prophets, not
less than at the bar of Christ and his apostles, Under the Mosaic
economy, both the rites of divine service and the succession of the
priesthood were definitively prescribed by God himself, and therefore to
all of binding authority. But the man who placed his religion in these
outward observances, to the neglect of his heart and life, was to God an
object of abhorrence, and the severest judgments were denounced against
him. It cannot be, then, that under the gospel any system of outward
forms, however right and proper in itself, can bring salvation to the
soul, where inward faith, love, and obedience are wanting.

4. The last and highest office of the prophets was to direct men's
thoughts to _the end of the Mosaic economy_, which was the salvation of
the world through the promised Messiah. The Spirit of Christ that spoke
through them, "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow." 1 Pet. 1:11. It does not appear that they
understood the divine purpose to abolish the Mosaic economy, and with it
"the middle wall of partition" between Jews and Gentiles--that great
mystery, the revelation of which was reserved for the days of the
apostles; but they did have glorious visions of the latter days, when
the law should go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem, to all nations; when the whole world should submit itself to
Jehovah under the administration of the Messiah; and the earth should be
"filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the
sea." Their glowing descriptions of the future enlargement and glory of
Zion have been the stay and solace of God's people in all succeeding
ages. The student of the Bible should not fail to notice that these
bright visions of the future were vouchsafed to the Hebrew prophets, and
through them to the church universal, not when the Theocracy was in the
zenith of its outward power and splendor, as in the days of David and
Solomon, but in the time of its decline and humiliation. The hopes so
ardently cherished by the covenant people of a return of the outward
glory of Solomon's reign were destined to utter and final
disappointment. It was not to feed their national pride, but to prepare
the way for Christ's advent, that God established the Theocracy. Now
that its outward glory was departing, it was suitable that the hopes of
the pious should be turned from the darkness of the present to the
brightness of "th