3. If we require the testimony of the prophets, their unanimous suffrage is ready to confirm the truths I am pleading for.—Can the doctrine of _original sin_ be more explicitly or feelingly taught, than in the confession of the Royal Psalmist? “Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me!” Psal. li. 5; or, than in the description of the human heart by Jeremiah? “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jer. xvii 9. The glory of the Lord of hosts in Isaiah’s vision, (chapter vi. compared with John, xii. 41, and Acts, xxviii. 25,) was the glory of the Trinity: and what words can more expressly or more sublimely delineate the divine nature of Jesus, than those of this enraptured prophet, when he styles him “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isa. ix. 6. The same inspired writer, who is very justly styled the evangelist of the prophets, declares, in language equally intelligible and sublime, the doctrine of our Lord’s vicarious satisfaction, of the translation of our guilt to him, and of his righteousness to us, in his 53d chapter. “And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all—for the transgression of my people was he smitten—by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Verse 6, 8, 11. The same truth is taught by _Daniel_, when he prophesies, that “Messiah should be cut off, but not for himself; that he should make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness.” Dan. ix. 24, 26. _Zechariah_ speaks of the sword of justice as drawn against the “man that was Jehovah’s fellow,” and of the “fountain of his blood opened for sin and uncleanness.” Zech. xiii. 1, 7. When we assert that sinners are justified before God, only by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, apprehended by faith, to the exclusion of all works in point of merit, we think ourselves authorized to do so by the authority of the prophets and of the apostles. “This is his name,” says Jeremiah, “whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness.” Jer. xxiii. 6. And Habakkuk speaks the same truth, when he says, that “the just shall live by faith,” Habak. ii. 4, compared with Heb. x. 38. The work of the Holy Ghost, for the purpose of cleansing the heart from the love of sin and the dominion of inward idols, is described by Ezekiel under the similitude of applying clean water to the body. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean—a new heart also will I give you—and I will put my spirit within you.” Ezek. xxxvi. 25–27. The same divine agency is by Malachi compared to the operation of fire on metal, to purify it from any adherent dross: Mal. iii. 3. And our blessed Lord himself hath compared the Spirit’s influence to the effects produced by these two elements respectively. To all these, we may superadd the testimony of Joel: “And