the law, Exod. xiii. 12. By this emblem we may discern that pre-eminence of Christ, whereby he is the first born among many brethren, both as to inheritance and dignity. For none comes to the inheritance but by Christ, nor to any other inheritance but what was his before.

X. These following particulars belong to the rite of offering. 1. The priest laid upon the propitiatory sacrifices the sins of those for whom they were to be offered; which is plain from the names, sin, guilt, by which the sacrifices themselves are usually called, and the thing itself shews it. For as in reality none but the guilty are punished; so in the type also, that which is appointed to die for sin, is typically under the guilt of sin. And thus far the priests represented God, as laying sin upon Christ; and the sacrifices were a figure of Christ, as suffering for sin. 2. The blood of the sacrifices was shed, when they were slain, to be a symbol of Christ shedding his blood, when he was put to death. 3. The slain sacrifices were burnt on the altar. This represented, that Christ was to be consumed by the flames of his love for his Father and his elect, and at the same time by the flames of the divine wrath against sin, which he had undertaken to bear. 4. Together with the flames and smoke, there was a sweetsmelling savour that ascended up to heaven; on which account, sacrifices are said to be acceptable to God; nay, also the food of God. This shadowed forth that most grateful fragrancy of Christ's sacrifice, by the efficacy of which all the severity of the divine vengeance is changed into the most tender love for the elect.

XI. The accension, or miraculous consuming the sacrifices by fire, seems to be contemporary with sacrifices themselves and the opinion of some excellent divines is very probable, that God had such a regard to Abel's

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gift, as in this manner to set it on fire; while Cain's was neglected. For at the time when sacrifices were in use, God generally testified, by fire from heaven, that they were acceptable to him, when offered in faith; A burning lamp passed between the pieces, Gen. xv. 17. See also Lev. ix, 24. Judg. vi. 21. 2 Chron. vii. 1. And this burning of the sacrifices by fire from heaven, being the most certain token of the divine acceptance, was prayed for, Psal. xx. 3. Remember all thy offerings, and accept (reduce to ashes) thy burnt-sacrifice. This fire from heaven signified the Holy Spirit, by whose flames whatever is not set on fire, cannot be an acceptable sacrifice to God; and by which Christ also offered himself to God without spot; by which, in fine, he baptizes his people, that both they and their actions may be pleasing to God. We may see, what John the Baptist says; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, Matth. iii. 11. For this burning of the sacrifices we are now speaking of, was, in all respects, a typical baptism of fire, that came suddenly from heaven, after the other typical baptism of water, wherein the hands and feet of those who approached the altar, were washed, Exod. xl. 30, 31, 32. as Cloppenburg has ingeniously observed, Schol. sacrific. p. 65.

XII. When the sacrifice was duly performed, the expiation followed; which consisted in this, that God was satisfied with the sacrifice, which he graciously accepted, and that when the guilt of the sin, laid on the sacrifice, was, together with the sacrifice, typically abolished, the wrath of God was appeased, the raging plague stayed, and God gave tokens of his favor to the sinner. For this reason, the atonement for the soul is ascribed to the sacrifices, Lev. xvii. 11. namely, a typical and sacramental one. See what we advanced sect. 8, Sacramental, I say, because that typical ex

piation was a sacrament or sign of the true expiation, which all believers obtain in Christ. And those types prefigured, that God, from the very first notification of the gospel, acquiesced in Christ's undertaking to make satisfaction for sins, in the fulness of time, by which they might be truly expiated. And in this sense, Paul declares, that the blood of Christ purges the conscience from dead works; as the blood of bulls and of goats sanctified formerly to the purifying of the flesh, Heb. ix. 12, 13. For this last prefigured and sealed the former on supposition of the faith of the offerers.

XIII. There was, last of all, a sacred feast kept be-fore Jehovah, upon the offered gifts and sacrifices, which were not entirely consumed by fire: this, under the Mosaic law, was the case especially with those sacrifices, which were called peace-offerings, Lev. vii. 15. Which word the Greeks have rendered EIRENIKA; the Latins, pacifica: others prefer, EUHARISTIKA. But confession, or thanksgiving, is one of the kinds of this sort of sacrifices, Lev. vii. 12. and these were also propitiatory as appears from the imposition of hands, which denotes the imposition of sins, Lev. iii. 2, 8, 13. And therefore it has not been improperly observed by a learned person, that the reason and notation of the name seems to be; that, in this sacrifice, there was in some measure a perfection, a consummation. For burntofferings were entirely consumed, and no body eat of them of the others the priest eat; of the last, even any private person, whose sacrifice it was, Deut. xii. 6, 7. To which the apostle has an eye, 1 Cor. x. 18. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? This was a sacrament of communion, which they who approach to God, have with the altar and the true priest and a symbol of that communion, which all believers have among themselves in Christ; whereby

Christ and all his benefits, and all the gifts of every believer in particular, are the gifts of all, as belonging to the same body. Paul intimates, that to this feast the holy supper answers, as an antitype, 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, 18. In this manner the grace of God and the benefits of Christ were signified and sealed to believers in the sacrifices.

XIV. But there was in them no less a reminding of the duty which believers owe to God, and to which they bound themselves by the use of the sacrifices. 1. There was in sacrifices a confession of sin and guilt. For there were no sacrifices before the fall. And the animals, which the offerers substituted for themselves, as oxen, sheep, goats, &c. signified some fault. For the ox is an emblem of ignorance, Is. i. 3. the sheep, of wandering, Is. liii. 6. the goat, of petulance and mischievousness, Matth. xxv. 33. And the slaying and burning the sacrifices extorted from man a confession, that he deserved eternal death, and to be scorched in the flames of divine justice.

XV. 2. There was likewise in sacrifices an excitement to the practice of holiness and real goodness. 1. It was not lawful to offer any thing to God, but from among clean animals, which were given to man for food. Thus, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to keep himself unspotted from the world, Jam. i. 27. 2. Nothing was to be offered, but what was sound, without blemish, or defect in any part; not the blind, the deaf, the maimed, the lame, the languid and the sick, Mal. i. 13. Thus, which will also be a thing acceptable to God, we ought to serve him with all our faculties, with all attention and intention, with a right judgment, a sound heart, a cheerful will, and to consecrate all our members to him; because God requires perfection, Matth. v. 48. 3. The animals appointed for

sacrifice, had something peculiarly adapted to represent those virtues, which ought to be in those that approach to God. Oxen are both patient in labour, and obstinately resist what is hurtful to them: sheep and goats know their shepherd, and hear his voice, without listening to that of a stranger, John x. 4, 6. Polybius, lib. 12. not far from the beginning, relates a remarkable story concerning goats, with respect to this particular. And then they are led to the slaughter without murmur or noise, Is. liii. 7. All these things should in a spiritual sense be in those who are devoted to God.

XVI. 3. By the offering of the sacrifice is signified, 1. That our old man, with all his lusts, should be slain to the honor of God. 2. That it is equal and just, that the whole man, who endeavours to please God, should present himself before him in the exercise of faith and love, and with his heart inflamed, or a desire to have it inflamed with zeal, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, Rom. xii. 1. 3. As sacrifices consumed with strange fire, were displeasing to God; so ist every act of worship, that has not the Spirit of God for its author, or does not proceed from heavenly love. They who kindle a fire, and compass themselves about with sparks, shall go into the fire, and the sparks they have kindled, Is. 1. 11. Though one should give his body to be burned, and has not charity, it profiteth nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. 4. That we ought to consecrate to God not only ourselves, but also our all: for, as we hinted above, riches formerly consisted chiefly in heards and flocks ; and Paul tells us, that the doing good and communicating are sacrifices, with which God is well pleased, Heb. xiii. 16. 5. That our very lives ought not to be dear to us; but when God calls us to it, we are willingly to lay them down for his glory, Phil. ii. 17. Yea, and if I be offered