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own persons. For punishment is justly inflicted on every one who is not discharged from the obligation to punishment: and the obligation to punishment remains* on every adult person who does not comply with the conditions of the new covenant, which are faith and obedience. Nor is the vicarious punishment exhibited in the death of Christ of such a nature, as, either of itself, or by the design of the Father or the Son, to discharge from the penalty of the law without a compliance with those conditions. For, being vicarious, it has not altogether the same operation as the punishment of a transgressor in his own person; but its efficacy is suspended on this condition which God has chosen as satisfactory to himself, and demonstrative of his perfect holiness and abhorrence of our sins. Though the operation of such a punishment, therefore, is in some respects different from the personal punishment of a transgressor, it tends nevertheless to the same end,-the production and establishment of reverence for the divine laws. *

#John iii. 18.

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CHAPTER VII.

The Oblation by which Christ presented himself to God in Heaven, as a Piacular Victim previously slain for our Sins. Arguments to show that Christ did this in order to commend to God both Us and our Services in general, and our Prayers in particular. The true Nature of his Intercession.

HAVING treated of the death of Christ as that of a piacular victim, we must now proceed to the oblation which followed his death. For it is beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ, our immortal high priest, on his entrance into the celestial sanctuary, did in heaven itself, present himself to God as an expiatory victim previously slain for our sins. This proposition indeed must be sufficiently evident on its being stated, unless any one is determined to deny that our Lord either died for our sins as a piacular victim, or presented himself in that character before the throne of the Divine Majesty: neither of which can be denied without extreme violence to the scriptures. This truth is also evinced by the clearest types of Christ as an expiatory sacrifice: for the blood of those victims, which above all others typified Christ in that character, was offered in the most holy place, which was a figure of the highest heaven. The same is taught by the apostle, who mentions the oblation of Christ, and without adverting to his death, or resurrection, or ascension to heaven, as intermediate events, passes to his session at the right hand of God.* Hence it is concluded, that this session immediately followed that oblation of which he there speaks. But there is

*Heb. x. 12.

the less necessity for enlarging on this point, because the oblation of Christ to God in heaven as a piacular victim previously slain for our sins is not only admitted, but most strenuously contended for, by all the followers of Socinus.

II. Let us inquire, therefore, with what intention our Lord offered himself to his Father in heaven: a question belonging to our present subject, and one upon which I conceive the sentiments entertained by the disciples of Socinus to be exceedingly erroneous. For it admits of no reasonable doubt, though they are unanimous in denying it, that our Lord did this with the express intention of commending to God, both us and our services in general, and our prayers in particular. Both these things were typified by the high priest of the Jews on every annual day of expiation: the former, when in order to commend his people to God, he sprinkled the blood of the piacular victims in that inner sanctuary which was a figure of heaven itself: the other, when in the same place he burned the sacred incense, as a symbol of the prayers of his people, and by that rite symbolically presented those prayers to God. In some points, however, those types evidently differed from the antitypes. First, the Jewish high priest carried not the bodies of the victims, but only their blood or life, into the innermost sanctuary of the temple; whereas Christ, our high priest, carried both the soul and body of the victim slain for us, into heaven of which that sanctuary was an emblem. Secondly, the Jewish high priest, by burning the sacred incense before the Lord, presented to him the prayers of the people, only, as we have observed, in a symbolical sense: whereas Christ, without the intervention of any symbols, now com

mends our prayers to God in heaven; and his plea for God's acceptance of those prayers is derived from his own death.

III. Though these things are so obvious that they seem to carry their own evidence with them, yet respecting that oblation by which Christ presented himself to God in heaven, very different sentiments are entertained by the followers of Socinus. For though they admit his entrance into heaven to be connected with the care of our salvation, yet they conclude that this care of our salvation is entirely exercised towards us, and that Christ as our high priest sustains no function by which he can be said to commend to God, either us and our services in general, or our prayers in particular. Believing those things to be done for us by Christ, we shall endeavour to establish them both, considering them first as distinct, and then as connected.

Now the first point, which is that Christ presented himself to God in the heavenly sanctuary in such a manner as constantly to commend to him both our persons and services, and with a view to render him perfectly propitious to us, is proved by the declaration that he offered* himself to God in heaven; by the design of the sacerdotal office, of which office the oblation that followed the slaughter of the victim was always a principal function; and by the express language of the scriptures.

For in the first place, he who is said to offer any thing to God, is by this very expression declared to have business with God, and to do that which relates to God. Hence it is evident that Christ, in offering himself to God as a piacular victim previously slain

*Heb. ix. 14. x. 12.

for our sins, performed a function which related to God. But what was the object of that function may be learned from the design of such a sacrifice; which its piacular nature shows to have been, that God in consideration of it might be inclined to be propitious to us. But if Christ our high priest had entered into the heavenly sanctuary without intending to do any thing that related to God, there could have been no reason why he should have been said to have offered himself to God there. For to what purpose would he have been said to have offered, or presented himself, to him with whom he had no business?

Moreover, as the oblation which followed the slaughter of the victim was one of the principal functions of a priest; and as every priest, unless he were wanting to his duty, would offer the piacular sacrifices with a desire that God would be propitious to his people; it is concluded that Christ our high priest, who in that office displays the greatest faithfulness and benevolence towards us, offered himself to God in heaven, as a piacular victim previously slain for our sins, in order that he might constantly commend to him both our persons and services, and with a desire to render him perfectly propitious to us.

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The same truth is conveyed in the following passage of the epistle to the Hebrews: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, "which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year "with blood of others." These two phrases, "to appear in the presence of God for us" and "to

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*Heb. ix. 24, 25.

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