The accidental rending of Samuel's mantle, 1 Sam. xv. 27, 28, signified the rending of the kingdom from Saul. It was a common thing for God to order and appoint things to be done by men, in order to typify future events; so Samuel poured out water in Mizpeh, 1 Sam. vii. 6, to signify their repentance. See Pool's Synopsis. Ahijah's rending Jeroboam's garment in twelve pieces, and giving him ten, was to testify the rending the kingdom of Israel, and giving him ten tribes. 1 Kings xi. 30, &c. So see 1 Kings xx. 35, &c. and 2 Kings xiii. 14-20. The prophet's assisting the king of Israel, in shooting an arrow eastward, towards Syria, was appointed of God to signify that he would assist the king of Israel in fighting with the Syrians. 2 Kings xiii. 15, &c. The prophet Isaiah by God's appointment went naked and barefoot, to typify the Egyptians and Ethiopians going naked and barefoot in their captivity. Isaiah xx. Jeremiah by God's appointment typified the captivity of the Jews into Babylon, with many of its circumstances, by taking a linen girdle and putting it on his loins, and hiding it in a hole in a rock by the river Euphrates, and returning again to take it from thence. Jer. xiii. He was commanded to typify the destruction of the people by breaking a potter's vessel. Chap. xix. By taking a wine cup and offering it to many nations agreeably to God's appointment and direction, he typified God's causing them as it were to drink the cup of his fury. Chap. xxv. And he was commanded to make bonds and yokes, and put them upon his neck and send them to the neighbouring kings, to typify the yoke of bondage under Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to bring upon them. Chap. xxvii. Nehemiah shook his lap, Neh. v. 13, to signify the shaking of every man from his house, who should not perform the oath which they had taken. Ezekiel very often typified future events, by things that he did by God's appointment; as by his eating the roll, &c. Ezek. iii. And by lying on his side, and many other things that he was to do, that we have an account of, Ezek. iv. And by shaving his head and beard, and burning part of the hair in the fire, &c. chap. v.; and by making a chain, chap. vii. 23; and by his removing, with the many circumstances that God directed him to, chap. xii. 1, &c.; and by his eating his bread with trembling, verse 18; by filling a pot with the choice pieces of flesh on the fire, &c.; and by his not mourning for his wife, chap. xxiv. The prophet Hosea typified the things he prophesied of, by taking a wife of whoredoms, Hos. i. and by marrying an adultress, with the circumstances of it, chap. iii. The prophet Zechariah was commanded to typify the things he predicted, by making silver and golden crowns on the heads of those that returned from the captivity, Zech. vi.; and by the two staves called Beauty and Bands; and by his casting money to the potter in

the house of the Lord; and his taking the instruments of a foolish shepherd. Chap. xi.

It was so common a thing for the prophets to typify things that were the subjects of their prophecies by divine appointment, that the false prophets imitated them in it, and were wont to feign directions from God to typify the subjects of their false prophecies. See 1 Kings xxii. 11, and Jer. xxviii. 10. Things in common use among the Israelites were spoken of by the Spirit of God as types. Thus the vine-tree is spoken of as a type of man, especially of God's visible people. Ezek. xv.

It being so much God's manner from the beginning of the world, to represent divine things by types, hence it probably came to pass, that typical representations were looked upon by the ancient nations, the Egyptians in particular, as sacred things, and therefore called hieroglyphics, which signifies sacred images or representations. And animals being very much made use of in the ancient types of the church of God, so they were very much used in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which probably led the way to their worship of all manner of living creatures.

Now since it was, as has been observed, God's manner of old, in the times of the Old Testament, from generation to generation, and even from the beginning of the world to the end of the Old Testament history, to represent divine things by outward signs, types, and symbolical representations, and especially thus to typify and prefigure future events, that he revealed by his Spirit, and foretold by the prophets; it is very unlikely, that the Messiah, and things appertaining to his kingdom and salvation, should not be thus abundantly prefigured and typified under the Old Testament, if the following things be considered.

It is apparent from the Old Testament that these things are the main subject of the prophecies of the Old Testament, the subject about which the spirit of prophecy was chiefly conversant from the beginning of the world. It was the subject of the first proper prophecy that ever was uttered: and it is abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it is every way the chief of all prophetical events. 'Tis spoken of abundantly as the greatest and most glorious event, beyond all that eye had seen, ear heard, or had entered into the heart of man; at the accomplishment of which not only God's people and all nations should unspeakably rejoice; but the trees of the field, the hills and mountains, the sea and dry land, and all heaven and earth, should rejoice and shout for joy; and in comparison of which the greatest events of the Old Testament, and particularly those two most insisted on, the creation of the world and the redemption out of Egypt, were not worthy to be mentioned or to come into mind, and in comparison of which the greatest and most sacred things of the Mosaic dispensation,

even the ark itself, the most sacred of all, was not worthy of notice. And it is also abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it was the grand event that, above all other future events, was the object of the contemplations, hopes, and raised expectations of God's people, from the beginning of the world.

And furthermore, the introducing of the Messiah and his kingdom and salvation, is plainly spoken of in the Old Testament, as the great event which was the substance, main drift, and end of all the prophecies of the Old Testament, to reveal which chiefly it was, that the spirit of prophecy was given, in that the angel, in Dan. ix. 24, speaks of this event, as that in the accomplishment of which prophecies in general are summed up, and have their ultimate confirmation, in which the vision and prophecy or all prophetical revelation has its last result and consummation. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city; to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." That what has been expressed is the import of the phrase of sealing up the vision and prophecy, is evident from the drift and manner of expression of the whole verse, and also from Ezek. xxviii. 12. "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." Mr. Basnage, in his history of the Jews, observes, that the rabbies among the Jews still agree to this day, that all the oracles of the prophets relate to the Messiah. Page 371, Col. 1.

And besides, it is to be considered, that this event was that in which the people of God, from the beginning of the world, were most nearly and greatly concerned: yea, was of infinitely the greatest concern to them of all prophetical events; for 'tis evident from the Old Testament, that the Messiah was not only to be the Saviour of God's people, that should be after his coming; but that he was the Saviour of the saints in all ages from the beginning of the world, and that through his coming, and what he should do at his appearing, they all should have the only true atonement for their sins, and restoration from the curse brought upon them by the fall of Adam, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal life.

'Tis much more reasonable to suppose, that many things pertaining to the state and constitution of the nation of Israel, many things which God ordered and appointed among them should be typical of things appertaining to the Messiah; because it is evident from the Old Testament, that the very being of that people as God's people, and their being distinguished and separated from the rest of the world, was to prepare the way for the introduction of that great blessing into the world of mankind, of the Messiah

and his kingdom. It seems to be pretty plainly intimated by God, at the first planting of the tree or founding that ancient church, and separating that people from the rest of the world, in the call of Abraham, in the three first verses of Gen. xii. "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." It here seems to be manifest, that the introducing that great good, which God had in view, to all the families of the earth, was what God had in view in thus calling and separating Abraham, to make of him an happy nation. It is therefore much the more likely, that many things belonging to them should be typical of the great future things appertaining to this great blessing, which was the great end God designed by them and especially considering that we find it to be God's manner under the Old Testament, in both persons and things, to signify and represent beforehand, that which God made or separated them for, or the special use or design God had in view with respect to them. It was God's manner beforehand to signify and represent these things, in what appertained to them, or happened concerning them. So he often did in the signification of the names that he gave them, as in the names of Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, Judah, Joshua, David, Solomon, &c.—and in things which they saw or did, or which came to pass concerning them; as Moses's being drawn out of the water, and what God showed him in Horeb, before he went into Egypt from Midian, in the burning bush; and in David, in his slaying the lion and bear and delivering the lamb.

Again we find that many lesser redemptions, deliverances, and victories of God's people, which it is plain even from the Old Testament, were as nothing in comparison with the salvation and victory of the Messiah, were by God's ordering represented by types; as the redemption out of Egypt. This was much typified afterwards in institutions that God appointed in commemoration of it. And the reason given by God for his thus typifying of it, was that it was so worthy to have signs and representations to fix it in the mind. Thus concerning the representations of their coming out of Egypt, in the passover, by eating it with unleavened bread, with their staff in their hand, &c., this reason is given why they should have such representations and memorials of it. Exod. xiii. 42. It is a night much to be remembered. This redemption out of Egypt was also much typified beforehand. It was typified in the smoking furnace and the burning lamp following it which Abraham saw. Gen. xv. 17. It was typified in Moses's

being drawn out of the water, and in the burning bush that survived the flames, and by Moses's rod's swallowing up the magician's rods. David's victory over the enemies of God's people, and his saving them out of their hands, was typified by his conquering the lion and the bear, and rescuing the lamb. God's giving victory to Israel over the Syrians and delivering them from them, was typified by the prophet's helping the king of Israel shoot an arrow towards them. 2 Kings xiii. 15, &c. The salvation of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's army was typified by the springing of the corn afresh from the roots of the stubble. Hezekiah's being saved from death was typified by bringing back the sun, when it was going down. Since, therefore, God did so much to typify those lesser victories and salvations, is it not exceedingly likely that great victory and redemption of the Messiah, which appears by the Old Testament to be infinitely greater, and that was all along so much more insisted on, in the word of the Lord to the people, should be much more typified?

It is much more reasonably and credibly supposed, that God should through the ages of the Old Testament, be very much in typifying things pertaining to the Messiah and his salvation, not only in prophecies, but also in types; because we find in fact, that at the very beginning of God's revealing the Messiah to mankind, prophecies and types went together in the first prophecy of the Messiah, and the first proper prophecy that ever was in the world, God foretold and typified the redemption both together, when God said to the serpent, Gen. iii. 15, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is undoubtedly a prediction of the Messiah's victory over Satan, and his suffering from Satan, and of the Messiah's people's victory and deliverance through him. And none can reasonably question but that here is also some respect had to that enmity there is between mankind and serpents, and the manner of serpents wounding mankind and of men's killing them'; for God is here speaking concerning a beast of the field that was ranked with the cattle, as appears by the foregoing verse. And this state of things with respect to serpents, was plainly ordered and established in these words. But if we suppose that both these things were intended in the same words, then undoubtedly one is spoken of and ordained as a representation of the other. If God orders and speaks of the bruising of a serpent's head, and thereby signifies the Messiah's conquering the devil, that is the same thing as God's ordering and speaking of the bruising of a serpent's head as a sign, signification, or (which is the same thing) type of his conquering the devil. And in what is said to the serpent, ver. 14, "Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy