subject necessary in controversy with the modern Jew; who, rejecting Christianity, takes from us the power of pressing him with interpretations of the Old Testament derived from the New, and throws us back on the reverse process, of first interpreting his own Scriptures from themselves and without extraneous aid, and then shewing that in Christ both Law and Prophets have been fulfilled.

You will remember that in the preceding Lecture such was the method pursued. Placing ourselves in the position of the Jew before the New Testament was written, or even prophecy had begun to unfold the distinctive features of the Redeemer's work, we endeavoured to interrogate the ceremonial law, in its appointments of priesthood and sacrifice, on the import of its symbolism; and found the principal ideas which it embodied to be, man's natural pollution in the sight of a holy God, the consequent separation between the two, the Divine mercy in making the first overtures to repair the breach, and the necessity of mediation and atonement as the means of reconciliation.

But however favourably the Mosaic system, in contrast with other contemporaneous religions, may come forth from these investigations, we cannot vindicate its divine origin solely on the ground of its superior ethical character, and apt expression of the spiritual wants of man. For however difficult it may be to account for the sudden appear

ance of such a religion, amidst the abominations of surrounding modes of worship, this exemption from impurity will not of itself stamp it as divine; it may in this case have been, as a German writer expresses it, "the first of the ethnic religions, but still ethnic." The authentic signature of heaven is still wanting, viz. the prophetical character, the constructed reference to future events, which, if it can be satisfactorily established, proves, beyond all doubt, that the system in which it inheres is not from man but from God. For whatever unaided reason may effect, to deliver a real prophecy, to construct a real type, is confessedly beyond its power.

Admitting the divine origin of this religion, we shall find ourselves not the less embarrassed if we cannot point to a typical fulfilment of its appointments. For however high it may rank as a human production, as a divine institution it is so manifestly weak and rudimentary, that, if we are to hold that it was not preparatory to something higher and better than itself, we must abandon it to the sneers of the deist, and the less open, but not less dangerous, insinuations of the rationalist. Take the particular appointment on which we have been dwelling, that of sacrifice. Atonement, the expiation of sin, is the declared end of the Levitical sacrifices; yet the instrument of cleansing is the blood of bulls and goats, than which none can be conceived more inadequate to its purpose.

Reason and Scripture both assure us, that animal sacrifices can in themselves have no expiatory power, yet under the Law they were exalted into a means, if not of taking away, yet of covering, sin; how can we reconcile the apparent contradiction but by the supposition of some future effectual expiation, unrevealed indeed, or only dimly intimated, to man, but present to the mind of God, the virtue of which had a retrospective effect, and conferred on its temporary substitutes a cleansing power which did not naturally belong to them? And generally the structure of the Mosaic religion is such, that if it be supposed a final one, its appointments become difficult of vindication; they could neither satisfy, though they might express, the wants, nor correspond to the conceptions, of the more enlightened worshipper; they become, in short, reduced to "beggarly elements," not merely, as the Apostle uses the expression, in comparison of the superior glory of the Gospel, but in themselves and absolutely. The more important therefore is it to satisfy ourselves that they had prospective uses, that they were intended to prefigure the great truths of redemption, and that if the divine Author of the Mosaic institutions Himself, by the destruction of the temple, and the dissolution of the national polity, brought the elder dispensation to a close, it was because, the reality being come of

a Gal. iv. 9.

which it presented the shadow, it was no longer needed.

Now both in the Old and in the New Testament Scriptures, man is represented as sinful by nature and by practice; as an inheritor of a corrupt nature, and as an actual transgressor of the divine law. In consequence of this departure from his original righteousness, an estrangement took place between him and God; on man's part a sense of guilt drove him from the Divine presence, on God's that attribute of His which we call justice, or righteousness, exhibited itself under the form of displeasure against sin. In this there is nothing that is not accordant with our own moral sentiments; fallen as we are, we make a difference between virtue and vice, and this faculty of moral judgment, so far from being an evidence of imperfection, is a proof that the temple of human nature is not wholly in ruins, that the image of God in man is not wholly obliterated. Sentiments analogous to those, the possession of which distinguishes us from the fallen angels and makes us capable of spiritual recovery, it is surely no great effort to believe may exist in the highest intensity in Him who is the perfection of holiness. But the same God who cannot but hate sin, is a God of infinite love; and in the exuberance of His love devised means whereby

b Ps. li. 5. Rom. v. 12; viii. 7, 8. Ephes. ii. 3. c Rom. i. ii.

d Gen. iii. 8.

the penal consequences of transgression might be averted, and the way opened to reconciliation between the sinner and his Maker. These means consisted in the appointment of a Mediator, God manifest in the flesh, by whose interposition in our behalf, involving His own sufferings and death, the gracious design was effected, and man restored to the capacity of fellowship with God here, and of eternal life hereafter. In this too there is nothing contrary to our natural ideas; our great writer on the Analogy of religion has abundantly shewn, that the principle of mediation, whereby through the intervention of others the evil consequences of vice or carelessness are repaired or mitigated, pervades the whole of God's visible government of the world".

Such is the scheme of mercy in its most general outline; but it is with the specific nature of the great Mediator's work and office with which we are at present concerned, and to which we must confine our attention. The work of Christ then is described by the sacred writers of the New Testament (for on the field of prophecy I do not in this Lecture enter) under the two principal heads of intercession and sacrifice, according as the Redeemer is regarded as a Priest, or as an offering for sin. Permit me to bring together some of the Scripture statements on these points

e Butler, Anal. Part ii. c. 5.