concerning the meaning of these and similar passages in the New Testament, let him turn to the vivid symbolism of the Mosaic ritual, and he will find there a commentary which will set his doubts at rest. Our attention was also directed to the representative relation in which the Jewish high priest stood to the rest of the nation. On several important occasions he acted, not merely as mediator between the people and Jehovah, but as representing them in His own person, as the federal head of the commonwealth. The New Testament furnishes the explanation of this circumstance. For Christ was to stand in a similar relation generally to redeemed humanity, and specially to the members of His mystical body. He was to be the second Adam, occupying the same position in reference to the new creation which the first Adam did to his posterity, both being federal heads from whom in the one case sin and death, in the other righteousness and life, are derived'. As by one man and in one man the race fell, so by one man, the new scion grafted upon the stock of corrupted humanity, the race was potentially restored, and is actually restored in those who are united to Him by a living faith. With a true Christian instinct, therefore, the Church has held fast that doctrine of imputation, both of sin and of righteousness, with which the b Rom. v. 12-19. 1 Cor. xv. 45. name of Augustin is associated, against the Pelagian or semi-Pelagian view, which regards men as isolated atoms, sinners or righteous in the sight of God, respectively, solely from their personal actions, and with which Socinianism has ever been found so readily to assimilate. For in truth it is but St. Paul's doctrine under another form, concerning the representative character of Adam and Christ respectively, and which is not this Apostle's doctrine only, but that of all the inspired writers. Christ is the Vine, Christians the branches; Christ is the Head, Christians the members; Christ is the Corner-stone, Christians the stones, of the spiritual temple: let it not be said that these are mere figures; the figures of Scripture in reference to Christ contain deep truths. It is from their being thus counted one with Christ, that Christians are so frequently identified with Him in the various stages of His redeeming work, that they are said to have died and been buried with Him', to have risen with Him", to have sat down with Him in the heavenly places"; expressions unintelligible save on the hypothesis of His being their federal Head. In its bearing on our present subject, the atonement of Christ, the importance of the Augustinian, or imputative, theory is evident; if Christ were but a man, one c John xv. 1. d Ephes. i. 22, 23. 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5. Col. iii. 1. h Ephes. ii. 6. of the many, His death becomes an isolated fact; and, however it may be supposed to affect our condition, loses its vicarious import: how different is the aspect which it assumes when we regard Him as in our stead, and as our representative, obedient unto death, so that in Him the redeemed may be said, in a real sense, to have satisfied the demands of the Law both passively and actively. This great truth is so clearly taught in the New Testament, that it needs no further confirmation from any quarter; but it may be interesting to the student to observe, that precisely the same public, representative, character is, in the Old Testament, ascribed to the Jewish high priest, the type of the one great High Priest of the Christian Church. It is thus that while the New Testament proves the prophetical character of the Mosaic ritual, this latter in its turn elucidates, in many points, the work of Christ, and so both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures combine, in harmonious operation, to establish the believer in his most holy faith. If he wishes to know why the Law bore the characters it did, he must sit at the Apostles' feet; if he wishes to know what the work of Christ was and is, both Law and Gospel will instruct him. And let him mark how under the latter all the imperfections of the Levitical atonements are supplied. The legal priests were not suffered to continue by reason of death; but this Man, because he continueth for ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood," and "ever liveth to make intercession" for us. The victims which bled on the Jewish altar were only in a negative sense sinless; sinless because the terms sin and guilt are inapplicable to the brute creation; but in Christ a victim is seen positively "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." The blood of bulls and goats owed its atoning power solely to its typical reference, and to mark its inherent worthlessness the sacrifices were repeated year by year; the blood of Christ, being of infinite power, cleanses at once from all sin; "by one offering," never to be repeated, "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified'." The inferiority of the typical ordinance was shewn by the separation of its constituent parts, the offerer, the victim, and the priest, being all distinct; in Christ they are united: He freely offered Himself as our substitute; by His own blood He washed us from our sins"; and He now, in His sacerdotal office, applies the efficacy of that blood-shedding to all who by faith come to Him. The truth of the position which was to form the subject of the present discourse, that the Mosaic appointments of priesthood and sacrifice were both typical and illustrative of the corresponding Christian facts; and that, being so, the i Heb. vii. 23-25. m Heb. ix. 14; x. 5-9. * Heb. vii. 26. n Rev. i. 5. 1 Heb. x. 14. religion of which they formed the most conspicuous features can be referred to no other than a divine origin; has now, I conceive, been made sufficiently manifest. On the philosophy, or theory, of the great transaction by which the sin of the world has been taken away, it is the less necessary to make any lengthened remarks, as the subject has been lately presented to us under almost every aspect of which it is capable. Let me, however, before I conclude, add an observation or two to those which have so abundantly vindicated the divine appointments of a Mediator and a propitiatory sacrifice in the Person of Christ. The old objections, that by the doctrine of the Atonement, as commonly received, we represent God as an implacable Deity, and as influenced by human passions, have been so often refuted, that it is not without surprise that we see them in the present day recalled from their merited obscurity. As it was Jehovah Himself who gave the atoning ordinances of the Law to Israel to cover sin, so God so loved the world, that He gave His onlyAgain, how could 66 begotten Son" to die for it. the unfathomable depths of the Divine mind be made intelligible to us, or be brought to bear upon our practice, save by means of analogies drawn from sentiments which we experience in ourselves and see in others? But there is one topic especially prominent in the mystical, or philosophical, religionism of the day;-the so L |