II.

SERM how can it be thought, that others fhould have Commiffion to offer it, were it poffible they could do fo? Celebrated it may, and must be to the Honour of our dear Redeemer and for the Good of our Souls; but repeated it cannot be: For then must Chrift have often fuffered (y).

Or this the Holy Scriptures ftrive to give us the ftrongeft Conviction, in teftifying, that we are fanctified through the Offering of the Body of Jefus Christ once for all (z) чово поче once in the End of the World bath appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself (a). And every Priest under the Law food daily miniftring and offering oftentimes the fame Sacrifices, which could never take away Sins : But this Man, after be bad offered one Sacrifice for Sins, for ever fat down on the Right Hand of God (b), appearing with the moft exalted Dignity in the intimate, fpecial, and glorious Prefence of the Father for us, and becoming our Advocate in Heaven, as he had been our Priest and our Sin-offering upon Earth. From whence the Argument we are upon, receives no fmall addition of Force;

(y) Heb. ix. 26.
(a) Heb. ix. 26.

(z) Heb. x. 10.

(b) Heb. x. 11, 12.

Force; and for this Reafon he is able to SERM. Save to the uttermost them that come unto II. God by him,----feeing be ever liveth to make

(c). After

fame he entered

Interceffion for them (c). After he had ex-
preffed his Affection in the most aftonishing
Manner by washing us from our Sins in his
own Blood (d), with the
within the Vail into the holy Places not
made with Hands, which are the Figures of
the true (e), where he, who was our Priest
to Sacrifice, is alfo our Mediator to plead
for us fo prévalently, that nothing can be
conceived to be wanting to render his Atone-
ment infinitely fufficient in all its Parts.

AND had not our Enemies of the Popish Perfuafion been quite blinded with the Love of Power, or the Love of Riches, they could not have overlooked fo glaring a Truth. Had they confidered, that the Saviour of the World is the only Interceffor, and that it is in Virtue of his meritorious Blood-fhedding, he mediates between God and Man, they would never have introduced likewife into their religious Offices the Invocation of Saints, with a View of prevailing with them to act as their Sol

(c) Heb. vii. 25. (e) Heb. ix. 24.

F 4

(d) Rev. i. 5.

licitors

SERM. licitors in the Court of Heaven, and to hand their Petitions to the Throne of Grace.

up

BUT if they either will not fee, or will not acknowledge their idolatrous Superstitions,---if they are determined impiously to worship their Fellow-creatures, whom they ought only refpectfully to esteem, let us however be upon our Guard, left we be beguiled into the like falfe Belief or evil Practice And if they will not be converted from the Error of their Ways, let them not pervert us,---let them neither awe us by their Terrors, nor deceive us by their Sophiftry.---Let us hold faft Chrift our Head, and adhere religiously to him both in his facrificial and his mediatorial Capacity ;---let us preferve our Faith pure, and our Liberty found, but let us not refuse them our Charity,---let us allow to them, what they deny to us, the Poffibility of having a Share even in that Satisfaction, which they fo propfanely depreciate.

LASTLY, Whilft we contend that Chrift's Ranfom is fufficient, we cannot confiftently reject its being univerfal. The one confequentially follows from the other, nor can

any

any tolerable Reafon be affigned, why what SERM. is effectual for all, fhould not be extended II. to all.

YET many, and fome otherwife pious Perfons have there been fo felfifh in their Notions, fo ftraitened in their Bowels, as to confine Christ's merciful Intentions to themfelves, and those who are Abettors of their diftinguishing Principles, and preclude therefrom all others, even fuch, as zealously defend ail, and no more than, the common avowed Doctrines of Christianity. If this Limitation of the grand Atonement arises from a limitted brotherly Love, it is a very uncharitable and criminal Sentiment, and fhews, how much the Maintainers need an Interest in a Redeemer's Merits, which they will divide with none befides: Cr, if it fprings from a Narrowness of Thought and a Mifapprehenfion of the Terms, on which our Saviour's Satisfaction is tendered, it is then to be pittied, but not embraced; fince it is an irrefragable Proof of Man's weak Side, and of a Proneness to mistake, as often as he looks into the holy Oracles with a prejudiced Mind.

BUT

SERM.
II.

BUT thefe Prepoffeffions are not a little worn off: And Truth has got Ground on this Side, how much foever it may have loft on others. Neither is this to be wondered at, seeing it must be very difficult to refift the Force and Clearnefs, with which the infpired Scriptures fpeak to our Purpose: When they tell us, as in the Text, that Chrift gave himself a Ransom for all, and elsewhere, that he died for all (f),---tafted Death for every Man (g),---was the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World (b),--and on him were laid the Iniquities of us all (i):

MORE Teftimonies I fhall not trouble myfelf and you with heaping together, where they cannot be wanted to convince every one, not influenced by his own Prejudices beyond God's Word, concerning the Extenfiveness of Chrift's Satisfaction. We may not, without a Reflection on the Divine Goodnefs, as "we have no Authority from Revelation to, deny the Benefit of it to any: Yet People may debar themselves of it. For as it is reached out to all without Ex

ception,

(f) 2 Cor. v. 15.
(b) 1 St John ii. 2.

(g) Heb. ii. 9.

(i) Ifai. liii. 6.