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Nor were the occurrences which immediately preceded, and attended our Lord's nativity, less remarkable,--a celestial envoy is delegated to Joseph, to tell him not to hesitate to take Mary to wife, for that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. Gabriel, the most exalted of the angelic spirits, is despatched from the throne of God to proclaim the child's birth-a heavenly choir cheer the midnight hours, with repeating "glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men;" the long expected star is seen in the east, to direct the magi where to pay their adorations, is it hable? is it conceivable? is it credible? that heaven should bestow such honours upon any being, whose nature was not eternally and essentially divine? But supposing that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world, of whom Isaiah prophecied-" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, (the Father of Eternity) The Prince of Peace;" then the magnificence of his attendants was highly graceful, and it

was no wonder that all the celestial armies should unite, with harmonious voices, and accordant hearts, in applauding and celebrating a condescension and benevolence, great and illustrious beyond all example.

CHAPTER IV.

ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.

"Ye are bought with a price." 1 Cor. vi. 20.

In the history of the creation, revelation teaches, that when the Almighty formed man, he made him just and upright, furnished with the means and fitted for the enjoyment of unadulterated happiness. That moral nature which was his glory, and capacitated him for the felicities for which he was designed, required that he should be free; and his sovereign Creator thought it best that a sense of his dependence should be impressed upon him, and his obedience tried by an easy, benevolent, explicit law, enacted and promulgated by the lips of the Deity himself. Whether the command of not eating the fruit of the forbidden tree in paradise is to be interpreted literally, or allegorically, of some other prohibition expressed in these terms, agreeably to the stile and genius of the oriental writers, it matters

not. This diversity of interpretation makes no difference in the case. Whatever the test of man's obedience was, the will of the lawgiver is clearly announced, "If thou art guilty of disobedience, thou shalt surely die."

Obedience then had the promise of continued life, the penalty threatened to disobedience was death. The gift freely bestowed on a certain condition, was to be withdrawn on the breach of it, and though the loss was immense, to the loser no wrong was done, and no complaint in reason can be made, for what man had no right to demand, might be offered, on what terms the giver pleased.

In this first state of trial, I could shew the wisdom and the goodness of the Deity, and the obligations thus imposed upon his new moral creatures, of implicit compliance with his will.

But, at present, it concerns us only to observe, that in abuse of that freedom, by which he was ennobled, man violated the law of his Maker, in defiance of the awful

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sanctions with which it was enforced. The divine displeasure was incurred, misery and destruction became the sinner's doom, and thus the human race were ruined and degraded. The solemn monuments of this fall are every where too numerous-We carry them about us in this earthly tabernacle-We inherit from Adam a nature subject to a curse, its peace with its author, and with itself broken, its spiritual and moral health impaired, and death, its terrible desert. The consequence of this grand apostacy is contained in this mournful record-"By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Such is the moral narrative of man.' figures of the piece may vary, and the colouring be sometimes of a darker and sometimes of a lighter hue, but the principles of the composition, the grand outlines are every where the same. Wherever we direct our view, we discover the melancholy proofs of depravity, whether we look to ancient or modern times, to barbarous or civilized nations, to the conduct of the world around us, or to the monitor within the breast, whether

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