Wisd. xi. 24. 23, 32. Merciful God, who hast made all Men, and hateft nothing that thou hast made; nor wouldest the Death of a Sinner, but rather, that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels and Hereticks; and take from them all Ignorance, Hardness of Heart, and Contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, bleffed Lord, to thy Flock, that they may be saved among the Remnant of the true Ifraelites, and be made one Fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, World without end. Amen. I. T The EPISTLE. Heb. x. 1. HE Law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those facrifices which they offered year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect: by year 2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged, should have had no more confcience of fins. 3. But in those facrifices there is a remembrance again made of fins every year. 4. For it is not poffible, that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away fins. 5. Wherefore when be cometh into the world, be faith, Sacrifice and offering thes wouldeft not, but a body baft thou prepared me. 6. In burnt-offerings and facrifices for fin thou baft bad no pleasure. 7. Then faid I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to de thy will, O God. 8. Above when be faid, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and offering for fin thou wouldeft not, neither badst pleasure therein, which are offered by the Law: 9. Then faid be, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God: He taketh away the first, that be may establish the second. TO. By the which will we are fan&tified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Cbrift, once for all. 11. And every Prieft standeth daily ministring, and offering oftentimes the same facrifices, which can never take away fins. 12. But this man, after be bad offered one facrifice for fins, for ever fat down on the right hand of God. 13. From benceforth expecting, till bis enemies be made bis footstool. 14. For by one offering be batb perfected for ever them that are fanctified. 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost alfo is a witness to us: for, after that be bad faid before, 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, faith the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them: 17. And their fins and iniquities quill I remember no more. 18. Now where remiffion of these is, there is no more offering for fin. 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest, by the blood of Jesus, 20. By a new and living way, which be bath confecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, bis flesh; 21. And baving an bigh prieft over the bouse of God: 22. Let 22. Let us draw near with a true beart in full assurance of faith, having our bearts sprinkled from an evil confcience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for be is faithful that promised.) 24. And let us confider one another, to provoke unto love, and to good works : 25. Not forfaking the afssembling of our felves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye fee the day approaching. T COMMENT. HE Epistle for this Day, being a Continuation of an Argument carried on in the Chapter foregoing, hath already fallen in great measure, within the Compass of Two former Difcourses Epift. for v Sun. in Lent. Epift. for Wadnes. before Eafter. upon that Subject. For this Reason it is, that I conceive a Paraphrase of the Words not very necessary, and that all, I design to say at present, shall be somewhat very briefly, on these Two Points. I. First, That the Death of Christ was a true and proper Sacrifice for Sin; And, II. Secondly, That this Sacrifice was offered by him upon the Cross. I. First, I fay, The Death of Christ was a true and proper Sacrifice for Sin. The best Light we can have concerning Matters of this Nature, is derived from the Ordinances and Customs, of the Jews, and their Law. Now thence it is certain, that such Ceremonies were used, as plainly intimated a Translation of Punishment and Guilt, from the Person offering, to the thing offered; and an Acceptance of one Life taken away, as substituted in the place of another, which, by the Law, was looked upon, as forfeited. To this Purpose the Owner of the Beast, devoted to the Altar, by bringing, and laying his Hands upon the Head of it, did thus declare his Property first, and then the free transferring of that Property to God, by delivering it to Death, for the Ends and Uses, speciMm 3 fied ! fied in the Law. And, with Allusion to this Rite it is, that we read of Christ laying down bis Life, giving himself for us, offering his own Body a Sacrifice for Sin; and many other Paffages of like Importance. 1 John iii. 16. Tit. ii. 14. Heb. x. 9, 10, It is also certain, that, in Sin-Offerings, the Party concerned did confefs his Crime over the Sacrifice: Thus, as is expressed in the Law of the Scape-goat, putting bis Transgressions upon Levit. xvi. 21. the Head of the Beast: That such Beast was afterwards look'd on as unclean; that it conveyed a Legal Impurity to those who touched it; as being, in the Eye of the Law, charged with Their Sins, in whose behalf it was offered. This was the Reafon, why such Sacrifices were not to be eaten, as the reft were, by the Offerers, but by the Priests Levit. x. 17. Levit. xvi. 27. only. They were esteem'd, in this regard, Mediators between God and his People; and their Confumption of it teftified God's Acceptance, and the Abolition of the Sin. This again is the Caufe, why the Bodies of the Beasts, offered in the most folemn Occafions of this kind, were carried out, and burned without the Camp. All which are Ceremonies neceffary to be attended to, for a right understanding of those very fignificant Passages, which speak of God's laying on Chrift the Iniquities of us all, of his bearing our Sins in his own Body, of his being made Sin, and a Curse for us, of his fuffering without the Gate of the City, in Conformity to the Bodies burnt without the Camp, and of our having a Sin-offering, of which the Jews have no right to eat. Ifai. lii.i 6. 2 Pet. ii. 24. 12. Once more. Levit. xvii. 10, It is assigned, as a Reason for prohibiting the Ufe of Blood in common Food, that this was given upon the Altar to make an Atonement for their Souls; And hence it is, is, that we so often hear of Redemption through Christ's Blood, of Peace made by the Blood of his Cross, that himself mentions the New Testament in his Blood, and the like. Rom. iii. 25. These, and other Places of the same nature, every confidering Man must acknowledge it reasonable to interpret, in agreement with those in the Old Testament, to which they so manifestly allude. And if fo; it will follow, that Either the Jews themselves had no such thing, or else that the Death of Christ was a true, and proper Sacrifice. More truly fuch indeed, than any of Theirs. As it actually conveyed the Benefits, which Those could not; As its Virtue was Inherent, Theirs only Relative; And as it is the Substance, of which Theirs were Shadows and Representations. For, that Those were no better, hath been largely proved before: That This was not only a true and proper, but a fufficient Sacrifice and Satisfaction, a very few Words will fuffice to shew, after what I have had occafion to urge in this Point already. 1 Pet. ii. 22. 2 Cor. v. 21. Pet. iii. 18. How acceptable to God this Sacrifice was, it is the design of all those Texts to inform us, which declare his perfect Innocence. And this is done, either in plain Terms; Such as doing and knowing no Sin; Suffering, the just for the unjust; Not needing, as other Priests, to offer first for bimSelf, and then for the People: Or, with reference to the Rules of chusing out the Best for the Service of the Altar; as when we find him called the Lamb of God without blemish and without spot, the Lamb, that takes away the Sin of the World, that was lain from the foundation, of the world; and that offered himself to God without spot, through the Eternal Spirit. Mm 4 Heb. vii. 27. 1. Pet. i. 19. John i. 29. Rev. xiii. 8. Heb. ix. 14. The The fame Truth is yet more clearly and fully contained, in those many Scriptures, which ascribe to Him, a compleat Deliverance from all the Inconveniencies and Miseries, which Sin is any where charged with bringing upon Mankind. Is the Sinner in Debt to the Law, and, like Bankrupts of old, or Criminals under Condemnation, liable to be given up to the Tormentors? Colof. ii. 14. Christ, we are told, bath cancelled the the Curse of the Law; He hath bought us with a Price, So that in Him we have Redemption through bis Blood, even the Remission of Sins. Have Sinners departed from God, alienated his Affection, and put themselves in a State, not only of Distance from, but even of Enmity against him? The Aliens and Strangers who were once afar off, are faid to be made nigh, by the Blood of Christ; And He hath reconciled us to his Father by the Body of bis Flesh through death. For which reason we find him emphatically stiled our Peace, because he hath flain this Enmity by his Cross. Eph. ii. 13, 15, 16. Does Sin leave a Stain and Pollution upon the Souls of Men, such as renders them odious and loathsome, in Rev. i. 5. x. 29. the fight of a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity? His Blood is said to wash us, to cleanse us from all Sin, to purge our Confciences from dead Works, We are faid to be (like the things purified from Legal Uncleanness heretofore) fprinkled and fanctified, by this Blood of the Covenant, and by that Will of God, which removed the many imperfect Levitical, that he might establish this one perfect Evangelical, Purification; Even the Offer X. 9, 10. ing of the Body of Jesus Christ, as the Scri pture now before us exprefsly afferts. 3 Once |