need would be far indeed from being supplied. Powerless and corrupt as we are, we should still be left to perish in our sins, and the light, thus communicated to us, would only aggravate our woe, and render our destruction more terrible. Where is the individual who understands the plague of his own heart, who is not aware that he stands in need, not only of information, but of reconciliation with God; not only of light, but of life; not only of precept and example, but of power to obey the one and to follow the other? Yes, my dear friend, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour is no message of glad tidings to us, unless it proclaims to us indemnity and cure. Thus, and thus only will it supply all our spiritual need.

This plain course of reasoning leads us at once to the conclusion, that Christ did indeed come in order to bestow upon us, not only information and precept, but indemnity and cure. But happily this is a subject on which we are not left to any conclusions of our own formation. It is one on which the declarations of Holy Writ are equally abundant and explicit.

The very first passage of Scripture in which the Messiah is alluded to, proclaims the great

purpose of his mission. "I will put enmity,”

said Jehovah to the serpent, "between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel;" Gen. iii. 15. Christian commentators generally allow, that by the seed of the woman is here intended the Messiah, and that by the serpent is represented the devil, the author of all moral evil. We therefore learn from the prophecy, that Christ was to bruise the serpent's head; or, in other words, to destroy the devil and his works. Comp. Heb. ii. 14. "For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil”—and I. John iii. 8—"He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." It was by means of his death, that the Messiah was to obtain a complete victory over our spiritual adversary; a doctrine which perfectly accords with Isaiah's celebrated prophecy respecting his vicarious and propitiatory sufferings: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,

and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace, (or whereby our peace is procured,) was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors;" Isa. liii. 4-12.

That this consolatory passage of Scripture relates to our Lord Jesus Christ, is proved, partly by strong internal evidence, and partly by the repeated testimony of the authors of the New Testament. Who does not perceive that it proclaims indemnity for the sinner, through

5 The words thus rendered ought rather to be translated as Bishop Lowth has well observed, 'it was exacted, and he was made answerable,

the sufferings and death of a Saviour? The same doctrine is powerfully expressed in the words addressed by Jehovah to the Messiah, as recorded in the prophecies of Zechariah: "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water: turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope;" Zech. ix. 11-12.

Such are the declarations of prophecy respecting that mighty propitiation for sin, which was to distinguish the introduction of the gospel dispensation; nor ought it to be forgotten that the whole sacrificial institution of the Jews was "a shadow of good things to come," and was fraught with relation to the same doctrine. This observation applies in a very especial manner to the slaying of the Lamb in the passover, and to the offering up of the bullock and goat on the great day of atonement. For Jesus Christ, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," is described by the apostle Paul as "our passover," who "is sacrificed for us," I. Cor. v. 7; and we are plainly taught, in the epistle to the Hebrews, that the High Priest who offered up the victims, first "for his own sins, and then for the people's," and who, on that solemn occasion, entered into the holiest

place and sprinkled the blood over the mercy seat, was but the type of that Saviour who is entered into the heavens for us, who sprinkles his blood on our hearts, and who "by one of fering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" comp. Lev. xvi. with Heb. ix. x.

But in order to that destruction of the works of the devil which was to be effected by the Messiah, there was need not only of a propitiatory sacrifice, but of a powerful redeeming influence. Accordingly, in those prophecies of the Old Testament which are acknowledged by both Jews and christians to relate to the times of the Messiah, we find many clear promises of the more abundant effusion of such an influence on the Lord's people, and of its practical and internal operation. "Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; fear not, O Jacob my servant, and thou Jesurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour MY SPIRIT upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring;" Isa. xliv. 2, 3. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A