Page images
PDF
EPUB

incorruption to light by his gospel. 'How much,' says Dr Pye Smith with great beauty and eloquence, 'how much must the impression on the heart have been increased, when the first sacrifice was offered: when the parents of our race, recent from their guilty fall, were abased by the divine rebuke, driven from their blissful seat, and filled with dismay at the threatening of DEATH! A threatening piercing through their souls, but of the nature and effects of which they could form none but vague ideas. But when directed by stern authority, to apply some instrument of death to the lamb which, with endearing innocence, had sported around them,—an act of whose effects they as yet knew nothing, they heard its unexpected cries, they beheld the appalling sight of streaming blood, and struggling agonies, and life's last throes,— they gazed upon the breathless body, and they were told THIS IS DEATH: how stricken must they have been with horror, such as no description could ever paint! When, farther, they had to go through all the other process of the sacrifice, their hands reluctant, and their hearts broken, and all their soul crushed down by the sad consciousness that these horrid things were the fruit of their sin, and yet contained the hope of their deliverance,-who can imagine the extremity of their feelings?'"

[ocr errors]

Now let us collect together in a single sentence the different points of the argument thus elaborated. Sacrifices have existed from the remotest ages of the

31 Disc. or Sac., pp. 9, 10.

world, and prevailed among every people under heaven;-these sacrifices have been, without all controversy, of an expiatory and vicarious nature;—it is found impossible to account for their existence but on the principle of their being derived from an original divine institution;-of such an institution, we can conceive of no design worthy of God, short of its being to prefigure the death of the Lord Jesus Christ:but, as the type and antitype must resemble each other in their most essential and significant features, the typical sacrifices of ancient divine institution being vicarious and expiatory must be held demonstrative of the atoning nature of the Saviour's death.

Such is the first argument in support of the doctrine of atonement-an argument which prejudice may resist and ignorance despise, but which it will not be easy, either by learning, or reasoning, or scripture, to overturn.

How inexcusable, then, are such as deny the atonement of Jesus Christ! Blind, insolent, and rash, they arraign the wisdom of God, for which conduct they are reproved by the heathen themselves. Though reason could never have devised the plan of substitution, the vicarious nature of pagan sacrifices is a proof that there is something in God's method of redemption, when revealed, which unsophisticated reason cannot gainsay or resist. The testimony hence derived in favour of our doctrine is, thus, universal as the practice of the rite of which we have been speaking; and every sacrifice of the heathen may be

regarded in this way, as pointing directly to the one perfect sacrifice of the Son of God. The errors and superstitions which are mingled up and incorporated with these offerings, cannot but awaken, in the breast of the true christian, a feeling of pity for those who are without the sacred writings, and of gratitude for this inestimable boon. It is impossible to reflect on the high antiquity of the sacrificial institute, without thinking of the divine goodness manifested in giving to man at so early a period the knowledge of atonement. This doctrine, so essential to his hopes as a sinner, was coeval with the fall, so that the very first human transgressor was made acquainted with the way by which the fatal consequences of guilt might be for ever averted. Nor is the wisdom of God less apparent in thus preparing the world for the universal reception of the only true religion. Wherever Christianity can be carried, the people must be so far prepared to acquiesce in its grand essential principle of salvation by an atoning sacrifice. Every part of the gentile world is familiar with the idea of substitution, and the very terms which this principle suggests the use of, are to be found incorporated in almost every language on earth. Without this, the prospect of the universal spread of the christian faith must have been, humanly speaking, much more hopeless, as the difficulty of bringing men to understand its nature must have been greatly increased.

SECTION V.

PROOF-LEVITICAL SACRIFICES.

THE distinction put on Abraham and his posterity by their being selected as the depositaries of certain peculiar privileges, is a striking circumstance in the providential development of God's purposes of grace. It forms an era in the history of the species, and more particularly of the church. It pleased God to separate the family in question from the rest of mankind; to appoint them laws peculiar to themselves; and so to situate them that they should have every opportunity of punctually observing the institutions of Jehovah. The prescription of these laws occurred about two thousand five hundred years from the creation of the world, and about fifteen hundred years before the advent of Christ. The laws themselves embraced every thing respecting the civil and religious interests of the people; and among those of a religious nature, the law of sacrifice held a prominent place.

This was not the first time that the rite in question was mentioned. We have seen that it was known to the church long before. And, indeed, the manner in which it is introduced, in the Levitical code, is no

small confirmation of the view we have given, in the preceding section, of the divine origin of primitive sacrifice. It is not brought forward as a new thing, on which the authority of God is stamped for the first time. New regulations respecting the mode and the occasion of the rite are laid down, but the rite itself is not made the subject of any authoritative enactment. It is taken for granted that the rite exists, and that its divine authority is acknowledged and well understood. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: IF any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock.", Such is the manner in which the Levitical institutes regarding sacrifice are introduced; and it must be admitted to furnish a striking corroboration of the views of those who believe that the ordinance was not then appointed for the first time.

[ocr errors]

It is not meant by these observations, to insinuate a doubt with respect to the divine authority of the sacrifices which existed under the law. That regulations were prescribed by Jehovah respecting the substance of which these sacrifices should consist, the qualifications they were required to possess, the mode in which they should be offered, and the occasions on which they were to be presented, is quite sufficient evidence that the rite itself possessed the sanction of divine authority. We are thus enabled to appeal to the nature and design of the Levitical sacri

Lev. 1,
2.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »