LECTURE II. ON THE FIGURES WHICH ARE FOUND IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURE, AND THE LECT. II. T hath been fhewn in the former Lec Iture, that as the fcripture teaches fpi ritual things which cannot be taught in words, the wisdom of God hath made use of things, as figns and figures, to explain them. This is done for feveral reafons: firft, because we cannot conceive things of a fpiritual nature but by borrowing our notions of them from the things that are visible and familiar to our fenfes. Secondly, because the fcripture can fpeak under this form to fome men, and reveal many things to them, while the fame words reveal nothing to others: like that pillar in the wildernefs, which was a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians, while it gave II. light to the Hebrews. Thirdly, because LECT. an outward fign, fuch as those of the fcripture are, becomes a pledge and an evidence of the thing fignified; as it doubtless is a wonderful confirmation of the gospel to fee its myfteries exactly delineated so long before in the services of the law of Moses; and much more to fee them written in the characters of nature itself. The things which the fcripture ufes as figures of other things are taken, 1. From the natural creation, or world of fenfible objects. 2. From the inftitutions of the law. 3. From the perfons of the prophets and holy men of old time. 4. From the history of the church. 5. From the actions of inspired men, which in many instances were not only miracles but figns of something beyond themselves, and conformable to the general plan of our salvation and redemption. These are the materials of that figurative language in which the bible is writ D ten; LECT. ten; and of the feveral kinds of them, as II. here diftinguifhed, I fhall treat in their order, after I have given a general defcription of each. 1. When any object is taken from the visible creation, and applied as an illustration or fign of fome fpiritual truth, we call it a natural image. The scripture calls them fimilitudes; as in that paffage of the prophet Hofea-I have multiplied vifions, and ufed fimilitudes by the ministry of the prophets *. A difcourfe made up of fuch is called a parable; a form of speech which our Saviour as a divine teacher thought most agreeable to the nature of his own preaching, and to the wants of his hearers. In which, however, he only did what the scripture had always done; he inftructed the eyes of the understanding by placing fome natural object before them; and as the vifible world throughout is a pattern of the invifible, the figures of the facred language built upon the images of nature, are as extenfive as the world itself; fo that it would be a vain *Hofea xii. 10. undertaking undertaking to interpret all the figures LECT. which are reducible to this class. 2. Other figures are borrowed from the inftitutions of the ceremonial law, which are applied to the things of the gospel; and in this capacity the law is all figure. It is nothing confidered in itself but a copy, a fhadow of good things to come; and as a fhadow, it had only the form, not the fubftance, (or very image, as the fcripture calls it) of the things hoped for. Its elements were like thofe of the gofpel in form; and therefore it was a Schoolmaster, a teacher of fuch elements as prepared the mind for the reception of a fpiritual difpenfation, in which its shadows are now realized. When our Saviour Jesus Christ is called a priest, a character is given to him, which cannot be understood till we go back to the law. There we fee what a priest was, and what he did; and thence we learn the nature of our Saviour's prieftly office. And as the whole law, in its ritual, confifted D 2 II. II. LECT. fifted chiefly of priestly ministration; then, if the priest himself was figurative, his ministration was fo likewife, and confequently the law was a pattern of the gofpel. 3. The things relating to our Saviour's perfon, that is, to his birth, dignity, actions, fufferings, death, refurrection and glorification, were forefhewn in the hiftory of other great and remarkable perfons, who, in the former ages of the church, were faviours upon occafion to their people, or examples of perfecuted innocence, truth, and holiness, as he was to be. Such persons acting, or suffering, or triumphing, in this prophetic capacity, are called types. In the gofpel they are called figns; and as a specimen for the prefent, we may take the two characters of fonab and Solomon, as referred to in the 11th chapter of St. Luke. Our Saviour propofed Jonah to the Jews as a fign of his own future refurrection. This prophet went down into the mouth * Matth. xii. 40. of |