1. Some of the Old Testament saints have expressed a great degree of faith in Christ, and love to him, whom they expected to come in our nature; and many of the prophets, in their inspired writings, have discovered that they were not strangers to the way of redemption and reconciliation to God by him, as the Lord our righteousness. A multitude of scriptures might be cited, that speak of Christ, and salvation by him in the Old Testament, Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Zech. xiii. 7. Psal. xxxiii. 1, 2. compared with Rom. iv. 6. Thus Abraham is described, as _rejoicing to see his day_, John viii. 56. and the prophet Isaiah is so very particular and express in the account he gives of his person and offices, that I cannot see how any one can reasonably conclude him to have been wholly a stranger to the gospel himself, Isa. xxii. 25. ch. lii. 13, 14, 15. Can any one think this, who reads his 53d chapter, where he treats of his life, death, sufferings, and offices, and of the way of salvation by him? _Object._ It is objected hereunto that the prophets who delivered these evangelical truths, understood but little of them themselves, because of the darkness of the dispensation they were under. Thus it is said, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11, 12. that _the prophets_, indeed, _searched_ into the meaning of their own predictions, but to no purpose; for _it was revealed to them, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they ministered_; that is, the account they gave of our Saviour was not designed to be understood by them, but us in this present gospel-dispensation. _Answ._ The answer that may be given to this objection is, that though the prophets are represented as enquiring into the meaning of their own prophecies, yet it doth not follow from thence that they had but little or no understanding of them: all that can be gathered from it is, that they studied them, as their own salvation was concerned therein; but we must not suppose that they did this to no purpose, as what they were not able to understand; and when it is farther said in this scripture, that _not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things that are now reported_; the meaning is, not that they did not understand those things, or had not much concern in them, but that the glory of the gospel state, that was foretold in their prophecies, was what we should behold with our eyes, and not they themselves, in which sense they are said _not to minister to themselves, but to us_; so that this objection hath no force in it to overthrow the argument we are maintaining; we therefore proceed to consider, 2. That it is certain, that the whole ceremonial law had a spiritual meaning annexed to it; for it is said, _That the law was a shadow of good things to come_, Heb. x. 1. and that all those things _happened to them for ensamples_, [or types] _and they are written for our admonition_, 1 Cor. x. 11.