Gen. xxxii 21. The owner of a vicious bull, who had neglected to confine the dangerous beast, if a person was gored to death by it, forfeited his own life; but the law allowed him to redeem himself by a money payment, and this payment was called a (b) kopher: Ex. xxi. 31. In the same sense it occurs in Ps. xlix. 8. By no redemption can a man redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." So likewise, Job xxxiii. 24. "Redeem him from going down to the grave, I have found a ransom." 66 The poll-tax of half a shekel for every Israelite, was called "the atonement-money," (keseph-hakkippurim,) and was declared to be "a heave-offering to Jehovah, to propitiate (kapper) for their lives." Ex. xxx. 12-16. The formula, expressing the design of the sin-offerings and trespass offerings, occurs many times in the prescriptions of the law concerning sacrifices ;- -“The priest shall propitiate for him, on account of his sin; and it shall be forgiven him :" Lev. iv. v. &c. and see the Extracts from Winer, p. 243, 246, of this volume. This is also particularly expressed in the law relating to the great annual" day of propitiations," (Lev. xxiii. 27, 28,) and, after several repetitions, it comes thus, as a solemn close; "He shall propitiate for the holy of holies; and for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, he shall propitiate; and for the priests, and for all the people of the assembly, he shall propitiate: and this shall be to you for a statute for ever, to propitiate for the children of Israel, on account of all their sins, once in a year." ch. xvi. 10, 17, 27, 34. Another illustrative example occurs in Deut. xxi. 8. "Accept the expiation for thy people Israel, O Jehovah!" In the same sense it is used, in the remarkable predictions of Ezekiel; ch. xliii. 20, 26. xlv. 17. Among the predictions of the divine judgments upon Babylon, we find," Evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know its dawning; and destruction shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to propitiate it." Is. xlvii. 11. In a similar sense the word occurs in Prov. xvi. 14. "The wrath of a king is as messengers of death; but a wise man will propitiate it." The verb also occurs in the reflexive sense, expressing the gracious purposes of Jehovah to shew mercy to his repentant and reformed people; "He will be propitious to his land, his people." Deut. xxxii. 43. In all these applications, we may trace the reigning idea of preventing, averting, or removing some consequence, which would otherwise fall upon a person or other object; and the mode of effecting the purpose is by producing a change, sometimes in the agent, sometimes in the act, and sometimes in the patient; whence arise the various forms of expression above cited. The covering or lid of "the ark of the covenant," or, as it is in other places called, "the ark of the testimony," overlaid with gold, and upon which the cherubic figures were fixed, was called ( kapporeth, rendered by the LXX. iλaotńpiov see p. 30 of this volume :) the propitiatory, or mercy-seat: for upon it the symbolical blood of expiation was sprinkled, in the awful ceremonies of the "day of propitiations;" and from it God declared his benignity and authority to his people, his acceptance of their homage, and his will to bless them.. "I will meet with thee there, and I will speak to thee, from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are over the ark of the testimony, concerning all that I shall enjoin thee for the children of Israel." Ex. xxv. 22. The whole scenery of this divinely appointed symbol, so closely connected with the presentation of sacrifices under the declared intention of obtaining the pardon of sins, thus appears in concurrence with all the other cases described in the passages above quoted: clearly conveying the sentiment that a dreaded consequence was averted by a substitution, either of a ransom-price, or a slain sacrifice; or of one person for another, by a providential interference. Thus did the wisdom of divine institutions impearl in the hearts and the understandings of men, the great idea of SALVATION from sin and misery, through the means of a RANSOM, a SUBSTITUTION, an EXPIATION; of value equal to the greatness of the occasion, and the dignity of HIM that ordained, and of HIM that achieved it. "He loved us, and sent his own Son, a propitiation for our sins.-Christ,-by his own blood, hath entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For, if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the defiled, sanctified to the purity of the body; HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of CHRIST, who, through the ETERNAL SPIRIT, offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works, TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD!" Note XXVI.-page 194. Referring to the whole of Discourse III. CITATION FROM MICHAELIS ON THE PECULIARITY OF OUR LORD'S SUFFERINGS. In a work which, with many singularities, possesses remarkable interest, the distinguished critic, Sir John David Michaelis, examines the question whether, in human judicatures, a transfer of punishment from the guilty to the innocent be practicable, to the advantage of all parties and with the preservation of all moral rights; and he concludes in the negative. His discussion then proceeds : -"If all these causes which, in human jurisprudence, forbid the transfer of punishments, fail to be applicable to the doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ, it by no means follows, that there is no ground for regarding that doctrine as consistent with reason; for considerations exist with regard to the exercise of judicial authority in God, which are impossible in relation to human judgments. "I will repeat the conditions which have been before stated, * Gedanken über die Lehre der Heiligen Schriften von Sünde und Genugthuung, als eine der Vernunft gemässe Lehre. Thoughts on the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures concerning Sin and Satisfaction as a Doctrine agreeable to Reason. Göttingen, 1779. Pages 64-653. and consider minutely and circumstantially their application to the satisfaction of Christ. "It is not a case of transfer of penalty that is factitious, or existing only in appearance; but it was an actual, real, and earnest enduring of penalty. "This is plainly laid down in Scripture. According to its testimony, Christ though a real man was absolutely sinless, and therefore was not, on his own account, under the smallest obligation to suffer any penal infliction: but, on account of his transcendent purity, and his superiority to all other human beings; yea more, on account of the union of his human nature with the divine, he had a right to expect every possible kind of joy, happiness, and honour. Yet, instead of that, his lot was entire and unmerited suffering. Consonant with this fact, the Scripture informs us that he felt his sufferings with the most exquisite sensibility, and that he shuddered at their dreadful access: it exhibits him as not in the smallest degree intoxicated with the enthusiastic ambition of a renowned martyrdom; nor as being so supported by the Deity as to have been borne above the feelings of pain. It appears also that, during a portion of time comprising his severest agonies, he did not enjoy any prospect into futurity, which would have been a foretaste of the glorious reward set before him, and by the hope of which he might have been compensated for the sufferings which he endured. To support this by adducing passages of the Bible, is not my present concern: it belongs to doctrinal theology. My object is merely to inquire whether this doctrine, as it stands in the Bible, is agreeable to the previously established principles of reason. "Certainly, no injustice was done to our Redeemer. He had, as the Bible describes him, the most magnanimous willingness, unflinching to the very last, perfectly rational, and arising from no enthusiasm: a willingness to undergo our penalties, in order, by a short-lived evil to prevent a much greater, even the eternal evil of the whole human race.-A summary of the chief passages in the Bible upon this subject may be given in the following four propositions. 1. The willingness of Jesus to undergo the long foreseen suffering, had endured for a considerable number of years, down to the moment of his actual entrance into his most painful sorrows. "2. It was not a mere passive submission, but a zealous desire and longing, to fulfil this will of God, though so painful. "3. It was not compelled or extorted by any irresistible will on the part of God. On the contrary, Jesus himself declared, in the commencement of his sufferings, that he could pray to his Father to be delivered from the power of his enemies, and that God would grant his prayer. Matt. xxvi. 53, 54. "4. Thus the conduct of Jesus was at the utmost possible remove from anything enthusiastic, and did not at all border upon the delirium of a desire for martyrdom, which might have produced some degree of insensibility to pain. Jesus experienced, long beforehand, a perfect horror at the greatness of his sufferings. So strongly did he feel this, as to be extremely displeased when Peter made objections to his undertaking those sufferings; just as if those objections were actually a temptation, which might make an undue impression upon his heart. Matt. xvi. 21-23. He was extremely distressed at the prospect of his approaching sufferings: 'Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour! John xii. 27, 28. Certainly that was not the tone of an enthusiastic martyr. And finally, he prayed to God, that, if it were possible (that is, hypothetically possible, and so that the great end might not fail to be secured,) this suffering, I presume not to say whether he meant the whole or an extremely insupportable part of it,-might pass from him. Matt. xxvi. 37-44. : "To one who, in this persevering and rational manner, is willing to bear anything, certainly no injustice is done when his will is accomplished: especially when the object of his will is so rational as, by an evil of short continuance which he alone endures, to redeem countless millions from eternal evil impending over them; thus diminishing the whole sum of |