2. The christian church doth also make a covenant with him by sacrifice. This will appear in three things — (1.) That Christ's death hath the true notion and virtue of a sacrifice ; (2.) That this sacri- fice hath respect to the covenant of grace; (3.) That our manner of entering into covenant with God is by the same moral acts by which they were to be conversant about a sacrifice.
[1.] That Christ's death hath the true notion and full virtue of a sacrifice.
(1.) The true notion : Eph. v. 2, ' He hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.' His death is a mediatory sacrifice, a propitiatory sacrifice, for the expiation of the sins of his people. In all the sacrifices of the law there was shedding of blood, without which was no remission of sins. All were killed, flayed ; some were burnt, some roasted, some fried on coals, some seethed in pots ; all which were but shadows of the painful sufferings of our Lord Christ, which he endured for our sins. Christ is the only true and real sacrifice wherein provoked justice doth rest satisfied. Christ in this sacrifice was the priest, who, as God, did offer up himself: Heb. ix. 14, ' Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.' As man, he was the sacrifice : Heb. x. 10, ' By the which will we are sanctified, though the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.' We may add also, that he was the altar whereupon this sacrifice was offered ; for as ' the altar doth sanctify the gift,' Mat. xxiii. 11, so doth his godhead add an infinite value to his sufferings : Acts xx. 28, ' Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.'
80 SERMON UPON PSALM L. 5.
(2.) It hath the full virtue of a sacrifice. For sacrifices had a threefold respect — to God, to sin, and to man. God is pacified, sin expiated, and man delivered and freed. All these concur in Christ.
(Is^.) As to God, who in the mystery of redemption is considered as the supreme and universal judge, he is pacified and satisfied by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the party offended. So he pitied man, found out a ransom and sacrifice for our atonement. As the supreme lawgiver and judge of mankind, so he is to receive the ransom, sacrifice, and satisfaction, or else to punish us as we have deserved ; for before this supreme judge man standeth guilty and liable to death. But Christ ' made his soul an ofi'ering for sin,' Isa. liii. 10. He under- took the penalty due to us for sin ; and therefore he is said to give himself for us as a propitiation : 1 John ii. 2, * And he is the pro- pitiation for our sins.' And God intended him as such: Rom. iii. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood ; ' 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' Now propitiation implieth his being pacified and appeased, so as to become propitious and merciful for ever to sinful man, submitting to the terms of his covenant.
(2d.) As to sin ; so he is said to expiate, abolish, and purge it : Heb. i. 3, ' When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.' As God would not be appeased without a sacrifice or satisfaction, so sin could not be purged without bearing the punishment. When the sacrifice was offered and made on behalf of sinful man, then was sin purged, or expiated, or made removable, upon certain terms determined by God, our supreme judge and law- giver. The blood of Christ hath done that which will remove the guilt and pollution of it when rightly applied.
(3c?.) As to the sinner, he is delivered and freed from sin ; that is, the sinning party, making use of God's remedy, is reconciled to God : Col. i. 21, 22, ' And you who were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death.' The sin is not reconciled to God, but the sinner is ; and being reconciled, is pardoned : Eph. i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.' And also sanctified : Heb. xiii. 12, * Wherefore Jesus, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate ; ' that is, there is enough done to sanctify the party, and consecrate him to God. Yea, perfected : Heb. x. 14, ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' There needeth no other sacrifice, no other satisfaction ; for by this sacrifice he hath obtained all things necessary to salvation. There needeth no more to satisfy justice, or to procure salvation for his people, in the way of a sacrifice.
[2.] That the new covenant is made and confirmed by virtue of this sacrifice, and without it there is no admission to the grace of it.