4. Then the man, instructed and foreknowing what
was to be, observes the heavenly mysteries, and therefore, according to
the warning, slew the bullock destined by his father to idols, and
himself offered to God another bullock seven years old. Judg. vi. 26. By doing which he most plainly showed
that after the coming of the Lord all Gentile sacrifices should be done
away, and that only the sacrifice of the Lord’s passion should be
offered for the redemption of the people. For that bullock was,
in a type, Christ, in Whom, as Esaias said, dwelt the fulness of the
seven gifts of the Spirit. Isa. xi. 2. This bullock
Abraham also offered when he saw the day of the Lord and was
glad. S. John viii. 56. He it is Who was offered at one
time in the type of a kid, at another in that of a sheep, at another in
that of a bullock. Of a kid, because He is a sacrifice for sin;
of a sheep, because He is an unresisting victim; of a bullock, because
He is a victim without blemish.