2. There were such things and actionsas had only a providen- tial ordination to that purpose,—things that occasionally fell out, and so were not capable of a solemn institution, but were as to their events so guided by the providence of God as that they might prefigure and represent somewhat that was afterwards to come
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34 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. III.
to pass. For instance, Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. 15, sets out the la- mentation of Rachel,—that is, the women of the tribe of Benjamin, upon the captivity of the land: “(A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” It is evident from chap. xl. 1, that after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Nebuzar-adan gathered the people together that were to go into captivity at Ramah. There the women, con- sidering how many of their children were slain, and the rest now to be carried away, brake out into woful and unspeakable lamentation. And this was ordered, in the providence of God, to prefigure the sorrow of the women of Bethlehem upon the destruction of their children by Herod, when he sought the life of our Saviour; as the words are applied, Matt. ii. 17,18. And we may distinguish things of this kind into two sorts,—
(1.) Such as have received a particular application unto the things of the new testament, or unto spiritual things belonging to the grace and kingdom of Christ, by the Holy Ghost himself in the writings of the Gospel. Thus, the whole business of Rebekah’s con- ceiving Jacob and Esau, their birth, the oracle of God concerning them, the preference of one above the other, is declared by our apostle to have been ordained in the providence of God to teach his sovereignty in choosing and rejecting whom he pleaseth, Rom. ix. So he treateth at large concerning what befell that people in the wilderness, making application of it to the churches of the gospel, 1 Cor. x.; and other instances of the like kind may be insisted on, almost innumerable.
(2.) This infalleble application of one thing and season unto an- other, extends not unto the least part of those teaching examples which are recorded in the Old Testament. Many other things were ordained in the providence of God to be instructive unto us, and may, by the example of the apostles, be in like manner applied; for concerning them all we have this general rule, that they were ordained and ordered in the providence of God for this end, that they might be examples, documents, and means of instrue- tion unto us. Again, we are succeeded into the same place in the covenant unto them who were originally concerned in them, and so may expect answerable dispensations of God towards ourselves; and they were all written for our sakes.
3. There are things that fell out of old which are meet to illustrate present things, from a proportion or similitude between them. And thus where a place of Scripture directly treats of one thing, it may, in the interpretation of it, be applied to illustrate another which hath some likeness unto it. These expositions the Jews call own, and say they are made Sw 7119, “parabolical”
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VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 85
or “mystical;” wherein their masters abound. We call them alle- gories; so doth our apostle expressly, Gal. iv. 21-26. Having declared how the two covenants, the legal and evangelical, were represented by the two wives of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah; and the two sorts of people, even those that sought for righteousness by the law and believers, by their children, Ishmael and Isaac; he adds that these things are an allegory. Chrysostom supposeth that Paul useth that expression, of an allegory, in a large sense, for any type or figure, seeing the things he mentioneth were express types the one of the other. But the truth is, he doth not call the things themselves an allegory, for they had a reality, the story of them was true; but the exposition and application which he makes of the Scripture in that place is allegorical,—that is, what was spoken of one thing he expounds of another, because of their proportion one to another, or the similitude between them. Now this doth not arise hence, that the same place of Scripture, or the same words in any place, have a diverse sense, a literal sense and that which is mystical or allegorical; for the words which have not one deter- minate sense have no sense at all: but the things mentioned in any place holding a proportion unto other things, there being a likeness between them, the words whereby the one are expressed are applied unto the other.
Now, in the using of these allegorical expositions or applications of things in one place unto another, sundry things are wisely and diligently to be considered; as,—
1. That there be a due proportion in general between the things that are one of them as it were substituted in the room of an- other. Forced, strained allegories from the Scripture are a great abuse of the word. We have had some who have wrested the Scrip- ture unto monstrous allegories, corrupting the whole truth of the literal sense. This was the way of Origen of old in many of his expositions; and some of late have taken much liberty in the like proceeding. Take an instance in that of the prophet Hosea, chap. xi. 1, “ Out of Egypt have I called my son.” The words are directly spoken of the people of Israel, as the passage foregoing evinceth: “ When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” But these words are applied by the evangelist unto the Lord Christ, Matt. 11. 15; and that because of the just propor- tion that was between God’s dealing with that people and with him, after he was carried into Egypt.