THEN John, in the Introduction to his Gospel, reviews with eagle glance the operation of the Logos, even before His coming in the flesh, he characterises in a single trait the relation in which the Son of God stood to the posterity of Abraham, not merely during His sojourning on earth, but also ages before. “He came to His own possession,’—to that people of the human race, to which from the beginning He felt a special relation, and in the midst of which He should appear in the fulness of the times,—“but His own people received Him not.”

To His own. What has been before said has already placed us in a position to comprehend, at least to some. extent, the justice and significance of this saying. While the Logos stood in a definite relation to the whole of humanity ever since the creation, yet the separation and calling of the people of Israel was without doubt no less the execution of His own counsel and will, than it was of that of the Father. He Himself thus caused to arise, and grow, and ripen, that people in the midst of whom He was to appear in the fulness of the time. Far from Christ being, as some represent Him, the natural product of the Israelitish people, Israel itself, as a people of revelation, is the work of the Logos. “Without Him was nothing made, that was made.” It was thus His creative power. which caused the son of promise to spring from Sarah’s now aged body; it was His command, by virtue of which a posterity was born from one, and he as good as dead, as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. This people was destined and set apart to be a people of revelation, in an entirely unique sense of theterm. It occupies henceforth an absolutely select position among all the nations of the earth—yea, Rome with all its might, and Greece with all its wisdom, is for the eye of the Christian of far less importance than this little people of promise, which in almost every other respect is behind other nations, but in this one respect merits the preference above all others, that “unto them were committed the oracles of God.”¹ He who, as so many in our day, forgets or doubts this special destination of Israel, cannot but be offended at so much that is strange and unwonted in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He, however, who on immovable historic grounds believes in the existence and operation of a special Divine government over Israel, will already conjecture from the nature of the case, that between this people and the Christ, who was destined to be the crown of Israel and the centre of the world’s history, there existed from old time an entirely peculiar relation. If we ask as to the nature and extent of this relation, the threefold answer may be perfectly justified: the Son of God, even before His coming into the world, was proclaimed, shadowed forth, and manifested in Israel.

If we consider the proclamation of the Son of God in Israel somewhat more closely, it can be shown from the history of the origin and growth of the Messianic expectation in Israel, that this expectation was first carefully prepared for, afterwards emphatically expressed, and finally, on many sides developed; and precisely in this gradual rise do we find a proof for the existence and sublimity of an extraordinary Divine revelation. The promise of redemption was by no means (as an uncomprehended magical formula) handed down unchanged, and as it were mechanically, from one generation to another. On the contrary, we observe, even in the first revelations of salvation, a regular and gradual progress. At the very threshold of paradise, we hear humanity called to the most terrible conflict, and to the most glorious victory: “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.” No promise can indeed be more general than this first one; but now, in the way of an ever free and gracious choice, the circle within which the Hope of the world was to appear, is drawn constantly more and more close. From Adam is chosen Seth, Noah, Shem, Heber. The Babylonian confusion of tongues prepares the way for the separation of a people; and, as afterwards God’s creative omnipotence causes the Christ to be born, so now does it make the aged Sarah to be a joyful mother. Abraham arises, the rock whence Israel was hewn, as a prophet afterwards terms him.² He is chosen before others as the friend of Jehovah, yea, the. golden line of election now first begins to be right clear and manifest. Not Nahor, but Abraham his brother; not Ishmael, but Isaac his brother; not Esau, but Jacob his brother, is destined to be the ancestor of Christ, according to the flesh. Of Christ—no, as a person He does not yet present Himself before our eyes; these are, as it were, only the morning clouds, from which His light shall appear. We hear only of something great and glorious, which God Himself will accomplish for our fallen race, and the promise to Abraham, especially,³ awakens in us the expectation of a store of absolutely boundless blessings. And if, in the writings of Moses, a Some One, a definite person is announced, in whom this hope shall be realised, it is because a fresh ray of light arises upon the death-bed of the Patriarch Jacob, where we first hear the Saviour of the world spoken of, but as yet only figuratively and parabolically, as personal. “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering (or, obedience) of the nations be.”⁴ A Peace-bringer is henceforth looked for from Judah, without its being for a moment said in: what character He will arise. A few centuries later, Balaam sees the house of Jacob invested with princely: glory,⁵ and Moses beholds in the future an ideal Prophet, equal to himself in dignity.⁶ In the midst of the full enjoyment of the blessing of the Theocracy, the desire for a visible king becomes ever more and more strong, and it awakens in the hearts of men the feeling that under this form of government, the nation will attain its highest point of glory.⁷ Thus approaches the time,. when first Saul, then David and Solomon, ascend the princely throne; and now that which had been already prepared for and indicated in all the before-mentioned revelations, is by David distinctly declared. An everlasting kingship in his house is. promised by Jehovah: Himself to the man after God’s own heart; and, enlightened by the Spirit of the Lord, David beholds in the: distant future that Son whom he reverentially hails. as his Lord.⁸ First, there is presented to his eye the glory of the Hero, who triumphs over all His foes; then he becomes in his own experiences the striking type of Him, who must pass through sufferings to glory. With dying lips does he yet give utterance to his expectation of the “Righteous One, ruling in the fear of God,”⁹ who one day shall occupy his throne; and, after David's departure, Solomon on his part proclaims the praise of that Prince of Peace, whom he personally shadows forth.¹⁰

Expressed in sacred Psalms,¹¹ the expectation of Messiah. becomes more and more an imperishable heritage of the nation; and when at length Jehovah raises up a distinguished succession of Prophets in Israel and Judah, this prospect unfolds itself under His immediate guidance with increasing clearness. From century to century there are opened up new depths of sin on the one side, of grace on the other; and there are granted to us deeper glances, not only into the heart of man, but also into the heart of the Godhead itself. Long, even, before the Babylonian captivity, the Messianic image of David is enriched with a multitude of new features. In sublime transport Joel¹² describes the days of the New Covenant as days of the plenteous outpouring of the Spirit, without as yet pointing to ‘Him, who shall baptise with the Holy Ghost; but Amos¹³ sees the fallen tabernacle of David again raised, and looks for the renewed triumph of Israel at the same time, over all its mighty foes. Hosea¹⁴ expects from the sceptre of David a fresh union of the now separated Israel and Judah; and the more gloomy the prospect becomes in the immediate future before the following seers—inasmuch as they predict with ever greater clearness the approaching Captivity—the more clearly does the form of the great Restorer stand out. in the foreground of the picture which they draw. The nearer the fulfilment of the time approaches, the more manifold becomes at the same time the number of those peculiarities of His person and work—comparatively small, apparently accidental, such at least as could not have been calculated beforehand—which are indicated by the Spirit of prophecy. Thus Micah announces His birth at Bethlehem.¹⁵ Isaiah, His conception by a virgin, and His honourable burial after a death of shame.¹⁶ Especially does the last-named man of God tower as a Christologian as high above the other prophets, as David above the other kings. On the one hand, he predicts the appearing of the Son of David in the days of the deepest humiliation; on the other, he presents Him before our view in a more than earthly splendour. Spiritual blessings, especially forgiveness of sin and triumph over death, does he promise His faithful subjects, and describes the prophetic and high-priestly character of the Lord, as well as His royal character. Hints already given by Moses and David with regard thereto,¹⁷ are by him more fully developed, like fruitful germs which suddenly burst forth with vigour, after having slumbered for a while apparently without life. The kingly Branch of David now stands forth as the Servant of Jehovah, who suffers for the sins of others, but then makes known His salvation to the ends of the earth, and at last is as highly exalted as He had before been deeply dishonoured. From the throne which He has in this manner ascended, flows down salvation upon all the nations of the earth, and He founds and presides over a kingdom of God, of which a glorified Jerusalem forms the visible centre, and in which prevails a clear knowledge of God, unsullied purity, and unbroken repose and happiness. And while the desolation of the city seems indeed to hinder the founding of this kingdom, yet it is very soon manifest, even during the Babylonian Captivity, that the best hope of the nation was not lost with its other treasures. Whilst the threatenings, which had been early pronounced against an impenitent nation,¹⁸ are receiving their fulfilment before his eyes, the spirit of Jeremiah¹⁹ is carried forward to the establishing of a New Covenant, which shall be alike fraught with blessing and secure against change, and in which there shall be the realisation of all those things of which only the shadow had yet been seen. While the form in which he clothes the promise of salvation, was again to a certain extent new, the preciousness of its contents is especially made evident to us by Ezekiel.²⁰ More strikingly than any of his predecessors does he describe to us the whole outward and inner renewal of Israel by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is to be looked for in after ages, when the only Shepherd gathers again His favoured flock. By the streams of the Chaboras we see a God-opposed world-power arising in opposition to the restored Temple of God, which fights against the heritage of the Lord, and is destined at last to be overthrown. We are thus, yet more than before, led to see the Messianic period take its place in the great whole of the world’s history; and Ezekiel prepares us for Daniel.²¹ It is this latter prophet who, in the land of exile, brings the hope of. Israel into direct relation with the past and future of the whole of humanity; and, after he has pointed out with regard to the kingdom of God its peculiar place beside and above all kingdoms of the earth, is the first who more closely defines the time when the King Himself shall appear. Without any ambiguity does he announce the heavenly origin of the Messiah, already hinted at by several of his predecessors; and predicts more clearly than any one else the melancholy consequences for Israel, which attach themselves to His rejection. Through the influence of Daniel and others, the nation at the close of the Babylonian Captivity is in the possession of a rich treasure of lofty expectations. These are further augmented by the last prophets; although, with the gradual disappearing of the prophetic gift, no longer so richly as before. Haggai²² teaches the nation to look for the promised salvation, definitely during the existence of the second Temple. Zechariah²³ represents, even in its minute details, the humiliation and rejection of the King of Israel, and adds yet new features to the picture of the last conflict already drawn in such vivid colours by Ezekiel. And Malachi,²⁴ as it were for the complementing of the strictly Old Testament standpoint which he assumes above many others, places beside the almost. completed image of Messiah the severe - form of the Forerunner, the last messenger of God before the advent of the Angel of the Covenant. Thus almost every prophet added his own touch to the glorious picture of the days of the New Covenant; until, after sufficient elaboration of the main figure, the painters all withdraw, and let fall the curtain for awhile. The Person is already depicted, who shall raise this curtain again, and with His own hand trace for His contemporaries the fulfilment of the prophecy.

We cannot here hope to pursue the development of the Israelitish Messianic expectation still further; yet even this general review, presented only in its broad features, impels us with irresistible force reverently to look on high. It might have been spoken of as an irrefragable proof for the Divine mission and all-surpassing dignity of the Christ of God, if only a single prophet had, centuries before His appearing upon earth, minutely detailed the circumstances and issues of that appearing, and this prophecy had, contrary to all human expectation, been perfectly and literally fulfilled. But in this ease, it will be felt, there is something infinitely greater. A venerable host of men of God, of the most diverse peculiarity, mode of thought and development, often separated from each other by an interval of centuries, and each one as a rule speaking independently of the word of his predecessor, arise as interpreters of the fairest expectations. Under circumstances the most dissimilar they behold and point out the same background; notwithstanding the very diverse nature of their individuality, they bear testimony under various differing forms to one truth; and all these voices, now threatening, now alluring, now rejoicing, now lamenting, are all dissolved in one glorious closing harmony: the expectation of the coming of the Lord. “Shell and husk,” to use the language of a celebrated theologian,²⁵ “in which the precious kernel is hidden, fall away one after another, until at length this kernel itself, the Christ, appears personally; and the whole of the Old Testament rests upon the ever more full and complete development of single early prophecies and promises of God, which pervades it, in which the unity of the Divine plan is fully perceived only when Christ shall have come in His kingdom.” It is remarkable in what a manifold way, yet one ever conformable to the end in view, the development of this prospect in antiquity is advanced by Jehovah Himself. Now He sends persons, who in their work and fate shall as it were shadow forth before the eyes of the nation the future Bringer of salvation; now He ordains events, such as the growing decay, the entire overthrow, and the partial restoration of Israel, by which is awakened on the one hand the need of redemption, and on the other the receptivity for it; then He makes provision that His promises should be preserved and read in enduring writing, in order thus to strengthen the desponding heart by a well-grounded hope. But in whatever way the development of this awakened hope is advanced, it goes on its own uninterrupted way. It is true it meets with all sorts of hindrances, especially in the insensibility and earthly-mindedness of the nation, but it knows how to triumph over all these; and even that which depresses the joyful spirit of believers in Israel, serves on the other hand so much the more to render intense their desire. As the leaf is born from the branch, the branch from the stem, the stem from the root, so, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, does the one prospect grow out of the other, and never do we perceive an unnatural bound, but at the same time never an obstructing gulf. The way in which Jehovah leads His people ever more deeply into the mysteries of His plan regarding the world, is the same as that which we constantly discover in the history of men and nations: not the straight, but the curved line, which advances by circuitous paths, and even notwithstanding apparent retrogression. A prophet gifted with special insight is not always followed by one yet more brightly illumined, but sometimes by a seer of lesser degree, and for a moment the prospects are obscured or lowered, where we were prepared to see a rise. Sometimes, however, the deviating line bends round again, and after a few steps backwards we find ourselves unexpectedly advancing once more several steps forward; and even where at first sight we see nothing but a confused diversity of Christological conceptions, we are quickly surprised by a harmony between more indefinite and more precise revelations of salvation, such as we hardly expected to find. Verily, while the thus developed Messianic expectation may be compared to a stately edifice, we may boldly inscribe over the entrance to it the testimony: “He that hath built all this, is God.” And, however many questions, even regarding the origin, the composition, and preservation of single books of the Old Testament, have hitherto remained unanswered, yet we for our part scarcely know a stronger evidence for the fact that an extraordinary Divine revelation must be deposited in this collection of books, than precisely a glance at the Israelitish expectation of Messiah, therein preserved and so gloriously developed.

In truth, only a passing comparison is necessary between the indefinite expectations of salvation of Gentile antiquity, and the certain promises of salvation in that of Israel, in order to convince us that we are here moving on what is entirely another soil, and that between the two preparations for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh there exists a difference not merely of degree but of kind. In the expectations of the Christ in the Gentile world we see the fruit of a natural human presentiment, however much called forth under the secret influence of the Logos, who there also has prepared His way. In the Messianic predictions of the Prophets of Israel, on the other hand, we discover the fruit of a direct, extraordinary revelation from above, which it is true attached itself to the development of that age, and was proportioned to its wants, but can by no means be explained as the purely natural fruit of the seer’s own consciousness, or of the spirit of the times. There we see the sighing creature rising as high as possible on its own wings, in order to discover whether the day of salvation is not yet coming. Here, on the other hand, we see God in compassion bending down, in order to communicate to the deeply fallen son of man something of a blessed secret, of which without His special enlightenment, the eye would never have seen anything, nor the ear ever have heard. It is equally unreasonable and superficial to obliterate the boundary-line, which has in this respect often been drawn between Israel and the nations,²⁶ as it is to doubt the existence of a preparation of the Gentile world also, for the day of salvation. Above either form of exclusiveness the Apostle has already risen, where he so emphatically terms God a God of the Jews, though not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles; yet by no means in the same sense in which He was the God of the Jews.²⁷

Is any one in danger of supposing that this express announcement of the Messiah before His manifestation in Israel was a benefit of small significance, or at least, now —when the shadow has given place to the light—merits no special attention? The nature of the case, no less than the voice of history, would loudly contradict this assertion. By the prophetic promise of Messiah’s appearing the nation of Israel was inspired with courage in the darkest days, and in the midst of the severest temptations was pledged to faithfulness towards Jehovah, who had set so glorious a prospect before the descendants of His friend. The hope of a salvation-bearer who should not merely exalt Israel, but also be the light of the whole world, must preserve the people of the Lord against a narrow particularism, otherwise almost inevitable. The Gospel, which was thus even under the Old Testament mingled with the threatenings of the law, was able to console those who were grieved on account of their sins, and the expectation of the judgment connected with Messiah’s appearing, to move the disobedient to repentance. And when at length the day of salvation dawned, then precisely the comparison of the prophetic image of Messiah with the historic reality must convince the Lord’s contemporaries that He was truly the one who should come, without its being needful to expect another after Him. No wonder that Jesus Himself constantly appealed to the prophets, and rebuked the unbelief which was blind to their literal fulfilment. No wonder that in the discourses and epistles of the Apostles there is found, notwithstanding all diversity, a remarkable harmony in the use and appreciation of prophetic Scripture. No wonder either that for centuries thousands of unbelieving Jews have been led by this blessed means to the acknowledging of the hope of their fathers. And is the value of these announcements in any way diminished for us, who live to see the day of fulfilment? This has not seldom been asserted, and the assertion is natural from the standpoint of those who would deprive the prophetic words of the venerable character of an extraordinary Divine revelation, and even estimate the literal fulfilment of definite prophecies as nothing higher than an accidental, unmeaning phenomenon. But the Apostle Peter at least judged otherwise, when he exhorted even Christians to take heed to the word of prophecy, which— thus it reads literally—is the more firm, namely, since it has received confirmation by the issue; as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.²⁸ The believing Church of all ages has, with most perfect right, attached the greatest weight to the proof for the Divine origin of the. Gospel derived from fulfilled prophecy.²⁹ How many unbelievers occupy a standpoint scarcely so high as that of the contemporaries of our Lord, who must first learn to know Him aright even by the examination of the prophetic Scriptures! And where is the believer who does not constantly stand in need of fresh strengthening, and who would wish to despise a means thereto appointed by God, and already blessed for thousands? Let only Christendom return to a believing acknowledgment of the prophetic word as the word of the living God, of which the claim is now, alas, often so profanely ignored by a science falsely so-called, and then -will it perceive that here lie gold mines still inexhaustible, for the knowledge, the faith, and the life of the Christian, of which the first veins are as yet scarcely disclosed.

Or shall it, finally, present a difficulty for any one, that this announcement of Christ under the Old Covenant lasted so long, and that only so late was it followed by a personal manifestation? It is true, the night, in which this light shined, rested long on the earth. Almost two thousand years passed between Abraham and Christ, and now, already almost nineteen centuries after His appearing, the kingdom of God has not yet come to half the human race. But is not this very slowness in its preparation one proof the more for the value and the glory of the New Testament day? As in the natural, so also in the spiritual domain, that which is greatest and noblest is brought to completion last and most slowly. Usually, when God purposes an extraordinary deliverance, He first allows human wisdom and power to exert itself to the uttermost, that in this way its powerlessness may be made manifest before the eyes of all, and not the creature, but only the Creator, may receive the glory of the salvation. Only when Ishmael is brought to the verge of death does the Angel of the Lord open the eyes of Hagar, that she may perceive a well of water. Only when the hosts of Sennacherib are already before the gates of Jerusalem, does the Angel of destruction stretch in the dust one hundred and eighty-five thousand men at a single blow. Only when sinful and wretched humanity had made all kinds of attempts to raise itself from its state of misery, was the Saviour of the world born. Who knows, moreover, whether Christ would not have appeared earlier in the flesh, if the preparation for His coming had encountered less opposition, and believing desire had been just as general as the power of sin and unbelief now is? Had not the field to be carefully prepared, ere the tree of the Kingdom of God was planted? and does not history show that the long-enduring prophesying of this salvation has brought forth so much the fairer fruit? However this may be, he who in Israel truly revered the word of prophecy as a word of the Lord, found in it full amends for an otherwise painful deficiency. If it was the very Spirit of Christ Himself who spake by the prophets:³⁰ the Israelite thus, as it were, heard His voice, even before he saw His form. His image stood before the eye of His people, in the mirror of prophetic Scripture, and what with this light was still wanting in point of accuracy and clearness to their conceptions, was partially supplied by that which was in another way presented to them concerning His person and work. And this leads us to speak of the shadowings forth of Christ’s appearing, which are met with under the Old Covenant.

When we assert that the Son of God before His incarnation was not merely announced, but also shadowed forth, we are only repeating in other words that which the Lord and His Apostles have said to us in various ways. We at once think here of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which may be termed a prolonged demonstration that the Old and the New Testament stand to each other in the same relation as the shadow to the reality. Moreover it is not this writer alone who has expressed this thought, and taken peculiar interest in its elucidation. Paul, too, declares that the Old Testament rites were only “a shadow of things to come; but the body is (that of) Christ.”³¹ He calls the first Adam a figure (Typus) of Him that was to come;³² and says elsewhere, to mention no other instances, that Christ was the Rock, whence the Children of Israel drank in their desert-journeyings.³³ Peter sees in the flood a type of Baptism; John, in the earthly Temple, an image in many respects of the heavenly one. And who does not know how the Saviour Himself compared His lifting-up upon the cross with that of the brazen serpent; beheld and clearly pointed out in the manna the image of Himself as the Bread of Life; how He saw, not only in the words, but also in the work and lot of the old prophets, a definite reference to His own appearing? In connection with such manifold points of agreement between the Old Testament and the New, we cannot feel surprise that these have often been observed and pursued into even trifling details, and that a special domain of so-called Typical Theology has arisen, and has found, especially in former centuries, able and acute defenders, as it has in later centuries powerful opponents.

It does not belong to our present task to give the history of Typical Theology even in broad outline, or to decide as to its value in general. We sincerely respect the acumen of a Coccejus, a Vitringa, a Witsius, and others, who saw Christ shadowed forth even in those features of the Old Testament, in which certainly no one without their guidance would ever have observed the allusion, But we believe that in this domain, as well as others, men have only too often proceeded too far; the gradual. progress of Divine revelation has been often overlooked, and the distinction between shadow and light has not been sufficiently observed. When Christ has been not seldom found shadowed’ forth in persons and institutions of the Old Testament, to which not the most distant allusion is; made in the New, there a large field must have been granted, not only to reason, but also to caprice. An over-estimate of the light in this-way shed under the Old Covenant must, on the: other hand, lead to distrust and misrepresentation; and, whilst in former times not a few were to be met with, who sought a figurative meaning in almost every history or institution of Israel, now one meets. with many more who reject all Typology (doctrine of types) as a fruit of superstition. and prejudice. We shall certainly be preserved from both extremes, if we here also attach ourselves as closely as possible to the teaching of the Apostles; and to the question, By what was Christ. shadowed forth under the Old Covenant? simply return the answer, Expressly by such persons and ordinances as are indicated to us, by Himself and His inspired messengers, as figures of His person and work.

Perhaps, however, it may not be superfluous for some to indicate a little more definitely what we mean by the word type. We cannot better do so than in the words of one equally eminent for his piety as for his learning:³⁴ “God has been pleased to give, as well in remarkable persons of the Old Testament, in whose case something unusual has occurred, as in the whole institution of religion, a. true delineation—and one worthy of so great an artist—of Christ, together with His spiritual body. As often as there is found in an antitype the likeness of the type, we assert with justice that God, who. knew all things from. the beginning, has so constituted. the type, that the antitypical reality should be found already indicated therein; unless indeed any one should assert that the agreement between the artistic painting and the object depicted is to. be ascribed. to accident, and not to the design of the painter, which is contrary to all reason.” Evidently something infinitely higher than a mere external and accidental agreement between the Old Testament and the New is to. be thought of. When we speak of types, we do not mean simply such persons and things as now, regarded after the coming of Christ, admit of our perceiving some resemblance to the Lord and His Church; but such as were: originally destined and ordained by God, to be images of that person and that salvation, which. in the fulness of time should appear in reality.

That the Old Testament is rich in such types, or rather forms. in: its totality one type of the New Testament, follows necessarily from the entirely unique position which belongs to Christ as the centre of the history of the world and of revelation. As we constantly see the principle embodied in the vegetable and animal kingdom, that the higher species are already typified in a lower stage of development, so do we also find, in the domain of Saving Revelation, the highest not only prepared for, but also shadowed forth, by that which precedes in lower spheres. Such types are, as it were, prophecies in thongs and facts—sächliche und thatsächliche.Weissagungen— of the blessedness of the future, which, side by side with the prophetic word, run on in parallel line, and in many respects explain it. How much or how little the Israelites themselves understood of this higher significance of the events and institutions under the Old Covenant above referred to, can indeed never be determined otherwise than by conjecture. Equally arbitrary is it to assert that. they—i.e. the most advanced and devout amongst them—understood the whole, as that they did not understand the least of that which was signified. What, moreover, was unknown to them, did not necessarily remain so for those higher beings, who admired God’s manifold wisdom in the founding and guiding of His Church.³⁵ What remained unknown for them is, at any rate, in part unsealed. for us, who see pointed out to us, as with the finger, by infallible guides in the New Testament, the typico-symbolical character of so many a personality and so many an ordinance of the earlier days.

And what a noble succession of “figures of Him that was to come,” presents itself before our eyes! Foremost of all stands Adam, the father of our fallen-race, in this respect resembling Christ, that they are both spiritual heads, the one of the fallen, the other of the regenerate humanity; from whom on the one hand has proceeded death, on the other, life and blessedness.³⁶ Then Melchisedec, King of Salem, as King and Priest in. the unity of the person image of that heavenly High-Priest, who sits at the right hand of God, and even by the mystery in which His whole personality is involved, a worthy representative of Him who. occupies a place wholly unique in the history of humanity.³⁷ Not less so is Moses, the Mediator of the Old Covenant, as Christ is of the New, who-was a servant in the same house, of which He—the First-born—was the Son.³⁸ Then David, the man after God’s own heart, who in his sufferings and in his glory is so greatly the type of his adorable descendant, that the latter is even sometimes designated by the name of David.³⁹ With him Solomon, the Prince of Peace, to whom the whole East renders homage, and whom. the Queen of Sheba honours-in a manner which the more strongly sets forth the unbelief of the contemporaries of the Lord⁴⁰ After him Jonah, who, according to the word of Jesus Himself, shadowed forth by his three days’ sojourn in the fish, the miracle of the Lord’s resurrection after three days’ rest in the grave⁴¹ Yea, may we not see a reference in every prophet who more or less corresponds to the ideal of the Servant of the Lord, so strikingly depicted by Isaiah, to Him who as such should perfectly and for ever fulfil the counsel and will of the Father? In fact, the longer we contemplate these venerable forms, the more clear becomes the agreement with One, in whom all that was exalted in them is found in the highest measure, but without any accompanying imperfection. As it were in image and likeness the contemporaries of the kings and prophets saluted the Messiah, although they beheld the promise of His coming only afar off, and believed it, and embraced it.

And may not the same be said of so many an institution of the Old Testament, of which the highest aim is investigated, only when this institution is brought into direct relation with the salvation which has appeared in Christ 2. Solemn is the memorial feast of Israel’s exodus, ordained by Moses in the Paschal supper; but what is the deepest significance of that Paschal Lamb, of which not a bone was to be broken? “Even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,⁴² exclaims Paul to the Corinthians, and finds thus in ‘the Israelitish Passover the symbolical reference to a better redemption, which is effected by the sacrifice of Christ. Beneficial is the uplifting of the brazen serpent, by which death and destruction is arrested in the camp of Israel. But what significance has this ordinance of Moses, not merely for Israel, but for all following centuries? ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”⁴³

Majestic is the sacrificial ritual, which is performed day by day in the Tabernacle and the Temple; but has it no higher aim than only for the moment to calm the heart and conscience of the sinner? Yes, for here also the law has “the shadow of good things to come.’ Every propitiatory sacrifice which bled upon the altar of atonement is a striking type of Him, who by one offering hath made perfect for ever all His people. The High Priest in his raiment of office becomes the image of that better High Priest, who with the offering of His own blood appears before the presence of the Father; and the Most Holy Place in its mysterious splendour presents the Heavenly Temple as it were visibly and clearly before our eyes. But we should need to transcribe the whole Epistle to the Hebrews, if we would recount all, by which not only the Central Person, but also the whole economy of salvation under the New Covenant, is already shadowed forth in the Scriptures of the Old. All Israel, regarded as a people of Kings and Priests, may be called a living image of the Church of the New Testament, with all its privileges, obligations, and expectations. “All these things,” writes Paul of the experiences of Israel in the wilderness, “happened unto them for ensamuples (types); and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.⁴⁴ “Yea, we believe a Christian philosopher was not exaggerating when he gave utterance to the suggestive words, “The whole biblical history is one grand prophecy, which receives its fulfilment in all ages, in the soul of every man.”⁴⁵

We would not willingly assert that no other types of Christ existed in Israclitish antiquity besides those which have been expressly mentioned by Jesus and the Apostles. On the contrary, as there are without doubt other Messianic prophecies, besides those expressly mentioned in the Gospel, so assuredly there are other types besides those mentioned as such in the New Testament Scriptures. Even the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (not to speak of any other) mentions different things, “of which he cannot now speak one by one,” to which he manifestly attaches a higher significance.⁴⁶ We cannot accordingly feel surprised that many, not satisfied with the comparatively little actually referred to in the Bible as a type, have considerably enlarged the limits of this class of predictions. Abel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Joseph, Moses and Elijah, Boaz and Samson, Joshua and Zerubbabel—but where shall we make a beginning or an end, if we would enumerate all the heroes of sacred history in whom types have been discovered; as in Abel, though innocent, put to death; in Isaac, who was offered as a sacrifice; in Joseph, rejected of his brethren, and afterwards manifested to them in glory? In like manner have the enemies of the kingdom of Christ been seen shadowed forth; e.g., in Pharaoh, the persecutor of Israel; in Saul, the enemy of David; in Haman, the adversary of the Jews; not to speak of an Antiochus Epiphanes, a Nero, and so many others. Here, however, it is evident that no small amount of caution is necessary, in order not to say too much, and yet on the other hand not too little. As the eye when it has long gazed on the sun, perceives sunshine on every object which it afterwards looks upon, so the Christian, who daily contemplates his Lord with the eye of faith, recognises the lineaments of His image in the countenance of many an historical person. Who can—to speak of names already mentioned—contemplate the offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah, without soaring higher in thought, and placing himself at Calvary? or read the account of the deliverance of Moses in Egypt, without thinking of the flight from Bethlehem to Egypt? He who sees in this resemblance nothing more than the fruit of accident, has little eye for the steady progress of God’s government, which in all ages follows the same rules, and brings forth light out of darkness, leads from: the depth of humiliation to the height of honour, and to like causes attaches like consequences. Only the fact. must never be lost sight of, that resemblances and types are in any case not words of one signification; and it must be remembered, moreover, that these comparisons can be made only in a given respect, and in such wise that the original difference between the cases is fully acknowledged. It is not difficult to proceed a few steps farther in the track marked out by the Apostles and Evangelists; and as, for instance, a pre-figuration of the sacrifice on the cross has been seen in the propitiatory sacrifices of the Old Covenant, so now to find in the Day of Atonement, in the Goél (Kinsman Redeemer of Levit. xxv. 25; Ruth ii. 20, etc.), and in the Cities of Refuge, a very distinct reference to the saving benefits of the New Covenant. But the difference always remains, that for this last-named interpretation we lack the authority of infallible guides, such as those who explain to us the significance of the Manna, of the Brazen Serpent, or of the’ Passover; and this remark, taken in connection with the boundless misuse made of Christian liberty in this respect, must of itself recommend ‘an increased degree of caution. With full certainty, we can only say that Christ is shadowed forth by those persons and ordinances of the Old Testament, with regard to which the New gives us this assurance. Every favourite mode of interpreting Scripture writers in the typical sense, runs the risk of degenerating into extravagance; and however really the Old Testament is in itself a compact whole, which, as such, points to something future and higher, it is at any rate safer to rest content with observing the’ beforementioned agreements in general, than to descend to minute and often trifling details. - Only a practised spiritual taste can preserve us on the one hand from superficially overlooking the depths of Scripture, and on the other from confounding the play of our own imagination with the manifold wisdom of God, Resemblances, which in the opinion of one are highly surprising, appear to another not seldom in the highest degree forced; and we must never forget that between that which we think we see, and the truth itself, the distance may still be immense. The doctrine of the types of Christ in the Old Testament is, from the nature of the case, much better adapted to confirm the Christian in his faith, than to move to belief the unbeliever, whose eye has not yet been opened for the glorious harmonies of the Scripture. Let not then this strong meat be furnished to those who, especially in our day, need first to be fed with simple milk. One thing, however, must stand immovably firm, amidst all the diversity of opinions, on this point also, that the whole Old Testament Cultus displays a symbolical character, to which the only fitting key is to be found in the person and work of that One, for whom it must prepare the way.⁴⁷ And when it becomes ever increasingly apparent, that nothing has here taken place by chance, and nothing without design, faith may adore the unsearchable wisdom of Him who, not only by word, but also by deed, has. prophesied of the grace that is come to us, yea, set forth in sacred hieroglyphics the glad tidings, ere they were proclaimed throughout the whole Jewish and Gentile world!

We now come naturally to the last question of this chapter; namely, In what sense and with what right may it be said that the Son of God before His incarnation was personally manifested and appeared to the fathers under the Old Covenant? The answer to this depends especially on the answer to another question: What have we to think of that exalted Person who, in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, is definitely characterised as the Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of the Presence, and the Angel of the Covenant?

He who is not entirely a stranger to the first and larger half of Scripture, will remember that, in distinction from the whole heavenly host, as well as from other single angels, mention is often expressly made of one highly glorious angel, who not only arises and acts in the name of Jehovah, but whose name is even used interchangeably with that of Jehovah, and who receives what is in the true sense of the word Divine honour and reverence. He appears to Hagar, when as a fugitive she sits by the water-fountain, and promises that He will wondrously increase her descendants, and is addressed by her under the name of “God of vision.”⁴⁸ By the terebinths of Mamre, He enters into Abraham’s tent, accompanied by two other heavenly spirits; from whom He is at once clearly distinguished as the Lord, before whose face the patriarch still continues to stand in prayer.⁴⁹ Then He prevents the sacrifice of Isaac, with the words, “Now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.⁵⁰ He wrestles with Jacob in a vision by night, and calls forth from him the thankful exclamation: “I have seen God face to face, and my soul is delivered.”⁵¹ The dying Israel speaks of Him in one breath with (and yet in distinction from) the God before whose face his fathers walked, and implores His blessing upon his descendants.⁵² In the burning ‘bush He appears unto Moses, speaks as the God of the patriarchs, and lays claim to Divine homage.⁵³ He is given by Jehovah as Leader of the Children of Israel: “Keep thyself before His face,” says the Lord, “and obey His voice; provoke Him not, for He will not pardon your transgressions: for my Name is within Him.”⁵⁴ Under ‘His guidance Israel at first goes forth, but when they had been guilty of the worship of the calf, Jehovah threatens that He will no longer Himself go before their face, but will send an angel who shall drive out the inhabitants of Canaan; which can thus only be understood of an angel of lesser rank, else why the announcement of his being sent as a punishment? and whence the grief experienced by Moses and Israel?⁵⁵ Only when Jehovah’s Presence (Countenance, Face, ver. 14) goes with them—in other words, when the Angel of Jehovah’s face (Isa. lxiii. 9) has again placed Himself at the head of the ‘host—is the mind of Moses perfectly set at rest. Joshua sees Him, as the Prince over the hosts of heaven, standing ‘before the walls of Jericho, a warrior with drawn sword in His hand; and as he worships before Him with his face to the earth, he is commanded further to loose his shoes from off his feet.⁵⁶ He appears to the wife of Manoah, then to Manoah himself, to announce to him the birth of Samson; and says, in answer to the question as to His name, that it is Wonderful,⁵⁷ and departs to heaven in the flame of fire, which ordinarily in Scripture is represented as specially a messenger of God. Thus had He earlier come to Israel in Bochim, to reprove them that—lax in the expulsion of the Canaanites —they had not listened to His voice;⁵⁸ and had, speaking as Jehovah Himself, commissioned Gideon to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Midianites.⁵⁹ He appears, to mention no: other instances, as the messenger of revelation before Zechariah, in the night visions of this prophet—evidently exalted above other angels—as interceding with Jehovah on behalf of the devastated Jerusalem;⁶⁰ and it is not improbable that no other than He is designated in the book of Daniel, under the name of Michael.⁶¹ He comes, finally—and here the appearing of this Angel of the Lord is brought into direct relation with the Messianic expectation—in the prophecies of Malachi, as. the Lord to His Temple, preceded by the second Elias as. His herald. Thus we meet with Him almost from the first page to the last of the Old Testament, and the question arises with augmented emphasis, Who can He be, who, amidst the messengers of the counsel of God and the interpreters of His will, occupies so exceptional a position? We for our part know not how to return any other satisfactory answer but this: It was the Logos, already active in Israel as the Angel of the Covenant, even before His incarnation.

Let us not be misunderstood when we subscribe to this answer not. without hesitation, We are by no means unacquainted with the objections. which are raised against this our view, and which even within the most recent period, have been maintained specially on the orthodox. side. We do not assert that this high rank of the heavenly messenger, of whom we have been speaking, was already known to Israel under the Old Covenant;⁶² but yet we believe, upon mature consideration, that the view we have expressed presents fewer difficulties, and is supported by stronger arguments, than any other, which might be commended to us instead of it.

Or must we here think simply of a created spirit of specially high rank, who, appearing and acting in the name of Jehovah, as His representative receives Divine honours? But in all the narratives mentioned there is not contained a single proof that we have here to do only with a finite creature. The Angel of the Covenant unceasingly speaks and acts as Jehovah Himself, and accepts a homage which—in the days of the New Covenant—we see a bright heavenly messenger reject with the words, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant: worship God.”⁶³ High does He stand ‘above all other heavenly messengers, who do His will on earth; and “My Name is within Him” are the words of Jehovah to Moses, as later Paul declares of Christ that in Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily.⁶⁴ But is then the Angel of Jehovah only a momentary form of revelation for Jehovah, at other times invisible, and no person in any way distinguished from Him? This view also is equally wanting in support from Scripture. For the Angel of the Covenant, who often identifies himself with Jehovah, is in other places again definitely distinguished from Him, sent by Him, subordinate to Him. And how can the Angel of the Covenant in Malachi be represented as the Messiah, if He is no personal being, not for a moment to be confounded with his Sender? The opinion, finally, that we have here to think only of an impersonal power of nature, which is in a metaphorical way characterised by the name “Angel of the Lord,” calls for no special refutation. Conceive of a power of nature which appears, which promises or threatens, which re ceives Divine honour and worship!

Thus we are naturally led back to the thought which we have already ventured to utter: The Angel of the Covenant is the Logos before His incarnation. This view in reality has in itself not a little to recommend it, and besides finds no slight support in the Scriptures of the New Testament. On this question also the latter must shed its light on many an enigmatical page of the Old Testament; and we cannot regard the question, “Who was the Angel of the Covenant?” alone, but must do so in connection with all that we already know of the Son of God before His incarnation. If He was truly the One by whom all things were made, after whom—as the image of the Father—man was originally created, from whom all light and life, even in the heathen world, proceeded, and to whom the people of Israel was, more than any other, placed in a very definite relation—then it is even à priori probable, that He would become, so to speak, the chosen organ of revelation of God for His ancient people. A fact, moreover, so peculiarly unique as the incarnation of the Son of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, might and must very fitly be in such wise prepared for, shadowed forth, indicated, by preceding, more fleeting and mysterious phenomena, which stand related to that incarnation itself, as the twilight to the day, as the bud to the perfect fruit. In visible form the Logos thus presents Himself from time to time before the eyes of the children of men, in the midst of whom He at length, appearing’ as man among men, shall most gloriously dwell. Thus is Israel prepared for the personal manifestation of God in the lowly form of a servant, and the incarnation of the eternal Word is no isolated fact, but the meet crown to a long series of increasingly glorious appearings, which accordingly after the fulness of the time are no longer witnessed. Ordinary appearings of angels we still meet with in the days of the New Testament; but the Angel of the Covenant, who in the first half of the Scriptures occupies so important a place, has in the second vanished without a trace. No wonder! to what end should He appear any longer in angel-form, who has reached the culminating-point of the revelations of God’s love, and as man among men has been born, has died, and been glorified?

As well the letter as the spirit of Scripture favours this our view. Its constant doctrine teaches us to recognise God as a Spirit, whom no man hath seen nor can see. When, therefore, the men of God declare that they see Jehovah in His glory, we are naturally led to think of that Logos, in whom all that can be known concerning God was revealed, and by whom the Infinite communicates Himself to the finite creature. Thus thought the Apostle John also, where he expressly assures us that Isaiah, in the hour of his prophetie consecration beheld the glory of the (not yet incarnate) Christ.⁶⁵ Yet farther does Paul proceed, when he declares that the Spiritual Rock, from which the Children of Israel drank, was Christ; and that the Israelites tempted Him in the wilderness.⁶⁶ According to Peter also—we have already made repeated reference to this—it was the Spirit of Christ who spake in the ancient prophets; an expression which necessarily leads us to the idea not merely of a personal existence, but also to that of an actual operation of the Son of God in an earlier period. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have before his mind at the same time an earlier Old Testament coming of the Son of God before His birth, when he places in His mouth an utterance of the Psalms of David;⁶⁷ and certainly could not with higher title name the Lord “the Apostle of our confession,”⁶⁸ than if He had been through all ages God’s highest messenger to His people. And although the Saviour Himself has not, so far as we know, expressly spoken of these His earlier appearings, yet who does not feel what emphasis His words in Gethsemane have, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”⁶⁹ and what majesty this assurance breathes, when we see in Him no less a being than the “Prince of the heavenly host,” who in earlier days appeared to Joshua, and promised him the capture of Jericho.

If we now add that the view we have given expression to has been advocated by the most eminent Fathers and the leading Theologians of all ages; that, on the other hand, the opposition to it has been not seldom made in the name of a more or less unbelieving Rationalism; that the distinction between a God thus revealing Himself and an otherwise hidden God is not only made in Scripture, but is also favoured by the earliest and best ’ Rabbis, yea, even by the religious teachers of the Persians; that, lastly, every other interpretation of the passages under review—in connection with which such revelation and operation of the Son of God in Israel is denied— suffers from manifest unnaturalness and inner improbability: then the right will not, we trust, be contested to us, of placing ourselves on the side of those who, in reading the words of the prophet, “The Angel of His presence (face, or countenance) saved them,”⁷⁰ think definitely of the Mediator of the New Covenant, who as regards His Divine nature was active in a peculiar manner even during the days of the Old.

Or are there really any insuperable objections to this explanation? It is regarded as improbable that the Logos should have taken the nature of angels; more especially since this seems to be expressly denied in Heb. ii. 16. This passage, however, is to be understood in the following manner: He does not in compassion espouse the cause of the angels, but of men; He becomes the Redeemer, not of fallen heavenly spirits, but of the lost sons of Adam. Moreover, we also do not assert that the Logos appeared in the nature, but only that He several times appeared in the form of an angel, which form He assumed for the particular moment. It is said that Scripture nowhere makes such distinction between the unseen God and the God visibly manifesting Himself, as our interpretation presupposes, and that the latter is of suspicious philosophical origin. But a single glance at the passages mentioned below will serve to refute such denial, and to confirm our title to the distinction in question,⁷¹ It is asked, lastly, In what then does the peculiar distinction of the New Testament consist, if the Logos was thus personally manifested and appeared, even under the Old? As though there did not exist, even in connection with our view, an immense difference and a glorious series of gradations, between a momentary, rare, fleeting appearing in-angel-shape and form, and the real assuming of human nature, henceforth for ever to be inseparably united to the Divine. He, who—this is the difference— in old times now and then passed before the eyes of highly privileged men of God, was in the fulness of time sent exclusively and in truth in the likeness of sinful flesh. Until this decisive moment, we see Him coming ever nearer and nearer, the more the ages of preparation roll onwards towards their end. Ever afresh does He present Himself in the name of the Father to this Israel, which He overwhelms with temporal and spiritual blessing, and, ever afresh is He rejected. But even this indifference to Him does not cool His love to His people and to the world. From century to century is He proclaimed, shadowed forth, manifested, in that nation, in the midst of which He shall eventually arise as the Son of David. At last the hour strikes, in which He who had in a spiritual manner dwelt in the tabernacle. of witness, for the salvation of our race will clothe Himself with this our mortal flesh and blood. Once more He appears, but this time no longer as the Angel of God’s presence, but made a little lower than the angels; and the heavenly hosts shout with joy: “The good pleasure of God (is) in men!”

And now the point is reached, at which the Divine and human come not merely into personal contact, but shall be inseparably united, and there is ground for the note of exultation: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”⁷²

1) Rom, iii. 2.

2) Isa. li. 1.

3) Gen. xii. 3.

4) Gen. xlix. 10, Perhaps on account of the parallelism, best rendered, “The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor a sceptre from between his feet,-until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the obedience of the nations be.”—Tr.

5) Numb. xxiv. 17.

6) Deut. xviii. 15; compare xxxiv. 10.

7) Judges viii. 22, 23; 1 Sam. ii. 10.

8) 2 Sam. vii.

9) 2 Sam. xxiii, 1-7.

10) Psalm lxxii.

11) Compare Psalms cx. ii. lxxii. xlv., in which four Psalms reference is made to the victory, the conflict, the peace, and the glory of the future Messianic kingdom. Then compare Ps, viii.; xcvii. 7; cxviii. 22; lxviii, 18; xl. 6-8; xli. 9; cix.; lxix.; xvi. 8-11; xxii.

12) Joel ii. 28-32.

13) Amos ix. 11.

14) Hosea iii, 4, 5.

15) Micah iv. and v.

16) Isaiah ii. and iv.; vii. 14-16; ix. 1-7; xi. 1-10; xlii, 1-7; xlix.; 1. 4-11; lii. 18; liii. 12; and other places.

17) Deut, xviii. 15; Psalm cx. 4.

18) Deut, xxviii.; and other places.

19) Jer. iii, 14-17; xxxi, 31-34; xxiii. 5, 6; xxxiii. 15, 16.

20) Ezek. xi. 19, 20; xvii. 22-24; xxxiv.; xxxvi.; xl.; and other places.

21) Dan. ii.; vii.; ix. 24-27.

22) Hag. ii. 6-9.

23) Zech, iii. 1, sqq.; vi. 9-15; ix. 9, 10; xi-xiv.

24) Mal; ii..15 iv. 1-6,

25) Herder.

26) Psalm cxlvii. 19, 20; Acts xiv. 16, 17.

27) Rom, iii, 29; comp. verses 1 and 2,

28) 2 Pet. i. 19,

29) Compare the beautiful Pensées de Pascal, Article 10, under the title, Prewves de Jésus-Christ par les Prophètes, and then the admirable sermon of A. Monod; entitled La Crédulité de ľIncrédule, in the second series of his Sermons, pp. 311-367.

30) Pet, i. 11.

31) Col, 1. 17.

32) Rom. v. 17.

33) 1 Cor. x. 4.

34) Witsius, Oeconomia Foederum Dei, iv. 4, §§ 5, 6.

35) Ephes, iii, 10; 1 Pet. i. 12.

36) Rom. v. 12-21; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.

37) Heb. vii. 1; cf. Ps. cx. 4.

38) Heb. iii. 1-6.

39) Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24.

40) Ps. lxxii., and Matt. xii. 42.

41) Matt. xii. 39, 40.

42) 1 Cor. v. 7; comp. John xix. 36.

43) Numbers xxi. 4-9; John iii, 14, 15.

44) 1 Cor. x. 11.

45) Hamann.

46) Heb. ix. 5.

47) It is pleasing to read in a work like the Christologie of A. Coquerel, Senr., which in other respects leaves so much to be desired (both from a scientific and a believing point of view) the statement which appears on p. 27 of vol. i—“La perspective de la venue d’un Messie et de l’établissement d’un Regne de Dieu me parait la clef de Ancien Testament; supprimez cette espérance nationale, la destinée de V’Israel et la Bible deviennent des énigmes sans mot.”

48) Gen. xvi. 10-13.

49) Gen. xviii. 16-22,

50) Gen. xxii. 12.

51) Gen, xxxii. 24—32. (Dutch version.)

52) Gen. xlvii. 16.

53) Exod. iii. 1, and following verses.

54) Exod, xxiii. 20, 21; comp. Josh. xxiv. 19, and Isa. xlii. 8.

55) Exod. xxxii. 34; xxxiii. 2, 3.

56) Joshua v. 13-15.

57) Judges xiii. 3-20; comp. Isaiah ix. 6, 7, and Psalm civ. 4.

58) Judges ii. 1-5,

59) Judges vi. 12-24.

60) Zech. i, 11, 12; comp. Ezek. ix. 2, etc.

61) Comp. Hengstenberg, Beitrige, i. p. 165, and Christologie des A. B, 3rd. ed. of the original work, vol. ii., p, 52 and following.

62) Very guardedly does. Muntinghe express himself, Gesch. der Menschh. iv. p. 180, where he says, “Was.then this Ambassador our Saviour Jesus Christ? If I transport myself into the age of Moses, and into the conceptions men then had, and only could have, then I cannot answer this question right off. It is surely one thing to determine whom the reflecting Israelite must see represented in this thought, and another thing to decide whom we, with our eyes enlightened by a nearer revelation, can perceive in Him. This alone is certain, that the longer the Israelite cherished this conception, the.more he learnt to familiarise himself with the thought of the Godhead revealing Himself to the senses, by means of a person, who should present and represent the Deity, in whom he could, perceive Deity speaking and: acting, in whom he must adore and reverence the same; and we Christians see in this mode of Divine revelation at least a nearer preparation for the manifestation of Him whom we now humbly and believingly adore as God manifest in the flesh, as Him in whom the Father is.” He who will become acquainted with recent literature on this subject may read especially C. J. Trip, die Theophanien in den Geschichtsbtichern des A. T. (Hague Prize Treatise, 1856).

63) Rev, xxii. 9.

64) Col. ii. 9,

65) John xii. 41; Isaiah vi. 1—3.

66) 1 Cor. x. 4. It may perhaps not be without interest for many if we speak something further on this enigmatical place. For its right understanding one must have regard to the context. The Apostle reminds his readers, of some remarkable facts of Old Testament history, from which it is convincingly evident that. even the possession of great privileges does not secure against rejection, if we thanklessly despise them. Then he directs attention, among other things, to the miraculous supply for the thirst of Israel, with an allusion to Exod. xvii. 5, etc. We must probably understand the utterance of God which occurs here, “Behold, I will stand before thee there, upon the rock in Horeb,” in this connection, as indicating that the Lord, in the Shekinah as the sign of His presence, would show Himself visibly above the rock. If now there dwelt in this Shekinah the Angel in whom was the name of God—in other words, the Logos before His incarnation—then He may also be looked upon as the Author and Source of the refreshment provided for Israel. This rock is spoken of as spiritual, because the water flowing from it was, like the manna, of miraculous origin, and is therefore regarded as no ordinary water. When the Apostle writes that this Rock followed them, he does not mean that the rock itself accompanied them; the idea of a rock now journeying, now resting with the Children of Israel, is too absurd to mislead the mind of an Apostle. We must rather call to our help the words of Psalm ev. 41, and thence infer that the water which flowed forth most copiously from the rock for the refreshing of a whole nation, accompanied them as a stream through a considerable portion of the wilderness; while from Numbers xx. 11, it is clear that the miracle was repeated more than once. And when Paul now says finally, “the rock was Christ,” he certainly cannot mean that the Son of God became first a rock, as He afterwards became a man; but only that it was Christ who, already living and working under the Old Covenant, in such wise showed forth His Divine miraculous power, in, upon, and in connection with the rock, that He Himself might, as it were, be termed the rock. As concerns, finally, verse 9 in the same chapter (1 Cor. x.), “Neither let us tempt Christ,” etc.,—even though we read, with Lachmann and others, the Lord, instead of Christ—it is certainly most after the mind of the Apostle, to suppose that in such connection he intended by this appellation, the Son of God, whom he regarded as already exercising His power among the Israelites. Compare Numbers xxi. 5-7.

67) Heb. x. 5.

68) Heb, iii. 1.

69) Matt. xxvi. 53.

70) Isaiah lxiii. 9.

71) Exod, xxiv. 10, 11; xxxiii, 18-23; Isa. vi. 1-5; John i. 18; xiv. 8, 9; 1 Tim. vi. 16; and many other passages.

72) John i, 14.