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sion of the coming to pass of these ancient events, or on his speaking of these events, celebrating or promising them, he takes occasion to speak of these latter and greater events, joining what is declared of the one with what he reveals of the other in the same discourse; which is an argument that one has relation to the other, and is the image of the other. Thus the Spirit of God, when speaking by Balaam, took occasion, when celebrating the wonderful work of God in bringing them out of Egypt, to foretel that great salvation that God should work for his people by the Messiah. Num. xxiii. 23. So the Spirit of God in Nathan, when speaking of the glorious reign of Solomon and his building an house to God's name, and promising these things to David, 2 Samuel vii., takes occasion to foretel and promise the more glorious and everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, as it is evident that David understood the words of Nathan by what he says in chapter xxiii., and in the book of Psalms; and as it is evident from many things in the prophets, the Spirit of God intended them. From the ark's being carried up into mount Sion, and the great joy and privileges of Israel consequent thereupon, the spirit took occasion to speak very much of the exaltation of the Messiah, and the glorious privileges of his people consequent thereupon; as in 1 Chron. xvi. 736, especially from verse 22. So in Psalm lxviii. which was penned or indited on occasion of the ascension of the ark into mount Sion, as any one may be satisfied by duly considering the matter of the psalm, especially verses 25-29, and by comparing the first and seventh verses of this psalm with Num. x. 35, and by comparing many passages in this psalm with many parts of that song of David, on occasion of the carrying up the ark that is recorded in 1 Chron. xvi. Again on this occasion the Spirit of God speaks of the things of the Messiah in Psalm cxxxii., which was penned on that occasion, as is very plain from the matter of the psalm, and by comparing verses, 8, 9, 10, 11, with 2 Chron. vi. 41, 42.

From David's great victories over the Syrians and Edomites, the Spirit of God takes occasion to speak much of the victories of the Messiah in Psalms lx. and cviii. Psalm lxxii., which is evidently a remarkable prophecy of the Messiah, was written on occasion of the introducing of Solomon to the throne of Israel, as is evident from the title, together with the first verse of the psalm.

So the Spirit of God does abundantly take occasion to foretel and promise the redemption of the Messiah, and the overthrow of his people's enemies by him; from these two events, the destruction of Sennacherib's army, and the deliverance of Jerusalem

from him, and likewise the destruction of Babylon, and the redemption of the Jews from their Babylonish captivity.

Not only does God take occasion from these historical events to speak of the great events that appertain to the Messiah's coming and salvation; but with regard to several of them, he manifestly speaks of both under one; the same words have respect to both events. One is spoken of under the other, as though one were contained in the other; or as though one were the other, which can be no other way, than by one being the type or representation of the other in that sense wherein David said the waters of the well of Bethlehem was the blood of those men that bought it in jeopardy of their lives; as the beasts Daniel saw are said to be kingdoms and the horns to be kings, and as Ezekiel's hair is said to be Jerusalem. Ezek. v. 5.

Thus Balaam prophesied of David who smote the four corners of Moab, and of the Messiah, under one. So it is most manifest that the peace and glory of Solomon's reign, and that of the reign of the Messiah, are spoken of under one. Psalm lxxii. And that the ascending of the ark into mount Sion and the ascension of the Messiah are also spoken of under one in Psalm lxviii.

Some of the historical events of the Old Testament, if they are not typical, must needs be very impertinently taken notice of in the history; as David's sacrificing when they had gone six paces with the ark; 2 Sam. vi. 13. It must be both insignificantly done and impertinently related in the history, unless there be some signification of some important thing in it. So the relation of there being twelve fountains of water and threescore and ten palm-trees.

The remarkable similitude there is between many of the events in the Old Testament, both miraculous and others, and the prophetical descriptions of events relating to the Messiah, is an argument that the former were designed resemblances of the latter. God's causing the light to shine out of darkness, as Moses gives us an account of it in the history of the creation, has a great similitude with what is foretold to come to pass in the Messiah's times. Isaiah xlii. 16. "I will make darkness light before them." Isaiah ix. 2. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Isaiah. xxix. 18. "The eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." So there is a great resemblance between the account Moses gives us of a river that ran through the midst of Eden to water the trees of paradise, and the descriptions which the prophets give of what should be in the Messiah's times; as Ezek. xlvii. 7. "Now when I had returned, be

hold at the bank of the river were very many trees, on the one side and on the other." Ver. 12. "And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed." Isaiah xli. 18, 19. "1 will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree and the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together." Compared with Isaiah li. 3. "The Lord will comfort Sion-and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." Ezek. xxxvi. 35. "This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;" and Psalm xlvi. 4. "There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God;" taken with Num. xxiv. 5, 6. "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth; as the gardens by the river side; as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar-trees beside the waters ;" and Jer. xxxi. 12. "And their soul shall be like a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all." So between what we are told of the tree of life in Eden, (which being in the midst of the garden, we have reason to think was by the river,) and the representations made of what should be in the Messiah's times, Ezek. xlvii. 9. 12, "Every thing that liveth, which moveth whithersoever the river shall come shall live. Every thing shall live whither the river cometh. And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months. The fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine."

The things that we have an account of in Moses's history of the deluge, have a great resemblance of many of the Old Testament representations of things that shall be brought to pass in the time of the Messiah's kingdom. That destruction of the wicked world by a flood of waters is very agreeable to the Old Testament representation of the future destruction that shall come on all God's enemies, and particularly in the Messiah's days. The wicked of the old world were destroyed by a dreadful tempest. So it is said concerning the ungodly, Job xxvii. 20, 21. Terrors take hold on him as waters; a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth; a storm hurleth him out of his place." Sorrow and misery is very often represented by overwhelming waters, and God's wrath by waves and billows. Ps. xlii. 7, and

lxxxviii. 7. The waters of the flood did not only overwhelm the wicked, but came into their bowels. God's wrath on the ungodly is compared to this very thing. Ps. cix. 18. "As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, so let it come into his bowels like water." In the time of the flood the waters were poured down out of heaven like spouts or cataracts of water. God's wrath is compared unto this, Ps. xlii. 7. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts." The waters of the deluge were what the ungodly of the world could not escape, or hide themselves from them by resorting to caves in the ground, or digging deep in the earth, or flying to the tops of mountains; so likewise is the matter represented with respect to God's wrath on the ungodly, in Isaiah xxviii. 17. "The waters shall overflow the hiding-place;" and Amos ix. 1, 2. “He that fleeth of them shall not flee away: he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them: though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence" and so in many other places. Particularly is there a great resemblance between the destruction that was brought on the wicked world by the flood, and what is foretold of the wicked in the Messiah's times; as in Isaiah xxiv. 18, 19, 20. "And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear, shall fall into a pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit, shall be taken in the snare." (So that there shall be no escaping, let them flee where they will, as it was in the time of the deluge.) "For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved; the earth is moved exceedingly-and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it." There is not only a resemblance between this representation of the punishment of the wicked world in the Messiah's days, and the history of the flood, but here seems to be an evident allusion to the flood, and a designed comparison of that destruction of God's enemies, and what was in the time of the flood, when we are told the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, &c. So the destruction of God's enemies in the Messiah's times is represented as being by a flood. Dan. ix. 26. "And the end thereof, shall be with a flood ;" and to a flood occasioned by a mighty rain. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. "I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain." There is also a remarkable agreement between what we are told in Moses's history of the preservation of those that were in the ark, and what is often declared in Old Testa

ment prophecies concerning the preservation and salvation of the church by the Messiah. Isai. xxxii., at the beginning. "A man shall be a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest." Isa. iv. 6. "And there shall be a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm, and from rain." Isa. xxv. 4. "Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm-when the blast of the terrible ones is as the storm against the wall." Psa. xlvi. 1, 2, 3. "God is our refuge and strength, we will not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea," (as they in a sense were in the flood. They were in the midst of the sea; the sea surrounded and overwhelmed them.) "Though the waters thereof roar and are troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." Isai. xliii. 2. "When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee:" compare these texts with Psalm xxxii. 6. "Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come nigh thee," and Psalm xci. 7. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thouand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." We may suppose that there was a resorting and flocking of animals from all parts of the world, such as are proper to hot countries, from the south; and such as dwell in colder climates from the north. And as there are many countries that have their peculiar kinds of animals; so we may suppose there was a resorting from every quarter. A resorting of beasts and a flocking of birds, which is a lively resemblance of what is often foretold of the gathering of God's people into his church from all quarters in the Messiah's days, and coming to him for salvation when all the ends of the earth should look to him to be saved. Isaiah xlv. 22. When God should bring the seed of his church from the east, and gather them from the west, and would say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Isaiah xliii. 6, 7, and many other parallel places. And God would gather his people from all countries, agreeably to many prophecies, and it shall be said, Who are those that fly as a cloud and as doves to their windows? The gathering of all kinds of creatures to the ark, clean and unclean, tame and wild, gentle and rapacious, innocent and venomous; tygers, wolves, bears, lions, leopards, serpents, vipers, dragons; and the door of the ark standing open to them, and their all dwelling there peaceably together under one head, even Noah, who kindly received them and took care of them, fed and saved them, and to whom they tamely submitted, is a lively representation of what is often foretold concerning the Messiah's days, when it is foretold, that not only the Jews should be saved

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