or duration of which none of them could understand. They could not discern its spiritual import, but judged of it only by the letter. They thought it a covenant of life ; whereas it was not at all designed " to give life," but rather to be " a minis- tration of condemnation and death." They supposed it was to continue to the end of time ; when it was merely given for a season, till the things which it prefigured should be accom- plished. Its splendour was veiled from their sight, as was the brightness of Moses' face : and St. Paul informs us, that the expedient to which Moses resorted, was intended to shew, that the law was in itself " glorious a," but that " the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of itb."]
2. The blindness of the human mind —
[There were in the Jews of those days, and there are at this hour, a blindness of mind, and an obduracy of heart, which ren- der them almost invincibly adverse to the truth of God. We see it, and wonder at it, in them ; but are unconscious of it in ourselves, and insensible of it as a matter of personal expe- rience : yet are we, in fact, greater monuments of obduracy than they ; because there was a veil over their dispensation, which is removed from ours. Did they continue stiff-necked and rebellious, amidst all the mercies and judgments with which they were visited ? so do we : the " god of this world hath blinded us :" "our understanding is darkened ;" " we are alien- ated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us, and because of the blindness of our hearts :" we " hate the light, and will not come to it, lest our deeds should be reproved." Now this propensity in human nature to reject the truth, and to " account it foolishness," was intended to be marked by this significant action of the Jewish lawgiver. St. Paul explains it in this very way c : " Their minds," says he, " were blinded : for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away : even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart."]
3. The benefit to be expected from their promised
Messiah —
[The occasional removal of his veil when he went into the presence of his God, shewed, that it was not always to continue on the dispensation, but that at a future period it should be removed, and the dispensation itself" abolished." The Messiah, to whom they were constantly directed to look, as to that pro- mised seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, was to take away both the foregoing veils ; the one, by fulfilling the law in all its parts; and the other, by communicating his Holy Spirit to all his followers. Then the true nature of that
" 2 Cor. iii. 7. " 2 Cor. iii. 13. c 2 Cor. iii. 14, 15.