quate to account for the origin of sacrifices, and particularly for the general concurrence in the custom of burning the victim; yet the rapid adoption and the universal diffusion of the rite speak its accordance with feelings, blended, it may be, among idolators, with gross ignorance and error, yet congenial to the human mind. And impossible as it is, that the blood of bulls and of goats can take away sin; the practice of presenting before the offended majesty of Heaven these inefficacious emblems, these undiscerned types and shadows, bears analogical attestation to that Divine Mediator, who, in the fulness of time, made by His one oblation of Himself once offered a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Another, and a very important example of analogy between the arrangements of God as to the gift of things temporal, and of things spiritual, may be derived from the consideration of grace bestowed by the Holy Spirit, The scriptural doctrine concerning the influence of divine grace includes, according to my apprehension, the following positions. A That divine grace, as the efficient cause by which the heart of man is to be changed from its naturally corrupt state into a holy state, is indispensable to Salvation. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Without me ye can do nothing. That it cannot be in any respect or degree claimed as a debt to human merit. grace would no more be grace. Otherwise That it will assuredly be obtained by every man who seeks it in the way prescribed in the Scriptures. That, for the sake of the meritorious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, God freely bestows in the first instance, upon every man, an incipient portion of grace sufficient to countervail the natural repugnance and inability of man to turn from sin and to seek for divine grace. Otherwise, through whatever labyrinths the circuit of objection may run, the inevitable conclusion is, that the will of the individual cannot become disposed to seek divine grace, and consequently, that he is absolutely shut out from obtaining it. That he who improves grace received, shall receive more, and shall have abundance; and that from him who does not improve it, the grace which he has received shall be taken away. These revealed arrangements of the Deity with respect to the need, and the donation, of the grace of His Holy Spirit are manifestly and strongly analogous to the arrangements, by which it has pleased Him to regulate the gift of His temporal blessings requisite to men for the purposes of the present life; as the gifts of food, of raiment, of competence, of friends, of a good name. Setting apart for subsequent observation any instance of seeming contrariety, the real force of which will thus be correctly appreciated, we may affirm generally, that these and other requisites to life and to a sufficiency of reasonable comfort are commonly found to have been placed by Providence within the reach of every man through the use of his natural powers; to be actually attained by those persons, who employ in each case the means respectively appointed for the acquisition of the object; to be obtained with progressive facility and abundance proportioned to the faithful application of improved powers, and enlarged means; to be endangered, sustain by analogy, the actual attainability by every man of grace unto salvation, a universal, and, I apprehend, an irrefragable answer may be returned; namely, that the attainability as to things temporal, and the attainability as to grace unto salvation, are severally commensurate with the period to which they severally relate, and thus demonstrate the analogy not only to be real, but to be perfect. The period during which temporal requisites are important to an individual, is simply the time during which it is the divine will that he should live upon earth. To the end of that period they are rendered by Providence attainable to him. The period to which the importance of attaining divine grace relates, is eternity. For the span, be it longer or shorter, of mortal existence appointed to each individual, God enables him to attain all temporal things essential to the beneficial completion of that span. And for the attainment of happiness in a state which is never to end, the same God of mercy bestows upon him freely and fully, through the atoning merits of our Redeemer, the capacity of obtaining grace unto life everlasting; and the |