will serve to assist us in the decision of this question. Many of the early disciples of Christ, taking offence at the doctrine which he taught on an occasion of public discourse, withdrew from associating with him. At this time, as the evangelist informs us, "Jesus said unto the twelve, Will ye also go "away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord,

66

to whom shall we go? THOU HAST THE WORDS of 66 ETERNAL LIFE." The motive which actuated this apostle, we may reasonably suppose to have been entertained in common by all the primitive adherents of the Saviour. Would this motive have been equally cogent, if the words of eternal life had been written in the Law of Moses, in characters equally plain and distinct with those in which we read them in the scriptures of the New Covenant? Far from it. Had the promises of the Gospel contained nothing that was new, either as to the clearness or the authority of its declarations on this most interesting subject, it is utterly improbable that its doctrines would, in that perverted state of feeling and opinion which prevailed at the time of its introduction, have met with any favourable or even serious attention.

The prejudices which the Jews had imbibed in favour of their national religion, constituted a principal obstacle to the success of the apostolical labours for their conversion. Of these prejudices, one of the most deeply rooted had arisen from the high esteem and veneration with which they regarded their ancient law. By many of them, so high an

e John vi. 67, 68.

opinion was entertained of its excellency and perfection, that they viewed it sufficient for the utmost needs of man. They supposed it to contain the rule of justification, together with every thing else which is necessary in order to everlasting lifef. The want of any new revelation they would not admit. Nor could they be prevailed on to entertain an opinion, so degrading, as they thought, to the honour of their national code and of themselves, as to suppose, that the oracles of God, which had been intrusted to their exclusive keeping, were in their design only preparatory to a further communication of mercy and truth, which was to be more ample in its discoveries, and more diffusively imparted. In these mistaken notions and contracted views, we discover the cause which chiefly operated in producing that general rejection which the Gospel experienced among the Jewish nation. And would not this cause have operated with a force greatly augmented, if their Law, which, being weak, was unable to give everlasting life, had nevertheless plainly assured them of it?

Secondly, Had the Law of Moses supplied a greater clearness of discovery respecting a future life, it

f See Macknight on the Epistles, Pref. to Rom. sect. 2 and 3 and Pref. to Gal. sect. 3.

66

g" Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto "the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." Gal. iii. 23, 24. h" If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Gal. iii. 21. "What "the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, "condemned sin in the flesh." Rom. viii. 3.

66

would have thus contributed to mislead the early converts to the Gospel from an apprehension of its pure and genuine doctrines. This position will also be established by a reference to the circumstances which actually attended the first preaching of Christianity.

The same prejudice, which, in its influence on one portion of the Jewish people, led to the total rejection of the Gospel, occasioned considerable difficulty in conveying to that class of them who embraced it, correct notions of its design and character. They misunderstood the intention of the Levitical ordinances, and formed an exaggerated estimate of their value and excellence. Hence arose the difficulty of convincing them, that the justification of man, which was the great requisite as a qualification for everlasting life, could be accomplished without an observance of the sacrifices, purifications, and other ceremonies, prescribed in the Mosaic ritual. "Ex"cept," said they, "ye be circumcised after the man"ner of Moses, ye cannot be savedk." Now, though a future state forms no part of the Mosaic covenant, yet it is undeniable, that the belief of that doctrine was generally entertained among the Jews in our Saviour's time and it has been justly observed by bishop Warburton, that the superstitious attachment of the Jewish converts to the whole observance of the Law originated in an erroneous persuasion, that that doctrine formed a part of the Mosaic dispensation. Suppose, then, that the Mosaic Law

i Acts xv. 1.

"Permit me to observe further, that this rabbinical notion "of a future state of rewards and punishments in the Mosaic dispensation, which still encourages the remnant of your nation

had actually countenanced such an opinion; sup pose that it had conveyed a plain and declaratory promise of everlasting life: would not an apparen sanction have thus been given to the misconceptions of the Jewish convert? And would not an increased aversion to the simplicity of the Christian doctrine have been an inevitable consequence flowing from the encouragement thus given to mistaken views?

The prejudices of the Jews in favour of their ancient Law had the effect of alienating from the Gospel the great majority of that nation. Under the influence of these same prejudices, that small portion of them who embraced the new covenant, were led to disfigure its doctrine with ritual observances, possessing in themselves no intrinsic value, and of which the relative utility had ceased. In either case, these prejudices would have drawn encouragement from any explicit statement, in the Law of Moses, respecting the ultimate purpose of God as to the future condition of mankind. With the great body of the Jewish people, such a statement would have operated as a considerable obstruction to the acknowledgment of the Messiah. In the minds of the Jewish converts, it would have favoured the entertainment of opinions, utterly re

"to persist in rejecting the Gospel of Jesus, was the very preju"dice which, in the first ages of Christianity, so superstitiously "attached the converts from Judaism to the whole observance of "the Law." Divine Legation of Moses. Dedication to the Jews prefixed to the Fourth Book.

That this notion was really entertained by the Jews, may be seen from 2 Macc. vii. 36. where the Law of Moses is plainly designated as "God's covenant of everlasting life."

pugnant to those terms on which alone (consistently with the knowledge afforded us of the divine will and attributes) we are taught to hope for a participation in the covenanted mercies of God. On the whole, its influence must have been at variance with the character, and inconsistent with the success, of the Christian scheme of redemption.

Add to this, the danger that would have arisen, lest the Gentile converts should be infected with the errors of their judaizing brethren, when the Pentateuch (thus combining the Levitical precepts with the promise of everlasting life, but silent, otherwise than in the language of type and allegory and obscure intimation, as to the atonement of Christ and the evangelical rule of justification) had been placed in their hands, as a portion of that volume which was henceforth to be the standard of their faith.

For it is to be remembered, that the ancient people of Israel are not the only persons whose welfare is involved in this question. The Mosaic code was destined to form a standard portion of the volume of inspiration, for the perpetual instruction and edification of mankind in general', after its ceremonial and political enactments had been abrogated in favour of a more perfect and comprehensive dispensation. What now, in its influence on the general welfare of man, must have been the consequence of introducing into it any positive declara

"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for "our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the "Scriptures might have hope." Rom. xv. 4.