possess a power to insure them a welcome reception; that is, he must bring them back in such a way as to magnify and make honourable the law by which they were condemned,-to display the equity and justice, as well as the goodness and mercy of the sovereign by whom they were exiled, to give fresh stability to all the principles of his moral government, and additional security to all his faithful subjects. He must be able to reconcile, and to preserve in the most indissoluble union, these apparently most irreconcileable things, the glory of God, and the safety of the sinner,-to unite, in most harmonious union, these apparent contraries, the mercy that pleaded for the sinner's safety, with the truth that demanded his punishment, the righteousness that condemned him, with the peace that was promised him. Such are the powers which it is essentially necessary that the Redeemer should possess; or to sum up all these powers in three words, he must be a Prophet, a Priest, and a King, in the highest and most extensive application of these terms. Such powers, it is clear, no created being could by any possibility possess ; but such powers were found in the Son. Announced therefore as the Redeemer of men, he was announced as Prophet, Priest, and King; and the first acts of each of these offices he performed personally. As Prophet he announced to man the hope of deliverance through the "woman's seed." As Priest he appointed sacrifices as typical of his own death for sinners, and clothed our first parents with the skins of slain

beasts, instead of their own fig leaves, as a token that he would cover their spiritual nakedness by a righteousness much more effectual than any that they could provide.' And as King he sent them forth to cultivate the ground, until they should return to the dust from which they were taken. These offices, thus formally and personally assumed by the Son, were thenceforth delegated to his representatives, till the fulness of time should arrive for his coming in the flesh. To what extent the knowledge of men or of angels, as to these offices might then go, we have no means of ascertaining; but we may be well assured, that they would study with the most careful attention every type and every prophecy, which could throw light upon so important a subject; and this we know, that at that period commenced, and, in the evolution of the work of redemption, was gradually unfolded for the instruction of both, an exhibition of the glory of God's perfections, of the majesty and stability of God's government, and of the sanctity of God's law, far beyond aught that could have been derived either from the sinless obedience, or from the endless punishment of all created beings.

It will be observed that I here consider the Son, not simply as elected to, but as actually invested with the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and as discharging the duties of these offices, from the moment

1 This may appear rather a forced interpretation of this transaction. It has however been sanctioned by some able and sober writers; among others, by the Rev. C. Benson in his Hulsean Lectures on Scripture Difficulties.

of the fall. After that period, every prophet that announced to the church any portion of the will of God, received his commission from him who is the great and only Prophet,-every priest who ever offered an acceptable sacrifice to God, had it accepted only through Him who is the great and only Priest,-every king that ever reigned was the delegate of, and accountable to Him who is the great and only King. During the period anterior to his incarnation, and from the beginning, he acted as the Prophet, Priest, and King of the Church. The proof of this however will occur more naturally afterwards; and I might proceed at once to consider the circumstances attending the incarnation, but a preliminary question occurs, which must be first disposed of. The question to which I refer is one that has been often asked, If the incarnation was necessary, why was it so long delayed? To this it may be replied, that had not the incarnation been delayed, its necessity would not have been seen. Had the Word been made flesh immediately on the Fall, sin would not have had sufficient time to develope its native malignity, nor would the miserable and degraded state of man have sufficiently appeared. It was necessary that man should be placed in a great variety of situations, both before and after the Incarnation, that by the endless variety of situations in which he was placed, might be seen the utter helplessness and hopelessness of his state; and his utter inability, under any circumstances, of emancipating himself from the bondage of Satan.

Under the patriarchial dispensation, there were circumstances extremely favourable to the cultivation of holiness, and the return of men to God. Paradise was as yet before their eyes, though guarded by the heavenly host and by the flaming sword. Adam lived for many ages among them, to tell them of the blessedness of the state from which he had fallen, and to tell them too, upon the authority of the divine promise, of the hope of being restored to that state, —and Cain was among them, a monument of the miserable consequences of unsubdued passion. Under these circumstances, we should naturally expect to find them looking to Paradise, and deploring with the deepest penitence the happiness they had lost; and looking up to God with humble gratitude for the hope of restoration; and seeking by the most lowly and earnest obedience to secure the speedy fulfilment of the promise. But what do we in reality find? A God who could not be at that time unknown, yet utterly despised, and wickedness prevailing to an extent which has never been surpassed.

Immediately after the deluge, it might have been expected that men, with the recent traces of so awful a visitation every where before their eyes, would have been effectually deterred from sin. So far however was this from being the case, that they went on increasing in iniquity, till the very name of the true God was forgotten, and his worship abandoned for idolatry of every form. Men were therefore left to use or abuse the knowledge already given, as they

were able, or disposed; and the whole history of the heathen world proves how utterly lost, how hopelessly degraded man is. And if the exhibition was continued down to the time of our Saviour's appearance, it cannot be thought to have been continued too long; since, though through the greater part of the world, it has been continued down to the present day, it has not yet sufficiently impressed men with the humbling, but necessary lesson, which it is designed, and so well fitted to teach,-no, nor though continued to eternity ever will teach it. For, in the face of all the multiplied and deplorable proofs afforded by the odious, the disgusting and revolting practices of idolatry, both in ancient and in modern times, both among savage and civilized heathens, of the utter imbecility of man's understanding, the perversion of his reason, the corruption of his heart, and his total inability to rescue himself from the state of deep degradation into which he has fallen, there are men who can deny that man is a fallen being at all, and can talk of the extent of the human understanding, and of the sufficiency, nay the glory of human reason. Human reason is indeed a glorious thing when guided and sustained by the Spirit of God; but such men do themselves shew how utterly perverted and degraded it is, when left to its own resources, and how hopelessly they are blinded, when they can gravely maintain a position, the utter absurdity of which is written, in lines of horror and of blood, on every page of the history of man; and