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Apostles, to the Law and the Prophets, as bearing that decided testimony to the character and office of Jesus Christ which was calculated to remove every stumbling block out of the way of the Gospel.

To this end, the Law and the Prophets ought to have been employed by those guardians, to whom, for that purpose, they had been committed. And it was not till after the Jewish nation had deliberately rejected the council of God in their favour, by first crucifying the Lord of Life, and afterwards opposing the propagation of his Gospel; that the Apostles turned themselves to the Gentiles. "For so had the Lord commanded them."

The defence, therefore, which St. Paul set up before Agrippa against the accusation brought by the Jews, was most pertinent in its direct application to his accusers. "I continue (said he) in the city, witnessing both to small and great;" but the witness I bear, is of a nature that my accusers, as disciples of Moses, are bound to receive; for I say none other things

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than those which the Prophets and Moses

did say should come.

That Christ should

suffer

suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." Acts xxvi. 22, 23.

If then, as St. Paul affirms, Moses preached Christ crucified, as the great sacrifice for sin; those to whom he preached, so long as the spiritual meaning of the Mosaic writings was kept in sight, must have known, that no other sacrifice could be accepted as an atonement for sin, and consequently, that the benefit which the faithful worshipper received from every other sacrifice, was derived from its relation to that Great Original, which it was appointed to represent.

The blindness of the Jew at the time of our Saviour's appearance, though it counteracted the effect, could not take away the design of the Mosaic institution. The design of the Ritual Law confessedly was, to pre-figure the actual accomplishment of the covenanted plan of Redemption in Christ. The Gospel, therefore, which signifies the good news of Salvation to fallen man, through the promised Redeemer, was preached to the Jews under their Dispensation,

pensation, as well as it is to us, though in a different manner. And the reason why,

at the coming of Christ, it did not profit them, was, as the Apostle has observed, because it was not mixed up with faith in them that heard it." Heb. iv. 2.

To render the Law, therefore, instrumental to the purpose for which it had been instituted, it became necessary only to place it before them in its proper light; by representing the sacrifices of it to be, not what they then considered them, real and original atonements, but pre-figurative emblems of that great atonement, which was in the fulness of time to be made. This point being admitted, the types of the Law instituted to keep up the true faith in the world, in their application, furnished the most decisive argument against Jewish infidelity. For if the Law (as the Apostle informs us) made nothing perfect, and was designed only to be the introducer of a better hope; and if, (as our Saviour expressly declared) Moses in the Law wrote of him; the sacrifices of the Law, pre-figured that of the Cross; the proof, consequently, that the typical service of sacrifice,

sacrifice, had actually been realized in the person and office of Jesus Christ, drew after it a conclusion, which nothing but wilful blindness could resist.

Such was the nature of the proof, which the Apostle detailed to his Jewish Brethren in his Epistle to the Hebrews; which, by fitting the two counterparts of the Jewish and Christian Dispensation to each other, by bringing together the corresponding circumstances of each, furnished, from the marked consistency of the divine plan of Redemption, the most convincing evidence in favour of Christianity. An evidence designed to lead to the important. conclusion here drawn from the words of the text; that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."-In other words, that Salvation through Christ, con stituted the fundamental article in the Creed of the faithful under every Dispensation; and consequently, that the Old and New Testament form but two parts of the same uniform, and consistent scheme of Salvation. A conclusion, which the Apostle corroborates in the eleventh chapter of this Epistle, by the examples of

those

those Worthies, who had, in different ages of the Church, borne witness to the truth. "All of whom (says he) died in fuith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them; and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon earth;" thereby declaring plainly that they seek a country; that is, an heavenly." Heb. xi. 13.

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Now, as there is but one faith, founded on the promises of God to man, through Jesus Christ, it obviously follows; that these Worthies, to make use of the language of our Homilies, looked" for all the benefits of God the Father, through the merits of his Son Jesus Christ." Their faith was consequently a Christian Faith. And, therefore (concludes the Apostle) God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” Heb. xi. 16.

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