types, resemblances, and exhibitions of the fact, in outward sensible institutions, ordained as law from the beginning, and to continue till the fact they prefigured should come to pass.

Such were the sacrifices instituted by God imme diately upon the fall, (and upon his promise of the life-giving seed, Gen. iii. 15.) as types of that great and only propitiatory sacrifice for sin which was to come; whose blood they saw continually shed (in type) in their daily sacrifices.

These were continued in the heathen posterities of Adam, by immemorial tradition, from the beginning, though they had forgot the beginning of them, as they had of the world, or of mankind; yet they retained so much of the reason of them, as that they had universally the notion of a vicarious atonement, and that our sins were to be purged by the blood of others suffering in our stead. As likewise, that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, but that a more noble blood was necessary. Hence they came to human sacrifices, and at last to sacrifice the greatest, most noble, and most virtuous: and such offered themselves to be sacrificed for the safety of the people. As Codrus, king of the Athenians, who sacrificed himself on this account. The like did Curtius for the Romans, as supposing himself the bravest and most valuable of them all. So the Decii, the Fabii, &c. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia for the Greek army; and the king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, 2 Kings iii. 27. Thus the sacrificing (not their servants or slaves, but) their children to Moloch, is frequently mentioned of the

Jews, which they did in imitation of the heathen, as it is said, Psal. cvi. 35-38. "They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works; and they served their idols-Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto the idols of Canaan," &c. Pursuant to which notion, the prophet introduceth them arguing thus: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burntofferings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" They were plainly searching after a complete and adequate satisfaction for sin; and they thought it necessary.

D. No doubt they thought so; but that did not make it necessary.

C. The doctrine of satisfaction is a subject by itself, which I have treated elsewhere, in my answer to the examination of my last dialogue against the Socinians. But I am not come so far with you yet; I am now only speaking of sacrifices as types of the sacrifice of Christ.

As

And besides sacrifice in general, there were afterwards some particular sacrifices appointed, more nearly expressive of our redemption by Christ. the passover, which was instituted in memory of the redemption of the children of Israel (that is, the church,) out of Egypt, (the house of bondage of this world, where we are in servitude to sin and misery,) in the night when God slew all the first-born of the Egyptians: but the destroyer was to pass over those

houses where he saw the blood of the Paschal Lamb upon the door-posts. And it was to be eaten with unleavened bread, expressing the sincerity of the heart, without any mixture or taint of wickedness. And thus it is applied, "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

There was a double exhibition of Christ on the great day of expiation, which was but once a year; on which day only the High Priest entered into the holy of holies (which represented heaven, Exod. xxv. 40. Heb. ix. 24.) with the blood of the sacrifice, whose body was burned without the camp; to show God's detestation of sin, and that it was to be removed far from us: and that we must go out of the camp, that is, out of this world, bearing our reproach for sin, before we can be quite freed from it. See how exactly this was fulfilled in Christ, Heb. xiii. 11-14. "For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach; for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.'

The other lively representation of Christ's bearing our sins, and taking them away from us, which was made on the same day of expiation, was the

scape-goat, Lev. xvi. 21, 22. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness." This is so plain, that it needs no application.

Another express representation of Christ was the brazen serpent in the wilderness, by looking upon which the people were cured of the stings of the fiery serpents. So, in looking upon Christ by faith, the sting of the old serpent, the devil, is taken away. And the lifting up the serpent did represent Christ being lifted up upon the cross. Christ himself makes the allusion, John iii. 14. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

He was likewise represented by the manna; for he was the true bread that came down from heaven to nourish us unto eternal life, John vi. 31-36.

As also by the rock whence the waters flowed out to give them drink in the wilderness, "and that Rock was Christ," 1 Cor. x. 4.

And he was not only their meat and drink, but he was also their constant guide, and led them in a pillar of fire by night, and of a cloud by day. And the cloud of glory in the temple, in which God appeared, was by the Jews understood as a type of the Messiah, who is the true Shechina, or habitation of God.

The Sabbath is called a shadow of Christ, Col. ii. 17. It was a figure of that eternal rest procured to us by Christ; therefore it is called a sign of the perpetual covenant, Exod. xxxi. 16, 17. Ezek. xx. 12.

It

And such a sign was the Temple at Jerusalem, at which place, and none other, the sacrifices of the Jews were to be offered, Deut. xii. 11, 13, 14. Because Christ was to be sacrificed there, and as a token of it, those sacrifices which were types of him were to be offered only there. And so great stress was laid upon this, that no sin of the Jews is ofténer remembered than their breach of this command. was a blot set upon their several reformations, otherwise good and commendable in the sight of God, that the high places (where they used to sacrifice) were not taken away. This is marked as the great defect in the reformation of Asa, 1 Kings xv. 14. of Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings xxii. 43. of Jehoash, 2 Kings xii. 3. of Amaziah, 2 Kings xv. 4. of Jotham, ver. 35. But they were taken away by Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 4. and the people instructed to sacrifice and burn incense at Jerusalem only, 2 Chron. xxxii. 12. Isa. xxxvi. 7.

There was likewise a further design of Providence in limiting their sacrifices to Jerusalem, which was, that after the great propitiatory sacrifice of Christ had been once offered there, God was to remove the Jews from Jerusalem, that they might have no sacrifice at all (as, for that reason, they have not had in any part of the world near these seventeen hundred years past) to instruct them. That (as the Apostle speaks to them, Heb. x. 26.) "there remaineth no more"