they could dispense the miraculous virtues which were intrusted to their guardian care. Or rather, it remained to be shown, how far the demon of craft and covetousness could impose, under the veil of sanctity, on the understanding and consciences of men ;-how far the name of Christianity could be prostituted, for furthering the purposes of delusion and fraud;how far the best, and most spiritual religion ever established in the world, might exceed (being corrupted) in folly and debasement the worst. The Mahomedan legend of the miraculous suspension of the dead body of their prophet, is rational and dignified, when compared with the mass of silly and sickening legends that are connected with the relics of Roman-catholic saints. Judaism, instead of being carnal and inferior, was spiritual and elevated, when compared with what has been called Christianity, as it has sometimes been exhibited in the Roman-catholic church. worship of the Jew, when he was in the temple, was performed in the clear light of heaven; nothing but living objects were around him, and instructive types before him; and when absent from the temple, it was the exercise of the spirit only, unassisted by any object which the eye beheld.

The

The rites, however, which were performed

in the temple, had in them no inherent efficacy, and were therefore to continue but for a sea

son.

"For it is not possible, that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore when he (Christ) cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (which are offered by the law;) then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."*

*Heb. x. 4-14.

Now, while the declaration, that "without shedding of blood there is no remission," sufficiently exposes the pretension, that there is efficacy, or use, in the sacrifice of the mass, which is an unbloody sacrifice; the reiterated declarations in both of the passages which we have quoted from the Hebrews, that Christ's sacrifice was one, and offered once for all, precludes the possibility of introducing any other sacrifice for sin whatsoever. The appointment of the sacrifice, like the appointment of the priest, is one and exclusive. So soon as that one sacrifice had been offered, in the body which had been prepared for the work of expiation, the will of God, in the provision made for the removal of human guilt, was at once, and for ever, completely performed. The sacrifices, as well as the priests of the first dispensation, were taken away; that the second, combined and complete in Christ, might alone be established. The satisfaction in the first, though offered by Divine appointment, was not entire; the complacence in them was not perpetual. They were preparatory and introductory, yet, in some respects, imperfect prefigurations of the sacrifice of Christ, who is the Lamb of God, offered once for all, to take away the sin of the world;of the world, as including its former, as well as subsequent generations. They of former

I

generations without us could not be made perfect. Their sacrifices, unconnected with our sacrifice, were of no value,-could not take away sin. They were rendered efficacious, by the anticipated virtue of the one Christian sacrifice, actually offered in the end of the Old Testament ages, but slain, in the immutable purposes of the Father, from the foundation of the world. He sees the end from the beginning, and calls things which are not as though they were; and his eye, resting upon the sacrifice which his Son was to offer, could be satisfied with the sacrifices of the law no further than as they were offered through faith in the promise of his Son; he would suffer their continuance no longer than the time when the promise was fulfilled, and the Son, assuming the body which was prepared, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

It is here important for us to inquire on what grounds the efficacy, the exclusive efficacy of the sacrifice, which Christ has offered for us, rests. It rests on the dignity of his person, and consequent value of his blood. In his person, the divine and human natures are mysteriously united. "God is manifest in the flesh." The human nature, which he derived through the virgin from our common father, identified him with us as bone of our bone, and

flesh of our flesh; and rendered him a proper substitute to bear the imputation of our guilt, and the expression of divine displeasure which it deserved; while the Divinity imparted the value and meritorious efficacy of divine perfection to the sacrifice which he offered. If there be divine perfection in the sacrifice, then it follows, that nothing can be wanting to it, that nothing can be added to it,-that nothing can be associated with it,-that no limits can be put to the range or power of its application,—that no conception of ours,-that no conception of any finite mind, can comprehend all which it is able to effect. The blood which has been shed for the remission of sins, is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son; and to whatever character it be applied,-in whatever country,-in whatever age of the world,—in whatever multiplicity of cases,— it cleanseth from all sin. It can do this under the Christian dispensation, and now that it is set before us in the word of God, which may be hid in the heart, without the intervention of any outward rites whatever. The eye of faith can look to the atoning sacrifice; the lip of devotion can supplicate pardon on its account; and then the conscience, which was uneasy, feels tranquillity, by the sprinkling of its blood; the burden of guilt falls off, and rolls away; and the heart joys in God through our Lord Jesus