LECTURE VIII.

GLIMPSES OF THE MESSIAH IN THE PENTATEUCH-PRO

PHECY.

FOR HAD YE BELIEVED MOSES, YE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED ME, FOR HE WROTE OF ME.-John 5: 46.

No idea is more clearly and forcibly taught by nature than that truth should harmonize with itself, hence if the Bible be true, its different parts will be found to be in strict harmony. Now the glimpses of a Saviour, abounding in the Old Testament, form the strongest link by which that volume is bound to the New, and it is thus, the Christian finds abundant proof of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, and hence evidence of the truth of his Bible. He is no strange being, making a sudden and unexpected appearance upon our world's stage, but a long series of types and prophecies, had excited a general expectation of his advent, and their wonderful fulfilment in him, made it apparent that he was the one who was to come.

Gloomy, indeed, is the doctrine that we find no Christ in the Old Testament, and yet there are those professing to be Christians, who tell us that they have sought in vain, especially in the writings of Moses, for expressions directly and unequivocally referring to the Christ of the New Tes

tament. Let such persons reflect that they come into direct collision with Jesus Christ himself, who, on several occasions, declared his connection with Moses. "He wrote

of me," was his firm declaration to the Jews. And just before his departure to heaven, he thus reminds his disciples of the words he had spoken to them on a previous occasion. "All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." The woman of Samaria, though possessing no part of the Old Testament, except the five books of Moses, had learned therefrom that the Messiah would come, who was called Christ; and Paul protested that in his preaching he had said no other thing, than the Prophets and Moses did say, should come.

At first, the idea of a Saviour was dimly foreshadowed and slightly hinted, but as we pass along through Pentateuch, Psalms, and Prophets, it grows more and more luminous, until every shadow flees before the glorious rising of the Sun of righteousness.

We shall endeavor in this discourse

1. To trace the developement of the idea of a Saviour through the writings of Moses.

2. Show some of the practical benefits which may. result from this subject to ourselves.

We have in a preceding lecture, noticed those bleeding victims and other figures, designed to prefigure the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and now we are to confine our attention to those predictions, given at first, it must be confessed, in language somewhat obscure, but which increases in lucidness until the perfect day.

1. The first intimation of a Saviour, is given by the Almighty, soon after the fall, in Genesis, 3: 15, in the curse denounced against the serpent. The passage might be rendered thus:—And I will put hostility between thee, and between the woman, and between thy seed, and between her seed, she shall lie in wait for thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for his heel.

Now, this language seems to have been the best in use, for conveying the idea of a Saviour, to the minds of men, in that primitive state. Mark the terms used, and you cannot fail to see that they are well selected. In the first place, the serpent was a most expressive emblem of the evil spirit, and has been considered as such by all nations. St. John, in the book of Revelation, calls him the devil, and the fact that all the Jews have ever regarded him as emblematical of the devil, shows that the language of their Scriptures must have been sufficiently plain to teach them such an idea.

The term, seed was well selected, since our first parents had doubtless lived long enough to witness the fact, that plants produced their kind through the agency of seed, and hence the word is figuratively applied to express human offspring. The Hebrew word zarang, seed, when referring to human offspring, is never used in the plural, and hence it is exceedingly appropriate for the occasion, as it may refer either to Christ as an individual, or to all the holy seed, as they are one with him, and hence says Paul:"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ." That is; That is; Moses selected a word which, in its application to children, was confined

to the singular, because it primarily referred to Christ, and included his posterity, only as they were identified with him.

By the seed of the serpent, we are to understand those that have a spiritual similarity to the devil. In this sense, our Lord charges the Jews with being of their father the devil, whose works they would do; and Paul charges Elymus, the sorcerer, with being the "child of the devil," because he sought to pervert the right ways of the Lord; and John declares that it is by the love and practice of sin that men become children of the devil. We understand therefore that all, who oppose God, and his cause, are the seed of the serpent, or children of the devil.

As already intimated, the seed of the woman primarily refers to Christ, and then to all his followers as they are one with him. As the expression, "seed of the serpent," includes the devil, and all who are one with him, so the "seed of the woman," includes Christ and all who are one with him. The passage, therefore, alludes to the conflict that shall be carried on between truth and error, the cause of God, and the cause of the devil, in the persons of the righteous and the wicked, until truth shall completely triumph; and hence Paul assures the saints of his day, that they should realize this promised triumph in their own case, "And the God of Peace, shall crush satan under your feet shortly."

The serpent is to lie in wait for the heel of Christ. He is to contend with the saints, and do injury to the cause of God, but can never interfere with its vital part. The injury he can inflict is to be superficial and temporary; as a wound

on the thick skin of the heel from the fang of a serpent, is not likely to prove fatal.

The Saviour, however, shall bruise Satan's head, i. e. completely overcome him. Truth shall prevail,—Satan must be bound, his host spoiled and vanquished, and the Saints of the Most High, under the Captain of their salvation, will possess the Kingdom.

The Old Testament saints appear to have had a view of this battle and victory. Isaiah (27:1) says:—“In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." Though the prophet may here refer to the destruction of some powerful enemy of the Jewish nation, yet it is in perfect accordance with the genius of prophecy for the passage to look forward to the entire destruction of the seed of evil doers.

Long was the time before the advent of this seed, for whom the children of promise were counted, and most ardently did our first parents and their successors long for the dark night to pass away, and for the Deliverer to appear.

Behold, how ready they are to seize upon every circumstance, as the approach of this promised seed. Our first parents must have looked forward with deep interest and anxiety to the appearance of their first born. It was to be something new and strange; and when one appeared in form like themselves, was it not natural for Eve to suppose she had gotten the promised seed? and in the joy of her heart, the exclamation was elicited, "I have gotten a man even Jehovah !" as the words should be rendered. How natu