a religious act, by which satisfaction, atonement, or amends, is made for the commission of some crime, the guilt done away, and the obligation to punishment cancelled.

The method of expiation among the Jews was chiefly by sacrifice, whether for sins of ignorance, or to purify themselves from certain pollutions.

Great day of Expiation, an annual solemnity of the Jews, upon the tenth day of the month Tishri, which answers to our September. On this occasion the high-priest laid aside his breast-plate and embroidered ephod, as being a day of humiliation. He first offered a bullock and a ram for his own sins, and those of the priests; priests; then he received from the heads of the people two goats for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, to be offered in the name of the whole multitude. It was determined by lot which of the goats should be sacrificed, and which set at liberty. After this he perfumed the sanctuary with incense, and sprinkled it with blood: then, coming out, he sacrificed the goat upon which the lot had fallen. This done, the goat which was to be set at liberty being brought to him, he laid his hands upon its head, confessed his sins, and the sins of the people, and then sent him away into some desert place: it was called azazel, or the scape-goat.

As to the expiations among the heathens, they were of several kinds, as sacrifices, and religious washings.

a figurative sense, is applied by divines to the pardon procured to mens sins, by the merits of Christ's death.