centre of which is the Lamb as if it had been slain from the foundation of the world. The doctrine, or the testimony concerning the mediation of Christ is the very spirit and life of prophecy, without which prophecy would be a body without a soul. The atonement of Christ is the central point, from which alone the eye of faith can command a view of the whole panorama of prophecy. All unfulfilled prophecy, as well as the already accomplished predictions, have their sum and substance in the character and the work of Jesus Christ. To deny the atonement is, to take away the life-blood of prophecy. The Biblical critics who reject the atonement, like the Jews who rejected the Messiahship of Christ, make the whole apparatus of their learning, to bear against the prophecies which predict a suffering Savior, and a Vicarious Sufferer. This fact shews that the doctrine of the atonement is the heart of Christianity. A Socinian divine puts the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to critical torture, with the same unmercifulness and spleen as a Jewish Rabbi would put it. They both agree, like Herod and Pilate, to do away with the claims of Christ, to sap the foundation of Christianity, to throw away the blood of atonement as an unholy thing.

The New Testament regards the whole system of prophecy as having its scope and meaning, its spirit and truth, its life and glory, in the person and the atonement of Jesus Christ. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." To him gave all the prophets witness. Paul witnessed, both to small and great, saying no other things than those, which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people and to the Gentiles. The apostle Peter describes salvation as being according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through quence of argument in a work which has for its real author that Omniscient Mind to which the universe is ever present, in one unvaried, undivided thought."--Bp. HORSLEY on 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. Sermons, vol. ii. p. 22. Ed. 1816.

sanctification of the spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, and then says "of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified before hand, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."

Here, then, we meet with a complete system of prophecies delivered by various men and in divers ages, and yet pointing to One remarkable Personage of the highest majesty and excellency. These prophecies treat of his person, his name, his character, his work, his life, his death, and his glory; each of them consistent with the others, and one casting light on all the rest. They all meet together and have their full accomplishment in One Person, and in no one else, but in him most fully and clearly. Though they were delivered in various generations, they have but one object in view; and other events are hinted at only as they are connected with that object, and that object is the work of Christ. He is the true Seed of the woman, the true Prophet, the true Redeemer, the true Immanuel, the true Sun of Righteousness.

II. All the truths contained in the ceremonial institutions and sacrificial types are connected with the atonement of Christ.

It is confessedly true that many of the early Christian fathers, as well as many of the modern interpreters of types and shadows, have discovered similitudes, drawn parallels, pursued analogies, and pressed out truths that were never designed by such symbols. But such extravagant deductions of undisciplined imaginations supply no fair and valid arguments against a scriptural, sober, and judicious application of the typical character of the Jewish institutions and ceremonies.*

*

Among the best works on this subject are, Mather's 'Figures and Types of the Old Testament.' 4to ed., London, 1705; and Dr. D. G. Wait's 'Course of Sermons before the University of Cambridge, in 1825.' London, 1826, 8vo.

The sacred scriptures indisputably assert that there is a designed coincidence and an intended connection between the religious institutions of the Jews and the essential doctrines of Christianity. Indeed, I might argue, that of so much importance in the system of divine truth, is the symbolical character of the Israelitish ceremonies, that the Holy Spirit has given one entire book -the epistle to the Hebrews,-not only to give a distinct recognition of that principle as designed by God to prefigure the realities of the gospel-but also to mark out and explain the relation and agreement between that principle, and the events and the doctrines of the mediation of Christ. Hence the Jewish institutions are called, "a shadow of good things to come, but the body [the substance] is of Christ." Col. ii, 16, 17. The gifts and sacrifices of the priest "serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle." Heb. viii, 5. This tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry are called "the patterns of things in the heavens" and "the figures of the true." Heb. ix, 23, 24. The entire constitution of the Levitical law is described as "having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things." Heb. x, 1.

The body, the substance, the filling up, the meaning and truth, of all these ceremonial institutions, “is of Christ," and of him only. Extraordinary and illustrious characters were types of his person. Holy offices were shadows of his work and undertaking. The Jewish polity was an outline of his kingdom. The distinguished privileges of the theocracy were figures of his glorious rewards, the vicarious and expiatory sacrifices were representations of his glorious atonement. Various classes of types were employed to shadow forth the great truths of our salvation. Some types shadowed that man was a sinner; others, that he had forfeited his life; others, that another life was substituted and accepted instead of it;-and others shadowed that this

substitution should take place in the Messiah, who, according to Isaiah would "make his soul an offering for sin," and be "led as a Lamb to the slaughter." Exod. xx, 7. Lev. vi, 3, 4; xvii, 11; xxiv, 16. Deut. xxii, 26.

The Jewish institutions taught the Israelites no truth which the gospel has not attached to the atonement of Christ, and revealed it, "the truth as it is in Jesus." The very truths that were obscure in the ceremonial types are now made clear and defined by the gospel. And the truths which appeared defective and imperfect in the Jewish ritual, now, in the light of the Christian atonement, stand out in prominent relief, and with a fulness of meaning which they never had before.

The sacred scriptures regard all symbolical truths as meeting in the atonement of Christ. This is evident from the facts, that sacrificial names and appellations are given to Christ; that Jewish sacrifices are represented as shadows of the satisfaction of Christ; that the value which was but nominal in them, is described as intrinsic in the sacrifice of Christ; that the efficacy which was but ceremonial in them, is declared to be real and actual in the atonement of Christ; that the sacrifice of Christ is pointed out as the last that should be offered for sin; and from the fact, that animal victims ceased to be sacrificed, after the Great Propitiation had been publicly offered by Christ. He himself was the truth of them all. He was the true sacrifice, the true priest, the true altar, the true temple, and the true Savior.

III. All the doctrinal truths of divine revelation are connected with the atonement.

All doctrinal truth is the mind of God, the expression of his thoughts; and all his thoughts have a reference to the atonement. The Person of Christ is the centre of every truth, and the Mediation of Christ is the circumference of every truth. In him all truths live, move, and have their being. The atonement magnifies and honors every truth implied in the reality of the ex

It sup

ercise of a moral government in the world. poses and distinctly recognizes the verity and the reality of the sinfulness and ruin of mankind. It is itself a proof and a specimen of the truth of the introduction into the divine government of a compensative scheme for the purpose of restoring sinful man. It exhibits the honest sincerity of the divine invitation addressed to sinners in the clear light of the "demonstration of the Spirit." It supplies the most splendid evidence of the truth and certainty of the promises of the gospel, and gives the most solemn assurances of the reality of spiritual blessings.

Thus there is no class of truths which may not be either proved or explained by the principles of the atonement. And there is no class of truths which does not lose weight and efficacy by being severed from the person of Christ. Every truth separated from Christ, like a branch lopped from the living tree, loses its freshness and beauty, and languishes and dies. The providence of God has given us melancholy instances of the corruption and unwholesomeness to which any truth tends when apart from Christ. See the high and noble truths of the Old Testament-truths which elevated the minds of Abraham and Moses, which ravished the heart of David, and which tuned Isaiah's harp to the high pitch of even gospel times-look at them, in every age of the Jews, from the time of Malachi to the present day-look at them in the Cabbalistic inanities of the ancient Rabbis, in the turgid puerilities of modern Judaism, and you will perceive how much they have lost of sanctity, dignity, and energy; and how void, and powerless, and lifeless they have become. "How is the fine gold become dim?" How will you account for this painful circumstance in the history of divine truth? One awful fact explains the whole. The Jews have alienated these glorious truths from their vital connection with the sacrificial atonement of Messiah, "the Christ of God,"