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a better priest and atonement, a more pure and exalted state of the church, in the days of the Messiah. This expectation woud naturally confirm their attachment to a system, which thus promised and led on to a better order of things; and would also prepare them for a welcome reception of the new dispensation.

When the promised Savior appeared, the body of the Jews, in consequence of deep rooted errors, were strongly prejudiced against him. They could not endure a religion, which abolished the peculiarities of their law, and which granted the same privileges to the Gentiles, as to themselves. But the apostles confuted these prejudices by their own scriptures, by showing them that their boasted law confessed its own weakness, predicted its own death, and paid homage to Jesus, as its grand scope and consummation; by showing them that, according to their own covenant, the promised seed of Abraham was to be a blessing to all nations, and of course was to unite both Jews and Gentiles into one catholic church; that the ritual of Moses being intended and adjusted as a temporary barrier to one people, could not possibly answer for a universal religion, and consequently that a more simple and spiritual worship was now indispensable, and was accordingly typified and foretold by the law and the prophets. Thus the law, properly understood, was a mighty instrument of converting the Jews to the faith of Jesus, in whom it was illustriously fulfilled; and the religion of Moses still furnishes invincible evidence to the religion of Christ. We grant that this is not the first evidence to convince a Gentile unbeliever. To the Jews indeed the Old Testament prophecies and types were the first proof of christianity; but to the Gentiles they were the last. The Jews believed in Christ, because

[LECT. XXVII. foretold and prefigured by their law; the Gentiles believed in the divine authority of the Old Testament, because it was so exactly fulfilled in the New. Both Jews and Gentiles were led into a more full understanding and a more confirmed belief of the peculiar and sublime doctrines of christianity, when they saw these doctrines represented by, and adding light and perfection to the antient institutions of Jehovah.

On the whole, the view we have now taken of the Mosaic economy, compared with the representations we have formerly given, exhibits a new and diversified proof of its heavenly original. It holds up this institution, not only as minutely and admirably levelled against the idola. try of antient times; as not only pointing out by significant emblems all the remarkable events, doctrines, and moral precepts of the Jewish dipensation; but as typifying with wonderful accuracy a distant, spiritual, and perfect religion. What an amazing reach and comprehension of divine wisdom do these circumstances unfold! How glorious that wisdom, which, while it indulged a rude people with carnal ordinances, rendered these very ordinances a pattern of the most sublime and celestial truths; which gave to these rites a plain moral import, easily understood and felt by the multitude, and at the same time a secondary and typical meaning, which could not be fully perceived till the coming of the Messiah ; which annexed to a temporary law the proper and powerful sanction of temporal rewards and punishments, while it made these secret, but striking emblems of the spiritual and eternal rewards of the gospel! If the spiritual truths of christianity had not been thus prefigured by the law, the mutual dependence and connexion of the two systems, as parts of one great and perfect whole, would

have been precluded, or at best could not have been ascertained; one main use of Judaism, as a preparatory scheme, and one essential proof of the gospel, would have been defeated. On the other hand, if these christian doctrines had been plainly revealed under the Jewish dispensation, the distinction between the two religions would have been confounded; the Jews would have despised and shaken off their comparatively mean and burdensome ceremonies long before the appointed season for their extinction; and thus the purpose of God to train them by a long previous discipline would have been frustrated. How wonderfully then was the divine wisdom manifested in making the Hebrew law a real, but covert intimation of the gospel; and I may add, in rendering this typical import more clear and impressive, as the new dispensation approached! This arrangement was proper and necessary on many accounts. I will mention one weighty reason for it, which perhaps has been too much overlooked. As the primary intention of the Mosaic ritual was to protect the true religion against idolatry, and as the idolatrous propensities of the Jews were completely and finally cured after the Babylonish captivity; it follows that the prime use of their ceremonies was now in great measure superseded. Of course their secondary use, or their reference to the approaching Messiah, was, with great wisdom, brought more fully into view by the later Jewish prophets. We see then the stamp of consummate intelligence and goodness on every part, on every intention of this antient constitution.

LECTURE XXVIII.

A comparative view of the character and institutions of the Hindoos, with those of the Hebrews.

To give these lectures a grateful variety, and to

place the excellence of the Hebrew institutions in a new and stronger light, we will shift the scene from Palestine to Hindostan. We will inspect the prominent opinions and customs of the latter country, and compare them with those of the former. I am induced to this comparison by the curious accounts, which are given of the Hindoos; by the increasing light thrown on their character by modern research, especially by the labors of the excellent Sir William Jones, and the Asiatic Society, over which he presided; and finally by the efforts of some recent writers to give the religion of this people a precedency both of date and genuine worth to that of the Jews.

Before we quit the ritual laws of the Hebrews, it may be proper and useful to compare them with the institutions of some other antient nations. This comparison will place the excellence of the former in a new and very impressive light.

The character and institutions of the Hindoos are highly celebrated by many modern writers. Mr. Langles, a French translator of one of their books, styles the founders of their religion " venerable institutors, who delivered precepts of the soundest morality, and a system of metaphysics truly sublime. In their religion," he says, "we distinguish the morals, the doctrines, and the ceremonies of the Egyptians and Jews, of the Chinese, the Greeks, the Romans, and even the Christians."

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cording to him the Jews and Christians have done nothing but ape the Hindoos. The five Vedas of the latter, he tells us," are the prototype of the five books of Moses, who has only copied Egyptian works, originally from India." Other authors have given similar or equally flattering accounts of the Hindoo institutions, with a view to sink the reputation, or to discredit the divine original of the Mosaic religion. It is therefore important to examine the ground, on which these writers build their assertions.

The Vedas are the first and most sacred books of the Hindoos, dictated immediately, as they pretend, by the Supreme Being. The original of these books having fallen into the hands of a curious Englishman, we may hope soon to read them in our own language. Another writing, called the Institutions of Menu, next in authority to the Vedas, and faithfully transcribing their principal contents, has been translated by Sir William Jones. This book is thus characterized by that great and good man"It is a system of despotism and priestcraft, both indeed limited by law, but artfully constructed to give mutual support. It is filled with strange conceits in metaphysics and natural philosophy, with idle superstitions, and with a scheme of theology most obscurely figurative, and consequently liable to dangerous misconception. It abounds with minute and childish formalities, with ceremonies generally absurd, and often ridiculous. The punishments are partial and fanciful; for some crimes dreadfully cruel, for others reprehensively slight; and the very morals, though rigid enough on the whole, are in some instances, as in the case of light oaths, and pious perjuries, unaccountably relaxed. Nevertheless," he adds, "a spirit of sublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of

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