the "holy seed," therefore, the posterity of Abraham not merely after the flesh but after the spirit, that was to "break forth on the right hand and on the left," and ultimately to form, in conjunction with the olive branches graffed in from the Gentile world, one spiritual body under Christ its Head, one kingdom the essence of which should consist, not in worldly splendour or external characteristics, but "in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost"." In short, that part of the covenant with Abraham which related to temporal promises having been fulfilled, and now approaching its termination, the other part of it, which spoke of spiritual blessings, began to come into view, and to merge into the future Gospel covenant, from which, by the intervention of the Law, it was temporarily separated, but with which it was, in reality, one. And the features of this latter covenant, new in one sense but old in another as being, in fact, prior to that of Sinaia, are such as these:-It was to usher in an era of light and truth as distinguished from the preceding one of type and symbol"; it was to be accompanied with an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit, whose gifts, instead of being confined, as heretofore, to a few, were to be bestowed in rich abundance, and promiscuously;

* Is. vi. 13.

y Rom. xiv. 17.

* Νόμος δὲ παρεισῆλθεν, ἵνα πλεονάσῃ τὸ παράπτωμα. Rom. v. 20. a Gal. iii. 17. b Is. xl. 5-9. lx. 1-3.

e Joel ii. 28. Is. xxxii. 15.

Lord to Jeremiah,

an effectual atonement for sin, and a cleansing of the heart, of which the legal sacrifices and lustrations were but the shadows, were to be amongst its provisions. My hearers will for themselves fill up from Scripture the outline thus given: I content myself with adducing one passage in which all the characteristics of the Gospel dispensation seem summed up. "Behold the days come," is the word of the "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, though I was an husband to them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more"."

And thus I conclude this inadequate sketch of the nature of the prophetic function, and of the principal contents of the volume of prophecy.

Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27. xi. 19.

e Jer. xxxi. 31-34.

If I have succeeded in describing these contents aright, it will be seen that a perfect harmony exists between the lessons which the law taught by symbol, and those which prophecy more directly enunciated; that each illustrates the other, and both combine to direct us to Him who was at once their Author and their Object. The survey of some of the principal of the Mosaic institutions which has now been completed, suggests many practical reflections. Perhaps the most obvious, but not the least important, is, the responsibility which the possession of spiritual privileges brings with it, and the danger of unfruitfulness under the means of grace. "What could have been done more to my vineyard," was the just complaint of the Owner, "that I have not done in it?" but when " He looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes'." The nation, as such, entirely fell short of the blessing proposed to it; but the failure was owing to no lack of means and appliances on God's part, but to an obliquity of temper on man's, which neither mercies nor chastisements could rectify. And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged: but there shall come up briars and thorns: I will also command f Isaiah iv. 1—4.

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the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." The past and present history of the Jewish people, in their unexampled sufferings, their dispersion, and their humiliation, is the best comment upon this threatened judgment; monuments of the severity, as they once were of the goodness, of God, they illustrate the principle, that "unto him that hath . shall be given, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Yet by a wonderful Providence they have been preserved, we trust for a brighter destiny yet to come. The admonitory lesson will be lost upon us who occupy their place, as the people of God, if it lead us not, individually and nationally, to prize more highly, and cultivate more faithfully, our spiritual advantages, and the talents committed to our charge; talents bestowed not to be buried in a napkin, or to be misapplied to the purposes of selfish indulgence, but to be employed in the service of the gracious Giver; talents not our own, but lent to us as stewards, and for the due cultivation of which we must give account at the day of Christ.

Isaiah v. 5.

h Matt. xxv. 29.

LECTURE VI.

ROM. ii. 28, 29.

He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

In the preceding discourses the Mosaic economy has been considered under its external aspect, as a system intended to operate on the Jew from without inwards, and expressive of the ideas proper to true religion; in this point of view the Theocracy in general as a polity, and its two principal institutions, the ceremonial law and prophecy, have successively engaged our attention. I proceed, according to the arrangement indicated in my first discourse, to make some remarks on the Jewish religion in its interior features, or, to inquire into the effect actually produced on the pious part of the nation by the various appliances of discipline and instruction which it was its privilege to enjoy.