LECT. gofpel cometh after the law; and carried

1.

into effect what the law could not accom

plish, but only exhibited in profpect; as Mofes died on mount Nebo, with only a distant view of the Holy Land. After the death of Mofes, a new generation of people, under the command of Joshua, were conducted to many fignal victories, which opened a way to the promised inheritance, that reft which was to put a period to their wanderings in the wilderness. As the Saviour of the Hebrews, he was honoured with that very name which was afterwards given to him, who came after Mofes, to be the Saviour of the world. Joshua knew the excellence of that country to which he was leading the people, and encouraged them to prefs forward to the enjoyment of it, through all the dangers of which they were afraid. The land, fays he, is an exceeding good land: if the Lord delight in us then he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey-fear ye not the people of the land, for they are bread for us; their defence

* Ch. iv. 8.

us.

I.

is departed from them, and the Lord is with LECT. And fo it came to pafs; the mighty inhabitants of the land fled before them, and the walls of Jericho fell down flat, after the priests had encompaffed it with the ark, and blown with the rams horns, as they had been commanded. All this was fulfilled at the wonderful propagation of the gospel under the conduct of Jefus Christ. The powers of the world were all against it; but the found of the gospel from the mouths of the apoftles prevailed against them all. Weak and contemptible as the means might appear which God had appointed, the end was anfwered. Idolatry was overpowered: Satan was caft out of his ftrong holds, which he had fo long poffeffed in peace; and the kingdom of the world became the kingdom of our Lord and of bis Chrift.

Here it is a wonderful thing to confider, that the Canaanitish nations, who poffeffed the land promised to the people of God, were all Idolaters, or Gentiles as they are called, such as the Roman empire and all

LECT. the kingdoms of the world were before the

I.

establishment of Chriftianity. This cir-
cumstance is taken notice of and applied
in the apology of St. Stephen against the
Jews. Our fathers, faid he, had the ta-
bernacle of witness in the wilderness—which
also our fathers that came after brought in
with Jefus into the poffeffion of the Gen-
tiles. The tabernacle of God was tranf-
ferred to the Gentiles, and there eftablished
under Joshua; to fignify in a figure, that
the church, under Jefus Chrift, should be
transferred from the Jews to the Gentiles.
The first set of people who came out of
Egypt, rebelled against Mofes, and refused
to hear the exhortation of Jofhua: fo they
died in their unbelief, and their carcafes
were left in the wilderness. But those
who came after (as St. Stephen words it)
the fucceffors of that disobedient genera-
tion, entered with the tabernacle into the
poffeffion of the Gentiles; as the new
children of Abraham, who came after the
apoftate Jews, followed the true Jefus,
when his religion was tranflated into the
heathen world.

1.

The time is yet to be expected, when LECT. every power of this world, and the other fhall fall before him. As thofe wicked Canaanites were driven out of their land, when the measure of their iniquities was filled up; fo fhall the wicked be driven out of the earth, when that vengeance of God shall overtake them, which they have so long held in contempt and defiance. The world itself fhall be furrounded by the Son of God, as the Captain of our Salvation, and the army of faints and angels which fhall attend upon him at his coming. The last Trumpet shall found, and the world fhall be overthrown, as Jericho fell flat, when it had been compassed about feven days by the priests and minifters of God. When the priests blew, as they were commanded, at the time appointed, and all the people fhouted with a great shout, (Josh. vi, 5.) the fortifications of that proud city funk at once into a heap of ruins. With reference to which history, we are reminded that the Lord himself fhall defcend from heaven with a shout, (1 Theff. iv, 16.)

with

LECT. with the voice of the archangel, and with the

I.

trump of God.

It pleased the wisdom of God to describe beforehand, in the manner I have now explained to you from the Old Testament, the things relating to the person of the Son of God, as our Lawgiver, our High Prieft, and our Saviour; with the works he was to perform for the redemption of mankind. Wonder not that they were all fo particularly delineated by ceremonies, figns, and miracles. They are so great and important, that had they been written in the firmament of heaven as plainly as they are written in the books of Mofes and the Prophets, they would have been worthy of it.

END OF LECTURE I.