highest heavens, must consist alone in praise; -that of those happy spirits who have in peace and safety attained to paradise, may consist in petition and in praise ;-that of probationaries who in safety and in honour are passing through their trials, (and many such may be,) must doubtless consist in petition and in praise;—and that of degraded beings, fervent supplication for pardon and for help through the Redeemer's merits, combined with love and praise. The one true only religion, therefore, for this latter class, previous to the offering of the body of Jesus. Christ, once for all, must unquestionably have been the religion that typifies this offering. All must have then applied for pardon, in virtue of the sacrifice that was pledged to be offered. The one true only religion for this latter class, since that offering was made, must consist in application to the throne of grace, in virtue of the sacrifice that now has actually been offered. Accordingly, we find, that immediately subsequent to the fall of our first parents, beasts were slain, doubtless for the purpose of tendering representative offerings to God; as in the very next chapter we are told, that Abel brought an offering unto the Lord, of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; evidently directed from the same quarter, and exactly parallel to those that in the new world were afterwards ordained by the Mosaic institution. At this early period of Adam's existence, when the native strength and dignity of his upright mind had not been much enfeebled by recurrence of transgression,

or his pristine immortal vigour pressed down by the heavy hand of time-when a sensibility so nearly allied to heaven could not have long been hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and this sensibility was tortured by the heart-rending thought of entailing ruin on his promised countless offspring, (for at this awful juncture the dreadful sentence had not been repealed, or the vale of death ordained to lead unto the gate of life,) when the Lord had not proclaimed his name," The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; (Exod. xxxiv. 5-7;) how agonizing must have been the state of our general ancestor's mind! But when the great and good Creator for the first time exercised these blessed attributes towards degraded man, and when Eve was told her seed should bruise the hellish serpent's head; under the circumstances stated, and at such a momentous crisis, it is certainly most highly probable that Adam was illuminated with a far more extensive view, and comprehensive knowledge of the eternal purpose of his God, which he purposed in the second person of the glorious Trinity, than has ever after been imparted to any of his progeny. That he had been very fully instructed in the rites and ceremonies of the typical religion, the history, remote, obscure, and concise as it is, very plainly ascertains; for the next particular recited is, that in process of time his eldest descendant, Cain, brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto

the Lord; a presentation which it is much more reasonable to suppose, was made pursuant to the example and precepts of his father Adam, (in whose sentence was imposed the necessity of tilling the ground,) than from an after and special communication unto Cain, from God himself. Be this as it may, an offering of first fruits was tendered by Cain, and will be found, by examining the following directions, as exactly parallel to them, as the offering of Abel was to those subsequently laid upon the brazen altar.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you." (Lev. xxiii. 9—11.) The fate of Cain's and Abel's offerings were also determined by the same rule that was, and is, and ever will be, the crite

rion of acceptance. "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell; and the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou dost not well, sin lieth at the door." Legal or perfect righteousness and integrity, are peculiar to the Redeemer, but evangelical righteousness and integrity all must have who would be saved."*

* Horne.

As we proceed in the relation we find our position again established, by God commanding Noah to take into the ark of every clean beast by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female and as no explanation was annexed by God as to which were clean or unclean, it is hence presumed that Noah was well acquainted from his antediluvian progenitors with a distinction that must have been designed to typify the moral difference between pure and impure beings. For when an apostle of Jesus Christ saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air; and there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. But the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice; and the vessel was received again up into heaven." A preacher of the new and spiritual religion was thus taught by God himself, that all such distinctions were now at an end; since the fountain was opened for sin and uncleanness, which cleanseth from all sin. And the first act of Noah when he went forth out of the ark was to transmit the religion of the old world unto the new. "Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered

burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake."

There are other commandments of precisely similar import to those ordained at large in the Levitical law, (and which became somewhat obscured by the wickedness and impiety of the world he had just destroyed,) such as, the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat. And that these rites were (though, perhaps, only partially so, by the renewal of the special directions imparted to Moses) perpetuated down to the arrival of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai, plainly appears from the petition preferred by them unto Pharaoh: "Let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God." (Ex. iii. 18.)