sympathising with our infirmities and tempta tions, or of a nature too exalted to feel any hearty concern for man. such a notion be admitted. However, let not Son of the Father, respecting whom so great things have been proclaimed, hath rendered Himself a High Priest sufficiently on a level with our necessities, to answer the wishes of the most feeble. For this purpose, He left the bosom of His Father, and the height of heaven, and took upon Him our human nature, and became a stranger and sojourner in the world. Also, He freely conversed with men of every sort, as if evidently to learn their minds and sentiments, and shewed Himself clearly a partaker of all the distresses which pertain to flesh and blood. He endured hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and the other manifold varieties of mortal pain. And His sufferings were not less of the spirit, than of the body: He was sorely grieved, and straitened, and troubled on sundry occasions, during His ministry; and towards the close of it, was a prey to terrible apprehensions, which almost dissolved His frame. In short, there is no kind of trial or temptation, besides His most remarkable temptation in the wilderness, (whereof I cannot here speak particularly,) which Jesus did not submit to endure. Of His Father's good pleasure, and of His own, He entirely assumed our condition, that Christians, as well as Jews, might enjoy the privilege of beholding in their High Priest, one prepared and taken from amongst themselves, a brotherman acquainted by experience with their situation. And, after that He had suffered thus far to win our confidence, He further yielded Himself to be the atoning victim, which His office required of Him to present. Instead of sacrificing bulls and goats every year, and carrying their blood into the "holy places made with "hands," as appointed by the Law, Jesus sacrificed His own body, " once for all," upon the cross; and then "by His own blood entered in 66 once into heaven itself, there to appear in "the presence of God for us," an ever-living Mediator and Intercessor. He ascended up, truly, "whither He was before," and to enjoy "the 66 glory which He had with His Father before the "world was;" (John vi. 62. xvii. 5.) but His sojourn here below, as Son of man, had eminently qualified Him to know our souls in adversity, and to do for them, with a full effect, whatever shall be really conducive to their salvation. His sense of the miseries of this mortal state has not been at all obliterated, nor his concern for those who are still groaning under them, diminished, by His removal from earth to heaven Notwithstanding that He hath been blessed for ever, and can have nothing more in His own person to undergo, " He abideth a Priest continually." (Heb. vii. 3.) 66 66 66 Of Jesus Christ, accordingly, there is no reason to suspect that He cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. In Him In Him you have a High Priest, "who was in all points tempted "like as we are"-" a merciful and a faithful High Priest, who can have compassion on "the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way," (Heb. ii. 17. v. 2.) who hath been afflicted in all our affliction, and hath been voluntarily familiar with all our troubles, not excepting the attempts of Satan, and the violence of evil-doers. Thus far, or by reason of His entire humanity, He is exactly the character whom we should have most desired, to appear before God for us, and to maintain our lot, in the world above. Yet further, observe Him to have been "with"out sin." "The Law maketh men high priests "which have infirmity"-i. e. are guilty of infirmity: it was incumbent on the Jewish high priest to offer sacrifice for his own sins, before he could properly offer for the sins of the people : he had first to propitiate God towards himself. But Jesus-the great and universal High Priest, whom we have over the house of God-had no occasion to do any such thing. That Son of man, being equally the Son of God, kept Himself "holy, harmless, and undefiled," during the whole time of his tribulation, insomuch that the body which God had prepared for Him, was more truly without spot or blemish, than had ever been the body of any former victim. And, whereas the preceding consideration, namely, His having been tempted in all points like ourselves, has been urged in proof of His commiseration, this may no less assure us, at the same time, concerning Jesus, that He is an efficient High Priest. The greatness of His excellency is here suggested, to shew Him most worthy of our confidence. In the man Christ Jesus, unsparingly tempted, "yet without 66 sin," may be noted one able "to deliver His "brother," and to" make agreement unto God "for him." Yea, and that, not only to the extent of forgiveness, but also of conversion and sanctification. Having Him, we have a High Priest who can purify us inwardly, as well as outwardly, from the spiritual guilt and power, no less than from the actual and bodily defilement, of sin. It is written with a view to the dispensation of His gospel,-"This is the cove"nant that I will make with them after those 'days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into "their hearts, and in their minds will I write 66 "them; and their sins and iniquities will I "remember no more." (Hebrews x. 16, from Jeremiah xxxi. 33.) And the Apostle strongly puts it to the Hebrews, or Jews themselves, "If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the "ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, “sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how "much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself "without spot to God, purge your conscience "from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews ix. 13, 14.) Hardly could one express the matter in plainer terms than these, or propose it in a more convincing manner. 66 On the whole, then, by reason that He was both fully tempted after the temptation of a man, and was nevertheless entirely without sin, because of this His truly singular character, Jesus Christ is the very High Priest for our fallen race. He stands prepared to be touched with a feeling of our unhappy condition, and likewise to be our Helper and Refuge -our Strong Hold, whereunto we may always resort-our Purifier, and worthy Deliverer from sin. He, most completely, is a Prince that hath power to prevail both with God and man-the Prince of righteousness and peace. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the "throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, |