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than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." And the prevalence of Jacob over Esau, and his supplanting him, so as to get away his birthright and blessing, and his posterity's prevailing over the Edomites, was typified by Jacob's hand tak. ing hold on Esau's heel in the birth. Gen. xxv. 26. "And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob," or supplanter. Chap. xxvii. 36. "Is he not rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold now he hath taken away my blessing." Hosea xii. 3. 6. "He took his brother by the heel in the womb-Therefore, turn thou to thy God," &c. And as the Israelites overcoming and supplanting their enemies in their struggling or wrestling with them, was typified by Jacob's taking hold on Esau's heel, so Jacob's and his seed's prevailing with God, in their spiritual wrestling with him, was typified by his wrestling with God and prevailing. Gen. xxxii. 28. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Hos. xii. 4. "Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore, turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually." The prevalence of the posterity of Pharez over Zarah, who first put forth his hand, was typified by his unexpectedly breaking forth out of the womb before him. Gen. xxxix. 29. So by Moses's being wonderfully preserved in the midst of great waters, though but a little helpless infant, and being drawn out of the water, seems apparently to be typified the preservation and deliverance of his people, that he was made the head and deliverer of, who were preserved in the midst of dangers they were in in Egypt, which were ready to overwhelm them, when the prince and people sought to their utmost to destroy them, and root them out, and they had no power to withstand them, but were like an helpless infant, and who were at last wonderfully delivered out of their great and overwhelming troubles and dangers, which in scripture language is delivering out of great waters, or drawing out of many waters. 2 Sam. xxii. 17. "He sent from above; he took me, he drew me out of many waters." And Psal. xviii. 16. It is the same sort of deliverance from cruel blood and blood-thirsty enemies that the psalmist speaks of, that the Israelites were delivered from. And so he does again, Ps. cxliv. 7. "Send thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children. And Ps. lxix. 2. " I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me;" with verse 14. "Deliver me out of the mire, and let

me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters." That the king of Israel smote three times upon the ground with his arrows, was ordered in providence to be a type of his beating the Syrians three times. 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19. The potter's working a work upon the wheels, and the vessel's being marred in the hand of the potter, so that he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to him to make it, at the time when Jeremiah went down to the potter's house, was ordered in providence to be a type of God's dealing with the Jews. Jer. xviii.

The twelve fountains of water and the threescore and ten palmtrees, that were in Elim, Exod. xv. 27, were manifestly types of the twelve patriarchs, the fathers of the tribes, and of the threescore and ten elders of the congregation. The paternity of a family, tribe, or nation, in the language of the Old Testament, is called a fountain. Deut. xxxiii. 28. "Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine." Ps. lxviii. 26. "Bless the Lord from the fountain of Israel." Isai. xlviii. 1. "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah." And the church of God is often represented in scripture by a palm-tree or palm-trees. Ps. xcii. 12. Cant. vii. 7, 8. And therefore fitly were the elders or representatives of the church compared to palm-trees. God's people often are compared to trees. Isai. Ixi. 3, and lx. 21, and elsewhere.

We find that God was often pleased to bring to pass extraordinary and miraculous appearances and events, to typify future things. Thus God's making Eve of Adam's rib, was to typify the near relation and strict union of husband and wife, and the respect that is due, in persons in that relation, from one to the other, as is manifest from the account given of it, Gen. ii. 21, 22, 23, 24." And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." And when God spake to Moses from the burning bush, concerning the great affliction and oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt, and promised to preserve and deliver them, what appeared in the bush, viz. its burning with fire, and yet not being consumed, was evidently intended as a type of the same thing that God then spake to Moses about, viz. the church of Israel being in the fire of affliction in Egypt, and appearing in the utmost danger of being utterly consumed there, being marvellously

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preserved and delivered. Such a low and weak state as the ple were in in Egypt, and such an inability for self-defence, we find in the Old Testament represented by a bush or low tree, and a root out of a dry ground, as was that bush in Horeb, which signifies a dry place. Isai. liii. 2. Ezek. xvii. 22, 23, 24. Affliction and danger in the language of the Old Testament, are called fire. Zech. xiii. 9. "I will bring the third part through the fire." Isai. xlviii. 10. "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." And God's marvellously preserving his people, when in great affliction and danger, is represented by their being preserved in the fire from being burnt. Isai. xliii. 2. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee-when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And God's delivering the people of Israel from affliction, and from the destruction of which they were in danger, through bondage and oppression under the hand of their enemies, is represented by their being delivered out of the fire. Zech. iii. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Yea, that very thing of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, is often represented as their being delivered out of the fire. Psalm lxvi. 12. "We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us into a wealthy place." Deut. iv. 20. "The Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt." So 1 Kings viii. 51, and Jer. xi. 4.

So Moses's rod's swallowing up the magicians' rods, Exod. vii. 12, is evidently given of God as a sign and type of the superiority of God's power above the power of their gods, and that his power should prevail and swallow up theirs. For that rod was a token of God's power, as a prince's rod or sceptre was a token of his power. Thus we read read of the rod of the Messiah's strength, Psalm cx. So the turning of the water of the river of Egypt into blood, first by Moses's taking and pouring it out on the dry land, and its becoming blood on the dry land, and afterwards by the river itself, and all the other waters of Egypt being turned to blood, in the first plague on Egypt, was evidently a foreboding sign and type of what God threatened at the same time, viz. that if they would not let the people go, God would slay their first born, and of his afterward destroying Pharaoh and all the prime of Egypt in the Red sea. (See Exod. iv. 9. and chap. vii.) God's making a great destruction of the lives of a people is, in the language of the Old Testament, a giving them blood to drink. Isai. xlix. 26. "And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood." Aaron's rod budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit, is given as a type of God's owning and blessing his ministry, and crowning it with success. His rod was the rod of

an almond-tree, Numb. xvii. 8, which God makes use of in Jer. i. 11, 12, as a token and type of his word, that speedily takes effect, as Moses's rod of an almond tree speedily brought forth fruit.

God caused the corn in the land of Judah to spring again, after it had been cut off with the sickle, and to bring forth another crop from the roots that seemed to be dead, and so once and again, to be a sign and type that the remnant that was escaped of the house of Judah should again take root downward, and bear fruit upward, and that his church should revive again, as it were out of its own ashes, and flourish like a plant, after it has been seemingly destroyed and past recovery: as 2 Kings, xix. 29, 30; and Isa. xxxvii. 30, 31.

God wrought the miracle of causing the shadow in the dial of Ahaz to go backward, contrary to the course of nature, to be a sign and type of king Hezekiah's being in a miraculous manner, and contrary to the course of nature, healed of his sickness, that was in itself mortal, and brought back from the grave whither he was descending, and the sun of the day of his life being made to return back again, when according to the course of nature it was just a setting. 2 Kings xx.

The miraculous uniting of the two sticks, that had the names of Judah and Joseph written upon them, so that they became one stick in the prophet's hand, was to typify the future entire union of Judah and Israel.

Also God miraculously caused a gourd to come up in a night, over the head of Jonah, and to perish in a night, to typify the life of man. That gourd was a feeble, tender, dependent frail vine. It came up suddenly, and was very green and flourishing, and was pleasant and refreshing, and it made a fine show for one day, and then withered and dried up. Jonah iv. 6, &c.

God reproved Jonah for his so little regarding the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh, by the type of the gourd, which was manifestly intended as a type of the life of man; or of man with respect to his life, being exactly agreeable to the representations frequently made of man and his present frail life in other parts of the Old Testament. This gourd was a vine, a feeble, dependent plant, that could not stand alone. This God therefore makes use of to represent man, in Ezek. xv. This gourd was a very tender, frail plant. It sprang up suddenly, and was very short lived. Its life was but one day; as the life of man is often compared to a day. It was green and flourishing, and made a fine show one day, and was withered and dried up the next. It came up in a night and perished in a night; appeared flourishing in the morning, and the next evening was smitten, exactly agreeable to the representation made of man's life in Psalm xc. 6. "In the morning it flourisheth and groweth

up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth." The worm that smote the gourd, represents the cause of man's death. The gourd was killed by a worm, a little thing; as man is elsewhere said to be crushed before the moth. It was that, the approach of which was not discerned; it came under ground: as elsewhere man is represented as not knowing the time of his death, as the fishes are taken in an evil net, &c. And as being smitten by an arrow that flies unseen. That this gourd was intended by God as an emblem of man's life, is evident from what God himself says of it, and the application he makes of it. God himself compares the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh with this gourd, verse x. 11. Jonah had pity on the gourd, i. e. on himself for the loss of it for it was very pleasing and refreshing to him, while it lasted; and defended him from scorching heat. So life is sweet. The Ninevites by its preservation were held back from the wrath of God, that had been threatened for their sins. How much more therefore should Jonah have had pity on the numerous inhabitants of Nineveh, when God had threatened them with the loss of life, which was an enjoyment so much more desirable than the gourd was to him! And if he found fault with God, that he did not spare to him the shadow of the gourd; how unreasonable was he in also finding fault with God, that he did spare the Ninevites their precious lives?

God miraculously enabled David to kill the lion and the bear, and to deliver the lamb out of their mouth, plainly and evidently to be a type, sign, and encouragement unto him, that he would enable him to destroy the enemies of his people, that were much stronger than they, and deliver his people from them. David did this as a shepherd over the flock of his father; and his acting the part of a shepherd toward them, is expressly spoken of as a resemblance of his acting the part of a king and shepherd towards God's people from time to time. 1 Chron. xi. 2. Psalm lxxviii. 70, 71, 72. Jerem. xxiii. 4, 5, 6. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. Chap. xxxvii. 24. And God's people in places innumerable are called his flock, and his sheep, and their enemies in David's Psalms and elsewhere, are compared to the lion and other beasts of prey that devour the sheep; and David himself calls his own deliverance, and the deliverance of God's people, a being saved from the lion's mouth. Psalm vii. 1, 2, and xvii. 12, 13, and xxii. 20, 21, and xxxv. 17, and lvii. 3. 4. And David himself thus understood and improved God's thus miraculously enabling him to conquer these wild beasts, and deliver the lamb, as a representation and sign of what God would enable him to do for his people against their strong enemies; as is evident from what he said to Saul, when he offered to go against Goliath.

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