mation respecting future rewards and punishments which the Gospel unfolds?

It becomes not us to scrutinize the propriety of that appointment, which ordained so late a period of the world for an event of the most momentous influence on the condition of the human race. It was a decree of that unsearchable wisdom, which is alone competent to select the most suitable means for the accomplishment of its ends, and so to frame the plans of divine mercy and benevolence, as to give to them the fullest and most extensive effect of which, in the nature of things, they are capable. Such, however, is the fact: that event to which we are indebted for our redemption and recovery, was not to take place till many ages after the introduction and prevalence of the evil which it was designed to remedy. The crucifixion of our Redeemer was about four thousand years after the transgression of Adam. Of the long intermediate space between the introduction of sin and the atonement for it, but a few centuries had enjoyed any distinct and intelligible communications respecting the mode in which the restoration of mankind was to be accomplished. The prophecy contained in the fifty-third, and part of the foregoing, chapters of Isaiah, may be considered as the earliest prediction of a suffering and dying Messiah, which could have been distinctly and generally understood before its fulfilment. Earlier intimations, indeed, we have.

"From that prophet, justly called evangelical, who was the "first commissioned to lift up the veil that covered the mystery of ડેટ our redemption, and to draw it forth to open view from beneath "the shade of Jewish ceremonies and types, through which it

The Book of Psalms contains many a picture in which the humiliation and death of the Son of God are circumstantially delineated. We have the symbolical representations of the Levitical ritual. We have also various transactions of an emblematical character in the earlier stages of the sacred history. These are, each in its kind, clearly illustrative of the scheme of mercy which had been progressively carried on from the beginning. They are corroborative testimonies to the evidence by which Christianity is supported. But nothing of earlier date. than the passage referred to, can be justly interpreted as a distinct and perspicuous announcement of the mystery of man's redemption through the vicarious sacrifice of the Messiah. The date of this prophecy must be fixed within considerably less than eight centuries before the death of Christ.

Thus long did a state of ignorance prevail, not only among mankind in general, but even among the peculiar family of God, as to the means by which the forgiveness and salvation of man were to be effected. In this state of things, what would have been the natural consequence of conveying in the Law of Moses any clearer discoveries respecting a future world? The Israelite who lived under that Law, might derive from it, indeed, a general faith in the Messiah, together with a persuasion that his ad

"had been hitherto but faintly discerned, we have a description "of that great propitiatory sacrifice, whereby our salvation has "been effected, as plain as it is possible for language to convey "it." Abp. Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, vol. ii. p. 15. Dublin, 1809. The words quoted relate to the prophecy referred to in the text.

vent would be the occasion of signal benefits to his own nation, and even to all mankind. But he could not, more particularly in the early ages of that nation, frame any distinct conceptions respecting the peculiar character of that great achievement of divine wisdom and love, by which the glory of God was in after-ages to be revealed to the world; which was to cancel transgression, and to lay open the avenues of mercy; without which, all penitence on the part of man would be unavailing, and all obedience unacceptable. Under these circumstances, any clear assurance of immortal life would naturally have led to gross misconception of the terms on which God is pleased to offer that gift to mankind. A promise conveyed in the Law, would have been understood as a promise annexed to the observance of the Law. Obedience to that Law would have been consequently regarded as a requisite, and as a sufficient, qualification for obtaining from God the fulfilment of the promise. It would have been viewed as constituting a meritorious title to eternal life. Satisfaction to the divine justice, as a necessary preliminary to pardon and favour, would never have been thought of. Thus would the Israelite have been perverted in the principles of his faith. His hopes of happiness would have rested on grounds inconsistent with the eternal purpose and attributes of God. Thus would the self-righteous, blind to the corruption of his heart and the defects of his behaviour, have claimed the reward of immortality as his due; while the humble and contrite, sensible of his own transgressions, of the perfection of the Law which he had broken, and of the justice and

holiness of the God whom he had offended, would altogether have despaired of mercy.

But further. The wisdom of God had decreed, that the publication of the Law should be many ages anterior to that of the Gospel; and the former was designed to be introductory and preparatory to the latter. Let us inquire, then, in what manner the success and reception of the more perfect dispensation would have been affected by any deviation, as to the point we are at present considering, from the actual provisions of that dispensation which was preparatory to it. If I mistake not, it will appear, upon examination, that the tendency of such a deviation would have been greatly detrimental to the cause of Christianity; and that it would have created an obstacle, first, to its being received at all, and secondly, to its being received in its purity.

First, If the Law had been as explicit and declaratory as the Gospel on the subject of a future state, this circumstance must have been unfavourable to the establishment of Christianity. For the Jews, to whom this religion was first preached, would naturally have been indisposed to embrace a new charter, which contained no extension of the privileges conveyed to them in an old one which, they already possessed. This position will appear supported by powerful evidence, if we take a brief view of the circumstances under which the Gospel was offered to that nation, and of the reception which it actually experienced among them.

The preaching of the humiliation and death of the Son of God was accompanied with an offer to such as should embrace the Christian covenant, of

life and immortality; which, in the language of St. Paul, "were brought to light through the Gospeld." Notwithstanding, however, this powerful recommendation of the faith proposed to their acceptance; notwithstanding all the mighty evidences of truth, by which the ministry of our Lord and his apostles was supported; the cross of Christ was a stumblingblock and a rock of offence to the Jews. Few of them could be prevailed on to embrace a doctrine, which severely mortified their pride, deeply shocked their national prejudices, and brought with it a stinging disappointment to their carnal and ambitious views.

Let us suppose now, that the promise of eternal life had been, in the preaching of the apostles, not what it now is, the peculiar distinction of the evangelical covenant; but that it had been the mere repetition of a promise, which the Jews and their forefathers had for many ages enjoyed: in what manner would the progress of the new religion have been affected by this circumstance? Would it not have thus been stripped of that very attraction which chiefly recommended it to the hearts of its early converts? The advantages which it really possessed were insufficient to overpower those feelings of hostility by which it was encountered: would not then a more determined opposition, and a more general rejection, have been the probable result, if the promise of life and immortality had been annexed to a previous covenant?

An incident recorded in the history of our Lord

d 2 Tim. i. 10.