Mather - Houston-Packer Collection BS478 .M3 1705

i The Gofpel of the perfonal Types. Ordinances whereof are frequently called everlafling Statutes : So that this Diitin&ion is founded both in theNature of the Things, and is de- Scripture Exprefons about them We !hall clear this further, when we come to the fecond part of the Diftribution. Concerning the former fort, viz. Extraordinary and Occafional Types, this Text fpeaks, and gives you this Doftrine ; That there were divers Extraordinary Providences of Cod towards his People of Old, .which were intended by him to be Types of Gofpel My(fe_ ries and Infirk(ions touus in Gofpél times. The Text is plain for ir, and the Word in the Original is. Types, as your Margent reads : I1 ow all thefe Things happened unto them for T>pes, TatPre. A Iräad TvrGr. and be- fore, in ver. 6. Taw-pa a To i14.4r iyiyAnarr. And he had before- mentioned the Cloud, and the Rock that followed them, their pang tbro' the red Sea.; with other famous-,Difpenfations towards God's People of Old. So that there were not only Typical Perfons, but Typical Pro. vidences. For the right underitat ding of this DoCrine ; to prevent mi- flakes, take thefe two Cautious. Caut. I. That there is an Hiflorical Verity in all thofe typical Hories ofthe OldTeflament. They are not bare Allegories, or parabolical Po- ems, fuch as is the Song of Solomon, or yotham's Parable, fudg. g. 7. or Nathan's Parable to David, z, Sam. I a. but they are a true Narra- tion of Things really exiftent and aced in the World, and are literal- ly and hiftorically to be anderftood. Ifit be Paid, That in Tome of thole Tranfaaions, as for Inftance, their Deliverance out of Egypt, and travelling through the Wildernefs to Canaan, the whole Frame of the Hiftory all along is fo fuitable to ex- prefs Spiritual Redemption, as one would think it was an Allegory deviled on purpofe for that End. The Anfwer is, That God had the ordering of his Work in his own Hands; and therefore could make it fuit all his Ends at once; fo as the fame thingmight be both. an Hiftory of Temporal Redemption; and vet withal.an Allegory of Spiritual Redemption alto, Neither indeed is it necefIàry to the Nature of an Allegory, that is be always Res fiCa : God, who is the Author of all the Arts ( for all the true Rules of them are Beams and Rays of his glorious Wifdom ) path let no fuch Rule in the Art of Rhetorick, and if any Rhetoricians have done it, it is a Miftake: For Atraham and Sarah, and Ifaac, and Hagar and I(hmael, is a real Hiflory; yet the Apoftle affirmeth, That it is an Allegory, Gal. 4. The turning of all fuch allegorical and ty- pical Hiftories and Providences into rreer Romances and Fictions, is notunlike the Tranfubftantiation of the Sacramental Elements ; as if Things

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