In the word awμos, however, applied here to Christ as a sacrificial victim, I think it is not necessary to seek any farther meaning, as those did who considered it as connected with δια πνεύματος αιωνιον, although it is evident that he must have been infinitely more immaculate than the victims under the law. But it may be asked, how could Christ be said to have offered himself as a sacrifice to God before the world began? I answer, he offered himself not actually, but designed to do so, when" in the end of the world," to make use of the expression of St. Paul, “he should appear to put away sin by the actual' sacrifice of himself", agreeably to what we learn from other passages of Scripture. For evidently in no other sense can be understood that expression of the Apocalypse applied to Christ, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," not actually slain, but designed to be so; a declaration which is still more strongly made by St.

Heb. ix. 26.

Peter; "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish.and without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." Here it would be mere trifling to cavil at the difference of the expressions from the foundation of the world in the one case, and before the foundation of the world in the other. Besides, if we only consider the words themselves, he offered himself through or by virtue of an eternal Spirit, and give the full force to the word eternal, it is clear that the idea of Christ's offering himself is necessarily connected with that of eternity, and consequently that the sense is, he offered himself, i. e. designed to offer himself, from eternity. That the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice having been predetermined in the high counsels of God before

1 Pet. i. 18, 19, 20.

world began is taught in other passages of the New Testament, cannot admit of doubt. St. Paul says to the Corinthians, "But we

speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Again to the Ephesians; "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose [as κατα προθεσιν των αιωνων is rightly translated] which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord'." In which, as in other places, although mystery is explained as meaning the doctrine of the Gospel, the result is

the same as if it meant the mystery of Christ's sacrifice, as this is in reality the foundation of that whole doctrine, and the most mysterious thing that it teaches, Christ crucified being, as the same apostle says, "to the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Moreover, that the idea of Christ's sacrifice having been so foreordained was present to the mind of the Apostle when he wrote the words of the text, he offered himself through an eternal Spirit, appears highly probable from the following context, of which the substance is this. In the conclusion of the same chapter, where he is pursuing the same subject, the superiority of Christ's sacrifice to those of the law, he argues thus; that as Christ entered into the heavenly temple by the sacrifice of himself once offered, not as the high priest entered often with the blood of others into the holy place which was the type of that heavenly temple, if his sacrifice had not been

infinitely superior to theirs, i. e. if it had required to be often repeated, "then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the worlds."

But let me now apply the proposed interpretation to the text. "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh;" i. e. if the sacrifices and other rites of the law in which the shedding of blood was required, could sanctify the body so as to fit it for the service of the temple, by an appointed, not a real, sanctification, those sacrifices and rites having been intended as typical of the sacrifice of Christ; "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit (or rather, through an eternal Spirit) offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead, works to serve the living God?" i. e. how much more shall the sacrifice of Christ, the real one of which those sacrifices and rites were intended Heb. ix. 26.