From all this most exceptionable, most meagre, and inefficient scheme of salvation, we gather that, as God called Abra ham from his Gentilism, revealed to him the knowledge of His name and nature, and made him eminent for piety and probity, that He might constitute him the head of a numerous posterity, whom He could bless, protect, and save, in the most extraor dinary manner, on account of the rewardable righteousness and merit of their progenitor; so, He has sent Jesus Christ to enlighten and instruct the whole world, Jews and Gentiles; a Person, who in every respect did the will of God, and was obedient to the Divine will, even unto death; and who, therefore, like "the kind verse maker," in the preceding illustrative instance, (which appears to have been made for the purpose,) may be said to have purchased the favour of God for the offend ing world; so that His super-eminent goodness and compliance with the will of the Supreme Governor, is a just ground and foundation of pardon and salvation to the world, and a proper reason for granting them!

This is a sort of rewardable moral merit, in reference to the world, just similar to that of Abraham, in behalf of the Jewish people; from which every idea of sacrificial merit and atonement is excluded.. On this ground the martyred Isaiah, and the massacred Baptist, might have afforded to the benevolence of God a sufficient ground and proper reason for the remission of the sins of men; for, as the life of one man is as much, personally considered, as the life of another; and obedience unto death, as much marked the conduct of the evangelical prophet, of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, and the holy Baptist, as that of our blessed Lord, if divested of His Godhead and Eternity, as this scheme supposes; might not they, or any of them, have been as a complete a ground why God should forgive the sins of the world, as the obedient life and death of Christ? Again, if Abraham's merit could extend to the whole Jewish race, why not to the Gentiles, in whose behalf chiefly the covenant was made? for it was made with him, while yet uncircumcised; and the pledge on God's part was, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Now, if this will hold good on the above reasoning, what need was there of the miraculous conception, the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, the death and burial, the glorious resurrection and ascension, of the blessed Jesus? Why such an extraordinary expenditure of means and energies: why such an apparatus of prophecy, legal ordinances, sacrificial institutions, and miraculous interpositions; to keep in view the Divine purpose; to commemorate the facts by which it was prefigured; preserve the regal line from which the promised Seed was to issue; and

finally, to exhibit it to the world; if so much less, so indescribably less, might have accomplished the purpose? Was not all this

"Just like an ocean into tempest toss'd,

To waft a feather, or to drown a fly?”

But to see more fully the utter inefficacy of this pretendedly sufficient moral merit, let us hear what our Lord says in the text: "God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-, lieveth on Him should not perish." Was any thing like this ever addressed to the Jews, in reference to Abraham? Were they ever promised remission of sins, provided they believed on this friend of God? Were they ever commanded to believe on him at all? Were they not ever led to consider that their sacrifices, where the life-blood of the animal was poured out in behalf of the offerer, were the grand cause of the remission of deserved punishment, and the forgiveness of sin? Did they not know that without shedding of blood there was no remission; and that the sacrificial code was the essential part of the Jewish system? And do not we see, from the concurrent testimony both of the Old and New COVENANTS, that all these sacrifices typified the offering of the life of Jesus Christ upon the cross, by which He obtained eternal redemption for us; so that he who believeth on him, as having "died for his offences, and risen again for his justification, is freely justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses?"

I contend, therefore, that this one circumstance, the command to believe on Christ crucified for the remission of sins, even leav ing His Godhead entirely out of the question, utterly destroys the pretended parallelism between Abraham and Jesus; and completely saps, subverts, and ruins this splendid edifice. It is to that faith which credits, trusts to, and relies upon, the meritorious blood (Tapas) of our Lord Jesus, which He sweat in the garden, and poured out upon the cross, as a full atonement and sacrifice for sin, that pardon and eternal glory are promised; and promised not on account of the merit of the faith, but the merit of the sacrifice, which faith has apprehended.

(To be concluded in the next.)

Scripture Illustrated.

REMARKS ON THE OLIVE TREE.-HARMER.

We have before taken notice that the olive tree is very common in Judea: I would now remark, that the Scriptures frequently refer to it, and that those very references have given some pain to an ingenious traveller, on the account of trees of this species wanting a vivid verdure.

Mr. Sharp, in his forty-eighth letter from Italy, expresses his pain in these words, "The fields, and indeed the whole face of Tuscany, are in a manner covered with olive trees, but the olive tree does not answer the character I had conceived of it: the Royal Psalmist and some of the Sacred Writers speak with rapture of the green olive trees, so that I expected a beautiful green; and I confess to you, I was wretchedly disappointed, to find its hue resembling that of our hedges, when they are covered with dust. The olive tree may, possibly, delight in the barren district of Judea, but, undoubtedly, will disgust a man accustomed to English verdure."

The objection shows, that it is of some importance to attend to minute, and even seemingly trifling circumstances mentioned in Holy Writ, which is the great design of these papers. In considering it, I cannot allow the propriety of this worthy writer's method of alleviating the difficulty he had proposed: Judea is not now so destitute of verdure, as to make a tree that looks as if it was all over covered with dust, an object sufficient to charm the eye by its colour; and such a supposition is still less admissible, when it relates to former times, when it was much better cultivated. The true way of solving the difficulty is, I imagine, to consider the word translated green, not as descriptive of colour, in these passages, but of some other property, youthfulness, vigour, prosperity, &c.

It certainly must be so understood in some places where it occurs. No mortal ever imagined that when Nebuchadnezzar said, I was at rest in mine house, and green in my palace, Dan. iv. 4, that he meant either that the colour of his face, or of his garments was green; but that he was, as our translators justly render it, flourishing in his palace, that he was in such a state, with respect to his royalty, as a tree is when it is green, considered as a vegetable. So in the fiftysecond Psalm David describes a wicked man, as soon to wither away and disappear;

while he should be like a young vigorous olive tree, which had long to live and to flourish. The beauty of the olive tree, marked out in other passages of Scripture, consisted in the spread of its branches, not in its colour," Hosea xiv. 6.

The disappointment then of Mr. Sharp arose, not from the misrepresentation of the sacred writers, but merely from his misunderstanding them.

In like manner, when the Psalmist says, I shall be anointed with green oil, Ps. xcii. 10, where there is the same word in the original, we are not to suppose he means oil of a green colour: would there have been any great advantage in that? Or can any passage be produced to show it was an object of desire to the people of the East? But we are, I believe, to understand the word as signifying precious, fragrant oil, such as princes in times of prosperity were anointed with: fragrant if you will, as a a field which the LORD has blessed, a flowery field, in all its verdure, to the smell of which Isaac compared the scent of the perfumed clothes Jacob had on when Isaac blessed him, Gen. xxvii. 27

It appears from many passages, that when princes were victorious, rich presents were wont to be made them ;* and from the history of Hezekiah,t that precious ointments, or ons in which odoriferous plants or other substances had been put, and kept there some time, were presented to them, preserved long by them among their treasures in part, and in part, we may believe, made use of on joyful occasions: which kind of oil is, without doubt, what the Psalmist calls green oil, and with which he was to be anointed, when GoD should exalt his power, and make his horn like that of an unicorn.

To think of greenness of colour in the oil, would be childish; to interpret the word of oil, expressed from green, that is to say, from unripe olives, would not well agree with the accounts of some modern writers on medical preparations, who affirm that oil cannot be drawn from unripe olives; to understand the word as signifying fresh drawn oil, would be to give it much less energy, than, I apprehend, was intended by the Psalmist; to explain it of oil made extremely odoriferous is, I cannot help thinking, placing it in the proper point of light.

It is natural to suppose most, if not all the oil that was made use of for anointing themselves for pleasure, was more or less fragrant; it would else have hardly answered the purpose, which was the stifling those disagreeable scents the heat of that climate often excited. On this account it became extremely necessary to the enjoyment of life; for which reason the Pro

*2 Sam. viii. 10, 2 Chron. xxxii. 23.

† 19. xxxix. 2.

phet Micah* threatened Israel, That they should tread olives, but not anoint themselves with oil. We are ready to imagine no other important use of oil but for eating, but they found life would be inelegant without anointing.

Some of their ointments were extremely precious: such was the composition with which the head of our LORD was anointed t But a slight infusion of some of their own country flowers was sufficient to give their hair a very agreeable scent. So Hasselquist tells us, the Egyptians put the flowers of the tuberose into sweet oil, and by this means give the oil a most excellent smell, scarcely inferior to oil of jessamine;‡ and in another place, that he found jessamine growing in the Holy Land, besides other fragrant plants.

The Attributes of God Displayed.

THE WONDERFUL CONSTRUCTION OF THE EAR.-STURM.

ALTHOUGH the Ear, in point of beauty, must give place to the eye; it is nevertheless perfectly adapted to its use, and no less a masterpiece of the Creator's hand. In the first place, its position shews much wisdom: it is placed in the most convenient part of the human machine, near the brain, the common seat of all the senses. The external structure form of the ear deserves our admiration: it nearly resembles a muscle: but, it has neither the softness of mere flesh, nor the hardness of bone. Were it flesh only, the upper part would fall down over the orifice, and prevent the communication of sounds. If, on the other hand, it were provided with solid bones, we should feel much pain and many inconveniences, when we lay on either side. On this account, the Creator has chosen a cartilaginous substance for the outward part of the ear; which has that degree of firmness, that polish and folding which are most proper to reflect sounds: for, the whole use of the external part, is to collect the undulations of the air, and convey them into the orifice of the ear.

The internal structure of this organ is still more proper to excite our surprise. Within the ear there is an opening, which is called the Meatus Auditorius, or Auditory Canal; the entrance of which is defended with small hairs, to prevent insects from penetrating into it: and it is for the same purpose that it

* Ch. vi. 15.

+ Matt. xxvi. 7.

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