ous truths would be an uninteresting jargon, quite foreign to all practical use or benefit.

Again, let us consider what impressions might naturally be felt by those writers, and by those to whom they wrote Something of this sort; that, though the understanding fully admitted the superior excellence of the Christian system, yet there was a void in their feelings, a loss of some of the pleasures and tastes of a religious kind to which they had been accustomed, and a frequent tendency towards apathy and indifference. on the subject of religion. As this exposed converts to the temptation of going back to Judaism, and was a stumbling block for those who remained in unbelief, it was highly important to provide against it. And it was natural to take the method of providing which is employ ad in the Epistle to the The Christian Hebrews had been reproached by their unbelieving brethren with the want of an altar, a priest, a sacrifice. In answer to this, the writer shows that there was a sense in which they wanted none of these.

against it, Hebrews.

Let us now suppose, farther, that the author and principal person in this new spiritual kingdom, after leading a blameless and holy life, in continual obedience to God, and pursuit of the best interests of man, was persecuted on account of his goodness, and the sublime objects he had in view, and indeed voluntarily submitted himself to the effects of their rage, and suffered death upon the cross; after which, being raised far above principalities and powers, and being no longer subject to their control, he had power given him from on high to send forth his apostles upon the ministry of reconciliation unto all nations; delivering from the power of death, by the evidence of his resurrection,

and from the power of sin, by the proclamation of forgiveness for sins past, and a future righteous judgment. Can it be said to be unnatural or absurd for persons trained up in the ancient religion, to describe so wonderful, so glorious a series of events, by all the images that had formerly been devoted to express their most sacred, exalted, and delightful conceptions? Can we wonder, that Christ should be termed a sacrifice, a priest, an altar, a mercy-seat; that he should be compared to the priest entering into the holy of holies; and that his ascending to heaven should be described as an entering within the veil, offering up himself as a sacrifice once for all, now to appear in the presence of God for us; putting away sin by his sacrifice of himself?

Thus we see that, both by habit and design, it was natural for the apostles of Jesus Christ to express themselves, on this animating and delightful subject, with a considerable latitude of language. Nor can we see any objection to their being allowed to follow the natural bent of their feelings in this respect. It conciliated, without misleading, the Jews, who were accustomed to such allusions; and it would neither mislead nor revolt those of the present day, if they duly reflected upon the necessary influence of previous circumstances on the minds of the apostles.

Having proposed this general key for the interpretation of the passages in which the death of Christ is compared to the sacrifices under the law, it is proper that I should now examine some of them more particularly; that it may appear how far it is capable of application. I shall confine myself to a very few instances. Romans, iii. 24, 25. "Being justified freely," says the apostle, "by his (that is God's) grace through the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, (or rather, as all modern commentators agree to translate it, a propitiatory, that is, a mercy-seat) through faith in his blood; to declare hist righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forgiveness of God." The apostle here represents Christ as a mercy-seat, consecrated by his own blood, on which the goodness of God, as it were, takes its stand, and declares his gracious purposes and dispositions towards mankind. What was the mercyseat amongst the Jews? Here it was that God made the glorious declaration of pardon and favor to penitent sinners. "There," says the Lord, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat." (Exod. xxv. 22.) With what propriety and force might this title be applied to Christ! He, indeed, became the seat of mercy. By his means did the Lord God commune again with his people. He was the medium of the mercy of God, in proclaiming to the world a clearer revelation of his will.

Christ is also said to have been "made a curse for us." Here it may be fairly asked, whether by his being made a curse is meant, in the eye of the Jews, or in the eye of God his Father? It is allowed that the Jews denounced him an accursed person. But if by accursed we mean living under the displeasure of God, this was so far from being the case with respect to Christ in his death, that in this very circumstance he was the object of the divine complacency in the highest degree; as he himself says, "for this reason does my Father love me, because I lay down my life ;" and it is a general observation in the scriptures, that "precious in the sight of God is the death of his saints." But the verse speaks

for itself, if the whole be read, and the apostle appears anxious to explain what he means. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, accursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Now Christ was hanged on a tree, and therefore, in this legal sense of the word, he was accursed.

After stating these instances, let us repeat, it must be clear that these expressions are not all to be taken literally; for if they are, they absolutely contradict each other. For instance, a curse and an acceptable sacrifice, are totally inconsistent. For to render a sacrifice acceptable, it was requisite that it should be pure : "Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any thing wherein is blemish, or that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God." Either, therefore, Jesus was not a curse, or he was not a sacrifice, in the sense of the believers in the commonly received doctrine of the atonement. Again, Christ was a priest, a victim, and a mercy seat: how are these things to be reconciled if all are to be taken literally?

In 1 Cor. v. 7, Christ is compared to the Passover or Paschal-lamb "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." Here it is plain that Christ is described under the figure of the Paschal-lamb, just as the Christians are exhorted to be pure under the figure of unleavened bread. But consider also the nature of the sacrifice to which Christ is here compared. Was the Paschallamb a sin-offering? Certainly not. The death of the first-born of Egypt was the punishment of a crime in which the Israelites were so far from participating, that they were, in the nature of things, incapable of being guilty of it; and the feast of the Passover was meant

as a joyful token of their deliverance from the bondage of the Egyptians; and was therefore the farthest possible from a satisfaction by vicarious punishment.

In the 10th chapter of Hebrews, 12th verse, the writer, speaking of Jesus Christ, says, "this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God." In this and a number of other passages, Jesus Christ is compared to a sin-offering under the Jewish law. Nor do we deny that Jesus Christ might most properly be considered as a sacrifice for sin, because his death and resurrection were necessary to the confirmation of that gospel by which sinners are brought to repentance, and the hope of eternal life; and therefore reconciled to God. It will be said, that this is not a literal and real sacrifice. But can it be proved that the writers of the New Testament intended to represent Christ as a sacrifice in the most literal sense? That they did not seems capable of an easy proof, from the following consideration. They have applied the same language to a variety of other subjects; which they certainly would not have done, if they had conceived that Christ was a real sacrifice, and his death the great original of this religious rite. Thus St Paul exhorts Christians to "present their bodies a living sacrifice." St Peter describes them as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." We are exhorted in the epistle to the Hebrews," to offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually." To do good and to communicate, forget not, "for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." "If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice in you all." And in Romans xv. he speaks of himself as the minister