ページの画像
PDF
ePub

Wifd. xi. 24.
Ezek. xviii.

23, 32.
xxxiii. II.
John x. 11, 16.
Rom. xi. 5.
ix. 27.

O

Merciful God, who haft made all Men, and hateft nothing that thou haft made; nor wouldeft the Death of a Sinner, but rather, that he fhould 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 fo fetch them home, bleffed Lord, to thy Flock, that they may be faved among the Remnant of the true Ifraelites, and be made one Fold under one Shepherd, Jefus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, World without end. Amen.

The EPISTLE.

Heb. x. 1.

I.

"T

HE Law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never with thofe facrifices which they offered year by year
continually, maké the comers thereunto perfect:

2. For then would they not bave ceafed to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged, fhould have had no more confcience of fins.

3. But in thofe 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 he cometh into the world, be faith, Sacrifice and offering thou souldeft not, but a body baft thou prepared me.

6. In burnt-offerings and facrifices for fin thou haft had 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 badft 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 firft, that be may establish the fecond.

10. By the which will we are fanctified, through the offering of the body of Jefus Cbrift, once for all.

11. And every Prieft ftandeth daily miniftring, and offering oftentimes the fame jacrifices, which can never take away fins.

12. But this man, after be bad offered one facrifice for fins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.

13. From henceforth expecting, till his enemies be made his footftool. 14. For by one offering be bath perfected for ever them that are

fanctified.

15. Whereof the Holy Ghoft 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 thofe 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 will I remember no more.

18. Now where remiffion of thefe is, there is no more offering for fin.

19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holieft, by the blood of Jefus,

20. By a new and living way, which be bath confecrated for us, through the vail, that is to fay, his flesh ;

21. And having an high prieft over the boufe of God:

22. Let

[ocr errors]

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 profeffion of our faith without wavering (for be is faithful that promifed.)

24. And let us confider one another, to provoke unto love, and to good works: 25. Not forfaking the affembling of our felves together, as the manner of fome is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye fee the day approaching.

TH

COMMENT.

Epift. for v Sun.

HE Epiftle for this Day, being a Continuation of an Argument carried on in the Chapter foregoing, hath already fallen in great measure, within the Compafs of Two former Difcourfes upon that Subject. For this Reafon it is, that I conceive a Paraphrase of the Words not very neceffary, and that all, I defign to fay at prefent, fhall be fomewhat very briefly, on thefe Two Points.

in Lent.

Epift. for Wednes before Eafter.

I. First, That the Death of Chrift was a true and proper Sacrifice for Sin; And,

II. Secondly, That this Sacrifice was offered by him upon the Crofs.

I. First, I fay, The Death of Chrift 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 Cuftoms, of the Jews, and their Law. Now thence it is certain, that fuch Ceremonies were used, as plainly intimated a Tranflation of Punishment and Guilt, from the Perfon offering, to the thing offered; and an Acceptance of one Life taken away, as fubftituted 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 firft, and then the free transferring of that Property to God, by delivering it to Death, for the Ends and Ufes, fpeciMm 3

fied

[ocr errors]

fied in the Law. And, with Allufion to this Rite it is, that we read of Chrift laying down his 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,

Levit. xvi. 21.

Levit. x. 17.

It is alfo certain, that, in Sin-Offerings, the Party concerned did confefs his Crime over the Sacrifice: Thus, as is expreffed in the Law of the Scape-goat, putting his Tranfgreffions upon the Head of the Beaft: That fuch Beast was afterwards look'd on as unclean; that it conveyed a Legal Impurity to thofe who touched it; as being, in the Eye of the Law, charged with Their Sins, in whofe behalf it was offered. This was the Reafon, why fuch Sacrifices were not to be eaten, as the rest were, by the Offerers, but by the Priests 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 Beafts, 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 thofe very fignificant Paffages, 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 Curfe 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.

Levit. xvi. 27.

Ifai. lii.i 6.

2 Pet. ii. 24.

2 Cor. v. 21.
Gal. iii. 13.
Heb. xiii. 10,11,

12.

Once more.

Levit. xvii. 10,
XI, 12.

It is affigned, 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,

Colof. i. 20.
Luke xxii. 20.

is, that we fo often hear of Redemption
through Chrift's Blood, of Peace made by Rom. iii. 25.
the Blood of his Crofs, that himself men-
tions the New Testament in his Blood, and
the like.

Thefe, and other Places of the fame nature, every confidering Man muft acknowledge it reasonable to interpret, in agreement with thofe in the Old Teftament, to which they fo manifeftly allude. And if fo; it will follow, that Either the Jews themselves had no fuch thing, or else that the Death of Chrift 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 fhew, after what I have had occafion to urge in this Point already.

1 Pet. ii. 22.

2 Cor. v. 21.

1 Pet. iii. 18.

How acceptable to God this Sacrifice was, it is the defign of all thofe 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 himfelf, and then for the People: Or, with reference to the Rules of chufing out the Beft for the Service of the Altar; as when we find him called the Lamb of God without blemish and without fpot, the Lamb, that takes away the Sin of the World, that was Alain from the foundation, of the world; and that offered himself to God without spot, Heb. ix. 14. through the Eternal Spirit.

Heb. vii. 27.

1 Pet. i. 19.

John i. 29.

Rev. xiii. 8.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

The fame Truth is yet more clearly and fully contained, in thofe many Scriptures, which afcribe to Him, a compleat Deliverance from all the Inconveniencies and Miferies, 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.
Matth. xx. 28.
Gal. iii. 13.

Chrift, we are told, bath cancelled the Hand-writing that was against us, nailing it to his Cross. He hath given his Life a Ranfom for many; He hath redeemed us from the Curfe of the Law; He hath bought us with a Price, So that in Him we have Redemption through bis Blood, even the Remiffion of Sins.

1 Cor. vi. 20. Rom. iii. 25.

Have Sinners departed from God, alienated his Affection, and put themfelves in a State, not only of Distance from, but even of Enmity against him? The Aliens and Strangers who were once afar off, are said to be made nigh, by the Blood of Christ; And He hath reconciled us to his Father by the Body of his Flesh through death. For which reafon we find him emphatically ftiled our Peace, because he hath flain this Enmity by his Cross.

Eph. ii. 13, 15, 16.

Rev. i. 5. 1 John i. 7. Heb. ix. 14, x. 29.

Does Sin leave a Stain and Pollution upon the Souls of Men, fuch as renders them odious and loathfome, in the fight of a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity? His Blood is faid to wash us, to cleanfe us from all Sin, to purge our Confciences from dead Works; We are said to be (like the things purified from Legal Uncleanness heretofore) Sprinkled 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 Offering of the Body of Jefus Christ, as the Scri pture now before us exprefsly afferts.

X. 9, 10.

3

Once

« 前へ次へ »