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man is spiritually cleansed. The leprosy of Naaman was cleansed by washing in the Jordans; the messenger and harbinger of Christ baptized with the waters of this river1; and, in its waters, Christ was Himself baptized, and, as He went up out of the water, the Spirit of God descended and lighted upon Him. As the Spirit lighted upon Him as He rose out of the waters of Jordan, so does it light upon man when he has passed through the waters of baptisin, by which he receives "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," of which the passage of the Israelites through Jordan was also a figure.

When Joshua had entered Canaan, "there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand," who styled himself" Captain of all the host of the Lord;" and he "said to Joshua, Loose thy shoe from thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." "And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant!?" This "man," whom Joshua worshipped, and acknowledged as Lord and master, whose presence made the ground "holy," and who styled himself" Captain of all the host of the Lord," could be no other than

f Eph. v. 26.

2 Kings, v. 14.
Matt. iii. 6.

i Matt. iii. 13, 16.

Titus, iii. 5. John, iii. 5.
Joshua, v. 13—15.

that same

"Lord" who also appeared in the likeness of man unto Abraham", and unto Jacob", namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Under Joshua, the Israelites got possession of the land of Canaan, "and the land had rest from war"." "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about according to all that he sware unto their fathers, and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand P*."

m Gen. xviii.

n Gen. xxxii. 24-30.

Joshua, xiv. 15.

P Joshua, xxi. 43, 44.

*The rest, then, which the Israelites entered into on the western side of Jordan, was a figure of the rest which remaineth for the people of GOD1. But Canaan, although the figure of the heavenly land of promise, was not the only land in which a rest was afforded to those who had travelled through the wilderness; for we find Joshua saying to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, respecting the land of Gilead, which was on the east side of Jordan: "Remember the word which Moses the servant of GOD commanded you2, saying, The Lord your GoD hath given you rest, and hath given you this land3." And these two tribes and a half were directed to leave their families and their cattle in that land, and to go with the other tribes of Israel to assist them in subduing Canaan, "until the Lord," said Joshua, "have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you." And, when the rest of the tribes had 1 Hebr. iv. 9.

2 Numb. xxxii. 20-24.

3 Joshua, i. 12, 13.

4 Joshua, i. 14, 15.

Thus, by the rest which was afforded to the Israelites in Canaan, was perfected the figure which their journey was intended to exhibit; for the rest into which Jesus or Joshua led them when he brought them into Canaan, represented that glorious rest into which Jesus the Son of GOD will lead mankind. The figure, therefore, which their pilgrimage, and their entrance into Canaan, were destined to exhibit, being perfected, the land of Canaan ceases from this time to be a figure of heaven; and the future residence of the Israelites in that land, is no longer a` figure of the residence of the blessed in the kingdom of GOD and of Christ.

Joshua, having thus brought the Israelites into rest, exhorted them to cleave to the law of

gained full possession of the land on the western side of Jordan, Joshua said to the two tribes and a half, "Now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as He promised them, therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of GOD gave you on the other side Jordan;” “so Joshua blessed them and sent them away 5."

It appears, then, that there was a rest on the wilderness side of Jordan. If, then, the wilderness represented this world, and the journey of the Israelites was a figure of the pilgrimage of man on earth, and if the rest on the western side of Jordan was a figure of the rest prepared in the heavenly Canaan; was not the rest in Gilead a figure of the rest afforded in Hades unto those " that die in the Lord7?"

5 Joshua, xxii. 4, 6.

7 Rev. xiv. 13.

• See PART IV.

Moses, and unto the Lord their GoD, and to keep themselves separate and distinct from the idolatrous nations which remained among them; otherwise, he warned them, they would fall victims to those nations, and would perish from off the good land which GOD had given them. And Joshua died, "and also that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord GOD of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He deli'vered them into the hands of spoilers, that spoiled them, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had

Joshua, xxiii. 6—16; xxiv.

19, 20.

Joshua, xxiv. 29. Judges, ii. 8.

said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them, and they were greatly distressed."

t

per

Thus, then, the rest, which the Israelites enjoyed in Canaan, lasted only a few years; for "the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua ;" but, after the death of these sons, arose another generation "which knew not the Lord," and the land ceased to be a land of rest unto them. Thus it is evident, that the extraordinary deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, their eventual pilgrimage in the wilderness, and their miraculous entrance into Canaan, were intended for higher purposes than mere temporal ones. They were ordained as types and figures to represent and to illustrate the grand scheme of salvation through Christ.

From this time, the history of the Israelites is but a continued representation of the frailty and depravity of man, while it illustrates strongly the efficacy of repentance and the necessity of obedience; and, in its general scope and its leading particulars, it will be found to be subservient to the illustration and prefiguration of the progressive history of the Universal Church of Christ.

From the death of Joshua until the reign of David, a period embracing nearly four hundred

* Judges, ii. 10-15.

t Judges, ii. 7.

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