fact, these parties take in the type of sound doctrine, while the images raise a retinue of corresponding sentiments. The Bible is full, too, of typical ordinances and institutions. The sprinkling of the door-posts with blood, the sacrifices, the scape-goat, the washings and sprinklings-these instruct the young, and instruct all, in the need of a Mediator, of an atonement by blood, and of regeneration by the spirit. The law is still a schoolmaster to lead us on to the knowledge of Christ. Being introduced by these means to the sublime mysteries of our faith, the sign is ever after associated with the thing signified. The truths which we should apprehend, we as it were see with our bodily eyes, and our corruptions instead of being shadowy and ghostly, have a body as well as a spirit imparted to them. Nor do types, in the Scripture sense of the term, cease on the coming of our Lord. The truth is, types are more frequently mentioned in the New Testament, and as being in the New Testament dispensation than in the Old Testament. The offices and the whole work of Christ are typical or representative. And here it may be remarked that the life and character of Jesus are brought before us not by general statement or pompous platitudes, but by an exhibition of His deeds, as He went about curing the sick, comforting the mourner, and instructing the ignorant. The Evangelists never interpose themselves between us and the object to which they call our attention, so as to obstruct the light which comes from Him by common-] n-place exclamation, such as-How fine! How admirable! but standing aside, they, as it were, say-Behold Him for yourselves! By these simple narratives of Christ's deeds and sayings, they call forth deeper feelings than they could possibly do by high flown rhetoric. And as we have said, Christ's life and actions are typical or federal. He lives, He dies, He is buried, He rises again, as representative of His people, and His people live with Him, die with Him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him to newness of life. Nor is it to be omitted, that in His discourses our Lord teaches not by nice distinctions, like the scribes, but by lively parables, in which visible objects represent invisible truths. These types become intertwined with the faith of every believer, and if you would cut them out unmercifully from the creed of the Christian, you would leave little behind in the mind of many an unlettered child of God. These figures shine and sparkle like stars in that heaven which is stretched over the head of the Christian traveller in this the night of his pilgrimage. Eminent men too, such as Paul, and Peter, and John, were raised up to embody and represent the Christian life. These types have had additions made to them by those who have carefully unfolded the experience of the Christian, as by Augustine in his confessions, by Luther in the account of his struggles, and by Bunyan in the "Pilgrim's Progress." The pilgrim, with his burden, the slough of despond, the river of death, the calls to go over it;-such figures, not of the outward attitude, but of the inward experience, have added vastly more to our Christian imagery than all the paintings of the most skilled masters,-Raphaelite, Pre-Raphaelite, Post-Raphaelite,-and must go down, through all genera tions, blended with Christian experience. But to the Christian, Jesus Himself must be the grand type or exemplar. He is the model man to whom we are to look in all circumstances. We may imitate others in some things, we should copy Christ in all. It is pleasant to observe the path in which we walk trodden by the footsteps of the flock, but we are to follow the flock only so far as they follow the shepherd. But Jesus is not only the representative man, He is to us the image of the invisible God. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in His bosom, He hath revealed Him." The human mind, feeling overwhelmed under the idea of an Infinite God, has ever been degrading God by representing Him in the likeness of man; but here, in Him in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, we have a God incarnate without being degraded.* He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father; and by means of this image,-every other is idolatry,—we can rise to a somewhat clear, and to an altogether satisfactory view of God. Had God required us to love Him supremely, without furnishing any representation to fix our regards, the task would have been irksome and all but impossible. But with such a view as is presented to us, in the Word, of God in Christ, we feel that we can love Him, “whom, having not seen, we love ;" and we feel that the place in which He dwells has attractions to us,-is our very home, and that we could spend an eternity there in great and ever increasing happiness. * See Book IV. of" Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral," by James McCosh, LL.D. Fifth edition. |