In tlic first place, it must have tended in no small
degree to discix)line the Jews to obedience, and remind
them of their obligations to God, and greatly to impress
them with a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
and the hoUnrss of God. It was a declaration on hi»
part, and an acknowledgmei^t on their part, that the just
penalty of sin was death. Such were the immediate
moral efftcts of the system of animal sacrifice.
But, in the second place, Jehovah clearly intended
something more than this. The whole ceremonial law was
typical, and was designed by him with special reference to
a future time and future circumstances. '* The law," says
Paul, ** was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," who
is declared to be ** the end of the law," etc.
Again, the same inspired writer says the '* law was a-
sJuidow of good things to come." Since there is necessarily
some resemblance between the shadow and the thing
shadowed in the natural world, so these " coming events'*
must bear some resemblance to those shadows; and the
infinite, omniscient mind alone could draw that shadowy
outline of that glorious system of realities in the future.
Hence, He is the author of both the law and the gospel.
And while by drawing, in miniature, a picture of truths
and thus aiding their faith, and directing it to the great
saciifice of His own dear Son, the Antitype, he plainly
shows that this great plan was fore-ordained, and can not
be regarded as a casual circumstance. And, as in this
mi niature plan, the doctrine of redemption by substitution.
