and that communion which is the essence of religion, be even slightly broken.

Now, looking for the application of this beautiful constitution to the dispensation whereof it was a shadow, the first thing that must strike us is, how completely the New Testament links the one unto the other, by applying to the new state all the imagery and phraseology employed in prophecy, as descriptive of the peculiar characteristics of the old. The Church, or dispensation of faith, is now the kingdom which was to be restored with its worship by the Son of David; there is a priesthood and an altar, there is authority and subordination, there is union and unity all as before: and indeed in the later prophecies of the Old Law, the Church is never otherwise described than as a revival, extension, and perfection of the former state. Now, this is all explained only by two reflections. First, that the former constitution was not abolished but exchanged, and by that change perfected; and in this manner did Jesus say, that he came not to abolish, but to complete or accomplish: secondly, that the former was a type and merged into its reality, not so much dying as passing into a second existence, where a true sacrifice covered a typical oblation, where redemption given passed before redemption expected, where uncertainty had ripened into knowledge, and hope yielded its kingdom to faith. To illustrate the noble by the base, the former state was, as that living but creeping sheath wherein lie infolded for a time the corresponding parts of a more splendid and gorgeous insect, which in due time takes upon itself the vital functions, till then, by the other, exercised, and rises towards heaven, the same yet different,-a transmigration rather than an offspring.

It is evident, then, that there must be counterparts in the two dispensations, analogies and resemblances, clearly showing ours to be the perfecting and filling up of the other's outline; that all forms or institutions, framed to ennoble the former before the nations of earth, to draw their respect and attention

towards it, to invite them to learn the truths entrusted to it, must be found here in greater perfection; that to it must be granted a stronger guarantee and security of God's constant love, protection, and support; that in it must reign, far beyond the other, that beautiful co-ordination of parts, sympathy of feeling, and harmony of design, which God did in its prototype ordain. If you admit not all these, not only do you destroy all necessary resemblance, but you lower infinitely the present beyond the former dispensation: you invert the order of God's working, you destroy that fair progressive course of development, which is the characteristic of all His works, wherein are no breaks or violent passages, but all succeeds by a most sweetly-guiding ordinance.

And are the truths and blessings now communicated to mankind less precious than those former ones, that they should require smaller securities, and less jealous precautions for their preservation, than ofold? Should there be less dignity, less authority conferred upon their depositaries? Or have men so changed, that what before was necessary to keep them from fatal error and corruption, is now no longer needed? On the contrary, my brethren, hope, the great deposit of the elder dispensation, is that feeling which is the first to be conceived, and the last to be thrown off, a feeling rather dangerous from its tendency to increase, than from any fear of its extinction; while faith is ever a sterner and drier quality; something which we adopt with effort and pain, and lose more easily; and which requires consequently still stronger defences. Then again, there is a still greater difference; for hope may in its forms be various as the divers imaginings of men, borrowing its scenery and lively shapes from whatever to each seems most desirable; but faith is the impress-the coinage of God's own truth upon the soul, and God's own truth can be but one.

In all this, methinks we have a key to explaining much in what Christ was pleased to ordain, For, if I see him appoint teachers to his people, shepherds to his flock, and estab

lish thus an order of subordination in doctrine and faith; then, promising His uninterrupted guidance till the end of time to those whom He has appointed to rule and instruct, thereby secure unreserved assurance to all that follow their doctrine: if then I take all these arrangements and ordinances in their plain and simple meaning, and construct therewith, in my mind, a great religious community, professing entire unity of doctrines under teachers directed by God; I see there so complete, so just a reality to the shadow of the previous dispensation, so true a correspondence of parts, so nice a fitness of them to similar ends-and all this so improved, so ennobled, so perfected into a purer and more spiritual character, from the nature of its objects, of its doctrines, of its diviner sanctions, that I cannot for a moment hesitate to believe, that, hereby alone, could accomplishment be given to the foreshowings of the former state, and that consequently no other conception of its fulfilment can be correct.

But now resolve, on the other hand, religion into a mere aggregate of individuals, each having his own peculiar measure of faith; bound up only together, as in one bundle, by external ties, not inly communicating by vital influences like branches of one tree; deprive them collectively as individually of all security against fatal error, of all promise of permanent support; deny in it existence of any one universal aggregation towards which all men, no matter what their colour or country, shall turn in full assurance that it can give them life; strip it of all the venerable rights which authority and a divine sanction alone can give, and assuredly you shall have produced something so curiously different from all whereunto God had so long prepared the world, that they who look therein for the accomplishment of past types, and the completion of the former state, must perforce acknowledge that the order of God's designs hath suffered strange perturbations.

But you will perchance say; with all the precautions which His providence took to secure the safe transmission of his pro

mises, see how fearfully they of old did fall from Him, and forget all that He had taught them; and shall He then be supposed to have retained the same imperfect institutions now, which failed so sadly then? Now far from there being any objection in this to what I have hitherto said, it seems to me to afford rather a confirmation thereof. Much falling off there often was—a total loss never. It was necessary that the hopes of the people should be often tried, and this was done in the way best suited to put them to the keenest test. First, they were left to wander forty years in the wilderness, that they might long for their promised land; then they were from time to time given over to enemies, that they might wish for deliverers from God, that so the desire for redemption might ever be before their eyes. And this period may all well correspond to the early days of persecution in Christianity, wherein rest and ease from tyrannical oppression were its most earnest prayer. Then came, in both, the time of religious dissension, of schism, and heresy. For in the old times, men must have been severely tried, after the division in the kingdom took place, and later when in Samaria the true God was worshipped in a separate national communion, by hardly knowing how to reconcile domestic feelings and social customs with that unity which called them to God's appointed temple in a foreign land; and many doubtless thereby fell, and kept themselves separated from it, through these worldly considerations. And, even, as then, this sort of trial was allowed by God to prove the fidelity of his people, so does St Paul assure us that "now there must needs be also heresies, that they also that are approved may be made manifest amongst us."* But never formerly did the greatest of those defections destroy the deposit of hope given unto God's children; seeing that in the main it was found entire in their hands when Jesus Christ came to demand it; and that, whenever they had seemed most grievously fallen away, it needed no new reformings or great study of matters, to restore the knowledge of all that had once been taught.

* 1 Cor. xi. 19.

And here we come to the last and great fulfilment of former types. The Jewish dispensation was necessarily imperfect; otherwise it never need have been superseded. It was subject, therefore, to constant disturbances and failings; and a remedy was supplied for these in the establishment of prophecy—of a series, that is, of godly men-extraordinary messengers sent by God, whenever any particular derangement or error had crept into His inheritance. Now since prophecy, considered as an ordinance, was necessarily to cease with fulfilment, some provision was requisite to take its place in the new state, and counteract the tendency towards error of the human mind. And see how beautifully this part of the figure was accomplished, and that in two ways. First, the prophets were the types of Jesus Christ; and, we shall see Jesus Christ himself come and take their place, assuming here also their ministry, promising to remain with His new kingdom, teaching therein always, to the consummation of the world. Secondly, the prophets were the tongues of the Holy Ghost; and the Holy Ghost himself comes down upon His Church to guide it into all truth. And thus is an institution for the removal or correction of error, changed, by a twofold fulfilment of the most beautiful and perfect character, into a provision for the entire and perpetual prevention of the same.

But, my brethren, I have thus far rather appealed to your own recollections, than laid before you any specific proof either of the connexion which I have described as existing between the old and new Testaments, or of the correspondence of institutions between the two, especially in reference to the preservation of the Church from error. I could, indeed, have occupied your attention much longer, by entering into a detailed examination of the prophecies of the old law; I could have shown you how, from the very beginning till the end, there is a most beautiful series of manifestations, which go on gradually unfolding new qualities of the kingdom of Christ, until at length the picture is not only as complete as I have attempted to sketch it, but goes beyond my representation in clearness