tled in a country destined for their habitation, and there constituted the guardians, as we may fay, of the divine oracles and inftitutions, fhould yet abandon the great object, which all thefe marks of dif tinction had in view; be totally expelled from the land, which the Lord their God had given them, and rendered wholly incapable of performing the peculiar rites of their religious fervice; having neither altar, prieft, nor temple, nor any veftige left of what the law required for making their folemn facrifice. Does not all this plainly fhew that the law of Mofes, in this refpect being already fulfilled, has no more its original end to answer; and that the whole Jewish economy, being but the fhadow of good things to come, has very properly given place to the fubftance-to "the body which "is of Chrift?" He was the real, permanent object fhadowed out by all these figurative, temporary representations of the Mofaic ritual; and the whole order of the facrifices, the whole difpofition of the tabernacle, the whole miniftry of the priesthood, pointed to him as the "one true propitiatory facri

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fice, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, "and not man-the eternal High priest, who is paf"fed into the heavens, there to make continual in"terceffion for them that come to God by him.” To him give all the types of the law, as well as "all "the prophets witnefs;" and it was folely on his account, that the people of Ifrael were kept toge

ther, and fupported by a train of miracles; for on his leaving the world, when his work here below was finished, this chosen nation was difperfed over all the earth, and its policy completely diffolved.

Such then being the true nature of the legal difpenfation, and fuch the defign of the whole Ifraelitish economy, the queftion needs no longer be afked-" Wherefore then ferveth the law?" The fame apostle, who states the question, gives also the proper anfwer; when fpeaking of the promife of mercy made to Abraham, he tells us, that the law was" added because of tranfgreffions, till the feed "fhould come," that is Chrift, " to whom the pro"mise was made."* By faying, that the law was added, he plainly intimates, that there was fomething known and practifed before, to which this addition was made; and what could that be, but the evangelical promife renewed to Abraham, and the worship and obedience required, in confequence of that promise, to which the law was added by way of prefervation, and in order to leffen tranfgreffion for the time to come? Through the corruption of the patriarchal religion, many forts of tranfgreffion prevailed among the heathen nations, who took their rife from the confufion at Babel, and grew up into the wildest idolaters, worshipping their imaginary deities with fuch abominable practices as made them hateful to the true God, and of course very dange. rous neighbours to those who still believed in him,

Gal. iii. 19.

and

and adhered to his fervice. For this reafon God was pleased to raife a wall of divifion between the Hebrews and the heathens, and laid his people under every poffible obligation that might preferve them from mingling with thofe that ferved other gods, and learning their ways. As a wife and good parent would keep his children from the feducing company of profligates and blafphemers, fo did the Almighty Father of heaven and earth guard his holy family from all the abominations of that bewitching idolatry, by which they were furrounded. "Ye fhall be holy unto me," faid God to the children of Ifrael," for I the Lord am holy, and have "fevered you from other people, that ye should be "mine."*

Thus claiming them as his children, he had alfo condefcended to provide a fchoolmafter for them, to teach them the rudiments of heavenly knowledge, and fo train them up in the true faith and fear of their God. "The law," fays St. Paul, was "our schoolmafter unto Chrift;"t was defigned to inftruct those who lived under it in the character and office of the expected Meffiah; for which purpose, as scholars are confined in a fchool, fo were they separated from the world, to learn and practise continually thofe figns and figures, by which this wonderful perfon was defcribed to them. Nothing can be more plain and distinct, than the precepts

H 2

Levit. xx. 26. † Gal. iii. 24.

cepts and inftitutions of the law, if the mere outward act, and obfervance of them had been all that was required. Yet we find, it was the fervent defire and earnest prayer of thofe who had a just fenfe of this matter, that God would teach them, and make them to understand the precepts of his law, in which they were commanded to "meditate "day and night." And that this conftant meditation was neceffary to unravel the true meaning and defin of it, will fufficiently appear, if we only confider one of its most striking and folemn inftitutions, the rite of facrifice, or fhedding the blood of living creatures as an offering to God; which furely required a confiderable degree of attention in difcovering the end and object of it, as well as the dif pofition, with which it ought to be performed. It is not only contrary to the common fenfe and reafon of mankind, but declared by an inspired apostle to be abfolutely "impoffible, that the blood of "bulls, and of goats, fhould take away fins."*--There was no fuch inherent value in the blood of these victims; nor could any neceffary connection be fuppofed between the flaying of these or any fuch creatures, and the faving of a finner. But then what was wanting in their general nature, was made up by fpecial inftitution; and thefe animals, being once devoted and fet apart for this fervice, acquired a new relation, and of confequence a value from the fubftance, of which they were only types and fhadows.

• Heb. x. 4.

fhadows. The offering of thefe was then only acceptable to the Deity, when it was confidered as his own appointment; and in confequence of a due attention to the bidden things of the law, was performed with faith and humility, as a memorial of that Lamb of God, who was in due time to be manifefted, that he might take away fin by the facrifice of himfelf.

In contradiction however to this train of reafoning, fo clearly confirmed by the authority of fcripture, it has been fuppofed, that the practice of worshipping the deity by facrifice was merely a human. invention, and kindly accepted by God, only in compliance with the weakness of his creatures.Nay it has been affigned, as one confiderable reason for God's fending his Son into the world to take away fin by the facrifice of himself, that this was a wife and gracious condefcenfion to that strong apprehenfion, and perfuafion, which had fo early and univerfally prevailed among mankind, concerning the expiation of fin, and appeafing the offended Deity by facrifices of living creatures. But can it really be imagined, with any fort of reafon or propriety, that the all-wife purposes of heaven, and the unfearchable counfels of God, fhould be directed or influenced by the vain conceits, and inventions of men; or that the customs of a blinded and corrupted world fhould furnish a proper pattern for the divine proceedings! No certainly: The mysterious difpen

fation