Reflections on the Readiness of CHRIST to be our Sacrifice.

SINCE

IMPROVEMENT.

ས

89

INCE the Shadows are now fled away, and the Subftance is Ver. 1. come; fince the moft fubftantial Bleffings are bestowed by the Gofpel; let us celebrate the Praises of him, by whom we have received them; of him, who fo chearfully prefented himself a fpotlefs Sacrifice to GOD for us. In the Body which GOD hath prepared Ver. 5. for him, he fulfilled all Righteousness, and made a most perfect Atonement: In that he, once for all, made full Expiation for the Sins of his People, having no Sin of his own to expiate: And Oh! with what grateful Emotions of Heart fhould we commemorate his Love; reflecting, that when all other Sacrifices would have been vain, he fhould fo readily cry out, Lo, I come, I delight to do thy Will, Ver. 7. O GOD; when that Will of his heavenly Father was, that his Body should be offered in fo painful and so tragical a Manner! With fuch Readiness let us too concur in every Intimation of the Divine good Pleasure: Let us, like the Blessed Man whom David defcribed, not only fear the Lord, but delight greatly in his Commandments. (Pfal. cxii. 1.) and labour that the Law of GOD may be infcribed on our Hearts, and the Characters grow larger and deeper there. This fhall please GOD better than the moft coftly Sacrifices, even of his own Ritual; better than any whole Burnt-offering, and Sin- Ver. 8. offering, though it were an Ox, or a Bullock, which hath Horns and Hoofs. Pfal. Ixix. 31.

May we be fo fanctified through the Sacrifice of Chrift, accord- Ver. 10. ing to the Will of GOD, that we may approach the Divine Being with Acceptance. And may we daily be looking to Jefus as fat down at his Father's right Hand, where he waits till his Enemies Ver. 12, 13. are made his Footstool. Let us likewife expect that great Event in full Affurance of Faith. Let our Affections be there where Jefus fits; and let us live in chearful Confidence, that the Saviour, in whose Cause we are engaged, will finally appear triumphant over all bis Enemies, and ours.

Amen.

VOL. VI.

M

SECT.

Sect. 14.

Where there is Remiffion, there needs no more Sacrifice:

SE C T. XIV

The Apostle urges Chriftians to improve the Privileges which fuch an High-Prieft and Covenant gave them, to the Purposes of a fiducial Approach to GOD, a conftant Attendance on his Worship, and a benevolent Love to each other. Heb. X. 15,-25.

HEBREWS X. 15.

HEBREWS X. 15.

Hereof the Holy Ghoft W alfo is a Witness to

us: for after that he had

16 This is the Covenant that I will make with them

after thole Days, faith the Lord; I will put my Laws. into their Hearts, and in their Minds will I write

them:

Have fpoken of Chrift, as having by one Offering of himself for ever perfected Heb. X. 15. thofe that are fanctified; And this is a Re- faid before, prefentation very agreeable to the Word of GOD; for even the Holy Ghoft teftifieth to us (a) in that Paffage (Jerem. xxxi. 33 &c.) which I have quoted above, after having before 16 faid, This [is] the Covenant, which I will make with them after thofe Days, faith the Lord; I will give my Laws to be written on their Hearts; I will also infcribe them upon their Minds: My Holy Spirit fhall work in them cordial Difpofitions humbly to practife and obey them: He adds in Confequence of this, their Sins and their Tranfgreffions, how many and aggravated foever they may have been, I will never re18 member any more. But where there is] fach an entire Remifion of thefe, as this great Amnesty, this univerfal Pardon implies, which wipes out the very Remembrance of alf Offences, [there is no more Room for any Sacrifice for Sin, which implies that they are remembered, and remain to be expia.ed.

17

This

17 And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember (no more. As off of

18 Now, where Remif fion of thefe is, there is no

more Offering for Sim Hut

Svil zu gel bus gain arrows po

(a) Teflifieth to us.] Or, as it might be rendered, bears Witness with us, that is, afJents to, and confirms by his Teftimony what I have faid; in which Senfe the Original Word is ufed, as Raphelius hath fhown, by feveral Greek Clafficks.

032

fb) New

Therefore we should draw nigh through the Blood of Jefus: 91

Heb. X. 19:

This therefore, my dear Brethren, is now Sect. 14. our happy Cafe; and let us endeavour to enjoy and improve it aright. Having fuch Liberty to enter into the holy Places by the Ef ficacy of this atoning Blood of Jesus; [Having that] new-difcovered and ever-living 20 Way (b), which he hath confecrated for us, through the Vail (c), that is, by Means of bis Flesh, or of that human Nature in which he hath vailed his divine Glories, and to which it ever becomes us to pay a Regard in our Accefs to GOD; And [having] 21 alfo fuch a great and glorious Prieft over the House of GOD, who most faithfully manages his Father's Concerns, and bears a moft tender Regard to ours; us not ftand at a Distance, as if GoD were inacceffible; but, on the contrary, let us draw near with a fincere and affectionate Heart, in the full Afurance of Faith, fupported by fuch Confiderations as thefe, which may well embolden us, (confcious as we are of our own Unworthiness,) to make our Approach unto him in the most chearful Expectation of his Bleffing. Only let us take Care that this Approach be made in a regular and proper Manner, as eyer we defire to meet with divine Fayour and Acceptance; particularly, as the Wa

Let 22

ter

(b) New and living Way.] Dr. Owen illuftrates this by obferving, that the Blood of other Sacrifices was to be used immediately upon its Effufion; for if it were cold and congealed, it was of no Ufe to be offered or fprinkled: But the Blood of Chrift is, as it were, always warm, having the fame Spirit of Life and Sanctification moving in it. So that the Way of Approach by it is faid to be (woa xas @pooparos, living, yet, (putting it for Christ who is the Way,) always, as it were, newly flain. See Owen on the Spirit, pag. 386.

(c) The Vail.] It is well known, that the Vail was a Curtain feparating the holy from the most holy Place. The Prieft could not pafs to the Sanctuary, unless he paffed through it; fo Christ could not pafs into Heaven as our High-priest, till he had taken human Flesh in his Way; and till it had been, as it were, put afide by Death, And I cannot forbear thinking, that it may further refer to the Shechinah being vailed by this Curtain, which bore fo remarkable an Analogy to the divine Glory of as vailed by affuming human Nature.

Chrift,

M 2

(d) Bodies

92

23

And hold fast the Profeffion of our Hope:

And

our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, and our

Water.

23 Let us hold faft the

Profeffion of our Faith with-
ful that promised.)
out wavering (for he is faith-

Sect. 14. ter of Purification was to be fprinkled on the raelites, to cleanse them from any Bodies washed with pure Heb. X. 22. Pollutions they might have contracted, fo let us fee to it that we come, having our Hearts Sprinkled from an evil Confcience, free from all allowed Guilt and indulged Sin. And this is indeed our Cafe, if we are true Chriftians Our Hearts are thus fprinkled by the purifying and cleanfing Blood of Jefus, as well as our Bodies in Baptifm washed with pure Water (d), intended to reprefent our being cleanfed from Sin. fince we have received fuch Benefits by the Gospel which we have embraced, let us hold faft the Profeffion of [our] Hope (e), without ever giving Way to the Preffure and Agitation of any Temptation, or wavering in a Cafe where we have fuch certain and indubitable Evidence; for we know that whatever Storms and Tempefts may arife, be [is] affuredly faithful who hath promifed; he will ftand by to defend us, and to make us 24 more than Conquerors over all. And let us confider each other, and reflect seriously on the Circumftances in which we and our Brethren are fituated,

Cat we may judge,

24 And let us confider

one another to provoke unto Love, and to good Works:

what Influence we can have over them for
their Advantage, and may endeavour accor-
dingly to provoke, and ftimulate them on to
the Exercife of fincere Love, and to a Rea-
dinefs to all good Works, by our Exhortations,
and especially by our Example, and by fuchowe
a Conduct towards them as may engage the

Return

(d) Bodies washed with pure Water.] Mr. Pierce would make this the Beginning of another Sentence; and having washed our Bodies with pure Water, that is, "having been folemnly devoted to GOD in Baptifm, let us anfwer the Engagements of that holy Ordinance by holding faft the Profeffion of our Faith &c. confidering that he is faithful to the Engagements he was pleafed to feal unto us by it." But I think the Senfe will be very ealy and intelligible, if it be connected with the preceding Words, as referring to the Custom of washing their Bodies in clean Water, before they went to worship at the Temple, efpecially upon their folemn Days,

(e) Profeffion of [our] Hope.] Inftead of dos, Hope, our Tranflators read was, Faith, upon the Authority only of a single Manufcript. See Dr. Mills in loc. (f) Affem

Not forfaking the assembling ourselves together.

is; but exhorting one ano

ther: and fo much the more, as we fee the Day approaching.

93 Return of their Affection, and the Exer- Sect. 14. tion of their Zeal for the general Good: Heb. X. 25. 25 Not forfaking the af- Not deferting the affembling ourselves togefembling of ourselves together (f), for the folemn Purposes of publick ther, as the Manner of fome Worship, as the Manner of fome now [is], in order to decline that Reproach and Perfecution which the Attendance on fuch Af femblies may draw after it; but exhorting and comforting [one another] as much as we can; and this Jo much the rather, as ye fee the Day approaching (g), that awful Day, in which we must appear before the Tribunal of GOD, and that Day of Vengeance upon the Jewish Nation, which Chrift hath defcribed as fo terrible an Emblem of it. And let none, who would not share with the Enemies of Chrift in the Destruction, which shall be poured out upon them,. abandon his People now, and bafely betray that Cause and Intereft, by which none shall on the whole be Lofers, whatever they may for the present fuffer on its Account.

WE

IMPROVEMENT.

HAT can be more defirable than to approach to GOD! Ver. 22. what more effectually encourage that Approach, than

the Confideration which the Apostle here urges: The new and liv

ing Way, which this great High-prieft bath confecrated! Let us then Ver. 19, 20

fee

(f) Affembling our felves together.] Mr. Pierce is of Opinion, that when the Apostle adds, as the Manner of fome is, he intends to blame the Conduct of the Jews, who, on Account of their old Prejudices against the Gentile Converts, abfented themselves from the Affemblies into which they were admitted; and perhaps alfo to cenfure a fimilar Behaviour in the Gentile Converts arifing from Prejudices they had newly contracted against the Jews. And he imagines this, in fome Meafure, is intimated by the Ufe of the Word, Taywyn. (Compare 2 Theff. ii. 1.) But I think the Account given of the Ground of this Caution in the Paraphrafe, is on the whole much more

certain.

(g) Day approaching.] They knew that the Day of Chrift's final Judgment, being certainly future, came nearer and nearer. And from what Chrift had faid concerning the Destruction of Jerufalem, as to happen in the Lives of fome who had been prefent with him about thirty Years before the Date of this Epifle, (compare Mat.. xvi. 28.) they might infer that that was now near, though they fhould not have been able to trace it up into its Caufes, or to calculate the exact Time..