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quently the fountain of religious knowledge, became daily more close and constant, by the mutual wars and invasions of the Greeks and Asiatics, the settlement of the Grecian colonies in Asia, and the extended commerce of the Greeks and Phoenicians; until at length the conquests of Alexander cemented the two continents together, and rendered the Grecian language universal and popular over the East.

We now find the Jews placed in a different situation from any preceding period of their history.* We see a sufficient part of the nation restored to Judea, and there settled, to answer the primary purpose of forming a separate people, in order to preserve the Law and the Prophets, rebuild the Temple, and prepare the scene where the Messiah was personally to appear; where he was to verify the prophecies, particularly with respect to his descent, the place of his birth, and the minutest circumstances of his personal character and sufferings; where he was to promulgate his religion, and lay down his life for man. We e see another great body of the nation retiring into Egypt, building a temple there, publicly exercising their religion, and flourishing in such multitudes under the protection of Alexander and his successors, that the Jews in Egypt nearly, if not entirely equalled those of Judea, in number, wealth and influence; while they adopt the Grecian language so universally, that it becomes necessary to translate the Scriptures into Greek for their use,‡ and thus make them accessible to the learned and inquisitive in every country, whenever their attention should be excited to this study. And it should be remarked, that so necessary was such an adjustment of circumstances to produce this salutary effect, in opposition to the exclusive temper of the Jews settled in Judea; that this translation, which must have been received with such joy by the Jewish colonies, was regarded as the subject of national mourning by the Jews at Jerusalem.§

* Vide the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

+ Vide Prideaux's Connection, part ii. book i. sect. viii. vol. iii. p. 63; Josephus's Antiquities, book xi. ch. ii.; book xii. ch. i. iii. iv.; book xiii. ch. iii. as to the building of the temple in Egypt; also his History of the Jewish War, book vii. ch. x. sect. iii.; book xiv. chap. viii. and x.; also his work against Apion, book ii. sect. iv. v. and vi.; and the Universal History, vol. iv. book ii.

Vide Prideaux and Josephus, as quoted above; and the Universal History, vol. Fr. book ii. ch. i.

Universal History, vol. iv. book ii. ch. i. p. 28.

The unspeakable importance of this translation, which gradually included all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, has been already noticed.* By it the grand truths of religion, the history of Divine Providence, and the prophecies announcing the Messiah, became accessible to the learned and inquisitive, in every part of the then civilized world. All possibility of either questioning the existence, or falsifying the contents of those prophecies was thus precluded, and the stability of this signal proof of Revelation secured; though the rulers, doctors, and priests of that nation, with whom they had been originally deposited, rejected that divine Personage, whom these prophecies announced; and must therefore have wished, had it been in their power, to alter their contents, in order to disprove their application.

About the period when this translation was completed, we see the Ptolemies collecting the celebrated library at Alexandria, which for such a length of time formed the greatest depository of learning in the world, and which was so much admired and imitated by other princes.† And its being formed in the very same city with the most numerous colony of the Jews in Egypt, while it must have attracted thither all foreigners who were solicitous to acquire learning, must also have given them an opportunity of observing a form of religion so singular as that which the Jews maintained; and of inquiring into its principles and origin; an inquiry which the translation of the Scriptures into Greek rendered practicable; while the cessation of prophecy amongst the Jews, soon after their restoration from captivity, closed the canon of the Jewish Scriptures, and proved that the knowledge which that translation could supply was perfect and complete.

The same providential system of preparation for the introduction of a pure and universal religion, was equally conspicuous in many other gradual movements in the world, all concurring to promote the same effect. The inquisitive and vain-glorious turn of the Grecian character multiplied philosophic sects; which by their perpetual disputations directed the attention of mankind to religious and moral speculations; and gradually undermined the influence, by exposing the absurdity of Pagan superstition and idolatry. And though they did not substitute in their room any * Vide pp. 4 and 5.

Vide Prideaux, part ii. book i. vol. iii. p. 21.; and book ii. p. 103.

perfect system of natural religion, yet in their controversies many of its great truths were occasionally debated upon with spirit and subtlety; and though not clearly proved or practically inculcated, became the objects of general interest and curiosity. And 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 was likely to be more attentively listened to, and more thankfully and joyfully received.

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Connected with the same system, and tending to promote the same effect, was the great and permanent extension of the Roman empire. This 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 66 himself " '—Our Lord alone answers his character-Christ a priest after the order of Melchisedek-Meaning of this declaration explained in the Epistle to the HebrewsArgument in this Epistle, ch. x.-Jeremiah prophesies 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 come not to destroy, but "to fulfil."

THE series of facts adduced in the last Lecture, might be sufficient to show 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.

It shall be the object of this Lecture to refute this objection, by showing 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 pro-. mised blessing was not obscurely intimated by the immediate circumstances attending the divine declaration.

* Gen. xii. 3. Ibid. xviii. 25.

+ Ibid. xviii.

|| Vide Supra.

Ibid. xxii. 16.

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