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BIBLI OTHE CA
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RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES.
º
PRINTED BY JULES DIDOT, SENIOR,

PRINTER to his MAjesty, Rue du Pont-De-Lodi, N° 6.
RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES.
BY
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
PARIS :
PUBLISHED BY A. AND w. GALIGNANI.
At the ENGLISH, FRENch, ItALIAN, GERMAN, AND SpAN 1511
LIBRARY, N° 18, RUE vivier NE.

-
M828.
3 ** * *
* * *
,----------
Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek
Äärichen
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PREFA C E.
The history of the following remarkable pro

ductions of their illustrious author's mind, may
be very briefly told. They were written some
time ago, with the kind intention of serving
a youthful friend, then pursuing his theolo
gical studies; but without the slightest idea
that they would ever meet the public eye.
Circumstances, however, which have occurred
since that period, induced the gentleman for
whom they were composed to request the
vi PREFACE.
author's permission to publish them for his

own benefit, which was cordially granted.
In these Discourses, the reader will find

some of the most momentous questions which
can exercise the human mind, discussed with
great eloquence, ingenuity, and force of argu
ment. Yet it was not without a strong feeling
of diffidence, that the writer consented to lay
before the public this new and striking proof
of the strength and versatility of his genius, as
will appear from the following Extract of a
Letter.
a The Religious Discourses which

you call to my mind, were written entirely for
your use, and are therefore your property.
PREFACE. vii
They were never intended for publication, as

nobody knows better than yourself; nor do
I willingly consent that they should be now
given to the press, as it may be thought
that I have intermeddled with matters for
which I have no commission. I have also to
add, that they contain no novelty of opinion,

and no attempt at brilliancy of composition.
They were meant, I may remind you, to show
that a rational and practical discourse upon a
particular text was a task more easily per
formed than you, in your natural anxiety,
seemed at the time disposed to believe. I am
afraid that those who open this pamphlet with
expectations of a higher kind will be much
disappointed. As, however, you seem to be
of opinion, that the publication might be at
tended with much benefit to you, I make no
objection to it, and will be glad to hear that
viii PREFACE.
it suits your purpose. This Letter will suf

ficiently indicate my consent to any gentleman
of the trade with whom you may treat.
* I am yours, very sincerely,
a W. S. n
Abbotsford, January 2, 1828.

DISC O U R S E I.
THE CHRISTIAN AND THE JEWISH

DISPENSATIONS COMPARED.
---
º:
* : ,* :, º,
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N
DISC O U R S E I.
THE CHRISTIAN AND THE JEWISH

DISPENSATIONS COMPARED.
MATTHEw v, 17.
a Think not that I am come to destroy the law or th

prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. "
The Sermon on the Mount formed one of
those occasions upon which our blessed Sa

viour condescended to intimate to his follow
ers, at considerable length, the purpose of his

heavenly mission, and the relation which it
bore to the ancient dispensation of Moses,
under which the Jews had been trained for so
I 2 THE CHRISTIAN AND
many centuries. The text before us, as well

as the words which follow in the same chapter,
contain an express and general declaration on
this subject, startling perhaps to those who
listened to the Divine Speaker at the time,
and on which infidels in subsequent times
have endeavoured to ground a charge of in
consistency. We will presume, with such
conciseness as the occasion requires, and with
the humility becoming those who venture to
approach the Ark of the Covenant, to consider
this most important declaration as it concerns
—First: Those to whom it was instantly and
directly addressed; and, Secondly, the present
generation, who look back on what was then
spoken with the advantage of comparing the
divine prophecy with the events which have
since ensued.
Upon the first point, we are to remember

that Jesus came to his own, and that his own
received him not. He proffered the inestima
THE JEWISH DISPENSATIONS. 13
ble treasures of the Gospel to that chosen

people to whom God himself had conde
scended to be legislator; and, vain of their
own imaginary wealth, they refused to accept
this new and far richer gift at his hands. Nay,
it even seemed that the nearer they approached
in external observances, at least, to claim in a
peculiar manner the title of children obedient
to the law of their heavenly Father, the less
were the Jews disposed to recognize Him that
was greater than Moses. His mission was
rejected by the Sadducees, the free-thinkers
of the Judaical institution, who disbelieved
the existence of angel and spirit, and whose
sceptical and selfish opinions made them deaf
to the proclamation of salvation. They, who
believed in no state of future retribution, and
conceived that the souls and bodies of men went
down to the grave together, luxurious as men

who would enjoy the passing hour, and indif
ferent as men who held speculative doctrines
as of trifling importance, were naturally averse
-
14 THE CHRISTIAN AND
to the reception of a system which implied a

general renunciation of all temporal benefits,
and subjected the disciples of Christ, as well
as their Divine Teacher, to peril, privation,
captivity and death.
But, besides these Epicureans of Israel, the

Pharisees, also, a sect who placed their pride
in the most precise observances of the law of
Moses; who admitted the existence of a state
of future rewards and punishments; who
believed in the immortality of the soul, and
were systematically regular in divine worship
and religious ordinances, were even more ini
mical to the Gospel than the Sadducees them
selves. What startled the Atheist amid his
carnal enjoyments, no less disturbed the hypo

crite; who, in the plenitude of spiritual pride,
thanked God that he had not made him as
other men, or even as the humble publican,

who, with a contrite and broken heart, was
laying a confession of his sins before an of

fended Deity.
The cause of the Pharisees' unbelief, and

their strenuous opposition to the Gospel tenets,
had root undoubtedly in our blessed Saviour's
detection of their hypocrisy, and his publicly
exposing the foul principles and practices
which they covered with the most formal af
fectation of strict holiness. They could not
bear the light, which, not content with play
ing on the outside of their whited sepulchres,
penetrated into their foul charnels, and showed
to the public gaze the dust and rottenness
which their showy exterior concealed. They
could not endure the friendly zeal of the Di
vine physician, when he rent from their
wounds the balsams with which they soothed,
and the rich tissues under which they con
cealed them, and exhibited festering and filthy
cancers which could be cured only by the
probe, the knife, and the cautery. Hence

they were from the beginning of our Saviour's
ministry until its dreadful consummation (in
which they had a particular share), the con
stant enemies of the doctrine and of the per
son of the blessed Jesus. Under his keen and
searching eye, the pretensions which they had

so long made in order to be esteemed of men,
were exposed without disguise; their enlarged
garments and extended phylacteries, their
lengthened prayers, their formal ceremonial,
and tithes of mint and anise, were denounced
as of no avail without the weightier matters
of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. Feel
ing thus their own sanctimonious professions
held up to contempt, and their pretensions
to public veneration at once exposed and de
stroyed, the Pharisees became the active and
violent opposers of those doctrines to which
the Sadducees, with sullen apathy, seem to
have refused a hearing. It was the Pharisees
who maligned the life of our blessed Lord;
who essayed to perplex the wisdom of Omni

potence by vain and captious interrogatories;
and who, unable to deny those miracles by
which the mission of Christ was authenticated
and proved, blasphemously imputed them to

the agency of demons.
But, in particular, their objections were

founded upon arguments the most powerful of
any with the pride and national prejudices of
the Jews, when they objected that Jesus of Na
zareth had it in contemplation to innovate upon
and destroy the Levitical Law, that ancient and
solemn system of institutions committed to the
children of Israel by Omnipotent wisdom: the
demolition of which must have had the natural
consequence of blending together Jews and

Gentiles, and stripping the former of all those
distinguished privileges which were assigned
to them as the children of the promise. Such
arguments, we may easily conceive, were
more likely than any other to obstruct the
I ,
progress of the Christian religion. & Who is

this,” the scoffers might have said, a who is
wiser than Moses, and more holy than Aaron?
Who is this, who presumes to lower and de
face the glory of the sanctuary, and to annul
those institutions, to the observance of which
such splendid promises, to the neglect of
which such direful punishments are annexed
in the Mosaic statutes?» Cursed be he that
confirmeth not all the words of this law to do

them: such are the recorded words of the Al
mighty—a And who is he,” may these blinded

Israelites have demanded, a who pretends to
relax or innovate upon a system so fearfully
sanctioned?” The text which we have before
us must be considered as the answer of Jesus
to these misrepresentations—Think not that I

am come to destroy the law and the prophets;
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. And
this declaration will be found equally true,
whether we examine it with reference to the
doctrines preached and enforced by our Sa
viour, or to that fulfilment of the law and the

prophets which arose from his life, his suffer
ings, and his death for our redemption.
Considering the text in the first point of

view, the principal topics insisted upon in the
Sermon on the Mount, show that Jesus, the
divine commentator upon a divine work,
preached to his disciples, and to the Jews in
general, the fulfilment of the Law, by showing
them in what the spirit and efficacy of the
Mosaic institutions actually consisted.
Although there be no question that the Al

mighty, through all ages, had been pleased to
enlighten the eyes of many individuals among
his chosen people, to see and know the secret
purposes of his dispensation, yet it is certain
that the great majority of the Jewish nation
had, for some time prior to the advent of our
Saviour, fallen into many gross and carnal er
rors both respecting the Law and the Prophets.
2O THE CHRISTIAN AND
In regard to the former, they, and particularly

the sect of the Pharisees, seem to have lost all
sense of the end and purpose of the types and
ceremonies enjoined by Moses, and to have
substituted the minute discharge of his ritual
as something excellent and meritorious in it
self, capable of being received as an atone
ment for the neglecting those general points
of virtue and morality upon which that dis
pensation, as well as all that emanates from
the Divine Author, was originally founded,
and with which it ought for ever to have been
animated. But when the observance of the
minute ceremonial was substituted instead of
love to God and duty to our neighbours, the

system resembled some ancient tree, which
continues to show green boughs and a stately
form to those who regard it only on the out
side, but when carefully examined proves
rotten and false at heart, and valueless except
ing as a matter of outward show;
The JEWISH DISPENSATIONS. 2i
• All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and grey
within. »
. In pointing out to his hearers, therefore,

the true fulfilment of the Law, our blessed
Redeemer showed that it consisted not in a
strict and literal interpretation of the express

precepts of the Law, but in the adoption of
an ample and liberal interpretation, carrying
the spirit of each precept into all the corre
sponding relations of life. Thus, he taught
that not alone by actual slaughter was the per
petrator in danger of the judgment, but that
all causeless enmity, all injurious language,
the source and provocation of deeds of vio
lence, was forbidden. Not only, added the
same pure and heavenly Teacher, is the foul
act of adultery prohibited in the Law, but all
unclean thoughts which lead to such a crime
are forbidden by the same precept. The same
Law, pursues the Divine Interpreter, which
prohibits a breach of oath, forbids, by its es

sence, all idle and unnecessary appeals to that
solemnity; and the same precept which ver
bally goes no farther than to enjoin an equi
table retribution of injuries according to the
lea talionis, includes in it a recommendation to
humility, to patience under and forgiveness of
injuries, to universal benevolence, to the re
turn of good for evil, and to the practice of
every virtue, not in the restricted and limited
sense of compliance with the letter of the Law,
but with an extended and comprehensive lati
tude, becoming the children of our heavenly
Father, whose universal benevolence causes
his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
his rain to descend on the just and the un
just.
In this sense, therefore, as a commentator

on the Law, and addressing himself to those
who were born under its dispensations, did
Jesus come not to destroy, but to fulfil it; not
to take away the positive prohibition of gross

evil but to extend that prohibition against
the entertainment of angry and evil thoughts,
which are the parents of such actions;–not
to diminish the interdiction against violence
and malevolence, but to enlarge it into a posi
tive precept enjoining to benevolence in ac
tion, and resignation in suffering. At the same
time, our Saviour taught the inferior value of
that compliance with the forms of the ritual
so much insisted upon by the Pharisees, when
placed in competition with the practice of the
virtues enjoined by the Law, and that re
conciliation with an offended brother, was a
duty preferable even to the offering up a gift,
although the devout ceremonial was already
commenced by its being laid upon the altar.
In a word, our Saviour taught his disciples
such a fulfilment of the Law as might in spirit
and effect far exceed the dry, formal, literal
compliances of which hypocrites showed them
selves capable, for the carnal purpose of raising
themselves in the opinion of others; and he

sealed his interpretation with the awful de
nunciation, Except your righteousness shall ex
ceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pha
risees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of
heaven.
Thus far, therefore, have we proceeded

upon the first head of our discourse, being an
attempt to show how far the doctrines of
Christ, as preached before his disciples, were
consonant to and a fulfilment of the law of
Moses; and it would be no difficult task to
prove, from a comparison of texts, that the
germs of the Christian doctrine, so beautifully
and broadly developed and displayed in the
Gospel, are to be found in the ancient dispen
sation, although they had been unhappily lost
sight of, by such pretenders to sanctity, among
the Jews, as found the observance of the Mo
saic ceremonial, more easy than compliance
with the benevolent precept enforced as well
n the Law as in the Gospel—Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself: Lev. xix, 18. But

such an investigation would lead us too far
from our present purpose.
Secondly. The Law was not only expound

ed by Jesus in reference to its being fulfilled
in spirit and in truth by his disciples. This
exposition indeed was all that could be dis
tinctly understood by the ears which his im
mediate discourse made blessed; but there
was a further and more mysterious meaning,
not to be understood at the moment by those
to whom the text was addressed, but upon
which future events, the death and resur
rection of our blessed Saviour, and the gene
ral increase of Christianity, have cast an awful
and important light. The Law and the Pro
phets were not to be destroyed, but to be
fulfilled, not only by the doctrines which
Christ preached explanatory of their true im
port, but by the events of his life, and by the
scheme of redemption which he promulgated.
2
And it is here that infidels, availing themselves

as usual of an insulated text, and subjecting
it to their own exclusive interpretation, have
asked the Christians triumphantly, in what
manner the words of the Founder of our reli
gion have been verified. 6 Came not he,”

say such cavillers, a to destroy the Law and
the Prophets, briefly after whose advent Je
rusalem and her temple were destroyed, her
sanctuary defiled and violated, and the ob
servances of the Mosaic Law rendered in
many instances impossible, even to the scat
tered remnant who yet profess obedience to
them? Are not these,” such persons urge,
a the direct consequences of the Christian re
ligion?—is not the destruction of the Law of
Moses included in the detail which we have
given?—and can it then be said that the Foun

der of the rival dispensation came upon earth
not to destroy the old Law, but to fulfil, it? »
Such are the objections to which it is our

duty to be prepared with an answer, a show

ing a reason for the faith that is in us.” We
shall for this purpose view the text both in
the negative and positive branch, and endea
vour to prove, 1st. That Christ came not to
destroy the Law. 2dly. That by his coming
the Law was fulfilled; and to such an extent,
that, as never a richer propitiation
was made
to offended justice, never were unhappy cri

minals, if enabled by faith to discover the true
way to safety, more fully entitled to sue out
their pardon under a law, which, however
rigid, had been, by the sufferings and death
of our blessed Redeemer, completely satisfied
and fulfilled.
First. Our blessed Saviour came not to de
stroy the Law of Moses; and that the typical

ceremonial, the national and peculiar enact
ments of the Jewish legislator should be ab
rogated, was no condition of the Gospel offer
ed to them, but a consequence of their own
rejection of the terms of proffered salvation.

God was not forgetful of the promise he had
made to his servant Abraham,' and the de
struction of Jerusalem and its Temple are to
be charged, not upon the divine Legislator,
but upon the infatuated presumption of the
Jewish teachers, and the judicial madness of
the people in general. The gate of salvation
was opened for the Jews, long before the
Gentiles were called upon to enter in, nor was
it until the wicked labourers had slain and cast
forth his only Son, that the Lord of the vine

yard was moved to destroy these wicked la
bourers, and let his vineyard to other la
bourers, who should render to him the fruits
in their seasons.
The truth of what is above stated is evident,

when we consider that our holy Saviour was
born a Jew, and from his birth to his death
• John viii, 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see

my day : and he saw it, and was glad.
was strictly subject to the Dispensation of

Moses, complying in his own person with all
its ceremonials, and recommending similar
compliance to all his disciples and followers,
in order that by no neglect of the typical or
ceremonial part of their religion, the Pharisees
might be justified in the calumnies which
accused him of an attempt to destroy the law
of Moses. In the very lesson which inculcates
the superiority of the duties of benevolence
to the payment of tithes and other matters of
observance, both are mentioned as existing
duties, though precedence in weight and im
portance is given to the former." These things
ought ye to have done, says our Lord, and not
to leave the other undone. Again, when his
divine power had restored the sick to health,
they were commanded by him to repair to the
temple, and purify themselves according to
the Law. On all occasions, our divine Mediator,
* Matthew xxiii, 23; and Luke xi, 42.

3o THE CHRISTIAN AND
showed the most anxious wish to bring within

the pale of his salvation, the ancient people
distinguished as the favourites of the Deity;
and it was for them that he poured forth the
pathetic lamentation, when he beheld their
obduracy rejecting the means of salvation
which he had condescended even to entreat
them to receive from his hands—O Jerusalem,

Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest
them that are sent to thee, how often would I -
have gathered thy children together, as a hen
doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye
would not! Luke xiii, 34. The abrogation
of the Jewish Law was not then the object
of Christ's mission, it became only the conse
quence of their own wicked and obdurate
blindness, in rejecting with scorn the offers
of salvation which were held forth to them, as
the elder born, ere the Gentiles, like younger
children, were invited to accept of the inhe
ritance which the others had repudiated.
It would be a vain and idle inquiry to ask,

in what extent, or to what purpose the Mosaic
ritual might have subsisted, had the Jews as a
nation accepted of the treasure held forth to
them. But it is evident, from many passages
in Scripture, and in particular, from the writ
ings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, that not
only was the Law of Moses esteemed cogent
upon such as had been bred up in it, but many
of the earlier Christian teachers erroneously
conceived that its obligations extended to con
verts made from the heathen world at large.
And although St Paul combated this rigour, as
opposite to the plan and scope of the Gospel,
which offered salvation to Gentile as well as to
Jew, and maintained the circumcision of the

new Law was that of the heart and not of the
letter; yet, in contending for the freedom of

the Gentiles, and thereby incalculably enlarg
ing the pale of salvation, the Apostle condemns
not the observances of the Jewish proselytes,
32 The CHRISTIAN AND
but allows that out of circumcision arises much
profit every way. Undestroyed, therefore, and

uncondemned by the new doctrine, the Mosaic
institutions continued to linger, as things per
mitted to the Jews, but not enjoined to other
Christians, until that part of the Church which
consisted of Christian Jews or Judaizing Chris
tians, gradually diminishing, merged at length
in the great mass of Christianity, and availed
themselves of the general liberty.
We will suppose that our sceptic still prose

cutes his objections, and urges further, that
although the Law of Moses was not expressly
abrogated by the Christian Dispensation, still it
was superseded, and its destruction followed
as a matter of course; and therefore, that if
Christ came not on purpose to destroy the Law
and the Prophets, still by and through his
mission, it was actually destroyed. To this we
have already returned one answer. It was not
the offer of the Gospel to the Jews, but their
ignorant and prejudiced rejection of that ines

timable gift, which occasioned the destruction
of Jerusalem, and the desolation of Judah;
even as the storm and overthrow of a besieged
city is not produced by a message, offering the
inhabitants easy terms of safe submission, but
by their own obstinacy in refusing to accept
what was mercifully tendered. But another
answer remains, comprehending within brief
compass the great and awful mystery of Chris
tianity.
Christ did not come, as we have already

seen, to destroy the law; but, secondly, he came
to fulfil it. That which is fulfilled can in no
sense be said to be destroyed, even though by
means of its being fulfilled it should cease to
exist. Thus, the crop of the husbandman is
destroyed, if it perish through tempest in the
field; but if it is gathered into the garner, and
put to the proper uses of man, it is not in any
sense destroyed, though consumed; but, on
34 The CHRISTIAN AND
the contrary, the purposes of its being reared

are legitimately fulfilled. And in this sense the
law of Moses being fulfilled in Christ Jesus,
remains no longer binding on his faithful
followers. He hath gathered in the harvest,
and invites them for his sake and in his name,
to partake of the bread of life, which by their
own exertions they could never have obtained.
Our time is too limited to enlarge upon a

doctrine in which is contained the very essence
of our holy religion, and which in its breadth
and profundity is deserving of more volumes
than we can at present bestow words. Still,
an outline, however brief and imperfect, must
be offered of the great and wonderful mystery
of our salvation in the fulfilment of the law of
Moses by our blessed Redeemer.
The books on which the Jewish religion was

founded, were of two classes—the Law, and
the Prophets.
The one announces typically, and the other

prophetically, that the system of Moses was but
for a season, and that it was to be in due time
superseded by a brighter and more efficacious
display of the divine power, and the arrival
upon earth of a greater than Moses. The law
of Moses was in itself a perfect law, but it
enjoined perfect compliance with that law on
the part of beings whose nature was imperfect.
The blood of rams and of goats offered in the
Temple was but the type of that inestimable
sacrifice which was to atone for our imperfect
obedience, and be offered up for our iniquities.
Under the Mosaic dispensation, therefore, the
law was incomplete with respect to those to
whom it was given, for it could not be obeyed,
or, in the words of our text, fulfilled.
The law of Moses was an institution of types

and ceremonies, of minute observances, and
abounding with positive injunctions and pro
hibitions, which, viewed separately, and with
no regard to the system of which they made

a part, or of their own latent and hidden
meaning, might seem to a hasty observer arbi
trary and trivial. Nay, as we have already
seen, the wisest among the Jews themselves,
and they who affected most sanctity, were so
far misled as to admire and practise this ritual
for its own sake, and to the neglect both of
the moral injunctions of the law, and of the
hidden meaning of those very ceremonies in
tended to keep their minds awake, and open
their eyes to conviction, when they should
see, in the person of the Messiah, the types
of their law paralleled and explained in those
realities which they had dimly and vaguely
indicated and shadowed forth. Such was
the correspondence between the worship and

sacrifices in the Temple, and that one great sa
crifice by which all was fulfilled oraccomplish
ed;—such was the Scape-goat sent into the
wilderness laden with the sins of the people,
in presage of Him who alone could have borne
the burden of human iniquity;-such was the

veil of the sanctuary which was rent asunder
at the consummation of the great Atonement,
to intimate that the division between Jew and
Gentile was no more;—such were many, very

many other typical parts of the Jewish law,
the meaning of which has been expounded
by the Advent of Christ; and such an analogy
doubtless pervades the whole system, even
where our eyes may be too weak, our judg
ments too obtuse to trace it. The law of
Moses, therefore, so far as it was formal or
ritual, was fulfilled and not destroyed—the
type became unnecessary when the event typi
fied had taken place; and if the observance
of the Hebrew rites was, as we have seen,
indulged to those who had been educated
under the law, it was without any obligation
upon those who had been born free.
The second class of sacred books under the
Jewish Dispensation were those of the Pro

phets; and to these every Christian, capable

of giving a reason for the hope which is in
him, points with exultation, and appeals to
their contents as the most undisputed proof
of his sacred religion. Throughout all the
books of these holy men, who, writing under
the immediate influence of the Spirit of God,
foretold the secret purposes of Heaven to
those amongst whom they lived, repeated
reference is made to the great change which
Christ himself, St Luke informs us [xxiv, 27.], when

he appeared to the two disciples at Emmaus, after his
resurrection, a beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself.” And upon that occasion reproved
his disciples for the backwardness of their belief in
doubting that the Prophecies would be fully accom
plished by his resurrection. He also said to the twelve,
previous to the awful consummation of his death (Luke
xviii, 31.], a Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all
things that are written by the prophets concerning the
Son of Man shall be accomplished. -Editon.
THE JEWISH DiSPENSATIONS. 39
was to take place in the destinies of the world

by the Advent of that Messiah whom the
Jews continue vainly to expect. Alas ! the
gathering of the nations has already taken
place, and those who were first have become
last, yet we hope will not ultimately remain
last in the road of salvation. An infatuated
and fatal blindness occupied their eyes and

understanding, and prevented them from
observing how, in the most minute points, the
prophecies of their sages were fulfilled in
the person and history of Christ—how the
various predictions and the events in which
they were realized, united in the closest cor
respondence to each other—like the parts of
some curious machine, wrought separately
by the art of the mechanic, but with such

accurate adjustment, that no sooner are they
put together, than out of detached portions
and limbs, there is composed, merely by their
union, a whole, working with the most deli
cate accuracy the purpose for which it was
4o THE CHRISTIAN AND
invented. Such is the nature of the fulfilment
of the law by Christ Jesus. He recalled that

part of its institutions which concerned gene
ral virtue and dtuy, and which has been dis
tinguished from the ceremonial part by the
title of the Moral Law, from the narrow and
restricted sense to which the Jewish Rabbis
had contracted it, by a close and verbal inter

pretation of its precepts. He explained its
types, and fulfilled its prophecies, by his life,
sufferings, and death. He did more, much
more than all this. He paid in his own inest.
mable person that debt which fallen man
owed to Almighty justice, and which, bankrupt
by nature, it was impossible for him to dis
charge. He took upon himself that curse of
the law which mere humanity could not en
dure, and by his perfect obedience and bitter
sufferings, he made that atonement which his
heavenly Father had a right to exact, but
which even the destruction of the world could
not have made; and gave us a right, trusting

in his merits, to plead an exemption from the

strict and severe denunciations of the law
under which we could not survive.
In no sense, therefore, was the ancient Mo

saic Law destroyed. It may be compared
to the moon, which is not forced from her
sphere, or cast headlong from the Heavens,
but which, having fulfilled her course of
brightness, fades away gradually before the
more brilliant and perfect light of day.
May God in his mercy make us all partakers

of the blessings purchased and promised by
his blessed Son, by whom the law was not
destroyed, but fulfilled!
D IS CO U R S E II.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

D IS COURSE II.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS,
PsALM 1.
1. a Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor

sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2. a But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his

law doth he meditate day and night.
3. * And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of

water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his
46 THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth

shall prosper.
4. a The ungodly are not so : but are like the chaff
which the wind driveth away.
5. “ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judg

ment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6. . For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but

the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
As a prelude to the various lessons of holiness,

which his lyrical compositions contain, the
Psalmist, in the very first verse of these divine
hymns, has treated, in general, of the condition
of the righteous and the wicked, the blessings
which Providence has destined for the former,
and the misery and wretchedness to which the
latter are certainly conducted, by the indul
gence of their evil propensities; or, as the
Rubrick expresses it—the happiness of the
godly, the unhappiness of the ungodly.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 47
In the first and second verse is described
that line of conduct by which man, approach

ing as nearly to the full discharge of his duties,
as his finite and imperfect faculties permit,
may be supposed, in some sort, to merit the
temporal and spiritual blessings annexed to
obedience to the law of God. “And here it
must be observed, that the duties peculiarly

inculcated, are those which immediately re
gard our Creator; and that those which we
owe to our brethren of mankind, though of
equal obligation, are postponed on the present
occasion, the fear of God being the root and
source out of which our love to our neighbour
must spring, and on which it must be grafted,
otherwise it will, like wilding fruit, bear nei
ther substance nor flavour. The qualities re
quired of him who would obtain the blessing
promised in the text, are of two kinds, negative
and positive.
* The man is blessed,” saith our text, a that

48 the BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEous.
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor

standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in
the seat of the scornful.” In general, these
three expressions may be considered as relat
ing to the same general proposition, and as
amounting to a peremptory prohibition on the
religious to frequent the society and company
of the ungodly. The cause of this general
interdict is too obvious to be insisted upon.
Man, naturally a social animal, is led by
example to good or to evil, and the best may
have enough to do in resisting the evil pro
pensities of his own bosom, without their being
strengthened and enforced by the contagious
intercourse of those who are in the daily
practice of indulging their passions. a Be not
deceived,” saith the Apostle; & evil communi
cation corrupts good manners.” The surest
bond for our own continuing in the right path,
is to abstain from the counsel which causeth
to err.
But as error and its causes may be various,

so the verse we have read, branches out into
three especial warnings, respecting the va
rious kinds of evil communication which are
eschewed and avoided by him whom the
Psalmist pronounces blessed.
& He walketh not in the counsel of the ungod

ly;” that is, he seeks not their society, nor
joins with them in their modes of reasoning,
adopts not the selfish and worldly-wise argu
ments by which they impeach perhaps the
truth and sanctity of the word of God, or
enervate the energy of his precepts, or gloss
over and apologize for their own neglect of
religious duties. The divine may be doubt
less called upon by his office, and other men,
by circumstances annexed to their situation in
society, to hear such reasoning in the mouths
of sceptics and voluptuaries; and it is in such
cases the duty, not of the clergyman alone,
but of all who are competent to the task, to
3
5o the BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUs.
refute and repel the sophistries of the profane

and ungodly. This, however, is not a walk
ing by their counsel, but a marching in oppo
sition to them—it is a going forth against
them in the name of the Lord God of Israel
whom they have defied; and at no time is the

character of the righteous man more vene
rable, than when, with the calmness which
the subject requires, and the gentleness which
compassion for a blinded sinner ought to in
spire, but without a shadow of fear or of
doubt, he stands forth, like Elihu, the cham
pion of the good cause; nor can he further
depart from his character (passively at least)
than when, a mean and timid listener to
doctrines, which if they shake not his own
faith, may corrupt that of others, he is a pa
tient auditor of the counsel of the ungodly.
Secondly. The man is blessed who standeth

not in the way of sinners. In the former clause
of the verse we are prohibited to listen to the
The Blessed NESS OF THE RIGHTEoUs. 51
theory of sin; in this we are forbidden to afford

countenance by presence and acquiescence to
the practice. We are not to lay the flattering
unction to our souls—I have been with drunk
ards, but I was not drunken—I have been
with men of violence, but I partook not in
their aggressions—I was in the company of
an evil troop, but I committed not evil along
with them. Is it then no evil to defile the
hands that should be pure, and the eye that

should be single? Let us not permit the sight
of guilt to familiarize our hearts to the practice
of it; for even if we could be confident in our
own godliness (as, God knows, such confidence
is in itself a sinful rashness), how many may
be misled by the apparent countenance which
our presence has afforded ! How many, even
of the ungodly themselves, may have been
strengthened in error, by supposing the guilt
of their actions could not be so great, since a
professor of righteousness continued the vo
luntary witness of what they did Where
52 the BLESSEDNESS of the Righteous.
fore let us beware that we countenance not
sin by standing in the path of sinners.
Thirdly. Nor sitteth he, whom the Psalmist

describes, in the seat of the scornful. There
is a grave and delusive reasoning which cau
seth to err–there is an example of sin which
is more seductive than sophistry—but there
is a third, and to many dispositions a yet more
formidable mode of seduction, arising from,
evil communication. It is the fear of ridi
cule, a fear so much engrafted on our nature,

that many shrink with apprehension from
the laugh of scorners, who could refute their
arguments, resist their example, and defy their
violence. There has never been an hour or
an age, in which this formidable weapon has

been more actively employed against the Chris
tian faith than our own day. Wit and ridicule
have formed the poignant sauce with which
infidels have seasoned their abstract reason
The BLESSEDNESS of the RIGHTEous. 53
ing, and voluptuaries the swinish messes of

pollution, which they have spread unblush
ingly before the public. It is a weapon suited
to the character of the Apostate Spirit him
self, such as we conceive him to be—loving
nothing, honouring nothing, feeling neither
the enthusiasm of religion nor of praise, but
striving to debase all that is excellent, and
degrade all that is noble and praiseworthy, by
cold irony and contemptuous sneering.
We are far from terming a harmless gratifi

cation of a gay and lively spirit sinful or even
useless. It has been said, and perhaps with
truth, that there are tempers which may be
won to religion, by indulging them in their na
tural bent towards gaiety. But supposing it
true that ajest may sometimes hit him who flies
a sermon, too surely there are a hundred cases
for one where the sermon cannot remedy the
evil which a jest has produced. According to
our strangely varied faculties, our sense of

ridicule, although silent, remains in ambush
and upon the watch during offices of the
deepest solemnity, and actions of the highest
sublimity; and if aught happens to call it into
action, the sense of the ludicrous becomes
more resistless from the previous contrast,
and the considerations of decorum, which
ought to restrain our mirth, prove like oil
seethed upon the flame. There is also an un
happy desire in our corrupt nature, to ap
prove of audacity even in wickedness, as men
chiefly applaud those feats of agility which are
performed at the risk of the artist's life. And
such is the strength and frequency of this un
hallowed temptation, that there are perhaps
but few, who have not at one time or other
fallen into the snare, and laughed at that at
which they ought to have trembled. But, O
my soul, come not thou into their secret, nor
yield thy part of the promised blessing, for the
-
poor gratification of sitting in the seat of the

scorner, and sharing in the unprofitable mirth
of fools, which is like the crackling of thorns
under the pot!
The second verse contains the positive em
ployment of the righteous man. His delight is

in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he
meditate day and night. The object of the
righteous is to fulfil what the patriarchs of our
church have well termed a the chief end of
man—to glorify God,” namely, 4 and to enjoy

him for ever; w and that he may qualify himself
for this, his study is in the Holy Scriptures.
He is satisfied with no ceremonious repetition
of the Sacred Book, by rote, but that he may
come to a true knowledge of the things be
longing to his salvation, he meditates upon
them, by day and night, searching out the
hidden meaning and genuine spirit of those
texts which others pass over as hard to be
56 THE BLESSEDNESs of the RiGHTEous.
understood. We know the attention bestowed
by men of learning upon human laws, and how

long a portion of their time must be devoted
to study ere they can term themselves ac
quainted with the municipal laws of any
civilized realm; and is it then to be imagined
that the laws of the Supreme are to be under
stood at a slighter expense of leisure than those
of earthly legislators? Be assured, that when
we have meditated upon them, as in the text,
by day and night, our time will even then have
been lost, unless faith hath been our commen
tator and interpreter.
The third verse describes, by a beautiful

eastern simile, the advantages with which the
forbearance from evil counsel, from the com
pany of sinners, and from the mirth of scoffers
and blasphemers, must needs be attended.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his sea
son: his leaf also shall not wither; and what

soever he doeth shall prosper.
In one point of view this striking promise

may be supposed to refer to temporal bless
ings, which, under the theocracy of the Jews,
were more directly and more frequently held
forth as the reward of the righteous, than un
der the dispensations of the Gospel. We must
own, also, that even in our own times, religion
is sometimes the means of procuring temporal
prosperity to its votaries. The more a man
meditates upon God's law, the more he feels
it his duty to render his life useful to his
fellow-creatures. And tried honesty, approved
fidelity, devoted courage, public spirit, the
estimation created by a blameless conduct,
and the general respect which even the pro
fane bear to a man of conscience and honesty,
often elevate to eminence; and happy is it for
the land when such are its princes and gover
**
58 the BLESSEDNess of the Righteous.
nors, or are possessors and distributors of its

wealth and fulness. But though this be true,
we shall err grossly if we conceive temporal
felicity is here alluded to as being either the
appropriate or the unvaried reward of right
eousness. Were this the case, an earthly,
inadequate, and merely transient reward,
would be unworthy of spiritual merit; and
were it to be the certain and unvaried conse
quence of a due discharge of religious duties,
I fear that though the banks of our Jordan
might be more thickly studded than at present
with trees fair and flourishing in outward ap
pearance, the core of many would be tainted
with rottenness; or, without a metaphor, men
who were not openly profane, would drive a
trade with their religion, under the mask of
hypocrisy.
It is safer therefore to view the blessed
state of the righteous, as consisting in that

calm of the mind, which no one can enjoy

without the applause of his own conscience,
and the humble confidence in which, with
mingled faith and hope, the good man throws
himself on the protection of Providence. His
leaves which wither not, but clothe him as
well in the winter of adversity, as in the spring
and summer of prosperity, are goodly and
comforting reflections, that in whatever state
he is called to, he is discharging the part des
timed for him by an affectionate and omni
potent Father;-and his incorruptible fruits
rendered in their season, are good and pious
thoughts towards God, kind and generous ac
tions towards his fellow-creatures, sanctified,

because rendered in the spirit and with the
humble faith of a Christian.
The ungodly are not so, saith the next verse;

but are like the chaff which the wind driveth
away.
60 the BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEous.
If the righteousness of the just is some

times followed by temporal prosperity, the
wickedness of the profane is yet more fre
quently attended by temporal punishment.
The cause of this is obvious: he that does not
fear God, will not regard man. He that has

disbelieved or defied the divine command
ment, has only the fear of temporal punish

ment left to prevent him from invading the
laws of society; and the effect of this last
barrier must be strong or weak, in proportion
to the strength of passion and the greatness of
temptation. And hence that frequent intro
duction to the history of great crimes, that the
perpetrators began their course by disuse of
public worship, breaking the Lord's day, and
neglect of private devotion, and thus opened
the way for themselves to infamy and to exe
cution. How many in a higher class in so
ciety, languish under diseases, which are the
consequence of their own excesses, or suffer
indigence and contempt, through their own

folly and extravagance!
But, as prosperity in this life is neither the

genuine nor the certain reward of the righ
teous, so neither is temporal adversity the
COInStant requital of the ungodly. On the
contrary, we have seen the wicked great in
power, and flourishing like a green bay-tree;
yet could we have looked into his bosom at
that moment of prosperity, how true we
should have found the words of the Psalmist!
The sophistry which he borrowed from the

counsels of the ungodly, gives no assurance
of happiness, and leads him to no solid or sta
ble conclusion; the wit with which the scorner
taught him to gloss over his infidel opinions,
has lost its brilliancy—behind him there is
remorse; before him there is doubt. While
the godly is fast moored on the Rock of Ages,
he is in a stormy sea, without a chart, without
a compass, without a pilot. The perturbed

reasoning, the secret fears of such a one, make
his thoughts indeed like the chaff which the
wind drives to and fro, being as worthless and
profitless as they are changeable and uncer
tain. A person, distinguished as much for his
excesses at one period of his life, as he was
afterwards for his repentance, mentioned
after his happy change, that one day, when he
was in the full career of wit and gaiety, admir
ed by the society of which he appeared the
life, while all applauded and most envied him,
a he could not forbear groaning inwardly,
and saying to himself:
“O that I were that dog l',
looking on one which chanced to be in the

apartment. " Such were the secret thoughts
See Doddridge's Life of Colonel Gardiner.

The BLEssed NEss of the Righteous. 63
of one who had followed the counsel of the

ungodly, walked in the way of sinners; and sate
in the seat of the scornful. Regretting the past,
sick of the present, fearing the future; having
little hope beyond a gloomy wish for annihila
tion, he was willing to exchange all the pri
vileges and enjoyments of wit, understanding,
and intellectual superiority, for the mean fa
culties, and irresponsible existence of a beast
that perishes. He must have been indeed like
chaff tormented by the wind, ere he could
have formed a wish at once so dreadful and so
degrading!
The fifth verse following out of the theme

which the Psalmist proposed, informs us, that
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.-
After death cometh the judgment. How
strict, how terrible that judgment shall be,

we may learn from the blessed Apostle in the
second epistle to the Thessalonians." Then

shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Will it then be received as an apology, that
the sophistries by which the ungodly were
misled, were ingenious, that they were urged
with plausibility, and rendered diverting by
wit? Alas! my brethren, we are informed
in the same passage, that the strength of their
deception is part of their very crime. God
placed evil and good, truth and falsehood be
fore them, and gave them means of judging
betwixt them, and embracing that which they

should chuse; and the having forsaken good
for evil, and the truth of the Gospel for the
vain sophistries of men, is the very crime of
which they are accused. And for this cause
(says the Apostle), God shall send them strong
2 Thess. ii, 8.
delusion, that they should believe a lie; that

they all might be damned who believe not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." It
is then that the divine Shepherd will for ever
separate the goats from the sheep, that the
blessed Husbandman shall purge the floor of
the garner with his fan, that the Captain of
our Salvation shall leave no spies in his camp,
and the King of our Glory endure no traitors
in his territory.
The concluding verse of the Psalm vindi

cates, in a few words, the promises which
have been made to the righteous, and the judg:
ments which have been denounced against
the ungodly. For the Lord knoweth the way of
the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish. The omniscience of the Deity is the
touchstone by which the merits of the righ
a Thess. ii, 1 1, 12.

• *
66 THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEoUs.
teous, and the guilt of the wicked shall ulti

mately be determined. No false opinions
formed concerning them during life, can de
ceive that unerring Judge; no counterfeit,
however brilliant, can pass for pure gold; no
forgery, however ingenious, can supply the
place of the testimonial which he demands.
The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.
He was perhaps lightly esteemed among his
fellow-men, considered as an unsocial and
scrupulous devotee, an enemy to free investi
gation, because he walked not by the counsel
of the ungodly; a severe censurer of harmless
levities, because he stood not in the way of
sinners; a foe to innocent mirth, because he
sate not in the seat of the scorner. Let him
nevertheless come boldly before the heavenly

Judge; He knoweth his ways. When his
left hand knew not the good deeds which
were wrought by his right, the Lord beheld
them. His eye was upon him in solitude and
The BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 67
secrecy, and his spirit guided him during

his daily and nightly meditations on his law.
At the time when the righteous was per
haps most misconstrued by his brethren of
men, he was most acceptable to his heavenly
Father, who knew his way—not his actions
only, however secret, but the principles upon
which these actions were founded.
Again, let not the wicked confide in the re

fined hypocrisy with which he may have been
able to deceive men, nay, perhaps to cheat
himself, by blending actions of apparent me
rit, and sentiments in themselves praisewor
thy, with a course of life, such as that which
the Psalmist has denounced. If he be an un
derminer of God's law, and a scoffer at his
commandments, what will it avail him, that
he has given alms, and distributed to his
poorer brethren the food that perishes, while
he was dashing from their lips, and trampling,
68 the BLEssedness of the Righteous.
in their presence, upon the bread of eternal

life? Good deeds, whether done to be seen
of men, or flowing from the natural disposi
tion of the human heart to relieve itself from
the pain attending the sight of distress, how

ever applauded by those who witnessed them,
will sink to their proper level and estimation
in the eyes of the Divinity, which will not
view them as an atonement for a life spent in
the habitual breach of his Law, and contempt
of his Commandments. The way of the ungodly
shall perish.
Wherefore may we all find grace in God,

for the sake of Christ Jesus, to labour and im
prove the time, until we pass into the awful
presence of Him who searcheth the heart and
trieth the reins.
The END.
*

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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized

by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the

PRINTED BY JULES DIDOT, SENIOR,

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

LIBRARY, N° 18, RUE vivier NE.

The history of the following remarkable pro

author's permission to publish them for his

In these Discourses, the reader will find

a The Religious Discourses which

They were never intended for publication, as

which I have no commission. I have also to

add, that they contain no novelty of opinion,

it suits your purpose. This Letter will suf

* I am yours, very sincerely,

Abbotsford, January 2, 1828.

THE CHRISTIAN AND THE JEWISH

THE CHRISTIAN AND THE JEWISH

a Think not that I am come to destroy the law or th

The Sermon on the Mount formed one of

those occasions upon which our blessed Sa

ers, at considerable length, the purpose of his

many centuries. The text before us, as well

Upon the first point, we are to remember

ble treasures of the Gospel to that chosen

down to the grave together, luxurious as men

14 THE CHRISTIAN AND

to the reception of a system which implied a

But, besides these Epicureans of Israel, the

carnal enjoyments, no less disturbed the hypo

other men, or even as the humble publican,

laying a confession of his sins before an of

The cause of the Pharisees' unbelief, and

probe, the knife, and the cautery. Hence

searching eye, the pretensions which they had

who essayed to perplex the wisdom of Omni

and proved, blasphemously imputed them to

But, in particular, their objections were

consequence of blending together Jews and

progress of the Christian religion. & Who is

confirmeth not all the words of this law to do

mighty—a And who is he,” may these blinded

to these misrepresentations—Think not that I

viour, or to that fulfilment of the law and the

Considering the text in the first point of

Although there be no question that the Al

In regard to the former, they, and particularly

love to God and duty to our neighbours, the

. In pointing out to his hearers, therefore,

strict and literal interpretation of the express

prohibits a breach of oath, forbids, by its es

In this sense, therefore, as a commentator

to take away the positive prohibition of gross

themselves in the opinion of others; and he

Thus far, therefore, have we proceeded

thy neighbour as thyself: Lev. xix, 18. But

Secondly. The Law was not only expound

And it is here that infidels, availing themselves

gion have been verified. 6 Came not he,”

given?—and can it then be said that the Foun