as by ignorant mistakes, or studied falsehoods had misrepresented its meaning, and thereby perverted its design. Consequently, the Jewish and Christian dispensations, considered as constituting two connected parts of the same Divine Economy, must stand or fall together.

In fact, from the fall there has been but one way of Salvation. The only variation which Divine Wisdom has thought proper to adopt, relative to this important subject, respects, not the subject itself; but the manner in which the knowledge of it has been communicated to the world. This has given rise to different Dispensations of Religion, suited to the circumstances of the parties at different periods; whilst the promotion of one essential consideration was the uniform design of each; namely, that of directing the mind of fallen man to the same divine object of Faith and Hope.

This object originally pointed out by the mystic representation in Paradise, was more distinctly marked by the typical service appointed to accompany it. Which service, through its different stages, proved

the

the means of keeping up the true Faith, wherever it was kept up; till God, in wisdom thought fit, by the mouth of his Son, to speak a plainer language to the world.

The application, therefore, which our Saviour and his Apostles made of the types of the Old Testament, to their corresponding truths in the New, directly proves, that the Christian Faith was the object of the Jewish dispensation: whilst an attention to the meaning those types were designed to convey, qualifies us to determine on the best authority, what the nature of that Faith is.

Thus the Old and New Testament, by their mutual illustration of each other, furnish that accumulated mass of evidence in support of the characteristic doctrines of the Cross, which cannot fail, when duly appreciated, to bring conviction to the mind of every one, who has not advanced so far in the school of modern infidelity, as to reject the foundation, on which alone all sound reasoning on Christian subjects is built.

But, before we enter on the Subject proposed, it may be of advantage to expose

pose the futility of that specious mode of arguing, which proud reasoners, substituting the light of Nature for that of Revelation, so confidently adopt: by which the inquisitive mind is too apt to be drawn away from that Scriptural path of light, which shines more and more, until the perfect day; into that dark and comfortless one, which, through the perplexing maze of doubt and uncertainty, generally leads to universal scepticism.

When we consider the various opinions which have prevailed, and continue to prevail, on the subject of Religion, it might be expected that we should be at some loss to reconcile them with that uniform consistency, which is one of the most striking characteristics of truth; no less than with the benevolent design which the Deity must have had in view, in revealing that truth to the world. But when we consider man, in his present fallen state, a being perverse in will, and corrupt in understanding; we cease to be surprized at an effect, which must necessarily result from that variety of causes, to which the opinions and practices of men are at dif ferent

ferent times to be traced up. A singleness of heart, accompanied with an uncorrupt love of truth for the truth's sake, is a perfection rarely to be expected from that general derangement of the human faculties, which was brought about by the fall.

Reason is the gift of God to man: and had it been always employed, as it ought to have been, in the service, and for the honour of the Giver, it would have proved, what it was designed to be, the firmest support of Revelation. But alas! it was in opposition to Revelation, that the first notorious exertion of its powers became distinguished. And the success which the grand Adversary of mankind gained in Paradise, by this original perversion of the human understanding, has encouraged him to a continued repetition of the same flattering temptation.

"Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil," was that confident assurance, which by setting up the reason of man in opposition to the revealed word of his Maker, laid the foundation for infidelity, in all the variegated forms in which it has

since appeared in the world. The progress of this insinuating temptation is uniform. It commences with flattering the pride of human reason; and under the plausible and captivating idea of free inquiry, and liberal discussion, terminates in an absurd and blasphemous attempt, to circumscribe the ways of infinite wisdom, within the narrow limits of a finite understanding.

To this radical source of atheistic folly, are to be traced up those speculations, which in the vaunting language of individuals, are represented as so many laudable efforts of the human mind, to advance the important subject of Religion through different stages of improvement, to its utmost degree of perfection. "In nature, we have been told, we see no bounds to our enquiries. One discovery always gives hints for many more, and brings us into a wider field of speculation. Now why should not this (continues the same writer *) be in some measure the case with respect to knowledge of a moral and religious kind.”

* Dr. Priestley. Free Enquiry.

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