Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/62

 people in the wilderness. It was then that the laws peculiar to its character were revealed; and from that time, down to the commencement of Christianity, the historical and prophetic revelations of the Word are mainly occupied with the affairs of this dispensation. It was an economy purely representative; as may be evident from the singularity of its laws and the peculiarity of its ceremonies. In these were represented all the excellencies of the two predecessors which had passed away: they also shadowed forth all the benignity and intelligence which are to be developed within the pale of genuine Christianity. In these remarkable features of that institution, we are enabled clearly to account for the extraordinary fact that retribution and blessing directly followed the disobedience and the fidelity of the people. It must necessarily be so in regard to our spiritual condition; but the people of the Israelitish dispensation,—because it was representative,—were also to experience the operations of this law during their lifetime in the world. Whenever they disobeyed the Divine commands, some natural calamity befel them; whenever they were dutiful and compliant, some natural blessings were sure to follow. Nor was this the case only with the people, viewed in their general character as the representatives of a Church: the same law was similarly active among individuals who sustained any position of religious importance in those extraordinary times. The judge who did injustice, the king who ruled wickedly, the priest who administered the law unfaithfully, were all the subjects of special visitation and judgment: whereas those who did what was wise, equitable, and true, became the subjects of encouragement and reward. These results in the natural world—which passed away from that people when