to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end."* Moses died and was buried. Jesus died and "was buried, and rose again." Moses received the law; Christ gave it. Moses and Elias attend the Saviour on mount Tabor, as his ministering servants; Jesus receives their attendance and homage, as their Lord. Having spoken of the resemblance between the authors of the two dispensations, we proceed, as was proposed, to speak in the same view of the two dispensations themselves. and the type, having fulfilled its design, was lost in the thing typified; and those which, being temporary and transitory, ceased with the occasion of them. Of the first sort are the precepts of the decalogue, or the ten commandments; which, under every constitution that affects such a being as man, must be immutable and everlasting. Of them it is that Christ said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Of the second class are the laws of the daily sacriAnd first, They rest on one and the same fice, the great annual feasts, the levitical authority, are dictated by the same unerring priesthood, and the like. They pointed out wisdom, and are directed to the same great Christ the Lord, they led to him, they were and glorious end. Indeed, one of the great lost in him. And in the third rank we place proofs that both are of God is the conformity the law of circumcision, the political econoof both to the nature and condition of man. my of the Jewish nation, all that related to The precepts of the law are not novel con- the possession of Canaan, and which ceased stitutions, which had no existence till the of course with the dissolution of their godays of Moses: neither are the consolations vernment, and the loss of their national imof the gospel new discoveries of grace, un-portance. These observations being attendheard of till the four thousandth year of the ed to and kept in mind, will prevent the world. Sinai thundered and lightened in confusion arising from the ambiguous acAdam's conscience the moment he tasted the ceptation of the word "law," as expressing forbidden tree, and drove him to seek refuge the Old Testament dispensation. "from the presence of the Lord God amidst the trees of the garden." The terrors of the law raged in Cain's guilty breast, long before there was any record written on brass or stone. And the promises of pardon and salvation are coeval with the conviction of the first offender, and the denunciation of his punishment. The tongue which pronounced on man the doom of death, proclaims the glad tidings of life and recovery. I know that the law is of God, for I have that within me which acknowledges and approves its rectitude and excellency; and even when it condemns me, I am constrained to call it "holy, just, and good." I know that the gospel is of God, for I feel that within me which welcomes its approach, discerns its suitableness, rejoices in its fulness, rests upon its truth. It is of God, for it descends to the level of my guilt and misery, corresponds with my hopes, suits my necessities. Our blessed Lord took an early opportunity of explaining himself on this subject. An absurd idea prevailed, that the kingdom of the Messiah was to be a total subversion of the Mosaic dispensation. An absurdity into which some Christians have inadvertently, given, for want of making a plain and necessary distinction, between those particulars of the law which are in their own nature eternal and unchangeable, like the nature of that God who is its author; and those, which being typical and prophetical, ceased of course when the predicted event arrived, *Heb. iii. 1, &c. The law, then, and the gospel, the two tables of stone delivered to Moses, and the "grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ," coincide, secondly, in this, that they both point out with equal clearness and force the necessity of a Saviour. Every word pronounced by the voice of God from Sinai, is in truth a sentence of condemnation. While it enjoins future obedience, it fixes past guilt. While it says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath," it accuses of idolatry. While it recommends the observance of the sabbath, it charges home the violation of it; and so of the rest of the precepts of the decalogue. The law, therefore, carried the gospel in its bosom, as the new changed moon exhibits a great body of obscurity, embraced by a small semicircle of light; but which is to be irradiated by degrees, till the whole becomes one great globe of light and glory; and Moses performs the part of "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." To hear of a constitution by which I might have lived, after my life is forfeited, is only to embitter my misery. It is like hearing of a cordial after a man has swallowed poison. Now it could never be the design of the gracious Lawgiver to insult human misery, by holding out a system which could avail the guilty nothing. While, then, the divine justice lays down the law in all its strictness, purity, and extent, saying, “I am *Matt. v. 17, 18. the Lord who will by no means clear the | tance from God. The one, by enumerating guilty;""Cursed is every one who continu- and declaring our offences; the other, by eth not in all things which are written in enumerating and declaring the tender merthe book of the law to do them;"* the good-cies of our God. The law treats us as ness which condescends to give a law at all, alienated friends, whom it is needful to conthe wisdom which explains it, the patience vince, to reprove, and humble. The gospel that forbears to punish its transgression, considers us as friends restored, no "longer all plainly and distinctly proclaim the ne- strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens cessity and the existence of an atonement, with the saints, and of the household of and lead to "the bringing in of a better God;" "once darkness, but now light in the hope." Lord: once afar off, but made nigh by the blood of Christ." The law shows us how far we have deviated from the path of duty and happiness; the gospel conducts us back through our wanderings, unravels the intricacies and errors of our dark steps, and replaces us in our father's house. Moses informs us that we are wrong, "like sheep going astray:" Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life," and takes us under the care of "the shepherd and bishop of souls." Moses points out the dreadful depth into which we 66 ven to hell; Christ reveals the glorious height to which we are raised, the glorious distance from hell to heaven. Moses tells me what I ought to be and to do; Christ makes me such as he would have me to be. "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom alsc we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."* Thirdly, The spirit of both dispensations is a spirit of love. God enforces upon Israel obedience to the law from Sinai, by the consideration of his being the Lord, which "brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:" "who has borne them on eagle's wings, and brought them to himself." And "love" on the part of man "is the fulfilling of the law." "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great command-have fallen, the dreadful distance from heament. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." The gospel, in like manner, has its source in love, the love of God: and its great aim and end is to produce love to God. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And we love him because he first loved us." "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." And, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." "He that says he loves God, and hateth his brother, is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" And, when both shall have produced their full effect, "perfect love shall cast out fear," the voice of God shall be unaccompanied with thunder and lightning, cloud and tempest. The storm is in the mind of the guilty creature. The wrath of fire is not in God, but in fallen man; in "the carnal mind, which is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."** When that is extinguished, all is at peace. The aim and labour of the gospel is not to reconcile God to man: but to reconcile men to God: for "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him."+t Fourthly, Both the legal and evangelical | dispensations equally discover to us our dis *Gal. iii. 10. ↑ John iii. 16. John xiii. 35. **Rom. viii. 35. + Matt. xxii. 37, &c. 66 But the law was delivered to the world in a very different manner from the publication of the gospel; in fire that burned, in tempest that roared, in a cloud that darkened, in words that threatened. It awed men into distance; it inspired terror. But the gospel comes in light that consumes not, in glory that dazzles not, in language that threatens not. The law says, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death. There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and * Eph. ii. 1, &c. 66 if the alarm of judgment to come, shake the foundation of the everlasting hills; if Sinai tremble, and the rocks melt before the Lord, coming as a Protector and a Friend, what must the sessions be, the great day of doom, the awful hour of execution when the judge shall come "in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."* "When the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat."+ "Consider this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." many of them perish."* The gospel says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." But to the impenitent and unbelieving, the gospel speaks the same terror which the law did from Sinai; nay, it wears a still more frowning aspect. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile." "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was "Now of the things which we have spoconfirmed unto us by them that heard him."|| | ken, this is the sum: We have such an High "He that despised Moses's law died without Priest, who is set on the right hand of the mercy, under two or three witnesses; of throne of the majesty in the heavens; a mihow much sorer punishment, suppose ye, nister of the sanctuary and of the true tabershall he be thought worthy, who hath trod-nacle, which the Lord had pitched and not den under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace."I And on the other hand, to them that believe, the law speaks in the mildest, gentlest language of the gospel; for "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." 11** "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin."+"And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." I know not whether the whole Bible contains an expression of goodness more singular and striking than these words which issued from the mountain that burned with fire. Our fears are alarmed at the mention of the great and dreadful name "The Lord God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." But justice has its limits. It may be stretched out to the third or fourth generation of offenders. Yet the "Lord will not strive continually, neither will he keep his anger forever." But grace knows no bounds. When mercy is to be extended, it looks forward and forward, from a third and a fourth, to thousands of generations of them that love God. In what promise of the New Testament is the love of God preached more sweetly than in this precept of the Old? man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this Man have somewhat to offer. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry; by how much also he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord; I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts; I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities I will remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." And all "this is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious."|| We are assembled this night, my brethren, the subjects of the law; the students of the gospel; the expectants of Christ's second appearance. "See then that ye resist not him that speaketh from heaven.". Ye are happily set free from the law of ceremonies; happily subjected to the law of morality; and "not * 2 Thess. i. 8. †2 Peter iii. 12. 1 Psal. 1. 22 § Heb. vii. 1, &c. 2 Cor. iii. 6, &c. without law unto Christ." "Stand fast therefore in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." Enjoy and improve what you have; affect not more than a wise providence permits. Look forward to that day when you shall join an innumerable company of angels, yourselves like the angels of God in heaven; when you shall associate with the spirits of just men made perfect, yourselves perfect as they are; when you shall add your voices to the celestial choir, in singing "the Song of Moses and the Lamb;" when you shall see the face of God without dying, and hear his voice without quaking for fear. "Now unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. LECTURE LV. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.-2 TIMOTHY i. 8-10. in view through the whole extent of its duration, and is to be pursued through the endless ages of eternity. Do you need, Christian, to be told what it is? The salvation of the world by Christ Jesus. It is a little thing to say, that Abraham saw his day afar off: that of him Moses wrote, Isaiah prophesied, David sung, and Paul preached. "These things the angels desire to look into." On this exalted theme the everlasting counsels of peace revolved; to mature them, the powers of heaven and earth were shaken; and to bring them to their consummation, a new creation shall expand infinite space, and a succession of ages that are never, never to expire. Placed at whatever point in this immense sphere, our eyes are still attracted to the glorious Centre, from which all light, and life, and joy, issue; and in whose light every inferior orb revolves and shines. EVERY dispensation of the Divine Provi- | who worketh all things after the counsel of dence seems to be the basis and the prepara- his own will." One great object was kept tion of a farther display of wisdom and good-in view before the world began, is still kept ness. The last discovered purpose of the Eternal Mind, is the continuation, the extension, and the improvement of that which immediately preceded it; and the glory hitherto displayed in the ways and works of God, however excellent, is hastening to lose itself in "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" yet to be revealed. Periods of immeasurable, incomprehensible duration had flowed, before this fair and majestic frame of nature was called into existence. For we read of a purpose of grace formed and given "before the world began," and of "a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world;" of an election made, and of "eternal life promised, of God who cannot lie, before the foundation of the world." Who can tell what systems have preceded that which now exists? We know from scripture that one more glorious is to succeed it. "According to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."* And who can tell what future systems may arise in endless progression? As well might the fluttering insect, which was born in the morning and perishes at night, presume to dive into the ages beyond the flood, or with bold, adventurous wing attempt to soar into the heaven of heavens, and declare the wonders of the world of spirits. But though system may succeed system, though dispensations change, one thing is immutable," the gracious purpose of Him 2 Peter iii. 13. The epistle of the great apostle of the Gentiles from which I have taken the subject of this Discourse, is addressed to Timothy, whom he styles his "dearly beloved son in the gospel," and who had been ordained first bishop of the church of the Ephesians. Paul himself was at that time a prisoner at Rome, and totally uncertain respecting the issue of a cause which affected his life, before the imperial court. What mercy, what justice was to be expected from such a prince as Nero--the monster who could fire his country, shed the blood of his virtuous preceptor, and destroy his own mother? But we behold We shall endeavour to connect our past and following Course of Lectures, by the view here presented to us by the apostle, of the plan of Providence in the redemption of the world; and the execution of it, "by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.”— And you will be pleased to observe, in the prisoner a spirit much exalted above | the conduct of the leader and commander of the fear of a tyrant, a mind prepared for the Israel, or of the Champion of Christianity, worst that could befal him, and expressing we are equally led by "one" and the same anxiety, not about personal safety, but about “Spirit” in “one hope," to "one Lord, one the success of the gospel, and the steadfast- faith, one God and Father of all, who is above ness of a beloved disciple. He solemnly all, and through all, and in all." charges that disciple not to suffer himself to be one moment shaken in the faith, by the persecution to which the cause of Christ had exposed himself, or the ills which he might still be called to endure for the testimony of Jesus: and, to enforce his charge, he suggests a view of the gospel which eclipses all created glory, "stills the enemy and the avenger," plucks from death his sting, and robs the grave of its boasted victory. He represents Timothy and himself as engaged in a cause, which the great God himself, before all worlds, regarded as of superior importance, and made peculiarly his own; which "at sundry times and in divers manners" he disclosed, and which at length, "by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, he made manifest" to all men. Paul glories in the idea of being a worker together with God in this generous design; in his appointment to the office of "a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles," in the great mystery of godliness; in displaying and dispensing to a guilty, perishing world, the unsearchable riches of Christ-who had "abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." I. It is God's own purpose. The contrivance, the discovery, the progress, the accomplishment, all, all is from heaven. In what relates to this world, in what contributes to the sustentation and comfort of a transient life, human sagacity, ingenuity, and industry may challenge a little praise. Men soon invented and improved the necessary, useful, and ornamental arts. They soon learned to build cities, to work in brass and iron, to "handle the harp and organ." But their dexterity, address, perseverance, and success in the pursuit of perishable interests, form an humiliating contrast with their awkwardness, indolence, inattention, and incapacity in their higher, their spiritual, and everlasting concerns. Wise in trifles, or to do evil, how to do good they find not. The experiment was permitted to be fully made. It was proved how far the powers of nature could go. Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, improved one upon another; and what was the result? "The world by wisdom knew not God." They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." In tracing the history of the patriarchs who lived both before and since the flood, from Adam to Abraham, and from Abraham to Moses, we have endeavoured to point out this unity of design, this steadiness of co-operation, this progress of discovery. By whatever name the typical person is designated, patriarch, prophet, high priest, under the Old Testament dispensation; whatever be the designation of the ministering servant under the New, apostle, evangelist, pastor, or elder, To increase our wonder and mortification, the office and the end of the institution is when God's purpose of mercy was declared, one and the same-to declare the Son of God, when his method of salvation was revealed, the Saviour of men, "for the perfecting of men were "slow of heart to believe." They the saints, for the edifying of the body of" resisted the Holy Spirit;" Christ “ came Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."* to his own and his own received him not.” The disciples themselves understood not, believed not “what the prophets had spoken." No wonder then that the doctrine of the Borne down the current of divine revela-cross was "to the Jews a stumbling-block, tion, we have arrived with Israel at the and to the Greeks, foolishness." Here then mountain that burned with fire, and at awful is a purpose, which not only is not of man's distance, with trembling eyes beheld its sum-forming, but which man uniformly and viomit involved in clouds, clothed in terror; lently opposed. In other cases, we behold and with wonder and joy contemplated the cloud dispersing, the thunder ceasing, the terror done away, and Mount Sinai transformed into Mount Zion. Whatever farther progress we make, in whatever direction we proceed, we shall find this exceeding high mountain still in view; and, whether under * Eph. iv. 13. the wisdom of God blending itself with human counsels, directing, subduing them to its determination, and the great God graciously condescending to divide his glory with the creature. But if there be a design more peculiarly his, from which he claims undivided praise, which was not, which could * Eph. iv. 5, 6. † Rom. i. 22, 23. |