xvi

"WHEN the measure of our iniquities was filled up, and it was perfectly manifest that now the retribution, even punishment and death, was alone to be expected; the time came which God had predetermined, for the manifestation of the goodness and power so surpassingly his own: so that his sole love, from a kindness to man exceeding all thought, [has wrought this work of grace.] He has not branded you with his hatred, nor cast you off, nor remembered your wickedness; but in his longsuffering and forbearance he has said, 'he bare our sins.' Himself hath given his own Son, a ransom-price for us, the Holy One for the transgressors, the Innocent for the wicked, the Righteous for the unrighteous, the Immortal for the mortal. For what, but his righteousness, could cover our sins? In whom was it possible that we, transgressors and ungodly, could be justified, but in the Son of God alone? O delightful substitution! O unsearchable work! O beneficence beyond all expectation! That the iniquity of the many should be lost in the Righteous One, and the righteousness of the One should justify the many transgressors! Thus, then, in the time past, God hath demonstrated the impossibility that our nature should, [by its own powers] obtain life; and now he hath displayed the Saviour, who is able to save, contrary to [all human] possibility. In both he hath declared his will, that we should trust in his goodness; and account Him our Nourisher, our Father, our Teacher, our Counsellor, our Healer, our Understanding, our Light, our Honour, our Glory, our Strength, our Life."

From the Epistle to Diognetus, by an unknown author, preserved in the works of Justin Martyr, ed. Paris, 1636, p. 500. Lardner calls it "an excellent epistle." Tillemont attributes it to the first century. Prof. Olshausen (in his Hist. Eccl. Vet. Monum. Præcip. Berlin, 1822,) says that the author must certainly have lived near the time of the apostles.

The reader will do well to consult Dr. Bennett's remarks on this Epistle and its author, in his Congregational Lecture on The Theology of the Early Christian Church, London, 1841; Sect. I. "No Christian scholar," says Dr. Bennett, "can read it without being inspired with a profound veneration for its author, as a noble specimen of the genuine primitive disciples of Christ."

For the satisfaction and benefit of many readers, the original text is inserted at the end of this volume.

DISCOURSE I.

ON THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

HEB. ix. 14.

-THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WHO THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT, OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT TO GOD.

In immediate importance, and in relation to all the parts of the Christian system, there is no doctrine that has a higher claim upon attention than the SACRIFICE which the Scriptures attribute to our blessed Redeemer. It is a principal and solid ground for the whole body of instruction and precept, admonition and consolation, to the erection of which, under the divine blessing, all the labours of the gospel ministry are devoted. On this foundation safely rest our acceptance with the Judge of all, our gratitude and holy obedience, our dearest hopes, and our immortal expectations. How happy shall I be, if the condescending grace of God shall render the

B

attempt to establish and enforce this interesting subject, effectual to the confirmation in holiness, and to the salvation, of him that writes, and of those who read and then it will assuredly be to God's own eternal praise !

The text is a part of the argument which the sacred writer pursues to a large extent, in order to show that the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the Israelitish law had no intrinsic value, nor any efficacy in themselves to redeem a sinner from the consequences of his guilt before the tribunal of Heaven, or to remove from his own mind the melancholy consciousness of its pollution and misery. But, though they were inefficient for these purposes, they had a utility, highly beneficent, and worthy.of the wisdom. which ordained them. They were intended as a system of emblematical instruction, whose striking and intelligible symbols should point out the true and only way in which sinful man can receive the saving mercy of God. "The law made nothing perfect, but was the introduction of a better hope,-the shadow of good things to come,-and could never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. The first tabernacle was a figure for the time then present:-but Christ being come, the High Priest of those good things which were [at that time] future, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation; and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood entered once into the holy place, having obtained

eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?"

That, in some sense, Christ offered a sacrifice, will be disputed by no believer in Christianity. Our object is to ascertain the true meaning of the expression, and the objects to which it has reference. The inquiry, therefore, will be directed to the Nature, the Value, and the Efficacy of the Sacrifice attributed in Scripture to our Lord Jesus Christ.

PART I.

ON THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

I. It will be necessary to premise some remarks on the general nature of the ancient sacrifices, and the matters of fact or the positions in doctrine which were connected with them.

A SACRIFICE, properly so called, is the solemn infliction of death on a living creature, generally by effusion of its blood, in a way of religious worship; and the presenting of this act to the Deity, as a supplication for the pardon of sin, and a supposed mean

of compensation for the insult and injury thereby offered to his majesty and government.

The practice of offering sacrifices to the true God, or to fictitious divinities, is known to have been a custom, in the most complete sense, universal and ancient.* The records of the early history of nations, and the narratives of modern discovery, equally show the prevalence of sacrificial rites, in all countries where they have not been superseded by Christianity. The manner in which men performed those rites shewed their strong apprehension of importance and interest in them. The inferior and less serviceable animals were not generally devoted to this purpose; but the animals of most utility to man were the usual sacrifices, and these often in large and costly numbers. Such profusion proved the serious earnestness of those who used it yet, in instances without number, more horrid proofs were given. On great occasions of terror, or of expectation, human beings were the victims of this dire immolation. Unhappy and bewildered mortals have sought relief from the pangs of guilty dread, and have hoped to atone for past crimes by committing others still more awful they have given their first-born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul.+

The remote antiquity of these observances is attested by the most venerable remains of classical and oriental composition; and the most ancient and

*

Supplementary Note I. at the end of this volume. † Supplementary Note II.