punishments acknowledged to be justly incurred by the sacrificer himself, are most solemnly imprecated upon the sacrifice; and earnest supplication made, that the creature so devoted may be the ransom and propitiation of his soul.

In strict conformity with which idea, St. Paul, speaking of Christ says, that by Him "we have now received the atonement." Rom. v. 11. The word naraλay here translated atonement, according to its derivation, signifies a commutation or exchange between contracting parties of one person or thing instead of another. Hence it comes to signify that reconciliation, which has been effected between God and man, by the substitution of the life of Jesus Christ for that of the condemned sinner.

The blood of the victim then made an atonement for the soul of the offerer: blood, which, in the eye of the faithful, could have no other virtue than what it derived from its appointed relation to that precious blood, which was in the fulness of time to take away sin.

In like manner, the offering up that commemorative sacrifice which character

izes the Christian altar, is an acknowledgement on our parts, that our lives were forfeited, and have been redeemed by the body and blood of Christ actually offered up on the Cross. Bread and wine are but the instituted emblems, deriving all their spiritual efficacy from the relation they bear to that important transaction which they were appointed to represent.

Thus the typical sacrifice of the Jewish Temple, and the commemorative one of the Christian Church, direct our thoughts to the same divine object of contemplation; each, in its peculiar way, furnishing a figurative exhibition of the recovery of man from the effects of the fall, through the mediation of that divine Person, who by the all-sufficient sacrifice of himself became the Redeemer of a lost world.

The only difference between the Levitical and Christian Priesthood is this: that the former offered up representative sacrifices, which on account of their inefficacy to take away sin, were continually repeated, with the view of keeping alive the sense of sin, and directing the eye of the sinner forward to a more perfect atonement: whilst

the

the latter offers up the appointed commemoration of that one great Sacrifice on the Cross, which, because it was "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the world, is on that account never to be repeated. For, to make use of the Apostle's mode of reasoning, "had righteousness come by the Law;" could the legal sacrifices have taken away sin, and "rendered the comers thereunto perfect;" Christ "would have died in vain." Gal. ii. 21. In such case there would have been no occasion for his death: for in such case, by a proper conformity to the Law, man might have redeemed himself. But what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and making him a sacrifice for sin, thereby condemning sin in the flesh, God did."-Rom. viii. 3, 4.-" When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and if sons, then heirs of God through Christ."-Gal. iv. 4.

Thus

Thus has it been shewn in what sense Jesus Christ is made unto us Redemption. In one word, "He has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, himself being made a curse for us."-And that title to life and immortality lost at the fall, with the precious price of his blood he has bought back for us again, on the gracious conditions of the Gospel: namely, repentance from dead works; faith in his merits, and obedience to his commands. Let us but receive this divine Person in his complex character of Prophet to teach, Priest to atone, and King to govern; and we shall have cause to rejoice in the God of our Salvation; who, by removing every stumbling block which the malice of our spiritual enemy had thrown in our way, has, in so doing, still rendered it possible for fallen creatures to become, consistently with divine justice, partakers with Him in glory.

This is placing Christianity on its own foundation; on that foundation which no man can lay, but which was graciously laid for him in the Divine Councils before the world began; and on which alone the se

curity of his superstructure depends. This plan of Redemption makes divine Revelation speak, as it might be expected it should speak, an uniform and consistent language through all its parts; pointing out under every Dispensation, the same divine object of consolation to fallen man. It exhibits to us one great mysterious scheme of Redemption from the effects of the fall, in which each Person in the Godhead condescended to take a part; travelling on through several progressive stages of maturity, to its final and perfect accomplishment in the character and office of Jesus Christ.-" In whom all the promises of God to man are Yea and Amén:" i. e. have their full and determinate completion.

This is a subject big with importance to every soul of man. Though, alas! it is a subject, which seldom meets with the attention, to which it is so justly entitled. If, as the general tenor of Scripture authorizes us to affirm, the great scheme of Redemption, so far as respects the work of the Redeemer in the flesh, has been compleated in the character and office of Jesus