we read, or hear, or act, or think, or feel, the same humiliating lesson is forced upon us, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin (that is, with a contaminated nature) hath my mother conceived me." Psal. li. 5.

Of his inability to expiate his own offences, man has every where manifested a common sentiment; wherever we find him thoughtful of his condition, and mindful of his God, we see him standing by an altar, offering a victim, with the blood of which he is hoping to propitiate his Maker. No where has he reposed with confidence on his own intrinsic merits-No where has he trusted wholly to his contrition, and his tears.* The

*The repentance of a sinner cannot be an atonement for his crime. In what manner does his present penitence affect his former offences? will his sorrow for sin make it cease to be sin? will the confession of his guilt make him cease to be guilty? will his resolutions of amendment, or his actual reformation, obliterate the transgressions of his past life? If man be a depraved creature, it is plainly impossible that he should be justified by the law of God. When he comes before his Maker to be judged according to his works, he must be said to have done evil, because he has in fact done it. The law has declared

universal prevalence of this idea of a sacrifice, indicates that it was derived from some authentic and traditionary source, and as there is no congruity in the nature of things, between shedding of blood and remission of sins, I infer that God, who only could be the unchangeable oracle of truth, informed man, soon after his fall, of the necessity of an atonement, and graciously taught him to support his faith, and sooth his anxieties with typical sacrifices, till the great sacrifice should be offered for him, in which he should find his peace. It is this view of man in his fallen state which gives to the gospel its full energy. The ways of heaven are not as our ways, nor to be regulated by our impatient wishes and expectations. What man in a moment, had wantonly thrown away, he was to recover once more, not instantly, but after

that "the soul which sinneth it shall die." By the law therefore he must die, because he has sinned: consequently God cannot pronounce him just, or acquit him of guiltbecause he is guilty. In this situation, as far as we are able to discern, the atonement of Christ was absolutely necessary for the human race; and without it, consistently with the moral government of God, we can conceive no possible way of salvation.

a long succession of ages, and such a state of intermediate discipline and preparation, as might best serve to introduce the intended blessing with effect.

In the first ages of the world, God taught men by the dictates of nature, and the common notices of good and evil, by lively oracles, and great examples of piety. He set forth the holy patriarchs as tutors to the rest of mankind, who, by their religious lives, might train up others to the practice of virtue, and instil into the mind, a reverence of the Deity. At this early period, the priesthood was vested in the head of every tribe, to whom it belonged to bless the family, to offer sacrifice, to intercede for them by prayer, and to minister in other solemn acts of religion. Abel offered a sacrifice to God, and was accepted. We are informed by St. Paul, that he offered this sacrifice in faith, and it is impossible to conceive in what manner his faith was exerted, or to what object it could look, unless it was founded on some divine promise. But no divine promise is mentioned in the scriptures, as made to mankind, except through a Redeemer,

By faith, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, without undergoing the ordinary change of death, was miraculously translated into heaven, for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." "It was by faith," says the apostle, that he attained to such a high distinction. It was owing therefore to his firm persuasion of the truth and excellence of what God had revealed, being instructed, no doubt, by Adam, (with whom he was cotemporary for three hundred years,) not only with respect to the existence and perfections of God, and his work of creation, but also in the consequences of the fall, and the way of reconciliation, by the promised Saviour. We are not told what degree of light he had in the doctrines of the gospel, but he was certainly acquainted with the grand design of redemption by Christ, and could not be ignorant of his first coming, when he foretold his second. "Enoch pro

phesied of these, saying, behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints." Jude, 14 v.

After the deluge, Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings on the altar, on this occasion also the offering was accepted; and why was the blood of an animal shed, and offered up as a religious rite, but to direct the faith of the worshipper to the great propitiatory sacrifice hereafter to be made for the sins of mankind, To Abraham it was promised,-" In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed," a prediction designed as an intimation of the Messiah, who was to descend from him, and by whom alone, the curse of sin can be taken away, and the sinner become truly blessed; accordingly our Saviour says to the Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad." "All these," says St. Paul, speaking of the old testament witnesses, "died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,” entertaining the most perfect confidence that the gospel would be, ultimately, fully revealed.

The code and digest of laws which God gave to the Jews, under the Mosaic dispensa