• Forafmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as filver and gold, 'from your vain converfation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Chrift, as of a Lamb without blemish and • without fpot.' And the Parts of his priestly Of fice are two; namely, his Oblation, and his Interceffion. Accordingly, he executes his priestly Office, in his offering a Sacrifice for us, and making Interceffion for us.

The first Part of Chrift's prieftly Office is his Oblation. His Oblation is his once offering up of himself a Sacrifice to fatisfy divine Justice, and reconcile us to God. The Sacrifice he offered to God was himself: Heb. ix. 14. Chrift, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God.' And he himself was the Sacrifice, not in his divine Nature, but in his human Nature: For the divine Nature was not capable of Sufferings properly fo called: Mal. iii. 6. I am the Lord, I change not.' But his whole human Nature, Soul and Body, was the Sacrifice: Heb. x. 10. By the which will we are fanctified, through the offering of the body of Jefus Chrift once for all.' I. liii. 10. 'When thou fhalt make his foul an offering for fin,' &c. His divine Nature was, in that Cafe, the Altar that fanctified the Gift, to its neceffary Value and defigned Effect: Heb. ix. "How much more fhall the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without fpot to God, purge your confcience from dead works to ferve the living God? Com pared with Matth. xxiii. 19. Ye fools, and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar ⚫ that fanctifieth the gift? John xvii. 19. And * for

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for their fakes I fanctify myself, that they alfa might be fanctified through the truth.' He of fered up himfelf to God a real Sacrifice in his human Nature, willingly yielding himself without any Spot of Sin, natural or accidental, to fuffer for Sin to the utmost: Heb. ix. 14. forecited. He was without any natural Spot of Sin, in that he was born perfectly holy: He was without any accidental Spot of Sin, in that he lived perfectly ho ly: And he fuffered for Sin to the utmoft, Rom. viii. 32. 'He fpared not his own Son, but deli 'vered him up for us all;' and that both in Soul and Body, Matth. xxvi. 38. Then faith he unto them, My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unto death. Chap. xxvii. 46. And about the ninth hour Jefus cried with a loud voice, faying, Eli, Eli, lama fabachthani? that is to fay, My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me ?> verf. 50. Jefus, when he had cried again with a 'loud voice, yielded up the ghoft.' He did fo offer himself a Sacrifice only once: «Heb. ix. 28. 'Chrift was once offered to bear the fins of many? And that once offering of himself a Sacrifice, was begun from his Incarnation in the Womb, continu ed through his whole Life, and completed on the Crofs, and in the Grave: Heb. x. 5. Wherefore 'when he cometh Into the world, he faith, Sacri'fice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body ' haft thou prepared me. verf. 7. Then faid I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it written of me) to do thy will, O God.' . lik 2. 3. For he fhall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he ' hath no form nor comeliness: and when we thall fee him, there is no beauty that we should deF

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* fire him. He is defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: and C we hid as it were our faces from him; he was defpifed, and we efteemed him not.' 2 Cor. v. 21. He hath made him to be fin for us, who 'knew no fin.' The holiness then of his Nature, and the Righteoufnefs of his Life, were Parts of the Price of our Redemption, as well as his Suf ferings: Gal. iv. 4. 5. God fent forth his Son 'made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.' And his Sufferings through his whole Life, leffer and greater, were Parts of the Price, as well as his Sufferings on the Crofs, and his lying in the Grave: 1 Pet. ii. 21. Chrift fuffered for us, leaving us • an example, that ye fhould follow his fteps.' Chrift offered himself a Sacrifice but once, because, by that once Offering, the Price of our Redemption was fully paid out: Heb. x. 14. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are fanctified.' And thereby he redeemed or ranfomed us from Guilt, and all Evils following it: Heb. ix: 14. How much more fhall the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without fpot to God, purge your confcience from dead works to ferve the living God?" The End wherefore Chrift offered up himself a Sacrifice, was, to fatisfy divine Juftice, and reconcile us to God: Heb. ix. 28. Chrift was once offered to bear the fins of many.' Chap. ii. 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the fins of the people.' There was Need of reconciling

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conciling us to God, because by Sin we were set at Enmity with God: I. lix. 2. Your iniquities have feparated between you and your God, and your fins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. God had a legal Enmity against us, fuch as a juft Judge hath against a Malefactor, whofe Perfon he may love notwithstanding: Matth. 25..Agree with thine adverfary quickly, whiles 'thou art in the way with him: left at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be caft 'into prifon.' We have naturally a real Enmity against God, inconfiftent with Love to him: Col. i. 21. You were fometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works.' And there could be no Reconciliation between God and us, without a Satisfaction to divine Justice for our Sin: Heb. ix. 22. 23. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without fhedding of blood is no remiffion. It was there'fore neceffary that the patterns of things in the heavens fhould be purified with thefe; but the heavenly things themselves with better facrifices 'than these.' We ourselves could in no wife make that Satisfaction: Rom. v. 6. We were without ftrength. For we could neither make ourselves holy, nor bear the infinite Punishment due to our Sin. But Jefus Chrift did, by offering up himself a Sacrifice, make that Satisfaction truly and really, Matth. xx. 28. The Son of man came to give 'his life a ranfom for many.' Heb. ix. 14. 'How much more fhall the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your confcience from dead works 'to ferve the living God?' and that fully and compleatly:

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compleatly: Heb. ix. 14. forecited. For though Chrift's Sufferings were not infinite in Continuance, yet they were infinite in Value. What made them fo,, was the infinite Dignity of his Perfon, he being God, the Most High: Acts xx. 28. Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.' Phil. ii. 6. 7. 8. Christ Jefus being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no · reputation, and took upon him the form of a * fervant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the crofs.' The Sufferings then of Believers in Chrift, are not laid on them, to fatisfy God's Juftice for their Sins in whole or in part: Pfal. i, ult. Kifs the Son left he be angry, and ye perifh from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little: Bleffed are all they that put their truft in him.' But they are laid on them for their Trial and Correction: 1 Pet. i. 6. 7. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a feafon (if need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perifheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praife, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jefus Chrift.' Heb. xii. 5. My fon, defpife not thou the chaftening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.' Now, the State of the Bufinefs of our Reconciliation with God, as foon as Chrift's offering up himfelf was over, was, that then it was purchafed, the Price of it fully paid: John xix. 30. "When Jefus therefore had received the vinegar, he faid,