they prefented to him, was only what themselves deferved.

When the people tranfgreffed, by worshipping the golden calf, Mofes, the typical Mediator, who was innocent in this matter, under a deep fenfe of the neceffity both of fatisfaction and of fubftitution, proposed himself as a victim of divine vengeance, inftead of the guilty congregation. "Yet now," he said, "if thou wilt, forgive their fin and if not," if there be no other mode of reconciliation, "blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou haft written ." But a better Mediator was neceffary.

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As true worshippers could not apprehend that God took pleasure in facrifice for its own fake, they must have known that no victim they offered could have any merit; that there was no proportion between the facrifice of a beaft, and the fin of a man. They could not indeed " offer by “faith," without looking forward to a better subftitute. Without the exercise of faith in the furetiship of the Meffiah, their fervices could not have been accepted. When it is faid of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, that they "all "died in faith," we learn what this grace principally refpected. They had not, as to the fubftance, "received the promises," but they "faw "them afar off, and embraced them y." It was Christ as a Surety, whom, in the promifes, they "faw afar off." All their facrifices bore a direct relation to his "one offering." For in the first promife

x Exod. xxxii. 32.

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y Heb. xi. 13.

promise he was exprefsly revealed as a fuffering Saviour. Hence, when addrefling the Father concerning that will, by which we are fanctified, through the offering of his own body, he fays; "At the bead of the book it is written of me, I 'delight to do thy will 2."

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II. The impofition of hands on the head of the victim, is a circumftance which particularly deferves our attention, as a farther proof of substitution in making atonement. This was the injunction with refpect to " any man who fhould

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a

bring an offering. He fhall put his hand upon "the head of the burnt-offering; and it fhall be accepted for him, to make an atonement for "him "." This was an emblem of his transferring his guilt, as far as this could be done, to the victim. If in any inftance the whole congregation had finned ignorantly, and their offence was afterwards known to them, the congregation was to offer a young bullock for the fin, and the elders, as their reprefentatives, were to lay their "hands on the head of the bullock before the "LORD b." A fimilar rite was to be observed by the high-priest, on the great day of atonement. He was to "lay both his hands on the head of "the live-goat, and confefs over him all the iniquities of the children of Ifrael, and all their tranfgreffions, in all their fins, putting them on "the head of the goat ." This rite was unwor

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thy.

b Lev. iv. 14, 15.

1

thy of the divine institution, and of man's obfer vance; except as typifying that great act of God's juftice in laying upon Chrift the iniquities of all his people, and the exercife of their faith in cordially affenting to this act, and embracing him as their only Surety.

III. The victim was thus legally fubjected to the curfe merited by the tranfgreffor. As an evidence of this, all the fin-offerings, whofe blood was to be carried into the holy place, were to be burned without the camp, that it might not be defiled. This prefigured Christ's being "made

a curfe for us," when fubftituted as our atoning facrifice.

We have already viewed the execution of the feven fons of Saul, because of the guilt of their parent in flaying the Gibeonites, as a ftriking proof of God's vifiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. The fame event contains a remarkable illuftration of the doctrines of fubftitution and atonement. God fubjected Ifrael to a temporary curfe, in giving them up to famine for three years, because of Saul and his bloody houfe. According to the will of God, this curse must be transferred to feven of the fons of Saul; a myftical number, expreffive perhaps of the legal perfection of the atonement thus to be made. Although, as far as appears, they were perfonally innocent, as to this crime, the curfe was transferred to them. This appears from the

defign,

d Lev. vi. 30.

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defign, from the confequence, and from the manner of their punishment. The defign of their punishment was legally to remove the guilt of innocent blood from the nation of Ifrael. David, being divinely inftructed as to the caufe of the famine, faid unto the Gibeonites, "What fhall I "do for you? and wherewith fhall I make the atonement, that ye may blefs the inheritance of "the LORD?" The confequence of the execution and interment of the fufferers was, that "God was "entreated for the land." He accepted the atonement. But there was alfo fomething very remarkable in the manner of their punishment. From God's approbation of this whole affair, there can be no reasonable doubt that the Gibeonites were providentially directed, not only as to the atonement that they demanded, but the manner in which they propofed it fhould be made: "Let "feven men of his fons be delivered unto us, and "we will hang them up-in Gibeah of Saul." They propofe that themselves should act as priests in this extraordinary facrifice; and that the pu nishment fhould be hanging, the only one pro. nounced accurfed by the law. Their language is ftill more exprefs. They do not merely fay, “ We "will hang them up ;" but, "We will hang "them up unto the LORD," as victims offered unto him, and folemnly devoted to bear that curfe to which the nation had been fubjected, and legally to bear it away. The expreffion is afterwards a little varied, in the narrative of the fact; but fo as still to convey the fame idea.

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"They

"hanged them on the hill before the LORD.” The legal atonement was to be made for Ifrael, by means of their fuffering in the very fame manner in which He was to fuffer, who was truly to be made a curfe for us, being hanged on a tree; and who was thus to take away the iniquity of his people in one day. God was not entreated for the land, till thefe men were not only hanged, but buried. This having been long delayed, David viewed it as a matter of fuch importance that he engaged in the work himself. For according to the law, he that was hanged, was to be buried on the fame day, as being "the curfe "of God." This ordinance prefigured that the burial of Chrift fhould be a folemn and practical evidence that our fins were covered and removed from God's fight, fo as no more to rise up against us in judgment.

For

દ

For" without remiffion." It

IV. It was neceffary that atonement fhould be made by the fhedding of blood. What rites foever were used, without this in ordinary cafes there was no proper expiation. fhedding of blood there is no was not enough that the victim was flain: it was neceffary that it fhould be flain by the effufion of blood. This inftitution referred both to the curfe of the broken covenant, and to the manner in which it fhould be removed. The fentence of the law was, "Dying thou shalt die;" "The foul that finneth, it shall die." Now, it is declared

e a Sam. xxi. 1.—14.

f Deut. xxi. 23.