xli. 42, as the Messiah is represented as clothed in fine linen, Dan. x.5: for it may, by well considering the chapter, be gathered, that the person there spoken of is the same with Michael mentioned in verses 13 and 21, and chapter xii. 1. Pharaoh, when he exalted Joseph, committed all his treasures and stores into Joseph's hand, to bestow on others and feed mankind. Psalm cv. 21. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. And particularly Joseph received those stores and treasures to bestow on his injurious brethren that had been mortal enemies to him; which is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah's exaltation. Psalm lxviii. 18. "Thou hast ascended on highthou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also." When Pharaoh exalted Joseph he gave him his wife. So the Messiah's marriage with his church is represented as following his humiliation and attending his exaltation, in Isaiah liii. and liv. Joseph marries the daughter of Potipherah, which signifies destroyer of fatness, a word of the same signification with some of the names given in scripture to the devil. This Potipherah was priest of On, which signifies iniquity, or sorrow. So the prophecies do represent the Messiah as bringing his church into espousals with himself from a state of sin and wickedness. Jer. iii. 14. "Turn, O backsliding children, unto me, for I am married unto you." Compare Hos. ii. throughout; Psalm xlv. 10, with Ezek. xvi. 3, &c. "Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.-When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood-behold, thy time was the time of love and I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine." And the prophecies do every where represent the Mes siah as bringing his people into a blessed relation and union with himself from a state of sin. Joseph's wife's name was Asenath, which signifies an unfortunate thing. Agreeably to this the Messiah is represented as espousing, after his exaltation, a poor, unhappy, afflicted, disconsolate creature. Isaiah liv. 4, &c. "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more, for thy Maker is thy husband; for the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused." Verse 11. "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted: Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours," &c. Hos. ii. 9, &c. "I will return and take away my corn-none shall deliver out of my hand-I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees-I will visit upon her the days of Baalim-I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her-and 6

VOL. IX.

at that day she shall call me Ishi." Verses 19, 20. "And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me," &c. Isaiah lxii. 44. "Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land be any more termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married-and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." Joseph's brethren are in great trouble and perplexity, and are brought to reflect on themselves for their sins, and deeply to humble themselves before him, before Joseph speaks comfortably to them, and makes known his love and favour to them, and receives them to the blessings and glory of his kingdom. This is agreeable to what the prochecies do often represent of the Messiah with respect to sinners. Hos. ii. 14, 15. "I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her, and I will give her her vineyards from thence-and she shall sing there." See also Jer. iii. 12, 13. 21, 22. Chap. xxxi. 18-20. Joseph's brethren, before they were comforted and made happy by him, are brought to cry with the greatest humility, and earnestness, and penitence, for their abuse of Joseph, to him for mercy. Agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah, Zech. xii. 10, &c. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him," &c. Hos. v. 15. "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face: in their affiiction, they shall seek me early." Ezek. xxxvi. 37. "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." Jer. xxix. 12-14. "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart? And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity." When once Joseph's brethren were thoroughly humbled, then his bowels yearned towards them with exceeding great compassion and tenderness of heart, though before he treated them as if he was very angry with them. See, agreeable to this, Jeremiah xxxi. 18, &c. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are trou

bled for him, I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Joseph perfectly forgives all their past ill treatment, or blots it out, as though it had never been, and will have it remembered no more. Gen. xlv. 5—8, and l. 19-21. This is agreeable to what is often spoken of in the prophecies, as a great benefit God's people shall have by the Messiah. (See fulfilment of prophecies, § 79, and § 86.) The manner of Joseph's comforting his brethren in the manifestations and fruits of his special and peculiar love, his bringing them near him, making known himself to them as theirs in a near relation, his treating them with such great tenderness, his embracing them, his manifesting so great a concern for their welfare, his putting such honour upon them before the Egyptians, his entertaining them with a sumptuous joyful feast in his house and at his own table, his clothing them with change of raiment, his bringing them into his own land and there giving them a goodly inheritance, plentifully providing for them in Goshen, a land of light; all is remarkably agreeable to the descriptions given in the prophecies of the manner of God's comforting, blessing, exalting, and manifesting his great favour to his church, after her long continued sin and sorrows, in the days of the Messiah's kingdom, in places too many to be enumerated. Joseph's brethren at this time are like them that dream, Gen. xlv. 3, &c.; which is agreeable to what is said of the church of God, when delivered and comforted by the Messiah. Psalm cxxvi. 1. "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream." There is joy in Pharaoh's court among his servants and nobles on the occasion of Joseph's receiving his brethren. Gen xlvi. 16. Answering to this is Isaiah xliv. 22, 23. "I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it." And chap. xlix. 13. "Sing, O heaven, and be joyful, O earth-for the Lord hath comforted his people." And Psalm cxlviii. 4. "Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens," with verses 13, 14. "Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people."

The remarkable agreement between many things in the history of Moses, and the prophecies of the Messiah, argue the former to be a type of the latter. Moses was God's elect. Ps. cvi. 23. "Had not Moses his chosen stood before him." In his being so wonderfully preserved and upheld by God when in great danger, preserved in the midst of many waters, when he was cast into the river. Moses was drawn out of the water when a babe. Compare Ps. lxix. and Isai. liii. 2. He was preserved in his banishment, preserved and delivered from the

wrath of the king of Egypt, when he from time to time went to him with messages that so much provoked him; preserved at the Red sea, in the wilderness and in the midst of that perverse, invidious congregation, and delivered from the strivings of the people. This is agreeable to many things said in the prophecies of the Messiah. Moses was twice delivered out of great waters, when he was designed by his enemies for death; once in his being drawn out of the river, and another time in rising out of the Red sea. This is agreeable to the prophecies of the Messiah's sufferings and death, and his rising from them. Misery, and wrath, and sore affliction, are often in scripture compared to great waters, to waves and billows, and great deeps, and the like; and the Messiah's sufferings in particular, as Ps. Ixix. 1-3. 14, 15, and his deliverance out of those sufferings is represented as his being delivered out of great waters. Ps. lxix. 14, 15. The region of the dominion of death and destruction is represented as being down under the waters. Job xxv. 5, 6. These deliverances of Moses, therefore, are agreeable to the prophecies of Christ's resurrection. Moses was not only delivered from his troubles and danger, but his deliverances were followed with great exaltation, resembling the exaltation of the Messiah that the prophecies speak of. After he was drawn out of the water, he was exalted in the king's palace, as his son and heir. After his banishment he converses with God in mount Sinai, a resemblance of heaven, and is made king over God's church. In about forty days after his resurrection out of the Red sea, he ascends up to God in mount Sinai.

The things that are said of the burning bush, do wonderfully agree with the Old Testament representations of the Messiah. It was not a high tree, but a bush; as the Messiah is called the low tree; Ezek. xvii. 24, and elsewhere, the twig and the tender plant. This bush was a root out of a dry ground; for it was a bush that grew in mount Horeb, which was so called for the remarkable dryness of the place. The word signifies dryness; there was no spring about the mountain, till Moses there fetched water of the dry rock. It was in a thirsty wilderness, where was wont to be no rain. Therefore the children of Is rael in that wilderness were supplied with water only miraculously. Hos. xiii. 5. "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." See Deut. viii. 15. That bush was the growth of the earth, as the human nature of Christ in the Old Testament is represented to be. Yet it had the divine nature of Christ in it; for this angel of the Lord that is said to appear in the bush, has been proved to be the same with the Messiah from the Old Testament, in my discourse on the prophecies of the Messiah. This angel is said to dwell in this bush, Deut.

xxxiii. 16, the more to represent the divine nature of the Messiah dwelling in the human nature. This bush burnt with fire, agreeably to what the prophecies speak of the sufferings of Christ; great calamity and affliction in the Old Testament are often called fire. This was especially a resemblance of the wrath of God, that is often called fire in the Old Testament, and which the prophecies represent the Messiah as enduring. (See fulfilment of prophecies, § 70.) The bush was preserved from being consumed, though it burnt with fire, agreeably to the prophecies of the preservation and upholding of the Messiah. God's not suffering his holy one to see corruption, &c. The bush emerged alive and fresh out of the fire, agreeably to the prophecies of the Messiah's resurrection from the dead, and deliverance from all his sufferings. The angel that dwelt out of that bush, who was the Messiah, comes out of the fire, and appears in the bush, and delivered alive from the flames, to work redemption for his people. See Exod. iii. 8. So the prophecies represent the Messiah rising from the dead, and exalted out of his state of humiliation, to work salvation for his people.

If we consider the remarkable agreement there is between the account Moses gives of the brazen serpent, Num. xxi., and the representation the prophet makes of the Messiah, we shall see good reason to think that the former was intended to be a type of the latter. Doubtless God's appointing that way for the healing of those that were bitten with fiery serpents, by making an image of those fiery serpents, and putting it on a pole, had some significancy. It was not wholly an insignificant appointment. There was doubtless some important thing that God aimed at in it. It was not an appointment without any aim or any instruction contained in it, as it seems as though it must be, unless some important spiritual thing was represented and exhibited by it. And whoever considers the remarkable agreement between this appointment and its circumstances, and the things spoken concerning the Messiah, will see reason to conclude, that these are doubtless the things signified and pointed forth by it. That sin, misery, and death that the Messiah is represented as coming to save us from, is represented in the Old Testament as being from a serpent. See Gen. iii. 1-6, and xv. and xx. The Messiah is represented as saving from all hurt by the most poisonous serpents; Isai. xi. 8, 9, and lxv. 25. Sin, our spiritual disease, is in the Old Testament compared to the poison of the serpent. Deut. xxxii. 33. Ps. lviii. 4, and exl. 3. The brazen serpent is called a fiery serpent, Num. xxi. 8; because it was in the image of the fiery serpents. So the prophets represent the Messiah as set forth as a sinner, appearing in the form of sinners, and of a great sinner. Isai.