Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

He fell into a trance: and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat, But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing, that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again, the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven.'

In this vision of Peter, no mention whatsoever is made of the Gentiles, except under their types, the unclean animals, Peter at first doubted, till the men, who were sent by Cornelius, had made inquiry for him: all his difficulties then vanished, and the meaning of the vision became evident, He tells Cornelius, Of a truth I perceive, that God is no respecter of persons; but, in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

*

The prophecy of Isaiah indeed is as yet only fulfilled in part. The lion and the bear, the leopard and the asp, have put aside their savage natures; but they have not hitherto lain down. with the ox and the kid. Nevertheless, in the fulness of time, they shall all make but one fold, under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Acts x, 10-16.

г

CHAP. III.

EMINENT CHARACTERS TYPICAL OF CHRIST.

THE life and office of the Messiah are not only described by the ceremonial observances of the Law, but they are also darkly exhibited in a long succession of typical characters from the very beginning of the world. In the shadows of the Levitical church, the chosen people of God beheld the realities of the Gospel; and, in the most illustrious of the Patriarchs, they contemplated the attributes of the expected Saviour of the world. The Lord of Life has now accomplished his mission, and has clearly shewn himself to be the end both of Patriarchism and of the Law. The obscurity of the two earlier dispensations is removed, and all the ancient Scriptures are found to preach the advent of a suffering Redeemer.'

'Luke xxiv. 27. See Chron. Pasch. p. 56. and Perizon. Orig, Babyl. c. 9.

I. The first typical delineation of Christ occurs, at the very beginning of the Pentateuch, in the character of our general parent.

Adam is the head of the natural world: Christ is the head of the spiritual world. Death was the result of Adam's transgression: life everlasting is the fruit of Christ's perfect obedience. The first Adam was made a living soul: the last Adam is a quickening spirit. As the one was prior to the other in point of time: so does the natural state of man precede his spiritual regeneration. All men bear the image of the earthy and all real Christians bear the image of the heavenly. For, as Adam is the natural father of the whole human species so is Christ the spiritual father of many. children.'

Nor are these the only points of similitude between the type and the antitype.

Adam was born from the virgin Earth, having God for his father: Christ was born from the virgin Mary, through the miraculous conception of the Holy Ghost." Adam was the husband of the universal great mother Eve; and his literal marriage is positively declared to be typical of the spiritual marriage of Christ: Christ is the husband of the universal great mother the Church; and his spiritual marriage is therefore the antitype of

I 1 Corinth. xv. 21, 22.

Ex virginis terræ limo factus Adam prævaricatione propria promissam perdidit vitam: per virginem Mariam ac Spiritum Sanctum Christus natus et immortalitatem accepit et regnum. Jul. Firm. de error. prof. rel. p. 51.

Adam's literal marriage. Adam was stung to death by the infernal serpent: Christ was stung to death by the same malignant being. Adam finally triumphed over it in the person of the second man, the Lord from heaven: Christ was that second man, destined to repair the error of the first. Adam was a king and a priest: Christ was like+ wise a king and a priest. Adam, if we view the antediluvian world, the postdiluvian world, and the future celestial world, as constituting three great days of Jehovah, died on one day, and will rise again from the dead on the third day: Christ was put to death on one day, and rose again triumphant from the grave on the third day after his crucifixion.

II. Descending a few generations from Adam, we meet with a second type of our blessed Saviour.

Enoch was a preacher of righteousness: Christ was also a preacher of righteousness, Enoch was a prophet, and foretold the day of judgment: Christ was a prophet, and foretold the same awful catastrophe. Enoch visibly ascended to heaven: Christ likewise visibly ascended to heaven from the summit of mount Olivet.

III. Another type of our Lord we meet with in the second great father of mankind, who held the same relation to the postdiluvian world that Adam did to the antediluvian world.

1

Noah was the parent, the husband, and the son,

Ephes. v. 25-32...

2 Jude 14, 15. Matt. xxiv, 29-33.

of the Ark: Christ is mystically the parent, the husband, and the son, of the Church; which the Ark, comprehending within its limits the holy family of God, is expressly declared to symbolize. Noah brought the Ark in safety through the raging waves of the sea: Christ steers the ship of the Church in safety through the boisterous waves of this troublesome world. The termination of the Ark's voyage was the earthly mount of Paradise; for it may be shewn, that the sacred garden coincided' geographically with Ararat: the terinination of the Church's voyage will be the spiritual Paradise.

2

So again: Noah's entrance into the Ark, and his liberation from it, doubly typified the baptismal submersion and emersion, and the burial and resurrection, of Christ whence these different circumstances are in Holy Writ perpetually spoken of by kindred terms; so that baptism is a death unto sin and a resurrection from the dead, while again the sufferings of our Lord are figuratively described as a baptism of which all his apostles were destined to partake. Now Christ was buried on one day, and rose again on the third: agreeably to which, his type Noah, a year (according to the oriental practice) being reckoned for a day, entered into his navicular tomb at the close of one year, remained

I 1 Peter iii. 20, 21.

2

See my Origin of Pagan Idol. b. ii. c. 1.

3 Rom. vi. 2-5, 11. viii. 10-13. Col. iii. 3. 1 Peter ii.

24. Ephes. v. 14.

39. Luke xii. 50.

Col. i. 18. Matt. xx. 22, 23. Mark x. 38,
Col. ii. 12.

« AnteriorContinua »