1

circumstance, St. Paul beseeches Christians, by the mercies of God, to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is their reasonable service. (Rom. xii. 1.) Hence also Jesus Christ is styled a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Pet. i. 19.) Further, it was a custom among nations contiguous to Judæa, and particularly among the Egyptians, to set a seal upon a victim that was deemed proper for sacrifice. With this custom the Jews could not be unacquainted; and it is possible that similar precautions were in use among themselves, especially as they were so strictly enjoined to have their sacrifices without spot and without blemish. To such a usage Jesus Christ is supposed to have alluded, when speaking of the sacrifice of himself, he says-Him hath God the Father SEALED. (John vi. 27. 51.) "Infinite justice found Jesus Christ to be without spot or blemish, and therefore sealed, pointed out and accepted him as a proper sacrifice and atonement for the sin of the whole world. Collate Heb. vii. 26-28. Eph. v. 27. 2 Pet. iii. 14. and especially Heb. ix. 13, 14. For, if the blood of BULLS and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth, - how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself WITHOUT SPOT to God, purge your consciences from dead works!"2

3. The victim thus chosen, being found immaculate, was led up to the altar by the person offering the sacrifice; who laid his hand upon its head, on which he leaned with all his strength; and, while the sacrifice was offering said some particular prayers; and if several persons united in offering the same victim, they put their hands upon it in succession.3 By this imposition of hands the person presenting the victim acknowledged the sacrifice to be his own; that he loaded it with his iniquities; that he offered it as an atonement for his sins; that he was worthy of death because he had sinned, having forfeited his life by violating the law of God; and that he entreated God to accept the life of the innocent animal in the place of his own. In this respect the victims of the Old Testament were types of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God that TAKETH AWAY the sin of the world (John i. 39.), and on whom Jehovah in

The following account of the manner in which the Egyptians provided white bulls for their sacrifices, will materially explain the custom above alluded to.They sacrifice white bulls to Apis, and for that reason make the following trial. If they find one black hair upon him, they consider him as unclean. In order that they may know this with certainty, the priest appointed for this purpose views every part of the animal both standing and lying on the ground: after this, he draws out his tongue, to see if he be clean by certain signs; and in the last place he inspects the hairs of his tail, that he may be sure they are, as by nature they should be. If, after this search, the animal is found unblemished, he signifies it by tying a label to his horns; then, having applied wax, he seals it with his ring, and they lead him away, for it is death to sacrifice one of these animals, unless he has been marked with such a seal." Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 38. vol. i. p. 113. edit. Oxon. 2 Dr. A. Clarke, on John vi. 27.

3 The nature and mystical import of laying hands on the head of the victim are largely considered by Archbp. Magee in his Discourses on the Atonement, vol. i. pp. 336-377.

the fulness of time laid the iniquity of us all.1 (Isa. liii. 6. with 1 Pet. ii. 24.)

4. Further, in certain cases it was required that the victim should be one, on which never came yoke (Numb. xix. 2. Deut. xxi. 3. 1 Sam. vi. 3.); because any animal which had been used for a common purpose, was deemed improper to be offered in sacrifice to God.2

5. When the victim devoted to the sacrifice was brought before the altar, the priest, having implored the divine favour and acceptance by prayer, poured wine upon its head: and after the performance of this solemn act of religion, which was termed a libation, the victim was instantly led to the slaughter. To this circumstance St. Paul, knowing the time of his martyrdom to be very near, has a very striking allusion; respecting this rite, which immediately preceded the death of the victim, as already performed upon him, implying that he was now devoted to death, and that his dissolution would speedily follow. I am now ready to be offered, says he (2 Tim. iv. 6.); literally, I am already poured out as a libation; the time of my departure is at hand. A similar expressive sacrificial allusion occurs in Phil. ii. 17. Yea, says the holy apostle, and if I be POURED OUT upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. In this passage he represents the faith of the Philippians as the sacrificial victim, and compares his blood, willingly and joyfully to be shed in martyrdom, to the libation poured out on occasion of the sacrifice.3

1 On the vicarious import of the Mosaic sacrifices, see Archbp. Magee's Dis courses on the Atonement, vol. i. pp. 352-366.

2 The heathens, who appear to have borrowed much from the Hebrews, were very scrupulous in this particular. Neither the Greeks, nor the Romans (who had the same religion, and consequently the same sacrifices with the Greeks), nor indeed the Egyptians, would offer an animal in sacrifice that had been employed in agriculture. Just such a sacrifice as that prescribed here does Diomede vow to offer to Pallas. Iliad, x. 291-294.

Ως νυν μοι εθελουσα παρίσασα, και με φυλασσε.

Σοι δ' αν εγω ρέξω Βεν ηνιν, ευρυμέτωπον,
Αδμητην, ην απο υπο ζυγον ηγαγεν ανηρ
Την του εγω ρέξω, χρυσον κεριχευας.

So now be present, O, celestial maid,

So still continue to the race thine aid.

A yearling heifer falls beneath the stroke

Untam'd, unconscious of the galling yoke.

With ample forehead and with spreading horns,
Whose tapering tops refulgent gold adorns.

POPE, altered.

In the very same words Nestor promises a similar sacrifice to Pallas. Odyss. iii. 382.
Thus also VIRGIL. Georg. iv. 550.

Quatuor eximios præstanti corpore tauros,
Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas.
From his herd he culls,

For slaughter, four the fairest of his bulls :
Four heifers from his female stock he took,
All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke.

DRYDEN.

It is very probable that the Gentiles learnt their first sacrificial rites from the Patriarchs; and on this account we need not wonder to find so many coincidences in the sacrificial system of the patriarchs and Jews, and of all the neighbouring nations. (Dr. A. Clarke, on Numb. xix. 2.)

3 Parkhurst's Greek Lexicon, p. 621. Drs. Macknight and A. Clarke on the passages cited.

6. The animal thus conducted to the altar was next immolated, by cutting the throat and windpipe entirely through at one stroke; the blood being caught in a vessel, and sprinkled round about upon the altar. By this sprinkling the atonement was made, for the blood was the life of the beast, and it was always supposed that life went to redeem life. (Lev. i. 5-7.) The blood remaining after these aspersions, was poured out at the foot of the altar, either all at once, or at different times, according to the nature of the sacrifice offered. Around the altar there was a kind of trench into which the blood fell; whence it was conveyed by subterraneous channels into the brook Cedron. This altar, being very high, is considered by Lamy as a type of the cross to which our Saviour was fixed, and which he washed with his precious blood. The victim being thus immolated, the skin was stripped from the neck; its breast was opened; its bowels were taken out, and the back bone was cleft. It was then divided into quarters; so that, both externally and internally, it was fully exposed to view. To this custom of laying open the victim, St. Paul has a very beautiful and emphatic allusion in one of the most animated descriptions ever written, of the mighty effects produced by the preached Gospel. (Heb. iv. 12, 13.) The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; for all things are naked and OPENED to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Previously to laying the sacrifice on the altar, it was salted for the fire (Lev. ii. 13. Ezek. xliii. 24. Mark ix. 46.); the law prohibiting any thing to be offered there which was not salted: and according to the nature of the sacrifice, either the whole or part of the victim was consumed upon the altar, where the priests kept a fire perpetually burning.

7. Before the building of the temple, sacrifices were offered up at the door of the tabernacle; but after its erection it was not lawful to offer them elsewhere. (Deut. xii. 14.) This prohibition took from the Jews the liberty of sacrificing in any other place. The victims might indeed be slain in any part of the priest's court, but not without its precincts: and there they were also obliged to sacrifice the paschal lamb. All the victims were to be offered by daylight, and the blood was always to be sprinkled on the same day that they were slain; as it became polluted as soon as the sun was set. If, however, the sprinkling had been made in the day-time, the members and entrails of the victim might be consumed during the night.

8. The sacrifices of the altar were, in general, called by the Hebrews Korbanim, that is, offerings or oblations to God, from the Hebrew word karab, to approach or bring nigh. This term consequently denotes something brought nigh, in order to be dedicated or offered to God, to whom the person offering thus had access in the way appointed by the law; and therefore, at the close of the enume

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ration of all offerings by fire it is added (Lev. vii. 37, 38.), This is 'the law. . . . which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer or bring nigh their KORBANIM, that is, offerings or sacrifices of all sorts.1

The Jewish fire-sacrifices were of three kinds: viz.

i. The BURNT OFFERINGS or Holocausts, were free-will offerings wholly devoted to God, according to the primitive patriarchal usage. The man himself was to bring them before the Lord, and they were offered in the manner described in page 279. The victim to be offered was, according to the person's ability, a bullock without blemish, or a male of the sheep or goats, or a turtle-dove or pigeon. (Levit. i. 3. 10. 14.) If, however, he was too poor to bring either of these, he was to offer a mincha or meat-offering, of which an account is given in, a subsequent page. The burnt-offerings are in Hebrew termed (OLAH), which signifies to ascend; because this offering, as being wholly consumed, ascended, as it were, to God in smoke or vapour. It was a very expressive type of the sacrifice of Christ, as nothing less than his complete and full sacrifice could make atonement for the sins of the world.

ii. The PEACE OFFERINGS (Levit. iii. 1.) were also free-will offerings, in token of peace and reconciliation between God and man: they were either eucharistical, that is, offered as thanksgivings for blessings received, or were offered for the impetration of mercies. These offerings consisted either of animals, or of bread or dough; if the former, part of them was burnt upon the altar, especially all the fat, as an offering to the Lord; and the remainder was to be eaten by the priest and the party offering. To this sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving Saint Paul alludes in Heb. xiii. 15, 16. In this kind of sacrifices the victims might be either male or female, provided they were without blemish. The parts of both, which were appropriated to the priests and Levites, were called heave or wave offerings; because they were heaved or lifted up towards heaven, and waved to and fro, before they were eaten, in acknowledgment of the goodness and kindness of God, and also in token of their being consecrated to him. (Lev. iii. 1-6. Exod. xxix. 26, 27. Numb. xviii. 24-28.)

The, peace-offerings are in Hebrew termed

(SHеLAMIM),

from (SHaLaM), to complete or make whole : because, by these offerings that which was deficient was considered as being now made up; and that which was broken, viz. the covenant of God, by his creature's transgression, was supposed to be made whole: so that, after such an offering, the sincere and conscientious mind was authorised to consider itself as reconciled to God, and that it might lay confident hold on this covenant of peace. To this Saint Paul alludes in that fine passage contained in Eph. ii. 14—19.

The appointed seasons and occasions of the peace-offerings were, 1. At the consecration of a priest. (Exod. xxix, 1-37.) 2. At the

1 Dr. Owen on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. i. Exercitat. xxiv. p. 307. 2 See p. 284. infra.

expiration of the Nazarite vow. (Numb. vi. 13-21.) 3. At the solemn dedication of the tabernacle and temple; and 4. At the purification of a leper.1

iii. SIN OFFERINGS, in Hebrew termed

(CHaтαлH), (from

the word (CHATA) to miss the mark), were offered for sins committed either through ignorance, or wilfully against knowledge; and which God always punished unless they were expiated. These offerings in general consisted of a sin-offering to God, and a burntoffering, accompanied with restitution of damage (Levit. v. 2—19. vi. 1-7.), conformably to which our Lord requires previous reconciliation with an injured brother, including restitution, before the burnt-offering or gift would be acceptable to God. (Matt. v. 23, 24.) St. Paul (Eph. v. 2.) terms Christ's giving himself for us an offering (i. e. a peace-offering), and a sacrifice or sin-offering to God for a sweet-smelling savour. (Compare Lev. iv. 31.) In warm climates nothing is more refreshing than fragrant odours and as, in the highly figurative language of the antient Hebrews, smelling is used to denote the perception of a moral quality in another, God is said to smell a sweet savour from sacrifice, to signify that he perceived with pleasure the good disposition which the offerer expressed by such an act of worship. When, therefore, the apostle tells us that Christ gave himself for us, an offering and a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God, he teaches us that Christ's sacrifice for us was highly acceptable to God, not only as a signal instance of obedience to his Father's will, but also on account of its happy influence in establishing the moral government of God. The sacrifices offered for the purification of lepers, as well as of women after child-birth (Levit. xii. Luke ii. 24.), were reckoned among the sin-offerings, inasmuch as leprosy and the pains of child-bearing were considered as punishments for some particular sin; though both were accompanied by eucharistic sacrifices for the recovery of the persons offering them. Maimonides adds, that if the person who offered this sacrifice did not repent, and make public confession of his sins, he was not cleansed or purified by it.3

1 The signs of that horrible disease in oriental countries, the leprosy, and of its cure, are minutely described in Levit. xiii. for the information of the priests, who were required to inspect and certify the fact, in order to re-admit the patient into society."Among the sacrifices and ceremonies of his purification, which are minutely described in Levit. xiv. the following is remarkable: The priest was required to take two small birds, and to kill one of them over an earthen vessel filled with river water, so that the blood might be mixed with the water. He was then to dip the other or living bird into the water, and sprinkle the leper with it seven times with a stick of cedar wood, upon which a bunch of hyssop was tied with a scarlet thread; after which the priest was to pronounce him purified, and let loose the living bird into the open air. (Levit. xiv. 2-7.) This ceremony seems to be typi cal of the purification of our sins by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (Isa. liii. 15. 1 Pet. i. 2.), which flowed out of his wounded side mixed with water (John xix. 34.); while the dismissal of the living bird resembles that of the scape-goat into the wilderness, with the sins of the leper upon him. Our Lord expressly commanded the lepers, whom he healed, to conform to the law." (Matt. viii. 4 Mark i. 44. Luke v. 14. xvii. 14.) Dr. Hales's Analysis, vol. ii. book i. p. 273. 2 Macknight on Eph. v. 2.

3 De Ratione Sacrificii, c. iii. n. 13.