ESSAY ON TYPES.

INTRODUCTION.

THE history of the world offers to our view two great Dispensations, which claim their origin from God, the Jewish and the Christian. From the records which belong to them, we are enabled to judge of the claims and authority of each, and to estimate the reality of that connexion between the two, which the Christian scheme asserts. For, to the Christian view, these two dispensations are parts of one connected plan, which has been in progress from the beginning of the world; the end and object of both being the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ.

The writings of the New Testament relate a variety of miraculous works, sufficient in themselves to establish the fact, that Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher sent from God': the books in which

1 John iii. 2. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

these accounts are found, are themselves authenticated by competent testimony; they are witnessed by the blood of many who died for the profession of belief in the facts here recorded; they are quoted as true histories by writers of all ages, from the time when they were published to the present day; they are confirmed by the unsuspected testimony of authors unconnected with Christianity.

But further, these books contain frequent references to the writings of the Old Testament, and assert the fulfilment of many ancient promises in the person of Jesus. We find him declaring, that the Scriptures testify of himself; and his followers are often engaged in proving by the same Jewish Scriptures, that Jesus is the promised Messiah or Christ. Such is the connexion alleged between the records of the Old and New Testaments; a connexion of prophecy on the one hand, and of fulfilment on the other; the argument drawn from this correspondence is one of the main pillars of the Christian's faith.

We take our stand on the undisputed fact, that about the time of the birth of Jesus, a strong expectation prevailed over all the east, of a Prince who should arise out of Judæa at that very time, and obtain dominion over the world. This we learn

from heathen writers', who inform us further, that this expectation was derived from the ancient Scriptures of the Jewish priests, which do undoubtedly foretel the coming of a Deliverer or Prince. It remains to shew that the promises of the Old Testament have had their real fulfilment in Jesus; that He whom the Romans despised, and the Jews rejected, was in truth the expected Prince, the end and accomplishment of all the ancient hopes and long-recorded prophecies.

The predictions of the Messiah in the Old Testament are frequent and various; God at sundry times spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets; by the mouth of many witnesses the sufferings and triumphs of the Saviour of the world were declared, many ages before their completion. But besides the direct method of verbal prediction, we maintain that in many of the remarkable characters, events, and ordinances, recorded in the Old Testament, a similarity and reference may be traced to the life and death of Jesus; and a manifest design that the events which happened under the earlier dispensation should prefigure and pourtray the characteristics of the Messiah. We undertake to shew that the events of the Gospel history not only fulfilled prophetic words, but also accomplished prophetic facts.

1 Tacit. Hist. V. 13. Sueton. Vesp. cap. 4—8.