with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."1 Still more

striking is the parallel drawn in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where a reference is made to the Jewish sin-offerings; "The bodies of those beasts," says the apostle, "whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burnt without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." And many other similar examples might be adduced, were it necessary to do so. But if Christ be the great Antitype, I know not how, after careful examination into the nature and import of this typical sin-offering, we can resist the conclusion that He died vicariously-that is, as a substitute-and that His death upon the cross was for the expiation of sin.

And yet, my brethren, this belief is not arrived at by inference only. The Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, authoritatively asserts that Christ offered one sacrifice for sin, and the Apostle Peter defines the circumstances of that sacrifice when he says that "He bare our sins in His own body on the tree.' That Christ suffered in the place of, as well as on behalf of sinful men, is surely involved in passages corresponding to that in the Galatians, where the Apostle declares the transference of the curse from man to (2) Hebrews xiii. 11. (4) Galatians iii. 13

(1) 1 Peter i. 18, 19.

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(3) 1 Peter ii. 24.

man's Redeemer. deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."1 When these and similar statements are placed side by side with our Lord's words, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many:' "2 when we compare them, too, with apostolic words such as these, "In due time Christ died for the ungodly;" "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God:" and when, moreover, we recal the prophetic sayings of Isaiah, "He was wounded for our transgressions; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed: The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all:" 5 we cannot, I think, disconnect the idea of substitution and vicarious sufferings from the death of our Lord upon the cross.

"Christ," saith he, "hath re

3

Professor Lightfoot, in his commentary on that verse in the Galatians to which I have referred you, adds this important remark with regard to the typical Jewish sin-offering of the day of Atonement-"The victim," he writes, "is regarded as bearing the sins of those for whom atonement is made. The curse is

(1) 2 Cor. v. 21. (2) Matt. xx. 28. (3) Romans v. 6. (4) 1 Peter iii. 18. (5) Isaiah liii. 5-6.

transferred from them to it. It becomes, in a certain sense, the impersonation of the sin and of the curse." And so surely was our blessed Lord, when His cry to heaven was exceeding loud and bitter-"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The agony of His anticipation of that hour leads us also to the same conclusion. Had his forecoming woes been of a physical nature only, the agony of the garden would have been unworthy of a holy martyr to the cause of truth. But no, in the emphatic language of the Prayer of Consecration in our Communion Service, "He made there," that is, upon the cross, "by His one oblation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world." "He was made sin for us"-"He became a curse for us"-and that was the cup which His Father gave Him to drink on our account, and which He drank to the very dregs when He poured out His soul an offering for sin. In the words of the Homily on Salvation, "It is our part and duty ever to remember the great mercy of our God, how that all the world being wrapped in sin by breaking of the law, God sent His only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ into this world to fulfil the law for us, and by shedding of his most precious blood, to make a sacrifice and satisfaction, or, as it may be called, amends to His Father for our sins-to assuage His wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same."

But let it be ever observed, that God's wrath is not of the nature of a passion, but is rather that undeviating intention to inflict punishment on sin, which is one of the wise, and doubtless kind laws, of His moral government. For we may easily see how love as well as justice may require the observance of such a law. But if this be so, as indeed is implied in the Divine declaration to Moses that He will "by no means clear the guilty," then in no way could the wrath of God be averted from the sinner, consistently with His attribute of justice and the perfection of His moral government, but on the principle of substitution. And such a substitute was found, yea He willingly offered Himself-He in whom the Godhead and the Manhood were joined together, who could therefore be a substitute for man in His humanity, and at the same time offer ample satisfaction by virtue of His deity. It was the Son of God who said, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," and who in man's nature in the fulness of time "truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us,' ,"1 and to pay for us the debt of life which we owed to a dishonoured law.

But we must beware of supposing for a moment that the sacrifice of Christ was for the purpose of awakening within the mind of God thoughts of peace towards his rebellious children. Oh, no! the eternal (1) Art. iii.

counsel of peace, and the kindness and love of God towards man, were themselves the fountain whence the stream of salvation issued. "He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." "God Himself was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him." "He found a ransom."

"It was God," saith Christ Jesus to be a

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the Apostle, "who set forth propitiation through faith in His blood;" a truth which is expressively taught in the typical provision referred to in the text-"The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." The sacrifice was not the efficient cause of God's merciful regard for the sinner, but the result of it. The necessity for the sacrifice arose from His attribute of justice, and the purity and inviolability of the Divine law: "The atonement," as it has been said, 66 was a transaction before the bar of justice." "The Son of Man

must (de) suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed." 2 Had not Christ died, sin would have borne its natural fruit, and death, eternal death, have been the doom awaiting us all.

But He died for all, and each may feel as if there were no other, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." And those who say of Christ, as the Israelites