to make a discovery, to themselves and to others, of the good or bad state of their hearts. Had we nothing but the book of Psalms, we might trace all the affections and passions, desires and aversions, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, anger, shame, and sense of honour, with all their various objects, and with all their keen emotions, which Christians feel; but the book of Psalms is exactly framed as the rest of the Old Testament is; and there lies the human heart open to public view, in an extreme of joy, as in the Song of Moses, and in an extreme of sorrow, as in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. "Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow!" Yes, there is a sorrow in the New Testament like your sorrow, and as far beyond it as love to the whole world is beyond your love to your country; and there is a joy as far beyond the joy of Moses, as the salvation of a world from everlasting misery is beyond the salvation of one nation from the cruelty of Pharaoh : there is an union between the joys and sorrows of the two Testaments, for they were both just, and all the saints unite to sing "the song of Moses," and "the song of the Lamb," the one "the servant of God," and the other "the King of saints."

Observe the truths taught in both the churches, as the being of a God, the care of Providence, the salvation of sinners from punishment through a mediator, the influences of the Holy Spirit on the dreams, visions, minds, and hearts of inspired men, a future state of rewards and punishments, a judgment to come, and a restitution of all things; and you will at once see, that information of this kind cannot but affect, and very much affect the hearts of men, and the hearts of those most, who have the happiness to live under the clearest instruction. Observe the events, which took place under both the dispensations, the calling of Abraham from idolatry to the worship of the true God, the calling of the Gentiles to imitate his example, the various fortunes of the family of the Patriarch, and the various prosperous and adverse events of the apostles, and all the succeeding Christians; sometimes "strangers in a strange land," and at other times "preparing cities of their own for hab

itation." Observe the appearance, and miracles, and death of Moses, and other great men; and the birth and life, the miracles and death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Consider the "backsliding" of the Jews, and the "falling away" of Christians; the cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, the generosity of Cyrus, the captivity of the Jews, the rigour of some tyrants of the Christian church, the clemency of some princes towards it, the severity of God, and the distresses of his people; the restoration of the Jews, and the reformation of Christians, with the many, many thousands of events, which are always taking place in the religious world by the conversion of some, and the glorification of others. Observe how all these events interweave themselves with the best and dearest interests of mankind; I say, sum up all the truths of religion, and all the events produced by it, and then tell me, whether religion can be in the world without producing the most lively feelings in the hearts of mankind? How is it possible, that this declaration, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life;" how is it possible this truth should lie in the world as cold as this other, Two and two make four? The Jewish religion had a share of pleasure and pain in proportion to the truths and events of their times; Christians know what happened to them, and a thousand truths and events, of which they never heard; and consequently their pains are more acute, and their pleasures more delicious. A sober, decent man feels pain and pleasure at the sight of gross wickedness, and eminent virtue; but how his pains and pleasures magnify and multiply when he becomes a Christian!

The fourth part of the Jewish religion is its form of government, and this is the great difference between their religion and ours, and the difference is amazingly to our advantage. Nothing can be so necessary to enable a Christian to read the Old Testament to edification, as a clear notion of this part of our subject; for it is remarkable that, amidst a great number of quotations from the Old Testament by the writers of the New, there is

not a single passage quoted as a rule of church government. Should a Christian think it right to introduce any thing into the worship of God because the Old Testament told him the Jews did so and so, we should think him, perhaps, a well-meaning man, but not well instructed in his own religion; we should think him wanting in this great branch of religious knowledge; the difference, and the reasons of the difference, between a Christian and a Jew.

The Jewish church was national, and all the females were members of it by birth, and all the males were admitted members at eight days old by circumcision; but the Christian church consists of only believers; and no person can be properly admitted a member of it but by a profession of faith and repentance; and every person making such a profession hath a right from the Lord of the church to all the benefits of his community.

The Jewish church was confined to the little country of Judea; but the Christian church is of all countries, and in Jesus Christ, "whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, we are all baptized by one spirit into one body."

The men who officiated in the Jewish worship were a distinct order, of one family, and on account of their attendance on the worship of God, were supported by a tax on the people; their persons were held sacred, and their presence necessary to every act of public worship; but the worship of Christians consists only of prayer and praise; and any Christian who is able, may be a mouth for the rest; and as to public instruction, anyperson who can, may give it, provided he have the consent of his brethren; for they who officiate in the Christian church are not a separate family, or what is the same, a distinct order, multiplying and continuing themselves by acts of adoption; nor are they sacred persons under any of the solemnities of unction; but Christians may elect whom they please to preside in their assemblies, to instruct, and to administer ordinances, and all under the great law, "Freely ye have received, freely give. Provide no gold, for the workman is worthy of his meat."

The religion of the Jews was splendid and costly: but the worship of Christians is neat, clean, and plain; nothing but prayer is necessary to prayer, and "where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, there is he in the midst of them."

The spirit and temper of the Jews, like the economy under which they lived, was stern, sour, and tending to servility; and if we compare the good done in the world, and the temper in doing it, of our one apostle Paul, with those of the most famous of their kings, even Solomon himself, the comparison will be greatly in favour of the apostle. The most glorious day of Solomon's life was that on which he dedicated the temple, and offered up, amidst a vast multitude of people, and more sacrifices than the altar could contain, that fine. prayer recorded in Scripture; but glorious as this was, it was the prayer of a Jew, and Israel, Israel in their various conditions of prosperity and adversity, Israel is all he thinks of. Our apostle, who had "the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him," had a soul that contained the whole world, and after he had done good enough to content a common man, laid out more and more noble plans to be executed for the benefit of mankind; all his writings and history are full of this. He sails into Syria, arrives at Ephesus, proceeds to Cæsarea, goes down to Antioch, all over the country of Galatia and Phrygia, purposes in spirit to pass through Macedonia, and Achaia, goes to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must see Rome also." Paul was thirty-four years a Christian, two and twenty years of which time we have little or no account of, and almost all the great works done by him, and recorded in Acts, are the services of only ten or twelve years but it is not imaginable, that such a man spent two and twenty years in idleness; but if they were spent like the other twelve," in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils among false brethren, in stripes, in prisons, in deaths oft, in hunger and thirst, and cold and nakedness, with

the care of all the churches," and with a heart full of zeal and humanity, saying, "Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not?"--I say, if Paul did all this in a spirit of benevolence to mankind, and if I must needs glory in a man, it is not Solomon, but Paul; for, in my eye, Solomon in all his glory was not such an ornament to the world as this one apostle.

Thus let us understand the religion of the two Testaments, which, strictly speaking, is but one religion, though differently administered; and let us learn how to read and apply the Holy Scriptures, so as to avoid what the apostle calls "profane and vain babblings" about the law, and "oppositions" of pretended "science" to obstruct the free course of that perfection of beauty, the Christian dispensation.

Should we ap

There are many ways of doing this. ply the Jewish "science" of admitting members into the Christian church, we should" oppose" the design of Jesus Christ, which was to form his church of wise and good men, not of infants and profligates; for it was written in the Prophets, concerning the Christian church, "They shall all be taught of God, every man therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father," and no other 66 man, cometh unto Christ." Our Saviour will not lose his dignity by stooping to take infants at surprise; nor will he make his church "the hold of every foul spirit," and "a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."

Should the Jewish "science" of office be applied to the Christian religion, it would "oppose" the holy purpose of Jesus Christ, which was not to create offices of dignity, emolument, ease, and dominion, to fire the ambition, and stir up the worldly passions of his followers; but so to arrange his institutions as not to tempt men to the exercise of such unworthy dispositions. He meant to make them a family of love, and intended to show the world that love could do more kind offices, than wealth and honour, fondness for ease, or love of power. When his disciples so far forgot his instructions as to ask him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; he called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them." What a lesson, a great lesson for the twelve