the addition of the fifth part. Doing thus the priest should make an atonement for him, and it should be forgiven him.

A third class of offences which required a trespass-offering were actions whereby another person was injured; as when any one denied what had been committed to his trust, or dealt fraudulently in any concern of partnership, or took any thing away by open violence, or secretly deceived his neighbour to his loss, or denied the having found that which was lost. In all these cases he must bring a ram for a trespass-offering, and must pay the value, estimated by the priest, of the injury done, with the addition of the fifth part thereof; and thus again, “the priest should make an atonement for him before the Lord, and it should be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein."

I think that you cannot but have noticed the number of various sacrifices which were required of the Jews. We have now considered the burnt-offering, the meat-offering, the peace-offering, the sin-offering, and the

trespass-offering. And besides these there were others expressly appointed for the priests, and for certain particular occasions, as well as the daily burnt sacrifices offered morning and evening, which we have yet hereafter to consider. Now these multiplied offerings, which the people were required to bring, with the many various minute ritual observances imposed upon them, were, as St. Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles, " a yoke, which neither their fathers nor they were able to bear.” We have but one sacrifice; nay we have not even to find that one sacrifice at our own cost; it has been found for us. The Apostle draws this contrast between the many sacrifices of the Jews, and the one sacrifice of Christ in a very striking manner in his Epistle to the Hebrews. He says in the tenth chapter, “Every high priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

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For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” He had before said in the ninth chapter, and at the twenty-fifth verse, "Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Here then we have a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction,' in the one offering of Jesus Christ. That is of itself sufficient to atone for all our sins and trespasses. And justly is it sufficient, for it is an offering of value, of unspeakable, inconceivable value. The Apostle, in writing to the Colossians, shews the reason why "we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins," when he describes him

thus, "who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature for by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." He is, as you know, the second person in the Holy Trinity, who made this offering of himself in human nature, and whose offering is therefore fully equal to compensate for all the sins of all mankind. Those who believe in him truly, and prove the reality of their faith by the devotedness of their lives to his service, have a part in this compensation, and will be delivered from guilt and condemnation. It is this divine nature, this eternal godhead, of Jesus Christ, which gives the value to his sacrifice. May God enable us all to see how necessarily that truth is connected with the circumstances of our redemption, and teach us to know that all "these things were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and

that believing, we might have life through his name."

I now desire your attention to some circumstances particularly mentioned as connected with the trespass-offering, and which therefore we have not had occasion to consider in our previous sermons.

I. A voluntary confession was required. Thus we read in the fifth chapter and fifth verse," And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing." Nothing can be more suitable in any case whatever than that a sinner should confess his sin, and such confession is a necessary ingredient in that repentance, without which it is impossible to find mercy. It is expressly said in the Proverbs, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." And this acknowledgment of sin is not only to be made in all particular transgressions; but as a feeling of sin must constantly be on the mind, so a confession of it must be constantly and universally made. So St. John teaches