"Through our Lord Jesus Christ we have received the "atonement," and "we are reconciled to God by his "death e." "Him God hath set forth to be a propitia❝tion through faith in his blood f." "He is the propitia❝tion for our sins, for the sins of the whole worlds." "We are justified by his blood h," " redeemed to God "by his bloodi," "cleansed from all sin by his blood k," "washed from our sins in his blood1:" and the robes of the saints are washed and made white only in the blood of the Lambm. By himself he "purged our sins "," viz. when he shed his blood upon the cross: and our redemption is through his blood. He hath reconciled us to God by the cross P," in the body of his flesh through death 9.” "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, "not imputing their trespasses unto them." His blood was "shed for many, for the remission of sins $," "and "without shedding of blood is no remission t." It is this "blood of sprinkling" that " speaketh better things than "the blood of Abelv:" and it is by the "blood of Jesus" that men must enter into "the holiest "," as many as enter. I have thrown these texts together without note or comment; for they need none, they interpret themselves. Let but the reader observe, with what variety of expression this great truth is inculcated, that our salvation chiefly stands in the meritorious sufferings of our Saviour Christ. The consideration whereof made St. Paul say, "I determined not to know any thing among you, save "Jesus Christ, and him crucified *:" namely, because this was a most essential article, the very sum and substance of the Gospel. "In these and in a great many "more passages that lie spread in all the parts of the

"New Testament, it is as plain as words can make any "thing, that the death of Christ is proposed to us as our "sacrifice and reconciliation, our atonement and redemption. "So it is not possible for any man, that considers all this, "to imagine, that Christ's death was only a confirmation "of his Gospel, a pattern of a holy and patient suffering "of death, and a necessary preparation to his resurrec❝tion.-By this all the high commendations of his death "amount only to this, that he by dying has given a vast "credit and authority to his Gospel, which was the pow"erfullest mean possible to redeem us from sin, and to re"concile us to God. But this is so contrary to the "whole design of the New Testament, and to the true "importance of that great variety of phrases, in which "this matter is set out, that at this rate of expounding "Scripture we can never know what we may build upon; 66 especially when the great importance of this thing, and "of our having right notions concerning it, is well con"sideredy."

The least that we can infer from the texts above mentioned is, that there is some very particular virtue, merit, efficacy, in the death of Christ, that God's acceptance of sinners, though penitent, (not perfect,) depended entirely upon it. Common sacrifices could never "make the "comers thereunto perfect:" but it was absolutely necessary that the heavenly things should be purified with some better sacrifice a. Which is so true, that our Lord is represented as entering into the holy of holies (that is heaven)" by his own blood b," where he ever liveth "to make intercession for" those that "come unto God by him." The efficacy even of his intercession above

▾ Bishop Burnet on Article II. p. 70, 71.

z Hebr. x. 1.

a Hebr. ix. 23.

b Hebr. ix. 12. Note, it is not only said that Christ entered into heaven by his own blood, but he is there also considered as the Lamb slain : Rev. v. 6. Which farther shows wherein principally the virtue of his intercession consists.

< Hebr. vii. 25. conf. Rom. viii. 33, 34. Hebr. ii. 17. ix. 24. 1 John ii. 2.

(great and powerful as he is) yet depends chiefly upon that circumstance, his having entered thither by "his own "blood;" that is to say, upon the merit of his death and passion, and the atonement thereby made. His intercession belongs to his priestly office, and that supposes the offering before made: for there was a necessity that he should have somewhat to offer d," and nothing less than himself. Seeing therefore that, in order to our redemption, Christ suffered as a piacular victim, (which must be understood to be in our stead,) and that there was some necessity he should do so, and that his prevailing intercession at God's right hand now, and to the end of the world, stands upon that ground, and must do so; what can we think less, but that some very momentous reasons of justice or of government (both which resolve at length into one) required that so it should be. We are not indeed competent judges of all the reasons or measures of an all-wise God, with respect to his dealings with his creatures; neither are we able to argue, as it were, beforehand, with sufficient certainty, about the terms of acceptance, which his wisdom, or his holiness, or his justice, might demand. But we ought to take careful heed to what he has said, and what he has done, and to draw the proper conclusions from both. One thing is plain, from the terms of the first covenant, made in Paradise, that Divine wisdom could have admitted man perfectly innocent to perfect happiness, without the intervention of any sacrifice, or any Mediator: and it is no less plain, from the terms of the new covenant, that there was some necessity (fixed in the very reason and nature of things) that a valuable consideration, atonement, or sacrifice, should be offered, to make fallen man capable of eternal glory f.

d Hebr. viii. 3. v. 1.

• Hebr. ix. 14, 25, 26, 28. Compare i. 3.

f Si non fuisset peccatum, non necesse fuerat filium Dei agnum fieri, nec opus fuerat eum in carne positum jugulari, sed mansisset hoc quod in principio erat, Deus verbum: verum quoniam intravit peccatum in hunc mundum, peccati autem necessitas propitiutionem requirit, et propitiatio non fit

The truth of the thing done proves its necessity, (besides what I have alleged from express Scripture concerning such necessity,) for it is not imaginable that so great a thing would have been done upon earth, and afterwards, as it were, constantly commemorated in heaven 8, if there had not been very strong and pressing reasons for it, and such as made it as necessary, (in the Divine counsels,) as it was necessary for a God of infinite perfection to be wise and holy, just and good. When I said, constantly commemorated in heaven, I had an eye to Christ's continual intercession h, which is a kind of commemoration of the sacrifice which he once offered upon the cross, and is always pleading the merit of. Which shows still of what exceeding great moment that sacrifice was, for the reconciling the acceptance of sinful men, with the ends of Divine government, the manifestation of Divine glory, and the unalterable perfection of the Divine attributes. And if that sacrifice is represented and pleaded in heaven by Christ himself, for remission of sins, that shows that there is an intrinsic virtue, value, merit in it, for the purposes intended: and it shows farther, how rational and how proper our Eucharistical service is, as commemorating the same sacrifice here below, which our Lord himself commemorates above. God may reasonably require of us this humble acknowledgment, this self-abasement, that after we have done our best, we are offenders still, though penitent offenders, and have not done all that we ought to have done; and that therefore we can claim no

nisi per hostiam, necessarium fuit provideri hostiam pro peccato. Origen. in Num. Hom. xxiv. p. 362.

8 Est ergo duplex, ut legalium quarundam victimarum, ita Christi oblatio, prior mactationis, altera ostentionis legalium victimarum; prior peracta in templo, altera in ipso penetrali : Christi prior in terris, posterior in cœlo. Prior tamen illa non sacrificii præparatio, sed sacrificium: posterior non tam sacrificium, quam sacrificii facti commemoratio. Grot. de Satisfact.

in fine.

h Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, (which are the figures of the true,) but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebr. ix. 24.

thing in virtue of our own righteousness considered by itself, separate from the additional virtue of that all-sufficient sacrifice, which alone can render even our best services accepted i.

If it should be objected, that we have a covenant claim by the Gospel, and that that covenant was entirely owing to Divine mercy, and that so we resolve not our right and title into any strict merits of our own, but into the pure mercy of God, and that this suffices without any respect to a sacrifice: I say, if this should be pleaded, I answer, that no such covenant claim appears, separate from all respect to a sacrifice. The covenant is, that persons so and so qualified shall be acceptable in and through Christ, and by virtue of that very sacrifice which he entered with into the holy of holies, and by which he now intercedes and appears for us. Besides, it is not right to think, nor is it modest or pious to say, that in the economy of every man's salvation, the groundwork only is God's, by settling the covenant, and the finishing part ours, by performing the conditions; but the true order or method is for our Lord to be both the Author and Finisher of the whole. The covenant, or rather, the covenant charter, was given soon after the fall to mankind in general, and has been carried on through successive generations by new stipulating acts in every age: so likewise was the atonement made (or considered as made) once for all, but is applied to particulars, or individuals, continually, by means of Christ's constant abiding intercession. Therefore it is not barely our performing the conditions, that finishes our salvation, but it is our Lord's applying his merits to our performances that finishes all. Perhaps this whole matter may be more clearly represented by a distinct enumeration of the several concurring means to the same end. 1. The Divine philanthropy has the first hand in our salvation, is the primary or principal cause. 2.

i See our XIth Article, with Bishop Burnet's Notes upon it, and Mr. Welchman's.