VIII.

than it is, that the world fhould be de- DISC. ftroyed, after the accomplishment of the defign, for which it was created. He, who gave the law, foretold, in the clearest terms, by his prophets, that, at a certain period, it should cease; that he would make a new covenant by the Meffias, and that the old covenant should be difannulled ; that the old things fhould pass away, and be forgotten"; that the ark of the covenant fhould come no more to mind"; that the legal facrifices fhould cease, and facrifices of a purer kind be established in their room; that the Aaronical order of priesthood should be diffolved, and the order of Melchifedek be introduced by the Meffiah; and that this latter priesthood should be an ordinance for ever".

From these confiderations it appears, that the law, in it's nature, was figurative and tranfitory, being a difpenfation inter

VIII.

DISC. posed between the promise and it's accomplishment. Previous to the law, the Gofpel was preached to Abraham, that in his feed, the Meffiah, all nations should be bleffed. The fame Gospel, at the beginning, had been preached to Adam, that the feed of the woman, or the Meffiah, fhould bruise the head, that is, deftroy the power, of the old ferpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived our first parents, and deceiveth, the whole world. But as there was to be a long interval between the promife and it's performance, in the mean time, till the feed fhould come, to whom the promise was made, the law took men under it's tuition, prescribed to them their duty, fhewed them their guilt and their pollution, and pointed out the means of pardon and fanctification. When the promife was fulfilled, and the feed came, it had executed it's office, and ceafed of course, giving place to him, whom it had hitherto prefigured and predicted. It spoke by the mouth of the aged and dying Simeon, when, upon embracing the child Jefus

VIII.

Jefus in the temple, he exclaimed, "Lord, DISC, "now lettest thou thy fervant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy falvation, which thou haft prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and "to be the glory of thy people Ifrael.”

The third point, taken for granted by the Jews in our Saviour's time, was, that the poffeffion of their city, temple, and country, in peace, wealth and profperity, was the end of the promises.

But their own Scriptures militate, with equal force, against this notion likewise.

For here we must recollect again, that the promise, emphatically fo ftyled, was made, in Abraham, to "all the nations of "the earth," who could not poffibly have any concern in the bleffing of Canaan.

We muft obferve that if Canaan were indeed the end of the promife, the fathers of the Jewish people, Abraham, Ifaac,

VOL. I.

e

and

DISC. and Jacob, never were nor could hope to

VIII.

God

be partakers of it. They fojourned in the
land of Promife, as in a strange land.
gave them none inheritance in it, not fo
much as to fet their foot on. They con-
feffed themselves to be ftrangers and pil-
grims, travelling towards a country, in
which they might fix their abode. Such
they lived and such they died. The coun-
try, therefore, which they fought, was one
beyond the
grave.

When the children of Abraham were fettled in Canaan, true Ifraelites understood, that the reft they there enjoyed was by no means the real, permanent, final rest, promised and intended. In the xcvth Pfalm, David, though king of Ifrael, and feated on the hill of Sion, ftill speaks of another future reft, warning the people of his time, that they fell not fhort of it, as their ancestors, who came out of Egypt, fell short of Canaan, through unbelief and difobedience. If Joshua had given them the true final reft, David fo long afterward

could

VIII.

could not have spoken of another day of DISC. trial, and another rest reserved in store for the faithful. For this reafon it is, that the fame David, in that fublime and devout act of praise and thanksgiving uttered just before his death, recognizing the mercies of God to Ifrael in the land of Promise, yet makes the very confeffion which the ancient patriarchs had made, when they had none inheritance in that land. "We "are ftrangers before thee, our God, and fojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a fhadow, and "there is none abiding."

If, therefore, the land of Canaan were not the true and final feat of reft, peace, and felicity for the people of God, we must conclude concerning that, as we did above concerning the law, that it terminated not in itself, nor was given for it's own fake, but was also, in it's kind, a figure, for the time then present, of a glorious and permanent poffeffion in a better world, where