mong them, and deliver a new revelation. "Thus "saith the Lord, I will raise up a prophet to you "from among your brethren; I will put my words "in his mouth; him shall ye hear in all things." Accordingly, the Old Testament church never rested upon any revelation which was made to them, but always looked forward to the promised era when the great Prophet should arise, who was to fill Zion with judgment and righteousness.

As the Old Testament economy, in its best estate, was but a temporary institution, in the progress of time it was greatly corrupted. After the return from the Babylonish captivity, there was a strange degeneracy among the people of God. The spirit of prophe cy ceased, and the intercourse between heaven and earth was shut up. The Jews had been at all times remarkably prone to superstition and idolatry. Neither the instructions of their lawgiver, nor the thunders of Sinai, nor the sword of the heathen, nor the chains of captivity, could cure them of this perverse spirit. The true prophets had always endeavoured to lead them from the observance of these precepts which were "not good, of those statutes by which a man "could not live;" but in the decline of the Jewish nation, their public teachers, the Scribes and Pharisees, accommodated themselves to the prejudices of the people. They collected the various rites and traditions of antiquity, and formed them into a regular system of superstition. They explained away the sense and spirit of the Sacred Scriptures. They had recourse to what they called the moral law, never committed to writing, but delivered, as they pretended, to Moses, and from his time handed down by tradition from age to age. By this they subverted the

moral law, and made the word of God of none effect by their traditions.

If the situation of the Jews called thus loudly for reformation, what might be expected in the Gentile world? If such was done in the green tree; what would be done in the dry? They were without God,

and without hope in the world. Their religion consisted entirely of superstitious observances, and had no connection with virtue: their worship was a system of abominable rites; their temples were haunts of lewdness and impiety; their gods were monsters of cruelty, rage, and all the vile passions which disgrace humanity. The doctrine of the soul's immortality, which had been but obscurely revealed to the Jews, was only a conjecture among the heathens. Their wise men saw the evil, but could not discoverthe remedy. They confessed their own ignorance, and with humble expectation looked for a prophet of the Lord, to make a revelation of the divine will to

man.

Whilst thus the people wandered in gross darkness, whilst the cloud sat deep over the moral world, at last the groans of the nations reached the ears of mercy; the voice of nature mourning for her children, was heard in heaven. He who dwelleth there rose from his throne. The Almighty rose in mercy, and sent his own Son to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Israel. The Sun of Righteousness arising in our region, dispelled the darkness which involved the nations, revealed all the heavens to mortal view, and poured its radiance upon the path of immortality. The great Prophet discovered the mystery which had been kept hid from ages. He declared the whole counsel of God.

He

spoke as never man spake, and he lived as never man lived. His mission from God he proved by performing miracles and works which God only could perform; to these he constantly appealed as a testimony from heaven, and as the finger of God witnessing in his behalf. Accordingly, when the high-priest asked him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of God? he answered nothing. Had his disciples been standing by, they might have replied, What need is there for the inquiry? You who have the key of knowledge, search the Scriptures, inquire at Moses and the prophets, who foretold and described his coming. In3. H

VOL. II.

quire at John the Baptist whom you held to be a prophet, and who pointed him out to the people as the sent of God. Inquire at the companions and witnesses of his life, if an impostor had ever so many works of innocence and sanctity. Inquire at the lost sheep of Israel whom he brought back to the path of life. Inquire at the multitude whom he fed with a few loaves. Inquire at the blind whom he restored to sight. Inquire at the dumb who now speak his praise. Inquire at the diseased whom he raised from the bed of affliction. Inquire at the dead whom he raised from their graves. Inquire at the seas and tremble, which heard and obeyed the voice of their Master, Inquire at the heavens, which thrice opened over his head, to publish to the world that he was the beloved of the Father, And if these suffice you not, inquire at hell itself, and receive the testimony of the devil whom he dispossessed,—that he was, "the holy One of God."

Having thus confirmed his doctrine by his miracles; having adorned it by his life, it only remained that he should seal it with his blood. And when now he bowed the head upon the cross, his mission to Israel, as the Author of this new revelation, was finished.

In the third place, The atonement which was requisite for the sins of the world was finished.

As Almighty God created the world, he claims the right of taking it under the superintendency and direction of his providence. In order to attain the ends of his administration, he acts upon a fixed plan, and according to wise and righteous laws. If there were no fixed plan of providence, and no system of laws to govern the world, the order of society would soon be subverted, the happiness of the human race would be destroyed, and the earth be reduced to one vast scene of anarchy, confusion, and uproar. That these laws may have their full effect, they must be guarded with the terrors of a penal sanction, and when violated be put in execution in order to intimidate offenders, and prevent transgression in the time to

come. The Judge of all the earth would not do right unless he executed his righteous laws, and punished those crimes which tended to the subversion of order, and extinction of happiness; in human society. If men, then, throwing off their allegiance to heaven, violate his righteous laws, and expose themselves to his wrath and vengeance; justice requires that they be punished for their sins, and the honour of the Godhead is pledged for the fulfilment of the threatening denounced against sin. But all of us have thus incurred the divine displeasure, and become ob hoxious to the sanction of the moral law. Our first parents disobeyed the divine commandments, broke the covenant of innocence, and involved us, their posterity, in the ruins of their fall. We have added Innumerable transgressions of our own to that original apostacy. We have neglected the good which it was in our power to perform, and committed the evil from which God commanded us to abstain. We have sinned against the clearest light; in opposition to the greatest goodness, and in the face of direct threatening, times and ways without number we have exposed ourselves to the wrath of God.

But it is one of the most obvious dictates of reason, that punishment must ever attend on wickedness, that the soul which sinneth ought to die. But if sin be thus severely punished, if sinners be dealt with according to the maxims of rigorous and unrelenting justice, what shall become of the human race? Here lay the difficulty that stood in the way of our redemption. If, on the one hand, sin was forgiven without satisfaction, and the sinner taken into favour upon every new application for mercy, such an undistinguishing exercise of lenity, such a facility of forgiveness, would only serve to embolden offenders and multiply crimes. If, on the other hand, rigorous justice held the balance; if the thunder-bolt was aimed at the head of every offender, the race of men must perish from the earth. Hence, the Divine Being is introduced in Scripture, as deliberating with

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himself, as being straitened how to reconcile the seemingly jarring attributes of mercy and justice, and how to make the happiness of men accord with the honour of his laws. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, O Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I "set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together." Herein appears the wisdom of that plan concerted for our redemption, through the sacrifice of Christ, by which these seemingly jarring attributes are reconciled, in which mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Hence, in that eucharistic hymn which the angels, at the nativity of our Lord, sung to the shepherds, when they ascribed glory to God in the highest, they also proclaimed peace upon earth, and good will towards fallen man. By this atonement, all the perfections of the Deity were glorified. That immaculate purity which cannot look upon sin, and that astonishing love which could not behold the ruin of the sinner, were awfully displayed. The majesty of the divine government was sustained; the honour of the law was vindicated; justice, in its rigour, was satisfied; mercy, without measure and without restraint, flowed upon the children of men. The gate of the heavenly paradise was set open wide to a returning world; the angel with the flaming sword, who guarded the tree of life, was removed, and a voice heard from the throne of mercy, "Take, "eat, and live for ever."

As this doctrine concerning the atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is one of the fundamental articles of our holy faith, God, in the course of his providence, had prepared the world for its belief and reception. A sense of guilt lying upon the mind, and the fear of punishment from that Judge, who will render to every man according to his works, drove the sinner to some expedient for atoning the wrath of an offended Deity. It is very extraordinary, that among all the people of the world, the method of making atonement for sin was invariably the same.