From Book: A New Literal Translation From the Original Greek of All the Apostolical Epistles, Essay VIII,
"Concerning The Right Interpretation of the Writings in which the Revelations of God are Contained", p. 702, 1841.

In short, unless David in his government of the natural seed was a type of Christ in his government of the spiritual seed, no just interpretation can be given of the divine revelations and promises which were made to him, and which are recorded by Ethan, Psal. lxxxix. 19-37. Whereas, if these things are spoken to David as an image or type of Christ, the whole is plain, and hath received a complete accomplishment.

8. The fourth typical person whose history is given in scripture is Solomon, who, in his ruling the natural seed, and in his building the temple, prefigured Christ the ruler of the spiritual Israel, and the builder of the Christian church, the great temple of God which in its perfect form will subsist in the heavenly country. For as David's government was so ordered by God as to be a striking representation of the powerful government which Christ now exercises, for protecting his people and subduing their enemies, so God raised up Solomon a peaceful king, and made Israel enjoy peace and prosperity under his government, and appointed him to build the temple of God at Jerusalem, 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10, to prefigure the peace and happiness which the spiritual Israel shall enjoy after all their enemies are completely destroyed, and they themselves are introduced into the heavenly country, and formed into one great church or temple for the worship of God. This appears from Psal. lxxii. where Solomon's character and actions as a king are delineated, and the happy effects of his government are described. For in that Psalm things are spoken of him which do not belong to him, unless as a type of Christ ; particularly ver. 5, ' They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.' — Ver. 11, 'All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him. 12. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and him who hath no helper. 14. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence ; and precious shall their blood be in his sight. — Ver. 17. His name shall endure for ever ; his name shall be continued as long as the sun : and men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him blessed.' — This last circumstance indisputably proves Solomon to have been a type of Christ, for it was one of these distinguishing characters of Christ, Abraham's seed, that ' in him all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." — Moreover, Psal. xlv. cannot be interpreted of Solomon, unless on the supposition that he was a type of Christ : for in his natural character it could not be said to Solomon, ver. 6, ' Thy throne, О God, is for ever and ever ; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of rectitude. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness ; therefore, О God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy associates.' See Heb. i. 8, note 1.

9. The fifth allegorical or typical person spoken of in scripture, is the son of the prophetess, whose birth was foretold Isa. vii. 14, ' The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.' — B. Lowth says this passage should be translated in the following manner : ' Behold this virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and thou shall call his name Immanuel : Butler and honey shall he eat when he shall know to refuse evil and choose good. For before this child shall know to refuse evil and choose good, the land shall be desolate, by whose two kings thou art distressed.' On Isaiah, p. 63. Lowth adds, "Harmer has clearly shewn, that these articles of food (butter and honey) are delicacies in the east, and as such denote a state of plenty. See also Josh. v. 6. They therefore naturally express the plenty of the country, as a mark of peace restored to it." And in confirmation of his opinion he cites Jarchi, " Butyrum et mel comedet infans iste, quoniam terra nostra plena erit omnis boni."  He then proceeds thus, p. 64. : " Agreeably to the observations communicated by the learned person above mentioned, (Harmer), which perfectly well explain the historical sense of this much disputed passage, not excluding a higher secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of the prophecy is this, That within the time that a young woman, now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a child, and that child should arrive at such an age as to distinguish between good and evil, that is, within a few years, (compare viii. 4.), the enemies of Judah should he destroyed." And to shew that this prophecy actually hath a higher secondary meaning, that learned expositor reasons as follows : " But the prophecy is introduced in so solemn a manner, the sign is so marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the whole compass of nature ; the terms of the prophecy are so peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing in them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a common child required or even admitted ; that we may easily suppose, that, in minds prepared by the general expectation of a great deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested, especially when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah." (Chap. viii. 8.) To the things mentioned by Lowth, I add, that the account of the character and actions of this child, given Isa. ix. 6, is by no means applicable to the son of the prophetess, unless as a type of the divine person who was to be the deliverer of the people of God. ' Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end ; upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from hence forth, even for ever : The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.'

That the prediction of a virgin's conceiving and bearing a son, who was to be called Immanuel, was at that time understood to be a promise of the birth of a great and even a divine person, B. Lowth says, "may be collected with great probability from a passage of Micah, a prophet contemporary with Isaiah, but who began to prophesy after him, and who, as I have already observed, imitated him, and sometimes used his expressions. Micah having delivered that remarkable prophecy which determines the place of the birth of Messiah, ' the ruler of God's people, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting,' that it should be Bethlehem Ephrata, adds immediately, that nevertheless in the mean time God would deliver his people into the hands of their enemies : ' he will give them up, till she who is to bear a child shall bring forth,' Micah v. 3. This obviously and plainly refers to some known prophecy concerning a woman to bring forth a child, and seems much more properly applicable to this passage of Isaiah, than to any other of the same prophet to which some interpreters have applied it. St. Matthew, therefore, in applying this prophecy to the birth of Christ, chap. i. 22, 23, does it merely in accommodating the words of the prophet to a suitable case, not in the prophet's view, but takes it in its strictest, clearest, and mort important sense, and applies it according to the original design and principal intention of the prophet."

10. The sixth allegorical or typical person mentioned in scripture is the prophet Jonah, whose preservation in the belly of the whale during three days and three nights, and his being after that vomited up alive, Christ himself declares was a type of his own continuance in the grave, and of his subsequent resurrection from the dead : Matt xii. 39, ' An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' Farther, by saying, Luke xi. 30, ' As Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation,' our Lord insinuated, that as the miraculous preservation of Jonah in the whale's belly, when related to the Ninevites, induced them to give credit to the message which he brought to them from God, so Christ's resurrection from the dead, preached to mankind by his apostles, would induce many to believe on him as the Son of God : wherefore, in both these particulars, Jonah was a type of Christ.

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