Old Testament Gospel. - Hebrews iv.2.

Israel, in ancient days,     Not only had a view     Of Sinai in a blaze,     But learnd the Gospel too;     The types and figures were a glass     In which they saw a Saviours face.     The paschal sacrifice,     And blood-besprinkled door,[1]     Seen with enlightend eyes,     And once applied with power,     Would teach the need of other blood,     To reconcile an angry God.     The Lamb, the Dove, set forth     His perfect innocence,[2]     Whose blood of matchless worth     Should be the souls defence;     For he who can for sin atone,     Must have no failings of his own.     The scape-goat on his head[3]     The peoples trespass bore,     And, to the desert led,     Was to be seen no more:     In him our Surety seemd to say,     Behold, I bear your sins away.     Dipt in his fellows blood,     The living bird went free;[4]     The type, well understood,     Expressd the sinners plea;     Described a guilty soul enlarged,     And by a Saviours death discharged.     Jesus, I love to trace,     Throughout the sacred page,     The footsteps of thy grace,     The same in every age!     O grant that I may faithful be     To clearer light vouchsafed to me!