proved it to be the great and only system or order of things ordained by God to restore and elevate fallen man to happiness and heaven. Had the Saviour been actually given, immediately after the fall, the evidence of his true divinity, and the divine character of his atonement, could not have been so amply and conclusively demonstrated as it now is. It would have been a subject of history only; and to history so remote, we know from many existing facts, many weighty objections might have been raised. But now it is a matter of prophecy, as well as of history: and prophecies the most minute, in reference to events and periods, have met with their actual and literal accomplishment in the life and death of our Redeemer, which clearly proves the work to be of God. And when, in the judgment of the infinitely wise God, the proper period arrived for the personal appearance of the true Messiah, the second person in the adorable Godhead assumed human nature, and was found in fashion as a man. In a former essay we considered the Supreme Divinity of the Saviour; we shall now refer to his Incarnation, and shew that it was necessary that he should be a perfect man as well as God; and then we shall endeavour to point out the manner in which redemption was accomplished by him.

XVI. REDEMPTION BY CHRIST.

It was necessary that the Saviour should be a perfect man. The Redeemer must shed his blood and die. The Saviour's humanity clearly asserted in Scripture. His Divinity also predicated. The doctrine of the Cross implies a vicarious sacrifice. The death of Christ an act of obediencevoluntary. The death of Christ abolished legal and typical sacrifices. The death of Christ confirmed the New Covenant, and superseded the old one. The atonement made by Christ manifests the justice of God. The burial of Christ's body a fulfilment of divine prediction, and proved the reality of his death. The manner in which he was buried. His burial a proof of his humility. The resurrection of Christ demonstrated him to be the Son of God-an earnest of the general resurrection. The resurrection of Christ has been disputed and denied. It is an historical fact that his grave was found empty; how is this to be accounted for? Quotation from Saurin. Testimony borne to the resurrection of Christ. The validity of this testimony. The resurrection of the Saviour, a glorious miracle.

In a former part of this work we have adduced a number of arguments in proof of the Divinity of Christ. We shall therefore now proceed to shew that the Saviour was man as well as God. The necessity of this will appear evident, when we consider that atonement must be made for sin in the very nature that had offended and violated the divine law; besides, pure Divinity, unaccompanied with humanity, could not meet the requirement of Divine justice: "Without shedding of blood is no remission" of sins. But Divinity, considered abstractedly, could neither suffer nor shed blood. That the shedding of blood is necessary, in order

to make atonement, is abundantly evident from the following passages of Scripture: "The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls." Lev. xvii. 11. And when Christ instituted the holy Supper, he took the cup, which contained "the fruit of the vine," an emblem of his blood, and he said: "This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Matt. xxvi. 28. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom. v. 8, 9. To the Ephesians, speaking of Christ, he says: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Eph. i. 7. The same divine truth is stated in his epistle to the Colossians (i. 13, 14), where he asserts that God the Father "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." In the epistle to the Hebrews the same truth is asserted. Speaking of the Priesthood of Christ, the apostle says: "By his own blood he hath entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us; for if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Heb. ix. 12, 14. In the 22nd verse of the same chapter he emphatically states,

"without shedding of blood is no remission." St. John says: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. The same apostle, in Rev. i. 5, 6, when speaking of Jesus Christ, says: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen."

As our redemption was effected by the shedding of his blood, the person whose blood was shed, and who offered himself as a vicarious sacrifice, must have a nature capable of bleeding and dying, as well as a nature of infinite perfections to sustain him, and to give infinite value to the sacrifice thus offered up. Now, in Jesus Christ we see this twofold nature: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." The second person in the glorious Godhead became incarnate, and "being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." That God the Son came down from heaven, and took our nature upon him that he might suffer in our stead, redeem us from all iniquity, and save us from eternal misery, is evidently taught in the following passages: "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 28. "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . . Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again." John x. 11, 15, 17. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also

received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. xv. 3. "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins." Gal. i. 3, 4. In a manner equally explicit, are similar declarations in every part of the New Testament. See Gal. ii. 20; Eph. v. 2, 25; Col. i. 21, 22; 1 Tim. ii. 6; Heb. ix. 26; x. 5-10; 1 Peter ii. 21; iii. 18.

That Christ, the Son of God-who, in his Divine essence and attributes, is one with the Father-had a human nature, is evident from the following passages, which, for the sake of making the subject as plain as possible, we shall classify in the following order :

1. He was, according to divine promise, "the seed of the woman," (Gen. iii. 15), and in due time he was born of the blessed Virgin; Matt. i. 16, 18; Matt. ii. 2, 4, 11; Luke ii. 7, 11; Gal. iv. 4.

2. He was called the "seed of Abraham," and the "seed of David;" Gen. xxii. 18; 2 Sam. vii. 12, 16; Psalm lxxxix. 35, 36; 2 Tim. ii. 8.

3. He is called "a child born-a Son given," and " man;" Isaiah ix. 6; Isaiah xxxii. 2.

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4. It is said that "he increased in wisdom and in stature;" Luke ii. 52.

5. He was the subject of hunger and thirst, weariness and temptation; Matt. iv. 2; Matt. xxii. 18, 19; John iv. 7; John xix. 28; John iv. 6; Matt. viii. 24; Mark iv. 38.

6. He had a human soul, of like passions with us (yet without sin); hence, he was tempted, he grieved, and suffered extreme sorrow of soul; Luke xix. 41; John