grace he cannot rise into the sphere of the spiritual life, and when in it cannot perfect holiness as God requires it of him", may be perplexed at finding in the books of Moses love to God with all the heart made to the Jew the condition-not indeed of eternal life, for that the covenant of Sinai was a covenant of works in that sense is a fiction of divines, but certainly-of his retaining possession of Canaan, as if God were proposing to his creatures a blessing on the performance of a condition which they never could fulfil; let me request him, I to consider, whether he is not, from Christian habits of thought, unduly exalting the love of God required of the Jew at Sinai, to an equality with that spiritual affection which the natural man can never experience; whether this Jewish sentiment were not analogous in nature to the hearty allegiance of a faithful subject to a gracious sovereign and benefactor, though from the theocratical constitution of the state, it necessarily possessed a religious character. The requirements of the divine law must always be intrinsically the same; God

say,

" Art. x. xii. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 1 John i. 8, 9.

Deut. vi. 4, 5. Mr. Fairbairn (Typology, &c. ii. p. 153.) remarks, that the inheritance (of Canaan) was freely given by promise to Abraham and his seed, and therefore could not be acquired by obedience to the Law: this is true; but their retention of the gift was clearly made dependent on the observance of the covenant, which, among other things, or rather as comprising every thing else, required love to God. See Deut. passim.

can never be satisfied with less than the surrender of the heart, and the notion that the service required of the Jew was a mere outward one, or a mere abstinence from idolatry, is contradicted in every page of the Pentateuch; but the affection required may have varied somewhat in quality according as God manifested Himself as a temporal benefactor, or as a Redeemer from sin and its consequences. It was under the former aspect that the Jew contemplated Jehovah; and so fully appreciable even by the mere natural man were the benefits bestowed, that it may not have needed any spiritual influence, or at any rate but a small measure of it, to call forth the corresponding natural affection. On the commonest principles of morality the Jew ought to have heartily loved and obeyed his divine Benefactor, and the natural sentiments thus elicited were intended, under the growing light of revelation, and such spiritual aids as were given under the Law, to be gradually transmuted into something more properly spiritual; a transmutation which in the pious part of the nation did actually take place. If this be so, the Jew was expelled from Canaan, not so much, or so directly, because he failed in rising from natural to spiritual affections towards God, as because he failed, as he notoriously did, in exhibiting the natural affections. He "rebelled" as well as "vexed" the "Holy Spirit';" he slew the

y Isaiah lxiii. 10.

King's messengers, who came exhibiting their credentials; he, in heart and spirit, renounced his allegiance. And on this ground, not to speak of others, his expulsion was most just".

But I refrain from pursuing the subject further. Enough perhaps has been said to enable us to perceive, that the confessedly elementary character of the Mosaic economy, as a religious system, was rendered necessary by the spiritual incapacity of the Jew of Sinai, whether we attribute that incapacity to the deteriorating influences to which he was exposed in Egypt, or to the inherent imperfection of his religious standing, or, as I think is nearest the truth, to both combined. And I have dwelt the more fully on this subject, because the feature in question has, among others, been singled out by our Deistical writers for their attacks. How unworthy of the Deity, so the objection runs, how manifestly inadequate to express the true relations between man and his Maker, was this system, of which the most prominent characteristic was a multiplicity of rites and ceremonies, apparently arbitrary in their nature, with which the time and attention of the people

y Isaiah lxiii. 10.

The expulsion of the Jews from Canaan, notwithstanding the abhorrence of idolatry which, after their return from Babylon, they exhibited, need occasion no difficulty, if it be borne in mind, that from the first love to God, and not the mere abstinence from idolatry, was made the condition of blessing.

must have been chiefly occupied. And if we choose to forget the preparatory character of the Theocracy, and the ulterior objects of it, that is, if we separate Judaism from Christianity, we may, no doubt, find it difficult to vindicate the consistency of the former with our notions of a religion purporting to proceed from Him who is a Spirit, and who demands that they who worship Him should do so in spirit and in truth. But the Mosaic system was never intended to be a final one. It was a school of preparatory training, in which certain habits of thought and feeling were to be wrought into the national character by a forcible pressure from without; and under such a system the forms of religion are of paramount importance, for it is by these that the inner spirit is to be called into existence. The object aimed at is to hold human nature in a fixed mould until it has received the desired impression, and imbibed the spirit which lies latent or imprisoned in the form; the mould therefore must be of inflexible material, incapable of expansion and contraction, and of elaborate finish; and must press from without upon all parts of the religious life. The lawgiver will multiply rules, enjoin specific acts of religion, appoint "days, and months, and times, and years;" instead of general principles issue literal prescriptions; in short, construct such a religious polity as by the Divine wisdom, and

a Leland, Deistical Writers, i. Let. 12.

consistently as we trust it has been shewn with the Divine wisdom, was actually imposed on the Jewish people.

II. I proceed, with greater brevity, to make some remarks on the Theocracy, under the last point of view in which it presents itself to the reader of Scripture; as an earthly figure, or representation, of the future Kingdom of Christ, and of the relations subsisting between God and His people under the covenant of grace. Indeed this is not properly a distinct topic from the former; it falls under the idea of the Law considered as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ: for it belongs to the process of education not only to supply the lack of internal habits by the props of external discipline, but to present to the immature mind correct representations of things, though it may be under the form of parables or images. We may however consider the subject separately.

The reader of the New Testament then will soon discover that Christians, in their collective capacity, are there frequently represented under analogies drawn from the ancient covenant; as when they are described as "the Israel of God"," "the city of the living God," the "new" or "the heavenly Jerusalem," or as when St. Paul speaks of "our commonwealth (Toλírevμa) being from heaven," expressions manifestly derived from the c Heb. xi. 22. Gal. iv. 26. d Phil. iii. 20.

b Gal. vi. 16.

F