e Acts iii. 22.
structed how to please and serve his God. It is a compendium of all that God requires of us : and, if only we follow that in all things, we are as infallibly sure of pleasing God, and of being rewarded by him at the last, as we are sure that there is a God in heaven. Are we not then greatly indebted to the man who has given us this directory?
But there is another law which we have received from Moses, even the ceremonial law; which though, as given to the Jews, it was an insupportable yoke of bondage, yet, as handed down to us, it is scarcely less profitable than the moral law itself. To the Jews it was a dark and shadowy representation of good things to come : those shadows now are all explained by the Gospel ; so that, through the light of the Gospel, all the mysterious rites and ceremonies of the law are presented in a clear, definite, and instructive view, as typifying Christ in all his work and offices : and, whilst it thus derives light from the Gospel, it reflects light back again upon the Gospel itself, and renders that incomparably more clear than it would otherwise be. To illustrate this a little :— A drawing that should represent all the con- stituent parts of a complicated engine, would not be intelligible without a distinct explanation of them : but with the help of the explanation, it would be clear enough. On the other hand, the explanation itself would not be clear, if it had not the drawing to illustrate it. So it is with the Law as explained by the Gospel : it does indeed receive in the first instance all its light from the Gospel ; but afterwards it pre- sents such an elucidation of Gospel truths, as conveys them with astonishing beauty and force to the mind. Take, for instance, the scape-goat. You are told in the Gospel, that " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin ;" and that " all who believe are justified from all things :" but behold the high-priest slaying one goat, and sprinkling its blood upon the mercy-seat within the vail; and then laying both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confessing over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and then sending