own, and as God manifested in the flesh, to do and fuffer whatever was neceffary for man's falvation.* Accordingly we find, that when Adam's tranfgreffion required his expulfion from the earthly paradife, and his entrance on a state of falutary discipline, and a new system of faith and trust in his God, a certain emblematic representation was placed at the eaft of the garden of Eden, exhibiting the ever-bleffed Trinity as joined in covenant to redeem man, and the union of the divine and human natures in the perfon of the Redeemer. The Cherubim, and the glory around them, with the Divine prefence in them, were to keep or preferve the way of the tree of life, to fhew man the way to life eternal, and keep him from lofing, or departing from it. Before this emblematic

See fome very pertinent remarks on this subject, in a volume of excellent Difcourfes on the great doctrine of atonement, lately published—by the Rev. Charles Daubeny, L. L. B. author of a Guide to the Church.

† I know it has been thought, that this venerable figure called the Cherubim was set up to the eastward of Eden, merely as a guard to keep unhappy Adam from coming at the tree of life, and fo the mysterious account here given of it, has been much exposed to the scoffs and ridicule of unbelievers. On this fubject we find the learned Lord Prefident Forbes, in his Thoughts concerning religion, thus delivering his fentiments with great plainness.— "The Jews, who have mifconftrued the angel Jehovah into a created angel, "have thought fit here to understand by the Cherubim two of the fame fort of "angels, who had got a flaming fword, to frighten Adam from re-entering "Eden, and meddling with the fruit of the tree of life: and this monftrous "story they have made out of a text, that neceffarily means no fuch thing, "and may fairly be conftrued to a fenfe big with the most important infor"mation to mankind. What is tranflated, to keep the way of the tree of life,

with intent to prevent the coming at it, may as properly be rendered, to “ obferve, or for obferving, and so discovering and finding out the way to the

blematic reprefentation, which was afterwards, by divine command, fet up in the tabernacle of Mofes, and temple of Solomon, the church or people of God were taught to perform that typical service, which pointed to Chrift, as the way, the truth, and the life, and kept up among them a conftant remembrance, that without fhedding of blood, there was "no remiffion of fin."

It was to preferve a due regard to this fundamental article of religion, that God was pleased to appoint facrifices of expiation and atonement for fin, and required fuch fervices to be observed through all fucceeding generations, till the Redeemer himfelf fhould come, who was to do away all these shadows and emblems, and to make the true fatisfaction, the only proper atonement. In proof of the earlinefs of this inftitution, it has been very juftly remarked, that the fkins, with which God is said to have clothed the nakednefs of our first parents, muft have been the skins of beafts, that had been offered by them in facrifice, fince at that time they were not allowed

tree of life. And the word we tranflate placed, is almost always in every "text, tranflated inhabited" (as in a tent or tabernacle)" and whether you "translate it placed or inbabited, the next word ought to be tranflated the Che"rubim, as things, or emblems well known to thofe, for whom Mofes wrote. "So that Jehovah's placing or inhabiting these Cherubim, was the method "chofen by him, to make the way to the tree of life kept or observed." See more to the fame purpose, tending to fhew, that the Cherubim of the scriptures were mystical figures of high antiquity and great fignification, being as Irenæus calls them," Refemblances of the difpenfation of the Son of God,” that is, the Chriftian economy.

allowed to kill them for any other purpose: And this typical clothing was a moft comfortable emblem of that covering and protection from divine wrath, that garment of falvation provided for man, by the facrifice of the Lamb of God, who was to take away the fin of the world.

The rite of facrifice being thus established by divine authority, as the inftituted emblem of redeeming love, it may well be fuppofed, that Adam and his family would be ready to testify their grateful acceptance of that love, and dependence on it, by a regular application to the means appointed for directing the eye of the faithful offerer to that great atonement, which the blood of the flain animal was defigned to fhadow forth. Indeed we are expressly informed, that the two fons of Adam, Cain and Abel, brought each of them an offering unto the Lord,* but with this remarkable difference, that God is faid to have had refpect unto Abel, and to his "offering, while unto Cain, and to his offering, he "had not refpect:" The reafon of which is given in these words of the epiftle to the Hebrews; "By

faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent fa"crifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness "that he was righteous, God teftifying of his gifts."+ This

Gen. iv. 3, 4. Where this offering is faid to have been brought to the Lord" in process of time," or as it is translated on the margin of our bible, at "the end of days," or on the periodical return of that day, which had been fanctified from the beginning, and thereby more immediately fet apart for the celebration of religious worship.

+ Heb. xi. 4.

This it was that made the difference between his fa crifice and Cain's, that the one offered by faith, the other did not; by faith in the promised Redeemer, and from a humble hope of being accepted through his merits. And indeed this difference appears in the very nature of their gifts or offerings. For Cain brought only of the fruit of the ground, as an acknowledgement of the divine bounty, in providing for his temporal support, and giving him a right to what the ground produced. But he shewed no defire to act in conformity with that divine plan of falvation which the fall had rendered neceffary for his fpiritual comfort. He offered no living creature as an atonement for fin, and whose blood was to be fhed as an acknowledgement of the forfeiture of life, and as a type or emblem of the all-atoning facrifice of the great Redeemer. In fhort, he conducted himfelf as if he had wifhed to make it appear, that he had no fin to be atoned for, no belief in the one Mediator, and no thought of applying to God, through faith in his meritorious ranfom. Whereas Abel, conscious of his fallen ftate, and the now finful condition of man, offered a living creature to God, "the firflings of his flock, and of the fat there"of," as the inftituted type or memorial of the great First-born, through whofe facred blood the life, that had been forfeited, was to be restored. For which reason, Abel is faid to have offered by faith, and the Lord had refpect to his offering, on account of the excellence which was thereby stamped upon it, and

the

the typical relation which it bore to the facrifice of that beloved Son, in whom God has been ever wellpleased. But the offering brought by Cain had no fuch qualities: It meant no expiation for fin, nor any acknowledgement of it: It was not made in faith; nay, it was fo far from having refpect to the Divine Interceffor, that it might rather be confidered as a formal rejection of his interceffion; and therefore it was rejected, and God had no refpect to it, or to the offerer. In this early and remarkable inftance we may fee a lively representation, on the one hand, of the humble and devout Christian, who after all his moft fincere and diligent endeavours in the way of his duty, yet confcious of his own infirmities, relies upon the merits of his Saviour; and on the other hand, a representation of those, who either ascribe too much to their own merits, or by a fatal misapprehenfion, neglect and undervalue that only method of atonement and acceptance, through which God hath declared, he will be reconciled to finners.

We have no reafon to think, that God was any respecter of perfons," in the case of Cain and Abel, as recorded in the facred history; for it was the different quality of their offerings, and the different difpofitions with which they were offered, that occafioned the difference of refpect which was fhewn to them: And I have infifted the longer on this inftance, because it gives us fo plain, and fo early an account of the origin of facrifices, and the true meaning

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