ment prophecies concerning the preservation and salvation of the church by the Messiah. Isai. xxxii., at the beginning. "A man shall be a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest." Isa. iv. 6. Isa. iv. 6. " And there shall be a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm, and from rain." Isa. xxv. 4. "Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm-when the blast of the terrible ones is as the storm against the wall." Psa. xlvi. 1, 2, 3. "God is our refuge and strength, we will not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea," (as they in a sense were in the flood. They were in the midst of the sea; the sea surrounded and overwhelmed them.) "Though the waters thereof roar and are troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." Isai. xliii. 2. “When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee:" compare these texts with Psalm xxxii. 6. "Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come nigh thee," and Psalm xci. 7. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thouand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." We may suppose that there was a resorting and flocking of animals from all parts of the world, such as are proper to hot countries, from the south; and such as dwell in colder climates from the north. And as there are many countries that have their peculiar kinds of animals; so we may suppose there was a resorting from every quarter. A resorting of beasts and a flocking of birds, which is a lively resemblance of what is often foretold of the gathering of God's people into his church from all quarters in the Messiah's days, and coming to him for salvation when all the ends of the earth should look to him to be saved. Isaiah xlv. 22. Isaiah xlv. 22. When God should bring the seed of his church from the east, and gather them from the west, and would say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Isaiah xliii. 6, 7, and many other parallel places. And God would gather his people from all countries, agreeably to many prophecies, and it shall be said, Who are those that fly as a cloud and as doves to their windows? The gathering of all kinds of creatures to the ark, clean and unclean, tame and wild, gentle and rapacious, innocent and venomous; tygers, wolves, bears, lions, leopards, serpents, vipers, dragons; and the door of the ark standing open to them, and their all dwelling there peaceably together under one head, even Noah, who kindly received them and took care of them, fed and saved them, and to whom they tamely submitted, is a lively representation of what is often foretold concerning the Messiah's days, when it is foretold, that not only the Jews should be saved

but unclean Gentile nations, when the gates of God's church should be open to all sorts of people, (Isai. Ix. 11, with the context,) when proclamation should be made to every one to come freely. Isai. Iv. 1-9. And God would abundantly pardon the wicked and unrighteous, ver. 6, 7, 8, 9, and would bring again even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters. Ezek. xvi. 53. And those nations should be gathered to God's church, to be one holy society with Israel that were wont to be their most cruel and inveterate enemies; such as the Egyptians; Psalm lxxxvii. 4, and lxviii. 31. Isai. xix. 18, to the end, and xlv. 14. The Philistines; Psa. lx. 8, and lxxxvii. 4. Zech. ix. 6, 7. The Chaldeans; Psa. lxxxvii. 4, and Assyrians; Isai. xix. 23, 24, 25; and the most wild and barbarous nations, Tabor and Hermon, that were noted haunts of wild beasts; Psa. lxxxvii. 12; Cant. iv. 8; Psa. xlii. 6. Hos. v. 1, and the nations of Arabia and Ethiopia, (in many places see fulfilment of prophecies of Messiah 160,) countries that abounded with the most rapacious, venomous and terrible animals. When it is foretold that the beasts of the field should honour God, and the dragons and the owls, Isa. xliii. 19, 20; and when it is foretold "that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain," Isai. xi. 6-9, and chap. lxv. 25, events under the Messiah's kingdom are intended. The ark was a great while tossed to and fro on the face of the flood, ready to be overwhelmed; but at last rested on a high mountain or rock, and the company in it had enlargement and liberty, and were brought into a new world. So the church in the Messiah's days is long in a state of affliction, tossed with tempest and not comforted. Isai. liv. 11. But when she is ready to be overwhelmed, God will lead her to the rock that is higher than she, Psa. Ixi. 2, and she shall be brought out of her affliction into a new world, Isa. lxv. 17, 18, and shall dwell in God's holy mountain, as is often foretold.

Another historical event, between which and the Old Testament representations of spiritual things, and particular things appertaining to the Messiah's kingdom, there is a great resemblance in the destruction of Sodom and the neighbouring cities. There is a great resemblance between this and the future punishment of the wicked in general, as represented in the Old Testament. Fire and brimstone were poured out from God out of heaven, and rained down on these cities: so the wrath of God is often in the

Old Testament compared to fire, and is represented as poured out from heaven on the ungodly, and particularly to be poured out like fire. Nahum i. 6. Isai. xlii. 25. Jer. xliv. 6. Lam. ii. 4. and iv. 11. Ezek. xxii. 21, 22. 31. So it is threatened in allusion to the manner of Sodom's destruction, Psa. xi. 6, that upon the wicked God would rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible or burning tempest, (as it is in the margin,) and it is said this should be the portion of their cup. That destruction came on Sodom suddenly and unexpectedly, while the inhabitants were in the midst of their voluptuousness and wickedness, and wholly at ease and quiet, in the morning, when the sun arose pleasantly on the earth, and when the idle and unclean inhabitants were drowned in sloth, sleep, and pleasures; which is agreeable to what is often represented in the Old Testament of the manner of God's bringing destruction on the wicked. It came on Sodom as a snare. So it is said in that xi. Psa. "Snares, fire and brimstone, shall God rain," &c. That while the wicked is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and rain it upon him while he is eating, Job. xx. 23. That God hath set them in slippery places, and that they are cast down to destruction in a moment, and are utterly consumed with terrors. Ps. lxxiii. 18, 19. That their destruction falls suddenly upon them, as the fishes are taken in an evil net, (when sporting securely in the water,) and as birds are caught in the snare (when they are feeding and pleasing themselves with the bait.) Eccl. ix. 12. Particularly this is represented as the manner of destruction's coming on them that harden their necks when often reproved, as the inhabitants of Sodom had been by Lot, as appears by Gen. xix. 9. Prov. xxix. 1. "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." There is a special resemblance between the destruction of Sodom, and the destruction that is foretold to come on the enemies of God and the Messiah under the Messiah's kingdom, which is often represented as being by fire. Mal. iii. 1. "Who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire." A refiner's fire is a vehement furnace, that burns up the dross. Chap. iv. 1. "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts; it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Ps. xxi. 9. "Thou shalt make them as in a fiery oven the day of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them." Dan. vii. 11. "I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." Yea, that destruction is represented as effected by raining down fire and brimstone upon them. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. "And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain

stone.

upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimIsai. xxx. 30. "And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, rnd hail-stones." Ver. 33. "For Tophet is ordained of old; for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large. The pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Chap. xxix. 6. "Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire." The Messiah's enemies are represented as destroyed with everlasting fire; Isai. xxxiii. 11-14. "The people shall be as the burning of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire.-Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isai. lxvi. 15, 16. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render vengeance with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many:" with ver. 24. "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." There was something in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to represent this. The fire that destroyed them was, as it were, everlasting fire, inasmuch as the destruction it brought upon them was everlasting and irreparable desolation, so that they never could be built again, and never any creature, either man or beast, could live there which is often particularly remarked in scripture. Isai. xiii. 19, 20. Jer. xlix. 18, and chap. 1. 39, 40. Isai. i. 9. The place, land, or lake where Sodom and its neighbour cities once were, is a place that ever since abounds with that sulphurous inflammable matter, that is called bitumen and asphaltum, and in our translation of the Bible, pitch, which is a further representation of eternal burnings, and is a remarkable resemblance of what is foretold concerning the destruction of God's enemies in the Messiah's times. Isai. xxxiv. 8-10. “ For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion; and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch (or bitumen or asphaltum,) and the dust thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day. The smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. This destruction came on Sodom just as the sun was up, and had enlightened the world by its beams. So it is

any more;

manifest, from many prophecies, that great destruction of the enemies of the church so often spoken of, is when God comes and appears gloriously for his people, and when the morning of that glorious day of the church's light, peace, and triumph is come on, and the glory of the Lord shall be risen upon the church, and the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings. Then will the day come that will burn as an oven, and the wicked shall be as stubble. Lot's being so wonderfully delivered and saved from the destruction, well represents that great preservation of God's church and people, so often spoken of by the prophets, in that time of God's indignation and day of his wrath and vengeance on his

enemies.

The remarkable similitude there is between very many things in the history of Joseph, and the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah, argue the former to be a type of the latter. Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob's old age. Gen. xxxvii. 3. So the Messiah is every where represented in the prophecies, as coming and setting up his kingdom in the latter days. He was Jacob's beloved son. Gen. xxxvii. 3. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as the beloved Son of God. They represent him as the Son of God. (See fulfilment of the prophecies of the Messiah § 15.) They also represent him as one that should be in a very peculiar and transcendent manner the beloved of God. (See fulfilment of prophecies, &c. 18.) Joseph was clothed with a beautiful garment. So the prophecies represent the Messiah as clothed with beautiful and glorious garments. Zech. iii. 4,5. "Take away the filthy garments from him. I will clothe thee with change of raiment so they set a fair mitre ou his head and clothed him with garments." Isai. lxi. 10. "He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." The sheaves of Joseph's brethren in his vision all bow down to his sheaf. So it is prophecied of the Messiah, that God would make him his first born, higher than the kings of the earth. Psa. lxxxix. 27. Kings are said all of them to be the sons of the Most High ; but this king is represented as made the highest by God, and all the rest as being made to bow down unto him. Psa. lxxii. 11. "Yea, all things shall fall down before him." Isai. xlix. 7. "Kings shall see and arise; princes also shall worship; because of the Lord that is faithful and the holy one of Israel, and he shall choose thee." See also ver. 23, and Psa. xlv. "He hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." And many other places import the same thing. The saints are often in the prophecies called the children of God. And they are represented as the Messiah's brethren. Psa. xxii. 22. "I will declare thy name unto