for thou wast slain, and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood."*

The words of our text contain a doctrine and an exhortation. It shall be my endeavour very briefly to prove and illustrate the truth of the one, and to enforce the other. The doctrine is this, that "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:" the exhortation, "Therefore let us keep the feast."

I. It shall be my endeavour, in the first place, to shew the reality and sufficiency of Christ's atonement; and how can these be more strikingly exhibited, than when viewed in their immediate connexion with, and dependance on, the resurrection of Christ from the dead; upon this indeed every thing depends. The fact of Christ's resurrection constitutes the chief corner stone of the christian religion. The reality of Christ's Messiaship, the truth of his doctrine, the available merit of his righteousness, and the efficacy of his atoning blood; the prevalence of his intercession and the power of his grace, all rest

*Rev. v. 9,

upon

his resurrection from the dead. Of such unspeakable moment is this doctrine, that supposing its invalidity, there is no warrant for his people's faith, no foundation for their hopes, no advocate to plead their cause, no pardon for their transgressions, no salvation for their souls. For, saith the Apostle, "If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." The very reverse is, however, the delightful, heart-cheering fact. Christ is risen; and mark, brethren, the deeply interesting consequences.

1. Christ has been sacrificed. He 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 shewn to be of the seed of David, according to the flesh, he has 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, and fasten the conviction on their

* 1 Cor. xv. 17.

+ Rom. i. 3, 4.

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, that Lamb chosen and provided of Jehovah, to be a 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 a 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 burntoffering?" To this affecting interrogation, Abraham replied, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb," which words, whilst they indicated the strength of the Patriarch's confidence in God under the emergency, pointed at the same time 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, trust in the God of thy fathers: mysterious are the ways of his providence, "but his counsels of old are faithfulness and truth;" that faith, which forthe present he puts sharply to the trial, shall at length come forth as gold; and though the way of escape may at present be concealed, yet may we confidently rely on his faithfulness, sooner or later to point it out to us. And know, 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 death and 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, are we 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 sins 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

* Exo. xii. 7.