not an imaginary interpretation, but it is largely insisted upon by the apostle Paul. (b) Our deliverance by the death of Christ is typified again in that ordinance of the Law, that the manslayer who fled to one of the cities of refuge should not come out thence till the death of the high priest, and no satisfaction be taken till then; and then he should be acquitted, and "return into the land of his possession." (c) 66 But the most remarkable type of the atonement of Jesus Christ is the sacrifice of the paschal Lamb, in correspondence with which" Christ our Passover is "sacrificed in our stead." (d) Justin Martyr, in his conference with Trypho the Jew, evinces from the Scriptures, and the nature of this rite, that it was a type of Christ crucified for the sins of the world. One curious circumstance which he notices, without any contradiction from his learned opponent, is this; "The 66 paschal lamb (says he) which was to be entirely "roasted, was a symbol of the punishment of the cross, "which was inflicted on Christ: for the lamb which "was roasted was so placed as to resemble the figure of a cross: with one spit it was pierced longitudi 66 66 nally, from the tail to the head; with another it was "transfixed through the shoulders, so that the fore legs became extended." (e) The same learned 66 (b) Heb. vii. viii. ix. x. Consult Owen and Maclean on the Hebrews; also Outram's Dissertations on Sacrifices, and the judicious and instructive observations of Dr. J. P. Smith, in his "Four Discourses on the "Sacrifice and Priesthood of Jesus Christ." (c) Num. xxxv. 6, 25—28. (d) 1 Cor. v. 7. Vide the Greek. (e) Just. Martyri Opera ab Oberthur. vol. ii. p. 106. apologist has another passage still more extraordinary, in relation to this ceremony. The Jews, he affirms, expunged passages from their sacred writings which bore testimony to the vicarious sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and among them the following: When Ezra celebrated the passover (as is related Ezra, ch. vi. 19, &c.) Justin says he spoke thus:-" And Ezra "spoke unto the people, and said, This Passover is "our Saviour and our Refuge: and if ye shall under"stand and ponder it in your hearts, that we shall "afflict him for a sign; and if afterwards we shall “believe on him, this place shall not be desolated for "ever, saith the Lord of hosts. But if ye will not “believe on him, nor hear his preaching, ye shall be a "laughing-stock to the Gentiles." This, Justin asserts, the Jews blotted from the Septuagint translation; and if so, they took care to expunge it from the Hebrew likewise; for, at present, it exists in neither. (ƒ) Another circumstance connected with the passover is recorded in the Mishna. After the blood was sprinkled, the lamb was hung up and flayed. This hanging up was deemed so essential a part of the ceremony, that if there was no convenience to suspend the lamb, two men standing with their hands on each other's shoulders had the lamb suspended from their arms till the skin was taken off. (g) These are manifestly typical of Christ's crucifixion and sacrifice. In the second place, let me point to the prophetical evidence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. "Those (ƒ) Just. Martyri Opera ab Oberthur, vol. ii. p. 196. "things (says Peter), which God foreshowed by the "mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should "suffer, he hath fulfilled." (h) Numerous are the passages in the prophecies which declare that the Messiah should suffer; but the only ones I now recollect which declare why he should suffer, are given by Isaiah and Daniel; they are, however, quite sufficient for our present purpose: "Surely our infirmities he hath borne: "And our sorrows he hath carried them." "He was wounded for our transgressions; "Was smitten for our iniquities: "The chastisement by which our peace is effected was laid 66 upon him; "And by his bruises we are healed." "Jehovah hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all." "For the transgression of my people he was smitten to death." "Although he had done no wrong, "Neither was there any guile in his mouth : "Yet it pleased Jehovah to crush him with affliction." "And made intercession for the transgressors." (i) To the same effect Daniel predicts that the "Mes"siah shall be cut off, but not for himself; but to "make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in "everlasting righteousness." (i) (Я) Acts, iii. 18. Dan. ix. 24, 26. See also (i) Lowth's Isaiah, liii. 4-6. 8-12. Zechariah, xiii. 1, where, though the name of the Messiah does not appear, the language is very expressive and fully to the purpose, obviously pointing, as Blaney and Secker remark, to "the blood of Christ "(1 John, i. 7) which cleanseth from all sin." 66 66 By historical evidence that Christ died as a sacrifice for sin, which I intended to produce in the third place, I mean especially that which arises from the consideration of his mental" agony" previously to his crucifixion, and at that solemn event. When he was at Gethsemane, the evening on which he was betrayed, the evangelist Matthew says, he "began to be very "sorrowful and full of anguish, and said to his disciples, My soul is very sorrowful, even unto "death." (k) Mark, in like manner, says, "he began to be greatly astonished, and to be full of an"guish." (1) Indeed, the original language employed by Mark conveys a stronger sense than that in this translation; for extaubeolar imports the most shocking mixture of terror and amazement; and repíλUTòs, in the next verse, intimates that he felt on every side surrounded with sorrow, and pressed down with despondency. While thus "drinking of the brook by "the way," (m) thrice did he pray to his Father to "take away the bitter cup," and though it was in the cool of the evening, "the sweat" occasioned by the agony of his mind "was as it were great drops of "blood falling down to the ground." (n) And when hanging on the cross, his piteous and heart-rending exclamation, "My God, my God, why hast thou for"saken me?" (o) doubtless arose from the want of a comfortable sense of God's presence. (k) Matt. xxvi. 37, 38. (m) Ps. cx. 7. (1) Mark, xiv. 33, 34. (n) Luke, xxii. 44. (0) Matt. xxvii. 46. On this subject see some very profound and exquisite reflections in Hooker's Eccles. Polity, lib. v. § 48, p. 202, Ed. of 1666. Now whence arose this agony, this interruption of the sense of God's presence, this intense feeling of destitution, during our Lord's great extremity, but from the necessity that he should suffer? Bodily pain might have been lost in enjoyment, even during crucifixion (as has been manifested in the delights of some martyrs in the midst of their tortures); but in that case the "soul" of the Messiah could not have been" an offering for sin," as Isaiah predicted it must be. To this end it was that it "pleased Jeho"vah to crush him with affliction:" and it is next to impossible to meditate upon his pathetic exclamations amid his severe sufferings without adopting again the recently quoted language of the same prophet,— "Surely OUR infirmities he huth borne ; If this explication be rejected, it is natural to ask upon what principles of equitable retribution, or of consistency of character, can that extreme anguish be accounted for, which was endured by a pure and perfect being, who had not on his own account one "recollection tinged with remorse, or one anticipation "mingled with dread?" This question admits but of a single answer, and that in my estimation a very absurd one: for, to allot a series of exquisite sufferings to an individual who is without sin, and with regard to whom of course they cannot be penal, and at the termination of his life, when they cannot be corrective, merely for the purpose of calling into exercise "pa"tience and resignation," and thus tending to "our |