sacrifices that were prescribed by the Mosaic law, but to maintain in the church a perpetual knowledge of the interesting truth, that "without shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin,"* and to prefigure and shadow forth, under striking symbols, that great sacrifice, by which "Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified?" It is this doctrine which affords a key to all the mysteries, ceremonies, and rites of the ancient ritual;-and without it, the whole Levitical dispensation must appear to us, as an idle, unmeaning, absurd, and burdensome system.

If we look to the Prophets, we find them continuing the same testimony to this great truth which had been given by the law, and pointing to the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." "The testimony of Jesus, is the spirit of prophecy." To foretell his coming, and offices, and kingdom, was the chief end for which God raised up the seers of ancient times, and favoured them with visions of things which should take place thereafter. And in what lights do they exhibit the Messiah, but as a spiritual Redeemer-a Sovereign, who should rule in the hearts of men;-a High Priest, who would offer an availing sacrifice for sin, and make intercession for the transgressors? They foretold his incarnation;-his state of humiliation and poverty; and, with minute particularity, all the circumstances of his agony, suf+Ibid x. 14.

* Heb. ix. 22.

ferings and death. Nor do they leave us to doubt that his sorrows and crucifixion were to be submitted to on our behalf, and as the means of procuring our pardon and salvation; as the following passages from the books of Daniel and Isaiah clearly demonstrate. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness;and after three score and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself."* "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: 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."t

Do we make an appeal to the New Testament? There we find the precious truth which had been shadowed forth under the rites and ceremonies of the law, and represented with some obscurity by the + Isaiah liii. 5, 6, 10, 11.

*Daniel ix. 26.

Prophets, so clearly and prominently exhibited, that "he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool," need not misunderstand it. Indeed, what is the New Testament, but a history of the work of redemption by the obedience and sufferings of God's only begotten son;—a development of those designs of mercy and salvation, which Jehovah purposed in himself before the foundations of the world were laid? It would be easy to shew, that the doctrine of pardon and justification for guilty men, through the atonement and righteousness of the Divine Redeemer, is the vital truth which pervades every part of the New Testament; the very "heart's blood" of the Christian system. But in consistency with the limits and design of this little work, we can only quote a few of the many declarations of our Lord and his Apostles, in which this great doctrine is distinctly and unequivocally stated, and leave them to produce their effect upon the reader's mind.

"The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."-"The son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

Such was the language of our Lord himself, with reference to the grand design of his mission to our † John vi. 51.

*Matt. xx. 28.

world, and in anticipation of the sacrifice which he was to offer upon the cross. And in what terms did the Apostles, who witnessed the fulfilment of his gracious designs, and were inspired by the Holy Ghost to propagate his religion, speak of the same wondrous theme? St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, having given a dark and revolting picture of the wickedness of both Jews and Gentiles, comes to the conclusion, that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" so that, "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." And what hope does he hold out to the guilty and perishing children of Adam? None except that which is founded upon the atonement and obedience of Christ. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God."* Christ "was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." "God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "Christ also hath once

* Rom. iii. 24, 25. Ibid. iv. 25. v. 8, 10. 2 Cor. v. 21.

suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”* "He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity."

We may well be astonished at the blindness of those, who, with the New Testament in their hands, fail to perceive the truth which it so unequivocally and repeatedly inculcates, that the pardon of our sins is intimately connected with, and dependent upon, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That death is uniformly represented as an expedient, devised by infinite wisdom to satisfy the claims of justice, and open a way for the exercise of mercy towards penitent sinners. The sufferings of the son of God as our surety and substitute, were designed to glorify the perfections of Jehovah, and pay the price of our redemption from the curse of the law. His cross is the luminous point, in which the apparently discordant attributes of Deity concentrate and mingle their radiance. There "mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other." That was the theatre on which was made the most affecting exhibition of the evil of sin on the one hand, and the riches of Divine mercy on the other, that was ever presented for the moral improvement of an admiring universe. From that field, God reaped infinite and unspeakable honours;-man, boundless privileges and eternal bliss.

*1 Peter iii. 18.