clusive, the language of each would be, "Who | and a sense of that favour obtained, this will inwill show us any good?" The proof is strength- sure the permanent happiness of the soul. If a ened by every observation. The truth of our consciousness of his favour and love can be acstatement is seen in every condition, and almost quired, this will give the assurance of every blessin every act of man. In youth, and manhood, ing. The soul that has found this, has found the and in old age, with the rich and the poor, the original, independent, infinite source of good, from learned and the ignorant. Childhood looks for- which rivers of pleasures for ever flow. If a man ward to youth as the season when "good is to be has found Jehovah as his God, then does he enjoy shown," and youth looks forward to manhood, and the contemplation of his character, the sense of manhood to old age; and, at length, a death-bed his favour, communion with him now, and the makes the terrible discovery, from which all along assurance of far more direct communion with him the eye had been studiously averted, that the whole hereafter. This is to enjoy God; and this, so pursuit has been vanity and vexation of spirit. far as happiness is concerned, is his chief end. Occasionally, too, as in the case to which, in the We have, to this effect, at once the distinct defirst instance, our text perhaps refers, when, under claration of Scripture, and the distinct testimony the traitor Absalom, the discontented in Israel of experience, the uniform testimony of those, rose up in rebellion against their king, occasionally, who, having in vain sought a satisfying portion the feeling of dissatisfaction, the desire expressed from other sources, have declared that here they in the question which our text contains, is mani- have found the very thing which their souls defested not by individuals only, but confederations sired, and which the instincts of their nature of men, rising up tumultuously and shaking the prompted them to seek. God is their portion. pillars of society, until experience again repeats to They spend not their strength in seeking the them her oft-repeated lesson, and they find that supreme good among the creatures of God's hand; they have sought what this earth can never yield, but, conscious that without the continued enjoytill the ancient curse shall have been removed, and ment of God himself, no other source can yield the world regenerated, yea, until there be new them satisfaction, this is their prayer, "" Lord, heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth right-lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon "Give us thy favour, which is life; thy loving-kindness, which is better than life. Let us experience the joys of thy salvation." This obtained, they can enjoy really, though each in its subordinate position, all the other means of satisfaction which God's bounteous hand has scattered so liberally around, and they are prepared for any outward calamity which may await them,-prepared to glory even in tribulations. And hence adds the Psalmist, in the words immediately succeeding the text, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety." But that we may be enabled to form a more definite idea of the nature of the enjoyment of that man whose eyes have been opened to the perception of those things which are spiritually discerned, and who has taken God as the portion of his soul, we remark, in the first place, that he delights in contemplating the character of God.

eousness.

And is there, then, no source whence true happiness may be derived? Must this fallen world, spell-bound by Satan, be ever saying, "Who will show us any good?" ever uttering the words of dissatisfaction, and perplexity, and ignorance? Must we for ever grope our uncertain way in search of happiness, addressing ourselves to whatever delusion our enemy may present, who, as the god of this world, deceives the souls of men with his lying vanities, casting a bewitching charm over the instruments of his allurement? Blessed be God, he hath himself discovered to us this source, where is fulness of joy and pleasures for ever more. The Psalmist knew the Rock where this source was hid, the fountain whence the streams of blessedness flowed. When others were saying, "Who will show us any good?" his prayer was, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." He would not betake himself to those broken cisterns which experience had taught him could hold no water. He needed not in perplexity to inquire, "Who will show us any good?" for he knew where the chief good, the source of all true enjoyment was to be found. "Whom," said he, "whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon the earth whom I desire besides Thee; my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever."

II. This leads us to remark, in the second place, that the chief end of man, in so far as happiness is concerned, is the enjoyment of God himself.

Jehovah is the infinite source of all good. He possesses in himself every possible perfection, and from him, directly or indirectly, every stream of blessedness proceeds. Now, if an union with him may be formed, if his favour may be secured,

us."

The very conviction that God is, is to him a source of joy unspeakable. To doubt of God's existence, would fill his soul with dismay; to disbelieve it, would overwhelm him with horror and despair. In such a state of mind, he could not look upon the creatures of Jehovah's hand, which he now contemplates with joy, as manifestations of God's character, proofs and tokens of his goodness. To his eye, the light of day would bring no joy, the sun would give forth no glory. The objects would cease to interest him, in which he now beholds indications of infinite wisdom, and evidences of transcendent goodness. Assured confidence in the existence of God is essential to his peace.

It is not, however, the idea of God's existence | which satisfies him. He rejoices not only that God is, but that he is such an one as his soul desires. And chiefly are his moral attributes the subjects of his delighted and reverential contemplation. His eyes have been opened to appreciate the beauty and glory of holiness, and were it possible for him to conceive of God otherwise than he has revealed himself,-to conceive of him as not possessed of that attribute which is utterly opposed to all sin,-to him this contemplation also would be fraught with misery. He delights himself in the full persuasion of the holiness, and justice, and truth, not less than of the goodness and mercy of God; in the assurance that justice and judgment are the habitation of Jehovah's throne, while mercy, accompanied with truth, do go before

his face.

God's promises shall be fulfilled, and makes him rejoice in the hope of coming glory. Omnipotence, which once threatened his eternal ruin, is now his protection. The arm which was uplifted to smite, is now around him to defend. The eye which was ever upon him to mark his transgressions, is now beaming upon him in mercy and love. The Lord hath lifted up the light of his countenance upon him; "he delights himself in God." He knows, that he "who spared not his own Son, will with him also freely give him all things." Thus does he delight in the Lord, as possessed of every perfection, the source of all good, the fountain of every blessing, This is now the language of his heart, "whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none in all the earth whom I desire besides thee." "God is his God, and his exceeding joy."

But, secondly, the contemplation of the rela- It is thus that even now Jehovah is enjoyed by tions in which the eternal God stands to us, is all his believing people. The God of the unithe source of his highest enjoyment. He rejoices verse, the Creator and Possessor of all, is their in him, not only as the Creator, but as the Go-God; united to them in a covenant sealed by the vernor of all. But for this conviction, present appearances would overwhelm him. Persuaded of his own immortality, were he to judge of the eternal world only from that which now is, where so much disorder prevails on every side,-where holiness is so often oppressed, and wickedness so often triumphs, alas! immortality would scarcely be a boon. But he has a refuge from all these evils. When the sight of abounding wickedness and triumphant vice fills his soul with heaviness, he turns to his God, and, in the contemplation of his character, delights himself, assured that all things shall be overruled for good, that God reigneth, and will do all his pleasure.

blood of his own Son. He vouchsafes to hold communion with them now, manifesting himself to them in another way than he does to the world, and enabling them in very deed to feel, that He is the portion of their souls. Can imagination conceive another source of enjoyment to he compared with this? Does it not imply every other? Does it not necessarily include the very "fulness of joy." What can be wanting to the perfection of his blessedness, who enjoys the conscious favour of the Eternal God,-of him who condescends thus to speak, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed?" "All things are his, whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all is his, and he is Christ's, and Christ is God's." No real evil can overtake him, because all things are so overruled as to work together for his good. though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall there be fruit in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls;" yet will such as he "rejoice in the Lord; they will joy in the God of their salvation."

"Al

Above all, it is the knowledge of God as in Jesus his reconciled Father, his covenant-God, that gives him peace, and confidence, and joy. Made alive, as he is, to the evil of sin, and to the holiness of Jehovah's character, nothing but the apprehension of Jehovah's mercy in Christ Jesus could save him from the fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. He has seen sin to be an evil and bitter thing, the deep pollution of which nothing can wash away but the blood of God's incarnate Son. He knows that it merits an amount of wrath, the effects of which nothing could have prevented, but the sacrifice of him in whom the Father was ever well-pleased. But in Such may be the enjoyment of regenerated man, the providing of this sacrifice, and the acceptance even in the time that now is; yet is not this the of this atonement, he has discovered infinite mercy scene of his perfection. As yet he is but waiting and love which passeth knowledge. To him God for the "manifestation of the sons of God." Here is reconciled. He has received the atonement- his communion is often interrupted; his chiefest Jehovah has even adopted him into his family. joy is in anticipation of "a glory yet to be reAnd those attributes of the Godhead, which, but vealed." "It doth not yet appear what we for this, he would have seen to be arrayed against be, but we know that when He shall appear, we him, he now contemplates as the sure foundation shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." of his hopes. That justice which once he feared "In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his he now confides in, knowing that God is faithful right hand there are pleasures for evermore." He and just to forgive him his sin. That truth, is "begotten again unto a lively hope, by the rewhich once assured him that all God's threatenings surrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an would take effect, and made him tremble in anti-inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that cipation of coming ruin, now assures him that all fadeth not away." This makes known to us ob

shall

jects fitted to delight and satisfy all the powers of man. It shows that which is the supreme good, to the understanding and to the affections-even God himself, possessed of every glorious attribute. It shows us, in his ways, his love, his glory,-an infinite and eternal source of good. It reveals objects, in the contemplation of which the intellect may delight itself for ever, and all the affections may rejoice in their highest and purest exercise; yea, and that man's whole nature may be supplied with sources of exhaustless joy, it declares the rising again of our feeble bodies, in honour, and to immortality; and makes known a world of peace and purity, and holiness and joy, where man, regenerated, shall for ever dwell. It tells of glory more than the eye hath seen, or the ear heard, or the heart of man conceived.

mer, you will receive a satisfying portion in God. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you." God will be "your shield, and your exceeding great reward." Blessed, assuredly, is the man whose trust is in the Lord, whose portion is the Holy One of Israel. The light of His countenance will brighten his path, even when Providence seems to frown most darkly. It will shine upon him complacently, and give him peace at the hour of death, when the night is gathering over him, and his heart and flesh do faint and fail. It will meet him in smiles, when he rises again from death, at the sound of the last trumpet. It will remove every fear and every suspicion at the solemn day of final reckoning. It will beam upon him throughout eternity. "Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Amen.

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

And now, in conclusion, let us be exhorted most seriously to inquire, to which of the two classes our character determines us to belong,— whether to those whose language is, "Who will show us any good?" or to those whom the Spirit hath taught, to adopt the Psalmist's prayer, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Are we attempting, by the enjoyment of any earthly object, to satisfy that ceaseless longing after happiness which our Creator has implanted in our souls? Have we no knowledge of a chief good?-a source of supreme enjoyment, above the objects which time can furnish? Then, surely, our own experience might, ere this, have taught us the vanity of our pursuit. Have we ever yet found that with which, even in our own estimation, we could be satisfied, as a source of permanent enjoyment? Is it in sensual indulgence?-Alas! its victims will admit, that the transient pleasures which it affords are purchased most exorbitantly, even in the world that now is, and although they could forget the horrors of a death-bed, and the fears of coming judgment. Is it in the pursuit, or in the possession, of wealth? -Alas! what possible affinity have these with the true happiness of a spiritual being? Is it in the possession of power, and fame, and earthly glory? Then what mean the symptoms of deepening care which the most successful votaries of these exhibit; and the confessions of jealousy and fear, and dissatisfaction and disgust, which so often escape them? It may be that some of us are under the delusive influence of one or other of these; not indeed satisfied, but living still in hope, and looking yet for happiness in those things in which the experience of all generations declares it cannot be found, still cleaving to these, because ignorant of any higher, and purer, and more permanent source. Alas! the end of them is death. They are in themselves delusions; but they lead to awful realities. The end of them is destruction; they are "vanity and vexation of spirit" now, and they lead to the ruin of the soul hereafter. Raise your affection, and direct your pursuit, to the higher objects which God dis-in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every covers; and, without depriving yourselves of the legitimate and subordinate enjoyment of the for

The Prevalence of Covetousness.-One of the great objects of the personal ministry of our Lord himself, appears to have been to make us aware of the universality of this passion, and to save us from it. he saw that the love of the world had rushed in to fill Sin having expelled the love of God from the heart, up the vacuum; that the desire of riches, as an abstract of all other worldly desires, has become a universal passion, in which all other appetites and passions concur, since it is the readiest means to gratify them all.-To the eye of an ordinary observer, the generation of that day appeared to be only laudably employed in their respective avocations; but, penetrating the thin disguises of custom, he beheld the world converted into a mart in which every thing was exposed for sale. To a common observer, the confused pursuits and complicated passions of mankind might have presented an aspect of ever-shifting forms, as incapable of classification as the waves of the sea; but to his comprehensive view there appeared but two great classes, in which all minor distinctions were merged the servants of God and the servants of Mammon. To His unerring and omniscient glance, the whole appeared to be engrossed in a laborious experiment to effect a compromise between these two claimants: but against such an accommodation he enters his divine protest; affirming, with the solemnity and confidence of one who knew that though the experiment had been made, and repeated in every form, and in every age, it had failed as often as it had been made, and will prove eternally impracticable, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." To an ordinary observer, the charge of covetousness could only be alleged against a few individuals; but he tracked it through the most unsuspected windings, laid open some of the most concealed operations, and showed that like the elemental fire, it is not only present where it is grossly visible, but that it is all-pervading and coextensive with human depravity.-Entering the mart of the busy world, where nothing is heard but the monotonous hum of the traders in vanity, he lifts up his voice like the trump of God, and seeks to break the spell which infatuates them, while he exclaims, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"-Proceeding to the mansion of Dives, he shows selfishness there, clothed

day-a spectacle at which the multitude stands in earnest and admiring gaze, as if it drew in happiness at the sight, but Lazarus unheeded perishes at the gate.

1

"

nant?

Approaching the house of prosperity, he bids us listen | mind; it is to be an enemy to God, and a despiser of to the soliloquy of its worldly inhabitant, "I will his grace; it is to be in covenant with death, and in pull down my barns, and will build greater' -a reso- league with hell. The commonness of this moral turlution which the world applauds-" And I will say to pitude, and the comparative worth of many of those, to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many whom we cannot give credit for freedom from its guilt, no years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry, -a doubt tend, in our present imperfect state of knowledge prospect of happiness which the world envies: but and holiness, to diminish the horror which its contemGod is not in all his thoughts; besides his wealth plation is calculated to excite in the heaven-born soul. he knows no good. Passing into the circle of devotion, | But, after the believer shall have been made perfect in he pointed out the principle of covetousness there, holiness, and shall have passed into glory, his views of mingling in the worship of God, choking the Word, the divine perfections, as exhibited in the cross of and rendering it unfruitful. Penetrating the heart, he Christ, and of the evil of sin as manifested in the want unveiled its hateful presence there, as the leaven of of love to the Saviour, will be so enlarged, and his hypocrisy, and the seed of theft.-And can we wonder perception of the immutable and eternal difference beat the energy and frequency with which he denounced twixt right and wrong so clear, that he can never cease it, when we remember how frequently it came into to approve the one and condemn the other. And at direct personal contact with himself,-defeating his the coming of the Lord, all the holy angels of God, tenderest solicitudes, and robbing him of souls he and all the redeemed from among men, will joyfully yearned to save? It was covetousness which rendered respond Amen to all the curses and wrath that shall unfruitful so large a proportion of that heavenly seed be poured on those that love not the Lord Jesus Christ. which he had come to sow. It was this which be- "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him grudged him the anointing for his burial. It was this be anathema, maranatha," accursed at the coming of which robbed his kingdom of a subject, just at the mo- the Lord. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Why should any man, after ment when" the young man" appeared to be about to the day of grace shall have passed, have a thought of fall into his train; and which drew from him the affect- compassion toward those that have despised the coming exclamation, "How hardly shall they that have passion and rejected the Son of God? Or have mercy riches enter the kingdom of heaven!" This it was on those who have trampled on the blood of the cove which left the Gospel feast so thinly attended, and Shall their happiness be preferred to God's which sent excuses instead of guests. His audience glory? Their salvation to his honour? Whilst yet commonly consisted of "the Pharisees, who were covet- there is hope, we desire to travail in soul for your conous and derided him." Wherever he looked he beheld version to the Saviour. But if you continue hardened the principle in active, manifold, ruinous operation; in your iniquity, and persevere in neglecting the great "devouring widows' houses, drinking orphans' tears, salvation, shall we join with you against him, who luxuriating in the spoils of defenceless childhood and hath redeemed us by his blood, and whom our souls innocence." Did he turn from the sickening spectacle love? Oh! who would not love him? may the be and seek relief in the temple? there be beheld nothing liever even on earth say. I have been with him, and but a den of thieves. Mammon was there enshrined: he hath given me a robe of righteousness, wherein I the solemn passover itself turned into gain: the priests may go with boldness to the throne of the Eternal. trafficking in the blood of human souls. Like their Who would not love him? I was once dead, but now forefathers, "from the least of them even to the am alive, for he died for me. I was once accursed, but greatest of them, every one of them was given to now am blessed, for he was made a curse for me. I covetousness." But the last triumph of covetousness was once in trouble, but now have peace, for the chasremained yet to be achieved. To have sold the temple tisement of my peace was laid on him, and by his for money would have been an act of daring impiety; stripes I am healed. Who would not love him, that is to make it the place of merchandise was, perhaps, still white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, and worse, it was adding sacrilege to impiety. Only one altogether lovely; the brightness of the Father's glory, deed more remained to be perpetrated, and covetous- the express image of his person, the image of the inviness might then rest satisfied. There was one greater sible God? He is lovely in the glorious fulness of his than the temple. God so loved the world that he sent divinity, and spotless holiness of his humanity; lovely his only begotten Son to redeem it might not he be in the humiliation to which he condescended, and in sold? covetousness, in the person of Judas, looked on the countless miracles of mercy which he performed; him, eyed him askance, and went to the traffickers lovely in the innumerable instances of sick whom he in blood, and, for the charm of thirty pieces of silver, healed; of mourners, whom he comforted; of wretchbetrayed him, a type of the manner in which the ed, whom he relieved; of dead, whom he raised; of cause of mercy would be betrayed in every succeeding friends, whom he loved; of enemies, whom he forage. Yes, in the conduct of Judas, the incarnation of gave; of ignorance, which he instructed; of perversecupidity, towards Jesus Christ, the incarnation of be-ness, which he meekly bore; of sufferings unparalleled, nevolence, we may behold an intimation of the quarter from which, in all succeeding times, the greatest danger would arise to the cause of Christ. The scene of the Saviour's betrayal for money was an affecting rehearsal, a prophetic warning, of the treatment which his Gospel might expect to the end of the world. HARRIS. (Mammon.)

Love to Christ a characteristic of his People.-Love to Christ is a fundamental part of the character of every true believer in Jesus, and it is in vain that any man expects an entrance into the kingdom of God who does not possess this qualification for its employments and enjoyments. The want of love to Christ indicates the highest degree of moral guilt and depravity of which an intellectual creature is capable. To be destitute of love to Him, is to be blind, and deaf, and indifferent to all the concentrated excellencies of the

Divinity; it is to be under the influence of the carnal

which he endured: of purity, without alloy, which he exhibited; and of devotion, uninterrupted and heavenly, which he maintained. Above all, he is lovely in the voluntary sacrifice of himself,-the offering of a love that passeth knowledge. He is lovely in the atonement he hath made, in the pardon he hath purchased, in the peace he hath established, in the ordinances he hath appointed, in the doctrines he has taught, in the promises he has given, in the example he hath left, in the grace he communicates, in the consolation he admi nisters, in the support he affords, in the sympathy be exercises, in the victory he bestows, in the glory wherewith he crowns.-THE REV. LEWIS ROSE. (A Ser mon preached at the opening of the Synod of Glasgo and Ayr.)

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her path PROV. iii. 17.-Do not think that the representation of the happiness that a youthful spirit might

are peace.

surrender their spirits and life to vain and trifling interests, as distinguished from the grosser evil which we denominate vice. To insist that religion is better than that, as productive of happiness in this life, would seem but an impertinent pleading in its favour.-Foster.

NOMOTHESIA,

OR THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

PART IV.

BY THE REV. JAMES ESDAILE, D. D.,

Minister of the East Church, Perth.

LET us now return to the consideration of those laws which God prescribed to Israel, and which were so remarkably different from the laws and institutions of the western world. And here it may be observed that

the statute law of the Jews-I mean that law which

feel in being devoted to religion, is greatly exaggerated. | Besides being in the very nature of the thing, and in the gracious promise and design of Him from whom it descended, that it should confer advantages surpassing all others, you should be willing to receive testimony as to the fact from those who have gone effectually into the experiment. And you know, that they whom you verily believe to have made the most competent trial are the most decided, though not boastful, in their declarations; and that the tenor of their deportment proves their sincerity. Observe some of those young persons whom you yourself believe to be most fully under the power of religion: call them, if you will, its prisoners, its bondmen, its slaves; some of your gay companions attempt to ridicule them as its fools; but do you observe whether their piety conduces to their happiness? It is true, they are not happy after the manner in which your lighter friends account of happiness; not happy, if the true signs of that state be a volatile spirit, a continual glitter of mirth, a dissipation of mind and time among trifles, a dread of reflection and solitude, an eager pursuit of amusements; in short, a prevailing thought-regulated the intercourse of social life-differed as lessness, the chief suspensions of which are for the study of matters of appearance and fashion, the servile care of faithfully imitating the habits and notions of a class, or perhaps the acquirement of accomplishments for show. It must be confessed they have thoughts too grave, the sense of too weighty an interest, a conscience too solicitous, and purposes too high, to permit them any rivalry with the votaries of such felicity. Certainly they feel a dignity in their vocation, which denies them the pleasure of being frivolous. But you will see them often cheerful, and sometimes very animated. And their animation is of a deeper tone than that of your sportive creatures; it may have less of animal briskness, but there is more soul in it. It is the action and fire of the greater passions, directed to greater objects. Their emotions are more internal and cordial; they ean be cherished and abide within the heart, with a prolonged, deep, vital glow; while those that spring in the youthful minds, devoid of reflection and religion, seem to give no pleasure but in being thrown off in volatile spirits at the surface. Did you think that these disciples of religion must renounce the love of pleasure? Look then at their policy for securing it. The most unfortunate calculation for pleasure is to live expressly for it; they live primarily for duty, and pleasure comes 19 a certain consequence. If you have but a cold apprehension of the degree of such pleasure; if you can but faintly conceive how it should be poignant, you can at least understand that it must be genuine, and there is in it what may be called a principle of accumulation; it does not vanish in the enjoyment, but while passing as a sentiment, remains as a reflection, and grows into a store of complacent consciousness, which the mind retains as a possession left by what has been possessed. To have had such pleasure is pleasure, and is so still the more, the more of it is past. Whereas you are aware, if you have been at all observant of the feelings betrayed by the youthful children of folly, in the interval of their delights, (and does nothing in your own experience obtrude the same testimony?) that those delights, when past, are wholly gone, leaving nothing to go into a calm habitual sense of being happy. The pleasure is a blaze which consumes entirely the material on which it is lighted, so that the uncalculating youth, who seized a transient pleasure last week, or yesterday, has no satisfaction from it to-day; but either perhaps feels fretted with a sense of being cheated, and left in an irksome vacancy, from which he has no relief but in recovering his eagerness to pursue another, which is in the same manner to pass entirely away. And observe, this is the description of the unenviable kind of felicity of the less criminal class of the young persons destitute of religion; it represents the condition of those who

much from the civil and political institutions of the neighbouring nations as their religious ritual and doctrine differed from those of all other people. True it is, we may reasonably expect to find many features of similitude; for human nature, how differently soever it may be circumstanced, must preserve general features of resemblance; it is also to be remembered that all the families of the human race have sprung from the same source; and therefore, in addition to the feelings of a common nature, we may expect to find many traditional customs, both in laws, manners, and religion, existing among widely separated nations, which they have carried from the original cradle of colonization, when increasing numbers rendered emigration necessary, in order to procure the means of subsistence. Such analogies and resemblances afford pleasing exercise to the generalizing tendency of the human mind, which anxiously endeavours to trace effects to their causes, as the only means of reaching ultimate principles, and obtaining profitable maxims for the guidance of life. Thus, with regard to the Jewish sacrifices, we find that the same victims and offerings were presented at the altar, and that the mode of sacrificing was, in many instances, the very same that was observed before the law was given, as is exemplified in the sacrifices of Noah, and particularly of Abraham. (See Gen. viii. 20, and xv. 9, 10.) And we cannot entertain a doubt that the first sacrifices, offered by Adam and his sons, were prescribed by God; for they are of the same kind which he afterwards ordained to Israel by the hand of Moses; and we cannot suppose that God followed the invention of men in the rule of his own service.

We have reason to believe that the Jews, during their long residence in Egypt, followed the patriarchal rule of life and religion; they had, indeed, no exclusive law to keep them separate from their tyrannical oppressors; but Joseph knew well the danger of contamination and corruption, and therefore, in the very outset, he estab lished a local separation between his brethren and the Egyptians; placing the Israelites in the land of Goshen, the point most contiguous to the land of promise, into which he was certain that, in due time, they should be removed; and in token of his confidence in this hope, he ordered them not to carry his body to the sepulchre which Abraham had purchased in the land of Canaan, to which Jacob's body had been carried with so much