water, fowing, building, making of war, &c. though he applies, as the prophets had done before, all those terms in the manifeftation of his witnefs-bearing to the truth. But why feek farther for a proof and illuftration of this point, than thofe very Pfalms in difpute? Take Pfalm xviii. for an example of the weaknefs of your objection; the title is allowed good, 2 Sam. xxii. 1. yet you have feen the interpretation the apoftle hath eftablished, without any relation at all to the title or occafion of its being written ; which fhould have fixed the fenfe to David's own circumftances, as you alledge. Indeed the title itfelf, wherein David is called the fervant of the Lord, might have led us to think of fome other one, than David; for the fervants or prophets of the Lord ufed not to be infpired to make declarations of their own fufferings and glory. What they themselves at the time understood of the meaning, is of no importance for us to know, were it in our power to fearch it out. Perhaps they knew little more of it than of an affect ing dream or parable, whofe meaning, in the time of God's good pleafure, was afterwards to be discovered by the interpretation. Peradventure, the apo ftles were the first who knew it. Certainly they were, in any thing of a full fenfe. The Holy Ghoft was given in vain, if the leaft one in the kingdom of heaven were not to know the meaning of their prophecies better than the greatest prophet of them all, whofe faith and patience with their fellow-faints were fuftained by the profpect of fomething afar off, carrying their eyes beyond the things which were then prefent, to the futurities, which are now come, which they faw in the dark, like a light at a difiance, pointing out their own habitation, that they might not, like bewildered, defpairing, over-fatigued tra vellers, fall down and reft on the fpot where they were, before they came to their appointed place! When David was purfued by Saul, by Doeg, by Abfalom, d 2 Abfalom, by Shimei, when skulking in the wildernefs like a partridge on the mountains of Ifrael, befet by the Ziphites, infulted by Nabal, hunted on every fide like a wild beaft, ready to fall into every fnare, trembling for his father's family, and all Ifrael whom he loved, in jeopardy every moment of his life, entangled in the thickeft thorns of perplexity, not knowing to-day how to escape to-morrow Was it unlike God to fhew him, and by him all the twelve tribes, in the glafs of a new revelation, on each of those occafions, fome part of the fufferings of the Melliah and of his glory, for his and their comfort, till the defire of their hearts fhould come? In like manner, in the time of profperity, left temporal victories and deliverances fhould be taken for the fulness of their joy, and embraced as the accomplishment of the promifes made to the fathers, they were fhewed, as a proper antidote to fuch earthly infections, the glories of the Meffiah's reign, fucceeding to his fufferings. Has it not always been the way of our heavenly Father to lifp, as it were, and act the child with his children, fpeaking to men, in the language of men, the things of God; and to every nation and people, according to the natural confusion of their own language and apprehenfions; that light, and spirit, and heaven, might arife upon them, like the fun out of darkness, by the just degrees of his own decree, till the fulness of glory thould blaze out in meridian fplendour? Hence, in the days of David, Saul, Doeg, Shimei, Abfalom, Goliah, dogs, bulls, lions, wolves, bears, ferpents, vipers, unicorns, afps, were proper language for defcribing traitors, and falfe brethren, chief priefts and rulers of the people, scribes and pharifees, Herod, Pontius Pilate, foldiers, thieves, murderers, flanderers, falfe witneffes, devils; who all fwarmed about the bleffed Lord to deftroy him, and in him his church. 34 50 Q: If If this way of interpretation is not allowed, you muft fay, the Father of our fpirits has been but trifling with us; and that he only meant to fhew us earthly things, because he only used, in all his reve-. lations to us, our own earthly language, the only one he has given us to understand. Would not this way of yours make the hiftory of the fall an old. wife's tale, or fomething fillier? as if the ferpent had been merely and literally that animal so called, without any evil spirit informing and actuating him.; though the devil is called, in plain allufion to this matter, the old crooked ferpent. Laftly, upon this point; We may fay of every thing that was prefent to David, the fathers, and all: the prophets, though the revelations to them run in: terms correfponding, indeed, to the language, and. manners, and things prefent with them, as God faid to Abraham concerning Ishmael, who was born, after the flesh, and not by promife, This is not thy • fon; but in Ifaac fhall thy feed be called:'-which feed was Chrift. Obj. 3. David was a type of Chrift; and therefore, though we do not deny there may be fomething of a fpiritual meaning in fome of the Pfalms relating to Chrift, yet there is always a true literal fenfe which we must keep by for our fpiritual edifica tion in Chrift, no, doubt! And if at any time, they are applied to Chrift, it is only by way of accommodation, in a fecondary kind of fenfe; while! the genuine, original, primary fenfe is only true of the type, and not of the antitype. Anf. That David, being an anointed king, and prophet, had appointed him by the Lord an official part to act, in which fenfe the prielts and all the other kings and prophets of that nation, as well as he, might be called the visible reprefentatives, meflengers or officers of Chrift, is freely allowed; but that David (or any of them). in any other d 3 fenfe fenfe was a type of Chrift, fo as to have ftatés, frames, and experiences, fimilar to Chrift's, which were typical of Christ's states, frames, experiences, remains to be proved. Shew wherein David is, and wherein not, a type of Chrift; for that he cannot be fo always, is evident from Pfalm xl. where it is faid, I come to do thy will, O God-A body haft thou prepared me to wit, for a furifice or fin offering. How did David typically offer up himself a facrifice or fin-offering? or what greater likenefs had David to the. fufferings of Chrift and following glory, than thou fands of other believers before or fince his coming in the flesh? They were all ordained to fuffer with Chrift in this world, and to reign with him in the next; nay, not only to be as he was, in tribulation while in the body, but alfo to glory, triumph, and reign, even in that tribulation itfelf: for that when they glory, they glory not alone in the joy to come, but in thofe things alfo which concern their infirmities. Are the faints, therefore, because they have all their adverfity and profperity given them of God for their joy, and his own glory are they therefore all types of Chrift? But left you fay we mook, were all the Old-Teftament faints types of Chrift? How abfurd the suppofition! Why then fingle out David for a type, except you tell us where it is written? It is not fuppofed you would make him a type alfo in his murder and adultery, though you would do well to confider how far your argument would lead you. As to that fcheme of applying quotations from the Old Testament to Chrift only by way of accommodation, though all the doctors of the world were at it, as, alas! fome of them are, it is fuch an outrageous infult and burlesque put upon the Holy Ghoft, that it ought not even to be once named among faints as a thing poffible with God! It unhinges at one blow the whole Old Teftament and the New! It refts the veracity of all the prophets and apoftles, that is, of God, God, upon a mere moveable flip-board of diffimulation and deceit! So that, according to it, the gospel may be yet but a cunningly devifed fable, and not the accomplishment of the promifes made to the fathers! By the help of that fame accommodation of yours, a fharp wit might have taught the apostles to have established their doctrine as the fulfilment of ancient prophecies, from the tradition of the elders, fop's fables, or even Mahomet's Alcoran, had it then exifted, by taking fuitable paffages in those books, tearing them away from their original fenfe and connection, and framing them fo as to express another quite different meaning in the fame words; which is your famous accommodation! a business fuited only to the genius and abilities of that father of lies, who is faid to have folaced a congregation of witches, on the night before they were to be burnt, by preaching to them, from John xiv. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in GoD, believe alfo in ME;' meaning himself. But be that as it will, in his temptation of the Lord, and in all his temptations wherewith he tempts people by mifreprefenting the Scriptures, he difcovers, to thofe who are not ignorant of his devices, his abundant skill and addrefs at accommodating! Obj. 4. But many parts of the Pfalms are fuch, that it is impoffible to conceive how they can be in terpreted, as spoken of, or in the perfon of Christ,' Anf. This is fuch an objection as concludes with equal ftrength against what yourself muft allow to be the apoftolic application; all thofe things which you ignorantly boggle at, confeflions of fin, heavy complaints, prayers and fupplications for pardon and deliverance, thankfgivings and exultations for thefe, vehement expoftulations with God, with men, weigh, ty imprecations upon enemies, Jewish language and manners, (and do you fcruple at them in the Pfalms!), and the like, being all to be found in thofe very Pfalms |