"edness, therefore O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the "oil of gladness above thy associates." See Heb. i. 8. note 1.

9. The fifth allegorical or typical person spoken of in scripture, is the son of the prophetess whose birth was foretold, Isa. vii. 14. "The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold a virgin "shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Im"manuel. 15. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may "know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16. For before "the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, "the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her "kings."-B. Lowth says this passage should be translated in the following manner. "Behold this virgin shall conceive, and "bear a Son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel: butter " and honey shall he eat when he shall know to refuse evil and "choose good. For before this child shall know to refuse evil ❝ and choose good, the land shall be desolate, by whose two kings "thou art distressed." On Isaiah page 63.-Lowth adds, " Har"mer has clearly shewn, that these articles of food (butter and "honey) are delicacies in the east ; and as such denote a state "of plenty, See also Josh. v. 6. They therefore naturally ex66 press the plenty of the country, as a mark of peace restored to "it." And in confirmation of his opinion, he cites Jarchi, " Bu

tyrum et mel comedet infans iste, quoniam terranostra plena "erit omnis boni." He then proceeds thus, page 64. "Agree❝ably to the observations communicated by the learned person "above mentioned (Harmer) which perfectly well explain the "historical sense of this much disputed passage, not excluding

a higher secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of "the prophecy is this, That within the time that a young woman, "now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a child, and that "child should arrive at such an age as to distinguish between good and evil, that is, within a few years (compare viii. 4.) the "enemies of Judah should be destroyed." And to shew that this prophecy actually hath a higher secondary meaning, that learned expositor reasons as follows: "But the prophecy is "introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign is so marked, as "a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz had "rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the "whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so "peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing "in them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a VOL. VI.

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❝ common child required, or even admitted; that we may easily 66 suppose, that, in minds prepared by the general expectation " of a great deliverer to spring from the house of David, they "raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested: ❝ especially when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, "delivered immediately afterward, this child called Immanuel "is treated as the Lord and prince of the land of Judah.”— (Chap. viii. 8.) To the things mentioned by Lowth, I add, that the account of the character and actions of this child given, Isa. ix. 5. is by no means applicable to the Son of the prophetess, unless as a type of the divine person who was to be the deliverer of the people of God. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son ❝is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and "his name shall be called wonderful, counsellor, the mighty "God, the everlasting father, the Prince of Peace. 7. Of the "increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, "and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from hence"forth even for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform "this."

That the prediction of a virgin's conceiving and bearing a Son who was to be called Immanuel, was at that time understood to be a promise of the birth of a great and even a divine person, B. Lowth says, may be collected with great probability from "a passage of Micah, a prophet contemporary with Isaiah, but "who began to prophesy after him; and who, as I have already

observed, imitated him, and sometimes used his expressions. "Micah having delivered that remarkable prophecy, which de"termines the place of the birth of Messiah the ruler of God's "people, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting, that "it should be Bethlehem Ephrata; adds immediately, that never"theless in the mean time God would deliver his people into "the hands of their enemies; he will give them up, till she who “is to bear a child shall bring forth, Micah v. 3. This obviously "and plainly refers to some known prophecy concerning a "woman to bring forth a child; and seems much more properly " applicable to this passage of Isaiah, than to any other of the "same prophet, to which some interpreters have applied it. St. "Matthew therefore, in applying this prophecy to the birth of "Christ, chap. i. 22, 23. does it not merely in accommodating the "words of the prophet to a suitable case not in the prophet's view, "but takes it in its strictest, clearest, and most important sense,

" and applies it according to the original design and principal

10. The sixth allegorical or typical person mentioned in scripture, is the prophet Jonah, whose preservation in the belly of the whale during three days and three nights, and his being after that vomited up alive, Christ himself declares was a type of his own continuance in the grave, and of his subsequent resurrection from the dead. Matt. xii. 39. "An evil and adulterous gene"ration seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to "it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40. 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." Farther by saying, Luke xi. 30. "As Jonah "was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man "be to this generation;" our Lord insinuated that as the miraculous preservation of Jonah in the whale's belly, when related to the Ninevites, induced them to give credit to the message which he brought to them from God, so Christ's resurrection from the dead preached to mankind by his apostles, would induce many to believe on him as the Son of God. Wherefore in both

these particulars, Jonah was a type of Christ.

II. Having said thus much concerning persons, who in their natural characters, and actions, and fortunes, are declared to have been types of future persons and events, it remains to speak of events happening to the ancient church and people of God, which by the circumstances wherewith they were accompanied, are shewed to have been typical of greater events that were to happen to the people of God under the gospel dispensation. Now concerning these Ive two observations to make. The first is, that the things respecting the ancient people of God which prefigured the greater things to happen to the people of God under the gospel dispensation, were in some instances foretold before they happened to the ancient people. My second observation is, that the prediction of these figurative events were also predictions of the events which they prefigured. Of this double sense of prophecy various instances might be given. Suffice it however to mention one instance only; namely, the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, and their restoration to the land of Canaan. These, though natural events, prefigured the much greater and more important deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin, and their introduction into the heavenly Canaan. For, in the writings of the evan

gelists, passages of the prophecies which foretold the deliverance from Babylon, are applied to that greater deliverance. For example, Isa. xl. 2, 3. is said by Matthew, chap. iii. 3. and by our Lord himself, Matt. xi. 10. to have been fulfilled by John Baptist's preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Yet these verses in their first and literal meaning, evidently relate to the return of the Jews from Babylon. For Isaiah, in the end of chap. xxxix. having foretold that all the riches of his palaces, which Hezekiah had from pride shewn to the messengers of the king of Babylon, should be carried away to Babylon, and that his sons should be carried thither captives, and made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon, the prophet in this xlth chapter mitigated the severity of that prediction by foretelling, that whilst the Jews were oppressed with the miseries of their captivity, God would order his prophets who were among them to comfort his people, by assuring them that their captivity would at length come to an end; because considering their sufferings as a sufficient punishment for their sins as a nation, he would pardon and restore them to their own land, ver. 2. "Speak ye "comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is "accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath "received of the Lord's hands double for all her sins." The people in Babylon being thus assured that they were to be brought back to Judea, "the first thought," as B. Lowth observes, "which would occur to the captives, would be the difficulty and "danger of their passing through the deserts of Arabia, where "the nearest way from Babylon to Jerusalem lay." Wherefore the prophets in Babylon, to remove the fears of the people, were ordered to assure them, that by whatever road they should return, it would be made commodious for their safe passage. And this assurance the prophets would give them, in language taken from the custom of the eastern princes, who, when they were about to march with their armies through difficult roads, sent pioneers before them to widen the narrow passes, to fill up hollows, to level the heights, and to smooth the rough ways through which they were to march, ver. 3. "The voice of one "crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; "make straight in the desert an high way for our God. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill "shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, "and the rough places plain." By these images the prophets intimated, that God was to march from Babylon at the head of

the

4.

his people, to protect them during their journey, and to bring them safely into Judea. These things are more plainly expressed, Isa. lii. 12. "Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of "Israel will be your rere-ward."

But although this whole prophecy, in its first and literal meaning, evidently related to the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, the application of the above cited passage to the preaching of John Baptist by the evangelist Matthew, and by our Lord himself, sheweth plainly that the prophecies, concerning the deliverance of the people of God from the Babylonish captivity, had a second and higher meaning, of which the literal sense was the sign. By foretelling the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, these prophecies foretold the deliverance of mankind from the infinitely worse bondage of sin. Moreover, the comnand to the prophets in Babylon to comfort God's people by announcing that their sins were pardoned, and that they were soon to be brought back to their own land, was a command to the ministers of the gospel in every age to comfort penitent believers, by assuring them that their sins shall be pardoned; and that Christ will bring them safely into the heavenly country, (of which the restoration of the Jews to Canaan was an emblem and pledge,) because he hath successfully removed all obstacles out of their way. The preparation of the way of the Lord among the Jews by the preaching of John Baptist, was fitly expressed by the voice of one crying in the wilderness. For, as Lowth observes on Isaiah, p. 188. "The Jewish church to "which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was "at that time in a barren and desert condition; unfit, without "reformation, for the reception of her king. It was in this de"sert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, "in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to "prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance."

Many other examples of prophecies might be mentioned, in which the return of the Jews from Babylon was foretold, and of which passages are applied, by the writers of the New Testament, to the redemption of mankind from the bondage of sin. But the one explained above, may suffice as a proof of what is called the double sense of prophecy, in which the obvious literal sense exhibits a second and higher meaning: So that these prophecies, properly speaking, are true allegories.