him away into the wilderness never more to be seen by manf: who that contemplates this, and realizes in his mind the transaction, does not see the actual transfer of his sins to Christ, and the everlasting removal of them from his own soul ? I say then, that for the ceremonial, no less than the moral law, we are greatly indebted to this faithful servant of our God.
Let us turn from him to the prophets at large, comprehending the whole collective body of them : what a chain of prophecy have they given us ! what an accumulation of particulars, so as to render it impossible for any one who candidly compares the predictions with the events, to entertain a doubt, but that Jesus is the Christ ! And let it be remembered, that they all suffered much at the hands of their fellow-creatures for their fidelity to God : and, at the time that they were delivering their prophecies, they knew that it was not for their own benefit, or the benefit of the existing generation, that they were testifying of these things, but for the instruction and benefit of generations yet unborn, even of us, to whom the Gospel is now fully revealedg. Do we owe them no gratitude for these self-denying labours ? But, in order to appreciate more justly our obligations to them, let us suppose for a moment, that none of them had recorded the things revealed unto them, and that all their predictions had been forgotten : what would now have been the state of our minds in relation to the Saviour ? With what doubts and fears should we have been agitated, and how uncer- tain should we have been at this hour, whether Christianity were not altogether "■ a cunningly-devised fable!" Do hot let us forget, that the assurance which we enjoy respecting the truth of our holy religion, is altogether derived from them : for though the miracles of our Lord were a convincing evidence of his Messiahship to those who saw them, yet to us at this remote period the completion of prophecy is a far surer and firmer ground of confidence : and therefore to those who gave us such a minute and
»' Lev. xvi. 15, 21, 22. s 1 Pet. i. 11, 12.