a temporary inftitution, appointed to introduce a more perfect worship, and to prepare the world for. a new dispensation, which was to comprehend every nation of the earth, and to extend through all the ages of the world.

Accordingly Mofes, the Jewish legiflator, after he had established their government and formed their laws, tells them that another prophet fhould arife among them, and deliver a new revelation: "Thus "faith the Lord, I will raise up a prophet to you "from among your brethren; I will put my words "in his mouth; him fhall ye hear in all things." Accordingly, the Old Teftament church never rested upon any revelation which was made to them, but always looked forward to the promised æra when the great Prophet should arise, who was to fill Zion with judgment and righteousness.

As the Old Teftament economy, in its best estate, was but a temporary institution, in the progress of time it was greatly corrupted. After the return from the Babylonifh captivity, there was a strange degeneracy among the people of God. The fpirit of prophecy ceased, and the intercourfe between heaven and earth was fhut up. The Jews had been at all times remarkably prone to fuperftition and idolatry. Neither the inftructions 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 obfervance of those precepts which were "not good, of thofe ftatutes by "which a man could not live;" but in the decline of the Jewish nation, their public teachers, the

Scribes and Pharifees, accommodated themselves to the prejudices of the people. They collected the various rites and traditions of antiquity, and formed them into a regular fyftem of fuperftition. They explained away the fenfe and spirit of the Sacred Scriptures. They had recourfe to what they called the oral law, never committed to writing, but delivered, as they pretended, to Mofes, and from his time handed down by tradition from age to age. By this they fubverted the moral law, and made the word of God of none effect by their traditions.

If the fituation of the Jews called thus loudly for reformation, what might be expected in the Gentile world? If fuch 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 confifted entirely of fuperftitious obfervances, and had no connexion with virtue: their worship was a fyftem of abominable rites; their temples were haunts of lewdness and impiety; their gods were monsters of cruelty, rage, and all the vile paffions which difgrace humanity. The doctrine of the foul's immortality, which had been but obfcurely revealed to the Jews, was only a conjecture among the heathens. Their wife men faw the evil, but could not difcover the remedy. They confeffed their own ignorance, and with humble expectation looked for a prophet of the Lord, to make a revelation of the divine will to man.

Whilft thus the people wandered in grofs darkness, whilft the cloud fat deep over the moral world, at laft 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 rofe in mercy, and fent his own Son to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Ifrael. The Sun of Righteousness arifing 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 difcovered the mystery which had been kept hid from ages. He declared the whole counfel of God. He spoke as never man fpake, and he lived as never man lived. His miffion from God he proved by performing miracles and works which God only could perform; to these he constantly appealed as a teftimony from heaven, and as the finger of God witneffing in his behalf. Accordingly, when the high-priest asked him, Art thou the Chrift, 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 Mofes and the prophets who foretold and defcribed his coming. Inquire at John the Baptift, whom you held to be a prophet, and who pointed him out to the people as the fent of God. Inquire at the companions and witneffes of his life, if an impoftor had ever so many works of innocence and fanctity. Inquire at the loft sheep of Ifrael 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 fight. Inquire at the dumb, who now fpeak his praise. Inquire at the diseased whom he raised from the bed of affliction. Inquire at the dead whom he raifed from their graves. Inquire at the feas and

tempefts which heard and obeyed the voice of their mafter. Inquire at the heavens, which thrice opened over his head, to publifh to the world that he was the beloved of the Father. And if these fuffice you not, inquire at hell itself, and receive the testimony of the devils whom he difpoffeffed,―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 feal it with his blood. And when now he bowed the head upon the cross, his miffion to Ifrael as the Author of this new revelation was finished.

In the third place, The atonement which was requifite for the fins of the world was finished.

As Almighty God Created the world, he claims the right of taking it under the fuperintendency 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 fyftem of laws to govern the world, the order of fociety would foon be fubverted, the happiness of the human race would be destroyed, and the earth be reduced to one vast scene of anarchy, confufion and uproar. That these laws may have their full effect, they must be guarded with the terrors of a penal fanction, and when violated be put in execution, in order to intimidate offenders, and prevent tranfgreffion in the time The Judge of all the earth would not do right unless he executed his righteous laws, and punished thofe crimes which tended to the fubversion of order, and extinction of happiness in human society.

to come.

If men, then, throwing off their allegiance to Heaven, violate his righteous laws, and expofe themselves to his wrath and vengeance, juftice requires that they be punished for their fins, and the honor of the Godhead is pledged for the fulfilment of the threatening denounced against fin. But all of us have thus incurred the divine difpleafure, and become obnoxious to the fanction of the moral law. Our first parents difobeyed the divine commandments, broke the covenant of innocence, and involved us, their posterity, in the ruins of their fall. We have added innumerable tranfgreffions of our own to that original apoftafy. 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 finned against the clearest light; in oppofition to the greatest goodness, and in the face of direct threatening, times and ways without number we have expofed ourselves to the wrath of God.

But it is one of the most obvious dictates of reason, that punishment muft ever attend on wickedness, that the foul which finneth ought to die. But if fin be thus feverely punished, if finners 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, fin was forgiven without fatisfaction, and the finner taken into favour upon every new application for mercy, fuch an undiftinguishing exercise of lenity, fuch a facility of forgivenefs, would only ferve to embolden offenders and multiply crimes. If, on the other hand, rigorous