SERMON II.

JOHN, iii. 14.

AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, EVEN SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP; THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH ON HIM, SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.

WE are here referred to a very extraordinary transaction, which is related in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Numbers; and in the words I have just read to you, is applied by our blessed Saviour as a type of his death and atonement, which are always considered in scripture as similar expressions. For your instruction, therefore, on this subject, I shall endeavour to explain to you, first, what is meant by a type; and secondly, how the lifting up of

the

the brazen serpent is a type of the death and atonement of Christ.

In order to prove the truth of the Christian religion, and to prepare men for it, it pleased God, many ages before Jesus Christ appeared, to inspire holy men with the spirit of prophecy, (as I endeavoured to shew you in my last discourse,) to give notice of his coming. The Bible is full of these prophecies. But still, to render the proof from prophecy yet stronger, it pleased God to give mankind not only written prophecies, but the prophecy likewise of types.

A written prophecy differs from a prophecy by a type in this; the one is a prophecy by words the other by actions. Thus the prophet Isaiah speaking of Christ's death, says his soul (that is, his life) shall be made an offering for sin. This is a prophecy of our Saviour's death in words. In another part of scripture we read, that Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his only son Isaac. This was a prophecy of Christ's death by an actionthat is, by a type.-Again, David prophesying of Christ's resurrection, says, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (that is, in the grave) neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption. This

: Here you will say the action or type is of

wonderful nature.

Indeed it is but you must consider, the resurrection of our Saviour on the thi was a wonderful event, the prophetic type event must be wonderful also, or it could present what it was intended to represen short, the power of God in this case wro miracle, to give us the prophetic type of a culous event.

But here a difficulty may arise. A prophecy in its nature, is more plain. A shall conceive, and bear a son, is a proph appropriate to Christ's birth as words can it. But a type is more liable to mistake. be like another in many ci may stances; and yet there may be no relatio tween them. It is true. I shall ende therefore to shew you on what grounds an may be called a prophetic type. With rega

action

instance to Jonah; his being buried three nights and three days in the whale, and then coming to light, bears a strong resemblance, it is certain, to our Saviour's rising again on the third day; but this resemblance alone is not a sufficient ground to adopt the story of Jonah as a type. Something

else is required.

We expect, in the first place, that an action, in order to be considered as a type, should be expressly marked, and applied as such by some inspired person. Thus Jonah is expressly applied as a type by our Saviour himself. When the Pharisees asked him for a sign, he tells them he would give them no sign, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

But secondly, though an action may not be expressly applied as a type by any inspired person, yet still it may be considered as one, if it stand connected with a number of other actions of a like kind, which are themselves applied as types. Thus we consider the sacrifices, and atoning rites of the Jewish law, as types, or typical prophecies, of our Saviour's atonement for sin;

VOL. I.

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most

most of them being mentioned as such in the New Testament, particularly in the epistle to the Hebrews. Yet there are some, which are not mentioned. Thus for instance, the high-priest's confessing the sins of the people over the scapegoat which was turned loose into the wilderness, is no where, as I recollect, mentioned as a type, yet it may notwithstanding be fairly considered as such, not merely because of its resemblance; but because it stands connected with a number of other actions, which are expressly mentioned as types.

Having thus endeavoured to explain to you, in few words, the meaning of that kind of prophecy which is called a type, I shall now, as I proposed secondly, dwell a little on the type of Moses's lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness; and shew you how exactly it was a type of the death and atonement of Christ.

The account given us of Moses's lifting up the serpent, is this. The children of Israel, in passing through the wilderness, were guilty of frequent rebellions against God. To punish one of these rebellions, God afflicted them with poisonous ser pents, which destroyed many of them. of them.

In their

distress,