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and the proper, ultimate, and grand end and design of it not be pointed out, had it been such as many

suppose.

Secondly, The Jewish sacrifices are no where said in the Old Testament to have any reference to another more perfect sacrifice, as might have been expected, if they had really referred to any such more perfect sacrifice, and such a one had been necessary, On the contrary, whenever the legal sacrifices are declared by the prophets to be insufficient to procure the favour of God, the only thing, that is opposed to them as of more value in the sight of God, is sonal holiness, good works, or moral virtue. following texts are instances of this, Psalm li, 16,

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17; "For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Isaiah i, 11—20; "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts-Bring no more vain oblations-Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, &c." Hosea vi, 6; " For I desired "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." Amos v, 22-27; "Though ye

offer me burnt offerings I will not accept them. But let judgment run down as waters, and righte ousness as a mighty stream." Mic. vi, 6, 7, 8; "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow

myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

The general strain of the passages now quoted cannot but appear very extraordinary, if the Jewish sacrifices had in reality any reference to the death of Christ, and were intended to prefigure it. We might have expected in that case, that, when the sacrifices and offerings of the Jewish law were declared to be of no avail for obtaining the favour of God, some other offering, to which they referred, would be pronounced to be efficacious. Yet we no where find any such declaration; which is a strong presumption, that they had in fact, no reference to the death of Christ. For can we suppose, that the favourite people of God had a religion and mode of worship prescribed to them, all the beauty and efficacy of which consisted in it's reference to a future event, and yet that not so much as a hint should be given to them of such a reference? Dark, no doubt, (comparatively speaking) was the dispensation, which the Jews were under; but this hypothesis throws a tenfold darkness and gloom upon it. And still more melancholy must their situation have been, if the practical consideration of the death of Christ, as a

sacrifice for sin, be so necessary, as some modern divines represent it to be, in order to give men adequate notions of the divine justice and of the demerits of sin, and if without these apprehensions it is impossible to be regenerate and to have saving faith.

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Thirdly, Many other things beside the death of Christ are expressly called sacrifices by the sacred writers; and if it be universally allowed, that they are called so only by way of allusion, why may not the same be the case with the death of Christ? Is it not owing to some prejudice, that the figure is not so obvious in the one case, as in the other? Isaiah Ixi, 20; They shall bring all your brethren, for an offering unto the Lord." Rom. xii, 1; "That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. xv, 16; "That I should be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable." Phil. ii, 17; "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," &c. iv, 18; "I have received of Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God." 2 Tim. iv, 6; "For I am now ready to be offered." Heb. xiii, 15, 16; "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not."

Fifthly, The death of Christ cannot be considered

as a proper sacrifice for sin, because many things, essential to a sacrifice, were in fact wanting in it. While it is only asserted, that the death of Christ is called a sacrifice by way of figure, we are contented with some general resemblance; we do not expect a likeness in every particular, any more than when Christ is called a door and a vine we expect that he should in every respect be like those objects. The most correct writers are not studious of such exactness. It would even make the style quite flat and insipid, and destroy it's beauty and energy to observe it.

But when the death of Christ is maintained to be the very thing itself, nay, the only proper sacrifice for sin that was ever exhibited in the world, it cannot be thought unreasonable if we require to be shown, that it consists at least of every thing that was always deemed essential to such a sacrifice. Now, according to the Jewish ceremonial (from which we must borrow all our notions upon these 1 subjects), it was primarily requisite in every sin offering, that it should be provided and presented by the sinner; for unless the presentation of it were the act and deed of the sinner himself, it could be of no effect whatever. Christ, therefore, could not die as a proper sacrifice for a sinful world, except the world, which lay in wickedness, had provided and presented him to be sacrificed, and also observed a variety of other forms, of which there is RO trace in the history of the death of Christ. It is

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a just and striking figure to say, that a man, who voluntarily devotes himself to death for the good of others, dies a sacrifice for them; but to become a real sacrifice, the same ceremonies must be observed as were used in sacrifices.

Sixthly, There is nothing in the general manner of the apostles' writing, which might make us think them incapable of taking such great liberties as this in their figures and allusions, without meaning any thing more by them. We meet with many figures in their writings no less bold than this; and if they do not occur quite so often, neither did the subjects of them, nor were they of so much importance. Communion is called an altar; the body of Christ is the veil through which we pass to the holy of holies. We are said to be circumcised in his circumcision, and to be buried with him in baptism. Our sins are crucified with him, and we rise again with him to newness of life. After meeting with figures like these (and many more might be recited quite as harsh as these), can we be surprised that Christ should be said to die a sacrifice for the sins of men, or can we be misled by so obvious a figure? Still less shall we be surprised at this language, if we consider how familiar all the rites of the Jewish religion were to the minds of the apostles. Whatever they were writing about, if there were any resemblance in it to any part of the Jewish ritual, it failed not to obtrude itself, and to influence the style of their composition. As Christ came to save man

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