the criminal himself in the world to come. How amiable does God appear in this view ! and how plainly may we see in this very ordinance that " judgment is a strange act," to which he is extremely averse ; and that he is rich in mercy unto all them that call upon him !]
2. Its particular provisions —
[These deserve a minute attention. Some have thought that the heifer which had not drawn in the yoke represented the murderer, the son of Belial, who refused to bear the yoke of God's law ; and that " the rough valley in which he was to be slain, denoted the worthlessness of the criminal's character, or the disagreeableness of the business0." But we apprehend that much more was designed by these particular appointments. The heifer that had not drawn in the yoke represented Christ, who, though he died under the curse of the law, had no previous obligation to do so, but did it voluntarily, giving himself freely for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour d. His death marked the utter excision which the mur- derer deserved ; and the rough valley in which he was beheaded, marked the desolation, which the land itself merited for the transgression that had been committed e. Thus, the victim, the death, the place, all conspired to impress the minds of the be- holders with the malignity of the offence, which required such a sacrifice ; whilst the presence of the priests, which was espe- cially required, (not to officiate themselves, but to overlook and direct the offices of others,) intimated the indispensable neces- sity of seeking pardon precisely in God's appointed way, and not in any method of their own devising f. To this sacrifice was to be added a public profession of their personal innocence, and, at the same time, a public acknowledgment of their national guilt : they must profess their innocence both by an appropriate sign, {washing their hands over the slain heifer,) and an express declaration ; and they must acknowledge their guilt, with earnest supplications for mercy and forgiveness. Thus, namely, by their protestations and petitions, did they shew to all, that, as God would " not hear those who regarded iniquity hi their hearts," so neither would he punish any, who should humble themselves before him in his appointed way. Truly, in this view, the ordinance, though merely judicial, was most interesting and most instructive.]
The mystical import of the ordinance being ex- plained, we proceed,
c See Scott, on the place.
d Compare Numb. xix. 2. and Eph. v. 2.
e See Ps. cvii. 34. and Heb. vi. 8. f Deut. xvii. 8—12.