account of the fall of a certain number of beings, of a rank prior in existence, and superior in dignity to ours; nor of their being driven, by a total despair of recovery to the Divine favour, to a confirmed habit of perseverance in vice, and opposition to all good: which, increasing, must in crease their punishment, and multiply their damnation. That those desperate beings, who know themselves to be sealed to destruction, should, as far as permitted, exercise an implacable envy and hatred against our species, of whom they foresee the same part will rise to that happiness, from which they are irrecoverably fallen, is not to be wondered at. Nero, a Duke d'Alva, a bloody father inquisitor*; are not these dæmons? If we have such diabolical beings in our own species, who have had so short a time to improve in wickedness, and are still under a dispensation of heavenly grace; why should we wonder at any accounts we have in scripture of the confirmed wickedness of spirits abandoned to despair, and who have had many thousands of years to improve and harden themselves in vice?

Some have made a difficulty of the incarnation of Christ; as if there were in that doctrine somewhat peculiarly hard to admit, or next to absurd. But in such cases, where nothing is required to be granted, but what is analogous to the course of nature; it does not seem reasonable to hesitate at any supposed difficulty, which, if removed, would leave another confessedly as hard to surmount. How a spiritual being, of any rank whatever, comes to be immured in a material vehicle, is to us wholly inconceiv. able. The incarnation of a human soul is a mystery utterly inexplicable by human sagacity. Nor is it at all more incomprehensible, how an angel or archangel, should animate a body, than how a human mind should. The difficulty does not arise from the rank, or dignity, of the spiritual being, but from the nature of spirits in general; whose power of animating and actuating a material vehicle, and the nexus, which forms the union between two natures so different, are to us wholly inconceivable.

And as to the objection, of its being improbable, that a being of such dignity, as that of the Messiah, should condescend to assume, for a time, the lowest station of rational nature; it will presently vanish, on considering the im

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portance of the purpose, for which he did so. For if, in consequence of this amazing condescension, there should, in a consistence with the divine rectitude, and established order of the moral world, and the freedom of the creature, many thousands, perhaps millions, of our species, be raised hereafter by degrees to such greatness and goodness, that the present station of the archangel Gabriel will be regarded by them as an inferior one (which will certainly one day be the case) who can think any apparatus, to gain ร such an end, too costly, or operose? Whoever duly considers the stupendous excellence of a nature, which, however mean and low at present, is yet formed capable of an endless progression in every noble quality; will not think any contrivance ill bestowed, or any condescension too low, to gain the moral improvement of such a species. Add that condescension on a proper occasion, and for some important end, is suitable to a superior nature; and peculiarly agreeable to every great mind. And let the consideration of the high exaltations of the Messiah, in consequence of his gracious interposition for the recovery of a ruined species, be taken in. Add likewise the Divine pleasure of exerting a benevolence so extensive, that an eternity will be employed by a race of beings, delivered by it from utter destruction, in celebrating its praises, and expressing that gratitude, which every succeeding period of their happy existence will heighten, every new enjoyment will inflame with ever growing raptures.

To pretend to dispute whether it was possible for mankind to be restored by any other means than those which, Infinite Wisdom has chosen, is both presumptuous and useless. It is our wisdom to consider what we have to do, as the moral constitution of things is; not to amuse ourselves with vain speculations upon what could do us no service to know, and what it is impossible we should by our own sagacity ever discover. In general, it is evident, that the repentance and reformation of offenders was not of itself, without some additional apparatus, sufficient, consistently with the Divine scheme, to restore a guilty order of beings to a capacity of being received to pardon. For Divine wisdom never uses a more operose method of proceeding, when one less so will answer the end.

Whether we shall at all, in the present state, be able to

determine wherein the principal propriety or necessity of the death of Christ consisted, and how it came to be efficacious for our restoration to the Divine favour, is greatly to be questioned; as scripture has only declared to us the fact, that it is chiefly by his laying down his life for mankind, which was the great end of his coming into the world, that we are to be received to pardon and mercy; but has given us no precise account of the modus of the operation of his death for that purpose, nor how the ends of the Divine government were answered by it. In general, may it be said, that the consideration of so important a scheme found necessary for restoring an offending order of beings, is likely to strike all rational minds, who may ever come to the knowledge of it, with a very awful sense of the fatal evit of vice, which made it necessary. And as they must see the difficulty of finding such a mediator for themselves, in case of their offending, they may thereby be the more effectually deterred from disobedience. It may impress them with high notions of the Divine purity, and aversion to evil, which made the restoration of offenders a work so difficult and expensive. And we know not how wide each particular in the moral scheme of the Divine government may extend. We are told in scripture, that the angels desire to look into the mystery of our salvation: that some of them have actually fallen from their obedience is doubted by none who admit revelation: That there is any state of finite virtue and happiness so secure, as that it is impossible to fall from it; or that created beings can, consistently with freedom, be raised to any such state as to defy weakness and error, and to be above all advantage from instruction by precept or example, is by no means to be affirmed. And if there be no reason to doubt, but in all states free agents are fallible (though more and more secure of continuing in their obedience, as more perfect) since according to scripture even the angels are chargeable with folly; it may then be put as a conjecture, whether the scheme of the restoration of mankind may not have immensely extensive and valuable effects upon various or ders of moral agents throughout the universe for preserv. ing them in their obedience. This effect the consideration of it ought to have especially, above all, on us, who are most nearly interested in it; and we ought not to hope

to escape, if we neglect so great salvation; and ought therefore, if we name the name of Christ, to resolve to depart from iniquity. It is also to be expected, that the consideration of what our everlasting happiness cost, should immensely enhance the value of it to those of our species who shall hereafter be found fit for it; especially with the additional consideration of the hideous ruin we shall have escaped, which is such as to render it necessary for the Son of God to leave for a season his eternal glory, to descend to our lower world, and give himself to death, to deliver as many of us as would from it. That our Saviour died a witness to the truth of his own mission and doctrine, as well as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, is certain. But it is evident, that his death was very different both in intention and consequences, from those of the martyrs. That his death was also a glorious instance of obedience, and a noble example for our imitation, and that of all rational agents, is also to be taken in, and heightens the grandeur of the scheme. A consequence from the obedience and death of Christ, mentioned in scripture, and hint ed above, is his being "highly exalted, and receiving a name above every name in heaven and earth, to the glory of God the Father." Of which likewise we can see the propriety and justice. And scripture also countenances the opinion, that the high exaltation of such a number of mankind, as shall be found capable of it, is given him as a reward for his sufferings.

However, none of these considerations, nor all of them together, come up to the point in question, viz. What connexion in the nature of things there is between the death of Christ and the salvation of mankind. This will probably be a desideratum as long as the present state lasts.

To expect that we should be informed of the Divine economy with the same distinctness as of our own duty, would be a piece of arrogance above ordinary. It is by experience we are instructed in temporals, as well as spir. ituals; and we proceed according to it, and are successful in the affairs of life, while we know little or nothing of the means by which the Divine wisdom acts in the natu ral world, and ought in all reason to expect to know still less of his scheme in a supernatural interposition; as the plan of our redemption may be called. Did we know,

which probably it is not proper we should, more of the foundations and connexions of the various parts of that sublime scheme, we should then know nothing useful to us but our duty. That we know now; and with such clearness, as will render us wholly inexcusable, if we be not found in the full and faithful performance of it.

The doctrine of the future resurrection of the body may, as properly as any one, be said to be peculiar to rev elation. For there is no reason to think, that even the more civilized heathen nations had generally any notion of it. On the contrary we find the enlightened Athenians, in the apostolic times, startled at it, as altogether new to them. But, to use the words of the great apostle of the Gentiles to his hearers, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?" To give life and being at first to what was once nothing, is certainly at least as difficult as to restore a bodily vehicle from a state of corruption, and to re-unite to it the mind, which had still preserved its existence during the state of separation. And the same Omnipotence, which was equal to the former, may be fairly concluded equal to the latter. The precise modus, in which this re-union of the material and spiritual parts of the human nature at the resurrection will be executed, is to us, as well as innumerable other effects of the divine power, wholly unknown. The fol lowing hypothesis, or conjectures, (the author of which I cannot recollect) has been thought ingenious. That there may be originally disposed, in the structure of the human frame, a system of stamina, in miniature, of the future æriel or ætherial resurrection-body, so enveloped or wrapt up, as to continue incorruptible, till the consummation of all things; at which time, by a pre-established law of Nature, it may unfold itself in a manner analogous to conception or vegetation, and the soul being re-united to it, the perfect man may again appear, renewed in his nature and state, and yet in general the same compound being he is at present, consisting of soul and body, or, perhaps more properly, of body, soul, and spirit. The apostle Paul's comparison of the death and burial of the body to the sowing of a grain of wheat; and the resurrection of the future body to the springing up of the stalk, which we know to be nothing else than the unfolding of