THE RETROSPECT.

No. XII.

HAVING endeavoured to ascertain somewhat of the spiritual character of the Church, when in her wilderness condition, from the symbols as contained in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, we will now proceed to enquire if any light is cast upon her career in any typical history to which those symbols may be supposed to point.

It must be quite evident that the first difficulty we have to encounter in the pursuit of such an enquiry is, that of satisfactorily establishing any authentic connection between the supposed type and antitype, in the absence of any direct divine revelations upon which we may authoritatively rest. But this embarrassment will be considerably alleviated, if we discover that there is only one typical history to which the symbol can possibly refer; and if it be, moreover, evi

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dent that all the combined emblems are presented to us in that instance, we think little doubt can reasonably be entertained but that the various symbols, thus found blended together in the Apocalypse, were selected by God for the express purpose of directing the attention of the Church to that particular portion of the history of the Jewish people where such a combination is found; and that it was intended to intimate that that history enclosed, in an outward form, the future spiritual career of the Church of Christ in the latter days.

It will scarcely be necessary to enter into any justification of the legitimacy of applying typically the career of the Jewish nation, both ecclesiastically and historically, to that of the more spiritual dispensation which was to follow. The fact of such a typical analogy existing between the two is not only plainly declared in every line of St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews (addressed to the Jews, because they were reasonably supposed to be the better able to appreciate such a truth); and discernible, more or less, in all the writings of the New Testament; but the application has also been acknowledged by the universal consent of the Christian Church, who have intuitively clothed most of their spiritual aspirations in language

borrowed from the whole of the Jewish economy, as well as admitted the truth in a more formal manner.

St. Jerome says, speaking of the book of Levitieus, "In hoc libro singula pene syllaba celestia spirat sacramenta" (Ep. ad Paulinem)—"almost every syllable in this book breathes a spiritual sacrament." Perhaps the worthy father would have been nearer the mark if he had used the word truth instead of sacrament. But this quotation is quite sufficient to prove the early Church acknowledged that the whole of the Mosaic law was, in fact, a grand symbol which contained, in its outward forms, not merely the indefinite shadow of good things to come, but moreover that its minutest enactments enclosed, and was intended to express, some particular spiritual truth in the dispensation which was to follow, though it is quite evident the Church is now almost in total darkness as to their true import. But if our appreciation of the Mosaic ritual be just, a time is close at hand, if it has not already begun, when every leaf embroidered upon the coverings of the tabernacle and every board in the sanctuary, as well as every observance in the Levitical law, will prove to have its specific meaning in the spiritual Church of God: to which testimony of St. Jerome, we might add that of Bishop

Horseley, who says that "The law was but the Gospel in hieroglyphics."

If the principle, therefore, of such a typical reference be thus sanctioned in the Scriptures themselves, and its truth admitted by the universal Church, it will only be incumbent on us to establish the validity of the grounds on which we rest any interpretation of the future career of the Church, in the previous history of the Jewish nation, in order to find ourselves fairly launched upon our enquiry; and we think this will not prove a difficult task, when the combined symbols themselves are attentively examined with such an object in view-more especially as the danger arising from a mere human selection of the type is wholly removed by the circumstance that such an analogy, between the type and the antitype, is only discoverable blended with any distinctness upon one occasion, and, consequently, no other alternative is left than determining that to be the one thus typically referred to.

We have already had occasion to observe that the history of the woman, after the birth of the man child-that is, the Church left on the earth after the appearing of the Lord, and the translation of the saints-is the main object of the prophecy, as contained in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; so that, in order to arrive

at that portion of the history of the Jewish people, to which these symbols are supposed typically to point, we must attentively consider the combined emblems by which this particular transaction is expressed; and we find the prophecy presents to us two prominent figures-the wilderness, into which the woman flies for protection from the face of the serpent, immediately after giving birth to the man child; and the great eagle, with her two wings, wherewith she flies into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Now, there are only two places in Scripture where the combined figures of an eagle flying into the wilderness occur; and in both instances they distinctly apply to the coming up of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and their entrance and history in the wilderness; nor are the symbols thus associated used in the divine record in connection with any other historical transaction. The passages referred to are as follows:

Firstly-" And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on