Noah, the two common parents of all mankind. Immediately after the fall of man, he gave us the promise of a Redeemer, who should bruise the head of the serpent,' both by reclaiming us from, and atoning for, our sins; for as the serpent, or tempter, had brought sin and death into the world, and had made himself the head in his kingdom of darkness, thus only by banishing sin and death out of the world, could that head be bruised. Now it was, that the Son of God, the Creator of the world, the great Redeemer, 'the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world,' undertook to be, in due time, our teacher, and to die for our sins, and so hath been entitled the Lamb, slain,' by promise, from the foundation of the world.' It was now also, that repentance, faith, and sacrifices were appointed to record the blessed promise, to shadow to us the true and real sacrifice, and to carry back to those of the old world, who should repent and believe in it, all the - merits and benefits of that sacrifice.

So early was the true religion afforded to the transgressing race of mankind; than which method of redemption, I appeal to your common sense, whether any other more reasonable, more worthy of infinite goodness, or more fitted to your wants, can be conceived.

Short-sighted as we are in the ways of divine providence, common sense may easily judge, what must have become of revelation, had it been finally and completely imparted to mankind in the first ages of the world, by an almost total departure from so much as was vouchsafed ere the time of Noah and the general deluge; and by the gross idolatry, and horrible vices, which prevailed, after that dreadful judgment, in the short space of four or five hundred years. Again, what records of its truth could have been kept before the use of letters? Almost as early as men became acquainted with letters, the original revelation was recorded in writing by Moses, together with the fall of man which made that revelation intelligible and necessary, and a law also revealed and written, which signally prepared the way for its final completion. If these instances from antiquity are not, what we know of ourselves and the age we live in, are sufficient to prove this melancholy truth, that human nature hath, ever since its original corruption, been other

wise, unaccountably averse to true religion; and that, when men could not shake it off entirely, they were ever ready to pervert it into an indulgence to their own notions or wishes, howsoever ridiculous or impious. To the great scheme of revealed religion, and its final completion in Christ Jesus, throughout the remainder of this appeal, I mean to confine myself, perfectly satisfied, that your common sense will agree with mine, and will second the wisdom of the Holy Ghost speaking by St. Paul, and insisting that all things are but dross,' compared with the knowledge of Jesus Christ; I beg therefore, for the love of God, that you and I may, in humble imitation of this saint, determine to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' This is that great concern, worthy the attention of common sense, for which all others ought rather entirely to be set aside, or so slightly minded, as that the whole man may in the sight of God, and of the human race, appear to be lost in the Christian.

To begin then, common sense, I insist, assures us all, that there is a God, and but one only God, possessed, from all eternity, of all wisdom, justice, goodness, and power; of and by whom are all created beings.

Common sense will, I trust, ere this little work is brought to an end, fully satisfy us, that this one only God is the Father, is the Son, and is the Holy Ghost.

But in the mean time, the same common sense must convince us, that from the infinite goodness of God, it hath always been most reasonable in us to hope for a redemption from the sin and misery into which we were led by the transgression of our first parents, so far as this redemption may be effected by the goodness of God, without departing from his infinite justice, or destroying our moral liberty.

We have already seen, and surely agreed, that the good God encouraged this our reasonable hope, by entering immediately into this work of our redemption on our fall from original righteousness; that our faith was then carried forward to a son of Eve, as our Redeemer; that sacrifices, representing the death of this son, and conveying to the world, before that death, the pardon procured by it for all who should believe in him, and repent of their sins, were appointed by God himself; and that one day in seven was

likewise set apart from worldly work and business, to afford time for mankind to inquire after God, to pray to him, and praise him, for his mercies. This we firmly believe on the same authority. We are also told, that, at the same time, the love of the sexes, and the propagation of posterity, were regulated and sanctified by marriage in an express law of God.

In the first chapter of Genesis, and the four first verses of the second, Moses often mentioning the Creator, always speaks of him by the name of God only; but immediately after, when his account becomes more particular concerning the creation of our first parents, and their transgression, together with the promise of a Redeemer, he repeatedly speaks of him by the name of the Lord God. There must, I think, be some reason for this change; perhaps that reason may be found in the last words of the fourth chapter, where, in the first and best translation of the Old Testament, Enos (which signifies a fallen man) is said to have hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God. Now, the Lord is that particular title whereby our Saviour is almost every where styled in both Testaments. To me, therefore, it seems most natural, that fallen man should then begin to hope in, and call upon the promised Redeemer, that Lord, that God, that seed of the woman, that lamb slain' for the sins of men, by engagement with his Father, from the foundation of the world,' whom the bloody sacrifices had been appointed to represent, by whom alone it was possible then, as it still is, 'to come to the Father.'

Of these blessed appointments, and this gracious promise, our merciful God never lost sight, though the generality of mankind, in too great a measure did; for which, after a space of about sixteen hundred years, God swept away the whole guilty race of mankind by a flood of waters, Noah and seven other persons only excepted. That Christ and his Spirit were with Noah, when he preached repentance, immediately before the flood, to the old world, is plain from 1 Pet. iii. 18-20; and that, in like manner, he was with the following prophets, is equally certain in the same epistle, chap. i. 10, 11; for, indeed, who is there among them (not excepting even Balaam) that does not speak of his coming, the light of his gospel, his sufferings, and his triumphs, so

as to draw the attention of all their readers to the great Redeemer ?

The oldest custom, properly so called, in the world, is, I believe, that which hath been practised every where, in countries producing the olive, of carrying a branch of that tree as a token of peace and amity in one nation towards another. This custom I doubt not, was derived from the leaf or twig, taken from thence, and brought to Noah in the ark by the dove, as a proof that the judgment by waters was past, and as a proclamation of peace on the part of God, to the second race of mankind, to be perpetuated by the rainbow. Hence the Holy Spirit, represented by a dove, and hence his spiritual unction, figured by the oil extracted from the fruit of that tree. From hence probably is derived another custom, almost as ancient, of anointing such persons as were set apart for any of the offices held most sacred among the posterity of Noah, insomuch that our Redeemer himself takes his title of Messiah, or Christ, literally from it.

Through this second father of mankind he revived his original appointments, under the awful sense of his late dreadful judgment; and now again, in this new father, gave a universal preacher of righteousness to the succeeding generations.

Notwithstanding all this, as I have already observed, a few ages only had passed, till the human race, averse to religious goodness, began at least, to forsake the true God, to worship false gods, and to pollute themselves with such hideous crimes, as it is shocking even to name, excepting by a recollection of the example made of them to the rest of mankind, in a shower of fire and brimstone, whereby a considerable number of populous cities, with all their abominable inhabitants, were totally consumed.

It was at this time, that God, still intent on mercy, in the midst of his fiery indignation at sin, called his faithful servant Abraham from an idolatrous nation, into a country then less estranged from true religion; and, for his righteous faith and obedience, chose him and his posterity out of a most wicked world to be his own peculiar people, promising, that ' in his seed,' that is, in the great Redeemer, all the nations of the earth should be blessed.'

Ere this promise was fully and finally given, Abraham

had offered the tenth of the spoils he had taken in war to Melchisedek, priest of the high God, and king of Salem,' and was blessed by Melchisedek.

Who this great person was, of whom St. Paul saith, Heb. vii. that he had neither father nor mother, nor beginning nor end of days,' hath been matter of conjecture. For my own part, I cannot help taking the saint's words in their strict and literal sense, not only because they are the words of the Holy Ghost, but necessary, in that sense, to the argument he pursues in that chapter. To me it seems to follow, that he was Christ himself; the word Melchisedek' signifying 'king of righteousness,' and the word 'Salem,' signifying 'king of peace,' titles too high for any but Christ, our righteousness and the Prince of Peace, our high priest, and our king. That, so long before his incarnation, he should have appeared as a man, when as yet, he had, to human apprehension, neither a father nor a mother, ought not to appear strange to the readers of holy Scripture, wherein superior and spiritual beings are so often found to have made the same appearance, as occasion required; and especially as we shall soon perceive, that he did visibly appear to Moses, and most probably to Jacob and Joshua. Who, but he, by whom the world was made, and was to be redeemed, should be so naturally expected to found a royal order of priesthood, which was to last for ever? or attend to the confirmation of faith in that expectation of an eternal high priest, whose coming and suffering in the flesh was to take away sin and the guilt of sin?

From the date of this promise given to Abraham and renewed to Isaac and Jacob, of a Redeemer to come, in due time, for the salvation of all men, the preparation made for his arrival was carried on in the posterity of that patriarch by revelations, prophecies, miracles, captivities, deliverances, and conquests; whereof I am going to remind you by a distinct and short account, for the truth of which as facts, and their singular use as expedients to promote the great purpose of Providence, already mentioned, I appeal to your common sense, as well qualified as mine, to judge in this matter.

To the same also I mean to appeal, in passing, on a remarkable place in the book of Job, as applicable to the business in hand, although that excellent man should not