the whole earth; which very clearly and satisfactorily accounts for the prevalence of these sa

by Scripture information, which furthermore relates, that subsequent to the wonderful interposition of Providence which confounded the tongues or language of those presumptuous men who sought to set Jehovah at defiance, by building a city and a tower whose top might reach to heaven, (Gen. xi. 4,) a general dispersion of mankind was effected, (Gen. xi. 7—9,) we should suppose a secondary one, as we have found the history previously recording that the isles of the Gentiles were divided by the descendants of Japhet; and the impious men who engaged in the mad attempt of erecting the tower of Babel, were the descendants of Ham, whose eldest son Cush was the father of Nimrod, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel, (Gen. x. 6—8, 10,) and by whose posterity the city and tower, which was intended to reach unto heaven, was begun to be built. The impression of terror, therefore, which had filled the minds of those men who lived at no very remote period of time from that eventful era which swept all mankind, save eight favoured persons, from off the face of the earth, had not then been effaced; as the effect of this terror appears to have been the motive which stimulated this monstrous undertaking" lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (Gen. xi. 4.) And when we consider the extreme longevity of Noah, who survived the flood three hundred and fifty years, and the probability that his descendants also attained to a very advanced age, their posterity most likely still possessed the art of constructing vessels fitted for the purpose of conveying mankind unto the remotest corners of the globe, and have been ordained to transport and scatter those culprits, as sentenced by God, to their respective destinations.

Be this, however, as it may, certain it is that they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth; and their dispersion, it is not improbable, was brought to pass by miraculous interposition, as the history subjoins, that from the very spot whereon they commenced their presumptuous enterprise, did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Now this recital very fully elicits the point alluded to, by

But we

crifices throughout the whole earth. cannot perceive any just reason whatever for inferring from a circumstance so easily accounted for, that the prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the whole earth, proves it to be the general sense of mankind, that mere sufferings, abstracted from other considerations, can appease the anger of God; which Dr. Blair's observation strongly seems to intimate.

What supposition ignorant and superstitious nations may have deduced from the celebration of rites handed down to them from their forefathers, no one can determine. The primeval reason for the ordination of sacrifices had undoubtedly been fully explained to our general ancestor; and that, in the lapse of dark ages, all glimpse of this reason should have been totally lost among those barbarous tribes, who have so long been separated from all intercourse with the civilized world, was a circumstance almost certain to happen. clearly accounting for the diversity of tongues which the adventurers of latter days find in usage among the most savage tribes, in every quarter already discovered upon the habitable globe. During the lapse of ages, the art of forming machines fit for the purpose of conveying men from one region to another, appears to have been totally lost by them. They are now discovered immured in islands, or settled upon continents far remote from any intercourse with the enlightened and civilized portion of the human race. But though immersed in ignorance and sunk in barbarism, still there is, for the most part, if not always, found among them manifold traces of original revelation; handed down, doubtless, by legendary relation and traditionary rites; for the minds of the most ignorant and barbarous people which have now been brought to light, appear still to retain some confused ideas of an existing Deity, and of tendering sacrifices unto him. VOL. III.

H

We therefore cannot discover any reason whatever on which to ground the inference Dr. Blair appears to draw from the customs retained in use by such persons. But though we cannot accord in sentiment with Dr. Blair on the points we have been disproving, yet there is another point of most momentous import deducible from the sacrifices, which still prevail among unenlightened people, namely, the truth of original revelation, as up to the source of primeval institution can these rites alone be rationally traced.

Several further instances might be cited in support of the advanced assertion, from the sermon, on a passage of which we have just been commenting, were it not deemed superfluous; as the manner in which the subject in question is therein treated, exactly corresponds with the explanation given by almost every author, and almost every preacher who discourses upon it.

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We shall now most carefully investigate the revealed word of God on the momentous point into which we are now examining, and venture to premise that we shall nowhere find the sufferings of Christ therein represented as making a propitiatory satisfaction to the justice of God; and that the reason uniformly assigned in holy writ is, that it was the righteousness of Christ, and those perfections which were demonstrated through sufferings, that rendered those sufferings so acceptable to God.

"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall

grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." (Our blessed Lord, in all things conformed to a low and humiliating situation, and was not possessed of any outward attraction.) "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (The irritating trials so frequently inflicted upon man by man's insulting and contemptuous demeanour towards those whom they malignly wish to injure, was eminently borne, as predicted it would be, by our most blessed Lord.) For "surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." (But it is worthy of most particular observation, that the reason assigned in God's holy word for his being thus afflicted, was evidently to contradict the erroneous opinion which the prophet foretold would be formed by an erring world in consequence of his sufferings. He was not, says Isaiah, wounded for his own, but "for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isa. liii.) That it was on account of our transgressions that Christ delineated that transcendent virtue which was made perfect through sufferings, all Scripture testifies, as do, we trust, our feeble comments on it. Consequently He suffered the just for the unjust; and it has, we conceive,

plainly appeared that it was on account of the transgression of the first Adam that Christ glorified his Father in our nature: and that had not this astonishing display of excellence been illustrated in our nature, we had not partaken the benefit of the atonement his righteousness hath procured, has also, we trust, been clearly elicited. It is, therefore, a true saying, that He was a man wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.

But it is furthermore recorded, that the chas tisement of our peace was upon him. Now the chastisement which procured our peace, and which was endured by our blessed Lord, was occasioned by human nature having fallen a prey to the allurements of its arch seducer, which imposed the necessity of its being expressly proved by the most public demonstration unto the heavenly hierarchs, that the feeble nature that had been despoiled of virtue by its infernal foe, was endued with an energy that could not only baffle and resist all his allurements, but could also stand firm, and face the heaviest artillery of its deadly enemy. -Thou shalt break his head, though He in the conflict will and shall bruise thy heel. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh; that is, condemned the sinful nature that had offended, to glorify the Father, by triumphantly sustaining this heavy, arduous contest, which it was impossible to do as man, without facing and enduring every weapon of the enemy. And as we, and probably many of God's probationary children,