1. Melchisedec : Gen. xiv. 18, ' Melchisedec, King of Salem,brought forth bread and wine to Abraham.' Which type is interpreted by the apostle, Heb. vii. 2, 3, ' First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace ; without father and without mother ; having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.' What Melchisedec was is needless to dispute. The apostle considereth him only as he is represented in the story of Moses, who maketh no mention of his father or mother, birth or death. Certainly he was a very man ; but as he standeth in scripture there is no mention of father or mother, beginning or end, what he was, or of whom he came. So is Christ as God without mother, as man without father ; as God without beginning, as God-man without ending of life.
2. Another type of him was Jacob's ladder, the top of which
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reached heaven, and the bottom reached earth, Gen. xxviii. 12 ; and the angels of God were ascendhig and descending upon it. This ladder represented Christ the Son of man, upon whom the angels of God ascend and descend, John i. 51. The bottom, which reached the earth, represented Christ's human nature and conversing with men ; the top, which reached heaven, his heavenly and divine nature ; and in both his mediation with God for men. Ascende per hominem, et pervenies ad JDeum. Christ reaches to heaven in his divine original ; to earth in his manhood, and him the angels serve. By his dwelling in our nature, this commerce between earth and heaven is brought about.
The third type is the fiery cloudy pillar : Exod. xiii. 21, ' And the Lord went before them in the day in a pillar of a cloud ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light ; to go by day and night' This figured Christ's guidance and protection of his church travelling through this world to his heavenly rest. The cloud signified his humanity, the fire his divinity. There were two different substances, the fire and the cloud, yet but one pillar. So there are two different natures in Christ, his divinity shining as fire, his humanity darkening as a cloud, yet but one person. That pillar departed not from them all the while they travelled in the wilderness ; so, while the church's pilgrimage lasteth, Christ will conduct us, and comfort and shelter us by his presence. His mediatory conduct ceaseth not.
The fourth type is the tabernacle, wherein God dwelt symbolically, as in Christ bodily. There God sat on the mercy-seat, which is called iXaaT7]piov, Heb. ix. 5. So Christ : Kom. iii. 25, ' A propitiation.* He there dwelt between the cherubims, and did exhibit himself gra- ciously to his people, as now he doth to us by Christ. The next shall be of the scape-goat on the day of expiation. Lev. xvi. 10. One goat was to be slain, the other kept alive. The slain goat signified t?;i/ adpKa, TO iradrirov, his flesh, or human nature suffering ; the live goat, TO avaOe^i t?^9 ©eor?;™?, his immortal deity, or as the apostle expresseth it, 2 Cor. xiii. 4, That Christ was to be ' crucified through weakness,' yet to ' live by the power of God ; ' or as we heard before, 1 Pet. iii. 18, ' Put to death in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit.' Because these two things could not be shadowed by any one beast, which the priest having killed, could not make alive again ; and it was not fit that God should work miracles about types, therefore he appointed two, that in the slain beast his death might be represented, in the live beast his immortality. The like mystery was represented also in the two birds for the cleansing of the leper, Lev. xiv. 6, 7.
Thirdly, I prove it by reasons taken from his office, which may be considered in the general ; and so it is expressed by one word, Mediator ; or in particular, according to the several functions of it, ex- pressed by the terms of King, Priest, and Prophet; or with respect to the persons that are to be considered and concerned in Christ's mediation.
1. His office considered in the general : so he is called, ' Jesus the mediator of the New Testament,' Heb. xii. 24. It was agreeable that fieakr)';, a mediator, should be /xecr?}, a middle person, of the same essence with both parties, and that his operative mediation should presuppose his substantial mediation ; that, being God-man in the same person, he should make an atonement between God and man. Sin hath
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made such a breach and distance between us and God, that it raiseth our fears, and causeth backwardness to draw nigh unto liim, and so hin- dereth our love and confidence in him. How can we depend upon one so far above us, and out of the reach of our commerce ? Therefore a mediator is necessary, one that will pity us, and is more near and dear to God than we are. One in whom God doth condescend to man, and by whom man may be encouraged to ascend to God. Now, who is so fit for this as Jesus Christ, ' God manifested in our flesh ' ? The two natures met together in his person, and so God is nearer to man than he w^as before in the pure deity ; for he is come down to us in our flesh, and hath assumed it into the unity of his person ; and man is nearer to God, for our nature dwelleth with him so closely united, that we may have more familiar thoughts of God, and a confidence that he will look after us, and concern himself in our atfairs, and show us his grace and favour, for surely he will not hide himself from his own flesh, Isa. Iviii. 7. This wonderfully reconcileth the heart of man to God, and maketh our thoughts of him more comfortable, and doth encourage us to free access to God.