--,
 
 THE 
 LAW OF THE OFFERINGS
 
 The Law of the 
 Offerings 
 
 ANDREW JUKES 
 
 LONDON 
 
 PICKERING & INGLIS LTD.
 
 PICKERING & INGLIS LTD. 
 
 29 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E.C-4 
 
 229 BOTHWELL STREET, GLASGOW, C.2 
 
 Home Evangel Books Ltd., 25 Hobson Avenue, Toronto, 16 
 
 ' This is the law of the Burnt-offering, of the Meat- 
 offering, and of the Sin-offering, and of the Trespass- 
 offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifices 
 of the Peace-offerings.' Leviticus vii. 37. 
 
 Made and Printed in Great Britain
 
 PREFACE 
 
 HE, who spake as never man spake, opened His mouth 
 in parables. With His example before us, I have often 
 been surprised that the inspired parables of the Old 
 Testament should have been so neglected ; the more as 
 we see from the writings of St Paul, not only how 
 closely these emblems are connected with Christ, but 
 also how aptly they illustrate, in simplest figures, the 
 wondrous truths and profound mysteries of redemption. 
 
 Some years ago, one of these Old Testament parables 
 was made an especial blessing to myself. This led me 
 further ; and having learnt by personal experience the 
 preciousness of these emblematic Scriptures, I have 
 since freely used them in ministering to others the 
 truths connected with Christ's Work and Person. Some 
 months since, I gave a course of Lectures on THE 
 OFFERINGS, which were taken down in short-hand at 
 the time. At the repeated request of others, I have 
 since corrected them as time has allowed. They are 
 now published in the following pages. 
 
 As to the great outlines and principles contained in 
 them, I may say that I have confidence that they are 
 
 2209405
 
 Vi PREFACE. 
 
 in the main correct : mixed with much infirmity and 
 weakness I doubt not ; (how much few perhaps will feel 
 more than I do ; indeed it has been the sense of this 
 which has so long delayed their publication ;) yet still 
 . . I trust according to the mind of God, and setting forth 
 not only a measure of truth, but also the truth which 
 the Offerings were intended to typify. Where they 
 contain error, may the Lord and His saints pardon it : 
 where truth, may we all acknowledge it as His, and 
 follow it I need not say, " I have no commandment 
 of the Lord." I merely " give my judgment as one 
 that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful" 
 
 It only remains for me to add here, that I have de- 
 rived much assistance upon this subject from a Tract 
 entitled, The Types of Leviticus. I cannot follow 
 the writer of it in his view of every Offering. I do 
 not know how far he would assent to the principles I 
 have applied to their varieties. Yet I feel that under 
 God I am much his debtor, I doubt not for far more 
 than I am even conscious of. 
 
 I now commend these pages to the Lord. May He 
 be pleased to use them, as shall seem good to Him, to 
 His glory.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 MOB 
 
 I. THE TYPES IN GENERAL . ... 1 
 
 II. THE BURST-OFFERING . 33 
 
 III. THE MEAT-OFFERING . .67 
 
 IV. THE PEACE-OFFERING . . . . 98 
 V. THE SIN-OFFERING . . .129 
 
 VI. THE TRESPASS-OFFERING . . . . 164 
 
 VII. THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE . . . 181 
 
 APPENDIX ....... 209
 
 Hebrews X. 1-14 
 
 For the law having a shadow of good things 
 to come, and not the very image of the things, 
 can never with those sacrifices which they 
 offered year by year continually make the 
 comers thereunto perfect. 
 
 For then would they not have ceased to be 
 offered ? because that the worshippers once 
 purged should have bad no more conscience 
 of sins. 
 
 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance 
 again made of sins every year. 
 
 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls 
 and of goats should take away sins. 
 
 Wherefore when He cometh into the world 
 Ha saith, Sacrifice and oiler ing thou wouldest 
 not, but a body hast thou prepared Me : 
 
 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou 
 bast had no pleasure. 
 
 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the 
 book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God. 
 
 Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering 
 and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou 
 wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein . 
 which are offered by the law ; 
 
 Then said He, Lo. I come to do Thy will. O 
 God. He taketh away the first, that He may 
 establish the second. 
 
 By the which will we are sanctified through the 
 offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 
 
 And every priest standeth daily ministering 
 and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, 
 which can never take away sins : 
 
 But this Man, after He had offered one sacri- 
 fice for sins for ever, sat down on the right 
 hand of God. 
 
 For by one offering He hath perfected for 
 ever them that are sanctified.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENEEAL 
 
 GAL. iv. 21-31. 
 
 " THE works of the Lord are great, sought out of all 
 them that have pleasure therein." Such was the 
 witness of one of old ; and the saints of God can yet 
 set their seal to it. Great, indeed, are the works of the 
 Lord ; sought out, and sought into, are they by His 
 people : but how great, how exalted, how wondrous, 
 none feel so deeply as those who have most considered 
 them ! Man's work, if we are continually poring over 
 it, will soon weary us a little attention will in time 
 make us masters of it. God's work, the more we examine 
 and look into it, will only attract us the more. The 
 more it is studied, the more it opens out, at every step 
 unfolding fresh and endless objects. Take any portion 
 of it the earth, the air, the sky ; and the further we 
 search, the deeper we examine, the more are we led to 
 acknowledge that as yet we know next to nothing, and 
 that the great ocean of truth of every kind lies before 
 us, as yet all unfathomed and unfathomable. 
 
 The reasons for this are many. A very obvious one 
 is that man is finite, God infinite ; and the finite cannot 
 measure the infinite. Another reason is, that God
 
 2 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 uses the same instrument for many and different ends. 
 Thus, when we know one use or end of this or that 
 part of creation, we may yet be ignorant of many other 
 ends which God may be carrying out by the same 
 means. Take, for example, the air. How many ends 
 does God accomplish by this one simple element ! Air 
 supplies the lungs, supports fire, conveys sound, reflects 
 light, diffuses scents, gives rain, wafts ships, evaporates 
 fluids, and fulfils besides, I know not how many other 
 purposes. Man, from his infirmity, makes a special 
 tool for every special purpose. God uses one thing 
 for many purposes. Man has often tried to make an 
 instrument which will perfectly serve several different 
 ends, and never entirely succeeded. In God's work, 
 on the other hand, we constantly see many ends met, 
 and met perfectly, by one and the same most simple 
 arrangement 
 
 The consequence of this is, that the difference is 
 immense between looking upon God's work and look- 
 ing into it. Merely to look upon His work in nature, 
 shews, indeed, that the hand that made it is divine. 
 The first glance, cursory as it may be, gives a satisfying 
 impression, an impression of perfectness. But how 
 much lies beyond this superficial glance ! We look out 
 on nature in any form hills, dales, woods, rocks, trees, 
 water ; whatever it is we look on round us, the first 
 glance is enough to give us the impression of perfect- 
 ness. But in each part of that scene, so cursorily 
 glanced at, every minutest portion will bear the strictest 
 inspection, for every minutest part is perfect. Each
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 3 
 
 blade of grass in all that wide-spread landscape, each 
 worthless, perishing blade of grass, will bear the closest 
 scrutiny ; for it is finished by a master's hand. Look 
 at the humblest plant ; consider its wondrous mechan- 
 ism; its vessels for imbibing nourishment from the 
 earth, and nourishment from the air and light; its 
 perfect and complete apparatus for preserving and in- 
 creasing its allotted growth. Look at the vilest ant 
 most insignificant insect that creeps up that unthought- 
 of stem, whose life is but a fleeting hour; for that 
 hour finding all its wants supplied, and its' powers, one 
 and all, adapted and perfect to their appointed end. 
 Think of these things, and then we shall be better able 
 to enter somewhat into the perfectness of the work of 
 God 
 
 And God's Word, in all these particulars, is like God's 
 work ; yea, God's Word is His work as much as crea- 
 tion ; and it is its infinite depth and breadth, and the 
 diverse and manifold ends and aims of all we find in it, 
 which make it what it is, inexhaustible. To look, 
 therefore, on the mere surface of the Bible, is one 
 thing ; to look into it quite another ; for each part 
 may have many purposes. The very words which, in 
 one dispensation and to one people, conveyed a literal 
 command, to be obeyed literally, may, in another age 
 and dispensation, supply a type of some part of God's 
 work or purpose; while in the selfsame passage the 
 humble believer of every age may find matter of com- 
 fort or warning, according to his need. 
 
 The microscope may be used here as well as in the
 
 4 THE LAW OF THE OFFEC1NG8. 
 
 physical world. And as in nature those wonders which 
 the microscope presents to us, though it may be but in 
 an insect's wing or a drop of water, give us at a glance 
 a sense of the pcrfectness of God's work, such as we 
 might not receive even from a view of the boundless 
 heavens, testifying with a voice not to be misunder- 
 stood, how wondrous is the Hand that formed them, 
 with whom nothing is too insignificant to be perfected: 
 so His Word, in its more neglected portions, in those 
 passages which we have perhaps thought of compara- 
 tively little value, shews the same perfectness. The 
 finishing of the emblems in the Types is by the same 
 hand that finished redemption ; the one was, if you 
 please, His great work, the other His small one ; but 
 both are His work, and both perfect. 
 
 And this His work in His Word has another striking 
 resemblance to His work in creation. Just as in crea- 
 tion, one leading idea is presented throughout it, which 
 testifies in everything we look upon, in eveiy leaf, in 
 every insect, in every blade of grass, to the wisdom, 
 power, and goodness of the Creator, a testimony which 
 the partial and apparent contradictions of tempests 
 and earthquakes does not alter or disannul ; so has all 
 Scripture one great thought stamped on it, which it 
 is bringing out on every side continually, every act, 
 every history shews it, that thought is the grace of the 
 Eedeemer. There is neither speech nor language, but 
 in all we hear the wondrous tale. Christ is throughout 
 the key to Scripture. He is the one great idea of the 
 Bible. Know Christ, understand God's thoughts about
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 5 
 
 Him, and then you will understand the Bible. We are 
 in the dark because we know so little of Him. 
 
 I have commenced my inquiry into the Typical 
 Offerings with these remarks, because I am disposed 
 to think that there is with many a feeling, not per- 
 haps openly expressed, though not on that account the 
 less acted on, that some portions of the Scriptures, 
 such as the Types, are less valuable and less instructive. 
 But whence have we got this notion ? Not from God. 
 Were these typical parts of Scripture unimportant, 
 God would not have given us so many chapters which 
 really contain no meaning for us, except they have a 
 typical import ; respecting which He yet testifies that 
 they are profitable to aid and instruct the man of God. 
 "All Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profit- 
 able;" and this not to mere babes in Christ, but to the 
 man of God, " that the man of God may be perfect, 
 thoroughly furnished to all good works." * 
 
 The Types are, in fact, a set of pictures or emblems, 
 directly from the hand of God, by which He would 
 teach His children things otherwise all but incompre- 
 hensible. In- the Types, if I may be allowed the ex- 
 pression, God takes His Son to pieces. By them does 
 He bring within the range of our capacity definite 
 views of the details of Christ's work, which perhaps 
 but for these pictures we should never fully, or at least 
 so fully, apprehend. The realities which the Types 
 represent are in themselves truths and facts the most 
 elevated, facts which have taken place before God 
 
 * 2 Tim. ill 16, 17.
 
 6 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Himself, facts in which He has Himself been the actor. 
 These vast and infinite objects He brings close before 
 us in emblems, and presents them to our eyes in a 
 series of pictures, with the accuracy of One who views 
 these things as they are seen and understood by Him- 
 self, and in a way in which they may be seen and un- 
 derstood by us. 
 
 The real secret of the neglect of the Types, I cannot 
 but think may in part be traced to this, that they re- 
 quire more spiritual intelligence than many Christians 
 can bring to them. To apprehend them requires a cer- 
 tain measure of spiritual capacity and habitual exercise 
 in the things of God, which all do not possess, for want 
 of abiding fellowship with Jesus. The mere superficial 
 glance upon the Word in these parts brings no corre- 
 sponding idea to the mind of the reader. The types 
 are, indeed, pictures, but to understand the picture it 
 is necessary we should know something of the reality. 
 The most perfect representation of a steam-engine to a 
 South-sea savage would be wholly and hopelessly un- 
 intelligible to him, simply because the reality, the out- 
 line of which was presented to him, was something 
 hitherto unknown. But let the same drawing be shewn 
 to those who have seen the reality, such will have no 
 difficulty in explaining the representation. And the 
 greater the acquaintance with the reality, the greater 
 will be the ability to explain the picture. The savage 
 who had never seen the steam-engine would of course 
 know nothing whatever about it. Those who had seen 
 an engine but know nothing of its principles, though
 
 THE TYPES IN GENEKAL. 7 
 
 they might tell the general object of the drawing, could 
 not explain the details. But the engineer, to whom 
 every screw and bolt are familiar, to whom the use and 
 object of each part is thoroughly known, would not 
 only point out where each of these was to be found in 
 the picture, but would shew, what others might over- 
 look, how in different engines these might be made to 
 differ. 
 
 It is just so in the Types. He who knows much of 
 the reality will surely also know something of the type. 
 The real secret of our difficulty is that we know so 
 little, and, what is worse, we do not know our igno- 
 rance. And the natural pride of our hearts, which 
 does not like to confess our ignorance, or to go through 
 the deep searchings of soul which attend learning and 
 abiding in God's presence, excuses itself under the plea 
 that these things are not important, or, at least, non- 
 essential. Paul had to meet the same spirit in several 
 of the early churches. Thus, in his Epistle to the He- 
 brews, when about to prove from a type the doctrine 
 of Christ's everlasting priesthood, he speaks of Him as 
 " a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," he 
 cannot go on with the proof without telling the He- 
 brews how much of the difficulty of the subject was to 
 be traced not so much to its own abstruseness as to 
 their spiritual childhood and ignorance. " Of whom," 
 says he, speaking of Melchisedec, " I have many things 
 to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of 
 hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teach- 
 ers, ye have need that one teach you which be the first
 
 8 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as 
 have need of milk, and not of strong meat." * It was 
 their infancy in Christ, their lack of growth, which hin- 
 dered their understanding the Scriptures. As in the 
 natural world life and intelligence are different, just so 
 is it in the spiritual. A man may be born of God, and 
 as such, having the life of Christ, be an heir of heaven, 
 sure of all that the love of God has laid up in store for 
 the redeemed family in glory ; and yet, like a child, 
 know nothing of his inheritance, nothing of his Father's 
 will, be a stranger to service and warfare, and ready to 
 be deceived by any. 
 
 This is, I fear, the case with many believers now. 
 The low standard of truth in the Church, making the 
 possession of eternal life the end instead of the begin- 
 ning of the Christian's course, has led many to think 
 that if they have, or can at last obtain, this life, it is 
 enough. But these are not God's thoughts. Birth, 
 spiritual birth, is birth of God for ever, a life once 
 given never to be destroyed. Schooling, training, 
 adorning, clothing, follow the possession of life, and 
 even the knowledge of it I own, indeed, that while 
 the Christian is a babe, he needs milk, and ought never 
 to be pressed to service : at such a time he does not 
 need the deeper truths of Scripture ; strong meat may 
 choke the babe as much as poison. But milk, the 
 simpler doctrines of the Word, will not support the 
 man in active service. The man of God needs deeper 
 truth : and it is, I believe, the lack of this deeper truth 
 
 Heb. v. 12, 13. See also 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 9 
 
 in the Church which so effectually leaves us without 
 power or service, and brings it to pass that much of 
 what is done is performed in the energy of the flesh 
 rather than in the power of the Spirit. 
 
 I must add one word in connexion with the passage 
 just alluded to, which, though beside our present object, 
 may not really be beside the mark. It is written, " Strong 
 meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those 
 who by reason of use have their senses exercised to dis- 
 cern both good and evil."* It is "by reason of use" 
 that is, by using the truth we already possess, that the 
 senses are exercised to advance further. Let us act up 
 faithfully to the light we have, use out fully the grace 
 already given, then surely our spiritual strength will 
 not only rapidly but wonderfully increase. 
 
 But it is time I should turn particularly to the ob- 
 ject more immediately before us, The Types in gene- 
 ral ; their characteristic differences in the different 
 books of the Old Testament. 
 
 It is pretty generally known that in the Old Tes- 
 tament there are typical persons, things, times, and 
 actions ; but it is not, I believe, so generally known 
 how remarkably these types vary in character, and how 
 beautifully they have been divided and arranged by God 
 himself under different classes, if I may so speak ; 
 each one distinct from the others, and each having some- 
 thing characteristic. The books of the Old Testament 
 are God's divisions ; each of them may be called one 
 of God's chapters ; and in each of these books we find 
 
 * Heb. v. 14. 
 B
 
 10 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 something different as respects the character of the 
 Types they contain. The general notion of the Types 
 is that they are merely sketches. This is very far 
 short of the truth. So far from being rough sketches, 
 they are one and all most perfectly finished with a 
 master's hand : and a tolerable acquaintance with the 
 distinct character of the different books, and of their 
 types, is enough at once to prove this. Christ is in- 
 deed the key to them all : He is the key of the Types, 
 and the key to the Bible. Of Him God has given us 
 more than sketches ; the Word from end to end is full 
 of Him. In the Word we have a whole Christ pre- 
 sented to us : Christ in His offices ; in His character ; 
 in His person ; Christ in His relations to God and 
 man ; Christ in His body the Church ; Christ as 
 giving to God all that God required from man ; 
 Christ as bringing to man all that man required 
 from God ; Christ as seen in this dispensation in suffer- 
 ing ; Christ as seen in the next dispensation in glory ; 
 Christ as the first and the last ; as " all and in all " to 
 His people. The different books are but God's chapters 
 in which He arranges and illustrates some one or more 
 of these or other aspects of His Beloved. 
 
 Many are satisfied to see nothing of this: the 
 sprinkled blood in Egypt is enough for them. And 
 this, indeed, secures salvation : but, oh ! how much lies 
 beyond ! Knowing only the blood in Egypt will never 
 teach us our priestly office, nor the value and use of 
 the offerings of the Lord, nor the will of the Lord re- 
 specting us. The blood, indeed, wherever seen, be-
 
 THE TYPES IN GENEKAL. 11 
 
 speaks our safety, and it is blessed even in Egypt to 
 know God's claim is met ; but ought we not also, as 
 His redeemed and loved ones, to desire to know more 
 also of His will and our portion ? 
 
 We know but little of all this as yet, but we know 
 enough to make us long for more. As an old writer 
 has well said, contrasting the dispensations, God in the 
 Types of the last dispensation was teaching His chil- 
 dren their letters. In this dispensation He is teaching 
 them to put these letters together, and they find that 
 the letters, arrange them as we will, spell Christ, and 
 nothing but Christ. In the next dispensation He will 
 teach us what Christ means. This is most true. But 
 the Church "as now risen with Christ/' as already 
 " seated in heavenly places/' * and " in the kingdom/' 
 ought even now in spirit to enter a little more into the 
 truth of what Christ has been for us and to us. The 
 Lord teach us all more of His infinite fulness. 
 
 I said there was a distinct difference in the Types of 
 the Old Testament, and that this difference is appa- 
 rently so arranged on purpose, the different classes of 
 types for the most part being found in different books. 
 For my own part I cannot doubt the fact, though I 
 feel it will be quite another thing for me to commend 
 it to others. Take, however, first my statement, and 
 then I will endeavour, in dependence on the Lord, to 
 give the proof which may be brought in support of it. 
 
 Those who are so far acquainted with the earlier 
 books of the Bible as to be able to carry their general 
 
 * Eph. ii 6.
 
 12 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 contents in their memories, will at once recollect how 
 very different in character some of these books are from 
 others ; some, as for example Genesis, being throughout 
 simple narratives ; others, like Leviticus, being from 
 first to last a series of ceremonial observances. Each 
 of these books, those which deal in narrative, as much 
 as those which contain emblematical ordinances, are, 
 as we find from the New Testament, typical. There is, 
 however, a great difference in the character of their 
 types ; and to this distinction I now direct attention. 
 
 Generally speaking the difference is this. The types of 
 Genesis foreshadow God's great dispensational purposes 
 respecting mans development ; shewing in mystery His 
 secret will and way respecting the different successive 
 dispensations. The types of Exodus I speak, of course, 
 generally bring out, as their characteristic, -redemp- 
 tion and its consequences ; a chosen people are here 
 redeemed out of bondage, and brought into a place of 
 nearness to God. Leviticus again differs from each of 
 these, dealing, I think I may say solely, in types con- 
 nected with access to God. Numbers and Joshua are 
 again perfectly different, the one giving us types con- 
 nected with our pilgrimage as in the wilderness ; the 
 other, types of our place as over Jordan, that is, as dead 
 and risen with Christ. In speaking thus, I would by 
 no means be understood to say that Genesis is the only 
 book which contains dispensational types : I believe 
 that there are many in the other books ; but, wherever 
 this is the case, the dispensational type is subservient 
 to, or rather in connexion with, the special subject of
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. ] 3 
 
 the book. Thus, if Numbers is the book of the wilder- 
 ness, the dispensational types in it, if there are any, 
 will bear on the wilderness.* 
 
 Nor are these the only books of the Old Testament 
 in which a characteristic and typical thought may be 
 easily traced. I feel satisfied that had we but sufficient 
 intelligence, the remaining books might be viewed in 
 the same manner. -f- But I take the opening ones as 
 being generally more familiar to us, and sufficient to 
 shew my meaning. 
 
 But it may be asked, what proof is there for these 
 assertions ? I answer, the New Testament itself seems 
 to me to supply the proof in every case. Of course, as 
 in every other study, a certain amount of apprehension 
 is needed in those to whom the proof is submitted. All 
 have not intelligence enough to grasp the proofs of 
 astronomy, which, nevertheless, are proofs and un- 
 answerable proofs to those whose senses are sufficiently 
 exercised to discern them. So, I doubt not, will it 
 be here. And I venture to say that those who know 
 most of spiritual communion, who, in God's presence, 
 have entered the deepest into the value of Christ and 
 God's thoughts about Him, these will be the persons 
 best qualified rightly to estimate the amount of proof 
 contained in what I now suggest to them. 
 
 * The history in the thirty -second chapter, I believe, supplies an 
 instance. 
 
 t The history recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles 
 is a good illustration of this. The same persons come before us in 
 both, but with a different object in each. The typical character of 
 the respective books will supply the key to the points of difference.
 
 1 4 THE LAW OP THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 To return, then, to GENESIS. I said that its types, 
 for the most part, were of a dispensational character, 
 shewing God's great dispensational purposes, and the 
 course appointed for man's development. Perhaps it 
 may be necessary for me to explain what I mean by 
 " dispensational purposes." God has, since the fall of 
 man, at various periods dealt with man, in different 
 degrees of intimacy, and, in a certain sense, also on 
 different principles. Throughout all, He has had one 
 purpose in view, to reveal what He is, and to shew 
 what man is ; but this one end has been brought 
 out in different ways, and under various and repeated 
 trials. 
 
 The sum is this. Man by disobedience fell, and 
 thenceforth has, with all his progeny, been a sinner. 
 The different dispensations, while, on the one hand, 
 they were revelations of God, were also the trial 
 whether, under any circumstances, man could recover 
 himself. God first tried man without law ; the end of 
 that was the flood, "for the earth was filled with 
 violence." * God then committed power to Noah, try- 
 ing man under the restraints of human authority, 
 saying, " He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
 his blood be shed,"f to see, if I may so speak, whether, 
 with this help, man could in any measure recover him- 
 self. The end of that, and this within no long period, 
 was open and wide-spread idolatry. God himself then 
 came more manifestly forth as a giver. The other dis- 
 pensations are specially His. He chose one family, 
 
 * Gen. vi 11. t Gen. ir. 0.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 15 
 
 the family of Abraham, and, to give man in the flesh 
 every assistance in recovering himself, He gave him a 
 perfect law, to see whether by this law he could im- 
 prove or restore himself. This was the dispensation 
 of the law. I need not tell you the end of this. God 
 sent His servants seeking fruit of the husbandmen to 
 whom He had let out His vineyard ; and some they 
 beat, and some they stoned, and all they treated shame- 
 fully. Last of all He sent His Son, and Him they cast 
 out and crucified.* Such was the end of this first dis- 
 pensation, and of the experiment whether man in the 
 flesh could be amended by law. God then brought in 
 a new thing, the dispensation of resurrection, I mean 
 the Christian dispensation, differing from the preced- 
 ing in this point, above all others, that it did not re- 
 cognize man in the flesh at all, but only owned, as the 
 subjects of a heavenly kingdom, such as were quickened 
 by a new and heavenly life. Man in the flesh was 
 now no more to be tried, for it was a settled thing 
 that he was utterly lost and helpless, and baptism 
 sealed this.'f' God would now Himself make a people, 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 33-39. 
 
 f- The contrast between baptism and circumcision is most cha- 
 racteristic of their respective dispensations. Circumcision, as we 
 are told in Peter, (chap. iii. 21.) represented " the putting away the 
 filth of the flesh." This was all the old dispensation aimed at ; for it 
 assumed that the flesh could be improved. Man, therefore, the seed 
 of Abraham according to the flesh, was in the flesh taken into cove- 
 nant. Baptism, on the contrary, as we are repeatedly told, (Rom. 
 vL; CoL ii. ; 1 Pet. iii.) represents the death and burial of the flesh: 
 for this dispensation starts on the ground that the flesh is incurable, 
 *ud that it is only as Quickened by the Spirit that man can come to
 
 1G THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 "begotten again by the resurrection of Christ,"* who 
 through this dispensation of grace should be a witness, 
 not of what they were, but of what He was. A dis- 
 pensation, therefore, was begun, not owning man in the 
 flesh in any way, in which God has been dealing almost 
 in direct contrast to His dealings with man under the 
 law. This is the present dispensation. 
 
 I have perhaps enlarged on this question more than 
 my subject demands, but the importance of it may be 
 my apology, an importance, I grieve to say, but little 
 recognized by the mass of Christians. What I have 
 said, however, will shew how God has dealt with man 
 dispensationally, that is, how, in different ages and 
 dispensations, His requirements and laws have varied. 
 God's first dispensation was the law : His second is 
 the gospel 
 
 Now the types of Genesis, unlike those of some of 
 the other books, are taken up, I may say almost ex- 
 clusively, with foreshadowings of great truths or events 
 connected with these dispensations. Two or three 
 passages from the New Testament will supply a 
 divinely-authorized proof of this statement With 
 these, as a starting-point, I trust I shall easily shew 
 how full Genesis is of similar types. 
 
 Let us look, then, for a moment at Gen. XXL, with 
 
 God ; in a word, that except a man be born again he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God. And the believer, having this new birth, is called 
 to profess the worthlessness of the flesh, in an ordinance which, if 
 rightly administered, is as strikingly representative of the design of 
 this, as circumcision was of the design of the old covenant 
 1 Pet. L 3.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 17 
 
 St Paul's comment on it in Gal. iv. : " Tell me, ye 
 that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the 
 law ? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons ; 
 the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free-woman. 
 But he who was of the bond-woman was born after 
 the flesh ; but he of the free-woman was by promise. 
 Which things are an allegory : for these arc the two 
 covenants ; the one from the mount Sinai, which 
 gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar 
 is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem 
 which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the 
 
 mother of us all But as then he that was born 
 
 after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the 
 Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the 
 Scripture ? Cast out the bond- woman and her son : 
 for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with 
 the son of the free-woman." * 
 
 Now all this is dispensational. Hagar, the hand- 
 maid, and a bond-woman, stands the perfect type of the 
 covenant of law : Sarah, the true wife, and a free- woman, 
 the representative of the covenant of grace. The first 
 son, Ishmael, born according to nature, a type of the 
 Jew, who by natural birth came into covenant. The 
 second son, Isaac, born contrary to nature, of parents 
 who were " as good as dead," -f- a type of the resurrec- 
 tion life of this dispensation, the life from above spring- 
 ing out of death. I can but just touch the subject 
 here ; but enough perhaps has been said to shew my 
 
 * GaL iv. 21-81. t Heb. ii. 12; Rom. iv. 19.
 
 18 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 meaning. Christ, of course, is the key here as else- 
 where ; yet how different here from the types of Levi- 
 ticus, which, instead of speaking of Him as connected 
 with dispensations, shew His work as bearing on com- 
 munion. And if the types of Genesis are unlike Levi- 
 ticus, what shall we say of Numbers and Joshua, 
 which in their types are full, as we shall see, of repre- 
 sentations of the varied experience of the redeemed? 
 The least measure of spiritual intelligence must, I 
 think, at once apprehend a difference so striking as this. 
 I cannot leave the type of Hagar and Sarah without 
 just noticing one other part in it, which may not be 
 altogether thrown away. Observe, when Sarah died, 
 Abraham took again another wife, Keturah ;* and by 
 her he had, not one son, as in the preceding types, (one 
 son in each being the emblem of one family,) but 
 many sons, the type of that which shall take place 
 when the Sarah dispensation is ended : when not one 
 nation only shall be the Lord's, but when " the king- 
 doms of this world " shall be His. Hitherto God has 
 had but one nation : in the last dispensation a peculiar 
 nation in the flesh ; now a peculiar nation in the 
 spirit, whose birth is not from Adam, but from 
 Christ. But in the next dispensation it will be 
 otherwise. The Sarah covenant will never embrace 
 the nations, though it will " take out of them a people 
 for His name," f for in it " there is neither Jew nor 
 Greek ; " the flesh, as I have said, in it being in no way 
 recognized. It will be otherwise when the next dispen- 
 
 * Gen. xxv. 1-4. t Act* xv. 14.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 19 
 
 sation comes, and " the earth is filled with the knowledge 
 of the Lord." But I am to speak of the characteristic 
 difference of the Types, and not of all that is taught us 
 in them. 
 
 A second passage from the book of Genesis, which 
 is referred to in the New Testament as typical, is the 
 history of Mclchisedec. In the seventh of Hebrews 
 the apostle is shewing the abrogation and disannulling 
 of the Levitical priesthood, and how the dispensation 
 of the law, with the things pertaining to it, was super- 
 seded by a new dispensation. In support of this, he 
 refers to a fact recorded in Genesis, which he uses 
 as his sufficient proof. The passage is very remark- 
 able, not only as shewing the character of the types of 
 Genesis, but as teaching us something of the nature of 
 typical representations, and of the way in which they 
 must be interpreted. But I here simply refer to it as 
 an instance in point, to shew the general character of 
 the types of Genesis. The history tells us that Abra- 
 ham paid tithes to Melchisedec, one who in his own 
 person was both king and priest. The apostle shews 
 how every detail given of this person, yea, and how 
 that also which is omitted respecting him, is all full of 
 typical instruction.* Levi paid tithes in Abraham to 
 
 * I refer here to the fact noticed by the apostle, that in Melchi- 
 sedec's history there is no record either of his birth or death, an 
 omission very unusual in Scripture with those who take a prominent 
 place ; which omission, however, the apostle shews to be typical. 
 Melchisedec, says Paul, was " without father or mother, without 
 descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." He 
 does not mean that Melchisedec really had none of these ; but that
 
 20 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Melchisedec: that proves, says the apostle, how far 
 Lcvi was below Melchisedec. It speaks, also, of a time 
 when the priesthood of Lcvi will have to yield to an- 
 other priesthood. I do not go into details : they are 
 sufficiently familiar to those even moderately versed in 
 Scripture. I only refer to it as another undoubted 
 illustration of the dispensational character of the types 
 of Genesis. 
 
 Take another of the types of Genesis, I mean the 
 history of Joseph. No one, I suppose, who has ever 
 thought upon it, can doubt that this history is typical. 
 But typical of what? Of dispensational truth. Joseph 
 is the eldest son of the younger and best-loved wife. 
 Here, again, we get the two wives, as in a former in- 
 stance, bringing out the same truth, though with some 
 additions. Leah, the elder wife, has all her children 
 before Rachel, the younger, has any. The Jewish dis- 
 pensation had all its children before the Christian dis- 
 pensation had any. Christ, the first-born from the 
 grave, was the first son of the Rachel dispensation. 
 This son, the beloved of his father, is cast out by his 
 brethren, the children of the elder wife, and cast into 
 Egypt, the constant type of the Gentile world. There, 
 after a season of suffering and shame, he is exalted to 
 be head over the kingdom ; his wife is given him from 
 out of the Gentiles, and then his brethren, the children 
 of the first wife, know him. This type, I think, needs 
 
 none are recorded in his history, and that * his omission is distinctly 
 typical We shall find, as we proceed, that the omissions in the 
 types of Leviticiu are as full of import aa the facts recorded.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 21 
 
 no explanation : if explanation be needed, the eleventh of 
 Komans will supply it. The sin of the Jews, the elder 
 brethren, is made the riches of the Gentiles for a season, 
 until the elder brethren in need are brought to know 
 and worship their brother, and are reconciled to Him. 
 But I wish merely to call attention to the fact, that 
 here, as elsewhere in Genesis, the types are dispensa- 
 tional. Christ rejected by the Jewish family, and His 
 history among the Gentiles, and again the restoration 
 of His brethren to Him : this is the history of Joseph. 
 I will give but one more example, which must suffice 
 for my proof as to the book of Genesis. Take, then, the 
 ark of Noah. If there be a type in the Bible, the ark is 
 surely a type, of Christ without doubt, but of Christ 
 viewed dispensationally. Indeed, St Peter expressly 
 refers to it in this light, as a type of the mystical 
 death and resurrection of the Church in Christ.* But 
 to look at the history. We have first an old world to 
 be destroyed, with one faithful family upon it, or rather 
 one family who are saved for the faithfulness and piety 
 of their head, as it is said, " Come thou, and all thy 
 house, into the ark : for thee have I seen righteous. "( 
 Then we have a new world coming forth in beauty, 
 after destruction has passed on the old; while the 
 chosen family are brought from the one world to the 
 other, in an ark, the only place of safety. Christ is 
 the Ark, taking the chosen family from the world of 
 judgment to the new heavens and the new earth. This 
 
 * 1 Pet. iii. 21, w di/TiTvirov, n. r. \. 
 f Gen. vii. 1.
 
 22 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 is clear ; but look at the details. May I not say, the 
 microscope may be used here ? The ark, with all its 
 burden, rests on the mountains of the new world, months 
 before any portion of that new world could be seen. 
 Christ, as our Ark, has rested in resurrection, with all 
 the redeemed family in Him ; for in Him we are already 
 " risen," while as yet the waters of judgment (for " now 
 is the judgment of this world,"*) are resting on the 
 world. And mark the foreknowledge of God ; the day 
 the ark rested was the very day and the very month 
 on which, ages afterwards, Christ, the true Ark, rested 
 in resurrection. " The ark rested on the seventh month, 
 on the seventeenth day of the month." -f- On that day 
 Christ rose from the dead. The fourteenth day of this 
 seventh month (afterwards, by God's command, called 
 the first month, J) was the passover; the fifteenth, the 
 feast of unleavened bread ; and the third day from 
 that, "the seventeenth day," was the day Christ rose 
 from the dead. 
 
 But I have said enough to shew the character of the 
 types of Genesis, and that they are all more or less 
 dispensationcd. And let it be observed we have in 
 them three dispensations, the past, the present, and a 
 future one. 
 
 I now pass on more briefly to speak of the general 
 character of the types of EXODUS. These, as I have 
 already said, are chiefly connected with redemption 
 
 * John iiL 31. t Gen. viii. 4. Exod. xiL 2. 
 
 Lev. xxiii. 5, 6; compare this with Matt xzvL 17; Luke uii. T ; 
 and John xviii. 28.
 
 THE TYi'ES IN GENERAL. 23 
 
 and its consequences. In proof of this, as in the former 
 case, I will begin with New Testament evidence. 
 
 Let us, then, begin with the Passover, the institution 
 of which is recorded in the twelfth chapter. Is there 
 a doubt on the mind of any whether or not this ordi- 
 nance is to be regarded as typical ? Then let us hear 
 Paul's comment upon it : " Christ our passover is sa- 
 crificed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, not with 
 the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
 wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity 
 and truth."* And what is this passover but redemp- 
 tion ? The elect family, with shoes on their feet, and 
 their loins girt ready for flight from Egypt, are stand- 
 ing by night (" the night is far spent "f) within the 
 house whose door-posts are sprinkled with blood, while 
 the destroying angel is abroad in judgment, in the death 
 of their first-born judging the pride of Egypt. 
 
 And this is the one great truth in Egypt, the 
 sprinkled blood, and its value as delivering from judg- 
 ment In Egypt it is much to know that Israel is 
 redeemed, and that there is safety in the blood of 
 sprinkling. But the blood of Jesus has much more 
 connected with it than mere deliverance from Egypt 
 or salvation ; yet this is the only use of it which is 
 known by Israel in the house of bondage. For Israel 
 in Egypt, for the Christian in the world, the one great 
 truth is the Passover, redemption through the blood 
 of the Lamb, salvation, not for our righteousness' sake, 
 but because the blood is on the door-post. To leans 
 1 Cor. ?. 7, 8. f Rom. xiiL 12.
 
 24 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 anything further of the uses of that blood, Israel must 
 be brought to know themselves out of Egypt, to see 
 themselves as the redeemed of the Lord, and that God 
 doth put a difference between them and the Egyptians. 
 It is in the wilderness, in separation from Egypt, that 
 God opens to His people all the value of the Offerings. 
 There is no knowledge of the burnt-offering in Egypt, 
 or of its difference from the meat-offering or the sin- 
 offering ; there is no knowledge of the laver or shew- 
 bread there, or of the blessed work which the priest 
 performs. All this is learnt when Israel is in truth a 
 pilgrim, with the Red Sea and Egypt behind him. 
 
 How true is all this in our experience. Look at saints 
 who do not fully know redemption ; what is the only 
 truth for them ? Just this the passover, the sprinkled 
 blood ; they have no heart or eyes to see any farther. 
 But I am again going into the type, rather than point- 
 ing out its general bearing, redemption. 
 
 And that this is the general character of the types 
 of Exodus, will, I think, be apparent to such as 
 endeavour, in dependence on the Lord, to read the 
 book as a whole, and to grasp the one great thought 
 which throughout is stamped on it. What is the 
 exodus from Egypt but redemption? What is the 
 march through the sea but redemption? This is the 
 key-note of Israel's song when Pharaoh and his hosts 
 are fallen : " Thou in Thy mercy, Lord, hast led 
 forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: . . . 
 fear shall fall on the inhabitants of Canaan, till the 
 people pass over, whom Thou hast purchased. Thou
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 25 
 
 shalt bring them in."* And in keeping with this com- 
 mencement, the types in the latter part of the book are 
 occupied with representations of the consequences of 
 redemption, a people brought near to God. 
 
 LEVITICUS differs from all this. That it is typical, 
 I need hardly say : for unless we look at it as such, it 
 has I say it with reverence for us no meaning. But 
 the Epistles of the New Testament are full of direct 
 references, which prove beyond a doubt the typical 
 character of its ordinances.! Of these references, there 
 are not less than forty, every one of which speaks of 
 the things referred to as typical. But typical of what? 
 Of Christ, clearly. But of Christ under what aspectl 
 Not as connected with dispensations, as we see Him in 
 the types of Genesis; not as teaching redemption, as 
 we see Him in the earlier types of Exodus. Leviticus 
 begins after redemption is known, and speaks of things 
 connected with the access of a chosen people to God. 
 Thus, as the following pages I trust will shew, though 
 Christ in His work is the sum and substance of these 
 types, it is Christ as discerned by one who already 
 knows the certainty of redemption : it is Christ as seen 
 by one, who, possessing peace with God and deliver- 
 ance, is able to look with joy at all that Christ has so 
 fully been for him. Christ as the priest, the offerer, 
 the offering; Christ as meeting all that a saved sinner 
 needs to approach to God ; Christ for the believer, 
 and all that Christ is to the believer, as keeping up his 
 
 * Exod. xv. 13, 16, 17. 
 
 * Heb. v. vii. via. ix. x. xiii. 1 Pet. ii. Ac. &<.
 
 26 THE LAW OP THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 communion with God; this is what we have distinctly 
 set forth in the varied types of Leviticus. Exodus 
 gives us the blood of the lamb, saving Israel in the 
 land of Egypt. Leviticus gives us the priest and the 
 offerings, meeting Israel's need in their access to 
 Jehovah. 
 
 But I do not enter into details here, as the Offerings 
 will supply a sufficient proof. I pass on therefore to 
 the types of Numbers, to mark what appears to me to 
 be their distinctive character. 
 
 NUMBEES, giving the history of Israel in the 
 wilderness, their services, their trials, and their failures 
 there, brings out, I cannot doubt, repeated types of 
 the Christians experience and pilgrimage in Hie 
 world as in a wilderness. Israel's history, as well as 
 Israel's ordinances, was typical; their coming out of 
 Egypt was typical; their sojourn in the wilderness was 
 typical ; their entering the land was typical ; and the 
 details of each of these portions of their history, the 
 typical character of which in general is granted by all, 
 will shew how perfectly the pictures are finished by 
 the hand of One who well knew what He was 
 describing. 
 
 In Numbers, then, we get types connected with the 
 wilderness. Here the world is viewed not as the house 
 of bondage, but as the place of trial, the scene of 
 pilgrimage, through which Israel must pass to Canaan. * 
 
 * In Exochis we get just the reverse, the world viewed, not as our 
 place of pilgrimage, but as the kingdom of Pharaoh and the house 
 of bondage.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 27 
 
 Thus, in those chapters in Numbers which are most 
 allied in their character to the types of Leviticus, 
 (where the offering of Christ, as in " the red heifer," 
 is without doubt the great end of the representation,*) 
 we have the sacrifice, not as in Leviticus, shewing some 
 aspect of Christ's offering as bearing on communion, 
 but as further coming in with particular application to 
 the trials of a walk of faith in the wilderness; and 
 meeting the cases of individual experience, such as 
 contact with evil, or any other defilement. 
 
 I speak the less on this subject, because the whole 
 character of the book is so obvious, f and to enter into 
 the particulars would fill a volume. Suffice it to say, 
 throughout we have the elect in the wilderness, learn- 
 ing there what man is, and what God is ; what the 
 ransomed people ought to be, and what they really are. 
 We have the Levites, I take one undoubted type from 
 the fourth chapter, the picture of the Church in 
 service, with garments unspotted from pollution, pass- 
 ing onwards through the desert land; each day 
 dependent on God for everything, and following the 
 guidance of the fire and cloud, while they bear the 
 vessels of the sanctuary, and care for them in the 
 dreary waste. Those vessels all typified something of 
 
 * Numbers xix. The red heifer was the only sin-offering in 
 which the fat of the inwards was not burnt on the altar. But this 
 is in exact keeping with the character of the book of Numbers, 
 giving us the offering only in its relation to the wilderness. The fat 
 on the altar would have been God's part. In Numbers, therefore, 
 this is unnoticed. 
 
 fr See St Paul's application of the history in 1 Cor. z. 1-11.
 
 28 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Christ And the spiritual Levites have now to bear 
 Him through the wilderness. 
 
 And so throughout, Numbers gives us the wilderness. 
 The pillar of cloud preceding them ;* the blowing of 
 the silver trumpets, and the alarm in the camp ;-f- the 
 murmuring after the flesh-pots of Egypt ;J and the 
 shrinking through unbelief from going up to Canaan ; 
 fit representation of God's chosen people shrinking 
 backward from the trials of their heavenly calling ; 
 the want of water in the wilderness, and the stony rock 
 opened to supply that need;|| the whoredom with the 
 daughters of Moab,^[ and the discouragement because 
 of the way ;** what are all these but living pictures of 
 the Christian pilgrim's experience as in the wilder- 
 ness? 
 
 How different is JOSHUA from all this ; experience 
 again, I doubt not, but what different experience. The 
 one teaching us our way in the wilderness, the other as 
 already beyond Jordan in the land. Into this I fear 
 some may find it more difficult to enter, because the 
 reality which is represented is a thing unknown to 
 them. Joshua teaches us, in type, the Church already 
 with Christ in heavenly places, and but few saints ap- 
 prehend this experience, or know what resurrection 
 means. Thus the book of Joshua, if viewed typically, 
 answers very nearly to the Epistle to the Ephesians. 
 In either book we see the elect standing in the place ol 
 
 Chapter ix. f Chapter x. J Chapter iL 
 
 Chapters xiii. xiv. II Chapter IT 
 
 H Chapter xxiiL ** Chapter uc.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENERAL. 29 
 
 promise, but finding it still a place of conflict. As 
 Paul says, " We are raised up, and made to sit together 
 in heavenly places in Christ : " * but that place is 
 not yet the rest ; for, as he proceeds in the same 
 Epistle, " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
 but against principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places."-]- 
 
 The book of Joshua is just this. It describes to us 
 Israel passing from the wilderness over Jordan into the 
 land of Canaan. All these are emblems familiar to us. 
 Jordan, as we all know, is the type of death, dividing 
 the wilderness, this world, from the land of promise, 
 heaven. Israel passes through Jordan without feeling 
 its waters, and comes with Joshua into the promised 
 land. W'hen he passes Jordan, all Israel passes. And 
 thus it was in Christ. The Church is dead with Him, 
 buried with Him, risen with Him ; but there is still a 
 conflict, for the Canaanite will dwell in that land. 
 And so it will be till the true Solomon comes. Oh, may 
 He hasten His coming ! 
 
 But let us take an example or two as illustrating 
 this. In the fourth chapter we read of Israel crossing 
 Jordan dryshod : in the fifth we read of their circum- 
 cision. As soon as they are over Jordan, so soon are 
 they all called to be circumcised. Though the seed of 
 Abraham, there had been no circumcision for Israel in 
 the wilderness ; but as soon as they come into the land, 
 circumcision begins at once. Need I explain what this 
 
 * Eph. ii. 6. 
 
 V Eph. vi. 12, (v Tolt trrovpaviois, the same as in ch. L fi.
 
 30 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 is, or shew how exactly it answers to " the eighth day " 
 of the original institution? Circumcision was to be 
 " on the eighth day.''* To those at all familiar with 
 the types, I need not say that "the eighth day" is 
 always typical of resurrection. The eighth day, the 
 day after the seventh or Sabbath, answers to " the first 
 day of the week " on which Christ rose : it is however 
 "the first day" in reference to seven having gone 
 before. Seven days include the periods proper to the 
 first creation. The eighth day, as it takes us beyond 
 and out of these, that is, beyond the limits of the old 
 creation, brings us in type into a new order of things 
 and times, in a word, into the new creation or resur- 
 rection. With regard to circumcision, we are taught 
 in Peter, that it represented " the putting away the filth 
 of the flesh." To do this was the great attempt of the 
 whole Jewish dispensation, and that attempt ended in 
 failure ; for resurrection, the place beyond Jordan, was 
 not yet occupied by Israel But since Christ, the true 
 Joshua, has passed through Jordan, and since all the 
 Church is in and with Him, and because, as members 
 of His body, the Church is dead and risen with Him, 
 therefore it is called to be circumcised, and to put 
 away the filth of tho flesh. "If ye be risen with 
 Christ . . . put off anger, wrath, malice, ttasphemy."-f 
 True circumcision of the heart is only known and at- 
 tained to in proportion as we know the power of the 
 vesurrection. 
 
 But to speak of other parts ; how different through- 
 * Gen. xvii. 8; PhiL ill 5. f CoL iii. 1, 3, 5, 8.
 
 THE TYPES IN GENEfiAL. 31 
 
 out is the experience of the books of Numbers and 
 Joshua. Not that in fact the two can really be sepa- 
 rated, for in Christ the Church is apprehended for every- 
 thing : but it is one thing to be apprehended of Him, 
 and another to apprehend that for which we are appre- 
 hended.* One portion of experience is often more ap- 
 prehended than another. Indeed, our experience is 
 but the measure of our individual attainment, the ex- 
 tent to which we have proved the truth, the apprehen- 
 sion in our own souls of that which is already true for 
 us in Chris^. The work of Christ for us has brought 
 His members into every blessing, and faith at once 
 rests on this ; but experience only apprehends that 
 amount of this which is realized in our souls by the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 But to return to the difference of Numbers and 
 Joshua. There was no difficulty in possessing the 
 wilderness ; but Israel had to fight for every step in 
 the land. Instead of lusting for flesh as in the 
 wilderness, in the land, in the knowledge of resurrec- 
 tion, the temptation is quite of another sort. We 
 have confidence in strength, as before Ai ;f confidence 
 in knowledge, as in the case of the Gibeonites ; J 
 abusing grace, as in the case of Achan ; understanding 
 how it gives victory, but not seeing God's claims in it. 
 As saints grow in grace and in the knowledge of their 
 place as even now risen, they have another class of 
 trials to meet in addition to the trials of the wilderness, 
 " the wrestling, not with flesh and blood, but with 
 
 * PhiL iii. 1 2. f Chapter vii. J Chapter ix.
 
 32 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 principalities and powers in heavenly places." And 
 this is in fact the book of Joshua. 
 
 Such is a very brief and imperfect sketch of the dif- 
 ferent character of some of the typical parts of Scrip- 
 ture. I feel how little what I have said will convey 
 to one who has not studied it, the exceeding depth and 
 fulness of my subject. 
 
 Does any one say that these are but points of know- 
 ledge, and as such of comparatively little value? I 
 grant that they are points of knowledge, but I answer, 
 we grow in grace through knowledge.* And one 
 reason of the weakness of the Church is the shallow- 
 ness of her knowledge on these points. To shew the 
 use of this knowledge is not my present purpose. 
 Suffice it to say, that were the types of Genesis under- 
 stood, we should not see such grievous mistakes arising 
 from confounding the dispensations, and mingling the 
 things and hopes of one covenant with the things and 
 hopes of another. And so of the rest. Know more of 
 Exodus, that is, of redemption ; know more of Leviti- 
 cus, that is, of the ground of access to God ; know 
 more of Numbers, the experience of the wilderness ; 
 and of Joshua, the experience as even now beyond 
 Jordan ; and then see if you have not something more 
 to use in service for Him who redeemed and loved 
 you. 
 
 That thus it may be with us indeed, let us pray that 
 the Lord will keep us near to Himself, in abiding com- 
 munion with Him. Amen. 
 
 * 2 Pet L 2
 
 THE BUKNT-OFFEBING 
 
 LEVITICUS L 
 
 IN the preceding pages, I have endeavoured to point 
 out the distinctive character of the types in some of 
 the earlier books of the Old Testament. We are now 
 in a better position to estimate the distinctions in the 
 types of this book, Leviticus. 
 
 Speaking generally, the types of Leviticus, as I have 
 said, give us the work of Christ, in its bearing on wor- 
 ship and communion. We have not here, as in the 
 earlier part of Exodus, the sprinkled blood to redeem 
 from Egypt ; but we get definite instruction respecting 
 the Offering and Priest, to meet the need of a saved 
 people in their approaches to God their Saviour. In 
 a word, instead of seeing Christ as redeeming, we here 
 see His work for the redeemed ; His work, not in 
 bringing them out of Egypt, but in bringing them into 
 the place of worship, in keeping them there in happy 
 fellowship, and in restoring them when they fail or fall 
 
 And how varied are the aspects of Christ's work, 
 viewed merely in this one relation. To hold com- 
 munion with God, the redeemed need Christ as the 
 Offering ; and this is the first view we get of Him in
 
 34 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Leviticus : but they need Him also as the Priest and 
 Mediator; and therefore this is also another aspect 
 in which He is presented to us. And so we might go 
 on step by step in the consideration of the blessed 
 work of Jesus, passing from one part to another of His 
 service in keeping up and restoring the communion of 
 His redeemed. 
 
 The work of Christ, then, as connected with the com- 
 munion of His people, may, and indeed, if fully appre- 
 hended, must be viewed under many different repre- 
 sentations. The offering is the first representation ; 
 the priest, in close connexion with it, the second ; be- 
 cause it is under these two great aspects that the 
 redeemed in communion with God have most to do 
 with Jesus. At present I purpose going no further 
 than Christ viewed as Hie Offering. Christ as the key 
 to the dispensations, as we see Him in the types of 
 Genesis ; Christ as the ground of redemption, as 
 shewn in the book of Exodus ; Christ the rearer of 
 the tabernacle, and the substance of its many services ; 
 Christ the guide of His people, whether through the 
 wilderness or into the land over Jordan ; Christ as 
 the rejected king while another holds His kingdom ; 
 Christ as the glorious king who builds the temple in 
 Jerusalem : all these and many other aspects of the 
 work and person of our blessed Lord will, for the 
 present, in some measure be held in abeyance, that we 
 may more particularly enter into this one aspect, this 
 first aspect of Christ, as connected with communion, 
 CHRIST THE SUM OF THE OFFERINGS.
 
 THE BUKNT-OFFEEING. 35 
 
 And how much is there to arrest and instruct us in 
 this one simple view of Him. He is the Burnt-offer- 
 ing, the Meat-offering, the Peace-offering, the Sin- 
 offering, and the Trespass-offering for His people.* 
 By His one oblation of Himself once offered, He has 
 stood in all these different relations, relations so pre- 
 cious to God, that through preceding ages He had the 
 representation of them constantly presented to Him, 
 relations so needful to the Church, that it is on the 
 apprehension of them that her joy and strength depend. 
 And yet how great a proportion of believers have 
 neither knowledge nor wish to trace these. They 
 read of Him as the Sin-offering and the Burnt- 
 offering; but no corresponding thought is suggested 
 to them by this distinction. It is enough for them 
 that the blood has been sprinkled on the door-post ; 
 and they care not 'to know more of Him who sprinkled 
 it. 
 
 But these are not God's thoughts, nor are they the 
 thoughts of those who know the joy of communion 
 with Him. Such go from strength to strength in the 
 knowledge of the grace and work of Jesus. Have 
 they known Him as the paschal lamb in Egypt ? they 
 seek then to know Him as the offering within the 
 tabernacle. Have they learnt Him in His different 
 relations as offering ? they seek to know Him in all 
 His offices as priest. Do they know Him as priest ? 
 they seek Him as prophet, as manna, as water, as 
 guide, as everything. May the Lord only fill us with 
 * See Heb. x. 4-10.
 
 36 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 His Spirit: then we cannot but follow on to know 
 more of Jesus. 
 
 But it is time we should turn to THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 In approaching them I would make a general obser- 
 vation or two on some particulars which are common 
 to all the Offerings, the right understanding of which 
 may lead us to a clearer apprehension of the principle 
 on which they must be interpreted. Without definite 
 thoughts on each of these particulars, the various types 
 will be little more than unmeaning repetition to us. 
 
 (1 .) The first point, then, which requires our notice 
 is this : In each offering there are at least three dis- 
 tinct objects presented to us. There is the offering, the 
 priest, the offerer. A definite knowledge of the pre- 
 cise import of each of these is absolutely requisite if 
 we would understand the offerings. 
 
 What, then, is the offering ? what the priest ? what 
 the offerer ? Christ is the offering, Christ is the priest, 
 Christ is the offerer. Such and so manifold are the 
 relations in which Christ has stood for man and to man, 
 that no one type or set of types can adequately repre- 
 sent the fulness of them. Thus we have many distinct 
 classes of types, and further variations in these distinct 
 classes, each of which gives us one particular view of 
 Christ, either in His character, or in His work, or per- 
 son. But see Him as we may for sinners, He fills more 
 than one relation. This causes the necessity of many 
 emblems. First He comes as offerer, but we cannot 
 see the offerer without the offering, and the offerer is 
 Himself the offering, and He who is both offerer and
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 37 
 
 offering is also the priest. As man under the law, our 
 substitute, Christ, stood for us towards God as offerer. 
 He took " the body prepared for Him " as His offering, 
 that in it and by it He might reconcile us to God. 
 Thus, when sacrifice and offering had wholly failed, 
 when at man's hand God would no more accept them, 
 " then said He, Lo, I come : in the volume of the book it 
 is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, God : yea, 
 Thy law is within my heart." * Thus His body was 
 His offering : He willingly offered it ; and then as 
 priest He took the blood into the holiest. As offerer, 
 we see Him man under the law, standing our substitute, 
 for us to fulfil all righteousness. As priest, we have 
 Him presented as the mediator, God's messenger be- 
 tween Himself and Israel. While as the offering He 
 is seen the innocent victim, a sweet savour to God, yet 
 bearing the sin and dying for it. 
 
 Thus in the selfsame type the offerer sets forth 
 Christ in His person, as the One who became man to 
 meet God's requirements : the offering presents Him 
 in His character and work, as the victim by which 
 the atonement was ratified ; while the priest gives us a 
 third picture of Him, in His official relation, as the 
 appointed mediator and intercessor. Accordingly, when 
 we have a type in which the offering is most prominent, 
 the leading thought will be Christ the victim. On the 
 other hand, when the offerer or priest predominates, it 
 will respectively be Christ as man or Christ as mediator. 
 
 Connected with this there is also another particular, 
 ' Heb. x. 5-9; Pa. xl. 6-8.
 
 38 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 the import of which must be known to understand the 
 Offerings. I refer to the laying of the offerer's hands 
 on the head of the victim offered. This act in itself 
 was nothing more than the expression of the identity 
 of the offerer and offering. In each case the giving 
 up of the offering represented the surrender of the 
 person of the offerer. The offering, whatever it might 
 be, stood for, and was looked upon as identical with 
 the offerer. In the one case, in the sweet savour offer- 
 ings, it represented the offerer as an accepted wor- 
 shipper, wholly surrendering himself upon the altar of 
 the Lord, to be a sweet savour to Jehovah. In the 
 other case, as in the sin and trespass offerings, where 
 the offerer came as a sinner with confession, the offerer 
 in his offering surrendered himself as a sinner to God's 
 judgment, and was cast out as accursed into the wilder- 
 ness. We know Him who stood in both these rela- 
 tions, when in the body prepared for Him " He gave 
 Himself." 
 
 (2.) Another particular to which I would direct 
 attention respects the differences between the several 
 offerings. These differences are not a secondary matter. 
 The very definiteness and distinct character of the parti- 
 cular offerings is wholly involved in them. Any non- 
 apprehension, therefore, or misapprehension on this 
 point, must necessarily leave us in much uncertainty. 
 
 As to these differences, then, there are first several 
 different offerings, as the jBurntf-offering, the Meat-offer- 
 ing, the Peace-offering, &c. ; and secondly, there are 
 different grades of the same offering, as the burnt-
 
 THE BUENT-OFFERING. 39 
 
 offering of the herd, the burnt-offering of the flock, the 
 burnt-offering of fowls ; the peace-offering of the herd, 
 the peace-offering of the flock, &c. The question is, 
 or rather it is 110 question, have these distinctions any 
 meaning corresponding to them ? With regard to all 
 the great outlines in these typical ordinances, every 
 Christian is satisfied that they represent Jesus ; yet 
 some doubt whether we are justified in expecting to 
 find Him in every distinct and minute particular. And 
 the fancies 'which have been vented upon this subject 
 have, indeed, been enough to warn us. Still, my an- 
 swer to such doubts is simply this, Are not the parti- 
 culars, as all Scripture, "written for our learning;" 
 and can they be so if the words are without import, 
 if they are meant to reveal nothing to us ? But no. 
 This God's representation of the work of His Beloved 
 will bear looking at as much as His other works. 
 Doubtless here, where every addition is but to depict 
 Christ's fulness, each minutest particular, each variety, 
 has a meaning attached to it. God's words are not 
 here, more than elsewhere, vain words. It is only our 
 want of spiritual apprehension which makes these 
 things so mysterious to us. The shadow may, in- 
 deed, be more dark than the substance, but for every 
 shadow there must be a substance ; and he that best 
 knows the substance and reality will soonest recognise its 
 darkened shadow. And just as the shadow of this our 
 earth, as it passes over the face of another planet, leads 
 the instructed eye by a glance to the knowledge of facts 
 respecting the form and proportions of the globe we
 
 40 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 dwell on ; so often does the apprehension of one of 
 these shadows which God has marked as cast from tho 
 work of Jesus, reveal Him and His work to His people 
 in a way which no less delights than it astonishes 
 them. 
 
 The fact is, the true secret respecting the difficulty 
 of the types is, that we are not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the reality ; and as a consequence, the representa- 
 tion of that reality is unintelligible or almost unintelli- 
 gible to us. Only let us see more of Christ ; only let us, 
 in God's presence, learn more of Him in all His rela- 
 tions ; and then the things which God has thought 
 worthy a place in His Word, because they represent 
 something which may be seen of Jesus, will tind an 
 answering place in our intelligence, because they will 
 each find a response in our experience. 
 
 But to speak of these differences. I have not a 
 doubt that they are intended to represent different 
 aspects of Christ's offering. I cannot say how far the 
 proof of this may commend itself to those who are 
 comparatively strangers to such questions, for here as 
 elsewhere a certain measure of previous intelligence is 
 required to enable us rightly to estimate the value of 
 the proof submitted to us. In this field of knowledge 
 too, as in others of a kindred nature, the proof of a fact 
 may be more difficult than the discovery of it ; and 
 again, the demonstration of the proof to those un- 
 accustomed to such questions, far more difficult than 
 the demonstration of the fact itself. I doubt not it 
 will be so in this case. I am, however, satisfied as to
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 41 
 
 the fact ; I will now endeavour, as briefly as may be, 
 to express what proof may be given of it. 
 
 To do this I must again advert to what has already 
 been said respecting the offerer and offering. We have 
 seen that the offerer is Christ, standing as man under 
 the law to fulfil all righteousness. We have seen that 
 the offering represents His body, and the laying on of 
 hands the identity of the offering and offerer. Now in 
 these types we have this offerer and His offering both 
 presented to us in very different circumstances. The 
 faithful Israelite is seen in different aspects, and ac- 
 cording to the aspect in which he is regarded, so is 
 his offering dealt with. In one we see him standing 
 as a sinless offerer, offering a sweet-smelling savour 
 for acceptance. In another he stands as a convicted 
 sinner, offering an expiatory sacrifice which bears the 
 penalty of his offences. 
 
 Now the offering of Christ, which all these shadows 
 typify, was but one, and but once offered; but the 
 shadows vary in shape and outline according to the 
 point from whence, and the light in which, they are 
 looked upon. In other words, the one offering had 
 several aspects, and each aspect required a separate 
 picture. Had Christ's fulness and relations been less 
 manifold, fewer emblems might have sufficed to re- 
 present them ; but as they are many, and each to be 
 variously apprehended, no one emblem, however perfect, 
 could depict them all. As priest, or offering, or offerer, 
 He fills a distinct relation, the representation of which 
 necessarily requires a distinct emblem. Yet in each of 
 
 D
 
 42 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 these relations He may be variously seen, and each of 
 these variations will again require a different picture. 
 Thus as priest He may be seen interceding with God, 
 or sprinkling the leper, or taking in the blood. It is 
 plain that the emblem which might set forth one of 
 these would by no means present another relation of 
 Him. But God's will is that all His relations should 
 be seen ; and the consequence is types many and 
 various. 
 
 With respect, then, to the varieties in the offerings, I 
 conclude that they are but different aspects of Christ's 
 work or person. Let us now advance a step further 
 and inquire, What are the different grades which we 
 find in the different offerings ? Without doubt these 
 proceed on the same principle. They are but different 
 views of this or that peculiar aspect. Not only is 
 Christ's work one which has many aspects, but each 
 aspect may be very differently apprehended, according 
 to the measure of intelligence possessed by those who 
 look at Him. Thus there may be different apprehen- 
 sions of the same relation, and of the selfsame act in 
 the same relation. For instance, as the offering, one 
 grade of it is the bullock, another the lamb, another 
 the turtle-dove. Now each of these emblems gives us 
 a different thought respecting the value or character of 
 the selfsame offering. One grade shews Christ, and 
 one saint sees Him, as an offering " of the herd," that 
 is the most costly offering. Another gives a lower 
 view of its value, or at least a different view of its 
 character, as in the grade of "the turtle-dove." In
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 43 
 
 every grade, the lowest as much as the highest, the 
 offering is seen to be free from blemish : in every grade 
 it is seen a sufficient offering, meeting all the require- 
 ments of the sacrifice ; but the riches of the offerer, 
 and the value and distinct character of his offering, are 
 very differently apprehended in the different pictures. 
 
 I conclude, therefore, that as the different offerings 
 give us different aspects or relations of Christ's one 
 offering, so the different grades in the same offering 
 give us different views or apprehensions of the same 
 aspect. 
 
 An illustration may perhaps better express the 
 difference. Suppose, then, several aspects of some 
 building, the north aspect, the south aspect, the west 
 aspect; these would correspond with the different 
 offerings, as the burnt-offering, the meat-offering, &c. 
 But there might be three or four views of the building 
 taken from the same side, but under different lights, 
 and at different distances : this would be the different 
 grades in the same offering. 
 
 And the analogy of the other parts of Scripture 
 directly supports this interpretation ; for the different 
 books, as we have seen, looked at typically, do but 
 bring out different aspects or measures of apprehension 
 of that great and perfect work of which all Scripture 
 testifies. One book gives the experience of Egypt; 
 another the experience of the wilderness; another the 
 experience of the land. All these by one act of Jesus 
 are true for the Church in Him; but they are not all 
 equally apprehended; for our experience always comes
 
 44 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 far short of the reality, and the reality may be appre- 
 hended in very different measures. Christian ex- 
 perience, as I have before observed, is only our measure 
 of apprehension of that which is already true for us in 
 Jesus. And this measure of apprehension may vary, 
 though the work apprehended be the same. Thus, 
 one Christian, with little knowledge of his place in 
 Jesus, sees himself as still in the house of bondage; 
 but there, hiding within the blood-sprinkled door-posts, 
 he waits with girded loins to depart from Egypt.* 
 Another by faith sees further, even to the experience 
 of the wilderness, knowing that Pharaoh is judged,^ 
 and the Red Sea behind him. A third sees further 
 still, even into the land, and knows himself even now 
 over Jordan. J In a word, one sees Exodus, another 
 Numbers, another Joshua. Yet the reality, though 
 differently apprehended, is the same, salvation through 
 the blood of Jesus. The difference is in our appre- 
 hension of it, and it is this difference that these books, 
 if regarded typically, are so full of. It is, I believe, 
 precisely similar in these types of Christ in His work 
 as offering. The different offerings give us the dif- 
 ferent aspects of His offering ; the different grades 
 in the same offering, the different apprehensions of the 
 same aspect. 
 
 The truth is, that Christ's work is so manifold, and 
 has so many different aspects, and each aspect may be 
 so differently apprehended, according to the different 
 
 ' Cf.l Peter L 13, and Exod xil 11. 
 
 f John xiL 31. Ephesians il 6.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFEE1NG. 45 
 
 measure of light in the believer, that one type or one 
 history, however full, can never fully describe or re- 
 present Him. We see this unquestionably in the 
 Gospels, in reference to the person of the Lord. One 
 Gospel does not shew out all the glories of His person : 
 the subject requires four distinct presentations. The 
 Gospels are not mere supplementary narratives of Christ 
 in one relation. Each gives a separate view of Him. 
 Not of His work in saving, this we get in the Epistles, 
 but of Himself, His perfect character, His blessed 
 person. 
 
 I do not here enter into the distinctions of the Gos- 
 pels, though few' subjects of inquiry are more blessed, 
 further than to refer to them m illustration of our 
 subject, as shewing the way in which the Word is 
 written. Take but Luke and John. In their narratives, 
 as in the offerings, in each, as others have observed, we 
 have a distinct aspect of Jesus. Luke gives Him as 
 Son of Adam : John as Son of God. In the former of 
 these, therefore, I read His "genealogy," His "concep- 
 tion " of Mary, His " birth " at Bethlehem ; His " in- 
 crease in wisdom and stature," and His "subjection" 
 to His earthly parents ; His " baptism," His " tempta- 
 tion " in the wilderness, and His " anointing with the 
 Holy Ghost." In John not a word about matters of this 
 sort, but "the Word which was with God, and was 
 God/' Take any event narrated by the two Evangelists, 
 not to say the general tone and tenor of their writings, 
 and see how perfectly each narrative will be in keeping 
 with the distinct character of each particular Gospel
 
 46 TUB LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Take, for instance, a scene familiar to most of us, the 
 agony in the garden of Gethsemane. In Luke* we see 
 Jesus, the suffering " Son of Adam," in all points, sin 
 excepted, tempted as we are ; saying, " Father, if Thou 
 be willing, remove this cup from me." An angel ap- 
 pears strengthening Him. In an agony He prays more 
 fervently. He seems to seek sympathy from His 
 disciples : great drops of blood fall to the ground. Now 
 turn to the same scene in John,-f and mark the striking 
 contrast. Not a word about His prayer or agony ; 
 not a word about strength ministered to Him by an 
 angel ; not a word of His drops of blood, or of His 
 apparent longing for sympathy in His trial. Through- 
 out He is " the Word " incarnate. " Jesus knowing all 
 
 O 
 
 things that should come upon Him, went forth and said, 
 Whom seek ye ?" " As soon as He had said unto them, 
 I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground." 
 Here, instead of weakness and agony, is power appalling 
 His adversaries. Then again, instead of seeking sym- 
 pathy from His disciples, He is seen rather as possessing 
 the power to protect them. " If therefore ye seek me, 
 let these go their way ; that the saying might be fulfilled 
 which He spake, Of those whom thou hast given me I 
 have lost none." 
 
 Some saints see nothing of this. Like Israel in 
 Egypt, the only truth for them is redemption. Little 
 distinction can they see either in the work or offices of 
 Jesus. Still less do they see of His character or person. 
 But among those who do see these things, how vast 
 
 * Chapter zxiL 42. f Chapter zriii.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 4? 
 
 may be the difference of spiritual intelligence. It is this 
 distinction, I cannot doubt, which is brought out, as the 
 subject demands, in the varieties of the Offerings. 
 
 But it is time that we turn to THE BURNT-OFFERING. 
 Let us examine it, first, in its contrast to the other offer- 
 ings ; and then, secondly, in its varieties. 
 
 I. IN ITS CONTRAST TO THE OTHER OFFERINGS, at 
 
 least four points may be enumerated. It was, (1.) A 
 sweet savour offering, and, (2.) Offered for acceptance ; 
 in these two particulars it differed from the Sin-offerings. 
 (3.) Thirdly, it was the offering of a life : in this it 
 differed from the Meat-offering. (4.) Fourthly, it was 
 wholly burnt ; here it differed from all, and particularly 
 from the Peace-offering. 
 
 (I.) First, it was a sweet savour offering: "a sweet 
 savour unto Jehovah."* I have already adverted to 
 the difference between the offerings, and that they were 
 divided into two great and distinctive classes, first, the 
 sweet savour offerings, which were all, as we shall find, 
 oblations for acceptance ; and secondly, those offerings 
 which were not of a sweet savour, and which were re- 
 quired as an expiation for sin. The first class, the sweet 
 savour offerings, comprising the Burnt-offering, the 
 Meat-offering, and the Peace-offering,-f- were offered on 
 the brazen altar which stood in the Court of the Taber- 
 nacle. The second class, the Sin and Trespass-offer- 
 ings^ were not consumed on the altar : some of them 
 were burnt on the eartli without the camp ; others the 
 
 * Verses 9, 13, 17. t Chapters L ii. iii. 
 
 J Chapters iv. v. vi
 
 48 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 priest ate, having first sprinkled the blood for atone- 
 ment. In the first class, sin is not seen or thought of : 
 it is the faithful Israelite giving a sweet offering to 
 Jehovah. In the Sin-offerings it is just the reverse : it 
 is an offering charged with the sin of the offerer. Thus, 
 in the first class, that is, the Burnt-offering, the Meat- 
 offering, and the Peace-offering, the offerer came for 
 acceptance as a worshipper. In the second class, in the 
 Sin and Trespass-offerings, he came as a sinner to pay 
 the penalty of sin and trespass. In either case the 
 offering was without blemish ; for the Sin-offerings 
 required perfectness in the victim as much as the Burnt- 
 offering. But in the one the offerer appears as man in 
 perfectness, and in his offering stands the trial of fire, 
 that is, God's searching holiness ; and accepted as a 
 fragrant savour, all ascends a sweet offering to Jehovah. 
 In the other, the offerer appears as a sinner, and in his 
 offering bears the penalty due to his offences. 
 
 Now the Burnt-offering was of the first class, a 
 sweet-smelling savour ; as such in perfect contrast with 
 the Sin-offerings. We are not here, therefore, to con- 
 sider Christ as the Sin-bearer, but as man in perfect- 
 ness meeting God in holiness. The thought here is 
 not, " God hath made Him to be sin for us," * but 
 rather, " He loved us, and gave Himself for us an 
 offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling 
 savour." -f Jesus, blessed be His name, both in the 
 Burnt-offering and Sin-offering, stood as our represen- 
 tative. When He obeyed, He obeyed "for us:" when 
 
 2 Cor. v. 21. t Ej.h. v. 2.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERINO. 49 
 
 He suffered, He suffered "for us." But in the Burnt- 
 offering He appears for us, not as our sin-bearer, but 
 as man offering to God something which is most pre- 
 cious to Him. We have here what we may in vain 
 search for elsewhere ; man giving to God what truly 
 satisfies Him. The thought here is not that sin has 
 been judged, and that man in Christ has borne the 
 judgment : this would be the Sin-offering. The 
 Burnt-offering shews us man going even further, and 
 giving to God an offering so pleasing to Him that the 
 sweet savour of it satisfies Him, and will satisfy Him 
 for ever. With our experience of what man is, it 
 seems wondrous that he should ever perfectly perform 
 his part to God-ward. But in Christ man has so per- 
 formed it : His offering was " a sweet savour unto the 
 Lord," 
 
 Here, then, is the first thought presented to us in 
 the Burnt-offering : God finds food, that is, satisfaction, 
 in the offering. In other oblations we have Christ as 
 the faithful Israelite, by His offering feeding and 
 satisfying the priests. Here He is seen satisfying 
 Jehovah. The altar is "the table of the Lord:"* 
 whatever was put upon it was "the food of God."*f- 
 The fire from heaven, emblem of God's holiness, con- 
 sumes the offering ; and it all ascends as sweet incense 
 before Him.]: And just as in the Burnt-offering the 
 
 * Mai. i. 12. f Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17, 21, 22, margin. 
 
 J The word used for the Burnt-offering, H /}}> literally " ascend- 
 ing," is the same as that used for burning incense. The burning of 
 the Sin-offering is expressed by an entirely different word.
 
 60 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 fire from heaven fell and consumed the sacrifice of the 
 altar, a pledge to him who offered it that there was 
 something in the offering which God found pleasure in, 
 so, typically speaking, did God find food in the unble- 
 mished sacrifice of Jesus. His perfect spotlessness and 
 devotedness was a sweet feast to the God of heaven. 
 Here was something according to His taste. Here, at 
 least, He found satisfaction. 
 
 We too often omit this thought when thinking of 
 the offering of Jesus. We think of His death ; but 
 little of His life. We look but little into His ways. 
 Yet it is His ways throughout His pilgrimage, even to 
 the way He laid down His life, which God so delights 
 in. Our views are so selfish and meagre. If we are 
 saved, we seek no further. Most saints, therefore, 
 have very little thought of Christ's offering, except as 
 offered for sin, " delivered for our offences." God, 
 however, puts the Burnt-offering first : for this was 
 peculiarly His portion in Jesus. And just in pro- 
 portion as a believer grows in grace, we shall find 
 him turning intelligently to the Gospels ; from them 
 adding to the knowledge he has of the work of Jesus, 
 greater knowledge of His ways and person ; with 
 earnest desire to know more of the Lord Himself, 
 and how in all things He was "a sweet savour to 
 Jehovah." 
 
 (2.) But the Burnt-offering was not only "a sweet 
 savour ;" it was also an offering "for acceptance," 
 that is, it was offered to God to secure the acceptance 
 of the offerer. So we read, I give the more correct
 
 THE BURNT-OFFEEING. 5] 
 
 translation, " he shall offer it for his acceptance."* 
 To understand this, we must recur for a moment to 
 the position Christ occupied as offerer. He stood for 
 man as man under the law, and, as under law, His 
 acceptance depended on His perfectness. God had 
 made man upright ; but he had sought out many 
 inventions. One dispensation after another had tried 
 whether, under any circumstances, man could render 
 himself acceptable to God. But age after age passed 
 away: no son of Adam was found who could meet 
 God's standard. The law was man's last trial, whether, 
 with a revelation of God's mind, he could or would 
 obey it. But this trial, like the others, ended in 
 failure : " there was none righteous, no, not one.'' 
 How, then, was man to be reconciled to God ? How 
 could he be brought to meet God's requirements? 
 One way yet remained, and the Son of God accepted 
 it. " He took not on Him the nature of angels ; but He 
 took the seed of Abraham;" and in His person, once 
 and for ever, man was reconciled to God. In effecting 
 this, Jesus, as man's representative, took man's place, 
 where He found man, under law ; and there, in obe- 
 dience to the law, He offered, "for His acceptance." 
 
 * In the common version these words are translated, " He shall 
 offer it of his mm voluntary u-ill." (Ver. 3.) The Septuagint, the 
 Chaldee version, the Vulgate, and the Targum Hierosolymitanum, 
 all render this, " to be accepted ; " which is confirmed by ver. 4 : 
 " it shall be accepted for him." The words are i3!!"l7 and |"T2i"1.31' 
 
 I may add, that the same expression, where it occurs in Lev. xxxiii. 
 11, is in our version also, as well as in those referred to, translated 
 " to be accepted."
 
 52 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 The question was, could man bring an offering so 
 acceptable as to satisfy God ? Jesus as man did bring 
 such an offering. He offered Himself, and His offering 
 was accepted. Even with our poor thoughts of what 
 Jesus was to the Father, it seems wondrous that He, 
 the Blessed One, should ever have thus offered "for 
 His acceptance." But this was only one of the many 
 steps of humiliation which He took, as our represen- 
 tative, "for us." 
 
 And this explains the word "atonement" in the 
 fourth verse : " It shall be accepted for him to make 
 atonement." These words might suggest to some the 
 thought of sin in connexion with the Burnt-offering. 
 Such a view of the case would be erroneous. The 
 word " atonement " here, as elsewhere, in itself means 
 simply making satisfaction : and satisfaction may be 
 of two sorts, depending on that which we have to 
 satisfy. We may satisfy a loving and holy require- 
 ment, or satisfy offended justice. Either would be 
 satisfaction : the Burnt-offering is the former ; the 
 Sin-offering the latter. 
 
 And that the atonement of the Sin-offering is of a 
 very different nature from the atonement here spoken 
 of in the Burnt-offering, will at once be seen by any 
 who will compare what is said of the atonement of the 
 Burnt-offering and of the Sin-offerings : for in the 
 Sin-offering we find it expressly added that the atone- 
 ment is an " atonement for the offerer's sin."* This 
 
 * See chap. iv. 20, 26, 31 ; chap. v. 6, 10, 13, 16, 18 ; chap. vi. 7; 
 where in every case the atonement of the Sin-offerings is expressly
 
 THE BUENT-OFFERING. 53 
 
 is never said in the Burnt-offering : on the contrary, it 
 is said to be " offered for acceptance." The atonement 
 of the Burnt-offering is the satisfaction which God 
 receives from the perfectness which the offerer presents 
 to Him. The atonement of the Sin-offering is expia- 
 tory : the offerer by his offering satisfies offended 
 justice. In the Sin-offering the atonement is for sin; 
 the offering, therefore, is not presented for acceptance ; 
 but as seen charged with the sin of the offerer, is cast 
 out, the victim of a broken law : thenceforth, as under 
 the imputation of sin, and regarded as unfit for a place 
 among God's people, it is cast out from the midst of 
 Israel, and burnt without the camp. In the Burnt- 
 offering the atonement is made by one who comes as a 
 worshipper without sin, and in his sinless offering 
 offers for acceptance that which is received as a sweet 
 savour by the Lord. Man is under trial, indeed, and 
 offering for acceptance : but he is seen accepted, as 
 having satisfied God. I need not say that but One 
 ever did this perfectly, and He gave Himself, and was 
 accepted for us.* 
 
 (3.) The third point peculiar to the Burnt-offering 
 was, that a life was offered on the altar: "He shall 
 kill the bullock before the Lord, and sprinkle the blood 
 upon the altar." -f- In this particular the Burnt-offer- 
 ing stands distinguished from the Meat-offering, which 
 in other respects it closely resembles. In the Meat- 
 connected with sin. There is nothing like this in the atonement ol 
 the Burnt-offering, chap. i. 4. 
 
 * Eph. v. 2; Tit. ii 14. t Verse 5.
 
 54 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 offering, however, the offering was " corn, oil, and frank- 
 incense ;" here the offering is a life. The right under- 
 standing of the precise import of this particular will 
 help us to the distinct character of the Burnt-offering. 
 Life was that part in creation which from the begin- 
 ning God claimed as His. As such, as being His claim 
 on His creatures, it stands as an emblem for what we 
 owe Him. What we owe to God is our duty to Him. 
 And this, I doubt not, is the thought here intended. 
 Of course, the offering here, as elsewhere, is the body 
 of Jesus, that body which He took, and then gave for 
 us : but in giving God a life, in contradistinction to 
 offering Him corn or frankincense, the peculiar thought 
 is the fulfilment of the first table of the Decalogue. 
 Thus the life yielded is man's duty to God, and man 
 here is seen perfectly giving it. Am I asked what 
 man ever thus offered ? I answer, none but One, " the 
 man Christ Jesus." * He alone of all the sons of Adam 
 in perfectness accomplished all man's duty to God- 
 ward ; He in His own blessed and perfect righteous- 
 ness met every claim God could make upon Him. 
 Again, I say, He did it " for us," and we are " accepted 
 in Him." 
 
 (4.) The fourth and last feature peculiar to the 
 Burnt-offering is, that it was wholly burnt on the altar. 
 " The priest shall burn all upon the altar, to be a burnt 
 sacrifice unto the Lord. v f In this particular the Burnt- 
 offering differed from the Meat and Peace-offerings, in 
 which a part only was burnt with fire ; nor did it differ 
 1 Tim. ii. 5. t Veree 9.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 55 
 
 less from those offerings for Sin, which, though wholly 
 burnt, were not burnt upon the altar. 
 
 The import of this distinction is manifest, and in 
 exact keeping with the character of the offering. Man's 
 duty to God is not the giving up of one faculty, but the 
 entire surrender of all. So Christ sums up the First 
 Commandment, all, the mind, all the soul, all the 
 affections. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 mind."* I cannot doubt.that the type refers to this in 
 speaking so particularly of the parts of the Burnt-offer- 
 ing ; for " the head," " the fat," " the legs," " the in- 
 wards," are all distinctly enumerated.f " The head'' is 
 the well-known emblem of the thoughts; "the legs'' 
 the emblem of the walk; and " the inwards " the con- 
 stant and familiar symbol of the feelings and affec- 
 tions of the heart. The meaning of " the fat " may not 
 be quite so obvious, though here also Scripture helps 
 us to the solution.:}: It represents the energy not of 
 one limb or faculty, but the general health and viyour 
 of the whole. In Jesus these were all surrendered, and 
 all without spot or blemish. Had there been but one 
 thought in the mind of Jesus which was not perfectly 
 given to God ; had there been but one affection in the 
 heart of Jesus which was not yielded to His Father's 
 will ; had there been one step in the walk of Jesus 
 which was taken not for God, but for His own 
 pleasure ; then He could not have offered Himself or 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 37. t Verses 8, 9. 
 
 J Ps. xvii. 10, icii 14, cxix. 70 ; Deut. xxxii. 15.
 
 56 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 been accepted as " a whole burnt-offering to Jehovah: v 
 But Jesus gave up all : He reserved nothing. All was 
 burnt, all consumed upon the altar. 
 
 I do not know that there is anything more remark- 
 able than this in the perfect offering of our blessed 
 Master. Everything He did or said was for God. From 
 first to last self had no place : His Father's work, His 
 Father's will, were everything. The first words recorded 
 of Him as a child are, " I must be about my Father's 
 business." His last words on the cross, " It is finished," 
 proclaim how that business and that labour were 
 fulfilled and cared for. So entirely was His whole life 
 devoted to spend and be spent for His Father, that in 
 reading the Gospels the thought scarce occurs to us 
 that He could have had a will of His own. Yet Jesus 
 was perfect man, and as such had a human will as we 
 have. In one point only did it differ from ours : His 
 will was always subject to His Father. As a man, His 
 thoughts were human thoughts ; His affections human 
 affections. But how much of these did He reserve for 
 self, for His own ease, or credit, or pleasure ? What 
 one act recorded of Him was for His own advancement ? 
 What one word which was not in entire devotedness to 
 His Father? 
 
 But it is vain to endeavour to describe His perfect- 
 ness ; words cannot express it : God only knows i(x 
 Of this, however, I am fully assured, the more we are 
 in communion with God, the more we shall estimate it. 
 Out of God's presence we see no beauty in Jesus : His 
 very perfectness is so strange to our natural judgments.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 5? 
 
 Had He been less devoted, we should have better 
 understood Him. Nay, had His self- surrender been 
 less complete, we should have valued it higher. Had 
 He, instead of always refusing to be anything here, 
 taken the glory of the world for a season, and then re- 
 signed it, we should probably have thought more of 
 His humiliation in becoming the friend and com- 
 panion of the poor. But so it was, and so it is 
 still ; the more humble, the more despised in man's 
 eyes ; the more faithful, the less accepted. But the 
 Burnt-offering was for God's acceptance, not for 
 man's. He at least could estimate the full value of 
 the offering. 
 
 Such was " the whole burnt-offering : " the entire 
 surrender of self to God in everything. How utterly 
 hi contrast to what the world thinks wisdom ; " foi 
 men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself."* 
 Nay, how utterly unlike anything which can be found 
 even in believers. With us how many thoughts are 
 there for self ; for our ease, our pleasure, our interest. 
 How much of our walk, how much of our affections, is 
 consumed on anything rather than the altar ! It was 
 not so with the blessed Jesus. " With all His heart " 
 He lived for God, for " the inwards " were all consumed: 
 "with all His soul and with all His strength," for "the 
 fat and head " were offered. His offering was not the 
 surrender of one part, while He kept what He most 
 valued for Himself. It was not the surrender of what 
 cost nothing, or what cost but little, or what was coro- 
 
 * Psalm xhx. 18
 
 58 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 paratively worthless. " He gave Himself," * in all His 
 perfectness, and satisfied the heart of God. 
 
 Such is the general aspect of the Burnt-offering, as 
 distinguished from the other offerings. It was a sweet 
 savour, an offering for acceptance, the offering of a life, 
 and wholly burnt upon the altar. Let us now proceed 
 to examine, 
 
 II. ITS VARIETIES, that is, the different measures of 
 apprehension with which it may be seen. 
 
 There were, then, three grades in the Burnt-offering. 
 It might be "of the herd,"^ or " of the flock" \ or "of 
 fowls' 1 These different grades gave rise to several 
 varieties in the offering, the import of which we shall 
 now consider. 
 
 (1.) The first difference is in the animal offered. 
 We have in the first grade, " a bullock ; " in the second, 
 " a lamb; " in the third, " a turtle-dove" Each of these 
 animals, from their well-known character, presents us 
 with a different thought respecting the offering. The 
 bullock, "strong to labour," || for "great increase is 
 by the strength of the ox," IT suggests at once the 
 thought of service, of patient, untiring labour. In the 
 lamb we have another picture presented to us ; here 
 the thought is passive submission without a murmur : 
 for the lamb is the figure constantly chosen to represent 
 the submissive, uncomplaining character of Christ's 
 sufferings. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, 
 and as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so He open- 
 
 * Eph. T. 2. f Verse 3. J Verse 10. Veree 14. 
 
 y Ps. cxliv. 4. H Prov. xiv. 4.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 59 
 
 eth not his mouth." * The turtle-dove is different from 
 either of these, and gives again another view of the 
 offering of Jesus. In this class the thought of labour 
 is lost sight of : the unmurmuring submission, too, of 
 the lamb is wanting : the thought is rather simply one 
 of mourning innocence ; as it is written, " We mourn 
 like doves ; " -f- and again, " Be harmless as doves. " J 
 
 Here, then, are some of the measures of apprehen- 
 sion with which the sacrifice of Jesus as Burnt-offering 
 may be regarded ; for a saint may see either His de- 
 voted labour, His uncomplaining submission, or His 
 mourning innocence. All these are equally true, all 
 equally precious, all equally acceptable : yet all do not 
 equally bring out the distinct character of this perfect 
 offering. The thought of the Burnt-offering, as we 
 have already seen, is man fulfilling his duty towards 
 God. But man's duty to God is not merely a life of 
 innocence, or a life of submission ; it is also a life of 
 labour. " The bullock " brings out this thought dis- 
 tinctly : the other classes, " the lamb" and " turtle-dove," 
 omit it. 
 
 It may be asked, what do we learn by " the goat" 
 which was sometimes offered in one of the lower grades 
 of the Burnt- offering? If I mistake not, this emblem 
 suggests a thought of the Sin-offering, reminding us of 
 Christ's offering as scape-goat. This view of the case 
 may seem to be open to an objection ; and I may be 
 asked how the thought of sin can be connected with 
 
 * Isa. liii. 7. t Isa. lii. 11, xxxviii. 14. 
 
 J Matt. x. 16. Verse 10.
 
 60 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 the Burnt-offering ? I answer, these different grades in 
 the offerings are but different measures of apprehen- 
 sion ; and there may be apprehension enough to see 
 Christ bringing His offering, without clearly distin- 
 guishing the different aspects of that offering. Accord- 
 ingly, we find that in the lower grades of all the offer- 
 ings, the distinctive character of the particular offering 
 is constantly lost sight of, while a thought or view of 
 some other offering is partially substituted in its place.* 
 This is what we might naturally have expected as the 
 result of a smaller measure of apprehension. It is what 
 we find universally the case in those whose views of 
 Christ are limited. So in the type ; where the measure 
 of apprehension is small, there is a confusion between 
 two different aspects of Christ's offering. The building, 
 to recur to a former illustration, is viewed from so 
 great a distance, that more than one side of it is seen, 
 though neither of the sides is seen very distinctly. 
 Thus with many the thought of Jesus as Burnt-offer- 
 ing is scarce distinguished from the thought of the Sin- 
 offering. These different relations of His work are 
 unseen, or at least they are very much confused to- 
 gether. 
 
 Such are some of the varieties of the Burnt-offering, 
 corresponding to the different apprehensions which be- 
 
 * This is seen especially in the last grade of the Meat-offering, 
 and in the last two grades of the Sin-offering. The last class of the 
 Meat-offering gives us a thought of " first-fruits ;" (chap. ii. 14.) The 
 last grade but one of the Sin-offering is seen as " a sweet savour ** 
 Burnt-offering ; (chap. iv. 31 ;) while the last grade of all la repre- 
 sented as almost a Meat-offering; (chap. v. 11, 12.)
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 61 
 
 lievers have of Jesus : for His offering may be seen as 
 the buPock, the lamb, the goat, or the turtle-dove. 
 Comparatively few, I believe, see Jesus as presented 
 in the first class, the patient, unwearied labourer for 
 others. The lamb, the goat, the turtle-dove, are all 
 more familiar symbols. The fact is, we need to be our- 
 selves in service, and to know practically something of 
 its toil and trial, before we can at all rightly estimate 
 the aspect of Christ's offering which is presented in the 
 emblem of the bullock. The Gospels, however, are 
 full of this view of the Burnt- offering : in fact, one 
 whole Gospel is specially devoted to it. In Mark, 
 Jesus is not brought before us as in the other Gospels, 
 either as Son of Abraham, Son of Adam, or Son of 
 God; He stands rather, as another has observed, the 
 patient, untiring labourer for others. In Mark, turn 
 where we will, we see Jesus always " the girded ser- 
 vant;" always at the disposal of others, to spend and 
 be spent at their bidding. Thus when, after days of 
 ceaseless labour, He retires alone for prayer or rest 
 with His disciples, no sooner do the multitude dis- 
 turb Him than He at once goes with them, or rises 
 to minister to their need.* So entirely does He give 
 Himself to His work, that " He had no leisure so much 
 as to eat;"-f- but He had meat to eat which the world 
 saw not : " His meat was to do His Father's will." J 
 And oh, what touches of grace are there in all His 
 service ! He not only cures the blind, but " He takes 
 
 * Mark i. 35-38, vi. 30-45; &c. &c. 
 
 t Mark ill 20, vi. 31. J John iv. 31-34.
 
 62 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 him by the hand." * He not only raises the dead : 
 His mission in that house ends not till, with careful 
 foresight, "He commands them to give her meat."f 
 Blessed Lord, shew us more of Thy footsteps, that, 
 while we rejoice in Thy work, we may learn to follow 
 Thee. 
 
 (2.) A second distinction between the different grades 
 of the Burnt-offering is, that while in the first grade 
 the parts are discriminated, in the last this peculiarity 
 is omitted : the bird was killed, but not divided. lu 
 the case of the bullock and the lamb, it is noticed that 
 the offering is " cut into its pieces." Here " the legs, 
 the head, the fat, the inwards," are all distinctly 
 noticed and enumerated.* In the last case, that of 
 the turtle-dove, it is otherwise : " he shall not divide it 
 asunder." " The legs, the head, the inwards," as we 
 have already seen, represent the walk, the thoughts, 
 the feelings of Jesus. In the first grade these are all 
 apprehended : they are all lost sight of in the last. 
 These grades represent, as I have said, measures of 
 apprehension. Where the measure of spiritual appre- 
 hension is large, a saint will see the offering dissected : 
 his eyes will be turning constantly to see the walk, the 
 mind, the affections of Jesus. He will now observe, 
 what once he regarded not, how Jesus walked, how He 
 
 o 
 
 thought, what were His feelings. On the other hand, 
 where Jesus is but little apprehended, all the details of 
 His walk and feelings will be unseen. Christ's charac- 
 
 * Mark viil 23. t Mark v. 43. 
 
 J Verses 6, 8, 9. Verse 17.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 63 
 
 ter will not be dissected, nor the different parts of His 
 work appear. 
 
 It is further noticed in the type, that, in the first 
 class of the Burnt-offering, " the inwards and legs were 
 washed in water."* Nothing like this is seen in the 
 last grade : there even the parts are not discriminated. 
 What are we to learn by this distinction ? " The 
 legs " and " the inwards " are the walk and affections. 
 " The water " represents the Spirit acting through the 
 Word ; as it is written, " Christ loved the church, and 
 gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and cleanse 
 it by the washing of water by the Word ; " -f- and 
 again, " Sanctify them through Thy truth ; Thy word 
 is truth."| Christ, though without spot or blemish, 
 yet as a man in His feelings and walk submitted to 
 God's Word and Spirit. As a man He was Himself 
 sanctified by them ; for as He said, " By the word of 
 Thy lips I have kept me." The law said, " Man shall 
 not live by bread alone, but by every word of God ; " |) 
 and Jesus, as man, fully did so : every step, every feel- 
 ing, obeyed. But all this is lost sight of in the turtle- 
 dove. The discrimination of the parts, and the wash- 
 ing of water, are both unnoticed. 
 
 (3.) A third distinction between the different grades 
 of the Burnt-offering is, that while in the first grade 
 tlie offerer is seen to lay his hand on the offering,^ in 
 the other grades this act is not observed. I have 
 
 * Verse 9. t Eph. v. 26, T$ \ovrpu rov vdaros, 
 t John xvii. 17. Psalm xvii, 4. 
 
 || Deut viii. 3 ; Luke iv. 4. H Verse 4.
 
 G4- THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 already adverted to the import of this action as repre- 
 senting the identity of the offering and offerer. In the 
 first grade of the Burnt-offering this identity is seen : 
 it is wholly lost sight of in the other grades. Not a 
 few see Christ as offering for us, without fully realising 
 that His offering was Himself. They see that He gave 
 up this thing or that ; that He gave much for us, and 
 that what He gave was most precious. But they do 
 not really see that " He gave Himself," that His own 
 blessed person was what He offered. This is clearly 
 seen in the first grade of the Burnt-cffering. It is lost 
 sight of, or unobserved, in the other grades. 
 
 (4.) A fourth distinction, closely allied with the one 
 just considered, is, that in the first class the offerer is 
 seen to kill the victim, in the last the priest kills it* 
 In fact, in the last class, the priest does nearly every- 
 thing, the offerer is scarcely seen at all ; whereas in 
 the first class it is just the reverse, there are many 
 particulars noted of the offerer. The import of this 
 is at once obvious, when we see the distinction between 
 the priest and offerer. The offerer, as I have already 
 observed, sets Christ before us in His person. The 
 priest represents Him in His official character, as the 
 appointed Mediator between God and man. Where 
 the identity between the offerer and offering is appre- 
 hended, the offerer is seen to kill the offering ; that is, 
 Christ is seen in His person, of His own will laying 
 down His life ; as it is written, " No man taketh 
 it from me, but I lay it down of myself." -f- On the 
 
 Compare verses 5 and 15. + John x. 18.
 
 THE BURNT-OFFERING. 65 
 
 contrary, where the identity of the offering and offerei 
 is unseen or disregarded, the priest is seen to kill the 
 victim, that is, Christ's death is seen as the work of 
 the Mediator ; and is connected with His official 
 character as Priest, rather than with His person as 
 the willing Offerer. So with believers, where there is 
 only a limited measure of apprehension, little is known 
 of Christ save His office as Mediator: He Himself, 
 His blessed person, is overlooked or but little seen. 
 
 Sucli are the chief varieties of the Burnt-offering : 
 how full are they of instruction to the believer : how 
 clearly do they mark the different apprehensions among 
 saints respecting the work and person of our Lord. 
 Some, however, I speak of believers, are content to 
 know nothing of this ; and they would rather not be 
 told their ignorance. They can see but one truth, the 
 Paschal lamb, and anything further they neither care 
 nor wish for. Such, whether they are aware of it or 
 not, shew too plainly that they know little either of 
 the wilderness or of the tabernacle, that hitherto their 
 home has been Egypt, and that as yet they are little 
 better than bondsmen there. But after through grace 
 we are out of Egypt, and have received a knowledge 
 of the varied offerings ; after we know and are assured 
 of our deliverance, and have spiritual apprehension 
 enough to see the different aspects of Christ's offering ; 
 how much remains to be learnt of Jesus in any or 
 every aspect of His work. There are babes as well as 
 strong men in the wilderness, and the babes can know 
 but little till they are grown. Yea, there are men of
 
 66 THE LAW OF THE OFFERING! 
 
 Israel, full-grown men, in the wilderness, who through 
 unfaithfulness are almost strangers to the offering. 
 With all such the measure of apprehension will be 
 limited, and consequently their joy and strength but 
 small. Lord, awaken Thy saints to know their calling, 
 by knowing more and more of Jesus ; that instead of 
 boasting themselves as children of Abraham, while they 
 are bondsmen in Babylon or Egypt, they may seek as 
 sons of Abraham to walk as he did, as strangers and 
 pilgrims with Thee I 
 
 Here I conclude my remarks on the Burnt-offering. 
 In it we have seen Jesus as our representative. His 
 offering was offered " for us;" therefore " as He is, so 
 are we in this world ;"* the measure of His acceptance 
 is the measure of our acceptance, " we are made ac- 
 cepted in the Beloved." -f" But in the Burnt-offering 
 Jesus stands also as our example, " leaving us an 
 example that we should follow His steps ; " } the mea- 
 sure therefore of His devotedness should be the measure 
 of ours, " we should walk even as He walked." 
 
 May the Lord grant to His Church more fully to 
 know and apprehend her calling, her union with Jesus 
 dead and risen, and her hope when He appears ; that 
 so while she rejoices in her inheritance, and that Jesus 
 represents her above, she may daily be found nearer to 
 His cross, and more and more represent Him here. 
 Amen. 
 
 1 John iv. 17. t Eph. L 6. 
 
 ; 1 Peter il 2L 1 John ii 6.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING 
 
 LEVITICUS n. 
 
 WE now come to THE MEAT-OFFERING, which gives us 
 another aspect of the perfect offering of Jesus. We 
 may consider it, first, in its contrasts to the other 
 offerings; that is, as giving us one definite and par- 
 ticular aspect of His offering : and then, secondly, in 
 its several varieties; that is, as bringing out the 
 different apprehensions of this one aspect. 
 
 I. And first, IN ITS CONTRAST TO THE OTHER OFFER- 
 INGS. Five points here at once present themselves, 
 which bring out what is distinctive in this offering. 
 The apprehension of these will enable us to see the 
 particular relation which Jesus filled for man as 
 Meat-offering. 
 
 (1.) The first point is that the Meat-offering was a 
 sweet savour* In this particular it stands in contrast 
 to the Sin-offering, but in exact accordance with the 
 Burnt-offering. For this latter reason I need not 
 dwell upon the purport of it, as I have already suffi- 
 ciently considered it in the Burnt-offering. Suffice it 
 
 * Chapter ii. 2, 9.
 
 CS THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 to say, that the thought of sin never comes into any of 
 the sweet savour offerings : they represent man in 
 perfect obedience yielding to God an offering which 
 He accepts as pleasing to Him. The Sin-offerings, on 
 the contrary, are not a sweet savour : they represent 
 man as a sinner receiving the penalty due to his 
 offences. But I have already sufficiently pointed out 
 this distinction. I do not therefore here further dwell 
 upon it 
 
 (2.) The second point in which the Meat-offering 
 differed from the others, is seen in the materials of 
 which it was composed. These were "flour, oil, and 
 frankincense :"* there is no giving up of life here. 
 It is in this particular, especially, that the Meat-offering 
 differs from the Burnt-offering. The question is, does 
 the Scripture supply us with a key by which to discover 
 what is intended by this distinction ? That it does so, 
 not on this point alone, but on every other, I do not 
 entertain a doubt The Scripture is a key to itself. 
 Besides, we have the Holy Ghost to open it to us : 
 and especially is this His office where Jesus is the 
 subject of our inquiries. God is His own interpreter. 
 We fail in understanding the Scripture because we so 
 little use Him. This I feel assured is the reason we 
 are so often in ignorance. It is not that the truth 
 sought for is not in the Word, but that through lack 
 of communion with Him who gave that Word, we have 
 not enough of His mind to apprehend His meaning, 
 even where He has fully expressed it 
 
 Verse 1.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 69 
 
 But to return. I said that the great distinction 
 between the Burnt-offering and the Meat-offering was, 
 that life was offered in the one case, fruits in the 
 other. The key to this I believe may be found in 
 more than one place in Scripture. Thus in the first 
 chapter of Genesis we read of God thus allotting to 
 man that part of creation which He intended to satisfy 
 him : " Behold, I have given you every herb bearing 
 seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every 
 tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you 
 it shall be for meat." * Thus the fruit of the herb 
 and of the tree was man's allotted portion. But life 
 was reserved as God's portion, and wholly belonged to 
 Him. It was only after the flood, (and this too I 
 believe is typical,) that man was permitted to eat the 
 flesh of animals. Yet even then the life was God's 
 part : as it is written, " The life, which is the blood, ye 
 shall not eat."-f- 
 
 The import of this difference between the Burnt and 
 Meat-ofFerings may now be surely and easily gathered. 
 Life is that which from the beginning God claimed as 
 His part in creation : as an emblem, therefore, it repre- 
 sents what the creature owes to God. Corn, the fruit 
 of the earth, on the other hand, is man's part in crea- 
 tion ; as such, it stands the emblem of man's claim, or 
 of what we owe to man. What we owe to God or to 
 man is respectively our duty to either. Thus in the 
 Burnt-offering the surrender of life to God represents 
 the fulfilment of man's duty to God ; man yielding to 
 * Genesis i. 29. t Genesis ix. 4.
 
 70 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 God His portion to satisfy all His claim. In the 
 Meat-offering the gift of corn and oil represents the 
 fulfilment of man's duty to his neighbour : man in his 
 offering surrendering himself to God, but doing so that 
 he may give to man his portion. Thus the Burnt- 
 offering is the perfect fulfilment of the laws of the first 
 table ; the Meat-offering the perfect fulfilment of the 
 second. Of course, in both cases the offering is but 
 one, that offering is " the body " of Jesus ; but that 
 body is seen offered in different aspects : here in the 
 Meat-offering as fulfilling man's duty to man. The 
 one case is man satisfying God, giving Him His portion, 
 and receiving testimony that it is acceptable. The 
 other is man satisfying his neighbour, giving man his 
 portion as an offering to the Lord. 
 
 And how exactly do the emblems here chosen repre- 
 sent the perfect fulness of this blessed offering. God's 
 claim met perfectly in the Burnt-offering : man's claim 
 as perfectly satisfied here. Had the Burnt-offering 
 alone been offered, man would have lacked his portion 
 and been unsatisfied : and again, had the Meat-offering 
 been offered to the exclusion of the Burnt-offering, 
 God would have been unsatisfied ; it would have been 
 imperfect. But it could not be so ; therefore after the 
 law came in, the Meat-offering was regarded as an ad- 
 junct of the Burnt-offering. Thus the book of Numbers 
 always speaks of the Meat-offering as in use and prac- 
 tice connected with the Burnt-offering. Having first 
 regulated the amount of flour for the Meat-offering, 
 which was to accompany the different classes of the
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEKING. 71 
 
 Burnt-offering,* the law proceeds to speak of "the 
 Burnt-offering and its Meat-offering," "the Burnt- 
 offering and the Meat-offering thereof." -f- So again in 
 Ezra the offerings for the altar are summed up as 
 "bullocks, rams, lambs, with their Meat- offerings. "J 
 
 The Meat-offering was in fact Cain's offering, but 
 offered by one who had first offered as Abel did. Cain's 
 offering was " the fruit of the ground," offered to God 
 without bloodshedding. How could this, the mere 
 acknowledgment of man's claim, satisfy Him who had 
 His own claim also on His creatures ? And this was 
 Cain's error. Here was a fallen man, through the fall 
 an exile from Eden, despising the sprinkled blood, that 
 is, the acknowledgment of God's claim upon him ; and 
 presuming to approach and satisfy God with the fruit 
 of the earth, that is, man's claim. Yet how many, 
 even now, are thinking to render Cain's offering, de- 
 ceiving themselves with the idea that of itself it will be 
 accepted. Had any man's service to his fellow-crea- 
 tures been such as to justify him before God, that one 
 would have been our blessed Lord ; yet even He came 
 not without a Burnt-offering. Christ's perfect fulfil- 
 ment of every duty to man was not enough without 
 entire devotedness, even to death, to God-ward. Nor 
 could all this perfectness avail for sinners, had not the 
 Perfect One further been judged for sin. 
 
 The Meat-offering, then, to speak of it generally, is 
 Christ presenting Himself to God as man's meat. Most 
 
 * Numb, xxviii. 12, 13. -f- Numb, xiix., passim. 
 
 J Ezra vii. 17 ; see also Judges ziii. 19.
 
 72 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 sweet it is, most precious to the soul of the believer who 
 can thus see Jesus. We shall see this preciousness as 
 we examine particularly the typical import of each of 
 the materials of the Meat-offering. 
 
 [i.] The first is "flour;" and the type is significant, 
 in exact accordance with the word, " Bread corn must 
 be bruised."* Bread is the staff of life, and Christ our 
 staff of life is here represented as the bruised One. The 
 emblem, corn ground to powder, is one of the deepest 
 suffering. It is not the blade springing up in beauty, 
 green and flourishing with the rain of heaven, or 
 ripening into full maturity under the influence of the 
 summer sun. The thought is one of bruising and 
 grinding ; of pressing, wearing trial. Jesus was not 
 only tried by "fire ;" God's holiness was not the only 
 thing that consumed Him. In meeting the wants of 
 man, His blessed soul was grieved, and pressed and 
 bruised continually. And the bruising here was from 
 those to whom He was ministering, for whom He daily 
 gave Himself. Who can read the Gospels without 
 seeing this ? Jesus lays Himself out for others ; He 
 spends Himself for others ; but they cannot understand 
 Him. His soul is grieved, His spirit bruised with the 
 blindness and hardness of their hearts. 
 
 Oh, what a picture of devotedness does His lowly 
 service present to us! Look at Him beginning His 
 course, knowing each sorrow that was to befall Him ; 
 foreseeing the whole course of rejection, and the shame- 
 ful end of His pilgrimage : rejected when He would 
 
 * Isaiah ixviii. 28.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEKING. 73 
 
 minister blessing ; misunderstood when He gave in- 
 struction ; suffering not merely at the hands of enemies, 
 but more acutely from those around Him ; to them 
 alone He said, "How long shall I suffer you?"* 
 rejected, misunderstood, suffering, He goes forward 
 without the slightest faltering ; He never stops for a 
 moment in His devoted service to all around Him. To 
 the very end of His course, as at the beginning, He is 
 the meat of all who need and will accept Him. We 
 think when trouble or sorrow comes on us, that it is 
 time to care for ourselves. Not so Jesus. We think 
 there must be a limit to our self-sacrifice. Not so our 
 blessed Lord. We think that our interests, our credit, 
 or at least our life, must not be touched or endangered. 
 We think when our kindness is rejected we need not 
 repeat it ; we think our times of rest and relaxation 
 are our own. Oh, how unlike to us in all was our 
 blessed, lowly Master ! Oh, how far above us in all 
 things ! Nothing moved His steadfast heart, or turned 
 Him from doing good. In vain was the stupidity of 
 His disciples, the rage of His enemies, or the craft of 
 Satan. Jesus never wavered nor hesitated ; His course 
 of self-surrender was complete. 
 
 But are we to suppose He did not feel all this ? God 
 only knows the measure of His sufferings, or how deeply 
 He was bruised and broken. As a man He was " in 
 all points tempted as we are, yet without sin ;" this 
 aggravated His sufferings. The Psalms here and there 
 give us a glance of His sorrows, though no murmur ever 
 
 * Mark ix. 19. 
 F
 
 74 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 escaped His lips. " Reproach," He says, " has broken 
 my heart. They lay to my charge things I know not 
 It was not an enemy that did this, for then I could 
 have borne it : neither was it he that hated me that 
 did magnify himself against me, for then I would have 
 hid myself from him ; but it was thou, a man mine 
 equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took 
 sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God 
 in company."* It may be, some of God's children 
 cannot enter into this ; they know not as yet the trials 
 of service. Only let them follow Jesus in spending and 
 being spent for others, and the emblem of this type, 
 " bruised corn," will not be altogether strange to them. 
 And, indeed, how much is there of Christ's sufferin<y 
 
 O 
 
 which we have no idea of until through grace we are 
 in measure brought into His circumstances, and feel the 
 bruising which our brethren, oft unconsciously, inflict 
 on us, while we would minister to, and be spent for 
 them. 
 
 I have just glanced at some of the bruisings of Christ's 
 spirit, but as respects His body also how much was He 
 bruised ! What labours, what pains, what weaknesses 
 did He suffer to feed others !-f- So much was He worn 
 by labour, that He could not even bear His cross. 
 Another was compelled to bear it for Him. J Doubtless 
 this was not kindness but necessity. Jesus was already 
 ground and broken. He was now ready to be put upon 
 the altar. 
 
 * Psalm Isix. 20, xxiv. 11, ly. 12, 18. 
 
 t Ps. xxiL 15, cil 4, 5. * Mark XY. 21.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEKENG. 75 
 
 And what a lesson is there here for the believer who 
 wishes to give himself in service to his brethren ! This 
 scripture, as in fact all Scripture, testifies that service is 
 self-surrender, self-sacrifice. Christ, to satisfy others, 
 was broken : and bread corn must still be bruised : and 
 the nearer our ministry approaches the measure of His 
 ministry, immeasurably far as we shall ever be behind 
 Him, the more shall we resemble Him, the bruised, 
 the oppressed, the broken One. 
 
 But there is another thought brought out in this 
 emblem. The Meat-offering was not only flour; it 
 was to be "fine flour."* In fine flour there is no un~ 
 evenness, fit emblem of what Jesus was. In Him there 
 was no unevenness. Perhaps in no one respect does 
 He stand out more in contrast to His best and most 
 beloved servants. Jesus was always even, always the 
 same, unchanged by circumstances. In Him one day's 
 walk never contradicted another, one hour's service 
 never clashed with another. In Him every grace was 
 in its perfectness, none in excess, none out of place, 
 none wanting. Firm, unmoved, elevated, He was yet the 
 meek, the gentle, the humble One. In Him firmness 
 never degenerated into obstinacy, or calmness into 
 stoical indifference. His gentleness never became a 
 weakness, or His elevation of soul forgetfulness of 
 others. With us our very graces are uneven, and clash 
 and jostle with each other. Our very attempts to live 
 and die for Him who loved us only shew how unlike 
 Him we are. 
 
 * VeraeL
 
 7G THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Take His most devoted followers, a Paul, a John, a 
 Peter. In each of them there is un evenness, one grace 
 preponderates ; in Paul energy, in Peter zeal, in John 
 affection. And even in their very graces we see their 
 failings. Paul's energy leads him to Macedonia when 
 a door is opened in Troas : * he repents of his letter to 
 Corinth, and then again he does not repent. -f- Peter 
 too, through zeal, once and again takes a place he has 
 not grace to occupy : he steps out on the water and 
 sinks ; \ he follows Jesus but to deny Him. So, too, 
 in the beloved disciple, his very affection to his Master 
 does but bring out his unlikeness to Him : he would 
 be the highest, next to His Lord, in the kingdom ; || he 
 would call down fire on all who dared to reject Him.f 
 
 And to turn from apostles to ourselves, we need not. 
 I think, be shewn our unevenness. One thing when 
 alone before God, we are quite another thing before 
 our brethren. In solitude striving and praying against 
 the very folly we commit in public. In one circum- 
 stance backward, in another hasty ; in this place stead- 
 fast, in that wavering. Nor is it our sins alone which 
 shew our unevenness : our very graces are uneven : and 
 our possessing one more than another only shews our 
 deficiency. Why is it that in Paul, John, and Peter, 
 we mark one grace peculiarly, while such a thought 
 never so much as occurs to us in considering our 
 blessed Lord ? Is it that His servants surpassed Him 
 
 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13 t 2 Cor. ril 8. 
 
 J Matt. xiv. 28-31. Matt xxvi. 58, Ac. 
 
 U Matt xx. 20-24. \ Luke ix. 54.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEBING. 77 
 
 in energy, or zeal, or tenderness ? The reason is, Jesus 
 was perfect In His devotedness there was no uneven- 
 ness. No one grace to be singled out where everything 
 and all were perfect. 
 
 [il] The next material in the Meat-offering is oil. 
 "He shall pour oil upon it;"* this was a necessary 
 ingredient : without it the offering was incomplete. 
 The typical signification of this will be familiar to 
 many, for the New Testament is full of allusions to it. 
 Oil, in its nature nourishing and healing, is the con- 
 stant emblem of the Spirit's actings. Jesus as the 
 obedient man was filled with the Holy Ghost, and His 
 oblation of Himself as Meat-offering was in the unction 
 and power of the Spirit. Luke, the Gospel of the Son 
 of Man, gives abundant information on this point. 
 Accordingly we read, when His public ministry com- 
 menced, when, to speak typically, He began to bring 
 His Meat-offering, " the Holy Ghost descended on Him 
 visibly, "f the oil was poured on the flour. Immediately 
 after,J we read again, "Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost, 
 returned from Jordan." Again, in the fourteenth verse, 
 " Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." 
 Then immediately, in the synagogue of Nazareth, 
 when the book of the prophet Esaias is delivered to 
 Him, He finds the place which describes His anointing 
 and its consequences : and whether He heals the sick, 
 teaches the poor, or feeds the hungry, it is all done in 
 the power of the anointing. " The Spirit of the Lord 
 
 * Verse 1. t Luke iii. 22. 
 
 % Luke iv. 1. Verse 16.
 
 78 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to 
 preach the gospel to the poor, and to heal the broken- 
 hearted." " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the 
 Holy Ghost and power ; and He went about doing 
 good ;"* this is exactly the Meat-offering. And the 
 Gospels from one end to the other in every page are 
 full of it. To take one example from the chapter re- 
 ferred too : no sooner had our Lord commenced His 
 ministry, than they rose up and thrust Him out of the 
 city.-f- Go where He would, He was still the Meat- 
 offering ; the bruised corn and the oil are always 
 together. 
 
 What a contrast to us in all this is Jesus our blessed 
 Master ! In Him, viewed simply as a man, the bruised 
 corn is fully anointed. For this reason, bruised as He 
 may be. He never lacks power. How different with 
 us ! We are not bruised, we are not broken, but we 
 are powerless : and what little is attempted or done for 
 others is too often in the energy of our flesh rather 
 than in the power of the Spirit. It is this which so 
 ruins our efforts; the power we use for God is our 
 power, not the Spirit If "we go about doing good," 
 is it, I ask, in the power of the anointing from above, 
 or in the power derived from some earthly advantage 
 of circumstance, or station, or natural ability? Is it 
 not thought right' to seek these things to give power 
 where we feel power is wanting ? But this is not the 
 strength Christ walked in : the Meat-offering was 
 " anointed with oil." 
 
 * Acta x. 38. t Luke iv. 29.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 79 
 
 The truth is, that the greatest zeal and knowledge 
 are useless towards others without the Spirit. Look 
 at Christ's last interview with His disciples ! * We 
 read, " He opened their understandings that they might 
 understand the Scriptures : " He then shewed them 
 "what was written in the law of Moses, and in the 
 prophets, and in the psalms concerning Him/' He 
 tells them further, that of these very truths they are 
 the constituted "witnesses." He then "lifts up His 
 hands and blesses them." Are they then fitly equipped 
 for the work appointed them ? No : He says, " Tarry 
 till ye be endued with power." They have knowledge 
 of Christ, they have His commission, they have His 
 blessing ; but they lack power, and the word is, 
 'Tarry." They must wait for "power from on high," 
 and that power is the Spirit. When shall we learn 
 that we require not only truth but power : and that 
 the only power which avails in ministry is the power 
 of the Holy Ghost? 
 
 I have one other remark to make here. The " oil " 
 is in the Meat-offering, not in the Burnt-offering. In 
 the Burnt-offering we have the Spirit as " water :"} in 
 the Meat-offering it is seen as " oil." It is in relation 
 to man, in service to our neighbour, that the Spirit is 
 specially needed in grace and power. There is the 
 flesh in our brethren to try us, and the thousand diffi- 
 culties of intercourse with evil. How is this to be met 
 aright, save in the grace and unction of the Spirit? 
 But could Jesus in His offering of Himself be so 
 
 * Luke iiiv. 44-49. f Chapter i. 9, and see page 63-
 
 80 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 dependent as to need this anointing? Could He require 
 the Spirit of power for His walk and service to those 
 around Him ? Yes, He humbled Himself even to this, 
 to take, as a lowly dependent man, the grace which He 
 manifested to others. Blessed Jesus ! May we learn 
 more and more to be dependent like Thee. 
 
 [iii.] The third ingredient of the Meat-offering is 
 frankincense: "he shall put frankincense thereon ;"* 
 in connexion with which, and yet in contrast, it is 
 commanded, "ye shall burn no honey unto the Lord." f 
 These emblems, like all the others, are at once simple 
 yet most significant. Frankincense is the most precious 
 of perfumes, of enduring and delightful fragrance : fit 
 emblem of the sweetness and fragrance of the offer- 
 ing of our blessed Lord. Honey, on the other hand, 
 though sweet, is corruptible; soon fermented, and 
 easily turned sour. In frankincense the full fragrance 
 is not brought out until the perfume is submitted to 
 the action of fire. In honey it is just the reverse ; the 
 heat ferments and spoils it 
 
 The bearing of this on the offering of Jesus is 
 too obvious to require comment. The fire of God's 
 holiness tried Him, but all was precious fragrance. 
 The holiness of God only brought out graces which 
 would have escaped our notice had He never suffered. 
 Yea, much of the precious odour of His offering was 
 the very result of His fiery trial. How different is it in 
 believers ! There is in many a sweetness of nature, 
 very sweet for a while it may seem to our taste, which 
 
 Verse 1. t Verse 11.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 81 
 
 yet will not stand the test of fire : the first trial is 
 enough to sour it. Who is there that has been cast 
 into sifting circumstances, where God's holiness and 
 our ease or interests have come into collision, without 
 feeling how much there is in us which could not be a 
 sweet savour on the alter ? And have we never found, 
 in setting even before saints some plain but neglected 
 command of our Master, that much of the sweetness 
 in them, which we have taken to be frankincense, has 
 at once shewn itself to be fermenting honey. It was 
 not so with the blessed Jesus : " Anointed with the oil 
 of gladness above His fellows, all His garments smell of 
 myrrh, aloes, and cassia." * " Because of the savour of 
 His good ointments, His name is like ointment poured 
 forth."-f- Sweetness there is in abundance, but the 
 sweetness of frankincense, not honey. Well might the 
 bride exclaim, " My beloved is a bundle of myrrh ; my 
 beloved is to me as clusters of caniphire."J And not 
 to her alone : for her He has been a sweet savour unto 
 Jehovah. 
 
 [iv.] The fourth and last ingredient of the Meat- 
 offering is salt : " Every oblation of the meat-offering 
 shalt thou season with salt." And to bring out the 
 typical import more clearly, another emblem by way of 
 contrast is added : " No meat-offering shall be made 
 with leaven :"\\ there must be salt; there must be no 
 leaven. 
 
 The import of these emblems is obvious : the one 
 
 * Psalm xlv. 7, 8. t Canticles L 3. 
 
 J Canticles i. 13, 14 Verse 1& || Verse 11.
 
 82 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 positively, the other negatively, bringing but one and 
 the same thought before us. " Salt," the well-known 
 preservative against corruption, is the emblem of per- 
 petuity and incorruptness ; while " leaven," on the 
 other hand, composed of sour and corrupting dough, 
 is the as well-known emblem of corruption. Thus, 
 when the Apostle would sum up in a word " the incor- 
 ruptness, gravity, and sincerity," befitting a Christian, 
 he says, " Let your speech be always With grace, sea- 
 soned with salt."* Thus again, when a covenant is 
 described as perpetual, it is spoken of as " a covenant 
 of salt."-f- The use of the word "leaven" is even more 
 familiar. We read of " the leaven of the Pharisees," J 
 "the leaven of the Sadducces," and "the leaven of 
 Herod." || So, too, in the Epistles, we are enjoined to 
 " purge out the old leaven." IF Here we have a key to 
 these emblems. Jesus in His blessed offering brought 
 that with it which not only secured its own incorrup- 
 tion, but which supplied a preservative against corrup- 
 tion to whatever He might come in contact with. It 
 
 * Col. iv. 6. f Numb, xviii. 19; 2 Chron. xiii. 5. 
 
 * Luke xii. 1. Matt. xvi. 6. || Mark viii. 15. 
 
 % 1 Cor. v. 7. The parable of the leaven, Matt. xiii. 33, may per- 
 haps be quoted as giving to leaven another meaning. I am satis- 
 fied, however, that there, as in every other place, leaven is the em- 
 blem of evil and corruption. Of course, the great thought in the 
 parable is the spread of nominal Christianity, while it is left for spi- 
 ritual apprehension to discern whether what ia actually spread ia 
 good or evil. But the Church is so blind to her own state, that she 
 can neither see it as foretold in Scripture or existing in fact Aa 
 with the disciples at the sepulchre, a fact ia before us which but few 
 oave evea or heart to apprehend.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 83 
 
 might not always be sweet to man's taste, but it was 
 the seasoning of the offering to the Lord. 
 
 How different is it with the most devoted Christians ! 
 Leaven is mixed with their choicest offerings. But 
 our God has foreseen and provided for it. Thus at 
 the offering at Pentecost, and the oblation with the 
 Peace-offering, (appointed emblems of the Church's 
 offering,) leavened cakes were offered to the Lord, but 
 though accepted, they could not be burnt as a sweet 
 savour. These offerings I shall notice as I proceed ; I 
 do not therefore here enter into them, further than to 
 observe, that no measure of oil, that is, the Spirit, could 
 counteract the effect of leaven. A cake might be 
 anointed again and again, but if there had been leaven 
 in its composition, it could not be put upon the altar. 
 What a lesson for those who are looking to the Spirit 
 in them rather than to Christ for them as the ground 
 of acceptance ! The Spirit's operations in the greatest 
 power will never alter or destroy the old nature. As 
 soon may we expect the nettle to yield us olives as for 
 sinful flesh to be ought but sinful. Salt water cannot 
 be washed sweet : you may pour oil on it, but they will 
 not mingle ; " that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." * The flesh 
 is still in Paul, after he has been caught up to Paradise ; 
 he therefore needs the thorn in it to humble him.-f- 
 The power of the flesh in us may be controlled, and its 
 active energy restrained or weakened, but the leaven is 
 still within us, only waiting its opportunity to rise. 
 * John ill 6. f 2 Cor. xii. 4, 7-
 
 84 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 " The root of bitterness " is there, though it may be out 
 of sight and kept from budding. 
 
 It was not so with the blessed Jesus. Even by na- 
 tural birth He was born of God. His nature, as well 
 as His walk, was sinless ; 'for " He was conceived by 
 the Holy Ghost." Tims, when, after a trial of centu- 
 ries, both Burnt-offering and Meat-offering had failed 
 in man's hand, Jesus in " the body prepared for Him " 
 came to do His Father's will. These offerings in type 
 shew us how He did it. And He was accepted for us. 
 
 (3.) But it is time that we pass on to consider the 
 third particular in which the Meat-offering stood in 
 contrast to the other offerings. 
 
 The Meat-offering was not wholly burnt* In this it 
 differed from the Burnt-offering. Christ as performing 
 man's duty to God, that is, the Burnt-offering, was 
 wholly the food of God, wholly put upon His altar, 
 wholly consumed by Him. But Christ as performing 
 His duty to man, that is, the Meat-offering, is also 
 man's meat, the food of the priests : " The remnant of 
 the meat-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons' ; it is a 
 thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by 
 fire." Yet even here He satisfies God. " A handful, 
 the memorial of the offering/' is put upon the altar, 
 to teach us, that even in fulfilling man's duty to his 
 neighbour, Christ fulfilled it as " an offering unto the 
 Lord." 
 
 But though God had thus a portion in the Meat- 
 offering, it is nevertheless specially the food of man ; 
 
 Vere2,3.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 85 
 
 primarily to be viewed as offered for us to God, but 
 also as given to us, as priests, to feed on. For us, as 
 Meat-offering, Jesus fulfilled what was due to man. 
 He did this as our representative, as the substitute of 
 those who trust Him : in this aspect of the offering 
 our souls find peace ; here is our acceptance : but 
 this, though securing peace, is but a part of our blessed 
 portion. If Jesus did all this for us, will He not do 
 it to us ? As righteous in Him, we still have wants, 
 we need daily food and anointing ; and for these as 
 much as for righteousness, we are debtors to His 
 abounding grace. We need Him, and we have Him 
 as our brother to fulfil His part of the law to us, " for 
 He came not to destroy, but to fulfil." * The law is, 
 that the priests should be fed of the altar ; they may 
 not work for their bread as others. The faithful 
 Israelite is the appointed channel of their subsist- 
 ence : on his faithfulness, under God, do they depend 
 for their food. Jesus, as the faithful Israelite, will not 
 fail the priests who wait at the altar. Let His priests 
 (" ye are a royal priesthood," f) be but found where 
 they should be, and His offering will be there to feed 
 them. " He will abundantly bless the provision, He 
 will satisfy His poor with bread." J 
 
 We do not sufficiently think of Jesus in this aspect, 
 as presenting Himself to God as man's meat. The 
 Gospels, however, are full of it : it shines out in every 
 page. Jesus, with all His devotedness to God, was 
 still ever the devoted servant of all around Him. Who 
 * Matt. v. 17. t 1 Pet. ii. 9. { Ps. cxxxii. 15.
 
 86 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 ever drew upon His love or power, and went away 
 without being satisfied? He opened His hand wide 
 unto His brother, to the poor and the needy in the 
 land. What sorrow was there, what need, what trial, 
 to which Jesus refused to minister ? 
 
 How precious, then, is Jesus, viewed as Meat- 
 offering ! We often want one to fulfil toward us those 
 acts of love and sympathy which our lonely hearts 
 yearn after. Around us there is a heartless world, or 
 brethren, it may be, who can neither sympathise with, 
 nor help us. We think, perhaps, if Jesus were here 
 on earth, we would go to Him and tell Him our 
 sorrows. We are sure, if He were still <r the man of 
 sorrows," that we should have a claim on His loving 
 heart But is He not the same now as in His humili- 
 ation, " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ? " * 
 Surely He is the same to those who come to Him. Oh, 
 may we learn thus to use Him, that He may satisfy 
 us in every difficulty ; when poor to give us bread, 
 when mourning to dry our tears ! Weary pilgrim, 
 Jesus is the Meat-offering, to meet your claim as well 
 as God's. You have a claim on Him ; it is your 
 necessity. He must, as a brother, answer it. Come 
 to Him, then, as the One to feed you : it is more 
 blessed for Him to give than for you to receive. 
 Know Him as the One who, when all else fail, has a 
 Meat-offering already provided to satisfy you. 
 
 I said that the Meat-offering was not all burnt; 
 but though not all burnt, all was consumed. In this 
 
 Heb. xiii. 8.
 
 THE MEAT-OEFEEING. 87 
 
 offering the offerer had nothing for himself. God and 
 His priests had the whole between them. How simple, 
 how instructive the lesson ! If we could fulfil every 
 duty to God and man according to the standard God 
 has given, if our bodies were really a living sacrifice, 
 if we were offered on the sacrifice and service of 
 faith, as Jesus set us an example, what should we have 
 left for self? Just what was left of the Burnt and 
 Meat-offering ; nothing. Between God and man all 
 would be consumed. A holy God and a needy world 
 would require everything. 
 
 I would that they, who think to earn heaven by 
 their fulfilment of the law, might learn here what 
 fulfilling the law comes to, and how far it is above 
 and beyond them ! The Burnt-offering and the Meat- 
 offering together are God's standard of full obedience : 
 and what a picture do they give us ! The first, the Burnt- 
 offering, requiring perfectness in every member, and 
 then the entire surrender of every member ; the head, 
 the inwards, the legs, all yielded up upon the altar. The 
 next, the Meat-offering, though giving another aspect 
 of devotedness, not a whit behind the Burnt-offering 
 in entire self-surrender ; witness the bruised corn, the 
 oil, the frankincense, and the salt to savour it all. 
 This is God's measure of devotedness ; that is what 
 satisfies Him. One, and but one, has thus satisfied 
 Him ; and in Him, and in Him alone, we may rejoice. 
 
 (4.) The fourth point I notice in the Meat-offering 
 is, that, though intended for, and for the most part 
 consumed by, man, it was, nevertheless, " offered unto
 
 88 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Hie Lord."* In this particular, as in every other, the 
 Meat-offering has something we'll worth our notice. 
 In the Meat-offering the offerer gives himself as 
 man's meat ; yet this is yielded as " an offering unto 
 Jehovah." The offering indeed fed the priests ; but 
 it was offered, not to them, but to the Lord. The 
 first Adam took for man not only what was given 
 him, but what God had reserved for Himself. The 
 second Adam gave to God not only God's portion, but 
 even of man's part God had the first memorial Jesus 
 as man, in satisfying man's claim on Him, did it as 
 " an offering unto the Lord." 
 
 With us how much even of our graces is offered to 
 man rather than to God. Even in our most devoted 
 service, what a seeking there is, perhaps unconsciously, 
 to be something in the estimation of others : some 
 secret desire, some undetected wish, even by our very 
 service to be greater here. The very gifts of God and 
 the power of His Spirit are sought the better to give 
 us a place in this world. Thus are our very graces 
 used to obtain for us glory, not of God, but of those 
 around us. Surely this is one of the reasons why God 
 can trust us with so little, for with His gifts we build 
 up our own name, instead of His name. But how 
 unlike all this to our Master ; yea, how unlike even to 
 His apostles ! " Neither of men," says Paul, " sought 
 we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others." f This is 
 our calling, not only to be nothing in the world, but to 
 be willing to be nothing even among our brethren ; to 
 
 * Ven L t 1 Thew. U. 16.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 89 
 
 take the nearest place to Him who has indeed taken 
 the lowest. 
 
 And in these last days, when through abounding 
 iniquity the love of many is waxing cold, when the 
 service which the time demands is the only service the 
 Church will not accept, Christ's example, as here seen 
 in the Meat-offering, is one most precious to us. His 
 service to His neighbour was always " an offering unto 
 the Lord." Thus He gladly was spent for others, 
 though the more He loved them, the less He was loved. 
 May we be thus like Him, that so through grace we 
 may be steadfast. If, on the other hand, our labour 
 of love is offered for man's acceptance, when man 
 rejects us our labour will cease. And surely this is 
 the secret of much of our half-hearted service. But 
 let us when ministering to others, offer ourselves, like 
 Jesus, " unto the Lord," and not unto man ; then, 
 though our love is here slighted, it will be accepted by 
 Him to whom we offer it. 
 
 We have thus marked four particulars in which the 
 Meat-offering differed from the other offerings. First, 
 it was of a sweet savour ; here it differed from the Sin 
 and Trespass-offerings. Next, it was fed upon by the 
 priests ; here, as well as in its materials, it differed 
 from the Burnt-offering. Then again it left nothing 
 for the offerer ; here it differed from the Peace-offering. 
 It now remains for me to point out, 
 
 (5.) In the last place, the contrast between the Meat- 
 offering and the offering of first-fruits at Pentecost 
 The distinction is stated in the twelfth verse : " As 
 
 G 
 
 I
 
 90 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 for the oblation of the first-fruits, ye shall offer them 
 unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar 
 for a sweet savour." The contrast is this : the Meat- 
 offering was a sweet savour : the oblation of first-fruits, 
 though very like the Meat-offering, was -not so. For 
 the key to this we must turn to Leviticus xxiil, where 
 the law respecting "the oblation of first-fruits" is 
 given to us. In that chapter we have a list of the 
 Feasts. First in order conies the Passover, on the 
 fourteenth day at even : * then the wave-sheaf of first- 
 fruits, on the morrow after the sabbath : -f- and then, 
 fifty days after, the oblation of the first-fruits on the 
 day of Pentecost J The "sheaf of first-fruits," on the 
 morrow after the sabbath, might be burnt to the Lord 
 as a sweet savour ; but " the oblation of the first- 
 fruits" at Pentecost might not be burnt on the altar. || 
 The reason for this distinction is found in the fact, 
 that "the sheaf of first-fruits" was unleavened, while 
 "the oblation of first-fruits" at Pentecost was mixed 
 and made with leaven.1[ 
 
 The typical application of all this is too obvious to 
 need any comment. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed 
 for us, and sacrificed on the predetermined day.** 
 Then "on the morrow after the sabbath," the next 
 ensuing sabbath, that is, on the appointed " first day of 
 the week,"f f Christ "rose from the dead, and became 
 
 * Chapter xxiii. 5. f Chapter rriii. 11. 
 
 J Chapter xiiil 15-17. Chapter ii. 14-10. 
 
 || Chapter iL12. U Chapter xxiii. 17. 
 
 ** John xviii. 28; 1 Cor. v. 7. ft Mark ivi. 1, 2.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 91 
 
 the first-fruits of them that slept." * In Him there 
 was no sin, no leaven ; He was in Himself a sweet 
 savour to Jehovah. With this offering, therefore, no 
 Sin-offering was coupled ; it was offered only with a 
 Burnt-offering and Meat-offering. -f- But fifty days 
 after this, " when the day of Pentecost was fully 
 come/' the Church, typified by the leavened oblation 
 of first-fruits, is offered unto the Lord : for we, as well 
 as Jesus, are first-fruits; "we are/' says James, "a 
 kind of first-fruits of His creatures." J But this offer- 
 ing, having sin in it, being " mixed with leaven/' could 
 neither stand the test of the fire of the altar, nor be an 
 offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 
 Yet it was to be both offered and accepted : " Ye 
 shall offer it, but it shall not be burnt." And why, 
 and how, was this leavened cake accepted ? Something 
 was offered " with it" for the sake of which the leavened 
 first-fruits were accepted. They offered with the 
 leavened bread a Burnt-offering, a Meat-offering, a 
 Peace-offering, and a Sin-offering ; || for leaven being 
 found in the oblation of first-fruits, a Sin-offering was 
 needed with it. And the priest waved all together: 
 " the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first- 
 fruits for a wave-offering before the Lord." The 
 Church comes with Christ before God; it is offered 
 with all the value of His work attached to it In 
 itself it cannot stand the trial of God's holiness, for 
 no measure of oil can naturalise the leaven ; but in 
 
 * 1 Cor. XT. 20. f Chapter iiiii. 12, 13. J James L 18. 
 
 Chapter ii. 12. || Chapter xxiil 18, 19.
 
 92 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Christ, and with Christ, and for. Christ, it is accepted 
 even as He is. Thus when the Church is presented to 
 God, it comes not alone into His presence, but with 
 the sweet savour of all that Christ has been for it, and 
 with the witness that He has met its sin. 
 
 It may be asked, perhaps, why the offering of the 
 Church is represented by a Meat-offering, seeing this 
 Offering has such special reference to the second table 
 of the Decalogue ? I answer, the Church is not always 
 seen aj a Meat-offering. It is on Pentecost that it ap- 
 pears in this aspect. There are in the law many types 
 of the Church. She is seen as daughter in the father's 
 house, as wife in the husband's ;* and further, she 
 shares with Christ in many of His relations, as offering, 
 as priest, as prophet, or as candlestick. But on Pente- 
 cost she is specially seen as a Meat-offering, that is, as 
 man's portion, in active service towards a lost and 
 needy world ; because on that day she first stood forth 
 in such service toward man, as taking her part with 
 Christ in loving service to the sons of Adam. Then, 
 "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, strangers from 
 Rome, Jews, Proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians," were 
 fed by the service of those, who, though leavened, were 
 yet an appointed and accepted Meat-offering. 
 
 Such is the general character of the Meat-offering, 
 as collected from the points in which it differs from 
 the other offerings. I proceed now very briefly to 
 examine it, 
 
 II. IN ITS DIFFERENT GRADES OR VARIETIES. These 
 * Numb. in.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFERING. 93 
 
 are three in number, and represent (as we have already 
 seen,) the different measures of apprehension with 
 which a saint may see Jesus in any of His relations. 
 The first class or grade is unbaked flour ; * this is the 
 most perfect type of the Meat-offering : the second is 
 baked loaves or cakes ;~f~ in this emblem one or two 
 particulars are lost sight of : the third, green ears dried 
 by the fire,\. is lower still than either of the others. 
 Each gives us Jesus as Meat-offering, that is, as meeting 
 and fulfilling man's claim on Him : in all He is equally 
 "a sweet savour," in all equally acceptable to God: 
 but the second class gives a higher view of His per- 
 fectness in this relation than the third ; and again the 
 first class is higher than either. The first class shews 
 us an offering like that of the princes ; || the next gives 
 us something lower ;H" the last class shews us the offering 
 in its rudest form, "ears of corn dried by the fire." 
 The Lord lead us to see Jesus more fully, according to 
 the measure of the first class, that our joy and strength 
 may increase. We must rejoice in proportion as we 
 see His perfectness ; for His offering is all ours ; it was 
 "offered for us." 
 
 Observe, then, the chief distinctions between the 
 different grades of the Meat-offering. 
 
 (1.) The first contrast is, that while in the first grade 
 
 * Verse 1. f Verses 4-7. J Verse 14. Verses 2, 9, 12, 16. 
 
 H Compare verse 1, and Numb. vii. 13, 19, 25, &c. 
 
 H Here, too, there is within this class a measure of variety, as the 
 Meat-offering baked in the oven and in the pan. The difference, 
 however, I believe, is merely connected with the size of the offering. 
 A large loaf could not be baked in a frying-pan.
 
 94 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 each article of the materials is enumerated* the second 
 describes the offering more generally as " unleavened 
 wafers anointed."^ The import of this distinction is 
 at once and easily discoverable. How many saints are 
 there, who, in thinking or speaking about Jesus, can 
 fully assert that He is "unleavened," who know and 
 believe He is sinless, while yet they cannot see all 
 His perfectness. But absence of evil, the being with- 
 out leaven, is a lower thought than the possession of 
 perfect goodness. We can say, " He did no sin, neither 
 was guile found in His mouth," long before we can 
 tell what was in Him, and the way in which He spent 
 it all for others. 
 
 (2.) A. second point of contrast between the different 
 grades of the Meat-offering is too remarkable to be 
 omitted. In the first class it is observed, that the 
 offerer himself takes the memorial for God out of the 
 offering : t in the second, the priest is said to take 
 it : while in the last class, " in the dried ears," no 
 mention is made who takes it. || We observed a dis- 
 tinction similar to this in the Burnt-offering : in the 
 first class the offerer killed the victim; in the last, 
 the priest did. The difference is obvious and instruc- 
 tive. The one view shews Christ in His person as 
 offerer ; the other in His appointed office as the priest. 
 The first, Christ as offerer personally giving to God, 
 is a higher view than Christ offering as priest 
 officially. The latter view loses, at least, one precious 
 
 * Verses 1,2. t Verse 4. J Verse 2. 
 6 Verse 0. || Verse 16.
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEKING. 95 
 
 object in the precious offering of Jesus : the office 
 is indeed seen, but the person of the Lord quite lost 
 sight of. 
 
 (3.) But there is a third contrast, and one which 
 may be more generally apprehended, between the first 
 class of the Meat-offering and the others. In the first 
 class Christ's offering is seen as flour: He is "the 
 fine fiour " bruised. In the other classes this parti- 
 cular is almost merged : He is rather bread, either 
 " loaves " or " wafers." * The distinction here is very 
 manifest We may see Jesus as our " bread," or even 
 as God's bread, without entering into the thoughts 
 which are suggested by the emblems of " fine fiour " 
 and "frankincense." The perfect absence of all un- 
 evenness, and the deep bruisings which He endured 
 that He might satisfy us ; the precious savour also of 
 the offering, only more fragrant when tried by fire ; 
 these are not our first views of Jesus : for as they are 
 the most perfect apprehensions, so are they generally 
 the last. 
 
 (4.) The difference between the first class of the 
 Meat-offering and the third is even more striking and 
 manifest : this latter offering giving us a thought of 
 Christ as "first-fruits" the first sheaf of the ripening 
 harvest, rather than the bread already prepared for 
 food, or the fine fiour as seen in the first grade.-f" 
 This distinction I need not dwell upon, as its general 
 bearing is sufficiently clear. Suffice it to say, that here, 
 as in the latter grades of the other offerings, we lose 
 
 * Compare verses 1 and 4. t Compare verses 1 and 14.
 
 96 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 what is distinctive or peculiar in the particular offer- 
 ing, while a thought or view of some other offering is 
 in measure substituted in its place. We have already 
 seen this to be the case in the Burnt-offering : we 
 shall find it again in the Sin-offerings. The fact 
 is, that these classes are measures of apprehension. 
 When the measure of apprehension is small, one view 
 of the offering is confounded with another view. The 
 building, to repeat a former illustration, is seen too 
 indistinctly to observe its different aspects : more than 
 one side of it is seen at once, though neither of these 
 sides is seen very distinctly. This, I doubt not, is 
 the case here. The thought of the Meat-offering is 
 joined with that of the First-fruits. How many true 
 Christians are there whose views of Christ are thua 
 without defmiteness ; Sin-offering, Meat-offering, Burnt- 
 offering, all mixed together. 
 
 Such are some of the Varieties in this Offering ; 
 and if they teach no more, they teach us at least what 
 Christians lose from their lack of knowledge : for 
 many a precious truth seen in the first grade, is in the 
 lower grades wholly overlooked. For instance, in the 
 first grade, all the materials are seen, " the flour, the 
 oil, the salt, the frankincense ; " while nearly the whole 
 of this is lost in the lower grades, where it is only 
 noticed that the offering is " unleavened." Is it to be 
 supposed that this mere negative knowledge, this bare 
 knowledge of what Christ was not, can ever have the 
 same effect upon our souls as the full apprehension 
 of what He really was? So again, in- the first grade
 
 THE MEAT-OFFEEING. 97 
 
 Christ's person is seen : the offerer is seen himself 
 offering. Need we be told how different is the effect 
 of merely seeing Christ's office in His atonement? 
 And so of the rest. He who, seeing the first-fruits, 
 confounds or substitutes this thought for that of the 
 Meat-offering, though he sees Christ, does not see 
 Him as fulfilling the Law, but simply as the first 
 sheaf of a promised harvest. There are many who 
 believe that Christ is risen as the first-fruits of them 
 that slept, who by no means see how, by His offering 
 for them, they also are accepted in Him. But I will 
 not pursue the subject. Such as have intelligence will 
 be able to trace it for themselves. Others, I fear, 
 would scarce understand the mere outline, which is all 
 that I could here give of it. 
 
 Here I close my remarks on the Meat-offering. 
 More, much more,' might be said. What has been 
 said, I trust, may, through grace, lead us, first to bless 
 God for having given us such an offering ; and then 
 to desire a greater insight into all that Jesus has been 
 for us. For ever blessed be our God who has thus 
 loved us. May we daily know more of His love.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING 
 
 LEVITICUS m., AND vn. 11-21 AND 29-34. 
 
 WE now come to the sacrifice of PEACE-OFFERINGS, 
 the last offered of all the typical offerings. Accord- 
 ingly, we shall find it revealing to us that aspect of 
 Christ's offering, which is generally the last appre- 
 hended by the believer. And I may add, that as it was 
 ' burnt upon the Burnt-offering," * and was directly 
 consequent upon it, so it reveals to us the consequences 
 of those aspects of Christ's offering which are prefigured 
 in the Burnt and Meat-offerings. 
 
 We may examine it, first, in its contrasts to the other 
 offerings, that is, as bringing out one definite and par- 
 ticular aspect of Christ's offering ; and then, secondly, 
 in its several varieties, as shewing the different appre- 
 hensions enjoyed by Christians of this aspect. , 
 
 I. And, first, IN ITS CONTRAST TO THE OTHER OFFER- 
 INGS, it may be sufficient to enumerate two chief points : 
 (1.) It was a sweet-savour offering ; and, (2.) The offerer, 
 God, and the priest were fed by it In the former of 
 these particulars, it differed from the Sin-offerings ; in 
 the latter, it differed from all others. 
 * See chapter iii. 5.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 99 
 
 (1.) It was a "sweet-savour" offering* On the 
 import of this distinction, I need here say little, since 
 we have already more than once examined it. Suffice 
 it to say that here, as in the Burnt and Meat-offerings, 
 we are presented with a view of the offering, not as 
 offered with any reference to sin, but rather as shewing 
 man giving to God that which is sweet and pleasant to 
 Him. 
 
 But the Burnt-offering and Meat-offering were both 
 "sweet savours." This particular, therefore, though 
 distinguishing the Peace-offering from the Sin-offerings, 
 gives us nothing by which we may distinguish it from 
 the other sweet-savour offerings. I pass on, therefore, 
 to the next particular, in which the Peace-offering 
 very distinctly differs from the Burnt and Meat- 
 offerings. 
 
 (2.) The second point in which the Peace-offering 
 differed from others was, that in it the offerer, the priest, 
 and God, all fed together. This was the case in no 
 offering but the Peace-offering. In this they had some- 
 thing in common. Here each had a part. They held 
 communion in feeding on the same offering. 
 
 We have first the offerer's part ; then God s part ; 
 then the priest' s part ; and included in this last, though 
 separately mentioned, the part which was fed upon by 
 the priest's children.^ 
 
 And what a view does this give of the efficacy of the 
 offering ! how does it magnify " the unsearchable 
 
 * Verses 5, 16. 
 
 f See chapter vii 31, 32, and compare Numbers xviii. 9-1L
 
 100 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 riches of Christ ! " God, man, and the priest, all fed to- 
 gether, all finding satisfaction in the offering. God first 
 has His part and is satisfied, for He declares it to be 
 very good. " It is an offering made by fire of a sweet 
 savour unto the Lord."* Man (in Christ) as offerer 
 has his part, and is permitted to share this offering 
 with his friends. -f- And the priest, that is, Christ in 
 His official character, is satisfied also, and His children 
 are satisfied with Him.J What a picture is here pre- 
 sented to us ! The offerer feasts with God, with His 
 priest, and with the priest's children. 
 
 [i.] In the Peace-offering the offerer feasts, in other 
 words, finds satisfaction, and feeds upon the same offer- 
 ing of which a part has already satisfied God : for a 
 part of the Peace-offering, (as we shall see in the 
 sequel,) "the fat, the blood, the inwards," before the 
 offerer can touch his part, must have already been con- 
 sumed on the altar. 
 
 We get nothing like this either in the Burnt or 
 Meat-offering. In them we have the offering satisfying 
 God ; all consumed by His fire, and ascending to Him, 
 as in the Burnt-offering ; or shared, as in the Meat- 
 offering, with His priests. But in all this, though God 
 was satisfied, the offerer got no part of the offering. 
 The Burnt and Meat-offerings were (as we have already 
 seen) the emblem of the perfect fulfilment of the law's 
 requirements. In them we see man (in Christ) offering 
 to God that which perfectly satisfies Him. God finds 
 food in the offering, and declares it to be very good, 
 
 * Chapter iii. 5. f Chapter viL 16. Chapter vii. 31.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 101 
 
 But in all this the offerer has nothing. The Peace- 
 offering shews us the offerer himself satisfied. 
 
 Now the offerer here, as elsewhere, is Christ ; Christ 
 in His person standing "for us."* But the extent to 
 which we are interested in this, and the fact that, till we 
 realize it, the Peace-offering is unintelligible, require 
 that I should dwell here for a moment, before I proceed 
 to details. 
 
 I repeat, then, that in all the offerings, Christ, as 
 offerer, stands as our representative. Whether it be 
 in the Sin-offering, the Burnt-offering, the Meat-offer- 
 ing, or the Peace-offering, He is the man Christ Jesus 
 
 o* cj 
 
 " for us." He is for us without the camp, for us put 
 upon the altar, for us bearing our sins, for us accepted 
 and satisfied. And when we say He did this "for us," 
 we mean that He did it instead of us, nay, as us. 
 Thus, when He was judged, He was judged as us. 
 When He kept the law, He kept it as us. When He 
 was accepted, He was accepted as us ; and so when He 
 was satisfied, He was satisfied as us. 
 
 Now, the consequence of Christ's thus standing " for 
 us " is, that what is true of Him, is true of all who are 
 in Him. Thus the offerings, in shewing us Christ's 
 position, in shewing Him, only shew us our own ; nay, 
 I may say, when they shew us Christ, they shew us the 
 Church, for He stood " for us." "As He is, so are we 
 in this world :"-f- we are "accepted in the Beloved." J 
 I do not say that this is apprehended even by those 
 who are seen of God to stand in these blessings. I 
 * Eph. v. 2. f 1 John iv. 17. J Eph. i. 6.
 
 102 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 need not say how little "we apprehend of that for 
 which we are apprehended. " * I simply state the fact, 
 that in all those relations which are typified by the 
 various offerings, Jesus in offering them as a man stood 
 "for us ;" He stood as us ; nay, He was us, if I may 
 say so. When Christ offered, God saw us offering; 
 for Christ stood as offerer " for us." God looked upon 
 Christ as us. He sees us, therefore, as Christ before 
 Him.-f- And just as truly as Christ stood for us and 
 as us, so as a consequence do we stand in Him to God- 
 ward. What He did, we are reckoned to have done, 
 for as us He did it. So what He enjoys, we enjoy, for 
 as us He enjoys it 
 
 Now this last thought is the thought of the Peace- 
 offering. Christ is satisfied and fed by His offering. 
 But in this He stands for us; and therefore we are 
 satisfied as soon as we thus apprehend Him. The 
 thought may be a little more complex than that of the 
 Sin and Burnt-offering ; but it proceeds exactly on the 
 same principle. Just as the feeble believer in Christ, 
 when he sees Christ offering the Sin-offering, sees that 
 God's wrath against sin has been met, for Jesus stand- 
 ing instead of us as man has borne it ; just as the 
 same feeble saint, when He sees Christ offering the 
 Burnt and Meat-offering, sees that God and His re- 
 quirements have been satisfied, for Jesus standing for 
 us as man has satisfied them; just so the same 
 believer when he sees Christ offering the Peace-offer- 
 ing, sees that man is satisfied with the offering, for 
 
 * PhiL iii. 12. f See 1 Cor. xii. 12 ; " So also is Christ"
 
 THE PEA.CE-OFFEKING. 103 
 
 Jesus standing for us as man is satisfied. And as our 
 sense of acceptance depends on realizing Him .as ac- 
 cepted for us, so our sense of satisfaction and commu- 
 nion with God depends on realizing Him in communion 
 for us. Thus seeing the Peace-offering, and by it find- 
 ing that Christ as man is satisfied, is to those who know 
 themselves "in Christ," to find that they themselves 
 are satisfied. 
 
 I fear that there are but too many saints who never 
 realize this aspect of the Offering, and therefore never 
 fully experience that satisfaction which the Offering 
 has purchased for them. I do not say that the blessing 
 is not theirs ; this and all else is theirs, if they are " in 
 Christ." But those things which are true for them in 
 Him, are not realized by them in their own experience. 
 Experience is, I again repeat, nothing more than our 
 measure of apprehension of that which is already true 
 for us in Christ. Thank God, the sufficiency of His 
 work does not depend upon our apprehension of it. 
 But our satisfaction depends much on our apprehension. 
 It is because we apprehend so little that we have so 
 little comfort. 
 
 And our strength particularly depends on our appre- 
 hension of that view of Christ which the Peace-offering 
 teaches ; for strength is sustained by food, and the 
 Peace-offering shews man fed by the sacrifice. Yet 
 how little is this view of Christ apprehended ! Am I 
 asked the cause? It is because so few really know 
 acceptance. As long as it is at all a question with you 
 whether God has accepted you or not, your chief desire
 
 104 THE LAW OP THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 will be to know God satisfied, far rather than to be 
 satisfied yourself. As a criminal whose reprieve has 
 not yet come, you will not ask, Have I bread for to- 
 day ? but, Am I pardoned ? Death stares you in the 
 face : you cannot think of food or raiment But let 
 the question of acceptance be settled : let this be fully 
 known ; and then you will find time to listen to the 
 cravings of that new nature, which needs to be sus- 
 tained and nourished. What is to satisfy this ? No- 
 thing but the precious meat of the altar. And this is 
 shewn as provided for us in Jesus, when we see Him, 
 as our representative, the offerer of the Peace-offering. 
 
 And here observe what the offerer feasts on. He 
 feasts on the meat of the altar : his food is the spotless 
 offering which has already satisfied the Lord. 
 
 Now this offering represents "the body of Jesus,"* 
 including His walk, His thoughts, His strength, His 
 affections. These, as we saw in the Burnt-offering, 
 were the things He sacrificed ; and because they were 
 unblemished, they were accepted. As a sweet savour 
 they satisfied God. But they give satisfaction, too, 
 because they are unblemished, to the offerer. Christ 
 finds His meat in His own offering. He " is satisfied 
 with the travail of His soul/'f 
 
 Jesus as offerer stands " for us ;" and by His feeding 
 on the offering, He shews how man is satisfied. Would 
 to God His people might learn here what, as respects 
 atonement, will alone satisfy them. Out of God's pre- 
 sence man seeks food in many things. He may try 
 
 * Heb. x. 5-10. t laa. liii. 11.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFEEING. 105 
 
 " the riotous living of the far country." yea, in his hour 
 of need he may come to "the husks which the swine eat."* 
 In seeking God's presence too, not a few have yet to 
 learn what alone can give peace and satisfaction in that 
 presence. Some of those who are longing to feast with 
 God, are seeking satisfaction in their frames or feelings. 
 Others are trying their own righteousness, their experi- 
 ences, their walk, their service. Are these things the 
 unblemished meat of the altar ? Is it by these things 
 Christ has satisfied God? Are our experiences, our 
 frames, our feelings, the things on which, as respects 
 atonement, Christ and God have fellowship ? If not, 
 they cannot be the meat upon which we, as needing 
 atonement, are to feed with God. If Christ as man 
 could not have communion with God through anything 
 save a spotless offering, so neither can any of His 
 members : if they are fed at all, they must be fed as 
 He is. Oh, let us be wise and see our calling, nor seek 
 satisfaction save in Jesus ! He is the only perfect One ; 
 out of Him there is nothing fit for the altar, nothing 
 suited therefore to feed our souls. When Christ feeds 
 with God on that which is blemished; when He 
 makes a Peace-offering of the unclean; then, nor 
 till then, let us seek our food in the unclean, the torn, 
 the blemished. But while we see that even He, as far 
 as atonement is concerned, can only be fed with His 
 own perfect unblemished offering, let us as in Him 
 reject all others, and feed and be satisfied in Him. 
 How important is the lesson taught here ; how unan- 
 
 * Luke xv. 13, 15, 16. 
 H
 
 106 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 swerably does it express this truth, that, as respects 
 atonement at least, the Christian has nothing to feed 
 on with God, but that which Christ Himself feeds on 
 with Him : that however right our experiences or 
 attainments or walk or service may be in their place, 
 they are not the offering for atonement, nor can they 
 ever be the ground of peace. And indeed, for a Chris- 
 tian to seek his food in these things, is as though an 
 Israelite were to take his garments to feed on. In 
 truth the man who seeks satisfaction in his own attain- 
 ments just does this : what should be his raiment, he 
 makes his meat. The garments of the Israelite are the 
 appointed symbol of a man's deportment and manifested 
 character.* So the New Testament interprets the type : 
 " The fine linen is the righteousness of saints." f This 
 garment might be easily defiled. But let us suppose it 
 clean : are garments to be fed on ? The type answers 
 at once : it is the meat of the altar, the sweet savour 
 alone, which satisfies. Our prayers, our love, our ser- 
 vice, these things, like the leavened cake at Pentecost, J 
 though accepted for the sake of what accompanies 
 them, are one and all in themselves blemished. In one 
 sense indeed, our services are a " sweet savour ; " but 
 it is only in the same sense that our persons are 
 " righteous." In either case the works and persons 
 are accounted to be what in themselves they are not, 
 in virtue of that perfect Work and Person, in whom 
 
 * Psalm Ixxiii. 6, cix. 18; l&a. lii. 1, lix. 17, IxL 3; Zech. iiL 3; 
 Col. iii. 8, 12; Rev. iiL 4, xvi. 15, 4c. 
 
 t Rev. xix. 8. J See page 91. Phil. iv. 18
 
 THE PEACE-OFFEEING. ] 07 
 
 and through whom they are offered. Just as the sin- 
 ner, though in himself vile, is accounted righteous in 
 Him through whom we have received the atonement ; 
 so are His offerings, though leavened, accounted sweet 
 in the savour of that through which they are offered. 
 The sinner accepted in Christ becomes indeed himself, 
 in spirit, both an offerer and offering ; yet even then 
 his " spiritual sacrifices," whether of work or worship, 
 are only "acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."* Like 
 " the leavened cake " already referred to, our works or 
 worship, because imperfect, could never be accepted, 
 did they not come before God with the sweet savour, 
 and as the consequence of another and a perfect offer- 
 ing. Were they offered to make atonement they would 
 be rejected. They are only accepted because atonement 
 has been already made. To make atonement, there 
 must be perfection in the offering : God will not be 
 satisfied with ought less than a perfect sacrifice. If we 
 wish to be fed and satisfied with Him, it must be in 
 and through that "One offering" which has already 
 satisfied His holiness. 
 
 But this leads us to the next particular in the Peace- 
 offering ; namely, that, 
 
 [ii.] The offerer feasts with God. Man (in Christ) 
 and God find common food. The offering is shared 
 between them. The thought here is not, as in the 
 Burnt-offering, merely that God finds satisfaction in the 
 offering. It includes this, but it goes further. It 
 shews communion ; for God and man share together. 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. 5.
 
 108 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 I would that this aspect of the Offering were more 
 familiar to the minds of Christians : how would it raise 
 their thoughts of the value of the Offering, and of the 
 place, which, through the Offering, man is called to ! 
 We should not, we could not, truly realize the joy and 
 satisfaction God finds in the Offering, without obtaining 
 more exalted views of its wondrous preciousness and 
 efficacy. We could not behold man sharing with God 
 in that which God declares to be most precious to Him, 
 without being led to a far deeper apprehension of man's 
 high and blessed destiny. But are these our thoughts 
 of the Offering ? Do we, when we think of it, think of 
 the joy God finds in it ; or do we thus habitually 
 realize the place into which it puts man as sharer with 
 God ? Alas ! to how many are such thoughts strangers ; 
 and the reason is, because as yet they have not seen 
 the Peace-offering. If only they may be delivered from 
 wrath ! If only they may hope for acceptance ! This 
 is all many saints hope for, this is practically all they 
 expect. But is this all that the Offering has purchased ? 
 Is this all that Christ enjoys ? Is His place bare ac- 
 ceptance ? Is His portion only pardon ? Is He not, as 
 man, God's heir and first-born, the One in whom His 
 soul delights, the One with whom God holds unbroken 
 fellowship, to whom He reveals all His mind ? And 
 does Jesus hold this alone ? Are we not, in Him, called 
 to the same communion ? Are we not in all. His fel- 
 low-heirs, His joy, His bride, His members ? The 
 Peace-offering answers the question when it shews us 
 man feasting with Jehovah ; when it tells us that
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 109 
 
 Christ's place is our place, and that in Him we are 
 called to share with God. 
 
 And how clearly does this portion of the type give 
 the answer to the question, What is communion? 
 Communion is simply sharing; to have communion, 
 therefore, we must have something to share; and to 
 have communion with a holy God, we must have some- 
 thing which we can share with Him, We cannot share 
 nothing, and He will not share with us in the unclean. 
 Our attainments, therefore, cannot yield communion, 
 nor our works, for the best have sin in them. But, 
 thank God, there is a perfect offering, the offering of 
 our blessed Lord ; and if we would have communion 
 with God, the only way is to share that offering. 
 
 And this at once gives us the key to the cause of our 
 general and acknowledged lack of communion. Of in- 
 tercourse we have enough, perhaps too much. Of com- 
 munion, how very little! The reason is, so little of 
 Christ's Offering is apprehended, that when believers 
 meet they have scarce anything of Him to share. And 
 the same is true of our approaches to God, for there 
 may be intercourse with God without communion. 
 How often when we approach God do we speak to Him 
 only about our feelings, our experiences, our sins, our 
 trials. All this is right ; we cannot be without these, 
 and we are right to tell them to our Father. But after 
 all, this of itself is not communion, nor will speaking of 
 these things ever yield it to us. Let us come before 
 God to be filled with Christ, to be taken up with Him, 
 His life, His ways, His sweetness ; let the confession
 
 110 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 of our failure and nothingness in ourselves be made the 
 plea that we may be filled with Him ; and our inter- 
 course will be soon changed to communion, for in Him 
 we shall have something we can share. May the Lord 
 lead us more into His presence, there to be taught what 
 we possess in Jesus ; and then, when we meet our bre- 
 thren or our Father, we shall feast together on what 
 there is in Him. 
 
 [iii.] But further, in the sacrifice of Peace-offerings, 
 the offerer feasts with the priest. 1 " The sacrificing 
 priest, as I have already observed, is always Christ, 
 viewed in His official character as Mediator. We 
 learn here how the offering, which He offered as man, 
 feeds, that is, satisfies Him, not only a* man, but also 
 as Mediator. 
 
 To understand this we must recollect and apprehend 
 the varied relations in which Christ stands connected 
 with the offering; for He appears for us in many 
 offices, in more than one relation. In connexion with 
 the Offering alone, we see Him, as I have said, in at 
 least three characters. He stands as offerer, but He is 
 also ike offering ; and He who is both offerer and offer- 
 ing is also priest. Yet each of these is a distinct rela- 
 tion ; each gives us a different thought of Christ. As 
 offerer He is presented to us as man : there is one in 
 our nature satisfying God. Thus in the offerer we 
 rather see Christ's person : it is a man standing for 
 men. The offering gives us another thought. It is not 
 Himself, so much as what He did. Here it is not His 
 
 Chapter viL 32, 33.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. Ill 
 
 person, so much as His work and character, which the 
 type brings before us. The priest again is even more 
 distinct. It is Christ in H is office as Mediator : here 
 it is neither Christ's person nor His work, but one of 
 His offices, that is presented to us. 
 
 Now, if this simple distinction be apprehended, as I 
 think it must be more or less by every Christian, it will 
 be manifest that there are things true of Christ in one 
 relation which are by no means true of Him in another. 
 For instance, His intercession for us is as priest. As 
 the offering, He does not intercede ; as lamb, He dies 
 for us. So again as priest and offerer, He is fed ; as 
 the lamb, as the offering, He is not fed. Now there 
 are offerings in which the priest finds food, but from 
 participating in which the offerer is excluded : some of 
 the Sin-offerings are of this latter character, for in them 
 the priest is fed, while the offerer has nothing. The 
 Sin-offerings, as we shall see more fully in the sequel, 
 are man satisfying offended justice. They are not man 
 giving something sweet to God, but man receiving from 
 God in his offering the penalty of sin. These Sin-offer- 
 ings supply food to the priest,* that is, Christ as Me- 
 diator finds satisfaction in them, but they afford Him 
 no food as man the offerer : as man in them He only 
 confesses sin. The priest, God's official servant, is 
 satisfied, because offended justice is vindicated : but 
 man, who pays the penalty in his offering, finds no 
 satisfaction in the act. 
 
 The Peace-offering gives us a very different view of 
 
 Chapter vi. 25-30.
 
 112 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 the offering. In it man, as well as the priest, is satis- 
 fied In bearing the penalty of sin, that is, in the Sin- 
 offering, man found no satisfaction. But he does find 
 it in the sacrifice of Peace-offerings ; here he shares 
 the offering with God Nor is the priest excluded 
 from this offering: the Peace-offering feeds him too. 
 If, as priest, Christ found satisfaction in the Sin-offer- 
 ing, that offering which only vindicated offended jus- 
 tice, we might expect to find Him equally satisfied in 
 the offering which fed both God and man. And the 
 Peace-offering reveals that it is so. God and man feast 
 in peace together ; and the Priest, the common friend 
 of both, seeing them satisfied, is Himself satisfied also. 
 How blessed is the thought here revealed to us! 
 how does it open to us the heart of Christ, the joy 
 which He feels as Mediator in seeing communion in- 
 stituted between God and man ! Surely we lose not a 
 little in our communion, if we forget the joy which the 
 Mediator .finds in it ; if we overlook the satisfaction 
 which He experiences when He sees man at peace with 
 God. He who knows the full value of the offering, 
 never forgets that by it the priest is fed. And if the 
 presence of beloved friends enhances the sweetness of 
 each earthly blessing ; and if the absence of those we 
 love makes the full cup lose half its enjoyment ; how 
 much must it enhance our joy to know that He who 
 loves us is feasting with us ; what must they lose of 
 the sweetness of communion who forget that in it our 
 Priest is fed-! This I know, Christ never forgets that 
 when He feasts, He feasts with us. Even yet He says,
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 1 1 3 
 
 as once of old, " With desire I desire to eat this sacri- 
 fice with you."* Shall we, then, have.no thought of 
 His joy ; shall we forget the satisfaction He finds in 
 the offering 1 Those who can do this have as yet learnt 
 but little of the Peace-offering ; for in the Peace-offer- 
 ing the Priest is fed. 
 
 [iv.] But the type takes us further still, and shews 
 us the Priest's children also sharing with the offerer 
 in the Peace-offering.-f- They, too, as well as the 
 offerer, the priest, and God, find satisfaction in this 
 blessed offering. Our first question here, of course, 
 must be, Who are represented by the Priest's chil- 
 dren ? 
 
 We have already seen that the Priest is Christ ; 
 Christ viewed in His official character as Mediator. 
 His children, that is, His family, are therefore the 
 Church ; but the Church viewed in one particular 
 aspect. The Church, like her blessed Lord, stands 
 both to God and man in more than one relation ; and 
 each of these different relations requires in the type a 
 different emblem. This we have abundantly seen is 
 true of Christ : but it is no less true of the Church, 
 His body. For instance, just as the varied pictures 
 we have considered, the offering, the priest, the offerer, 
 all shew out our blessed Lord, while yet each shews 
 Him in a different character ; so in like manner is it 
 with the Church also. She, too, has varied relations, 
 which require varied emblems. In one we see her in 
 
 " Luke *iii. 15. 
 
 t Chap, vii 31, 32, compared with Numb, rviii. 9-11.
 
 1 14 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 service for God ; in another in communion with Him. 
 Israel, as the chosen nation, represents the Church as 
 " the peculiar people," looked at simply as the seed of 
 Abraham, and as such, in covenant with God. The 
 Levites give us a different thought : they shew us the 
 Church in service ; as ministering for God before men, 
 carrying His ark, and caring for His tabernacle.* The- 
 family of Priests give us yet another thought. Here 
 we have the Church in communion with God ; as the 
 seed of the High Priest and Mediator, sharing with 
 Him in His access to God and in intercession ; having 
 a right to stand in the holy place, where no eye sees 
 them but God's. 
 
 If this be seen, it will sufficiently reveal the import 
 of the Priest's children feeding on the Peace-offering. 
 Their share in the sacrifice shews us the Church in 
 communion, sharing with the Offerer in the satisfaction 
 afforded by the Offering. To me this is a blessed 
 thought, marking the extent and efficacy of this precious 
 offering. Just as of old he that really feasted with God 
 in the Peace-offering, could not do so without sharing 
 with God's priests ; so now communion with God, if 
 enjoyed at all, must be shared with all in communion 
 with Him. This is no question of choice : it cannot be 
 
 * I may observe here that botn Priests and Levites are types of 
 the whole Church, not of a part of it. We are told that by God's ex- 
 press command " the Levites were not numbered among the chil- 
 dren of Israel." (Numbers i. 47, 54, and ii. 33.) By this appoint- 
 ment the tribe of Levi was purposely separated, so that it might 
 not be looked at merely as a part of Israel Thus it constitutes a 
 distinct picture, and shews a distinct relation of the Church.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 115 
 
 otherwise ; for he that is in communion with God must 
 be in communion also with all whom He communes 
 with. We may indeed be accepted in the Beloved, 
 while yet we do not know our calling, or the relation- 
 ship which exists in Christ between us and all His 
 redeemed worshippers. But it is impossible to realize 
 our standing in Christ, as offerers and partakers in Him 
 of the Peace-offering, without finding that the Offering 
 in which we rejoice links us with the joy of all God's 
 spiritual priesthood. 
 
 And here let me observe in connexion with this 
 particular, that it is possible for believers to find satis- 
 faction in the offering as priest's children, when through 
 ignorance of their union with Christ as the Offerer, 
 they find no satisfaction as offerers in Him of the 
 Peace-offering. Alas ! the great mass of God's Israel 
 are captives in Babylon or Egypt ; cut off, though born 
 to it, from the exercise of priesthood and sacrifice, and 
 from the sacred meat of the altar. But even of those 
 who do know the power of redemption, and who have 
 fed on the offerings of the Lord, how few know that meat 
 save as priests ; how few apprehend it as offerers of the 
 Peace-offering ! I would that all saints fed as priest's 
 children, but not less that they fed as offerers in Christ. 
 To find satisfaction as priest's children in the offering, 
 we need not know our oneness with Christ as Offerer. 
 It is enough to see that He as the faithful Israelite has 
 offered, and that we as priest's children have a claim on 
 the sacrifice. But this measure of apprehension will 
 not suffice to make us realize our share in the Peace-
 
 116 THJC LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 offering as offerers. To know that Christ as Offerer 
 has offered, will not give us the food which belongs to 
 the offerer, unless we apprehend our oneness with Him, 
 that He stood for us, that we are "in Him." This, 
 alas ! how few now see : how few therefore take the 
 offerer's part in the Peace-offering. Thank God, if we 
 know our priesthood, this relation alone will provide us 
 meat : for another has satisfied God, and His priests 
 may feed with Him. But while we do this, and rejoice 
 in this relation, may the Lord lead us on to see yet 
 another, that our place is also " in Christ " as Offerer, 
 and that we have satisfied God in Him. This as much 
 as priesthood is our calling. May we but apprehend 
 what we are apprehended for ! 
 
 There is a particular connected with participation 
 in the Peace-offering, which is incidentally mentioned 
 here, and which we must not overlook ; namely, that 
 none, even though of the Priest's family, could eat of 
 the offering unless they were clean* There is a dif- 
 ference between being a priest and being clean. The 
 fact of a man's contracting some defilement did not 
 prove him to be no priest. On the contrary, the rules 
 respecting clean and unclean were only for God's elect 
 This is very important truth. May the Lord make us 
 all understand it better. It teaches us that it is one 
 thing to be a priest ; another thing to be a clean priest; 
 yet the unclean priest, if of the chosen seed, is still in 
 the covenant, and on very different ground from the 
 seed of strangers. The Israelite, who through contact 
 * Chapter vii. 20.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 117 
 
 with uncleanness, might for a while be excluded from 
 the Tabernacle, could at any time be restored again by 
 using the appointed washings. Still his uncleanness 
 for the time made him as a stranger, and cut him off 
 from the meat of God. 
 
 The details of the law on this point* are well 
 worthy our deepest attention. We learn that "leprosy" 
 or " the running issue " excluded even a son of Aaron 
 from the c<imp ; the period of his exclusion depending 
 on the time during which the disease was manifest. 
 " Leprosy " and " the running issue " were both break- 
 ings out of the flesh, breakings out which were manifest 
 to others, though manifested differently. They typify 
 those outbreaks of the flesh in the Christian, which 
 are too flagrant to be hid from others. The appointed 
 discipline for these, now as of old, is temporary ex- 
 clusion from the camp.-f- During this period the priest's 
 child was still a priest ; but to little purpose, for he 
 was cut off from the altar. But there were defilements 
 of a less manifest character than leprosy, less discernible 
 by the eyes of man, which yet brought with them 
 temporary uncleanness, and with it temporary exclusion 
 from the Tabernacle. If a child of the priest touched 
 any dead thing, or anything which was unclean by 
 contact with the dead ; or if he touched any creeping 
 thing whereby he might be made unclean, or a man of 
 whom he might take uncleanness, the law was express, 
 " The soul that hath touched any such shall be 
 unclean until the even, and shall not eat of the holy 
 
 * See Leviticus xxiL 1-7. t 1 Cor. v. 13.
 
 1 1 8 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 things unless he wash his flesh with water." A spiritual 
 priest may in like manner contract defilement, and so 
 have his communion hindered. If our spirits (for this 
 dispensation is spiritual, not carnal,) come in contact 
 with the spirit of the world, if its dead things are felt 
 to touch us, if its creeping things affect our souls, no 
 visible impression may be left to be seen by others, while 
 yet we ourselves may feel our communion hindered. At 
 such a time we may not, under a penalty of judgment,* 
 approach that which at other times is our food. Thank 
 God, contact with the unclean, though it hinders our 
 sense of communion, cannot remove the blood of the 
 covenant. That still remains before God. We may 
 not see it perhaps ; He always sees it. Yet who would 
 willingly be the unclean priest, cut off from participa- 
 tion with the altar ; his days lost to God and to His 
 tabernacle ; his food eaten in the dark ?[ 
 
 Such are the chief particulars in which the Peace- 
 offering differed from the other offerings. It was the 
 sweet-savour offering in which not only God was satis- 
 fied, but in which man and the priest found satisfac- 
 tion also. 
 
 I now pass on to observe, 
 
 II. THE DIFFERENT GRADES OR VARIETIES WHICH 
 ARE OBSERVED IN THIS OFFERING. These shew US the 
 
 different measures of intelligence with which this view 
 of Christ's offering may be apprehended. 
 
 And here, as there are several distinct sharers in the 
 
 Compare Lev. vii. 20, 21, and 1 Cor. zi. 29. 
 
 f He might not eat it uutil after sunset See Lev xxil 7
 
 THE PEACE-OFFEKING. 119 
 
 offering, for God, man, and the Priest, have each a 
 portion, it may be well to consider each portion sepa- 
 rately with its particular differences, since in each por- 
 tion there are distinct varieties observed. 
 
 (1.) First, then, as to God's part in the Peace-offer- 
 ing. In this certain varieties at once present them- 
 selves ; some of them relating to the value of the offer- 
 ing, others connected with the offerer's purport in the 
 oblation. 
 
 [i.] To speak first of the, varieties touching the value 
 of the offering. We have here, just as in the Burnt- 
 offering, several different grades. There is the " bul- 
 lock," "the lamb," "the goat;" and these respectively 
 represent here what they do in the Burnt-offering. 
 Each gives us rather a different thought as to the 
 character of Christ's blessed offering. But it is to be 
 noticed here, that although in the Peace-offering we 
 have nearly the same number of grades as in the 
 Burnt-offering, in the details of these various grades 
 we do not find nearly so much difference as is the case 
 in the Burnt- offering. There is, indeed, the variety of 
 " bullock/' " lamb," and " goat," shewing that the offer- 
 ing is apprehended under these various characters ; but 
 nearly all the rest seen respecting this portion of the 
 offering, as to the mode of the oblation and the part 
 taken by the offerer, is much the same. It will be 
 remembered that, in the different grades of the Burnt- 
 offering, a great variety was observed in the mode of 
 oblation. In some the parts of the victim were seen 
 to be discriminated ; in others this was not so : in
 
 120 THE LAW OP THE OFFEEINGS. 
 
 some a portion of the offering was seen to be washed 
 in water ; in others this was overlooked : in some the 
 offerer was seen laying his hand on the offering; in 
 others this was not observed : in some the offerer him- 
 self was seen to kill the offering ; in others the priest 
 killed it. But in the Peace-offering we lose this great 
 variety, for in each grade the offering is treated nearly 
 alike. There are indeed the different grades, but this 
 is nearly all : and even these grades do not vary here 
 so much as in the Burnt-offering.* 
 
 The import of this is sufficiently plain. It teaches 
 that if God's part of the Peace-offering be apprehended 
 at all, it will be apprehended nearly equally. If Christ 
 is seen at all as offering the Peace-offering to God, the 
 view of Him will lack no important particular, nor will 
 His office be confounded with His person, nor will the 
 various parts of His work be overlooked. The differ- 
 ence, for the most part, will simply have reference to 
 the general character of the offering as " goat," " lamb," 
 or "bullock" 
 
 [il] But there are other varieties noticed in the type, 
 as to that part of the Peace-offering which was offered 
 to God, which are connected, not with the value of the 
 offering, but with the offerer s purport in bringing the 
 oblation. If we turn to the seventh chapter, where the 
 distinction I refer to is mentioned, it will be seen that 
 the Peace-offering might be offered in two ways. It 
 might be offered either as a thanksgiving, that is, for 
 
 The " turtle-dove," that ia, the lowest view of the offering, is 
 omitted.
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 121 
 
 praise ;* or as a vow or voluntary offering, that is, for 
 service.-f- If it were seen to be offered "for thanks- 
 giving,'" many particulars are noticed respecting man's 
 share in it, which are entirely lost sight of and omitted 
 when it is seen to be offered "for a vow." And most 
 of the varieties in the Peace-offering (I may say all the 
 varieties touching the Priest's and Offerer's part in it) 
 depend upon the view which may be taken of the 
 general character of the offering, whether it were 
 offered "for thanksgiving," or whether it were offered 
 "for a wit}." What these particular differences are, we 
 shall note in their proper order and place when we come 
 to consider the Varieties in the Priest's and Offerer's 
 part of the Peace-offering. Suffice it here to state the 
 import of the general distinction between " the Thanks- 
 giving" and "the Vow;" and to shew wherein the 
 view of the Peace-offering as seen offered "for thanks- 
 giving," differed from the Peace-offering to be offered 
 "for a vow." 
 
 To understand this, we must remember what the 
 Offering was. It was Christ, as our representative, 
 giving Himself to God for us. But the purport of this 
 offering may be very differently apprehended : it may 
 be seen as offered for praise, or in service. Jesus 
 may be seen as offering Himself for God's glory ; this 
 is the offering "for praise : " or He may be seen offer- 
 ing Himself in God's service ; this is the offering "for 
 a vow." Most Christians, I believe all of us at first, 
 
 * Chapter vii. 12, " for praise." So the LXX., and many versions, 
 t Chapter vii. 16. 
 
 I
 
 122 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 regard Christ's offering rather as a matter of service : 
 we look on the atonement as something done by Christ 
 in Gods service ; rather than as something which, from 
 first to last, was for God's glory. Of course these two 
 views are most intimately connected ; but I note here, 
 that though connected, they are distinct: and the 
 difference, if it be seen in nothing else, is immediately 
 seen in the results of either. It will be found in the 
 type, and our experience confirms this, that the ap- 
 prehension of Christ as bringing an offering for Gods 
 glory will lead us at once to far deeper and more 
 extended views of its consequences, than the view of 
 Christ as offering Himself in Gods service. Accordingly, 
 when the offering is apprehended as offered "for 
 praise," then many details and consequences connected 
 with it are seen also, which are entirely omitted or 
 lost sight of when the offering is seen as offered "for 
 a vow" 9 
 
 Having thus briefly marked the varieties in the 
 Peace-offering, in that part which was offered to God, 
 as shewing the different apprehensions which may be 
 entertained by saints of this aspect of Christ's offering, 
 we now proceed to consider, 
 
 (2.) The Priest's and Offerer's part, and the varieties 
 which are observable here. It will be found that the 
 particulars respecting this portion of the Peace-offering 
 differ very much according as the offering is apprehended 
 " for praise " or " for service." " If he offer it for a 
 
 * Compare veraea 12-15, which describe the offering " for praise," 
 with verses 16-18, which describe the offering "for a TOW."
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 123 
 
 thanksgiving (or for praise), then he shall offer with 
 the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled 
 with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and 
 cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. Besides the 
 cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with 
 the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace-offerings. And 
 of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an 
 heave-offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest's 
 that sprinkleth the blood of the peace-offerings. And 
 the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for 
 thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is 
 offered ; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. 
 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a volun- 
 tary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he 
 offereth his sacrifice : and on the morrow also the 
 remainder of it shall be eaten : but the remainder of 
 the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be 
 burnt with fire."* 
 
 Such is the law : let us now note these particulars. 
 
 When offered "for praise," [i.] a Meat-offering is 
 offered with the Peace-offering, of which the offerer, as 
 well as the priests, partake ; [ii.] leavened cakes also 
 are seen to be offered with the sacrifice, which, though 
 presented " with the Peace-offering," are, of course, not 
 burnt ; and [iii.] further one cake out of the whole 
 oblation, that is, one of each sort, both leavened and 
 unleavened, is, after being waved as a Heave-offering 
 to the Lord, given to the priest, who sprinkles the 
 blood of the Peace-offerings ; [iv.] the last thing noted 
 
 * Chapter vii. 12-17.
 
 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 is, that the flesh of the offering is to be eaten the same 
 day, or until the morning. Three of these four par- 
 ticulars are entirely overlooked when the sacrifice of 
 Peace-offerings is "/or a vow ;" and though the fourth 
 is noticed, it is seen rather differently ; the flesh in 
 " the vow-offering " is eaten for two days, or until the 
 third day. As several of the emblems used here have 
 already been considered, though not in the combination 
 which we find in the Peace-offering, a few words may 
 be sufficient to point out their purport and significance 
 here. 
 
 [i.] In the offering " for praise," a Meat-offering is 
 offered of which the offerer as well as the priests par- 
 take. The purport of the Meat-offering, as we have 
 already seen, is the fiulfilment of the second table of 
 the Decalogue ; man offering to God as a sweet savour 
 the perfect accomplishment of his duty towards his 
 neighbour. The peculiarity here is, that the offerer 
 partakes of this Meat-offering, a thing not permitted in 
 the common Meat-offering. The common Meat-offering 
 shews us the fulfilment of the law, simply with refer- 
 ence to God, to satisfy Him. But that same fulfilment 
 of the law has other aspects, one of which is, that it 
 satisfies the Offerer also. This is the truth brought out 
 in the Peace-offering, in which the Offerer, as well as 
 God, finds satisfaction in the fulfilment of all righteous- 
 ness. And this satisfaction is not only in the fulfilment 
 of that part of the law which had reference to God, and 
 which was represented by the offering of a life ; but in 
 that part also which referred to man, and was repre-
 
 THE PEACE-OFFEKING. 125 
 
 sented by the unleavened cakes of the Meat-offering. 
 The latter part of this appears to be quite lost sight of, 
 unless the Peace-offering is apprehended as offered 
 " for praise." 
 
 [ii.] But further, in the offering "for praise" leavened 
 cakes also are seen to be offered with the sacrifice* 
 This emblem, too, has already occupied our attention 
 in "the leavened cakes" of the day of Pentecost. 
 Those cakes represent the offering of the Church. 
 When Christ's work is seen merely as "the vow," as v 
 matter of service, the Church's offering does not come 
 into sight : but when His offering is seen " for praise," 
 that is for God's glory, the Church is seen united with 
 Him. The leavened cakes could not be burnt to God, 
 but they come before Him "with"-f the sweet-savour 
 offerings. And though not fit to stand the trial of 
 fire, or to satisfy God as the meat of His altar, they 
 are yet presented for Hid gracious acceptance, and are 
 fed upon by the Priest and Offerer. 
 
 [iii.] And this leads us to the next particular, namely, 
 that one cake out of all the oblation (that is, one of each 
 sort, both leavened and unleavened,) is given to the 
 priest who sprinkles the blood,^ while the remainder, 
 both of the leavened and unleavened, belongs to him 
 who brings the offering. Christ, as Priest, finds food 
 and satisfaction not only in His own blessed and perfect 
 offering : He feeds also on " the leavened cake : " the 
 offering of His Church, with all its failings, satisfies 
 Him. As Offerer, too, He presents this offering with 
 
 * Verse 13. f Chapter vii. 13, and xxiii. 18. J Verse 14.
 
 1 26 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 His own : as Offerer, too, He feeds upon it. And we 
 also, as offerers in Him, though not able to hold fellow- 
 ship with God on the Church's offerings, (no part of 
 leavened cake was burnt to God,) may yet find satis- 
 faction in such offerings, even as Paul found satisfac- 
 tion in the love of saints.* Sweet, however, as such 
 offerings may be to us, and much as they may " refresh 
 our bowels in the Lord," they cannot by themselves be 
 accepted of God, or b2 the ground of our communion 
 with Him. The only meat we can thus share with 
 Him is the unblemished and perfect meat of the altar. 
 But these particulars and distinctions are not appre- 
 hended, unless the Peace-offering is seen as offered " for 
 praise." 
 
 [iv.] The last particular noticed respects the period 
 during which the Peace-offering was to be eaten. The 
 time for eating the offering "for praise" was "the 
 same day " or " until the morning : ",-f- in the " vow- 
 offering " there is a little difference ; it might be eaten 
 "the same day and on the morrow," or "until the 
 third day "I 
 
 Now the "morning" and the "third day" arc 
 sufficiently common types, and are both constantly used, 
 I believe, to denote the resurrection. Thus far I con- 
 
 * 2 Timothy L 16; Philemon 7, 20. 
 
 t Veree 15. * Verses 16, 17. 
 
 For " the morning " see Exod. xii. 8, 10 ; Psalm xlix. 1 4 ; Rom. 
 xiii. 12. For "the third day," Hosea vi. 2; Luke xiii. 32; 1 Cor. 
 xv. 4, &c. The " eighth day" also is the resurrection, but the 
 resurrection looked at in a different aspect, either to the view given 
 in " the morning " or " the third day."
 
 THE PEACE-OFFERING. 127 
 
 ceive the sense of the emblems unquestionable : but I 
 am not so certain as to the different aspect of the 
 resurrection represented by each of them. I am dis- 
 posed, however, to think that " the morning " represents 
 the resurrection as the time of Christ s appearing; 
 while the thought connected with "the third day" is 
 simply deliverance from the grave. In either case the 
 main truth remains the same, that the Peace-offering 
 is our food until the resurrection : but in the one case 
 we eat as those whose time is short, in the night it 
 may be, but in hope of the morning ; in the other the 
 thought of the morning is lost, and instead of it we 
 see days of labour to intervene. I need not say that 
 the first is the higher and happier view. 
 
 Such is the law of the Peace-offering, and such some 
 of its chief varieties. In our progress we have little 
 more than traced the outline, but how much does it 
 contain. Even what we see and know of it reveals 
 both depths and lengths of grace in the Eedeemer ; 
 when we think of what our peace cost Him, and that 
 He poured out His life to bring us to communion. 
 Blessed be His name for the measure and manner of 
 His love. May He reveal it to us by the Holy Ghost 
 Well might the Psalmist say, " Praise waiteth for thee, 
 God, in Zion : and unto thee shall the vow be per- 
 formed. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and 
 causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in 
 thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the goodness of 
 thy house, even of thy holy temple."* "They shall 
 
 * Psalm Ixv. 1, 4.
 
 128 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. 
 Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy plea- 
 sures."* The Lord grant us, not merely to know about 
 these things, but to know Him better of whom they 
 speak. 
 
 * Psalm xxxri. 8.
 
 THE SIN-OFFEKING 
 
 LEVITICUS iv., AND v. 1-13. 
 
 WE now come to OFFERINGS NOT OF A SWEET SAVOUR. 
 Of this class are tlie Sin and Trespass-offerings ; the 
 object of which is to present Christ's Offering to us 
 in an aspect wholly distinct from those already dwelt 
 upon. Hitherto we have met no thought of Sin in 
 the offerings. The Burnt-offering, the Meat-offering, 
 and the Peace-offering, much as they differed, were 
 yet alike in this, that in each of them the offering 
 was the presentation of something which was sweet 
 to Jehovah, an oblation to satisfy His holy require- 
 ments, and in the acceptance of which He found grate- 
 ful satisfaction. But here, in the Sin and Trespass- 
 offerings, we read of Sin in connexion with the offering. 
 Here is confessed sin, judged sin, sin requiring sacri- 
 fice and blood-shedding; yet sin atoned for, blotted 
 out, and pardoned. 
 
 It might perhaps be thought that this view of the 
 Offering, as leading to the knowledge and discovery of 
 sin, might be less blessed, less full of joy and consola- 
 tion, than those views of the Offering on which we 
 have already meditated. Such might be the case,
 
 130 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 were we other than what we are, and were the Sin- 
 offering other than God has provided. Were we sin- 
 less beings who knew no sin, this view of the Offering 
 might not be needed by us, save as revealing the grace 
 of Him who, though the Holy One, could be "just and 
 yet a justifier." But to us, who, knowing ourselves 
 to be sinners, and as such subject to God's just wrath 
 and judgment, have yet believed in Him " who was 
 made a curse for us,"* this view of the Offering is 
 perhaps of all most comforting. The Sin-offering 
 shews that sin has been judged, and that therefore 
 the sense of sin, if we believe, need not shake our 
 sense of safety. Sin is indeed here pre-eminently 
 shewn to be exceeding sinful, exceeding hateful, ex- 
 ceeding evil before God : yet it is also shewn to have 
 been perfectly met by sacrifice, perfectly borne, per- 
 fectly judged, perfectly atoned for. 
 
 And the fact is, that the view of Christ as Sin- 
 offering is sooner apprehended than those prefigured 
 in the Burnt and Meat-offerings. Experience abund- 
 antly testifies this. As in the type the Sin-offerings, 
 though last in order of institution, were invariably the 
 first in order of application ; -j- so in the experience of 
 baints, Christ is first apprehended as the Sin-offering. 
 Long before there is any intelligence of all the details 
 of Christ's perfect work, as fulfilling all righteousness 
 
 - GaL iii. 13. 
 
 + See any chapter which describes the order in which the sacri- 
 fices were to be offered, as Exodus "' ; Leviticus viii. iz. xiv. and 
 2 Chron. uix, &c.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 131 
 
 as man. and being accepted of God as a sweet-smelling 
 savour, long before there is any thought of His offer- 
 ing as that wherein God takes delight and finds satis- 
 faction, the weak Christian sees Christ as Sin-bearer, 
 and His offering as a sacrifice for sin. And though, 
 as the type will shew us, this view may be very in- 
 distinct, confused, or partial, and though it may be 
 apprehended by different believers with an immense 
 difference as to the measure of discernment and intelli- 
 gence, yet in some form or other it is, I may say 
 invariably, the first view of Christ's Offering appre- 
 hended by the Christian. 
 
 I have observed that in the institution of the offer- 
 ings, as recorded in the commencement of Leviticus, 
 the sweet-savour offerings precede the others, but that 
 in the application of these offerings, the order is re- 
 versed. I will add here a word or two on this point, 
 as, if I mistake not, this, like all else, has a meaning 
 in it. The reason of it will, I think, commend itself, 
 when the characteristic difference of these offerings is 
 seen. The sweet-savour offerings are, as we know, 
 Christ in perfectness offering Himself for us to God 
 without sin : the others, on the contrary, as we shall 
 see, represent Him as offering Himself as our repre- 
 sentative for sin. The institution of these sacrifices 
 gives us certain aspects of the Offering, in the order 
 in which they are viewed by God : and in this view 
 Christ offering Himself without sin would clearly pre- 
 cede His offering Himself for sin. Had He not been 
 in Himself what the Burnt and Meat-offerings typify,
 
 132 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 a voluntary offerer of a sinless offering, He could not 
 have been offered for sin : the fact of His being perfect 
 fitted Him to be a Sin-offering. But the application 
 of the offerings, on the other hand, gives us the order 
 of Christ's work as viewed by Israel; and Israel's 
 view in this case, as in all others, begins where the 
 Offering meets Israel's sin and failure. For this 
 reason it is, I cannot doubt, that in their application 
 the Sin-offerings preceded the Burnt-offerings. 
 
 But to pass from this order to the Offerings them- 
 selves, the least degree of attention is sufficient to 
 shew, that the offerings which were not of a sweet 
 savour are of two sorts, first the Sin-offerings* and 
 then the Trespass-offerings.^: For a Christian rightly 
 to know the difference between these, shews that he 
 has learnt more than one lesson in God's school. And 
 indeed it is one mark, a mark not to be mistaken, 
 of the present low state of the mass of Christians, that 
 so many of them never seem to apprehend the differ- 
 ence which God sees between Sin and Trespass. I 
 assume here that there is a difference ; for with these 
 offerings before us, it is impossible to doubt it. One 
 thing at least is plain : God sees a difference : happy 
 the saint who sees with God. Happy, I say, for 
 though the knowledge of sin in itself can never be a 
 cause of joyfulness, yet to see and judge anything 
 as God Himself judges it is a step to blessedness, as 
 surely as it is a mark of communion with Him. Truly 
 it is for lack of knowledge on the particular now 
 
 * Chapters iv. and v. 1-13. t Chapter v. 14-19, vL 1-7.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 133 
 
 before us, that so many are mourning who should be 
 praising ; for they do not see that atonement has been 
 made and accepted for sin in them, as well as for 
 their acts of trespass. I defer, however, entering into 
 this subject, until we have more fully considered the 
 peculiar character of the Sin-offering. When we have 
 done this, and obtained, as I hope, a clearer appre- 
 hension of it, we shall be better able to discriminate 
 the distinction between Sin and Trespass and their 
 respective offerings. 
 
 I proceed, therefore, at once to the consideration of 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. We may look at it, first, in its 
 contrast to the other offerings; and then, in its several 
 varieties : the first will shew the particular aspect of 
 Christ's Offering which is prefigured in the type now 
 before us ; the second, the various measures of intelli- 
 gence with which this aspect may be apprehended by 
 Christians. 
 
 I. To note then, first, the Sin-offering IN CONTRAST 
 WITH THE OTHER OFFERINGS : three particulars will 
 give us all the outlines. (1.) First, it was, though ivith- 
 out blemish, not of a sweet savour. Then (2.) it was 
 burnt, not on the altar in the tabernacle, but on the 
 bare earth without the camp : in these two particulars 
 the Sin-offering w r as in contrast to the Burnt-offerino-. 
 
 o O 
 
 Lastly, (3.) it was an offering for sin, and this as dis- 
 tinct from an offering for trespass : in this, as I need 
 hardly observe, it stands contrasted particularly with 
 the Trespass-offering. 
 
 (1.) First, the Sin offering, ttioug/i without spot or
 
 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 blemish, was yet not a sweet savour offering. 9 I have 
 already dwelt more than once on what is implied in a 
 "sweet savour." I need not, therefore, here do more 
 than refer to it, to shew how Jesus, the spotless One, 
 could be " not a sweet savour." 
 
 The distinction is this : the sweet-savour offerings 
 were for acceptance ; the others for expiation. In the 
 first class, sin is not seen at all ; it is simply the faith- 
 ful Israelite satisfying Jehovah. In the Sin-offerings it 
 is just the reverse ; it is an offering charged with the 
 sin of the offerer. In the Burnt-offering and other 
 sweet-savour offerings, the offerer came as a worshipper, 
 to give in his offering, which represented himself, some- 
 thing sweet and pleasant to Jehovah. In the Sin and 
 Trespass-offerings, which were not of a sweet savour, 
 the offerer came as a convicted sinner, to receive in his 
 offering, which represented himself, the judgment due 
 to his sin or trespass. In the Sin-offerings, as in the 
 Burnt-offerings, Christ is Offerer : but here He is seen 
 standing for us under the imputation of sin. For 
 though in Himself without sin, " the Holy One," yet He 
 became our substitute, confessed our sins as His sins, 
 and bore their penalty. Thus taking up His people's 
 sins as His own, He says, " My sins, God, are not 
 hid from Thee."-f- " Innumerable evils have compassed 
 me about ; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me : 
 they are more than the hairs of my head ; therefore my 
 heart faileth me."J wondious mystery, the Holy 
 One of God made sin for sinners ! And unspeak- 
 
 * Chapter iv. t Psalm Ir'x. 5. * Psalm xL 12. 2 Cor. v. 21.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 135 
 
 able love, the Blessed One made a curse for cursed 
 ones !* 
 
 Such, then, is the import of the distinction between 
 what was, and what was not, of a sweet savour. In 
 the one case the offering was accepted to shew that the 
 offerer was accepted of the Lord ; and the total con- 
 sumption of the offering on the altar shewed God's 
 acceptance of, and satisfaction in, the offerer. In the 
 other case the offering was cast out, and burnt, not on 
 God's table, the altar, but in the wilderness without the 
 camp ; to shew that the offerer in his offering endures 
 the judgment of God, and is cast out of His presence 
 as accursed. In the one the offerer came to satisfy 
 God, and having in his offering stood the sifting trial 
 of fire, was accepted as a sweet savour, and fed upon, 
 if I may say so, by the Lord. In the other he came 
 as a guilty sinner, and in his offering bore the penalty 
 for sin. The one is, " He gave Himself for us, as an 
 offering to God of a sweet-smelling savour." ^ The 
 other, "He gave Himself for our sins:"]; "He was 
 made sin for us, who knew no sin." The Sin-offering 
 is the latter of these : not for acceptance, but to expiate 
 sin. 
 
 And yet the Sin-offering needed to be "without 
 blemish" \\ as 'much as the Burnt-offering: indeed in 
 no offering was perfectness more requisite. Again and 
 again it is repeated that nothing but an unblemished 
 victim could be a Sin-offering : H" one blemish, either 
 
 * GaL iii. 13. f E r k v. 2. J Gal. i. 4. 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 H Chapter iv. ?. IT Chapter iv. 3, 23, 28, 32, &o.
 
 136 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 within or without, was enough to unfit the offering to 
 bear the sin of others. So, because He was sinless, 
 Jesus could be a Sin-offering. Because He was perfect, 
 He could bear our sin. 
 
 It is well to meditate on this, the perfectness yet the 
 rejection of the victim in the Sin-offering, that we may 
 learn how alone sin can be borne, and how it has been 
 borne and pardoned. Had there been spot or blemish of 
 any sort on Jesus, His offering could not have met and 
 expiated sin. Had there been one desire in His heart 
 unholy, one r.ct, one word, one look, one thought im- 
 perfect, He could not have borne the curse for others : 
 He would Himself have needed atonement. But He 
 was tried by man, by God, by devils ; and the trial 
 only proved Him "the Holy One of God." And "yet 
 it pleased the Lord to bruise Him :"* though "the Holy 
 One," He was cast without the camp : the only spotless 
 offering this world ever witnessed, was yet not only 
 afflicted of man, but judged of God and smitten. 
 
 The spotless Jesus not a sweet savour ! the spotless 
 Jesus accursed of God ! cast forth, not merely without 
 the Tabernacle, but as unclean " without the camp ! " 
 " But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was 
 bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace 
 was upon Him ; and by His stripes we were healed." -f- 
 Here we may learn the measure of the love of Jesus, 
 and our secuiity as having been already judged in Him. 
 In His love He beheld, and saw us ruined, and that 
 fallen man could not bear the curse and live : " Then He 
 
 * Isaiah liii. 10. t Isaiah liii. 5.
 
 THE SIN-OFFEKING. 137 
 
 said, Lo, I come :" and He came, and was accursed for 
 sinners. As our representative He confessed our sins, 
 binding on Him that which would have sunk us in 
 wrath for ever : as our representative He bore their 
 curse ; and received at God's hand our judgment. And 
 because He has been judged for us, justice is satisfied ; 
 we who believe have already been judged in Him ; and 
 God now is "just to forgive us,"* for Christ has borne 
 our sins. "He His own self bare our sins in His own 
 body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live 
 unto righteousness :"( "For in that He died, He died 
 unto sin once ; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto 
 God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed 
 unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ oul 
 Lord." I 
 
 But I pass on to the next characteristic feature in 
 the Sin-offering, which has already been incidentally 
 alluded to. 
 
 (2.) The Sin-offering luas burnt without the Camp. 
 The other offerings were, without exception, burnt on 
 the altar in the Tabernacle. Here "the skin of the 
 bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his 
 legs, his inwards, &c., even the whole bullock shall he 
 carry without the camp, .... and burn him on the 
 wood with fire." || The import of this we have more 
 than once noticed in passing. It testified how com- 
 pletely the offering was identified with the sin it suffered 
 for ; so completely identified that it was itself looked 
 
 * 1 John i. 9. t 1 Pet. ii. 24. J Rom. vi. 10, 11. 
 
 Chap. iv. 12, 21. U Verses 11, 12. 
 
 K
 
 138 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 at as sin, and as such cast out of the camp into the 
 wilderness. A part indeed, " the fat,"* was bunit on 
 the altar, to shew that the offering, though made a sin- 
 bearer, was in itself perfect. But the body of the 
 victim, "even the whole bullock" was cast forth with- 
 out the camp. " Wherefore Jesus also, that He might 
 sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered with- 
 out the gate."-f- He was cast out as one who was unfit 
 for Jerusalem, as unworthy a place in the city of God. 
 
 And what this must have cost that Blessed One can 
 never be entered into or understood, till the holiness of 
 Christ and the sinfulness of sin are seen in measure at 
 least as God sees them. Who shall tell the secrets of 
 that hour, when this part of the type was fulfilled in 
 Jesus ; when He was led forth without the camp, to 
 bear the vengeance due to sinners? His own words 
 may perhaps help us to lift the veil : " My God ! my 
 God ! why hast Thou forsaken me ? " J As a man, and 
 He was perfect man, with all our feelings and affec- 
 tions, sin excepted, as a man He felt the approach of 
 death by painful, shameful, lingering suffering: but 
 the hiding of His Father's face, the consequence of 
 imputed sin; this was His anguish. Doubtless He 
 suffered being tempted; He suffered from reproach, 
 from the shame, the contempt, the spitting : doubtless 
 He felt the mockery of His foes, the flight of His dis- 
 ciples, with all their aggravating circumstances. How 
 He felt let the Psalms reveal. But it was not this 
 which made Him cry in anguish, " My God ! my God ! 
 
 Verse 8. f Heb. xiii. 12. J Matt xxviL 48.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 139 
 
 why hast Thou forsaken me ?" He had " suffered being 
 tempted ;"* He had "suffered, leaving us an example ;"} 
 but His greatest suffering was, "He suffered for sins."J 
 
 And herein was His anguish, that He who had 
 never known what it was to have a thought out of 
 communion with His Father, should for a season be 
 cast out of His presence, and endure the hiding of that 
 Father's face. In the Garden, looking forward to this 
 hour, with a will still longing for unbroken fellowship 
 with His God, He cried once and again, while great 
 drops of blood fell from Him, " If it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from me." But even here He says, 
 " Nevertheless not my will, not my will, but Thine, be 
 done." Yea, knowing what being forsaken of God 
 would involve, He comes to His Father and says, " Not 
 my will, but Thy will." He might, had He wished to 
 spare Himself, have escaped this. He might have 
 refused to drain the cup of trembling. But then how 
 would His Father have been glorified, how should we 
 have been redeemed to His praise? Therefore "He 
 suffered for sins," and "the Just One" died for the 
 unjust. He took our place that we may take His : 
 He was "cast out" that we might be "brought nigh"JJ 
 for ever. Blessed, blessed Lord, may we in the know- 
 ledge of Thy love learn to love Thee better ! 
 
 What consolation is there here for the. mourner 
 groaning under the sense of sin or strong temptation ; 
 to know Jesus, though sinless, has suffered for sins, 
 
 * Heb. ii. 18. i I Pet. ii 21. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 Luke xxii. 42. U Epb. ii. 13.
 
 140 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 and therefore He can, and assuredly will, sympathize 
 with us. And oh! what security, too, is here: our 
 sins have a Sin-bearer ; they were once His burden. 
 It is unbelief, or ignorance of the Sin-bearer, that 
 leaves the sense of the burden but for a moment upon 
 us. Faith sees the Sin-offering "without the camp," 
 and that Jesus there has met, and suffered for sins 
 for us. 
 
 (3.) The third peculiarity we may note in the Sin- 
 offering is, that it was an offering for sin, not an 
 offering for trespass* This distinction, like all the 
 rest which God has recorded, is full of instruction and 
 of comfort to our souls. It is as definite, too, as any 
 of the other differences which we have dwelt upon. 
 The want of apprehension respecting it only arises 
 from our so little knowing either what man is, or what 
 God is. With our shortsightedness, our inability to 
 see beyond the surface, we naturally look at what man 
 does rather than at what he is; and while we are 
 willing to allow that he does evil, we perhaps scarcely 
 think that he is evil But God judges what we are as 
 well as what we do ; our sin, the sin in us, as much 
 as our trespasses. In His sight sin in us, our evil 
 nature, is as clearly seen as our trespasses, which are 
 but the fruit of that nature. He needs not wait to see 
 the fruit put forth. He knows the root is evil, and so 
 will be the buddings. 
 
 Now the distinction between the Sin and Trespass- 
 
 * Chapter iv. 3, 21, 24, 33, compared with chapter v. 13, 19, and 
 Ti.2.6.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 141 
 
 offerings is just this : the one is for sin in our nature, 
 the other for the fruits of it. And a careful examina- 
 tion of the particulars of the offerings is all that is 
 needed to make this manifest. Thus in the Sin-offering 
 TIO particular act of sin is mentioned, "but a certain 
 person is seen standing confessedly as a sinner : in the 
 Trespass-offering certain acts are enumerated, and the 
 person never appears. In the Sin-offering I see a per- 
 son who needs atonement, offering an oblation for him- 
 self as a sinner : in the Trespass- offering I see certain 
 acts which need atonement, and the offering offered for 
 these particular offences. The details of the offerings, 
 as we examine them, will bring all this before us most 
 remarkably. Of course, in the Sin-offering, though the 
 man is seen rather than his acts, proof must needs be 
 brought that he is a sinner. But let it be noticed that 
 this is done, not by the enumeration of certain tres- 
 passes, but simply by a reference to the law ; which, 
 though no particular transgression is mentioned, is said 
 to have been neglected or broken.* Be it noticed, no 
 particular act is mentioned, though of course it is by 
 particular acts that sin in us is shewn ; but the parti- 
 cular acts are not seen in the Sin-offering, for the ob- 
 ject is to shew sin, not trespass. And therefore, though 
 it was needful to shew sin, and in doing so to refer to 
 the commandment as exposing it, yet any definite act 
 of trespass is not seen here : for it is " an offering for 
 sin," not an offering for trespass. In the Trespass- 
 offering, on the other hand, it is exactly the reverse. 
 
 * Chapter iv. 2, 13, 14, 22, 27, &c.
 
 1 42 TEE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 We have nothing but one detail after another of parti- 
 cular wrongs and offences ; the first class being of 
 wrongs done against God, the other of wrongs against 
 our neighbour. 
 
 And here, by the way, let me call attention to a point 
 incidentally brought before us respecting the Sin-offering, 
 namely, that the sin was brought out " by the command- 
 ment," as it is said, " If he shall sin through ignorance 
 against any of the commandments." * We get here, I 
 think, the reason why before the law there were neither 
 Sin nor Trespass-offerings. We read indeed of Burnt- 
 offerings and Meat-offerings being offered by many of the 
 early patriarchs ; but they are never recorded to have 
 offered Sin-offerings, for " where there is no law there 
 is no transgression."*!- " By the law," says the Apostle, 
 " is the knowledge of sin," and again, " Sin is not im- 
 puted where there is no law." J It was the law which 
 convicted man of sin, and made it necessary that he 
 should have a Sin-offering. " The law entered that the 
 offence might abound ; but where sin abounded grace 
 
 * Verse 2, &c. 
 
 + Rom. iv. 15. I observe that in Job (chap. i. 5.) we find the Burnt- 
 offering offered in reference to sin. We read that " Job rose up early 
 in the morning, and offered Burnt-offerings according to the number 
 of them all : for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and 
 cursed God in their hearts." This was before the law was given ; 
 BO Job says, " It may be that my sons have sinned." Had they sinned 
 after the giving of the law, a Sin or Trespass-offering would have 
 been needed ; but before the law the Burnt-offering was all which 
 could be given-: and aa it represented all God's claim fulfilled, no- 
 thing more in such an age could be added to it 
 
 I Rom. iii. 20, and v. 13.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 143 
 
 did much more abound."* The law entered, and it 
 proved man a sinner, and that to make his flesh other 
 than sinful flesh was impossible. But grace has done 
 what law could not do ; grace brought One " in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin/'-f- to save us. The 
 truth is, the law given by Moses was given neither to 
 make nor prove man holy; but rather to prove us, what 
 God ever since the fall has seen us, in ourselves sinners 
 and only sinners. Yet how has Satan beguiled man 
 here also : he would have us to prove ourselves holy by 
 that which God gave to prove us sinners. 
 
 But to return to the distinction between the Sin and 
 Trespass-offering : the one was for sin in our nature, 
 the other for the fruits of it. In the Sin-offering, the 
 atonement is seen not for trespasses the fruits of sin, 
 but for sin itself within us. I would that all God's 
 children saw this. Sure I am, and the type proves it, 
 that many know the Trespass-offering who have but 
 very imperfect views of Christ as Sin-offering. I do 
 not now speak of the unconverted : with them acts of 
 trespass are the only things discernible : sin in them is 
 generally utterly disbelieved ; at all events its guilt is 
 always unfelt, unrecognized. With the young Christian, 
 too, but just awakened, how much less perception is 
 there of sin than trespass : he has done this evil, or 
 that evil, or the other ; he scarcely has learnt as yet that 
 in himself he is evil. But look at the man who has 
 somewhat grown in grace ; not only what he has done, 
 but what he is, is his sorrow. With such it is not so 
 
 * Rom. v. 20. t Rom. viiL 3.
 
 144 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 much this or that act of trespass, which leaves the 
 question of guilt on the conscience : but it is the con- 
 stant sense of indwelling evil, and that "when we 
 would do good, evil is present with us." This or that 
 particular act of iniquity we have confessed, it is past, 
 and we believe it pardoned : but this ever-remaining, 
 ever-struggling sin within us, it is this more than ought 
 else that burdens us. True, " the Spirit in our hearts 
 cries Abba, Father," and "the Spirit in us lusteth 
 against the flesh ; " but we find that all this instead of 
 improving the flesh only manifests it, and shews how 
 it "lusteth against the Spirit."* To those who are 
 thus painfully learning what they are, what joy to know 
 Christ died for this as well as for trespasses ; and that 
 this indwelling sin, as much as our acts of wickedness, 
 was equally confessed and put away by His sacrifice. 
 Nay, had we not been suffering under this very evil, 
 had we been without this sin, He would not have 
 offered a Sin-offering. It was because we were this 
 that He offered ; and because He offered, we who trust 
 Him are saved. 
 
 Oh, how little is this apprehended, and, consequently, 
 how little peace is there among saints ! Many seem to 
 think that the Spirit's work in revealing to them their 
 sinfulness,^ should be an excuse for unbelief and doubt- 
 ings ; that because God in His mercy has shewn them 
 what they are, sinners, therefore they are not safe. To 
 such I say, Are we saved by Christ as sinners, or are 
 we saved by being sinless and holy ? God's testimony 
 
 * Gal v. 17. t " He shall convince of sin," &c., John xvi 8.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 145 
 
 is that we are saved as sinners, not by the Spirit's work 
 in us, but by Christ's work for us. The Lord grant us 
 to know more of the Spirit's work in us ; but after all, 
 this is not the ground of peace. The type is clear on 
 this : and if it shews anything, it shews that the dis- 
 covery of sin should not shake the believer's faith of 
 pardon ; for faith sees not only that we have sinned, 
 but that the " Holy One " has been made sin for us. 
 To doubt our pardon because we see our sin is just 
 weakness of faith in the Offering : it proves how low is 
 our estimate of Christ, how limited our confidence in 
 God's love and faithfulness. 
 
 Do I then speak lightly of sin ? God forbid ! If we 
 want to know how hateful it is, we have but to look 
 at the Sin-offering ; to see the Holy One of God, His 
 beloved Son, for sin cast out and broken. Our sin is 
 indeed hateful to God, but it does not alter the value 
 of Christ's Offering. Our sin indeed is most hateful ; 
 but I ask still, has not the Sin-offering been offered? 
 If it has not, then we may mourn for ever, for we can 
 never blot out one single trespass. But if it has been 
 offered, what are all our doubts but aspersions on the 
 value of Christ's Offering? Whatever plea we have 
 for them, be it humility, or fear of presumption, or 
 the amount and evil of our sinfulness, God judges 
 such pleas for doubt as unbelief, and as a questioning 
 of what He testifies of Jesus. God indeed never forgets 
 we are sinners : we may forget it, He never can : but 
 He never forgets the Offering of Christ, and that by 
 that Offering the Church's sins are cancelled. And the
 
 146 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 blood of the Sin-offering which is taken within the veil, 
 by the High Priest on the great day of atonement, 
 remains there where none can approach to hide it, ever 
 present before the eye of God. And even when through 
 the uncleanness of the camp or the wilderness we seem 
 to lose sight of it, it remains there before Him a 
 witness that sin has been judged, and that the way is 
 open for sinners into the holiest. 
 
 "He by Himself purged our sins."* Yea, He sat 
 not down again in glory till He had purged them. 
 What certainty of salvation is there here for those who 
 trust in Jesus? It is no future work, no promised 
 work, no work to be yet accomplished, but a finished 
 work which is our sure foundation. "He bore our 
 sins:" this is God's testimony: and having borne 
 them "He was raised because we were justified." -f- 
 Had we not been justified, Christ could not have been 
 raised. His resurrection, and ours in Him, is the 
 proof that we are justified. If sin has not been already 
 borne, how shall it be borne ? Is Christ to die again, 
 is He to be again a Sin-offering ? " Christ was ONCE 
 offered to bear the sins of many," J and " now there re- 
 maineth no more sacrifice for sin." If therefore He 
 has not borne our sins, He can never bear them. If He 
 has borne them, why have we not peace ? If we think 
 
 * Heb. i. 3. 
 
 + Rom. iv. 25. " He was delivered, irap(t>60i) 5ta ra jraparrTco/inra 
 
 , because of our sins; and raised, rjytpQr) 8ia rr\v 
 
 f, because of our justification." 
 
 Heb. ix. 28. Heb. x. 18, 26.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 147 
 
 that the Sin-offering once offered on Calvary has not 
 met all sin and every trespass, whatsoever remains, be 
 it small or great, can never be propitiated, never par- 
 doned. But Jesus for His people bore not some sins, 
 but all sins : and " by Him all that believe are justified 
 from all things."* "He hath forgiven us all tres- 
 passes."^ The Cross has cancelled all. May the Lord 
 more fully reveal these things to His chosen ones, that 
 their rejoicing may be, not Yea and Nay, but Yea and 
 Amen. 
 
 Such is the general character of the Sin-offering, as 
 elicited by comparing the particulars in which it stands 
 in contrast to the other Offerings. We now proceed to 
 consider, 
 
 II. THE VARIETIES IN THIS OFFERING, which shew 
 
 the different apprehensions which may be entertained 
 of this particular aspect of Christ's sacrifice. 
 
 And here there is very great variety, far exceeding 
 what we find in any of the preceding offerings. In the 
 Sin-offering there is not only variety seen in the animal 
 offered, and in the details which are given as to the 
 mode of offering it; but a good deal of variety is 
 noticed as to the person of the offerer, a peculiarity not 
 to be found in any of the other offerings. Besides 
 these varieties, there are several other minor ones, in 
 reference to the blood, the fat, the body, and lastly the 
 name, of the offering. Each of these varieties as they 
 are recorded by the Lord, so will they be found worthy 
 of our attentive meditation. I shall do little more here 
 
 * Acts xiiL 39. t Col. ii. 13.
 
 148 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 than mark some of the chief outlines, ami may the 
 Lord make His people to profit by them. 
 
 (1.) The first variety, then, which is seen in the Sin- 
 offering is the difference in the animal offered. In the 
 Burnt-offering we observed a similar variety ; the pur- 
 port of which is, of course, the same in both cases. 
 There is, however, far greater variety in the different 
 grades of the Sin-offering than in the Burnt-offering ; 
 thus teaching us that Christ's offering for sin may be 
 apprehended with far greater measures of difference 
 than Christ as Burnt-offering. In the Burnt-offering, 
 the offering though varied was limited, either to a 
 bullock, a lamb, a goat, or turtle-doves* Here in the 
 Sin-offering we have several other grades,^ coming 
 down at last to a sin-offering composed of simple 
 "flour." The last grade is this : " And if he be not 
 able to bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons ; 
 then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the 
 tenth part of an ephah of tine flour for a sin-offering : 
 he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any 
 frankincense thereon ; for it is a sin-offering." 
 
 We have already considered the import of these 
 varied emblems ; I need not therefore do more than 
 just advert to them. Suffice it to say that here, as in 
 the Burnt-offerings, they shew us the different cha- 
 racters under which the Offering of Christ may be 
 apprehended by us. In the Sin-offering as in the 
 
 * See chapter i. 
 
 t " A male kid," chapter iv. 23 : "a female kid," iv. 28 : " 
 female lamb," iv. 32 : ending at last with " flour/' v. 11.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 149 
 
 Burnt-offering, one saint has one view, another another 
 view respecting the character of the offering. One 
 sees the willing labour, another the submission, another 
 the innocence, of the Offering which is yielded to 
 Jehovah. But in the Sin-offering we have still lower 
 views, the lowest of which is, as we have observed, 
 very like a Meat-offering. The solution is easy. As 
 in the preceding offerings we found, without exception, 
 that there was an indistinctness, almost like confusion, 
 in the lower views, a mixing up of one aspect with 
 another, while the distinct thought of each was more 
 or less lost sight of ; so is it here : in its lowest grade, 
 (the one we are considering,) the Sin-offering is seen 
 very nearly as a Meat-offering. The thought is almost 
 that of the Meat-offering, yet it is seen as offered for 
 sin : this is distinctly noticed : though " of flour," " it 
 is a Sin-offering." * 
 
 How exactly this peculiarity in the type describes 
 the way in which some apprehend the Offering, will be 
 best understood by those who, going from strength to 
 strength, have learnt how partially Christ may be ap- 
 prehended, even by those who love Him. Some see the 
 pain and sorrow Christ had in service, the grinding, 
 the bruising, the scorching, of the Meat-offering : and 
 they think that this was His sin-bearing : they cannot 
 distinguish between the trials of service and the curse. 
 They see indeed a life of suffering, but they do not see 
 One accursed for them. Nevertheless, they see a suffer- 
 ing One offered, and though they lose many points in 
 
 * Chapter v. 11.
 
 150 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 His Offering, they still see it as offered for sin. Yet 
 how much is lost, in such partial views, of the design 
 and character of the work of Jesus, 
 
 (2.) The next variety we may notice is in the person 
 offering: we have the priest, the congregation, the 
 ruler, and the common Israelite. First in order we 
 have the Sin-offering for the priest;* then the Sin- 
 offering for the whole congregation;^ then the Sin- 
 offering for a ruler ;J then for one of the common 
 people ; and lastly, the Sin-offering for particular 
 sin-s;\\ in which last the person of the offerer is lost 
 sight of, and the particular act for which he offers 
 more clearly seen. This last is very nearly akin to the 
 Trespass-offering, and is indeed called indifferently by 
 both names of Sin and Trespass. 1 In this last class, 
 as in the lowest classes of the other offerings, we get 
 the lowest view which can be taken of this particular 
 aspect of the Offering. 
 
 But what is the import of this variety in the per- 
 son offering ? We have only to remember what these 
 varieties are. They are, as we have sufficiently seen, 
 only different measures of apprehension. In the Burnt- 
 offering, the Meat-offering, and the Peace-offering, 
 we have already become familiar with the varieties 
 in the Offering, and have seen that they represent the 
 different apprehensions which may be, and are, formed 
 of its value and character. So in the Sin-offering, the 
 
 * Chapter iv. 3-12. f Chapter iv. 13-21. 
 
 J Chapter iv. 22-26. Chapter iv. 27-35. 
 
 | Chapter v. 1-13. U Chapter v. 6-9.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 151 
 
 varieties which are noted of Hie Offerer, in like manner 
 represent the different apprehensions which are formed 
 of the person who offered. Of course the Offerer here, 
 as elsewhere, is Christ, man under the law, our repre- 
 sentative. As such He is here seen confessing sin ; but 
 though seen as Offerer in this aspect, He may yet be 
 seen very differently. For example, in the first case 
 the offerer is apprehended as " priest," a person who 
 stands the representative of a family or congregation. 
 In other cases the offerer is seen as " one of the common 
 people," one who stands simply the representative of 
 an individual. In the lowest cases of all, the person 
 of the offerer is altogether lost sight of, neither indivi- 
 dual nor congregation are seen, and the sin for which 
 he suffers is almost the only thing apprehended. 
 
 But let us note here a little more particularly, the 
 3xact difference which is intended by these separate 
 views of the Offerer ; and that we may see the contrast 
 more clearly, let us for a moment set side by side the 
 higher and lower grades of the Sin-offering. 
 
 In the first class the offerer is the " anointed priest ; " 
 in the next, " the whole congregation ; " in a lower 
 grade, (how great the contrast,) the offerer is " one of 
 the common people." The " anointed priest," and " the 
 whole congregation," are types familiar to the youngest 
 Christian. "The anointed priest," as head of the 
 priestly family, and the appointed mediator between 
 God and man, stands the type of Jesus as head of a 
 priestly family, and also as mediator to God's chosen 
 Church. In this class, Christ, as Offerer of the Sin-
 
 152 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 offering, is seen either as Head of the Church, or as its 
 appointed Mediator. His Offering is apprehended, not 
 merely as the atonement for this or that individual, 
 but as affecting a whole family or people. In the next 
 class, " the congregation " offer. This congregation 
 represents the Church. Here we lose sight of the 
 priest as under the guilt of s:n with Israel ; but with 
 this exception, the congregation's offering is almost 
 identical with the preceding one. But the point to be 
 especially noted in both these cases, and where they 
 differ so remarkably from the others, is that the sin, 
 and atonement made, is seen, not as affecting an indi- 
 vidual merely, but the whole of Israel. Now, mark 
 the contrast. In the lower classes the offerer is a 
 private individual, " one of the common people : " and 
 his sin, and the atonement made for it, is seen as affect- 
 ing only himself. Those saints who have the highest 
 views of the Sin-offering, see it as affecting not them- 
 selves merely, but the Priest and Israel Those with 
 lower views only see it for themselves: the High 
 Priest's or Israel's interest in it is unseen and for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Here then is the difference. The apprehension some 
 have of Christ as Offerer of the Sin-offering is One 
 who in His own person represented the whole Church ; 
 the Church being seen either as the family of the 
 Priest, or as the whole congregation of Israel Others 
 again see Him as head of a tribe, "the ruler;" in 
 this case the unity of the Church is lost sight of. 
 Others, far more numerous, never see anything of this ;
 
 THE SIN-OFFEE1NG. 153 
 
 Christ as Offerer of the Sin-offering is viewed as having 
 stood for them individually. Others again, lower still 
 in the scale of intelligence, see only that He stood for 
 sin. These stages in the apprehension and experience 
 of Christians, will be familiar to those who know much 
 of that experience. 
 
 Such is the variety respecting the person of the 
 Offerer, and such too, if I mistake not, the purport of 
 it. We have only glanced at the outlines, but the 
 details are equally full of interest ; requiring indeed a 
 certain measure of intelligence to apprehend them, yet 
 if apprehended, precious to our souls. And just as 
 every difference of the Offering, the difference, I mean, 
 whether it was a bullock, a lamb, or turtle-dove, all 
 brought before us some feature of Christ's work or 
 character, in which both God and His saints saw per- 
 fectness ; so here, in each of these varieties in the 
 Offerer, there is some fresh thought or view of Christ's 
 person for us to glory in. I will not, however, enter 
 further into the consideration of them, not from a 
 doubt of their value, but from a sense of the length to 
 which they would carry me. I only pray that we may 
 be led to feel our need of knowing more of Him of 
 whom these things testify. 
 
 (3.) A third variety in the Sin-offering has reference 
 to " the blood." In the higher classes the blood was 
 sprinkled on the incense altar ;* in the lower classes 
 it was not taken into the holy place, but sprinkled 
 upon the brazen altar in the court.] I fear it will be 
 * Chapter iv. 7, 18. f Chapter iv. 25, 30, 34.
 
 154 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 impossible to make this intelligible to those who have 
 never considered the typical import of the relative 
 parts of the Tabernacle. Two things, at least, must 
 be apprehended ; first, the import of these altars, and 
 then of their sprinkling. 
 
 As to the altars, they were, the one of gold, the 
 other brazen. The brazen one stood in the outer court 
 of the congregation. The othe^ the golden one, in the 
 holy place, where none but the priests might enter. 
 The "outer court," with its brazen altar and laver, 
 represents the earth and the work which is done in it 
 to God-ward. The " holy place," with the golden altar 
 for incense, shews us the heavenly places and their 
 appointed service. On the brazen altar were offered 
 the sacrifices of Israel. Any Israelite, if clean, might 
 draw nigh and offer there.* But priests only might 
 approach the golden altar, and nothing come on it save 
 the perfumed incense. [ The position and use of these 
 altars, and the references to them in the New Testa- 
 men t,l unite to point out their typical meaning; the 
 one leading us to the service of the Church as on 
 earth, the other to their service as priests in heavenly 
 places. 
 
 Thus much for the altars. As to the sprinkling of 
 blood, I need scarcely say it always refers to atone- 
 ment by sacrifice : it signifies that the thing or person 
 sprinkled is thereby brought from a state of distance 
 from God to a state of nearness. The sprinkling, 
 
 * Exodus xxix. 86-43. f Eiodaa xxx. 1-10. 
 
 J Heb. xiii. 10, 16; Rev. viii. 3, 4, Ac.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 155 
 
 then, of blood upon the incense altar implied that until 
 this act was performed the altar was unapproachable ; 
 and consequently, that all priestly service, and there- 
 fore all service of all kinds, was stopped between God 
 and Israel. In like manner the sprinkling of blood on 
 the brazen altar implied that till this was done, that 
 altar too was regarded as unapproachable. In each 
 case sin is apprehended to have interrupted communion ; 
 in the one, the communion of priests ; in the other, 
 that of Israel ; while the sprinkling of blood declares 
 that communion restored through the Sin-offering, on 
 the incense altar to the priests, on the brazen altar to 
 Israel. 
 
 The import of the distinction we are considering 
 will now, I suppose, be sufficiently plain. In the 
 higher classes, where it is observed that the incense 
 altar needs sprinkling, the consequences of sin are seen 
 to be far more extensive than in the other case ; for 
 the interruption of communion is apprehended, not of 
 individuals on earth merely, but of the priests in their 
 access to God as in heavenly places. In the lower 
 classes, for instance, in the case of " one of the common 
 people," it is not seen that sin has destroyed the com- 
 munion of the congregation : it is not observed how 
 the priest and Israel are implicated in it : the thought 
 is rather about self. In a word, in the lower classes 
 both the full effects, and the full remedy of sin, are 
 known but partially. Need of personal acceptance and 
 reconciliation is indeed seen, and that acceptance and 
 reconciliation apprehended ; but that the whole congre-
 
 156 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 gation needs reconciliation, and tlrat it has it, is un- 
 known, or at least forgotten. Thus is the sense of the 
 extent of the evil caused by sin exactly in proportion 
 to the depth of apprehension respecting the extent of 
 the reconciliation effected by the Sin-offering. He 
 only that saw the Priest's altar hallowed for service by 
 the blood of the Sin-offering, saw also that the com- 
 munion of that altar had ever been hindered by sin. 
 It is so on all points. The deeper the apprehension of 
 the efficacy of the blood, the deeper will be the sense 
 of that from which it delivers us. 
 
 But the difference in the apprehension of this 
 particular goes even further. In the fifth chapter, 
 which gives the lowest grades of the Sin-offering, 
 there is no notice whatever taken of either altar* 
 All that is apprehended is, that an atonement has 
 been made by the Priest ; the altars, and their re- 
 storation to service, are forgotten. This, alas ! is the 
 common case with many now-a-days. An atonement 
 has been made for sin ; thus much they see, and they 
 are thankful for it. But as for any intelligent appre- 
 hension of the different altars, or how far their use is 
 hindered by sin and restored by the Sin-offering, they 
 not only know nothing about it, but judge such 
 matters non-essential, unnecessary. The same spirit 
 
 * Chapter v. 6. " And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto 
 the Lord, for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, 
 a lamb, or a kid of the goats, for a sin-offering ; and the priest shall 
 make an atonement for him concerning his sin." It will be observed 
 that here there is no notice of either altar.
 
 THE SIN-OFFEKING. 157 
 
 which makes the fool say, " There is no God," tempts 
 even Christians to say there is nought in much He 
 wrought for us. 
 
 (4.) A fourth variety noticed in the Sin-offering has 
 reference to "the fat." In the Jiigker grades the fat 
 was burnt upon the altar:* in the lowest class -f- this 
 is overlooked : what was done with the fat is entirely 
 unnoticed. As usual between the highest and lowest 
 class, we have several steps of more or less intelligence. 
 In the first grade not only is it seen that the fat is 
 burnt, but there is the fullest discrimination of every 
 portion of it. J In the subsequent grades too, indeed in 
 all save the lowest, the fat is burnt, but the parts are 
 not discriminated. In the last grade alone of all, " the 
 fat " of the offering is quite unnoticed. " The fat," as 
 we have already seen in the other offerings, represents 
 the general health and energy of the whole body. Its 
 being burnt to God was the appointed proof that the 
 victim offered for sin was yet in itself acceptable. This 
 acceptability is most seen in the higher classes, but it is 
 apprehended also in all save the lowest grade. There 
 the atonement made for sin is indeed apprehended, but 
 the perfect acceptableness of the victim is unnoticed. 
 So with some Christians, is not their thought respecting 
 
 * Chapter iv. 8, 9, 10, 19, 26, 31, 35. f Chapter v. 6. 
 
 J Chapter iv. 8, 10. We read here of "the fat that covereth the 
 inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the fat that is 
 upon the kidneys," &c. &c. In no other grade do we find this 
 detail. 
 
 See in the Burnt-offerirg, p. 55.
 
 ] 58 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 the Sin-offering more of our pardon than of Christ's 
 perfectness ? 
 
 (5.) Another variety we may observe in the Sin- 
 offering has reference to " the body " of the victim. In 
 the higher grades it is cast ivithout the camp:* in 
 the lower this is unnoticed : but in the law of the offer- 
 ings-^ another particular is marked : the priest is seen 
 to feed on the offering. The import of this distinction 
 is at once obvious. Where the Sin-offering is fully 
 apprehended, the victim, which is the sin-bearer, is seen 
 accursed, and as such cast out as unclean into the 
 wilderness. Where the Sin-offering is more partially 
 apprehended, the victim is still seen as sin-bearer, but 
 the reality of its separation from God is lost sight of, 
 and its death viewed merely as satisfying the Mediator. 
 
 And here let me observe how amidst all this variety 
 of detail, there is still throughout one point of remark- 
 able similarity in principle. It is this. In the lower 
 classes, that is where there is a lower measure of in- 
 telligence, the view of the nature of the Offering is 
 invariably exchanged for a view of the effects of it : in 
 other words, the Offering is seen as it affects Israel, 
 rather than as it is in itself, in its real character. Thus 
 the burning of the fat, shewing the perfectness of the 
 victim offered ; and the casting forth of its body, shew- 
 ing the nature of the judgment borne by it ; these and 
 similar details respecting the sacrifice itself, are lost 
 sight of in the lower classes ; while the effects of it, a? 
 making atonement, are perhaps even more fully dwelt 
 
 * Chapter iv. 12, 21. t Chapter vi. 25-30.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 159 
 
 upon. And'iiow exactly this accords with the successive 
 stages of Christian experience, will be sufficiently under- 
 stood by those who know much either of themselves or 
 others. At first Christ's work, or person, or offering, 
 is viewed with interest solely on account of what it is to 
 us. Nothing respecting it is regarded as worthy of 
 notice save its bearing upon us, or efficacy towards us. 
 It has taken away our sins ; it has made atonement ; 
 this is the one thing, and almost the sole thing, seen 
 respecting it. Anything further than this at such a 
 stage would appear a grand impertinence. But Let the 
 question of peace with God be settled, let our acceptance 
 become a thing known and realized, then the perfect- 
 ness of the Offering, and what it is in itself, will, with- 
 out exception, be more seen and dwelt upon. 
 
 (6.) The last variety I will here notice in the different 
 grades of the Sin-offering, is connected with the name 
 by which the offering is variously designated. In the 
 higher classes it is always called a "Sin-offering"* 
 and no particular act of trespass is noticed ; in the 
 lower classes it is called a " Trespass-coffering " as 
 well as a "Sin-offering,"-^ and the person of the 
 offerer is lost sight of in the particular trespass. So 
 when the measure of apprehension is limited, there 
 will be want of intelligence respecting the precise 
 difference of sin and trespass ; nor this alone ; the 
 Offering will be seen only /or sins ; that it is offered 
 for persons will not be apprehended. 
 
 But the expressions here used respectively, in reference 
 * Chapter iv. 8, 21, 21, 29. t Chapter v. 6, 7.
 
 T60 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 to the effects of each different grade of the Sin-offering, 
 are so remarkably varied in reference to this particular, 
 that we cannot but notice the differences. In the 
 higher class, in "the congregation's offering,"* we 
 simply read, " The priest shall make atonement for 
 them." In the case of "the ruler," -f- we find this 
 slight variety, " The priest shall make atonement for 
 him for his sin." In the case of "one of the common 
 people," J we find still further difference, " The priest 
 shall make an atonement for his sin which he hath 
 committed." Observe, in the first of these the atone- 
 ment is seen for persons ; " The priest shall make 
 atonement for them." Of course the atonement here 
 is in consequence of sin, but the persons rather than 
 the sin are specially thought of. In the next class, the 
 atonement is regarded as for the sin of the persons, 
 rather than for the persons ; though both persons and 
 sins are seen atoned for : as it says, " The priest shall 
 make atonement for him for his sin." In the lowest 
 class, "of the common people," the atonement for 
 persons is quite lost sight of ; " the sin which he hath 
 committed " is the chief thing dwelt upon. 
 
 How much is there "for our learning" in these 
 varieties ; how clearly they teach us the cause of the 
 difference in the views of saints respecting the Atone- 
 ment There are some believers who see atonement for 
 sin, but almost deny that atonement has been made for 
 persons. They see Christ gave Himself "for sins," 
 but hardly think He stood for persons. In word 
 
 Verse 20. t Verse 26. Verse 35. 1 Pet iii. 18.
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 161 
 
 perhaps they assent to the Apostle, who said, "He 
 loved me, and gave Himself for me;"* but the full 
 reality and force of his words are scarcely assented to ; 
 they need to be explained away. And as long as there 
 are different measures of intelligence, so long will such 
 difference of views be inevitable ; for though the truth 
 is but one, yet while "we know in part," that one 
 truth may and will be seen variously or partially. 
 
 Such are some of the Varieties in the Sin-offering. 
 There are others to be seen, but I have noticed the 
 chief. They shew us how very different is the measure 
 of apprehension with which Christ as Sin-bearer may 
 be seen by Christians. They shew us, too, how much 
 of Christ, and therefore of joy, is lost sight of, by those 
 who are content to continue in comparative ignorance 
 of the Offering. I .shall rejoice if these Notes should 
 be used of God to lead but one of His people to seek 
 more communion with Him, there to inquire whether 
 these things are so, in deeper acquaintance with Him 
 of whom they speak. Need I add here that it is one 
 thing to know Him ; another to know about Him. It 
 is possible that some, who read these pages, may at 
 once confess that such and such things are to be seen 
 of Christ, who yet may have never seen, and even do 
 not care to see, one of them. To know that another 
 has seen the Prince, and know Him in His different 
 relations, or that He may be so seen by those who 
 dwell with Him, is very different from our knowing 
 Him ourselves. It is just so with the knowledge of 
 * GaL ii. 20.
 
 162 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Jesus. Strangers to His family and household may 
 hear about Him ; but to know Him, as He is, must be 
 taught of God, and is only to be learnt in His presence 
 by His family. 
 
 We have thus gone through the particulars of the 
 Sin-offering, as far at least as they are given in the Law 
 of the Offerings. In other places there are some other 
 details added, the principles of which are, however, all 
 contained in what we have investigated. The additions 
 only give us some new combinations as to the character 
 under which the Sin-offering may be exhibited : I refer 
 to the Offerings of the Red Heifer* and of the Scape- 
 goat on the great day of Atonement. -f- The offering of 
 the Red Heifer, as we might expect from its being 
 found in Numbers, exhibits not so much what the offer- 
 ing is in itself, as its use in meeting the wants of the 
 wilderness. Thus no memorial of it was burnt on the 
 altar, nor was the blood seen to be taken into the 
 Tabernacle ; but the whole animal was burnt without 
 the camp, and its ashes laid up to be mixed with the 
 water of purification. Then when an Israelite found 
 himself unclean, through contact with the dead, these 
 ashes with water were sprinkled on him. All this is 
 the Sin-offering as meeting our need of cleansing, and 
 as given to remove the defilement caused by the dead 
 things of the wilderness. The view presented by it has 
 to do with the effects of the offering, and its use towards 
 man as applied by water, that is the Spirit. In the 
 Scape-goat, offered on the great day of atonement, the 
 
 * Numbers xix. t Leviticus ivi.
 
 THE SIN-OFFEFJNG. 163 
 
 view presented is very different. In this Sin-offering, 
 which was offered but once a year, the blood was seen 
 to be put on the mercy -seat. The offering it spoke of 
 is shewn by Paul to have been " once for ever," and 
 " access into the holiest " the consequence of it.* But 
 I forbear going further into these particulars, as we 
 have already sufficiently seen their principles. He that 
 has apprehended what we have gone over will see more. 
 For others, any further detail would be unintelligible. 
 
 Such is the Sin-offering, -and such some of the appre- 
 hensions of it. Blessed be God that we have such an 
 Offering. " He hath made Him to be sin for us who 
 knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in Him." 
 
 * Heb.2.1,22.
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING 
 
 LEVITICUS v. 14-19, and vl 1-7. 
 
 WE now come to the TRESPASS-OFFERING. Closely 
 allied in its broad principle to the Sin-offering, in cer- 
 tain particulars it as decidedly differs from it. These 
 particulars, though few in number, are broadly marked, 
 and full of teaching. The apprehension of them will 
 bring out very definitely that distinct aspect of Christ 
 which the Trespass-offering is designed to present to 
 us. 
 
 I proceed at once, as before, to consider this Offer- 
 ing, first, in its distinctive character, and then in its 
 varieties : the first will give us the distinct aspect of 
 Christ which is intended by this particular offering : 
 the second shew the various apprehensions which may 
 be formed of this one aspect. 
 
 I. First then, AS TO THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER 
 OF THIS OFFERING : four particulars may at once be 
 noted ; the first having reference to the broad distinc- 
 tion between the Trespass-offerings and the whole class 
 of sweet-savour offerings ; the next bearing on the 
 general distinction between the offerings not of a sweet 
 savour, namely, the Sin and Trespass-offerings: the
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING. 1G5 
 
 other two are more definite, and have to do with certain 
 details connected with and flowing from the distinction 
 between the nature of sin and trespass, and their atone- 
 ment. 
 
 (1.) On the first particular I need not here enter, for 
 the distinction between what was and what was not 
 of a sweet savour has so often been dwelt upon. I 
 therefore merely notice the fact that the Trespass-offer- 
 ing was not a sweet savour. Christ is seen here suffer- 
 ing for sins : the view of His work in the Trespass- 
 offering is expiatory. 
 
 (2.) The next particular, too, we have already consi- 
 dered, namely, that this offering was a Trespass-offering, 
 as distinct from a Sin-offering. We may, however, 
 again advert to this, as the particulars given here very 
 definitely mark what constitutes trespass. If a man 
 wronged God, that was trespass : if he wronged or robbed 
 his neighbour, that was trespass. We read, "If a 
 soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in 
 the holy things of the Lord ; . . . . then he shall make 
 amends for the harm that he hath done/' * Again, 
 " If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, 
 and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered 
 him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away 
 by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour ; or have 
 found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and 
 sweareth falsely ; in any of all these that a man doeth, 
 sinning therein : then it shall be, because he hath 
 sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which 
 
 * Chapter v. 15, 16.
 
 1 6C THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 he took violently away, or the thing which he hath 
 deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to 
 keep, or the lost thing which he found." * Here trespass 
 is defined as wrong done to God, or wrong done to a 
 neighbour: we read of "violently taking," "deceitfully 
 getting," and " swearing falsely about tfiat which is 
 found." In every case of trespass, wrong was done ; 
 there was an act of evil by which another was injured. 
 And the offering for this act, the Trespass-offering, (in 
 this a contrast to the Sin-offering,) was offered by the 
 offerer, not because lie was, but because he had' done, 
 evil Accordingly, in the Trespass-offering we never 
 get sight of any particular person as a sinner : the act 
 of wrong is the point noticed and dwelt upon 
 
 Such was trespass, actual wrong and robbery, and 
 yet there might be trespass, as well as sin, of which 
 the trespasser was ignorant. -f- This is remarkable. 
 It shews how little man's judgment, not only respecting 
 what he is, but respecting what he does, can be trusted. 
 I observe that this unwitting trespass is specially seen 
 in cases of " wrong in holy things ; " we do not find 
 an instance of it in cases of " wrong done to a neigh- 
 bour." The reason is manifest : our natural conscience 
 takes cognizance of man and his claims far more 
 readily than it is brought to understand God's stan- 
 dard for all approaches to Him in holy things. Thus 
 when little is known of this standard, when little is 
 seen of the holy things, when trespass is thought of 
 merely as affecting man, then unwitting trespass will 
 * Chapter vi. 2-4. t Chapter v. J5, 17, 19.
 
 THE TKESPASS-OFFEEING. 107 
 
 not be recognized. But let a man be led much into 
 the sanctuary, and learn something there of God's 
 holiness, and he will find that the holy things them- 
 selves, the very opportunities of worship, may, through 
 our weakness, open a door for trespass. Those who 
 are most with God will most confess, what to some 
 seems quite incredible, that often there has been un- 
 witting trespass in the holiest acts of work and wor- 
 ship. I believe there is not an act of any kind, whether 
 of praise, or prayer, or worship, or ministry, which 
 may not, through Satan's cunning, prove an occasion 
 to the flesh to bring forth some fruit of trespass. I 
 need not particularize instances ; I doubt not each 
 instructed Christian will recognize some, where that 
 which has been done either to the Lord or for the 
 Lord, has afterwards been discovered to have been 
 mixed with trespass. At the time, perhaps, the trespass 
 has been unrecognized : but other circumstances or 
 fuller light have made us conscious of it. Still the 
 trespass is the same, recognized or unrecognized : and 
 our ignorance, though it leaves us unconscious of evil, 
 does not alter it. 
 
 And how solemn is the truth here taught us, that 
 neither our conscience, nor our measure of light, nor 
 our ability, but the truth of God, is the standard by 
 wnich both sin and trespass are to be measured. 
 "Though he wist it not, yet is he guilty; he hath 
 certainly trespassed against the Lord."* If man's 
 conscience or man's light were the standard, each man 
 * Chapter v. 17, 19.
 
 168 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 might have a different rule. And, at this rate, right 
 or wrong, good or evil, would depend, not upon God's 
 truth, but on the creature's apprehension of it. At 
 this rate, the filthiest of unclean beasts could not be 
 convicted of uncleanness, while it could plead that it 
 had no apprehension of that which was pure and 
 seemly. But we do not judge thus in the things of 
 this world ; neither does God judge so in the things 
 of heaven. Who argues that because swine are filthy, 
 therefore the standard of cleanliness is to be set by 
 their perceptions or ability ; or that because they seem 
 unconscious of their state, therefore the distinction 
 between what is clean and unclean must be relinquished. 
 No : we judge not by their perceptions, but our own ; 
 with our light and knowledge, not their ignorance, as 
 our standard. God, in like manner, though in grace 
 He finds means for pardoning it, still judges evil as 
 evil wherever He meets it. Our blindness does not 
 alter His judgment ; for it is our sin and that alone 
 which has caused the blindness. 
 
 Such is trespass, and such the measure of it, a mea- 
 sure ever apparently widening according to our know- 
 ledge ; for He who calls us, leads us to see as He sees, 
 not only His grace, but our own deep and constant 
 need of it. But, blessed be God, He that convinces of 
 sin, testifies of Him also by whose Offering sins are 
 pardoned. He that sees Jesus in the Trespass-offering, 
 sees trespass met ; for Christ has confessed it, borne 
 its judgment, paid its penalty. Not only was "His 
 soul an offering for sin" in this we get the Sin-offer-
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING. 169 
 
 ing, but " He was wounded for our transgressions" * 
 the judgment for trespass was also laid upon Him. 
 Here, as in the Sin-offering, He stood "the just for 
 the unjust/' -f confessing the wrongs of His people as 
 His wrongs ; and for those wrongs He made full 
 restitution ; and we in Him have satisfied God. All 
 this, however, is so nearly allied to the Sin-offering, 
 that I pass it as briefly as may be, to go on to those 
 particulars which are more definite, and specially cha- 
 racteristic of the Trespass-offering. 
 
 These are two. In the Trespass-oS'ering, besides the 
 life laid down, the value of the trespass, according to 
 the priest's valuation of it, was paid in shekels of the 
 sanctuary, to the injured party. Then, in addition to 
 this, a fifth part more, in shekels also, was added to 
 the sum just spoken of, which, together with the amount 
 of the original wrong or trespass, was paid by the 
 trespasser to the person trespassed against. J These 
 particulars, respecting the payment of money in con- 
 nexion with the offering, are not only very definite, but 
 very remarkable. It may be well, therefore, before we 
 consider them separately, to note how distinctly all this 
 differed from the Sin-offering. 
 
 In the Sin-offering we see nothing of money : there 
 was no estimation by the priest, nor any fifth part 
 added. Indeed, from the nature of the case, there 
 could be neither of these, for they depend entirely 
 on the nature of trespass. In the Sin-offering the 
 
 * Compare Isaiah liii. 5, 10. + 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 J Chapter v. 15, 16, and vi. 5, 6. 
 
 M
 
 170 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 offerer was a sinner: and his sin was met and judged 
 in the victim. A perfect victim bore the penalty ; a 
 sinless one was judged for sin. In all this the one 
 thought presented to us is sin receiving its rightful 
 wages. We see due judgment inflicted on the sinner's 
 substitute ; and this having been inflicted, justice is 
 satisfied. In the Trespass- offering, with the exception 
 of " trespass " instead of " sin," we have all this pre- 
 cisely the same as in the Sin-offering. The victim's 
 life is given for trespass : judgment is inflicted, and so 
 far justice is satisfied. But in the Trespass-offering, 
 there is more than this, arising, as we shall see, out of 
 the nature of trespass, the original wrong or evil is 
 remedied ; and further, a fifth part is added to it. 
 Observe, in the Trespass-offering the wrong inflicted is 
 made up and restored by the offerer. According to 
 the priest's valuation, the injured party receives his 
 own, or the value of it, back again. Nor is this all ; 
 more than the original loss is repaid : the loss is more 
 than remedied. These two most interesting particulars, 
 specially characterizing, as they do, the atonement of 
 the Trespass-offering, result directly and immediately 
 from the distinction between sin and trespass. The 
 apprehension of this distinction is absolutely necessary, 
 if we would understand what remains of the Trespass- 
 offering. 
 
 Sin then, I repeat, is the evil of our nature ; and the 
 offering for this, the Sin-offering, is for what we are. 
 In the case of trespass, the offering is for what we have 
 done, for actual wrong committed against some one.
 
 THE TEESPASS-OFFERING. 171 
 
 Now, it follows from the distinct nature of these things, 
 that the atonement or satisfaction for each must differ, 
 in measure at least ; for that which would fully satisfy 
 justice in reference to sin, would by no means do so in 
 reference to trespass. In the case of sin that is, our 
 sinful nature, where no actual robbery or wrong had 
 been committed against any one -justice would be fully 
 satisfied by the death and suffering of the sinner. But 
 the mere suffering and death of the sinner would not 
 make satisfaction for the wrong of trespass. For the 
 victim merely to die for trespass, would leave the injured 
 party a loser still. The trespasser indeed might be 
 punished, but the wrong and injury would still remain. 
 The trespasser's death would not repair the trespass, 
 nor restore those rights which another had been robbed 
 of. Yet, till this was done, atonement or satisfaction 
 could scarcely be considered perfect. Accordingly, to 
 make satisfaction in the Trespass-offering, there is not 
 only judgment on the victim, but restitution also : the 
 right of which another had been defrauded is satisfied ; 
 the wrong fully repaid. 
 
 To illustrate this. Suppose some noxious creature. 
 It is evil : for this it merits death : the infliction of 
 death would be judgment of the evil, and justice here 
 could claim no more. But suppose this creature had 
 also done evil and robbed us ; its mere death will not 
 repair the injury. Satisfaction for this will not be 
 complete unless the injury done is made good in all 
 points. In a word, atonement for trespass implies res- 
 titution ; without this, though the trespasser is judged,
 
 172 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 the claim of trespass remains still unsatisfied. But in 
 Christ man has made full satisfaction. God is not a 
 loser even from the wrong of trespass. Nor this only. 
 He receives even more. But let us look at the distinct 
 particulars. 
 
 (3.) In the Trespass- offering we get restitution, full 
 restitution for the original wrong. The amount of the 
 injury, according to the priest' s valuation of it, is paid 
 in shekels of the sanctuary to the injured person* 
 The thought here is not that trespass is punished, but 
 that the injured party is repaid the wrong. The pay- 
 ment was in shekels : these "shekels of the sanctuary" 
 were the appointed standard by which God's rights 
 were measured ;-f- as it is said, "And all thy estimation 
 shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary."! 
 Thus they represent the truest measure, God's standard 
 by which He weighs all things. By this standard the 
 trespass is weighed, and then the value paid to the 
 injured person. 
 
 And God and man, though wronged by trespass, 
 each receive as much again from man in Christ through 
 the Trespass-offering. God was injured by trespass in 
 His holy things, His rights unpaid, His claim slighted : 
 for man was ofttimes a robber, taking for himself the 
 fat or life, God's claim in the offerings. Thus, if I may 
 so say, God through man was a loser: but at the 
 
 * Chapter v. 15. 
 
 tSee Exodus xxi. 13, 24. xixviii. 24, 25; Lcviticua xxviL 3, 
 25; Numbers iii. 47, 50, xviii. 16. 
 Leviticus ixvii 25.
 
 THE TRE3PASS-OFFEKING. 1 73 
 
 hands of Christ the loss has been repaid : and whatever 
 was lost through man in the First Adam, has been 
 made up to the full in the Second Adam. Whether 
 honour, service, worship, or obedience, whatever God 
 could claim, whatever man could rob Him of, all this 
 has He received again from man in Christ, " according 
 to the priest's estimation in shekels of the sanctuary." 
 
 But man also was injured by trespass ; and he, too, 
 receives as much again. Christ for man as offerer of 
 the Trespass-offering, must offer to injured man the 
 value of the original injury. And such as accept His 
 offering, find their loss through man's trespass more 
 than paid. Has trespass wronged man of life, peace, or 
 gladness, he may claim and receive tnrough Christ re- 
 payment. For man to man, as for man to God, Christ 
 stands the One in whom man's wrongs are remedied. 
 The wrong done to God has been met. God clearly is 
 no loser now by trespass. And the wrong done to 
 man is no less paid for. Man need not, more than 
 God, be a loser. 
 
 (4.) But this is not all. Not only is the original 
 wrong paid, but a fifth part more is paid with it in 
 the Trespass-offering.* Not only is the original claim, 
 of which God and man had been wronged, satisfied : 
 but something more, "a fifth," is added with it. 
 
 And first, what of the amount ? It is " a fifth part." 
 To find the import of this, we must again go back to 
 Genesis. If I mistake not, the first place in Scripture 
 where " the fifth " is mentioned, will lead us to appre- 
 
 Chapter v. 16, vL 5.
 
 174 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 hend its import. The particulars will be found in the 
 history of Joseph. Briefly, the facts are these. Before 
 the great seven years' famine, though Egypt was Pha- 
 raoh's land, and the Egyptians his people, yet both 
 were independent of him in some way which evidently 
 was not the case afterwards. This we gather from the 
 fact that after the famine " a fifth," never paid before, 
 was paid to Pharaoh, in token that both land and peo- 
 ple were Pharaoh's by another claim. We read that 
 "when that year was ended, the Egyptians came to 
 Joseph the second year, and said unto him, We will 
 not hide it from my lord, how that our money is 
 spent ; my lord also hath our herds of cattle : there is 
 not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies 
 and our lands : wherefore shall we die before thine 
 eyes, both we and our land ? Buy us and our land for 
 bread, and we and our land will be servants unto 
 Pharaoh ; and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, 
 that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all 
 the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; for the Egyptians sold 
 every man his field, because the famine prevailed over 
 them : so the land became Pharaoh's. Then Joseph 
 said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this 
 day, and your land, for Pharaoh : lo, here is seed for 
 you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to 
 pass, in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part to 
 Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own. And they 
 said, Thou hast saved our lives : let us find grace in the 
 sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. 
 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING. 175 
 
 this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part ; ex- 
 cept the land of the priests only, which became not 
 Pharaoh's." * 
 
 We see here that " the fifth part " paid to Pharaoh, 
 was the acknowledgment that all had been forfeited to 
 him through misery. We learn, too, that in whatever 
 way the Egyptians had been his people heretofore, they 
 were now, through their need, made his by another 
 claim. Accordingly, the payment of " a fifth " hence- 
 forward, wherever we meet with it in Scripture,-f- is the 
 acknowledgment that the person paying it has lost and 
 forfeited that whereof " the fifth " was offered. It is a 
 witness not only that the sum or thing yielded up, has 
 been yielded of necessity, as a debt, not as a free gift , 
 but that the whole of that whereof the fifth was paid, 
 was the right and property of him to whom its " fifth " 
 was rendered. Thus its import in the Trespass-offer- 
 ing seals the character of the offering, testifying that 
 what was given was indeed a debt, and not a free gift. J 
 
 * Genesis xlvii. 18-26. 
 
 f It is only found in the law of the Trespass-offerings, Leviticus 
 v. vi. ; and in the law concerning vows or dedicated things, Leviti- 
 cus xxvii. In both cases evidently the purport is the same. 
 
 If I mistake not, this "ffth " is also connected with the tenth 
 or tithe ; the fifth being two tenths, or a double tithe. One tenth 
 was paid by God's people before anything was forfeited in any way, 
 as the acknowledgment that he to whom it was paid had a claim on 
 all that of which a tenth was offered. But after a thing was for- 
 feited by vow or trespass, (Lev. xxvii. and v. vi.,) we find that a fifth 
 or double tithe was rendered. By the law in Exodus xxii. 4, 7, 9, 
 any act of trespass gave him who had been trespassed against a 
 double claim, or rather a claim to doMe the amount of the original
 
 176 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 But while this was the import of giving " the fifth 
 part," yet by the addition of this fifth the injured party 
 became in truth a gainer. So far from losing by tres- 
 pass, he received more back again: and this is what 
 we have now to consider. Wonderful indeed are the 
 ways of God: how unsearchable are His counsels and 
 wisdom ! Who would have thought that from the 
 entrance of trespass, both God and man should in the 
 end be gainers. But so it is. From man in Christ 
 both God and man have received back more than they 
 were robbed of. All things are indeed of God ; yet it 
 is from man in Christ, and this in consequence of tres- 
 pass, that God, according to His wondrous purpose, re- 
 ceives back more than that of which sin had robbed 
 Him. In this sense, " where sin abounded," yea, and 
 because sin abounded, " grace did more abound." Just 
 as in the case above alluded to, which I doubt not is 
 typical, and typical, if I mistake not, of very kindred 
 truth, the effect of the famine and misery on the Egyp- 
 tians was to give Pharaoh a claim not possessed before ; 
 so the effect of the entrance of trespass has been to 
 give the injured person, whether God or man, a claim 
 on the person and property of the trespasser, which 
 before trespass entered was all unknown. 
 
 I would to God this were more fully seen. We 
 should then oftener hear of grace, of rights more sel- 
 
 vrong or injury inflicted on him. Thus when trespass had been 
 committed and confessed, " the fifth " was paid as the acknowledg- 
 ment of the double claim. But this only by the way, as marking, 
 if I mistake not, the connexion between the " tithe " and the " fifth 
 part."
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING. 177 
 
 duin : nor should we so often see Christians shrinking 
 irom that which we call grace, but to the exercise of 
 which we are nevertheless most surely debtors. But to 
 explain this : Before trespass entered, God only claimed 
 His part or right. He had a mht to holy things as 
 His portion, and these He looked for from man. But 
 since trespass has entered, His claim is more: the 
 original right and the fifth part added. " The fifth " 
 was, as we have seen, the token how much had been 
 forfeited by the trespasser. Its payment testified that 
 he to whom it was given had now not only his original 
 right, but a still further claim upon him who wronged 
 him. Thus God's claim through trespass is greater: 
 and the same is true with regard to man's claim. Be- 
 fore trespass entered, man too had his claim : that claim 
 was his right, that claim was justice. But since tres- 
 pass has entered, his claim is more : more than his 
 right is now his claim from the trespasser. The fact 
 that God has been wronged by man, and that Christ 
 stands for man confessing trespasses, gives God a claim 
 upon Him, not only for the original right, but for more 
 than the first claimed holy things. So, too, because 
 man has been injured by man, and because Christ 
 stands for man as his substitute, therefore man, injured 
 by trespass, has a claim on Christ, not for the original 
 right only, but for greater blessings. 
 
 And this claim Christ never refuses : nor are those 
 in Christ free to shrink from it. They, too, as "in 
 Him," are called, yea, and they are debtors, to deal in 
 grace far beyond the claim of justice. The world may
 
 178 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 think that to mete out justice is the highest path of 
 which man is capable. But Christ has shewn a higher 
 still ; and " he that abideth in Him is called to walk as 
 He walked."* Such a path, of course, as every other 
 step after Christ, if followed, will surely cost us some- 
 thing. But costly things become king's children : we 
 are rich enough to lose this world. May the Lord 
 make His people know their calling, and conform them 
 to Him in grace even as in glory ! But I will not 
 pursue this here, as further on I must again touch it 
 in its bearing on the believer's walk. I merely add 
 therefore, "Christ set us an example :"-f- and He 
 yielded, not merely rights, but grace, to every man. 
 
 Thus much then, for what is specially characteristic 
 of the Trespass-offering, and as marking where it differs 
 from the other offerings. It only remains to notice, 
 
 II. THE VARIETIES OK GRADES IN THIS OFFERING. 
 These are fewer than in any other offering, teaching us 
 that those who apprehend this aspect of Christ's work, 
 will apprehend it all very much alike. Doubtless, the 
 cause of this lies in the nature of trespass, as it stands 
 distinct from sin. It will be remembered, that in the 
 Sin-offering the varieties were most numerous, and that 
 because sin in us may be, and is, so differently appre- 
 hended ; but trespass, the act of wrong committed, if 
 seen at all, can scarce be seen differently. 
 
 Accordingly, we find but one small variety in the 
 Trespass-offering, for I can scarce regard the two differ- 
 ent aspects of trespass as varieties. These aspects are, 
 
 1 John ii. 6. t 1 Peter ii. 21.
 
 THE TRESPASS-OFFERING. 179 
 
 first, trespasses against God,* and then trespasses 
 against our neighbour ; -f but this distinction is more 
 like the difference between the offerings, than the 
 varieties in the different grades of the same. It simply 
 points out distinct bearings of trespass, for which in 
 each case the atonement seen is precisely similar. 
 
 There is, however, one small yet remarkable difference 
 between the two grades of the offering for wrongs in 
 holy things. In the first grade, which gives us the 
 fullest view of the offering, we read of the life laid down, 
 the restitution made, and the fifth part added. But in 
 the lower class, the last of these is unnoticed : "the fifth 
 part" is quite unseen.^ And how true this is in the 
 experience of Christians. Where the measure of appre- 
 hension is full, there not only the life laid down, and 
 the restitution made in the Trespass-offering, but all the 
 truth also which is taught in the " fifth part/' will be 
 seen as a consequence of trespass and a part of the 
 Trespass-offering. Not so, however, where the appre- 
 hension is limited : here there is no addition seen beyond 
 the amount of the original trespass. 
 
 But I hasten to conclude these Notes on the distinctive 
 character of the Offerings. We have considered them 
 separately ; but we must never forget that though there 
 are different aspects, there is but One Offering. Jesus, 
 our blessed Lord, by His one oblation of Himself once 
 offered for ever, has perfectly met, and perfectly satisfied, 
 
 Chapter v. 15-19. f Chapter vi. 1-7. 
 
 : Compare verses 15, 16, which contain the higher grade, with 
 verses 17, 18, which give the lower.
 
 180 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 and that for us who believe, all that these emblems 
 typify. I know that saints do not, and cannot see all 
 the aspects of His Offering equally ; but God sees all, 
 and sees it "for us." In this surely we may rest. 
 Blessed indeed is it so to grow in grace that we can 
 " apprehend that for which we are apprehended : " but 
 after all the joy is this, that we are indeed apprehended. 
 And though our knowledge of what is Christ's and ours 
 is still small, the day that is coming shall reveal it. 
 Then when that which is perfect is come, our present 
 knowledge, which is but in part, shall be done away. 
 Blessed Lord, hasten Thy coming, to gladden with Thine 
 own presence those whom Thou hast saved with Thy 
 blood!
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE 
 
 1 PETER iv. 1. ROMANS xii. 1, 2. 
 
 UNION with Christ is that which essentially constitutes 
 a Christian. Nor is this union something changeful or 
 visionary : it is a reality wrought by the Holy Ghost. 
 The Church is " in Christ Jesus ;"* and, as a conse- 
 quence, " as He is, so are we in this world ;"-f- identified 
 with Him in His shame and in His joys ; in His death, 
 His burial, and His resurrection.^ 
 
 And truly the figures which are used to describe this 
 union are such as we should never have dared to appro- 
 priate, had they not been given to us in our Father's 
 Word, and were they not sealed in our hearts by His 
 Spirit. What is the fellowship of brethren ? What 
 the union of the bridegroom and bride ? What is the 
 union of members with the head, of the branches with 
 the vine, yea, of Christ with God ; such is the union of 
 saints with Christ, such the bond which binds us to 
 Him. Not only does Christ say of His people, " They 
 
 * Rom. xii. 5; 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. i. 22; Eph. i. 3; 1 Thess. iv. 
 16 ; 1 John v. 20, &c., &c. 
 f 1 John iv. 17 % Rom. vi. 4, 8 ; Col. ii. 12, iii. 1.
 
 182 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 are not of the world, even as I am not of the world ;"* 
 but if He is " the Head," they are " the members," and 
 both but "one body." "As the many members are 
 one body, so also is Christ."^ The context and argu- 
 ment here plainly demand that the sense should be, 
 "so also is the Church;" but the Church and Christ 
 "are not twain, but one :"J therefore the Apostle writes, 
 " So also is Christ :" " For ye are the body of Christ, 
 and members in particular." "And no man ever yet 
 hated his own body ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, 
 even as the Lord the Church : for we are members of 
 His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." 
 
 This union has its consequences, and they are most 
 important, having reference to our standing and to our 
 walk in Christ. 
 
 For the first of these, our standing in Christ, faith 
 apprehends it : and thus we have peace with God. 
 We see a man, "the man Christ Jesus," as man in 
 perfectness standing " for us : " by His perfect sacrifice 
 of Himself meeting God's claim on man, and thus in 
 His person reconciling man to God. The sight of this, 
 or rather the faith of it, gives peace. We see man 
 reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus. His 
 place, therefore, is now by faith apprehended as ours. 
 Through Him, and in Him, by the Spirit, we claim and 
 realize it 
 
 But the union of Christ and His Church not only 
 affects our standing ; it must, if it be a reality, affect 
 
 * John xviL 14, 16. 1 1 Cor. ill 12. 
 
 J Eph. v. 31, 32. Eph. v. 29, 30.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 183 
 
 our walk. It is true, indeed, that our walk, as being 
 part of our experience, and our experience being but 
 the measure of our apprehension, through our lack of 
 spiritual power, is constantly short of that for which 
 we are apprehended.* But our standard is still that 
 for which we are apprehended, and that is the walk of 
 Christ. "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought 
 himself also so to walk, even as He walked, "-f- Indeed, 
 the work of the Spirit is but to verify in all Christ's 
 members that which is already true for them in the 
 person of their Head. To see, therefore, what is true 
 of Him as our Head, cannot be looked at alone in its 
 connexion with our standing. If we are Christ's, it 
 must necessarily take us further, leading us to know 
 what should be the measure of our walk, and teaching 
 us to judge in it, as unbecoming our calling, all that in 
 us is contrary to the walk of Christ. If it be true that 
 we are indeed His members, by the living Spirit bound 
 to Him, to be His for ever ; if it be true that in Him. 
 we are dead and risen, and if through grace we can 
 rejoice in this ; we are only the more called on in the 
 knowledge of this to seek to be conformed to Him, 
 that so the things which are true for us in Him, may 
 be made true in our soul's experience by the Spirit. 
 
 Now, there are not a few who seem to see one part 
 of this truth, but who appear incapable of receiving 
 both parts ; some exclusively pressing that which bears 
 upon our walk, others that which is connected with 
 our standing. The consequence inevitably is meagre- 
 * PhiL iii. 12. 1 1 John ii. 6.
 
 184- THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 ness in both, while the truth of God is on each point 
 deformed and weakened. Those who, while they see 
 the standard for our walk in Christ, do not see the 
 believer's place in Him as accepted, uncertain of their 
 place, while aiming to apprehend, lose the joy and 
 strength which flows from knowing that they are 
 apprehended. As a consequence, they lower the stan- 
 dard of their walk, seeking only just so much of the 
 Spirit's fruits as will prove them Christians. Others 
 again, having read of Christ's oneness with His Church, 
 and as a consequence the believer's acceptance in Him, 
 seem often by no means equally to understand the 
 necessary connexion of this with their walk as Chris- 
 tians. Such profess to see their union with Christ, 
 that He died for them, that they died in Him, without 
 seeing that this union, if indeed it be real, must in- 
 volve their daily dying with Him. Indeed, the very 
 reverse of this is practically asserted. They seem to 
 think Christ died in the flesh, that they might live in 
 it. With such the doctrine really is this, Christ 
 died to sin that I might live to sin. I ask, is there 
 anything like this to be found within the whole com- 
 pass of Scripture ? Such a doctrine exhibited as it is 
 in the lives of hundreds, though practically denying 
 our union with Christ, because so often stated by those 
 who profess to know that union, has done more than 
 ought else to hide it. The humble soul, shrinking 
 from the thought of making Christ's love to us an in- 
 dulgence or apology for sin, recoils instinctively from
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 185 
 
 that which, while it speaks of union with Christ, in 
 works utterly denies it. 
 
 To connect this with THE OFFERINGS. The Offerings 
 set forth Christ. We see in them how man in Christ 
 has made atonement. Our standing as believers im- 
 mediately flows from this : for " as He is, so are we in 
 this world." We look at the Sin and Trespass-offerings, 
 and see that the sin of man has been fully borne. We 
 look at the Burnt and Meat-offerings, and see all God's 
 requirements satisfied. And this is our confidence, that 
 as Christ " for us " has been without the camp, as " for 
 us " He has been laid on the altar ; so truly do we, if 
 quickened by His Spirit, stand in Him, even as He is : 
 " for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them 
 that are sanctified." * 
 
 But there is also the other aspect of this truth. We 
 are one with Christ : therefore we should walk even as 
 He walked. In this view His Offering, as our example, 
 sets before us the model and standard for our self-sacri- 
 fice. And just as Christ's sacrifice for us had varied 
 aspects, as satisfying God, as satisfying man, as bearing 
 sin ; so, though of course in a lower sense, will our 
 self-sacrifice, just as it is conformed to His, and because 
 we are one with Him, have these same aspects. It is 
 in this way that, in a secondary sense, the Typical offer- 
 ings have an application to Christians. Thus we also 
 are offerers and our bodies offerings ; as it is written, 
 " Present your bodies a living sacrifice."-)- Not indeed 
 
 * Heb. x. 14. t Rom. xiL L
 
 186 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 as though by our self-sacrifice we could make Christ's 
 Offering for us more acceptable : " We are sanctified 
 by the offering of His body once for all;"* "we are 
 made accepted in the Beloved :"-f- but as the conse- 
 quence of our acceptance in Him, and as the fruit of 
 our union with Him through the Spirit. Therefore we 
 offer ; and as already accepted in Christ, though in our- 
 selves poor, weak, and worthless, our sacrifices, whether 
 our works or person, as the fruits of Christ's Spirit, are 
 acceptable through Him. Of course there is in His 
 pure Offering that which will find no counterpart in us. 
 Dissimilarities neither few nor small arise from the fact 
 that He was sinless, we sinners. Yet the saint, as in 
 spirit alive with Christ, as entering into His willing 
 mind,J yea, as already one with Him, as in Him dead 
 and risen, will seek further "to be made conformable 
 to His death. " His self-sacrifice may fail in many 
 ways : but his rule is the offering of the body of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 I proceed therefore to trace, in conclusion, how far 
 the various aspects of the offering of the body of Christ, 
 may be applicable to those who, being members of His 
 mystical body, are called to walk even as He walked. 
 
 I. And first THE BURNT-OFFERING. This was man 
 satisfying God : man in Christ giving himself to God 
 as His portion. We have seen how for us this was 
 fulfilled in Christ We inquire how far in us it may be 
 fulfilled by the Spirit And in this light, both in its 
 
 * Heb. x. 10. f Eph. i. 6. 
 
 J 1 Cor. ii. 16. Pliil. iii. 10
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 1 87 
 
 measure and character, the Burnt-offering stands a wit- 
 ness how we should "yield ourselves."* First, as to its 
 measure. It was " wholly burnt." No part was with- 
 held from God. Can we mistake this teaching ? Does 
 it not plainly say that conformity to Christ must cost 
 us something, yea, that it involves entire self -surrender, 
 even though that surrender lead us to the cross? "I 
 will not," said David, "offer unto the Lord a Burnt- 
 offering of that which doth cost me nothing."-f- The 
 Burnt-offering is still costly, befitting Him who receives 
 it at our hands. The Burnt-offering was God's claim ; 
 that claim was love ; as He said, " Thou shalt love the 
 Lord with all thine heart." The fulfilment of this re- 
 quired a life from Christ. It will demand our lives just 
 in measure as we walk with Him. " For love is strong 
 as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave ; the coals there- 
 of are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.":}: 
 
 And in these days when pious worldliness is so suc- 
 cessfully misusing the truth of God; when, in the 
 light of the advanced wisdom of this our age, self- 
 sacrifice is exploded folly; when the mere fact that a 
 path involves loss in this world, is considered a good 
 reason for our at once avoiding it ; when the doctrine 
 of the cross, as it bears upon our walk, is not only 
 omitted, but openly condemned ; when to give up the 
 world is injudiciousness, and to crucify the flesh a re- 
 turn to law ; in such days we do well to look at the 
 Burnt-offering, as setting befoi'e us the example we are 
 called to follow. Aks ! that it should be so, but it is 
 
 * Rom. vi. 13. f 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. $ Canticles viii, 6.
 
 188 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 not denied, by some it is even gloried in, that Christian- 
 ity now involves no loss ; the times are altered : the 
 world is changed. The offence of the cross has ceased : 
 they that live godly need not suffer.* A path has been 
 found, a happy path some think it, wherein the highest 
 profession of Christ costs nothing ; nay, in which such 
 a profession, so far from involving the loss of this 
 world, is the surest way to gain its praise. According 
 to this doctrine, Christ suffered for us; apostles, pro- 
 phets, martyrs, all suffered. They, in their pilgrimage, 
 lost this world for another ; but we, in happier days, 
 can possess both worlds. It cannot be. If God's Word 
 be true, our path after Christ must be still a sacrifice. 
 We, as they of old, if followers of Christ, must with 
 Him " present our bodies a living sacrifice." -f 
 
 And indeed if we do but weigh these words, 
 "Present your bodies a living sacrifice," we cannot 
 shut our eyes to what is involved in them, and that 
 we are called to give up ourselves. Can we do this 
 without cost, or without feeling that sacrifice is in- 
 deed sacrifice, though it be willing sacrifice ? Impos- 
 sible. Christ felt His sacrifice : and so surely shall 
 we, if we offer with Him. Nor shall we grudge this. 
 Just as it was His joy to give Himself ; as He said, " I 
 delight to do Thy will, God;"f so in us also, as 
 quickened with Him, " the spirit is willing, though the 
 flesh is weak." 
 
 I do not wish to press every detail of the Burnt - 
 
 * See 2 Tim. iiL 12. t Rom. xil 1. 
 
 * Psalm XL 8. Matt xxvl 41.
 
 THE OFFEKINGS AS A WHOLE. 189 
 
 offering in its application to our individual walk ; yet 
 the general character of the victim may be a guide to 
 the character, as its entire surrender was to the measure, 
 of our offering. We saw, in the application of the type 
 to Christ, how its varieties of bullock, lamb, and turtle- 
 dove, each brought out some distinct particular in the 
 character of our blessed Lord. In each of these we 
 have an example we can comprehend, however far we 
 may be from attaining to it. Would to God that in 
 active yet patient service, in silent unmurmuring sub- 
 mission, in gentleness and innocency of life, we might 
 be conformed to Him who went before us. These 
 emblems of His offering, if they mean anything, 
 sufficiently shew us, even as His example shewed it, 
 that self-sacrifice is not to make us great in this 
 world : service, submission, meekness, will gain no 
 crown here. We cannot be heroes in this world, if we 
 offer ourselves to God in the character these emblems 
 typify. But if conformed to them, we shall be more 
 like Christ. May He give us grace gladly to acquiesce 
 in the likeness ! He, as man in a proud and violent 
 world, yea, and for us, was all that these emblems 
 typify. He bore the cross such a character involved ; 
 He shrunk not from the reproach it brought Him. 
 He was despised and rejected of men, as a lamb slain, 
 and none to pity. In a word, and this is indeed the 
 sum of it, He was content to be nothing, that God 
 might be all. May the corresponding reality be more 
 manifested in us, through subjection to the power of 
 His indwelling Spirit.
 
 1 90 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 II. But let us pass on to the MEAT-OFFERING. 
 Here, as man for men, Christ offered Himself as the 
 fruit of the earth, that is, as mans meat. In doing 
 this, He gave Himself to God, yet with special refer- 
 ence to man, and as meeting man's claim on Him. 
 Man had a claim upon man ; God had ratified the 
 claim, saying, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self." In the Meat-offering, Christ met and satisfied 
 this claim, by giving Himself to God as man's portion. 
 Let us, in the light of His sacrifice, learn how far His 
 members, though but " leavened bread," may yield 
 themselves to God as man's meat. 
 
 To turn then to our Pattern. What, as meeting 
 man's claim, was the character of His Offering, and 
 what the measure of it ? For its character, " the bruised 
 corn," " the oil," " the salt," and " the frankincense," are 
 sufficiently explicit. For the measure of it, it is enough 
 to say, the Type shews us the whole consumed. Such 
 is our standard. Its import we cannot mistake. The 
 question is, How far we may be conformed to it ? To 
 answer this let us look to other days, and see how far 
 poor sinful man has been conformed to it. Time was 
 when the Church, though but "a leavened cake,"* was 
 so far filled with the anointing of the Holy Ghost, that 
 "the multitude of them which believed were of one 
 heart and of one soul : neither said any of them that 
 ought of the things which he possessed was his own ; 
 but they had all things common. Neither was there 
 any that lacked : for as many as were possessors of 
 
 * Lev. xxiii. 17.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 191 
 
 lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of 
 the things that were sold, and laid them down at the 
 apostles' feet ; and distribution was made to every man 
 according as he had need." * Here was a Meat-offer- 
 ing, and a costly one : but costly as it was, it was not 
 then a rare one. In that day there were living men, 
 who for the gospel had "lost all things/' -f- who yet, 
 while suffering this, were willing to suffer more, even 
 to give their own lives to God for others. "Yea/' 
 says Paul, "if I be poured out," (he alludes to the 
 Drink-offering which was offered as an adjunct to the 
 Meat-offering |) "Yea if I be poured out on the 
 sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice 
 with you/' Nor was he alone in this. Time would 
 fail to tell of others, Onesiphorus, Epaphroditus, Phile- 
 mon, Phebe, who "oft refreshed the bowels of the 
 saints/' || Their lives were indeed a Meat-offering. 
 
 There is yet a Church. There must yet be offerings ; 
 and thank God we yet hear of sacrifices. But what is 
 their measure, what their character? How far are 
 they conformed to those we have but just spoken of ? 
 Let each here judge himself. This only will I say, that 
 just in measure as we are like our Master, just in 
 proportion as we accept His wcrds as the rule for the 
 measure, as well as the manner of our sacrifice, just 
 so far as in the steps of those of old, we " sell that we 
 have, and give alms," just as we " give to him that 
 asketh of us, and from him that would borrow of us 
 
 * Acts iv. 32-35. f Phil- iii. 8. + Numbers xv. 1-12. 
 
 Phil. ii. 17. U Philemon 7.
 
 192 THE LAW OF THE OFFEBINGS. 
 
 turn not away," just so far shall we find our path a 
 sacrifice, involving not only cost, but unexpected trial 
 As of old, so is it now. The box of alabaster, of oint- 
 ment, of spikenard very precious, cannot be poured 
 upon the head of Christ, without exciting the anger 
 of those who see it. Even disciples must complain. 
 " When the disciples saw it, they had indignation, say- 
 ing, To what purpose was this waste ?" Even so is it 
 now. Self-sacrifice is still reproved, even by those 
 who follow the Crucified One. With not a few, such a 
 course is sufficient proof of the lack of common sense 
 or common prudence in the person guilty of it. But 
 what saith the Lord ? " When Jesus understood it, He 
 said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman ? for she 
 hath wrought a good work upon me : for in that she 
 hath poured this ointment on niy body, she did it for my 
 burial Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel 
 shall be preached, there shall also this, that this woman 
 hath done, be told for a memorial of her."* And in 
 that coming day, when the gospel shall have done its 
 work, in gathering a people out of all nations, when 
 the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the 
 holy angels with Him, in that day when the righteous 
 answer, When saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee, 
 the King shall say, Inasmuch as ye did it to my breth- 
 ren, ye did it unto me. 
 
 III. I pass on to THE PEACE-OFFERING. This was 
 that view of the Offering which shewed us the Offerer 
 fed. In the Peace-offering, the offerer, with the Priest, 
 
 * Matt xxvi. 7-13.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 193 
 
 and God, partook of, that is, found satisfaction in, the 
 offering. Can it be said that in this aspect of the 
 Offering, our self-sacrifice can at all resemble Christ's? 
 Can our poor offerings yield any satisfaction to our- 
 selves ? Can they afford any satisfaction to Christ and 
 God ? I must take heed what I say here. But what 
 saith the Lord? Let His Word in each case supply 
 the answer. That answer will teach us that in this 
 aspect also the Peace-offering has a fulfilment, not only 
 in Christ, but in His members. 
 
 And first, for God's part. Does God find satisfaction 
 in our offerings ? The following witness is sufficiently 
 clear : " To do good and to communicate forget not : 
 for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."* So 
 again, the offering sent by the Philippians to Paul was 
 " a sweet savour : " God found in it something pleasant 
 to Him : " The things which were sent from you, are 
 an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well- 
 pleasing to God." If The words here used in the ori- 
 ginal are the very same as those which the Septuagint 
 have used to express " a sweet savour " in the Peace- 
 offering.}: What stronger proof can we need of God's 
 satisfaction in, and the value He puts upon, the offerings 
 of His Church. "God loveth a cheerful giver ;" and 
 as our greatest gift is "to give ourselves," || so the 
 presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices is "ac- 
 
 * Heb. xiii. 16. t Phil, iv. 18. 
 
 St Paul's words are ocr/if) tvwStas rw $ew- In the Peace 
 offering the Septuagint version gives 6<rp,r) evcofii'ay TO> Kvpiu>. 
 2 Cor. it 7. i| 2 Cor. viii. 5.
 
 194 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 ceptable unto the Lord."* And we need to remember 
 this. It is possible, nay, it is easy, in our zeal against 
 the doctrine of salvation by works, to leave the impres- 
 sion that all works are useless, none acceptable to God, 
 or accepted of Him. I fear there are not a few who, 
 practically at least, are in error upon this very question. 
 The works of the flesh are indeed dead works ; but the 
 fruits of the Spirit, as they flow from Christ, as they 
 are the witnesses of His grace, an offering to His praise, 
 so do they come up before God through Him " a sweet 
 savour." 
 
 But the Priest also fed in the Peace-offering. For 
 the joy which our Priest finds in our offerings, poor 
 and feeble though they be, it is enough to know, that 
 even in the cup of cold water, in the bread to the 
 hungry, He is refreshed and fed. " I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me meat : I -was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 drink."-]- Oh, did we but know His joy in seeing us 
 yield ourselves an offering for Him, to find that in a 
 world which hated Him some remember Him while 
 still away : if we but realized the gladness of His soul 
 in some work of faith or labour of love, forgotten it 
 may be by the feeble doer, but treasured in the book 
 of Him who is " not forgetful ; " we could not, I 
 think, give up ourselves with such narrow, selfish, 
 grudging hearts. Could we, if in our services to the 
 poor we saw Christ in them, and realized that He 
 received our gifts, present them with such niggard 
 hands? Would not our best be freely offered Him? 
 Bom. xiL L t Matt. ixv. 35.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 195 
 
 Suppose Him wanting bread. If we knew He lacked, 
 that He was hungry, naked, sick, or suffering ; would 
 not our last shilling, our most precious time, be freely 
 given to minister to Him ? We can do so still. " I 
 was sick, and ye visited me : I was a stranger, and ye 
 took me in. Verily I say, Inasmuch as ye did it to my 
 brethren, ye did it unto me."* 
 
 But further, the Peace-offering fed the offerer. And 
 surely we have been strangers to self-sacrifice, if we 
 need be told the joy it imparts to him who sacrifices. 
 But what saith the Word ? Paul, speaking of his 
 service, says, " Yea, if I be sacrificed, / joy, and rejoice 
 with you."^ So again to the Colossians, " / rejoice in 
 my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind 
 of the afflictions of Christ." J So again, "I count not 
 my life dear unto me, so that I might finish my course 
 with joy." Not only is it true, that for our service 
 " every one shall receive his own reward, according to 
 his own labour ;"|| but in our service, in yielding our- 
 selves to God, there is present joy with which a stranger 
 intermeddleth not. " It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive;" IF and he who gives himself to God shall 
 know this blessedness. " Sorrowful " he may be, " yet 
 always rejoicing ; poor, yet making many rich."** The 
 very costliness of the sacrifice increases our joy, when 
 we know that He, to whom we offer, rejoices with us. 
 
 IV. Thus far we have only followed the sweet-savour 
 offerings, in their application to the Christian's walk. 
 
 * Matt. xxv. 40. t Phil. ii. 17. t CoL L 24. Acta xx. 24. 
 II 1 Cor. iu. 8. Tf Acta xx. 35. ** 2 Cor. vi. 10.
 
 19G THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 Are the remaining offerings, THE SIN and TRESPASS- 
 OFFERINGS, equally applicable to us upon this same 
 principle ? I believe they are ; though, as in the 
 preceding offerings, only applicable in a secondary way. 
 God forbid I should be mistaken upon this point, as 
 though I thought that the saint could atone for himself 
 or others. In this sense, any interference with the 
 Sin-offering would be a setting aside of the work of 
 Christ. Still, there is a sense and measure in which 
 the Sin-offering has its counterpart in us, as bearing on 
 our self-sacri^ce : there is a sense in which the Christian 
 may bear sin, and suffer its judgment in his mortal 
 flesh. Just as the Burnt-offering, which, in its first 
 and full application, shews Christ in perfectness once 
 offering Himself for man ; by that One Oblation of 
 Himself once offered, meeting God's claim on man, and 
 so reconciling us to God for ever ; just as this Burnt- 
 offering, while as offered for us it secures our acceptance, 
 has also, as an example to us, an application to our 
 walk, shewing how man in Christ should offer himself, 
 through the Spirit giving himself to God ; just so is 
 it in the Sin and Trespass-offerings. Without in the 
 least degree interfering with the atonement perfected 
 by the One great Sin-offering ; while holding that by 
 that One perfect sacrifice, and by that alone, sin can 
 ever ->e purged ; as it is written, " He by Himself 
 purged our sins ;"* and again, "He hath put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of Himself ;"f there is still a sense 
 in which the Christian, in offering himself to God, can 
 Heb. La f Heb. ix. 26.
 
 THE OFFEKINGS AS A WHOLE. 197 
 
 and should use the Sin-offering, as well as the Burnt- 
 offering, as his pattern. For lack of knowing this 
 many are sparing that flesh, which the cross of Christ 
 was given to crucify. 
 
 What then was THE SIN-OFFERING? It was that 
 peculiar offering, in which the victim bore sin, and died 
 for it. The question is, how far, even if at all, this is 
 applicable to the Christian's offering. Is there anything 
 to be wrought in us by the Spirit, answering to the 
 dying for sin of the Sin-offering ? Let the Scripture 
 answer : " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just 
 for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being 
 put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit/'* 
 And what is the inference ? Is it that the death of 
 Christ is the reprieve to the flesh, its release from 
 suffering? On the contrary, Christ's death in the 
 flesh for sin is made our example : we too must also, 
 yea therefore, die with Him. So it follows : " Foras- 
 much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, 
 arm yourselves likewise with the same mind : for he 
 that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin."-f- 
 The saint, as having been judged in the person of 
 Christ, and knowing that for him Christ has borne the 
 cross, follows on by that cross to judge and mortify all 
 that he finds in himself still contrary to his Lord. 
 The flesh in him is contrary to that Holy One : the 
 flesh in him therefore must die. And instead of 
 making Christ's cross the reprieve for that flesh, the 
 child of God will use that cross to slay it. Others, may 
 * 1 Peter iiL 18. t 1 Peter iv. 1.
 
 198 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 preach the cross of Christ as an excuse for carnal and 
 careless walking. He who abides in God's presence 
 will surely learn there that by the cross we must be 
 crucified with Christ. If he says, " God forbid that I 
 should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," he will add at once, " by whom the world is 
 crucified unto me, and I unto the world." * I know 
 indeed that " there are enemies of the cross, whose God 
 is their belly, who glory in their shame ;"f who are 
 using the doctrine of the cross, to spare that flesh 
 which the cross should crucify. But God's truth is, that 
 so far from " the flesh " or " old man " being saved 
 from death by the cross, it is by it devoted to death and 
 to be crucified ; and that Christ's death, instead of being 
 a kind of indulgence for sin, or a reprieve of the life of 
 the flesh, the life of the old man, is to His members the 
 seal that their flesh must die, and that sin with its lusts 
 and affections must be mortified.^ 
 
 The fact is that the child of God, who, through igno- 
 rance of God's mind, or disobedience, instead of judging 
 the old man with his works, makes provision to fulfil 
 
 Gal. vi. 14. t Phil- i- 19. 
 
 It was but lately that in looking over a work just published, I 
 found the following objection to the doctrines of grace ; that, " if 
 death be the penalty of sin, and Christ in dying for His people in- 
 deed bore the punishment due to them, how comes it that any 
 believers die ? " Full well has the so-called Evangelical preaching 
 of the day merited such a rebuke a rebuke which could never have 
 been heard, had the full truth of the cross been stated, namely, 
 that Christ's death is the witness to His people, that, since they are 
 His members, they must also be crucified with Him. See Rom. vi 
 Gal. ii. ; 1 Pet. iv.
 
 THE OFFEKIXGS AS A WHOLE. 199 
 
 the lusts thereof ; such a one, if indeed he be Christ's, 
 by not judging himself, only brings upon himself God's 
 judgment. Happy they who, in communion with the 
 Lord, learn and judge the flesh there, rather than in 
 chastenings from Him. "If we would judge ourselves, 
 we should not be judged of the Lord."* But if we 
 reject this path : still the flesh must die. If we do not 
 mortify it, God most surely will. "They that are 
 Christ's have crucified the flesh." f "Our old man is 
 crucified with Him."J .And just as, because we are 
 alive in Christ, we can, as risen with Him, yield our- 
 selves to God, in spirit giving Him the fruits of right- 
 eousness, a sweet savour to Him by Jesus Christ ; so 
 may we also, as one with Christ in the power and 
 energy of the same Spirit, mortify our members which 
 are upon the earth, and yield our flesh to death, to be 
 crucified with Him. 
 
 How full, then, of teaching is the Sin-offering, viewed 
 even in this lower light, merely as an example to us ! 
 How does it seal that truth we are so slow to learn, 
 that the flesh, the old man, must be judged and morti- 
 fied ! I ask, how is this aspect of Christ's Offering, 
 and our offering with Him, apprehended by Christians ? 
 Another has said, "The boast of our day is that 
 Christ crucified is preached. But is He, even in this 
 one respect, fully preached, or the doctrine of the cross 
 fully apprehended? Let the walk of those who make 
 the boast answer. It is not insinuated that such are 
 chargeable with licentiousness or immorality. But 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 31. t Gal. v. 24. J Rom. vl 6.
 
 200 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 are they, therefore, not chargeable with 'walking after 
 the flesh/ and ' making provision to fulfil its desires ?' 
 In the multitude of particulars it is difficult to make a 
 selection. But what then is the high regard in which 
 blood, and ancestry, and family connexion, are held by 
 some ? What is the regard to personal appearance and 
 dress, in others ? What the attention to ease and com- 
 fort, and often-times profuse expenditure, (not to speak 
 of actual luxuries,) in the arrangement of the houses, 
 tables, &c., of almost all? What are the accomplish- 
 ments, on the acquiring of which so much time and 
 money are spent? What the character of the educa- 
 tion which most Christians, in common with the world, 
 give their children ? Or, to take a wider view still of 
 making 'provision for the flesh/ apart from what is 
 generally considered evil or sinful, to what are all the 
 discoveries in science, all the improvements iu art, 
 directed? What is the end of most of the trades 
 and businesses followed in a professing Christian coun- 
 try, and often by Christians ? Is all this, and a thou- 
 sand other things too numerous to particularize, con- 
 sistent with reckoning ourselves dead as to the old or 
 natural man ? Is this what the Scriptures intend by 
 crucifixion of the flesh ? Alas ! full well do many of 
 the professing Christians of our day shew that they are 
 but half taught the very doctrine in which they make 
 their boast ; that they have but half-learned the lesson 
 which even the cross teaches. They have learned that 
 Christ was crucified for them, but they have not learned
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 201 
 
 that they are to be ' crucified with Him ;' or they have 
 found an explanation for this latter expression in the 
 imputation of His death for our justification ; a part 
 of the truth, but not the whole ; for in vain in this 
 explanation of the words should we seek an answer to 
 the objection which the Apostle anticipated. Yea, 
 rather, that objection is confirmed by it, for it is 
 nothing else than making the cross the reprieve of 
 the flesh from death. And then when death itself 
 comes to give the refutation to this creed, and to shew 
 that the Christian is not saved in the flesh, then is the 
 effect of this half-learned lesson seen. For, instead of 
 welcoming death as that of which his life has been the 
 anticipation, the execution of that sentence on the flesh, 
 which, since he has known Christ as crucified for him, 
 he has learned in its desert, and has been continually 
 passing on it in mind and spirit, the dying with Christ 
 daily, the ' being planted in the likeness of His death/ 
 instead of being enabled in this view actually to glory 
 in his infirmities, in the weakness, yea, and the dissolu- 
 tion of the flesh, and like the victim found on the 
 arrival of his executioner to have anticipated the end 
 meditated for him, being found of death dead, he is 
 scarcely resigned to die, and impatient of suffering in 
 the flesh. And why ? Because that truth which the 
 Cross of Christ was designed to teach, he never dis- 
 tinctly understood, or rather experienced, namely, that 
 salvation is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit ; not 
 from death, but out of it ; not the reinstating of the 
 o
 
 202 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 old nature, but the conferring of a new, by the dying 
 and rising again with Christ"* 
 
 V. It only remains for us to look at THE TRESPASS- 
 OFFERING, in its bearing on the walk of saints. This 
 was that offering in which restitution was made for 
 wrong ; the original claim with the added " fifth" was 
 paid by the trespasser. We have seen how this was 
 fulfilled for us in Christ, how at His hands God re- 
 covered all whereof man had robbed Him. We have 
 seen the conseouence of this to those in Christ, how 
 they are complete in Him through whom we have 
 received the atonement Our present inquiry is, how 
 this offering should affect our walk ; how far our union 
 with Christ will make this view of His sacrifice an 
 example to us ? 
 
 And first we have restitution here. Christ standing 
 for man makes full restitution for man's wrong and 
 trespass; "not with corruptible things, as silver and 
 gold;"-f but by the value of His own Offering He 
 repays our trespass. In this sense we can make no 
 restitution. If Christ has not made it, we are lost. 
 The rest of our lives, if wholly spent for God, could 
 never atone for our acts of trespass. Each day would 
 bring its own proper claim. Works of supererogation, 
 therefore, we could have none. Yet there is a measure 
 and a sense in which the saint in fellowship with Christ 
 
 * Burgh's Tracts, " On preaching Christ." Christ in His death. 
 Pp. 5, 6. 
 1 1 Pet L 18, 19.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 203 
 
 will make restitution. Not indeed as to win acceptance, 
 but as shewing how, according to his measure, through 
 the Spirit, he sympathizes with Christ. As he has in 
 days past, as the servant of sin, robbed man and God 
 of their rights, so now, as having been made free from 
 sin, he becomes the servant of righteousness. " Now, 
 being made free from sin, and become servants to God, 
 ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlast- 
 ing life."* 
 
 But there was a fifth part added. God or man, if 
 wronged by trespass, not only received back their 
 original claim. In consequence of trespass, more than 
 that claim was due to them, the payment of which with 
 a life, constituted the Trespass-offering. Under the 
 law, God and man had each their claim on man: the 
 measure of that claim, by God's own appointment, was 
 righteousness : if man dealt justly toward God and 
 man, nothing further than the right, nothing like 
 grace, could by law be claimed of him. But it was 
 different after he had trespassed. Then, by God's own 
 appointment, right was no longer the measure of his 
 debt to others. If we were sinless, we should without 
 doubt be safe, yea, we might bring the law to justify 
 us, in dealing mere rights to every one. But if the 
 Old and New Testaments mean anything by what they 
 teach on this point, the trespasser is the wrong man to 
 contend for rights. The fact of our being trespassers 
 gives God a claim upon us, not merely the original 
 
 * Rom. vi. 22.
 
 204 THE LAW OP THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 claim, not the bare claim of right. Above and beside 
 this, the trespasser is a debtor to yield that which, but 
 for his being a trespasser, could never have been 
 claimed from him. I know we call this, dealing in 
 grace, to yield to sinners more than their just claim on 
 us. In a sense it is grace : it would be so fully, if we 
 ourselves were sinless before God. But because we are 
 convicted trespassers, and trespassers who make our 
 boast in grace, we are called, as the very witness of that 
 grace and of our need of it, to deal in what we call 
 grace to others. "Ye have heard that it hath been 
 said, An eye for an eye : but I say unto you, resist not 
 evil. Do good to them that hate you ; pray for them 
 that despitefully use you, and persecute you." * " And 
 when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against 
 any ; that your Father also which is in heaven may 
 forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, 
 neither will your heavenly father forgive you your tres- 
 passes, "-f- "For if ye love them that love you, what 
 thank have ye ? for sinners also love those that love 
 them. And if ye do good to them that do good to 
 you, what thank have ye ? for sinners also do even the 
 same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to 
 receive, what thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to 
 sinners, to receive as much again. But love your 
 enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing 
 again ; and ye shall be the children of the Highest : for 
 He is kind to the unthankful and to the eviL"J 
 * Matt. v. 38-44. + Mark xi. 25, 20. J Luke vL 32-35.
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 205 
 
 This is very plain. But how far is it acted upon by 
 many who profess to be one with Christ ? Provided 
 we have been just, who asks, have I been gracious, in 
 my dealings to my fellow-men ? Who scruples to go to 
 law,* who fears to claim his rights, little thinking of the 
 added "fifth" of the Trespass-offering? And who, 
 were his rights withheld by law, would hesitate to 
 strive against the law by political agitation or other- 
 wise ; forgetting that grace, not right, must be the law, 
 as it is the hope, of the trespasser? But I forbear 
 upon this head. He that cannot hear Christ, will 
 scarcely hear His feeble servant. " If they believe not 
 Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead." 
 
 Such is " THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS." It gives 
 but one view of Christ : yet how much is involved in 
 it, both as to our walk and standing. Do we not need 
 this truth ? Surely if ever there was a time when the 
 truths connected with Christ's sacrifice were needed, 
 that time is the present. As in the days of Christ, so 
 now God's truth is used as the prop of error. Just as 
 then the Law, which was given to prove man's sinful- 
 ness, was used by Pharisees to exalt man's righteous- 
 ness ; so now the Gospel, which was given to lead us to 
 another world, is being used to make this world a more 
 sure abiding place. I speak what is notorious : it is 
 the boast of our age, that Christianity is doing what it 
 * 1 Cor. vl 1, 7.
 
 206 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 never did before It is giving temperance to the world 
 and peace to the nations, it is vindicating the liberty of 
 the slave ; in a word, it is making for man a better 
 home, a safer resting-place, on this side the grave. 
 And all the while the world is still the world, and the 
 slave still, as before, the slave of lust. Time was when 
 Christians gave up the world. They now can mend it : 
 they need not leave it. Oh, cunning device of the Evil 
 One, too easily followed by a deluded age ! God's truth 
 now, instead of laying man in his grave, with the cer- 
 tain hope of a resurrection morning, is used on all 
 hands, misused I should say, to perfect man in the 
 flesh, almost to deify him ; used to prop " the things 
 which must be shaken," instead of leading us to those 
 " which cannot be moved," used to give an inherit- 
 ance on this side death, instead of in the glory which 
 shall be revealed. Oh, how does THE OFFERING judge 
 all this ! It speaks of sacrifice, even to the cross. It 
 tells us that, as one with Christ, our portion in Him 
 must yet be His portion. What had He here ? He 
 suffered under Pontius Pilate ; He was crucified, 
 dead, and buried ; He rose again the third day ; He 
 ascended up into heaven ; He sitteth at the right hand 
 of God ; He shall come again to judije the quick and 
 dead. What had He here ? Nothing. He took not as 
 His home a world unpurged by fire, a creation still under 
 the curse. He passed through it as a rejected pilgriia 
 We, too, if we- would be like Him, must do so still. 
 A.> Luther said, " Our spouse is a bloody husband to
 
 THE OFFERINGS AS A WHOLE. 207 
 
 us." He will not let us have this world till He has it. 
 His day is at hand : for that day He waits.* Let us be 
 content, " yet a "little while," to wait with Him. And 
 while many are anticipating His kingdom, in a king- 
 dom without His presence, and without His saints, let 
 us look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of 
 the world to come. 
 
 * Heb. x. 13.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE principle on which I have interpreted the Varieties 
 of the Offerings is one which appears to lie open to an 
 objection. My principle, it will be remembered, is that 
 the Varieties in the Typical Offerings represent different 
 aspects or apprehensions of Christ's One Offering : the 
 different offerings giving us different aspects of His 
 Offering ; the different grades the various apprehensions 
 of some one aspect. 
 
 In the preceding pages* I have briefly given the 
 grounds for this judgment. An objection, however, 
 may be made. It may be urged, that it is far more 
 reasonable to suppose that God in His Word would give 
 us representations of realities themselves rather than 
 of certain apprehensions of them, inasmuch as since 
 different apprehensions must be more or less imperfect, 
 the representation of such in His Word would make 
 that Word imperfect likewise. 
 
 The plausibility of this objection makes me notice it 
 here. It is, however, I am convinced, unsound; proceed- 
 ing throughout on an assumption opposed to reason and 
 all experience. That this assumption is not sooner de- 
 
 * Pages 40-47.
 
 210 THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS. 
 
 tected arises from the fact that it involves questions 
 with which but few are conversant. The objection 
 assumes, without appearing to assume anything, certain 
 points connected with the capabilities of our perceptive 
 faculties. The mass of mankind are content to use 
 their perceptive faculties without ever troubling them- 
 selves to inquire what it is those faculties deal with. 
 Any assumption, therefore, on such subjects, takes them 
 into an unknown sphere, where, from misapprehension 
 of what they seem to see, their most logical conclusions, 
 because founded on misapprehension, may, and indeed 
 necessarily must, be most irrational. 
 
 I say the objection makes assumptions. It does so 
 on the subject of representations, assuming it reasonable 
 to suppose that representations must be of realities 
 rather than of certain apprehensions of realities. To 
 this I say at once, that such a supposition, so far from 
 being reasonable, is most, unreasonable. For, first, it is 
 acknowledged that the perceptive faculty, whether of 
 things inward or outward, deals not with realities them- 
 selves, but only with their phenomena ; which pheno- 
 mena, though they pre-suppose the existence of realities, 
 are not realities, but, as the name imports, only certain 
 appearances of them. And secondly, it is equally 
 plain, that pictures or similar representations, (and the 
 types are confessedly such representations,) can of 
 necessity be conversant with' phenomena only, inas- 
 much as they only describe or represent what the 
 perceptive faculty takes cognizance of. It follows 
 hence at once, that if the Types are to represent what
 
 APPENDIX. 211 
 
 our perceptive faculties take cognizance of, they will 
 necessarily be representations, not of realities them- 
 selves, but of certain appearances or apprehensions of 
 them. 
 
 I am more and more satisfied that what we see of 
 Christ and God, though true as far as it goes, (and 
 surely most true it is,) is yet very far short of the 
 ineffable reality "which passeth all understanding." 
 Certain forms of the truth we have got: the reality, 
 who has yet attained to know it ? 
 
 TFTE END.
 
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