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perfect system of natural religion, yet many of its great truths were occasionally debated upon with spirit and subtlety, and though not clearly proved or practically inculcated, they yet became the objects of general interest and curiosity: so that the want of further information, and above all of such divine instruction as should remove men's doubts and terrors on these most awful subjects, was felt and acknowledged by the most sagacious and reflecting minds; and therefore such instruction would be more attentively listened to, and more thankfully and joyfully received.

Connected with the same system, and tending to promote the same effect, was the great and permanent extension of the Roman empire; which broke down all the barriers of separation between the Eastern and Western worlds, united the Euphrates and the Thames under the same masters, and blended all the civilized states of Greece and Asia, of Africa and Europe, in one great community; in every part of which the Grecian language, now the language of the Sacred Records, became as it were the common tongue of the learned and the polite; while a perpetual intercourse between the various parts of this mighty empire, the establishment of a firm and regular police through its whole extent, and, above all, that universal peace, which its undisputed ascendancy, secured through the entire civilized world, when the Gospel of peace was first promulgated; all these circumstances secured to the teachers of that Gospel ready access to all the nations of the world capable of profiting by the sacred truths they taught, and gave men leisure to consider their unspeakable importance, and examine the evidence to which they appealed.

* Vide Leland on the Necessity of Revelation, Part i. ch. xxi.; Clarke's Evidences of natural and revealed Religion, in Prop. vii.

LECTURE VI.

JUDAISM PREPARATORY TO CHRISTIANITY.

SECT. I.-Objection derived from the supposed inconsistency of the Jewish and Christian schemes-The Law and the Gospel consistent-Jewish scheme intended, from the first, to introduce the Gospel—Proved from the promise to Abraham-Circumstances attending the repetition of this promise, show that Abraham was a type of Christ-Jacob's prophecy concerning Shiloh-Psalm ii. xxii. xlvii. lxvii. and lxxii.-Isaiah ii. and xlix.-These prophecies clearly prove the Mosaic Law was to introduce and then give place to the Gospel-Why Moses did not expressly announce the intended abrogation of the Mosaic Law-He has intimated this in his promise of a prophet to arise " like unto himself”—Our Lord alone answers his character-Christ a priest after the order of MelchisedeckMeaning of this declaration explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews-Argument in this Epistle, ch. x.- —Jeremiah prophecies the substitution of the Gospel for the Law-And the spiritual nature of the Gospel.

MATTHEW, V. 17.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to "fulfil."

THE series of facts adduced in the last Lecture, might be suffi cient to shew that the Jewish dispensation was calculated, not only to preserve true religion amongst the Jews, but to check idolatry, and diffuse religious knowledge amongst the surrounding nations, as far as appears to have been practicable in the state of mankind, at the various periods when these facts took place; and above all, that it was fitted to operate as a preparation for the introduction of that spiritual and universal religion promulgated by the Gospel of Christ. But in opposition to this inference we find it alleged, that the Jewish scheme could not, from its very nature, operate as preparation for the Gospel, being of an opposite, and, as is asserted, even of a contradictory character, expressly declaring itself of eternal obligation, while it as expressly is confined to a single nation, excluding all the rest of mankind. And hence, it is said, these systems of religion cannot both proceed from God.

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It shall be the object of this Lecture to refute this objection, by shewing that there is no inconsistency between the Mosaic and Christian dispensations; but that the Jewish Law was from the first intended not to be of eternal obligation, but declared to be subservient to and introductory of the Gospel, with which it is connected by a perpetual unity of design, and an accurate correspondence of parts, all centering in one grand object-the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom, for which the Jewish scheme was an indispensable and effective preparation.

That this scheme was from the first intended, not for the exclusive benefit of the chosen people, but as instrumental to the introduction of a universal blessing to mankind, is evident from the very first promise made to Abraham, which, to the personal and national blessing with which it encouraged and rewarded the faith and obedience of the Patriarch, added this remarkable declaration, as the crown and completion of all: "And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."* A declaration again repeated to the same Patriarch on two solemn occasions, first, on disclosing to him the intended punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and receiving with the most gracious condescension his humble but earnest intercession in favor of those few righteous who might be found in those receptacles of guilt;† and again, still more emphatically, in consequence of his obeying the voice of God, and "not withholding his son, his only son."+

It deserves to be particularly noticed, that in the former of these transactions, the Patriarch interceding with God as "Judge of all the earth,"§ was an evident representation of that GREAT INTERCESSOR, whose appearance was predicted in the promised blessing; and that in the latter he beheld, in the commanded sacrifice, and the providential restoration of his only-begotten son, the clear representation of the only-begotten Son of God, prefiguring at once the voluntary sacrifice and the triumphant resurrection of that Christ who was the promised seed, "in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." So that in both cases, but especially the last, the nature of the promised blessing was not obscurely intimated by the immediate circumstances attending the divine declaration.

* Gen. xii. 3.

+ Ibid. xviii.

‡ Ibid. xxii. 16.

§ Ibid. xviii. 25.

|| Vide Supra.

As the Patriarch thus "rejoiced to behold the day of Christ," it cannot be doubted but he communicated to his family this joyful hope, and explained the great object to which it was di rected; so that when the same promise was solemnly renewed, first to Isaac,* and afterwards to Jacob,† its meaning and object were distinctly understood by these Patriarchs; and that wher ever the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is referred to, or the covenant which God made with them and their posterity, recognised as the glory and the hope of Israel, this essential part of it, the promise of the Messiah, and the blessing by him to be communicated to all the nations of the earth, must have been equally and perpetually recognised as the great object of the Jewish scheme, to which every other part of it was instrumental and subordinate. So that the original foundation and primary characteristic of this scheme, far from being partial and exclusive, avowedly extended to all the nations of the earth, and centered in that Messiah, who is the grand object of all the divine dispensations, from the creation of the world to its close.

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This original and perpetual purpose of God, to extend the effects of the Jewish dispensation to all the nations of the earth, is also most clearly recognised in the celebrated prophecy of Jacob; "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come: and unto him "shall the gathering of the people be." Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the event described, and the period marked out by the "sceptre's departing from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet ;" there appears no reasonable ground for doubting, that the word Shiloh designates the Messiah, and that the gathering of the people to him pre-signifies the extension of the church to all nations without distinction.

The admission of the Gentiles into the church of God is indeed an event which the inspired Psalmist predicts, in a vari

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Genesis xlix. 10.—I am disposed to adopt Warburton's interpretation of this prophecy, in preference to any other; and to believe that it denoted the continuance of the theocratic sceptre over the Jews, which remained until our Saviour came, who instituted in its place his kingdom, "not of this world." Warburton, Book v. sect. iii. subsect. iii. Vol. iv. p. 243 to 266-The interpretation of Patrick, from Wagenseil, seems the next in clearness and probability.-Consult also Newton's fourth Dissertation; Poli Synopsin, Dodd, and the Bibliotheca Biblica, in locum.

ety of passages, with the greatest clearness; and which all the Prophets dwell on with such distinctness, copiousness and animation, as prove, beyond controversy, that this great consummation was uninterruptedly the leading object of the divine purposes and communications, to which the whole Jewish scheme was merely preparatory and subordinate. It is expedient to cite a few passages to illustrate this assertion; a few however will be sufficient, for its truth is so certain, that it scarcely requires confirmation; and the passages establishing it are so numerous, to transcribe them all would be at once tedious and unnecessary.

In Psalm ii. which is clearly and exclusively prophetic of the Messiah, the Psalmist asks," Why do the heathen rage, and "the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set "themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the "Lord, and against his* Anointed, saying, Let us break their "bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." This clear prophecy of the resistance which would be attempted. against the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom, is followed by as clear a prediction that this opposition would be ineffectual: "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his "wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set "my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree "the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have "I begotten thee." Thus emphatically and distinctly does the inspired Penman predict the divine nature and supreme exaltation of the Messiah; and he then proceeds to declare the universal extent of his dominion: "Ask of me, and I shall give "thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts "of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with

* All the versions agree in translating this passage in a manner applicable to the Messiah. The Chaldee Targum uses the very word Messiah, and the Seventy the word Christ or Anointed, Vide Biblia Polyglotta Waltoni. Indeed the 7th, 8th and 12th verses are entirely incapable of being fully accomplished, or clearly understood, except as applied to the Messiah. The only variety of any moment is in the 12th verse, where, instead of "Kiss the Son," (i. e. as we explain it, adore him) all the versions, except the Syriac, read, "receive instruction, lest the Lord be angry," &c. This makes the sense more clear and coherent, and is justified by a very slight change in the original. Yet Houbigant, whose authority is considerable, retains the present reading of our Hebrew text, and translates it, "Adore the Son."

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