their impious hands were employed in treating the Son of God in the most injurious manner, he, as a merciful High Priest, employs his tongue in praying for them, and intercedes with the justice of God to pardon and forgive them. Father, forgive them.' How properly does Jesus here use the endearing title of Father, when by the most generous love of his inveterate enemies, he so, gloriously resembles his heavenly Father, whose exuberant goodness extends to the unthankful, and to the evil, (Luke vi. 28, 35, 36.) In this address of the Son of God to his Father, we may observe an intercession and an excuse, for his merciless enemies. He intercedes with his heavenly Father, that he would forgive these his blind unthink ing creatures the grievous sin, which they were now committing against his beloved Son, and that he would grant them time and grace for repentance. As some alleviation and excuse for their perpetrating this atrocious deed, he alledges their ignorance, and supplicates his Father to look on these wretched men with eyes of mercy and compassion, to pity their want of understanding, and to bring them out of their blindness and ignorance into the light of the gospel. Behold a prophet far surpassing Moses in meekness and gentleness! Behold a gracious monarch, who takes more delight in pardoning and forgiving his subjects, than in rigour and severity! Behold a merciful High Priest, who has compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, (Heb. v. 2.) and even when he is on the point of offering himself up for a sacrifice, prays that his enemies may have the first fruits of the atonement which he made for sin! But these words of our Lord Jesus have on another occasion been explained at large, and published separately.

However, as these words of our blessed Saviour proceed from the most fervent love and affection, they should leave behind them a salutary impression on our hearts, and serve as a blessed encouragement

to draw sinners into the arms of his mercy; those sinners who are, as it were, within the jaws of death; those sinners who have run such terrible lengths as to seem past hopes of mercy; those sinners who have received mercy but forfeited it again; and those less heinous sinners who, after receiving a due portion of divine grace, are conscious of many sins of infirmity and surprise. Blessed is the man who, by a grateful love of his crucified Saviour, is moved eternally to renounce sin and its accursed service, and is determined to offer himself up to him who not only loved his own,' but also his very enemies.

THE PRAYER.

WE adore thy perfect love, O merciful Saviour, which humbled thee even to the cross, that thou mightest exalt us to the throne of God. Eternally praised be thy name, O blessed Jesus, that for us rebels and outlaws thou didst vouchsafe to become a curse on the cross, that the great copious stream of divine blessings might flow upon us. Be thou forever praised, who didst condescend to be raised on the cross, as the great antitype of the brazen serpent which was lifted up in the desart, that all who look on thee in faith may be healed, and live. (John iii. 14.) O fulfil in us all that comfortable promise, that after thy exaltation thou wouldest draw all men unto thee! (John xii. 32.)draw to thy cross the carnal, the secure, and the licencious; and convince them, that without crucifying their lusts, they can have no share in the blessings which thou didst procure by thy crucifixion. Draw to thy cross the troubled, anxious, and timerous consciences, and heal them by the salutary sight of thy sufferings. Draw to thy cross thy true disciples, and grant that they may more and more increase in grace and wisdom, and in the knowledge of thee. Ŏ gather together all those who are scattered abroad, far from thee and the light of thy gospel, and embrace them with the arms of thy mercy. Amen.

CONSIDERATION IV.

THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC, A TYPE OF THE GREAT SACRIFICE AND CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST.

'AND it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham! And he said, behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide you here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand and a knife: and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, my father! and he said here am I, my son: And he said, behold the fire and wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham! Abraham! and he said here am I. And he said,

lay not thine hand upon the lad, 'neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked; and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh, as it is called to this day. And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that biessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abrahem returned unto his young men, and they rose up, and went together to Beer-sheba, and dwelt there.' (Genesis xxii. 1-19.)'

As I have observed in the last consideration, that the sacrifice of Isaac was one of the types which prefigured the crucifixion of Christ, it will not be improper to insert in this place a particular consideration on this glorious type, and thus to diversify the affecting piece of cur blessed Saviour's crucifixion, as it were with light and shade. The spirit of God has been pleased to intimate to us, that several incidents which happened to the Messiah are prefigured and typified in the account of this remarkable transaction. For St. Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews, (chap. xi. 17, 18, 19.) in which he explains several types exhibited in the old Testament, makes this observation: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it

was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.'

Here we see in what light Isaac is to be considered in this whole transaction, namely, as the type of Jesus Christ; who was the centre to which every part of the preceding divine œconomy tended, and the great antitype or substance of all the shadowy types of the Old Testament. This is the seed which was promised to Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth was to be blessed; for the Angel sayest not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.' (Gal. iii. 16.) Our blessed Lord represents himself as the Antitype of Isaac, and the rejected Ishmael as a type of the carnal Jews, when he says, 'The servant abideth not in the house forever; but the Son abideth ever.' (John viii. 35.) St. Paul likewise manifestly alludes to the account of the sacrifice of Isaac, when he observes in the Epistle to the Romans, that God spared not his own Son,' (Rom. viii. 32.) which words seem to allude to those of God to Abraham, Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me, (Gen. xxii. 12.) These intimations of the Holy Spirit are a sufficient warrant for our entering deeper in this remarkable history, and tracing in it the mystery of Christ.

·

The road here is already beaten for us; since, from the very commencement of the Christian religion, Isaac has been always looked upon as a lively type of the Messiah, and his sacrifice of himself. Even the ancient Jewish church perceived the mystery of this transaction, and believed that the binding of Isaac, in order to be sacrificed, was a type of the Messiah, by the sacrifice of whom God was to be reconciled to the Jews. But the Jewish church afterwards totally apostatized from the faith of their ancestors, and expected the Messiah to appear as a temporal prince,