Jesus Christ, that we consider what was the Use or DESIGN of this institution.

Every institution of God must have an end worthy of himself and appropriate to the appointed means. Nor does it seem possible to conceive, consistently with the wis dom and goodness of God, that the institution of sacrifice could have any design short of being a prefigurative memorial of the way in which he had determined to save the life of man which had been forfeited by sin. By transgression, the human race had forfeited the life they possess. ed, and all right to its continuance. Of this there could not be a more striking representation than was given in requiring a living creature to be sacrificed on occasion of every offence; while the symbol still farther intimated, in an equally striking manner, God's willingness to accept of the life of a substitute for that of the actual offender. The institution of sacrifice thus taught man at once the evil of sin, the punishment sin deserved, and the way by which he might escape this merited consequence. Death by sin, and life by substitution, were as clearly pointed out, as can well be conceived possible, in symbolical language. Both the fall and the recovery of man, the death introduced by sin and the death by which sin was to be taken away, were thus strikingly portrayed. And, as it is impossible to conceive that the life of an irrational animal could be deemed an adequate compensation for the life of a moral creature, it is clear that the institution must have been regarded as prefigurative of a greater and more excellent sacrifice afterwards to be offered up. A promise of a great deliverer had, indeed, been conveyed to our guilty progenitors; and nothing is more natural than to suppose, that sacrifice was appointed as a memorial of the deliver. ance which he was to effect.

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If we admit,' says one of the ablest advocates of the doctrine, that the scheme of redemption by the death of the only begotten Son of God, was determined from the beginning; that is, if we admit, that when God had ordained the deliverance of man, he had ordained the means; if we admit that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; what memorial could be devised more apposite, than that of animal sacrifice?—exemplifying by the slaying of the victim the death which had been denounced against man's disobedience :—thus

exhibiting the awful lesson of that death which was the wages of sin, and at the same time representing that death which was actually to be undergone by the Redeemer of mankind :—and hereby connecting in one view, the two great cardinal events in the history of man, the FALL, and the RECOVERY: the death denounced against sin, and the death appointed for that Holy One, who was to lay down his life, to deliver man from the consequences of sin. The institution of animal sacrifice seems then to have been peculiarly significant, as containing all the elements of religious knowledge and the adoption of this rite, with sincere and pious feelings, would at the same time imply an humble sense of the unworthiness of the offerer; a confession that death, which was inflicted on the victim, was the desert of those sins which had arisen from man's transgression; and a full reliance on the promises of de liverance, joined to an acquiescence in the means appointed for its accomplishment. If this view of the matter be just,' adds he, there is nothing improbable even in the supposi tion that that part of the signification of the rite, which related to the sacrifice of Christ, might have been in some degree made known from the beginning.** Why the learned author should have felt any hesitation on this point, we must confess ourselves at a loss to perceive. It was Jesus Christ who was from the beginning the alone object of saving faith, and as an ignorant belief can never be looked upon as entitled to this character, man must have had from the beginning some knowledge of the re ference of the sacrificial rite to Him who was to appear in the end as the propitiation for our sins. Without such a reference the rite itself must have been an unmeaning, useless, burdensome ceremony; and, without some such knowledge, the observance of it must have been any thing but a reasonable service-must have been, on the con. trary, a piece of heartless drudgery.

Nor. taking this view of the matter, can we reckon it as at all a fanciful supposition, that the very first promise of a Saviour given to man was accompanied with the signi. ficant ratification of a sacrifice, setting forth that bruising of the heel of the woman's seed by which the serpent's head was to be bruised. And it is not a little interesting

* Magee, v. ii. pp. 51, 52.

to remark, how, on this supposition, the first blood which stained the earth was that of a sacrifice, and the first idea which the forefathers of our race would have of death was derived from that of a victim slain to prefigure Him who was afterwards to abolish death and bring life and incorruption to light by his gospel. 'How much,' says Dr. Pye Smith with great beauty and eloquence, how much must the impression on the heart have been increased, when the first sacrifice was offered when the parents of our race, recent from their guilty fall, were abased by the divine rebuke, driven from their blissful seat, and filled with dismay at the threatening of DEATH! A threatening piercing through their souls, but of the nature and effects of which they could form none but vague ideas. But when directed by stern authority, to apply some instrument of death to the lamb which, with endearing inno. cence, had sported around them,—an act of whose effects they as yet knew nothing,-they heard its unexpected cries, they beheld the appalling sight of streaming blood, and struggling agonies, and life's last throes,--they gazed upon the breathless body, and they were told THIS 19 DEATH: how stricken must they have been with horror, such as no description could ever paint! When, farther, they had to go through all the other process of the sacrifice, their hands reluctant, and their hearts broken, and all their soul crushed down by the sad consciousness that these horrid things were the fruit of their sin, and yet contained the hope of their deliverance,--who can imagine the extremity of their feelings?'*

Now let us collect together in a single sentence the different points of the argument thus elaborated. Sacrifices have existed from the remotest ages of the world, and prevailed among every people under heaven ;-these sacrifices have been, without all controversy, of an expiatory and vicarious nature; it is found impossible to account for their existence but on the principle of their being derived from an original divine institution ;-of such an institution, we can conceive of no design worthy of God, short of its being to prefigure the death of the Lord Jesus Christ :but, as the type and antitype must resemble each other in their most essential and significant features, the typical

*Disc. on Sac., pp. 9, 10.

sacrifices of ancient divine institution being vicarious and expiatory must be held demonstrative of the atoning nature of the Saviour's death.

Such is the first argument in support of the doctrine of atonement-an argument which prejudice may resist and ignorance despise, but which it will not be easy, either by learning, or reasoning, or scripture, to overturn.

How inexcusable, then, are such as deny the atonement of Jesus Christ! Blind, insolent, and rash, they arraign the wisdom of God, for which conduct they are reproved by the heathen themselves. Though reason could never have devised the plan of substitution, the vicarious nature of pagan sacrifices is a proof that there is something in God's method of redemption, when revealed, which unsophisticated reason cannot gainsay or resist. The testimony hence derived in favour of our doctrine is, thus, universal as the practice of the rite of which we have been speaking; and every sacrifice of the heathen may be regarded in this way, as pointing directly to the one perfect sacrifice of the Son of God. The errors and superstitions which are mingled up and incorporated with these offerings, cannot but awaken, in the breast of the true christian, a feeling of pity for those who are without the sacred writings, and of gratitude for this inestimable boon. It is impossible to reflect on the high antiquity of the sacrificial institute, without thinking of the divine goodness manifested in giv. ing to man at so early a period the knowledge of atonement. This doctrine, so essential to his hopes as a sinner, was coeval with the fall, so that the very first human transgressor was made acquainted with the way by which the fatal consequences of guilt might be for ever averted. Nor is the wisdom of God less apparent in thus preparing the world for the universal reception of the only true religion. Wherever Christianity can be carried, the people must be so far prepared to acquiesce in its grand essential principle of salvation by an atoning sacrifice. Every part of the gentile world is familiar with the idea of substitution, and the very terms which this principle suggests the use of, are to be found incorporated in almost every language on earth. Without this, the prospect of the universal spread of the christian faith must have been, humanly speaking, much more hopeless, as the difficulty of bringing

men to understand its nature must have been greatly increased.

SECTION V.

PROOF LEVITICAL SACRIFICES.

THE distinction put on Abraham and his posterity by their being selected as the depositaries of certain peculiar privileges, is a striking circumstance in the providential development of God's purposes of grace. It forms an era in the history of the species, and more particularly of the church. It pleased God to separate the family in question from the rest of mankind; to appoint them laws peculiar to themselves; and so to situate them that they should have every opportunity of punctually observing the institutions of Jehovah. The prescription of these laws occurred about two thousand five hundred years from the creation of the world, and about fifteen hundred years before the advent of Christ. The laws themselves embraced every thing respecting the civil and religious interests of the people; and among those of a religious nature, the law of sacrifice held a prominent place.

This was not the first time that the rite in question was mentioned. We have seen that it was known to the church long before. And, indeed, the manner in which it is introduced, in the Levitical code, is no small confirmation of the view we have given, in the preceding section, of the divine origin of primitive sacrifice. It is not brought forward as a new thing, on which the authority of God is stamped for the first time. New regulations respecting the mode and the occasion of the rite are laid down, but the rite itself is not made the subject of any authoritative enactment. It is taken for granted that the rite exists, and that its divine authority is acknowledged and well understood. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: IF any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even

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