LECTURE VI.

ON THE FIGURES OF THE SCRIPTURES WHICH ARE BORROWED FROM THE EVENTS OF THE SACRED HISTORY.

THE Scripture is the authentic history of God's Providence ever since man had a being; and in the conduct of God's Providence toward man, there is an uniformity of design which has proceeded according to the same laws of eternal justice and wisdom in all ages of the world: from which consideration it follows, that what God did in times past was an earnest, a pattern, and a sign, of what he might be expected to do in times to come. The godly were delivered, the wicked punished, the proud abased, the humble exalted, under like circumstances and after like forms at different periods of time. Thus it hath been, and thus it will be therefore things past are referred to in the scriptureas figures of things to come, and so the history of the bible becomes a chain of prophecy, and is actually applied as such by the scripture itself; as we shall see from a variety of examples.

I reckon two sorts of historical figures, the one general, the other particular; the former being refe rences to the history of places, and of such events as related to a people at large, or even to the whole world; the latter referring us to the lives, actions, sufferings and successes of individual persons. Thus the saints of old were prophetical in their actions as

well as in their words: of which some striking examples will occur to us as we proceed.

One of the most early and memorable events of the Scripture is that of the destruction of the world by the Flood; from which Noah and his family were saved in an Ark, supported by those same waters which destroyed the world of the ungodly. This history of the Salvation of Noah is applied by St. Peter as a figure of that Salvation which we now obtain as the family of Jesus Christ in the Ark of the Church by the waters of Baptism: the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. A like figure whereunto, even Baptism doth now save us by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ *. By which it is to be understood, that the salvation of Christians by Jesus Christ, and the salvation of Noah's family, are two events of the like form and figure; the former a sign of the latter. And a wonderful sign it was, if we look into the particulars. Here was a judgment which extended to a whole world; a condemnation that passed upon all, except those who were of the family of Noah: as the wrath of God and a future judgment upon sin, to be executed by fire, is denounced against all mankind, except those who shall belong to the family of Jesus Christ. As an ark was prepared by Noah, so hath Christ prepared his Church, to conduct us in safety through the waves of trouble and the perils of the world, in which so many are lost. And as the waters of the flood carried Noah and his family into a new world after the old was drowned; so do the waters

of baptism carry us into a new state with Jesus

1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.

Christ, who passed over the waves of death and is risen from the dead. And this practical inference is to be made in favour of the ordinance of the Church; that as the ark could not be saved but by water, so must all the Church of Christ be baptized. So plainly doth the whole figure speak the doctrine of the Christian Salvation, that it is applied for instruction in the office of baptism, where we are taught to pray that the child may be received into the Ark of Christ's Church, and therein pass through the waves of this troublesome world. Many other particulars belonging to this figure will explain themselves when the general sense of the figure is understood; and therefore I need pursue it no further.

The confusion of tongues, with the dispersion of the nations, is another great event, which comes next in order of time, and ought not to be unnoticed, because it was reversed when all the nations, so divided at Babel, were gathered together in one in Christ Jesus, to be a holy nation, a peculiar people; and the different languages which arose at Babel were all united in the tongues of the first preachers of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost. God being the fountain of truth and author of peace, his religion makes itself intelligible to all; but where there is disobedience of mind and wickedness of principle, there do confusion and division ensue, as in the first religious rebellion at Babel. Against such people, this judgment is denounced by the Psalmist; destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city *. The city of God is at unity with itself; but the city of the adversary, like Babel, the Mother of Harlots, is the citadel of dis

* Psalm lv. 9.

pute and division. The false wisdom of this world begins and ends (if error has any end) with disputation and opposition. We see an example of this in the multitude of gods, and the many strange rites of worship, with the endless oppositions of science falsely so called, which arose among the sects of the heathen philosophers when the Greek and Roman learning flourished: and (to come nearer our own times) in the multitude of sectaries and heresies which have arisen since the Reformation, in this country, amongst those who paid no regard to the doctrines and discipline of the primitive Church. In a word, all those who set up themselves, and affect high things, in opposition to the wisdom of God, are cursed with confusion; and there is no greater evidence of their error, than that they are never able to speak the same language.

After the events of the Flood, and the dispersion at Babel, the destruction of Sodom is to be understood as a sign or prophetic figure of the future destruction of the world by fire, together with the deliverance of the faithful after the example of Lot. This history is referred to in the 11th Psalm, where the wicked are threatened with fire and brimstone to be rained upon them from the Lord, as formerly upon Sodom. St. Jude in his Epistle warns us that Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And that short admonition of our Saviour, in one of his discourses, Remember Lot's Wife, teaches us what we ought to learn from the particulars of the story; that as the world shall be destroyed by fire like Sodom, so a remnant shall be saved by the divine mercy; and

* Jude 7.

that of those who are taken by the hand to follow their deliverer and to flee from the wrath to come (which is another allusion to the same event) some shall turn back in their hearts and affections toward this wicked world, and so be unfit for the kingdom of God: a circumstance which should be thought upon with fear and trembling: for consider how that unbelieving soul, by favouring what was evil, lost all that was good, when it was in her power to escape; as they will not fail to do, who either disbelieve God's judgment upon the world, or think the world undeserving of it, and so take part with the wicked against the justice of God. When times and places are evil, and wickedness prevails with a high hand, the universality and power of corruption is dreadful to think of. When the world was drowned, few, that is, eight Souls only were saved in the ark; and when Sodom was overthrown, a small remnant only were delivered: whence we are to expect, that as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed: confidence in this world and insolent disregard of truth and godliness shall generally prevail, and few indeed shall be left to receive him and escape with him when this Sodom wherein we now live shall be visited.

From a likeness of character in the Jewish people when they became abominable in their sins, the name of Sodom is given to their city, and they are threatened with the same fate. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah; saith the prophet Isaiah*. The prophet's message is to Judah and Jerusalem; the rulers and people of which being fallen into great

*Chap. i. 10.