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V. The death of Christ is also a seal and confirmation of the new covenant betwixt God and man.

For it was the custom of almost all ancient nations, both Jews and Gentiles, to ratify their treaties and covenants by sacrifices. Of this you may see instances in various parts of Scripture *, and in several heathen historians. In condescension, therefore, to the manner of men, and to confirm their faith in his promises, God did, by the sacrifice of Christ, seal and ratify his new covenant of mercy with mankind; upon which account the death of our blessed Lord is called (as the Jewish sacrifices also were) "the blood of the covenant." This, therefore, is another excellent purpose answered, by that method of redeeming us which God was pleased to fix upon that it is conformable to all those foederal rights by which men were wont to confirm their covenants with each other; and thus gives us every possible assurance, not only by words, but by the most expressive actions, that God will per

Gen. xv. Jer. xxxiv.
Heb. x. 29. ; xii. 24.

+ Livy, lib. i. c. 24, &c. &c. Exod. xxiv. 8.

form all his gracious promises made to us in the Gospel, provided we fulfil the conditions on which alone those promises are made.

These are some of the reasons which might possibly induce our Maker to fix on the death of his son as the best method of redeeming mankind; and there may be, and undoubtedly are, many other reasons for that choice, unknown to us, still more wise and more benevolent than those already specified. Yet these are abundantly sufficient to convince us, that the Redemption wrought for us by Christ upon the cross, carries in it the plainest marks of Divine wisdom.

Still, however, it may be urged, and it often is urged with great confidence, that even admitting the force of every thing here said, admitting the necessity of some sacrifice for the expiation of sin, and a sacrifice too of great value and dignity; yet after all, it seems utterly incredible, that the death of no less a person than the Son of God himself should be necessary for this purpose; and that he, in whom all the fulness of the godhead dwelt, should ever consent and condescend to become that sacrifice, and to e

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pire in agonies on the cross for such a creature as man, who occupies so small and seemingly so inconsiderable a place in the immensity of the universe.

There is undoubtedly something very astonishing in this circumstance. But there are not wanting considerations, which may, in some degree, tend to account even for this acknowledged difficulty.

In the first place, there is a very extraordinary personage mentioned in Scripture, whose existence it is the fashion of the present day to doubt and to deride, and to explain away some of the most striking effects of his power into allegory, metaphor, vision, and imagination. He is, notwithstanding, described by the sacred writers in the plainest and the clearest terms, and represented as a being of high rank, of great power, and prodigious art and strength. The names there given him are Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, and the Prince of the Devils; and he appears to be in a state of perpetual hostility against God and Christ, and this lower world, over which he has very considerable influence. He is described by our Saviour

under the image of a strong man *, whom it was necessary to bind before you could spoil his house. He is called the Prince of the Power of the Air†; the Prince of this World; and, by St. Paul, the God of this World. § He is represented as being at the head of a numerous and formidable host of wicked spirits, to whom St. Paul gives the title of principalities, and powers, and rulers of this world. And in another place they are said to be his angels.¶ To this malignant and insidious being was owing the fall of our first parents, and all the tragical consequences of that fatal event, the introduction of death and sin, and every kind of natural and moral evil, into the world. On these ruins of human nature did this tremendous spirit erect his infernal throne, and established an astonishing dominion over the minds of men, leading them into such acts of folly, stupidity, and wickedness, as are on no other principle to be accounted for; into the grossest superstitions, into the most

*Matth. xii. 29. § 2 Cor. iv. 4.

+ Ephes. ii. 2.

|| Ephes. vi. 12.

John xii. 31. q Matt. xxv. 41.

brutal and senseless idolatry, into the most unnatural and abominable crimes, into the most execrable rites and inhuman sacrifices.* Nay, what is still more deplorable, he gave the finishing stroke to the disgrace and humiliation of mankind, by setting up himself as the object of their adoration, and that too (to complete the insult) under that very form which he had assumed to betray and to destroy them; I mean that of the serpent: the worship of which disgusting and odious animal, it is well known, prevailed to an incredible degree in almost every part of the Pagan world, and is still to be found in some parts of Africa.† In this manner did Satan lord it over the hu

*Nothing less than diabolical influence can account for the almost universal custom of human sacrifices, and the atrocious outrages on all decency perpetrated in some of the sacred rites of Egypt, Greece, and Hindostan. See Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 256, 274.

+ See Bryant's Ancient Mythology, vol. i. de ophiolatria.— A serpent was adored in Egypt as an emblem of the divine nature; and in Cashmere there were no less than 700 places where carved figures of snakes were worshipped. Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 291.-At Whydah, on the Gold Coast, a snake is the principal object of worship. See Evidence on the Slave Trade.

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