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tion of the Levitical Law, and the substitution of a more perfect religion. "If," says he, "perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the Law) what "further need was there that another priest should rise after "the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of "Aaron. For the priesthood being changed, there is made of "necessity a change also of the Law."* For the full illustration of this argument, I refer to the learned commentators who have explained the passages in which it is contained; the conclusion thus stated by the Apostle is evidently contained in the Scriptures, and is that which I wish to impress, as it proves the consistency and illustrates the connexion of the Mosaic and the Christian codes.

With equal clearness the same great Apostle argues + from the very nature of the Levitical Law, that it was intended as the type and introduction of the Christian scheme: and here again adduces the prophetic declaration of the inspired Psalmist. "The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not "the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices

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priesthood of Christ was pre-eminently distinguished. The Apostle then in the 3d verse describes the priesthood of Melchizedek by additional characters, which belong not to him as a human individual, but to the priesthood he possessed. In this sense he was "without [i. e. independent of] father, without mother, without descent, "[i. e. independent of his descent] having neither beginning of days, nor end of life [as to his priesthood]; but being made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest "continually." Vide Macknight's very clear illustration of this passage, in his View and Illustration prefixed to this chapter. "Like Melchizedek, Christ is a king as well "as a priest, being the Son of God and Lord of all. He is also king of righteousness, "to promote which is the object of his moral government. He is also king of peace, "reconciling sinners to God, and to one another. Like Melchizedek, Christ is not "descended from parents who were priests, but derives his priesthood from the special "designation of God, independent of all limitations of descent; and his priesthood "is of a nature so excellent as to have no companion nor successor in it, but he liveth "for ever to execute it himself. Like Melchizedek, Christ's priesthood did not, as "that of the Levites, begin at thirty and end at fifty years; but he exercised it from "the first, and retains it through his whole existence. And finally, like Melchizedek, "he acts as priest, not for one particular nation, but for all the true worshippers of "God."

Heb. vii. 11, 12.

Heb. x. 1-10.

"The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of "the things." On these words it is remarked, "The word sixiva rendered "image," seems from the tenor of the Apostle's argument, to be used for the essential or substantial form of a thing, i. e. for the very thing itself, as opposed to its "sha"dow or delineation;" so it is paralleled to a "the body of substance," which the

"which they offered year by year continually, make the comers "thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be "offered; because that the worshippers once purged, should "have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices "there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should "take away sins. Wherefore, when he [the promised Redeemer predicted by the Psalmist in the fortieth Psalm] cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but "a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings, and sacri"fices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, "I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do "thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, "and burnt-offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, "neither hadst thou pleasure therein (which are offered by the Law) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He "taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By "the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the "body of Jesus Christ once for all."

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Here again I refer my readers to the writings of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, for a full exposition of the accurate harmony and inseparable connexion between the two dispensations. It is not consistent with the plan of this Work (already extended beyond my original intention) to discuss the subject at large. I only wish very briefly to prove, that the Prophets who lived under the Mosaic Law, foresaw its abrogation, and acknowledged it was intended to introduce the Gospel scheme, to Apostle elsewhere opposes in like manner to its nia or "shadow," Col. ii. 17. Accordingly the Syriac version explains úzóva by the "substance," and Chrysostom by the "truth or reality" as opposed to "types or emblems." Cicero has used almost the same expression in the same sense: "Nos veri juris germanæ "justitiæ solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus, umbra et imaginibus uti"mur." De Officiis, lib. iii. c. xvii. The Apostle means to illustrate the imperfection of the Law, that it could not bring men to perfection, that the good things it promised were but a shadow of the great realities secured by Christ, the veriest sketch or outline, in comparison of the perfect and exact picture. Vide Dodd, Macknight, Heylin, and Wolfius on Heb. x. 1. and Suicer's Thesaurus, and Parkhurst on the word Elx.-It is necessary to remark, that in the words "a body hast "thou prepared me," the Apostle follows the Septuagint, and not the Hebrew text as it now stands. But for the probability of a corruption in the Hebrew text, consult Dr Thomas Randolph's comparison of the citations in the New Testament, with the Hebrew and the Septuagint, No. 159. pp. 22 and 44. and the authors by him referred to.

which, as more perfect and universal, it was destined to give place; while on the other hand, the inspired preachers of the Gospel refer to the Mosaic institutions, as intended to prefigure and prepare for the Gospel of Christ, who came "not to destroy, "but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets."

I shall close the series of proofs on this head, by the clear and explicit declaration of the Prophet Jeremiah,* which is also appealed to by the great Apostle of the Gentiles.

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This Prophet foretels the propagation of a pure and spiritual religion, the abolition of legal ordinances, the call of the Gentiles, and the final restoration of Israel. Calling upon "backsliding Israel" to return from her transgressions and idolatries, the Prophet encourages their repentance by declaring, "I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you "with knowledge and understanding. 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; neither shall they visit it; neither "shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call "Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall "be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, "neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of "their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk "with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out "of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an "inheritance to their fathers." And still more expressly in a subsequent chapter, "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 Egypt (which my "covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, "saith the Lord :) But 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

* Compare Jerem. iii. 15 to 18. and xxxi. particularly ver. 31 to 34. with Heb. x. 15.

Jerem. iii. 15-18.

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"people. And they shall teach no more every man his neigh"bour, and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord; "for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the 66 greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more.' "* According to this prediction, the ancient Levitical covenant was to be dissolved, and the ordinances of Moses to be succeeded by a Law not in any degree typical, but entirely promotive of real virtue; not requiring ceremonies to preserve it, but in its very essence practical and influential, regulating the temper, and written in the heart.

* Jerem. xxxi. 31-34.

SECT. II.-The Law and the Prophets not only professedly designed to introduce the Gospel, but did in FACT prepare the way for it. Necessity of the Law as a preparation for the Gospel, shown by considering the probable state of the world, if Judaism had never existed-Extreme difficulty of introducing true religion in such a state of mankind—Such universal degeneracy prevented by the Jewish dispensation—Proved by a brief view of the facts adduced in this Work. Adherence of the Jews to their Law, proves the reality of a providential interposition-The prophecies delivered by Moses on this subject prove the same-The Law was typical and figurative of the Gospel-Instances-The moral character of the Law prepared for the Gospel-The connexion of the two schemes shown by various instances—The Jews employed as the immediate instruments for introducing the Gospel. Rejection of the Gospel by the mass of the Jewish nation does not disprove the connexion of the Law and the Gospel-Confirms the proof from prophecy-and from miracles.

GALATIANS, iii. 24.

"The Law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ."

In the last Section, I endeavoured to prove the consistency and the connexion of the Jewish and the Christian schemes, by adducing passages from the Law and the Prophets, showing that Judaism was from the first intended to introduce that Messiah" in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed;" that the Jewish Lawgiver himself intimated that God would

raise up another Prophet like unto himself, and consequently a Lawgiver, with authority to promulgate a new Law; and that the Prophets expressly foretold that the Mosaic ritual was to give place to a new religion of a perfectly spiritual kind, and calculated to embrace all the nations of the earth; declaring all this with increasing clearness, as the era of this great change approached. While, on the other hand, our Lord and his Apostles expressly refer to those predictions, as plainly pointing out the approach, describing the character, and establishing the divine original, of the Gospel. I now proceed to evince, that as the Law and the Prophets were thus avowedly designed to predict and introduce the Gospel of Christ; so they did in fact accomplish this design, their pre-existence being indispensably necessary to prepare for the reception of that Gospel, and in a variety of ways illustrating its importance and facilitating its promulgation.

To place this conclusion in a clear light, let us reflect what would probably have been the situation of mankind, as to religion and morality, if no such nation or system as the Jewish had existed, before the appearance of our Lord. It seems certain that the whole world would have been sunk in the most gross idolatry, and an almost total ignorance of the principles of natural religion.* The very idea of the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the universe would have been obliterated from the minds of men; or at most, thought of only by a few speculative philosophers, who had never ventured to inculcate the necessity of confining adoration to the one true God, or openly to condemn the absurdities and profanations of idolatry, which would have prevailed over the world uncensured, we may almost say unsuspected of error or depravity; since no purer system would have existed, to which an appeal might have been made, as clearly true, or supported by any acknowledged authority.

In such a state of religious blindness all expectations of a future retribution would have appeared ridiculous or incredible from the falsehoods and extravagancies with which that opinion had been universally encumbered and disgraced. The evidence

* Vide Part II. the entire Lect. I. and Lect. II.; Part III. Lect. I. sect. i. and Lect. II. sect. i.