first ages of their gradual increase, the same causes would again operate against the efficiency and propriety of written, and in favour of typical instruction. Accordingly we find such a mode of teaching continued, and in its simplest form; nor does this appear to have been considerably enlarged till after the deliverance of the house of Jacob from bondage in Egypt, when the increase of mankind, the improved state of society, and the use of letters, rendered a more extended or multiplied system of worship, both practicable and beneficial.

It presses upon our attention, that at this period the advantages to be derived from longevity had been removed, and consequently the progress of alteration or corruption, as far as it affects these institutions, facilitated. To prevent this, as well as to prepare a permanent establishment of symbols which might serve as a body of practical evidence to the truths of our holy religion, an inspired messenger was sent, inspired writings were given, and a ceremonial code established; that whilst the former revealed and explained to the mind of the learned the will of the Almighty, the latter might speak to the heart and feelings of the ignorant, but sincere and humble seeker after the things of God.

Types thus established became standing tes

timonies, and gave the strongest assurance of the fulfilment of the promises connected with them, or contained in the sacred writings, dictated by the same divine Author. They gave a sort of reality and presence to that which was absent or future, and strengthened that "faith which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." *

Nor has their completion destroyed their utility. The coincidence of their fulâlment with the promise and prophecy contained in them, assures us of their divine origin: thus the prediction and the event mutually reflect light on each other; confirming our confidence in the Author of the covenant, and contributing to the increase of our knowledge of that heavenly wisdom which is profitable to direct us in the way of life, and to promote in us the exercise of those graces which adorn the Christian character, minister to the comfort, and favour the spiritual advancement of the individual.

These acts of symbolical worship, under the Mosaic dispensation, were so numerous and extensive as to reach to every part of the believer's life; and in obedience to them he could not fail to have had continually, either in sight or practice, some indication of the nature and attributes of God, or a revelation of his gracious * Heb. xi. 1.

designs and purposes towards penitent sinners entirely undeserving of them; and without taking the command of Moses,* in its literal sense, he must have lived in daily obedience. to it. To conform to the divine regulations of the typical as well as those of the moral law, he must have laid them up in his heart; they must have occupied his daily attention; he must have taught them diligently to his children; he must have spoken of them sitting in the house, and walking by the way, lying down or rising up; for their precepts extend to his actions in all these particulars: so that to have observed and kept them, they must have been constantly before his eyes, though he should not have literally bound them and worn them as frontlets there-they must have been evident to himself and others in his going out and coming in, though he should not have exactly written them upon the posts of his doors, or upon his gates.

That these typical institutions might never want an infallible interpretation, we can hardly find a period of Jewish history prior to their fulfilment, when there were not one or more inspired teachers in Israel to instruct the people in the counsel of the most High. A permanent priesthood was also established, not only to * Deut. vi. 8, 9.

offer the sacrifices, but to minister in sacred things between God and his servants, and the sons of the prophets, in no very restricted numbers, were dispersed among the children of their people, that they might teach them how to revere the Lord.

In later times, the Jewish rabbins have given the most absurd and childish interpretations, not only to these institutions, but to other parts of divine revelation. When this practice began we are not informed, but certainly, before our Saviour's time; yet, these were not then so commonly admitted, as to exclude from general reception a more rational and profitable explanation; this is evident from various passages in the history of our Lord, as well as in the writings of his apostles. Thus, when the former applies to himself, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life," *—no objection was made to the typical allusion; whether they believed him to be the Son of Man, the antitype of the brazen serpent or not, they admitted that he spoke truly as to the thing it signified.

Similar to this is the language of St. Paul, even on symbols less clear and evident than

*John iii. 14, 15.

that just referred to.* In this passage, he not only speaks of Isaac and Ishmael as types of the church of God, under bondage to the law, and when walking in the liberty of that law fulfilled and so abrogated; but, he explains the hostile spirit shown by the latter to his brother, as an image of the enmity existing in the children of this world against those who are born of the Spirit, and so made heirs of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Still less evident is the symbolical reference of Hagar to mount Sinai, and Sarah to Jerusalem; yet the apostle refers to these as subjects familiar to the Galatians, and easy to be understood by them.

* Gal. iv. 22-31.