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CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Types from the Deluge to the Mission of Moses.

THE types previously considered, were all addressed to the antediluvian world, but as lessons they are not confined to it, because the dealings of God with his church, as related in her history, become means of instruction to all subsequent ages, and are intended to communicate edification to her members in every succeeding period.

There is a singularity in the character of Noah. He lived both before and after the deluge, connecting together the old and the new world, and thus resembling the Prince of Peace, gathering and conducting his flock from the present, to place them in another and better world yet he does not present one, but an association of types, each sufficiently distinct yet united in the ministry of one person.

Of these, one only could be placed before the inhabitants of the old world, and that by anticipation of a fact both real and symbolicalreal, as a most awful judgment; symbolical, as it represented the future one of the whole human race. To the individuals of that generation, this was not visible, till the event by taking place, precluded their receiving further instruction from it. The annunciation or prophecy of it was the type to them; the fulfilment remains to their successors, as an emblem of that future judgment fully displayed and exhibited for their warning and instruction.

The other incidents of a typical nature, which are connected with the life of Noah, and demand our present consideration, are, the preservation of himself and family in the ark, the ark itself, the universal covenant entered into with Noah for himself and all living creatures, together with its seal or sacrament, the rainbow.

In the anticipation of a general judgment which should sweep away all the ungodly, Noah being divinely instructed, built an ark for the saving of himself and his house; and supplied it with all the stores necessary, not only for his own family, but for the support of some of every sort of living creatures upon the face of the whole earth. Without any exertion of his

own, the latter at the proper period came unto him, and entered into the ark. He and his family followed, according to God's command, and the Lord shut them in. Immediately after, the windows of heaven were opened, and the foundations of the deep were broken up. Each poured forth their waters until they prevailed exceedingly upon the earth," and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered, and the ark" was borne up, and "went upon the face of the waters."

And God remembered Noah, and every living creature that was with him in the ark; "and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth after

their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth : neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."*

Brief as this history is, it presents us with a threefold type: it is a picture on an enlarged scale, the action of which is exhibited and detailed in three groups, not forming as many distinct scenes, but uniting so many component parts, to display from a view of the past, the future providences of divine grace and mercy.

These parts are-the individual character of Noah. "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." The ark and its company, which presents a symbol of the church of God, collected together by the command, and under the guidance and protec* Gen. viii. 15-22.

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tion of the Almighty, from all external foes and dangers ;-Noah, the typical prince of peace being ever present in her;-and the deluge, emblematical of the last judgment, sweeping away the ungodly, while the righteous are saved.

The parallel between Noah and our Lord shows itself in the times of their appearance; the former, in the last stage of the antediluvian world, in a generation exceedingly wicked and corrupt before God, to which he came as the typical Saviour of the church, and minister of the divine purposes; the latter came into the world toward the close of that period when the typical rites and observances being fulfilled by him for the salvation of all them that believe in him, were abrogated. The first, when the measure of the iniquity of the primæval ages was filled; the last, when the corruptions of the visible church on earth, had reached that extent that they called for the manifest infliction of that punishment which, as a deluge of wrath, swept the members of it from before the face of the Almighty, to scatter and disperse them as with the waters of a flood over the whole earth; and hereafter he will appear again in judgment, to destroy all the ungodly, but to save every one who liveth and believeth in him, walking before him in holiness and

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