down from the holy mount with the tables of the law in his hands. He intimated thereby, that the children of Israel could not look to the end of that which was to be abolished ; that is, that they could not comprehend the nature of the dispensation which he was commissioned to establish ; seeing that there was a veil upon their hearts, " by which their minds were blinded"^" That veil remained on their hearts during the whole of that dispensation ; and, notwithstanding " it is done away in Christ," so that, if they were dis- posed to avail themselves of the light which Chris- tianity reflects on their inspired writings, they might now acquire a clear insight into them, " the veil yet remains on their hearts even unto this day." But it shall not be always so : there is a time coming, " when that infatuated nation shall turn unto the Lord ; and then the veil shall be taken away."
To enter fully into this subject, we must distinctly mark what was intimated by his putting on the veil to speak with them, and his putting off the veil to speak with the Lord.
I. His putting on the veil was designed to shew their present blindness —
Truly there is a veil, a thick veil, upon their hearts ; ^o that to this day they cannot see,
1. The scope and intent of the Mosaic dispensa- tion—
[The Mosaic dispensation was partly legal, partly evan- gelical, and partly a national covenant, relating only to the temporal state of the Jewish people. The law of the ten com- mandments was a re-publication of the law originally written upon the heart of man, by an obedience to which our first parents were to obtain eternal life. The ceremonial observances were appointed to shadow forth the salvation offered to us in the Gospel, and to prepare the minds of the Jews for the Messiah, who should in due time be sent to fulfil all that was required by the moral law, and all that was shadowed forth in the ceremonial. The moral law was not given them in order that they might seek justification by it ; but in order to shew them, that it was impossible for fallen man ever to be justified
^ ver. 13, 14