49. Those secondary laws which concern man's relations to God include all that are ritual or ceremonial, or are in any sense religious. In regard to these we must first of all recall to mind some general principles, affecting and governing the whole ritual and ceremonial system, which explain, what otherwise would ho unintelligible, the great difference between the outward service of God under the law and that under the gospel, although the fundamental principles of the service of God must be the same in all ages. (1) The first purpose of these religious Jaws was, with.out doubt, that the chosen nation should bear witness in its religion to the one living and true God against the polytheism, idolatry, and superstitions of the other nations of the world, from whom they were to be kept separate as a holy and peculiar people, dedicated to the service of him who had called and chosen the seed of Abraham bis servant. (2) Their outward service of God was not, however, to be something altogether !le\',, as if Jehovah were now for the first time revealed; but in its main elements Ruch as the true worship of God had been from the beginning. He who had chosen them was the Creator of all men, the God of all who, ever since man had been on the earth, had served him by faith. Ever since the Fall, partly from the teachings of man's own conscience, and partly from the express monitions o_f God's Spirit, certain religious customs had grown up,1 and one office of the Mosaic legislation was un- doubtedly to confirm these usages, so far as they were suitable for that economy, by positive laws, and both to develop them yet further and to guard them against abuses and perversions. (3) After the Fall, a new element in the relations between God and man of pre- eminent importance had been revealed ; first, in the promise of the final victory of the seed of the woman in the conflict with the enemy of God and man ; and afterwards, more definitely, in the promises given to Abraham and hie seed. These were to be ultimately fulfilled in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, "boni of a woman,"" of the seed of Abraham," and "born under the law." This element in the faith of God's people could not but affect in the highest degree the relation to God of his chosen nation, and therefore must enter very largely into the laws which governed the service and worship of God. To be a step forward in God's revelation, these law8 must point onwards to the work and offices of the promised Saviour, But at the same time, even more distinctly than they could teach the future realities, they must indicate that the victory not being as yet won, the redemption had not yet come, and the laws must therefore bear distinct witness to their own imperfection and insufficiency. (4) And lastly, as St. Paul argues in hie Epistle to the Galatians, the dispensation of the law being one of discipline and education, correep'onding with the training of a child before he comes to the discretion and the rights of manhood,-the children of God, until the time should come for their adoption in Christ, and for that gift of the Spirit which is in the spiritual life what the age of diecretion is in the natural life, needed to be taught by "elements of this world," outward and visible ordinances, and disciplined through restraints and the fear of puniijhment, before the reasons for obedience could be fully understood or explained.
1 C!. § 28, aupra, IN'l'ltODUCTION ·ro THE PENTATF,UCH. XXXV