selves equal; the one is but the means, while the other is the end; but let the means be neglected, and what soon shall become of the end ? And there is another conclusion that grows out of what has been said. For, since the symbolical institutions of Judaism re-echoed the lessons of the moral law, and confirmed its testimony, it is plain that God never could be satisfied with a mere outward conformity to the letter of the Mosaic ritual. Support has often been sought in Scripture itself for such an idea, especially in regard to the sacrifices, but no proper foundation exists for it there. Hengstenberg justly remarks, that "there cannot be produced out of the whole Old Testament one single passage, in which the notion, that sacrifices of themselves, and apart from the state of mind in the offerers, are well-pleasing to God, is noticed, except for the purpose of vigorously opposing it. When, for example, in Lev. xxvi. 31, it is said in reference to the ungodly, 'I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours,' and when in Gen. iv. 4, 5, we find that along with an outward similarity, the offerings of Cain and Abel met with such a different reception from God, and that this difference is represented as being based on something personal to the individuals, it is all but expressly asserted, that sacrifices were regarded only as expressive of the inner sentiment." And again: "That the law, with all its appearance of outwardness, still possessed throughout a religious-moral, an internal, spiritual character, is manifest from the fact, that the two internal commands of love to God, and one's neighbour, are in the law itself represented as those in which all the rest lie enclosed, the fulfilment of which carried along with it the fulfilment of all individual precepts, and without which no obedience was practicable: And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee,' &c., (Deut. x. 12, vi. 5, xi. 1. 13, xiii. 3, xxx. 15. 20; Lev. xix. 18). If everything in the law is made to turn upon love, it is self-evident, that a dead bodily service could not be what was properly required. Besides, in Lev. xxvi. 41, the violation of the law is represented as the necessary product of an uncircumcised heart,' and in Deut. x. 16, we find the remarkable words: And ye shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked,-which condemn all Pharisaism, that is ever ex 1 Introduc. to Ps. xxxii 6 6 pecting good fruit from bad trees, and would gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles."-What is called the ceremonial law, therefore, was in its more immediate and primary aspect, an exhibition by means of symbolical rites and institutions of the righteousness enjoined in the Decalogue, and a discipline through which the heart might be subdued into some conformity to the righteousness itself. (2). But the more fully the ceremonial parts of the Mosaic legislation were fitted to accomplish this end, they must so much the more have tended to help forward the other end of the law; viz. to produce conviction of sin and prepare the heart for Christ. "By the law is the knowledge of sin"-the sense of shortcomings and transgressions is in exact proportion to the insight that has been obtained into its true spiritual meaning. And the manifold restrictions and services of a bodily kind, which were imposed upon the Israelites, as they all spoke of holiness and sin, so where their voice was honestly listened to, it must have been with the effect of begetting impressions of guilt. They were perpetually uttering without the sanctuary the cry of transgression, which was rising within, under the throne of God, from the two tables of testimony. They might be said to do more. For of them especially does it hold, "They entered that the offence might abound," since, while calling upon men to abstain from sin, they at the same time multiplied the occasions of offence. The strict limitations and numerous requirements of service, through which they did the one, rendered it unavoidable that they should also do the other; as they thus necessarily made many things to be sin, which were not so before, or in their own nature, and consequently increased both the number of transgressions, and their burden upon the conscience. How comparatively difficult must it have been to apprehend through so many occasions and witnesses of guilt the light of God's reconciliation and love! How often must the truly spiritual heart have felt as heavy laden with its yoke, and scarcely able to bear it! And how glad should have been to all the members of the covenant the tidings of that "liberty with which Christ makes his people free !" This, however, was not the whole. Had the ceremonial institutions and services simply co-operated with the Decalogue, in 1 Authentie, ii. p. 611, 612. producing upon men's minds a conviction of guilt, and shutting them up to the necessity of salvation, the yoke of bondage would indeed have been intolerable, and despair rather than the hope of salvation must have been the consequence. They so far differed, however, from the precepts of the law, that they provided a present atonement for the sin, which the law condemned-met the conscious defect of righteousness, which the law produced, with vicarious sacrifices and bodily lustrations. But these, as formerly noticed, were so manifestly inadequate to the end in view, that though they might, from being God's own appointed remedies, restore the troubled conscience to a state of peace, they could not thoroughly satisfy it. First of all, they betrayed their own insufficiency, by allowing certain fearful gaps in the list of transgressions to stand unprovided for. Besides, the comparatively small distinction that was made, as regards purification, between mere bodily defilements and moral pollution, and the absolute necessity of resorting anew to the blood of atonement, as often as the sense of guilt again returned, were plain indications that such services "could not make the comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the conscience." To the thoughtful mind it must have seemed, as if a struggle was continually proceeding between God's holiness and the sin of his creatures, in which the former found only a most imperfect vindication. For what just comparison could be made between the forfeited life of an accountable being and the blood of an irrational victim? Or between the defilements of a polluted conscience and the external washings of the outward man? Surely the enlightened conscience must have felt the need of something greatly more valuable to compensate for the evil done by sin, and must have seen, in the existing means of purification, only the temporary substitutes of better things to come. Such, at least, was the ultimate design of God; and whatever may have been the extent, or clearness of view in those who lived among the shadows of the law, regarding the coming realities of the gospel, it is impossible that they should have entered into the spirit of the former dispensation, without being prepared to hail a suffering Messiah as the only true consolation of Israel; and prepared also to join in the song of the redeemed, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. At the same time, there can be no doubt, that here peculiarly lay the danger of the members of the Old Covenant-a danger, which the issue too clearly proved, that but a small proportion of them were able properly to surmount. Not seeing to the end of the things amid which they were placed, and wanting the incalculable advantage of the awful revelation of God's righteousness in Christ, the law failed to teach them effectually of the nature of that righteousness, or to convince them of sin, or to prepare them for the reception of the Saviour. But failing in these grand points, the law became a stumbling-block and a hindrance in their path. For now men's consciences adjusted themselves to the imperfect appearances of things, and acted much in the spirit of those in present times, who, as a sensible and pious writer expresses it, "try to bring up the power of free-will to holiness, by bringing holiness down to the power of free-will." The dead letter, consequently, became everything with them; they saw nothing beneath the outward shell, nor felt any need for other and higher realities than those with which they had immediately to do. Self-righteousness was the inevitable result; and that rooting itself the more deeply, and towering the more proudly aloft with its pretensions, that it had to travel the round of such a vast multiplicity of laws and ordinances. For great as the demand was, which the observance of these made upon the obedience, still, as viewed by the carnal eye, it was something that could be measured and done-not so broad but that the mind. could grasp it-and hence, instead of undermining the pride of nature, only supplying it with a greater mass of materials for erecting its claims on the favour of heaven. This spirit of selfrighteousness was the prevailing tendency of the carnal mind under the Old Dispensation, as an unconcern about personal righteousness is under the New. How many were snared by it ! And how fatally! Of all "the spirits in prison," to whom the word of the Gospel came with its offers of deliverance, those proved to be the most hopelessly incarcerated in their strongholds of error, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and stumbled at the rock of a free salvation. 1 Fraser on Sanctification, p. 298, SECTION SIXTH. THE RELATION OF BELIEVERS UNDER THE NEW TESTAMENT TO THE LAW THE relation of believers under the New Testament to the law has been a fruitful subject of controversy among divines. This has arisen chiefly from the apparently contradictory statements made respecting it in New Testament Scripture; and this again, partly from the change introduced by the setting up of the more spiritual machinery of the Gospel dispensation, and partly also in consequence of the mistaken views entertained regarding the law, by those to whom the Gospel first came, which required to be corrected by strong representations of an opposite description. Thus, on the one hand, we find our Lord saying, "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. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."1 Stronger language could not possibly be employed to assert the abiding force and obligation of the law's requirements under the New Testament dispensation; for that this is specially meant by "the kingdom of heaven," is too obvious to require any proof. In perfect conformity with this statement of our Lord, we find the apostles everywhere enforcing the duties enjoined in the law; as when the apostle James describes the genuine Christian by "his looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing therein," and exhorts the disciples "not to speak evil of the law, or to judge it, but to fulfil it;"2 or |