Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the work of redemption, the great mystery | phet from among their brethren, like unto of godliness, excel in glory!

thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him."*"Search the scriptures," says Christ," for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words."+

The persons, characters, and offices of the two legislators, therefore, naturally fall to be first considered, in tracing the resemblance of the two covenants which were established with mankind through their mediation.

In the discoveries which it has pleased God, at sundry times and in diverse manners to make of himself to mankind, he has at one time addressed himself directly to the understanding at another, made his way to the heart and conscience through the channel of sensé. The law was given in every circumstance of external pomp; it was accompanied with every thing that could dazzle the eye, fill the ear, and rouse the imagination. The kingdom of God, in the gospel of his "Son, came not with observation." The great Author of the dispensation of grace, according as it was predicted concerning him, "did not strive nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets." He had, in the eyes of an undiscerning world, "no form nor comeliness, no Of the birth of Moses, and salvation to Isbeauty why he should be desired." And rael by him, there seems to have been a getherefore, "he was despised and rejected of neral expectation in his own nation, and an men." But we are taught to think very dif-apprehension of such an event as general in ferently of his second appearance. "He the minds of the Egyptians. Hence the shall come in the clouds of heaven, with bloody decree of Pharaoh, to destroy from the power and great glory:" "In his Father's womb all the male children of the Hebrews; glory, and all his holy angels:" "With the and hence, on the other hand, that eagerness voice of the archangel, and the trump of God." to save a child, who, from the moment of its The manner of delivering the law corres- birth, exhibited unequivocal signs of his fuponded with its nature. It was clothed with ture greatness and usefulness. When Christ thunder. It was surrounded with the black- came into the world, multitudes were looking ness of darkness. It emitted flaming fire. It for the "Consolation of Israel." The prodenounced death. The spirit of the gospel, phecies concerning the promises of the Mesin like manner, breathed in the mode of its siah, were evidently hastening to fulfil thempublication. The doctrine of peace and re-selves. The Jews expected their king: Heconciliation was delivered to men, in the ten- rod dreaded a rival. The person of the proderest accents of human friendship. And temporal mercies and deliverances prepared way for "spiritual and heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus."

the

We are now to bring these two dispensations together, and to compare the one with the other, in order that we may discover and admire that uniformity of design which they jointly aim at promoting, the mutual lustre which they shed upon, and the mutual aid which they lend to, each other.

By "the law" we understand the whole of that scheme of the divine providence which related to the posterity of Abraham; the promises which were made to them, the ordinances prescribed, the character which they bear, the events which befel them, from the day in which that patriarch left his kindred and country, till the day when the whole was swallowed up and lost in the person, doctrines, ordinances, life, sufferings, and death of Him, who was held up from the beginning as the great, leading, commanding object in the eternal eye! the accomplishment of the promises, the substance of the types and shadows, the "end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

Moses and Christ frequently speak of their mutual relation and resemblance. "I will raise them up," says God by Moses, "a pro

mised Saviour was pointed out by signs in heaven, and signs on earth, which it was impossible to misunderstand. An extraordinary star describes an unknown path through the air to the place of his birth. A multitude of the heavenly host proclaim the joyful event to the shepherds. It was revealed unto Simeon by the Holy Ghost, "that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Conducted of the Spirit he came into the temple at the moment when Christ was presented there, according to the law. He recognizes the promised of the Lord, and closes his eyes in peace. Anna, the prophetess, instructed by the same Spirit, gives a similar testimony, and speaks of "the holy child to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem."}

The circumstances of extreme danger which attended the birth of Moses and of Christ, and the wonderful means of their preservation and deliverance, constitute a striking mark of resemblance between them. Behold the long-looked-for deliverer of the Jewish church and nation, ready to perish by the hand of Pharaoh: and the great King and Head of the Christian world, threatened by the murdering dagger of the tetrarch of

[blocks in formation]

Galilee; while the earth was watered with the blood of their infant brethren. Moses is saved from destruction by the daughter of the tyrant who sought his life; he finds an asylum and a school in the house which he was destined to plague and to humble. And Jesus of Nazareth finds shelter in Egypt from the fury and jealousy of Herod.

The personal beauty and accomplishments of the Israelitish lawgiver were probably intended to typify, in an inferior degree, the personal glory and excellency of Him, concerning whom the prophet thus writes"Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee forever."*

The wretched state of Israel when Moses was born, and of the world when Christ came to save it, are a melancholy and affecting counterpart to each other. The former, subjected to the arbitrary authority of a sanguinary tyrant; the latter in dreadful captivity to the prince of the power of the air, that "murderer from the beginning;" "that spirit which ruleth in the children of disobedience."

Their mental qualities present a lovely and an instructive similitude. "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Compassion for his afflicted brethren, early discovered the temper, and marked the character of Moses, the man of God. Sympathy with the miserable, and that sympathy effecting seasonable relief for them, marked the paths of the Son of God through a world of wretchedness. "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue now with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way." "When he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd." Over the grave of Lazarus "Jesus wept." "When he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."¶

to all his land: and in all that mighty hand, and in all that great terror, which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel."*No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Moses was king in Jeshurun, and conducted the thousands of Israel through many difficulties and dangers to their destined habitation; Jesus, God's "anointed King over his holy hill of Zion," brings his "many" spiritual "sons unto glory."

To constitute one deliverer for Israel, Moses and Aaron must unite their talents, must combine their force, must conjoin their offices: the prophet must co-operate with the priest; two distinct persons carry on one design; but, in the Saviour of the world, all talents, all virtues, all offices meet and centre: the prophetic inspiration of Moses, Aaron's pleasantness and grace of speech; the regal dignity of the one, the sacerdotal purity of the other. In order to put Israel in possession of the promised land, Joshua must succeed to Moses, and happily finish what his master has so successfully begun. But the great Captain of salvation needs no coadjutor, can have no successor: "He gives grace and glory;" He leads his redeemed through the wilderness, introduces them into Canaan, maintains them in quiet and everlasting possession.

Other lines of resemblance will appear as we prosecute the history, and shall not therefore be anticipated. But we must not dismiss the subject without pointing out wherein the likeness fails, and how much the type falls short of the object which it represents.

The wonders performed by Moses in Egypt were wrought by a power delegated to, and conferred upon him for the purpose. The miracles of Christ were produced by a power original and inherent. Moses, though the meekest of all men, was betrayed into rashness, lost temper, and "spake unadvisedly with his lips." But in Jesus behold a spirit which was never ruffled, a tongue in which guile was never found; lips that never offended; a mind which no insult could disturb, no unkindness provoke; nor even the horrid pangs of an unmerited death rouse to resentment. "Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this

The offices which Moses and Christ were called of Providence to execute, present us with points of likeness which it is impossible not to see, and equally impossible to mistake. "And there arose not a prophet since in Is-man was counted worthy of more glory than rael like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face; in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants, and

[blocks in formation]

Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were * Deut. xxxiv. 10, &c. † John i. 18.

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 sacrifice, the great annual feasts, the levitical priesthood, and the like. They pointed out Christ the Lord, they led to him, they were lost in him. And in the third rank we place the law of circumcision, the political economy of the Jewish nation, all that related to the possession of Canaan, and which ceased of course with the dissolution of their government, and the loss of their national importance. These observations being attended to and kept in mind, will prevent the confusion arising from the ambiguous acceptation of the word "law," as expressing the Old Testament dispensation.

And first, They rest on one and the same authority, are dictated by the same unerring wisdom, and are directed to the same great and glorious end. Indeed, one of the great proofs that both are of God is the conformity of both to the nature and condition of man. The precepts of the law are not novel constitutions, which had no existence till the days of Moses: neither are the consolations of the gospel new discoveries of grace, un heard of till the four thousandth year of the world. Sinai thundered and lightened in Adam's conscience the moment he tasted the forbidden tree, and drove him to seek refuge "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.

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.

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 The law, therefore, carried the gospel in upon its truth. It is of God, for it de- its bosom, as the new changed moon exhibits scends to the level of my guilt and misery, a great body of obscurity, embraced by a corresponds with my hopes, suits my neces-small semicircle of light; but which is to be sities.

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.

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 Thirdly, The spirit of both dispensations blood of Christ." The law shows us how is a spirit of love. God enforces upon Is- far we have deviated from the path of duty rael obedience to the law from Sinai, by the and happiness; the gospel conducts us back consideration of his being the Lord, which through our wanderings, unravels the in"brought them up out of the land of Egypt, tricacies and errors of our dark steps, and out of the house of bondage:" "who has replaces us in our father's house. Moses borne them on eagle's wings, and brought informs us that we are wrong, "like sheep them to himself." And "love" on the part going astray:" Jesus is "the way, the truth, of man "is the fulfilling of the law." "Thou and the life," and takes us under the care of shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy "the shepherd and bishop of souls." Moses heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy points out the dreadful depth into which we mind. This is the first and great command-have fallen, the dreadful distance from heament. And the second is like unto it, Thouven to hell; Christ reveals the glorious height shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On to which we are raised, the glorious distance these two commandments hang all the law from hell to heaven. Moses tells me what and the prophets." The gospel, in like I ought to be and to do; Christ makes me manner, has its source in love, the love of such as he would have me to be. "And you God: and its great aim and end is to produce hath he quickened who were dead in treslove to God."God so loved the world, that passes and sins, wherein in time past ye he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- walked, according to the course of this ever believeth in him should not perish, but world, according to the prince of the power have everlasting life." "And we love him of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the because he first loved us." "The love of children of disobedience: among whom also Christ constraineth us, because we thus we all had our conversation in times past, judge, that if one died for all, then were all in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires dead and that he died for all, that they of the flesh, and of the mind; and were by which live should not henceforth live unto nature the children of wrath, even as others. themselves, but unto him which died for them, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great and rose again." And, "By this shall all love wherewith he loved us, even when we men know that ye are my disciples, if ye were dead in sins, hath quickened us together have love one to another." "He that says with Christ; (by grace ye are saved) and he loves God, and hateth his brother, is a hath raised us up together, and made us liar. For he that loveth not his brother sit together in heavenly places in Christ whom he hath seen, how can he love God Jesus." whom he hath not seen?" And, when both But the law was delivered to the world in shall have produced their full effect, "per- a very different manner from the publication fect love shall cast out fear," the voice of God of the gospel; in fire that burned, in tempest shall be unaccompanied with thunder and that roared, in a cloud that darkened, in lightning, cloud and tempest. The storm is words that threatened. It awed men into in the mind of the guilty creature. The distance; it inspired terror. But the gospel wrath of fire is not in God, but in fallen man; comes in light that consumes not, in glory in "the carnal mind, which is enmity against that dazzles not, in language that threatens God; for it is not subject to the law of God, not. The law says, "Take heed to yourneither indeed can be."** When that is selves, that ye go not up into the mount, or extinguished, all is at peace. The aim and touch the border of it: whosoever touches labour of the gospel is not to reconcile God the mount shall surely be put to death. to man: but to reconcile men to God: for There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, surely be stoned, or shot through; whether dwelleth in God and God in him."+t it be beast or man, it shall not live; when Fourthly, Both the legal and evangelical the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come dispensations equally discover to us our dis-up to the mount. And the Lord said unto

Gal. iii. 10. 1 John iii. 16.

John xiii. 35.

** Rom. viii. 35.

† Matt. xxii. 37, &c.
$2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
T1 John iv. 20.
t2 John iv. 16.

Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they. break through unto the Lord to gaze, and * Eph. ii. 1, &c.

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.Ӡ "He that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." But to the im-
penitent and unbelieving, the gospel speaks
the same terror which the law did from Si-
nai; nay, it wears a still more frowning as-
pect. 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
confirmed unto us by them that heard him."|||
"He that despised Moses's law died without
mercy, under two or three witnesses; of
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trod-
den under foot the Son of God, and hath
counted the blood of the covenant, where-
with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and
hath done despite to the Spirit of grace."¶
And on the other hand, to them that believe,
the law speaks in the mildest, gentlest lan-
guage 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."** "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 jea-
lous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children." But justice has its li-
mits. 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 genera-
tions of them that love God. In what pro-
mise of the New Testament is the love of
God preached more sweetly than in this pre-
cept of the Old?

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

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."t

"Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord had pitched and not 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. ↑ Psal. 1. 22. § Heb. vii. 1, &c. . 2 Cor. iii. 6, &c.

« AnteriorContinuar »