thy of the divine inftitution, and of man's obfer vance; except as typifying that great act of God's juftice in laying upon Chrift the iniquities of all his people, and the exercise of their faith in cordially affenting to this act, and embracing him as their only Surety. III. The victim was thus legally subjected to the curfe merited by the tranfgreffor. As an evidence of this, all the fin-offerings, whofe blood was to be carried into the holy place, were to be burned without the camp, that it might not be defiled. This prefigured Chrift's being "made "a curfe for us," when fubftituted as our atoning facrifice. We have already viewed the execution of the feven fons of Saul, because of the guilt of their parent in flaying the Gibeonites, as a ftriking proof of God's vifiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. The fame event contains a remarkable illuftration of the doctrines of fubftitution and atonement. God fubjected Ifrael to a temporary curfe, in giving them up to famine for three years, because of Saul and his bloody house. According to the will of God, this curfe must be transferred to feven of the fons of Saul; a myftical number, expreffive perhaps of the legal perfection of the atonement thus to be made. Although, as far as appears, they were perfonally innocent, as to this crime, the curfe was transferred to them. This appears from the defign, d Lev. vi. 30. defign, from the confequence, and from the manner of their punishment. The defign of their punishment was legally to remove the guilt of innocent blood from the nation of Ifrael. David, being divinely inftructed as to the caufe of the famine, said unto the Gibeonites, "What shall I "do for you? and wherewith fhall I make the a"tonement, that ye may blefs the inheritance of "the LORD?" The confequence of the execution and interment of the sufferers was, that "God was "entreated for the land." He accepted the atonement. But there was also something very remarkable in the manner of their punishment. From God's approbation of this whole affair, there can be no reasonable doubt that the Gibeonites were providentially directed, not only as to the atonement that they demanded, but the manner in which they propofed it should be made: "Let "feven men of his fons be delivered unto us, and "we will hang them up-in Gibeah of Saul." They propofe that themselves fhould act as priests in this extraordinary facrifice; and that the punishment should be hanging, the only one pronounced accurfed by the law. Their language is ftill more exprefs. They do not merely fay, "will hang them up ;" but, "We will hang "them up unto the LORD," as victims offered unto him, and folemnly devoted to bear that curfe to which the nation had been fubjected, and legally to bear it away. The expreffion is afterwards a little varied, in the narrative of the fact; but fo as ftill to convey the fame idea. 66 "They "hanged "hanged them on the hill before the LORD." The legal atonement was to be made for Ifrael, by means of their suffering in the very fame manner in which He was to fuffer, who was truly to be made a curfe for us, being hanged on a tree; and who was thus to take away the iniquity of his people in one day. God was not entreated for the land, till these men were not only hanged, but buried. This having been long delayed, David viewed it as a matter of fuch importance that he engaged in the work himself. For according to the law, he that was hanged, was to be buried on the fame day, as being "the curfe "of God." This ordinance prefigured that the burial of Chrift fhould be a folemn and practical evidence that our fins were covered and removed from God's fight, fo as no more to rife up againft us in judgment. ordinary cafes For "without IV. It was neceffary that atonement should be made by the fhedding of blood. What rites foever were used, without this in there was no proper expiation. "fhedding of blood there is no remiffion." It was not enough that the victim was flain: it was neceffary that it fhould be flain by the effufion of blood. This inftitution referred both to the curfe of the broken covenant, and to the manner in which it fhould be removed. The fentence of the law was, " Dying thou shalt die ;" "The foul that finneth, it shall die." Now, it is declared e 2 Sam. xxi. 1.-14. f Deut. xxi. 23. declared that "the blood is the foul," that is, "the life;" not as if the blood were, ftrictly fpeaking, either the foul, or the animal life; but because the animal fpirits, which are the organs of the foul, are in the blood. It, therefore, was the will of God that the blood of the victim fhould be fhed; not only to fhew the reality of its death, as, when the blood is separated from the body, the life is gone; but to declare that the perfon, for whom it was offered, had forfeited his life, his very foul, to divine juftice, and that the law would not mitigate its fentence. In this fhedding of blood there was a plain declaration of the substitution of the one for the other, as appears from the language of God to the Ifraelites; "The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atone"ment for your fouls; for it is the blood that "maketh an atonement for the foul;" literally "the foul of the flesh is in the blood." For the fame word is ufed, as afterwards when we read of 66 an atonement for the foul." The life or foul of a beast is not here put on a footing with that of man. But this language is employed to declare that when the blood of a beaft was fhed, fo that death enfued, all the foul which it poffeffed was given up instead of those for whom it was offered. This mode of offering alfo fitly prefigured the work of Chrift, in "pouring out his "foul unto death," in fhedding his blood for the remiffion of fins. g Lev. xvii, 11. 22 There There was but one cafe, in which atonement could be made, for any particular tranfgreffion, without blood. This was merely on the fuppofition of abfolute neceffity. If the offerer was fo very poor that he could bring nothing that had blood, he might prefent a fmall quantity of flour h 66 By the law almoft all things were purged "with blood." Not only the tabernacle and all the holy veffels, but also the garments of the priests were sprinkled with it. Before there could be any acceptable miniftration for others, it was requifite that the priests fhould make atonement for themselves k. For the altar itself an atonement was neceffary. v. Sacrifice was the great mean of confirming the covenant of grace, as dispensed before the coming of Chrift. When God revealed this covenant to Abraham, he commanded him to facrifice feveral creatures, and to divide them into different parts m. Hence the phrafe often used in the Old Teftament, and indeed in the paffage referred to, of Striking or cutting a covenant; because it was made by ftriking the victims, and fometimes by dividing them, as in the facrifice offered by Abraham. This implied that the parties imprecated a fimilar vengeance on themselves, if they broke their. engagement; especially as they fometimes paffed between the parts of the divided h Lev. v. 11.-13. 1 Exod. xxix. 36. i Exod. xxix. 21. k Lev. xvi. 6. |