Spirit of prophecy, warrants us to form a high idea of the importance of Job's subsequent ministry to the remnant of the patriarchal church. I figure to myself another Melchisedec, in an age somewhat anterior to that patriarch: and not unlikely, as this latter personage, Job uniting, with respect to his own people, the character of king with that of priest, and thus presenting a fuller type of Him that was to come, than the priests of the order of Aaron could do".

Much difference of opinion exists, as to who Melchisedec was. Some expositors earnestly contend, that the transaction. recorded, Gen. xiv. 18, &c. was a real manifestation of the Son of God, in his predestinated character of the righteous king, and sovereign-priest of God. It is maintained, that, what is said of Melchisedec, by St. Paul, Heb. vii. could not apply to any mere mortal man. I incline rather, however, to the more common exposition, that makes Melchisedec a real human priest, spoken of, indeed, mystically, as a type of Christ. I cannot divest myself of the impression, that the declarations of scripture" another priest after the order of Melchisedec," -“ "Made like to the Son of God," &c. are sufficient to prove that Melchisedec was not our Lord himself.-True, what is said of Melchisedec by St. Paul, could not be said of any mere man, could apply to no person besides our great High Priest Jesus Christ. But this was one peculiarity, in the treatment of the doctrine of type and antitype among the ancient teachers of the faith: something was said, or seemed to be said, in scripture about a typical personage, or character, which could not possibly be true of the person himself, or, of the office he bore: at the same time it was a maxim allowed by all, that the scripture could not be broken:' the inference therefore was, where the type has failed, we must look forward to the antitype. The 'truth' will be found in him: the Spirit of God spake of him. We have a remarkable instance of this treatment of types in the eighty-second Psalm, “I said ye are Gods," or, rather "Elohim,"-spoken to the Levitical

SECTION IV.

Job a Type of Christ.

As a priest and offerer of sacrifice, Job was unquestionably, like all others who bore that sacred character, a type of Christ. But it has been thought by some, that, in another point of view, it is intended that we should behold in Job an ensample of the

rulers. But lo! what an inconsistency! "ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes." The Spirit of God, however, carries us on to the antitype; "arise, O Elohim, for it is thou that shalt inherit all nations." See our Lord's argument for his deity, drawn from this passage, John x.

In like manner, such things had been said, or by construction inferred, respecting Melchisedec, by the ancient teachers of the Jewish church, that it was impossible they could be true of him, whoever he was: they must therefore be referred to his great antitype.

One circumstance, on which great stress is laid, with respect to Melchisedec's priesthood, is, that he united in his person both the kingly and the priestly dignities, and thus presented a fuller type of the office of Christ than the sons of Aaron exhibited. Perhaps, in the patriarchal church, the two high offices were not unfrequently united, and though the territories of these ancient sovereigns were very limited-yet, there was the priest upon his throne,' a type of him that was to come. And, it is very remarkable that among some nations of remote antiquity, a notion prevailed, that the royal dignity was essential to the performance of some religious and sacrificial rites. Thus the ancient Romans, as the Greeks had done before them, in an early stage of their history, when they abolished royalty, notwithstanding their republican hatred at the very name of king, still held it to be indispensable that one bearing nominally that dignity should be created to officiate in the sacrificial rites.

Surely this must have arisen from a remnant of some ancient revelation handed down from patriarchal times which taught, that the real acceptable sacrifice to God would be offered by none other than a royal hand!

raising up of the Great High Priest of our profession,' who should first, as the captain of our salvation,' be made perfect through sufferings'. And,

although there is no language, that I am aware of, used by the Spirit of inspiration, in the description of the sufferings of Job, which renders them, strictly speaking, typical of the greater sufferings of our Lord; yet there is something in the circumstance of Job's being prepared for his priestly office, by the discipline which his mind had undergone in deep affliction, which cannot but remind us of that wonderful part of the dispensation of Christ,' how he, though he were a Son, learned obedience by the things which he suffered,' and thus became that merciful High Priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.'

This pertains, of course, to the human nature of our Lord, when for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.' The manhood was the created nature in which it was ordained that the Son of God should be manifested in the creation, and appear as Lord of all, so that, contracting and drawing in as it were, the beams of his infinite glories, he might shine through the creature with more sufferable majesty and milder aspect-and in order that it might be a thing possible, for created beings to behold their Maker, and hold personal intercourse with JEHOVAH-the Self-Existent Himself,-born into the world. The purpose of grace towards fallen man,

moreover not only required that he, who was 'in the form of God,' should be willing to forego, in his manifestation among his creatures, his just claims of equality with Invisible Deity and should empty himself, and take upon him the form of a servant, to be the minister of the Father; but that, being found in fashion as a man,' he should humble himself to the lowest point of depression to which human nature had fallen, that by his ownself he might purge our sins, and fulfil not only the type of the interceding Priest, but also of the sacrificed victim. He took not upon himself, therefore, the nature of man in the state and circumstances in which it was created in Eden, after his own image; but as it was become after the likeness of that image had in some respects been defaced or obscured, by the consequences of the fall. "He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh." As 'the

breath of life,' he was breathed into the nostrils of a creature lying in the virgin's womb, life and sensation were produced with him,' as in the birth of all human kind, and he became a man "of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.".

Hence

As our created spirits do, he formed a mind or intelligence from sensation and reflection. the knowledge that he would know, in communication with his creatures; hence the creature's understanding and will-and hence all the passions of the human soul. This creature, therefore, the humanity of Christ, contained, in one sense, what, in an other sense, the heaven and the heavens of

heavens could not contain,-being made the ever

lasting seat of God the Son. stituted was, indeed, to be

The man thus convery highly exalted,'

and to have a name above every name that is named, both in this world and in the world that is to come: he was to inherit a kingdom that flesh and blood could not inherit; and, therefore, there must be, in the human nature of Jesus, a transmutation of all that was earthly and of all that was fleshly, into that which is heavenly and spiritual;' that through the woman's seed,' he might come as 'the Lord from heaven'-' a quickening spirit ;' being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.’

6

But at first-at his nativity, when ‘ the Word was made flesh,' he was made for a little time lower than the angels,' ay, lower in one sense than man as created in Eden: for he took our flesh or nature as it had been impaired by the fall of Adam. As with respect to the organized clay, he must be nourished from the fruits of the earth,-'must eat,' as the prophet foretold, butter and honey, that he might know to refuse the evil and to choose the good;' so with respect to the developement of his mental faculties, by which his Godhead alone would act, and hold intercourse with created things; he must see with his human eye, and hear with his ear, and touch with his hand. Ay, in order that he might grow in wisdom' as he 'grows in stature,' he must receive instructions, line upon line, and pre