I.

* Testament, everlasting life is offered to CHAP. "mankind by Chrift, who is the only me"diator between God and man, being both "God and man: wherefore they are not "to be heard, which feign, that the old "fathers did look only for transitory pro"mifes." The fole difference between our faith and theirs confifts in this; theirs was profpective, ours is retrospective. They looked forward with eager expectation for the promised Saviour; we gratefully rejoice, that God's promifes have been accomplished. They waited in firm confidence for the first manifestation of the Meffiah; our faith is still exercised prospectively upon his fecond advent. But the time is faft approaching, when we fhall both be placed upon an equal footing, and when faith shall be swallowed up in certainty. Abraham rejoiced to fee the day of his Redeemer; "he faw it, and was glad." Mofes esteemed " the reproach of Christ greater "riches than the treasures of Egypt.” The ancient patriarchs "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having "feen them afar off." Through the type of the earthly Canaan, they were enabled

Art, vii,

to

1

IL.

SECT. to look forward, with the piercing eye of faith, to their celestial inheritance. Fully perfuaded of the truth of God's promises, and heartily embracing them, they confeffed, that they were ftrangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they, that say "fuch things, declare plainly, that they "feek a country. And truly if they had "been mindful of that country, from "whence they came out, they might have "had opportunity to have returned: but "now they defire a better country, that is, ❝an heavenly.

Hence it appears, to adopt the language of the Church, that "all thefe fathers, "martyrs, and other holy men, whom St. "Paul spoke of, had their faith furely fixed “in God, when all the world was against "them. They did not only know God to

be the Lord, maker and governor of all "men in the world; but also they had a "fpecial confidence and trust, that he was " and would be their God, their comforter, "aider, helper, maintainer, and defender. "This is the Chriftian faith, which these holy men had, and we ought also to

66

• Heb. xi. 13.

I.

“have. And, although they were not CHAP. "named Christian men, yet was it a Chrif "tian faith that they had; for they looked " for all benefits of God the Father, through "the merits of his Son Jefu Christ, as we "now do. This difference is between "them and us, that they looked, when "Chrift fhould come, and we be in the time, when he is come. Therefore, faith "St. Auguftin, The time is altered and changed, but not the faith: for we have "both one faith in Chrifti.”

1

""

The refult of the whole is, that the fathers firmly believed the doctrine of falvation folely through the merits of a Redeemer; and that we may expect to find the Gospel of the Meffiah darkly fhadowed out under the types and ceremonies of the Law of Mofes. These premises being laid down, I may now proceed to a more particular confideration of the typical language of Scripture; which, I apprehend, will be found to have a very close connection with the prophetical hieroglyphics.

Second part of the Homily of Faith,

CHAP.

The ceremonial

Law.

CHA P. II.

THE CEREMONIAL LAW. I. SACRIFICES. 2. THE SCAPE-GOAT. 3. THE HIGH-PRIEST. 4. THE PASSOVER. 5: LEGAL IMPURITY. 6. THE RED HEIFER. 7. THE CITIES OF REFUGE. 8. UNCLEAN MEATS.

THE deeper we plunge into the study

of oriental antiquity, the greater need there is of fome clue to guide us in our refearches after truth. We meet with nations widely differing from our own, both in customs, manners, and institutes. Diffimilar to thofe of the western world in almost every refpect, their forms of language, their ideas, and their habits, afford us an inexhauftible fund of aftonishment. We can scarcely refrain from viewing their peculiarities with the eye of diftruft; and we seem to ourselves rather to be wander

ing in the enchanted mazes of fairy ground, than treading the unadornéd paths of real life.

The language of the inhabitants of the Eaft appears, from the earlieft ages, to

have been replete with metaphor and alle- CHAP. gory. Unable to express their thoughts 11. with the phlegmatic tameness of the West, they were accustomed to clothe every idea in the most vivid and luxuriant imagery. Since the different virtues or vices, which elevate or degrade human nature, may eafily be represented by different animals, the oriental princes were accordingly sometimes dignified with the names of those fierce and warlike beafts, which they were fuppofed most to resemble in their qualities; while their females bore names expreffive of those virtues, which were deemed most becoming in the weaker fex.

At other times, the whole host of heaven was employed to furnish fuitable emblems, of kings, princeffes, and nobility. This fpecies of fymbolical representation probably owed its origin to the astronomical reveries of the ancient Chaldeans. Their blind veneration for their deceased monarchs early introduced the custom of fupposing them to be tranflated into certain of the heavenly bodies, from which lofty ftations they ftill overlooked the affairs of mortals. Hence, the mighty hunter of

men,