fundamental and all-important truth: and the reason why it was not expressly declared to them seems to be this, that life and immortality could not be clearly made known, without an equally clear revelation of Him, who is the resurrection and the life, which it was the will and wisdom of God not to bring forth until the fulness of the time should come. And as the dispensation under which this chosen people was placed, was, as I have frequently observed, preparatory for the dispensation of the gospel, so these sanctions of present and temporal rewards and punishments, under a special and extraordinary providence, shadowed forth those of the eternal world under the future and final judgment of God, in which he "will render to every man according to his works, to those who by patient continuance in welldoing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life, but to those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth" (that is, the truth of the gospel) "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every soul of man who doeth evil." I may add also that

that extraordinary providence, by which God enforced his law and administered the affairs of the Jewish nation, did in some measure supply the want of the higher sanctions of the life to come, and that when the knowledge of life and immortality was fully brought to light by the gospel, the whole polity of the Jews ceased to be, and no such extraordinary providence is now manifest. It is most true, that as a general position, and taking in its spiritual comforts, godliness has the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come, and sin has many a present and temporal misery necessarily attached to it, yet still the christian is happily taught to look far higher than any such present things, and is actuated by hopes and fears far beyond any thing that is circumscribed by this short and uncertain period of his being.

With these previous observations I now proceed to state to you the promises and threatenings which were held out to the Israelites under their law, as they are recorded in this chapter, with which I intend

to conclude my Exposition of the book of Leviticus. You will find that after the laws referred to in the first two verses, the chapter is divided into three distinct parts; the first containing promises of great good on their obedience, the second containing threatenings of most severe punishment on their disobedience, and the third containing an assurance of mercy and of returning favour upon their humble and sincere repentance.

I. The first part extends from the third to the fourteenth verse, and begins with a promise of great plenty in all the fruits of the earth, so that large crops of grass and corn from the land, abundant produce from the fruit-bearing trees, and plentiful vintages, should afford them a rich supply from one end of the year to the other. It goes on to state the safety and security in which they should dwell, with deliverance from the sword of enemies, and from evil beasts. If invading armies should attack them, they should in all cases put them to flight and destroy them, however inferior in numbers they might be. It assures them of a constant continuance

of God's presence among them, and of the preservation of their religion and its privileges. And it closes with a special reference to the great mercy which he had already shewn them by their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage. Now these are the greatest blessings which a nation can possibly enjoy, plenty, peace, and religion. These were promised to the Jews, so long as they should be obedient to the law of their God, and by that special providence, under which, as I have observed the nation was placed, they were constantly fulfilled; and God might at any time have appealed to their own eyes and experience, whether one thing had ever failed of all the good which he had promised to do them.

II. The second part of this chapter, which extends from the fourteenth to the fortieth verse, contains threatenings of various severe punishments with which the Lord would visit the people, if they should not be obedient to his law, but walk contrary to him. The cause of his anger is plainly given, and the warning fully stated, "If ye will not hearken

to me, and will not do all these commandments, if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant," then he tells them, dreadful consequences would follow and if they should still not hearken to him, nor be reformed by these things, then he would punish them yet seven times more severely for their sins. He tells them generally that he would set his face against them, that his soul should abhor them, that he would not smell the savour of their sweet odours, and that he would walk contrary to them in fury. He declares in particular that they should suffer various painful and distressing diseases of body, that he would send the pestilence among them, that wild beasts of the field should devour them, that their enemies should prevail against them, that the heavens should be to them as iron through which neither rain nor dew could fall, and the earth as brass through which vegetation could not spring, that their strength in cultivating should be spent in vain, for the land should not yield

VOL. III.

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