To him the transition from the Law to the Gospel is perfectly natural and necessary. As the morning dawn passes on into the perfect day, so the Law, having done its preparatory work, merges into the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ; or, to use the author’s own simile, the Law decays, waxes old, and vanishes away just as the glory of the Gospel appears. The one must increase, the other decrease; the type be swallowed up in the antitype. Nothing is discordant; everything fits naturally to its bearings on the other. Moses as lawgiver gives place to the Prophet whom the Lord would raise up to His people. The priesthood of Aaron and his sons is superseded by the High Priesthood of Christ. The blood of animals, which had no inherent healing power—by the blood of Him, who (uniting the Divine and the human—God and Man), “through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God,” “an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour” for the sins of men. The beneficent provisions of the Mosaic laws—of which Moses could say (Deut. iv. 8): “What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?”—give place to the yet purer principles of the Gospel of Christ. Had it not been for the long course of typical sacrifices, continued through so many ages, how would it have been possible in the latter days to establish the value and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ? The sacrificial rites of heathen nations, so degrading to morality and purity of thought and life, would _alone_ have led no one to imagine such a sacrifice as His: although when viewed as corruptions of revealed truth they have, as accessories, a valuable significance. We propose now to look at the intrinsic value of the sacrifices under the Mosaic institutions from the Christian point of view, and the superiority of the sacrifice and religion of Christ, as explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Chapter 1 sets forth that God, who had formerly spoken to men by _Prophets_, has now spoken to us _by His Son_, who, being the brightness of His glory and express image of His person, when He had by Himself _purged our sins_, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Here is the first recognition of the teaching and High Priesthood of Christ. _He speaks to us the things of God_, _and purges away our sins by Himself_ (vers. 1–3). Chapter 2 opens with the exhortation that for this reason we ought to give the more earnest attention to what He taught. {42} Chapter 2 sets forth also that Christ had passed through suffering, in order that He “might be a merciful and faithful _High Priest_ in things pertaining to God, _to make reconciliation for the sins of the people_” (c. ii. 17).