tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building: neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Heb. ix. 11, 12.) "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.)

Now if Christ be not viewed by faith as having made himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, then a great part, and indeed the main part of the Mosaic dispensation is rendered senseless, null, and void; for we are explicitly told by St. Paul that the sacrifices, offerings, and other ceremonial rites were "shadows of good things to come." By which he evidently meant that they typified the gospel dispensation. But the sacrifices offered up for the sins of the people, were specially intended to typify Christ, who in the fulness of time was offered up once for all, as the last great, and only efficient sacrifice for the sin of the world.

But if we may not, as Baron Swedenborg would teach us, view Christ as a sacrifice for sin, then we require of the Swedenborgians to tell us what the Mosaic sacrifices were types of: for according to their doctrine those sacrificial types had no antitypes. For ourselves we know of no person nor thing that could possibly be the antitype except

Christ, and this they deny. If this doctrine of the Baron's be true, then poor Moses, or rather silly Moses, made much ado about nothing; for St. Paul says, (Heb. x. 4.) "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Then if those sacrifices were inefficient as to the remission of sins, and at the same time not shadows of better things to come, what were they, and for what purposes could they have been instituted? In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the word atonement occurs forty times; and the word sacrifice in nominal and verbal forms, much oftener; and yet unless we prefer St. Paul's doctrine to that of Swedenborg, they were types without antitypes, and shadows without correspondent substances.

It is evident from the Baron's writings that he had imbibed that old, stale, and often answered deistical argument "that it is both unreasonable and unjust for an innocent man to be put to death for a guilty man; and for one man to be required to pay another man's debts: both these unreasonable things are supposed to be implied in the commonly received opinion of Christ making atonement for the sins of mankind, by the sacrifice of himself, and his dying for the redemption of the world.

To these objections we reply, "That if Jesus

Christ had been forced to lay down his life for mankind, the injustice of the compulsion would be as great as the objectors could wish to make it. But this was by no means the case. There is not one scripture to be found in support of such a supposition. Even an ordinary Christian cannot possibly be such by compulsion: a single act of virtue, to be such, must be voluntary. Now, Jesus Christ "gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time". (I. Tim. ii. 6.) And, says he, "therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John x. 17, 18.) Is there then any hardship or injustice in suffering a man voluntarily to lay down his life for another; and more especially if by so doing he could save many lives? And did not Christ lay down his life to redeem all mankind from the curse of the broken law, and thereby bring them into a salvable state; and finally to save entirely all those who would yield a voluntary submission, by faith and obedience to the gospel dispensation of salvation by grace?

Jesus Christ, and his redemption of mankind, will be the theme and song of all the redeemed, in heaven, for ever and ever. Unto him that

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loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen." (Rev. i. 5, 6.) Now all this praise and adoration would be ill-timed, and indeed misapplied, if the Son of God had not redeemed mankind by a voluntary act. And when it is said in Scripture that, "God gave his onlybegotten son to die for us, &c.", it is only to make us acquainted with the gracious concurrence of Father and Son in the redemption of the world.

Respecting that other objection to the commonly received doctrine, of Christ having paid the debt or penalty which we owed to the Law; they say it is both unjust and cruel to require one man to pay another man's debts. This plea, of course, is admitted provided he that pays the debt be compelled to do so: but it is quite otherwise if the paying of another's debt be voluntary: for it then becomes one of the most meritorious actions a man can perform!

JESUS CHRIST A MEDIATOR, ACCORDING TO THE SWEDENBORGIAN SCHEME.

From the following extract may be gathered the doctrine of the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, according to Baron Swedenborg's theology.

It is written that Moses saw Jehovah face to face, and conversed with him as one man does with another: but this was done by the mediation of an angel, as was the case also with Abraham and Gideon. Now since the nature of God the Father in himself is such, therefore he was pleased to assume to himself the humanity, and in this humanity, to admit mankind to himself, and so to hear them, and converse with them; and this humanity is what is called the Son of God, and it is this which mediateth, intercedeth, propitiateth, and expiateth. I will tell you therefore what those four terms, predicated of the humanity of God the Father, signify. Mediation signifies that the humanity is the medium by which man may come to God the Father, and God the Father to man and thereby be his teacher and guide unto salvation: wherefore the Son of God, by whom is meant the humanity of God the Father, is called Saviour, and on earth Jesus, that is salvation. Intercession signifies perpetual mediation: for true love, whence mercy, clemency, and grace proceed, perpetually intercedeth, that is mediateth, for those who do his commandments, and who are thereby the objects of his love. Expiation signifies the removal of sins, into which man would rush headlong, if he approached the naked Jeho