But the very closeness of the resemblance, which would render subsequent observation comparatively easy, entirely removes the supposition of any conjectural application, before the fulfilment. Jesus knew that Jonah had been swallowed up, and restored to life after three days. But He only, who knoweth all things, could have known, that in like manner, Jesus should be buried, and in three days should rise again: and He only, with whom all things are possible, could have fulfilled the prediction, by so raising up Jesus on the third day.

Thus the narrative, contained in the book of the prophet Jonah, is connected with the events of the gospel history: and we can scarcely avoid concluding, that the Providence of God, which preserved his prophet from destruction, and recorded the circumstances of his delivery, directed the course of that miraculous event, so as to prefigure the death and burial of Christ, and the very time during which his body should be retained in the grave. The previous history of the prophet corresponds, in a remarkable manner, with the events of the life of Christ; and the repentance of the heathen Ninevites, at the preaching of Jonah, formed no faint emblem of the conversion of the gentile world to the true faith; a work which was first commanded to be

undertaken by the apostles of Christ, after his resurrection; and by preaching the resurrection was principally effected.

The book of the prophet Jonah, then, no longer appears as a portion of holy writ unconnected with the general scheme of revelation. It contained a shadow of good things to come. The typical event was not calculated, like direct prophecy, to raise any previous expectation of the corresponding miracle in the Messiah's restoration to life; it might not, even when pointed out by our Lord, distinctly inform his hearers as to the precise degree of similarity for which they were to look: but they who are now enabled, by the grace of God, to read in his word the whole series of his dealings with the world, will receive, from the evident and predicted connection of these two distant events, an accession of faith, a fresh confidence in their religious truth. They will recognise the highest wis dom in recording and preserving this part of the history of Jonah. They will consider the prophet, under the immediate and forcible control of a direct Providence, unwillingly made the instrument of warning the luxurious Ninevites to repentance, and unconsciously prefiguring, in his miraculous deliverance, the resurrection of his Saviour and his God.

Thus,

the more closely we examine the events related in Scripture, the more convincing proofs do we obtain, that one Providence has directed, and one Spirit recorded them.

It is true, that the fact of the resurrection is not to be proved by prophecy, nor by type. That is established upon evidence alone. It is true, that the importance of the resurrection requires not to be corroborated by aids drawn from such a source: for that is sufficiently apparent, from every page of the New Testament: it is the very corner-stone of the gospel fabric. But it is satisfactory to perceive the same great event gradually revealed to mankind, at sundry times, and in divers manners. To behold Isaac received again from the dead, "in a figure," and the sign of the prophet Jonah circumstantially displaying the same important event.

But the resurrection of Christ is not to be considered only as a miraculous fact, long predicted and prefigured. It is most intimately connected with all that we believe, and all that we hope. "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him."

One principal object of the Christian dispensation was, to bring life and immortality

Heb. xi. 19.

1 Thess. iv. 14.

to light. Independently of revelation, man never did, nor ever could, know, with certainty, that death was not the termination of his existence. He might argue from an assumed analogy between the material and spiritual world. He might reflect upon the intrinsic difference between man, endowed with the power of thought, and the mere beasts that perish. He might breathe many an ardent aspiration after a futurity of happiness, and an endless improvement of his faculties: but his most successful labours served rather to nourish his hopes, than to convince his judgment: they could do little more than shew the possibility of a future life after death. Even in the revelation which God made of his will, the knowledge of a resurrection was not at first fully displayed. There were, doubtless, many holy men of understandings more enlightened than those of their fellows, who looked with confidence to the implied promises of future glory. These knew that the righteous had hope in his death: that when the dust returned to the earth as it was: the spirit returned to God who gave it." They knew

that death should be swallowed up in vic

tory:* that their dead men should live, and be

t Prov. xiv. 32.

* Isai. xxv. 8.

u Eccles. xii. 7.

y Isai. xxvi. 19.

ransomed from the power of the grave:* that they who sleep in the dust of the earth, should awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt: and they trusted, when they should awake, to be satisfied with the likeness of God." But it was not till Christ rose from the dead, and became the first-fruits of them that slept, that the full assurance of the nature and manner of the resurrection was made known to man.

Since the resurrection of Christ, the high destinies of man have been clearly revealed. That which was contemplated only with timid hope, has become an object of definite and certain knowledge. No one will now say, that it is a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead, when Christ himself, in his human nature, has triumphed over the powers of darkness. No one will now say, that there will be no resurrection of the dead. For Christ himself, who so died and rose again, declares "the hour is coming, in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."d

a Dan. xii. 2.

Hosea xiii. 14.

Psalm xvii. 15.

• Acts xxvi. 8.

John v. 28.