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hand and a knife: and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father; Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering-And when they were come to the place which God had appointed for the sacrifice; Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood." A most solemn preparation! Suppose it were your son, fathers and mothers! And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said here am I. And he said, Lay not tome hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God; -eeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from

me.

*

This affair of Abraham's offering his son as a burntoffering upon the altar. together with his offering up a ram afterward, for a burnt-offering instead of his son, teaches us a number of things:

It teaches that the offering of burnt offerings upon the altar was very early a divine institution. And it was designed to point out Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who would come into the world and offer himself a sacrifice for sin. In the case of Abraham's offering his only son Isaac; it teaches that "God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son"-That he would deliver him up for us all: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" It teaches also. that Christ was willing to be sacrificed, or that his soul be made an offering for sin.

Isaac made no resistance; and when the young men were left behind, he went on with his father, and cars

* Gen. xxii.

ried, upon his own shoulder, the wood which was prepared to burn him upon the altar. Christ, also, who bore the cross upon which he was crucified, was as far from resistance as Isaac was. Isaac was bound, and laid on the altar upon the wood without any resistance. So Christ refused not to be nailed to the cross, and to expire there. Observe by the way:

From Abraham towards his son, there was no expression of anger or wrath. And when Christ was crucified there was no exhibition of wrath, only, what was manifested by his enemies. Isaac did not wish to be exempted from the bitter cup of dying upon the altar, as a burnt-offering. And Christ never desired to be excused from drinking any cup which he consented to drink in the covenant of redemption. Hence Christ's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, that a certain cup might pass from him, cannot mean the cup of the cross, but some other cup: which may be considered in another place..

Isaac was offered up as a sacrifice to God on mount Moriah. And this is the very mountain, upon which, long after, the temple was built by king Solomon. And mount Calvary where Christ was crucified, was, no doubt, a part of the same mountain.

Under the Mosaic dispensation, great stress was laid upon the manner, in which the people were to bring their burnt-offerings, and perform their sacrifices. Hence in the days of the Prophet Isaiah, the nation of the Jews were so unbelieving, careless and stupid, that it is said of them by the prophet: "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol: yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations " Therefore, when the children of Israel were to kill an ox, or a lamb, or a goat as an offering to the Lord, it was expressly enjoined upon them, that it be brought unto the door of the

tabernacle of the congregation, to be offered as an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He, who did not bring his offering in this manner was guilty of blood;-"Blood shall be imputed unto that man, he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people." Lev. xvii, 4. It was required that the whole bullock, after his blood was shed, should be carried forth without the camp, unto a clean place where the ashes were poured out, and be burnt on the wood with fire. Lev. iv, 12.

The Jewish Sanhedrim or Ecclesiastical Court, made up of the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people, together with the high priest at their head, may be considered as answering to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; for at the door of this court the blessed Jesus was condemned to be crucified. And when the sentence of death was pronounced upon him, his blood, in effect, was then shed. Hence said the multitude, "His blood be upon us and on our children."

Jesus, having had a mock trial,'was, when they had bound him, delivered to Pontius Pilate the Roman governour, to be crucified. The Jewish Sanhedrim had no authority to put any man to death without the approbation of the Roman government; Pilate therefore might have saved the innocent Jesus; but for fear of the people, having scourged him, he delivered him up to be crucified. "The governour's soldiers took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe"-"And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, the same as Calvary, that is to say, A place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall-"And they crucified him." Thus the holy Redeemer, who was the Antitype of the Jewish sacrifices and burnt-offerings, was condemned at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and then carried without the camp

to be crucified; answering the type of slain beast's be ing carried without the camp to be offered as a burntoffering unto the Lord. Or as the apostle to the Hebrews expresses it. "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burnt without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." Hence the Jewish offerings, as saith the Apostle Paul, "serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle;" for, "See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount."

SERMON XXI.

THE SUBJECT OF THE PRECEDING DISCOURSE CONTINUED.

JOHN V, 39.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.

THE institution of the Passover is, evidently, designed to bring into view, him, who is eminently styled the Lamb of God, who was without blemish and without spot. It was the purpose of God not only to deliver his people from Egyptian bondage, but to preserve them after this deliverance, when all the firstborn of Egypt were doomed to destruction. Of this institution we have an account in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. The Lord proposed, that the time in which he should deliver his people from Egypt, should be the first month of the year: and that on the tenth day of the same month they should take every man a lamb. And it was required that the lamb should be "without blemish, a male of the first year." It was also required that the lamb be kept up four days; that is, from the tenth day to the fourteenth; and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel were to kill him in the evening. The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled on the door posts of the houses wherein they were to eat it. They were commanded not to eat it raw, or sodden at all with water; but it must be roasted with fire. And nothing of it was allowed to remain till morning. Here we have an account of the type: Now let us see how itagrees wit the Antitype. And,

First; Christ was without blemish and without spot; that is he was without sin.

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