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played its correspondence. Every remarkable event, every distinguished personage, under the Law, is interpreted in the New Testament, as bearing reference to this hour. If Isaac was laid upon the altar as an innocent victim; if David was driven from his throne by the wicked, and restored by the hand of God; if the brazen serpent was lifted up to heal the people; if the rock was smitten by Moses, to furnish drink in the wilderness; all were types of Christ, and alluded to his death.

"It is finished." When Christ uttered these words, the Law ceased, and the Gospel commenced. This was the ever-memorable point of time which separated the old and the new world from each other. On one side of the point of separation, you behold the Law, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its rites, retiring from sight. On the other side, you behold the Gospel, with its simple and venerable institutions, coming forward into view. Significantly was the veil of the temple rent in this hour; for the glory then departed from between the cherubim. The legal high-priest delivered up his Urim and Thummim, his breast-plate, his robes, and his incense and CHRIST stood forth as the great High-Priest of all succeeding generations. By that one sacrifice, which he now offered, he abolished sacrifices for ever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for ages, were now to smoke no more. Victims were no more to bleed. "Not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood, he now entered into the holy place, there to appear in the presence of God for us."

DR. BLAIR.

IT IS FINISHED. The death of Christ, as his atonement presented to God, exhibited the excellence of the Divine law: it manifested the holiness and the justice of God. On many occasions has Jehovah displayed his hatred against sin. The destruction of the old world, the fire and brimstone that laid waste the cities of the plain, the calamities and captivities of the Jews, are striking indications of the essential purity of the Divine character. But we must ascend to Calvary to witness the most vivid, as well as the most unequivocal display of this perfection. We must see the man who was God's fellow- -a being who, being personally considered, was spotless; who was not himself a sinner, but merely stood in the place of the transgressor-smitten, stricken of God, and afflicted, we must see the rocks rending, and the graves opening, and the dead arising, in token of the unparalleled nature of the transaction, to form anything like an adequate idea of the Divine abhorrence of sin. In the cross of Christ we see the Father hiding his face from his Son,-his own Son, his only begotten Son, when bearing, by imputation only, the guilt of men, though himself uncontaminated by depravity! How unutterably opposed must then be the nature of God to all species and degrees of moral defilement ! DR. PAYNE.

God" laid on his own Son the iniquities of us all." It was necessary Christ should suffer for the redemption of lapsed man, and their reconciliation unto God; which was not otherwise to be performed than by a plenary

satisfaction to his will. He, therefore, was by all his sufferings made an expiation, atonement, and propitiation for all our sins. For salvation is impossible unto sinners without remission of sin; and remission, in the decree of God, impossible without effusion of blood. Our redemption, therefore, could not be wrought but by the blood of the Redeemer, but by a Lamb slain, but by a suffering Saviour.

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Notwithstanding, therefore, that God loved men whom he created; yet he was offended with them when they sinned, and gave his Son to suffer for them. This reconciliation is clearly delivered in the Scriptures as wrought by Christ; for "all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ;" (2. Cor. v. 18;) and that by virtue of his death; for "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.". Rom. v. 10. But it is most evident that the life of Christ was laid down as a price; neither is it more certain that he died, than that he bought us: "Ye are bought with a price," saith the apostle, (1. Cor. vi. 20.—vii. 23;) and it is the "Lord who bought us," (2. Pet. ii. 1 ;) and the price which he paid was his blood; for " we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."-1. Pet. i. 18, 19. Now as it was the blood of Christ, so it was a price given by way of compensation: and as that blood was precious, so it was a full and perfect satisfaction. God is of infinite majesty, against whom we have sinned; and Christ is of the same Divinity, who gave his life a ransom for sinners: for God" hath purchased his church with his own blood."-Acts. xx. 28. BISHOP PEARSON.

Atonement cannot be made but by a substitute, unless the same end be answered by his interposition, as if the guilty had personally suffered. Now in the redemption of man, this end could never have been gained by the sufferings of a mere creature, whose obedience could have been no more than duty. But whilst the human nature of Jesus gave him a brother's right and interest in mankind, his Divine nature made his sacrifice available, and invested the law under which he placed himself, with a glory infinitely beyond what it could have acquired by the penal ruin of the race.

The Apostles and Prophets expatiate on his pre-eminent dignity, as Emanuel, and they never place the value of his sacrifice in mere suffering, nor do they infer it from the sovereign appointment of Heaven. Their object evidently is, to exhibit the dignity and glory of their Lord, and the hallowed principles of his character; and the value of his sacrifice they thus trace to his glory, as the Son of God. All his doings and his sufferings when he appeared, as our surety, were his personal acts. We are accordingly informed, that " he gave himself an offering and a sacrifice unto God," and that "by himself he purged our sins." And to the beloved disciple, his reviving and consolatory language was: "Fear not; I am the first and the last; the living one and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death." In fine, the Lamb which was slain is declared to be worthy of blessing, and honour,

and glory, and power. We approach him as Emanuel, and as the great Mediator between God and man; and through him we worship the one Jehovah, who has revealed himself under the relations of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. DR. RUSSELL.

Adam is a type of Christ. How? In this respect: as the former was the cause of death to all his descendants, they did not (like him) eat of the forbidden fruit; so Christ is the cause, author, procurer of righteousness to all his seed, though they have not (like him) been personally obedient; even of that righteousness which he finished for us on the cross. For this reason, to ascertain and appropriate the honour of this righteousness to Christ, as a work not wrought in us, but completed for us on the cursed tree. He insists and dwells upon that very remarkable circumstance, One. He iterates and reiterates the emphatical word One.-Rom. v. He introduces it again and again, and can hardly prevail upon himself to discontinue the repetition, As by one man sin entered into the world. Through the offence of one many be dead. Not as it was by one that sinned so is the free gift.—The judgment was by one to condemnation. By one man's offence death reigned by one.-As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation.-As by the disobedience of one many were made sinners. Thus the Apostle again and again introduces the word One, and can hardly prevail upon himself to discontinue the repetition, That if a Jew should ask how can the world be saved by the well doing of one, or by the obedience of Christ? You may be able to reply on his own principles, How could the world be condemned by the evil doing of one, or by the disobedience of Adam? ST. CHRYSOSTOM.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride!
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood!

See from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown!
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul,-my life,-my all!

DR. WATTS.

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