fied as a malefactor, had the appearance of a finful man; yet was in fact without fin. In truth the very reprefentation was given in the wilderness, of what was completely fulfilled 1400 years afterwards, on mount Golgotha.

But now, tho' all these circumstances fo exactly refemble the death and atonement of Chrift, yet ftill, as the setting up of the brazen ferpent is an action that stands fingle in its place, and is not connected with others of the fame kind, we should have had no authority to call it a prophetic type unless some inspired person had fixed it as fuch; which our Saviour himfelf hath done in the text.

Few of the Jews probably, at the time of the brazen ferpent, looked at it in any other light, or confidered the matter any farther than as a prefent selief in their diftrefs. And yet fuch of them, as thought more deeply, could not but think it had fome fecret meaning. In aftertimes, when the prophets described a suffering Saviour, and bade the Jews look on him whom they pierced, the more ferious of them could not but fee fome refemblance in these prophecies to this uncommon representation. To look at a brazen ferpent was fo fingular a remedy against the poifon of a ferpent's bite; that one should think they could not

but conceive it had some covert meaning. The author of the book of wisdom feems plainly to have reasoned in this manner: For when, fays he, they perished by the ftings of ferpents, they were healed for a fmall feafon, that they might be admonished; having a fign of falvation to put them in remembrance of thy law. For he that turned himfelf towards it, was not faved by the things which he faw; but by the Saviour of all. För it was neither herb, nor mollifying plaister, that reStored him, but thy word*,

From what hath been above confidered, we fee the great force which types in general give to the truth of Chriftianity. Some people may be more struck with a type, than with a written prophecy. But every thing, which fhews a connection between the Old Testament, and the New, adds ftrength to both. The type alfo and verbal prophecy ftrengthen each other. But particularly we fee the great force which the type of the bra

* See the WISDOM OF SOLOMON, chap. xvi. in the several verfes of which these fentiments are fcattered.-The opinion that this book was written by Solomon, is generally exploded; but it is commonly believed to have been compofed before the time of our Saviour.

zen

zen ferpent gives to the grand doctrine of the atonement of Christ— a doctrine, in the opinion of all fober Chriftians, the most comfortable that ever was revealed to man.

But it is mysterious, fays the deift.

Aye, furely; and fo is every pile of grafs you tread on. But, the question is not, whether a thing be mysterious-for all things are myfte rious-but whether the mystery be supported by evidence? The pile of grafs appeals to all nature, for its being the work of God: and the truth of Chrift's atonement, however mysterious, is fupported by evidence equally ftrong.-It refts on all the evidence that fcripture can give-on the prophetic parts of the Old Teftament, and on the historical, and epiftolary parts of the New. Indeed it appears to be a doctrine so interwoven with fcripture, that he who rejects it, must reject fcripture alfo. That experiment the deift himself commonly thinks too hardy. But he rejects it in effect by garbling it.

This great doctrine is fupported alfo by the analogy of God's moral government, under which we all act as a kind of redeemers, and mediators among each other, in our own little temporal affairs.

Nor is it a weak argument in favour of this doctrine, when we appeal to our own feelings. We must be confcious, when we look into ourfelves, of fuch unworthiness, as muft entirely dif qualify us for the divine favour, without fome better introduction than our own. It is an opinion ftrongly implanted in our nature. Guilt always wishes for fupport.

Let us then, to conclude from the whole, accept without fcruple the great doctrine of the atoning death of Chrift, till we can fairly disprove the evidence, on which it refts. In the midst of all this evidence, it is a great pleasure to the fincere christian, and has no little weight with him, to obferve fo perfect a refemblance of it prophetically held out many hundred years, before the great event itself took place. As the Ifraelites therefore looked on the brazen ferpent, which Mofes fet up, fo let us look, with the eye of faith, on our bleffed Saviour, expiring on the crofs for our fins.-With what gratitude would you have poured out your hearts in the wildernefs on feeling yourselves miraculously healed from the effects of a poison, which was feizing you with the moft horrible pains, and in a short

time

time ready to close your eyes in death? The type being only a refemblance of the thing typified, can never rife to an equality with it. The poifon of a ferpent therefore bears no comparison to the malignity of fin. Indeed fin is the grand evil of nature-the great cause of every mischief here, and mifery hereafter.

As fin therefore is an evil with which we are all tainted, let us with endless gratitude look beyond the type to the great atonement it holds out; and not prefuming on any merits of our own as fufficient to procure our falvation, let us truft only in the merits of that merciful Redeemer, who died to fave finners; and gave his life a ranfom for all.