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whence also he received him in a figure; Ev wagaboλn, in a parable, where the things spoken of are descriptive of things understood. The person of Isaac, his impending death, and unexpected deliverance, are the things spoken of the person of Christ, his actual sacrifice, and his resurrection which followed, are the things understood. It will readily be admitted, that the resurrection of Isaac was parabolic, or descriptive of something beyond itself, if it should appear, that all the other lines of his character point as directly to the Messiah, as the rays of a circle to its center: and our labour will not be lost, if we review it with this intention.

XVII. In the appellation, seed of Abraham, there is an ambiguity, which implies a similitude between Isaac the immediate, and Christ the more remote son of Abraham. If we apply the expression to an individual, who can be understood by it but Isaac? yet the apostle applies it to the person of the Messiah; affirming, that the covenant with Abraham and his seed, was the covenant confirmed of God in Christ, and that Christ himself was

a Heb. xi. 19.

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b Gal. iii. 16, 17.

the

the seed intended in the terms of the promise.

The birth both of the one and the other was announced by an immediate Revelation from Heaven, and was in either case above the laws of nature: so that when Sarah was forewarned of Isaac's birth, and Mary of the birth of Christ, the thing appeared incredible to both, and occasioned a similar expostulation. Sarah said, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? And the blessed Virgin in her turn said, How can this be, seeing I know not a man? Isaac was the only and beloved son of Abraham, as Christ was the only and beloved son of God. Isaac was mocked by Ishmael, the spurious offspring of Abraham; Christ and the Christians, his spiritual seed, were persecuted by the unbelieving Jews, his natural children; and the apostle hath ascertained the parallel, by arguing from one of these cases to the other-cast out the bond-woman and her son—that is, let Jerusalem, with her children the Jews, in bondage under the elements of the law, be cast out, like Hagar and her son, to the wide world, as unworthy of being admitted to the inheritance of the gospel. Thus far the character of Isaac was predictive or parabolical; and perhaps

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perhaps the relation might be farther pursued: but it will be better to confine our attention to the particular subject of our present enquiry.

XVIII. Isaac was sentenced to suffer by the hand of his father, who took the fire and a knife to flay him. And whence did the suf ferings of Christ proceed, but from the Father, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all to the sword of justice and the fire of wrath; in which respects every burnt offering was a pledge and figure of his passion. But the history is yet more circumstantial-Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son, and they went both of them together. Under the same circumstances did Christ go out to the mountain on which he was to be sacrificed, bearing on his shoulders the wood of his own cross; to which he was afterwards fastened, as Isaac was bound, and laid on the altar upon the wood. Each of them submitted freely to the divine command: for Isaac was of an age to have withstood the persuasions of his father; and Christ, had he thought it good, might have called for more than twelve legions of angels to deliver him in the hour of darkness: nay, had he spoken the word, the heavens and the

earth would have fled away like smoke before his face; but he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

XIX. If we proceed with the parallel, we find the one received from the dead in a figure, the other in reality. In the purpose of his father, Isaac was devoted and sacrificed: nay, an actual sacrifice was offered, as Abraham had expected; but in the unexpected way of a substitution; and Isaac was alive, as one who had survived the fiery trial of the altar. His father, in reflecting upon it, would naturally break forth into some expression, to the same effect with that of the father in the parable-This my son was dead, and is alive again!

With respect to the circumstances of time and place, the two transactions agree in a

a The author of the Divine Legation of Moses, vol. II. part ii. is of opinion, that by the offering of Isaac, Abraham was instructed in the final sacrifice of Chrift; while the permitted one of the Ram informed him of the intermediate sacrifices of the Law. But this doth not appear, and may be thought too nice and refined an application of typical evidence. It seems more probable, that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was principally foreshewn in the person of Isaac, and his bloody Death in the permitted sacrifice of the Ram; so that by the conjunction of the two, the exhibition was complete.

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wonderful manner. For it appears, that Isaac was thus received from the dead on the third day. The sacred history informs us (doubtless with some wise intention) that on the third day Abraham lift up his eyes, and saw afar off the place which God had appointed. On that same day, he laid him upon the altar, and received him from it alive, after he had been as good as dead in the estimation of his father for three days, according to the time of Christ's resurrection. The place was on the mountains of Moriah; those very iħountains, on one of which our Lord Jesus Christ was afterwards crucified. The city of Jerusalem was built upon them: on the highest, which in 2 Chron. ch. iii. is expressly called by the name of Mount Moriah, stood the holy Temple, in which the Lamb Christ Jesus was figuratively offered for several hundred years in the daily sacrifices of the Law; and Calvary, on which he was at length offered in person, though without the city walls, was a part in the chain of the mountains of Moriah. The Patriarch foreseeing that the figurative offering and resurrection of his son, would one day be there realized in the death and resurrection of the Messiah, gave a name to the place in the spirit of prophecy, calling it