LECTURE I.

DIVINE PURITY AND HUMAN CORRUPTION.

HEBREWS xii. 29.

Our God is a consuming fire.

AMIDST the treasures of evidence which our holy religion possesses, none are so precious nor so copious as those which are furnished from the Scriptures themselves. Christianity may have been sufficiently recommended by presumptive proofs: the purity and beauty of its moral system may have been fully established: the historical accounts to which it is pledged may have been satisfactorily rescued from adverse imputations: while there shall yet remain in the sacred volume uncounted testimonies to the Divine scheme of redemption; arguments yet unapplied, hints yet unexpanded, illustrations yet unimagined.

Nor are we left without example of the use of such evidence, or precedent to guide us in finding it, in the books of the New Testament. The

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Epistle from which my text is taken, is especially devoted to enquiries of this kind. And its author not only proves abundantly that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness: but in doing so, he discloses to us many secrets of the Divine economy in ages and among persons unconnected with the Levitical system. Occasionally he brings into prominence some casual allusion furnished by the ancient Scriptures, and clothes the actors in scenes apparently trivial with mystery and dignity: at other times he merely touches with passing mention subjects of deep interest, either because his great purpose being urgent hurried him onwards, or because the minds of his readers were yet unprepared for the reception of the higher wisdom.

To fill up the outline of the teaching contained in that Epistle, were a task as fully worthy of the Christian scholar's ambition, as it is beyond his utmost uninspired ability. There is One only, who is found worthy to loose the seals of the Old Testament mysteries: even He, who hath the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth; who hath shut and no man can open; who at his coming shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and pour fertility and joy over the waste places of our hearts and understandings.

But notwithstanding our inability to complete this work, we are encouraged by our Saviour

himself to undertake and carry it forward.

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has bidden those who would be assured of his Divine mission to search the Scriptures; "for," he added, "they are they that testify of me." And if the ancient Psalmist prayed that his eyes might be opened, to discern the wonderful things of God's law, surely we, before whom Christ is set forth crucified amongst us, have abundant reason to believe that the influences of the blessed Spirit will descend on us while engaged in a work so becoming our Christian state: for we are not called servants, who know not what their Lord doeth; but friends, admitted, as we can bear it, into the very confidence of God; nay, sons of his family, waiting, it is true, for the full enjoyment of our inheritance, but exhorted to anticipate, as much as may be, our heavenly state of love and knowledge; to examine what is the mind of God, and compare spiritual things with spiritual.

Seeing then that we are partakers of such privileges, and under the promise of such assistance, I propose in these Lectures to direct your attention to THE CONSISTENCY OF SCRIPTURE IN REVEALING THE DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION; and to derive from the course of Old Testament history the conclusion, that from the first, and throughout the manifold aspects of providence and grace, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

That this subject has, by implication at the least, been frequently and ably treated, those who hear me are well aware: and my labour has therefore been one rather of selection and arrangement, than of suggestion founded on my own research. I am not however without hope' that I may have evolved some matter, which, if not absolutely new, may yet furnish ground for enquiry and meditation: and that for the young theological student especially, these Lectures may prove a useful compendium of Scripture illustration. I may also premise that my path, though frequently touching upon the roads in which others have gone, and for a time coinciding with one or another, is not strictly identical with any of them. My aim will be to establish the fact, that the great doctrines on which the Gospel of Christ is built, have ever been distinctly recognized in the divine treatment of mankind; that they have always been revealed with sufficient plainness to enable the faithful and humble man to believe them, and make them real to himself; and that we have record of some having done so, and having evinced it by their actions and words.

The object of such an attempt will be, to justify the ways of God to men; to shew that the tenets which form the foundation of our Christianity, have not crept into the Church from any unhallowed admissions of Gentile phi

losophy, nor have been consolidated into necessary doctrines, from having been scattered and ill-defined surmises: but that from the first the revelation of the truths acknowledged in them has formed a part of the design of the Divine mind, dealing out to each age and generation as seemed fit to infinite Wisdom, but never leaving the truth without witness.

On the present occasion, I shall notice the manifestations of the Divine presence to men under the various dispensations; and endeavour to shew their bearing on that which may be called the great preliminary doctrine of Christianity, "that man is born in sin, and the child of God's wrath."

On the expulsion of our first parents from Eden, we have reason to believe that the presence of God was manifested to them permanently by an appearance related to have been placed at the east of, or in front of, the garden of Eden. There are some remarkable particulars to be noticed in the verse relating this appearance.' "So he drave out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life."

The word here rendered "placed," seems to be but inadequately expressed. Its literal rendering would be "he caused to dwell;" and it is