tude as is to be found between the Picture and the Original; which proves it to be a designed, though imperfect likeness to the Anti-type. As Pictures then, types must refer to their proper Originals; for the purpose of conveying their intended meaning; they could not otherwise have been made a ground of accusation against the unbelieving Jews; much less could they have furnished the most powerful argument for their reception of Christianity.

In this light they were considered both by our Saviour and his Apostles; whose reasoning with the Jews on the subject of their promised Messiah chiefly turned, on the spiritual application of their own Scriptures. In adopting that typical mode of reasoning, which was the consequence of applying the Law to the elucidation of the Gospel; they considered themselves to be proceeding on known and established ground; and had not the corruption of the heart in this case prevented the proper exercise of the understanding, acknowledged premisses would not have failed to have led the parties, to whom that mode

of

of reasoning was addressed, to the intended conclusion. For the Law, to answer to the character given of it, must of necessity furnish a figurative representation of what was to take place under a subsequent Dispensation: otherwise it was a shadow unattended with a correspondent reality. Considered in itself, exclusive of its relation to Christ, and the object it had in view of preserving the backsliding Israelites from the surrounding idolatry, the Ritual service of it was both unmeaning and unprofitable. For what could the pouring out the blood of bulls and of goats, whilst the eye of the sacrificer looked no further, have to recommend it? But, considered as a preparatory introduction to a more spiritual Dispensation; as pre-figurative of that "better hope in the fulness of time to be brought in, by which alone fallen man has access to God," Heb. vii. 19.—it constituted a subject of the most interesting and edifying kind.

It was indeed a temporary provision adapted to the circumstances of the parties, for whose use it was immediately designed; the object of which was to lead

to

to perfection; at the same time that in itself it made nothing perfect. On which account it may be considered as a sort of connecting medium between the original promise made to Adam, and the actual fulfilment of it. Consequently when that fulfilment eventually took place in the person of Jesus Christ, the conclusion to which the typical reasoning addressed to the Jews was designed to lead, was obviously this; that the presence of the reality superseded the use of the shadow; that the actual sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, rendered the continuance of its type useless: in which case, the figurative service of the Law, and the more spiritual Dispensation of the Gospel, would have appeared to the Jews in their proper light. For, in such case, they would have been seen to have been not only the ultimate end, but the very sum and substance of the whole Law: the life and energy of every part and every ordinance: all without Him being but a dead form and an empty name.

But though the blindness of the carnal Jew, who at the time of our Saviour's appearance in the flesh, had totally lost sight

of

of the spiritual object to which the Ritual Service was designed to point, prevented this obvious conclusion from being generally drawn; still the Law, considered as one link in that chain of Providence, by which the different parts of the œconomy of Divine Grace are as it were held together, is not without its important use. Though its actual observance has been superseded, the spiritual application and moral use of it still remains: furnishing to Christians, from that striking coincidence to be traced between the shadows of the Law and the good things of the Gospel, a ground for the most decided conviction in support of the Christian cause. For, as a certain period of time had been determined on, for carrying into effect the great scheme of Redemption; it is to be expected, in justice to the consistency of the divine plan, that every preceding Dispensation of Providence, should contribute its proportionate degree of evidence to the confirmation of that plan when actually accomplished.

We do not mean to say, that the correspondence between the Types and the

things typified, constitutes the only ground on which the Advocate for the truth of Christianity may take his stand; but this we say; that by marking the steps which Providence took in conducting the great work of Redemption to its perfect completion, it points out to notice that striking connection between the several parts of Divine Revelation, which cannot fail, when duly appreciated, to strengthen the faith and confirm the practice of every considerate man. It points out Him, who is the Alpha and Omega of all God's Dispensations in the economy of Divine Grace; "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;"" in whom all the promises of God to man are Yea and Amen."

For, as far as laying open the secret purpose of that Being, who seeth the end from the beginning, by regularly tracing the progress of his Dispensations, can be a proof; so far are the Types of the Old Testament as they are applied and fulfilled in the New, a proof of the truths of Christianity. These providential congruities (as they have been styled) between the times of the Old and New Testament, do