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the service of God. Such is the fub- SECT. II. stance and intention of the promise

made with an oath to Abraham, as explained by Zacharias, and fulfilled under the gospel. In the mean time, between the promise and it's accomplishment it pleased God to interpofe a difpenfation, which exhibited a visible representation of this great and important transaction, in the case of the children of Ifrael, or the pofterity of Abraham according to the flesh, who, after having been long detained in cruel bondage by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, were" delivered out of the hands of "their enemies ;" and delivered for this purpose, that they might ferve God with a prefigurative fervice, calculated to laft" till the feed fhould come, to "whom the promise was made." For thus Jehovah faith to Mofes, "When "thou haft brought forth the people "out of Egypt, they fhall ferve God 66 upon this mountain"." So that when, at the transfiguration of our Lord upon mount Tabor, Mofes difcourfed with him on the subject of "his decease," a Exod. iii, 12.

or,

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SECT. II. or, as it is in the original, his Exodus, «which he should accomplish at Jeru"falem," may we not imagine to ourfelves the deliverer of Ifrael addreffing the world's Redeemer in fome fuch words as these By my hand the Lord God of Ifrael did once vouchfafe to bring forth his people from the afflicting bondage of Egypt; but thou shalt turn the multitude of the Gentiles from the power of Satan to God. I faw the Lord make a path through the waters, for his redeemed to pafs over; but thou shalt find a more wonderful way through the waves of death; and though the floods fhall compass thee about, yet fhall thy life be brought up from corruption. I beheld the chariots of Pharaoh and the mighty host of Egypt plunging in the deep, when the morning appeared; but thou shalt triumph over principalities and powers, and fee them overwhelmed in the lake of fire. I led my people through the wilderness, and gave them a law which had "the fhadow of good things to come;" but thou fhalt conduct thine through the world, and teach them to worship in fpirit and

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"in truth." I went before Ifrael to SECT. II. the borders of the promised land; but thou art the true shepherd of fouls, and they who follow thee fhall "pafs from "death unto life."

Zacharias concludes his divine fong with an apostrophe to the infant Baptift, as one who was defigned by providence to be the precurfor of such a Saviour, and the publisher of such sal

vation.

9.

And thou child fhalt be called "the prophet of the Higheft, "for thou fhalt go before the "face of the Lord, to prepare

his ways;

10.. "To give knowlege of falvation
"unto his people for the remif-
"fion of their fins ---"

THE law prophefied until John," who fucceeded it in it's office of pointing out the Meffiah, and fpake the Ianguage of it's inftitutions, when he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world." E

"Re

SECT. II." Remiffion of fins" is the doctrine in which the Chriftian religion justly glorieth, as that most neceffary and fundamental point, in which every other religion fails. The heathen confeffeth himself to be in the dark; he gueffeth only what is the will of God, whom he knoweth not. He hath not strength to perform what he imagineth to be fuch; and he understandeth not the meaning of the facrifices and luftrations derived to him by tradition. The blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away the fins of the Jew; and his oblations, fince the truth is come, which they were intended to prefigure, are prepofterous, and impious. The Mahometan hath no evidence for the miffion of his prophet, no argument for his religion but the fword, and no heaven but fenfe. The doctrine of "falvation "by the remiffion of fins," through faith in a Redeemer, was, from the beginning, the fum and fubftance of true religion, which fubfifted in promise, prophecy, and figure, till John preached their accomplishment in the person of Jefus. Paganism was a corruption of it

before

before that time, as Mahometifm hath SECT. II. been fince; and modern Judaism is an apostasy from it. And will Christians go away, and forfake their Redeemer ? To whom can they go? He hath the words of eternal life: he only can give "falvation by the remiffion of fins." It is this religion which enlightens the understanding with true knowlege, and warms the heart with true charity: it is this which alone brings confidence, and comfort, and joy, and bids fear and defpondency fly away: it is this which raises the foul, as it were, from the dead, puts new vigour into all her powers and faculties, and animates her to duty, by the powerful motives it fuggefteth it is this which is a counterbalance to the temptations of fenfe, by the promises made to our faith; which fupports the infirmity of nature by the glorious objects propofed to our hope; and which triumphs over the oppofition of the world, by the love of God fhed abroad in our hearts: it procures us the only folid happiness there is in this world, and opens a way to the felicities of the next: it holds him out

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