S1RbiON XXXV. 487 or bow myself before the high God? Shall I conic before him with buret-o erings?Will the Lord be pleased with thousands'of rams, or with ten thousands ofrivers of oil ? Shall Igive myfirst- b'ornfòr my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of nay soul? Micah vi. 6 7. Alas ! All these are vain and fruitless pro- posals : But the gospel makes the enquiring conscience easy, when it proposes the blood of the Son of God, appointed by the Father as .a satisfactory offering for the sins of men : This is what the guilty world wanted, but could never find Out. This the gospel hath revealed and set in an open light. And indeed, if the great God who is offended, did ever send down a Peace-maker to reconcile heaven and earth, it is very reasonable to suppose that he should answer the universal cry of nature distreased with guilt; and that he should furnish sinful creatures with such an atonement for sin, and such a solid foundation for their acceptance with himself, as might fully sa- tisfy their reason and their awakened consciences. And this is no wheré tobe found in so evident and complete a manner, as in the death of Christ. H. The very first discoveries of grace, which were made to man after his fall, implied in them something of an atonement for sin, and pointed to the propitiation which Christ has now made; Gen. iii. 15, &c. The first appearance of grace was the promise given that the seed of the woman. should bruise the head of the serpent, that is, he Shenk' abolish the guilt, mischief; and misery that sin and the tempter had introduced : But in order to do this, the woman's seed must have his heel bruised, must sus- tain some personal sufferings. Immediately after this, sacrifices of beasts were instituted as a type and prefiguration of some future glorious sacrifice and atonement that should be made to Godfor the sins of men. Now it is the very notion of an expiatory sacrifice, as I have shewia before, that some creature is provided to stand in the room of the original transgressor and to bear his guilt and suffer- punish- ment in his stead, that thereby the transgressor having his guilt taken away, may be delivered and saved. Andwhen Adam was * Though we have no express revelation in scripture, that sacrifices were now instituted, yet there is abundapt reason to believe it : For, 1. Abel offered bloody sacrifices. Now we can hardly suppose that Adam or Abel would ever invent such a strange ceremonyto please God with it: Nor could reason ever dictate to them, that God, their Creator, would be pleased with such a bloody practice, as cutting his living creatures to pieces, and then burning themwith fire. Nor would God who is jealous of his prerbgativc in matters of worship, ever have shown his acceptance of these rites, if he himself bad not appointed them. 2. Though we do not read that Adam offered sacrifice, yet it is plain hewas not permitted th eat flesh ; and therefore it is more probable, that when he killed beasts, it was for sacrifices : And God taught him to make doodling for hitttself out of their skins. Thiswas immediately after the fall.
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