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SERMON II.

Preached before the KING.

JOHN i. 29.

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the Sins of the World.

T

HERE are three Reasons why the Baptift here calls our bleffed Saviour the Lamb of God, that taketh away the Sins of the World. Firft, on account of his Meekness and Innocence, of which that Animal was a very proper and expreffive Emblem. Secondly, in Allufion to Sacrifices in general, and particularly those of the Jewish Law, of which Lambs were a great Part: And thirdly, in Allufion to the Pafchal Lamb in particular, which was defigned to point out in a very minute Manner the Circumstances of the Sufferings and Death of the Saviour of the World. The first of these Reasons needs no other Explanation than the Words of S. Peter, who obferves (1 Pet. i. 19.) that we are redeemed by the precious Blood of Chrift, as of a Lamb without Blemish and with out Spot; and thofe of the Evangelical ProVOL. II.

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phet,

phet, who foretold, that he should be led as a Sheep to the Slaughter, and that as a Lamb before his Shearers is dumb, fo he would not open his Mouth (Ifai. liii.) But the two latter require a more diftinct Examination; and I shall therefore, in fpeaking to these Words, endeavour to fhew,

I. What was the Origin and Defign of
Sacrifices in general; and of that of the
Paffover, or Pafchal Lamb, in particular.
II. That none of them were fufficient of
themselves to answer the Defign of those
that offered them. And,
III. That what was wanting in them, was
supplied by the one great Sacrifice, to
which they all alluded, and to which
alone they owed all their Efficacy, name-
ly, that of the Lamb of God, who has
taken away the Sins of the World.

In which my Design is not barely to explain the Baptift's Words, but to open in fome measure the whole Series of the divine Difpenfations from the Foundation of the World; to represent the wonderful Harmony of the divine Oeconomy in all Ages; and to raise your Admiration, and awaken your Love. For who can look back on the gradual Openings of God's Providence, from the Fall of Man to his Reftitution, and obferve the Tendency of the Whole to prepare the Way for

the

the Reception of his ever-bleffed Son, without Aftonishment at his Wifdom and Goodness? What Chriftian can look back and fee the End and Defign of all these numberless Types answered, their Defects fupplied, and the great Work of his Salvation completed by the Sufferings and Sacrifice of the Eternal Word incarnate, without being swallowed up and loft in Effufions of Admiration, Joy, and Love? But to return.

I. The firft Particular is to fhew the Origin and Defign of Sacrifices in general. By Sacrifices I here mean thofe of Expiation only, or the flaying of Animals, to appeafe the Wrath of an offended God. The Origin of which was, in all Probability, owing to the Inftitution of God himself; who, as appears by Revelation, appointed that Beasts fhould be offered up to him to represent the Death of his only Son, and who was only fo far pleased with them, as they were Types of this great Sacrifice, and were offered up with a View to it, and a Belief of the Merit of it.

There is

nothing in the Nature of the Thing, that could ever induce any Man to believe, that the God of Nature could be pleased with spilling the Blood of a Beaft; or that his Anger, who made all Creatures, could be appeased by destroying them. Right Reafon fuggefts quite the contrary. Which if allowed, and we confider the Accounts the Scriptures give

us of the early Rife of this Practice, and the Acceptableness of it to Heaven, there will, I believe, appear fufficient Reasons to convince any impartial Perfon, that it was not originally the Invention of Man, but the Appointment of God.

We are told, that the second Man who was born in the World brought of the Firstlings of bis Flock to God, whilft his Brother made him Offerings of the Fruits of the Ground; and that God had refpect to [or was pleased with] the bloody Sacrifice, and not with the unbloody one. Whence then could Abel imagine, that the fpilling the Blood, or burning the Fat, of his Lambs or Goats, would be pleafing to God? His Reafon could not dictate it to him; he must therefore probably learn it from Adam, whom God commanded to offer Sacrifice, in Confirmation of the Covenant he had made with him, of fending him the bleffed Seed in his own appointed Time; and as a Sign of that Blood, which would be meritorious enough to redeem him and his Pofterity from Death temporal and eternal. This is not indeed exprefsly faid, but we are directly told, why God was better pleafed with Abel's Sacrifice than Cain's; and the Reason given feems much to confirm this Suppofition. It was not from any inherent Worth in one more than the other, or from any Delight that the God of Nature could take in the Death of his Creatures; but it

was

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