their cause, no pardon for their transgressions, no salvation for their souls. For, saith the Apostle, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." The very reverse, however, is the delightful, heart-cheering fact. Christ is risen; and mark, brethren, the deeply interesting consequences. It follows, of course,

He

1. That Christ has been sacrificed. who died on the cross of Calvary is the Christ of God, the very Messiah of whom Moses in the law and the Prophets did write. Having been shown to be of the seed of David, according to the flesh, he has also been "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead." Yes, if the circumstances of his death could extort the confession from the lips of his enemies, whilst they fastened the conviction on their minds, that he was more than man; the fact of his resurrection is abundantly sufficient to justify his pretensions as the Father's equal-Immanuel, God with us.

2. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. He is the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb chosen and provided of Jehovah, to be a

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sacrifice for sin, and the Saviour of the world. When it pleased God to put severely to the test the faith of his servant Abraham, by requiring him to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and offer him up for à burnt-offering; whilst the venerable Patriarch was on his way to the appointed place, the mountain of Moriah, Isaac spake to his father and said, "behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" To this affecting interrogation, Abraham replied, My son, God will provide himself a lamb;" which words, whilst they indicate the strength of the Patriarch's confidence in God under the emergency, at the same time pointed far above and beyond the circumstances which occasioned them—to Him who spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all. One might imagine, that when the aged saint lifted up his eyes and beheld the place afar off, he was at the same moment enabled to contemplate in the distance of ages (to him as yet future) the sacrifice of the death of Christ. "God will provide himself a lamb" as though he had said, 'My son,

Know,

trust in the God of thy fathers: mysterious as are the ways of his providence, "his counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." That faith, which for the present he puts sharply to the trial, shall at length come forth as gold; and though the way of escape may now be concealed, yet may we confidently rely on his faithfulness, sooner or later to point it out to us. moreover, that God will assuredly, in the fulness of time, provide himself a lamb; a sufficient ransom shall be found for the redemption of his people-a spotless victim shall bleed, and by his sacrifice make an adequate atonement for the sins of our fallen race.' Yes, my brethren, that which the faith of Patriarchs discerned at a distance, we are privileged to behold near at hand. Christ is set forth crucified amongst us, Christ our Passover is sacrificed as the lamb of God's providing, agreeably to Abraham's prediction. But again,

He is the true Paschal Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The ceremonial law had a shadow of good things to come, but the gospel has the

substance of them, or in other words, the good things themselves. All that was typically represented in the paschal lamb, is substantiated and verified in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood therefore, applied to the conscience, is as available to deliver from the curse of the law and from the wrath to come, as was the blood of the victim to preserve the Israelite on whose door-posts it was sprinkled, from the destroying angel.* And, if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth unto the purifying of the flesh; if these sacrificial rites availed unto ceremonial purification, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience, from dead works to serve the living God?† Those sacrifices, indeed, which, under the law were offered year by year continually, could never make the comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the conscience: but Jesus, having made one sacrifice for sin, hath hereby perfected for ever them that are sanctified.‡ * Exod. xii. 7. + Heb. ix. 13, 14. + Heb. x.

14.

.

The design of Christ's death was to make an atonement for sin; by his resurrection he has evinced that design to be fully answered. The acceptableness of Christ himself had been before declared by an audible voice from heaven-"Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased;" the actual acceptance of Christ, of his atonement and righteousness, on the part of God the Father, in behalf of all those who become interested therein through faith, is by his resurrection made abundantly manifest. A thousand glorious considerations rush upon the mind, in contemplating the resurrection of Christ. Hereby we know that the law is magnified and made honourable; that its curse is removed, and its utmost requirements satisfied. Hereby we know that Jesus is indeed mighty to save, and that having "overcome the sharpness of death, he hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." We are hereby assured that the final salvation of redeemed sinners is as sure as Almighty power, infinite wisdom, and unchanging love can render it; "For now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." Believers are already