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introduction of the Gospel by the appointment of other means, more suitable as instruments in the hand of the Spirit for minis tering instruction to the minds of men. The change then brought into the divine administration was characterized throughout by a more immediate and direct handling of the things of God. They were now things no longer hid under a veil, but openly disclosed. to the eye of the mind. And ordinances, which were adapted to a state of the church, when neither the Spirit was fully given, nor the things of God were clearly revealed, could not possibly be such as were adapted to the church of the New Testament. The grand ordinance here must be the free and open manifestation of the truth-written first in the word of inspiration, and thenceforth continually proclaimed anew by the preaching of the Gospel; and such symbolical institutions as might yet be needed, must be founded upon the clear revelations of this word, not like those of the former dispensation, spreading a veil over the truth, or affording only a dim shadow of better things to come. Hence, the old ritual of service should have fallen into desuetude, whenever the new state of things came in; and the tenacity with which the Judaizing Christians clung to it, was the indication of a very imperfect enlightenment and corrupt taste. Had they known aright the new wine, they would straightway have forsaken the old. So long as they could get the kernel only through the shell, it was their duty to take the one for the sake of the other. But now, when the kernel itself was presented to them in naked simplicity, still to insist upon having the shell along with it, was the clear sign of an unhealthy condition-an undoubted proof that they had not yet come to the full knowledge and appreciation of Gospel truth, and were disposed to rest unduly in mere outward obserThe Apostle, therefore, on this ground alone, justly denounces such Judaizers as carnal, and as in spiritual things acting the part of persons who, though of full age, have not put away childish things, but continue in a willing "bondage to the elements of the world."

vances.

This, however, was by no means the whole of the misapprehension which such conduct betrayed. For while those ordinances of the former dispensation were in one point of view means of instruction and grace, in another they were signs and acknowledgments of debt. Calling, as they did, continually for acts of atone

ment and cleansing, and yet presenting nothing that could satisfactorily purge the conscience, they were, even when rigorously performed, testimonies, that the heavy reckoning for guilt was not yet properly met-bonds of obligation for the time relieved, but standing over to some future period for their full and adequate discharge. This discharge in full was given by Christ when he suffered on the cross, and brought in complete satisfaction for all the demands of the violated law. He is, therefore, said to have "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." The charges of guilt and condemnation which that handwriting had been perpetually making against men as transgressors, were now laid in one mass upon the body of the crucified Redeemer, and with its death were for ever abolished. So that those ceremonies being, as Calvin justly terms them, "attestations of men's guilt, and instruments witnessing their liability," "Paul with good reason warned the Colossians how seriously they would relapse, if they allowed a yoke in that way to be imposed upon them. By so doing, they at the same time, deprived themselves of all benefit from Christ, who, by his eternal sacrifice once offered, had abolished those daily sacrifices, which were indeed powerful to attest sin, but could do nothing to destroy it." 1 It was in effect to say, that they did not regard the death of Christ as in itself a perfect satisfaction for the guilt of their sins, but required the purifications of the law to make it complete-at once dishonouring Christ, and shewing that they took the Old Testament ceremonies for something else than they really were.

2

It has sometimes been alleged, that in the case of the Jewish believers there was still a sort of propriety, or even of obligation, in continuing to observe the ceremonies of Moses-until, at least, the epistle to the Hebrews was written, formally discharging them from all further attendance upon such services. But there is no real foundation for such an opinion. It is true that no express and authoritative injunction was given at first for the discontinuance of those services; but this arose simply out of accommodation to their religious prejudices, which might have received too great a shock, and among their unbelieving neighbours excited 1 Inst. B. ii. c. 7. 2 17.

2 For example, Fraser on Sanct. in the introduction to explication of Rom. vii. VOL. II,

too outrageous an opposition, if the change had at once been introduced. But so far as obligation and duty were concerned, they should have required no explicit announcement on the subject different from what had already been given in the facts of gospel history. When the vail was rent in twain, abolishing the distinction at the centre, all others of an outward kind of necessity gave way. When the great High Priest had fulfilled his work, no work remained to be done by any other priest. The gospel of shadows was evidently gone, the gospel of realities come. And the compliances which the apostles generally, and Paul himself latterly made (Acts xxi.), to humour the prejudices, and silence the senseless clamours of the Jews, though necessary at first, were yet carried to an undue and dangerous length. They palpably failed in Paul's case to accomplish the end in view, and, in the case of the Jewish Christians themselves, were attended with jealousies, self-righteous bigotry, growing feebleness, and ultimate decay. "Before Messiah's coming, the ceremonies were as the swaddling bands in which he was wrapt; but after it, they resembled the linen clothes which he left in the grave. Christ was in the one, not in the other. And using them as the Galatians did, or as the Jews do at this day, they and their language are a lie; for they say he is still to come who is come already. They are now beggarly elements, having nothing of Christ, the true riches, in them."

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1 Bell on Cov. p. 140.

CHAPTER THIRD,

THE RELIGIOUS TRUTHS AND PRINCIPLES EMBODIED IN THE SYMBOLICAL INSTITUTIONS AND SERVICES OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION, AND VIEWED IN THEIR TYPICAL REFERENCE TO THE BEITER THINGS TO COME.

SECTION FIRST.

INTRODUCTORY-ON THE QUESTION WHY MOSES WAS INSTRUCTED IN THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND WHAT INFLUENCE THIS MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO EXERCISE ON HIS FUTURE LEGISLATION.

THE learning of Moses was briefly adverted to in an earlier part of our investigations. But this is the proper place for a more formal discussion of it, when we are entering on the explanation of the Mosaic symbols of worship and service. That an acquaintance with Egyptian learning was advantageous to Moses, to the extent formerly stated, no one will be disposed to question. Whatever might be its peculiar character, it would at least serve the purpose of expanding and ripening the faculties of his mindwould render him acquainted with the general principles and methods of political government-would furnish him with an insight into the religious and moral system of the most intelligent and civilized nation of heathen antiquity-and so, would not only increase his fitness, in an intellectual point of view, for holding the high commission that was to be entrusted to him, but would also lend to the commission itself, when bestowed, the recommendation, which superior rank or learning ever yields, when devoted to a sacred use.

1 Vol. ii, chap. i. s. 2.

Such advantages, it is obvious, Moses might derive from his Egyptian education, irrespective altogether of the precise quality of the wisdom with which he thus became acquainted. It is another question, how far he might be indebted to that wisdom itself, as an essential element in his preparation-or to what extent the things belonging to it might be allowed to mould and regulate the institutions which he was commissioned to impose on Israel. Scripture throws no direct light upon this question; it affords materials only for general inferences and probable conclusions. And yet the view we actually entertain on the subject cannot fail to exert a considerable influence on the spirit in which we investigate the whole Mosaic system, and give a distinctive colouring to our interpretations of many of its parts.

1. The opinion was undoubtedly very prevalent among the Christian fathers, that no small portion of the institutions of Moses were borrowed from those of Egypt, and were adopted as divine ordinances only in accommodation to the low and carnal state of the Israelites, who had become inveterately attached to the manners of Egypt. With the view, it was supposed, of weaning them more easily from the errors and corruptions which had grown upon them there, the Lord indulged them with the retention of many of the customs of Egypt, though in themselves indifferent or even somewhat objectionable, and gave a place in his own worship to what they had hitherto seen associated with the service of idols. They rarely enter into particulars, and never, so far as we know, formally discuss the grounds of their opinion; but very commonly think it enough to refer in support of it to Ez. xx. 25, where the Lord is said to have given Israel "statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live." This passage is also much pressed by Spencer, and, indeed, is the main authority of a scriptural nature to which both he, and after him Warburton (Div. Legation, B. iv. c. 6), appeal in confirmation of their general view of the Mosaic ritual. By a palpable misunderstanding of the meaning of the prophet, they regard the Decalogue as the statutes in themselves really and properly good, for breaking which in the wilderness, others, namely, the ceremonial observances, were imposed on them: "Because they had violated my first system of laws, the Decalogue--I added to them my second system, the ritual law, very aptly characterised (when

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