V. 12.— For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which he the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Considering the time during which they had been in the school of Christ, they ought to have been capable of teaching others, but they required to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God. This appears to refer to their ignorance of the types and shadows of the Mosaic dispensation, which are termed by the Apostle rudiments or elements, the misunderstanding of which prevented many from discerning the truth. The Mosaic ordinances were a kind of hieroglyphic, having a hidden meaning. They are termed weak and beggarly elements, and the elements of the world, because they were only the shadow of heavenly things. The whole Mosaic dispensation was a parable for the time then present, in which spiritual and heavenly things were represented by earthly things. But the carnality of men’ s minds led them to rest in the shadow and overlook the substance. We see in the history of the beginning of the Gospel, and in Paul’ s Epistles, especially that to the Galatians, the pernicious consequence of not understanding the nature of the Mosaic dispensation. It was a parable for the time then present, in which spiritual and heavenly things were set forth under the emblems of those which were carnal and earthly, with which we are most conversant. To those by whom this was fully understood the old dispensation was a prophetic, and consequently obscure, intimation of the establishment of the spiritual and eternal kingdom of Messiah, together with the ordinances to be observed by its subjects. The observance of the laws of Moses was calculated to maintain the expectation of the appearing of Christ, and thus preserve Israel in a state of separation from all other nations, as well as to present spiritual things in a palpable form to men in every age; and not only so, but to remain, till the consummation of all things, a conclusive evidence of the truth of the Scriptures, by the perfect correspondence of the two parts into which they were divided, which appeared at first sight very dissimilar. But while the wisdom of God strikingly appears in his dealings with . Israel, this has been in every age the great stumbling-block in the way both of the Jews and of the followers of Christ. The Jews have adhered with an unaccountable obstinacy to the shadow, disregarding the substance; while the great body of nominal Christians, and many of the true disciples of Christ, have blended Judaism with Christianity; and to this we owe the great apostasy, in which Heathenism, Judaism, and Christianity are blended together, and by which the pure and holy doctrine of Christ has been converted into a system of gross superstition and idolatry. The apostles foresaw the revelation of the man of sin, and prescribed the only infallible preservative from his wiles: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." 2 Thessalonians 2:15. But the false principle that, while in regard to the great doctrines of the Gospel we are bound to abide by the rule of Scripture, we are at liberty, in what are termed external things, to be guided by circumstances, has induced the generality even of Protestants to go back to the weak and beggarly elements of Judaism. This system will continue till the great overturning predicted by the Word of God, Ezekiel 21:27, shall take place. The Lord will then “ turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” Zephaniah 3:9. The object of this Epistle is to preserve believers to the end of the world from this snare of the devil, as well as to check the apostasy which it appears had taken place among many of the Jews who had professed the faith to which the Apostle repeatedly alludes. To the misunderstanding of this subject the Apostle attributes the little progress which the Hebrews had made, and that they had become as those that had need of milk, and not of strong meat.