gated the Edomites; the Romans conquered all. God is then introduced speaking thus, after the manner of men: "I said, Surely thou wilt fear me; thou wilt re"ceive instruction, &c." With which compare the following expression in the parable of the vineyard: "Last " of all, he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will "reverence my Son." In fine, the Son of God turns towards his friends, whom he enjoins to wait patiently for his resurrection, which will be to eternity;* in which acceptation the original word occurs in several other places. Aberbenel, aware of this, explains it as "a perpetual resurrection." In the subsequent verses, events that were to succeed the resurrection of Christ are foretold; namely, the infliction of God's dreadful wrath on Jerusalem, with the desolation of the whole land by fire and sword, and that by means of the nations gathered and assembled into one empire, to wit, the Roman; and then, the conversion of the nations by the preaching of the Gospel. It seemed proper, for the instruction of my pupils, to state the meaning of this passage at some length, in order to throw light on a remarkable prophecy, taken notice of by few. There are many other prophecies to the same effect, which I have not now leisure to illustrate.

XXXVII. I cannot, however, omit that one, to which Paul directs our attention, namely, Isaiah lv. 3. where God addresses his elect‡ in the following words: "In"cline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your "soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting cove

"nant with you, even the sure mercies of David."* This last expression is explained and applied by Paul thus: "And as concerning that he raised him up "from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, "he said on this wise; I will give you the sure mer"cies of David." Here, as in many other prophecies, David signifies Christ. Of him it had been said: My mercy shall not depart from him :" and, "My 66 mercy will I keep for him for evermore." Now God exhibits him to believers as the Pattern of all the blessings promised in the everlasting covenant, including the happy life of the whole man; which supposes the resurrection from the dead. For such is the im

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port of these words, "I will give you the sure mercies " of David ;" that is, I will grant you those sure, lasting, solid, and truly valuable blessings which I have conferred on the Messiah. But no blessing, with which the resurrection of the body is unconnected, imparts complete felicity, or is worthy of a designation so magnificent. Consequently, God has raised up Christ also from the dead. The force of the Apostle's reasoning will be manifest to every man's conscience, if it be reduced, as has been done by a celebrated Interpreter, to the form of a syllogism, in this manner. God has raised up from the dead to die no more, him whom he is pleased to appoint the Pattern of all blessings, including the resurrection to eternal life. But when he says, "I will give you the sure mercies of David," he makes Christ, under the name of David, the Pattern of all blessings, and of the resurrection from the

dead. Therefore, he raised up Christ from the dead, to die no more.

XXXVIII. To prophecies of the resurrection of the Messiah, TYPES were added. I shall not speak here of those historical types, which others have noticed; as JOSEPH, who was wonderfully delivered from prison; DANIEL, who was rescued from the den of lions; and the three ASSOCIATES of that Prophet, who were saved from the burning furnace :-all of whom were likewise promoted to great dignities. It is sufficient to bring forward one legal type-from Levit. xiv. 4-7. In the purification of the leper, the priest is commanded to take two clean birds: of which the one was to be killed, and its blood poured out into an earthen vessel over running water; but the other, after having been dipped in the blood of the bird that was killed, was permitted to fly at liberty into the open field. The leper was then sprinkled with the blood. Each of the birds denoted Christ, but in a different state. He is compared to a bird for his alacrity in obeying the commands of God, for his heavenly conversation, and because he was obliged to flee from place to place to escape the snares of men. He is compared to a clean bird, which might be eaten, because he is holy in himself, and is also the bread of life to sinners. The bird that was to be killed, denotes the death of Christ. The shedding of the blood over running, not standing, water, represents his obedience, conjoined with his sufferings and death, which proceeded from an overflowing, not a languid love. The living bird, which was dipped in the blood, and so allowed to escape, signifies Christ raised again from the dead, and flying to heaven "by his own blood." And the blood of Christ

u Heb. ix. 12.

who was dead, and is alive again to apply it to his people, cleanseth us from our spiritual leprosy.

XXXIX. Further, not merely the resurrection itself, but also the time of it, was foretold and prefigured. We have a prophecy respecting it in Hosea vi. 2. "After two days will he revive us; in the third day "he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” I do not deny, what is indisputably evident, that this prophecy relates to the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ. Whilst it refers to the Church, however, it is primarily and literally verified in the Head. Such is the spiritual sagacity of believers, that they do not rest in external deliverances, but, through them, ascend, in their meditations, to such as are spiritual, and through these again, to the fountain itself,-Christ risen from the dead. In the resurrection of our Lord, there is an exemplar of those revivals which are experienced by the Church. As therefore he was to be restored to life after two days, and to be raised up on the third day; so the Church assures herself, that after two days, that is, after a short interval of time, she should rise again from her calamitous condition to more auspicious circumstances. Nor is it without an emphasis that she joins herself to Christ in rising again. The Apostle doth the same thing. She therefore here considers the resurrection of Christ, as the foundation and pattern of her own mystical resurrection to a happier state; and the appointment of three days, as corresponding to the short space which she was to spend in affliction.

XL. Nor are types wanting. Not that either in the Old or in the New Testament, we read of any other

▾ Ephes. ii. 5, 6.

person raised the third day after death; for, so far as appears, this was peculiar to Christ. But we have figures of this circumstance in a Patriarch, a King, and a Prophet:-in ISAAC, who was, in a manner, restored from death the third day after his father Abraham had received a command to slay him in sacrifice; in HEZEKIAH, who likewise went up to the temple the third day after sentence of death had been passed on him ;-and in JONAH.Y

W

XLI. In fine, the glory as well of the Father as of the Son, which the law and justice of God would not suffer to continue under a cloud, indispensably required the resurrection of Christ. With respect to the Father, the Apostle says emphatically: "Christ "was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Fa"ther;"—not merely to the glory of the Father, or with the glory of the Father, but, by the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father demanded, and, so to speak, accomplished it; for the end has the nature, as well of the cause as the effect. It was of importance to the glory of the Father, that the Son, who had been unjustly condemned by the Jews for his confession of the most sacred truth, should be justified; and that, since he had most perfectly fulfilled the conditions, all the promises due to him, according to an inviolable covenant, should be no less exactly accomplished. Un- less this were done, how could the justice and the faithfulness of the Father appear? Jesus himself, when soliciting the glory promised him, urges this argument.a XLII. With regard to the Son, the matter is clear

Gen. xxii. 4. Heb. xi. 19.

y Mat. xii. 40.

x 2 Kings xx. 5.

* Ηγέρθη Χριστος ἐκ νεκρῶν δια τῆς δόξης το Πατρος. Rom. vi. 4.

a John xvii. 4, 5.

VOL. II.