IX.

Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins. For whenever S ER M.
any of the People finned, either a Bullock or
a Goat was commanded to be killed and
offered up to God, as a Satisfaction for the
Sins which fuch Perfon had committed. And
if fuch Offering was made by the Hands of
the Prieft in the Manner which God himself
appointed; the Death of the Sacrifice was
accepted by him inftead of the Death of the
Offender. The Sin was looked upon as tranf
ferred from the Criminal to the Sacrifice;
and the Man was again admitted to be pre-
sent at Divine Worship, in the Tabernacle or
Temple, as freely as he had been before he
had committed the Offence.

And this Sacrifice or Atonement, when
made for any one fingle Perfon, or for one
Family, or for any certain Number of the
People, was not required to be offered
up by
the High Prieft in his own Perfon; but any
of the ordinary Priests might perform it. All
whofe Oblations were accepted by God, in
Behalf of particular Men, or Families, in
Virtue of that one great Sacrifice or Atone-
ment, which the High Prieft himself, once
only, but once conftantly, every Year more
folemnly forefhewed by the Oblation he then
offered for the Sins of the whole People. For

SERM.

IX.

on that one Day of the Year, the great Day of Expiation, when a very folemn Atonement was made for the whole Body of the People in general; no one, the Text fhews, was to offer up the Sacrifice, but the High Prieft alone. And this being the Sacrifice in which the High Priest acted as the livelieft Figure of Christ, and that very Sacrifice by which Chrift's own Sacrifice was most exactly forefhewed; it will be neceffary that I relate to you what it was that the High Priest did on this Occafion, that you may the better understand, from the Sequel of my Discourse, in what our Saviour's Priesthood confifted.

And here we must turn to the 16th of Leviticus, where we read that on the roth Day of the 7th Month, the High Priest, having first prepared both himself and the People for the enfuing Solemnity, by fome additional Sacrifices, which on that Day were all offered by himself; he then came into the outward Court of the Tabernacle, and there with his own Hands killed a Goat, which he had beforehand prefented alive to God, at the Door of the Tabernacle, to die for the People; and there offered it as an Expiation for those manifold Şins, by which the People had forfeited their own Lives to him. By this means thofe Sins

IX.

and the Punishment of them were understood SER M. to be transferred from the People to the Victim the Goat being fubftituted in their Stead, to undergo the Penalty of Death, which the People, for whom he offered it, had then deferved.

This is what the High Prieft did as Reprefentative of the People: And therefore it was done in the outward Court, before the Tabernacle, where the People stood round him, which being the Place where the Altar of Burnt-Offering always ftood, and where the Sacrifices were flain and confumed, was a proper Emblem of that Place and State of Mortality, which all Mankind, in their feveral Turns, inhabit and are in.

But to perfect the Sacrifice, and to gain its Acceptance with the Divine Majefty, the Blood (which is called the Life of the Animal) was prefented in very folemn Manner before the Lord. And therefore in the fecond Place the High Priest, (as a Perfon authorized to appear in the Place of his fymbolical Prefence) when he had killed the Goat, was to take the Blood, and to pass with it, through the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, into the Holy of Holies, i. e. into the inmost or most Holy Place of all; where were the

IX.

SER M. Symbols of the more immediate Presence of God, which confequently was an Emblem of the highest Heavens, into which also none might enter but the High Prieft alone, and he only, upon this Occafion, once a Year. Here was he to fprinkle the Blood of the Sacrifice, Seven Times upon and before the Mercy Seat, which covered the Ark, where the two Tables of the Covenant, i. e. the Ten Commandments, lay. And this fprinkling was a folemn prefenting of the Life of the facrificed Animal to God, and a Rite of pleading and interceding with him, (in Virtue of that Blood it reprefented and forefhewed) to forgive the Sins and Neglects of the People, in the Breach of the Law which was there

laid up.

When this Rite was over, God was deemed to be appeafed, and the People to be cleanfed from all their Sins, (if not as to Confcience, yet at least) as to their Privilege of returning again to the Performance of their legal Ceremonies and Rites. And therefore in the third Place, the High Prieft returned back from the Holy Place, the Prefence of God, where he had been to appeafe him; and pronounced a folemn Bleffing on the People. And from this Time the ordinary Priests might

IX.

again burn Incense for them in the Sanctuary SER M. as ufual, till the Return of the next folemn Day of Atonement, on that Day twelve Month, when the High Priest again must himself renew, and himself perform, and in this fame Manner, this great Expiation.

And this is fufficient to fhew the Nature and Office of the High Priesthood amongst the Jews. It confifted, you fee, in offering a grand and folemn Sacrifice once a Year for the Sins of the People; in interceding with God to take the People into his Favour again for the Sake of that Sacrifice; and in obtaining and conferring the Pardon and Grace, the Favour and Bleffing of God upon them. Not that you are to imagine that the High Priest had Intereft enough of himself, or that the Sacrifice of a poor Beast was of fufficient Value, to appease God for the Sins of Men: No, they, neither of them, availed any further than to reprefent, by God's own Appointment, (as I have already hinted) fome great prevailing Prieft to come, who, in due Time, fhould once for all offer up a full, perfect, and fufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the World; one who should be the true and real High Priest and Sacrifice both; and as Types of whom only all former High Priefts and Sacrifices