Chapter I from the 6th edition
Chapter II from the 6th edition
Chapter V. The interpretation of particular types--specific principles and directions
By Patrick Fairbairn
Published by Smith & English, 1854
VOLUME I.
p. 78-
CHAPTER THIRD.
In the preceding chapter we have seen in what sense the religious institutions and services of the old covenant were typical. They were constructed and arranged so as to express symbolically the great truths and principles of a spiritual religion--truths and principles which were common alike to Old and New Testament times, but which, from the nature of things, could only find in the New their proper developement and full realisation. On the limited scale of the earthly and perishable--in the construction of a material tabernacle, and the suitable adjustment of bodily ministrations and sacrificial offerings,--there was presented a palpable exhibition of those great truths respecting sin and salvation, the purification of the heart, and the dedication of the person and the life to God, which in the fulness of time were openly revealed and manifested on the grand scale of a world's redemption, by the mediation and work of Jesus Christ. In that pre-arranged and harmonious, but still inherently defective and imperfect exhibition of the fundamental ideas and spiritual relations of the Gospel, stood the real nature of its typical character.
Nor, we may add, was there anything arbitrary in so employing the things of flesh and time to shadow forth, under a preparatory dispensation, the higher realities of God's everlasting kingdom. It has its ground and reason in the organic arrangements or appearances of the material world. For these are so framed as to be ever giving forth representations of divine truth, and are a kind of ceaseless regeneration, in which, through successive stages, new and higher forms of being are continually springing out of the lower. It is on this constitution of nature that the figurative language of Scripture is based. And it was only building on a foundation that already existed, and which stretches far and wide through the visible territory of creation, when the outward relations and fleshly services of a symbolical religion were made to image and prepare for the more spiritual and divine mysteries of Messiah's kingdom. Hence, also, some of the more important symbolical institutions were expressly linked (as we shall see) to appropriate seasons and aspects of nature.
But was symbol alone thus employed? Might there not also have been a similar employment of many circumstances and transactions in the province of sacred history? Might not God have, in many respects, disposed the events of his providence, and appointed the external relations of his people, as well as framed the institutions of his worship, so as to give, by means of them, like exhibitions of the better things of the Gospel? If the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the blessings of his great salvation, was the object mainly contemplated by God from the beginning of the world, and with which the Church was ever travailing in birth--if, consequently, the previous dispensations were chiefly designed to lead to, and terminate upon, Christ and the things of his salvation:--what can be more natural than to suppose that the evolutions of providence throughout the period during which the salvation was preparing, should have concurred with the symbols of worship in imaging and preparing for what was to come? It is possible, indeed, that the connection here, between the past and the future, might be somewhat more varied and fluctuating, and in several respects less close and exact, than in the case of a compact system of religious symbols of worship, appointed to last till they were superseded by the better things of the New dispensation. This is only what might be expected from the respective natures of the two departments referred to. But that a connection, similar in kind, had a place in the one as well as in the other, we think not only in itself probable, but capable of being satisfactorily established. And in support of it we advance the following considerations:--First, That the historical relations and circumstances recorded in the Old Testament, and typically interpreted in the New, had very much the same resemblances and the same defects in respect to the realities of the Gospel, which we have found to belong to the ancient symbolical institutions of worship; Secondly, That such historical types were absolutely necessary, in considerable number and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly preparative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel: And, thirdly, that Old Testament Scripture itself contains undoubted indications, that much of its historical matter stood related to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations exemplified in them were again to meet and receive a new but more perfect developement.
I. The first consideration is, that the historical relations and circumstances recorded in the Old Testament, and typically interpreted in the New, had very much the same resemblances and defects, in respect to the Gospel, which we have found to belong to the ancient symbolical institutions of worship. Thus--to refer to one of the earliest events in the world's history so interpreted-- the general deluge, that destroyed the old world, and preserved Noah and his family alive, is represented as standing in a typical relation to Christian baptism (1 Pet. iii. 21). It did so, as will be explained more at large hereafter, from its having destroyed those who, by their corruptions, destroyed the earth, and saved for a new world the germ of a better race. Doing this in the outward and lower territory of the world's history, it served substantially the same purpose that Christian baptism does in a higher; since this is designed to bring the individual that receives it under those vital influences that purge away the corruption of a fleshly nature, and cause the seed of a divine life to take root and grow for the occupation of a better inheritance. In like manner, Sarah, with her child of promise, the special and peculiar gift of heaven, and Hagar, with her merely natural and fleshly offspring, are explained as typically foreshadowing, the one a spiritual church, bringing forth real children to God, in spirit and destiny as well as in calling, the heirs of his everlasting kingdom; the other, a worldly and corrupt church, whose members are in bondage to the flesh, having but a name to live, while they are dead. (Gal. iv. 22, 31.) In such cases, it is clear that the same kind of resemblances, coupled also with the same kind of differences, appear between the preparatory and the final, as in the case of the symbolical types. For here also the ideas and relations are substantially one in the two associated transactions; only in the earlier they appear ostensibly connected with the theatre alone of an earthly existence, and with respect to seen and temporal results; while in the later it is the higher field of grace and the interests of a spiritual and immortal existence that come directly into view.
Or, look again to the use made of the events that befel the Israelites on their way to the land of Canaan, as regards the state and prospects of the Church of the New Testament on its way to Heaven. Look at this, for example, as unfolded in the third and fourth chapters of the epistle to the Hebrews, and the essential features of a typical connection will at once be seen. For, the exclusion of those carnal and unbelieving Israelites, who fell in the wilderness, is there exhibited, not only as affording a reasonable presumption, but as providing a valid ground for asserting, that persons similarly affected now toward the kingdom of glory cannot attain to Heaven. Indeed, so complete in point of principle is the identity of the two cases, that the same expressions are applied to both alike, without intimation of any differences existing between them: "the Gospel is preached" to the one class as well as to the other; God gives to each alike "a promise of rest," while they equally "fall through unbelief," having hardened their hearts against the word of God. Yet there were the same differences in kind as we have noted between the type and the antitype in the symbolical institutions of worship--the visible and earthly being employed in the one to exhibit such relations and principles as in the other appear in immediate connection with what is spiritual and heavenly. In the type we have the prospect of Canaan, the Gospel of an earthly promise of rest, and, because not believed, issuing in the loss of a present life of honour and blessing; in the antitype, the prospect of a heavenly inheritance, the Gospel promise of an everlasting rest, bringing along with it, in the experience of such as reject it, the fearful loss of eternal blessedness and glory.
Again, and with reference to the same period in the Church's history, it is said in John iii. 14-15, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The language here certainly does not necessarily betoken by any means so close a connection between the Old and the New, as in the cases previously referred to; nor are we disposed to assert that the same connection in all respects really existed. The historical transaction in this case had at first sight the aspect of something occasional and isolated, rather than of an integral and essential part of a great plan. And yet the reference in John, viewed in connection with other passages of Scripture bearing on the subject, sufficiently vindicates for it a place among the earlier exhibitions of divine truth, planned by the foreseeing eye of God with special respect to the coming realities of the Gospel. As such it entirely accords in nature with the typical prefigurations already noticed. In the two related transactions there is a fitting correspondence as to the relations maintained: in both alike a wounded and dying condition in the first instance, then the elevation of an object apparently inadequate, yet really effectual, to accomplish the cure, and this through no other medium on the part of the affected, than their simply looking to the object so presented to their view. But with this pervading correspondence, what marked and distinctive characteristics! In the one case a dying body, in the other a perishing soul. There an uplifted serpent, of all instruments of healing from a serpent's bite the most unpromising; here the exhibition of one condemned and crucified as a malefactor, of all conceivable persons apparently the most impotent to save. There, once more, the fleshly eye of nature deriving from the outward object visibly presented to it the healing virtue it was ordained to impart; and here the spiritual eye of the soul, looking in steadfast faith to the exalted Redeemer, and getting the needed supplies of his life-giving and regenerating grace. In both the same elements of truth, the same modes of dealing, but in the one developing themselves on a lower, in the other on a higher territory; in the former having immediate respect only to things seen and temporal, and in the latter to what is unseen, spiritual, and eternal. And when it is considered how the divine procedure, in the case of the Israelites, was in itself so extraordinary and peculiar, so unlike God's usual methods of dealing in providence, and yet directly bore only on their inferior and perishable interests, it seems to be, without any adequate reason, to want, in a sense, its due explanation, until it is viewed as a dispensation specially designed to prepare the way for the higher and better things of the Gospel.
Similar explanations might be given of the other historical facts recorded in Old Testament Scripture, and invested with a typical reference in the New. But enough has been said to shew the essential similarity in the respect borne by them to the better things of the Gospel, and of that borne by the ritual types of the law. The ground of the connection in the one class, precisely as in the other, stands in the substantial oneness of the ideas and relations pervading the earlier and the later transactions, as corresponding parts of related dispensations; or in the identity of truth and principle appearing in both, as different, yet mutually dependent parts of one great providential scheme. In that internal agreement and relationship, rather than in any mere outward resemblances, we are to seek the real bond of connection between the Old and the New.
At first sight, perhaps, a connection of this nature may appear to want something of what is required to satisfy the conditions of a proper typical relationship. And there are two respects more especially, in which this deficiency may seem to exist.
1. It has been so much the practice to look at the connection between the Old and the New in an external aspect, that one naturally fancies the necessity of some more palpable and arbitrary bond of union to link together type and antitype. The one is apt to bethought of as a kind of pre-ordained pantomime of the other--like those pre-figurative actions which the prophets were sometimes instructed, whether in reality or in vision, to perform (as Isaiah in ch. xx, or Ezekiel in ch. xii.), meaningless in themselves, yet very significant as foreshadowing intimations of coining events in providence. Such prophecies in action, certainly, had something in common with the typical transactions now under consideration. They both, alike had respect to other actions or events yet to come, without which, pre-ordained and foreseen, they would not have taken place. They both also stood in a similar relation of littleness to the corresponding circumstances they foreshadowed--exhibiting on a comparatively small scale what was afterwards to realize itself on a large one, and thereby enabling the mind more readily to anticipate the approaching future, or more distinctly to grasp it after it had come. But they differed in this, that the typical actions of the prophets had respect solely to the coming transactions they prefigured, and but for these would have been foolish and absurd; while the typical actions of God's providence, as well as the symbolical institutions of his worship, had a moral meaning of their own, independently of the reference they bore to the future revelations of the Gospel. To overlook this independent moral element, is to leave out of account what should be held to constitute the very basis of the connection between the past and the future. But if, on the other hand, we make due account of it, we establish a connection, which, in reality, is of a much more close and vital nature, and one, too, of far higher importance, than if it consisted alone in points of outward resemblance. For it implies not only that the entire plan of salvation was all along in the eye of God, but that, with a view to it, he was ever directing his government, so as to bring out in successive stages and operations the very truths and principles, which were to find in the realities of the Gospel their more complete manifestation. He shewed, that he saw the end from the beginning by interweaving with his providential arrangements the elements of the more perfect, the terminal plan. And, therefore, to lay the ground-work of the connection between the preparatory and the final in the elements of truth and principle common alike to both, instead of placing it in merely formal resemblances, is but to withdraw it from a less to a more vital and important part of the transactions--from the outer shell and appearance, to the inner truth and substance of the history; so that we can discern, not only some perceptible coincidences between the type and the antitype, but the same fundamental character, the same spirit of life, the same moral import and practical design.
To render this more manifest, as it is a point of considerable moment in our inquiry, let us compare an alleged example of historical type, where the resemblance between it and the supposed antitype is of an ostensible, but still only of an outward kind, with one of those referred to above--the brazen serpent, for example, or the deluge. In this latter example there was scarcely any outward resemblance presented to the Christian ordinance of baptism; as in no proper sense could Noah and his family be said to have been literally baptized in the waters. But both this and the other historical transaction presented strong lines of resemblance, of a more inward and substantial kind, to the things connected with them in the Gospel--such as enable us to recognize without difficulty the impress of one divine hand in the two related series of transactions, and to contemplate them as corresponding parts of one grand economy, rising gradually from its lower to its higher stages of developemeiit. Take, however, as an example of the other class, the occupation of Abel as a shepherd, which by many, among others by Witsius, has been regarded as a prefiguration of Christ in his character as the great Shepherd of Israel. A superficial likeness, we admit; but what is to be found of real unity and agreement? What light does the one throw upon the other? What expectation beforehand could the earlier beget of the later, or what confirmation afterwards can it supply? Admitting that the death of Abel somehow foreshadowed the infinitely more precious blood to be shed on Calvary, what distinctive value could the sacrifice of life in his case derive from the previous occupation of the martyr? Christ, certainly, died as the spiritual shepherd of souls, but Abel was not murdered on account of having been a keeper of sheep; nor had his death any necessary connection with his having followed such an employment. For what purpose, then, press points of resemblance so utterly disconnected, and dignify them with the name of typical prefigurations? resemblances, worthless even if real, and from their nature incapable of affording any insight into the mind and purposes of God? But when, on the contrary, we look into the past records of God's providence, and find there in the dealings of his hand and the institutions of his worship a coincidence of principle and economical design with what appears in the dispensation of the Gospel, we cannot but feel that we have something of real weight and importance to grapple with. And if, farther, we have reason to conclude, not only that agreements of this kind existed, but that they were all skilfully planned and arranged--the earlier with a view to the later, the earthly and temporal for the spiritual and heavenly--we find ourselves possessed of the essential elements of a typical connection. But we have reason so to conclude, as has partly been shewn already, and will still farther be shewn in the sequel.
2. Granting, however, what has now been stated--granting that the connection between type and antitype is more of an internal than of an external kind, it may still be objected, in regard to the historical types, that they wanted for the most part something of the necessary correspondence with the antitypes; the one did not occupy under the Old the same relative place that the other did under the New--existing for a time as a shadow until it was superseded and displaced by the substance. Perhaps not; but is such a close and minute correspondence absolutely necessary? Or is it to be found even in the case of all the symbolical types? With them also considerable differences appear and we look in vain for anything like a fixed and absolute uniformity. The correspondence assumed the most exact form in the sacrificial rites of the tabernacle worship. There, certainly, part may be said to have answered to part; there was priest for priest, offering for offering, death for death, and blessing for blessing-- throughout, an inferior and temporary substitute in the room of the proper reality, and continuing till it was superseded and displaced by the latter. We find a relaxation, however, in this closely adjusted relationship, whenever we leave the immediate province of sacrifice; and in many of the things expressly denominated shadows of the Gospel, it can hardly be said to have existed. In regard, for example, to the ancient festivals, the new moons, the use or disuse of leaven, the defilement of leprosy and its purification, there was no such precise and definite superseding of the Old by something corresponding under the New-- nothing like office for office, action for action, part for part. The symbolical rites and institutions referred to were typical---not, however, as representing things that were to hold specifically and palpably the same place in Gospel times--but rather as embodying in set forms and ever-recurring bodily services the truths and principles, that in naked simplicity and by direct teaching, were to pervade the dispensation of the Gospel.
There is quite a similar diversity in the case of the historical types. In some of them the correspondence was very close and exact; in others more loose and general. Of the former class was the calling of Israel as an elect people, their relation to the land of Canaan, as their covenant-portion, their redemption from the yoke of Egypt, and their temporary sojourn in the wilderness as they travelled to inherit it--all of which continued (the two latter by means of commemorative ordinances) till they were superseded by corresponding but higher objects under the Gospel. In respect to these we can say, the new dispensation presents people for people, redemption for redemption, inheritance for inheritance, and one kind of wilderness-training for another; objects precisely corresponding in the relations they severally occupied, and the one preserving their existence or transmitting their efficacy, till they were supplanted by the other. But we do not pretend to see the same close connection and the same exact correspondence between the Old and the New in all, or even the greater part of the historical transactions of the past, which we hold to have been typical; nor are we warranted to look for it. The analogy of the symbolical types would lead us to expect, along with the more direct typical arrangements, many acts and institutions of a somewhat incidental and subordinate kind, in which a typical representation should be given of ideas and relations, that could only find in the realities of the Gospel their full and proper manifestation. If they were not appointed as temporary substitutes for these realities, and kept in operation or perpetually commemorated, till the better things took their place, they were still moulded after the form and pattern of the better. They were designed by God, not, it may be, to present to men's minds the events and objects of the Gospel, but at least to acquaint them with its elements of truth, and to familiarize them with its spiritual ideas, its modes of procedure and principles of working. And in this they plainly possessed the more essential part of a typical connection.
II. Enough, however, for the first point. We proceed to the second; which is, that such historical types as those under consideration, were absolutely necessary, in considerable number and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly preparative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel. This was necessary, first of all, from the typical character of the position and worship of the members of the old covenant. The main things respecting them being, as we have seen, typical, it was inevitable but that many others of a subordinate and collateral nature should be the same; for otherwise they would not have been suitably adapted to the dispensation to which they belonged.
But we have something more than this general correspondence or analogy to appeal to. For, the nature of the historical types themselves, as already explained, implies their existence in considerable number and variety. The representation they were designed to give of the fundamental truths and principles of the Gospel, with the view of preparing the church for the new dispensation, would necessarily have been incomplete and inadequate, unless it had embraced, a pretty extensive field. The object of their appointment would have been but partially reached, if they had consisted only of the few straggling examples which have been particularly mentioned in New Testament Scripture. Nor, unless the history in general of Old Testament times, in so far as its recorded transactions bore on them the stamp of God's mind and will, had been pervaded by the typical element, could it have in any competent measure fulfilled the design of a preparatory economy. So that whatever distinctions it may be necessary to draw between one part of the transactions and another, as to their being in themselves sometimes of a more essential, sometimes of a more incidental character, or in their typical bearing being more or less closely related to the realities of the Gospel, their very place and object in a shadowy dispensation required them to be extensively typical. To be spread over a large field, and branched out in many directions, was as necessary to their typical, as to their more immediate and temporary design.
Thus the one point grows by a sort of natural necessity out of the other. But the argument admits of being considerably strengthened by the manner in which the historical types that are specially mentioned in New Testament Scripture are there referred to. So far from being represented as singular in their typical reference to Gospel times, they have uniformly the appearance of being only selected for the occasion. Nay, the obligation on the part of believers generally to seek for them throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, and apply them to all the purposes of Christian instruction and improvement, is distinctly asserted in the epistle to the Hebrews; and the capacity to do so is represented as a proof of full-grown spiritual discernment (Heb. v. 11-14). There is, therefore, a sense in which the saying of Augustine,--"The Old Testament, when rightly understood, is one great prophecy of the New," [1] is strictly true even in regard to those parts of ancient Scripture, which, in their direct and immediate bearing, partake least of the prophetical. Its records of the past are, at the same time, pregnant with the germs of a corresponding but more exalted future. The relations sustained by its more public characters, the parts they were appointed to act in their day and generation, the deliverances that were wrought for them and by them, and the chastisements they were from time to time given to experience, did not begin and terminate with themselves. They were parts of an unfinished and progressive plan, which finds its destined completion in the person and kingdom of Christ; and only when seen in this prospective reference do they appear in their proper magnitude and their full significance.
Christ, then, is the end of the history as well as of the law, of the Old Testament. It had been strange, indeed, if it were otherwise; strange if its historical transactions had not been ordained by God, in another manner than the common events of history, to bear a prospective reference to the Gospel scheme. For what is this scheme itself, in its fundamental character, but a grand historical developement? What are the doctrines it teaches, the blessings it imparts, and the promises it unfolds of everlasting glory, but the reflection and fruit of its recorded facts--the facts, namely, of the incarnation and life, the death and resurrection, of the Lord Jesus Christ? These are the foundation on which all rests, the root from which everything springs in Christianity. And shall it, then, be imagined, that the earlier facts in the history of related and preparatory dispensations did not point, like so many heralds and forerunners, to these unspeakably greater ones to come? If a prophecy lay concealed in their symbolical rites, could it fail to be found also in the historical transactions, that were often so closely allied to these, and always coincident with them in purpose and design? Assuredly not. In so far as God spake in the transactions, and gave discoveries by them of his truth and character, they typically bore respect to the one "pattern-man," and the terminal kingdom of righteousness and blessing, of which he was to be the head and centre. Here only the history of God's earlier dispensations attained its proper end, as in this also the history of the world finds its grand turning-point. [2]
III. The thought, however, may very naturally occur, that if the historical matter of the Old Testament possess as much as we represent of a typical character, some plain indications of its being so should be found in Old Testament Scripture itself. We should scarcely need to draw our proof of the existence and nature of the historical types entirely from the writings of the New Testament. It was with the view of meeting this thought that we advanced our third statement; which is, that Old Testament Scripture does contain undoubted marks and indications of its historical personages and events being related to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations exhibited in them were again to meet, and obtain a more adequate developement. The proof of this is to be sought chiefly in the prophetical writings of the Old Testament, in which the more select instruments of God gave expression to the Church's faith respecting both the past and the future in his dispensations. And in looking there we find, not only that an exalted personage, with his work of perfect righteousness, and his kingdom of consummate bliss and glory, was seen to be in prospect, but also that the expectations cherished of what was to be, took very commonly the form of a new and higher exhibition of what had been. In giving promise of the better things to come, prophecy to a large extent availed itself of the characters and events of history. But it could only do so on the twofold ground, that it perceived in these essentially the same elements of truth and principle which were to appear in the future; and in that future anticipated a nobler exhibition of them than had been given in the past. And what was this but, in other words, to declare their typical meaning and design? The truth of what we say will more fully appear when we come to treat of the combination of type with prophecy--which, on account of its importance, we reserve for the subject of a separate chapter. Meanwhile, it will be remembered how even Moses speaks before his death of "the prophet which the Lord their God should raise up from among his brethren like to himself" (Deut. xviii. 18)--one that should hold a like position and do a similar work, but each in its kind more perfect and complete--else, why look out for another? In like manner David connects the historical appearance of Melchizeclec with the future head of God's Church and kingdom, when he announces him as a priest after the order of Melchizedec (Ps. cx. 4); he foresaw that the relations of Melchizedec's time should be again revived in this divine character, and the same part fulfilled anew, but raised, as the connection intimates, to a higher sphere, invested with a heavenly greatness and a world-wide significance and power. So again we are told (Mal. iii., 1, iv. 5) another Elias should arise in the brighter future, to be succeeded by a more glorious manifestation of the Lord, to do what had never but very imperfectly been done before; namely, to provide for himself a true spiritual priesthood, a regenerated people, and an offering of righteousness. But the richest proofs are furnished by the latter portion of Isaiah's writings. For, there we find the prophet intermingling so closely together the past and the future, that it is often difficult to tell of which he actually speaks. He passes from Israel to the Messiah, and again from the Messiah to Israel, as if the one were but a new, a higher and perfect developement of what belonged to the other. And the Church of the future is constantly represented under the relations of the past, only freed from the imperfections that attached to these, and rendered in every respect blessed and glorious.
Such are a few specimens of the way in which the more spiritual and divinely enlightened members of the old covenant saw the future imaged in the past or present. They discerned the essential oneness in truth and principle between the two; but, at the same time, were conscious of such inherent imperfections and defects attaching to the past, that they felt it required a more perfect future to render it properly worthy of God, and fully adequate to the wants and necessities of his people. And there is one entire book of the Old Testament which owes in a manner its existence, as it now stands, to this likeness in one respect, but diversity in another, between the past and the future things in God's administration. We refer to the Book of Psalms. The pieces of which this book consists are in their leading character devotional summaries, expressing the pious thoughts and feelings which the consideration of God's ways, and the knowledge of his revelations, were fitted to raise in reflecting and spiritual bosoms. But the singular thing is, that they are this for the New, as well as for the Old Testament worshipper. They are still incomparably the most perfect expression of the religious sentiment, and the best directory to the soul in its thoughts and communings about divine things, which is anywhere to be found. There is not a feature in the divine character, not a spiritual principle or desire in the mind of an enlightened Christian, or an aspect of the life of faith, to which expression, more or less distinct, is not given in this invaluable portion of ancient Scripture. How could such a book have come into existence, centuries before the Christian era, but for the fact, that the Old and the New dispensations-- however they may have differed in outward form, and however the ostensible transactions in the one case may have been inferior to what they were to be in the other--were founded on the same relations, and pervaded by the same essential truths and principles? No otherwise could the Book of Psalms have served as the great hand-book of devotion to the members of both covenants. There the disciples of Moses and Christ meet as on common ground-- the one still readily and gratefully using the fervid and deep-toned utterances which the other had breathed forth ages before, and bequeathed as a legacy to succeeding generations. And though it was comparatively carnal institutions under which the holy men lived and worshipped, who indited those divine songs; though it was transactions which directly bore only on their earthly and temporal condition, that formed the immediate ground and occasion of the sentiments they uttered; yet, where in all Scripture can the believer, who now "worships in spirit and in truth," more readily find for himself the words that shall fitly express his loftiest conceptions of God, embody his most spiritual and enlarged views of the divine government, or tell forth the feelings and desires of his soul even in many of its most lively and elevated moods?
But with this fitting adaptation in the Psalms to the thoughts and feelings of the Christian, what a difference still exists between the Psalms and the epistles of the New Testament! With all that discovers itself in the Psalms of a vivid apprehension of God, and of a habitual confidence in his faithfulness and love, there still is apparent something of awe and restraint upon the soul; it never rises into the filial cry of the Gospel, Abba, Father. There is a fitfulness also in its movements, as of one dwelling in a dusky and changeful atmosphere. Continually, indeed, do we see the Psalmist flying, in distress and trouble, under the shelter of the Almighty, and trusting in his mercy for deliverance from the guilt of sin. Even in the worst times he still prays and looks for redemption. But the redemption which dispels all fear, and satisfies the soul with the highest good, he knew not, excepting as a bright day-star glistening in the far-distant horizon. He knew it as a thing that should assuredly be brought in for the Church of God; and could tell somewhat of the mighty and glorious personage destined in the divine counsels to accomplish it--of his unparalleled struggles in the cause of righteousness, and of his final triumphs, resulting in the extension of his kingdom to the farthest bounds of the earth. But no more--the veil still hangs; expectation still waits and longs; and it is only for the believer of other times to say, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation;" "I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ;" or again, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know, that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
Such is the agreement, and such also the difference between the Old and the New. "There we see the promise and prelude of the blessings of salvation; here, these blessings themselves, far surpassing all the previous foreshaclowings of them. There, a fiducial resting in Jehovah; here, an unspeakable fulness of spiritual and heavenly blessings from the opened fountain of his mercy. There, a confidence that the Lord would not abandon his people; here, the Lord himself assuming their nature, the God-man, connecting himself in organic union with humanity, and sending forth streams of life through its members. There, in the back-ground, night, only relieved by the stars of the word of promise and operations of grace in suitable accordance with it; here, in the back-ground, day, still clouded, indeed, by our human nature, which is not yet completely penetrated by the Spirit, and is ever anew manifesting its sinfulness, but yet such a day as gives assurance of the cloudless sunshine of eternity, of which God himself is the light." [3]
The whole of the argument maintained in this and the preceding chapters, respecting the typical character of God's earlier dispensations, admits of confirmation and support from the existence of typical forms in nature, which present in this respect a striking analogy between the natural and the religious departments of God's working. A brief outline of the kind of illustration that might be obtained here, is given in another place, as it has only a collateral bearing on the main subject. [4] But let us not close this elementary discussion without reflecting for a moment on the skilful adjustment which appears in the earlier dispensations of God, as regards the progressive character of his divine plan. The plan so considered certainly presents something strange and mysterious to our view, especially in the extreme slowness of its progression; since it required the postponement of the work of redemption for so many ages, and kept the church during these in a state of comparative ignorance in respect to the great objects of her faith and hope. Yet what is it but an application to the world's history of what is constantly proceeding before our eyes in each man's personal history, whose term of probation upon earth is, in many cases half, in nearly all a third part consumed, before the individual attains to a capacity for the objects and employments of manhood? Constituted as we personally are, and as the world also is, progression of some kind is indispensable to happiness and well-being; and the majestic slowness that appears in the plan of God's administration of the world, is but a reflection of the nature of its divine author,, with whom a thousand years are as one day. Starting, then, with the assumption, that the divine plan behoved to be of a progressive character, the nature of the connection we have found to exist between its earlier and later parts, discovers the perfect wisdom and foresight of God. The terminating point in the plan was what is called emphatically "the mystery of godliness,"--God manifest in the flesh for the redemption of a fallen world, and the establishment through all its borders of a kingdom of righteousness, that should not pass away. It was necessary that some intimation of this ulterior design should be given from the first, that the church might know whither to direct her expectations. Accordingly, the prophetic Word began to utter its predictions with the very entrance of sin. The first promise was given on the spot that witnessed the fall; and that a promise which contained, within its brief but pregnant meaning, the whole burden of redemption. As time rolled on, prophecy continued to add to its communications, having still for its grand scope and aim "the testimony of Jesus," And at length so express had its tidings become, and so plentiful its revelations, that when the purpose of the Father drew near to its accomplishment, the remnant of sincere worshippers were like men standing on their watch-towers, waiting and looking for the long-expected consolation of Israel; nor was there anything of moment in the personal history or work of the Son, of which it could not be written, It was so done, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.
It is plain, however, on a little consideration, that something more was needed than the simple announcements of prophecy. The church required training as well as teaching, and training of a very peculiar kind; for she had to be formed for receiving things "which men had not heard, nor had the ear perceived, neither had the eye seen--the things which God had prepared for those that waited for him," (Isa. Ixiv. 4.) "The new dispensation was to be wholly made up of things strange and wonderful; all that is seen and heard of it is contrary to carnal wisdom, The appearance of the Son of God in a humble condition--the discharge by him in person of a Gospel ministry, with its attendant circumstances--his shame and sufferings--his resurrection and ascension into heaven--the nature of the kingdom instituted by him, which is spiritual--the blessings of his kingdom, which are also spiritual--the instruments employed for advancing the kingdom, men devoid of worldly learning, and destitute of outward authority--the gift of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of so many among the Jewish people:--these, among other things, were indeed such as the carnal eye had never seen, and the carnal ear had never heard; nor could they without express revelation, by any thought or natural ingenuity on the part of man, have been foreseen or understood," [5] But lying thus so far beyond the ken of man's natural apprehensions, and so different from what they were disposed of themselves to expect, if all that was done beforehand respecting them had consisted in the necessarily partial and obscure intimations of prophecy, there could neither have been any just anticipation of the things to be revealed, nor any suitable training for them; the change from the past to the future must have come as an irruption, and men could only have been brought by a sort of violence to submit to it.
To provide against this, there was required, as a proper accompaniment to the intimations of prophecy, the training of preparatory dispensations, that the past history and established experience of the church might run, though on a lower level, yet in the same direction with her future prospects. And what her circumstances in this respect required, the wisdom and foresight of God provided. He so sldlfully modelled for her the institutions of worship, and so wisely arranged the dealings of his providence, that there was constantly presented to her view in the outward and earthly things with which she was there conversant, the cardinal truths and principles of the coming dispensation. In every thing she saw and handled, there was something to mould her spirit into accordance with the realities of the Gospel; so that if she could not be said to live directly under "the powers of the world to come," she yet shared their secondary influence, being placed amid the signs and shadows of the true, and conducted through earthly transactions that bore on them the image of the heavenly.
It is to this preparatory training, as being on the part of God sufficiently protracted and complete, that we are to regard the apostle as chiefly referring, when he speaks of Christ having appeared, "when the fulness of the time was come" (Gal. iv. 4). Chiefly, though not by any means exclusively. For there is a manifold wisdom in all God's arrangements. In the moral as well as in the physical world he is ever making numerous operations conspire to the production of one result, and one result to serve many important ends. It is, therefore, a most fit and proper object of inquiry to search and consider how many lines there were in the world's condition, that opportunely met at the time of Christ's appearing, and together rendered it above all others the best suited for the institution of his kingdom, and most advantageous for the diffusion of its truths and blessings among the nations of the earth. But whatever light may be gathered from these external researches, it should never be forgotten that God's own record must furnish the main grounds for determining the special fitness of the selected time, and the position of his church the paramount reason. In everything that essentially affects the interests of the church, therefore pre-eminently in what concerns the manifestation of Christ, which is the centre-point of all that touches her interests, the state and condition of the church herself is ever the first thing contemplated by the eye of God; the rest of the world holds but a secondary and subordinate place. And so, when we are told that Christ appeared in the fulness of time, the fact, of which we are mainly assured, is, that all was done which was fit and necessary to be done for bringing the church into a state of preparedness for the time of his appearing. Not only had the period anticipated by prophecy arrived, and believing expectation, mounting on the ladder of prophecy, reached its proper height, but also the long series of preliminary arrangements and dealings was now complete, which were designed to make the church familiar with the fundamental truths and principles of Messiah's kingdom, and prepare her for the erection of this kingdom with its divine realities and eternal prospects. Nor do we need to make any exception to this in behalf of the long period that reached from the Babylonish exile to the advent of Christ; for however this may seem at first sight to have been a period chiefly of disaster and inaction, it is found on more careful consideration to have been, in other respects, one of active and powerful influence--one peculiarly fitted to complete the training of the covenant-people, and dispose aright both their minds and their persons for the new era that awaited them.
It is true that we search in vain for the general and widespread success, which we might justly expect to have arisen from the plan of God, and to have made conspicuously manifest its infinite wisdom. With the exception of a comparatively small number, the professing church was found so completely unprepared for the doctrine of Christ's kingdom, as to reject it with disdain, and oppose it with unrelenting violence. But this neither proves the absence of the design, nor the unfitness of the means for carrying it into effect. It only proves how insufficient the best means are of themselves to enlighten and sanctify the human mind, when it becomes set upon objects that fall in with its own carnal views and prejudices---proves how the heart may remain essentially untaught, even after undergoing the most perfect course of instruction, and may remain wedded to error and corruption. But while we cannot overlook the fatal ignorance and perversity that pervaded the mass of the Jewish people, we are not to forget that there still was among them a pious remnant, "the election according to grace," who, as the church in the world, so they in the church ever occupy the foremost place in the mind and purposes of God. In the bosom of the Jewish church, as is justly remarked by Thiersch, there lay a domestic life so pure, noble, and tender, that it could yield such a person as the holy Virgin, and could furnish an atmosphere in which the Son of God might grow up sinless from childhood to manhood, There was Simeon and Anna, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the company of .apostles, the converts, no small number after all, who flocked to the standard of Jesus, as soon as the truths of his salvation came to be fully known and understood, and the believing Jews and proselytes scattered abroad, who, in almost every city, were ready to form the nucleus of a Christian church, and greatly facilitated its extension in the world. Did not the course of God's preparatory dispensations reach its end in regard to these? We have only to look for the answer to the style "of argument and address used by the apostles. How much do both their language and their ideas savour of the sanctuary! How constantly do they throw themselves back for illustration and support, not only on the prophecies, but also on the sacred annals and institutions of the Old Testament! They spake and reasoned on the assumption, that the revelations of the Gospel were but a new and higher exhibition of the principles, which appeared alike in the events of their past history and the services of their religious worship, An appropriate language was already furnished by means of these to their hand, through which they could discourse aright of spiritual and divine things. But more than that, as they had no new language to invent, so they had no new ideas to discover, or unheard-of principles to promulgate. The scheme of truth, which they were called to expound and propagate, had its foundations already laid in the whole history and constitution of the Jewish commonwealth. In labouring to establish it, they felt that they were treading in the footsteps, and, on a higher vantage-ground, maintaining the faith of their illustrious fathers. In short, they appear as the heralds and advocates of a cause, which, in its essential principles, had its representation in all history, and gathered as into one glorious orb of truth the scattered rays of light and consolation, which had been emanating from the ways of God since the world began. Thus wisely were the different parts of the divine plan adjusted to each other; and, for the accomplishment of what was required, the training by means of types could no more have been dispensed with, than the glimpse-like visions and hopeful intimations of prophecy.
1. Vetus Testamentum reete intelligentibus prophetia est Novi Testament! (Contra Faust. L. xv. 2.) And again, Ille apparatus veteris Testament! in generationibus, factis etc. parturiebat esse venturam (Ib. L. xix. 31.)
2. Some notice was taken tovyard the close of the Introduction of the change that has for some time been in progress on the Continent regarding the Typology of Scripture generally. In connection with the particular branch of it considered above, the folloAV- ing quotation (given by Hartmann in his Verbimmng des Alten Test, mit den Newen, p. 6, from a German periodical) may serve both as a specimen of the improved tone of thinking on the subject of Old Testament history, and its connection with the Gospel. " Must not Judaism be of great moment to Christianity, since both stand in brotherly and sisterly relations to each other? The historical books of the Hebrews are also religious books; the religious import is involved in the historical. The history of the people, as a divine leading and management in respect to them, was at the same time a training for religion, precisely as the Old Testament is a preparation for the New." To the same effect also Jacobi, as quoted by Sack, Apologetik, p. 356, on the words of Christ, that " as the serpent was lifted up, so must the Son of Man be lifted up," (v-^u&yiw-i ^T): " History is also prophecy. The past contains within itself the future as an embryo, and at certain points, discernible by the spiritual eye, the greater, as in an image, is seen represented in the smaller, the internal in the external, the present or future in the past. Here there is nothing whatever arbitrary; throughout there is a divine must, connection, and arrangement, pregnant with mutual relations." More recently still Hofmann, in his Weissagung und Erfiillung, has given peculiar prominence to this view of Old Testament history; though he has nearly neutralized the benefit by the false views with which he has mixed it up. To these we shall probably refer afterwards. It is well, however, to hear him speaking of " the whole Old Testament history being a vaticinium reale respecting the New," and of history and prophecy being the two great component-factors in a preparatory economy.
3. Delitzsch, Biblisch-prophetische Theologie, p. 232. "
4. See Appendix A,
5. Vitringa on Isa. lxiv. 4.