Among the institutions of the law, the first place is due to its sacrifices and priesthood; and the first and greatest sacrifice of which we have any particular description is that of the passover. From this the apostle instructs us in the benefits of Christ's death, together with the qualifications necessary to a participation of them; and in so doing he uses the terms of the institution itself; Christ our passover is sacrificed for us * . This expression carries us back to the cause and end for which the passover was instituted; and it appears from this reference of the apostle, 1. That Christ is what the passover was, a lamb taken from the flock of his people. 2. That he was a sacrifice, put to death as an offering to God. 3. That this was done for us, for our redemption and deliverance from the divine wrath; as the passover was sacrificed for the redemption of the Hebrews, when the first born of Egypt were destroyed.

All this is comprehended in the use the apostle has made of those terms: and this will be still plainer, if we attend to the particulars. For the character of our blessed Saviour was answerable in all respects to that of the paschal lamb: he was without blemish, innocent and perfect in his nature; and, as the prophet describes him, like the lamb when brought to the slaughter +, meek and unresisting. When John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to the Jews as the Messiah, he chose to do it in those words, behold the lamb of God; see and acknowledge the true passover which God himself hath provided, not for the deliverance of a single nation, but to take away the sin of the world. Whatever the law had ordained concerning the offering of lambs in the passover, and in the daily sacri‡ John i. 29.

* 1 Cor. v. 7.

↑ Isaiah liii. 7.

fices of the morning and evening, all is explained in this short reference of John the Baptist, applying the sacrifices of the law to the true lamb of God. In the same gospel of St. John we find another remarkable allusion to the institution of the passover. From the circumstance which happened at our Saviour's death, that his legs were not broken with those of the two malefactors, the evangelist observes, these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken; at which passage the margin of our best editions of the bible refers us to Exodus xii. 46. where this direction is given concerning the passover, neither shall ye break a bone thereof.

If we look to the design or occasion of his sacrifice, we find it the same in effect with that of the passover: for as that was slain for the Hebrews in Egypt, so was He sacrificed for us. The first born of Israel would have been destroyed with those of Egypt, but for the blood of the paschal lamb upon the doors of their houses; and we also who are, as the Hebrews were, in a land of bondage, among sinful people devoted to destruction, shall not escape the divine wrath in that night when the destroyer shall be sent out, but in virtue of the true passover: therefore we are said to have redemption through his blood. The term redemption, as applied to the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ, is taken in a figurative sense. It signifies literally the release of a captive or guilty person, in consideration of something accepted in lieu of him. All men are in a state of forfeiture, sold under sin, and captives of Satan: out of which condition, they are not redeemed with silver and gold, as common captives, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; that is, as the Hebrews were in Egypt by the blood of the passover,

The frame of mind in which we are to celebrate the Christian Passover, is described to us in terms borrowed from the Jewish: this feast we are to keep with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; free from all impure mixtures of worldly affections, pharisaical pride, hypocrisy, and false doctrine. To which those other descriptive ceremonies may be added, of having our loins girded, our shoes on our feet, and our staves in our hands; in the garb and posture of pilgrims, soon to depart from the Egypt of this world.

Some other forms with which sacrifices were offered are of great account, and will explain to us the sense of many passages not otherwise to be understood. Christ as our substitute, is said to have borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and the Lord is said to have laid on him the iniquities of us all*. According to the form prescribed in the law, when a sacrifice was brought to the priest, it was the custom for the sinner, or the congregation at large †, as the occasion might require, to lay their hands upon the head of the victim, and confess their sins upon it, which the innocent animal about to die was to bear for them; and the sins so transferred from the sinner to the offering were to be done away. This shews. us what was meant by the prophet, when he said, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all; that is, he hath laid upon the head of Christ, as upon a devoted sacrifice, the sins of all mankind.

In the case of what was called the scape goat, the animal, with this burden of sin upon his head, was

*Isaiah liii. 4. 6.

†The elders of the congregation (see Lev. iv. 15.) or the high priest in the name of the congregation. (see Lev. xvi. 24.)

Lev. xvi. 22.

turned loose into a wilderness, into a land not inhabited, no more to be seen of men: with allusion to which it is said in the Psalms, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he set our sins from us *, no more to be remembered or heard of to our condemnation. There seems to be another reference to the same in those words of Jer. i. 20. "the iniquity of Israel "shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and "the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.”

On one particular occasion, the congregation were commanded to lay their hands upon the head of the guilty person, before he was carried out to execution: which ceremony explains what is said of those for whom no atonement was to be accepted, that they should bear their iniquity; they should suffer for it themselves and be their own sacrifice. So again, where it is said, his blood shall be upon his head †, it means that the person in this case should be answerable for the guilt of his own death. And when the Jews blasphemously cried out, his blood be on us, and on our children, they meant, that whatever sin there might be in putting Jesus to death, they would venture to have the guilt of it laid upon the heads of themselves and their posterity, and atone for it in their own persons; which they have accordingly, by the just judgment of God, been doing ever since.

This laying of sin upon the head of a sacrifice, gives us a farther understanding of what happened to Christ in his passion, when the curse of our sins was crushed with heavy and merciless hands upon his head, in the form of a crown of thorns; under which afflicting burden he was duly prepared as an offering for sin. Hence we also see the meaning of a like form which

* Psalm ciii. 12.

+ Joshua ii. 19.

has a contrary intention; for as the curse of guilt was laid on the head of a sacrifice; so blessings of every kind are conveyed by the laying of hands on the heads of the persons who are appointed to receive them. Thus our Saviour took the little children into his arms, and when he blessed them he laid his hands upon them: thus also the sick were restored to the blessings of health; and thus the ministers of God receive their commission, with the gifts necessary to the exercise of it: stir up the gift of God, saith Paul to Timothy, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands *.

When Christ is said to be a priest, we must understand the word in a new sense for certainly he was not a priest in a literal sense, neither could he officiate according to the forms of the law, because he was not of that tribe to which the priesthood pertained. He is therefore called a priest after the order of Melchizedec, whose priesthood was prior and superior to that of the Levitical order, and carried with it the administration of bread and wine †, after the form of the gospel itself. Yet still we must go to the Levitical law, for the nature of the office, and the proper cha

racter of our high priest. Such an high priest became us, saith the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Such an high priest as the law had in all respects, according to the letter; such ought we to have in the spirit; one in whom all the outward signs of holiness and perfection requisite to the high priesthood of the law should be inwardly verified and accomplished; with no blemish of nature, no defilement of sin; sanctified

* 2 Tim. i. 6.

+ Gen. xiv. 18,

Heb, vii. 26.