The blood of the sacrifices so profusely shed was, under the Old Testament, according very sacred. No person, under pain of death, was to apply this blood to his own private use; God having reserved it for himself alone, and strictly enjoined that it should be poured out at his altar. Nay, in order to impress the greater awe and veneration for this blood of the sacrifices, it was likewise prohibited by the Levitical law, to eat the blood of any creature that was killed for common use, as appears by the following precept of God in Leviticus, (Chap. xvii. 10.) Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among this people.' This injunction is likewise repeated in another place: Thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roe-buck and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it on the earth as water, (Duet. xii. 15. 16.)

Commentators have produced many reasons, why the eating of blood was so strictly forbidden under the Old Covenant. Some are of opinion that it was prohibited because the eating of blood is pernicious to the human body. It is the opinion of others, that God in his wisdom forbade it, in order to restrain men from all bloody and cruel dispositions. Others assign other reasons for this prohibition, but equally unsatisfactory. But God himself, who can best explain his own laws, has made known to us another cause, very different from any of those mentioned above. For after prohibiting the eating of blood, the Law

in one day, at the feast of the Passover. Their blood, according to Lundius's computation, must have amounted to 1,000 hogsheads.

giver adds in the following verses, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your soul; for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. Therefore, I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood,' (Lev. xvii. 11, 12.)

It is here asserted that the life of the flesh is in the blood. For while the blood circulates in the bodies of brutes, they live; but if the blood be let out of their bodies, they remain without motion, and their animal life is at an end. As often therefore as the blood of a sacrificed animal was shed, it was looked on by God as if the soul of the victim was offered up to his justice; and this soul of the animal was farther con sidered as a ransom for the rational soul of the sinner.

The case was this: When any one by transgressing the ceremonial law of God had deserved death, his soul might justly have been violently forced from his body, and brought before the tribunal of the Supreme Law-giver, there, according to the rule of Divine justice to receive the sentence it had deserved, which was this, 'The soul that sinneth shall die.' But God, in the ceremonial law, was pleased to permit the sinner to redeem his soul by the soul of a beast; or, that for his own soul he should offer the soul of a victim. Now the soul of an irrational animal is by no means an equivalent ransom for the rational soul of a man ; there being a very great disproportion betwixt them. However, this soul of the beast, which was poured out with its blood at the foot of the altar, was accepted by the Divine justice, as a pledge for the soul and blood of Jesus Christ, which were in due time to be shed for the sins of the whole world, and to be offered up to the Divine justice. Now as the blood of the sacrifice, or the animal soul of the sacrificed victim was accepted instead of the soul of the transgressor; so the Mediator's soul, which was separated from his body by a bloody and violent death, was accepted at

the Divine tribunal, as the ransom for the souls of many sinners who had deserved death, and as a sinoffering to atone for their transgressions, (Isaiah liii. 10.) When this was accomplished, and Christ had by a bloody death laid down his soul as a sin-offering; the type of the sacrificed blood was fulfilled, and the prohibition of eating blood no longer continued in force: And it was then universally proclaimed, that God, in consideration of the blood of Jesus Christ his beloved Son, which had been typified by copious streams of blood shed in the Levitical sacrifices, would remit men their sins, and acquit them from punishment, if they repent and believe in Christ.

Let us now, from the type, pass to the great Antitype. The blood of Christ is in scripture represented as the cause of our justification, sanctification, and glorification. I shall only mention the principal passages relating to this subject, which are as follows.

This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many [for the infinite multitude of Adam's descendants] for the remission of sins, (Matt. xxvi. 28.) My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed; he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him, (John vi. 55, 56.) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, (Rom. iii. 25.) Much more then, being justified through his blood, we shall be saved from wrath, through him, (Rom. v. 9.) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, (Eph. i. 7.) But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, (Eph. ii. 13.) Having made peace through the blood of his cross, (Col. i. 20.) For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God, (Heb. ix. 13. 14.)

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh, (Heb. x. 19.) Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, (1 Peter i. 18, 19.) The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sins, (1 John i. 7.) He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Rev. i. 5.) These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb, (Rev. vii. 11.) They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony,' (Rev. xii. 11.) Thus the blood of Jesus Christ, and its powerful influence, is set forth unto us in the New Testament.

But in order rightly to understand all these passages of scripture, it is to be observed, that under the name of blood, the Holy Ghost usually comprehends both the entire obedience, and the sacrifice of our blessed Saviour. Hence St. Paul, (Heb. ix. 23.) uses the word blood and sacrifices as synonymous terms: 'It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with blood, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.' This sacrifice, which Christ offered to his Father for our reconciliation, includes likewise the prayers and supplications, the strong cries and tears, which he offered up in the days of his flesh, (Heb. v. 7.) all the reproaches, the insults, and contradiction of sinners; all the pains and agonies of his body and soul; and lastly, his death on the cross, in which they terminated. The Apostle in the epistle to the He brews, says of the blood of Christ, Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel,' (Heb. xii. 24.) It speaks,

1. To God, and cries to him, not as the blood of Abel did, for vengeance on those who shed it, or caused it to be shed; but for atonement, reconciliation, and mercy on the human race, which was sunk into extreme misery. As often as his heavenly Father thinks on this blood, he must also think on the astonishing obedience of his Son, who shed it on the cross; on the outrages, and all the tortures which he endured; and consequently is thereby powerfully moved to pour down upon us pardon, forgiveness, and blessings.

2. The blood of Christ speaks likewise to men.It speaks to secure and bold sinners, who go on in their impenitence and profligacy; and represents to them the inestimable value of their immortal souls, which can be redeemed from destruction only by the precious blood of the Son of God. It represents to them the abomination of sin, which defiles human nature with such spots, as can only be washed away by the blood of the Son of God. It represents to them the holiness and justice of God, which, for an atonement, has required such a ransom.

Farther, it speaks to penitent sinners who know their misery and depravity, and are deeply humbled for their sins. It represents to them the inconceivable love of God, which moved him to give up to so bloody a death his only Son. It promises them the remission of all their sins; informing their conscience, that the wrath of God is appeased, his justice satisfied, and his mercy ready to receive into his bosom, and impart grace to every soul that is sprinkled with the blood of Christ.

Blessed is he, who with faith and obedience hears the voice of this blood, speaking peace to his conscience. Though the blood of Christ implores mercy for us, and speaks better things than the blood of Abel; nevertheless, on those who, instead of being moved by it to faith and repentance, tread it under foot, and account the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, (Heb. x. 29.) it will one day still more loudly cry out for vengeance.