human race respecting the nature of God, the creation of mankind, and the universal principles of morality, which had once been written on the hearts of all men, but which had faded or become effaced. And it was so far as a whole from being destined to become obsolete, that accessions were continually made to it, and it was constantly developed from the same inspiration which bestowed the original germs. While the framework of Judaism was giving way, the Revelation of divine truth continued to grow in all its divinest attributes, and to be more distinctly recognized as the bestowment of the Spirit of God. The Christian Revelation, though again making a large accession to the knowledge of divine things, was so far only an expansion of the former system of truth, and is occupied, to a great extent, in making more clear, and exhibiting more fully, what the Spirit of Revelation had already spoken. And nothing can be plainer, than that our Saviour and his disciples recommended the ancient Revelation to mankind as the divine foundation out of which the Gospel rose. In this light the Old Testament has always been regarded and cherished in proportion as Christianity itself has ruled the opinions and affections of mankind. CHAPTER I. HEBREW REVELATION NOT INTENDED TO BE IF F, in the inscrutable way of Providence, it had appeared from Scripture itself, that it was plainly intended to exclude the nations from the benefit of this earlier light, it would have been our duty to bow with submission to such a mystery. But this is manifestly far from being the case. It is, on the contrary, evident that the chosen people were intended to be the depositories of this divine bestowment, with the view that they should not only cherish it and enjoy its benefits themselves, but communicate its light to surrounding nations. The promise made to Abraham, and repeated to Isaac and Jacob, that in them and their descendants all the families of the earth should be blessed, though doubtless referring for its complete fulfilment to the Christian Dispensation, and to developements of Divine Providence yet to come; might well refer to the fact that their great distinction above all others would be, that "to them were committed the Oracles of God." And whatever other ideas may be included in the destination mentioned, Exod. xix. 6, "Ye shall be a kingdom of priests," it can scarcely be doubted that the function of the priestly office which made them the ministers and stewards of the mysteries of God, was especially referred to. The object of their selection and consecration as a peculiar people was that which is mentioned by Isaiah: "This people have I Is. xliii. 21. formed for myself, that they may shew forth my praise," or, according to the words of the LXX., which St Peter has partly used, λaov uoû 1 Ep. ii. 9. " ὃν περιεποιησάμην, τὰς ἀρετὰς μοῦ διηγεῖσθαι. St Peter, addressing himself to those early Christians who were appointed to be the first leaven of Christianity, combines the passage in Exodus with that in Isaiah: ὑμεῖς δὲ γένος ἐκλεκτὸν, βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, ἔθνος ἅγιον, λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν ὅπως τὰς ἀρετὰς ἐξαγγείλητε τοῦ ἐκ σκότους ὑμᾶς καλέσαντος. In both these cases the main idea seems to This passage has been strangely perverted by writers of the Lutheran Church, and, in fact, made the basis of a system the very opposite of what is implied in the language itself— viz. that on the publication of the Gospel there was no longer to be any peculiar order of the ministry, but that every man was to be his own priest. In Bunsen's strange work, The Church of the Future, this sense is confidently taken as the only one: Was there no Order of Priests among the Hebrews, when as a nation they were expected to be a kingdom of Priests? Deut. iv. 6, 8. be, that the people thus distinguished and consecrated by special divine communications, were thereby put in trust with a sacred deposit, of whose blessings they were to be the stewards and dispensers. And this is in accordance with the charge which Moses gave to the Israelites at the close of his life: "Keep and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great which hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? and what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"—i. e. their wisdom would not be displayed in speculating upon them, but in keeping them, and putting them into practice. CHAPTER II. ARRANGEMENTS OF PROVIDENCE. IT is plain then that, in connexion with this revelation, the Israelites had a duty to perform to surrounding nations, as well as to themselves. And it is interesting to observe the peculiar arrangements of Providence by which this duty was facilitated. anity at first later times the focus of world. It has often been remarked, with regard to Christithe Christian Revelation, that it was placed and in these exactly in the focus of the civilized world; placed in and when a large mass of the Jewish people the civilised had become evangelized, they were soon scattered to all the winds of Heaven, and carried with them in all directions the holy light by which they had become luminous. It is scarcely less a matter of devout admiration, that in later times the country which has become the emporium of the world, whose inhabitants are wafted, and now almost spirited, in all directions on an element peculiarly their own a country to which a dominion has been all but miraculously given over heathen nations occupying large portions of the globeshould be the abode of the purest form of Christianity, and—with all that country's de |