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glory-there appears in the presence of God, for us,and having made peace by the blood of his cross, is exalted at the right hand of the Father in all his original honour and dignity. There is still another point of coincidence which is worthy of notice. On that day of figurative atonement, the Israelites were commanded by a "statute forever" to afflict their souls. And by a decree, alike perpetual repentance is the indispensable accompaniment of reconciliation with God, through faith in the blood of Jesus.

It cannot be believed that these and many similar resemblances between the law and the gospel are the result of chance. Still less can we imagine, either that the Jews practised these ceremonies and ascribed them to their forefathers in order to recommend the gospel, or that the Apostles invented the gospel as a key to the ritual of the law. Significant as that ritual is seen to be under the light of the Christian revelation, there is nothing in it which could have led to the discovery, much less to the invention, of those mysterious and elevated doctrines, the incarnation and atonement of Christ. The plain fact is, that these ancient rites were 66 shadows of good things to come."

The shadow and its substance were each made known in its season, and the correspondence between the two, affords an incontrovertible evidence that God was the Author of them both.

The general correctness of the history of God's ancient people is confirmed by a variety of collateral proofs, supplied by the chronicles of other nations; nor will it be doubted by the reflecting reader of Scripture, who marks the natural and circumstantial character of the whole narration, and the accordance of its several parts. Taking it for granted then, that this history is what it professes to be, a narrative of facts, we may observe one feature in it, which distinguishes it from every other history in the world, and plainly denotes its divine origin. In many of its particulars it is capable of a typical or spiritual application, and, through this medium, is fraught with instruction of the most important and enduring nature. This remark applies with peculiar force to the lives and characters of certain individuals.

In Melchizedek, the "king of righteousness" and "of peace," and priest of the Most High, to whom Abraham gave tithes of all his spoil;

in the virtuous Joseph who was persecuted and sold, and who, through great affliction arrived at greater glory, so that both his friends and his enemies bent the knee before him; in Moses, the meekest of men, the law-giver and leader of Israel, the mediator between God and his people; in Joshua, who drove out their enemies from before them, and introduced them to the quiet possession of the land of promise; in David, the man after God's " own heart," that deep yet patient sufferer, that exalted king, that unconquered captain of the armies of Israel; in Solomon, the "king's son," whose peaceable government extended on every side, and whose wisdom pervaded the thousand secrets both of grace and nature, -the student of Scripture will not fail to trace the types of that Saviour, in whom all these characteristics were afterwards so admirably combined, and perfected. Whatsoever things are good and glorious in the history and character of these real yet typical persons, find a common focus in Christ their antitype.

Again, let such a student reflect on the deliverance of the Hebrews from the land of Egypt, and from the tyranny of Pharaoh; on

their long continued wanderings in the wilderness; on the manna from the skies and the water from the rock, by which they were sustained and refreshed; on the fiery cloud which guided them on their journey; on the miraculous passage of the nation over Jordan; and on their final settlement in the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey. What Christian does not derive from this narrative a delightful kind of instruction, while he is reminded by it, of the deliverance of Christ's followers - the whole nation of believers - from the tyranny of Satan and from the corruptions of the world; of their pilgrimage on the earth; of the spiritual bread which they ate; of the spiritual water which they drink; of the rock which accompanies them; of the light which guides them; of the death through which they must pass; and of the glorious and delightful rest - the heaven of abundant blessedness into which they shall finally enter?

Historical facts, thus filled with an internal weight of instruction, and pointing to the vast realities of the spiritual world, must have arisen in the peculiar providence of God; and the religion with which they are connected, must

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be His religion. The accordances of revelation are like those of nature

numerous, un

concerted by man, peculiar, precise. Both bespeak as their only true origin, the wisdom and goodness of God.

SECTION II.

ON PROPHECY COMPARED WITH HISTORY.

THE religion of the Bible is attested by nothing more clearly than by prophecy compared with its fulfilment. Since the whole course of events arises out of the counsels of God, and since those counsels are secret and unfathomable, we may rest assured that an actual knowledge of the future, is an attribute which belongs to Him alone. Prophecies, therefore, which relate to circumstances so distant, peculiar, or complex, as to lie beyond the reach of conjecture, and which nevertheless are exactly fulfilled, can be traced by any reasonable mind, only to the Spirit of our Heavenly Father, to whom all things are known, whether past, present, or future. Such prophecies are numerous in the Bible..

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