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ness and the poor with judgment." And the extent and effects of his dominion are described in terms applicable only to the Messiah's reign. "In his days shall the righteous flou“rish: and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the "river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wil"derness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the "dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents the kings of Arabia and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, “all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve "him." The nature of this homage, and its motives, are declared to be spiritual and religious. "For he shall deliver the "needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save "the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from de"ceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight. His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be "continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in "him: all nations shall call him blessed." Enraptured at the glorious prospect of the universal dominion of Him, in whom, according to the promise made to Abraham," all nations were "to be blessed," the Psalmist exclaims, "Blessed be the Lord "God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. "And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole "earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen.”

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Isaiah, the great evangelic prophet, is still more explicit in predicting the extension of the Messiah's kingdom over the Gentile world; and that the character of the religion to be by him established, would be in the highest degree spiritual and comprehensive, free from any local or national restriction, and unincumbered with any burthensome ritual or ceremonial observances and yet that Israel should be instrumental in forming this kingdom, and should (ultimately at least) partake the blessings it confers. "It shall come to pass," says he," in the "last (or latter) days, that the mountain of the Lord's house "shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be "exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. "And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God "of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will

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"walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, "and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke* many people: "and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword "against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."+

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This prediction of the extent and effects of the Messiah's reign, though exactly descriptive of the genuine character of the Christian religion, and its perpetual tendency to produce the full effect here described, yet undoubtedly peculiarly relates to a period in the history of the church of Christ not yet arrived; to the final result of a system yet in progress; which, whenever it shall be accomplished, will display in full lustre the wisdom and the mercy of the divine dispensations. But it is such a result as the continuance of the Jewish ritual, and the restrictions of the Jewish law, could never produce. It therefore implies an improvement of that law, and a breaking down of that wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles founded on the Mosaic ritual, which the Messiah, appearing as a new lawgiver, could alone have authority to remove.

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In various subsequent chapters, the Prophet with still greater clearness predicts the extension of the Messiah's kingdom over the heathen world. I select only one passage, as remarkable from its connecting this prediction with the declaration of the Messiah's humiliation: and therefore proving the kingdom described by the Prophet, was spiritual, not temporal. "And 66 now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and "my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light "thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes “of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my "salvation to the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the “Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of "rulers; Kings shall see and arise; princes also shall worship

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* Instead of " he shall rebuke many people," Lowth translates, "he shall work con"viction in many peoples," which gives a much more clear and consistent sense. Isaiah, ii. 2, &c.

"the name of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of "Israel, and he shall choose thee."*

Thus expressly do the Prophets foretel the universal extent and the spiritual nature of the Messiah's reign. Now, had no distinct and direct intimation been given, that a change must take place in the character of the religion established by divine interposition, in order to fit it for this greater extension, and more spiritual efficacy; yet the nature of the case would compel us to infer the necessity of such a change.

A religion which was to be received in every nation and region of the globe, could not, like the Jewish Law, require that all the adult males of every nation professing it, should visit the temple at Jerusalem three times each year, to celebrate the three great festivals:-this would be physically impossible. It could not enjoin the observance of those various rites, ceremonies, and institutions, which were either commemorative of events in which the Jewish nation alone were interested, or which were calculated to separate them from all other nations, by a marked opposition of laws and manners :—this would be totally unnatural and irrational, when it was predicted, that the Jewish dispensation should terminate in a religious system, calculated to attract, not to repel, the rest of mankind, and destined to embrace all the nations of the earth.

It is indeed unreasonable to expect that the Jewish Lawgiver, at the very moment he was delivering his law, should be directed by God to weaken the reverence of the nation for it, by declaring that its duration would be short, and its obligation transitory: or that while he was labouring to impress the necessity of avoiding all similarity of manners, principles, and religion, with the surrounding nations, he should at the same moment distinctly announce, that it was for the sake of these very nations, ultimately, that the peculiar scheme of the Jewish institutions was formed, and that this scheme would terminate in the abolition of all the distinctions now established.

We know the Jews were at that time at once dull and carnally minded, very averse to the restraints their law imposed, and above all, to its prohibitions against imitating the manners of their neighbours, sharing in their festivities and idolatries,

* Isaiah, xlix. 5—7.

and uniting with them by intermarriages.* And we can hardly conceive it possible for Moses to have expressed to them such sentiments as these, without utterly alienating them from the system he proposed, and subverting the influence of his laws by the very manner of promulgating them; and this without the least conceivable necessity for acting so hazardous a part, or the prospect of any advantage to be derived from it.

The divine wisdom is indeed most conspicuous in the conduct of this as of every other part of the Jewish scheme. In the infancy of the Jewish people, while they were immature in intellect, and wedded to external objects, a law adapted to that state, and calculated at the same time to prepare for a more universal and perfect religion, was employed to control them by its restraints, while it attracted and engaged them by its ceremonies and its festivals. During this stage of their progress, it was unnecessary, and would probably have been injurious, to have announced distinctly the future abrogation of the ceremonial law, and the admission of the Gentiles into the Church of God. But as soon as the adherence of the people to that law was sufficiently secured by its long establishment, and by the erection of the temple, the prophets were empowered to predict this constantly intended change in the divine dispensations, with perpetually increasing clearness as that change approached.

It ought however to be observed, that the Jewish Lawgiver, to prevent all suspicion of inconsistency in the divine conduct, not only recorded the promise to Abraham,† and the prophecy of Jacob, but was himself empowered to intimate the purpose of God, to send at some future period another lawgiver, authorized to promulgate a new law.

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This seems plainly the purport of his celebrated prophecy, delivered towards the close of his own ministry. "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of "thy brethren, like unto me: unto him ye shall hearken. Ac"cording to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in the "day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice "of the Lord my God; neither let me see this great fire any 66 more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They "have well spoken that they have spoken. I will raise them

* Vide supra.

+ Ibid.

Ibid.

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up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and "I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto "them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which "he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him."*

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It has been justly observed that this Prophet, to be like unto Moses must be a LAWGIVER; for this appears the essential distinction between him and all inferior prophets. † We cannot suppose the divine Messenger thus pre-eminently marked out, was to do nothing more than cause the ancient statutes of his predecessor to remain as originally established; since that essential character of similarity would thus be wanting, and no sufficient reason would appear for his mission being peculiarly predicted. And since the promulgation of a new law implies a change of the pre-existing system, the certainty of such a change being intended may be fairly inferred from this prophecy.

We cannot but observe how accurately the meek and humble tenor of our Saviour's life, and the merciful nature of all his stupendous miracles, accords with the motive assigned by the Jews, for imploring that they might not again receive the will of God in the same manner as they had done at Mount Sinai; even the overwhelming terror with which they were then filled, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God; neither God, in"let me see this great fire any more, that I die not." dulgent to this weakness of human nature, approves of and grants this entreaty: and as the mode of impressing the Jewish law was suited to its nature as a system of coercion : Gospel scheme, which proclaimed not only "Glory to God in "the highest," but " on earth peace, and good will to man," was ushered in with the most attractive manifestations of mildness

Deut. xviii. 15, &c.

so the

Vide Newton's sixth Dissertation, where it seems to me clearly proved that this prophecy cannot be applied either to Joshua or any other successor of Moses, as judge or king: nor yet to any single prophet or succession of prophets; particularly from the three concluding verses of Deuteronomy, probably added by Ezra, and the history in Numbers, xii. from 1 to 8.-Vide also Mr Faber's Horæ Mosaicæ, Vol. ii. Book ii. sect. 3. ch. 3. This learned writer has very fully treated of the subject of this entire Lecture, in his second Book, to which I would refer my reader; as I conceive it unnecessary for me to dwell more fully than I have done, on a subject which has been so lately and amply discussed by this learned Divine.