been much obscured, it has not still been utterly taken away; but some vestiges of it are to be found, in every age, among all people. (Rom. i. 19-21.) It is still only by reason of sin, that men do not all learn the glory of God from his works, and are not all moved by their inward sense to understand the Moral law and to make it the rule of their conduct.

This law, we have said, never loses its force. Every human soul is at all times under its authority. Nor will it in any case give up the smallest part of its claim. It requires full obedience, or tremendous punishment, such as falling upon a creature, like man, must doom him to everlasting misery. "The law is holy, just, and goodand whosoever offendeth in one point, is guilty of allfor it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them— and again, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Rom. vii. 12. James ii. 10. Gal. iii. 10. Matt. v. 18.) According to this law, we are to be judged in the Great Day. Reader! have you not broken it times without number? How then will you appear before the judgment-seat of God? How will you stand in that awful trial, where a single offence is enough to condemn you for ever? Can it be that you have not yet begun to look out for some way of escape from so fearful a prospect?

The CEREMONIAL LAW of the Jews comprehended a vast number of precepts. It stood in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them till the time of reformation. Some of its institutions were appointed long before the time of Moses. Such was the institution of sacrifices, with the regulations which governed the pious in offering them, appointed in the very commencement of the church, immediately after the fall. Animals were divided into clean and unclean before the flood. (Gen. vii. 2.) As early as the time of Noah, the commandment was given not to eat blood. Abraham received the appointment of circumcision. From his time, we find in the brief history of the bible, traces of several other important regulations afterwards embraced in the Mosaic ceremonial law. So that some have imagined, we should find,

if we had a complete account of the religious usages of that early age, that almost all the principal rites, which their law required the Jews to observe, existed to some extent before, among their pious ancestors; or at least, that observances similar to them, and evidently having the same principle and intention, were not unknown. Moses, by the command of God, formed for the nation a full and regular system of ceremonial laws. Such rites as had been before appointed and in use, he sanctioned with new authority, and prescribed with particular care the manner and various circumstances which were to be connected with their observance. What was partial and imperfect before, he set forth with new, more formal and systematic, more extensive, and more expressive arrangement. Various precepts altogether unknown till that time, were added to complete the divine plan. The whole, thus framed together, made one harmonious scheme, conspiring in all its parts to secure the great purpose of its appointment.

One use of the Ceremonial law was to keep the Israelitish nation separate and distinct from the rest of the world, and to guard them from idolatry. To preserve the true religion, and to prepare the way for the coming of the gospel, God, in his wisdom, designed the Jewish people to be a people dwelling alone, amid the other nations of the earth. (Num. xxiii. 9.) The whole system of laws, civil and religious, under which they were placed, was such as was adapted to secure this end. Their Ceremonial law, espe cially, could not fail, if regarded in any measure, to keep them separate. It embraced many very peculiar precepts, and many that stood in direct opposition to the usages and manners of other people. It could not be completely observed except in the land of Israel; and its operation tended continually to shut out all foreign customs, and to draw a broad line of distinction between the seed of Abraham and every stranger. There was need of such a security, to keep the people from becoming utterly confounded with the nations around them, whose idolatry they were for a long time so ready to imitate. The safety of the church required, that it should be burdened and shut up with restraint, in this way. Hence, the apostle calls the Jewish law, a Schoolmaster, which, by salutary but se

vere care and discipline, secured the church under proper training, as it were, until the time when the gospel was introduced. Its obligation imposed a sort of bondage, such as children not yet of age were made to feel under tutors and governors; which ceased only when the fulness of the Father's appointed time was come, giving way to the liberty of a far more glorious dispensation. (Gal. iii. 19— 29. iv. 1-11.)

But there was another, which we are to regard as the principal design of the Ceremonial law. It was framed to shadow forth with figurative representation the most important spiritual truths; so that by its serious observance, believers who lived before the time of Christ might continually grow in knowledge and grace; and so that it should be afterwards, to the end of time, a most striking evidence of the truth of the gospel; by the wonderful prophetic image of gospel realities which men might discover in its whole system. It was adapted continually to remind the ancient Jew of the great evil of sin, and of the absolute need of complete atonement for its guilt before it could be pardoned. It represented strikingly the infinite holiness of God, and the necessity of his favour. It pointed to the great Provision, which God intended to reveal in its proper time, for the taking away of sin, and directed the eye of faith and hope to the perfect salvation that was to come. By signs it foretold the sufferings and death of Christ, and the whole work of redemption which he was to accomplish; and emblematically represented the great spiritual benefits that were to be secured in consequence. Altogether it was a grand TYPE of the system of grace unfolded by the gospel, and its several parts were, in general, figurative of particular most interesting realities, comprehended in that system. Thus we are told, the law had a shadow of good things to come. (Heb. x. 1. Col. ii. 17.) In the epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle teaches its meaning in this way, in many important particulars. Christ fulfilled this law by bringing actually to pass all that it typically signified, as he fulfilled the moral law by his life of obedience, and death of atonement for sinful men. (Matt. v. 17.)

We ought, therefore, always to inquire after their spiritual and typical meaning, when we read of the various in

stitutions of this ancient law. We ought to consider what reference they had to Christ and the wonders of the gospel. In this way, that part of scripture which treats of these things is to be rendered most profitable for instruction in righteousness. If it be not read thus, it is not read aright. We are now able to see more clearly, a great deal, than the ancient Jew could, the full signification of the ceremonial ordinances he was commanded to observe. Their meaning has been interpreted by events. Time, by unfolding the accomplishment of the things they represented, enables us to understand types which were once dark, just as it explains prophecies that were formerly as much obscure. Types are, in fact, of the same general nature with prophecies, only foretelling things to come in a different way. It becomes us, therefore, to study them with the same sort of attention, and to seek like instruction and spiritual benefit from both. The Holy Ghost designed one as well as the other to be so improved.

The history of the Jews, recorded briefly in the bible, shows them to have been a rebellious and stiff-necked peo-. ple in religion. They were ever ready to forsake the Lord, and fall in with the idolatrous practices of the heathen around them. Yet by the force of their law, and the oftrepeated judgments of the Almighty, they were kept a distinct people. For their sins they were at length carried away, however, into distant captivity. The kingdom of Israel, which had broken itself off from the house of David, and offended God with most dreadful apostacy, was then allowed to become lost among the nations. The kingdom of Judah alone was regarded as the visible church, with which the truth and promises of God were to remain deposited till the time of Christ. It embraced the tribe and family from which the Redeemer was to rise. (Gen. xlix. 20. Ps. cxxxii, 11.) It was enough, therefore, to answer the original design of God in separating the Jewish nation, that this portion of it, with whom were the promises, the written law, and the sacred service of religion, should be thenceforward preserved a separate people. Accordingly, they were so preserved in the land of their captivity, and after seventy years brought back again to their ancient country. The temple was once more builded, and the wor

ship which the law prescribed solemnly renewed. Thus the nation and the church were continued till the great Messiah appeared.

After the captivity, the Jews never again showed any inclination to fall into idolatry. Other sins of the worst kind prevailed greatly, but this they held in continual detestation. Their religion became, in the end, without life and without power almost entirely; but the letter and form of it they cherished with the most scrupulous care. No doubt, the affliction which the nation was made to suffer by its captivity, had much to do in producing this change. This was felt and remembered as an awful warning not to repeat the idolatry of former times, which had occasioned it. Its whole history, too, from the beginning to the end, by clearly fulfilling many prophecies, and unfolding many signal displays of divine power, afforded a demonstration most convincing, that Jehovah was the true God, and that besides HIM there was no other. Moreover, after the return from that captivity, new means were employed to secure the advantage of general religious instruction. This served to keep alive the memory of what was past, and so impressed the great truths of revelation upon the minds of all, that the evil and folly and danger of idolatry could never be forgotten. Religious instruction was secured, principally by the establishment of Synagogues and Schools. Synagogues were a sort of churches, where the people met by congregations through the land on every Sabbath, to hear a portion of the scriptures read and explained, and to join in social prayer before God. Regular schools for the instruction of the young, under the care of distinguished men, came also into use; and as this instruction was concerned chiefly with the knowledge of the sacred law, it tended much to preserve it among the people.

The ancient dispensation, together with all the movements of Providence in the revolutions of kingdoms and nations in the world, looked forward to the introduction of the gospel, and operated to prepare the way for its coming. Since that event, all things have been conspiring toward another point-the establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom over the earth, and the great winding up of the work of redemption which the Son of God has undertaken, since