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mony on such occasions. For before the victims were placed on the altar to be sacrificed, their skin, which is their apparel, was taken off. Hence it may reasonably be concluded, that in this sacrifice also the apparel of the intended victim was taken off. It is said of Christ, by St. John, (John xix. 23.) Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments;' so that the Messiah, like his type, was sacrificed naked.

2. Isaac was bound hand and foot; for it is said in the text, And Abraham bound Isaac his son.' Our blessed Saviour's arms were not only bound to the cross, according to the Roman custom, when he was to drag it up to Mount Golgotha; but when he was lifted up on the cross, after it was erected, his hands were first stretched out and fastened to it with cords, before they were nailed, as we have already observed in the last Consideration.

3. Isaac was lifted from the earth on the altar, and then laid upon the wood. In like manner Christ was lifted up on the wood of the cross as a public example, and a victim to the divine justice, as he had foretold to Nicodemus in these words, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,' (John iii. 14.)

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4. Isaac was laid on the wood entire and alive; a circumstance which deserves particular attention.Those beasts which were appointed for sacrifices were first killed by the side of the altar, and dismembered or severed into several pieces, before they were laid upon it. But Isaac was laid upon the altar entire and alive; being appointed as a type or figure of that sacrifice which was to be lifted up on the wood alive, and of which not a bone was to be broken. Could there well be a greater resemblance of concurring circumstances, to adumbrate the crucifixion of Christ, than we behold in the instance before us? If we farther consider the astonishing patience of Isaac, in bearing all this patiently and silently, without any

contradiction or repugnance, it exhibits the very image of Jesus Christ, who, amidst all the tortures he endured, did not open his mouth. These are the circumstances which attended the transaction itself; namely, that Isaac was lifted up on the wood, naked, bound, entire, and alive, as a type of the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, Among the circumstances subsequent to this transaction, the following are particularly remarkable:

1. After Isaac had been for three days, as it were, dead in his father's heart, [for Abraham consigned him, as he thought, to certain death] he was restored to him alive on the third day. Thus on the third day, Christ was also raised from the dead. What happened to Isaac in a figure (Heb. xi. 19.) was fulfilled in our blessed Saviour, the great antitype, in truth and reality. Here indeed we may observe a deficiency in the type. For Isaac did not actually die; nor was he actually sacrificed, though Abraham had already put the knife to his throat. However, God was pleased to accept of this obedience of Abraham and Isaac, and presented to the father of the faithful a ram entangled in a thicket, which the good patriarch killed, and sacrificed instead of Isaac his son. Christ was really sacrificed personally. Here the divine justice would not accept the will for the deed. For as there is no remission of sins without shedding of blood, it was necessary that the blood of Christ should be shed in reality. Thus did Jesus really and truly die, and is in reality risen again from the dead. There was none to release the blessed Jesus, no vacarious victim that could supply his place in this great propitiatory sacrifice; there was no creature in heaven or on earth qualified to finish this sacrifice, which was to appease and satisfy the divine justice for the sins of mankind.

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2. Isaac, who had been bound, was likewise released from his bonds on the third day by his father.

In the like manner, it is said of the heavenly Father in scripture, (Acts ii. 24.) that he hath raised his son by loosing the pains of death,' or as they are called in the l'salms, (Psalm. xviii. 5.) the snares of death;' and thus set our surety at liberty, it being impossible that he should be holden of death.'

3. Isaac, after this, returned alive to the servants in Abraham's house, and lived with his father; for we find that Abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba, and dwelt there. Thus Christ, after appearing alive to his disciples, returned to his Father, by whom he was sent into the world, and in whose house he now eternally dwells, being ministered unto and adored by all the angelic host.

4. After Isaac was, as it were, risen from the dead, he became the father of an innumerable multitude. For he begat Jacob, the father of the twelve Patriarchs; and the latter propagated the race of Abraham, until at length it became as the stars of heaven, and the sand on the sea shore for number, according to the divine promise which, after this transaction, was confirmed by an oath in the following words: "By myself have I sworn that in blessing I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.' In like manner, the prophet says of the Messiah, who died, and rose again, When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great; and he shall divide the spoil with the strong' (Isa. liii. 10-12.) Thus Christ is become the father of an innumerable multitude of children, many of whom he has already translated to glory: and all the promises

of God are, as it were, sealed anew and ratified by his resurrection (Heb. vi. 13-20.)

No rational man will imagine, that all these remarkable circumstances should thus concur fortuitously in these two remarkable events. Certainly, the hand of infinite wisdom must have interfered in the affair, and so directed the several incidents, as collectively to form a complete type or representation of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.

Let us therefore, first, admire the veracity and faithfulness of God in fulfilling his promises. By the crucifixion of Jesus Christ he has actually accom plished what he had prefigured by this type several centuries before, and, at the same time, verified the saying of faithful Abraham, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.'

Secondly, Let us acknowledge the justice of God; since he would not spare his only, his beloved, his innocent, and obedient son. For after he had taken our sins on himself, and appeared in our stead be fore the Divine tribunal, as that lamb which was to be sacrificed for the sins of the world; he was stripped of all his apparel, bound, and lifted up alive on the cross; where his blood was shed in order to appease the justice of God, and to blot out our sins. Who does not in this proceeding see the great hatred and abhorrence which God bears to sin, and his severity in punishing it? It should there impress a holy fear on our hearts, and remind us of the words of our blessed Lord, viz, 'If these things be done in a green tree,' if the obedient and innocent Son of God be thus punished, what will be done to the dry?'

Thirdly, But let us also here adore the inconceivable love of the heavenly Father to the human race, who, as it were, did violence to his own paternal heart; sent his only beloved Son from his bosom; and for us, who had offended him by all manner of wickedness, delivered him up to a painful aud ignominious death.

Let us, in the last place, consider the inference which St. Paul makes on this occasion: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him for us all : How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Nothing is so great, but we may now confidently hope for it from so affectionate a father. Now we may approach him with faith and confidence, since he is reconciled to us by the death of his Son. If God has raised Isaac from the dead in a figure, and restored again to life his beloved Son as the antitype, and loosened the bands of death with which he was bound; we may rest assured that his love will not rest here, but will accomplish in us the whole scheme which his goodness planned. He will collect our scattered ashes; he will raise our bodies from dissolution, invest them with splendor and glory, and translate the whole man, soul and body, into the blissful mansions of his house; into which Christ, the great antitype of Isaac, is long since entered, in order to prepare a place for us.

THE PRAYER.

O HEAVENLY Father! we adore thy veracity and justice, and likewise thine infinite love, which moved thee to deliver up to death thine only beloved Son; that we might not be preyed upon by eternal death, as sheep appointed for the slaughter. May this amazing instance of thy love be always fresh in our minds, and there flourish and grow; so that our cold hearts may be inflamed with returns of reciprocal love to thee, and remain eternally thine. Grant this for the sake of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

CONSIDERATION V.

TWO REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES WHICH FOLLOWED, THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. AND Pilate wrote a superscription of his accusation, and put it on the cross. And the writing was,