Rom. iii. 25. Heb. ix. 15. But that sins are so expiated under the New Testament, as that also eternal punishment is removed, and life eternal given, we have Heb. ix. 12.'

This work will speedily be at an issue. 1. It is denied, that Paul, Acts xiii. 38, 39. makes a distinction of sins, whereof some might be expiated by Moses' law, and others not. He says no more there, than in this place to the Hebrews, namely, that the legal sacrifices, wherein they rested and trusted, could not of themselves free them, or their consciences from sin, or give them peace with God; being but types and shadows of good things to come; the body being Christ, by whom alone all justification from sin is to be obtained. Absolutely, the sacrifices of the law expiated no sin, and so were they rested in by the Jews. Typically, they expiated all, and so Paul calls them from them to the antitype (or rather thing typified) now actually exhibited.

2. The two next places of Rom. iii. 25. Heb. ix. 15. do expressly condemn the figment they strive to establish by them; both of them assigning the pardon of sins that were past, and their expiation, unto the blood and sacrifice of Christ; though there were then purifications, purgations, sacrifices, yet the meritorious, and efficient cause of all expiation, was the blood of Christ, which manifests the expiation under the Old and New Testament for substance to have been the same.

3. That the expiation under the New Testament is accompanied with deliverance from eternal punishment, and a grant of life eternal, is confessed; and so also was that under the Old, or it was no expiation at all, that had respect. either to God, or the souls of men: but to proceed with the sacrifice of Christ.

This is the first thing I proposed, Christ being to offer sacrifice, was not to offer the sacrifice of the priests of old; because they could never bring about what he aimed at in his sacrifice; it was impossible in the nature of the thing itself, and they were expressly, as to that end, rejected of God himself.

2. Christ as a priest did never offer these sacrifices; it is true, as one made under the law, and whom it became to fulfil all righteousness, he was present at them: but as a priest he never offered them; for the apostle expressly af

firms, that he could not be a priest, that had right to offer those sacrifices, as before; and he positively refuses the owning himself for such a priest, when having cured the leprous man, he bade him go shew himself to the priest according to the law.

3. What Christ did offer indeed, as his sacrifice, is nextly mentioned. This the apostle expresseth in that which is asserted, in opposition to the sacrifices rejected; Heb. x. 5. But a body hast thou prepared me.'

-The words in the psalm are in the sound of them otherwise, Psal. xl. 6. mine ears hast thou digged:' which the Septuagint render, and the apostle from them, owμа Karαρτίow poì; 'a body hast thou prepared me.' Of the accomodation of the interpretation to the original, there is much contention; some think here is an allusion to the custom among the Jews, of boring the ear of him, who was upon his own consent to be a servant for ever. Now because Christ took a body to be obedient, and a servant to his Father, this is expressed by the boring of the ear, which therefore the Septuagint renders by preparing a body, wherein he might be so obedient; but this to me seems too curious on the part of the allusion, and too much strained on the part of the application, and therefore I shall not insist on it.

Plainly, signifies not only in its first sense to 'dig,' but also to prepare,' and is so rendered by the Septuagint; now, whereas the original expresseth only the ears, which are the organ by which we hear, and become obedient (whence to hear is sometimes as much as to be obedient), it mentions the ear synecdochically, for the whole body, which God so prepared for obedience to himself: and that which the original expressed synecdochically, the Septuagint, and after them the apostle rendered more plainly and fully, naming the whole body wherein he obeyed, when the ears were only expressed, whereby he learned obedi

ence.

The interpretation of this place by the Socinians, is as ridiculous as any they make use of; take it in the words of Volkelius. Add hereto that the mortal body of Christ,

Adde quod corpus mortale, quo Christus ante mortem, imo ante suum in cœJum ascensum præditus erat, ad hoc Sacerdotium obeundum, et sacrificium penitus absolvendum, aptum non fuit; ideoque tunc demum corpus, huic rei accommoda VOL. IX.

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which he had before his death, yea, before his ascension into heaven, was not fit for his undergoing this office of priesthood, or wholly to accomplish the sacrifice: wherefore the divine writer to the Hebrews, chap. x. 5. declareth, that then he had a perfect body, accommodated unto this work, when he went into the world; that is, to come, which is heaven.' A heap of foolish abominations. 1. The truth is, no body but a mortal body was fit to be this sacrifice, which was to be accomplished, according to all the types of it, by shedding of blood, without which there is no remission. 2. It is false, that Christ had a mortal body after his resurrection; or that he hath any other body now in heaven, than what he rose withal. 3. It is false that the world, spoken of simply, doth any where signify the world to come, or that the world here signifies heaven. 4. It is false that the coming into the world, signifies going out of the world: as it is here interpreted. 5. Christ's bringing into the world, was by his incarnation and birth, Heb. i. 6. according to the constant use of that expression in the Scripture, as his ascension is his leaving the world, and going to his Father, John xiii. 1. xiv. 19. xvi. 28.

But I must not insist on this; it is the body that God prepared Christ for his obedience, that is, his whole human nature that is asserted for the matter of Christ's offering. For the clearing whereof the reader may observe, that the matter of the offering and sacrifice of Christ is expressed three ways.

1. It is said to be of the body and blood of Christ; Heb. x. 10. The offering of the body of Jesus, and the blood of Christ, is said to spurge us from our sins, that is, by the sacrifice of it; and in his blood have we redemption, and by his own blood did he enter into the holy place,' Heb. ix. 12. and most expressly, xiii. 12.

2. His soul; Isa. liii. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.'

3. It is most frequently said to be himself that was offered. Eph. v. 2. Heb. i. 3. ix. 14. 25, 26. vii. 27. Hence appears what was the matter of the sacrifice of this High perfectum ei fuisse, divinus Author indicat, Heb. x, 5. cum in mundum, nempe nillam, qui cœlum est, ingrederetur. Volkel. de vera Relig. lib. 3. cap. 37. Christi. p. 146. 81 John i. 7. Ephes. i. 13.

Priest, even himself; he sacrificed himself; his whole human nature; he offered up his body and soul, as a propitiatory sacrifice to God; a sacrifice for atonement and expiation.

Farther, to clear this, I must desire the reader to take notice of the import of this expression; He sacrificed himself,' or Christ sacrificed himself. 'He' in the first place, as it is spoken of the sacrificer, denotes the person of Christ, and both natures herein; 'himself,' as the sacrificed, is only the human nature of Christ, wherein and whereof that sacrifice was made. He makes the atonement actively, as the priest; himself passively, as the sacrifice.

1. 'He' is the person of Christ, God and man jointly and distinctly acting in the work.

1. As God; Heb. ix. 14. through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God.' His eternal Spirit, or Deity, was the principal agent, offering; and wherever there is mentioning of Christ's offering himself, it relates principally to the person, God-man, who offered.

2. The free will of his human nature was in it also; so Heb. x. 7. Lo, I come to do thy will;' when God had prepared him a body, opened his hears, he says, 'Lo, I come to do thy will;' as it was written of him in the volume of God's book; and that this expression, Lo, I come to do thy will,' sets out the readiness of the human will of Christ, is evident from that exposition which is given of it, Psal. xl. 8. ' yea thy law is within my heart,' or in the midst of my bowels;' thy law, the law of the Mediator, that I am to undertake, it is in the midst of my heart; which is an expression of the greatest readiness and willingness possible. He then that offers is our Mediator, God and man in one person; and the offering is the act of the person.

2. 'Himself' offered, as the matter of the sacrifice, is only the human nature of Christ, soul and body, as was said; which is evident from the description of a sacrifice, what it is.

A sacrifice is a religious oblation, wherein something by the ministry of a priest, appointed of God thereunto, is dedicated to God and destroyed, as to what it was, for the ends and purposes of spiritual worship whereunto it is instituted. I shall only take notice of that one part of this definition, which asserts that the thing sacrificed was to be

destroyed as to what it was. This is clear from all the sacrifices that ever were; either they were slain or burnt, or sent to destruction. Now the person of Christ was not dissolved, but the union of his natures continued; even then when the human nature was in itself destroyed, by the separation of soul and body. It was the soul and body of Christ that was sacrificed; his body being killed, and his soul separated; so that at that season it was destroyed as to what it was; though it was impossible he should be detained by death. C And this sacrifice of Christ, was typified by the two goats; his body, whose blood was shed, by the goat that was slain visibly; and his soul by Azazel, on whose head the sins of the people were confessed, and he is sent away into the wilderness to suffer there by a fall or famishment.

This also will farther appear in our following consideration of the death of Christ, as a punishment; when I shall shew, that he suffered both in soul and body.

But it may be said, if only the human nature of Christ was offered, how could it be a sacrifice of such infinite value, as to the justice of God, for all the sins of all the elect, whereunto it was appointed.

Ans. Though the thing sacrificed was but finite, yet the person sacrificing was infinite; and the amorλoμɑ of the action follows the agent; that is, our Mediator Jeávpwπos; whence the sacrifice was of infinite value.

And this is the second consideration of the death of Christ, it was a sacrifice; what is the peculiar influence of his death as a sacrifice, into the satisfaction he hath made, shall be declared afterward.

From what hath been spoken, a brief description of the sacrifice of Christ, as to all the concernments of it may be taken.

1. The person designing, appointing, and instituting this sacrifice, is God the Father; as in grace contriving the great work of the salvation of the elect; a 'body did he prepare him;' and therein he came to do his will, Heb. x. 9. in that which he did, which the sacrifices of old could not do. He came to fulfil the will of God, his appointment and ordinance, being his servant therein; made ẞpaxú Tɩ less than the Father, that, he might be obedient to death: God the Father sent him when he made his soul an offering.