sion to great sacrifices for the public good. Here it is that revelation must take up the process; here it is that, by opening the most glorious prospects, and giving birth to the most animating hope, it rouses the mind to the noblest exertion, disposes it to make the greatest sacrifices to a sense of duty, and the purposes of benevolence; and advances mankind to the highest summit of dignity and worth. Thus we see, that in the law of nature, and the discoveries of revelation, all concur to one and the same important endthe formation of the human character to dignity and virtue. They are two parts of the same magnificent plan; and this unity of design is the golden thread which, running through the whole piece, demonstrates all to be the work of one and the same divine Artist. He that is the God of nature is the God of revelation: for the obvious intention of both is the improvement of the individual, the amelioration of the species, and the ultimate perfection and happiness of the whole.

As far back as the history of revelation

goes, the design of it appears to have been to extend the views and to enlarge the comprehension of the mind; to interest the hopes and fears, by considerations different from what would occur to unassisted reason; to open the views to distant objects, of far greater consequence than present pleasure or pain; and thus to spiritualize the mind and to raise the character to higher degrees of dignity and elevation than could have been attained without it.·

The object of divine revelation was not at first restricted to the manifestation of a future life. In the infant state of the world, God was pleased to condescend to the infantine capacities, and limited views of the uninformed inhabitants of the earth; yet still the design was, to direct the attention to some interesting object that was yet fu ture; and by this means to train the mind to a degree of vigour and improvement of which it would otherwise have been incapable.

The account we have of the state of man in Paradise is so mixed with allegory and

fable, that it is difficult to separate what is true from what is fictitious. But if we take the narrative as it stands in the book of Genesis, the divine prohibition, which was intended to guard the primitive ancestors of the human race from the noxious qualities of a particular vegetable, and which was probably one out of a number of similar restraints, was much better adapted to the state and condition of man in Paradise, than any that are usually called moral precepts, or the commands of the decalogue, would have been. The design was to teach them to look forward to the consequences of their actions, and not to suffer themselves to be guided, like brutes, by the impulse of appetite only.

When God in his infinite wisdom selected the family of the patriarch Abraham to be the depositaries of religious truth, amidst the universal prevalence of idolatry, the promise which he made to the ancestor of this distinguished family was, that his posterity should be numerous; that they should inherit the land of Canaan; and that in his

seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Animated by this promise Abraham left his native country, and his father's house, at the command of God, and was content to dwell as a sojourner in the land which was entailed upon his posterity. A firm expectation of the promised blessing induced him to surrender all his secular advantages and prospects: and thus he became the father of the faithful; or in other words the pattern of believers. The pious patriarch exhibited an excellent example for the imitation of those who like him are in possession of a divine promise; like him to obey the precept, that so they may insure the blessing.

When the Israelites were settled in the land of Canaan, they were not only led to expect the protection of divine Providence, while they continued obedient to the law of Moses, but their attention was gradually directed more and more to a great deliverer, who was to be raised up at a remote but limited period, and who was to be a distinguished blessing to the human race. The

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prospect which was thus opened to their view by the prophets of God, made a strong impression upon their imagination, and contributed greatly, especially after the captivity in Babylon, to preserve them from the idolatries of the surrounding nations, to keep alive in their minds a just sense of the power, the goodness, and the faithfulness of God, and to impress upon their hearts worthy affections and dispositions towards him. The Psalms of David, and of other pious writers under the Mosaic dispensation, shew the excellent tendency of the Jewish revelation to excite a spirit of sublime devotion: and, when compared with the most beautiful and elevated compositions of Heathen writers, they fully demonstrate a superiority of theological and moral wisdom on the part of the Jews, which cannot be accounted for but upon the supposition, and by the admission of supernatural instruction.

In the fulness of time the Christian dispensation was made known to the world, the design of which is to carry the compre