King and their God. This, however, seems far from being a fact. Otherwise, to what purpose was the divine institution of propitiatory sacrifices, and their abundant use, under that Economy? Or why that penal statute, and the reason assigned for it? Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar TO MAKE AN ATONEMENT for

YOUR SOULS: FOR IT IS THE BLOOD THAT MAKETH

AN ATONEMENT FOR THE SOUL. Of such frequent application, of such great utility, and of such high importance, was the expiatory blood of sacrificed animals, as occasioned as infallible writer to say, Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission of any offences.*

Emphatical and remarkable declarations! The BLOOD maketh an atonement for the soul-Almost all things were purged with BLOOD-No remission without the shedding of BLOOD. Surely, then, as no blood was expiatory and purifying, except that. which was poured out in sacrifice to God-that which brought death on the victim-and that in which the death of the victim was vicarious; we are manifestly led to infer, from the ceremonial and typical system of ancient worship, that pardon is not dispensed to sinners, nor communion with God enjoyed by them, except in strict connection with a display of punishing justice. For, on the princi* Lev. xvii. 10, 11. Heb. ix. 22.

ple here opposed, we may boldly demand some plausible reason, Why Jehovah, the Legislator of the Hebrews and the King of Israel, by his own laws, rendered it necessary, in a great variety of cases, that an offending Israelite should have recourse for expiation to the sacrificing of a brute animal? Why, when conscious of having, by any particular offence, contracted fresh guilt, divine law should require his immediate regard to sacrificial blood, as the only medium by which forgiving mercy could be warrantably expected?-the medium of some animal's life being accepted instead of his own? And why, with regard to ceremonial guilt, such efficacy and importance were attached to the blood of bulls and of goats?* Now, what probable and sufficient reason can be assigned, why these and similar particulars constituted so capital a figure in that shadowy and typical dispensation of grace; if not intended, as we maintain, to inculcate the doctrine of penal justice, as inseparably connected with that of pardoning mercy? Or, in other words, to illustrate the declared import of the Hebrew Lawgiver's great name, JEHOVAH; Forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet will by no means clear the guilty.

The preceding argument may receive additional force, and the doctrine maintained be further confirmed, by considering, that though the propitiatery sacrifices of ancient Judaism were so many standing testimonies to Jehovah's essential purity, and so many evidences of his punishing justice; yet, as in their nature, application, and efficacy, they did not extend to the burdened conscience, but were limited * Heb. ix. 13,

to the removal of ceremonial incapacities, and to a typical prefiguration of the Messiah's perfect priestly work; so they were far from exhibiting, either the character of God, or the way of salvation for apostate man, with that precision, and in that glory, which eternal counsels had foreordained should be manifested in the fuluess of time. Under that Economy, the discoveries which God was pleased to make of himself-by declarations of mercy and of justice; by promises, and laws, and institutions of worship-were adapted to the infantile state of his visible church,* before the Promised Seed appeared; and therefore it was necessary to the more full manifestation of Jehovah's peerless perfections, and to the fulfilment of his immutable purposes, that the church, even in this world, should be advanced to an incomparably better state.

Of this necessity the apostle, to the Hebrews, expressly and frequently speaks. Thus, for example: The law made nothing perfect, but it was the bringing in, or the introduction, of a better hope-In which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience-If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the Alesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God-It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things

Gal. iv. 1-7.

themselves with better sacrifices than these-It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when He cometh into the world he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burntofferings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God-By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.* Now here it is evident, That the utility of the

Jewish propitiatory sacrifices is acknowledged. For they sanctified to the purifying of the flesh and were introductory to a better hope-That, important as they were, in various respects, their incompetency to expiate moral guilt, and to relieve the mind, when harassed with apprehensions of a divine curse, is declared. For they could not perfect the conscience; because they could not take away sin— That, their absolute insufficiency to expiate sin, and to purify the guilty conscience, is fixed-not upon their being destitute of a divine appointment for the effecting of those momentous purposes, though that be a fact; nor upon the incompetency of any sacrifice whatever, to answer those great designs; nor yet upon there being no necessity of any atonement, by sacrifice; but-upon each of those legal sacrifices being that of a brute animal: and consequently, not possessed of the least intrinsic worth, by which either the great evil of sin, or the riches of divine love, might be declared That, nevertheless, full provision was made, in the eternal counsels of heaven, completely to supply every deficiency in the * Heb, vii. 19. ix. 9, 13, 14, 22, 23. x. 1—10,

typical sacrifices, and perfectly to relieve the necessities of man; by an expiatory oblation, in all respects worthy the acceptance of the divine Father, and the most cordial confidence of miserable sinners. For no sooner had the apostle said, It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin, than he adds, WHEREFORE when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared meLo, I come to do thy will, O God-By the performance of which will we are sanctified, or cleansed from sin, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, as an atoning sacrifice, once for all.*

A body hast thou prepared me. In these words the Lord Messiah intimates, that though, on account of their insufficiency to expiate sin, all the legal sacrifices must be superseded; yet the provision made by supreme wisdom and boundless goodness for the removal of moral guilt, strongly attests the doctrine of that saying, Without shedding of sacrificial blood there is no remission. The term body, as here used, manifestly denotes the whole human nature of Christ; and indicates, that the Messiah was to offer himself, and make atonement for sin, by death, (as typified by the Levitical sacrifices) to which the body only was liable.

Here, then, we behold an illustrious personage coming into the world, professedly to supply those imperfections which necessarily attended the Levitical sacrifices; or to do that in reality, which was performed by them in a figure only; and to supersede them for ever-an illustrious personage, foretold in the ancient oracles, exhibiting himself as a

* Heb. x. 4-10.