was written in the figurative language of the times; in conformity with which, the office of the promised Messiah was described under certain appropriate emblems; the design of which was to keep alive the hope, and direct the faith of the parties, "who were kept under the Law, and shut up unto the faith, which should hereafter be revealed." Gal. iii. 23.

The types and ceremonies of the Law exhibited the outlines of that character which Jesus Christ was to fill up; and in this sense the Law is called by the Apostle," "the Shadow of good things to come;" a Figure for the time present; a Schoolmaster to bring those who lived under it to Christ. Now the office of a schoolmaster is to teach. The Lesson then which the Law, as a Schoolmaster, was calculated to teach, must have been designed for the use of them to whom the Law was given; otherwise the Law appears to have been, to say the least of it, an useless institution. For when Christ came in person, the use of the Law, as a Schoolmaster, was in a great measure superseded. The Lesson which it was originally designed to teach,

teach, ought then to have been learnt; and ready to be reduced to practice; in the welcome reception of Him, who was the Perfection of the Law, and the Consummation of the Gospel. It was in reference therefore to this want of proper application of the Law, as well as of the Prophets to him, in whom they were fulfilled, that our Saviour thus upbraids his Disciples: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."And he said unto them, "these are the things which I speak unto you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." Luke xxiv.

The Law as a shadow was to remain in quiet possession, till the substance came to thrust it out. When the typical parts of it had been fulfilled by the death and sacrifice of Christ, the office of the Law,

as

as a schoolmaster to teach, was to be superseded by the practical application of the lesson taught.

That slowness of heart to believe, which the Jewish nation manifested at the coming of the Messiah in the flesh, might be attributed to various causes: but the charge of folly brought against them by our Saviour alluded, it is probable, to their want of understanding the lesson which their Law in particular was expressly designed to teach them. As if he had said; from a comparison of the services of your Law with what has been fulfilled in my character and office, you should have known, that all things that have been brought to pass, ought necessarily to have taken place. For it is not to be supposed that our Saviour would have called the Jews fools, for not understanding what was not in itself to be understood. The Law therefore was calculated to convey a lesson of information to those who lived under it, relative to the character and office of Jesus Christ; which those few, who, at our Saviour's appearance in the flesh, still saw the Law in its proper light,

and

and by looking through it to Christ, "waited for the consolation of Israel;" were wise enough to understand.

That this was the happy condition of some, even amid the general blindness of the Jewish nation, we have recorded proof, in the characters of Zachariah and Elizabeth, of Mary, of good old Simeon, and Anna the Prophetess; who all in different ways bore testimony to Jesus, as to the looked-for Redeemer of his people. A more striking and more decided testimony to the character and office of the Saviour of the world, than that which was borne by the devout Simeon, to whom it had been revealed by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, till he had seen the Lord's Christ," is no where to be met with in Sacred Writ. When, on coming (as we read)" by the Spirit into the temple, he took the Child Jesus up in his arms, and, blessing God, said;-Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation; which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." Luke ii. 29.

And

And it was on the ground of the information that was to be derived from the Law, that John the Baptist, whose immediate office it was to prepare the way of the Lord, on seeing Jesus coming towards him, addressed himself to the standers bye in language expressly calculated to lead them to the obvious application of it: "Behold, says he, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." As if he had said; behold the completion of the Law. Behold the typical Lamb, which, according to the Mosaic Ritual, you have been accustomed to offer up, realized in the person of the Son of God; that Lamb without blemish and without spot, which was devoted from the foundation of the world.

That this language was at the time understood, there is reason to conclude, from what immediately followed: For it is recorded by the same Evangelist, that "one of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew; who, upon finding his brother Simon, saith unto him; We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." John i. 40.

And on the day following this event, an

observation