case with the Jew in the later period of his history? On the one hand, the Law had attached to the Levitical sacrifices the power of atonement; "I have given it (i. e. the blood) upon the altar to make atonement for your souls;" "on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord;" expressions which can by no means, I apprehend, be limited to purely ceremonial offences. On the other, both the Psalms and the Prophets speak in depreciation of these sacrifices, while the fact of their repetition year by year, and the natural progress of religious knowledge, must have convinced the worshipper of their inherent insufficiency. It seems as if the contradiction could hardly have failed of arresting attention; and how could it be explained? Plainly only on the supposition of a future effectual sacrifice, apart from their connexion with which the Mosaic sacrifices were worthless, but from their connexion with which they derived an atoning virtue. That such is the explanation of the apparent discrepancy we know; but what I would observe is, that it was no difficult matter for the Jew to arrive, from independent reflection, at some insight into the truth. And when to this we add the prophetical delineations of the Messiah's office of vicarious atonement, couched, as in Isaiah liii, in terms drawn from the legal sacrifices, their

minds must have been dull, and their hearts slow, who were not able to connect law and prophecy together, and surmise an Object in whom both should be fulfilled.

Thus amidst the ruins of the visible Theocracy did the inner Theocracy of the Spirit gradually develope itself, and become more and more distinct in character as the advent of the Saviour approached; and so inwardly as well as outwardly was the way of the Lord prepared. A contrite spirit, a longing for deliverance from both the guilt and the power of sin; trust in the promises of God; and a hope of future redemption; such was the general frame of mind which the discipline under which he was placed tended to form in the ancient believer. The Law indeed having conducted its disciple thus far could do no more for him; for further advancement it must resign him to a more efficient teacher. What Moses began, Christ came to perfect. Yet the religion of the Christian differs in degree only, not in kind, from that of his predecessor under the old covenant; the same essential elements which in a heightened form, corresponding to the fuller measure of knowledge, and of spiritual influence, vouchsafed, are found in the former, belong also to the latter. In the Jew who was one inwardly we see all the lineaments of the Christian character, though not as yet the perfect image; and thus by

x Luke xxiv. 25.

the inner bond of the spiritual life not less than by the external one of history and the written word are the two dispensations connected, and pass the one into the other. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth'." What life does the Christian more wish to live, what death to die? We recognise in such confessors a true portion of the body mystical of the Lord; one with us in the essential unity of the Spirit; one in hope and destination; and hereafter, at the manifestation of the sons of God, to form, with us, one redeemed Church, in which there will be "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ” will be "all, and in all"."

LECTURE VII.

ACTS xv. 21.

For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every sabbath day.

It is generally admitted that our Lord came, not merely to promulgate certain doctrines, or to establish an unseen fellowship of the Spirit, but to found a visible society, or rather visible societies, in which the doctrines should be professed, and the invisible unity of the Spirit outwardly manifested: Christianity, in short, was to possess, not merely a religion, but a church. During His earthly ministry, Christ more than once intimated that His followers were to form associations among themselves; and before He left the world He appointed the two visible ordinances, one of which marks the commencement, the other the continuance, of fellowship with Himself and with His people. When on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended, the apostles and disciples were assembled together; and thenceforward it was

a Matt. xvi. 18; xviii. 17.