up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and every living creature died in the storm and flood, a sanctuary was prepared for such as believed, where they were safe; and when a dove ventured out of the ark, she could find no rest for the sole of her foot till Noah took her in again: So in the midst of a world, where Satan's seat is, where dangers are on every side, where, by and by, hell from beneath shall open her mouth, and the wrath of God fall and burn up all the world, and put the nations of the earth in the greatest distress, Jesus is an Ark of refuge; whoever gets in there shall be safe; let the storm come when it will," the gates of hell shall not prevail against them; his wounds are the open way by which we escape, and a soul once entered in by him, shall be secure in eternity. Have any been so foolish to leave him and go again into the world? I know they can have no rest for the sole of their foot; they may wander to and fro, like the dove, but must return to the ark, and our heavenly Noah will put forth his haud and take them in, till the storm be over-past.

The sparing of Isaac, and offering a lamb in the stead upon mount Moriah, was also a shadow of Christ's dying as a Lamb in our stead. Abraham had prepared the altar, the wood, and the knife, and Isaac was bound and laid thereon, and his father's hand was stretched out to sacrifice him, when an angel interposed, and shewed him a ram caught in the thicket, which he took and offered up in his room, and Isaac was unbound and saved alive. By this the Holy Ghost sets forth our state; the altar was prepared, as it were; our sins were like fuel ready to have burned us up, and would have brought on the wrath of God like a river of flaming brimstone to kindle it; the sword was lifted and held out, we, sinners, bound down by Satan with

the

the chains of our own sins, when Jesus, like a lamb caught in the thicket, cried, Forgive them, my Father, and unbound and forgave us, stretched out his hands upon the altar, and was fastened thereon with nails, when the sword awaked upon him, and he expired loaded with our sins, and in our stead died, so making an atonement.

When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, a cave in Zoar was found for Lot and his children, and this also was a shadow of Christ: For when guilty souls are warned to flee from wrath to come, when they leave the world, which John calls spiritual Sodom and Egypt, and under a sense of their own sin tremble, and do not know where to escape, the Holy Spirit shews them the wounds of Jesus; his arms extended and held out, like the wings of a hen, are a happy shelter in such a time of need. That smitten and cleft body of his is then like the "shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a hiding place in the stormy wind and tempest.' "Is it not a little one?" says Lot of Zoar," and my soul shall live." So we who believe in Jesus sing with understanding,

Ye gaping bloody wounds, to me
How dear are ye and sweet?
In you I've found for evermore
A small but safe retreat.

The manner in which Isaac blessed his son Jacob must also be observed as typical; for he intended to have blessed Esau, and sent him out to fetch venison, that he might once more eat of his son's labour, and impart his blessing to him before he died: In the mean time Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, got ready meat for her husband, and made her son Jacob carry it to him in the name of Esau,

and lest he should handle him (for Esau was an hairy man) she put the skin of the kid which she had killed about his hands and about his neck, and sent him to his father, who though he was old, and his eyes so dim that he could not see, yet when Jacob spoke, he questioned his voice, and though he felt his hands, and knew they felt like Esau's hauds, yet he was not reconciled to his voice, because, saith he, "it is the voice of Jacob," till as he stood near his father, he smelt the raiment of his elder son upon him, and that overcame the good old man! O! he cried, "it is Esau, the smell of my son's raiment is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed," and then he blessed his son in the name of his father's God, with all the blessings he could wish his son, yea, and he adds, " he shall be blessed."

Thus when Jerusalem, our mother, invites us by the gospel to venture into the presence of our hea venly Father, and get his blessing, a poor sinner may easily be afraid, like Jacob, lest he should meet with a curse and not a blessing; for he may think,

my Father knows my voice would be the voice of Jacob, the voice of a lost and ruined sinner, whose best sighs and tears, and prayers have so much sin mingled in them, that in justice I might expect wrath rather than a blessing at his hands. This is true, but do as Jacob, put on thy elder brother's raiment, put on the righteousness of Christ, and thou shalt be blessed with all the blessings in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, yea, and thou shalt be blessed. With all Jacob could have done, he had certainly failed, had he not put on Esau's raiment, for this was the only means of his prevailing. Do all thou canst, imitate the voice of a saint, speak, like an angel, and put on the most strict, holy, and devout form, and God will behold thee afar off. Thou wilt be treated as a hypocrite, and

be

be scattered in the imagination of thy own heart, but put on the Lord Jesus; just as he stood in thy sins before the judges, so stand thou in his righteousness, and God shall call thee fair; his blood and obedience makes such a happy alteration, that whoever puts on this raiment, and are invested with this robe, may stand bold before the throne, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, and all the blessings God the Father has, all the blessings God the Holy Ghost bestows, and all the blessings God the Son purchased for them, shall come upon them in time and in eternity.

The Paschal lamb was still a brighter emblem of Christ our Passover, and more lively pointed out the deliverance through his blood.

This was an ordinance appointed the last night the children of Israel were in Egypt, and at the same time that the first-born were slain. They were ordered to take a lamb of the first year, without blemish or spot, and to roast the flesh, and eat it with bitter herbs, leaning upon their staves, and to sprinkle the blood of it upon their door-posts, which was to be a sign to the destroying angel as he passed by at midnight, to spare that house. They were to eat it with bitter herbs, to remember their cruel bondage in Egypt; and to lean on their staves, to put them in mind they were strangers, and on a journey. Accordingly at midnight the angel passed through the land, and slew the eldest person in every house, but only where the blood was upon the door, there all was safe and preserved.

When Jesus saw our affliction under the iron yoke of Satan, and pitied the lost world, and was come down to save it, he became our passover. He was of the first year, that is, innocent, and pure as a virgin, born of a virgin. "He was without blemish and without spot, no iniquity was found in him,

nor

nor was any guile in his mouth." Such a lamb God prepared, and that night when he opened the way for our deliverance, he was roasted, as it were, and scorched up with burning anguish and the fiery wrath of God, so that "his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth, and his moisture was like the drought in summer," while his feet looked red with heat and pain, and like brass, burning in the furnace. In this condition he died, and poured out his blood upon the ground; and this was done on that very day wherein the Jews from year to year killed their paschal lambs.

All who would escape in the day of judgment, keep his passover; for the destroying angels, each with his destroying weapon in his hand, now watch only for the word, and in one night they would smite according to their charge, small and great, old and young, maids, women, and little children; but for the present they forbear, as well as those who have power over the winds, that they may not hurt the earth or any green tree, till Jesus has marked his people, and sprinkled the blood of the true Passover. We here eat his flesh by true faith, to the saving of our souls; it becomes meat indeed, and is the fore-taste of the marriage-supper of the Lamb; but we eat it with bitter herbs, namely, we meet with many bitter trials and troubles in this spiritual Egypt from the world, the devil, and those round about us: We eat it leaning on our staves; for though we may be happy and at peace about our soul's future estate, yet we may not forget that we are not at home; the times of refreshing we have here in this life from the presence of the Lord, are only like a traveller baiting at an inn; he forgets not he is upon a journey, and hastens on; so we have our eye upon the continuing city, the New Jerusalem, and are here pilgrims and foreigners, and

therefore