ment*: insomuch, that, among the Latins, fœdus ferire (to make a covenant) literally signifies to sanction it, by striking or killing an animal. But in the Jewish church we find, as we might expect, this idea under the strongest characters. The bloody sacrifice pervades indeed its whole ritual. Before the Jewish establishment, Moses consecrated the first covenant with blood. Having read the law to the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, and sprinkled both the book and the people. He sprinkled also with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry saying, This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you † IN after-times the sacrifices of the temple were abundant. Various kinds were in use: but the expiatory sacrifice was by far the most frequent. The number of lambs sacrificed at every passover, almost exceeds belief. This grand and universal display of expiatory sacrifice, plainly originating from God, when thus * We have sometimes this vicarious atonement expressly marked out. pro fibra sumite fibras ; Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus. OVIDFASTI. Lib. 6. + See HEBREWS, X. 19. brought brought into one point of view, seems to be among the strongest evidences of the truth of christianity: and of its leading doctrine of the atonement: and he who does not acknowledge it as such, must, I should think, be under some violent prejudices, which prevent his examining it with candour and attention. On the face of the thing it certainly appears, that all mankind have thus unwittingly been preparing the world for the great, christian atonement. What other account can the deist give of this wonderful concurrence in a custom so apparently unnatural? Nay, when he finds, that in many nations even human sacrifices were in use. If he can give no account of it, let him take the account given in various parts of scripture, that the grand archetype was Christ, who was made a sacrifice for sin-let him take the account given by the apostle to the Hebrews, that Christ being come an high-priest, hath obtained eternal redemption for us, not by the blood of goats, and calves; but by his own blood. For if the blood of bulls, and of goats satisfieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God*. * See HEBREWs, ix. from several verses of which chapter these words are taken. XXVII. Father Abraham, have mercy on me!- IT may be matter of surprise, says the papist, that protestants are so warm against the invocation of saints, when we have here an instance from our Saviour's own mouth, of a prayer to a beatified spirit. The protestant, in his turn, asks, whether the poetical machinery of a parable, and that too constructed on a Jewish plan*, is a sufficient foundation for a doctrine of such importance? Besides, what does father Abraham do? He has no power to relieve his petitioner. Where then is the argument? A wicked man makes a petition to a saint, which the saint expressly tells him he cannot grant. You or I make a petition to a saint. It is disregarded: but is still an argument equally strong. may * See Dr. LIGHTFOOT's account of this parable, which, he says, is taken from the Gemara. 3 XXVIII. XXVIII. Who, against hope, believed in hope.- WE have here in appearance, a kind of contradiction. The mind of Abraham, the father of the faithful, is represented, at the same time, as hoping, and yet abandoning that hope.-But this is a very natural picture of the human mind. Where hope has a great object in view, there will always be fear. If not fear, there will always however be that sort of timorous fluctuation, which distinguishes hope from assurance. It is thus in worldly affairs. When a great good is expected, but not yet possessed, there will always be an apprehension of losing it. It is thus too with every good man, who views the christian dispensation as he ought.When he contemplates the scheme of man's redemption in all its vastness-the wonderful means employed, and the immensity of the views it opens-he recoils at his own insignificance; and thinks it against hope to believe, that such a creature as he feels himself, can ever be the object of such divine beneficence. On the other hand, when he considers the love of God to man in his creation, which could have no end, but man's happiness-when he considers, that the very act of his creation is an assurance of God's future protection-when he reflects on the numerous promises of the gospel, of the truth of which he is clearly convinced by abundant evidence-his diffidence vanishes, and he cannot help, in the language of the text, against hope, believing in hope. |