SECTION XXIII.

The connection of Joseph and of the Hebrews, with the conversion of the Gentiles.

In the wonderful scheme of divine mysteries which the sacred records comprise, it is evident, that a prophetic meaning was attached, not to oral announcements only, but frequently to the occurrence of those events, which were directed by the providence of God. We find, in many of these events, types of Christ's future kingdom, and of the universal gospel dispensation, which are now fully revealed, though they were not, perhaps, discernible at the period, when the transactions themselves occurred. Many instances of this kind may be adduced.

The passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea was a type of the future Christian ordinance of baptism. St. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, says "Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the

cloud, and all passed through the sea," "and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." (x. 12.) So also, he shews that the manna and the gush of water from the rock at Kadesh, were types "They did all eat

of the Eucharistic sacrament.

"that

the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock (the stone cut out without hands) followed them" (that came in the fulness of time long after their generation had passed away)" and that rock was Christ." (1 Cor. x. 3, 4.) This was that "spiritual meat," which our blessed Lord identifies with himself "I" says he, "am that bread of life". "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." The manna was but the shadow, Christ was the substance. "This is the bread, which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last flesh is meat indeed, and my blood

day." For my

is drink indeed."

"He that eateth my flesh, and

drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him."

"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." "This is that bread that came down from heaven: not as your Fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." (John vi. 48-58.)

The typical application of manna and bread, (the sustenance of the body) to the word of Christ, (the spiritual sustenance of the soul) is strikingly set forth in the parallel passages--Deut. viii. 3, and Matt. iv.

4.

"The Lord thy God suffered thee to hunger, and fed with thee with manna . . . that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, doth man live." Our blessed Lord personally exemplified the same doctrine, quoting this passage in Deuteronomy-" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

We are thus instructed, both under the law, and under the gospel, that the most urgent necessities of the perishing body are of no account, when placed in competition with the spiritual wants of our immortal souls. So also, in John vi. 27, our Lord, alluding to his miracle of the loaves and fishes, exhorts his hearers to "labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat, which endureth unto everlasting life, which the son of God shall give."

In like manner, the bitter waters of Marah, which,

when the Lord shewed Moses a tree, were made sweet, after he had cast its branches into the water, —(Ex. xv. 25.)—and the waters of Jericho, which were healed, when Elisha cast salt into the spring, (2 Kings xi. 19—22.) seem to be types of that living water, on which our Saviour conferred a spiritual vitality, and of which he spake unto the woman of Samaria, that "whosoever drinketh thereof shall never thirst; but it shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." (John iv. 14.) The salt also, which healed the waters at Jericho, seems to be significant of those holy evangelists, whom our Lord declared to be "the salt of the earth." St. James seems to refer to the same images, when he says, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter?"-it cannot 'yield salt water and fresh." (Jas. iii. 11, 12.)

The number of the sons of Jacob, and the tribes. of Israel, and the consequent numerous applications of this special number twelve to the circumstances commemorated in their history-as for instance the twelve wells at Elim (Ex. xv. 27.) the twelve pillars at Sinai, (Ex. xxiv. 4.) the twelve cakes of fine flour, to be placed on the pure table before the Lord; (Lev. xxiv. 5-8.) the twelve young men of Benjamin, and the twelve of the servants of David, whose combat is narrated in the second chapter of the second book of Samuel;-the twelve stones of Jordan, (Jos. iv. 20.) the twelve oxen of the molten

sea, (1 Kings vii. 25.) the twelve lions on Solomon's throne, (1 Kings x. 20.) the twelve rents in Jeroboam's garment,-Elisha's twelve yoke of oxen,-all these and many more, may have been designed as shadows, portending the number of those faithful men who were commissioned by Christ to be his apostles.

With a similar view perhaps, the "three-score and ten palm-trees" at Elim (Ex. xv. 27.)-the seventy elders of Israel-the seventy descendants of Jacob (Ex. i. 5.)—and the frequent application of this number to the events recorded in holy writ, may be figurative of "the seventy," whom our Lord appointed, and "sent two by two before his face, into every city and place, whither he himself would come." (Luke x. 1.)

But the incidents of Joseph's adoption in the land of Egypt; the settlement of his brethren and their families in that country, and their subsequent departure into Canaan; are events prophetical of the destined connection of Israel with the conversion of the heathen world to the worship of the true God. There is no reason to suppose, that Joseph himself perceived, in his remarkable destiny, as a distinguished resident in the idolatrous land of Egypt, a type of that birthright, which was to vest in him, and in his sons. When he said, "Take your father, and your households, and come unto me; and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat of the fat of the land," (Gen. xlv. 18.)—he spoke