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SER M. were accepted. It will be neceffary there

IX.

fore in the next Place, in order to prove that the High Priest fo reprefented is really comb and that Jefus was he, to proceed to the M

II. SECOND Head of my Difcourfe, un der which I am to fhew, how Jefus, as the Mefiah or Chrift, did affume and perform and finifh all which that Priesthood prefigured.

Inn b And here firft we muft obferve that according to the Law of Mofes, the High Priesthood was an Honour which no Man ever took unto himfelf; but he that was called of God, as was Aaron, Heb. v. 4. This made it neceffary, that even Jefus himself (especially as he was none of Aaron's Family or Tribe) fhould be called and appointed by God him, felf. And therefore the Holy Penman immediately fubjoins: So alfo Chrift glorified not himself to be made an High Priest; but he that faid unto him, Thou art my Son, to Day have I begotten thee, ver. 5. His Commission and Authority therefore must be uncontefted, being fo much clearer than the Commiffion of any High Prieft before him (Aaron and his Sons alone excepted) as his Appointment was by the folemn Nomination, and Oath also, (as we fhall fee hereafter) of God himself.

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And as he was thus duly appointed our S ER M. High Prieft, fo did he alfo as duly fulfill those several Offices, which the High Priest was used to perform. For was the High Prieft ordained (on the great Day of Atonement most especially) to offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins? And therefore was it of Neceffity (as the Holy Penman affirms it was, Chap. viii. 3.) that this Man (our High Priest of the New Teftament) have fomewhat also to offer? If it was,-we shall find in the Sequel, that fomewhat he had; and fomewhat infinitely preferable to what the Jewish High Priest could bring..

For what brought he, upon this great Occafion, for himself and the People, but a Bullock and a Goat? Whereas the Author of my Text gives us to understand, that it is not poffible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats fhould take away Sins, chap. x. 4. i.e. fhould take them away fo, as that no further Sacrifice fhould be needful to that End: It could not make the Comers unto fuch Sacrifice perfect, ver. 1. It could not expiate their Sins for ever; fo far from it, that their legal Atonements were forced to be renewed every Year, ver. 3. Neither could they make him that did the Service perfect, as pertaining

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SER M. pertaining to their Confcience; for those Offerings food only in Meats and Drinks and divers Wafhings, and carnal Ordinances only, and imposed only until the Time of Reforma tion, chap. ix. 9, 10. at the coming of the Meffias, who was expected with a better and more fufficient Sacrifice. Confequently if our Christian High Priest, when he came, had offered only the Blood of a Bull and a Goat, Mankind muft have continued in the fame Cafe they had been in before. For the Infufficiency of the Offering could never have been removed by the Dignity of the Offerer. The transcendent Excellency of the Prieft could never have altered the Difproportion between the Juftice of God provok, ed by the Sins and Tranfgreffions of Mankind, and the Death of a filly Beast in their ftead. For in this Cafe it would not have been the offending Nature that fuffered, but a Nature much inferior, and withal innocent.

However fince, by the Appointment of God himself, all Things were by the Law purged with Blood, and without fhedding of Blood was no Remiffion; the Sacrifice of the High Priest under the Law must fignify, that our High Priest must also make the Expiation and Atonement by shedding of

Blood.

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Blood. But what Blood it should be, was SER M. left to that High Prieft himself to explain: Wherefore when he cometh into the World, he faith, Sacrifice and Offering, and BurntOfferings, and Offerings for Sin thou wouldest not, neither badft Pleasure in thofe Things which were offered by the Law; but a BoDr. haft thou prepared me: And lo, I come to do thy Will, O God, Ch. x. 5.-9. His own Death and his own Blood therefore was what the legal Sacrifices forefhewed: For which Reason when we are comparing the one with the other, we must always remember that our Lord is as well the Sacrifice as the Prieft. Our Sacrifice in refpect of his human Nature, our Prieft in Virtue of his Divine: Our Priest in that Nature which came down from Heaven, Lo, I come (in the Volume of the Book it is written of me) to do thy Will, O God, compare Pfalm xc. 6.-8. Or Sacrifice in that Nature which he affumed when he came, that Body which was prepared for him, that human Body, without Blemish and without Spot.

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This human Nature perfonally united to him, did the Divine Perfon of the Son of God offer to his Father upon the Altar of the Cross. And this is what the holy Penman means when he asks in the Words immediately

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SER M. immediately following my Text, If the Blood of Bulls and of Goats, and the Afbes of an Heifer Sprinkling the Unclean, fanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh; how much more Shall the Blood of Chrift, who through the eternal Spirit, (i. e. by his own eternal Spirit or Divine Nature,) offered himself without Spot to God, purge their Conscience from dead Works to ferve the living God? Upon this Account of his offering his Blood through his Divine Nature he is called God by St. Peter in the very Act of the Oblation of his Blood for the Redemption of his Church. Feed the Church of God (faith that Apoftle to the Ephefians) which he (which God) bath purchafed with his own Blood, Acts xx. 28. For though it was the human Nature only that fuffered, yet fince this was perfonally united to the Divinity of our Lord, therefore, by Reafon of this admirable Union, and the Reflection of the Divinity upon the Humanity of our Saviour, what was done to his human Nature only, is afcribed to his whole Perfon, to the whole God-Man. And therefore the Princes of the World are faid to have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8.

Having now feen,
Prieft, had a Body

how Jefus, as our prepared for him, a Sacrifice

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