It has been supposed that Isaac was, as I have already mentioned, about thirty-three years of age at the time when he was offered. If it were so, his age coincided with that of our Lord at the time of his crucifixion. It is, however, certain that the son of Abraham was of a sufficient age to have resisted his father's will, or to have escaped from his hands, had he been disposed to have exerted his strength. His submission therefore was voluntary, like that of our blessed Lord, who "was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Was Isaac bound? so was Christ. And as Isaac was bound by the hands of his father, so also was our Lord Jesus Christ; for if He had not been bound by the decree of his heavenly Father, the bonds of man would have proved as weak as the green withs with which the Philistines vainly tried to confine the Israelitish champion. But in both cases the surrender was voluntary. For as Isaac's piety towards God concurred with that of his father in obedience to the Divine will; so the love of our Lord Jesus Christ was in unison with that of His Father and our Father towards the lost race of mankind. My life," said the adorable Jesus, a little before his crucifixion, "no man taketh from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." John x. 18.

Is it possible to survey the submissive victim of mount Moriah "laid on the altar upon the wood," without adverting to an infinitely greater personage, a far more interesting spectacle, even our great atoning sacrifice, our sinless victim, laid also on the wood of the cross, and nailed thereto? Isaac was spared, but Jesus suffered. A ram was substituted in the place of Isaac; but no substitute could be found for "the Lamb of God." It was necessary for human salvation that He should "suffer, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God."

The substitution of the ram in the place of Isaac was necessary to the completion of the typical exhibition, unless Isaac had been actually put to death and miraculously raised again from it. But this latter mode would have afforded too close a representation of the thing signified. In all the types scope was left for the exercise of faith by some obscurity in the parabolic prefiguration. Had Isaac been really sacrificed and raised from the dead, the type would have differed in this instance from all the other shadows of the typical dispensations.

Two things were to be made known to the father of the faithful who was constituted the depositary of truth, and through whose seed the faith delivered to the patriarchs was to be handed down through successive generations till the appearance of its great object. He was to have set before

And indeed it is extremely probable that, amidst the variety of concurring circumstances in the two cases, locality was one.

So soon as Abraham received the command to offer his son, he arose to execute it. His compliance was prompt and immediate. He conferred not with flesh and blood. The command was probably received in the visions of the night: for "he rose up early in the morning," and manifested his impatience to prove his ready obedience to the heart-rending injunction by performing himself those menial offices which are usually left to the care of servants, ver. 3. Can we read this without reflecting, that God had prepared HIS sacrifice from eternity, and “early in the morning" of time began to put his gracious purpose in execution. Hence Christ is said to have been "foreordained before the foundation of the world." 1 Pet. i. 20. Had Abraham time for reflection before he took the important step; and did he persevere in the resolution he had formed, notwithstanding the discouragements which a procrastination of three days presented to his mind ? Behold the Father of mercies persevered in HIS purpose of love formed from eternity; and notwithstanding the discouragements which the experience of human unworthiness for 4000 years presented, yet at length He

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spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Rom. viii. 32.

the typical

It is not the least remarkable among features which the history of Isaac furnishes, that he was offered on "the third day" from the time of his designation thereto by Divine appointment. For it was about the close of the third year, after our Lord's solemn consecration to his office by baptism, that he was made a sacrifice for the sins of the world. To this he seems Himself to refer in the message which he sent to Herod, recorded Luke xiii. 32, "Go ye and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected;" i. e. "notwithstanding all thy rage and malice, till my appointed time be come, thou canst do nothing to shorten it.”

Can we behold the son of Abraham carrying the wood on which he was to be laid as a victim appointed to death, up mount Moriah, without contemplating at the same time the Son of God, when "bearing his cross he went forth unto a place," probably the identical spot, very "called

the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified Him?" On this act of Abraham, in laying the wood on Isaac his son, an extraordinary comment has been produced from the Beracot minor, a rabbinical volume: "Isaac here carried the wood, as he that carries his cross on his shoulders:" A strange unintentional coincidence with the antitypical event!

It has been supposed that Isaac was, as I have already mentioned, about thirty-three years of age at the time when he was offered. If it were so, his age coincided with that of our Lord at the time of his crucifixion. It is, however, certain that the son of Abraham was of a sufficient age to have resisted his father's will, or to have escaped from his hands, had he been disposed to have exerted his strength. His submission therefore was voluntary, like that of our blessed Lord, who "was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Was Isaac bound? so was Christ. And as Isaac was bound by the hands of his father, so also was our Lord Jesus Christ; for if He had not been bound by the decree of his heavenly Father, the bonds of man would have proved as weak as the green withs with which the Philistines vainly tried to confine the Israelitish champion. But in both cases the surrender was voluntary. For as Isaac's piety towards God concurred with that of his father in obedience to the Divine will; so the love of our Lord Jesus Christ was in unison with that of His Father and our Father towards the lost race of mankind. "My life," said the adorable Jesus, a little before his crucifixion, "no man taketh from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." John x. 18.