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Heavens: A Minifter of the beavenly Sanc-SER M. tuary above, and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not Man, Heb. viii.

I, 2.

But to return down to the High Priest of the Jewish Tabernacle again, we shall find that among the Rites which he was enjoined to perform at his folemn Entrance into the Holy of Holies on the great Day of Expiation; he was to take a Cenfer full of burning Coals of Fire from off the Altar before the Lord, and his Hands full of fweet Incenfe beaten fmall, and bring it within the Vail : And he was to put the Incenfe upon the Fire before the Lord, that the Cloud of the Incenfe might cover the Mercy Seat that is upon the Teftimony, Levit. xvi. 12, 13. Now this Incense has been generally understood to represent the Prayers of the People, or rather to have been a myftical Oblation of those Prayers, which the People were pouring forth in the outward Court, whilft the High Priest was burning the Incenfe in the holy Place. And thus, in like Manner our great High Prieft, the holy Jefus, at the fame Time that he is our Advocate to plead for us to his Father, he is alfo as our Solicitor in all our Suits to the Court of Heaven: He reVOL. II. ceives

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SERM. ceives our Petitions and Addreffes to God, and adding his own Incenfe, i. e. representing them to God as his own, he obtains and procures an Acceptance of them. And this is what Jefus whilft he was upon Earth, told his Disciples he would do for them when he fhould be removed from them into Heaven. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name (faith he) that will I do; that the Father may be glorified in the Son, John xiv. 13. And again, Hitherto have ye afked nothing in my Name: Afk and ye shall receive, that your Foy may be full, chap. xvi. 24. it is, that through him Accefs unto the Father, it is the Mediation of Jefus that hallows and confecrates all our Prayers: It is his Blood alone that purifies all our polluted Supplications, and outcries the Guilt of thofe Sins which always afcends and goes up along with them, and would be a Bar to their entring the Ears of God, did not Jefus present them.

And for this Reason we are faid to have Ephef. ii. 18. For

And thus have I fhewed you how our Lord Jefus, or Chriftian High Priest, was the full, compleat, and perfect Antitype prefigured by the High Priest of the Tabernacle heretofore in the two former Parts of his Miniftration. But the third Part of his

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Miniftry is ftill behind, and not yet fpoken S ER M. to: And that is his reprefenting God to us, as in the Offices already mentioned he is the Reprefenter of us to God. For the Jewish High Prieft, when he had prefented the Blood of the Sacrifice, in a Cloud of Incenfe, before the Lord in the holy Place; he was then authorized to come forth as from God to confer his Grace and Favour and Bleffing upon the People. Aaron was feparated that he should fanctify the most holy Things, he and his Sons for ever, to burn Incense before the Lord, to minifter unto him, and to BLESS in his Name for ever, 1 Chron. xxiii. 13. In like Manner God, having raised up his Son Jefus, fent him to BLESS us in turning away every one of us from our Iniquities, Acts iii. 26. He, as our High Prieft, by presenting his all-fufficient Sacrifice in Heaven, and in the Virtue thereof interceding with the Father continually for us, is authorized by him continually to bless us. He is able, faith the facred Author of my Text, to fave all those to the utmost that come unto God by him, seeing be ever liveth to make Interceffion for them, Heb. vii. 25. Accordingly we find that all the Graces and Favours of God are reprefented in the Books of the New Teftament

SER M. as derived to us through Jefus Chrift our

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Lord. So faith St. Paul, and bleffes God the Father for it. Bleed (faith he) be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who hath bleffed us with all spiritual Bleffings in heavenly Things in Chrift, Ephes. i. 3. Even eternal Life, (which is at once the Foundation and Crown of all) is the Gift of God through Jefus Chrift, Rom. vi. 23. Whence we may certainly infer, that though all the Mercies we receive proceed originally from God the Father, yet they are derived to us through the Son: And that whatever is bestowed upon us by God, is conveyed by the Hand of Jefus Chrift, whom he has conftituted the Distributer of all the Graces and Favours he vouchfafes to bestow upon Mankind. And for this Reafon it is, that we dare not ask any good Thing at the Hands of God, but we conclude our Prayers with fome folemn Claufe, fignifying that we petition in the Name, or for the Sake, or through the Merits of Jefus Chrift our Lord, and Saviour, our Mediator and Redeemer.

And thus you have seen how exactly and punctually Jefus, as the Chrift, or promised Meffiah, as the High Prieft of the true Tabernacle, fulfilled all the Ceremonies and Rites

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of the High Priesthood established by the S ER M. Law, and how truly he was the Substance of which they were but the Shadow. But ftill there remains a Circumstance to be obferved which notes an infinite Difference between them. For whereas the High Priests under the Law repeated thefe Sacrifices every Year, offering them Year by Year continually, although they could not yet make the Comers thereunto perfect, Heb. x. 1. the High Priest of our new Law, after he had offered one Sacrifice for Sins, for ever fat down on the Right Hand of God; by that one Offering baving perfected for ever them that are fanctified, ver. 12, 14. Being himself made perfect first, by his Obedience, though a Son, and by the Things which he suffered, He became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him; being called (or made, or conftituted) of God an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchifedec: Of whom we have many Things to fay, but hard to be uttered, chap. v. 8. hard to us, fince the holy Penman tells us it was fo to himself.

For

many of those whom we preach to, as well as of thofe to whom he wrote, are, it is to be feared, but dull of hearing. For when for the Time ge ought to be Teachers, fome of you