to show emblematically the permanence of the moral law, it was also written with the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered unto Moses. On the contrary, the ceremonial law, necessary and even indispensable in its remedial capacity, and supplying types of the Messiah, of his life, his sufferings, and his death, his mediation and his intercession, was delivered by the instrumentality of another; because it was hereafter to be abrogated and annulled. But no voice except that of God might worthily proclaim-no finger except that of Jehovah might fitly inscribe, the glorious and enduring perfection of the law of righteous ness. When we look upon that law, and survey it in all its extent, and purity, and spirituality, well may we say, who is sufficient for these things? How can man, frail, imperfect, and corrupted as he is, hope to pay to it the faultless and undeviating obedience which it requires? Truly, no one, whether Jew or Christian, ever has been, or ever could be justified by the moral law. He who made man knew that he was but dust. While, therefore, he instituted this holy law for a manifestation of his own glory, and to be a model set up on high, by which all the nations of the earth might measure themselves, and to whose excellency they might continually strive to attain, he also provided a remedy for failure, for transgressions of infirmity, and even for wilful transgressions, if repented of. In appointing this remedial process, the Lord pursued the usual course of his dealings with the infant Church, and acted more by means of sensible objects, than through inward perceptions-more by sight than by faith. For this purpose, then, the ceremonial law was instituted; which, however, though appealing directly and continually to the senses, yet became efficacious by faith, as the precursor and the type of a better covenant; because even the very act of sacrificing the sin-offering, and of presenting the peace-offering, constituted a confession of faith in God, of faith in its vicarial efficacy, in its typical atonement. Such is the grand distinction between the moral and the ceremonial law, between that which was delivered immediately by God himself, with all the accompanying terrors of his glory, and that which was given by the instrumentality, and through the intervention of Moses. If the moral law could have been kept in every part, the ceremonial would not have been given. In being thus the minister of the remedial dispensation, Moses was an illustrious type of Christ; for he was the messenger of reconciliation and of peace. Well, therefore, may we believe that the gracious communication made unto himthe message of mercy entrusted to himhad so great an effect even upon his outward appearance, "that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance 1." Since the ceremonial law, burdensome as it was in itself, was still a dispensation of mercy; and though it was efficacious only in reference to that greater 1 tonement, which should, in fulness of ime, be made for the sins of the whole world—though its glory was to fade and pass away before the brighter rays of the sun of righteousness; yet, as a medium of reconciliation with a justly offended God, it was indeed glorious. The moral law, as we have before observed, by reason of the natural corruption of man, could not be perfectly obeyed. Judged by its rigour, there is none righteous, no not one. But the ceremonial law could be performed-no natural incapacity stood in the way of its fulfilment. Though the will is not all powerful over the affections of the heart, it is over the actions of the body. Though man might not be able to keep his thoughts from evil, or guard his passions continually from every species and degree of excess; yet he could command his bodily members to bend before the majesty of Jehovah, as acknowledged in his temple, as represented in the ark of the covenant, and upon the mercy seat. It was fully in his power to lay the required offerings upon the altar, and, in short, to comply with all those rites which were enjoined. And to these services, performed in faith, there was granted a certain compensatory and atoning efficacy; because his sinoffering was a type of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; because the blood that was sprinkled represented the blood afterwards to be shed for the sins of all mankind: because his peaceoffering was emblematical of a sacrifice of far sweeter savour, laid before the Eternal Father by the Eternal Son: because the entrance of the High Priest into the Holy Place within the veil, and the intercession there made, were typical of Him who entered once for all into the Holy Place not made with hands, evermore to appear in the presence of God for us. The Jew, therefore, was no more justified by the deeds of the moral law than the Christian is; but the same propitiation was effectual to the washing away of sin, in the case of the one, as in that of the other. Did the Jew fully understand this? Did he see the promised Redeemer-the |