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PART III.

LECTURE VI.

SECT. II

PART III.

LECTURE VI.

SECT. II.

The Law and the Prophets not only professedly designed to introduce the Gospel, but did in FACT prepare the way for it— Necessity of the Law as a preparation for the Gospel, shewn by considering the probable state of the world, if Judaism had never existed-Extreme difficulty of introducing true religion in such a state of mankind-Such universal degeneracy prevented by the Jewish dispensation-Proved by a brief view of the facts adduced in this work-Adherence of the Jews to their Law proves the reality of a providential interpositionThe prophecies delivered by Moses on this subject prove the same- -The Law was typical and figurative of the GospelInstances-The moral character of the Law prepared for the Gospel-The connection of the two schemes shewn by various instances―The Jews employed as the immediate instruments for introducing the Gospel-Rejection of the Gospel by the mass of the Jewish nation does not disprove the connection of the Law and the Gospel-Confirms the proof from prophecy-and from miracles-Conclusion.

PART III,

LECT. VI.

SECT. II.

GALATIANS, iii. 24.

"The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. ›

IN the last Section I endeavoured to prove the consistency and the connection of the Jewish and the Christian schemes, by adducing passages from the Law and the Prophets, shewing that Judaism was from the first intended to introduce that Messiah "in whom all the nations of the earth 66 were to be blessed;" that the Jewish Lawgiver himself intimated that God would raise up another Prophet like unto himself, and consequently a Lawgiver, with authority to promulgate a new Law; and that the Prophets expressly foretold that the Mosaic

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ritual was to give place to a new religion of a perfectly spiritual kind, and calculated to embrace all the nations of the earth; declaring all this with increasing clearness, as the æra of this great change approached. While on the other hand, our Lord and his Apostles expressly refer to those predictions, as plainly pointing out the approach, describing the character, and establishing the divine original of the Gospel. I now proceed to evince, that as the Law and the prophets were thus avowedly designed to predict and introduce the Gospel of Christ; so they did in fact accomplish this design, their pre-existence being indispensably necessary to prepare for the reception of that Gospel, and in a variety of ways illustrating its importance and facilitating its promulgation.

To place this conclusion in a clear light, let us reflect what would probably have been the situation of mankind, as to religion and morality, if no such nation or system as the Jewish had existed, before the appearance of our Lord. It seems certain that the

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* Vide supra Part. II. Lect. I. the entire, and Lect. II. Vol. I. from p. 302 to 306: also Part III. Lect. I. sect. i. from p. 41 to 54 of this Volume: also from p. 114 to 118.

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