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 ESSAYS 9 | 
 DDRESSED-TO JEWS, 
 
 AUTHORITY, THE SCOPE, AND THE CONSUMMATION, 
 
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ESSAYS 
 
 ADDRESSED TO JEWS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE AUTHORITY, THE SCOPE, 
 
 AND 
 The Consummation, 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. 
 
 BY GREVILLE EWING, 
 
 MINISTER “ THE GOSPEL, IN GLASGOW. 
 
 Written at the Request of the Directars of the Missionary 1) Secieh 'y 
 in London, 
 
 Lonvon: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, 
 By J. Dennett, Leather Lane, Holborn: 
 SOLD BY 
 WILLIAMS AND SMITH, STATIONERS’ COURT ; 
 OGLE, HOLBORN, LONDON; 
 M. OGLE, GLASGOW; AND J. OGLE, EDINBURGH. 
 
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 1809. 
 
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ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 SrrRENuOUS exertions have been sasice for several 
 years, by the Missionary Society, on behalf of the Jewish 
 people, with a view to excite their attention to the 
 evidences of Christianity. Lectures have been established 
 in the metropolis for this purpose, and are still continued 
 with unabated zeal: it is to be regretted, however, that in 
 consequence of the influence of the higher orders among 
 the Jews, many are deterred, through fear, from avail- 
 ing themselves of the opportunities of information which 
 these lectures afford. Aware of this impediment, the 
 Missionary Society have been desirous to accomplish, by 
 means of the press, the important object, which cannot be 
 fully attained by exertions from the pulpit. They coneeived, 
 that a connected series of Essays, on the essential points 
 
 ef difference between Jews and Christians, might arrest 
 
 the attention of some of the descendants of Abraham» 
 and, by the blessing of God, urge them to prosecute 
 
 inquiries, whieh might issue in their cordial reception 
 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus. Having resolved on the 
 
 adoption of this plan, they were desirous of committing 
 
 its execution to the individual, whose name appears in, 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 the title-page of the present volume. The undertaking 
 appeared to him, in a high degree, arduous and im- 
 portant, and his numerous engagements seemed to forbid 
 the hope of being able to accomplish it, without consider- 
 able delay. The interval which has actually elapsed, 
 has served too fully to justify his apprehensions; and 
 even now, he must content himself with committing to 
 the press, the first part only of the intended perform- 
 ance. It will be found, however, sufficiently independent 
 _ of the remaining part, to authorise its separate publica- 
 tion. 
 
 © 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 i ae HEMGPRS 05.5 sdinesascdniel wis Meat 
 WIL, Authority of the Law and the Prophets 6 
 Il. Scope of the Law and the Prophets.— 
 Character of God ........cesceees 20 
 IV. Creation of the World.—Primeval state 
 C2 oT ER EIT Swe 51 
 My Past Transgression. ose 67 
 Vb ME MOty ee AL Romig uth. 78 
 VII. Antediluvian Worship ....0 oc. cc eee - 98 
 Vill. Ceienant tOUEE NBGN A, sis oho ang 123 
 IX. Covenant with Alraham............ 148 
 AX. Covenant with Israel, at Sinai........ 181 
 
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ESSAYS 
 ADDRESSED TO JEWS, 
 
 ON THE 
 AUTHORITY, THE SCOPE, AND THE CONSUMMATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. 
 
 bassist ninssnstsaisemsianiiaraeeceianteotaeet ee} 
 
 NUMBER I. 
 Introductory Remarks. 
 
 Te most remarkable people in the world cannot 
 be surprised that their situation should attract 
 the observation of strangers. Jews have long 
 been accustomed to be the objects of general atten- 
 tion ; nor are they averse from friendly intercourse 
 with those who are around them. Although sin- 
 gularly distinct, they are by no means secluded 
 from the rest of mankind. With characteristic 
 industry, they traffic in the things of this world, 
 with every nation under heayen. Will they not 
 admit of an affectionate and respectful correspon- 
 dence on the important subject of their religious 
 faith ? fy 
 
 Our reason for making a proposal of this nature 
 is, that we feel a peculiar interest in the happiness 
 of that people, to whom were committed the oracles 
 of God. How blessed were they when they heark- 
 ened to his word, and walked in obedience to his | 
 statutes and judgments! Their days were long upon 
 the pleasant land, which the Lord their God gave 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.- 
 
 to them for an inheritance. It is not with triumph, 
 nor indifference, that we think of any of their 
 afflictions, especially of the dreadful state of banish- 
 ment and dispersion which they now experience. 
 Descendants of Abraham, if you weep when you 
 remember Zion, far be it from us to require of you 
 mirth; we deplore your desolations, and would 
 checr you with the hope that the cause of them all 
 may yet be removed. 
 
 But we venture not, at present, to speculate on 
 the great events which shall befal your race, as a 
 body, in future generations ; when, or how you 
 shall have a general restoration to prosperity in 
 your own land, we do not presume to inquire. 
 Our object is of a nature less splendid, yet more 
 immediately connected with the welfare of each 
 individual to whom we write. We intreat the Jew 
 to consider, that whatever be the privileges and 
 hopes of his nation,, he is himself a sinner and a 
 mortal, who must soon leave this world, and an- 
 swer for his. conduct before the judgment-seat of 
 God; and that his responsibility is peculiarly great, 
 because he has received from his fathers, a divine 
 revelation of mercy, in which he has the promise 
 of eternal life. Has he seriously examined this 
 divine revelation? Is he living under the influence 
 of the truth which it contains? Does he resemble 
 the believers of old, who walked with God? Or, 
 is he one of those who lightly esteem the Rock of 
 their salvation ? 
 
 Jews will admit that one of the most important 
 events mentioned \in the Law and the Prophets, is 
 the coming of the Messiah. Generally, indeed, 
 they are taught to believe that this event has not | 
 yet taken place. One of the articles of their creeds 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. | 3 
 
 is, © I believe, with a firm and perfect faith, that 
 the Messiah is to come; although he tarry, I will 
 wait and expect daily his coming.’’? On the other 
 hand, it is a fact worthy their serious consideration, 
 that many even of their own nation, and many 
 more out of almost every nation under heaven, 
 have embraced an opposite faith; have believed 
 that the Messiah is come already; that he was 
 born at Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the Great ; 
 that his name was called Jesus, (or Joshua,) be- 
 cause he came to save his people from their sins ; 
 that he taught the true meaning of the Law, and 
 published the good news of a spiritual and heavenly 
 kingdom, confirming his words by many signs and 
 wonders which proved him to be the Son of God ; 
 that he declared it to be the will of his Father, 
 that he should lay down his life for the salvation 
 of his disciples, and should take it again, by rising 
 from the dead on the third day; that his cruci- 
 fixion, under Pontius Pilate, was the true and per- 
 fect sacrifice for sin, an accomplishment of his own 
 predictions, and of the design of his coming into the 
 world; that his resurrection from the dead was 
 proved by irresistible evidence; that his disciples 
 beheld him ascend to heaven; that they were soon 
 after inspired by the Holy Spirit to preach salvation, 
 in his name, to all mankind ; and that these facts, 
 with the doctrines connected with them, form the 
 sum of what is called the Gospel, or good news of 
 the Messiah, or the Christ. . 
 
 He that believeth this Gospel is saved. He hath 
 hope in Christ, and peace with God. He is cheered 
 by the prospect of eternal life in heaven. He is 
 enabled to be patient, and to rejoice, amidst all the 
 trials of the present world, 
 
 ie 
 
A INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Wherever the faith of the Gospel exists, it pro- 
 duces a new character, and forms a peculiar rela- 
 tion. Real Christians are as much distinguished 
 from the rest of the world, and as truly united with 
 one another, as ever Israel were when the Lord 
 chose them to be to him a holy nation, and a 
 kingdom of priests. Like Jews, Christians seem 
 to have been always under a peculiar superintendance 
 of divine providence. They hold the authority of 
 the Law and the Prophets in the highest possible 
 veneration. Jews can hardly be said to have stu- 
 died their own Scriptures, unless they have, at least, 
 been willing to hear in what way they have been 
 understood by the disciples of Christ. 
 
 Let no child of Abraham say, <I will listen to 
 the doctrines of the rabbis only of my own nation.’ 
 In a matter of high importance, and universal con- 
 cern, every man is called seriously to inquire for 
 himself. The use which we ought to make of a 
 teacher, is to derive assistance from him, while we 
 are prosecuting our own researches; and we should 
 do this, not by a blind and indolent submission 
 to his decisions, but by a careful examination of 
 the instruction which he gives. It is no disrespect 
 to those who sit in Moses’ seat, to compare what 
 they say with the words of Moses himself, Having 
 so perfect a rule as a divine law, one would think, 
 that without the sanction of its sacred authority, a 
 Jew would receive the opinions of no man 3; and, 
 on the other hand, that an appeal to it, though 
 made by a stranger, would be sufficient to insure 
 his most attentive regard. We mean not to say, 
 ‘Turn your back on your teachers, and listen to 
 us ;’ but we hope, that without offence, we may 
 advise you to try the opinions of all men by the 
 
 ee 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 
 
 law of your God. Nor shall we despair of obtain- 
 ing some notice from the teachers themselves. It 
 is not unworthy of superior wisdom to listen occa- 
 sionally to those who have been supposed to be 
 ignorant. We wish not to tamper with the simple 
 and credulous, and in a clandestine manner, to lead 
 them away. Let our reasonings be subjected to 
 the strictest investigation. Let nothing pass which 
 does not commend itself to the understanding of 
 the most judicious and learned. 
 
 Reject us not because we are sinners of the Gen- 
 tiles. You know that Jehovah was to be called the 
 God of the whole earth. Jehovah said to his Mes- 
 siah, ** Ask of me, and I shall give thee the hea- 
 then for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for thy possession.”” Psalm i.:8: We 
 call you not to worship the idols of the heathen, 
 which, among us, have long ago been cast to the 
 moles and to the bats. We do not, like the Sa- 
 maritans, fear Jehovah, and serve other- gods. 
 Neither have you any reason to suspect that» we 
 would increase your affliction, or oppose your pros- 
 
 perity, as they endeavoured to do, when they made » 
 
 the ensnaring proposal to your fathers, to build, . 
 
 along with them, the temple of the Lord. Surely 
 there is nothing in your present circumstances to 
 
 excite our envy, were we even your enemies. Give » 
 
 us credit, then, for at least intending you no harm.:. 
 
 It was never heard that Jews were in: danger from 
 an invitation to study the Law and the Prophets. 
 
 ‘May the Lord incline your hearts to comply » 
 with our earnest request! He will not despise an - 
 
 attempt to recommend his own revelation. ‘* For,’ 
 
 he hath said, ‘* as the rain cometh down,. andthe - 
 
 snow from heaven, and returneth not -thither, but . 
 
 B2 
 
6 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
 bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread 
 to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth 
 out of my ok. it shall not return unto me void, 
 but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it 
 shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.’ 
 Isaiah, ly. 10, 11. 
 
 NUMBER II. 
 Authority of the Law and the Prophets. 
 
 WE agree with Jews, that the books which they 
 hold sacred, were given by inspiration of God, and 
 are happy that we have an acknowledged authority 
 of so ample a nature to appeal to in the remarks 
 which we purpose to submit to their consideration. 
 
 On these books we remark, in the first place, 
 that. though the revelations contained in them 
 were communicated in various ways, they are all 
 equally true. In the mode of communication, God 
 was pleased to distinguish Moses by remarkable 
 favour. ‘This is particularly noticed in the reproof 
 which God gave to Aaron and Miriam for speaking 
 against him. ‘‘ And he said, hear now my words: 
 if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord, will 
 make myself known unto him in a vision, and will 
 
 speak unto him ina dream. My servant Moses is 
 not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With 
 him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, 
 and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of 
 the Lord shall he behold: wherefpre then were 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 7 
 
 ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ??? 
 Num. xi. 6—8. When the word of the Lord came 
 in a vision, or a dream, that is, while the prophet 
 was awake or asleep, the organs of sense were sus- 
 _ pended, the appearance was generally parabolical 
 and mysterious, and the words which accompanied 
 it, were dark sayings, which often were not to be 
 explained for an appointed time. In this case also, 
 the prophets were frequently filled with such dread 
 and amazement, that even their health was injured 
 by what they heard and saw. Dan. viii. 27. But 
 **the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, asa 
 man speaketh unto his friend.’? Exod. xxxiii. 11. 
 The revelations made to him were clear and distinct, 
 so that it has ever been much easier to understand his 
 writings than most of those of the other prophets. 
 He beheld ‘¢ the similitude of the Lord,’’ (Exod. 
 xxxiv. 6. 29.) until his face shone, and he was 
 was obliged to put a veil on it, when he spake to 
 the people. These honors were well suited to the 
 important office of Moses. But the other prophets 
 also spake and wrote as they were moved by the 
 Holy Spirit; in their visions and dreams, it was 
 ** the Lord who spake to them.’’ Now, whatever 
 God is pleased to communicate, must be equally 
 certain, whether conveyed by intimate converse, 
 by an audible voice from a distance, by dreams and 
 visions, or by the internal information of the Holy 
 Spirit.—To undervalue any of the sacred books en- 
 hances not the worth of the rest, and it may pro- 
 ceed from prejudice against particular parts of 
 divine truth. If some of them be obscure, they are 
 nevertheless faithful and true. Nor is the obscurity 
 impenetrable. The darkest saying is a revelation ;_ 
 and that which, for a time, was only intended to 
 
8 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 rouse attention, expectation, and awe, may have 
 come to be so illustrated by other revelations, and 
 by the course of subsequent events, as to be plain 
 and instructive to the meanest capacity. 
 
 In the next place, we remark, that the sacred 
 books of the Jews have superseded the use of 
 oral tradition. In the earliest ages of the world, 
 the memory of divine communications, as well as 
 that of all remarkable events and transactions in 
 the history of mankind, was transmitted to posterity 
 by means of verbal recitation. This method of 
 preserving it was sufficient, while revelations were 
 short and few in number, while the life of man 
 was long, and while patriarchs of a chosen race 
 could transmit the knowledge of them by domestic 
 instruction. But when both the revelations and the 
 people who received them, were greatly multiplied, 
 when a code of laws was given to a nation, when a 
 government of God was established in Israel, the 
 annals of which were to be published to the world, 
 and recorded for an example to posterity to the end 
 of time, it pleased God to direct his inspired ser- 
 vants to commit his oracles to writing. This im- 
 portant era in the divine dispensations, ought ever 
 to be remembered with gratitude and joy. Without 
 enquiring whether the writing of the Ten Com- 
 mandments with the finger of God, was the origin 
 of letters, and the model to mankind of alphabetical 
 writing, or whether the Books of Moses were the 
 first in the world, we may safely afirm that writing 
 was then made, and has ever since continued te be, 
 ‘the means which God has appointed and: blessed, 
 for perpetuating the memory of his wonderful pur- 
 poses and dispensations in behalf of his people.— 
 How completely are the Jews distinguished from all 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 9 
 
 other nations, by the authentic history which they 
 possess, of their origin, and of the most remarkable 
 events of their subsequent progress, as well as by the 
 predictions which regard their future lot! If, indeed 
 the revelations of God had not been thus secured, 
 the means of religious knowledge would soon have 
 been inferior to those of the knowledge of ordinary 
 affairs. For no sooner did writing become gener- 
 ally known, than it was used for records of every 
 kind; and how strange would it have been, if the 
 fables, and crimes, and speculations of heathens 
 had been thus transmitted to after ages, while the 
 history, the laws, and the oracles of the sacred na- 
 tion had no other monument than a transient and 
 _treacherous succession of impressions on the human 
 memory—no other channel of communication than 
 the fleeting sounds of the human voice! Miracles 
 could, indeed, preserve any thing, in any way ; 
 but God works not miracles without a suitable oc- 
 casion. The Books of Moses have accordingly 
 transmitted all the oral traditions of the patriarchs 
 which it was the will of God to preserve; and none 
 of the sacred books acknowledge any oral traditions 
 of posterior date. 
 
 To those Jews who have been accustomed to 
 think otherwise on this subject, we beg leave to 
 suggest the following observations. 
 
 First, Moses wrote a history of divine revelations 
 from the beginning of the world; he also wrote all 
 the laws which were given to him at Sinai; and he 
 directed his writings to be preserved and read, as 
 containing all that was necessary for the instruction 
 of the people. ‘* And Moses wrote this law, and 
 delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi, 
 which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 
 
 | 
 
10 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses com- 
 manded them, saying, At the end of every seven 
 years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in 
 the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come 
 to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place 
 which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law 
 before all Israel in their hearmg. Gather the peo- 
 ple together, men, and women, and children, and — 
 thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may 
 hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord 
 your God, and observe to do all the words of this 
 law; and that their children which have not known 
 any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord 
 your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye 
 go over Jordan to possess it:”? Deut. xxxi. 9—13. 
 A similar charge is given, verses 19—22, concern- 
 ing the song which was to be a witness for God 
 against the children of Israel. And, at the 24th 
 verse, it is said, “ It came to pass, when Moses 
 had made an end of writing the words of this law 
 in a book until it was finished, that Moses com- 
 -manded the Levites, which bare the ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of 
 the law, and put it on the side of the ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there 
 for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, 
 and thy stiff-neck: behold, while I am yet alive 
 _ with you, this day ye have been rebellious against 
 the Lord; and how much more after my death!”’ 
 Secondly, No notice is taken, in any of the sa- 
 cred books, of any law given at Sinai, except that 
 which is recorded in the five Books of Moses. The 
 last of these has been called a second law, or a re- 
 capitulation of the law, and it is the only Mishna 
 which is acknowledged in the Holy Scriptures. In 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 1] 
 
 - all references to the law, it is evidently the written © 
 Jaw of Moses that is intended. Thus, in Deut. vi. 
 6—9, *‘ And THESE WORDS WHIcH I comMaNnD 
 THEE THIS DAY, shall be in thine heart.. And 
 thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, 
 and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in 
 thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
 and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
 up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon 
 thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between 
 ‘thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the. 
 posts of thy house, and on thy gates.’ It was by 
 the written law, that the king was to regulate his 
 conduct. ‘* And it shall be, when he sitteth upon 
 the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write unto 
 him a copy of this law in a book, out of that 
 which is before the priests, the Levites ; and it shall 
 be with him, and he shall read therein all the days 
 “of his life.” Deut. xvii. 18. Observe also the 
 charge of David to Solomon. ‘I go the way of 
 all the earth : be thou strong, therefore, and show 
 thyself a man; and keep the charge of the Lord 
 thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, 
 -and his commandments, and his judgments, and 
 his testimonies, AS IT IS WRITTEN IN THE LAW 
 or Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that 
 thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself ; 
 that the Lord may continue his word which he 
 spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take 
 heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with 
 -all their heart, and with all their soul, there shall 
 not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of 
 Israel.”’? 1 Kings 11. 2—4. In like manner, Je- 
 hoiada appointed ‘* the offices of the house of the 
 Lord by the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom 
 
12 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to 
 offer the burnt-offerings of the Lord, as 1T 1s 
 WRITTEN IN THE LAW OF Mosgss.”’ 2 Chron. 
 xxiii. 18. Again, in the history of Josiah, it is 
 said, ** Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, 
 and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and 
 all the abominations that were spied in the land of 
 Judah, and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that: 
 he might perform the words of the law, which were 
 WRITTEN IN THE Book that Hilkiah the priest 
 found in the house of the Lord. And like unto 
 him was there no king before him, that turned to 
 the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, 
 and with all his might, accorp1ne6 To ALL THE 
 LAW OF Mosrs ; neither after him arose there any 
 like him.’’ 2 Kings xxili. 24, 25. Thus also prays 
 Daniel: ‘“* Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy 
 Jaw, even by departing, that they might not obey. 
 thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, 
 and the oath that is WRITTEN IN THE LAW oF 
 Moszs, the servant’ of God, because we have 
 sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his 
 words which he spake against us, and against our 
 judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great 
 evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been 
 done, as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is 
 WRITTEN IN THE LAw oF Moskss, all this evil is 
 come upon us.” Dan. ix. 11-13. To the samé 
 purpose speak the sacred writers, after the captivity. 
 ** Then stood up Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and 
 his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of 
 Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of 
 the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings thereon, 
 AS IT IS WRITTEN IN THE Law OF MoSEs, THE 
 MAN OF Gop.” Ezra ii. 2. See also a particular 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 13 
 account of the manner in’ which’ the’ people were 
 instructed, by reading and interpreting the book of 
 the law, Neh‘ viii. 18. : 
 _ Where the writing, or the book of’ the law is not 
 expressly mentioned, the written law’must neverthe- 
 less be meant, because it is the only one, of the 
 giving of which’ we have’ any account in Scrip- 
 ture. It was' for breaking this law that the prophets 
 80 frequently reproved' the people; atid it is the same 
 which Malachi, the last of the prophets, refers to, 
 when he says; * Remember ye the' law of Moses 
 my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb 
 for all Israel, even the statutes and the judgments.” 
 Mal. ivi 4. @ aie: pay 
 Thirdly, The prophets who followed Moses, 
 committed to writing both the history of Israel and 
 their own’ predictions. Accordingly the Books of 
 Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, are justly 
 ranked among the writings of the prophets, as well 
 "as those which are more directly prophetical. No- 
 thing appears to have been entrusted’ to mere me- 
 mory and rehearsal. -If any part of revelation could 
 have been sufficiently secured by oral tradition, it 
 would probably have been the Psalmsand the Proverbs, 
 which may be thought to resemble the songs of the. 
 bards, and the maxims of the Druids, in other coun- 
 tries, which are said, in this manner, to have been 
 transmitted from one generation to another. But 
 even these were collected, copied out,” and 
 added to the sacred books. The consequence Is, 
 that we possess them still, and they are published 
 throughout the world, while the songs and the 
 maxims referred to, have been buried in oblivion. 
 Fourthly, It is admitted by those Jews who con- 
 tend for the authority of étal traditions, that there 
 ¢ 
 
 ae 
 } 
 
14 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 was a necessity at last, for committing them to 
 writing. But did not a similar necessity exist be- 
 fore, whell the prophets, and priests, and kings, 
 and people were so frequently and generally cor- 
 ‘rupted, when the ten tribes were dispersed, or when 
 the Jews were carried away captive to Babylon? If 
 it be alleged that the. necessity did not occur till 
 the last and greatest dispersion took place, would 
 not God, who knoweth things to come, have pro- 
 vided against it beforehand, and have caused the 
 oral traditions, if there were any, to have been 
 -added to the Scriptures, while the gift of inspiration 
 continued among his people? It is said, that Ezra 
 collected and revised the sacred books. How un- 
 likely, then, is it that the recording of an oral law, 
 a much more difficult task, should have been in- 
 trusted to the Sanhedrim? Much, indeed, has 
 been said of their sanctity and wisdom, but it has. 
 
 prophets. Besides, how did the necessity, which 
 1s acknowledged, of committing the oral law to 
 writing, at last appear? It must have been by 
 remarking the corrupt state, into which the tradi- 
 tions, which it contained, had fallen. With all 
 their partiality for those traditions, the Jews must 
 have become sensible, that they had not been trans- 
 mitted with uniform and complete accuracy ; that 
 they were contradictory, or defective, or enveloped 
 in obscurity; and that the attention which was 
 paid to ety, was likely to decrease. What, then, 
 must they be now that they are recorded? At ‘em 
 fragments of uncertain authority, and snatched from 
 oblivion by the industry: of uninspired men. 
 
 Lastly, The oral traditions, were they from the 
 same author with the igien law, would exactly 
 
 | 
 
 not been maintained that they were equal to the — 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. | 15 
 
 correspond with it. But is this the case? Do 
 they resemble it even in simplicity, purity, and 
 dignity of style ? Are they not inconsistent with it 
 in many most important particulars, although they 
 are said to have been given along with it? Many 
 proofs have been repeatedly given of these incon= 
 sistencies. Our object is to excite to serious inquiry, 
 rather than to gain a victory in the way of disputa- 
 tion. On this account, we merely suggest a few ques- 
 tions, and beg that Jews will compare their Talmud 
 with the holy Scriptures, and judge for themselves. 
 If it shall appear, on examination, that they are 
 unlike each other, it will no doubt be thought a 
 suspicious circumstance, that so much stress should 
 be laid on oral traditions, and that Jews should be 
 taught to listen to them rather than to the law. 
 Why should so much be said for this in the writings 
 _ of the rabbis? The very eagerness with which oral | 
 - traditions have been extolled, and the harsh things 
 which have been said against those who abide by 
 the authority of the Scriptures alone, may well 
 excite the jealousy of a serious mind. The story 
 of an oral law is totally unsupported by the writings 
 of Moses and the prophets ; and while no reason 
 can be conceived, why God should have given one 
 law in writing, and another in words, a very plain 
 one will occur why men may have an interest in 
 alleging that this has been done. If they have 
 come to entertain sentiments, and to adopt prac- 
 tices, different from those recommended. in the 
 written law, while at the same time, they would 
 seem to respect it, the pretext that there is another 
 law of equal authority and antiquity, but trans- 
 mitted merely in words, furnishes the most inex- 
 haustible resources for evading what is contained in 
 
16 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 the Scriptures. The ‘traditions appear to have 
 generally originated in the errors of ignorance and 
 superstition. When they were at last committed 
 to writing, it would be extremely easy to model 
 them still more completely to fayour the prejudices 
 which might happen then to exist. And now they 
 are so voluminous, so rarely to be met with, so little 
 Known to the world at large, or even to the gene- 
 rality of Jews, that the deference which is paid to 
 them, puts every thing in the power of teachers. 
 What may they not pretend to draw from such an 
 authority ? A more convenient and more powerful 
 engine of policy it is impossible to conceive. With 
 the report of a high antiquity, the undoubted 
 suffrage of many generations, and the impressions 
 of early education, and of popular attachment in its 
 favour, it may be difficult even for the most intelli 
 
 gent Jews wholly to remove its influence from their. 
 
 minds. But in proportion to the greatness of its 
 pretensions, ought to be the evidence which sup- 
 ports them ; and if it be not only unknown to their 
 sacred books, but inconsistent with them, lect 
 Jews seriously consider which they ought to aban- 
 don. Will they adhere to the books which have 
 been supported by miracles and prophecy, which 
 they have in their own hands, and which they can 
 themselves peruse for their own instruction, or to 
 those which contain merely what is alleged to 
 
 have been said of old time by the elders, which | 
 
 are seldom to be met with, the contents and mean- 
 ing of which must, be taken upon trust from men, 
 whese prejudice and interest may lead them to de- 
 ceive. | | 
 
 In the third place, we remark, that the sacred 
 books of the Jews contain a revelation to the people 
 
 os? 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 17 
 
 at large. The men, the women, the children, and 
 the strangers, were to be gathered together to hear 
 the law of Moses read to them. David composed 
 his psalms for the whole congregation, and was 
 therefore called “ the sweet Psalmist of Isracl.?? 
 Because Solomon ‘¢ was wise, he still taught the 
 people knowledge.’’ Eccles. xii. 9. The prophets. 
 addressed the people as well as the rulers. ¢* Ezra 
 the priest, brought the law before the congregation, 
 both of men and women, even all that could hear 
 with understanding.’ Ezra, viii. 2. And the Lord 
 hath said, ** To this man will I look, even to him 
 that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth 
 at my word.”’ Isaiah, Ixvi. 2. The Jew who be- 
 lieves this gracious declaration, will feel it equally 
 his duty and privilege * to search the Scriptures.’’ 
 He will read them not merely in the public worship 
 of the synagogue, and at home to his. family, but 
 ' by himself, for his own edification. He will read 
 with serious attention, and earnest prayer, saying, 
 with the Psalmist, ‘* Open thou mine eyes, that I 
 may behold wondrous things out of thy law. T 
 am a stranger in the earth; hide not thy comimand- 
 ments from me.” Psalm cxix. 18, 19. He will 
 delight in an cxercise which he finds to be so pro- 
 fitable, saying, as in verses 97—100, “* O how 
 love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. 
 Thou, through thy commandinents, hast made me 
 wiser than mine enemies; for they are ever with 
 me. I have more understanding than all my 
 teachers ; for thy testimonies are my meditation, 
 T understand more than the ancients ; because I 
 
 keep thy precepts.”” | 
 It is of particular importance to recommend it 
 to Jews to read every part of the sacred books, and 
 Cc 2 
 
18 AUFHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 to read them regularly throughout. We make this 
 remark, on account of the irregular, desultory, and 
 indotipléte manner in which the Scriptures are read 
 in the service of the synagogue. The law is read 
 regularly, in sections, from beginning to end, but 
 not the prophets. One day, a passage is ap- 
 pointed from Isaiah ; the next, a passage from one 
 of the Books of Kings, from Ezekiel, or Judges, or 
 Malachi, or Joshua. This practice may have been 
 introduced under the notion of selecting from the 
 prophets, passages which may be calculated to illus- 
 trate the lesson of the law, which is read in course. 
 Certainly it is a most excellent method to compare 
 
 one part of Scripture with another. But this se- 
 
 lection of detached portions of the prophets, as a 
 commentary on the law, however useful in itself, 
 
 is by no means, a sufficient attention, in public. 
 
 worship to those sacred books. The prophets 
 ought surely to be read in order, and from end to 
 end, as well as the Jaw ; whereas, according to the 
 present regulations of the Jewish service, they are 
 1ever read with any regularity, anda very great propor- 
 tion of them is never read at all. Hence some of the 
 most interesting and remarkable passages of the pro- 
 phets are never brought into view. It is, perhaps, 
 impossible to calculate the unhappy consequences of 
 this arrangement. Is there not reason to believe that 
 ~ many Jews know hittle more of their Bible than what 
 they liear read in public worship? Even of those 
 who read it privately, many may be led to neglect 
 or undervalue the parts which are neglected in the 
 synagogue. Let every Jew ask himself, if he has 
 with serious attention, read the whole of the Bible, 
 Need he’ wonder that he should find himself mis- 
 taken as to the meaning of many of the prophecies, 
 
 4 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ~ 419 
 
 if he has not used the most obvious means of 
 making himself acquainted with them ? May it not 
 also be a fit subject of enquiry, whether in making _ 
 so unequal an ‘arrangement respecting the public 
 reading ‘of the Scriptures, the Jewish teachers have 
 not betrayed a disinclination to call the attention of 
 the people to the whole counsel of God? When 
 men show any unwillingness to encourage an ac- 
 quaintance with any part of Scripture, the ex- 
 planations which they may offer of that part, will 
 be received by every prudent enquirer, with pe- 
 culiar caution. ahve 
 
 We conclude with the words of David—** The 
 law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul : 
 the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
 simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, re- 
 joicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord 
 is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the 
 Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of | 
 ‘the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More 
 to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much 
 fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the honey- 
 comb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned ; 
 and in keeping of them there is great reward,’ 
 Psalm xix. 7—11. 
 
20 j , SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 NUMBER III. 
 
 t 
 
 Scope of the Law and the Prophets. —Character 
 of God. | ; 
 
 ALTHOUGH the sacred books of the Jews are 
 numerous, written by different men, at different 
 periods, and contain a great variety of matter, in a 
 great diversity of style, they are all perfectly con- 
 sistent and harmonious. They are given by the 
 inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, and are intended 
 to contribute to the same grand design. They 
 form a regular and an ascending series of revelations 
 respecting one glorious plan which is intimated at 
 first with comparative obscurity, but is gradually 
 opened, illustrated, and amplified. This plan is, 
 indeed, -represented in those writings, as only ad- 
 vancing towards the state of completion ; but so 
 far as it there has advanced, the leading features are 
 displayed, and it will greatly assist us in understand- 
 ing each individual part, if we endeavour to take a 
 comprehensive view of the whole. 
 
 We shall begin with collecting a few particulars 
 concerning 
 
 _ The Character of God. 
 
 To understand the plan delineated in the holy 
 Scriptures, it is necessary that we attend with the 
 deepest reverence to the information which they 
 give us. of Him who is the Author of it. The 
 character of God is a subject far above the reach of 
 human discovery ; but God is able to reveal himself. 
 to man. He hath been pleased to do so in various 
 ways, and especially in his holy word. One great. 
 
 os 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. Qi 
 
 object of all the Law and the Prophets is, to make 
 manifest the perfections of God for the happiness 
 of those to whom that manifestation is made. 
 
 Let us search the Scriptures, then, on this un- 
 speakably awful, yet engaging subject. It is of the 
 highest interest, surely, to man, who was made in 
 the image of God, and to Jews in particular, who 
 were separated from the rest of the world to fies the 
 peculiar people of God. 
 
 The simplest view which the Scriptures -¢ eive us 
 of our heavenly Father, seems to be the a Pa 
 
 ~ declaration that he is ‘* one God.”’ This declaration 
 
 leads us to distinguish between the only living and 
 true God, and the many pretended gods of the 
 heathen. Most of the heathen have acknowledged 
 one god as superior to the rest, but we learn from 
 _ the holy Scriptures, that the true God is one, so 
 as to exclude every other claim to deity, Hence 
 the prohibition of the First bptamanamen ten: Thou 
 shalt have no other gods before me.’’ The declara- 
 tion respecting the unity of God, leads us also to 
 distinguish between God and creatures. A peculiar 
 unity belongs to God, as the Supreme Being, .30- 
 vereign and unchangeable in all his purposes, essen- 
 tially love; ever blessing, .and ever blessed. No 
 such unity belongs to creatures: every creature is 
 subordinate, and has equals, or has superiors, or 
 _inferiors, in a limited degree; every creature is 
 changeable and fallible. A creature may be con- 
 ceived to exist, although he may have lost that 
 rectitude and- A daca and that amiable benevo- 
 lence, with which he may have been originally 
 endowed. He may exist, and yet cease to love. 
 He may exist, and yet cease to be happy. His 
 very mind may be divided against itself, But none 
 
 = 
 
29 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of these things can be said of the one God. His 
 unity is altogether unparalleled. To him no one is 
 equal or like; no created order, no created individual 
 can be compared to the divine unity. It is of im- 
 portance to add, that all our conceptions of an unit, 
 as the root of numbers, or of a number as an agere- 
 gate of units, are totally inapplicable to this peculiar 
 case. Any thing, therefore, like arithmetical rea- 
 soning, on the declarations of Scripture as to the 
 unity of God, whether intended to explain or to 
 perplex, whether for the purpose of objection or for 
 that of solution, must be unwarrantable and er- 
 roneous. On these principles, we assent to the 
 doctrine of that Jewish creed in which they are 
 taught to say, “I believe with a firm and perfect 
 faith, that God is one; there is no unity like his.” 
 And we request that-people to remember, that the 
 duty which results from this doctrine, is to love 
 God with undivided, supreme affection. Hear, 
 O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And 
 thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy might.’? Deut. vi. 
 4, 5. ; 
 
 It may also be gathered from the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures, that God is immaterial, or that he is a Spirit. 
 We are led by Scripture to believe, that God is im- 
 material, because by matter we understand the sub- 
 stance. or extended body of creation, which is 
 declared in Scripture, to be the work of God. We 
 distinguish, therefore, between the Creator and the 
 creature. We are led to the same conclusion, by 
 the doctrine that God is every where present. This 
 essential immateriality of God makes it impossible | 
 for man to form any suitable image of him, even in 
 his mind. The imagination can only imitate and 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 23 
 
 combine things which have been presented to the 
 senses. But God is not obvious to the senses ; every 
 attempt therefore of man, to form a visible represent- 
 ation of God, tends to draw the mind from him to 
 some part of his creation. It discovers enmity to God, 
 and a disposition to worship and serve the creature 
 more than the Creator. Hence the prohibition of the 
 Second Commandment— Thou shalt not make 
 unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any 
 thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth 
 beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou 
 shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them : 
 for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children upon 
 the third and upon the fourth generation of them 
 that hate me: and showing mercy unto thousands 
 of them that love me, and keep my command- 
 ments.’ When God appeared to Israel at Sinai, 
 they saw no manner of similitude. His presence, 
 indeed, was necessarily indicated by material signs, 
 for no’ other could have been perceived. Hence 
 the pillar of cloud and fire, the thunders, and hight- 
 nings, and smoke of the mountain. But still the 
 people were taught to distinguish between himself 
 and the tokens of his presence. What is. said of 
 the divine appearance to Elijah, may perhaps be 
 applied to all those appearances. ‘* Behold the 
 Lord passed, by, and a great and strong wind rent 
 the mountains, and brake in:pieces the rocks before 
 the Lord; dut the Lord was not in the wind: ahd 
 after the wind an earthquake; ut the Lord was 
 not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a 
 fire ; bué the Lord aas not in the fire.’ 1 Kings, xix. 
 11, 12. As God was pleased sometimes to give 
 sensible signs of his presence, so, in speaking of 
 
 ¢ 
 
hod 
 
 Q4 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 himself, he sometimes uses similitudes, taken from 
 the nature which he hath given to us, that he may 
 make the information conveyed more plain to our 
 minds. Thus we read of ‘the face of God,’’ 
 his “ mighty hand,’ and .his outstretched arm.” 
 We must always remember that such phrases are 
 entirely figurative, and’ merely a lively way of ex- 
 pressing the divine interpositions. In the sacred’: 
 books, indeed, there are accounts of some appear- 
 -ances of God, which, as we shall see afterwards, in- 
 dicate that the divine nature was to be one day 
 manifested in an union with the nature of man. 
 But to be united with another nature is not to be 
 identified with it. The union which we allude to, 
 however wonderful, is by no means inconsistent 
 with the doctrine of the unity or the immateriality 
 of God; for the united natures are not confounded ; 
 and because they remain distinct, the properties of 
 each are preserved. The belief of the immateriality 
 of God 1s calculated to preserve us from entertain- 
 ing low and degrading thoughts of him, to raise our 
 affections above sensible objects and gratifications, 
 and to awaken our attention to the value of the in- 
 terests of the spiritual part of our own nature. That, 
 therefore, is a true and important Jewish creed 
 which saith, “I believe, with a firm and perfect 
 faith, that God is not corporeal, he cannot have any 
 material properties, and no corporeal essence can 
 be compared with him.’’ 
 
 The Jewish Scriptures further inform us that God 
 is eternal. Language possesses no epithet proper 
 for the purpose ; but when the word eternal is ap- 
 plied to.God, we are taught that he is without 
 beginning and without end. In the beginning, 
 God not only existed, but gave existence to the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, _ 95 
 universe. In the end, God will not only exist, but 
 will judge the world, and give everlasting effect to 
 his decisions. What is the beginning of time, 
 but the divine work of creation? What is the 
 duration of time, but the divine work of Providence, 
 including the redemption of man? What js the 
 end of tinte, but the divine work of judgment ? ’ 
 What is it which is utterly independent of time, 
 but the existence of the Divine Being? Thus, ac- 
 cording to another Jewish creed, “ God js the 
 ginning and end of all things.’’? The eternity of God 
 implies that he is necessarily existent and self-exist- 
 ent, the sure foundation of confidence, the continual 
 refuge, the never-failing source of life and ‘felicity 
 to his people.—All these views of God appear to be 
 concentrated in his peculiar name, JeHovaAn. 
 ** God said unto Moses, I am THAT I am: and he 
 said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 
 I'am hath sent me unto you. And God said more- 
 over unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the 
 children of Israel, Jentovan the God of your fa- 
 thers, the God: of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 
 the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this is 
 my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto 
 all generations.’? Exod. iii. 14,15. The revelation 
 of this name was a remarkable encouragement to 
 Moses and the children of Israel, when Pharoah 
 increased their tasks in the land of Egypt. See 
 Exod. vi. 2—8. But the references to this name, 
 in the sacred books, are innumerable. We may 
 well adopt the admiring and triumphant language 
 of the Psalmist, ““O Jehovah our Lord, how excel- 
 lent 2s thy name in all the earth who hast set thy 
 glory above the heavens.” Psalm viii. 1. Our 
 help ts in the name of Jehovah, who made heaven 
 
 D 
 
96 - SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 and earth.’’ Psalm cxxiv. 8.—or the exhortation 
 of the prophet, when he says, “* Trust ye in Je- 
 hovah for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is ever- 
 lasting strength.” Isaiah, xxvi. 4. The eternal 
 God was declared by Moses to be the refuge of 
 Israel, (Deut. xxxill. 27.) and if the posterity of 
 Israel will only put their trust in him, and hearken 
 to his word, they have no reason to despond. 
 «« Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, 
 ‘My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is 
 passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, 
 hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Je- 
 hovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 
 fainteth not, neither is weary?) There is no search- 
 ing of his Daler tani Gaes He giveth power to the 
 faint; and to them that have no might, he in- 
 ser asciti strength. Even the youths shall faint 
 and be weary, and the young men shall utterly 
 fall. But they that wait upon Jehovah shall re- 
 new their strength:.they shall mount up with 
 wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, 
 wat they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah, xl. 
 27-—31. 
 
 Finally, God is infinite in wisdom, power, holi- 
 ness, justice, goodness, mercy, and truth. The 
 infinity of God seems to follow from his eternity. 
 In the material world, indeed, the displays which 
 he hath given of his perfections, however vast, are 
 of a limited nature, for the universe itself must 
 have its boundaries ; yet these boundaries are so 
 ample that we cannot explore them, nor, so much 
 as conceive their extent. We, therefore, very pro- 
 perly call them immense. When we think, how-. 
 ever, on the Creator, we are conscious that 
 even the immense work of creation cannot be com.- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 97 
 
 pared to him. We may examine it, to assist us in 
 forming more exalted conceptions of God, but we 
 are continually reminded that we ought to go be- 
 yond it, although our inability to conceive the im- 
 mensity of the one, teaches us our inability to 
 conceive the infinity of the other, “© Canst thou 
 by searching find out God? Canst thou find out 
 the Almighty unto perfection? I¢ is as high as hea- 
 ven, what canst thou-do? deeper than hell, what 
 canst thou know? The measure thereof is Finke 
 than the earth, and broader than the sea.”’? Job, x1. 
 7—9. But in the word of God, and in those works 
 of providence which his word itlgtiaiees: we have a 
 more direct display of infinite perfections.: For. 
 this let us look to the moral law ; to the promises 
 made to the fathers; to the Boindl dispensations of” 
 God towards his Hanke ; to the assurances which 
 are given of love from everlasting to everlasting, 
 like God himself’, and of eternal life prepared for 
 his people, in virtue of the work of Messiah. 
 The term infinite, is applicable to the existence 
 of God, and to every perfection of his nature. That 
 this is the case with regard to the divine unity, 
 immateriality, and eternity, is manifest from what 
 has already been stated. We mention the infinity 
 of God here, in connection chiefly with his moral 
 perfections, because it distinguishes them from 
 those faint and limited resemblances of them, which 
 may be found in creatures. By the moral per- 
 fections of God, we understand those, which he 
 particularly displays in the government of his in- 
 telligent creatures ; according to which he reculates 
 their practice ; ; and which he’enables and. requires 
 them, in some measure, to imitate, in their’sub- 
 jection to his government.—We ‘shall enter the 
 
28 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 more largely ito this part of the subject, because 
 much is said on it im the holy Scriptures, while it 
 is hardly noticed at all in the Jewish creeds. 
 
 First, God is infinite i Wisdom. | This attribute 
 implies knowledge, and the right application of it. 
 God knoweth all things. ‘* Great is our Lord, 
 and of great power: his understanding 1 is infinite.” 
 Psalm cxlvii. 5. Our knowledge is very small, 
 even of things present. Our remembrance of things 
 past is short and perishing, and as to the future, 
 however anxiously we may wish to explore it, we 
 are totally unable to make the least discovery. But 
 God neither forgets the past, nor is ignorant of the 
 future. He npacth all things from, eternity to 
 eternity. He knoweth not only the behaviour, but 
 the hearts of, men. ‘* For his eyes are upon the 
 ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is. 
 no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the 
 workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” Job, 
 XXXIV. 21, 22.» “* The Lord seeth not as man 
 seeth ; for man looketh on the, outward appear- 
 ance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.’?. 1 Sam. 
 xvi. 7. ‘* I the Lord search the heart, I try the 
 reins, even to give every man according to his ways, 
 and according to the fruitof his doings.”’ Jer. xvii. 10. 
 What awful declarations are these! We are always 
 in the presence of an omniscient witness, who is 
 also an omniscient judge. We are happy to ac- 
 knowledge that this truth is explicitly maintained 
 in the Jewish creeds. ‘* I believe with a firm and 
 perfect faith, that God knoweth all the thoughts and 
 actions of men.”’—*¢ I believe with a firm and per- 
 fect faith, that God will reward the works of all 
 those who perform his commandments, and punish 
 those who transgress his commandments.’’ The 
 
 “ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ag. 
 infinite knowledge of God is a thought so dreadful: 
 to those who love him not, that their boldness in. 
 sin is supported by a fond persuasion, that no such 
 knowledge exists. ‘* Wherefore doth the wicked 
 contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou” 
 wilt not require if. Thou hast seen it, for thou. 
 beholdest mischief and spite to requite 2¢ with thy 
 hand.” Psalm x. 13, 14. But the people of God 
 adore his infinite Kandnaleitiee and pray that he may 
 display it in their complete sanctification. “ Search 
 me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and. 
 know my thoughts. And see if there le any wicked 
 way in me, ahd lead me in the way everlasting.” 
 Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. 
 
 But Wisdom dita titet the right use of nawwtedes, 
 for the conception and the accomplishment of worthy . 
 purposes. Creation and Providence alike manifest 
 this adorable attribute. “ The Lord by wisdom 
 hath founded the earth ; by understanding: hath he » 
 established the ave By his knowledge the 
 depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down 
 dew.” Prov. ii. 19, 20. “ O Lord, how manifold 
 are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them 
 all: the earth is full of thy riches.”” Psalm civ. 24. 
 But the Wisdom of God is displayed, with peculiar 
 lustre, in the government of intelligent creatures, 
 in baffling the designs of his enemies, and saving 
 his people. ‘* He disappointeth the ovis of the 
 crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their en- 
 terprize. He taketh the wise in their own crafti- 
 ness; and the counsel of the froward is carried 
 headlong. T hey meet with darkness in the day- 
 time, and grope’in the noon- day as in the night. 
 But he saveth the’poor from the sword, from their 
 mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. So the 
 
 D a 
 
. { 
 30 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.’’ 
 Job, v.:12—16. 
 
 Since God is infinite in Wisdom, we may expect 
 that he will accomplish his purposes in ways, which 
 are above our comprehension. If events, which 
 have been announced in prophecy, appear, when 
 they happen, to be in many circumstances different 
 from what we previously supposed, we ought not 
 to be stumbled on that account. When the ac- 
 complishment of prophecy is sufficiently evidenced, 
 astonishment, or even disappointment and vexation, 
 at the manner of it, can be no apology for unbelief. 
 <¢Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or 
 being his counsellor, hath taught him? With 
 whom teok he counsel, and who instructed him, 
 and taught him in the path of judgment, and 
 taught him knowledge, and showed to him the 
 way of understanding ?’’ Isaiah, xl, 13, 14. **My 
 thoughts are not your thoughts, neither ave your 
 “ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens 
 are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher 
 than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts.”’ Isaiah, lv. 8, 9. | 
 
 -That God is infinitely Wise, is atruth, which may. 
 not only intimidate the workers of open wickedness, 
 but may convince all men, of the vanity of outward 
 appearances and professions of godliness, where 
 the heart is not in unison with the tongue. ‘* Be- 
 ‘hold thou desirest truth in the imward parts.” 
 Psalm li. 6. From the sacred books there is reason’ 
 to think that the children of Israel have been very 
 prone to hypocrisy, and to a self-righteous con- 
 fidence, in the observance of religious ordinances, 
 while their general practice has been glaringly in- 
 consistent with the genuime fear and Joye of God. 
 
 / 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 31 
 
 This is declared to be very highly offensive to the 
 all-seeing Jehovah. Their hypocrisy is, indeed, 
 threatened with such a confounding of their coun- 
 sels, and such a blasting of their prosperity, that if 
 they shall appear to have ever fallen into a spirit of 
 infatuation, and to have hastened, aggravated, and 
 prolonged their own miseries, it may well be con- 
 sidered as an accomplishment of prophecy, ‘* Where- 
 fore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw 
 near me with their mouth, and with their lips do 
 honour me, but have removed their heart far from 
 me, and their fear towards me is taught by the 
 precept of men: therefore behold, I will proceed to 
 do a marvellous work amongst this people, even, a 
 marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of 
 their wise men shall perish, and the understanding 
 of their prudent mem shall be hid. Wo unto them 
 that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, 
 and their works are in. the dark, and they say, Who 
 secth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your 
 turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as 
 the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him 
 that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing 
 framed say of him that framed it, He bad no un- 
 _ derstanding ?”? Isaiah, xxix. 13—16. We beseech 
 Jews to consider, bow far these reproofs and threat- 
 nings are still applicable, and whether they are not 
 awfully verified. We readily admit that hypocrisy 
 is the fruit of that depravity which is common, 
 naturally, to all mankind ; and we would earnestly 
 call the attention of both Jews and Gentiles, when, 
 in opposition to the ruinous counsels of men, they 
 are invited to listen to the wisdom of God.—In one 
 passage that Wisdom is personified in so remarkable 
 
 a manner, that many have thought it to be a pro- 
 ) 
 
32 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 phetical representation of the character of Messiah. 
 ‘* The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his 
 way, before his works of old. Iwas set up from 
 everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth 
 was. Then I was by him, as one brought up with 
 him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always 
 before him : rejoicing in the habitable part of his 
 earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. 
 Now, therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children : 
 for blessed are they that ani my ways.’ ’ Prov. viii.” 
 22, 23. 30—32. | 
 Secondly, God is infinite in Power. He is the 
 
 Creator of all things, and there is nothing, which. 
 he cannot do, to effect his purposes, to controul 
 his enemies, and to save his people. Though not 
 properly of the class of moral perfections,; we men- 
 tion the power of God in this connection, because: 
 we here treat of it chiefly as it supports. the faith 
 and hope of his saints. God ‘* appeared unto 
 Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name 
 of God Almighty,’ (Exod. vi. 3:) and it was their 
 knowledge of this divine name, which encouraged 
 them’ under all their trials. ‘* When Abram 
 was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared 
 to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty 
 God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And 
 T will make my covenant between me and thee, and 
 will multiply thee exceedingly.’? Gen. xvii. 1, 2. 
 When Isaac sent away Jacob, his words were, 
 *¢ And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee 
 fruitful, and mult iply thee, that thou mayest bea 
 rivwlbiaede of people: and give thee. the blessing of 
 Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou 
 mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, 
 which God gave unto Abraham,’? Gen. xxviil. 3, 4. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 33 
 
 Accordingly when God blessed Jacob, and gave 
 him the name of Israel, he confirmed his promises ~ 
 by the same declaration of his power. ‘* God 
 said unto him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful 
 and multiply ; a nation and a company of nations 
 shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy 
 loins. And the land which I gave Abraham and 
 Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after 
 thee will I give it.” Gen. xxxv. 11, 12, See also 
 Gen. xlvili. 3, 4.—On account of his power, our 
 heavenly Father is also called “ the Lord God of 
 Hosts.’”? This name seems to refer to his power 
 over the sun, moon, and stars, (see Deut. iv. 19.) 
 and also over the angels. ‘* Thou, even thou, art 
 Lord alone ; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of 
 heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things 
 that are therein, the seas and all that zs therein, 
 and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven 
 _ worshippeth thee.”? Neh. ix. 6. ‘* I saw the Lord 
 sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven | 
 standing by him, on his right hand and on his left,’” 
 1 Kings, xxi. 19. 
 
 This glorious attribute of power4s an impregnable 
 defence to all who put their trust in God. ‘* He 
 that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, 
 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, I 
 will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, and my 
 fortress : my God, in him will I trust.’’ Psalm xci. 
 
 "1, 2. The safety which the Lord’s people enjoy, 
 Pcohes them gratitude to their protector. ¢ I will 
 love thee, O Lord, my strength.”? Psalm xviii. 1. 
 On the other hand, itis a solemn warning, ‘* Despise 
 not thou the chastening of the Almighty. »? Job.v. Lis 
 What a dreadful expression is that respecting the 
 wicked !—*¢ His eyes shall see his destruction, and 
 
4 ° SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” 
 
 Job, xxi. 20. Similar are the words of the pro- 
 phet—* Alas for the day ! for the day of the Lord 
 is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty 
 shall it come.”’ Joel, i.15. The importance of 
 being reconciled to God is strongly urged in the 
 book of Job, from the consideration of his power. 
 “<* Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: 
 
 thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I 
 
 pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his 
 words in thine heart. If thou return: to the Al- 
 mighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put 
 iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou 
 lay up gold as ‘dust, and the gold of Ophir as the 
 stones of the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be 
 thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver. 
 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the AJ- 
 mighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God,” 
 Job, xxii. 21—26. 
 
 Thirdly, God is infinite in Sotidtse,’ that is, in 
 opposition to sin. ** Art thou not from everlasting, 
 O Lord my God, mine holy one? Thou art of 
 purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look 
 on iniquity.”” Hab. i. 12, 13. ‘* Who is like 
 unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like 
 thee, glorious in holiness, fearful im praises, doing 
 wonders ?”? Exod. xv..11. When Isaiah saw the 
 Lord sitting upon a throne, and the Seraphim stand- 
 
 ing above it, he says, ‘‘ One cried unto another, © 
 and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts ; 
 
 the whole earth zs full of his glory.”’ Isaiah, vi. 3. 
 The holiness of God is the reason why his people 
 
 must be holy. When he was about to take Israel 
 
 into covenant with himself, he saith, ‘ Ye shall 
 be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy na- 
 
 @ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 35 
 
 tion. Exod. xix. 6. Again, “ Ye shall be holy : 
 for I the Lord your God, am holy.” Lev. XIX. 2 
 God is very frequently called in Scripture, ‘ the 
 holy One of Israel ;’’? and this name gives peculiar 
 emphasis to every sentiment with which it is con- 
 nected. How strongly does it expose the enormity 
 of sin! “* Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, 
 and limited the holy One of Israel.’’ Psalm Ixxvi. 
 41. How awfully does it intimate the danger of 
 the rebellious! ‘* They have provoked the holy 
 One of Israel unto anger.” Isaiah, i. 4. What a 
 triumphant reply is that which was given to Senna- 
 ~eherib ! “ Whom hast thou reproached and blas- 
 phemed >? and against whom hast thou exalted thy 
 voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? Even 
 against the holy One of Israel.’’ Isaiah, xxxvil. 23. 
 How powerfully does this name confirm every pro- 
 mise! ‘ For I am the Lord thy God, the holy 
 One of Israel, thy Saviour.’’ Isaiah, xl. 3. “ No 
 wonder that the prophet exclaims, ‘ Cry out and 
 shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the 
 holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” Isaiah, xii. 6. 
 The holiness of God appears in the holy law, 
 which he hath given to his people. This law 
 consists of moral commandments, as well as of cere- 
 monial institutions, and no punctuality of attention 
 to the latter can make men righteous, while they 
 are chargeable with the breach of the former. God 
 requires us to love him with all our hearts, -and to 
 depart from’ all iniquity both in heart and life. 
 ‘Surely such a law as this is calculated to convince 
 every man of sin, and to show that we can never 
 justify ourselves before God. ** Who.can say, I 
 have made my heart clean, I am pure from my 
 sin??? Prov, xx. 9.  ‘* What is man, that he 
 
36 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, 
 that he should be righteous ? Behold, he putteth no 
 trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean 
 in his sight. How much more abominable and 
 filthy ts man which drinketh iniquity like water !”’ 
 Job, xv. 14—16. The Lord looked down from 
 _ heaven upon the children of men, to see if there 
 
 were any that did understand, and seek God. They 
 are all gone aside, they are al/ together become 
 filthy: there ts none that doth good, no not one.” 
 Psalm xiv. 2, 3. Even the ancient people of God 
 were taught by Isaiah to say, (and may not their 
 children adopt the same language?) ‘* We are all 
 as an unclean thing, and all our nghteousnesses 
 are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and 
 our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” 
 Isaiah, Ixiv. 6. 
 
 The holiness of God appears also in the redemp- 
 tion which he hath promised his people. There 
 is a redemption spoken of in Seripture, - besides 
 the redemption from the land of Egypt. ‘* He 
 shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”? Psalm 
 cxxx. 8. As the captivities of Israel were caused 
 by sin, their restorations were to be accompanied 
 with sanctification, and there is a sanctification 
 spoken of by the prophets, which is much more 
 spiritual and complete, than any that took place at 
 the return from Babylon. ‘I will take you from 
 among the heathen, and gather you out of all coun- 
 tries, and will bring you into your own Jand. Then 
 will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall 
 be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all 
 your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also 
 will I give you; and a new spirit will I put within - 
 you, and I will take ‘away the stony heart out of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. | 37 
 
 your flesh, and I wili give you an heart of flesh, 
 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you 
 to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
 ments, and do them.’’? TEzek. xxxvi. 2497. 
 
 The holiness of God is illustriously displayed: in 
 his love to the holy. When God made man up- 
 right, he placed him in the garden of Eden. And 
 although when man sinned, he was expelled from 
 that delightful abode, and doomed to die; yet there 
 is a holy one of God,” of whom David sings, who 
 should die, indeed, but not see corruption, and be 
 speedily received into the Paradise of God. It is 
 manifest that these things could not be intended 
 of David himself, for he both died, and was buried, 
 and remained in his sepulchre. Although he 
 speaks, therefore, in the first person, we must think 
 of a greater than David, when he says, “ Therefore 
 my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh 
 also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave 
 my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine 
 holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me 
 the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy, 
 at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” 
 Psalm xvi. 9—11. E | 
 
 Fourthly, God is infinite in Justice. He will re- 
 quire, and he will render, in every case, what is due. 
 “* He is the rock, his work és perfect: for all his 
 ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without 
 iniquity, just and right is he.’ Deut. xxxii, 4, 
 
 This awful attribute is displayed in the punish- 
 ment of sin. ‘ To me belongeth vengeance and 
 recompence, their foot shall slide in due time: for 
 the day of their calamity zs at hand, and the things 
 that shall come upon them, make haste.’? Deut, 
 xxx. 35.“ God judgeth the righteous, and God 
 
38 : SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 isangry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, 
 he will whet his sword ; he hath bent his bow, and 
 made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the 
 ‘instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows 
 against the persecutors.”’ Psalm vil. 11—13. “ For 
 Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the King it is 
 prepared, he hath made i¢ deep and large: the pile 
 thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the 
 Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” 
 Isaiah, xxx. 33. The destruction of the old world 
 by the flood; and of Sodom, Gomorrah, and all 
 the cities of the plain, by fire; the plagues of Egypt; 
 and the extirpation of the Canaanites ; are all tre- 
 mendous proofs of the justice of God. May we 
 not say the same, of the many calamities, which 
 have befallen the Jews? This, their fathers fully 
 acknowledged, with regard to the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity. ‘* Now, therefore, our God, the great, the 
 mighty, and the terrible God, who keepeth cove- 
 nant and mercy ; let not all the trouble seem little 
 before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, 
 on our princes, and on our priests, and on our 
 prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy peo- 
 ple, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto 
 this day. Howbeit thou aré just in all ‘that is 
 brought upon us ; for thou hast done right, but we 
 have done wickedly.’ Neh. ix. 32, 33. Surely, 
 similar language may be used by them, in this long 
 and dreadful state of exile and dispersion, which 
 they now experience. It would be a token for good, 
 if their © hearts should be humbled, and they 
 should accept of the punishment of their iniquity.” 
 Lev. xxv. 41. 
 
 In regard to the punishment of sin, God is called 
 ‘© a consuming fire, even a jealous God.’’ Deut. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 39 
 
 iv. 24. It is said, that he “ will by no means hold . 
 iniquity, transgression, and sin, guiltless ; but visits 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and 
 upon the children’s children, upon the third, and 
 upon the fourth generation.’? Exod. XXXIV. 7. 
 These successive generations must be understood as 
 alike sinful. As it is expressed in the second com- 
 mandment, they are ** generations of them that 
 hate God.” Where the contrary happens, God 
 will verify his declaration by the prophet, ‘© When 
 the son hath done that which is lawful and right, 
 and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, 
 he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it 
 shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of 
 the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity 
 of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall 
 
 be upun him, and the wickeducss uf the wicked 
 shall be upon him.’’ Ezek. xvii. 19, 20. The 
 meaning, then, of the expressions mentioned above, 
 seems to be, that though God may forbear long, | 
 he will not suffer sin to pass unpunished. As there 
 is an awful progress in wickedness, when it con- 
 tinues for generations, so there is an awful accu- 
 mulation of punishment, when that wickedness is 
 visited with judgment. The expression, ‘* fourth 
 generation,’’ used to denote the utmost period of 
 forbearance, may have been an allusion to the state 
 of the Canaanites, the divine judgments on whom 
 the Israelites were soon to execute. Abram had 
 been told that his posterity should not inherit the 
 land until the fourth generation, because the ini- 
 quity of the Amorites should not, till then, be full. 
 Gen. xv.16. The Israelites in the wilderness were 
 aware, that this period was now come. They were, - 
 therefore, at once encouraged to the enterprise, and 
 
40 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 taught by the example which God was about to 
 make. The punishment of the fourth generation 
 was dreadful when it came. But since that time, 
 has not sin often gone on increasing, for a much 
 longer period? What can be expected in such a 
 case, but a punishment. proportionably more tre- 
 -mendous ! : : 
 
 One instance of divine justice is of so remarkable 
 a nature, and is so essentially connected with the 
 salvation of sinful man, that it deserves very par- 
 ticular consideration., We mean, the punishment 
 of sin in the person of Messiah. It will afterwards 
 appear, that the Scriptures are very full of this sub- 
 ject. At present, we shall cite only one passage. 
 {t is long, but we shall insert it at large, because 
 
 it 1s not introduced among the lessons from. the 
 prophutos im the survice of the oynayuyUut.e “* Surely 
 
 he hath borne our griefs, and carried our SOITOWS 3 
 yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, 
 and afflicted. But he was wounded for our trans 
 gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the 
 chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with 
 his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have 
 gone astray : we have turned every one to his own 
 way, and the Lord hath laid om him the iniquity 
 of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, 
 yet he opened not bis mouth: he is brought as a 
 lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her 
 shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 
 He was taken from prison and from judgment: 
 and who shall declare his generation? for he was 
 cut off out of the land of the living: for the trans- 
 gression of my people was he stricken. And he 
 made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich 
 im his death, because be had done no violence, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. i 41 
 
 neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased 
 the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief : 
 when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
 he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, 
 and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his 
 hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and 
 shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall. my 
 righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear 
 their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a 
 portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil 
 with the strong; because he hath poured out his 
 soul unto death; and he was numbered with the 
 transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and 
 made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah, liti. 
 4—1]92, E 
 The justice of God is also displayed in the nature 
 of Messiah’s kingdom, ‘* Thy throne, O God, is 
 for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is. a 
 right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and 
 hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath 
 anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
 fellows.’’? Psalm xlv. 6,7, ‘ 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 Father of the everlasting age, the Prince of 
 Peace. Of the increase of Ais 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 
 henceforth even for ever: the zeal of the Lord of 
 Hosts will perform this.’ Isaiah, ix. 6, 7. 
 
 Besides the evidences of divine justice which 
 may ‘be observed or, experienced among men in 
 this life, there will be a full revelation of it in the 
 
 EQ 
 
49 “SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 final’ and general judgment of the world. This 
 solemn transaction, however dreadful to others, is 
 welcomed by the people of God. Its approach 
 has long since been celebrated with a sublimity due 
 to its importance. ‘* Let the ‘sea roar, and the 
 fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell 
 therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the 
 hills be joyful together, before the Lord; for he 
 cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness 
 shall -he judge the world, eit the people with 
 equity.’? Psalm xevin. 7—9. 
 
 Fifthly, God is infinite in Goodness; that is, in 
 kindness to his creatures. This attribute is dis- 
 played in Creation and Providence. ‘* The Lord is 
 good to all.”” Psalm cxlv. 9. It is eminently dis- 
 played in the favour which God showeth his peo- 
 ple, and in his patience with them. Hence he 
 saith to Moses, ‘* I will make all my goodness 
 pass before thee ;’? Exod. xxxil. 19. and ac- 
 cordingly he proclaims, as part of his name, 
 *¢ long-suffermg, and abundant in goodness.” 
 
 The goodness of the Lord is a frequent theme of 
 praise in Scripture. “ O how great ts thy good- 
 ness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear 
 thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust 
 in thee, before the sons of men!’? Psalm xxxi. 19. 
 << © taste and see that the Lord zs good: blessed 
 js the man thaé trusteth in him.” Psalm xxxiv. 8. 
 «© O that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
 ness, and for his wonderful works to the children of 
 men.” Psalm cvii. 8. 
 
 Notwithstanding all their calamities, Jews have 
 encouragement to hope for much from the re- 
 vealed goodness of God.“ Hear the word of the 
 Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar 
 
| 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 43 
 
 off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather 
 him, and keep him, asa shepherd doth his flock. 
 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed 
 him from the hand of him that was. stronger than 
 he. Therefore they shall come and. sing in the 
 height of Zion, and shall flow together to the good- 
 ness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for 
 oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: ; 
 and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and 
 they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall 
 the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men 
 and old together: for I will turn their mourning 
 into joy, and will comfort them, and make them 
 rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the 
 soul of the priests with fatness, and my people 
 shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.”’ 
 Jer. xxxi. 10—14, How remarkably do the fol- 
 lowing words describe the present state of the 
 Jewjsh people, and the happy change which shall 
 at last take place among them! ‘¢The children of 
 Israel shall abide many days without a king, and 
 without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and 
 without an image, and withoutan ephod, and with- 
 out teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of 
 Tsrael return, and seck the Lord their God, and 
 David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his 
 goodness in the latter days.’’ Hos. til. 4, 5. 
 Sixthly, God is infinite in Mercy—that adorable 
 perfection which pities and relieves the miserable. 
 In the good and righteous government of God, 
 none are miserable but those who deserve to be so. 
 The objects of mercy are, therefore, the guilty, 
 those who, in another view, are obnoxious to jus- 
 tice. Hence it is that the exercise of mercy is a | 
 peculiar display of the grace or free favour of God. 
 In no case is it due to the creature; it is the effect 
 
44 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of the sovereign good pleasure of God. “I will 
 proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and 
 will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and 
 ‘will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.’ 
 Exod. xxxiil. 19. It is of unspeakable importance to 
 keep this truth always in mind, because, by the 
 divine blessing, it will humble us to the dust before 
 God; will make us gladly receive the divine revela- 
 _tion of mercy for our own salvation, and will pre- 
 vent us from murmuring at es of the ways of 
 God to man. 
 
 We have an awful illustration of the sovereignty of 
 God, as to the exercise of mercy, in the case of those 
 who remain in the guilt and misery into which they 
 
 -have fallen, and are monuments of the justice which 
 is executed upon them. This 1s the state of those an- 
 gels who rebelled against God. It is the state of those 
 also, of the children of men, who lived in sin, till 
 they were driven away in their wickedness. ‘* There 
 are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast 
 down, and shall not be able to rise.’’ Psalm xxxvi. 
 12. -Now, dreadful as such a condition is, who 
 shall say, that those who are in it, have received | 
 what is not the due reward of their deeds, or that 
 they have the smallest claim for a different des- 
 tination? No! ** Thou art justified when thou 
 speakest, and clear when thou judgest.”’ Psalm li. 4. 
 _ On the other hand, free favour is revealed to the 
 guilty children of men in a way which is perfectly 
 consistent with divine justice. Those who believe 
 this revelation, receive it with joy and gratitude, 
 and while they enjoy the benefit of it, are ever 
 ready to acknowledge their utter unworthiness. 
 ‘‘ Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
 name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s 
 sake.’? Psalm cxv. 1. ‘* If thou, Lord, shouldst 
 
\ 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 45 
 
 mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But 
 there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be ~ 
 feared. Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the 
 Lord ‘there ts mercy, and with him 7s plenteous 
 redemption. And he shall -redeem Israel from all 
 his iniquities.”” Psalm cxxx. 3, 4. 7, 8 
 
 In Scripture it is emphatically said of God, that 
 sie delighteth i in mercy.” Accordingly this elorious 
 attribute is the first mentioned in the proclamation 
 of his name The Lord, the Lord God, merciful 
 and gracious.’’ It is also there particularly ex- 
 plained. ‘“* Keeping mercy for thousands; for- 
 giving, but by no means holding ¢uiltless, iniquity, 
 and transgression, and sin.”? ‘The clause ‘* keep- 
 ing mercy for thousands,’’ strongly expresses the 
 
 divine delight in mercy. They are ‘* thousands,” 
 not of individuals, but of generations, that are here 
 
 meant. This appears from the corresponding lan- 
 guage in the Second Commandment, where also 
 we see a kind of proportion stated between the 
 comparatively rare visitations of judgment, and the 
 never-ceasing instances of that mercy which en- 
 dureth for ever:—‘* Visiting the iniquity of the 
 fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon 
 the fourth generations of them that hate me: and 
 showing mercy unto thousands (we must supply as 
 before) of generations of them that love me, and 
 keep my commandments.”? Exod. xx. 5,6. These 
 truths were confirmed to the children of Israel by 
 the institution of ‘* the mercy-seat,’’? and of the 
 manner of approaching and sirinkling it with the 
 blood of sacrifice. 
 
 How wonderful is it that the infinitely holy and 
 just God should thus be pleased to save sinners ! 
 Well might Israel be called upon to make it the 
 
46 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 burden of their song—** O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for 
 ever.’’ Psalm cxxxvi. 1. Since his mercy endureth 
 for ever, there is still encouragement to draw near 
 to him, although the mercy-seat be long since 
 lost. ** Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, 
 call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked 
 forsake his way, and the unrighteous man_ his 
 thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and 
 he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for 
 he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are 
 not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, 
 saith the Lord.” Isaiah, lv. 6—8. Ought not 
 Jews to reply with the prophet, ‘* Who is a God 
 like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth 
 by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? 
 He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he de- 
 lighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will 
 have compassion upon us: he will subdue our 
 iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into 
 the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the 
 truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which 
 thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of 
 old.”’? Micah, vii. 18—20. 
 
 Seventhly, God is infinite in Truth. We are 
 taught to ascribe truth to God, in reference to the 
 revelations which he hath made, as an acknow- 
 
 —ledgment of their absolute certainty. Whether it 
 
 consist of promise or threatning, the word of God 
 must be fulfilled. To doubt this would be to sup- 
 pose him capable of falsehood. Here is the sin of 
 unbelief. When men do not receive any doctrine 
 which God hath interposed to sanction as proceed- 
 ing from himself, they offer the most direct insult 
 to his sacred veracity. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. . 47 
 
 Every revelation hath been attended by sufficient 
 evidence of the source from which it proceeded. 
 The inspired penmen were completely informed re- 
 specting the nature of the influence which they felt, 
 and their testimony will bear the strictest examina- 
 tion, Often did miracles accompany the original 
 delivery of the divine oracles, and the lapse of time, 
 which obscures all other records, illustrates and 
 confirms the holy Scriptures, by the continual ac- 
 complishment of the prophecies which they con- 
 tain. Such are the proofs on which the sacred 
 books of the Jews are entitled to belief. We 
 should be far from soliciting the reception of any 
 other, on any proof of an inferior or a different nature, 
 But they will surely allow, that if other writings 
 can be shown to possess the very same characters 
 of a divine original, they have the same claim to 
 the belief of mankind. 
 
 The infinite truth of Ged has ever been glorified 
 by his care to preserve his people from all uncer- 
 tainty as to his revealed will. Hence the wonderful 
 ways in which he appeared to the fathers. Hence 
 the confirmation of his promises to Abraham, by 
 a covenant and an oath. It was in consequence 
 of this covenant and oath that God redeemed Israel 
 out of Egypt, and made a covenant with them at 
 Sinat. ‘* The Lord did not set his love upon 
 you, nor choose you, because ye were more in 
 number than any people, (for ye were the fewest of 
 all people,) but because the Lord loved you, and 
 because he would keep the oath which he had 
 Sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought 
 you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you 
 out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of 
 Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that 
 
48 ) SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, 
 
 which keepeth covenant and mercy with them 
 that love him, and keep his commandments, to a 
 thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate 
 him, to their face, to destroy them: he will not be 
 slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to 
 his face.’’ Deut. vil. 7—10. 
 The history of the Jews 1s a very full illustration 
 of the truth of both the promises and the threatnings 
 in the word of God. Long have they been suffering 
 for their unbelief and dischedience; but let them 
 return to God, and they shall find that he is mind- 
 ful of the covenant and the oath which he sware to 
 their fathers. They are the children of Abraham 
 according to the flesh ; let them imitate him in his 
 faith, ‘* He believed in the Lord, and he counted 
 it to him for righteousness.’’ Gen. xv. 6. The 
 preservation of his posterity, as a distinct people, 
 amidst all their afflictions, is a signal proof of the 
 divine faithfulness, and a pledge of the merey which 
 shall yet be manifested to them. ‘* And yet for all 
 that, when they be in the land of their enemies, [ 
 will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, 
 to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant. 
 with them: for I am the Lord their God. But I 
 will for their sakes remember the covenant of their 
 ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of 
 _Eeypt, in the sight of the heathen, that I might be 
 their God: I am the Lord.’? Lev. xxvi. 44, 45. 
 While the truth of God is:an awful bi cslasaticth 
 spnithie wicked; against whom his. threatnings: are 
 directed, it is the joy and treble, of: his. own 
 : people 5, ; because the promises which :they beheve, 
 are express! ons at once of divine g goodness, merey, 
 and “nity these perfections are, in Seripture, 
 
 \ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 49 
 
 very frequently connected. Thus, Gen. xxiy. 27. 
 ** Blessed de the Lord God of my master Abraham, 
 who hath not left destitute my master of his 
 mercy and his truth.’”? Gen. xxxii. 10. * I am’ 
 not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of 
 all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy 
 servant.” Exod. xxxiv. 6, ** The Lord, the Lord 
 God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, ‘and 
 abundant in goodness and truth.” Psalm xxv, 
 10. ** All the paths of the Lord are mercy and 
 truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testi- 
 monies. Psalm xcviii. 3. * He hath remembered 
 his merey and his truth toward.the house of Israel: 
 all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of 
 our God, Psalm c. 4, 5. ** Enter into his gates 
 with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise : 
 be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For 
 the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and 
 his truth endureth to all generations.” ? 
 
 Thus have we endeavoured to state some part of 
 the doctrine of the sacred books, concerning’ the 
 character of God. We have classed together the 
 attributes of Wisdom, Power, Holiness, Justice, 
 Goodness, Mercy, and Truth, because much may be 
 learned from the consistency and harmony of these 
 attributes of the Divine Being. In doing so, we 
 have followed the example of Scripture in that re- 
 markable passage, which is so full of instruction on 
 the subject before us, that, although often quoted 
 already, in detached portions, we shall now intro- 
 duce it at large. ‘* Afnd the Lord passed by before 
 him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant 
 in goodness and truth ; keeping mercy for thousands; 
 forgiving, but by no means holding guiltless, inj- 
 
 : F 
 
50 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 quity, and transgression, and sin; visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
 the children’s children, upon the third, and upon 
 the fourth generation.”? Exod. xxxiv. 6,7. In the 
 holy Scriptures, our attention is particularly directed 
 to the united display of the divine justice and mercy. 
 Of so much importance is this view which God 
 hath given of his adorable character, that a right 
 understanding of it, will include a competent know- 
 ledge of the way of salvation. It will help us to 
 perceive the reason of the expulsion of our first pa- 
 rents from Paradise, and of their being nevertheless 
 preserved in the world; of the promise of Messiah ; 
 of the institution of sacrifice; of the faith of the 
 patriarchs and all the saints of God ; of all the di- 
 vine dispensations, whether of judgment or mercy, 
 towards his people; and indeed of the leading 
 events in the course of Providence to the world in 
 general. Such passages of Scripture as the follow- 
 ing, appear to be worthy the most serious consider- 
 ation of the Jewish people. ‘* I will hear what 
 God. the Lord will speak ; for he will speak peace 
 unto his people, and to his saints; but let them 
 not turn-again to folly. Surely his salvation is 
 nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in 
 our land. Mercy and truth have met together ; 
 ' righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”? 
 Psalm Ixxxv. 8—10. ‘* Justice and judgment 
 are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth 
 shall go before thy face. Blessed zs the people that 
 know the joyful sound ; they shall walk, O Lord, 
 in the light of thy countenance.” Psalm Ixxxix, | 
 14,15. Tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let 
 them take counsel together. Who hath declared 
 this from ancient time? Who hath told it from 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 51 
 
 that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is 
 no God else beside me, a Just Gop AND A Sa- 
 viour, there is none beside me. Look unto me, 
 and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I 
 am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by 
 myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in right- 
 
 eousness, and shall not return, that unto me every 
 
 knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely 
 shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and 
 strength ; even to him shall men come, and all that 
 are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the 
 Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and 
 shall glory. ’? Tsaiah, xlv. 21—25. 
 
 NUMBER IV. 
 
 Scope of the Law and the Prophets.—Creation of 
 the World.—Primeval state of Man. 
 
 In the foregoing section, we have mentioned a 
 few particulars concerning the character of God. 
 That adorable character is made known to us in 
 Scripture, not so much by abstract description, as by 
 a faithful account of his glorious works. The more 
 we study the Scripture account of the divine works, 
 the better shall we be acquainted with the divine 
 character. 
 
 The Bible opens with an account of the work of 
 creation—‘** In the beginning, God created the 
 heavens and the earth.’? The earth was, at first, 
 “¢ without form and void, and darkness was upon 
 
 the face of the deep ;”? but the mighty operation of - 
 illuminating, consolidating, and filling the world 
 
 with riches, was completed in six revolutions of 
 
 ~ 
 
52 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 night and day. It was’ not an inanimate, or a 
 merely animate creation, that answered the pur- 
 pose of infinite Goodness. After ample provision 
 was made forthe accommodationof a great inhabitant 
 and his posterity, the work concluded with the 
 creation of man. f 
 
 It cannot escape the notice of any reader, that 
 the account of the creation of man is introduced in 
 a manner altogether peculiar. We are not told that 
 God merely commanded man to be, and he 
 was ; which is the mode of speaking of other parts 
 of the creation; this work is preceded by language 
 proposing the accomplishment of a mutual harmo- 
 nious purpose, agreeably to which, the accomplish- 
 ment follows. ‘¢ And God said, Let us make man 
 in our image, after our likeness; and let him have 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
 of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
 earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
 upon the earth. So God created man in his own 
 image, in the image of God created he him; a 
 male and a female created he them.”’. Gen. i. 26, 27. 
 Perhaps angels were already in existence to listen to 
 the proposal here mentioned. Job. xxxviii. 7. It 
 may have been made at first, in their hearing, for 
 the sake of instructing them, just as it is recorded 
 in the Scriptures now, for the sake of instructing 
 us: but it is evidently no address to any creature ; 
 it can only apply to the Divine Being himself. 
 The most natural way of understanding it, seems to 
 be, to view it as arising from God’s peculiar delight 
 in this part of his plan. When we rejoice in our 
 designs, we sometimes utter them aloud, even when 
 alone. So God, rejoicing in this, above all the 
 works that he had yet done here below, said, ‘* Let 
 us make man in our image, after our likeness.”’ 
 
—ESES——= 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 53 
 
 Let it be observed that these words represent the 
 speaker as using the plural number; nor is it 
 merely the grammatical form of this sentence 
 which gives this representation. The declaration 
 itself imphies plurality, for it proposes the execu- 
 tion of a purpose which is mutual and harmonious. 
 At the same time, this purpose could belong 
 only to God, because it was a purpose to create, 
 a work peculiar to God; and to make the crea- 
 ture after the image of the Creator, the highest 
 possible pattern, even in the work of creation. 
 The image was confined to Deity ;. the making of 
 the creature in that image was confined to Deity; 
 and the proposal about the making of him was con- 
 fined to Deity. It would be absurd to suppose 
 that this proposal. should be made to the same per- 
 son who makes it. The language employed, then, 
 and the thing spoken of, equally lead us to inquire 
 after a plurality of persons which may be considered 
 as belonging to the unity of the divine nature. 
 Some light may be obtained for this inquiry, even 
 in the preceding context. We there read of the 
 Spirit of God moving, the word of God speaking, 
 the eye of God beholding the good work which 
 was wrought. At last, we read the proposal, that a 
 
 plurality should execute a mutual purpose. To 
 
 what can this proposal refer, but to, the threefold 
 revelation of the Divine Nature, which had aeesy 
 
 been made? 
 
 Before this explanation be:rejected, let it be com- 
 pared with others which have been offered... Some 
 say, that in the words under consideration, God 
 addressed the angels who had been previously 
 created. But did God propose to associate angels 
 with. himself, in the principal work of the sublunary 
 
 i pe | 
 
54 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 creation? Or, was their image capable of being 
 joined with his, as the model of the proposed work? 
 Is it ever hinted in Scripture, that man was made, 
 either wholly or in part, in the image of angels ? 
 How, then, can the Creator be understood to say 
 to them, “ Let us make man in our image ?””— 
 Others say, that God here spoke in the manner of 
 earthly kings, who use the plural number when 
 speaking of themselves. But have they also ad- 
 dressed proposals to themselves? Have they af- 
 fected to consult with themselves ? The assertion, 
 then, must fall to the ground, although the modern 
 language of royalty had been in use from the begin- 
 ning. This, however, is by no means the fact. 
 Such language, therefore, in such an acceptation, 
 would have been unintelligible for several ages after 
 it was recorded. To justify this kind of explanation, 
 instances in point should be produced: from the 
 writings of Moses, which contain speeches of various. 
 kings. But no such instances ean be found in all 
 the holy Scriptures. Abimelech, Pharaoh, and 
 Balak, all speak in the singular number, and Saul, 
 David, Solomon, Cyrus, and Nebuchadnezzar, 
 adhere to the same style. See Gen. xx. 9. Exod. v. 
 2.10. Num. xxii. 5, 6. 1 Sam. xiv. 24. 2 Sam. ii. 
 6, 7. 1 Kings, v. 3. and vill. 59. Ezra, i, 2. 
 Dan. iv. 2. - 
 ~ We intreat Jews not to be offended at these ob- 
 servations, which are intended to vindicate the 
 natural meaning of their own Scriptures. The 
 plurality of divine persons which we plead for, can- 
 not be inconsistent with the unity of the divine 
 nature, since both are intimated by the same au- 
 thority. Jews well know that the word rendered 
 God, is generally a plural word. Although un- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 55 
 
 questionably applied to the one true God, it cannot 
 be understood in the passage which we have been 
 considering, without acknowledging its plural signi- 
 fication. Many instances of a similar kind will 
 come under review in the course of these essays*. 
 Even where the unity of God is directly mentioned, 
 the plural word is not only used, but used so as to 
 show the consistency of its plural meaning with the 
 unity which is declared. ‘* Hear, O Israel, JEHOVAH, 
 our Eton (the plural word) is one JEHOVAH.” 
 Deut. vi. 4. The plural meaning of the word 
 ELouim seems evidently to be adverted to, and the 
 declaration of the unity of Jenova to be intended 
 to guard the Israelites from supposing that their 
 ExLourm were diverse and many, like the gods of 
 the heathen. It seems necessary, therefore, to 
 allow, that as the plurality of the ELonim is in- 
 cluded in the one JEHovau, so the one JEHOVAH 
 includes the plurality of the Evouim. This is the 
 only plurality in the Divine Nature, for which Chris- 
 tians contend, and which is, among them, com- 
 
 monly called the glorious Trinity. We have seen 
 
 eo 
 
 traces of it even in the Mosaic account of the 
 creation, and we shall meet with many intimations 
 of it, increasing in clearness, in subsequent parts of 
 the Law and the Prophets. ? 
 We are aware that Jews are, in general, very 
 hostile to the doctrine which we have now avowed. 
 But this is not the case universally. If they will 
 not hear us, let them listen to a brother of their 
 oF The Hebrew reader may observe the use of the plural word for 
 God, and its construction with plural verbs, adjectives, and pronouns, 
 in the following passages. Gen. iii. 22. xi. 7. xx. 13, xxxi. 53. 
 xxxv.7. Deut. iv. 7. Josh. xxiv. 19. 1Sam. iv. 8. 2 Sam. vii. 23, 
 Job, v1. Psalm Iviii. 12. cxtix.'2. Proveix. 10. xxx.3. Eccles. v. 7. - 
 
 xii. 1. Isaiah, vi. 3. 8. liv. 5. Jer. x. 10. xxiii. 36. Dan. iv. 5, 6. 19. 
 or vili. 9, 18. vii, 18. 22,25, Hos, xi. 12, Mal. i, 6. 
 
 va 
 
56 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 own, in the following passage* from the comment 
 of R. Simeon len Joachi. ‘ Come and see the 
 mystery of the word Elohim; there are THREE 
 DEGREES, and each degree BY ITSELF ALONE 5 
 and yet THEY ARE ALL ONE, and joined together in 
 ONE, and are not divided one from another.’’ 
 Comment on the Sixth Section of Leviticus. A 
 similar passage occurs in the Jewish book Zohar. 
 ** Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our Elohim, is one 
 Jehovah. They must know that these three. are 
 one, and that it is a secret which we learn by the 
 mystery of the voice that is heard: the voice is 
 one, but it contains three modes.’’ The acknow- 
 ledgment in this passage is the more remarkable, 
 as the work from which it is taken, was written 
 
 long after the extensive propagation of Christianity, 
 
 and consequently its author, or authors, were likely 
 to feel an antipathy against every resemblance to 
 Christian doctrines. The Chaldee paraphrases and 
 writings of Philo, not having been composed under 
 a feeling of that nature, contain numerous and 
 striking recognitions of the personality and deity of 
 Memra, the Word, the only begotten Son of God. 
 In all the intimations of Scripture, concerning 
 the Divine Being, there is a marked difference 
 between the trinity of the true God, and the poly- 
 theism of idolatry... In the latter, we find no unity 
 of any kind. The idols of the nations, while indeed 
 they are nothing but silver and gold, or stocks and 
 stones, are praféssedly as various as they are nu- 
 merous; various attributes are ascribed to them, ac- 
 cording to the dispositions and fancy of their deluded 
 votaries, They are often represented as having distinct 
 and even opposite interests, and as ot like 
 
 * My authority is the Eclectic Review for January, 1806. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. , 57 
 
 the nations which serve them, in open hostilities 
 with one another. 
 
 The nature, which God bestarans on man,"was 
 worthy of the peculiar manner, in which the account 
 of his creation is introduced. ‘* So God created 
 man in his own image, in the image of God created 
 he him: a male and a female created he them.’ 
 Gen. i.27. “* And the Lord God formed man of 
 the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living 
 soul.’”? Gen. ii. 7. Brow these accounts it ap- 
 pears, that God formed our material part out of the 
 dust of the ground, into an organized body. This 
 body was animated by a spirit, which was not 
 made, like the body, out of previously created mat- 
 ter, but breathed by “ the God of the spirits of all 
 flesh,”’ into the human frame. Man thus * be- 
 came a living soul :’” a being possessing life, and 
 capable of immortality. This compound being, God 
 created © in his own image, after his likeness.’ 
 Some consider the word rendered ‘* likeness’’ as 
 implying more than the word rendered ‘* image.’ 
 ‘‘ Image,” they say, expresses the general form or 
 delineation ; ** likeness,’’ the conformity or resem- 
 blance of the parts, (if they may be so called) both 
 of body and soul*. Others compare these words 
 in a different manner. The word rendered * image,”’ 
 according to them, signifies a just picture, or com- 
 plete representation, Lest this word alone should 
 be too strong to be applied to any creature, the ex- 
 pression is immediately softened by the word which 
 signifies, ** likeness,’’ or “‘ resemblance ;’’ and this 
 is rendered still more faint, by the prefixed prepo- — 
 sition, which signifies “* according to,’’ or ‘¢ in 
 
 * Parkhurst’s Lexicon on the words. 
 
58 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 some agreement with.’’ Man, therefore, was cre- 
 ated in the image of God; not indeed in the ex- 
 press and full image, but after the likeness, or ac- 
 cording to the resemblance, of that unequalled, Su- 
 preme Being *. We are not disposed to lay great 
 stress orf the comparative meanings of these two 
 words, because when the execution of the divine 
 purpose is mentioned in the following verse, (Gen. 
 1. 27.) one of them is thought snfidierit to express 
 the accomplishment of all that was proposed. But 
 certainly, we are taught, in the passages quoted 
 above, that, as by his body, Adam was allied to 
 the earth, and was to partake of its productions to 
 Hiebyike his animal nature; so by his soul, he was 
 allied to heaven, and was blessed with all the com- 
 municable attributes of Deity ; enjoying, in a de- 
 gree, such exccllences, as in God, are absolute and 
 perfect—wisdom, holiness, power, and immor- 
 tality. 
 
 The information that it was “¢ the Lord God, 
 who formed man out of the dust of the ground,” 
 may serve to refute the theory of a Jate Jewish com- 
 mentator,who attempts toaccountfor the expression, 
 *“* Let us make man,’’ by supposing that it was a 
 proposal addressed to the earth, or at least referring 
 to it, as if by some power with which it had been 
 endowed, it was to co-operate with the.Almighty 
 in the creation of man. His note is, indeed, hardly 
 consistent with itself ; yet itis curious, Lead shows 
 how difficult he found it was, to evade the force of 
 the words in question; Let us make man. “« It is 
 well worthy of observation,”’ says this writer, ** that, 
 although in the creation of all other creatures pre- 
 ceding man, the earth, or water, were commanded 
 
 ¥ See Kennicott’s Dissertation on the Tree of Life, 
 
 | 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 59 
 
 to bring hein forth ; yet, in the creation of man 
 it was otherwise : the creation of this superior 
 creature is ascribed to God himself. And, as to 
 the expression, LET US MAKE MAN, in tHe: plural, 
 it is, because the earth brought forth man into 
 existence, by means of the power vested in her, in 
 the same manner, as the production of other living 
 creatures ; and the Supreme Being, by means of his 
 influence, endued him with an intelligent soul: 
 hence, in regard of his material part, the produc- 
 tion of man, may be attributed to the earth; and 
 the spiritual and intelligent part of him to God. 
 This sense is quite agreeable to the text, * And the 
 Lord God formed man of ‘the dust of the ground, 
 and breathed into his nostrils the breath ue life, 
 and man became a living soul.’ chap. i i. FE Por 
 when God said, ¢ Let the earth bring forth the living 
 creature,’ the animal part of man was also included. 
 For this reason the plural is used, Let us make 
 man: for if it had been said, I will make man, or, 
 Let man exist, as it was said, Let there be light, 
 &c. It, might have been® understood, that the 
 earth did not produce him a living creature, i. e 
 consisting of matter; but that he was entirely spi- 
 ritual: and if it had been said, Let the earth bring 
 forth man, it would have afforded ample scope for 
 the materialist, in asserting the materiality of man, 
 in the same manner as the rest of the creatures 
 which the earth produced ; for which reason, the 
 expression, Let us make man, is made use of, in 
 order to convey a true idea of the matter ; which is 
 this: I and the earth will take man, as acom- 
 pound being, viz. His material part from the earth, 
 and his adstmals immediately from me. So that 
 we may justly say, that man is a compound creature, 
 
60 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of flesh and spirit, partaking both of heaven and 
 earth, consequently allied to both worlds.”’ Soes- 
 man’s Notes on Genesis, corrected and translated 
 by David Levi. 
 
 This author’s theory on the text, “ ban us make 
 man,’ is utterly irreconcileable with his own re- 
 mark, that the creation of man is ascribed to God 
 himself. It is the creation of the whole man, and 
 not of his soul only, which is thus peculiarly 
 ascribed to God ; nor is the earth any where called 
 
 upon to make, wes it is commanded to produce. 
 The theory is also irreconcileable with the text, 
 “‘The Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 ground.’ ’ The author asserts, indeed,withiconfidence, 
 that it is quite agreeable to this text ; but there is no 
 proof to support his explanation, ‘that when God 
 said, ** Let the earth bring forth the living crea- 
 ture,’’ the animal part of man was included. On 
 the contrary, that order was given, and executed, 
 and approved as good, before’ so much as the pro- 
 posal to make man was mentioned. See verses 24, 
 25,.26. The supposition, too, that if God had 
 said, I will make man, or Let man exist, as it was 
 said, Let there be light, &c. there might have been 
 a danger of imagining that the body of man was 
 not material, is absurd in itself, and Jeads to these 
 absurd inferences, that light is not material, and 
 that whatever God, in a similar way, commanded 
 to exist, may be also understood to be not ma- 
 terial. 
 
 Having created man in hig own image, God was 
 pleased to place him in a situation of authority, in 
 this lower world, which bore some resemblance to 
 his own universal government. But the creature 
 was not, like the Creator, to live and reign alone. 
 
 oC) 
 \< 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 61 
 
 ‘* A male and a female created he them. And God 
 blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and 
 _ multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it 3 and 
 have dominion over the ‘fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
 moveth upon the -earth.”” Gen. i. 27, 28. In this 
 blessing are to be included all the imaginable com- 
 forts and advantages of the progress of society, from 
 its origin in the family of our first parents to its 
 greatest possible increase in the population of a 
 world in which there was no sin, and no death. 
 As men multiplied, they were to subdue the inferior 
 creatures, until their empire should extend over all 
 the earth, and then to maintain universal empire 
 for universal benefit. Nay, they must have been 
 led to the institution of government also among 
 themselves. Marriage would occasion the djs- 
 tinctions of family, tribe, and nation. Even in the 
 state of innocence, the increase of the human race 
 would imply the existence, at least, of paternal 
 authority, and filial subordination ;\ and_ these 
 wourd become extensive and variously modified, in 
 proportion to the ever increasing relations of the 
 numerous progeny. f hae 
 
 While man was thus appointed to govern the 
 lower creatures, and even his own species, it was 
 fit that he should himself be made subject to the 
 government of God. The authority which he had 
 received, was entirely of a delegated and dependent 
 nature. God was graciously pleased to honor him 
 with verbal communications of his sovereign will, 
 His reason was, therefore, to be exercised and 
 proved, not merely by active employment about 
 created things, but by a practical] acknowledgment 
 of the duty of implicit obedience to the direct com- 
 
 G 
 
GO). ih SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 mand of the Creator. Accordingly his enjoyments - 
 were regulated by a divine grant and a divine pro- 
 hibition. ‘* The Lord God took the man, and put 
 him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to 
 keep it. And ine Lord God commanded the man, 
 saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 
 freely eat; ‘but of the tree of the knowledge of good 
 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day 
 that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” 
 Gen. il, 15—17. In the provision here said to 
 have been made for man, his Maker was most 
 bountiful ; in the annexed prohibition, he selected 
 a test of obedience the most reasonable and easy. 
 No moral precept could have answered the purpose 
 on this occasion. It has often been justly observed, 
 that as yet, there could be little opportunity for the 
 alischarge of moral duties. Besides, moral duties 
 recommend themselves to the reason of man by 
 their intrinsic. fitness, and their advantageous effects, . 
 as well as by the authority which enjoims them. 
 The discharge of such duties, especially when there 
 was no corruption to render the reason of man blind 
 to their excellence, would not have been, of itself, a 
 decisive proof of simple obedience to the will of 
 God. The law was, therefore, to regard some in- 
 different action, neither good nor evil in itself, but 
 so far only as it was Cuninittnelel or forbidden. 
 Although, then, it has often been made the subject 
 of ridicule, may we not boldly ask, what so natural, 
 what so suitable to the situation of our first parents, 
 (considering they were placed in a garden,) as for- 
 bidding them to eat the fruit of a certain tree in 
 that garden? The liberal grant of food was the ex- 
 tent of their liberty, this single limitation of it, the 
 test of their obedience. The tree of the knowledat 
 
 ~ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ; 63 
 
 of good and evil was so called, not because its 
 fruit would make the eaters of it more knowing, 
 as was afterwards falsely alleged, but because it was 
 now made the test of good and evil; the tree ‘by 
 which God was pleased to try mankind, and by 
 which it should appear whether they would be 
 ood or evil ; whether or not they would own the 
 sovereignty of their Maker, and obey, or disobey his 
 commands. The penalty, like the prohibition, 
 was remarkably suitable. Transgression of the law 
 of the Author of life, respecting the means of sup- 
 porting life, was to be punished with the loss of 
 life. The nature of this punishment may be 
 learned from the nature of the life which God had 
 bestowed on man. It surely was not confined to 
 the formation of his body out of the dust of the 
 ground, or to the breathing into his nostrils of the 
 breath of life. Neither should we value it properly 
 were we to think of its enjoyments as arising 
 merely from the productions of Eden, or from the 
 government of the world, and the society of his 
 kind. The life of Adam, in the most important 
 view of it, consisted in the enjoyment of a blessing, 
 as the subject of divine law. The loss, then, of this 
 life, must include not only the loss of Paradise, but 
 also, and chiefly, the loss of the favour of God; 
 the awful change from the blessed state of an obe- 
 dient subject, to the wretched state of a guilty 
 transgressor. The extent of such misery, and its 
 consequences, will more fully appear when we pro- 
 ceed to consider the remedy which was graciously 
 applied by God, after the penalty came to be in- 
 curred. If any be now disposed to. murmur at 
 what has been called the severity of this penalty, ~ 
 we must beg them: to remember, that He, who had 
 
64 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 aright to give the law, had a right to deterrnine 
 the penalty of breaking it. Creatures cannot, 
 without presumption, object to a penalty determined 
 by the Creator. Nor can the ‘mention of this pe- 
 nalty, as the determination of the Creator, be held an 
 objection to the credibility of Scriptures otherwise 
 attested to be given by the inspiration of God ; for 
 man cannot, in any case, pretend to fix what 
 punishment is due to the breach of a divine 
 law, and being, in this case, the culprit him- 
 self, he is peculiarly unfit to judge in his own ~ 
 cause. 
 
 The innocence of the original state of our first 
 _ parents is briefly, but significantly expressed in 
 these words :—‘* They were both naked, the man 
 and his wife, and were not ashamed.’”’ Gen. ii. 25. - 
 It appears from the sequel, that this ignorance of 
 Shame was purely the consequence of their igno- 
 rance of guilt. When they sinned, they became 
 conscious of shame, not only before each other, 
 but before God. While they continued in inno- 
 cence, therefore, their not being ashamed must be 
 referred to the presence of God, and their enjoy- 
 “ment of peace and fellowship with him, as well as 
 to their own mutual observation and intercourse. 
 
 The early part of revelation which we have now 
 been considering, is particularly worthy the atten- 
 tion of Jews. As it is their highest honor that the 
 oracles of God were committed to them, so it is an. 
 eminent proof of the divinity of those oracles that 
 they contain an authentic and instructive account 
 of the creation of all things, of the world which we 
 inhabit, and particularly of man. The intimations 
 which we have remarked to be here given, concern- 
 ing the personalities in the nature of the one God,’ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 65 
 
 in the account of his counsel. respecting the creation 
 of man, however contrary to opinions which, for 
 ages, Jews have been accustomed to entertain, will 
 be found to correspond with subsequent revelations 
 which the Almighty hath made of himself, as the . 
 God of salvation. Here, too, we see our original 
 dignity, as made in a resemblance to the divine 
 image, our happiness as blessed with tokens of the 
 divine favour, aud secured at first by the condition 
 of a divine law.. We see what we have lost by 
 sin, and what blessings must still be restored, if we 
 are ever to be delivered from its evil. What may 
 we not hope for from the goodness displayed by the 
 Lord God in the primeval state of man? It can be 
 no objection to the truth of these early intimations 
 that they are short and obscure; for they stand not 
 alone. They introduce to clearer and more enlarged 
 discoveries, by which they are themselves illustrated 
 and confirmed. 
 
 We shall conclude by citing two passages. from 
 the Psalms, which refer to the subject of this 
 section. In the first, we are taught, that as the 
 world had a beginning, so it shall have an end, 
 while the Being who created it, remaineth eternal. 
 Let the reader consider whether the passage do not 
 contain-an account of a prayer, and of the answer 
 of that prayer. The account of the prayer :-—* I 
 said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of 
 my days.’’ The account of the answer :— Thy 
 years are throughout all generations. Of old hast 
 thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the 
 heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall 
 perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them 
 shall-wax old, like a garment; as a vesture shalt 
 
 - thou change them, and they shall be changed, 
 G2 
 
a 
 
 66 - SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no 
 end. The children of thy servants shall continue, 
 and their seed shall be established before thee.” 
 Psalm cii. 24—28. See also Psalm xxi. 4—6. 
 In the second passage, David speaks not of the 
 creation, or original state of Adam, but of God’s 
 “‘ remembering an afflicted. man,” (Enosh) ; of 
 his “ visiting a son of Adam.” He celebrates 
 the exaltation of this son of Adam to the highest 
 dignity, in terms which allude to the blessings of 
 Paradise, but which were prophetical of what was 
 then future, though, as is common in the psalms 
 and prophets, they seem to speak of what was al- 
 ready past. ‘* When I consider thy heavens, the 
 work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which 
 thou hast ordained; what zs man, that thou art 
 mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou 
 visitest him ? For thou hast made him a little (or a 
 little while) lower than the angels, and_ hast 
 crowned him with glory and honour. Thou 
 madest him to have dominion over the works of 
 thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet , 
 all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 
 the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and 
 whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 
 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent és thy name in all 
 the earth |”? Psalm vin. 3—9. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 67 
 
 LN UMBER 2: 
 
 Soop of the Law and the Pr ophets Ei irsé ie 
 
 gression. 
 
 5 
 
 “ “i 
 
 TuE history of original j innocence is immediately 
 followed by that of original cuilt. A dismal change 
 had soon taken place in the state of man. Many 
 of the proofs of it may be learned from experience 
 and observation, as well as from Scripture; but 
 the Scripture account explains its cause, and pre- 
 pares us to understand the nature of the remedy 
 which God in mercy has been pleased to provide. 
 
 In the first place, it appears that temptation was 
 employed to lead eur first parents into the com- 
 mission of sin. It is, perhaps, impossible for us 
 to account for the origin of evil in the universe of 
 the God of infinite Goodness. Nothing is revealed 
 respecting the reason of it, but the fact is un-— 
 questionable. We are by no means to ascribe the 
 existence of evil to God, as its author, and are not 
 warranted to trace it further than to certain spirits 
 of angelic order, who early rebelled against God ; 
 have been doomed to punishment on account of 
 their rebellion ; but being permitted for wise pur- 
 poses to show, for a time, their malignity, are ever 
 endeavouring to injure the rest of the creation. 
 
 Over these one reigns as prince, who seems to be 
 distinguished, in the sacred books, by the name of 
 the Satan, or the Adversary. It was he who repeat- 
 edly appeared in the presence of God, as the accuser 
 of Job, and obtained permission to try him with ac-- 
 cumulated affliction. Job, i. 6. and il. 1. Perhaps 
 
68 SCOPE OF THE LAW. 
 
 it was he who * Stood up against Israel, and pro- 
 voked David to number Israel*.’’ 1,Chron. xxi. 1. 
 It was from him that Joshua was, in vision, de- 
 ‘livered, as Zechariah tells us. He showed me 
 Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel 
 of the Lord, and Satan Bade at his right band 
 to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, 
 The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord, 
 that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Js not 
 this a brand pluckt out of the fire??? Zech. ui. 1.2. 
 On the other hand, it is probably to him that a son 
 of perdition is delivered over, in that fearful pro- 
 phetic curse, ** Set thou a wicked one over him, . 
 and Jet Satan stand at his right hand. When he 
 shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his 
 prayer become sint.” Psalm cix. 6,7. In these 
 passages, a Tempter, an Accuser, a Destroyer, is 
 mentioned by name. In the account of the tempta- 
 tion of our first parents, the Serpent only is named; 
 for nothing is there stated but facts as they were 
 seen and heard. In considering the narrative, 
 however, we shall find reason to recard the serpent 
 as actuated by influence of a sinful nature. Such 
 influence, before the fall, cannot be ascribed to any 
 thing terrestrial. To whom can it be ascribed, with 
 so much propriety, as to the Satan, the Adversary ? 
 
 It was perhaps impossible for a created spirit to 
 hold intercourse with our first parents, without 
 some material medium. Such a medium, at least, 
 was best suited to the purpose of deception. Were 
 he even permitted, we have reason to think that. 
 
 * Here, however, the definite article is not used with the word Satan, 
 as in the preceding passages, and some, therefore, understand the word 
 indefinitely, and of a human adversary. 
 
 + The definite article i is likewise absent in this pa: ‘sage, but that cir- 
 cumstance is not to be so much regarded in poetry as in prose. , w 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 69 | 
 { 
 
 Satan would very seldom feel it his interest to ap- 
 pear in his proper person. His designs succeed 
 best when he is least seen in them. None serve 
 him better than those who utterly disbelieve his 
 existence. To conceal himself, therefore, to open 
 a communication without exciting suspicion, Satan 
 appears to have taken possession of the serpent. 
 It was the fittest instrument which could be se- 
 lected. No antipathy as yet existed between that 
 animal and man. To find it among the trees was 
 to find it in its ordinary situation. It ‘ was more 
 subtile than any beast of the field, which the Lord 
 God had made.”” Whether this subtilty could ren- 
 der the serpent more expert or not, in acting the part 
 which Satan intended, it would certainly serve to 
 keep the subtilty of Satan more completely out of 
 view. Adam had already given to the serpent a 
 name (Nahash) expressive of its sharp eye, its sub- 
 tile observation. -If we except, then, the single 
 circumstance of articulate speech, a remark from a 
 serpent was not likely to be much wondered at, 
 it was at least less likely to excite wonder, than such 
 a thing would have been from any other animal *. 
 Besides, the opportunity which was seized, and 
 the manner in which the conversation was begun, 
 were calculated to prevent wonder, even at the ar- 
 ticulate speech. The serpent is made to address 
 the woman, and that when her husband, to whom 
 alone the animals had been brought for inspection, 
 appears to have been absent. Theconversationis begun 
 in so very abrupt, and apparently so very accidental 
 a manner, that there could be no appearance of pre- 
 vious intention. The serpent had probably been 
 made to eat some of the ferbidden fruit in the pre- 
 sence of Eve, to which, when she heard him speak, 
 * See Milton’s Paradise Lost, hook 9th. line 91---96, 
 
10 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 if she reflected on it at the moment at all, she 
 might ascribe his acquiring the use of a new faculty. 
 Considering all these things, and remembering that 
 perhaps nothing in the animal world, was raore 
 amusing and engaging to Eve, than the attentions 
 of this hvely, keen, sagacious creature, watching 
 all her steps, following her from place to place, or 
 playfully and fondly endeavouring, as is common 
 with affectionate animals, to anticipate her motions, 
 to induce her by a thousand httle tricks to follow 
 him, and occasionally to bend towards her, as she 
 passed, a loaded branch which he thought likely 
 to please, how naturally are we led by the Scripture 
 
 narrative, to conceive the following scene : 
 
 The serpent springs forward to the forbidden 
 tree; he eats, and seems greatly delighted; he 
 offers it to his mistress, but she will neither taste | 
 nor touch. She evidently declines, however, from 
 no want of indulgent condescension to the fas- 
 cinating animal, but purely from a principle of re- 
 ligious awe. Instantly the serpent expresses sur- 
 prise, which is affected, although to appearance 
 very naturally excited by the occasion. ‘* Yea! 
 hath God said, ye shall eat of none of the trees of 
 the garden* ??? The words were artfully calculated 
 
 %* The negative should be thus construed’ with the adjective, which, 
 taken by itself, significs universality, and joined with the negative, sig- 
 nifies universal negation. The Hebrew scholar must be familiar with 
 this mode of construing. He will find instances in which it is requisite, 
 in the following passages. Exod. xii. 16. Lev, iii. 1%. Num. vi. 4. 
 and xiv, 23. and xxviii. 18, 25, 26. Prov. viii, 11.. Eccles. ii. 10. 
 Jer. xiii.'7. Ezek. xliv. 9. 31. Hab. ii. 19.--That the words in Gen. iii. 1. 
 should be explained as above, appears further from Eve’s answer, in 
 which she denies that there was any universal prohibition of the trees, 
 as the serpent’s language seemed to imply, and then states that a pro- 
 hibition had been given with regard to one of them; the one to wit, 
 her refusal of the fruit of which had probably been made the occasion 
 of the conversation, The tempter might purposely speak in an in- 
 correct manner, that he might seem to have no previous knowledge 
 that there actually was a divine prohibition, but to speak merelyrom 
 appearances. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. Tt 
 
 to inspire dissatisfaction. They insinuated to Eve, 
 that her abstinence looked as if she were restrained 
 from every thing. If she might not eat of the trees 
 of the garden, why had they been put into the gar- 
 den? Ifshe might eat of other trees, why not of this? 
 ‘Might a serpent eat of it, and must the governors of 
 the world refrain? Could such a prohibition be given 
 by God ?—Unconscious, however, of both the de- 
 ‘sign and the tendency of the question, she suffers 
 herself to be drawn into conversation. ** The woman 
 said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the 
 trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which 
 is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall 
 not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, dese ye die.” 
 Tt has been remarked of this reply, that it exaggerates 
 the strictness of the prohibition, by adding the 
 clause “ neither shall ye touch it.’? But there is 
 perhaps more refinement than justice in the remark. 
 Eve is not barely repeating the law; she is explain-, 
 ing her own view of the extent of her liberty, and 
 the rule of her duty, as to the trees of the garden, 
 To consider herself as forbidden to touch what she | 
 might not eat, was a safe mode of interpretation. 
 It is, however, a little suspicious to see her so 
 strongly expressing the import of the prohibition, 
 while she substitutes a softened phrase* respecting 
 the penalty. —RHere the tempter seems to discover 
 her weakness, for he fixes on this as the point of 
 attack. Having led her to an acknowledgment of 
 a divine prohibition, which he had only pretended 
 to suppose, and at the mere supposition. of which 
 * Jt must at the same time be allowed, that the word which is ren= 
 dered ‘* lest,”? may, like the English word into which it is translated, — 
 be resolved into ¢hat nol, simply meaning prevention: ‘* that ye may 
 
 not die.” No doubt is express¢d by this word, in such passages as 
 » Levy x. 7. Mal. iv. 6. 
 
72 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 he pretended astonishment, he now boldly denies 
 what she had faintly asserted, that there was danger 
 of punishment in case of transgression; afhirms that 
 the consequences would be of the most adyan- 
 tageous kind; and ascribes the prohibition to a con- 
 sciousness of this, on the part of God, as if he 
 wanted to conceal the qualities of a tree which him- 
 self had created, and were jealous of man, whom 
 he had graciously made ‘ in his own image, after 
 his likeness.’’ ‘* Ye shall by no means* die, for 
 God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then 
 your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, 
 knowing good and evil.’? The words contain an 
 artful allusion to the name of the tree. Now Eve 
 had not named it to the serpent, and being led to 
 imagine, from what had already past, that he had 
 all his information about the prohibition from her- 
 self, she would conclude that he must know that 
 name from some other source, and would consider 
 the circumstance as proof that the name signified 
 not the test of obedience, but the natural qualities 
 the fruit. Here, then, it was contrived to give to 
 the words of the tempter, a delusive appearance of 
 veracity, while the words of God were brought under 
 suspicion.—The tempter’s description of the effects 
 of eating the fruit is of the most seducing nature. To 
 persuade Eve that his words are true, he assumes a 
 -toneof the utmostconfidence. Hecontradicts the sen- 
 ‘tence in the very terms in which it had been uttered, 
 and seems to appeal even to God himself for the ac- 
 count which he is about to give, in opposition to it. 
 His words might be instantaneously proved, for what 
 
 x The phrase here, is exactly the same as in Gen. ij. 17. only with a 
 negative. It ought, therefore, to be explained with equal strength in a 
 
 negative sense. — . 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. a3 
 he promised should be fulfilled ‘* in the day they 
 should eat of’’ the tree. And how great a promise 
 must it have seemed! As if awaking out of sleep, 
 “¢ their eyes should be opened 5 ”? anew world would 
 be presented to their view; they should at last be 
 really *¢ as God.” It is the true God who is here 
 spoken of ; the word is the'same as that by which 
 he is nated’ in the same sénteice 3 Satan i8 repre- 
 senting the true God as jealous, lest our first parents 
 should rival himself; and it was the true God whom 
 Satan wished our first parents to envy. If they 
 would only eat of this tree, their knowledge, as yet 
 defective, should become universal. This seems to _ 
 be the meaning of the phrase, ‘* knowing good and 
 evil.” It may be illustrated by such passages as 
 these :-+Gen. xxiv. 50. *¢ The thing proceedeth 
 from the Lord : we cannot speak unto thee evil or 
 good’? (cannot ‘say any thing). “Deut. 1. 39. 
 «© Your children who in that’ day knew not good or 
 evil’ (knew nothing). @Sam. xiv. 17. ‘* For as 
 an angel of God,'sois my Lord the king, to discern 
 the wood and the evil’? (to judge all wadlses) And 
 to the same purpose, 1 Kings, iii. 9. “ That I may 
 discern between good’ and evil.”’—Their ‘eating, 
 then, of the forbidden tree should, according to the 
 tempter’s representation, inspire them with know- 
 ledge suchas God himself pl but sesetpeam 
 them to enjoy. 
 
 - The infernal representation seven. five dis- 
 believed’ the truth of God—believed the falsehood of 
 Satan. Having probably seen the serpent’ eat of 
 the fruit with impunity, and ascribing, perhaps, his 
 facuky of speech and of reason to benefit derived from 
 it, it'is said, “* the woman saw (she imagined) 
 that the tree was good for food.”? The tree, very 
 
 H 
 
4 SCOPE OF THE LAW. 
 
 Ldcely spans in itself, was thought more beautiful 
 when believed, to be harmless, and even. beneficial. 
 She saw ‘* that it» was» pleasant to the eyes.?? 
 Above all, believing that, the Creator felt. a jealousy 
 of his creatures, she was herself. animated -by a proud 
 and ‘hostile, spirit of, jealousy, and aspired °at that 
 divine. knowledge which.was falsely promised. her; 
 she regarded it as, ‘6 a tree to be desired to make 
 wise... She took, therefore, of the fruit:thereof, and. 
 did. eat.’’-Heated, by the’ fatal -action, jshe thinks 
 not ‘of stopping to try the consequences on herself, 
 but full.of unfounded expectation, seeks. her hus-.- 
 band, to make him partaker of the’ new food, to 
 share with him the imaginary happiness. The ar-— 
 guments by which she had herself been. captivated, 
 were no doubt, repeated with all. their plausibility. 
 It is not said, that Adam: was deceived,.as she was, 
 by the subtilty of the serpent; yet, we are ‘told, 
 that. «* he also did eat with her.”’.. Thus. the part- 
 ners,in life, became partners, in sin, and liable to. 
 share in the threatened punishment. 
 
 Such, is the Scripture account of the first trans-: 
 gression. , The tempter surely had the greater sin, 
 and was accordingly laid. under the heavier curse. , 
 But the tempted were also guilty... They clearly, 
 knew the will of God. Could they be excused: 
 for believing a serpent rather than him? Could 
 any consideration entitle them to rebel against their 
 Creator? If they would not be deterred from break- 
 ing his law, by the penalty annexed to it, what: 
 reason could they show, why judgment should not’ 
 be passed on them ? In modern times, many cayvils 
 have been made against this part of Scripture his- 
 tory, notwithstanding. the revelation of mercy 
 which hath followed; but, even if the sentence had. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. rhe 
 
 been executed in all its fearful extent, a solid ground 
 
 of objection could not have'been found. 
 
 The tempter had flattered our first parents with 
 the hope, that the consequences of their eating the 
 fruit would’ be speedily experienced. They were 
 so, but how differently from his description! He 
 had said, ‘their eyes shbuld be opened. To mark 
 their disappointment, the narrative oe) 
 says, * the eyes of them both were opened. 
 Were they now “as God, knowing good and 
 evil??? An accession of uWieveledie 4 is indeed menti- 
 oned, but it is equally limited ana ‘humbling—* They 
 knew that they were naked.” This consciousness 
 was a deplorable contrast to that innocent ‘and 
 happy ignorance which belonged to their former 
 state. No longer had they any confidence or 
 peace in their own minds; the condition ‘even of 
 their bodies, made them uneasy. Instead of being 
 exalted, as they had fondly hoped, they ‘probably 
 felt a degradation in respect of their appetites, 
 which were common to them with the brutes; and 
 this feeling was perhaps the first intimation of the 
 sinfulness and folly of what they had done. In 
 these circumstances, they had recourse to an expe- 
 dient which served only to announce their guilt, 
 and to display their helpless ‘situation. ‘ They 
 platted fig-leaves together, fiche made themselves 
 girdles.”’ 
 
 The history of the fall of man affords the first 
 grand proof of the malice and artifice of Satan. 
 We learn from it, what is his object, and how he 
 seeks to dvediniplist that object. His agents may 
 be near, while he is himself unseen. Whatever 
 God hath forbidden, Satan will zealously recom- - 
 mend. To contradict or misinterpret the word of | 
 
16 _ SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 God, to impugn his most gracious purposes, to call 
 his laws an arbitrary imposition, to cover the evil 
 and danger of sin, to reproach the thought of de- 
 pending on divine mercy, and to deny that any 
 revelation concerning these things ever came from 
 God ;—these have been the continual, and often 
 the successful practices of the wicked one. On no- 
 subject have we more need to be well informed, 
 Le fully established, than on the doctrines and the 
 evidences of divine revelation, When subtile argu- 
 ments invite us to an alluring object, let us look 
 not on the forbidden fruit, but on the record con- 
 cerning it.. If Eve should have recollected the 
 verbal law, should not we search the holy Scrip- 
 tures ? If our first parents, when in a state of inno- 
 cence, and aware of the meaning of the divine com- 
 mand, were nevertheless seduced to believe a lie, 
 how great must be the danger of error, how una- 
 yoidable its influence, if men are little acquainted 
 with the oracles with which they have been en- 
 trusted, while they are already inclined to the ways 
 of transgression ! 
 
 In this history also, we are furnished with an 
 instructive exhibition of the nature of sin. When 
 temptation prevails on us to listen and to look, 
 this evil thing, which God hateth, appears to be 
 desirable, ‘The act of commission is attended with 
 the transient excitement of intoxication. While 
 the intoxication lasts, how madly dees the trans- 
 gressor become a tempter of others, and how fre- 
 quently do others unaccountably comply! But we 
 hhave no sooner begun to dream that we are happy, 
 than ‘* our eyes are opened.’? Shame, remorse, 
 and despondency, show the convictions which we 
 have of our dreadful situation. These at least are 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. vy 
 
 the feelings which follow a first transgression. 
 Afterwards men may be more hardened, hae not 
 more safe. The word of Godwwill be verified, al- 
 though the wicked may have ceased‘to tremble, 
 The presumption of obstinate offenders can only 
 aggravate their condemnation. ‘* Every one that 
 as proud in heart, is an abomination to the Lord; 
 though hand joiw in hand, he shall not be unpu- 
 hishedit*: Brows avis Goi) 0 0s 
 
 How vain are all human devices to remove or to 
 shrteal the consequences of guilt! The fig-leaf 
 girdle might lessen the confusion of the culprits, 
 when they were merely exposed to. mutual obser- 
 vation, but it could not prevent them from attempt- 
 ing to abscond, when.they expected to be called 
 into the presence of God. Whether Jews or Gen- 
 tiles, let us not forget that we are all the de- 
 scendants of a fallen pair. If they destroyed them- 
 selves by a single transgression, what would be- 
 come of transgressors from the womb, were it not 
 for the mercy which God hath revealed? Not to 
 mention an earthly Canaan, were we all as yet in 
 the original Paradise, we must look to him for sal- 
 vation from sit. | 
 
j ** 
 
 78 SOOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 NUMBER VI. 
 
 Scope of the Law.and the Prophets.—Redemption. 
 my hy, 
 . Tue original transgressors had been immediately 
 disturbed by the presence of each other, and 
 straightway they must appear in the presence of 
 God. They had but just fastened their girdles, 
 when ‘ they heard the voice of the Lord God, | 
 walking in the garden, in the cool of the day.” 
 In these words, our attention is evidently directed 
 to the manner in which the Lord was pleased to 
 give notice of his approach. The meaning is not 
 very obvious, yet it may be illustrated by the ac- 
 count of another divine appearance, with which the 
 Israelites, when Moses wrote this history, must 
 have been deeply impressed. In Exod. xix. 16—20. 
 it is said, <* And it came to pass, on the third day 
 in the morning, that there were thunders and light- 
 nings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the 
 voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the 
 people that was in the camp trembled. And mount 
 _ Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord 
 descended upon it in fire; a:d the smoke thereof 
 ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole 
 mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the 
 ‘trumpet sounded Jong, and waxed louder and louder, 
 Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 
 And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on 
 the top of the mount; and the Lord called Moses 
 to the top of the mount, and Moses went up.” 
 This was probably a much more tremendous display 
 of the divine presence, and on a greater scale, cor- 
 
AND THE PROPHET’. G9 
 
 responding to the immense multitude, to whom it 
 was made; yet, i some respects, 1t seems to have 
 resembled that which took place, after the first 
 transgression, in the garden of Eden. In both a 
 yoice was heard, for a time, before any words were 
 spoken. On Sinai, it is said, the voice ** waxed 
 louder and louder,’’ literally, ‘‘ was walking and 
 strengthening,”’ as drawing nearer, till it announced 
 the arrival of the divine presence on the top of the 
 mountain. In the.garden, the ‘¢ walking” of the 
 voice is alone mentioned; but this ‘* walking”’ was 
 also an approach ; its increasing sound, therefore, 
 though probably less violent, must be understood. 
 It is said, the voice was heard walking “ in the 
 cool,’’ literally, ‘* the wind of the day.’ The 
 wind would bring the voice earlier, and with addi- 
 tional force, to the ear; perhaps its own hollow 
 ‘sound would form a solemn accompaniment. The 
 effect of the wind, in such a case, may be learned 
 from what we may conceive of its agency, in con- 
 junction with that of other elements, when ‘* the 
 whole mountain quaked ‘greatly,”’ or from what we 
 read on a subsequent occasion, ‘‘ A great and 
 strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in 
 pieces the rocks before the Lord,’’ 1 Kings, xix. 11. 
 From these illustrations, though belonging to cases, 
 apparently of a much more tempestuous nature, we — 
 may understand the passage before us as stating, 
 that our first parents ‘* heard the voice of the Lord 
 God coming louder and louder through the garden, 
 with the wind of the day.’” Every breeze of the 
 day brought a new and more audible token of the 
 divine approach. The scene might be calm, but 
 it was gloomy and lowering. In the guilty minds, | 
 it conspired with the voice which it attended, to 
 
80 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 produce alarm. ‘* Adam and his wife hid them- 
 selves from the presence of the Lord God, amongst 
 the trees of the garden.”’ 
 
 How true are the words of the Psalmist! ‘¢ Whi- 
 ther shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I 
 flee from thy presence?”? The trembling criminals 
 are instantly summoned from their unavailing re- 
 treat. “ The Lord God called unto Adam, and 
 said unto him, Where art thou?”? The question 
 was naturally occasioned by their suspicious beha- 
 viour. When the voice of the trumpet was heard 
 at Sinai, Moses brought forth the people out of the 
 camp to ** meet with God.”’? Exod. xix. 17. A 
 similar attendance was certainly due to the voice of 
 God approaching in the garden of Eden. Had all 
 been well, with what gratitude and joy would our 
 first parents have gone, as at other times, to meet 
 the divine approach! Adam is ‘compelled not only 
 to come forth, but to declare the reason of his at- 
 tempt at concealment. ‘* He said, I heard thy 
 voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I 
 was naked, and I hid myself’? He could hardly 
 fail to be sensible that all was known. His un- 
 willingness, therefore, to confess the truth, rather 
 than any hope that it could be suppressed, is all that 
 appears in his reply. His declaration is indeed 
 true, so far as it goes; but it is not complete. 
 The Lord accordingly proceeds to examine him. 
 ‘¢ Who told thee that thou wast naked?) What! 
 of the tree which I commanded thee not to eat, of 
 that hast thou eaten?”? The Lord plainly intimates 
 that the sense of nakedness could only arise from 
 the fact of transgression. That fact, therefore, is 
 instantly made the subject of Biveereani pointed 
 inquiry, and in terms well calculated to show both 
 
 - 
 
‘ AND THE PROPHETS. $1 
 
 the enormity of the sin, and-the greatness of the 
 divine indignation against it. Confounded by the 
 question, expecting, perhaps, immediate death, yet 
 alienated from God, Adam cannot deny the crime; 
 but he endeavours to throw the blame on his ‘gift, 
 and even to make it ultimately fall on his Creator. 
 ‘© The woman, whom thou gavest fo le with me, 
 she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”’—The 
 whole progress of iniquity must be brought into 
 view. ‘* The Lord God said unto the woman, 
 What is this ¢haf thou hast done?” She tacitly 
 acknowledges the charge of having tempted her 
 husband, and briefly states the manner of her own 
 na and fall, ** The woman said, The 
 serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’’ 
 
 Severe as this examination may seem, it was the 
 work of mercy. We clearly see that this was the 
 case from the judgment of the serpent, which im- 
 mediately follows. ‘It is only with sinners of the 
 human race that God will hold gracious intercourse, 
 He does not interrogate the serpent, but proceeds 
 to pronounce on him a heavy curse, and to foretel 
 his final destruction. The tempter having accome 
 plished his purpose, had staid to watch the effect 
 of his victory, or was detained, or recalled, to hear 
 his doom. 
 
 Our first parents were, perhaps, abscaily convinced 
 that it could not be the mere serpent, by whom they 
 had been persuaded to transgress the law of God. 
 The various tribes of animals had been brought to 
 Adam to see what he would call them. He thus 
 obtained some acquaintance with their nature. To 
 the serpent he had given the name which denotes 
 its superior subtilty. But now he had experienced 
 from that animal, something far beyond the nature 
 
§2 . * SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 which God had given to it; nay, something which 
 could not be ascribed to God, because it was dit 
 rectly opposed’ to his revealed will and discovered 
 the deepest enmity to his righteous Rien a 
 The creature had exercised the faculty of speech, 
 ‘had suggested thoughts never before known by our 
 first parents, had given assurances which proved 
 false, and instead of a subject, had acted the part of 
 a deadly, deceitful foe. From the power of his 
 ‘assault, they might easily conclude, that this foe was 
 more than an inferior animal; and from the malice 
 of his deception, they abe not doubt ana he was 
 of an evil nature. 
 
 In. these conclusions, they would certainly be 
 confirmed by the sentence which they heard pro- 
 nounced on him. “ The Lord God said unto the 
 serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed le thou 
 above all cattle, and above every beast of ‘the field; 
 upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou 
 eat, all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity 
 set wee thee -and the woman, and between thy 
 seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and 
 thou shalt bruise tg heel.”’ The language of this 
 ‘sentence is adapted to the nature of the serpent, 
 which had been ‘the instrument of the temptation, 
 and toacertain extent, has been literally fulfilled on it. 
 
 Having been created, like all the other animals, for - 
 
 the benefit of man, and put under his government ; 
 but having now been used in a way which was 
 contrary to the end of its creation, it was doomed to 
 be, in all ages, a visible evidence of the displeasure 
 
 of the Creator, and of the certainty of the fall of 
 
 man, by its degraded situation, and by the otherwise 
 unaccountable enmity subsisting, throughout the 
 world, between it and the human race, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 83) 
 
 But this,is not ‘a sentence on the serpent alone... 
 We have.already seen that the author of the temp.., 
 tation was a greater than the serpent,, and it is now 
 manifest’ that.a curse, greater than that which hath: 
 fallen on the serpent, is here pronounced. . Applied 
 to; Satan, this curse marks him out to, be dn object 
 of. greaterodivine displeasure than all other. orders 
 of beings. » He was probably condemned to eteater : 
 present anguish than he had ever yet known, as) 
 well as to more dreadful, ‘expectations. ‘But what we: 
 are chiefly, concerned » tq motice,. isthe intimation 
 that all his contrivances: dgainst mankind should 
 be finally defeated... By seducing the first pair, he 
 thought to have brought then) to death, .and so to 
 have made an end of;the whole; species | at’ once 3.1 
 but God announces ‘thatthe woman should. limes 
 and. have» ‘<< seed |. °%) , Under the. specious pretence 
 of friendship, Satan beguiled the woman 3, now a 
 war is declared against, ‘him,.and, his, followers, .; 
 which should end: in, ‘the ruin of them and their 
 devices. Satan thought; that; by. drawing mankind. 
 into sin, and under the wrath of God, he «should | 
 depriverthem of the. happiness. for geld they were’: 
 made... But God declares, .that this design:should« 
 be idefeated by..‘* the seed, of the woman,’”’ who | 
 should indeed ; suffer in! the contest, but) finally 
 prevail; In. this declaration,,1t seems évidently im- 
 plied that mankind; although by the envy of Satay: 
 become,sinful, and therefore mortal, should receive, 
 through the seed of the woman, forgiveness i sins, 
 and life-everlasting. . 
 
 Here, then, we have the. first discovery of re-. 
 demption—that blessed release from the euilt and 
 misery of sin, under the power of the wicked 
 one; to be enjoyed through a complete triumphs 
 
84 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 which a promised descendant of the woman sould 
 obtain. It might have been some comfort to our 
 first parents, to hear any sentence of condemnation 
 pronounced ‘upon the serpent. They might have 
 learned from it, that, however he had. prevailed 
 against them, he had gained no victory over their 
 Creator, who was able to vindicate his own cha- 
 racter, to maintain his own authority, and to pu- 
 nish this vile author of iniquity. But how great 
 may we imagine their astonishment, their joy, and 
 their gratitude to have been, when, from the divine | 
 sentence they perceived, that the destruction of their 
 adversary should be their own salvation. | 
 To teach them their need of this salvation, the 
 Lord God pronounces sentence also upon them. 
 Eve, first in the transgression, is first appointed to 
 swiier: Asa lasting confirmation of the history of the 
 fall, her very sex is, like herself, to be distinguished 
 by affliction. But there is here a wonderful adjust- 
 ment of citcumstances. In this sex had sin begun; 
 that men might not reproach, from it also was de- 
 liverance to arise. That women might not be 
 elated by so great an honor, they are to be liable to 
 heavy and humbling trials. ‘© Unto the woman, 
 he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow, and thy 
 conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth 
 children 5 and thy desire shall be to thy husband, 
 and he shall-rule over thee.” Her hopes had al- 
 ready been.raised by the prospect of a victory to be 
 obtained by her seed; but child-bearing shall be 
 attended with sorrow and pain. She had attempted 
 to shake off the government of God, and God lays 
 her under a double subjection to himself, and also 
 to her husband. The sentence which’ was imme- 
 diately addressed to Eve, relates entirely to’ the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 85 
 
 peculiarity of sex. But she was likewise involyed 
 in the more general sentence with which the judg-~ 
 ment of God, on this occasion, concludes, 
 
 _ * And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast 
 hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast 
 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, 
 saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed zs the 
 ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it 
 all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles 
 shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the 
 herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt 
 thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; 
 for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, 
 and unto dust shalt thou return.’? For the sake of 
 Adam, when he was created, the ground was 
 blessed, that is, it was rendered fruitful 3; for the sake 
 of Adam, now that he had sinned, the ground was 
 cursed, that is, it was rendered comparatively barren, 
 The curse was adapted to the transgression, Man 
 _ had eaten in wanton disobedience ; he shall hence- 
 forth eat in sorrow. His food is changed from the 
 trees of Paradise to the herb of the field. He had 
 heen put into the garden of Eden to dress it, and 
 to keep it; he is to be sent away to labour among 
 _ the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. Already 
 had he lost those tokens of the divine favour, in 
 which the blessedness of his life properly consisted. 
 But to accomplish his mercy as intimated in the 
 judgment of the serpent, God will spare Adam for 
 a time, and will raise up in succession many a 
 generation. The entire race is, however, doomed 
 to mortality. The man must, therefore, expect to 
 suffer under the effects of sin, until he yield up the 
 living soul, which his Maker hath breathed into 
 him, and until his body return te the: dust of the 
 ‘ I 
 
86 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 ground, out of which it hath been formed.—The 
 sentence is awful, yet it is wonderfully mild. It 
 seems, indeed, to be purposely calculated to give 
 room for the exercise of mercy on the part of God, 
 
 and to lead to the seeking of that mercy, on the part 
 of man, as the only source of hope and consolation. 
 There are consequences of sin, in a future world, to 
 those who are driven away in their Bes we 
 «© The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the 
 nations that forget God.”? Psalm ix.17. But the 
 passage which we have been considering, relates to 
 that which is appointed to all men in the present 
 world, not excepting even the people of God. At 
 the same time, the penalty which had been incurred, 
 
 was exactly inflicted. God had said, “ In the day 
 thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.’? This is 
 the literal version, and it 1s here particularly expres- 
 sive ; for in the very day of transgression, the 
 ground was cursed, the food of man was altered and 
 made and though his life was not to terminate 
 for many years, he then began to die, and from the 
 consequences of that death nothing could deliver 
 him, except the redemption, which had been an- 
 nounced in the judgment of the serpent. 
 
 We might have expected to find that the ae) 
 fenders, Gite. receiving sentence, were instantly eX- 
 pelled from Paradise. But Moses mentions two 
 incidents as previous to that expulsion, which are 
 of the highest importance. The first is, that 
 «¢ Adam allcd his wife’s name, Eve, (or Life,) 
 “because she was the mother of all living.’’ Nothing 
 can strike us more agreeably than hie incident. j in 
 this place. Adam was now under the sentence of 
 death; but he finds that this sentence admits of 
 his remaining ca earth for a time; and that his 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 87 
 
 wife shall have children, one of whom, distin- 
 guished as peculiarly ‘* the seed of the woman,” 
 shall destroy the tempter, and redeem the world. 
 He is therefore reconciled to his wife, and expresses 
 his faith in the declaration which had been made 
 concerning her seed. He had before called her 
 (Isha) woman, because she was taken out of (Ish) 
 man; he now calls her Eve (Life), because as in 
 her fall (and his consequent on hers) all men were 
 become mortal, so in her seed, all who believed the 
 divine declaration concerning him, should be made. 
 vim should partake of immortality. 
 
 ' The other incident is, ** Unto Adam also Wn to 
 his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and 
 clothed them.’’ A circumstance so minute would 
 hardly have been inserted in so solemn a history, 
 unless something of moment were contained in it. 
 At first sight, indeed, all that seems to be intended 
 is, that God clothed them better than they had been 
 able to clothe themselves, with a view not only to 
 cover their nakedness, but to prepare them for the 
 inclemency of a less genial climate to which they 
 were about to be exposed. But a question oc- 
 curs—Whence were these skins obtained? We 
 have no reason to think that God, at this time, 
 created’ them for the purpose. The word which is 
 used for them, is the common word for skins of 
 animals. Now we can hardly suppose that any ani- 
 mals had as yet died of themselves. If animals 
 were slain, it must have been either for food, or for 
 the mere purpose of making these coats, or for 
 sacrifice ; for food they could not be slain, because 
 the flesh of animals made no part of human sus- 
 tenance until after the flood. God had, at this time,__ 
 said, ** Thou. shalt eat of the herb of the field.” 
 
i 
 
 88 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Neither have we the smallest hint, that God caused 
 animals to be killed for the mere purpose of clothing 
 our first parents; and it would be absurd to admit 
 a conjecture to this effect, while the creatures as 
 yet were probably few, The only reasonable con- 
 clusion, therefore, on this subject is, that the ani- 
 mals had been slain for sacrifice. 
 
 Observe, then, what Adam, after professing his 
 faith in the seed of the woman, must be supposed 
 to have done, under divine direction. He rears an 
 altar of earth or stones. He brings for himself 
 and for his partner, a male without blemish, per- 
 
 haps of the flock of the sheep, or of the goats, as Abel 
 
 did soon after; or, like Noah, Gen. viii. 20, he takes 
 of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. He puts 
 his handon the headof the burnt-offering (see Lev. i.) 
 that it may be accepted for him, to make atonement 
 for him, He kills it before the Lord, and sprinkles 
 the blood round about upon the altar. He flays the 
 burnt-offering, and cuts (see Exod, iy, 25.) it in 
 pieces. He lays wood upon the altar 3 he lays the 
 parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the 
 wood ; the inwards and legs he previously washes 
 ia water; and God, who hath Tespect. to Adam 
 and to his offering, touching it with the ¢ flaming 
 sword which turned every way,”? burns all on the 
 altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by 
 fire, of a sweet savour, unto the Lord.—The skins 
 (afterwards the priest’s share, Lev. vii. 8.) are left 
 for the offerers, and God makes, or directs them to 
 make coats of skins, and clothes them.—Laying all 
 these things together, it seems reasonable to con- 
 clude, that he, who had given an intimation to our 
 first parents, of redemption through the conflict and 
 suffermgs of the seed of the woman, was pleased 
 
_ AND THE PROPHETS. 89 
 further to illustrate this grand event by the institu- 
 tion of sacrifice. By this means the prophecy of fu- 
 ture redemption would be the more deeply impressed, 
 and the ‘clothed sinners, while they beheld an em- 
 blem of the punishment which they deserved, 
 would learn the comfort’and security arising from 
 the divine goodness, in Jaying that punishment on 
 another, and accepting’ the substituted satisfaction. 
 
 The offering of sacrifice is'one of the most re-. 
 markable and universal modes of worshipping God. 
 It was unquestionably practised by the immediate 
 descendants of Adam; yet, unless the preceding 
 remarks on the subject be admitted, no hint respect- 
 ing the original of this practice will be found in 
 Scripture. Some, indeed, have doubted whether it 
 were originally a divine institution, or a human de- 
 vice. Jews are not likely to hesitate on this point. 
 They know that it is in no case lawful or safe to 
 worship God, except in the way which he hath 
 been pleased to prescribe. Like most of the divine 
 mstitutions, ‘too, sacrifice is so peculiar a service, 
 that men can hardly be supposed to have hit upon 
 it by conjecturing what would probably be accept- 
 able to'God. The attempts to account for it as a 
 human contrivance, give a very partial view of 
 the fact which they are used to explain. They are 
 extremely awkward ; and were they much more 
 plausible than they are, it would still deserve to be 
 considered, how different it is to form a theory re- 
 specting a practice which actually exists, from what 
 it must have been to contrive that’ practice. It is 
 by no means extraordinary that there should be no 
 formal account given in Scripture, ‘of the original 
 institution of sacrifice. The case’ is the same with 
 the distinction: of clean’ and ‘unclean animals. ‘In 
 
 ‘7 o 
 
90 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 fact, nothing connected with the worship of the 
 true God among mien in general, excepting the 
 sabbath-day, has any mention made in Scripture of 
 
 its primary institution. The writings of Moses 
 
 give a very particular account. of those institutions 
 which were tokens of favour to the separated na- 
 tion, but every thing previous to the call of their 
 father Abraham, is given merely in the style of 
 brief introductory narration. : 
 
 The expulsion of man from the garden of Eden 
 is described in terms no less remarkable than those 
 which were used respecting his creation. * And 
 the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as 
 one of us, to know good and evil.’’ These words 
 plainly imply a plurality of persons in the divine 
 nature. The text in Gen. i. 26. (explained before,) 
 and this passage, throw light on each other. As a 
 divine purpose of a mutual nature was described at 
 giving the account of man’s creation, so’a divine 
 purpose of a mutual ‘nature is here described, on 
 giving the account of the change of situation which 
 became proper in consequence’ of his fall,—We 
 cannot understand these words as really stating 
 that man was now like God with regard to universal. 
 knowledge. This would be admitting that the 
 words of the tempter had been verified, Neither is 
 it very suitable to the solemnity of the occasion,, 
 nor to the compassion which God had displayed, 
 to suppose, as some have done, that he is’ here 
 using the language of irony. The words literally 
 are, ‘* Behold the man hath been as one of us, to 
 know good and evil.”” They refer not to any attain 
 ment, either as magnifying or contemning it, but 
 to the guilty ambition which man had indulged, 
 and the temptation by which he had been induced ; 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 91. 
 to indulge it. ‘* And now lest he put forth his 
 hand, and take also of the tree of lite, and eat, and 
 live for ever .? Because of his sin, Hethins had 
 been ordained to eat the herb of the field, and to 
 return to the dust, out of which he had been taken; 
 it was improper, therefore, that he should now be 
 left within reach of the tree of life, which yielded 
 nourishment suitable to a deathless state. The ac- 
 count of the divine purpose is dropped in the mid- 
 dle of the sentence,.and we are left to collect what 
 it was from the narrative of its execution, which is 
 substituted in the sequel. This sudden change of 
 style seems to impress on us this sublime truth, 
 that when the case which requires it, has happened, 
 i" propose and to do, is with God the same. 
 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from 
 ne garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence 
 he,was taken. So he drove out the man, and 
 placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims 
 and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to 
 keep the way of the tree of life.’”? We shall not 
 stop to inquire, whether we are here to understand 
 a guard of angels, (Psalm civ. 4.) or whether there 
 be not, in these words, the first mention of the 
 Shechinah, which, while it prevented our first pa- 
 rents from returning to Paradise, was nevertheless 
 the symbol of the gracious presence of God, before 
 which they afterwards offered their pees ag and 
 al] their worship. | ai 
 
 In considering this passage, which cbritains the 
 first discovery of redemption, we have met with the 
 first prophecy concerning the Messiah. ‘It is of 
 importance to remark the instruction contained in 
 this early prediction, that we may see its s aeteinerh 
 with subsequent revelations. | 
 
92 ‘ SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 ~ Observe,: first, his earliest name— her seed.” 
 His being called the seed of the woman evidently 
 distinguishes him from the ordinary consequence of 
 that blessing, in which God said to’ the male and 
 the female, ‘* Be fruitful and multiply.” In what 
 can we vunderstand this distinction to consist, 
 unless in the miracle that he should be born of a 
 virgin? It is not, therefore, from the meaning 
 alone of a single word, ina single prophecy, how- 
 ever plain and sufficient in itself, that we infer 
 the reasonableness of believing such a miracle. 
 ‘The language of the passage before us, gave reason 
 to expect it, and the history which declares that it 
 actually took place, corresponds with the very first 
 view ofthe Messiah, with which we are favoured 
 in the sacred books. : 
 
 Again, observe his work, It is a war in eshiiahd 
 
 he suffers, but overcomes. ‘I will put enmity 
 between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
 and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou 
 shalt bruise his heel.’® The enmity is to issue at 
 Jast in a decisive conflict. The bruises here fore- 
 told, are both mortal in their kind. When a ser-- 
 pent wounds the heel, (the usual place he attacks, 
 Gen. xlix. 17.) the effect may, from his poison, 
 prove as certainly mortal as it will, when a man 
 “wounds a serpent’s head. In both. cases, then, a 
 deadly wound is foretold. There is, however, a 
 manifest difference between them, for the prediction 
 is a curse upon one party only. We are led, there- 
 fore, to consider the one as languishing till he pe- 
 rish, while the other lives, and enjoys his victory. 
 What can this life and victory be, but-the power of 
 a blessed resurrection from the dead, and the ho- 
 nours of a glorious ascension to heaven. This is 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. | 93° 
 
 the Christian doctrine; it is also the doctrine of 
 the sacred books of the Jews. ‘I have set the 
 Lord always before me: because he as at my right 
 hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart 
 is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall 
 rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in 
 hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see 
 corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: 
 in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand 
 there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm xvi. Beli 
 “ Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led cap- 
 tivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men 5 
 yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God 
 might dwell among them.”’ Psalm Ixviii. 18. 
 Further, observe that the prophecy speaks of but 
 one champion who should both suffer and overcome. 
 We beg attention to this fact, because some Jews 
 have misled many of their brethren by pretending 
 that there are two Messiahs, the one of whom was 
 to perish, the other to succeed in his efforts to de- 
 liver his people. Such a supposition is not only 
 unknown in Scripture, but quite inconsistent with 
 it. In the passage before us, nothing is more evi- 
 dent than that only one party is spoken of on each 
 side :—<** he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel.’? As the supposition is unscrip- 
 tural, so it is disgraceful. What! shall one ser- 
 pent seduce mankind, and must God send two 
 Messiahs to destroy him? The authors of this fic- 
 tion plainly show that they cannot deny the appli- 
 cation of those Scriptures to the Messiah, which 
 foretel unparalleled sufferings and death to be en- 
 dured by him, in the cause of redemption. The 
 evasion is, indeed, very extraordinary in every view. 
 When Jesus was crucified, and the apostles. rea~ 
 
 / 
 
94 . SCOPE OF THE’ LAW 
 
 soned with the Jews from Scripture, that thus it 
 behoved the Messiah to suffer, and. to enter into 
 his glory, those of them who then resisted the rea= 
 soning, never alleged any expectation of two Mes- 
 siahs. To do so, has been a modern device. . Nor 
 does it appear to be generally sanctioned by the 
 Jews, even in modern times. In that Jewish creed 
 which most directly opposes: the Christian faith; 
 one Messiah only is acknowledged. ‘I believe, 
 with a firm and perfect faith, that the Messiah is to 
 come ; although he tarrieth, I will wait and expect 
 daily his coming.’? ous | | 
 Finally, Observe to whom the Messiah was 
 originally announced. . It was the common parents 
 of the human race. How exactly does this fact 
 agree with the doctrine at which, unhappily, Jews 
 often take offence, that at the coming of the Mes- 
 siah, Jews and Gentiles should be made equally 
 welcome to the blessings of his kingdom! That, 
 of the Jews, as concerning the: flesh, the Messiah 
 was to come, we joyfully maintain. He was to be 
 the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. That the 
 glad tidings of his reign should be preached to the 
 Jews first, we also maintain. But. this gospel of 
 the kingdom was never intended to be confined to 
 them. It was to be published to every child of 
 Adam and Eve; and whosoever believeth, shall be 
 saved by the Messiah. ** And now, saith the Lord 
 that formed me from the womb {fo le his servant, 
 to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not 
 gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the 
 Lord, and-my God shall be my strength. And he 
 said, Itis. alight thing that thou shouldest be my - 
 servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore 
 the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for » 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 95 
 
 light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my sal- 
 vation .unto the end of the earth.’’ Isaiah,» 
 xlix. 5, 6. 7 
 In considering the subject of this: section, we 
 have also met with traces of the origin of sacrifice. 
 If these be admitted as decisive, it follows, that the 
 only rational account which can be given of the 
 meaning of that service, is that which imports it to 
 be a representation of the sufferings, and a pledge of 
 the coming of the Messiah. | 
 ‘When we call sacrifice a figure of the sufferings 
 of the Messiah, we must remember, that these are 
 to be regarded as the consequence not merely of 
 conflict with the serpent, but of the entrance of sin 
 into the world by the transgressions of our first pa- 
 rents. Had not they sinned, no enmity had been 
 put between their seed-and the seed of the serpent ; 
 there had been no conflict, no struggle for the pre- 
 servation of unrighteous dominion on the one hand, 
 or for the destruction of it on the other... Had not 
 they sinned, the seed. of the woman, even in 
 such a strugele-as this; had not been liable to die. 
 The: ‘* bruising of his heel’? should be permitted, 
 because he should assume the nature of a race 
 which was doomed to. be mortal. Nay, his un- 
 dertaking required that he should taste the bit- 
 terness of death, and endure all the evils, which 
 that threatened punishment of sin can be supposed 
 to include. God has pronounced upon. sin the 
 sentence of death ; sin being committed, the sen- 
 tence must be executed. But God gave hope 
 to the transgressors, that the sentence should be 
 executed in such a way as to give an opportunity 
 to §* the seed of the woman’ to destroy. the 
 
 serpent’s work. Now the serpent had brought — 
 
 \ 
 
96 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 mankind under sin and punishment ; to destroy his 
 work, was to take away sin and punishment. This 
 could be done only by enduring the sentence which 
 was due. It appears, then, not only that the Messiah 
 is to be acknowledged, although he suffer, but that 
 he ought not to be acknowledged, unless he suffer. 
 The necessity of his suffering arises not from 
 the power of the serpent, but from the power of 
 divine justice, the power of the truth of that 
 word which cannot be broken. 
 
 Sacrifice appears also to be a pledge of the 
 coming of the Messiah. It was appointed on the 
 great occasion, when his coming was announced. 
 AA believer who hoped for life through his merits, 
 first practised it, under divine direction, and it has 
 ever been considered as representing a transference 
 of guilt and punishment from the confessor of sin 
 to a devoted victim. If the origin of this mode 
 of worship be obscure, nothing can be more 
 clearly revealed than its subsequent confirmation. 
 It was always attended to by the worshippers of the 
 true God, in the patriarchal times, and the various 
 precepts concerning it, given to the children of 
 Israel form one of the leading features of the 
 law of Moses. It is there uniformly understood 
 to be absolutely necessary to pardon of sin, and 
 peace with God. It is surely reasonable to think, 
 that God would preserve a service of such im- 
 portant meaning till it had accomplished its pur- 
 pose. If sacrifice, then, has been made to cease ; 
 if it has actually been prevented from continuing, 
 by Divine Providence, for many hundred years, is 
 not this a strong presumption, that the event has 
 happened to which it referred, that the Messiah 
 has come, and suffered, and obtained his victory, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. O7 
 
 and has of course superseded the pledge which had 
 been given of its certain accomplishment? It is 
 expressly declared, indeed, im the Scriptures, that 
 God hath no pleasure in sacrifice for its own sake, 
 and on this account, that the Messiah should come 
 to set it aside.. ** Sacrifice and offering. thou didst 
 not delight in: mine ears didst thou bore (or, as 
 it has been read, a body didst thou prepare for me) ; 
 burnt-offering and sin-offering thou didst not re- 
 quire. Then said I, lo! I come; in the volume of 
 the book it is written of me; L delight to do thy 
 will, O my God; yca, thy law is within my heart,” 
 Paid x}. 6—8. 
 
 There is yet another fact belonging to the subject 
 of this section, which is fraught with the most im- 
 portant instruction. We mean, the expulsion from 
 Paradise. No place on earth has’ since proved a 
 satisfying or lasting abode to man. Canaan flowed 
 with milk and honey, but it. was not a garden of 
 Eden. Much less can Jews be now blest by earthly 
 enjoyments, in a state of exile and dispersion. All, 
 indeed, is vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit. 
 It-remains, then, that like our first. parents, we put 
 our trust i Him who provided a Saviour. from. all 
 the effects of sin. How suitable are the words of 
 the Psalmist! ‘* Lord, make me to know mine end 
 and the measure of my days, what it is; that I 
 may know how frail I am. Behold, tliou hast 
 made my days ds an hand-breadth, and mine age 
 és as nothing before thee: verily, every man at his 
 best state is altogether vanity.. Surely every man 
 walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquicted 
 in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not 
 who’ shall. gather them. And now, Lord, what _ 
 wait I for? my hope isin thee,”? Psalm xxxix. 4—7, 
 
 K 
 
 \ 
 
98 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 «¢ Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after- 
 ward receive me to glory. Whom have I in hea- 
 ven but thee 2 and there is none on earth that I 
 desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; 
 but God is the strength of my heart, and my por- 
 ‘tion for ever.” Palin Ixxili, 24—26. 
 
 NUMBER VII. 
 
 Scope of the Law and the civ src gue a 
 + Worship. 
 
 By tracing the gradual opening of that scheme 
 of mercy which is revealed in the Scriptures, we 
 may learn how far we have formed a just opinion 
 of the first intimation of it, and may be prepared to 
 understand the enlarged discoveries which were 
 made at more advanced periods. 
 
 The most remarkable incident in the history of 
 the antediluvian world, that which affected its whole 
 condition and its very existence, was the presenta- 
 tion of the offerings of Cain and Abel. This is the 
 first instance of worship of which we have a direct 
 account. The reception of the worshippers was 
 extremely different. A catastrophe followed be- 
 tween them, which was dreadful in itself, and was 
 attended with consequences which made a lasting 
 division among mankind, and issued in the despues 
 tion of the ancient world, with the single exception 
 of the family of Noah. 
 
 The history begins with the birth of the eldest of 
 the sons of men. ‘* And Adam knew Eve his 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. - (99 
 
 wife, and she conceived and bare Cain.’”? The 
 birth of children was subsequent to the fall. _ Had 
 Cain been born while the first pair were upright, 
 he would have derived from his parents a similar 
 purity of nature. But this was not the case; and 
 by permitting his depravity to appear so strongly as 
 it did, our heavenly Father seems early to have 
 shown, that man did not come thus out of the hands 
 of his Creator, but that such behaviour is an effect 
 of the alteration introduced into the human charac- 
 ter, by the defection of our first parents from their 
 original righteousness. | 
 
 - When Eve bare Cain, she said, * I have gotten 
 aman from the Lord.’ The attentive reader of 
 the Bible, must have perceived, that in the first ages 
 of the world, and indeed throughout the whole pe- 
 riod of Scripture history, proper names were 
 frequently given from some remarkable circumstance 
 attending the birth or life of the person named, and 
 generally with an explanation of their meaning at 
 the place where they are first mentioned. This is 
 the case in the passage before us. Eve “ bare 
 Cain, (which signifies GoTreN,) and said, I have 
 GOTTEN a man trom the Lord.’”? She must now 
 have experienced the sorrow which was to accom- 
 pany the conception and birth of children ; but she 
 forgot her sorrow, for joy that a man-child was born 
 into the world. She felt that she was now verify- 
 ing the name which she had received from her 
 husband; nay, the declaration respecting “ the 
 seed of the woman,’’ must have struck her mind 
 with new force. Some have thought that she ima- 
 gined this very child to be the promised conqueror, 
 and render the words, “ I have gotten a man, the- 
 Lord,”’ or ‘ T have gotten a man according to the 
 
 s 
 
100 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Lord,” that is, according to the word of the Lord. 
 At any rate, she was filled with gratitude and joy, 
 and she acknowledged her obligation to the Lord 
 for the gift of a son; and we may easily suppose 
 that she would indulge the fondest hopes concern~ 
 ing both him and his posterity. How miserably 
 was she disappointed! Little did she think that 
 she should live to see this son, a rejected worship- 
 per of God, a murderer of his own brother, a vaga- 
 bond and a fugitive from the land of his nativity. 
 The history proceeds to the account of a second 
 birth. ‘* And she again bare his brother Abel.’’ 
 The name of Abel is not explained, like that of. 
 Cain, in the context ; nor is it necessary to under- 
 stand it as given him at his birth. Perhaps, as he 
 was the first of the human species who died, and as~ 
 his death was ‘attended with cireumstances of so 
 distressing a nature, the name Abel was given 
 him after he was gone. We do not find this name 
 given him by either of his parents, in the form ob- 
 served, as to both the preceding and the succeeding 
 son. He is not called Abel in any specch made 
 _ either of him or to him, during his life. Although, 
 therefore, it is used by the historian as his name, 
 in giving the account of his life, it may have been 
 a name given him immediately after his death, and 
 - may thence have become the only name by which his 
 memory was preserved. We must either conclude 
 that this was actually the case, or ascribe the giving 
 of such a name to a prophetic knowledge of his fu- 
 ture history ;f or according to every explanation, 
 the name seems remarkably to apply to it. Abel 
 is generally said to signify vanity or trouble. Per- 
 haps it may be traced to a word which is still found 
 in the Arabic, and which, agreeably to the many 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 101 
 
 varieties of meaning of which words in that lan- 
 guage are susceptible, is said to allude both to the 
 snares and vigilance of a cruel murderer, and to the 
 bereavement of a mother by the death of her son *, 
 «© And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was 
 
 a tiller of the ground.’’? This circumstance is ge- 
 nerally thought to refer merely to a division of la- 
 bour. Adam has been applauded for bringing up 
 his sons to the separate employments of a husband- 
 man anda shepherd. One, it has been said, was 
 _ dedicated to the active, and another to the contem- 
 plative scenes of life. But is it not more reasonable 
 to understand the historian, as intimating a diversity 
 ~rather of character and disposition, than of profes- 
 sional occupation? A division of labour could 
 hardly have taken place at so early a period. The 
 keeping of sheep could not be as yet a secular busi- 
 ness. Animals were not yet granted for food, 
 Their skins, indeed, had been given for clothing ; 
 but this “gift, as before observed, was connected 
 with a sacred institution. Abel was obliged, as 
 well as Cain, to eat his bread by the sweat of his 
 brow, and of course, to till the ground, that instead 
 of briars and thorns, he might procure the herb of 
 the field; but he was distinguished, it seems, by a 
 care of the animals which he was taught to offer in 
 sacrifice, while his brother was absorbed by tempo- 
 ral concerns. This view of the clause is more 
 agreeable to the strain of the history, which entirely 
 relates to matters of religion. If here we consider 
 each as attending equally to mere professional duty, 
 we shall be disposed afterwards to consider each as 
 bringing the only kind of oblation he had in his 
 
 »* See Kennicott’s Dissertation on the Obtations of Cain and Abel, ~ 
 page 117, - 
 
 K@2 
 
- 
 102 a SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 possession; in which case, it will be difficult to 
 perceive why Cain should have been disregarded. 
 But if the view here given, be correct, we shall be 
 convinced that Abel brought of the fruit of the 
 ground, as weil as Cain, and that Cain might have. 
 brought of the firstlings of a flock, and of the fat 
 thereof, as well as Abel. 
 
 What was brought by these brothers, we learn 
 from the words which follow. And in process 
 of time, it came to pass, that Cain brought of the 
 fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and 
 Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and 
 of the fat thereof.” From this passage we may infer, 
 that Adam was in the habit of offering sacrifice, 
 and had instructed his family in the meaning of 
 the service. The instance here related, occurred per- 
 haps on the first occasion on which the sons of Adam. 
 attempted to follow their father’s example. Adam 
 probably was present himself with his accustomed 
 oblation, and the whole human family were attend- 
 ing the worship of God. Those only are menti- 
 ened to whom the history more immediately refers, 
 ‘whose first attempt made the difference of their re- 
 ception the more remarkable, and between whom 
 the effects of jealousy and resentment afterwards so 
 fatally appeared. But the worship seems evidently 
 to have been of a social and public nature; for the 
 brothers came to it ata stated time, and brought 
 their offerings to an appointed place. 
 
 That there was an -appointed place, we learn 
 from the circumstance of their coming together on 
 the occasion. Mention is also made, in verse 7. 
 of a * door” or entrance into this place. As in 
 after times, the worshippers brought their offerings 
 to “the door of the tabernacle of the congregation ;”” 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 103 
 
 so from the beginning, there was probably an in- | 
 closed space appropriated to the purposes of wor- 
 ship, round every altar which was builded to the 
 Lord. In early times, this sacred ground was sur- 
 rounded by the trees of a grove, Gen. xxi. 33, 
 at a latter period, by the pillars and hangings of the 
 court of the tabernacle, Exod. xxvii. 9. and finally, 
 by the walls of the courts of the temple, 1 Kings, 
 vi. 36. and vill. 64. 2 Chron. iv. 9. 
 
 That there was a stated time, seems to be hinted 
 at in the words of the history. What is commonly 
 rendered ‘ and in process of time, it came to pass, 
 that Cain brought, &c.’? may be rendered ‘ and 
 it was at an end of days, and Cain brought, &c.”’ 
 
 ** At an end of days’’ seems to allude to the ter- 
 mination of a certain period of time. What period 
 so likely as that which consists of seven days, and 
 is measured by the return of the sabbath ?—The 
 Hebrew word for ‘ days” is sometimes used as 
 another name for a week. This appears to be its 
 meaning in Gen. xxiv. 55. which may be properly. 
 -rendered with two warrantable-supplements. ‘* Let 
 the damsel abide with us seven days, or ten days ;’? 
 that is, as we commonly say, “‘a week or ten days.” 
 The relations of Rebekah were desirous of her com- 
 pany for a short time, after her marriage had been 
 agreed on, with a view perhaps, as far as circum- 
 stances permitted, to celebrate a nuptial feast, 
 They propose, therefore, that it shall at least be a 
 week, (the usual time of the continuance of such a 
 feast, see Gen. xxix. 27. Judg. xiv. 12.) or even 
 a few days more, to give time for preparation, 
 We acknowledge, that in-4 Kings, xvii. 7. the only 
 other place in which precisely the same phrase oc- 
 curs as in the passage before us, it is not clear that 
 
OF SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 go limited an explanation should be given to it. 
 It is enough, however, that the phrase be some- 
 times capable of this explanation. If this be granted, 
 particular considerations may be suggested to re- 
 commend its being so understood in this place. 
 What is here said to have been done at this end of 
 days, was meeting together for worship, and bring- 
 ing offerings to the Lord. How naturally does the 
 service direct our attention to the sabbath-day ! 
 -€ God had blessed the seventh day, and sanctified 
 st? When he afterwards commanded the seventh 
 day to be remembered, he particularly required that 
 ‘t should be “an holy convocation,” (Lev. xxiii. 3.) 
 and that the daily sacrifices should then be doubled, 
 Num. xxviii. 9, 10. It follows that the original 
 institution had probably been observed im a similar 
 way. |The conjecture is strengthened by an expres- 
 sion in Job i. 6. and ii. 1. which ought to be 
 translated thus: ** And it was the day, and the 
 sons of God came to present themselves before the 
 Lord*.”? In Job i. 113. the same expression 18 
 used respecting a day of feasting. It had been said, 
 verse 4. that Job’s ‘sons went and feasted in their 
 houses every one his day.” When their feasting 
 in their eldest brother’s house 1s mentioned, ‘¢ it 
 was the day” is immediately understood to signify — 
 their eldest brother’s day. When the coming of 
 the sos of God together, to present themselves be- 
 fore the Lord, is mentioned, ought not the same 
 expression to be understood to signify God’s day? — 
 But the most important question on this subject 
 respects the nature of the oblations which were 
 brought. All oblations were either of animals, or 
 
 * We do not pretend that the phrase ‘¢ it was the day,” is alwavs 
 a definite one. This doesnot seem to be the case in 2 Kings, iv. 8, 11,15. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 105 
 
 yt 
 
 ‘ : ; eh 4 
 of bread-offerings, in our translation meat-offer- 
 
 ings; that is, offerings ‘* of the fruit of the ground ;”” 
 (see Lev. ii. 1. 6. 14, 15.) or of drink-offerings, 
 It is only of the two first that any mention 1s made 
 in this passage. At first sight, it seems to be 
 stated that Cain brought the one, and Abel the 
 other; but on further inspection, it appears, that 
 while Cain brought the one only, Abel brought 
 both the one and the other. Cain brought a bread- 
 offering alone ; Abel brought a double oblation, an 
 offering of the firstlings of his flock, even of the 
 fattest of them, together with a bread-offering, 
 That he brought a bread-offering, as well as Cain, 
 is evident, because it is to his bread-offering that 
 the Lord is said to have had respect. We submit 
 whether the following be not a fair translation of 
 the passage. The large supplement, whether in- 
 -serted or not, will; on attentive consideration, ap- 
 pear to be necessary to the sense. ‘* And Cain 
 brought of the fruit of the ground a bread-offering 
 (Mincha) to the Lord; ani Abel brought of the 
 fruit of the ground a bread-offering to the Lord— 
 he brought also of the firstlings of his flock, even of 
 the fat of them. And the Lord had respect to Abel 
 and to his bread-offering (Mincha) ; and to Cain and 
 to his bread-offering (Mincha) he had not respect. 
 Weare not told in what way the Lord had respect 
 to Abel and his offering, while he took no notice of 
 Cain and his; but it must have been by some imme- 
 diate outward token, for the difference was imme- 
 diately perceived. No verbal revelation appears to 
 have been made on the subject. The only other 
 direct way of intimating acceptance, which we read 
 
 of in Scripture, is the consuming of the sacrifice by _ 
 
 fire from before the Lord. Thus it was intimated 
 
106 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 at the consecration of Aaron and his sons, Lev. 
 ix, 24, at the dedication of the temple of Solomon; 
 2 Chron. vii. 1, and at the trial, proposed by Elijah, 
 whether Jehovah or Baal were God, 1 Kings, xviii. 38. 
 Perhaps we may conclude, that on this occasion 
 also, fire came out from before the Lord, and con- 
 sumed all that had been brought by Abel, while the 
 offering of Cain, lying probably on the same altar, 
 was left untouched. . 
 
 But why was this distinction made between them? 
 Was it because Abel was righteous, while Cain was 
 not? Yes ;—** The sacrifice of the wicked is an- 
 abomination to the Lord; but the prayer of the 
 the upright zs his delight.” Prov. xv. 8. This dif- 
 ference, however, must be understood according to 
 the difference of their behaviour on this occasion. 
 Abel brought an animal-sacrifice along with his 
 bread-offering ; Cain brought his bread-offering | 
 alone. As to their natural state, there could be no _ 
 difference ; they were both descendants of a fallen 
 pair. As to their course of life, there might be a 
 difference in the degree of actual guilt, yet neither 
 could in himself be considered as righteous in the 
 sight of God. Abel, at least, made no pretensions 
 to this character ; by bringing the firstlings of his 
 flock along with his bread-offering, he solemnly 
 acknowledged himself to be a sinner, and drew near 
 to God in the way which he had appointed to re- 
 present the making of atonement. God was faith- 
 ful to the revelation which he had made of his 
 mercy 5 he gave countenance to the observance of 
 his own institution ; he had respect to Abel and 
 to his offering. Abel received testimony that he 
 was righteous, when God bore testimony that his 
 gifts were accepted. It was not, therefore, by works 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 107 
 
 of righteousness which he had done, but by the 
 redemption which God had revealed, that Abel 
 was justified in his sight. Like Abram afterwards, 
 «€ he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to 
 him for righteousness.”’ 
 
 Cain might have found acceptance in the same 
 way as his fellow sinner had found it; the hope 
 given to their common parents was equally free to 
 both. If Cain had been very wicked, he had the 
 greater need of atonement. Unhappily, he is not 
 the only instance of a man heavy laden with ini- 
 quity, and at the same time, insensible of his guilt. 
 He could not be ignorant of the design of an insti- 
 tution which his father had, no doubt, observed and 
 explained, and which his brother had attended to, 
 at this time, before his eyes. His conduct, there- 
 fore, in neglecting this institution, can only be ac- 
 counted for by supposing, that he did not believe 
 the truth with which it was connected. A bread- 
 offering, indeed, formed a part of sacrificial worship, 
 but the offering of animals was by no means to be 
 omitted. See Exod. xxix. 38—46. All the sacri+ 
 fices for sin were, according to the subsequent regu- 
 lations, of the animal kind. It was the blood that 
 made atonement for the soul, Lev. xvii. 11. A 
 bread-offering was never to be offered for sin, nor 
 - was a promise of forgiveness ever made to it, unless 
 the offerer could not procure an animal proper for 
 sacrifice, Lev. v.11—13. This, as we shall see 
 presently, was not the case with Cain. _ It was not, 
 therefore, because he was such a sinner as to be 
 beyond redemption, but because, being a sinner, 
 he despised redemption, that he was not accepted 
 in the sight of God. Although he brought of the ~ 
 fruits of the ground, as an acknowledgment perhaps 
 
108 . SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of the temporal bounty of Providence, he showed 
 no conviction of sin, disregarded the forgiveness of 
 of which he stood in need, and neglected the atone~ 
 ment which animal sacrifice had been rap to 
 prheute: 
 
 The Lord was justlycdibpleased with Cain, yet he 
 treated him with an adorable forbearance worthy 
 of his character, as the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering, and slow to wrath. The 
 expression of displeasure was entirely of a negative 
 kind. Had Cain profited by the tacit reproof, he 
 would have confessed with trembling, that it was 
 of the Lord’s mercies that he was not consumed, 
 and have instantly corrected the error into which he 
 had fallen. But his proud spirit resented as an in 
 jury, that which was calculated to hamble him in 
 the dust. ‘* Cain,” says’ the sacred writer, ‘+. was 
 very wroth, and his countenance fell.’? He had 
 the dreadful presumption to be angry with God, 
 yet he could not bear his disgrace in the presence 
 of men. He must have come with a high look ~ 
 when he would. not, like his brother, bring an 
 offering for sin; his countenance falls when God 
 will not regard the offering which he did bring. 
 From what follows, he appears to have been parti- 
 cularly mortified, that while he had’ been passed by, 
 his brother had been accepted. The mere want of 
 divine favour he would not perhaps have felt so 
 keenly, if the acceptance of his. brother had not 
 alarmed him for his precedence as first-born. 
 
 Surely the anger of Cain must have greatly in- 
 ereased his guilt, and if the Lord had dealt with 
 him according to his sin, his destruction must have 
 been equally sudden and awful. . Instead, however, 
 of proceeding to just extremity, how graciously 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 109 * 
 
 ‘does the Lord expostulate with him on the unrea- 
 sonableness of his temper, and even encourage him 
 to correct his error by a promise of success, if he 
 would listen to admonition ! “* The Lord said unto 
 Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy coun- 
 tenance fallen? If thou dost well, shalt thou not 
 be accepted ? and if thou dost not well, sin lieth at 
 the door. And unto thee shall le his desire, and 
 thou shalt rule over him.’’—The attentive reader 
 will find himself embarrassed by the obscurity and 
 inconsistency of the two last clauses of this address, 
 as they are Commonly translated. The expression 
 “‘ sin lieth at the door,” will appear to him to be 
 figurative, signifying ¢* sin is chargeable on thee,” 
 or “** punishment is near ;” and he will probably 
 be disposed to'think, that such a figure, though be- 
 come common perhaps from this very translation, 
 is not likely to occur in the language of so early a 
 revelation. His difficulty will be greatly increased 
 when he proceeds to the last clause, for it is a pro= 
 mise of pre-eminence over the accepted brother, 
 and it is connected with what goes before, although 
 that seems to be the mere statement of two Opposite 
 cases, the latter of which supposes his not doing 
 well, which was evidently the fact. But the diffi- 
 culty may be removed by observing that the Hebrew 
 word for “ sin’? is, when sacrifices are spoken of, 
 the proper and constant word for «é sin-offering,”” 
 Lev. iv. 3. that the word for © lieth”? is the usual 
 word for the recumbency of animals, (Gen. xxix, 2.) 
 that by “ the door” it is more natural to under- 
 stand the entrance into the place into which the 
 brothers had come to worship, than a figurative al- 
 lusion to the circumstance of a man’s property 
 sometimes lying at the door of his house or tent, 
 L 
 
110 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 or of that door being a place where he must soon 
 be found; and that the whole passage will appear 
 more regular in its construction, more agreeable to 
 the style of expostulation, and more consistent with 
 the concluding promise, if the clause in question 
 be rendered interrogatively, like the corresponding 
 one, in the preceding part of the sentence. Thus: 
 << The Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? 
 and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest 
 well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest 
 not well, is there not asin-offering lying at the door? 
 And unto thee shall le his desire, and thou shalt 
 tule over him.’”? The meaning is now obvious. 
 Coming as Cain had done, without an animal sa- 
 crifice, he could not complain of not being accepted, 
 unless he could plead that he was without sin. If > 
 he could not do this, still there was a way of ob- 
 taining acceptance. A sin-offering had been ap- 
 pointed*. An animal proper for the purpose, was 
 as near as the ram, afterwards caught in the thicket, 
 was to Abraham; it was lying at the very door. 
 Let him approach to God in the appointed 
 - way, and he should not only be accepted as well as 
 his brother, but be restored to the authority which 
 belonged to him as the first-born. 
 
 Cain has nothing to object to this gracious ex- 
 postulation, yet he will not submit. He departs, 
 therefore, in the sullen silence of determined en- 
 mity, and since he cannot, reach the Almighty, 
 he meditates vengeance against his own brother. 
 Adding treachery to malice, he draws him away, 
 
 * The sacrifice of Abel was probably like that of Adam, a burnt- 
 offering. We pretend not to say, whether the sacrifice recommended to 
 Cain, was here called ‘* a sin-offering,” in allusion to the particular 
 sin which he had committdd, in coming to God without an animal sacri- 
 fice, or to his genera] character as a sinner. Afterwards, ‘* the sin- 
 offering” corresponded with the former suppositon, Ley. iv, ™ the 
 burnt-offering” with the ‘atter, Lev, i, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. Til 
 
 from the presence and the hearing of their parents. 
 *¢ And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us £0 
 into the field: and it came to pass, when they 
 were in the ficld, that Cain rose up against Abel 
 his brother, and slew him.’’>—What a striking re- 
 semblance between Satan, at the fall‘of man, and 
 this new enemy of God, at the death of Abel! 
 Both are tormented by the consciousness of divine 
 displeasure ; both envy a beloved creature of God, 
 Behold now what is meant by the seed of the ser- 
 pent, in the words of the curse, Gen. iii. 15. It is 
 not the propagated species of the degraded animal ; 
 it is Cain, and all that prolific generation of vipers, 
 who do the deeds of the wicked one, in the mur- 
 derous persecution of the worshippers of God. 
 How soon has the seed improved on the example of 
 the father! The serpent at first confined himself to 
 deceit; his imitator uses both deceit and violence.— 
 ‘The deed was committed in a lonely field, but God 
 was there. As Cain was stealing away, the Lord 
 said to him, ‘* Where is Abel thy brother ?’? The 
 murderer answers with a lie, ** I know not:”? and 
 with a horrid satisfaction in what he had done, if 
 not an insinuation, that God himself ought to be 
 answerable for the safety of the object of his favour, 
 he adds, ‘*4m I my brother’s keeper ?” 
 
 The crime of murder had not been previously 
 hinted at in any revelation ; of course, no particular 
 punishment had as yet been affixed to it. It was 
 not till after the flood, that, to prevent a return of 
 the violence which had filled the old world, and to 
 guard against an increased frequency of murder, 
 when slaughter should become familiar to man 
 through the grant. of animal food, that God: or- 
 dained for this crime the punishment of death, 
 
112 —C, SCOPE CF THE LAW 
 
 Gen. ix. 3—6. Not only, therefore, is Cain suf- 
 fered to live, but he is assured that his life shall be - 
 safe. He is not suffered, however, to pass with | 
 impunity. He is phiauates with the crime in lan- 
 guage of high indignation; he is condemned to 
 banishment fccitn the country in which it had been | 
 ‘committed ; and this banishment is called a curse, 
 as it well might, since it separated him from the 
 only country in which the worship of God was ce- 
 lebrated, and the hope of redemption taught and 
 enjoyed. He is also deprived of all further pros- 
 pect of success as a tiller of the ground, and doomed 
 to seek a miserable stibisiaterioe: thie he should 
 flee from his father’s abode, and wander among the 
 thorns and briars of an uncultivated wilderness. 
 «© And he said, What hast thou done ?. The voice 
 of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the 
 ground. And now art thou cursed from the 
 grouitid, which hath opened her mouth to receive — 
 thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou 
 tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto 
 thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt 
 thou be in the earth.”’ 
 
 Sull hardened and angry, though terribly dis- 
 mayed, Cain murmurs at his sentence. He is 
 afraid not only of God, but of fellow creatures. 
 Nor is it any wonder. He feels that he deserves to 
 be treated like a ferocious beast, which men are 
 always eager, for their own safety, to destroy. 
 ** And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment 
 is greater than I can bear. Behold thou hast driven 
 me out this day from the face of the ground: and 
 from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugi- 
 tive and a vagabond in the warty: and it shall come 
 to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”’ 
 
? 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 113 
 
 God, having inflicted punishment himself, will 
 not suffer man to add to that punishment. To haye 
 permitted retaliation would have occasioned blood- 
 shed, perhaps to the extirmination of the human 
 race, before human authority had acquired strength 
 sufficient to crush the murderer. To increase the 
 population of the world, the Lord intended to give 
 posterity to Cain. Besides, his condition of life 
 was to be his very punishment, which no man 
 surely had a right to shorten. It was to be pro- 
 longed for a lasting admonition to others, like the 
 punishment described by David, when he says, 
 “¢ Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them 
 by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our 
 shield.”” Psalm lix. 11. On all these accounts, 
 the Lord was pleased to declare, that if any one 
 should kill this unhappy man, he should suffer a 
 punishment seven times heavier than that which 
 had just been awarded. “ And the Lord said unto 
 him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance 
 shall be taken on him seven-fold.’?’—** And (en- 
 tirely to allay his apprehensions) the Lord gave to 
 Cain a sign*, that no one who found him, should 
 kill him.” | 
 
 Cain now departs from the presence of the Lord, 
 and removes from his native country to a region in 
 the neighbourhood, thenceforward called, from the 
 condition of its first inhabitant, “ the land of Nod,”’ 
 that is, “ the land of the vagabond, on the east 
 of Eden ;” or it may be rendered, “ he dwelt in 
 the earth a vagabond, on the east of Eden.’ An 
 account is given of his posterity to the seventh ge- 
 neration. They appear soon to have multiplied, 
 and to have become successful in worldly pursuits, 
 
 * Compare Exodus, x. 2. in the original, 
 
 L2 
 
114 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 but none of them are numbered among the wor- 
 shippers of God. | | 
 The next article in the Scripture history of the 
 antediluvian world, is very short. Having born 
 another Son, Eve called his name Seth (that is, 
 APPOINTED), for God, said she, hath APPOINTED- 
 me another seed, instead of Abel, whom. Cain 
 slew. Seth was probably raised up to follow 
 Abel’s faith, as well as to supply his place in tem- 
 poral respects. Accordingly it is among his pos- 
 terity that the servants of God are said to have ap- 
 peared.—-Seth called his eldest son, Enos, that 1s, 
 infirm, or wretched ; and the word has since been 
 often used as signifying man in general, because he 
 is of few days, and full of trouble. After the birth 
 of Enos is mentioned, it is said, ** Then began men 
 to call upon the name of the Lord.” The words 
 evidently refer to some remarkable circumstance in 
 the history of the religion of that period; yet, from 
 the shortness of the sentence, and the various ways 
 in which it has been translated, the meaning is not 
 easily ascertained. According to the foregoing 
 translation, the information would seem to be, that 
 men at that time began to pray. But it is impos- 
 sible to suppose that men did not begin to pray at 
 Jeast as soon as they began to bring offerings to the 
 Lord. According to others, the word for ‘* began” 
 should rather be rendered ** profaned,’’ and the 
 sentence be explained thus :—‘¢ Then was the 
 name of the Lord profaned in invocation.” In this 
 sense, it refers to Cain and his family, and also to. 
 a proportion of the posterity of Seth, who, with a 
 few exceptions only, appear from a very early pe- 
 riod, to have been guilty of corrupting the worship, 
 and in other ways transgressing the commandments 
 of God. But the history of the commencement and 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 115 
 
 occasion of these transgressions seems to be intro- 
 duced in the beginning of the sixth chapter.—In the 
 connection of this passage, it seems more natural 
 to explain it agreeably to a rendering which differs 
 from both those already given. “ Then men began 
 to call themselves (or to be called) by the name of 
 the Lord.’’ At this period, a distinction, which 
 has continued ever since, began to be made between 
 the Lord’s people, and the people of the world. 
 The race of Cain, for neglect or corruption of divine 
 worship, and being addicted to the business and 
 pleasures of this life, were called “ sons of men Clg 
 whereas the race of Seth, adhering generally to the 
 instituted worship of God, were called “ sons of 
 God.” To teach us the importance of this dis- 
 tinction, we are told, in Gen. vi. 1—4, that form- 
 ing connections inconsistent with a due regard to 
 it, proved the cause of that enormous wickedness, 
 on account of which God brought upon the earth, 
 the waters of the flood.. 
 
 Another particular in this history, which is emi- 
 nently worthy of remark, is the account of Enoch. 
 ** Enoch walked with God, and he was not +. fOr 
 God took him.”? The word for ‘* walked’? denotes 
 here, as in many other places, behaviour, manner 
 of life, conversation. To walk with, or before God, 
 seems in Scripture, to signify a life of holy fellow- 
 ship with God, in observance of his instituted wor- 
 ship, enjoyment of his gracious favour, and habitual 
 obedience to all his righteous commandments. 
 pemee (Gens) vi. Oe xvi oD. “oomeivin 40; xlvili. 15. 
 1 Kings, lil. 6. 14, Vi. 19. viii. 23. Accordingly 
 the expression here has, in the Greek and Syriac, 
 been rendered, “* Enoch pleased God 3”? and in 
 Gen. vi. 9, it has been so rendered also in the 
 
116 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Arabic.—This testimony concerning the life of 
 Enoch is yery briefly stated, but we may learn from 
 the preceding history, how it should be understood. 
 We are’ there told how Abel pleased God. The 
 -Lord had respect to him and his offering, because he 
 brought animal sacrifice in the faith of the revealed 
 redemption. What Abel did and enjoyed once, that 
 Enoch did and enjoyed habitually for hundreds. of 
 years; and the same principle which led him to 
 please God, as to the way of approach in worship, 
 led him to please God in all things. 
 
 Enoch “ was not; for God took him.” This 
 is a similar case to that of Elijah, whose translation 
 to heaven without death, is expressed by the same 
 word, in 2 Kings, il. 3. 5.- In both cases the 
 translation was private. That of Enoch was probably 
 witnessed by no one. But the reason why he 
 ‘¢ was not’’ is declared by the inspired historian to 
 be, that ** God took him.’? His body was not left 
 behind to return to the dust, as when the spirit goes 
 at death to God who gave it, but was carried along 
 with the spirit to the heavenly world, undergoing, 
 we may believe, such a change as was necessary 
 for its new situation. This early instance must 
 have confirmed to the people of God, the hope of 
 eternal life in both soul and body. It might well 
 reconcile them to all the sorrows of the expulsion 
 from the garden of Eden. It was recorded, not to 
 raise in believers an expectation of being translated 
 to heaven without dying, (for the very record men- 
 tions this circumstance as singular,) but to excite 
 them to imitate Enoch’s example, in the assurance 
 of being admitted into heaven in the body, after 
 the resurrection. It may also be considered, as in- 
 timating the instantaneous and blessed change of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 117 
 
 those servants of God, who shall be living on earth 
 at the end of the worid. 
 
 We have only to remark further, the prophecy of 
 Lamech, who ‘* begat a son, and called his name 
 Noah (that is, Resr), saying, This same (shall 
 give us REST) shali comfort us from our work and 
 toil of our hands, because of the ground which the 
 Lord hath cursed.’”” Agreeably to this prophecy, 
 we are told, Gen. vi. 7—9, that when ‘* the Lord 
 said, I will destroy man, Noah found grace (or fa- 
 .vour) in the eyes of the Lord.” It is added, 
 ** Noah was a just man, and perfect in his gener- 
 ations, and Noah walked with God,”’ or ‘ pleased 
 God.’? He appears to have resembled Enoch, and 
 the observations which we have made concerning 
 the faith and practice of the one, will equally apply 
 to the character of the other. Like Abel, Noah 
 also drew near to God with animal sacrifice, in the 
 faith of the revealed redemption. Hence the favour | 
 which he found in the eyes of the Lord. Hence 
 the preservation of himself, and family, and crea- © 
 tures in the ark, that is, in effect, the preservation of 
 the world. After the flood, the prophecy of La- 
 mech received its accomplishment in a comfortable 
 mitigation of the curse upon the ground, which, it 
 would seem, had, before the flood, been much more 
 grievous ; and in a comfortable assurance, that 
 while the world lasted, nothing should happen to 
 cause general destruction, or so much as to inter- 
 rupt: the course of the seasons. ‘* And Noah 
 builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every 
 clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered 
 burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled 
 a savour of rest; and the Lord said to his heart, 
 (spoke comfortably to Noah,) I will not again 
 
118 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 curse the ground any more for man’s sake, because 
 the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his 
 youth. Neither will I again smite any more every 
 thing living, as I have done. While the earth re- 
 maineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, 
 and summer and winter, and day and night shall 
 not cease:’’? Gen. vill. 20—22. 
 We have now traced the leading features of ante- 
 diluvian worship. In Abel we see the way of ac- 
 ceptance with God, and in Cain, the rejection of 
 all who despise that way. In Seth, who, with his 
 posterity, was raised up to supply the place of a 
 martyr, we see the preservation of a seed for the 
 service of God. In Enoch we see the hope which, 
 from the beginning, has been reserved in heaven 
 for the saints. In Noah we see what benefit one 
 object of divine favour may be honored to convey 
 
 _ toaworld. Throughout, the views given in the 
 
 preceding section, of the institution and design of 
 sacrifice, appear to be confirmed. Its indispensible 
 connection with the acceptance of a sinner in the 
 sight of God, and the uniform observance of it by 
 his true worshippers in the earliest times, can be 
 accounted for only on the supposition that it was, — 
 al] along, the appointed means of representing the 
 generous undertaking of the Messiah, his satis- 
 faction for sin, his victory over Satan, his love to 
 his people. Viewed in this light, it shows how 
 
 God is at once infinite in justice and mercy, and 
 
 how his peopie, unworthy as they are, have, in 
 every age, had reason to hope. 
 More particularly, from the subject before us, we 
 
 remark, First, that if Cain could not find acceptance 
 
 without a burnt-offering, or sin-offering, neither 
 can we, Unless, then, sacrifice be superseded by 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 119 
 
 the coming of the Messiah, our worship must be 
 hopeless, for we bring no firstlings of the flock to 
 God. Let this remark be considered particularly 
 by Jews. A whole system of sacrifice is contained 
 in the law of Moses, which they,were directed to 
 observe every festival, every sabbath, every day, on 
 every occasion of sin and inadvertence, both public 
 and private, as well as by vows, and free-will of- 
 ferings. But they cannot now attend toa single 
 branch of it. Would God thus, for ages, prevent 
 his people from enjoying an ordinance, on which 
 their acceptance with him had been made to de- 
 pend, if that ordinance had not already answered 
 its purpose? Oh! if they but saw, that the great sa- 
 crifice had now been offered once for all, that in- 
 stead of a bloody representation, there is an-edifying 
 commemoration of it by bread and wine, that the 
 good news of salvation through its merit, is what 
 God directly calls them to believe, and what their 
 own situation exactly requires, how joyfully would 
 they embrace the very doctrine, which many of 
 them have hitherto regarded with abhorrence. 
 Secondly, If men who have been made acquainted 
 with a divine revelation, are not countenanced by 
 God when they draw near to him in worship, the 
 fault must be their own. It will only add to their 
 guilt, if they murmur at their Maker, or envy those 
 whom he is pleased to favour. How dreadful is it 
 to shed the blood of a righteous man! Above all, 
 how dreadful to do it because’ he is manifestly ap- 
 proved of God! We have seen one instanceof this 
 kind prove a lasting curse on the race of Cain. Is 
 _ there not another, which lies heavy on a numerous 
 seed, to the present day? We are far from denying, 
 that persecution for righteousness sake, has been 
 
 uN s 
 
 we 
 
120 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 ‘the horrid practice of Gentiles, as well as Jews} 
 nay, we admit that both were concerned in the 
 murder of Him who is greater than Abel. But to 
 the Jews were committed the divine oracles respect- 
 ing him; to them primarily was he sent; before 
 their eyes were the tokens of divine approbation 
 and testimony exhibited; and, as they are preserved 
 a distinct nation, the curse upon unbelievers among 
 them, is more visible, as well as more highly aggra- 
 vated. ' After all, however, repentance and the 
 remission of sins are preached in the name of the 
 ‘sacrificed victim. Those only who despise his sal- 
 vation, adhere to the spirit, and inherit the curse of 
 their guilty fathers. 
 
 Thirdly, There is a material difference between 
 the sufferings of a martyr, should he be called even 
 to resist unto blood, and the punishment of the 
 exile from the divine presence, although his life 
 should be spared, and his posterity multiplied even 
 to a miracle. Who that believes a future state of 
 retribution, would not rather with Abel be slain, 
 than with Cain be cursed? We will not conceal 
 fom the seed of Abraham, that such of them as 
 shall embrace the Gospel, must expect much hatred 
 fom brethren according to the flesh, and much 
 also from the wicked among Gentiles. They will 
 be called to show that they love ‘not father, nor 
 mother, nor brother, nor sister, nor wife, nor 
 children, nor houses, nor lands, nor their own 
 life, more than the Messiah. But when they 
 find that the Lord hath respect to thera, and to the 
 offering of that Lamb of God, with which they 
 draw near in faith to the throne of grace, every trial 
 will be joyfully endured. They will count all 
 ‘things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 124 
 of the Messiah. None of the things with which 
 they may be threatened, will move them ; neither 
 will they count their life deat, if they may but 
 finish their course with joy, and testify the Gospel 
 of the grace of God. They will reckon that the 
 sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be 
 compared with the glory which they shall eternally 
 possess. | 
 
 Fourthly, Nothing can be more dangerous than 
 to continue hardenéd under visible tokens of divine 
 displeasure. It is shocking to find Cain and his 
 family entirely occupied in building a city, rearing 
 cattle, and cultivating music and the arts, till the 
 flood came and carried them away. In every case _ 
 we ought to deprecate a worldly spirit. The inor- 
 _ dinate love of money will produce indifference to 
 all religion. The form may be maintained, but the 
 genuine principle was never known. And what 
 shall we say, if this be the general state of a people 
 
 . once highly favoured, bat now of a long time ex- 
 
 amples to all mankind of the judgments of God ? 
 They must resemble the unhappy race of Cain ; 
 they must be ripening fast for irretrievable ruin, 
 Oh ! that while there is yet hope, they would listen 
 to the cry of divine wisdom. ‘* How long, ye 
 simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scornets 
 delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 
 Turn you at my reproof; behold I will pour out 
 my Spirit unto you; I will make known my words 
 unto you.”’ Prov. i. 22, 23. - “* Hear ye, and give 
 ear, be not proud; for the Lord hath spoken. 
 Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause 
 darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the 
 dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he 
 turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross 
 M 
 
122 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall 
 weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye 
 shall weep sore, and run down with tears, be- 
 cause the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.” 
 Jer. xill. 15—17. 
 
 Fifthly, In the worst times, there have been ex- 
 ceptions to abounding iniquity. Abel, Seth, 
 Enoch, and Noah, appeared in a world which was 
 devoted to destruction. Abraham was called out 
 of Ur of the Chaldees. Lot was saved from the 
 conflagration of Sodom. With Elijah, though he 
 thought himself left alone, there were seven thou- 
 sand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to 
 Baal. May’the Lord grant, that many may be 
 found at this time also, who have obtained mercy, 
 though guilty of grievous transgressions, while they 
 were acting in ignorance and unbelief. 
 
 Whatever others may think of our sentiments 
 concerning primitive worship, we thankfully adopt 
 the song of a Jewish priest, who prophesied, saying, 
 <¢ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath 
 visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised 
 up an horn of salvation for us, in the house of 
 his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his 
 holy prophets, WHICH HAVE BEEN SINCE THE 
 WORLD BEGAN.” 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 1°23 
 
 NUMBER VIII. 
 
 Scope of the Law and the Prophets.—Covenant 
 with Noah. 
 
 In the history of Noah, mention is made, for 
 the first time, of the covenant of God. After giving 
 directions to make an ark, and announcing a flood 
 of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, God 
 saith, Gen. vi. 18. ** But with thee will I establish 
 my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, 
 thou, and thy ADTs and thy wife, and thy sons’ 
 wives with thee.”? These words evidently imply, 
 that God had previously made a covenant, that this 
 covenant was known and yalued by Noah, and 
 that the promise of establishing it with him was a 
 token of the favour which he had found in the 
 eyes of the Lord, and a security that he should not 
 be involved in the general destruction, but be ho- 
 noured as the means of preserving the world. 
 
 ‘The only instance, in the preceding history, of 
 any intimation that God made a covenant. with 
 man, occurs in the account of the revelation of re- 
 demption, at the fall. We have already had occa- 
 sion to remark the proofs of a connection between 
 that revelation and the institution of sacrifice, and 
 it is in the institution of sacrifice that we discover 
 the meaning of the covenant of God. The word 
 (Berith) which is translated covenant, seems to 
 signify a purifier, a purification, or purification 
 sacrifice. But whatever be the radical signification 
 of the word, there can be no doubt about its appli- 
 cation, It is certainly used for a sacred engage- 
 
194. SCOPE OF THE LAW, 
 
 ment, or promise, solemnized by the offering of 
 animal sacrifice. The phrase, in the original, for 
 making a covenant, expresses the very act of slaying 
 the victim. “ To cut off,’* or “ to strike,” 1s, 
 indeed, the literal translation of almost all such 
 phrases, whether in Scripture, or in ancient classical 
 authors; and an engagement thus solemnized was 
 considered as. possessing the awful obligation of an 
 oath*. When God declared, that according to. his 
 determinate counsel and foreknowledge, the Mes- 
 siah should destroy Satan, and obtain the victory 
 by receiving a deadly wound, the curse pronounced 
 upon the serpent, was a blessing promised to man. 
 
 To confirm this blessed promise, by an emblem of. 
 the way in which it should be accomplished, God 
 appointed an. animal to be slain by man. The per- 
 formance of this divine service was the solemnization 
 of the covenant of God. When Adam performed 
 it, probably with thanksgiving and prayer, he ex- 
 pressed belief, that the emblem was an evidence of 
 ihe truth of the promise which he had received, 
 and what he then did and witnessed, would, through 
 the divine blessing, strengthen his belief, It was 
 not on one occasion only, however important, that 
 God appointed this solemnity to take place ; it was 
 to be a standing ordinance until the promise should 
 be accomplished.. Every one who observed it, 
 
 * Besides PY NA Ky in the sacred books, see Humer’s Hiad, | 
 lib. fi, ver. 124 ‘© doula Thse TOUTES” Lib. iii, ver. 103---107. 
 QWAje--301. Wirgil’s, Ainead, Jib, will, ver. G41. © Et casd. jungebant 
 teedera porc’.”---lib. Xin | Ver. 169~--215,'"' Livy, Jtb. i. cap. 24, 
 «6 Si prior defexit publico consilio, dolo malo; tu illo die, Jupiter, 
 populum Romanum sic ferito, at ego hunc porcum, hie hodie feriam: _ 
 tantoque magis ferito quanto magis potes pollesque.”--** Id ubi dixit, 
 porcum saxo silice percussit.”---lb, xxi. cap. 45. ** Eaque ut rata scirent 
 ‘fore, agnum Izva manu, dextra silicem retinens, si falleret, Jovem 
 ceterosque precatus Deos, ita se mactarent, quemadmodum ipse agnum 
 mactasset, secundim precationem caput pecudis saxo elisit.”” 
 
AND THE PROPHETS: 195 
 
 professed belief of that accomplishment; and 
 when the Lord had respect to a man and to his 
 offering, he established his covenant with that man, 
 or, as it is sometimes said, (see Gen. xvil. 2. in the 
 original,) he gave his covenant to him, Thus it 
 had been successively confirmed to Abel, probably 
 to Seth, to Enoch, and now it was confirmed to 
 Noah. 
 
 From this divine institution’ arose “the custom 
 among men of confirming their engagements. to 
 one another, by oaths and sacrifices. See Gen. xxi. 
 31, 32. and xxxi. 53, 54. It was probably adopted 
 at Gite with a view to the great Sacrifice which was 
 to redeem mankind; and he who bound himself 
 in this way, would be considered as symbolically 
 staking his hope of salvation on the performance of 
 his engagement. It is manifest, from the terms 
 used on such occasions, that the offerer voluntarily 
 devoted himself to such a destruction as the 
 slaughter of the victim represented, if he should 
 - prove faithless. Among men, these engagements 
 were sometimes the promise of one party, as in 
 Jer. xxxiv. 8—22, when the king and people of 
 Jerusalem engaged to proclaim liberty to their He- 
 brew servants; but generally they were of a mutual 
 nature, originating equally with different parties 
 which were previously independent of one another, 
 and agreed to conditions to be performed on all 
 sides for the common advantage, but to be aban- 
 donéed by the rest, if any one should fail. It is of 
 Importance to observe, that this last and most com- 
 mon case among men, bears no resemblance to the 
 covenant which God has been pleased to make with 
 his people. They are utterly unworthy and unable, 
 according to the usual meaning of the word coves 
 
 % M 2 
 
1 26 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 nant, to enter into any thing like a contract with 
 their Maker for salvation. When they offered sa- 
 ; crifice, they were not making their covenant, or, 
 as it is often termed, their peace with God; they 
 were celebrating the instituted representation nf his 
 - covenant with them; they were expressing, as he 
 had taught them, shes belief of what, in sovereign 
 mercy, he had graciously promised, their thankful- 
 ness for it, and their desire of obtaining all its 
 blessings. Hence in Psalm 1. 5, properly trans- 
 lated, God calleth to the heavens, and to the earth, 
 *« Gather my saints together unto me; those that 
 have made (have solemnized, literally, have cut or 
 struck) MY covenant by sacrifice.’? Hence also, 
 in the passage before us, God saith not, I propose 
 that we shall establish a covenant with aa other, 
 but ‘ with thee will I establish my covenant.’’ 
 
 This covenant was already known and valued 
 by Noah, for he had already received this testimony, 
 that he ‘* was a just man, and perfect in his genera- 
 tions,’’ that is, among the men of the ages in which 
 he lived, and that ‘* he walked with God,”’ or ‘‘ pleased 
 God.’’ He'must, therefore, have been in the habit 
 of drawing near to God, with the appointed sacri- 
 fices, in the faith of the promised redemption, 
 and of conducting himself in the world according 
 tothe genuine influence of that faith. But since God. 
 was now revealing a particular judgment, it seemed 
 good to him, at the same time, to reveal a parti- 
 cular promise. It was in connection with the in- 
 formation of the flood, that God said to Noah, 
 ‘‘ but with thee will I establish my covenant.’’ 
 It would be an unspeakable consolation to Noah to 
 learn, that although the world was to be destroyed, 
 the covenant of God should not fail. That it 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 127 
 
 should be established ‘* with him’? too, was an 
 assurance peculiarly encouraging. ‘This was in 
 effect telling him, that the Messiah should come of 
 his family, that therefore he should not only enjoy, 
 like all believers, the blessings of redemption ina 
 state of immortality, but have in this world, his own 
 life, and that of his family, secured during the ap- 
 _proaching deluge, and be blest with a posterity 
 which should anew replenish the earth. 
 
 With these consolations an important duty was 
 connected, in discharging which, the faith of Noah 
 should be demonstrated, and he should be led to 
 expostulate with the unbelievers around him. He 
 was to make an ark for the saving of himself and 
 family, and the various tribes of earth and air which 
 had been made for the use of man. This was a 
 work of time and labour which, attracting notice, 
 must require explanation, and the explanation 
 would most likely excite ridicule or indignation. 
 The flood was an unseen futurity, and the revelation 
 of it would not be believed. The ark was a no-' 
 velty. The practicability of completing it,. or its 
 utility, if wantéd, would be called in question, as 
 well as the event for which it was preparing. But 
 -when a man really believes a divine revelation, he 
 feels all that impression which the truth declared to 
 him is calculated to produce. A sensual world 
 might despise a danger which they did not see, but 
 Noah was moved with fear. They might deride 
 the singular undertaking, but Noah had received 
 his instructions, was bent on the discharge of duty, 
 and was animated by the confidence of SUCCESS. 
 That God would establish his covenant with hitn 
 was the spur to every effort. He was not merely” 
 labouring to save his life; he was acting as an in- 
 
128 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 strument in the hand of God, to preserve to the 
 human race, those hopes which depended on the 
 promised seed of the woman. 
 
 We may well believe that Enoch, and perhaps 
 various other saints from Adam, were preachers of 
 righteousness to the world of the ungodly. But 
 how peculiarly striking was the office of Noah ! 
 He gave instruction by a solemn symbol, as well as 
 by words. His advancing work was a token, at 
 once, that the world was condemned, and that he 
 was himself an heir of the righteousness of faith. 
 The dreadful judgment was in mercy preceded by 
 an hundred and twenty years of forbearance. While 
 the long-suffering of God thus waited to be oracious, 
 the Spirit of the Messiah animated his faithful ser- 
 vant_to preach to the disobedient, and to warn them 
 of their danger. That covenant of God which was 
 the security of Noah, was sufficient for the salvation 
 of all the sinners who heard him. ‘“ Yet forty 
 days, cried Jonah, and Nineveh shall beoverthrown.”’ 
 The people repented ;—the people were spared. 
 It was not so in the days of Noah. ‘* And the 
 Lord had said, My Spirit shall not always strive 
 with man.” The flood therefore came, and they 
 were destroyed from the earth. Tremendous disso- 
 lution! yet happy in its consequences, if those to - 
 whom the account of it was committed, shall be 
 thereby saved from hardness of heart, and contempt 
 of God’s word and commandment. That the world 
 was at once swept away is a dreadful thought, but 
 how much more dreadful that they perished in a state 
 of rebellion against God, and this rebellion aggra- 
 vated by so long a period of previous admonition. 
 They were disobedient while here; they are now 
 spirits in prison, reserved unto the judgment of the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 129: 
 
 great day. May the thought of so awful a situation 
 awaken many sinners, who at present possess, yet 
 abuse similar, perhaps greater advantages, to take 
 warning to flee from the wrath to come. We are 
 in no danger of perishing at once ina general de- 
 luge, but we are all doomed to die in succession. 
 Amidst the wreck of worlds, the righteous are 
 safe, and so is the cause on which their safety de- 
 pends. Noah is to be regarded as the progenitor 
 of a new race of men. ‘* But with thee will I esta- 
 blish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the 
 ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy 
 sons’ wives with thee. We have here the first re- 
 markable instance of a believer’s family deriving 
 benefit, both of a temporal and spiritual nature, 
 from the covenant which God 1s pleased to establish 
 with the head of that family. Noah found grace 
 in the eyes of the Lord, and in the ark, eight souls 
 who belonged to Noah, were saved by water, while 
 the rest of mankind were drowned. Ina time of 
 general judgment, this favoured family continued 
 to be objects of divine forbearance, and to be under 
 the means of grace; and some of them appear to 
 have profited by these mercies, at least, through 
 them, the knowledge of God, and of his covenant, 
 was transmitted to posterity. Another remarkable 
 instance of the preservation of those who belong to 
 a believer, if they do not despise their connection 
 with him, occurs in the account of the destruction 
 of Sodom. ‘ The men said unto Lot, Hast thou 
 here any besides ? Sons-in-law, and thy sons, and 
 thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the 
 city, bring out of this place; for we will destroy 
 this place.” Gen. xix. 12.——Besides the comfort 
 of parents, and their encouragement to the discharge 
 
130 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of parental duties, the reason of the interest which 
 the children have in the covenant of God, when it 
 is established with their parents, has ever been the 
 promise of the Messiah, and the perpetuity, as well 
 as extent of his kingdom, Hence the preservation 
 of the family of Noah, of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, of David, and baked of all Jews. ‘Fo this 
 day are they beloved for the fathers’ sakes. All 
 who become subjects of the Messiah’s kingdom, 
 secure to their offspring the same blessings. For, 
 besides being increased by the accession of the hea-~ 
 then, that kingdom is to be transmitted to the end 
 of time. ‘* A seed shall serve him; it shall be 
 accounted to the Lord for a generation.”’ Psalm 
 xxi. 30. ‘* They shall fear thee as long as the 
 sun and moon endureth, throughout al] generations.”’ 
 Psalm Ixxii. 5. * One generation shall praise thy 
 works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” 
 . Psalm exlv, 4. ** Lord, thou hast been our dwel- 
 ling-place in all generations.—O satisfy us early 
 with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad 
 all our days. Make us glad according to the days 
 wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein 
 we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy 
 servants, and thy glory unto their children. And 
 Jet the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; 
 and establish thou the work of our hands upon us, 
 yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.’ 
 Psalm xc. 1. 14—17. 
 
 When the ground was cursed for man’s sake, 
 the inferior animals must have suffered by the 
 change ; they were now also to suffer in the general 
 destruction. But since they had been created at 
 first for the use of man, a portion of every species’ 
 was to be preserved for the same purpose. In or- 
 
I 
 
 ' AND THE PROPHETS. 131 
 
 dinary circumstances, to procure these creatures 
 would have been a more laborious and dangerous 
 undertaking than the building of the ark ; they 
 were, therefore, to come of their own accord. 
 While men continued deaf to every argument, the 
 beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, taught 
 by their Maker, were to flee, as on the approach of 
 a storm, for refuge to Noah. Out of this wild, 
 yet tractable assemblage, he was to select the male 
 and the female by sevens, or by two, according to 
 a distinction now mentioned for the first time, but 
 evidently known before, between clean beasts. and 
 those that are not clean. This distinction could 
 not yet refer to their being eaten by man, for the 
 were not yet granted to man for food. That it was 
 connected with the institution of sacrifice seems 
 the only rational account which can be given of its 
 origin, and is confirmed by Noah’s observance of 
 it in the victims which he sacrificed as burnt-offer- 
 ings after the flood.—God will work no miracle 
 without sufficient reason. As Noah must make an 
 ark, so he must store it with provision, both for 
 himself and family, and for the animals that are 
 to be along with him. ‘¢ And take thou unto thee 
 -of all food that is eaten, and thon shalt gather it to 
 thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.” 
 Faith always leads to obedience. The believing 
 patriarch was observant of every direction. “ Thus 
 did Noah ; according to all that God commanded 
 him, so did he*,” 
 
 * Concerning the sufficient capacity of the Ark to ¢ontain all the 
 creatures, together with food te maintain them for a twelvemonth, we 
 insert a very plain and convincing argument by Mr, Hallet, in his 
 Notes on the Eleventh Chapterof the Epistle to the Hebrews, «* The 
 Ark,” says he, ‘* was somewhat, though nota vast deal, bigger than 
 
 the Royal Sovereign (supposing this ship to be made in the shape of the 
 Ark). The length of the Ark was four hundred and fifty feet, its 
 
132, SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 When the flood was past, and Noah came forth 
 from the ark, he testified his gratitude, and suppli- 
 cated a continuance of divine favour, by a solemn 
 celebration of the covenant of God. ** And Noah 
 builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every 
 clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered 
 burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled 
 a savour of rest.’ He was pleased with the ob- 
 servance of his own institution; and it was then, 
 as we remarked in the preceding essay, that 
 the prophecy of Lamech received its accom- 
 plishment.—Besides the promise of eternal life, 
 the covenant of God secures every thing requi- 
 site for every situation of his people in the pre- 
 sent world. God blesseth Noah and his sons, 
 that they may replenish the desolated earth. He | 
 bestows on them a new dominion over the inferior 
 animals ; gives permission to use them, as well as 
 the herb of the field, for food; reserves, however, 
 the blood, the pouring out of which represented the 
 making of atonement for the soul; and declares 
 that murder shall now be punished with death. 
 While the animals are thus delivered into the hand 
 of man, even they also are, for the sake of man, 
 secured by the covenant of God against any return 
 of the destruction which they had recently escaped. 
 « And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, 
 and with your seed after you, and with every living 
 creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, 
 and of every beast of the earth with you, from all 
 breadth seventy-five, and its height forty-five. The length of the Royal 
 Sovereign is two hundred and ten leet, the breadth fifty, and the draught 
 of the water twenty-two. If, then, the Hoyal Sovereign will carry eight 
 hundred and fifty men, a bundred guns, and abundance of provision 
 
 and goods besicdes, we may: easily allow that the Ark should carry eight 
 people, a hundred sorts of beasts, two hundred sorts of birds, and food 
 
 for them all,’?? / 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 138 
 
 that go out of the ark, to every beast of the carth, 
 And [| will establish my covenant with you ; and 
 no flesh shall be cut off any more by the waters of 
 the flood, and there shall not be any more a flood 
 to destroy the éarth.”” Gen. ix. 9—11. Who can 
 read these assurances of regard for universal nature, 
 without adopting the adoring language of David ? 
 “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens ;_ thy 
 faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righte- 
 ousness is like the great mountains ; thy judgments 
 are a great deep. O Lord, thou preservest man 
 and beast. How excellent is thy loving kindness, 
 - O God! Therefore the children of men put their 
 
 trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Psalm 
 _ XXxXv¥i. 5—7. 
 
 The covenant of God is now accompanied by a 
 sign, that he will graciously keep it in everlasting 
 remembrance. That beautiful appearance, caused by 
 the refraction of the rays of the sun as they pass 
 through the clouds, or falling rain, must have been 
 admired by all men from the beginning ‘of the 
 world. As a symptom of rain, however, and a har- 
 binger, perhaps, of another deluge, it might now have 
 become an object of terror. How completely is the 
 distressing association prevented, and the beautiful 
 gradation of colours increased in beauty, by the di- 
 vine revelation that the rainbow shall be the token 
 of the covenant which God hath established be- 
 tween himself and all flesh that is upon the earth! 
 This assurance that the flood shall never return, 
 while it secures to the very beasts of the field all] 
 that comfort of which their nature is capable, to the 
 end of the world, is a pledge to the believer of the 
 pardon of his sins, and of the eternal continuance 
 of the love of God when the world shall be no 
 
 N 
 
134 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 more. In a little wrath I hid my face from 
 thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness 
 will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Re- 
 deemer. For this is ws the waters of Noah unto 
 me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah 
 should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn 
 that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke 
 thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills 
 be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from 
 thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be re- 
 moved, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee.” 
 Isaiah, liv. 8—10. 
 
 Having established his eovenant with Noah, 
 God enabled him to deliver a remarkable prophecy 
 concerning his offspring, which is verified by the 
 history of mankind to this very day. The occasion 
 of the delivery of this prophecy was of a humbling 
 nature. Though transgressors were so generally 
 swept away by the flood, sin was not eradicated 
 while any of the human race were permitted to sur- 
 vive. Soon did it appear in the family of Noah, 
 as it had done before in that of Adam. Even Noah 
 himself does not seem to have been absolutely 
 blameless ; it is difficult, however, to determine 
 how far he was criminal, because he might not be 
 aware of the strength of wine. At the same time, 
 the situation in which he was found, was by no 
 means suitable to his general character. One sin 
 paves the way for another. The fault in which 
 Noah was overtaken, tempted Ham to indulge con- 
 tempt for his father. Of the guilt of Ham, there 
 can be no doubt. If he had previously loved his 
 father, he would not have told what he had seen"in 
 the tent to his two brethren without. The use which 
 they made of the information, most strikingly 
 showed the difference of their disposition. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 35 
 
 - To punish contempt of a parent, and to encou- 
 rage the opposite temper, were objects worthy of 
 divine interposition. We all feel the importance of 
 the Fifth Commandment. The principle which it 
 
 - inculcates, is essential equally to the peace of so- 
 
 ciety, the comfort of the declining and the rising 
 generation, and the transmission of the knowledge 
 of God from one age to another. It was peculiarly. 
 valuable in the days of Noah, when the patriarchal 
 was the only form of government, and oral instruc- 
 tion by parents the only means of deriving infor- 
 mation of any kind to posterity. We may see, 
 therefore, the fitness of an interposition of the 
 Spirit of prophecy on this occasion. 
 
 That it was the holy prophetic Spirit of God, 
 and not the angry temper of offended nature, which 
 now opened the lips of Noah, is sufficiently proved 
 by the evidence of facts. Words so different from 
 conjecture, and so wonderfully accomplished in 
 succeeding ages, could be nothing else than a divine 
 prediction of things to come. When this is granted, 
 all suspicion of undue resentment on the part of Noah 
 must be laid aside. He was not speaking in his own 
 spirit, but merely announcing the willofGod; neither 
 does the prophecy intimate the punishment of inno- 
 cent generations for the sin of a progenitor. Those 
 who were to bear the curse, should deserve the 
 curse, . No generation should suffer till the measure 
 of its iniquity was full. As knowledge may accu- 
 mulate for ages, so may iniquity; but the accumu- 
 lation in both cases is the actual possession of that 
 generation which has become the subject of exa- 
 mination, As to the euilty son of Noah, his pu- 
 nishment consisted not so much in the accomplish- 
 ment, as in the prospect of the accomplishment of 
 
136 ' SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 the prophecy. His personal lot might, indeed, be 
 affected by it in some degree, but what would 
 probably touch him in the tenderest point, the veil 
 of futurity, was drawn aside so far as to afflict him 
 with an extended view of the condition of his 
 wicked and degraded offspring, while, as a reward 
 of filial reverence, Shem and Japhet were, by the 
 same means, filled with gratitude and joy. Nor 
 was the punishment altogether confined to Ham. 
 As it must have been a mortification to Noah, 
 when he awoke from his wine, to know what his 
 younger son had done to him, so it must have 
 been a heavy aggravation of his distress, to be called, 
 to pronounce a grievous curse on so large a propor- 
 tion of his own descendants. The interest which 
 he felt in the subject, has been permitted to appear 
 in the style of the prophecy.. In pronouncing the 
 curse, he simply declares, though with repeated 
 asseveration, the divine judgment, but in pro- 
 nouncing the blessing, he bursts into the language 
 of thanksgiving, while he announces the divine dis- 
 pensations of mercy. 
 «© And he said, 
 © Cursed be Canaan ; 
 «© A servantof servants shall hebeunto his brethren. 
 «< And he said, 
 “«‘ Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem ; 
 «© And Canaan shall be servant to them. 
 “* God shall enlarge Japhet, 
 -€ And shall dwell in the tents of Shem, 
 <¢ And Canaan shall be servant to them.’’ 
 Insomecopies of theSeptuagint tr anslation,*“ Ham? 
 is put in the first clause, instead of ‘* Canaan.’’ 
 In the Alexandrine copy, the sentence is read and 
 divided thus :—‘* Cursed be Canaan, his son; a ser> 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 137 
 vant shal] he be unto his brethren :’’ and although 
 other copies have not *¢ his’? in the first clause, a 
 great many of them make the same division of the 
 sentence. In all the three sentences, the Arabic 
 version has ‘the father of Canaan,” instead of 
 «* Canaan.”? The first clause also, as we read. the 
 passage, is much shorter than the following ones, 
 which is unlike the usual correspondence of sen- 
 tences, and parts of sentences, observable in the 
 _ poetical style of Hebrew prophecy. For these rea- 
 Sons, many suppose the first line to have originally 
 been ‘* Cursed be Ham, the father of Canaan ah? 
 and some adopt the Arabic reading throughout.— 
 We wish not to introduce, at present, a dispute 
 about a various reading. Although some have 
 conjectured otherwise, it seems evident, from what 
 goes before, that Ham had been the original offender. 
 It also appears from history, that the prophecy of 
 Noah has been verified in the posterity of Ham, by 
 the rest of his sons, Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, 
 (Gen. x. 6,) as well as by Canaan. But, in deve- 
 loping the purposes of God towards mankind, for 
 the edification of his people, it was certainly of 
 - great importance to mark particularly that Canaan 
 ‘was under a curse, because, in process of time, the 
 people of God were to be commanded ‘to drive the 
 Canaanites out of the land of their inheritance, 
 The language, therefore, of Noah was calculated to 
 prepare them for their duty when the time should 
 come. The insertion of his prophecy in the books 
 of Moses, must have béen very encouraging to the 
 Israclites when Moses wrote, for they were then 
 about to enter on the service ; and the existence of 
 it in those writings, enables all subsequent genera- 
 tions to compare it with the course of events, and 
 ee NQ % 
 
138 SCOPE OF THE LAW \ 
 
 teaches them to acknowledge the rising evidence of 
 prophecy in behalf of divine-revelation. 
 
 The curse is pronounced in the most emphatic | 
 manner. <“ Servant of servants,’ (like holy of 
 holies, king of kings, song of songs,) is a superla- 
 tive expression, and signifies the lowest of servants. 
 The lowest servitude may admit of consolation 
 through divine favour, but there can be no consola- 
 tion, nor even alleviation, when it comes as the 
 effect of divine indignation. Such was the servi- 
 tude of Canaan ; and to express the more fully its 
 certainty, and its grievous import, it is three times 
 declared—once directly, and once in each of the 
 prophecies respecting his brethren. | 
 
 Whether this fearful denunciation was, in any 
 degree, fulfilled in the person of Ham, or of Ca- 
 naan, we have no certain accounts. In their pos- 
 terity it was not fulfilled for a considerable time, 
 because the curse was to come upon them for their 
 own wickedness, and not for that of their progenitors. 
 But when the iniquity of the Canaanites was full, 
 (see Gen. xy. 16.) the curse overtook them im the 
 most dreadful manner. In taking possession of 
 their land, the Israelites slew thirty ‘of their kings, 
 and thousands of their people; condemned the 
 Gibeonites to be hewers of wood, and drawers of wa- 
 ter; and shut up the rest in their cities. These 
 also were occasionally besieged and taken, tll at 
 last the subjugation was completed by Solomon. 
 2 Chron. viii. 7, 8. Thus were they servants to 
 Shem.—The Canaanites, who dwelt in Tyre, or 
 fled to Thebes in Beeotia, or to Carthage, were sub- 
 duced by the Greeks and Romans, descendants of 
 Japhet. Those of this race who still remain, may 
 hhave changed their masters, but not their state. 
 
 y 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 139 
 
 Nor does the accomplishment of the prophecy 
 appear to be confined -to the line of Canaan. The 
 continent of Africa was mostly peopled by the 
 children of Ham. Egypt, in particular, is, in 
 Scripture, called the land of Ham; and that coun- 
 try, though for atime free and flourishing, has, 
 for two thousand years, been continually enslaved 
 by the descendants either of Shem or of Japhet. 
 The Egyptians were first subdued by the Persians, 
 the descendants of Shem; afterwards by the Gre- 
 cians, and then by the Romans, both descendants 
 of Japhet; next they were enslaved by the Saracens, 
 the descendants of Shem; and after this, by the 
 Mamelukes, and by the Turks, both again de- 
 scendants of Japhet, under whom they are in bon- 
 dage to the present day.—As to the rest of Africa, 
 that part of it which lies upon the Mediterranean, 
 has been subject to one foreign power or another 
 ever since it was conquered by the Romans; the 
 other parts are deep sunk in barbarity and wretch- 
 edness. Slavery is every where common within 
 the country, and slaves are the principal article of 
 exportation. 
 
 Shem and Japhet were united in filial reverence : 
 they are also classed together as subjects of divine 
 blessing. The first and best blessing Noah pro- 
 nounces on the younger of the two, which probably 
 he would not have done, had he been left to him- 
 self. See Gen. xlvili. 17, 18. But he was. still 
 under the direction of the Spirit of God, and was 
 over-ruled, as Isaac and Jacob afterwards were, to 
 prefer the younger to the elder, that the choice 
 might conspicuously appear to bé of grace. ' | 
 
 The first view given of the blessing of Shem is, - 
 that Jehovah was his God. With this blessing 
 
cer 
 
 ax 
 
 140 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Noah is so much delighted that he blesseth Jeho- 
 vah, who new, for Lhe. first. time, reveals himself as 
 the ‘God of a chosen individual, and a chosen race. 
 God is a term in itself of | general import, denoting 
 worshipful superiority. It is applied, in sree pbiang 
 to men and to angels, as well as to the Divine Being. 
 
 In these applications of the term, the nature of the 
 wofship or respect which is due, must correspond 
 with that of the superiority which is possessed. If 
 men are judges, or kings, they must be respected suit~ 
 ably to the dignity of those offices, in the court, or 
 the kingdom, which belongs to them, When angels 
 have at any time appeared to men, a reverence has 
 
 - been due to them, as beings who excel in strength, 
 
 and the majesty of their appearance seems to have 
 always commanded it. But when Jehovah conde- 
 scends to say, ‘* I am your God,”’ the highest re- 
 verence falls short of what is due to his infinite 
 glory and goodness ; and therefore we are taught 
 to humble ourselves before him, and to ‘ love the 
 Lord our God, with all our heart, and with all our 
 soul; and with all our might.’ 
 
 This relation between God and man, supposes 
 the revelation which God hath made of his will to 
 man; the redemption announced from the begin- 
 ning, and confirmed by a covenant, the establish- 
 ing of which with individuals and their families, we’ 
 have’already seen to include every deliverance from 
 eyil, and every enjoyment of good both for time 
 and eternity. But this relation is here represented 
 as being formed not merely with individuals and 
 their families, but with a race of successive genera- 
 tions. The prophecy of Noah, in its blessings, as 
 well as in its curse, evidently extends to future 
 
 ages. The Lord God of Shem is the God of his 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 141 
 
 posterity, as the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, is the God of Israel. This transmitted re- 
 lation from age to age, like the benefit derived to a 
 single family, when God is pleased to establish his 
 covenant with the head of it, is owing to the pro- 
 mise of the Messiah, and the perpetuity of his 
 kingdom. Considered as the God of a person, the 
 Lord bestows every personal blessing ; such as the 
 pardon of sin; the sanctifying and comforting i in- 
 fluences of tis good Spirit ; as well as bodily health 
 and temporal comforts, as far as they may be con- 
 _ sistent with more important interests s, and eternal 
 life in a better world. Considered as the God of 
 a nation through successive ages, the Lord bestows 
 every national blessing ; such as increase of num- 
 ‘bers; deliverance from oppression ; institutions of 
 ‘worship, government, and instruction ; the gift and 
 quiet possession of a fertile land; and restoration 
 from captivities, which may have happened as a 
 chastisement for sin. 
 
 Another view is given of the blessing of Shem. 
 *€ God shall enlarge Japhet—and shall dwell in the 
 tents of Shem.”” There seems no reason to doubt, 
 that the meaning of the latter clause i is, that God 
 shall dwell in the tents of Shem. God is essentially 
 omnipresent ; but, by peculiar tokens of his pre- 
 sence and favour, he was to dwell in the tents of 
 Shem. The true explanation of these words seems 
 to be that which is given in the targum of 
 Onkelos,—*¢ and shall make his glory to dwell | in, 
 the tabernacles of Shem.’? From the word (sha- 
 can) rendered here ** shall dwell,”’ is derived the 
 word (mishcan) a frequent name for the sacred ta- 
 bernacle, or dwelling place of God, and the word 
 (shechinah) by which Jewish writers commonly 
 
1492 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 express the divine glory, which dwelt between the 
 cherubim, in the tabernacle and temple. The Holy 
 Spirit, in directing Noah to use this word, seems 
 ~ to have intimated, that God would erect his ta- 
 bernacle among the tents of Shem, where his glory 
 should reside in the midst of them. This promise 
 of dwelling with a people is the consequence of 
 being their God; and therefore these two bless- 
 ings are frequently spoken of as connected with 
 each other. Thus Exod. xxix. 45,46. “ And I 
 will dwell amongst the children of Israel, and will 
 be their God, And they shall know that Iam the . 
 Lord their God; that brought them forth out of the 
 land of Egypt, that I may dwell amongst them: I 
 am the Lord their God.” se 
 
 We know not how far this prophecy was ac- 
 complished to Shem personally ; but we have am- 
 ple proof of its accomplishment to his descendants, 
 In Gen. x. 21, we are told, that Shem was “ the 
 father of all the children of Heber,” that is of the 
 Hebrews. If we consult their history we shall find 
 that Jehovah was justly styled by Noah, ‘¢ the God 
 of Shem; and that among this people, God was 
 eraciously pleased to dwell.. He showed himself 
 to be the God of Shem, because he preserved the 
 descendants of Shem in his worship, while those of 
 Ham and Japhet soon forgot the God of their father, 
 and chose for themselves new gods, of their own 
 creation. And when at length, his worship be- 
 gan to be neglected among the descendants of | 
 Shem, God called Abraham, one of them in the 
 line of Heber, from his country, and from his fa- 
 ther’s house, to establish with him his covenant, 
 to be a God to him, and to his seed after‘ him. 
 Again, God was graciously pleased to dwell among 
 
 ~ 
 
‘i AND THE PROPHETS, 143 
 
 this people. How remarkably was this verified, 
 when he appeared among them in a pillar of a 
 cloud by day, and of fire by night ; and when he 
 showed to Moses in the mount a pattern of a taber- 
 racle, in which, when finished, he dwelt in visi- 
 ble glory. There he met his people, whence the 
 place of his dwelling among them was called the 
 tabernacle of the congregation. There they ap- 
 proached him with the sacrifices of righteousness, 
 of which he expressed his acceptance, and at the 
 _ same time, permitted them to partake of his table. 
 They consulted him there in all their difficulties, and 
 prayed to him in distress, and he shone forth in 
 perfect beauty, graciously answering their petitions, 
 and showing himself a present help in the time 
 of trouble. No wonder that Noah, who saw these 
 things at a distance, should exclaim, “ Blessed be 
 Jehovah, the God of Shem!” or that Solomon, 
 who saw them brought near with peculiar glory> 
 should break out into a strain of the highest ad- 
 - miration, “ But will God in very deed dwell with 
 men on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the heaven . 
 of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less 
 this house which I have builded !? 2 Chron. vi. 18, 
 But it was not in the tabernacle, nor in the temple — 
 Af Solomon, that the glory of the Lord was chiefly 
 displayed, as dwelling in the tents of Shem. The 
 temple which was building in the days of Hageai 
 the prophet, though inferior in outward splendour, 
 and never favoured like the temple of Solomon, 
 with the residence of the Shechinah, was to be 
 distinguished with the presence of the Lord, in 
 a manner superior to every previous manifesta- 
 tion, “ According to the word that I covenanted 
 with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my 
 
144 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 * 
 
 Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For 
 thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it as a little 
 while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, 
 and the sea and the dry land: and I will shake all 
 nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, 
 and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord 
 of hosts. The silver is mine, and gold is mine, 
 saith the Lord of hosts. The glory’ of this latter 
 house shall be greater than of the former, saith the 
 Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, 
 saith the Lord of hosts.” Hag. ii.5—9. Ought 
 not this prophecy to lead Jews to enquire, whether 
 during the continuance of ‘© this latter house,”’ 
 which has long since been destroyed, the Lord did 
 not visit it in such a manner as to give them reason 
 to say, “* He dwelt among us, and we beheld his 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth.”’ 
 
 There seems to be a good deal of reason for 
 translating the blessing of the remaining son, ‘‘ God 
 shall persuade Japhet.’? But‘since this translation 
 has been objected to, and the one already given Is 
 the most common, both in ancient and modern 
 versions, we shall admit it here ; and we do so with 
 the less regret, that the divine persuasion, or con- 
 version, of the posterity of Japhet is clearly foretold 
 in many other passages of Scripture. Supposing, 
 then, the name Japhet to signify ‘“‘ Enlargement,” 
 there is, (as is common in the Hebrew writings, 
 and especially in the blessings of the patriarchs) 
 an allusion to that name, when Noah says, ‘* God 
 shall enlarge Japhet.” : 
 
 In this view of the prophecy, we are to seek its 
 completion in the large inheritance, which appears » 
 to haye been assigned. to the offspring of Japhet. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 145 
 
 The dispersion of mankind was so conducted by 
 Providence, as to preserve the distinctions of f- 
 muly, tribe, and nation, Gen. x. 5. 20. B82, 
 Deut, xxxii. 8. While the sons of Shem occupied 
 the centre and southern parts of Asia, and those of 
 Ham peopled Africa, and the parts of Asia adja-~ 
 cent; the sons of Japhet spread themselves over 
 all Europe, and all the northern parts of Asia. 
 From. the north eastern extremity of Asia, they pro- 
 bably passed into America. Afterwards they con- 
 quered the extensive country of China. From Fu- 
 tope they again passed into America by the Atlantic 
 Ocean, and into the southern parts of Asia by the 
 Cape of Good Hope. And they have long been 
 the governors of the earth, extending their colonies 
 in every direction. After all, however, a large 
 portion of this world would be ‘no blessing, were 
 it not accompanied with other advantages. Not 
 to mention the general progress of the arts and 
 sciences, it will be allowed by Jews, that the sacred 
 books are more generally possessed by the descend- 
 ants of Japhet, than by any other Gentiles, They 
 are translated into most of the languages of Japhet ; 
 and, by the art of printing, copies are multiplied 
 with the. greatest facility, and to an astonishing 
 amount. 
 
 The Scripture account of the covenant, which 
 God established with Noah, while it confirms the 
 doctrine of the preceding Essays concerning the 
 origin and design of the institution of sacrifice, 
 gives an additional discovery of the solemnity of 
 that sacred institution. It also unfolds, in the 
 most interesting manner, the comprehensive mean- 
 ing of the early revelations of redemption. We be- 
 hold in it an enlarged’ display of the harmonious 
 
 me) 
 
146 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 exercise of infinite justice and mercy; and an il- 
 lustrious proof of the preciousness and inviolable 
 faithfulness of the promises of God, as well as of his 
 Almighty power to perform all that he hath spoken. 
 “What a flood could not disannul, will surely be ful- 
 filled. | 
 From the prophecy of Noah, we may learn, on 
 the one hand, the dreadful situation of children of 
 the Lord’s people, when they are guilty of for-| 
 saking the God of their fathers. In this case, the 
 advantages which they have enjoyed, must aggra-= 
 vate their punishment. Ham was preserved with 
 Noah from the destruction of the flood; but when 
 he showed that he had no regard for his venerable 
 parent, and no fear of God before his eyes; he 
 was condemned to know, that both himself and 
 posterity were under a prophetic curse, and should, 
 in that condition, be servants to their brethren. Let 
 all, whose fathers have been highly favoured, seri- 
 ously consider this awful example. If they have 
 become degenerate, they cannot wonder at any re- 
 verse of circumstances, which may have followed 
 the change. But they need something better than 
 deliverance from outward affliction. Let them adopt 
 the prayer of the Psalmist, when he described their 
 distressed situation. ‘¢ Turn us aga, O Lord God 
 of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be 
 saved.’ Psalm Ixxx. 19. : 
 
 From the same prophecy, we may learn, on the 
 other hand, the blessedness of that people whose 
 God is Jehovah. He showeth mercy to thousands 
 of generations of them that love him, and keep his 
 commandments. What an extensive view is here 
 opened to us of divine dispensations of grace, to- 
 wards the Jewish nation, and towards the whole hu- 
 
 ES 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 147 
 
 _man race}—Jews are now suffering under judg- 
 ments, from which the righteousness of no mere 
 man shall be able to deliver them. Low, however, 
 as their condition is, it is far from being hope- 
 less. A most affectionate prophecy, respecting the 
 evils, which they have endured, contains a striking 
 allusion to the subject which we have now been 
 considering.—‘** Or if I send a pestilence into that 
 land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to 
 eut off from it man and beast; though Noah, 
 Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord 
 God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter : 
 they shall dwé deliver their own souls by their 
 righteousness. For thus saith the Lord God, how 
 much more when I send my four sore judgments 
 upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the 
 noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from 
 it man and beast? Yet behold, therein shall be left 
 a remnant that shall be brought forth, doth sons 
 and daughters : behold, they shall come forth unto 
 you, and ye shall see their way, and their doings :. 
 and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that 
 I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all 
 that I have brought upon it. And they shall com- 
 fort you when ye see their ways, and their doings : 
 and ye shall know that I have not done without 
 cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord 
 God.”” Ezek. xiv. 19—23. 
 
 Whatever be the meaning of the prophecy con- 
 cerning Japhet, we may see, that it is perfectly 
 consistent with the interest of Shem. They are 
 evidently classed together, as partakers of divine 
 blessings. Why, then, such alienation and jea- 
 lousy, between Jews and descendants of Japhet ? 
 Brethren, we also bless ‘¢ the Lord God of Shem.’ 
 
148 ; - SCOPE OF THE LAW | 
 
 We lament the injuries which you have often 
 
 sustained from us; and we trust, that He, who in 
 righteous judgment, has permitted them, will daily 
 cause them to decrease, till they be entirely re- 
 moved. Meanwhile, we shall adopt the sentiments 
 of the sweet singer of Israel, when he says, ‘* Pray 
 for the peace of Jerusalem : pve shall prosper that 
 love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prospe- 
 rity within thy palaces. For my brethren and com- 
 panions sakes, I will now say, Peace le within. 
 thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, 
 I will seek thy good.”’ Psalm cxxu.6—9. 
 
 NUMBER IX. 
 
 Scope of the Law and the Prophets.—Covenant with 
 Abraham. | 
 
 . Arter the flood, men soon began to depart from 
 the worship and service of the true God, and to 
 abandon themselves to the abominations of idolatry. 
 These prevailed, not only among the descendants of 
 Ham, and of Japhet, but also among those of 
 Shem, whose God had been declared, in Noah’s 
 prophecy, to be Jehovah, who should dwell in the 
 tents of Shem. Even the father of Abraham, and 
 perhaps Abraham himself, and Nahor, were, fora 
 time, defiled by the general pollution. This is ex- 
 pressly declared, in an address from God to the 
 children of Israel, after they had been settled in the 
 
 land of their inheritance. ‘* Joshua said unto all | 
 
 the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 149. 
 your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (of -) 
 
 Euphrates) in old time, even Terah, the father of 
 Abraham, the father of Nahor: and they served 
 other gods.” Josh. xxiv. 2. Probably, they had 
 not altogether forgotten the true God, but they 
 were guilty of worshipping idols along with him. 
 This unhallowed union, so expressly forbidden 
 afterwards in the first commandment, was known 
 to be wrong at a very early period. We learn this 
 
 : fact from the language of Job. If I beheld the 
 
 sun when it shined, or the moon walking zm bright- 
 hess: and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or 
 my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an 
 iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should 
 have denied the God that is above.? Job XXXi. 
 26—28. It appears, however, that an admixture 
 of idolatrous worship was retained in the family of 
 Nahor, long after it had been renounced by Abra- 
 ham. When Laban sware to Jacob, he said, ** The 
 God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God 
 of their fathers, judge betwixt us.” In Opposition 
 to this mode of swearing, Moses adds, “* and Jacob 
 sware by the fear of his father Isaac.” Gen. xxxi. 53. 
 Laban joined idols with the true God, but Jacob 
 sware by the true God alone, whom alone his father 
 Isaac had ever feared *, 
 
 Instead of sweeping the idolaters at once from 
 the earth, as in the case of the flood, or con- 
 founding their purposes, as in that of the building 
 of Babel, the Lord was pleased to separate from the 
 midst of them a people for himself. To accom- 
 plish this gracious purpose, he called Abraham 
 out of Ur of the Chaldees, Gen. xy. Te Posh 
 
 * See on the place, Soesman’s Notes on Genesis, corrected and 
 translated by David Levi. - 
 .O2 
 
¥50 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 xxiv. 3. Neh.ix. 7. It would seem that Abra- 
 ham made known the,call, which he had received, 
 to Terah and Lot, who consented to accompany 
 him ; and Terah, being their parent, is represented 
 as the principal in the journey. Gen. x1. 31, 32. 
 They set out from Ur, to go to Canaan, but for 
 what reason we are not informed, they stopt at 
 Haran, and dwelt there, and there Terah died. 
 Nahor does not appear to have accompanied them 
 at first, but he had followed them afterwards, and_ 
 settled in Haran, which, on that account, is called 
 the city of Nahor, Gen. xxiv. 10. and xxix. 4, 5. 
 
 On the death of Terah in Haran, God repeated 
 the call, which he had given to Abraham, while in 
 Ur of the Chaldees. ‘‘ The Lord said unto Abram, 
 Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, 
 and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will 
 show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, 
 and T will bless thee, and make thy name great 5 
 and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless 
 them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth 
 thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be 
 blessed.”? Gen. xii. 1—3. Abraham now set out 
 from Haran to go to Canaan. He knew not whither 
 he was going, but under the guidance of God, he 
 went to that country, believing that God would 
 show him a land where he would bless him. He is 
 
 now the principal in the journey himself, and he 
 carries Lot his brother’s son, as well as all his own 
 ‘family along with him. 
 
 When he arrived at Sichem, in the plain of 
 Moreh, he was informed that he was now in the 
 land to which the divine call referred. ‘* The Lord 
 appeared unto Abram, and said, unto thy seed will 
 
 I give this land. Gen. xi. 7.. Sometime after this, 
 # | | 
 
 % 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 15) 
 
 the Lord said unto Abram, when Lot was separated 
 from him, “ Lift up now thine eyes, and look 
 from the place where thou art, (nearly in the centre 
 of the Jand,) northward, and southward, and east- 
 ward, and westward; for all the land which thou 
 seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. for 
 ever, And I will make thy seed as the dust of the 
 earth ; so that if a man can number the dust of the 
 earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. «Arise, 
 walk through the land, in the length of it, and in 
 the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.’? 
 Gen. xiit. 14—17. : 106 
 
 When Abraham returned from rescuing Lot, 
 and had declined taking any portion of the spoil, 
 to prevent uneasiness from the apprehension of fu- 
 ture assaults of the enemies, and to assure him 
 that he should be no poorer, because he had none 
 of the riches of Sodom, “ the word of the Lord 
 came unto Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, 
 _ Abram ; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
 reward.”? Gen. xv. 1. All this while, Abram had 
 no child by Sarai his wife. Being now above 
 eighty years old, the promise to make of him a 
 great nation, began to seem improbable, and he 
 ventured to express his anxiety. The Lord had 
 awaked Abram by a vision in the night, and now 
 to convince him of the certainty of the promise, 
 which seemed to be improbable, < he brought him 
 forth abroad, (before the break of day,) and said, 
 Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou 
 be able to number them: and he said unto him, So 
 shall thy seed be.’’ Abram was perfectly satisfied with 
 this ‘solemn assurance. It is on this occasion that 
 Moses says, ‘* He believed in the Lord; and he 
 counted it to him for righteousness.’’? Asa teken 
 
159 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 of favour, the Lord repeated the promise of the land 
 of Canaan; and when Abram said, “ Lord God, 
 whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it’? he 
 confirmed his word by the solemnities of making a'co- 
 venant. In this part of the history, we have a particu- 
 - Jar account of those solemnities. ‘* And he said unto 
 him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she- 
 goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, 
 and aturtledove,anda young pigeon.” The Lord seems 
 to have directed, that a victim of every kind, which 
 was then used, or was afterwards to be prescribed 
 by the law, should be offered on this occasion, in- 
 cluding such as were by themselves admissible only 
 in cases of poverty, that all the ordinances of sacri- 
 fice might be equally honoured, ‘and that encou- 
 ragement might be given to all of every rank, who 
 should observe them in faith. On the head of the 
 victims, Abraham, no doubt, laid his hand, and 
 confessed his sin; and when he had slain them, 
 sprinkled and poured out the blood, which maketh 
 atonement for the soul. But Moses describes those 
 ceremonies only which belonged to the making of 
 the covenant. He tells us, that the victims were 
 divided, and the pieces laid in order over against 
 one another ; and that when the fowls came down 
 upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. In 
 these services, the day was consumed. At the 
 setting of the sun, the patriarch was overpowered 
 with sleep, but was soon awaked by another divine 
 communication. This was preceded by a sensation 
 which corresponded with the gloomy prospect of a 
 period of slavery and affliction, and was attended 
 with tokens, at once oft he fiery nature of the trial,. 
 and of the final deliverance. Abram is disturbed 
 in his sleep by a horror of great darkness. He 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 153 
 
 awakes, and hears an account of the affliction of 
 his children in Egypt, the judgment of their op- 
 pressors, his own peaceful death, and the return of 
 his posterity to the land of Canaan. He now per- 
 ceives amidst the darkness ‘* a smoking furnace,” 
 but presently the gloom is dispelled by ‘a lamp 
 of fire.” This symbol of the divine presence and 
 favour passed between the pieces of the divided vic- 
 tims. ‘* In that same day the Lord made a cove- 
 nant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I 
 given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the 
 great river, the river Euphrates.” 
 
 The passing of the lamp between the pieces, 
 was the ratification of the promise which God had 
 made to Abraham, to give him the land of Canaan 
 to inherit it. His covenant was a covenant of pro 
 mise, not of mutual stipulation, and therefore it 
 was God alone whose glory passed between the 
 pieces. In making a covenant, it appears to have 
 been understood, that the party engaging passed 
 between the pieces of a divided victim, to signify 
 that he devoted himself to such destruction as those 
 pieces represented (the destruction of a sacrifice for — 
 sin), if he should violate his engagement. After 
 this ceremony, the victims being considered as 
 irretrievably under the curse of sin, were abandoned 
 to the fowls, which, while the solemnity was going 
 on, were driven away. Accordingly. covenant- 
 breakers were threatened not only with death, but 
 with this additional mark of guilt and execration. 
 Thus, in the case of a covenant in which the inha- 
 bitants of Jerusalem had engaged to let their He= 
 brew servants go free, but broke their promise, the 
 Lord said, «* And I will give the men that have 
 _ transgressed my covenant, which have not performed 
 
154 | SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 the words of the covenant which they had made 
 before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and 
 ~ passed Bete the parts thereof, the princes of 
 Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, 
 and the priests, and all the peéple of the land 
 which passed between the parts of the calf, I will 
 even give them into the hand of thcir enemies, 
 and into the hand of them that seck their life : 
 and THEIR DEAD BODIES SHALL BE FOR MEAT 
 UNTO THE FOWLS OF THE HEAVEN, AND TO THE 
 BEASTS OF THE EARTH.” Jer. xxxiv. 18—90. 
 Such terrors might be a salutary check to the 
 treachery of men, conscious as they are of being 
 liable to the disasters of adversity, but how won- 
 derful the condescension of God, who cannot lie, 
 and who is blessed for evermore, thus to represent 
 himself to Abraham as bound under the sanction 
 of a curse, to perform the promise which he had 
 graciously given! Never surely was sacrifice more 
 highly honoured, than when God made slaughtered 
 victims the pledge of his faithfulness. 
 
 The covenant to which we have now Swed at- 
 tending, was the ratification of the particular pro- 
 mise that Abraham should imbherit the land of Ca- 
 naan. But the covenant of the God of Abraham, 
 considered in itself, was of a much more compre- 
 hensive nature. This appears from what he said 
 to Abraham several years after this period, when 
 he gave to the patriarch a new name. ‘* When 
 Abram was ninety years cld and nine, the Lord 
 appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the 
 Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou per- 
 fect. And I will make my covenant between me 
 and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 
 
 And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with 
 
 a a 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 4155 
 
 him, saying, As for me, behold my covenant is 
 with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many na- 
 tions. Neither shall thy name any more be called 
 Abram (that is, Exalted Father), but thy name 
 shall be Abraham (that is, Exalted Father of a 
 multitude) ; for a father of many nations have J 
 made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruit- 
 ful, and I will make nations of thee; and kings 
 shall come out of thee. And I will establish my 
 covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after 
 thee, in their generations, for an everlasting cove- 
 nant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after 
 thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed 
 after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, al] 
 the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; 
 and I will be their God.’’ Gen. xvii. 1—8. | 
 Since God was thus pleased to confirm his pro- 
 mises by covenant, they who believed his word, , 
 would feel themselves bound, from motives equally 
 oi gratitude and interest, to obey all the command- 
 ments which he connected with that covenant ; 
 especially would they feel the duty, and the benefit, 
 of observing the signs and memorials of the cove. 
 nant itself. Hence the force of the charge which 
 immediately follows the passage just cited. ‘And 
 God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my co- 
 venant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee, in 
 their generations.”’ Verse 9. Hitherto. the only 
 symbolical way in which man could commemorate 
 the covenant of God, was to solemnize it by the 
 offering of sacrifice. The token of the covenant 
 as established with Noah, depends not on the 
 obedience of man, but is exhibited immediately by _ 
 God himself. On this occasion, the oft ef a new . 
 name was accompanied by the institution of an 
 
 XN 
 
156 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 additional token of the covenant which Abra- 
 ham and his posterity were commanded to observe. 
 «« This 7s my covenant, which ye shall keep be- 
 tween me, and you, and thy seed after thee; every 
 man-child among you shall be daslnedhedsl And 
 ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin, and 
 it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and 
 you. And he that is eight days old shall be cir- 
 cumcised among you, every man-child in your 
 generations, he that is born in the house, or bought 
 with money of any stranger, which ts not of thy 
 seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is 
 bought with thy money, must needs be circum- 
 cised; and my covenant shall.be in your flesh for 
 an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised 
 man-child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not cir- 
 cumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his peo- 
 ple; he hath broken my covenant.’’ Verses 10—14. 
 
 At this time also, a new name was given to the 
 wife of Abraham. ‘* And God said unto Abra- 
 ham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her 
 name Sarai (my Princess), but Sarah (a Princess) 
 shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give 
 thee a son of her: yea, IT will bless her, and she 
 shall be a mother of nations kings of people shall 
 be, of -her.’’ Verses 15, 16. When Abraham, 
 astonished at such a promise, could not help saying, 
 ‘‘O that Ishmael might live before thee;”’ the Lord 
 heard him as to Ishmael, but at the same time, re- 
 peated his promise in the most solemn manner, 
 and with new particulars. ‘ Sarah thy wife shall, 
 bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name 
 Isaac (that 1s, Laughter—see verse 17. and chap- 
 ter xvill. 12. and xxi. 6.) and I will establish my 
 covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and 
 
\ 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 157 
 
 with his seed after him. And. as for Ishmael, I 
 
 have heard thee: behold I have blessed him, and 
 will make him fruitful, and will multiply him ex- 
 ceedingly ; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will 
 make him a great nation. But my covenant will I 
 establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto. 
 thee at this set time in the next year.’’ Verses 19—91. 
 This: promise was again, given in the hearing of ‘ 
 Sarah, when the Lord was about to visit Sodom.”? 
 Chap. xviii. 9—15. , 
 
 _ At last Isaac is born; Ishmael: is cast out, and 
 the Lord declares, that in Isaac shall the seed of 
 Abraham ‘be called: Gen. xxi. 1—12. But when 
 this only son, to whom all the promises were ex- 
 pressly limited, was grown up, God put the faith 
 of Abraham to a trial still more severe than that 
 which was occasioned by deferring his birth so 
 Jone. Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, 
 whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of 
 Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, 
 upon one of the mountains which I will el] thee of,”? 
 Gen. xxii. 2. This most trying command, Abra- - 
 ham showed the most Prompt and steady deter- 
 mination to obey. He carried Tsaac to the ap- 
 pointed mountain, builded an altar, put wood on it, 
 bound Isaac, laid him on the altar upon the wood, 
 and stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to 
 slay his son, when the angel of the Lord called to 
 him out of heaven to’ desist, «« Lay not thine 
 hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thine unto 
 him, for now I know that thoy fearest God, seeing 
 thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 
 from me.” Verse 12: The Lord had. provided 4 
 lamb for a burnt-offering, which Abraham took 
 and offered, instead of his son, And now the Lord 
 
 P 
 
158 SOOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 adds to the celebration of his covenant, the solem- 
 nity of an oath, and because he could swear by no 
 greater, he sweareth by himself, confirming all his 
 former promises, and giving the important new 
 promise, that the person on whom depended the 
 redemption of mankind, should be one of Abra- 
 ham’s descendants. ‘* And the angel of the Lord 
 called unto Abraham out of heaven the second 
 ‘time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the 
 Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast 
 not withheld thy son, thine only son, that I will 
 surely bless thee, and will surely multiply thy seed 
 as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which 2s 
 upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the 
 gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast 
 ‘obeyed my voice.’’ Verses 15—18. 
 
 Such is the Scripture account of the promises 
 made to Abraham. At different times, and with 
 increasing degrees of clearness and solemnity, God 
 was pleased to promise him a land to dwell in, a 
 numerous posterity, a blessing which should make 
 him happy in himself; and the means of communi- 
 cating happiness to his posterity, and to all the fa- 
 milies of the earth; a blessing to his friends, and a 
 curse to his enemies; and a seed in whom all the 
 nations of the earth should be blessed. ‘To under- 
 stand these promises, it must be remembered, that 
 they belong to the covenant of God, which contains 
 the original hope of eternal redemption ; was given 
 to our first parents at the fall; was illustrated after- 
 wards by respect shown exclusively to sacrificial 
 worship, and by a translation to heaven; and was 
 established with a favoured individual, who, with 
 his family, was. preserved from the flood, and was 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 159 
 
 inspired to give an extensive prospect of the various 
 dispensations of God, both in temporal and spiritual 
 concerns, towards their posterity. Abraham wag 
 prepared to view these promises in this connection, 
 for he must have been acquainted with the history 
 of Adam, of Abel, of Enoch, and of Noah. The 
 Lord speaks to Abraham, as he had done to Noah, | 
 of * establishing with him his covenant,’’ or 
 * giving him his covenant”? (Gen. xvii. 2.7.) ex 
 pressions which, we have seen, suppose his covenant 
 to have been previously known. The meaning in 
 which Abraham did understand’ these promises, 
 may be learned, in some measure, from the history 
 of the tenour of his conduct, although there may 
 be no account on record of any full yerbal declara- 
 tion of his sentiments. In those times of inspira- 
 tion, knowledge might be communicated to him by 
 the Spirit of God, for his private direction and 
 comfort, which was not revealed to others, till a 
 subsequent period. Whatever might be the degree 
 of Abraham’s knowledge of the promises made to 
 him, we may be certain, that every discovery con- 
 cerning them, made by the prophets afterwards, 
 must have been really included in them from the 
 beginning. | : 
 
 If the justice of these remarks be admitted, we 
 shall be led to conclude, First, that the promise to 
 Abraham of a land to dwell in, contained, besides 
 the possession of Canaan, the inheritance of heaven. 
 That Canaan was intended in the promise, is agreed 
 on all hands. We have here another proof that 
 the covenant of God secures every thing which the 
 various circumstances of each of his people may 
 require, even in this life. When Noah was to 
 be saved from the flood, he was directed to make 
 
160 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 an ark; when Abraham was to be saved from 
 idolatry, he was directed to go to a strange country. 
 But the life to come is the most interesting concern 
 of man. The promise of a land which God would 
 show him was an encouragement: to Abraham to 
 forsake every thing dear on earth, and to devote 
 himself to the celebration of that covenant which 
 ‘secures the salvation of man from sin. Now sin 
 was the loss of Paradise; redemption is Paradise 
 regained. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that the 
 call of Abraham out of Ur, of the Chaldees, was 
 enforced by nothing short of the blessing of re~ 
 demption ? | 
 
 When Abraham had been some time sojourning 
 in Canaan, the land was promised to him, and to 
 his seed, for an everlasting possession. | This pro- 
 mise, was connected with a’ command to walk .be- 
 fore God, and to be perfect; that is, to imitate 
 Enoch and Noah, who walked with God, and were 
 perfect in their generations. It was also connected 
 with another promise—‘‘ I will be a God unto 
 thee, and to thy seed after thee.”? Gen. xvii. 1. 8. 
 But if the everlasting possession of Canaan were 
 merely an earthly mheritance, descending for ages 
 to Abraham’s posterity, it did not excel the lot of 
 many who had no fear of God before their eyes. 
 Besides, Abraham never received, in an ordinary 
 manner, the possession of Canaan, The only pro- 
 pertywhich he acquired in it, was the possession 
 of a burying-place. He was, indeed, eminently 
 distinguished by temporal prosperity.. He became 
 rich, had many servants, and was called by the na- 
 tives, a mighty prince. But still he was a stranger 
 in the land: his life was ambulatory ; all his sub- 
 stance was of a moveable nature. .He dwelt in 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. _ 161] 
 tents. His only building was an altar ; his only 
 plantation a grove} the only purpose of both to 
 offer sacrifice, and to call on the name of the Lord. 
 Now, if he had been taught by the divine promise, 
 to expect an earthly possession, he must have felt 
 uneasy when he did not receive it. He did not 
 conceal his anxiety when the gift of the promised 
 son was delayed, yet he expressed no distress about 
 the possession of the land. He made no attempt 
 to return to his native country, or to seek a more 
 fixed abode in Canaan, or any where else. He dis- 
 covered no symptoms of disappointment to the very 
 end of. life, but, according to another promise, 
 ‘went to his fathers in peace, and was buried ina 
 good old age.’’ The presumption is, that he was 
 not disappointed; that he regarded Canaan as a 
 suitable place of temporary residence provided for 
 him as a man called out of the world for the wor- 
 ship and service of God, and for his posterity after- 
 wards in a similar situation ; that he considered it 
 as a figure and a pledge of an excellent portion, 
 but by no means as the excellent portion itself. 
 He desired a better, that Is, an heavenly country 
 (for a better country could not. be in this world), 
 and in the hope of it, he confessed himself a stranger 
 and pilgrim on earth. : 
 
 The promise to be the God of a chosen indivi- 
 dual, and achosen race, includes, as we endeavoured 
 to show in the preceding section, every blessing of 
 a personal, domestic, and national kind. The pro- 
 mise to be the God of Abraham is the more re- 
 markable that it is held, in Scripture, to be still 
 valid long after the patriarch was dead. When the 
 Lord appeared in the bush to Moses, he said, ¢ I 
 am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, 
 
 PQ ‘ 
 
162 | SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 the God of Is ac, and the God of Jacob.’’ Exod. 
 
 iii, 6. In this character, the Lord has ever since 
 been worshipped by his people. This permanent 
 relation, then, surely implies, that those departed 
 saints were happy with God, and that their very 
 dust is under his special care till the resurrection. 
 The Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrec- 
 tion, neither angel, nor spirit, do err, not knowing 
 the Scriptures, nor the power of God. If there 
 be no heavenly Canaan, how transient was the hap- 
 piness of Abraham “* the friend’? of God! * as well 
 as of all his most favoured descendants ! 
 
 » Some, who have no doubt, that a future life of 
 
 happiness was the hope of God’s ancient people, 
 may still be unconvinced that Canaan was a figure 
 of heaven. We request such to observe what is 
 implied in some Scripture allusions. For example, 
 im Psalm xcv. 8—11, David warns the people, in 
 his time, of the danger of provoking God, to swear 
 concerning them, as he had sworn concerning their 
 fathers in the desert, that they should not enter 
 into his rest. But the people had long before en- 
 
 ’ tered into the promised rest of Canaan, and were 
 
 at that very time in possession of it, and conse- 
 quently could not be affected by the threat, in the 
 ordinary acceptation of the words. The inspired 
 penman must, therefore, havé had in his view an- 
 
 ‘other rest, which still remains for the people of 
 
 God; and the language which he uses, evidently 
 implies, that the prospect of Canaan to Israel in 
 the wilderness was understood to. be an exact re- 
 presentative, that is, a figure of the prospect of 
 heaven. 
 
 Again, Isaiah, when predicting a state of peas 
 
 ¥*9 Chron, xx. 7, and Isaiah, xli, 8. 
 
 gh 
 re 
 
~ 
 
 AND. THE PROPHETS, 163 | 
 
 perity, which seems to include the perfection of the 
 future state, draws all his figures of blessedness from 
 the land of Canaan. «Twill bring forth a seed 
 out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my 
 mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my 
 servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a 
 fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for 
 the herds to lie down in, for my people that have 
 sought me. For behold, I create new heavens, 
 and a new earth: and the former shall not be re- 
 membered, nor come into mind. But be you glad 
 and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for be- 
 hold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her peo- 
 ple ajoy.” Isaiah, Ixv. 9, 10. 17, 18. In the con- 
 clusion of his book, the worship of God at Jeru- 
 ‘salem, is his figure of the worship of heaven; while 
 the tortures of those who had been made to pass 
 through the fire to Moloch, and the pollution of 
 the vailey of the son of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, 
 where those tortures had been inflicted, are his 
 figures of future misery. ‘ For asthe new hea- 
 vens and the new earth, which I will make, shall 
 remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your 
 seed and your name remain. And it shall come 
 to pass, that from one new moon to another, and 
 from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come 
 to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they 
 shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the 
 men that have transgressed against me: for their 
 worm shall not dic, neither shall their fire be 
 quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all 
 flesh.’’ Isaiah, Ixvi. 22—94, : 
 
 Secondly, We may conclude, that’ the promise. 
 
 to Abraham’ of a numerous posterity included a 
 spiritual seed ; that is, that, besides the children of 
 
 % 
 
 » 
 
164 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Abraham according to the flesh, all those who’ 
 should thenceforward embrace his faith, and follow 
 his example, should be accounted his children in 
 a spiritual sense, and should enjoy, like him, suf- 
 ficient accommodation in this world, for a state of 
 pilgrimage, and at last the pimibed inheritance 
 of heaven. When God called Abraham and his 
 family out of Ur, of the Chaldees, he showed that 
 to preserve his people, they must be separated from 
 the world, and united in fellowship with one an- 
 other. Ever since, ties merely natural must yield 
 to the more important spiritual relation. If, in- 
 deed, natural relatives be also one in faith, they 
 are doubly connected. Thus, while Abraham came 
 out from his country, and from his kindred, and 
 from his father’s house, he said to Lot, his nephew, 
 who accompanied him, ‘ we le brethren.’’? Gen. 
 xii. 8. That the promise of a numerous posterity 
 included this twofold endearing connection, is evi- 
 dent from the parental instruction which is said to 
 be essential to its accomplishment. ‘ And the 
 Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing 
 which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely by 
 come a great and ‘inighty nation, and all the nations 
 of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know 
 him, that he will command his children and his 
 houschold after him, and they shall keep the way 
 of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the 
 Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he 
 hath spoken of him.’’ Gen. xviii. 17—19. This 
 separation from the world, and union with one 
 another, was by no means intended to diminish 
 the number of the people of God, or to narrow 
 the channel of communication between God and 
 mankind. On the contrary, it was to preserve the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 165 
 
 purity of divine worship, to establish an authentic 
 record of divine revelation, to ascertain the gene~ 
 alogy of the Messiah, and to cause all ends of the 
 earth to see the salvation of God. The call of 
 Abraham out of Ur, of the Chaldees, was to issue 
 in the call of men to the service of God out of 
 every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue. 
 In the promises made to him, we are plainly taught 
 the conversion of Japhet, and even the removal at 
 last of the curse upon Canaan. <** In thee shall all 
 families of the earth be blessed.’?? Gen. xii. 3. 
 Again, ** As for me, behold my covenant is with 
 thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 
 _Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram; 
 but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of 
 many nations have J] made thee (given or -con+ 
 stituted) thee.”’ Gen. xvii. 4, 5. Now, although 
 Abraham had several sons by Keturah, who might 
 become heads of tribes in the east country to which 
 they were sent, and although the son of Hagar was 
 to become a great nation; yet the covenant was to 
 be established with Isaac : and although the poste- 
 rity of Isaac became two nations, the covenant was 
 established with Jacob, and not with Esau. As 
 far, then, as the promise of the covenant referred 
 to his seed according to the flesh, Abraham could 
 be called the father of only one nation. His being 
 constituted the father of many nations must, there- 
 fore, refer to a spiritual relation. This con- 
 clusion is confirmed by the other phrase, which 
 admits of no limitation., By no means can we un- 
 derstand, ‘all families of the earth,” to be the 
 descendants of Abraham according to the flesh 5 
 and yet it is said, that they shall all be blessed in 
 him. — wl: 
 
 \ 
 
166 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Thirdly, The meaning of the promise respect- 
 ing Abraham’s posterity, may help us to explain 
 the nature of the blessing, in which they were to 
 share with him. «I will bless thee—and thou 
 shalt be a blessing—and in thee shall all families of 
 the earth be blessed.” These words speak not of 
 a blessing of a temporal nature. Temporal prospe- 
 rity makes no man blessed. «¢ Vanity of vanities 
 (said one of the most: prosperous of men) vanity 
 of vanities, all is vanity.’”? Eccles. 1.2. Abraham 
 was rich, but not so rich as the kings of Sodom, of 
 Gerar, of Egypt, and many others, who were en- 
 tirely destitute of his blessing. Abraham was not 
 the source of the temporal riches of his posterity. 
 The substance of the patriarchs, and all the in- 
 crease of it, perished during the slavery of Israel 
 in the land of Egypt. Far less can Abraham be 
 considered, as the source of temporal prosperity to 
 all nations. We know not, indeed, whether such 
 prosperity shall ever become the lot of all na- 
 tions. We have seen that the promise of a nu- 
 merous Offspring included a spiritual seed: we shall 
 see that the blessing assigned them is of a spiritual 
 Nature. i Wit 
 
 In the history of Abraham, we are told in one 
 word, that the blessing, which he received from 
 God, was “ righteousness.”? Gen. xv. 6, This 
 blessing of righteousness is directly the reverse of 
 the curse of guilt. It is the great blessing of re- 
 demption, immediately suited to the condition of 
 fallen man, whose consciousness of sin, and dis- 
 position to persist in it, equally unfit him for the 
 enjoyment of the divine favour. It includes the 
 pardon of sin, and the acceptance of the sinner as 
 righteous in the sight of God. When the fears. of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 167 
 
 guilt are removed, gratitude succeeds in the mind 
 of the sinner to the alienation of depravity. He is 
 reconciled to God, hath peace with him, worships 
 with a true heart, becomes obedient to all the divine 
 commandments, and is animated by the desire and 
 hope of perfection in holiness, and the felicity of 
 heaven for ever and ever. 
 
 This blessing is the free gift of God to those 
 who believe. This appears from what is said of 
 Abraham: “* he believed in the Lord ; and he 
 counted it to him for righteousness.’”’? Gen. xv. Ge 
 To count, or impute, signifies, in this connection, 
 to reckon to one what does not properly belong to 
 him. Thus, Lev. vit. 18.“ And if any of the 
 flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings be eaten 
 at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, 
 neither shall it be 1mpuTED unto him that offereth 
 it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that . 
 eateth of it, shall bear his iniquity.”? Again, 
 Num. xviii. 27. “ And your heave-offering shall 
 be RECKONED (or IMPUTED) unto. you, as though 
 it were the corn of the threshing-floor, and as the 
 fulness of the wine-press.”—Verse 30. * There- 
 fore thou shalt say unto them, when ye have 
 heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be 
 COUNTED (or IMPUTED) unto the Levites, as the 
 increase of the threshing-floor, and as the increase of 
 the wine-press.’’ Accordingly, we are here taught, 
 that righteousness is not what naturally belonged 
 to Abraham, or what he attained by his own ex- 
 ertions, but what the Lord was graciously pleased 
 to ascribe to him. David uses the same word, 
 when speaking of the same blessing, in a negative 
 Manner, ** Blessed is he whose transgression is 
 forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man 
 
 ; 
 
168 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 unto whom the Lord impuretu not iniquity, and: 
 -in whose spirit there is no guile.’? Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. 
 Besides, it was Abraham’s believing in the iad 
 which was counted to him for righteousness. A 
 man’s action may be counted to him for righteous- 
 ness. The Lord may be pleased to reward him 
 for some deed which he hath done; although, 
 being the deed of an imperfect sinful creature, it 
 after all, gives him no positive claim for such a 
 blessing; the giving of which, therefore, may justly 
 be described as a gracious reckoning to him of that, 
 which does not properly belong to him. Thus it 
 is said, in Psalm cvi. 30, 31, ** Then stood up 
 Phinehas, and executed jedan : and the plague 
 was sities And that was counted unto him for’ 
 righteousness, unto all generations for evermore.”’ 
 Phinchas did no more than it was his duty to do, 
 and therefore it was a liberal, an unmerited reward, 
 
 to bestow on Him, on account of one act of duty; 
 so great a blessing. But how much more is the 
 freeness of divine favour displayed, when it is shown 
 where a man has done nothing at all. There is a 
 manifest difference between doing something right, 
 be it ever so little, and merely believing a divine 
 revelation, or trusting in the Lord, who makes the 
 revelatyon, that he will perform his promises. The 
 latter case, then, that of reckoning faith for righte- 
 ousness, is the strongest possible evidence, that the 
 blessing is reckoned, not of debt, as a dispensation 
 of justice, but of ih remnniee favour, as a dispen- 
 sation of mercy. Further, the reason, why Phi- 
 nehas’s action was counted to him for righteous- 
 ness, was, that the thing done was leasing to 
 God. In like manner, the reason why Abraham’s 
 faith was:counted to him for righteousness, was, 
 
 » . 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. (169 
 
 _ that the truth believed was pleasing to God. Mo- 
 ses mentions only one instance of Abraham’s faith 
 as being counted to him for righteousness ; but it 
 appears from Scripture history, that his whole life, 
 from receiving the call of God, at Ur, was habitually 
 a life of faith, and that it was all along counted to 
 him for righteousness. He believed all the pro- 
 mises of redemption, which had been made from 
 the beginning, and were confirmed and celebrated 
 by sacrifice, as well as the particular promises, 
 which, in connection with the other, had been 
 added to himself. He believed, ‘not merely when 
 he heard, that his seed should be as the stars of 
 heaven, but when he expected a son in his old age, 
 and, above all, when, in consequence of a divine 
 command, he was about to offer his son as a burnt- 
 offering, although he knew that the promises de- 
 pendedon that son’s life, and must, therefore, have 
 expected to see him raised from the dead, from 
 which, in a figurative manner, he may be said to 
 have received him. The gift of righteousness, then, 
 was graciously bestowed on Abraham, because of 
 the Lord’s delight in the redemption of sinners by 
 the Messiah, which he had. early revealed, was gra~ 
 dually illustrating, and was, in due time, to:accom- 
 plish. : en 
 This divine gift is bestowed, not only on Abra- 
 ham, but on all his. spiritual seed.“ I will bless 
 thee’’—** and thou shalt be a blessing’’-—~** and 
 in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 
 Gen. xii. 2, 3. - Abraham was to be a blessing, be- 
 cause he and his posterity should be the means 
 of preserving the knowledge of the true God, and 
 of the plan of redemption, till the Messiah should 
 come; and since he was ‘to ‘be the father of the 
 oe 
 
170 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Messiah, according to the flesh, all families of the 
 earth who were to be blessed in him, were to be 
 blessed in. Abraham, from whom he should de- 
 scend. Hence, what is here expressed generally, 
 is repeated afterwards, with greater precision. ‘In 
 thy seed, shall all the nations of the earth be 
 blessed.’? Gen. xxil. 18. Abraham was also to be 
 "a pattern to all the people of God, who should 
 thenceforward live in the world. The manner in 
 which the blessing was bestowed on Abraham is 
 that in which it cometh on his offspring. Who- 
 soever believeth in the Lord, on hearing or read- 
 ing his word, is justified by his free favour, 
 through the redemption of sinners by the Messiah. 
 Phinehas, we have seen, had a particular action 
 counted to him for righteousness; but his case 
 forms no exception to the way in which the seed 
 of Abraham inherit his blessing ; for the action of 
 Phinehas was a consequence and an evidence of that 
 faith, by which he was previously justified in the 
 sight of God; only the remarkable evidence of his 
 faith was followed by a remarkable testimony of 
 his acceptance with God. It has always been ne- 
 cessary, that people should believe the word of 
 God, in order to their enjoying any of the bless- 
 ings of the covenant, which was established with 
 Abraham. When Moses was commanded to an- 
 nounce the redemption out of the land of Egypt, he 
 states their unbelief as a difficulty which must be 
 removed. ‘* But, behold, they will not believe me, 
 nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, the 
 Lord hath not appeared unto thee.’’ And the 
 Lord gave Moses the power of working miracles; 
 <¢ That they may believe, said he, that the Lord 
 God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 17k 
 
 God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath ap- 
 peared unto thee.”’ Exod. iv, 1—5. The end was 
 accordingly answered. ‘¢ Aaron spake all the 
 words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, 
 and did the signs in the sight of the people. And 
 the people believed : and when they heard that the 
 Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he 
 had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed 
 their heads and worshipped.’’ Exod. iv. 36, 31. 
 On the other hand, when anger came up against 
 Israel in the wilderness, it was, “‘ because they be- 
 lieved not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.’’ 
 Psalm Ixxvill. 22. irrs | 
 _ We are aware that, in order to enjoy the bless- 
 ings of the covenant, which God established with 
 Abraham, Jews may very naturally suppose cir- 
 cumcision to be necessary, no less than faith. We 
 readily admit, that circumcision was instituted as a 
 token of the covenant betwixt God and Abraham. 
 Gen. xvii. 10—14. But Jews will admit, on the 
 other hand, that. righteousness was counted to 
 Abraham (Gen. xv. 6.) before he was circumcised. 
 He afterwards received the sign of circumcision, a 
 seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had 
 while yet uncircumcised. He is a proof, therefore, 
 that a man may be justified by believing the pro- 
 mises of God, independently of circumcision ; and 
 that unless men believe, and are justified as Abra- 
 ham was, the circumcision of the flesh will avail 
 them nothing. Having then been justified before 
 God, while yet uncircumcised, and afterwards hav- 
 ing received circumcision, Abraham is, in a spiritual 
 sense, the father of many nations, of all who believe 
 the’ covenant which God established with him, 
 
172 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 cision, | n 
 
 If it should be urged, that after men believe, 
 they ought still, like Abraham, to be circumcised, 
 and to circumcise’ their families ; we remark that, 
 at the institution of the ordinance, those only who 
 were sons of Abraham according to the flesh, who 
 were born in his house, or bought with his money, 
 were to be subjected to.it. Afterwards, Moses com~ 
 manded it to be observed by the stranger, who 
 should sojourn with Israel in the land of Canaan, 
 and should wish to eat: the passover, Exod. xii. 48. 
 But there is-fo hint, in Scripture, that all the na 
 tions of the earth, who should be blessed in Abra- 
 ham, should, like him, be circumcised. Whether 
 Jews should continue to circumcise their children, 
 
 whether they be in circumcision, or in uncircum- 
 
 under the reign of the Messiah, is a question of 
 practical interest, to those Jews only, who are con-. 
 
 vinced that the Messiah is come. Perhaps they 
 will see it their duty to bear with one. another, 
 while some continue the practice as a distinetiye 
 mark of their national descent, and others are satis- 
 
 fied with the administration, to themselves and - 
 
 their households, of another ordinance, which be- 
 longs to the reign of the Messiah, Meanwhile, 
 we invite Jews, in general, to remember that their 
 sacred books dwell much on the importance of a 
 spiritual circumcision. The promise of this bless- 
 ing is one of the. motives provided for exciting 
 them, when in a state of captivity, to return to 
 the Lord... “© And the Lord thy God will circum- 
 cise thine heart ; and the heart of thy sced, to love 
 the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with al] 
 thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Deut. xxx. 6. 
 
 \ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 173 
 
 Fourthly, When the Lord said to Abraham, ‘I 
 will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that 
 curseth thee,’’ (Gen. xii. 3.) he seems to refer to 
 the enmity, which he declared he would put be~ 
 “tween the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the 
 woman. This enmity, we have already seen, was 
 chiefly to appear in the conflict between the Mes- 
 siah and Satan. But as the servants of Satan do 
 his works, they persecute the servants of the Mes- 
 siah ; and these, on the other hand, show to whom 
 they belong, by the love which they have to one 
 another. A specimen of the enmity of the seed 
 of the serpent, we meet with in the history of 
 Cain’s behaviour to Abel. No one was allowed 
 to slay Abraham; but perhaps many cursed him. 
 We inay believe this was done by the kings, whom 
 he defeated, when he rescued Lot. It has also 
 been done by those who have envied his offspring, 
 and have not acknowledged his God. In this class, 
 we may reckon the Canaanites, the Philistines, the 
 Babylonians, and even the Edomites, though nearly 
 related, according to the fiesh. Nay, all who fear 
 not Jehovah, and believe not in the Messiah, are 
 under the influence of the same enmity to the 
 spiritual seed of Abraham. On the other hand, 
 there were some, who blessed Abraham. When 
 he returned from defeating the kings, ‘ Mel- 
 chizedec king of Salem, brought forth bread and 
 wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 
 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed le Abram 
 of the most high God, possessor of heaven and 
 earth: and blessed be the most high God, which 
 hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand,’’ 
 
 Gen. xiv. 18. 20. We also find the servant of 
 
 Abraham blessing his master. Gen, xxiv.12. “And 
 Q2 
 
174 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I 
 pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show 
 kindness to my master Abraham.” Again, verse 27. 
 “* And he said, blessed be the Lord God of my 
 master Abraham ; who hath not left destitute my 
 master of his mercy and his truth.’’ His spiritual 
 _ seed also have always revered his memory. 
 
 Now, those who are really the friends of Abra- 
 ham, have ever enjoyed the divine blessing of 
 righteousness. Those who are his enemies; lie 
 under the divine curse of guilt. Hence, while 
 Melchizedec was a priest of the most high God, 
 and received tithes even from Abraham; while 
 Abraham’s servant was evidently blessed in the 
 blessedness of his master; and while Jethro was 
 invited to share the good which the Lord had 
 spoken concerning Israel; Egypt was plagued, 
 
 Amalek and Babylon were devoted to destruction, ~ 
 
 and many fearful imprecations are contained in the 
 Psalms, against the enemies of the Lord and his 
 people. These are to be viewed, not. as impious 
 
 expressions of human revenge, but as prophetical. 
 
 intimations of dive judgment. It is an awful 
 thought, that they shall all be fulfilled. To be 
 descendants of Abraham will be no security against 
 the curse, unless they have also the faith of Abra- 
 ham. Nor shall any family upon earth be excluded 
 from the blessing, if, being partakers of like pre- 
 cious faith, they belong to that fellowship, of 
 which Abraham was so ancient and so honourable 
 amember. _ 
 
 Fifthly, The seed, i whom all nations of the 
 earth should be blessed, 1s the Messiah. Formerly, 
 the promise of the Messiah to Abraham was more 
 generally expressed, dt was said, “ In thee, shall 
 
 : 
 
 TE 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 175 
 
 all families of the earth be blessed.’ Gen, xi. 3. 
 But when Abraham showed himself ready to offer 
 
 up Isaac, it was said, in reference to a descendant 
 of that son, ‘* In thy seed shall all the nations of 
 the earth be blessed.’’ Gen. xxii. 18. In this pro- 
 mise, the word ‘* seed’? seems not to have a col- 
 lective meaning, as when it is used in preceding 
 promises, for a numerous posterity, but to refer to 
 an individual. This individual, indeed, is generally 
 included, and sometimes chiefly intended, even 
 when the word is used. collectively, but here he 
 alone is to be understood. | 
 
 That the’word ‘ seed’’ is often used, in Scrip- 
 ture, for an individual, will appear from the following 
 examples. ‘ I will put enmity between thee and the 
 woman, and between thy seed and her seep: Hk 
 shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His 
 heel.’? Gen. m1. 15.‘ She bare a son, and called 
 his name Seth (that 1s, appointed), for God, said 
 she, hath appointed me another sEED, instead of 
 Abel, whom Cain slew.” Gen. iv. 25. ‘* And 
 also of the son of the bond-woman will I make a 
 nation, because HE is thy sEED.’’ Gen, xxi. 13. 
 
 That the individual sense of the word ‘* seed’’ 
 should be preferred in the passage before us, is evi- 
 ‘dent from this: that the seed of Abraham, in a 
 collective sense, includes many nations, nay, all 
 families of the earth; but here the promise speaks 
 “of a ** seed’? not of many or of all nations, but m 
 whom all nations of the earth should be blessed. 
 It respects the salvation of fallen man, and leads 
 back our minds to the original promise concerning 
 the great individual, then called ‘* the seed of the 
 woman,’’? and now ‘‘ the seed of Abraham.”’ 
 
 The individual sense of the word ‘ seed”? will 
 
176 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 also appear to be preferable, if we consider the oc- 
 
 casion on which this promise was given. It was 
 given when Abraham had not withheld his son, his 
 only son; it refers to a son, an only son. When 
 Isaac was spared, “¢ Abraham lifted up his eyes, and 
 looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a 
 thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took 
 the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in 
 the stead of his son.” Gen. xxii. 13. In-the pro= 
 mise, verse 18, he is informed, that it should be not 
 in a burnt-offering, but “ in his seed,” that all 
 “nations of the earth should be blessed. : 
 
 The word §* seed’? cannot here refer to Isaac, 
 for he was the son in whom the seed was to be 
 called. Gen. xxi. 12. The blessing upon all nations 
 of the earth was evidently spoken of as referring toa 
 distant futurity; it was not, therefore, a son already 
 given, but one who was to come, in whom that 
 blessing was to be bestowed. Isaac was not offered 
 for a burnt-offering, but the Lord provided a burnt- 
 offering in his stead. This order of things was to 
 be reversed when the promised seed should bless 
 all nations of the earth. In him should be fulfilled 
 the words of the Psalmist—** Sacrifice and offering 
 thou didst not delight in; mine ears didst thon 
 bore; burnt-offering and sin-offering thou didst 
 not require, Then said I, Lo! I come; in the 
 volume of the book (the book of the law) it is 
 written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my 
 God; yea, thy law is within my heart.”? Psalm 
 xl. 6—8. | 
 
 Thus have we seen, that Abraham of old, had, 
 in the promises which he received, a confirmation 
 of all the blessings of the covenant of redemption ; 
 in the prospect of Canaan, a pledge of heaven; in 
 
 7 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ye 
 
 the gift of a son by Sarah, the hope and the first 
 fruits of a spiritual offspring; in the blessing to 
 himself, and his spiritual seed, the pardon of sin, 
 and the peculiar favour of God; in the blessing on 
 his friends, and the curse on his enemies, an as- 
 surance of the mutual love, the safety, and. the 
 everlasting happiness of all the people of God ; 
 and in the promised seed, the great Messiah, 
 through whom all the other promises should re- 
 ceive ioe accomplishment. 
 
 Descendants of Abraham! were you in n full pos- 
 session of the land which flowed with milk and 
 honey, you should only enjoy the figure of the in- 
 heritance which your father received, and which 
 the immortal nature of man universally requires. 
 After all, you might be frequently rebelling against 
 God, and might live and die, like many ancient 
 generations, under awful tokens of the divine dis- 
 pleasure. Your present condition is, indeed, deplora- 
 - ble, with regard both to temporal and to spiritual 
 concerns, but, perhaps, it is not worse than that of 
 Abraham while in Ur, of the Chaldees. You may 
 not live to see the restoration of your people to their 
 proper home in this world, yet the way of access is 
 open for you into everlasting habitations. 
 
 Think not, however, that because you have Abra- 
 ham to your father, you will succeed, of course, to 
 the heavenly inheritance. You are born of his fa- 
 mily, according to the flesh, and if any might glory 
 in the flesh, we allow it must be you; but except 
 aman be born again of the Holy Spirit, he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God. He who appeared in 
 dreams and visions to the: fathers, and spake to 
 them by immediate inspiration, still calleth on 
 those who read or hear his word, to separate them- 
 
178 | SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 selves to the service of God, in the faith of the 
 Messiah. ‘This call is as powerful on the mind of 
 every one who believeth it, as was that eiven to Abra- 
 ham when he went out frei his country, and from 
 his kindred, and from his father’s house. The Lord 
 accompanies his word by the influence of his Holy 
 Spirit, who striveth with man, not indeed always, 
 yet for a time of merciful visitation. Through his 
 gracious operation, the sinner who becomes the 
 subject of salvation, is awakened to attend to the 
 revelation of the divine will. He perceives its 
 meaning ; he feels its importance; he is attracted 
 by the loving- kindness which: it displays ; he be- 
 lieveth in the Lord, and it is counted to him for 
 righteousness ; he is sanctified through the truth. 
 It changes his mind and his conduct. inte § is a new 
 creature. With him, religion is no longer a round 
 of superstitious observances, or a cloak of hypo- 
 crisy, hurtful to himself, and offensive to God. It 
 is a spiritual life, inwardly cherished by divine love, 
 expressed by the exercises of a reasonable, sacred 
 service, and verified by habitual obedience to every 
 commandment of the holy law. Like Abraham, 
 the believer confesses himself a stranger and pil- 
 grim upon earth, and shows that his treasure and his 
 heart are in heaven. All things work for his good 
 while he lives, and when he comes to die, the Lord 
 is still his God, the strength of his heart, and his 
 portion for ever. Jewish brethren ! are any of you 
 acquainted with this change of heart and life? If 
 you are engrossed by mere worldly business, and 
 satisfied with a mere outward form of worship and 
 ceremonial observance—if you are regardless of the 
 hope of your father, and averse from the study of 
 the oracles of God, your circumcision is a witness 
 X 
 
 —_— Se 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. . 179 
 
 against you; you are not the genuine posterity of 
 Abraham; God will fulfil his promises to his friend 
 by means of others; the only difference’ between 
 you and the most idolatrous of the heathen is, that 
 having greater advantages, you are more criminal 
 in neglecting them. But we trust that this is not 
 a universal case. We know what multitudes of 
 Jews have left all for the sake of the Messiah, 
 and we believe that there is still a remnant accord- 
 ing to the election of grace. 
 
 Beloved fellow believers ! in your particular situ- 
 ation, you have many enemies, but you have also 
 many friends. The friends whom you have lost 
 on account of the Gospel, call for your sympathy 
 and your daily prayers to God that they may be 
 saved. Those whom you have gained, like those 
 who blessed Abraham, rejoice along with you in 
 the blessing of God. Neutrality none may pretend 
 to, who base heard or read the holy Scriptures. If 
 Jews are not blessed with faithful Abraham, let 
 them seriously consider, that the only, alternative is 
 to be under the curse which was laid on his ene- 
 mies. 
 
 ‘The consolation of Abraham was the work of 
 the Messiah, who, by the sufferings which sacrifice 
 represented, was to save his people from their sins. 
 This work has ever been the only foundation of 
 hope to a fallen sinner. In virtue of it, the most 
 guilty and depraved mortal who believes, sees a 
 way opened for his return to God, and acceptance 
 with him. Must it not then be a work unspeak- 
 ably precious? Must not the question, whether it 
 is yet accomplished, be of the most interesting na- 
 ture? What a period has elapsed since the distant. 
 prospect was afforded to Abraham! Are there no 
 
 ? 
 
180 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 reasons for at least suspecting that it has already 
 been verified ? Long did sacrifice prefigure its ap- 
 proach. Why should the instituted representation 
 have ceased, and become impossible, unless the 
 reality had taken place? Rather than sacrifice 
 should be wanting in the days of Abraham, God 
 provided himself a lamb for a burnt-offering ; why 
 should he withhold it now, unless the Lamb of 
 God hath taken away the sin of the world? 
 
 In prosecuting such an important inquiry, let 
 every Jew search the Scriptures, and ask wisdom 
 of God, that he may be enabled to judge for him- 
 self. How suitable to the feelings of an awakened 
 mind, is that prayer of the Psalmist—** Open thou 
 mine eyes, that I may behold wonderous things 
 out of thy law. Tam a stranger in the earth, hide 
 not thy commandments from me.’’ Psalm exix. - 
 98,19. It will be no sign of a good cause, if any 
 set themselves to discourage serious inguiry. If 
 you deny that the Messiah is come, it concerns you 
 to show that ‘your denial is not the hardened ob- 
 stinacy of ignorance and unbelief ; and in compas- 
 sion to those whom you look on as deceived, you 
 should earnestly endeavour to convince them of 
 their error. On the other hand, permit us to ex- 
 press our anxiety about your salvation. We be- 
 jieve that the Messiah is come; and we grieve to 
 think, that you are in danger of seeing many from 
 the east, and the west, and the north, and the 
 south, sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of 
 God, while you yourselves are shut out. May He, 
 who of old confirmed his promises with an oath, 
 convince you of his faithfulness in their clorious 
 accomplishment, that you may have strong con- 
 solation in fleecing to lay hold-on the hope set be 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 181 
 fore you!) With what wonder shall Jews, when 
 converted to the faith of the Messiah, exclaim with 
 ‘the ‘prophet, ‘* Doubtless. 'thou /art our father, 
 though Abraham be. ignorant of us, and Jsrael ac- 
 
 knowledge/us not: thou, O Lord, ‘art’ our father, 
 
 -our -redeemer, oi name is ‘from everlasting. x 
 cheats yan. 16. Pie 
 
 ‘EY UMBER 2 a 
 
 oe of the Law aha ‘the Prophets. Covenant 
 with Israel, at sid 4 
 Aline the dhilitiert: of Israel, having come out 
 of Egypt, had arrived in the wilderness of Sinai, 
 and were. ‘encamped before the mount, ‘God was 
 pleased to promise them certain dikinstished bless~ 
 ings, suited to their new situation as a redeemed 
 people, if they would obey his voice, and keep ‘his 
 covenant. ‘* And Moses went up unto God, and 
 the Lord called unto him ‘out of ‘the mountain, 
 saying, Thus shalt thou say to’the house of Jacob, 
 and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what 
 I did-unto the Egyptians, and how T bare‘ you on 
 eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, 
 therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and Rédp 
 my covenant, then ye shall bea peculiar treasure 
 _ unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine. 
 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and 
 an holy nation.””? Exod. xix, 3—6. To this pro- 
 posal, the people gave their unanimous consent, 
 ‘* And Moses came.and called for the elders. of the 
 R 4 
 
; 
 
 (£82 .SCOPEOF THE LAW 
 
 ‘people, and laid before-their faces all these words 
 which, the Lord. commanded him. ; And ‘all. the 
 people answered together,’ and: said, All that the 
 Lord bath spoken, we will do.?? Exod. Kix .cZy aly 
 »o The Lord now promised, to give the: people a.de- 
 ‘cisive and lasting proof of, the reality of his commu- 
 nications with Moses. « And thé Lord said unto 
 Moses, Lo! I come, unto thee in a thick cloud, 
 that the people may hear when I speak with thee, 
 and believe thee for ever.” Exod. xix. 9. The 
 element of fire had, from the beginning, been used 
 as an emblem of the divine glory. At the expul- 
 sion of man from Paradise, the Lord God ¢é placed 
 at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a 
 flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the 
 way of the tree of life.”? Gen. iii. 24, At the 
 smaking.of the éovenant with Abraham ‘to give him 
 the Jand of Canaan,’ the Lord caused “ a lamp of 
 fire’? to pass between. the ‘pieces of the victims. 
 Gen. xv..17.. To the immense multitude of the 
 children of Israel, this emblem was displayed on a 
 larger scale ; and its effulgence was increased or 
 diminished, according. to circumstances, by means 
 of a cloud which appears to have always. attended 
 it.The Lord went before them by day in a 
 pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by 
 might in a pillar of fire, to give them light: to go 
 by, day and night.. He took not away the pillar of 
 the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, 
 from before the people.” Exod xiii. 21,,22. 
 . Besides this constant token of his presence and 
 favour, while the children of Israel were in the 
 wilderness; the Lord gave them, both during that 
 _period, and afterwards, remarkable displays of his 
 glory, on particular occasions, sometimes to mani- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS: 183). 
 
 fest his approbation, ate sometimes his displeasure, | i 
 The appearances of the sun and clouds, in the ors; 
 dinary course of the natural world, amidst the aust 
 merous changes of weather, from the serenity of a! 
 clear sky, to the beautifal colours of the rain- -bow,' 
 the gathering blackness of the storm, the gleamings' 
 of the lightning, and the fury of the most awful 
 tempest, are not more diversified, ‘than those re- 
 markable appearances of the divine glory, as de- 
 
 scribed in Scripture*. At Sinai, the’ emblem was- 
 to be enveloped in a-thick cloud. which should 
 
 come down to the top of the mount, to meet Moses, 
 that the people might not be confounded by its: 
 brightness, but might be able. ‘to listen,’ at a dis- 
 tance, to the voice which should. proceed: from ‘it, 
 and: be satisfied that it was indeed. the voice of God. 
 It was, at the same time, intended strongly toim- 
 press them with fear. Moses was directed, there~. 
 fore, to sanctify them that day and the day follow-: 
 ing, causing them to wash their clothes, and an=_ 
 nouncing the descent of the Lord upon mount: 
 Sinai, in the sight of them all, on the third day.’ 
 He was also directed to set bounds about the mount, : 
 and to make proclamation, that they should not go: 
 ‘up into it, nor touch the border of it, on ‘pain of 
 death, but wait the signal of the sound of a truimpet;” 
 which should summon them to attend: at. the out-- 
 side of the boundary. When expectation was thus 
 excited, the promised descent took place, and the 
 appointed signal was given, amidst the vba Aa 
 convulsions of a violent earthquake, Gh Andsi 
 came to pass on the third day in the morning, thal 
 there wete thunders and lightnings, and a thick 
 cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trum- _ 
 
 * Exod. xxiv. 40. Ezek. i. ‘A~98, Hab. iii, S—5, Psalm xviii, TLE, 
 
184. SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 pet. exceeding loud, so that all the people that was 
 inthe camp, trembled. And Moses brought forth - 
 the people out of the camp to meet with God, and — 
 they stood at the nether, part of the mount. And 
 mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because 
 the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke 
 thereof ascended as. the smoke of a furnace, and 
 the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the 
 voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed 
 louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered 
 him bya voice. And the Lord came down upon 
 mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and the ~ 
 Lord called Moses to the top of the mount, and 
 Moses went up.” Exod. xix. 16—90, 
 
 . Notwithstanding this terrific scene, the Lord saw 
 it necessary to send back Moses to charge the peo- 
 ple again not to break through the boundary to 
 gaze, lest they should perish.. When Moses had 
 repressed their curiosity, and had taken his station, 
 probably in front-of them, so far advanced as to let 
 them see the peculiar favour by which he was dis-- 
 tinguished, yet so near that they could be heard if 
 they should call to him, God spake to them, with 
 an audible voice, the Ten Commandments. 
 
 These contained the leading duties of a people 
 who had declared, that they would hear God’s: 
 voice, and keep his covenant, in the faith of being’ 
 a peculiar treasure to’ God above all people, a king- 
 dom of priests, and: an holy nation, They regu- 
 Jated not actions only, but even the desires of the 
 heart. Although enforced by the consideration of 
 the recent redemption out of the land of Egypt, 
 they enjomed no duty which was before unknown, 
 They applied the principles of religion and morality 
 _ to the state of a people who had increased to a 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 185: 
 mighty nation, and being delivered from bondage,’ 
 were destined to become masters’ over others, to. 
 enjoy a rich inheritance, aiid to preserve ‘in the: 
 world, the knowledge and worship of the true God, 
 and the hope of redemption from sin and misery, 
 through the mediation of the Messiah. But the 
 principles themselves had always been acted upon 
 _ by the servants of God, both in the habits of wor- 
 ship and of social life. It seems proper, therefore, 
 to consider the Ten Commandments, not as peculiar 
 to the covenant at Sinai, nor pblixavair on those 
 ‘only who are the children of Israel according to the’ 
 flesh, but as universal and unchangeable in their 
 obligation, springing from the rakaviets between’ 
 God and man, growing with the growth of human’ ° 
 society, essentially connected with the original co~: 
 venant of redemption, and: virtually given to all the’ 
 families of the earth, who shall’ be blessed in him’ 
 who is ‘* the seed of the woman,” and *¢ the seed: 
 of Abraham.” ) , 
 
 They were accordingly: distinguished, in a re= 
 markable manner, from all the other precepts: of 
 the law ; they alone were immediately delivered by 
 God in the hearing of the people. Some’ have 
 thought, that the other precepts would have been 
 delivered in the same way,. if it had not been for 
 the people’s request, that the mode of communica-' 
 tion might be altered ; but this opinion does not: 
 appear to be well founded. -We cannot suppose, 
 
 that fear would have presumed to interrupt the pro- 
 | gress of the divine communications, while they were 
 going on. A pause appears to have taken’ ‘place,’ 
 and the terrified people seized. the opportunity, to 
 request Moses to act'as mediator, in receiving and 
 delivering such revelations as might follow. i rom 
 R22 
 
$86 _ SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 the divine approbation of their request, we may 
 presume, that the Lord purposely gave them the 
 opportunity of making it, and excited their fears to 
 make them feel it to be necessary, that this part of 
 the law might ever be distinguished, by the original 
 mode of its delivery, from all the rest. The Ten 
 Commandments were also distinguished, by being 
 _ written with the finger of God, on tables of stone, 
 while other precepts were merely recorded by Moses 
 in the book of the law. These remarks correspond 
 with the account which is given of the Ten Com- 
 mandments, when repeated in the Book of Deute- 
 ronomy. ‘£* These words. the Lord spake unto al] 
 your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of 
 the fire of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with 
 a great voice, and HE ADDED NO MORE; and he 
 wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered 
 them unto me.” Deut. v. 22. It seems also to 
 have been the Ten Commandments, which Moses 
 commanded the people to write on great stones 
 covered with plaister, after they should have passed 
 over Jordan. Deut. xxvii. 2—8. This command 
 was executed by Joshua, chap. viii. 30—32, and 
 from the connection between it, and the direction 
 about building an altar of unhewn stones, mentioned 
 im both these passages, and given in Exod. xx. 25, 
 it would seem, that it had been given on the same 
 day with that direction, that is, on the day of the 
 promulgation of the Ten Commandments *, 
 
 But the most remarkable circumstance respect- 
 ing the Ten Commandments, was the terror, which 
 the delivery of them struck into the minds of the 
 
 * See also Exod. xx, in the Samaritan pentateuch, which was pro- 
 bably obtained from the priest who had been carried away from Samaria, 
 
 at the captivity of the ten tribes, but was sent back to teach the Sama~ 
 ritans how they should fear the Lord, 2 Kings, xvii. 28, a 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 187 
 
 people. Although they had trembled at first, when 
 the glory of the Lord descended on the top of the 
 mount, they had quickly become so presumptuous, 
 as to be in danger of breaking through the boun- 
 dary to gaze. But when they heard the Ten Com- 
 mandments, they could not endure that which was 
 commanded. They became equally afraid of the 
 voice, and of the awful signs by which it was ac- 
 companied. They requested the mediation of Mo- 
 ses; and thus they acknowledged, that they had 
 got sufficient evidence of the reality of the divine 
 communications with their leader, and that they 
 needed the interposition of a mediator between 
 them and their God, when they received his-holy 
 law. ‘* And all the people saw the thunderings, 
 and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, 
 and the mountain smoking: and when the people 
 saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And 
 they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we 
 will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we 
 die.”’ Exod. xx. 18,19. It is particularly to be 
 observed, that in complying with the request of 
 the people, the Lord not merely consented to use 
 the mediation of Moses, but promised another 
 
 Mediator at a future period, who should resemble 
 - Moses, and whom the people were bound, under 
 _ the highest penalty, to obey. It is to the memo- 
 rable day of the delivery of the Ten Commandments, 
 _ that Moses refers, when he says; ‘* The Lord thy 
 God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the 
 midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto 
 him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou 
 desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the 
 day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again 
 the voice of the Lord my God; neither let me see 
 
188 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 _ this great fire any more, that I die not. And the : 
 Lord said unto me, They have. well spoken that 
 which they have spoken. I will raise them up a 
 Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, 
 and will put my words in his mouth, and. he 
 shall speak unto them all that I shall command 
 him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
 will not hearken unto my words which he shall 
 speak in my name, I will require it of him.’ 
 Deut. xvill. 15—19 *, 
 
 The Ten Commandments, then, which contain 
 the great, universal, and unchangeable principles of 
 religion and morality, were immediately spoken by 
 the voice, immediately written by the finger of 
 God. On hearing them, the people were convinced 
 that they needed a Mediator. They asked the me- 
 diation of Moses only ; but He, who knoweth what. 
 we have need of before we ask it, besides granting 
 that, gave them a promise, referring to a future 
 period, which was calculated to teach both them 
 and their posterity, that the case required the medi- 
 ation of another, even of the Messiah. 
 
 It being agreed, that a direct communication 
 should no longer continue, the people were sent 
 back to the camp, and Moses was retained, that 
 he might receive such further regulations, as should 
 be necessary for the government of the nation in 
 the land of Canaan. ‘* Go, say to them, Get you 
 into your tents again. But as for thee, stand thou 
 here by me, and I will spedk unto thee all the com- 
 mandments, and the statutes, and the judgments 
 which thou shalt teach, them, that they may do 
 them i the land which I give them to possess it.’” 
 Deut. v. 30, 31. The judgments,” or judicial 
 
 .* See again Exod. xx. in the Samaritan pentateuch, | 
 
' AND THE PROPHETS. 189: 
 
 laws, which were immediately connected with the 
 - covenant at Sinai, are contained in the 21st, 22d, 
 and 23d chapters of the Book of Exodus. They 
 consist chiefly of decisions respecting the punish- 
 ment to be inflicted, in cases of transgression, 
 which might be expected to occur among the peo- 
 ple. These cases show much of the extent and 
 application of the Ten Commandments. Some of 
 them arise out of the peculiar situation of a people 
 separated from the rest of the world, for main- 
 taining the worship of God, and the hope of the 
 Messiah. But many of them are of a general na- 
 ture, applicable to any age and-country ; and the 
 decisions respecting them are so obviously equi- 
 table, gentle, and salutary, as to have been much 
 followed by the legislature of every nation, which 
 has had the advantage of knowing them. ‘ The 
 statutes,’’ are the institutions respecting the wor- 
 ship of God, which the Israelites should observe 
 in the land of their inheritance; such as, the con- 
 secration of the first-fruits, and the first-born; the 
 sabbatical year; the sabbath, with a view to the 
 refreshment of the stranger, the servants, and the 
 cattle ; and the three annual festivals. They are 
 contained, partly in the. 22d, and partly in the 
 23d chapters of .Exodus, and are explained more 
 at large in other parts of the writings of Moses. 
 The judgments, and the statutes would regulate 
 the conduct of judges, and priests; and enable 
 every man, among the children of Israel, easily to 
 acquire a competent knowledge of practical] duty. 
 For the sake of character, or temporal prosperity, 
 many might observe all ‘ the statutes’? and ‘ the 
 judgments,” who had no cordial regard for those 
 great. principles “ duty, on /whaeh they were 
 
190 SCOPE OF THE LAW’ 
 founded.’ These might seem righteous in their 
 own. eyes, because of the correctness of their out-, 
 
 ward. behaviour. They would think themselves. 
 
 justified by obedience to the law. But all, who 
 really understood and loved the Ten Commandments, 
 would be sensible, that even where their outward 
 behaviour was. blameless, the disposition of their 
 minds was faulty in the sight of God. They would 
 continue to feel their nted of a Mediator, and of 
 atonement for sin. All their air would be panes 
 in divine mercy. 
 
 The precepts of the covenant at Sinai, are followed 
 by an account of a leader, which the Lord had 
 
 given to the Israelites, to conduct them into the land: 
 
 of Canaan; by a promise of conquest in that land ; 
 and by a prohibition of any covenant with the i in- 
 habitants of Canaan. 
 
 - The account of the ae is very sical 
 *¢ Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee 
 in the adi, to bring theo: into the place which I have 
 prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, pro- 
 voke ‘him not: for he will not pardon your trans- 
 eressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt 
 idtdect! obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then 
 I will be an enemy unto thme enemies, and I will. 
 afflict them that afflict thee. For mine angel shall 
 go before thee, and bring thee inunto the Amo- 
 rites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the 
 Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites : 
 and I will cut them off.’? Exod. xxiii, 20—923. 
 The ordinary interpretation of this passage sup- 
 poses the angel spoken of, to be the angel of the 
 divine presence, who hath the name Jehovah, dwelt 
 in the pillar of cloud and fire, conducted the Is- 
 raclites through the wilderness, often chastened 
 
 —_—_- 
 
‘AND THE PROPHETS. 191 
 
 ‘them for transgression, but brought them -at last 
 ‘into the land of Canaan... That! they did enjoy 
 ‘the guidance of this’ angel, and that on him de-- 
 pended: all their, success, isi manifest from many 
 vother passages ; fromthe whole strain, indeed, of 
 the)Mosaic: history. But it is doubied by some, 
 owhethet it be! this angel who is spoken of in this 
 “passage, because, on this occasion, he seems, to be 
 ithe speaker himself ; ithe’ angel. of the divine pre- 
 esence being God, the weice of this angel the voice 
 -of God, and his spirit: the Spirit ofGod*.. The 
 mame Jehovah was not merely “ in him,’?. but pro- 
 »perly his own. Besides, it seems difficult to sup- 
 “Pose it tobe said of him, “ he will not pardon your 
 ~transgressions,’’ since ¢ he is proclaimed as, “ for- 
 “Stving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.”’ They 
 care disposed, therefore,, to,understand the word an- 
 ‘gel, in this passage, in. its general, acceptation as 
 signifying a messenger, and ‘applicable to.men, as 
 well as to celestialzbeings ; to understand the.mes- 
 “Senger in question to be Joshua the son of Nun, 
 ‘who had already been employed to << keep: Israel 
 om the-way,” when Amelek fought against them f ; 
 and, who was to be appointed to bring them into 
 ethe land of Canaan § and to understand his not 
 -pardoning their transgressions, of. the strict, disci- 
 pline, which his office must make it necessary for him 
 “to maintain, while he should lead the host of Israel 
  }to the conquest of Canaan, ve tien 
 
 » Without affirming any thing positively on this 
 -subject, respecting which, both Jews and Christians 
 ‘may entertain a different opinion, we merely sub- 
 8 Compare Exod. Xxiiis 1209,' with Titans HfL 
 
 ‘) sf Exot. Xxxiv. 7010) ° t Exod: xvii, S—~16,) § Num; xxvii, 
 15---23. » Deut, i, 98. and XXXI, 23, 
 
 / 
 
499 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 mit for consideration, that the commission of this 
 angel suits the last mentioned interpretation. Itiis 
 expressed in two clauses, The first is, “¢ to keep 
 thee in the way ;” that is, to take charge of thy 
 defence, as in the attack of Amelek. We find this 
 charge given afterwards to Joshua in the most:so- 
 lemn manner. See Num. xxvii. 15-23. The 
 ‘second clause is, ‘ to bring thee into the place 
 -which I have prepared.” This great achievement 
 Joshua was honoured to perform, when Moses was 
 laid aside. See Deut. iii. 21—28. The caution, 
 ‘s Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him 
 not,” is enforced by two reasons. First, ** he 
 will not pardon your transgressions ;”” that 1s, he 
 will execute the divine orders, with all the ne- 
 cessary strictness of martial law. This certainly 
 was the duty of Joshua’s’ office. He succeeded ‘to 
 the authority of Moses, which included the power 
 of life and death, and, as such, was understood and 
 acknowledged by the people. See Josh. i. 1. 2. 5. 
 16—18. We also have a striking example of his 
 exercising this authority. The case of Achan-is 
 a full illustration of the clause before us. See 
 Josh. vii. 1O—15. 24—26. Secondly, “* for my 
 name is in him.’? These words-are added, not as 
 the reason why he would not pardon their trans- 
 eressions, but as a second reason why they should 
 <¢ beware of him, obey his voice, and not provoke 
 him.” The name Joshua signifieth «¢ Jehovah that 
 ~ gaveth,” and, like Abraham, Sarah, Israel, and 
 many others, was certainly intended to be signifi- 
 ‘cant, because he had it not given him, in the of- 
 dinary manner, by his parents, but received it from 
 Moses, no doubt under divine direction, when he 
 was sent, as one of the spies, to search the land 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 193 
 
 of Canaan. Num. xi. 16. The severity of Joshua 
 to transgressors, was no objection to his being con- 
 sidered as having ‘‘ in him,”’ the name of ** Jeho- 
 vah that saveth 3 because the punishment of such 
 _ individuals was preservation and safety to the body 
 at large. Jehovah accordingly appeared as captain 
 of the Lord’s host, to Joshua, and gave into his 
 hand, Jericho, and the king thereof, and all the 
 caciapieers men of valour. Again, he showed Joshua 
 to be his instrument in saving the people, and de- 
 stroying their enemies, by one of the most remark- 
 able miracles which the world ever saw. See Josh. 
 x.12—14,. And not one word which he had spoken 
 concerning him, or the people under his care, was 
 permitted to fail. See Josh. xxi. 43—45. and 
 Xx. 14, 
 If, on consideration, this interpretation of the 
 passage should appear satisfactory, it will be ac- 
 knowledged, that the name Joshua, which is the 
 same with Jesus, contains in it the name Jehovah, 
 and originally belongs to the divine Saviour. of the 
 people of the Lord. ** But we have also observed, 
 in the Book of Exodus, says Justin Martyr, that 
 the name of God himself was Jesus (which he 
 saith was not made known to Abraham, nor to 
 Jacob), and is accordingly intimated by Moses in 
 amystery. For it 1s thus said, * And the Lord 
 spake to Moses, speak to this people, behold I send 
 my angel before thy face, that he may keep thee in 
 the way, that he may lead thee into the land which 
 I have prepared for him. Give heed to him, and 
 obey him, rebel not against him, for he will not 
 suffer thee to escape, for my name is upon him,’ 
 Who then led your fathers into the land? Do 
 observe: now, that he who was surnamed with the 
 8 
 
194 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 name Jesus was before ‘called Oshea.. For if ye 
 will observe this, ye shall also perceive, that the 
 name of him, who said to Moses, ¢ My name is in 
 him,’ was Jesus *.”? | : 
 
 After delivering to Moses the commandments, 
 the judgments, and the statutes, the Lord directed 
 him to celebrate the covenant by sacrifice. This 
 was the solemnity of making, or striking, the cove- 
 nant, by which the atonement for sin, the separa- 
 tion of the people to God, their obligation to keep 
 his law, and their hope of an inheritance, were 
 confirmed. We have reason to believe, that 
 through the whole of this sacred service, Moses 
 aeted by divine direction, The only part, however, 
 of this direction, which is recorded, is that which 
 respected the permission of a select company, on 
 this occasion, to approach to God, and to enjoy a 
 distant view of his glory. ‘ And he said unto 
 Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, 
 ‘Nadab,.and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of 
 Israel : and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone 
 shall come near the Lords but they shall not come 
 nigh, neither shall the people go up with ‘him.’ 
 
 ’ } ~ \oo ~ ~ F 
 * Ev de-ry BiCriw rns E&0ds, ors abr d-od ovo TE Ocd xa} 
 ~ cy ¢ \ ni wa ‘\ \ 
 Incas ny (6 Aeyer tw ACeacp pn dsdnrwcbas, pende Tw laxwf) 
 e cow 7 
 Oia Muctwe ev wusnpia duobws e&nfyerbn, noes MAES VEVONKA WEY. 
 ¥ \S 7 A ibe icy id ~ ON yh 
 BTwe oF Erentat, Kat cime Kups@» rw Mwoti,eiors TW Aaw T8TW, 
 NN Nis ay x / ¢ : : 
 108 bya amrostAAw Tov uylerdy ne eo WeotwmTe 8, iva Puracon 
 sb «) A ~ “ « 1d 
 ce ev tn bow, Oru sicaydln oe sis TH» ynv HY NToMace obb. 
 y 7 , Wy \ 
 TeoceHe BUTW, nob tiodnue aUTE, pwn aoreider AUT wy & yee en 
 0 2 \ \ N 4 eX 2 4‘ > Ns 
 Umoreianlas oe’ Td yoe ovome ps civ tor aurw, Tic ay gic 
 ~ / \ e > ree eins 
 wiv yay cionyale T2¢ walépas tywv; ndn work vonodle, OTs 6 ey 
 : eed / 6 \ if ~ / ~ , 
 Tw) ovopnals TETW eTovonarbers Inodc, meorepoy Avonc xarsnevG-, 
 ~ 7 1» oon Mies 
 si yae FSTe voncéle, uas Ors TO Ovone asTe citroiIG@ ca Muees, 
 : \ > ~ Fe / i 
 To yao dvoud pues icty tor avrw, Inc&s nv, emvyvocecte, 
 Justin. Dial, cum Tryph. Jud. Pars seeunda. P. $00. Ed, Thirlbii. 
 
“ 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. FOS 
 
 Exod. xxiv. 1, 2. On returning from the Mount, 
 Moses delivered to the people what he had received 
 of the Lord. They had no doubt of his fidelity in 
 making known to them the divine law, and they 
 made, as at first, a unanimous profession of obc- 
 dience. ‘ And Moses came, and told the people 
 all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments : 
 and all the people answered with one voice, and 
 said, All the words which the Lord hath said, will 
 we do.” Verse 3. In the evening of the same day, 
 Moses committed this portion of divine revelation 
 to writing, and next morning the solemnity of the 
 making of the covenant took place. ‘* And Moses. — 
 wrote all the words of. the Lord, and rose up early 
 in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill,. 
 and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of 
 Israel, and he sent young men. of. the children of, 
 Israel, who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed 
 peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord.. And Mo- 
 ses took halfsof the blood, and put if in basons ; 
 and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. . 
 And he took the book of the covenant, and read 
 in the audience of the people: and they said, All 
 that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. 
 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled if on the 
 people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant, 
 which the Lord hath made with you concern- 
 ing all these words.” Verses 4—8. Thus was the 
 _ particular covenant at Sinai, sanctioned by a cele- 
 bration of the original covenant of redemption. The 
 people, unworthy in themselves, were purified by 
 the blood of atonement. It was\in virtue of this 
 blood, that God made with them a covenant, con- 
 cera the words of the book, which had been 
 read to them, and which they promised.to obey. 
 
196 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 To impress this truth on their minds, the blood was 
 sprinkled on the altar, and on themselves, and Moses 
 proclaimed, in their hearing, the meaning of the 
 solemnity. — 
 
 The divine acceptance of the people was now re- 
 markably shown, by the privilege granted, on this 
 occasion, to their prophet, their priests, and their 
 elders. ** Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab 
 and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. 
 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was 
 under his feet, as it were a paved work of a sapphire 
 stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his 
 clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of 
 Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and 
 did eat and drink.”? Exod. xxiv. g—11. 
 
 After the enjoyment of this exalted privilege, Mo- 
 ses was ordered to come up to the Mount again, to 
 receive the tables of stone, on which the Ten Com- 
 mandments were written with the finger of God. 
 ‘He was also to receive, on this occsion, his in- 
 structions respecting the tabernacle; and being 
 aware that his stay would be long, he used all 
 possible precaution to prevent disturbance or re- 
 bellion among the people, by the charge which he 
 previously gave to the elders. As a further restraint 
 on them, during the absence of Moses, the emblem 
 of the divine presence appears to have been display- 
 
 ed with peculiarly terrific splendour. Every thing 
 was calculated to fill the mind with awe. Moses 
 himself was taught the reverence due to the reve- 
 lations about to be made to him, while, in silent 
 expectation of them, he was made to wait six days 
 on the outside of the cloud ; and when at last called 
 into the midst of it, he was so completely absorbed 
 by what he heard and saw, that, on this as well as 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 197 
 
 on a future occasion, (Exod. xxxiv. 28.) there. is 
 reason to believe, he received not the ordinary sus- 
 tenance of life. “ And Moses went up into the’ 
 mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the 
 glory of the Lord abode upon the mount Sinai, 
 and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh 
 day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the 
 cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord 
 was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in 
 the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went 
 into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the 
 mount; and Moses was in the mount, forty days 
 and forty nights.’? Exod. xxiv. 1518. 
 
 _ After this review of the history of the covenant. 
 "at Sinai, we remark, 
 
 First, That it was a consequence and a confirm- 
 ation of the covenant with Abraham, and indeed of 
 the covenant of redemption, which had been re- 
 vealed from the beginning. It was made with the 
 children of Israel, that the hope of their fathers 
 might be their hope in their successive generations, 
 that the promises might be kept in remembrance 
 till they should receive their full accomplishment 
 in.the latter days, and that this accomplishment, 
 when it took place, might be illustrated by so re- 
 markable. an mtermediate dispensation. It was 
 adapted to the times then present, and to the cir- 
 cumstances then existing, in the same way that the 
 ~ ark was adapted to the times and circumstances of 
 the covenant with Noah, or as the removal to Ca-. 
 naan, and the life of pilgrims there, were to the 
 covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some | 
 have supposed, that in the covenant at Sinai, God_ 
 was pleased to become the king of Israel, as a tem- 
 poral monarch, and that the covenant which he: 
 
 ee 
 
198 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 made with them, required such outward: obedience 
 only, as is due among men to national mstitutions. 
 
 But this supposition does not appear to be warranted 
 by Scripture. When the Lord is called the King 
 of Israel, he is not, on that account, to be compared 
 with the kings of the earth, but Israel is to be dis- 
 tinguished from the nations of the earth. The obe- 
 dience enjoined by his covenant with them was 
 not that outward obedience, which is all that man 
 can require of fellow creatures ; it was an obedience 
 of the heart, and with all the heart. Hence the com- 
 mandment, <¢ Thou shalt not covet.’?? Hence the 
 exhortation of Moses, ‘“* Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy might. And these words which 
 I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” 
 Deut. vi. 5, 6. Outward obedience, without in- 
 ward affection, is hypocrisy, which, instead of re- 
 quiring, God has ever abhorred. Temporal bless- 
 ings were indeed included in the promises of the 
 covenant at Sinai, but. they were connected with 
 the superior blessings of the knowledge of the true 
 God, and the observance of his instituted worship, in 
 the belief of the great promise of redemption, and in 
 the spiritual obedience which has always accompa- 
 nied it. When Israel did not believe the word of 
 God, and serve him from the heart, he withdrew 
 from them their temporal prosperity. ‘* How long 
 will this people PROVOKE me? and how long will 
 it be ere they BELIEVE me, for all the signs which 
 
 IT have showed among them? I will smite them 
 with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will 
 make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than 
 they.’ Num. xiv. 11, 12. The Psalmist ‘says, 
 the commandments of the Jaw were recorded for the 
 
 4 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 199 
 
 instruction of the children, ‘* that the generation 
 to come might know them, even the childern which 
 should be born ; who should arise and declare them 
 to their children, that they might set their hope in 
 God, and not forget the works of God, but keep 
 his commandments, and might not be as their fa- 
 thers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a ge- 
 neration that set not their HEART aright, and 
 whose sprRiIT was not stedfast with God.’ Psalm 
 Ixxvili. 6—8. Again, ‘“ We are the people of his 
 pasture, and the sheep of his hand: to-day, if ye 
 will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the 
 provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the 
 wilderness : when your fathers tempted me, proved 
 me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I 
 grieved with this generation, and said, Jt is a people 
 that do ERR IN THEIR HEART, and they have not 
 known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my 
 wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.’ 
 Psalm xev. 7—11. From such passages it is very 
 manifest, that external obedience was not the te- 
 nure by which the land of Canaan was to be inhe- 
 rited, and that the Lord hath ever looked on the 
 heart, in that obedience which he hath enjoined his 
 people. 
 
 Secondly, We remark, that the covenant at 
 Sinai was not kept by the children of Israel. Not- 
 withstanding their peculiar obligations, and their 
 solemn engagement, such is the weakness and cor- 
 ruption of human nature, that they quickly fell 
 into sin, and though frequently chastened and re- 
 stored, they discovered a continual pronenessyio re- 
 lapse. Their rebellions were early foretold. © The 
 Lord ‘said unto Moses, Behold thou shalt sleep 
 
 with thy fathers ; and this people will rise up, and 
 
200 -« $COPE OF THE LAW 
 
 ‘go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the 
 land whither they go to. be among them, and will 
 forsake me, and break my covenant which I have 
 made with them.’ Deut. xxxi. 16. This pre- 
 diction was dismally verified by the behaviour of 
 the favoured nation. “They kept not the cove- 
 nant of God, and refused to walk in his law.” 
 Psalm Ixxvii. 10. They were, therefore, visited 
 with many jedgments, and .at. last, carried away 
 captive into a foreign land. Of Israel, it is said, 
 they were carried away, * because they obeyed not 
 the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed 
 his covenant, avd all that Moses the servant of the 
 Lord commanded, and would not bear them, nor 
 do them.” 2 Kings, xvili. 12. Nor was Judah less 
 _ guilty; nay, it was said, “ the backsliding Israel 
 hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.”’ 
 Jer. ii: 11. She also was, therefore, carried away 
 captive to Babylon. But along with these heavy 
 judgments, a revelation of mercy was made to the 
 guilty. As the covenant at Sinai was made with 
 Israel, on account of the covenant which had been 
 made with their fathers, so, on the same account, 
 a hope was held out to those who should break the 
 Sinai covenant. ‘* If they shall confess their ini-_ 
 guity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their _ 
 trespass which they have trespassed against me, 
 and that also they have walked contrary unto me ; 
 and that 1 also have walked contrary unto them, 
 and have brought them into the land of their ene- 
 mies; if, then, their uncircumcised hearts be hum- 
 bled, (ind they then accept of the punishment of 
 their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant 
 with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, 
 aud also my covenant with Abraham will I re- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. £01 
 
 member; and I will remember the land——.” 
 << T will not cast them away, neither will I abhor 
 them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my 
 covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 
 ' But I will remember for them the covenant of their 
 ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land ‘of 
 Egypt, in the sight of the heathen, that I might be 
 their God: I am the Lord.” Ley. xxvi. 40—45. 
 
 Independently, indeed, of these predictions, and 
 of the melancholy history of the transgressions of 
 God’s ancient people, it is evident, from the per- 
 fection required by the Ten Commandments, from 
 the curse which was pronounced on those who did 
 not obey them, and from the contimuance of sacri- 
 fices for sin, that the covenant at Sinai could not 
 be kept by mere men. The law which forbad sin, 
 gave the knowledge of it. It showed men the 
 dreadful extent, and guilt, and danger of their sin- 
 fulness. By reaching to the desires of the heart, 
 it taught them to know the plague of their hearts. 
 It forbad deeds which men were notoriously guilty 
 of committing. It showed the evil of those things 
 which God prohibited, and declared he would pu- 
 nish. The offerings for sin were not a new insti- 
 tution; but in the Book of Leviticus, they were 
 adapted to what was then a new dispensation. 
 From the regulations then made, it was evident, 
 that sacrifice should not only continue, but become 
 more frequent than ever. Besides the offerings of 
 individuals, a solemn remembrance and acknow- 
 ledgment of sin was prescribed for the people at 
 large, on the morning and evening of every day, 
 on the sabbaths, on the new moons, on all the 
 great festivals, and especially on the annual day of 
 atonement. 
 
202 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 Nor is it Jews only that are declared to be sinners 
 by the covenant at Sinai. The grand basis of that 
 covenant was that Jaw which applies to the condi- 
 tion of all mankind, as part of the creation of God. 
 It was the unchangeable law of God, which, though 
 forgotten by the ebreded world, was equally bind- 
 ing on every individual of the human race, and 
 continues to be so to this day. By obedience to 
 this law, no man living shall be justified. It is not 
 on the footing of personal righteousness that we can 
 be saved, even although we may have been solemnly 
 separated, like the Israelites at Sinai, to the service 
 of God; but on the footing of that mercy which 
 _endureth for ever, which sacrifice never failed to. 
 exhibit, and which the promised seed was fully to 
 display. ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniqui- 
 ties, O Lord, who shall stand? But ¢here is for- 
 viveness with thee, that thou, mayest be féared.— 
 Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord 
 there is mercy, and with ein 2s plenteous redemp-. 
 tion. And he shall redeem Israel from all his ini- 
 guities.”” Prov. cxxx. 3, 4. 7, 8 ) 
 
 Thirdly, We remark, that the covenant at Sinai, 
 not having been kept, the prophets directed the 
 hopes of the children of Israel to the making of a 
 new covenant. The old covenant was again and 
 ‘again renewed. This was done by Moses in the 
 land of Moab, Deut. xxix. By Joshua in the land 
 of Canaan, Josh. xxiv. 25. By Josiah, 2 Kings, 
 xxiii, 1—27. And by Nehemiah, Neh. ix. 38. and 
 10—29. But these renewals, though accompanied - 
 with the sanctions of a blessing and a curse, with 
 the solemnities of an oath, a writing, and a_seal, 
 had no permanent-effect.. It is to the days of the 
 Messiah that the Jews. are called to look for the . 
 
 \ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 203 
 
 proper remedy. <‘* And it shall come to pass when 
 ye be multiplied and increased in the land; in those 
 days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The 
 ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it 
 come to mind, neither shall they remember it, nei- 
 ther shall they visit i, neither shall that be done 
 any more.” Jer. iii. 16. ‘* Behold the days come, 
 saith ‘the Lord, that I will make a new covenant 
 with the house of Israel, and with the house of 
 Judah : not according to the covenant that I made 
 with their fathers in the day that I: took them by 
 the hand, to bring them out of the land of Eeoypt, 
 (which my covenant they brake, although I was an 
 husband unto them, saith the Lord), but this shad/ 
 de the covenant that I will make with the house of 
 Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will 
 put my law in their inward ports, and write it in 
 their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be 
 my people. And they shall teach no more every man 
 his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
 Know ye the Lord: for they shall all know me, 
 from the least of them unto the greatest of them, 
 saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, 
 and will remember their sin no more.”? Jer. xxxi. 
 31—34. Words cannot more clearly declare the 
 superseding of the covenat made at Sinai. Another 
 covenant was to put it out of mind. The writing 
 of the Commandments on tables of stone had proved 
 imeffectual # they were, therefore, to be Written on 
 the hearts of the people, and such should be the 
 efcacy of the blood of this new covenant which 
 God should make with them, concerning these 
 words, that sin was to be completely and eternally 
 forgiven. It was no more to be visited with the 
 curses noreven to requiré 4 repetition of atone- 
 
 ae 
 
204 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 ment. Now these promises are exactly the doc- 
 tines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We say no 
 other things than those which the prophets and 
 Moses did say should come*. | : *. 
 
 In the Jewish creeds it is said, “ I believe with 
 a firm and perfect faith, that this law (the law given 
 to Moses) shall never be altered, and God will give 
 no other.’’ If by the law given to Moses, be here 
 meant the Ten Commandments, we agree that it 
 shall never be altered. Neither has the alteration 
 of any of the statutes or judgments taken place, but 
 in such a way as to show, that the end ‘for which 
 they were given 1s now accomplished. Jesus said, 
 «© Think not that I am come to destroy the law or 
 the prophets: Iam not come to destroy, but to 
 
 ¥ The substance of many of our remarks on the covenant at Sinai, 
 is compressed in the following lines of Milton, ~ 
 << And therefore was law given them to evince 
 Their natural pravity, by stirring up 
 Sin against law to fight: that when they see 
 Law can discover sin, but not remove, * 
 Save by those shadowy expiations weak, 
 The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude 
 Some blood more precious must be paid for man, 
 Just for unjust ; that in such righteousness 
 To them by faith imputed, they may find 
 Justification towards God, and peace 
 Of conscience; which the law vy ceremonies 
 Cannot appease, nor man the moral part 
 Perform, and not performing, cannot live, 
 So law appears imperfect, and but given 
 With purpose to resign them in full time 
 Up to a better covenant, disciplin’d 
 From shadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit, 
 From imposition of strict laws to free 
 Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear ~ 
 To filial, works of law to works of faith. 
 And therefore sha!] not Moses, tho’ of God 
 . Highly belov’d, being but the minister 
 Of law, his peop!e into Canaan lead ; 
 But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call, — 
 His name and office bearing, who shall quell 
 ' The adversary serpent, and bring hack 
 Thro’ the world’s wilderness long wander’d man 
 - $afe to eternal Paradise of rest.” 
 .} Paradise Lost, book xii, 287-314, 
 
~ 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 905 
 
 fulfil. For verily [ say unto you, Till heaven and 
 earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
 from the law, till all be fulfilled.”’ But if the creed, 
 which we have quoted, be understood to signify, 
 that God should never make a new covenant with 
 his people—should never open a new way of access, 
 through the mediation of a Prophet like unto Mou 
 ses—should never sanctify them through the sprink 
 ling of other blood than that of bulls and goats, for 
 the remission of sins—should never engrave his law 
 on their hearts by his Holy Spirit—should never 
 give them ordinances of worship suited to this spi- 
 ritual renovation ;—then it must be as inconsistent 
 with the doctrines of the law and the prophets, as 
 with those of the Christian faith. 
 
 It is said, indeed, by Moses, ¢ What thing 
 soever I command you, observe to do-it : thou shalt 
 not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” Deut. 
 xii. 32. This passage forbids the people from using 
 liberties with the divine law, but is no restraint on 
 the‘ lawgiver from adding to the revelations of his 
 will. It is not denied by Jews, that much was 
 added to the writings of Moses, by the prophets 
 who followed him, and it is a question, which de- 
 serves the most serious consideration, whether an 
 important addition has not been made to the writ- 
 ings of both. It is also said, that the Passover shall 
 be observed as an ordinance ‘¢ for ever.”? Exod. 
 xil. 17,5 that the command to offer the first-fruits 
 shall be “ a statute for ever.”? Ley. xxiii, 14.3; and 
 that ‘ the things which. are revealed belong to us 
 and to our children for ever, that we may do all 
 the words of this law.’”? Deut. xxix, 29. But the 
 expression ° for ever’? does not imply absolute per-_ 
 petuity, unless the subject spoken of, requires that it 
 
 i zr 
 
206 SCOPE OF THE LAW 
 
 should be so understood. This is, indeed, its sig- 
 nification, when applied to God, as when it is said, 
 ‘ The Lord is King for ever and ever.” Psalm x. 16. 
 But when, speaking of a servant and his master, it 
 is said, ** he shall serve him for ever,” Exod. 
 xxi. 6.; or, of Samuel, ‘ I will bring him, that he 
 may appear before the Lord, and there abide for 
 ever,” 1 Sam. i. 22.3 it is evident that the ex- 
 pression must be limited, by the short and uncertain 
 period of human life. In like manner, when it is 
 said of any particular precepts in the writings of 
 Moses, that they are ‘* statutes for ever,’’ the per- 
 petuity can only be of equal duration with the 
 covenant to which they belong. If they belong 
 merely to the covenant at Sinai, their duration must 
 depend on its continuance, and they can form no 
 just objection to the belief of a new covenant, of 
 which we haye already seen, there are the clearest 
 predictions. 
 
 By its very nature, the covenart at Sinai was 
 temporary. It collected the people of God into 
 one nation, gave them one country for an inhe- 
 ritance, and appointed one place for worship. Under 
 this system, it was not possible, that all the families 
 of the earth should be blessed in the seed of Abra- 
 ham, according to the ancient promise; for to mil- 
 lions living in distant lands, the observance of the 
 Jewish law was impracticable. It was necessary, 
 therefore, that another dispensation should succeed, 
 under which the divine institutions should be adapted 
 to men of every nation, so as to be observed with 
 equal facility in every part of the world. 
 
 While the covenant at Sinai continued in force, 
 the people of God were blessed in keeping it. They 
 worshipped the Lord their God in faith, and waited 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 207 
 
 for the consolation of Israel. While they observed 
 the law, they were conscious, that iniquities pre- 
 vailed against them. They knew themselves to be 
 guilty, polluted sinners. They also knew the bless- 
 edness of the man whose “* transgression is for- 
 given, whose sm is covered—unto whom the Lord 
 imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is 
 no guile.” Psalm xxxii.1. While they looked for- 
 ward to the Messiah, their song was, ‘* as for our 
 transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.” Psalm 
 Ixy. 3. “ Blessed de he that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord.”” Psalm ecxviil. 26. | 
 
 But if rt be true, that the new covenant has al- 
 ready been made; that the Messiah is come, and 
 that in him all things are accomplished, which are 
 written in the law and the prophets; while Jews 
 are so generally adhering to that which the Lord 
 intended should be done away ; it is evident, that 
 the very covenant, which was so great a blessing in 
 former ages, must now prove to them one of the 
 greatest occasions of confirming them in error. 
 How deplorable! if they be trusting to establish a 
 righteousness, by a partial, outward regard to that, 
 which can only discover and condemn their sin ; 
 while they submit not to be justified by the righte- 
 ousness, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, of God, 
 which are celebrated both in the law and the pro- 
 phets, as the peculiar glory of the Messiah’s reign ! 
 In this case, their worship must be utterly vain ; 
 nor can it be surprising, that Providence should pre- 
 vent the performance of the most solemn parts of 
 it. However broken, the covenant at Sinai an- 
 swered an important purpose in pointing to the 
 
 coming of the Messiah ; but the new covenant of © 
 
 the latter days is the only covenant, which is pro- 
 
 a a nt ee 4 
 
208 SCOPE OF THE LAW, &c. 
 
 perly everlasting. “ And the Redeemer shall come 
 to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression 
 im Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this 7s my 
 covenant with them, saith the Lord, My spirit that 
 is upon thee, and my words which I have put in 
 thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth 
 of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth 
 and for ever.”’ Isaiah, lix. 20, 21. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. Demiett, Printer, Leather Lane Holborn. ° 
 
ESSAYS 
 ADDRESSED TO JEWS, 
 
 . ON : 
 THE AUTHORITY, THE SCOPE, 
 AND 
 
 THE CONSUMMATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. 
 
 a aE 
 BY GREVILLE . EWING, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, IN GLASGOW, 
 
 Written at the Request of the Directors of the Missionary Society. 
 an London, 
 
 aaa 
 
 VOL. Il. | 
 
 London: —. 
 PRINTED FOR THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY, — 
 By J. Dennett, Leather Lane, Holborn: 
 re SOLD BY 
 THOMAS. WILLIAMS, STATIONERS’ COURT; 
 R. ‘OGLE, HOLBORN, LONDON; 
 M. OGLE). GLASGOW ; AND J.° Re Ndr EDINBURGH, m 
 
 “ASLO. , 
 
\ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 pe 
 
 NUMBER, XI. 
 THe Messian os 
 
 Se OR eee | 
 "hy | ee 
 
 NUMBER XII. 
 
 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW AND THE 
 PROPHETS, acre 
 The New Covenant ....... c's SAG Me SS 
 Scriptures of the New Covenant........5. 54 | 
 Sacrifice of the New Covenant .......... 
 Worship of the New Covenant ..... ai 193 
 Inheritance of the New Covenant ........ 147 
 
 e 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE WORK ....0..0000. 157 
 
PS REA 
 
 —_ 
 
 “ 
 
 Lee 
 t.. 
 
 met ae et 
 4 Tab asrio 
 
as 
 
 = i “ 2 : : 
 
 ESSAYS oe 
 ADDRESSED TO JEWS, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 AUTHORITY, THE SCOPE, AND THE CONSUMMATION 
 
 3 
 
 or 
 
 THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. * 
 
 NUMBER XI. 
 The Messiah: 
 
 Tearks gives an oe challenge to the 
 idols of the heathen, when he says, ‘* Produce your 
 cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong 
 reasons, saith the king AG iesh. Let them bring 
 them farth, and show us what shall happen’: let 
 them show the former things what they le, that we 
 may consider them, and know the latter end of 
 them; or declare us things for to come. Show the 
 
 things that are to come hereafter, that we may 
 know that ye are gods: yea, do good or do evil, 
 that we may be dismayed, and behold 2z¢ together.”’ 
 
 _ The sacred books of the Jews support the ent of 
 divine inspiration, by a rational account of what 
 man had long-forgotten, or never witnessed, the 
 earliest events: of time, and even the origin of all 
 things; by miracles which many of the sacred pen- 
 men performed in the name of Jehovah ; and 
 especially by numerous prophecies, which they are 
 found to contain. This last kind of evidence, the 
 force of which must always increase as the events 
 * VOL. I. . B soe: 
 
a AUTHORITY OF THE LAW” | : 
 
 ~ which establish it occur, abounds in all the ee 
 holy scripture, and so completely occupies several 
 of them as to give them their name. 
 
 ‘Moses acted as a prophet while he promulgated 
 the law, for his doctrines were oracles of God, and 
 they were accompanied with most remarkable pre- 
 dictions, which have been verified by all the sub-. 
 sequent history of the Jews. Those who recorded 
 the divine dispensations, under Joshua, the Judges, 
 
 and: the Kings, gave frequent proots of the pro- 
 phetic spirit. Above all, the sweet singer of Israel, 
 and the latter prephets. were habitually carried 
 forward to the most distant periods of time, and 
 even to the wonders of the eternal world. 
 
 While the spirit of proeeecy continued with the 
 Jewish people, the .expecta 1@ pr 
 mised at a remote period, was confirmed by the per 
 formance of promises, which respected more imme- 
 fate events. Each prediction, when accomplished, 
 ‘Decame a pledge of the accomplishment of others.’ 
 The evidence of prophecy rests not, on a few. 
 
 detached facts, the coincidence of whi with the 
 preggtion: might be considered as nothing more 
 than what must happen, amidst the numberless 
 conjectures of men, and the multiplicity of occur- 
 mences in human life. It arises froma connected 
 schain of predictions, with which a connected chain 
 of events is found to correspond : the predictions 
 harmonious, though delivered by different persons, 
 and at distant times3 the events. corresponding, 
 though unlikely, not aviauely well understood, 
 and lagionishing, when they happened, even to these 
 who had been informed of their approach. 
 
 The grand subject of prophecy has ever been the 
 
 ominy of a Gatiour. By the divine blessing, it may 
 
 » 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 3 
 
 ery ce to illustrate the evidence of prophecy, © 
 ind to. prepare, for a decision on the important 
 question; Is the Saviour come? if we consider 
 some part of what is said in the Jewish scriptures, 
 of his glorious character, and his sacred’ work. 
 
 Tn the first place, we remark that according to 
 the Jewish scriptures, the Saviour’s character 1s to 
 be distinguished by the name Messiah. This word 
 signifies anointed, or instituted to ah office ly 
 anointing, and is derived from the divine institution 
 of anointing both things, and persons, whien they 
 were set apart to the service of God. Thus Jacob 
 afointed the pillar, Gen. xxvill. 18—22. and thus 
 Moses was commanded to anoimt the tabernacle, 
 and all its utensils, Exod.xl. 9—11. Thus also, the 
 mos important office-bearers among the Jews 
 were set apart t8 their offices. Hence kings of that 
 nation obtained the name of ‘the Lord’s anointed.’’ 
 Aaron and his sons were anointed, that they might 
 minister unto God in the priest’s office, Exod. xl. 
 -13—15. And Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha 
 ‘© to be*prophet in his room,’’.1 Kings xix. 16, 
 Avreeably to this institution, we find the Saviour, 
 under the name of Messiah, celebrated as ordained 
 to be a king, a priest, and a prophet. ‘* The 
 ; kings of ‘the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
 take counsel together, against the Lord, and against 
 his Mussran’’—‘‘ The Lord shall have them in 
 derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his 
 wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure’’— 
 «© Yet have I set my Kine upon my holy’hill of 
 Zion,’ Psalm u. 2. 4—6- Again, we find his 
 consecration to the priesthood celebrated along » 
 with his appointment to the throne. ‘* The Lord 
 said unto my Lord, sit thou at my nght hand, 
 
 a 
 
4 THE AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 me 
 Ke 
 
 ; - 5 
 tntil I make thine enemies thy footstool.22——<« The 
 
 Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, thon arta 
 priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec,”’ 
 Psalm cx. 1—4. Wealso find him spoken of as a 
 prophet. ‘* The Lord thy God will raise up unto 
 thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
 brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. 
 According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord 
 thy God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, 
 saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the 
 Lord -my God 3 neither let me see this great fire - 
 
 _ any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto 
 
 me, they have well spoken that which they have 
 spoken. J will raise them up a prophet from among 
 their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my 
 words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them 
 all that I shall command him. Arid it shall come 
 to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto 
 my words which he shall speak in my name, I 
 will require i¢ of him,” Deut. xviii. 13—19. See 
 also the eleventh and forty-second chapters of © 
 Jsaiah. The Saviour’s being endowed with the 
 Holy Spirit is ascribed to his being anointed, or 
 ordained to the prophetical‘office. ‘* The Spirit of 
 the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath 
 anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, 
 he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to 
 proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of 
 the prison to ¢hem that are bound: to proclaim the | 
 acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of ven- 
 Seance of our God, to comfort all that mourn; to 
 appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto 
 them beauty for ashes, thé oil of joy for mourning, 
 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that 
 they might be called trees of righteousness, the 
 
es ) a 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 5 
 planting Bi lie horde. that. he xoightune alocikedgi? 
 Is, Ixi. 1—3. These passages show the propriety of 
 generally understanding by the name Messiah, the 
 promised Saviour. We find this name applied i ine 
 deed to the Patriarchs considered as Prophets, in 
 Ps. cv. 15. which is also inserted in 1 Chron. xvi. 22. 
 We find it agains in one instance, applied to,Cyrus, 
 Is.xlv. 1. but then his name is added to prevent mis- 
 
 stake, These passages, therefore, do.not-alter the ge- 
 neral, and the emphatical meaning of thename mane — 
 
 cient ‘prophecy. We need not insist on this, point at 
 greater length, because although some Jewish wri- 
 ters have disputed the eplitaien of the name Mes- 
 sia to the Saviour, in particular passages of serip- 
 ture which embarrassed them; yet the very Jewish 
 Creed which asserts, that the Saviour is yet te come, 
 calls him, as we do, ** The Messiah.’? This name 
 interpreted into Greek, is the Christ;. the name 
 commonly used for the Messiah in modern lan- 
 guages, and from which those, who believe that 
 the Messiah is come, are called Christians. 
 
 In the second place, we remark, that according 
 to the Jewish Scriptures, the Sayiour’s character 
 is to be distinguished by the constitution, of his 
 person. ‘That he should be a man, is evident from 
 his being called the seed of the woman, the seed 
 of Abraham, and the son of David, and is indeed 
 admitted of all hands. But we have the very same 
 kind of evidence, and in a degree equally. strong 
 that this man should appear to be the Sen of God. 
 in a sense which supposes him equal, and indeed 
 one, with God. if we are taught, that he should 
 be man, by ‘the names, the attributes, the actlons, 
 and the cireymstances belonging to humanity; we 
 are taught that he is God, bythe names, the attrie 
 
 BQ 
 
 ho 
 
i ‘ & 
 6 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 butes, the works, and the glory, which are peculiar 
 to Divinity. 
 
 ~ How express, and full, in all these ee ee is 
 the evidence arising from that address to him, 1 in 
 the forty-fifth Psalm. « Thy throne, O God, is for 
 ever and ever, the sceptre of thy kingdom is a 
 right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest 
 wickedness ; therefore God thy God hath anointed 
 
 _ thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” 
 _ Here are the Name, the Throne, the Kingdom, the 
 
 Righteousness, the Eternity of God; and all these 
 ascribed to the Messiah, to him who was anointed 
 by his Ged and Father, with the oil of gladness 
 above his fellows. It seems impossible to under- 
 stand this passage without admitting the union of 
 
 _ the divine and human natures; of underived, un- 
 
 changeable, eternal glory, with.a manifestation in 
 the flesh, and a transition from a state of humi- 
 lation to a state of exaltation, in the person of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 Again, how clearly does Tsaiah show that the 
 incarnation of the Messiah should not be considered 
 as any objection to the acknowledgment of his 
 divinity. It had been told the hove of David, 
 that Syria and Israel were engaged in a confederacy 
 against the kingdom of Judah. ‘The intelligence 
 produced the greatest consternation. The heart of 
 Abaz was moved, and the heart of his people, as 
 
 the trees of the woul are moved with the wind. 
 
 Isaiah was sent to administer comfort, by the most 
 encouraging prophecies of deliverance, and these 
 were accompanied with very remarkable signs to 
 confirm them. Qn this alarming occasion, likewlBe, 
 the prophet is, as usual, rapt into future times, 
 and celebrates those glorious blessings of the latter 
 
AND THE PROPHETS», 7 
 
 days, for the sake of which, intervening generations, 
 however unworthy, should be preserved from des 
 struction. At first, he takes along with him his 
 son Shear-jashub, Saag name signifies, “<a reme- 
 nant shall return,” (Is. vil. 3.) and by this sign 
 confirms the good news which-he was sent to an- 
 nounce that the dreaded confederacy should come 
 to nothing. The argument implied in the sign, 
 was, since there shall always be a remnant which 
 - shall be saved and return, no scheme for destroying 
 the kingdom of Judah shall.be permitted to prosper. 
 
 Perceiving that he was still inclined to despon- 
 dency, ** the Lord spake again to Ahaz, saying, 
 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, ask it either 
 in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz 
 said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” 
 The reply seems modest, but it is false modesty, 
 It could not be tempting the Lord to ask a sign, 
 when the Lord desired him to do it. On the con- 
 trary, it was, in this case, tempting the Lord, to 
 refuse to ask it. Ahaz is, therefore, reproved for 
 obstinacy. ‘* And he said, Hear ye now, O house 
 of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, 
 but will ye weary my God also??? Then follows a 
 remarkable prediction, which can apply to nothing 
 less than the birth of the Messiah. ‘* Therefore 
 the Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold the 
 virgin shall conceive, and shall bear ason, and thou 
 shalt call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey 
 shall he eat, when he shall know to refuse evil, and 
 choose good. For, before the child shall know to 
 refuse evil and choose good, the land shall be deso- 
 late, by whose two kings thou art distressed,” 
 (Verses 14—16.) | 
 
 A common interpretation of this passage is, that 
 
8 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 within the time that a young woman, then 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 chap. viil. 4.) the enemies of Judah 
 should be destroyed. But this interpretation, in- 
 stead of being supported by chapter viii. 4. is ra- 
 ther shaken by it. That passage does, indeed, treat 
 of the speedy approach of the deliverance, but 
 it is thus distinguished from the passage be- 
 fore us, which merely treats of its certainty. 
 What seems to have misled most readers is, that 
 they suppose the passage to refer tq the length 
 of tinte between the conception of a child, and 
 its arriva] at a certain age, with a view to enable 
 Ahaz to calculate the period, within which. the 
 promised deliverance should take place; whereas it 
 refers to a great distant event, (namely, the birth of 
 that Saviour who from childhood should increase in 
 wisdom -and stature, and in favour with God and 
 man,) which was, and ever had been, the object of, 
 hope to the people of God, and asserts, that the de- 
 liverance, so much needed, yet so. little hoped for, 
 at that time, avas an event equally certain, because 
 : necessarily previous to the other. The word * be- 
 fore,” in verse 16th, does not measure a short and 
 limited period. It is not a comparative, but an 
 » absolute assertion of priority. It does not signify, 
 “within a few years, as if it directed our attention 
 to the samne subject with that treated of in the next 
 chapter. The priority of event, which. it asserts, is 
 a priority which admits the interval of ages. The 
 passage is to be understood, as if one should now 
 comfort the Jewish nation, under any impending 
 ealamity, which might threaten them with extir- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 9 
 
 pation, should remind them of the prospect, though 
 perhaps still distant, of a return to their own land ; 
 and should say, “Fear not; behold ye shall one 
 day inherit again the land of Canaan. This is a 
 sure pledge of intermediate preservation and final 
 happiness; for BEFORE that blessed restoration 
 shall begin to take place, your present grounds of 
 alarm shall all be removed.’”’ * 
 
 * Perhaps the speech which Virgil puts into the mouth of Eneas, 
 when he would encourage his followers amidst the dangers of their 
 voyage, may also serve, in some degree, to illustrate the phraseology 
 of the passage before us. 
 
 ** O Socii, (neque enim ignari sumus ante maloruam) 
 “ O passi graviora: dabit Deus his quoque finein, 
 
 « Vos & Scylleam rabiem, penitusque sonantes 
 
 ** Accéstis scopulos ; vos & Cyclopea saxa 
 
 «« Experti: revocate animos, moestumque timorem 
 ‘© Mittite: forsan & hec olim meminisse juvabit. 
 
 ‘¢ Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, 
 
 «¢ Tendimus in Latium; sedes ubi fata quietas 
 
 t¢ Ostendunt: illic fas regna resurgere Trojex. 
 
 ‘¢ Durate, & vosmet rebus servate secundis.” 
 
 fined. lib. i, 202-211, 
 
 In like manner, he represents Jupiter as comforting Venus, under 
 present grievances, with the distant prospect of future satisfaction, 
 
 s¢ Parce metu, Cytherea: manent immota tuorum 
 ‘¢ Fata tibi: cernes urbem & promissa Lavini 
 6¢ Moenia, sublimemque feres ad sidera celi 
 s¢ Magnanimum /neam, neque me sententia vertit. 
 ‘¢ Hic tibi (fabor enim, quando hac te cura remordet, 
 «¢ Longius & volvensfatorum arcana moyebo) 
 « Bellum ingens geret [talid .+++eseeseeseceeee 
 MS ibs aied bin adie oh vive So's Owe CUVEE e Als on yee oe 
 «¢ Nascetur pulchra Trojanus origine Cesar, 
 *¢ Tmperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris, 
 ‘¢ Julius, 4 magno demissum nomen Iiilo, 
 ‘© Hunc ta olim celo, spoliis Orientis onustum, 
 
 © Accipies secura: vocabitur hic quoque votis. 
 ‘© Aspera tum positis mitescent sacula bellis.” 
 
 m PETA o esate eeoreerser Fee rseHeHeessoese reo ee 
 
 y, JE ned, -lib, 1, 261—295, 
 
 2 
 
. 10 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 In the passage before us, it is worthy of notice 
 that the expression is emphatical. The prophet i is 
 not speaking of a virgin who had: never been heard 
 of before, but of tux virGrn, alluded to, in some 
 well known promise, and what could this be, but 
 the promise, that ‘ the seed of the woman should 
 bruise the head of the serpent.??. Thus also Micah 
 speaks, chap. v. 3.  ** Therefore will he give them 
 up, until the time ¢hat sue WHICH TRAVAILETH 
 HATH BROUGHT FORTH: then the remnant of his 
 brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.” 
 ** Behold the virgin sha!l conceive, and shall bear 
 ason.”? These words could not have been under- 
 stood, unless the early promise was believed to 
 imply such a miraculous conception, as the prophet - 
 described. Jews have. sometimes denied, indeed, 
 that the original word properly signifies ** a virgin,” 
 and that any miracle in the conception is here 
 intended. Besides this passage, the word in 
 question occurs im the scriptures, six’ times, 
 viz. Gen. xxiv. 43. © Exod.it. 8, Psalm Ixvin, 26. 
 Prov. xxx. 19. Songi.3.andvi. 8. In five of 
 these places, it is celal used for a virgin. 
 Prov. xxx. 19. is the only passage, which has been 
 alledged as countenancing a different meaning of the 
 word. ‘* There be three things, saith Solomon, 
 which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I 
 know not : the way of an eagle in the air, the w ay 
 of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the 
 midst of the sea; and the way of a man’ with a 
 maid (mm5py2). Such ts the way of an adul- 
 terous woman ; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, 
 and saith, I have done no wickedness.’? Here, 
 it has been said, the woman in .the 19th verse, 
 instead of being a virgin, evidently is, and, in the 
 
. - * 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. | li 
 
 next verse, 1s called, an adulterous woman: there- 
 fore, the word used for her, in the 19th verse, 
 cannot Bie considered as properly signifying 66g 
 virgin.” But there certainly.is no impropriety in 
 ‘understanding the word, in the 19th verse, of a 
 virgin, although she is there represented as changing 
 her real state and character. We often find the 
 other word (m71n2), which our opponents con- 
 tend is the oily proper one for virgin, used in 
 a similar connexion. Thus,’ Exod. xxii. 16,174 
 «* And if a man entice a virgin that is not betrothed, 
 and lie with her; he shall surely endow her to be 
 his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her to 
 him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of 
 virgins.’ See also Deut. xxii. 23. and verse 28.— 
 and Ezek. xxii.3-+-8. These passages fully vindi- 
 vate our interpreting the word, in Prov. xxx. 19, 
 ** virgin;” and if this be its meaning there, it is 
 its meaning im every other passage in which it 
 occurs. It is a mistake to say, that the woman 
 in the 19th verse, is the same with “ the adul- 
 terous-woman,”’ in the 20th; for the writer com=- 
 pares the way of the one to the way of the other, 
 and thus evidently shows that he is speaking of 
 _ gifferent persons. The passage treats of stolen and 
 clandestine loves, and the commerce which a man 
 has with an unmarried virgin, without the know- 
 ledge of any but the lovers themselves; while she 
 ‘an the mean time is treated and respected as a 
 virgin, and dissembles her fault-so well, as not to 
 ‘be traced out by others. Although not so, there- 
 ore, in reality, she is a virgin in the common. es- 
 
 teem and judgment of botiouis If it be objected, 
 that this cannot be the meaning of the passage, 
 ecause  witgimily could not have been consideredsby 
 
12 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 Solomon as inscrutable, since among the Hebrews it 
 
 was examined, by a public inquisition, Deut. xxil.17. | 
 it may be answered, that so neither was the adul- 
 terous woman, who had violated her conjugal faith, 
 deemed under the law an inscrutable object, since 
 God had appointed a sign by which to detect 
 her, Num. v. 15, 16, &c.; and yet Solomon com - 
 pares her to the things preceding. * 
 
 After all the attempts, then, which have been 
 made to explain away this remarkable prophecy, 
 it must be considered as containing a clear predic- 
 tion of the miraculous conception and birth of the 
 Messiah. This miracle was sufficient to distin- 
 guish him from the ordinary children of men. But 
 to show, in the most decisive manner, that his par- 
 taking of human nature should be no objection 
 to the acknowledgment of his divinity, it is de- 
 clared in the very same sentence, , thou shalt call 
 his name Immanuel,” which being interpreted, isy 
 God with us. , . 
 
 The prophet proceeds in the eighth chapter to the 
 subject, which, as we have observed, he has been 
 erroneously thought to have had in view in 
 chap. vii. 16. namely, the speedy approach of the 
 deliverance of Judah, by the destruction of the 
 power of Syria and Israel. As a sign of the ac- 
 complishment of his prediction, he records the 
 name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which he should 
 give to a son who was to. be born to him, sig- 
 nifying, * Haste to the spoit, quick to the prey ;” 
 because before the child should have knowledge to 
 cry, ‘* My father and my mother,”’ the riches of 
 Damascus, and the spoil of Samaria should be taken 
 
 f 
 
 away before the king of Assyria. The prophecy was, 
 
 ¥ See Parkburst's Hebrew Lexicon on the word ay, ang 
 
 Wagenseil’s Telaignea Satan, p. 409, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. : 13 
 
 accordingly accomplished within three years ; when 
 Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria took Tjon, and 
 Abel-beth- maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and 
 Hazor, and Gilead, and Guiles, all the thnd of 
 Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria ; 
 a disaster which seems to have encouraged Hoshea 
 the son of Elah to make a conspiracy against Pekah 
 the son of Remaliah, and to smite Hin and slay 
 him, and reign in fits stead, 2 Kings xv. 29.3 and 
 when the same Ticlaeh! pitewa went up against ~> 
 Damascus and took it, and carried the people of 
 it captive to Kir, and shit Rezin; 2 Kings xvi. 9. 
 And now from a near and sibokdinats instance of 
 deliverance, Isaiah 1s carried forwatd by the spirit of 
 prophecy to the great redemption of the Messiah. 
 He had already foretold the certainty of his birth of 
 the virgin, as a sign or pledge of the inviolable 
 safety of the family, from which, according to the 
 flesh, he should spring. He now introduces him 
 as speaking in his own person, chap. viii. 16—18. 
 “ Bind up the testimony, seal the law among 
 my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lerd 
 that hideth his-face from the house of Jacob, and 
 IT wall look for him. Behold I and the children 
 whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs, and 
 for wonders in Israel; from the Isord of hosts who 
 dwelleth in mount Zion.’’ The prophet is ordered 
 to preserve his predictions, asa sacred deposit for 
 future ages. The Messiah refers to the rejected 
 and dispersed state of the Jewish nation, when he 
 says he will wait and look for the Lord, who hideth 
 his face from the house of Israel, and the words 
 imply the expectation of its future admission into 
 the church, from which it has been excluded. The 
 prophet had called two of ‘his children by very 
 WOL, Il, Cc 
 
14, AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 extraordinary names, in order to keep in rement 
 brance the ivine predictions of deliverance. All 
 the people would be astonished: some would no 
 doubt profit by such signs; others would deride 
 both the prophet and his children. Alluding to. 
 these circumstances, Immanuel is introduced as 
 confessing his disciples to be his children, and 
 ‘considering both himself and them, as ‘* signs and 
 wonders in Israel.”” He was to be *¢ a sign which 
 should be spoken against,’’ (Luke it. 34.); and they 
 have ever been beheld with wonder, sometimes that 
 of admiration, sometimes that of derision, because 
 of their likeness to him; their attachment’to his 
 cause, doctrines, and precepts. 
 
 At last, the prophet triumphantly announces an 
 end of fighting with carnal weapons tn the cause of 
 God, under the reign of the Messiah, whose king- 
 dom is not of this world. Zebulon, Naphtah, and 
 Manasseh, that is, the country of Galilee all round — 
 the sea of Gennesareth, were the parts which prin- 
 tipally suffered in the first Assyrian invasion by 
 Tiglath-pileser (see 2 Kings xv. 29. and 1 Chron. v. 
 26.); and the inhabitants of that country also were, 
 at a future period, to be the first, who should enjoy 
 the benefit of hearing the preaching of the Messiah, 
 and beholding the miracles which he was to perform, 
 We shall give the passage in Lowth’s translation. 
 
 <¢ But there shall not hereafter be darkness in the 
 
 land which was distressed + 
 
 é¢ In the former time he debased _ 
 
 <¢ The land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali; 
 
 <¢ But in the latter time he hath made it glorious: 
 
 s¢ Even the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee 
 of the nations. 
 
 ‘© The people that walked in darkness, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 15. 
 
 <¢ Fave seen a great light Be ea 
 *¢ They that dwelled in the land of the shadow of 
 death, 
 *¢ Unto them hath the light shined. 
 «¢ Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast ins 
 creased their joy : 
 ‘* They rejoice before thee, as with the Jey of 
 harvest ; 
 © As they rejoice, who dine the spoil. 
 “¢ For the yoke of his burthen, the staff laid on 
 his shoulder, 
 <¢ The rod of his oppressor hast thet broken, as 
 in the day of Midian. ' 
 ‘* For the greaves of the armed warrior in the 
 conflict, 
 *¢ And the garment rolled j im much blood, : 
 «¢ Shall be for a burning, even fuel for ae fire.’* 
 Observe the sign hil is now given: a son 
 born, not to an individual prophet, but to the house. 
 of David, for the behoof of the people of God. at, 
 darge ; whose name should be more important and 
 consolatory, than that of Shearjashub, or Maher- 
 shalal-hash-baz ; who should possess divine glory, 
 and whose reign should be distinguished by ever-. 
 increasing prosperity. 
 ‘* For unto us a Child is born; unto us a Sonis. 
 given ; 
 © And the govenment shall be upon his shoulder: 
 ‘¢ And his name shall be called, Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, 
 «© The mighty Ged, the Father of the everlasting. 
 age, the Prince of Peace. 
 “‘ Of the increase of his government and peace 
 | there shall be no o end 5 
 
 RSA.” itd 
 
16 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 ‘© Upon the throne of David, and upon his ge 
 dom ; 
 
 © To fix ve and to eetblish it 
 © With judgment and cal justice, henceforth 
 and for ever ; 
 ** The zeal of Jehovah God of hosts will do this.”’ 
 Fsaiah ix. 1—7. 
 
 Surely this description can apply to none, but 
 him, who was to be called Immanuel, that is, Ged 
 with us; and whose disciples with Nitoself, were to. 
 be for signs and for wonders in Israel. It asserts, 
 in the cleanest and strongest manner of which 
 
 : language is capable, his real incarnation, his essen- 
 
 Se 
 
 tial divinity, and his mediatorial kingdom and 
 
 glory. 
 
 In the third place, we remark, that, according to 
 the Jewish scriptures, the Saviour’s character is to 
 be distinguished by the time and place of his ap- 
 pearance upon earth. The time of his appearance 
 as marked sometimes by circumstances, and in one 
 remarkable passage, by a specific number of years. 
 It is marked by circumstances in the prophecy of 
 Jacob, concerning Judah, ‘* The sceptre shall not 
 
 eart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between 
 
 his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shal/ the 
 gathering of the people be,’? Gen. xlix.10. This 
 prophecy was thought by ancient Jews, .as well as 
 it has always been by christians, to refer to the 
 time of the coming of the Messiah.* - The targum 
 of Onkelos is commonly supposed -to have been 
 made before the christian gra, and he thus expres- 
 seth the sense of the passage, ‘* There shall not be 
 taken away one having the principality from the 
 
 * See Newton on the Propliecies, Dissertation fourth, 
 
Ae 
 ‘\ 
 
 AND THF PROPHETS. if- 
 
 house of Judah, nor a scribe from his children’s 
 children, even for ever, till Messiah come, whose 18 
 the kingdom, and. him the people shall obey.’ 
 As a further proof that this ancient. targuimist, 
 believed Jacob to be blessed with a view. of the 
 Messiah’s. coming, he paraphrases the 18th verse. 
 in the following manner :—‘ I wait for thy salva- 
 tion, O Lord. Our father Jacob said: not | 
 wait for the salvation of Gideon, the son.yf Joash, 
 which is a temporal salvation; nor the salvation of 
 - Samson, the son of Manoah, which is a transitory 
 salvation; but, I wait for the redemption of the 
 Messiah, the son of David, who shall come to lead 
 the children of Israel: to himself;. even for his re- 
 demption my soul. waiteth.’"* 
 
 ’ This prophecy, then, assures the Jewish people, 
 of a continuance among them of regal, or judicial 
 authority, until the Messiah should come., Now, 
 it is undeniable, that there always was a king or 
 governor among the Jews, till the destruction of, 
 Jerusalem by the Romans. ‘The Jewish state was 
 then dissolved. Ever since the people have been 
 dispersed. - What 1s. the inference? That Shiloh, 
 or the Messiah, is come; that he was come. before 
 the destruction of Jerusalem; and that when God, 
 who now punisheth his ancient people for their uns. 
 
 * The original of both these passages, may be seen, in Schauf?s. 
 Chaldzo-Syriac Grammar, to which are added selec'ions from the 
 targums, where also the Editor gives his authorities for the paraphrase 
 on the eighteenth, verse, which is to be found only in some copies. Those 
 called the Targuc of Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targum, give an ins 
 terpretation of the tenth verse, precisely similar to the one given above 
 from Onkelos. And we may here remark, in general, that, although 
 the case is very different with modern fewish writers, yet in the more 
 ancicnt writers, such as the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonas 
 than, most of the passages of the Jewish Scriptures, which are applied 
 to Jesus in the Christian Scriptures, are interpreted of the Messiah, 
 
 C2 
 
18 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 bektef, shall have mercy upon them, “the gathering 
 of them shall be unto Shiloh,”’ they shall be united 
 in the belief of the gospel of Christ’ Then shall be 
 verified the whole of that prophecy, a part of which 
 1s already so remarkably fulfilled jn the present 
 Situation of Jews: * For the children of Israel shall 
 abide many days withont a king, and without a 
 prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an 
 image, (perhaps the original reading was, ‘* an 
 altar”) and without an ephod,and without-teraphim. 
 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and 
 ** seek the Lord their God, and David their King, 
 and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the 
 latter days,’” Hos. ili. 4, 5. 
 
 The seriou thus detent for the coming a the 
 Messiah not only determines the great question, 
 whether or not, the Messiah be come, but applies 
 to Jesus alone as the Messiah. Soon after his abode 
 upon earth, many false Christs deluded the people, 
 but we presume that none- even of the Jews who 
 still reject him, will prefer any of those impostors,, 
 as Messiah, in his stead. If, therefore, the deter- 
 mination of the great question be admitted, its ap- 
 plication to Jesus will follow of course. 
 
 It is no objection to this view of the passage, 
 that the Asmonean princes, and Herod, were not 
 of the tribe of Judah, and that after the BA ionic: 
 captivity, the Jews were not so free a people as 
 before, living under the dominion of the Persians, 
 Greeks, and Romans. Even in their captivity, 
 they were allowed to have rulers. When Cyrus 
 rssued his proclamation. for rebuilding the temple, 
 «© then rose up the chief of the fathers,’?. Ezra i. 5. 
 Cyrus ordered the vessels of the temple to be 
 delivered to ** the prince of Judah,” Ezrai,8, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 19 
 
 These chiefs and princes managed their return and 
 settlement in Judea. Under the Persians, Greeks, 
 and Romans, they still lived as a distinct people 
 under their own laws. The authority of their rulers 
 and elders subsisted under those foreign masters, as 
 it had, while they were in Egypt. It subsisted 
 under the Asmonean princes, as it had, under the 
 government of the Judges, and Samuel, and Saul ; 
 for in the books of Maccabees, frequent mention ts 
 made of the rulers and elders of the Jews. oe 
 ¥ Macc. i. 26.3 and vii. 33.3; and x. 23.3 andxil. 35.3 
 and xiv. 20. Under Herod also, and bid sudiesiots, 
 we read of ** the scribes, and the elders, and the 
 council of the people.’? We presume, Jews them- 
 selves will admit, that a government did subsist 
 among them till the destraction of Jerusalem by 
 the Romans, hke to which nothing has subsisted 
 since. It seems impossible, then, to believe 
 this prophecy, and yet to deny that the Messtah is 
 come, and come at the time of the birth of Jesus. 
 The time of the coming of the Messiah ts also 
 marked by circumstances in the prophecies of 
 Haggai, chap. ii. 5—9. ‘© According to the word” 
 that I covenanted with you when ye came out of 
 Egypt, so my Spint remaineth among you: fear ye 
 not. ‘For thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, 
 it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and 
 the earth, and the sea, and the dry land: and I will 
 shake all nations, and the desire of all natians shall 
 come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith 
 the Lord of hosts. The silver és mine,- and the 
 gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory 
 of this latter house shall be greater than of the — 
 former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place 
 will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.’?’ Whea 
 
20 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW ; 
 
 the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God pro- 
 mised to be with Moses, Exod. ili.12. He had: 
 made a similar promise to the people at this time, 
 Hag.i. 13. and ‘* his Spirit remained among them.” 
 When God promised to be with Moses, the token 
 was, ‘© When thou hast brought forth the people 
 out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this moun- 
 tain.” When accordingly the law was given at 
 Sinai,’ ** The whole mountain’ quaked greatly,” 
 Exod. xix. 18. But here he promiseth to shake not 
 the earth only, but also heaven. This was to be 
 done “once.’’ Political revelutions should. be 
 subservient to one great and final religious revolu- 
 tion: the establishment of the kingdom of the 
 Messiah, which is not of this world, but is the 
 kingdom of heaven. This kingdom was to be 
 
 erected in ‘a little while; 
 
 a short period of time when compared with that 
 -which had elapsed from the creation to the giving 
 of the law, or from the giving of the law to the 
 coming of the Messiah’s kingdom. All nations were 
 to undergo revolutions preparatory to this event, 
 and calculated to pave the way for the universal 
 reign of the Messiah. He is called “the desire 
 of all nations,” because he-was to reign over men of 
 all nations, according to Isaiah xlix. 6. That an 
 expected king should be prophetically called ‘ the 
 desire” af his subjects, we see from 1 Sam. ix. 20. 
 A similar expression is also used for the Messiah 
 as expected by the Jews, in Mal. in. 1. Connected 
 with the coming of ‘the desire of all nations,” is 
 the promise to ‘fill this latter house of the Lord 
 with glory.” Now, we know that neither the taber- 
 nacle, nor the temple of Solomon, was eyer said to 
 
 that is, as Christians. 
 believe, in about five centuries after this prophecy, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, B31 
 
 be filled with glory, till honoured with the visible 
 presence of the Lord, see Exod. x1.34. i Kings vill. 11, 
 ‘This promise must, therefore, refer to an honoyr of 
 the same kind.—As to the enriching of the latter 
 house with precious things of this world, that 
 should be as it should please God. ‘‘ The silver is 
 mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of 
 hosts.” But ‘the filling of it with glory,” should 
 be in a way, which should make “ the glory of this 
 latter house greater than of the former.” No com- 
 parison can be here intended between a greater, and 
 a less degree, of the same kind of manifestation of 
 glory ; for it is allowed by all, that the latter house 
 never had, in any degree, the kind of manifestation 
 of divine glory, which filled the former house. The 
 greater glory.of the latter house must, therefore, 
 arise from being filled with the visible presence of 
 the Lord in another manner; when he ‘ suddenly 
 came to his temple,” to purify the worshippers, 
 Mal. iii. 1—6.16—18. The last clause corres- 
 ponds with these remarks. Unless it be understood 
 of the kingdom of ‘* peace” under the Messiah, it 
 will be impossible to discover its accomplishment 
 in any other sense.—It has been contended that the 
 Jatter house cannot be understood of the temple, in 
 the days of Jesus, because it had been previously 
 rebuilt by Herod. But no nominal distinction 
 seems ever to have been made by the more ancient 
 Jews, between Zerubbabel’s and Herod’s temple. 
 In the passage before us, we read only of a former, 
 and a latter house. To have mentioned a third 
 house would have led the Jews to expect a demo- 
 lition of the temple then building, which would 
 have operated as a discouragement. However com-~ 
 plete the change made on the temple hy Herod, it 
 
22 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 was not a new structure in the room of one pre- 
 viously destroyed, but a repair, and augmention of 
 one, deemed worthy to be not only preserved, but en- 
 larged. Besides, this passage might best he rendered, 
 ** The latter glory of this house shall be greater than 
 the former (glory).” So the LXX understood it, 
 Aor: weyarn esoun doda Te oma rete, 4 erxaty vmEg THY 
 mor; and that they were right appears from the 
 language of the whole passage. Thus, ver.3. Who 
 is left among you that saw THIS HOUSE in her 
 <‘ former glory?” Again, ver. 7.—** I will fill ras 
 HOUSE with glory.” So-also in Ezra v. 11—13. 
 the house that was built, destroyed, and rebuilt, 
 is considered as the same house. ‘And thus they 
 returned us answers, saying, We are the servants 
 of the God of heaven and earth, and purtp THE 
 HOUSE THAT WAS BUILDED THESE MANY YEARS. 
 AGO, which a great King of Israel builded and set 
 up. But after that our fathers had provoked the 
 God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the 
 hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the 
 Chaldean, who DESTROYED THIS HOUSE, and 
 carried the people away into Babylon. But in- 
 the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, the 
 same king Cyrus made a decree to BUILD THIS 
 uousE OF Gon.” In all these passages Zerub- 
 babel’s temple is mentioned as the same with that 
 of Solomon, and so, in the prophetic style, may 
 that of Herod; if, indeed, there be any propriety 
 in at all admitting a third, as well as a second. 
 temple distinct from the first.* Here, then, we 
 are again directed by circumstances to fix the 
 ‘time of the Messiah to the days of Jesus upon. 
 
 * See Parkhurst’s Lexicon “fT, and Newcome, on Hag. ii. 7% 
 with the Appendix. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 63 
 
 ‘earth 5 and unless Jews will admit, that the 
 prophecy in this passage was fulfilled when Jesus 
 came to the temple, to rejoice the heart of Simeon 
 ‘and Anna, and all who looked for redemption in 
 Jerusalem ; to’drive away the buyers and sellers, 
 and changers of money; to teach the people, and 
 even to perfect praise out of the mouths of babes 
 and sucklings; they will find it impossible to dis- 
 cover any fulfilment of the prophecy at all. 
 
 The remarkable passage, in which the time of 
 our Saviour’s appearance upon earth is marked by a 
 specific number of years, is in the ninth chapter of 
 the book of Daniel. That prophet tells us, that in 
 the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, he 
 understood by books, that the Lord had said to 
 Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 
 seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. As 
 this period was now at hand, Daniel set his face to 
 seek the Lord by prayer and supplication, with 
 fasting and sackcloth and ashes. It appears from 
 his prayer, that he pleaded, not so much for de- 
 liverance to his people from the sufferings of cap- 
 tivity, as for the forgiveness of their sins, which had 
 caused that captivity, and for the blessings of the 
 divine favour, without which, a return to their 
 own land could not make them truly happy. He 
 ' ‘was evidently brought to that temper of mind which 
 is described, and to which a gracious promise is 
 given, in Lev. xxvi. 40—42. ‘Tt would seem that 
 the Psalmist’s request, Let my prayer be set forth 
 before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my 
 hands as the evening sacrifice’? (Psalm exli. 2.) had 
 been granted to Daniel on this occasion. For he 
 says, “And while I was speaking, and praying, 
 
 and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people 
 
 ‘ 
 
Q4 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 Israel, and presenting my supplication before the 
 Lord my God, for the holy mountain of my God: 
 yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man 
 Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision. at the 
 beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched 
 me about the time of the evening oblation. And 
 he informed me, and talked with me, and said, 
 © Danicl, I am now come forth to give thee 
 skill and understanding. At the beginning of 
 thy supplications the pommand sien came forth, 
 and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly 
 beloved : therctpte understand the matter, and con- 
 sider the vision.”? Daniel calls the angel who ap- 
 peared to him on this occasion, | ‘¢ the man Gabriel 
 whom he had seen 1n the vision at the beginning.”’ 
 The vision “ at the beginning” is the vision, of 
 which we have an account m chapter seveath, 
 which was the first given to Daniel. Being troubled 
 at what he then beheld, he says, chap. vit, 16. I 
 came near unto one of them that stood by, and 
 asked him the truth of all this: so he told me, and 
 made me know the interpretation of the things.” 
 The person whom he saw at this time among 
 ‘s them that stood by’’ (for these things the angels | 
 desire to took into) he now tells us was Gabriel. 
 This angel is not named, indeed, tll chap. vil. 16, 
 which has led some to think that the reference 
 here is to the vision of that chapter ; but he is 
 there called to by another man, and is named, as 
 one already known to Daniel—* There stood before 
 me as the appratance of a man. (a mighty one); 
 and 1 heard a man’s voice between the Lanks of 
 “Ulai, which (having the command of angels) called, 
 and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the 
 vision. So he came near where I stood.’?. The 
 
=: 7 
 
 a % 
 Pe 5 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 25 
 
 truth is, it was’ Gabriel, who was employed to 
 interprét to Daniel in each of these visions, and the 
 expression here, that he was seen “ in the vision at 
 the beginning”? seems to fix a reference to the vision 
 of the seventh chapter. The words of Gabriel, 
 when he here says, <¢ Understand the matter, and 
 “consider the vision,” do not apply to the matter 
 which had’ occasioned Daniel’s prayer, at this 
 time, namely, the vision’ of Jeremiah, (for that 
 matter he already understood by books: that vision’ 
 (sée ver. 9.) he had already considered ;) neither 
 do they apply to a'vision supposed to follow, (for 
 what follows is not a vision, but information ex- 
 planatory of a vision ;) neither do they apply to the 
 vision of the eighth chapter, with which they appear 
 from the sequel t6 have no connection ; but they’ 
 apply,’ by the reference now pointed out, to the 
 vision of the seventh chapter, which Danicl had’ 
 seen at the beginning, and with the latter part of 
 which, the subsequent part of the angel's com- 
 munication, at this time, has the most manifest 
 connection. The vision of the seventh chapter,- 
 Daniel did not yet fully understand ; for although’ 
 he had obtained important information from Gabriel 
 (see chap. vil. 16—27.); yet that information was 
 not completed at that time. This seems implied in 
 the expression, chap. vii. 28. * HirHERTO 2s the 
 end of the matter ;”? and accordingly the anxiety of 
 Daniel for further instruction is immediately men- 
 tioned in very strong terms: “ As for me, Daniel, 
 my cogitations much troubled me, and my coun- 
 tenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in 
 my heart.” ‘The matter which Daniel thus kept 
 in’ heart, was‘ no doubt much upon his mind, - 
 during his prayer. To give, then, that further 
 VOL. IL, : D 
 
2 oo a ; 
 26 8 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 instruction conceming it, for which he was so — 
 anxious, was in the most ‘effectual way, to answer 
 his prayer. Gabriel’s telling Daniel that he had 
 been ordered on this service ‘¢ at the beginning of 
 his supplication,” is no proof that. the angel’s 
 mission was not an answer to the prophet’s prayer 
 
 (as has been alledged) ; but rather of the contrary. 
 God is graciously pleased, sometimes, to anticipate 
 the prayers of his people; and if it be a favour to 
 answer us speedily ; how much more to ‘¢ let his 
 tender mercies speedily prevent us, 2a we are 
 brought very low !”? (Psalm Ixxix. 8.) The case 
 before us, is an instance of the accomplishment of 
 that precious promise, “ And it shall come to 
 pass, that before they call, I will answer, and ~ 
 while they are yet speaking, I will hear, Isaiah 
 Ixy. 24. Inthe seventh chapter he had got (from 
 ver. 9, to the end) a general view of the kingdom 
 of the Messiah, as. opposed by the. fourth beast, 
 especially ‘the little horn of it;?? but finally 
 proving victorious. Now, as a distinguished token 
 of the Divine favour, he receives precise in- 
 formation respecting the time when this kingdom 
 of the Messiah should come, 
 
 Alluding to the seventy years, which Daniel had 
 been thinking of, Gabriel says, ‘* Seventy weeks, 
 or seventy sevens, are determined upon thy people, 
 and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, 
 and to make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
 _ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in. everlasting 
 righteousness, and to seal the vision and prophecy, 
 and to anoint the most holy,’ er, 24, “The x= 
 pression ‘* seventy sevens,’ 1s a mode of reckoning 
 to be calculated by the expression, in ver. 2. 
 “« Seventy years: :? it is not an indefimte, but a 
 
“<a ae 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. mf 
 
 determinate number.’ This is evident from the 
 full clause, “ Seventy sevens are determined upon 
 thy people,’’ or, as the words may be rendered, 
 “* Seventy precise sevens are upon thy people,”? | 
 ‘Now seveirty precise sevens of the same period of 
 time, which had been mentioned, ver. 2. that 1S, 
 years, are seventy times seven years, or four hun- 
 dred and ninety years. Four hundred and ninety 
 years, then, are here announced as a term fixed 
 for a particular purpose. This is so obvious, that 
 it is granted by a Jewish ‘writer, even while op- 
 posing the christian argument from this passage.* 
 The only question is, what was the particular 
 purpose for which this term was fixed. The text 
 describes it thus: ‘*To finish the transgression, 
 and to make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
 ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
 righteousness, and to seal the vision and prophecy, 
 and to anointethe most holy.””” By these phrases, 
 some have contended, that we must understand the 
 sufferings of the people for their sins, in a long 
 captivity ‘to. commence at the end of the four hun- 
 dred and ninety years. But to suppose that the 
 personal, or, national sufferings of the guilty, the 
 depraved, and the rebellious are to cleanse them 
 ' from sin, is contrary to the whole tenor of revela- 
 tion, which, as we have seen, all along holds out 
 the hope of cleansing men from sin, not by their 
 own sufferings, but by the sacrifice of a substituted 
 victim. What! bave Jews made any progress in 
 purging away their sing, by the sufferings they 
 have, for so many ages, undergone? Are they in- 
 deed in the way of « finishing the transgression, 
 
 4 See Levi's Letters to Dr, Priestley, p. 45, 
 
28° AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 and making an,end of sins, and making recon- 
 ciliation for iniquity, and bringing in everlasting 
 righteousness? Surely their most partial advocates 
 will hardly maintain sucha view of their actual 
 situation. Such a view would have been no en- 
 couragement, to Daniel, who, in his prayer, said, 
 ©€We do not present our supplications before thee 
 for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 
 O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, Q. Lord, hearken 
 and do, defer not, for thine own sake, | ) my Ged: 
 for thy city, and thy people are ca ed by thy 
 name.” No! the purpose to be accomplished 
 when the above-mentioned period should expire, 
 was the atonement for sin to be made by the 
 Messiah, which was to finish what typieal sacri- 
 fices only prefigured. Then was to be performed 
 the work prophetically announced concerning the 
 
 Messiah, represented as speakingin his own person, » 
 Ce Bek Gee OO a etn ate Eo Ta 
 4 pultli Are Ue OACTINCE alse REA. Feit 
 
 not delight m: mine ears didst thou, bore (or, as 
 it has been read, **a body didst thou prepare for 
 me ;”) burnt-offering and sin-offering thou didst 
 not require. Then, said I, lo! I come; in the 
 yolume of the book it is written of me; I delight 
 to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within 
 my heart,’? Psalm xl. 6—8. When sin should 
 thus be removed, and everlasting righteousness 
 brought’ in, another part’ of» the divine purpose 
 would be answered, namely, “to seal the vision 
 and prophecy,”’ that 1s to confirm all the prophecies 
 concerning the Messiah by the accomplishment of 
 them in himself, The last part of the divine 
 purpose which was to be carried into effect at this 
 period, was, ‘to anoint the most holy,” or 
 “< holy af holies,” an expression which usually 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 29 
 
 denotes the inner sanctuary. Anointing the holy 
 ‘of holies cannot here signify the temple made with 
 hands at Jerusalem, for that temple is, at the period 
 described, known to have been destitute of the 
 anointing oil. Nor can any expected, anointing of 
 a holy of holies there, at a future period, be the 
 accomplishment of this prediction, which is limited 
 to four hundred and ninety years, the expiration of 
 which ‘isso long past. If then it was to be fulfilled 
 at all, it must be fulfilled already ; and if it be 
 fulfilled, it must refer to the holy of holies, in a 
 temple made without hands, and to the anointing, 
 not of the holy oil of the law of Moses, which was 
 ~ Jost, and could not lawfully be made again, (see 
 Exod. xxx. 32, 33.) but of the Holy Spirit, on 
 account of which we have seen that‘ the promised 
 Saviour (who spake of the temple of his body,) 
 was distinguished by the name of Messiah. Agree- 
 ably to the above explanation of ver. 24, we find 
 the following verses distinctly referring to the time 
 of the Messiah’s coming, the time of his being cut 
 off, and the salvation of many by the preaching of 
 the gospel in his name, previously to the last 
 destruction of Jerusalem. 2 
 In these verses, the four hundred and ninety 
 years are subdivided into three parts. The first, 
 which consists of * seven weeks, or sevens,”? that 
 Is, of forty-nine years, is declared to commence 
 ** from the going forth of the commandment to 
 restore, and to build Jernsalem,’? or the procla- 
 mation of Cyrus, recorded in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
 22, 23. and Ezrai. i—4. This was a very sutable 
 commencement, for the proclamation of Cyrus is 
 said to have taken place, “ that the word of the 
 Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah (the very passage 
 D2 
 
30 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 which had Teaser Daniel) might be fulfilled.” 
 This portion of forty-nine years added toa second 
 portion of * threescore and two weeks, or sevens,” 
 that is, four hundred and thirty-four years, making 
 together four hundred and eighty-three years, shall 
 reach, it is said, unto the ‘¢ Messiah the Prince.” 
 The reason of mentioning the first portion separately 
 18, *¢ the street shall be een again, and the wall, 
 in the narrow limit of the times 3” or during the 
 first, which is the smaller portion of the times :* 
 that is, forty-nine years should be occupied by 
 that work, partly through its own magnitude, and 
 partly through the opposition of adversaries, the 
 feebleness and despondency, and even criminal 
 sloth of the Jewish people, as we read in Ezra, 
 Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechartah. 
 
 That the second portion. of the times was to 
 reach to the Messiah, that he was to-die, and to 
 die a_violent death, are facts distinctly declared in 
 the beginning of ver. 26. ‘‘ And after threescore 
 -and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” 
 
 Daniel is next informed of the destruction of 
 the rebuilt Jerusalem. ‘And not to him,t the 
 
 * See Wintle on the place. : 
 
 ‘+ We believe the doctrine which seems to-be tmplied in’ the cominon 
 English translation, ‘* Messiah shall be cut off, but ,not for himself: :” 
 we are plainly told in Isaiah liii, 8. ‘for the transgression of my 
 “people was he stricken.” It is not this truth, however, that seems here 
 ‘tobe meant, The expression is indeed so concise, that it is obscure, 
 and has- accordingly been very .variously interpreted. ‘Those who 
 - consider Messiah to be an ,ordinary prince, say that, “and not to 
 hin,” signifies that he should have no posterity. But every objection 
 to their hypothesis respecting the Messiah, militates also against this 
 interpretation, Others explain the words, ot his not obtainihg justice, 
 of his not being received by his own people the Jews, of there being ne 
 justice to, or in it, that is, in the cify.. Perhaps it may be referred to 
 the motive of the Prince that cometh. He shall come, not to, or fer 
 him (the Messiah): not with apy design.to serve him, thongh in fact 
 
 » 
 
AND THE. PROPHETS. Si 
 
 people of the Prince that cometh shall destroy 
 both the city and the sanctuary; and they shall 
 make an end with an inundation, and-to the end of, 
 a decisive war shall be desolations.?? What is 
 there stated seems not to be included in the sub- 
 division.of the seventy weeks. It relates to an in- 
 terval between the death of the Messiah, and a 
 concluding decisive war to last, as we learn in next 
 verse, §* one week,’’ or geven years ; and this in- 
 terval is marked, not by a period of time, but by 
 the coming of the people of an invading prince. 
 
 The time of this interval seems to have been pur. 
 
 posely concealed from Daniel, and from Gabriel, 
 and was not to be revealed by the Messiah himself 
 when he should come; because God would keep 
 his people on the watch for the signs -of its ap- 
 proach, and would have it to overtake the enemies 
 of the Messiah by surprise. In the christian serip- 
 tures this interval is also marked by the coming of 
 the people of an invading prince, and not bysa 
 period of time. ** But when ye shall see the 
 abomination. of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the 
 prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that 
 -readeth, understand). then let. them that-he in Judea, 
 flee to the mountains.”’—** But of that day and 
 ‘hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which 
 ‘are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father,”’ 
 ‘Mark -xiit..l4-—-32,. | 
 
 _ The last verse introduces the concluding portion 
 -of the seventy weeks, namely, ‘one week,’ -or 
 
 he shall be the instrument of executing his judgments, Like the Assy- 
 ‘rian, the ancient rod of God’s anger, it isin cffcet said here, “1 wilh 
 
 send -him—howbeit he ameaneth not so, ne ther doth his heart think | - 
 
 so,” Isaiah x. 6, 7. .We offer this explanation, however, as mere 
 conjecture, «It does not,“in any way affect the general argumeut from 
 ‘the passage, a es ees 
 
 4 
 
 AG 
 
32. AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 seven years, which, added to {Ee fotir hithdeed and 
 eighty-three years, completes the sum of four 
 hundred and ninety years. This period of seven 
 _ years to commence at the end of the forementioned 
 interval, was to be distinguished by two remarkable 
 events. The first is announced in these words : 
 «© And one weck shall make firm a covenant to 
 many ;” alluding to the seven years of decisive war, 
 in which many who believed a covenant of promise 
 insuring their escape, should experience the faith- 
 ful accomplishment of that promise, agreeably to 
 the Christian Scriptures in Matth. xxiv. 15—41. 
 
 or perhaps alluding to the effect of that war, fiat 
 only at the time, but ever afterwards in confirming 
 the faith of believers at large, as to the truth of ie 
 ‘glad tidings of the new covenant, which in that 
 war they “should see established by the decisive 
 voice of the providence of God. The other re- 
 -markable event during this ‘‘ one week,’’ is thus 
 announced; ‘* And the midst of the week shall 
 eause to cease sacrifice and bread-offering ;”’ allud- 
 ing to the continual burnt- offering and bread- 
 offering, commanded in Exod. xxix. 38—42. and 
 Numb. xxviii. 3—8. which in the course of that war 
 were to be made to cease. Then should that state 
 of things be consummated, which has continued 
 even to : this day. “« And for the overspreading of 
 abominations, he shall make i¢ desolate, even until 
 the constimmation, and that determined ~shall be 
 ‘poured upon the desolate *__The temple was con- 
 -secrated to be the place of sacred resort to the 
 tribes of God, yea, to bea house of prayer for all 
 nations. But when the Messiah should be despised 
 and rejected, and cut off, and his gospel be 
 contradicted and blasphemed; after a period of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 33 
 
 forbearance, and a series of judicial warnings, that: 
 house should he brought to desolation. ra 
 
 [t is unnecessary to enter into a detailed account 
 _ of the accomplishment of the prophecy now under 
 review. We readily acknowledge, that various 
 - opinions have been entertained among Christians 
 as. well as Jews, respecting the meaning and appli- 
 cation of particular parts of it; and that the view 
 here given may be objected 16 by some of both 
 persuasions. Minute difficulties may occur on this, 
 as on almost all subjects of ancient chronology. 
 But, we trust, it is not too much to affirm, that no 
 interpretation, in the least degree natural and con- 
 _ sistent, can possibly be given of this remarkable 
 prophecy, which does not make the time of the 
 Messiah coincide with the time of Jesus; the 
 cutting off of the one coincide with the crucifixion 
 of tite other; and which does not point ta the 
 Roman war with ‘the Jews, which caused the 
 cessation of the temple service, and issued in the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, as the consummation of 
 the primitive evidences of christianity, and the 
 commencement of this long and dreadful captivity 
 of the Jewish nation for rejecting rt. 
 
 If more proof be desired in so clear a case, it 
 seems amply afforded in the attempts which modern | 
 Jewish writers have made, so to explain this pas- 
 sage, as to avoid the conclusions now mentioned. 
 Thus one of them * says, that by the Messiah, in 
 ver. 25, we are to understand Cyrus, and by the 
 Messiah, 1 in ver. 26, Agrippa. Can the same term, 
 in two contiguous sentences of the same prophecy, 
 signify two different persons, one of them a hea- 
 then prince, and the other a king of Judea, who 
 
 * See Levi's Letters to Priestley. 
 
fe : ; 
 ~~ " ig, 
 $4. q AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 lived seven hundred years after him?* In order 
 to give some colour for the pretext that Cyrus is 
 the Messiah in ver. 25, he considers “ the going 
 forth of tle commandment” as the declaration of 
 the divine will to Jeremiah, about which he says 
 Daniel entertained a doubt (though Daniel himself 
 Says he understood it) ; and from which he reckons 
 forty-nine years to the proclamation of Cyrus. But 
 the declaration to Jeremiah was the annunciation 
 of the captivity, not the ‘* commandment to restore 
 and to build Jerusalem.”? Agrippa was not killed 
 at the siege of Jerusalem, but probably ended his 
 days peaceably at Rome, long after. He was also. 
 too inconsiderable a prince to be the subject of 
 such a prophecy. This writer says, that by 
 ** bringing in everlasting righteousness,’’ is to be 
 understood the bringing of all nations to the know- 
 ledge of the true God by the restoration of the 
 Jews. Did he not know that Jesus has already 
 overturned the idolatrous systems of very may 
 nations; and that by the institutions of Christianity, 
 not by those of Moses as such, can an universal 
 true religion prevail in the world? 
 
 Thus have we seen, that the time of the Mes- 
 siah’s appearance is fixed in the Jewish scriptures, 
 both by circumstances, and by a specific number 
 of years. The two circumstantial passages which 
 we have examined, refer to things entirely distinct 
 and independent of one another ; and the chrono- 
 logical one is equally unconnected with both ; yet 
 all three unite in pointing to the same period. 
 Some Jews are so much pressed by this evidence, 
 that they try to discourage all inquiry into the time 
 of the Messiah’s appearance. They alledge that this 
 is one of the secret things, which are known only 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, _ . 35 
 ee’ : 
 
 to God; that we ere so taught in Deut. xxxii. 34, 
 where it 1s said, ** Is not this laid up in store with 
 me, and sealed up among my treasures??? and in 
 Isaiah Ix. 22. « IT the Lord_willk hasten it in his 
 time ;” and that all calculations, therefore, re- 
 
 specting the time of the coming of the Messiah are 
 ~ erroneous and unlawful. In reply to such asser- 
 tions, it may be freely acknowledged, that times 
 and seasons are not often the subject of prophecy ; 
 the object of which in general is rather to keep 
 alive expectation, than to enable us to know be- 
 forehand at what precise moment it shall be an- 
 swered. This concession, however, will by no 
 means apply universally. Many examples may be 
 given.of prophecies, in which the time of accom- 
 plishment is revealed with the utmost clearness. 
 We might refer, for instance, to Gen. vi. 3. and 
 Xvi. 10. 145 2Kings vil. 1, 9, Isaiah vii. 8. and 
 vill. 4. to the passages in Jeremiah, from which 
 Daniel understood the duration of the Babylonish 
 captivity ; and, with equal confidence surely to the 
 passage in Daniel himself respecting the precise 
 time of the Messiah. The quotation from Deut. 
 XxXxil. 34, refers, not to the time of the Messiah’s 
 coming, but to the time of a Visitation of judg- 
 ment, most probably the time of that awful! visita- 
 tion of the Jewish people which still continues, 
 the time of the commencement of which was not 
 revealed to Moses, Dor, as we have already ob- 
 served, to Daniel; was certainly sealed up among 
 the secret things which belong to the Lord God, 
 and was accordingly declared by Jesus to be known 
 to no man. The passage from Isaiah implies no 
 concealment of time, The Expression assures us 
 that the prophecy shall be accomplished with 
 
36 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 rapidity when the time comes; and although that 
 time is not there specified, ere seems to be an. 
 allusion to intimations which had been made of it. 
 -Those who hold that the time of the coming of 
 the Messiah ‘is absolutely concealed, must acknow- 
 ledge that this is a modern discovery. The ancient 
 Jews had no scruple about studying the prophecies 
 in order to discover the time, as well as other‘ cir- 
 cumstances, concerning the coming of the Mes- 
 siah. Nor can it be denied, that the result of their 
 investigations corresponded with the period, for 
 which we contend. How else could there have 
 been so general an expectation of the Messiah’s ap- 
 pearance in the days of Jesus? A mere report of 
 his birth, brought by strangers, troubled Herod, 
 and all Jerusalem with him. When John the Bap- 
 list piraraee in the wilderness, the Jews sent 
 priests and Levites from Jerusalem to inquire if he 
 were not the Messiah. Their general rejection 
 of Jesus was not from any niedishenitaee to doubt - 
 that the Messiah should at that time appear ; for, 
 in the first instance, many believed in him when’ 
 they saw his miracles; their unbelief was often’ 
 the consequence of offence taken afterwards at his 
 doctrines ;- and the rulers, who discovered such 
 eracalile resentment because he would not court 
 their assistance, nor make common cause with. 
 them, but bore faithful testimony against their im- 
 piety, hypocrisy, tyranny, and ambition, and re- 
 nounced the honours of a worldly kingdom ; were, 
 at that very ae fondly hoping that the Messiah 
 would speedily deliver them from the Roman yoke. 
 That this was also the sanguine expectation of the 
 people was manifested by the credulity with which 
 they listened to impostors, (those* false Christe 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, ~ S87 
 
 against whom Jesus warned his disciples) wha 
 Were very numerous soon afterwards, and who, al-. 
 
 though destitute of the smallest claim to notice, 
 were wonderfully successful in leading their de- 
 luded followers to destruction. Ought not Jews, 
 
 then, seriously to consider, whether those who now: 
 
 endeavour to discountenance all Inquiries respecting 
 the time of the Messiah’s ‘coming, have not been 
 driven to this attempt, because it was necessary to 
 
 support. a favourite hypothesis. The perplexity 
 
 into which they have been thrown by refusing - to 
 acknowledge our Lord Jesus, while no one yet 
 appears to supersede his claim, is frequently greater 
 than they are able to conceal. It is manifest, even 
 in their creed respecting the coming of the Messiah, 
 that they feel the delay of that coming (which they 
 im vain expect) to be a difficulty ; and, as it is a 
 dificulty which is always increasing, they endea- 
 
 vour accordingly to fortify themselves against its © 
 
 increasing magnitude: ** I believe with a firm and 
 perfect faith, that the’ Messiah is to come 3 AL- 
 THOUGH HE TARRIETH, I will wait and expect 
 daily his coming.’? : | 
 As the time of the Messiah’s coming ts distinctly 
 marked in ancient prophecy, so as to confirm the 
 faith of those who believe in Jesus, and to cause the 
 greatest embarrassment to those who reject him } s0 
 the place of the Messiah’s birth is expressly named, 
 and is the same which is assigned in the gospel his- 
 tory forthe birth of Jesus. . fj 
 » © But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, art thou little 
 among the thousands of Judah? Qut of thee shalt 
 he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in 
 Isracl : whose goings forth have been from of old, 
 
 from everlasting}? Micah y. 2; We find this pros 
 
 YOL. If, ; ; git 
 
38 AUT HORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 phecy applied by the chief priests and scribes of the 
 Jews, when Herod ‘* demanded of them where the 
 Christ should be born. And they said unto him, 
 in: Bethlehem of Judea:”? for thus it is written by 
 the prophet, ** And thou Bethlehem, in the Jand. 
 of Judah, art not the least among the princes of 
 Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor that 
 shall rule my people Israel, Matth. 11. 4—6. 
 
 The circumstances which prove the accomplish- 
 ‘ment of this prophecy in Jesus, are as remarkable 
 as the prophecy itself. From the low condition to 
 _ which the family of David were reduced, they ap- 
 pear to have had no longer an inheritance at Beth- 
 lechem,’ but to have been dispersed into various 
 places; and the mother of Jesus in particular re- 
 sided in Nazareth of Galilee, a despised town of a. 
 despised part of the country. There she was, 
 when the birth of Jesus was announced to. her, 
 Luke 1. 26, 27.; and thither she returned soon 
 after the birth took place, along with her husband 
 Joseph, while Jesus abode with them, and was sub- 
 - ject to them, during childhood and youth. On this 
 account he has been called Jesus of Nazareth, and © 
 the supposition of his belonging to that place ap- 
 pears to have excited a very great prejudice against 
 him. When Philip said to Nathanael, ‘* We have 
 found him of whom Moses in the law, and the 
 prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
 Joseph ; Nathanael said to him, Can any good 
 thing come out of Nazareth?” John i. 45, 46. 
 Again, when many of the people said, ‘* Of a 
 truth this is the Prophet, others said, this is the 
 Christ. But.some said, shall the Christ come out 
 of Galilee? Hath not the seripture said, that the 
 Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 39 
 
 the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” John 
 vil. 40—42. Nay, when Nicodemus ventured only 
 to ask, if it was lawful to condemn Jesus without 
 hearing him, ‘* they answered and said unto him, 
 Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look : for 
 out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,’? John vii. 52. 
 In these circumstances, it is wonderful that the 
 prediction concerning the place of his birth was 
 ever accomplished, or that, although accomplished, 
 its accomplishment was ever capable of proof. It 
 so happens, however, that the fact is established by 
 _ circumstances of the most decisive nature. 
 
 For, in the first place, ‘* there went out a de- 
 cree from Czesar Augustus, that all the world (the 
 Roman empire) should be ‘enrolled. And all went 
 to be enrolled, every one to his own city. And 
 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city 
 of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, 
 which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the 
 house and family of David,) to be enrolled with 
 Mary his espoused wife, who was great with child, : 
 And it came to pass, that, while they were there, 
 the days were accomplished that she should be de- 
 livered. And she brought forth her first-born 
 son,’ Luke 11.1—7. This remarkable coincidence 
 of circumstances accounts for the journey of Mary 
 at this critical time; and furnishes evidence that 
 she and her htsband were known and acknow- 
 ledged to belong to Bethlehem, and that, because 
 of their descent from the family of David. On this 
 descent we shall afterwards speak, All we say at. 
 Present is, that the imperial decree corroborates the 
 account of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in the 
 city of Bethlehem. 
 
 Again, to render this visit to Bethlehem the 
 
f 
 40 | \AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 more. illustrious. and ‘memorable, an angel an- 
 nounced the birth of Jesus to certain shepherds in 
 the neighbourhood. A multitude of the heavenly 
 host appeared to them, praising God, and cele- 
 brating the same bappy event. The shepherds, 
 going to Bethlehem to see what the Lord had made 
 known to them, ‘* found Mary and Joseph, and 
 the babe lying in a manger. And when they had 
 seen it, they made known abroad the saying which 
 was told them, concerning this child. And all 
 they that heard it, wondered at those things which 
 were told them by the beheroe Luke 2. 
 8-—18. 
 
 Further, God was pleased to announce the birth 
 of the Messiah, by the signal of a star, to certain 
 magians among the Gentiles of the East. These 
 came to Jerusalem to inquire concerning the place 
 of his birth, telling what they had seen, and de- 
 claring their intention to go and worship him. 
 The tidings troubled Herod, and all Jerusalem with 
 him. That wicked prince trembled for his throne, 
 while the people feared. the desperate attempts 
 which he might make to preserve it, or perhaps 
 were, from conscious guilt, and self-interest, ever 
 alarmed at the changes which the Lord might pro- 
 duce, when ‘* he should suddenly come to his 
 temple, and should be like’a refiner’s ffre, and like 
 fuller’s soap,?? Mal. ii. 1—3. The inquiry, how- 
 ever, of the magians, led Herod to consult the chief 
 priests and scribes on the subject, and thereby to 
 obtain their unanimous application of the prophecy, 
 which we have quoted from Micah, to the sub- 
 ject of the place where the Christ should be born. 
 ‘The magians were entirely ignorant of the motive 
 which induced Herod to enter apparently into their 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 4j 
 
 views, and to profess an intention of follow- 
 ing their example. They accordingly left Jerusa- 
 lem, with the expectation of finding the child in 
 ’ Bethlehem, and the design of returning to Herod 
 with the information which he desired. But the child 
 was, by that time, carried to Nazareth, (Luke ii. 
 39.) They were, therefore, favoured with another 
 - appearance of the star, which would not have been 
 ey if the child had been still at Bethlehem ; 
 for the wonders which attended his birth had there 
 been published by the shepherds. At Nazareth, 
 however, he was less known, and therefore the stat 
 led them, not only to the town, but to the very 
 house where the child was. The Lord intended 
 that their inquiry should excite attention at Jeru- 
 salem ; but at Nazareth he prevented them from 
 ‘needing to make inquiry, that the flight of Joseph 
 with the child and his mother into Egypt, which 
 was soon after to take place, might the more se- 
 curely be effected. For the same reason, the ma- 
 gians were warned of God in a dream, that they 
 should not return to Herod; and the flight with the 
 child into Egypt, was cdnatiattled, not only that he 
 might be beyond the jurisdiction of that murderer, 
 but “* that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
 - of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt 
 . have I called my son,”’ Hos. xi. 1. 
 
 Finally, a very awful memorial of the persuasion 
 of Herod, that the Christ had been born at Beth- 
 lehem is furnished in the history of his ordering 
 a massacre of the children of that place. ‘* Then 
 Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the 
 magians, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and 
 slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and 
 in all the -coasts thereof, from two years old 
 
 B2 
 
 - 
 
49 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 and ‘under, according to the time which he had 
 
 diligently inquired ee the magians. Then was 
 fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the 
 prophet, saying, In Ramah was there a voice heard, 
 lamentation avid weeping, and great mourning 
 Rachel weeping for her children, and would ee | 
 be comforted, because they are not,’ Matth. u. 
 16—i8. 
 
 From, all these OO the place where 
 Jesus was born is fully ascertained to be the same 
 which was assigned in ancient prophecy, for the 
 birth-place of the Messiah. If Jews should object 
 thai our proofs of this point have, beén drawn fronr 
 the history contained in the Christian scriptures, 
 the credibility of which we have not yet directly 
 attempted to establish; we request them to remark, 
 that, independently of the general argument for the 
 credibility of the Chrigtian scriptures, it may be 
 justly contended, that unless circumstances so re- 
 markable as tbose which have been alledged, had 
 yeally happened, they must have met with imme- 
 diate and public contradiction from the inhabitants 
 both of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and from many 
 others, at the time when the narrative of them 
 was published, in the same country, and while 
 many of the spectators, actors, and sufferers ap- 
 pealed to, were yet living; and such an exposure 
 - would have at once destroyed the credit of that nar- 
 rative. But although our Lord’s being called Jesus 
 of Nazareth, excited prejudice in the minds of in- 
 dividuals, and even popular clamour, while he was 
 in the course of his ministry upon earth; yet after- 
 wards, when the gospel wag fully cache the 
 gospel histories published, and time was afforded 
 to inquire into the truth of alf the statements which 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. A3 
 
 they contained; we never find the appellation 
 brought forward against the aposties as an objec- 
 tien which could be maintained by the enemies of 
 the gospel. The apostles and evangelists, indeed, 
 having prevented the possibility of its being mis- 
 understood, scrupled not to adopt this appellation 
 of their humble Master; and his having received 
 it is even stated by them as the accomplishment of 
 prophecy. “¢ He came and: dwelt in Nazareth, that 
 it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the pro- 
 phets, He shall be called a Nazarene,’’ Matth. i, 
 23. Some understand this to be the quotation of 
 a prophetic speech preserved by tradition, but not 
 till now written. Others explain the passage in 
 this manner. In Judges xili. 5. it is said, * The 
 child shall be a Nazarite ;’’ and Matthew, applying 
 these words to Jesus, whit were originally spoken 
 of Sampson (a type of the Messiah), says, he shall 
 be called (because he shali be) a Nazarene,: or 
 Nazarean : a word intended to signify, that he was 
 such an one, not only as he was-separated for a 
 divine work, but as he was likewise educated -at 
 Nazareth, this place having probably taken its 
 name from its being separated from other towns. 
 If any Jews, then, be still disposed to ask, like 
 Nathanael, ‘* Can there any good thing come out 
 of Nazareth?’ we shall answer with Philip, « Come 
 and see:’? Examine for yourselyes the accounts 
 transmitted to us, by his primitive disciples, con- 
 cerning his doctrines and, manner of life, and pur- 
 pose in coming into the world. 
 
 In the fourth place, we remark, that, according + 
 “to the Jewish scriptures, the Sayiour’s character 
 is to be distinguished by the line of his descent, 
 according to the flesh. That the Messiah was to 
 
44 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 be of the seed’ of Abraham, and of the family of 
 David, 1s universally agreed. The gospel history 
 accordingly begins with a genealogical account of 
 the generation of Jesus Christ the Son of David, 
 the Son of Abraham. Two accounts, indeed, are 
 given, the one by Matthew, the other by Luke. 
 These, like several of the parallel genealogical ac- 
 counts in the Jewish scriptures, have that degree of 
 general correspondence which establishes their au- 
 thenticity, although they are not entirely tree from 
 obscurity and oe 
 The mother: and the reputed father of Jesus 
 were related, ind lependently of ihe engage ement of 
 marriage; and it is generally thought that the 
 genealogy given by Luke, is one on the mother’s 
 side, while the other given by Matthew is on that 
 of the reputed father. As all the Jewish genealo-_ 
 gies, except those contained in the seriptures, are 
 now lost, and the mode of compiling them 1s 
 buried in oblivion, it is impossible for either Jews 
 or Christians to say, how far such a twofold ge- 
 nealogy was common, or not. But if it was a 
 singular cireumstance, it may be accounted for by 
 the singularity of the case, ‘* The virgin had 
 conceived and borne her Son,’ Isa. vil. 14. What- 
 éver might be the Jewish custom with regard to 
 others, the true genealogy of this ** Seed of the 
 Woman,” could not be given but on the side of 
 his mother. At the same time, it was necessary 
 also to recognize the genealogy of his reputed fa- 
 ther. For avlite the descent of Jesus, according 
 to the flesh, was really through his mother, the 
 privileges of his birth- “right, as a dcscendant of 
 Abraham and David, were, in the first mstance at 
 least, to be eckuawledyed through his reputed {a 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ee 
 
 ther. » Hence it was, that Joseph was directed to 
 take unto him Mary his wife, Matth. 1. 20. Hence 
 did he and Mary appear as the parents of Jesus, at 
 his ¢ircumcision,: Matth. 1. 21. Luke n. 21. at 
 the sacrifice offered when he was presented to the 
 Lord, Luke u, 22, in the flight to Egypt, Matth. 
 
 il. -13. 1m the residence at Nazareth, Luke ii. 39. 
 Matth. 11. 20—23. and in the journies to Jerusalem 
 at the time of the passover, Luke it. 41—52 In 
 short, Jesus enjoyed the benefit of his adoption by 
 Joseph, until he established his claim to be called 
 the Son of God. Accordingly, when Luke gives 
 an account of his genealogy, he says, ‘“* And Jesus 
 himself began to be about thirty years of age, being 
 (as was supposed) the Son of Joseph,’’ Luke int. 
 23. The last clause should rather have been ren- 
 dered, ‘* being (as he was by law allowed to be) the 
 Son of Joseph.” * 
 
 It has already been admitted, that the genealogy 
 of Jesus is not without difficulty. ‘* In later times, 
 this difficulty has certainly exeited much diseus- 
 sion; but it is worthy of remark, that while the 
 archives of the Jews remained entire, the accuracy 
 of the evangelists was never called in question. 
 Hence it follows, either that some corruptions have 
 since that time crept into the text, or that the true 
 method of reconciling the seeming inconsistencies 
 was then better understood. The silence of the 
 enemies of the gospel, both heathen and Jewish, 
 during even the jirst century, 1s itself a sufficient 
 proof that neither inconsistency nor corruption 
 could be then alledged against this part of the 
 evangelical history. If a charge of thts nature 
 could. have been supported, it Unig iestionabhy 
 
 ¥ See Bishop Pearce on the place, 
 
46 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 would have been made. The Jews and heathens 
 who agreed in their hostility to the religion of Christ, 
 were equally interested in this subject; and could 
 they have proved that a single flaw existed in these _ 
 genealogical tables, they might at once have set 
 aside the pretensions of our Lord and his disciples; 
 for if the lineal descent of Jesus from Dayid were 
 not indisputable, he could not possess the charac- 
 ter essential to the Messiah, nor any right to.the 
 Jewish throne. If his title, in this respect, were 
 €ven questionable, it is impossible to suppose ihat 
 the Jews would have withheld an allegation which 
 must fully vindicate them in denying his Mes- 
 siabship, and in putting him to death as an im- 
 postor. We may confidently assert, therefore, that 
 his regular lineal descent from David could not be 
 cisproved, since it was not even disputed, at a 
 time when alone it could have been done success- 
 fully, and by those persons who were so deeply 
 interested in the event. The sincere believer may 
 consequently be assured that whatever difficulties 
 appear at present, had formerly no existence, and 
 are even now of such a nature as cannot be al- 
 lowed to shake the faith of any reasonable man. 
 We would not, however, be understood to inti- 
 mate that these difficlties are now insuperable ; on 
 the contrary, we are satisfied that the real diffiicul- 
 ties are few, and that these have for the most part, 
 been satisfactorily apes by the evangelical har- — 
 monists.”’ * F 
 “# The above paregraph has been taken from the Eclectic Review 
 of Barretf’s Disseriatiun on the Gospel Genezlogy, which will be found 
 in Volame LiL Part IL. Pages 586, and 678, and in «Lich the Reader 
 may seta most candid, elaborate, and instructive examination of the 
 hole subject. 
 
2g 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 47 
 
 In the fifth place, we remark, that, according 
 to the Jewish scriptures, the Saviour’s character is 
 te be distinguished by numerous remarkable cir- 
 cumstances, in his public ministry, in his suffer- 
 ings, and in the final result of both. These-cir- 
 cumstances are, indeed, so numerous, that we can 
 mention a part of them only, anc ‘hat with great 
 brevity. | | 
 
 ‘With regard then to the public ministry of the 
 Messiah, he was to preach glad tidings, Isa. xl. 
 I1—1]. and Ixi. 1—3. His gospel he was to ac- 
 company with miracles of mercy, Isa. xxxv. 3—6. 
 He was also to preach with authority, as a Pro- 
 phet like unto Moses; and those who should dis- 
 regard his words, should do it at their peril, 
 Deut. xviil. 15—19. At the same time he was to 
 be despised and rejected of the people and their 
 rulers, and delivered by them to an accursed 
 death, Psalm xxii. Isaiah |. and lili. As to his 
 - death, not only the fact, but the minutest circum- 
 stances of it are foretold. He was to die a death, 
 unknown among the punishments of the law of 
 Moses, Psalm xxii. 16. He was-to be betrayed 
 by his familiar friend, Psalm xli. 9. to be sold for 
 thirty pieces of silver, Zech. xi. 12. to be put to 
 death as a criminal, and along with criminals, 
 Isaiah lili. 12. His enemies were to give him in 
 his agonies, vinegar and gall, Psalm Ixix. 21. to de- 
 ride and scoff at him, Psalm xxii. 7, 8. to part 
 his garments among them, and cast lots for his 
 vesture, Psalm xxil. 18. While he was to display 
 the meekness of a lamb brought to the slaughter, 
 [saiah lili. 7. and to make intercession for the 
 transgressors, Isaiah lil. 12. He was to be pierced, 
 _ Zech, xii, 10, and yet a bone of him was not to be 
 
48 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. © 
 
 broken, Exod. xii. 46. Psalm xxxiv. 20. He was to 
 be buried, yet to see no corruption, Psalm. xvi. 10. 
 Although his death should be ignominious, he was 
 to be buried in an honourable manner, Isa. lin. 9 
 he was to rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, 
 Isaiah xxvi. 19. Psalm xvi.11. Psalm Ixvili.18. He 
 was to sit at the right hand of God, till his enemies | 
 were made his footstool, Psalm cx. 1. 
 
 The sufferings of the Messiah were to be the 
 great atonement for sin. We have already seen 
 how the very first intimation of his victory was 
 connected with the institution of sacrifice, and how 
 that institution was ever afterwards to be observed, 
 in the hope of the coming of the Messiah. The 
 history of the trial of Abraham when called to offer 
 up Isaac; ; the sacrifice of the passover; the various 
 explations under the law; especially the services. 
 of the great day of atonement, were all typical of 
 the cuenings of Him, whom it pleased God to set 
 forth as a propitiator*, through faith in his blood. 
 << Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
 sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten 
 of God, and afflicted, But he was wounded for 
 our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqul- 
 ties: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
 and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep 
 have gone astray : we have turned every one to his 
 own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
 of us all,’? Isaiah lit. 4—6. a 
 
 The eaten of the Messiah was to be not of 
 this world. It was to be set up in this world, be- 
 cinning at Jerusalem, and extending to the utter- 
 bate parts of the earth ; but it was to be itself, 
 not of a worldly, but of a heavenly nature. The 
 principles on which it was to be faunded were to 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 49 
 
 be, rightéousness, peace, mercy, and truth: not 
 the policy of man, but the perfections of God. 
 “¢ Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness 
 and peace have kissed: each other. Truth shall 
 spring out of the earth: and righteousness shall 
 look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give 
 that which is good: and our land shall yield her 
 increase. Righteousness shall go before him: and 
 shall set ws in the way of his steps,’? Psalm Ixxxy. 
 10—13. On the same principles, indeed, the king- 
 dom of Israel was founded, and these distinguished 
 it from a worldly kingdom; so that, in as far as 
 it possessed the spirit of its constitution, it was a 
 government of God, in a peculiar sense, and a 
 type of the kingdom of the Messiah. The means 
 by which it was to be promoted were to be, not 
 fire and sword, but the propagation of the truth 
 of the gospel, in the first instance by the Messiah 
 in person, and afterwards by the ministry of his 
 apostles and other teachers. This truth was to be 
 accompanied by the power of the Spirit of God on 
 the heart, and to be followed by the most won- 
 derful change of nature in the subjects of his gra- 
 cious influence. His servants were not to fight, 
 but to preach, to instruct, to convince, and to ex- 
 hort; and the seals of their ministry were, with- 
 out calling any man upon earth master, to be the 
 disciples along with them of their common Lord. 
 ** And it shall come to pass in the last days, thad 
 the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be esta- 
 blished in the top of the mountains, and shall be. 
 exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow 
 unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come 
 ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
 VOU. I. by 
 
50 - AUTHORITY OF THE LAW 
 
 to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach 
 us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for 
 out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of 
 the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge 
 among the nations, and shall rebuke many people : 
 and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, 
 and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall 
 not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more,” Isaiah 11. 2—4. See also 
 Isaiah xi. 1—g. particularly the effects of the Mes- 
 siah’s teaching from verse 6. ‘* The wolf also 
 shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 
 down with the kid: and the calf, and the young 
 lion, and the fatling together, and a little child 
 shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall 
 feed, their young ones shall le down. together : 
 and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the 
 sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, 
 and the weaned child shall put his hand on the 
 cockatrice-den. They shall not hurt nor destroy 
 in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be 
 full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea.’? The Messiah’s kingdom was not 
 to be, like the kingdoms of this world, confined to 
 any particular nation, or liable at any period to de- 
 cay. It was to be universal and eternal. ‘° Ask 
 of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for thy possession,’’ Psalm ii. 8.“ I saw in the 
 night visions, and behold, one like the son of man, 
 came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the 
 ancient of days, and they brought him near before 
 them. And there was given him dominion, and 
 glory, and’a kingdom, that all people, nations, and 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 5i 
 
 languages should serve him: his dominion is an 
 everlasting dominion, which» shall not pass away, 
 and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, 
 Seen, AS. bas . 
 
 Thus we see, that, in the sacred books of the 
 Jews, the promised Saviour is distinguished by the 
 title of the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, 
 the Christ; he has ascribed to him essential Deity, 
 notwithstanding his incarnation; the time and 
 place of his appearance upon earth ate ascertained ; 
 his descent according to the flesh is specified ; 
 many remarkable circumstances in his ministry, his 
 sufferings, and the glory which should follow, are 
 foretold in a very minute and particular manner. 
 These things combine to render it impossible that 
 any Impostor should have the smallest resemblance 
 to the inspired description of the genuine character ; 
 and difficult, indeed, to reject the evidence which 
 must belong to Him that is true. Of the great 
 question, then, Is the Saviour come? a decisive 
 solution is by no means hopeless. He who shall 
 answer to the description which Jews have received 
 -of their Messiah from God himself, must possess 
 in his own person the most astonishing attributes ; 
 must have appeared at a certain period, in a certain’ 
 city, and of a certain family ; must have been a 
 public character, have spoken as never man spake, - 
 have acted as never man acted, have run a race un- 
 paralleled in the annals of the universe of God ; 
 must now be invested with the honours of sove- 
 reignty over heaven and earth; must be at this mo- 
 ment our supreme Governor, and at the end of the 
 world our unerring Judge. Surely it cannot ne- 
 cessarily remain a matter of doubtful ,disputation, 
 
52 AUTHORITY OF THE LAW \ 
 
 whether the most remarkable personage announced 
 in prophecy, and whorforms the principal subject 
 on which it delights to dwell, has, or has not, ap- 
 peared in the world. : 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 53 
 
 # 
 
 + #e 
 
 NUMBER XII. 
 
 Consummation of the Law and the:Prophets.— 
 | New Covenant. 
 
 AFTER maintaining the authority of the sacred 
 books of the Jews, (which we believe to have been 
 given by inspiration of God,) we have endeavoured 
 to show, that they contain a scheme of divine 
 mercy, more ancient, more extensive, and more 
 durable than the particular interests of the Jewish 
 nation. The establishment of their fathers in the 
 land of Canaan could not be the ultimate object 
 of revelations, which, though at last committed to- 
 the keeping of the Jews in the writings of the law 
 and the prophets, had many of them been given in 
 the earliest periods, and which are all found evi- | 
 dently to involve the hope of spiritual and ever- 
 jasting happiness to men of all the families of the 
 earth. Besides, these revelations have been ad- 
 dressed to individuals as well as to a nation ; and 
 they contain instruction and comfort to those who 
 believe them, in every generation, and in every 
 situation of life. They publish the way of salvation 
 to Jews in captivity and dispersion, no less than 
 if they were dwelling in their own land. Tt is 
 on this account chiefly, that they can interest the 
 Jews of these latter ages. The benefit to be de- 
 rived from his sacred books, by a Jew, who has no 
 immediate prospect of a return to Canaan, must 
 arise from their spiritual meaning and -design, 
 That spiritual meaning and design ought, there- 
 fore, to be to him, a priricipal object of the most sée- 
 rious attention. It is, moreover, admitted by both 
 
 oe ae 
 
64 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 Jou and Christians, that the ways of God to man, 
 as revealed in the Jewish scriptures, are considered 
 as only in their progress. We are all agreed, that 
 there a new covenant is foretold, under which. the 
 people of God are assured that they shall enjoy the 
 blessings of the reign of the great Messiah. The 
 making of this new covenant is the consummation 
 of all the dispensations of the love of God to-his 
 people. Whether future or not, therefore every be- 
 liever of the law and the prophets must regard it as 
 an event which is certain, and surely as an event 
 which is unspeakably desiree: 
 
 From the history of the making of the old cove- 
 nant, we are led to infer that the making of the 
 new covenant should be attended with new reve- 
 lations, a new sacrifice, a mew sanctification, a new 
 worship, a new inheritance. Under each of these 
 particulars, we beg leave to offer a few remarks to 
 the serious consideration of those Jews who believe 
 the inspiration of the writings of Moses and the 
 prophets. 
 
 SCRIPTURES OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 THE prediction of a new covenant must teach Jews 
 to expect that the making of it should be attended 
 with new revelations ; and as the revelations which 
 accompanied the old covenant, were recorded in the 
 old covenant scriptures, so, it is reasonable to expect, 
 that the revelations accompanying the new covenant, 
 should be recorded in new covenant scriptures. An 
 important question occurs here: Does any book ex- 
 ist, which claims this title, and is allowed by persons 
 acquainted with it, to possess a just clam? In an- 
 swering this question, we are led directly to sub- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 55 
 
 mit the writings of the Christian faith to the 
 examination of Jews, We intreat them to peruse 
 these with serious attention; and to inquire whe- 
 ther the testimony of the apostles and evangelists, 
 concerning Jesus who was said to be of Nazareth, 
 does not correspond with that of Moses and the 
 prophets, concerning the Messiah. Long have 
 they listened to the traditions and reasonings of 
 their wise men on the one side; ought they not 
 to attend to the documents which are offered to 
 their inspection on the other, if they would not be 
 chargeable with yielding to prejudice ? 
 
 We insist not, at present, on the authority of the 
 scriptures of the new covenant. We only request 
 that they may be read, It is surely reasonable that 
 men should not reject them without knowing why. 
 It is at least possible, that Jews may have been 
 misinformed respecting the doctrines and evidences - 
 of Christianity. By reading our scriptures they 
 will be better able to judge how far their informa- 
 tion has been correct. In this way, indeed, they 
 will be more likely to come at the truth, than by 
 reading representations of it, either by its oppo- 
 nents, or by its friends. We readily confess, that we 
 eannot plead for our scriptures. so well as they do 
 
 » for themselves; and if any Jew will thréw aside 
 
 these Essays, that he may, before going further, 
 read over the scriptures of the new covenant with 
 no other commentary than that which will be found 
 in his own Bible, we shall rejoice over his resojution 
 as atoken for good. — 
 
 To Jews who have read our scriptures, we offer 
 the following observations: 
 
 In the first place, for thejr authenticity and in- 
 spiration, the scriptures of the new coyenant rest on 
 
56. CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 the very same kind of evidence which supports 
 those of the old covenant. Men were employed to 
 write them, whose names and’ history are known ; 
 who were witnesses of what they record; whose 
 integrity is evinced by their disinterested and in- 
 trepid behaviour ; and whose preservation and suc- 
 cess, (altogether unaccountable on any other sup- 
 position,) demonstrate that they were blessed with 
 the divine approbation. Their writings are found 
 to correspond with all the circumstances of time 
 and place, to which they refer. Although the 
 books are many, written by different persons, at a 
 distance from one another, at various periods, and 
 in al] the diversity of the historical, the epistolary, 
 and the prophetical style, they are perfectly harmo- 
 nious in doctrine. The divine commission of the 
 writers was attested by miracles and prophecy; of 
 which the former convinced thousands of the most | 
 acute and jealous observers, and confounded the 
 most determined opposers at the time; while the 
 latter, with continually increasing clearness and 
 force, confirms by its successive accomplishment, the 
 accounts of the miracles, and the whole doctrine 
 swith which it 1s interwoven. The writings did 
 not criginate in subsequent ages of darkness; they 
 were avowed and published, while the events of % 
 which they treated were recent, and universally 
 known to have happened, and the accounts given 
 of them were of course exposed to immediate exa- 
 mination in the same country, or within the boun- 
 daries of the same empire. No apocryphal work -- 
 was imposed under the mask of pretended an- 
 tiquity, on an ignorant and credulous posterity, 
 prepared by an early education for its reception. 
 The testimonies were published while the witnesses 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 57 
 and their contemporaries were y¢t' alive.’ The 
 events were so extraordinary as tO have aroused 
 the attention of all: friends: had been astonished 
 while they were delighted; and ‘foes were no less 
 alarmed than full of indignation. The conse- 
 quences of what had happened were then, (as they 
 still are) of the most rem arkable nature ; affecting 
 the character, and the yery condition ‘of all par- 
 ties. The gospels were published, narratives sub- 
 niitted equally to the perusal of believers and un- 
 believers. The epistles were generally addressed, 
 in the first instance, to individuals or societies, 
 who had previously embraced the Christian faith ; 
 but they were evidently intended for public in- 
 spection, and, (although like the books of the 
 Jewish pada they often abounded with re- 
 proof,) they. were copied and circulated with the 
 greatest zeal. Unless they had borne evident marks 
 of veracity, such writings could never have been 
 received. Even friends would have been offended 
 and ashamed; while enemies would haye obtained 
 atriumph. But the event has been the very re- 
 verse. From the beginning, these writings have 
 been acknowledged, gloried in, and appealed to by 
 Christians. Though eagerly objected to, they have 
 never been confuted *. Conscious of inability to 
 resist, adversaries have often sought to destroy 
 them; but the believers have been honoured: to 
 preside, to translate, and to-circulate them through 
 all the world, in spite of every torture which has 
 been employed to punish their diligence. The in- 
 telligent Jew will easily perceive, that such remarks 
 .as these are the very arguments which he would 
 urge against an infidel, in support of the Jewish 
 
 * See Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, Part I. Chap. IX. 
 ae 
 
 _ 
 
58 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW P 
 
 scriptures. We feel their propriety and force when 
 so applied. But if they were also applicable to our 
 scriptures, we beg that it may be considered, whe- 
 ther they are not, in that case, equally valid and 
 conclusive. ers eye 
 
 But we may carry our observation further. The 
 hew covenant scriptures are supported by evidence 
 the same in kind with that which supports those 
 of the old, but certainly greater in degree. Their 
 publication was more rapid, and equally powerful, 
 although more immediately opposed. The mira- 
 cles wrought by the penmen, as well as by him 
 of whom they wrote, exceeded all calculation in 
 point of number. They also excelled in their ef- 
 fect; for, in almost every instance, they were 
 wrought to comfort and to save, not to afflict ar 
 to destroy. And, which is marvellous even among 
 miracles themselves, the original workers possessed 
 the power of conferring on others the gift of work- 
 ing miracles. The writings also were more re- 
 markably preserved than those of the old covenant. 
 To collect and to keep our scriptures, was no point 
 of national honour, or temporal interest, with any 
 peculiar race, It was an object only among con- 
 verts to the faith; and these were drawn in various 
 proportions, from various parts of the world; were 
 often. scattered, and, in some places extirpated ; 
 yet, after all these perils, our scriptures aré extant, 
 They have passed from place_to place, have been 
 constantly going among strangers, have survived 
 many a church which. is extinct and forgotten, 
 have proved impregnable by all the assaults of the 
 infidel, and unmoved by the mistakes and conten- 
 tions of believers. Do they not partake then, of the 
 stability of those oracles, of God, to which Jesus 
 
_ AND THE PROPHETS. 59 
 
 bore testimony, when he ‘said; ‘ It is easier for 
 heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law 
 to fail,’’ Luke xvi. 17. , 
 
 _ In fact, God has honoured the complete volume 
 of his word, by greatly increasing its circulation 
 and its effect, since it was made complete. ’ While 
 the writings of the old covenant stood alone, they 
 were known to few besides the Jews, although they 
 contain much that is immediately addressed to all 
 the inhabitants of the world. It was not till they 
 were joined with the writings of the new ‘covenant 
 that they began to operate to the intended extent. 
 The preaching of the gospel excited men of every 
 nation to study the oracles of God. Previously, it 
 is doubtful whether those writings had ever all passed 
 through more than two translations, the Septuagint 
 and the Chaldee. Afterwards the old scriptures 
 began to be universally read for the sake of the new. 
 Their union has been followed by innumerable 
 copies, and innumerable translations into almost 
 every language under heaven. Wt 
 
 In the second place, there is a striking resem- 
 blance between ‘the scriptures of the new and of 
 the old covenant. The very similarity of style ar- 
 gues the same origin. In the histories of the acts 
 of Jesus and of his apostles, is there not a beau- 
 tiful simplicity, a conscientious faithfulness, a mo- 
 desty, a meekness, and a devotedness: to God, 
 which breathe the spirit of Moses? In the apos- 
 tolic epistles do we not find an affectionate con- 
 cern, a sacred authority, an undaunted fortitude, 
 an irresistible reasoning, an overwhelming reproof, 
 an unwearied exhortation, which remind us of the 
 compositions of David, Solomon, Isaiah, and Jere- 
 miah? And what'a resemblance is :there of Da- 
 
60 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 nicl and Ezekiel, in the book of the Revelation of 
 John? The writers of the life of Jesus differ 
 widely from the writers of fictitious history. They 
 delineate his character in the most artless manner, 
 leaving us to trace it in a plain narrative of facts, 
 and often of slight incidents. They conceal not 
 the circumstances of his humble condition, nor 
 magnify any of his»mighty works.» They extol 
 not their beloved master in words, but record his 
 actions and discourses to excite our admiration. 
 When they speak of those who rejected him, they 
 repress all feelings of indignation, and use lJan- 
 guage of the most dispassionate kind. On the . 
 other hand, ‘they relate many circumstances which _ 
 disparaged their own characters. In their writings, 
 however, they speak with authority, suitable to the 
 character of that spirit with which they declare 
 they had been endowed; and when we compare, 
 with their former ignorance and prejudice, the ex- 
 alted doctrines and enlightened views which they 
 publish in the name of their Lord, we cannot ac- 
 count for the difference on. any principle but that 
 of admitting their divine inspiration. The cha- 
 racter of Jesus, as they describe it, is entirely 
 original ; and amidst all the variety of narrative 
 which their different books contain, that character 
 is one and the same. They write with the bold- 
 ness of conscious integrity, and with the tranquillity 
 of men who trust:in God for success. No re- 
 marks are thrown in to anticipate objections ; nor 
 any endeavour made to reconcile the mind of the 
 reader to extraordimary statements. In all these 
 particulars, Jews cannot fail to remark a resem- 
 blance between the writers of the new, and of the 
 old covenant: not merely a similarity of style gra- 
 
é 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS, » 61 
 
 tifying to the taste, but a similarity of uprightness 
 convincing to the judgment of the reader. How 
 artless the matiner of Moses and the prophets ! 
 When narrating the work of creation, the de- 
 struction of the world by the flood, and the cities 
 of the plain by fire, or the various displays of the 
 glory of God in behalf of his ancient people, in 
 Egypt, at. the Red Sea, in ‘Canaan, or in’ the Jand 
 
 \._ of their captivity, they feel that the subject can- 
 
 not be amplified, They show their veneration, 
 
 » and fill others with the same sentiment, by that’ 
 ~ simplicity which conceals the writer, and fixes at- 
 
 tention wholly on the subject. Most frankly do 
 they. confess their own faults, and those of their 
 most eminent human characters. But the spirit by 
 which they spake is asserted and proved to be in- 
 
 _fallible. His influence is always employed to in- 
 
 ‘form their minds, and to controul their views and 
 inclinations. *¢ For the prophecy came not in old 
 time by. the will of man: but holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,’? 
 
 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 The scriptures of the old, and those of the new 
 
 _ covenant hatmonize im matier as well as in manner, 
 
 The one collection of writings is a continuation 
 of the other. In history they tell the same story. 
 In precepts they inculcate the same piety and mo- 
 rality. In promises they present the same way of 
 reconciliation, the same ground of hope. In pro- 
 phecies, both recognise the annunciation and the 
 concurrence of the same grand events, In short, 
 both ‘testify the same leading truths, on the same 
 important subject, namely, the coming of the Mes- 
 siah ; his character and work, as the incarnate God, 
 
 _ the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people; “his 
 
 VOL, Il. G 
 
62 © CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 bloody conflict and glorious victory; the nature 
 and happiness of his everlasting kingdom. The 
 very, change of dispensation in the new covenant 18 
 sanctioned by the prophecies of the old covenant 
 seriptures. 
 
 We are addressing Jews who have read these 
 books, and can judge for themselves. We desire 
 that no one will admit what we contend for on our. 
 word. We trust that he, who by a diligent perusal 
 and comparison makes himself best able to judge, 
 will be most likely to experience conviction ; and, 
 ‘n the course of his own investigations, to perceive 
 those proofs of genuine resemblance marking iden- 
 tity of 1: piration, and entirely different from all 
 the studied imitations of forgery, with a clearness 
 which can never be the effect of representations by 
 another. } : 
 
 In the third: place, the scriptures of the new 
 covenant inculcate the highest veneration for those 
 of the old. They by no means propose that the 
 old covenant scriptures should be superseded. They 
 yest their own authority on a correspondence with 
 those scriptures. They declare that those scriptures 
 cannot be broken Johnx. Somme RN 
 
 «Think not,” said Jesus, “ that I am come to 
 destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come 
 to destroy, but to fulfil,’’ Matth. v. 17. The ob- 
 ject of many of his discourses was’ to expose such 
 evasive interpretations of the law as were calculated 
 to make’ it void. When vindicating himself, or 
 his disciples, he was in the constant habit of ap- 
 
 pealing to what was written in the law. From 
 ‘the same source was he accustomed to draw replies. 
 to questions with which he was tried, and the con- 
 demnation of errors which he had occasion to con=.. 
 
 : 
 
 \ 
 
Y 
 AND THE PROPHETS. «63 
 
 fute. From the law and the prophets he was al- 
 ways ready to produce authority for what he did 
 in the course of his ministry. His whole life 
 showed that the law of God was in his heart; and 
 to fulfil the scriptures of the law and the prophets, 
 he submitted to the humiliation and sufferings of 
 his death. ~ «« Thinkest thou (he said to Peter) that 
 I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall, pre~ 
 _sently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? 
 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that 
 thus it must be??? Matth. xxvi. 53, 54. When, ac- 
 cording to the scriptures, he rose again from the 
 dead, it was not enough for him to show himself alive 
 to his disciples by many infallible proofs ; but be- 
 ginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he ex- 
 pounded unto them in all the scriptures thé things 
 concerning himself. ‘* He said unto them, These 
 are the words which I spake unto you while I 
 was yet with you, that all things. must be fulfilled 
 which were written in the law of Moses, and in the 
 prophets, and in the psalms concerning me,” Luke 
 XXlV. 44, ; 
 Accordingly, in the gospel history, the evanges 
 lists show the mostunceasing regard to the Jewish 
 scriptures. Every thing which they relate concerning 
 the birth, the life and ministry, the déath and the 
 resurrection of their Lord, is said to have happened, 
 in accomplishment of those ancient writings. In 
 like manner, when the apostles testified the resur- 
 ‘rection of Jesus, and preached the good news of 
 mercy and eternal life in his name, through all the 
 world, beginning at Jerusalem, and every where ad- 
 dressing. the Jew first; they uniformly reasoned 
 with him out of the Jewish scriptures: This was 
 the strain of that powerful sermon which was 
 
 4 
 
# 
 
 € 
 
 64 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 preached by Peter at Jerusalem on, the day of 
 Pentecost, Acts ii. It was also the strain of Paul’s 
 
 preaching. at Antioch in. Pisidia, Acts xii. 1441.3 
 and at Rome, Acts xxwili. 17—29. When he 
 came to Thessalonica, Where was a synagogic of 
 the Jews, it is said, MActs xvili2, 3. ¢y And. Paul,. 
 AS HIS MANNER WAS, went in unto them, and 
 three sabbath- -days reasoned with them out of the 
 Scriptures, opening and alledging that the Christ 
 must needs have suffered, and risen again from the 
 
 dead: and that this Pen: whom I preach unto 
 you is the Christ.””, With what enerey does Paul 
 urge this ‘* his manner’’ of ‘preaching the gospel, 
 
 invhis defence before Agrippa. ‘* Having there- 
 fore obtained help of God, I continue unto this 
 day, witnessing both to small and great, saying 
 none other things than those which the aa pitets 
 and Moses did say should come: that the Christ 
 should be a suffering one; and that he, being the 
 first who rose from the dead, should “announce 
 light to the people of the Jews, and to the Gen- 
 tiles. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? 
 
 I know that thou believest them.” The suddén, 
 
 though transient, impulse of eénviction which ap- 
 pears in the reply, showed how unexceptionable the 
 apostle’s view of the doctrine of the old covenant 
 
 scriptures, respecting the Messiah, was felt to be. 
 
 © Then Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou per-_ 
 
 suadest me to be a Christian,’? Acts xxvi. 22—28, 
 In the apostolic epistles also, the greatest regard 
 is shown for the sacred books of the Jews. 
 <¢ Whatsoever things were written aforetime, (says 
 Paul) were written for ofr learning ; that we 
 through patience and comfort of the scriptures might 
 have hope,” Rom. xv. 4. In writing to Timothy, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 65 
 he states it as a most important advantage to that 
 evangelist, that from a child he had known the 
 holy | scriptures, ‘¢ which,’’ says he, (2 Tim. iii, 
 15—17.) ** are able to make thee wise unto sal- 
 vation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 
 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and 
 as profitable for teaching, for conviction, for cor- 
 rection, for instruction im righteousness: that the 
 man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished — 
 unto all good works.” In all his epistles, he- 
 makes’ frequent quotations ‘from the Jewish scrip= 
 ‘tures. In the Epistle to the Hebrews especially, 
 it 1s from those scriptures that he draws all his ar- 
 guments, all his illustrations, and all his exhorta- 
 tions. 
 
 Surely these facts should recommend the scrips 
 tures of the new covenant to the serious examina- 
 tion of Jews. They will not find another book in 
 all the world, in which so much veneration is_ex- 
 pressed for their Holy Bible. Men who paid such 
 unceasing attention to the Jaw and the prophets, 
 could never be guilty of wishing to oppose the au- 
 thority, or to wrest the true meaning of those sacred 
 writings. ses 
 
 In the fourth place, the scriptures of the new 
 covenant produce the same effects which have been 
 produced by those of the old covenant. David 
 _ justly extols the law of the Lord as perfect, con- 
 verting the soul; as making him wiser than his 
 enemies ; and giving him more understanding than 
 
 all his teachers. It was the glory of the ancient 
 
 scriptures, that the belief of the revelations which 
 
 they contain, formed such characters’ as righteous 
 
 Abel, Enoch walking with God, Noah perfect im 
 
 his geneyations, Abraham leaying Ur of the Chal- 
 cS ab 
 
66 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 dees, sojourning in a land which the Lord pro- 
 mised to give to his posterity for an inheritance, . 
 and yet ready to offer up Isaac the heir of the 
 promise. The Christian scriptures bear ample tes- 
 timony to the excellence of such men. ‘* These 
 all died in faith, not having received the promises, - 
 but having seen them afar off, and being persuaded 
 of them, and having embraced them, and con- 
 fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
 the earth. For they that say such things, declare 
 plainly that they seek a country. And truly if 
 they had been mindful of that country from whence 
 they came out, they might have had opportunity to 
 have returned: but now they desire a better cown- 
 try, that is an heavenly: wherefore God is not 
 ashamed to be called their God: for he hath spent 
 pared for them a city,” Heb. x1. 13—16. | 
 
 The testimony given to Moses is peculiarly ho- 
 nourable. ‘* By faith, Moses, when he was come 
 to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s 
 daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with . 
 the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
 of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of 
 Christ (the reproach cast on the people of God 
 for expecting the Messiah) greater riches than the 
 treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the re- 
 compense of the reward,’’ Heb. xi. 24-26. 
 
 Now the belief of the revelations contained in 
 the scriptures of the new covenant, has produced 
 similar characters. At the call of Jesus, the apos- 
 tles forsook all and. followed him. They yielded 
 up their pre-conceived notions, and sacrificed their 
 . strongest attachments to the authority of their 
 Master. They passed their lives in labours, dan- 
 gers, and sufferings yoluntarily undergone in at- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 67 
 
 testation of the accounts which they delivered, 
 and solely in consequence of their belief of those 
 accounts ; and they also submitted, from the same 
 motives, to new rules of conduct. * When they 
 -saw their master, who had been crucified, again 
 -alive; when they saw him taken up from them 
 into heaven, they were fully confirmed in the be- 
 lief which his doctrines, his miracles, and_ his 
 whole behaviour had previously created in their 
 minds. They were now satisfied that it behoved 
 him thus to suffer and to enter into his glory. 
 They rejoiced in him as both Lord and Christ, as 
 having the words of eternal life, and as exalted a 
 Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and re- 
 mission of sins. Being commanded to preach 
 these glad tidings to every creature, they soon en- 
 ‘tered on the duties of their office with a zeal and 
 courage which proved them to be endowed with 
 power from on high. Formerly, they were un- 
 willing to listen to what their Master foretold re- 
 specting his sufferings at Jerusalem, “ for they sa- 
 voured not the things that be of God, but those 
 that be of men,” (Matth. xvi. 23.) ; afterwards, 
 the death and thé resurrection of Jesus were the 
 constant subjects of their preaching and their tes- 
 timony. . “ Ye men of Israel,’’ said that Peter 
 who had once been rebuked for his aversion to 
 what he now proclaimed, ‘* hear. these words ; 
 Jesus of Nazareth, a man from God. manifested 
 among you, by miracles. and wonders, and signs, 
 which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye 
 yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by 
 the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
 
 ( #* Paley’, Ey idences, Part I, Proposition I, 
 
68 CONSUMMATION GF THE LAW 
 
 ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified 
 and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having 
 loosed the pains of death: because it was not pos- 
 sible that he should be holden of it,?? Acts u. 
 29—94. “ And now, brethren, I wot that through 
 ignorance ye did zt, as did also your rulers. But 
 those things which God before had showed bythe 
 mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ should 
 suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore 
 and be converted, for the blotting out of your 
 sins, that the times of refreshing may come to you 
 from the presence of the Lord. And that he may 
 send forth Jesus Christ, who was before preached 
 unto you. * Whom the heaven must receive, until 
 the times of restitution of all things, which God hath 
 spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since 
 the world began.~ For Moses truly said unto the 
 fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise 
 up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him 
 shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say 
 unto you. And it shall come to pass that every 
 _ soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be 
 
 destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all 
 the prophets from Samuel and those that follow 
 after, as many as have spoken, have likewise fore- 
 told of these days. Ye are the children of the pro- 
 phets, and of the covenant which God made with 
 our’ fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy 
 seed shall allthe kindreds of the earth be blessed. 
 Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Je- 
 sus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every | 
 one of you from his iniquities,”” Acts iil, 17—~26. 
 
 * Or, “ before appointed for you.” ‘Four of the most ancient 
 Greek MSS. wih mony others, most of the old versions, many of the 
 fathers, and several of the first printed copies, haye TEOKEMELCIO/AEVOR. 
 
AND. THE PROPHETS. 69 
 
 It is: very remarkable that those Jews, who were 
 permitted to crucify the Master, were not able to 
 prevail against the disciples. The priests, and the 
 captain. of the temple, and the Sadducces came 
 upon them, being gricved that they taught the 
 people, and preached through Jesus, the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead. They laid hands on them,-and 
 put them in prison. Howbeit, many of those who 
 heard the word believed. In vain did. the perse- 
 cutors charge the apostles to be silent, with threats, 
 and stripes, because of their firmness. ‘* Whether 
 it be right (said Peter and John) in the sight of God, 
 to hearken unto you, more than unto God, judge 
 ye,’ Acts iv. 19. They rejoiced that they were 
 counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And 
 _ daily in the-temple, and in every house, they ceased 
 not to teach and preach Jesus the Christ. How 
 _ boldly did Stephen reprove the unbelief of the Jews 
 before the council; and with what undisturbed 
 tranquillity, with what amiable forgiveness did he 
 submit to death! They stoned Stephen, calling 
 upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my 
 spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a 
 Joud voice, Lord, ‘Tay not this sin to their charge. 
 And when he had said this, he fell asleep.’ 
 Acts vil. 59, 60.* One, who was consenting to 
 the death of Stephen, became an eminent example 
 of the power of the gospel, and an undaunted 
 preacher of it, both to Jews and Gentiles; while 
 his labours exposed him to innumerable sufferings, 
 and required him at last to seal his testimony with 
 his blood. “ What mean ye to weep, (said he to 
 friends who would have persuaded him to shrink 
 from danger,) and to break mine heart? for I am 
 
 * Tet this passage be compared with 2 Chron. xxiv, 19-22, 
 
70 | CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 ready not to be bound only, but also to die 6 
 Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,’ 
 Acts xxi. 13. ‘I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 who hath enabled me, for that he counted ‘me 
 faithful, putting me into the ministry ; who was 
 before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and inju- 
 riots. But I obiained mercy, for L acted ignorantly 
 in unbelief: and the grace of our Lord was exceed- 
 img abundant, with Leh, and love, which is in 
 Giiiye Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
 of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the | 
 world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief, 
 Howheit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in 
 me the chief, Jesus Christ might show forth all 
 long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should 
 hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” 
 
 1 Tim. i. 12—16. 
 
 Now, itis particularly worthy of notice, that the 
 boldness of the apostles, like that of the prophets 
 of old, arose from their knowledge of the eflicacy « 
 of that word, which they were inspired to preach, 
 and to record in the holy scriptures. ‘* The prophet 
 that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he 
 that hath my word, let him speak my word faith- 
 fully : what is the chaff to the wheat 2.. saith the 
 Lord. Is not my word, like as a fire? saith the 
 Lord: and like a hammer that breaketh the rock 
 in pieces?’’ Jer. xxiii. 28, 29. (In precisely the 
 same spirit are these words of Paul. ‘* 1 am not 
 ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the 
 _ power of God unto salvation, to every one that 
 believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 
 For therein is the righteousness of "God revealed 
 from faith to faith: as it 1s written, the just shall. 
 live by faith.” Rom.i. 16, We are warranted, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 71 
 
 then, by the scriptures both of the old, and of the 
 new covenant, to call the attention of the Jews to 
 the effect of the word of God on the heart and life. 
 Wherever that word is believed, men are made 
 holy. They are sanctified through the truth. cMy 
 son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my 
 commandments with thee; so that thou incline 
 thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to 
 understanding : yea, if thou criest after knowledge, 
 and liftest up thy voice for understanding: if thou 
 seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for 
 hid treasures: then shalt thou understand the fear 
 of the Lord; and find the knowledge of God.” 
 Prov. ti. 1—5.  ** God is'a spirit, and they that 
 worship him, must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth.” John iv. 24.“ Forheis not a Jew, who 
 is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, 
 which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who 
 is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the 
 heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise 
 is not of men but of God. Rom-ii. 28, 29. 
 ** Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God.’? John iii. 3. The efiicacy of 
 the scriptures in producing this spiritual change, is 
 a peculiar token of their divine original. The 
 completed volume of revelation js remarkably 
 countenanced of God for this purpose. He who, 
 at the making of the first covenant, wrote the ten 
 commandments on tables of stone, saith of the 
 second, ‘* This shall be the covenant that I will 
 make with the house of Israel, after those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their 
 God, and they shall be my people.”? Jer. xxxi. 33% 
 The promise was fulfilled in the -case of those to 
 
pe as CONSUMMATION OF THE- LAW 
 
 whom Paul said “* Ye are manifestly declared to be 
 the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not 
 with ink, but with the spirit of the living God ; not 
 in tables of stone, bui in fleshly tales: of the heart.” 
 2 Cor. ili. 3. 
 
 This saving efficacy of the word of God on the 
 heart !s not confined to primitive times.“ If any 
 man bein Christ, he is anew creature.’’ 2Cor.v. 17. 
 The change is ascribed to the sovereign good 
 pleasure and mighty power of God, who hath 
 ereated his people again by the word of truth, 
 James i. 18. Jesus exercised this divine power 
 while on earth, John 1.11—13.. And the Holy 
 Spirit exercises it to the end of the.werld, being 
 sent by the Father,-in the name of. his Son, as 
 another comforter to abide with his people for ever. 
 < For we. ourselves also,” saith Paul, ‘* were 
 sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving 
 divers Justs and pleasures, living in malice and envy, 
 hateful, and hating one another. But after that 
 the kindness and love of God our Sayiour toward 
 man appeared, not by works of righteousness, 
 which we have done, but according to his mercy 
 he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and 
 renewing of the Holy Ghast: which he shed on us 
 abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: 
 that being justified by his grace, we should be — 
 made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’? 
 Titus ni.3—7. The real christian has been con- 
 yinced, of his own sinfulness boih in heart and life, 
 and of the necessity, and perfection, of the atone- 
 ment of Christ. Humbled and alarmed on the one 
 hand, and filled with joy and gratitudegon the other, 
 he tas fled for refuge to the hope set before him. 
 He has been taught to pray to the Father, in the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 73 
 name of his well-beloved Son, and with the help of 
 the Holy Spirit, for the pardon of sin, and deliver- 
 ance from its power. His prayer“is heard. Fe 
 enjoys peace with God. He is filled with love to 
 God. He delights in the exercises of divine 
 worship, ‘in the observance of divine ordinances, 
 and ina self denied, filial obedience to all the divine 
 commands. His morals correspond with his habits 
 of devotion. ‘The motives, the rule, and the end 
 of his actions are new. fig appetites and passions 
 are brought under holy restraint. His temporal 
 
 affairs are pursued, in subordination to his eternal 
 “interests. Actions materially good, which before 
 he might perform from the desire of human 
 applause, or in the hope of meriting the divine 
 favour, he now does from a sense of obligation to 
 the divine merciés, a desire to glorify God, and to 
 do good to’ men. At the same time he is kept 
 humble by his knowledge of the holiness of God, 
 the purity and spirituality of the divine law, and 
 his own many offences. His only confidence is 
 the righteousness of the Saviour, in whose name he 
 comes boldly, yet with a broken and contrite heart, 
 to the throne of grace, that he may obtain merey, 
 and find grace to help in time of need. Whatever 
 may be his devotedness of spirit, whatever his 
 progress in holiness, he unites with those who say, 
 ‘* We are unprofitable servants,”’ Luke xvii. 10, 
 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
 “name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truths 
 sake.” Psalm cxy. 1. th 
 
 These sentiments abound in the holy scriptures, 
 both of the old, and of the new covenant. We 
 intreat Jews to consider, whether they abound 
 among those, who acknowledge the one, but reject 
 
 VOL. II, H 
 
ae 
 
 GA CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 ~ the other. When there were no other scriptures 
 given by inspiration of God, but those of the old 
 covenant, he blessed them for the instruction and 
 sanctification of his ancient people. But haying, in 
 these last days, spoken to us by his own Son, and 
 caused the gospel to be recorded and preached to 
 every creature ; it cannot be wonderful, if they who 
 disbelieve the Jatter, should lose the benefit which 
 their fathers derived from the former. Is there not 
 
 ground for such an apprehension as this? What. 
 
 a difference between the most zealous of the law 
 among Jews now, and the saints of ancient times ! 
 Of old, indeed, we read of a stiff-necked and re- 
 bellious people, and we see their posterity. But 
 where is the remnant? the men who sigh and cry 
 for the abominations which are committed among 
 the children of Israel? the beloved of the Lord, 
 who glorify him, and are under his special protec- 
 tion, even in their most distant dispersions? Are 
 they to be found at the present day, among un- 
 christian Israel after the flesh? If they are not, 
 is not this a proof, that as the Lord forsook the 
 holy city, the temple, and the pleasant land; so 
 he «ceased to countenance his ancient revelation, 
 when perverted to the exclusion of what he was 
 pleased to give in addition to it, and when those 
 who thus adhere to it, refuse to acknowledge the 
 Messiah, to whom it bears witness? 
 
 The preceding argument in favour of the writings 
 of the new covenant, may be further illustrated to 
 Jews, by remarking the difference between those 
 writings and an account of our Lord, well known 
 among Jews, under the title of Taldoth Jeshu, or, 
 
 the Generations of Jesus. Excepting Voltaire, an — 
 
 enemy equally to the Jewish and Christian Scrip- 
 
 ~ 
 
mS 
 AND THE PROPHETS, 7 hi 
 
 tures, we know not a single writer, who has men- 
 tioned this book, without expressing the utmost 
 contempt and detestation of it. The only quality 
 which can recommend it to any one, is the gross 
 abuse of our Saviour, which may perhaps - gratify 
 some of his enemies. It is altogether an. anony- 
 
 mous work, yet every part of the narrative depends ° 
 
 solely on the authority of the writer. It contains 
 internal evidence of being comparatively a modern 
 performance, for it refers to the Babylonish Talmud, 
 which was not finished till the beginning of the 
 sixth century. In many particulars, however, it 
 contradicts the Talmudical writers. There are glaring 
 contradictions between the different copies of the 
 book itself; and what is still more decisive, all 
 those copies contain the most giaring contradictions 
 of the best established facts in history, both sacred 
 and profane. Were it translated and published, 
 we conceive, its warmest friends would be ashamed 
 to defend it, and it would soon be exploded as 
 equally impious and absurd. The whole story turns 
 on the inadmissible supposition, that the idolatrous 
 art of magic, which is held a capital crime by the 
 Jewish law, could enable a man to get access into 
 the temple, and to obtain possession of miraculous 
 power, by a name of God, and a use of that name, 
 which are no where acknowledged in the Jewish 
 scriptures. Our Lord’s miraculous power, which 
 is confessed in this book, is accounted for in the 
 following manner. “* At that time there was, in 
 
 the temple of Jerusalem, the woypnn raw Shem 
 Hlamphorash, or ineffable name of God, engraven 
 
 on a stone of the foundation: for when David dug 
 the foundation,* he discovered there a certain stone 
 
 ® Was it not Solomon who built the Temple? 
 
* 
 ie 
 
 76 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 on the mouth of the abyss, on which the name was 
 engraven, and lifting it up, he deposited it in the 
 holy of holies, where it. was guarded by. brazen 
 lions “before the door, which the wise men had 
 made, through their enchantments, lest studious 
 persons should learn the name, and bring desolation 
 on the world. If any one therefore, entered and 
 learnt the name, the lions roared upon him when 
 he. went, out, and so frightened him, as to make 
 him forget it. Jeshu having come from Galilee, 
 entered the temple secretly, and learned it, and 
 inscribed it on a piece of parchment, and, cutting 
 his flesh, hid it there, having first pronounced the 
 name, that he might not ieel pain. Immediately 
 pronouncing it again,, he caused the flesh to 
 coalesce, But he must have entered the temple by 
 magical art, and force of enchantments, otherwise 
 how would the priests have suffered him to enter? 
 Fle must then have done all these things by the 
 assistance of an impure name, and by magical art. 
 ‘When he was going out through the door, the 
 lions roared, so that he forgot the name; but when 
 he was out of the city, he opened the flesh, took 
 out the writing, and having thoroughly weighed 
 the characters, he recovered his knowledge of the 
 name,’’ &c.—on which it is stated, he wrought 
 miracles. Miraculous power is afterwards ascribed 
 to Judas Iscariot, which he is described as having 
 
 acquired in the very same way, and because he. 
 
 opposed Jesus, his pretended magic, and his avowed 
 treachery, are spoken of by the writer with the 
 most triumphant approbation. Nothing can be 
 more ridiculous, than the account which is oiven 
 
 of a conflict between Jesus and Judas, by the help. 
 of miracles opposed to miracles; unless it be the 
 
 * 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ; qT 
 
 anecdote, that the former had so enchanted ail the 
 trees, that none of them would bear his weight, 
 even after he is said to have been stoned to death, 
 but.that the latter brought from his garden an im- 
 mense stalk of cabbage, on which the body was 
 suspended. Need we remark, that it is matter of 
 public notoriety, allowed by the enemies, as well 
 as the friends of christianity from the most ancient 
 times, that Jesus was not stoned to death and then 
 hanged, according to the mode of capital punish- 
 ment prescribed in the Mosaic Law, but was put 
 to death by crucifixion? We shall only add, that this 
 book represents Jesus as having suffered when 
 Janneus’s Queen ruled over Judeea after the death 
 of her husband, which happened in the 675th 
 year of Rome, before the time of any of the Cesars ; 
 while Tacitus, who,had no favour for christianity, 
 confirms the scripture account, by stating that 
 Jesus suffered in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, 
 the third of the Cesars, by order of Pontius Pilate, 
 his procurator in Judea, which some time before, — 
 Thad been made a Roman province; that is, more 
 than a hundred years later than the period assigned 
 in Toldoth Jeshu.* y 
 Many readers may perhaps be surprised, if not 
 displeased, that we should take any notice of a 
 pook, so unworthy of serious confutation. © But 
 they will’see reason to change their sentiments, if 
 
 1? 
 
 * Tacit. Annal. XV. 44.  Auctor nominis ejus (Christiani) 
 Christus, qui Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum 
 supplicio affectus erat, The gounder of that name (Christians) was 
 Christ, who suffered death in the reign of Tiberius, under his pro- 
 curator Pontius Pilate. See a confutation of Toldoth Jeshu, in 
 Wagenseil’s Tela Ignea Satane, and in Findlay’s Vindication of the 
 
 4 oT 
 Sacred Books from various misrepresentationg and cavils of M. De 
 
 Voltair '— 487-309, 
 H 2 
 
 x 
 
78 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 they consider, that while Jews are. strictly pro- 
 hibited from reading the holy scriptures of the 
 new covenant, their minds are poisoned from their 
 very infancy, with this indecent and scurrilous 
 narrative, which they are accustomed to receive as 
 incontrovertible. © that God may be pleased to 
 awaken them to see the wickedness ‘of resisting 
 the truth by means of forgeries, which even the 
 simplest of their children might soon detect, were 
 they not prevented from having access to the ge- 
 nuine neatong * 
 
 SACRIFICE OF THE NEW COVENANT, 
 
 From the history of the making -of the old 
 covenant, we are also led to infer, that the making 
 of the new covenant should bé attended with the 
 offering of a new sacrifice. We have already had 
 occasion to advert to the fact, that the covenant 
 with Israel at Sinai, was celebrated by sacrifice. * 
 ‘¢ And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, 
 and rose up early in the morning, and builded 
 altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, accordin; 
 to the twelve tribes of Israel, and he sent young 
 men of the children of ieee. who offered burnt- 
 offerings, and sacrificed peace- -offerings of oxen 
 unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, 
 
 and put i¢ in basons; and half of the bloo 
 sprinkled on the altar, And he took the book of 
 the covenant, and read in the audience of the 
 people : and they said; All that the Lord hath said 
 will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took 
 the blood, and sprinkled t¢ on the people,. and 
 Sats Behold, the bloed of the coy enant, which the 
 
 + Rag Vol. I. Page 194 ' 
 a 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. TD 
 
 Lord hath made with you concerning all thee 
 words,”? Exod. xxiv. 4—s. The burnt-offerings 
 and peace-offerings presented to God on this ocea- 
 sion were old eacribned, such as had been offered 
 to God by his people from the beginning ; just as 
 the covenant now made was a consequence and 
 confirmation of the’ covenant with Abraham, and 
 indeed of the covenant of redemption, which had 
 heen revealed from the beginning. 
 
 But as the Lord promised to make sith his 
 
 people a new covenant, not according to the cove- 
 
 nant that he made with their fathers, in the day 
 he took them by the hand, to bring them out of 
 the land of Egypt, (Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.3) so he 
 gave them reason to expect, that the making of 
 this new covenant should be attended with the of- 
 fering of new sacrifice, not according to the sa- 
 erifices which had.been offered by their fathers at 
 Mount Sinai, or indeed which had ever been of- 
 fered by men before, in any part of the world. The 
 ew covenant scriptures give an account of the 
 nly sacrifice, which. will be found to correspond 
 ith this expectation; we mean, the sacrifice which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest of our 
 profession, once offered up of himself, when he 
 was crucified without the gate of Jerusalem; which 
 
 ‘it. all that was signified by ie burnt- 
 
 _ offerings» the sin-offerings, and peace- offerings of 
 
 the old covenant ; ; and which the people of God 
 never cease to enjoy, while they believe in the name 
 of Jésus, as the ein the Christ, the Anointed ‘ 
 of God. +» 7 
 ormer messengers of God, who resided , 
 
 among 
 kings y e.men Of like natural imperfections with 
 * 
 e a 
 A eS 
 
 eopl Sy) dicey ras prophets, priests, or 
 
ae 
 
 80 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW | - 
 
 themselves. But as it had ever been requisite in 
 sacrifice, that the victim should be ‘* without 
 blemish,” Jesus was possessed in the highest 
 sense, of this perfect character. With regard to 
 his original dignity, it is said, * In the beginning 
 was the word, and the word was with God, and 
 the word was God. The same was in the be- 
 
 ginning with God. All things were made by him; 
 
 and without him was not any thing made that 
 was made. In him was life, and the life was the 
 light of men.” John i. 1—4. With regard to his 
 incarnation, he was born of a woman, according 
 to the title which he had originally received (Gen. 
 al. 15.); but his conception was miraculous, and 
 In a peculiar manner by divine agency, that» he 
 might be acknowledged, not only as holy, but as 
 «¢ the Son of God,” Luke i. 35. His divine holi- 
 ness was sak in every part of his life. ‘“ The 
 word,’’ said the apostle John, ‘< was made flesh, 
 
 and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, 
 
 the glory as of the only begotten of the Father). 
 
 full of grace and truth,” John 1.14. How long 
 
 did his enemies watch his conduct in vain, and 
 how often were they confounded when they en- 
 deavopred to entangle him in his talk! They called 
 him a Samaritan, and said be was possessed by a 
 
 of 
 
 you conyicteth me of sin?’? John sé 
 brought before Caiaphas, the witnesses who ap- 
 peared against him, applied ‘his language in a sense 
 
 es which he never intended. Compare Matthxxvi. 
 ith John ii. 18—22. As to his words, when 
 
 informed the council that he was the Christ the 
 
 — Son of God, and that thereafter they should see 
 
 the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, 
 
 Then . 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. a 
 
 and coming an the clouds of heaven; these were 
 declared by the High Priest to be. blasphemy ; but 
 the character which Jesus now claimed had been 
 twice acknowledged by. a voice from. heaven, 
 (Matth. iL k7. and xvii. 5.) and the rest of his 
 declaration was speedily justified by events. which 
 are a pledge of its final accomplishment. When 
 delivered to Pontius Pilate,.the Roman Governor 
 was warned by his wife, in consequence of what 
 she believed to be an intimation from heaven, to 
 ** have nothing to do with that just man.’? Mean- 
 while the traitor, who had sold his Master, .con- 
 fessed that he had betrayed ‘* innocent blood,”’’ 
 Matth. xxvii. 4. Pilate availed himself of the in- 
 formation, that Jesus was of Galilee, to refer him 
 to Herod, who, though he mocked, did nothing 
 to signify it, to. be his judgment, that Jesus was © 
 worthy of death. _ Pilate finding him sent back to 
 his judgment seat, used various means to avoid 
 giving him up to execution, and when at last he 
 reluctantly yielded to the importunity and the 
 
 threats of the priests and elders, and multitude, - 
 
 he solemnly declared that he found no fault in 
 him. The centurion also, and they that were 
 with him, watching Jesus, when they saw the 
 earthquake, and those other minicolou apes t that 
 
 e Gome at his crucifixion, they feared greatly, 
 r, Pruly this was the Son of God, Certainly 
 this was a righteous man,” Matth. xxvil. 54. 
 Mark xv. 39. Luke xxl. 47. While some justified, 
 
 formly approved of God. The Father borem 
 
 ness to him, by all the wondrous circumsta 
 
 - Messiah ; by all the miracles which 
 
 a. 
 
 and @thers accused him, among men, he was uni- , 
 
 ledein Jesus, the ancient prophecies con- ~~~ 
 
82.6 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 h® wrought in the course of his ministry ; and 
 especially by the. miracles which accompanied his 
 death, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension 
 to heaven, the preaching of his gospel, and the 
 
 afflictions experienced by the Jews who have re- 
 
 jected it, 
 But although Jesus was thus approved of God, 
 
 he was always represented, and he always con- 
 sidered himself,’ as devoted to death for the sins-of 
 his people. * She shall bring forth a son, and 
 thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save 
 his people from their sins,’? Matth. i, 21. The 
 next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and 
 saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
 away the sin of the world,” John i. 29. “* Who- 
 soever will be chief among you, let him be your 
 servant. Even as the Son of man came not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his 
 life a ransom for many,” Matth. xx. OF 287 
 am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth 
 his life for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father 
 ~ love me, because-] lay down my life, that I might 
 take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay 
 it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, 
 and I have power to take it again: this command- 
 ment haye I received of my Father,’? John ad 
 17, 18. When his disciples confessed th 
 was the Christ, the Son of the livin e God, we 
 are told, ** From that time forth began Jesus to 
 show unto his disciples, how that he must $0 unto 
 Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, 
 "ands chief priests, and Scribes, and be killed, and 
 é: AF raised again the third: day,” @Matth. xvi. 21, 
 "Before the appointed period for the actomplish- 
 ment of these predictions, he used to ee inte 
 
 : 
 
on 
 
 i od 
 A / 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. «wee 
 
 ? 
 
 Galilee, to avoid the fury of his enemies, John vii. 
 3. but when it apptgsebad, he presented himself 
 eet the event. ‘* It came to pass when the 
 time was come that he should be received up, he 
 stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,’? Luke 
 
 ix. 51. When Jesus, at the last passover, an-. 
 
 nounced the treachery of Judas, he stated his own 
 death to be the accomplishment of divine predic- 
 tion, although the guilt of the traitor was not on 
 that account the less awful, nor the less awfully to 
 *be punished, ‘* The Son of man goeth as it is 
 written of him: but wo unto that man by whom 
 the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for 
 that man if he had not been born.” Matth. xxvi. 24, 
 That his death was the instituted sacrifice of 
 the new covenant was_ very expressly taught by 
 him, inthe solemn ordinance which he appointed 
 for keeping it in remembrance. ‘* And as they 
 -were cating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and 
 brake, and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, 
 eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and 
 gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye 
 all of it: For this is my blood of the new cove- 
 nant, which is shed for many, for the remission of 
 sins,” Matth. xxvi. 26—28. See also Mark -Xiy. 
 22-—94,. Luke. Xxit. 19,20... 1 Conw Xie 23—26. 
 Under, the keenest sensations of his approaching 
 sufferings, Jesus always reconciled himself to their 
 severity, st the thought that he had been devoted 
 to endure them. Now is my soul troubled; and 
 what,shall I say? Wather save’me from this wee 
 _ but for this cause came I unto this hour. Fath 
 glorify thy. name,’’ John xii. 27,28. In the sai 
 spirit wand“ lim pouring out repeated pray 
 
 ate an Eacerestvaply great agony of mind in 
 
 & . at a PB 
 i Pins 
 ‘> , +, 
 bie 
 
 Se Sy) 
 ~ 5 » 
 x 
 ‘ ™ 2 a 
 
- 
 
 B4 * CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 the garden of Gethsemane. ‘* And he took with 
 him Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee, an@ be- 
 gan to be sorrowful and very theavyy. Then saith - 
 he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
 unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me. 
 "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, 
 ‘and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, 
 let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I 
 will, but as thou wilt.’’—“ He went away again 
 the second time, and prayed; saying, O my Father, : 
 if this cup may not pass away from me, except I 
 ‘drink it, thy will be done.”’—** And he went away. - 
 again, and prayed the third time, saying the same 
 words,’? Matth. xxvi. 37. 39.49.44. Notwith- 
 standing this agony,when the multitude, led by Judas 
 Iscariot, approached, ** Jesus knowing all things 
 that should come upon ‘him, went forth and said 
 unto them, Whom seck ye?’? When Peter be- 
 gan to fight in his Master's defence, Jesus said 
 unto him, ** Put up thy sword into the sheath: the 
 cup which my father hath given me, shall I not 
 drink it??? John xviii. 4—11. On the other hand, 
 he said to the chief priests and captains of the tem- 
 ple, and the elders which were come to him, “ Be 
 “ye come out as against a thief, with swords and 
 staves? When I was daily with you in the tem- 
 ple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but 
 this is your hour, and the power of darkness,” 
 Luke xxii. 52, 53. Although Jesus reconciled 
 himself to his sufferings by the thought “that he 
 had been appointed by his Father to endure them; - 
 a _yet what he did endure by the appointment of his * 
 Father appears to have been inexpressibly greater 
 “than any thing inflicted by the. mere instrumentality 
 of men. His agony in the garden was previous to 
 
 Pi 
 
~ 
 
 » 
 
 AND THE PROPHETS. 85 
 the commencement of their crueltics. When they 
 smote him, and scourged him, and nailed him 
 to the cross, he was entirely silent, except to pray 
 that his Father would forgive them. It was ie 
 they had exhausted ‘all their torments, and ‘were 
 watching him in silence, that he uttered that bit- 
 ter cry, which implied something infinitely greater 
 than bodily suffering, « My God, My God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me??? Even’ the manner in 
 which he announced the termination of his pains 
 implied something distinct from the tortures of the 
 cross. ** After this, Jesus knowing that all things 
 were now accomplished, that the scripture might 
 he fulfilled, ' saithy. 1’ thirst: 7 Now the#e was seta 
 vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a. spunge 
 with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it 
 to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received 
 the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed 
 his head, and gave up the ghost.” John xix. 
 28—30. As he hung on the cross, he said to one 
 of the transgressors, with whom he was numbered, 
 ** Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be 
 with me in paradise ;?? and in the very act of de 
 parting, he said, “ Father, into thy hands I com- 
 mend my spirit, and having said thus, he gave up 
 the ghost,’? Luke xxiii. 43. 46, 
 
 All these things tend.to proye, that the death of 
 Jesus was a sacrifice for sin. It was only because 
 men had sinned that they were appointed to die; 
 but, in ‘this case, the Righteous One was ap- 
 pointed to dic. “ His death could not be dispensed 
 ‘with, and his father loved him because he laid 
 down his life ; yet while his sufferings were upon 
 bim, he erted out, My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me?’? whereas, when they were 
 
 VOLT, i 
 
86 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 finished, he expressed the most perfect confidence 
 that his father would receive his spirit. Each of 
 these particulars is explained, and their consistency 
 with one another seen, when we turn to the an- 
 ‘cient prophecies concerning the Messiah. In the 
 twenty-second psalm we find the very words of our 
 Saviour’s lamentation on the cross; yet they are 
 followed by the most joyful anticipation Of triumph. 
 See verses 1. 22—25. In like manner, in the six- 
 ‘teenth psalm, the sentiments ascribed to the Mes- 
 siah, in the view of death and immortality, exactly 
 correspond with the hope of the dying Saviour. 
 <‘ T have set the Lord always before me: be- 
 ‘cause he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 
 
 Therefore my heart is glad, a my glory rejoiceth: 
 
 my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not 
 leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer 
 ‘thine holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show 
 me the path of life: in thy presence zs fulness of 
 jOY, at thy right hand dere are pleasures for ever- 
 anore,’ : Paniny xvi. 8-11. Can we refuse, then, 
 to apply to Jesus the words of Isaiah, chap. iit, 
 
 4,:5, $* Surely, he hath borne our oriefs, and car=_, 
 
 ried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
 smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded 
 for our transgressions, he was bruised for our ini- 
 quitics: the chastisement of our peace was upon 
 him, and with his stripes we are healed.” This 
 is exactly the testimony of the apostles. mt He 
 was delivered,’’ says Paul, “* for our offerites, and 
 was raised again for our justifica tion,” Rom. iv. 25. 
 
 «s For what the law could not do, ‘in that it was” 
 
 weak through the flesh, God sending his ‘own 
 Son, in the likeness of inal flesh, and as a sin+ 
 offering, condemned ‘sin in the ‘flesh: that .the 
 
 # 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 87 
 
 righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, 
 who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,”’ 
 Rom. vill. 3, 4. Again, All things are of God, 
 who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, 
 and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; 
 To wit, that God was by Christ, reconciling the 
 world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
 unto them; and hath committed unto us the word 
 -of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors 
 for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: 
 ‘we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to 
 God. For he hath made him, who knew no sin, 
 to be a sin-offering for us; that we might be made 
 the righteousness of God im him,’? 2 Cor. v. 
 18—-21. In like manner, when Peter is exhorting 
 to patience under ill-treatment, he argues hile 
 ‘* For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ 
 also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we 
 should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither 
 was guile found in his mouth: Who when he was. 
 reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he 
 threatened not; but committed himself to him that 
 judgeth nghteously: Who his own self bare our 
 sins in his own body on the tree, that we being 
 dead to sin, should live unto righteousness : by 
 whose stripes ye were healed,’’ 1 Pet. ii. 21—25. 
 Jesus was not only the sacrifice, but the High 
 Priest, who offered it. He, tierekoue. rose from 
 ‘the dead on the third day, according to his pre. 
 diction; and, after he had showed himself alive to 
 his disciples, by many infallible proofs, he ascended 
 - up to heaven, Ahat he might present the blood of 
 atonement before the mercy seat. There he ever 
 liveth to e intercession, and ke will come forth. 
 
 a 
 
 t 
 
8&8 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW . 
 
 at last to bless the people, and to receive them into 
 his glory, ~ 
 That Jesus had said he should rise from the dea 
 
 was known to his enemies 3 and with the assistance 
 of Pilate, they adopted such measures as were cer-_ 
 tainly sufficient to prevent all deception as to the 
 accomplishment of his words. ‘* Now the next day 
 that followed the day of the preparation, the chief 
 priests and pharisees came together unto Pilate, 
 saying, sir, we rémember chet. that deceiver said, 
 while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise 
 again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be 
 made sure until ie third day, lest his disciples 
 come by night, and steal him away, and say unto 
 the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last 
 error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto 
 them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make if as 
 _ Sure as you can. So they went and made the 
 sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a 
 watch,’’ Matth. xxvii. 62—66. By these precautions 
 they fendered themselves responsible for the body — 
 of Jesus. Had they left it entirely to the care of 
 Joseph of Arimathea, who had laid it in his own | 
 new tomb, they might with some plausibility bave 
 alledged, that the disciples had stolen him away, 
 when they said, He is risen from the dead. But 
 when they placed it under the double security of 
 their own seal, and their own military guard, they 
 deprived themselves of the benefit of such a pretext. 
 They had put it out of the power of man to steal 
 the body away. When they denied the resurrec- 
 tion, therefore, they were bound to have produced 
 the body, of which they had taken so particular a 
 charge. ‘Mothing could be more ridiculous than 
 
 & 
 
AND THE: PROPHETS. , — 89° 
 
 to try to account for its absence by accusing the. 
 
 disciples of stealing it, after they had themselves 
 made it impossible that they should be guilty. Yet 
 this incredible accusation was their only subterfuge. 
 “© Some of the watch came into the city, and 
 showed unto the chief priests all the things that 
 were done. And when they were assembled with 
 the elders, and had taken cotnee they gave large 
 money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His aig 
 ciples came by night, and stole him away while we 
 slept. And if this come to the Governor’s ears, we 
 
 will persuade him, and secure you. So they took 
 the money, and did as they were taught: and 
 this saying is commonly reported among the Jews 
 
 until this day, Matth. xxviii. 11—15. However 
 
 well this saying might, for a time, answer the pur 
 
 poses of vag 
 
 ever brought forward by the rulers, when they ep- _ 
 
 deavoured to prevent the apostles from continuing 
 to bear witness of their Lord’s resurrection. This 
 
 silence argues a consciousness that the story would | 
 not bear examination. It carried, indeed, collusion 
 upon the very face of it. To sleep while on duty, 
 
 was death by the Roman law, as indeed it is still, 
 
 eue report, we do not find, that it was | 
 
 from the danger of tol erating: the crime, by the | 
 martial law of modern times. Men, therefore, in , 
 
 the situation of the watch, which was set on the . 
 
 sepulchre, would not have made such an acknow- : 
 
 ledgment of their negligence, unless they | had re- 
 
 ceived, as is stated in the gospel history, previous A 
 
 assurances of protection and -Impunity. When 
 
 they returned at first to their superiors, they are 
 
 ~ said to have alledged miraculous events, which had 
 ov crpowered them, and we can conceive no motive | 
 Bey could have had to propagate a different story | 
 
 Ben, 
 
 al 
 
* 
 
 90 — CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 afterwards, unless they had been bribed ; for. the 
 miraculous account was the only one which could 
 - be sustained as an exculpation. The subsequent 
 story, not only implied collusion, but is in itself in- 
 credible. How could they testify what was done by 
 others, while they were themselves asleep? How™ 
 could the unarmed, unwarlike disciples, in fear at 
 the time of their Gwn lives, be so intrepid as to ap- 
 ‘proach a sepulchre guarded by soldiers ? How un- 
 likely was it that the whole guard should have gone 
 to sleep ? especially after such a remarkable execu- ~ 
 tion, and so much jealousy Had been expressed 
 about the safety of the body? or that the disciples 
 should have been able to remove the seal, and the 
 huge stone, and to carry away the body so silently 
 and quickly, that none of them should have awaked? 
 or that others should not have detected, and even 
 apprehended them, in making the attempt, or at 
 least have come forward afterwards as witnesses to 
 expose their fraud, and give information concerning 
 the concealment of the body? especially as it was 
 full moon at the time, the city full of people on ac- 
 count of the passover, many probably passing the 
 whole night, as Jesus and his disciples had done, in 
 the open air, and -the sepulchre so near the city as 
 to be now inclosed within the walls. * 
 Abandoning this story, therefore, the writer of 
 Toldoth Jeshu has had recourse to one entirely dif- 
 ferent, yet equally incredible. He says, that Jesus 
 was buried where he had been put to death; that 
 about the middle of the night his disciples assem- 
 bled at the place, and sitting on the grave, made 
 lamentation over him ; that Judas, seeing this, took 
 the body and buried it in his garden under a stream 
 
 *¥ Paley’s Evidences, Part JJ, Chap. VIII, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. gl 
 
 of water, having turned the waters another way, 
 till he had buried the body, and then brought them 
 back to the usual channel; that next day the dis- 
 ciples came again. to the first grave, and were re- 
 newing their lamentations, when Judas (attending 
 _on them as this story goes) said, why do ye weep? 
 Uncoyer, and look on the buried man; that baie 
 they had examined and did not find is body, they 
 exclaimed, He ‘is not in the grave, but hath as- 
 -cended into heaven, for he foretold this of himself 
 while yet alive, interpreting as spoken of himself, 
 these words,. for he shall receive me, Selah,’’ 
 
 (Psalm xlix. 15.) ; that the queen (the sovereign 
 
 then reigning in Jerusalem according to this writer) 
 hearing what had happened, ordered the wise men 
 of the Jews into. her presence, adopted the language 
 of the disciples of Jesus, asserted his resurrection, 
 and ordered those who denied it to produce the 
 body within three day s, on pain of death; that, not 
 finding the bedy in the grave, “and being unac- 
 opel with what Judas had done, the wise men 
 of the Jews appointed a fast, and when the time 
 expired, many fled from Jerusalem; that one R 
 Tanchuma, who had thus fled, saw Judas sitting 
 in his garden and taking food, and that on telling 
 him of the fast, and the reason of it, Judas declared 
 what he had done with the body; tbat upon this, 
 Tanchuma informing the wise men, they all as- 
 sembled, drew it along tied to a horse’s tail, and 
 
 casting it before the queen, said, ¢¢ Behold the man 
 of ‘hie you affirmed, that hes had ascended into 
 heaven ;’?- and that she, on secing it, was ashamed, 
 
 ~~ and knew not what to answer, * : 
 We have already made some remarks on the book 
 
 # See Toldoth Jeshu, in Wagenseil’s Tela ignea Satane, 
 
 * 
 
92 » CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 whence this account is taken; but the falsehood 
 of the account itself is sufficiently manifest, from 
 its own contents. Besides various absurd sup- 
 positions on which it proceeds, a single observa- 
 _tion is enough to overthrow it. It is undeniable, 
 that the disciples of Jesus asserted his resurrection, 
 on the very spot where his death happened, and at 
 the very time when it was yet recent ; that they 
 persisted in their assertion, in spite of ‘all contra- 
 diction; and that many gave credit to their 
 testimony. Now, if the body of Jesus had been 
 produced against them, as here pretended, and ~ 
 that publicly in presence of the sovereign of the 
 country, their testimony, could not have gained 
 credit on the spot, and at the time. Nay, if the 
 Jews of that day, had made so much as an attempt 
 to bring forward another dead body, and to pass it 
 as the body of Jesus; the circumstance must have 
 been so remarkabie, and have led to such investiga-_ 
 tions and disputes, as to have been noticed in the 
 earliest writings of both the friends and the adver- 
 saries of christianity. Not a ‘word, however, 
 alluding to such a.circumstance is to be found in 
 the writings of either. The introduction of it 
 _ therefore, into this comparatively modern perform- 
 ance tends only to show, that the author, while 
 - conscious of the absurdity of the ancient pretext, 
 was unequal to the task of fabricating a better one. 
 Opposed to these clumsy forgeries, how striking 
 is the narrative of the christian scriptures! ¢ en 
 the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn towards 
 the first day of the Seale, came Mary Magdalene, 
 and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And 
 behold a great earthquake had happened ;* for an’ 
 
 * Some renders this clause; “behold, a great disturbance had haps 
 pened.” 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. » — 93 
 
 angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, and 
 had come and rolled back the stone from the door, 
 and was sitting upon it. His countenance was like 
 lightning; and his raiment white as snow, And for 
 fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as 
 dead men. And the angel answered and said unto 
 the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek 
 Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for 
 he is risen, as he said: come, see the place where 
 the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples 
 that he is risen from the dead; and belrold, he 
 goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see 
 him, lo, I have told you. . And they departed 
 ‘quickly from the sepulchre, with fear and great 
 joy, and did run to bring his disciples word.’ 
 Matth. xxvill. 1—8. While his enemies were 
 anxiously taking every possible precaution, against 
 the circulation of a report of his resurrection, and 
 thereby prevented the possibility of its being circu- 
 lated unless it had -been true; his disciples had 
 evidently begun to despond. The event came upon 
 them by surprise. They were slow, even toa fault, 
 in’ believing it, “Luke xxiv. 25, 26. Mark xvi. 
 11—14. Thomas would not believe, unless he 
 should see in his Master’s hands the print of the 
 nails, and put his finger into the print of the nails, 
 and thrust his hand into his side, John xx. 24—29. 
 On the mountain of Galilee, Christ appeared first 
 ‘at a distance; the greater part of the company, pre- 
 pared no doubt, by former appearances, the moment 
 they saw him, worshipped, but some, upon this 
 first distant view of his person, doubted; upon 
 which Jesus came up to them, and spake to them. 
 Their doubts were dispelled only by his nearer ap- - 
 proach, and by his entering into conversation with 
 
 & 
 
94 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 them, Matth. xxviii. 16—18. In short as it is 
 impossible to suppose, that the disciples could have 
 asserted the resurrection of their Lord, in the face 
 of such great and manifest danger, unless they had 
 believed i it to be true; so it is equally impossible ta 
 suppose that their belief was erroneous.—It is in 
 vain to charge the disciples with enthusiasm, and 
 tc compare the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus 
 with the numerous stories that are extant of ihe 
 apparitions of dead men, It was not one person, 
 but many, who saw him; they saw him not only 
 separately, but together, not only by night, but by 
 day, not at a. distance but near, not once but 
 several times; they not “ay saw him, but touched 
 him, conversed with him, ate with him, and 
 examined his person to satisfy their doubts.* 
 ae The truth of the disciples’ testimony was con- 
 firmed by the influence, which the fact they testi- 
 fied, had upon them. At the crucifixion of Jesus, 
 they were seattered and dispirited: but the news of 
 the resurrection assembled them, and they were 
 glad when they saw their Lord. Besides occasional 
 interviews, Jesus stood in the midst of them, one 
 first day of the week after another,t opening their 
 understandings that they might understand. the 
 scriptures, explaining his gospel, and their office 
 in preaching it, and announcing his determination 
 _ shortly to send them the promise of the Father, in 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit. By these tokens of 
 his love, and power, they were prepared for wit- 
 nessing his ascent to heaven. Having led them out 
 as far as to Bethany, and lifted up his hands and 
 blessed them, while they beheld, he was taken up, 
 
 a 
 
 * Pzley’s Evidences of Christianity, Part II, chap, VIII, 
 + john XXe 19-26. 
 
ae 
 
 * AND THE PROPUETS. 05 
 
 and a cloud received him out of their sight. And 
 while they locked stedtastly toward heaven, as he 
 went up, behold two men stood by them in white 
 apparel ; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why 
 ~ stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus 
 which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come, in like manner, as ye have seen him go into 
 heaven. ’»Acts i. 9—11. - After this period, instead 
 of being troubled at the personal separation, or re= 
 suming their late custom of assembling secretly 
 with shut doors for fear of the Jews; ‘* they wor- 
 shipped him, and returned to Jerusalem, with great 
 joy: and were continually in the temple, praising 
 and blessing God.” Luke xxiv. 52, 53.- | 
 
 But the influence of the resented of Christ 
 on the minds of those, who bore witness of it, was 
 chiefly seen after they were endowed with power 
 from on high on the ‘day of Pentecost. From that 
 day, they boldly preached the resurrection of Jesus, 
 and remission of sins in his — and God con- 
 firmed their doctrine by the miraculous gifts of the 
 Holy Spirits Nor was it merely by those gifts 
 which continued “only for a time, that the Holy 
 Spirit countenanced the gospel. His gracious 
 “operations on the heart have ever accompanied his 
 word, to cause faith to come by hearing it, 
 ues x. 17. Qn no other principle can she. pro- 
 --pagation of the gospel, or its permanent success in 
 the world, be accounted for. In spite of all op- 
 ‘position it prevails ; and its_effect, wherever be- 
 lieved, in renewing, and sanctifying the character, 
 proves that it has driginatéd with the God of holi+ 
 ness and truth. “© We preach Christ crucified, 
 says Paul, unto the the Jews a stumbling-block, 
 and unto the Greeks, foolishness; but unto them’ 
 
96 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ 
 the power of God, and.the wisdom of God.’ 
 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. | 
 The resurrection of Jesus, then, stands upon the 
 united evidence of the inability of his enemies to 
 produce the body, or to give a credible account of 
 its removal; the uniform testimony, of his disciples, 
 who could not be deceived as to the facty and had 
 every possible motive to decline asserting it, if it 
 had not been true; and the. effects which the 
 knowledge of it produced on the original witnesses, 
 and continues to produce on all who believe through 
 their word. Let us now see how this fact confirms 
 the doctrine, that Jesus is the sacrifice of the new 
 covenant. It proves that his death was permitted 
 of God, net on account of any sin of his own, for 
 in that case, like all sinners, he would have re- 
 mained in the state of the dead. His enemies 
 crucified him, because, as they said, he was 
 worthy to die. But the resurrection contradicted 
 the charge. It was the voice of God saying, he 
 is worthy. to live. As he had been devoted’ to die, 
 so his death was a full satisfaction." *** Him, says ‘ 
 Peter, being delivered by the. determinate coun- 
 sel.and foreknowledge of God,. ye have taken, and 
 by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom 
 ‘God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of 
 death: because it was noi possible that he should 
 be holden of it.’°-—“* Therefore let all the house of 
 Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that 
 “same. Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
 and. Christ.’’ Acts il. 23, 24.36. This doctrine 
 exactly corresponds with the divine predictions con- 
 cerning the Messiah. _ ‘* Yet it pleased the Lord to 
 bruise him, he hath put Aim to grief: when thou 
 
’ . AND THE PROPHETS. 97 
 
 shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall sce 
 his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure 
 of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall 
 see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : 
 By knowledge of him shall my righteous servant 
 justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities, 
 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, 
 and he shall divide the spoil with the strong: be- 
 _ cause he hath poured out his soul unto death: and 
 he was numbered with the transgressors, and he 
 bare the sin of many, and made intercession for 
 the transgressors.” Isa. liii. 10—12, : 
 
 If Jews be disposed to reject the-view, which we 
 have given above of the death of Jesus; we intreat 
 them to consider, that all the sacrifices of the law 
 of Moses, were merely figures of some good thing 
 to come, As the slaying of the paschal lambs 
 from year to year, in commemoration of the re- 
 demption out of Egypt, was not the slaying of the 
 first-born of the Egyptians, or of the original - 
 ‘paschal lambs, the blood of which sprinkled on the 
 lintels and door-posts, was the means by which 
 that redemption was obtained; so the death of the 
 bulls, and goats, and lambs, which were slain in 
 sacrifice, was, not the sacrifice itself, but only a 
 commemoration of the promise that it should be in 
 due time provided, offered and accepted. It was 
 not possible that the blood of beasts should take 
 away sin. But God being pleased to show merey 
 to sinners, in a way consistent with justice, with 
 the honour of his law, with the interests of holi- 
 
 ness, with the good of his creatures, and parti- 
 
 _cularly of the objects of that mercy, laid the 
 
 punishment due to their sin on his only-begotten 
 
 and well-beloved Son; who was able to bear the 
 VOL. II, i K 
 
ee 
 
 98 = CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 ome f a 
 
 dreadful. load, to purchase his people with» his 
 blood, and to make them partakers of ‘the reward 
 which he should receive for his obediente unto 
 death. For man to offer any sacrifice’ without'a _ 
 divine warrant is an abomimation, and of all abomi- - 
 
 ‘ nations, human sacrifices are the most horrible. It 
 
 must be equally sinful in those who slay, and im 
 those, (if any such there have ever been)¢who con- 
 sent to be slain, for this purpose. But God hath 
 life in his own power, and he may do what he will 
 with his own. Hence the Father could righteously 
 demand and restore, while the Son could righte- 
 ously lay down, and take again, his precious life. 
 The Father and the Son are one. This oneness 
 is remarkably illustrated by.the redemption of sin- 
 ners, in which there is amity of counsel, of opéra- 
 tion, ofdelight, andofglorye.ec) ¢fs  .9eteo 
 
 - Again, we intreat Jews to consider that:both the 
 sacrifices and the priesthood of the law of Moses, 
 were manifestly imperfect. . The imperfection of 
 
 the sacrifices was evident from the necessity of con+ 
 
 stantly repeating them. We-speak not here of those 
 trespass-offerings, which were to be presented ‘oi 
 account of particular transgressioas,: and which of 
 course might require to be repeated iy consequence 
 of the repetition of those transgressions. We speak 
 of public and solemn offerings for sin in general; 
 such as those which were appointed ‘onthe great 
 day of atonement. + These. were offered orice every 
 -year, not merely onaccount: of the ‘actual trans— 
 gressions of the preceding years. but on account Of 
 the manner in which God was pleased to give salva- 
 tion from sin, namely, by thesuffering of a sub- 
 stituted victim. Now af this hadi been accom 
 plished by the sacrifice of beasts’ of old, one in 
 
 g 
 
\ 
 
 ee 
 
 _ AND THE PROPHETS, 99. 
 
 stance would have been sufficient, The repetition 
 shewed that the sacrifice of beasts was merely the. 
 commemoration of the promise of what should be 
 perfected by the Seed of the Woman; the Seed of 
 Abraham, the Son: of David, the Messiah, or 
 anointed of the Lord. The imperfection of the 
 priesthood was evident from the death, and succes 
 
 ~ siom of the priests. Being able to death, in com- 
 
 mon with all their brethren of mankind, not one 
 of them could continue in office: What was: 
 wanted for this office at the death of Aaron could 
 be supplied by his son only for a time, and the 
 sane was the case with all his successors. As 
 “there was need, therefore, of a perfect, thatis, of. 
 one Great Atonement, so. was there need ‘of a per. 
 fect, that is of an unchangeable priesthood: in the - 
 person. of one great High Priest. Accordingly, it 
 is declared in the 110th psalm, long after the in- 
 stitution of the priesthood of Aaron, that the Lord. . 
 bath sworn (to him whom David calls his Lord, 
 though ‘he'was to be his son,) and will not re~ 
 pent,: “¢ Thow aré a Priest for ever after the order 
 of Melchizedec,”? verse 4. - This priest after the 
 order of Melchizedec, whom David speaks of in 
 
 the same psalm, as called to sit at the right of God 
 till his enemies shall be made his footstool, is no . 
 other than the: Lord Jesus Christ, who died, but 
 
 \ Pose again, and: ascended to heaven, where he is 
 
 exalted of God to his own right hand, a Princé 
 and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and 
 the forgiveness of their sins.“ For such an High 
 
 Priest became us, (saith an Hebrew -of the He- 
 
 brews) who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated 
 from sinners, and made higher than the heavens : 
 Who needeth not daily, as those high-priests, -to 
 
100 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then 
 
 for the people’s: for this he did once, when he 
 
 offered up himself. For the law maketh men bigh- 
 priests which have infirmity; but the word of the 
 oath which was since the law, (Psalm cx. 4.) maketh 
 the Son, who is consecrated for evermore,”’ Heb. 
 vil. 26—28. : 
 
 , The perfection of the sacrifice and priesthood 
 ef Jesus, as contrasted with the figurative institu- 
 tions of the law of Moses, is stated at large, in 
 the ninth and tenth chapters of-the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, to which we beg the particular attention 
 of Jews. ‘* The priests went always (says the 
 apostle) into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the’ 
 
 service. But into the second went the high priest 
 
 alone once every year, not without blood, which 
 he offered for himself, and for the errors of the 
 péople. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the 
 way into the holiest of all, was not yet made 
 manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet 
 standing: But Christ being come an high: priest 
 of good things to come, by a greater and miore 
 perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that 1s 
 to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood 
 of goats and calves, but by his own blood he en- 
 
 -tered in once into the holy place, having obtained 
 
 eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of 
 bulls, aud of goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
 sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying 
 of the flesh; How much more shall the blood of 
 Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered 
 himself without spot to God,. purge your con- 
 science from dead works to serve the living God ? 
 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new 
 covenant, that his death being accomplished for 
 
 ¢ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ‘TOE: 
 the redemption of the transgressions under the first 
 covenant, they which are called might receive the’ < 
 ‘promise:.of the eternal inheritance. For where as 
 covenant 2s, there is a‘necessity that the death of 
 the appointed sacrifice be brought in. For a co- 
 venant is firmy over dead sacrifices, seeing it never 
 hath force whilst the appointed sacrifice liveth.”—- 
 “* For Christ hath not entered into the holy places 
 made’ with hands, which are the figures of the: 
 true ; but into heayen itself, now to appear in the 
 presence ‘of God for us. Nor was it MECESSATY 
 that he should offer himself often, as the high-» . 
 priest entereth into the holy place, every year with 
 blood of others: (for then must he often have 
 _ suffered since the foundation of the world) but 
 now once in the end of ‘the world, hath he ap- 
 peared’ to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. . 
 And as it is appointed unto men to die once, and . 
 after this the judgement; so Christ also was offered -: 
 once to'bear’the ‘sins of many, and to those who. . 
 look’ for him! he ‘will appear a second time, with- >. 
 out/a sin-offering,' unto salvation;”? Heb. ix. 6—8. . 
 PE ERR RE POO RES oR SHRI, ; 
 
 Finally; we enitreat Jews to consider, thatthe: 
 sacrifices of the law of Moses have for many ages . . 
 been made to ceasé. There js no temple, nor al- 
 tar, at which’ they can now be offered: and the. 
 genealogy of the Aaronical priesthood is buried in 
 oblivion. ‘But for the sacrifice of the new cove- 
 nant, then, their” situation ‘would be» .absolutely 
 hopeless. | Is'it not written, Cursed de Ae ‘that 
 eonfirmeth not ‘all the words of this. Jaw to do 
 them: ahd ab the people shall say Amen,” Deut. 
 ¥XVIP, 96.68 If thou wilf ndt-observe to-do all the 
 words of this law thad,are.written. in this: book, _ 
 
 . Bea my 
 
 \ 
 
102 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful 
 name, THE LORD THY Gop; then the Lord will 
 make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of 
 thy seed, even great plagees, and of long con- 
 tinuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long con- 
 tinuance,’’ Deut. xxviii. 58, 59. Surely then Jews 
 
 are under the curse of their own law; for they can 
 never say that they. have observed ri do all the 
 words of it. They’could not say this of them- 
 
 Selves during, their abode in their own land, and 
 while their temple was standing. Then indeed they 
 had some relief in this matter, because God al- 
 Jowed ofan atonement by sacrifices, in some cases 
 Of failure. They might then hope that, though 
 they had failed in obedience, they might upon their 
 sacrifices be admitted to the divine favour. But 
 they have not that hope now, for they are ** with 
 out a sacrifice,’ Hos. iti. 4.;. and though even 
 under the Jaw they were in some cases not per- 
 mitted a sacrifice, but for the heinousness of their 
 sin were liable to excision, (Ley. xx.) yet their con- 
 dition is now much worse, for they are not allowed 
 sacrifice in any case; and: consequently lie under 
 the curse of their own law; and thus the providence 
 of God, which has excluded them from their own 
 land, and from their temple, seems plainly to direct 
 them to our Messiah, and the meritorious sacrifice 
 of his death. * 
 
 But it is not merely the curse of their own law 
 to which they are exposed. Dreadful as that un- 
 questionably i is, we read of an additional condem- 
 nation for not believing in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. ‘* He that believeth on him, is not 
 condemned: but he that believeth not, is con- 
 
 _ ® Kidder’s Demonstration of the Messias, Part III, Chap. XI. 
 
v AND THE PROPHETS. ~ 103 
 
 demned already, because he hath not believed in 
 the name of ‘the :only begotten Son of God. And 
 this is the condemnation, - ‘that light is come into 
 the world, and men‘ loved davteneak rather than 
 light, because their‘ deeds were evil,?? John iii. 
 18,19. What Moses said, under the law, then, 
 may be said again, under the gospel. ‘ We call 
 
 heaven and earth to record. this day against you, 
 
 that we have set before you life and doith: blessing 
 and cursing : therefore’ choose life, that ‘both you 
 and your seed may live,” Deut. xxx. 19. The be- 
 lief of the glad tidings, that by his death Jesus 
 hath made a full atonement for sin, is life to the 
 soul. “It gives joy and’ hope to. the guilty and the 
 miserable.’ It delivers from’ alb the fear, and ob- 
 stinate enmity of an evil conscience. It brings 
 back the ‘soul’ to God, with wonder, love, and 
 praise, and binds-the sinner by the everlasting tics 
 of gratitude to the service of the God of his salva 
 tion. It supports the believer under all the afflic- 
 tions which he may meet with in this world. - It 
 inspires him with mingled humility dnd confidence 
 in worship. He comes boldly to the throne of 
 grace, that he may obtain mercy, and find grace to 
 help in time of need. He is undismayed by the ap- 
 proach of death, which he knows is to introduce 
 him into the presence of his Saviour, and which he 
 expects to see at last swallowed up in victory. O 
 ye, who are beloved for the Father’s sakes, this is 
 the hope of Israel. Choose ye whom ye will serve. 
 *¢ Far be it from us that we should glory, save in the 
 
 _eross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world 
 
 is crucified unto us, and we unto the workdy) 1 
 Gal, vi. 14, | | 
 
104 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 ‘ Bitsi 
 ¢ 
 
 " SANCTIFIGATION OF THR NEW COVENANT? ; 
 
 a 
 
 ait ee the he of shoe bi okdins of he ld. Seen 
 viant, we are furthered. to, infer, that the making 
 of the new.covenant should-be attended with»a new. 
 sanctification. At Sinai, tbe. Lord directed Moses 
 to sanctify, the people,’ and, to cause them. to wash 
 their clothes.', They then received a holy law, part 
 of which was spoken i in their hearing. by ‘the voice 
 of God, and written by the finger of God on,tables 
 of stone; and the whole recorded by Moses in the 
 holy. scriptures... When. the covenant was, cons - 
 firmed i sacrifice, the, people. were. sprinkled with — 
 blood: From the earliest period; they had.been ac- 
 quainted with. the-distinction of clean and. unclean 
 meats, (Gen. Wile 2. )5» and, they had long ago: re- 
 ceived the ordinance of circumcision, | (Gen. XVI.) 
 When they became unclean, they were commanded 
 to use the ashes ofthe red’ heifer: which: were kept 
 for a’ water-of separation, as a purification’ for sin, 
 (Numb. xix.) With this water of separation, the 
 unclean person was. to be. sprinkled, aftet: which 
 he was to wash his clothes, and bathe himself in 
 water, and tobe clean. All these rites were icon- 
 nected with: the law; ‘by. which was the knowledge 
 of sin, and with sacrifice *by,whieh an aton pes 
 was made for sin, when/it was: known 3 and they, 
 were. ‘all, curmas ahs the: oo of aia holi~ 
 ness. epRee: 9 Ot 35 i : ; 
 ‘Their arial fabio ns! ibidlenie frouhi that 
 frequently repeated principle, by which theycare . 
 enforced, namely, that the character of the people 
 must be conformed to the character of Jehovah . 
 their God. Thus the old distinction of meats is 
 
en. AND THE PROPHETS. 105 
 
 injomed in ‘this'manher. |“ For <I am’ thé? Lord 
 your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, 
 and ye shall-be holy ; for I am holy: neither shall 
 ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping 
 thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the 
 7 ey that bringeth you up‘ out of the land of 
 Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, 
 for Iam holy.”? Ley. xi. 44, 45. See also xix. 2. 
 and xx..7. It is evident also, from the allusions 
 made to those rites, when spiritual holiness is in- 
 joined or promised. ‘Thus, with regard to cireum- 
 cision, it-is said, ** Behold the heaven, and the 
 heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth 
 also, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had 
 a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose! 
 their seed: after them, even you above all people, as 
 it is this day.» Circumcise therefore the fore-skin 
 of your heart, ava be no more. stiff-necked.” 
 Deut. x..14—16. \ Again, ©‘ And the Lerd thy 
 God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of 
 thy seed, to love thes Lord thy God with all thine 
 heart, anid with all thy soul, that thou mayest Wie 
 Deut. xxx. 6. 
 But thefullest proof of we Jpititaal meaning of 
 the rites: of sanctification, wnder the old covenant, 
 4s found in the. allusions made to them in those 
 promises which relate to the new. covenant. Then 
 the writing of the law was to be’a writing on the 
 heart. §* Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
 that I will: make a new covenant with the-house of 
 Israel, and with ‘the house of J udah : not according 
 to the covenant that I made with their fathers in 
 the day that I took them by the hand, to bring 
 them out of the land of Egypt (which my. covenant 
 they brake,:although L.was/an. husband unto them, 
 
— 
 
 106 CONSUMMATION: OF THE ‘LAW 
 
 saith thé: Lord): but this: shadd: le\ihe covenant 
 that I will snake with the -honse of Israel. After’ - 
 those days, saith the Lerd, L will! pwt!imy law ini 
 
 their imward parts, and write it in their hearts; and’ 
 will be their God, and they shall be -my. people. 
 And they shall teach no more eyery man his neigh- 
 bour, and every, man his. brother; saying, Knowye 
 
 the Lord; for. they shall all. know’ me,.from ‘the! 
 
 least of ak unto the greatest of them, ‘saith the 
 Lord; for I will eine, their iniquity, and b wall 
 ren eet their sin, no-morée.” Jer. xxxi, 814-84) 
 In like manner, the remoyal of : aidiceaitaess was not 
 to be, the sprinkling of the water of separation, and’ 
 the washing of the body andthe garments, but.the 
 renewing ‘of, the hearts: ¢¢ ‘Then. will :T sprinkle: 
 clean water bpon yousoand ye shall! bescleam.; :from! 
 all your filthiness, and from all your. idols will I 
 elcanse you. A new heart also will I:give you, 
 and a new spirit will I put within’ yeu} and Iwill 
 take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and T 
 will give you an heart of fleshs./ And I will put my 
 Spicil within: you, and ¢ause, yous to! walkin! my 
 statutes, and ye shall keep my. judgments, and do. 
 them. And ye:shall dwell in the land that I gave 
 “to. your fathers, and’ ye shall be my people, and T 
 will be your Gad. J. will-also save you coon all 
 your uncleannesses.’?, Back. xxxvis 25-29: ° 
 
 The spiritual ; meaning, however, of sbnutwienl 
 rites of sanctification was, not always’ kept in view. 
 There appears to have.been a proneness among the 
 people to: attend to the formof their. religion, while 
 ‘they neglected the spirit ofit; /as if the figures had 
 been’ acaubitituate: for the realities, vather than a re- 
 
 presentation: of them.» The ignorance ‘andthe 
 
 hypocrisy betrayed: by:thisdisposition are. strongly 
 
“- AND THE PROPHETS, ‘107 
 ereproved in thé old covenant scriptures.  « will 
 ‘Teat the flesh of buils, or drink the blood of goats? 
 Offer: unto’God- ‘thanksgiving,’ and pay thy vows 
 ‘utito’ the Mest High.” And call upon me in the 
 ‘day ‘of trouble; 1 will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
 glorify me”. Péalin'T: 13—15. “ Wash ye, make 
 you clean, put away the evil of your doings from 
 before intine eyes, cease to do evil, ‘learn to do well, 
 vseck judgment, relieve. the’ édiremeen: Judge the 
 fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isaiah i, 10, ba. 
 
 A striking'proof that Jesus‘came not to destroy, 
 but to fulfil, the law and the prophets was his con- 
 stantly asserting the spiritual meaning and moral 
 oblivation of the former, and bearing his testimony 
 ; along with the latter, against all inconsistency and 
 Hypocrisy in the service of God. “* Then came to. 
 Jesus, scribes and pharisees’ which wéte of Jeru- 
 salem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the 
 tradition of © the elders? for they wash not their 
 hands when they eat bread. | But he answered and 
 said unto them, Why do you also transeress the 
 comitiandment of God by your tradition’? | Fot 
 God: commanded, ‘saying, Honour father and — 
 mother; und he that curseth’ father or ‘mother, let 
 him’ die the death. But ‘ye ‘say, Whosoever shall 
 say to his father or’ ‘i's mother; Be that a gift, by 
 which thou mightest be profited by me, then he 
 shall not honour hig father or his mother. Thus have 
 ye invade the commandment of God of none effect 
 by your tradition. © Ye: hypocrites, well did’ Isaiah 
 prophesy of you, saying, (chap. ‘xxix. 13.) This 
 people draweth nigh unto me with théir mouths, 
 and honoureth me with their lips ;) but their heart - 
 is far from me. *But invvain they do worship me, 
 teaching S for doctrines the commandments of men.” 
 
Soe oer 
 Ss 
 
 168 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 Matth. xv. 1—9. Again, ‘* Wo unto you, scribes - 
 and pharisees, hypocrites ; for ye pay tithe of mint, 
 and anise, and cummin, and have .omitted the 
 weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and 
 faithfulness: these ought ye to have done, and not 
 to leave the other bays Ye blind guides, which 
 Strain out a enat, and swallow a camel. .Wo unto 
 you,’ scribes and Se ae hypocrites ; for ye make 
 clean the outside of the cup, and-of the platter, but 
 within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou 
 blind pharisee, cleanse first that which is within 
 the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be 
 clean also. Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, 
 hypocrites ; for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
 which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are 
 within full of dead men’s bones, and of all unclean+ 
 ness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous 
 unto IG but within ye are full of hypocrisy and- 
 iniquity.” Matth. xxiii. 23—98. —« 
 The mixture of superstition and- hypocrisy, 
 against which Jesus so boldly testified, is not con- 
 fined to any age, or nation, or class of men, exclu- 
 sively ; but is a result of the corruption of human 
 nature. When God was pleased to give men 
 figurative institutions of purification, they. took 
 occasion, indeed, to display their ignorance and in- 
 gratitude by a very gross perversion of those insti- 
 tutions ; and at last they added numberless_tradi- 
 tions ef mere human authority, the nore com- 
 pletely to strengthen an unreasonable confidence 
 in outward forms. ‘It is a question, which Jews 
 of the present day ought most seriously to consider, 
 whether they have not been betrayed into this un- 
 reasonable confidence, even although many of the 
 most important of their ntes of purification are no 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 109 
 longer practicable. We are far, however, from 
 insinuating, that only Jews require admonition on 
 the subject of that holiness without which no man 
 shall sée the Lord, a eda melas 
 
 Jesus uttered a truth of universal interest, when 
 he replied to Nicodemus, ‘“ Verily, verily, I say 
 unto’ thee, Except a man ‘be! bom again, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God.” John iii. 8. As 
 our birth was our introduction into this world, so 
 that change of mind, which is called in scripturey 
 “Sa new creation,’ is our introduction into’ the 
 kingdom of heaven. We are born at_first, because 
 the Creator endows us’ with life : 
 again when we_ believe the gospel, 
 Redeemer gives us deli 
 
 we are born 
 because the 
 verance from that state of 
 blinded subjection to the tempter, condemnation, 
 depravity, enmity against God, and infatuated defi-- 
 ance, or overwhelming dread of his wrath, which 
 is called, a being “* dead in trespasses and sins.’? 
 The Redeemer gives us deliverance from this awful 
 state, because he purchased his church with his: 
 own blood. “ For God so loved the world, that 
 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 ieveth in him, should not perish, but have ever- 
 dasting life.” John iii. 16. And «© Christ loved 
 the church,-and gave hinself for it; that he micht 
 sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water 
 by the word, that he might present it fo himself a 
 glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any 
 such thing; but that it should be hsty, and without 
 blemish,” Ephes. v, 29-27. Fa Witue’ of the 
 merit of the sacrifice which the Messiah was to 
 offer, his forerunner, John the Baptist, came 
 preaching, and Saying, ‘* Repent ye: for the king. | 
 dom of heaven js at hana,” Matth. iii. 2. This 
 VOL. I; oe Be 
 
L10 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 call, John gave in the spirit, and with the power of 
 Elijah, for many, who were previously “a gener- 
 ation of vipers,’’ manifested on hearing him, a mirar 
 culous change of character. Instead of trusting in 
 ‘themselves,,-as they had formerly done, that thcy 
 were righteous, while’ living in the vilest wicked- 
 ness, they came to John to be baptized of him, 
 confessing their sins, and according to his in- 
 ‘struction, they ‘* brought forth fruits meet for re- 
 pentance.”” While Jesus was on earth, he preached 
 the same doctrine which John ‘had done, and 
 although then in a state of humiliation, he made 
 and baptized more disciples than John,’”” John iv, 3. 
 Tt was not, however, till after his ascension to 
 heaven, that the gospel of Christ was attended 
 with its full effect. In the prospeet of his depar- 
 ture from, his disciples, he said to them, “Bat 
 when the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
 unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of tratb,, 
 which proceedeth from the Father, be shall bear 
 witness of me. And ye also shall bear witness, be- 
 scause ye have been with me from the beginning.’’ 
 John xv. 26, 27. ** Nevertheless, I tell you the 
 truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for 
 sf I go not away, the Comforter will mot come 
 unto you; but if [ depart, I will send: bima unto 
 you. And when he is conte, he will convince the 
 ayorld of ‘sin, and of righteousness, and of judg- 
 ment: of -sin, because they believe not on me ; of 
 righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye 
 ece me no more; of judgment, -because the prince 
 of this world is judged.’’ Jobn xvi. 7—11. 
 
 , Agreeably to this promise, the Holy Spirit wee 
 poured ort upon the disciples on the day of Pente~ 
 cost, so that they begah to speak, ina variety of 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ill 
 tongues, the wonderful works of God. ‘The pro- 
 phecy in Joel 11. 28 —32. began to be accomplished; 
 and the apostle Peter, having, along with his fellow 
 apostles, explained the reason of the death of 
 Jesus, and borne witness of his resurrection, and 
 proved from the 16th and 110th psalms, that it 
 behoved the Messiah thus to suffer, and to enter 
 into his glory; presently many even of those who 
 had been consenting to his death, ‘* were pricked 
 in their hearts, and said unto Peter, and to the 
 rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do % 
 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be bap 
 tized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ; 
 ‘for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto 
 you, and to your children, and to all that are afar 
 off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.’” 
 Then they that gladly received his word were ‘bap- 
 tized: and the same day there were added unto 
 them about three thousand souls.? | See second 
 chapter of Acts. : : 
 
 Ever since, the gospel of Christ has proved ite 
 self to ‘be “ the power of Gad unto salvation, té 
 every oneé that bel: reveth, to the-Jew first, and'also 
 to the “Greek.” ‘Romi i. 16.) Mén’ believe’ the 
 gospel when they hear it, because God, ¥ hast 
 word tus, makes it efectual for convin cing them; 
 by the gracious iffiuence of his Holy Spirit on 
 their hearts. By means of bis Word, the Holy 
 Spirit engages the attention ; enlightens the under.’ - 
 standing ; commends truth to the conscience : 
 pebbles thankiully to embrace at; changes the 
 temper of the soul from enmity to. “reconciliation 
 with God ; answers every rising objection ; ‘excites 
 to ‘holy desires, to holy Jey; to. holy obedience 
 
119 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 “Se saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from the. a. and Christ shail give thee light.” 
 Ephes. v.14. His gracious influence is. perma- 
 nent. It usually, proceeds in a gradual manner, 
 but from he very first, the subject of it is “‘ a new, 
 creature.’?. His, views, his dispositions, and his 
 habits of life, have undergone a complete thange ; 
 and this change will remarkably appear in the cha- 
 _ racter both of his religion, and of his morality. In 
 their natural state, men have very generally some 
 pretensions to both ; and in particular situations, 
 they are often led to carry such pretensions very 
 far indeed, and to be nota little proud of them. 
 But alter passing into a gracious state, the reality 
 forms a striking contrast. to the former appear-. 
 ances; while at the same time, pride and self- 
 confidence are mortified. All trust is exclusively 
 placed.in the merits of the/Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 all glory is ascribed to the God of salvation. . The 
 genuine Saint is distinguished for moderation and 
 uprightness im worldly pursuits, humbleness of 
 mind, a sense of unworthiness and insufficiency, an 
 habitual effort to avoid offence both towards God 
 and towards man, meekness and forgiveness under. 
 injuries, love not only to bis brethren, but to all 
 men, even to enemies also, and such a growing de- 
 sire to be more conformed to the will of God, to be 
 more occupied in his service, and more blest with 
 the enjoyment of his love, as indicates a soul des-: 
 tined and. panting for immortality. | 
 
 Such was the blessed change experienced by mere 
 apostle Paul, when he became an example of the- 
 sanctification of the new covenant. “* For we are 
 the circumcision, says he, who worship God: in 
 the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 113 
 
 confidence in the flesh. Though 1 might also have 
 confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh 
 that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, T 
 more: circumcised the eighth day, af the stock of 
 Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews: as touching the law, a pharisee; con- 
 cerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching 
 the eheouuness which is by the law, at lameless. ’ 
 
 - But tit things were gain to mie, those I counted 
 
 loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all. 
 
 _ things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
 
 > 
 
 of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered 
 the loss of all things, and do count them but. dung, 
 that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not 
 having mine own dietteadeiiees; which is of the 
 law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, - 
 the righteousness which is of God by faith: That , 
 I may know-him, and the power of his resurrec- 
 tion, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being . 
 made conformable unto bis death, if by any means | 
 I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead: | 
 not as though I had already attained, either were . 
 already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may ap- . 
 prehend that for which also [ am apprehended - of , 
 - Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to - 
 have apprehended: but this one thing I do, ea 
 ~ getting those things \ which are behind, and reach-.. 
 ing forth unto those things which are before, I. 
 press toward the mark, for the prize of the high | 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus.”? Phil. iti, 3—14. | 
 
 Although the sanctificationn of the old covenant 
 was chiefly distinguished by ficurative representa- 
 tions, yet the saeuilidation of the new covenant Is” 
 not without emblems of a similar nature. It has 
 
 begrf seer that the doctrines of ‘repentance, of the’ 
 i Ba me 
 
114 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 remission of sins, and of the coming of the king- 
 dom of heaven, as preached by John the Baptist, 
 by Jesus in person, and by his apostles, was accom- 
 panied by the administration of the ordinance of 
 baptism. This ordinance is a figure of the wash- 
 ing away of sin. The rite itself appears frqgm the 
 Scriptures of the new covenant, as well as from 
 other testimonies, to have been previously known 
 among the Jews; for no explanation of it is given 
 in scripture, and when. the Sanhedrim sent some 
 pharisees to question John about the authority by 
 which he baptized, they said not a word about bap- 
 ‘tism itself, that being no strange thing, but of long . 
 use amongst them; only John the Baptist con- 
 nected it with the doctrine of the approach of the 
 Messiah, and the disciples of Jesus administered it 
 in his name as the Messiah now come. There ap- 
 pears to have been three ways in which christian 
 baptism was successively dispensed. First, John 
 the Baptist baptized in the name of the Messiah, 
 or the Christ, as then about to come after hin, al- 
 though he knew not for a while that Jesus was the 
 Messiah. . Secondly, The disciples of Jesus, when 
 baptizing Jews, baptized them in the name of Jesus 
 Christ, Acts ii. 38. because the whole nation ac- 
 knowledged a Messiah, and the great question then 
 agitated was, whether Jesus were the Messiah or 
 not. While many rejected him, those who, through 
 Ahe preaching of the gospel, came to receive and 
 acknowledge him im this character, were baptized _ 
 into his name, in token of the faith which they 
 had embraced. Even Samaritans, being acquainted 
 with the promise of the Messiah, (John iv. 25.) 
 were, when they believed. the gospel, baptized in_ 
 this manner, Acts vill, 166, Thirdly, When the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. - 145 
 
 general commission was given to go into all the: 
 world, and make disciples na all nations, they were’ 
 to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, because they 
 needed to be brought to the knowledge, belief, and 
 confession of the true God, and of the way of sal- 
 vation by the Father’s gift of the Messiah, the 
 work of the Son, which, as the Messiah, he per- 
 formed upon earth, and the consequent influence 
 of the Holy Spirit by means of the gospel. Under 
 all these ways, of dispensing the ordinance, the 
 meaning is the same. It is a figure of washing, 
 
 intended to represent purification from sin, in con~ 
 sequence of the accomplishment of the plan of re- 
 demption, in which the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit, are revealed as the one only living and 
 true God, the God of salvation. It is, therefore, 
 called ‘¢ ‘ the baptism of repentance for the remission 
 ef sins.’? Those who believed the doctrine with 
 which it was connected, ‘ were baptized, confessing, 
 their sins.”?” Mark i. 4,5. ‘* And. now why tar- 
 riest thou ?”? saad Miata to Paul ;. ** arise, and 
 be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the 
 name of the Lord.’’ Acts xxii. 16. That it was 
 not fiterally, but only in a figurative sense, that 
 being baptized was the washing a away of sin, we 
 learn. from 1 Pet. iii. 21. ** The like fi figure where 
 unto (the salvation of those by water who were in 
 the ark during the flood) “ even baptism, doth also 
 now save us, aca the putting away of the filth of 
 ‘the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience to- 
 wards God) by the resurrectién of Jesus Christ.’? 
 In like manner, this ordinance appears to be re- 
 ferred to as a figure of regeneration, or of the reno-. 
 
 vation of the mind by the Holy Spirit.‘ Verily, 
 
 / 
 
116 CONSUMMATION OF FHE LAW 
 
 verily I say unto thee, Except aman be born of 
 WATER and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God,” John ii1.5. ‘* Husbands love 
 your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, 
 
 and gave himself for it: that he might sanctify 
 and cleanse it with the WASHING OF WATER by the 
 word ; that he might present it to himself a glo- 
 rious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any 
 such thing ; but that it should be holy, and with- 
 out ilersiahig *? Ephes. v. 25—-27. ** Not by works 
 of righteousness, which we have done, but accord-" 
 ing to his mercy he saved us by THE WASHING OF 
 REGENERATION, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 
 which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus 
 Christ our Saviour: that being justified by his 
 grace, we should be made heirs according to the 
 hope of eternal life,” Tit. iii. 5-7. As it is by 
 the belief of the sacrifice of Christ, that we are en- 
 couraged to draw near in worship to God ; so it is: 
 by the belief of the purification of the Holy Spirit, 
 of which baptism is the pledge, that we are en- 
 couraged to maintain the profession of our hope 
 among men. “ Having, therefore, Brethren, bold- 
 ness te enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 
 - by a new and living way which he hath consecrated 
 for us through the ‘vail, that is to say, his flesh ; 
 and having an High Priest over the house of God; 
 
 Let us diay near with a true heart, in full as- 
 surance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from. 
 an evil conscience: AND HAVING OUR BODIES 
 WASHED WITH PURE WATER, let us hold fast the 
 profession of the hope without wavering (for he zs 
 faithful that promised,) and let us consider one an- 
 other to provoke unto love, and to good works: Not 
 forsaking the assembling of ourselyes together, as 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ’ DEE 
 
 the manner of some is; but exhorting éo if ; and so 
 much the more, as ye see the day approaching,’’ 
 Hebiixe, 19-2253 
 
 By the consideration of that purity, of which 
 baptism is a figure, we are exhorted to a life of 
 universal holiness. ‘* What shall we say then? 
 shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? 
 God forbid: how shall we that are dead to sin, live 
 any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many 
 of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were bap-. 
 tized into his death? Therefore we are buried with 
 him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was 
 _taised ap from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
 ‘even so we also should walk in newness of Iife,”’ 
 Rom. vi. 1—4.  §* Beware lest any man spoil you 
 through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tra- 
 dition of men, after thesrudiments of the world, 
 and not after Christ: for in him dwelleth all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are com- 
 plete in him, who is the head ‘of all principality 
 and power. In whom also ye are circumcised wath 
 the circumcision made without hands, in putting 
 off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the cir- 
 cumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, 
 wherein also you are risen with Aim through the 
 faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him. 
 from the dead, ” Col. i. 8—12. 
 
 The last of these passages is worthy of particu- 
 Jar attention from Jews. Here we read, as in 
 Deut. xxx. 6. of a circumcision of the heart, which 
 is effected, not like that of the flesh, by the work. 
 of human hands, but by the renewing operation 
 of the Holy Spirit; and which consists, not. in 
 cutting off the foreskin of the flesh, but in what 
 was signified by it, even putting off the body of 
 
18 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 sin, mortifying the dispositions, and renouncing 
 the deeds of the corrupt nature, by virtue of that 
 spiritual circumcision of which Christ ‘is the au- 
 thor. And, instead .of circumcision in the flesh, 
 we have by the institution of Christ the ordinance 
 of baptism, which is of similar signification, and 
 answers. the same ends, because it is a figure of 
 complete deliverance from sin, as the death of 
 Christ was the way in which sin was destroyed, 
 and his continuance for a time in the tomb, a proof 
 of the reality and the deep humiliation of that 
 death: a fivure also of purification for the service 
 and enjoyment of God, asthe resurrection of 
 Christ was the divine she of his justification 
 from all that he had been charged with, and of 
 his acceptance, as the High priest of his people; 
 and as their forerunner arrived to take possession 
 for their behoof of the heavenly inheritance. These 
 blessings are enjoyed through that faith, which i is 
 wrought in the hearts of believers, by the same 
 divine power which-raised Christ from the dead,. 
 and which will raise his people at-the last day. 
 
 Like circumcision too, the ordinance of baptism 
 is dispensed to believers and their families, Acts 
 Xvi. 14,:15. 31-—34.»1 Cor. i. 16. Some of the 
 disciples of Jesus were anciently of opinion that: 
 parents should not trouble their Master by bringing 
 their children to him, but he decidedly opposed 
 their. sentiments on the. subject. ** And they 
 ‘brought young children to him, that he should 
 touch them: and /vs disciples rebuked those that 
 brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was 
 much ‘displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the 
 cag children to come unto-me, &nd forbid them 
 
 : for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 119 
 
 I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the 
 kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not 
 enter therein. And he took them up in-his arms, 
 put his hands upon them, and blessed them,” 
 Mark x. 13—16. In hke manner.some of the 
 disciples of Jesus have, in modern. times, adopted 
 an opinion that baptism in the name of Jesus 
 ought not to be administered to any, who are not 
 at the time capable of making a profession of faith 
 in him. We apprehend, however, that the pas- 
 sages cited above, establish a connection between ‘a 
 helier and his house, with regard to the ordinance 
 
 of baptism, | which belongs to no other ordinance 
 
 mentioned in scripture, except that of circumcision, 
 
 . We apprehend also, that, if the youngest children 
 
 of believers be excluded from baptism, this con- 
 nexion is violated, and the authority of apostolic 
 
 ‘practice, as to ‘baton set aside. If it be thought 
 
 that those families which were baptized with ihe 
 parents, contained no young children, it must still 
 be granted, that we have no notice given us to 
 
 this effect : and that in the case of Lydia, we are 
 told that she alone was converted, and then as a 
 
 matter of course, that she and her household’ weré 
 baptized. Now, if belonging to her family, was 
 
 the reason of their being baptized, it must hold as 
 
 to infants aswell as to others. Even after the bap- 
 tism of the family, the head of it speaks,as the only 
 
 believer; insomuch that it seems, not only w ithout 
 anthority frem the narrative, but absolutely con- 
 
 trary to it, ‘to suppose that ther ‘rest had been con- 
 verted along with her. Ҥ:And*a certain woman 
 
 mamed Lydia, a seller, of purple, of the city of - 
 
 Thyatira, : which’ worshipped God, beard : whosé 
 
 heart the Lard opened, that. sug-attéiided unto the 
 
 % 
 
120 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 ‘things which were spoken of Paul. And when saz 
 WAS BAPTIZED, AND HER HOUSEHOLD, she be- 
 sought ws, saying, If ye have judged mg to be faith- 
 ful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide,’ 
 Acts xvi. 14,15. Hf it be.thought incredible that 
 an ordinance of spiritual signification should be ob- 
 served with regard to children, the objection would 
 have applied to circumcision from its very-first in- 
 stitution, no less than to baptism; for Abraham 
 received circumcision as a seal of the righteousness 
 of faith. . There was a difference between circum- 
 cision as received by Abraham, and as performed 
 on his family. As received by Abraham to be 
 submitted to himself, and to be performed on his 
 family, he'was dealt with as one who would yield 
 the obedience of faith: As performed on his fa- 
 mily, they were (the infants at least) perfectly pas- - 
 sive; but afterwards, when they grew up, and 
 obeyed the command to circumcise their children, 
 (if ihey really did obey it from the heart) they, like 
 Abraham, having profited by his prayers, instrue- 
 tion, and example, or by other means of divine 
 institution, yielded the obedience of faith; and they 
 did so. in the enjoyment of the truth which was 
 signified by circumcision. -In like manner, there 
 is a difference between baptism as received by a be- 
 hever of the gospel, to be submitted to himself, and 
 to be administered to his family. and as received by 
 his family. In the former case, the family (the 
 infants at ie east) are perfectly passive; but after- 
 wards, when they grow up and obey, (if they really 
 do obey from the heart) the divine command to 
 baptize their children, they, like the belicving pa- 
 rent before them, having profited’ by his. prayers, 
 instruction, and example, or haying been converted. 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, _ 193 
 
 by other means, yield the obedience of faith; and 
 they do so in the enjoyment of the truth which is 
 signified by baptism. | After the first observance of 
 circumcision, it was not usually performed on a be- 
 liever and his family at the same time; but, being 
 already performed on the believer, was successively 
 performed on the children as they were born. In 
 like manner, after the first administration of bap- 
 tism on the preaching of the gospel, it has not been 
 usually administered to a believer and his family at 
 the same timé; but, being already administered to 
 the believer, is successively administered to the 
 children as they-are born. If any of those children 
 become despisers of that which their parents havs 
 done for them, let them be cast out as Ishmael 
 was, (Gen. xxi. 9, 10.) from all the privileges of - 
 communion with the church. We plead not for the 
 baptizing of the children-of those who are not be- 
 lievers. But if the baptized children of the be- 
 lieving parent ‘* serve God from their forefathers 
 with pure conscience ;” if they give evidence ss 
 the ** unfeigned faith which dwelt in their par 
 dwelleth in hhien also ;”” (2 Tim-i 3.5.) ae not 
 only enjoy for theiveltes the truth which baptism 
 signifies, but have the privilege of enjoying it in 
 hope as containing a promise also respecting their 
 abilavern In this hope, they are entitled, nay, in 
 duty bound, to have their children haptined § 3 and it 
 is on this occasion, that the believing parent, and 
 other believing worshippers who witness his fa 2ith, 
 and his privilese, enjoy the full measure of comfort 
 which the ordinance of baptism is intended to yicld. 
 Thus much we thought it necessary to say re- 
 specting the subjects of Christian baptism, with 
 the hope of convincing Jews, et in embracing 
 YOL. If. be 
 
 \ 
 
123 — CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 Christianity, neither they, nor their houses shall lose 
 any blessing which they ever possessed. We es- 
 teem it a precious promise, referring to new cove- 
 nant times, illustrated and confirmed by the bap- 
 tism of families, ‘and essential to the propagation and 
 continuance of the gospel in the world: ‘* Their 
 children also shall be as aforetime, and their congre- 
 gation shall be established before me.” Jer. xxx. 20. 
 On one point, connected with this subject, Jews will 
 find no controversy among real Christians; namely,, 
 that circumcision and baptism must be equally 
 useless without the new heart, and the right spirit, 
 which the Lord hath promised to give to all his 
 children. ‘* For he is not a Jew who 1s one out- 
 wardly, ngither is that circumcision which is out- 
 ward in the flesh: but he és a Jew whio is one in- 
 wardly ; and circumcision és that of the heart, in 
 the spirit, azd not in the letter, whose praise 2s not 
 of men, but. of God.” Rom. ii. 28, 29. ** Now 
 the works of the flesh are manifest, which are 
 these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
 ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emula- 
 tions, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, 
 murders, drunkenness, reveilings, and such like: 
 of the which I tell you before, as I have also told 
 you in time past, that they who do such things, 
 shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the 
 fruit of the Spirit 1s love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, goodness, ‘faithfulness, meckness, tem-= 
 pérance : against sich there is no law. And they 
 
 that are Christ’ s, have crucified the flesh, with the 
 affections and lusts.”? Gal. v. 19—24. 
 
 We conclude by beseeching Jews to consider, 
 
 that spiritual purity, and a union ‘of religion and: 
 sound morality, are blessings which have always 
 
 ° 
 o 
 
 » 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. : 198 
 been requisite in the service of God, although 
 peculiarly characteristic of the new covenant. If 
 
 _they impartially examine themselves by the rule of 
 
 the divine law, will they not be conscious, that 
 
 besides innumerable other sins, their very religion 
 
 is greatly corrupted from the original institution 3. 
 
 consists of much unmeaning formality, which was — 
 
 never commanded by God; is little understood 
 even ia things which originally were so com- 
 manded ; and is miserably inefficient in amoral 
 point of view? Has not this been the state of their 
 religion for many ages? Surely God is displeased 
 with such religion. They who are satisfied with it, 
 
 ' must have very unworthy notionsof the divine being. 
 -Can it be surprising if he hath long hid his face 
 
 from them? And is there any ground to expect 
 that their condition will be ameliorated, except by 
 such a renovation of heart and life .as the gospel 
 unfolds? “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision . 
 availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
 
 creature. And as many as walk according to this 
 
 rule, peace le on them, and mercy, ~ upon the 
 — of God.’’ Gal. vi. 15, 16. 
 WORSHIP OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 ior ® 
 Tur making of the covenant at Sinai was ats 
 tended with the appointment of ordinances of divine 
 service. These were in substance the same with 
 the sacred rites of worship from the. beginning, 
 having the same object, the prefiguring of the work 
 of the Messiah; but they received such alterations 
 and additions as suited the changed circumstances - 
 of the church in its growth fom a patriarchal toa . 
 national state, 
 
194 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 The new covenant has also ordinances of divine 
 service. These agree with the former in referring 
 to the work of the Messiah; but they do not pre- 
 figure, they commemorate -that work ;» and. they 
 contain such further alterations as are suited *to the 
 changed circumstances of the church in its growth 
 aR a national to an universal state. 
 
 In the first place, the worship of the new cove-- 
 nant is commemorative. It is all founded in the 
 revelation of these great truths: that the Messiah 
 is come; that on earth he finished the work which 
 his Father gave him to do; that he died for our 
 sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was 
 buried, and that he rose again the third day, ac- 
 chating to the scriptures ; and that he now sitteth 
 at the Tight hand of God, ain! till his ene- 
 mies be made his footstool. 3 
 
 The administration of papteas in ae name of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is, as we have seen, a con- 
 tinual celebration of his character and work. —But 
 tke most directly commemorative ordinance of the 
 new covenant, both on account of its declared ob- 
 ject and its frequent observance, is the Lord’s 
 supper. ** The Lord Jesus, the same night in 
 which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he 
 had given thanks, he brake zt, and said, Take, eat; 
 this is my body, which is broken for you: this do 
 in remembrance of me. After the same manner 
 also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, 
 This. cup is the new covenant in my blood: this 
 do ye, as oft’ as ye drink #f, in remembrance of me. 
 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this— 
 cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” 
 1 Cor. xi. 23—26. In speaking of the sacrifices 
 for sin under the law, we remarked that their con- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 125 
 
 stant repetition was a proof of their imperfection. 
 Such a remark, however, will. not apply to the 
 
 constantly repeated cbservance of the Lord’s supper, 
 
 because this ordinance is not a sacrifice for sin, but 
 a2 commemoration of the great sacrifice, which 
 being perfect, has been offered once only; while 
 
 “the commemoration is:frequent on account of the 
 
 - 
 
 imperfection, and treachery of the human heart, 
 which might forget, and neglect to show to others, 
 the Saviour’s love.’ The observance of this ordi- 
 nance has ever been a most interesting exercise to 
 the disciples of Christ, on account both of the édi- 
 fication and comfort which it is calculated to: yield 
 to themselves, while it “ stirreth them up, by. 
 putting them in remembrance,” and of the in- 
 
 - struction which it is calculated to yield to others, 
 who behold in the symbolical serviee, a standing . 
 evidence of the Saviour’s atonement for-sin. ‘The - 
 
 Lord’s ‘day also appears to ‘have been chosen, with 
 the divine approbation, by the disciples of Christ, 
 as their weekly sabbath, in commemoration of the . 
 resurrection of their Lord from the dead on the | 
 first day of the week. John xx/49. 26.. Acts xx. 7~-. 
 I Cor. xvi. 2 Rev. 1. 10. A continual comme- 
 moration of the merits of the Saviour is maintained ~ 
 by our praying in his namie. John xiv. 13, 14. and 
 xv. 16. and xvi. 93,94. All the praises of the 
 new covenant church are represented as referring to 
 the finished work, the offered and accepted: sacri- 
 fice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We delight, indeed, 
 in singing the psalms ot David, the sweet singer of - 
 Israel; but we sing theni as prophecies, which, 
 
 “2 E . * . - 
 for the most part, have received their accomplish- 
 
 ment. The spirit of christian praise is expressed 
 by John when he says, ** Unto him that loved us, 
 CONS M 2 ; 3 
 
 . 
 
126 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
 and hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
 his Father; to him be ‘slory and dominion for ever. 
 and ever, Amen.”’ Rev. 1.5, 6. It is hardly ne- 
 cessary to remark, that the uel public reading of 
 the scriptures is intended not only for the instruc- 
 tion of the ignorant, but also for the admonition of 
 the instructed, by emnindiing them from time to 
 time of what they already know. The ager 
 of this constant rehearsal of divine truth, and its. 
 gonnection with the mutual exhortation of anerel : 
 praise, are beautifully expressed in these words of 
 Paul: * Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
 richly 1 in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing 
 one another in psalms, and homing and spirited 
 songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the 
 ford. And i ee ye do in word or deed, do 
 all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 
 God, even the Father by him/’ Col. iii. 16, 17. 
 In the-second place, the worship. of the new 
 
 ~ €ovenant ts universally practicable. Under the eld. 
 
 covenant, the Lord separated. a single favoured 
 nation for his worship ; but under the new, he ga- 
 thers his worshippers out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation. The worship in- 
 ‘stituted under each of those covenants was adapted 
 
 to the existing circumstances of the church. In > 
 
 the national state of it, there- was a place which 
 the Lord God of Israel ** chose to cause his name 
 to dwell there,’ Deut, xii. 10, 11. In that place 
 
 alone it then behoved his people to worships "The . 
 
 patriarchs were permitted to build an altar where- 
 
 ever they pitched their tents; but after the chil-. 
 
 dren of Israel inherited the land of Canaan, and 
 
 the ark was brought to Jerusalem, it was a sin to” 
 
 , 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 127 
 
 sacrifice in any place but in that city. From the 
 small extent of the land, it was at that time casy to 
 comply with this restriction, It is obvious, how- 
 ever, that such compliance must be impossible in 
 the event of the conversion of men of all nations 
 to the true God, while they remain dispersed, as 
 they now are, throughout the world. That a con- 
 version of this kind is foretold by the prophets, we 
 trust Jews will not be disposed to deny. The fact, 
 
 and the necessary removal of restriction to an ex- 
 elusive place of worship, are both distinctly’ re- 
 vealed in Mal. i. 11. «¢ For from the rising of the 
 sun even unto the going down of the same, my name 
 shall le great among the Gentiles, and in every 
 place incense shail be offered unto my name, anda 
 pure offering: for my name shall le great. among 
 ‘the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.’? The Lord 
 Jesus replied precisely in the spirit 6f this passage 
 to the woman of Samaria, when. she appealed to: 
 him as a prophet, in the question between the Jews 
 and Samaritans, respecting the proper place of wor- 
 ‘ship. ‘ The woman saith unto him, Sir, [ perceive 
 that thouart a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in 
 this mountain; and yesay, that.in Jerusalem is the 
 place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto 
 her, Woman, believer me, the hour cometh, when ye 
 
 -shall neither in this mountain, mor yet at Jerusalem, 
 worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not 
 what: we know what we worship; for salvation is 
 of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, 
 when. the true worshippers shall worship the Fa-_ 
 ther in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh 
 such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they 
 that worship him, must worship in spirit and inv 
 truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that, 
 
° 
 
 128 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 Messiah cometh who is called Christ: when he is 
 come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto 
 her, I that speak unto thee, am he.’? John iy. 
 1926. In like manner he said to his disciples, 
 ** If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching - 
 any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
 them of my Father which is in heayen. For where 
 _ two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them,” Matth. xviii. 
 19, 20. To the same purpose the apostle Paul 
 says, “* There is one God, and one Mediator be- 
 . tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who 
 gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due 
 time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and 
 an apostle (I speak. the truth in Christ, 1 lie not), 
 a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I wilh. 
 therefore that men pray every where, lifting up _ 
 holy hands, without wrath and disputing.”’#1 Tim. ii. 
 5o—8. . 
 As there is.now no exclusive place of worship, 
 so there are no general meetings where all the wor- . 
 shippers must be personally present. Under the 
 old covenant, it was said, ‘* I’hree times in a year 
 shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God, 
 in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of | 
 unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in 
 the feast of tabernacles.’? Deut. xvi. 16. Such . 
 general meetings could not be held in the enlarged 
 state of the church. Accordingly no such meetings 
 are now commanded. The: only. visible assembly 
 of all the worshippers: of the true God shall be_ 
 made at the day of judgment, and continue for ever . 
 in heaven. At present, the union ‘and fellowship 
 of believers exists in spirit, though they may be 
 absent from one another in body. * For I verily, 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 199° 
 
 says Paul, as absent in body, but present in spitit, 
 have judged already, as hough I were~present,”” 
 
 1 Con v.73... Again, For I would that ye knew 
 what great conflict I have for you, a and for them at 
 Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my 
 face in the flesh. For though | be absent in ane 
 flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying, and. 
 beho!lding your order, and the stedfastness of your 
 faith im Christ.’’?. Col. iil. 5.’ Again, ‘* Unto 
 the church of God which is at Corinth, to them 
 that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to le 
 saints, with all that in every place call upon the 
 name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and 
 ours; grace be urtto you, and peace from God our 
 Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.’? 1 Cor..i. 2, 3 
 Whether present or absent in person, the proper 
 unity of the Catholic church is ‘¢ the unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace,” Ephes. iv. 3. This 
 unity includes not only saints, but angels, the in- 
 habitants of heaven, as well as those which are yet 
 on earth. “ Ye are come unto mount Sion, and 
 unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeru- 
 salem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
 to the general assembly and church of the first- 
 born which are written in heaven, and to God the 
 Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new 
 covenant, and. to the blood of sprinkling, that 
 speaketh better things than /a¢ of Abel.’? Heb. xii. 
 29—924. This spiritual union is indeed to be fol- 
 lowed and perfected by the gathering together at 
 last of all the saints of God. -‘* lf we believe,” says 
 Paul, ‘* that Jesus died, and rose again, even so 
 them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring 
 with him. For this we say unto you. by the word 
 of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain 
 
 ‘ 
 
130 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 until the coming of the Lord, shall not Zo before 
 them which are asleep. For the Lord himself 
 shall descend from bean with a shout, with the 
 voice of the archangel, and with the tramp of God; 
 and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we 
 who are alive and remain, shall be caught up toge- 
 . ther with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
 the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’? 
 1 Thess. iv. 14-817. | 
 All the institutions of the new ‘covenant church 
 may be observed in any place or age of the world. 
 The observance of former institutions d depended on 
 the possession of the genealogies of tribes and fa~ 
 milies, at least those of the tribe of Levi, and fa- 
 mily of Aaron, and on the possession of the land 
 of Cana aan, with the fruits of its’ increase, from 
 which were to be taken offerings to the Lord; of 
 all which the Jews have long been deprived. But 
 believers in Christ united in faith, and love, and » 
 obedience to the commands of their Lord, are the 
 church of Christ wherever they statedly assemble in 
 his name. Whatever they are by natural descent, 
 by education, by condition of life, or by former 
 religious persuasion and moral character; whether 
 Jew, or Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free ; 
 they come together, along with their families, as 
 «now no more strangers ane foreigners, but fellow 
 eitizens with the saints, and of the household of 
 God; and are built upon the foundation of the 
 apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
 the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building 
 fitly framed. together, groweth untae an_ holy 
 temple in the Lord, in whom they also are builded 
 together for an habitation of God through the 
 Spirit.” Ephes. 11. 19-22. They come ‘aeathas 
 that they may engage in the delightful exer- 
 
 t 
 4 
 
a 
 
 4 AND THE’ PROPHETS. . 131 
 
 vises of a spiritual worship; that they may be 
 edified by pastors and teachers ; that, like the saints 
 of old, they may ‘* continue. stedfastly in the 
 ‘apostle’s doctrine and ih hats) d and in breaking — 
 of bread, and in prayers,” Acts il. 42. The 
 elements of their communion are of easy pre- 
 paration, and little expense.—The management of 
 temporal things is committed to the deacons, . 
 whose office, was appointed, that the labourers in 
 word and doctrine might devote themselves more 
 completely to a spiritual service.—The brethren 
 submit themselves one to another in the fear of the 
 Lord. They consent to sound doctrine, and to 
 wholesome discipline, according to the rule of the 
 word of Christ, as occasion may require. They 
 are called to do all things to niutual edification ; to. 
 bring up their children in the nurture and daioni 
 tion of the Lord; and to keep in view the con- 
 version of the strangers who may meet with them ; 
 that they thay, each in bis own order, be welcnutied 
 as a good and faithful servant into the joy of his — 
 
 - Lord; that the gospel may be transmitted from age 
 
 to age, and be-propagated to the most distant parts 
 of the earth, . 
 
 In the third place, the worship of the new gove- 
 nant is final. By calling it final, we mean, that 
 it is not a temporary, but a permanent institution: 
 We have already Gltavoured to show that although 
 certain precepts in the writings of Moses are called 
 © statutes for ever,’’ their perpetuity can: only be 
 of equal duration with the covenant to which they 
 belong. * Now, the prophecy concerning a new 
 covenant proves, by the very name, that the coves - 
 nant then existing, was to be superseded. Bat 
 
 * Sce Covtnant with Israel, at Sinai, Page 205, 
 
 % 
 
132 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 -now’’ says Paul, ‘¢ hath he, (that is Christ) obtamned 
 a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is 
 the mediator of a better covenant, which was estab- 
 lished upon better promises. For if that first 
 covenant had> been faultless, then. should no place 
 ‘have been sought for the second. For finding 
 fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come 
 (saith the Lord) when I will make a new covenant 
 with the house of Israel, and with the house of 
 Judah,’’ &c.—** In that he saith, a new covenant, 
 he hath made the first old. Now. that ik 
 decayet! h and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away.’? 
 Heb, viii.6—13.  Agreeably t6 this argument, the 
 prophets often speak of the new, as emphatically 
 the everlasting covenant.  ** Incline your_ear, and 
 come unto-me: hear, and your soul shall live, and. 
 I will make an everlasting covenat with you, even: 
 the sure mercies of David.” , Isaiah lv. 3. * And 
 -I will’ make an everlasting covenant with them, 
 that I will not turn away from them, to do them 
 eood; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that 
 they shall not depart. from me,’? Jer. xxxii. 40. 
 That the term everlasting applies in the most 
 
 enlarged sense to the new covenant appears from 
 that parabolic description of his kingdom in which 
 Jesus represents himself as ‘about to return to: 
 judgment, at the end of the world, after he shall 
 have received his kingdom, and as charging his 
 disciples in the-mean time to obey him, in the 
 expectation of being at last called to an account. 
 ‘* A certain nobleman went into a far country to 
 receive for himself a kmgdom and to return. And 
 he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten - 
 pounds, and said unto them, oceupy till I come.” 
 ‘Luke xix. 12,13. The same truth appears also 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 133 
 
 from our Lord’s command to propagate the gospel 
 every where, and in every succeeding ages. iff Jesus, 
 came and spake unto them, saying, All power is 
 given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye 
 therefore and make disciples of all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Seas and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to 
 abserve all things, whatsoever I have commanded 
 you: and Jo, I am with you alway even unto tha 
 end of the world. Amen.’ Matth. xxviil. 19, 20. 
 It is evident also from the permanence of ea 
 ordinance of the Lord’s supper. ‘* As often as ¥ 
 eat this bread, and drink this cup, show ye the 
 Lord’s death till he come.” 1 Cor. xi. 26. As in 
 the scriptures of the old covenant, the days of the 
 Messiah are called * the latter,” and ‘ the Jast 
 days,” Isaiah ii,2. Hos. iii. 5... Mic.iv.1.; so in 
 the scriptures of the new covenant, christians are 
 said to be persons, ‘* upon appr the ends of the 
 world are come.” 1 Cor.x.11.° The present, is 
 called © the. dispensation of the fulness of times," 
 Ephes. i. 10.—The reason why the worship of the 
 new covenant is final, is because the work of Christ 
 iu saving his people from their sins is final. ¢* For 
 by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that 
 are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a 
 witness to us,” in the very terms in which the new 
 covenant is announced in ancient prophecy ; ‘ for 
 after having said before, ° This is the covenant which 
 I will, make with them after those days, saith the 
 Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in 
 their cauids will I write them, he then saith, and 
 ‘their sins and AIniquities I will remember no more,’ — 
 Now where remission of these is, there is no more 
 
 offering for. sin.” Heb. x. 14—18,. While the 
 VOL, II. 4 WN. 
 
134 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 final nature_of christian institutions, arising as it” 
 does from the perfection of the work of Christ, is 
 an encouragement to christians in their approaches 
 io God, it affords matter of solemn warning to’ 
 those who hear the gospel, to beware of rejecting 
 it, For if we sin wilfully after that we have 
 received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer 
 remaineth a sactiGedter sins. Buta certain fearful: 
 looking for of judgment, and: fiery indignation, 
 which shall devour’ the: adversaries. He that 
 despised Moses’ Jaw died without merey, under. 
 two or three witnesses: of how much. sorer 
 punishment, suppose ye, shall he. be thought 
 worthy, who hath tredden under foot ‘the Son of 
 God, ‘and hath counted the blood of the covenant: 
 wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and" 
 hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For: 
 we know him who hath said, Vengeance belonseth 
 unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord,» “Abid? 
 again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a 
 fearful thing to fall into the hands a the living 
 God.” Heb. x. 26-—31. | 
 
 One of the most remarkable didinarieusy eon=" 
 nected with the worship of the new covenant, is 
 the preaching of the gospel, . The law and the 
 prophets were’ until John: sinee that time the 
 kingdom of bike is preached, and every’ man 
 Jpuetceth into ite? Luke xvi. 16. -Our Lérd’ and” 
 his disciples followed up the ministry of the Baptist, 
 
 by preaching, as he did, that the kingdom: of 
 heaven was at hand. When Jesus was’ ‘about’ to 
 ascend up or high, he said“unto his disciples, ** go 
 ye into ail the “world, aud preach the gespel to 
 every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, 
 shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 185 
 
 condemned.” Mark xvi.15,16. When the day 
 of Pentecost had come, the gospel began to be 
 ‘preached, by the apostles, and other primitive 
 disciples, with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
 heaven,” The effects manifested the power of God. 
 Although some mocked, and others were filled 
 -with indignation, thousands, and some of them 
 remarkable for their hostility at first, became 
 obedient to the faith. ‘* Now thanks le unto Gad, 
 says Paul, who always causeth us to triumph m 
 Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his 
 knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto 
 God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are 
 saved, and in them that perish. To the one we 
 are the savour of death unto death; and to the 
 other, the savour of life unto life; and who is 
 sufficient for these things? For we are not as 
 many, who corrupt the word of God: but as of 
 sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak 
 swe m, Christ.” 2 Cor.ii.14—17. The apostle’s | 
 charge. to. antaen was, ** preach the word, be 
 instanty, season, out of season;  reprove, 
 rebuke, ai with all long suffering and doctrine.” 
 2,'Tim. ivi2a; . He racked RS honour to be 
 paid. to he elders who ruled well, especially ta 
 those *, who, Jaboured in the word ae doctrine.” 
 1 Tim.v.17... Whether, therefore, we contemplate 
 the original propagation of the gospelgathe labours 
 ot: missionari€s.im any age, or the stated duties of a 
 - particular al alt ieee the preaching of the 
 everlasting gospel holds a most distinguished place, 
 The success of inspired, men was not owing exclu- 
 sively to their gifts, but to the divine blessing on 
 the, tn. which. they. foubtally preached ; and 
 
136 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 wherever the gospel is preached with fidelity, there 
 the blessing of God may be humbly ex pected. 
 
 The simplicity of this ordinance is a strong proof 
 of its excellence. In the first instance, it implies 
 nothing more than a publication of the good news 
 of salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. The 
 preacher proclaims, what the apostles were sent, -as 
 ambassadors for Christ, to deliver as his message to 
 a guilty, and rebellions world, in order to persuade 
 them to be reconciled to God. This ministry of 
 reconciliation may be executed in a few plain words, 
 See 2 Cor.v.18—-21. Preaching is, however, a 
 comprehensive employment. It includes, not 
 “merely that primary information which, by the 
 divine blessing, may lead to the obedience of faith ; 
 but all the subsequent labours of exhortation ar 
 teaching, which may be needed for keeping chris- 
 tians stedfast in the faith; quickening them in duty 5 
 encouraging them under trials ; and causing them 
 to grow in knowledge and grace, till they arrive at 
 that state of perfection, in which. we shall see 
 face to face, and know even as weare known. 
 
 The mere public reading of the scriptures may be 
 considered as a preaching of the gospel. Thus 
 “© Moses of old time hath in every city them that 
 preach him, being read in the synagogues every 
 sabbath day,” Acts xv. 21. But we certainly 
 follow apostolic example, when, after declaring 
 what is recorded in scripture, * with many other 
 words we testify and exhort,’’ Acts 11.40. The 
 gospel was preached much more rapidly than it 
 was possible to multiply copies of the holy scrip- 
 tures. Heathens appear to have been told of the 
 true God, of Jesus, and'the resurrection, before any 
 part of the Bible was read to them, Churches were 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 137: 
 gathered and edified by preaching. before the holy 
 
 scriptures were completed or collected for their use. 
 Churches areé still gathered and edified in heathen 
 countries, by missionaries who have learned to 
 preach in the languages of the people, before they 
 have had time to transhere the scriptures into those 
 languages. For a long period, it must have been. 
 as expensive to procure a copy of the Bible, as it 
 now is to build a place of meeting for worship. To _ 
 such circumstances, we can conceive preachers, as 
 well as hearers, who had not a Bible. Ewen since 
 the art of printing, and the zeal of Christians have 
 combined to duke the scriptures the plentiest and 
 cheapest book in the world, how many can hear the 
 ‘gospel preached who cannot read! We trust learn- 
 ing will continue to increase, as it always has done, - 
 in proportion to the extent of the diffusion of the 
 gospel; yet we cannot hope, that at any period, 
 the readers will be as numerous as the hearers of 
 the gospel, because there may be an universal! pro- 
 | pagation of the gospel where there is not an unt- 
 versal progress jin civilization. To those also who 
 -have the Bible, ‘and «can read it, haw useful is the 
 ordinance of preaching in exciting their attention 
 -to it at first, ‘and maintaining that attefftion after- 
 wards! “¢ Faith cometh by bearing the word of 
 God.’? Rom. x. 17. Preaching may be despised as 
 foolishness; but “ after that, in the wisdom of 
 “God, the re orld by wisdom knew not God, it 
 ‘pleased ‘God by the foolishness of preaching to 
 save themAhat believe,’’ 1 Cor. i. 20. 
 
 Jews have peculiar advantages t heating the 
 gospel. ‘To them have been chartinied the Hive 
 oracles of the old covenant, which they may com~. 
 pare with those of the new, and with all that is. 
 
 NQ 
 
138 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 offered to their consideration’ by Christians, on’ the 
 authority of either. We would intreat them -to 
 imitate the Jews of the synagogue of Berea, who 
 are.said to have ‘ received the word with all readi- 
 ness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, 
 whether hose) things were so,”? Acts xvii. 11. Let 
 all that they hear be brought to the test of the holy 
 scriptures, the only infallible rule of faith; and 
 may the Lord give them understanding in all 
 things. We acknowledge, (and we would do it 
 with sorrow and deep humiliation) that we cannot 
 recommend to Jews, or to any description of men, 
 all that is offered to the'world under the name of 
 Christian doctrine, and Christian churches. We 
 must still say, as the apostle John did at an early 
 period, ** Little children, it is the last time: and as 
 ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now 
 are there many antichrists; whereby we know that 
 it is the last time.’”? 1 John ii. 18. We have men- 
 -tioned what we believe to be the leading doctrines 
 of the gospel, and the divine institutions. of 
 Christian worship; but we wish not that even 
 truth should be taken on the word of man. Be- 
 sides the numerous denominations of Christians, 
 among Whom a choice is to be made, we are per- 
 suaded that Christianity. may be corrupted under 
 every denomination. Wherever human authority 
 obtrudes itself among the laws of Christ; whe- 
 ther it be exercised by a pretended vicegerent 
 upon earth, or by the less perceptible, but 
 equally pernicious artifice, ambition, bigotry, 
 covetousness, and tyranny of any individual or 
 number of individuals, however much they may 
 ; ditavow the authority which they have usurped, 
 and although they- seed “ it by tne very 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ; 139 
 
 tenure of professing to abhor its existence; there 
 
 ‘the church of Christ is tainted with corruption. 
 But let not Jews draw from this admission, an ob- 
 
 jection to Christianity. There have long been sects 
 among themselves. Would they, on that account, 
 abandon the law and the prophets? Neither let 
 converted Jews despair of knowing their Lord’s 
 will as to any part of their duty. ‘*If any of you 
 lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to 
 all men hberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall 
 be given him.’ Jam... 5. © My sheep, saith 
 Jesus, hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
 follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and 
 
 _they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck 
 
 them out of my hand.’ John x. 27, 28. The im- 
 
 “mediate object in preaching the gospel is to lead 
 
 men to trust in Christ for salvation from their sins ; 
 when this object is attained, they are under the 
 care of a faithful and an infallible guide; and they 
 will feel themselves-constrained by his love, to sub-\ 
 mit to his authority. If Jews will only believe in 
 
 -the Lord Jesus Christ, and search the scriptures, 
 
 as containmg at once: the rule, and the authentic 
 example for their procedure, in the observance of 
 
 his ordinances, we have not a wish to behold them 
 
 in a more promising situation. ‘* Brethren, chil- 
 dren of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever 
 among you feareth God, to you is the word of this 
 salvation sent. For they that dwelt-at Jerusalem, 
 and their rulers, because they knew not Jesus the 
 
 Saviour, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which 
 
 are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them 
 in condemning him. And though they found no 
 cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that 
 
 he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled 
 
140 CONSUM MATION OF THE LAW 
 
 all that: was written of jim, they took him-down 
 ‘from the) tree, and laid Aim ina aepulchre. Bet 
 ~God raised him. froim the dead: and. he was seen 
 many days of them ‘which came up with him from 
 Galilee to Jerusalem, who. are. his witnesses unto 
 the people. And w el de clare unto you ¢lad tidings, 
 how that. the promise which was made unto the 
 fathers, God hath fulfilled the same untovus their 
 children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again. 
 Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that 
 through this man‘is preached unto you the forgive- 
 ness of sins : and by him all that believe are jus- 
 tified from all things, from which ye could not be 
 justified by the law “of Moses. Beware, therefore, 
 lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the 
 prophets, Behold, ye. despisers, and? wonder, and 
 - perish, for I work a work: in your: days; a work 
 which you shall in no wise believe, though a man 
 declare it unto you,””. Acts xiii, 26—41. " 
 Another remarkable ordinance connected with 
 the worship of the new covenant, ts the offering of 
 worship,-to the divine Saviour. That’ this.is ac- 
 cording to the scriptures: of the. old covenant, is 
 proved by several quotations from them in the first 
 chapter of the Epistle to:the Hebrews, particularly 
 the passage from Psalmoxlv. 6,.7. which is thus 
 introduced, §* But unto. the Son: he saith, Thy 
 -throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of 
 righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom 3 ; thou 
 tcc loved righteousness, and yaleds iniquity; there- 
 fore God, even thy God, bath anointed thee with the 
 oil of piintes above thy fellows.’? It seems impos- 
 sible, as was before observed, to understand this pas- 
 sage, without admitting the union of the divine and 
 human natures, of underived, unchangeable, eternal 
 
AND THE PROPHETS, 14] 
 
 glory, with a manifestation in the flesh; and’a 
 transition from a state of humiliation to a state of 
 
 exaltation, in the person of the Messiah. Jesus 
 
 — 
 
 accordingly deelared while yet on earth; ‘* The 
 
 Father judgeth no man, but hath> committed all 
 ‘jJudment unto the Son; that all men should honour 
 ‘the’ Son even as they honour the Father. He 
 
 that honoureth nat the Son, honoureth not the 
 
 ' Father, who hath sent him.” John v: 22, 28. This 
 united worship of the Father and the Son is no 
 approach to idolatry. .‘* We know that an idol zs 
 
 nothing in the world, and that-¢here is none other 
 God but one. For though there be that are called 
 
 - gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be 
 gods many, and Jords‘many). But tous there is but 
 
 one God, the Father, of whom ave all things, and we 
 in him; and one ‘Gord: Jesus Christ, by whom are all 
 
 things, and we by him.’? 1Cor, vili.4—6. “ Being 
 
 in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be 
 
 equal with God, but made himsclf of no reputation, 
 
 and°took upon him the form of a servant, and was 
 made in the likeness’of men. and being found in 
 fashion as aman, he humbled himself, and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
 Wherefore God also hath. highly exalted him, and 
 
 given him a name which is above every name: that 
 
 -at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
 
 things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
 under the earth; and that every tongue should 
 confess that Jesus Christ 7s Lord, to the glory of 
 God the Father.”? Phil. 1. 6—11. This truth is 
 confessed by the Christian church in her worship, 
 
 especially in those hymns of praise which she has 
 
 ever been in the‘habit of: singing to Christ as God. 
 
 Jt shall be confessed by all men in the day of judg- 
 
 “ment. “Forwe shall all'stand before the judgarent- 
 
142 CONSUMMATICNIOF THE LAW 
 
 oseat.of Christ.) iFariitcis writtens(in Isaiah xlv. 28.) 
 “As Vlivessaithisthe Lordy every hue shall howto 
 me, and every. tongne;shall confess ,:to,; Gods’ 
 Rom. xWeidOjohto oA nig¢ls are united with ongen 
 in the worsbip-of the, Saviour... For‘* the God pf 
 our Lord Jesus, Christ, abe. Father or glorymastt 
 him at his own: Tight band im the heavenly places. 
 Far:above all principality,, and; power, and-might, 
 -and dominion, and every :name-thatas ARR ie not 
 only in this. world, but alsolim that which. is, to 
 come; and hath. put all things.umder his. feet.’ 
 Ephes. 11. ¢<0—22.. Hence, the apostle’s applica- 
 tion.of, Psalm. xcvii. 7. in Heb, ic6, ** And again, 
 when he bringeth inthe first begotten . Into, the 
 ~world, he bane And slet-all,-the angels; wf! God 
 worship him,’ Hence ‘also, the! universal. worship 
 of the Lamb, in the vision .of the apostle, John. 
 «¢ And when he had taken the book, the four living 
 creatures, and four and twenty elders, fell dowh oe 
 fore the Lamb, having everyone of them: harps, 
 and golden. vials fullof -odoprss; aw hich are’, the 
 prayers of saimt$1And they sung anew song, say- 
 ing, Thou art worthy, to take the book, and to epen 
 the seals: thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast re- 
 deemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kin- 
 dred, and tongue, and neople, and nation; and bast 
 made us unto our God kings and priests: and we 
 shall reign. on the earth. And I bebeld, and Lheard 
 ithe voice of. many, angels round oar the throne, 
 and the living creatures, and the elders: and.the 
 “number of chen was ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand,’ and, thousands of thousands ; saying with a 
 loud voice, Worthy is, the Lamb that was'slain, to 
 receive power, } and. tiches, and. -wisdom, © and 
 _ strength, and: honour: and glory, and blessing. 
 And every creature which is jn heayen, and on the 
 
“) ANDIoTOR PROPHETS! <<" 143) 
 
 earth, and onder the: earth, and such as are in the 
 
 sea, andvalh whats! are wt ‘thentgvbtard'dy saying, 
 
 Blessing; andshonoury and glorypand power be-unto 
 hime thatesitreth a he throne, sand unto the 
 Lamb: forrevercandvevers, -Aad the four: living 
 creatures’ said Amen: Ati’ the four and twenty 
 elders fell sige are worshipped: bit that liveth for 
 ever ‘andvevery??.'s Revy v. 8—<14u Be 
 We have how seen, thati¢be: oes p of the new 
 covenant! is!icomimemotative! Jn this respect it 
 contains internal evidence of the: truth of the facts’ 
 which it;commemaérates: The origin of the passover 
 would be unaccountable, amless the slaying of the 
 first-born of the! Revptiansandehe passing ovcr of 
 the first bornvof. the ichildrerrook Israel, where the 
 blood of thé Lanrb: was sprinkled, were admitted as 
 
 ‘events which really! bayypenedy Im like manner, the 
 
 observance of the Lord’s supper, and indeed of all 
 acts. of workhi» in -thesname of Jesus, must be’ 
 unaccountable;unless itobevallowed, that, at his 
 death, Christ cour !passower was sacrificed for us ; 
 that he gave this “disciples: such evidence of his 
 resurrection, and power to give them: eternal life, 
 as changed /their whole: character, changed even 
 their religions worship, sandathat at the manifest 
 hazard, aad if ia Ot eases the eventual loss of 
 their eee ot bie Litas ¢ tadgcroteuucieu 
 
 Aga’, we eee geen) bie thé worship: a the 
 new covenant is- universally’ practicable.. Such.a 
 worship must be admiteéd, if the prophecies re= 
 specting the universal acknowledgment of the true 
 God, under yrthe -reign of . the, Messiah; -are to 
 receive an accomplishment.» These prophecies are 
 contained in thelJewish:scriptures, and surely Jews 
 will find it impossiblesto reconcile them with the 
 
 \ é 
 
 ¥ 
 
 ™ 
 
144 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 continuance of institutions which are evidently: 
 of a national, a local, and an exclusive nature. 
 
 | We have also seen that the worship of the new: 
 covenant is final. While ‘the predicted calling of 
 the Gentiles implies, as we have just remarked, the 
 remova! of the old Jewish institutions of vata 
 no prophetic intimation implies any such removal 
 of christian institutions. They are all to be observed: 
 alway, even to the end ‘of the world. Hitherto the 
 observance of them has -continucd without. inter-; 
 ruption, in spite of all the efforts of, persecution,. 
 and all the changes to which both the church and 
 the world have belt exposed, What a contrast does 
 this fact establish ‘between the christian. worship. 
 which. stilt. flourishes; and! the ; Jewish. worship,’ 
 which, in its most important:parts, has, for many’ 
 hundred years, been made absolutely to cease! This. 
 contrast 1s still more remarkable, when we consider 
 the coincidence between the origin oft: the one, and 
 the cessation of the other : The ‘temple worship. 
 was never interrupted for asingle:centary, till the. 
 christian worship had-arisen. But ‘the rise of the: 
 latter was im avery few years; followed. by: the: 
 removal of the former; and the many’ centuries, 
 which have since passed away, confirm: the belief, 
 that this removal has been, not; a: partial and. 
 temporary suspension, but a total and final abolition. 
 The coincidence between theorise of ‘the Christian, 
 and the fall of the Jewish worship, holds, not: 
 merely in-potnt of time,! but:also in point of con- 
 nexion and tendency. The Christian faith implied 
 the crisis of the Jewish» dispensation.. This. was 
 felt by many of the Jews at the time, who, on that 
 very account, resisted “Christiaity.’ They were: 
 alarmed /for their: place and':their, nation; and. 
 
-) AND THE PROPHETS. °* i450 
 
 preferred the rites of Moses, and the traditions of 
 the elders, to the authority of Jesus and his apostles: 
 On the other hand, ‘the disciples renounced the 
 world, denied themselves, and took up the CrOSS, 
 as their Lord had dotie, for the sake of the kingdom 
 of heaven. They. went every where preaching the 
 word, and teaching: those who believed, #to observe 
 the institutions of Jesus Christ. A conflict ensued 
 between the Jews who denied; and those who 
 maintained ‘the truth of the Gospel, and the autho- 
 rity and sufficiency of Christian institutions. The 
 event shows which side of the question it’ pleased - 
 God to crown with suceéss. The principles of 
 Judaism were shaken before the dispersion of the 
 Jewish people; and while’ Providence ‘has ‘blessed 
 the preaching of the Gospel for the extensive propa- 
 gation of Christianity, it has never permitted Jews 
 to. regain the means of performing that worship to 
 which they have adhéred. See Dam: ix. By " 
 | We conclude by observing, that’ the subject of 
 this section cannot be made fully known “by 
 description. To understand the’ nature of: our 
 
 _ worship, it is necessary to attend it, “In. attending’ - 
 
 it, men have the proper means of judging for them- 
 selves 5 and, by the blessing of God, may léarn by 
 experience the excellence of evangelical institutions, 
 Attendance on christian worship does not neces- 
 sarily interfere with the service’ of the synagogue. 
 The question may, therefore, be examined by Jews, 
 with every advantage,’ while nothing is abandoned 
 
 _which’ may be reckoned a duty. However much 
 
 Jews may have hitherto kept aloof, they will find 
 
 _*particular attention» awaiting them among the 
 
 oF 
 
 ig disciples of Christ. It has ever been admitted by 
 © Chitistions, thatthe gospel publighes salvation is 
 
 VOL, Ii. na + as 
 , ps, 
 
=~ = 
 
 146 €ONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 the Jew first; and although nominal Christians - 
 have long and greatly neglected, and even persecuted 
 the posterity of God’s ancient people, in which 
 they have been too much followed by real Chris- 
 tians; they, at least the latter, seem now more 
 sensible than formerly of the conduct which they 
 ought to pursue towards them. Hence the places 
 of ‘worship which have been opened, with a special 
 view to their accommodation, and the discourses to 
 which their attention is particularly requested. It 
 is not, we trust, in vain that Providence hath, in 
 these times, directed us to use such means. for the 
 conversion of Israel. . The rejection of the gospel 
 by Jews in primitive times of christianity, led to 
 the more immediate and extensive calling of the 
 Gentiles to the faith of Christ. But when God 
 shall awaken his ancient people to embrace the 
 _gospel (which we firmly believe he will doin. his | 
 own time), it will tend; in a still greater degree, to 
 the triumph cf his cause throughout all the wor Id. 
 “¢ Now if the fall of them be the riches of the 
 world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the 
 Gentiles: how much more their fulness? For if the 
 Seasting away of them be the reconciling of the 
 ce what shall the receiving of them te, but life 
 from the dead ??’ Rem. xi. 12. 15. _While we use 
 means for so desirable an object, and use them in 
 ~ hope, we desire to remember our entire dependence 
 for success on the sovercign graceof God. We 
 would also contemplate with adoring reverence, the 
 various displays of his manifold wisdom in his dis~ 
 pensations towards his people in every age. ** O 
 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
 knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his 
 judgments, and lis ways past finding out! For — 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 147 
 
 who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who 
 hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given 
 to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again ? 
 For of him, and through him, and to him are all 
 things: to whom le glory for ever. Amen.” 
 
 Rom. xi. 33-36. 
 
 / 
 
 INHERITANCE OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 THE covenant at Sinai confirmed to the nation. 
 of Israel, the grant which had been made to Abra- 
 ham’s seed, of the land of Canaan. When that: 
 covenant was solemnized, the Israelites were ac- 
 tually on their way to Canaan to take possession of 
 jt as an inheritance. It was a_land flowing with 
 milk and honey ; ; a pleasant land, but not.a para-- 
 dise. Even in that land, and in the highest pros- 
 perity and glory, Solomon experienced that ¢¢ all. 
 was yanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit,” 
 Eccles. i. 2. 14. Accordingly, we have already. 
 seen that the promise of Canaan was regarded by 
 Abraham, by David, by Isaiah, and by all the spi- 
 ritual worshippers of Israel, as a figure of spiritual 
 blessings, and of better things to come. * In fact, 
 ‘* the portion of Jacob is the former of all things,’’ 
 Jer. x: 16. The enjoyment of the divine favour, 
 independently of the circumstances of place and 
 time, is the only satisfying state of man. ‘* Whom . 
 Have I,”? saith the psalmist, ‘* in “heaven but. 
 thee ? ae there is none upon earth that 1 de- 
 ~ gire besides thee. M. flesh and my heart faileth ; 
 but God is the strength of my heart, and my- 
 portion for ever.” Psalm Ixxii. 25, 26. In this 
 
 “* Sce Vol. I. page 160-163, 
 
148 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 state, the servant of Gadd is reconciled to what- 
 ever calamifies he -may suffer. or expect. - “ The 
 _ Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I 
 hope in him,” Lam. ‘iij...94/. « Althonch the 
 fig-tree shail not blossom, neither shell-fruit-be in 
 the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, andahe 
 fields shali yield no meat, the flocks shall be cut 
 off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
 stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will j joy in 
 the God of my salvation.” Hab. ui. 17, 18. 
 
 This most desirable state'of man is the state of - 
 all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. ““* He 
 was delivered for our offences, and was raised again 
 for our justification. Therefore’ being justified by 
 faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord 
 Tests Christ, by whom’ also we have access into 
 this favour wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope 
 of the glory of God. And not only so, but we re- 
 joice in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation 
 worketh patience, and patience experience, and ex- 
 perience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, be- 
 _.cause the love of God is shed abroad in onr hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”? 
 Rom. iv. 25.—v. 5. Althoughghis blessed state is 
 independent of the circumstances of place and time, 
 yet the complete enjoyment of it necessarily cares - 
 our views out of this world, into heaven ‘and eter- 
 nity. Tt i¢ then that we shail be free from’ sin ‘and 
 death, and ail our comferts shall be unmixed and 
 unceasing. << Blessed, "saith Peter, ** Le’ the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, 
 
 according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten 
 "us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection*of 
 Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritanée Gnt 
 corruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 149 
 
 away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by 
 the power of God through faith unto salvation, 
 ready to be revealed in the last time.”” I Pet. i1.3—5. 
 We know that it is appointed unto al! men once 
 to die. One of the most painful thmgs in the 
 prospect of cur dissolution 1s the darkness which 
 covers futurity, and the fears of a guilty conscience 
 in the event of divine retribution. Our blessed Sa- 
 viour hath drawn aside the gloomy vail, hath deli- 
 vered us from the wrath to come, hath given us - 
 everlasting consolations and good hope through 
 grace. He gives the most explicit assurances of 
 the divine mercy, and of the way in which it is: 
 extended to sinners. ** God so loved thé werld, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- - 
 ever believeth in him, should net perish, but have 
 everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the | 
 world to eondemn the world: but that the world ; 
 through him might be saved.”’ John mi. 16,17. | 
 ‘© This is the Father’s will, who hath-sent me, | 
 that of all which he hath given me, I should lose - 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the. last - - 
 day. And this is the will of him- that sent.me, , 
 that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth on | 
 him, may have everlasting life: and I will ‘raise’. 
 him up at the last day.”” John vi. 39, 40. 
 Nor is it necessary to wait till the last. ‘day, in . 
 order to énjoy the blessedness of heaven. One of | 
 the transgressors with whom Jesus was numbered, 
 said unto him, ‘* Lord, remember me when thou 
 comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto 
 him, Verily I say unto thee, To-pay. shalt thou be © 
 with me in paradise.”” Luke xxtil. 42, 43. * There- 
 fore we are always confident, says Paul, knowing 
 that whilst we are at home in. the body, we are ab-. 
 02. 
 
150 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 sent. from, the Lord (for we walk: by faith, not by. 
 
 sight). We are-confident, J say, and willing ra~_ 
 
 ther to be. sell from the body, and.to. be. present 
 with the Lord,’?’2 Cor. v.6—s. ‘* For] am in 
 2 Strait Retwaixt, two, having a. desire to depart and 
 to be with Christ, which is far better,” Phil. i. 23. 
 << And I heard, says John, a voice. from heaven, 
 saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead who 
 die in the Lord from henceforth : yea, saith, the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their labours ; and 
 their works do follow them,” Rey. xiv.13. A 
 most sublime vision of the blessed. 3 in heaven was 
 “granted to this beloved disciple. *¢ After. this I be- 
 held, and lo, agreat multitude, which no.man.could 
 number, of ail nations, and kindreds, and people, 
 and tongues, stood before the throne, and before,the 
 Lamb, clothed with white _tobes, and. palms. din 
 their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, sayings 
 Salvation to. our God, who sitteth upon the Ahrone, 
 and unto the Lamb. And all the angels. stood 
 round about the throne, and about. the. elders, and 
 the four living creatures, and fell betore the throne 
 _ on their faces,.and worshipped God, saying, Amen. 
 Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, Hoey thanksgiving, 
 and honour, and power, and might be unto our 
 God for ever and ever, Amen. And one of the: 
 elders answered, saying unto me, What are.these 
 who are arrayed in white robes? and whence came 
 they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. 
 And he said to me, These are they who came out 
 of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
 
 and madé them white in the blood of the Taine, oF 
 
 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and 
 
 serve him day and night in his’ temple: and he 
 that sitteth en the throne shall dwell among them, 
 
 ee 
 
 \ 
 
y) AND THE PROPUETS. ESA 
 
 They eshalt- hunger no more: neither thirst any | 
 more; neither Shall the sun heht on them, nor any » 
 heat. ‘For the Lamb,’ whois in the midst of the 
 throne, shall feed:them, -and shall lead them unto 
 living fountains of waters: and God. shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes:? -Revovii. 917i: 
 \. While believers in Jesus have the assurance of - 
 immediate blessedness atietheir death, they are 
 called to look forward, with high expectation of 
 additional blessedness at the end.of the world. 
 The dissolution of the present heavens and earth, 
 the general judgment, and its eternal consequences, 
 are stated with peculiar clearness in the new cove- 
 nant scriptures. “ But the day, of the: Lord will 
 come as'.a_ thief in the. night, in the which the 
 heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the 
 elements. shall melt with fervent heat, the earth 
 also, and,the works that are therein, shall be burnt 
 ~up.’? 2,Pet. 1it..1G. §6/Wohen. the Son of. man 
 shall come.in his glory, and-all. the. holy angels 
 with him, then shall he sit upon thezbrone of his 
 glory. And before him shall be gathered all: na- 
 tions ; and he shall separate them, one from 
 another, as & shepherd diyideth his sheep from the 
 goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right 
 hand, but the goats. on theleft. Then shall the 
 King say unto them on_ his right .hand, ‘Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for you, from the foundation of: the world, F or I 
 was an hungred, and ye gave me. meat: I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave me, drink: Iwas a stranger, 
 and ye took mein: naked, and ye clothed me: 1 
 was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and 
 ye came unto me. Then shall the. righteous 
 
 answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an 
 
 = 
 
152 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 hungred, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee 
 drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took 
 thee in? or naked, and. clothed thee? Or when 
 saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto 
 thee?) And the King shall answer, and say unto 
 them, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have. 
 done if unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also” 
 unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil — 
 and his angels. For IT was an hungred, and ye 
 gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not. 
 in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in. 
 prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they 
 also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee 
 an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or 
 sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? 
 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say 
 unto you, In as much as ye did 7é Hot’ to one of the 
 least of thcse, ye did i# not to me. And these 
 shall go away into everlasting adage id but the 
 righteous into life everlasting.” Matth. xxv. 31 
 —46. ° 
 
 It has been justly remarked, that the holy scrip- 
 tures exhibit no particular description of the invi- 
 sible world. Idle curiosity on this subject is re- 
 pressed. But the future happiness of the-righteous, 
 and misery of the wicked, are directly and posi- 
 tively affirmed. The very same terms are used re- 
 specting the duration of both ; and the metaphors 
 and comparisons, though not intended to be under- 
 stood in their literal acceptation, are all calculated 
 to impress upon the mind the strongest possible 
 sense of the tremendous importance of final retri- 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. 153 
 
 bution. We feel an awful propriety in the very 
 reserve which is maintained as to the particular 
 circumstances of the separate and the future states | 
 of man, ‘*-£ knew aman in Christ, above four- 
 teen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell, 
 or whether out of the bedy, £ cannot tell: God 
 knoweth). ‘such an one caught up to the third 
 heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the 
 body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God 
 knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradise, 
 and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful 
 for a man to utter.” 2 Cor. xii. 2—4, «6 But some 
 ~man will say, How are the dead raised up? and 
 with what body do they come? Fhou fool, that 
 
 which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. 
 #nd that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that 
 body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance 
 of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth 
 it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed 
 his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh : but 
 there“is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of 
 beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds” There 
 are also celestial ‘bodies, arid bodies terrestrial : ‘but 
 the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of 
 the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the » 
 sun, and another glory of the moon, and another 
 glory of the stars; for one star differeth from 
 another star in glory. So also is the resurrection 
 of the dead. It is sow In corruption, it is raised 
 “In incorrnption: It is sown in dishonour, it is 
 raised in glory: It is sown in weakness, it is raised 
 an power: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a 
 - spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there- 
 is a spiritual. body,’ 1 Cor. xv. 35-44, «6 Be- 
 hold, E show you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, 
 
 ‘ 
 
pe... 
 
 7 
 
 154 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the - 
 twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, (for the 
 trumpet shall sound) and the dead shall be raised 
 
 _ Incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this 
 
 corruptible must put on ineorruption, and this 
 mortal mesé put on immortality. 1 Cor. xv.51—53.. 
 The obscurity, however, which is left upon these 
 subjects, does by no means diminish their certainty. 
 
 The purpose and grace of God in giving‘eternal life 
 to his people is ** made ieee by the appearing 
 of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” ‘Because, besides 
 
 iving intimations of future happiness, which had 
 g PP > 
 
 indecd been done of old, he himself died for our 
 sins, and rose again, as the example and pledge of 
 the blessed resurrection of all his people, he is 
 therefore said to have ‘* abolished death, and 
 brought life and incorruption to light, through the 
 gospel.” 2 Tim.i.10, But now,” says Paul, 
 ‘is Christ risen from the dead, and become the 
 first fruits of them that slept: For since by man 
 
 came death, by man came also the resurrection of 
 
 the dead. For as in Adam all die, even go in 
 Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in 
 his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward 
 they that are Christ’ 8, at his coming.” 1 Cor. XV. 
 20-—-23. 
 
 The hope of the near inheritance is a wiatie 
 
 to holiness, and a source of happiness, even before 
 
 we leave this evil world. ‘* We are saved by hope,” 
 Rom. vii. 24. © In whom also we have obtained 
 an inheritance, betmg predestinated according to 
 the purpose of him who worketh all things after 
 the counsel of his own will: that we should be to 
 the praise of his glory, who first, hoped in Christ. 
 
 Ia whom ye also hoped after that ye heard the 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. ’ 155 
 
 word. of trath, the gospel of your dulcationts eats a 
 whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed 
 with the Holy Spirit of promise,. which is the 
 earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of 
 the purchased possession, unto the praise of his 
 glory,” Ephes.i.t1—14. “ We give thanks to 
 God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 praying always for you: since we heard of your 
 faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have 
 to all'the saints; for the hope which is laid up for 
 you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the 
 word of the truth of the gospel: which is come 
 unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth 
 forth fruit, as 2¢ doth also in you, since the day ye 
 heard of if, and knew the grace of God in truth.’ 
 Col.i.3—6. Behold, whet manner.of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us,. that we should be 
 called the sons of God: therefore the world — 
 knoweth us mot, because it knew him not. 
 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, 
 that when ‘he shall appear, we shall be Ike him ; 
 for we shall see him as he is. And every man 
 that hath this hope in him, pirtifieth himself, even 
 as he is pure, 1 John iii. 1—3. 
 
 Such are the doctrines of the gospel respecting | 
 tthe heavenly eternal inheritance; and sueh the effect 
 of believing them. The Jewish creeds correspond 
 in idbetauce with the Christian doctrines on the 
 subject, of future rewards and punishments, and of 
 the resurrection of the dead. But the acknowledg- 
 ment is-of a very general, indefinite, nature ; and 
 while it may cherish the unfounded confidence 
 of the self-righteous, gives ho hope to the sinner, 
 who is conscious of having tranegressed, and or 
 
Lag CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 being unable to perform the commandments of 
 God. J] believe, witha firm and perfect faith, 
 that God will reward the works of all those who 
 _ perform his commandments, and punish those who 
 transgress his laws.’’——‘ | believe, with a firm and 
 perfect faith, the resurrection of the dead shall. 
 happen when God shall think. fit. Blessed and 
 glorified eternally be the name of the Creator, 
 Amen.’’—We would now say to Jews, what Jesus 
 said to them of old, “* The time is fulfilled, and the 
 kingdom of God is at hand (is now come): repent — 
 ye, and believe the gospel,’? Mark i.15.) They 
 have long been deprived of their eartbly inheritance; 
 and, although they should regain it, they would: 
 find that it could not yield them solid, permanent, 
 happiness. ‘* They that trust in their wealth, and 
 boast themselves'in the multitude of their riches. 
 None of them,can by any means redeem his brother, — 
 nor. give to God a ransom for him: (for the: 
 redemption of their soul is precious, and it ccaséth 
 for ever), that he should still live for ever, anid not 
 see corruption,’? Psalm xlix. 6—9. In their pre- 
 sent state of» dispersion, they are remarkably 
 industrious, and many of them very wealthy. We 
 blame not industry ; neither would we envy riches; 
 but.if the soul of man. be engrossed by worldly 
 pursuits, it, is..in.eyery .casé. lamentable, and* 
 especially so, in,the case of men exiled from their 
 proper portion in the world; while they have no: 
 hope-nor desire of any thing better. Many Jews, 
 however, perhaps by’ far the greater number of that 
 nation, have to struggle with the greatest hardships _ 
 of poverty. We would tenderly sympathize with 
 them, and rejoice,for their sakes, that to the poor 
 the gospelis preached. Their sufferings are the 
 
among these nations shalt thou find no ease, °- 
 
 _ AND THE PROPHETS, 157 
 accomplishment of that awful prophecy, « And 
 
 neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but 
 
 the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, | 
 
 and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy 
 life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt 
 
 _ fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance ~ 
 
 of thy life,’? Deut, xxvril. 65, 66. How suitable to 
 such is our Saviour’s advice, and how comfortable 
 the promise which he connects with it; “ Take no 
 thought, saying, What shall we eat? or what 
 shall we. drink > or wherewithal shall we be 
 clothed? {For after all these things do the:Gentiles 
 seek) for your heavenly Father. knoweth that ye 
 ‘have need of all these things. But seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God, ‘and his righteousness, and all 
 these things shall be added ‘unto you,”? Matth. wiz 
 $1—33.. There is a consideration also, which it 
 concerns rich and poor alike, to lay seriously to 
 heart. “What shall it profita man, if he shall 
 
 _ gain the whole world, and Jose his own soul? Or 
 
 what shall a man give in exchange for his soul }” 
 Mark viii. 36,37. eg Gan 
 
 _ The gospel moves a great question between the 
 value of this world, and. that of the world to come, | 
 The desire-of riches, and the delight, of ‘the soul in 
 them,. when acquijred, are represented in scripture; 
 as equally unfavourable to the influence of the word 
 of God... Alluding to the preachine of the gospel,’ 
 our Saviour spake a parable, saying, * Behold, a 
 sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, 
 
 “some seeds fell among thorns; and the. thorns 
 
 Sprung up and choked them.” In his explanation. - 
 
 of the parable, he, says, ** H¥e also that received — 
 
 seed among the thorns, is he that hearcth the- 
 VOL. II. cae 
 
158 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 word, and the cares of this world, and the de 
 ceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he 
 becometh unfruitful,”’ Matth, xiii. 3—22. On 
 this subject, there is the most perfect harmony 
 between the scriptures of the old, and of the new 
 covenant. ‘ There is a sore evil, says Solomon, 
 which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches 
 kept for the owners thereof to their burt. But 
 - those riches perish by evil travail. And he begetteth 
 a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he 
 came forth.of his mother’s womb, naked shall he 
 return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of 
 this labour, which he may carry away in his hand,” 
 Eccles. v.13—15. ** But godliness with content~ _ 
 ‘ment, says Paul, is great gain. For we brought - 
 nothing into this world, and it ts certain we can 
 earty nothing out. And having food and raiment . 
 let us be therewith content. But they that wall be 
 rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into 
 many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men | 
 in destruction and perdition. For the jove of 
 money is the root of all evil: which while some 
 coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and 
 pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 
 But thou, O man of God, flee these things ; and 
 follow after rig\:teousness, godliness, faith, love, 
 patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, 
 lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art alse 
 called, and hast professed a good profession before 
 many witnesses,” 1-T im, vi. 6—12 
 
&AND THE PROPHETS. - 15° 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have now submitted to the consideration of 
 Jews, a number of remarks, both on the sacred 
 books, which they and christians in common 
 acknowledye, and on those, which, in opposition 
 to the faith of christians, so many of that ancient 
 people continue to reject. Our object has avowedly 
 been, to bring them to the behef of the gospel of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ; to persuade them to trust 
 in him for the salvation of their souls. As far as 
 possible, however, we have avoided the style of 
 controversy ; being desirous to abstain from giving 
 unnecessary offence; and hoping that most good 
 might be done, by simply stating the outlines of 
 the christian doctrine, with the grounds of it, and 
 leaving the information thus communicated > to_ 
 produce its proper effect on the minds of the readers, 
 That it may do so, we would now commend all - 
 thathas been written, in these essays, to the 
 blessing of the Lord God of Israel, whom we 
 believe to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christy. MA ow . 
 
 Children of Israel, we feel conscious, that we 
 have given you, a very imperfect view of chris- 
 tianity. We have felt a heavy. burden on. our. 
 mind, while endeavouring to address you. Hu- | 
 manly speaking, you are far from being hopeful _ 
 subjects of a gospel ministry. Much, indeed, you ' 
 have to unlearn, if ever you. reccive the truth as it” 
 isin Jesus. But we would take shame to ourselves 
 for being of little faith. With God all things are 
 possible. You have been broken off from ¢ the 
 
 ‘ 
 
160 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 olive-tree,”’ because of unbelief; but ‘* you also if 
 
 you abide not still in unbelief shall be graffed in, 
 for God is able to graff you in again,’ Rem. xt. 
 16—237" We beseech! you, not to judge of the 
 cause; by the weakness ef its present advocate. 
 It is the scriptures of the new covenant which 
 ‘demand your attention. “These, like the sacred 
 books already in your possession, are given by 
 inspiration of God. Let the merits of the cause 
 rest on the authonity of the voice of divine revela- 
 .tion, Weare nothing; but you shall answer to 
 God at the great day of judgment, for the reception 
 which you - give to his holy word. That was an 
 awful commission which wasgiven to Isaiah, *¢ Go 
 and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand 
 not; and seé ye indeed but perceive not. Make 
 the heart of this people fat, and make their ears 
 heavy; and shut their eyes:. lest they see with 
 their eyes, and hear with their ears, arid understand 
 “with their heart, and-convert and be healed.’ But 
 we have a gleam of hope, inthe long past ail 
 of that state of things, which was-to magk the 
 accomplishment of this commission.” The prophet 
 said, ‘© Lord, how long? And he ‘answered, 
 until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, id 
 the houses without man, and the land ‘be utter ‘ly 
 desolate: And the Lord have rémoved men far 
 away, and there tea a great forsaking in the midst of 
 the land,”? Isaiah vi. 9—12: © Even unto ‘this 
 day, indeed, when Moses 1s read, the vail is upon 
 their heart. Nevertheless when ¢hat heart shall 
 turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away,” 
 2 Cor. ill. 15, 16. 7 
 
 A subject of such aispheunbis: importance as 
 that to ey we have’ sin: an your attention, 
 
 ¢ 
 
AND THE PROPHETS. . 161 
 
 must not be treated with indifference. It is lament- 
 able to see any of the children of men regardless of 
 the concerns of eternity : how much more, if this. 
 listless and infatuated spirit should appear among — 
 the descendants of Abraham, the friend of God 1 
 What! are they to be known no more, but as the * 
 merchants and traffickers of the earth? Surely, 
 your fathers will rise up in judgment against you, 
 if the word of God be not the supreme object of 
 your attention. 
 df any Jews shall have read these pages, who 
 are convinced of the truth of the gospel, and if any 
 thing we have written has been made effectual for 
 producing or strengthening their convictions; we 
  intreat them to make an open, ‘decided profession 
 of their faith, We are well aware, , -beloved ° 
 brethren, that you must encounter much opposition 
 from your kindred according to the flesh, if you © 
 confess that Jesus is thé Christ, the Son of the 
 ~ living God. You must become ‘ followers of the. 
 churches of God, which in Judza were in Christ «— 
 Jesus,’? in the. thas which: you shall suffer. of 
 your countrymen, 1 Whass: il 14... 6 Yea, and. all: 
 that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer 
  persecution,’’ 2 Tim.iit.12. ‘In the case of Jews, 
 however, temptations to the concealment of con- — 
 — yiction must be peculiarly strong. The conversion - 
 of others is called, indeed, by the world, hypocrisy” : 
 ~ and enthusiasm.: but that of Jews may receive, in 
 addition to these, the bard names of. impiety, and 
 apostacy. Such grievous Janguage is likely to be. 
 used against them, by those of their own: nation,» 
 and of their nearest relatives. Nor is it by words 
 alone, that they may experience what. displeasure 
 they have incurred. Every possible i injeiry tHhay he : 
 ‘ \P2 POR 
 
16¢ CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 threatened, and inflicted. In places, where there 
 is no restraint from the laws of the land; Jewish 
 converts’ to christianity are said to have been 
 . frequently i in danger of having their very life taken 
 away by the hands of their brethren. But, blessed 
 * be God, such Jews. as live in this’ happy country, 
 
 are in no danger from the violence of ‘any man\ 
 Here, they may look with composure'on the rage of. 
 their enemies, and remark the badness of that cause, 
 which encourages so cruel a spirit) Th those who 
 mamtain it. In every instance, persecution proves 
 only the ignorance and wickedness of the persecu- 
 tors. *“¢ They shall put you out of the synagogues, 
 said ‘our*Saviour; yea, the time cometh, that 
 whosoever ‘killeth you, will think that he doth 
 God service. And these things will they do unto 
 Vou, because they have not pig the Father, nor 
 me,” John xvi. 2, 3. if 
 
 As Jews have so long been ison from ‘stran- 
 gers, they may feel the more dependant on thé pro- 
 tection of their kindred: To them*christiauity is 
 literally the loss of Cast. It was in the view of 
 this fact, that Jesus said, ¢* Fear not them who kill 
 the body, but are not able to kill the soul: ‘but 
 nather fear him who is able'to destroy both soul and 
 body in heH. Are ‘not two sparrows sold for’a 
 farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on the 
 ground without your Father. But the very hairs of - 
 your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, 
 ye are of more value than many sparrows. ‘Who- 
 soever therefore shall confess me before men, ‘him 
 will I confess also before my Father who is in 
 heaven? But whosoever shall deny me before men, 
 him will I also deny before ‘my Father who is in 
 heayen, ‘S’hink not that Lam come to send peace 
 
 + : ~ 
 
 a 
 
_ AND THE PHOPHETS. ; 163 
 
 on earth: I came not té end peace but a sword. 
 For I am come to set aman at variance against his 
 father, and the daughter against her mother, and 
 the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, © 
 And a man’s*foes shall be they of his own house- 
 hold.” But Jet Jewish disciples consider the awful 
 conseqnence, of: yielding ‘to such temptations. 
 << He that-loveth: father or mother more than me, 
 is not worthy of me: and: he that loveth son or 
 daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And 
 he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, 
 is not worthy of me. , He that findeth his life 
 shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake). 
 shall find it,’? Matth. x. 292-39. The Saviour, 
 who was himself persecuted by his own nation, 
 pledges himself to compensate every loss, which 
 his disciples may on his account sustain. <** Peter 
 began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and: 
 have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, 
 Verily I say unto you, there is no man. that- hath 
 left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father; or 
 mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake 
 and the gospel’s, but he- shall receiveoan hundred 
 fold now in this time, houses; and ‘brethren, and 
 sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with 
 persecutionss andwin the world to come eternal 
 life,” Mark x. 28-30. » Not that in his kingdom, 
 which is not of this world, we are ‘to, understand 
 oux Lord’s promise as to the present time, of coms 
 forts merely temporal; but. it surely warrants us to 
 believe, that in the peace of God, which keepeth 
 ‘the heart and mind, and in the fellowship of his 
 people, who are taught of God to love one another, 
 the bereaved and persecuted shall find more than 
 enough to counterbalance present sufferings ; espe- 
 
164 CONSUMMATION OF THE LAW 
 
 cially whem they look fofward to a speedy and an 
 eternal deliverance from them all. Great as your 
 difficulties may be, they have often been gloriously 
 overcome. See how Paul reminds his fellow 
 soldiers in the christian warfare, of their former 
 victortes, in order to encourage them to continue 
 firm to the end. ‘Call to remembrance the 
 former days, in which after ye were illuminated, ye 
 endured a great fight of afflictions : partly whilst. 
 ye were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches 
 and afflictions ; and partly whilst ye became com- 
 panions of them that were so-used. For ye had — 
 compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully 
 the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves, 
 that ye have in heaven a better hel an enduring . 
 substance. Cast not away, therefore, your con- 
 fidence, which hath great recompense of reward. | 
 For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done _ 
 the will. of God, ye might receive the promise. 
 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will 
 come, and will not tarry,’’ Heb. x. 32—37. 
 
 Hebrew christians have a sphere of usefulness, 
 which is peculiarly important. While they confirm 
 the faith of Gentile believers, by furnishing an 
 
 example of obedience to the truth where it has ‘eer 
 long so generally resisted 5 they have many advan- 
 tages in calling other Jews to listen’'to the gospel 
 of Christ. We trust, dear brethren, that each of 
 you will ever be able to say with Paul, ‘ My heart’s 
 desire and prayer to God foy Israel is, that they 
 might be saved,’? Rom. x.1. Manifest this spirit 
 in all your intercourse with your brethren according : 
 to the flesh. Whether in public, or in private, be 
 ready to set before them the doctrines of the ever- 
 lasting gospel. scot ies much displeased at id 
 
AND.THE PROPHETS. | :165 
 
 conversion, it may be they will prefer hearitig 
 you, to hearing any who are not of their own) 
 
 nation. We pray that the Lord may honour. you 
 
 to bring many of the lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel to the shepherd a and bishop of their souls.— 
 Nor is it among Jews alone, that you possess 
 advantages for usefulness. . From habits of travel- 
 ling, knowledge of various languages, and acquaint- 
 ance or correspondents in distant countries, some 
 of you may be eminently qualified for the general 
 labours of missionaries. Your countrymen are 
 often employed as the fittest agents for extending 
 commerce. You have similar, nay greater advan- 
 
 tages, for extending the Redeemer’s heavenly king- 
 ‘dom. We trust, therefore, that some of you will 
 desire to imitate Paul, who said, ** Yea, so have I: 
 
 strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was 
 named, lest [ should build upon another man’s 
 foundation: but as it is written, (in Isaiah hi. 15.) 
 To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: 
 
 and they that have not beard, shall understand,’* 
 
 Rom. xv. 20, 2}. 
 
 Finally, may you, and we, be enabled to adorn 
 the faith, which we profess, Sy a holy life and con- 
 versation ! * Ye are the salt of the earth,”’ said our 
 Lord to his disciples, ‘* but if the salt have lost his 
 savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth 
 good for nothing, but to be castout, and to be 
 trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the 
 world, A city that is set on amhill, cannot be bid. 
 Neither do men light a candle, aa put it under a 
 bushel, but ona pifieuiale. and it giveth Jight 
 unto all that are in the house. Let your light sO 
 shine before men, that they may see your good 
 
 works, and glorify your father who is in heayen,’’ 
 
 \ 
 
166 CONSUMMATION OF THE Law, &c. 
 
 Matth, v. 13—16.. We take leave, with Paul’s 
 
 concluding prayer for believing Hebrews. ‘* Now 
 the God of peace that brought again from the dead 
 our Lord Jesus, that great shepher d of the sheep, 
 through the blood of the -everlasting covenant, 
 
 “make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 
 
 working in you that which is well pleasing in bik 
 sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom Le glory for 
 ever and ever, Amen,’’ Heb. Mil, 20, 21, 
 
 . THE END. 
 
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