together with the preceding dispensations to Noah and Adam, were typical dispensations, rather than realizing

ones.

3. Those events, persons, and things in the dispensations prior to Christianity, and which have had their exact counterparts in the Christian dispensation, must be regarded as types. No accidental resemblances can ever be considered as types, for our principles require that the events or persons or things in the Christian age to be regarded as antitypes, must have resemblance not only in character but in the order of sequence. The typical dispensation being a system stretching over ages, its several types follow each other in regular order, and in the realizing age, the counterparts of the several types must follow each other in the same regular order. 4. Whatever the scriptures affirm to be a type, must be esteemed such.

With these principles, our interpretation will be found fully to coincide.

The three fathers were expressly arranged as a trinity by miraculous power or providence. Abram was divinely called to enter Canaan; Isaac was born by miraculous interposition; and Jacob was born in answer to the prayer of Isaac. Isaac, as the second person of this trinity of fathers, was offered as the only begotten son of his father on Mt. Moriah, and thus clearly typified the offering of the only begotten Son of God by his father. As Abram received Isaac as from the dead, and thus occurred the type of the resurrection of Christ, and of the dead in general, so God received Jesus from the dead, and he became the first fruits of them that slept.

The limiting of the fathers to the number three, shows that it was an intentional limitation, and being in a typical dispensation, plainly confirms the number as typical. Of course we are to look in the plan of redemption for the counterpart trinity of heads of a race. This counterpart or antitype is found only in the trinity of the three heads of the human race and in the divine trinity. The coincidence being perfect in each case, the type is realized in each. The humiliation of Ham, of Isaac, and of Christ is a trinal coincidence and wonderfully correct. The twelve patriarchs being a number clearly ordered by God, was unquestionably typical, and as every one subscribes to this truth, we need not argue the question. We therefore look into the plan of redemption to find its antitype, which must coincide in number of persons and in exact order of sequence after the three heads of a race. The sons of Shem, Ham, and Japhet were the natural inheritors of the promises to the three fathers, but as the sons of Ham were given to Japhet and Shem, as servants, the heirship of the world fell to the twelve sons of Shem and Japhet. The heirs of the three typical fathers in the above twelve heirs of the world find a striking coincidence. The twelve apostles chosen as the especial heirs of the kingdom of the Divine Trinity also plainly coincide with the twelve patriarchs. Christ said to the twelve apostles, that when his kingdom was fully established they should eat and drink at his table in his kingdom, and sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The term judging here used, has the sense of ruling or administering government; and the term Israel, means all the seed of Abraham redeemed by Christ, or all of the redeemed of the world.

The descent into Egypt of the seventy souls of the patriarchs and families, finds its coincidence in order and character of events, in the submission of the true people of God to the sway of Nimrod, and of the union of church and state under Constantine and Justinian.

The union of Jacob's family with Pharaoh's in the throne of Egypt was divinely arranged, and it was really the union of the Hebrew Church with the Egyptian State: in this union the church was inferior to Pharaoh in the throne. The particulars of the coincidence between this union of church and state are not so clearly marked under the monarchy of Nimrod in history, but the fact of the subjection of God's people to him in the throne is as clear; and had we a full history of the matter, we might find the coincidence minutely perfect.

The empire of Rome, St. John says, is "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt," and the descent of the Christians into union with Rome is therefore a clear counterpart or antitype of the union of the Hebrew Church with Egyptian royalty. For the likeness is perfect as to events, and the chronological order of the events is relatively the same.

The bondage of the Hebrews in Egypt finds also a double coincidence in time and character in the world's great history and in the history of Christianity.

From the days of subjection to Nimrod, the people of the world have been in general bondage to regal governments and to Satan's spiritual power; and while one race of men have been bondmen, all have been servants of sin and Satan, as subjects of political and spiritual despotisms. The task-masters of the Hebrew heirs of

promise, find their correspondence in the kings and princes of the earth.

In the union of church and state, true religion was soon at a discount, and all the true seed of Abraham were grievously persecuted or destroyed. The destruction of the Hebrew infants was comparative kindness to the extensive butcheries of the children of truth in spiritual Egypt and Sodom.

The deliverance from bondage, the constitutional law, and the journey or probation under the law in the wilderness, finds a double and sublime counterpart: 1. In the appearance of Christ as a second Moses, the new constitutional law he promulgated, and the long wilderness-like probation of his people in past ages. 2. In the passage of the sea by Christ's people, to the land of enlargement promised by God to Japhet, the establishment of the Christian constitution of the United States, and the testing of the ability of the people to uphold it, and be happy under it.

The reader will not fail to note that the coincidence of the history of Israel with the world's general history, is seen principally in the larger features of the Hebrew system, and that in the narrower diameter of the Christian era the coincidence between Hebrew and Christian history is seen in a greater number of points. That Moses and Christ coincide, the scriptures affirm; and that the plan of the redemption of the world taught by Jesus Christ, began an exodus from spiritual and political bondage, which will ultimate in the release of the world, as Israel was released from Egypt, every one admits. The probation in the wilderness was needed to accustom the people to new laws based upon

democratic principles, and the democratic principles of Christianity needed to be tried by the world a long season, in order to be appreciated, and ultimately adhered to with tenacity. Hence we read that "the woman fled into the wilderness from the face of the dragon for a time times and half a time."

The ceremonial law, given in connection with the moral and political law or constitution, is affirmed by scripture to have been typically illustrative of the Christian system. The book of Hebrews gives the philosophy of the ceremonial law, and teaches that the whole Hebrew economy was "a shadow of good things to come," "a figure for the time then present."

As therefore the bondage was followed by the scheme of Israel's redemption, so the universal bondage of the world was followed by the scheme of the world's redemption. When Israel sighed by reason of oppression, and was willing to change its condition, and called to mind the promises, then a deliverer came; and when the world sighed for relief, and was willing to hear of a change, then a calm filled the earth, and expectation looked for some great event; then angels heralded the "desire of all nations," and the star of the east hung over Bethlehem.

Secondly; the exodus from Egyptian bondage, the organization of a democratic confederacy, and the probation under it till the conquest of Canaan, were typical of the exodus of the Christians and liberalists from spiritual Egypt to America, the organization of the democratic confederacy of the United States, and their probation under a democracy up to the time of the conquest of absolutism and the Millennium.