venant is of no effect. In a word, the gospel, we may be affured, was graciously intended for our greatest good; but we may change it, if we please, into the sentence of our condemnation.

(14)

L

SERMON II.

JOHN, iii. 14.

AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, EVEN SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP; THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH ON HIM, SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.

We are here referred to a very extraordinary WE transaction, which is related in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Numbers; and in the words I have juft read to you, is applied by our bleffed Saviour as a type of his death and atonement, which are always confidered in fcripture as fimilar expreffions. For your inftruction, therefore, on this fubject, I fhall endeavour to explain to you, first, what is meant by a type; and Secondly, how the lifting up of

1

the brazen ferpent is a type of the death and atonement of Chrift.

In order to prove the truth of the Christian religion, and to prepare men for it, it pleased God, many ages before Jefus Christ appeared, to inspire holy men with the fpirit of prophecy, (as I endeavoured to fhew you in my last discourse,) to give notice of his coming. The Bible is full of these prophecies.-But ftill, to render the proof from prophecy yet ftronger, it pleafed God to give mankind not only written prophecies, but the prophecy likewise of types.

A written prophecy differs from a prophecy by a type in this; the one is a prophecy by wordsthe other by actions. Thus the prophet Isaiah fpeaking of Chrift's death, fays his foul (that is his life) fhall be made an offering for fin. This is a prophecy of our Saviour's death in words. In another part of fcripture we read, that Abraham was ordered to facrifice his only fon Ifaac. This was a prophecy of Chrift's death by an actionthat is, by a type. Again, David prophefying of Chrift's refurrection, fays, Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, (that is, in the grave,) neither will thou fuffer thy holy One to see corruption. This

is a prophecy in words. In another part of fcripture we read, that Jonah was fwallowed by a great fish, and remained three days and three nights in its belly; and afterwards came to light. This is a prophecy of our Saviour's refurrection by an action that is by a type.

Here you will fay the action or type is of a very wonderful nature.

Indeed it is but you must consider, that as the refurrection of our Saviour on the third day was a wonderful event, the prophetic type of this event must be wonderful alfo, or it could not represent what it was intended to represent. In fhort, the power of God in this case wrought a miracle, to give us the prophetic type of a miraculous event.

But here a difficulty may arife. A written prophecy in its nature, is more plain. A virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon, is a prophecy as appropriate to Chrift's birth as words can make it. But a type is more liable to mistake. One action may be like another in many circumftances; and yet there may be no relation be tween them.-It is true. I fhall endeavour therefore to fhew you on what grounds an action may be called a prophetic type. With regard for

inftance

inftance to Jonah; his being buried three nights and three days in the whale, and then coming to light, bears a strong resemblance, it is cer tain, to our Saviour's rising again on the third day but this resemblance alone is not a fufficient ground to adopt the story of Jonah as a type. Something else is required.

We expect, in the firft place, that an action, in order to be confidered as a type, fhould be exprefsly marked, and applied as fuch by fome inspired perfon. Thus Jonah is exprefsly applied as a type by our Saviour himself. When the Pharifees asked him for a fign, he tells them he would give them no fign, but the fign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; fo fhall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

But fecondly, tho' an action may not be expressly applied as a type by any inspired person; yet still it may be confidered as one, if it stand connected with a number of other actions of a like kind, which are themselves applied as types. Thus we confider the facrifices, and atoning rites of the Jewish law, as types, or typical prophecies, of our Saviour's atonement for fin; VOL. I.

most