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fign and principal object, are just an history of "the Lamb flain from the foundation of the "world 9."

Before the coming of Chrift to "take away fin "by the facrifice of himself;" there were especially three different ways in which atonement was made; by the punishment of the guilty perfon, by the payment of a price, or by the fubftitution of the innocent for the guilty.

We fometimes read of atonement being made, when the guilty were punished in their own perJons. Thus, when Phineas flew the daring transgreffors, who were committing fornication in the camp, it is faid that he "made an atonement for "the children of Ifrael." But it is to be observed, that the atonement in this inftance was not made for the fin of the perfons immediately concerned. For they perished in their iniquity. It was accepted of God for the congregation in general, for averting that wrath to which they were fubjected by this iniquity. For the juft God, as Governor of the world, demands from collective bodies the punishment of open tranfgreffors; and if this be refufed, he confiders the fociety at large as chargeable with the guilt. So well pleased was he with the zeal of Phineas in executing judgment on this occafion, that the plague, which had gone forth against Ifrael, because of their tranfgreffion in the matter of Peor, was immediately ftayed. It was counted unto Phineas "for righteousness ❝in all generations for evermore ;" and his family

g Rev, xiii. 8.

r Num. xxv. 6, 7. 13.

s Ver. S.

t Pfal. cvi. 31.

mily was confirmed in the poffeffion of the priefthood. In like manner, God did not "turn from "the fiercenefs of his anger" against his people, till "the accurfed thing was deftroyed from among them," in the punishment of Achan and his family ".

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Atonement was alfo made by the payment of a price. "The LORD fpake unto Mofes, faying,

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"When thou takeft the fum of the children of "Ifrael, after their number, then fhall they give 66 every man a ranfom for his foul unto the LORD "when thou numberet them; that there be no plague among them when thou numberest "them." Half a fhekel, according to the fhekel of the fanctuary, which was the double of that commonly current, was to be given for every male who was twenty years old and above. This was called "the atonement-money of the chil"dren of Ifrael ;" and in paying this fum, they gave an offering unto the LORD, to make an "atonement for their fouls "." This payment prefigured our being bought with a price w;" although "not with corruptible things, as filver "and gold, but with the precious blood of Chrift." The rich were not to give more, nor the poor lefs. For all fouls are alike precious in the fight of God; and although fome are greater finners than others, nothing less than an atonement of infinite value can be accepted for any one. This price was to be paid by each individual whofe age correfponded, every time the Ifraelites were number

u Josh. vii. 12. 26.

y Exod. xxx. 11.-16. WI Cor. vi. 20.

ed,

ed, under the penalty of his lofing his life by an immediate ftroke of divine juftice. Thus God testified, that when he makes inquifition, it is impoffible for the finner to ftand before him without

an atonement.

But the principal mode of making atonement, was by the fubftitution and punishment of the innocent inftead of the guilty; or, to exprefs it in one word, by facrifice. This kind of expiation being the most common among the Ifraelites, and containing the most striking figure of the true, it demands our particular attention..

1. The doctrine of fubftitution was well known to the Church from the earliest period. As "A"bel offered by faith," while we know that his offering was" of the firftlings of his flock," we may fafely infer, that the worship of God by facrifice was of divine appointment. Now, every facrifice neceffarily implied the idea of fubftitution. We cannot fuppofe, that the true worshippers of God were fo ftupid as to imagine that the offering of brutes could in itself be acceptable to him. They knew, that " if he were hungry, "he would not tell them, because the world is "his, and all the fulness thereof; that he would "not eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of "goats." Did they offer by faith? Then they must have refpected not merely the divine inftitution, but its defign. That God, who required facrifice, would undoubtedly inform them, that what they inflicted on the innocent victims, which

they

they prefented to him, was only what themselves deferved.

When the people tranfgreffed, by worshipping the golden calf, Mofes, the typical Me diator, who was innocent in this matter, under a deep fenfe of the neceffity both of fatisfaction and of fubftitution, propofed himself as a victim of divine vengeance, instead of the guilty congregation. "Yet now," he faid, "if thou

wilt, forgive their fin: and if not," if there be no other mode of reconciliation, "blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou haft written "." But a better Mediator was neceffary.

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As true worshippers could not apprehend that God took pleasure in facrifice for its own fake, they must have known that no victim they offered could have any merit; that there was no proportion between the facrifice of a beaft, and the fin of a man. They could not indeed" offer by faith," without looking forward to a better fubftitute. Without the exercife of faith in the furetifhip of the Meffiah, their fervices could not have been accepted. When it is faid of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, that they "all "died in faith," we learn what this we learn what this grace principally refpected. They had not, as to the fubftance, "received the promises," but they "faw "them afar off, and embraced them ." It was Christ as a Surety, whom, in the promises, they "faw afar off." All their facrifices bore a direct relation to his "one offering." For in the firft promife

* Exod. xxxii. 32.

ly Heb, xi. 13.

promife he was exprefsly revealed as a fuffering Saviour. Hence, when addreffing the Father concerning that will, by which we are fanctified, through the offering of his own body, he fays; "At the head of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will "

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11. The impofition of hands on the head of the victim, is a circumftance which particularly deferves our attention, as a farther proof of fubftitution in making atonement. This was the injunction with refpect to " any man who fhould 'bring an offering. He fhall put his hand upon "the head of the burnt-offering; and it fhall be accepted for him, to make an atonement for him." This was an emblem of his transferring his guilt, as far as this could be done, to the victim. If in any inftance the whole congregation had finned ignorantly, and their offence was afterwards known to them, the congregation was to offer a young bullock for the fin, and the elders, as their reprefentatives, were to "lay their "hands on the head of the bullock before the "LORD." A fimilar rite was to be obferved by the high-priest, on the great day of atonement. He was to lay both his hands on the head of "the live-goat, and confefs over him all the iniquities of the children of Ifrael, and all their "tranfgreffions, in all their fins, putting them on "the head of the goat ." This rite was unworthy

z Pfal. xl. 7, 8. a Lev. xvi. 21.

a Lev. i. 4

b Lev. iv. 14, 15.

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