As the prophecies that relate to Christ were, for obvious reasons, many of them very circumstantial and perspicuous, in order that he might be clearly and manifestly distinguished from all pretenders to the office of Messiah; so also are the prophecies of Antichrist, the great and cruel destroyer of the church, delivered in almost an historical series, and (allowing for the emblematical manner of description and stile, necessary to prophecy,) they are so clear, and circumstantially close to matter of fact, that it seems next to impossible that they can be misapplied. For as the prophetic description of Messias will not apply to any but the person of the blessed Jesus, so neither will that of Antichrist, to any thing else that ever has appeared, or ever can now arise, but the popish apostacy alone.*

The jews to this day still expect the Messias of the prophets, but in vain; and the papists, to obviate the force with which the prophecies cling to the bishop of Rome, and to shake them off, expect Antichrist yet to come, and, no doubt, in the present critical situation of their church, and its chief, &c. they will be looking sharply about them for Antichrist's appearance, as the jews do in a thunder storm for Messias. But it is equally in vain. The distinguishing signs in both instances (of Messias and his adversary) are now gone by.

SECTION XVIII.

Many of the scripture prophecies so constructed, by the infinite foreknowledge of God, that they receive a first and second fulfilment, at very distant times.-Types of scripture, a species of prophecy-inimitable by heathen or diabolical mimicry, or papal forgery.PHAROAH and ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES, types of ANTIChrist.

THAT prophecy, as the strongest evidence (to the latter ages) of the truth of divine revelation, may be placed far beyond the power of counterfeit imitation, it is distinguished by one circumstance, which is particularly worthy of admiration, in this wonderful band writing of God; and this is the double sense*

Plainly distinguishable from the double meaning of the heathen oracles, (which were delusive fallacies,) whereas these

of

many of the most important prophecies, by which they are adapted to a twofold accomplishment, the former being a type of the

latter, and a pledge in hand for the certainty of its accomplishment. Prophecies of this nature were delivered as occasions arose, and apparently relating only to the circumstances of the time present (as that of Isaiah to king Ahaz). They had in reality a farther scope, and involved the fates of the church and people of God in far distant times, and more important events; and very often the former were typically representative of the latter.t

give a double confirmation of God's foreknowledge and truth; the second more powerful than the first.

*Isai. vii. 7, 11.

The prophecy here sent to Ahaz, a weak and idolatrous prince, was not merely for his sake, but served as a vehicle to convey one of the most illustrious prophecies of THE MESSIAS, and the redemption of the church of God by him, of any that the scripture contains. The child Shear-ja-shub in the prophet's hand, was the type and pledge given to Ahaz, that the land of his two enemies should be, in a few years, destroyed and desolated by a superior force; and that they should have no power to hurt him. And the fulfilment of this first sense of the prophecy, was the pledge given to the faithful for the truth of

pre

Of this kind, as I have shewn in several ceding sections, were those prophecies of the fall of Babylon the great destroyer of Jerusalem, and the re-edification of the city of David, and re-settlement of the dispersed people of Israel; which have been as yet only partially fulfilled, and in such a manner as was merely typical of a more complete accomplishment to take place in the latter days.

Instances of such a double sense and twofold accomplishment intended, are easy to be pointed out in many of the prophecies; and a remarkable instance of this occurs in the very first prophecy in the scripture, which was uttered by the divine Creator in person. The condemnation of the serpent, and the enmity which then first commenced, between man and the serpent species; the declaration

the second, that the house of David should be preserved against all its enemies; and that from it should proceed IMMANUEL, the incarnate God, the Redeemer of the world, by a miraculous birth of a virgin mother, which took place five hundred years after this prophecy of a temporary salvation to the house of David.

that, as mankind should occasionally receive some injury and danger from that perpetual hostility, so in the main he should prevail over the malice of the serpent, and be the cause of his destruction. This, in the literal sense of the words, is a fact of notorious and daily observation: but in a second, a spiritual, and a more important sense, this prophecy was fulfilled by Christ defeating the machinations of the Devil, (the real serpent meant in the ultimate scope of the prophecy,*) by that death and ignominious and cruel passion, which he underwent for man's redemption.† And the prophecy will yet again receive a

* Gen. iii. 15; 2 Cor. xi. 3; Numb. xxi. 9; Isai. lxv 25; John iii, 14; Rev. xii. 9. As a matter of fact, the history of the serpent, from first to last, is considered as one of the most remarkable things in scripture.-It was evidently a prophecy of Christ, crucified, and rising again for our rescue from the power of THE OLD SERPENT. The brazen serpent was expressly ordained of God as a type of Christ, and commemorative of the fall and recovery of man, notwithstanding the abuse to which (as an image) it was liable. (2 Kings, xviii. 4-) And Christ himself acknowledged it as a typical prophecy. (John iii. 14.) That the great original murderer of mankind is meant under the emblem of the serpent, we are expressly told by St John, Rev. xii. 9, + Col. ii. 15.