That sacrifices were divinely appointed and commanded by the Lord, is evident from this chapter. The burnt-offering was especially so; it was substituted in the room of the person who had sinned; his sin was laid upon it; the offering was laid on the altar, where it was wholly consumed by fire. The offerer when he brought it, laid his hand on it, which was expressive that his sin, be it what it would, was laid on it.

The blood of it was sprinkled on the altar. The man stood by, and saw the beast slain, and saw clearly that without shedding of blood, there could be no remission; he saw it laid on the altar, and wholly burnt by fire: in which he was plainly taught that the wrath of God was the true and proper desert of sin, and likewise understood hereby, how his sin was to be removed from him, and the curse due unto it also; even by the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would, in the fulness of time, become incarnate, and take the sinner's law place, and have sin imputed to him, and bear all the sins of his people, in his own body and soul, and sustain and endure the whole curse and wrath of his divine Father due to sin, and by this means, 66 put away sin by the sacrifice of

himself."

Thus it was a memorial of Christ's oblation; and the daily offering was a burnt-offering. You have the institution of it in the jewish church,

Exod. xxix. 38-42. "Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year, day by day, continually. The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer in the evening: and with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine, for a drinkoffering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shall do thereto, according to the meatoffering of the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord; where I will meet you to speak there unto thee." In reference to these sacrificial lambs offered in the daily offerings, the baptist stiles Christ, the Lamb of God; and said to the people," Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

The burnt-offering in the scripture of my text, was not a lamb, but a bullock; nor was it the daily, but an occasional sacrifice. It was a free-will offering; and as such was a shadow of the voluntary engagements of our Lord Jesus on the behalf of his church and people; and of his will being deeply engaged in performing his covenant engagements, and becoming the sacrifice for

sin, which is clearly and fully expressed in these words, in the fortieth psalm, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire-mine ears hast thou opened; burnt-offerings and sin-offerings hast thou not required. Then said I,-Lo! 1 come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O! my God; yea, thy law is within my heart."

Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his cover nánt engagements with his co-equal Father, be came incarnate, and freely substituted himself in the room of the law sacrifices, and answered the whole end, and fulfilled the whole design of them, by purging away sin by the oblation of his body and soul, in union with his divine person, and thus he removed sin out of the sight of God, and before him, and from his people, so that they are freed from the imputation of it. The psalmist expresses the perfection of our Lord's removing sin thus; "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us," Psalm ciii. 12.

All the sacrifices were memorials of Christ's oblation, as well as this. The one offering of Immanuel, was the ground and foundation of them. His was the substance, these were the shadows; but his was so infinitely perfect, that the virtue and efficacy of it, could not be fully conceived by one sacrifice; therefore burntofferings, sin-offerings, peace-offerings, meat and

.

drink-offerings, were instituted to shew how our Lord's offering would be a complete remedy for the whole disease of his church and people. Sin would be removed-the curse would be abolished-peace would be made, and he would be all in salvation work-the whole glory would belong to him-the whole work would be performed by him. And, like as sin laid typically on the burnt sacrifice, was with it consumed by fire, and perfectly annihilated; so sin laid on Christ by imputation, would be abolished out of the sight of God, by the sacrifice of Christ's death. I proceed,

Secondly, To explain the services, and sacrificial actions, and shew how Christ was thereby set forth as crucified.

As the tabernacle was a figure of Christ's body, in which dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead; and the various sacrifices were memorials of the oblation of himself; so the services and sacrificial acts, were divinely prescribed, and were each and every one of them very sig nificant and expressive.

Aaron's sons, the priests, were the persons appointed to offer them. No man could offer his own sacrifice, as no man can make atonement for his own sin; it belonged to the priest to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. He was herein a type of Christ, the true priest of his church and people.

The bullock for the burnt-offering, being killed before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, it was to be flayed, and cut into his pieces. As the animal was a type of Christ, so the slaying it, sprinkling its blood, flaying it, and cutting it into its pieces, set forth the following particulars relative to Christ.

The bullock, a strong creature, suggested the strength of Christ, who as the man of God's right-hand, the Son of man made strong by Jehovah for himself, would display the greatness of his strength, in bearing the sins of his people in his own body on the tree.

The pouring out the blood at the bottom of the altar, shewed that Christ would pour out his soul unto death, and give his life a ransom for many.

The sprinkling it round about the altar, 'shewed that it is "the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul." Its being sprinkled by the priest on the offerer, and pronouncing him clean, shewed, that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth from all sin.

The flaying the slaughtered animal, was very descriptive of the stripping Christ of his clothes, when he was given up into the hands of sinful men, and suffered death upon the cross.

The cutting the sacrifices into his pieces, pointed out how Messiah's sorrows and suffer