ought rather to exclaim with St. Paul, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ?" than to intrude into those things which we cannot comprehend, from the vanity of a carnal mind. But though we are not permitted to pry into the counsels of Heaven, we are not forbid piously to reflect upon the works and wisdom of God. "His works are great-honourable-glorious-and wonderful-and he hath made them to be remembered-and they are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." Let us, then, consider what reasons can be assigned for the appointment of this great Sacrifice.

EVIL OF THE ORIGINAL OFFENCE.

The harmony of the works of God resembled in some sort his divine perfections. The nature, formation, capacities, and state of man at the first, were every way worthy of his God, and suited to the place appointed him in the rank of beings he was perfect in his kind. It was therefore an impeachment of the divine wisdom in him to strive either to ascend or descend from the place assigned him: it was destructive of the order and harmony of the universe: it was an opposition made to the power and authority of his Maker; and it was a daring attempt to prove his truth and justice.

It was an impeachment of his wisdom.-By refusing to obey its dictates and following his own way, man set himself in opposition to his God, as though he knew better what course to pursue than he to whom he owed his existence. It was holding a taper to the sun indeed! This, his way, was his folly, and his foolish heart was darkened; and where is the man who has not more or less shewn himself in this respect the true image of his first-offending parent?

It was destructive of order.-Order is necessary to the very existence of the universe. All would soon be confusion and ruin without it. The heavenly bodies, leaving their orbits, would dash against and destroy each other. The earth, with all its beautiful variety and change of seasons, with

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all the creatures it sustains, would sink in irremediable confusion and ruin. So man by transgression caused great disorder in the moral world, and, by bringing the curse upon the ground, great misery and confusion among the inferior creatures; and to what extent its evils may be carried, cannot be determined.

It was an opposition to divine authority.-As God is the wisest, greatest, and best of beings, so all should honour and obey him. His government is most just, equitable, and permanent; his laws most pure and perfect; and his service the creature's true liberty and happiness. To oppose him, therefore, and to trample his laws under our feet, is folly, madness, ingratitude, and wickedness. Man did this by yielding his heart to disobedience. Oh, that a feeble worm of the earth should have the pride and insolence to wage war with omnipotent goodness!

It was a daring attempt to prove his truth and justice.-It pleased God at the beginning to require proof of obedience on the part of man, by prohibiting his use of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whatever that was, threatening him with certain death the day he should eat of the forbidden fruit. In an evil hour, at the instigation of his wife, with his eyes open, he took and ate, and his guilty soul stood exposed to the dreadful penalty. Could he imagine that his God could utter falsehood, when he informed him of his danger? Did he suppose that his justice would not resent the rebellious action, and that death would not be inflicted? But all was in part awfully realized by spiritual death, in his disunion from God, by that change in his situ ation which rendered temporal death inevitable, and by his exposure to eternal death, in his final banishment from his offended Maker's presence.

CHRIST'S PERSON.

THIS short sketch shews a little of the first offence, and it is placed in this form, to introduce with greater clearness

the last particular. To threaten with death in so solemn and positive a manner, and not execute the sentence, bears hard upon the truth and justice of God, and his other attributes also. But some may say that he is compassionate and good. Let us admit the truth of this, and what shall we gain thereby? Must one attribute in the Deity be violated by another? But supposing that man is pardoned, shall he receive this favour as penitent or impenitent? If as penitent, can he make himself such, is he disposed to it, does he know any thing of it, is it in his nature? By any thing he discovered on the day of his trial we say, No. Must then the grieved and insulted Jehovah bestow a favour like this upon a rebel that deserves the greatest punishment; and who, being once restored, will fall by the next temptation, as having nothing to dread; or fancy that his God cannot do without him, and upbraid him to his face for his compassions, at the expense of his holiness, truth, justice, and authority? But, if we consider him as impenitent-to pardon him in this case, why not pardon devils too? Were they not greater in power and dignity than man? We will, however, pass this by. To pardon thus a hardened sinner, would it not be to sanction all his crimes, to reward him with an extraordinary and supernatural favour for having · given greater credit to the lying tempter than to himself; would it not destroy the immutable distinction between virtue and vice, guilt and innocency, purity, and filthiness; would it not be setting a dreadful example to other intelligencies, who might throw off their allegiance to him without fear, if he suffered, with impunity, such disloyalty to his person and government; and must not those blessed spirits who stood have entertained strange views of his righteousness, who could doom their offending companions to the infernal regions, and discover no displeasure to an inferior order of beings for their wanderings from him? It does not, therefore, in the nature and established order of things appear that offending creatures like us could be pardoned by mere mercy alone. It was necessary that something should

be done that would sufficiently mark the odiousness of sin, that would preserve the harmony of the divine perfections in pardoning the sinner, that would encourage hope without promoting presumption, that would be the most effectual in destroying enmity in the human heart, that would furnish the strongest motives to perseverance after being restored, that would afford the most extensive assistance and the easiest means of obtaining salvation, that would most display the divine goodness and compassion, and render man the most thankful and humble, from a consciousness that he deserved no such favour, and which would ever prevent his departure from God, when placed in a more perfect state of existence than the present. All this is completely realized in the unspeakable gift of the Lord of life and glory; being inexpressibly one with the Father in a sense in which no creature can possibly be, having all the attributes of Deity ascribed to him. He is called the Mighty God, Isai. ix. 6, God over all, blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5. God our Saviour, Titus i. 3. The true God, 1 John v. 20. One with the Fa ther, John x. 3. Being in the Form of God, Phil. ii. 6 ; and his invisible image, Col. i. 15. KING of Kings and LORD of Lords, Rev. xix. 16. Eternally the same, Heb. i. 11, 12. Omnipresent, Matt. xviii. 20. Omniscient, John ii. 24. Creator of all things, John i. 3. Col. i. 16. Upholding all things, Heb. i. 3. Better than angels, Heb. i. 4. The source of blessing, Psal. lxxii. 17. To be worshipped by all, both angels and men, Phil. ii. 10. Heb. i. 6. Forgives sins, Mark ii. 5. Sends the Holy Ghost, John xvi. 7. Admits into heaven, and bestows it as he pleases, John xiv. 3. Luke xxiii. 43. He is the head of every man, 1 Cor. xi. 3. All which dignity, names, and works, with many others, directly or indirectly ascribed to him, discover such glories, and excellencies, as cannot but constitute him on the part of his Father a proper Mediator. Human understanding is infinitely too circumscribed in this imperfect state, to comprehend the mode of the divine existence, whether we speak of him as ONE or THREE. Many indeed pride themselves as having discover

ed his Unity by inferential or refined reasoning, to the exclusion of all plurality. But how is he comprehended by them? He that fully comprehends the Great God, must at least have an understanding equal to his. If none are bold enough to declare that they are possessed of an "infinite understanding," like himself, one would think that they ought to display modesty enough not to despise such as differ from their opinions, whose understandings may be as strong, as clear, and as well cultivated as theirs. But on what do they pretend to ground their opinions? Is it on the works of nature? How do we know that God is one person from these? Is it from their magnitude, varieties, uses, order, splendour, or revolutions? Can there be no unity of design in great works, in variety, utility, order, brightness, and change, but from a single agent? Cannot more than onecannot multitudes concur in unity of design? Is it not done on many occasions? May we then not infer from the works of nature that there may be one, or two, or more Gods employed, unless we receive information not from Jehovah's works, but from Jehovah himself? Should their reasonings be founded on the sacred book, containing the historical relations of the numerous revelations which Jehovah at several times and in divers manners has made to mankind concerning himself, is it not truly astonishing that nothing can be seen by these persons but absolute unity? However desirable it may be to produce conviction in their minds on this subject, I consider any attempt of the kind altogether vain and useless. The determination to exclude all mystery, and to receive nothing above the standard of their own minds, discovers such a degree of self-conceit, as must prevent that humble disposition to which alone the Lord will have respect, and to which alone the promises of wisdom are made. All I can hope for is to encourage the humble enquirer after this precious truth, that Father, Son, and Spirit, are truly and essentially God. I deny not the unity of the Godhead, that being often affirmed in opposition to the Polytheism of the Heathens; but I deny that it is that alone