sage of the Red Sea. And in like
manner passages in the Bible, which speak prophetically of the Gospel
Feast, cannot but refer (if I may so speak) to the Holy Sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, as being, in fact, the Feast given us under the
Gospel.

And let it be observed, directly we know that we have this great gift,
and that the Old Testament history prefigures it, we have a light
thrown upon what otherwise is a difficulty; for, it may be asked with
some speciousness, whether the Jews were not in a higher state of
privilege than we Christians, until we take this gift into account. It
may be objected that our blessings are all future or distant,--the hope
of eternal life, which is to be fulfilled hereafter, God's forgiveness,
who is in heaven: what do we gain now and here above the Jews? God
loved the Jews, and He _gave_ them something; He gave them present
gifts; the Old Testament is full of the description of them; He gave
them "the precious things of heaven, and the dew, and the deep that
coucheth beneath, and precious things brought forth by the sun, and by
the moon, and the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the
precious things of the lasting hills, and the precious things of the
earth, and the fulness thereof," "honey out of the rock, and oil out of
the flinty rock, butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs,
and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of
wheat, and the pure blood of the grape[2]." These were present real
blessings. What has He given _us?--nothing_ in possession? _all_ in
promise? This, I say, is in itself not likely, it is not likely that
He should so reverse His system, and make the Gospel inferior to the
Law. But the knowledge of the great gift under consideration clears up
this perplexity; for every passage in the Old Testament which speaks of
the temporal blessings given by God to His ancient people, instead of
conveying to us a painful sense of destitution, and exciting our
jealousy, reminds us of our greater blessedness; for every passage
which belongs to them is fulfilled now in a higher sense to us. We
have no need to envy them. God did not take away their blessings,
without giving us greater. The Law was not so much taken away, as the
Gospel given. The Gospel supplanted the Law. The Law went out by the
Gospel's coming in. Only our blessings are not seen; _therefore_ they
are higher, _because_ they are unseen. Higher blessings could