God, but not according to knowledget," fell into the common error of weak and ignorant men, mistaking the means for the end, the shadow for the substance. And the correction of their error is one of the remarkable purposes to which the preaching of the Gospel before the Law is applied by St. Paul himself. If the Jew overrated the priesthood of Aaron, and thence opposed the great High Priest of the Gospel, the Apostle proves from the words of David and the history of Melchizedek, that Christ is a Priest for ever after a higher order, superior to Aaron, to Levi, and to Abraham". Or if the Jew would fain contract the universal mercies of God, or build his righteousness upon an unstable foundation, the Apostle refers him as in the text to the covenant of faith, the religion of all mankind, preached to Abraham long before the Law. And such was the clearness of this anticipation of the Gospel, that the Apostle could appeal to it with confidence, could argue from it with effect, and demonstrate to the satisfaction of candid minds that the covenant of works was only engrafted for temporary purposes upon the earlier covenant of grace; that the original inheritance was by promise, and upon the acknowledged principles of equity the later covenant could not disannul the former, or make the promise of none effect; but that we are all the children of God by faith in

'Rom. x. 2, &c. u Heb. vii.

Christ Jesus, and thus are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise*.

2. With respect to the Christian, again, the uses of these anticipations of Gospel-truth are equally obvious, and perhaps even more important. Their general effect is, in a word, to throw a colouring of Christian doctrine over the records of the earlier dispensations. Not of course that the Historical Scriptures can vie in this respect with some of the other portions of the Old Testament. Hence, for example, the title by which Isaiah is commonly distinguished, as the Evangelical Prophet; and by the resemblance of the type to the antitype, many of the Psalms, even when they appear to be occupied only with the fortunes and sufferings of David, have been wonderfully adapted to the purposes of Christian devotion. All that we are concerned to observe is the usefulness to the Christian student of such disclosures or suggestions of evangelical doctrine, as are actually to be found in the Old Historical Scriptures. And to the Christian, their use, as well as their number, is more extensive than to the Jew". Not to

Gal. iii. 8, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 24-29. Rom. iv.

It is obvious, that the suggestions of Christian doctrine must be much more numerous to us than to those who first received the old Scriptures. Even of actual types, there were some which did not impart Christian feelings, much less Christian know

mention, that in whatever degree they tended to prepare the Jew to receive and propagate the Gospel, in the same degree are we beholden to them for Christianity itself; but over and above this, the slightest suggestion of Gospel truth, which the disciple of the Law could neither appreciate nor apprehend, is intelligible and useful to the Christian. St. Paul himself has taught us this lesson. The eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews is a comment

ledge. If the paschal lamb and the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, although they suggested no thought of a crucified Redeemer, called into exercise the faith and the gratitude of the Israelite, the abstinence from blood as prescribed to Noah, before it was declared that the blood was 66 given to make atonement for the soul," (cf. Gen. ix. 4. Lev. xvii. 11.) could scarcely appear significant of the Christian sacrifice; and the sign of the prophet Jonah was altogether without import as a prophetic sign, until our Saviour Himself connected it with His burial and resurrection. But there are other circumstances besides actual types in which the Christian reader cannot but trace an analogy wîth his own faith. Thus he cannot read the confession of the Israelite, accompanying his offering of first fruits, (Deut. xxvi.) without adverting to a spiritual redemption and "the gift of God, eternal life." Nay even, knowing what we know, it is difficult for us to avoid tracing out other hidden meanings and fanciful analogies, such as the inferiority of the Law to the Gospel, in the conquest of Canaan being entrusted not to Moses but to Joshua. (Deut. iii. See Par. Lost, xii. 307-314.) And perhaps even these need not be condemned, provided always it be recollected, that they are but fanciful, and must never be advanced as evidences, nor be dwelt upon to the exclusion of the original and literal sense.

upon it. And hence we learn to derive Christian instruction from the history of the Patriarchs, when they "wandered as strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, desiring a better country, that is, an heavenly;" or of Moses, when he "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward"." Whilst, as to the more direct disclosures, predictions, and anticipations properly so called, of the Gospel, these it is plain not only impart a Christian colouring to the early histories, but teach us also, in language the most forcible and impressive, the vast importance of those doctrines, which have thus in some sense, from the very period of the fall, formed the groundwork of the religion of fallen man. Such, for instance, is the striking testimony rendered by the history of the primitive, as well as the Mosaic, sacrifices, to the importance of the great fundamental Christian verity, atonement through the blood of the Redeemer. The same truth holds of all the ancient types, and typical persons and circumstances; such as the abstinence from blood prescribed to Noah, the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, or the histories of Melchizedek, Moses, and David, bearing upon the several offices of the Messiah as Priest, Prophet, and King. And more obviously still it holds of the whole train of succes

Heb. xi. 13-16. 24-28.

sive predictions concerning Christ and His Gospel, vouchsafed from time to time from the very sentence after the fall, at once to excite and cheer, inform and expand the hopes of the faithful under the earlier dispensations, and to demonstrate to us the transcendent importance of the last and highest. And thus through the great mercy of our God, and the gracious inspiration of His Holy Spirit, have the earliest Scriptures, been fitted for our learning, and adapted to make us "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus"."

III. Let it not be forgotten, however, that the view which we have thus endeavoured to take of the existence and the uses of certain anticipations of the Gospel interspersed throughout the Old Historical Scriptures, is superadded to that of their own great leading purposes. They discharge several important offices properly their own, and distinct from their connexion with the actual doctrines of the Gospel. And their value will not be justly appreciated, unless their leading objects are borne in mind.

Some of these great purposes, which I have already endeavoured to treat at large, I may be permitted in conclusion to recapitulate briefly, in

a 2 Tim. iii. 15-17.