appertained to a moral being-it would become moral purity, or holiness. Thus, they learned, in the sentiment of Scripture, that God was of too pure eyes to look upon iniquity.

That the idea of moral purity in the minds of the Israelites was thus originated by the machinery of the Levitical dispensation, is supported, not only by the philosophy of the thing, but by many allusions in the Scriptures. Such allusions are frequent both in the writers of the old and of the new dispensations; evidencing that, in their minds, the idea of moral purity was still symbolised by physical purity. The rite of baptism is founded upon this symbolical analogy; the external washing with water being significant of the purifying influence of the Holy Spirit. St. John saw in vision the undefiled in heart clothed with linen pure and white; evincing that, to the mind of the Jew, such vestments as the high priest wore, when he entered the holy of holies, were still emblematical of moral purity. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is an apostolic exposition of the spiritual import of the Levitical institution, so far as that institution particularly concerns believers under the New Testament dispensation, we have the foregoing view of the design of ceremonial purification expressly confirmed. "It was, therefore, necessary," says Paul to the Hebrews, "that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, (that is, with these purifying processes addressed to the senses) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." The plain instruction of which is, that the parts and processes of the Levitical economy were patterns addressed to the senses of unseen things in heaven, and that the purifying of those patterns indicated the spiritual purity of the spiritual things which they represented.

There is, finally, demonstrative evidence of the fact, that the idea of perfect moral purity, as connected with the idea of God, is now, and always has been the same which was originated and conveyed to the minds of the Jews by the machinery of the Levitical dispensation. The Hebrew word wp qua dosh, was used to express the idea of purity as originated by the tabernacle service. The literal definition is, pure, to be pure, to be purified for sacred uses. The word thus originated, and con veying this meaning, is employed in the Scriptures to express the moral purity or holiness of God.* In the New Testament this word is translated by the Greek term 'Ayios, agios, but the Hebrew idea is connected with the Greek word. In king James's version this Greek word is rendered by the Saxon term holy-the Saxon word losing its original import, (whole, wholly,) and taking that of the Hebrew derived through the Greek. So that our idea of the holiness of God is the same which was originated by the Levitical ceremonies; and there is no other word, so far as I have been able to examine, in any language, which conveys this idea. Nor is there any idea among any people that approximates closely to the Scripture idea of holiness, unless the words received some shades of its signification from the Bible.

*

Here, then, the idea of God's moral purity was

TPD"my holy name." Lev. xx. 3.

One of the principal difficulties which the missionary meets with, according to letters in the missionary reports, is, that of conveying to the mind of the heathen, the idea of the holiness of God. They find no such idea in their minds, and they can use no words in their language by which to convey the full and true force of the thought. The true idea, therefore, if communicated at all, must be conveyed by a periphrasis, and by laboured illustration. This obstacle will be one of the most difficult to surmount in all languages; and it cannot be perfectly overcome, till the Christian teacher becomes perfectly familiar with the language of those whom he wishes to instruct.

conveyed by the Mosaic economy in a manner in accordance with the constitution and the condition of the Jewish mind. This same idea has descended from the Hebrew, through the Greek to our own language; and there is, so far as known, no other word in the world, which conveys to the mind the true idea of God's moral purity, but that originated by the institution which God prescribed to Moses upon the Mount.*

The demonstration, then, is conclusive, both from philosophy and fact, that the true and necessary idea of God's attribute of holiness was originated by the "patterns" of Levitical economy, and that it could have been communicated to mankind, at the first, in no other way.†

* Ex. xxv. 9.

The foundation principle of that school of scepticism, at the head of which are the atheistical materialists, is, that all knowledge is derived through the medium of the senses, and that as God is not an object of sense, men can have no knowledge of his being or attributes. Now these deductions show that the truth of revealed religion may be firmly established upon their own proposition.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEAS OF JUSTICE AND MERCY, AND THEIR TRANSFER TO THE CHARACTER OF JEHOVAH.

HOLINESS and justice, although they convey to the mind ideas somewhat distinct from each other, yet the import of the one is shaded into that of the other. Holiness signifies the purity of the Divine nature from moral defilement; while justice signifies the relation which holiness causes God to sustain to men, as the subjects of the Divine government. In relation to God, one is subjective, declaring his freedom from sin; the other objective, declaring his opposition to sin, as the transgression of the Divine law. The Israelites might know that God was holy, and that he required of them clean hands and a clean heart in worship, and yet not understand the full demerit of transgressing the will of God, or the intensity of the Divine opposition to sin. God had given them the moral law, and they knew that he required them to obey it; but what, in the mind of God, was the proper desert of disobeying it they did not know. They had been accustomed, like all idolaters, to consider the desert of moral transgression uncertain and unequal. Now they had to learn the immutable justice of the Supreme Being-that his holiness was not a passive quality, but an active attribute of his nature, and not only the opposite, but the antagonist principle to sin.

In what manner, then, could a knowledge of the Divine Justice, or of the demerit of sin in the sight of God, be conveyed to the minds of the Jews?

There is but one way in which any being can manifest to other minds the opposition of his nature to sin. A lawgiver can manifest his views of the demerit of transgression in no other way than by the penalty which he inflicts upon the transgressor. In all beings who have authority to make law for the obedience of others, the conscience is the standard which regulates the amount of punishment that should be inflicted upon the disobedient; and the measure of punishment which conscience dictates, is just in proportion to the opposition which the lawgiver feels to the transgression of his law; that is, the amount of regard which he has for his own law, will graduate the amount of opposition which he will feel to its transgression. The amount of opposition which any being feels to sin is in proportion to the holiness of that being, and conscience will sanction penalty up to the amount of opposition which he feels to crime.

If the father of a family felt no regard for the law of the sabbath, his conscience would not allow him to punish his children for violating, by folly or labour, a law which he did not himself respect. But a father who felt a sacred regard for the Divine law, would be required by his conscience to cause his children to respect the sabbath, and to punish them if they disobeyed. The penalty which one felt to be wrong, the other would feel to be right, because the disposition of the one towards the law was different from the other.

The principle, then, is manifest, that the more holy and just any being is, the more he is opposed to sin, and the higher penalty will his conscience