death, it is but to see the place where the Lord lay: if we follow those we love to the grave, it is but to see where the ministering angels sat, who proclaimed, "He is not here, but risen." And though in the midst of life we are in death, and we know not how soon we may be called away, yet docs Christian faith enable us to walk safely, and lie down in peace; knowing that we have a better inheritance and another tabernacle, and a life that cannot be holden of death.

Thus high is our state of blessedness; thus clear and distinct our hope. And fearful in proportion is the danger of those who forget their heavenly calling, and walk as children of this present world, setting before them their own desires and selfish purposes, instead of taking up their cross daily, and following Christ. For from the crowd of their fellow-sinners, and the shelter of this world's deemings, they shall pass alone and unfriended into the presence of God the Searcher of hearts: who shall then restore to them that which they have lost,—or how shall they abide his justice, who have rejected his grace?

If then there be wisdom, if there be faith, if there be purity, hold fast that which ye have until He come; that ye may sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.

LECTURE VIII.

THE USE OF THE LAW.

GAL. iii. 19.

Wherefore then serveth the Law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

THAT the character of the Mosaic law should have presented a difficulty to the minds of Christians, is not to be wondered at. For we are not in a situation to take fully into account the circumstances under which that law was given, or the purposes intended to be answered by it. We know but little of the dealings of Providence on a scale so extended: we can hardly grasp in our imagination the process necessary for educating a whole race of men, with reference to an assigned future object. We can but imperfectly conceive the lifting one nation out of its place to be a pattern to mankind; the acting of a great and lasting parable, whose meaning was hereafter to be opened, but which for the time, and to

those who look at it alone and unconnected, should seem unreasonable and unmeaning.

Now my purpose being to establish the consistency of the Divine conduct in the revelation of Redemption, and my former Lectures having treated of those foundation truths on which the spiritual temple of God is built, and established the fact of their manifestation to the ancient Churches; it will greatly conduce to the completeness of the argument, if, in this concluding Lecture, I may be able to give some account of that economy under which the people of God were placed for so many ages preceding the advent of Christ. If I can shew that its character and its provisions were consistent with the Divine proceedings in general, and adapted to further the end then most desirable, it will tend not only to remove out of the way the greatest hindrance to the kind of evidence with which I am concerned, but will help to build up and confirm the argument itself.

This then, with some general considerations on the nature of the evidence which I have been endeavouring to adduce, will occupy us on the present occasion.

I will first direct your attention to the circumstances of the Church of God, at the giving of the Mosaic law. A vast mass of traditionary knowledge was deposited in the congregation of Israel. The depravation of man by sin; his

recovery by the death of a promised incarnate Redeemer; the gift of the Holy Spirit, already vouchsafed as the earnest of redemption accomplished in the Divine counsels; the spiritual and eternal character of the blessings thus promised and granted,-we have reason to infer that a traditionary belief of all these things formed the ground of faith in those days, and among that people. With these doctrines, and as the means of their conservation and proof, had come down to them sacrifice, and the priesthood, and the prophetic word. From among them was to spring the Deliverer—the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel.

But by both these was first a great work to be accomplished, and a solemn testimony borne. He whose thoughts are not our thoughts, has vouchsafed to open to us this portion of his dealings with man. Even with that which is revealed do our understandings grapple at a disadvantage; for what arm of flesh can wield the sceptre, wherewith the Almighty governs his creatures? It was his pleasure that both by Gentile and Jew, the insufficiency of man to attain to Himself should be fully and practically manifested. It was his pleasure to conclude all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be to them that believe.

The nations of the world, gifted with some portion of primæval light-and even in default of

that, with the universal light of reason and conscience-retained not God in their knowledge. Their light they clouded with mystery and superstition: the witness within them they overbore and neglected, till his voice was scarcely heard. Some sunk down in the scale of being, almost below humanity; others advanced to the highest possible eminence of intellectual culture. But neither could the debasement of the savage quench the immortal soul, or exempt from the guilt of sin; nor could the keen shafts of thought penetrate the darkness, in which the knowledge of evil had enwrapt the knowledge of good. Deep and deadly was the progress of moral corruption; feeble and insincere were the remedies applied. The light that was in them became darkness; and how great was that darkness!

But how fared the chosen people of God in the midst of this fearful testimony to the ruin which sin had wrought? Had they no part to bear in it, no lesson to read to them that should come after? Might it not yet be said, that all these nations were ignorant of God's ways,-that they had not the glory of his presence, nor the convincing sound of his voice? might it not be yet asserted, that if God would take a nation from the midst of the people with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm, and would give them what to do for Himself, statutes and judgments, they might live in them? might it not be alleged on