by those who only faw the abufe, and were ignorant of the genuine ufe of vicarious atonement, that our proving the death of Chrift to be a REAL SACRIFICE, was only adding one embarrass more in the road of Revelation, inftead of removing (as was my intention) a great many that ignorance hath laid across it.

But having now obviated the SoCINIAN objection to this fpecies of Sacrifice, we may proceed without further impediment to establish this capital Principle of the Christian Faith, THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS FOR THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND.

1. Which will be done, first of all, by fhewing that the precious death upon the Crofs was, for many ages, prefigured, and, in a fcenical manner, foretold by the SACRIFICES of the LAW; and more particularly and circumftantially by thofe Sacrifices called PIACULAR and VICARIOUS.

2. And fecondly, by fhewing that this DEATH was kept in perpetual memory under the Christian Difpenfation, by a SACRED RITE, inftituted by the Divine Victim him

felf,

felf, on his going to be offered; this Rite being (to speak properly) nothing but, nor other than, A FEAST UPON A SACRIFICE.

I. All Chriftian Churches, even the Soci nian, agree in this, that the Sacrifices of the Jewish Law ferved, amongst other ufes, for TYPES of the death of Chrift, particularly thofe Sacrifices called vicarious, piacular, and expiatory. Of which, fome prefigured one part of that tremendous tranfaction, and fome another.-The victim burnt without the Camp foretold his fufferings without the City-The blood fprinkled in the Sanctum Sanctorum by the High-prieft, on the day of expiation, prefigured our entrance into Heaven, whither Christ prepared the way for us by his blood→→→ The facrifice of the Paschal-Lamb, which was both piacular and euchariftical, pro claimed the innocence of our Redeemer, and the univerfal benefit of his blood to Mankind.

To fet this matter in the cleareft light As to the fimple rite of SACRIFICE, this was not peculiar to Judaism. It was in ufe, as we have fhewn, from the beginning. M Nature

Nature dictated this Symbol to all her Children: It being nothing elfe than a fpecies of Worship, in action instead of words; so that facrifice and religious worship were correlative and coeval ideas. The particular thing which Mofes indulged to his people, for the hardness of their hearts, was that multifarious Ritual, of which, indeed, Sacrifice makes a capital part.

Amongst the various caufes of the Mofaic Ritual, the principal were thefe:

1. First, A neceffity of complying with those inveterate prejudices (leaft liable to idolatrous abuse) which a long abode in Egypt had induced: amongst the chief was their attachment to SACRIFICE; a fpecies of divine worship, which, at this time, made almost the whole of Religion in the Egyptian world. Thefe people (as hath been obferved before) reckoning up fix hundred and fixty-fix forts of facrifice.

2. A fecond caufe of the Mofaic Ritual was to debar the people from their too ready entrance to Idolatry, by keeping them continually occupied in the performance of their facred Rites to the GOD OF ISRAELS

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whofe

1

whose NAME, when loft in all other places, was, by their SEPARATION, to be preferved in the land of Judea, till the fullness of time fhould come.

3. A third was to PREFIGURE, by these Rites of Sacrifice, the DEATH OF CHRIST UPON THE CROSS: For the Mofaic Religion being the foundation of, and preparatory to, the Chriftian, it was fit and proper to connect these two parts of God's moral Difpenfation, in fuch a nianner that their mutual relation might, in a proper time, become evident to all men. For in two Religions related to each other, as the MEANS and the END, the FOUNDATION and the SUPERSTRUCTURE, nothing can be more conformable to our ideas of Divine Wisdom, than its contriving fome ties which might eftablish the knowledge, and perpetuate the memory of that clofe relation, without immaturely explaining the particulars of it. Now what can be conceived more effectual for this purpose than to make the RITES of the one Religion TYPICAL, that is, declarative and expreffive of the general nature of the other?

These various ufes of SACRIFICE in the Mofaic Ritual cannot but raise our admiration of the divine Wisdom, which hath fo contrived, that the very Worship indulged to the Ifraelites, in compaffion to their childish prejudices, fhould not only prevent the abuses, the natural effect of thofe prejudices which led to idolatry, but, at the fame time, fhould establish and proclaim, by means of their TYPICAL reprefentations, a ftrong and lafting connection between the two Religions. Reprefentations so apposite to this end and purpose, that all the fects and parties in Christianity, how widely foever they differ amongst themfelves in other matters, agree in this, that the facrifices of the Law, befides the other ufes in the Mofaic inftitution, are TYPICAL OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST *. So far, we fay, all the Christian Churches, even the SOCINIAN, agree with us. In this, they differ; they pretend, that though the Jewish Sacrifices prefigured the death of Chrift, as

1

See what hath been faid of the logical and natural propriety of Types and fecondary Senfes, B. VI. § 6, of the Divine Legation.

Types