ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SCRIPTURE. 



71 



the affections of the people to the worship of the 

 true God, to preserve them uncontaminated from 

 the malignant disposition, and the vile prac 

 tices of the neighbouring nations, and to instruct 

 them in the nature and attributes of the Deity ; 

 thac they might be &quot; a peculiar people to Jeho 

 vah, separated from all the people that were on 

 the face of the earth.&quot; Hence, the following in 

 timation and injunction are placed on the front 

 of the moral code of laws delivered to that nation) 

 &quot; Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord 

 Thou shall have no other gods before me.&quot; To 

 promote harmony and affection between man and 

 man ; to enforce the exercise of justice and equity 

 in all their dealings ; to inculcate chastity and 

 purity of affection, kindness to strangers, com 

 passion, tenderness, and sympathy ; obedience 

 to parents, charitable dispositions towards the 

 poor and needy, and tenderness and mercy to 

 wards the inferior animals, were the great ob 

 jects of the various laws and regulations com 

 prised in their moral and political code. 



The devotional port ions of the Old Testament, 

 particularly those contained in the book of 

 Psalms, have the same general tendency. The 

 descriptions of the work of creation and provi 

 dence, the adorations of the majesty of the God 

 of Israel, the celebration of the divine character 

 and excellences, and the ascriptions of thanks 

 giving and praise for the mercy, long-suffering, 

 and goodness of God, with which these divine 

 compositions abound, are calculated to raise the 

 affections to Jehovah as the source of every 

 blessing, and to inspire the soul with love, admi 

 ration, and reverence. In many of these sublime 

 odes, particularly in the 119th Psalm, the mind 

 of the Psalmist is absorbed in meditation on the 

 excellency of the divine precepts, and the happi 

 ness which the observance of them is calculated 

 to convey to the soul. &quot; O how I love thy law !&quot; 

 eays David ; &quot; it is my meditation all the day. 

 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than 

 thousands of of gold and silver. I have rejoiced 

 in thy testimonies as much as in all riches.&quot; 

 The moral maxims contained in the writings of 

 Solomon are likewise intended to draw forth the 

 desires after God, to counteract the influence of 

 the depraved passions of the human heart, and 

 to promote the exercise of candour, sincerity, jus 

 tice, and benevolence among mankind. The ex 

 hortations, remonstrances, and denunciations of 

 the prophets, were also intended to recall the af 

 fections of the people of Israel to the God from 

 whom they had revolted, to show the unreason 

 ableness of their conduct in &quot; forsaking the foun 

 tain&quot; of their happiness ; to display the purity, 

 the excellence, and the eternal obligation of the 

 divine precepts, and to warn them of the inevita 

 ble misery and ruin which will overtake the work 

 ers of iniquity. In short, all the promises and 

 threatenings of the word of God, all the consider 

 ations addressed to the hopes and the fears of 



men, all the providential dispensations of God, 

 all the manifestations of the divine character and 

 perfections, and all the descriptions of the glories 

 of heaven, and of the terrors of hell, have a ten 

 dency to illustrate the indispensable obligation 

 of love to God, and love to all mankind, in order 

 to secure our present comfort and eternal felicity. 

 And, as it was the main design of the Old 

 Testament economy to illustrate and enforce the 

 principle of love to God and to man, so it is, in 

 a particular manner, the great object of the 

 Christian Revelation, to exhibit the law of love 

 in all its bearings and practical applications. In 

 one of the first sermons delivered by our Saviour, 

 and the longest one recorded in the Evangelical 

 History, the Sermon on the Mount, the main 

 design is to explain and enforce these principles, 

 in relation both to God and to man, and tc sweep 

 away all the false glosses which Ignorance and 

 Prejudice had mingled with their interpretations 

 of the Divine Law. In one part of this dis 

 course, our Lord declares, that we may as soon 

 expect to see &quot; heaven and earth pass away,&quot; or 

 the whole frame of the universe dissolved, as 

 that &quot;one jot or one tittle shall pass from the 

 law.&quot; For, as it is a law founded on the nature 

 of God, it must be of eternal obligation, and can 

 never be abrogated with regard to any class of 

 rational beings, in consistency with the perfec 

 tions of the divine nature. As it is a law abso 

 lutely perfect, comprehending within its range 

 every disposition and affection, and every duty 

 which is requisite for promoting the order and 

 happiness of intelligent agents, nothing can be 

 taken from it without destroying its peifection; 

 and nothing can be added to it without supposing 

 that it was originally imperfect. And as it was 

 intended to preserve the harmony and to secure 

 the felicity of the intellectual beings that people 

 the earth and the heavens, the fabric of universal 

 nature must be destroyed, before this law can be 

 set aside or cancelled. For we have already 

 seen, (Sect. IV.) that, were it reversed, the 

 whole intelligent system would be transformed 

 into a scene of confusion, misery, and horror. 

 For the purpose of affording an immense theatre, 

 on which the operations of this law might be 

 displayed, the earth with all its furniture and 

 decorations, and the heavens, with all their 

 hosts, were called into existence ; and, therefore, 

 were it either cancelled or reversed, neither the 

 glory of the Creator would be displayed, nor the 

 happiness of his intelligent creation secured. 

 The mighty expanse of the universe, enclosing 

 so many spacious worlds, would become one 

 boundless moral desert, in which no &quot; fruits of 

 righteousness&quot; would appear, nor any trace of 

 the beauty and benevolence of the Eternal Mind. 

 In the same discourse, our Saviour enforces 

 the duty of love towards even our most bitter 

 enemies and most furious persecutors. &quot; Ye 

 have heard that it hath been said^^hou t-halt 



