Imatges de pàgina
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light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. How thankful should we be that we enjoy such means. Mysteries which were hid from the foundation of the world have been revealed. If they are hid it is to the lost, whose eyes the god of this world has closed. If these are a stumbling block to the Jew, and foolishness to the Greek, they are the wisdom of God to the salvation of them that believe. Thanks then be to God "for his unspeakable gift." The faith with which all the scriptures should be read, respects more than the verity and authenticity of the scriptures, viz. the divinity of their subject, who is Jesus Christ, of whom Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms all spake. His character and achievements are revealed to our faith; himself and salvation to our reception. By him we become sons of God, and heirs of eternal life.

Shall we not then, as redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, study to honour him, in all relations and stations of life, being steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor shall not be in vain in the Lord.

May the spread of the bible in its letter be ac companied with a diffusion of its spirit and power, that so its principles may be accurately known, its sanctifying influence in the heart be felt, and its ameliorating influence on society be universally seen. To this wish and prayer. we have no doubt every Christian will cordially subscribe his assent, and devoutly affix his-AMEN.

On the Covenant with Abraham.

PART II.

WE have only a very succinct account of the nature of the divine dispensation with adult or infant man in the Antedeluvian age and in the subdeluvian until the days of Abraham, who is called the father of the faithful..

Learned men are of different opinions with regard to those early times, in many points. Whether they had any written annals, has been among other things controverted.

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One thing we know, that whatever means of Devangelical instruction they enjoyed, to which we have not access, that was not considered of im*portance to us. The discoveries which the voice of God made to Adam, when he announced the gospel promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent-the institution and signification of the typical sacrifices, which represented the lamb slain from the foundation of the world would no doubt be contemplated with great interest by these patriarchial sages, and be transmitted, with peculiar care to their numerous successive progeny.

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Methinks I see the pristine sage himself, at once the teacher, priest and ruler of his numerous descendants, binding in their sight the devoted victim, and with tears in his eyes explaining to them the reason and meaning of this strange ap

parent cruelty. Ah! says he, "behold the effects of my first sin, by which death hath been brought into the world, and all our woe: by this as well as by our actual sins, I and all my posterity are bound over to death. But lo, with a smile bursting through the cloud of grief, and showers of sorrow, he cries, Behold the typical substitute." And sprinkling himself and his offspring with the blood of the sacrifice, they are called by the name of Jehovah, and extol in raptures of wondering joy the name of their redeeming God. The night advances. They draw near, with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and bodies washed with pure water, to present their evening ac knowledgements. Beneath the shade of some lofty wide spread citron, entwined with the pliant vine,they participate a refreshing meal; reclining for repose under the sable curtain of night, and wrapt in the skins of the sacrifice, the Father still teaches them lessons of saving import Ah! says he, By my sin you and I became naked to our shame; but lo, the imputed righteousness of the promised seed, the second representative is for a covering from the storm, and the rain of this present dark and dismal night. In this, then, let us repose, until the eternal day shall dawn upon as in the beatific rays of which we shall be glorie ously clad and everlastingly happy.

We should egregriously err, however, should we imagine there were then many preachers of such righteousness. No, the great man of men were plotting their licentious & ambitious projects.

even while the ark was a building, which was 120 years and after this period, while all the terrible vestiges of that catastrophe stared the subsequent generations wide in the face. The world after the flood is as mad as it was before. Their am

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bition yet towers-their hearts are towards their idols-they follow their own sinful ways-their counsels and their tongues are judicially divided to prevent the execution of one sinful and silly device they scatter to plan and execute more they multiply colonies and colonial deities. God, however, will have a seed to serve him, on whom he may mark his name, as the sheep of his pastoral care. Abraham is for this purpose called from Ur of the Chaldees. As one of his chosen sheep he hears his voice-he follows his shepherd, he knows not whither. It is enough that he hears the voice of the illustrious leader, saying, “This is the way.

It is true he has no posterity when he starts with his kinsman and wife, yet this covenant is made with him and his seed. It is proper that we should now consider this covenant, its seal, its promise. The werds by which making a covenant was expressed, chere cheteb, signify to cut the sacrifice, or divide the purifier. Doubtless the idea of the word, and the phraseology are derived from the ancient and general rites performed in making treaties or covenants; the parties passed through the bloody divided victim, invocating such curses,divisions & death upon themselves, if they brake the stipulations of the solema partion.

The kind of animal which, according to the taste of the nation, was considered peculiarly excellent for food, was generally used.

Hence we find the Greeks and the Romans bisecting the swine.The Jews cutting the calf in twain. Whence the practice originated the reflecting mind will not be at a loss to tell. No doubt the typical beasts which the great highpriest of our profession slew when he first announced the mysteries of the covenant of grace, gaverise to all these ceremonies among the several descendants of Adam. When man by his sin had broken the legal covehant, and so excluded himself from all access to the favorable presence of God, and the tree of life, there was thus a way"a new and a living way opened up." Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Christ the substitute stood in the gap-he took our sins upon him-he approached the Father, sustaining the majesty of celestial royalty, against which we had rebelled. He approached, althoug. he knew he must be smitten with the sword of justice, instead of all those tribes of elect'men, whose names he bears on his breast, and in his heart. Verily, "He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities, the -chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord hath laid on him

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the iniquities of us all, says the church. Isa. liii. Abraham saw his day, and was glad. Before Abraham was I AM. It must be very evident to

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