of Christ made in the heavenly sanctuary for our peace and salvation. God is to be worshipped with the mind, the soul, the affections, with a godly sorrow, with a faith unfeigned, and with the fruits of obedience unto righteousness. Herein consists the Christian's duty, the peculiar character of the Christian's offering, and the true nature of the Christian's fellowship with the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of mankind. This is the life and essence of religion disencumbered of those ritual observances, which God judged it necessary to impose on former ages, as preservatives of his holy worship, and as symbols of his future mercies, but never as the main part of man's religious service; for God's first demand upon him always was, Give me the communion of thine heart and the integrity of thy life. CHAPTER III. THE ECONOMY OF PREPARATION -THE TRANSLATION OF ENOCH ITS CONNEXION WITH THE COUNSEL OF GOD IN CHRIST - NOAH'S PREACHING AND SACRIFICE -THEIR CONNEXION WITH THE COUNSEL OF GOD IN CHRIST -THE CALL OF ABRAM; GOD'S PROMISE TO HIMITS CONNEXION WITH THE COUNSEL OF GOD IN CHRIST ITS FULFILMENT IN CHRIST REFLECTIONS. THE ECONOMY OF PREPARATION. IT has been shewn, first, that the redemption of mankind, and the mode of it, were appointed in the Divine councils before the foundation of the world-secondly, that immediately upon the fall, the first grant of grace was vouchsafed in the promise of a Redeemer, a Conqueror and Sufferer in man's behalf and thirdly, that sacrifices were instituted at a very early period by the Almighty, principally that they might be types or figures of the great sacrifice which his Son offered up in our nature, as an atonement for the sins of all mankind. The economy of preparation is now to be proceeded with; that remarkable feature of the counsel of God in Christ, which belongs to no other system of religion whatsoever, and which plainly indicates the Divine mind making ready the way by various signs and intimations, through a course of ages, for the advent of the victorious seed that was to bruise the serpent's head, and delivering mankind out of captivity to restore them to the liberty of God. This economy is so clearly noted down and marked in the Scriptures, and all its connected and consecutive parts are so visible to the eye of the humble and candid inquirer, that the pen of an angel or a diamond of heaven could scarcely have rendered them more legible and evident. THE TRANSLATION OF ENOCH. While recounting the genealogy, age, and death of the patriarchs, Moses superadds of Enoch, "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."* This good man lived in an age when wickedness abounded in the earth, when the very name and existence of God were almost forgotten among men. He was a burning and a shining light in times when gross darkness covered the world. We read that he was born 300 years before Adam's death. Having conversed with him so long, he was well acquainted from the best authority with the nature and circumstances of the fall, and with the gracious promise of God relative to the Conqueror and Sufferer to come.. And we have the testimony of the Apostle, that he pleased God by faith, that is, faith in the future fulfilment of his promise to Adam. He preached righteousness to a disobedient generation. He warned mankind of God's suspended wrath, and exhorted to a timely and sincere repentance, as the means of averting the approaching destruction. Now this righteous man, who walked with God all the days of his life, looking forward in faith to the fulfilment of the Divine promise; this holy prophet, who foretold a future retribution, was suddenly taken up into heaven without seeing death," because," says St. Paul," before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."* THE CONNEXION OF ENOCH'S TRANSLATION WITH THE COUNSEL OF GOD IN CHRIST. In this translation we perceive, in the first place, the gift of a peculiar reward bestowed * Heb. xi. 5. upon a man eminently good and faithful- and in the second, which is very material to our purpose, a strong supernatural evidence of another life after this. And hence this necessary inference is drawn, namely, that faith and righteousness being pleasing to God, all that exercise them will receive his recompense of blessing; and when this mortal career is ended, be taken up by him into heaven to live for evermore. This inference is Christian doctrine. The same is taught in the Gospel; only in the Gospel the doctrine has a stronger light thrown upon it, is made by additional information and higher sanctions more manifestly true, and bears a deeper impress of Divine authority in its having been taught by the Son of God himself. Enoch, the man of exceeding piety and goodness, the teacher of righteousness and truth to a wicked world, the prophetic preacher of a Divine retribution, the servant of God taken up in a supernatural manner into heaven, is to be considered as a type of Christ, of Him who knew no sin; of Him who brought grace and preached repentance, faith, and obedience to creatures immersed in trespasses; of Him who foretold many things that have and will come to pass, particularly the judgment of the last day; of Him who, triumphant over death and the grave, |