concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people : and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.”

Hence appears the temporary necessity of the Levitical Law, in which, by a continued succession of rites and ceremonies, the attention of the people might be entirely engaged, so as to guard them from their secret bias to idolatry. Their washings and purifications were tedious and burdensome; but then they represented to them the importance of inward purity and of unblemished manners. Their oblations and sacrifices of every kind, were rules of rigour and severity; but then they marked out to them the heinousness of sin, and were designed to raise, on the one hand, awful ideas of God's justice, and on the other hand, comfortable ideas of his mercy. It is true that St. Paul, though educated in all the prejudices with which the greatest zealots of the law could inspire him,—and though, at one time, he was a most strenuous and most bigotted defender of it,— calls that very law "a carnal commandment," and all its ceremonies "weak and beggarly elements,— and gives the sarcastic title of concision, to that very circumcision which his countrymen the Jews regarded as a distinguishing mark of their own superi

ority over the rest of mankind. Yet by him those rites were slighted so far only as they were dimmed and eclipsed by the lustre of the Gospel, or as they were injudiciously cried up and magnified, by those who, neglecting the true use and design of them, were intent only upon the shadow, and who valued the shell and surface of religion, without knowing its intrinsic excellence and use.

The state, therefore, of the Jewish law was this. The moral part of it was eternal and unchangeable ; -for it was the law of reason, of conscience, and of God. The ceremonial part was only secondary and subordinate,-useful for a season,-and serviceable as means conducing to some important ends. It never was the intention of Moses to establish an institution absolute and complete, but only such as was fittest and most proper for the particular exigences of time and place. He did not, therefore, contemplate the notion of making the ceremonial part of the law universal, or binding upon all mankind: he meant it only for one small body of men,--the Jewish nation: -nor, in short, did he enforce it as an ordinance for ever, or of perpetual duration, but only to continue till Christ, the Great Deliverer should appear. These were the ends that Moses had in view; and the mild and devoted perseverance with which that inspired servant of God pursued his measures for the promotion of these ends, was the foundation of his lasting His merit, as a private individual, placed him high in the ranks of distinguished men ;-the

renown.

office of prophet and legislator, with which the Almighty invested him, was a peculiar and pre-eminent honour ;-wise, indeed, beyond example, he was as a legislator; and, as a prophet, he was mighty in word and deed;-he triumphed not only over the learning but the arts and arms of Egypt ;-and he prepared the way for the appearance, and trained his countrymen to the expectation, of a greater Prophet and Lawgiver than himself:-but, amidst all this, his greatest praise among posterity rests upon the gentle and unsubdued patience with which he endeavoured to give effect to the laws he had promulgated.

The questions," Of what service was the Jewish law to mankind in general?" and "What was the expediency or the benefit of the Mosaic Dispensation? -may thus be satisfactorily answered.-It was the first step towards the overthrow of idolatry, which, at that time, was prevalent throughout the world. The religion of nature, and the worship of one only God, were, it is true, retained here and there in a private family; but they were not observed or established in any one nation upon the face of the earth.

Now, it is not the usual method of God's providence to bring back mankind to their duty, by force or by any sudden process, so as to take them by surprise; but he proceeds with them gradually, and leaves them opportunities to use their own understanding, and to exert their virtue. Thus the truth, which was once confined to private families, was

established in one entire nation; and thence, it gradually spread itself over a great portion of the globe. Besides;-as the nations by whom the Jews were surrounded, were notoriously addicted to idolatry, and overrun with impurity of worship and impurity of practice, the danger of being infected, by commerce or familiarity with them, was provided against by the ceremonial law, which entirely engaged their attention, and kept them in continual employ. Nor were all these ceremonies barren and insignificant. They reminded that stiffnecked and rebellious people of the necessity of true holiness and inward purity, by the help of such outward representations as would soonest engage their notice and observation. Of this their prophets were continually admonishing them; for their writings are full of warnings and rebukes, charging them not to put their trust in any thing short of righteousness and sincere religion.

But this law was of the greatest importance, as typically representing and alluding to the Messiah ; -the most material of its rites having a direct and immediate reference to him, and to his character and office. It was a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image (or substance) of the things themselves." "The law was a schoolmaster, to bring the Jews unto Christ, and to bring other nations also, who had the opportunity of being acquainted with it. For the Christian dispensation, though last in order of time, was chief and principal in the intention. God was pleased not only to

establish emblems and types of the Messiah, before his appearance, but also to appoint the nation, and the very family in that nation, in which he was to be born. By other methods, he also foretold the time and manner of his birth, and laid down the marks of his person and doctrine, that when he should appear, he might be known and acknowledged. The law was only a shadow of the important points brought to light by the Gospel. "The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”