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    he appeals * trot we must content ourselves with referring to the observations made upon them by Mr . Fox , in his Letters to Dr . Smith , already mentioned . Granting , however , that each tmd all of the few passages which he brings forward , had an original reference to Christ , they do not prove what Dr . Smith alleges them to prove . They may be predictions of Christ without

    affording the slightest evidence that the Mosaic sacrifices were designed representations of his work and office . A prophecy of Christ is one thing ; it is another and totally different thing that in that prophecy the legal sacrifices are asserted to be typical of the sufferings and death of Christ . We are quite satisfied that the passages referred to by Dr . Smith prove no such thing , and we are equally convinced , that if they do not , there is not a passage in the whole Bible that does . " To constitutes type , " says Bishop Marsh ,

    something more is jequisite than a mere resemblance of that which is called its antitype . For one thing may resemble another , when the things themselves are totally unconnected . But it is the very essence of a type to have a necessary connexion with its antitype . It must have been designed , and designed

    from the very beginning , to prefigure its antitype . It implies not an accidental parity of circumstances , but a pre-ordained and inherent connexion between them . " Now in this sense of the word type , we deny that there is anycground for -believing that the sacrifices of the law were typical of the death of Ohrist ; we deny that there is any adequate reason for saying that they were designed and intended to prefigure this event . This denial we make for the reasons that follow . When the Mosaic ritual was delivered to

    the Jews , the instructions respecting sacrifices were numerous and explicit ; but not the most distant thint is ever given by Moses , or by the prophets who came after him , that they were designed to represent the death of Christ . If they had been so designed , if this had been the object of their institution , it is most extraordinary and unaccountable that this object , that this design , should never have been , even in the slightest degree , alluded to in any part of the Old Testament . In answer to this , as it appears to us , very decisive faeL reference : is sometimes made to Hebrews xi . i , where the law is said to

    be a shadow of good things to come . Whatever be the meaning of this passage : , it does not apply to sacrifices particularly , but to the institutions Of the law generally . Of what then were the tabernacle and the altar , and the various utensils used in the service of the tabernacle , typical ? What were they designed to prefigure and represent ? But the plain meaning of this passage , according to Whitby and Spencer , is , that though the law , when we consider the state and circumstances of the Jews , was well adapted to

    conduct them to virtue and happiness ; yet when compared with the sublime andmore perfect dispensation of the gospel , it is but as the shadow in comparison with the ( substance . Against the supposition , then , ( that the Mosaic sacrifices > were typical of the death of Christ , < it is a fatal objection that no such intention , purpose or design , is any where in the Scriptures plainly and explicitly set forth ; and it is equally fatal to this opinion that the dews

    themselves were never led , either by the language of Moses or the prophets , to regard their sacrifices as typical of a future and greater sacrifice . Still more , even the apostles could not have so regarded them , because they did not believe the death of Christ to have been necessary and unavoidable , and hoped , to rthe very last , that this great catastrophe might 'have been prevented . Again , when sacrifices came to be perverted and abased , when an efficacy

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    478 Remew *~ Dr . •/? P . Smith ' s Discourses .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/46/