to it. For what, in point of fact, are all the examples of the mercy of God to the chosen family, but so many instances of His loving-kindness towards mankind in general?

The very revelations, and other extraordinary providences, vouchsafed to Abraham and his posterity, were frequently calculated to benefit at the same time the nations with which they were brought into contact". But always, and without exception, the dispensations to the chosen people were so many successive stages in that vast preparatory system, which ushered in redemption itself, and the universal religion of the Saviour, embracing all the nations of the earth, according to the eternal purposes of Him"unto whom all His works are known from the beginning of the world." The people of Israel were not chosen for their own sake. Nor were they chosen only for their fathers' sake. Nor were the patriarchs, nor was Abraham himself chosen only for his own sake, but for ours, and for the general welfare of the whole human race. "In thee, and

"As in the instances of Abraham among the Philistines, (Gen. xxi. 22-32. xx. 2-18.) Isaac among the same people, (Gen. xxvi.) Jacob in Padan-aram, (Gen. xxx. 27.) the Patriarch's whole history in Canaan; and that of the Israelites subsequently in Egypt, Canaan, and Babylon. And this was predetermined and designed: "All the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord." (Exod. xxxiv. 10.)

in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"." This great promise is the key to all those remarkable transactions, in which for so many centuries the peculiar favour of God appeared to be showered down upon the posterity of Abraham. We have already considered one of those remarkable provisions of the Divine wisdom and goodness, by which the trial of a part of mankind under a written law became instrumental to the reception of the Christian doctrines among all nations. But this is only one instance out of very many of the same kind. And, indeed, although every particular instance, in which the separation of the chosen people tended to the introduction of the Gospel, may not be familiar to the mind of every or scarcely of any Christian, yet the truth itself, in its main outline, is generally acknowledged by all. Every Christian is to a certain extent aware, that Abraham was called, and the patriarchs supported in a land not their own, and the Israelites were guarded in Egypt, instructed in the wilderness, separated from the nations in the land of promise-for the sake of Christianity, of Christians, of the whole human race.

3. In the partial history of a single family then, we do in effect discover the goodness of God to

• Gen. xii. 3. xxii. 18.

wards the universal race of man. But there is a further consequence of this arrangement, as beautiful as it is obvious. For hence it ensues, that the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament disclose to every reader the Divine mercies towards himself.

We have not merely examples of the loving-kindness of God to all men, (and these as numerous as the notices of the different nations, families, or individuals contained in the sacred records,) but we have instances of it in which we are ourselves affected, either by our natural or by our spiritual descent. For to whom are these histories addressed, but to Jewish or to Christian readers? And may it not be said, that the latter have even a nearer and dearer concern in them than the former? The Prophet indeed has said, "The Lord will not cast off for ever; but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men"." But we not only extend the sacred language in this general manner from the chosen people to all the nations of mankind. We adopt, as it were, the language of the prophets, which originally applied to another people. And in celebrating, according to the text, "the loving-kindness of the Lord, and his great goodness

P Lam. iii. 31, 32, 33.

towards the house of Israel," we apply the passage, and increase its truth and force by such an application, to ourselves, and the true Israel of the later Church 9.

III. Upon the whole, therefore, we may without hesitation conclude, that one of the leading purposes of the Historical Books of the Old Testament, was to display the loving-kindness of God; to display this great attribute of the Almighty in varied and continual operation towards His lost and sinful creatures; towards a fallen world, during its state of condemnation; and to display this merciful love of God to man in actual combination with that growing and accumulating proof, which the same Scriptures were all along preparing of human weakness and guilt.

1. May it not be added, that this is among the

9 Phil. iii. 3. Rom. ii. 28, 29. iv. 16. Gal. iii. 29. In the authorized version, accordingly, the contents of the chapter in which the text is written are thus stated. “Is. lxiii. 1. Christ sheweth who he is, 2, what his victory over his enemies, 7, and what his mercy towards his Church, &c. &c." The text itself is set in the midst of those prophecies of Isaiah, which occupy the latter half of the book, and which relate with few interruptions to the Church of Christ rather than to the Church of Israel.

peculiar offices of these Historical Books, and that they have a peculiar fitness for discharging it?

For certain portions of the sacred volume are occupied above others in setting forth certain of the Divine attributes in the clearest light. Thus the Law especially declares the Holiness and the Justice of God. His Faithfulness is proclaimed chiefly by the united voice of prophecy and history. But the Historical Scriptures remarkably demonstrate His Loving-kindness". Not even the Psalms, nor the Prophets, rich and glowing and impressive as their language is, could discharge this office effectually

'We are not, however, to lose sight of the important truth, that no single attribute can, from the very nature of the case, give an adequate idea of the divine Being. And we must beware of dwelling exclusively upon any one of them; but rather endeavour to comprehend them all. Inadequate and imperfect as our conceptions of the Divine nature must ever be, they will be less clear indeed, but at the same time less inadequate, if we endeavour frequently to contemplate the various attributes of the Deity together and in combination. See the representation given of

Himself by the Almighty to Moses. Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. But the whole subject must be approached with humility and reverence. We must neither imagine that the several attributes actually wear in the Divine mind that separate form and character, with which each of them, in condescension to human infirmity, is occasionally presented to our contemplation. Nor must we suppose that we can ever attain to an exact apprehension even of any one of them separately, much less of them all in combination. See Archbishop King's Sermon on Predestination.