These are shadowy representations of Christ and his benefits —
[All of them relate to Christ in some view or other ; either to his person and offices, or to his Church and the benefits he confers upon it. They are the shadow, whereof he is the substance : and as a shadow represents, though but faintly, the image of the substance, so they portray, though in a very indistinct manner, the character and work of Christ.]
In fact, they were instituted of God for this end —
[The paschal feast, with all its attendant observances, was not merely commemorative of a deliverance that was past : it was to shadow forth an infinitely greater deliverance that was to come ; as St. Paul says, " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth6." In like manner, we are told, that all the ordinances relative to the priestly office " served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle : For, see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewn to thee in the mount d." The Law was the shadow; the Gospel the substance : the Law was the model ; and the Gospel the edifice erected in perfect accordance with ite.]
The text, in connexion with the context, leads us further to declare,
II. Their use —
God would not have appointed them, if they had not been beneficial to his Church. But with respect to the Jewish and the Christian Church, we shall, as they subserved different purposes, notice their use to each :
1. To the Jews —
c Heb. viii. 5. 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. d Heb. viii. 5.
e We are not at liberty to consider every common similitude as a type, or to launch into the boundless ocean of conjecture : in some instances indeed observations drawn from analogy may be almost as convincing as the declarations of God himself: but it is safest to adhere to those points which Scripture has determined for us : in them we are in no danger of erring, and therefore can speak with precision and authority. Nor should we ever forget, that, as those things alone are sacraments to us which God has appointed to be so, so those things alone were types to the Jewish church, which God in- stituted for that express purpose.