cannot ultimately fail. A presage and earnest of its complete
fulfilment was given in the work of Christ, when at the very
outset He declared that He was anointed to preach good tidings
to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound — to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. But it is from His finished work of recon
ciliation on the cross, from the great day of atonement, that
the commencement of the proclamation properly dates, respect
ing the world's coming jubilee. Sin still causes innumerable
troubles and sorrows. Even in the best governed states, the
true order of absolute righteousness and peace is to be found
only in scattered fragments or occasional examples. Darkness
and corruption are everywhere contending for the mastery ; but
the truth shall certainly prevail. The prince of this world shall
be finally cast out ; and amid the manifested power and glory
of God all evil shall be quelled, and sorrow and sighing shall
for ever flee away. Then shall the joyful anthem be sung,
" Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea
roar, and the fulness thereof ; let the field be joyful, and all
that is therein ; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
before the Lord : for He cometh to judge the earth ; He shall
judge the world with righteousness, and His people with His
truth."

CHAPTER FOURTH.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS.

IN the course of the preceding discussions, we have so often had
occasion to refer to the greater events in Israelitish history, that
it would be alike needless and unprofitable, as regards our pre
sent object, to go at any length into the consideration of its
particular parts. It will be enough to take a brief survey of
the more prominent points connected with the state of the cove
nant people, while under the law and the promises. And we
shall do so under two leading divisions, — the one having respect
to their actual settlement in the land of Canaan, and the other
to their subsequent condition, as placed under the Theocratic
constitution, with its peculiar privileges and obligations of duty.
The two subjects together will afford opportunities for meeting
various objections against the history of the Old Testament, and
also for exhibiting the distinctive excellences of its economy,
and the gradual preparation made by its actual working for the
kingdom of Christ.

SECTION FIRST.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN.

The conquest and actual possession of Canaan by the chil
dren of Israel, both in point of time and importance, deserves
the first place. The possession of that hind formed one of the
things most distinctly promised in the- Ahrahamir covenant;
and as matters actually stood when the fulfilment came to be
arroniplMird, the possession could be- made good only by the
overthrow and destruction of the original inhabitants. This

462 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

mode of entrance on the possession has been often denounced
by infidel writers as cruel and unjust, and has not unfrequently
met with a lame defence from the advocates of a Divine revela
tion. Even heathen morality is said to have been offended at it ;
and we learn from Augustine and Epiphanius, that the ancient
sect of the Manicheans, who were more Pagan than Christian
in their sentiments, placed it among "the many cruel things
which Moses did and commanded," and which went to prove,
according to their view, that the God of the Old Testament
could not be the God of the New. All the leading abettors of
infidelity in this country — Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, Bolingbroke,
Paine — have decried it as the highest enormity; and Boling
broke, in his usual style, did not scruple to denounce the man
" as worse even than an atheist, who would impute it to the
Supreme Being." Voltaire, and the other infidels, with their
allies the neologians on the Continent, have not been behind
their brethren here in the severity of their condemnation and
the plentifulness of their abuse. And it would even seem as
if the more learned portion of the Jews themselves had been
averse to undertake the defence of the transaction in its naked
and scriptural form, as we find their elder Rabbinical writers
attempting to soften down the rugged features of the narrative,
by affirming that " Joshua sent three letters to the land of the
Canaanites before the Israelites invaded it ; or rather, he pro
posed three things to them by letters : that those who preferred
flight, might escape ; that those who wished for peace, might
enter into covenant ; and that such as were for war, might take
up arms."1

This apparently more humane and agreeable view of the
transaction has been substantially adopted by many Christian
writers, — among others, by Selden, Patrick, Graves, — who con
ceive that the execution of judgment upon the Canaanites was
only designed to take effect in case of their refusing to sur
render, and their obstinate adherence to idolatry ; but that in
every case peace was to be offered to them on the ground of
their acknowledging the God of Israel, and submitting to the
sway of their conquerors. The sacred narrative, however, con
tains nothing to warrant such a supposition. Indeed, the suppo-

1 Xachinan, as quoted by Selden, dc Jure Nat., etc., L. vi., c. 13.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 463

sition is made in despite of an express line of demarcation on
that very point, drawn between the Canaanites and the surround
ing nations. To the latter only were the Israelites allowed to
offer terms of peace : " But of the cities of these people, which
the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt
save alive nothing that breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy
them." — (Deut. xx. 16, 17.) And as they were not permitted
to propose terms of peace, so neither were they at liberty to
accept of articles of agreement: "Take heed to thyself, lest
thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land ; " " they
shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against Me."
— (Ex. xxiii. 33, xxxiv. 12.) Such explicit commands manifestly
did not contemplate any plans of reconciliation, and left no alter
native to the Israelites but to destroy. According to the view of
Scripture, the inhabitants of Canaan were in the condition of
persons placed under the cherem or ban of Heaven, — that is,
devoted to God by a solemn appointment to destruction, as no
otherwise capable of being rendered subservient to the Divine
glory. The part assigned to the Israelites was simply to execute
the final sentence as now irrevocably passed against them ; and
in so far as they failed to do so, it is charged upon them as
their sin ; and their failure was converted into a judgment on
themselves — a judgment that involved them in many troubles
and calamities during the earlier period of their residence in
Canaan. — (Judg. ii. 1-5.)

Another series of attempts has been made to soften the
alleged harshness and severity of the Divine command in refer
ence to the Canaanites, by asserting for the Israelites some kind
of prior right to the possession of the country. A Jewish tra
dition, espoused with this view by many of the Fathers, claims
the land of Canaan for the seed of Abraham, as their destined
share of the allotted earth in the distribution made by Noah of
its different regions among his descendants. Michaelis, justly
rejecting this distribution as a fable, holds, notwithstanding
that Canaan was originally a tract of country that belonged to
Hebrew herdsmen; that other tribes gradually encroached upon
and usurped tiu-ir possessions, taking advantage of the temporary
descent of Israel into Egypt to appropriate the whole ; and that
the seed of Abraham were hence perfectly justified in vindicating

464 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

their right anew, when they had the power, and expelling tilt-
intruders sword in hand. This opinion has found many abettors
in Germany, and quite recently has been supported by Ewald
and Jahn ; though the original right of the Israelites is now
commonly held to have reached only to the pastoral portions
of the territory. A more baseless theory, however, never was
constructed. Scripture is entirely silent respecting such a claim
on the part of the Israelites. But there is more than its silence
to condemn the theory ; for at the very first appearance of the
chosen family on the ground of Palestine, it is expressly stated
that "the Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen. xii. 6); and
in it, not merely as a wandering shepherd or temporary occupant,
but as its settled and rightful possessor, to whom Abraham and
his immediate descendants stood in the relation of sojourners.
Hence the promise given to Abraham was, that he and his seed
should get for an everlasting possession " the land wherein he
was a stranger." The testimony of Scripture is quite uniform
on the two points — that Canaan, as an inheritance, was bestowed
as the free gift of God on the seed of Abraham, and that the
gift was to be made good by a forcible dispossession of the
original occupants of the land.

It is plain, therefore, that according to the representations
of Scripture, the family of Abraham had no natural right to the
inheritance of Canaan. Nor would it be hard to prove that
such false attempts to smooth down the inspired narrative, and
adapt it to the refinement of modern taste, instead of diminish
ing, really aggravate, the difficulties attending it ; that if, in one
respect, they seem to bring the transaction into closer agreement
with Christian principle, they place it, in another, at a much
greater and absolutely irreconcilable distance. For, on the
supposition that the posterity of Abraham were the original
possessors, why should God have kept them for an entire succes
sion of generations at a distance from 'the region, making their
right — if they ever had any — virtually to expire, and rendering
it capable of vindication no otherwise than by force of arms?
Surely, on any ground of righteous principle, a right at best so
questionable in its origin, and so long suifered to fall into abey
ance, ought rather to have been altogether abandoned, than
pressed at the expense of so much blood and desolation. And

mi: CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 465

if the situation of the Canaanitcs had been such as to admit of
terms of peace being proposed to them, then the decree of their
extermination must have been in contrariety with the great
principles of truth and righteousness.

It will never be by such methods of defence, that the objec
tions of the infidel to this part of the Divine procedure can be
successfully met, or, what is more important, that the God of
the Old Testament can be shown to be the same, in character
and working, with the God of the New. There will still be
room for the sneer of Gibbon, that the accounts of the wars
commanded by Joshua " are read with more awe than satisfac
tion by the pious Christians of the present age."1 On the
contrary, we affirm, that if contemplated in the broad and com
prehensive light in which Scripture itself presents them to our
view, they may be read with the most perfect satisfaction ; that
there is not an essential element belonging to them, which does
not equally enter into the principles of the Gospel dispensation ;
and that any difference which may here present itself between
the Old and the New is, as in all other cases, a difference merely
in form, but founded upon an essential agreement. This will
appear whether it is viewed in respect to the Canaanites, to the
Israelites, or to the times of the Gospel dispensation.

1. Viewed, first of all, in respect to the Canaanites, as the
execution of deserved judgment on their sins (in which light
Scripture uniformly represents it, so far as they are concerned),
there is nothing in it to offend the feelings of any well-consti
tuted Christian mind. From the beginning to the end of the
Bible, God appears as the righteous Judge and avenger of sin,
and does so not unfrequently by the infliction of fearful things
in righteousness. If we can contemplate Him bringing on the
cities of the plain the vengeance of eternal fire, because their
sins had waxrd great, and were come up to heaven ; or, at a
later period, even in Gospel times, can reflect how the wrath was
made to fall on the Jewish nation to the uttermost; or, finally,
can think of impenitent sinm TS being appointed, in the world to
come, to the lake that burneth with lire and brimstone for ever
and ever; — if we can contemplate such things entering into the
administration of God, without any disturbance to our convic-

1 Hi.-t i TV. c. 50.
VOL. ir. 2 Q

466 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

tions that the Judge of all the earth does only what is right, it
were surely unreasonable to complain of the severities exercised
on the foul inhabitants of Canaan. Their abominations were
of a kind that might be said emphatically to cry to Heaven —
such idolatrous rites as tended to defile their very consciences,
and the habitual practice of pollutions which were a disgrace to
humanity. The land is represented as incapable of bearing any
longer the mass of defilements which overspread it, as even
"vomiting out its inhabitants;" and "therefore," it is added,
" the Lord visited their iniquity upon them." — (Lev. xviii. 25.)
Nor was this vengeance taken on them summarily ; the time of
judgment was preceded by a long season of forbearance, during
which they were plied with many calls to repentance. So early
as the age of Abraham, the Lord manifested Himself toward
them both in the way of judgment and of mercy — of judgment,
by the awful destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, cutting off
the most infected portion, that the rest might fear, and turn
from their evil ways ; of mercy, by raising up in the midst of
them such eminent saints as Abraham and Melchizedek. That
period, and the one immediately succeeding, was peculiarly the
day of their merciful visitation. But they knew it not ; and so,
according to God's usual method of dealing, He gradually re
moved the candlestick out of its place — withdrew His witnesses
to another region, in consequence of which the darkness con
tinually deepened, and the iniquity of the people at last became
full. Then only was it that the cloud of Divine wrath began
to threaten them with overwhelming destruction — not, however,
even then, without giving awful indications of its approach by
the wonders wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and again
hanging long in suspense during the forty years' sojourn in the
wilderness, as if Availing till a little further space Avas given for
repentance. But as all proved in vain, mercy at length gave
place to judgment, according to the principle common alike to
all dispensations, " He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his
neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that Avithout remedy ; "
and, " Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered
together." In plain terms, whenever iniquity has reached its
last stage, the judgment of Heaven is at hand. This principle
was as strikingly exemplified in the case of the Jews after our

Till; CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 467

Lord's appearing, as in the case of these Canaanitcs before. In
the parables of the barren fig-tree and the wicked husbandmen
in the vineyard, the same place is assigned it in the Christian
dispensation which it formerly held in the Jewish. And in the
experience of all who, despite of merciful invitations and solemn
threatening!, perish from the way of life, it must find an attes
tation so much more appalling than the one now referred to, as
a lost eternity exceeds in evil the direst calamities of time. In
fine, the very same may be said of the objections brought against
the destruction of the Canaanites, which was said by Richard
Baxter of many of the controversies started in his day, " The
true root of all the difference is, whether there be a God and a
life to come." Grant only a moral government and a time of
retribution, and such cases as those under consideration become
not only just, but necessary.

2. Again, let the judgment executed upon the Canaanites
be viewed in respect to the instruments employed in enforcing
it — the Israelites — and in this aspect also nothing will be found
in it at variance with the great principles of truth and righteous
ness. The Canaanites, it is to be understood, in this view of
the matter, deserved destruction, and were actually doomed to
it by a Divine sentence. But must not the execution of such a
sentence by the hand of the Israelites, have tended to produce a
hardening effect upon the minds of the conquerors ? Was it
not fitted to lead them to regard themselves as the appointed
executors of Heaven's vengeance, wherever they themselves
might deem this to be due, and to render their example a most
dangerous precedent for every wild enthusiast, who might
choose to allege a commission from Heaven to pillage and
destroy his fellow-men ? So it has sometimes been alleged, but
without any just foundation. Such charges evidently proceed
<ui the tacit assumption, that there was in reality no doom of
Heaven pronounced against the Canaanites, and no special com-
ini->ion given to the Israelites to execute it — thus ignoring one
part of the sacred narrative for the purpose of throwing dis-
nvdit on another. Or, it is implied that God must be debarred
from carrying mi Ills administration in such a way as may l«c-t
suit the ends of Divine wisdom, because human fraud or folly
may take encouragement from thence to practise an unwarranted

468 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

and improper imitation. Thoughts of this description carry
their own refutation along with them. The commission given to
the Israelites was limited to the one task of sweeping the land
of Canaan of its original occupants. But this manifestly con
ferred on them no right to deal out the same measure of severity
to others ; and so far from creating a thirst for human blood, in
cases where they had no authority to shed it, they even fainted
in fulfilling their commission to extirpate the people of Canaan.
This, however, is only the negative side of the question ; and
viewed in another and more positive aspect, the employment of
the Israelites to execute this work of judgment was eminently
calculated to produce a salutary impression upon their minds,
and to promote the ends for which the judgment was appointed.
For what could be conceived so thoroughly fitted to implant in
their hearts an abiding conviction of the evil of idolatry and its
foul abominations — to convert their abhorrence of these into a
national, permanent characteristic, as their being obliged to enter
on their settled inheritance by a terrible infliction of judgment
upon its former occupants for polluting it with such enormities?
Thus the very foundations of their national existence raised a
solemn warning against defection from the pure worship of
God ; and the visitation of Divine wrath against the ungodli
ness of men accomplished by their own hands, and interwoven
with the records of their history at its most eventful period,
stood as a perpetual witness against them, if they should ever
turn aside to folly. Happy had it been for them, if they had
been as careful to remember the lesson, as God was to have it
suitably impressed upon their minds.

3. But the propriety and even moral necessity of the course
pursued become manifest, when we view the proceeding in its
typical bearing — the respect it had to Gospel times. There
were reasons, as we have seen, connected with the Canaanites
themselves and the surrounding nations, sufficient to justify the
whole that was done; but we cannot sec the entire design of it,
or even perceive its leading object, without looking farther, and
connecting it with the higher purposes of God respecting Ilis

kingdom amonf men. What He sought in Canaan was an
o c> o

inheritance — a place of rest and blessing for His people, but
still only a temporary inheritance, and as such a type and pledge

THE CONQUEST OF CAXAAX. 469

of that final rest which remains for the people of God. All,
therefore, had to be arranged concerning the one, so as fitly to
represent and image the higher and more important things
which belong to the other — that the past and the temporary
might serve as a mirror in which to foreshadow the future and
abiding, and that the principles of God's dealing toward His
Church might be seen to be essentially the same, whether dis
played on the theatre of present or of eternal realities. It was
partly, at least, on this account, that the place chosen for the
inheritance of Israel was allowed, in the first instance, to become
in a peculiar sense the region of pollution — a region that re
quired to be sanctified by an act of Divine judgment upon its
corrupt possessors, and thereby fitted for becoming the home
and heritage of saints. In this way alone could the things done
concerning it shadow forth and prepare for the final possession
of a glorified world, — an inheritance which also needs to be
redeemed from the powers of darkness that meanwhile over
spread it with their corruptions, and which must be sanctified
by terrible acts of judgment upon their ungodliness, before it
can become the meet abode of final bliss. The spirit of Anti
christ must be judged and cast out ; Babylon, the mother of
abominations, which has made the earth drunk with the wine of
her fornications, must come in remembrance before God, and
receive the due reward of her sins ; so that woes of judgment and
executions of vengeance must precede the Church's occupation
of her purchased inheritance, similar in kind to those which put
Israel in possession of the land of Canaan. What, indeed, are
the scenes presented to our view in the concluding chapters of
Revelation, but an expansion to the affairs of a world, and the
destinies of a coming eternity, of those which we find depicted
in the wars of Joshua ? In these awful scenes we behold, on
the one hand, the Captain of Salvation, of whom Joshua was
but an imperfect type, going forth to victory with the company
of a redeemed and elect Church, supported by the word of God,
and the resistless artillery of heaven; while, on the other hand,
v.c see the doomed enemies of God and the Church long borne
with, but now at last delivered to judgment — the wrath falling
on them to the uttermost, — and, when the world has been finally
relieved of their abominations, the new heavens and the new

470 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

earth rising into view, where righteousness, pure and undefiled,
is to have its perennial habitation.

We have said that the work of judgment in the one case
was similar in kind to what shall be executed in the other ; but
we should couple with this the qualification, that it may be very
different in form. It both may and should be expected to pos
sess less of an external or compulsory character, according to
the general change that has taken place in the spirit of the
Divine economy. Outward visitations of evil may, no doubt,
still be looked for, upon such as act a hostile part toward the
kingdom of Christ ; yet not by any means to the same extent as
in former times. Christ's own personal conquest over evil has
struck in this respect a higher key for future conflicts with the
adversary, — a conquest effected not by external violence, but by
the exhibition of truth and righteousness putting to shame the
adherents of falsehood and corruption. Conquests of this kind
should now be regarded as the proper counterpart to those of
the earlier dispensation. And while the Church has still, as
she had in the days of Joshua, a two-edged sword in her hand
to execute vengeance on the heathen (Ps. cxlix. 6), the noblest
vengeance she can execute, and the only vengeance she should
seek to execute, is that of destroying their condition as heathen
by the sword of the Spirit, and turning their antagonistic into a
friendly position.

If such views of Israel's conquest and occupation of the land
of Canaan are just, the more striking and peculiar facts con
nected with it admit of an easy and natural explanation. The
administration, for example, of the rite of circumcision to the
whole adult population, was most fitly done before they formally
entered on the work (Josh. v. 2-9) ; as it is never more necessary
for the Lord's people to be in the full enjoyment of the privi
leges of a saved condition, and in a state of greater nearness to
Himself, than when they are proceeding in His name to rebuke
and punish iniquity. The work given Israel to do in this
respect was emphatically a work of God, bearing on it the
impress alike of His greatness and His holiness. And both a
living faith and a sanctified heart were needed, on the part of
Israel, to fulfil what was required of them. On this account
special supports were given to faith in the miracles wrought by

Tin: o IXOUEST OF CANAAN. 471

God at the commencement of the work, in the separation of the
waters of the river, and the falling of the walls of Jericho, as
afterwards in the extraordinary prolongation of the day at the
request of Joshua ; showing it was God's work rather than their
own they were accomplishing, and that His power was singularly
exerted in their behalf. And not only in the charges given to
Joshua regarding his careful meditation of the law of God, and
punctual observance of all that was commanded in it ; but also,
and more particularly, in the discomfiture appointed on account
of the sin of Achan, was the necessity forcibly impressed upon
the people of the maintenance of holiness : they were made to
feel the inseparable connection between being themselves faith
ful to God, and having power to prevail. It served also im
pressively to teach them their unity as a people, and how the
holiness which they were bound collectively to maintain, must
be individual, in order that it might be national. Nor was the
instruction disregarded by the immediate agents in the work of
judgment. They cast out from among them the sin that was
discovered in Achan ; and, at a later period, their jealousy
regarding the tribes on the other side of Jordan, lest they
would separate themselves from the one altar and common
wealth of Israel, and the protestations of allegiance to God
which Joshua made before his death, and they again to him,
clearly showed that much of the spirit of faith and holiness
rested upon that generation. In them the covenant found, in
no small degree, a faithful representation, as well in regard to
its requirements of duty, as to its promises of grace and blessing.

SECTION SECOND.

THE THEORY, WORKING, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEWISH
THEOCRACY.

THE term theocracy, as used to indicate a specific form of govern
ment, that has found a place among the politics of nations, be
longs exclusively to the Jewish people : the term itself had to be
invented by their historian Josephus, to express what peculiarly
distinguished their national polity from that of any other people
who had figured in the history of the world. " There are," says
he (Contra Ap. ii. 16), " endless differences, in respect to indi
vidual nations and laws among mankind, which may be briefly
reduced under the following heads : for some have committed
the power of civil administration to monarchies, others to the
sway of a few (oligarchies), others again to the body of the
people (democracies) ; but our lawgiver, making account of none
of these, proclaimed a theocracy as the form of government, ascrib
ing to God alone the authority and the power." In drawing this
contrast between his own and other nations, the Jewish historian,
beyond doubt, intended to prefer a claim to special honour and
distinction for his people. He pointed to their theocratic polity
as an evident proof of superior insight on the part of their great
legislator, and the ground of distinguished excellence in the
community. He did so more especially on this account, that by
such a constitution, " Moses did not make religion a part of
virtue, but he considered and ordained other virtues to be par^
of religion ;" that is, he elevated all to the religious sphere, gave
to men's studies and actions generally " a reference to piety
towards God," and thereby stamped them with the highest
authority, and secured for them the firmest hold on the hearts
and manners of the people.

In this estimate, however, of the theocratic element in Juda
ism, Josephus has not had many followers among those who
have made political science their study, and who have tried to

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 473

cast the balance as between different political constitutions.
.M'>re commonly it has been regarded by such in the light of an
arbitrary and abnormal state of things — one that neither actually
had, nor could theoretically be expected to have, any other effect
than that of producing a singular race of men — isolated, intract
able, antagonistic in their habits and feelings to all but their
own community. In this light the Jewish people and their
theocratic constitution were certainly regarded by Tacitus and
other writers in heathen antiquity. And the picture which they
drew of Jewish bigotry and exclusiveness, senseless hatred and
intolerance, as a kind of practical commentary on the system
under which they were reared, has often been reproduced in
modern times, and charged not unfrequently with still darker
and more revolting features. Such, especially, has been the
course adopted by men of the stamp of Bolingbroke and Voltaire,
who have had it for their main object, in writing on things
connected with Divine revelation, to find as many grounds of
censure as possible, and present what they found in the most
obnoxious form. With them the polity of Judaism was founded
in injustice and cruelty ; the spirit which it breathed was " de
testable;" since, "by the very constitution of the law itself, the
Jews found that they were the natural enemies of all mankind,
and were reduced to such a necessity, that either they must en
slave the whole world, or they, in their turn, must be crushed and
destroyed." ' Even writers of a higher stamp — professed apolo
gists and expounders of the legislation of Moses — have felt them
selves sadly embarrassed by the theocratic form it assumed. And
when we turn to the learned pagesof Spencer, Le Clerc,Michaelis,
partly, too, of Warburton, we find them either virtually ignor
ing it, as a thing which could scarcely be treated otherwise than
a< ;i devout imagination, or viewing it merely as an accommoda
tion on the part of God to the- heathenish tendencies of the people,
and an expedient to check the introduction of palpable idolatry.
Properly understood, the theocratic constitution of the Old
Covenant as little needs such lame apologies from the one class,
as it is open to such rude assaults from the other. The favour
able estimate of Josephus in no degree overshot the mark, nay,

1 See the quotations given in Warburton '.s Location, B. v., c. 1 ; ami
Works, vol. xii., on Boliiigbroke's Philosophy.

474 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

failed, from the defective nature of his moral position, in various
respects, to reach it. The singularity of the phenomenon pre
sented by the theocracy in the history of nations, and the im
perfect character of its results, is the world's shame rather than
its condemnation ; for the ideal it embodied is that which should
have been, and which, but for the world's blindness and self-
idolatry, also would have been, regarded as the normal state of
things, which it is the misfortune, and not the excellence, of
earthly administrations, that they are so far from being able to
realize. In that very theocratic element lay the foundation of
Israel's past greatness and future glory ; more than that, and
far from breaking on the world as a novelty in the revelations
of Sinai, it formed the most essential principle in the primeval
constitution of things ; and surviving, as an indestructible seed,
both the general ruin of the fall, and the special perversities of
the people with whom it became more peculiarly identified, it is
destined, in another form and under better auspices, to over
shadow the world with its greatness, and bring under its sway
every tribe and people of the earth.

That this is no exaggerated statement, will, I trust, appear,
when we have considered the subject of the theocracy under
the three following aspects : — first, in respect to its true idea ;
secondly, in respect to its actual working ; and, thirdly, in re
spect to its ulterior development and final issues.

I. First, then, in respect to the true idea of the theocracy —
wherein stood its distinctive nature ? It stood in the formal
exhibition of God as King or Supreme Head of the common
wealth, so that all authority and law emanated from Him ; and,
by necessary consequence, there were not two societies in the
ordinary sense, civil and religious, but a fusion of the two into
one body, or, as we might express it from a modern point of view,
a merging together of Church and State. This, it will be
observed, is a different thing from giving religion, or the priest
hood appointed to represent its interests and perform its rites, a
hi ijh and influential place in the general administration of affairs.
Not a nation in heathen antiquity can be named, in which that
was not, to some extent, done, nor any, perhaps, in which it was
carried altogether so far, as the one from which Israel was taken

TI IK JEWISH THEOCRACY. 475

to be a separate people. The religious interest was peculiarly
powerful in Egypt. The priestly caste stood nearest to the
throne, and furnished from its members the supreme council of
state. Much of the property, and many of the higher functions
of government, were in their hands ; so that they formed a kind
of ruling hierarchy. But while this naturally gave to religion
and its offices a peculiar ascendancy in the political administra
tion of Egypt, it by no means rendered the constitution a theo
cracy. The civil and the religious were still distinct provinces ;
and it was more as " a highly privileged nobility" (to use an
expression of Ileeren) that the priesthood had such a sway in the
government, than as persons acting in their religious capacity.
Indeed, in that, as in all heathen countries, the loss of a belief
in the Divine Unity, and the worship of many separate deities,
with their diversified and rival claims of service, rendered a
theocracy in the proper sense impracticable. It was only at
particular points and in individual cases, not as an organic
whole, that the civil and the divine could possibly meet together :
there might be an occasional commingling of the two, or a domi
nant influence flowing from the religious into the political sphere ;
but an actual identification, a proper fusion between them, could
not come into play.

It was otherwise, however, in Israel, where the doctrine of
one living and true God formed, as it were, the Alpha and the
Omega of all instruction. Here there was, what was elsewhere
wanted, a proper religious centre, whence a sovereign and presid
ing agency might issue its injunctions upon every department of
the state, as well as upon all the spheres of domestic and social
life. And this is simply the idea embodied in the Jewish theo
cracy ; it is the fact of Jehovah condescending to occupy, in
Israel, such a centre of power and authority. He proclaimed
Himself "King in Jeshurun." Israel became the common
wealth with which He more peculiarly associated His presence
and His glory. Not only the seat of His worship, but His
throne also, was in Zion — both His sanctuary and His domi
nion.1 The covenant r>tahli>lied with the people, laid its bond
upon their national not less than their individual interests ; and
the laws and precepts which were "written in the volume of the
1 Ex. xix. 5, 6 ; Ps. cxxxii. 13, cxlix. 2, cxiv. 2, etc.

47G THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

book," formed at once the directory of each man's life and the
statute-book of the entire kingdom. Nor was this state of things
materially interfered with by the special commissions given to
prophets, the temporary elevation of judges, or the more settled
government of the kings ; for these had no authority to do or
prescribe aught but as the ambassadors and delegates of Him
who dwelt between the cherubim. Nay, the higher any one
might stand in office, he was only held the more specially bound
to " meditate in the law of the Lord, and observe to do all that
was written therein."1 Hence, also, as being alike formally and
really at the head of the kingdom, Jehovah charged Himself with
the practical results of its administration : He held in His own
hand the sanctions of reward and punishment ; and according
to the loyalty or disobedience of His subjects, made distribution
to them- in good or evil.

Now, that we may more distinctly apprehend the essential
nature and tendency of this fundamental idea, let us endeavour
to follow it out into a few leading particulars.

1. Let its bearing, in the first instance, be marked on the
position of the people as members of such a kingdom. It was
emphatically God's kingdom, wherein all were directly subject
to His sway, and placed under His immediate counsel and pro
tection. On their part, therefore, it was " a kingdom of priests,"
as being composed of those who were called to occupy a state of
peculiar nearness to God, were divinely instructed in the know
ledge of His will, and appointed to minister and serve before
Him. What an elevated position, as compared with the wor
shippers of senseless idols, and the tools of arbitrary power, in
heathen monarchies! Manly thoughts and lofty aims, con
sciousness of personal dignity, the liberty to do, and the right
to expect great things, might seem to belong to such a position,
as plants to their native soil. Hence it was precisely that close
relationship to God, with the noble aspirations and exalted
prospects to which it instinctively gave rise, that kindled such
a glow of delight in the aged bosom of Moses, and drew from
him the exclamation, " Happy art thou, O Israel ! who is like
unto thee, O people saved by the Lord ! the Eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
1 Josh. i. 8 ; 1 Sam. xiii. 14 ; 1 Kings ii. 3, etc.

Till: JEWISH THEOCRACY. 477

True, there was in Israel also a select priesthood, separated
from the rest of their brethren, to serve at the altar of God, and
in sacred things to mediate between Him and the people. But
this priesthood was not, as in heathen countries, invested with
rights antagonistic to those of the people, nor made depositaries
of secrets, to be confined to their own fraternity, nor charged
with any kind of arbitrary and irresponsible power in religious
matters. They were but a narrower and more privileged circle,
within a large one of essentially the same priestly standing and
character, chosen and set apart simply for the purpose of pro
viding more effectively for the preservation of the knowledge of
God, and the due administration of the solemnities of His wor
ship. They had no statutes to teach, no mysteries to celebrate,
but what lay open to the cognizance of all ; and if they failed
in their own peculiar province, it was competent for judges,
rulers, prophets, from any tribe or family of Israel, to rebuke
their unfaithfulness, and, to a certain extent, supplement their
deficiency. The existence, indeed, of such a priesthood, bespoke
prevailing imperfection in the community of Israel. It told of
a practical inaptitude to attain to the proper height of their
vocation, and live habitually in the observance of the duties it
imposed. On this account they needed to have representatives
of their number, who might discharge the more sacred functions
of the theocracy, and act the part of watchmen in respect to the
law of God. But still the same covenant relationship belonged
to all ; all ministered and partook together in the ordinance of
the passover, which was emphatically the Feast of the Covenant ;
the same book of the law was open to the inspection of every
member of the community, nay, enjoined upon his thoughtful
consideration ; and even the more solemn ministrations, which
were assigned to the priesthood in the sanctuary of the Lord,
were but an outward exhibition of what should constantly have
bi-.-n in spirit proceeding among the people throughout their
habitations.

In this one point, then — the high position accorded to the
community by the theocratic principle of the constitution — what
a boon was conferred on Israel! It gave to every one who
imbibed the spirit of the constitution, the lofty sense of a pro
prietorship in God, and not only warranted, but in a manner

478 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

constrained him to view everything connected with his state in
the light of the Divine will and glory. What he possessed, he
held as a sacred charge committed to him from above ; what he
did, he behoved to do as a steward of the great Lord of heaven
and earth. Then, in the oneness of this covenant standing
among the families of Israel, what a sacred bond of brotherhood
was established ! what a security for the maintenance of equal
rights and impartial administrations between man and man !
Members alike of one divinely constituted community — subjects
of one Almighty King — partakers together of one inheritance,
and that an inheritance held in simple fee of the same Lord ;
surely nowhere could the claims of rectitude and love have been
more deeply grounded — nowhere could acts of injustice and
oppression have worn a character more hateful and unbecoming.
2. Let the bearing of the theocratic principle of Judaism,
again, be noted on the calling of the Jewish people. The principle
itself bound them in close alliance with Jehovah, as subjects to
their king ; but for what ends and purposes ? This must neces
sarily have been determined by the character of Him whose
people they were. And from the first no uncertainty or doubt
was allowed to exist in respect to that ; the same word which
declared them to have been taken by God for a peculiar trea
sure, and a kingdom of priests, called them to be an holy nation
— to be holy, even as God Himself was holy. — (Ex. xix. 5, 6.)
And throughout all the revelations of the law, and its manifold
ordinances of service, the voice which continually sounded in the
ears of the people was, in substance, this: "I am the Lord
your God, which have separated you from other people. And
ye shall be holy unto Me ; for I the Lord am holy, and have
severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine." — (Lev.
xx. 24, 26.) Next to the fundamental principle of the Divine
unity, the point in respect to which the object of Jewish wor
ship differed most essentially from the gods of the heathen, was
the absolute holiness of His character. The heathen objects of
worship, being but in some form or another the deification of
nature, always partook of nature's changcableness and corrup
tion ; they could not rise materially above the world of imper
fection from which they derived their own imaginary being.
But Jehovah, the God of Israel, made Himself known as the

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 479

supreme and only good, the irreconcilable opponent of every
form and manifestation of sin. And the law which He imposed
upon Israel, which He inwove into all their institutions, which
He charged their priests to teach, their judges to enforce, and
their people to keep — this law was the expression, in a form
suited to the existing time and circumstances, of His own peer
less excellence ; its one tendency and aim were to mould the
people into the likeness of their Divine Sovereign.

Doubtless, in so far as it might accomplish this aim, it would
place the Israelitish people in a state of isolation, in respect to
the corrupt and idolatrous masses of heathendom. As the
servants of a holy God, and the children of a covenant which
sought to have the law of holiness inscribed upon every bond
and relation of life, Israel must dwell comparatively alone,
and shun familiar intercourse with the Gentiles. But simply
on this account, and only in so far as it might imperatively
require ; not, as so often falsely represented, from any essential
faultiness in their position, or a kind of indigenous hatred of
the human race. No — the very theory of their constitution
embodied a perpetual protest against the indulgence of such a
spirit ; since the God whom it called them as obedient subjects
to serve and imitate, made Himself known as also the God of
the whole earth ; and the ulterior design it contemplated was,
through their instrumentality, to bring all nations to share in
their peculiar blessing.1 But as called to be the representatives
of God in holiness, they were bound to keep aloof from the
region of pollution ; they must of necessity do the part of
witnesses against the false imaginations and corrupt practices of
idolatry. In this, however, was there not again conferred a
mighty boon upon Israel ? What better or higher thing can a

1 Ex. xix. 5, 6. " Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and
keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people ;
for all the earth is mim1," etc. On the grounds stated in the text, we en
tirely object to the appellation often given to Jehovah, even l>y Christian
divines, as "the tutelary God of the Jews." The lanirua^e savours too
much of heathenism to afford a fitting expression of the truth, even if it
were formally correct. But it is not so. The God of Israel was no more
the tiitilnnj God of the Jews, than Christ is the jHirtirnlnr S,in',mr of the
The manifested relations in both cases had an immediate respect to
.:•! of Israel, but in neither case were they by any means n>trictcd to

480 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

people have, than being made partakers of the holiness of God ?
What nobler object can any institution propose for its accom
plishment, than the extirpation of sin, and nourishing in its stead
the seeds of genuine piety and worth? All history and ex
perience, if interpreted aright, give testimony in this respect to
the wisdom of the Jewish lawgiver, and to the distinguishing
goodness of God in establishing, through him, a constitution for
Israel, which had for its great practical end the training of a
people to the love and practice of righteousness.

3. The bearing of the theocratic principle of government on
the quality of their actions as good or evil, is another point that
calls for consideration. The ordinary constitution of earthly
kingdoms has here necessitated a division ; it has led to the con
templation of actions under a twofold aspect — the one having
respect to civil, the other to moral and spiritual relations — the
one dealing with actions in a materialistic manner, as objectively
beneficial or hurtful, criminal or commendable ; the other, mak
ing account mainly of the principle involved in them, and ad
judging them to the category of sin or of holiness. Every one
may see, at a glance, how superficial the former of these aspects
is, as compared with the latter; and how, when actions are
dealt with merely in relation to a human tribunal, considered as
criminal or commendable in the eye of law, depths remain still
unexplored concerning them : nothing, or next to nothing, is
determined as to the real nature of what is done, or the moral
condition of him from whom it has proceeded. Now, in a
theocracy, where God Himself is King — where, consequently,
everything comes to be tried by a divine standard, and with
reference to the principle which it exhibits, as well as to the
formal character it assumes — this division, with the superficiality
involved in one of the aspects of it, disappears; the inherent

these. The God of the Jews was the God also of the Gentiles ; and what
He did and promised to the one, was at the same time done and promised
to the other. Not only was the door open for any believing Gentile to
come in and obtain the blessing of Israel, but the path itself of God's dis
pensations continually pointed from the more special to the more general of
these relations. Everything done for and given to Israel, was for others as
well as for themselves ; and their peculiar privileges and priestly calling
could reach their proper end only when the Abrahamic covenant of bl>
to co-exteiiftivc with the world.

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY.

481

nature and the outward tendency of actions become inseparably
linked together. The distinction no longer exists between sin
and crime ; for whatever is a crime in respect to the community,
is also a sin in respect to God, the Head of the community;
and, indeed, a crime in their reckoning, because it was already a
sin in His. Is it not always really so, however commonly over
looked ? And is it not the great weakness and imperfection of
a merely political administration, that it must concern itself only
with actions as criminal, and not also as sinful? On this
account, earthly polities do the work of effective government
but half, since they only lay their hand on the exterior of the
sores which mar the well-being and endanger the interests of
society ; they contemplate and handle the evil with the view
rather of checking the violent eruptions to which it tends, than
of quenching the latent fires out of which it originates. But
bring in the higher element of essential right and wrong, estab
lish the theocratic principle, which places every member of the
community in the presence of His God, and weighs every action
in the balance of eternal rectitude, and you then touch the evil
in its root, — not, it may be, with the effect of thoroughly eradi
cating it, yet surely with the tendency of awakening men's
consciousness of its existence, and engaging their common
sympathies and strivings to have it brought into subjection. To
do this, is to aim directly at the moral healthfuluess of a people ;
and by setting the springs of life and goodness in motion, to
accomplish a far higher work in their behalf, than can ever be
effected by the machinery of civil jurisprudence, and the enact
ments of a" criminal code.

But in saying this, we again indicate the happy privilege of
Israel in their singular constitution. The design and tendency
of this was to raise them to the level of-which we now speak.
Its policy was to prevent crime by subduing sin. The same law
which said, " Thou shalt not steal," said also, " Thou shalt not
covet," and thereby laid the axe- to the root of the tree. It said
not merely, " Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," but,
" Thou shalt love the Lord thv (iod with all thy heart, and soul,
and strength, and mind.'' And so, through all the departments
of religious and social life, the object of the theocratic constitu
tion ever was to lay upon the conscience the claims of God, to
VOL. ir. 2 H

482 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

bring men into contact with truth and righteousness ; and thus
to make their fidelity to Heaven the gauge and measure of their
dutifulness to the interests of the commonwealth. Where, if
not on such a territory, should we look for a morally strong and
healthful community 1

4. Once more, let the bearing be noted of the theocratic
constitution on the mode of treatment to be given to mens actions,
and the extent to which it should be applied. The Jewish theo
cracy, it must be remembered, was an attempt to realize on the
visible theatre of a present world, and within a circumscribed
region, the idea of a divine kingdom, to establish a community
of saints ; and so to do this, as to render manifest to all at once
the moral dignity and the high blessedness attainable by such a
community. That being the case, it is obvious that there re
quired to be, not only a strict recognition of actions as good or
bad in the eye of the Divine Head, but also a corresponding
treatment of them — an administrative system of reward and
punishment. Nor should it scarcely be less obvious, however
often it has been overlooked, that to serve the ends of the insti
tution, the rewards and punishments connected with it — so far,
at least, as they were to be formally announced and acted upon
— must have been of a temporal nature ; they must have been
such as immediately and palpably to affect the interests of the
community where the actions to be visited by them were done.
For nations, as has been well remarked on this subject, " can
only be visited in this life, that is, with temporal inflictions. To
have inserted in the public code of the nation eternal sanctions,
would have been virtually to dissolve it as an earthly polity, and
to reduce it to a collection of individuals, or at best to a Church
in the Christian sense of the word ; that is, a purely religious
society, and therefore unable to exercise the stringent powers
necessary to suppress the visible excesses of idolatry and corrup
tion."1 There were reasons, besides, of a deeper kind, — reasons
connected with the shadowy nature of the religious institutions
of Judaism, and their merely temporary place in a scheme of
progressive dispensations, — which also required that the issues of
eternity should be, for the time then present, kept in comparative
abeyance, however certainly they might be implied or antici-
1 Litton's Bampton Lectures, p. 33.

TIIK ,ii:wisn THEOCRACY.

483

patcd.1 These reasons must be taken into account, if we would
give a satisfactory explanation of the difference in this respect,
doctrinally considered, between the old and the new economies.
But apart from them, and looking simply to the formal character
and proposed ends of the theocracy, temporal sanctions are the
only ones that, from the nature of the case, could be brought
distinctly into notice ; since to have in any measure overleapt
the present, and transferred the distribution of good and evil to
a future world, must inevitably have tended to relax the whole
framework of the polity, and mar its uniformity of plan and pur
pose. The objection so often urged on this ground against the
Mosaic legislation, turns rather, when the matter is considered
from the right point of view, into an argument in its behalf ; the
more especially so, when it is farther considered that the estab
lishment in so remarkable a manner of recompenses, in the tem
poral and earthly sphere, laid the surest foundation for the
expectation of them hereafter.2

The same, substantially, may be said in respect to another
and closely related point, on which also a ground of accusation
has been raised ; we mean the extent to which, in such a com
monwealth, those temporal sanctions should have been applied.
From the very nature of its constitution, matters of religious
belief and practice were among the things subject to reward
and punishment ; for on the basis of these was the entire polity
framed, and with a view to their efficient maintenance was its
administration to be carried on. What in other states might

1 See vol. i., p. 210 sq.

2 In truth, the point now under consideration is not quite fairly dealt
with when presented under the aspect of rewards and punishments on this
side of eternity as contradistinguished from the other ; and it is rather out
of accommodation to the common mode of contemplating it, than from a con
viction of its essential Tightness, that the matter has been so presented in
the text. ( 'anaan, according to the idea of the theocracy, was the temporary
substitute or type of heaven ; and so the constitution of things appointed
for those who were to occupy it was framed witli a view to ivnder the affairs
of time as nearly as possible an image of eternity. The temporal and eternal
were not so properly distinct and separate regions, wlu-n i-..nteinplnted from
the theocratic point of view,' as the counterparts of each other. Ideally,
the dwellers in Canaan were in their proper home ; the land was the habi
tation of holiness, therefore also of life and blessing ; death was regarded as
something abnormal, hence treated as a pollution ami put out of sight ; and

484 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

be regarded as matter of personal predilection, or, at most, harm
less devotion — namely, the introduction of new gods — must here,
of necessity, be held at variance with the first principles of the
constitution, and be dealt with as treasonable conduct was else
where ; it must be repressed as a capital offence against the laws
of the state. The ablest defenders of civil and religious liberty
in modern times have admitted this, as an essential part of the
ancient theocracy, and forming a broad line of demarcation
between it and worldly states. Thus Mr Locke, in his treatise
on Toleration, says, in reference to those who apostatized from
the worship of the God of Israel, that they were justly " pro
ceeded against as traitors and rebels, guilty of no less than high
treason. For the commonwealth of the Jews, different in that
from all others, was an absolute theocracy ; nor was there, nor
could there be, any difference between the commonwealth and
the church. The laws established there concerning the worship
of the one invisible Deity, were the civil laws of that people,
and a part of their political government, in which God Himself
was the Legislator." In short, with the theocratic principle
for the basis of the polity, the tolerance of idolatry and its ac
companying rites would have been as incongruous, as it were,
in the bosom of a Christian community, to allow the claims of
Mahommed to rank beside those of the Saviour.

But must any abatement be made on this account from the
privileged condition of Israel ? Viewing the matter simply in
connection with the old theocracy (as it ought to be), and with
reference to the real interests of the people, was it a disadvan-

every needful precaution was taken both to avoid death as the great evil, and
to prevent the alienation of inheritances from those who were entitled to
live and enjoy the good. The representation was, of course, imperfect, like
everything under the old economy, and rendered still more so by prevailing
unfaithfulness on the part of the people ; but the nature and object of the
representation itself should not the less be taken into account. And if it is,
instead of deeming it strange that the issues of eternity \\civ not formally
brought into view and placed over against those of time, we shall rather
wonder that any one should seriously have expected such an incongruity ;
for, in the formal aspect of things, there was not a state of probation for a
coming good (though in reality it was such), but the good itself, — a good
destined, no doubt, with the antagonistic evil, to be reproduced in a higher
sphere of being, but only under that aspect to be anticipated as a matter of
hope or expectation.

'I UK JEWISH THEOCRACY. 485

tage to have idolatry prohibited there under the penalty of
death ? Let it only he considered what that idolatry was,
especially in Egypt and the licentious countries of the East,
with which Israel came more immediately into contact. Chang
ing the truth of God into a lie, it did, in the moral and religious
sphere, what, in the province of the intellect, Bacon justly called
the greatest evil of all, " the apotheosis of error, since, when
folly is worshipped, it is, as it were, a plague-spot upon the
understanding," and we may add here, upon the heart. For
while thus it corrupted the very fountain-head of knowledge,
and stifled the better aspirations of the soul, it also served, by
its fouler practices, to bring the unholy desires of the flesh and
the pollutions of lust within the sanctuary of religion. Yet,
with such inherent evils in idolatry, and tendencies on the side
of corruption, so great, in the ancient world, was the disposition
to fall in with the practice, that it spread everywhere like a
moral contagion ; causing Egypt, with her mystic lore, and even
Greece, with her fine intellect, and manly heart, and philosophic
culture, to bow down before it. In such circumstances, what
should reasonably be esteemed the wisest legislation ? Should
it not be that which raised the strongest barriers against
the tide of heathenism, and tended to hold its abominations
in check ? If we may not say — as some have unadvisedly
done — that the one great object of the theocracy, with all its
ritual observances, and the rigid sanctions by which they were
enforced, was to guard the doctrine of the Divine unity against
the encroachinc-nts of idolatry, we must still hold that this was
an object of fundamental importance, — an object that at once
deserved and called for the most stringent measures of
defence. And, assuredly, when read in the light of history,
the real ground for complaint lies, not in that guardianship
being too vigilant, and those defences too stern, but that
practically they proved all too feeble to resist the assaults of
the giant and insidious adversary against which the truth had
to struggle.

Such, then, was the Jewish theocracy, both in respect to its
general idea, and to some of the more distinctive peculiarities
which it threw around the aspect and constitution of affairs in
Israel. Viewed simply as an ideal, after which their views of

486 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

truth and their strivings in duty were to aim at being con
formed, it was a great thing for Israel to be placed under such
a polity. For, in bringing them acquainted, as it did, with the
being and character of God, with the relation in which they
stood to Him, the connection between the lower and the higher
elements of their welfare, and the dependence of all upon their
fidelity to the interests of truth and righteousness, it placed
them, as it were, on sure foundations, and set full before them
the path to glory and virtue. If " noble deeds are but noble
truths realized," then in Israel, above all other people in ancient
times, might such deeds be looked for ; the seeds were there
sown in the very framework of their constitution, from which
the richest harvest should have sprung. But did it actually
do so? Did the reality in any measure correspond to the
idea? Can we appeal to the actual working of the theocratic
principle in proof of its heaven-derived origin and practical
importance ?

II. This was to form our second branch of inquiry — the
actual working of the theocracy.

That the reality should, in many respects, come far short of
the idea, is only what might have been expected ; considering
that the pattern of the kingdom, though heavenly in its origin,
and in itself wisely adapted to the circumstances of the time,
was necessarily committed, for its ordinary administration, to
the hands of men — and this at a comparatively immature stage
of the Divine dispensations. It was therefore inevitable that
human weakness and perversity should have mingled in the
results actually produced, so as materially to mar the complete
ness of the work ; yet not (we may conceive) so as wholly to
defeat the design, or to render its execution altogether unworthy
of the source from which it came. For the method of admini
stration was also of God. And the real question is, how such
a polity, having such Divine and human elements entering alike
into its theory and its administration, wrought on the theatre of
earthly things ? whether, in this respect also, there was enough
to attest the wisdom and the agency of God ?

1. In answer to such questions, let the matter be viewed,
h'rst, in relation to the knowledge of the being and character

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 487

of God Himself. The foundation of all lies there, as already
intimated ; the foundation, not only of the affairs of the old
economy, but of all genuine religion and true moral excellence.
Most deeply, therefore, does it concern the world to possess that
knowledge, and have it preserved in living energy and power.
But where was it so preserved and possessed I In what land,
or by what people, was anything like a clear and faithful testi
mony borne in ancient times to the existence and perfections
of God ? Nowhere but in the land and by the people of Israel ;
it was confined to the favoured region of the theocracy. Even
there, no doubt, the light was too often obscured by the sur
rounding darkness, and the national testimony was far from
being so uniform and distinct as it should have been. But still
it was maintained and perpetuated ; the truth never ceased to
have its faithful witnesses ; and while the gross polytheism,
which brooded over the other nations of the earth, suffered only
a few glimmerings of the truth at times to break through the
gloom, the monotheism of Israel shone clear and bright upon
the world, down even to the closing epoch of the theocracy.
It were difficult to imagine a nobler proof of the superiority in
this respect of ancient Israel, and a finer contrast between their
polity and that of other nations, in the results yielded concern
ing the knowledge of God, than was presented by the Apostle
Paul at Athens, when, appearing on Mars Hill, a solitary re
presentative of the theocratic kingdom, standing there as on the
very summit of heathen civilisation, and in the presence of its
most wonderful achievements in art and science, he could descry
but one element of truth in the whole ; and that not a revelation
of knowledge, but a confession of ignorance, embodied in the
altar dedicated to the unknown god. On that confession — the
virtual acknowledgment of heathendom, that it had not yet
attained to any true acquaintance with the things of God — the
Apostle disclosed that certain knowledge which he possessed;
and not he alone, but which, under the fostering care of the
theocracy, had become the common heritage of the families of
Israel.

It is not merely, however, the possession of this knowledge
concerning God, in the midst of surrounding ignorance and
superstition, which here deserves our notice, but the fulness of

488 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

that knowledge, and the living freshness and power by which it
was characterized. The relation held by God to His people as
King of Zion, with the many special appointments of service
and interpositions of Providence to which it naturally gave rise,
served to bring out, in almost endless variety and minuteness of
detail, the revelation of His mind and will. Every attribute of
His character received in turn its appropriate manifestations ;
and nothing that essentially concerned His wisdom and power,
His faithfulness and love, His inflexible hatred of sin or supreme
regard to righteousness and truth, could remain hid from those
who meditated aright in His word and ways. Not only so ; but
the things connected with these, which might have been known,
and yet have continued dim and shadowy to men's view, became,
through the working of the theocratic institution, clothed as with
flesh and blood ; the Eternal was brought as from the depths of
infinitude, whither the human spirit labours in vain to find Him,
and rendered objectively present to the soul, by being on every
hand allied to the relations of sense and time. The children of
the covenant, continually as they came to draw near to His habi
tation, and witness or take part in the outward ministrations of
His service, were made, in a manner, to feel as if they saw His
form and heard His voice. They stood comparatively under a
clear sun and an open sky, — walked where communications were
ever passing from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; so that
the experiences of their bosom, and the lines of their history,
became as a mirror on which the face of God's countenance
reflected itself in traits of life and truthfulness. Oh ! what a
happiness had it been for the heathen world, what an advance
should it have made in divine knowledge, had it but known to
look there for light and blessing ! And even we, amid the
higher privileges and ampler revelations furnished to our hand,
yet how much do not we owe for our clearness of conception in
the things of God, and for fitting terms to tell forth our concep
tions, to the records of those dealings of God with Israel, and
the impressions produced by them on the hearts of the people !
What a loss should we not have sustained had we but wanted
the more special reflection given of them in the Book of Psalms,
— a book to which even the French theosophists of the last
century were fain to betake themselves when seeking to compose

TllK .IKWISII THEOCRACY. 489

a liturgical service to their god of nature, — aiid of which one of
the profoundest of modern historians (John von Miiller) writes,
"My most delightful hour every day is furnished by David.
His songs sound to the depth of my heart, and never in all rny
life have I so seen God before my eyes."

2. We may find another and closely related proof of the
actual working of the theocracy in the elevated moral tone of the
writings it produced. The writings of a people, the better class
of writings especially, are the fruits and evidences of its inner
life ; and if they have been called forth by the genius and inte
rests of the constitution, they may justly be taken as among the
best exponents of its real tendency and operation. Of no writ
ings may this be so emphatically said as of those included in
Old Testament Scripture. For these were no random or scat
tered effusions ; they were the productions of men who may be
said to have lived and laboured for the great ends of the theo
cracy. To this, indeed, they owed their existence, — having
been indited by the sacred penmen partly for the purpose of
explaining the nature and objects of the theocracy, partly to
inculcate the duties it imposed, and partly, again, to exhibit the
failures and achievements, the fears and hopes, connected with
its history. We speak, it will be understood, of the writings
belonging to the theocracy, only in respect to their immediate
occasion and formal design, — not in that higher respect in which
they stand related to the supernatural workings of God's Spirit,
and the special communications of His grace to men; for as such
they might have stood apart from the theocratic polity, and have
come forth as independent spiritual communications from heaven.
But, in reality, the higher and the lower met together in them.
They had a human, a national, and we may even say a political
side, which formed the specific ground of their appearance and
character; since they appeared as representations of the mind
ami feelings of those who were themselves the fittest representa
tives of the state. But, considered simply in this aspect, what
a spirit of moral life and energy breathes in them ! What
treasures of practical wisdom have they laid up in store for all
future times and generations of men ! Reflecting the character
of the great Head of the theocracy, a profoundly earnest and
ethical tone everywhere pervades them, — one that looks through

490 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the appearances into the realities of things, brings prominently
into view the principles of eternal truth and righteousness, and
subordinates all interests to those of justice, goodness, and
mercy. Even in dealing with the natural attributes of God,
the natural becomes penetrated with the moral ; not the naked
reality, but the bearing of that reality upon the heart and con
science, is what comes prominently into view ; as (to take but
one example) in the earnest and lofty meditation on the omni
science and almightiness of God which is contained in the 139th
Psalm, and in which the thought, woven like a thread through
out the whole discourse, is the respect borne by those Divine
attributes to the psalmist himself, in his relation to the character
of Jehovah. \Ve shall search in vain among the other nations
of antiquity for any productions comparable in this respect to
those of the Old Testament, — in vain, more especially, in those
regions of Asia which lay around the territory of the chosen
people, — regions which have been from remotest times the
favourite haunts, not of the practical, but of the contempla
tive, and which have given birth to many an airy speculation
and philosophical reverie, but to nothing, save what came from
the bosom of the theocracy, which has exercised the slightest
influence for good on the character and destinies of the world.
Whence, then, the mighty and permanent influence of the
writings now under consideration, but that they sprung under
the shade and breathed the spirit of the theocratic constitution ?
On this account they possessed, and have carried along with
them wherever they have gone, the elements of a higher wisdom,
and a more ennobling morality than can be learned from the
pages even of the most thoughtful and enlightened of other lands.
For that heritage of good in the ethical sphere, the world again
stands indebted to the theocracy of Moses.1

1 It is marvellous that the practical working of the theocracy, as thus
seen reflected in its writings, — the pervading and intensely ethical spirit that
characterizes these, and that in respect to the heart not loss than the out-
\vai-' 1 conduct, — should not alone have been sufficient to convince all of the
fundamentally spiritual character of the theocratic constitution and its ordi
nances of service. If these had been, as some even evangelical vrit'-rs a.-.-ert.
" quite irrespective of personal character, conduct, or faith," — if the cove
nant and its institutions " had nothing to do with any single individual, but
only with the nation of Israel," and was " quite irrespective of individual

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 491

3. For a still further proof of the actual working of the
theocracy on the side of good, we look to the results it produced
in the personal and family life of the people. Here, also, there
is evidence of a fruit in Israel which was nowhere else produced
in the ancient world. Not, indeed, to the extent it should have
been among the subjects of the theocracy, even in the better
periods of its history ; while, at times, corruption came in with
such sweeping violence, that it seemed as if all were to be borne
along by the current. But look to the history as a whole — look
to it more especially as it appears in the better and more promi
nent members of the theocracy, and the superiority of Israel
will be seen to be beyond dispute, in the tilings which more
peculiarly constitute the worth and well-being of a people.
With many of the nations of antiquity they could stand no
comparison, as regards matters of secondaiy moment — the culti
vation of science and learning, and whatever may be included
in the sphere of taste, refinement, and art. But where did life
exhibit so many of the purer graces and the more solid virtues ?
Or where, on the side of truth and righteousness, were such
perils braved, and such heroic deeds performed? There alone
were the interests of trutli and righteousness even known in
such a manner as to reach the depths of conscience, and bring
fully into play the nobler feelings and affections of the heart.
What elsewhere was contemplated by a select few merely as a
fine ideal, or reckoned fit and proper to be done should circum
stances favour the attempt, assumed here the form of lofty
principle, and laid upon the spirit the bonds of a sacred obliga
tion, which, instead of weakly bending to circumstances, sought
rather to make circumstances bend to it. It is to Israel, there
fore, alone of all the nations of antiquity, that we must turn
alike for the more pure and lovely, and for the more stirring

rightoousneflB," — if, in short, all was merely national, outward, ceremonial,
in tin- framework of the polity, would it not be an inexplicable anomaly,
that the writings connected with it — its histories, songs, didactic and pro
phetical discourses — should all be so peculiarly ethical in their tune, and
personal in their application. But it was morally impossible that the laws
and ordinances of the theocracy could be of Mich a merely formal and out
ward character ; the spiritual and holy nature of God forbade it ; and from
that nature, as shown in the second and third particulars of the first division,
everything took its determining and influential form.

492 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

examples of moral excellence. Sanctified homes, where the
relations of domestic and family life stood under law to God,
and where something was to be seen of the confiding sim
plicity, the holy freedom, and peaceful repose of heaven ; lives
of patient endurance and suffering, or of strong wrestling for
the rights of conscience, and the privilege of yielding to the be
hests of duty ; manifestations of zeal and love, in behalf of the
higher interests of mankind, such as could scorn all inferior con
siderations of flesh and blood, and even rise at times in " the
elected saints" to such a noble elevation, that they have " wished
themselves razed out of the book of life, in an ecstacy of charity
and feeling of infinite communion" (Bacon) ; — for refreshing
sights and ennobling exhibitions like these, we must repair to
the annals of that chosen seed, who were trained under the eye
of God, and moulded by the sacred institutions of His kingdom.
How different from what is recorded of the worldly, self-willed,
and luxurious Asiatics around them ! And how fraught with
lessons of wisdom and heroic example to future times and other
generations of men !

It is impossible, however, by any general survey, to appre
hend aright the difference that here separates Jew from Gentile,
or to make fully palpable the wide chasm that lies between life
as formed and maintained under the Jewish theocracy, and as
groping its devious way or rioting at will amid the darkness and
corruption of heathenism. "VVe should need to descend into the
particular details of comparative history. But merely to indi
cate what might be done, let it just be thought, how peculiar to
Israel, how unlike to what is elsewhere to be met with, are such
family pictures as those of Boaz and Ruth, Klimelech and Han
nah ! or such characters as those of Samuel, Elijah, and the
more distinguished prophets ! Let but one be selected, who had
thoroughly imbibed the spirit of the theocracy, and entered cor
dially into its design : take David, for example, of whom this
may strictly be said, notwithstanding a few mournful failuivs.
which he himself most bitterly deplored ; and where, in those
ancient times, shall any approach be found to his marvellous
combination of gifts and graces'? Where may we descry a
character, at once so high-toned and so fully orbed? Think of
this man as passing from the rustic simplicities of shepherd-life

Til K.I I:\VIS 1 1 TIIKOCRACY. 493

to the throne of the kingdom, yet bearing with him still the
same tender, open, and glowing heart ; treated on his way to
the throne with the basest ingratitude and most ruthless perse
cution, forced even to become for many tedious years the tenant
of savage wilds and caves of the desert, yet never lifting, when
it was in his power to do so, the arm of vengeance, but ever re
paying evil with good, and over the fall of his fiercest persecutor
raising the notes of a most pathetic lamentation ; distinguished
above others by deeds of chivalry and military prowess, by which
the kingdom was raised from its oppression and widely extended
in its domain, yet reigning not for selfish ambition or personal
glory, but as Jehovah's servant for the establishment of truth
and righteousness in the land ; gifted, moreover, with a genius
so fine, with sympathies so fresh and strong, as to be able to
originate a new species of poetry, yet consecrating all to the
service of the same Lord, in celebrating the praise of His doings,
and telling forth the moods and experiences of the soul in its
efforts to be conformed to the will of Heaven ; and doing it in
strains of such touching pathos and power, that they have found
an echo in every pious bosom through succeeding generations,
and to myriads of tempted souls have proved the greatest solace
and support. The history of remote times can, indeed, tell of
individuals who have risen from humble and sequestered life
to sit with princes of the earth, or extend the glory of their
country ; but it can tell of no individual fitted by many degrees
to be placed beside the shepherd-king and sweet psalmist of
Israel. Nor could it have told of him, but for the training he
enjoyed under that theocracy with which he was so closely
identified, and of which, in the grand features of his character,
he was at once the legitimate offspring and the noblest rqnv-
sentative.

May we not appeal, in proof of all \ve have said, to the com
mon sentiments of Christendom? Why have the thoughts and
feelings, not of the superstitious or devout merely, but of the
most enlightened and spiritual in later times, hung around the
region of the old theocracy, with an attraction -which no other
has been able to e.\eivi>e .' Why still, after centuries of desola
tion have passed over it, does it seem invested with so peculiar
a glory? No doubt, in great part, because on it were per-

494 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

formed the marvellous transactions of gospel history — because
there are

" The holy fields

Over whose acres walked those blessed feet,
Which eighteen hundred years ago were nailed,
For our advantage, on the bitter cross."

Yet not by any means on that account alone. The interest
thence arising, is but the enhancement and consummation of
that which is awakened by the long train of similar characters
and events which had distinguished it in the ages preceding.
These did of themselves raise the land of Israel to a height, in
moral estimation, above all the kingdoms of the earth — rendering
it emphatically the region of light and valley of vision — the land
of uprightness, where were found the habitations of the righteous,
where angels visited, where prophets witnessed and struggled for
the cause of God, and men of faith and piety hazarded their
lives for the kingdom of heaven. There, in short, as nowhere
else in the ancient world, were moral elements of a high and
ennobling kind, not only embodied in the ideal of the theocratic
polity of Israel, but exhibited also in the results actually pro
duced by it among the people ; and the hallowed feelings and
associations of which the land itself is the object, are a standing
and hereditary evidence of the fact.

So much, then, for the favourable side of the picture ; but
undoubtedly there is another, that must go along with it to give
a fair exhibition of the reality. The Jewish theocracy contained
also elements of weakness and imperfection, which materially
hindered the fulness of its efficiency, and rendered its termina
tion in the original form ultimately a matter of necessity. The
existence of such elements, to some extent, was unavoidable, on
account of the comparatively immature stage of the Divine
economy to which the old theocracy belonged ; for, as that
economy is formed on the plan of a regular progression, it was
inevitable but that there should be imperfections in the earlier
as compared with the later forms of administration. What,
then, were those elements of weakness ? It will be enough if
here they are briefly indicated.

(1.) First of all may be named the local and earthly condi
tions with which it was entwined. These, as already stated,

THK .iKWisii TI i KOCRACY. 495

were of great service in giving objectivity to the truths and
principle* of the theocracy, rendering them more palpable to
men's view, and lending, as it were, outward sense to faith, that
it might, through the near and visible, realize the unseen and
eternal. But there was, at the same time, a tendency formed
to contract the idea of God, and the interests of the economy,
too much within those local and earthly bounds — to rest in
them, instead of rising through them to a higher sphere and
more enlarged considerations. From want of discernment and
faith, multitudes were always giving way to this tendency, look
ing simply to the temporal recompense, and thereby becoming
selfish and sordid in their minds ; regarding God as little more
than, in the restricted heathen sense, the tutelary God of the
land and people of Israel — yea, regarding Him as, even within
that local territory, chiefly confining the manifestations of His
presence to the place and ordinances in which He chose to put
His name, and, by natural consequence, regarding themselves
as in a position of privileged antagonism to the heathen, rather
than as furnished with peculiar endowments and opportunities
to do them service. All this, doubtless, proceeded on a misin
terpretation and abuse of the local and earthly conditions amid
which the theocracy was set, and tended, in so far as it might be
practised, virtually to subvert the ends of the institution. But
there can be no doubt that, with a large portion of the people,
matters took very much the direction now indicated, and that
this feature in the Jewish theocracy proved, in the result, a
material element of weakness. (2.) As another thing of this
description, must be mentioned the predominantly outward cha
racter of the means employed to maintain the knowledge of
God, and a course of obedience to His will. These took the
distinctive form of law, and, consequently, even when they con
veyed direct instruction as to the things to be believed and done,
they were imposed from without, and formed a yoke of service
resting upon the individual, rather than a spirit of life springing
up and working within. Not only so, but a great part of the
instruction thus romvved, and of the moral training connected
with it, was tied to ritual forms and observances, in which the
external act was always the tirst and most prominent thing to
be attended to, since the object aimed at by them was first to

496 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

form the habit of obedience, and through the habit to establish
the principle. Imperfection was obviously stamped upon this
mode of action ; and the result was, that many stopt short at
the earlier stage of the course, satisfied themselves with the mere
form of knowledge and of truth in the law, and never attained
to the inward power of life, which becomes a law to itself.
Coldness, formality, distrust of God, selfishness of spirit, cor
ruption of manners, necessarily ensued — how commonly and
fatally, the records of the nation but too amply testify — yet
how far from being an inevitable result of the polity, how cer
tainly arising from a failure in apprehending or using aright
the privileges belonging to it, equally appears from the exam
ples of faith, and spirituality, and love, always found in a select
portion of the community. In short, the system, in its osten
sible aspect, had a tendency to the formal and outward, and, on
the part of the great majority, it was not met by a sufficient
counteractive. (3.) Difficulties, and, by reason of difficulties,
imperfections of administration, must be named as a third great
element of weakness in the theocratic constitution, and of com
parative failure in its working. The administration of affairs,
as to its ultimate authority and power, was in the hands of God
Himself; but, in ordinary circumstances, it was necessarily
exercised by those who were put in stations of trust, and were
more peculiarly called to act as His servants. Now, these were
not only beset by the difficulties arising from human frailty and
imperfection in themselves, but, by special difficulties, adhering
to the law they had to administer. For this law, as we have
said, however outward in form, was still essentially inward in
principle ; it was the law of Him who is emphatically a Spirit,
and required nothing less than habitual holiness in heart and
conduct. To administer such a law properly required discern
ment of spirits, as well as observance of outward actions; it
required often dealings with the conscience; and this, again,
could not be adequately performed except by those who had
themselves a conscience void of offence toward God and man.
Then the sanctions of the law, which, for deliberate overt
transgressions, imposed the penalty of death — necessarily im
posed it, for otherwise there could have been no proper exhi
bition of sin and holiness, as they are known in the Divine

TIIK .H:\YISII THEOCRACY.

497

government — these sanctions brought other difficulties into the
administration. For men who had themselves imperfect views
of sin and holiness, naturally felt averse to the enforcement of
what was threatened ; offences were suffered to proceed with
impunity; "the law was slacked, and judgment did not pro
ceed ;" and, from the mixed state of things which in conse
quence resulted, neither could the blessing nor the curse be
made good in such a way as to manifest fully the righteousness
of God. First, partial disorders ; then general decay ; finally,
total decrepitude and dissolution came on. (4.) Once more, an
element of weakness and imperfection in the old theocracy, and
the fundamental ground, indeed, of all the others, consisted in
the defective nature of its revelations, in those things especially
which concern the relation of God to man. Near as God was
to Israel, and accessible in worship, compared with what lie
was to the heathen, there was still a great gulph. Satisfaction
was not yet made to the deeper wants and necessities of the
soul. The demands of law and the guilt of sin stood more pro
minently out than the riches of Divine grace, and righteousness,
and love. A thick veil hung over the things which were to
form the great redemption of man, and which, when they came,
were to exert the mightiest influence upon the soul for good,
and in a manner transfigure the entire state of a believer's
condition. For want of these, the theocracy in Israel was
necessarily defective in the more vital functions, and naturally
became partial and imperfect in its actual working. On this
account, also, it had to stand so much in the outer sphere of
things, the higher and better being as yet not directly available ;
and so, in comparison of what was to come, it might fitly be
designated " weak and unprofitable."

On the whole, therefore, we perceive that the Jewish theo
cracy, as to its actual working, was of a mixed description. It
had results connected with it of a most important and interest
ing character, on account of which the world then, and, indeed,
W all time, has become largely its debtor. But, at the same
time, there were imperfection! in its framework, which gave rise
to many failures in the aeconijilislmient of what it aimed at; so
that the idea it embodied of a kingdom of (Jod on earth was
never more than very partially reali/.ed, and, as became but too
VOL. II. 21

498 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

manifest in the progress of time, could not be realized under so
imperfect and provisional a state of things.

III. Still it did not properly die ; for nothing that is of God
perishes, or ultimately fails of its destination : in so far as there
may be change, it can only be in the particular form assumed,
or the mode of operation. This will appear in regard to the
subject before us, if we turn now, in the third place, to consider
the Jewish theocracy in respect to its ulterior development and
final issues.

There was a striking difference, in this respect, between the
kingdom of God in Israel, and the worldly kingdoms by which
it was surrounded, and for a time overborne. " Their end and
aim," so even the semi-rationalist Ewald writes, in his History
of the Jewish People, " lay only in themselves, rose into strength
through human power and caprice, and again passed away. But
here (viz., in the Jewish theocracy) we have for the first time
in history, a kingdom which finds its origin and its aim ex
ternal to itself, which did not come into being of man, nor of
man attained to its future increase ; therefore a kingdom which,
itself affecting only what is divine, carries also in its bosom the
germ of an eternal duration, in spite of all incidental change,
preserves still its inner truth, and revives anew in Christianity
as with the freshness of a second youth."1 It was not, however,
reserved for the historian of the past to discover this mark of
superiority in the theocratic kingdom ; it was done as well by
the prophets of the future, and never more clearly and emphati
cally than when the external fortunes of the kingdom were in
the most enfeebled or prostrate condition. " Unto us a child is
born," said Isaiah in the time of Ahaz, when everything was
tottering to its fall, " unto us a Son is given ; and the govern
ment shall be upon His shoulder : and His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and
peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon
his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even for ever." Not only so, but
when the kingdom had fallen to its very foundations, and to the
1 Geschichte, ii. 138.

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 499

eye of sense lay smitten by the rod of Babylon as with an irre
coverable doom, that precisely was the time, and Babylon itself
the place, chosen by God to reveal, through His servant Daniel,
the certain resurrection of the kingdom, and its ultimate triumph
over all rival powers and adverse influences. In contradistinc
tion to the Chaldean and other worldly kingdoms, which were
all destined to pass away, and become as the dust of the summer
threshing-floor, he announced the setting up of a kingdom by
the God of heaven, which should never be destroyed, — a king
dom which, in principle, should be the same with the Jewish
theocracy, and in history should form but a renewal and pro
longation, in happier circumstances, of its existence ; for it was
to be, as of old, a kingdom of priests to God, or of the people
of the saints of the Most High ; and, as such, an everlasting
kingdom, which all dominions were to serve and obey. And as
this kingdom was imaged in the visions of Daniel by one having
the appearance of a son of man, so did it begin, in the last days of
the Jewish theocracy, to assume a formal existence in the person
of Him who purposely took the title of Son of Man to Him
self, that He might be the more easily recognised as the Head
of Daniel's kingdom of saints — the Reviver of the Old, and, at
the same time, the Founder of the New — coming to establish,
as of Himself, the kingdom of heaven, and yet coming to occupy
the throne of His father David. What, indeed, was the end
and purpose of His mission ? What the design of His sufferings
and death? Simply to raise up for Himself a community of
saints — a royal priesthood, with whom, and through whom, He
might exercise dominion in the earth. And so, as the world
began with a theocratic paradise, in which God associated Him
self in closest fellowship with man, and man, in turn, acknow
ledged no law, was subject to no authority, but God's ; in like
manner, it shall end witli a paradise and theocracy restored,
when no kingdom shall any longer appear but the Lord's, and
to the farthest bounds of the earth the saints shall live and
reign with Him in glory.

It is, undoubtedly, with Christ's appearance and work for
the salvation of men — in other words, with the institution of the
New Testament Church — that we are to connect the theocracy
in its new, more expanded, and permanent form. And yet, in

500 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

what may be designated the most fundamental characteristic of
this form, in the comparative disuse of the outward and carnal
for the more inward and spiritual elements of strength, it might
not improperly be said, that the times of Daniel and the cap
tivity formed the turning-point from the Old to the New, and
that thenceforward the one was continually shading into the
other. ^. The external framework and political aspect of the
kingdom, in its original and independent state, had assimilated
it too much to the kingdoms of this world, had always had the
effect of taking off the minds of the people from the things in
which their polity differed from that of others — had led them, in
short, from undue regard to the external and secular features
in the constitution of the kingdom, to lose sight of the great
truths and principles which constituted the real elements of its
strength and permanence. The special efforts put forth from
time to time to check this carnalizing tendency, had proved un
availing. The mission, for example, of Samson, — the externally
strong, but internally weak, Nazarite, — so singularly furnished,
and yet accomplishing so little (in each respect the exact type
of the people) ; the higher and more successful mission of
Samuel, who, shortly after the times of Samson, and by no
weapons of war, but by the spiritual agency of God's word, and
the labours of like-minded men, trained and drawn together by
the schools of the prophets, brought in a period of revival ; the
occasional missions and still higher gifts of the later prophets ;
as also, the earnest spiritual strivings of David, and some of his
better successors, in the administration of the kingdom : these
things, and others of a like kind, though all pointing in one
direction, and perpetually sounding in the ears of the people a
call to look to the realities of Divine truth and righteousness,
enshrined in their peculiar polity as the bulwarks of their safetv
and well-being, were never more than partial and transitory in
their influence. The more carnal elements of power — worldly
resources and expedients — the things in which they resembled,
not those in which they differed from, the nations of heathen
dom, always rose to the ascendant, and marred the proper
working of the theocracy by the' carnality and corruption of the
world. Hence, as a last resort, the Lord laid prostrate the in
dependence of the kingdom, annihilated its political power by

TIIK JEWISH THEOCRACY. 501

the hand of the King of Babylon, and by the captivity and
subsequent dispersion of the people, suspended, to a large ex
tent, even the more peculiar observances of worship. They
were thus driven more from the outward shell to the inward
kernel, aud led to seek the ground of their strength and relative
superiority in the grand truths and principles of the theocracy.
And seeking it thus, they found that, even amid external ruin,
the way was still open to the greatest power and glory. Daniel,
and his companions in Babylon, by their uncompromising ad
herence to the truth, and the special direction and support
they in consequence received from the hand of God, showed in
Babylon itself that a might slumbered in their arm which was
capable of the greatest things, which could carry them at the
very seat of the world's empire to the highest place of power
and influence, — a type of that victorious energy and progressive
advancement to glory which were destined to appear in the
true, the spiritual members of the theocracy. And sad and
humiliating as they were in one respect, yet in another and
higher respect, important benefits were derived by the covenant
people from their period of exile, from the comparative mean
ness of their circumstances after the time of restoration, and
their prolonged dispersion throughout the cities of heathendom.
For these led, among other things, to the institution of the
synagogue, with its simpler forms of worship, and helped ma
terially to work the people into a greater freedom from what
was local and outward, spiritualized and elevated their ideas of
divine things, and enlarged their opportunities of displaving the
banner, which God had given them because of the truth, in the
sight of the heathen.

A great advance was thus made in the fortunes that befell
the theocracy and its people, in preparation for the coming of
Christ, and the institution of the New Testament Church.
What was earthly and carnal in it was made to fall into com
parative abeyance, that the glory of its spiritual excellence
might be brought more prominently into view. But it wa*
only by the mission of Christ that the change was properly
effected, and that provision was fully made for the establish
ment of a theocratic kingdom among men. By the union in
His person of the Divine and human, by the infinite satisfaction

502 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

accomplished in His death for sin, by the clear revelations of
His word, and the plentiful endowments of His Spirit, the
truth embodied in the old theocracy was extricated from its
cumbrous environments, and raised to a nobler elevation. And
by the institution of a church founded in this truth — a church
confined to no local territory or temporal jurisdictions, but char
tered with the rights of universal citizenship, holding directly
of Christ as its Divine Head, and committed to the hands of
those who in every place might receive His Gospel and exhibit
the virtues of His Divine life — by such an institution He set
the theocratic principle on a new course of development, and
gave it, as it were, a commission to tcike possession of the habit
able globe. A noble calling, indeed, for the Church to have
received ! Would that she had always understood aright its
nature, and entered into the mind of Christ as to the way by
which it should be carried into effect ! How plain did all seem
to have been made to her hand by the course of preparation
going before, and still more by the actual teaching of Christ
and His apostles! In laying the foundations of the Church,
and labouring to give the right tone as well as the needed
impulse to all future times, how carefully did they abstain from
intermeddling with anything but the truth of God, and its
manifestation to the hearts and consciences of men ! How
clear was it that the weapons of their warfare were not carnal,
but spiritual ! They had perfect confidence in the higher ele
ments of power ; and, rejecting all others as unsuitable to their
vocation, they sought " by pureness, by knowledge, by long-
suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left" — by such
means, but only by such, they sought to raise men into living
fellowship with God, and bring God's will and authority to rule
in the affairs of men.

But the Church had not proceeded far on her course till she
began to distrust these spiritual weapons, and by a retrograde
movement fell back upon the weak and beggarly elements
which in earlier times had proved the constant source of imper
fection and failure, and from which the Church of the New
Testament should have counted it her distinctive privilege to be

THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. 503

free. Instead of the common priesthood of believing souls,
anointed by the Spirit of holiness, and dwelling in the secret
place of the Most High, a select priesthood of artificial distinc
tions and formal service were constituted the chief depositaries
of grace and virtue ; instead of the simple manifestation of the
truth to the heart, there came the muffled drapery of symbolical
rites and bodily ministrations ; and for the patient endurance of
evil, or the earnest endeavour to overcome it with good, resort
was had to the violence of the sword, and the coercive measures
of arbitrary power. Strange delusion ! As if the mere form
and shadow of the truth were mightier than the truth itself — or
the circumstantial adjuncts of the faith were of more worth
than its essential attributes — or the crouching dread and en
forced subjection of bondmen were a sacrifice to God more
acceptable than the childlike and ready obedience of loving
hearts ! Such a depravation of the spirit of the Gospel could
not fail to carry its own curse and judgment along with it ;
and history leaves no room to doubt, that as men's views went
out in this false direction, the tide of carnality and corruption
flowed in ; the Christian theocracy, as of old the Jewish, was
carried captive by the world ; the spouse became an harlot.

This mournful defection was descried from the outset, and
in vivid colours was portrayed on the page of prophetic revela
tion, as a warning to the Church to beware of compromising
the truth of God, or attempting to seek the living among the
dead. What constitutes the peculiar glory of the Gospel, and
should ever have been regarded as forming the main secret of
its strength, is the extent to which its tidings furnish an insight
into the mind of God, and the power it confers on those who
receive it to look as with open face into the realities of the
Divine kingdom. Doing this in a manner altogether its own,
it ivuches the depths of thought and feeling in the bosom, takes
possession of the inner man, and implants there a spirit of life,
which works with sovereign puwvr on the things around it, and
;i-i<ie, UN 1 icing no longer needed, the external props and
appliances that were required l>y the demands of a feebler age.
Not that Christianity is altogether independent of outward
tilings, and refuses the aid of the world in so far as this may be
of service in providing defences for the truth, or securing for

504 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

it a free course and a favourable consideration among men.
There are respects in which the earth can help the woman.
And the very tendency of the truth to work from within out
wards — to work on till it bring under its sway the whole domain,
first of the personal relations, then of the social, finally of the
public and political, — naturally leads, and in a sense compels,
those who are conscious of its power, to make everything under
their control subservient to its design. How far they may right
fully go in this direction can only, with good men, be a question
of fitness and propriety, viewed in connection with the state of
the Church, the condition of the world, and the spirit of Chris
tianity itself. But with such men it never ought to be, it never
can justly be, a question, whether the external should so far be
brought in upon the internal affairs of the Divine kingdom, as
to allow the truth to be overshadowed by outward pomp and
circumstance, impeded in its working by the restraints of worldly
power, or thrust upon men's consciences by weapons of violence.
For, the kingdom established by the Gospel is essentially spi
ritual : it is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost ; and when true to itself, and conducted in harmony
with the mind of its Divine Head, it must ever give to the
spiritual the ascendancy over the carnal, and look for its gradual
extension and final triumph to the power and influence of the
truth itself.

Therefore — to sum up the whole matter, and to indicate, in
a word, how one part links itself with another, and all with the
responsibilities of a Christian calling — the Church of Christ,
according to its idea, is the theocracy in its new, its higher, its
perennial form ; since it is that in which God peculiarly dwells,
and with which He identifies His character and glory. Every
individual member of this Church, according to the proper idea
of his calling, is a king and a priest to God ; therefore not in
bondage to the world, nor dividing between the world and God,
but recognising God in all, honouring and obeying God, and
receiving power, as a prince with God, to prevail over the oppo
sition and wickedness of the world. Every particular Church,
in like manner, is, according to the idea of its calling, an organized
community of such kings and priests ; therefore bound to strive
that the idea may be realized by the united strenuousness of

TIIK JKWISH THEOCRACY. 505

its exertions in the cause of Christ, and the steady growth of its
members toward a state in which they shall be without spot and
blameless. The more this is the case, the more is the prayer
of the Church fulfilled, " Thy kingdom come ;" and the nearer
shall we be to that happy time, when all power, and authority,
and rule, shall give way before the one heaven-anointed King,
to whom the heritage of the earth belongs.

APPENDIX A.

VIEWS OF THE REFORMERS REGARDING THE SABBATH.—
P. 142.

WE regret that Hengstenberg, in his recent treatise on the Lord's day, takes
much the same course with those referred to in the note, of producing
quotations from the writings of the Reformers, that present only one side
of their opinions, and without any qualifying statement as to there being
grounds on which they also acknowledged the abiding obligation of a weekly
Sabbath. Any one would conclude, from the representation he has given,
that the stream of sentiment ran entirely in one direction. There are un
doubtedly very strong, as we think, unguarded, and improper, and, as might
seem at first sight, quite conclusive declarations in the writings and autho
rized standards of the Reformers, against Sabbatical observances. Thus
Luther, in his larger Catechism, says, ' God set apart the seventh day, and
appointed it to be observed, and commanded that it should be considered
holy above all others ; and this command, as far as the outward observance
was concerned, was given to the Jews alone, that they should abstain from
hard labour and rest, in order that both man and beast might be refreshed,
and not be worn out by constant work. Therefore this commandment,
literally understood, does not apply to us Christians ; for it is entirely out
ward, like other ordinances of the Old Testament, bound to modes, and
persons, and times, and customs, all of which are now left free by Christ.'
So again, in the Augsburg Confession, expressing not only the mind of
Luther, but also of Melancthou and the leading Lutheran Reformers,
' Great disputes have arisen concerning the change of the law, concerning
the ceremonies of the new law, concerning the change of the Sabbath, which
have all sprung from the false persuasion, that the worship in the Church
ought to correspond to the Levitical service. They who think that the
. .nice of the Lord's day was instituted by the Church in place of the
Sabbath, as a necessary thing, completely err. Scripture grants that the
observance of the Sabbath now is free ; for it teaches, that since the intro
duction of the Gospel, Mosaic ceremonies are no longer necessary.' To add
only one more, and that from the Reformed Church, the Helvetic Confession
drawn up in 1560, after referring to the observance of Sunday in early
times, and the advantages derived from it, adds the following statement :
• But we do not tolerate here cither superstition or the Jewish mode of

508 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

observance. For we do not believe that one day is holier than another, or
that rest in itself is pleasing to God. We keep the Sunday, not the Sabbath,
by a voluntary observance.'

Now, we freely admit that such statements, taken by themselves, and
viewed apart from the circumstances of the time, might very naturally be
understood to imply an absolute freedom from any proper obligation to
keep the Lord's day. But it ought, first of all, to be borne in mind, that
the subject engaged a comparatively small share of the attention of the Re
formers, and that, in so far as it did, they were placed in circumstances fitted
to give a peculiar bias to their thoughts and language. There is no regular
and systematic treatise on the Sabbath in the works of the more eminent
divines of that period ; it is only incidentally alluded to in connection with
other points, such as the power of the Church in decreeing ceremonies, or
briefly discussed in their commentaries on Scripture, or, finally, made the
subject of a few paragraphs under the Fourth Commandment, in their
elements of Christian doctrine. A few minutes might suffice to read what
each one of the Reformers has left on record concerning the permanent
obligation of the Sabbath ; indeed, that part of the question is rather sum
marily decided on, than calmly and satisfactorily examined. It was only
about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when a controversy arose
concerning it in Holland, that it began to attract much notice on the
Continent, and that a careful investigation was made into the grounds of its
existing obligation. Before the meeting of the famous Synod of Dort, con
siderable heats had been occasioned by the subject in the province of
Zealand ; and with the view of somewhat allaying these, or at least restrain
ing them within certain bounds, that Synod, in one of its last sederunts,
held on the 17th May 1618, and after the departure of the foreign deputies,
passed certain resolutions, which were intended to serve as interim rules for
the direction of those who might still choose to agitate the controversy,
until it might be fully and formally discussed in a future synod. These
resolutions were passed in the course of one day, and were carried with the
consent of the Zealand brethren themselves, so that they may be regarded
as embodying the nearly unanimous judgment of the Dutch Church at that
period. They are as follows : — 1. " In the Fourth Commandment li
something ceremonial and something moral ; 2. The ceremonial was ;
of the seventh day, and the rigid observance of that day prescribed to tin-
Jewish people; 3. Hut the moral is, that a certain and state d day was
appointed for the worship of God, and such rest as is necessary for the
worship of God, and devout meditation upon Him; 4. The Sabbath of the
Jews having been abrogated, the Lord's day must be solemnly sanctified
by Christians; 5. From the time of the aj.nstk-s, this day was always
observe 1 in the ancient Catholic Church ; 6. The day must be so consecrated
to I>ivine worship, that there shall be a cessation from all servile works,
excepting those which are done on account of some present inve-sity, and
from such recreations as are discordant with the worship of God."

The publishing of these resolutions had not the desired effect ; for neither
did the controversy cease, nor was it carried on within the prescribed bounds.

VIEWS <>r REFORMERS REGARDING THE SAIWATII. .">09

A few years afterwards, a treutiso on the subject was published by Gomar,
then at the he.i I i.f the <' dvinists, disputing two or three of the resolutions.
Ho was soon replied to at considerable length by Waleeus ; and still more
elaborately, some years later, by J. Altingius. It was then first that the
points connected with the permanent obligation of the Fourth Command
ment came to be fully discussed in the churches of the Reformation. And
if certain mistakes in the way of handling the matter appeared in the writ
ings of the earlier divines, we may be the lees surprised, when we know the
comparatively small share it had in their inquiries and meditations.1

But if we further take into account the circumstances in which they were
placed, we shall be still less surprised at the particular error they adopted ;
for these naturally gave their minds the bias which led them to embrace it.
The gigantic system of heresy and corruption against which they had to
contend, was chiefly distinguished by the multitude of its superstitious rites
and ceremonies, and the substitution of an outward attendance upon these
for a simple faith in Christ, as the ground of men's acceptance before God.
This false method of salvation by works had branched itself out into so many
ramifications, and had taken such a powerful hold of the minds of men, that
the Reformers were in a manner constrained to speak of all outward observ
ances as in themselves worthless, and not properly required to the salvation
of sinners. They represented, in the strongest terms, the inward nature of
the kingdom of God, its independence of things in themselves, outward and
ceremonial, so that no bodily service, merely as such, was incumbent upon
Christians as it had been in Judaism, but was only to be used as a help for
ministering to, or an occasion for exercising, the graces of a Christian life.
Hence, in the Augsburg Confession, difference of days and distinctions of
food are classed together, as things about which so many false opinions had
gathered, that " though in themselves indifferent, they had become no longer
•O.*1 And the false opinions are particularly specified to be such as tended
to produce the conviction, that people thought themselves entitled by those
corporeal satisfactions to deserve the remission of their sins. Melancthon,
in his defence of that Confession, arguing against the idea so prevalent
regarding the Church and her external ceremonies, affirms that " the apostles
did not wish us to consider such rites as necessary to our justification before
God. They did not wish to impose any burden of that kind upon our con
es ; did not wish that righteousness and sin should be placed in the
observance of days, of food, and such things. Nay, Paul declares opinions
of such a kind to be doctrines of devils." In like manner, Calvin, in his
remarks upon die Fourth Commandment, contained in his Institutes, says.
that as the .Jewish Sabbat h \\as but a shadow of Christ. %% there ought to be
amongst Christians no superstitious observance of days :" and that to regard
the sanctiiieatioii of every seventh, though not precisely the la.--;, day of the
week, as the moral part of the Fourth Commandment, was " only to change
ting, aud impartial account of the controversies waged in Hol
land, and also in this country, during the seventeenth century. it work
..n tin- Sabbath by tin- Uev. James Gilfillan. published since this Appendix was
written.

510 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the day in despite of the Jews, and at the same time to keep up in the mind
the conviction of its sanctity." Quotations of a like import might be mul
tiplied almost indefinitely ; but there can be no need for it, as all who are
even moderately acquainted with the times and writings of the Reformers
must know, that from the circumstances in which they were placed, and the
peculiar nature of the warfare they were called to wage, such expressions
regarding outward ceremonies in general, and the sanctification of the Lord's
day in particular, are both of frequent occurrence and easily accounted for.
At the same time, though such expressions unquestionably involve a doc
trinal error, so far as the Lord's day at least is concerned, no one really
acquainted with the spirit of their writings can need to be told that it is
the mere opus operatum, — the outward service alone that is there spoken of.
Nothing more, after all, is meant, than that the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, — that there is no essential inherent sanctity in the days
and observances considered by themselves, as apart from the way in which
they are used, and the ends for which they are appointed. That the Re
formers did not mean the statements referred to, to be taken in the most
unqualified sense, is evident alone from their views of the primeval Sabbath.
They held, we believe, without any exception worth naming, that the
weekly Sabbath appointed at the creation had a universal aspect, and has a
descending obligation to future times. We have already given the judgment
of Calvin, and also of Luther, on this subject. — (See p. 142.)

Beza was of the same mind, as will appear from a quotation to be pro
duced shortly. So also Peter Martyr, who, in his Loci Com., says, — " God
could indeed have appointed all or many days for His own worship ; but
since He knew that we were doomed to eat our bread by the sweat of our
face, He rested one in seven, on which, discarding other works, we should
apply to that alone." And Bullinger, who says on Matt, xii., — " Sabbath
signifies rest, and is taken for that day which was consecrated to rest. But
the observance of that rest was always famous and of highest antiquity, not
invented and brought forth for the first time by Moses when he introduced
the law ; for in the Decalogue it is said, ' Remember the Sabbath-day to
keep it holy,' thereby admonishing them that it was of ancient institution."
And to pass over many of the learned writers, from whom similar extracts
might be taken, we conclude with the testimony of Pareus, who, though not
properly a Reformer, was yet the disciple of the Reformers, and who, in his
commentary on Gen. ii. 3, says, — " It pertains to us to keep holy the day
sanctified by God, by imitating His rest. To imitate the rest of God is not
to be idle, to do nothing, for God was not idle, nor did He bless idleness ;
neither is it to feign that a sanctity was impressed upon that day (as hypo
crites do, who make an idol of the Sabbath) ; but it is, according to God's
example, to cease from our works, that is, from sins, which properly are our
works, tending most of all to desecrate the Sabbath, and from the labours
of this life, to which the six days are destined. It is, further, to apply the
Sabbath to Divine worship, by teaching, hearing, meditating, doing those
things which pertain to the true knowledge and worship of God, to the love
of our neighbour, and our own salvation. Such sanctification is suitable

\ II.WS 01 KKFOKME11S REGARDING THE SABBATH. 511

'lay ; for in blessing the seventh day, God did not curse other days ;
but the sanctification was, by way of distinction, pronounced upon that
day, on which no other labours were to entangle us."

It is evidi-nt, that with such views regarding the original appointment
and descending obligation of a weekly Sabbath, the Reformers could only
have disowned the duty of keeping a Christian Sabbath by being inconsis
tent with themselves, and could only have denied the abiding obligation of
the Fourth Commandment by holding some peculiar notions (different
from those now generally entertained) respecting the import of that com
mandment. We believe that they were at one in holding the Decalogue to
be the revelation of the moral law, and as such, therefore, binding iu all its
precepts upon men of every age and condition of life. As a specimen, we
may take what Melancthon says of it in the introduction to his treatise on
the Decalogue, contained in vol. ii. of his works, which he begins with these
words : " It is necessary to retain the usual division ; the principal part of
the law is called the moral, which is the Decalogue rightly understood."
Then, shortly after, describing this Decalogue, as a whole, he says, — " THE
MORAL LAW is the eternal and unchangeable wisdom that is in God, and a
rule of life, distinguishing what is right from what is wrong, commanding
the one, and with severe indignation forbidding the other, the knowledge of
which was in creation implanted in rational creatures, and afterwards often
repeated, and by Divine voice proclaimed, that men might know that God
is, and what He is, and that He is a Judge who obliges all His rational
creatures to be conformed to Himself, to yield our obedience entirely accord
ant with His law, and accusing and destroying all that are not possessed of
this conformity." In like manner, Calvin, in his Institutes, heads the
chapter which treats of the Decalogue, u An explanation of the Moral
I AW," describes it as " the rule of perfect righteousness," and gives it as the
reason why God has set up this law in writing before us, " both that it
might testify with more certainty what in the law of nature was too ob
scure, and might more vividly, as by a palpable form, strike our mind and
memory."

Regarding the Decalogue in this light, the Reformers plainly ought to
have considered the Fourth Commandment, as well as the others, of uni
versal and permanent obligation. And yet it is certain they did not.
They laid down right premises on the subject, while, by some strange over
sight or misapprehension, they failed to draw the conclusion these inevitably
lead to. It was the unanimous opinion of those divines, that the iv.-t
enjoined in the Fourth Commandment was of a ceremonial and typieal
nature, — that, as Luther expresses himself, " it was entirely outward," and
as such, therefore, consummated and done away in Christ. Kven Ahinj;
could not get rid of this view of the mutter, and consequently feels him
self invcs.Mt;it«'d to maintain the extivine position, that man was not only
made, but also sinned and fell on the sixth day, and that the rest of the
Sabbath having been brought in subsequent to the fall, was even, in its
first observance, a type of redemption. By such a position, though too im
probable to be generally received, he of course vindicated his consistence,

512 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE

in regard to the rest of the Sabbath, as being from the first of a typical
nature. The Reformers, however, cannot receive the benefit of the same
vindication, not having broached the opinion that the original institution
of the Sabbath was subsequent to the fall. The inconsistence probably
never struck them, from the subject having occupied so comparatively small
a share of their attention. And what seems more than anything else to
have misled them, was the passage in Colossians, where, " Sabbath days "
are classed by the Apostle among the things which were shadows of Gospel
truth, and hence done away when Christ, the substance, came. They con
stantly bring forward this passage when speaking of the ceremonial and
typical nature of the Jewish Sabbath.

But how did they reconcile to their own minds the manifest inconsist
ence of at once holding the Fourth Commandment to be of moral and per
petual obligation, and, at the same time, of considering the sacred rest
imposed in that commandment as of a ceremonial nature, and only of
temporary obligation '! There was here a real difficulty in the way ; and
though we find some variety in their endeavours to get rid of it, yet they
all concurred in introducing into this part of the Decalogue the distinction
— at variance as it was with the general view they entertained of that code
of precepts — that the precept was partly ceremonial and partly moral. It
was ceremonial, as interdicting all servile work, and enjoining a day of
outward unbroken rest, — thus typifying the peaceful and blessed rest which
believers enjoy in Christ ; free alike from the labours of sin and the fears of
guilt. But did the typical stand in that day of rest being simply one in
every seven, or in its being precisely the seventh and last of the ever-returning
cycle ? Here we find great diversity of opinion. And did the moral stand
iu the appointment of one day in every seven, though not precisely the last
in order, as a day of bodily rest and spiritual employment, or more generally,
in its requiring adequate and proper times to be set apart for these merci
ful and holy purposes ? Here also no less diversity.

Some of the Reformers descended so little into particulars, that we
cannot, for certain, know what opinion they held on these points. For
example, Melancthon, in his Loci Theol., and in his treatise, De Lege
Divina (using almost the same words), writes thus : — " In this command
ment there are properly said to be two parts — the one natural, the other
moral ; the one the genus, the other the species. Of the former it is said,
that the natural part or genus is perpetual, and cannot bL- abrogated, as
being a command concerning the maintenance of the public ministry, so
that on some one day the people should be taught, and divinely appointed
ceremonies handled. But the species, which bears respect to the seventh
day in particular, is abrogated." He carefully avoids saying whether he
looked upon the abolition as standing in the change of the day from tin-
seventh to some other ; and also, whether the morality of the command
ment required the day preserved to be some one day in every week. His
language does not necessarily imply any positive decision on these points,
although the natural inference is, that by the day still to be observed for
pious purposes, he meant one day in each week ; and by the abrogation of

YIKWS or KKFORMKKS KT.CAUDING THE >.\I'.I;ATII. 513

the species, the mere removal of that day from the last to another day of
the week, the first.

The opinions of the reformed divines, however, are generally expressed
with sutlieient distinctness upon the points in question; and they divide
themselves into two leading classes. One class, with Calvin at their head,
maintained that the typical mystery of the sabbatical rest stood not simply
in its being held on the seventh or last day, but in that along with the
other six preceding days of work — in the number seven viewed as one
whole, and terminating in the moet strict and rigorous cessation from all
labour ; hence the removal of the day from the last to the first of the week,
if the day itself was still viewed in precisely the same character, did not
essentially alter the nature of the institution : the number seven was still
preserved, and if viewed in the same light, and in all its parts held equally
binding as before, the Jewish ordinance, in their estimation, was substan
tially retained. Considering the sabbatical rest, therefore, of every seventh
day as a shadow of Gospel realities, they conceived that the moral obliga
tion couched under- the figure could be carried no 'further than to impose
the necessity of setting apart such times as might be sufficient to maintain
the worship of God ; but that it did not strictly bind Christians to confine
themselves to one day in seven, as if to take more would be to err in excess,
or to take fewer would be to err by deficiency. The exact length of the
period which was to separate one day of rest from another, under the
Christian dispensation, they held should be determined by other considera
tions. But did they, therefore, question that that should be one in seven ?
Xot in the least, for there were considerations enough besides to fix that as
the proper rotation. Gomar, indeed, says that days for the solemn worship
and service of God ought to be more frequent now than under the Jewish
dispensation ; and he gives us to understand, that to impress this upon the
minds of Christians, was one of his reasons for undertaking to show the
abrogation of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath : for God, he contends in
Met. 5th, inpojfi'l only one day in seven upon the Jews, because they were
a carnal and stiff-necked people, and were burdened with many heavy cere
monies ; and hence arises a clear obligation, in the altered and improved
circumstances of Christians, to have, when they can, more frequent days of
sacred rest for the worship of God. Gomar, therefore, held the propriety,
and even the obligation, if circumstances permitted, to have a more frequent
than a seventh-day sabbath.

But lie sivins to stand alone in connecting such an obligation with the
Fourth Commandment. The Keformers, at any rate, appear to have had no
doubt that the day to be observed for holy purposes was to be one in cadi
w.-ck. ncit excepting those of them who took the most general view of the
moral obligation imposed in the Fourth Commandment, feeling the"
drawn to that conclusion by a regard to tin- other purposes for which it was
given, as well as from tin- primeval character of the ordinance, and the
' d procedure of the Apostolic Church in keeping the lii>t day of the
week. Luther, in his (ierman annotations on the Fourth Commandment,
says, — u Although the Sabbath is now abolished, and the conscience is freed

vol.. II. .' K

514 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUUK.

from it, it is still good, and even necessary, that men should keep a par
ticular day in the week for the sake of the word of God, on which they are
to meditate, hear, and learn, for all cannot command everyday ; and nature
also requires that one day in the week should be kept quiet, without labour
either for man or beast." In like manner, in his Larger Catechism, after
stating that the worship of God is " not now bound to certain times, as it
was among the Jews, as if this day or that were to be preferred for such a
purpose, for no day is better or more excellent than another," he goes on to
remark, that " since the mass of men cannot attend on it every day, from
the entanglements of business, some one day, at the least, in the week must
be chosen for giving heed to that matter," — mentioning the example set by
the Apostolic Church in choosing the first day of the week as what ought
to determine the Church in succeeding times. Calvin is, if possible, still
more decided ; for he holds, that even as imposed upon the children of
Israel in the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath was designed not merely
to prefigure spiritual rest, but also to afford an opportunity for engaging in
religious exercises, and for a respite from labour to the humbler classes of
society. And, " since these two latter reasons," he remarks in his Insti
tutes, " ought not to be numbered amongst the ancient shadows, but alike
concern all ages, although the Sabbath is abolished, it yet has that place
among us, that on stated days we meet for hearing the word of God, for
partaking of the lord's Supper, and for public prayers ; also that servants
and work-people may have a respite from labour." And a little afterwards,
more expressly, bespeaks of " the Apostle having retained the Sabbath" for
the poor of the Christian community, so far keeping up the distinction of
days, and of the danger of superstition being almost taken away by the sub
stitution of another day of the week for religious purposes, instead of that
which the Jews held to be peculiarly sacred.

There was, however, another class of opinions, or rather of divines hold
ing the opinion, that the sabbatical rest, as enjoined upon the Jews in the
Fourth Commandment, was indeed typical of the spiritual rest of the
Gospel, but that the mystery or type existed in the day of rest being pre
cisely the seventh or last day of the week — that the moral obligation con
tained in the precept for all times and ages, was its imposing the duty of
hallowing one day in seven, — and that, consequently, by changing the day
from the last to the first, which was done by the apostles under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, the moral part of the commandment was retained in full
force, while the Jewish mystery necessarily ceased. This more correct
opinion was, I should say, more generally adopted by the earlier divines
after the Reformation, than the one just considered. Beza may first be
mentioned, who thus writes on Kev. i. 10 : — " He calls that day tin' Lord's,
which Paul names flic firxt <>f tin >/-<ek (pi* <r«/3/3«T6>i/), 1 Cur. xvi. i', on
which day it appears that even then the Christians were KOCOStomed to hold
their own regular meetings, as the Jews were wont to meet in thesynagogue
on the Sabbath, for the purpose of showing that the Fourth Commandment,
concerning the sanctification of every seventh day. was ceremonial, u* far
a.f it respected the particular day of r<xt ami the l«jal .vtnvVi->-, but that, as

VIKWS OF REFOKMKKS REGARDING THE SABBATH. 51j

regards tin- worship «.f (MM!, it was a precept of the moral law, which is per
petual aii'l unchanging < luring the present life. That day of rest had stood,
indeed, from then-cation of the world to the resurrection of our Lord, which
being as another creation of a new spiritual world (according to the lan
guage of the prophets), was made the occasion (the Holy Spirit, beyond
doubt, directing the apostles) for assuming, instead of the Sabbath of the
former age, or the seventh day, the first day of this world, on which, not the
corporeal and corruptible light created on the first day of the old world, but
this heavenly and eternal light, hath shone upon us. Therefore the assem
blies of the Lord's day are of apostolical and truly divine tradition ; yet so
that a Jewish cessation from all work should not be observed, since this
would manifestly be not to abolish Judaism, but only to change what
respected the particular day. This, however, was afterwards introduced by
Constantino, as appears from Eusebius and the laws of the emperor, and was
afterwards, by succeeding emperors, restrained within still narrower bounds :
till at length, what was first instituted for a good purpose, and is still pro
perly retained, — namely, that tlie mind, freed from its daily labours, should
give it itself wholly up to the hearing of the word of God, — came to degenerate
into mere Judaism, or rather the most vain will-worship, innumerable other
holy-days having been added to it."

This passage puts it beyond a doubt that, according to Beza, the cere
monial part of the Fourth Commandment consisted only in the particular
day, and the bodily rest, and that the moral part required still one day in
seven to be set apart for the worship of Clod. What he says of the manner
in which the rest should now be observed, will fall to be noticed under the
next head. Peter Martyr expresses the same opinion in his Loci Communes,
under the Fourth Commandment, remarking, that " as in other ceremonies
there is something abiding and eternal, and something changeable and tem
poral (as in circumcision and baptism, it is perpetual that they who belong
to the covenant of God, and are admitted among His people, should be dis
tinguished by some outward sign), the kind of sign was changeable and
temporary ; for that it might be done, either by the cutting off of the fore
skin, or by the washing with water, God manifested by His appointment.
In like manner, that one fixed day in seven should be set free (muncipetur)
for the worship of God, is fixed and determined ; but whether this or that
day .-should be appointed, is temporary and changeable." To the same effect
also, Ursinus, the friend of Melancthon, in his Catechism, — "That the tir.-t
part of the < •omniand (that, namely, which enjoins the keeping holy of a
seventh-day >abbath) is moral and perpetual, appears from the end of the
institution, and the reasons assigned for it, which are perpetual." Then.
mentioning these, he concludes, that as uthey relate to no definite
period, but to all times and ages of the \vorld, it follows that <io,l \\ i.shed to
hind men from the beginning of the world even to its end, to keep a certain
Sabbath." And again : " Though the ccreim mial Sabbath is abrogated in
the New Te.-tament, am..ral Sabbath Mill remains, ami itself therefore a kind
of ceremonial Sabbath. >. if time niiiM be set apart for the mini

stry, l-'i.r n i.> not less needful now in the ( 'hri.Mian than it was. formerly

516 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

in the Jewish Church, that there be some fixed day on which the word of God
may be taught, and the sacraments publicly administered, which, however,
we are not strictly bound to make either the third, fourth, fifth, or any other
determinate day of the week." He evidently means that, so far as the
morality of the Fourth Commandment is concerned, it simply obliges us to
one day in the seven. It is almost unnecessary to mention the names of
more who adhered to this opinion. We may just add, that it seems to have
been that of Bucer, and of Viret, the colleague of Calvin ; that it was the
opinion of Pareus is certain, as it seems also to have been that of the Synod
of Dort, if we may judge from what may be regarded as the natural import
of their resolutions ; and both Walaeus and Altingius have not only affirmed
it as their opinion, but are at considerable pains to prove that the very sub
stance of the Fourth Commandment is its requiring the sanctifying of one
day in seven for the service of God, — that unless it included an obligation
to this, there could be no proper meaning in the express mention of six days
as the appointed period of weekly labour, continually succeeded by another
of rest, and no force in the appeal to God's example and work in creation,
— and consequently, that while the moral requires the observance of one day
in seven, the ceremonial ceased when the change took place from the last to
the first day of the week.

There is still another point, on which it is of importance to give a correct
exhibition of the views of the Reformers, viz., in regard to the due observ
ance of the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath. Here it is necessary to pre
mise at the outset, what must have occasionally struck those who have read
the preceding quotations, that some of the reformed divines looked upon the
cessation from work on Sabbath as more strictly and absolutely required of
the Jews than is now binding on Christians, and that the entireness of the
prohibition in that respect was essential to the mystery wrapt up in the
Sabbath. In proof of this they generally refer to such passages as Exodus
xvi. 23, xxxv. 3, which they understand as prohibiting all preparation of
food even on Sabbath. Altingius has endeavoured to show, and I think
with perfect success, that such was not really the meaning of those passages,
and that such works as were necessary for the ordinary support and refresh
ment of the body were always permitted, and practised too, among the Jews.
We have already discussed this point, however, and shall not further refer
to it here. But the Reformers undoubtedly did believe that a degree of
rigour, an extent of prohibition, belonged to the Jewish Sabbath, for which
we find no proper warrant in Scripture ; and well knowing, from New
Testament Scripture, that no such yoke was laid upon the Christian Church,
they naturally drew the equally unwarranted conclusion, that the strictness
of prohibition as to the performance of works requiring labour was somewhat
relaxed. In using such language, they still did not mean that ordinary works
mi-lit be performed on any plea of worldly convenience or pleasure, but such
only as were performed by our Lord, — works required for the necessary sup
port or the comfort of men, and some of which at least they conceived to have
Ivn interdicted to the Jews, for the purpose of rendering their sabbatical
' of tlie spiritual rest enjoy .-d by believers in Christ.

\IF\YS UF I;I;FOI;.MKI;S KI;<;AKI>IN<; THE SARD ATI i. 517

Ftir tlii- proof df this we can appeal to a case which will put the matter,
,nl t«i OM .mvat man at least, beyond a doubt,— we mean the vener-
ablc t 'alvin. During his lilVtime a book was published by some Dutchman,
in which the lawfulness of images in Divine worship, to a certain extent,
was maintained on the following ground : — That though all use of images,
and consequently all kinds of image-worship, were prohibited in the Second
Commandment, yet this was not to be understood too rigorously ; for we
have the same exclusive prohibition of all work on Sabbath in the Fourth
Commandment, and yet we know that Christ both did and allowed certain
kinds of work on that day : so that either He must be held to have violated
the Sabbath, or the commandment must be regarded as less strict in its
prohibitions of work than the plain import of its words would lead us to
suppose, — an alternative, he contended, which would render it equally con
sistent with the purport of the Second Commandment to make some use of
images in the worship of God. Calvin wrote a reply to this treatise, which
is contained in vol. viii. of the Amsterdam edition of his works. We quote
only that part of it which bears upon our present subject. At p. 486 he
says, "They who profess Christianity have always understood that the
obligation by which the Jews were bound to observe the Sabbath-day was
temporary. But it is quite otherwise in regard to idolatry. I grant it,
indeed (that is, the Sabbath), as the bark of a spiritual substance, the use
of which is still in force, of denying ourselves, of renouncing all our own
thoughts and affections, and of bidding farewell to one and all of our own
employments (<>]>eribu3 tioslris universis i-aledicendi'), so that God may reign
in us, then of employing ourselves in the worship of God, learning from His
word, in which is to be found our salvation, and of meeting together for
making public profession of our faith, — :all which differ from the Jewish
shadows ; for it was so servile a yoke to the Jews, that they were bound on
one day of each week to abstain from all work, so that it was even a capital
offence to gather wood or bear any burden." And then he goes on to de
fend Jesus from the charge of having broken the Fourth Commandment by
performing works of healing on the Sabbath, on the ground that such works
did not fall within the prohibition, — that they were properly God's works,
and in no age, on no occasion, were unseasonable or improper.

It is singular that this great man did not here perceive the full force of
his own argument, and is another proof that the subject had not, in all its
bearings, been fully weighed by his masterly mind. For the same argument
which he applied to the defence uf Christ in the liberties He personally took
with the sabbatical rest, would, if properly carried out, have equally availed
to show that the Sabbath, as imposed upon the Jews, was not the servile
yoke it is here represented ; that all work was not absolutely forbidden to
them on that day, — not simply the engaging in muj worldly employment, or
the bearing of any burden, fur irlml, ' tit only such as was done

in the way of ordinary traffic or worldly business, — for purposes merely of
temporal prolit or carnal pleasure, not immediately called for by any proper
plea of necessity or mercy. It is strange also that Calvin, and many of the
other Reformers, should have spoken so often of the Sabbath enjoined in

518 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUIIK.

the Fourth Commandment, as if it had been an ordinance of mere bodily
rest. They did not so interpret the other commandments. They did not
make the fulfilment of the second to stand in the mere rejection of idolatry,
nor that of the sixth in the simple withholding of the hand from murder ;
and why should they ever have thought or spoken as if the fourth only en
joined a day of outward rest, and not that rather as a means for the higher
end of sanctification ? But with such mistakes regarding the Jewish Sab
bath, properly considered, the above passage from Calvin gives us very
distinctly to understand how he conceived the ordinance of the Sabbath, as
still binding on the Church, should be observed ; that though the obligation
was not the same in his judgment as in the Jewish Church, yet so much
was it to be made a day of spiritual and sacred rest, that not only is it to
be hallowed by the denying and crucifying of our sinful affections, but also
by taking a solemn leave of our own, that is, undoubtedly, our common
worldly occupations, and employing ourselves in the public and private
exercises of God's worship. The distinction, as he regarded it, between the
Jewish and the Christian Sabbath, was not that the latter did, while the
other did not admit, of manual labour or worldly employments, without any
urgent plea of necessity or mercy, but that the Jewish Sabbath so rigorously
enforced the outward rest, as to prevent things being done which were
necessary to the ordinary comfort, or conducive to the higher interests of
man. He held the obligation still in force to keep the Sabbath, as a day
set apart for the peculiar worship and service of God, liable to be inter
rupted only by doing what might be required for the relief of our present
wants, or by labours of love for our fellow-creatures.

At the risk of being tedious, and for the sake of removing all possible
doubt about the real sentiments of Calvin concerning the way in which the
Christian Sabbath ought to be spent, we produce other two extracts from
his works, — passages found in his discourses (in French) to the people of
Geneva on the Ten Commandments. The fifth and sixth of these treat of
the Sabbath. And in the fifth, after having stated his views regarding the
Sabbath as a typical mystery, in which respect he conceived it to be abo
lished, he comes to show how far it was still binding, and declares that, as
an ordinance of government for the worship and service of God, it pertains
to us as well as to the Jews. u The Sabbath, then," says he, " should be to
us a tower whereon we should mount aloft to contemplate afar the works
of God, when we are not occupied nor hindered by anything besides, from
stretching forth all our faculties in considering the gifts and graces whieh
He has bestowed on us. And if we properly apply ourselves to do this on
tin- Sabbath, it is certain that we shall be no strangers to it during the rest
of our time, and that this meditation shall have so formed our minds, that
on Monday, and the other days of the week, we shall abide in the grateful
remembrance of our God," etc. Again : " It is for us to dedicate ourselves
wholly to God, renouncing ourselves, our feelings, and all our affection:-:
and then, since we have this external ordinance, to act as becomes us. that
is, to lay aside our earthly affairs and oraipufinnx, so that we may be entirely
free (vaquions du tout) to meditate the works of God, may exercise our-

YIKNVS OF RKFoii.MKKs IIKCAIIDIXG THE SAIHJATII. "*i'.»

idering tlu- -it'is whieh lie has afforded us, and, above all, may
apply ourselves to apprehend the graec \\hieh Ho daily offers us in His
(lospel, and may In- ni< re and more conformed to it. And when we shall
have employed the Sabbath iu praising and magnifying the name of God,
and meditating His works, we must, through the rest of the week, show
how we have profited thereby."

It is only necessary to bear in mind the explanation already given
regarding the sentiments generally entertained by the Reformers of the
Jewish Sabbath, to see that Beza, in his remarks on Rev. i. 2, is of the same
mind with Calvin, as to the exclusion of worldly employments from the
proper observance of the Lord's day. When he speaks there of a Jewish
cessation from all work not being now imperative, he evidently means in
the sense already explained — the mistaken sense, as we have endeavoured
to show ; for lie not only affirms that the sanctification of the seventh day
was a part of the moral law, as regards the worship of God, ceremonial only
in so far as it respected the particular day and the legal services, but also
expresses it as proper, on that day, for the mind to be freed from its daily
labours, that it may give itself wholly up to the hearing of the word of God.
And that Viret, another of Calvin's colleagues, entirely concurred with him
regarding the due sanctification of the Lord's day, his discourse on the
Fourth Commandment is abundant evidence. For he thus expresses him
self there: — "Since we have from God everything we possess, soul, body,
and outward estate, we ought never to do anything else all our lives, than
what He requires and demands of us for the true and entire sanctification
of the day of rest. Nevertheless, we see that He assigns and permits us six
days for doing our own business, and of the seven He reserves for Himself
only one — as if lie had contented Himself with the seventh part of the time
which was specially given up and consecrated to Him, and that all the rest

was to be ours What ingratitude is it, if, in yielding us six

parts of the seven, which we owe Him, we do not at the least strive with
all our power to surrender the other part, which He exacts of us, as a token
of our fidelity and homage !" Then, in reference to the objection that it
seemed to follow from his views of the Sabbath, that after the public duties
were over men might spend the remaining hours of the day in other occu
pations, he replies, — " Since we are permitted all other days of the week
excepting this for attending to our bodily concerns, it seems to me that
we hold very cheap the service of God and the ministry of the Church, on
which we ought to wait more diligently on that day than any other, if we
cannot find means for employing one whole day of the week in things
which (iod requires of us upon it. For they are of Mich weight, and conse
quence th.it \\ e milM take e;nv, in e\ ery manlier possible, 1. .-t \s e occupy
ourselves with anything which mi-lit turn our attention cl.-e\\here : .-o that
\ve may not bring our hearts by hahcs, but that ourselves and all our
family may without detraction apply."

I'.neer, the friend both of Luther and Calvin, expresses sentiments quite
similar in the fifteenth chapter of his work on the kingdom of Christ:
•• Since our God, with singular goodness towards u.~, has sanctified one day

520 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

out of seven, for the quickening of our faith, and so of life eternal, and
blessed that day, that the sacred exercises of religion performed on it might
be effectual to the promoting of our salvation, he verily shows himself to be
a wretched despiser, at once 'of his own salvation and of the wonderful
kindness of our God towards us, and therefore utterly unworthy of living
among the people of God, who does not study to sanctify that day to the
glorifying of his God, and the furthering of his own salvation, especially
since God has granted six days for our works and employments, by which
we may support a present life to His glory." Then, in reference to the
neglect of daily worship, through the carelessness of some and the impedi
ments in the way of others, he asks, " Who, therefore, does not see how
advantageous it is to the people of Christ, that one day in seven should be
so consecrated to the exercises of religion, that it is not lawful (fas) to do
any other kind of work than assemble in the sacred meeting, and there hear
the word of God, pour out prayers before God, make profession of faith,
and give thanks to God, — present sacred offerings, and receive divine sacra
ments, and so, with undivided application, glorify God, and make increase
in faith ? For these are the true works of religious holy-days." And he
goes on to mention, with satisfaction, the laws made by Constantino, and
other emperors, to prohibit by penalties the transaction of ordinary busi
ness, the exhibition of spectacles, and such things, on the Lord's day.

It is abundantly obvious, from the quotations already given, that the
Reformers, from whom they are taken, inculcated the duty of keeping the
Lord's day not in part merely, but as a day of spiritual rest and sacred
employment ; and of doing this, first of all, by ceasing from all ordinary
labours and occupations, in so far as the claims of necessity might permit ;
then, by giving attendance upon the means of grace in public ; and finally,
by ordering our thoughts and behaviour during the other parts of the day,
so as still to make it available to our spiritual improvement. The more
express and definite statements contained in these quotations prove, that
though frequently in the writings of the Reformers the duties proper to the
observance of the Lord's day are spoken of in a general way, as consisting
in doing what pertains to the preservation and improvement of the public
ministry, they did not, by so speaking, mean to intimate, that, excepting
what was spent at church, the time might be taken up in any worldly busi
ness or recreation. They are most pointed in excluding all worldly occupa
tions whatever, — the proper work of the six days, whether done for profit
or for pleasure. And in dwelling so specially as they sometimes do upon
the public ministry, it was not as if they slighted the more private and
family duties — for these, we see, they also enforced — but only because they
regarded them as in a manner bound up with a faithful attendance upon the
public services of religion. For the school of Geneva, in particular, as it
existed under the teaching of Calvin, Viret, and JJeza, nothing can be more
satisfactory than the manner in which they practically inculcated the devout
and solemn observance of the Lord's day ; and that their own practice, and
their general doctrine upon the subject, was in perfect accordance with the
extracts that have been produced, we have a striking proof in the taunt

VIK\VS OF KKFORMERS KKCARIUMJ TIIK SA15IJATII. 521

which Calvin, in his Institutes, says was thrown out against them by some
s spirits, as he calls them (probably the libertine Anabaptists), "that
i la- Christian people were nursed in Judaism," because they keep the Lord's
day. The very accusation bespeaks how strict was the enforcement of that
day, and how orderly its observance at Geneva during the ascendancy of
those great men.

In reality, the observance of the Lord's day practised at Geneva, and
enforced by Calvin and the other Reformers, differed very materially from
the Judaical observance, according to the notions of the later Jews ; and it
was, no doubt, partly their regard to these notions, which led the Reformers
astray as to their ideas of the import of the Fourth Commandment. They
suffered themselves to be unduly biassed by the maxims and the legislation
of the synagogue on the subject, as if these were properly grounded in the
Divine command, and not rather the turning of its benignant spirit into an
oppressive and irksome yoke. How much they made it of this description,
and how justly the Reformers might speak of our being delivered from the
Jewish yoke, in the sense now mentioned, may be seen by looking into that
portion of the Mischna which treats of the Sabbath. There, the securing
of a merely outward, corporeal rest, as opposed to labour or work, is treated
as the whole object of the command ; and a yoke of numberless restrictions
and prohibitions is imposed, for the purpose of determining what is work
and what is not, with reference to the law of the Sabbath. As specimens
of the vexatious trifling to which this Rabbinical legislation has descended,
the following may be taken. The question is asked, With what species of
wick the lamps may be lighted on the Sabbath, and with what not ? And
as many as fourteen substances are specified which might not be used, and
about half as many which might. " He that extinguishes the lamp, because
he is afraid of heathen, of robbers, of an evil spirit, or that the sick may
sleep, is absolved ; but if to save his lamp, oil, or wick, he is guilty." u The
tailor must not go out with his needle near dusk [on the Sabbath eve],
lest he forget and carry it out with him [after the Sabbath has begun].
The scribe is not to go out with his writing-reed ; nor must a man cleanse
his garments of vermin, or read by caudle-light." u An egg must not be
put at the side of a hot kettle, that it become seethed, nor must it be wrapt
in hot cloths, nor must it be put into hot sand or dust, that it be roasted."
" Into a pot or kettle, which has been moved from the fire boiling, a man
must not put spice ; but he may do so in a dish or on a plate." " If a mun
carries a loaf into the public reshuth, he is guilty ; if two carry it they aiv
absolved [namely, because in the one case a man does a com]. I. tc work, but
in the other not]." " He who pairs his nails, or who pulls the hair out of
his head, or off his lip, or out of his beard ; likewise a woman who plaits
her hair, or dyes In r eyebrows, or who parts the hair on her forehead ; the
sages prohibit all these, on the score of their violating the Sabbath rest."
Thus the subject is prosecuted through twenty -four clu, _ forth

all manner of frivolous distinctions for the purpose of deciding what is work
and what not, and, by consequence, what may and what may not be done
on the Sabbath. Hud Urn miserable and petty legislation really been

522 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRiriTRK.

warranted by the Fourth Commandment, we need not say it had been
utterly at variance with the spirit of the Gospel ; since it would place the
most selfish and inactive formalist in the highest rank of observers of the
Divine law. But a Sabbath observance made up of such external punctilios
never was required by God : it is the ignorance and folly of the Rabbinical
Jews, as of modern Anti-Sabbatarians, to suppose that it was ; and it was
in some degree, also the mistake of the Reformers, to think that the com
mand, as imposed upon the Jews, gave a certain countenance to the error.
The kind of observance really required by the Divine precept was of a far
higher kind ; and it is that which the better part of the Reformers in past
times, as well as evangelical Christians in the present, hold to be matter of
abiding obligation.

It appears, then, upon a full and careful examination of the whole
matter, that the Reformers and the most eminent divines, for about a cen
tury after the Reformation, were substantially sound upon the question of
the Sabbath, in so far as concerns the obligation and practice of Christians.
Amid some mistaken and inconsistent representations, they still, for the
most part, held that the Fourth Commandment strictly and morally binds
men in every age to set apart one whole clay in seven for the worship and
service of God. They all held the institution of the Sabbath at the creation
of the world, and derived thence the obligation upon men of all times to
cease every seventh day from their own works and occupations. Finally,
they held it to be the duty of all sound Christians to use the Lord's day as
a Sabbath of rest to Him, — withdrawing themselves not only from sin and
vanity, but also from those worldly employments and recreations which
belong only to a present life, and yielding themselves wholly to the public
exercises of God's worship and to the private duties of devotion, excepting
only in so far as any urgent call of necessity or mercy might come in the
way to interrupt them. We avow this to be a fair and faithful representa
tion of the sentiments of those men upon the subject, after a patient con
sideration of what they have written concerning it. We trust we have
furnished materials enough from their writings, for enabling our readers to
concur intelligently in that representation. They will sec that the summary
given by Gualter of their views (as quoted at p. 141) is greatly nearer tin-
mark than the one-sided representation of llen^steMberi:. And they will
henceforth know how to estimate the assertions of those who, after dancing
into the works of the Reformers, and picking up a few partial and disjointed
statements, presently set themselves forth as well acquainted with the whole
subject, and as fully entitled to say that the Reformers agree with them
in holding men at liberty, after they may have been at church, to work,
or travel, or enjoy themselves as they please, on other parts of the Sabbath.
Such persons may be honest in representing this as the mind of the Re
formers, but it must not be forgotten that their credit for honesty in the
matter rests upon no better ground than that of ignorance and presumption.

It were wrong to bring our remarks on this subject to a close without
pointing to the important lesson furnished, both to private Christians and to

vir.ws <>i- IIKFOIIMKKS I;K<;.\I;I>INU THE SABBATH. 523

the rimivli at larirt1, by tin- melancholy consequences which soon manifested
themselves as tin- fruit of that one doctrinal error into which the Reformers
did certainly fall regarding tl:c Sabbath. For, though there was much in
their circumstances to account for their falling into it, and though it left
untouched, in their opinion, the obligation resting on all Christians to keep
the day of weekly rest holy to the Lord, — yea, though some of them seemed
to think that one day in seven was scarcely enough for such a purpose, yet
their view alxmt the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, as a Jewish
ordinance, told most unfavourably upon the interests of religion on the Con
tinent. There can be little doubt that this was the evil root from which
chiefly sprung, so soon afterwards, such a mass of Sabbath desecration, and
which has rendered it so difficult ever since to restore the day of God to its
proper place in the feelings and observances of the people. It was well
enough so long as men of such zeal and piety as the Reformers kept the
helm of affairs — their lofty principles, and holy lives, and self-denying
labours, rendered their error meanwhile comparatively innoxious. But a
colder age both for ministers and people succeeded ; when men came to
have so little relish for the service of God, and were so much less disposed
to be influenced by the privileges of grace than to be awed by the com
mands and terrors of law, that the loss of the Fourth Commandment, which
may be said to be the only express and formal revelation of law upon the
subject, was found to be irreparable. The other considerations which were
sufficient to move such men of faith and piety as the Reformers, fell com
paratively powerless upon those who wanted their spiritual life. Strict and
positive law was what they needed to restrain them, which being now in a
manner removed, the religious observance of the day of God no longer
pressed upon them as a matter of conscience. The evil once begun, pro
ceeded rapidly from bad to worse, till it scarcely left in many places so
much as the form of religion. No doubt many other causes were at work
in bringing about so disastrous a result, but much was certainly owing to
the error under consideration. And it reads a solemn and impressive
warning to both ministers and people, not only to resist any improper
encroachments xipon the sanctity of the Lord's day, but also to beware of
weakening any of the foundations on which the obligation to keep that day
is made to rest ; and in this as well as in other things, to pray with
heighten, that they may " be saved from the errors of wise men, yea, and
of good men."

APPENDIX B.— P. 301.

THE subjoined cut represents the altar of burnt-offering, as understood and
explained in the text. It no farther differs from the figure given in F. Von
Meyer, than that the horns at the four corners are made in imitation of
actual horns (of cattle), while in Meyer they are merely little perpendicular
projections.

A is the open space within the boards, in which an earthen or stone fire
place was constructed.

B is the network of brass, supporting the projecting ledge.

C is the projecting ledge itself (the carcob of Ex. xxvii. 4, 5).

D is the incline, made of stones or earth, by which the priest readied th.
ledge.

abed are the horns of the altar.

APPENDIX C.— P. 302.

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON THE SUBJECT OF SACRIFICE
BY BLOOD.

IN* the earlier editions of this work, it was deemed unnecessary to do more,
by way of supplement on the subject under consideration, than to indi
cate with some fulness the defective, though somewhat plausible, views of

KKMAKKS ON TIIK SUBJECT OF SArK'IFKT. BY BLOOD

Pi.ihr respcefini: atonement, and cxj>osc their essential contrariety to the
teaching of Scripture. Since then, however, a great deal has been written
upon sacrifice, both in regard to the blood which formed the more vital
clement of its efficacy, ami the actions which were appointed to accompany
its presentation ; BO that the views of Biihr no longer hold the prominence
in the false direction which they once did. Latterly, indeed, Hofmann (in
his Schriftbeweis), with no higher views than Biihr, has endeavoured, by a
still more careful and elaborate exegesis, to unsettle the received doctrines of
the Church upon the points at issue. In this, however, he has been vigor
ously met by Kurtz, Delitzsch, and many besides, who, with solid learning
as well as distinguished ability, have maintained and vindicated, on Old
Testament ground, the great principles involved in the doctrine of vicari
ous atonement. It has been, I think, a misfortune, naturally indeed,
yet unhappily, growing out of this minute and controversial discussion of
the topics in question, that a degree of precision and exactness has some
times been sought by the defenders of the church doctrine, as well as their
opponents, to be imposed upon the Old Testament symbols, which they
cannot fairly be expected to convey. A symbolical religion, from its very
nature, addresses itself to the popular apprehension rather than the analytic
and discriminating reason: it deals in what may be called the broader aspects
of things ; and while admirably adapted to express the more fundamental
articles of belief, and impress them vividly on the mind, yet, when the
question comes to be respecting the minuter shades of belief, or the pre
ference due to one as compared with another mode of explicating the same
radical idea, religious symbols are not the proper means for determining the
dispute ; and the probability is, that if they are turned to such an account,
they will serve the purpose of a perverted ingenuity as well as of a scrip-
tural faith. It had been well if some of the distinguished men above referred
to had refused to be led upon such uncertain ground. With this general
remark, for the application of which some occasion will presently be found,
we proceed to notice certain of the disputed points on the subject of sacrifice
by blood.

1. What may fitly be taken tirst, is the sacrificial import of the blood.
Was this in the room of the offerer's blood or life? and if so, did it convey
the idea of a ]>cnal quid pro quo ? On this point, it is scarcely necessary to
refer to the differences Avhich still exist on the proper translation of Lev.
xvii. 11. Instead of, " for the blood makes atonement through or by i
of the soul," which, after Ruhr, Delitzsch, Keil, Kurtz, etc., we conceive to
l>e the correct render! n::, Hnfmaim would take the preposition (3) as indica
tive of the essence, "the blood atones as the soul," or in that elm:
Kl>rard adheres to the old meaning of fur, with reference to the idea of
Kilter or exchange, the soul of the one for the soul of the other. — an idea
altogether out of place in connection with the word atom ; and Hen
lierg makes the preposition refer to the object, " blood expiates ihe soul ;"
— all strained and untenable interpretations, as Kurtz h;us conclusively shown
(Sac. Worship. B. ii.. Pt. 1). also D.-lit/s.-h (Psychologic, p. T.»7). Keil
(Archa'ol., i. •_':') has raised the question, — a very neediest one. we think, —

526 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

whether the passage ascribes atoning value to the blood simply as God's
appointment for the purpose, or as this along with its being the seat of
animal life. He decides in favour of the former ; but without any solid
ground in the reason of things (see Kurtz as above, B. i., c. 1), and certainly
against the plain and natural import of the words, which distinctly mention,
first, the fact that the soul of the flesh is in the blood, then that God has
given it upon the altar to make atonement for men's souls; whence comes
the conclusion, " for the blood maketh atonement by means of the soul."
But, practically, it is of no moment whether we hold the atoning property
of the blood to consist in a twofold ground, or simply in God's appointing it
to such a purpose, and this because the life of the animal is in the soul ; for
either way we have the natural fitness exhibited, as well as the explicit
appointment. The question is one that should never have been raised.

Another and more important question has respect to this atoning power
in the blood, whether it was simply as blood, or as blood that had been shed
in death — in other words, whether we are to emphasize the blood alone, or
the blood in connection with the death which preceded, and in which it
flowed out. Biihr had sought to separate the blood, as containing the
nephesh or life, from the death going before, and to make account only of
the former : he would have the blood, and not the death, to be regarded as
the core of the sacrifice ; although on his system, which makes all to stand in
the giving away of the natural life in death, as being all one with giving it
away or surrendering it to God, he found it impossible to properly dissociate
the two. But Hofmann goes straight to the point ; with him it is the blood,
and nothing else. " The nephesh of the offering is not that which comes
upon the altar, but the blood which streamed forth in the slaying, and which
had been the animal's life or soul while it was in the creature ; therefore,
also, not a life that had been killed, but that wherein the beast had had its
life." — (Sehriftbeweis, p. 240.) And again, on Lev. xvii. 11 : " In this pas
sage we neither find the blood and the soul treated as one ; nor are we told
how far the blood, when it was applied to the altar, had an expiatory effect,"
etc. His object is to destroy as much as possible the peculiar significance of
sacrifice by blood, to identify the bloody and unbloody offerings, and- make
sacrifice generally the payment of a sort of redemption-fee, or compensation,
with faith on God's pardoning mercy. There was in it merely the parting
with one's own property, which had been acquired with labour, and which,
in the case of an animal, was besides related, as a living creature, to the
offerer, and dear to him. But as the radical idea of atoning in Script uiv is
that of covering, it can never In- identified with a compensatory payment,
which, as Delitzsch justly remarks (Hebr., p. 74U), is a metaphor entirely
foreign to the Hebrew language. According to its mode of representation,
it is not the thing exigible which was covered by the ransom, but the person
in whose behalf the ransom was paid. It is also a vain attempt at hair
splitting to distinguish, as Hofinann seeks to do. between the blood and the
nephesh of the animal as devoted to death for the offerer. It was plainly
the soul contained in and represented by the blood, which gave its value
and significance to the blood ; and in the common apprehension the two

I;I:.MAI;KS ON TIIK SUBJECT OF SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 527

could not fail to be regarded, in a sacrificial respect, as one. Manifestly,
to use the words of Dclit/.scli, '' the soul of the beast, when given to make
atonement for the soul of the offerer, entered into the place of the soul of
the man ; since, being poured out in tho blood, it covered the death-deserv-
ing soul of the man before an angry God."

So much for the general idea ; but if we ask, How or in what sense
covered ? the answers given take different shades in the hands of different
interpreters, as we have no doubt the matter itself did in the experience
of different worshippers ; for they are but various phases of the same
idea, in respect to which the symbol could not sharply distinguish. Thus
Delitzsch : " The blood in the sacrifice atones, i.e., covers for sinful man, as
a third thing entering between him and God, and brought upon the place of
God. It enters there for the man ; and as it enters for the man, whose sin,
though in respect to God's dispensation of grace a peccatum veniale, yet as
sin has worked death, so there is no getting rid of this, that it enters as a
substitution for the man." CEhler (in Hertzog, Opfercvltui) : u The guilt
is covered, and hence no longer exists for the Divine observation, is wiped
away ; as also the forgiveness of sin is expressed by a covering of iniquity,
and a casting of it away into the depths of the sea. — (Ps. xxxii. 1 ; Mic. vii.
19.) The immediate consequence is, that by means of such covering the
sinful man is protected before the punishing Judge, and without danger can
draw nigh to the holy God." Kurtz is not quite satisfied with these explana
tions, and thinks they scarcely come up to the defiuiteness which is attain
able by a careful consideration of the language of Scripture. According to
him, u the covering of sin in the sacrificial worship is a covering by which
the accusing or condemnatory power of sin — its power to excite the anger
and wrath of God — is broken ; by which, in fact, it is rendered both harm
less and impotent. And, understood in this sense, the sacrificial covering
was not merely an apparent conventional expiation of sin (which would
have been the case if it had been merely removed from the sight of Jehovah),
but a process by which it was actually rendered harmless, which is equiva
lent to cancelling and utterly annihilating." In reality, there is no proper
difference between the several explanations, except that some particular
aspect or bearing of the truth gets greater prominence in one than another.
Tin' basis of the whole plainly lay in the life-blood of the victim taking the
place and bearing the doom (symbolically, of course) of the offerer ; for this
alone, in the presence of a righteous God, could warrant the covering of the
^tiilt, or the person who had committed it, so that it ceased in a manner to
U an object df wraili before the Holy One.

"2. Tin- Inijiiaj on <>f /tniiils, which stood in ;i very cWe relation to the
blood in it s .-.icrilieial import, i.-. another point about which there ha> lie.-n
iiuieli iv.-eiu di.M'ii.-sion. In the course of it, Kurt/, has been led to modify
the \ie\v lie formerly entertained and set forth in his treatise on the I
offerings, tli .iiurh we think his dillieulties and eh. .: m the result

ehietly of thai over-i etineinciit in di.-etissioii, to \\ hieh this .-ei i« > . • { t"ji,.-
has given ri>c. l-'urmerly, inde.-d, he carried the idea understood

.. i he action • : m-e of guilt to an extreme; for in all

THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

the offerings, peace and burnt -offerings, as well as those for sins and tres
passes, he connected it with that idea alone. This was certainly too exclu
sive ; and by the greater part of orthodox writers, the transference of guilt
is supposed to have been exclusively indicated only in the case of the sin
and trespass-offerings, while in the others this would to a certain extent f;ill
into the background, that expression might also be given to the other
feelings proper to the particular offering ; though latterly the tendency has
been to give too little prominence to the sense and imputation of guilt.
So, for example, Delitzsch : "By the imposition of hands, the persons pre
senting the sacrifice dedicated the victim to that particular object which
he hoped to attain by its means. He transferred directly to it the sub
stance of his own inner nature. Was it an expiatory sacrifice ? he laid his
sins upon it that it might bear them, and so relieve him of them." So also
Hengstenberg, who takes it to indicate " the rapport between the person
sacrificing and the sacrifice itself. Anything more precise must necessarily
be learned from the nature of the particular sacrifice." Hofraanu, how
ever, sought to explode this view of the imposition of hands, with all its
subordinate shades of meaning ; and to show that it meant simply " the
appointing of the animal to be slain, for the double aim of obtaining its
blood for the altar, and its flesh for food of fire to Jehovah — and this
equally whether it was destined for supplicating God's favour toward the
sinner, or presenting thanks and prayers in respect to the goods of life."
He asks, in regard to the laying on of hands, when the person doing so was
going to impart a blessing, or accomplish a cure, whether he exchanged
places with the individual benefited, or conveyed over to him what he him
self had ? And if, in such cases, he did not give his own peace, or his own
soundness, why should it be thought that in animal sacrifices the offerer
transferred his own, either guilt or thanksgiving, to the victim ? So also,
in appointing to an office, those who laid their hands on the person desig
nated did not make over to him their own official standing, but simply
destined him to some specific undertaking.

Kurtz has yielded to these considerations so far. He thinks it improb
able that the imposition of hands in the different kinds of sacrifice could
have been intended to effect the transfer of different objects, unless some
indication had been given of the difference. He thinks, and justly thinks,
that there could not be a total difference between the meaning of the action
in sin-offerings and burnt-offerings, or even peace-offerings, because what
followed in respect to the life-blood was so nearly akin in all, vi/.. the
slaughtering and sprinkling with blood. " Take (he says) the burnt-offer
ing, in connection with which, in the very front of the sacrificial law. in
Lev. i. 4, expiation is so evidently, expressly, and emphatically mentioned
as one point, if not as the main point, and placed in the closest relation to
the laying on of hands (' He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-
offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him ').
Is it really the fact, that even here the imposition of hands stood in n<>
relation whatever to the expiation? Certainly, if there wen- nothing
to overthrow such a view, the passage just quoted would suffice, and befrre

KEMAIIKS ON TIIK SUBJECT OF SACRIFICE IlV IJLOOD. 529

this alone it wouM bo compelled inevitably to yield" (ch. Hi.). And the
roves the inadequacy of Hermann's view, that the laying
on of hands was only a matter-of-fact declaration that the animal brought
to (lie altar was destined to the purpose of sacrifice: for the very bringing
of it there declared that ; and to connect the further act of laying on of
hands in so peculiar a manner with the acceptance of the offering and the
forgiveness of the offerer, would have been unaccountable. In all the other
acts, too, of imposition of hands, such as ordination to a particular office,
there is always implied something more than a mere declaration of the end
in view ; there is a formal destination to the purpose, and solemn devolving
on the party concerned all that is necessary to its accomplishment.

Now it is this more general sense which Kurtz is disposed to attribute
to the action of laying on of bauds, which (Elder also, and others, have
come to adopt. CEhler's definition is, " that the offerer, when, through the
presentation of his victim, he had declared his readiness to present it as a
gift to God, now through the laying on of his hands made to pass over upon
the animal the intention with which he brought the gift, and so dedicated
it to the sacrifice, which represented his person in the specific direction in
tended." — (Hertzog, x., p. 627.) Kurtz, also, is disposed to rest in the general
sense of dedication, as what the act involves in all cases, but with a specific
aim according to the nature of the particular service or occasion. In some
cases, there was indicated by the dedication the substitution of one person
for another, as when the Levites were put in the place of the first-born,
and Joshua in the place of Moses (Num. viii. 10 ; Deut. xxxiv. 9) ; but in
others there was no room for this. In sacrificial offerings, however, there
»/•'/>• room, and the special object of the service was to set apart the victim
as the offerer's representative and substitute to the ends for which it was
presented. Thus, in the burnt-offering, Lev. i. 4, it denoted " the dedica
tion of the sacrificial animal as the medium of atonement for the sins of the
person whose hands were kid on its head." Or, as he otherwise puts it,
there was in the act " the transference of an obligation by the person sacri
ficing to the animal to be sacrificed, that it might render or suffer all that
was due from him to God, or, vice rersa, on account of his sin ; and through
this, the blood of the animal, in which is its soul, became the medium of
expiation for the soul of the person sacrificing " (ch. Hi., § 43)i It is only,
therefore, as to the form of the representation that Kurtz has changed his
opinion : instead of a transference of sin, he would make it a transference
of obligation to take the offerer's room, and do or suffer all that he owned
him-elf bound to ; but as the shedding of blood always had respect to sin
and its atonement, the obligation in quotion necessarily earned with it a
prominent reference to the hearing »{ death as the wages of sin. Yet the
learned author thinks he has greatly improved his view by this change, and
has got rid of an otherwise insuperable dillieulty ; since, if the sins adhering
to the sold of the person sacrificing were to be atoned or cnvciv <1 by the
blood of the sacrifice, as is affirmed in Lev. xvii. 1 1, then these sins could not
have been communicated to the blood itself, or the soul that was in the blood :
they innM have adhered to the soul of the sacritieer after the imposition
of hands as well as before, viz., to render it possible for them to bo c ...

Vol.. II. 2 L

530 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

I confess I cannot see the force of this argument, although Kurtz seems
to think it almost self-evident ; and it appears to me, that the difficulties
which have been thrown around the subject are but another exemplification
of the effort so apt to be made by learned men, studying and writing in
their closets, to distinguish where common minds could see no essential
difference, and to make the symbolical action in question speak with more
precision and definiteness than it was properly designed or fitted to do.
First of all, the view has against it the explanation given of the action on
the one occasion, where an explanation was given ; namely, on the great
day of atonement, when the high priest was instructed u to lay his hands
on the head of the goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the chil
dren of Israel, putting them on the head of the goat." This, Kurtz is obliged,
without any reason in the nature of things, to regard as an exceptional case.
One would rather imagine that, being by way of eminence the atonement
day for Israel, it was that which might be expected, in some degree, to throw
light on atonements generally. Then, if the personation of the offerer, as a
sinner, with the destination to bear the penalty due to his sin, was the more
immediate and prominent aim of sacrifice by blood, what could it signify
for the great mass of worshippers, whether one should say his obligation
to suffer was transferred to it, or his sins as to their guilt were so trans
ferred? To them it would make no appreciable difference which form were
adopted. And the argument derived with such apparent satisfaction from
the circumstance of the offerer's sins being covered by the blood of the
offering, consequently still regarded as adhering to him, is precisely such an
argument as might occur to a scholar, criticising and scanning the exact
meaning of the words, but would scarcely be dreamt of by a worshipping
people, who had to do with the complex transaction. Nay, how does it
square with Kurtz's own explanation already given, about the covering of
the offerer's sin ? This was covered, he says, by being rendered harmless,
cancelled, extinguished, so that it had ceased to exist anyhow ; and how,
then, could it still be viewed as adhering to the offerer ? Or how could
the obligation to suffer for it be transferred without the guilt, which in
volved the obligation, being transferred along with it ? Apart from the
guilt, the obligation could have had no meaning — wanted, indeed, the very
ground on which it was based. In short, the matter is to be viewed in its
complexity, perfectly intelligible and impressive if so viewed — adapted, one
might say, even to the capacity of a child ; but if curiously analyzed and
split into parts, instead of becoming more transparent and satisfactory under
our hands, it will inevitably become involved in disorder and confusion.
Let it be enough for us, as it doubtless was for the pious worshipper of
old, that the victim brought to the altar was, by the imposition of hands,
solemnly set apart to take his place, to bear his burden of guilt, and along
with that, by the action taken with particular parts of the sacrifice, to ex
press any other subordinate desires and feelings which may have exiTei.-ed
his soul. These were the grand features that appeared on the very face of
the transaction : no criticism will ever be able to explain them away ; and
any criticism that would serve itself of minute observations and subtle dis
tinctions, can do little to make them appear more consistent or reasonable.

KKMAKKS ON THK SUBJECT OF SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 531

3. The Slaughtering, and the Sprinkling of the Blood. — These two actions,
which immediately followed the imposition of hands, go in a manner to
gether, for they arc properly but different parts of the same transaction ;
but a great deal depends upon the light in which they are contemplated,
and the relation which they are conceived to hold one to another. It was
one of Biihr's great efforts to get rid of the slaying of the victim as a thing
of any moment : he would liave it regarded as simply the medium whereby
the blood was obtained ; and in the blood as symbolizing the giving away
of the sinner's soul, or selfish life, through repentance to God, the sacrifice
really stood. The penal character of the transaction, or the juridical view,
as it is called, of the atonement, was thus sought to be exploded ; the sky
ing merely completed the exhibition of the sinner's self-surrender. Hof-
mann, of course, follows in the same line, though on other grounds ; for
with him the compensatory value of the offering was the grand thing, and
the killing of the animal could certainly no way enhance its value, and so
far hangs as an embarrassment around the theory. But others, of much
sounder views on the general subject, have recently joined hands with these
writers in disparaging the slaughter of the animal, and making account only
of the sprinkling of its blood. Delitzsch holds " the schehitah, or killing, to
have served only as the means of obtaining the blood of atonement, and of
making the beast an altar-gift ; and the giving up of the gift in fire is only
the means of the giving away to God, and being taken away by Him." —
(Ou Hebr., p. 742.) He finds a proof of this in the circumstance, that the
killing is never called a putting to death (JVDn), but always a slaughtering
(OH:?)- In this, however, there is nothing ; for the latter verb is frequently
used for killing, when the idea of punishment was involved (Num. xiv. 16 ;
Judg. xii. G ; 1 Kings xviii. 40, etc.), which is quite in point here, and is,
indeed, the appropriate word for any sudden or violent infliction of death.
In the general view, however, and even in this argument for it, CKhler con
curs with Delitzsch : "In the Mosaic ritual the slaying of the victim has
evidently no other significance than a transition -process; it merely serves
as the means fur obtaining the blood." And, in support of the view, he
urges the consideration, which was much pressed by Biihr — that the slaying
was no priestly act, but usually done by the offerer himself. Keil slightly
differs, yet substantially concurs ; for while he admits that the slaying of
tlu- animal was " a symbol of the surrender of life to death," he at the same
time maintains (hat tin- death was not to be viewed as the punishment of
MIL And hi.- special iv.-tson is. that "although (he death (symbolizing the
death df (ho >aerilicer) \vas a fruit and effect of sin, yet it did not come
under the aspect of punishment; because saeri lice was an institution of
Divine grace, intended to MVIUV to the sinner not the merited jiuni.-hmeiK.
but, on the contrary, (lie forgiveness of sins; \\heivas the death which
follows sin is, and remains, as a rule, a punishment only for that sinner for
whom there is no redemption." The death, therefore, lie thinks, should be
i.'d as " the medium of transition from a state of separation from God
into one of grace and living fellowship with Him, or as the only way into
the divine life out of the ungodly life of this world." — (Arcliseol., i., p. 206.)

Now, in all this attempt to shade nicely off and distingui.-h between

532 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

something, which the slaughtering might very readily be taken to be, and
some other thing which it is held to have actually been, we have but a fresh
exhibition of the tendency to give way to learned and unimportant minutia-,
which is out of place for the occasion, and which, for the sake of a small
distinction, is apt to endanger great principles. Appealing, as the rite did,
to popular sense and apprehension, the slaying of the sinner's offering,
solemnly destined to death, that its soul might be accepted in lieu of the
sinner's, could not but wear the aspect of a doom or judgment : it was a
death not incidentally alone, but formally associated with sin as its imme
diate cause ; and whatever grace it might instrumentally be the channel of
conveying to the offerer, it manifestly fell with all the severity of a curse on
the victim. People were not in a condition, at the sight of such a spectacle,
to make nice discriminations : here, on the one hand, Avas the sin crying for
condemnation, and there, on the other, was the slain victim that the cry
might be silenced. Could people look at this, or take part in it, and feel
that there was nothing of punishment ? We may judge of the unlikelihood,
when we find authors with fine-spun theories to support, which would lead
them to exclude the idea of punishment, insensibly gliding into a mode of
speech regarding it which ill accords with the demands of their system.
Thus Keil, when he conies to speak of the sin-offering, says, that u by being
slain the animal is given to death, and suffers for the sinner — i.e., as a sub
stitute for the offerer — the death which is the wages of sin." And on the
trespass-offering, " The ram," says he, " stood for the person of the guilty
man, and by being slain, suffered death in his stead as the punishment for
his guilt." Such language stands in irreconcilable opposition to the author's
theory. And the theory itself, as Kurtz has justly remarked (ch. 4, § 53),
is at variance with the relative position of things in the ordinance ; if the
expiation was simply in the sprinkling of the blood, while the death of the
victim imaged the transition of the offerer, as a redeemed person, into the
eternal and blessed life of God, the expiation should obviously have gone
first, for then only was the offerer redeemed. Death before that would
rather be the image of life expiring under a load of unpardoned guilt. And
if the idea is admitted, as it is by Keil and the others who here go along with
him, that the animal was the offerer's substitute and representative, and as
such had to make expiation for him, it must have been practically impossible
to dissociate the thought of a penal suffering from the infliction of death.

Many of the individual objections pressed on the subjrrt un> of so wc;:k
and frivolous a nature, that it is needless to refer to thorn particularly.1
One of the most plausible — that raised on the ground of the slaying being
effected by the offerer himself, and not by the priest — was long ago satis
factorily met by Kurt/, in reply to Hahr (.1 fogai.* -lie Opfcr, p. 65) : " The
relation of punishment to sin is a necessary one ; the punishment is the con
tinuation — no longer depending on the sinner's choice — of the sin, its filling
up or complement. Sin is a violation of the righteous government of the
world, an impression against the law : the punishment is the law's counter-
impression, striking the sinner and paralyzing his sin. But all punishment

1 They may be seen fully dNrusst-d in Kurtz's work on the Sacred Offerings, already
referred to, now made accessible to the English reader.

KEMAIIKS UN THE SUBJECT OF SACRIFICE BY BLOOD. 533

runs out into death, which is the wages of sin. 'Sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death.' Sin, therefore, is a h;ilf, incomplete thing, calling
fur its proper completion in death, which a;_r:iin is not something foreign
and arbitrary, but essentially belonging to sin ; so that the sinner himself
may justly be regarded as self-punished. No doubt, the execution of the
punishment might also be properly ascribed to God as the righteous Governor
of the world ; but there is a special propriety in allowing the sinner himself,
in the rite of sacrifice, to perform the symbolical act of punishment : for
there God appears as the merciful Being, who wills not the death of the
sinner, but his atonement, his deliverance and salvation— of course in the
way of righteousness ; the sinner, again, as one who has drawn upon him
self, through his sin, condemnation and death, and conscious of this being the
case. Here, then, especially was it peculiarly proper and significant that
he should accuse himself, should pronounce his own judgment, should bring
it down symbolically upon himself. Whoever can explain how the criminal
who has deserved death should ever desire this, and so put himself out of the
reach of the grace of his monarch, can find no difficulty in explaining how
the symbolical act of punishment in sacrifice should have been left to the
execution of the sinner himself."

It was otherwise, however, with the sprinkling of the blood, which com
pleted the work of atonement ; for this respected the acceptance of the sub
stituted life for that of the offerer, and could only be done by God's accredited
representatives — the consecrated priesthood. The mere bringing of the victim
to the altar, laying on it the guilt which burdened the sinner's conscience,
with other collateral acknowledgments, and taking from it its life-blood in
token of what the offerer felt himself bound to render, however neceMMJr
and important, were still not sufficient to restore peace to his conscience.
There must be the formal approval of Heaven, or the palpable acceptance of
the (me soul as a covering for the guilt of the other. And this was done by
the pouring out or sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the altar— not as
that which, according to Hofmann, had once had the life of the animal (for
apart from this it was only so many particles of blood, meaningless and worth
less), but which, as flowing fresh and warm, still in a sense had it — the very
life of the animal in its immediate seat and proper representation. This
blood so present i'il, La\e assurance to the offerer both of a satisfaction ren
dered fur him by death, and of a pure life granted to him in the presence of
God.

It is proper to add, in regard to some of those whose views on particular
points have, in tin- preceding pages, been controverted — especially Klitzsch,
<Khler, Kcil— that they, not less than Kurt/., hold the strictly vicarious
character of Old Testament sacrifice, and also the orthodox ductrine uf atone
ment in relation to Clirist's work on the cross, in which the other rose to
its proper consummatiuii. It is only on certain part> uf the symbolic ritual
that they have adopted what we conceive to be mistaken and untenable
views. 1 >elit/sch, in particular, has done good service by maintaining, in his
work on the Epistle to the Hebrews, the more essential features of the Church
doctrine. Even comparatively slight departures, however, from the sim
plicity of scriptural statement on such a matter, are fraught with danger, and

5.34 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

call for earnest resistance. And it seems somewhat strange and illogical,
that he and the others just mentioned, who concur in holding the strictly
vicarious and penal character of Christ's death, should yet appear so anxious
to eliminate the idea of punishment from the sacrificial institution of the
law — as if (and so they often put it) because, being an institution of grace,
it were incongruous to represent justice punishing where grace was forgiving.
For, with Kurtz, we naturally reply, Could grace do under the Old Testa
ment what it cannot do under the New — forgive without the satisfaction of
justice ? If on Calvary there was a real demonstration of Divine justice
against sin, why should there not have been a symbolical one at the altar of
burnt-offering ? In both cases alike there was grace exhibited as reigning,
but reigning, as the Apostle says, through righteousness, — pardon, indeed,
freely extended to the guilty, but simply on the ground — indispensably de
manded by Divine righteousness — of a vicarious or penal death having been
borne by the sacrifice. Leave out this, and no satisfactory explanation can
be given, why the soul of the sacrifice, in itself guiltless, should cover or
wipe out the guilt of the sinner.

APPENDIX D.

ON THE TERM AZAZEL.— P. 388.

THE term Azazel, which is four times used in connection with the cere
mony of the day of atonement, and nowhere else, is still a matter of con
troversy, and its exact and determinate import is not to be pronounced on
with certainty. It is not precisely applied to the live-goat as a designation ;
but this goat is said to be " for Azazel " (^TXTJ?!')-

1. Yet one of the earliest opinions prevalent upon the subject regards it
as the name of the goat himself ; Symmachus rpotyog dTrfpxoftfiio;, Aquila
rp. afl-oXtXt/^ffof, Vulg. hircus emissarius; so also Theodoret, Cyrill, Luther,
Heine, Vater, and the English translators, scape-goat. When taken in this
sense, it is understood to be compounded of az (fy), a goat, and azal (^ftf),
to send away. The chief objections to it are, that az never occurs as a name
for a buck or he-goat (in the plural it is used as a general designation for
goats, but in the singular occurs elsewhere only as the name for a she-goat),
and that in Lev. xvi. 10 and 2G, Azazel is expressly distinguished from the
goat, the one being said to !><>./!»• the other. For these reasons, this view
is now almost entirely abandoned. 2. It is the name of a place, either a
precipitous mountain, in the wilderness to which the goat was led, and from
which he was thrown headlong, or a lonely region where he was left ; so
Pseudo-Jonathan, Abenezra, Jarchi, Bochart, Deyling, Reland, Carpzov,
etc. The chief objection to this view is, that it does not seem to accord
with what is said in ver. 10 : " to let him go for Azazel into the wilderness,"
which would then mean, for a desert place into a desert place. 3. It is the
name of Satan, or an evil spirit: So the LXX. «7ro7r<y«cr«/o; (which does

ON THE TERM AZAXI.I. 535

not moan " the sont away." the scape-goat, as most of the older interpretan
took it, and as we are still rather surprised to see it rendered by Sir J.
Bivnton in his recent translation of the LXX., but "the turner away,"
"the averter." See Gesen. Thes., Kurtz, Mos. Opfer, p. 270.) So pro
bably Josephus, Antiq., iii. 10, 3, and many of the Rabbins. In the
strongest and most offensive sense this opinion was espoused by Spencer,
Ammon, Rosenmuller, Gesenius, who all concur in holding, that by Azazel
is to be understood what was called by the Romans averruncns, a sort of
cacodtemon, inhabiting the desert, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, so that
the evils he had power to inflict might be averted. The opinion was first
modified by Witsius (who is also substantially followed by Meyer, Turretin,
Alting, etc.) to indicate Christ's relation to the devil, to whom He was
given up to be tried and vexed, but whom He overcame. And in recent
times it has been still further modified by Hengstenberg, who says in his
Christology on Gen. iii., " The sending forth of the goat was only a sym
bolical transaction. By this act the kingdom of darkness and its prince
wen renounced, and the sins to which he had tempted, and through which
he had sought to make the people at large or individuals among them his
own, were in a manner sent back to him ; and the truth was expressed in
symbol, that he to whom God grants forgiveness, is freed from the power of
evil." The opinion has been still further explained and vindicated by the
learned author in his Eg. and Books of Moses, where he supposes the action
to carry a reference to the practice so prevalent in Egypt, of propitiating,
in times especially of famine or trouble, the evil god Typhon, who was re
garded as peculiarly delighting in the desert. This reference he holds, how
ever, not in the gross sense of the goat being a sacrifice to the evil spirit ;
for both goats he considers to have been the Lord's, and this latter only to
have been given up by the Lord to the evil spirit, after the forgiven sins
were laid on it, as indicating that that spirit had in such a case no power to
injure or destroy. Comp. Zech. iii. 1-5. Ewald, Keil, Vaihinger (in
IK it/.og's Encycl.), concur substantially in the same view. 4. Many of the
pcatort •cholars on the Continent — Tholuck first, then Steudel, Winer,
Bahr — take the word as the Pealpal-fonn of azal (^TN)i to remove, with the
omission of the last letter, and the putting in its place of an unchangeable
vowel ; so that the meaning comes to be, for a complete removing or dis
missal. Kurt/ hesitates between this view and that of Hengstenberg, but
in the result rather inclines to the latter. Certainly the contrast presented
respecting the destinations of the two goats, is best preserved by Hengsten-
berg's. But still, to bring Satan into such prominence in a religious rite, —
to place him in a sort of juxtaposition with Jehovah, in any form, — has an
offensive appearance, and derives no countenance from any other part of the
Mosaic religion. And however, on a thoughtful consideration, it might hav
been found to oppose a tendency to dem<m-\vor.>hip, with tin- less thinking
multitude, we suspect it would be found to operate in a contrary direction.
Besides, if it may be objected, as it has been, to Tholuck's view, that it
takes a very rare and peculiar way of opming :i quite common idea, so
unquestionably to designate, according to the other view, the evil spirit.
about whom, if really intended, there should have been no room for mistake.

536 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.

by a name never again occurring, appropriated solely for this occasion, is
yet more strange and unaccountable.

This very circumstance of a word having been coined for the occasion,
and entirely appropriated to it, suggests what seems to me the right view.
That appears to have been done on two accounts : partly, that no one might
suppose a known and real personage to be meant ; and partly, that the
idea, which the occasion was intended to render peculiarly prominent,
might thus be presented in the most palpable form — might become for the
time a sort of personified existence. The idea of utter separation or re
moval is what Hengstenberg, as well as the other eminent scholars who
hold the last opinion specified, regard as the radical meaning of the term ;
and by its form being properly a substantive, he conceives that it denotes
Satan as the apostate, or separate one. But there is nothing in the whole
transaction to lead us to suppose that such an adversary is brought forward ;
and when the goat is sent away, it is simply said to be " that he might bear
the iniquities of Israel into a land of separation : " the conductor of the
goat has fulfilled his commission when he has "let go the goat into the
wilderness," ver. 22. To have the iniquities conveyed by a symbolical action
into that desert and separate region, into a state of oblivion, was manifestly
the whole intention and design of the rite. And why might not this con
dition of utter separateness or oblivion, to render the truth symbolized more
distinct and tangible, be represented as a kind of existence, to whom God
sent and consigned over the forgiven iniquities of His people ? Till these
iniquities were atoned for, they were in God's presence, seen and manifest
before Him ; but now, having been atoned, He dismisses them by a sym
bolical bearer to the realms of the ideal prince of separation and oblivion,
that they may never more appear among the living. — (Micah vii. 19.)
From the great peculiarity of the service, it is impossible to support this
view by anything exactly parallel; but there is certainly something not
very unlike, in the personification which so often meets us of Sheol or
Hades, as the great devourer and concealer of men. — Comp. especially Ps.
xvi. 10, xlix. 14 ; Isa. xiv., xxv. 8, etc. Still, the difference is only in
the mode of explanation, the results arrived at are substantially the same ;
and it may be well to add that the following are the ideas which Vaihinger
(in Hertzog) finds in the transaction : — " (1) That the sins must not belong
to the congregation of the Lord, which is appointed to holiness, nor bo
suffered to abide with it ; (2) that the horrible wilderness, the abode of im
pure spirits, is alone the place to which they, as originally foreign to human
nature and society, properly belong ; (3) that Azarel, the abominable, the
sinner from the beginning (John viii. 44), is the one from whom they have
proceeded, to whom they must again with abhorrence be sent back, after the
solemn atonement and absolution of the congregation had been accomplished ;
(4) that the person who would not accept of the atonement effected, w;u-
not set free from them, consequently could be no true member of the con
gregation, but belonged with his sins to Azazel, and should be cut off from
the congregation of the Lord." Hence, as the author concludes, there is
nothing also, on this view, of a sacrifice to the wicked one supposed to be
designated by Azazel.

INDEX OF CONTENTS.

AAUON'S rod iu the Most Holy Place, ii.

378.
Abel, uot a type of Christ as a Shepherd,

i. 94.
, how his faith ami sacrifice differed

from Cain's, i. 295.

— . filings of Eve at his birth, i. 315.
'. iiraham, the connection between his call

and the blessing oil Shem, i. 344.
, his faith as connected with the

call, i. 352, ««?.
, the supernatural nature of the

things promised in it, i. 352.
, the trial of his faith in obeying

it, i. 353.

his relation to Melchisedek, i.

, how his faith was counted for

righteousness, i. 358.
, the covenant made with him in

its first stage, i. 359, sq.
,the covenant in its second stage,

i. 362, sq.

, his offering up of Isaac, i. 373.

, how the heir of the world, i.

347.

Adam, whether as created typical, i. 12.j.
Adultery, why punished with death, ii.

39«.
Alexander, Dr, his typological views, i.

45.

Allegory, its relations to type, i. 18.
Altar of burnt-offering, U. 897.

, the fire on it, ii. 301.

In ( ;<>d's methods of preparatory

instruction, i. 206.

of faith and practice, i. 209.

Animals for sacrifice, why to be taken

from the herd and Ibe flook, ii. J507.
Anointing with oil, of what bynd>olieai.

ii. 243, sq.

Antichrist may have his types, i. 17!>.
Antinniiiianisiii, its opposition

ture, ii. 11)5.
Ark of the covenant in comparison with

heathen .shrine-, ii. :i7 I. :i7'.'.
Atonement, dav of, and its .-.

:;>.,.
A /.a/el, meaning of the term, ii. 68 1-

I'.AIII i., Towi.KoF, for what purpose pro
bably eraetod, i. :;::i.

Babylon, deliverance from, its relation to

.lie prophecy in Isaiah, i. llJu.
Habylouish exile and its results, ii. od.

Bacon's remark on the nature of prophecy,

i. 168.
Bahr's view of the cherubim, i. 283.

- of the origin of sacrifice, i. 292.
-- of the independent origin of

the Mosaic institutions, ii. 213.
-- of the difference between the

spirit of the Mosaic and Heathen in

stitutions, ii. 227.
-- of the colours and materials

of the tabernacle, ii. 237, sq.
-- of the general design of the

tabernacle, ii. 252.
-- of the nature of atonement, ii.

531.

Baptism, its relation to the deluge, i. 324.
Beza, his views on the Sabbath, ii. 514.
Bitter herbs, why eaten with the passover,

ii. 438.
Borrowing of Jewels from Egypt, proper

meaning of, ii. 54.
Brazen serpent, how typical, i. 91.

- , false explanations of, i. 188.
Bricks, making of, in Egypt of great an

tiquity, ii. 11.
Buddeus, his views on typical interpreta

tion, i. 33.
Burnt-offering, its nature and design, ii.'

344, sq.

CAIN, feelings of Eve at his birth, i. 314.

Caiuites as a party, i. 317.

Calvin, his views on the Sabbath, ii. 127,

513.
Canaan, why especially cursed iu Noah's

prophecy, i. 341.

- , inheritance of, how promised, i.
343, sq.

- , boundaries of, i. ."17.

- , conquest of, explained and vindi-

1, ii. 4(il, sq.

Candlestick in the Sanctuary, its struc
ture, ii. ac*.

- lighted only at night, ii. 3G9.
(.'filar-wood, why probably u.-ed in some

purifications, ii. 4(>:».
Ceremonial institutions had also a moral

element, ii. 177, :!l'7.
Cherubim, their appearance and import,

on the mercy-seat, ii. 370.
Childbirth, defilements and pu.

connected with, ii. 415.
Christianity, its present condition and

future pro.-pi-et-. i. •„'.

538

INDEX OF CONTENTS.

Circumcision, its nature and meaning, i.
363, sq.

, its relation to baptism, i. 368.

, why suspended in the wil
derness, ii. 84, sq.

Clean and unclean in food, ii. 308, 423.

Clement of Alexandria, his allegorical in
terpretations, i. 22.

Clothing of Adam and Eve with skins,
why done, i. 296, sq.

Cloud of glory, why connected with the
ark of the Covenant, ii. 381.

Cocceian school of typologists, i. 27, sq.

Combination of type with prophecy, i.
136, sq.

Connection between the Old and the New,
organic as well as typical, i. 215.

Cornelius, his prayers and alms-deeds de
scribed as a meat-offering, ii. 367.

Corporeal issues, defilements and purifi
cations connected with, ii. 388.

Covenant, ratification of, at Horeb, ii. 393.

Creation, its relation to the Incarnation.
i. 115, sg.

C'roly, his view of the origin of sacrifice,

DARKNESS and light, of what symbolical,

ii. 371.
David emphatically the Lord's servant, i.

146.

- , his singular and elevated charac
ter, ii. 492.

Davison's view of the double sense of
prophecy, i. 167.

- of the origin of sacrifice,
i. 291.

- , his objections to the divine
origin of sacrifice, i. 489.

Decalogue, its perfection and complete

ness, ii. 90, sq.
-- , ite arrangement and division,

ii. 100.
-- has respect to the heart as well

as the outward conduct, ii. 107, sq.
Delitzsch's view of the cherubim, i. 27

285.

270,

views on circumcision, i. 370.
Deluge, what typical of, i. 324, sq.
Dorner on the Incarnation, i. 119.
Double sense of prophecy examined, i.

165, sq.
De Wettes remarks on Old Testament

typology, i. 54.
Drawing near to God often given as a de

scription of the priest's work, ii. 267.

EAGLE, its symbolical import in the cheru

bim, i. 263.
Egypt, the bondage of the Israelites there,

ii. 8.

- , worship practised there, ii. 13.
-- , plagues of, their nature and de

sign, ii. 44, sq.
- , the period of the children of Israel's

sojourn in, i. 360.

Election, mistakes regarding the doctrine

of, corrected, i. 199.
, principle of, in connection with

the first promise, i. 314.
Enoch, his faith, and the fruits of it, i. 319.
Esau and Jacob, i. 177.
Evangelists all begin their gospels with

reference to Christ's divine nature, i.

445.

FALL, doctrine of, i. 240.

Fat, why offered with the blood, ii. 335.

Fathers, their views respecting man's
original state, i. 116.

, their opinion respecting the Mo
saic ordinances, ii. 204.

Feasts, stated, their proper meaning and
design, ii. 429, sq.

First-born of Egypt, why alone slain, iL
50.

, Israel, why specially re
deemed, ii. 52.

, church of, ii. 53.

not distinctively priests, ii. 256.

Fulness of typical matter in Scripture as

connected with the fulness of time, i.

108, sq.
Future state, doctrine of, in Old and New

Testaments respectively, i. 210, sq.
--- , general belief of, among

the heathen, i. 469, sq.

- , unsatisfactory nature of
metaphysical arguments for, i. 475.

- , argument for, from an
alogy, i. 476.

argument for, from con

science, i. 478.

, argument for, from a pre
sent moral government of the world,
i. 479.

the doctrine of, not ad

vanced in Scripture as a formal dif
ference between the Old and the New
Dispensations, i. 485.
Friederich's view of the tabernacle, ii.
252.

GARDEN of Eden the region of holy life,

i. 268.

Glass' typological views, i. 28.
Goats, why two on the day of atonement,

ii. 385.

Goshen, land of, locality and fertility, ii. .
Gospel realities not necessarily perceived

by ancient worshippers, i. 82, sq.
Grace, its exhibition after the fall, i.

242.

llAr.rrs of activity and skill, their re-
lation to a future life, ii. 20, sq.

Hannah's song. i. 147, sq.

Headship, principle of, in conneeti'm with
the first and second Adam, i. 244, sq.

Heaving, its import in sacrifice, ii. 351.

Hebrews, the singular use made of the
Psalms in the Epistle to, i. 461.

INDEX OF CONTENTS.

539

Henu'stenborg's view of the cherubim, i.

270.

Herder's view of the cherubim, i. 280.
Historical types, their nature and reality,

Historical notices of ancient Scripture,
their necessity and importance, i.
216, sq.

Hofmann's typological views, i. 59.

Holy place in the sanctuary, mistaken
views of, ii. 358.

Honey, why prohibited in sacrifices, ii. 356.

Human guilt and corruption, doctrine of,
in connection with the fall, i. 240.

Hutchinsonians' interpretations, i. 37.

views of the cherubim, i.

282.

Hyssop, why probably used in some puri
fications, ii. 409.

JACOB, and Patriarchs, i. 379, sq.
Jacob's conduct in getting the blessing

not typical, i. 177.
Japheth, the blessing on him by Noah, i.

343.
Jealousy of God, its proper nature, ii. 118,

sq.

, trial and offering of, ii. 397, sq.

Jebb's view of Hannah's song, i. 150.
Jehovah, import of the name, ii. 31.
Jems, his recall from Egypt in relation to

that of Israel, i. 203, sq.
Jews, perhaps, to be converted gradually,

i. 460.
Immortal life, difference between Old and

New Testament revelation of, i. 210.
, the hope of, an element in

the first religion, i. 253.
Imposition of hands in sacrifice, import of,

ii. 309, 527.
Incense, symbolical meaning of, ii. 359.

, altar of, ii. 358.

Inheritance destined for the redeemed,

what, i. 402, sq.
Joseph, how far his history a type of

Christ's, i. 381.
Israel's proper calling and destination, i.

4;$7.

Israelites, their civil condition when in

Kirypt. ii. 19.
, their typical position in Canaan

of what predictive, i. 493.
.Iul.il.. , year of, ii. 459.

KiNdi.r government in Israel, its institu
tion and influence on Messianic pro
phecy, i. 150, ii. 499.

Klausru's Hermeneutik, i. 57.

Kurtz's typological views, i. 61.

I, AMI en's speech to his wives, i. L'77.

Lange on the Incarnation, i. 118.

Laver of tabernacle, its construction and

use, ii. I':*!.
Law, prepared for, as well ae the Gospel,

i. 281, sq.

Law, not the form of God's earlier revela
tions, i. 231.

, what strictly and properly called

such, ii. 89, sq.

, what it could not do, ii. 153, sq.

, misapprehensions regarding its de
sign, ii. 160, sq.

, the purposes for which it was given,

ii. 166, sq.

, connection between its moral pre
cepts and ceremonial institutions,
ii. 176.

, relation of Christians to, ii. 170, sq.

, not properly abrogated, ii. 186, sq.

Leaven, its symbolical meaning, ii. 441.

, why not allowed to be present in
meat-offerings, ii. 356.

Leprosy and its purification, ii. 409, sq.

Levites, their relation to priests, ii. 270.

Lion, its symbolical import in the cheru
bim, i. 2C3.

Litton's view of circumcision, i. 370.

Living ones, cherubim, why so called, i.
265.

their connection with the

seven-sealed book, i. 276.
Lord's Ecclesiastical and Literary Journal,

examination of its views on the types,

i. 45, sq.
Luther, his view of primitive Sabbath, ii.

127, 514.

MACDONALD on creation as typical, i. 125.
Maimonides, his view of the tabernacle,

ii. 253.
Manna, natural and supernatural, ii. 65,

sq.
, pot of, in the Most Holy Place, ii.

378.

Marriage relation, whether typical, i. 303.
Marsh, Bishop, his school of typology, i.

37, sq.

, on double sense of pro
phecy, i. 165.
Meat-offering, its nature and design, ii.

354, sq.
, why not mingled with

leaven or honey, ii. 356.
Melchisedek, who he was, and how greater
> than Abraham, i. 313.
Mercy-seat, object and meaning of, ii.

375.

Messianic Psalms, i. 440, sq.
Michaelis' view of the cherubim, i. 280.
Miller, Hugh, on typii-al forms, i. I'i.'i.
Moses, the wonderful circumstm

nected with his preparation, ii. •_'!, .«/.

, the coloured ll"tir,-.s (.f ,1. ..-ejihlls iv-

garding him, ii. '-•!.

. his Egyptian learning, what influ
ence it had on his legislation, ii. L'O.'i,

Mttller's view of the origin of symbol and

sacrifice, ii. 1'J >.
Murder, purification from an uncertain, ii.

402, sq.

540

INDEX OF CONTENTS.

NATHAN'S prophecy to David, i. 158.

Nazarite, ordinance of, and his offerings,
ii. 418.

Noah and the delude, i. 322, sq.

, in what sense an heir of righteous
ness, i. 332.

OFFERINGS, why sacrifices so called, ii.

320.

Old Testament worshippers, their know
ledge of types and prophecies not to

regulate ours, i. 183.
Old Testament Scripture, its life-like

freshness, i. 219.

, its elevated

moral tone, ii. 48!).
Old world, inhabitants of, probably not

very numerous or scattered, i. 331.
Origen's allegorical interpretations, i. 20.
Ox, its symbolical import in the cherubim,

i. 263.

PASSOVER, feast of, ii. 437.

Patristic writers, their views on the types,

i. 18, sq.
Peace-offerings, their nature and design,

ii. 347, sq.

Pentecost, or feast of weeks, ii. 443.
Pharaoh, the hardening of his heart, ii.

40, sq.

, his destruction typical of anti
christ's, ii. 57.

Philo's view of the tabernacle, ii. 250.
Pillar of fire and cloud, its nature and

symbolical import, ii. 79, sq.
Plato s Phicdo, reasons assigned there for

the soul's immortality, i. 473.
Prayer, how symbolized by incense, ii.

322.
Priesthood, first mention of, in Bible, not

among the chosen people, ii. 255.
among Egyptians, Greeks, and

Romans, ii. 257.
, Levitical, representatives of

the people, ii. 260.

leading characteristics and

privileges of,

1'riests and Levites, their duty to teach
Israel, ii. 268.

personal qualifications and gar
ments, ii. 273.

rites of consecration for, ii. 27C.

typical relation of Levitical priest
hood to Christ, ii. 280, sq.

, all Christians such, ii. 286.

Prophecy, its combination with type, i.

, its tendency to make use of the

past, i. 142, sq.
Prophetic.-il types, i. 137, tq.
Psalms, book of, its singular character, i.

101, ii. 488.

IiAiM-.ow, its symbolical meaning, i. .'!.';.").
Ratification of covenant, rites connected
with, ii. 393.

Reconciliation with man essential to re
conciliation with God, ii. 344.
Red heifer, ordinance of, ii. 404.
Reformers, their style of interpretation.

i. 25.
, their opinion on the Sabbath.

ii. 135, 475.
Piesurrection contrary to views of heathen

philosophy, i. 396.

— expected by Patriarchs and

Old Testament believers, i. 398, sq.
expected also by modern

Jews, i. 401.
Righteousness of God, in connection with

the fall, i. 241.
Ritual types, their nature explained, i. 69,

tq.
, in what sense shadows of

Gospel things, i. 79.
, iu what sense rudiments, i.

80.

Rock in the desert, ii. 72.
Romanism, its false views and abuse of

the types, i. 198.

SABBATH, original appointment of, i. 306,
sq.

, its place in Decalogue vindi
cated, ii. 124, sq.

, why one of the Moadeem, ii.

433.

, false views of the Rabbinical

Jews upon, ii. 521.

Sabbatical year, ii. 456.

Sacrifice by blood, the fundamental idea
of, ii. 302, 525.

, how far understood in its typi
cal bearing by ancient worshippers,
ii. 305.

worship by, its early institution

and acceptance, i. 287, sq.

, on divine origin of, i. 487.

, different kinds of, ii. 317, .«/.

Salvation with destruction, i. 322, sq.

Salt, its symbolical use, ii. 356.

Seed, meaning of the word in Scripture.
i. 455, sq.

of promise, its character and subjects.

i. 314, 455, sq.

Seraphim in Isaiah, what, i. 'J66.
: clianinTs in Egypt, ii. 41.

Seth, reason of hit; name, i. 316.

Shuin, his peculiar blrssinir, i. 343.

i I, its spiritual import, ii. ."•'•-.

Sin, how sense of, mingled even with
thank-offerings, ii.

Sinful actions cannot typify acts of God,
i. 175.

Single sense of prophecy of Rationalist*-.
i. 170, sq.

Sin-offerings, peculiar nature of, ii. 323.

, what meant by their lieing

presented for sins done through ig
norance, ii. 324.

why not allowed for pre
sumptuous .--ins, i;.

INDKX OF CONTKXTS.

541

'.•iv,l for moral as w, 11
1 1 ;ind political transgres-

rioiw, IL«7.
, what marked by diversity

<>f victims and actions with blood, ii.

333.
, why the flesh of some to

be eaten by the priests, ii. 336.
, and of others to bo burnt

without tho camp, ii. 337.
, why not accompanied with

frankincense, oil, or meat-offering,

ii. 889.

Smith's view of tho cherubim, i. 279.
Socinian objection, from the character of

<.'hri»t's public instruction, exposed,

i. 208.

Spencer's view of the cherubim, i. 281.
, his view of Mosaic institution,

ii. .'<>.->.

view of tabernacle, ii. 253.

Sprinkling of the blood in sacrifice, its
import, ii. 313.

of the blood of Jesus, its mean
ing, when applied to sanctification, i.
2-20, >q.

Stuart, Moses, erroneous views regarding
the institutions of Moses, ii. 435.

Symbolical institutions peculiarly suited
to people of the East, i. 233.

TABERNACI,K, its names, ii. 228, sq.

, its object, ii. 231.

, its materials, ii. 288.

, its structure, ii. 238.

, its design, ii. 241.

, its typical import, ii. 247.

, erroneous views respecting,

ii. 250.

, why anointed with oil, ii.

245.

, division into two apart
ments, ii. 288.

, court of, ii. 294, tq.

, Holy I'lace. ii. 358.

, Most Holy Place, with its

furniture, ii. 374, sq.

,why atonement made yearly

for defilements of it, ii. 382.

Tal.cnia.-l. .> feast of, ii. -118.

Table of She\vl'ivad, its structure and

meaning, ii. .'»<;•_', tq.
Ten, symbolical import of, ii. 90.
Theocracy, view ,,f the nature, working,

and <iev..-lopment of. ii. 17'-'. .«'/.
, its treatment of sin as crime,

ii. •[><>.

, why it exhibited only tem-

1 sanctions, ii.
, tho imperfections attaching

to it. ii. -I'.U, sq.
Thuluck's view of tho origin of sacrifice,

Thucvdides. his account of the effect of
tho plague at Athens, in a moral re-
ipeot, i. 17". 181

Tree of life, its original use and symboli
cal meaning, i. 250, sq.

Trench on the Incarnation, i. 120.

Trespass-offering, how distinguished froiii
the sin-offering, ii. 340.

Tnimpets, their symbolical use, ii. 447.

, feast of. ii. 446.

Types, meaning of the term, i. 64.

, often not used precisely in Scrip
ture, i. 65.

, their proper nature and design, i.

67, gq.

, relation of, to prophecy, i. 72.

, in proper sense not entirely like

prefigurativo actions of prophets, i.

, did not always necessarily subsist

till the coming of tho Antitype, i. 9fi,

Sq.

, specific principles and directions

for, i. 174, sq.
, import of, not always perceived

by tho Old Testament worshippers,

i. 183.
Typical forms in nature, i. 104.

UNI-ARDONABLK sins in Old and New
dispensations, ii. 324.

VIRET on fourth commandment, ii. 519.
Vitringa's view of the cherubim, i. 280.
of ancient priesthood, ii. 257.

WAKBURTON'S view of double sense of
prophecy, i. 165, sq.

interpretation of Psalm xvi.

10, i. 1C9.

view of sacrifice, i. 290.
of Mosaic institutions, ii.

Washing of hands, its symbolical import,
ii. 296.

Waving in sacrifice, its import, ii. 351.
least of, Pentecost, ii. 443.

Whately. Archbishop, his view of elec
tion, i. 200.

, his assertions regarding the dis
belief of a future state, i. 470.

Wilderness, what corresponds to it in
Christian experience, jj. t;i.

Wit>iu>. hi* Kiryptiaca. and vie\v of Mo
saic institnt'ions. ii. '.'"I.

Worsley's allegorical scheme, i. •_>!. -JO.

World, the new, after deluge, and it.-
heirs, i. 330. gq.

Writing, its early use in Kgypt, and itsin-
lliieiice on .NK i, ii. :>1<J.

Ziox. what pueh regarded now by St
Paul, i. 40f, 459.

INDEX OF TEXTS,

a i

Exc
Lev

N ,,
JOB!
18i
2 Si

PH

i ,

OLD TESTAMENT.

VOL. PAGE.

ii 15 I . 272

Ezekiel
Hosea

Zechan
Malach

Matthe

Mark i

* i:

Lukei.
' x

John ii
ii
v

x

Romani
1 Cor. i

' 23,24,. ... II. . 128
iv. 1, I. . 314
'7, I. . 491
' 23 24, ... I. . 317

v. 1-3, .... I. . 316
ix. 25-27, .... I. . 338, sq.

dus iii. 14, 15, . . II. . 31
vi. 3-8, ... II. . 31
xii. 35, ... II. . 54
xii 46 .1. 140

xx. 24, ... II. . 298
xxxviii. 8, . . II. . 294

. iv. 2 II. . 324
v. 6, II. . 325
'14, II. . 325

vi 25 30 . . II. . 337

x. 17, II. . 335
xvii. 11, .... II. . 302

n. xvi. 5, .... II. . 264
lua v. 2-9, .... II. . 84, sq.
im. ii. 1-10, ... I. . 147

im. vii. 4-16, ... I. . 158
xv. 32, ... II. . 381

msii 155
viii 463
xvi. 10, 11, . . I. . 169
xl 6-8 465

xii. 9, 138
Ixix 4 . . 138

'9, do.

Ixxviii. 2, . . . . 139
xcvii. 7 462

cii. 25, sq 462
cxviii. 22, . . . . 138

cxli. 2, . . '. '. I '. '. 360
ih vii 14-16, . . . 171, ««.

' ' 445

viii. 17, 18, .. . . 464
xl.-lxvi 161, sq.
lix. 20, 21
Ixi. 1, .... II. . 244

Jeremiah xxxi. 31,

193

Ezekiel i. 26, ...

VOL.
. I. .

I'AGE.

265

' x. 4, ...

. I. .

271

f '7, ...

. I. .

276

' xx. 25, . . .

. II. .

204

' xxxiv. 23, .

. I. .

145

Hosea ii. 14-23, . .

. II. .

61

' viii. 13, . .

. I. .

143

' ix 3

I

143

' xi. 1, . . . .

. I. .

140,446

' xi. 5, ...

. I. .

143

Zechariah vi. 12, 13,

I. .

144

\ iii. 7j .

. I. .

434

Malachi ii. 15, . . .

. I. .

384

iii. 1, ...

. I. .

432

' iv.5, . . .

. I. .

432

NEW TESTAMENT.

Matthew i 23

I

446

ii. 15, . .

. I. .

446

' 17, 18, .

. I. .

447

'23, . .

. I. .

449

viii. 17, . .

. I. .

450

xi. 11, . .

. I. .

70

' 14, 15, .

. I. .

443

xiii. 34, 35,

. I. .

139

xxii. 32, .

. I. .

427

Mark ii 27, 28,

. II. .

139

' ix. 12, 13,

. I. .

443

Luke i. 16, 17, . .

. I. .

432

' xx. 38, . . .

I. .

427

John ii. 19, ....

. 11. .

248

iii 14 15

I

91
455

vii. 37, ...

. II. .

xix 36

T

1 Id «v

J

iSL

' 37, '. . '.

! L !

451

Romans iv. 11-16,

. i. .

453

' 18--J2. .

. i. .

358

V. 1 1. ...

. i. .

•J i:,

' ix. 25, 26, .

. i. .

458

' xi. 26, 27, .

. i. .

458

1 Cor. v. 7, 8, . . .

. i. .

is

', J-1;4' • • •

. i. .

429

. ii. .

73

' xi. 10.' .'

. ii. .

420 '

INDEX OF TEXTS.

543

Cal. iii. 16-18,

-•i-ai, .

' iv. 27, '. '.
Ephes. i. 14, .
Col. ii. 16, ..
2 Thess. ii. 8, .
Heb. i. 6, . .

V< i|..

1. .

455 Il.-h. i. 10. . . .

VOL.

I. .

r.Vtil..

462

I. .

428

ii 11 13

I

463

II. .

155, tq.

iv. 1-10, . .

. . I. .

496

I. .

457

ix. 6-8, . .

. . I. .

465

ix. 13, 14, .

. . II. .

331

I. .

406, *».

x. 38, . . .

. . I. .

465

xii. 23, . .

. . 11. .

53

II. .

141

xiii. 11, 12, .

. . I. .

202

' '

. . II. .

338

II. .

57

I. .

1 Peter i. 2,
462 iii. 21, .

I. .
. . I. .

220, wy.
327

THE END.

.Ml'UKAY AMI ..IIHl. I 1:1MI K-, I 1 .1 Ml t III . II.

es