had in him the seeds of both these things, namely, of the First Adam as the carnal mind, and of the Second Adam as the spiritual mind; but it was only one of them that was the true representative of the elect church, namely, the spiritual mind, which is no type, but the very thing itself. When, therefore, it pleased God to set up Abraham as a type of the church, He desired to mark that it was not the flesh of Abraham, but the Spirit of Christ in Abraham, that he really chose. This could not be done by dividing Abraham himself into his two parts, and therefore God divided him, as it were, in his sons, and thus showed forth his two parts, separated the one from the other, Ishmael representing the flesh, and Isaac the spirit.

This was a great typical representation of the same nature as that which Jeremiah saw in the potter's house. Ishmael, whose birth was, in the blind course of nature, not directed by God, but by a carnal wisdom determined on securing, by ordinary means, an heir to Abraham's house, was a fit type of the old Adam, or carnal mind, which grows in a heart that calculates, for the accomplishment of its objects, on the known powers of this present life, which go on blindly,

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and, as it were, independent of God. And Isaac, by being the child of promise, born out of the course of nature, born of Abraham's body now dead, and raised out of the deadness of Sarah's womb as out of a grave, was a fit type of the new nature, the second vessel, raised from the ruins of the first. For spiritual life in the soul springs up out of a despair of all created help. The will of the flesh was in Abraham, and it was the seed from which Ishmael typically sprung. The word of God was also in Abraham's conscience, and it was the seed from which Isaac typically sprung. But this good seed was not quickened into an Isaac, until the will of man was despaired of. These two seeds are in every human being, and this great type was set up, that every human being might know which of these seeds was God's elect, and how that good seed might be brought to life and to maturity.

The typical election must be on persons, but the real election is on characters; and when we forget this, and look on Isaac as originally elect, and Ishmael as originally reprobate, without regard to the Spirit and the flesh, of which they were types, we make the same mistake as the Jews, confounding

the type with the thing typified, and we need to be recalled to that word again, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, they are not the children of God, but the children of the promise, or those who live by the hope of the promise, are counted for the seed."

Ver. 10-13. "And not only this, but when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,) it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated."

The same important instruction was repeated in the next generation also. God would teach the Jews and the world, that although He had thus shown the flesh and the spirit of Abraham, typically separated in Ishmael and Isaac, yet that the wheat and the tares still grew together, and He would guard them against supposing, that all Abraham's carnality went off with Ishmael, and that nothing now remained in Isaac but what was elect, so that his descendants must be elect

also; and therefore he made the same division in Isaac that he had before made in Abraham, thereby testifying by a most speaking type, that this separation of the elect and the reprobate, was to be made in every man, because the two seeds were in every man, and therefore that there was no hereditary election, that there was nothing elect except the spiritual mind, which must, in every individual instance, be formed by a voluntary cleaving to the future hope, and a consent to the breaking down of present things.

But there is an addition made here to the

preceeding type. Both seeds are now represented as together in one womb, just as they are in every man, and then we have the word which was spoken to Rebecca, "the elder shall serve the younger.

وو

Esau, like Ishmael, is a type of the First Adam, who is elder than Christ, as being the First Head of the race, and who has the advantage of being first in possession of the heart of man. Jacob, like Isaac, is a type of Christ, who is younger than Adam, though the ancient of days, as the Second Head, and who comes into the heart of man as into a field already occupied by another. These two who are the flesh and the Spirit, strug

gle for the mastery in man's heart; and the elder, who is the first occupant, seems to be the stronger, so that it even sometimes appears hopeless to resist him, but God, who brought Isaac out of the deadness of Sarah's womb, desires us not to regard appearances, but to know assuredly that the younger is the stronger, and shall prevail; so that if we join with him, we shall partake of his victory, whereas if we join the flesh, we shall perish with it.

The instruction and warning contained in this type, receive additional point and strength from that verse, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger," &c. God gives us a true judgment of the two seeds, before they come to fruit. He would not have us say, "The will of man is not to be condemned, until it break out in some open act of evil;-till then, we may nurture it in ourselves or others." He would have us know before-hand, that it is a seed of death, lying under the condemnation.

And this is needful, for whilst the evil prin