To bring men to this state, that He may delight in them, that they may glorify Him in all things, is the purpose and aim of GOD’S great scheme of salvation; and, to forward that scheme, is, and has been, the object of all His dealings with men of all times (when they have not been judgments of wrath, because mercy was refused), whether they have been encouragements or remonstrances, pleadings or rebukes, blessings or chastisements, the promulgations of moral laws, the laying on or taking off of positive or ceremonial commandments. None of these things could in themselves have made men what GOD willed them to be, loving children of a loving Father; yet they had, or were designed to have, their effect in bringing them back little by little to a right mind, and a right life. But being used by a wise and discerning GOD, though their object was always uniform, the use of them has varied, one being employed in this case, another in that, according to the state of those on whom they were to operate. Thus Adam, fresh from the hand of GOD, full of knowledge and intelligence, and holiness and love, was left, it would appear—but with one commandment, the test of his integrity—to worship and glorify GOD as his own heart and mind dictated; while the Jews, coming out of Egypt, sunk in ignorance, given to idolatry, perverse in will and affections, were dealt with as babes, albut without mind and without heart. To them it was necessary to declare, that there was but one GOD, to command them to worship Him, to prescribe every particular of the worship, to bid them not blaspheme Him, to hedge them in by numerous restrictions, to write down every item of their duty, to encourage their obedience by immediate rewards, to check their transgressions by instant punishments! They were treated, in fact, just as wise and fond parents treat little children: their minds taught by pictures—brazen serpents, pillars of light and fire, gorgeous tabernacles, sacrifices of bulls, and goats, and lambs, burnings of incense, and the like—and their hearts and lives trained by a course of discipline suited to their comprehension, and a system of rewards and punishments which they could appreciate. These things were means to an end. They impressed upon the Jews, that reverence and obedience were due to GOD. They taught them to look to Him for reward and punishment, to love and fear Him. But like the arbitrary discipline we use with children, and the toys which we give or take away from them according to their conduct, they were to be set aside (as far as they were childish) so soon as more intelligent and better influences could be employed, and the children be taught to use their minds and hearts, in exercising reverence, and love, and fear, not in little observances and restrictions, not in mere literal compliance with some particular expressed laws, but according to the principle of love which would devote itself entirely, and which uses all its powers to find out what is