it is the righteousness of Christ that is accepted for the remission of sins that are past.)

But from the manner in which Dr. Blair offers the observation just inserted, it might, we think, be inferred, that he considered sufferings and death essential to the obtaining remission of sins. abstracted from other considerations-a supposition which we conceive utterly unwarranted by Scripture. Neither can we subscribe to the justness of the remark, which asserts, that propitiatory sacrifices are prevalent throughout the earth; for at the juncture when this remark was tendered to the public, the celebration of the rights he notices were only practised by nations immersed in ignorance, and sunk in barbarism: and from customs alone, retained in use by hordes of heathen savages, we cannot think it can be fairly said, that propitiatory sacrifices were prevalent throughout the earth; and much less that the superstitious cruelties in usage among unenlightened barbarians can justly be considered as proclaiming the general sense of mankind. And let us for a moment inquire from what cause the prevalence of sacrifices among such people can be supposed to originate. Can we imagine that they are offered in consequence of suggestions spontaneously arising in the human mind, teaching it to believe, that the sufferings and death of innocent animals would appease the wrath of Deity? No; this we conceive to be utterly impossible: they can only, we think, be rationally accounted for by looking back to the early transactions in Eden. There the typical and Catholic religion was immediately insti

tuted on the fall of man, carried on to the deluge, directly renewed on Noah's descending from the ark, unquestionably dispersed throughout the whole earth, when it was overspread, as we know it was, on the high authority of Scripture history, by his descendants Shem, Ham, and Japhet; and we are further informed, that from the offspring of this last-named patriarch were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. (Gen. ix. 18, x. 5.) Now we cannot but suppose that the first descendants of Noah would immediately establish the religion, and celebrate the rites, so highly venerated by their illustrious ancestor,* wherever they were dispersed throughout

* As already observed, three persons who had been preserved in a machine which went upon the mighty waters of the general deluge, which was formed under the express direction of almighty God, and in the formation of which they had most probably materially assisted, could be at no loss how to construct such machines as could bear them and their descendants over the oceans of our globe, to the remotest isles and continents, from that on which they first debarked, when they descended from the ark. And as it was ordained by God himself that from the three sons of Noah the whole earth should be overspread, (Gen. ix. 19,) it is highly reasonable to conclude that these instructed their offspring in the art imparted unto them by the inspiration of God; and that, if they stood in need of any further directions. essential to fit them for the accomplishment of their purpose, it would be graciously vouchsafed by the same wise Being, who overrules and controls all that passes in our world. This very concise though important communication, appears very clearly to ascertain, from what source, and by what means, the continents and isles which have been discovered by modern navigators were originally peopled.

Another point, we conceive, is also very satisfactorily proved

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.

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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.

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