passage, in p. 499:-"In His deeds, I need only refer to His death-proclaiming as the very central fact and doctrine of the New Religion, that sacrifice henceforth and for ever, consists not in the blood of bulls and goats, but in the perfect surrender of a perfect will and life, to the perfect will of an All-just and All-merciful God." Canon Stanley has in the same volume given a view of the origin of sacrifice, in the following words :- "There have been in almost all ancient forms of Religion, in most modern forms also, strong tendendies, each in itself springing from the best and purest feelings of humanity, yet each, if carried into the extremes suggested by passion or by logic, incompatible with the other, and with its own highest purpose. One is the craving to please, or to propitiate, or to communicate with the powers above us, by surrendering some object near and dear to ourselves. This is the source of all sacrifice. The other is the profound moral instinct, that the Creator of the world cannot be pleased, or propitiated, or approached, by any other means than a pure life and good deeds. On the exaggeration, on the contact, on the collision of these two tendencies, have turned some of the chief corruptions, and some of the chief difficulties of Ecclesiastical History," p. 47. Is this the Scriptural account of the source of those sacrifices, which were figures of the true and only real sacrifice the sacrifice of Him who is described as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?" And again"Once, in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Whatever may have been the difficulties of Ecclesiastical History, arising out of those human corruptions, to which Canon Stanley has adverted, the Scriptural statement of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ is not shaken. He "was once offered to bear the sins of many." This must not be deprived of its objective reality, its expiatory and reconciling efficacy. It is not enough that it should be arrayed in a moral loveliness, and expressed in human eloquence. This cannot be a substitute for that sublime mystery, which sets forth Christ as "the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world." That is not to be made the figure, which is itself the true and real; that must not be reduced to the shadow, which is itself the living substance. "The peculiar doctrine of Christianity," (said Johnson) "is that of an universal sacrifice and perpetual propitiation. Other prophets only proclaimed the will and the threatenings of God. Christ satisfied His justice." On another occasion the great moralist discussed the question of death, on the Lord's day, when in a boat upon the sea. "There is no rational principle," (said he) "by which a man can die contented, but a trust in the mercy of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ." The subject had often engrossed his attention, and drew from him weighty comments, deserving of our sober regard. "With respect to original sin," (said he) "the enquiry is not necessary, for whatever is the cause of human corruption, men are evidently and confessedly so corrupt, that all the laws of heaven and earth are insufficient to restrain them from crimes. Whatever difficulty there may be in the conception of vicarious punishments, it is an opinion, which has had possession of mankind in all ages. There is no nation that has not used the practice of sacrifices. Whoever therefore denies the propriety of vicarious punishments, holds an opinion, which the sentiments and practice of mankind have contradicted from the beginning of the world. The great sacrifice for the sins of mankind was offered at the death of the Messiah, who is called in Scripture 'the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."" *See Bosw. Johns., ed. 1800-especially 694-5. Such was the view of this singularly gifted man, especially conversant with the moral resources of humanity, with history and philosophy, with secular and sacred literature. He has discussed the reasonableness of the scheme of Redemption, but here we need not follow him. Enough to know, that in the constitution and course of Nature, we are taught by daily experience, the value of mediation, and in the the history of mankind, the general use of propitiatory sacrifice. Revelation then instructs us in the Mediation of Christ, that there is but the one and only sacrifice, for the taking away of sin. There remaineth no more-there is no other sacrifice for a sin-offering. "The article of Redemption," (says Coleridge) "may be considered in a two-fold relation-in relation to the antecedent, that is, the Redeemer's act, as the efficient cause and condition of Redemption; and in relation to the consequent, that is, the effects in and for the Redeemed. The mysterious act, the operative cause is transcendant. Factum est: and beyond the information contained in the enumeration of the fact, it can be characterized only by the consequences." These consequences are illustrated in various ways in Scripture; by sacrificial expiation of sin-offerings: by reconciliation : by ransom: by payment of a creditor's demand. Indeed Coleridge wisely observes, "the very number and variety of the words or periphrases used by St. Paul, to express one and the same thing, furnishes the strongest presumptive proof, that all alike were used by him metaphorically." The consequents of the mediation of Christ, in Coleridge's exposition of the Apostolic writings, are for the sinner relatively to God and his own soul, analogous to the sacrificial atonement made by the Priest for the transgressor of the Mosaic Law: to the reconciliation of an alienated parent to a son who had estranged himself from his father's house and presence: to a redemptive ransom for a slave or captive: to the satisfaction of a debt for a debtor, relatively to his creditor. (See Aids to Reflection, 151 and 263, &c.) Thus are we assisted by analogy and illustration, in apprehending the nature of the benefits conferred—whilst we are not instructed in another part of the mystery, beyond what God has thought fit to reveal. But when we find that He spared not His own son; that the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us; that with Him, God will freely give us all things needful for our deliverance and restoration-what remains for us but with humble, thankful and loving hearts, to accept this great salvation, assured that nothing can be added to the finished sacrifice, which God has declared to be the one all-sufficient offering for sin ? In the moral purpose of our Redemption we are invited to be fellow-workers with God; to ask for the Divine guidance and the aid of the Holy Spirit; we are called on to obey and to believe the Gospel. Its precepts are our rule of life, whether they refer to positive institutions by which Christianity was to be propagated and handed down from age to age, or to our duty to Christ as it arises out of what He has done and suffered, His authority and dominion and the relation which He is revealed to stand in to us. How much contentious controversy might have been avoided-how much perversion of that, which in its sublime simplicity is the most comfortable doctrine of the Gospel, might have been prevented by an honest compliance with the the lesson here inculcated-a thoughtful attention to the temperate wisdom and Scriptural simplicity of this weighty chapter of Butler ! "The Lamb is the light thereof." LECTURE VIII. I. WANT OF UNIVERSALITY IN REVELATION. HAVING disposed of objections against the credibility of the Christian scheme as a fact; and objections against the wisdom justice and goodness of it; having answered particular objections arising out of the alleged intricacy of means; and having removed objections against the mediation of Christ and the great mystery of the atonement, Butler proceeds to deal with the argument against Christianity—that the revelation of it has not been universal, and that the evidence of it appears to be in some degree doubtful. He shews that these two objections rest upon unwarrantable assumptions which are altogether displaced by the analogy of nature. It is assumed that God would not bestow any favour upon us, unless in the degree which we think He might, and we imagine would be most to our advantage; and further, that He would not bestow a favour upon any, unless He bestowed the same favor upon all. Now the general analogy of nature, as well as particular analogies in the natural government of the |